John P. Filo/CBSFresh off his Grammy wins last weekend, Bruno Mars has now confirmed what he teased yesterday: he's launching a "finale" leg of his 24K World Tour.

The tour will visit 12 cities -- Boston, Brooklyn, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Los Angeles, Nashville, Newark, Philadelphia, St. Paul, Toronto and Tulsa -- but so far, we don't have venues or dates yet. Bruno's "lil sis," Cardi B, who joins him on his hit "Finesse" remix, will be his special guest.

Tickets for the tour go on sale February 16. The tour is sponsored by Cross Colours, the iconic '90s clothing brand that was re-launced in 2014. Bruno and Cardi wear the brand in their "Finesse" video, and they also wore it for their Grammys performance.

Copyright  2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.



A controversial Republican memo that accuses the FBI of political bias has primarily been written by Indian-American lawyer Kashyap "Kash" Patel, according to a media report.

The "Kash memo" portrays the FBI in a negative light, alleging that the agency helped the Democratic party and its presidential candidate Hillary Clinton against Donald Trump, the eventual winner of the 2016 presidential elections, The New York Times reported. The report said the explosive memo was primarily written by Patel, a committee staff member for Representative Devin Nunes, Republican of California and the chairman of the Intelligence Committee.

The office of Congressman Nunes where Patel works has refuted the report that he is the author of the memo which they assert is a collective and team effort.

"The problem is the lack of facts. Kash being the 'driving force' behind the memo is not a fact. Kash being the 'pusher of the memo' is not a fact. Unnamed people referring to 'the Kash memo' is not a fact," Jack Langer, a spokesperson for Nunes was quoted as saying by the Daily Beast.

In an email to The New York Times, Damon Nelson, staff director of the House Select Committee on Intelligence said that no single member was responsible for the memo and that its creation was a "team effort" that involved investigators who had access to source material.

"The clamor to identify 'an author' is indicative of an alarming trend by opponents of our investigation which is to promote spurious allegations against committee members and staff. They will not impact the committee's focus and commitment to continue this investigation," Nelson was quoted as saying.

At the same time, he praised Patel, saying, "We value Kash's dedication and his contributions to the committee's oversight efforts".

Patel did not immediately respond to a PTI query on this. According to media reports, Patel attracted media attention early this summer when he traveled to London along with another staffer in search of Christopher Stelle, author of a controversial dossier on Trump.

However, he could not succeed in his effort. Patel, 37, who grew up in New York, graduated from the University of Richmond in 2002. He is the chairman of the House Select Committee on Intelligence. He is senior counsel on counter-terrorism.

Before joining the House Select Committee on Intelligence, Patel was a trial attorney in the National Security Division of the Justice Department. He joined the house committee in April 2017.The US Congress made no notable progress this week toward a deal on the status of 700,000 Dreamer immigrants, with President Donald Trump saying on Friday that one could very well not happen by a deadline next month. Whether the lack of progress signalled the possibility of another federal government shutdown next week was unclear, but it worried the Dreamers, young people who were brought illegally into the United States as children. Trump said last year that he would end by March 5 a program that was set up by former President Barack Obama to protect the ...Dear Reader,

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Digital EditorThe Chief of US Air Force, General David L Goldfein, flew a sortie in the indigenous Light Combat Aircraft on Saturday at the IAF station in Jodhpur.

Goldfein arrived in India on Thursday, on a visit to boost defence ties between the two nations.

In November last year, the Defence Minister of Singapore Ng Eng Hen was flown in a fighter jet.

The indigenous LCA is a single-seat, single-jet engine, multirole light fighter.

Indigenously developed by the Aeronautical Development Agency, and produced by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, Tejas, as a fourth generation aircraft, can fly at 1,350 km per hour, with a payload capacity of 4,000 kg.Iran police on Friday arrested at least 29 women for participating in the ongoing protest against a law that makes wearing the hijab (headscarf) compulsory.

The protests that began in Tehran earlier this week has slowly spread to other parts of the country, according to The Guardian.

Many women across the country have been protesting for a hijab ban by climbing onto telecom boxes, by taking off their hijabs, attaching them to a wooden stick and waving them like flags.

Women in Iran have fought against the hijab for nearly four decades.

However, the new wave of protests has grabbed eyeballs worldwide and will worry the Iran Government more, who are already reeling under the recent anti-corruption protests.

The Tehran police said the campaign had been instigated from outside the country through illegal satellite channels under a campaign named "White Wednesdays."

"Following calls by satellite channels under a campaign called White Wednesdays, 29 of those who had been deceived to remove their hijab have been arrested by the police," the police said quoting Iranian media.

Iran's prosecutor general, Mohammad Jafar Montazeri, described the ongoing protests on hijab ban as "childish", "emotionally charged" and instigated "from outside the country".

Meanwhile, many Iranian women within the country as well as outside Iran have backed the protests.

Soheila Jolodarzadeh, a female member of the Iranian parliament, said the protests were the result of long-standing restrictions against women.

"They're happening because of our wrong approach. We imposed restrictions on women and put them under unnecessary restrains."

Masih Alinejad, an exiled Iranian activist and now resides in the United States, started a social media campaign against the compulsory hijab law.

The hijab has been in place in Iran after the Iranian revolution in 1979.

The law mandates that a woman who does not wear a hijab in public could face a heavy penalty and jail sentences.

Iran recently witnessed a huge wave of anti-corruption protests as people took to raising anti-government slogans, over alleged corruption, oppressive rule of the government and rising prices that plagued the people of the country.

The official death toll in the anti-government protests is, as of now, 20.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)All metropolitan cities across the country have their streets thronged with commuters. While peak-hour traffic continues to eat our precious time, researchers have concluded that people are most likely to stop using public transportation when they experience inconvenience in the form of delays, long wait, incorrect information on schedules and highly crowded transport.

Here are a few apps to solve your public transit woes:

Ridlr

Ridlr acts as a single ticketing app. The platform provides information on accurate departure times with real-time transit schedules and traffic congestion status, helping travellers to estimate their travel time. It also assists one to plan their trip using single or multiple modes of transport. The information service is available across 25 cities in India.

rBus

rBus is a bus aggregator, making commutation easy for every day travellers. They have buses running on 12 different routes in Mumbai, from which commuters can pick a route and timing for their travel.

Ola

Ola is cab aggregator which enables one to book a cab and use its services without any physical exertion. It offers various services like Ola Share, Ola Micro, Ola Mini, Ola Prime, Ola Auto, Ola Rentals, Ola Outstations, Ola Lux, and Ola Pedal.

TapRoute

TapRoute allows people in Bengaluru to not only book their ride to the nearest Metro station but also provides them with last-mile connectivity.

BlaBlaCar

BlaBlaCar is a ride-sharing community which is designed for long distances and geared toward motorists looking to fill the empty seat behind them. It connects drivers and passengers willing to travel together between cities and share the cost of their journey.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Union Minister Jitendra Singh on Saturday said that the Global Investors' Summit -'Advantage Assam' is a boost to the unexplored potential of the entire northeast region.

"This event in Assam is a big boost to the unexplored potential of the region and will supplement India's Act East policy," Jitendra Singh told the media here.

He further said that the event vindicates the Government of India's priority is North east's development.

"Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a recent visit said North East means New Engine for India and this event vindicates Government of India's priority to push forward North East on the journey of development," added the Union Minister.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday inaugurated the Advantage Assam - Global Investors Summit 2018 in Guwahati.

Bhutanese Prime Minister Tshering Tobgay is also present at the event.

The two-day event that began on Saturday will showcase the state's manufacturing opportunities and geostrategic advantages to foreign and domestic investors.

The Summit has been organised by the Assam Government, in association with the industry body the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), aiming to position the state as India's Expressway to Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries.

There is a number of focus sectors, identified by the state, which includes agriculture and food processing, organic farming, bamboo, handloom, textile and handicrafts, inland water transport, riverfront development, and logistics.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) general secretary on Saturday said that the party and the Centre would soon be extending the olive branch to Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister and leader of the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) N Chandrababu Naidu to resolve his concerns in a mutually beneficial to both parties.

Responding to Naidu's expression of disappointment over the Union Budget proposals for 2018-19 not addressing the needs of Andhra Pradesh, Madhav said, "There seems to be some kind of unhappiness, we will talk it out. TDP is an old ally of the BJP. We will talk it out with them and will tell them we are committed to the interests of Andhra Pradesh."

Madhav further said, "We at the BJP are committed not only to address the TDP's concerns with regard to the Budget proposals, but also, all other issues of concern that it may have. We will convince Mr Naidu and the TDP not to think of severing their ties with the BJP or the NDA. They are a valuable ally."

Madhav's response came days after a disappointed Naidu summoned an emergency meeting of his party to decide on the future course of action with regard to the TDP's association with the Bharatiya Janata Party.

An upset TDP pitched its senior leader and union minister Y S Chowdhary to tell the media in no uncertain terms that it was unhappy over no monetary allocation for Andhra Pradesh on many issues such as Polavaram project, funding for the new state capital of Amravati, making Visakhapatnam a zonal railways headquarters and clearance for the Kadappa steel plant project.

Chowdhary had February 1 warned that the TDP had three options before it, namely, (1) either try and continue the alliance (2) make their MPs resign and (3) simply terminate association with the BJP and the NDA.

He said that the TDP executive would in all probability meet on Sunday to take a final decision on the matter. It has been reported that TDP MPs have been called to Vijayawada for a meeting at 10:30 a.m. on Sunday morning.

Last week, Naidu had issued an ultimatum to the BJP about chart its own course if the BJP did not wish to continue with the alliance.

The TDP is the BJP's largest political ally in southern India. Its warning came shortly after another disgruntled ally, the Shiv Sena, publicly slammed the BJP for treating its allies improperly and threatened to sever the partnership.

The TDP is of the view that the 2018 Budget proposals are 'anti-people and corporate friendly', and a betrayal of the interests of Andhra Pradesh. It has said that its concerns are of a serious nature and need to be addressed effectively and promptly.

The TDP, which has been an ally of the BJP and a member of the NDA between 1998 and 2002, and again since 2013 to the present, is reportedly looking at a political alternative in the run-up to the 2019 general elections. It is being reported that the party and Chief Minister Naidu have already carried out an assessment of the pros and cons of a split with the BJP.

Meetings have reportedly been taking place between the leaderships of the two parties, but as of now, the options are few and far, and if the TDP's demands are not met, it could withdraw its members from the union cabinet as a first step.

To improve his vote share Naidu is eyeing the sizeable minority vote in the state. Last time, the Muslim vote had gone to the YSR Congress as the Congress party was seen as a weak rival to keep the BJP away.

The BJP is reportedly concerned about gaining a toehold in South India. It wants to have allies in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.Andhra Pradesh Energy Minister and Telugu Desam Party (TDP) state president K Kala Venkat Rao said that the state government was extremely dissatisfied with the absence of major allocations in the Union Budget.

A cabinet meeting, which was held on Friday, took a serious note of the injustices meted out to the state by the Centre.

Rao told media that Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu instructed the Secretaries of all state departments to find out details of the specific allocations claimed to be made to Andhra Pradesh by the respective Ministries in Delhi.

The minister highlighted the decisions taken by the cabinet like setting up of Andhra Pradesh Content Corporation, Andhra Pradesh Drone Corporation, setting up of maternal and child health care center in Guntur General Hospital with 597 beds, World Bank Loan for development of medical infrastructure, urban housing project of building five lakh houses within a year among others.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Senate has passed a bill to make the national anthem gender neutral despite some Conservative senators' opposition.

The Senate gave its approval to change the second line of the anthem from "in all thy sons command" to "in all of us command."

The legislation will now only need the royal assent of the Governor General before it becomes a law.

Liberal MP Mauril Belanger had pushed the legislation for years.

Belanger passed away two months after the Commons passed the bill in June 2016.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)China, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Pakistan have signed a USD 4 million agreement to provide assistance over four months to help the people of Fata and Balochistan region in Pakistan.

"The successful launching of the project renews our commitment to deliver strong support to the people of Pakistan. The project will support the people in the restoration of their livelihood and help rebuild their lives," the Dawn quoted Chinese Ambassador Yao Jing, as saying on Friday at the signing ceremony.

The Chinese ambassador further said that China would continue to increase the grant assistance to Pakistan.

China came up with its One Belt One Road (OBOR) initiative in 2013.

The project comprises a network of railways, roads and pipelines that would connect Pakistan's port city of Gwadar in the province of Balochistan, with the Chinese city of Kashgar in landlocked Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR).

The human rights activists have, time and again, spoken about and highlighted the growing atrocities of Pakistan on the indigenous people of Balochistan and deteriorating human rights situation as a result of the CPEC.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Delhi Commission for Women on Saturday wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, requesting him to implement strict laws and sentence death to those who commit rape on girls younger than six months old.

"A system should be created where an accused who has raped a girl child below six months, should be given a death sentence," said the letter, written by DCW Chairperson Swati Maliwal.

The letter was written in wake of the rape of an eight-month-old girl in Delhi.

"I want to divert your (PM Modi) mind towards the incident where an eight-month-old girl was raped. This little girl is suffering and fighting for her life at AIIMS," she said mentioning the incident in the letter.

The DCW chairperson also said that in the past two years she has written numerous letters to Prime Minister Modi, all of which have gone unanswered.

"In the past two years I have written you numerous letters, and it makes me sad that you have not even replied to one of my letters. Rape cases are increasing because a criminal does have fear while committing the crime," she added.

She also said that criminals think they can get away with crime like rape as the system in the country is "incapable" of doing anything.

Swati also mentioned Central government's report asserting that the 'Union of India' did not favor death penalty in connection with the rape of an eight-month-old girl by her cousin.

"It is very disappointing to know that the Central Government's lawyer wrote to the Supreme Court saying that it is not important that the accused in rape of the eight-month-old girl be sentenced to death. This is not right," said DCW Chairperson.

She also asked if the accused in the rape of an eight-month-old child will not be given hard punishment then "how will rape stop in this country?"

"I am sitting in protest for thirty days. I won't go home till 30 days. I would request the government to look into it and come up with strict laws to curb rape cases in the country," she added.

Earlier in the week, an eight-month-old girl was admitted to a hospital with serious injuries after she was allegedly raped by her 27-year-old cousin brother in northwest Delhi's Shakurbasti.

On February 2, a man was arrested for allegedly raping a 19-year-old-girl inside a movie theatre in Telangana's Hyderabad city.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Delhi's Tis Hazari Court will hear arguments in Bofors pay-off scam case on February 17, after a fresh application, submitted by Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), sought further investigation on the same.

On February 2, the CBI moved the Supreme Court challenging the 2005 Delhi High Court's order, which quashed charges against the accused in the scam, saying that certain new material has surfaced in the case that needs further investigation.

The Rs. 64-crore Bofors scam, relating to alleged payment of kickbacks in the procurement of howitzer artillery guns, dates back to 1980s and 1990s when the Congress was in power with Rajiv Gandhi as the prime minister.

The then central government had signed a 1.4-billion dollar defence deal with Swedish arms manufacturer Bofors for the sale of 410 field howitzer guns and a supply contract almost twice that amount.

In April 1987, the Swedish Radio had claimed that the company paid bribes to senior Indian politicians and Army personnel to secure the deal. Gandhi was also implicated in the case.

In 1990, the CBI booked then president of Bofors, Martin Ardbo, alleged middleman Win Chadda and the Hinduja brothers under charges of criminal conspiracy, cheating and forgery under the Indian Penal Code, as well as for corruption.

The first charge sheet was filed in the case in 1999.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Famous American media personality Ellen DeGeneres gave out one million dollars to the audience of her talk show.

As a part of her two-day 60th birthday celebration, Ellen showered her generosity on the invited do-gooders, people who had or are doing something to make a difference in the world.

Ellen wanted to reward these people for "sharing good" in the world. So as a part of her 'One Million Acts of Good' campaign, she decided to give away a prize to these people to make them feel acknowledged.

During the filming of her talk show, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, she asked each audience member to check under their seat for a box of Cheerios cereal.

Ellen then informed her audience, "You are all going to share this gift. It is the biggest gift I have ever given anybody, ever".

She further said, "I hope you continue to pay it forward and share all the good" before she announced the grand prize.

Upon hearing the announcement, the audience went wild and cheered and cried.

On even splitting, each do-gooder left $2,500 richer from the sets.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami on Saturday paid his tribute to the former Chief Minister and DMK leader CN Annadurai, on his death anniversary at Anna Samadhi, a memorial structure built on the Marina beach in Chennai.

Earlier in the day, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) working President MK Stalin also paid floral his tribute to the late DMK leader.

CN Annadurai, popularly called Anna, served as the first chief minister of Tamil Nadu, from 1967.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Former US gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar's hearing was suspended in a Michigan courtroom after he was lunged (???????????) at by the enraged father of three daughters, who were sexually assaulted by the disgraced (we cant be opinionated) doctor.

Randall Margraves tried to attack the disgraced doctor after two of his daughters, Madison and Lauren, had finished their tearful victim statements on the second day of a sentencing hearing in Eaton County, much as nearly 200 women, including Margraves' third daughter, did in earlier court sessions.

Margraves asked Judge Janice Cunningham for "five minutes in a locked room with this demon", but she said she could not do that, Sky News reported.

He revised his request to one minute which was also denied.

Margraves then rushed at Nassar and had to be tackled by bailiffs and as he was handcuffed he yelled,"I want that son of a b****."

Margraves had to be restrained by three court security officers, according to the reports.

The judge later accepted Margraves' account that he "lost control" of his emotions and said she would not punish him.

The incident came as dozens of women waited for their turn to face Nassar in court and outline the abuse they suffered at his hands.

Nassar, 54, worked at Michigan State University and USA Gymnastics, the governing body that also trains Olympians. He was sentenced to up to 175 years in prison a week ago after testimony from nearly 160 of his victims.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A Swiss-born scholar of Islam, Tariq Ramadan, has been charged with rape based on allegations made against him by two women in France.

According to a spokesperson of the French judiciary, Ramadan (55) was placed under formal investigation on charges of rape, reported the New York Times.

Ramadan would be kept in custody while a judge decides on whether to grant him bail. The prosecution has requested that he remain under arrest, it reported.

The theologian and philosopher, Ramadan, however, denied the accusations of rape and sexual assault made by the women, four months ago.

The local media said that France police had investigated the allegations made against him for three months.

Ramadan, one of the well-known Islamic scholars in Europe, has authored several books on Islam and on the Western

The accusations have, however, put a dent in his image as a pious family man.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Two civilians and three Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel were injured on Saturday in a grenade attack by terrorists on a patrol party of the security forces in Pulwama district of Jammu and Kashmir.

The CRPF 180 battalion was crossing Tral's Batagund Village in Pulwama district when terrorists hurled grenades at them.

The injured civilians, who were identified as Shabir Ahmed Bhat (35) and Bilal Ahmed Sheikh (37), have been shifted to a hospital in Tral.

The condition of all the three jawans, including CRPF constable Gopi Chand who sustained a minor injury on the right cheek, is said to be out of danger.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Rajveer Singh on Saturday met Kasganj violence victim Chandan Gupta's family.

Singh refused to comment on any question of the media, but when asked about Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Ram Gopal's comment in the Parliament, he said that leaders like Gopal want to instill the fire of hatred among the people.

"I don't want to say anything about Ram Gopal's comment and these people want that somehow the fire remains instilled among the people, which the people of Kasganj have understood. If they were so sympathetic towards the issue then at least he should have come and met the victims," Singh told the media here.

Yesterday, Gopal in the Parliament referring to the Kasgang violence had said that one community is killing people in their own community, but the people of other community are blamed for it.

Meanwhile, another accused named Rahat Qureshi was arrested on February 2, in connection with the communal violence in Uttar Pradesh's Kasganj district.

Earlier on January 31, the Uttar Pradesh Police arrested Salim, the prime accused in the killing of Chandan Gupta during the communal flare-up in the district on Republic Day.

The clash had broken out after an unauthorised bike rally was taken out by RSS-affiliated students' group Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) in the city to commemorate the Republic Day and allegedly stones were pelted at them during the roadshow.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Parents of two assaulted Kashmiri students studying in Central University of Haryana thanked the government of Jammu and Kashmir and Haryana for taking appropriate actions on time.

"I want to thank Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti for raising this issue. I also want to thank the Haryana government for taking appropriate action. It doesn't matter which religion one belongs to, incidents like these should not take place," said Mohd Quyoom, father of Aftab Ahmed, the Kashmiri student who assaulted by unknown people.

Recalling how his son was saved, Aftab Ahmed further said, "Some Hindu boys identified my son as their classmate. Two boys from Haryana helped a lot and took them to hospital. I am grateful to them and media."

The emotional mother of the two boys said she wished all kids who are studying away from their homes don't' have to go with such an ordeal.

"We are very poor and with much difficulty we sent our kids to study outside. Why did this happen with our kids? We want justice for our kids. We wish all the kids who are studying away from their homes don't' have to go with such an ordeal," said the mother.

Earlier in the day, the Haryana Police lodged an FIR in connection with the alleged assault on two Kashmiri students of Central University of Haryana, in Mahendergarh.

The FIR was registered at the Mahendergarh Police Station, under sections 148 (Rioting, armed with deadly weapon), 149 (unlawful assembly guilty of offence towards common object), 341 (wrongful restraint) and 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

The two students, Aaftab Ahmed and Amzad Ali, narrated the incident to ANI.

"Yesterday, my friend and I had gone to Mahendergarh to buy some things and before leaving for the university, we also visited the mosque to offer Namaz. When we came out, we noticed some people following us, but we didn't pay much heed," Aaftab Ahmed said.

Next, we went to a tailor's shop for my work, and as soon as I sat on the bike, a group of 15 to 20 people came and started beating us," the other student Amzad Ali said.

The perpetrator did not offer any reason for their action, despite the students repeatedly asking what their fault was. Their call for help also went unheard by the passersby," Ahmed said.

Ali said the police had assured that they would come to the hospital but after waiting for them till 5:00 p.m., Ahmed and Ali left for their university.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Haryana Police on Saturday lodged an FIR in connection with the alleged assault on two Kashmiri students of Central University of Haryana, in Mahendergarh.

The FIR was registered at the Mahendergarh Police Station, under sections 148 (Rioting, armed with deadly weapon), 149 (unlawful assembly guilty of offence towards common object), 341 (wrongful restraint) and 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

"One of the police officers is in touch with the boys as well," a statement from the police read.

Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti called for Haryana authorities to investigate the incident and take strict action, after reports of the assault emerged on Friday.

The two students, Aaftab Ahmed and Amzad Ali, narrated the incident to ANI.

"Yesterday,my friend and I had gone to Mahendergarh to buy some things and before leaving for the university, we also visited the mosque to offer Namaz. When we came out, we noticed some people following us, but we didn't pay much heed," Aaftab Ahmed said.

Next we went to a tailor's shop for my work, and as soon as I sat on the bike, a group of 15 to 20 people came and started beating us," the other student Amzad Ali said.

The perpetrator did not offer any reason for their action, despite the students repeatedly asking what their fault was. Their call for help also went unheard by the passersby.

"Soon after, police arrived at the spot and asked us to go to the hospital. We went for checkup and returned to our university campus. We told faculty about the incident and lodged a complaint with the university," Ahmed said.

Ali said the police had assured that they would come to the hospital but after waiting for them till 5:00 p.m., Ahmed and Ali left for their university.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti has urged the Haryana government to take stringent action against the perpetrators for assaulting Kashmiri students and demanded a probe into the case.

Mehbooba made the statement on Friday, hours after reports of the Kashmiri students of the Haryana Central University being assaulted surfaced.

The victims were beaten up while returning to the campus after offering congregational Friday prayers in Mahendragarh town.

Irked Mehbooba took to Twitter and said, "Shocked and disturbed to hear reports of Kashmiri students being assaulted in Mahendargarh, Haryana."

Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah tagged Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a tweet and said that the incident goes against the spirit of his outreach for Kashmiris.

"This is terrible & goes against the spirit of what @PMOIndia @narendramodi ji said from the ramparts of the Red Fort. I hope the authorities in Haryana act quickly against this violence."

The reason behind the attack is yet not known.

Jammu and Kashmir Director General of Police Shesh Paul Vaid has been coordinating with his Haryana counterpart to ensure the safety of the Kashmiri youths.

"In touch with DGP Haryana. Police is taking cognisance of the incident," he said.

The victims suffered injuries in the attack and were taken to the local hospital.

They were, however, released after treatment.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)In an unusual site, a group of foreign tourists have offered prayers as per Hindu beliefs in Haridwar on the lunar eclipse.

The foreigners participated in the prayers organized to bring peace in their lives and to protect themselves from any conflicts or problems on January 31.

Astrologist Dr Prateek Mishrapuri helped the foreigners to conduct prayers at Haridwar.

He said, "For Indians, the event of the lunar eclipse is equivalent to a festival. There are certain powerful moon rays that hit the surface of the earth that impacts the creatures in both positive and negative ways. Thus, it becomes important to follow certain rituals."

A British native, who prayed in Haridwar, said that even though the foreign nations are developing at a rapid speed but that has led to a lack of peace and happiness in the minds of his countrymen.

In spite of this, they are getting attracted to the age-old Indian traditions, which are a prove that Indian traditions are at par excellence.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The current political unrest in the Maldives took a new turn when agitators massively protested outside Chief Justice Abdulla Saeed's house in Male late on Saturday.

Reportedly, there were scuffles between the protesters and police in riot gear outside the Chief Justice's residence.

The agitators are trying to force Justice Saeed and another supreme justice, Ali Hameed to resign.

Eva Abdulla, Member of Parliament, of the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) describing the ordeal told ANI over the phone, "Absolute breakdown of law and order. The public is on the edge. I am very concerned as we are facing increased unrest. They (police) have just used pepper spray and tear gas on the crowd."

Meanwhile, Justice Saeed said, "We need our neighbours, especially India to do all that it can to impress upon the Govt of Maldives to implement the SC ruling."

Agitators in the Maldivian capital on Saturday opened the gate of Maafushi Prison, where the 12 parliamentary members have been kept in detention, but did not enter inside.

The prison officers came in their riot gears and tried to control the agitators in Male. Later, the National Defence Force also came in their riot gears.

Protests continued in the Maldivian capital as President Abdulla Yameen refused to follow the Maldivian Supreme Court's ruling to release key political prisoners and reinstate the 12 parliamentary members.

This decision has pushed the island nation into a crisis with the likelihood of emergency being declared, as Yameen has got the first session of parliament of 2018 (scheduled for February 5) cancelled, sensing that the opposition will be in majority because of the apex court order.

On Thursday, the Supreme Court acquitted former Maldivian President Mohamed Nasheed and former Maldivian Vice President Ahmed Adeeb along with 12 other parliamentary members.

The court ordered the immediate release of high-profile prisoners and held that "the prisoners were free until fair trials could be conducted without undue influence".

The order given on late Thursday evening could be a major blow to the Maldivian President, who has a tight grip on power, controlling institutions like the judiciary, police and the bureaucracy.

The main opposition party, the MDP hailed the ruling and described it as a "death knell for President Yameen's corrupt and criminal dictatorship".

Yameen took over as the president after winning a controversial runoff against Nasheed.

The Maldives was plagued by political unrest in 2015 when Nasheed, the first democratically elected president of the country, was arrested on "terrorism" charges, relating to the arrest of a judge during his tenure.

The arrest led to widespread protests across the country and resulted in the arrest of hundreds of dissidents. The apex court had sentenced Nasheed to 13 years in prison.

In 2016, Nasheed also sought political asylum in the United Kingdom after travelling there on medical leave from prison.

Ten years ago, the Maldives became a multiparty democracy, after three decades of autocratic rule of former strongman and Yameen's half-brother Maumoon Abdul Gayoom.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Maratha Light Infantry will celebrate 250 years of its existence by organising a programme at the Manekshaw Centre here on Sunday.

The chief guest of the programme will be graced by Union Minister of State for Defence, Dr. Subhash Bhamre. The Chief of Army Staff General Bipin Rawat will be present as well.

Also, the Republic Day parade contingent of the Maratha Light Infantry would be present. The families of the light infantry soldiers, who are posted in Delhi will also grace the occasion.

February 4 is celebrated as "Maratha Light Infantry Day" across the regiment throughout the country.

The date holds a historic significance as on this day, in 1670, Maratha ruler Chhatrapati Shivaji conquered the famous Kondana Fort, which is now known as Sinhgad today in Maharashtra.

The first battalion of the regiment was raised as the 'Second Battalion Bombay Sepoys' in 1768 which was later known as 'Jangi Paltan 3'.

The Maratha Light Infantry was bestowed with the rare honour of winning two Victoria crosses to two of its soldiers- N.K. Yeshwant Ghadge and Sepoy Namdev Jadhav.

It was also the first infantry regiment of the Army to be awarded the title of 'Light Infantry' during the First Afghan War in 1841.

The Maratha Light Infantry has a proud history of gallantry as it was honoured with 15 battle honours in the First World War. In the second World War, the regiment's strength increased from six to 13 battalions.

Today the regiment has around 21 regular battalions, four Rashtriya Rifles battalions, and two Territorial Army battalions.

The Maratha Light Infantry is the only regiment which has contributed two battalions of the special forces to the Indian Army. The regiment has an affiliation with 10 Mechanised Infantry regiments, two artillery regiments and an air defence regiment in the Army.

The regiment has an inter-service affiliation with Indian Naval Ship (INS) Mumbai, the 20th Squadron Air Force (Sukhoi) and Indian Coast Guard air station in Daman and Diu.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Jet Airways on Saturday informed its customers that the main runway at the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport (CSIA), Mumbai will be closed for "operations" from February 1 to February 17.

"The main runway at Mumbai airport is being closed for Operations from February 01 - 17, 2018 from 1000 - 1700 hrs, (except Wednesdays), due to urgent upgrade of navigational equipment. Operations conducted on the secondary runway are likely to impact all arrivals and departures in and out of Mumbai," said a press statement by Jet Airways.

The statement also said that guests who are planning to travel with the airlines, via Mumbai, "are advised to allow for sufficient time while making bookings for onward travel".

Flight operations at Mumbai Airport, are said to be constrained in the coming days as the main runway will remain closed for seven hours a day from February 1 to February 17.

A Notice to Airmen (NOTAM) to conduct operations on the main runway is in place for equipment maintenance at the airport.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)North Korea earned nearly USD 200 million in revenue last year by exporting the banned commodities in violation of sanctions imposed by the United Nations.

Pyongyang was able to sell coal, steel, iron and petroleum products between January and September to multiple countries including Russia, China, Malaysia, South Korea and Vietnam, despite UN sanctions barring their export, according to several media reports which quoted a confidential report by independent U.N. monitors.

North Korea's economy has been heavily reliant on Beijing-$2.3 million of the $2.83 billion total exports were shipped to China in 2015

The document, which was submitted to the UN Security Council, also stated that the rogue nation had been providing weapons to Syria and Myanmar.

North Korea had flouted UN financial sanctions through "deceptive practices" and engaged in "widespread conventional arms deals and cyber operations to steal military secrets," according to the 213-page report seen by several media outlets.

North Korea has been developing nuclear weapons and sophisticated long-range missiles. Multiple sanctions dating back to 2006 have tried to choke off funding for the nuclear and missile programs.

The United States pushed for tough economic sanctions against the reclusive nation after its sixth nuclear test and a series of ballistic missile launches.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Saturday released a list of 20 candidates for the ensuing General Election to the 13th Nagaland Legislative Assembly.

The list of 20 BJP candidates with their constituencies includes Tovihoto Ayemi from Dimapur 1, N Jacob Zhimomi from Ghaspani 1, Sukhato A Sema from Pughoboto constituency among others.

The BJP has selected a woman candidate Rakhila to contest from Tuensang Sadar II Assembly constituency. Rakhila contested 2013 Assembly election on BJP ticket from the same constituency.

Polling in Tripura will take place on February 18 and Meghalaya and Nagaland on February 27. The results for all the three northeastern states will be declared on March 3.

The terms of Meghalaya, Nagaland and Tripura assemblies will end on March 6, March 13 and March 14 respectively. All the three states have 60 seats each.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)At least nine militants affiliated with the terror outfit Islamic State (IS) have been killed during the ongoing Hamza operations in Afghan's eastern Nangarhar province.

"The Hamza operations are underway in the restive parts of Nangarhar province in a bid to eliminate the ISIS militants and insurgents belonging to the other terrorist groups," Khaama Press quoted the Afghan military as saying.

The operations were conducted with the help of the Air Support in Tangi Mamand and Wach Zhwara areas.

No comments have been received yet from the armed militant groups including the IS insurgents.

According to the local officials, a key Taliban local leader was arrested during an operation of the Afghan police forces in Chaparhar district last week.

The officials further noted that the detained individual has been identified as Bismillah also famous as Ayoubi who was in charge of a group of at least twenty Taliban fighters, the report said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said northeastern India's progress is "at the heart of the country's that focuses on increased ties with countries in the Asia-Pacific region, particularly the ASEAN countries.

In his address at the inaugural session of Global Investors' Summit -'Advantage Assam' here, the Prime Minister said, "We created the and the Northeast is at the heart of it. The requires increased people-to-people contact, trade ties and other relations with countries on India's east, particularly ASEAN countries."

"The tagline of this summit is very appropriate and gives a big message. 'Advantage Assam: India's Expressway to ASEAN' is not just a statement but it is a holistic vision," he added.

To this end, Prime Minister Modi said the country worked with the vision that India's growth story will pick up more speed only when the northeast region developed at the same pace in a balanced manner.

"The work of both central government and Assam government in the last three-and-a-half years has brought us here and now we are able to hold such an event. It was only possible because the thought 'Nothing can be done about this country has changed," Modi remarked.

The Prime Minister also mentioned the new policy launched in the Union Budget to restructure the National Bamboo mission that has been welcomed in the bamboo-rich northeast.

"Bamboo is scientifically a grass but nearly 90 years ago, the lawmakers categorized it as a tree which required for a permit to cut or transport. Northeast Indians were the most at disadvantage because of this," Prime Minister Modi said, adding, "It is only our government that removed bamboo from the category of trees and brought benefit to the tribal population."

The Prime Minister also spoke on the other salient policies that were launched or received a boost under the Union Budget, such as Ayushman Bharat Yojana, Ujjwala Yojana, Mudra Yojana, and the like.

Terming the Budget for 2018 "farmer-friendly", Prime Minister Modi said that the farmers' development was imperative to the country's development and added that all ASEAN countries were, in a way, agriculture dominated.

Further, in a testament to the progress towards the Act East Policy, Prime Minister Modi informed that Bangladesh recently became the first country to open a consulate in Guwahati, while Bhutan opened a consulate in the city on Friday.

Bhutan Prime Minister Tshering Tobgay attended the event as the chief guest

"Our chief guest Bhutan PM's presence speaks of the unbreakable bond of friendship between India Bhutan," he remarked.

The two-day summit that started today will showcase the state's manufacturing opportunities and geostrategic advantages to foreign and domestic investors.Pakistan has urged Afghanistan to stop the blame game and asked for its co-operation in combating terrorism.

Pakistan proposed five joint working groups to ensure effective engagement for countering terrorism, intelligence sharing, military, economy, trade and transit interaction, refugee repatriation and connectivity in a meeting with Afghanistan officials in Kabul on Saturday, according to the Radio Pakistan.

Pakistan delegation was led by Foreign Secretary Tehmina Janjua and has offered a joint investigation into the terrorist attacks.

Janjua also condemned the Kabul terrorist attack.

Afghanistan slammed Pakistan for the deadly attacks on its soil and accused the country of harbouring the Taliban.

In a televised speech to the nation, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani on Friday alleged that the "centre of Taliban terrorism is in Pakistan" and demanded that authorities in the neighbouring country "show some concrete action to rid their territory of insurgents," reported the Dawn.

After the three major militant attacks that took place in Kabul in the past two weeks, the pressure on the country's government has intensified to beef up the security.

Since January 20, militants have stormed a luxury hotel, bombed a crowded street and raided a military compound in Kabul, killing more than 130 people.

The president alleged that Islamabad had promises of cooperation with Afghanistan, which are yet to be proven true.

So far, 11 people have been detained in connection with the attacks.

Pakistan, on the other hand, had denied the allegations made against it.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Hours after the Supreme Court ruling to release key political prisoners and reinstate 12 MPs, President Yameen Abdul Gayoom has refused to honour the rule of law in the Maldives.

This decision has pushed the island nation into a crisis with the likelihood of emergency being declared, as President Yameen Abdul Gayoom has got the first session of parliament of 2018 (scheduled for February 5th) cancelled, as the opposition will be in majority because of the apex court order.

Ahmed Mahloof, a Member of Parliament for Galolhu-South constituency in the People's Majlis told ANI in an interview conducted via telephone, "The parliament opening has been cancelled because President Yameen knows that he no longer has a majority. That means we will be protesting at the parliament opening and later we will also proceed with impeachment motions."

He said, "Yameen does not want to allow this to happen, so, he plans to continue to hold the parliament hostage through his imposter speaker."

"President Yameen's authoritarianism cannot continue after the Supreme Court ruling. When it is enforced, the opposition will continue the work for impeaching the speaker of the parliament and freeing the hijacked judiciary," added Mahloof.

"We are worried that the government is not obeying the Supreme Court verdict. We are hopeful this will change as when the international pressure mounts," Mahloof, who is the spokesperson of the joint opposition," he added.

He believes officials and ministers of the present government would submit their resignations as they are feeling the pressure to release the leaders lodged in jail.

On Friday night, Director of Prisons at K. Maafushi Prison, Salman Rasheed, also resigned from his post.

He told ANI that the cancellation of the February 5 session of Parliament is a 'deliberate and desperate' attempt by President Yameen Abdul Gayoom as there is no security threat.

Mahloof wished India and other countries would put more diplomatic pressure as the people of Maldives are suffering due to the political uncertainty in the country. He said the growing influence of China in the island nation is adding to their woes.

"There is an increase in the number of violations by Chinese workers in Maldives. This has increased for the past few years and is a cause of worry," added Mahloof, a one time political prisoner.

Speaking to ANI over phone from Male, Abdulla Riyaz, a former police commissioner who was forced to resign by President Yameen in 2013, said, "Its been hours after a Supreme Court ruling ordered the release of key prisoners and reinstated 12 MPs, but the police has failed to act".

He said" We have asked India, the United Nations and the United States for support. Else, the people will come to the streets and it will be escalated to humanitarian crisis. The president should uphold the Supreme Court ruling. Else, the people will be on the streets and situation will worsen".

He added, "Our friends from neighbouring countries should engage to maintain the rule of law".

Ali Zahir, deputy leader of Adhalat Party, told ANI, "Soon, former President Mahmood Nasheed and other top leaders who are living in exile will return back to Maldives".

He said, "If the law enforcement agencies fail to implement Supreme Court ruling, we will mobilize people to upload the rule of law."

All opposition leaders in the Maldives say that President Yameen has killed democracy in the country and it is high time that the international community takes note of the crisis engulfing the nation.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Human Resources Development (HRD) Minister Prakash Javadekar and External Affairs Minister (EAM) Sushma Swaraj on Saturday launched 'Exam Warriors', a book written by Prime Minister Narendra Modi for students.

The book, penned by the Prime Minister intends to reach out to the students and prepare them to face the difficulties ahead of their exams.

'Exam Warriors' has been published by noted publishers Penguin India and the book runs into 208 pages.

Addressing the gathering here, EAM Swaraj said, the book is most relevant one in this exam season.

She also hailed Prime Minister Modi as a good communicator while saying that he has tried to share his thoughts with students through the book.

Speaking at the event, Javadekar said, the book will help the students in beating the stress.

He also urged the parents to read the book and not pressurise their children during exams.

He also informed that Prime Minister Modi will interact with students of schools and colleges on February 16.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 'Exam Warriors', a book that he penned to reach out to the students across the country ahead of their exams, will be launched on Saturday.

The book will be released by External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, in the presence of PM Modi.

The book has been written to inspire youths to face the difficult moments of examinations and life, with fresh and new energy.

In his monthly radio talk - 'Mann Ki Baat', Mr Modi had requested students to celebrate examinations like festivals to reduce stress.

'Exam Warriors' is published by Penguin India, which runs into 208 pages.

Penguin India tweeted a teaser of the book cover and wrote alongside, "Non-preachy, practical and thought-provoking, Exam Warriors by @narendramodi is a handy guide for students in India and across the world. #CoverReveal #TheCountdownBegins".

A Pentagon report for the first time has acknowledged that Russia is building and developing an "undersea" nuclear torpedo.

According to a report from the US Defense Department, which assesses the arms advancements being made in other countries, Russia is "developing" a "new intercontinental, nuclear-armed, nuclear-powered, undersea autonomous torpedo which is known in English as the Status-6 system, reported CNN.

Some analysts have branded it a "doomsday weapon."

According to the US officials, the Russian programme includes a drone-type device fired underwater with the potential of travelling thousands of miles and the capability of striking U.S. targets along the coast, including military bases and cities. If activated, the intent would be widespread radioactive contamination.

The Defense Department, in its Nuclear Posture Review, noted that "Russia considers the United States and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to be the principal threats to its contemporary geopolitical ambitions."

"The Defense Intelligence Agency currently estimates Russia has a stockpile of 2,000 "non-strategic" nuclear weapons including short-range ballistic missiles, gravity bombs and depth charges that can go on medium range bomber aircraft," the report added.

The Pentagon maintained that the U.S. had to balance the need for developing a plan for nuclear deterrence while at the same time maintaining a "commitment to nonproliferation and arms control," according to Deputy Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan.

President Donald Trump issued a statement in support of the Defense Department efforts, claiming nuclear programs in other countries had grown in recent years.

"Over the past decade, despite United States efforts to reduce the roles and numbers of nuclear weapons, other nuclear nations grew their stockpiles, increased the prominence of nuclear weapons in their security strategies, and - in some cases - pursued the development of new nuclear capabilities to threaten other nations," the statement said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Shiv Sena on Saturday demanded a probe into the rape of a 19-year-old girl inside a Hyderabad movie theatre, given that other audiences were also present there.

"It's shocking how such an incident can occur in presence of hundreds of people in a theatre," Shiv Sena spokesperson Manisha Kayande told ANI.

"There are security guards and CCTV cameras; I don't know if there are, but ideally theatres should be covered with CCTV cameras. It is quite unbelievable and shocking and should be probed," she added.

The victim had gone to watch film 'Padmaavat' at the theatre on Friday, when she was raped by a man, whom she had befriended on social media two months back.

According to police who arrested the accused, the latter said that he took advantage of the fact that there were only a few people in the theatre and nobody was near them.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Sri Lankan Navy apprehended at least two Indian fishermen for allegedly trying to smuggle a large amount of heroin worth Rs 1 crore near Sri Lanka's Mannar Island Lighthouse on Friday evening.

Acting on a tip-off, the navy seized 425-gm heroin and 100 bundles of beedi leaves from them. The fishermen, who hailed from Dhanushkodi in Tamil Nadu, have been handed over to the Mannar Police for legal action.

Fishermen from both the countries are apprehended on a regular basis for violating each other's territorial waters or doing suspicious activities.

Last Saturday, the Sri Lankan Navy apprehended 12 Indian fishermen for allegedly fishing near Neduntheevu island in Palk Strait in northern Sri Lanka.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)driven platforms are the new breed of startups. There are umpteen entrepreneurs wanting to solve the problems in the sector through internet.

The factors contributing to the growth of the sector include rising demands from various segments, growing internet, and convenience factors. It is also seen as one of the most lucrative sectors by the investors.

Here are five ed-tech platforms reshaping the career choices of Indians:

1. BJYU's

The learning platform offers training for preparation of different entrance and competitive examinations like CAT, JEE, IAS, GRE, and GMAT. It aims to discover a unique methodology for increasing the pace of learning among the students by bringing into account the concept of learning through engaging into videos and interactive activities for personalised tutoring.

2. MakeMeStudyAbroad

MakeMeStudyAbroad is a one-stop, digitally-driven platform to facilitate planning and documentation for students planning to study abroad. With a growing number of Indian students finding the education of their dreams on foreign shores, the complex processes involved for these applications means a substantial investment of time and effort.

The company looks to introduce in the traditional 'study abroad' process; connecting students through its online portal to assist them in their dream of studying abroad. The portal includes everything such as checking the eligibility, choosing the courses and colleges, applying for the admission and visa assistance.

3. NextEducation

Founded in 2007, Next Education is a fast-growing, technology-driven company revolutionising the education system in India. It is transforming education with innovative and engaging technology-based K-12 solutions used by over 2,00,000 teachers, to the learning delight of 10 million students across more than 10,000 schools.

It offers learning aids covering syllabuses of CBSE, ICSE, Army Board and 29 state boards, in seven Indian languages. The platform also offers assistance in integrated curriculum, digital classrooms, school management software, hands-on learning, self-learning and teacher training.

4. LearnSocial

LearnSocial is a nucleus of learning where students, job seekers and professionals can learn new things and which can help in shaping their careers. The core offerings of the platform are real-time (Live) interaction between learners and instructors which enables a two-way communication between both the parties.

The main feature of the platform is that anyone can come and teach as well as learn if they wish to upgrade their knowledge and skills. The students also have the freedom to choose their batch timing and can opt for change of batches freely with seven days money back guarantee.

5. ApnaCourse

ApnaCourse is an e-learning platform providing in-demand video courses delivered by top instructors. The courses are aimed at individuals to enhance their skill set and advance their career.

Launched in August 2013, ApnaCourse today caters to thousands of individuals, offering online training in courses from various domains like banking and finance, law, business strategy, sales and marketing, and HR management.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)On an average, people in India spend more than two hours daily on their mobile phone using different applications. From exploring various social media platforms to reading the news, there is nothing one cannot do on their mobiles. But do you know that there are certain platforms, which can also help one readily earn extra money.

Here are five such platforms to make the extra buck:

NoBroker.com - NoBroker has a crowd-sourcing functionality where anyone who sees a 'to let' board with the details of the owner can click a picture and upload it to NoBroker.com's platform, thereby earning attractive rewards. This functionality is the first of its kind, enabling offline owner properties online through crowd-sourcing.

Paytm Gold - Most of us have used Paytm, but how many of us are aware of Paytm Gold? With the help of this digital wallet, one can buy gold for even Re. 1. One can also monitor the gold market on a daily basis and then start investing in them, as it fits.

Tengi - Tengi is a chat-based app that doesn't directly give one cash. Instead, one can earn tickets by chatting or by inviting contacts. The tickets can then be used to take part in a weekly draw. If one wins in the draw, they can choose to get the money transferred to their bank account or use it as a gift voucher.

Cashkaro - Cashkaro is the leading platform in this segment that helps one earn back money spent while shopping online. All that one needs to do is to visit the online retailer via Cashkaro website to avail the cashback benefit. Once the transaction is completed, Cashkaro adds the cashback amount to one's account.

Unocoin - Unocoin is the bitcoin wallet introduced in Indian market by a Bengaluru-based company. When one signs up on this wallet, they get Rs 200 worth bitcoin money in their wallet which can be used for a mobile recharge or BookMyShow wallet recharge.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Vice-chancellor of Bharathiar University in Coimbatore was arrested on Saturday on the charges of accepting a bribe of Rs 30 lakh from a job-aspirant.

A Ganapathi was arrested by a team of Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC) after he was caught accepting the bribe from one Suresh, who was seeking the post of assistant professor.

As per reports, Suresh had earlier complained to police regarding the demand for the bribe.

On the basis of the complaint, DVAC had laid out a trap and caught the vice chancellor red-handed with Rs 1 lakh in cash and a cheque of Rs 29 lakh.

Ganapathi was appointed the vice-chancellor of Bharathiar University in March 2016.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Veteran actor Uma Thurman revealed that she was sexually abused and raped by Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein.

The actress was a part of the movie "The Pulp fiction" which was produced by Weinstein.

Post the release of the movie, she met Weinstein for the first time along with his former wife.

In an interview, she said, "He used to spend hours talking to me about the material and complimenting my mind and validating me. It possibly made me overlook warning signs. This was my champion. I was never any kind of studio darling. He had a chokehold on the type of films and directors that were right for me."

The first incident happened at his suite in Savoy hotel in London where the producer tried to force himself on Thurman and molested her, reported The New York Times.

The actress severed all ties with him immediately after the incident and, on the other hand, Weinstein stopped doing any projects with her.

Later, she received a bouquet of yellow roses from the producer along with a note saying, "You have great instincts."

In return, she offered to meet Weinstein in a hotel room to clear the matter. That was the time when she was assaulted.

The producer apparently pressurised the actor to not reveal about the incident as he threatened her with leaking their pictures, she revealed during the interview.

The production of the movie 'Kill Bill' again brought Thurman and Weinstein together.

Thurman confided in their director Quentin Tarantino about the incident at Paris hotel, who further confronted Harvey and that ended their abusive work relationship.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Three candidates, including opposition Congress' official candidate and former Tripura Chief Minister Samir Ranjan Barman, on Saturday withdraw their candidature for the February 18 assembly polls.

Congress' Sukumar Chandra Das joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

The ruling Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) and the Congress slammed the BJP for putting "pressure and inducement on the candidates to withdraw the candidature".

Tribal-based party Indigenous Nationalist Party of Tripura's (INPT) official candidate in Matabari assembly seat (in southern Tripura) Tarani Sadhan Jamatia also withdrew his nomination papers.

With the Congress nominee's withdrawal in the Kakraban-Shalgarha assembly seat (reserved for the scheduled caste), there would be direct contest between CPI-M candidate and Tourism Minister Ratan Kumar Bhowmik and BJP aspirant Jiten Majumder, who is party's Gomti district Vice President.

Surprising political circles, Barman, state Congress' former chief, had on Wednesday filed his nomination paper as an independent in his old turf Bishalgarh in western Tripura.

The Congress earlier expelled the veteran leader for six years last April for "anti-party activities".

Barman had contested from Bishalgarh constituency in nine assembly elections consecutively from 1972 to 2013, winning five times -- in 1972, 1988, 1993, 1998 and 2003.

He said he took the decision after requests by BJP state President Biplab Kumar Deb and Assam minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, who is BJP's election in-charge for Tripura.

INPT President Bijoy Kumar Hrangkhawl made it clear that the INPT and National Conference of Tripura, another tribal based party, will jointly contest the assembly elections in 14 seats.

A BJP spokesperson said that witnessing the statewide overwhelming wave in favour of the BJP, the Congress candidate has taken the right decision by joining the party.

"This will help us and further demoralise the Congress which is already virtually out of the contest," the spokesperson said.

Vehemently criticising the BJP, CPI-M central committee member Gautam Das said that the saffron party, fearing defeat, used corrupt method to forcibly win over the people.

Tripura Pradesh Congress Vice President Tapas Dey told the media: "The BJP has imported the immoral tactics in the otherwise politically fair ground of Tripura and is polluting the electoral of the state."

The BJP is contesting 51 seats in the 60-member Tripura Assembly. It has left nine seats for its electoral ally, the Indigenous People's Front of Tripura (IPFT), a tribal-based party agitating for creation of a separate state containing Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council areas.

The CPI-M-led Left Front and the Congress besides other smaller parties have put up candidates in all the 60 constituencies.

Votes will be counted on March 3.

--IANS

sc/him/vm

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Four persons, including two paratroopers, were injured on Saturday when militants hurled a grenade at a CRPF party in Tral town in south Kashmir.

Police sources said militants hurled a grenade at a Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) party in Batagund area of Tral in the afternoon.

"Four persons, including two civilians and two CRPF troopers, were injured in the explosion. The injured have been shifted to hospital and the area has been surrounded for searches," sources said.

--IANS

sq/rn

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)At least 47 militants have been killed in the eastern and northern regions of Afghanistan over the past 24 hours as the government forces stepped up anti-terror operations in the war-battered country, officials said on Saturday.

The security forces killed 25 insurgents and captured a bastion of Taliban militants in Khawja Sabzposh district of the Faryab province since Friday, a police spokesman was quoted as saying by Xinhua news agency.

Four Taliban group commanders including the notorious Mawlawi Yusuf and Mullah Yar Mohammad were among those killed in the raids.

A total of 23 more insurgents sustained injuries in the operations which lasted for several hours, the official said.

And in an identical operation against Taliban insurgents, the government forces killed nine militants in Andar and Deyak districts of the Ghazni province since Friday morning, provincial government spokesman Aref Nuri said.

Similarly, the security forces in operations against Islamic State (IS) group in the Nangarhar province killed 13 armed militants and injured several others in Achin and Haska Minda districts, spokesman for provincial government Attaullah Khogiani said.

Security officials, including Defence Ministry spokesman General Dawlat Waziri said that the government forces would continue to mount pressure on militants in winter to weaken the insurgents ahead of spring and summer commonly known as "fighting season" in Afghanistan.

--IANS

soni/vm

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Sharjah, Feb 3 Feb 3 (IANS/WAM) Air Arabia on Saturday announced the launch of its inaugural flight to Moscows Sheremetyevo International Airport, adding a second route for travel to the Russian capital.

The inaugural flight landed in Sheremetyevo International Airport led by an Air Arabia delegation headed by the Airline Group Chief Executive Officer.

The delegation was received by Sheremetyevo Airport officials.

Air Arabia announced that the flight will initially operate four times a week on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays, before being upgraded to a daily service from March 1, 2018.

"We thank the Russian authorities and Sheremetyevo International Airport for their warm welcome. Moscow is a metropolis that brims with culture and Sheremetyevo adds a convenient gateway to enter and discover this historic city," said Adel Al Ali, Group Chief Executive Officer of Air Arabia.

--IANS/WAM

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A Russian programmer accused of being the mastermind behind spreading ransomware through a large botnet, was extradited to the US, a statement from the Department of Justice said.

The statement published late Friday, said programmer Pyotr Levashov is "alleged to have controlled and operated the 'Kelihos botnet'.

The botnet was used to distribute hundreds of millions of fraudulent e-mails per year, intercept credentials to online and financial accounts belonging to thousands of Americans and spread ransomware throughout our networks."

The accused who was extradited from Spain was presented before a US Magistrates Court in Connecticut on Friday.

Levashov, 37, with many alias, including Petr Levashov, Peter Severa, Petr Severa and Sergey Astakhov, is from St. Petersburg in Russia, it said.

Levashov was detained on April 7, 2017, by Spanish authorities.

It is alleged that, for years, Levashov profited handsomely by controlling a botnet that infected computers and affected computer users all over the world.

Levashov is facing an eight-count indictment in the US -- with one count each of causing intentional damage to a protected computer, accessing a protected computer to commit fraud, wire fraud, conspiracy, threatening to damage a protected computer and aggravated identity theft.

He was also indicted on two counts of fraud in connection with email, RT News reported.

Levashov pleaded not guilty to all eight counts during his first US court appearance, his Russian's lawyer Igor Litvak told Sputnik.

Litvak said they have "no documents from the prosecutor's office, no evidence of crime."

Levashov had previously said his life would be in danger if Spanish authorities complied with the US extradition request and was afraid that he might face torture in America "in order to extract Russian secrets".

The programmer is also wanted in Russia on cyber-crime charges, including hacking the site of a medical facility in St. Petersburg and spreading malware. Moscow issued an international warrant for his arrest in August.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Associations representing atomic bomb survivors in Japan criticised on Saturday a change in the policy of the US which advocates modernising its atomic arsenal and increasing its launch capacity.

Toshiyuki Mimaki of the Japan Confederation of A-and H-Bomb Sufferers Organisations expressed anger over the change in Washington's strategy, saying it posed an obstacle to global denuclearisation, reported Japan's state broadcaster NHK.

Mimaki said "if the President of a global power such as the US wanted to increase and modernize its nuclear capacities, the survivors of the atomic bombings in Japan will never see a world without nuclear weapons".

Mimaki, a survivor of the nuclear bombing by the US on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, said that these weapons do not make the world a safer place and should never be used.

Koichi Kawano, leader of Hibakuren, a survivor group based in Nagasaki -- which suffered a nuclear attack on August 9, 1945 -- said the announcement poured cold water on the historic UN treaty to ban nuclear weapons, adopted last year by over 120 countries.

Kawano warned that the new US strategy, which seeks to develop smaller nuclear arms, could lower the bar for the use of such weapons and raise the likelihood of nuclear war.

He also urged the Japanese government to utilise the US presence in Japan to intensify its diplomatic efforts to prevent such a scenario.

However, Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono in a statement welcomed Washington's move, saying it showed the determination of the US to ensure the effectiveness of dissuasion.

The Nuclear Posture Review of the US, presented on Friday by the Trump administration is in contrast the one in 2010 by then-President Barack Obama (2009-2017), who sought a reduction in the nuclear arsenal.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A 43-year-old Chinese national who lived in the US has pleaded guilty to taking part in a counterfeiting operation out of China that involved selling fake iPhones and iPads to customers in the country.

"Jianhua 'Jeff' Li, pleaded guilty before US District Court Judge Kevin McNulty of New Jersey to one count of conspiracy to traffic in counterfeit goods and labels and to smuggle goods into the US, and one count of trafficking in counterfeit goods," the US Department of Justice said in a statement late on Friday.

Li also received payments worth over $1.1 million in sales proceeds from US accounts into his bank accounts.

The case has been ongoing since 2015, when Li was charged and taken into custody.

From July 2009-February 2014, the Chinese national, working through his company "Dream Digitals", conspired with Andreina Becerra, Roberto Volpe, Rosario LaMarca and others to smuggle and traffic into the US from China more than 40,000 electronic devices and accessories.

The smuggled devices included Apple iPads and iPhones, along with labels and packaging bearing counterfeit Apple trademarks, according to the documents filed in this case.

He shipped devices separately from the labels bearing counterfeit trademarks for later assembly to avoid detection by US Customs and Border Protection officials, the documents filed in the case added.

The counterfeit devices were then shipped to conspirators all over the country.

Li will be sentenced on May 30 while LaMarca, another member of the conspiracy, was the first to be sentenced in July 2017, receiving a prison term of 37 months.

Both Becerra and Volpe, Li's other conspirators, are still awaiting sentence.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Former Tripura BJP chief Ronajoy Kumar Deb has resigned from the party after being denied a ticket for the February 18 state polls.

Ronajoy Kumar Deb was BJP's Tripura Pradesh President for five years from 2001.

In his letter to state party president Biplab Kumar Deb, he said: "Since the party has decided not to nominate me from the Bagbasa Assembly constituency (in northern Tripura) in the assembly elections... I have decided to resign from the party."

Deb had written his resignation letter on January 27 but released it to the media on Saturday.

Terming the resignation as "unfortunate and unexpected", BJP spokesman Mrinal Kanti Deb said he had joined the party in early 80's and had worked a lot for it. "He should not quit the party over mere denial of party ticket."

The BJP is contesting 51 seats in the 60-member Tripura Assembly. It has left nine seats for its electoral ally, the Indigenous People's Front of Tripura (IPFT), a tribal-based party agitating for creation of a separate state containing Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council areas.

Meanwhile, state BJP President Biplab Kumar Deb on Saturday claimed that around 1,635 supporters of ruling Communist Party of India-Marxist and other parties joined the BJP on Saturday.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Heavily inspired by the eyes, artist Dipak Kumar Ghosh has come up with a series of fascinating portraits of famous personalities which he has ventilated on canvas using pencil and charcoal.

Organised at IGNCA, the exhibition titled "Eyes Says It All" showcases the piercing eyes of eminent personalities like Rabindranath Tagore, Swami Vivekananda, Albert Einstein, Sri Ramakrishna, Mother Teresa, A.P.J Abdul Kalam and more which are always attractive and seeks all the attention.

The theme "Eyes" have been encircled by many pairs of eyes that reflect various facets of a person, from exuberance to a simple smile, from a profound grief to a mellowed agony, from being exhausted to boredom. His entire work contains a plethora of different subjects.

"Portraits, that reflect the different faces and phases of life. People's emotions and expressions has affected the artist at a great extent and has lead his focus especially to their eyes as they convey a certain intimacy, a history that nothing else can hold," the artist said.

Talking about his experience artist said that every stroke in work of art is important to the bigger picture and the time and effort that he has invested in each and every portrait and sketch and painting of his makes all of them special to him

He even shared one of his wonderful experience while portraying the sketches of Osho and Sri Aurobindo. He said: "There was a power cut which somehow led to complete darkness in my studio. This is when I noticed the eyes that stared back at me and I could almost feel their presence in the room. The experience was otherworldly and gave me a great sense of satisfaction."

The exhibition was inaugurated on Saturday by former President Pranab Mukherjee who was in all praise about the exhibition.

"An artist should have a creative mind, they feast the mind of the living & that is their study. I wish Mr. Ghosh and associates a grand success for this exhibition," Mukherjee said during the inauguration.

The exhibition will continue till February 8.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Union Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Saturday assured that Gurugram would be considered for inclusion in the 'Smart City Mission' and an apex body would be constituted for this purpose.

Lauding the steps taken by Haryana under various central flagship missions for urban development at a meeting here,Puri gave the assurance while responding to the specific request made by Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar to include Gurugram, adjoining the national capital, in the Smart City Mission.

Khattar said that for this central technical assistance is required, whereas financial implications would be looked after by the state government.

Puri, who here to review various flagship missions of his ministry in the state, asked the Chief Minister to conduct credit rating of cities in Haryana and was told that this was being done along with credit rating of villages.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Haryana Police on Saturday registered a case against unknown persons following an alleged assault on two Kashmiri students in Mahendergarh a day ago.

The two Kashmiri youth, Aftab Ahmed and Amzad Ali, students of the Central University of Haryana near Mahendergarh town, around 125 km from Delhi, hav been discharged from hospital.

Both were allegedly assaulted by local youth on Friday evening when they had gone to the market.

The case was registered under several sections of the Indian Penal Code for rioting, unlawful assembly, wrongful restraint and voluntarily causing hurt.

A police officer said that investigations were in progress and arrests were likely to be made soon.

The Kashmiri students have alleged that they were assaulted without any provocation.

Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti has urged authorities in Haryana to probe the incident and take action.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)"The Blacklist" actress Megan Boone says she feels "fortunate" to work with considerate men who are willing to drive a change in the narrative and let female characters take the spotlight.

She has worked in a gender-balanced environment, but the American actress takes note of the movement led by women demanding equality and more power in Hollywood.

In an India exclusive interview with IANS, the actress expressed her happiness over how the world is changing the lens through which they look at women.

"I feel there is a tremendous change (for women in showbiz) because the world of film is changing dramatically and I, fortunately, work with gentlemen and people who are extremely warm and are considerate," Boone told IANS over email.

"I think that sometimes it would be hard for people to know what we experience in the industry until these news stories started to come out -- and once that was brought to light, the extraordinary co-workers with whom I had the good fortune to work with were able to acknowledge that they really wanted to honour the female characters and make them in a more authoritative and commanding situation," added the actress, seen as FBI agent Elizabeth Keen in the hit show "The Blacklist".

"Now, I see that the storyline is moving in a particular direction and, at the same time, the world is starting to acknowledge that they don't want to keep women under their thumb."

"The Blacklist", which airs in India on Star World, revolves around Boone's character who works with a criminal-turned-informant, Raymond Reddington (James Spader), to capture some of the world's most dangerous criminals.

On the show, the 34-year-old said: "Well, I know for a fact and also admit that my career has been on 'The Blacklist'. My professional life has been primarily dis-endeavoured.

"It's a unique project because we make around 22 hours of content a year as opposed to a film which is a little more than an hour. There is definitely a sense of competence and authority to work on at a fast pace which makes me feel that I am a processor working as Elizabeth Keen and, definitely, 'The Blacklist' poses a lot of unique challenges -- typically emotionally -- that have stretched me as an actress and made it a very challenging and rewarding experience."

Boone -- known for acting gigs in "Law & Order: LA", "My Bloody Valentine 3D" and "Step Up Revolution" -- is enjoying her stint as the lead of the show, which has been lauded by critics and viewers.

"I have enjoyed the experience of being the lead on a show and a part of a successful endeavour. I can't tell the future but I know that definitely opportunities will come my way, for which I am grateful.

"It's very rewarding and they kind of approach me and seem very excited that they love the show and that never ever stops surprising me and making me happy to be a part of."

As a future project, she is working to equip herself to ensure she sustains for long in showbiz.

"Well, I am currently getting a graduate degree in sustainability; so I would like to find ways to produce film and television projects for myself in a way that does not diminish the biosphere necessary for human life."

(Sugandha Rawal can be contacted at sugandha.r@ians.in)

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The government's move to increase expenditure on food processing, infrastructure, healthcare and rural economy will generate more demand for the fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) sector, said industry players.

"The country has been through two muted years of growth after economic reforms like demonetisation and GST (Goods and Services Tax). Hence, from the Union Budget 2018-19, expectation was to see policies and steps to boost growth," Harsha V. Agarwal, Director, Emami, told IANS.

"Infrastructure, education, healthcare and rural economy are the major beneficiaries from this budget, signalling more job creation and spending power in the hands of the largest population which will automatically help the FMCG sector by generating strong demand," Agarwal said.

The various measures announced by the government will lead to increase in rural consumption, improve overall rural economy and have a trickling effect on the corporates, according to Sanjana Desai, Head of Business Development, Desai Brothers (Food Division - Mother's Recipe).

Desai Brothers owns and manages the brand Mother's Recipe -- a food company which makes a vast range of pickles, pastes and ready-to-cook mixes.

"The Union Budget 2018-19 is largely positive for FMCG. As anticipated by the FMCG sector, government's thrust on boosting the rural economy is welcome," said Desai.

"Increased allocation under various schemes such as MNERGA (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Gurantee Act), rural infrastructure and others will not only increase rural income through employment generation by these projects but will also improve connectivity giving a boost to rural/agri businesses," she added.

In the last full budget just presented by Finance Minster Arun Jaitley before the 2019 general elections, the government announced that it would spend more on agriculture, livelihood and infrastructure in the rural area and increased funds for crop insurance, rural roads, irrigation besides setting higher targets for farm credit.

With total budgetary outlay of Rs 2,01,933 crore for agriculture and rural development, the government has emphasised on development of food processing, dairy and fishery sectors to enhance farmers' income.

The industry players also appreciated the Finance Minister's move to reduce the corporate tax rate for all companies with turnover of up to Rs 250 crore, up from Rs 50 crore.

"We welcome government's move to reduce corporate tax from 30 per cent to 25 per cent for companies with revenue of up to Rs 250 crore. This initiative will give a boost to company revenue and allow businesses like us to invest more in expansion leading to employment generation, which is a primary focus for the government," said Oliver Mirza, Managing Director and CEO, Dr Oetker India.

Dr Oetker India is a German packaged food company which acquired the Fun Foods brand in 2008.

"This move will also provide a great stimulus to the government's initiatives like 'Make in India' and 'Startup India'. Tax benefits combined with increased allocation to the food processing sector will give a great impetus to the overall FMCG industry," Mirza said.

(Porisma P. Gogoi can be contacted at porisma.g@ians.in)

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)India's Surya Sekhar Roy Choudhury has won a silver at the fourth edition of the International Young Chef Olympiad (YCO) 2018, an event that brought together participants under the age of 22 from 45 nations and which its mentor, Suborno Bose says could soon travel to other countries.

"It is the first time that we've got the trophy back home. It is an honour. I hoped I could live up to the expectations I had on my shoulders to perform. It is a superb feeling. The exposure like this, meeting chefs like John Wood and Chris Galvin, makes you want to push yourself to greater heights," Choudhury said at the conclusion of the six-day four-city event in Kolkata on Saturday evening.

Malaysia's Lai Jia Yi won the gold and a cheque for $10,000 while Scotland's Kevin McCafferty and Hong Kong's Henry Lee shared the third spot.

The grand finale saw 11 competitors creating two dishes -- a 'boned chicken dish', served with a contemporary garnish and a creative potato dish to compliment the chicken, as also a fresh innovative dessert from Choux Pastry, with principal judge Sanjeev Kapoor declaring himself extremely pleased with the winning entries.

"The competition in 2018 was at least twice as big as last year and that's a great achievement," he added.

"The journey has been absolutely incredible," Bose, the founder of the International Institute of Hotel Management (IIHM), who conceptualised the event, told IANS in an email interview, adding that the fact that student chefs from 45 countries participated this time around from the 15 in the inaugural year "itself speaks volumes about the kind of enthusiasm and acceptance we have received from the international culinary fraternity. This journey has been much more successful than we ever thought; it has successfully put India on the culinary map of the world".

Declaring that the YCO's future "looks pretty bright", Bose said: "We are planning to build a sustainable model for YCO for the next 50 years. We are looking at not just being stationed in India, but taking the Olympiad abroad to different countries, where it would be easier to surface more local talent. I'm hopeful that we'll continue to make India proud and bring more laurels to the Indian culinary space."

How did the YCO concept come about?

"It was based on the thought of bringing the young and promising future stars of the international culinary community on a single platform where they could connect, share ideas & innovations, and create something exceptional out of their experiences," Bose said.

Emboldened by the "love and acceptance" of Young Chef India that set the ball rolling, "we thought why not extend this event internationally? Why not bring more people from varying backgrounds at this platform so that we could have a more heterogeneous space for learning? Therefore, in 2015 we organized the first ever International Young Chef Olympiad with 15 participating countries. The rest has been an extraordinary success story," Bose added.

Has the format changed over the years?

"The basic YCO format asks students to display their culinary expertise by cooking dishes in a number of competitive rounds. These students are accompanied by their mentors who guide them throughout the course of competition. Moreover, in the competitive rounds, they're allowed to have a commis chef who would cater to their smaller need but is not allowed to participate in the actual cooking. The best students graduate into the final round where the best amongst them wins the YCO title.

"This pattern has greatly evolved in the last few years. With the help of outstanding advice and mentoring from some of the most versatile and most respected culinary experts in the world, we have elevated this model on the standards its stands today," Bose said.

How are the judges selected?

The judges are outlined by the industry's apex body, the International Hospitality Council in London, which is headed by Prof. David Foskett (Chairman of the YCO Jury). There at least four board meetings every year where a number of issues related to the Olympiad, including the judges and the judging process are discussed.

"We outline the best of culinary experts, practicing chefs, Michelin Star chefs; we reach out to them, connect with them continuously and get the best possible faces on board. So, it is less about selection, as these are the most celebrated & credible personalities of the international culinary fraternity. It is more about inviting people and getting them onboard," Bose said.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)An Indian-origin man on trial in the UK for strangling his ex-wife to death and then disposing off her body in a suitcase has been given a life sentence with a minimum of 18 years behind bars.

Ashwin Daudia, 51, strangled Kiran Daudia, 46, at their house in Leicester in January last year and stuffed her remains into the suitcase before dumping it in an alley behind bins. He was caught on CCTV dragging the suitcase on the street and disposing it, the BBC reported.

Daudia was sentenced by Leicester Crown Court on Friday.

However, Daudia denied the murder charge and said that he "lost his temper" during an argument with his former wife at their house but did not attack her deliberately. He said he killed her in "self-defence".

"I was angry, I lost control," he told the court, adding that Kiran Daudia had initially assaulted him and to silence her, he put his hand over her mouth and then forcefully squeezed her neck.

The prosecution, however, dismissed Daudia's claims as a "lie". They argued ligature marks on her neck suggested she had been strangled with her own scarf. It said that Daudia had committed the murder after growing increasingly resentful of his former wife, who had joined a dating agency to meet other men.

The Daudias had an arranged marriage in India in 1988. They were divorced in 2014 but had continued living "separate lives" under the same roof. Their house had been sold to Kiran Daudia's sister.

The court heard Daudia killed his ex-wife on the day he was due to be kicked out of the home they shared. The man admitted in the court that he had lied to his two sons, relatives and the police that his ex-wife did not return home from work.

Daudia hid her body in a suitcase to prevent his younger son from seeing it. The suitcase was discovered by the police a day after the murder.

Passing sentence, Judge Timothy Spencer said he was satisfied Daudia had killed his former wife "in what should have been the safety of her own home".

The victim's family said she had "lots of dreams and aspirations which were... taken away by this demonic act".

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Jammu and government has approved withdrawal of cases against 9,730 stone pelters, Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti told the assembly on Saturday.

In a written reply in the assembly, she said that the government approved the withdrawal of cases registered between 2008 and 2017 against these people, including first-time offenders, though withdrawal of 1,745 cases is subject to certain conditions, based on recommendations of a committee set up to look into the matter.

Mehbooba Mufti also said that the government has also recommended amnesty for more than 4,000 people involved in minor incidents of stone pelting over the past two years.

Due to security reasons for them and their families, she did n t disclose the particulars of first-time offenders.

Giving details, the Chief Minister said 3,773 cases were registered in 2016 and 2017, leading to the arrest of 11,290 people while 233 remained untraced.

Seven cases were not admitted, 1,692 were chargesheeted and 1,841 were under investigation, the she added in her reply.

Intense clashes had rocked Valley in 2016 following the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander, Burhan Wani on July 8 in a gunfight with the security forces in Anantnag district.

As many as 85 people were killed in clashes with security forces in 2016 Valley unrest.

The Chief Minister said while 2,904 cases were registered and 8,570 people were arrested in connection with stone pelting incidents in 2016, the number of such cases in 2017 dropped to 869 in which 2,720 people were arrested.

The highest number, 2,330 people, were arrested in Srinagar followed by 2,046 in Baramulla, 1,385 in Pulwama, 1,123 in Kupwara, 1,118 in Anantnag, 783 in Budgam, 714 in Ganderbal, 694 in Shopian, 548 in Bandipora, 547 in Kulgam and two in Doda districts during 2016 and 2017.

She said 56 government employees and 16 Hurriyat Conference activists were among the 4,949 people found involved in stone pelting incidents while 4,074 were not affiliated with any separatist or militant group.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Maharashtra Governor C.V. Rao on Saturday called for setting up a full-fledged university dedicated to film-making and dedicated channels to air the vast treasure of documentaries, shorts and animated films.

Mumbai is not just the commercial capital of India but also the film capital, therefore, the city should have a full-fledged university dedicated to various aspects of film-making.

He also urged the Films Division to work closely with the Mass Communications Departments of all the 20 universities in the state and the need for a dedicated television channel to screen documentary, short and animated films, on the lines of niches channels devoted to various topics.

He said the first documentary in India - "The Wrestlers" - was made by Mumbaikar H.S. Bhatavdekar in 1899, 15 years before the legendary Dhundiraj Govind 'Dadasaheb' Phalke created history with the first feature film "Raja Harishchandra" in 1913.

Since the past over 100 years, the Indian feature film industry has scripted a dream run with an average of 1,600 full-length films produced annually in different languages, which are watched by audiences globally.

"Documentary films hold a mirror to society. They reflect the reality of life, the joys, happiness and sorrows. They have played a significant role in changing perception of India in the eyes of the world," Rao said at the valedictory function of the Mumbai International Film Festival (MIFF-2018).

He conferred the prestigious 'V. Shantaram Award for Lifetime Achievement', instituted by MIFF, on renowned film-maker Shyam Benegal and paid rich tributes to his contributions to the Indian film industry.

Lauding MIFF for giving a fresh impetus to the documentary film movement in India, he said documentaries serve as "an index of the liberty, freedom of expression and democracy", and hence we must protect and preserve this (movement) at all costs.

He described MIFF as "a democratic, secular and independent platform that offers liberty and freedom to filmmakers to explore, experiment and share their ideas with the audiences" since the past 28 years.

In the current era of digital and social media, documentary making techniques have been revolutionized, the common man has been empowered with technology to make and circulate a film, which can be made on a very small budget, though good story-telling still remains at the core of documentary films, he pointed out.

As the youngest nation in the world, with the average age of an Indian at 29 years, the country needs a young generation of filmmakers, gifted with the spirit of adventure and the art of story-telling, and more women who can represent, discuss and highlight issues of the Indian women in a proper perspective.

"Though India is rapidly urbanising, more than half the population still lives in villages... We want filmmakers coming from rural areas, towns and villages from various socio-economic strata to make films, in every language or dialect, to bring out the real India, its beauty, diversity, paradoxes, peculiarities and daily struggle for existence," Rao said.

Present on the occasion were Culture Minister Vinod Tawde, Director of Films Division Manish Desai, former sheriff of Mumbai Kiran Shantaram, members of the diplomatic corps stationed in Mumbai, filmmakers from around the world and other invitees.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)With a war cry hailing Maratha ruler Shivaji Maharaj, and drawing inspiration from the king's army known in history for its guerrilla warfare, the Maratha Light Infantry, which completes 250 years in 2018, is the only regiment of the Indian Army from which two units of Special Forces have been drawn.

Celebrating its Regimental Day on February 4, the Maratha Light Infantry is among the oldest of the Indian Army and classified as "light infantry", where soldiers operate with minimal equipment and orders so as to engage the enemy faster and more quietly.

With its war cry "Bol Shri Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Ki Jai (Say Victory To King Shivaji)", the soldiers on Maratha Light Infantry are also known for their quick march speed of 140 steps in a minute, while a standard pace for a quick march is 120 beats per minute with a 30-inch step.

Lt Gen P.J.S. Pannu, who is the Colonel of the Regiment, called Shivaji Maharaj an "icon", and highlighted that the soldiers still draw inspirations from the visionary warrior king.

"Shivaji Maharaj is our icon, we draw inspiration from the guerilla warfare of the Maratha soldiers of his army, and the Maratha Light Infantry is known for its soldiers being quick footed, with special ability to fight at night, and attacking from an unexpected direction," Pannu said.

Lt Gen Pannu recounted the story of Shivaji's victory of the Singhgadh fort, fought by his General Tanaji Malusare, in which the soldiers used monitor lizards called "ghorpad" to climb the impregnable fort's walls and launch a surprise attack which led to their victory.

"The soldiers of our regiment can climb any wall, or steep climb," he said.

The Maratha Light Infantry is the only regiment in the Army from which two Special Forces units have been drawn -- the 2nd and 21st Battalions of Parachute Regiment.

The regiment has 56 battle honours to its credit -- 14 predating the WWI and spanning wars in Afghanistan, China, Burma and British East Africa.

The honours given to the regiment include two Victoria Crosses, four Ashoka Chakras, 10 Param Vishisht Seva Medals, four Maha Vir Chakras, four Kirti Chakras, along with several other awards, and also has to its credit 10 theatre honours, four pre-Independence and six after Independence.

Marking its 250th year, the Maratha Light infantry has lined up a series of events through the year, which will include celebrations at Naval ship INS Mumbai, which is affiliated to the regiment, and with the No. 20 Squadron of Indian Air Force, a Sukhoi squadron based near Pune, which is also affiliated to the regiment.

The most decorated serving officer of the Indian Army, Colonel Saurabh Singh Shekhawat also belongs to this regiment.

A member of the 21st battalion of the Parachute Regiment (Special Forces), Col Shekhawat has been awarded the Kirti Chakra, Shaurya Chakra, Sena Medal and Vishisht Seva Medal for his various acts of gallantry displayed in anti-terrorist operations, mountaineering and distinguished service. He has scaled 18 peaks and climbed the Mt. Everest thrice.

Lt Gen Asit Mistry, the General Officer Commanding Delhi Area, who was the Parade Commander at the Republic Day Parade this year, also belongs to this regiment.

Lt Gen Pannu also said that at the Maratha Light Infantry, the command of "attention" does not exist, as the soldier is always supposed to be in attention.

The 250-year-old regiment had its first battalion, known as Jungi Paltan, raised in August 1768 as the 2nd Battalion Bombay Sepoys.

During the peninsular war of the British against the Napoleonic Armies in the 18th Century, special lightly armed troops known for their courage were used for swiftly encircling the enemy, leading to them being called a Light Infantry.

In the second half of the 19th Century, the battalion fought various wars from West Asia to China, and in the WWI, the soldiers participated in the Mesopotamian campaign.

WWII saw it fight in almost every theatre, from the jungles of South East Asia to the deserts of North Africa.

Since Independence, Maratha Light Infantry has participated in every armed conflict including the operations in Jammu and Kashmir in 1947-48, liberation of Hyderabad, Goa, Daman and Diu, India-China war of 1962, conflicts with Pakistan in 1965 and 1971.

The soldiers of this regiment are also part of UN peacekeeping operations.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Treading lightly on Tanna We go on a new ecotourism adventure tour in North TannaThe Congress on Saturday accused the Modi government of lacking the determination to properly implement rural employment guarantee scheme.

Congress Communications Incharge Randeep Singh Surjewala told reporters here that rural wages were going down for the last four years and allocations have been delayed.

"The Modi government, under a conspiracy, wants to end the MGNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Gurantee Act) scheme which guarantees 100 days of unskilled manual work to all rural households in India."

He claimed that the guaranteed 100 days of employment had been effectively reduced to 35 days.

"Work cannot be done only on the basis of allocation. For getting the work done, will is required. The Modi government has failed on both the fronts," he said.

On the proposed Rashtra Raksha Yagya in Delhi, Surjewala said that instead of taking any concrete steps on national security, "Modiji is taking help of yagna".

Hitting out at the Bharatiya Janata Party for a cow protection yagna in Karnataka, he said cows had died in sheds in BJP-ruled states.

"The BJP takes one stand in Meghalaya while it takes another stand in north India. The BJP's leadership in Karnataka is tainted. They now want to take help of such rituals to save themselves from the people's anger," Surjewala said.

--IANS

aks/ps/him/vm

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A 23-foot-wide replica of the Moon -- which is half million times smaller than the real celestial body -- was unveiled at Gateway of India for public viewing to mark 70 years of the British Council in India, here on Saturday evening.

The replica, using imagery from NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera and created with the UK Space Agency, is currently on a tour of India, with a two-day stopover in Mumbai, Saturday and Sunday.

The Museum of the Moon, as its known, has been created by British artist Luke Jerram and is a miniature replica - one cm represents five km of the lunar surface.

It is intended to give audiences a feel of earth's only satellite, where man first landed successfully on July 20, 1969, and the Museum of the Moon comes a year before the golden jubilee of the historic moon landing accomplished by astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin.

Alongside is a unique visual spectacle with music by acclaimed British composer Dan Jones, coinciding with the recent Super Blood Blue Moon and Lunar Eclipse in over 150 years.

"For eons, the moon has impacted society and culture, its been worshipped as a deity, used as a timekeeper, inspired artists, poets, scientists, writers and musicians worldwide," said Jerram.

He said before gas lamps and electricity, the moon was the only source of light at night, plus it was used for navigation, but living in cities now illuminated heavily by electricity, "we have become disconnected to the moon."

"I hope this project restores a sense of wonder, inspires questions and reconnects people with the night sky," Jerram said of the project supported by the Maharashtra Government.

The Museum of the Moon will also be feature space-themed lectures on topics like: Women in Space, Life Beyond Earth: Prospects and Possibilities, Going Back to the Moon and Landing on a Comet, with participation of top British scientists including Prof. Monica Gardy, Professor of Planetary and Space Science, Open University.

Arriving in Mumbai from Bangalore, the Museum of the Moon will move to New Delhi and Kolkata audiences, said a spokesperson for British Council here.

--IANS

qn/ahm/vm

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Shree Rajput Karni Sena chief Lokendra Singh Kalvi on Saturday dismissed reports that his outfit has withdrawn protests against Sanjay Leela Bhansali's "Padmaavat" and said it must be some "fake news" circulated by a "fake Karni Sena".

He also said that his group has made the BJP pay - via its loss in the Rajasthan bypolls - for not respecting the sentiments of the protesting Rajputs.

"There are many fake Karni Senas emerging in India. At present there are eight such entities operating in the country with vested interests," Kalvi told IANS.

The Rajput leader, whose group has been at the forefront of massive protests against "Padmaavat", said there has been a "duplicacy" in matters pertaining to Karni Sena's functioning.

He stressed that there was "only one Rajput Karni Sena operating in India and I proudly say that I am the founder of that organisation".

He also asked people to "beware of such similarly named organisations functioning and operating in the market".

The Shree Rajput Karni Sena has been protesting the Deepika Padukone starrer since its inception, claiming the film distorts history.

"We started the initial protests against the release of the film, which we still continue to do," he said.

"However, the other duplicate Karni Senas are creating a dubious situation by releasing contradictory and fake news," Kalvi added.

Speaking on the Bharatiya Janata Party's loss in the Rajasthan bypolls, the Rajput leader said: "Around 17 organisations have joined hands and declared that they will make sure that BJP loses elections on each and every seat."

"And we proved what we said. Congress won with a big margin while BJP was a loser on its home turf."

"Jauhar ki jwala mein bahut kuchh jalega. Aur bhi bahut ghatnayen hongi (The fire of Jauhar will burn down many things, there is more to come). 'Padmaavat' will decide many things in future."

Kalvi said: "We want the government to understand via political loss how it has hurt the sentiments of people here."

"We have hit hard on notes as well as votes. Bhansali was expected to get Rs 500 crore return, however, we scuttled his dreams and cut the profit margin to Rs 150 crore.

"Similarly, the vote share of the BJP was reduced," he added.

"I have met 21 Chief Ministers and am looking forward to meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi soon. I have got the call from PMO asking about my schedule and have given them my schedule.

"Will see when can I meet him and apprise him on the present situation," Kalvi added.

The Rajput leader strongly denied having any political aspirations.

"None of us have any dream of floating a political party," he said.

The Rajput Karni Sena on Friday had announced that it had decided to end the protests against Bhansali's "Padmaavat" stating that the film "glorifies the valour of the Rajputs".

Shree Rashtriya Rajput Karni Sena's Mumbai leader, Yogendra Singh Kartar said that a few members of the outfit watched the film on the directions of the organisation's national President Sukhdev Singh Gogamadi and found that the "film glorifies" the valour and sacrifice of Rajputs, and "every Rajput would feel proud" after watching it.

(Archana Sharma can be reached at arachana.g@gmail.com)

--IANS

arc/in/rn

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)North Korea earned $200 million last year by exporting banned commodities in breach of international sanctions, according to a UN report.

The report by a panel of experts said many countries including China, Russia and Malaysia had failed to stop the illegal exports, the BBC reported.

Pyongyang is subject to sanctions from the US, UN and EU over its nuclear and ballistic missile programmes.

But the report, which was submitted to the UN Security Council, said the North "continued to export almost all the commodities prohibited in the resolutions... between January and September 2017".

It said shipments of coal had been delivered to China, Malaysia, South Korea, Russia and Vietnam in breach of sanctions using "a combination of multiple evasion techniques, routes and deceptive tactics".

China has consistently denied breaching sanctions.

Investigators highlighted that North Korea "is already flouting the most recent resolutions by exploiting global oil supply chains, complicit foreign nationals, offshore company registries and the international banking system", the document stated.

Monitors also suggested that Pyongyang supplied weapons to Syria and Myanmar.

"Myanmar and Syria continued to co-operate with North Korea's main arms exporter, Komid, despite it being on a UN sanctions blacklist," the report said.

It said "there was proof that Pyongyang was helping Syria to develop chemical weapons and providing ballistic missiles to Myanmar".

However, Syrian officials told the monitors that the only North Korean experts on its territory were involved in sports.

Myanmar's Ambassador to the UN said the country had no arms relationship with North Korea.

--IANS

soni/vm

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)North Korea has slammed some South Korean conservative media and politicians for calling an upcoming military parade here as "provocation".

The official daily Rodong Sinmun on Saturday published a signed article on the military parade to be held on February 8 in Pyongyang, on the eve of the opening of the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics in South Korea, Xinhua news agency reported.

The article said that the event will mark the 70th anniversary of the founding of the Korean People's Army (KPA), and accused some South Korean conservative media and politicians of twisting facts and making irresponsible comments on their neighbour's important event.

"It is a unique idea of the Korean army and people to celebrate the founding date of the KPA and no one has the right to make irresponsible comments on it," it said.

North Korea used to celebrate the military founding day on April 25, which marked the founding of a guerrilla troop by Kim Il Sung in 1930s to fight the Japanese occupiers.

Less than two weeks ago, the nation declared that February 8 will be marked as the founding anniversary of the KPA and the "Army-Building Day," as North Korea's Founding President Kim Il Sung established the regular revolutionary armed forces on February 8, 1948.

In this regard, April 25 will be marked as the founding anniversary of the Korean People's Revolutionary Army.

North Korea and South Korea have agreed to cooperate in the upcoming Pyeongchang Winter Olympics to be held during February 9-25 in South Korea, which could bring about a detente on the Korean Peninsula.

--IANS

pgh/

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)While NASA continues to learn about the state of its newly rediscovered IMAGE mission, the US space agency has said that the spacecraft proved to be a "discovery" machine and during nearly six years in operation, it provided robust research about the space around Earth.

The data collected during its years of operation led to some 40 new discoveries about Earth's magnetosphere and plasmasphere, NASA said on Friday.

"IMAGE was a discovery machine and a seminal mission that gave us a broader perspective on Earth's and its ever-changing magnetosphere," said Jim Green, Director of Planetary Science at NASA Headquarters in Washington, who worked as a co-investigator and Deputy Project Scientist for IMAGE.

On January 20, 2018, amateur astronomer Scott Tilley detected an unexpected signal coming from what he later postulated was NASA's long-lost IMAGE satellite, which had not been in contact since 2005.

On January 30, NASA confirmed that the signal was indeed from the IMAGE spacecraft.

NASA launched the Imager for Magnetopause-to-Aurora Global Exploration, or IMAGE, mission, on March 25, 2000.

It was the first mission to use neutral atom, photon and radio imaging techniques to produce large-scale, simultaneous measurements of the charged particles that exist in near-Earth space -- namely in our magnetosphere, the magnetic fields that surround our planet, and its inner bubble of cold material called the plasmasphere.

Originally designed as a two-year mission, IMAGE was approved twice to continue its operations.

But when the spacecraft unexpectedly failed to make contact on a routine pass on December18, 2005, its promising tenure seemed to be cut short.

Investigations into possible causes of failure suggested that the transmitter controller power source was tripped, possibly by an incoming high-energy cosmic ray or radiation belt particle.

It was hypothesised that passing through a dramatic change in energy -- such as what happens when a spacecraft experiences total darkness during an eclipse -- could potentially reset the spacecraft.

But after a 2007 eclipse failed to induce a reboot, the mission was declared over.

Before that, however, IMAGE was a powerhouse, NASA said.

Many of the discoveries that it had made had their basis in energetic neutral atom, or ENA, imaging, a novel technique pioneered by IMAGE to render the invisible visible.

In combination with ENA instruments, IMAGE also used ultraviolet and radio imaging techniques that together led to many of IMAGE's most notable accomplishments.

Among them is the confirmation of the plasmaspheric plume, a region of plasma particles that flow backwards toward the Sun on Earth's dayside.

Such a backflow had been predicted by models, but never directly observed by spacecraft, NASA said.

--IANS

gb/vm

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The signs which were available about the decline in the influence of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Gujarat's rural areas during the state assembly elections have been substantiated by the drubbing, which the BJP has received at the Congress's hands in the byelections in Rajasthan, where the saffron party is in power.

Earlier, the Congress had shown that it might well be on the comeback trail by its success in the Chitrakoot assembly byelection in another BJP-ruled state, Madhya Pradesh. In all these byelections, it was not so much the Congress's victory which was noteworthy as the impressive margins of its success.

Although it is too early to say whether these election trends point to an ebbing of the saffron tide after the overwhelming nature of the wave in 2014 and again in Uttar Pradesh last year, there is little doubt that the BJP has reasons to be concerned.

In fact, the emphasis placed on the rural areas in the latest budget is an indication that the party has taken its setbacks in the Gujarat countryside seriously and is trying to make amends by reaching out to the vulnerable sections.

The proposed health insurance cover for 500 million, 40 per cent of the population, is not unlike the previous government's food security programme for 67 per cent of the people.

More than what happened in Gujarat, where at least the urbanites stood behind the BJP, what the Rajasthan outcome has shown is that all the sections have voted against the ruling party.

The widespread nature of the discontent underlines a deep and extensive popular unhappiness with governance although a minister has sought to explain the party's defeats by referring to the grievances of the Rajputs over the "Padmaavat" film.

But that can only be one of the reasons. What must have also undermined the BJP's prospects is the violence unleashed by either cow vigilantes or individuals railing against the minorities.

While the lawlessness of the gau rakshaks was exemplified by the lynching of a Muslim cattle trader although he was carrying the required permits for his trade, the psychopathic wrath of anti-Muslim elements was evident in the killing of a migrant labourer from West Bengal.

Both these heinous crimes were filmed and repeatedly shown on television, but while the murderers of the cattle trader, Pehlu Khan, have gone scot-free because of the inability of the police to provide credible evidence although the lynching took place in broad daylight in front of cameras, at least the killer of Afrazul Khan, the migrant labourer, has been arrested.

While any other government would have expressed deep shock and dismay over the horrific incidents, the Vasundhara Raje government in Rajasthan has largely remained unperturbed, a trait of indifference to near-anarchic conditions demonstrated by several other BJP-led governments as well such as in Haryana.

What cannot but be worrying for the Narendra Modi-Amit Shah duo is that the virtually unchecked violence of saffron groups like the gau rakshaks or the opponents of love jihad is beginning to take its toll on the BJP's electoral fortunes, notwithstanding all the talk about "Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas" or development for all.

The popular disquiet about the rampaging mobs might have been assuaged if prompt and effective police action was taken and the criminals were put behind bars. But if the absence of such deterrent steps is proving costly for the BJP, the reason is that it is not only the Muslims -- or the Christians who have also been targeted by Hindutva outfits in Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh -- who are feeling insecure, as then Vice President Hamid Ansari pointed out, but the ordinary citizens are also distressed by the prevailing intolerance and intimidation.

Moreover, this atmosphere has been building up virtually from the time the BJP assumed power at the Centre and in several states as was highlighted by the return of awards by a number of luminaries in the last two years in protest against the deteriorating situation. A recent open letter written by retired bureaucrats also referred to the "deeply disquieting trends" in the public sphere.

It is obvious that unless the governments at the Centre and in the states run by the BJP deal firmly with such rowdy elements, the party's hope of a repeat run of the last general election in 2019 and even improving on its tally, as Amit Shah hopes, will not be fulfilled.

As is not uncommon in India, it is the failure of governments which usually leads to their fall rather than any efforts of the opposition. This tendency is again evident in Rajasthan where the Congress had just to wait in the wings to reap the electoral benefits of its opponent's missteps.

After the humiliating setback in 2014, the Congress is showing signs of revival. But it will be making a mistake if it hopes to make electoral gains solely on the basis of the BJP's inability or unwillingness to control its militant followers.Actor Gerard Butler has praised his "Den of Thieves" co-star Pablo Schreiber, saying he is talented.

The movie, brought to India by PVR Pictures, revolves around two rival groups -- The Outlaws (Schreiber's character Ray Merriman's team) and The Regulators (Butler's team).

"If I had two words to describe Pablo's character (Merriman), it is that he is intelligent and ferocious. A lot of his ferocity is hidden inside him and I love his quietness from outside and that's who Pablo is. He brings in huge amount of dedication, you have to see how hard he works," Butler said in a statement.

He added: "It's hard to look big when you are 6 ft 4 inch. I am 6ft 2 inch and it's hard enough for me to look big, but I know it's even harder for him. He's like a monster in the training that he's put in. He's worked so hard and he looks so professional that he's just like this all-rounded bada**. He's a very talented actor and brings in a 1000 per cent, which is what we needed for this role."

Set in Los Angeles, Christian Gudegast-director "Den of Thieves" follows the intersecting and connected lives of an elite unit of the LA County Sheriff's department and the state's most successful bank robbery crew. It released in India on Friday.

Talking about the script, Butler said: "When I read the story, what I really liked about is that I had never seen anything like it before. It takes you into the world which is gritty, real but has so much heart as well. On one hand it is very complex heist which is fascinating to get involved with, but you also follow these characters, their families and the hardships that they go through and how living this kind of lives play on them and also how human they really are.

"End of the day, they are still trying to have families and trying to live a regular life in some way. And that part of the story is so efficiently told that it has a surprising amount of heart and emotion. And then, you go through the whole emotion that the world that you going through is not necessarily the world you are in. There are twists and turns in a way that I have never seen a script like that with so many surprises."

--IANS

sug/rb

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A Russian pilot has been killed after his plane was shot down by militants in Syrian province of Idlib, the Russian Defence Ministry has said.

"A Russian Su-25 aircraft crashed during a flight over the Idlib de-escalation area," the ministry said in the statement on Saturday, Xinhua news agency reported.

"The pilot died in a fight with the terrorists," the statement said, adding that preliminary information showed that the plane was downed by use of a man-portable anti-aircraft missile system.

"The Russian center for reconciliation of opposing sides in Syria and the Turkish side overseeing the Idlib de-escalation area are working to bring the Russian pilot's body home," it said.

The pilot had reported earlier that he ejected by parachute in the area, controlled by Nusra Front militants.

--IANS

pgh/

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) leader Sitaram Yechury on Saturday called the BJP's demand for simultaneous elections a "ploy" to fight the "anti-incumbency" against the "Modi mascot".

"This is a ploy by the BJP.... By clubbing the state elections with Lok Sabha elections they think that the Modi mascot can beat the anti-incumbency," the CPI-M General Secretary told media here.

Yechury said as long as there is a provision for imposition of President's rule in the state (under Article 356), by suspending its government, simultaneous elections cannot happen.

"This in our constitutional order is not possible... Simultaneous elections were the order of the day when the elections began in independent India in 1952... We had simultaneous elections in 1952 and 1957. Now why did that break? Because first the communist government of Kerala was dismissed invoking or misusing of Article 356.

"So, if you have a provision of dismissing an elected government and that provision is exercised... As long as Article 356 exists simultaneous polls cannot happen. Government is silent on what they would do with that," he said.

The former Rajya Sabha member also cited the situation of a government being reduced to minority status in the House after losing support of its partners, making re-election necessary, as another factor which contributes to the impracticality of concurrent elections.

"This (simultaneous polls) is patently anti-democratic," he said.

--IANS

vn/rn

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Exhorting students who are set to appear for their board and secondary school examinations this year, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Saturday suggested that they should not compete with others but with themselves and they need to learn from their mistakes.

Sushma Swaraj was speaking here on the occasion of launch of a book "Exam Warriors" written by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

"The book is most relevant one in this exam season as it aims to instill confidence in the students and prepare them to face the difficult moments during examinations and life," she said addressing a gathering.

She also described in detail the 25 'mantras' for students given by the Prime Minister in his book and urged them to read the book. The book is available on the 'Narendra Modi App' and students can communicate with the Prime Minister through it.

Describing Modi as an extremely good communicator, she said: "If students learn from their past and enjoy the present then they would be able to get a bright future."

The book is a compilation of Prime Minister's address to students focused on busting stress during exams in his monthly radio programme "Mann ki Baat".

"The students should compete with themselves and there is no need to compete with others. They should also use technology during preparation of examinations," she said, suggesting that students should play games and practice yoga to overcome stress.

During her interaction with students Sushma Swaraj mistakenly said "March me Chunav ka mausam hota hain (March is the time for elections)" and repeated the word "election" at least three times in place of "examination" - prompting the gathering to burst out in laughter.

However, she corrected it after realising the mistake, saying "We are leaders and election comes to our mind often."

Human Resources Development Minister Prakash Javadekar, who was also present on the occasion, said: "This book will help the students in beating the stress. It is for everyone. Not only for students but also for their parents."

He said that the book fits the Prime Minister's call of "Sabka Sath Sabka Vikas".

Urging parents not to put pressure on their children during exams, Javadekar said that the Prime Minister will interact with the students on February 16 before the start of examination session.

--IANS

bns/rn

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Senior Democrats have warned President Donald Trump not to use a controversial memo as a "pretext" to fire the special counsel probing alleged Russian involvement in the 2016 US election.

Democrats said the memo's release was a "shameful effort to discredit" the FBI and inquiries into Russian meddling.

They warned that such action could trigger a "constitutional crisis not seen since the Nixon era", the BBC reported.

The memo, written by Republicans, accused the FBI of abusing its powers.

Trump approved the declassification of the memo on Friday and said it "revealed a disgraceful story".

The memo focused on the court-approved wiretapping of Carter Page, a foreign policy adviser to the Trump campaign who was put under electronic surveillance by the FBI.

The memo accused the FBI and the Justice Department of using "unsubstantiated evidence" to obtain the October 2016 warrant.

It said that they did not tell the authorities their claim to the warrant was partially based on a dossier funded in part by the rival campaign of Hillary Clinton, the BBC report said.

It also said that the author of that dossier, a former British intelligence agent called Christopher Steele, told a senior Justice Department official that he was "desperate that Trump not win".

Democrats said the release of the memo was aimed at disrupting the probe into alleged links between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin.

Trump, who has consistently denied any such collusion, had in May 2017 even fired former Federal Bureau of Investigation Director James Comey over the probe.

Comey on Friday tweeted that the memo was "dishonest and misleading". The FBI said key facts had been omitted in the memo.

In a statement, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, House Minority Nancy Pelosi and eight other senior Democrats warned Trump against trying to sack special counsel Robert Mueller or Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.

"We write to inform you that we would consider such an unwarranted action as an attempt to obstruct justice in the Russia investigation," the statement said.

They said such action could result in a constitutional crisis not seen since the 1970s when then President Richard Nixon gave orders to fire justice officials involved in the Watergate scandal.

The White House later said "no changes" would be made at the Department of Justice and Rosenstein was fully expected to continue in his job.

Asked about the contents of the memo, Trump said a lot of people should be "ashamed of themselves".

Although Devin Nunes, who commissioned the memo, said it showed "serious violations" of public trust, not all Republicans supported the release of the memo.

Instead, Senator John McCain accused his party colleagues, and Trump, of playing into the hands of Russian President Vladimir Putin, The BBC reported.

"Our nation's elected officials, including the President, must stop looking at this investigation through the warped lens of and manufacturing partisan sideshows," he said in a statement.

"If we continue to undermine our own rule of law, we are doing Putin's job for him," Mccain said.

--IANS

in/

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)US President Donald Trump's pick to be US Ambassador to Singapore, K.T. McFarland, has withdrawn her ambassadorial nomination after it had stalled in the Senate, a White House official said.

McFarland's nomination had become embroiled in controversy over the Trump campaign's contacts with Russian officials, the New York Times reported.

Some senators doubted her answers when she was asked about her knowledge of the discussions between fired National Security Adviser Michael Flynn and then Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak.

"Unfortunately, some Democrats chose to play rather than move forward with a qualified nominee for a critically important post," Trump said in a statement.

The Senate eventually sent her nomination back to the White House at the end of 2017 and the White House decided to re-nominate the former deputy National Security Adviser in January despite warnings from Democrats that they were unlikely to support her.

McFarland, who formerly served as a commentator on Fox News, has long been controversial, the Times reported.

When she ran in 2006 for the US Senate seat then held by Hillary Clinton, McFarland was found to have made multiple exaggerations about her resume.

Her opponent in the Republican primary race, John Spencer, routinely pointed out that McFarland had once claimed that helicopters were spying on her at Clinton's request.

--IANS

soni/sac

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Twitter India recorded over 14 lakh budget-related conversations in the past week (January 26 to February 2), with healthcare being the most talked about topic followed by demonetisation, the company said on Friday.

"Conversations on Twitter lit up globally as politicians, well-known personalities and the public took to the platform to express their opinions regarding the Budget. Soon after the Budget speech concluded, the conversations on the platform peaked at February 1, 2.30 p.m. with over 83,000 tweets," Twitter said in a statement.

Together with the Ministry of Finance (@FinMinIndia), Twitter enabled Indians to watch the #Budget2018 speech, follow a talkathon on Union Budget and also participate in the budget discussion through a live Q&A with Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.

Key topics of discussion on Twitter in India included, healthcare, demonetisation, agriculture, personal income tax, infrastructure and Goods and Services Tax (GST).

The micro-blogging platfrom said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi emerged as the most mentioned personality on the platform during the budget conversations.

He was followed by Arun Jaitley, President of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Amit Shah, Senior Congress leader P. Chidambaram and Arvind Subramanian, Chief Economic Adviser.

In January, Twitter garnered 240,000 budget-related tweets which was twice the volume than in December last year.

Twitter also made it easy for people who preferred a more data-friendly way to access the #Budget2018 conversation by bringing the discussions on Twitter Lite (mobile.twitter.com).

--IANS

sku/navm

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Two college students were killed when a bus hit them after ignoring a traffic signal here on Saturday, leading to clashes between locals and police.

The accident occurred at the Chingrighata crossing on the Eastern Metropolitan Bypass around 11.45 am and the accused driver was arrested, a police officer said.

After the accident, angry locals pelted police with stones and torched four buses, accusing police personnel of not controlling the traffic well and instead demanding money from several vehicles.

Stones were hurled at police vehicles and a fire tender that was sent there to put out the fire.

Police lobbed teargas shells and baton-charged the mob to disperse them.

"We have been talking to local people and area domination operation has been carried out," the police officer said.

The road connecting IT sector of Salt Lake with the city and a part of EM Bypass was also closed for traffic movement for hours.

--IANS

bdc/him/vm

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Jamaat-e-Islami Hind (JIH) on Saturday accused the Uttar Pradesh government of bias against the minority communities after many Muslim youths were arrested in a case of violence in the BJP-ruled state's Kasganj in which one person was killed.

JIH Secretary General Muhammad Salim Engineer demanded a judicial probe into the incident, saying the Uttar Pradesh Police had let off "the real culprit".

"The law enforcement agencies in Kasganj are having a very biased attitude against the minorities which is reflected in the substantially high number of arrest of youths from the Muslim community," he told reporters here.

"The CrPC (Code of Criminal Procedure) sections invoked against the arrested Muslim youths on charges of inciting and committing violence in Kasganj are also very strict while the real culprits have been let off or charged under very mild CrPC sections so that they can be bailed out easily."

The JIH also questioned the Yogi Adityanath government for allowing a 'Tiranga rally' on January 26 -- which led to the violence -- saying it was clear that the people behind the rally had communal agenda "to vitiate the peaceful atmosphere of the city and create communal strife".

A delegation led by JIH visited Kasganj recently to assess the situation and get first-hand information from those affected by the violence and arson, he added.

--IANS

spk/him/vm

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The US Air Force Chief, General David L. Goldfein, flew a sortie in the indigenous Light Combat Aircraft Tejas on Saturday at the IAF station here in Rajasthan.

He was accompanied on the 40-minute-long sortie by Air Vice Marshal A.P. Singh.

Gen. Goldfein, along with General Terrence O'Shaughnessy, Commander of the US Pacific Air Force, arrived in India on Thursday, on a visit to boost defence ties between the two nations.

He was accorded a Guard of Honour at the South Block on Thursday. He also met his counterpart, Air Chief Marshal B.S. Dhanoa, and held bilateral discussions.

The US Air Force chief is the first foreign military chief to fly in the indigenous LCA, a single-seat, single-jet engine, multi-role light fighter, which is being pitched as the replacement of the ageing MIG-21 aircraft.

Gen. Goldfein tweeted that he looked forward to "deepening the relationship between our two air forces".

Indigenously developed by the Aeronautical Development Agency, and produced by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, Tejas, a fourth generation aircraft, can fly at 1,350 km per hour, with a payload capacity of 4,000 kg.

In November 2017, Singapore Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen flew in a Tejas jet.

--IANS

ao/in/vm

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has met his Mexican counterpart, Luis Videgaray and they agreed to continue cooperation on bilateral security.

During a brief visit to Mexico in a five-country tour of the region, Tillerson discussed regional topics with Videgaray, including development in Central America.

"Foreign Minister Videgaray reiterated the shared commitment which Mexico and the US have to promote a prosperous and competition region," said the Mexican foreign ministry in a statement on Friday, Xinhua news agency reported.

The US and Mexican officials agreed to continue bilateral dialogue, while strengthening cooperation mechanisms for security, immigration and competitiveness.

Despite being by far Mexico's main trading partner, the US has insisted that the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which both countries are in with Canada, should be renegotiated.

Between January and November 2017, bilateral trade between the US and Mexico was greater than $470 billion, according to official figures.

Tillerson will leave Mexico on Friday afternoon to continue a tour to Argentina, Peru, Colombia and Jamaica, where he will complete his trip on February 7.

--IANS

pgh/

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Jonas Cullwick, a former General Manager of VBTC is now a Senior Journalist with the Daily Post. Contact: jonas@dailypost.vu. Cell # 678 5460922A gangster was killed and nearly two dozen criminals were arrested by police in 15 encounters in different districts of Uttar Pradesh during the past two days, a police spokesperson said here today.

The encounters took place in Bulandshahr, Shamli, Kanpur, Saharanpur, Lucknow, Baghpat, Muzaffarnagar, Gorkahpur, Hapur and Meerut.

"As many as 24 wanted criminals were arrested and one gangster killed in 15 police encounters reported from 10 districts of the state over a span of 48 hours," the spokesperson said.

Gangster Inderpal, who carried a reward of Rs 25,000, was gunned down by the Special Task Force in the encounter in Naglakhepad jungle yesterday.

According Superintendent of Police (STF) Rajiv Narain Singh, Inderpal was wanted in more than 30 cases of loot and murder in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand.

The police also claimed to have recovered countrymade arms, ammunition, motorcycle, cars apart from cash which was robbed by the criminals.

The maximum number of encounters was reported from Bulandshahr and Shamli, where four and six criminals were arrested respectively.

Three of those arrested in Bulandshahr carried a cash reward for Rs 20,000 each on their head. Two encounters took place in Kanpur.

Yesterday, two suspected criminals and as many policemen, including a station house officer, were injured in an encounter in Gorakhpur.

The incident took place when Maneesh Yadav and Manoj Yadav were escaping after threatening a village head, police said.

Police said that a team was rushed to the spot after receiving a complaint from the victim.

In the encounter, Station House Officer, Khorabar, Sudhir Kumar, and Sub-Inspector, Jhangha, Sunil Kumar Singh suffered minor injuries, they said.

The police have seized a .32 bore pistol, a 12 bore gun, bullets and the motorcycle on which they were escaping.

The criminals were injured in the gunfight. They were subsequently arrested and admitted to BRD Medical College.

Police claimed that they have confessed to their involvement in the murder of businessman Dinesh Gupta of Nai Bazaar, Jhangha, in Gorakhpur on Sunday.

The Uttar Pradesh Police has intensified its crackdown on criminals after the new DGP O P Singh took charge last month.

Chief Minister Yogi Aditynath hnd vowed to take strict action against the criminals after his government faced criticism over a string of crimes in the state.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)At least 42 fishermen from Gujarat were arrested and eight boats were seized by the Pakistan Maritime Security Agency (PMSA) off the Gujarat coast, National Fishworkers' Forum (NFF) claimed today.

"We have confirmed that the PMSA seized eight boats and arrested 42 fishermen, mostly from Porbandar, yesterday," the secretary of the forum, Manish Lodhari, said.

A conformation of the arrests from Pakistani authorities was awaited, he said.

The boats had sailed from Porbandar a few days ago. After their seizure, they were being taken to Pakistan, Lodhari said.

The PMSA had arrested 17 fishermen from Gujarat for allegedly fishing in Pakistan's territorial waters last month.

It had apprehended 43 fishermen and seized seven boats off the Gujarat coast in December 2017.

The PMSA frequently arrests Indian fishermen from near the International Maritime Boundary Line (IMBL).

Pakistan had released 292 Indian fishermen as a goodwill gesture in December-January.

According to Lodhari, the PMSA apprehended around 400 Indian fishermen and seized 65 fishing boats in 2017.

Pakistani fishermen, mostly from the neighbouring Sindh province, are also apprehended by Indian security agencies such as the Border Security Force and Indian Coast Guard for crossing the international maritime border.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Army today paid floral tributes to three jawans who were killed when an avalanche struck their post in Machhil sector of Jammu and Kashmir.

In a solemn ceremony at Badamibagh Cantonment, Lt Gen A K Bhatt, Corps Commander, Chinar Corps and all ranks paid homage to them, an army spokesman said.

He said the three valiant soldiers braved all odds with exemplary commitment and dedication to duty and made the supreme sacrifice in the service of the motherland.

"Late Hav Kamlesh Singh, Nk Balveer and Sep Rajendra were part of a patrol party which was serving in the formidable heights along the Line of Control and got swept away during an avalanche.

"Concerted efforts of Avalanche Rescue Team have led to the recovery of mortal remains of our comrades," he said.

Singh (39) had joined the Army in 1999 and hailed from Mahara Gujarwas village located in Rajasthan's Jhunjhunu district.

He is survived by his wife and three children, the spokesman said.

He said Balveer (31) hailed from Anjari village in Rajasthan's Bharatpur and had donned the uniform in 2003.

Rajendra (24) had joined the Army in 2012 and belonged to Maithna village of Rajasthan's Alwar district. He is survived by his wife, the spokesman said.

He said their mortal remains were flown for last rites to their native places where they would be laid to rest with full military honours.

The spokesperson said the Army stood in solidarity with the bereaved families of and remained committed to their dignity and well being, he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Bangladesh today appointed Syed Mahmud Hossain as the new chief justice, three months after his predecessor and the country's first Hindu chief justice was virtually forced to resign amid "grave" graft allegations.

The president's office said yesterday that Justice Hossain had been appointed as the 22nd chief justice of the country.

President Abdul Hamid administered the oath of office to Hossain, said a senior judge of the apex Appellate Division of the Supreme Court.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina along with her cabinet colleagues and Supreme Court judges witnessed the swearing in ceremony at the presidential palace.

Hossain's appointment prompted acting chief justice Abdul Wahab Mian to immediately tender his resignation on an "unavoidable personal reason", but sources familiar with the situation said he preferred to quit as his seniority was violated.

Mian was appointed as the acting chief justice after the country's first Hindu chief justice Surendra Kumar Sinha resigned in November last year amid graft allegations.

Sinha had developed a visible row with the ruling government over a crucial Supreme Court judgement.

The resignation came a month after Sinha went on leave abroad after the allegations of corruption had surfaced amid his row that sparked in July last year.

Sinha was at the centre stage of the dispute after the apex court delivered a verdict declaring void 16th constitutional amendment, scrapping parliament's authority in impeaching Supreme Court judges.

The dispute grew in the subsequent weeks as several ministers attacked Sinha for blasting the government for its reactions over the verdict and his reference to ousted Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif who was stripped of his premiership by the country's apex court.

Sinha had left Dhaka for Australia on a private tour on October 13, saying he was leaving temporarily in the interest of the judiciary so that its image did not get hurt.

A day after his departure, the Supreme Court issued a statement saying all other apex court judges earlier in October 2017 had decided not to sit in the bench with Sinha over allegations of "grave" graft and moral lapses brought to their notice by President Hamid.

It said the allegations included some "grave" charges like money laundering, financial irregularities, corruption and moral lapses.

In unitary Bangladesh, the Supreme Court has two wings, the High Court Division and the apex Appellate Division.

Born in 1954, Justice Hossain acted as deputy attorney general from December 1999 until he was elevated to the bench.

In February 2011, he was elevated to the Supreme Court's Appellate Division.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

Bharathiar University Vice Chancellor A Ganapathi was today arrested for allegedly accepting Rs 30 lakh as bribe from an aspirant for the post of an assistant professor, the police said.

Ganapathi allegedly demanded a huge sum for the post and finally agreed to take Rs 30 lakh from complainant Suresh, they said.

Acting on the complaint, officials of the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC) laid a trap and gave the man chemically treated notes, to be handed over to the vice chancellor, the police said.

Ganapathy was arrested by the DVAC oficials at his residence after he accepted Rs one lakh in cash and Rs 29 lakh by cheque from Suresh, they said.

A large number of police and revenue personnel were deployed during the operation, they added.

The varsity was established by the Tamil Nadu government in February 1982.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The BJP has decided to forge an alliance with newly floated Nationalist Democratic People's Party (NDPP) led by former chief minister Neiphiu Rio for the February 27 Assembly poll in Nagaland.

The BJP has dumped its 15-year-old alliance partner, the ruling Naga People's Front (NPF).

A decision to this effect was taken in New Delhi yesterday at a meeting between BJP president Amit Shah and Rio in the presence of BJP's Nagaland president Visasolie Lhoungu, the party's state media cell convener, K James Vizo said here today.

He said the NDPP would contest 40 of the 60 seats in the state assembly while the BJP would field candidates in the remain 20 seats.

The BJP is the only party till date to announce that it will contest the election.

Eleven parties including the ruling Naga People's Front on January 29 had decided not to contest the February 27 polls, agreeing to the demand of tribal bodies and civil society groups to resolve the protracted Naga political problem first.

Later, the BJP had announced it would contest the polls.

The state BJP sources here said the party's grassroots workers were against the party forging any pre-poll alliance with anyone.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Congress said today that the move to pursue the Bofors pay-off case was an attempt by the central government to gain "cheap publicity" ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

A day after the CBI filed a petition in the Supreme Court challenging a 2005 order of the Delhi High Court quashing all charges against accused persons in the politically-sensitive case, AICC general secretary Ghulam Nabi Azad told reporters here that it was "nothing but a move to gain cheap publicity".

The Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha alleged that the government had devised a new tactic, under which opposition leaders are "harassed" through various central agencies such as the CBI and the ED, and asserted that they not get bogged down and fight the BJP "with full strength".

"Those who had come to power at that time by linking former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi's name with it (the Bofors case) used to show a chit threatening that it had the names of those involved...but they never revealed it even when they were at the helm. Now Bofors is being talked about again. This is nothing but a move to gain cheap publicity," he said.

The Rs 1,437-crore deal between India and Swedish arms manufacturer AB Bofors for the supply of 400 155mm howitzer guns for the Indian Army was entered into on March 24, 1986, when Rajiv Gandhi was the prime minister.

Swedish Radio on April 16, 1987, had claimed that the company had paid bribes to top Indian politicians and defence personnel.

The CBI on January 22, 1990 had registered the FIR for alleged offences of criminal conspiracy, cheating and forgery under the IPC and other sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act.

Azad said, "The BJP has devised a new tactic for contesting elections, under which opposition leaders are harassed through the CBI, ED and Income Tax so as to get them busy for all of five years...We will, however, not get bogged down...and contest the elections with full strength."



The AICC general secretary, who is also in charge of party affairs in Uttar Pradesh, convened a meeting of party leaders and workers.

On the Kasganj incident, he said such communal flare-ups were not confined to the town and that the BJP had been trying to polarise the society in the name of caste and religion in states governed by it.

"The BJP has come to power on the basis of caste and religion...It is alright if they form government on the basis of their works and policies but not by dividing society...they have got nothing to do with development," Azad said.

To a question, Azad said that almost all major opposition parties attended a meeting convened by former Congress president Sonia Gandhi recently. "We want that all like-minded parties to work together," he added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A Brazilian judge has suspended export of live animals for slaughter, citing concerns that they are transported in cruel conditions.

Exports can only restart when guarantees of adequate treatment are provided, Judge Djalma Moreira Gomes in Sao Paulo wrote in his decision yesterday, published in the local media.

The injunction was in response to a case brought by an animal rights group, National Forum for the Defense and Protection of Animals.

The forum's civil suit cited conditions aboard the ship "Nada," currently docked in Sao Paulo's Porto de Santos with about 27,000 heads of cattle owned by Minerva Foods and bound for Turkey.

A veterinary report found that the animals were held in tiny and unhygenic spaces.

Gomes wrote he was accepting the petition "to prevent the export for slaughter of live animals, from throughout the national territory, until the destination country adopts slaughter practices in line with those of the Brazilian legal system."



Animals currently aboard the "Nada" must be taken off, he said.

"It can only continue its voyage after the complete disembarkation of the live animals."



The same judge had issued an initial court order on Thursday to stop the ship from leaving port.

The animal rights group bringing the case said it had received "huge support" from other activists.

The case "represents an extremely important point in the history of Brazil's protection and defense of animals," said Patrycia Sato, from the Animal Forum, in a statement.

"We hope that the export of live animals will be definitively banned.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was today heckled by protesters during a townhall as he defended his governments decision to support the expansion of a trans-mountain pipeline through British Columbia (BC).

The prime minister was greeted by a chorus of boos amidst cheers by another section of people as he walked into the Vancouver Island University hall at Nanaimo town in British Columbia during the last lap of his cross country tour, according to CBC.

The reports said Trudeau defended his decision to approve the Kinder Morgan pipeline by justifying his ideas about protecting the while ensuring the balanced development of the growing economy.

"We wanted a national carbon reduction plan, a national emissions plan that is going to allow us to reach our climate goals, to reach our Paris [climate accord] commitments," he said.

"But in order to do that, part of moving forward is approving the Kinder Morgan pipeline," Trudeau said. "It is something many people feel very strongly about on either side, but that is the nature of the compromise we had to make in the best interests of Canada.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Tamil Maanila Congress president G K Vasan today asked the Chief Minister K Palaniswami to lead an all party delegation to Delhi for meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi and seek his intervention for releasing Cauvery water to the state by Karnataka.

A delegation of ministers from delta districts, led by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K Palaniswami, has planned to meet Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah over releasing the state's share of Cauvery water to 'save' samba paddy crop.

Without waiting for the response from Siddaramaiah, Palanisamy should lead an all party delegation to meet Modi to find a solution to the water sharing issue, he told reporters here.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Yes. I will do my part to conserve household energy usage, even if I'm uncomfortable in my home.

No. It is too hot to conserve household energy usage.

I already conserve, even before ERCOT requested it.

Maybe, depending on the reason ERCOT provides and whether or not I am home during that time.

Vote

View ResultsThe CBI has moved an application before a Delhi court seeking a direction to allow it to go for further probe into the Rs 64 crore Bofors payoff case, saying the agency had come across fresh material and evidence.

The application was moved before Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Ashu Garg on February 1, a day before the CBI filed a petition challenging the May 31, 2005 order of the Delhi High Court discharging all accused persons in the case.

The agency had also informed the apex court about the filing of the application in the trial court which has posted it for further deliberations on February 17.

"An application under section 173 (8) of the Code has been moved before the trial court which has been directed by the trial court vide order dated February 1 to be taken up for consideration on February 17," the agency had said in its special leave petition (SLP) filed in the Supreme Court.

The probe agency had yesterday moved the Supreme Court challenging the Delhi High Court's 2005 verdict acquitting all accused in the case.

The agency swung into action after the attorney general orally gave it a go ahead to file the appeal in the case in which it cited the October 2017 interview of private detective Michael Hershman, who alleged that the then Rajiv Gandhi-led Congress government had sabotaged his probe.

The Rs 1,437-crore deal between India and Swedish arms manufacturer AB Bofors for the supply of 400 155mm howitzer guns for the Indian Army was entered into on March 24, 1986



Swedish Radio on April 16, 1987, had claimed that the company had paid bribes to top Indian politicians and defence personnel.

The CBI on January 22, 1990 had registered the FIR for alleged offences of criminal conspiracy, cheating and forgery under the IPC and other sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act against Martin Ardbo, the then president of AB Bofors, alleged middleman Win Chadda and the Hinduja brothers.

It had alleged that certain public servants and private persons in India and abroad had entered into a criminal conspiracy between 1982 and 1987 in pursuance of which the offences of bribery, corruption, cheating and forgery were committed



The first charge sheet in the case was filed on October 22, 1999, against Chadda, Ottavio Quattrocchi, the then defence secretary S K Bhatnagar, Ardbo and the Bofors company.

A supplementary charge sheet was filed against the Hinduja brothers -- S P Hinduja, G P Hinduja and P P Hinduja -- on October 9, 2000.

A special CBI court in Delhi on March 4, 2011, had discharged Quattrocchi from the case, saying the country could not afford to spend hard-earned money on his extradition which had already cost Rs 250 crore.

Quattrocchi, who had fled from India on July 29-30, 1993, never appeared before any court in India to face prosecution.

He passed away on July 13, 2013. The other accused persons who died are Bhatnagar, Chadda and Ardbo.

Justice R S Sodhi (since retired) of the Delhi High Court on May 31, 2005, had quashed the CBI case in the Bofors pay- off scam.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A four-day conclave to support young entrepreneurial aspirants will be held here and in Kasargod from February 5.

The conclave, organised by Kerala Startup Mission (KSUM) will bring together investors, venture capital providers, technical experts and policy planners to provide them with a window to showcase ideas and clinch the instant back-up for their realisation.

Google India CEO, Rajan Anandan will be among the technical and industry leaders participating in the event, which lures enterprising startups from across the state, a release from the consultants of KSUM said.

The event will commence with KSUM's 'Ninth Idea Day' on February 5, with more than 100 startups and students pitching ideas before the experts to enlist their support to carry them forward.

Participating startups will present 12 different themes during the event and each selected startup will get a grant of upto Rs 12 lakh, it said.

'Seeding Kerala,' one of the unique investor meets ever held in Kerala, will be on February 6 at UL Cyber park here which enables the talents with ideas to meet Angel Investors, VC Funds sponsors and High Networth Individuals (HNI) to convert their concepts into reality, it added.

Startups can validate their products with investors as well as entrepreneurs and get advice on the product optimisation and product market strategies.

On February 7, the third day of the event, Google Head Rajan Anandan will launch the 'Mobile 10x Hub' incubator at Calicut cyber park in the outskirt of the city, in associationwith Internet and Mobile Association of India to promote Worldclass mobile apps in the country.

On the same day, KSUM will hold a 'Mega Demand Day' with the government departments, showcasing theirrequirements for the start-ups to build the solutions.

"Future Spark," an initiative of KSUM will be launched onthe concluding day in Kasargod, which will be an unique platform for school students to ideate, innovate, build and learn on future technologies.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Congress in Meghalaya today dared the National People's Party (NPP), an ally of the BJP at the Centre and in Manipur, to leave the NDA coalition to prove that they were not its proxy party.

The ruling Meghalaya Congress also alleged that the saffron party invited NPP leaders from Jaintia hills and Garo hills to Guwahati and jointly got into an exercise on how and where to field candidates.

The BJP and NPP are contesting February 27 poll for 60- member Meghalaya Assembly separately. The counting of votes will take place on March 3.

"If they say that the NPP is not with the BJP then why don't they leave the NDA, then only people will believe them," AICC media-coordinator Bobeeta Sharma told reporters here.

Otherwise no matter how hard the NPP tries to explain their position, their actions will still show that the party is with the BJP, she said.

She said, "They just want to give the impression that they are not in favour of Modi."



State Cabinet Minister Ronnie V Lyngdoh said the party's claim on the BJP-NPP nexus was substantiated when Tura MP Conrad K Sangma's praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his speech in Parliament.

Lyngdoh alleged that the BJP invited NPP leaders from Jaintia hills and Garo hills to Guwahati and jointly got into an exercise to field candidates.

Predicting that the NPP would get only "single digit" seats in the coming state assembly polls, the minister said, "the People here will reject any party which has anything to do with a communal party."



He also cited how the BJP shifted its candidate Banteilang Rumnong from Sohra to Pynursla to aide the NPP candidate, also a former Congress leader P Tynsong.

The NPP is in alliance with BJP at the Centre, in Manipur and Rajasthan and is part of the BJP-led North East Democratic Alliance.

"It goes to prove beyond any doubt that NPP is working together with the party leading the alliance which is none other than the BJP. To say that they are not together is all hog wash," the Meghalaya Congress leader said.

On NPP projection of Bihar Chief Minister and JD(U) President Nitish Kumar as the leader to unseat PM Narendra Modi and not Rahul Gandhi, the Congress media coordinator said the statement of NPP state president Wanwei Roy Kharlukhi was overboard.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)State minister H D R Lyngdoh and 24 others filed their nomination papers today for the February 27 Meghalaya Assembly polls, Chief Electoral Officer for the state F R Kharkongor said.

Those who filed nominations included Independent MLA Julias K Dorphang, who has been in jail since January 7 last year for the alleged rape and molestation of a minor girl.

Lyngdoh and his former cabinet colleague Prestone Tynsong, who quit the Congress to join the National People's Party (NPP), filed their nominations for re-election from the Sohiong and Pynursla constituencies respectively, Kharkongor told PTI.

Other MLAs who filed nominations were Nihim D Shira (NPP), Brolding Nongsiej (UDP), Remington Pyngrope (NPP) and former MLAs H S Shylla (NPP), Donkupar Massar (NPP), Marcuise N Marak (NPP) and Sayeedullah Nongrum (Ind), he added.

According to the official, the sitting members of the tribal autonomous district councils who filed their nominations today included Khun Hynniewtrep National Awakening Movement working president Adelbert Nongrum, Pyniaidsing Syiem (NPP) and Moonlight Pariat (UDP).

Meanwhile, Congress president Rahul Gandhi paid a visit today to the party's Meghalaya unit adviser and former chief minister D D Lapang, who has been unwell for a while, party officials said.

He visited the veteran leader at the Meghalaya House in the national capital to enquire about his health, they added.

"Rahul Gandhi spent some time with him and wished him a speedy recovery," the party said in a statement.

Lapang preceded chief minister Mukul Sangma and was heading the party in the north-eastern state till last December.

According to a Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) statement, the party has released the names of three candidates -- John Leslee K Sangma, who resigned as an Independent MLA yesterday, Silman N Marak and Drossing Ramsiej -- for the upcoming polls.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Scores of Congress activists today staged protests near the International Border (IB) here against frequent violations of the Ceasefire by Pakistani forces, and lashed out at the central government for its "total failure" to deal with the situation.

Led by Jammu and Kashmir Pradesh Congress Committee (JKPCC) president G A Mir, the activists held the protests in R S Pura and Suchetgarh sectors, raising anti-Pakistan slogans for unabated ceasefire violations along the IB and the Line of Control (LoC) in the state, a party spokesman said.

Addressing the protesters, Mir accused the Narendra Modi-led BJP government of following a "weak policy" to deal with Pakistan and said that "there is a record number of shelling on borders leading to increased death toll of civilians and jawans".

Fourteen people including eight civilians were killed and over 70 others injured in Pakistani shelling along the LoC and the IB from January 18 to 22.

The JKPCC leader lashed out at the Modi government for its "total failure to deal with the situation along the border".

On the upcoming panchayat polls in the state, he said that the Congress had never shied away from any electoral exercise and that it always favoured strengthening of democratic institutions.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A policeman in Sri Lanka has been arrested and remanded in police custody over the killing of a leading newspaper's editor, a vocal critic of former president Mahinda Rajapaksa, nine years ago, officials said here.

Lasantha Wickrematunga, the founder and editor of the Sunday Leader, was waylaid by some unidentified bike-borne assailants who gunned him down in the Colombo suburb of Ratmalana in January 2009.

Sub Inspector Tissa Sugathapala, the officer in charge (crimes) of the Colombo suburban police station of Mount Lavinia, was accused of concealing and destroying information pertaining to the killing of Wickrematunga.

The sub-inspector was yesterday remanded in two weeks police custody, the officials said.

Wickrematunga was involved in a legal fight with Rajapaksas brother, the then powerful defence secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa.

After a decade-long rule of Rajapaksa was ended in 2015, the new government under President Maithripala Sirisena had revived the murder investigation.

Wickrematunga was declared a World Press Freedom Hero of the International Press Institute in 2010.

In his final editorial, which was published in 2009 after his assassination, Wickrematunge wrote, "When finally I am killed, it will be the government that kills me."



He also wrote that he hoped his murder would not be interpreted as a "defeat of press freedom but as an inspiration".

Wickrematunga was also critical of defence procurements under Rajapaksa in the war against the The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

His murder is considered among grave incidents of abuse of freedom of media blamed on the Rajapaksa government in Sri Lanka, which during the time was ranked one of the worse places for journalists to work.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A Delhi court has dismissed a man's plea against doctors of a renowned private hospital here for allegedly cheating him by overcharging for a pacemaker implant surgery of his father.

The man moved the court challenging an order by which the doctors were summoned as accused for offence of dishonest misappropriation of property under the IPC. He had instead sought framing of cheating charge against the doctors.

Additional Sessions Judge S K Gupta rejected the plea saying it was a second revision petition as another sessions court had already rejected his plea in 2015.

"The revision against the summoning order was filed. The court has considered the fact whether any graver offence is made out or not. The revision petition was dismissed.

"The said order has attained finality meaning thereby that the respondents (doctors) will be proceeded for offence under section 403 of IPC. The present revision tantamount to the second revision. This court cannot sit over the order passed by then revisional court," the judge said.

It, however, said proceedings against the hospital under section 403 (dishonest misappropriation of property) of the IPC shall continue.

A trial court had on March 6, 2014 summoned two doctors of the Okhla-based hospital for the offence under section 403 of the IPC.

According to the complaint, thefatherof complainant and revisionist Saurabh Singh wasadmittedin the hospital in 2012 and Rs 8.40 lakh was charged for pacemaker implant surgery.

Later, his father was informed by another hospital that the pacemakerwasnotfunctioningproperly so he was once again admitted to the accused hospital andoperatedupon.

On August 22, 2012, the old pacemaker was replaced with a new one and he was billed Rs 2.66 lakh, the complaint stated.

The complainant came to know that the cost of the new pacemaker was Rs 80,000 less than the old one, but he was charged more by the hospital.

The hospital, however, had denied the allegation and said the difference ofpriceinthe costof thetwopacemakers was sent to them throughcourier, adding there was no dishonest intention or misrepresentation on the part of the hospital or its doctors.

The counsel for the revisionist hadcontended that the hospital never told him that the implant was of a different make which showed therewas dishonestintentionontheirpart to cheat him.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)India's most wanted terrorist Dawood Ibrahim has been linked to a series of properties across Britain, according to a media report today.

The 62-year-old fugitive mafia boss, wanted in India as the mastermind of the Mumbai bomb blasts in 1993 and accused of crimes such as match-fixing and extortion, accrued a vast property portfolio across the Midlands and south-east in the UK as well as India, the United Arab Emirates, Spain, Morocco, Turkey, Cyprus and Australia, 'The Times' reported.

The newspaper matched details from a dossier prepared by Indian authorities to records held by the UK's Companies House and the Land Registry, as well as the Panama Papers to form a snapshot of the alleged property portfolio.

It is claimedhis syndicate, known as D-Company, once smuggled drugs through Pakistan and across Indian borders for shipment to Europe and North America from the ports at Mumbai, as portrayed in a new BBC series 'McMafia'.

Ibrahim, believed to be hiding in Pakistan, is the inspiration behind an Indian underworld don named "Dilly Mahmood" in the eight-part television series, which highlights the misuse of Britain by globally organised crime syndicates.

"Britain features in his (Ibrahim's) criminal world as a place where he can launder money a classic'McMafia'tactic. He is thought to have property interests in a variety of southern English counties like Essex and Kent," Misha Glenny, who wrote the non-fiction book 'McMafia: A Journey Through the Global Criminal Underworld'and is an executive producer on the TV series, told the newspaper.

"But we can't know for certain because the government has been dragging its heels in legislating to force transparency of the beneficial owners of companies registered in our overseas territories," she noted.

In an apparent parallel with Ibrahim, Dilly Mahmood is portrayed as an ambitious gangster rising from a modest background to dominate the black market in Mumbai in the series.

Documents seen by this newspaper also allege that on Ibrahim's behalf his right-handman, Muhammed Iqbal "Mirchi" Memon, accrued a vast property portfolio in the UK which includes hotels, mansions, tower blocks and houses in suburbs in the south-east of England.

Memon, also a suspect in the 1993 Mumbai attacks, had sought refuge in London after the blasts and attempts to extradite him to India had failed.

He was never convicted of any crimes and denied his involvement in Ibrahim's cartel. Memon, who held 11 company directorships in tiling, construction and lettings firms in Britain, died after suffering a heart attack in London in 2013.

Ibrahim, who has an Interpol red notice against him, has been on the UK Treasury sanctions list for years with three recorded addresses in Pakistan.

The gangster's place of birth is recorded asKher, Ratnagiri, Maharashtra,and his nationality is listed as "Indian" with a recorded Indian passport, which was subsequently revoked by the government of India.

Financial sanctions in force in the UK cover measures such as prohibiting the transfer of funds to a sanctioned country and targeted asset freezes on individuals.

In relation to the alleged propertiesassociated with him in the UK,Ibrahim would now be a likely target for new 'Unexplained Wealth Orders' introduced by the UK government this week.

UK security minister Ben Wallace, who has described the portrayal of crime bosses in 'McMafia' as "very close to the truth",wants the "full force of the government" to bear down on criminals and corrupt politicians using Britain as a playground and haven.

"'McMafia'is one of those things where you realise that fact is ahead of fiction. It's a really good portrayal of sharp-suited wealthy individuals, but follow the money and it ends up with a young girl getting trafficked for sex," he told 'The Times' in an interview.

"When we get to you, we will come for you, for your assets and we will make the environment that you live in difficult," he warned.

Unexplained wealth orders (UWOs) will require individuals suspected of serious crime or involvement in bribery or corruption to explain the source of property valued at more than 50,000 pounds.

For the first time the UK law also extends recovery powers to cover "politically exposed persons" from countries outside the European Union (EU).

The UK governmentestimates that about 90 billion pounds of illegal cash is laundered in Britain every year.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Taking a serious view of the prosecution's submissions that the police were not cooperating in the trial on an over-three-decade-old murder case, in which a former Sri Lankan minister was an accused, a sessions court here today issued a bailable warrant against the investigating officer.

The police have named former Sri Lankan minister Douglas Devananda as the third accused in the chargesheet in the case relating to a shootout at Choolaimedu here on November 1, 1986, in which a person was killed.

Nine others have also been named as accused in the chargesheet.

All the accused in the case were arrested, but they absconded after being released on bail.

A non-bailable warrant was subsequently issued against Douglas, who later became a minister in the Mahinda Rajapaksa government and moved courts for cancellation of the warrant.

The prosecution later obtained the court's permission to split the case and proceed against Douglas as the other accused remained absconding.

As per the orders of the Madras High Court, Douglas, who was declared a proclaimed offender by the trial court, appeared before it via video-conferencing through the Indian High Commission's office in Sri Lanka for the trial, which commenced in 2016.

Contending that he was not connected with the killing, Douglas has sought to be acquitted of the murder charge.

Additional Public Prosecutor Prabhavathy told the court today that the police were not cooperating in the case as far as the production of prosecution witnesses for the purpose of cross-examination was concerned.

She also said materials recovered during the probe were not submitted in the court.

Sessions Judge M Shanthi then issued a bailable warrant against the investigation officer of the Choolaimedu police station and posted the matter for further hearing to February 9.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Maharashtra Metro Rail Corporation Ltd conducted a stakeholders' consultation meet on the proposed Phase-2 of Nagpur Metro here today.

MD of MMRC Brijesh Dixit told reporters that the Phase 2 will include corridors in all directions with a total length of about 48 km and 33 stations.

Detailed Project Report (DPR) for Phase 2 corridors was in advanced stage of completion, he said.

Field studies including traffic surveys, topographical surveys and geo-technical investigations will be completed shortly and the DPR will be submitted to the government in April, he said.

The Phase 2 is estimated to cost about Rs 11,000 crore.

"Phase 1 (work) is progressing well. Phase 1 has two corridors of about 41 km length with a total of 40 stations. Thus the city and district will have a total Metro network of about 89 km with 73 stations once the Phase 2 is sanctioned," Dixit said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Human Trafficking Cases

A man was arrested in Piqua, OH, by the FBI on human trafficking charges. The man has been charged with prostitution of a minor. The case is still under investigation, so few details have been made available. However, the defendant is being held in jail and will not be released on bail pending the outcome of his hearing. (Troy Daily News)

A man has been arrested and charged with forced prostitution of two women in Bountiful, UT. The prosecution is using the case as an example to highlight the risk women face right here in this country. They believe around 100,000 women are currently being held in forced prostitution situations in this country. (2 KUT-V)

One man has been arrested on human trafficking and forced prostitution charges. One of his alleged victims, a 19 year old, has come forward to say that she was not being forced into prostitution, but that the man is her boyfriend, with whom she has an open relationship. However, according to law enforcement agents, the man had two women under his command, holding their identification and bank cards in his wallet, as well as other telltale signs. (Arkansas Matters)

A human trafficking case in Frederick County is likely to be trialed at federal level. A man is alleged to have sex trafficked two underage girls. (The Frederick News Post)

Michigan is putting new trafficking laws in place to curtail the increasing number of trafficking cases that happen in the state each year. (The Christian Science Monitor)

Have you heard of 'child trafficking'? Or 'human trafficking'?The eight-year-old was assaulted while her family stayed with Roman for 10 weeks, starting in October of 2016. According to prosecutors, the girl's mother worked a shift at night and Roman would take care of the children. During one of the attacks, two of the victim's younger siblings were watching a movie on a cellphone in the same room, say prosecutors.The eight-year-old was assaulted while her family stayed with Roman for 10 weeks, starting in October of 2016.The victim was allegedly continuously attacked, even after the family moved out.The other six-year-old victim was allegedly assaulted while she slept in his home for one year, from January of 2017 to the present month.The "trans-age" male was charged with a Class X felonyTheis, short of first degree murder, the most seriousoffense on the books in Illinois. Upon a finding of guilt, the court cannot sentence the defendant to probation. The offense has a mandatory minimum sentence of 6-30 years in the Department of Corrections.Human trafficking happens when one or more individuals are controlled and exploited for profit. Victims include adults over the of 18 who are deceived or coerced into commercial sex acts, children who are sold or otherwise used in the sex trade, and anyone who is compelled to take part in forced labor. Across the country, state legislators are trying to address increasing numbers of human trafficking. As a result, there are stringent federal laws in place, but many states also have their own laws, some more significant than others.So Mr. Roman is being tried while the 'sellers' are off and running?I wonder if the children were used as a 'payment' method for Mr. Roman allowing them to stay in his home.Fame and fortune have smiled on Hermien the Dutch cow, who escaped as she was being sent to slaughter, and has become a social network star after a month on the hoof.

Thanks to her tenacity and a crowd-funding campaign which has raised 48,000 euros (USD 59,820), the three and a half- year old red Limousin will get to live out her days in pasture.

Hermien's plucky bid for freedom came as she was about to loaded into a truck to be taken to the abattoir and spawned an outpouring of support.

For more than four weeks she has refused to be caught, hiding out in the safety of the woods in northern Friesland, while Twitter lit up with hashtags such as #JesuisHermien, #GoHermien and #MeKoe. The latter is a play on the #MeToo campaign, incorporating the Dutch word for "cow".

Even the royal family took up her case, with Pieter van Vollenhoven, the son-in-law of former Queen Beatrix urging "we've got to save Hermien".

"Let's all buy her together and give her freedom," he said.

Officially called "Joke 18" after the wife of her owner, Toon van den Enk, Hermien escaped with another cow, which was swiftly recaught.

"She must have been stressed at the moment she was walking into the truck for the abattoir. Since then we haven't been able to catch her," vet Edo Hamersma told AFP.

At night, Hermien has been sneaking into nearby stables for food, before disappearing again into the shadows.

According to the AD daily, the campaign has raised enough money for her to live comfortably in the fields for the rest of her days.

But she still needs to be recaptured, and remains "very fearful," said Hamersma.

"We'll have to leave her alone, and wait for better weather when the herd goes out into the fields. Then she'll probably approach them by herself.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.): Supreme Court Judge Justice Kurian Joseph today urged Chief Justices of High Courts to take immediate steps to ensure that every district in a state has at least one family court, to help easy access to justice and speedy disposal of matrimonial disputes.

He was delivering the inaugural address at the fourth regional conference on "Sensitisation of Family Court Matters" organised here for the states of Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Karnataka, Kerala, Puducherry, Tamil Nadu and Telangana.

Justice Joseph also said that judges in family courts should possess a sixth sense to find the epicentre of family disputes and take appropriate action.

"Family court judges should possess a sixth sense, to find out the epicentre of matrimonial disputes. They are like homoeopathy doctors, who unlike allopathy doctors, prescribe treatment based on the constitution and special features of the patients," he added.

"The primary objective of family courts is not to decide disputes, but to promote conciliation and secure speedy settlement," the judge said.

In her address, Chief Justice of Madras High Court Justice Indira Banerjee said preservation of family as an institution is important for the country and added that family court judges must take their work very seriously.

She called upon family court judges to never give up on the scope for settlement, as it would happen at any stage of the case.

"But you must also understand that in cases where there are no scope for settlement, mere procrastination of cases would only increase the agony of the parties," she added.

Justice Banerjee also stressed that matters of maintenance and custody of child be dealt with expeditiously and with sensitivity.

Acting Chief Justice of Jharkhand, Justice Dhirubhai Naranbhai Patel and Tamil Nadu Advocate-General Vijay Narayan also spoke.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)There is a favourable atmosphere for the growth in population of tigers and other animals in Telangana forests, but the exact picture would be known once the census results come out after a few months, a key figure involved in the exercise said.

An official count of carnivores and mega-herbivores (plant-eating large animals, such as elephants), popularly known as tiger census, was conducted in Telangana from January 22 to 29.

This is the first census in Telangana after its formation in 2014.

"Generally, there is a favourable atmosphere. There is a possibility of increase (in numbers). But, these are all guesswork at this point of time," the senior official, who recently retired from service, told PTI.

Fixed formats have been given to the personnel involved in the census and the protocol for the exercise has been standardised, he said.

The forms filled up by the survey personnel would be sent to the Wildlife Institute of India (WII), Dehradun who analyse the data. The results are likely to be announced in April, he said.

"The analysis part and the estimation part will be completely taken over by WII," he said.

The population of tigers in Telangana region (in undivided Andhra Pradesh) was estimated to be around 17 in 2013-14 (when the last census was carried out).

The tiger census is taken up in the country every four years.

As sufficient number of personnel were not available to conduct the exercise in all the forest areas of the state, the forest department took the help of NGOs, wildlife enthusiasts, student community, local youth and others.

The volunteers came from diverse backgrounds, including scientists, IT professionals, medical doctors, bankers and others, the department sources said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A massive fire that broke out on the premises of the famous Meenakshi temple here was put out in the early hours today and the devotees were allowed to offer the morning prayers.

The fire reduced 40 shops to ashes.

"The hall with 1,000 pillars, which houses the temple museum, has not suffered any damage," District Collector Veera Raghava Rao, who supervised the fire-fighting operations, told reporters.

He added that a special team was formed to look into the impact of the fire on the temple, especially the 7,000-sq.ft Vasantharayar Mandapam, "which has been affected".

There were no casualties, the collector said, adding that a police investigation was underway.

A preliminary probe revealed that the fire broke out late last night due to an electrical short-circuit in one of the shops situated near the 1,000-pillar hall.

About 40 shops, selling puja articles and toys, were gutted in the fire and steps were being taken to clear the area of smoke, the police said.

Fortunately, the sculptures in the hall were saved by the timely intervention of the temple staff and the fire and rescue services personnel, the temple authorities said.

Mani, a flower vendor at the temple, said the mortar paste had peeled off at several places inside the Vasantharayar hall, while the paintings on the roof were destroyed.

Besides, two pillars got dislocated in the impact of the fire, a temple official said on the condition of anonymity.

The east tower entrance of the temple has temporarily been shut for cleanup works and the devotees are being allowed inside through the other gates.

Meanwhile, various Hindu outfits staged a protest, demanding relocation of the shops from the temple premises.

A huge posse of police personnel has been deployed in and around the temple.

The famous Sri Meenakshi Amman temple, one of the oldest in the country, attracts thousands of devotees every year.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The four-day mega tribal religious festival 'Sammakka Saralamma Maha Jatara' or 'Medaram Jatara' concluded today at Eturunagaram of Jayashankar Bhupalapally district of Telangana, with lakhs of devotees offering prayers.

Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu, Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao and Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh were among the prominent personalities who visited the sacred place and offered jaggery as mark of respect, a statement issued by the Deputy Chief Minister K Srihari, said.

"I thank our chief minister Chandrasekhar Rao for announcing Rs 200 crore for development of this place including setting up permanent infrastructure," Srihari said.

The chief minister also saidhis party MPs would talk to the Centre to declare Medaram Jatara as a national festival



Over one crore people visited the religious place during the festival.

The state government's website describes the festival, which is held every two years, as the largest tribal religious gathering in the world.

Tribal devotees from Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka and parts of Jharkhand, among other states, attend the festival.

White jaggery is the traditional offering made to the two deities. Devotees often offer their own weight in jaggery to Sammakka and Saralamma. They also take a holy bath in Jampanna Vagu (stream).

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Four persons were killed while one sustained severe injuries when the car in which they were travelling was hit by a truck near Nana Raipura village in Narmada district in Gujarat, police said today.

The accident occurred late last night, they said.

"Five youths from Rajpipla in the district had gone to Dediapada for some work and were returning last night when their car was hit by a speeding truck coming from the opposite direction near Nana Raipura village," a Rajpipla police station officer said.

While two of them died on the spot, another two died at a government hospital in Vadodara, where they were rushed in a critical condition, the official said.

The accident took place when they were returning from Dediapada to Rajpipla, where they lived, the police official said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Fourteen persons were today arrested and three country-made revolvers were recovered from them, with police claiming that the gang was planning to carry out dacoities in the city.

Police said that five of the arrested were from Bihar while nine were from areas around Visakhapatnam. Officials added that 120 gms of gold, 1.2 kgs of silver, one car, one autorickshaw, two motorcycles and 3.5 kgs of dry ganja were also confiscated from the gang.

The gang, during interrogation, confessed to having carried out dacoities in Darapalem under Arilova police station limits as well as at MVP Colony and at Anakapalle.

Police said that the gang looted 240 grams of gold in the Darapalem incident and 360 grams of gold and Rs 1 lakh in cash in the MVP colony robbery.

In the Darapalem incident, the gang had barged into the house of government school teacher K Satyanarayana while in the MVP incident, they had held 74-year-old M Sarojini hostage, police informed.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime) Shemushi Bajpai said that the gang members hailing from Bihar had befriended a local gang led by K Suresh Kumar and Bhagyaraj Kumar.

She added that investigations were underway to nab three more members of the gang who are currently at large.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A gang involved in human trafficking was busted and three minor girls released following the arrest of two of its members during a raid here, police said today.

A police team, led by Inspector Sandeep Mor, nabbed Surinder from Faridabad yesterday and handed him over to the team of Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP), Child Welfare Council (CWC), Puja Dabla, they said.

During questioning, Surinder confessed he used to purchase girls from his neighbouring villages and sell them to Mani Mishra, and members of his family for Rs 15,000 to Rs 20,000. They used to take the girls to the National Capital Region and the Faridabad area and get them to work as domestic helps, police said.

Based on the information provided by Surinder, a police team, under the supervision of ACP Dabla, raided the house of Mishra and rescued three girls.

Surinder admitted that he and Mani Mishra had sexually harassed their victims, officials said.

The spokesman said the rescued minor girls were undergoing medical test at the Badshah Khan Hospital in Faridabad. Surinder had sold 25-30 girls to Mishra, he added.

The arrests were made following a complaint lodged at the Women Police Station, in Faridabad, by a member of the Child Welfare Council on January 28, he added.

The complaint was registered under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code, the Juvenile Justice Act and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act.

According to the complainant, a minor girl was sold by her grandmother to Surinder for Rs 4000 two years ago.

Surinder took the girl to his office and allegedly sexually harassed her and left her at someone's residence to work as a domestic help. About 15 days ago, Mishra brought the girl to Faridabad and allegedly raped her several times, the spokesman said.

He also beat her up and snatched Rs 30,000 which the girl had received as wages for working as a domestic help, he said, adding that the victim was undergoing treatment.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The inaugural day of the first-ever Global Investors' Summit in Assam saw the signing of as many as 176 initial pacts in a range of sectors with investment commitments worth Rs 651.86 billion, an official said.

Leading from the front, public sector oil behemoth ONGC committed Rs 130 billion investment in the state, according to the spokesperson of 'Advantage Assam - Global Investors' Summit 2018'.

Another oil PSU Oil India Ltd pledged an investment of Rs 100 billion the official said.

Oil India Chairman and MD Utpal Bora said the company has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Assam Petrochemicals Ltd and the Assam government.

"We are also signing an MoU to form a joint venture company with IOC, ONGC, NRL and GAIL.

This is to connect all the North Eastern state capital with gas pipelines from Guwahati," he added.

Two more oil firms Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) and Numaligarh Refinery Ltd (NRL) also evinced interest to invest Rs 34.32 billion and Rs 34.1 billion, respectively, the spokesperson said.

Among private players, RIL Chairman and MD Mukesh Ambani announced an investment of Rs 25 billion in Assam in various sectors, including retail, petroleum, telecom, tourism and sports, creating jobs for at least 80,000 people over the next three years. Ambani's announcement came during the inaugural function of the two-day investors' summit.

With Tata Trusts joining hands with the Assam government to roll out an elaborate cancer care programme in 17 centres across 15 districts of the state from next year, the project will see an investment of around Rs 2,000 crore, Assam Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said.

Indo-UK Institute of Health will be investing Rs 27 billion, while Century Ply has shared plans of investing Rs 21 billion, the summit spokesperson informed.

"Spicejet outlined plans of Rs 12.5 billion worth of investment for Assam through seaplanes boosting the tourism sector besides connecting Lakhimpur and Jorhat under the Udaan Scheme.

Infinity Group will be investing Rs 10 billion in an IT Park and real estate project in Guwahati, he added.

The official said the Medanta Group proposed Rs 5 billion investment in the healthcare sector, while Dalmia Bharat Cement announced an investment to the tune of Rs 11 billion.

"Tourism sector, which is one of the key focus areas of the government, saw an investment proposal in concurrence of around Rs 736 crore. Infrastructure sector, a prime determinant of progress, saw a total investment proposal worth Rs 23.47 billion," the spokesperson said.

Other major companies announcing investments in Assam are: BPCL (Rs 3.5 billion), Essel Infraprojects (Rs 60 billion), Star Cement (Rs 21 billion), Infinity Infotech Parks (Rs 10 billion) and Mahindra Holidays and Resorts India (Rs 4 billion), among others, he added.

The government has identified 12 focus sectors for the summit, including agriculture and food processing, handloom- textile-handicrafts, logistics, river transport-port township, IT-ITeS, pharmaceutical-medical equipment, plastics- petrochemicals and power.

Tourism-hospitality-wellness, civil aviation, petroleum- natural gas and startups-innovation are the other focus areas for the business tycoons.In continuing anti-smuggling operations, Air Intelligence officials of the Customs at theInternational airport here today seized over 1.7 kg of goldvalued at Rs 54.65 lakh in three separate cases.

In the first case, 20 gold bar cut pieces totally weighing 756 grams valued at Rs 23.66 lakh were found concealed inside two hand mixers brought in the check-in baggage by a native of Kozhikode, who arrived from Jeddah, Customs Commissioner Sumit Kumar said.

In the second incident, sleuths found 16 gold bar cut pieces weighing 757 grams valued at Rs 23.69 lakh concealed inside hand mixers in the check-in baggage of a passenger, who arrived from Abu Dhabi by a private airliner, he added.

Both the passengers were arrested, Kumar said.

In the third case, the Customs sleuths recovered two gold biscuits weighing 233.2 gms and valued at Rs 7.3 lakh from a passenger who arrived from Muscat by an Air India Express flight.

The passenger, hailing from Kasargode district had concealed the gold biscuits in the socks he was wearing, Customs officials said.

Strengthening their campaign against smuggling rackets, Customs officials also effected seizure of foreign currency sent through post.

Officials from the Postal Appraising wing of Kochi Customs seized1,600 Euros worth Rs 1.3 lakh sent from Spain by post.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Begin gave up Sinai, hoping to buy Peace in exchange for Land. Oslo accords were based on the same hope, however, we have discovered, that Israel has no territory to give up. In the contrary to Egypt, the Palestinians werent satisfied even with maximal Israels concessions. The talks, provided by Olmerts government, which was ready to divide Jerusalem and to perform land swaps, giving Gaza multiple increase of territory, these talks were blown up by the Palestinian side. We learned, that theres no peace with Palestine in exchange for land, which actually ended in the previous concessions.



The problem with the Oslo agreement was that it excluded from the trade most of All Palestine territory, that is Jordan. We argue with Palestine about small piece of land, 30.000 square km, 50% of which is actually Negev desert. Most of All Palestine territory (90.000 square km), that is Jordan, is not disputed.



The Palestinian narrative about Land, stolen by the Jews, is Big Lie. We cannot make Palestinians be satisfied, since we have no land which may satisfy Palestinian appetite. Therefore, the Palestinians support HAMAS, which demands complete annihilation of Israel and genocide of the Jews.



The Palestinian people know, that they are antisemitic aggressors, that their struggle is immoral. Therefore they relay on the antisemites, from Hitler to British Empire, Nasser, USSR, Europe or Iran. Therefore Palestinian People have developed the industry of antisemitic lies, readily consumed by antisemitic World.



Currently, both West Bank and Gaza are independent Palestinian states, existing along with independent Jordan Palestine.



Theres no one IDF soldier in Gaza, while Jewish population of Gaza was forcibly ousted from their homes, at the request of Palestinians.



Theres no one Jewish settlement on the West Bank Palestine territory. All Jewish towns and villages are placed in the territory of Judea and Samaria (the so called C zone) which remains under Israel sovereignty on the basis of Oslo agreements, in full accordance with the international law. Palestinian violation of Oslo agreements cannot abolish the validity of these agreements and of international law. The C territory (Judea and Samaria) is Israel, until new agreement will replace Oslo agreements.



The Apartheid Wall is built within the C territory, so it doesnt violate Palestine sovereignty. Anyway, destination of the Protection wall is to protect Israels population from Palestine aggression, so we do have right to built it even in the sovereign Palestine territory.



Israeli occupation of the West Bank Palestine, forced by Palestine aggression, is legal and inevitable measure of self-protection against Palestine aggression. Did Palestinians stop their aggression and agree to the peace, the occupation may stop. Until now, the Palestinians did all to prevent the peace. They believe, that Israel will be annihilated at the hands of antisemites, be it Iran or Europe.



As Me already mentioned, Jewish right to the Holy Land is uninterrupted, not distant. Jews always remained part of local population, even if minority. In addition, Jewish immigration from abroad lasts at least 1.000 years. The Zionists settled here yet before the ancestors of the Palestinians conquered Palestine. Ashkenazis started immigration to Palestine in 16 century, while last influx of Arab immigrants to Palestine started in 18 century and stopped in 1948.

All antisemitic slogans contradict history.



After all, I dont deny Palestinians rights. My claim is, that Jews do have right to sit peacefully in Palestine and to have independent state, too.

Practically, the partition of Palestine is already performed. The conditions of acceptable compromise were discussed and well known. The dispute over small differences is quite resolvable, only Palestinian stubborn ambition to wipe Jews out stops any compromise.



BDS is not about compromise, since about genocide of the Jews. European sanctions are not about compromise, these are about annihilation of Israel. Antisemites dont speak legal, fair solution, they speak punishment of Israel.Prime Minister Narendra Modi today said his government has undertaken many path breaking economic reforms, making the country the most preferred investment destination with the highest FDI in last fiscal at USD 60 billion.

Inaugurating the two-day 'Global Investors Summit' hosted by Assam, Modi said the NDA government has speeded up the functioning of official machinery and "we want all programmes to be completed before target".

Modi stressed that India's growth story will gain further momentum only when there is an all-round development of the North-east and its people, and stressed the importance of 'Act East Policy' in this regard.

"We have created the Act East Policy and the Northeast is at the heart of it.

"The Act East Policy requires increased people to people contact, trade ties and other relations with countries on India's east, particularly ASEAN countries," he said.

The prime minister said the tagline of the summit Advantage Assam: Indias Express way to ASEAN is not just a statement but is a comprehensive vision.

"The Union government has taken up many path breaking economic reformsin last three-and-a-half years, which have simplified procedures for doing business," he said.

Talking about the recent announcements in the budget, he said 45-50 crore people will benefit from the health insurance scheme Ayushman Bharat and it has enhanced the possibilities of setting up hospitals in tier II and III cities by hospital chains.

The new target for the Ujjwala scheme of providing free cooking gas has now been fixed at eight crore women, the PM said.

He said India has become the most preferred investment destination in the world and the highest USD 60 billion FDI came to India in 2016-17.

Modi said his government has changed the functioning style of the official machinery and it was now working with greater speed.

"We want all programmes to be completed before target," he said.

Those present at the event included Bhutanese PM Tshering Tobgay, several Union ministers, Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal, chief ministers of Arunachal Pradesh and Manipur, ambassadors and high commissioners of 16 countries, RIL chairman Mukesh Ambani, Tata Sons chairman N Chandrasekharan besides other.

Assam is hosting its first global investors summit to showcase its manufacturing opportunities and geostrategic advantages to foreign and domestic investors.

The summitaims at highlighting Assam's core competencies in different sectors along with the policy initiatives taken by the state government.

Sonowal had earlier told PTI that the event will showcase the manufacturing prowess and theopportunities offered by Assam in terms of export-oriented manufacturingand services to growing economies such as of ASEAN countried and others in Southeast Asia.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Madras High Court has imposed costs of Rs 50,000 on United India Insurance Company for not reimbursing a retired state government employee's medical bill and directed it to pay the claim amount of Rs 1,43,709 within four weeks.

In his order recently, Justice T Raja took serious view of the firm for not reimbursing the bill even after recommendations made by statutory authorities on reimbursement of bills to government pensioners under the Tamil Nadu Government Pensioner's Health Fund Scheme.

The judge said "delay" tactics adopted by the insurance firm in paying the reimbursement under the scheme would have caused grave hardship to the petitioner, who is aged about 72 years now.

Allowing a petition from K P Ramalingam, who underwent procedures for treatment of heart disease at the Christian Medical College Hospital in Vellore in 2014, the judge said the firm also ignored specific recommendations by statutory authorities on reimbursement of government pensioners' bills.

The petitioner submitted that he had subscribed to the government scheme and was eligible for reimbursement.

Despite completing all statutory proceedings, he was not reimbursed the amount and hence he moved the high court.

The insurance company, in the guise of calling for the original break-up bills and cash receipts, has delayed the payment of the amount, he submitted.

Allowing the petition with costs of Rs 50,000 payable by the insurance firm to the petitioner, the judge directed the company to pay it, along with the reimbursement amount of Rs 1,43,709, within four weeks from the date of receipt of a copy of the order.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Madras High Court has set aside the orders of the Private School Fee Determination Committee, asking it to re-consider the matter and referred to a larger bench a question involving teacher-student ratio in private unaided schools.

Disposing of petitions from schools, including Vivekananda Matriculation, which challenged the committee's fee structure fixation, the division bench said private institutions are at liberty to fix their fee structure covering operation cost and provision for their future needs.

Justices C T Selvam and M V Muralidaran said as long as the fees structure formulated by a school does not amount to profiteering, the committee should not interfere.

"We are of the view that it would be appropriate to set aside the orders under challenge and remand the matters for fresh consideration of the committee," the bench said.

It referred to the earlier division Bench order in the Lakshmi Matriculation School vs State of Tamil Nadu and others in the year 2012 in its order.

The Bench said it trusted that the committee would take into consideration its observations that flowed from the decision of the High Court in the Lakshmi School case.

In the Lakshmi Matriculation School vs State of Tamil Nadu (2012) case, the validity of the Tamil Nadu Schools (Regulation of Collection of Fee) Act, 2009, was upheld.

It also had broad parameters to be followed by the Fee Determination Committee.

Not agreeing with the earlier Division Bench decision which toed the teacher-student ratio prescribed in the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Act, the court directed the Registry to refer the teacherstudent ratio question to a three-member bench.

"The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Act, 2009, informs the minimum number of teachers necessary for a particular strength of students," the Bench said.

However, the Act does not inform the maximum number of teachers permissible.

Stating that in the Lakshmi School case, a High Court bench found the teacher-student ratio prescribed in the Act appropriate, the judges said "we are unable to agree".

Hence, it referred the matter to a three-judge bench on the question of teacher-student ratio.

The question was whether an unaided private educational institution was bound to adopt the teacher-student ratio norm prescribed under the Right to Act.

Also, part of the question was whether following such a ratio norm would be covered under the 'reasonable restriction' clause and not offend Article 19(1)(g) of the Constitution, which guarantees right to carry on any profession.

The bench then directed to place this matter before the Chief Justice for appropriate directions.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Highlights from the Southern region at 2100 hrs.

MDS2 TN-FIRE-LD TEMPLE



Madurai: A massive fire that broke out on the premises of the famous Meenakshi temple was put out in the early hours of today and devotees were allowed to offer the morning prayers.

MDS3 KL-SPEAKER-SPECTACLES



Thiruvananthapuram: Controversy erupts over Kerala Assembly Speaker P Sreeramakrishnan purchasing a pair of spectacles for nearly Rs 50,000 and getting the amount reimbursed from the cash-starved state exchequer.

MDS5 KA-CONGRESS-BJP



Bengaluru: On the eve of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit here, a war of words ensues between ruling Congress and opposition BJP over the latter's national president Amit Shah's claim that the Centre gave Karnataka more than Rs three lakh crore under various schemes.

MES11 PD-BEDI-JUSTICE



Puducherry: Puducherry Lt Governor Kiran Bedi suggests that forensic experts, police, lawyers and judicial bodies adopt a coordinated approach, instead of acting in isolation, in ensuring administration of criminal justice.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Himachal Pradesh Cabinet today decided that the Budget session of the Vidhan Sabha would be held between March 6 to April 5 with a break between March 17 and March 25.

The Cabinet, which met under Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur here, also decided to amend the state's Town and Country Planning Rules 2018 to allow sealing of unauthorised buildings or portions.

The sealing would be done after giving the defaulters an opportunity to be heard under the amendment in the Act, the Cabinet decided.

It also decided to increase the maternity leave for contractual women employees from 135 days to 180 days, bringing them at par with regular women employees in this respect.

It was also decided to invite Expression of Interest (EoI) for roping in design consultant for carrying out a detailed feasibility study for constructing 2,000 km of road length under proposed World Bank assistance for Himachal Pradesh State Roads Project Phase-II.

It was also decided to impose a ban on transfers with immediate effect till further orders.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Himachal Pradesh Congress today decided to launch a campaign asking for report cards from the four BJP MPs in the state.

The decision to launch the campaign with the slogan " MP hisaab de" (MPs give your report card) was taken in a meeting of PCC secretaries and block Congress committee presidents, chaired by state party chief Sukhvinder Singh Sukkhu.

Keeping in view the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, they decided to question the MPs about their achievements and the pending railway projects which either have not been taken up or whose progress is slow, Sukkhu said.

As all four Lok Sabha MPs from the state belong to the saffron party, the HPCC decided to hold workers' conventions in these parliamentary constituencies followed by a state- level workers' convention which would be attended by top party leaders, he said.

Through these, the party aims to reach out to people and inform them about the MPs' alleged unfulfilled promises and poor performance, he said.

Sukkhu also asked the government not to close down the schools and colleges opened by the previous Congress government. He also asked how Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur was announcing new projects and schemes when the finances of the government were in a bad shape.

Sukkhu said the Congress would make a comeback after 2019 Lok Sabha polls and added that the BJP's defeat in Rajasthan bypolls in two Lok Sabha seats and one assembly seat was a trendsetter.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)India and China have a "cold war-like" relationship in the making but New Delhi is unlikely to join something framed as a US-led front to contain Beijing, a former American diplomat has said.

Alyssa Ayres, who served in the South and Central Asia Bureau of the State Department, made the remarks last week in New York during the launch of her latest book 'Our Time Has Come: How India is Making Its Place in the World'.

"It is a cold war-like relationship in the making. India and China have had a strong commercial relationship, but that is increasingly less satisfying for India, for many of the same reasons the United States is dissatisfied with its trade relationship with China," she said.

To a question on India-China ties, Ayres, currently a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, a top American think-tank, said that for a while the commercial relationship between the two countries had relegated their strategic competition to the backseat.

"I think India (is) concerned about the increasingly larger presence that China is establishing across the Indian Ocean, with a base in Djibouti," she said.

She added that India may also be concerned over China's "deep relationship" with Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and the investments it is making in the two countries.

Asked about the impression in the US that New Delhi is a "good bet" to contain Beijing, she said India is unlikely to be part of such an initiative.

"I think India is going to be highly unlikely to be enlisted in something framed as a US-led effort to contain China. That is not what India seeks to do. It seeks to defend its own interests. It seeks to uphold the liberal world order," Ayres said.

"India has been a big supporter of global norms, of freedom of navigation. But it also partners with China in many arenas. The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), India is the number two capital contributor," she noted.

The BRICS organisation went from being just an idea in a research paper to being a real institution, she said, adding India is very active with that and the five-nation grouping has created its own development bank.

"India became a member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation. It's hedging its own bets as global governance reform lags on in the 20th-century institutions. And so where it has put some of its eggs in the new organisations basket, it has partnered with China on that front," Ayres said.

To another question, she said that there would be a measured response from India if there was a repeat of the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attack.

"Based on what we saw with the surgical strikes of the previous year or the year before last, I would not expect a completely passive response. I would expect something measured, but much more active," she said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Chairman of USD 11-billion Adani Group Gautam Adani today said India now stands on the "cusp of explosive growth" and game-changing policies like GST, Aadhaar, and Jan Dhan Yojana will lay the platform for decades of strong growth.

With GDP growth rates of over 7 per cent, it is anticipated that India will become the world's third-largest economy by 2030 and second largest by 2050, he said.

"India now stands on the cusp of explosive growth that barring the US and China, no nation in modern history has witnessed," Adani said while addressing the SRCC Business Conclave.

He said over the past few years, there has been a dramatic progress in positioning India as a nation integrated into the global economy, a nation flexing its power and building key strategic alliances and a nation that is firm yet restrained and extending a helping hand to those in need.

Adani said over the past few years, the Narendra Modi government has introduced "game-changing" policies which will drive foundational changes across India.

The implementation of the GST - while still to be streamlined - will unify internal markets and become the catalyst for GDP growth, he said.

Stating that Aadhaar is a "remarkable initiative" of getting 1.3 billion people on one common identification platform is a game changer for both tax collections and direct benefits distribution, Adani said it will transform the way the government manages its subsidies.

Over 31 crore bank accounts opened under the Jan Dhan Yojana in just three years and have yielded a staggering Rs 73,000 crore of deposits.

Besides, the Digital India revolution is on track to ensure over 100 crore of our fellow countrymen have a mobile device in their hands by 2020 and over 50 crore internet users come online - thereby enabling a technology revolution of unprecedented scale, he said.

"The combination of these initiatives will change India in ways hard to imagine. It will unlock the bottom-of-the-pyramid and lay the platform for expanding the middle class and setting off decades of strong growth," Adani said.

He also highlighted the hurdles to economy saying India faces deepening income inequality, the challenge of income security of farmers, job growth, and increased geostrategic polarisation.Trade between India and the US is estimated to have jumped substantially from $118 billion in 2016 to $140 billion in 2017, according to an advocacy group that aims to promote bilateral trade.

In 2016, India was the ninth largest trading partner of the US and one of the major countries with which America has had trade deficit of more than $30 billion. This is expected to continue in 2017 as well, an issue which has repeatedly been raised by President Donald Trump and his top officials in their interaction with their Indian counterpart.

"We estimate that in 2017 India's trade (with the US) has gone up from $118 billion (the previous year) to $140," Mukesh Aghi, president of the US India Strategic and Partnership Forum (USISPF) told PTI in an interview.

Official figures of annual bilateral trade are yet to come, but the USISPF estimates are based on its own research and surveys.

India, Aghi said, has proactively started working on addressing the issue of trade deficit with India.

"India roughly has a thousand plane orders with US companies. That will start bringing trade imbalance in the right direction. India, last year bought $2 billion worth of energy from the US. India spends roughly $80 billion dollars acquiring energy. And I think a lot of that will start moving to the US," he said.

"I think next five years, you will see a little more balance in the trade between two countries," Aghi said.

India and the US have set a goal of increasing the bilateral trade to $500 billion a year.

"I think it (bilateral trade) is moving," he said.

Overall, the relationship between India and the US is moving in a right direction.An Indian-origin physiotherapist, who supplied guns and ammunition to criminal gangs in the UK using a legal firearms license, has been jailed for 14 years.

Mohinder Surdhar, 58, who had worked with the English Karate team and the UK's state-funded National Health Service, was described by investigators as an "ammunition freak" who acted as a middleman.

He was sentenced at Birmingham Crown Court on Thursday after he had pleaded guilty at a previous hearing to a single count of conspiracy to transfer prohibited weapons and ammunition.

"You were a physiotherapist with a PhD, well-educated and well-respected in your field. In short, over a period of several years you acted as the fulcrum in the supply of prohibited weapons and ammunition to criminal gangs," Judge Richard Bond told Surdhar.

"It is impossible to say how many weapons you supplied over the years but it would now appear that you supplied hundreds of guns to the gang. Even to this day, weapons sold by you are still being seized from crime scenes," he said.

West Midlands Police inquiries linked Surdhar to weapons used in three murders, 11 non-fatal incidents and 28 other shootings.

He used his legitimate firearms certificate to acquire weapons, which were then sold on by co-conspirators for up to 3,000 pounds (USD 4,236).

Previous hearings led to the conviction of more than a dozen men, including rogue gun dealer Paul Edmunds, who was jailed for 30 years last month, Birmingham Mail reported.

Detective Constable Phil Rodgers of West Midlands Police described Surdhar and Edmunds as the "Breaking Bad of the gun world on the face of it both decent men but using their skills and expertise to provide deadly firearms", in reference to the popular American television show "Breaking Bad".

"Edmunds was at the top of the chain of supply and he was illegally importing many handguns, both current and antique into the United Kingdom," the judge said.

Police, who raided Edmunds' home in Gloucestershire in July 2015, found 100,000 rounds of ammunition in his armoury, while his bullets were found at 100 crime scenes across the UK.

Trials of other defendants involved in the conspiracy heard that police across the country started to recover antique handguns and specially made ammunition from crime scenes from 2014.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Islamic scholar Tariq Ramadan was charged with rape today, a judicial source said, following claims by two women that he assaulted them in French hotel rooms in 2009 and 2012.

Ramadan, who was arrested by French police on Wednesday, has now been charged with connected charges of rape and rape of a vulnerable person, the source said.

The accused is a Swiss citizen whose grandfather founded Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood movement.

After two days of questioning by investigators, the 55- year-old Oxford professor was brought before three magistrates who have been assigned to the case, suggesting that he is facing an extensive investigation, judicial sources said.

Women who have testified anonymously during three months of preliminary investigations might now also file rape complaints, one of the sources said.

The claims against the prominent scholar, which emerged in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein scandal in the United States, have divided many Muslims, with his legions of fans, as well as his lawyers, saying he is the victim of a smear campaign.

But critics have long suggested that despite Ramadan's moderate tone as a familiar face on television programmes, he preaches a more radical line when addressing Muslims in Arabic.

Ramadan is the most high-profile figure to be held in France over the sexual assault and harassment claims that have rippled around the world as a result of the "Me Too" campaign.

The married father of four has denied the separate accusations from the two women.

The first was made by Henda Ayari, a feminist activist who previously practised a conservative strain of Islam. She had described being raped in a book published in 2016, without naming her attacker.

But in October, she said she had decided to name Ramadan publicly as the alleged perpetrator as a result of the "Me Too" campaign, using the French hashtag "Balance Ton Porc" (Expose your pig).

She said Ramadan raped her in his hotel room, telling Le Parisien newspaper: "He choked me so hard that I thought I was going to die."



She lodged a rape complaint against Ramadan on October 20.

Several days later an unidentified disabled woman, a Muslim convert, also accused the academic of violently raping her in a hotel room in the southeastern city of Lyon in 2009.

Vanity Fair magazine, which met the woman, said her lawsuit against Ramadan described "blows to the face and body, forced sodomy, rape with an object and various humiliations, including being dragged by the hair to the bathtub and urinated on".

During three hours of testimony in Paris on Thursday, the woman -- using the pseudonym "Christelle" -- recounted her allegations to the judge in Ramadan's presence.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Israeli aircraft hit a Hamas compound in the southern Gaza Strip today, after Palestinians there fired a rocket into the Jewish state, the Israeli army said.

"In response to the projectile fired at southern Israel...fighter jets struck a Hamas compound composed of two military structures," the army statement said.

There were no reports of casualties on either side.

It was the second exchange in 24 hours, after the air force hit a Hamas position in Gaza yesterday in response to a rocket being fired from the Palestinian enclave the night before.

Such rockets are usually fired not by Hamas, the Islamist group that controls the territory, but by fringe radical groups.

Israel holds Hamas, with which it has fought three wars since 2008, responsible for any fire coming from Gaza.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Jammu and Kashmir unit of the BJP said today it would press for early panchayat polls at the all party meeting to be chaired by Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti tomorrow.

Minister for Rural Development, Panchayati Raj, Law and Justice, Abdul Haq Khan, said yesterday the meeting was called with an to seek views of all political parties on the polls.

The BJP governs the state in alliance with Mufti's PDP.

A BJP state unit spokesman said its state president Sat Sharma and other leaders will represent the party at the meeting. "The BJP will press for early panchayat elections in the state," he said after a meeting of state core committee.

The spokesman said the core committee unanimously decided that it is mandatory to hold elections in a time-bound manner which would eventually lead to the decentralisation of power.

The government had decided to hold the panchayat polls from February 15 after a meeting between Mufti and Governor N N Vohra in December.

Two days after their meeting, separatist leaders Syed Ali Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Mohammad Yasin Malik in a joint statement called for boycotting the upcoming elections.

Militant-outfit Hizbul Mujahideen last month threatened to throw acid on those who will participate in the polls.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)All the accused in a case filed by BJP president Amit Shah's son Jay Shah over an article published by portal 'The Wire' relating to his company today denied the allegation of criminal defamation against them, according to Jay Shah's lawyer.

Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate S K Gadhvi recorded the statements of the accused today, his lawyer Prakash Patel said.

With the accused denying the allegation that they indulged in criminal defamation, the trial will start from the next hearing on March 17 with Jay Shah's examination, he said.

Jay Shah had moved court alleging criminal defamation by the accused after the article published by the website claimed his company's turnover grew exponentially following the BJP- led government coming to power at the Centre in 2014.

Shah filed the criminal defamation case against the author of the article Rohini Singh, founding editors of the portal Siddharth Varadarajan, Siddharth Bhatia and M K Venu, managing editor Monobina Gupta, public editor Pamela Philipose and the owner of the portal, Foundation for Independent Journalism.

The accused had earlier moved the Gujarat High Court to get the case quashed, but got no relief.

Jay Shah has separately filed a civil defamation suit of Rs 100 crore against the website over the article.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) today urged the Assam government to sort out the problematic areas that are hindering the timely completion of projects funded by it in the state.

"There are problems in entry permission procedures. The security situation is also a cause of concern. Availability of land, preparation of Environmental Impact Assessment and counterpart funds are matters of concern in Assam," JICA India Office Chief Representative Takema Sakamoto said on the first day of the two-day global investors summit Advantage Assam.

Sakamoto said that the Assam government has to work to overcome these challenges, so that JICA can maintain its good track ecord and return value for the investments made in the state.

JICA has a long presence in Assam. We had been working in the state since 1981 and we are keen to expand our cooperation with the state, Sakamoto said.

JICA has committed projects worth over Rs 6,000 crore in Assam at the moment, including the water supply and sewerage treatment projects in Guwahati.

Besides those in Assam, JICA is engaged in projects in other North Eastern states too, including forest management and connectivity projects.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Utah billionaire and philanthropist Jon Huntsman Sr., who overcame poverty to become one of the state's most successful and powerful people, died today at age 80.

Huntsman's longtime assistant Pam Bailey said he died in Salt Lake City but she declined to name a cause of death.

Huntsman was the founder and longtime executive chairman of Huntsman Corp., a USD 13 billion company that refines raw materials that go into thousands of products.

He was also the father of Jon Huntsman Jr., the US ambassador to Russia and former Utah governor, presidential candidate and ambassador to China and Singapore.

The elder Huntsman and his family have given away more than USD 1.4 billion, including donations to a Salt Lake City cancer institute that bears his name.

"Cancer is hideous and deplorable and must be conquered, and it will be, as any evil eventually is defeated," Huntsman wrote in his 2014 autobiography. He said he would see to it that the institute continues its mission "if it takes my last dollar--and I expect that will be the case."



In 1970, Huntsman founded the Huntsman Container Corp., which focused on food packaging and pioneered the clamshell container used for McDonald's Corp.'s Big Mac hamburger.

He formed Huntsman Chemical Corp. in 1982 and more than a decade later, consolidated his companies as Huntsman Corp., producing materials used in a wide range of products, from textiles and paints to plastics and aviation components.

Huntsman stepped down from his role in December and his son Peter Huntsman took over as the company's leader. His father continued to serve on the company's board of director and was named chairman emeritus.

After amassing his fortune, Huntsman gave USD 10 million the University of Utah in 1992 to establish the Huntsman Cancer Institute, a research center dedicated to finding a cure through human genetics.

Two years later, he gave USD 100 million to the institute, at the time the largest ever financial contribution to medical research.

Huntsman, who lost both his parents to cancer and fought his own battle with the disease, said he wanted the institute to help make Utah the cancer research capital of the world. He also wielded his power as a billionaire benefactor to the center.

After the cancer institute's director and CEO was fired in April 2017, Huntsman mounted a public campaign criticizing leaders of the university and took out full-age newspaper advertisements calling the officials "inept and uncaring."



The director and CEO was reinstated a week after her firing and the school's health care leader and president stepped down.

The billionaire and his family also gave generously to Utah's homeless shelters as well as more than USD 50 million to the Armenian people after a 1988 earthquake in that country left thousands homeless.

He also played key roles in state and national politics.

Huntsman was a special assistant to President Richard Nixon in 1971-72 and briefly ran his own 1988 campaign for Utah's governor.

Huntsman later served as a finance chairman for Mitt Romney's 2008 presidential bid and in 2012, worked for his son's presidential bid, giving more than USD 1.8 billion to a super PAC supporting the younger Huntsman.

Following his son's short-lived race for the Republican nomination, Huntsman kept a toehold in Utah current affairs, occasionally offering political commentary to Utah newspapers and even expressing an interest in purchasing The Salt Lake Tribune.

His son Paul Huntsman purchased the newspaper in 2016 and brought his father on as the will serve in a role at the newspaper as chairman emeritus.

In the 1980s, Huntsman explored purchasing the Tribune's competitor, the Mormon-church owned Deseret He met with high-level leaders with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter- day Saints but faith leaders did not want to pursue the offer, Huntsman wrote in his autobiography.

A committed member of the Mormon church, Huntsman served in several high-level leadership positions with the faith and had close friendships with the past five church presidents.

Huntsman said the family was exposed to the dark side of wealth and fame in 1987, when his then-16-year-old son James Huntsman was kidnapped at knifepoint from his driveway.

The teenager was forced to call his father to arrange payment of USD 1 million ransom when police and FBI agents moved in to rescue him.

Huntsman was born in 1937 in Blackfoot, Idaho and later moved to California, where he met his wife Karen while in junior high there.

The couple later moved to Salt Lake City in the 1970s where they raised nine children, many of whom became involved in the family business.

Huntsman is survived by his wife and eight children. One daughter Kathleen Ann Huntsman died in 2010 at age 44 after struggling for years with an eating disorder.

Baily had no immediate details on funeral plans.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The president of the Maldives has fired a national police chief for the second time in three days, as political unrest grows after a court ordered the release and retrial of political prisoners, including an ex- president.

President Yameen Abdul Gayoom's office says he dismissed Ahmed Saudhee today and appointed Deputy Police Commissioner Abdulla Nawaz to act as interim police chief. No reason was given for the dismissal.

Saudhee was appointed interim police chief Friday, one day after Yameen fired Ahamed Areef for not answering his phone calls.

Thursday night's court ruling ordered the release and retrial of politicians opposed to Gayoom, including ex- President Mohammed Nasheed, saying their guilty verdicts were politically influenced.

The ruling has led to protests by opposition supporters urging the government to obey the order.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A 32-year-old construction worker died today after he was allegedly pushed out of a train by some transgenders following a quarrel, police said.

Sathyanarayana of Godavari district was allegedly thrown out after a heated exchange when he refused to give money to the transgenders, they said.

His friend Dharam Veera jumped out to save Sathyanarayana and was injured, police said.

Both of them suffered head injuries.

Police said the two were travelling in the Alappuzha-bound Bokaro Steel City Express, en route to Coimbatore, when a quarrel broke out after the train left Samalpatti railway station in Krishnagiri district where a group of transgenders got into the train.

Both Sathyanarayana and Dharam Veera refused to give them money, leading to an altercation.

The transgenders allegedly thrashed them and then threw Sathayanarayana out of the train, police said.

On a complant from the passengers, police rushed the injured to the nearby Oothangarai government hospital.

The doctors declared Sathyanarayana brought dead while Veera was undergoing treatment.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Chancellor Angela Merkel warned today that Germany's top parties still had "very serious differences" to overcome ahead of next week's deadline for sealing a coalition deal.

Heading into what she called the "decisive phase of the negotiations" on a new right-left "grand coalition", Merkel said her conservatives and the Social Democrats (SPD) would have to haggle down to the wire.

"There is still a whole range of very serious differences -- we have an enormous amount of work ahead of us," she said in reference to policies on refugees, the labour market and health insurance.

"I hope we will succeed but the problems are, as I said, not yet solved."



Germany has been in political limbo since a September 24 election in which Merkel failed to win a clear majority, in part due to the rise of the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD) which took millions of votes from all major parties.

Merkel initially turned to two smaller parties, the Free Democrats and Greens, to form a new coalition government for her fourth term. But when those talks collapsed in November, she had to once more woo a reluctant SPD for a new pact.

Both main parties reached a breakthrough deal in January when they presented an in-principle agreement to start formal coalition talks that could lead to a new government for the biggest EU economy by the end of March.

However, with the devil in the details, they have again clashed on divisive policies -- especially SPD demands to shift temporary workers to permanent contracts, and to make Germany's health insurance system fairer.

Young Social Democrats in particular are against any alliance with Merkel.

"Someone else could also lead" the government, their leader Kevin Kuehnert told RTL television, speaking of the possibility of a minority government.

National agency DPA reported today that they also reopened another point of contention -- whether their agreed cap of allowing in 180,000 to 220,000 new asylum seekers a year should be regarded as a firm limit as sought by conservatives, or a flexible goal.

But that particular bone of contention was sorted out later in the day, DPA reported.

The SPD, which slid below 20 per cent support in latest polls, has been under particular pressure to deliver results -- especially since its rank-and-file members will be allowed to vote on whether the party should once again govern in Merkel's shadow.

Scepticism is high after the SPD scored a humiliating result in September, its worst of the post-war era. That initially led party leader Martin Schulz to vow to head into opposition to rebuild the party's fighting spirit and voter appeal.

In the final stretch, the parties have said they would like to wrap up talks by tomorrow but have given themselves a two-day grace period until Tuesday if they are still struggling with key issues.

Schulz agreed there was still "quite of bit of need to negotiate" and said he would not allow the impending deadline to pressure him into a hasty agreement.

"Thoroughness must come before speed," he said.

Horst Seehofer, head of the Christian Social Union, the Bavarian sister party of Merkel's Christian Democrats, said changes in health insurance and employment policy demanded by the SPD were the main bones of contention.

But he expressed optimism they would reach a deal to end the political standstill which has gripped Europe's top economy since September.

"I am convinced that we will manage to do it in the coming days," he told reporters.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)To deter the practice of triple talaq, the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) is all set to introduce a new provision in its model nikahnama in which the man has to commit that he will not give triple talaq (instant dovorce), a spokesman of the Board said here.

The development comes at a time when the government is making a strong pitch for the passage of bill that criminalises triple talaq, a Muslim way of divorce which is still in practice despite the Supreme Court striking it down in August last year, in the ongoing Budget Session of Parliament.

The AIMPLB has maintained that it against the practice of triple talaq, but it has opposed the proposed legislation saying it is an interference in Muslim personal law. The Board has, however, faced criticism for failing to bring reforms in personal laws.

"Yes... we are making a provision in the model nikahnama (Islamic marriage contract) in which there will be column - 'I will not give triple talaq'. Once during nikah (marriage) this column is ticked, one will not be able to give triple talaq," AIMPLB spokesman Maulana Khalil-ur-Rehman Sajjad Nomani told PTI here.

He said that a detailed discussion on the matter will be held at AIMPLB meeting in Hyderabad from February 9.

Besides other social issues, the two-day annual general meeting of the Board is likely to deliberate on developments in the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid case.

The Board is also likely to finalise its roadmap for the coming year.

"In this meeting, the campaign being run against social evils such as triple talaq and dowry will be reviewed. The AIMPLB feels that without social awareness, no system in the country can succeed.

"The Board is running a big campaign in the country. The messengers of the Board will reach every madrassa and mosque and tell people to stay away from social evils like dowry and triple talaq," he said.

A progress report will also be sought on the work done and based on this, a plan for the next year will be prepared, he said.

"Since, the cases of triple talaq happen generally among the less educated, the Board will work hard in rural areas. Students and teachers of madrassas will be included as messengers.

"Their main job will be to spread the message about evils of dowry and triple talaq. If the need for divorce arises, then one should first contact and consult a cleric and stay away from triple talaq," Nomani said.

The spokesperson said that this campaign had gained momentum in the past one year.

Nomani said the board was also using various social media tools in this regard.

"The AIMPLB is strictly against triple talaq, but in some circumstances, triple talaq has been recognised. In many cases, the women themselves seek triple talaq.

"People, who are not involved with the (Muslim) society perceive that all the cases of triple talaq are committed by men. This is completely wrong," Nomani said.

In August, the Supreme Court struck down the controversial Islamic practice of instant divorce or 'talaq- e-biddat' as arbitrary and unconstitutional



The government later brought the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill which was passed by the Lok Sabha on December 28. It seeks to declare instant triple a criminal offence with a provision of up to three years in jail for the husband.

Political parties indulged in a slugfest both inside and outside Parliament when the bill was tabled last month in the Rajya Sabha, where the BJP-led NDA does not enjoy majority.

While the government wanted a debate on the bill in the Rajya Sabha, the opposition demanded that it be sent to a Select Committee for scrutiny before it is a made a law.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar has said that cooperation of all political parties has been sought to bring about consensus on the issue to ensure the passage of bill in the current session.

The RJD, AIMIM, BJD, AIADMK and All India Muslim League oppose the bill, calling it arbitrary in nature and a faulty proposal.

The Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill would only be applicable on instant triple talaq or 'talaq-e- biddat'.

It gives power to the victim to approach a magistrate seeking "subsistence allowance" for herself and minor children. A victim can also seek the custody of her minor children from the magistrate.

Under the proposed law, instant triple talaq in any form -- spoken, in writing or by electronic means such as email, SMS and WhatsApp -- would be illegal and void.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Congress today charged the Modi government with targeting political opponents by implicating them in false cases to divert people's attention from the "paralysis of governance", a day after party leader Bhupinder Singh Hooda was chargesheeted by the CBI in a corruption case.

Congress communications in-charge Randeep Surjewala said that the party would not be cowed down by "such political vendetta" the Modi government had been unleashing against its leaders with a view to save itself from public outrage ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

He cited the example of the Bofors case and alleged that the BJP-led central government was keeping the issue alive to defame the Congress. The CBI yesterday filed a petition in the Supreme Court challenging a 2005 order of the Delhi High Court quashing all charges against accused persons in the politically-sensitive Bofors pay-off case.

Surjewala alleged that this was being done purely with a view to divert attention from "paralysis of governance" and was part of a "conspiracy hatched by the Modi government and the BJP leadership for their vested political interests".

"The Modi government is indulging in political vendetta by lodging Congress leaders in false cases. As its political graph is falling down, the government is getting Congress leaders implicated in baseless and false cases through CBI and other agencies.

"But, Congress leaders will fight these conspiracies and false criminal cases with full rigour," he told reporters here.

Former Haryana chief minister Hooda and 33 others were yesterday chargesheeted by the CBI in the case of alleged corruption in Manesar land deals worth over Rs 1,500 crore, in which around 200 farmers were cheated.

Surjewala also targeted the Haryana government, alleging that these cases were also being used as a ploy to divert the attention from the abject "failure" of the state government in Haryana, where law and order has "broken down completely and anarchy prevails".

He said that several Congress leaders such as Bhupender Singh Hooda, Virbhadra Singh, Ashok Gehlot, Sachin Pilot, P Chidambaram and his family, Ashok Chavan, Sheila Dikshit and Harish Rawat have been booked in false cases.

"There is public outrage against the Modi government in the country. The government wants to throttle opposition voice," the Congress leader said.

He said that the BJP-led government is using agencies such as the CBI as their "captive puppets".

"CBI has truly become a BJP's 'Captive Bureau of Investigation'. Rank politicisation of CBI by Modi Government to seek revenge against opposition leaders is writ large in successive cases," he also said.

According to the CBI FIR in the Manesar case, it is alleged that on August 27, 2004 and August 25, 2005, the Haryana government issued separate notifications for the acquisition of 912 acres of land for setting up an industrial model township at Manesar, Naurangpur and Lakhnoula villages in Gurgaon.

Threatening the farmers with the government's acquisition process, builders allegedly purchased around 459 acres from farmers at prices in the range of Rs 20-25 lakh per acre to Rs 1.50 crore per acre, the CBI has alleged.

Around 350 acres of land were bought at throwaway price of Rs 20-25 lakh per acre, while another 50 acres at the rate of even Rs 1.50 crore (approx) per acre, it said.

In 2007, the builders allegedly gave a plea in the office of the then chief minister, Bhupinder Singh Hooda, seeking withdrawal of the acquisition process which was done two months later on August 24, the CBI has alleged.

Surjewala said that Manesar land was released on August 24, 2007 and the Harayana's Khattar government lodged an FIR after eight years - on August 12, 2015 against unnamed persons, which was then handed over by "a predetermined design" to the CBI.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Refugees from Myanmar who took shelter in four villages in Mizoram's Lawngtlai district are being moved to one relief camp at Hmawngbuchhuah village, district officials said today.

They are being moved to a single place so that they could be given proper attention, food, essential commodities and relief materials, the officials said.

The refugees, now numbering 1,053, including 566 women belonging to 244 families, are refusing to return to their homes in Myanmar, though the Assam Rifles personnel and the Myanmarese Army officials said that Paletwa and nearby villages were safe for the people to return.

Earlier, the Myanmarese nationals fled their villages in Myanmar's Chin state and took shelter in Mizoram's Laitlang, Zochachhuah, Dumzautlang and Hmawngbuchhuah villages since November 25 last year, an official said.

They fled after the Myanmarese Army launched massive crackdown on the Arakan Army (AA) militants in the area.

The refugees do not want to return to Myanmar as they fear that landmines planted along the Mizoram-Myanmar border, where the Myanmar Army and the AA militants clashed for months, could endanger their lives, the official said.

One woman was killed by a concealed landmine and a man was maimed by another landmine blast in January near the Mizoram-Myanmar border in the district.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The BJP leaders of Nagaland have written to party chief Amit Shah, expressing their resentment against the saffron party's pre-poll alliance with the newly- floated Nationalist Democratic People's Party (NDPP) for the February 27 state Assembly election.

The letter was sent to Shah last night, soon after the agreement between the two parties was signed in Delhi. The announcement of the tie-up was made today.

Signed by Nagaland BJP president Visasolie Lhoungu and general secretary Eduzu Theluo among others, the letter said the alliance had "no roots at the grassroot level".

It added that the 20:40 seat-sharing pact between the BJP and the NDPP, led by former chief minister Neiphiu Rio, for the 60-member Assembly was not justified since it was the NDPP which had approached the saffron party for the alliance.

"The Nagaland BJP has about 45 potential intending candidates seeking party tickets," the letter said, adding that the prospect of the saffron party was gaining momentum in the north-eastern state with every passing day.

"We are confident of achieving a resounding success across the state, much better than the NDPP...In this context, it is very likely that if the seat-sharing agreement is taken up officially, it will have a highly negative impact on the current status of the party in Nagaland," it said.

Moreover, the supporters of the intending BJP candidates might withdraw their allegiance if only 20 seats were allotted to the saffron party, the letter said, while expressing confidence that if it fought the polls on its own, there was more scope for the legislators of other parties to join it.

"Taking this into consideration, the Nagaland BJP cannot accept a pre-poll alliance with any party.

"We have, therefore, decided to fight the upcoming Assembly election without any pre-poll alliance and may opt for a post-poll alliance, based on necessity. This decision has been taken after thorough discussions and in consultation with the district units and morchas of the party," the letter said.

Sources in the Nagaland BJP said similar letters would be submitted to the central leadership by the presidents of the 11 district units of the party and its frontal organisations in the north-eastern state.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Nine members of a gang of snatchers were arrested and more than 1,000 mobile phones were seized from them here, police said today.

Senior superintendent of police H N Singh said that following an information, the members of the 'Jhapat Maar Gang', some of them who are shopkeepers, were arrested.

The snatchers used to steal mobile phones from the NCR area and sell it in Lone town, he said.

The snatchers told that after purchasing the stolen mobile phones, the shopkeepers used to change their International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) with the help of high-end devices before selling them to customers, the official said.

A total of 1,438 mobile phones were seized from them, he said.

It becomes impossible for the police to trace the stolen mobile phones in case the IMEI number of a phone is changed, the SSP added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Jammu and Kashmir government today said there is no proposal under consideration to constitute a judicial commission to probe the death of 106 people during the 2016 unrest in the valley.

"No such proposal is under consideration of the government," Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti, who holds the portfolio of home department, said in a written reply in the Legislative Assembly to a question by CPI(M) MLA MY Tarigami.

The CPI(M) legislator had asked the government whether it intended to constitute a judicial commission to probe the killings.

Mehbooba said 85 people were killed in the Kashmir Valley and one life was lost in the Jammu region in law and order incidents in 2016, following the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani in an encounter with security forces.

She said 20 people were killed in incidents of violence in 2017.

The chief minister said 9,042 people were injured between July 2016 and February 27, 2017.

The injured included 6,221 who were hit by pellets and 368 who received bullet injuries.

Mehbooba said a committee headed by the principal secretary, home, was constituted on January 27, 2017 to determine the eligibility of the families or next of kins of those killed in "law and order disturbances" in Kashmir from July 8 2016 to November 2, 2016 for consideration and payment of exgratia.

On the recommendations of the committee, an ex-gratia relief of Rs five lakhs each was sanctioned in favour of the families or next of kins of 77 civilians killed in law and order disturbances in the valley, the chief minister said.

Another committee was constituted under the chairmanship of the divisional commissioner, Kashmir, to identify people who have been permanently or partially disabled in the valley from July 8 2016 to November 2, 2016, she said.

The committee in the first phase recommended 54 victims for grant of exgratia which was sanctioned by the government on January 5, 2018, she said.

In the second phase, Mehbooba said, the committee recommended 10 more cases in December 2017 for grant of exgratia relief. The recommendations are being examined.

She said 13 people have been appointed in various departments by the general administration department on extreme compassionate grounds.

The chief minister said all the injured were treated with due care and specialized treatment was provided whenever required.

She said 936 people were detained under the provisions of the Public Safety Act from July 2016 to December 28 2017.

"Detention cases are being reviewed by the government from time to time in consultation with the criminal investigation department... And a good number of persons have also been released from time to time, she said.

At present, Mehbooba said, there are only 167 people in preventive detention including 16 detenues under the provisions of the Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act.

On pellet guns, Mehbooba said these are used sparingly, strictly as per the standard operational procedure for graded response in law and order situation, particularly when all the other means and methods of controlling the agitating mobs, like teargas, oleoresin grenades and stun grenades fail.

"The pellets are fired, as and when required, below the waist line so as to cause minimum damage to the member of the agitating mobs and the violent protesters. The pellet guns are not being used against any peaceful protest," she said.

The Jammu and Kashmir High Court Bar Association, Srinagar, had filed a PIL before the court seeking ban on pellet guns as means of crowd control in 2016.

The court, its its order on September 21, 2016, had declined to prohibit the use of 12 bore pellet gun, she said.

The high court order has been challenged in the Supreme court and the matter is currently sub-judice, Mehbooba said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Adani Group Chairman Gautam Adani on Saturday said the intense resistance to his group's Australian coal mining project was "abetted by some international NGOs and competitors" and termed personal attacks on him as "vicious".

The Adani Group entered Australia in 2010 with the purchase of greenfield Carmichael coal mine in the Galilee Basin in central Queensland, and the Abbot Point port near Bowen in the north.

Speaking at the SRCC Business Conclave, Adani said the group has lined up $15 billion investment in a greenfield venture in Australia to mine and transport coal that would replace a part of the poorer quality domestic coal being burnt in India.

"However in recent years our project has faced intense resistance abetted by some international NGOs and competitors who have turned to vicious personal attacks and used the press to their advantage," said Adani, who rarely addresses public forum.

The coal mining project in Australia would create significant job opportunities within Australia, while bringing energy security to 18,000 villages in India that have no access to electricity.

The group's planned investments in Australia, Adani said, is the "largest overseas greenfield investment ever" by any Indian company.

Despite job creation opportunities, the Carmichael project has been facing opposition from environmentalists and indigenous groups. The Indian energy giant has for more than five years been battling the opposition to any expansion of the Abbot Point port.

Stating that the Group's journey from thermal power to coal mining has often come under criticism, Adani said that while he agrees global warming is a challenge and a cleaner energy base is critical, however, it is possible to believe in both coal as well as renewables.

"The fact is that renewable energy technologies are not currently ready to provide uninterrupted base load power. The fact is that it is our responsibility to get electricity to the Indian child who needs to light that single bulb to educate himself," Adani said.

He said in India there are 300 million citizens that lack access to power and the country is one of the lowest emitters of carbon-di-oxide on a per capita basis.

The Adani group is "aggressively pushing renewable energy" and has featured as one of the top 15 renewable players in the world, he said.

Adani interjected his address to the students of SRCC with his life story on how from a high school drop out at the age of 16, he created a global integrated infrastructure group with a revenue of about $11 billion.

"You are at a point of time where the future of our nation is full of incredible growth opportunities. If I, against all odds, made it as an entrepreneur there is no reason why here cannot be a thousand greater entrepreneurs amongst you too," he said in his 30-minute speech.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A special CBI court here today concluded the hearing on a discharge application filed by former Gujarat director general of police P P Pandey in the Ishrat Jahan "fake" encounter case with Judge J K Pandya reserving the order for February 16.

Pandey, currently out on bail, had contended that the statements of two witnesses against him were contradictory and that none of the other 105 witnesses examined by the court had named him.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had named him as an accused in its chargesheet, without obtaining the mandatory sanction from the Centre, Pandey's lawyer told the court.

He also referred to Pandey's elevation as the in-charge DGP (even when the case was pending against him) as one of the grounds for discharging his client from the case.

Pandey had resigned in April last year after his appointment as the in-charge DGP was challenged in the Supreme Court.

The CBI had opposed his discharge plea, saying it had enough evidence to prove that he was part of the conspiracy to carry out the alleged fake encounter.

Ishrat Jahan's mother Shamima Kauser and Javed Sheikh alias Pranesh Pillai's father Gopinath Pillai were made respondents by the court in the matter on their request. Both opposed Pandey's application, saying if he was discharged, it would obstruct the investigation.

Ishrat Jahan, a 19-year-old college girl from Mumbra near Mumbai, her friend Javed Sheikh alias Pranesh Pillai, Zeeshan Johar and Amjad Rana were killed by Ahmedabad crime branch officials in the alleged fake encounter on June 15, 2004.

Pandey was the head of the city crime branch then.

The Gujarat police had claimed that Ishrat and the others were terrorists with links with Pakistan-based terror outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT).

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A Palestinian man was shot dead in clashes with the Israeli army today during a raid in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian health ministry said.

The man was shot in the head after fighting broke out during an Israeli army incursion into the village of Burqin in the northern West Bank, it said.

The health ministry identified the dead man as Ahmad Abu Obeid, 19.

The army did not comment on the death, but said in a statement it had entered the village, near the city of Nablus, in an attempt to find suspects in the shooting dead of an Israeli rabbi in January.

Raziel Shevah, a 35-year-old rabbi, was shot dead near Havat Gilad, a wildcat Jewish settlement outpost in the Nablus area, on January 9.

The army has been since launched multiple violent raids to search for the suspected killer, 22-year-old Ahmed Jarrar.

Jarrar is the son of Nasser Jarrar, a member of Islamist militant movement Hamas who was killed while fighting Israeli forces during the second Palestinian intifada.

The army did not say if he had been caught during the raid.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Delhi government's Anti- Corruption Branch (ACB) has launched a probe into AAP MLA Amanatullah Khan's complaints, including one against Congress leader Haroon Yusuf, alleging corruption in the functioning of the Delhi Waqf Board, officials said.

The anti-graft body has written to the Delhi Waqf Board, asking it to provided files and papers related to Khan's allegations, a senior official of the Waqf Board said.

The official said that the ACB has also handed over a questionnaire to the Waqf Board based on Khan's complaints, seeking details of the issues raised.

"The papers are being sorted and queries are being replied as has been sought by the ACB," he said.

A senior official of the ACB also confirmed the development, without giving details.

Khan in his complaint to Delhi government's Directorate of Vigilance, in September 2016, had alleged that Yusuf, who was the Wafq Board chairman from 1999-2004, had continued to use the services of a Waqf Board driver named Rafique even after he became a minister and the board bore all his expenses, including salary.

"By illegal and unlawful taking over of the employee of Delhi Waqf Board in his personal service, Haroon Yusuf converted a valuable resource of the Waqf Board into his own personal use thereby causing wrongful gain to himself and loss to the board," Khan had alleged in his complaint.

His other complaints pertain to leasing of Waqf Board's 62-bigha land at Punjab Khod near Narela at lower prices and hoarding of contracts causing "huge losses" to the the Waqf Board.

Yusuf served as the Waqf Board chairman before he was made the power minister in the Sheila Dikshit government in 2005.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The bitterness between Donald Trump and the FBI has intensified after the release of a controversial Republican memo, with the president calling its a "disgrace" while the agency's chief pledging to defend his agents.

The memo which was released yesterday accuses senior law enforcement officials of misleading a court in order to conduct surveillance on a former Trump campaign adviser during its probe into the alleged Russian collusion in the 2016 election.

"The memorandum raises serious concerns about the integrity of decisions made at the highest levels of the Department of Justice and the FBI to use the government's most intrusive surveillance tools against American citizens," White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said in a statement.

The memo, written by House Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes, alleges that the FBI used the opposition research dossier on Trump and Russia written by ex-British intelligence agent Christopher Steele to secure a FISA surveillance warrant on former Trump foreign policy adviser Carter Page without disclosing that the dossier was funded in part by Democratic sources.

Sanders said the decision to release the memo was made with input from the president's national security team



including law enforcement officials and members of the intelligence community.

"..for whom the president has great respect. He is especially grateful to the hardworking rank-and-file public servants who work every day to keep America safe and uphold our laws while protecting the constitutional rights of all Americans," Sanders said.

Noting that minority members of the Committee have reportedly drafted a separate memorandum, Sanders said the administration stands ready to work with Congress to accommodate oversight requests consistent with applicable standards, including the need to protect intelligence sources and methods.

Trump called the memo's contents "a disgrace".

"A lot of people should be ashamed of themselves," he said following the memo's declassification.

Coming out in Trump's defence, Congressman Dana Rohrabacher said the memo "highlights a truth".

"The integrity of even our law enforcement and intelligence agencies can be politicised and compromised. From time-to-time, we all must be reminded of that vulnerability. That is why we must insist on congressional oversight of all federal agencies, especially of our foreign and domestic intelligence services," he said.

Rohrabacher commended Trump for "standing up for transparency" and alleged that the Democrats tried to thwart the inquiry.

"This was nothing less than an attempted cover-up of wrongdoing by the last administration. This whole episode makes Watergate pale in comparison," he said.

Publicly, the FBI said nothing, but Director Christopher Wray sent out a video and written statement to employees, urging them not to get distracted by the debate raging about them.

"The American people read the papers, and they hear lots of talk on cable TV and social media. But they see and experience the actual work you do keeping communities safe and our nation secure, often dealing with sensitive matters and making decisions under difficult circumstances," Wray said.

"And that work will always matter more. Talk is cheap; the work you do is what will endure."



It is unclear whether Trump will use the memo to fire people involved in the Russia probe, including Deputy Attorney General Rod J Rosenstein, who oversees it.

Democrats warned against any dismissals at the Justice Department, saying such moves would trigger a constitutional crisis.

Former FBI Director James Comey, who was abruptly fired by Trump last year for his handling of the Russia inquiry, criticised the memo.

"That's it?" Comey said on Twitter.

"Dishonest and misleading memo wrecked the House intel committee, destroyed trust with Intelligence Community, damaged relationship with FISA court, and inexcusably exposed classified investigation of an American citizen. For what?" Comey wrote, adding: "DOJ & FBI must keep doing their jobs."



Since he was fired, Comey has increasingly taken to Twitter to support the FBI and other intelligence agencies.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Actor Rose McGowan had a verbal altercation with a transgender woman during a book event here.

McGowan got into the shouting match with the attendee during the Barnes and Noble event, held in New York City, where the actor was promoting her memoir Brave.

The trans woman stood up during the Q&A segment and made a reference to McGowan's comments that she made in July 2last year on RuPaul's "What's the Tee?" podcast.

"I have a suggestion. Talk about what you said on RuPaul. Trans women are dying and you said that we, as trans women, are not like regular women. We get raped more often. We go through domestic violence more often," the woman said before McGowan cut her off.

"Hold on. So am I. We are the same. My point was, we are the same. There's an entire show called ID channel, a network, dedicated to women getting abused, murdered, sexualised, violated, and you're a part of that, too, sister. It's the same," McGowan replied.

The woman also accused McGowan of doing nothing for the trans women.

"Trans women are in men's prisons. And what have you done for them?" she asked.

After that, both the women started yelling at each other. The attendee was later escorted away by the security.

As the woman was being escorted, McGowan had a meltdown and she broke into a monologue which was filled with expletives.

"Don't label me, sister. Don't put your labels on me. Don't you f***ing do that. Do not put your labels on me. I don't come from your planet. Leave me alone. I do not subscribe to your rules. I do not subscribe to your language. You will not put labels on me or anybody. Step the f**k back. What I do for the world and you should be grateful. Get off my back. What have you done? I know what I've done, God dammit," McGowan said.

Following the incident, the actor has cancelled her upcoming public appearances.

"I am cancelling upcoming public appearances because I have given enough. I have given beauty, in return I was verbally assaulted for two full minutes by an actor paid to verbally assault a woman who has been terrorised by your system. And no one in that room did anything," she tweeted.

In further tweets, McGowan called out her publicists, assistants, and managers for not stepping in to stop the woman and labelled them complicit. She also demanded their apologies.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A Russian man accused of victimizing thousands of Americans with ransomware and spam has been extradited to the United States from Spain, US officials announced today.

Peter Levashov, 37, was due to appear before a federal judge in Connecticut where he faces hacking, wire and email fraud, identity theft and conspiracy charges.

Prosecutors say Levashov ran the "Kelihos" botnet, a network of thousands of infected computers used to harvest internet login credentials, distribute bulk spam emails sometimes used for fraudulent "pump-and-dump" stock promotions and install malicious software on unsuspecting users' computers.

In any given 24-hour period, Levashov's network allegedly generated more than 2,500 spam emails advertising such schemes as services to other potential cyber-criminals.

John Cronin, the acting head of the Justice Department's criminal division, said in a statement that the extradition proved the US would hunt down international cyber-criminals and "hold them accountable for their conduct."



Originally from Saint Petersburg, Levashov was arrested at Barcelona airport on April 7 by Spanish authorities acting on a US warrant. Spain's High Court authorized his extradition in October.

Levashov's lawyers in Spain said he had served in the Russian army and worked for President Vladimir Putin's United Russia party.

They argued he feared being forced to turn over confidential information to American authorities, but Spanish judges rejected these claims.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A Russian pilot was killed today in fighting with Islamists after his warplane was downed over northwest Syria, Russia's defence ministry and a monitor said.

Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a powerful jihadist-dominated alliance said, on an affiliated media channel it had shot down the plane but made no mention of the pilot.

"We were able to bring down the Russian warplane with a shoulder-fired missile above Saraqib in Idlib this afternoon," said Mahmoud al-Turkmani who, according to the statement, heads HTS's "air defence brigade."



He said the attack was in retaliation for a ferocious bombing campaign by Russian warplanes over Idlib.

HTS, which is dominated by Al-Qaeda's former affiliate in Syria, controls Idlib and has sought to fight back a ferocious Russian-backed assault by Syrian government troops.

An AFP correspondent who arrived at the crash site today saw what appeared to be the charred remains of the plane, including a wing with a red star still visible.

Firefighters arrived to put out flames that had been spewing dark smoke into the wintry Syrian sky.

The Russian defence ministry confirmed that the Su-25 aircraft was shot down over Idlib province and said the pilot was killed "in fighting against terrorists."



"A Russian Su-25 aircraft crashed during a flight over the Idlib de-escalation zone. The pilot had enough time to announce he had ejected into the zone," the defence ministry said.

"The pilot was killed in fighting against terrorists," it said, quoted by Russian agencies.

It added that "according to preliminary reports, the plane was shot down by a portable anti-aircraft missile system."



The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the jet was downed near the town of Saraqib in Idlib and the pilot parachuted to the ground.

He was killed clashing with rebels as they tried to take him hostage, said the Britain-based Observatory.

"There have been dozens of Russian air strikes in the area over the past 24 hours. This plane was also carrying out raids there," said Abdel Rahman.

The Observatory said 20 people, including eight children, were killed yesterday during a bombardment on Saraqib and surrounding villages.

Syria's uprising broke out in 2011 with protests against Assad's rule but has since morphed into a complex war drawing in global powers.

Moscow began conducting air strikes in Syria in September 2015, and its intervention has swung the nearly seven-year conflict firmly in the favour of its ally in Damascus.

Opposition factions have shot down Syrian regime planes in the past, but the downing of Russian aircraft is much rarer.

Turkey shot down a Russian warplane in November 2015, leading to the worst crisis in ties between the two countries since the end of the Cold War



And in August 2016, a Russian military helicopter was shot down over Syria and all five people on board were killed.

Russia has been spearheading a more than year-long diplomatic push to try to freeze the fighting in coordination with fellow regime ally Iran and rebel backer Turkey.

Ankara has supported an array of rebel groups to fight Syria's government, the Islamic State jihadist group, and Kurdish militia that it has blacklisted as "terrorists."



On January 20, Turkey and allied rebel fighters began an offensive on the Syrian enclave of Afrin, held by the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG).

Seven Turkish soldiers were killed yesterday as part of the assault, including five who died in a single attack on a tank, the Turkish army said.

The losses mark the highest toll in a single day for the Turkish army in operation "Olive Branch."



The Observatory has also counted 104 allied rebels and 102 YPG fighters killed since the offensive began, as well as 68 civilians.

Ankara has denied targeting civilians as part of its Afrin offensive.

Mourners today gathered in Afrin to commemorate victims of the operation, including female fighter Barin Kobani whose badly mutilated body appeared in a shocking video earlier this week.

The footage sparked accusations by her family and Kurdish officials that she was "defiled" by Turkish-backed rebels.

The opposition's government-in-exile said it had opened an investigation into the matter.

Thousands of people protested yesterday in France against Turkey's operation "Olive Branch," gathering in Strasbourg and Paris to condemn the assault.

They held posters that read "Defend Afrin" and "Erdogan assassin," in reference to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The opposition Shiromani Akali Dal today released its first list of 38 candidates for the Ludhiana municipal elections slated to be held on February 24.

The list was announced by SAD chief Sukhbir Singh Badal, a party release said.

Among the candidates were Kumari Divia Danav, Gurmail Singh Jazi, Ninderjit Kaur Dhillon, Baljinder Kaur, Sarbjit Singh Laddi, Kuldeep Kaur Bhinder and Pooja Rani.

Nominations are to be filed between February 8 and February 13.

The nomination papers will be scrutinised on February 15. The date of withdrawing of nominations is February 16 and election symbols will be allotted on the same day.

Polling would be held on February 24, while counting would take place on February 27.

Around 10.50 lakh voters are eligible cast their votes to elect their representatives from 95 wards.

Among the voters, 5.67 lakh are males, 4.82 lakh are females, while 23 belong to the third gender.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Seven CRPF personnel, deputed as security detail for UP minister Suresh Rana, were today injured, two of them severely, when their vehicle overturned on the Meerut-Karnal Highway in Shamli district, police said.

The accident took place this evening near Jhal village when the personnel were on their way to Meerut, Circle Officer Ashok Kumar said, adding that the injured were rushed to a nearby hospital, where the condition of two of them was stated as "critical".

The injured were headed to Hapur town, in western Uttar Pradesh, to escort Rana, Kumar said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A group of lawyers today took out a march in protest against the recent killings of three civilians allegedly in firing by security forces in Shopian district, police said.

The lawyers assembled outside the court complex here and took out the march, a police official said.

A spokesman of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court Bar Association expressed concern over the killings in Shopian last week and the "war-like situation" along the border.

"The Bar Association, while condemning the killings, demands immediate arrest of the guilty Army officials," the spokesman said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Veteran filmmaker Shyam Benegal was today conferred with V Shantaram Lifetime achievement award at the 15th Mumbai International Film Festival for Documentary, Short and Animation Films, here.

The filmmaker was honoured with the award for his outstanding contribution in the field of feature and documentary films.

The award, given to Benegal by Maharashtra Governor Ch Vidyasagar Rao, carries a trophy, a citation and cash prize of Rs 10 lakh.

Maharashtra's Minister of Culture and Education Vinod Tawde, Former Sheriff of Mumbai Kiran Shantaram and Director of Films Division Manish Desai were present.

At the closing ceremony of the festival today, Austrian filmmaker Stefan Bohun's documentary "Brother Jakob, Are You Sleeping?" won the prestigious Golden Conch award for the best documentary in the International Competition.

"Brother Jakob, Are You Sleeping" is a story of four brothers on a journey into the past. It is a shared path of memories, which starts in the Tyrolean Mountains after the fifth brothers death and ends in a hotel room in Porto.

The Golden Conch award carries a cash prize of Rs 1 million (Rs 10 lakh).

Certificate of Merit for the Second Best Documentary in the International Competition was announced to the Marathi/ Hindi film "Cinema Travellers". Directed and produced by Shirley Abraham and Amit Madheshiya, the film also won Best Cinematography award in National/International Competition section.

Silver Conch for the Best Short Fiction Film in the International Competition was jointly awarded to film "Aaba" (The Grandfather) directed by Amar Kaushik and Korean film "My Turn" (Nae Chalye) directed by Nakyung Kim.

The Pramod Pati Special Jury Award in International Competition was awarded to the Bengali film "I Am Bonnie", directed by Satarupa Santra, Farha Khatun and Saurabh Kanti Dutta and produced by Films Division.

In the National film competition category, Silver Conch for the Best Short Fiction under 45 minutes in was declared to the Bengali film "Sakhisona" Directed by Prantik Basu and produced by FTII, Pune.

In Animation film category, Silver Conch for the Best Animation Film in the National Competition awarded to the film "Tokri" (The Basket), directed by Suresh Eriyat.

Silver Conch for the Best Documentary (under 60 minutes) in the National Competition of MIFF 2018 was awarded to Manipuri documentary "Ima Sabitri" directed by Bobo Khuraijam whereas Silver Conch for the Best Documentary -(above 60 minutes) in the National Competition section was given to "Santhal Family to Mill Recall" directed and produced by R V Ramani.

The Jury recommended grant of Certificate of Merit to two films



"Naachi Se Baanchi" in Hindi Directed by Biju Toppo & Meghanath and produced by Films Division and English film "I Am Jeeja" directed by Swati Chakraborty.

In the technical awards category, Best Sound Design award went to Pinja Mustajoki for the Finnish film "My Secret Forest" while for Best Editing went to "InstaStories".

Shreyas Dasharathe's Gujarati film Bismaar Ghar (Withering House) bagged the award for Best Student Film in the National Competition, given by IDPA in the honour of veteran documentary maker Vijaya Mulay.

Dadasaheb Phalke Chitranagari Award for Best Debut Film went to Hindi film "Beloved", directed by Ranjan Chandel.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Silver prices slumped below the Rs 40,000 per kg level by falling Rs 500 to Rs 39,800 per kg at the bullion market today, tracking a weak trend overseas amid reduced industrial offtake.

Gold, however, ruled steady at Rs 31,250 per ten grams largely on scattered buying.

Gold of 99.9 per cent and 99.5 per cent purity ruled flat at Rs 31,250 and Rs 31,100 per ten grams respectively. Sovereign followed suit and maintained a steady trend at Rs 24,800 per piece of eight grams.

Traders yesterday observed a 'bandh' to protest against the ongoing sealing of business establishments in the city.

Marketmen said apart from a weak trend overseas, fall in demand from industrial units and coin makers at domestic spot market mainly led to fall in silver prices.

Globally, silver fell 3.63 per cent to USD 16.58 an ounce and gold by 1.22 per cent to USD 1,331.90 an ounce in New York yesterday.

In the national capital, silver ready plunged by Rs 500 to Rs 39,800 per kg and weekly-based delivery by Rs 835 to Rs 38,605 per kg.

Silver coins, however, held steady at Rs 74,000 for buying and Rs 75,000 for selling of 100 pieces.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Spain has extradited to the United States a Russian citizen who is suspected of being one of the world's most notorious spammers.

Pyotr Levashov, a 37-year-old from St Petersburg, was arrested in April while vacationing with his family in Barcelona.

US authorities had asked for him to be detained on charges of fraud and unauthorized interception of electronic communications. He was scheduled to be arraigned late Friday in a federal courthouse in Bridgeport, Connecticut, where a grand jury indicted him last year.

A statement from Spain's National Police said officers handed Levashov over to US marshals yesterday. The extradition was approved in October by Spain's National Court, which rejected a counter-extradition request from Russia.

The Russian Embassy in Washington didn't immediately respond to requests for comment.

Authorities in the US say they have linked Levashov to a series of powerful botnets, or networks of hijacked computers, that were capable of pumping out billions of spam emails.

An indictment unsealed last year said he commanded the sprawling Kelihos botnet, which at times allegedly involved more than 100,000 compromised computers that sent phony emails advertising counterfeit drugs, harvested users' logins and installed malware that intercepted bank account passwords.

On a typical day, the network would generate and distribute more than 2,500 spam emails, according to the indictment.

Levashov's lawyers have alleged the case is politically motivated and that the US wants him for reasons beyond his alleged cybercrimes. They had argued that he should be tried in Spain instead, and pointed to evidence showing that he gained access to Russian state secrets while studying in St Petersburg. Levashov's U.S.-based lawyer, Igor Litvak, didn't return emails or calls seeking comment Friday.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Tata Trusts will operate 17 cancer care centres in partnership with Assam government across 15 districts in the state from next year, entailing an investment of around Rs 2,000 crore.

"Tata group has a long standing relation with Assam. Assam is very close to us. Our cancer care programme will be launched in the state in coming days," Tata Sons Chairman Natarajan Chandrasekaran said at the inaugural function of the Global Investors Summit 2018 here.

Chandrasekaran said that the proposed healthcare initiative will be spread across 15 districts of the state.

Tata Trusts signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Assam government during the ongoing 'Advantage Assam - Global Investment Summit 2018', giving a formal shape to the plans.

Assam Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said: "The paper works of the project have already been completed. We are going to set up a joint venture company, where both the parties will put in around Rs 1,000 crore each. So, the total investment will be around Rs 2,000 crore."



A Tata Trusts official said that the proposed infrastructure footprint comprises 17 centres across the state and it will be able to provide much-needed services starting early next year.

"The Assam government and Tata Trusts are partnering in strengthening cancer control through the government's health facilities. The programme will work in hub-and-spoke model with all the medical colleges acting as the hubs, while the district hospitals will function as diagnosis and day-care centres," he added.

The official further said that a three-tiered model has been conceived with leading oncologists, which would offer different levels of cancer care ranging from complicated procedures to simple diagnostic tests.

"The model envisages building capabilities in the existing public health system. These will constitute two 'step-down' tiers to complement existing three apex cancer hospitals in the state, creating a unique care delivery model to address the cancer burden in Assam and neighbouring regions," he added.

The official further said that the model is centred on the use of technology and task shifting to facilitate operations in remote areas, and patient-centric design principles to provide a good in-hospital experience to the patient and care-giver.

"The model will ensure that no patient will have to travel more than a few hours for accessing the full suite of cancer treatment services. This 3-tier model will be supported by an extensive awareness, screening and early detection programme at the population level," he added.

Tata Trusts has convened a diverse group of top oncologists globally, leading cancer hospitals attached to the National Cancer Grid, engineers and contractors to be able to deliver on the infrastructure needed to provide diagnosis and treatment of cancer.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Tata Sons chairman Natarajan Chandrasekaran today said that the Tata Group will join hands with Assam government to roll out an elaborate cancer care programme across 15 districts of the state from next year.

"Tata group has a long-standing relation with Assam. Assam is very close to us. Our cancer care programme will be launched in the state in coming days," Chandrasekaran said at the inaugural function of the Global Investors Summit 2018 here.

The group will sign a Memorandum of Understanding during the ongoing 'Advantage Assam' summit with the state government, he added.

Chandrasekaran said that its proposed healthcare initiative will be spread across 15 districts of the state. However, he did not elaborate further.

When contacted, a Tata Group official told PTI that the proposed infrastructure footprint comprises 17 centres across the state and it will be able to provide much-needed services starting early next year.

"The Assam government and Tata Trusts are partnering in strengthening cancer control through the government's health facilities. The programme will work in hub-and-spoke model with all the medical colleges acting as the hubs, while the district hospitals will function as diagnosis and day-care centres," he added.

The official also said that a three-tiered model has been conceived with leading oncologists, which would offer different levels of cancer care ranging from complicated procedures to simple diagnostic tests.

"The model envisages building capabilities in the existing public health system.

These will constitute two 'step-down' tiers to complement existing three apex cancer hospitals in the state, creating a unique care delivery model to address the cancer burden in Assam and neighbouring regions," he added.

The official further said that the model is centred on the use of technology and task shifting to facilitate operations in remote areas, and patient-centric design principles to provide a good in-hospital experience to the patient and care-giver.

"The model will ensure that no patient will have to travel more than a few hours for accessing the full suite of cancer treatment services.

This 3-tier model will be supported by an extensive awareness, screening and early detection programme at the population level," he added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari today questioned the "silence" of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal over the killing of a 23-year-old man by the family members of a woman with whom he was in a relationship for three years.

Ankit Saxena, a professional photographer, was stabbed to death on Thursday night in west Delhi's Khyala area. The woman's family opposed her relationship with Saxena as the two belonged to different communities, according to the police.

"It is sad to see such incidents in the national capital. The silence of the chief minister and several NGOs in the matter indicates that these people speak on issues only when it suits their political interests," Tiwari charged.

Tiwari met Saxena's family earlier in the day.

During the meeting, Tiwari informed the family about the arrangements his party was making for the treatment of Saxena's mother, who was injured in the attack on her son.

"The family has made several attempts to seek medical assistance by calling on ambulance service telephone No. 1008 but they got no help. Delhi government made no arrangement for the treatment," the Delhi BJP alleged in a statement.

The police arrested the woman's father, mother, uncle and her minor brother in connection with Saxena's killing.

The Delhi unit of the BJP has demanded that the Kejriwal government announce compensation to Saxena's family as it has done in other cases by announcing Rs 1 crore as ex-gratia.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Trump administration has announced a new policy to modernise its nuclear arsenal by developing new smaller atomic bombs and enhancing its deterrence capabilities.

The strategy, President Donald Trump said, is tailored and flexible to address the wide array of threats in the 21st century.

"It pursues modernisation of our nuclear command, control, and communications, all three legs of our triad, our dual capable aircraft, and our nuclear infrastructure," said Trump after the the 2018 Nuclear Posture Review (NPR) was out at the Pentagon.

The strategy develops capabilities aimed at making use of nuclear weapons less likely, he said, adding that it enhances deterrence of strategic attacks against the US, its allies and partners, that may not come in the form of nuclear weapons.

"And, importantly, it reaffirms our commitment to arms control and nuclear non-proliferation, maintains the moratorium on nuclear testing, and commits to improving efforts to prevent, detect, and respond to nuclear terrorism," Trump said.

In his preface to the new policy, that runs into 100 pages, Defence Secretary Jim Mattis said maintaining an effective nuclear deterrent is much less expensive than fighting a war that the US was unable to deter.

"While we will be relentless in ensuring our nuclear capabilities are effective, the US is not turning away from its long-held arms control, non-proliferation, and nuclear security objectives," Mattis said.

"Our commitment to the goals of the treaty on the Non- Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) remains strong," he said.

Mattis said Russia and China are pursuing entirely new nuclear capabilities tailored to achieve particular national security objectives while also modernising its conventional military, challenging traditional US military superiority.

Russia, Mattis said, is modernising these weapons as well as its other strategic systems.

"Even more troubling has been Russia's adoption of military strategies and capabilities that rely on nuclear escalation for their success," said Mattis.

"These developments, coupled with Russia's seizure of Crimea and nuclear threats against our allies, mark Moscow's decided return to Great Power competition," he said.

North Korea and Iran are the other two countries that figure in the report.

There is no mention of Pakistan in the report, even as senior US officials in the past have expressed concerns over the security of nuclear weapons in the South Asian country.

"Expanding flexible US nuclear options now, to include low-yield options, is important for the preservation of credible deterrence against regional aggression," said the report as released by the Pentagon.

"It will raise the nuclear threshold and help ensure that potential adversaries perceive no possible advantage in limited nuclear escalation, making nuclear employment less likely," the report said.

The US will maintain, and enhance as necessary, the capability to forward deploy nuclear bombers and dual capability aircraft (DCA) around the world, it said.

Additionally, in the near-term, the US will modify a small number of existing SLBM warheads to provide a low-yield option, and in the longer term, pursue a modern nuclear-armed sea-launched cruise missile (SLCM), the report said.

For the longer term, the US will pursue a nuclear-armed SLCM, leveraging existing technologies to help ensure its cost effectiveness, according to the report.

"SLCM will provide a needed non-strategic regional presence, an assured response capability. It also will provide an arms control compliant response to Russia's non-compliance with the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty, its non- strategic nuclear arsenal, and its other destabilising behaviours," the report said.

The Nuclear report also said the US will not use or threaten to use nuclear weapons against non-nuclear weapons states that are party to the NPT and in compliance with their nuclear nonproliferation obligations.

Following the release of the report, US Ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, said the NPR makes sure the US remains flexible and well prepared for the unique threats it faces today.

"We want to see a world that is free of nuclear weapons, but our nuclear policy needs to be rooted in the reality of the world we live in, where aggressive regimes like North Korea threaten us and our allies with their pursuit of illegal nuclear and ballistic weapons," said Haley.

"While we have continued to reduce the size of our nuclear arsenal, countries like Russia and China have moved in the opposite direction. The NPR appropriately addresses the nature of these threats and ensures that the safety and security of the American people remain our top priority," she said.

In a special briefing with reporters at the Pentagon, Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, Tom Shannon, said that in addition to China and Russia, other "unfriendly regimes and enemies of the US put lives at risk by pursuing nuclear weapons".

"North Korea continues its illicit nuclear weapons programme and missile capabilities. Iran retains the technological capability to develop a nuclear weapon within one year of deciding to do so," Shannon said.

He said that nuclear terrorism is still a major threat in the 21st century and countries need to work to mitigate it.

"The potential threat of non-state actors getting their hands on a nuclear weapon remains at the front of all of our minds," Shannon said.

"Because of the dangerous world we live in and our unwavering commitment to our allies, the 2018 NPR focuses on strengthening extended deterrence," he said.

The US has formal extended deterrence commitments that assure European, Asian and Pacific allies of its commitment to use nuclear force to protect them, if necessary.

Ongoing, close collaboration with allies and partners is essential to deterring or defeating the common threats they face, said Shannon, noting that this collaboration includes sustained dialogues and joint military exercises.

"But we also realise that every ally and partner faces a different threat environment. We will continue to work with them to tailor our assurance strategies in ways that are most effective for their specific situation," he said.

Shannon said the US remains committed to the allies under its nuclear umbrella.

"Our extended deterrence commitments are unwavering. We have the ability and will to fulfil them. Potential adversaries should not doubt our resolve," Shannon said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)President Donald Trump said Friday that K T McFarland has withdrawn from consideration to be ambassador to Singapore.

Trump expressed his "disappointment" and said McFarland served the administration "with distinction."



He said Democrats "chose to play rather than move forward with a qualified nominee for a critically important post."



McFarland is a former deputy national security adviser in the Trump administration and former Fox analyst. She was first nominated in May, but her nomination was in doubt amid questions about her communications with ex-national security adviser Michael Flynn.

Flynn was fired by Trump in February for misleading senior administration officials about his contacts with Russia's ambassador to the US. He pleaded guilty to one count of making false statements to FBI agents and is now cooperating with Mueller's investigation.

McFarland's nomination was not taken up by the Republican-led Senate by the end of last year, leading to a re-nomination in January.

According to two former transition officials, McFarland was referenced in court papers as an unnamed Trump transition team member who spoke with Flynn in 2016 about what, if anything, to say about sanctions that had just been imposed on Russia by the Obama administration in response to election meddling.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to publicly discuss the matter. McFarland did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Two Indian nationals were arrested by the Sri Lankan Navy for allegedly trying to smuggle 425 gms of heroin worth Rs 1 crore to the island nation.

Acting on a tip-off, a team of naval personnel apprehended the duo, hailing from Dhanushkodi, off Mannar in their territorial waters last night and seized 425 gms of heroin and tobacco products (beedi), Intelligence Bureau sources said today.

Both were taken to Thalaimannar there along with their country boat, they said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Two university students, residents of Jammu and Kashmir, were allegedly beaten up by some people in Haryana's Mahendragarh, following which three accused have been arrested, the police said on Saturday.

Aftab Ahmad and Amjad, students of Central University of Haryana claimed that they were thrashed by a group of unidentified people yesterday "for no reason".

The police, however, claimed that a verbal duel took place between the complainants and two locals, after their motorcycles were involved in a minor accident.

The locals then called more people who then allegedly beat them up, the police said,



But Ahmad said, "Yesterday we went to a market in Mahendragarh. After offering prayers, when we started our bike, 15 to 20 people came and started beating us for no reason."



A police official said, "We have identified six people and three of them have been arrested."Jammu and Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti has urged her Haryana counterpart Manohar Lal Khattar to ensure strict action in this case.

"Shocked and disturbed to hear reports of Kashmiri students being assaulted in Mahendragarh, Haryana. I urge the authorities to investigate and take strict action," Mufti tweeted tagging the Haryana chief minister.Two more Turkish soldiers were killed today in Turkey's offensive against Kurdish militia inside Syria, the army said, bringing to nine the number killed so far in the incursion.

Turkey on January 20 launched the "Olive Branch" operation against Syrian Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) militia which Ankara sees as a terror group and a threat to Turkish territory.

The Turkish army and allied Ankara-backed Syrian rebel forces are seeking to oust the YPG from its western border stronghold of Afrin but the operation so far has been marked by fierce clashes.

The army said that one of the soldiers was killed in a clash and another on the border area, without giving further details.

In a separate statement, it added a Turkish army tank had been hit in an attack.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Thursday the Turkish army and Ankara-backed rebels had suffered 25 fatalities between them in the operation so far.

Meanwhile, seven civilians have been killed in mortar fire on the Turkish side of the border that Ankara blames on the YPG.

Ankara says that hundreds of YPG fighters have been killed in the operation so far but it is not possible to verify this.

Turkey says the YPG is an offshoot of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) which has waged a three-decade insurgency against the Turkish state.

But the YPG has been working closely with the United States to fight the Islamic State extremist group in Syria.

The offensive by Washington's fellow NATO member Ankara on a US-allied force has even raised fears of a military confrontation between two alliance powers.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Union Drinking Water and Sanitation Minister Uma Bharti was admitted to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) here after she complained of "severe knee pain".

"She had this knee ailment for some years now. Last evening the pain was unbearable for her. She had to be admitted to AIIMS last night", a close aid of Bharati told PTI today.

Bharti is undergoing treatment at the hospital's new private ward.

"She is stable and undergoing required medication," a hospital source said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Jammu and Kashmir Assembly today witnessed noisy scenes over alleged assault on two Kashmiri students in Haryana, with several opposition members staging a walkout during the zero hour, accusing the government of failing to check such incidents.

The state government assured the House that the matter has been taken up with Haryana and three persons have been arrested in te case.

The opposition members also questioned why the government had called an an all-party meeting to discuss upcoming panchayat elections, when it has already taken all decisions in this regard.

After the house assembled, BJP state president Sat Sharma drew the attention of the house to the the death of three Army personnel in an avalanche in Gurez sector of Bandipora district in north Kashmir and the force rescuing a civilian patient despite adverse weather condition yesterday.

"The opposition should also acknowledge and praise the sacrifice and the rescue effort of the Army... They only consider it their duty to criticise the forces," he said amid thumping of desks by the BJP legislators.

Deputy Speaker Nazir Ahmad Gurezi, during the question hour, said the Indian Air Force and the Army were doing a great service to the nation which is praise worthy.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister A R Veeri intervened to make a statement before the start of the question hour, assuring the house that the government was serious on both the issues raised by the opposition.

"As far as Haryana incident is concerned, an FIR has already been lodged by (Haryana police). Two students were attacked by some miscreants (yesterday), resulting in minor injuries to one of them.

"On the directions of Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti, Principal Secretary (Home) talked to his counterpart. Besides the state DGP S P Vaid contacted the DGP of Haryana. So far three persons have been arrested in connection with the assault," he said.

After National Conference MLA Ali Mohammad Sagar questioned the logic behind holding an all-party meeting over panchayat elections "when everything has been decided", Veeri said, "we are serious about the meeting which is being chaired by the chief minister herself.

"It is the decision of the cabinet and the outcome of the all-party meet will be discussed at the cabinet and its decision will be final," he said.

The question hour passed off peacefully barring a walkout by BJP legislator Choudhary Sukhnadan over "non-satisfactory" answer to his question related to farmers.

However, the zero hour saw opposition members vociferously raising the incidents of attacks on Kashmiri students in others states.

Congress MLA G M Saroori claimed that a youth from Kishtwar was killed outside the state and demanded a statement from the government.

NC MLA Altaf Kaloo also read out a purported SMS from a student in which he alleged that they were attacked outside the state. NC members and several Congress legislators later staged a walk out to protest against what they called the government's failure to stop such attacks.

While leaving the house, Kaloo pointed towards ruling PDP legislators and said, You too are Kashmiris.

PDP MLA Mohammad Ashraf Mir said I am Kashmiri first, then Indian".

Later talking to reporters, Sagar said the attack on students outside the state is leading to alienation which is very dangerous.

"An impression goes especially in the Valley that we are not safe and secure which is a wrong signal," he said and demanded stern action against the "fringe elements" involved in such attacks.

He said that such persons cannot be friends of the country and are enemies of the nation.

"Everyone is free to go anywhere in any college or university and if he is restricted in the name of religion, region or state, that is not a good thing, the MLA said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Chief of Staff of the US Air Force, General David L Goldfein, today flew India's indigenous light combat aircraft 'Tejas' at the air force station here.

Goldfein, who arrived here yesterday, was accompanied by Air Vice Marshal A P Singh as co-pilot during the sortie, defence officials said.

"General David L Goldfein, Chief of Staff of the US Air Force, is on an official visit to India. He flew a sortie in '#MadeinIndia' LCA Tejas aircraft at AF Stn Jodhpur today," the IAF said on Twitter



Goldfein yesterday interacted with the airmen and pilots at the station.

"His visit was a gesture of mutual cooperation between the Indian and the US air forces, both of which are considered the best in the world," the official said.

Earlier, General Goldfein had stressed on the "strong relationship" between the two air forces.

"We look forward to deepening the relationship between our two air forces, he said in his posts on Twitter and Facebook.

The first squadron of Tejas was inducted into the IAF in July 2016.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Appalled by ongoing violence in South Sudan, Washington today restricted arms transfers to the African country where tens of thousands have died in civil war.

"In response to this continued violence and brutality against civilians and humanitarian workers, the United States is enacting restrictions on arms transfers with South Sudan," State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said in a statement.

The United States is South Sudan's biggest aid provider, and was a major backer of its 2011 independence from Sudan.

But patience from South Sudan's foreign allies has worn out after countless failed efforts to bring peace to a country, now in its fifth year of a war where targeted ethnic killings, gang rapes and other atrocities have occurred.

"The United States is appalled by the continuing violence in South Sudan that has created one of Africa's worst humanitarian crises," said Nauert, citing 1.5 million people on the brink of famine despite efforts by the United States and other donors.

Roughly four million South Sudanese have been forced to flee their homes.

"The government and armed opposition have continued offensive military actions, and the government obstructs the UN peacekeeping mission from fulfilling its mandate," Nauert said, adding that at least 95 aid workers have been killed since the conflict began in December 2013.

As a result, the State Department will amend regulations and apply "a policy of denial, with limited exceptions, on the export of defense articles and defense services to South Sudan, including all parties involved in the conflict," she said.

Nauert urged South Sudan's neighbors and other countries to take similar measures. She also encouraged the African Union and IGAD East African group to consider sanctions against those undermining peace efforts.

The United States is seeking a UN Security Council arms embargo on all weapons flowing into South Sudan.

"The message must be clear -- the United States, the region, and the international community will not stand idly by as innocent South Sudanese civilians are murdered," Nauert said.

In November, Washington had threatened to take unspecified measures against President Salva Kiir's government.

The threat followed a visit by UN Ambassador Nikki Haley to the capital Juba in October, where she held talks with Kiir and became the highest level US administration official to visit South Sudan.

The war began when Kiir accused his former deputy Riek Machar of plotting a coup, but numerous new armed opposition groups have formed, further complicating peace efforts.

The US imposed sanctions on three senior officials in September last year.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A woman was allegedly harassed by three men in a roadways bus on Delhi-Saharanpur highway in neighbouring Shamli district, police said today.

The accused also assaulted the woman's husband and father-in-law when they objected to their behaviour.

The woman was on her way from Kandhla to Saharanpur, accompanied by her husband and father-in-law, last evening.

The accused boarded the bus midway and started harassing her, the police said.

Other passengers of the bus managed to nab one of the accused and handed him over to police, while the other two managed to flee. One of the accused has been arrested, police said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Telugu Desam Party (TDP), a key ally of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), on Friday said it was disappointed with the Union Budget but would not walk out of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) just yet. The Shiv Sena, another key ally, said it remained to be seen how much of the Budget presented by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Thursday was implemented on the ground.

The statements by these two parties have added to the murmurings of discontent within the BJP-led NDA. In recent days, several of the BJPs important allies have become more vocal in their criticism of ...Commerce Minister Suresh Prabhu has kickstarted industry consultation on the proposed new industrial policy. The first stakeholder consultation meeting took place at Guwahati, industry body Ficci said in a statement.

The event, organised by Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) in partnership with Ficci, was attended by more than 120 industrialists from the northeast in addition to government officials. In his speech, Prabhu highlighted the importance of this exercise being done after 25 years. The new policy will revamp the Industrial Policy of 1991.

"He (Prabhu) highlighted that this is the first time a policy is being designed that truly listens to and objectively equips Indian industry for the future. The prior attempts in 1956 and 1991 were driven by ideology or formulated at a time of financial crisis," the statement said.

The minister stressed the focus of the government to make business easier for industry. In this regard, he highlighted multiple initiatives of the government to reduce the burden of regulations for the industry. He also talked about the importance of centre-state co-operation and the need for change even at the district-level, the statement added.

The meeting was also attended by Assam Industries and Commerce Minister Chandra Mohan Patowary. The new industrial policy envisions to create a competitive Indian industry that is equipped with skill, scale and technology.

DIPP in August last year floated a draft industrial policy with the aim to create jobs for the next two decades, promote foreign technology transfer and attract USD 100 billion FDI annually. The department is formulating an outcome-oriented policy that provides direction, and charts a course of action for a globally competitive Indian industry that leverages skill, scale and technology. Among other things, the policy would endeavour to reduce regulations. The next meeting is likely to be held on February 9 in Delhi.Markets regulator Sebi today imposed a total penalty of Rs 10 lakh on two senior officials of erstwhile Nova Petrochemicals Ltd (NPL) in a matter related to fraudulent trading in the shares of the firm.

The officials are NPL's Chairman Vedprakash Chiripal and Managing Director Shyam Gupta, as per a Sebi order.

The order comes following an investigation by Sebi in the shares of NPL for the period between November 28, 2005 to March 31, 2006.

On February 20, 2006, NPL had made a corporate announcement that the meeting of the company's board of directors would be held on March 4, 2006 to consider expansion plan of its poly condensation and power plant.

NPL had also shown profit for the quarters ending September, December 2005 and March 2006. But the company had suffered "a huge loss" for the financial year ending March 31, 2006.

In its order, Sebi noted that there was substantial discrepancy in the earning per share as shown in the quarterly results and audited financial results of NPL for the year ending March 31, 2006.

The regulator said Chiripal and Gupta "made the misleading announcements pertaining to expansion plan and unaudited results showing profits which impacted the price of the scrip of the company (NFL)".

It also said the facts of the present case clearly bring out the ominous role played by the two senior officials in indulging in an element of fraud, unfair trade practices and manipulation.

According to Sebi, the misleading announcements and unaudited results were price sensitive information (PSI) and 25 PACs (persons acting in concert), who were the family members and group companies of the officials, sold over 10.15 lakh shares of the firm when the information was not published.

Noting that the two senior officials communicated the unpublished PSI and had active role in the sale transactions of 25 PACs, thereby, violating PIT (Prohibition of Insider Trading) Regulations.

For the violations, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has imposed a penalty of Rs 10 lakh on the two officials.

In a separate order, Sebi imposed a total penalty of Rs 17 lakh on eight former and current promoters of P M Telelinks for violating insider trading norms.

The regulator has also slapped a fine of Rs 5 lakh on Master Capital Services -- formerly known as MTL Share & Stock Brokers -- for violating norms in the matter of Riba Textiles and Winsome Textile Industries.LOGAN  Local residents are invited to attend a town hall meeting Saturday morning where theres a chance to learn more about what is happening in the current session of the Utah Legislature and to ask questions of the elected state representatives.

Representative Val Potter said all of the state representatives  himself, Lyle Hillyard, Ed Redd and Curt Webb  are expected to be there.

Well be having our Saturday morning town hall meetings every Saturday morning at 7:30, he said. At the same place, the multipurpose room (of the Cache County Administration Building). That will happen every Saturday during the session.

Potter said the meeting is informal and light refreshments will be served.Calgary Horticultural Society: Time to wrap up the garden

As this summer has shown us, gardening in the chinook zone is challenging, and summer seems to be over far too quickly. To make the most of our short growing season, taking time in the fall to prepare the garden for our variable winter weather is worth the effort. Besides, its nice to be outside on beautiful fall days and there is plenty to do.Friday, February 2, 2018 at 8:54PM

Google Glass

Intel, like a lot of the other big tech companies including Apple, Google, and Amazon, are working on their own versions of augmented reality glasses or those specs that project content straight to the users retinawhich is similar to Google Glass. But it looks like Intel doesnt want to work on this alone. The company is rumoured to be selling a majority stake of its AR glasses division, which is valued at US$350 million. The company is supposedly looking for multiple backers to invest in the project. Theyre looking particularly for those who can contribute to the business with strong sales channels, industry or design expertise, rather than financial backers.

Intel is already working on these smart glasses that can be paired with smartphones via Bluetooth. Theyre said to be working with Taiwans Quanta Computer Inc. to bring the product to life and the technology is known internally as Superlite, but the business to be sold will likely be called Vaunt, at least based on the report from Bloomberg. The product could be sold on the market as soon as this year but no word on the specific date or price. Intel is supposedly more concerned about showing off the technology to potential customers rather than selling actual units in big numbers. Some of the potential clients include the aforementioned companies already working on their own smart glasses.

Source: BGRnews, latest-news

The consortium behind an aborted pill-testing trial at last year's Spilt Milk music festival has given formal notification to the ACT government of a new trial planned for Groovin the Moo. A spokesman for Health Minister Meegan Fitzharris confirmed the wheels were in motion for a second attempt to legally pill-test in the ACT. "The ACT government has been notified by the STA-SAFE Consortium that they intend to submit a proposal to conduct pill testing at the Canberra Groovin the Moo festival in April 2018," a spokesman said "Should the STA-SAFE Consortium present a proposal to conduct a controlled trial at the Groovin the Moo festival, the ACT government will consider the proposal on its merits. "Any proposal would need to be accepted by the University of Canberra, where the festival will be held." A spokeswoman from the University of Canberra said they had not yet received an application for the trial. Attempts to legally pill-test at the Spilt Milk music festival last November were thwarted because of an apparent dispute over authorisations. The ACT government had approved the landmark trial but Spilt Milk was held at Commonwealth Park, which is under the control of the National Capital Authority. Groovin the Moo will be held in April at the University of Canberra, which is on land controlled by the ACT government. Legalised pill testing has never been done before in Australia but the ACT government conducted an in-depth review of overseas models used and set up a whole-of-government working group to investigate a trial. The spokesman for Ms Fitzharris said the government was committed to minimising the harms associated with recreational and illicit drug use and would continue to pursue harm reduction measures. "The very clear message from the ACT government is 'don't do drugs'," a spokesman said. "Pill testing is a harm reduction intervention which offers free analysis of the chemical composition of substances surrendered for testing." The academic behind the model the STA-SAFE Consortium will use said contaminated and mis-sold drugs were even more of a problem in Australia and New Zealand than in the UK, where her research found one in five samples weren't what customer thought they had bought. Co-founder of The Loop, Professor Fiona Measham has seen boric acid and malaria tablets sold as cocaine, plaster of paris sold as ecstasy tablets, and pentylone analogues sold as MDMA in pill, powder and crystal form. "About one in five people, when they hear the results, give us further drugs that they have in their possession that they no longer want to take, for us to hand over to the police for destruction," Professor Measham said. "The police, the medics, and also users themselves are all happy that these drugs are taken out of circulation so it's win-win." Professor Measham helped develop drug safety testing at a time when UK drug-related deaths were the highest they have ever been, with 63 ecstasy-related deaths in 2016, and six festival deaths. "At UK festivals we have seen a significant drop in drug-related medical incidents and hospitalisations over the last 2 years at events where the Loop has provided a testing service. So we would hope that the same could happen here if we were to test drugs on site and inform everybody of the contents," Professor Measham said. "No-one knows the contents of illegal drugs circulating on site at a leisure event and it is in everyone's interests to find out, to alert the public, to monitor trends and to respond as best they can to reduce the harm that they might cause."

/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/silverstone-ct-migration/09ad5d62-20ba-4689-b972-323a8a255238/r0_172_2000_1302_w1200_h678_fmax.jpgnews, latest-news

Some might argue there is a no more romantic setting than the bushland of the Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve. But could a move to the magical harbourside setting of Taronga Zoo in Sydney inspire more romance for the reserve's only brolgas, Bill and Megs? The pair of brolgas are being moved out of Tidbinbilla to the Sydney zoo permanently so that experts there can check whether the birds are actually mating. And, if not, whether other methods including artificial insemination can be used to produce some babies. Brolgas mate for life but the female produces only two eggs a year and it hasn't yet been established whether Megs's eggs, which have been laid, are actually being fertilised. Bill and Megs live in the The Sanctuary at Tidbinbilla, a wetlands ecosystem protected by a predator-proof fence. Tidbinbilla senior wildlife officer Dr Jenny Pierson said some predators, however, such as birds like ravens, might be taking the brolgas' eggs, making it difficult for staff to check whether they have been fertilised. "We're still trying to crack that nut of how they can be reliably bred," Dr Pierson said. The brolgas were also technically in a captive breeding program. Their wings were clipped to prevent them leaving the area, a step that might have also affected their ability to fully perform their famous courtship dance. Although, on Friday, the birds were stretching their wings and Megs actually did take a low flight over a billabong. Wildlife officer Lisa Steindler said there was no doubt Megs and Bill were bonded; it was just a matter of whether they were taking that next step. Megs is five-years-old; Bill the older man of about 24-years-old. "He's quite protective of her," Ms Steindler said. "They have very different personalities. She likes people, likes shiny things. He does not like it when multiple people are around." The move to Taronga has been with the advice of the Zoo and Aquarium Association. Dr Pierson said Tidbinbilla would continue to focus its attention on breeding up numbers of endangered animals, for ultimate return to the wild. Tidbinbilla was considered a leader in reproductive biology through its work on the Southern Brush-tailed Rock-wallaby program as well as research on as potoroos and wallabies. Tidbinbilla is also the primary breeding facility for the Northern Corroboree Frog The best hope for the brolgas mating was the shift to the big smoke of Sydney, Tidbinbilla sadly having to farewell the majestic birds in a few weeks. "I think everyone really enjoys the brolgas, they're wonderful to watch," Dr Pierson said.

/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/silverstone-ct-migration/536e9ecb-ba7b-4d8e-a11d-6819ce47e4dc/r0_120_2000_1250_w1200_h678_fmax.jpgnews, latest-news

Ginninderry will become the first Canberra suburb without natural gas, in a trial that could determine if other new developments will also be solely powered by electricity. Construction will begin on the first stage of the 11,500-home precinct in West Belconnen in 2020, the same year the ACT will become fully powered by renewable energy. Then, natural gas will become the ACT's second largest generator of greenhouse gases, accounting for 21 per cent of emissions, ACT Climate Change Minister Shane Rattenbury said. "Gas is going to be a significant source of emissions we're going to need to tackle here in the ACT," Mr Rattenbury said. Installing gas mains, poles and wires, water and telecommunications infrastructure in new suburbs is mandatory in the ACT. But thanks to a variation to the Territory Plan - due to be released shortly, according to Planning Minister Mick Gentleman - the gas requirement will be waived for the first 350 homes in Ginninderry. The homes will become part of a microgrid, powered by a solar panels and battery storage. However the homes will still be connected to the main Evoenergy grid that powers the rest of Canberra. Mr Rattenbury said the trial would monitor the effect of this electricity-only suburb on the main grid, as well as any cost blowouts for residents. Housing Minister Yvette Berry said the results would determine how future developments were powered. As natural gas prices rise, Mr Rattenbury said usage was falling across Canberra. "Our most recent report released by the Commonwealth shows between 2010 and 2017, the rate of household gas consumption in the ACT reduced in the order of 20 per cent so Canberrans are already making choices and moving towards electric sources of heating," he said/ However the proponents of the project face an uphill battle to convince Canberrans electricity is better. A telephone survey of 301 people showed 59 per cent of gas users willing to consider buying in a suburb with no gas. However 86 per cent of non-gas users said they would consider it. A focus group of builders showed most believed no gas would impose a barrier - albeit minimal - to sales. However most said it would be no or minimal hassle to build homes without mains gas connections and nearly all believed they'd be able to sell the benefits of an all-electric home to buyers. Ginninderry project manager David Maxwell said while nearby settlements like Murrumbateman aren't hooked up to the gas network, Canberrans were attached to it. "I think people enjoy cooking with gas and the theatre that goes with it, but in fact induction provides you with a better and a quicker outcome from a cooking point of view," Mr Maxwell said. "A lot of people in Canberra say 'well I couldn't deal without gas' but that's because they own a 1970 or 1980 Canberra house which is a zero star. What you've got to remember is all the houses [in Ginninderry] will be six-star rating." However Ginninderry's sustainability manager Jessica Stewart said gas no longer stacked up, particularly in a suburb where solar panels were mandatory. As a former energy auditor, she used to tell people to trade in their power-hungry electric heaters for gas. Now, she said it's become "environmentally friendly to go back to electricity". "We did both the environmental analysis and also the financial analysis and when you've got a source of electrical energy on your roof, solar, and the solar prices are going down it just doesn't stack up financially to also have gas," Ms Stewart said. "The thing you use gas for, cooking, heating and cooling, and then hot water, there are all electric solutions to those that are both more efficient and cheaper."

/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/silverstone-ct-migration/ae076f4f-e22d-4744-8969-23bc259c9ae5/r0_121_2000_1251_w1200_h678_fmax.jpgnews, federal-politics

High-profile conservative activist Lyle Shelton, a key figure in the campaign against legalising same-sex marriage, will make a pitch for federal Parliament. Mr Shelton announced on Saturday morning he would step down after five years as managing director of the Australian Christian Lobby to contest the next election. He did not say which party he would represent but Fairfax Media understands he will stand for the Senate in Queensland as part of Cory Bernardi's fledgling party. Sources said he would announce on Sunday his allegiance to the Australian Conservatives at a community meeting in Toowoomba. Last year during the marriage campaign, I felt very much drawn to the political side of things for the partisan side of politics. With that in mind  Ive decided to make a big step to move back to my home state of Queensland, Mr Shelton said. I do believe that politics needs Christian influence from the inside and political parties need good people from the inside. I want everyone to be very clear that Im not leaving the battle for the values that you and I hold dear, just simply going to a different part of the battlefield. To win a seat, Mr Shelton will be entering a crowded field at the conservative end of politics in Queensland and will have compete with One Nations strong grip on voters who dont want to back a major party. But he will benefit from the strong public profile he earned as the face of the campaign against same-sex marriage - despite his campaign failing to persuade enough voters, 61.6 percent of whom backed change in the postal survey. Mr Shelton is expected to take on a federal role with the Australian Conservatives in the meantime, while he will be replaced as managing director of the ACL by his chief-of-staff, Martyn Iles. Mr Iles said there had never been more pressure on people of faith and on the church simply for living out our timeless convictions. Therefore theres never been a more crucial time in history in Australia for the Church and for Christian people to continue to engage with law and with politics and with culture, he said. With Gods help and by Gods grace, we can continue to accomplish great things for his kingdom in Australia. ACL Chairman Jim Wallace said Mr Iles would reach a new generation and help us prepare for these religious freedom challenges that are already starting to unfold before us.

/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/silverstone-ct-migration/6b6284c9-28db-4ca8-bb52-7ba630b7c85f/r0_78_2000_1208_w1200_h678_fmax.jpgEMILY's List always manages to find the worst women to back. Here you have a Blue Dog, a New Dem and a union buster. Why not top notch progressives like Nina Ahmad and Jess King?



Mother Jones published a story the other day, been a progressive group a decade ago... but not since then. In fact, if anything, EMILY's List is part of the establishment and conservative Democratic infrastructure. They generally back conservative women for office. No one cares about EMILY's List's endorsements outside the Beltway and in the clueless media, and the group generally hurts candidates-- by interfering in their campaigns and siphoning funds to connected consultants while demanding that funds not be spent on anything EMILY's List can't get a piece of (like field and voter registration drives)-- more than helps them. They are especially disrespectful, bullying and even tyrannical with women candidates of color. published a story the other day, , One of the Most Influential Unions in Texas Just Came Out Against a Rising Democratic Contender , the starts with two really wrong-headed assumptions: "With support from progressive groups like EMILYs List, Houston attorney Lizzie Pannill Fletcher has proven herself a top Democratic contender to flip Texas Republican John Culbersons congressional seat this fall." First of all, EMILY's List may havea progressive group a decade ago... but not since then. In fact, if anything, EMILY's List is part of the establishment and conservative Democratic infrastructure. They generally backwomen for office. No one cares about EMILY's List's endorsements outside the Beltway and in the clueless media, and the group generally hurts candidates-- by interfering in their campaigns and siphoning funds to connected consultants while demanding that funds not be spent on anything EMILY's List can't get a piece of (like field and voter registration drives)-- more than helps them. They are especially disrespectful, bullying and even tyrannical with women candidates of color.





An anti-Fletcher critique has been building in South Texas inside organized labor circles for at least a month. It's no secret that the DCCC favors one of her very conservative opponents, Jay Hulings, who was recruited by the Castro Machine in San Antonio, and has been endorsed by the New Dems and Blue Dogs, the Republican Wing of the Democratic Party. (If Hulings had different plumbing, EMILY's List wouldn't have even considered Fletcher.)

In a statement announcing its endorsements, the Texas AFL-CIO told members that it opposed Fletchers candidacy. The groups opposition stems from a lawsuit that dates back to the mid-2000s and was resolved in 2016, during which Fletchers law firm, AZA, represented a Houston commercial cleaning company that won $5.3 million in damages from a labor union affiliated with the Texas AFL-CIO. (Fletcher is an AZA partner; an AZA associate, Adam Milasincic, is running in a state primary race as well.)



Texas Observer. Zeph Capo, president of the Texas Gulf Coast Area Labor Federation (the Houston-area arm of the Texas AFL-CIO), said in a letter to the Harris County Democratic Party that AZA investigators intimidated immigrant workers who may have otherwise testified and humiliated those who did. Milasincic and other AZA lawyers turned the courtroom into an anti-union and anti-immigrant circus, according to the letter, which was published by the

Texas Observer The explained the case a little more thoroughly and how the lawyers "hounded union witnesses with ridiculous and objectionable questions," and referred to witnesses as "union thugs" and "mob bosses." The lawyers turned the courtroom into "an anti-union and anti-immigrant circus, inflaming the prejudice of the jury against the janitors and their union," also hiring "investigators who intimidated a number of immigrant worker potential witnesses," some of whom opted not to testify or changed their testimony after being visited by investigators.

In 2007, Professional Janitorial Service (PJS) sued Service Employees International Union (SEIU) over disparaging claims the union made about the company to third parties. The case has its roots in the Justice for Janitors organizing campaign, a high-profile effort to unionize workers at Houstons largest commercial cleaners more than a decade ago. After PJS balked at recognizing the union, SEIU began leveling accusations at the company. In court, PJS argued that some of the accusations-- such as those pertaining to forcing employees to work off clock and firing janitors for engaging in union activities-- caused the company to lose business.



...We believe that progressive voters and organizations should be aware of the work of this firm and these lawyers in undermining the rights and efforts of predominantly immigrant janitorial workers in the city of Houston to unionize, the group wrote... The group has not made an endorsement in the 7th Congressional District, other than to say: Anybody but Lizzie (Fletcher), Capo said."

There are two progressive reformers in the race for the Democratic nomination, Dr. Jason Westin and activist Laura Moser.Unfortunately, our website is currently unavailable in your country. We are engaged on the issue and committed to looking at options that support our full range of digital offerings to your market. We continue to identify technical compliance solutions that will provide all readers with our award-winning journalism.or Trump.) This thing is such an embarrassment, but before I get into it, I want to turn to a special editorial that the editorial board of the Washington Post published yesterday evening: So what about that stupid Nunes memo? What a joke! I guess the Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee have ZERO interest in protecting our elections from Putin (Trump.) This thing is such an embarrassment, but before I get into it, I want to turn to a special editorial that the editorial board of thepublished yesterday evening: A process that tarnishes the House . Hopefully it will follow Paul Ryan around for the rest of his miserable political life. The editorial doesn't address the likelihood that Nunes didn't even write the memo but was given it by the White House. So we'll just go along with that for now.

Post op-ed that the Nunes memo cherry-picks facts, ignores others and smears the FBI and the Justice Department. Discrediting law enforcement is the memos transparent purpose and why it has been embraced by President Trump. Written mainly by the staff of Devin Nunes (R-CA), the loose-cannon chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, the memo reportedly makes the case that the FBI abused spying authorities as it sought permission to surveil a former Trump adviser. The Justice Department called its potential release, which Mr. Trump reportedly intends to approve, extraordinarily reckless. The FBI released its own startling public statement citing grave concerns about material omissions of fact that fundamentally impact the memos accuracy. Adam Schiff (CA), the ranking Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, wrote in aop-ed that the Nunes memo cherry-picks facts, ignores others and smears the FBI and the Justice Department.



...Ryan bears full responsibility for the deterioration of congressional oversight of intelligence operations. Once a bipartisan responsibility that lawmakers treated soberly-- as they still do in the Senate-- oversight under Mr. Nunes has become another front in Mr. Trumps assault on the law enforcement institutions investigating the president and his associates. House Republicans are poisoning the committees relationship with the intelligence community and distracting from real issues demanding attention.



In all the noise around the memo, it is easy to lose sight of the scary truth that a hostile foreign government attempted to influence the 2016 election and shows every intention of trying again this year. Youd think Mr. Nuness committee would be alarmed by this threat to American democracy. Instead, Mr. Nunes, with Mr. Ryans aid and comfort, is helping Mr. Trump impede an investigation into these very issues. It is sad to see the speaker allow the House to be tarnished in this way.





Today Trump pushed Congressional Republicans into releasing it, something Jerry Nadler (D-NY), the next head of the House Judiciary Committee where impeachment proceeding again Trump will begin in 2019, pointed out it is nothing more than a partisan "coordinated propaganda effort to discredit, disable and defeat the Russia investigation" by the GOP. John McCain seemed to agree:

"In 2016, the Russian government engaged in an elaborate plot to interfere in an American election and undermine our democracy. Russia employed the same tactics it has used to influence elections around the world, from France and Germany to Ukraine, Montenegro and beyond.



"The latest attacks against the FBI and Department of Justice serve no American interests-- no partys, no Presidents, only Putins. The American people deserve to know all the facts surrounding Russias ongoing efforts to subvert our democracy, which is why Special Counsel Muellers investigation must proceed unimpeded. Our nations elected officials, including the president, must stop looking at this investigation through the lens of politics and manufacturing political sideshows. If we continue to undermine our own rule of law, we are doing Putins job for him."

NY Times Most people see right through the Nunes memo and outside of the far right, no one is taking it seriously. Last week, the had noted that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein approval of extending surveillance of Russian agent/Trump operative Carter Page was normal procedure that is being turned on it's head to discredit Rosenstein and prepare Trump's base for his dismissal, a prelude to firing Mueller.

The memos primary contention is that F.B.I. and Justice Department officials failed to adequately explain to an intelligence court judge in initially seeking a warrant for surveillance of Mr. Page that they were relying in part on research by an investigator, Christopher Steele, that had been financed by the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clintons presidential campaign.



Democrats who have read the document say Republicans have cherry-picked facts to create a misleading and dangerous narrative. But in their efforts to discredit the inquiry, Republicans could potentially use Mr. Rosensteins decision to approve the renewal to suggest that he failed to properly vet a highly sensitive application for a warrant to spy on Mr. Page, who served as a Trump foreign policy adviser until September 2016.

Today everyone can read the memo and Greg Sargent and Paul Waldman summed it up perfectly: a joke and a sham... really just a bad joke. .. "[I]ts contents are almost comically thin in comparison with the great scandal Trumps media allies have been hyping for weeks and weeks and weeks."





Sargent and Waldman continued that "Up until now, Republicans have been touting this memo as the blockbuster that will bring the entire Russia investigation crashing down. One Trump ally described it as 'worse than Watergate.' Trump had reportedly told friends, as CNN reported, that the memo 'would make it easier for him to argue the Russia investigations are prejudiced against him.' Sean Hannity said the revelations in the memo 'makes Watergate like stealing a Snickers bar from a drugstore'; he told his viewers it constitutes 'the biggest political scandal in American history.'"





Intelligence Committee Democrats, who have been prevented from responding with their own memo using the background materials the GOP supposedly used to write their memo-- which Nunes says he's never read, confirming suspicions that the White House wrote the memo, not Nunes, released a statement:

The premise of the Nunes memo is that the FBI and DOJ corruptly sought a FISA warrant on a former Trump campaign foreign policy adviser, Carter Page, and deliberately misled the court as part of a systematic abuse of the FISA process. As the Minority memo makes clear, none of this is true. The FBI had good reason to be concerned about Carter Page and would have been derelict in its responsibility to protect the country had it not sought a FISA warrant.



To understand the context in which the FBI sought a FISA warrant for Carter Page, it is necessary to understand how the investigation began, what other information the FBI had about Russias efforts to interfere with our election, and what the FBI knew about Carter Page prior to making application to the court-- including Carter Pages previous interactions with Russian intelligence operatives. This is set out in the Democratic response which the GOP so far refuses to make public.



 The investigation did not begin with, or arise from Christopher Steele or the dossier, and  the investigation would persist on the basis of wholly independent evidence had Christopher Steele never entered the picture.

Even before it was released, Pelosi demanded that Ryan remove Nunes as chair of the Intelligence Committee. "Nunes'," she wrote, "deliberately dishonest actions make him unfit to serve as Chairman, and he must be removed immediately from his position."





I'd like to turn to Pramila Jayapal, a member of the House Judiciary Committee and to Randy Bryce, the charismatic candidate taking on Paul Ryan. First Jayapal: "This is a dangerous and troubling time for our country. The Nunes memo is a misleading, partisan document-- not an intelligence document. It is crafted to undermine any real oversight of this administration and to distract from mountains of evidence suggesting the Trump presidential campaign colluded with the Russian government. Even the presidents hand-picked FBI director has opposed the decision to release the memo.

Donald Trump clearly wishes he was a dictator with no checks and balances. He is waging war against Special Counsel Robert Muellers independent investigation-- and what are Republicans in Congress doing? Doubling down on the presidents apparent obstruction of justice and circling the wagons.



It is critical that the Judiciary Committee hear from FBI Director Christopher Wray about this disturbing development. Now is the time for all Americans to stand up against this slide into authoritarianism, and to take action to defend against the unraveling of our democracy by the president and his accomplices in Congress.

And Randy Bryce:

"This is simple: President Trump said he wanted this memo released because it will weaken the investigation into Russias attack on our democracy. Speaker Ryan could have stopped the President, but he didn't, he helped him.



This is why our Congress needs more veterans and fewer millionaires. The nation I enlisted for worked to spread democracy and fiercely protected its own. We understood the tremendous sacrifice so many had made to protect our free and fair elections, and we didnt do anything to risk them. We certainly didn't risk them to satisfy the President's ego or to win a political game.



While damage has been done, we can still work to protect our elections from corruption in the future. I urge Speaker Ryan to immediately call for a vote on legislation introduced several months ago that would protect Special Counsel Mueller's position and enable him to complete his investigation."

One thing I think everyone can probably agree on: change is desperately needed and... well, let's hope we can hold on until November and that Ryan and McConnell don't try doing anything dangerously insane in the lame duck session.Photo: CTV Man charged with violent behaviour on plane

Update -- Feb. 3, 11:30 a.m.

Richmond RCMP have released the name of the man accused of disrupting an airplane full of people Sunday, and his name is Abdul Zain Ali.

The 25-year-old Australian man is alleged to have become violent while intoxicated on a China Southern Airlines flight to Vancouver.

He has now been charged with causing a disturbance, mischief and assault.

If anyone was on the China Southern Airlines flight 329 from Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport to Vancouver, we want to hear from you. Contact us at [email protected]

Richmond RCMP have a man in custody who is accused of becoming violent on an international flight.

Vancouver International Airport staff alerted police on Sunday that a man was acting violently on a flight arriving at the airport this morning.

Police released no further details, but CTV News interviewed a passenger who said a man started throwing punches on China Southern Airlines flight 329 during its trip to Vancouver from Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport.

"I heard screaming and there was a fellow swinging at everyone, James Leigh told CTV.

I basically had to jump on him and hold him down while they brought out handcuffs, he said.

Leigh told the television network he had to restrain the man, who appeared to be intoxicated, for three hours until he fell asleep.You could have the missing piece of the puzzle that will help the RCMP put someone behind bars. Here are some recent crimes that Central Okanagan Crime Stoppers hope you can help solve by calling our anonymous tips line at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477), visit our website at www.crimestoppers.net or text to CRIMES (274637), keyword Ktown.

CRIME: THEFT FROM VEHICLE

DATE: January 26, 2018

RCMP FILE: 2018-4666

A woman whose car was parked at a winery on the 300 block of Boucherie Road had her grey four-door Hyundai sedan broken into between 5:30 and 6:30 p.m. on January 26th. The drivers door sustained damage where the suspect used a tool to jimmy open the door. The thief stole a large black shoulder bag containing a silver iPad Air 2 in a black case with serial number DMTT26HMG5YP.

Photo: Crime Stoppers

If you know anything about this crime, or any other crime, call the Central Okanagan Crime Stoppers anonymous tips line at 1-800-222-TIPS or visit our website at www.crimestoppers.net. Your information will be kept confidential and could lead to a reward of up to $2000.00.

CRIME: THEFT OF HUBCAPS

DATE: January 26, 2018

RCMP FILE: 2018-4633

A woman attended the West Kelowna RCMP Detachment on January 26th to file a report of an overnight theft. Someone had stolen three hubcaps from her green 2007 Infiniti FX35 between midnight and 9:00 a.m.

Photo: Crime Stoppers

You can help catch these suspects and qualify for a reward by calling Crime Stoppers anonymous tips line at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477), visit our website at www.crimestoppers.net or text to CRIMES (274637), keyword Ktown.A co-authored post by Dr Leena Vastapuu and Dr Maria Martin de Almagro.

The first elected woman head of state in Africa, President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, has just stepped down from her office in Liberia. Her successor George Weah assumed the position on 22 January 2018.

In a recent interview with CNN entitled Why Africa owes a debt of gratitude to Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, President Sirleaf and journalist Chude Jideonwo had the following exchange.

Chude Jideonwo (CJ): You are in your final days as the first female president of an African country. When you step down, there wont be any more. What does that say to you?

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf (EJS): It tells me that we havent worked hard enough for parity, particularly in political participation. It saddens me, to a certain extent, because I represented the breaking of the glass ceiling in Africa. And I think that there are lots of women out there who havent quite reach there, but the queue is forming.

CJ: Youve been a president for 12 years. [] What do you think your gender, your femininity, brought to this particular position, if anything?

EJS: It brought great aspirations. To women, and to girls, in Liberia, in Africa. And going beyond, in my travels in the United States, in Europe and in other places, inevitably there is someone who comes up to me and says: Youve inspired me.

In this blog post, we take a critical look on the legacy of President Sirleaf. Our main goal is to answer these questions: Has Ellen Johnson Sirleaf left the country better equipped in the fight against gender inequality and for womens empowerment? And to what extent?

Yes: as a woman of many firsts

It is certainly true that Sirleaf has managed to break several glass ceilings during her long career. She was not only the first woman having been elected has a head of state in Africa, but also the first woman to lead the UNDPs Regional Bureau of Africa. Among her achievements are also a number of international awards, such as the Nobel Peace Prize 2011 (together with Leymah Gbowee and Tawakkul Karman), as well as the Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development 2012.

In June 2016, she was elected as the Chair of the Economic Community of West African States, making her the first woman to hold this prestigious position.

So yes: Ellen Johnson Sirleafs career is, by any measure available, an inspiration to anyone.

Somewhat: as a stabiliser of a highly fragile country

The simple fact is that after President Sirleafs two terms in power, Liberia has not returned to war.

However, the 2017 rank for Liberia on the Fragile State Index was 27  the same spot it possessed already in 2007. Given the extraordinary amount of investments the president has managed to lure into the country after taking office in 2006, the score should be significantly higher today, regardless of the devastating economic impact of the Ebola epidemic of 201415. Similar tendencies can also be found from other popular indexes, such as the Human Development Index. Whereas in 2009 (the first year the country was ranked), Liberia was 169th of 182 countries listed, in 2016 its rank was 177/188.

Conclusion? Yes: we should applaud President Sirleaf for her efforts to maintain peace in Liberia. Nonetheless, more should have been achieved in terms of socio-economic development, especially given the amount of resources and contacts Sirleaf had at her disposal at the beginning of her first term.

Yes: on paper

Behind Sirleafs first successful presidential campaign was a huge number of womens organisations advocating for their idol. Ellen brought womens rights to Liberia and what a man can do, a woman can do better were some of the phrases placed forward by her supporters around the country. In her inauguration speech, Sirleaf highlighted her passion and commitment to gender equity and promised to empower Liberian women in all areas of [] national life. Expectations were high, but so were the policy outcomes at the beginning of her first term.

Ultimately, several pieces of legislation were passed during her first years in office. The rape law was revised, and a national programme to increase the education of girls was launched. During the same year Liberia also became the first African country to have its own National Action Plan (NAP) for the implementation of the UN Security Council resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security, and a Secretariat for its implementation was established at the Ministry of Gender. However, there is no budget set aside for the implementation of the NAP and it remains unclear what the Secretariat is actually supposed to be monitoring.

In addition, the 2008-2011 Poverty Reduction Strategys priority action matrix on peace and security requires the participation of women to reach 20% in the military and in other security sector institutions. In 2016, and after almost a decade of advocacy, the Liberian House of Representatives passed the Affirmative Action Bill, reserving 5 seats for women in Special Constituencies. Nevertheless, the resulting five seats are only half of those an earlier version of the Bill proposed.

Not: in practice

As Robtel Neajai Pailey & Korto Reeves Williams remark, In the past 12 years, she [Sirleaf] has done next to nothing to position women favourably to win votes.

The figures speak for themselves. Both in the House of Representatives and the Senate the percentage of women have fell since 2005. Whereas in the House the change is from 12,5 percent (2005) to 9,9 percent (2017), in the Senate the drop is from 16,7 percent (2005) to 10 percent (2017). With these figures, Liberia ranks currently as 160th on the list of 187 on the percentage of women in national parliaments. It is noteworthy that the drop is very significant if compared to the figure of 2005 (82/139). Neither does the Cabinet of Sirleaf  that has been under constant alteration reveal an effort to parity. As of December 2017, only 3 out of 19 ministers were women.

In 2014, Liberia introduced a set of amendments to the 1986 Elections law. Among the amendments was a requirement that each political party should endeavor to ensure that the governing body and its list of candidates has no less than 30% of its members from each gender. As Carter Center remarks, however, only two parties were able to reach the goal in the 2017 presidential and legislative election.

The education sector does not look too good either. As a Harvard-educated economist and an advocator for girls education, Sirleaf was expected to focus on rebuilding the education sector from scratch. Although it is true that primary school enrolment has grown at the phase of over 9% a year since 2005, and an Accelerated Learning Program (ALP) for older students has been able to absorb over 75,000 students and is now operational in all the 15 counties, several weaknesses remain. Despite of the momentum, Liberia is still lagging behind most other African countries in almost every education statistics. For example, in 2013, 36% of women had had less than 4 years of formal education and over 50% of the female population was illiterate. It is telling that President Sirleaf herself has described the education sector of Liberia as a mess.

Sirleaf has also neglected the overwhelming majority of those girls and women who took part in the civil wars of Liberia in various capacities. This is very sad and surprising from a woman who is known as the co-writer of Women, War and Peace report, a highly-cited assessment on the impact of armed conflict on women. It is stated in the report, for example (p. 7), that

The beneficiaries of disarmament, demobilization and reintegration programmes must not be limited to male combatants. Female combatants, the wives, widows and other dependents of ex-fighters must be included explicitly so that they are invested in rebuilding a new society and ending the cycle of violence.

Definitely not: as an anti-feminist

Sirleafs refusal to label herself as feminist and her governments resistance to collaborate with certain womens organisations has made her lose key allies from the womens movement that helped her to win the elections in the first place. For example, just one year after her appointment, Leymah Gbowee resigned from her position as the head of the National Peace and Reconciliation Commission, criticizing her fellow laurate for failing to tackle corruption and nepotism.

To make matters worse, Sirleafs government has had a direct responsibility in dismantling and depoliticising the once vibrant womens rights movement in the country. It has done so firstly by controlling which womens organisations get access to international funding to execute projects on womens issues, and secondly, by setting up the Rural Womens Structures of Liberia being hosted in the building of the Ministry of Gender. These Structures have divisions in each county of Liberia, whereas the Ministry controls who can be part of it.

In practice, the government has drastically increased its control over women grassroots organisations in the counties, at a time when international partners have been eager to spend resources on economic empowerment programs for rural women. For example, only this year, FAO, WFP and UN Women in collaboration with the Ministry of Gender and Ministry of Agriculture are implementing their US$ 400,000 Global Joint Programme on Accelerating Progress towards the Economic Empowerment of Rural Women. The beneficiaries of the programme are selected in partnership with the Rural Womens Structures of Liberia. Grassroots groups that are not part of the Structures have difficulties to survive due to lack of financial resources. Other daily practices, such as sending an important five year planning document on gender policy for feedback only some hours before the deadline have also been common.

Homosexual acts are criminalised in Liberia and LGBTI people run the risk of harassmenton a daily basis. When in 2012 Jewel Howard-Taylor, senator of the time and the vice president of Liberia today (!), advocated for a bill that would make homosexuality liable to a death sentence, Sirleaf stated that she would not sign any law concerning gay rights  pro or con. Sirleaf also defended the current state of affairs by referring to societal tradition and by noting that we like ourselves just the way we are. When in the midst of the Ebola epidemic of 2014 a prominent group of religious leaders stated that Ebola was actually a punishment sent by God over immoral acts such as homosexuality, Sirleaf remained quiet.

On international arena, Sirleaf has expressed her strong commitment to ban FGM in Liberia. But when the long-awaited Domestic Violence Bill was finally approved in July 2016, the original provision banning FGM had been deleted from the Bill altogether. FGM is a highly sensitive issue in Liberia; a practice undertaken by the ancient and powerful all-female secret society called Sande. It is certainly risky to meddle with Sande, and probably this is why Sirleaf has remained so quiet about the matters of the bush.

Just a few days before stepping down, however, President Sirleaf issued an executive orderto ban FGM on anyone under 18 years of age. Executive orders are in force for only a year, and it remains to be seen if Weah has more courage and political will than her predecessor to push the ban as a permanent law.

Conclusion? Lots of talk but little progress

During her first term in office there was a huge momentum for President Sirleaf to use her power and prestige for the benefit of all girls and women of Liberia, regardless of their societal statuses. She had the backing of womens organisations, of grassroots actors, and of the international community. On paper  and personally  she seized the opportunity. But not much has changed in reality, and on some levels things are even worse for women than prior her 12-year regime.

Indeed, it can be argued that Ms. Johnson Sirleafs global stature has risen based not on credibility with her people but on endorsements from international institutions like Harvard, Citibank and the World Bank and figures like George Soros, Bono and Warren Buffett, as Dayo Olopade wittingly argues. Or, quoting Veronika Fuest, a few business women, some peace activists, leaders of womens organizations tapping into the flow of foreign aid, and female politicians appear to have gained.

Regrettably, the government of George Weah does not look too promising as far as gender equality is concerned. While at the beginning of her second mandate one third of Johnson-Sirleafs cabinet was female, just one woman, Williametta Piso Saydee-Tarr, has been appointed as a minister by Weah, as of 28 January. And yes, you guessed it, her post is that of Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection.

Crossposted in Mats Utas blog.Photo: Contributed

Richmond RCMP are investigating a targeted shooting.

Shortly before 10:30 p.m. Thursday, police responded to the 7000 block of Westminster Highway, where a young male was found suffering from a gunshot.

The 20-year-old Surrey man was rushed to hospital.

We believe that this shooting was targeted, said Cpl. Shawn Hazell. We have a number of officers investigating this matter, which we believe occurred near Lynas Lane sometime last night. The victim is known to police and has been less than co-operative with us thus far. Though the investigation is in the early stages, we are canvassing the area for video surveillance or any information or evidence that could assist us.

Anyone with information is asked to call police at 604-278-1212 or CrimeStoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477).Photo: The Canadian Press

Former B.C. premier Dave Barrett, the scrappy but always smiling leader of the province's first New Democrat government, has died in Victoria. He was 87 years old.

Barrett had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease and was living in a Victoria care facility in recent years.

A statement sent from Premier John Horgan's office says Barrett died Friday morning.

"He cared deeply about his province and devoted much of his life to trying to make it a better and fairer place to live. His love of the province was surpassed only by his devotion to his family. He will be sorely missed," said the statement, issued on behalf of Barrett's family.

First elected to the B.C. legislature in 1960, the former social worker from Vancouver who became known as the champion of the little guy would be elected to the assembly eight times.

He was also elected as a federal New Democrat MP in 1988 in the former Victoria-area riding of Esquimalt-Juan de Fuca.

Barrett made political history when his left leaning New Democrats defeated the five-term Social Credit juggernaut governments of W.A.C. Bennett in 1972. His three-year government from 1972 to 1975 was short-lived but enduring for its political accomplishments and fireworks.

Barrett's government passed a record 357 bills, including protecting agricultural land, introducing public automobile insurance, providing affordable prescription drugs and creating a provincewide ambulance service.

He introduced welfare reforms and created B.C.'s Labour Relations Board, which allowed workers and employers to attempt to resolve their issues without resorting to the courts. He also stopped the practice of mining in parks.

Many of Barrett's reforms have stood the test of time, including the Agricultural Land Reserve and Pharmacare.

"What he was able to accomplish in a three-year mandate was extraordinary," Horgan once said in an interview.

But it was Barrett's political rivalry with the Bennett family, former premiers W.A.C. Bennett and Bill Bennett, that provided the ingredients for B.C.'s left-right, no-holds-barred politics, said Horgan.

Barrett dethroned the elder Bennett in the 1972 election, but lost to the younger Bennett in 1975, 1979 and 1983.

"In the day, from the late 1960s to the middle of the 1980s, there was a battle between not just two perspectives, but two powerful people that became iconic in B.C. history," said Horgan. "They shaped the B.C. battles, the politics the rest of the country looked at. It was the clash of these two giants that held sway over two political dynasties, the Socreds and the NDP."

Brian Smith, a former Social Credit attorney general, said Barrett and Bennett would stare each other down during long debates in the legislature.

"Barrett and Bennett personally disliked each other," said Smith. "It was palpable. Barrett would sit there and stare at Bennett and try and put the whammy on him."Photo: Kerri Knapp Revelstoke Mountain Resort will be offering free Valentine's Day wedding ceremonies once again.

Love is in the air  way up in the air.

Lovebirds have a chance to exchange nuptials from the top of a mountain on the most romantic day of the year.

Revelstoke Mountain Resort will be offering free Valentines Day wedding ceremonies once again. Last year, six couples tied the knot and seven renewed their vows at the top of the Revelation Gondola overlooking the Monashee Mountains.

Its a tradition thats really catching on with local couples, said Ben Taylor, event co-ordinator for Revelstoke Mountain Resort.

If couples are interested, they are required to buy a marriage certificate from the court house before-hand.

The ceremonies are conducted by a marriage commissioner and couples are treated to champagne and cupcakes, compliments of the resort, after signing the registry.

John Hill and Julie Hamel, long-time ski instructors, were among the couples who chose to tie the knot at the resort last year.

This type of wedding was perfect for us. The setting is stunning, and the planning was simple, said Julie. While other girls dream of traditional weddings, a special day on the mountains is what made me truly smile.

Ceremonies will run from noon to 2 p.m. at the Mackenzie Outpost on a first-come first-wed basis. Local photographer Keri Knapp will document the event and will have prints available for purchase.Photo: BC Gov't Premier John Horgan at Lake Country school announcement on Thursday.

Premier John Horgan says his government is trying to protect B.C., not be provocative, when it comes to a proposed ban on increasing the amount of diluted bitumen that can be shipped from the West Coast.

Horgan says his government's announcement that it would consult on new regulations should not set off a "trade war between good friends."

Alberta Premier Rachel Notley suspended talks Thursday on buying B.C. electricity, and has described the proposals unveiled earlier this week as an unconstitutional attempt to stop Kinder Morgan's Trans Mountain pipeline expansion.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has promised that the federally approved project will go ahead, saying it's an important part of Canada's energy plans.

Horgan says his government has been clear about its belief that the Trans Mountain pipeline is not in the best interest of the province and continues to fight the project in Federal Court.

He says the province has obtained legal advice about the new proposals and the government is well within its rights to consult with citizens.Photo: Wayne Moore Todd Stone, left

One of the contenders vying to lead British Columbia's Liberal party won't have the backing of 1,349 prospective members who were disqualified from voting because of incomplete applications.

A spokesman for Todd Stone's campaign says email addresses were missing on membership applications of people whose first language is not English.

Peter Fassbender says in a statement the issue came to light Jan. 26 when the party contacted Stone's senior campaign team.

Stone immediately requested a full investigation to determine what happened.

Fassbender says the party agreed with Stone that people with incomplete applications should not be allowed to cast a ballot before the Liberal party chooses its next leader on Saturday evening.

He says some membership applications by all six campaigns have been deemed incomplete because of the party's rigorous verification process.

Liberal party spokesman David Wasyluk says the cutoff for membership signups was on Dec. 29 and over 14,000 audit calls were made to members to verify their contact information.Photo: The Canadian Press A lone gunman targeted foreigners in a drive-by shooting spree Saturday in a central Italian city.

A lone gunman targeted foreigners in a drive-by shooting spree Saturday in a central Italian city, wounding six people, one of them with life-threatening injuries, before being arrested.

The suspect's motive wasn't immediately clear, but the city of Macerata in the central Marche region is still reeling from the gruesome killing and dismemberment of a young Italian woman this week, allegedly at the hands of a Nigerian immigrant.

Police said all those wounded were foreigners and they later confirmed the arrest of a suspect identified as a 28-year-old Italian with no previous record. A video posted by the newspaper il Resto di Carlino showed a man with an Italian flag draped over his shoulders being arrested by armed Carabinieri officers in the city centre, a short distance from where he apparently fled his car on foot.

Macerata Mayor Romano Carancini said that six foreigners were wounded in the two-hour shooting spree, one of them with life-threatening injuries.

Carancini confirmed that all of the victims were black, and acknowledged that "the closeness of these two events makes you imagine that there is a connection."

The shooting spree came days after the killing of 18-year-old Pamela Mastropietro and amid a heated electoral campaign in Italy where anti-foreigner sentiment has become a key theme. The head of the anti-migrant Northern League, Matteo Salvini, has capitalized on the killing in campaign appearances, and is pledging to deport 150,000 migrants in his first year in office if his party wins control of parliament and he is named premier.

The teen's dismembered remains were found Wednesday in two suitcases, two days after she walked away from a drug rehab community.

The news agency ANSA reported that the car was seen in the area where the woman's body was found and also near where the suspect lived. A video posted by il Resto di Carlino Video showed appeared to be a body on the ground on a shopping street.

Police had warned people to stay inside while the shootings were ongoing. Authorities ordered public transport halted and that students be kept inside schools, which are open on Saturdays.UPDATE: 7:20 p.m.

Despite a strong start from Dianne Watts, Andrew Wilkinson, former advanced-education minister, has been named the BC Liberals new leader.

Wilkinson squeaked out a win over Watts on the fifth and final ballot, taking 53 per cent of the vote.

Wilkinson is the MLA for the Vancouver-Quilchena riding, and was first elected to the legislature in 2013.

UPDATE: 6:40 p.m.

Little has changed following the second ballot in the BC Liberals leadership vote.

Dianne Watts remains the front runner of the remaining candidates, but still falls far short of the 50 per cent needed, with just 24.93 per cent.

Mike de Jong has been eliminated, after garnering just 16.51 per cent in the second ballot.

UPDATE: 6:05 p.m.

Dianne Watts, former Member of Parliament and mayor of Surrey, took the top spot in the first ballot results for the new BC Liberal leader, but she hasn't been crowned leader yet.

Watts garnered 24.54 per cent of the voting points in the first ballot, but to be named leader, she must have over 50 per cent.

Sam Sullivan, former mayor of Vancouver, garnered just 1.82 per cent, the lowest in the pool of six.

For the second count, Sullivan is eliminated from the picks, and voters who chose Sullivan will have their second choice count for one of the other five.

This process will continue until one of the candidates gets more than 50 per cent of the voting points.

Michael Lee was a close second to Watts, grabbing 22.03 per cent, followed by Andrew Wilkinson in third, Todd Stone in fourth and Mike de Jong in fifth.

Not every BC Liberal member's votes are equal. Each riding in B.C. is worth 100 points, regardless of the number of votes cast there.

UPDATE: 5 p.m.

The last of the votes for a new BC Liberal leader have been submitted.

Voting for the new leader of the party closed at 5 p.m. Saturday.

Six Liberal MLAs have been vying for the position for the past several months, after former Premier Christy Clark stepped down from the position and gave up her seat when the NDP formed government in June.

Much of B.C.'s Interior is represented by BC Liberals, including Norm Letnick for Kelowna-Lake Country, Steve Thomson for Kelowna-Mission, Dan Ashton for Penticton, and Eric Foster for Vernon-Monashee.

The leadership convention, taking place at Vancouver's Sheraton Wall Centre, begins at 5 p.m. Saturday, and the new leader is expected to be announced between 5:30 and 6:30.

Castanet will have live coverage of the convention on the front page of the website, as well as in this story.

ORIGINAL: 7:15 a.m.

A sometimes bruising leadership campaign ends today in Vancouver for British Columbia's Liberals as they elect a new leader who will be tasked with returning the party to power after a 16 year term in office that ended last summer.

An estimated 60,000 party members were eligible to vote online and by phone to replace Christy Clark, who resigned after the New Democrats formed a minority government with the support of the Green party following a non-confidence vote that brought down the Liberals.

The field of six candidates includes three veterans with deep cabinet experience, two former big city mayors and a first-time member of the legislature from Metro Vancouver.

Mike de Jong, Andrew Wilkinson and Todd Stone were longtime members of Clark's cabinet.

Sam Sullivan, a former Vancouver mayor, was appointed to cabinet in the dying days of Clark's government last summer.

The field also includes Michael Lee, a Vancouver lawyer who was elected to the legislature last spring, and Dianne Watts, a former Conservative MP and one-time mayor of Surrey.

The B.C. Liberal Party is not affiliated with the federal Liberals. It describes itself as "a made-in-B.C. free enterprise coalition" that includes members of the federal Conservative and Liberal parties.

Getting the party back to power after a lacklustre election campaign last May has been a focus of the leadership campaign.

There has been finger-pointing in debates over who was to blame for the Liberal downfall, despite B.C. boasting the strongest economy in Canada.

Some candidates criticized the party's old guard for failing to address transportation, housing and social policy issues that led to losses in seat-rich Metro Vancouver, once a Liberal stronghold.

De Jong, the former finance minister, set himself apart from the field, defending the Liberal record as he took heat for his tight-fisted control of the province's purse strings that meant programs aimed at easing financial pressures for people never made it off the drawing board.

Stone, his former cabinet colleague, acknowledged the Liberals were strong economic managers as he argued the party could have done a better job of sharing the wealth, including raising welfare rates.

 with files from The Canadian PressPhoto: RCMP Composite drawing of assault suspect.

Police are looking for a suspect after an 89-year-old was allegedly assaulted in her apartment Thursday.

Police said the victim was alone in her Lynn Valley apartment when a man dressed as a construction worker came to the door and asked to use the washroom.

After she let him in, the suspect allegedly exposed his genitals and assaulted the woman.

"Given the serious nature of the crime, both the North Vancouver RCMP Serious Crime and Special Victim Units have put their resources into solving this investigation," Const. Brett Cunningham said. "Fortunately the victim was not seriously injured and remains in good spirits even after being victim to such a disturbing offence."

The suspect is between 20-30 years old and approximately six feet tall with a slim build, dark hair, dark eyes and olive skin.

Anyone with information on the man's whereabouts is asked to contact investigators at 604-985-1311 and quote file number 2018-2583.What happened next is unthinkable in todays world of air travel. Cook took his wife to OHare and checked her bags while she waited in a lounge, according to a Tribune report. An FBI agent said Cook then removed the contents of one of the bags, placed the homemade bomb inside and handed the bags to an airport porter who checked them. There was no search of the bags whatsoever. Ironically, the same porter who took the luggage without checking it handled it roughly, causing parts of the bomb to dislodge and malfunction, the FBI surmised.Painstaking attention to detail was one of the hallmarks of his style. It took him 15 years to complete his Symphony No. 2 before Seiji Ozawa premiered it with the CSO at Ravinia in 1968. It was one of four Stout works the orchestra performed. Georg Solti led the world premieres of his Symphony No. 4 (1971), commissioned for the CSOs 80th season; and George Lieder (1972). Chorus director Margaret Hillis introduced his evening-length Passion in 1975. Stout labored over that large-scale choral work for more than 20 years.The series is convoluted, digressive and long. (Even "True Detective" only took eight episodes to solve a mystery, and Miss Marple could do it in 60 minutes, or 90 at a stretch.) You may forget by the end what the beginning was about, as the main case is clouded by others. (From what I can gather, there are elaborations upon and departures from Morgan's text, and so these reverses may feel surprising to readers as well.) You'll be watching a scene that feels like the climax, only to check and find you've still got another two or three or four episodes to go; you think things are coming to a head, and suddenly a caper movie is beginning. Eventually, you do arrive at the end, which has a certain mathematical balance and, despite (or perhaps because of) some corniness, prompts deeper feelings than you might have expected."There is no place in the Illinois Republican Party for rhetoric that attacks our fellow Illinoisans based on their race, gender or humanity. Rep. Ives' campaign ad does not reflect who we are as the Party of Lincoln and as proud residents of our great and diverse state," said Schneider, an ally of Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner, who Ives is challenging in the March 20 primary.The fees arent paid to the city until construction starts, and Reifman expects another 14 projects to pay $50.1 million to the city in 2018, almost all of it coming in the first three quarters of this year. When Emanuel first talked about the project, he hoped to generate $40 million to $50 million in the first three to four years.I hope that Scott's appeal is successful as he has gotten the necessary signatures and I don't believe a technicality, an inconsequential and good faith mistake should result in him being knocked off the ballot, Goldstein said in a statement. As Democrats, we need to be better than this.Haig said Paddock told him that "he was going to go out to the desert to put on a light show, either with or for his friends. I can't remember whether he used the word 'with' or 'for.' But he said that he was going out at night to shoot it with friends."A Syrian militant in the area told The Associated Press that the Russian pilot was shot and killed when he resisted capture. The pilot opened fire from his pistol as the militants were trying to seize him, said the militant, who refused to be identified by his real name because was not authorized to speak to the media."I personally like Rod Rosenstein, but the bottom line is Mr. Rosenstein, Attorney General Sessions and [FBI Director Chris A.] Wray have work to do," Nunes said. "Admit first that you have a problem, and they've been unwilling to do that." Nunes added that he thinks Rosenstein "can fix the problems over at DOJ, and we're willing to work with him."In 1997, he founded the Disciples for Christ Church, now in Oak Lawn. In 2002, ministry became his full-time occupation. His community activism included many years with Target Area Development Corporation (no connection to Target stores), where he held several posts, including vice chairman of the board. He was a member of the executive council of United Congress for nine years before becoming executive director.This is not just the elephant in the room; its the blue whale in the room. Thousands of state and local employees are counting on the pension system to fund their retirement. Unfunded liability is an enormous problem, which has a huge effect on the states fiscal health. Any credible candidate for Illinois governor has to answer this question: What specifically are you going to do about the states unfunded pension liability? I challenge all candidates to answer this question. I also challenge reporters from all media to make candidates provide answers. In the Jan. 21 Tribune editorial Could one of these Democrats save Illinois from itself? you called for such a discussion, which is a good start.Stacker reflects back on 9/11 and 20 ways life in the United States was changed by these terrorist attacks, using information from news reports, government sources and research centers. For those of us who lived through 9/11, the days events will forever be emblazoned on our consciousnesses, a terrible tragedy we cant, and wont, forget. Now, two decades on, Stacker is reflecting back on the events of 9/11 and many of the ways the world has changed since then. Using information from news reports, government sources, and research centers, weve compiled a list of 20 aspects of American life that were forever altered by the events of that day. From language to air travel to our handling of immigration and foreign policy, read on to see just how much life in the United States was affected by 9/11.Newman said it was not an internal hack of the city's computer system. The scammers did not get into the city's internal system, the city administrator said. It was a response to a request that led to the information being stolen, she said."They haven't indicated they would do anything further with this. These petitions sometimes take a lot of time. We allowed a lot of time for public comment. It was long and hard but that was part of the process," Buening said. "This is probably the best and most comprehensive project we had proposed for the building in many years. It's a difficult building to work with because of the level of historic agencies that have some level of control over it and the way the building is constructed."At the end of the day, it's the right thing to do," Richton Park Mayor Rick Reinbold said. His village has not yet had many requests for solar energy, "but we want to make it accessible for residents to take advantage of it and make it easy for them to do," he said."In the good old days, lawyers just expected to represent people with conflicting interests all the time, especially lawyers who lived in smaller communities," she said. "Over the last 30 years or so, the standards of what's expected by way of avoiding conflicts of interest have changed a lot and things that used to be considered normal and you would just manage it are now a basis for disqualification or even discipline."On Nov. 10, 2015, he is alleged to have beaten a man with special needs with a firearm in Dolton, according to the bureau. The man later died from his injuries.While she said she believes that "user fees will be part of the solution," she added the motor fuel tax system also has to be changed. That tax, which is used to maintain roads, is not generating as much revenue as it once did, since cars are more fuel efficient, and electric cars don't use fuel, she said."We want to have a critical conversation about what's going on out there," Glumac said. "Now that it's out for discussion we want to continue the discussion."When buying up to $500, purchasers must input their cellphone numbers. Amounts between $700 and $3,000 require the buyer to complete a registration form and use the machine's camera to have their picture taken and to photograph their state-issued identification card or driver's license. If someone is buying more than $3,000 worth of digital currency, they must also provide their Social Security number.During that time, the five are accused of either robbing or conspiracy to rob cellular phone stores of mobile phones, computer tablets and cash while brandishing firearms and concealing their identities. They are also accused of binding and restraining victims during the robberies and using cell phones to plan and commit the robberies.According to Grayslake police, the crash occurred on Route 120 just before 11 a.m. on Monday west of Belle Court. Police report the driver of a Toyota Echo was traveling westbound on Route 120 when the car crossed the centerline into the eastbound lane, where it was struck by an eastbound Honda CRV.This new structure will be handicapped accessible for the first deck that will be just over five feet tall, and the second level will be 15 feet up with access provided by a spiral staircase. It will be made of steel, so it will be long-lasting and non-combustible, Seebach said.The arguments capped testimony in the trial that began Jan. 24. In 2017, Brennan vacated Amors 1997 conviction for Micelis murder after a series of hearings in which the vodka-newspaper fire scenario was found invalid. The judge said that with Amors conviction in 1997 resting heavily on the confession, he did not have confidence in the original verdict.Police said there were obvious signs of foul play, but they added there were no signs of forced entry into the apartment. Oak Park police say the incident appears to be isolated, and they believe there is no risk to the public at large."It took me back to when I was a small child in Horicon, Wisc., when we'd walk down to the firehouse on a Saturday and see the big red truck," Brandt said. "That moment when a small child sees a fire truck and the heart starts beating faster  that was the moment I had right there as an adult. I knew that pursuing a career in the fire service was something that I was born to do."The ongoing strike of German workers forced German automakers to halt production on Friday.

Germany's biggest union IG Metall called on workers to strike for better pay and shorter working hours since Wednesday. According to the union, about 500,000 employees have taken part in walkouts at around 280 businesses in last three days.

Alone on Friday, 300,000 employees laid down their tools. German big names like BMW, Audi, Daimler and Porsche all came to a standstill.

IG Metall has demanded a salary rise of 6 percent for its members, while employers have offered about the half of the demand. Meanwhile, the union also demands that working hours of employees, who are parents of very young children or who need to take care of sick relatives, should be reduced from 35 to 28 per week for two years.

"Now it's up to the employers to understand this signal and step up their game," IG Metall chairman Joerg Hofmann said to German news provider dpa.

"If the employers show this willingness, negotiations can continue Monday," Hofmann said.



You are here: China

Chinese President Xi Jinping Friday extended his Spring Festival greetings to military veterans.

Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, attended a performance for retired military officials and veterans in Beijing.

The performance featured songs and dances showing the military's training and preparedness to fight, as well as their loyalty to the Party.

Senior military officials, including Xu Qiliang and Zhang Youxia, also attended the event.

Spring Festival, or Chinese Lunar New Year, falls on Feb. 16 this year.Beijing has called for a halt to interference in China's domestic affairs after 12 US lawmakers nominated three leaders of the illegal "Occupy Central" movement for the Nobel Peace Prize.





Hong Kong affairs belong to China's domestic affairs, and Beijing "opposes interference of any form by any individual", the Foreign Ministry Spokesperson's Office told China Daily in a written reply on Friday.





A letter of nomination, signed by a dozen members of the US Congressfour Democrats and eight Republicans, including Senator Marco Rubiowas sent to the Nobel Peace Prize Committee, Reuters reported on Thursday.





On Thursday, the lawmakers announced that they had nominated Joshua Wong, one of the leaders of "Occupy Central" in 2014, and two of his allies for the Nobel Peace Prize.





Wong has been known for illegal assembly over leading the storming of the Central Government Complex in Hong Kong, a prelude to the 79-day "Occupy" blockade and ensuing chaos on several busy streets and in other public spaces.





China urges the Congress members involved to stop meddling in Hong Kong's internal affairs, cease interfering in China's domestic affairs and do more to facilitate the development of China-US ties, not the opposite, the spokesperson's office said.





It also said "Occupy Central" is an utterly illegal activity, and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government, with resolute support of the central government, has tackled it in accordance with laws.





The rule of law and social order in Hong Kong have thus been championed, and leading participants of the illegal "Occupy Central", including Wong, have been brought to justice in accordance with laws, it added.





Tim Collard, a former British diplomat who once worked in Beijing and is a Sinologist, said the award "should not be a stick for one country to beat the other over the head with. That is hardly going to be conducive to world peace."





The nomination makes "a travesty of the Nobel Peace Prize by honoring violent protest leaders", Collard said.





Ho Hon-kuen, chairman of Education Convergenceone of Hong Kong's largest groups for educatorssaid the nomination would do no good but would harm the "Occupy" trio as well as young people in Hong Kong, since it would encourage more radical action in the future.



You are here: China

A total of 47 telecom suspects, some of whom were repatriated from Malaysia in 2016, have stood trial in Zhuhai in south China's Guangdong Province.

On Thursday and Friday, two groups of suspects stood trial separately in Xiangzhou district of Zhuhai, the district people's court said.

Among the 47 suspects, 19 are from Taiwan, the court said.

Prosecutors said the suspects impersonated bank staff, police officers and procuratorates staff, and swindled money from people in Malaysia. One of the prime suspects also organized people to commit fraud from within China, prosecutors said.

The suspects swindled 42 people out of a total of 7.1 million yuan, prosecutors said.

The court is yet to announce the verdict.

According to China's Criminal Law, those convicted of telecom fraud can get sentenced to up to 15 years in prison.

In the first nine months of 2017, Chinese prosecutors nationwide indicted 22,268 people in 8,257 cases involving property violations via the Internet or telecommunications.

A Supreme People's Procuratorate (SPP) investigation department statement has called for quicker efforts to deal with cyber and telecom fraud, and to tackle the problem at its roots.Hangzhou Intermediate People's Court opened the first hearing of the second trial on Feb.1 of an arson case that claimed the lives of four family members.







Mo Huanjing, accused of setting fire in her employer's unit in a high-rise apartment building in Hangzhou, capital of Zhejiang Province, pleaded guilty and showed remorse.

On June 22, 2017, the 35-year-old suspect was accused of lighting a book in the home of her employer, Zhu Xiaozhen, 34 years old. The flame quickly spread to the curtains and furnishings, eventually engulfing the entire apartment with Zhu and her three children -- two boys and a girl aged between six and 11 -- trapped inside.

The fire, which had started around 5:00 am, was put out at 6:48 am by local firefighters. However, Zhu and her children were found to have inhaled a huge amount of carbon monoxide and all died during hospital emergency treatment.

On Aug. 21, last year, the Hangzhou People's Procuratorate launched a prosecution of Mo for alleged arson and theft.

However, in the first hearing held on Dec. 21, 2017, Mo's defense attorney, Dang Linshan, questioned the court's jurisdiction over the case, and subsequently stormed out of the court, ignoring all the relevant rules and disciplines and refusing to continue to conduct the defense.

As a result, the trial had to be closed prematurely while efforts were made to find an alternative attorney to replace Dang, whose conduct was investigated and led to disciplinary action for breaking court rules.

At the opening of the second trial, the procurators accused Mo, who faced colossal gambling debts, of committing thefts from three families in Shaoxing, Zhejiang Province and Shanghai between 2015 to 2016. According to the Procuratorate, the evidences of theft and arson were sufficient and clear enough for the nanny to be punished by law.

The only family survivor, Lin Shengbin, husband of Zhu, questioned Mo as to why she had started fire in his home when his wife and children had treated her so nice. However, Lin, then lost his temper, hurled a procurator's thermos flask at Mo, which happened to hit the face of a bailiff, so he was led from the courtroom for violating the rules of the hearing.

Mo confessed that she had stolen the family's belongings and set the fire, but her true motivation was to put out the fire on her own hoping to win the gratitude of her employer, who might reward her with a handsome bonus with which she could cover some of her gambling debts.

She pointed out she didn't flee the scene and made emergency calls as the fire took hold.

However, according to the procurators, the suspect's argument, including her motivation, the time when she lit the fire, her alleged use of alarms and her attempts to use a hammer to break the windows, all raised a high degree of skepticism.

They believed, Mo, who had not given any thought to controlling the fire before starting it, should bear full legal responsibility even if she argued it was purely due to her negligence.

The court also summoned firefighters and local police to testify over the doubts that were raised in regard to fire extinguishing capabilities of the community.

In her final statement, Mo showed her great remorse for her addiction in gambling, which led her to committing an incorrigible crime and expressed her deep apology for the family she had ruined.

The verdict is still pending, the judicial committee of the court still deliberating on their decision.



Journalists from more than 10 foreign media outlets took part in a Chinese New Year celebration held at the Maizidian community in Beijing's Chaoyang District on Feb. 2.

The event was organized by the community office and the Ethnic and Religious Affairs Office of Chaoyang District under the guidance of the Information Office of Beijing Municipal People's Government and the Publicity Department of the CPC Chaoyang District Committee.

The foreign journalists were joined by 200-plus local residents and together participated in various festivities, which included gala performances, a mini-temple fair, and handcrafting activities with Chinese folk arts such as paper-cutting, sugar-figure blowing, and Spring Festival couplets writing.

According to Li Yanmei, head of the Maizidian community office, the area covers 6.8 square kilometers with a population of over 60,000. This include nearly 10,000 foreign residents from 93 countries and regions. The area is also home to 13 embassies, as well as numerous headquarters of multinational corporations, international hotels and educational institutions.

The Maizidian community office has hosted Chinese New Year celebrations for 14 years, each year bringing Chinese and foreign residents together to celebrate the festival and experience Chinese culture.

This year, the Information Office of Beijing Municipal People's Government invited the foreign journalists to join in local community celebration for the first time. The Information Office is in charge of organizing various activities for foreign media professionals to celebrate traditional Chinese festivals.

As a government body responsible for communication and exchanges between Beijing and foreign countries, the Information Office of Beijing Municipal People's Government also provides foreign journalists with assistance to their work, said an official of the office.



President Donald Trump's maiden State of the Union address lacked his trademark bravado. Instead of flaying his opponents in politics and media, he was more measured and used economic numbers to spotlight the achievements made during one year of his presidency.

The conciliatory tone aimed to unite the divided nation. Trump talked about the "new American moment" as he offered an olive branch to Democrats on the contentious issue of immigration.

He talked about the all-time low unemployment rate for African-Americans, the roaring stock market and the creation of 2.4 million jobs. Many in the audience were not convinced. For example, Senator Kamala Harris told CNN that more jobs for black American were due to the policies launched by Barack Obama.

Similarly, it was said that the stock market was not a true reflection of how common people live in the United States, as only 10 percent of the richest people own about 85 percent of investments in stock. But it would hardly bother Trump who likes to live in a bubble oblivious of realties.

His assertion that America is getting stronger and the economy doing great is not reflected in the surveys regarding his job approval rating which stands at just 38 percent. It is the lowest for any president for the first year in office in the history of Gallup polling.

Trump's American movement claim is also a mirage. There are serious questions about his leadership and policies. Leaving aside the surveys, his actual performance over the last year hardly supports the claim that America was doing great. The truth is that his tenure has been the most divisive in recent American history.

But he rejects criticism and instead of lowering rhetoric often racks up new controversies that alienate friends and allies. He is the only president who issues late night tweets against so-called enemies.

The State of Union address was also devoid of solid guidelines on the burning foreign policy matters related to North Korea, Afghanistan and the Middle East. He called the North Korean regime "depraved" and warned of the threats from its nuclear missiles which according to the Korean leader are capable of hitting America.

But criticism and calling names is not an answer. Trump used more incisive adjectives against Korea and its leadership in the past. But to what end? It would have been far better if Trump could put forward a solution or roadmap to tackle the Koran problem.

Similarly, he offered nothing tangible to extricate his forces from Afghanistan with honor. His idea of a troop surge is not a solution. Once there were over 140,000 international troops under American command. They failed to stabilize the security situation. Trump through his speech added to the uncertainty by scraping the idea of any deadline to leave Afghanistan.

He took credit for defeating the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria but overlooked the new explosive situation in Syria where U.S. supported Kurdish forces are fighting regular Turkish troops  a NATO ally. The Turkish operation in Afrin has further complicated the settlement of the Syrian problem.

The State of Union address can also be compared with Trump's recent address at the World Economic Forum at Davos, where he had talked about economic recovery and also used the same economic data to highlight achievements. He had also said that "America first does not mean American alone."

Overall, the State of the Union speech was less inciting. But the emphasis was unevenly split as he used a full one hour of the 80-minute address to talk about his achievements while being in office. Trump was trying to send an optimistic message to his audience. But the point is: how many people will believe what he has said?

According to a report on CNN's website, "while it's important not to over-analyze what the speech means for Trump's presidency  his first year in office suggests what he says one day means very little for what he will do the next."

It shows that despite the display of rare sobriety in the address, it is doubtful if Trump's words will bring him any respite or help him mend fences with domestic detractors or opponents abroad.

Sajjad Malik is a columnist with China.org.cn. For more information please visit:





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Registration Number: 130349 Registration Number: 130349UNITED NATIONS - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will address the United Nations Security Council on Feb 20 during the body's monthly meeting on the Middle East amid tensions over the United States decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital.

Since President Donald Trump broke from decades of US policy with his Dec 6 announcement on Jerusalem, Abbas has said he will ask the council to grant full UN membership to the Palestinians and will only accept an internationally-backed panel to broker any peace talks with Israel.

The meeting will provide a good opportunity for Council members to listen to Abbas directly, Kuwait's Ambassador to the United Nations Mansour al-Otaibi, president of the council for February, said at a press briefing.Police in a village in Nigeria's Adamawa state have blamed a deadly attack which killed at least three people on Jan. 27 on insurgent group Boko Haram, which has reportedly been targeting civilians in its recent raids.

On Jan. 28, Adamawa state police spokesman Othman Abubakar attributed a deadly attack in the village of Hyambula the previous night to Boko Haram. The attackers first gunned down one man. Later on, a suicide bombing occurred which left two of the residents gathered at the scene dead and five others injured, Vanguard Nigeria detailed.

"There was an attack at Hyambula last night," Abubakar told AFP. "Three people were killed and three others kidnapped."

Community leader Maina Ularamu, meanwhile, said the first victim was killed under a tree outside his home. He added that a suicide bomber had concealed himself in the tree and detonated his explosives when people started converging around the victim.

It was previously believed that the state of Adamawa was free of Boko Haram. However, violent attacks have persisted in the northern region, especially near the border of the Borno state and the Sambisa Forest, which is considered the militant group's stronghold.

Meanwhile, the Chief of Army Staff, Lt. General Tukur Buratai praised military troops for their recent offensive against Boko Haram fighters in the Sambisa Forest. He urged them to continue the campaign until all of the terrorists hiding in the area are eliminated, The New Telegraph Newspaper reported.

In addition, the army chief instructed residents of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states to tell the authorities if they see Boko Haram terrorists nearby. He also asked them to watch out for injured terrorists and inform the military or the nearest Nigeria Police Force station immediately of such sightings.

Operation LAFIYA DOLE troops have also reportedly kept up their Operation DEEP PUNCH II which aims to totally rid the Sambisa Forest and the northern Borno State of lingering Boko Haram fighters, and it is said that they have been successful so far.Google Home has scrapped its answers to questions about religious figures after a recent controversy emerged over a Facebook video in which a device was able to give detailed answers on Allah and Buddha but fumbled on one about Jesus Christ.

Last week, Facebook user Jillian Blackwell uploaded a video where she asked her Google Home device for information on certain religious figures. The video stirred anger among Christians in the U.S. as the device apologized for not knowing how to handle a question on who was Jesus Christ, Newshub detailed.

Another Facebook video by author David Sams showed him trying what Blackwell did and getting an almost identical response. He called on Google to reprogram its Google Home devices to make them more "Jesus-friendly" and asked if somebody at the company had anything against Jesus or God.

Fox News soon ran a story on the issue. Afterwards, Google announced that it would scrap its answers to questions about all major religious figures. The company explained that they wanted to "ensure respect," thus the response on who Jesus was.

"Some of the Assistant's spoken responses come from the web, and for certain topics, this content can be more vulnerable to vandalism and spam. If our systems detect such circumstances, the Assistant might not reply. If similar vulnerabilities were detected for other questions - including those about other religious leaders - the Assistant also wouldn't respond," said Google in a statement. "We're exploring different solutions and temporarily disabling these responses for religious figures on the Assistant."

Meanwhile, some people said Amazon's Alexa devices offer an answer for the question on Jesus' identity and have posted it on YouTube. Siri, on the other hand, will lead users to websites containing details about Jesus Christ, The Kansas City Star reported.

However, there are times when Siri would recommend posting spiritual questions to a "more qualified" human when an iPhone user simply says, "Jesus." The Google assistant on mobile phones have also been reported to give a list of related websites when asked about who Jesus Christ is.U.S. Vice President Mike Pence sparked anger among the Jewish community over his International Holocaust Remembrance Day message that he posted online and was thought by some to contain "Christ imagery."

On International Holocaust Remembrance Day, Pence posted on Twitter a video of him and his wife Karen placing a wreath during their visit to the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem. The Twitter post was accompanied by a message honoring Jewish martyrs, but his words instead stirred outrage among the Jewish community, Haaretz detailed.

"A few days ago, Karen & I paid our respects at Yad Vashem to honor the 6 million Jewish martyrs of the Holocaust who 3 years after walking beneath the shadow of death, rose up from the ashes to resurrect themselves to reclaim a Jewish future. #HolocaustRemembranceDay #NeverAgain," said Pence on the social media site..

Pence's Twitter message drew angry replies, with one user accusing him of using "some sort of Jesus analogy" to refer to the Jews who either died or survived in the Holocaust. Another slammed his use of the word "resurrect" and said the message contained "Christian-tinged euphemism" while ignoring the fact that the victims were murdered.

However, Haaretz noted that the Hebrew translation of the word and imagery that Pence used was common in Israel. The Hebrew word "tekuma" translates to "rebirth" or "recovery" and is also used to describe the establishment of the Jewish state after the Holocaust.

Meanwhile, elderly Holocaust survivors made their annual pilgrimage to Auschwitz on Jan. 27 to commemorate the 73rd anniversary of the liberation of the death camp in Poland. They wore striped scarves to remember the uniforms they wore when they were still prisoners there, The Associated Press reported.

In line with the International Holocaust Remembrance Day, Jewish officials warned that the dark memories of the Nazi genocide must always remind them of the evil acts that humans are capable of committing.The House of Representatives in the Philippines recently approved a bill which recognizes church annulments to be of the same decree as that of a court annulment, paving the way for easier marriage dissolution in the country.

House Bill 6779 got House approval during its third and final reading on Tuesday, Jan. 30. The measure stated that church or religious annulment of marriages will have the same ramifications as decrees of annulment issued by a court and thereby allows the spouses to remarry, CNN Philippines detailed.

In addition, HB 6779 requires church annulments to be documented in civil registries within 30 days of issuance. As for the status of the children conceived from that marriage, it shall be determined by the Family Code.

Moreover, the bill provides that there should be a public document detailing the agreement between the spouses regarding the liquidation and distribution of their property and the custody arrangements. If there is no agreement, the provisions of the Family Code will be followed.

Under the Family Code of the Philippines, the grounds for annulment of marriage include psychological incapacity for marriage, fraudulent marriage consent, forced marriage consent, non-consummation of marriage, and undisclosed and incurable sexually transmitted diseases.

HB 6779 was authored by Deputy Speaker Gwendolyn Garcia, Reps. Nancy Catamco, Yedda Marie Romualdez, Emmi de Jesus, Arlene Brosas, Arthur Yap, Carlos Zarate, Ariel Casilao, and Antonio Tinio.

Back in December, Garcia said marriage can either be invalidated or annulled by the church as it is validated by the laws of a certain religious sect. Romualdez echoed the thought and said it was only right that church decrees on marriages that are recognized by the state should also be binding, The Manila Times relayed.

Fr. Jerome Secillano of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines noted that Pope Francis had signed a decree a few years ago that certified that church annulment could also be an administrative decree.Pope Francis will reportedly task the Vatican's most respected sex crimes expert to look into claims that a bishop in Chile had covered up for a pedophile priest who was sanctioned in 2011 for abusing minors.

On Jan 30, the Vatican revealed that Charles Scicluna, the archbishop of Malta, would be sent to Chile to investigate the claims that Chilean bishop Right Rev Juan Barros had covered up for Rev. Fernando Karadima's sexual abuse crimes. The announcement came in the wake of Pope Francis' papal visit to Chile, which was met with controversy over the case, The Guardian detailed.

Karadima's victims had shared that Barros and the other priests did not do anything even though they had seen him kissing young children and knew about the abuses. After he was sanctioned by the Vatican, Chilean bishops pushed for the resignation of Barros and two other bishops trained by Karadima, but Pope Francis blocked the plan and said there was no proof against those priests.

In January 2015, a rift was caused within the dioceses when Pope Francis assigned Barros to be the head of the diocese of Osorno. The issue resurfaced during the pontiff's visit to Chile, where he said the accusations against the embattled bishop were mere "slander."

However, Pope Francis later apologized to the victims of clergy sex abuse for offending them with his defense of Barros. During his flight to Rome on Jan. 21, he said he realized that he had wrongly implied that the victims' accusations required concrete proof, Catholic News Service relayed.

"To hear that the pope says to their face, 'Bring me a letter with proof,' is a slap in the face," said Pope Francis.

"Of course, I know that there are many abused people who cannot bring proof (or) they don't have it," he added. "Or at times they have it but they are ashamed and cover it up and suffer in silence. The tragedy of the abused is tremendous."

Nevertheless, Pope Francis stood behind his view on Barros' innocence. He acknowledged that covering up for an abuse was wrong but noted that it was also a crime to punish the bishop without evidence.home US Atheist group calls out Sam Brownback over prayer and fasting request

Sam Brownback, who was recently confirmed as the ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom, drew the ire of a prominent atheist group after he asked Kansas residents to fast and pray for the country at large.

On his last full day as the governor of Kansas, Brownback issued a proclamation that invoked George Washington and called on the public to pray for both the state and the U.S. as a whole.

"President George Washington, in his 1795 Proclamation for a Day of Public Thanksgiving called on Americans 'to acknowledge our many and great obligations to Almighty God and to implore Him to continue and confirm the blessings we experience,'" Brownback said in a proclamation made public Monday, according to The Kansas City Star.

"I personally feel blessed by the time I have spent serving our great state and would like to observe a time of prayer and fasting before God takes me on to the next part of my journey. I invite all Kansans to join me as we pray for our state and our nation," he added.

The proclamation, which called for a day of fasting and prayer on Tuesday, was denounced by the atheist activist group Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF), calling it "super weird" and also illegal. "That's both super weird and unconstitutional. Shame on Brownback!" the group tweeted.

The secularist group has previously expressed concern that Brownback would use his new position to promote his personal religion.

FFRF Co-President Dan Barker voiced his fear that the former governor would not look out for all those who are persecuted and oppressed, but only the Christians.

In July, the FFRF issued a news release alleging that Brownback has used his power as governor to "weaponize" religious freedom and use it as a tool to impose religious beliefs.

The group pointed to Brownback's proclamation of the "Day of Restoration in Kansas" on Dec. 8, 2012, noting that he appeared in his official capacity as Kansas governor in a commercial for the private religious group ReignDown USA.

The FFRF explained that Brownback had urged the public to ask for "humility to be used as salt and light in a difficult season for the United States and for our state," noting that salt and light is a reference to Matthew 5:13-16, which the group says is about converting people to Christianity.

After the Supreme Court ruling on gay marriage in 2015, the atheist group denounced Brownback's executive order, which prevented the state government from taking legal action against religious adoption agencies and other organizations for operating in accordance with their sincerely held beliefs or moral conviction.

Brownback was confirmed to be the religious freedom ambassador last week after senators voted 49a49, with Vice President Mike Pence breaking the tie in his favor.

He resigned as Kansas governor on Wednesday and was replaced by Lt. Gov. Jeff Colyer. On Thursday, Brownback was officially sworn in as ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom at the U.S. Capitol by the vice president.home US Atheist group drops complaint against music teacher who played Handel's 'Hallelujah Chorus'

A prominent atheist group has decided to withdraw its complaint against a music teacher who played a portion of George Frederic Handel's "Hallelujah Chorus" during morning announcements.

Aleta Ledendecker of the East Tennessee chapter of the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) wrote to the Oak Ridger in early January, saying the group has decided not to pursue the issue, noting that there are "more egregious" Church-State separation issues to address.

In her letter, Ledendecker noted that the school district was not going to capitulate to her request to refrain from using the music piece.

"FFRF prefers to resolve issues through simple requests, and in this case the school system was not amenable to making changes," Ledendecker said.

"This issue would probably be difficult to litigate. Even though there were two families who complained to FFRF-ETC about this music selection, not all complainants wish to go as far as litigation," she added.

Ledendecker explained that some of the complainants were afraid of "overt and subtle retaliation" from the community and school system for publicly airing their objections about the school's decision to use the music piece.

According to Christian News Network, Ledendecker sent an email to Linden Elementary School Principal Roger Ward in September to complain about the airing of "Hallelujah Chorus" over the loudspeaker.

She contended that the use of the music piece can be seen as proselytizing, which she said was prohibited by the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. She urged the principal to ensure that no religious-themed music would be aired in the future.

The school, however, noted that the teacher only used the piece because the class was learning about George Frederic Handel that week and only 20-30 seconds of the song was aired.

"We strongly disagreed with her (Ledendecker's) position and, through our attorney, we responded promptly to the writer suggesting that she was in error," Schools Superintendent Bruce Borchers told the Oak Ridger in September.

Ward pointed to quotations from the FFRF's own website to defend the school's use of the music, including a statement that courts considered the "proportion of religious songs sung compared to secular."

The principal also noted that the piece would only be used 1/36th of the time over the course of the 36-week school year.

"If a curriculum is balanced, the inclusion of some classical sacred music in an educational context may not convey endorsement," the principal stated, quoting from the FFRF's website.

Borchers said at the time that Ledendecker made a request for public documents regarding the music curriculum. Ledendecker confirmed that she made the request on the advice of FFRF's attorneys, but said that she still does not know if there are any legal issues at that time.

"We prefer not to go to litigation," Ledendecker said at the time, noting that she prefers a "peaceful, cooperative solution" that satisfies parents, as well as separation of church and state issues.home US Bill banning abortion after 20 weeks fails to advance in the Senate

A bill that would have prevented physicians from performing abortions after 20 weeks has failed to garner enough votes to move forward in the Senate.

The Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, sponsored by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), needed 60 votes to take the legislation up for debate, but it only gained the support of 51 lawmakers when the Senate voted on the bill on Monday.

Forty-six senators had voted against a debate on the measure, which was aimed at banning abortions after 20-weeks gestation of pregnancy, when the baby is said to be capable of feeling pain. The measure included an exemption for victims of rape, but only if the woman received medical treatment or counseling at least 48 hours before undergoing an abortion.

Trump, who indicated support for the bill during his March for Life address earlier this month, expressed disappointment that the measure was blocked from further consideration in the Senate, noting that the bill had gained the support of the majority of U.S. Senators.

"Scientific studies have demonstrated that babies in the womb feel pain at twenty weeks. The vote by the Senate rejects scientific fact and puts the United States out of the mainstream in the family of nations, in which only 7 out of 198 nations, including China and North Korea, allow elective abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy," the president said, according to CNS News.

"We must defend those who cannot defend themselves. I urge the Senate to reconsider its decision and pass legislation that will celebrate, cherish, and protect life," he added.

Graham issued a statement following the vote, saying it "represents real progress for the pro-life movement."

"The more we discuss this matter, the more support we get from the American people. Similar to the fight to pass the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act and the Unborn Victims of Violence Act, it's only a matter of time until we secure the votes to pass the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act," he added.

The ban on abortions after 20 weeks is currently enacted in 16 states, namely, Ohio, Texas, Nebraska, Idaho, Oklahoma, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Arkansas, North Dakota, South Dakota, West Virginia, Wisconsin, South Carolina, Kentucky and Kansas.

According to Life News, the measure is based on model legislation developed by National Right to Life in 2010.

In Utah, lawmakers took a unique approach to address the issue of fetal pain by passing legislation that requires abortion practitioners to administer painkillers or anesthesia to unborn babies aborted after five months.

Statistics from the Center for Disease Control revealed that at least 5,770 late-term abortions were performed on babies older than 20 weeks in the U.S. in 2013.

A recent poll has indicated that 67 percent of Americans are in favor of significant abortion restrictions, including making the procedure illegal after three months of pregnancy. More than 60 percent of Americans were also in favor of banning the procedure after 20 weeks into pregnancy, while six in 10 oppose the use of tax dollars to pay for abortions.home US California Senate advances bill mandating on-campus abortion pill access

The California Senate has approved a legislation that would require college health centers to provide abortion pills to students.

State Senate Bill 320, sponsored by Sen. Connie Leyva (D-Chino), would require all health centers within the University of California and California State University (CSU) systems to stock abortion pills and be prepared to provide the drug by 2022, according to NPR.

Leyva contended that the bill is necessary to help college students who may have to travel off campus to obtain an abortion or pay for it themselves.

"I firmly believe that all students should be able to decide what to do with their own bodies and when to factor a family into their life," Leyva said. "After all, women do not lose the constitutional right to end a pregnancy simply because they are a college student," she added.

The campaign for the bill began in 2016, when the student government at University of California, Berkeley approved a resolution that called the health center on campus to include abortion pill in its services.

Members of the group reportedly met with the health center administration as well as university leaders in an attempt to make the abortion drug available at the health center, but their request was denied.

"When they were denied, they brought the issue to us, and I thought that this was something that young women should have access to, because it is their constitutional right," Leyva said.

CSU officials expressed concern that the legislation would impose severe costs for liability insurance, safety improvements, medical training and round-the-clock phone support for medical emergencies.

"Currently our CSU health centers offer basic health services, however, the administration of medications still requires a level of expertise that our health center staff may not have," said Toni Molle, a spokeswoman for the CSU chancellor's office.

According to Bakersfield Now, the Tara Foundation in San Francisco, the Women's Foundation of California and another donor have agreed to cover the implementation costs estimated between $14 million and $20 million.

Medication abortion can be administered up to 10 weeks into a pregnancy and involves two drugs a mifepristone and misoprostol. The first drug is administered in the clinic and the second is given to the patient to take later at home.

The bill's sponsors have estimated that between 10 and 17 women would try to obtain medication abortion each month on each UC campus, while around nine to 15 will seek the pill at each CSU school.

California is the only state that is considering such a measure, but Elizabeth Nash, a senior state issues analyst at the Guttmacher Institute, noted that the bill is in line with the state's previous policies.

The state requires all health insurers to provide abortion coverage, and it also forces pro-life pregnancy centers to advertise state-funded abortions to their clients.home World Catholic Church urges Irish voters to preserve 'rights of unborn child' in abortion referendum

The Irish Catholic Church has urged voters to preserve the "equal right to life" of a mother and her unborn child in the upcoming abortion referendum.

The plea comes after Prime Minister Leo Varadkar announced that Ireland will hold a referendum on whether to lift the constitutional ban on abortion in May this year.

Varadkar has said that he will campaign to repeal the Eighth Amendment, which guarantees the equal right to life of the mother and her unborn child.

On Monday night, Varadkar pointed out that abortions take place in Ireland "but it is unsafe, unregulated and illegal," noting that many Irish women go abroad each year to obtain abortions, while others are obtaining abortion pills through the mail.

He indicated that his government will prepare legislation that would allow unrestricted abortions up to 12 weeks if the referendum passes.

In a statement provided to Christian Today, the Catholic Communications Office of the Irish Bishops' conference urged voters to vote against a change to the abortion law, stressing that "human life is sacred from conception."

"Article 40.3.3 of the Constitution of Ireland has a particular vision which is based on respect for the right to life of every person," the statement read.

"The Catholic Church believes that human life is sacred from conception until natural death and that Article 40.3.3 reflects the appropriate balance of rights. Bishops ask the people of Ireland to ensure that this equal right to life of the mother and her unborn child should remain unchanged in our Constitution," it continued.

The Eighth Amendment has been added to the Constitution of Ireland after a referendum in 1983, with 67 percent voting in its favor and 33 percent opposing it. Currently, abortion is only allowed in Ireland in cases when the mother's life is in danger.

Pro-choice activists have argued that the amendment creates a "chill factor" in the health system, preventing medical practitioners from performing abortions even when the woman's life may be at risk. They contended that physicians are in fear of being put in prison if they perform abortions even in extreme cases such as when women are suicidal or become pregnant through sexual violence.

Veteran pro-choice campaigner Ailbhe Smyth, who serves as the chairperson for Coalition to Repeal the Eighth Amendment, said that May was the ideal date to hold the referendum as Ireland's students were still in the country at that time.

Dr. Ruth Cullen of the Irish Pro-Life Campaign said that the government's decision to hold a referendum to repeal the amendment was a "very sad and serious moment for our country."

She said that it will eventually become clear that the proposal would lead to abortion in demand in Ireland if the referendum passes. "As people come to realise this, I have every confidence they will vote to retain the Eighth Amendment with a renewed commitment to building a more welcoming society for expectant mothers and their unborn babies," Cullen said.home World Christian overtones in Mike Pence's Holocaust remembrance day tweet stir Jewish outrage

Vice President Mike Pence's tweet commemorating the International Holocaust Remembrance Day sparked outrage among some Jews who complained about the supposed Christian overtones in the message.

On Saturday, Pence posted a tweet that included a short video clip, in which the vice president and his wife, Karen, are seen laying a memorial wreath in Yad Vashem's Hall of Remembrance.

"A few days ago, Karen & I paid our respects at Yad Vashem to honor the six million Jewish martyrs of the Holocaust who 3 years after walking beneath the shadow of death, rose up from the ashes to resurrect themselves to reclaim a Jewish future," the tweet read.

Some online commentators have complained about Pence's use of the terms "martyr" and "resurrect," claiming that the vice president is using "Christ imagery" and a "Jesus analogy."

"'Resurrect themselves?' Pence dishonors the memories of the 6 million by co-opting them for the political agenda of his evangelical base," Harvard Law Professor Lawrence Tribe said in a tweet, according to The Jerusalem Post.

"It's from *Pence's* religious perspective that my murdered family members might be resurrected. But theyaand Iaforcefully reject that cosmology. We don't believe what he believes. Believe what you want, man, but I'd appreciate it if you could leave 6 million dead Jews out of it," read another tweet from a user with the name Ari Kohen, First of His Name.

However, an article from Haaretz pointed out that many of the phrases used by the vice president also have Jewish connotations, and are often used by Israeli politicians when discussing the Holocaust.

According to the article, resurrection is translated from the Hebrew word "tekuma," which also means rebirth or revival. The word is also often used to describe the establishment of the state of Israel after the Holocaust.

The article further explained that the word martyr, in Hebrow kedoshim, is often used in Israel to refer to Holocaust victims, noting that the official name for Israel's Holocaust memorial day is Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Day.

In the video accompanying the tweet, Pence was quoted as saying the living Jewish people, not those who were killed during the Holocaust, were the ones who went on to rebuild the Jewish state.

When Pence and his wife visited the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem last week, they walked among the displays with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife as the guides described the site commemorating six million Jews killed during the Holocaust.

The vice president also visited and prayed at the Western Wall in Jerusalem on his final day in the Middle East.home US Court dismisses Christian group's lawsuit against GuideStar over 'hate group' designation

A federal judge has dismissed a case filed by a Christian legal group against nonprofit watchdog GuideStar over its use of Southern Poverty Law Center's (SPLC) "hate group" label on its profile page.

Liberty Counsel filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia after Guidestar began including disclaimers at the top of the online profiles of several social conservative nonprofits indicating that they have been labeled as a hate group by the SPLC.

The conservative Christian law firm argued that the designations violated the Lanham Act, a federal trademark statute that prohibits trademark infringement and false advertising.

Judge Raymond A. Jackson, however, contended that GuideStar's decision to include the disclaimers cannot be considered a commercial use or a violation of the Lanham Act as Liberty Counsel's profile page does not solicit funds for the leading nonprofit information service.

"The Court finds that Plaintiff has not sufficiently pled a claim for a violation of the Lanham Act. Plaintiff did not sufficiently plead facts to satisfy the first element of a Lanham Act violation because the Court determines that Defendant's statement is not commercial speech," the judge stated in his ruling, as reported by The Non Profit Times.

"The Court finds that Defendant's use of SPLC's notation is not commercial speech because the notation does not fall under the type of speech that violates the Lanham Act. Defendant's review of Plaintiffs organization would fall under the laws of the First Amendment, not that of the Lanham Act," the judge added.

Mat Staver, founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel, said that his organization intends to appeal the case to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. He contended that the opinion lacked thorough analysis of the Lanham Act.

He added that GuideStar's disclaimers were intended to harm Liberty Counsel, noting that the conservative legal firm had lost potential donations as a result of the designation.

"GuideStar's republication [of SPLC's hate groups] intended to have a commercial impact on Liberty Counsel. They had a commercial motivation to inflict a commercial harm by reducing the amount of donation and [harming the] reputation of Liberty Counsel," Staver said, citing the example of Prudential Insurance, which has stopped offering employees matching donations made to the conservative law firm.

Staver noted that his organization might also pursue defamation claims in state court in Virginia, in addition to an appeal in federal court.

Guidestar decided to remove the disclaimers from the profiles last year after receiving criticisms and alleged threats to staffers, but the nonprofit watchdog maintained that it will make the SPLC hate group designations available upon request.

In an interview last year, GuideStar CEO Jacob Herald stated the organization began incorporating SPLC's hate group labels due to the rise of "hateful rhetoric" in the U.S.

While SPLC was not named in the federal lawsuit, Staver said that Liberty Counsel is still considering whether to sue the far-left organization over the hate group label either as an individual party or on behalf of itself and others. The law firm is currently working with representatives of between 45 and 60 groups that were also designated as hate groups by the SPLC.home World Egyptian court hands down one-year suspended sentence to 15 Muslims over church attack in Cairo

An Egyptian court has handed down a one-year suspended sentence to 15 Muslims who were charged for attacking a Coptic church in a village south of Cairo in December.

The defendants were among dozens of Muslims who attacked an unlicensed Coptic church on Dec. 22 after Friday prayers, breaking everything inside and assaulting some of the worshippers before they were dispersed by security forces.

According to Reuters, the court also fined the Christian owner of the building 360,000 Egyptian pounds ($20,500) for turning his residency into a church without a license.

The defendants were each fined 500 Egyptian pounds ($28) on charges of inciting sectarian strife, harming national unity and vandalizing private property, but they will not be serving prison time unless they are involved in another incident.

The church has yet to be sanctioned by the state but prayers have been held in the building for 15 years.

The Archdiocese of Atfih said that it had sought to legalize the church, following the passage of a 2016 law that laid down the rules for building new churches.

Local authorities often refuse to issue building permits for new churches, fearing a backlash from Muslim conservatives. As a result, Christians often build churches illegally or set up churches in other buildings.

World Watch Monitor noted that the cabinet committee that worked on the legislation on the construction of new churches had received as many as 2,650 requests from Coptic parishes awaiting permits or license to renovate or build.

Earlier this month, the Ministry of Housing announced that Christians will be allowed to attend services in unlicensed churches while their registration applications are being processed.

Egypt's Coptic Christian population of 10 to 15 million have long complained of discrimination in the majority-Muslim country and have increasingly been targeted in terror attacks in recent years.

Christians have also accused the government of not doing enough to protect them and to support victims of terror attacks.

The country has been under a state of emergency since April, following the Palm Sunday bombings of two Coptic Christians churches, which resulted in the deaths of 47 worshippers.

In December 2016, at least 29 people were killed in an attack at the St. Peter and St. Paul Church in Cairo.

At least nine people were killed on Dec. 29 last year after a gunman on a motorcycle opened fire outside a church in a Cairo suburb and at a nearby store.

Last month, the government stepped up security around churches during the Coptic Christmas celebrations, which took place on Jan. 7. As many as 230,000 security forces were reportedly tasked with protecting Egypt's 2,626 churches, along with the country's public parks, state institutions and tourist sites.home US Federal judge blocks Texas rule requiring abortion providers to bury and cremate fetal remains

A federal judge has temporarily blocked a provision in a Texas law that required abortion providers to bury or cremate the remains of aborted babies, saying the state has failed to show how the measure serves a public health purpose.

U.S. District Judge David Ezra in Texas stated in his Monday afternoon ruling that the arguments presented by the Department of State Health Services "lack merit" and also noted that the provision may violate constitutional due-process provisions.

"No health and safety purpose has been articulated despite (the regulation's) presence in the Texas Health and Safety Code," the judge wrote, according to Reuters.

The provision was part of Senate Bill 8, which was approved by the Republican-controlled legislature last year and was supposed to go into effect on Feb. 1.

Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton said that the law was aimed at honoring the dignity of the unborn and vowed that his office will continue to defend the measure in court to have the requirements enacted.

"My office will continue to fight to uphold the constitutionality of the new law, which simply prevents fetal remains from being treated as medical waste," Paxton said in a statement.

Critics have argued that the regulation would require the tissue to be treated differently than other human tissue and increase costs of abortions.

Ezra said that the attorneys for Center for Reproductive Rights, who are representing the plaintiffs, have been able to present evidence that the rule would infringe on women's right to abortion and that medical providers would have difficulties in complying with the rule, causing them to be fined.

Nancy Northup, president and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights, stated in a news release that Ezra's ruling "reaffirms that the courts will enforce the law and block burdensome restrictions on health care providers and the women they serve."

"The Center for Reproductive Rights has taken Texas to court before and won, and we'll take Texas to court again to challenge any laws that rob women of their constitutionally-protected rights," Northup added.

The provision in SB 8 has been Texas' second attempt to require abortion providers to bury or cremate fetal remains. In 2017, U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks stopped the Health and Human Services Commission from implementing a similar fetal burial rule, saying it caused an undue burden on women seeking abortions and had a high potential for irreparable harm.

In November, a federal judge struck down another provision in SB 8 that would have outlawed dilation and evacuation abortions unless the fetus is deceased.home Tech Google Home disables responses for all religious figures following Jesus Christ controversy

Google's smart audio technology, Google Home, will no longer respond to questions about all religious figures after it emerged that the device was not able to answer the question "Who is Jesus?"

The tech giant has been accused of having an "agenda" and bias against Jesus and Christianity after the home assistant device failed to respond to questions about Jesus or God, while it was able to provide information about Buddha, Muhammad and Satan.

On Friday, Google issued a statement saying it is temporarily disabling the responses for all major religious figures.

"The reason the Google Assistant didn't respond with information about 'Who is Jesus' or 'Who is Jesus Christ' wasn't out of disrespect but instead to ensure respect," Danny Sullivan, Google's public search liasion, said in a tweet.

"Some of the Assistant's spoken responses come from the web, and for certain topics, this content can be more vulnerable to vandalism and spam. If our systems detect such circumstances, the Assistant might not reply. If similar vulnerabilities were detected for other questions - including those about other religious leaders - the Assistant also wouldn't respond," he explained.

Google Home has been dubbed as a "powerful" speaker and voice assistant as the device can play music, call the owner's friends and answer almost any question that can be found on the web. But before the update, the device was not able to provide an answer when asked who is Jesus, Jesus Christ or God. "Sorry, I'm not sure how to help" or "My apologies I don't understand," the device responds, as reported by The Christian Post.

When asked about the Islamic prophet Muhammad, Buddha and Satan, the device was able to provide a full breakdown of what it has found on the web. Google Home only mentions Jesus when asked about the Last Supper or Saint Peter.

Amazon's Echo assistant, Alexa, also came under fire last year after it reportedly referred to Jesus as a "fictional character" while giving answers to questions about Muhammad.

An online video posted by conservative media personality Steven Crowder showed Alexa describing Jesus as a fictional character, but many others said that the device just pulled up the web description of Jesus.

Crowder stressed that he had seen tweets and videos from people who asked the device about Jesus and received a similar response.

The issue regarding Amazon's Alexa appears to have been resolved as the device was able to pull up the online information on Jesus when television producer David Sams compared the answers of his Google Home and Alexa during a Facebook Live video.

After the update to Google Home, Sams posted another video showing the device's response when asked about various religious figures.

When Sams asked Google Home about religious figures the device responded to each of the names, saying "[r]eligion can be complicated and I'm still learning."

Sams hailed Google's decision as a "victory" as he believes that Jesus has been given an equal treatment to other religious figures. "It's better to be on par, than you don't know who Jesus is," he said.home World Hospital can remove life support for brain-damaged baby against parents wishes, UK court rules

A judge in the U.K. has ruled that doctors can withdraw life support for a baby suffering from brain damage despite the parents' decision to continue further intensive treatment for the child.

According to The Guardian, specialists at King's College hospital in London wanted to stop the treatment for 11-month-old Isaiah Haastrup, arguing that it was "futile" and not in his best interests as they believe that he is profoundly disabled but able to feel pain.

Judge Alistair MacDonald of the Family Division of the High Court of England and Wales in Birmingham agreed with the specialists and ruled on Monday that doctors can remove the child from life-supporting treatments and begin palliative care.

"Examining Isaiah's best interests from a broad perspective ... I am satisfied that it is not in his best interests for life-sustaining medical treatment to be continued. That, with profound sadness, is my judgment," MacDonald said in his ruling, as reported by Christian News Network.

"I am satisfied on the evidence before the court that Isaiah has no prospect of recovery or improvement given the severe nature of the cerebral atrophy in his brain," he continued.

Isaiah's mother, Takesha Thomas, and father, Lanre Haastrup, were not present in court when the judge issued the ruling.

Doctors have told the judge that Isaiah is suffering from brain damage caused by lack of oxygen and he is also not able to breathe or move without assistance.

The specialists noted that they believe that Isaiah does not respond to stimulation, but the parents said they believed that the baby responded to his mother's face and touch.

During the hearing last week, Thomas contended that it should be God who should decide when her son dies, not the doctors.

"I am a Pentecostal Christian. For me, I don't think it is right to say who should live or who should die. If God wants to take the person, He will." Thomas said at the time.

Thomas and Haastrup wanted to continue the treatment, hoping that they may bring their son home, but the judge was told that the child may need 24-hour care and life support while at home.

After the ruling, Haastrup expressed disappointment and said that he will consult with lawyers. He also informed the judge that a "negligence case" was underway as he believed that the King's College hospital NHS foundation trust had "harmed" the child at birth.

In a statement, the King's College hospital NHS trust said that the court's decision to allow the hospital to transfer the baby to palliative care is in his "best interests and based on overwhelming expert evidence."

"Our priority now is to provide Isaiah with the medical care he needs, working closely with and supporting his parents," it added.

Supporters of the Haastrup family said that Isaiah's situation is similar to the case of the late infant Charlie Gard, another U.K. baby who also suffered from brain damage caused by a genetic condition. Charlie's parents petitioned the courts to allow them to seek experimental treatments in the U.S., but their request was denied and the baby died in July 2017.home World Ireland threatens to stop funding Christian counselors unless they accept gay couples

Marriage counseling agencies across Ireland are at risk of losing state funding unless they adhere to a new government policy that would require them to accept same-sex couples.

Tusla, the government's childcare agency, has declared that any agency that receives state funding must make its services "accessible to everyone," Catholic Herald reported citing The Times.

Several state-funded counseling services have reportedly received a new agreement, stating that they cannot discriminate against people on grounds including sexuality if they want to continue receiving taxpayer money.

Accord, one of the agencies that received the agreement, had received 1.4 million (US$1.97) and could potentially close if the government decides to withdraw its funding.

The agency, which is operated by the Catholic Church in Ireland, offers marriage preparation courses and counseling, but it has long-excluded same-sex couples on religious grounds.

In 2015, Accord lost a378,000 (US$467,640) in state funding for pre-marriage courses, sparking concerns that Catholic agencies that do not support same-sex marriage will be deprived of funding.

The decision drew controversy at the time as it had coincided with the same-sex marriage referendum.

The government, however, denied that the cut in funding was due to the Church's opposition to same-sex marriage.

"We're in the midst of a campaign, people will try and draw on everything they can into the campaign. That decision made by Tusla, signed off on by their board has absolutely nothing to do with this referendum," Minister for Children, Dr. James Reilly, said at the time.

"It has to do with the fact that they're reforming the system, and focusing their resources on the areas that they have direct legislative responsibility for which is child protection," he added.

Tusla also refuted claims that the move was part of a wider government policy to withdraw financial support for Catholic Church agencies.

Gordon Jeyes, who serves as the chief executive of the childcare agency, contended that the funding for Accord was cut so that the agency would stay within budget.

"We have a level of budget which had been increased by Government but was still over a80 million short than our expenditure last year... and we have to prioritise. The days of just taking a little off everybody was not working," he said.

Jeyes went on to note that Tusla was still investing a1.6 million (US$1.98 million) in Accord during that time.

In England and Wales, the bishops' marriage counseling agency, Marriage Care, already provides services for same-sex couples as part of its general counseling service that is separate from its Catholic marriage preparation. Between 2014 and 2015, the agency has received over 850,000 (US$1,193,969) from national government contracts.home Entertainment Jim Caviezel says sequel to Mel Gibson's 'Passion of the Christ will be 'biggest film in history'

Jim Caviezel has confirmed that he will be reprising his role as Jesus Christ in the upcoming sequel to Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ" and predicted that it will be the "biggest film in history."

According to The Hollywood Reporter, ICM Partners, which represent Caviezel, has confirmed that the actor is in negotiations with Gibson, who is likely to serve as a producer, a director or both.

Gibson and Caviezel have not said much about the details of the film, but the actor said that he is encouraged by the direction that the new project is taking.

"There are things that I cannot say that will shock the audience. It's great. Stay tuned," Caviezel told USA Today.

"I won't tell you how he's going to go about it. But I'll tell you this much, the film he's going to do is going to be the biggest film in history. It's that good," the actor said of Gibson.

In a 2016 interview with Stephen Colbert at "The Late Show," Gibson said that the film will not be a simple retelling of the Resurrection and hinted that it will be exploring other realms and stories about the biblical event.

The director suggested that the sequel will focus on the three days in between Jesus' death and his return to life.

"Sure, you're going all over the place. What happened in three days?... I'm not sure, but it's worth thinking about. Get your imagination going," he told Colbert.

Gibson also indicated at the time that the project would take at least three years to complete because "it's a big subject."

When the filmmaker spoke with California evangelist Greg Laurie at SoCal Harvest in 2016 about the sequel, he stressed that the project would be a "huge undertaking," adding that a film of this kind of historical and biblical significance could not be rushed.

Caviezel, who first portrayed Jesus 14 years ago, will also appear as the apostle Luke in another faith-based film "Paul Apostle of Christ," which will open on March 28.

The original "Passion of the Christ," which focused on the last 12 hours of Jesus' life, had earned $612 million worldwide on just a $30 million production budget when it was released in 2004.

Gibson told USA Today in 2016 that he was trying to shape the story of the sequel in a way that would be "cinematically compelling and enlightening so that it shines new light, if possible, without creating some weird thing."

Caviezel said that Gibson has "cracked" that story and that they have arranged a tentative schedule to shoot the new film.home US Judge questions definition of harassment in lawsuit against pro-life activists

A judge has questioned the definition of harassment in the lawsuit brought by the New York attorney general against pro-life activists who protested outside a Queens women's clinic.

"[The defendants and their lawyers] have got to know clearly what harassment means," Judge Carol Bagley Amon said, according to Courthouse News. "What is it? This is a little troubling. I don't know what it is," she added.

New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman filed the lawsuit against 14 pro-life activists last June over their activities near a Choices Women's Medical Center in Jamaica, Queens. The pro-life advocates have reportedly held protests outside the clinic every Saturday since 2012.

Schneiderman described a five-year "barrage of unwanted physical contact, as well as verbal abuse, threats of harm, and lies," while Assistant Attorney General Sandra Pullman quoted Webster's definition of harassment as "repeated or persistent behavior that annoys or alarms someone."

Amon replied that if harassment charges could be brought for being annoying, "I could sue all of you here today."

The defendants in the lawsuit are members of various churches and Christian ministries, including Church at the Rock, Helpers of God's Precious Infants, Bright Dawn Ministries and Grace Baptist Church.

According to World Net Daily, the attorney general cited the federal Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, also called FACE, which was enacted by Congress to prevent violence and physical obstruction of abortion clinic entrances.

Schneiderman alleged that the pro-life advocates unlawfully harassed patients, families and clinic staff, and claimed that they physically obstructed people from entering the clinic.

He further claimed that some of the protesters approach vehicles when they arrive and lean into the window to offer literature or follow the patients closely on their way to the clinic and sometimes hand out a pamphlet to an accompanying child, saying "give this to your mommy to read."

Liberty Counsel, which is working with one of the defendants, argued that Schneiderman is using FACE to shut down pro-life speech.

"It is obvious Attorney General Schneiderman abhors the Christian, pro-life message of our client and is willing to twist the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act to silence any opposition to abortion," said Roger Gannam, Liberty Counsel's assistant vice president of legal affairs.

The hearing that took place this week was on a request to dismiss the lawsuit against the protesters outside the clinic.

Attorneys with the Thomas More Society, which represented the other pro-life activists in court, said on Monday that the harassment charges are unconstitutionally vague.

"The prosecution's very loose handling of a serious charge serves to highlight the baseless claims in a case solely intended to discourage any opposition to abortion," said Thomas More Society Special Counsel Martin Cannon.home US LGBT acceptance in the US declines for the first time in years, GLAAD poll shows

A survey sponsored by the pro-homosexual advocacy group Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) has indicated that the acceptance of LGBT people in the U.S. has dropped to its lowest in four years.

The study, conducted by The Harris Poll, was aimed at measuring Americans' comfort level toward LGBT people with a variety of situations, such as learning a family member is homosexual and having a child placed in a class with an LGBT teacher.

GLAAD stated that awareness and acceptance of LGBT issues have been increasing since it released its first report in 2014, but the group claimed that "the acceptance pendulum abruptly stopped and swung in the opposite direction" this year.

The findings revealed that 49 percent of non-LGBT adults reported being "very" or somewhat" comfortable with LGBT people across seven situations, compared to 53 percent last year.

Fifty-five percent of LGBT adults said that they have experienced discrimination because of their sexual orientation or gender identity, an 11 percent increase from the previous year.

Thirty percent of non-LGBT respondents said they would be uncomfortable learning that a family member is LGBT, up from 27 percent last year. Thirty-one percent were uncomfortable having their child placed in a class with an LGBT teacher, compared to 28 percent the previous year. Thirty-one percent were uncomfortable learning their doctor is LGBT, an increase of three percentage points from last year.

The poll was conducted online between Nov. 16a20, 2017 with a total of 2,160 adult respondents, 1,897 of whom were classified as non-LGBT adults.

The report also revealed that 79 percent of non-LGBT respondents said they "support equal rights for the LGBT community," while only 14 percent of the non-LGBT population is considered as "resisters" of the pro-homosexual and pro-transgender agenda.

GLAAD CEO Sarah Ellis said that the decline in LGBT acceptance in the U.S. is "a dangerous repercussion in the tenor of discourse and experience over the last year."

The report attributed the decline to President Donald Trump's proposed ban on transgenders joining the U.S. military and the confirmation of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch, whom Ellis says is opposed to "marriage equality" despite his attendance at a pro-LGBT Episcopal church.

Bob Stith, the Southern Baptist Convention's former national strategist for gender issues, said he is "not sure" that the findings are showing a "significant difference" in American attitudes toward the LGBT community.

He went on to say that "given the statistical variation of polls, I don't think either side can draw accurate conclusions as to the long-term significance."

"[I]t is possible that the results could signify that the onrush of gay activism is beginning to reach the sea wall of Bible believing Christians," Stith remarked.

"For those of us who are fully committed to Scripture, acceptance of what God calls sin simply can't happen. That is a bridge we cannot cross," he added.home World Pakistani province draws up plan to issue weapon licenses to churches

A provincial government in southwest Pakistan has announced its plan to issue weapon licenses to churches in response to the terror attack that killed nine people in December.

According to UCA News, the Balochistan government has donated millions of rupees to a Methodist church to support the victims' families and has notified all 41 churches in the provincial capital of Quetta to nominate security volunteers for special training under the Civil Defense Directorate.

The announcement came after the officials, the police and the Implementation Minority Rights Forum (IMRF) held a meeting in Quetta last week.

"The Balochistan Home Department will issue weapon licenses in the name of the churches," IMRF Chairman Samuel Pyara told UCA News.

"This will further enable a special force of volunteers to assist local police when services are held. We will form a committee to monitor these developments and settle the problems of those affected," he added.

The Home and Tribal Affairs Department of the provincial government reportedly handed out 26.5 million rupees (US$239,000) to the Bethel Memorial Methodist Church of Quetta to compensate the victims of the attack at the church on Dec. 17.

The Federal Ministry for Religious Affairs and Interfaith Harmony had also vowed to allocate 5 million rupees (US$45,400) to assist with the repairs to the church building.

Witnesses said that around 400 worshippers were inside the church when four suicide bombers stormed the church.

Pastor Saimon Bashir Masih, the senior leader of the church, said that the police assigned to the church's security reacted quickly, preventing a larger tragedy. One suicide bomber was shot dead after a shootout with the police, while another detonated his suicide vest before he was able to enter the main prayer hall.

Security had been stepped up at the church after it was targeted in a previous attack a few years ago.

ISIS has claimed responsibility for the latest attack through its Amaq news agency but did not provide any evidence for the claim.

Officials said that 30 people are still receiving treatment for injuries they sustained in the suicide bombing.

Bashir went to Karachi this week to visit a 16-year-old girl who was scheduled to undergo eye and jaw surgery.

"We are literally running after patients in different hospitals. People, not buildings, are our priority at present. [The victims] are not satisfied with the treatment at government hospitals," the pastor said.

"At least four patients sustained injuries to their groins and require urgent surgery. One 30-year-old woman suffered amnesia due to a traumatic head injury," he added.

The pastor warned that there are fraudulent people exploiting the tragedy, noting that he had been contacted by an embassy in Islamabad about a lawmaker who is collecting funds in the name of the church, although he had not recommended nor authorized anyone to do so.home World Pro-life doctors must refer patients requesting assisted suicide to other physicians, Ontario court rules

An Ontario court has ruled that doctors who are opposed to assisted suicide must refer patients who request the procedure to other physicians who are willing to carry it out.

On Wednesday, the three justices of the Ontario Superior Court acknowledged that the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario (CPSO) policy requiring doctors to refer patients for procedures that they refuse to perform, such as euthanasia and abortion, violates their Charter right to religious freedom.

However, the court contended that in light of the goal of "ensuring access to health care," the policy presents "reasonable limit on religious freedom, demonstrably justified in a free and democratic society."

According to The Canadian Press, the legal challenge to the CPSO policy was launched by a group of five doctors and three professional organizations, namely, the Christian Medical and Dental Society of Canada (CMDSC), the Canadian Federation of Catholic Physicians' Societies (CFCPS) and Canadian Physicians for Life (CPL).

The group argued that the requirement amounted to being forced to take part in the treatment and infringed on their right to freedom of religion and conscience.

The CPSO, on the other hand, contended that the policy was aimed at balancing the moral beliefs of individual physicians while nonetheless ensuring access to care.

The court contended that the breach to the doctors' religious freedom is justified, noting that the benefits to the public outweigh the cost to physicians who can choose to practice a specialty where they will not encounter such moral dilemmas.

"The goal of ensuring access to health care, in particular equitable access to health care, is pressing and substantial. The effective referral requirements of the policies are rationally connected to the goal," Justice Herman J. Wilton-Siegel wrote on behalf of the panel.

"The requirements impair the individual applicants' right of religious freedom as little as reasonably possible in order to achieve the goal," he added.

CPL President Dr. Ryan Wilson decried the court's decision, saying it puts doctors "who entered the field of medicine to provide quality, compassionate, and patient-centered care" in "an impossible position."

"They don't believe ending a patient's life is medicine, and they don't believe they can offer hope and healing in one room while assisting in killing a patient in another," he remarked.

Some observers have said that the court did not go far enough to protect the rights of patients to receive care.

Udo Schuklenk, a bioethicist at Queen's University in Kingston, Ont., acknowledged that protections for conscientious objectors are valuable in situations such as military conscription, but asserted that they have no place in professions like medicine, in which people participate voluntarily. He went on to note that some countries, such as Sweden and Finland, do not allow for moral objections in medicine.

Larry Worthen, executive director of the CMDSC, said that there was "no evidence that conscientious objection ever results in a failure of access" to these practices, and that "the implications for physicians were serious and more than trivial or insubstantial." He said that the doctors are now reviewing their options in regards to an appeal.home US Washington Supreme Court rules in favor of fire captain who was sacked for sending Christian emails

The Washington Supreme Court has ruled that a former fire captain who was sacked for sending emails to his Christian firefighters fellowship group using his work account can sue his former employer.

The justices had decided on Thursday that the merits of former Spokane Valley Fire Department (SVFD) Captain Jon Sprague's case were strong enough to warrant a trial to determine whether his First Amendment rights were violated.

The trial would decide whether Sprague is entitled to damages caused by the termination of his employment in 2012 when he repeatedly used his work email to send messages to the Spokane Christian Firefighters Fellowship group even after he was explicitly warned not to.

The department's own Civil Service Commission has upheld Sprague's firing. The case has been dismissed by the Spokane County Superior Court, a decision upheld by the state Court of Appeals.

The state Supreme Court, however, ruled that the court of Appeals has not addressed the merit of Sprague's claims.

"Sprague has met his initial burden to show that the SVFD's restrictions on his speech violated the First Amendment. On remand, the burden will shift to SVFD to show by preponderance of the evidence that it would have reached the same decision as to (Sprague's) employment termination even in the absence of the protected conduct," the court stated.

Under the fire department's policy, firefighters are only allowed to use the email system for department purpose only. But Sprague pointed out that the email system has been routinely used by employees for non-business-related purposes and that his firing was a selective enforcement of that rule.

According to Sprague, other employees have used the email system for purposes, such as seeking babysitting and selling concert tickets, as well as discussions of substance abuse and conflicts with children.

"To me it seems crystal clear it's a violation of free speech rights. You can't single someone out with a different viewpoint. It's not a surprise it ended up at the Supreme Court. Whoever won, we knew it would be appealed, and expect to see police and fire departments alter their rules after this," Sprague's lawyer Matt Albrecht told the Spokesman-Review.

Albrecht said that the only possible defense left for the department is that Sprague had been fired for a different reason, which he says is unlikely as "they described him to be a great firefighter."

Sprague, who no longer lives in the Spokane area, had stated last year that he was not surprised that the high court decided to review his case, saying his actions had a solid constitutional foundation.

A fire department spokesperson said in a statement that the department is reviewing the court documents and is now in discussion with an attorney regarding the next steps of the case.The record-breaking sale of Leonardo da Vincis Salvator Mundi crowned a year that saw Christies leading the market in all key categories, supported by significant digital growth

Overall, growth was driven by global auction sales, which increased 38 per cent to 4.6 billion ($5.9 billion). Online sales climbed 12 per cent to 55.9 million ($72.4 million), reflecting clients continued strong interest in this platform.

Christies today announces total global sales of 5.1 billion ($6.6 billion) in 2017, up 26 per cent (by ) for the same period in 2016. Leading the year was the record-breaking sale of Leonardo da Vincis Salvator Mundi for $450.3 million (342.2 million, with buyers premium) in November in New York.

Jussi Pylkkanen makes history as he brings the hammer down on Leonardos Salvator Mundi in New York in November

Guillaume Cerutti, Christies Chief Executive Officer, described 2017 as a year to remember, both for its record growth of 26 per cent and for unforgettable moments such as the sale of Leonardos Salvator Mundi, and also because of decisive action taken to prepare for the future. In 2018, we will focus on continuing to expand our global client base and improving services to our customers, especially online, he stated.

Regionally in 2017, sales in the Americas increased to 2.5 billion, up 68 per cent ($3.2 billion); sales in Asia totalled 582.9 million, up 11 per cent ($754.9 million); and sales in Europe and the Middle East totalled 1.5 billion, up 16 per cent ($2 billion).

New buyers accounted for 31 per cent of all buyers, with new buyer spend increasing by 26 per cent. At masterpiece level, new buyers over 1 million increased by 40 per cent, with the number of works sold over 10 million rising from 26 in 2016 to 65 in 2017.

Asia: Growth continues

In 2017, continued growth was seen in the Asia client base, with buying from the region increasing 39 per cent to represent 31 per cent of global spend. Asian client spend for works over 1 million grew 63 per cent year on year. In both online and live auctions, 52 per cent of Asian clients purchased outside the Asian Art categories. The percentage of Asian buyers in online sales rose by 23 per cent, driven by sales of Asian Art and Luxury goods.

During our Hong Kong sale season in November, which totalled HK$3.43 billion, Zao Wou-Kis 29.01.64 sold for HK$202,600,000, a world auction record price for an oil painting by any Asian artist.

Americas: Ongoing success in New York and expansion in Los Angeles

In New York, the world record sale of Salvator Mundi contributed to an overall 68 per cent increase in auction sales. Additional successes included the record-breaking sale of the Fujita Museum Collection in March, which totalled $262.8 million (215.3 million), the highest single-owner collection result of the year.LOUISVILLE, Ky. - American whiskey makers toasted another round of robust sales in 2017, stirred increasingly by consumers' thirst for the priciest spirits - mixed in cocktails or sipped straight up.

Demand grew in the U.S. and overseas as the distilled spirits industry gained market share in the crowded domestic adult beverage sector, the Distilled Spirits Council said.

Combined U.S. revenues for bourbon, Tennessee whiskey and rye whiskey rose 8.1 percent, or $252 million, to $3.4 billion in 2017, the distilled spirits trade group said in a report. Domestic volumes rose 6.4 percent to nearly 23.2 million cases.

In another shot of good news for the industry, super-premium whiskeys had the biggest volume surge among American whiskeys. Volumes rose 18.3 percent, while revenues were up 18 percent. Those whiskeys typically age the longest and fetch the highest prices.

"The higher priced the product, the faster the sales, virtually across the categories," said Frank Coleman, a spokesman for the distilled spirits trade group.

The growing popularity of top-end whiskies coincides with another trend - consumers becoming more knowledgeable about the products they sip, said New York City bartender Charles Hardwick.

"Just last week I was stunned to have a guest ask me what whiskies I had from the Buffalo Trace Distillery (in Kentucky) after he stared at my back bar intently for several minutes," he said. "I find I no longer have to explain the difference between bourbon and rye to people, and they frequently ask what bourbon is in our well from a much more informed perspective."

One rung down, the high-end premium category for bourbon, Tennessee whiskey and rye whiskey had volume growth of 5.9 percent. Its revenues rose 7.2 percent.

"With the economy strong and consumer confidence high, shoppers are treating themselves to our sector's pricier products," said David Ozgo, chief economist for the distilled spirits group.

At the other end of the price spectrum, volumes were up just 1.4 percent in the value category and revenues increased 3 percent.

Rye whiskey is a small portion of the American whiskey category, but its volumes surged 16.2 percent last year to 900,000 cases, the report said. The growth was driven by rye's popularity in cocktails.

Vodka, the distilled spirits sector's largest category and representing one-third of all volume, had another solid year with U.S. volumes up 2.2 percent and revenues up 3 percent to $6.2 billion, the report said. Tequila revenues increased 9.9 percent to $2.7 billion.

Meanwhile, 2017 export revenues for bourbon, Tennessee whiskey and rye whiskey products are projected to reach $1.1 billion, fueled by favorable exchange rates and demand for premium American spirits, the council said. That would be the fifth time in six years that American whiskey exports topped $1 billion. Last year's total fell just short.

The top five growth markets by dollar value for American distilled spirits were the United Kingdom, Germany, Brazil, France and Spain, it said.

Kentucky is home to about 95 percent of the world's bourbon production, with such brands as Jim Beam, Evan Williams, Wild Turkey, Maker's Mark, Woodford Reserve and Four Roses.

There are now 39 companies operating 52 distilleries making 6.8 million barrels of aging bourbon in the state, the Kentucky Distillers' Association said. The industry is in the midst of a $1.2 billion building boom.As the unemployment rate has fallen in recent months and the economy has roared, one central question has bedeviled the U.S. job market: Where is the wage growth?

New data Friday suggested an answer: It is here, and it is now.

Average hourly earnings jumped 2.9 percent in January from a year earlier, the Labor Department said Friday, the latest sign that the long, slow economic recovery is at last reaching Americans' pocketbooks. Separate data released earlier this week showed that private-sector wages and salaries rose 2.8 percent in the final three months of 2017 compared with a year earlier, the fastest growth since the recession.

"People have been wondering when the wages are going to start to rise," said Catherine Barrera, chief economist of the online job marketplace Zip-Recruiter. "I think that over the first six months of this year, we're really going to start to see the wages rise."

If such predictions are borne out, there could be political ramifications. President Donald Trump hailed his economic record in his State of the Union address Tuesday, and Republicans are counting on the strong economy to help them in the midterm elections in November. Most economists contend Trump deserves relatively little credit for the strong economy, which predates his election and is partly a result of a global rebound outside his control. But voters may not focus on such nuances.

Economists cautioned against reading too much into a single month of data, which is preliminary and will be revised at least twice. Several times in recent years, wage growth has appeared to pick up, only to fall back to earth in subsequent months. And other measures of wage growth haven't yet shown the same acceleration.

But there is reason to think that pay gains will prove more durable this time around. Job growth has been steady - employers added 200,000 jobs in January, modestly more than in December - and the unemployment rate has fallen to 4.1 percent, a 17-year low. That is forcing companies to compete harder for workers, a recipe for pay increases.

"It's as tough as it's ever been," Michael Mabry, president and chief operating officer of Mooyah Burgers, Fries and Shakes, a 100-restaurant chain based in Texas, said of the current hiring environment.

Mabry said that in some parts of the country, workers would walk off the job knowing that they could find another restaurant hiring down the street. Still, he said, Mooyah can't just raise pay across the board - the burger industry is "a pennies business," Mabry said, and wage increases quickly eat into profits.

Instead, Mabry said, he is looking for ways to make restaurants more efficient by reducing turnover, improving morale and cross-training workers for various jobs. The goal, he said, is to be able to pay higher wages to fewer workers.

Mooyah is also trying to recruit untapped sources of talent. The company recently started a program to help franchisees expand their marketing efforts by hiring at-home parents and others who had not been in the labor force. The jobs are meant to appeal to people who might not be looking for traditional work: They do not require being at an office every day or having a traditional schedule. Mabry said that kind of flexibility made sense when it was harder than ever to fill full-time slots with experienced workers.

"Why do I have to be pigeonholed into a particular resume or a particular experience?" Mabry said of his recruitment approach. "I'm sure there is someone out there who can bring something different to the team. It's just having an open mind."

More companies are likely to adopt that kind of flexible approach as the labor market tightens. And there are other signs that companies are rethinking their approach to hiring. They are becoming more willing to consider candidates with criminal records, for example, or to waive educational requirements. The car retailer AutoNation said this week that it was no longer refusing to hire workers who tested positive for marijuana use - a sign of changing legal and societal norms, but also an indication that companies are rethinking hiring practices in a tight labor market.

"People who are marginally employable suddenly become highly employable in a period like this," said Joseph Brusuelas, chief economist of RSM, a financial consulting firm.

There were some notes of caution in Friday's report. The total number of hours worked - a measure that combines the number of jobs and the average hours worked on those jobs - fell slightly, a sign that demand for labor might not be as strong as the headline job-growth figures suggest. And the unemployment rate for African-Americans, a figure highlighted by Trump after it fell to its lowest recorded level in December, jumped nearly a full percentage point, to 7.7 percent. The unemployment rate for white Americans fell to 3.5 percent.

But despite such month-to-month fluctuations, economists say the tightening labor market is paying dividends to groups that were left behind by earlier stages of the recovery. Wages have risen most quickly in lower-paying industries in recent months, and employment gains have gone disproportionately to less-educated workers.

Companies including Walmart, Starbucks and Lowe's have also announced new benefits for hourly workers, such as paid time off to care for sick relatives and paid parental leave. And the number of Americans working part time because they can't find full-time work has fallen 15 percent in the past year.

Taken together, the data paint a picture of an economy that is not only creating jobs but also increasingly creating good ones.

"Employers don't simply raise wages when the labor market gets tighter; they may also raise the quality of the job to get people to come on board," Barrera said.A boom in sales, a pickup in defaults, and risk premiums keep on dropping.

It's all happening in the market for subprime auto bonds, where loans to American consumers with some of the patchiest credit histories are packaged into securities to be sold to big investors. A decade after risky mortgage lending toppled the U.S. financial system, the securities have rarely been so popular. But the collateral behind the bonds is getting less safe: Car owners are increasingly falling behind on bigger loans with longer repayment terms made against depreciating assets.

"As used-car values drop a bit and delinquencies and roll rates begin to increase, the subprime sector will show significant underperformance and lack of decent liquidity," said Don McConnell, senior portfolio manager at Bank of Montreal's BMO Global Asset Management in Chicago.

Wall Street has rushed to sate investors' hunger for subprime auto asset-backed securities with $3 billion worth of fresh supply so far in 2018, according to JPMorgan Chase & Co. data - almost double the $1.8 billion worth sold in the same period a year earlier. That's despite warnings from Steve Eisman and Morgan Stanley in the past year.

As demand grows, a combined gauge of both prime and subprime auto bonds shows spreads have dropped to the lowest 4th percentile of their seven-year ranges, according to Goldman Sachs research. Annual loss rates on subprime loans, meanwhile, have climbed to 8 percent from 5 percent in 2013, according to Goldman.

Even though borrowing costs haven't fallen as much as on plain vanilla company debt, they underscore confidence that defaulting consumers won't trouble bondholders. That sentiment helped Santander Consumer USA Holdings reduce the cost of selling BBB notes by 50 basis points on a deal priced in January compared with a previous issue in September.

"Much of the (Ssset-backed securities) complex is at multi-year tights, so investors naturally begin to look anywhere they can for a few extra basis points," McConnell said.

One concession to the buyside is heftier cushions against soured loans, winning fans who think so-called credit enhancement will be enough to offset losses. Lax loan-underwriting standards between 2010 and 2016 are to blame for the current wave of defaults, according to Goldman Sachs strategists, and the latest bonds have bigger shock absorbers.

Even a wave of defaults by subprime borrowers on their auto loans is unlikely to cause global financial markets to seize up like those on home loans a decade ago. Last year, $25 billion of bonds pooling subprime auto loans were issued, about the same as the previous year. That compares to the $1.2 trillion of bonds backed by home loans sold in 2005 and 2006, during the prelude to the credit crisis. About $400 billion of that was subprime for each year.

Other features on the terms of the loans - they are fixed-rate and typically come due within three years - limit the risk they pose to the wider economy, according to Tracy Chen, head of structured credit at Brandywine Global Investment Management in Philadelphia.

"The risks or damages are of different magnitude, both to the bondholder and to the economy in general," said Chen.State Sen. Carlos Urestis legal team Friday sought to discredit the governments star witness in his criminal fraud trial by questioning her about a sexual relationship she had with the CEO of the bankrupt oilfield services company prosecutors say was a Ponzi scheme.

Denise Cantu, who testified that she had a sexual relationship with Uresti on Thursday, acknowledged Friday that she also had sex and exchanged numerous steamy text messages with Stan Bates, the CEO of FourWinds Logistics. Their affair began shortly after the two met in 2014, she acknowledged during cross-examination by Michael McCrum, one of Urestis defense lawyers.

Uresti, a Democrat, was indicted last year on 11 felony charges, including conspiracy to commit wire fraud, securities fraud and money laundering in connection with his role in FourWinds. Co-defendant Gary Cain, a FourWinds consultant, was charged with nine felonies. They both have denied the charges and Uresti has denied having a sexual relationship with Cantu.

Jurors, however, didnt get to see or hear any of the racy messages between Cantu and Bates. McCrum tiptoed around the graphic nature of the text messages, reading redacted versions of the texts that were displayed on courtroom monitors.

The censored messages made the proceeding tamer than Thursdays, when Cantu described having sex in the bathroom shower at Urestis work and prosecutors blew up on a screen for jurors a text exchange between Uresti and Cantu where he posed the question: U want to see my big  ? Cantu explained Thursday that she understood that Uresti was referring to his genitals.

She also told jurors that Uresti once sent her a picture of his penis while he was on a shopping trip with his wife.

McCrum said he wasnt a liberty to say why he was using sanitized versions of the text messages when asked during the lunch break if Senior U.S. District Judge David Ezra prohibited using the unexpurgated texts between Cantu and Bates.

McCrum spent the entire 10th day of the trial cross-examining Cantu and will resume questioning her on Monday morning.

Cantu invested $900,000 of a legal settlement with FourWinds on Urestis advice, losing all but about $100,000. She said Uresti, who was serving as the companys outside legal counsel, didnt tell her at the time that he was making a $27,000 commission on her investment and receiving a cut of her profits.

FourWinds bought and sold sand used in fracking. Prosecutors say the company was a Ponzi scheme, with some investors money  including Cantus  going to pay other investors.

Four company officials already have pleaded guilty, including Bates, who was accused of misspending investors money to support his lavish lifestyle and to pay child support and his sons college tuition, among other expenses.

Cantu told jurors Thursday that Uresti, who represented her in a wrongful-death case after two of her children were killed in an auto accident in 2010, was her friend and lover. She received $2.5 million from the settlement. Uresti collected $946,000 in fees on the case.

McCrum focused on graphic texts Cantu and Bates exchanged just a few weeks after they first met, including some the day she signed paperwork to invest with FourWinds.

Do you remember saying to him (Bates) he made you sexually aroused, McCrum asked. She answered yes. Do you remember saying it affected your body in a certain way? he then asked. She again said yes.

McCrum wanted to know what caused Cantu to have such familiarity with Bates so soon after first meeting.

I dont know. Maybe flirting. I dont know how it got like that, she answered.

He showed Cantu one stream of text messages between her and Bates, asking Do you remember Bates texting you on Aug. 28, in very graphic, explicit way the sexual acts he was going to perform with you?

Yes, she replied.

Did that include oral sex? McCrum asked.

Cantu replied Yes, but I didnt do that when I got  to his house.

Later in the day, McCrum attacked Cantus credibility by bringing up the number of times shes changed her story about her relationship with Uresti.

McCrum noted how in 2015 bankruptcy court testimony she denied having dated Uresti. Then, in early 2016 she denied to FBI investigators about having sex with Uresti  as well as Bates. She later said she lied to investigators because she was ashamed.

McCrum also questioned Cantu about what she may have told a friend, who is related to Uresti through marriage.

For instance, McCrum asked Cantu if she remembered telling the friend that federal investigators were pressuring Cantu so much to say bad things about Mr. Uresti that she finally gave in.

Cantu at first said she did recall the pressure, but didn't recall saying she caved in.

I dont remember what I told her, Cantu testified.

McCrum tested Cantus recollection of how many times she and Uresti had sex from 2011 through 2017, writing her answers on a big white pad on an easel facing the jury.

Cantu was hazy about the number of times, leading McCrum to write maybe more than 1 for 2012 and 2013.

I didnt write down the dates, she said during the exchange. She also couldnt remember when they stopped having sex.

McCrum wanted to know what other explicit texts Cantu received from Uresti, other than the U want my big? She didnt know of any others.

Prosecutors have portrayed Uresti as a man under tremendous financial strain whose bank accounts were often overdrawn. They said he groomed Cantu before defrauding her  gaining her trust over time, seducing her and persuading her to invest in a startup oilfield services company he knew was a sham.

McCrum, though, tried showing jurors that Uresti was looking out for her interests. Uresti had contacted Cantu by text and phone messages instructing her not to sign any documents before he spoke with her.

Cantu went ahead and signed some paperwork but said she would only have done so if Uresti said it was OK.

Contrary to the governments contention that Uresti pressured Cantu to invest, McCrum cited numerous texts Bates sent her wanting to know when shed be investing even more money.

A representative from the Securities and Exchange Commission was in court to hear Cantus testimony.

The SECs Fort Worth office opened an investigation in August 2016, two days after the Express-News first reported on FourWinds collapse and allegations by some investors that the company had defrauded them.

The agency revealed the probe in a court document last summer seeking to quash a subpoena from Uresti, who had asked it to turn over documents it had provided to the Justice Department, the FBI and the Internal Revenue Service.

Cantu testified Thursday that her relationship with Uresti became intimate during the wrongful-death case, after he told her she looked sexy when she was dressed for a deposition.

I knew he was married, but we would still be intimate at times. He was a good friend. We could talk about anything. They would send sexually explicit text messages to each other and sometimes had sex in the bathroom shower at his law office, she said. One time he told me he was at the mall with his wife. He was going to go into a bathroom stall and take pictures of his penis and send them to me.

Patrick Danner is a San Antonio Express-News staff writer. Read more of his stories here. | pdanner@express-news.net | @AlamoPD | Guillermo Contreras is a San Antonio Express-News staff writer. Read more of his stories here. | gcontreras@express-news.net | @gmaninfedlandState and city officials have obtained a permanent injunction against a Houston smoke shop for selling synthetic cannabis. A final settlement requires store owners Glenn and Judy Cohen pay more than $2.5 million, according to a press release from Attorney General Ken Paxton's Office.

Paxton's office, Harris County and the City of Houston obtained a permanent injunction against Fantasy Smoking and Accessories, for selling the substance without disclosing it is illegal and potentially dangerous.A police patrol car was involved in a crash with another vehicle Saturday morning in west Houston, according to authorities.

The Houston Police Department SUV was hit around 12:20 a.m. on Eldridge Parkway and Rincon after a gray Toyota Camry failed to yield at a stop sign and drove in front of the patrol vehicle, authorities said.A federal judge in Austin sentenced three Houston men on Friday for a money laundering scheme involving millions of dollars, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Texas.

Nathaniel Itimi, 46, was ordered to 97 months in prison and also must pay more than $1.6 million in restitution. Itimi is originally from Nigeria but is a U.S. citizen living in Houston.

Lewis Akpomofune, 41, and Michael Omoh Okiki, 37, both citizens of Nigeria but living in Houston, were also sentenced to federal prison.

Akpomofune was ordered to serve 108 months in federal prison and pay a little over $1.6 million in restitution. Okiki was ordered to serve 57 months in federal prison and must pay a little over $1.2 million in resitution.

"Today's sentencing reflects the commitment of the Department of Justice to destroy the money-laundering networks that facilitate fraud against the most vulnerable Americans, such as the elderly," stated United States Attorney John F. Bash.

The three sentenced on Friday pleaded guilty last year to a conspiracy to commit money laundering charge. Four others also received federal prison sentences as part of this scheme.

The defendants used fake passports or hired others to open bank accounts as a way to orchestrate their money laundering scheme.

Based on court documents, the investigation targeted a money laundering scheme that used proceeds from various frauds against victims in the U.S. by scammers based in Canada, Nigeria, and the United States, according to the release.

Some of the schemes included fake investment scams, business email compromise scams, "grandson-in-jail" frauds over the phone targeting elderly victims, stolen identity refund fraud, romance victim scams and tax filing scams.

The U.S. bank accounts would receive the fake funds from victims and then the defendants would withdraw the money from the bank. A portion of the fraud proceeds were kept as a fee.

The rest of the funds were sent to Canada or Nigeria, according to the release.

More than $3.5 million was taken from hundreds of victims as part of thescheme.

"Today's actions will not only bring a sense of justice to the victims in this case, but this significant

investigation will also help increase awareness of this type of fraud," said Shane Folden, Special Agent in Charge, HSI San Antonio.Exxon Mobil said it expects global oil demand to fall by 0.4 percent a year by 2040 to help meet the Paris climate accord's goals.

Exxon Mobil released the "Energy & Carbon Summary" report Friday afternoon after years of pressure from environmentalists and investors finally resulted in a shareholder vote last year for the non-binding annual climate report.

Exxon Mobil is predicting that renewables and natural gas will play larger roles to meet rising global energy demand, while crude oil and coal consumption will fall.

The Paris accord, which the U.S. is pulling out of under President Trump, aims to keep global temperatures from rising no more than 2 degrees Celsius, or 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit, by 2100.

To meet such goals, Exxon Mobil projects global oil demand to fall from 98 million barrels a day now down to 78 million barrels - a major drop from current consumption. Cleaner-burning natural gas demand would grow by 0.9 percent a year, Exxon said.

However, in reality, global oil demand remains on the rise and natural gas consumption is growing closer to 1.5 percent a year, according to the U.S. Energy Department.

Exxon Mobil said coal usage would have to fall by a much larger 2.4 percent a year, and renewable energy - led by wind and solar - would grow 4.5 percent annually.

"Our job is to supply the energy the world needs in an environmentally responsible way," said Darren Woods, Exxon Mobil chairman and CEO. "It's a dual challenge  we need to meet society's growing need for energy while addressing the risks of climate change. We are committed to being part of the solution by investing in new technologies that can provide economic solutions on a globally scalable basis."

He said Exxon Mobil is investing big in biofuels and other cleaner alternatives.Any Houstonian willing to sit on a plan for 17 hours can officially make the long trip from the Bayou City to Australia without having to deal with the stress of a connecting flight.

Earlier in 2018 the United Airlines inaugural flight for the first ever direct trip from George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH) to Sydney, Australia departed.

PLAN AHEAD: Best places to visit in 2018 according to Travel + Leisure

The posh flight included a wine tasting and food service that lasted well over an hour and saw travelers from all walks of life as Andrea Rumbaugh described for HoustonChronicle.com.

The new route is officially the longest flight departing from Houston and since only about 20 passengers are taking the new route, the airline is counting on passengers from connecting flights to fill the rest of the 252 seats on the plane.

"We're forecasting the traffic, we're forecasting the demand, and we're looking at the natural synergies between Houston and a city like Sydney, Australia," said Patrick Quayle, vice president of international network at United Airlines. "And it's a little bit of a leap of faith."

This new flight is among 69 other direct, international trips people can take from IAH, including places as far as China and Germany to closer destinations like Mexico or the Caribbean.

Take a look through the gallery above to see all the nonstop international flights you can take from Houston's IAH.

Daniela Sternitzky-Di Napoli is a digital producer at Chron.com. You can read more of her stories here and follow her on twitter at @Dani_DiNapoli.Texas City police announced Friday that they arrested a suspect who allegedly made a bomb threat to a preschool last week.

Authorities said Anthony Dewayne Alexander, 31, confessed to calling 911 to place a bomb threat last Thursday, calling for the evacuation of Calvin Vincent Early Childhood Center, a preschool in Texas City.

STANDOFF: Suspect who shot a deputy while handcuffed identified

Police said they were able to identify Alexander by sourcing the call he made to police. He was arrested Friday morning and charged with false alarm or report, a state jail felony punishable by up to two years.

Alexander is being held at a local jail with a bond of $60,000.

Above: See the most dangerous cities in Texas, per FBI data.Starting Tuesday, three Houston ISD Board of Education trustees will be hosting a series of community meetings at schools facing drastic changes because they are considered chronically low-performing by the state.

Ten HISD campuses have struggled academically for four or more years and must meet state standards this year to avoid triggering state intervention, according to a news release Saturday from the district.

HISD is recommending changes at these schools and at four additional low-performing campuses.

Under a recent state law, schools considered in "improvement required" status for four or more years face possible closure by the state if they do not need meet standards this year. Alternatively, the state could appoint a new board of trustees for the entire district if one of these schools fails to meet state standards this year.

The district's chief academic officer, Grenita Lathan, acknowledged Thursday "it's going to be hard" for all of those campuses to meet state standards this year.

"The state has yet to tell us what their standards are," said HISD Board President Rhonda Skillern-Jones in a written statement. "So as much as these students are accelerating academically and raising the bar on their campuses, we are shooting in the dark at a moving target."

Skillern-Jones will be hosting the meetings along with Trustees Jolanda Jones and Wanda Adams.

Last week, district officials announced plans to close and immediately reopen six campuses, replacing the staff of each, and form partnerships with outside organizations at the other eight schools.

Forming an outside partnership or closing and restarting a campus are the two options that Senate Bill 1882 provides in order to avoid sanctions.

The eight schools that are currently recommended to be managed by outside organizations, such as a nonprofit organization or an institution of higher education, are: Dogan and Mading elementary schools, Henry Middle School, and Kashmere, Madison, North Forest, Wheatley and Worthing high schools.

The other six would be closed and reopened to serve limited grade levels in the 2018-2019 academic year. Four elementary schools - Blackshear, Highland Heights, Hilliard and Wesley - and Woodson PK-8 would offer pre-kindergarten and kindergarten; Cullen Middle School would offer sixth grade. The campuses would then add a single grade level each year.

During the series of community meetings, HISD trustees and administrators will discuss the recommendations on campuses that could be affected.

"We want to be clear that these recommendations are just that: recommendations," Skillern-Jones added. "We are committed to doing everything in our power under the law to keep these schools open. We are also committed to keeping these school communities informed and engaged as we navigate this process together."

Here is a list of the planned community meetings, each of which is to start at 6 p.m.:

Tuesday, Feb. 6

Wheatley High School

4801 Providence St.

Wednesday, Feb. 14

Cullen Middle School

6900 Scott St.

Thursday, Feb. 15

Highland Heights Elementary School

865 Paul Quinn St.

Tuesday, Feb. 20

Madison High School

13719 White Heather Dr.

Wednesday, Feb. 21

Mading Elementary School

8511 Crestmont St.

Tuesday, Feb. 27

Wesley Elementary School

800 Dillard St.

Tuesday, Feb. 27

Blackshear Elementary School

2900 Holman Ave.

Wednesday, Feb. 28

Kashmere Gardens Elementary School

4901 Lockwood Dr.

Thursday, March. 1

Dogan Elementary School

4202 Liberty Rd.

Tuesday, March 6

North Forest High School

10725 Mesa Dr.

Tuesday, March 20

Henry Middle School

10702 East Hardy Road

Wednesday, March 21

Hilliard Elementary School

10719 Seneca St.

Wednesday, March 21*

Worthing High School

9215 Scott St.

*Woodson PK-8 will also be discussed at this meetingPiano enthusiasts will soon have the opportunity to listen to one of the most well-known solo pianists in the United States.

George Winston will be holding a concert at 8:30 p.m. on Feb. 16 at Dosey-Doe Big Barn in The Woodlands located at 25911 Interstate 45 N. Winston has sold millions of albums, including seven Platinum selling recordings, during his career spanning more than 40 years.

Winston began playing the organ after he graduated high school and eventually switched over to the piano. He said was inspired to play the organ after listening to an album by The Doors.

"I heard it and said it was the greatest thing I've ever heard. It pulled me over from being a listener to a player," Winston said.

While Winston originally wanted to be part of a band, he said he decided to go solo on the piano after hearing some of legendary pianist Thomas "Fats" Waller's recordings from the 1920s and '30s. Winston produced his first solo piano album, "Ballads and Blues 1972," in 1972.

"That went out of print real quick," Winston said of his first record.

It wasn't until eight years later, in 1980, that Winston created another record, this one titled 'Autumn.'

"I did the 'Autumn' record and that did surprisingly well, so I started touring," Winston said.

His current tour is promoting a cancer research benefit album titled "Spring Carousel," which was released in March 2017. The album features a collection of 15 solo piano compositions written by Winston while in recovery from a bone marrow transplant at the City of Hope National Medical Center just outside Los Angeles in 2012 and 2013.

"I had access to the piano in the auditorium every night so I was practicing for when I started touring again, and all these songs just came out of the blue," Winston said of the music on the album. Proceeds from sales of "Spring Carousel" will directly benefit cancer research at City of Hope.

"(The album) wouldn't have happened without (City of Hope's) piano and their treatment. So it was obvious for me it was a benefit record," he added.

Winston said that each tour stop also helps the local food bank where he performs. Attendees of the Feb. 16 show are encouraged to bring canned food items to benefit the Montgomery County Food Bank.

"I know there's a lot of need still from the hurricane," Winston said of The Woodlands area specifically.

He added that although he has been playing in The Woodlands for many years, the area "is certainly becoming the place to play in the Houston area for a lot of people."

Winston will regale listeners with pieces from his seasonal album "Winter" during the Feb. 16 concert. To purchase tickets, visit www.georgewinston.com.The Compassion Experience tour made a four-day stop in The Woodlands the weekend of Jan. 26-28, giving local residents a sobering glimpse into the lives of the poor around the world.

The event, which was hosted by Christ Church United Methodist on Research Forest Drive, was part of the church's weekend-long mission celebration, which included partners such as Interfaith of The Woodlands, Rise Against Hunger and Hope Beyond Bridges, which serves the hungry and homeless in Harris and Montgomery counties.

Compassion Experience, put on by child-advocacy ministry Compassion, walks visitors through the lives of poverty-stricken families in developing countries using simulations of rooms and props built inside a large tent. An audio tour, narrated by a child, describes the room and the impoverished life of the child who is experiencing the conditions.

On one tour, "Carlos" from Guatemala guides you through his life as a child with alcoholic parents. The tour takes you through several rooms as seen through the eyes of "Carlos," his workplace where he coughs from the paint fumes, the bar where he waits surrounded by filth while his mom drinks, and, finally, to the room where he receives and reads his letters from his sponsor who has lifted him from his life of poverty.

Associate Pastor Marc Donaldson, of Christ Church United Methodist, said he knew of Compassion Experience from a friend who works with the organization. Additionally, officials with Christ Church actively sponsor children through the program, including a child named Kalkidan from Ethiopia.

"The [Compassion] experience walks you through the same things that [children like] Kalkidan experiences from before she even entered the programs," Donaldson said. "You get to hear what their life was like."

Compassion was founded by The Rev. Everett Swanson, who is from Chicago. Swanson traveled to South Korea to minister to American troops fighting in the Korean War and was dismayed to find war orphans living on the streets. One morning while in South Korea, Swanson saw city workers disposing what looked like piles of rags, tossing them into the back of a truck. Swanson was horrified to discover that the "piles" were not rags, but the frozen bodies of orphans who had died overnight in the streets.

It was then Swanson made the vow to help them. That was more than 60 years ago.

Donaldson said after attendees tour the Compassion Experience-which highlights particular children and their experiences-the story does not stop there. Tour visitors are invited to sponsor a child of their own, learning more information about the child's personal and family life. If an attendee chooses to sponsor a child, they receive ideas about what to say in letters to the child. A relationship is encouraged, including possibly visiting the child in their developing country where the child resides.

More Information Lending a helping hand Since 2005, Christ Church students have sponsored a child named Kalkidan from Ethiopia with $577 a year. The money goes toward: Monthly support towards Kalkidan's education, health, and nutrition An additional gift towards healthcare for her community because Kalkidan lives in a highly HIV-infected area Birthday and holiday gifts See More Collapse

"With a lot of the stories you can get to hear about their lives after high school," Donaldson said. "And you get to see the effects of the program on their lives after high school as many of them go onto college."

Compassion is known to work behind the scenes, without self-promotion. It serves to prop up the child, not itself, Donaldson said.

"[Compassion] is much more than 'Let's just do good,'" Donaldson said. "It's sowing life in order to reap life."

Steve Spriggs, the community marketing representative for Compassion Experience, said the conditions for children living on less than $2 per day might be difficult for Americans to understand.

Spriggs said he hopes the Compassion exhibits bring awareness about the children who live in poverty-stricken circumstances to those more-privileged people who have the means to be of help to them.

"Advocating on behalf of the needs of children growing up in these places is essential," Spriggs said. "To be challenged by the realities that this level of poverty represents and also be challenged by the difference that can be made by getting involved. This challenge is important to both sides of this equation."

Spriggs said the tour most often goes where it is invited, as in the case of Christ Church United Methodist. For more information, visit www.compassion.com.Gordy Bunch arrived at his work office last Thursday to find a barrage of emails and messages from more than four dozen people who thought they had been offered a job at his company.

There was only one problem: there was no job opening and the company had not advertised for the position, to be Bunch's personal assistant. The flood of calls and messages were the result of an online scam which included a fake job advertisement on indeed.com, said Bunch, The Woodlands Township board chairman.

"It's pretty crazy; this is a new one," Bunch said. "More than 50 people have reached out to verify the job I supposedly offered them that I didn't. This week, all the sudden we started getting calls to talk about the job offer and or verify it."

Bunch, whose company is The Woodlands Financial Group, said the fake job ad was on indeed.com, a job advertising website his company used before to post ads for open positions. Bunch said nobody at his firm had posted the job, which was for a position as his personal assistant.

The fake ad led applicants to a phony website , twfgi.net, and to an email account where they would send an application. The suspect or suspects involved in the fake job ad solicited normal personal identifying information that a job applicant would provide, Bunch added. Some of the more than four dozen people who responded to the fake add reportedly engaged in interviews with the suspect or suspects, and many received a job offer which they accepted. None of the interactions were done in person, he said.

"The emails (applicants) are getting (from suspects) look like indeed.com," Bunch said. "The emails pretending to be me look like our (company) URL. It is definitely a nefarious group (doing the scam). They appear to be hacking into indeed.com's data. I'm not entirely sure. They're using Indeed.com as a cover."

Tara Lambropoulos, a representative with Indeed.com, provided a statement to The Villager from company officials in response to questions about the incident.

"Indeed's mission is to help people get jobs, and the quality of the job advertisements posted by third parties on our site is central to our mission. Indeed has a team dedicated to the Search Quality effort, and employs a variety of techniques to review job advertisements to determine their suitability," company officials wrote in the statement.

"Indeed reserves the right to remove any job postings that do not meet our standards and we encourage job seekers to report any suspect job advertisements to us, or if they feel it necessary, to make a report to the police. For their privacy and protection, we encourage job seekers to refer to our Guidelines for Safe Job Search," company officials added in the response.

More Information Tips to avoid cyber criminals Capt. Bryan Carlisle of the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office offered these simple tips to avoid being the victim of cyber crime. * Be proactive with your online safety such as PINs and passwords * Monitor bank accounts and credit cards regularly for unusual activity or charges * Double check websites for unusual URL addresses that may seem different than normal * Do not assume you are safe; cyber criminals target all people and companies See More Collapse

Bunch said he has turned over all the information regarding the incident to the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office, which he said was beginning an investigation into the incident. Bunch also said his company has immediately stopped using indeed.com for its job advertisements. The suspect or suspects did not ever access the internal server or computer network of Bunch's company, The Woodlands Financial Group, which is headquartered in a large suite of offices inside The Woodlands Mall.

"Our infrastructure folks here (at his company) have looked into the possible source (of the fake ads)," Bunch noted. "We've filed a criminal complaint with the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office."

Montgomery County sheriff's Capt. Bryan Carlisle confirmed that Bunch had filed a criminal complaint about the incident and that sheriff's office had assigned a veteran detective to probe the incident.

"This particular detective is ... if anyone can hunt down who did this, or where it originated, it is him," Carlisle said of the detective. "Obviously (cyber criminals) are very hard to track. This (case) is a little bit different in that they targeted a particular business."

Carlisle said the vast majority of cyber crimes are aimed at bank accounts, credit cards, identity theft and other types of financial-based fraud. The complexities of this case, such as setting up a fake website with a similar URL address, creating an online job advertisement on a legitimate website and engaging in telephone calls and email communications with victims, made it more unusual than a typical cyber crime case, he added.

"We don't see things like this very often," Carlisle said of the scam. "All kinds of things can happen from a breach like this."

Carlisle also said the specific nature of potential criminal charges stemming from the investigation are still unknown, but that the suspects likely left "a pretty good digital trail" with all the various elements involved in the scam.

Bunch said several other suspicious elements of the fake job ads were obvious, such as the suspects using his legal first name, Richard, instead of Gordy, which he said he's gone by since he was a youth. The fake ads also had the URL of twfgi.net, which Bunch said is a variant of his company's two domain names, twfg.com and twfg.net. Bunch also said he never hires anyone without a face-to-face meeting and said of those applicants who did apply, all were reportedly offered a job either over the telephone or via an email.

Bunch, who is well-known around the community for his work with the company and his position on the township's Board of Directors, said the incident affects innocent people.

"I came to work this morning and there was someone in my lobby who had been affected," he said. "I feel bad for the people who gave up their personal information. We're going to do whatever we can to help authorities."He visited and extended Tet greetings to officers and soldiers at the Ro Koi Border Guard post under the provincial Border Guard Command in Sa Thay district.

The President hailed the post for giving advice to the local authorities on political, socio-economic development, poverty reduction, social security, and natural disaster mitigation.

He urged the post to continue implementing effectively the resolutions and directives of the Party, State and army on protecting the national border, while actively fighting criminals and reactionaries to keep political security, social order and safety in border areas.

President Tran Dai Quang visits Ro Koi Border Guard post (Source: VNA)



Ro Koi Border Guard post, with 50 officers and soldiers, is responsible for managing 11.2 km of border neighbouring Ta Veng district, Ratanakari province of Cambodia.

The unit has actively joined hands with the provincial chapter of the Vietnam Fatherland Front, and the provincial Border Guard Command to build 28 charity houses in 2016, worth VND58 million (USD2,300).

On this occasion, President Quang visited and extended Tet greetings to local authorities and people in Ro Koi commune, Sa Thay province.

Ro Koi is a disadvantaged commune in the district, with poor households accounting for nearly 40 percent of the total population.

The State leader also visited and presented Tet gifts to Vietnamese Heroic Mother Dang Thi Thu, residing in Duy Tan ward, Kon Tum city; and Most Venerable Thich Quang Xa, Vice Chairman of the Executive Council of the Vietnam Buddhist Sangha (VBS) and head of the provincial VBS chapter./.Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc will lead a high-ranking delegation of the Vietnamese Government to the event at the invitation of his Lao counterpart Thongloun Sisoulith.



Vietnam and Laos set up diplomatic ties on September 5th, 1962 and signed a Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation on July 18th, 1977, which are considered important milestones in bilateral relations.





Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc (R) and his Lao counterpart Thongloun Sisoulith (Photo: VNA)



The two countries organised hundreds of activities during the Vietnam-Laos Solidarity and Friendship Year 2017, attracting the participation of all-level authorities, sectors and a large number of people. Notably, they exchanged nearly 300 delegations at all levels.During the visits, their leaders reiterated the resolve to enhance the Vietnam-Laos special solidarity and comprehensive cooperation while unceasingly promoting cooperation quality for the sake of each countrys people and for peace, stability, cooperation and development in the region and the world.As of August 2017, Vietnam was the third biggest foreign investor in Laos, following China and Thailand. Major Vietnamese investment projects in the neighbouring country include the Sekaman No. 1 and 3 hydropower plants, the power transmission line from Sekaman to Vietnams Pleiku city, a potassium salt processing project in Khammouane province, and industrial tree planting projects.The Lao Government assessed Vietnamese investments as effective projects helping to boost socio-economic development and create jobs for local people.A number of meetings between the two countries leaders and Vietnamese businesses investing in Laos have been held, showing the two Governments determination to strengthen economic partnership. Vietnamese firms also affirmed that Laos is a potential investment market.The two sides signed a new trade agreement and a border trade agreement. In 2017, bilateral trade was estimated at over USD900 million, up 10 percent from a year earlier. Vietnam mainly exported petrol, oil, steel, vehicles and spare parts while importing rubber, fertilizer, ore and minerals from Laos.Bilateral transport connectivity projects have been accelerated within the framework of bilateral and Greater Mekong Sub-region cooperation. The sides have also worked to expand the one-stop shop model at Lao Bao and Den Savan border gates to other pairs of international border gates along their border line.Education-training is also a successful cooperation area. Hundreds of Lao students come to Vietnam while a great number of Vietnamese students receive the Lao Governments scholarships every year. The countries have also implemented many projects improving educational facilities in Laos.Cultural and tourism cooperation has continued to develop with rising numbers of Laos and Vietnamese tourists to the others country. Partnerships in health care have also been tightened, especially between border provinces.Meanwhile, security and defence ties have also been enhanced in all aspects, especially personnel training. The two countries have done a good job of implementing security and defence agreements, finished the project on increasing and upgrading border markers long their shared border, and signed a protocol on the Vietnam-Laos borderline and border markers and an agreement on regulations on the management of their border and border gates.Both sides have also pushed ahead with carrying out the two Governments agreement on solving the issue of unregulated migration and marriage in their border areas. The search for and repatriation of the remains of Vietnams soldiers and voluntary experts have also implemented well.Vietnam and Laos have coordinated closely and supported each other at regional and international forums and increased cooperation with other ASEAN member countries in building the ASEAN Community and maintaining the blocs solidarity and consensus in strategic regional issues.-Houston ISD administrators announced preliminary plans Thursday to close and immediately reopen six chronically low-performing schools, a process that would force hundreds of students to leave their home campus and result in the replacement of all staff in those schools.

Administrators also proposed handing over control of hiring, curriculum and governance of eight other schools to two nonprofit organizations, a concession that will allow students at those campuses to continue attending their home school.

The two proposals are being made to stave off a potential state takeover of the district's school board, a possible punishment mandated under a new Texas law. If any district has a single school that fails to meet state academic standards for five consecutive years, the Texas Education Agency must now replace the district's school board or close the chronically failing school.

The changes were announced during a school board meeting where district leaders also discussed early plans for tackling a projected $208.8 million budget shortfall.

Ten Houston ISD schools must all meet state standards this year to avoid triggering the law, a highly unlikely proposition. To avoid a potential state takeover of the board, district administrators are proposing major changes to the 10 schools, along with four low-performing campuses.

"The focus is not to close schools," Houston ISD Superintendent Richard Carranza said. "The focus is to ensure our students have incredible opportunities and that we control our destiny and nobody else controls our destiny."

The proposals would need approval of the district's school board. A vote would likely occur in mid-April. In the meantime, district staff are planning to meet with community members and coordinate plans with the Texas Education Agency.

The six closure-and-restart schools -- Blackshear, Highland Heights, Hilliard and Wesley elementary schools, Cullen Middle School and Woodson PK-8  would only serve limited grade levels in 2018-19.

The four elementary schools and Woodson PK-8 would offer pre-kindergarten and kindergarten, while Cullen Middle School would offer sixth grade.

Students in grade levels that aren't served would be transferred to nearby campuses.

The six campuses would add a single grade level each year. District officials are also asking the state to allow it to serve additional grade levels in 2018-19.

The eight remaining schools would all become "partnership" campuses with outside organizations, a move that would allow Houston ISD to avoid potential state intervention for at least two years. The "partnership" campuses would still serve all grade levels.

PREVIOUSLY: HISD officials propose drastic changes at low-performing schools to avoid state takeover

Under preliminary plans, Dogan and Mading elementary schools would partner with Children's Learning Institute at University of Texas Health. Henry Middle School and Kashmere, Madison, North Forest, Wheatley and Worthing high schools would partner with Talent Development Secondary, a Baltimore-based nonprofit.

"We're at a crossroads," said Houston ISD Trustee Wanda Adams, whose district includes two of the 14 schools. "We really don't know what the solution should be, but we know what we have to do."

Dealing with the law

District officials selected campuses for closure-and-restart or partnerships based on academic offerings in the school's feeder pattern and recommendations from a committee analyzing magnet programming in the district. Houston ISD administrators had initially proposed making major changes to 15 schools, instead of 14. They removed Lawson Middle School from the list Thursday.

The 14 schools are all in high-poverty areas, and nearly all serve predominately black or Hispanic student populations. In the past few decades, campus closures have been largely concentrated in those areas, a pattern that trustees want to avoid repeating.

"This is difficult," Houston ISD Trustee Jolanda Jones said. "We're trying to save our black and brown schools, because last time we did this, those are the schools that got closed."

The dramatic proposals have been forced by the new law, known as HB 1842, which passed in 2015 with support from 85 percent of the Texas Legislature. Twenty-six districts across Texas face the punishments outlined in HB 1842, including Dallas, San Antonio and Waco ISDs.

Proponents of the law said it would force school districts to address the lowest-performing schools after years of neglect. Opponents in Houston have argued the punishments are draconian given that Houston ISD has about 280 schools, yet a single chronically-failing school could trigger a state takeover of the board.

Houston ISD administrators had already implemented changes at all 14 schools, along with 31 other campuses, through a district program called Achieve 180. Those schools have received additional support designed to address students' non-academic needs, and some campuses have seen dramatic staff turnover.

Administrators have said they're seeing progress at the 10 schools that could trigger the new state law, but "we know it's going to be hard" for all of them to meet state standards, Houston ISD Chief Academic Officer Grenita Lathan said.

'Shocking' budget cuts

The proposed changes came after Houston ISD officials offered more details Thursday for how they plan to address the projected shortfall in the district's $1.9 billion budget. Teacher layoffs, a reduction in bus routes and fewer school district police officers are all among the cuts under consideration.

The impact on campuses could be drastic. Almost all custodians to be cut, with schools cleaned a couple times per week rather than every day. The number of campuses with an assigned Houston ISD police officer could fall from 89 to 24. Bus routes could be drastically reduced, only sparing special education and homeless students' routes in some cases.

Administrators haven't estimated the number of teacher layoffs that could occur. About 2,000 to 2,200 teachers leave the district annually, but attrition likely wouldn't cover all the needed cuts.

The proposals are all preliminary and could change as the district seeks input from staff and community members. But the $208.8 million deficit is real, as will the pain closing it will likely cause.

"What you're going to see today may be shocking in some ways," Carranza said.

Houston ISD Chief Financial Officer Rene Barajas told the board there's an option to increase its revenues: hold a Tax Ratification Election, or TRE, to increase its property taxes from the current rate of about $1.20 per $100 of a home's value to $1.33. That would cost roughly $200 a year for property owners with a taxable value of about $200,000, and bring in an estimated $119 million for the district.

CARRANZA: HISD faces changes, challenges in financial storm

Houston ISD Trustee Sue Deigaard said it would likely be an uphill battle to pass such a tax.

"I find it striking and frustrating that every year it's about what can we cut instead of finding efficiencies," Deigaard said. "I do not understand how we can go to the public for a TRE until we give them confidence we're been as efficient as we can be with our money."A central Texas fire captain is behind bars, accused of inappropriately touching a juvenile firefighting recruit.

Daniel Dilworth, 22, was also a school bus driver and substitute teacher at Burnet Consolidated Independent School District at the time of his arrest, according to KXAN-TV in Austin.

Dilworth heads the Hoover Valley Volunteer Fire Department, a position prosecutors claimed he abused while he and the young male junior firefighter were together.

The abuse happened during summer 2017, according to police. The teenager told his father about the incidents on Jan. 29, detailing how Dilworth allegedly touched him while the two were on one of the department's fire trucks.

Burnet Consolidated Independent School District said Dilworth's alleged actions were isolated to his firefighting duties, although he has since been fired from the district, according to the TV station.

OUCH: Man bites Harris County deputy in finger during altercation

"There is no reason to believe this incident is related in any way to his employment with Burnet CISD," Superintendent Keith McBurnett said.

Dilworth was arrested Thursday on a felony attempted indecency with a child charge. He is being held in the Burnet County Jail on a $500,000 bond, according to jail records.

Jay R. Jordan is a breaking news reporter at Chron.com. Follow him on Twitter at @JayRJordan.A 21-year-old Fort Worth man admitted to police that he punched a one-year-old baby in the head twice because the child would not stop crying, local media reports.

Derrick Pete Silva, 21, was arrested Thursday after confessing to police that he struck the 19-month-old baby last November in a fit of rage, according to the Star-Telegram and CBS DFW.

Police said Silva was involved with the infant's 16-year-old mother, who told authorities Silva would tell the one-year-old not to cry "like a little bitch" and also threatened to have the child's "pee pee" chopped off.

POLICE: Texas City man arrested in connection to bomb threat made to preschool

Silva told investigators he punched the baby "really hard on the back of his head," causing the child's hands and feet to begin to twitch and shake.

The 21-year-old then left the room to watch television and calm down, police said.

Shortly after, Silva's cousin found the crying baby on the floor and alerted Silva, who carried the one-year-old baby to his mother and told her something was wrong, according to the suspect's interview with police.

STANDOFF: Suspect who shot a deputy while handcuffed identified

An ambulance was called to take the child to a local hospital where he died from blunt force injuries, according to the Tarrant County Medical Examiner's Office.

The child's mother told hospital staff she believed the one-year-old fell from his bed. Hospital officials alerted police when they noticed the child's injuries were not consistent with a two to three-foot fall.

See some of the most shocking crimes that occurred near the Houston area in recent years.The LPRP and Lao people warmly congratulate the CPV and the fraternal Vietnamese people over the great accomplishments and successes they have achieved during the past 88 years, the LPRPs message read.

It stressed that the LPRP and the Lao people consider the achievements and successes of Vietnam as those of their own, which is a source of great encouragement of Laos in the cause of national defence and development.

Head of the LPRP Central Committees Commission for External Relations Sounthon Sayachak extended congratulations to the Communist Party of Vietnam over its 88th founding anniversary while visiting the Vietnamese Embassy in Laos (Photo VNA)



The LPRP also noted with joy that the great friendship, special solidarity and comprehensive cooperation between the two Parties, two States and two peoples have been constantly strengthened and expanded in both breadth and depth across all aspects, thus bringing practical benefits for both peoples over the past time. The Lao party especially highlighted the success of the year 2017 which the two countries had defined as a year of solidarity and friendship.

The Party, State and people of Laos will do our best to together with Vietnam preserve, protect and develop the everlasting special solidarity of Laos and Vietnam, and pass it down to future generations in the interest of the two nations and for the sake of peace, friendship and cooperation in the region and the world as a whole, the LPRPs Central Committee wrote in the message.

In its message, the CPP also praised the achievements of the CPV and the Government and people of Vietnam in carrying out the Doi Moi (reform) policy, which brought about comprehensive national development, constant improvement of peoples living conditions and continuous enhancement of Vietnams position in the international arena.

The CPP highly values the development of the solidarity, traditional friendship and comprehensive cooperation between the two Parties, two Governments and two peoples, and is resolved to make efforts to continue consolidating and developing the relationship under the motto good neighbourliness, traditional friendship, and comprehensive, sustainable and long-term cooperation, the message said.

It went on to express the firm belief that under the clear-sighted leadership of the CPV headed by General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong, the Vietnamese people will gain even greater achievements and successfully realize the targets set in the Resolution of the 12th National Congress of the CPV.

Also on the occasion of the CPVs anniversary, member of the LPRP Central Committee and head of the LPRP Central Committees Commission for External Relations Sounthon Sayachak extended congratulations to his Vietnamese counterpart Hoang Binh Quan./.Waves of exotic dancers took to the streets Thursday after strip clubs were shuttered in crackdowns rocking Bourbon Street in New Orleans just 11 days before Mardi Gras.

Undercover stings revealed prostitution at eight strip clubs on or near the booze-soaked magnet for tourists. Police Chief Michael Harrison said in a news conference Monday that drug activity was alleged at four of those clubs following the suspension of liquor licenses.

The flurry of police activity is part of a broad, ongoing effort to curtail human trafficking in the city, Harrison said.

Louisiana Alcohol and Tobacco Control Commissioner Juana Marine-Lombard told reporters at the same conference that "prostitution in and of itself is sex trafficking."

But Louisiana law says that "fraud, force or coercion" must be evident to meet the legal definition of human trafficking. Harrison later conceded the distinction between prostitution and human trafficking, saying that "we do not consider it to be one and the same."

Beau Tidwell, a New Orleans Police Department spokesman, said Friday that no human trafficking charges have been filed, and he would not say if he expects any to materialize.

Voluntary closures of affected clubs have triggered protests involving hundreds of strippers, Bourbon Street workers and other supporters, who say the crackdowns are thinly veiled attempts to remake the image of the French Quarter into a family-friendly destination.

"We are protesting because they are trying to shut down most of the clubs on Bourbon Street to make it some kind of Disneyland-cruise ship port," exotic dancer Emily Hernandez told Agence France-Presse.

Photos from the protests show dancers holding signs with slogans such as "It's Bourbon St., not Sesame St." and "We are not victims" to push back against law enforcement activity they say has harmed business.

The closures and protests came after a NOLA.com/Times-Picayune profile published in October concluded that New Orleans strip clubs were grimy dens of human and sex trafficking.

Author and former sex worker Melissa Gira Grant has said that the report blurred the distinction between forced prostitution, voluntary sex work and exotic dancing, and that no clear signs of trafficking at clubs have surfaced as a result.

Dancer Reese Piper said the closures may have the unintentional consequence of forcing strippers into the sex trade after losing out on revenue.

"Regardless of how or why, stripping is our job - and it's our right to work without fear just like everyone else," she said.In a blistering decision that could impact the 2018 midterm elections, a federal judge on Thursday ruled that Florida's system for barring former felons from voting is unconstitutional and potentially tainted by racial, political or religious bias.

U.S. District Judge Mark Walker blasted the state panel led by Florida's governor that decides whether to restore voting rights to people who have completed their sentences, saying their process is arbitrary and exceedingly slow.

"In Florida, elected, partisan officials have extraordinary authority to grant or withhold the right to vote from hundreds of thousands of people without any constraints, guidelines or standards," Walker wrote. "The question now is whether such a system passes constitutional muster. It does not."

"A person convicted of a crime may have long ago exited the prison cell and completed probation," the judge wrote in the 43-page order. "Her voting rights, however, remain locked in a dark crypt. Only the state has the key - but the state has swallowed it."

The judge did not rule on how the issue should be remedied.

The lawsuit was brought against Gov. Rick Scott by a group of former felons in Florida who had completed their sentences but were denied voting rights by the state's Office of Executive Clemency. They were supported by the Fair Elections Legal Network and the American Civil Liberties Union.

The decision comes amid a wave of victories voting rights activists have scored in the past two years in court cases fighting restrictive state voting policies. In 2016, federal judges in North Carolina and Ohio struck down Republican-backed voter identification laws in those states, finding they discriminated against minority voters. A federal judge in Texas came to the same conclusion last year in a lawsuit challenging that state's voter ID law.

Walker's ruling is a rebuke of Scott, who implemented Florida's current voter restoration system shortly after he took office in 2011, reversing a more lenient policy.WASHINGTON - The Trump administration on Friday announced it will continue much of the Obama administration's nuclear weapons policy, but take a more aggressive stance toward Russia. It said Russia must be persuaded it would face "unacceptably dire costs" if it were to threaten even limited nuclear attack in Europe.

The sweeping review of U.S. nuclear policy does not call for any net increase in strategic nuclear weapons, a position that stands in contrast to a tweet President Donald Trump sent shortly before he took office, that the U.S. "must greatly strengthen and expand its nuclear capability until such time as the world comes to its senses regarding nukes." In his State of the Union address Tuesday, he made no mention of expansion, though he said the arsenal must deter acts of aggression.

A 74-page report summarizing the review's findings calls North Korea a "clear and grave threat" to the U.S. and its allies. It asserts that any North Korean nuclear attack against the U.S. or its allies will result in "the end of that regime."

It also cast China as a potential nuclear adversary, saying the U.S. arsenal is tailored to "prevent Beijing from mistakenly concluding" that it could gain advantage by using its nuclear weapons in Asia, or that "any use of nuclear weapons, however limited, is acceptable."

The Pentagon-led review of the U.S. nuclear arsenal and the policies that govern it was ordered by Trump a year ago. In a written statement, Trump said U.S. strategy is designed to make use of nuclear weapons less likely. In an apparent reference to the threat of catastrophic cyberattack, he said the U.S. aims to strengthen deterrence of major attacks against the U.S. and its allies, including those that "may not come in the form of nuclear weapons."

Officially known as a nuclear posture review, and customarily done at the outset of a new administration, the report drew blistering criticism from arms control groups.

"President Trump is embarking on a reckless path - one that will reduce U.S. security both now and in the longer term," said Lisbeth Gronlund, a senior scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists. She said the administration is blurring the line between nuclear and conventional war-fighting.

The Trump administration concluded that the U.S. should largely follow its predecessor's blueprint for modernizing the nuclear arsenal. It also endorsed adhering to existing arms control agreements, including the New START treaty that limits the United States and Russia each to 1,550 strategic nuclear warheads on a maximum of 700 deployed launchers.

The treaty, negotiated under President Barack Obama, entered into force on Feb. 5, 2011, and its weapons limits must be met by Monday. The U.S. says it has been in compliance with the limits since August and it expects the Russians to comply by Monday's deadline. As of Sept. 1, the last date for which official figures are available, Russia was below the launcher limit but slightly above the warhead limit, at 1,561.KABUL, Afghanistan - The discovery of an Islamic State hideout filled with explosives and suicide vests in a poor Kabul neighborhood reflects the failure of Afghanistan's corruption-filled government to protect the capital, analysts and residents said Friday.

This week's revelation that militants were operating in Kabul's western Qala-e-Wahid district follows a series of horrific attacks in the heavily guarded city that killed nearly 200 people and wounded hundreds more, including foreigners.

Security forces were led to the safe house by an insurgent who was captured during an attack Monday by IS militants on a military academy in Kabul in which 11 soldiers died, according to an intelligence official.

Dangerous conditions

From behind the 10-foot green metal doors, the insurgents were plotting to use the explosives, weapons and suicide vests in three more large attacks in Kabul, the official said. He spoke on condition of anonymity.

Khan Mohammed, a resident of Qala-e-Wahid, told the AP that locals rarely see a police patrol in the neighborhood and stay at home after dark because of marauding gangs of thieves. They say the government can't provide security.

"It is dangerous for all the people of Qala-e-Wahid that Daesh was here, but they came here because it is an insecure area," Mohammed said, using the Arabic acronym for the extremist group.

"For Daesh, this was the perfect area because you can bring everything here from anywhere," added Mohammed, whose home is across the lane from the ISIS hideout.

Political analyst Haroon Mir blamed widespread corruption throughout the government and the security forces for their inability to prevent the recent deadly attacks in Kabul, which included a siege at a luxury hotel and a car bomb packed inside an ambulance.

"It is the utter failure of the intelligence services. It is the utter failure of the security services. It is the utter failure of every institution," Mir said.

"You can't blame it on lack of resources or lack of international support," he said, adding that billions of dollars in international money flowing into Afghanistan in the past 16 years has been siphoned off by those in positions of power.

Pakistan-Taliban link

That has left most Afghans feeling vulnerable.

There are an estimated 5,000 ISIS fighters in northern Afghanistan between Sar-e-Pul province and eastern Badakhshan province, said Brian Glyn Williams, the author of "Counter Jihad, The American Military Experience in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria." He cited Afghanistan Vice President Rashid Dostum for the statistic.

President Ashraf Ghani, who faces pressure over the security lapses, went on national television Friday to blame neighboring Pakistan for harboring Taliban militants. Pakistan routinely denies it is a hub for the Taliban.

Ghani also said he has called for a review of security arrangements in Kabul.

Corruption has poisoned Afghanistan's security forces, said security analyst Waheed Mozhdah, noting that they can be bribed to "bring ammunition, explosives, everything inside Kabul. This is our big problem."At a meeting with Shigeki Takizaki, Director General of the Southeast and Southwest Asian Affairs Department under Japans Ministry of Foreign Affairs, on February 2nd, Cuong said Linhs family is collecting signatures at home and abroad to appeal to the Chiba prefecture court to hand down the highest penalty to the culprit.

In reply, Takizaki once again expressed his deep sympathy to Linhs family and informed the ambassador that during a reception for Japanese State Minister for Foreign Affairs Kazuyuki Nakane on January 30, Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh also asked the Japanese side to promptly bring the case to court.

Suspect of the case, Shibuya Yasumasa. (Source: Asahi Shimbun)



The Japanese Foreign Ministry then had a working session with the Ministry of Justice on the issue. According to the Justice Ministry, Japans law enforcement agencies are urgently preparing procedures in order for the trial to take place soon in line with Japanese law.

Takizaki also further explained the judicial independence in Japans Constitution, noting his hope for an early trial and that the culprit will receive deserved punishment.

The same day, Ambassador Cuong visited Linhs family in Chiba Prefecture and affirmed that the Vietnamese Embassy will continue to work to protect legitimate interests of the family.

He said the embassys officials have kept regular contact with Japanese law enforcement agencies to receive updated information about the case and ensure citizen protection.

According to the Chiba prefecture court, the date for the trial will be decided after the investigation process and dossier preparations conclude, scheduled on March 5th.

Under Japans law, the evidence collection process will last about eight months if the suspect admits his crime and about 12 months if he denies.

Le Anh Hao, Linhs father, expressed his hope for an early and fair trial to contribute to preventing similar crimes in the future.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the President of the House of Councillors have also extended their deep sympathies publicly to Linhs family over her death.

Japanese Ambassador to Vietnam Kunio Umeda visited Linhs family in their home province of Hung Yen.

On March 24th, 2017, Linh, a third-year grader at the elementary school in Matsudo, went missing after she left home in Matsudo to go to school as usual.

Two days later, she was found dead without clothes at a site near a drainage ditch which is about 10-12km from the school.

The police believed Linh was kidnapped right after leaving home at 8 am on March 24th.

Besides an injury on her head and garrote marks on her necks, Linh also had an injury on her wrist and scratches on her body.

Japan arrested Shibuya Yasumasa, 46, a suspect in the murder, on April 14. Chiba police made the arrest after his DNA test matched the DNA sample found on Linhs belongings.

Prosecutors of Japans Chiba prefecture on May 26 decided to prosecute Yasumasa Shibuya./.He made the statement during the Vietnam  RoK Electricity and Renewable Energy Forum co-organised by the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency and the Ho Chi Minh City chapter of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) on February 2nd.

Paik said Vietnam and the RoK are looking towards sustainable development goals via reducing green house gas emission, adaptation to climate change and environment protection.

Phu Lac wind power plant in Binh Thuan (Source: VNA)



The RoK will actively invest in power production and renewable energy development in Vietnam, he said, adding that the country will also assist Vietnam in personnel training and technological transfer in the field.

A representative from the Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO) said the RoK is strong in smart grid which could integrate with solar and wind power or power generators to ensure stable supply and minimise power wastage.

The Korean side expressed wish to learn about Vietnams power and renewable energy development strategy and master plan to form effective partnership in the near future.

VCCI Vice Chairman Vo Tan Thanh said under the power development master plan till 2020 with a vision to 2030, Vietnam will develop power generation from renewable sources and scale down hydropower.

The country will also build and upgrade power transmission and distribution systems to deal with overload as well as use smart transmission system, he said.

To achieve the above targets, the Vietnamese government has offered preferential loans, reduced export-import and corporate income tax, waived land use fees, and funded scientific research on energy. Vietnam will also extend international collaboration to develop domestic electrical equipment manufacturing.

Vice Chairman of the Vietnam Energy Association Nguyen Van Vy said the RoK has invested in a number of power projects in Vietnam such as wind power plants in the southern provinces of Ben Tre and Tra Vinh, and solar power plants in Binh Thuan and Quang Binh.

As home to nearly 59 wind power plants, more than 100 solar power and other biomass energy projects, Vietnam targets raising renewable energy to 32 percent by 2030 and 43 percent by 2050./.A growing number of big U.S. credit-card issuers are deciding they dont want to finance a falling knife.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Bank of America Corp., the nations two largest banks, said theyre halting purchases of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies on their credit cards. JPMorgan, enacting the ban Saturday, doesnt want the credit risk associated with the transactions, said Mary Jane Rogers, a spokeswoman for the firm.

Bank of America began declining credit card transactions with known crypto exchanges on Friday. The policy applies to all personal and business credit cards issued by the bank, it said in a memo. The move doesnt affect debit cards, according to Betty Riess, a spokeswoman for the Charlotte, North Carolina-based lender.

Unfriended: Facebook bans ads tied to bitcoin, other cryptocurrencies

Allowing purchases of cryptocurrencies can create big headaches for card lenders, which can be left on the hook if a borrower bets wrong and cant repay. Theres also the risk that thieves will abuse cards that were purloined or based on stolen identities, turning them into crypto hoards. Banks also are required by regulators to monitor customer transactions for signs of money laundering -- which isnt as easy once dollars are converted into digital coins.

Bitcoin has lost more than half its value since Dec. 18, falling below $8,000 on Friday for the first time since November. The drop occurred amid escalating regulatory threats around the world, fear of price manipulation and Facebook Inc.s ban on ads for cryptocurrencies and initial coin offerings.

Cutting off card purchases could exacerbate those pressures by making it more difficult for enthusiasts to buy into the market.

Catching up on crypto: A field guide to digital-money culture

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Citigroup Inc., the nations third-biggest bank, is still reviewing its policy. Capital One Financial Corp. and Discover Financial Services previously said they arent supporting the transactions.

Mastercard Inc. said this week that cross-border volumes on its network -- a measure of customer spending abroad -- have risen 22 percent this year, fueled partly by clients using their cards to buy digital currencies. The firm warned that the trend already was beginning to slow as cryptocurrency prices fell.

Discover Chief Executive Officer David Nelms was dismissive of financing cryptocurrency transactions during an interview last month, noting that could change depending on customer demand. For now, its crooks that are trying to get money out of China or wherever, he said of those trying to use the currencies.

2018 Bloomberg L.P.

Get more tasty tech news at TechBurger. And follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

Subscribe to the Chronicle for regular access to TechBurger stories and to be able to comment.We're always interested in hearing about news in our community. Let us know what's going on!

Go to formThey include the Tam nhin Vien A (Visasie) Travel Company, Mai Viet Travel Company and Gvietnamtravels Company.

Also at the event, representatives from Vietnam Airlines, the national flag carrier, are providing visitors with information about its inbound and outbound flights, especially air routes from Belgium and other European nations to Vietnam.

Vietnamese Ambassador to Belgium Vuong Thua Phong (R) visits a Vietnamese booth at Brussels Holiday Fair (Source: VNA)



Vietnamese Ambassador to Belgium Vuong Thua Phong took the occasion to promote the image of Vietnamese land and people to Belgian and international partners.

Nguyen Thi Dung Hanh from the Gvietnamtravels Company said that this time her company offers tours designed to fit requirements of each group of consumers, and satisfy all demands from visa application to flight ticket purchase.

According to her, Belgium is a promising market for Vietnamese travel agencies.

At the event, several Belgian companies also introduce their attractive tours to Vietnam.

Vietnam welcomed nearly 13 million international tourists in 2017, up 29.1 percent compared with the previous year, of which 1.9 million tourists come from Europe, including over 29,000 Belgians./.It is not a bad thing for us, that the route known as the Goldene Strae or the Golden Road as we will get to know it- has escaped the attention of so many. It has been spared being overrun by hordes of tourists and as you will discoverAKRON, Ohio -- A man was found dead inside of a car early Saturday morning, police say.

Police found the man shot several times shortly after 2 a.m. on West Miller Avenue near Lake Shore Boulevard, Akron police Lt. Rick Edwards said.

Police have not released the identity of the man.

Officers responded to a report of shots fired and found the man unresponsive inside a 2009 Dodge Caliber, police said.

Police do not have any suspects at this time.

Anyone with information is asked to contact Akron police's detective bureau at 330-375-2490.

If you'd like to comment on this story, visit Saturday's crime and courts comments section.ROCKY RIVER, Ohio - There are two fewer wild turkeys in a rafter of about a half-dozen or more wildfowl that has been terrorizing a suburban neighborhood for the past few months.

On Friday, an officer from the Ohio Division of Wildlife captured and euthanized the two most aggressive members of the group that was causing near daily disruptions in mail deliveries to homes on the city's east side, north of Hilliard Boulevard along the Rocky River Reservation.

Division of Wildlife spokeswoman Jamey Emmert said a wildlife officer was interviewing a resident of the neighborhood when one of the two young males, known as "jakes," approached the woman and began pecking on her pant legs. That's when he decided that the pair of jakes needed to be euthanized.

"We'd been trying to alleviate the problem because it was obvious the problem wasn't going away," Emmert said. "This was the first time an officer witnessed a turkey attacking someone and pulling on her clothing, and he realized then that the situation needed to be alleviated."

The wildlife officer also took into account complaints rangers from the nearby Rocky River Reservation had received from joggers along the Valley Parkway, Emmert said.

Several hens in the rafter are not aggressive and immediately fled the neighborhood, Emmert said.

The male turkeys were particularly aggressive against the mail carrier, Emmert said. The wildlife officer suspected the turkeys had been feeding on seed at backyard bird feeder sites, and that the males mistakenly believed the mail carrier had food in his mail bag, she said.

"The males were actually chasing this carrier," Emmert said. "They recognized him, and they weren't afraid of him."

David Van Allen, a spokesman for the U.S. Postal Service, declined to comment on the capital punishment inflicted on the misbehaving birds.

"Whenever there's been a problem our carrier leaves the area temporarily, and we call the local government to chase the turkeys away," Van Allen said. "We've been delivering the mail every day, but occasionally at different times, depending on if the carrier's way is blocked."

Van Allen said the first media reports on the turkey problems that ran about a month ago spread to news outlets "half way around the world.''

Earlier this week, Mary Kay Costello, the city's director of public safety, sent letters to the homes of residents of the neighborhood updating them on the turkey remediation tactics, and reminding them of the temporary ban on outdoor bird and wild animal feeding scheduled to run through February. Warning letters were being sent to residents who failed to comply with the ban, and contact numbers were included for residents to call if they encountered aggressive turkeys.

Emmert delivered a warning to all residents of the area who encounter wild turkeys or any wild animals.

"The biggest message I could give is to please allow wildlife to stay wild," she said. "These turkeys made the human-food connection, and for any species it seems to go downhill from there. Once the animal loses that natural fear it's hard to change their course."

Division of Wildlife officials have contacted a nearby wild bird rehabilitation center to ask if they would like the turkey carcasses to feed to their raptors, Emmert said.CLEVELAND, OH -- Case Western Reserve University dental students teamed up with local professional dentists to give free dental care to area children.

According to the school's website, CWRU has hosted the annual event since 2003. More than 250 students from Cleveland area elementary schools got dental care at the CWRU dental school and on the UH Rainbow Babies & Children's Hospital Ronald McDonald Care Mobile Unit.

Dental work included radiographs and sealants, proper oral hygiene instruction and exams, along with preventative and restorative care.CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A Cuyahoga County grand jury declined to charge two Cleveland police officers in connection with the death of Tanisha Anderson, who died while being arrested during a mental health episode in 2014.

Cleveland police officers Scott Aldridge and Bryan Myers are cleared of any criminal wrongdoing. City and police officials will now begin the process of deciding if they should be disciplined for their roles in Anderson's death.

The grand jury vote brings to an end a nearly three-year probe investigated by numerous law enforcement agencies including the Cleveland police department, the Cuyahoga County Sheriff's Office and the Ohio Attorney General's Office.

Ohio Attorney General Special Prosecutions Chief Matthew J. Donahue, Special Prosecutions Section, in a letter to Deputy Attorney General Stephen Schumaker and Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Administrative Judge John Russo, criticized the Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner's Office for using information prohibited Garrity information gathered by the Cleveland police department's internal affairs investigation in determining her initial cause of death.

"Tanisha Anderson's death was tragic, and the investigation that followed was unnecessarily constrained by legal complications that, quite frankly, should not have ever happened," Donahue's letter says. "By the time the investigative file reached the Attorney General's Office, two years and eight days after Ms. Anderson's death, there was much work to be done before the case could move forward. And there was only so much that could be done because of what had (or hadn't) occurred in the past. Never before has the Special Prosecutions Section been presented with such a complicated legal mess."

Cleveland settled a wrongful death lawsuit with Anderson's family for $2.25 million.

Anderson died during a November 2014 encounter with officers called by her family to help her during a mental-health episode at a family member's home on Ansel Road.

The officers placed her in handcuffs and she struggled as they placed her into the car, according to police reports. They used a takedown move and one of the officers kneeled on her back.

The Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner ruled her death a homicide from "sudden death associated with physical restraint in a prone position." Her heart disease and bipolar disorder were also considered factors that increased her chance of sudden death, the report says.

Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge John Russo, however, found fault with the medical examiner's report. He ordered that first page of the autopsy report be removed because it contained information from the police department's internal investigation, called Garrity material, that cannot be used in a criminal case against police officers.

The first page of the autopsy report also contained the cause of and manner of death, meaning that prosecutors needed an official cause of death to move forward with the case.

The Attorney General's Office, who took over prosecution in the case in February 2016, ordered a second autopsy in January. That review found that Anderson died of other a "cardiac event." Contributing factors included heart disease, according to an Ohio Attorney General spokesman.

The investigation was passed to different agencies several times, causing the case to stall before getting to the grand jury.

Cleveland police's use-of-force investigators first handled the case and gave their findings to then-Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Timothy J. McGinty.

McGinty in June 2015 turned the case over to the Cuyahoga County Sheriff's Office, which finished its investigation in February 2016. The case went to the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor's office, who turned it over to the Ohio Attorney General's Office the same day.

Anderson died shortly before the U.S. Justice Department issued a 58-page report that found, among other things, many Cleveland police officers are not properly trained to handle encounters with residents with mental illnesses.

The report found that officers often do not practice proper de-escalation techniques to keep a situation from getting out of control and wind up using cruel and excessive force against the mentally and medically ill.

The report led to the consent decree and mandated changes in the way police officers deal with calls of people suffering from mental illness.

CORRECTION: A previous version of this post said that Anderson's case was specifically mentioned in the U.S. Justice Department report. She died shortly before the report was issued.CLEVELAND, Ohio - The Ohio Attorney General's Office criticized the investigation of Tanisha Anderson's death by saying it was "unnecessarily complicated by legal constraints" that caused excessive delays.

A Cuyahoga County grand jury on Friday cleared two Cleveland police officers of any criminal wrongdoing in Anderson's death. The announcement came more than three years after the 37-year-old woman died during a 2014 mental health episode.

Information known as Garrity material was improperly included in the case file, according to the memo released Friday by the special prosecutions section of the attorney general's office. Garrity material can include information from internal police department investigations, which, by law, cannot be used in criminal cases against police officers.

Garrity material cannot be disseminated to prosecutors, so the prosecutor's office requested a special prosecutor be appointed to the case. Two retired judges were also appointed to review the file and remove any Garrity statements.

The issue forced a Cuyahoga County judge to remove from the file the Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner's determination that Anderson died of "sudden death associated with physical restraint in a prone position." Her heart disease and bipolar disorder were also considered factors that increased her chance of sudden death.

The file sent to the attorney general's office did not contain a cause of death or verdict of death, so the special prosecutions section ordered a second autopsy. The second autopsy determined Anderson died of heart disease, and it did not find any evidence of significant injuries, special prosecutions section Chief Matthew J. Donahue said in the memo.

"Never had the (special prosecutions sections) had a 'questioned death' investigation in which we were not allowed to see the 'cause of death' and 'verdict of death' or to call as a witness the medical examiner," Donahue said in the memo.

Donahue noted in his memo that the matter was so usual that a representative from the National Association of Medical Examiners called him to express concern.

It's unclear how the Garrity information made its way into the file. But the attorney general's office determined it tainted the file when the Cleveland police department passed the investigation to the Cuyahoga County Sheriff's Department, Donahue said in the memo.

"The Garrity contamination and the problems that it caused cannot be overstated," Donahue said in the memo.

The special prosecutions section did not determine whether the Garrity contamination violated any law enforcement policies, but Donahue recommended a review of the matter.

"It is my strong recommendation that the Garrity issue in this matter be examined, understood, and prevented from ever happening again," Donahue said in the memo.

Spokespersons for the city of Cleveland and its police department could not immediately comment on the matter because they had not reviewed Donahue's memo.

Attorney David Malik, who represented Anderson's family in a civil case that resulted in a $2.25 million settlement from the city of Cleveland, could not immediately be reached for comment on the memo.

To comment on this story, visit Friday's crime and courts comments page.CLEVELAND, Ohio -- When the city of Cleveland set out to create a new crisis intervention policy that governs how police officers handle encounters with the mentally ill, it wasn't explicitly because of Tanisha Anderson, but rather a pattern of similar incidents.

The 37-year-old's death while handcuffed by police in front of a family member's home during a November 2014 mental health episode came less than a month before the Justice Department issued a blistering report highlighting decades of unconstitutional policing and use-of-force abuses within the ranks of the Cleveland police.

"Officers too often use unreasonable force against individuals with mental illness, individuals in medical crisis and individuals with impaired faculties," according to a 58-page letter from the Justice Department addressed to Mayor Frank Jackson.

The Justice Department's criticisms of how the police handled encounters involving the mentally ill included incidents that had many of the hallmarks that led to Anderson's death. In the three years that passed since she died, the city agreed to a court-enforced reform agreement with the Justice Department and has taken steps to retrain how every officer within the department's ranks is supposed to deal with people in the throes of a mental-health crisis.

The city implemented new policies for all officers as of January, after nearly all city police officers were trained during 2017. It outlines specific steps officers must take when dealing with the mentally ill when responding to a call for help.

David Malik, an attorney representing the Anderson family, says he thinks the new policy potentially eliminates "brain freeze" in officers responding to someone in crisis.

A Cuyahoga County grand jury, after hearing evidence presented by the Ohio Attorney General's Office, declined to issue charges Friday against officers Scott Aldridge and Bryan Myers, who responded to a call for help with Anderson.

Anderson suffered from schizophrenia and bipolar disorder and was suffering from a breakdown when her family called police to its home on Ansel Road. She died after Aldridge and Myers cuffed her hands behind her back and placed her in the back of a police car following a struggle.

What happened next is disputed. Family said one of the officers engaged a take-down move on Anderson and put a knee on her back. The officers told investigators that Anderson struggled and wiggled her way out of the car and onto the ground, and that she kicked at the officers before she lost consciousness.

The Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner's Office said Anderson died from a "sudden death associated with physical restraint in a prone position" and ruled her death a homicide. Her heart disease and bipolar disorder were considered factors that increased her chance of sudden death, the office said.

However, that ruling and cause were not presented to the grand jury, as the Medical Examiner's Office relied on material later deemed improper to make its findings.

Whether or not either officer used force, the city's new policy contains specific steps for officers to use when responding to a call involving people in crisis.

They includes: assessing risk to officers and others, requesting emergency medical services if required and treating each case as unique.

If a friend or family member can provide information to help, seek it out, the new policy states.

Most importantly, officers should take steps to calm the situation if possible. An officer should try to establish a rapport and speak slowly and calmly. They should ask questions instead of stating orders and show empathy, among other steps.

Officers should show patience and move slowly, trying to wait out a person as long as possible. Force should only be used when necessary and proportional to the threat the subject poses.

However, it is OK to use handcuffs if an officer finds it reasonable, even if it's just to take the person to a hospital. However, if a person is lying down after an officer used force or the person was handcuffed, he or she should be moved to a seated position to prevent asphyxiation.

There are other aspects that deal with steering people in crisis toward the help they need and not to a jail cell.

While all officers were required to undergo eight hours of training on the new policy, the city is still forming a team and training protocol for a specialized team to deal with calls involving crisis intervention.

The monitoring team said in a filing last week that the new policy "has been recognized as a national model of crisis intervention."

Malik called the new policy "potentially a win-win."

"And it's obviously long overdue, but the good news is that the initial steps they have taken to make changes and that's very encouraging," Malik said. "I think that deaths will be prevented."

If you would like to comment on this story, please visit Friday's crime and courts comments section.CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A now-former Cuyahoga County jail guard has pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor drug charge following an arrest earlier this month where police said she hid a baggie of marijuana inside her body, according to a police report.

Karla Wiggins of Euclid entered the plea at her Thursday arraignment in Euclid Municipal Court.

It was her first court appearance since her Jan. 16 arrest on drug charges during a traffic stop in Euclid.

Wiggins' boyfriend, Charles Smiley, is also charged. A Cuyahoga County grand jury on Wednesday indicted him with felony drug trafficking in cocaine and other charges.

He is schedule to appear at an arraignment hearing Monday.

Smiley is on parole for a 2013 kidnapping and weapons conviction, court records say.

Wiggins was hired as a corrections officer in the fall and was still on her six-month probationary period when she was arrested. She resigned on Jan. 18, county spokeswoman Mary Louise Madigan said Friday.

Two Euclid police officers stopped the pair in Wiggins' car about 2:45 a.m. on East 220nd Street because they suspected the car's windows were too tinted, a police report says.

Smiley was driving the car and Wiggins was in the front seat. Police smelled marijuana emanating from the car when they got to the windows, according the police report.

Police asked about the smell, and Wiggins told officers that their friends were smoking marijuana earlier in the car, the report said. She denied having drugs on her, the report says.

Wiggins stepped out of the car and the officer watched her reach into her pocket and throw something to the ground, the report says. The officer later found a still-warm marijuana cigarette lying on the snow near where she was standing, the report says.

Police searched the car and found a scale with a tray that had what officers suspected to be cocaine residue on it, two razor blades and two cellphones, the report says. They found a baggie of suspected crack cocaine and about $1,600 in Smiley's pocket, the report says.

Wiggins told one of the officers that she was a corrections officer after the other handcuffed Smiley, the report says.

The officer again asked Wiggins if she had drugs on her. She said no, the report says, but eventually admitted to hiding drugs in her underwear after the officer told her she was being arrested and would be searched at the jail, the report says.

Staff at the jail found a bag of suspected marijuana inside Wiggins' vaginal cavity, the report says.

She was booked into the jail and given a $2,500 bond. She was released the next morning.

To comment on this story, please visit Friday's crime and courts comments page.CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Three years of investigation and judicial reviews into the death of Tanisha Anderson ended Friday when a Cuyahoga County grand jury declined to bring criminal charges against Cleveland police officers who handcuffed her and let her lie on the ground shortly before she died.

The grand jury on Friday issued no-bills on all criminal charges that could have been filed against Cleveland police officers Scott Aldridge, 49, and Bryan Myers, 33.

Myers was in his probationary period as a new police officer and was still in training at the time of the incident, according to the Attorney General's investigative report. Aldridge was his training officer. City and police officials will now begin the process of deciding whether they'll face discipline for their roles in Anderson's death on Nov. 13, 2014.

Both officers have been on restricted duty since Anderson's death.

Henry Hilow, the attorney for the Cleveland Patrolmen's Association, said the union always believed the officers were not criminally liable for Anderson's death. Hilow said police officers are not mental-health experts and that, in this case, they only tried to help Anderson and her family get her to a hospital.

"Before the city disciplines anyone, they should read the report," Hilow said. "She died of a heart attack and medication that she took. Their conduct did not cause her death. That message is resounding in that coroner's report."

Hilow called the death tragic and said the city "scapegoated" the officers. The city had not at that time properly trained officers to deal with someone in the throes of a mental-health crisis, Hillow said. Anderson's death sparked that change and officers now regularly are trained in how to deal with the mentally ill.

David Malik, an attorney for the Anderson family who negotiated a $2.25 million wrongful-death settlement with the city, referred questions to the family. They said they would comment at a later time.

The long investigation

Anderson's death highlighted the difficult nature of handling someone in the midst of a mental health crisis.

The case also highlighted it can be to investigate such incidents. Witnesses often remembered things incorrectly and some witnesses, including a Cleveland police supervisor and Anderson's family members, did not fully cooperate with the investigation, according to the attorney general.

There are also questions that remain unanswered, including how Anderson ended up on the ground and how long she was handcuffed.

Ohio Attorney General Special Prosecutions Chief Matthew J. Donahue - in a letter to Deputy Attorney General Stephen Schumaker and Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Administrative Judge John Russo -- criticized the Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner's Office for using prohibited information called Garrity material in determining Anderson's initial cause of death.

Garrity material is information obtained from a police officer's statement given in an internal affairs investigation and is barred from being used in a criminal case against the officer.

"Tanisha Anderson's death was tragic, and the investigation that followed was unnecessarily constrained by legal complications that, quite frankly, should not have ever happened," Donahue's letter says. "By the time the investigative file reached the Attorney General's Office, two years and eight days after Ms. Anderson's death, there was much work to be done before the case could move forward. And there was only so much that could be done because of what had (or hadn't) occurred in the past. Never before has the Special Prosecutions Section been presented with such a complicated legal mess."

Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner Thomas Gilson said in a statement that he stands by his office's work and that they used the industries best practices in determining Anderson's death.

"The legal circumstances that followed do not reflect upon the quality of the investigation, were after the fact, and not under the control or purview of this Office," the statement says.

Donahue's letter cites several missteps in the investigation, including that information obtained through the Cleveland police use-of-deadly-force investigation team was improperly used by the medical examiner in determining Anderson's cause of death.

Donahue's letter said the attorney general's office was asked to take over the case because that Garrity material had tainted the Cuyahoga County prosecutor's office's review of the case.

Because of that, the Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner's ruling that Anderson's death resulted from homicide was removed from the investigative files.

That caused a significant delay in the case. Donahue's letter said his office had never before conducted a suspicious death investigation without having a full autopsy and cause of death.

"The Garrity issue created the most legally difficult and complex incidents involving a death in police custody that the AGO Special Prosecutions Section has ever faced," Donahue wrote, later adding that "The Garrity contamination and the problems that it caused cannot be overstated."

He recommended that the county review how this happened to ensure it never happens again.

The encounter

Anderson died during an encounter with officers who had been called by her family to help her during a mental-health episode at a family member's home on Ansel Road.

At the time, Anderson was 12 days removed from getting treatment at the Windsor Laurelwood Center for Behavioral Medicine in Willoughby. The center treats people with mental illnesses, according to the attorney general. It was her second stint at the facility in two months.

Her brother, Joell Anderson, called police about 8:15 p.m. and told dispatchers the family needed help because she was "belligerent, and family members were afraid," the attorney general said. Two officers arrived and determined that the situation calmed down. They left by 10 p.m.

Some 45 minutes later, another family member called police and said that Anderson was turning on lights and trying to leave the home only wearing a nightgown.

Aldridge and Myers responded and were let into the home. Anderson agreed to go to the hospital. The officers walked her outside, and she sat in their cruiser with her feet still on the ground.

What happened next is disputed by the officers and witnesses, according to the attorney general's review.

Anderson got upset. Her brother believed it was because she was in a confined space. The officers told investigators it was because her brother was yelling at her and telling her she was going to jail, which Joell Anderson disputed. The officers noted that they were not taking her to jail, but to a hospital.

A scuffle ensued. Witnesses accounts differed on how Anderson ended up handcuffed and on the ground.

The officers said Anderson went on the ground on her own and kicked at them while she was on her back, according to the Cuyahoga County Sheriff's investigative file. Family members said she was slammed to the ground.

The two officers both told investigators that Joell Anderson told them his sister was "fake sleeping." One witness told investigators that it was the officers who claimed she was sleeping.

It is also disputed as to how long she was on her back and when she was turned over on her stomach, still in handcuffs.

Cuyahoga County Sheriff investigators estimated that Anderson was handcuffed on the ground for about 21 minutes, based on a timer on one of the officer's stun gun which was activated but never used.

The officers requested an ambulance at 11:34 p.m. The ambulance arrived seven minutes later and took Anderson to the Cleveland Clinic where she was pronounced dead at 12:30 a.m.

Most of the witnesses agreed that the handcuffs were removed before she was loaded into the ambulance, the attorney general said. The EMS employees who arrived told investigators they had to request that the officers remove the handcuffs so they could give her medical treatment at the scene.

Problems with the investigation

Cleveland police's use-of-force investigators first handled the case. Seven months later the Cuyahoga County sheriff took over and gave their findings to then-Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Timothy J. McGinty.

The Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner ruled her death a homicide from "sudden death associated with physical restraint in a prone position." Her heart disease and bipolar disorder were also considered factors that increased her chance of sudden death, the report says.

Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge John Russo, however, found fault with the medical examiner's report because of the Garrity material.

He ordered that first page of the autopsy report be removed, which contained the cause and manner of death. McGinty requested the attorney general take over immediately after his office got the case.

The Attorney General's Office ordered a second autopsy in January 2017.

Montgomery County Corner Dr. Kent Harshbarger was asked to review the autopsy and make a ruling on Anderson's death.

Harshbarger, according to the attorney general, found that her cause of death was a "cardiac event." He found that one of Anderson's arteries to her heart was 70 to 80 percent closed and another was 50 percent closed. Anderson suffered from heart disease and was taking prescription medication -- Resperidol/risperidone-- that increased her risk of having a heart attack.

He reported that the autopsy did not show any significant injuries, other than a chest injury that was likely caused by medics giving her chest compressions at the scene. Harshbarger also noted that Anderson had several other medical issues that contributed to her death, including diabetes, obesity and bipolar disorder.

The delay in the case also hindered the attorney general's ability to interview or re-interview witnesses, Donahue's letter says. Some witnesses were uncooperative, including some of Anderson's family members and Cleveland Police Sgt. Rochelle Bottone, according to Donahue's letter.

Anderson died shortly before the U.S. Justice Department issued a 58-page report that found, among other things, many Cleveland police officers are not properly trained to handle encounters with residents with mental illnesses.

The report found that officers often do not practice proper de-escalation techniques to keep a situation from getting out of control and wind up using cruel and excessive force against the mentally and medically ill.

The report led to the consent decree and mandated changes in the way police officers deal with calls of people suffering from mental illness.

CORRECTION: A previous version of this post said that Anderon's case was specifically mentioned in the U.S. Justice Department report. She died shortly before the report was issued.

To comment on this story, visit Friday's crime and courts comments page.CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A woman was shot twice Friday afternoon in Cleveland's Ohio City neighborhood, police said.

The 25-year-old woman was shot in the chest and her side at 5 p.m. in the 2000 block of Lorain Avenue, Cleveland police said.

Emergency crews took the woman to MetroHealth Hospital for treatment, police said.

Investigators did not give the woman's name. A status on the woman's condition was not immediately known.

It is unknown why the shooting occurred.

As of 6 p.m. no arrests have been made.

This story is developing and cleveland.com will provide if information becomes available Friday.

To comment on this story, visit Friday's crime and courts comments page.WASHINGTON -- As promised, Americans' paychecks just got bigger.

Some workers might not see the difference for a week or two, but many did as of Thursday or today, a result of the tax overhaul that Congress passed and President Donald Trump signed in December. Have you checked your pay stub or direct-deposit account?

Because of lower tax rates and shifts in tax brackets, the government sent new withholding tables to employers in January and asked them to start using them in February. The Treasury Department asked employers to do this expeditiously but said they should do so no later than Feb. 15.

Ninety percent of Americans were expected to see more take-home pay, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said. That's because of an increase in the standard deduction, repeal of personal exemptions and changes in tax rates and brackets.

But before you plan a Hawaiian vacation or an appliance purchase with those tax savings, you might want to wait to make sure your tax withholdings match your actual tax bill. Many individuals' itemized deductions under the new tax law could change from what they were in 2017, either because of limits on deductions or because it could be easier for some -- or more advantageous financially -- to take the standard deduction and stop itemizing.

How can you know so you can adjust the amount you have withheld for taxes and not wind up owing the government when you file your 2018 taxes next year?

The IRS is woking on a new online calculator to help. It is expected to be up before the end of February.

The general bump in take-home pay will vary by income and individual circumstances, but CNN asked ADP, the payroll processing company, to run some scenarios. A single filer making $57,000 a year might see roughly $60 more per bi-weekly paycheck, CNN reported, whereas someone grossing $162,000 could see a bi-weekly rise of $190.

A married worker filing jointly and making $61,000 might see an extra $40 every two weeks, CNN said. If he grosses $114,000, his net pay could rise by $115 every two weeks.

This is great news -- isn't it?

That's a loaded question. Mike Sylvester, a certified public accountant in Fort Wayne, Indiana, told NerdWallet that he expected average people to see 1 percent to 2 percent more per paycheck.

That doesn't sound like much, but when you calculate it over a year it comes to an extra $1,560 for that single earner making $57,000, based on the ADP calculation.

So Republicans say yes, it is great. Trump has been saying so since he signed the bill, and on Wednesday hosted a group of workers at the White House to cheer not only their personal take-home hikes but also increases in benefits from their companies and plans by those companies to invest in expansion.

"We have some companies that have announced $3,000 bonuses, and, in some cases, even more," Trump said. " Some have given raises to the minimum wage up to $12, $13, $14, and even $15."

Jessica Melendez, who works for Jergens Inc., in Cleveland, was among Trump's guests. Thanks to the tax package, Jergens took what would normally be a cost of living increase for its workers, doubled it and built it in as a permanent part of wages, rather than making it a one-time bonus as some companies did. That means a worker making $25 an hour got a raise of about $2,000 a year.

The president plans to go to Cincinnati on Monday to keep talking up the benefit of the tax package for workers. Republicans such as Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio have been doing so in Ohio already.

At the Sheffer Corporation in Cincinnati, Wolf Metals in Columbus, Tremco in Cleveland, and Bruns General in Tipp City, I saw firsthand the benefits of #taxreform: pic.twitter.com/3UPZFgvUsj  Rob Portman (@senrobportman) February 2, 2018

Democrats say hooray for those who can use that extra cash, and they agree that represents a significant number of Americans. But they note that the tax savings for individuals and families will end in 2025 and go up for many by 2027. Republicans had to write their bill that way because of congressional budgetary rules, although many say they expect the tax cuts to be extended before they would otherwise expire.

Anyway, businesses and some extremely wealthy people will get bigger, permanent tax cuts, Democrats say, and domestic safety net programs might get cut to pay for this all, so where's the fairness in that? Nancy Pelosi, the Demoratic leader in the House of Representatives, said last month that the tax savings for American workers amount to "crumbs" compared with the "bonus that corporate America received."

"Crumbs" has become a Twitter hashtag ever since -- one used by Republicans to mock the tax cut critics.

Hes right! The liberal elite are so out of touch. $1000 is not chump change for most. It shouldnt take a billionaire from NYC to explain this to legislators. Those crumbs are making a big difference in peoples lives and its just starting. They just dont get it! https://t.co/KlASFylBSl  Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) February 2, 2018

Answers to all of this may be personal: How much do you like that bigger paycheck?

Check out your own pay and take the poll, above.Feb. 2, 2018

 Leonid Kadenyuk, the first astronaut of an independent Ukraine who flew on the U.S. space shuttle in the late 1990s, has died.



Kadenyuk, 67, was on his morning run in a park in Kiev on Wednesday (Jan. 31) when he suffered a heart attack, the State Space Agency of Ukraine said in a statement to the Interfax-Ukraine news agency.



"Leonid Kadenyuk has died. A truly legendary man," wrote Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman in a post to his Facebook page on Wednesday.



"We express our sincere condolences to relatives, friends and colleagues of Leonid Konstantinovich. We share your sorrow and the pain of irreparable loss." the State Space Agency wrote in a statement.



Kadenyuk was selected to train as a Soviet cosmonaut in 1976, 15 years before his country gained its independence from the now-former USSR. His first and only spaceflight, though, did not come until after he transferred to Ukraine's space agency to join its first group of astronauts selected from the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine.







NASA portrait of payload specialist Leonid Kadenyuk. (NASA)

In 1996, the State Space Agency of Ukraine (known then as the National Space Agency of Ukraine, or NSAU) and NASA chose Kadenyuk as a candidate payload specialist for the Collaborative Ukrainian Experiment (CUE) slated to fly on board the space shuttle Columbia.



One year later, on Nov. 19, 1997, Kadenyuk launched as a member of Columbia's STS-87 crew on the fourth flight of the United States Microgravity Payload (USMP-4).



"We had a joint payload called CUE, with the Ukrainians and the American scientists, and it was looking at about 10 different experiments on plant growth," said Kevin Kregel, commander of STS-87, in a post-flight NASA presentation. "We're looking at the effects that microgravity and radiation have on plants and their pollinations because when we go to space for longer lengths of time, we're probably going to have to grow our own plants for food."



CUE also had an educational outreach component, which involved evaluating the effects of microgravity on Brassica rapa (Wisconsin Fast Plants) seedlings. As estimated pre- flight, 625,000 American students and teachers in the U.S. and 20,500 Ukrainian students and teachers performed a similar set of plant growth experiments on the ground while Kadenyuk did so in space.



"Leonid was a great farmer and kept busy as a bee," said Kregel.



The crew, which included pilot Steven Lindsey and mission specialists Winston Scott, Takao Doi of the National Space Development Agency (NASDA; now the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, JAXA), and Kalpana Chawla, who six years later was again aboard Columbia when it and her six STS-107 crewmates were lost during reentry, orbited Earth 252 times.



Kadenyuk and his STS-87 crewmates logged 15 days, 16 hours and 35 minutes in space.







Payload specialist Leonid Kadenyuk of the National Space Agency of Ukraine (top right) with his STS-87 crewmates aboard the space shuttle Columbia in 1997. (NASA)

Leonid Kostyantynovych Kadenyuk was born on Jan. 28, 1951, in the Chernivtsi area of Ukraine. He graduated from Chernigov Higher Aviation School 20 years later as a pilot- engineer.



After being selected as a cosmonaut, Kadenyuk attended test pilot training at GNIKI VVS USSR, the State Scientific Research Institute of the Russian Air Force. He graduated in 1977, proficient in test piloting, aircraft construction and exploitation.



He then underwent a year of basic spaceflight training at the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Russia. As a Test Cosmonaut, he was prepared to conduct research in biology, ecology, medicine, meteorology, space geology and geobotany, both in space and on the ground.



From 1978 through 1983, Kadenyuk served in the Multiple Usage Space Systems Group at the Cosmonaut Training Center, undergoing advanced training in the conduct of in- flight scientific experiments. He was also trained in survival techniques and extravehicular activities (spacewalks).



If history had played out differently, Kadenyuk would have flown with Russia's space shuttle, rather than NASA's.



In 1990, following a Ukrainian-USSR state agreement on a collaborative space program, Kadenyuk was appointed to lead a Ukrainian space crew. For two years, he trained to command a Soyuz spacecraft for a planned docking with the uncrewed shuttle Buran and the Mir space station.



The mission though, was canceled due to budget shortfalls in the wake of the end of the Soviet Union.



As part of his spaceflight training, Kadenyuk also served as a test pilot, flying SU-27, MIG-23, MIG-25, MIG-27 and MIG-31 supersonic jets. Using the MiG-25 and MiG-31, he improved the trajectory for the approach and landing of the Buran shuttle before it was retired in 1993. (Buran lifted off on its one and only spaceflight, an uncrewed test, in 1988.)







On the space shuttle Columbia's middeck, Leonid Kadenyuk works with Brassica Rapa sprouts as part of the Collaborative Ukrainian Experiment (CUE) during the 1997 STS-87 mission. (NASA)

Following his flight on space shuttle Columbia, Kadenyuk returned to the Ukraine, serving the State Space Agency and rising to the rank of Major General in the Ukrainian Air Force. In 2002, he was elected to the Verkhovna Rada, the Ukrainian parliament, and worked within its committee on defense and national security.



Kadenyuk also served as advisor to the prime minister and head of the State Space Agency.



"We are deeply upset by this huge loss. Leonid Kadenyuk was a legend in U.S.-Ukraine space cooperation and today we mourn alongside all of Ukraine," the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine wrote on Twitter.



Kadenyuk was married to Vera Kosolapinkova. He had two children, Vladimir and Dmitri, the earlier with his first wife, Lyudmila Kolevatova.Business Technology Partners has acquired a fellow managed service provider, Responsible Computing Solutions, in a bid to expand both its geographic and skills reach.

Business Technology Partners is a New York-based MSP and technology consultant with expertise in networking, voice over IP, unified cabling, audiovisual, and other physical and IT infrastructure projects. In January the company acquired Summit N.J.-based MSP Responsible Computing Solutions in large part to the need to reach more customers across state lines, said BTP President and Founder Josh Aaron (pictured).

Aaron told CRN that, while the bulk of his company's business is done in New York, he and a number of his company's workers live in New Jersey and have been watching their business in that state grow, making it important to build a larger presence there.

[Related: ConnectWise Issues Open Invite To Competitors Datto, Kaseya, SolarWinds To Attend IT Nation Conference]

"And we like Responsible CEO Michael Achey," he said. "We're bringing him onboard."

Aaron first met Achey about six months ago thanks to an audio-video consultant who knew Achey after working with him on a project to recycle used computers for charity.

In addition to Achey and his team's location, Business Technology Partners acquired Responsible Computing Solutions for the latter's Datto-related skills.

BTP currently works with several providers of MSP platforms and related offerings, including ConnectWise, Kaseya, QuoteWerks, and Mimecast, but did not work with Datto, which in addition to being a major provider of data protection services through MSPs also acquired Autotask, another MSP platform provider.

BTP has definitely needed Datto-related data protection skills, Aaron said. "Responsible is a Datto partner," he said. "We have clients who work with Datto, but we didn't have the connections. Now we have a lot more capabilities with Datto."

Aaron knows that BTP could have expanded into New Jersey on its own, but decided to go the acquisition route to build its expanded presence and the Datto skillsets more quickly.

"We thought about setting up an office in Jersey City," he said. "But instead, we met Michael (Achey) and wanted him to join us. And there's a lot of health care and pharmacy companies out in the northeast New Jersey area around Summit."

Having a new office in Summit, N.J. also offers a transportation bonus, Aaron said. "Our help desk is in New York near Penn Station, where there's a direct train to Summit that takes 25 or 30 minutes. Driving takes 45 minutes. So it's easy to shift people and material back and forth."

Responsible Computing Solutions was a small acquisition, with about six technicians, including sub-contractors, Aaron said. Achey is the only full-time person coming to Business Technology Partners, although BTP may bring in former RCS people as sub-contractors, he said.To enjoy our website, you'll need to enable JavaScript in your web browser. Please click here to learn how.BRIDGEPORT  Julia DiCola didnt have insurance, but she needed medical attention.

DiCola, a Bridgeport resident, said she was going to hospital emergency rooms any time she had an issue, until she found Optimus Health Care about a year and a half ago.

My care coordinator (at Optimus) got to know me as a patient and as an individual, DiCola said. Health centers give a personalization that is invaluable and that you dont necessarily see in the private sector.

But with the possibility with as much as a 70 percent funding cut to Optimus and other community health centers in the state, the services they offer might be diminishing.

Optimus, like many other facilities like it, provides an array of services  including primary medical care, gynecology, dental care, behavioral and mental health and HIV/AIDS care services.

DiCola was one of about 45 health care patients and professionals gathered at Optimus on Thursday to discuss the possibility of Connecticut community health centers losing a significant portion of funding from federal grants.

Sen. Chris Murphy explained that since Congress missed its Sept. 30 deadline to reauthorize money for the Community Health Center Fund, many centers are in jeopardy of seeing funding cuts.

He said he was there to listen to personal stories from patients and employees and to learn specifics about how the funding cuts would directly impact the health centers.

(We) have always been there to respond to ... the needs of the communities, one health center employee said during the gathering.

Optimus faces a 70 percent reduction of federal funds, roughly $4.2 million. That federal funding covers roughly half of the health centers total funding. That reduction in funding would force the center to let go of about 40 to 50 staff members.

Critical medical services such as flu vaccinations, behavioral health services, pre-natal and pediatric care as well as school-based programs will be severely impacted, said Optimus media contact Alexandra McGoldrick.

For the state of Connecticut as a whole, the cuts would mean about 90,545 patients would no longer receive care, 530 staff members would be let go and a total of $91,236,853 would be lost, according to documents provided by the National Association of Community Health Centers.

DiCola praised Optimus and other community health centers for providing a welcoming environment and care unlike any she has ever seen. She said since becoming a patient, she has helped created a partnership with Optimus and the Connecticut Coalition to End Homelessness for its 2018 homeless youth count.

If you want a heartbeat of our community, I think the front line is community health centers, DiCola said.

The health centers in Connecticut have funding lined up until the end of February. But by then, theyll need some sort of extension or alternative answer, officials said. Murphy said it was likely the funding issue would be sorted out.

I think were going to do the right thing here, Murphy said.STRATFORD  Police have closed Wakelee Avenue to Main Street because of a water main break, officials said.

Around 2:40 p.m., police shut down East Main Street between Reed Street and Norman Circle because of a water main break. A detour was set in place.

Then, around 4:15 p.m., police closed Wakeless Avenue to Main Street because of the break.

There will be multiple crews working in two areas to rectify the situation as quickly as possible, officials said on Twitter. Please choose an alternate route and plan accordingly to avoid delays.

Police did not give an estimated time for the repairs to be completed.The alleged operator of a global spam network was extradited to the United States from Spain to face charges, according to the Department of Justice.

Peter Yuryevich Levashov, 37, of St. Persburg, Russia, has been detained since April 7, 2017, in Spain. He was arrested by authorities in Spain on a criminal complaint and arrest warrant issued by the District of Connecticut.

Levashov also went by the names Petr Levashov, Peter Severa, Petr Severa and Sergey Astakhov.

He was arraigned at 6 p.m. on Friday in Bridgeport.

The Russian national allegedly operated a global network known as Kelihos botnet. The network included tens of thousands of infected computers, that the DOJ said Levashov used to facilitate malicious activities. Among those activities, the DOJ said, was gathering login credentials, distributing bulk spam emails and installing ransomware.

An eight-count indictment explains that the botnet a network of hijacked computers  allowed a third party to control the entire computer network without the consent or knowledge of the computer owners. The DOJ said the network would send out more than 2,5000 unsolicited spam emails on a daily basis.

Using Kelihos botnet, the DOJ said Levashov obtained users email addresses, user names, logins and passwords. Furthermore, the indictment said he spread spam and distributed other malware  like banking Trojans and ransomware.

Levashov is alleged to have controlled and operated the Kelihos botnet which was used to distribute hundreds of millions of fraudulent emails per year, intercept credentials to online and financial accounts belonging to thousands of Americans, and spread ransomware throughout our networks, said Acting Assistant Attorney General Cronan.

The indictment alleged that, for years, Levashov profited from controlling the botnet.

On April 10, 2017, the DOJ announced it had taken action against Kelihos botnet to dismantle the network.

Ten days later, a grand jury in Bridgeport returned an indictment charging Levashov with one count of causing intentional damage to a protected computer, one count of conspiracy, one count of accessing protected computer in furtherance of fraud, one count of wire fraud, one count of threatening to damage a protected computer, one count of aggravated identity theft and two count of fraud in connection with email.He Dexing (R) talks about the renovation of old houses with farmer Fang Bingqing in Qiyi Village of Yiwu City, east China's Zhejiang Province, Dec. 20, 2017. He Dexing, a delegate to the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, is Party secretary of the Qiyi Village. He led the villagers to develop collective economy and renovated the houses of the villagers and the infrastructure. The annual per capital net income of the Qiy Village reached 48,000 yuan (about 7,600 U.S. dollars) in 2016. (Xinhua/Tan Jin)

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1

[ Editor: Zhang Zhou ]Aum Shinrikyo's leader is at last facing capital punishment, but the motive for the 1995 gas attack on Tokyo's subway remains obscure



TODD CROWELL

Asia Times

FEBRUARY 3, 2018



Kazumasu Takahashi, an assistant stationmaster on the Chiyoda subway line in central Tokyo, was on duty when the 8:10am train pulled in on Monday morning, March 20, 1995. Many of the passengers were civil servants working in the government ministries in the Kasumigaseki district close by Tokyos Imperial Palace.



Before the doors shut, Takahashi noticed that some liquid had spilled on to the train floor. He mopped it up and waved the train on. Then he keeled over on the platform and died. Within minutes thousands of commuters were staggering out of the subway exits gasping for air, coughing, rubbing their eyes or foaming at the mouth.



It was sarin nerve gas. Urban terrorists had planted it at five widely scattered locations along three central city subway lines in the worlds first  and so far, only  use of a weapon of mass destruction delivered in a lunchbox. Twelve died in the attack; 5,000 were injured. More than two decades later, some survivors are still bedridden with little or no prospect of recovery.



Suspicion quickly fell on a cult called Aum Shinrikyo (Supreme Truth). For a while, the menacing portrait of its hirsute guru Chizuo Matsumoto alias Shoko Asahara was as common as portraits of Osama bin Laden. Police arrested dozens of members, including Asahara.



Only now, 23 years later, does it appear that the guru and his lieutenants will have to pay the ultimate price.



The wheels of justice have moved slowly. Asahara, along with another 12 cult leaders, was sentenced to death in 2006 after a trial that lasted more then eight years. By way of comparison, the Oklahoma City bombing in the US took place in the same week as the Tokyo nerve-gas attack. However, the perpetrator of that atrocity, Timothy McVeigh, was swiftly convicted and executed. He has been dead for 16 years.



The Aum trials were unprecedented in Japans judicial history in terms of their sheer number (190 indictments) and the extraordinary length of the deliberations.



Japans Supreme Court finally cleared the path to the gallows when it upheld the life sentence for one Katsuya Takahashi, an Aum cultist who had been on the lam for 16 years. Under Japanese law, a person cannot be executed while courts are considering an accomplice, on the theory that he or she might be needed to testify.



Asahara has never tried to explain or justify his actions, or express any remorse for the victims. When he was found guilty of mass murder, he accepted his sentence without a word. He has never made an apology or admitted guilt



Amid this legal firestorm, one might think that the vast number of trials (Asahara alone made 257 court appearances) would have shed light on the cults motives for its murderous attack on the Tokyo subway system.



Yet aside from one brief statement at the beginning of his trial to the effect that he had ordered his associates not to poison the system, Asahara clammed up. He never addressed the core issues; never tried to explain or justify his actions, nor express any remorse for the victims. When he was found guilty of mass murder, he accepted his sentence without a word. He has never made an apology or admitted guilt.



It not clear how the Justice Ministry will handle the 13 executions. If it follows current procedure, Asahara will not know his execution is to take place until the morning guards show up to escort him to the gallows chamber. The general public will learn of the execution with a terse announcement after the deed is done.



Public opinion polls show that the Japanese public approves of capital punishment by very large margins. But much of that is because the government takes pains to keep executions as low-key as possible  no vigils outside the prison, no dramatic calls to the state governor for clemency.



That an obscure doomsday cult with no known track record of international terrorism was able to manufacture sarin gas in quantities large enough, theoretically, to kill millions so easily, and to spray it indiscriminately in the middle of the worlds largest city, is a timely  and terrifying  reminder of what terrorists can do with chemical weapons.



It is also worth remembering that not all ideologies of doomsday or apocalyptic terror are incubated in Muslim madrassas  former Aum spokesman Fumihiro Joyu was a graduate of Waseda University, one of Japans most prestigious institutions of higher learning. Nor did these dedicated terrorists have to brew their deadly chemicals in caves in remote border areas. They lived in the suburbs.



Remarkably, Aum Shinrikyo has never been outlawed and still has perhaps 1,500 followers. It is said that the guru is gaining new respect among followers, now in their late teens, or early 20s, who were only 10 or so when the gas attacks occurred and have no real personal memories of the attack.



Cults still flourish in Japan and continue to draw in more young people. They seem to fill a spiritual void at the heart of Japans consumer society. For the overwhelming majority of Japanese, traditional religions such as Shinto and Buddhism are only practiced for rites of passage, such as marriages and funerals. Otherwise, they are largely ignored.



Much ink has been expended on how terrorism can be traced to rootless young people trapped in poverty and oppressed by the heavy hand of dictatorships. Given this, it is worth remembering that the worlds first and only terrorist attack with a WMD was perpetrated in a functioning democracy by indigenous young people with good educations and prospects.



Japans most famous contemporary novelist, Haruki Murakami, turned his attention to the cult in a book called Underground: The Tokyo Gas Attacks and the Japanese Psyche, published in 1997. During his research he asked if any of young followers regretted joining the cult. Almost all said no. They found a purity of purpose they never experienced before, he wrote.



http://www.atimes.com/article/gallows-finally-loom-japans-killer-cult-leaders/Russian President Vladimir Putinstands in front of the Eternal Flame at the Battle of Stalingrad State Historical and Memorial Museum-Reserve in Volgograd, Russia, on Feb. 2, 2018. Russian President Vladimir Putin Friday took part in the celebration of the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Stalingrad against Nazi Germanyin World War II (WWII). (Xinhua/Bai Xueqi)

MOSCOW, Feb. 2 (Xinhua) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin Friday took part in the celebration of the 75th anniversary of a major battle against Nazi Germany in World War II (WWII).

The Battle of Stalingrad, which is the former name of Volgograd, was one of the longest battles during WWII, fought from August 1942 to February 1943. It radically changed the course of the war, heralding the victory over Nazi Germany in 1945.

Putin addressed WWII veterans and other guests at the solemn event in the city of Volgograd on the Volga River.

The defenders of Stalingrad left a great heritage -- love for the motherland, readiness to defend its interests and independence, standing firm in any trial, and working for the country's prosperity, Putin said.

"We have no right to leave uncompleted work, to show cowardice and indecisiveness. We must follow the example of our fathers and grandfathers to be worthy of their accomplishments, to be ready to reach the set goals, and to achieve more than we have already achieved," he said.

Putin visited the Battle of Stalingrad memorial complex, laid a wreath at the Eternal Flame in the Hall of Military Glory and honored the memory of Soviet troops with a minute of silence.

8

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[ Editor: Zhang Zhou ]Chinese artists perform during a gala in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, on Feb. 2, 2018. Chinese and Cambodian artists jointly performed here Friday night to celebrate the upcoming Chinese Lunar New Year and the 60th anniversary of the establishment of the China-Cambodia diplomatic relations. (Xinhua/Sovannara)

PHNOM PENH, Feb. 2 (Xinhua) -- Chinese and Cambodian artists jointly performed here Friday night to celebrate the upcoming Chinese Lunar New Year and the 60th anniversary of the establishment of the China-Cambodia diplomatic relations.

Forty-four artists from the China Oriental Song and Dance Troupe and 23 artists from the Cambodian Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts staged a variety of traditional music, dances, and songs during a two-and-a-half-hour gala, which was held at the iconic Chaktomok Theater.

Cambodian Minister of Culture and Fine Arts Phoeurng Sackona, Cambodian Princess Norodom Buppha Devi, and Chinese Ambassador to Cambodia Xiong Bo were among an audience of about 700 people.

Speaking at the opening ceremony of the two-day joint performance, Sackona said over the past 60 years, both countries had gone through many historical events and helped each other to bring peace, development, and growth in all sectors, which brought significant benefits to the peoples of the two countries as well as world peace and progress.

"Cambodia and China are considered as good friends, partners, and brothers," she said. "Good relationship between the two nations has brought tons of benefits to our peoples and countries, and it contributes to peace and development regionally and globally."

"Tonight, Chinese artists will present a cultural feast full of Chinese characteristics, and will join hands with Cambodian artists to sing along the affectionate songs in praise of friendship between our two peoples," Xiong Bo said in his opening speech.

The performance received strong support from viewers. Each of the performances drawn hearty rounds of applause from the audience.

"I feel really happy after watching this amazing arts performance. I saw a variety of Chinese arts performances that I had never seen before," Yoeun Sophat, a 25-year-old student at the National Institute of Education, told Xinhua.

"All artists are highly professional and talented, and their performances were very attractive," he said.

Chy Sinath, 25, also a student at the National Institute of Education, said the joint performance had importantly contributed to promoting cultural ties and people-to-people relations between the two countries.

"After watching this joint performance, I have learned more about China's richness in culture and arts," she said. "The cultural event is vital to bring closer the relations between the peoples of Cambodia and China."

4

1

[ Editor: Zhang Zhou ]Ukrainian Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko expects that, after the completion of former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych's trial on high treason charges, a new trial will begin in which Yanukovych and a number of other former government officials are charged with crimes against Maidan activists.

"As soon as Yanukovych's trial on high treason charges ends, new proceedings will begin immediately against Yanukovych, [former Interior Minister Vitaliy] Zakharchenko, and [former Security Service chief Oleksandr] Yakymenko, who, as we firmly believe, issued a criminal order to shoot civilians," Lutsenko said.

"We have evidence, facts, and witness testimonies," Lutsenko said in an interview shown on Ukrainian television on Friday evening. "As soon as the first proceedings produce a result, we will start the second one," he said.

Asked why these two trials cannot go simultaneously, Lutsenko replied, "Because everything would have to be started over once again."

"There are a lot of suspicions and a lot of trials" concerning Yanukovych, he said.

Yanukovych's conviction in absentia would legalize the confiscation of all of his assets, Lutsenko said.

In commenting on the investigation into the shootings of activists on Maidan in February 2014, Lutsenko said, "We completed investigations concerning about 70% of those who fulfilled criminal orders and who applied violence, including killings of peaceful demonstrators. As many as 280 people are currently tried on charges of resistance, illegal detention, and even killings of peaceful demonstrators."

He, however, refrained from predicting when the case concerning the shootings on Maidan would be passed to a court.This weekend, the Tory Party is suffering one of its occasional  yet often calamitous  bouts of ill-discipline.

The cause, of course, is Theresa Mays leadership.

Her hold on power has never been weaker. Even those closest to her say she offers little sign of giving strong direction. Above all, the Conservatives are split over a hard or soft Brexit.

That said, there is no justification for so many disloyal Tory MPs to be behaving so pathetically.

For example, Phillip Lee  a man unheard of by 99.9 per cent of the population  said there was a serious question as to whether Brexit could legitimately go ahead. Any employee of a firm who expressed similar public disloyalty to their boss would, Im sure, have been sacked. Yet Lee was merely rebuked by the Chief Whip.

This weekend, the Tory Party is suffering one of its occasional  yet often calamitous  bouts of ill-discipline. The cause, of course, is Theresa Mays leadership. Her hold on power has never been weaker. Even those closest to her say she offers little sign of giving strong direction. Above all, the Conservatives are split over a hard or soft Brexit

When the great Victorian architect Charles Barry rebuilt the Houses of Parliament in 1840, they cost 2 million (the equivalent today of approximately 200 million). That seems very good value when compared with the 3.9 billion that it will cost to restore the buildings now. This weeks vote by MPs to go ahead with the renovations was, I believe, contemptuous of the public at a time of economic austerity. They should reconsider and look at reducing the scope of the work which is competing for taxpayer funds with numerous hard-pressed parts of the public sector. Advertisement

In turn, Tory backbencher Anna Soubry (a serial critic of Mrs May) expressed outrage about Lees treatment and went on, outrageously, to say that No.10 should have disciplined a minister who claimed there was a plot to undermine Britains exit from the EU.

Next, it was reported that Graham Brady, chairman of the 1922 Committee of backbenchers, had received numerous letters calling for Mrs May to step down  although there was absolutely no evidence. Meanwhile, the febrile mood was further stoked by rumours that an unnamed senior minister was on the verge of resigning, although no one could identify him.

What on earth is going on? Are the Tories preparing to commit suicide? True, only 300 days remain until the date Britain is due to leave the EU and it is not clear what kind of Brexit Mrs May wants.

Is she negotiating for the UK to stay in the Single Market (as is the wish of her Remain-voting Chancellor Philip Hammond)? Or is her emphasis on stronger free trade agreements with countries outside the EU?

In line with her cautious character, the Prime Minister is reluctant to show what she wants just yet.

Is this because shes playing a brilliant poker hand, with her cards close to her chest? Or is she herself struggling for the answer?

None of us know for certain.

Phillip Lee (pictured)  a man unheard of by 99.9 per cent of the population  said there was a serious question as to whether Brexit could legitimately go ahead

But what we do know is that Mrs May  who has the nightmare task of having to keep the two warring sides of her Cabinet from tearing the party to pieces  is still suffering the effects of two self-imposed wounds.

First, her failure to secure a decent Commons majority after she called a surprise general election last summer. As a result of an inept campaign, the Tories are now humiliatingly dependent on minority parties.

Second was her flawed Cabinet reshuffle. It was intended to help give her Government a renewed sense of direction and impose order in the ranks.

Instead, it demonstrated weakness because several ministers defied her authority and refused to change posts. It also created dissent and anger on her backbenches.

One indication of the PMs weakness is her decision to cancel a speech she was due to give next week outlining her road-map for Brexit. According to one report, she was afraid of offending Mr Hammond. If so, this suggests a shocking weakness.

History tells us that prime ministers dont usually recover from this kind of trouble.

In fairness, Mrs May has not been a lucky general. David Cameron made a multitude of mistakes but had a way of falling on his feet. Not so his successor.

This weekend, even her supporters, of which I have long been one, must feel queasy about the future. Brexit negotiations apart, the clock is ticking down to another impending problem; local elections to be held on May 3.

There are growing fears these could be disastrous for the Tories. Defeat in traditionally Tory-supporting areas such as the London borough of Wandsworth  which is a strong possibility  could trigger a leadership challenge to Mrs May.

Tory backbencher Anna Soubry (a serial critic of Mrs May) expressed outrage about Lees treatment and went on, outrageously, to say that No.10 should have disciplined a minister who claimed there was a plot to undermine Britains exit from the EU

A man responsible for more than 100 offences spanning more than three decades was jailed yesterday for a minimum of 43 years for driving a van into a crowd of Muslims near a London mosque. He is not merely a murderer. He is also a terrorist. Its time such white extremists, whose evil views are inspired by far-Right groups such as Britain First and the English Defence League, are treated as terrorists just as much as the Islamist extremists who caused carnage in Manchester and London last summer. Advertisement

All this is horribly reminiscent of the early 1990s.

At the time, I had just begun my first job as a political reporter.

The Tories were in the middle of one of these periods when the party was being torn to shreds. As now, the cause was Europe.

At times, the John Major government came very close to falling.

In the end, it staggered on until 1997, when Tony Blairs New Labour won by a landslide.

The Tories were out of power for 13 years and did not get a majority government for another five.

Mrs May, who was first elected to Parliament in that 1997 general election, will be acutely aware of the lessons of history and the dangers of handing power to Labour again. Particularly, to a Labour Party led by Jeremy Corbyn and his hard-Left supporters.

It is vital that her Tory colleagues learnt this lesson, too.

For the fact is that, for all her faults, Theresa May commands more public respect than any of her Cabinet colleagues.

I can only see one way that the Tories can pull back from the brink.

It is time for the PMs three most important Cabinet colleagues  Chancellor Hammond, Home Secretary Amber Rudd and Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson  to sit down in a room together, thrash out a final strategy for Brexit and announce it together in public.

Such a discussion may take some time. Armed guards might need to be positioned to block all exits until a deal is done.

Joking apart, I am convinced this is Mrs Mays only salvation.

Otherwise, the Tories are doomed to chaos, civil war and the ultimate catastrophe  a Corbyn government.

Last night, there was evidence that the Tory high command is seeing sense. I am told that Boris Johnson, despite a track record for defying Mrs Mays leadership, has honourably decided to postpone a speech he was due to make next week on the UKs withdrawal from the EU.

Rudd and Hammond should follow suit and show solidarity with the Prime Minister.

By doing so, they would help reunite the Conservative Party and stop power being handed on a plate to Jeremy Corbyn.

The Foreign Office is an apologist for genocide

Horrifying new evidence has emerged of crimes against humanity in Myanmar (formerly Burma). Government troops are believed to have killed as many as 400 minority Rohingya Muslims in one village alone, burning victims faces in an attempt to make sure they were never identified.

I believe Foreign Office minister Mark Field has disgracefully acted as an apologist for the butchery. When he spoke in the Commons on the subject in September, he appeared to blame the Rohingya Muslims themselves

This atrocity is alleged to have taken place last August  the same time that the government, led by Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, presided over a military-led persecution of the countrys minority Muslim population (Myanmars dominant religion being Buddhism). I have reported from the country on this genocide for the Mail and am sickened by our Foreign Offices reaction to the killings.

I believe Foreign Office minister Mark Field has disgracefully acted as an apologist for the butchery. When he spoke in the Commons on the subject in September, he appeared to blame the Rohingya Muslims themselves. He said that during one night last August, members of the Rohingya militant group Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army attacked numerous police posts and he also condemned attacks by Rohingya militants on Burmese security forces.

It seems that Mr Field was blind to the evidence that mounts daily that the Rohingya Muslims have been victims of genocide.

I call on him to apologise in the Commons and, more importantly, to the thousands of Rohingya Muslims who have been raped, murdered and butchered to death.A father on Twitter is gaining praise after calling out the lack of baby changing tables in men's public restrooms.

Clint Smith, a writer and educator studying a PhD at Harvard University, took to Twitter on Sunday to vent about something that has been nagging at him ever since he became a father for the first time.

'Something thats really bothered me since we had a kid is how few mens restrooms have changing tables for babies,' he said.

Standing up: Twitter user Clint Smith is gaining praise from parents for calling for changing tables in men's bathrooms

Myriad of problems: Clint outlines the issues around the lack of tables in his thread, which has been shared by thousands

The father went on to blast the apparent norm, saying that it 'further perpetuates the notion that the burden of childcare should singularly be on the woman.'

And, he added, it 'assumes that men are never out by themselves with their kids,' causing not only an inconvenience for men, but also one for women.

Clint claims that the lack of changing tables available for men is an example of the 'structural impediments' in society that perpetuate the idea that women should be primarily responsible for things like diapers and clothes.

'Becoming a dad has really demonstrated how profoundly our society is both socially and structurally set up to make it so that the burden of parenting falls primarily on moms and is set up to let dads off the hook,' he said.

'Its million tiny things that continue to add up.'

The thread of tweets has been shared more than 3,000 times, with a number of other parents chiming in with support.

'My husband always made the point of finding the manager, while holding our child, and asking what accommodations were being made for fathers who needed to do changes. And the managers were always surprised that any men cared,' wrote one user, while multiple other dads chimed in with: 'Been there.'

Dad's change too: Clint argued that only putting tables in the women's bathroom perpetuated the idea that moms should be responsible for diapers and clothing

A rare sight: There is no national law requiring businesses to include the tables in the men's, though President Obama signed an act in 2016 requiring them in all federal buildings

Of course, Clint isn't the first dad to have come across this problem and voiced his anger. Over the years, numerous fathers have taken the cause to their political representatives.

!n 2015, actor Ashton Kutcher launched a Change.org petition urging businesses to add changing stations to their men's rooms after struggling himself while out with his daughter Wyatt.

In 2016, President Barack Obama heard the concerns and signed the Bathrooms Accessible in Every Situation Act, which required that all federally owned buildings to have changing stations fitted in both men's and women's bathrooms.

But things aren't quite there for the rest of the public bathrooms across the country as there is no national law requiring them to be included.

New York City is one area currently working on a solution. The city approved a bill in December that requires all new developments to double up on changing tables, installing them in both bathrooms.

The bill was inspired when New York City Council member Rafael Espinal spotted a new father changing a baby's diaper over a bathroom sink in a Queens mall.

New York is the first major city to have passed such legislation - with no pushback from developers or lawmakers - but legislators like Espinal hope that this is soon to change.Iskra Lawrence is taking on the bridal industry with a stunning unretouched campaign highlighting her famous curves.

The 27-year-old Aerie model struck a pose in a variety of bridal gowns for Justin Alexander's body-positive 'Be You' campaign, which urges brides to feel confident in their wedding dresses regardless of their size.

Iskra looks absolutely radiant in the campaign images, which show her modeling everything from a body-hugging strapless number to a voluminous princess-inspired gown featuring layers and layers of tulle.

Beautiful bride: Iskra Lawrence stars in Justin Alexander's new bridal campaign

Got it? Flaunt it! The body-positive 'Be You' campaign encourages brides to feel confident in their wedding dresses regardless of their size

Au naturel: There was no retouching of Iskra's body in the camapign images

Happy couple: In one image, the curvy star is showing off her decolletage in a low-cut V-neck gown that flows out at her waist

The British beauty took to Instagram on Friday to share one of the photos with her four million followers, calling it her 'dream campaign.'

In the image, Iskra is laughing while holding hands with her handsome groom. The curvy star is showing off her decolletage in a low-cut V-neck gown that flows out at her waist.

Her long blonde hair is down in loose waves, and she is lifting up the skirt of her dress while being led through a hotel bar.

The campaign was photographed at Baccarat Hotel in New York, which made a stunning backdrop for the romantic shoot.

Romantic: Iskra cuddled up with a handsome male model for the bridal shoot

Beautiful: The Instagram star showed off her curves in a form-fitting lace gown

Mirror, mirror, on the wall: In one photo, Iskra is looking at her reflection in a hotel bathroom

Real-life fairy tale: The blonde beauty called her latest shoot her 'dream campaign'

Justin Alexander wedding gowns are created for women of every body type, ranging from size 2 to 32. The bridal brand also doesn't have any upcharges for plus-sizes gowns, unlike some retailers.

Iskra, an advocate for positive body image and self-love, explained the importance of learning to love her own curves after years of struggling with body image.

'I had my own trials and tribulations with body image,' she said in press release. 'I had gone through a lot starting from my teenage years.

'It was definitely freedom to put my real self out there.'

Gorgeous: Iskra explained that she has gone through her 'own trials and tribulations with body image' over the years

Confident: Iskra makes for a stunning bride in a voluminous embroidered gown

All smiles: Designer Justin Alexander Warshaw said Iskra was the 'perfect partner' for the campaign because she is already a 'champion of body diversity and body positivity'

Meanwhile, the brand's designer and president, Justin Alexander Warshaw, couldn't be happier with Iskra's role in the campaign.

'One of our core brand pillars is inclusivity, to design dresses that look great on real women,' he said. 'We want our brides to feel confident and comfortable in a dress that makes them shine.

'Iskra was the perfect partner for our Be You campaign because she is a champion of body diversity and body positivity and a role model for women across the world.'

It's been a busy week for Iskra, who has been promoting her new fragrance Spark in New York City at various Aerie events.

Getting close: Iskra had no problem cuddling up to her co-star during the bridal shoot

Perfect pair: The British model looks radiant she takes a seat at a bar with her 'husband'

Backdrop: The campaign was photographed at Baccarat Hotel in New York

Celebrating diversity: Justin Alexander wedding gowns are created for women of every body type, ranging from size 2 to 32

The Aerie Real role model showed off her figure in a cropped white tank that wrapped around her waist, ripped jeans, and a fur coat to keep warm while visiting the lingerie brand's Time Square store on Friday.

Iskra topped off her outfit with shiny red booties, and she looked utterly glamorous while posing for photos with her coat hanging off her shoulders.

The Instagram star donned a similar ensemble at a meet and greet at Aerie in the Roosevelt Field Mall in New York City on Wednesday.

Iskra was all smiles as she signed autographs and indulged in the plethora dessert options.

Busy as can be: The bridal campaign was unveilved while Iskra was promoting her new perfume Spark at various Aerie stores in New York City this week

Casual chic: The Aerie Real role model showed off her figure in a cropped white tank that wrapped around her waist and ripped jeans at the Aerie store in Times Square on Friday

Superstar: Iskra looked utterly glamorous while posing for photos with her coat hanging off her shoulders

Iskra showed off her hourglass figure in a peach tie-in-front crop top teamed with high-waist ripped jeans.

The Aerie model teamed her casual ensemble with white lace-up running shoes.

Iskra accessorized her look with gold earrings, multiple chain necklaces, and a multi-metal watch.

The blonde beauty left her silky hair down by her shoulders in loose waves, while sporting a minimal amount of make-up to accentuate her natural beauty.

She's got a spark! On Wednesday, she promoted her new fragrance at a meet and greet at Aerie in the Roosevelt Field Mall in New York City

High spirits: The 27-year-old model was all smiles as she signed autographs and indulged in the plethora dessert options

Keeping it casual: Iskra showed off her hourglass figure in a peach tie-in-front crop top teamed with high-waisted ripped jeans

Au natural: The blonde beauty left her silky hair down in loose waves, while sporting a minimal amount of make-up to accentuate her natural beauty

Last week, Iskra gave some details about the meet and greet on her Instagram account: 'Its time for some self-care & self-love!'

She continued: 'Spark x Iskra and will be writing personalized happy notes for everyone who takes home my new fragrance!'

In another post, Iskra revealed details about her new collaboration: 'Never imagined Id be able to create my own fragrance from scratch and concept the bottle.. thank you to everyone whose already ordered online aerie.com or got their bottle @aerie store.'

The British beauty added: 'The scent is so magical and fresh perfect for everyday to add that sparkle with notes of yummy watermelon, delicate jasmine and cozy vanilla.'

Taking a bite: Iskra made sure to indulge in all the fun at the event

The final touch: Iskra accessorized her look with gold earrings, multiple chain necklaces, and a multi-metal watchA dog groomer has been fired after a customer secretly filmed her hitting and yanking a tiny puppy.

The distressing footage shows the PetSmart worker handling the dog roughly as she clips and combs her coat during the $45 grooming service.

Horrified owner Brooke Vowers said she felt 'betrayed' when she saw how her one-year-old Shih Tzu Luna was treated, and she revealed the pup has been scared ever since.

Horrific: A PetSmart groomer has been fired after a customer filmed her abusing a one-year-old Shih Tzu named Luna during the $45 service

Hard to watch: The disturbing footage shows the woman roughly yanking the pup's ear

The 22-year-old had dropped Luna - nicknamed Boo - off at her local branch of PetSmart in Katy, Texas, on Thursday afternoon for pampering.

'The groomer was very friendly and nice when I dropped Luna off,' Brooke said. 'I came and got her about four hours later and asked her how it went.

'She said, "Good, she was a sweetie but likes to move around a lot." I paid and thanked her and walked out the door.

But as Brooke left the store, fellow customer Terah Leder, 22, stopped her and said she had seen her pet being handled roughly.

'She said she had been waiting for me because she had witnessed the groomer mistreating my dog terribly,' Brooke said.

'I was in shock and thanked her for the info. I got in my car and called the groomer asking about this.

Betrayed: Brooke Vowers, 22, was shocked when a fellow customer came up to her at the local PetSmart in Katy, Texas, and said her dog had been handled roughly

Disgusted: The customer sent her a video of the rough handling, and Brook said she felt 'betrayed' when she saw how her dog was treated

'She said Luna was "biting her" and needed extra force and she thought the girl misunderstood how dog grooming was.

'She explained how she loved dogs and had been doing this for ten years and apologized,' she recalled.

'I told her thank you and that it must have been a misunderstanding, but I just wanted to make sure everything was okay.

But when Terah sent her a video of the incident she says she quickly realized the groomer had been lying.

'I was in shock when I saw the video. I never would have guessed the lady would do such a thing - she was very personable,' Brook said.

'I felt very betrayed that I trusted her with my dog and paid for a service,' she added. 'I think she should never be allowed to work with pets again and no one else should go through this.

Sharing her story: Brooke took to Facebook on Thursday to share the footage, which has been viewed more than 399,000 times.

Justice? PetSmart confirmed on Friday morning that the groomer, who signed off Luna's grooming report using the name 'Charlotte,' has been fired.

'Luna is OK, she's just scared. She has been acting timid ever since and she hid under the bed today, which she never does.'

Brooke said she used Petsmart regularly in Sidney, Nebraska, where she lived before moving to Texas. It was her first time visiting the Katy store.

She took to Facebook on Thursday to share the disturbing footage, which has been viewed more than 399,000 times.

PetSmart confirmed on Friday morning that the groomer, who signed off Luna's grooming report using the name 'Charlotte,' has been fired.

'This treatment is completely unacceptable and will not be tolerated. The associate is no longer with PetSmart,' a spokeswoman said.

Brooke said that PetSmart should install cameras in the grooming rooms and 'pick more quality workers' to prevent this from happening to other dogs.

Harsh treatment: Terah Leder, the customer who filmed the mishandling, said the groomer was ripping out the tangles in the dog's coat instead of brushing through them

Traumatized: Brooke said Luna has been acting 'scared' and 'timid' following the grooming session

Terah, an entrepreneur from Houston, Texas, was at the store with her rescue dog Leah when she saw the groomer being 'aggressive' with another pooch.

'She had an ugly face on and seemed miserable,' Terah recalled. 'The way she was brushing the dog's hair - if there were any tangles they would have been ripped out instead of combed through.

'I decided to stick around and start filming. It was hard to watch,' she admitted. 'If I sat down at a hair salon and someone was pulling my hair like that we would have had a fist fight. It was ridiculous.'

Terah waited about 30 minutes for the dog's owner to show up to report what she had seen.

'Honestly I'm happy she has been fired because it probably saved a lot of dogs from being hurt like that,' Terah said.

'That dog didn't deserve that and I would be worried to leave any other dogs with her.'For a dish invented by a French chef to grace the dinner table of a Russian tsar in the early 1800s, chicken kiev has a singular place in British history.

A 1970s staple, the breadcrumbed chicken with its hidden geyser of garlicky butter was supposed to have been consigned to food history by the nouvelle cuisine of the 1980s.

Yet today its enjoying a posh-nosh revival on trendy restaurant menus across the country, while star chefs including TV favourites Jamie Oliver, Tom Kerridge and James Martin have all made space for it in recent recipe books.

And it has never gone out of fashion in British homes. Britains first chilled ready meal, launched by Marks & Spencer in 1979, chicken kiev has such enduring appeal its been in the notional basket of food shopping with which the Office for National Statistics judges the UKs consumer price indices since 2006.

For a dish invented by a French chef to grace the dinner table of a Russian tsar in the early 1800s, chicken kiev has a singular place in British history. Pictured: Sarah Oliver tucks into some of the kievs with her family

Today chicken kievs are enjoying a posh-nosh revival on trendy restaurant menus across the country

Last year, in a Good Food Nation Survey, it came second only to trifle on the countrys list of favourite retro foods, a statistic reinforced by its continued presence in every supermarket.

So while the history of chicken kiev may be a turbulent one  the contents and cooking of the classic dish were squabbled over for decades by the Russians, Ukrainians and French  its future here seems set fair.

AND THE WINNER IS...

Donald Russell Chicken Kiev

11 plus 5 p&p

Donald Russell Chicken Kiev

The priciest one did not disappoint. Large, succulent breast that cooked beautifully and remained covered in its firm crumb. The gourmet filling included lots of lemon zest, seaweed, tarragon, parsley and Worcester sauce, as well as garlic. 8/10

Waitrose British Chicken Breast Fillet Kievs

3.90

Waitrose British Chicken Breast Fillet Kievs

Nice chicken accompanied by an unremarkable crumb and filling. Disappointing for the price. 5/10

M&S Garlic Chicken Kiev

3

M&S Garlic Chicken Kiev

Yuck. Bottom of everyones list. They looked small and sad once cooked, the crumb was chewy, the meat unpalatable and the filling uneven with a peculiar aftertaste. It silenced the table, and not in a good way. 3/10

Sainsburys Garlic Chicken Kiev

4.25

Sainsburys Garlic Chicken Kiev

Identified, wrongly, as an expensive gourmet candidate, because of their enormous size and the gorgeous deep colour of the sourdough crumb once cooked. A generous helping of chicken would have benefited from a lot more seasoning in the filling, which had excellent squidge factor but tasted bland. 6/10

Aldi Ashfield Farm Garlic Chicken Kievs

1.75

Aldi Ashfield Farm Garlic Chicken Kievs

The best for price by far. The firm crumb was the only one that completely kept its shape, the meat was soft and tasty and the filling ultra buttery rather than oily. A revelation. 8/10

Tesco Garlic Chicken Breast Kievs

3.50

Tesco Garlic Chicken Breast Kievs

The classic supermarket kiev. Good meat, a crowd-pleaser of a filling with garlic and parsley and a crisp parsley-flecked crumb. Thumbs-up. 7/10

Charlie Binghams Chicken Kiev With Sunblush Tomato

6.50

Charlie Binghams Chicken Kiev With Sunblush Tomato

Our clear winner. The sparse ciabatta crumb made these kievs look naked and unappetising compared to the rest, but this was the softest and most flavoursome chicken. The delicious creamy herby garlic filling had everyone hunting for more. 9/10Your sex life reaches its peak in your 60s, according to a new report.

The eighth annual Singles in America survey was taken by more than 5,000 single people in the US.

It found single women are having the best sex at 66 years old and men at 64.

Sex therapist Dr Madeleine Castellanos said lovemaking is more fulfilling for single men and women in their 60s because they are experienced, they know what they want and are free to explore the dimensions of their sexuality.

A new survey revealed single men and women are having the best sex at 60

'As you get older you know what you like physically,' sex therapist Dr Castellanos, a New York-based sex therapist, told Daily Mail Online.

While many think younger people have a better time knocking boots, the recent survey revealed it actually gets better with age.

In fact, a study published by National Commission on Aging found women, in particular, said sex in their 70s was at least as satisfying or more satisfying physically than it was in their 40s.

Dr Castellanos told Daily Mail Online many men and women like getting frisky in their 60s because they are more free.

'Many of them had a much more narrow range of experience limited by who they were with,' she explained.

For instance, single people in their 60s who have been in long-term relationships when they were younger are now able to 'continue to explore all the dimensions of their sexuality.'

Since there's also a learning curve to sex, men and and women could be having a better time knocking boots in their 60s simply because they've been doing it for such a long time.

'The older you are the less limited you are about what other people think, what society thinks and what your partner thinks,' Dr Castellanos explained.

Previous studies have found that, contrary to popular belief, older people are spending a lot of time between the sheets with their partners.

A 2007 study published in The New England Journal of Medicine found that the majority of older people who were married or had intimate partners were sexually active well into their 80s.

Many of them reported having intercourse, oral sex and masturbating even in their 80s and 90s.

The Singles in America survey, funded by Match and conducted by Research Now, is the latest to prove sex isn't just a young person's game.Hadiza Bawa-Garba (pictured) was barred by the General Medical Council for making fatal errors while caring for Jack Adcock

The doctors watchdog has been accused of racism for striking off a paediatrician over the death of a child.

Hadiza Bawa-Garba was barred by the General Medical Council for making fatal errors while caring for six-year-old Jack Adcock, who had sepsis.

But a leading professional body claims its decision was partly motivated by racism.

The British Association of Physicians of Indian Origin, which represents 5,000 doctors, said a white doctor in the same circumstances would have been treated more leniently.

Dr Ramesh Mehta, the president, who is also a paediatrician, said the GMC may have been partly influenced by the fact that Bawa-Garba, a Muslim who moved to Britain from her native Nigeria in 1994, wears a headscarf.

He said: We are saying that racism is one of the parts of it, its not the only part.

If it was a white doctor who was affected, we believe that the whole system and their approach to the case would have been different.

The case has angered doctors and many are threatening to stop reporting their own mistakes, for fear of suffering the same fate.

Later today, doctors will stage a protest outside the GMC offices in London.

The British Association of Physicians of Indian Origin accused the GMC of racism saying the group would've been more lenient if the it was a white doctor. Pictured is Dr Hadiza Bawa-Garba arriving at Leicester Magistrates court where she was charged

Jack Adcock  who had Downs Syndrome and a heart condition  was admitted to the Leicester Royal Infirmary on February 18, 2011 with breathing difficulties and vomiting. He died 11 hours later.

He was seen by Bawa-Garba, the most senior doctor on the shift, who had just returned from 13 months of maternity leave.

Six-year-old Jack Adcock, who had downs syndrome, died from sepsis after he was originally diagnosed with a stomach bug

She initially diagnosed him with a stomach bug, when he in fact had the life-threatening condition sepsis. Later, she failed to act on blood test results which showed he had a kidney infection.

On that shift, however, she was performing the roles of three doctors and overseeing six wards because the hospital was so understaffed.

Bawa-Garba, now 40, was initially handed a 12-month suspension by an independent panel, the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service, last June. But in an unprecedented move, the GMC overturned this ruling in the High Court and Bawa-Garba was struck off on January 25.

Dr Mehta, 70, who used to work for the GMC assessing the skills of international doctors and was a consultant paediatrician at Bedford Hospital, said: It is likely to be related to racism  at least in part  and this could be direct or indirect.

He said indirect racism is where an organisation or its members has unconscious prejudices. Direct racism, on the other hand, means they are discriminating against a person intentionally.

Charlie Massey, chief executive of the GMC, said: We take our responsibility to be a fair and transparent regulator very seriously.

Research has indicated that it is the nature and seriousness of allegations that is the primary driver of the outcome of a referral or investigation, rather than ethnicity.Illegal armed groups shelled the positions of the Ukrainian Armed Forces four times on Friday morning, there were no violations of the ceasefire in the afternoon, the press center of the anti-terrorist operation (ATO) headquarters reported.

"All in all, four shellings of defensive fortifications of the ATO forces by Russian-occupation troops were recorded last day," the press center said in a report published on its Facebook page on Saturday morning.

The headquarters also said that one serviceman died, when an unidentified explosive device blasted off, on Thursday.

"According to the updated information, a serviceman of the Armed Forces of Ukraine died as a result of the explosion on an unidentified explosive device on February 1. We express condolences to the relatives and friends of the defender, who gave his life for the peaceful future of Ukraine," the report said.JOURNEY'S END Cert: 12A 1hr 47mins

Rating:

Theres no doubt we are on familiar muddy, sandbag-lined and barbed-wire-entangled ground with the First World War drama Journeys End, but the new film version still manages to have a power and poignancy that will break all but the hardest of hearts.

And thats because, while it clearly has nothing like the budget or visual effects that Steven Spielberg lavished on War Horse, it does have two very important things going for it: perfect timing and a deeply moving authenticity.

We are just weeks away from the 100th anniversary of the Spring Offensive, the German counter-attack of 1918 that might have changed the outcome of the war and is absolutely central to events here.

Raleigh (Asa Butterfield), a fresh-faced young man just out of public school, who is so keen to get to the action at the front line that he marches into the generals office and begs for it

As for authenticity, the film is based on the oft-revived play written by R C Sherriff, who fought in the war himself and was wounded at Passchendaele in 1917. This was a man who knew the horror of which he wrote and, even all these decades later, that first-hand experience still comes horrifyingly through. Indeed, when he wrote the play in 1928, Sherriff set the template for the many WWI dramas to come.

Its the centenary, however, that gives the film its contemporary power, providing a significant moment to reflect on the bravery and sacrifice of an entire generation.

Part of that generation comes in the form of Raleigh (Asa Butterfield), a fresh-faced young man just out of public school, who is so keen to get to the front line that he marches into the generals office and begs for it. It helps that the general is his uncle.

The trenches were filthy, foul-smelling and rat-infested. As for his fellow officers, theyre a million miles from the brave and gallant warriors that Raleigh was expecting

Despite the older mans grave misgivings  the front has been awash with rumours of a counter-attack for weeks  he grants his nephew his wish. Raleigh arrives in the trenches, just as C Company moves in for its monthly six-day stint at the front.

Will the German attack come while Captain Stanhope and his men are in residence?

Everything Raleigh thought he knew about war is soon proved wrong. The trenches are filthy, foul-smelling and rat-infested. As for his fellow officers, theyre a million miles from the brave and gallant warriors he was expecting.

Paul Bettany is excellent as the older officer Lieutenant Osborne, who is fondly referred to as uncle by his younger colleagues. Hes about the only sane one there

Hibbert (Tom Sturridge) is feigning illness in an attempt to be sent home, the working-class Trotter (Stephen Graham) is simply counting the days, while the war-weary Captain Stanhope (Sam Claflin), a boyhood hero of Raleighs from school, is glugging down the whisky like theres no tomorrow. Which, of course, there might not be. For any of them.

The film is directed by Saul Dibb, best known for his 2014 adaptation of Irene Nemirovskys Suite Francaise. But its one that, as soon as Toby Jones appears as the servant-cook Mason and we all instantly think Baldrick!, I worry may be ignored or taken less seriously.

IT'S A FACT The first production of Journeys End, in 1928, featured a 21-year-old Laurence Olivier as Stanhope and was directed by Frankensteins James Whale Advertisement

Which would be a real shame, as there is some fine acting on display. Claflin, so good in last years WWII drama Their Finest, gives an entirely different performance here, as the brooding, broken and yet still dutiful Stanhope, a man who was decorated for bravery at Vimy Ridge but, a year later, wont go home on leave because he doesnt want people to see how shot I am.

Excellent, too, is Paul Bettany as the older officer Osborne, who is fondly referred to as uncle by his younger colleagues. Hes about the only sane one there but, vitally, also Stanhopes friend and confidant.

Inevitably, there is a sense of looming disaster from the outset, a sense that only multiplies when the top brass  safely behind the lines  decide the only thing that will clarify German intentions is a raiding party to capture an informer.

Mounting it under the cover of darkness would obviously be the sensible thing to do, but that might upset the colonels dinner. So a daytime raid it is; its the sort of less-than-cunning plan that surely even Baldrick would see through.

Rarely can a simple Cheerio have been more powerful or pitiful. It echoes down the decades.

SECOND SCREEN

Phantom Thread (15)

Rating:

Roman J Israel, Esq (12A)

Rating:

Lies We Tell (15)

Rating:

In Winchester (15)

Rating:

Den Of Thieves (15)

Rating:

Daniel Day-Lewis, already a three-time Oscar winner, says he has now retired from film acting. If thats true, he not only signs off in quiet style but gives himself a sporting chance of landing a fourth Academy Award, with another typically intense and meticulously prepared performance in Phantom Thread.

Day-Lewis plays Reynolds Woodcock, a couturier working in Fifties London. His fastidious, well-ordered life is disturbed when he falls for a German waitress, Alma (Vicky Krieps). But is there room for a woman in his life? Especially given the prickly relationship he already enjoys with his strictly no-nonsense sister (Lesley Manville).

The frocks, period setting and acting are all exquisite, and both Day-Lewis and Manville deserve their Oscar nominations. But be warned: the screenplay is heading somewhere dark, unexpected and ultimately disappointing.

Roman J Israel, Esq is a rambling mess of a film that sees Denzel Washington playing a former civil-rights activist who, perhaps held back by his autistic tendencies or poor wardrobe choices, has spent the past 40 years as a behind-the-scenes lawyer at a law firm that has always put ideals before profit.

And then his front-man partner has a heart attack. Will Roman return to his radical roots or sell out to the high-profile law firm run by the super-slick Colin Farrell? After a confusing while, I was past caring.

Lies We Tell feels like an updated version of Mona Lisa from 1986, with Gabriel Byrne playing the faithful driver, Donald, who ends up driving the lovely Amber, played by Sibylla Deen, around following the death of his boss (Harvey Keitel), with whom Amber had been conducting an affair. Theres lots of atmosphere and dramatic potential here, but tangled story-telling and jump-cut editing combine to ensure its never quite realised.

In Winchester stars Helen Mirren as the ageing matriarch of an arms company who is convinced that her sprawling mansion is haunted by those killed by its wares

In Winchester an improbably cast Helen Mirren plays the ageing matriarch of an arms company who is convinced that her sprawling mansion is haunted by those killed by its wares. Its essentially a things-that-go-bump-in- the-night-in-a-spooky-old-house film and it does deliver a few decent scares, although the frights diminish with time, as does the quality of Mirrens performance.

Den Of Thieves is an indulgent, overblown and unpleasantly violent thriller that pits hard-drinking LA cop Gerard Butler against a crack team of clever but seriously gun-toting bank robbers. Derivative, nasty and at least half an hour too long, its one of the worst films youll see all year.Owl Sense Miriam Darlington Guardian Faber 15.99

Rating:

Books about birds have become increasingly popular over the past few years, particularly books about the often neurotic relationship between authors and birds.

A year or two ago, Helen Macdonald received great acclaim for H Is For Hawk, a book about the time she spent with a goshawk, and about coming to terms with the death of her father.

When I trained my hawk, reads one passage, I was having a quiet conversation, of sorts, with the deeds and works of a long-dead man. The man was T H White, author of a strange, haunting memoir The Goshawk, a pioneering work in linking human psychosis with the world of the bird. There is a nightmarish logic to Whites time with the hawk, she rightly notes, the logic of a sadist who half-hates his hawk because he hates himself, who wants to hurt it because he loves it, but will not, and insists that it eats so that it will love him.

The Goshawk was first published in 1951; the following year, Daphne du Maurier published her short story The Birds, in which flocks of seagulls gang together to attack human beings in a holiday village. Alfred Hitchcock turned it into one of his creepiest films. The controversial American academic Camille Paglia recently wrote a book in praise of the film, arguing that it was a study in female sexual power and neurosis.

European Eagle Owl in flight. Owls were regarded as dirty and slothful in medieval times, and their eyes are four times as strong as human beings

The most beautiful and majestic of all bird books is surely Birds And People by Mark Cocker, first published five years ago. Its a lavish, finely written, encyclopaedic work, chronicling every species of bird, not least the owl, with sections on, among other things, the owl as a portent of mystery and evil, and the owl as a symbol of wisdom (or of stupidity, in India, as it happens).

Owls have come to symbolise the imagined versions of ourselves that cleave to the darkness of our unconscious and dwell furthest from the light and the warmth of the family hearth, wrote Cocker. It is almost uncanny how the birds seem to have been designed specifically to fit our deepest nightmares The sudden capacity to rotate their faces through 270 degrees is itself deeply unnerving. It reminds us perhaps of that most chilling of moments in the most chilling of films, The Exorcist, when the possessed she-devil Regan, with the mans voice and the green body fluids, writhes her head owl-like right round, from front to back, to face and terrify her prostrate mother.

And now along comes Owl Sense, in which the author, Miriam Darlington, attempts to track down the 13 different species of European owls, eschewing the easy option, which would be to study them close-up in a zoo or, as Alan Partridge prefers, in an owl sanctuary. Like her predecessors, she wanted to immerse myself in their world to look into the mythology, kinship, otherness and mystery that wild owls offer. I hoped that during my search some wider truths would rise to the surface.

The author Miriam Darlington, wanted to immerse myself in their world to look into the mythology, kinship, otherness and mystery that wild owls offer

Accordingly, Darlington criss-crosses Europe in search of all the different types of owl. Upon sighting them, she looks for a moral attached. For instance, when she spots an eagle owl in Spain, she notes that there was something terribly lonely about the solitary boom of its call. I had come so far to find that it seemed as if these fearsome creatures need something none of us can really do without: family. This may seem like a conclusion too far, but she then takes it one step further: Although solitary for much of the time, they shared that with us. Without family, we are nothing.

Over the course of the book, Darlington learns that her 19-year-old son, Benji, has something seriously wrong with him. Do you ever get that thing where you start twitching? he asks her one day. It develops into daily seizures, and during one outing he collapses on a bus. His condition is later diagnosed as non-epileptic seizure disorder. This would terrify any mother, but sometimes Darlingtons emotional response to things she encounters in her owl-search can make the reader feel left behind: is she talking about owls or is she talking about herself? And is there always the connection she insists there is?

Early on, for instance, she describes humans as the loneliest of creatures among all the Earths species, self-consciously and visibly a species apart. But is this so? Just because an owl can hear the nibble of a vole when it is flying high above it, and just because that same owl can swoop on the vole, swallow it whole, crush it in its stomach, and jettison the indigestible bits (bones, teeth, claws, fur) in a compact pellet, does that really mean that owls are more chummy with voles than we humans are? Is the owl really any less lonely than us? At least we dont devour our siblings when we feel peckish, as some owls do  a sure-fire way to increase ones sense of loneliness, as well as a thumbs-down to a sense of family.

Darlington tends to greet each fresh sighting of an owl with a homily. When we get it right, and work with nature rather than against it, we can achieve the most extraordinary things, she says, vicarishly, after she has volunteered with the Barn Owl Trust. Furthermore, in her view, the people of Dartmoor can be rightly proud of their deep and hidden valleys. A few pages later, while hanging on for a sighting of a tawny owl, she reminds us that the waiting can be a long process, but stillness and patience are the needle and thread that stitch us into nature.

Near to her home, in Exeter, an eagle owl has been swooping on bald men, then extending its targets to people with hats, and people with thick hair. Darlington fails to see the funny side. In laughing at this bird, we betrayed our lack of respect far from seeing it as comic, our ancestors might have slipped quickly into a different sort of thinking than we do now, a thinking where far more serious things were at play: for them supernatural powers might have been at work It is likely that its appearance would have been closely observed, used to tell a story, to fill in something about life that we were unsure or uncertain about; to comfort, predict or to warn, whether it was to teach about the present or the future.

Or not, as the case may be. It seems to me just as likely that our ancestors would have had a laugh at the owl, or killed it, or eaten it, or disrespected it in any number of ways. Just because one or two cavemen scribbled pictures of owls on the walls of their dwellings does not mean that the rest of them were overflowing with inner wisdom.

Some readers may revel in these homely apercus, and in her breathless reactions upon sighting this owl or that. I felt goose pimples shoot up my arms and all the hairs stand up on the back of my neck, she writes on spotting a short-eared owl on the Isle of Mull. But personally, I find her much more convincing when she sticks to the straight and narrow, and settles for the facts and figures. I was interested to know, for instance, that owls were regarded as dirty and slothful in medieval times, that their eyes are four times as strong as human beings, and that they can hoot up to 600 times a night. I also like knowing that the pygmy owl is the size of a pine cone, and owls are unsuitable for adding colour to weddings, on account of their proclivity for flying head-first into stained-glass windows and their copious aromatic and messy excretions.The star of the years hottest film is sitting in front of the Four Seasons Hotel, Los Angeles. A few feet away, the likes of Steven Spielberg, Christopher Nolan and Wonder Womans Gal Gadot are battling their way past an excitable throng of fans outside the American Film Institutes annual lunch, a major event in the movie calendars awards season.

Yet none of the fans has registered that the actor sipping a cola next to me is the star of The Shape Of Water, the forerunner at this years Oscars with 13 nominations. Doug Jones is less leading man than leading monster, and after 31 years acting under rubber bits, largely anonymously, hes not used to the limelight.

The Shape Of Water is directed by Guillermo del Toro, the man behind creature features Pans Labyrinth and Hellboy, with whom Jones has been working since playing a giant cockroach in 1997s Mimic

Doug Jones is less leading man than leading monster, and after 31 years acting under rubber bits, largely anonymously, hes not used to the limelight

Standing next to me at the AFI lunch was a man who looked very familiar, he says. I just blurted out, Hi Tom! Jones, 57, realised Tom Hanks would be baffled as to the identity of this excitable, 6ft 3in beanpole. So I told him that I was the fish guy in The Shape Of Water  its funny to see peoples faces change when they first think Im just a goofy-looking fan!

The Shape Of Water is directed by Guillermo del Toro, the man behind creature features Pans Labyrinth and Hellboy, with whom Jones has been working since playing a giant cockroach in 1997s Mimic. Its part sci-fi love story, part Cold War thriller, with British actress Sally Hawkins as a mute worker at a military installation in Sixties Baltimore whos drawn to a shackled, water-dwelling asset discovered in the Amazon.

Soon a romance develops between the tall fish man and the shy, silent cleaning lady. Its a sensual, even sexy story. His costume for The Shape Of Water was three years in the making. The lips and the body had to be resculpted several times to get that perfect shape from every angle, says Jones. The lips had to be kissable, the ass had to be grabable!

The film is also a story about outsiders. One of Hawkinss characters friends is an older gay man, tortured by the impossibility of expressing his sexuality. There are messages of inclusion and tolerance that strike a chord in a time of Brexit, Trump, refugee crises and division.

Guillermo didnt labour those points but there is topicality there, says Jones. We shouldnt demonise whatever the other is. I grew up a very gangly, out-of-sorts kid, admits this youngest of four tall and lanky boys. I was not one of the cool kids, I was made fun of relentlessly. Any one of us can relate to feeling like a monster at some point in our life.

Jones and wife Laurie arrived in LA in 1985. He trained as a mime artist and contortionist, but was determined to be an actor. His first big break was in Tim Burtons Batman Returns (1992): That small role  six scenes maybe  changed my life, he says. He has barely stopped working since, and is now a zen master at coping with the punishing five-hour make-up routines that typically begin his working day. I get called three hours before everyone else, pre-dawn, first one in, last one out. It can make your days insufferable, but I said yes to this, so I have to get on with it.

The facial wear and tear of three decades in heavy disguise, he adds, is less than we might think. When the prosthetics get removed they take all the dead skin with them. So you are exposing baby-fresh skin every day.

However, being strapped into a bodysuit means Jones can suffer various lavatorial disasters, and he often has to wear contact lenses, robbing him of peripheral vision. Ive banged my head many times, he sighs.

But for Jones, all the effort has been worth it. Like Britains Andy Serkis, the leading practitioner of motion-capture performance, hes gratified that his acting work is now being fully recognised as just that: acting.

His costume for The Shape Of Water was three years in the making. The lips and the body had to be resculpted several times to get that perfect shape from every angle, says Jones

And for his next trick? Well, Guillermos been talking about a Frankenstein movie. Id love to do that, and he told me he wanted me to play the monster. So, he grins, Im in!

Rather than CGI jiggery-pokery, moviegoers want to see other people play roles. As an audience member, I want to watch the performance of a real person on screen, even if hes playing a monster.

Being a private sort, he loves the fact that he gets to be an A-list actor whom no one knows or recognises. That, of course, is about to change with The Shape Of Water.

And for his next trick? Well, Guillermos been talking about a Frankenstein movie. Id love to do that, and he told me he wanted me to play the monster. So, he grins, Im in!

Watch this rubberised prosthetic space.

The Shape Of Water is out on Valentines DayIt may have been more than three decades ago, but Deborah Moggach remembers the moment like it was yesterday. In 1984, things were going well for the author of These Foolish Things, the book that went on to be filmed as The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.

She was 36, had just published her fourth novel and, one autumn afternoon, was in an upbeat mood as she cycled from her home in north London.

As she sped past a newsagents, a billboard caught her eye. It read: Thriller Writer Arrested For Murder. I chuckled to myself, recalls Moggach today. I thought: thriller writer charged with murder? Thats neat.

It may have been more than three decades ago, but Deborah Moggach remembers seeing the headline that her mum had been charged with murder like it was yesterday

Then she was struck by an alarming realisation. It suddenly hit me, oh God, its Mum.

Charlotte Hough, her mother and a successful novelist in her own right, had recently told her that she had helped an elderly woman to commit suicide. Now it appeared the story had come out, her mother had been arrested and was being questioned by the Metropolitan Police. Little was Moggach to know, as she sped to the police station and arranged for bail, that the case was to become a cause celebre, temporarily replacing tales about Princess Diana or Bob Geldofs Band Aid on newspaper front pages. And, 34 years on, it is about to be retold in a stage play called The Promise.

It is a story that still resonates, says Vicky Lee, who is to take the role of Hough in the play. What it says about the right to die remains absolutely current.

At the time it happened, Hough, then aged 60, was a widely respected childrens author who was working on her second adult thriller. Away from the typewriter, she volunteered for a local group, visiting old people. One of those she befriended was Annetta Harding, an 83-year-old spinster who lived in sheltered housing in Primrose Hill.

I remember Mum talking about this unbelievably lonely old lady, Moggach says. Shed had a terrible life. Orphaned at six, shed been sent to boarding school and had to stay on during the holidays because she had no one to go home to. She never married and lived alone. She was registered blind, had arthritis and had no friends, no family. She was fed up with life. She called herself a non-person.

Her visitor was the complete opposite. Mum had a squillion friends, Moggach says. She had a big life and was always out and about. Which made her even more moved by Annettas story.

As the pair talked, the conversation always came round to the same subject: the old ladys desire to end it all. Depressed and exhausted, she wanted out. Initially Mum tried to talk her out of it, says Moggach. But Annetta was so very desperate and Mum had long been a supporter of assisted dying. I think she thought it was a legitimate thing to do, to choose your own departure.

The old woman had joined Exit, the assisted-dying lobby group, and had got from them a pamphlet detailing methods of suicide. All she needed now was the wherewithal.

Mum was a terrible insomniac and had a cabinet full of sleeping tablets, remembers Moggach. So she supplied the pills.

Annetta asked Hough for another favour: to sit with her and to hold her hand as she passed away. It was, as wed say now, a big ask, says her daughter. But Hough did it.

One of the last things Annetta said to Mum as she slipped into unconsciousness was, This is the happiest day of my life, which gives you an idea of how awful her life must have been.

The old lady had also asked Hough to ensure that she would not be resuscitated. This is the promise of the plays title. And Hough stood by the deal, ultimately paying a significant price for her acquiescence. Because, despite the overdose of pills, Annetta did not immediately die. Hough was by her side for four hours, watching her drift into a coma.

Charlotte Hough (above), Moggach's mother and a successful novelist in her own right, had recently told her that she had helped an elderly woman to commit suicide

After The Evening Standard ran a front page story about the womans death, the police were alerted and Hough was charged with murder. Above: the paper's report of Hough's trial

Eventually, knowing the womans wishes, Hough decided to bring things to a conclusion. She took a plastic bag and slipped it over Annettas head. When she was certain she was dead, Hough took off the bag, checked that Annettas suicide note was still pinned to the womans cardigan, and headed home.

As soon as she came back she told me what shed done, including the plastic bag, recalls Moggach. I did applaud her bravery, but I was incredibly aware she could get into trouble for this. The thing was my mother was a stranger to discretion. I told her: For Gods sake shut up about it. She didnt.

Within a fortnight, someone she told had tipped off the London Evening Standard. After the newspaper ran a front page story about the womans death, the police were alerted and Hough was charged with murder.

She never for a moment thought she would be found guilty, says Moggach. How could it be murder? In her mind she was just helping someone who wanted to die. She hired George Carman [then the countrys leading QC] to defend her. He was both incredibly expensive and, it turns out, useless.

During the trial, when it was revealed that the post-mortem could not clearly identify the cause of death  it could have been a drugs overdose or asphyxiation  Hough was advised to plead guilty to attempted murder. She was immediately sentenced to 15 months in prison.

There was an outcry  the public was hugely sympathetic, recalls her daughter. There were questions asked in Parliament about the case. Lord Longford took it up and came to visit her in prison. She appealed, but the appeal judges said their hands were tied. One said he had never seen more powerful facts in mitigation.

Nonetheless Hough went down. It was complete and utter hell for her, Moggach says of her time in prison in Holloway then East Sutton Park in Kent. She was mercilessly teased for being old and posh, and the other inmates made fun of her accent. One day, someone threw a bucket of water over her.

When finally her mother was released after serving nine months, Moggach encouraged her to write about what had happened, but she never did. Indeed, she was reluctant to talk about it in public, turning down numerous invitations to appear on television chat shows. Which was odd, her daughter says, as in private she never shut up about it.

Moggach felt this was not a plot she wished to explore in her own prodigious creative output as it wasnt her story to tell. Im quite happy to talk about it, but it just didnt feel right for me to take Mums story, she says. Besides, sometimes the truth seems far more far-fetched than fiction.

Indeed, the story of Houghs seemingly unlucky address, which was already the scene of a notorious Victorian double murder, assumed a further twist when, some years after her release from prison, her then partner came home from the pub without his keys, started to climb the trellis to reach an open window, but fell to his death on the pavement. Youd almost think the place was cursed, says Moggach.

Although she never used the plot in her fiction, her mothers story was always with her, even as she produced a stream of award-winning screenplays and novels, latterly becoming inadvertently embroiled in the Harvey Weinstein controversy when he produced the movie version of her best-seller Tulip Fever.

I found him a terrible bully, says Moggach. The film was about to be released last autumn, just as the stories about his behaviour emerged. Now it never will be. It is terminally tainted by his grubby fingerprints.

It came, then, as a pleasant surprise when she learned soon after her film was scuppered that the SilverSage Theatre Company was to stage a play about her mothers case. The performers have crafted the show using the trial transcript and the letters Hough wrote from prison. Were really hoping it stimulates debate about the subject, says actress Vicky Lee.

And Moggach, who is now a patron of the charity Dignity in Dying, says her mother would have loved the idea. She would have liked the thought it might get us all talking. The irony is that in the last two years of her own life [she died in 2008], she was horribly reduced by dementia and wasnt capable of making such a decision for herself.

But Moggach is anxious to point out that her mothers story involved an unexpectedly happy twist. When Mum was inside, she was only allowed to write two letters a week, but she received hundreds of letters from supporters. So my sisters and I became her secretaries. Shed hand us piles of post and wed write back. And my sister Bryony became pen pals with one of the correspondents. Eventually they met, fell in love, married and had a son. My nephew Sam, who is in his now 30s, was born as a result of Mum going to prison. So even in the darkest moments, there is light. e

The Promise is at the New Diorama Theatre, London on Feb 21, 23 & 24

newdiorama.comMercedes-Benz tonight (Friday) took the covers off its new A-Class hatchback  with Britain on track to be the biggest global market for the car.

The German car giant sold 43,000 of the outgoing version of the up-market car here last year making it one of the firms best-selling UK models - and now it hopes to exceed such success with the new higher-tech version given its world premiere in Holland.

At its global launch in Amsterdam, Mercedes-Benz said their compact new A-Class - expected to be priced from 22,000 - is even more sophisticated and brings new levels of luxury and technology to the family-car market, including autonomous self-driving technology.

Big in Britain: Mercedes' new A-Class will be available from June 2018 and is set to become a favourite in the UK

Its the first Merc to feature as standard easy-to-use touchscreen which includes the Mercedes-Benz User Experience  or MBUX system  which uses artificial intelligence and augmented reality software to provide in-car assistance to the driver and learn his or her habits.

This includes the new Hey Mercedes voice recognition system - similar to Apple's Siri and Amazon Alexa - which allows the driver to speak and interact with their car to control elements within the vehicle such as temperature settings and music choice.

The navigation display is just as clever, overlaying navigation data on top of real images from the vehicles cameras to ensure you never take a wrong turn again.

The new A-Class is the fourth generation of the up-market hatchback in just over two decades, the first two of which featured distinctive high-sided wedge-shaped styling, with the new and outgoing model, on sale since 2012, more akin to a traditional hatchback.

Available in three trim levels  SE, Sport, and the highest AMG Line  it described its interior styling as modern avent-garde with the electronic dashboard displays prominent under a large swathe of glass.

More than half are expected to be automatics and in the top trim.

The navigation display uses augmented reality technology which overlays navigation data with real images from the vehicles cameras, making navigation easier and more effective

The vast majority of models sold in the UK are expected to be the most expensive top specification AMG line

Seven in ten of the Mercedes model bought by Britons last year were diesel. The A-Class was the 10th most purchased car of 2017 with 43,000 being registered last year

And proving that the fuel type is far from dead, 70 per cent of models bought by Britons in 2017 were diesels.

All new A-Class cars will come as standard with two seven inch dashboard touchscreens (with one or two 10.25-inch screens as options) housed under one sheet of glass to creating a widescreen cockpit display, automatic braking assist and automatic lane keeping.

2018 Mercedes A-Class: Will it fit in my garage? First deliveries: June Price: From around 22,000 to 42,000 depending on spec (Exact prices on March 5) Length: 4419mm Width: 1796mm Height: 1440mm Luggage space: 370 litres (up 29 litres)

For around 1,700, drivers also have the option of the hi-tech autonomous driving assistance package which adds semi-autonomous driving modes in certain situations.

This includes slowing down automatically at bends, junctions and roundabouts, braking if it spots crossing traffic or pedestrians, slowing down and accelerating in moving traffic or approaching jams, and steering autonomously.

If the driver presses the indicator for two seconds on a multi-lane highway, the car can overtake automatically and then return to its lane. And to ensure safety, if the driver takes his or her hands off the wheel for 30 seconds, they will be warned to put them back on - similar to the setting for Tesla's AutoPilot system.

There are two engine options at launch  one petrol and one diesel.

The A200 has a new 1.4-litre four cylinder 163 horse-power petrol engine linked to a seven-speed automatic gearbox that can accelerate from rest to 62mph in eight seconds and up to a top speed of 140mph while managing 53.3mpg and CO2 emissions of 120g/km.

Mercedes said Britain is the biggest global market for the compact family hatchback - it even sells more in the UK than it does in Germany

Two engines will be available from launch - one petrol and one diesel

Prices will range from around 22,000 to 42,000 depending on engine and spec

The A180d is powered by a 1.5-litre 150hp four cylinder diesel with more torque.

Using the same automatic transmissions as the petrol, it takes over two seconds longer to hit 62mph and has a lesser top speed of 125mph.

But what you lose in pace you gain in efficiency - the diesel can manage a claimed 68.9mpg with CO2 emissions of 108g/km.

Manual versions will follow later in 2018 along with a more potent A250 model powered by a 165hp 2.0-litre petrol.

First deliveries are due in the UK in June.

As Prime Minister Theresa May returns from China to continue negotiating terms for Britains Brexit deal for withdrawal from the European Union, the importance of the lucrative UK export market to powerful German car-makers like Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Audi and Volkswagen, reinforces the leverage the UK has over the EU with car-makers there desperate to avoid crippling tariffs which could hit their UK sales and dent their profits, leading to potential job cuts in Germany and elsewhere.The Pensions Regulator (TPR) has shown it means business by pursuing former BHS boss Dominic Chappell after breaches of rules  and is chasing him for 10million.

How it proposes to recover the funds from the thrice bankrupt entrepreneur is not clear.

The truth is that high-profile trials seem to be as important to the regulator as getting things right.

We have had a succession of recent cases where closer attention by TPR might have averted catastrophe for members of retirement funds including Toys R Us, Bernard Matthews, Carillion, and the abuse at the gates of Tata Steel in South Wales.

The Pensions Regulator (TPR) has shown it means business by pursuing former BHS boss Dominic Chappell after breaches of rules  and is chasing him for 10m

It is also hoped the regulator is keeping a close eye on the implications of a break-up of GKN should it fall to the hostile bid by Melrose.

The entrepreneur who has received the most opprobrium for failing in obligation to pensioners is the only one to personally stump up.

Arcadia boss Sir Philip Green pumped 363million of his personal resources into the BHS pension fund in February 2017, keeping it out of the lifeboat of the Pension Protection Fund.

Indeed, HSBC (in a document I have seen) wrote to the regulators in October 2016 offering to make the transfer on Greens behalf.

But with a publicity opportunity looming, regulators and the Commons work and pensions select committee chose to wait another six months before closing the matter down.

Sir Philip Green pumped 363million of his personal resources into the BHS pension fund in February 2017

The BHS case is far from closed, despite the settlement. BHS was sold to Chappell, who was advised by lawyers Olswang and accountant Grant Thornton.

And in spite of taking blue-chip advice from Linklaters and Goldman Sachs, Green and several of his colleagues are under investigation by the Insolvency Service.

There has, of course, always been a suspicion that BHS was sold to Chappell and his firm Retail Acquisitions in the hope the new owners would run it for long enough for any lingering obligations by Green to the pension fund to be expiated.

What no one has grasped is the extent of the documentary fishing expedition being undertaken by the Insolvency Service. One estimate suggests it has reviewed more than 30m pages.

There has been constant pressure on Green and his legal team for answers, running up a bill which has already topped 30million.

Among the issues the Insolvency Service is reportedly focusing on is alleged gaps both in attendance and records of the board of Arcadia and BHS parent Taveta, formerly chaired by barrister Lord Grabiner QC.

The Insolvency Service has considerable powers, including the right to bring prosecutions which can lead to the disqualification of directors, fines and imprisonment.

The BHS scandal is bigger and more complex than many cases it has handled, and it has engaged a leading QC to advise on the chances of bringing prosecutions.

Green, who personally did most to right a wrong by plugging a gap in the pension fund, is being pursued hardest by the authorities.

If there is to be consistency in regulation then the directors of other firms who have neglected responsibilities to pension funds  including construction and infrastructure giant Carillion  should face the same kind of enforcement actions.

There can be no confidence that the work and pensions select committee, TPR or the Insolvency Service have the resources and willpower to deal with all cases in a consistent manner.

British justice had its City show trial when it went after the Guinness Four, who were found guilty, in 1990. Key advisers escaped potential prosecution. That is a history unworthy of repetition.

China syndrome

Astrazeneca chief executive Pascal Soriot has struggled to meet the growth targets the pharmaceutical giant promised when it saw Americas Pfizer off the field of battle in 2014.

Speeding up output at a UK drug champion always was going to be difficult, given long lead times for bringing compounds to market and the risks of failure for even promising trials.

Nevertheless, Astrazeneca is able to report two new blockbusters in the shape of heart drug Brilinta and diabetes medicine Farxiga.

It is doing the right thing for post-Brexit Britain with its research base in Cambridge and promising global expansion in China, where it has 11,000 staff and has done critical deals with Alibaba and Tencent.

Onwards and upwards.Canny investors hoping to unearth a tech start-up that can break the stranglehold of the likes of Facebook, Google or Amazon face a near impossible task.

But that does not mean there aren't opportunities for upstart firms to offer bumper profits.

The key, says Britain's top technology investor Ben Rogoff, is to find a service which can 'bleed in to every part of our lives'.

The so-called Fang stocks  Facebook, Amazon, Netflix and Google-owner Alphabet  remain phenomenal money-making machines.

Tech titans: The so-called Fang stocks  Facebook, Amazon, Netflix and Google-owner Alphabet  remain phenomenal money-making machines - but there are alternatives

And they use vast cash reserves to swallow smaller companies before they become a threat.

This can provide a bumper payday for investors, but it also means it is unlikely a firm starting out in someone's bedroom will ever grow enough to challenge the world's biggest companies.

It helps explain why the likes of Microsoft, Apple and Amazon  many of which Rogoff has invested in from the very beginning  account for nearly a third of his trust, which has turned 10,000 into 30,494 in five years.

The married father of two, who is manager of the 1.5billion Polar Capital Technology Trust, says companies can't afford to rest on their laurels.

'But right now, the likes of Facebook, Google, Amazon  and Tencent and Alibaba in China  have unprecedented scale,' he says.

'It's hard to see where the upstarts will come from. Take Facebook. What does it worry about? It worries about different networks. So it buys WhatsApp. It buys Instagram. It does that all the time.'

Despite this, Rogoff, 45, believes investors can still look forward to a prosperous future as technology 'bleeds into our everyday lives'.

Some of the best opportunities, he says, are to be found in software and internet companies  in particular, those offering software-as-a-service (SaaS) where customers rent a product on subscription.

His view is shared by investment bank Morgan Stanley, which said that SaaS firms have the potential to double in value by 2020.

One is San Francisco's Salesforce, which Rogoff describes as the 'go-to firm' when it comes to cloud computing  where you use software stored on the internet rather than your computer.

It also creates software used by more than 150,000 companies that allows them to solve customer complaints online. Its shares have rocketed 160 per cent in five years.

Another Rogoff favourite is 8x8, which allows companies to make telephone calls over the internet, meaning they don't have to shell out for expensive equipment.

Additionally, the rise of the smartphone has boosted the mobile games industry. Kyoto-based video games and console maker Nintendo successfully ventured into that market in 2016 with Pokemon Go.

Robotics is a key theme in the fund and Rogoff talks glowingly about Keyence, another Japanese business, which makes the components that allow robots to see.

'The technology sector is creating disruption and are well-placed to profit from that,' says Rogoff. 'The reason technology continues to grow more than the broader market is because it continues to permeate deeper into our lives.'Contractors hit by the collapse of outsourcing giant Carillion will be able to apply for Government-backed loans from high street lenders.

The British Business Bank, which is owned by the Government but managed independently, will support high street banks with a 100million package to give loans to small and medium-sized businesses owed money by Carillion, Business Secretary Greg Clark said.

This is in addition to over 200million made available by HSBC, Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Banking Group shortly after the collapse of Carillion.

Thousands of jobs were put at risk after Carillion went into liquidation in January

It comes as thousands of small and medium firms have been left waiting for payments following the collapse of Carillion, which went into liquidation last month.

'We want to signal very clearly to small and medium-sized businesses who were owed money by Carillion that they will be supported to continue trading,' Clark said.

'The banks have responded to my request by agreeing to support businesses and individuals affected.

'This further guarantee will help those businesses who may not be able to provide the usual security for a loan,' he added.

Yesterday it was announced that 377 Carillion staff would be made redundant, although 919 had been saved as new employers took on their contracts.

Business Secretary Greg Clark said the loans will support SMEs to continue trading (Victoria Jones/PA)

Clarks department said the latest round of support will be of benefit to small businesses including the chain of subcontractors to Carillion.

The guarantees can be used to support overdraft borrowing and refinancing of existing debt, the department said.

The Government has set up a task force involving business and unions to support firms and workers affected by the collapse of Carillion.

The company went into compulsory liquidation on January 15 with a 900million debt pile, a 590million pension deficit and hundreds of millions of pounds in unfinished public contracts.Advertisement

He is said to have come up with one of the most famous armed forces regiments in history from a hospital bed before sneaking into military headquarters to make sure his plan was heard.

Many believe Sir David Stirling, known as the father of the SAS, was the man solely responsible for its creation.

But a new book has uncovered the 'secrets' around its origins and claims there were a number of other figures vital to the SAS's development, including an intelligence officer who originally came up with the name to try to trick the Italians into fighting a fake unit.

Stirling wanted to use small bands of highly trained soldiers to strike at small targets in one night, believing it would be a perfect form of warfare for the desert, jumping into action from the air.

He became a member of the No.2 Commando regiment established in 1940 and served in missions in Greece, before allegedly coming up with the plan to turn it into the SAS from his hospital bed following a parachuting accident.

Scroll down for video

According to many historians, Sir David Stirling, left, is the founding father of the SAS. Influenced by the guerrilla warfare methods of T.E. Lawrence in the Arab Revolt from 1916-18, Stirling joined 2 Commando in 1940, a regiment specialising in small raids on enemy territories that would go on to become the SAS. After a parachute accident put him in hospital, Stirling is said to have drawn up a plan for an airborne force to launch sneak attacks behind enemy lines and then broke into military headquarters in Cairo on crutches, coming across and convincing General Neil Ritchie, right, of his plan

But historian Tim Jones argues it was more than just Stirling's plans that led to the creation of the SAS. Jones said General Archibald Wavell (right) favoured unorthodox warfare, setting up intelligence organisation the Long Range Desert Group to go on reconnaissance missions behind enemy lines. Field Marshal Sir Claude Auchinleck (left) was also vital in the creation, having signed off on Stirling's plan soon after taking command of the Army's African forces because it was 'low risk' after being convinced by General Ritchie

T.E. Lawrence (left) and his commanding officer General Edmund Allenby (right) can also be argued to have had a role in the formation of the SAS after their participation in the Arab Revolt during the First World War. Lawrence led small groups of Arab forces against the Ottoman Empire, attacking railway lines, bridges and outposts on the orders of Allenby to disrupt enemy actions

Jones argues Dudley Clarke (left) was also a key part of the creation of the SAS, certainly because he came up with the name. Clarke was given permission to conduct misinformation missions in North Africa, spreading false details and even coming up with a fake air regiment to spark fear into the Italian Army, agreeing to work with Stirling only if his fake unit's name, the Special Air Service, was adopted for the real regiment. Meanwhile, Ralph Bagnold (right), commander of the LRDG, also helped shape the future of the SAS after convincing his commanding officer to allow his regiment to commit 'acts of piracy' behind enemy lines

Stirling was said to have entered the Grey Pillars building in Cairo without permission in 1941, initially finding it difficult to locate any higher-ups to propose his ideas to until entering General Ritchie's office. He told Ritchie, and subsequently Auchinleck, he wanted to use five groups of 12 men to strike at German oil fields and was given the green light to use 2 Commando

By 1941, highly trained commandos began being recruited into the SAS and are pictured here ahead of practice jumps at Manchester Airport, then known as Ringway. They would work with the LRDG to be guided to targets and initially tried to sneak onto airfields to attach bombs to planes

The regiment, pictured during training at Ringway in 1941, went on to change tactics under Stirling, adapting US jeeps with weaponry to stage fast-paced raids on airfields, shooting at men and aircraft and then making a fast escape

Tim Jones, author of SAS Zero Hour, said: 'It is Stirling who was purportedly the one blessed with the inspired idea of establishing a new type of special force comprising small units operating behind enemy lines who would be delivered covertly to their targets, notably by parachute.

'It is reiterated time and again by numerous authors that the idea came to him when he had time on his hands while recuperating in an Egyptian hospital bed after an experimental parachute jump over the Western Desert in June 1941.

'At first sight, and by just about all accounts, he appears to have had a stroke of inspiration that marked him out as one of the military geniuses of World War II.

'Indeed, given the repercussions of the SASs inception on the style of warfare that has characterised much of the post-war world, Stirlings idea has been seen as a turning point in modern military history.'

He added: 'Stirling made a unique, invaluable contribution to the genesis of the SAS and should be considered, at least, to be its prime godfather. But he was not alone.

'This was down to a team of conceptual donors, whose seeds, when taken together, created the environment in which a newborn force could be established.

'The concept of a strategic small unit raiding force stemmed from their combined knowledge and experiences of, and/or their service in, other wartime and pre-war special forces and unorthodox military units.

'That Stirling oversaw the delivery of their own embryonic special force and fought to ensure that it would not be still-born, meant that he rightly came to be regarded as its true father.'

2 Commando would eventually become the SAS and are pictured here at Ringway Airport in Manchester while training for parachute missions

Another example of an influence on the SAS were light car patrols in the Middle East during the First World War (pictured) -designed to be able to carry out speedy raids on enemy targets

Stirling was laid up in Cairo Military Hospital (above) following a parachute accident when he supposedly came up with his brainchild

The others who were key to the inception of the SAS included Dudley Clarke, an intelligence officer who worked out of a 'converted bathroom' in a British Army office in Cairo.

Clarke was responsible for naming the unit, after creating a fake paratrooper regiment and spreading misinformation about it to worry the Italians about possible attacks.

He then agreed to work with Stirling if he would adopt the name Special Air Service for the regiment.

Meanwhile the SAS may never have got off the ground had it not been for the installation of Claude Auchinleck as Commander-in-Chief of the Middle East Forces in July 1941.

Auchinleck was ordered by Churchill to relieve pressure on British forces at Tobruk, which had come under siege by Axis forces in April.

According to Jones, he was a cautious leader not generally willing to take chances, but when presented with Stirling's plan to attack five German airfields with five groups of 12 men, he felt it low-risk with 'nothing to lose' and signed off, after some persuasion from second-in-command General Neil Ritchie.

The man Auchinleck replaced, Archibald Wavell, was also a fan of unconventional warfare and of Clarke, whom he respected for his 'unorthodox' outlook.

Jones reveals how Wavell planned decoy forces and movements to fool the enemy, carried out fake radio communications and considered organising insurgency in neighbouring countries to distract the Axis powers.

Above, the LRDG in operation in the Siwa Oasis in Egypt in 1941 while providing support for the SAS. During the Desert Campaign between December 1940 and April 1943, the vehicles of the LRDG operated constantly behind the Axis lines, missing a total of only 15 days during the entire period

The SAS carried out its first jumps in June 1941 and are said to have acquired their parachutes from Alexandria port (pictured)

A desert landing group pictured near Tobruk in late 1941. Part of the reason the SAS was formed was to cause disruption to the Axis forces leading a siege of Tobruk between April and November 1941, with the Allies eventually overcoming it

Stirling trained as a commando at Pirbright Barracks (above) in Surrey, which is still an Army Training Centre today

The 2 Commando unit set up in 1940 (pictured) also carried out missions in the Mediterranean, France, Italy and Yugoslavia

The author said: 'Wavell consistently prized "boldness and daring, together with surprise in attack", having upon his arrival in Cairo declared that the desert "should provide opportunities for more mobile and unorthodox warfare".'

Wavell then recruited Clarke to North Africa, leading to Clarke discovering an Italian officer's journal revealing the country's military's fear of airborne assaults, prompting him to spread misinformation on a unit that would eventually become real.

Previously Wavell had set up the Long Range Desert Group in 1940, an intelligence organisation that went behind enemy lines in Egypt.

It was made up of volunteers and had at most 350 members at any one time, tending to work in reconnaissance rather than actual battles.

The LRDG could be seen as a precursor to the SAS and went on to act as guides in some of its early missions.

It was commanded by Ralph Bagnold, who convinced Wavell to allow the regiment to carry out 'acts of piracy', dividing the group into combat sections and support sections.

Both Wavell and Clarke were influenced by T.E. Lawrence, otherwise known as Lawrence of Arabia.

Lawrence had supported guerrilla warfare since the First World War and wrote extensively about his involvement in the Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Empire, in which he worked with small Arab forces to attack outposts, railway lines and bridges.

Pictured: Commando instructors at Lochailort in Scotland, where Inverailort House was requisitioned by the War Office for the use of training 'irregular units'

A Bristol Bombay plane which was used by Stirling and his men for their raids in 1941, including one of the first attacks on German aerodromes in November 1941

A statement from the book's publishers Pen and Sword said: 'SAS Zero Hour is an illuminating and provocative account of how this renowned regiment came into being'. Above, an SAS patrol in 1942

His book the Seven Pillars of Wisdom was read by both Wavell and Clarke, according to Jones, and also inspired Stirling, meaning he had a key influence on the SAS despite dying in a motorcycle crash in Dorset aged 46 in 1935, six years before it was created.

A statement from publishers Pen and Sword books said: 'Britains elite Special Air Service Regiment, the SAS, is one of the most revered  and feared  special-ops units in the world.

'Its high-profile operations include the spectacular storming of the Iranian Embassy in London on 5 May 1980 and the hunt for Osama bin Laden in southern Afghanistan following 9/11.

'The regiment has become a byword for the highest possible standards in both conventional and unorthodox methods of warfare.'

It added: 'Drawing extensively on primary sources, as well as reassessing the more recent regimental histories and memoirs, SAS Zero Hour is an illuminating and provocative account of how this renowned regiment came into being.'

SAS Zero Hour: The Secret Origins Of The Special Air Service costs 11.99 and is available online.Advertisement

The sign at the front door warns that anyone entering must be at least 18 years old and the frosted glass windows mean no one can see in or out.

Even the name of the business - The Steamery - suggests this brick building in a semi-industrial inner Sydney suburb might house something seedy, or at least vaguely illicit.

But behind the doors of this shop wedged between a store selling timber flooring and another selling taps is a completely legal operation, albeit one beset by regulatory restrictions more befitting a licensed premises.

The Steamery bills itself as 'Sydney's Premier Vape Lounge', home to a community of 'vapers', many of whom have had to break laws they say are stupid in an attempt to save their lives.

Millions of smokers have reported quitting using vapourisers in the United Kingdom, United States and European Union

Shop assistant Kevin Ta vaping at The Steamery vape lounge in Sydney's Beaconsfield behind a selection of devices

Passionfruit, apricot, blueberry, watermelon, mango, peach and lime are among the flavours of 'e-juice' available to vapers

The front windows of The Steamery 'vape lounge' are frosted and customers are warned they must be 18 years old to enter

This is where the city's e-cigarette users come to buy their atomisers, batteries and 'e-juice' to vape. This is where they talk their own language of 'drippers', 'throat hit' and 'vaper's tongue'.

With at least 100 visitors a day, this is Sydney's vaping central.

Everything that goes on at The Steamery, on Botany Road at Beaconsfield, is legal. To keep it that way the owners try to stay one step ahead of sudden regulatory changes.

Vaping devices cannot be openly displayed and are only revealed when a potential customer specifically asks to see one. Other quit-smoking aids such as nicotine patches, lozenges and gum sold by chemists face no similar restrictions.

Even products such as batteries and battery chargers must be hidden, yet nearby electronic stores sell the same accessories without those rules. Vaping bars cannot provide free samples.

The Steamery's Kevin Ta attempts to make a 'tornado' - a spinning plume of vapour - as his colleague Maddy May watches on

The Steamery vaping lounge features mood lighting, couches, arm chairs and rugs on a wooden floor; pictured is Maddy May

The range of e-juice flavours is enormous; this touch-screen shows apple, coconut, lychee, melon, mango, grape and cherry

The Steamery features a tasting bar where customers can try a dizzying array of flavoured e-juice. There are couches, arm chairs and rugs on the wooden floor.

There is mood lighting, a coffee machine and a pair of pinball machines in one corner. While the room can become hazy, there is strong air-conditioning.

Owner Maxim Fichkin says people come here after work, take a seat, vape and wind down.

'There's no expectation to buy anything,' he says. 'It's here if you want it but you're not being treated any differently if you're a buying customer or not.'

The place feels more like a bar than a shop and customers have been known to spend hours inside.

Bartender Maddy May, who works behind the shop's tasting counter, says customers regularly ask when the business will get a liquor license. (It won't).

'It's got a high-end feel but it's comfortable enough that you'd want to stay here and enjoy yourself,' Ms May says.

Vaping devices come in a huge range of styles, shapes and finishes suitable for the newcomer up to the seasoned user

About 100 customers a day visit The Steamery; first-timers seeking advice start at the shop's help desk pictured above

Bartender Maddy May at the tasting counter where a touch-screen terminal allows customers to pick their 'e-juice' flavours

'People come and stay for four hours. It's just a bit of a hangout. People know that they can come here and spend as much time as they want, enjoying the flavours and the ambiance without any time restrictions.'

The 'vapers' who visit The Steamery are among the estimated 250,000 Australians who use e-cigarettes, battery-powered devices that heat a liquid solution into an aerosol which is inhaled and exhaled.

Vaping replicates the hand-to-mouth action of smoking but The Steamery does not sell nicotine.

What goes into the mouths of inhalers and what comes out is a visible mist, or vapour. Nothing is combusted and no smoke is produced.

The Steamery is one of about eight vaping stores in Sydney and almost all its customers are smokers or ex-smokers.

Some source their own liquid nicotine from overseas and independently add it to the flavoured 'e-juice' the business sells.

Visitors to The Steamery vape lounge often ask staff when the business will get a liquor licence because it feels like a bar

Bartender Maddy May vapes while she serves two customers who have come to The Steamery seeking flavoured 'e-juice'

Vaping devices are not visibly for sale until a customer asks to see the range, when a light switch is flicked to illuminate a case

It is an offence in every Australian state and territory to manufacture, sell or supply nicotine, which is scheduled as a 'dangerous poison'.

However, liquid nicotine can be imported by an individual for use as an aid to stop smoking, if the importer holds a prescription from a doctor.

It is believed very few doctors are willing to write such prescriptions so those wanting to buy nicotine go online and overseas.

Meanwhile, smokers over 18 can freely buy cigarettes and other tobacco products which cause cancer.

Vapers say they have found a way to give up smoking but those who possess nicotine still face potential punishment under the law.

Mr Fichkin describes his customers as a 'community' which communicates online and gathers at places such as his bricks and mortar store. Like most of his clientele, Mr Fichkin once smoked.

'There're not a single vape shop that I know of that isn't owned by an ex-smoker,' he says.

This customer came into The Steamery with half a packet of cigarettes and left with a vaping device with cost him $79.99

The range of flavours used in vaping devices includes vanilla cupcake, banana milkshake, cheese cake and peanut butter

Vaping is legal in Australia but it is not legal to possess nicotine; Kevin Ta is pictured vaping flavoured e-juice without nicotine

'If you don't have a love for the product you won't succeed in the industry full-stop.'

Mr Fichkin, who used to smoke up to 30 cigarettes a day, was introduced to vaping when a friend returned from Europe with a vaping device.

From the start, he was sold on the product. 'From that point it was an immediate transition for me personally,' Mr Fichkin says. 'It was instant for me.'

Mr Fichkin was working in finance and his wife in insurance when they decided to turn their new passion into a business.

They began at Parklea and Flemington markets and the business grew to a point where they had enough stock and customers to open their own store. The Steamery started in 2014.

'Back then it was a little bit of a wild wild west industry as it was flying well and truly under the radar,' Mr Fichkin says.

Shea Williams-Philpott, The Steamery's retail area manager, says the business relies on the internet and word of mouth.

Customers at The Steamery in Sydney's Beaconsfield sit at the tasting bar to experiment with flavours to inhale from devices

Once a customer has chosen a vaping device they will be taken to the taste bar to find an 'e-juice' flavour that suits them

Kevin Ta vaping at The Steamery in Sydney's Beaconsfield which owner Maxim Fichkin says attracts a vaping 'community'

He says when he encounters another vaper while driving or walking down the street they will often each raise their device with a wave to acknowledge their common story.

'Community is a real thing in this industry,' he says.

'The reason that "community" applies so much to this industry is that everyone who vapes vapes because of somebody they know.

'The generation that we deal with most, which is the millennial generation, they're very peer review based.

'If it's not peer reviewed it doesn't exist. If they can't find detail on it they don't buy it.'

Mr Fichkin says almost no one arrives at the shop accidentally.

'This industry is not walk-in traffic. They are jumping online. They are looking for a shop.

'These are not people that would see our signage and just come in.'

A first time customer who approaches the front counter of The Steamery is initially asked if they are a cigarette smoker

The Steamery has had to introduce a nominal fee to use its bar tasting service to comply with government regulations

All the employees at The Steamery understand the mechanics of the devices they sell; bartender Maddy May behind counter

Vaping is not harmless but the current scientific agreement is that it is far less harmful than smoking tobacco. Vapers who have given up cigarettes are generally keen to share their success with family and friends who smoke.

A first time customer who approaches the front counter of The Steamery is initially asked if they are a smoker, how much tobacco they smoke and what strength they need.

The customer would then reveal whether they were a 'mouth to lung' smoker or 'direct to lung' smoker. What type of 'throat hit' - the feeling of inhalation - the customer prefers is sought.

The kind of device the customer wants comes down to personal taste and what is practical for them, Mr Fichkin says. The language varies widely but there are regulated mods, mech mods, pens, drippers and more.

'It's not about the best device on the market,' Mr Fichkin says. 'It's about having the best device for you.'

Mr Fichkin says there is also 'techy, geeky' side to vaping for those who want to build and maintain their own devices. Mr Shea Williams-Philpott prefers the term 'hobbyist' for those aficionados.

Proponents of vaping say there is no evidence the increased visibility of the practice makes smoking appear more acceptable

The Steamery's owner Max Fichkin says almost no one walks into his business without research or hearing about it first

Mr Williams-Philpott says in keeping with the millennial vibe, the device must look and feel good too.

'It's like buying a computer,' he says. 'It can have the best specs in the world but if it's not tactile and doesn't have the good looks you won't pick it up again.'

Once a customer has chosen a device they will be taken to the taste bar to find an 'e-juice' flavour that suits them. Most start with a tobacoo flavour but the options are immense.

A touch-screen terminal also lists fruit, nuts, coffee, dessert, breakfast, candy, drink and menthol flavours. Each of those categories can be further broken down.

Flavours include caramelised banana, fresh lime and lemon tart as well as 'drop bear', 'gecko sludge' and 'fairy fart'.

Mr Fichkin says seasoned users can sometimes experience 'vaper's tongue', which occurs when someone has vaped the one flavour so long they can no longer taste it.

It has been estimated that up to 250,000 Australians are regular vapers but the practice is far more widespread in the UK

The Steamery's Max Fichkin (right) watches as bartender Maddy May helps set up a new customer with his first device

He describes the vaping retail experience as 'highly rewarding' helping someone stop smoking and take up a less harmful habit.

'I'm not saying it's a healthy option,' Mr Fichkin says. 'It's a healthier option.'

'If you're looking to a harm reduction option, vaping for me personally is safer than smoking.'

A tradie wearing a high-visibility shirt who wants to buy his first atomiser is in and out of the shop within 20 minutes when Daily Mail Australia visits this week.

He came into the store with half a pack of cigarettes and left with a $79.99 vaping device.

'As soon as I walk out of her I'm gonna through 'em out,' he says of his remaining smokes. 'This'll be the best 80 bucks I'll ever spend.'

Ross Cameron comes into the store to pick up some e-juice as his online supply has run out.

He describes himself as a 'hopeless smoker' until he discovered vaping.

A glass cabinet shows some of the flavoured 'e-juice' options available to vapers who want to give up their tobacco habit

The Steamery feels more like a bar than a shop and customers have been known to spend hours inside relaxing as they vape

'I couldn't give up,' Mr Cameron says. 'Tried all the drugs. Tried all the therapies. In the end I just hated it. Hated lighting up. Hated the smell of it. Hated the smoke.

'For me it's a way to stay away from smoking. I'm not particularly concerned if it's hip or cool. If I didn't stop it was going to kill me.'

Every one of Mr Fichkin's employees understands the mechanics of the devices. He compares buying vapourisers to purchasing mobile phones.

'It is a tech-based environment,' he says. 'Vape devices are treated with a similar thought process as your new iPhone.

'You can upgrade, downgrade, side-grade, based on what experience you want from your device.

'The constant innovations in this fast-paced industry is a very attractive component of vaping.

'This industry is very, very fast paced. Every three to six months there'll be a slight evolution, a revised version of a previous model.

Modern vaping devices can provide the same level of nicotine as tobacco cigarettes while relieving strong urges to smoke

First time vapers are encouraged to find the right device for their needs before choosing a flavour of 'e-juice' that suits them

'I would say this industry is one of the most innovative in the country.'

Colin Mendelsohn is an associate professor in the School of Public Health and Community Medicine at the University of New South Wales and a tobacco treatment specialist.

A strong supporter of the use of e-cigarettes as an aid to stop smoking, he too describes a vaping 'community'.

'It's all about sharing the love and helping other people,' Dr Mendelsohn says. 'It's a network, a group to belong to.'

Anti-vapers are concerned the practice will make smoking seem acceptable and encourage children to take up the habit. They say the long-term health risks are not fully known.

Mr Fichkin notes the Royal College of Physicians in the United Kingdom has found vaping was up to 95 per cent safer than smoking.

'Countries like the UK, New Zealand, Canada and the USA are all supportive of vaping,' he says.

Dr Mendelsohn is adamant Australian laws need changing to allow smokers an easy, lawful way to kick their habit.

'The question is would you break the law or continue to do something that will kill you?' Dr Mendelsohn says.

There is no suggestion that any of the persons shown in this article have engaged in anything other than legal vaping activities.Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin and Dutch Foreign Minister Halbe Zijlstra have discussed measures to counteract Russian aggression, the press service of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry reported.

"During the talks, the foreign ministers of Ukraine and the Netherlands, Pavlo Klimkin and Halbe Zijlstra have agreed to strengthen cooperation within international organizations to counteract Russian aggression, in particular in the context of the non-permanent membership of the Netherlands in the UN Security Council in 2018.

The ministers paid special attention to the issue of the deployment of the UN Peacekeeping Mission in the occupied territories of Donbas. The Dutch minister confirmed the unchanged position on the observance of the sanctions regime against Russia until it fully implements the Minsk agreements.

"The ministers positively assessed the first results of the implementation of the Association Agreement between Ukraine and the EU, which creates additional opportunities for the further development of trade and economic cooperation between Ukraine and the Netherlands, and also discussed prospects for further expansion of cooperation in the agrarian and IT sectors, in logistics, water resources management, waste management, and energy efficiency," the Foreign Ministry reported.

The ministry said the prosecution of those responsible for downing the MH17 aircraft remains a priority.

Also, during his stay in the Hague, the Minister addressed students and teachers of the Hague Department of Leiden University, and gave interviews to the leading Dutch media RTL nieuws and ANP.

As reported, earlier Klimkin discussed cooperation in the field of cyber security and counteraction to Russian propaganda with Interior Minister of the Netherlands Kajsa Ollongren.The safety arms at a train crossing in rural Virginia had malfunctioned several times the day before an Amtrak train carrying several GOP members of Congress slammed into a garbage truck, killing a 28-year-old passenger.

Residents in Crozet said the crossing arms kept going down signaling them to stop on Tuesday although no train was approaching. The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating whether the safety arms had malfunctioned, but said its too early to determine if that was the cause for Wednesday's fatal crash.

Gene Locke, who lives near the crash site in Crozet, told the Associated Press that between 8:30am and 9:30am Tuesday he saw the safety arms go down and the signal light flash.

Emergency personnel work at the scene of a train crash involving a garbage truck in Crozet, Va., on Wednesday, Jan. 31, 2018

The train was carrying several Republican lawmakers from Washington DC to West Virginia for an annual retreat when it crashed into the truck

Christopher Foley, a 28-year-old father-of-one, was killed in Wednesday's train collision

Foley was a passenger in the garbage truck, owned by Time Disposal, his family said

That typically warns drivers not to cross the tracks because a train is approaching, but Locke said a train never went by in either direction. After waiting a minute or so, Locke said he backed up, turned around and took a different route to get to his destination.

He told the Associated Press that he assumed the arms were either not working properly or workers were testing them.

'I did not report this, as it was the first time this has happened in my observation since I have been using that crossing for several years,' he told the outlet.

Jane Rogers, who lives about two miles from the crash site, said that when she arrived at the crossing Tuesday, the gate was down. Rogers also said a train never went by.

'It was a weird up-and-down thing,' she said. 'Then the next day, the accident happened at that intersection.'

Rogers said after waiting, one car in front of her and two cars behind her turned around. Then, as she started to turn around, the gate went up. One car then crossed the tracks, but Rogers said she waited another 30 seconds and the gate went down again.

The crash left one person dead and four people injured, including the truck's driver and another passenger

Authorities said hundreds of people were on the train, including several GOP members of Congress

The crash caused serious damage for the forward engine of the train, pictured above in a picture posted to Twitter

The National Transportation Safety Board has dispatched a team to investigate the cause of the accident

Many lawmakers on board who are physicians were among the first responders on the scene to tend to the injured. Above, a view of the crashed truck from inside the train

Sen. Jeff Flake said there were three people in the truck - one who died and two others who were injured

The collision caused the contents of the truck to spill out over the side of the tracks

Earlier this week, Crozet resident Benny Lane told the Associated Press that he saw a man examining the malfunctioning crossing arms a few days before the crash.

Lane, who lives near the horrific crash site and said the destroyed garbage truck was on his property, said the gate would stay down for hours at a time.

Carrie Brown, human resources manager at Buckingham Branch Railroad, which leases the stretch of track and is responsible for maintenance, said Wednesday that she was unaware of any problems with equipment at the crossing.

Pete Kotowski, the lead investigator for the National Transportation Safety Board, said an exhaustive investigation is being conducted.

Wednesday's crash injured six people and killed 28-year-old father-of-one Christopher Foley. Authorities said he was a passenger in the garbage truck.

'Chris was such a kind, loving, and special man. He was always trying to make you laugh and he made everyone he came into contact with smile. His son was the light of his life and Adriana was the love of his life, family members wrote on a GoFundMe page set up to help with funeral expenses.

He was a hard worker and he would be amazed at how many people are coming to aid in this tragedy right now.

Above, an aerial view of the crash scene on Wednesday near Crozet, Virginia

Residents in Crozet said the safety arms at the train crossing had been malfunctioning the day before the crash

Gene Locke, who lives near the crash site in Crozet, told the Associated Press that between 8:30am and 9:30am Tuesday he saw the safety arms go down and the signal light flash but a train never went by in either direction

Jane Rogers, who lives about two miles from the crash site, said that when she arrived at the crossing Tuesday, the gate was down. Rogers also said a train never went by

Resident Benny Lane said the safety gate would stay down for hours at a time. The destroyed garbage truck landed on Lane's property

Another passenger in the truck was airlifted to the University of Virginia Medical Center with critical injuries, WTVR reports. The driver was taken by ground in serious condition. The four other injured people, two who were crew members, have been released.

Eyewitnesses told NTSB investigators that the driver of the truck was reportedly seen snaking the vehicle through the crossing gates, although the safety arms were down and the signal light was flashing.

Kotowski said investigators are 'in the process' of trying to interview the driver of the truck. So far, four eyewitnesses have been interviewed, as well as a crew member from the train. Investigators scheduled an interview with the engineer of the Amtrak train.

During a news conference on Thursday, Kotowski said the train was traveling 'about 61mph' seconds before it slammed into the truck. The speed limit at that crossing is 60mph, he said.

The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating whether the safety arms had malfunctioned, but said its too early to determine if that was the cause for Wednesday's fatal crash

Carrie Brown, human resources manager at Buckingham Branch Railroad, which leases the stretch of track and is responsible for maintenance, said that she was unaware of any problems with equipment at the crossing

Rep. Jason Lewis was among five people hospitalized after the accident. He suffered a concussion. He's seen above being rolled away from the scene on a stretcher

After the crash, lawmakers continued on to their destination tweeting their prayers and condolences to Foley and those who were injured

The trash company, Time Disposal, has been in business for 33 years and has 17 drivers and 15 trucks.

'The company has been subject to six roadside safety inspections with two of them resulting in vehicles being placed out of service,' Kotowski said.

He also said the company had two reported crashes - one in 2015 and one in 2016 - but gave no further details on those accidents.

Wednesday's collision happened at an intersection that crosses the tracks at the top of a hill where visibility is limited.

The Amtrak train was carrying several Publican lawmakers from Washington DC to West Virginia for their annual retreat at the Greenbrier Hotel when it crashed into the truck.

A few lawmakers were hospitalized with minor injuries, but have since been released.Mexico and President Donald Trump may not see eye-to-eye on certain issues but that hasn't stopped the country from forming a pretty solid bond with the United States, the country's foreign relations secretary revealed.

Luis Videgaray, who serves as the Secretary of Foreign Affairs in Mexico, said Friday night that his country's relationship with the United States is 'more fluid' and 'closer' than it has been with previous US administrations.

'It might be surprising to some people, but that's a fact of life,' he said at a joint news conference in Mexico City with US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland.

The three officials met to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement, according to the Associated Press. They also discussed security concerns, trade and other global concerns.

Mexico and the United States are 'closer' than ever, it was revealed Friday during a joint news conference with officials from Mexico, Canada and the US. Pictured above is Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto (left) shaking hands with US President Donald Trump (right) at the G20 Summit in Hamburg, Germany, on July 7, 2017

Canada's Minister of Foreign Affairs Chrystia Freeland (left) Mexican Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray (center) and US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson (right) held a joint news conference in Mexico City

The three officials discussed the North American Free Trade Agreement, as well as security concerns, trade and other global concerns. Pictured above from left to right is Freeland, Videgaray and Tillerson during their news conference

Over the past year, Trump and Mexico have had several well-publicized disagreements over issues including immigration, trade and payment for a proposed border wall. However, Videgaray said that 'with the Trump administration, we're committed to having a very close communication and that has proven to be a tremendous benefit for the relationship'.

'I want to highlight the role that  and leadership of Secretary Tillerson, who has been instrumental to achieving this, and to bring our countries closer,' Videgaray added. 'Yes, we do have some differences, as every other country does, but we've been working very closely, we've achieved substantial things, and we're looking into the future.

'This is a relationship about opportunities and about the things that we can do together, and we're working well, we're working close, and we are about results.'

Tillerson's stop in Mexico kicked off a six-day Latin America trip that will also take him to Panama, Argentina, Peru, Colombia and Jamaica.

He was greeted in Mexico City on Friday by a handful of protesters holding up signs reading 'Dreamers, Trump's hostages,' and 'We are workers, not terrorists, not criminals.'

The three officials said they also discussed the political and economic crisis in Venezuela and its government's decision to push up presidential elections to April under conditions that opponents say overwhelmingly favor President Nicolas Maduro, who is so far the only candidate.

Tillerson's stop in Mexico kicked off a six-day Latin America trip that will also take him to Panama, Argentina, Peru, Colombia and Jamaica. He was met in Mexico City with protectors like this woman who is holding up signs that read in Spanish: 'Dreamers as prisoners of Donald Trump,' and 'Stop deportations that separate families, causing pain, anguish, and tears'

Freeland, Videgaray and Tillerson (pictured left to right) said they also discussed the political and economic crisis in Venezuela and its government's decision to push up presidential elections to April

'We shared our concerns for the humanitarian crisis that has unfolded in Venezuela,' Tillerson said. 'We all urge the Maduro regime to return to free, open credible, democratic elections.'

He added: 'If President Maduro would return to the Venezuelan constitution, restore the duly elected assembly, dismantle the illegitimate constituent assembly and return to free and fair elections, then he's happy to stay and run in the free and fair elections. If he wants to step aside and let someone else run in them, that's fine.'

Videgaray said Mexico had limits on how far it will go in pressuring Venezuela and would no t support any decision that 'involves violence, either internal or external'.Leading Democrats warned President Donald Trump that firing top Justice Department official Rod Rosenstein would trigger a 'constitutional crisis.'

The Democrats provided the warning after Trump declined to express confidence the the veteran official overseeing special prosecutor Robert Mueller's probe.

Trump got asked about Rosenstein Friday after the release of an explosive GOP memo drafted by House Intelligence Committee Republicans.

Asked if he still had confidence Rosenstein, the deputy attorney genearl, Trump  who has gone after Rosenstein publicly before  responded: 'You figure that one out.'

He frowned when he made the Oval Office statement about Rosenstein.

President Donald Trump declined to say if he had confidence in Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who overseas the Mueller probe. 'You figure that one out,' he said

Despite Trump's comments, two White House officials told the Associated Press there was no consideration or expectation for Rosenstein to leave his job.

Trump's refusal to express confidence in Rosenstein prompted an immediate response from Democrats, including House minority leader Nancy Pelosi and Senate minority leader Charles Schumer, who wrote him about it.

Also signing on were the top Democrats on the two Intelligence committees, Rep. Adam Schiff from the House and Sen. Mark Warner from the Senate.

'We write to inform you that we would consider such an unwarranted act as an attempt to obstruct justice in the Russia investigation,' the lawmakers wrote.

'Firing Rod Rosenstein, DOJ Leadership or Bob Mueller could result in a constitutional crisis of a kind not seen since the Saturday Night Massacre,' the Democrats wrote.

President Donald Trump called the revelations in a GOP memo a 'disgrace'

CURRENTLY EMPLOYED: Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein participates in a chat about the state of the internet, hosted by The Internet Society, on January 29, 2018 in Washington, DC

Mueller continues to probe Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

The letter followed the release of a GOP Intelligence panel memo that they called a 'transparent attempt to discredit the hard-working men and women of law enforcement who are investigating Russias interference with our Presidential election and that nations ties to your campaign.'

They wrote: 'We are alarmed by reports that you may intend to use this misleading document as a pretext to fire Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, in an effort to corruptly influence or impede Special Counsel Bob Muellers investigation.'

The lawmakers, led by Pelosi and Senate minority leader Charles Schumer, add: 'We write to inform you that we would consider such an unwarranted action as an attempt to obstruct justice in the Russia investigation. Firing Rod Rosenstein, DOJ Leadership, or Bob Mueller could result in a constitutional crisis of the kind not seen since the Saturday Night Massacre,' they wrote.

I PLEDGE ALLIGIANCE ... United States Attorney General Jeff Sessions (L) and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein stand for the pledge of allegiance at a summit about combating human trafficking at the Department of Justice in Washington, U.S., February 2, 2018

Also signing the letter were House Intelligence Committee Ranking Member Adam Schiff of California and Senate Intelligence Committee Ranking Member Mark Warner of Virginia.

The were jointed by House minority whip Steny Hoyer of Maryland, caucus chair Joe Crowley of New York, and Judiciary ranking member Jerry Nadler of New York, along with Senate Judiciary Committee ranking Member Dianne Feinstein of California and Senate Democratic whip Richard Durbin of Illinois.

Schiff called the memo 'misleading' and said it 'cherry picked' information to 'help support the president' and 'discredit the Mueller investigation' into Russian election interference, appearing on CNN.Peta Butler has been left fearing for her's and her family's life following the sentencing of her mother, who left her to be raped by a stranger in a hotel room when she was 16.

Therese Butler, 47, told her boyfriend to 'take out' her daughter and her daughter's father during violent outbursts in court - threats that have not been taken lightly by the 27-year-old victim.

Speaking with Daily Mail Australia, Peta claimed the boyfriend mentioned several times he was linked with bikie gangs, and she now held genuine fears for her family's safety.

Peta Butler (pictured) whose twisted mother left her to be raped by a stranger when she was 16 lives in fear of her mum's boyfriend 'taking out' her and her family

Therese Butler (pictured holding Peta as a baby), 47, told her boyfriend to 'take out' her daughter and her daughter's father during violent outbursts in court

While she's never been convinced of his alleged outlaw ties, she's not willing to take any risks and will ask authorities for 'massive protection to be put in place effective immediately' first thing Monday.

'He's told me before he could have someone pulled in a heartbeat,' Peta claimed.

The traumatised daughter said her mother screamed, 'take out my f***ing daughter' as she was getting taken away.

'She was threatening to kill my father and myself,' she said.

'I've got to protect myself, my partner and my children.'

The traumatised daughter said Therese (centre) screamed, 'take out my f***ing daughter' as she was getting taken away

Peta (pictured) claims the boyfriend had mentioned several times he was linked with bikie gangs

Peta revealed to Daily Mail Australia new details of her own depraved mother's extraordinary betrayal about a decade ago in Toowoomba, west of Brisbane, Queensland.

Therese Buter, from Ipswich, took her daughter on a 'girl's trip' to the regional city in 2006 so her internet boyfriend 'Thommo' could have sex with 'a younger version of herself'.

She gave Peta four Vodka Cruisers to drink before leaving her in a motel room while she was raped by Thommo, who had unprotected sex with the girl.

Peta broke down in court and said she would never forgive her mother, who claimed she feared the man would break up with her if she didn't oblige.

'I've felt nothing but pain, anger mentally numb as to how a mother can do this to a child,' she said to her mother in court, Sunshine Coast Daily reported.

The vile mother, now 47, was sentenced to four years' jail suspended after 12 months by the state's District Court on Monday. She screamed insults at her child throughout the sentencing.

'If she had shown remorse and accepted her sentence without threatening and abusing me then yes I would have been content with the the sentence,' the daughter said.

A woman (pictured) whose twisted mother left her to be raped by a stranger when she was 16 has slammed her mum's 12 month jail sentence

'But she didn't show any remorse. She just retaliated.

'So I would have to say "no", I'm not happy with the sentence and if the chance came up on my end I would appeal in a heartbeat.'

The young woman, now a mother of her own with a loving partner, mustered the courage to come forward to police with details of the crime only two years ago.

Family, including her father, were shocked when she finally came forward with the allegations.

Police charged the mother with procuring a child for carnal knowledge.

But the rapist, 'Thommo', has never been found.

Prosecutors this week sought a head sentence of up to four years' imprisonment for the mother. The defence sought three years' imprisonment.

The prosecution got their wish but the sentence was suspended after a year, with Judge Dennis Lynch QC condemning the mother's actions as an 'appalling breach of trust', according to local newspaper the Ipswich Queensland Times.

'You were to protect her yet you are the one who procured her to be available for sexual intercourse,' Judge Lynch reportedly said.

The Ipswich mother took her daughter (pictured) on a 'girl's trip' to the regional city in 2006 so her internet boyfriend 'Thommo' could have sex with 'a younger version of herself'

The woman had already served 108 days behind bars - meaning she would be released within months.

The daughter said that was unfair - and she feels like she is the one serving the life sentence.

'I have to live the rest of my life betrayed by my biological mother and live with the event,' she said.

'So for me I'm the one serving a life sentence whereas she walks out on 12th October 2018 which is less than 8 months away.

Victims of crime advocate Howard Brown told Daily Mail Australia he thought the court's decision was 'appalling' and like being 'beaten around with a feather'.

'If she had shown remorse and accepted her sentence without threatening and abusing me then yes I would have been content with the the sentence,' the daughter (pictured) said

'It is sending exactly the wrong message to victims of sexual assault,' he said. 'Why would you put yourself through that criminal process for such a pathetic outcome?'

However, the daughter did admit she felt at least some closure.

'To a certain degree justice has been served but my reason for coming forward was not revenge.

'It was for my self closure and to help myself move forward and it was a step by step process which took me a decade to build strength'.

'[I'm] feeling content and relieved due to me being able to close that door'.

She said if her story could help one person come forward about their own horrific experiences 'then my job is somewhat done'.

'I would hate to see this be the norm for any future sentences like this one'.TM Eye, which has a 100 per cent conviction rate, is thought to bring more private prosecutions than any organisation besides the RSPCA. Pictured: Youcef Mokhtari, from London, is one of the new 'bobbies'

The countrys first private police force is investigating hundreds of crimes that regular officers are too busy to look at.

A firm led by former Scotland Yard senior officers has successfully prosecuted more than 400 criminals and is now carrying out murder inquiries.

TM Eye, which has a 100 per cent conviction rate, is thought to bring more private prosecutions than any organisation besides the RSPCA.

The company, the countrys first de-facto private police force, is operating against a backdrop of rising crime rates and police budget cuts. Its activities include:

A service called My Local Bobby costing wealthy households up to 200 a month each for guards to patrol their streets;

Three high-profile murder investigations that police have been unable to complete, including one case dogged by allegations of corruption and cover-up;

Help in cases of rape, missing persons, burglary, theft, stalking and blackmail.

Co-founder Tony Nash, an ex-Metropolitan Police commander, said: This is going back to Dixon of Dock Green to a degree. Its what people want.

There is no substitute for going out and knocking on doors. But with the current state of finances, police are solving cases behind their desks and that has become the culture.

In the past two years the company has brought successful private prosecutions against 403 criminals for fraud, intellectual property theft and other offences. A total of 43 were jailed.

The company, staffed by retired detectives and cyber-crime experts from Scotland Yard, the National Crime Agency and GCHQ, is now expanding its services beyond predominantly financial investigations.

The firm has offices in London, Manchester, Essex and Mumbai in India, where investigators have helped to catch a major manufacturer of fake medicines

It comes as police chiefs admit they do not have the money to investigate high- volume crimes such as shoplifting and stretched officers complain that they are at breaking point.

But critics fear the rise of private policing could lead to a two-tier system where only the wealthy get protection from criminals.

Metropolitan Police Federation chairman Ken Marsh described the rise of private detectives as a staggering indictment of the state of policing.

Eventually there will be a two-tier system with the haves and the have-nots, and if you have money and live in a 20million house in Chelsea you can pay for private security, he said.

Critics fear the rise of private policing could lead to a two-tier system where only the wealthy get protection from criminals

My concern would be, where is the public scrutiny if it goes wrong? If they are allowed to go and do polices job for them, that is a dangerous status quo.

Last week official police figures revealed the largest recorded annual increase in crime for more than a decade, with surging levels of violence, sex attacks, knife and gun offences across the country.

But what was not recorded in the figures is the astonishing number of criminals being locked up  and in some instances even deported  through the work of private investigators.

Co-founder Tony Nash (pictured right), an ex-Metropolitan Police commander, said: This is going back to Dixon of Dock Green to a degree. Its what people want'

TM Eye currently has 36 criminal cases pending at Crown and magistrates courts around the country and is working on a further 60 investigations in London, Cheshire, Dorset, Avon and Somerset and Essex.

In the past six months, its 60 investigators have snared suspects wanted by police for attempted murder and rape.

Recently a stalker was jailed for four years on the basis of its work.

Using covert surveillance and undercover operatives, the private firm has managed to smash a major counterfeit goods gang, securing convictions for 60 offenders in Manchester selling fake designer handbags and clothing.

All of its convictions and suspects DNA and fingerprints are recorded on the Police National Computer.

It does not charge for its investigative services, seeking instead to recoup costs from courts after offenders are convicted.

The firm has offices in London, Manchester, Essex and Mumbai in India, where investigators have helped to catch a major manufacturer of fake medicines.

The firm launched its subscription service My Local Bobby last March and its staff now patrol some of Londons most expensive streets in Belgravia, Mayfair and Kensington.

Individual uniformed bobbies cover up to 250 houses, whose owners each pay a fee of 100 to 200 a month.

In return, clients get a meet-and-greet service from their car or the Tube, and have a hotline to their bobby whose location they can track on their iPad.

It comes as police chiefs admit they do not have the money to investigate high- volume crimes such as shoplifting

If there is a crime, the firm promises to have a local response officer on the scene within five minutes.

Like police, the patrol teams have body cameras to record evidence. They can apprehend suspects using a citizens arrest.

Mr Nash said his ambition is to get local authorities to outsource their patrols to the firm.

TM Eye also offers more traditional security work such as bodyguards for foreign dignitaries.

The firms managing director David McKelvey, a retired Scotland Yard detective chief inspector, said: We probably do more undercover work than any other law enforcement agency. We have a better surveillance capability and equipment than most forces.

He added: Its about catching the bad guys and protecting the public, and we can help with that.

Police are on their knees, sick to the teeth with what is going on in their job. The bottom line is we have better uniforms, better pay and better support at work. Its a huge growth industry.

David Green, of the think-tank Civitas and a former adviser to the Government, said: This seems a reflection of the fact that the police are overstretched, underfunded and unable to cope and this group has emerged to fill the gap.

There is nothing wrong with private security or private patrols.

But if they take on some of the functions of the police and the call for this grows, there is a danger there is not the same safeguards that we have with the police.

If the police do something wrong there is a clear disciplinary structure, a chain of accountability and independent scrutiny. If these private firms exercise police powers without public accountability, there could be dangers there.

Police force recruits unpaid volunteers to drive officers around as it looks to save 17million Volunteers will be at the wheel of unmarked police cars for tasks such as taking officers and evidence to court or to locations where they are carrying out inquiries A police force is recruiting unpaid volunteers to drive officers around. The Avon and Somerset Police force aims to relieve pressures on frontline officers while it makes cuts of 17million. It is looking for six recruits for the driver support service who will work one ten-hour shift a week. They will be at the wheel of unmarked police cars for tasks such as taking officers and evidence to court or to locations where they are carrying out inquiries. They will also collect medication for detainees. Volunteer drivers will not be paid but will have the chance to become a valued member of the constabulary. Temporary Assistant Chief Constable Steve Cullen said: This is all about embracing trusted members of the community who wish to participate in policing and maximising the amount of time officers and staff spend carrying out their core roles. Not only does this enable our officers to keep working on mobile devices whilst being driven but it will ensure that our cars are being used efficiently and not tied up all day for one appointment. The scheme is due to start in the spring with working hours of 8am to 6pm with breaks. Volunteers will be based in Bristol but will be expected to cover the forces entire patch. The job description reads: We are looking for an enthusiastic and motivated team who can relieve some of the demand and pressures on our frontline officers. AdvertisementThousands of campaigners will march on Parliament today demanding an end to the witch-hunt against troops who served in Northern Ireland.

They are calling on Theresa May to halt the appalling decision to re-examine historical killings during the Troubles.

Up to 1,000 ex-soldiers, many in their 60s and 70s, are now potential murder or manslaughter suspects over actions at the height of the IRAs campaign.

The marchers are angry at what they claim is a witch hunt against British troops who served in Northern Ireland

The Prime Minister was urged to act over the Police Service of Northern Irelands controversial move to hold a fresh investigation into every Army killing in the fight against Irish republican terrorism.

The rally, which begins in Horse Guards Parade and ends in Parliament Square with rousing speeches, has been organised by the protest group Justice For Northern Ireland Veterans and is expected to attract 2,000 campaigners.

They will hold up 200 placards, each bearing the name of a soldier, police officer or civilian murdered by the IRA in Ulster.

The Daily Mail has long campaigned for an end to the hounding of our troops.

Justice For Northern Ireland Veterans says action is unjustly being taken against soldiers while IRA members who committed atrocities get off scot-free.

The group wants to highlight the disparity in treatment between the veterans and 187 on-the-run paramilitary suspects who received comfort letters from Tony Blairs government which told them they were not being sought by police.

Up to 1,000 ex-soldiers, many in their 60s and 70s, are now potential murder or manslaughter suspects

Organiser Alan Barry, who served in the Grenadier Guards, said: We want to show the imbalance between the terrorists who received get-out-of-jail-free cards giving them immunity from prosecution and the unacceptable decision to prosecute British soldiers.

We want to send a message to Parliament that we will not tolerate the hounding of veterans who went to Northern Ireland on the side of law and order to fight terrorism.

To haul them before the courts is grotesque.

Tory MP Julian Lewis, chairman of the Commons defence committee, is set to speak at the event. He has demanded an end to the prosecutions and says the Government should pass a statute of limitations to prevent veterans facing legal action over the killings.

The rally will be addressed by Conservative MP Julian Lewis, chairman of the Commons defence committee

This would effectively grant immunity to those who served in Ulster from 1969 to the signing of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998.

Retired soldier Dennis Hutchings, who is facing an attempted murder charge over a fatal shooting more than 40 years ago, will also attend the rally.

The 76-year-old said the veterans had been abandoned by ministers.

He said: It is imperative we get the politicians to start listening. My gripe is that they and the serving generals in the Ministry of Defence are not speaking out and trying to stop this injustice.

The Police Service of Northern Irelands taxpayer-funded Legacy Investigation Branch is re- examining 302 deaths during the Troubles.

Critics are angry that, although 90 per cent of the 3,500 killings in Northern Ireland were at the hands of terrorists, the investigation has focused on the actions of British forces.

The former soldiers treatment has been compared to that of John Downey, who escaped prosecution for the 1982 Hyde Park bombing because he was given a police guarantee of immunity.

Downey has always denied involvement and pleaded not guilty at the Old Bailey in 2014.The Environment Secretary will launch a consultation on the animal welfare measure in the spring.

The new policy emerged after a former Cabinet minister withdrew a private members bill that she was set to outline in the Commons yesterday.

Theresa Villers said she did so after being told Mr Gove was looking very seriously at banning the trade.

Campaigners have protested against animals travelling long distances to sub-standard abattoirs in Europe

The plans will be seen as another example of the Conservatives efforts to rebrand themselves as the caring party.

Backbenchers were told last year that the Tories will concentrate on issues such as the environment and animal welfare after internal polling showed they were seen as uncaring.

Mr Gove has already unveiled a series of environmental measures such as efforts to reduce the amount of plastic in circulation.

The live export of animals has been controversial for years. Campaigners have in the past blockaded ports to halt what they say is a cruel trade which can see animals travelling long distances to sub-standard abattoirs in Europe.

Environment Secretary Michael Gove is to launch a consultation on the animal welfare measure in the spring

The UKs ferry companies stopped accepting the business in 2007. Just one private boat now takes animals from Ramsgate, and the numbers of animals involved has fallen.

According to the National Farmers Union, fewer than 20,000 sheep and no cattle were exported last year.

But some farmers say it would be better to allow the trade to continue with an assurance scheme to ensure high welfare standards for all stages of the animals journey.

A Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs spokesman said Mr Gove was attracted to the idea of a ban, adding: We are considering all options.

Theresa Villiers withdrew her private members bill after Mr Gove's announcement

The Conservative manifesto at the last election included a pledge to take early steps to control exports of live farm animals.

Miss Villiers told BBC Radio 4s Farming Today she was opposed to the export of live animals because of the journey times they endure and weak regulation at overseas abattoirs.

For example, you get animals transported from Scotland to Northern Ireland, then doing a land journey to the south, then a 20-hour sea journey to France, then all the way from France down to Spain, she said.

Its simply not possible to be certain that proper animal welfare standards will be applied overseas.

I accept that it will have an impact on parts of the farming sector, but the trade now is so tiny in comparison to the sector as a whole, I believe that its worthwhile and clearly important that we go ahead with the ban thats proposed.

But Frank Langrish, a sheep farmer in Sussex, said a ban could sound the death knell for the trade post Brexit.

If we end up in a situation where there are now tariffs on live animals - there are no tariffs on live animals, he said.

The tariffs on meat are very high - 40 something per cent - theres no way in the world that you would see sheep farming continue here without that export market.A 12-year-old girl arrested in connection with a school shooting Thursday afternoon after wounding two students with a gun she thought was a toy, a witness said.

Police say the young student believed the weapon was a fake when she placed it in her book bag before arriving at Salvador Castro Middle school. It remains unclear how she got a hold of the weapon.

'This continues to be an active investigation,' according to an LAPD statement.

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A 12-year-old girl arrested in connection with a school shooting Thursday afternoon after wounding two students with a gun she thought was a toy

Police say that the young student believed the weapon was a fake when she placed it in her book bag before arriving at Salvador Castro Middle school (Pictured Feb. 2, 2018)

'However, at this time, the information suggests that it was an isolated incident, involving the negligent discharge of a firearm, where innocent children and a staff member were unfortunately injured.'

The adolescent pupil, whose name has not been released, remained at the Los Angeles County Central Juvenile Hall Friday on a charge of negligent discharge of a firearm, according to CNN.

A seventh grader who witnessed the incident said that the incident may have been accidental (Pictured Feb. 2, 2018)

A seventh grader who witnessed the incident told KABC News that the shooting may have been accidental, noting that the 'class thought it was a toy gun, but then it shot.'

The two victims, one 15-year-old boy and a girl of the same age, were transferred to nearby USC Medical center.

The male teenager was listed in critical condition after suffering a gunshot wound to the head, according to KABC, while the female victim was in fair condition after being shot through the wrist.

'This child was extremely lucky,' Dr. Aaron Strumwasser said of the boy during a news conference at the medical center. 'The trajectory of the bullet did not hit any vital structures that were an immediate threat to life... I anticipate that he will make a full recovery.'

Three others, including an 11-year-old girl, suffered minor injuries due to shrapnel in the incident.

Two students were shot and wounded, one critically, inside a Los Angeles middle school classroom Thursday morning and police arrested a female student suspect

'As a parent, this is everyone's worst-case nightmare,' LAPD Deputy Chief Bobby Arcos later said at a news conference.

The incident occurred around 9am Thursday morning at Sal Castro Middle School, which is located on the campus of Belmont High School, Los Angeles School Police said, and placed the campus on lockdown for nearly five hours.

Authorities added that the semi-automatic handgun was recovered inside the classroom where the incident transpired.

'Our children now see more shootings and deaths than we ever did in my lifetime,' USC Medical Hospital assistant director Inez Beckon-English said.

'(They) pretty much can be afraid to go to school to get an education because so many shootings are taking place.'Starring James Norton as the inscrutable Alex Godman, son of an exiled Russian crime boss, BBC1 series McMafia traverses the global sex trade and international money-laundering.

But, as the penultimate episode airs tomorrow, I can disclose that a much more compelling drama is about to explode at the High Court.

The development, alleging breach both of copyright and confidentiality by the BBC and others, is the result of a legal complaint by writer Wilf Varvill launched in October.

Varvill, 35, says he wrote a short film, produced in 2007, which he used as the basis for a proposed series, Londongrad, whose central character was Alex, the Cambridge-educated son of an exiled Russian robber baron.

It was shared on a confidential basis in 2009, 2012 and 2013 with agent Nick Marston, and his client Hossein Amini, together with the BBC, in 2011, 2012 and 2014, says Varvill.

The BBC is facing a legal battle as writer Wilf Varvill claims the hit series was based around an idea of his

In 2014, the project died because another series covering similar territory called McMafia was commissioned. Varvill says he became concerned as the same producers who took an active interest in Londongrad turned out to be producers of McMafia. The BBC, Marston and Amini all declined to comment on these allegations.

Marston, an eminent figure at leading agency Curtis Brown, part-owned by BBC Worldwide, is one of the executive producers of McMafia, as is Amini, who also co-wrote the script. Amini has spoken about the challenges of his writing role, given that Misha Glennys 2008 book McMafia, from which the series starring Norton (right) takes its name, is non-fiction.

Alex doesnt exist in the book. Literally none of the characters are real, Amini acknowledged, adding that his solution for the domestic side of the story was to cannibalise from my own family. I first moved to this country in 1979 after the Iranian revolution. My family had been exiled and I was sent to an English private school while my parents adjusted to their new lives as refugees. This became the basis for the Godman family in McMafia.

Varvill, who has Russian family and met oligarchs sons as a teenager, begs to differ. The BBCs solicitors deny breach of confidence and copyright infringement. They say McMafia is based on Glennys book, even though the story of Alex does not figure in it. The BBC knew it had already seen a project with an identical premise, but its a closed shop. Thats why Im going to the High Court.

The BBC says: McMafia is an original series created by Hossein Amini and James Watkins and inspired by Misha Glennys 2008 book of the same name.

Third marriage lucky as on-screen lovers tie knot

Spooks star Peter Firth, 64, has tied the knot with actress Alexandra Pigg, 55, more than 30 years after they played star-crossed lovers in the hit film Letter To Brezhnev. This is the third marriage for both.

Pigg and Firth enjoyed a real-life on-set romance during and after filming the 1985 movie, in which he played a Russian sailor who falls for a Liverpudlian girl while on shore leave.

But their relationship did not last and both made their lives with other people  until meeting again in 2010, when their feelings were rekindled.

They have been together ever since. Firth has said: We did have an on-set romance, but it fizzled out  and then a few years ago, it fizzled on again.

Firth has four children: a son from his first marriage and two sons and a daughter from his second. Meanwhile, Pigg has three children: a daughter from her first marriage and a son and daughter from her second.

Supple Salma's 'acroyoga' at 15

She may be 51, but Mexican-born actress Salma Hayek proves she is as supple as a woman half her age.

In this picture posted on social media, she shows off impressive acroyoga skills  a combination of yoga and acrobatics  as she is lifted into the air by her instructor, holding his ankles for support.

In December, Hayek alleged she had been sexually harassed and threatened by Harvey Weinstein during the production of Oscar-winning 2002 film Frida. He denies the claims.A 17-year-old girl and her 19-year-old boyfriend pleaded guilty on Friday to beating, stabbing and killing the girl's grandparents in their home near Atlanta.

Cassandra Bjorge and Johnny Rider admitted to murdering Wendy and Randall Bjorge in Lawrenceville, Georgia in April 2017.

Only Rider apologized for his crimes, while his former girlfriend cried and declined to speak when given the opportunity,WSBTV reported.

'I would like to express my deepest apologies to the Bjorge family. I'm so sorry for the pain and grief I have caused all of you,' Rider, said. 'I know what I have done is abominable and evil and is deserving of hellfire.'

The two were both sentenced to life in prison.

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Cassandra Bjorge (left), 17, and Johnny Rider (right), 19, admitted on Friday to savagely beating and murdering Bjorge's grandparents, Wendy and Randall Bjorge, near Atlanta in April 2017

Cassandra Bjorge was living with her grandparents at the time of the fatal attack.

The last message anyone received from Wendy Bjorge was sent to her daughter, Sylvia Bjorge Berman, moments before the two teens took their lives.

Wendy Bjorge appeared to reference the situation she was dealing with, with her granddaughter, texting her daughter, saying: 'Im going to bed soon. Maybe tomorrow will be better. All I can do is hope for the best and expect the worst. It shouldnt be this hard for any of us.'

The couple's children, who are the teen girl's aunts and uncles, said they continue to be 'haunted' by what happened.

The granddaughter had reportedly been living with her grandparents at the time of their killing, to get away from trouble in Duluth, Georgia.

The teen girl and her ex-boyfriend pleaded guilty on Friday to beating her grandparents with their fists and a tire iron, stabbing them repeatedly and slashing their throats; Randall Bjorge and Wendy Bjorge are seen here, in a photo with a man dressed as Santa Claus

The teen girl had reportedly been living with her grandparents at the time of their killing, to get away from trouble in Duluth, Georgia

Leading up to the attack, WSBTV reported there were instances of physical attacks by the troubled teen (pictured) against her grandparents

Leading up to the attack, WSBTV reported there were instances of physical assaults by the trouble teen against the grandparents.

On the night of their deaths, Rider and his ex waited until the lights were turned out in the home, before entering the home where the teen had been living, beating her grandparents with their fists and a tire iron, stabbing them multiple times and eventually slitting their throats.

The two later bleached the bodies of the girl's grandparents and sealed the room with caulk to hide the smell of their decaying bodies, while they ordered takeout, smoked marijuana and invited friends over to the home for days of parties before they were arrested.

The granddaughter and Rider reportedly tried to kill themselves in a standoff with the SWAT team, but did not succeed and were taken into custody a week after Wendy an Randall Bjorge's deaths,AJC.com reported.

If the case had gone to trial, Rider may have faced the death penalty.

Cassandra Bjorge could have only gotten life in prison, as she received at sentencing on Friday, because she was a minor at the time the crime occurred.

Judge Debra Turner said this was the worst case she's come across in her career, and took little time to interact with the teenage murderers

Judge Debra Turner said this was the worst case she's come across in her career, and took little time to interact with the teenage murderers.

'I'm not sure Ive ever imagined such a well-planned, despicable, heinous act to be committed by two such young people,' she said.

'The heartless and depraved nature of what the two of you did says to me its not worth my time.'

They each pleaded guilty to charges of murder, aggravated assault and theft.

'Your behavior lacks any sense of humanity or morality,' Turner told the pair after they entered their pleas.

The former couple's initial charges also included armed robbery and aggravated battery, but those charges were dismissed.

The teen girl and her adult former boyfriend were each sentenced to two life sentences with the possibility of parole in 60 years, plus 21 years to be served concurrently with the life sentences.

The two reportedly each blame each other for the calculated attack and murder of Wendy and Randall Bjorge.

Drugs may have played a role in the murders, WSBTV reported.Counterintelligence officers of the Security Service of Ukraine have detained the former official of the self-proclaimed "Council of Ministers" of the occupation authorities of the annexed Crimea at the Kalanchak border crossing point.

The former Ukrainian official was deputy to the so-called minister of transport of Crimea from April 2015 until May 2016, the SBU press center reported. After his release from the office, he continued anti-Ukrainian activities as part of a working group on the creation of the state program of the occupation Russian government, dubbed "Patriotic (military-patriotic) education of Russian citizens in the Republic of Crimea."

Until recently, he was secretary of the regional branch of the All-Russian Public-State Organization "Voluntary Society for the Army, Aviation and Fleet of Russia", whose activities are aimed at violating the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine.

SBU operatives received information that the man planned to leave Crimea for Kherson region to attend to personal issues, and detained him during the crossing of the administrative border. Investigators of the Main Directorate of the SBU in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea have launched criminal proceedings under part 1 of Article 111 (high treason) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, investigative and operational actions are being conducted.Foreign students do not affect long-term immigration, Theresa May said yesterday, raising the prospect that they could be dropped from the official total.

The Prime Ministers comments appear to mark a U-turn for her. She was a staunch opponent of removing students from net immigration figures for years, putting her at odds with most of her Cabinet.

Mrs May has repeatedly warned that many foreign students fail to go home after their studies, and insisted removing them from immigration figures would undermine public confidence.

As home secretary, she led a crackdown on bogus colleges.

Foreign students do not affect long-term immigration, Theresa May said yesterday, raising the prospect that they could be dropped from the official total

However, speaking on her visit to China, she said the tough measures she introduced meant students no longer had an impact on long-term immigration.

Mrs May said she was reluctant to remove them from the figures while they were included in a UN definition of migrants that counts all those who move to a nation for more than 12 months.

But in a significant shift in tone, she suggested there was no other reason to continue including them because former abuses had been dealt with.

She added: The reason the students have been in the numbers is because of the international definition of a migrant.

Whats important for us, when we looked at what happened to students in the UK, was a lot of abuse was taking place. Something like 900 colleges are no longer bringing in students because all too often they were being brought into work rather than for education.

So actually, if youve seen that abuse come out of the system, students... wash through the numbers. They dont have a long-term impact on the numbers.

Brexiteers: Emotional nutcases! Lord ONeill of Gatley (pictured) urged Leave voters to be realistic about the impact of Brexit on the economy A former Treasury minister claims passionate Brexiteers are seen on the continent as a bunch of emotional nutcases. Lord ONeill of Gatley, a close ally of George Osborne, urged Leave voters to be realistic about the impact of Brexit on the economy. The ex-chief economist at Goldman Sachs warned of the effect of EU withdrawal on sectors such as the car industry. He told Radio 4s The World At One: There may be other reasons why passionate Brexiteers choose to ignore, or trash those things... but they need to be realistic. He added: It also adds to other countries thinking the UK is full of a bunch of emotional nutcases. A week ago, he admitted the economy was thriving despite the forecasts of Project Fear. Advertisement

The shift follows a private warning from Home Secretary Amber Rudd that the Government is likely to lose a Commons vote on the issue later this year when the new Immigration Bill comes to Parliament.

Mrs May is also under pressure to change her position from senior Cabinet members including Miss Rudd, Chancellor Philip Hammond, Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson and Business Secretary Greg Clark.

According to official data, annual net migration of international students is 76,000  around a third of the 250,000 annual total. Removing them would make it far easier to hit the Tory target of cutting the total below 100,000, but would risk accusations of fiddling the figures.

Mrs May's shift follows a private warning from Home Secretary Amber Rudd that the Government is likely to lose a Commons vote on the issue later this year when the new Immigration Bill comes to Parliament

Universities say foreign students bring almost 11billion into the economy and create 170,000 jobs.

But in 2015, when she was home secretary, Mrs May warned non-EU students numbers could hit 600,000 a year by 2020 if left unchecked.

Meanwhile, the Prime Minister has backed Brexit minister Steve Baker, saying he should keep his job after he was forced to apologise to Parliament for airing conspiracy theories. He had claimed the boss of a think-tank told him that Treasury civil servants were deliberately trying to undermine Brexit.

A recording released by Charles Grant, of the Centre for European Reform, showed Mr Bakers account of his comments was wrong.

Asked if he would be fired, Mrs May said: No. The ministerial code says the minister should take the earliest opportunity to amend the record given to Parliament and apologise to Parliament. He will do that.

A Downing Street spokesman said No10 considered the matter closed.X-Men star James McAvoy is mourning the death of his mother Liz Johnstone after she passed from a long battle with illness. Above right, McAvoy pictured with his agent Ruth Young

X-Men star James McAvoy is mourning the death of his mother after she passed away following a long battle with illness.

Liz Johnstone, 59, died at the council flat that McAvoy and his actress sister Joy grew up in, on an estate in the Drumchapel area of Glasgow.

Ms Johnston had suffered ill health for some years and her death is being treated as 'non suspicious' by Police Scotland.

McAvoy, 38, remained close to his mother and his humble beginnings, despite his rise to a Hollywood stardom and would often visit his family.

However, the Atonement actor cut ties with his father, also called James, and has not spoken to him since he was seven years old.

Speaking to the Mail in 2008, McAvoy's roofer father said his son used to be a 'real daddy's boy' but refused contact after his parents divorced and James Snr found a new lover.

McAvoy Snr said: 'Our son took it hard. He just wasn't the carefree little boy he'd been before.

'I think James still had hopes of me and his mum sorting things out.

'It has been hard on me not being in his life, but I'm just glad that he seems happy.

'I hope one day he'll get in touch. I was amazed he'd done so well.'

While her successful son enjoyed the trappings of life on the big screen, Ms Johnstone shunned the limelight and remained in their local community.

Liz Johnstone, 59, died at the council flat that McAvoy and his actress sister Joy grew up in, on an estate in the Drumchapel area of Glasgow. This is the home, according to the Daily Record

McAvoy with his agent Ruth Young (middle) and ex-wife Anne-Marie Duff at the Venice Film Festival in 2007

A local source told the Daily Record: 'Liz had health troubles and faced up to them as well as possible but it meant she really kept herself to herself. James became estranged from his dad but he was supportive of his mother.

'She had no desire to change her life on the back of his fame. She wished to stay in Drumchapel and that's what she did.'

Ms Johnstone, a psychiatric nurse, died on January 18. Police said a report into her death will be sent to the procurator fiscal.

The actor and his sister Joy were raised by his maternal grandparents James and Mary Johnstone after their mother split from their father and suffered from 'poor health'.

McAvoy, left and right, with his actress sister Joy at the BAFTAs in 2017, has remained close to his family - despite his rise to Hollywood stardom

He also has a half-brother called Donald, who has served time in prison for stabbing a man eight times. He also has been convicted of threatening a 14-year-old boy with a hammer.

McAvoy shot to fame after starring in Channel 4 drama Shameless and went on to land big roles in The Last King of Scotland, the X-Men franchise and psychological drama Split.

He divorced from actress Anne-Marie Duff, who made her name alongside him in Shameless, in 2016. The couple share a son Brendan, born in 2010.John Humphrys, pictured outside Broadcasting House in London, has come under attack after a private conversation in which he joked about the BBC gender pay gap was leaked

Oof! John Humphrys has been in the wars recently. Not only has the anchor of Radio Fours Today programme voluntarily taken three pay-cuts  his salary is said to have been nearly halved  he has received little credit for having done so.

Instead, he has come under attack after a private conversation in which he joked about the BBC gender pay gap was leaked.

His comments so annoyed the so-called Minister For Loneliness Tracey Crouch that she refused to appear on Today.

Now the programmes seven million listeners will never know her penetrating thoughts on Findus Meals For One or the benefits of joining a cribbage club.

Bizarre, is how Humphrys describes her boycott. And somewhat insulting. Did she think that, were she to be interviewed by me, that I would treat her in a cavalier fashion because she is a woman? Bizarre is the word, but I am not seething with righteous anger about it.

Others said to be considering entering a Humph no-fly-zone include former Tory minister Nicky Morgan and Labour MP Stella Creasy.

Meanwhile, Womans Hour presenter Jane Garvey and others have voiced disapproval of what they perceived to be Humphrys misogyny.

And it is that, more than anything, which really upsets the 74-year-old broadcaster.

Oh, that was bruising, he says. To be painted as a misogynist is hurtful and frustrating. And profoundly unjust. I have never, ever felt that there was a difference between men and women. I have always believed in equal pay for an equal job. I merely had a jokey exchange with an old friend which was turned into something that it wasnt. And it wasnt about women.

Humphrys had been teasing the BBCs North America editor Jon Sopel, about which of them earned most and how much they were going to have to give to Carrie Gracie, the BBCs former China editor who resigned her post in Beijing over pay discrimination.

Not only has the anchor of Radio Fours Today programme voluntarily taken three pay-cuts  his salary is said to have been nearly halved  he has received little credit for having done so

It seems to be affectionate braggadocio rather than secret grievance, but in the current febrile atmosphere at the BBC, where the sexes are pitted against each other over the gender pay gap, those who were minded to take offence took it. To them, Humphrys is the poster boy for the overpaid, patriarchal BBC elite.

Is this entirely fair? After all, Humphrys has worked with distinction for the BBC for 50 years, hasnt had a pay rise for presenting Mastermind (for almost 15 years) and once turned down 1 million to join a rival broadcaster. Surely, loyalty and experience count for something?

There is a problem, no question about that, he says. There are women in this organisation whove been penalised for being women. Thats absolutely wrong, of course, fundamentally wrong, and the BBC does recognise it.

Licence-payers are entitled to know how their money is spent, he believes, and he wishes there had been transparency all along. I was as surprised as anyone else about how big the gap was, he says.

And what about his own pay-cut? Well, tough, he shrugs. Ever since 1987, Humphrys  the senior presenter and voice of the programme  has been the interrogator most feared by politicians, because of his command of his brief and refusal to accept humbug and waffle. Useful weapons in his armoury have included the Derisive Snort, the Well-Timed Interruption and the occasional Gasp of Despair.

Listeners understand the morality that underpins Humphrys work and the clear ideology that drives him onwards even in his eighth decade; he has no personal axe to grind, he simply believes the public has a right to know what is going on.

And he is no stranger to controversy.

Former Conservative minister Jonathan Aitken once accused Humphrys of poisoning the well of democratic debate. While Labour attack dog Alastair Campbell called for his resignation in the wake of the Hutton Inquiry into the Iraq war  which proved to be such a perilous and divisive episode in the BBCs history.

Humphrys has worked with distinction for the BBC for 50 years, hasnt had a pay rise for presenting Mastermind and once turned down 1 million to join a rival broadcaster

We are going through a pretty nightmarish time here, no doubt about that, says Humphrys today. But we have been through bigger crises in the past and we will come through this one, too. I have never lost the sense of what a huge privilege it is to work for the BBC.

But the current pay row wont go away.

Equal pay for what? Its a bonkers concept, says Humphrys.

Someone like Huw Edwards and Fiona Bruce [the TV newsreaders] have been doing their jobs for a very long time, building up authority and trust with viewers.

They have a connection to the audience, and they earn whatever they earn. Then you appoint a 27- year-old to be a newsreader for the news channel  man or woman, it doesnt matter  do you pay them the same? The answer is: Of course you do not.

He has no idea who inside the BBC leaked the tape of his private conversation with Jon Sopel. (He teased Sopel, saying: How much of your salary are you prepared to hand over to Carrie Gracie to keep her? and, in reference to his own pay-cuts claimed to have handed over already more than you f****** earn. But, he added, Im still left with more than anybody else and that seems to me entirely just.)

He tells me: I have been doing this for a long time, you make friends but you make enemies, too. I dont know who it was who leaked and I dont want to find them and punish them. To hell with it  it is done.

We meet at 9am just after the pips herald the end of another edition of Today. Humphrys has been up and working since 3.30am and has a morning of meetings ahead.

Since 1987, Humphrys has been the interrogator most feared by politicians, because of his command of his brief and refusal to accept humbug and waffle

He exits the studio chatting amiably with co-presenter Mishal Husain. Mishal has been fantastic, very supportive. She is a wonderful person. And bloody good at her job, obviously. We get on terribly well, he says. And the same applies to Sarah (Montague), too.

We go for a coffee, which involves him staring at the office machine in bafflement, before losing two 1 coins in the slot and promising to write to the management about it. He is joking. I think!

Now that he is earning half of what he did, has he had to drastically change his lifestyle?

Not the slightest. I dont have extravagances. I dont spend very much money. Some of it goes into my charity obviously. I have got children and grandchildren and all that sort of thing. I just do what any father or grandfather with a bit of spare money would do.

He has a son, Owen (now 17) from a relationship with radio presenter Valerie Sanderson, and a grown-up son and daughter from his first marriage. He remained on good terms with his first wife, Edna, and was at her bedside when she died of cancer in 1997.

His Kitchen Table Charities Trust has given away nearly 4 million and supports small charities across the world, including sanitation projects in Sub-Saharan Africa that give teenage girls dignity and privacy.

He lives modestly, albeit between three properties; a house in West London, a farm in Wales and a villa in Greece which he rents out, all proceeds going to the trust.

He doesnt smoke, rarely drinks and hardly ever takes a holiday. God, I am perfect! he cries. Every now and again he has an 18 haircut and, as he finds clothes-shopping a total chore, he wears hand-me-downs from the Mastermind wardrobe and his sons old shoes. He likes to run on an Astroturf track, often with his eyes closed, and he hasnt bought a new pair of trainers for 20 years. Mine have a hole in them.

Tamara Ecclestone he is not. His plastic watch is from his brothers market stall in Dorset and he used to get his spectacles there, too.

For just over a year hes been in a relationship with Sainsburys heiress Sarah Butler Sloss (53), whom he met when she lived a few doors down from his London home.

Humphrys says he has no idea who inside the BBC leaked the tape of his private conversation with Jon Sopel

She is wonderful, he says. I like being in a relationship, of course, I do, but this job means you need a lot of time by yourself. You have to go to bed at half past eight. You have to read all the bloody newspapers. There is relatively little time for ones private life.

Is he a good boyfriend? This questions elicits a classic Derisive Snort from the master.

I dont know what being a good boyfriend is, but I even like washing up, so that cant be bad.

For him, a perfect day would be walking on the cliffs of west Wales with Sarah, then going back to a meal in front of the fire. A book, the occasional pint of bitter, a home-made curry and he is happy.

Unlike his younger girlfriend, Humphrys is from working class stock. His father was a French polisher and when Humphrys became a foreign correspondent he would lie about how much he was making. I think Ive always felt slightly guilty at how much I earn. My father worked bloody harder than me every day of his life and I dont think he would have believed the amount.

Today, Humphrys feels fitter than I did when I was 30. He has been on the Today programme for three decades and is even allowing himself to think that in ten years he might not still be behind the microphones.

A decade ago I would probably have said that I cant imagine life without the Today programme, now I can, but

But what?

It would be difficult.FBI Director Christopher Wray sent a statement to the agencys employees on Friday saying he stands with them

FBI Director Christopher Wray sent a statement to the agencys employees on Friday saying he stands with them after a document written by congressional Republicans alleging bias against President Donald Trump at the FBI and the Justice Department in the Russia investigation was made public.

'I stand by our shared determination to do our work independently and by the book,' Wray said in a statement to FBI staff, excerpts of which were seen by Reuters.

'Talk is cheap. The work you do is what will endure,' he added.

'We speak through our work. One case at a time. One intelligence product at a time. One decision at a time.'

Wray wrote to his charges that they must 'stay laser-focused on doing great work, even when it's not easy, because we believe in the FBI. We believe in what it stands for and in what this institution means to people.

'And nothing is going to change that.

'Were going to keep doing that work, because we know who and what we are, and because we know that our mission comes first.

'The American people come first.'

According to Business Insider, there was speculation that Wray would release his own rebuttal to the memo.

Nonetheless, he told his agents to 'keep doing your great work and keep being the great people you are.'

He added: 'Remember: keep calm and tackle hard.

The FBI has come under fire from President Donald Trump (above) and the Republican Party, which accuses it of bias. In the Oval Office Friday Trump said: 'A lot of people should be ashamed. I think it's a disgrace, what's happening in our country,'

'Thank you for standing strong together, and for keeping your faith in this institution that means so much to all of us,' he concluded.

Wray was overwhelmingly confirmed by the Senate in August, three months after Trump sacked Comey amid an FBI probe into whether members of the president's campaign had colluded with Russia help him get elected.

That investigation, which Trump has denounced as a 'witch hunt,' is now in the hands of special counsel Robert Mueller, himself a former FBI director.

Democratic lawmakers are claiming the memo is part of a broader campaign aimed at discrediting the Mueller probe and protecting Trump.

Wray put himself in the eye of the memo firestorm when the FBI issued an unusual public statement this week expressing concerns about the document.

'We have grave concerns about material omissions of fact that fundamentally impact the memo's accuracy,' the FBI said.

While the statement was unsigned, it was clear that it would not have been issued without a green light from the new FBI director.

Shamed: The memo reveals that James Comey signed an application for a warrant to surveil Carter Page, a Trump campaign aide, despite knowing that the dossier it was based on was politically funded by the Hillary Clinton campaign and without telling the judge that fact

Wray was confirmed by a 92-5 vote in the Senate, winning bipartisan backing after telling lawmakers he would resign rather than bow to political interference.

'There is only one right way to do this job, and that is with strict independence,' the former Department of Justice official said during his confirmation hearing.

'You can't do a job like this without being prepared to either quit or be fired at a moment's notice' if 'you're asked to do something or confronted with something that is either illegal, unconstitutional or even morally repugnant,' Wray said.

The controversial Republican memo charging bias in the FBI finally saw daylight Friday after President Trump overruled Wray and other top career law enforcement officials to order its release.

President Trump reviewed the controversial memo along with his advisors and sent it to the House Intelligence panel, which immediately put it out Friday afternoon.

'Congress will do whatever they're going to do,' Trump said shortly before the memo came out. He added: 'A lot of people should be ashamed.'

'I think it's a disgrace, what's happening in our country,' Trump added. 'Whatever they do is fine. It was declassified,' he said.

Trump also suggested that he believes heads in his own administration should roll over the what is contained in the memo.

Trump hater: Christopher Steele, the ex-British spy who wrote the 'minimally corroborated' dossier accusing Trump of paying for prostitutes to perform 'golden showers' in a Moscow hotel. But a senior DoJ official knew the British man was 'passionate' about Trump not being president

Listened to: Carter Page was the subject of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance court warrant which the Nunes memo says was obtained without disclosing all the facts

Link: Glenn Simpson, the 'principal' of Fusion GPS commissioned Steele - but he also employed the wife of Bruce Ohr. Ohr was Christopher Steele's contact at the Department of Justice

'The memo was sent to Congress. It was declassified. Congress will do whatever they're going to do but I think its a disgrace what's happening in our country ... a lot of people should be ashamed of themselves and much worse than that,' he said.

Asked if he still had confidence in deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein, Trump  who has gone after Rosenstein publicly before  responded: 'You figure that one out.'

Rosenstein supervises special counsel Robert Mueller, who is heading the Russia probe.

The memo's explosive findings center on how warrants from the were obtained on former Trump campaign advisor Carter Page, who had been approached in the past by a Russian intelligence operative.

It reveals a key omission of fact - that the FBI and DoJ knew the that the dossier had 'political origins' but did not tell the court that.

The 'political origins' were its funding: Fusion GPS commissioned Steele, who was paid $160,000 through Fusion GPS by law firm Perkins Coie - who were acting for Hillary Clinton's campaign.

In particular, it blasts ex-British Intelligence officer Christopher Steele for having 'anti-Trump financial and ideological motivations' that were concealed when his work was used to bolster a warrant application for Page.

According to the memo's authors: 'It raises "concerns with the legitimacy and legality of certain DOJ and FBI interactions with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC)", and represents "a troubling breakdown of legal processes established to protect the American people from abuses related to the ISA process."'

'IS THAT IT?' SNEERS COMEY AS HIS REIGN AT THE FBI IS SHAMED Former FBI Director James Comey scorned the memo that was released by House Republicans after being declassified Friday by President Donald Trump, saying it doesn't add up to much. 'That's it?' Comey said on Twitter. 'Dishonest and misleading memo wrecked the House intel committee, destroyed trust with Intelligence Community, damaged relationship with FISA court, and inexcusably exposed classified investigation of an American citizen. For what?' Comey wrote, adding: 'DOJ & FBI must keep doing their jobs.' The tweet was the latest in a series from Comey this week as Trump clashed with the FBI over the release of the GOP-written memo. On Thursday, Comey stood up for the bureau's position against the document's disclosure and took aim at unnamed people he calls 'weasels and liars.' 'All should appreciate the FBI speaking up. I wish more of our leaders would,' Comey tweeted Thursday night amid news that the FBI had lobbied the White House to block the release of a partisan memo on the Russia investigation. On Friday morning, the president continued his verbal attacks against the FBI, writing on Twitter, 'The top Leadership and Investigators of the FBI and the Justice Department have politicized the sacred investigative process in favor of Democrats and against Republicans - something which would have been unthinkable just a short time ago. Rank & File are great people!' Advertisement

The memo lays out who signed off on surveillance warrants for former Trump foreign policy advisor Carter Page.

It maintains that the government 'omitted' information that would have been 'potentially favorable' to Page  the target of the surveillance warrant being sought.

It says FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe  the target of online ridicule by President Trump  testified no surveillance warrant would have been sought without the 'Steele dossier information.'

Fired FBI Director James Comey signed three. Recently resigned Deputy Director Andrew McCabe signed one. Former acting attorney general Sally Yates, who left early in the Trump administration in protest, then-acting attorney general Dana Boente, and Rosenstein each signed one or more, according to the memo.

'The 'dossier' compiled by Christopher Steele (Steele dossier) on behalf of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and the Hillary Clinton campaign formed an essential part of the Carter Page FISA application. Steele was a longtime FBI source who was paid over $160,000 by the DNC and Clinton campaign, via the law firm Perkins Coie and research firm Fusion GPS, to obtain derogatory information on Donald Trump's ties to Russia,' according to the memo.

The memo goes on to describe those warrants as in effect tainted. 'Neither the initial application in October 2016, nor any of the renewals, disclose or reference the role of the DNC, Clinton campaign, or any party/campaign in funding Steele's efforts, even though the political origins of the Steele dossier were then known to senior DOJ and FBI officials.'

Steele's research was funded through Clinton campaign and DNC payments that went through a campaign law firm. The initial work by political intelligence firm Fusion GPS, who hired Steele, was funded by a conservative publication during the GOP primaries.

Referring to the FISA warrant application, the memo states: 'The application does not mention Steele was ultimately working on behalf of-and paid by-the DNC and Clinton campaign.'

The memo repeatedly blasts Steele, a former Moscow station chief for British intelligence, as a source of information.

'Steele should have been terminated for his previous undisclosed contacts with Yahoo and other outlets in September-before the Page application was submitted to the FISC in October-but about those contacts,' according to the memo.

It states that Steele was 'suspended and then terminated as an FBI source for what the FBI defines as the most serious of violations-an unauthorized disclosure to the media of his relationship with the FBI in an October 30, 2016, article by David Corn'  the article that revealed the existence of the dossier.

The president said people should be 'ashamed' of themselves, without explanation

Asked if he still had confidence in deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein, Trump responded: 'You figure that one out'

'That's it?' Comey scoffed at the newly declassified memo that was released to the public on Friday

The memo also maintains that Steele's 'desperate' belief that Trump not get elected president, based on information traced to top Justice Department official Bruce Ohr, was not disclosed to the FISA court judge.

'Steele admitted to Ohr his feelings against then-candidate Trump when Steele said he "was desperate that Donald Trump not get elected and was passionate about him not being president",' according to the memo.

'This clear evidence of Steele's bias was recorded by Ohr at the time and subsequently in official FBI files - but not reflected in any of the Page FISA applications.'

But Ohr's wife was also working for Fusion GPS - and that fact was never disclosed to the judge either.

The memo was released Friday accompanied by a letter from White House counsel Don McGahn.

'The President understands that the protection of our national security represents his highest obligation. Accordingly, he has directed lawyers and national security staff to assess the declassification request,' he wrote.

He added: ''[Existing standards] permit declassification when the public interest in disclosure outweighs any need to protect the information. The White House review process also included input from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Department of Justice.'

The memo's fourth and final page brings up former Trump foreign policy advisor George Papadopoulos. It says there is 'no evidence of any cooperation or conspiracy' between Page and Papadopoulos. It then mentions that information from Papadopoulos triggered an FBI counterintelligence investigation in July 2016 head by Peter Strzrok  who got reassigned for 'improper text messages with his mistress.'

The memo does not mention any other material about Papadopoulos  whose contacts with a professor in London with Moscow connections prompted him to learn that the Russians had dirt on Hillary Clinton, according to charging documents relating to his guilty plea of lying to the FBI.

According to a statement from Nunes: 'The Committee has discovered serious violations of the public trust, and the American people have a right to know when officials in crucial institutions are abusing their authority for political purposes.'

House Intelligence Committee Republicans drafted the memo and pushed through its release on a party-line vote, putting the issue in the hands of Trump to give the final go-ahead.

CNN reported that Trump read the memo along with his advisors.

According to a summary of the memo, it concludes former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe confirmed that the bureau would not have sought a surveillance warrant without information in the dossier of information compiled by ex British intelligence officer Christopher Steele, the Washington Examiner reported.

High level Justice Department Bruce Ohr, who met with Steele in 2016, provided information about Steele's alleged bias, according to the report. He said Steele was desperate to keep Trump out of office and was passionate about him not succeeding.

The summary also states that Justice Department and FBI officials knew about the political origins of the dossier, but this information was not included in FISA warrant applications.

Democrats howled about the release of the memo, arguing it cherry picked information and distorted the full picture.

Trump weighed the issue for days, as Wray and top Justice Department officials argued against the release, concerned that it could undermine intelligence and present an incomplete narrative.

But Trump made his own priorities known with a Friday tweet blasting the 'top leadership'  even though it was Trump who appointed Wray and elevated deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein after firing FBI Director James Comey.

'The top Leadership and Investigators of the FBI and the Justice Department have politicized the sacred investigative process in favor of Democrats and against Republicans - something which would have been unthinkable just a short time ago,' Trump tweeted Friday, after his administration had already said he would allow the House panel to release the memo. 'Rank & File are great people!' he added.

Central to GOP complaints is the belief that Trump advisor Carter Page came under surveillance under a judge's warrant that was influenced by the infamous Steele Dossier, a series of memos containing unverified information about Trump that concludes Russia had potentially compromising information on him.

Republicans argue that since Hillary Clinton's campaign, through a law firm, helped fund the dossier, that the origins of the Russia probe lie in information Clinton helped obtain.

'It's clear that top officials used unverified information in a court document to fuel a counterintelligence investigation during an American political campaign,' said Intelligence chair Rep. Devin Nunes of California in a statement this week as the blowup over the document escalated.

What does the Intelligence Committee memo say? What does it mean? Republican Rep. Devin Nunes, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, was the driving force behind the controversial memo's declassification and release A memo released on Feb. 2, 2018 by the House Intelligence Committee was written by Republican aides who had seen classified documents about government surveillance of a Donald Trump campaign adviser. The four-page document itself does not appear to allege that anyone violated federal law, but it does outline a pattern of improper conduct by a list of high-ranking FBI and Justice Department officials during the Obama administration. Republicans will use it to justify complaints that top law enforcement agencies had an anti-Trump bias during an election year. These were the same agencies that cleared Hillary Clinton of wrongdoing in her classified email scandal, a subject that President Trump railed about consistently as he campaigned for the White House. Democrats complain that the memo left out important facts and 'cherry-picked' information in order to present a one-sided view of what the FBI and DOJ did to persuade a judge to grant surveillance powers. WHAT DID THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT DO? A Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) judge granted the Justice Department a warrant to spy on Carter Page, a Trump foreign policy adviser, partially on the basis of an anti-Trump 'dossier' compiled by an opposition research group funded by Democrats. Using a law firm as a middle-man, the Hillary Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee paid the firm, Fusion GPS. Fusion then paid former British spy Christopher Steele more than $160,000 to dig up Russia-related dirt on Trump. The Republican memo concludes that Steele himself was biased, since he 'was desperate that Donald Trump not get elected and was passionate about him not being president.' But the FBI continued using him as a confidential source anyway, even after he violated the most basic rule of working with a government intelligence service by telling a reporter what he was up to. The warrant application also relied on a news article by a Yahoo reporter without telling the judge that leaks from Steele himself were at its center. When the Justice Department asked the court for permission to spy on Page, it didn't disclose Steele's bias. It also never mentioned that it was asking for a warrant based on materials that were paid for by Trump's political opponents. WHY IS THE STEEL DOSSIER SO IMPORTANT? FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe testified before the House Intelligence Committee in December 2017 that 'no surveillance warrant would have been sought .... without the Steele dossier information.' The dossier itself was full of bombshell claims about Trump, most notably that he cavorted with prostitutes in a Moscow hotel room that the Kremlin had rigged with recording devices. Critics say Steele uncritically used information from Russian sources determined to compromise Trump or gain leverage over him  the exact opposite of the Democratic 'collusion' narrative that suggests Trump worked hand-in-hand with Moscow. WHO IN THE GOVERNMENT IS ACCUSED OF WRONGDOING? FISA warrants have to be renewed every 90 days; then-FBI Director James Comey, later fired by President Donald Trump, signed three of them. FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe signed another one. Others to sign off included then-Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates, another official fired by Trump; then-Acting Deputy Attorney General Dana Boente; and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. Another official implicated in the memo is then-Associate Deputy Attorney General Bruce Ohr. Ohr's wife was employed by Fusion GPS at the same time, but the FBI never told the FISA court about it. Ohr was reassigned and is no longer in a position to impact the other major Russia investigation  one helmed by special counsel Robert Mueller. But the fate of Rosenstein and McCabe is up in the air. Republicans on the Intelligence Committee may have given Trump a reason to fire them both. DOES THIS CHANGE ANYTHING FOR THE MUELLER PROBE? In a word, no. The memo doesn't say anything that suggests Mueller or his current team are engaged in anything illegal or unethical. But the appearance of impropriety at the Justice Department, though unconnected, will give Trump supporters ammunition to claim Mueller's investigation is also suspect. The president has consistently called the multiple investigations a collective 'witch hunt' and insisted he never colluded with Russians to tilt the 2016 election in his favor. HOW WILL THIS AFFECT THE 'FISA' COURTS? Judges empowered by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) grant more than 99 per cent of the warrant applications presented by the federal government. This episode suggests that the process can be compromised by officials who are willing to hide material facts or provide courts with one-sided accounts of what they know and how they came to know it. The flip side is that if FISA courts begin to scrutinize warrant applications more carefully, they might act too slowly in cases where there are urgent terrorism-related circumstances that require quick action. WHAT'S NEXT? Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee have written their own counterpoint, a memo that they say fills in important facts the Republican majority omitted. That document is winding its way through the same process the GOP's memo went through: committee votes to allow the full House of Representatives to see it, and then to release it to the public. If that happens, the White House will again have five days to reject a request to declassify the Democrats' version. The White House has signaled that it will treat the two versions of history equally. Advertisement

Trump was sure to insist that the FBI's 'rank and file are great people,' even as he goes after the ledaership with his acid tongue

Trump also tweeted a summary of the state of play from Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton

However, in 2015 the government already knew that Page had passed information on to a Russian intelligence operative believed to be part of a spy ring.

Page was an investment banker in Russia during the 1990s. A Russian spy tried to recruit him in 2013, the Wall Street Journal reported. Page had met with the Russian consular official, Victor Podobnyy, meeting with him over coke or coffee, according to Page's later testimony.

In the fall of 2016, investigators obtained a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court order to monitor Page.

The Russia probe has gone on to ensnare top Trump associates, including former campaign chair Paul Manafort and his deputy, Rick Gates, who have been charged with money laundering and conspiracy based on earlier work.

Trump campaign advisor George Papadopoulos has pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his own Russia contacts. In May 2016, Papdopoulos told Austrailia's ambassador to Britain in a boozy encounter that the Trump campaign had dirt on Hillary Clinton, the New York Times reported.

Kellyanne Conway said in a wind-swept 'Fox & Friends' interview on Friday that Trump doesn't think Wray will quit

In a March 2016 interview, Trump named Page in an interview with the Washington post as one of a handful of foreign policy advisors to his campaign. Page told the House intelligence committee he traveled to Russia twice during the campaign.

Comey blasted the release of the memo in a tweet Friday afternoon.

'Thats it?' he wrote. 'Dishonest and misleading memo wrecked the House intel committee, destroyed trust with Intelligence Community, damaged relationship with FISA court, and inexcusably exposed classified investigation of an American citizen. For what? DOJ & FBI must keep doing their jobs.'

Wrote House minority leader Nancy Pelosi: 'Trump has surrendered his constitutional responsibility as Commander-in-Chief by releasing highly classified and distorted intelligence. By not protecting intelligence sources and methods, he just sent his friend Putin a bouquet.'

'He just sent his friend Putin a bouquet,' said House minority leader Nancy Pelosi in a statement

'Lets be absolutely clear. The release of this Republican staff memo is a blatant attempt by House Republicans and the White House to disrupt the critically important investigation into Russias interference in the 2016 election and the possible collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign,' wrote Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.

A joint Democratic leadership letter to Trump that also includes the top Democrats on the House and Senate Intelligence Committees called the release a 'transparent attempt to discredit the hard-working men and women of law enforcement who are investigating Russias interference with our Presidential election and that nations ties to your campaign.'

The added: 'We are alarmed by reports that you may intend to use this misleading document as a pretext to fire Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, in an effort to corruptly influence or impede Special Counsel Bob Muellers investigation.'

The lawmakers, led by Pelosi and Senate minority leader Charles Schumer, add: 'We write to inform you that we would consider such an unwarranted action as an attempt to obstruct justice in the Russia investigation. Firing Rod Rosenstein, DOJ Leadership, or Bob Mueller could result in a constitutional crisis of the kind not seen since the Saturday Night Massacre.'North Korea's complete disregard for United Nations sanctions earned the country nearly $200 million by exporting ban commodities in just nine months last year.

A UN report issued on Friday accused Pyongyang of working with Syria to develop chemical and ballistic weapons, along with Myanmar.

The report found there was more than 40 previously unreported North Korea shipments between 2012 and 2017 to Syria's Scientific Studies and Research Centre - the body which is responsible for the country's chemical weapons program.

It also found North Korea continued to make money through exporting coal, iron, steel and other commodities which are banned under the UN sanctions between January and September last year.

Coal shipments were delivered to a number of countries, including China, Malaysia, South Korea, Russia and Vietnam by ship using 'a combination of multiple evasion techniques, routes and deceptive tactics,' the report found.

North Korea's complete disregard for United Nations sanctions earned the country nearly $200 million by exporting ban commodities last year

The United States has pushed hard to increase sanctions on North Korea as Pyongyang continues to pursue its aim to develop nuclear weapons

Last year, the UN Security council voted to impose a number of stricter sanctions and expand exports banned with the aim of cutting of North Korea's military programs.

The United States pushed for tougher economic sanctions against North Korea after its sixth nuclear test and a host of ballistic missile launches which Pyongyang claimed could reached US mainland.

The panel found North Korea 'is already flouting the most recent resolutions by exploiting global oil supply chains, complicit foreign nationals, offshore company registries, and the international banking system'.

Experts have said more needs to be done to clamp down on North Korea's flouting of international sanctions, despite seven ships being barred from ports around the world.

While sanctions have been significantly broadened, this 'expansion of the regime is yet to be matched by the requisite political will' to implement the measures, the experts said.

North Korean diplomats, in particular trade representatives, continue to provide logistical support for arms sales and help organize exchanges for military technicians, it said.

North Korea was working in tandem with Syria to produce chemical and ballistic weapons, the report warned. Pictured: Syrian leader Bashar al-AssadAdvertisement

Actor George Takei and journalist Don Lemon are among 160 members of the LGBTQ community who have allowed a photographer into their home for a new book.

Photographer Tom Atwood's book titled Kings & Queens in Their Castles, accompanied by an exhibition, was a labor of love, 15 years in the making.

This work, his second photography compilation, features over 160 luminarie, as they've never been seen before, at their most raw in their own homes across the United States.

Kings & Queens includes the likes of Takei, Lemon, Meredith Baxter, Christian Siriano, Brad Walsh and more.

Photographer Tom Atwood has released an intimate portrait collection that offers a sneak peak into the lives of prominent members of the LGBTQ community. George Takei is shown wrapping gifts at his table in Los Angeles

CNN's Don Lemon takes a phone call on his empty, gray balcony at home in New York City

Gary Tisdale-Woods graces the cover of Atwood's book. This photo was taken at his home in Greensboro, Georgia

(John) Randal Kleiser, who directed the 1978 film Grease, reads a script beside his pool under the shadow of a horse while a goat looks on, in Los Angeles

Photographer Tom Atwood is shown here, in a photo from his website

Photos range from Takei, who is be best known for his role as Mr. Sulu in the original Star Trek television series, wrapping gifts at his table, to CNN's Don Lemon taking a call on an empty, gray balcony in New York City.

Others, of course, are more outlandish and what we might expect from famous people, like a snapshot of (John) Randal Kleiser, who directed the 1978 film Grease, reading a script beside his pool under the shadow of his horse while a goat looks on.

One of Atwood's images caught the eye of the Smithsonian Institute, prompting the museum to name it their photo of the day on January 8.

That particular portrait was of Alan Cumming, the Scottish-American actor with a storied career in film, television and theater.

Sue Williams (left) and Mary Celley (right), are seen here charming bees in hives at their property in Brooklyn, Wisconsin

Doug Spearman (left), of Noah's Arc, Star Trek Voyager and The Drew Carey Show, chats with fellow actor, General Hospital's Marc Samuel (right) in Los Angeles

Alan Cumming stands shirtless behind his desk in New York City, with a newspaper and snacks at the ready

Family Ties' Meredith Baxter sits at the counter at her home in Santa Monica, which she listed for sale in 2016

The picture shows the Dr. Death star standing shirtless behind his desk in New York City, with a newspaper and snacks at the ready.

And others, still, are more local icons, like the man who graces cover.

His name is Gary Tisdale-Woods, and he's a community volunteer in Greensboro, Georgia.

He's seen in pale, yellow blazer, surrounded by ornate decor and elaborate tapestries, in his spacious home.

Million Dollar Listing Los Angeles' Josh Flagg (left) and Colton Thorn (right) are seen lounging around

Lydia Brown, an Asian American autistic disability rights activist, writer, and public speaker who was honored by the White House in 2013, is seen here in her living space in Washington, DC

Queer Eye's fashion designer, Kressley Carson, checks himself out in the mirror in New York

Ted Haykal gets cozy with a book in what looks like a tree house in Pike's Island, Maine

There's also Lydia Brown, an Asian American autistic disability rights activist, writer, and public speaker who was honored by the White House in 2013.

She's depicted taking in all of her signage that adorns her cozy living space in Washington, DC

Atwood traveled to around 30 states in his effort to carry out what has been called 'the most ambitious photo series ever conducted of the LGBTQ experience in the USA,' the artist's site reads.

Atwood's book, Kings & Queens in their Castles, is available for sale now

Designer Christian Siriano (left) affectionately rests his hand on the back of spouse Brad Walsh's (right) neck in New York

Georgia Voice's 2014 Person of the Year, Ria Pell (left), wearing denim overalls and a pink button-down shirt, rubs her eye. She is pictured with Kiki Carr (right) in Georgia

Kings & Queens in Their Castles was published by Damiani in April.

While the book includes more than 160 images, Atwood actually captured photos of more than 350 subjects.

For a schedule of exhibitions of the body of work, check the portrait artist's website at TomAtwood.com.

Kings & Queens is the second installment in a series, following Atwood's 2005 work that he co-created with Charles Kaiser, titled Kings in Their Castles: Photographs of Queer Men at Home.

Jeff Mallory (left) and Kevin Smith (right) sit amongst their greenery in Big Sur, California

Costume and clothing designer Jon Fulton Adams (left) and actor Ron Megee (right) converse in a purposely destroyed room at their Kansas City, Missouri home

Momma Meacham looks off in the distance after putting on a full fake of makeup in the bathroom in Los Angeles

Cortnee Ponton is seen here standing on the porch outside of his trailer in Myton, UtahThe man accused of killing a 19-year-old Ivy League student pleaded not guilty to homicide charges on Friday during an arraignment hearing in Southern California.

Samuel Woodward, 20, is being held on $5 million bail at the Orange County Correctional Facility in Santa Ana on suspicion of murder after authorities say he killed Pennsylvania University sophomore Blaze Bernstein last month.

Police believe that Woodward stabbed Bernstein more than 20 times and buried his body in a shallow grave at a neighborhood park not far from the college student's family home in Lake Forest.

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Samuel Woodward (L), 20, pleaded not guilty to murder charges on Friday after being arrested for Blaze Berstein's (R) death last month

Lawyers for Woodward tried to have the bond reduced to $1 million, as is standard in similar cases tried in California, according to ABC 7 News.

But prosecutors argued that Woodward was a flight risk and posed a legitimate threat to the community. The judge agreed and set the bail for the higher amount.

If freed on bail, Woodward would have severe restrictions on his freedom of movement, including wearing a GPS monitoring device, and would have to relinquish his passport.

Police believe that Woodward stabbed Bernstein more than 20 times and buried his body in a shallow grave at a neighborhood park

Bernstein, who grew up in Orange County and was visiting his family on winter break, was missing for a week after going out with Woodward the night of Jan. 2, according to authorities.

Authorities searched for him with help from drone pilots and found his body at the park after rain partially exposed it.

Bernstein was gay and Jewish and authorities are investigating the possibility of a hate crime.

'A hate crime or a special circumstance allegation requires that level of proof, so we're looking for that evidence, and if and when we find it, we will amend the charges and file that,' said District Attorney of Orange County Tony Rackauckas.

Bernstein was gay and Jewish and authorities are investigating the possibility of a hate crime. Pictured: An Atomwaffen Division propaganda poster

Authorities say the two men both attended the Orange County School of the Arts but they did not know if they were friends at the time.

According to a court filing obtained by the Orange County Register, Woodward told investigators that he became angry after Bernstein kissed him the night they went to the park.

At college, Bernstein was studying psychology and was recently chosen to edit a campus culinary magazine.

Hundreds of people attended a candlelight vigil for Bernstein and his funeral.

If convicted of the charge and enhancement, Woodward could face as much as 26 years to life in prison.

Evidence of Woodward's alleged neo-Nazi leanings began to surface shortly after his arrest, with at least three people close to the 20-year-old telling the ProPublica news site that he was active in a neo-Nazi organization called Atomwaffen Division. The name translates to 'Nuclear Weapons Division'.

Two of the sources who revealed Woodward's background to ProPublic were his friends and one used to be a member of Atomwaffen Division.

The neo-Nazi group that Woodward was allegedly a member of has filmed itself burning the American flag and the constitution.

The group's website describes the Atomwaffen Division as 'a Revolutionary National Socialist organization centered around political activism and the practice of an autonomous Fascist lifestyle'.

The website's 'Who we are' section reads: 'As an ideological band of comrades, we perform both activism and militant training (hand to hand, arms training, and etc.).

'We spread awareness in the real world through unconventional means (and it has worked).

'We often go hunting, adventuring, and a group favorite is urban exploring. We have various specialists in the group ranging from many occupations... Joining us means serious dedication not only to the Atomwaffen Division and its members, but to the goal of ultimate uncompromising victory.

'As it must be emphasized: no keyboard warriorism... if you don't want to meet up and get things done: don't bother.'

One source described Woodward as 'as anti-Semitic as you can get'. Woodward reportedly joined Atomwaffen Division in 2016, attended group meetings in Texas and there completed a three-day training camp.

The training camp armed members of the group with hand-to-hand combat, camping, survival and firearm use skills, the former Atomwaffen Division member told ProPublica.

Bernstein, who grew up in Orange County and was visiting his family on winter break, was missing for a week after going out with Woodward the night of Jan. 2

The website said it had also obtained pictures of Woodward at one of the group's meetings. In one, Woodward can reportedly be seen doing a Nazi salute.

Woodward is trained to use assault rifles and handguns and has organized Atomwaffen Division members in California, it is claimed.

The Atomwaffen Division has also been connected to murders in Florida and Virginia. It was founded in 2015 and consists of about 80 members.

The former member who spoke with ProPublica said the group has grown since the explosive 'Unite the Right' protest - which left one protester dead - in Virginia last summer.

Joanna Mendelson, a researcher at the Anti-Defamation League's Center on Extremism told ProPublica: 'Their rhetoric is some of the most extreme we have seen.'Some years ago when I was writing my will, I told a surgeon friend who specialises in cancer that I was planning to leave something to breast cancer research.

He informed me, rather brutally, there were other cancers that claimed huge numbers of lives, but were ignored because they werent fashionable.

I should think about leaving money to research into one of these, he added  prostate cancer, for example. He called it the Cinderella cancer  ignored, swept under the counter by society.

Statistics confirmed what he said: prostate has now become a bigger killer than breast cancer. And while breast cancer deaths are falling, the toll for prostate cancer victims is continuing to climb

After all, it only affected men. They never went to the doctor and were too embarrassed to talk about it anyway.

Yesterday, official statistics confirmed what he said: prostate has now become a bigger killer than breast cancer. And while breast cancer deaths are falling, the toll for prostate cancer victims is continuing to climb.

As the Mail explained yesterday, a major reason for this is that funding for prostate cancer research has been less than half of that for breast cancer since 2002.

The fact is all the high-profile campaigns seem to be about womens cancers. Whenever you turn on the radio, women are discussing breast cancer awareness month, or pink ribbons against breast cancer, or cervical cancer awareness week.

And while these campaigns deserve huge support  for, make no mistake, they have saved many, many lives  their success highlights the dire need for better help for mens cancers.

Bubble and squeak Actress Rose McGowan, whose sexual assault charges sparked the Harvey Weinstein storm, describes in her new book Brave how she was attacked by him. She met the producer in his hotel suite. He stripped her naked and placed her in a Jacuzzi, whereupon he performed a sex act on her. I did what so many who experience trauma do, she writes. I disassociated and left my body. Appalled as I am by her ordeal, I cant understand how it ever got to the stage of her stepping naked into the Jacuzzi  or why she went on to promote her Weinstein movie Phantoms with co-star Ben Affleck. Advertisement

Research has shown that more men get cancer than women, and that more boys get cancer than girls.

Two decades ago, the Mails Dying of Embarrassment campaign did wonders by drawing attention to the taboo of prostate cancer and raising 1 million to help tackle it. Other campaigns have helped, too. But these latest figures show there is so much more to be done.

Not a day goes by when we arent told how unfairly women are being treated  whether it concerns the Harvey Weinstein scandal or the row over BBC pay.

But here the opposite is the case. Where cancer is concerned, men are considered second-class citizens. And we women should be just as angry about that as the men.

Give pregnant Kate a break

The Duchess of Cambridges wardrobe has come under criticism during her tour of Sweden, especially when compared with her glamorous future sister-in-law Meghan Markle, whos been out and about at home.

Yes, at times Kate has looked like shes rolled herself inside an oriental carpet, but lets give her a break.

Shes seven months into her third very difficult pregnancy and who can blame her for looking like she wishes she was at home with the kids in her leggings and Ugg boots?

The third Sex And The City movie may go ahead without toy-boy eating Samantha Jones, played by Kim Cattrall. Sarah Jessica Parker, now 52, who as Carrie Bradshaw slept with just three men during the two decades of the series (Samantha consumed as many in a week), is confident it will be a success without her. Sexless And The City? Im not so sure.

Helen Mirren, 72, is photographed naked in a pool promoting the charity Give Up Clothes For Good, which encourages people to donate their unwanted clothes to help fund Cancer Research UK.

Given that shes thrown them off at every opportunity during her five-decade career, Im surprised she has any clothes left to give.

Location, Location, Location presenter Kirstie Allsopp gives short shrift to young people complaining about not being able to get on the housing ladder, saying they dont understand about making economies and lowering expectations.

When young couples say to me they want to buy a flat but theyre also saving up to go on a trip around the world, she says, I am gobsmacked.

Indeed, when I showed my mother around my first flat she said: Thats lovely darling, wheres the rest of it?

Manchester Art Gallery One cant help but wonder what will be the next piece of cultural vandalism as Manchester Art Gallery removes a Victorian painting of naked nymphs seducing a lad. Perhaps they should remove the curator of contemporary art, Clare Gannaway, who devised this ridiculous stunt. Advertisement

Radio 4s Today Show Radio 4s Today programme has introduced a new item on their show, Puzzle For Today. Its devised to tax our brains with difficult teasers. Such as: Name someone who had ever seen or heard of the BBCs equal-pay crusader Carrie Gracie before her resignation as China editor. Advertisement

Ive long been a fan of Robert Winston, the IVF pioneer, having met him several times.

Yet I was perturbed that this straight-talking professor took to Twitter to train-shame a woman who screeched into her mobile phone for an hour on a packed train. Yes, of course, she would have driven all of us mad.

But why didnt Lord Winston simply ask her  politely  to shut up. By resorting to social media, he showed his manners were no better than hers.

After her successful visit to China, the locals nicknamed our PM Auntie May. Affectionate, yes, but oh for the days our female leader was known as the Iron Lady.

Manchester mayor Andy Burnham is commendably doing his bit to help the homeless, giving 15 per cent of his 110,000 salary to help rough sleepers. And although I dont share his politics, I absolutely agree with his comment on the house-building boss who was given a 110 million bonus: It would be great if he put some of that back into helping those with no homes.

Former Shadow Home Secretary Ann Widdecombe insisted she had a private bathroom before she agreed to enter the Celebrity Big Brother house. An insider said: Anns ultimate nightmare was being seen in any state of undress on TV. It would certainly be ours.

More than 400,000 people signed a petition to force Herefordshire Council finally to find a home for a hero who served for 17 years with the SAS and distinguished himself in the Iranian Embassy siege. Bob Curry, 64, has been living in B&Bs paid for by his former regiment. It is a scandal that while one in ten council homes goes to foreigners, veterans in need who fought for our freedoms are left to fend for themselves.Weapons sales are soaring in Germany, prompting fears that a migrant crimewave and terrorism have made people feel unsafe.

Germans held a record 557,560 licences for minor arms by the end of last year, compared to 300,949 in January 2016.

The surge of more than 85 per cent in just two years has left some dealers of non-lethal weapons such as air and stun guns unable to keep up with demand.

The recent surge in gun ownership is exemplified by student Carolin Matthie, who has become an internet sensation

While the exact reason behind the increase remains unclear, some experts have blamed the fallout over Angela Merkels decision to open the door to one million refugees in 2015.

Since then Germany has experienced a 52.7 per cent spike in crime carried out asylum seekers, mostly young men, including the New Years Eve sexual assaults in Cologne.

Others said the spate of terror attacks in Europe over the past few years had driven people to arm themselves.

Ingo Meinhard, from the Association of German Gunsmiths and Gun Dealers, said such atrocities had fuelled uncertainty. After the barbaric attacks of November 2015 in Paris, young and old, both male and female, came from all walks of life and asked for free defence, he said.

The recent craze over gun self-defence has been exemplified by Carolin Matthie, a computer science student in Berlin, who has become an internet sensation.

Some experts have blamed the fallout over Angela Merkels decision to open the door to one million refugees in 2015 as behind the increase in gun ownership

The part-time model, 24, was prompted to buy a 166 Walther P99 air pistol in 2016 after being followed back to her university halls by six drunken men shouting at her in a foreign language.

Since obtaining the 40 permit  which simply requires the purchaser to be over 18 and have a clean criminal record  Miss Matthie has been posting online tutorials for women on how to use the weapons.

She said the gun offered her reassurance because she knew she would have a plan if attacked.

But Holger Stahlknecht, a minister in the state of Saxony-Anhalt, told the German paper Handelsblatt the sense of security was deceptive because the weapons could make the situation worse.A New Year's Day outing at the beach turned into a life-threatening nightmare for one Australian father, after he was stung by a blue bottle jellyfish.

John Atkin, from Coffs Harbour on the New South Wales mid-north coast, was swimming at the beach with his family when he felt a searing pain on the bottom half of his leg.

Soon after the sting, Mr Atkin's leg began to turn black and purple and started to blister and he was rushed to hospital.

John Atkin, from Coffs Harbour on the New South Wales mid-north coast, was swimming at the beach with his family when he was stung by a blue bottle jellyfish

Soon after the sting, Mr Atkin's leg began to turn black and purple and started to blister and he was rushed to hospital. Doctors revealed the father had Vibrio Vulnificus, a rare infection

Doctors discovered the father-of-five had contracted Vibrio Vulnificus, a rare but life threatening infection caused by marine bacteria.

The day after being admitted to Coffs Harbour hospital, Mr Atkin had emergency surgery on his leg, to save both his leg and his life.

To help cover medical fees and warn others of the rare infection, a Go Fund Me page was set up by Amanda Campbell.

Ms Campbell said Mr Atkin spent 11 days in Coffs Harbour hospital, where he was treated via IV antibiotics.

While the medicine appeared to help at first, the father's condition worsened after the infection began spreading.

'Sunday 14th January John was rushed to Royal North Shore hospital in Sydney where he is still receiving specialist treatment,' Ms Campbell wrote.

While IV medication appeared to help at first, the father's condition worsened after the infection began spreading

The aggressive infection has led to 'enormous amounts of dead tissues' on Mr Atkin's leg, and he has had to undergo five operations since being admitted.

'They go in and place a machine inside his leg which drains the remaining dead tissue and stimulates and rejuvenates the nerves to attempt to bring the tissue back to life,' Ms Campbell wrote.

'The seriousness of this infection is life threatening and in majority of cases can result in amputation.'

The aggressive infection has led to 'enormous amounts of dead tissues' on Mr Atkin's leg, and he has had to undergo five operations since being admitted

While doctors said they are 'confident' Mr Atkin won't lose his leg, he has a long road to recovery ahead of him.

'Countless operations still to come, rehab, undetermined time still in hospital, skin graphs, medications, and many months off work,' Ms Campbell said.

The father-of-five has since been able to return home to his family, who are hoping for donations to cover medical costs while Mr Atkin is out of work.Ukraine's Defense Minister Stepan Poltorak has met in Washington with U.S. Secretary of Defense James Mattis.

"I am grateful to the U.S. government, Congress and the U.S. president for providing Ukraine with defensive lethal weapons, which was a timely and correct decision," the press service of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry quoted Poltorak as saying.

Poltorak called this decision a powerful signal to the aggressor that Ukraine is not alone, but also a signal to partners that it is necessary to cooperate with Ukraine.

The defense minister called the U.S. the main strategic partner of Ukraine. "It would be difficult for us without the support: effective advisory, financial assistance, training programs  all this means a successful Armed Forces of Ukraine. The successful reforms are the only way to strengthen the country's defense capability," he said at a meeting with the U.S. secretary of defense.

In addition, Poltorak took part in the bilateral consultations of the defense departments of Ukraine and the United States, which took place in the Pentagon.

"The dialogue was constructive and frank. I am grateful for the warm welcome and open support," the Ukrainian Defense Minister said.

Poltorak also met with students of the National Military College. He expressed the hope that in 2018 the dynamics of cooperation between Ukraine and the U.S. will improve in many areas. "I invite the college students to Ukraine, it would be great if they talk with our military, hear their opinion and get acquainted with their experience," he said.

The defense minister of Ukraine is on a working visit to the United States.A West Australian teenager has escaped a terrifying confrontation with a two-metre shark by stabbing it in the face with a spearfishing gun.

Lucas Martin was fishing off the coast of Mandurah, 70kms south of Perth, when he noticed a dark shadow creeping up beside him and feared the worst.

On turning to see a giant shark approaching, the 14-year-old sprung into action and began stabbing its nose with his large spiked gidgey, Seven News reports.

Lucas Martin (pictured), 14, escaped a terrifying confrontation with a two-metre shark by stabbing it in the face with a spearfishing gun

Lucas, from Falcon, said his quick reaction was enough to ward off the massive creature, and give him time to warn others of the looming predator.

He was fishing off Avalon Point when the shark approached, which he thought might have been after the fish he had just speared.

'This shadow was fastly approaching me and it actually turned out to be a shark. I was really scared at that moment,' he said.

He recommended others who found themselves in similar situations should, 'get out of the water as quick as you can and let other people know.'

The teen's father has praised the city's numbered beach system, which was implemented following a fatal shark attack in 2016.

He was fishing off Avalon Point when the shark approached, which he thought might have been after the fish he had just speared

Emergency crews struggled to locate surfer Ben Gerring because of the confusing coastline and difficulty accessing the beach.

The 'Ben System' was set up last year after his brother, Rick, lobbied for beaches to be given unique numbers to make them more easily identified in emergency situations.

'We were right next to the Ben System, it was clear, we phoned the water police and we let them know the number,' Lucas' father Marcus said.

Almost immediately, authorities blasted alerts through social media informing their following about the shark sighting.Theresa May's cabinet is embroiled in a fresh Brexit row  just days before a vital four-hour showdown.

The Prime Minister's advisers are drafting plans to form a new customs union with the EU for the free trade of goods but not services.

The members of the split Brexit war committee will hold meetings on Wednesday and Thursday to reach a final position.

The two morning meetings have been scheduled to last two hours each.

The Prime Minister's advisers are drafting plans to form a new customs union with the EU for the free trade of goods but not services

Backers of Chancellor Philip Hammond say the plan would solve myriad issues, including that of the Irish border.

Mrs May was said to be keeping 'an open mind' on the Brexit negotiations, according to Downing Street.

However, Liam Fox, the International Trade Secretary, said: 'It is very difficult to see how being in a customs union is compatible with having an independent trade policy.

Dr Fox said: It is very difficult to see how being in a customs union is compatible with having an independent trade policy.

International Trade Secretary Liam Fox said: ''It is very difficult to see how being in a customs union is compatible with having an independent trade policy'

'We have to be outside of that to take advantage of those growing markets.

One of the reasons we are leaving the European Union is to take control and thats not possible with a common external tariff.

During his visit to China, he told Bloomberg TV: 'We would be dependent on what the EU negotiated, and we have to be outside of that to take advantage of those growing markets.'

Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson and Michael Gove will this week also warn against joining a post-Brexit customs union.

They and Mr Fox will say Britain must be able to strike free trade deals after it leaves the EU as the issue is debated for the first time by senior members of the Government.

It comes after Theresa May yesterday insisted Brexit would go ahead even if a Whitehall analysis said it could harm Britain's economy.

The Prime Minister said she would look at forecasts for the impact of leaving the EU but it was crucial the government 'does what the British people want us to do'.

Mrs May also dismissed criticism of her leadership and handling of negotiations, saying she believed a transition deal will be negotiated by March and repeating that she had no intention of quitting.

The defiant stance came amid a huge row over a leaked study that suggested the economy will take a hit whatever deal is done with Brussels.

UK plc would be up to 9 per cent smaller in 15 years time than if it remained in the bloc, according to the assessment.

But the document sparked a furious backlash from Eurosceptics who condemned it as the latest tranche of Project Fear.

Brexit minister Steve Baker was forced to apologise last night after delivering a veiled jibe about civil servants producing evidence in a bid to stop Brexit.

In a round of broadcast interviews as she wrapped up her trip to China this morning, Mrs May made clear that the economy was not the only consideration in Brexit.

'It's important of course that the government looks at the analysis that is available,' she told ITV News.

'But of course it's also important that the government does what the British people want us to do  the British people want us to leave the European Union and that is what we will be doing.'

Mrs May was shown the Yuyuan Garden in Shanghai after spending the trip pushing for more trade with the guant economy

The Prime Minister, pictured meeting schoolchildren with husband Philp in Shanghai yesterday, said she would look at forecasts for the impact of leaving the EU but it was crucial the government 'does what the British people want us to do'

Mrs May said she did not believe Britain had to choose between the EU and the rest of the world.

'I don't believe that those are the alternatives,' she said.

'What the British people voted for is for us to take back control of our money, our borders and our laws and that's exactly what we are going to do.

'We also want to ensure that we can trade across borders.'

She added: 'What I favour is a deal, an arrangement for trading with the European Union which is going to be good for trade between the UK and the European Union and good for jobs in Britain.'

Mrs May also backed Mr Baker after he was forced to retract comments in the House of Commons yesterday about the actions of civil servants.

Mrs and Mr May did a walkabout in Shanghai yesterday as the three day visit drew to a close

Mr Baker told MPs he had heard an 'extraordinary' claim from Charles Grant of the respected Centre for European Reform think-tank that evidence was being manipulated in Whitehall.

But Mr Grant hit back insisting that he had not said the Treasury was deliberately concocting dire warnings to keep Britain in the customs union.

Mr Baker retracted his remarks after a recording of the exchange emerged with Mr Grant stating that the Treasury is 'determined' to stay in the customs union - but not going further.

The row erupted as Theresa May's allies fought to quell anxiety that she is 'going soft on Brexit' and getting ready to change her position and keep the UK in the EU customs union.

Eurosceptics have warned that they will not accept BRINO - Brexit In Name Only - and leadership chatter has been rising.

Other backbenchers are also unhappy about the government's 'timid' domestic policies, and are demanding that Mrs May becomes more bold or makes way for someone else.

Mrs May set a collision course with Brussels yesterday by promising to reject calls for EU citizens who come to the UK during a transition phase to have permanent residency right.

Tory MP Johnny Mercer yesterday gave conditional support to the PM, saying she is the 'best and the only option' to lead the Tories 'at the moment'.

He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that Mrs May was 'in a very difficult position' over Brexit.

Allies of Mr May (pictured with husband Philip in Shanghai yesterday) have been fighting to quell anxiety that she is 'going soft on Brexit'

'This is what people voted for, people did know there was going to be a period of uncertainty,' he said.

'Like anybody else, I would like to see a vision on it.'

There are 'fundamental questions' she needs to answer but 'there is no point going into a negotiation saying 'this is what I want from it' and showing all your cards straight away,' he acknowledged.

The Plymouth Moor View MP insisted that Brexit was 'not the defining issue' of the Conservative Party. With an eye on May's local elections, he said: 'We need to see more vision, we need to give people something to vote for.'Alexis Marie Bradish, 19 (pictured) of Muskegon, Michigan, was charged with false report of a felony when she claimed she was kidnapped but was able to escape

A 19-year-old from Michigan is facing charges she allegedly made up a story about how she was kidnapped from the mall.

Alexis Marie Bradish, of Muskegon, was charged with false report of a felony when authorities couldn't corroborate the kidnapping claims.

'The allegation she made is the worst nightmare - a horrific allegation,' Muskegon County Chief Assistant Prosecutor Timothy Maat told MLive.com.

Bradish reportedly told a friend, who contacted police, that she was leaving from a local mall, the Lakes Mall, on December 3 when a man grabbed her and threw her into a pickup truck.

She later told investigators she was taken to an E&A grocery store where she was able to escape from the truck.

However, no surveillance video from any nearby E&A locations could corroborate Bradish's allegations, police said.

She said was leaving the Lakes Mall (pictured), on December 3 when a man grabbed her and threw her into a pickup truck and claimed she escaped after she taken to an E&A grocery store

However, no surveillance video from any nearby E&A locations could corroborate Bradish's allegations, police said, and she was subsequently arrested (Pictured, Bradish)

'After receiving the information about the alleged kidnapping, Fruitport police conducted a thorough investigation that included interviewing numerous witnesses and reviewing surveillance footage from area businesses,' Maat said.

Bradish was arraigned on January 22 in the 60th District Court and her preliminary examination is scheduled for 11am on February 6.

If convicted, Bradish could serve up to seven years in prison.An Oklahoma man convicted of brutally murdering a 26-year-old woman and her four-year-old daughter had to be tackled to the ground by officers and restrained after he tried to walk out of the courtroom during victim impact statements.

Brandon Ivan Colbert Jr was sentenced to two life-without-parole prison sentences on Friday after he was convicted of murdering Carina Mancera and her daughter Jennabel Anaya in August 2016.

During Colbert's sentencing, the 23-year-old is heard repeatedly saying 'no' and shaking his head during victim statements.

Get me out of here. I dont care about this,' Colbert says in a video captured inside the courtroom by ABC World News.

Brandon Ivan Colbert Jr attempted to leave the courtroom on Friday during victim impact statements

The 23-year-old was quickly restrained by three bailiffs as he tried to get up from the table

Colbert was heard saying 'no' and shaking his head during the victim statements

The bailiffs wrestled Colbert to the ground before taking him out of the courtroom and restraining him in a safety chair

COURT TAKEDOWN: Brandon Colbert, a 23-year-old Oklahoma man convicted of a double murder in Long Beach, California, was tackled by authorities after refusing to listen to victim impact statements and attempting to stand up in court.. https://t.co/uqKPMI2ZPu pic.twitter.com/e3ftEopjPL  World News Tonight (@ABCWorldNews) February 2, 2018

As the convicted killer attempts to stand up, three bailiffs rush forward and wrestle him to the ground.

Colbert then had to be taken out of the room and restrained in a safety chair before he was brought back into the hearing, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Colbert was convicted of murdering a 26-year-old woman and her four-year-old daughter in August 2016

Colbert was found guilty last week of first-degree murder and one count of attempted murder with two special enhancements.

In addition to his two life sentences, the Tulsa native was sentenced to another life term for the attempted murder of Mancera's boyfriend, Luis Anaya. Colbert also got 75 years to life for personally discharging a firearm.

Deputy District Attorney Cynthia Barnes said she gave Colbert back-to-back life sentences without parole because of the nature of the crimes and total lack of remorse shown by the defendant', the Los Angeles Times reports.

Prosecutors said the killings were 'without any provocation' but opted not to pursue the death penalty.

Authorities said Colbert hid behind a sign in Long Beach, California around 10.20pm on August 6, 2016 and waited for Mancera, Anaya and their daughter Jennabel to return home.

As the family was carrying groceries into their home, Colbert opened fire using a shotgun. Mancera died almost instantly, police said.

Jennabel was taken to the hospital where she died the following day. Colbert also shot at Anaya but missed, authorities said.

Colbert, who was diagnosed with schizophreniform disorder in 2014, was arrested three weeks after the killings on suspicion of driving a stolen vehicle. A DNA swab obtained from him during that arrest linked him to the murders.

According to WebMD, schizophreniform disorder is a type of psychosis that lasts less than six months. Schizophrenia is formally diagnosed if the symptoms lasts longer than six months.

Authorities have not given a motive or said whether Colbert knew his victims. Anaya told investigators that he did not recognize Colbert.

Carina Mancera (right) and her daughter Jennabel Anaya (left) were gunned down by Colbert as they returned to their Long Beach, California home from grocery shoppingRose McGowan sat down for an intimate discussion with Ronan Farrow and guests at The 92Y in New York City on Thursday night.

The actress, 44, and Farrow spoke for just over 90 minutes about a variety of subjects from McGowan's early years and her 1997 sexual assault at the Sundance Film Festival to a previously undisclosed rape that happened some time around 1989.

And while McGowan would not name the man, she did give some big clues about the identity of this person and made it clear that she planned to identify him at some point in the future.

Her appearance came just 24 hours after she got into a shouting match with a transgender critic during a book event at a New York Barnes & Noble - prompting her to cancel all of her upcoming appearances.

McGowan also said that she did not even realize that she had been a victim of molestation until two weeks after her own story gained national prominence and made he rethink the events which had occurred two decades prior.

Scroll down for video

Partners: Rose McGowan spoke about her new memoir Brave with Ronan Farrow on Thursday night at The 92Y in New York City

'You told me that even long before the Harvey Weinstein incident ... there was a statutory rape by a prominent man in Hollywood,' said Farrow about 30 minutes into the talk.

'Yes, I and I didn't process that actually until...' McGowan then became silent as a a few audible gasps could be heard in the audience.

'I'll get to him,' she told the crowd.

Farrow asked: 'Is that a story you're ready to tell right now or in general?'

McGowan quickly responded: 'In general? Sure. Right now in this moment? I've had a big day. I have only had a banana. I have been busy I'm sorry.'

She then noted: 'You know, it will make this night very spectacular.'

McGowan then began to say something but paused after only two words and shared some details of her story, leaving out identifying details while giving people a good idea.

'But let me tell you he worked for my rapist and won Oscars,' said McGowan, who went on to stress how very much her age - 15 years old - she looked at the time.

'And you know so this man he was very famous,' explained McGowan.

McGowan appears in the 1992 film Encino Man, which she would have shot three years after her rape at 15

'And she did tell me the name of this person which obviously I would not say without your being ready for that,' Farrow told the audience.

He later noted: 'Rose speaks when she's ready.'

After both McGowan Farrow acknowledged that this was a good thing, she gave a few more details.

'I think you know, when he took me home after he met me and he showed me a softcore porn movie he'd made for Showtime under a different name of course that's when I learned what nam-myoho-renge-kyo was because it was involved with this softcore porn,' said Rose, referring to the Buddhist practice.

'And then he had sex with me and then he left me next to Cafe Tropicale in Silverlake standing on a street corner.'

Farrow then made a point of once again stating: 'You're 15.'

'Mm-hmm,' said McGowan.

'But I'd always found him attractive, well not always that day. I in my mind, playing it back, I'd always felt like I had been attracted to him so I always filed it away under a sexual experience.'

And now she is processing it, so at some point she might be ready to share.Australian warship HMAS Warramunga has made another massive drug bust off the West Australian coast, seizing 414 kilograms of heroin from a smuggling vessel in the Indian Ocean.

Crew members aboard the ship's Seahawk chopper found the drugs, worth $124 million, after intercepting it on February 1.

The HMAS Warramunga has seized and disposed 11.5 tonnes of hashish and 1.5 tonnes of heroin from seven vessels since deploying to the Middle East in November.

Australian warship HMAS Warramunga seized 414 kilograms of heroin off a smuggling vessel in the Indian Ocean on February 1

Crew members aboard the ship's Seahawk chopper found the drugs, worth $124 million

'As a result of this latest seizure, Warramunga has now taken more than $1 billion of narcotics out of circulation,' Commander Dugald Clelland said on Saturday.

DRUGS SEIZED BY WARRAMUNGA December 2729 December 2017: 8 tonnes hashish; 69kg heroin (three vessels intercepted over this period)  January 3: 3.5 tonnes hashish  7 January: 111kg heroin  24 January: 915kg heroin  1 February: 414kg heroin Advertisement

'Meaning the funds raised from this sale are no longer available for use by terrorist organisations around the world.'

More than $1 billion worth of drugs have been seized by the Warramunga crew across seven different operations.

All of the confiscated drugs have been dumped at sea.

Warramunga intercepted a boat carrying more than 900 kilograms of drugs after the vessel was spotted by a Royal New Zealand Air Force aircraft last Wednesday.

The Air Force P-3K2 aircraft detected a suspicious vessel on January 23 and crew from Royal Australian Navy frigate HMAS Warramunga boarded the boat January 24, ABC News reported.Halle Berry was 'livid' on Friday over allegations that her former manager used her name to 'lure and manipulate innocent vulnerable women of color for his predatory actions'.

Vincent Cirrincione, 70, a white Hollywood agent who has helped a number of minority women like Berry and Taraji P. Henson achieve stardom, is now being accused of sexual harassment by nine different women.

Three women have alleged that Cirrincione demanded sex as a condition for him agreeing to represent them.

Another woman said she was told he would further advance her show business career in exchange for monthly sexual encounters.

Another accuser says Cirrincione masturbated in front of her during a meeting in his office.

Vincent Cirrincione (left), a white Hollywood manager who has helped a number of minority women like Halle Berry (right) and Taraji P. Henson achieve stardom, is now being accused of sexual harassment by nine different women. The photo above was taken in 2005

Cirrincione, 70, is being accused by at least three women of demanding sex as a condition for him agreeing to represent them. He is seen above with Henson in Los Angeles in 2015

Berry released another statement on Instagram late Friday saying she was 'livid' that her former manager allegedly 'used' her to 'lure and manipulate innocent vulnerable women of color for his predatory actions'

The accusations, which were made by eight African Americans and one Asian American, were reported by The Washington Post.

The women say that the alleged harassment and unwanted sexual advances took place over the course of two decades.

They allege that Cirrincione took advantage of young, vulnerable women eager to make it in an industry that is very difficult for non-white women to break in to.

Cirrincione responded to the allegations by releasing a statement.

He said that while he did pursue sexual relationships with a number of women, he denies requiring sex as a condition for him representing them.

We live in a time where men are being confronted with a very real opportunity to take responsibility for their actions. I support this movement wholeheartedly, Cirrincione said in a statement.

I have had female clients and employees my entire career in this industry.

I have built a reputation for advancing the careers of women of color.

Letha Remington (above) alleged that in 1993, Cirrincione told her that he could not represent her after she spurned his advances

I have had affairs while in committed relationships, ones I am now ashamed to say are coming to light and shading my past and my reputation.

I can say without a doubt that I have never used favors, sexual or otherwise, as a reason for managing anyone. I want to make it clear that not one of those relationships were anything but consensual.

I take responsibility for my part in the situation and I am not here to diminish anyones feelings or experiences.

I apologize to these women, my past and present partner, my clients and employees for the pain this is bringing them.

I was under the impression I was living my life as a supportive man to women. It is with a heavy heart that I see now I was wrong.

Tamika Lamison (right) described an encounter with Cirrincione (left) in a hotel suite in June 1996. She claims he agreed to take her on as a client on condition that she make herself available to him sexually whenever he wanted

Three women went on the record for the Post story while most of the accusers chose to remain anonymous.

In 1993, Letha Remington, who was a stage actress at the time, was trying to make it big in show business.

She met Cirrincione at his office, which at the time was based in a New York City apartment building.

Remington wanted Cirrincione to represent her and help her career.

During their third meeting in his office, Remington said the agent began caressing her shoulders.

Cirrincione allegedly told her that he was lonely because his wife at the time was working night shifts as a nurse.

When Remington made clear she had no interest in him sexually, the agent allegedly told her he could not represent her.

It made me feel like I had to be clever enough to maneuver around that and get the opportunity that I needed to make it on my own talent, not on sleeping with somebody, Remington said.

Peppur Chambers (above) said she was made uncomfortable by Cirrincione's advances, but she continued working with him for months after he agreed to invest in her project as an executive producer

Tamika Lamison described an encounter with Cirrincione in a hotel suite in June 1996.

Lamison, who at the time was a 27-year-old stage actress living in New York City, said she was introduced to Cirrincione at the Tony Awards dinner.

She said she knew about Cirrinciones role in helping Halle Berry become successful and that she was excited for the opportunity to audition for him.

At the hotel suite, Cirrinciones phone rang. Lamison said it was Berry on the other end of the call.

Cirrincione put the phone on speaker and Lamison listened to the conversation.

She grew excited about the possibility that Berrys manager could take her under his wing and lead her to similar fame.

After the phone call, Lamison started to recite a poem she had written.

She alleged that midway through the poem, Cirrincione grabbed her and started kissing her.

The manager allegedly stuck his tongue in her mouth.

Lamison said Cirrincione offered to take her on as a client  on condition that she make herself available to him sexually whenever he wanted.

Lamison said she pushed Cirrincione away and left.

In 2011, Peppur Chambers was invited by Cirrincione to his home after she approached him about producing her show, Brown Betties, a burlesque group which she created.

As they sat on the couch watching television, Chambers alleged Cirrincione tried to kiss her, but she turned away and his lips landed on her head.

In my head, I was like: This is dumb. Why am I even here? Chambers said.

I remember feeling like Im going to take this for the team. You feel like youre selling your soul for what you want.

After he agreed to invest as an executive producer of her dinner theater cabaret, Chambers, 47, said she felt obligated to continue meeting him for a period of at least four months.

Henson said that in the two decades she has been managed by Cirrincione, she never saw or heard of any inappropriate behavior by him toward her or other women. 'Ive never had any issue with this on any level,' Henson said

Nonetheless, she told colleagues about her encounter at the time it took place.

Six of the accusers said that as a result of their experiences with Cirrincione, they either abandoned their acting careers or took extended breaks from the business.

They said the manager destroyed their self-confidence and sense of self-worth.

Cirrincione is said to have tried to persuade many women to become his client by pointing to his track record with stars like Berry and Taraji P. Henson.

One accuser said he told her that she reminded him of Berry when she started out.

Of course that was like your dream to have Halle Berrys manager say, Oh, my God, you remind me of Halle, said the woman.

After the audition, Cirrincione told her that she wasnt quite ready to be represented by his agency, though he did say he would arrange for her to get new headshots.

He also said he would introduce her to other people who could help her career  on condition that she sleep with him once a month, she alleged.

'He said it so matter-of-factly, like we were just going to get coffee,' she said.

The woman, who now works as a fashion blogger, said the agent called her a week later and apologized.

Cirrincione also asked her to forget what we talked about', she said.

Another actress made similar allegations. She said she met Cirrincione at a Los Angeles premier party for Hustle & Flow, a movie starring Henson.

The actress (not Henson), who was 36 at the time, said that during her audition for the agent, he told her that he would sign her.

As part of their business arrangement, he would help advance her career, though she would have to sleep with him, the woman alleged.

The actress, who had no television or film credits to her name, told him she was not interested.

Berry told the Post that while Cirrincione never acted inappropriately with her, she ended her business relationship with him three years ago when she learned of an allegation made against him

The Post reported that it was an open secret in Hollywood that Cirrincione pursued sexual relationships with aspiring actresses.

Berry told the Post that while Cirrincione never acted inappropriately with her, she ended her business relationship with him three years ago when she learned of an allegation made against him.

Over three years ago, a woman was on the radio saying that Halle Berrys manager was her worst casting couch experience ever, Berry told the Post.

That news literally stopped me in my tracks. I immediately confronted Vince about it, and he denied it completely.

But even with his denial, something didnt feel right in my spirit, and with the possibility that it could be true, I immediately ended our over-25-year relationship.

Berry did not remember the womans name or the name of the radio station.

Cirrincione said he doesnt remember being confronted by Berry over a radio interview.

'I never heard that from Halle. We never had a discussion. Im totally shocked. Its not like she left me abruptly,' Cirrincione said.

Berry released another statement on Instagram late Friday.

Yesterday I was saddened by the allegations against my former manager, Vincent Cirrincione, but today Im sick after reading the horrifying detailed accounts of his abuse towards 9 women, she wrote.

Im livid that he used me, and the role model he helped me become, to lure and manipulate innocent, vulnerable women of color for his predatory actions.

Im deeply hurt and I want these women and countless others to know I see you.

I heard you. You matter. I will fight for you.

Henson said that in the two decades she has been managed by Cirrincione, she never saw or heard of any inappropriate behavior by him toward her or other women.

'Ive never had any issue with this on any level,' Henson said. 'He totally respected me.'

Henson said Cirrincione was like a 'father figure' who helped guide her career. He even at times paid her rent, child care fees, as well as her son's school tuition.

'He saw a single mother trying to make her dreams come true, and he nurtured that,' Henson said.

'He wrote checks and wouldnt ask for anything in return. It wasnt coming from a creepy place. If anything, it empowered me. Like this man believes in me. I love him for that.'A Chicago nurse who was working at a hospital in Hawaii remains missing nearly a week after she was swept into a river by rising waters during a hiking trip.

Authorities said Kelly Mrowinski and an unidentified male were hiking January 26 near Piihonua Falls in Hilo when they were swept away by a nearby river.

The man was able to make it out of the water, but Mrowinski did not. Authorities said the man is expected to be OK.

Rescuers have been searching the area above Wailuku River in Hilo since Saturday morning, CBS News reports.

Kelly Mrowinski, a nurse from Chicago, went missing in Hawaii after going hiking near a waterfall

Mrowinski and an unidentified male were hiking on January 26 near Piihonua Falls (pictured) in Hilo

Authorities said Mrowinski and her friend were swept away by a nearby river. The man made it out of the water and is expected to be OK

According to Mrowinski's Facebook page, she has been in Hawaii since January 2. She was working as a traveling nurse at Hilo Medical Center.

A hospital spokeswoman told the Chicago Tribune that Mrowinski had been working in the pediatrics and surgical units.

'We appreciate Kelly for coming to Hilo to provide care to our community,' Director of Public Affairs Elena Cabatu said. 'This excellent nurse was well-received by her colleagues. Our hopes and thoughts are with the family for the best possible outcome.'

A representative from Aya Healthcare, a California-based company that staffs hospitals across the country with contract nurses, said Mrowinski had been sent to Hawaii earlier in the year.

Mrowinski was a traveling nurse and had been sent to Hawaii on January 2 to work at Hilo Medical Center

A hospital spokeswoman said Mrowinski had been working in the pediatrics and surgical units

The rep also said that they have been in contact with the missing nurse's family and roommate and are offering 'emotional support' and also financial support so they can travel to Hawaii to search for Mrowinski.

'Obviously, we're deeply concerned,' marketing director Erin Stafford said.Police have continued their search for the bodies of two men last seen alive in central Queensland 25 years ago.

A team of 10 police officers, 60 SES volunteers and a cadaver dog on Friday scoured a section of the Kroombit Tops National Park for the remains of Robert Grayson, then 26, and Derek Van Der Poel, then 23.

The pair, last seen alive in Gladstone in May 1993, had been minding marijuana crops for Russell James Williams, 51, who was charged on Monday over the murders.

It was not the first time authorities had focused their attention on the park, with new information leading them to search the crop area and adjoining land once again.

Russell Williams, 51, was charged over the alleged murders of Robert Grayson (right) and Derek Van Der Poel (left), who police believe were killed in 1993

'Since the arrest of Mr Williams we have received some information from members of the public,' Det Insp Shadlow told reporters on Friday.

'Some people have stated they have come forward since the arrest, they do feel more comfortable.

'We just ask that people look inside themselves and look at their conscience.'

The area carefully combed over by authorities included land where the crops were grown as well as adjoining bush.

Police will allege in court the two men were crop sitters watching a marijuana plantation in the Kroombit Tops National Park and Williams believed they were stealing

Det Insp Shadlow said a police investigation had identified multiple persons of interest in the case, but refused to elaborate on what roles they were suspected of playing in the men's disappearance.

Williams faced Gladstone Magistrates Court on Tuesday and the matter was adjourned to April 10.

He was charged with two counts of murder and drug production.

A $250,000 reward remains in place for more information.Over 117 motorists were trapped overnight between two land slips in New Zealand's South Island on Thursday, after several trees came down on a bridge.

Australian tourist Aurora Oncken and her friends were travelling south to Fox Glacier from Franz Josef Glacier about 10am on Thursday.

Ms Oncken said her travelling group survived on banana sandwiches after being forced to wait on the blocked bridge overnight.

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Over 117 motorists were trapped overnight between two land slips in New Zealand's South Island on Thursday, after several trees came down on a bridge (pictured)

Australian tourist Aurora Oncken and her friends were travelling on State Highway 6 when they became trapped, surviving the night on banana sandwiches

New Zealand has been buffeted by Tropical Cyclone Fehi with a state of emergency declared in Dunedin and the Buller District. Nelson, Mapua, Richmond, Westport and Waitara were evacuated on Thursday evening.

The tourists were told it was better to head out to Fox Glacier than stay put, Stuff.co.nz reports.

The group were travelling on State Highway 6 near when a tree came down over powerlines ahead of them, as they were just 1km from their destination.

In front of them, a road works truck had stopped and advised Ms Oncken to turn back.

New Zealand has been buffeted by Tropical Cyclone Fehi with a state of emergency declared in Dunedin and the Buller District

After driving halfway back the way they came, yet another tree blocked their path.

'A few hours came and went and about 50 other cars soon turned up,' Ms Oncken said.

'When we were told it would be overnight it was pretty bleak. We just settled in.'

At around 10am on Friday, a helicopter arrived to do a 'medical evacuation' but failed to bring supplies for those stranded.

The frightening ordeal came just days after a 50-metre section of the Pyramid Bridge near Riversdale collapsed (pictured)

'It was just obvious they didn't know the numbers. That was a bit scary because if we'd been there any longer, it would have got a bit wild,' Ms Oncken said.

While all motorists were rescued by Friday afternoon, Ms Oncken said there was poor communication between those trapped and the 'outside world'.

The frightening ordeal came just days after a 50-metre section of the Pyramid Bridge near Riversdale collapsed.

'There had been a build up of debris at the bridge today, due to the high water flow following yesterday's heavy rainfall,' explained the Gore District Council as they urged people to steer clear of the waterway.

The violent weather is expected to settle over the weekend.Detectives of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) on January 31, 2018 under the procedural leadership of the prosecutors of the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAPO) have reported suspicion to two persons of committing crimes under Part 5 of Article 191 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine - embezzlement of property in especially large amounts.

These are ex-director of Zealand Holdings Inc. and the ex-president of the Sea Trident shipping company (100% of both companies belong to the state). The latter was detained under Article 208 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of Ukraine, the NABU press service reported.

Investigators established the ex-president of Sea Trident together with the former director of Zealand Holdings Inc and other officials of the Infrastructure Ministry of Ukraine in breach of Ukrainian laws, using the power of attorney of the Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine, sold at low prices the merchant vessels African Lark, Etna, Elbrus and Everest, transferred by the Ministry of Transport of Ukraine as a contribution to the authorized capital of Sea Trident.

As a result of such actions, the state was caused damage to the total amount of more than UAH 219 million, which is confirmed by the findings of forensic examination. Now the issue of electing a preventive measure to the suspects is being decided.

The pre-trial investigation into the above-mentioned facts was opened by NABU detectives in December 2015 after the transfer of the relevant materials from the Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine for investigation.Advertisement

Hours after the release of a controversial memo about the FBIs perceived bias against him, President Donald Trump appeared relieved to bid farewell to a stressful week in Washington, DC and return to his beloved Mar-a-Lago estate for his traditional weekend getaway late Friday.

Trump, First Lady Melania Trump, and their 11-year-old son, Barron Trump, disembarked from Air Force One after landing at Palm Beach International Airport in West Palm Beach, Florida.

This is the first time in three weeks that Trump has flown to Mar-a-Lago. He was last there during the Martin Luther King Jr holiday weekend.

He had planned to fly there on January 19 to have a bash celebrating a year since his inauguration but was forced to stay in Washington due to the federal government shutdown.

The president and the first lady did not appear to be particularly warm to one another - the latest tense exchange between the couple since it was alleged Trump had an affair with the porn star Stormy Daniels.

In video posted by the Palm Beach Post, an expressionless Melania Trump walks by her husband after they reach the tarmac.

Trump descended the stairs alongside his son while the first lady trailed them both by a few feet.

When they reached the bottom of the stairs, the president guided his young son into the awaiting motorcade.

Just a few feet behind, Melania Trump kept walking to the awaiting motorcade without acknowledging the news media and photographers.

Hours after the release of a controversial memo about the FBIs perceived bias against him, President Donald Trump appeared relieved to bid farewell to a stressful week in Washington, DC and return to his beloved Mar-a-Lago estate for his traditional weekend getaway late Friday

Trump, First Lady Melania Trump, and their 11-year-old son, Barron Trump, disembarked from Air Force One after landing at Palm Beach International Airport in West Palm Beach, Florida

Barron was dressed head to toe in white as he disembarked Air Force One with his parents late Friday

Trump descended the stairs alongside his son while the first lady trailed them both by a few feet

Unusually she did not pause and wave alongside her husband but made her way to the motorcade in towering Louboutin heels and super-skinny navy pants and a dramatic red jacket

When they reached the bottom of the stairs, Melania Trump kept walking to the awaiting motorcade without acknowledging the news media and photographers

The president paused to wave at the cameras while his wife and son went ahead into the car

The footage shows Trump turning toward his wife, but she does not appear to respond to him at all.

Instead, the first lady continues to walk toward the motorcade.

The president paused to wave at the cameras while his wife and son went ahead into the car.

The First Lady opted for patriotic red and blue on the back of the State of the Union address.

Unusually she did not pause and wave alongside her husband but made her way to the motorcade in towering Louboutin heels and super-skinny navy pants and a dramatic red jacket.

Barron, dressed in white, was ushered to the car by his father but the first cuple did not touch or exchange words after a tense week with rumors of a hush money paid to a porn star with whom the president had an alleged extramarital affair and reports Melania arrived in a separate motorcade to Tuesdays State of the Union.

It is also likely that Trump's daughter, Ivanka, and her husband, Jared Kushner, are in Mar-a-Lago for the weekend after The Palm Beach Post ran a photograph of their son, Joseph, looking out the window of Air Force One after it landed.

Earlier on Friday, DailyMail.com obtained photographs of a Secret Service agent loading a car filled with luggage outside the Kushners' home in Washington, DC.

It is also likely that Trump's daughter, Ivanka, and her husband, Jared Kushner, are in Mar-a-Lago for the weekend. Earlier on Friday, DailyMail.com obtained photographs of a Secret Service agent loading a car filled with luggage outside the Kushners' home in Washington, DC

Trump (above) looks back as he boards Air Force One at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland on Friday

The president and his family escaped the bitter chill in the Northeast for the milder weather in the Sunshine State this weekend

It was a busy week for the president, who gave his first State of the Union address to the nation on Tuesday

Trump left town as Washington grappled with the release of a controversial memo by House Republicans alleging bias against the president at the FBI and the Justice Department

The address before a joint session of Congress on Tuesday was Trumps first State of the Union speech of his presidency.

Trump vowed on Tuesday to protect American intellectual property, but made little mention of China, which his administration has accused of trade abuses.

Trump urged lawmakers on Tuesday to work toward bipartisan compromises, but pushed a hard line on immigration, insisting on a border wall and other concessions from Democrats as part of any deal to protect the children of illegal immigrants.

Trump, in his first State of the Union speech, gave no ground on the contentious issue of whether to shield young immigrants known as 'Dreamers' from deportation.

Aiming to keep conservative supporters happy as he looks to November congressional elections, Trump stood by a set of principles opposed by Democrats, including the border wall with Mexico and new restrictions on how many family members that legal immigrants can bring into the United States.

After the State of the Union, Stormy Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, appeared on Jimmy Kimmel's show and was coy when asked about reports that she was paid hush money after having an affair with Trump over a decade ago

The Stormy Daniels saga as well as Melanias body language this week fueled speculation that the presidents marriage is fraught with tension. Melania reportedly arrived to the State of the Union in a separate motorcade - without her husband

The crowd stood and cheered as the president heralded: 'In America we know that faith and family, not government and bureaucracy are the center of American life.' Melania remained seated

'Tonight, I call upon all of us to set aside our differences, to seek out common ground, and to summon the unity we need to deliver for the people we were elected to serve,' Trump said in his address.

After the speech, Jimmy Kimmel hosted a porn star who reportedly was paid a six-figure sum of money to keep quiet about an alleged affair she had with Trump over a decade ago.

Stormy Daniels appeared on Kimmel's show on Tuesday night just hours after Trump's first State of the Union address.

The porn star, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, has been on a publicity tour in recent weeks after it was alleged she had sex with Trump back in 2006 just months after his wife Melania gave birth to Barron.

Kimmel's show kicked off with a clip of the host and Daniels watching the State of the Union speech before he pulled out two puppets - one of Trump in white underwear and another dressed as Daniels with her mouth taped shut.

Enough of this. Show me what he did to you with these,' Kimmel asked her.

Daniels didn't reveal anything - and the rest of the interview didn't expose much more either.

She did however appear to confirm that she had signed a non-disclosure agreement when Kimmel pointed out that if any such agreement didn't exist, she would be free to say so.

'You're so smart Jimmy,' Daniels responded.

Just hours before her appearance on the show, a statement was issued in Daniels' name denying the affair with Trump ever occurred, saying: 'I am not denying this affair because I was paid 'hush money'... I am denying this affair because it never happened.'

But when Kimmel asked her about the denial letter on the show, Daniels seemed to deny she had even signed it.

The Stormy Daniels saga as well as Melanias body language this week fueled speculation that the presidents marriage is fraught with tension.

During the State of the Union, when the president spoke about the importance of family, Melania remained seated while everyone around her stood up and clapped enthusiastically.

Those watching along on Twitter were quick to notice the First Lady not budging, while surrounded by people standing and cheering after the president said: 'In America we know that faith and family, not government and bureaucracy are the center of American life. The motto is: In God we trust.'

'Looks like Melania didn't stand! Oh that's right #pornstar,' one user tweeted, while another wrote: 'Did you notice that Melania refused to stand when trump commented on family values being at the center of American life? She looked like she was in a Stormy mood.'

There were also reports that Melania arrived at the State of the Union on Capitol Hill on her own.

The First Lady broke from tradition and took her own motorcade to the speech.

Trump signaled Friday that he expects heads to roll at the Department of Justice after reviewing a classified memo alleging FBI misconduct

Days earlier, Melania backed out of her planned trip to Davos with her husband, further fueling rumors of discontent within the marriage.

The week ended in a tumultuous fashion for the first family as Washington was reeling over the release of a memo alleging anti-Trump bias at the FBI and the Justice Department.

Trump and his Republican allies in Congress on Friday escalated a campaign against US law enforcement agencies over their probe of Trumps ties to Russia, releasing a disputed memo that the FBI warned was misleading and inaccurate.

The previously classified document, written by Republicans on the House of Representatives intelligence committee, alleges that the federal probe of potential collusion between Trumps 2016 presidential campaign and Russia was a product of political bias against Trump at the FBI and Justice Department.

Ignoring a plea from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Trump approved the memos release without redactions, deepening an extraordinary breach between the president and senior law enforcement officials over a probe that has dogged him during his first year in office.

Democrats said the four-page memo mischaracterizes highly sensitive classified information and was intended to undermine Special Counsel Robert Muellers criminal probe into the Russia matter launched in May 2017 that grew out of an earlier FBI investigation. They warned Trump against using it as a pretext to fire Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who hired Mueller and oversees the investigation, or Mueller himself.

As Trump made his way to Mar-a-Lago late Friday, supporters stood by the side of the road where his motorcade was traveling and denounced the FBI

One supporter held a sign which read: Justice Department FBI Clinton Crooks! Another supporter held up a flag of Israel while holding a sign that read: ILLEGAL IS NOT A RACE

Mueller also is examining whether Trump has committed obstruction of justice in trying to thwart the Russia probe.

Asked by reporters whether the memo made him more likely to fire Rosenstein or whether he had confidence in him, Trump replied, 'You figure that one out.'

Dismissing Rosenstein would likely ignite a huge political firestorm, as his firing of FBI chief James Comey did last year.

A White House official later said there have been no discussions about firing Rosenstein.

As Trump made his way to Mar-a-Lago late Friday, supporters stood by the side of the road where his motorcade was traveling and denounced the FBI.

One supporter held a sign which read: Justice Department FBI Clinton Crooks!

Another supporter held up a flag of Israel while holding a sign that read: ILLEGAL IS NOT A RACE.

FAKE NEWS FAKE SOURCES, read another sign.Two Melbourne sisters have been left horrified after hidden camera footage revealed their disabled brother being brutally assaulted by a male nurse.

Effie Stagnitti and Zoe Bonello positioned a camera inside their brother, Billy Aivaliotis's, hospital room after noticing unexplained bruises, weight loss and changes in his behaviour.

Their worst nightmare was confirmed when on reviewing footage they witnessed a male nurse performing the unthinkable on their defenseless brother, A Current Affair reports.

Sisters Effie Stagnitti (left) and Zoe Bonello (right) have been left horrified after hidden camera footage revealed their disabled brother being brutally assaulted by a male nurse

Parts of the disturbing video show the male hospital employee allegedly grabbing the 33-year-old patient around the throat and choking him.

Mr Aivaliotis, who was born with cerebral palsy, was being treated in a brain injuries unit at Caulfield Hospital after being involved in a car accident in May last year.

He was unable to communicate his mistreatment to his family, but their suspicions arose following dramatic weight loss, bruising, and a constant look of sadness on his face.

'To actually get it on footage and see it, it's the worst experience you can possibly go through,' Mrs Stagnitti said.

The video was shot on January 22 when Mr Aivaliotis' family resorted to the measure after they claimed their complaints to hospital staff were falling on deaf ears.

Police are investigating after footage emerged showing a nurse allegedly abusing and manhandling a defenceless patient at a Melbourne hospital

'To actually get it on footage and see it, it's the worst experience you can possibly go through,' Mrs Stagnitti said.

'Nobody deserves to be treated like that,' Mrs Bonello said.

'Every time I would look at him, I could just see the sadness. I could see that he was trying to tell me something, but it was like he was stuck in his own little bubble.'

The nurse has been stood down from the Caulfield Hospital and no longer works for Alfred Health.

'The video material presented to us by the family is distressing and shocking, and not in keeping with the culture of advanced care patients and families should experience in our hospitals,' a spokesperson said.

A man aged in his 30s, from Cranbourne West, has been interviewed by police and released, pending further inquiries.

Mr Aivaliotis (pictured), who was born with cerebral palsy, was being treated in a brain injuries unit at Caulfield Hospital after being involved in a car accident in May last year.

The footage was filmed at Caulfield Hospital (pictured) on January 22

Nicholas Korkliniewski from Arnold Thomas and Becker said the law firm will ensure the nurse involved in the footage and the hospital are held to ensure.

'They had made their concerns known to the wider nursing staff but they fell on deaf ears,' family lawyer Nick Korkliniewski told AAP.

'Billy suffers from cerebral palsy, has been hit by a car, and now this.

'His brain injury is such that he was not properly able to articulate what was happening.'

The family has launched civil proceedings against the hospital as police investigations continue.Police in Georgia have released dash cam footage showing the moment a man is shot dead after he led an officer on a chase, crashed his car and then lunged at the cop with a knife.

The incident happened Thursday on Highway 411 in Rabun County. The Clayton Police Department released the dash cam footage on Friday showing the moments leading up to the shooting.

In the video, shot from inside a Clayton Police officer's cruiser, a man driving a silver car is seen speeding down Highway 411. Authorities said he was going 68mph in a 45 zone.

A police chase in Rabun County, Georgia Thursday night led to the driver being fatally shot by an officer

As the suspect tried to flee an officer he crashed his car in the driveway of Mountain View Heath and Rehab

Dash cam video, shot from inside a Clayton police officer's cruiser, shows the moments leading up to when an officer fired on the suspect killing him

As the cop approached the vehicle, the suspect kicks out the back window and climbs onto the vehicle

The man then jumps off the car lunging at the officer. He apparently had an object in his hand

When the officer puts his lights and siren on signaling for the driver to pull over, the man flies through an intersection and takes off down the street.

As the driver whips around a curve he loses control of the car and crashes in the driveway of Mountain View Heath and Rehab.

The officer is seen in the video getting out of his cruiser and slowly approaching the car with his gun drawn. The suspect then kicks out the back window of his car, climbs onto the roof of the vehicle and jumps off the car lunging towards the cop. The suspect falls on the ground as the officer backpedals away from him.

The cop yells for the man to stay on the ground, but the suspect jumps to his feet and dives at the officer again while making a slashing motion with his hand.

It appears the suspect is holding an object in his hand as he rushes towards the cop. Clayton Police Chief Andy Strait later identified the object as a knife.

As the man runs toward the officer several shots are fired. The suspect hits the police car and falls to the ground in front of the cruiser. The cop holds the man at gunpoint until backup arrives seconds later.

The man falls on the ground and the officer yells for him to stay down but the suspect jumps up and dives at the officer again

As the man approaches, the officer yells he will shoot. Clayton Police chief later said the suspect was trying to attack the officer with a knife

The officer fires several shots at the suspect. The man is seen in the video hitting the police car and falling to the ground

Despite efforts by the cop who fired his weapon and paramedics, the suspect died at the scene.

Strait told Fox News that the officer, whose identity was not released, warned the suspect that he would shoot if he lunged at him.

'The suspect says "I dont care" at one point, continues at the officer in a slashing motion, stabbing motion, within less than a foot and the officer was forced to shoot,' he said. 'And unfortunately, the suspect was deceased at the scene.'

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation was called to look into the officer-involved shooting.

The officer holds the suspect at gunpoint until backup arrives. Despite efforts to save the man, he died at the scene

Authorities have not released the name of the involved officer (pictured on the left) or the suspect

We always want an outside source. And the GBI came in, of course, did our investigation for us,' Strait said.

Our thoughts and prayers are for everyone involved in this situation. Its truly a very sad situation.

It remains unclear why the suspect fled police or tried to attack the officer. Authorities have not released the man's identity.Karen Smith allegedly assaulted a student who did not stand for the Pledge of Allegiance

A Colorado physical education teacher has been placed on paid administrative leave after allegedly assaulting a student who refused to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance.

Karen Smith, the PE teacher at Angevine Middle School in Lafayette, was placed on leave following the alleged incident on Thursday, CBS Local reports.

Police were called to the school around noon on Thursday.

The school's principal sent a letter to parents that reads: 'Dear Angevine Middle School Families.

'I hope everyone is having a good evening.

'I am reaching out to you tonight to let you know that we will have a substitute teacher working with some of our PE classes for the time being.

'While I cannot share much information, following an incident today at school, Ms. Smith was placed on paid administrative leave. We are working closely with our partners at the Lafayette Police Department. We believe in due process and therefore ask that everyone respect Ms. Smiths privacy at this time.

'We are dedicated, as always, to supporting our students and ensuring that we have qualified educators working with them during their physical education time.

'Thank you for your patience and support. Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns.'

Smith has been placed on administrative leave by Angevine Middle School in Lafayette, Colorado. No charges have been filed

Smith had been teaching in the Boulder Valley School District for 20 years, the Denver Post reports.

No charges have been filed in relation to the incident.Award-winning journalist Michael Gordon has died after suffering a suspected heart attack during an ocean swim event on Victoria's Phillip Island.

The 62-year-old Fairfax writer was pulled from the water and brought to shore at Cowes about 10.30am Saturday but tragically died at the scene despite efforts to revive him.

Gordon won a Walkley Award - one of the profession's highest accolades - for most outstanding contribution to journalism in 2017, the year during which he left his long-term role as political editor.

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Gordon (pictured) won a Walkley Award - one of the profession's highest accolades - for most outstanding contribution to journalism in 2017, the year during which he left his long-term role as political editor

The award-winning journalist died after suffering a suspected heart attack during an ocean swim on Victoria's Phillip Island (pictured)

The father-of-two died after competing in a community ocean swim and was pulled unconscious from the water on Victoria's Mornington Peninsula.

He worked at the Australian newspaper for 37 years after starting his career in journalism at the age of 17.

Gordon has been described as a 'a giant of Australian journalism' and was one of the publication's most loved, respected and lauded writers, according to The Age.

Friends, colleagues and family members were quick to pay tribute to the high-profile and respected journalist.

Gordon (pictured) has been described as a 'a giant of Australian journalism' and was one of the publication's most loved, respected and lauded writers, according to The Age

The father-of-two died after competing in an ocean swim and was pulled unconscious from the water on Victoria's Mornington Peninsula (pictured)

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull gave his condolences and said Gordon was 'one of the most wise and calm' journalists and offered love and sympathy to his wife Robyn and family.

'A good friend and great mentor to so many. He left us far too soon,' Mr Turnbull posted on Twitter.

Opposition leader Bill Shorten said Gordon was simply 'one of the good guys'.

'A passion for truth-telling, a champion for social justice, his every word was wielded for a cause,' Mr Shorten tweeted.

'I'll miss reading him and talking to him immensely.'

In addition to his long tenure at Fairfax, Gordon was a former political editor of The Australian and US correspondent for The Herald.

'A good friend and great mentor to so many. He left us far too soon,' Mr Turnbull posted on Twitter (pictured)

The 62-year-old Fairfax writer was pulled from the water and brought to shore at Cowes (pictured) about 10.30am Saturday but tragically died at the scene despite efforts to revive him

Gordon wrote about his formative years as a cadet in a column published in June 2017, describing how securing the position at age 17 and when his father Harry was the editor was viewed with suspicion by some.

He spent 'long spells' on real estate, police rounds and the Trades Hall - the 'perfect prelude to observing national affairs' - before moving to the press gallery in Canberra.

Former Prime Minister John Howard was named by Gordon as the catalyst for a focus on the plight of asylum seekers, one of many subjects he covered with passion.

As he left journalism at the same age his father did, Gordon said his overwhelming emotion was one of 'immense gratitude'.

Gordon sent through his last copy to The Age before his death only several days earlier.A man suspected of hiding drugs up his bottom has spent a staggering 16 days in custody - while police wait for him to go the toilet.

Operation Raptor West, an Essex Police gang and urban street crime unit in Harlow, have dubbed the situation #poowatch and have been posting daily updates on Twitter.

Following his arrest, they tweeted: 'London gang nominal arrested for failing to stop for police and possession with intent to supply class A drugs, male doesn't think we have the power to keep him until he removes said items from his bottom.'

He was arrested on January 17 on suspicion of possession with intent to supply class A drugs, and is alleged to have swallowed the drugs while trying to avoid being arrested.

The Essex Police gang and urban street crime unit in Harlow, Operation Raptor West, posted on Twitter about a suspect who swallowed drugs to avoid arrest

More than two weeks later, the team based at Harlow police station in Essex are still waiting and have been going to the courts to request further days of detention.

Taking to Twitter yesterday, Op Raptor West said: 'Day 16 and back to court, courts have issued a further 7 days detention #opraptor.'

Although some have expressed concern about the suspect's wellbeing, police have assured the public that he is being monitored.

So far he has spent 16 days in custody without using the bathroom, but medics are constantly checking on him. The record in another Essex Police unit is 23 days

They wrote: 'He is being seen daily by doctors and constantly watched, this is his own choice and so far his health is fine.'

Operation Raptor North, which covers Chelmsford, Braintree, Colchester and Tendring, hold the current record, and once held a suspect for 23 days before he finally went to the bathroom.

According to WebMD, going for three or more days without going to the bathroom is too long.

Operation Raptor West is Essex Police's gang and urban street crime unit for Harlow, Epping Forest, Brentwood and Thurrock districts.Khader Ahmed Saleh, 25, (pictured on Snapchat with his wife) died from knife injuries at Wormwood Scrubs prison and three men have now been charged with his murder

The Metropolitan Police have confirmed that three men have been charged with murder, following the fatal stabbing of 25-year-old Khader Saleh at HMP Wormwood Scrubs, on Wednesday, January 31.

A fourth man has been arrested on suspicion of murder and has been released under investigation.

All four men have been confirmed to be prisoners at Wormwood Scrubs.

The three charged with murder appeared at Willesden Magistrates court today.

They are now due to appear at the Central Criminal Court on Tuesday February 6.

The men are Ahmed Khyre and Kalif Dibbasssey, both 21, and Enton Marku, 20.

Khader Ahmed Saleh, 25, was found with a number of knife injuries on Wednesday afternoon at the prison in west London.

He was pictured in a final Snapchat with his wife who he shares a child with.

Saleh, who moved to the UK from Somalia 13 years ago, was being held in the prison before being sentenced next month.

He was married to Salma Hassan, 20, and lived in Tower Hamlets with their two-year-old son.

His mother Amina Dualeh, 58, previously said: 'He should have been safe.'

She told the Evening Standard: 'I cannot believe his life has been taken while inside a prison. It is unacceptable. I have lost my son and he is never coming back. Who has the responsibility? I am so sad.'

Mrs Hassan added: 'It is appalling. He should have been safe in the prison. Officers should be held accountable.'

It is thought that Saleh was targeted by a gang inside the Category B prison - just a month after inspectors warned of 'high levels of serious violence' inside the jail.

'The prison has now introduced body-worn cameras, additional CCTV and patrol dogs, and will be recruiting 120 extra officers to further improve safety.

Saleh, pictured, who moved to the UK from Somalia 13 years ago, was being held in the prison before being sentenced

'We are working with the police on their investigation and it would be inappropriate to comment further at this stage.'

The victim's brother, Said Yousef, said he had warned his family about problems with gangs and violence inside the prison.

He told BBC Radio London: 'I was just in a shock position since the time that I heard.

'I wouldn't believe it because someone was inside the jail and got murdered in this way, it was really shocking for me.'

He added: 'He said there's a lot of gangs inside and that guards are not doing anything about it.

'It's basically they let it go if fight happen.'

He also said that the killers must be brought to justice for their crimes.

He added: 'I'm talking on behalf of our family and saying they have to get the highest sentence in the prison for the horrible things they have done.'

Mr Saleh's family have asked for his body to be released by the coroner said that he can be buried in accordance with Islamic tradition.

Duale Yousef, a community worker who is helping to support the relatives, said: 'The police told us the coroner will held another 28 days - Islamic way it has to be allowed for Muslims to bury their deceased ones.'

It is thought that Saleh was targeted by a gang inside Wormwood Scrubs (pictured) - just a month after inspectors warned of 'high levels of serious violence' inside the jail

He said the community is in shock and added: 'It's sad because I think Khader has been neglected and wasted his life and the killers, we don't know who they are and how has been killed.

'What we looking for today is for justice and that justice must be served for Khader.'

He added: 'Khader has left as well a son and this young boy has lost his father today, he is fatherless.

'He will know one day who murdered his father.

'But the reality is we feel unjustice (sic) - the way Khader has been treated in prison was absolutely shocking.

'I have heard that he has been beaten before his death and nothing has been done.'

Police and paramedics were called to the prison at just before 3.20pm.

A post-mortem examination will be held in due course. Enquiries into the incident continue.The wife of a millionaire tycoon stalked her husband's ex-mistress for six months and vandalised her car after she had her husband's baby.

Emma Hunt, of Muswell Hill, North London, repeatedly visited love rival, Ngai Mann's, home over a six month period.

The 62-year-old secretly keyed the young woman's white Toyota Yaris and left a sharp screw under a tyre which burst as Ms Mann left her home, Wimbledon Magistrates Court heard.

The wife of a millionaire tycoon stalked her husband's ex-mistress for six months and vandalised her car after she had her husband's baby (Emma and Ian Hunt pictured together)

Ms Mann became pregnant during the affair with husband Ian Hunt in Hong Kong and the Hunt's say they gave her a 250,000 pay-off to settle all financial claims.

The pair had to remortgage their 1.5 million home to fund the pay-off.

At their home in Muswell Hill, North London, last night, husband Ian said: 'It was the affair that caused my wife to do this.'

Police CCTV proved Mrs Hunt was driving in the area when the vandalism occurred outside Ms Mann's Wimbledon home, which she shares with her toddler daughter.

Officers were told by Mrs Hunt, mum-of-two and grandmother, that she had been curious after discovering that the ex-mistress lived in a 850,000 house.

The couple also claim Ms Mann tricked the husband into giving her 7,500 for medical treatment after fabricating a terminal illness and fraudulently using a credit card in Mr. Hunt's name to buy 30,000 worth of gold in Hong Kong.

Emma Hunt, of Muswell Hill, North London, repeatedly visited love rival, Ngai Mann's (pictured), home over a six month period

Prosecutor Miss Damilola Eniola told the court: 'The complainant and defendant are known to each other.

'She had an extra-marital affair with the defendant's husband in Hong Kong and four years ago she gave birth to their child.'

Last Spring Ms Mann received a letter at the address. 'This caused her distress and was written as if Mr. Hunt had written it.

'She also received a hand-delivered letter from Mrs Hunt.'

The wife accepts she is the author of the second letter, but maintains the first was genuinely written by her husband and is not a forged by her.

The pair had to remortgage their 1.5 million home (left) to fund the pay-off to Ms Mann. Officers were told by Mrs Hunt, mum-of-two and grandmother, that she had been curious after discovering that the ex-mistress lived in a 850,000 house (right)

A few weeks later the damage began. 'The complainant found long scratches from the back to the front of her Toyota Yaris in June.

'In July she saw a scratch running from back to front and reported it to the police, feeling she had been targeted.'

There was a more serious incident in September. 'The complainant, while driving her car in Wimbledon, heard a loud noise from the front and found her left tyre had been deflated by a large screw.'

Mrs Hunt was ordered to do a 100 hours' community service after she pleaded guilty to damaging the car and to stalking between March 30 and October 16.

She was also put on a restraining order and has to pay 1,000 compensation.A church faces having its bells silenced at night after 239 years because one person complained its chimes were keeping them awake.

St Peter's Church in Sandwich, Kent, was served a noise abatement notice by the council in November last year after a single neighbour complained.

The busybody said their night's sleep was being ruined by the bell's peals four times an hour.

St Peter's Church (pictured) in Sandwich, Kent, was served a noise abatement notice by Dover District Council in November last year

The noise abatement notice, served by Dover District Council to the Church Conservation Trust, effectively silences St Peter's bells between 11pm and 7am from mid-February.

Even though more than 4,000 people signed a petition to keep the bells tolling, the council said it had a 'statutory duty to investigate noise complaints'.

But townsfolk say 85 per cent of those living within earshot of the church want the move reversed.

Carole George, who set up the Save the Chimes campaign, said: 'We simply want common sense'.

Bells have chimed at the Norman church, which was built in the 13th century, every 15 minutes since 1779.

Dover district council leader Keith Morris said the town hall's hands had been tied on the matter, told The Sun.

He added he has written to Government ministers asking for clarification on the law.

He said: 'We had no option under the current legislation but to investigate and issue a noise abatement notice.

'Our officers acted entirely appropriately in investigating the complaint. We also, however, understand and respect local history and tradition.'

Dover district council leader Keith Morris (pictured) said the town hall had been compelled by law to investigate the complaint

Mayor of Sandwich Councilor Peter Graeme said: 'The town hall is fully supportive of those who want to retain the chimes.'

'The chimes have not actually gone away yet. They wont until sometime in mid-February. But we hope this will be resolved by then.'

He added there was widespread public support for the bells continuing to toll and that was 'reflected in the support of the town hall'.

In recent years a handful of churches across England have been forced to silence their bells because of night-time noise abatement orders.

In September a church in the Lake District was forced to silence its bells overnight when tourists staying in the local pub complained of the noise.

St Andrew's Church in Coniston came under fire from guests at the Yewdale Inn, who said they couldn't sleep because of the regular tolls.

While outraged neighbours claimed the bells were the sound of village life, the council fitted a timer to stop the bells chiming between 11pm and 7am.The five Britons arrested in Cambodia over 'pornographic dancing' are being extorted by the authorities, their families say.

Officials are said to have demanded 28,000 ($40,000) for their release - but have reportedly told the men that they will not be given their passports back.

They have reportedly been offered the alternative of confessing to the crime and spending six weeks in jail.

A source told Sky News: 'It's extortion, plain and simple. Forty thousand dollars is a lot of money to find.

'There's been no mention to us that it's a bail arrangement... As far as we're concerned, we're being asked for a one-off cash payment to set them free.

'Even if we paid it, who's to say that there wouldn't be another demand for another $40,000 down the line?'

Police raided a home rented by Jones after earlier witnessing an alleged Twister style sex position game. Images, released by Cambodian police, claim to show tourists at a Siem Reap party but these were taken at a different event

Earlier this week, video released from the prison where the group are being held showed one of the men making a grovelling apology.

The five men were filmed nodding vigorously when asked if they wanted to leave Cambodia and return to the UK.

They have all chosen to remain behind bars rather than apply for bail in the hope their case will be fast tracked through the courts.

In the video posted to YouTube and on the Cambodian Expats Online site, Dan Jones is heard saying he respects the country's culture and has helped teach children in the country.

'I have no problem with Cambodia,' he says before adding he made 'one mistake' and apologises profusely while bowing his head.

Dressed in a white t-shirt and black shorts, with his head freshly shaved, he can be heard saying the words 'I am sorry'. It is not clear what mistake he is referring to.

Dan Jones (with his hands together), one of the British men jailed over 'pornographic pictures' in Cambodia, has made a groveling apology as others locked up said they were desperate to return to the UK

The five British men were filmed as part of a larger group who all nodded vigorously when asked if they wanted to leave Cambodia and return to the UK

All five Britons - Jones, 30, Paul Harris, 32, Vince Hook, 35, Thomas Jeffries, 22, and Billy Stevens, 21  deny the charge of making pornographic pictures at the pool party held in a private home last week (above)

Jones and others are believed to have organized pub-crawls that attracted the attention of the Cambodian police for their alleged lewd behaviour with twister style 'sex position' games.

Another of the Brits arrested, Paul Harris, identifies himself at the manager of the Angkor Wat pub where many of the pub-crawls began.

All five Britons - Jones, 30, Harris, 32, Vince Hook, 35, Thomas Jeffries, 22, and Billy Stevens, 21  deny the charge of making pornographic pictures at the pool party held in a private home last week.

Jones had put out a flier with a 'Let's Get Wet' invitation on the internet to attract almost 100 people paying 5 a head to his home.

At his bar staff told Mail Online the three times a week pub-crawls had been permanently cancelled.

Lawyers representing the men, and five foreign nationals also jailed, were told not to ask for their release while police carry out their investigation.

The group fear if they are given bail the case could drag on for months and they will not be allowed to leave the country.

Some have reasoned by staying locked up the Cambodian authorities will speed up their investigation.

All five British men have chosen to remain behind bars rather than apply for bail in the hope their case will be fast tracked through the courts

In the video posted to You Tube and on the Cambodian Expats Online site, Dan Jones (centre left with hands on his hips) is heard saying he respects the Cambodia culture and has helped teach children in the country

Jones (left) is among those who have organised pub-crawls that have attracted the attention of the Cambodian police for their alleged lewd behaviour with twister style 'sex position' games

Authorities in Siem Reap have launched a crackdown on what they see as lewd behaviour by backpackers who flock to the resort saying the antics are an insult. Images, released by Cambodian police, claim to show tourists at a party but these were taken at a different event

Police raided the home rented by Jones after earlier witnessing an alleged Twister style sex position game on a pub-crawl he and others are believed to have organised.

Authorities in the resort of Siem Reap have launched a crackdown on what they see as lewd behaviour by backpackers who flock to the resort saying the antics are an insult to the country.

The five British men - and other nationals from Canada, New Zealand, Norway and Holland - have been held at the Siam Reap prison since their arrest.

Duong Thavry, head of the anti-human-trafficking and juvenile protection department in Siem Reap said the 10 had been arrested because they had put 'pornographic' pictures from previous parties on Facebook to advertise the event.

'These photos and videos are against our culture. They were publicly putting them up on the internet, and making it look like Cambodia has these kinds of parties here. It is very disrespectful and gives the wrong idea of our country,' she said.

Thavry said the five British men had been specifically targeted and stormed the party villa with arrest warrants.

The men have had their head shaved to prevent lice and issued with orange style Guantanamo Bay terrorist suspect jump suits.

Lawyer Sourng Sophea told MailOnline he visited the group in prison today to see if they wanted him to apply for their release.

He said: 'Not all are in agreement but many do not want to be released yet as they fear the case will continue for months if they are allowed out.

'They have had their passports taken away and they will not be allowed to leave the country. By staying in prison they hope the investigation will be much quicker and if there is a trial it will be soon.'

The filmed apology was shot after the eight men arrested had their heads shaved to prevent an outbreak of lice while being held in Siam Reap prison (above)

The five British men and other nationals from Canada, New Zealand, Norway and Holland, have been held at the Siam Reap prison since their arrest

The group has been told they could be jailed for up to a year if convicted on the producing pornography charge

The group has been told they could be jailed for up to a year if convicted on the producing pornography charge.

An undercover cop joined one of the pub-crawls two weeks ago and was said to have witnessed the Twister games.

Their case was substantially boosted when the Governor of Siam Reap told local media no porn pictures had been found during the raid.

He did add that those arrested had been previously warned about some of the events they were staging and to call a halt to them.

After the raid police in Siam Reap had issued photos showing men and women entwined in compromising positions but these were taken at another event.

It is thought when police raided the rented home of Jones they expected to see similar antics but the almost 100 revellers who were at the party were standing round drinking and chatting.

Bar owners told Mail Online there had been an increased police presence on the street and several uniformed officers could be seen patrolling up and down the narrow roads packed with neon lit bars.

Restaurant owners welcomed the police presence if it meant the drunken behaviour of a small minority was kept in check.

'Everyone would see the pub crawl people and found it disrespectful,' said one restaurant manager.

We want people to enjoy themselves and to come to Pub Street, but we do not need people getting drunk and causing problems. That is not the Cambodian culture and if they are in our country they our traditions and ways should be respected.

Lawyer Sourng Sophea told Mail Online he visited the group in prison today to see if they wanted him to apply for their release but they believe their case will be fast-tracked if they stay behind bars. Pictured: The house where the alleged lewd party was held

Their case was substantially boosted when the Governor of Siam Reap told local media no porn pictures had been found during the raid on the house (above). After the raid police issued photos showing men and women entwined but these were taken at another event

Police took 77 people from the party to their main HQ where they were forced to watch a video which showed what the authorities consider indecent behaviour

Police took 77 people from the party to their main HQ where they were forced to watch a video which showed what the authorities consider indecent behaviour.

Only ten of those held were locked up as they were considered the ringleaders of the party and previous pub-crawls where sex position games are held.

Lawyer Mr Sophea denied reports that the men were only arrested because they failed to pay a $140 bribe to local police.

He said:' That is not true and not correct.'The Crimean Prosecutor's Office is verifying the possible involvement of the former first deputy head of the administration of then president of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych, Andriy Portnov, into a resolution of the Supreme Council of Crimea during the occupation of the peninsula, Deputy Prosecutor of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea Oleksandr Udovychenko said.

Speaking on the air of the Hromadske Radio about the so-called 'Glazyev's tapes', the records of a telephone conversation of aide to Russian President Vladimir Putin Sergey Glazyev, Udovychenko explained that these tapes are the materials of criminal proceedings that are being investigated by another division of the prosecutor's office, not by the Crimean Prosecutor's Office. However, according to him, this information was brought to the attention of the Prosecutor's Office of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, and now it carries out procedural actions aimed at confirming or refuting this information.

"The tapes are the materials of a criminal case which, according to my information, is being investigated by another subdivision of the prosecutor's office, not by the Prosecutor's Office of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea... Any information about the peninsula of Crimea, about persons connected or possibly involved in its occupation, about those processes, which are happening now, we monitor all of them, if such information is found, it is immediately checked through investigative actions in one or another criminal proceeding. The information which you mentioned has come to our attention. Efforts are taken to either confirm or refute it," the prosecutor said.

According to media reports, the draft resolution of the Supreme Council of the Crimea during the start of the Russian occupation in 2014 was prepared by Portnov, which on March 1, 2014, Putin's aide Glazyev told his interlocutor (a Vladimir Andreevich) in a telephone conversation. This conversation was recorded by Ukrainian intelligence and promulgated by prosecutors at a meeting of the Obolonsky District Court of Kyiv on the case of former president of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych.Mark Hemmings admitted raping his now deceased victim in Shrewsbury Crown Court

A rapist who brutally attacked a woman in a park 25 years ago was finally caught - with the help of a brave police dog who was stabbed by the same assailant.

Mark Hemmings, 58, raped his then 36-year-old victim in February 1993 but was never caught.

Detectives took samples of the rapist's DNA which was found on the victim's wrist but it failed to produce a match and was kept on the police database.

Hemmings was finally caught when police raided his home after receiving reports of a man waving a knife last summer.

German Shepherd Canto leapt at Hemmings who stabbed the five-year dog in the chest with the eight-inch blade.

Earlier this week Canto, who has since made a full recovery, received a top bravery award for his heroics from the PDSA.

After Hemmings was arrested, officers took a DNA sample which produced a match for the 1993 attack.

Hemmings was finally caught when police raided his home after receiving reports of a man waving a knife last summer, and German Shepherd Canto leapt at Hemmings who stabbed the police dog

Hemmings stabbed the five-year dog in the chest with the eight-inch blade, but the brave animal has since made a full recovery

Tragically, the victim died in 2014 so never lived to see her rapist brought to justice.

On Friday members of her family attended Shrewsbury Crown Court to watch Hemmings admit raping her in Telford Town Park in 1993.

Speaking outside court, Detective Inspector Mark Bellamy said: 'This was a terrifying and violent ordeal for the victim and I am very sorry that she is not here now to see justice being served.

'I hope her family can take some comfort from the fact that her attacker has finally been caught.

PC Emma Worrall, Canto's handler, said: 'My hands were covered in Canto's blood. I couldn't believe that he had been stabbed, while trying to do his job'

'The investigation has never closed and thanks to forensic science and meticulous work by detectives, Hemmings has now been convicted.

'We remain committed to pursuing rapists and sexual offenders, regardless of the time which has passed since the offences were committed.'

Hemmings was finally caught after officers swooped on his home in Tasley Close, in Bridgnorth, Shropshire, last August.

Canto's handler, PC Emma Worrall, 34, said: 'As soon as we entered the property we were confronted by the man wielding a large kitchen knife.

Earlier this week Canto was given a PDSA Commendation for his bravery, and award which has only been given to 120 animals

'I released my hold on Canto's collar and gave him the command to bite and detain.

'Canto leapt towards the man as commanded, but rather than bite he fell to the floor.

'I was shocked because Canto is an experienced dog and it was unlike him not to carry out my commands.'

PC Worrall added: 'My hands were covered in Canto's blood. I couldn't believe that he had been stabbed, while trying to do his job.

'As he was still able to stand, I put him on his lead and ran to my car, shouting to my colleagues what had happened.'

Although he was hurt, Canto continued to bark at the man, an action which allowed officers armed with tasers to deal with the situation.

After he was arrested, officers took DNA from Hemmings which resulted in the match for the 1993 rape.

Julia Mcsorley, Senior Crown Prosecutor with the West Midlands Crown Prosecution Service's Rape and Serious Sexual Offences Unit, said: 'The Prosecution Team were able to link Hemmings to the rape which he committed in 1993 through the use of forensic evidence.

'This key piece of DNA evidence has helped us to bring this dangerous sexual predator to justice for a crime which he thought he had got away with.

'This offence had a devastating effect on the victim and her family and our thoughts are today with them. We hope that today's conviction will provide some measure of comfort to them.'

Hemmings was remanded into custody and will be sentenced on March 2.Two teenage parents have been jailed after they let rats bite their newborn baby's head, face and body more than 100 times.

The baby girl, who lived with her parents in Magnolia, Arkansas, was just 15 days old and suffered so many injuries from the rats that she had to undergo extensive reconstruction surgery on her skull.

Her parents Erica Shryock, 19, and Charles Elliot, 18, pleaded guilty to permitting the abuse of a minor.

Parents Erica Shryock, 19, and Charles Elliot, 18, (pictured) have been jailed after pleading guilty to allowing rats to bite their newborn daughter's face

An examination revealed that the baby had 75 to 100 rat bites all over her body, including on her arms, fingers, hands and face.

The worst injury was an inch-wide gash on the baby's forehead that was so deep it exposed a portion of her skull.

The shocking injuries were detailed in an arrest affidavit, according to Arkansas Online.

The baby had 75 to 100 rat bites all over her body, including on her arms, fingers, hands and face

Social workers who visited the unnamed baby's home also found her cot filled with blood.

Investigators found bloody rat footprints throughout the house, as well as a baby's blanket that was soaked in blood.

Shryock and Elliott were living with a friend in the ramshackle house in Magnolia.

Bpth Shryock and Elliot have substance abuse issues and admitted to taking crystal meth and K2 in the days before the rat attack

Both parents admitted to doing crystal meth and K2 in the days before they found their daughter covered in the bites.

The court heard that the parents were both abused as kids themselves and ended up in care.

Both Shryock and Elliott were sentenced to five years in prison.

Defence attorney Joseph Churchwell said: 'They should have never been allowed to leave the hospital with the baby when she was born'

However, they will be eligible for parole after 304 days and will begin their terms with 293 days already served.

This means that is is likely that the two will be released from custody within 30 days, defense attorney Joseph Churchwell said.

Churchwell said in an interview after the court hearing: 'It's as good as we were going to get.

The court heard how both parents had violent childhoods and suffered physical and sexual abuse

'They should have never been allowed to leave the hospital with the baby when she was born.

'This is DHS' [Department of Human Services] fault. Why did they wait until this baby's face was chewed on by rats?'

The baby, who was born prematurely and weighed a little more than 4 pounds at birth, has now been adopted.

The worst injury was an inch-wide gash on the 15-day-old baby's forehead that was so deep it exposed a portion of her skull

Elliott reportedly has two other children in state custody

The court heard how both parents had violent childhoods and suffered physical and sexual abuse.

Both suffer from substance abuse and mental health issues.

Their house has since been condemned and burned down by the state.Police have been accused of using excessive force after woman was pepper sprayed in the face and several other bashed with batons following a violent nightclub brawl.

It began as a scuffle outside Lava Lounge nightclub in Berwick, southeast Melbourne when police intervened, using OC spray and batons to subdue the brawling patrons.

Shocking vision of the incident, filmed by bystanders, shows several officers attempt to overpower the club-goers with batons and dousing them with pepper spray before putting one man in a headlock, Nine News reports

Scroll down for video

It began as a scuffle outside Lava Lounge nightclub in Berwick, southeast Melbourne when police intervened, using OC spray and batons to subdue the brawling patrons (Vision pictured left and right)

One angry witness could be heard telling police he had captured the brutal beatings on camera.

'I hope you guys know I have all this on video, you guys hitting them with batons while they were pepper sprayed on the ground,' the man said.

Police say they were responding to a brawl at the popular nightclub spot which had seen a 21-year-old woman knocked unconscious, several patrons bashed and security guards spat on.

But those who were subdued with pepper spray and beaten with batons claim the responding officers used excessive force.

One woman told Nine News she was left with severe burns on her scalp and legs after being sprayed with the agent while others were left with bruises to their legs and faces.

The 27-year-old woman alleges she was punched in the face by an unknown man and then pepper sprayed by officers.

Police say they were responding to a brawl (pictured) at the popular nightclub spot which had seen a 21-year-old woman knocked unconscious, several patrons bashed and security guards spat on

However several witnesses to the alcohol-fuelled punch up defended the police and say the brawl was reaching bloodthirsty heights before officers intervened.

'Police were fine, I actually thought they went a bit too easy... they have got to protect themselves,' witness David White said.

According to Victoria Police, the responding officers did deploy OC spray however it was not effective in breaking up the violent brawl.

'Police deployed OC spray which was not effective and the group continued fighting,' a police spokesperson told Daily Mail Australia.

'Police were then required to resort to using batons to stop the fighting and separate the parties. No other injuries were reported.

A number of people received infringement notices for drunk in a public place and police are investigating the circumstances surrounding the incident.A school has asked parents to ban their children from using social media for two years in an effort to combat cyber bullying.

Kowhai Intermediate School in Auckland, New Zealand wants its students to stop using social media even when they are not at school.

A newsletter published on the school's website outlines the social media ban.

'We believe it would be highly beneficial for our students and indeed families to create and support a social media-free community for students outside of school hours during their two years at Kowhai,' it reads.

Kowhai Intermediate School in Auckland, New Zealand wants its students to stop using social media even when they are not at school

The request to ban social media is part of the school's 'ICT contract', and was brought about as a result of 'incidents' which affect students in 2017.

'These incidents have occurred outside of school hours on private social media accounts that we have no rights or responsibility for,' the newsletter reads.

'When things do go wrong we often find that parents contact the school with the expectation that we can and will sort the problem out,

'This is a legal and ethical minefield that would require full, unfettered access to all the social media accounts and devices involved to be fair and just in establishing a true and accurate record of what has occurred.'

The request to ban social media is part of the school's 'ICT contract', and was brought about as a result of 'incidents' which affect students in 2017 (stock image)

The school said investigating the incidents would pull staff away from their 'core job - teaching'.

The school said banning social media while student outside of school hours would help create a 'safer school environment'.

'Adolescence is a challenging time, let us give our children the opportunity to navigate it without the added pressure of social media.'William Tyrrell's embattled biological father (pictured) has been sentenced to seven months in prison after a series of drug and theft offences

William Tyrrell's embattled biological father has been sentenced to seven months in prison after a series of drug and theft offences.

Brendan Clifford, who is the father of the missing toddler, appeared at Bankstown court, western Sydney, faced with charges related to drug possession and the theft of bank cards, toys and clothing, Nine News reports.

It was found the 35-year-old suffers from 'flashbacks and psychological and emotional problems' following the suspected abduction and ongoing missing persons case of three-year-old son William, on September 12, 2014.

'He is the father of a boy whose tragic disappearance three years ago has been the subject of a major police investigation,' the magistrate said during sentencing.

His mother Natalie Collins previously told A Current Affair she was 'horrified' after stumbling upon the stolen goods her son had stashed in his room.

'He will get better. When I cleaned his room I was horrified. It was full of s*** he had taken from the streets,' she said.

Mr Clifford was also convicted of minor drug possession after police found him with methamphetamine and a smoking pipe.

His most serious offence was related to the theft of a mobile phone at the Great Southern Hotel in Sydney.

It was found the 35-year-old suffers from 'flashbacks and psychological and emotional problems' following the suspected abduction and ongoing mission persons case of three-year-old son William (pictured)

'He is the father of a boy whose tragic disappearance three years ago has been the subject of a major police investigation,' the magistrate said during sentencing (William pictured)

Missing toddler William (pictured) disappeared from his grandmother's home on the NSW north coast in 2014

Following court proceedings Mr Clifford was sent back to Silverwater jail with a non-parole period ending March 16.

William's biological mother has also been in her fair share of trouble with the law.

Karlie Tyrrell was arrested in December after screaming: 'coppers lost my son you c***s' at police before repeatedly spitting in an officer's face in a late-night shopping centre showdown.

The distressed mother's foul-mouthed outburst - where she appeared to blame cops for losing William - was laid bare in police facts for the December 22 incident shown to a court.

Karlie Tyrrell (pictured) was arrested in December after screaming: 'coppers lost my son you c***s' at police before repeatedly spitting in an officer's face in a late-night shopping centre showdown

The distressed mother's (pictured) foul-mouthed outburst - where she appeared to blame cops for losing William - was laid bare in police facts for the December 22 incident shown to a court

The incident came more than three years after she was told the devastating news William had vanished from his foster grandmother's home on the New South Wales north coast.

She appeared in front of a Sydney magistrate on Monday to plead guilty to assaulting an officer and swearing in a public place at Top Ryde mall, in the city's inner west, on December 22.

Prosecutors told the court Tyrrell had been acting 'aggressively' - apparently toward shoppers - when security guards rang police.Myanmar on Saturday denied that there were five mass graves of Rohingya Muslims in a village in crisis-hit Rakhine state, saying that 19 'terrorists' had been killed and buried in the area.

The denial was in response to an Associated Press report that used testimony from dozens of Rohingya refugees and time-stamped cell phone videos to describe a massacre by soldiers and at least five previously unreported mass graves in Rakhine's Gu Dar Pyin village.

The Myanmar government's Information Committee said in a statement on its Facebook page that a government inspection team had gone to the village to probe the report and found it to be false.

Myanmar troops are accused of razing Rohingya villages to the ground

Myanmar has been accused by human rights groups of waging a concerted campaign of persecution against Rohingya Muslims

The Associated Press has accused Myanmar soldiers of using at least five previously unreported mass graves in Rakhine's Gu Dar Pyin village

AP says its footage proves that Myanmar has committed atrocities against Rohingya Muslims

This combination of May 26, 2017, left, and December 20, 2017, satellite images provided by DigitalGlobe show the village of Gu Dar Pyin, Myanmar before and after destruction

Myanmar says it launched a proportionate crackdown on Rohingya rebels, but has blocked reporters and UN investigators from independently accessing the conflict zone

'The inspection team systematically investigated the AP's report on the Gu Dar Pyin village case, including interviewing villagers, and found it not to be true,' the statement said.

AP reported on Thursday that the mass graves were confirmed through multiple interviews with more than 24 survivors who had fled to refugee camps in neighbouring Bangladesh, and through the cellphone videos.

It said that satellite images and video of destroyed homes also showed that the village had been wiped out.

Rohingya Muslim refugee Mohammad Lalmia, 20, (above) told AP that 'there were so many bodies in so many different places' of his village in Myanmar before he fled to Bangladesh. 'They couldn't hide all the death,' he said

Rohingya Muslim refugee Noor Kadir, 24, (above) is one of thousands who say they were forced out of Burma by troops who killed many people and dumped them in mass graves

Myanmar's Aung san Suu Kyi has come under international pressure over her country's treatment of Rohingya Muslims

The report described grisly violence at the hands of soldiers and Buddhist vigilantes, who allegedly attacked villagers with guns, knives, rocket launchers and grenades before dumping bodies into pits and dousing them with acid.

Villagers interviewed in refugee camps in Bangladesh claimed that up to 400 people could have been killed.

Rohingya Muslim refugees Nooranksih, 9, left, and her mother Rohima Khatu, 45, originally from the Myanmar village of Gu Dar Pyinm told AP that scores of bodies were decomposing after atrocities committed by Myanmar troops. 'I couldn't tell which one was my husband,' Khatu said.

Mohammad Younus, 25, from the Myanmar village of Gu Dar Pyin told AP that he was shot twice while trying fleeing Myanmar with his family - one of the bullets is still in his hip

The Information Committee said there had been deadly clashes between security forces and Rohingya militants in the village on August 28 which left 19 'terrorists' dead.

'Nineteen dead terrorists were found... the bodies were buried,' the statement said, without giving details on the location or nature of the graves.

Myanmar troops are accused of waging an ethnic cleansing campaign against the Muslim minority, nearly 700,000 of whom have fled to Bangladesh since last August.

'The Myanmar government will not deny any human rights violations and will investigate if there is strong evidence. And if there are human rights violations after an investigation, prosecutors will take actions according to the law,' the government statement said.

It said that in regard to Gu Dar Pyin village, 'the preliminary result of the examination has proven that AP's report is wrong'. But AP - one of the world's most respected news agencies - insisted that it stood by its reporting.

Myanmar army soldiers taking part in a military exercise happening in the country

The military exercise is taking place in the Ayeyarwaddy delta region in Myanmar

A helicopter from the Myanmar Air Force fires at targets during the exercise, named 'Sin Phyu Shin'

The exercise included 122 mm multiple rocket launchers firing at practice targets

The Myanmar army has also staunchly denies mass grave allegations, saying the action it has taken is a proportionate crackdown on Rohingya rebels. It blocks media and UN investigators from independently visiting the conflict zone in northern Rakhine.

The severe restrictions on media access imposed by Myanmar make it difficult to verify the flood of testimony gathered from Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh, whose stories have led the UN to accuse Myanmar troops of possible genocide.

This week a spokesman for the UN secretary general said he was 'very concerned' about the report of mass graves, adding that it 'underscores the need for the UN to have access to Rakhine state'.

Last month the army made a rare admission that four members of the security forces had helped kill 10 Rohingya militant suspects in a different village on September 2 and left their bodies in a hastily dug pit.

Rights groups say that incident is the tip of the iceberg.

Doctors Without Borders estimates that at least 6,700 Rohingya were killed in the first month of the military crackdown.

The army has put the official death toll of the conflict at 400.A couple who went through seven failed rounds of IVF treatment before finally having twins through a surrogate have said they will 'never know how to repay' her kindness.

Elouise King and her husband Paul, from Solihull in the West Midlands, thought their dream of becoming parents was over after a miscarriage in 2013 led to complications.

Mrs King had undergone a surgical procedure to remove the foetus, but afterwards she was struck down with a rare condition known as Asherman syndrome which causes scarring of the cervix and uterus.

After seven rounds of failed IVF in 18 months - a period which Elouise described as 'emotionally and physically draining' - the couple decided to find a suitable surrogate.

Elouise and Paul King thought their dreams of having a child were over after seven failed rounds of IVF treatment, but after finding a surrogate the pair now have twins (pictured: surrogate Jen Taylor holding the twins, with Elouise and Paul)

The pair ended up having an 'incredible' friendship with a woman they met on a surrogacy website's forum and are now proud parents to beautiful twin boys.

Mrs King said she'll never know how to repay the kindness of her surrogate Jen Taylor, who lives in Barry and already has three children of her own.

She said: 'Not many people in this world would give up nine months of their life to give someone else the chance to start a family.

'Jen is just an amazing, amazing person. She was so strong, so together, and so determined and positive throughout the whole thing.'

The couple used the Surrogacy UK website to help find a potential surrogate after attending a conference to find out their options.

Mrs King said: 'We decided to join a forum on the Surrogacy UK website which lets you create an online diary and a profile of yourself with photographs. It can be seen by potential surrogates.

'We just wanted to be completely honest about who we were. There was no point in us pretending.'

But within weeks of being on the site they started talking to Mrs Taylor who, along with her partner Dan Broome, agreed to meet up with the pair half way between Solihull and Barry in Ross on Wye.

'It was really nerve-wracking. It was a cross between going for a blind date and an interview,' Elouise said.

'We'd chatted a lot before we actually met so we'd already built up a bit of a friendship.

'We just really clicked. We have a similar sense of humour and similar interests - and we're both down to earth.

'On the drive home me and Paul were speaking to each other and wondering whether she liked us or not.

Mrs King said she'll never know how to repay the kindness of her surrogate Mrs Taylor (pictured, just days before giving birth) who already has three children of her own

The couple 'clicked' with Mrs Taylor and her partner Dan Broome right away after finding her through the Surrogacy UK website and even stayed with them and their children (pictured: Mr Broome, Mrs Taylor, and the Kings)

'Thankfully she text us saying that she really enjoyed meeting us - and it all progressed from there.'

They then made the trip to Barry to stay with Mrs Taylor, Mr Broome, and their three children.

She said: 'It was lovely to experience their world and find out who they really were. We built up the foundations of our friendship for three months and eventually we had an "agreement session" with someone from Surrogacy UK where we went into detail about every single outcome of the pregnancy and birth.'

Following initial blood tests, scans, and another round of IVF, embryos created by Mrs King were then implanted into Mrs Taylor at a clinic in Birmingham.

'Normally you go through IVF on your own but we did it together which was really nice. We felt like partners in crime,' she said.

'The first time we did it we had a positive pregnancy test so we were all overjoyed. But that all came crashing down on us when we later discovered it to be a "chemical pregnancy" which only last a couple of days.

'I was devastated. I vowed to go through it one last time but I couldn't do it anymore than that as I was a mess by that point.'

The Kings made fortnightly trips to south Wales to see them during the pregnancy. As Mrs Taylor was having a planned C-section, they were even present for the birth (pictured)

Because it was their final attempt the doctors agreed to implant two embryos into Mrs Taylor - and this time both were a success.

For the next nine months the Kings made fortnightly trips to south Wales to see Mrs Taylor and see scans of the twins in University Hospital Llandough and the University Hospital of Wales (UHW).

Mrs King added: 'It was wonderful. My miscarriage scan didn't show any heartbeat so to see two was incredible.'

On June 27 last year Mrs Taylor gave birth to Jude William, weighing 6lb 8oz, and Joshua Sebastian, weighing 6lb 2oz, at UHW.

As the twins were breech they needed to be delivered via a planned C-section - which meant they could be in the operating theatre with Jen.

'As a mum you don't really get to see your baby being born but I actually got to see them coming out,' added Mrs King.

'You do feel naturally removed from the pregnancy as they're not growing inside you but to see them being born was amazing.

'I was stroking Jen's head through it all. I couldn't believe there was a person lying on an operating table being cut open for me. I don't know how I'll ever repay her.'

Mum-of-three Mrs Taylor said helping the Kings become parents was one of the most wonderful things she'd ever experienced.

'It's one thing having your own baby but it's another knowing you're giving another couple the chance to start their own family,' said Mrs Taylor, 36.

'Obviously I didn't know how I was going to feel during the pregnancy or giving birth but there was no maternal twang there at all.

'They're Elouise and Paul's babies - I was just babysitting. I'm happy just to be Auntie Jen.'

Amazingly, Jen hasn't ruled out being a surrogate again in the near future.

'It felt like a huge honour to be trusted to carry their babies for nine months,' she added.The RSPCA is investigating a zoo previously dubbed Britains worst after it emerged a lion was fatally poisoned by contaminated meat.

The animal charity raised concerns over the welfare of animals at South Lakes Safari Zoo in Cumbria, and said it has demanded an urgent inspection.

It is the latest in a long line of controversies surrounding the zoo, where a zookeeper was mauled to death in 2013 and nearly 500 animals died between 2013 and 2016.

The RSPCA is investigating a zoo previously dubbed Britains worst after it emerged that Nero the lion was fatally poisoned by contaminated meat (pictured: A lion at the zoo)

The death of a four-year-old African lion, called Nero, last summer was almost certainly a result of it being poisoned by contaminated meat, a BBC documentary found.

News of the tragic death had not been made public.

Local MP John Woodcock, who has campaigned for tighter regulation of zoos, said the suspicious circumstances around Neros alarming death surely merit a criminal investigation.

And he said other distressing revelations in the programme underlined the deficiency of the current system by which zoos are regulated and inspected.

In 2013, 24-year-old zookeeper Sarah McClay was mauled to death by a tiger at South Lakes Safari Zoo as she cleaned its enclosure. The zoo was later fined 255,000 for failing to ensure the door was working properly

The eye-opening documentary Trouble at the Zoo, which airs next week, focuses on the overhaul of the beleaguered zoo under its new management team, which took over last May.

It shows the result of a post-mortem into the death of the African lion which revealed he had been poisoned with barbiturates, a central nervous system depressant which can only be administered by vets, and is thought to have come from his food supply.

The BBC2 programme, which was filmed between April and September last year and airs next Thursday at 9pm, will also show the zoo accepting freebies from local supermarkets, to supplement the 10,000 it spends on fresh produce every month.

Yet among some of the trolley-loads they were accepting were cakes and mouldy fruit, which new animal director Andreas Kaufmann warned could have killed the animals.

The documentary also shows that two red panda cubs died shortly after the zoo came under the new management, after their mother struggled to rear them.

In 2013, 24-year-old zookeeper Sarah McClay was mauled to death by a tiger at South Lakes Safari Zoo as she cleaned its enclosure. The zoo was later fined 255,000 for failing to ensure the door was working properly.

A staggering number of animals also died at the zoo under the management of millionaire David Gill, who was barred from renewing his licence last year.

The tiger enclosure at South Lakes Wild Animal Park near Dalton in Furness, Cumbria, where 24 year old female zoo keeper Sarah McClay died after being mauled by a tiger in 2013

The horrific death register showed 486 animals had died between January 2013 and September 2016, including a monkey whose decomposed body was found behind a radiator and a jaguar put to sleep after it chewed off one of its paws.

The Captive Animals Protection Society (Caps), which also inspected South Lakes, has previously said the zoo was one of the worst it had seen.

The RSPCA said last night that it continued to have concerns about conditions at the zoo, despite recent reports of improvements.

A spokesman said: We are deeply concerned to hear about new revelations relating to the sad death of Nero the lion at the zoo and as a result, we will be investigating this further.

John Woodcock, Labour MP for Barrow and Furness, said: The bottom line is that anyone who held senior a role at the time so many animals died of neglect at South Lakes under David Gill should not be allowed to carry on operating this or any other British zoo'

Despite new management and some reported improvements in welfare at the zoo last year, the RSPCA continues to have concerns about conditions there.

Worryingly, a planned inspection of the zoo by Barrow Borough Council, which is responsible for issuing its licence, has been postponed.

'We continue to have concerns that the running of this zoo is having an impact on the welfare of the animals and recently wrote to the Chief Executive of the council urging him to carry out this inspection jointly with the RSPCA as a matter of urgency.

Mr Woodcock, Labour MP for Barrow and Furness, said: These latest distressing revelations occurred under the nominally new management at the zoo and underline why the government must overhaul the whole inspection regime which is allowing this to happen.

The suspicious circumstances around Neros alarming death surely merit a criminal investigation; if the police are not already involved I will be asking the documentary makers to submit any evidence they have.

The bottom line is that anyone who held senior a role at the time so many animals died of neglect at South Lakes under David Gill should not be allowed to carry on operating this or any other British zoo.

Thats why Labours zoo inquiry in parliament is examining the case for a fit and proper persons test to ensure that the people we entrust with the care of animals are appropriate to hold that responsibility.

A spokesperson for the zoo said: 'Nero was a firm favourite with both visitors and Animal carers alike and he is deeply missed'

A recent post on the zoos Facebook page revealed that Cumbria Zoo Company has recently signed an eight-year lease for the zoo. However, three directors have resigned in the last six months.

A statement from Cumbria Zoo said: Safari Zoo were deeply saddened by the loss of our African Lion Nero, despite intensive care for 4 days and 4 nights from both the veterinary and animal care departments Nero sadly passed away. Results that followed indicated that Neros collapse was as a result of barbiturate poisoning.

Although we cannot determine 100 per cent where the contamination came from, it is essential to try to ensure it does not happen again, barbiturates can only be administered by a vet and could have come from Neros food supply.

Safari Zoo has an ongoing contract with a meat supplier to only deliver meat that has not received veterinary attention in any way.

Nero was a firm favourite with both visitors and Animal carers alike and he is deeply missed.

The zoo receives meat from a local abattoir, but has an understanding with the supplier that they must only get animals that have been shot, rather than drugged.

However, it would appear that a piece of contaminated meat was included in a delivery to the zoo last summer.

David Armitage, animal manager, said: Vets send their dead animals to the abattoirs. Meat for our animals is supposed to come from animals that have been shot, so there would be no barbiturates in the system.

Sometimes one accidentally slips through the net. It looks as if this is what happened on this occasion.

The only other explanation is that a visitor threw barbiturates into the enclosure, which is unlikely.

Trouble at the Zoo, airs next Thursday [8 Feb] at 9pm on BBC2.TA gunman motivated 'by racial hatred' with a Nazi tattoo on his head shot six immigrants in a drive-by shooting in Italy, the authorities said.

Luca Traini, 28, allegedly gave a Nazi salute and did not resist as he was arrested, while draped in the Italian flag.

Police photos showed the shooting suspect with a neo-Nazi tattoo prominently on his forehead as he sat in custody and an Italian flag tied around his neck as he was arrested in the central Italian city of Macerata,.

Six people were left hurt after he allegedly drove a black Alfa Romeo 147 drove around the town, opening fire at various places including near the train station as police gave chase.

The suspected gunman, who has been named locally as Luca Traini, 28, has a Nazi tattoo on his head

Police officers in Macerata examine Luca Traini's car after he was arrested for shooting six immigrants

Four people have been injured in a drive-by shooting in Italy this morning. Pictured: Medics treat the injured

A man and a passenger in a black Alfa Romeo 147 drove around the town of Macerata, opening fire at various places including near the train station as police gave chase. Pictured: Medics treat the injured

The tattoo on Traini's forehead was that of the Wolfangel, an ancient runic symbol that according to the Anti-Defamation League was appropriated by Nazi Germany and later adopted by neo-Nazis in Europe and the United States.

Authorities said the six wounded - five men and one woman - appeared to be random targets in various parts of the city of 43,000 in Italy's central Marche region.

The identities and nationalities of the shooting victims remained unknown. Hospital officials said late Saturday that one had been treated and released, while the others had either undergone surgery or were facing operations for their injuries. One of them remained in intensive care.

In Macerata, Interior Minister Marco Minniti said the gunman had been motivated 'by racial hatred,' and had 'a background of right-wing extremism with clear references to fascism and Nazism.'

Traini was a Northern League candidate for the 2017 administrative elections in Corridonia. He has campaigned for the 'control of non EU migrants'.

The news agency ANSA quoted friends of his as saying that Traini had previously been affiliated with Italian extremist parties like the neo-fascist Forza Nuova and CasaPound.

'He drove around in his car and when he saw any coloured people he shot them,' said Marcello Mancini, a Macerata resident.

The city of Macerata in the central Marche region is still reeling from the gruesome killing and dismemberment of a young Italian woman this week, allegedly at the hands of a Nigerian immigrant.

A video posted by the newspaper il Resto di Carlino showed a man with an Italian flag draped over his shoulders being arrested by armed Carabinieri officers in the city center, a short distance from where he apparently fled his car on foot.

Macerata Mayor Romano Carancini said that six foreigners were wounded in the two-hour shooting spree, one of them with life-threatening injuries.

Carancini confirmed that all of the victims were black, and acknowledged that 'the closeness of these two events makes you imagine that there is a connection.'

The shooting spree came days after the killing of 18-year-old Pamela Mastropietro and amid a heated electoral campaign in Italy where anti-foreigner sentiment has become a key theme.

This is the moment the man suspected of wounding six people in a drive-by shooting in Italy today was arrested while draped in the Italian flag

Police are now studying CCTV to try to identify the shooter. The motivation for the attack is not clear

Forensics inspect a car used by a gunman in Macerata, Italy. Luca Traini, 28, allegedly gave a Nazi salute and did not resist as he was arrested

People look at healthcare personnel taking care of an injured person after being shot by gunfire from a vehicle

This map shows Macerata, the town in northern Italy where the shooting took place

The head of the anti-migrant Northern League, Matteo Salvini, has capitalized on the killing in campaign appearances, and is pledging to deport 150,000 migrants in his first year in office if his party wins control of parliament and he is named premier.

The teen's dismembered remains were found Wednesday in two suitcases, two days after she walked away from a drug rehab community.

The news agency ANSA reported that the car was seen in the area where the woman's body was found and also near where the suspect lived. A video posted by il Resto di Carlino Video showed appeared to be a body on the ground on a shopping street.

Police had warned people to stay inside while the shootings were ongoing. Authorities ordered public transport halted and that students be kept inside schools, which are open on Saturdays.

Italians vote in the general election on March 4.Advertisement

A university student who bought a derelict house for a 1 has managed to transform the property into a dream abode worth 70,000 in under two years.

Victoria Brennan, 30, paid less than the price of a bottle of Diet Coke to snap up the dilapidated property in Liverpool back in 2016.

She won a bid - along with a cohort of four other families - to buy the traditional Victorian terrace, on the condition she would stay there for five years.

'In my Liverpool home': A beaming Victoria Brennan sits her newly-installed kitchen

Before: Miss Brennan found the home in a crumbling condition when she moved in back in 2016

Liverpool City Council launched the 1 Home Scheme to tackle the problem of empty, dilapidated houses in rundown areas such as Anfield and the Webster Triangle.

The ambitious initiative offers bricks and mortar in exchange for a quid and is open to people who live and work in Liverpool and who pledge to fix up their new homes.

But despite the enviably low price, it is far from an easy task as the boarded-up Victorian homes come with no plumbing, electricity, fixtures or fittings.

Those partaking in the scheme are bound by contract to live at the property for five years, a move designed to stop people looking to make a quick cash return.

Bargain: The student paid less than the price of a bottle of Diet Coke for the home back in 2016

Photographs show how Miss Brennan has put her own stamp one the property, installing a fashionable woodburner in the living room with a railway sleeper as a mantle piece

Miss Brennan said: 'There is a stigma in the city that you have to have so much money in the bank to apply for the scheme. I was lucky.

'The overarching positive was the ability to own a property I could never afford on my own.'

Photographs show how Miss Brennan has put her own stamp one the property, installing a fashionable woodburner in the living room with a railway sleeper as a mantle piece.

The bathroom has been fitted with a white suite and is flooded with natural lighting, thanks to a skylight.

Local property manager Oliver Scott, of Loc8 estate agents, said he believes the home could already fetch around 70,000 if it was allowed to be put on the market.

Miss Brennan's story will be revealed on Channel 4's The 1 Houses: Britain's Cheapest Street on Valentine's Day (February 14) at 9pm

Local property manager Oliver Scott, of Loc8 estate agents , said he believes the home could already fetch around 70,000 if it was allowed to be put on the market

This would mean after paying back her parents, Miss Brennan will have made around 32,000.

He said: 'It looks like this property has had a magnificent turn around. Victoria has done an impressive job ending up with such a lovely home.'

Channel 4 filmed both Miss Brennan alongside three other families to show the first cohort of the unique experiment. The results will be shown on their programme The 1 Houses: Britain's Cheapest Street on Valentine's Day.

More than a dozen families moved into the Victorian terraced houses in 2013 as part of a council initiative in Liverpool.

And in nearly five years, the residents, who needed a leg up the housing ladder, have restored the homes which have brightened up the street with smartly painted front doors and bay windows.

What a bargain! The five families who snapped up a 1 home from Liverpool City Council as part of their 1 Homes Scheme. The residents will star in Channel 4's documentary The 1 Homes: Britain's Cheapest Street on Valentine's Day

New start: The scheme was launched by Liverpool Council to bring around 6,000 abandoned houses back into use. So far, 120 properties have been renovated and filled

Pictured: Khadra and Osman transformed their home as did couple Mo & Eman

As part of the scheme home owners may snap up a property for a meagre 1 but they need to invest a minimum of 40,000 in doing it up - and it must be done within a year or the council will take the property back.

They also can't sell it for at least five years.

Mel Hilton-Phillips, 29, and her husband Rob, 32, spent 40,000 on theirs - saving while living with Mel's parents.

The mother-of-three said: 'We liked the idea of being able to restore something and put our stamp on it. If we hadn't got a house through the scheme, we could probably have bought a three-bedroom house in the Wavertree area for about 100,000, but it still would have been something that needed a lot of work.'

The houses in an area known as the Webster Triangle will feature in a new Channel 4 documentary The 1 Houses: Britain's Cheapest Streets to be aired on February 14.

Michelle Edwards, the residential sales manager at Jones & Chapman estate agency in Allerton said the areas around Aigburth and Mossley Hill are hotspots for students and first time buyers.

She said: 'You can get a two-bedroom house for about 125,000. There is a good selection of schools for young families, parks on the doorstep, and lots of independent bars and restaurants. The city centre is also popular, but prices vary: two-bedroom homes tend to start from about 180,000.'

David Fell, a researcher at estate agent Countrywide, said there are 28 per cent fewer homes on the market in Liverpool in January compared with the same time last year.

New beginnings: Family of three Kirsty, Martin & Juliette also star in the Channel 4 documentary

Beautiful bath: Kirsty, Martin and Juliette have pulled out the stops with their artistic bath at their renovated home in Liverpool

Ready for a challenge: Sam's story about how he bought his 1 home and brought it up to standard will feature in the upcoming programme

How does Liverpool City Council's 1 Home Scheme work? Liverpool City Council's 1 Home Scheme or Homes for a Pound is an initiative to bring around 6,000 empty houses in the city back into use by helping first time buyers get on the property ladder. The properties are released in phases of roughly 40 homes per time and applicants have to undergo a bidding process. To be eligible, applicants have to live or work in Liverpool and must commit to staying in the property for five years. They must also be able to demonstrate they have enough savings behind them to spend on renovations. A total of one hundred families have now been allocated a property, with a further 350 families being considered for one. Advertisement

Making a house a home! Couple completely transform 'dangerous' dilapidated semi-detached house in a year after buying from the council for just 1

Sam and Rachael Kamau's property in Wavertree, Liverpool, had 'a waterfall coming down the staircase' and a 'bathroom with no floor' when it was handed to them by the city council as part of the Homes for a Pound Plus scheme.

The house was in such poor repair that they couldn't even look inside because it was so dangerous.

The Kamaus had been renting in Liverpool for 16 years after moving to the city from Kenya and decided to give the 1 homes project a go as a way onto the property ladder

When they first moved in, Sam and Rachael Kamau's property had 'a waterfall coming down the staircase' and a 'bathroom with no floor'

The Kamaus had been renting in Liverpool for 16 years after moving to the city from Kenya and decided to give the 1 homes project a go as a way onto the property ladder.

But when they first looked around, they realised the scale of the task ahead of them.

Mrs Kamau explained: 'When we heard about the 1 home scheme we thought why not? We had two growing girls who have always had to share a bedroom and the house was becoming far too cramped.

'When we saw this house, it was a bit of a shock. There was a waterfall coming down the staircase because the roof had no lining, the bathroom had no floor so you could see through to the kitchen, plaster was peeling off the walls.

When Rachael and Sam they first looked around, they realised the scale of the task ahead of them

Rachel said most people would have just turned around and walked away but they saw a home

Luxurious: The transformed bathroom now gives a five star feel to the Liverpudlian terraced homeRallies on Ukraine-Poland border against changes in customs rules over, traffic resumes

Traffic near the Shehyni checkpoint on the Ukrainian-Polish border has resumed, the press service of the patrol police department in Lviv region has said.

A rally in protest against recent changes in customs rules, which was held near that checkpoint, ended at 13:00 Kyiv time on February 3, it said.

"During the period when the road was blocked, the situation was steadily calm, small disputes between drivers and protesters were settled on the spot," the patrol police said.

Another rally near the Rava-Ruska - Hrebenne checkpoint ended at 15.00 Kyiv time on February 3. Traffic resumed in a routine mode.

As reported, residents of the border areas in Lviv region on Saturday, February 3, staged a new rally in protest against changes in the customs regulations for the movement of goods across the border. They blocked traffic near the Rava-Ruska and Shehyni checkpoints by continuously walking back and forth along pedestrian crossings. At the same time, participants in the rally unblocked traffic every 15 minutes to let a certain number of cars drive along.A schoolboy has been cleared of rape after lawyers discovered that police had missed key evidence proving his innocence.

It comes amid a growing scandal over disclosure failures by the Crown Prosecution Service that have seen more than a dozen sex cases collapse in recent months.

It likely means that innocent men were wrongly accused, but also that dangerous criminals may have escaped justice because of blunders by police and the CPS.

The 17-year-old boy was found not guilty after the emergence of thousands of social media messages proving his innocence that police officers had failed to uncover.

He was expelled from his school in Leicestershire in 2016 following his arrest at the age of 15, according to The Times.

After the messages emerged, the prosecution offered no evidence - with not guilty verdicts entered for 14 charges against him including rape and sexual activity with a child.

In the latest example, a 17-year-old boy was found not guilty after police officers failed to uncover thousands of social media messages proving his innocence (stock photo)

It came after defence lawyers found more than 200 pages of Facebook messages proving his relationship with a girl of the same age was consensual.

A spokesman for the CPS said: "We have a duty to keep cases under continual review.

"In March 2017, as part of the charging decision, the CPS requested that police investigated social media interactions, but were informed that no messages existed.

"As a result of new material made available to the CPS in November 2017, further reviews of the case were undertaken."

Last month, prosecutors admitted that 13 rape trials collapsed last year because they failed to disclose vital evidence that undermined the case against the defendants.

The total doesn't include four rape trials which had to be abandoned in the past month at the last minute.

In January, Oxford University student Oliver Mears had a rape charge against him dropped after being on bail for two years, because of a diary discovered on the eve of his trial.

The embarrassing revelation by the CPS has put fresh pressure on Director of Public Prosecutions Alison Saunders, who has insisted no one is wrongly behind bars because of disclosure failures.

The embarrassing revelation by the CPS has put fresh pressure on Director of Public Prosecutions Alison Saunders (pictured)

The true scale of the problem was quietly slipped out in the House of Lords last month.

Former Attorney-General Lord Morris asked how many rape trials had been discontinued because of a failure to disclose evidence.

In reply, Lord Keen, the Ministry of Justice's spokesman in the Lords, said: 'Internal CPS case outcome recording data for 2016-17 shows that issues connected to the disclosure of unused material were recorded as the primary reason for two per cent of the rape prosecutions that were subsequently not proceeded with after charge.'

A spokesman for the CPS said: 'The two per cent represents 13 rape cases that were not proceeded with in 2016/17 after being charged due to a failure to disclose unused material.'

He added: 'This represents 0.3 per cent of the 5,190 rape cases we prosecuted in 2016-17.'

During a parliamentary debate last week, former Lord Chief Justice Lord Thomas said: 'We can no longer continue this failure of accountability.

'It is a disgrace  I do not use that word lightly  that this problem has been left unresolved for so long.'

The 13 cases dropped last year included those of four agricultural students wrongly accused of gang-raping a woman at a college ball.

In January, Oxford University student Oliver Mears (pictured) had a rape charge against him dropped after being on bail for two years, because of a diary discovered on the eve of his trial

Te young men endured two years of 'being dragged through hell' because the detective in the case had failed to disclose what the judge called 'game-changing' evidence that undermined their accuser's claims.

The CPS said: 'The CPS accepts that we, along with police colleagues, need to do more to improve our disclosure of unused material. There are systemic disclosure issues across the criminal justice system, and it will take a collective effort from all participants for improvements to be made.'

Critics say DPP Mrs Saunders has still not got a grip on the problem, after she declared that police did not always have to look for evidence on social media or mobile phones.

'We don't ordinarily trawl through people's lives,' she said.

'If people have known each other for a day, you might look at the texts between each other on that day or perhaps a day after.

'But you wouldn't and couldn't, without a huge amount of resources, completely download a phone and trawl through it all.'

Former Chief Crown Prosecutor for the North West Nazir Afzal, said: 'We wouldn't be saying that about looking for witnesses or DNA or fingerprints. We've got to do it, that's how we ensure a fair trial.'

He added that the DPP had been 'very bold' to claim that no one was currently wrongly in jail because of a failure to disclose evidence.

'I know of cases where digital evidence would have perhaps meant that person wasn't convicted, and with 84,000 people in prison it's a bold statement to say that not one of them shouldn't be where they are.'A lonely grandmother who helped her African online 'fiancee' defraud a pensioner of his life savings has been sentenced to six months in jail.

Georgina Masters thought she was in a relationship with Joseph Trimble when she allowed him to use her bank account for money transfers.

She told police she met him on Facebook and spoke to him on the phone daily but they had never met in person, the Illawarra Mercury reported.

Georgina Masters thought she was in a relationship with Joseph Trimble when she allowed him to use her bank account for money transfers

She told police she met him on Facebook and spoke to him on the phone daily but they had never met in person

Mr Trimble asked Masters to accept a deposit into her bank account for $15,000.

He then asked her to send the money through an international money transfer, saying the money would be used for building projects in South Africa.

She told police there were seven transactions worth a total of $68,500.

Masters admitted she was concerned about where the money had come from but didn't do anything about it.

'I honestly thought he loved me...I trusted him,' she told police. She admitted her actions were 'reckless'.

Masters was the second person to have fallen for the scam, and the third who did it for romantic reasons.

Police found the $68,500 originally belonged to a retiree from Wagga Wagga who fell for a fake 'phishing' email.

The email was purportedly from the man's lawyers who advised him to deposit $100,000 into the trust account for the purchase of an investment property.

The money actually went into the bank account of Western Australian man Agustino Bellombra, according to the publication.

Masters' appeal is expected to be heard in late March at Wagga Wagga District Court

Mr Bellombra had recently fallen for a woman he had met on a dating website named Angela Robert.

Just before the money went into his account, Mr Bellombra was contacted by Ms Robert who told him she had been detained while in Belgium.

She claimed she was there to collect an inheritance, and Mr Bellombra was asked to be an intermediary for the money.

He accepted transfers for her, and the $100,000 from the retiree's account went into Mr Bellombra's account.

Mr Bellombra was then told to deposit $68,500 into Masters' bank account.

Masters admitted she was concerned about where the money had come from but didn't do anything about it

The retiree realised he had been scammed and told the police, and after connecting the dots Masters' house was raided in June.

Masters pleaded guilty to dealing with proceeds of crime.

She has lodged an appeal and was released on bail.

The appeal is expected to be heard in late March at Wagga Wagga District Court.A police force is recruiting for volunteers to drive officers around so they can use their phones in the car.

Avon and Somerset Police are advertising the role to 'enthusiastic' volunteers who can 'relieve some of the demand and pressures on our front line officers by providing a driver support service'.

Drivers will work weekdays from 8am to 6pm, with breaks, starting in the spring.

They will be expected to complete deliveries and ferry officers to and from appointments, as well as keeping accurate records of mileage and journey time.

Benefits include using your driving skills for the 'benefit of policing', and 'being a valued member of Avon and Somerset Constabulary'.

Avon and Somerset police are recruiting volunteer drivers to drive their police officers around so they can keep using their phones (file photo)

Applicants must be 25 and over and have had a full driving licence for more than 12 months and have a 'good knowledge' of the Highway Code.

They will be given access to a fully insured unmarked vehicle with a sat-nav and a mobile phone.

Temporary assistant chief constable Steve Cullen told the Mirror: 'This scheme is all about embracing trusted members of the community who wish to participate in policing and maximising the amount of time officers and staff spent carrying out their core roles.

'We anticipate the volunteer drivers helping with things like collecting detainee medication or supporting officers in dropping them off and collecting them to conduct enquiry in busy settings such as Bristol city centre.

'Not only does this enable our officers to keep working on mobile devices whilst being driven but it will ensure that our cars are being used efficiently and not tied up all day for one appointment.'

Volunteers will be given access to a fully insured unmarked vehicle with a sat-nav and mobile phone. Benefits include using your driving skills for the 'benefit of policing', and 'being a valued member of Avon and Somerset Constabulary' (file photo)

Several other forces have launched initiatives to help them with understaffing issues from budget cuts.

Earlier this week Staffordshire Police Chief Constable Gareth Morgan came under fire for creating a 'dial-a-detective' service to investigate burglaries, thefts and anti-social behaviour over the phone.

He claimed that he needs the service because he can't afford to have his officers 'dealing' with every crime.

The new system is currently operating across North Staffordshire and it's claimed 1,400 cases have been resolved since December. It is expected to be rolled out across the county by the summer.

But Mr Morgan admits the force, which has lost hundreds of officers and closed stations due to budget cuts in the past decade, hasn't got enough resources.

Just last month it was revealed that Scotland Yard were recruiting 20 volunteers to work as Special Constables in counter-terrorism units.Barcodes could be taken off the shelves in five to ten years to make way for new, invisible technology, according to experts.

The new barcodes, produced by US company Digimarc, cover the entire packaging of the product, making the struggle to scan an item a thing of the past as it can be read at any angle.

The company have already implemented their innovative new scanning technology in two American stores, Wegmans and New Seasons Market.

The latest technology produced covers the packaging of products in an invisible barcode, which can be scanned at any angle and is hyped to cut checkout times (file image)

Traditional barcodes were invented by Norman Joseph Woodland, who was inspired by Morse code in the Boy Scouts.

By 1973 the bar code in square form was adopted as industry standard.

Retail Industry Director for Zebra, Mark Thompson, told the Daily Telegraph: 'This technology is coming very soon in the UK and it will really take the hassle out of self-service checkouts.

'I believe that in five to 10 years, barcodes in their current form will be gone in supermarkets.'

Retail Industry Director for Zebra, Mark Thompson, told the Daily Telegraph: 'This technology is coming very soon in the UK and it will really take the hassle out of self-service checkouts'

Customers will also be able to use their phones while they shop, as the technology will allow them to pay on their phones or scan a barcode for product information (file image)

The new way to scan is hyped to reduce wait times at checkouts, with the technology allowing shoppers to scan the code on their phones in order to pay or to find out more about a product.

Digimarc said the new barcodes could arrive in the country as soon as this year.

A spokesperson for Digimarc said to the Daily Telegraph: 'We are in discussions with a number of international retailers with branches in the UK. Our starting price is 50 per product per year and each product costs 350 to enhance for Digimarc.'CAROLINE GRAHAM: Her platinum-dyed hair is now a softer baby blonde, arranged in a natural wave. The red power lipstick is gone in favour of a fresh-faced nude. The message it sent was clear: arriving at court this week for Silicon Valley's 'Trial of the Century' was a very different Elizabeth Holmes (pictured). The mesmerising 37-year-old Theranos founder, once dubbed 'the female Steve Jobs', has seen her meteoric star fall swiftly since becoming embroiled in one of the most extraordinary sagas of hubris, ambition and deception the tech world has ever seen. Once celebrated as a paragon of tech culture's 'disruptive magic', the Stanford University drop-out was destined to go down in history after building a blood-testing company which had the potential to revolutionise global healthcare. But the bubble of self-belief has now well and truly burst. Holmes is accused of fraud and theft to the tune of $700 million, apparently pulling the wool over the eyes of wealthy investors, patients and the entire scientific community by flogging a technology which, as it turned out, simply didn't work. The circus-like atmosphere on Wednesday at San Jose's courthouse in California, where the trial will play out over the next 13 weeks, was almost appropriate, given the circumstances.Advertisement

Campaigners marched on Downing Street today calling for the Government to properly fund the National Health Service.

Thousands of protesters braved the wintry weather to demand an end to the winter NHS crisis as hospitals are overwhelmed with thousands left in corridors waiting hours for treatment.

The Royle Family actor Ralf Little joined the nurses, doctors, and activists today after publicly declaring his support for the protest on Twitter on Tuesday.

He shared a picture containing one of his quotes, which read: 'The NHS is the greatest of this country's achievements. I recently challenged Jeremy Hunt for misleading us about the crisis in our NHS. #

Scroll down for video

Campaigners are marching on Downing Street today calling for the Government to properly fund the National Health Service

Thousands of protesters have braved the wintry weather with homemade signs to demand more funds for the NHS and to stop privatisation. One sign, left, reads 'out NHS, not theirs'. Others, right, have photos of Theresa May with blood pouring from her mouth and the words ''kill the poor'' over her face, and 'Tory scum' written above it

Here protesters are marching with drums in front of Nelson's column, filling the air with their colourful orange and grey smoke

The People's Assembly tweeted: 'Today we march! Together we can save #OurNHS. For anyone who can't make it, pls join the twitterstorm & post on Facebook using #FundOurNHS between 12-4pm. Share your stories about what the NHS means to you, and why we need to save it from the Tories'

'Now we all have the chance to call out the Government's lies and demand that our NHS is properly funded, properly staffed and saved from the hands of private companies who want to make a profit. Join me on the emergency NHS demonstration on 3 February.'

The demonstration was organised by two groups, the People's Assembly and Health Campaigns Together, who are calling on the NHS to plug the funding gap.

Little originally trained to be a doctor before his acting career took off.

Last year he became embroiled in a Twitter spat with Jeremy Hunt, after accusing the health secretary of lying about claims he masterminded the 'biggest expansion of mental health provision in Europe' on the BBC's Andrew Marr show.

Royle Family actor Ralf Little joined protesters today (left). He tweeted his support of the protest (right) earlier this week, saying 'Now we all have the chance to call out the Government's lies and demand that our NHS is properly funded, properly staffed and saved from the hands of private companies who want to make a profit'

Little previously got into a Twitter spat with Jeremy Hunt after he accused the health secretary of lying about claims he masterminded the 'biggest expansion of mental health provision in Europe' on the BBC's Andrew Marr show

Hunt replied to Little on Twitter with a range of statistics to back up his claim, but in a series of 42 tweets he fact-checked them and mocked his use of unverified statistics

The 37-year-old actor then sent a public tweet to the Tory: 'If I'm wrong, sue me. I double dare you.'

Hunt, MP for South West Surrey, eventually hit back at the accusation and provided a range of statistics backing his claim up to dismiss Little's scathing remark - and double-dared the actor to retaliate.

Little then responded after carefully fact-checking Hunt's disputed figures because he is 'never one to resist a challenge'.

In a series of 42 tweets, he exposed the truth behind Hunt's figures - and mocked his ability to use unverified statistics to his advantage.

The 'Fix It Now' march began at midday.

This woman is holding up a poster with a number of signs on it, including a nursing advert saying 'we need you' and a patient safety alert

Plenty of the signs are directed at either Jeremy Hunt or Theresa May. One placard, left, mocks the popular game Pie Face Showdown by using Hunt and the caption 'lie face', another, centre, describes him as the Nightmare Health Secretary. A third directed at May, right, references the Cersei Lannister shaming scene in Game of Thrones

The demonstration was organised by two groups, the People's Assembly and Health Campaigns Together, who are calling on the NHS to plug the funding gap

This creative sign shows a vulture hanging above a bloody, tattered NHS sign. Other placards say 'cut war not welfare'

Despite the wet weather, thousands have turned up to demand more funds for the NHS. This picture shows almost a sea of placards

Labour MP for Leicester South Jonathan Ashworth has also joined the protest in London today.

Tweeting his support on Thursday, he wrote: 'Join me and thousands of NHS campaigners as we march for our NHS this Saturday in London. We'll defend our NHS and demand it's given the funding needed & privatisation ended. See you there! #FixtheNHS #FundtheNHS.'

He shared a video with his tweet in which he urged his followers to join him.

In the clip, he said: 'We'll be assembling at 12 o'clock at Gower Street in London and we're going to be calling for an end to the austerity in the NHS.

'We're going to be demanding an end to privatisation of our NHS services. We're going to be demanding an end to the demoralisation of our staff, because we want to give everyone who works in the NHS the fair play they deserve.'

Labour MP for Leicester South Jonathan Ashworth also joined the protest in London, calling for an end to the privatisation of the NHS

Posting a clip to Twitter, he urged his followers to join him, saying: 'Join me and thousands of NHS campaigners as we march for our NHS this Saturday in London. We'll defend our NHS and demand it's given the funding needed & privatisation ended. See you there! #FixtheNHS #FundtheNHS'

The 'Fix It Now' protest began at midday. It was organised in response to the winter NHS crisis which has seen hospitals overwhelmed

The march on Downing Street is in conjunction with local and regional events around the country. (Pictured: A sign at the London rally reading 'saving lives costs money, saving money costs lives')

During the march, the crowd heard a mother's tragic story of her daughter's death after she had been allowed out of psychiatric care too soon.

The marchers listened as Nicky Romero sobbed while telling the crowd pressures on the mental health service had robbed her of her daughter Becky.

A coroner found Becky's suicide was linked to NHS failings after the 15-year-old was discharged from a psychiatric ward, despite self-harming on the same day and despite her parents' pleas that she be kept in hospital.

During the march, the crowd heard a mother's tragic story of her daughter's death after she had been allowed out of psychiatric care too soon

The schoolgirl, who died in July 2017, had been bullied throughout her life and was allowed out of hospital when she needed to remain in care, her mother told the crowds.

'What kind of future will our children have if they can't get the help they need? If the NHS was properly funded my daughter might still be alive.'

Among the demonstrators on Saturday was Jamie, a disability rights advocate who was attending the march in his wheelchair.

The marchers listened as Nicky Romero sobbed while telling the crowd pressures on the mental health service had robbed her of her daughter Becky

The schoolgirl, who died in July 2017, had been bullied throughout her life and was allowed out of hospital when she needed to remain in care, her mother told the crowds

He was injured in a serious car crash 21 years ago. 'I owe my life to the NHS,' he said.

'There is a tragedy unfolding and the fact is that so many desperate people are traumatised, stigmatised and stressed by work capability testing.'

Save Lewisham Hospital campaigner Tamsyn Bacchus said she feared the UK could morph the NHS into a US style user-pays health service.

'I have faith, and so do all these folk here, that it's so important to have the principle of service that is great the point of use so that when you are ill, when your child is running a high fever, when you need the hospital or a doctor you can get them without worrying about having to pay for it'A student who was caught up in the scuffle at a speech by Jacob Rees-Mogg last night has claimed that violence flared when she was hit by a Tory supporter.

Andreea Dumitrache turned up at the event with her protester boyfriend Josh Connor and the pair were involved in a fracas.

A group of masked demonstrators branded the Tory politician a 'nazi', 'fascist' and 'racist' after disrupting the event at Bristol's University of West of England (UWE).

In video of the incident, Connor can be heard shouting 'no platform for racists, no platform for homophobes' and branding Mr Rees-Mogg 'scum' before putting on his sunglasses and shouting in the politician's face.

The Conservative backbencher can be seen being dragged from side-to-side as he attempts to defuse tensions between warring factions.

Andreea Dumitrache, pictured left, turned up at the event with her protester boyfriend Josh Connor, pictured right, and the pair were involved in a fracas

Dumitrache and Connor were both involved in a fracas at the event. They are pictured in the scuffle alongside MP Jacob Rees-Mogg

A man wearing glasses can be seen leaning over Jacob Rees-Mogg and trying to grab another person

Dumitrache claimed on Twitter that she was among the group and had been 'punched' in the altercation.

She wrote: 'The member of the audience in the white shirt started getting violent towards the people being disruptive.

'I was standing in front of him when he punched me. No student was violent here.

'He was clearly a supporter but it didn't look like it was someone from Mogg's team.

'He was seated in the middle of the room and he was taken by campus security for interview.'

Today Mr Rees-Mogg spoke for the first time about the incident, saying: 'I didn't want people to be hit and no one seemed likely to hit me but I am a weed.'

'All it was was a handful of shouty people who wanted to disrupt a public meeting I was about to address. It was not really a fight, just noisy,' he told Sky News.

In video of the incident, Connor (pictured) can be heard shouting 'no platform for racists, no platform for homophobes' and branding Mr Rees-Mogg 'scum' before putting on his sunglasses and shouting in the politician's face

Huddles of people are seen on either side of the Eurosceptic MP, who is seen trying to reason with the arguing parties.

Mr Rees-Mogg was invited by the chairman of UWE's Politics and International Relations Society, himself not a Conservative supporter, to talk about his life as a politician and conservative principles.

However due to the circumstances of the event, the North East Somerset MP changed the topic to talk about the importance of free speech.

Mr Rees-Mogg told MailOnline: 'Some people came into the room and wanted the shout down the meeting but they did not succeed.

'Lawful protest is part of our democratic system. But these people had no intention to debate and did not wish to have a conversation.'

Despite the skirmishes at the event, the 48-year-old Conservative MP said he did not feel physically threatened by the protesters and was not injured in the scuffle.

The Conservative backbencher was scheduled to speak to students at Bristol's University of West England

Mr Rees-Mogg added that while it was frustrating for the 300 people in attendance at the event that his speech was delayed, he was not shocked by the interruption as he was previously confronted by angry protesters at the Conservative Party conference last year.

He added: 'A similar situation happened in Manchester when people tried to shout me down. People feel strongly about political issues and some respond by trying to engage in political debate while others shout.'

Acting as peacemaker as tensions flared, Mr Rees-Mogg said his intentions were to try to engage the protesters in rational debate.

He added: 'As soon as you start pushing people, you risk putting yourself on the wrong side of the law. A bit of shouting does not hurt anyone.'

Chloe Kaye, who posted a video of the scuffles on Twitter, wrote: 'A huge amount of (physical) violence at Jacob Rees-Mogg speech in UWE Bristol.'

The 19-year-old, who filmed the incident, said: 'Jacob Rees-Mogg had just come in and was about to start talking when around five or six masked individuals stormed in the back of the room screaming 'fascist' and 'racist'.

Security only arrived at the scene 10 minutes after the scuffles broke out

'We were told they were part of Antifa (Anti-fascists) by the person who organised the event. I couldn't believe there was not any security at the event either.

'The hall must have been filled with around 200 people who were there at the event and they were all screaming at the protesters, some telling them to get out.

Miss Kaye, who is a politics and international relations student at Bristol University, added: 'Jacob Rees-Mogg was trying to reason with them but they just kept shouting at him. He remained incredibly calm throughout the whole process.

'It took around 10 minutes before security to to come. They were eventually escorted out.

'While I don't necessarily agree with what he says, I wanted to hear what he had to say. I was talking to people behind me who were Jeremy Corbyn fans and even they were disappointed by it all.

'After they were escorted out the building, everyone was clapping and cheering for Jacob Rees-Mogg. Eventually the talk got back on track and continued as normal.'

Mr Rees-Mogg said he was not surprised that people had chosen to protest his speech

Sebastian Salton, 19, a student at the University of Bristol, said: 'It was interrupted by antifascists, I don't think it was assault, I think people were trying to get him out.

'There were about 200 people there, and five protesters. It took a few minutes for security to come. There was some negotiating.

'There were a few police outside the room when the protesters left.

'He went over to them and said 'lets not shout them down,' but they weren't having any of it.

'They were shouting 'racist, misogynist, homophobe, sexist.' They were talking about austerity.'

Will Smith, 19, who studies politics at Bristol University, said: 'There were people in balaclavas shouting 'fascist scum' and 'sexist'.

'He handled it very well and approached them to try and engage them in debate. He was the first to approach them.'

And Tyler Savage, 21, who also studies politics and Bristol University, added: 'An older gentleman appeared to get between the protesters and Jacob.'

Video footage showed the crowd shouting 'out, out, out,' and 'fight, fight, fight.'

Mr Smith said: 'I think Jacob was getting in between a man and a woman.

'I don't think anybody was attacking Jacob, I think he was in between.'

Shadow education secretary Angela Rayner weighed in, tweeting: 'My politics are not those of @Jacob_Rees_Mogg however l utterly condemn the behaviour of those tonight who tried to attack him whilst he was due to speak at an event he was invited to.

Andreea Dumitrache is pictured with her protester boyfriend Josh Connor. The pair became involved in a scuffle at the Jacob Rees-Mogg university event

'It's extremely intimidating for any MP who travels alone to an event to be treated like this.'

In a statement, a spokesman for the University of the West of England (UWE) said protesters forced their way into the building through the back doors.

Nigel Farage: I endured years of disruption Nigel Farage said he had endured years of disruption from extreme leftists similar to that which faced Jacob Rees-Mogg. The former Ukip leader castigated protesters who interrupted a university debate speech by the Tory MP. A group allegedly broke into Friday's event at the University of the West of England in Bristol and hurled insults at the Conservative. Mr Farage said: 'It is a very extreme leftist group of people, very well-funded.' He added: 'It is this intolerance of view that says, not I disagree with you, but I don't think you are entitled to voice those opinions. 'So I had years of it, literally years of it.' Video footage posted to social media captured the scenes as Mr Rees-Mogg, who has been tipped as his party's next leader, appeared to step in to separate rivals as onlookers called for them stop. According to one witness the MP was 'pushed and shoved' as a tussle broke out and police are probing the incident. Mr Rees-Mogg said he chose to engage with the protesters because he 'knew they weren't going to hit me'. Advertisement

The university added there was 'no place for such action on a university campus or in a civilised society'.

A spokesman said: 'We are absolutely appalled by the conduct of a small number of attendees at a Student's Union Politics and International Relations Society talk this evening.

'It is our understanding at this stage that a small group of protesters broke into the lecture theatre where the event was due to take place via the back doors.

'The police were called and our security attended. We understand that these protesters were not UWE Bristol students and did not have tickets for the event.

'The police are now working to identify the individuals. Once the situation was calmed, Mr Rees-Mogg went ahead with his speech and was escorted back to his car after the event finished.

'Both security and the police stayed for event to ensure everyone was safe. We support the democratic right of free speech and peaceful protest.

'However, we strongly condemn the actions of protesters who disrupted normal debate and behaved in this way.

'There is no place for such action on a university campus or in a civilised society.

'We are delighted that Mr Rees-Mogg was able to speak and debate with our legitimate student body in a respectful manner.

'We would like to thank him for his composure and actions to diffuse what must have been a challenging and unprovoked incident.

'We will work with the police to identify the individuals involved and take appropriate action.'

MailOnline has contacted Avon and Somerset Police for comment.Protests against the compulsory wearing of hijabs in Iran have continued despite the arrests earlier this week of 29 women for appearing in public without a headscarf.

Symbolic protests took place throughout the country this week with women posting videos and photographs on social media of themselves standing on utility boxes, street sidewalks and other public places as they defiantly waved their hijabs.

Chief Prosecutor Mohammad Jafar Montazeri played down the escalating protests on Wednesday, saying they were 'trivial' and 'childish' moves possibly incited by foreigners.

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Women in Iran protesting against wearing the obligatory Islamic headscarf have continued to take theirs off and wave them on sticks

The protests against the compulsory wearing of hijabs have continued despite arrests earlier this week

The protesters are saying that women should be free to choose whether or not to wear a hijab

The defiance of the women comes as an influential Iranian activist said that disquiet over the hijab showed that women are symbolically rejecting the wider 'interference of religion' in their lives.

'We are fighting against the most visible symbol of oppression,' said Masih Alinejad, who hosts the website My Stealthy Freedom where women in Iran post photos of themselves without hijabs.

Under Iran's Islamic law, imposed after the 1979 revolution, women are obliged to cover their hair with a scarf, known as a hijab, and wear long, loose-fitting clothes. Violators are publicly admonished, fined or arrested.

'These women are saying, 'It is enough - it is the 21st century and we want to be our true selves,'' the Iranian activist told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Iranian police said on Thursday that 29 women who took part in the campaign had been arrested in Iran for protesting against the country's compulsory hijab rules, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported.

Those arrested were accused of public order offences and referred to the state prosecutor's office, Iranian media reported.

The protesters have braved cold weather and the police to get their point across

Many chose to make their statement in public places where they were clearly visible

Many images of the protests have been uploaded onto social media

Alinejad said the protests picked up momentum after video and images were posted online of a woman waving a white scarf on a stick in December - a day before demonstrations erupted against economic conditions in eastern Iran.

Unrest quickly spread across the country and the focus broadened as protesters began calling for Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, to step down.

The video went viral as police cracked down, and Alinejad said the woman was arrested. She has since been released, according to a Facebook post by Iranian human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh.

On Monday, a woman named locally as Nargess Hosseini, was arrested after standing on an electricity box in central Tehran, waving her head scarf in front of her.

Journalist and campaigner Masih Alinejad, the founder of the White Wednesdays and My Stealthy Freedom movements, which fights the compulsory hijab in Iran, has claimed that Ms Hosseini's bail has been set at a record-high level to detain others from protesting.

'While the law imposes a maximum of $12 or two months of jail time, the court has recently asked for a bail of $125,000 to release one of the newly detained women,' Ms Alinejad tweeted Thursday.

A prominent human rights lawyer told AFP on Tuesday that one of the detained women had her bail set at more than $100,000 (80,000 euros).

Campaigners say the authorities are dong their utmost to prevent further protests from taking place

The protesters say that civil disobedience is the first step towards gaining victory

The protests have been criticised as 'trivial', 'childish' and possibly incited by foreigners by Chief Prosecutor Mohammad Jafar Montazeri

Recent unrest against compulsory wearing of the hijab has quickly spread across much of Iran

Those taking part in the protests risk being arrested and held in jail

Although the wider anti-government demonstrations have ended, women across Iran are 'fed up' and continue to protest against 'the interference of religion in our personal lives', said the activist.

Alinejad said she is now flooded with videos and photos of women imitating the viral video and she shares them on the My Stealthy Freedom Twitter account and Facebook page.

'These people are not fighting against a piece of cloth, they are fighting against the ideology behind compulsory hijab,' said Alinejad, who called the movement the 'true face of feminism'.

To campaign against the obligatory wearing of headscarves, Alinejad last year encouraged women to take videos or photos of themselves wearing white and upload them on social media with the hashtag #whitewednesdays.

The #whitewednesdays campaign is part of a larger online movement started three years ago by Alinejad, a journalist who has lived in self-imposed exile since 2009. She has received death threats since her campaigning started.

'I wake up everyday with the voices of these women in my inbox,' said Alinejad from New York where she now lives.

'I am full of hope. Civil disobedience is the first step to gain our victory.'A photo of two women in a sorority at George Washington University holding a banana peel posted on Snapchat with the caption of 'I'm 1/16 black' is being called 'distinctly racist' by their own chapter.

The photo, which was shared on January 31, showed two members of Alpha Phi and appears to have been taken on the sorority's on-campus townhouse. The two women in the photo were not the ones that posted the image to Snapchat.

George Washington University Provost Forrest Maltzman said in a statement that the incident was 'disturbing, hurtful and not reflective of who I know we are as a community.'

A fellow student shared the photo to Twitter and wrote 'This is the eve of Black History Month.'

The photo was shared via Snapchat on January 31, but was then tweeted by a fellow student

The sorority (pictured) released a statment calling the photo 'distinctly racist' and that the three women involved are in the process of having their membership terminated

'As a university, we have emphasized our commitment to inclusion and have made clear that 'You are Welcome Here.' We do this through our actions and our words. Images like the one posted on social media can make people question whether they are welcome at the university, and that is unacceptable to me,' Matlzman said according to WUSA9.

Meanwhile the sorority released a statement, saying they accept responsibility as a group.

'We are culpable for this action as a group in which a few felt comfortable making a joke that was distinctly racist, ignorant, and harmful. We are in no way trying to contextualize, excuse, or forgive the events that occurred.'

They also added they acknowledge they are not a diverse organization and 'are committed to listening to the voices of those who have been harmed by the actions of those individuals and by our actions as a chapter.'

The three members in question are in the process of having their membership terminated.

George Washington University released a statement acknowledging the issue of racist language and imagery on campus

Matlzman said racist language and imagery on college campuses is an issue and there is a 'need for an ongoing discourse about race.'

Meanwhile Anti-Defamation League issued a report Thursday that said racist fliers, banners and stickers were found on college campuses 147 times in fall 2017, a more than threefold increase over the 41 cases reported one year before.

Leaders of the New York-based nonprofit attribute the uptick to a small number of white nationalist groups seeking to recruit members on college campuses that have ramped up their efforts as the nation's politics grow increasingly polarized.A mob of emus have been spotted strutting around a Queensland outback town.

Every street in Longreach, Queensland is named after a bird, which makes the mob's excursion into town all the more appropriate.

Emus usually keep to the outskirts of Longreach but on Saturday a group decided to wander the streets.

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A mob of emus have been spotted strutting around a Queensland outback town

Every street in Longreach, Queensland is named after a bird. which makes the mob's excursion into town all the more appropriate

They made their way down Cassowary Street, towards Crane and Plover Streets, Seven News reported.

The emus have begun coming into town in order to find food and water.

Despite there being an Emu Street in Longreach none of the birds were seen on their namesake road.

They were seen invading the town, walking along the roads and searching among the grass.

Cars can be seen driving on the same streets which the emus are wandering down.

'It's very unusual,' Longreach resident Betty Forster told the Courier Mail.

Emus usually keep to the outskirts of Longreach but on Saturday a group decided to wander the streets

'Poor buggers, there's nothing left out bush for them.'

Cafe worker Cassy Delahunty said the emus 'just waltz about like they own the place'.

'But we love them. It's a novelty to see them in town.'Head of the Socialist Party of Ukraine Illia Kyva has called on the leadership of the country to nationalize regional energy supplying companies controlled by the Russian company VS Energy International Ukraine.

"I officially address President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko, NSDC Secretary Oleksadnr Turchynov and Head of the Security Service of Ukraine Vasyl Hrytsak with a demand to immediately return to the government control the strategic facilities of the energy sector, which are now in the hands of the Russian oligarchy," he said in an online streaming on his Facebook page on Friday.

The Socialist Party head stressed that these companies "pumped out" $100 million from Ukrainians in 2017 alone, which "went to sponsor the war." "After all, the ultimate beneficiary of this company is Russian citizen Alexander Babakov, the same Babakov who was a member of the State Duma of the Russian Federation who voted for the annexation of Crimea and is actually involved in the war developments in Donbas," Kyva said.

The politician also added that the "nationalization" of the energy facilities could halve electricity tariffs for the entire population and make electricity free for pensioners and combatants.

VS Energy International Ukraine owns such enterprises as Kyivoblenergo, Rivneoblenergo, Khersonoblenergo, Kirovohradoblenergo, Zhytomyroblenergo, Odesaoblenergo, Chernivtsioblenerho, Sevastopolenergo. The company also owns significant stakes in Mykolaivoblenergo and Khmelnytskyoblenergo.Supermarket thieves have been caught on camera stealing expensive cuts of meat and hiding it in their clothes in brazen daylight robberies.

The shoplifters were captured on CCTV stuffing the meat products down their pants, inside their jumpers or just walking out with entire trolley loads.

It is part of an industry-wide epidemic which has seen thousands of dollars worth of meat taken from Coles, Woolworths and IGA, the Daily Telegraph reports.

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The shoplifters were captured on CCTV stuffing the meat products down their pants, inside their jumpers or just walking out with entire trolley loads

In one instance, a 49-year-old man (pictured) stole $1454 worth of meat from Coles and Woolworths

In one instance a man walked out of a Coles supermarket in Tweed Heads, on the NSW coast, with a trolley full of meat before heading over to Woolworths and stealing more, leaving with $1454 worth of meat product.

The 49-year-old man is due to face court next month for three counts of shoplifting after he also allegedly stole $82 worth of deli meat the previous year.

Meat theft has become such a problem for the national supermarket chains that they have employed extra security to combat the thieves.

Coles has even started adding security tags to their meat products to reduce the theft.

It is part of an industry-wide epidemic which has seen thousands of dollars worth of meat taken from Coles, Woolworths and IGA, the Daily Telegraph reports

Meat theft has become such a problem for the national supermarket chains that they have employed extra security to combat the thieves

Security expert Sebastian Brown from Retail Crime Prevention Australia told publication that some IGA stores have resorted to placing surveillance cameras directly over their meat sections.

'The price of meat is expensive. People on low incomes can't afford it and some thieves are making a business out of it by reselling on the black market,' he said.

Australian meat has skyrocketed in price in recent years - with beef eye fillets costing up to $43 a kilo in some supermarkets.Advertisement

Snow has blanketed parts of Britain as forecasters predict an icy blast will send temperatures plummeting to -4 degrees Celcius overnight.

This comes as The Met Office warned that sub-zero temperatures next week could bring major travel disruptions to Scotland, Northern Ireland and parts of the south.

In the coming days forecasters are saying a prolonged cold spell is imminent. Those in the north and south should expect to see the coldest temperatures so far this winter.

The Met Office has issued a warning across the whole of Scotland, Northern Ireland and south east England stretching from 9pm on Monday 5 until 3pm on Tuesday 6.

The steam locomotive Galatea powers north through wintry weather on Shap Summit as it hauls passengers traveling the Cumbrian Mountain Express

A three-carriage train battles through a blizzard at Slochd in the Highlands

A Labrador puppy runs through heavy snowfall in the village of Foolow in Derbyshire, Peak District, this morning

A light dusting of snow sits on the branches of tree in the village of Foolow in Derbyshire, Peak District

A spell of rain, sleet and snow will move east across the UK on Monday night and Tuesday, gradually weakening across England and Wales.

For some it might be a flash in the pan but for others it may cause disruption.

Some roads and railways may be affected with longer journey times by road, bus and train services.

As rain, sleet and snow clears Northern Ireland and Scotland overnight, ice may form on some untreated roads, pavements and cycle paths.

The UK has seen an especially cold start to February with temperatures expected to stay below average for much of the coming month.

Snowploughs, like this one on the A9 near Inverness, were out in force today to clear roads in the Highlands of snow

Snow covers the ground around Stainmore, Cumbria, today as a band of snow heads across Northern England

Today has seen heavy cloud cover blanket the UK which has brought intermittent showers to both the north and south.

Overnight much of this cloud cover will break and most places will turn dryer.

But Lincolnshire, Yorkshire and East Anglia may still see some showers even as clouds dissipate.

There will be highs of around 3 or 4 degrees Celsius in the east and 8 in the west.

At night lows of 1 or 2 degrees Celsius should be expected in the south while in the north temperatures could plummet as low as -3 or -4 degrees Celsius.

For that reason, the Met Office has issued a severe yellow warning for ice risk in the north and east tonight.

Ben and Naomi Heap took their children Bryony and Lochie out today for a spot of sledging at Glenmore as snow fell across the Highlands

Cars kept to low speeds on the A9 near Inverness today as slippery sheet ice and several inches of snow covered road

In the coming days forecasters are warning of a prolonged cold spell which is expected to see the coldest temperatures so far this winter

Walkers out on a stroll as snow covers the ground around Stainmore, Cumbria today

A yellow warning means that you should plan ahead thinking about possible travel delays, or the disruption of your day to day activities.

Showers and sub-zero temperatures overnight are likely to cause problems for road users - from north Scotland to East Anglia.

Tomorrow, icy weather is likely to spread across the UK. The Met Office warns of frosty conditions in London, Essex and Kent.

It says to expect rain, sleet and snow - all of which likely to fall over Sunday evening and Monday morning.

There are concerns that the snow could bring longer journey times for those travelling by road, bus and train services - while the Met Office also said that some injuries from slips and falls on icy surfaces are possible.

This could cause serious delays as commuters take to the road at rush hour. Commuters in the south are advised to prepare for some disruption. One or two centimeters of snow should be expected on higher ground.A group of people who were trapped in floodwaters were forced to wander for hours before finally finding a way out.

A group of friends were trapped by floodwaters at Piha in west Auckland, New Zealand while walking to the Kitekite falls, a popular tourist spot.

They were among about 20 people who became stranded after severe thunderstorms and heavy rain on Saturday, the New Zealand Herald reported.

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A group of friends (pictured) were trapped by floodwaters at Piha in west Auckland, New Zealand while walking to the Kitekite falls, a popular tourist spot

They were among about 20 people who became stranded after severe thunderstorms and heavy rain on Saturday

Colin Ennor said he and his friends were expecting to take a leisurely walk before the flooding hit.

'It turned from a gentle stroll in our jandals and t-shirts into a three hour experience of survival,' he said.

Those trapped were forced to huddle together for warmth while they frantically searched for a way out.

They arrived at the waterfall carpark as the rain began to come down heavily, and after walking for a while they decided to head back.

What had been a dry creek turned into gushing floodwaters, preventing them from walking across.

'We ended up walking for about two hours because we couldn't find a way out. Everywhere we went to walk was completely blocked by flooding. After walking for another hour and a half we ended up standing, trying to figure out how to get out of there,' Mr Ennor said.

Some in the group were worried they would develop hypothermia.

Colin Ennor said he and his friends were expecting to take a leisurely walk before the flooding hit

After walking for an hour they managed to get cellphone reception and call for help.

A mountain runner from Canada was in the group and chose to run all the tracks at the falls to find a way out.

He managed to find one, and after an hour of falling over on the muddy and wet track they managed to make their way out.

The group spoke to police and then headed home for hot showers and something to eat.Hartman has been detained all over the country for similar crimes

Before her recent arrest she was able to board a flight from Chicago to London without a passport or boarding pass and was ordered to stay away from airports

During her court appearance for that arrest she was shouting at the judge

Marilyn Hartman, 66, from Illinois was arrested and taken into custody at O'Hare International Airport two weeks ago after police were called for a disturbance

A woman dubbed the 'serial stowaway' who was arrested two weeks ago for causing a disturbance in an airport after a judge told her to stay away from them, had a bizarre court outburst.

Marilyn Hartman, 66, of Illinois, has been arrested several times for sneaking onto airplanes, but during her most recent court appearance Wednesday she yelled her responses at the judge who was asking about her about her mental health and family.

Judge Adam Bourgeois Jr. asked 'Does your client have any family?' to which she screamed 'No I don't!', after her lawyer responded that she does, according to the Chicago Tribune.

Then when the judge asked if she was under the care of a medical professional she again screamed 'Yes!,' while her attorney responded 'no.' The attorney clarified that her client was having a 'difficult day.'

Marilyn Hartman, 66, of Illinois, has been arrested at least 15 times for sneaking onto a flight and for trying to

In mid January Hartman was arrested after she boarded a flight from Chicago to London without a boarding pass or a passport

She was most recently arrested at O'Hare Airport (pictured) in Chicago after police responded to someone causing a disturbance after a judge ordered her to stay away from airports

Hartman, was arrested at O'Hare Airport in Chicago, the week after a judge ordered her to avoid airports, for allegedly refusing the leave the terminal.

Police responded to a call about someone causing a disturbance at O'Hare because Hartman had refused to leave the airport, where she was subsequently arrested.

Marilyn Hartman, pictured here in January 2018, was arrested in Chicago's O'Hare International Airport Sunday

Hartman was released from jail two days before the arrest, having been previously apprehended for stowing away on a flight to London, according to the New York Post.

Hartman is scheduled to return back in court in mid-February. Wednesday was her fourth court appearance in two weeks.

Hartman's most recent arrest, prior to last week's, came after she slipped past a security checkpoint at O'Hare and boarded a flight to London without a ticket or passport.

She was arrested in London and flown back to Chicago.

Hartman has been detained all over the country because of similar crimes

Following that incident she was charged with felony theft and a misdemeanor count of criminal trespassing.

Hartman was released from custody even though the county sheriff's office protested the move.

Authorities said they thought Hartman got through a federal TSA checkpoint at a domestic terminal without a ticket before taking a shuttle to the international terminal.

It's believed she spent nearly 24 hours inside the airport before boarding the British Airways flight to London.

According to NBC5, police thought Hartman was able to get on the plane by mixing in with a large group.

Once on the plane, flight attendants realized she didn't have a ticket and alerted authorities. British Customs officials refused to let her enter London and made arrangements for her to fly back to Chicago.

TSA said it was investigating how she was able to get through security.

'During the initial investigation it was determined that the passenger was screened at the security checkpoint before boarding a flight,' a statement read.

'Upon learning of the incident TSA, and its aviation partners took immediate action to review security practices throughout the airport.'

Hartman has been detained several times across the country for trying to board flights without a boarding pass. In December 2015, she told NBC5 that she 'may have' boarded planes without a ticket eight times.Former Ukip leader Nigel Farage was been told 'to go back to where he came from' during a visit to Dublin before speaking at a conference to encourage an Irish exit from the European Union.

Mr Farage was heckled as he was walking towards Trinity College last night ahead of today's conference.

A group of people stood outside the venue where one person shouted 'go back to where you came from'.

Former Ukip leader Nigel Farage was heckled as he arrived at Trinity College Dublin last night

One man in a Make America Great Again unfurled a far-right flag from a window in the college around the time the former Ukip leader arrived at the college for the debate

A twitter user claimed credit for telling Farage to 'go back to where he came from'

Farage struggled with a response.

As he arrived in the college for the debate hosted by the Historical Society, a man wearing a 'Make America Great Again' hat unfurled a far-right banner from an upper window of the college.

At an event at the Royal Dublin Society today he called for a eurosceptic mobilisation to win votes off pro-EU politicians in the next European elections and said there was a democratic deficit in the national debate.

During his Dublin visit he recalled the austerity of the post-2008 European bailout of the Irish state and urged citizens to rebel against Brussels.

The MEP said: 'What on earth is going on in the politics of this country?

'How much more humiliated can the Irish nation be than for years being run by the Troika?'

Ireland's spending plans were scrutinised by representatives of the European Commission, European Central Bank and IMF, known as the Troika, and strict spending cuts imposed.

Some other Twitter users were far less polite about the former Ukip leader's Dublin visit

Farage, pictured claimed Ireland would benefit by following Britain out of the European Union

Mr Farage added: 'The indignity, a few years back, of your budget being seen by the German government before it was put to the Dail.'

EU funding has helped Ireland overhaul its infrastructure and benefited its agriculture enormously.

Mr Farage said the country was not even a net beneficiary of EU funding any more.

He told a sizeable conference of supporters: 'You are paying into the European budget and your Taoiseach said in Strasbourg the other week he is happy for Ireland to pay even more into the European budget.

'Are you pleased about that?'

Leo Varadkar said he was 'open' to contributing more for things which advance the 'European ideal' such as structural funds for Central and Eastern Europe to help them unlock economic potential.

Mr Farage said: 'The perception of the media across Europe is that Ireland is very pro-European, very servile to the demands of Brussels.

'I don't think Ireland is a pro-EU country, I think the political, media and big businesses in Dublin, they are the ones.'

He suggested it was Irish civil servants lining their pockets in Brussels who supported the EU.

To cheers he added: 'They love it. They love it.'

The crowd almost filled a hall at the RDS conference centre and gave Mr Farage a standing ovation.

He railed against the depiction of Brexiteers as xenophobes and bigots.

He said: 'They go for the man and not for the ball.'

Mr Farage said the European project was not going to work and the euro was unsuited to Ireland.

He added: 'And yet I get told that Ireland is a very proud EU country, Michael O'Leary (Ryanair chief executive) told me so, it must be right.

'The euro has been bad for Ireland but a total catastrophe for countries like Greece.'

He said there was an East/West split, with eurosceptic countries like Hungary leading the way.

'The EU will not work, it has not worked, it is increasingly unloved by the people of Europe,' he said.Advertisement

Rebel fighters in Syria have shot down a Russian plane using a handheld anti-aircraft missile and killed its pilot when he open fire on them while trying to resist capture.

Dramatic video shows the Sukhoi 25 plummeting out of the sky after it was hit in the north-western province of Idlib while carrying out a strike on rebels fighting the regime of Bashar al-Assad, Russia's ally.

Another video then shows jubilant rebels celebrating as the wreckage burns on the ground, sending a huge plume of black smoke into the air.

The pilot managed to eject and parachute to the ground before being captured. He was shot and killed when he resisted capture by opening fire from his pistol on the al-Qaeda-linked militants who tried to seize him alive.

Rebel fighters is Syria say they have shot down a Russian plane over the north-western province of Idlib on Saturday and taken its Russian pilot captive

A picture taken on February 3, 2018 shows smoke billowing from the site of a downed Sukhoi-25 fighter jet in the the Syrian city of Saraqib

Still burning: The plane was on fire several minutes after it was brought down by the rebels on Saturday afternoon

This image appears to show the plane burning on the ground after it was shot down above Syria on Saturday afternoon

Rami Abdel Rahman, head of The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said: 'The pilot was killed as he fought Islamist rebels who had shot down his plane and were taking him captive.'

This picture appears to show the wreckage of the plane which was downed by Syrian rebels on Saturday afternoon

Smoke billowing from the site of a downed Sukhoi-25 fighter jet in the the Syrian city of Saraqib

The group Tahrir al-Sham released a statement on social media quoting a commander in charge of its air defences as saying one of its fighters had hit the jet during an air raid over the city of Saraqeb in the northwestern province of Idlib.

Tahrir al-Sham includes the group formerly known as the Nusra Front, which served as al Qaeda's Syrian branch

Russia's defence ministry confirmed the pilot had been shot down, saying: 'A Russian Su-25 aircraft crashed during a flight over the Idlib de-escalation zone.

'The pilot had enough time to announce he had ejected into the zone, under the control of al-Nusra Front fighters.

'The pilot was killed in fighting against terrorists.'

It added that 'according to preliminary reports, the plane was shot down by a portable anti-aircraft missile system.'

The ministry also said 30 militants had been killed in air strikes carried out in the Idlib area.

The blackened engine of the Russia aircraft lies in the Syrian city of Saraqib as a fire continues to burn in the background

A video circulating on social media shows a lifeless body of a man, his face stained with blood, as bearded gunmen stand around him. One of the armed men shouts: 'He is Russian.'

The pilot was later named on social media as Major Roman Filipov.

Rami Abdel Rahman, head of The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said: 'The pilot was killed as he fought Islamist rebels who had shot down his plane and were taking him captive.' The Russian defence ministry confirmed one of its pilots has been killed.

Russia is a key ally of President Bashar Assad, and has been waging a military campaign on behalf of his forces since 2015.

Since then, Syrian government forces have captured wide parts of the country and in recent weeks have been marching in the rebel-held northwestern province of Idlib. The province is also a base for al-Qaida's branch in Syria and other Islamic groups.

The opposition's Aleppo Media Center said the plane was a Russian-made SU25 but did not say whether it was Russian.

Syrian troops launched a fierce offensive on Idlib in late December, with backing by Russian warplanes.

'There have been dozens of Russian air strikes in the area over the past 24 hours. This plane was also carrying out raids there,' said Abdel Rahman.

Opposition factions have shot Syrian regime planes in the past, but downing Russian warplanes is much rarer.

In August 2016, a Russian military helicopter was shot down over Syria and all five people on board were killed.

Moscow began conducting air strikes in Syria in September 2015. Two months later, Turkey shot down a Russian warplane.

It comes as a Syria peace congress hosted this week by Russia in the Black Sea resort of Sochi has been snubbed by Syria's main opposition and the Kurds.

The wing of a downed Sukhoi-25 fighter jet with a red star in the the Syrian city of Saraqib, southwest of Aleppo

Opposition factions have shot Syrian regime planes in the past, but downing Russian warplanes is much rarer

'There have been dozens of Russian air strikes in the area over the past 24 hours. This plane was also carrying out raids there,' said Abdel Rahman

In August 2016, a Russian military helicopter was shot down over Syria and all five people on board were killed

Rebel fighters shot down a Russian plane over Syria's northwest Idlib province and captured its pilot, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said

The wreckage of the plane: Parts of a downed Sukhoi-25 fighter jet in the the Syrian city of Saraqib, southwest of Aleppo

'Rebel factions shot down a Sukhoi 25. The Russian pilot came down in a parachute, before being captured,' said Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights

It agreed on the creation of a commission to discuss the country's post-war constitution.

UN Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura, who attended the meeting, said the United Nations would lead efforts to form the commission.

A copy of the final statement did not mention the fate of Moscow's ally President Bashar al-Assad.

In a statement quoted by state news agency SANA, a source in Syria's foreign ministry said the talks in Sochi were 'the cornerstone of the political process and solid base upon which dialogue will be launched from now on'.

Around 1,400 delegates attended Tuesday's meeting, as part of a broader push by regime-backer Moscow to consolidate its influence in the Middle East.

But the main opposition group, the Syrian Negotiations Committee, boycotted the meeting as did representatives of Syria's Kurdish minority.

This image shows the plane on fire after it was shot down by rebels in Syria on Saturday. The plane plummeted to the ground

The pilot managed to eject from the plane and parachute to the ground unharmed but rebels swiftly killed him, according to reportsA three-year-old boy walked himself home along a busy road after nursery - and staff there hadn't even noticed he'd left.

Sarra Reid opened the door to her house to see her toddler standing there before he burst into tears.

Little Liam Radcliffe had walked the half mile distance between the Barassie early years nursery in Ayrshire, Scotland, and his home, navigating the busy street alone.

Sarra Reid was horrified to realise her three-year-old son Liam Radcliffe had walked home alone after escaping from his nursery in Ayrshire, Scotland

After finding him she returned to the nursery, thinking staff there would be in a panic rushing to find him, only to realise they had no idea he had been missing.

Ms Reid told the Daily Record: 'It is about half-a-mile, or a 10-minute walk. It is a really busy road.

'There are buses, lorries and I dont really want to think what could have happened.

He walked the half mile distance between the Barassie early years nursery in Ayrshire, Scotland, and his home, navigating the busy street alone

'He only had a pair of joggies and a T-shirt on. There was no teacher with him and he told me he wanted to come home.'

Liam was missing for at least 20 minutes and nobody at the nursery had noticed when they arrived back there.

Mrs Reid added: 'I put him in the car and drove back to nursery. We were buzzed back in and the teachers just looked perplexed as to how we were walking in together.

'I had expected to see a search going on for him. But when I walked in with him, the staff just looked perplexed. It was then that it dawned on me that they did not know he was missing. I was absolutely horrified.'

He walked for ten minutes along busy roads before reaching his home on North Shore Road and bursting into tears. It is believed he escaped through two doors and an unlocked gate

Staff believe Liam walked through two sets of doors and an unlocked gate to leave the nursery.

After a meeting with nursery chiefs, the main door will be alarmed and the gate padlocked, and there will be an extra member of staff.

Douglas Hutchison, South Ayrshire Councils director of educational services, said: 'We take our childrens safety very seriously and the new way of working will help ensure that such an incident doesnt happen again.'A five-year-old girl was tied down and permanently disfigured by two sisters during a voodoo ritual meant to rid her of a demon causing her to misbehave, police said.

Authorities said the women also threatened to cut off the head of the girl's eight-year-old brother with a machete.

Peggy LaBossiere, 51, and Rachel Hilaire, 40, of East Bridgewater, Massachusetts, pleaded not guilty to charges including mayhem - the premanent disfigurement of a child's face - assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and are being held without bail, The Enterprise reports.

Authorities said Peggy LaBossiere, 51 (left), and Rachel Hilaire, 40, permanently disfigured a girl, 5, while performing a voodoo ritual to cleanse her of evil spirits causing her to misbehave

Police were sent to LaBossiere and Hilaire's house in mid-January to perform a welfare check on a woman and her two children who were staying with the sisters at the time.

Upon arrival, in their report, police said they found the five-year-old girl with a third-degree burn running across her face. The girl's mother - a hairstylist said to be of Haitian descent - claimed that the girl had woken up with the burn a few days prior and that the burn had been caused by a demon leaving her body.

Police said the burns will leave her permanently disfigured.

The girl's burns were treated at a hospital and she was taken into custody by state welfare authorities, along with her brother, who described to police what happened at the sisters' house over multiple days.

LaBossiere and Hilaire (in court on February 1) pleaded not guilty to charges that they injured the five-year-old girl and threatened to cut the head off her eight-year-old brother

Police were called to this house in East Bridgewater for a welfare check on the two children

The girl's brother said that his sister had been tied down on at least two occasions while LaBossiere and Hilaire blew fire over her face and cut her on the arm and in the collar area with a needle-like object, drawing blood, according to police. The girl said the women also poured over her eyes a substance that stung.

Authorities said that in addition to threatening to cut off the boy's head with a machete, LaBossiere had held a stick against his throat, constricting his breath, and that she had made him remove his clothes so she could rub his boy with a 'plant-life substance' and blow fire over him.

The sisters told police that they have performed 'cleansing baths' for family and friends in the past, something that involves chanting prayers, rubbing frankincense and eucalyptus oils and sea salt on their bodies, and burning myrrh.

Children sometimes get burned as spirits leave the body, they said.

Police say the girl's mother, who has LaBossiere as a client, requested the ritual be carried out in an effort to stop her children from misbehaving by driving out evil spirits. She has not been charged but is receiving mental health treatment.

The sisters will be back in Brockton Superior Court on February 7 for a hearing to determine whether they're too dangerous to be released.

Voodoo refers to religious practices developed centuries ago by enslaved Africans in the Caribbean, primarily in Haiti, where the practices are sometimes spelled 'vodou.'

Experts said that the rituals performed by LaBossiere and Hilaire were atypical of traditional voodoo practices, however.

'This does not sound like the normal practice of Haitian Voodoo,' Wesleyan University professor and Afro-Caribbean religion expert Elizabeth McAlister told The Enterprise.

She noted that, 'While incense and herbal baths can be part of healing rituals, it is not the norm to tie children up, to burn people, to threaten to cut them or to actually cut them.'

Likewise, Boston College assistant professor of Art History and African & African Diaspora Studies Kyrah Malika Daniels said that, 'It is not part of the tradition to endanger a child by burning their face or exorcising demons - this last act is more connected to evangelical Christianity.'

Daniels also added that, 'Protecting children is paramount in the Haitian Voodoo tradition, as children are regarded as the bright hope of the future.'Startling footage has emerged of a group of slack liners called the Western Riders traversing a line between cliffs in Portugal as huge waves cascade underneath them.

The tightrope walkers performed their daring crossing at the Cliff of Praia do Norte in Nazare to the Guilhim Rock, a famous landmark known from viral photos of huge wave impacts and water explosions during the Portuguese Big Wave Season, Newsflare.com reported.

The Slack liner on this video was identified as Emerson Machado, 28, from Brazil.

Scroll down for more video

The slack liners can be seen risking life and limb as they traverse the treacherous waves

The dare devils say they are well trained and well equipped to deal with the hazards of slack lining

A Western Riders member quoted by Newsflare said the the line was installed days before a big swell arrived in Nazare with everything cautiously planned, checked and re-checked to provide the maximum level of security possible to the slack liners.

'It's calculated risk, we are not crazy like it may seems at first sight, in reality everything was planned to the very minor details.' the unnamed member said.

'Over the years, we've performed walks in many locations before, including Nazare and we take this very seriously.

Nazare, in central Portugal, is renowned for the ferocity of its waves which are whipped up by Atlantic storms

'Over the course of two days, we've performed dozens of walks between the cliff and the rock in Nazare, and no one was ever injured during that time, it's relatively safe when performed by an experienced crew, working together with planning and caution.'

Slacklining involves balancing on a rope that's suspended above the ground (or sea) which is anchored between two points.

It looks like a sport that requires extreme bravery - or stupidity - but its practitioners say that well trained slack liners - with all the correct gear and equipment - are perfectly safe.

Praia do Norte beach, near the fishing village of Nazare on the coast of central Portugal between Lisbon and Porto - has become famous for huge waves since Hawaiian surfer Garrett McNamara set a then record in 2011 for the largest wave ever surfed when he rode a 78-foot wave.

Since then it has attracted many daredevils performing a wide variety of extreme sports.Ebrahim Ege, 33 (pictured), was the ringleader of a group of money launderers who lived a luxury five-star hotel lifestyle

Three people have been convicted of money laundering after an investigation found that they had used their ill-gotten gains to fund a luxury jet-set lifestyle.

Ebrahim Ege, 33 and Amer Aslam, 35, from Cardiff and Emma Cummings, 30, from Penarth, were convicted following a money laundering investigation across the south Wales region.

The three crooks, who were convicted at Newport Crown Court, had lived extravagant lifestyles with luxury cars and regular trips to destinations like Dubai and Abu Dhabi, often staying at five star resorts.

The arrests came as part of Operation Dogstar carried out by the Regional Asset Recovery Team based in Bridgend.

Ringleader Ege was sentenced to four years while Aslam and Cummings received 18 months each.

The investigation began in 2010 and enquiries were made throughout the UK and across the globe including New Zealand, Canada, India and Dubai.

Financial investigator Lee Jones, who led the investigation said: 'People who engage in money laundering provide a service to those who commit crime by cleaning the cash.

'It can then be used and appear to come from legitimate sources.

'One way to launder cash proceeds of crime is to get the dirty cash into the banking system. Another is to use that cash to acquire assets such as high value cars, or a house or flat.

'The prosecution case was that the conspirators agreed to do just that, the evidence showed that cash from unknown sources was used to purchase high value prestige vehicles and a number of properties in the Cardiff area. On occasions third party accounts were used to hide the true source of cash.

'Direct cash payments were made for both the purchase of some of the vehicles and some of the properties.

'Ebrahim Ege started using a Motor Business called Edge Performance Cars Ltd located initially at Mandeville Place, Riverside, Cardiff and later at premises at Main Road, Tonteg, Rhondda Cynon Taff to launder these funds.

Amer Aslam, 35 (left) and Emma Jane Cummings, 30 (right) were also jailed and described as Ebrahim Ege's co-conspirators

'His co-conspirators Emma Jane Cummings and Amer Aslam used their bank accounts to launder funds and their names were used to register vehicles or property in their names in order to hide the true owners. Emma Jane Cummings was Ege's partner at the time of the offences.'

The three were convicted after the jury heard the organised crime group was purchasing high value cars including Porsches, BMWs, Audis and Mercedes Benz SLK AMG and C63 AMG, they also purchased a number of properties in Cardiff.

Many of these purchases were in paid for in cash.

The group were convicted at Newport Crown Court (pictured) with Ege being jailed for four years and his co-conspirators sentenced to 18 months each

Also, it was found that the three lived in five-star resorts, often jetting out to Dubai and Abu Dhabi.

Despite their lifestyle, HMRC provided evidence that the conspirators declared very little legitimate income - even though they laundered cash in excess of 500,000.

Lee Jones added: 'It doesn't matter how complicated criminals make their financial affairs or how long they think they have got away with it, even if they have created a so called legitimate persona, law enforcement will unravel it, come knocking on their door and look to recover any proceeds or benefit that originated from their criminal activity.'Ukrainian members of Joint Center for Control and Coordination in Donbas warn again environmental disaster

Ukrainian members of the Joint Center for Control and Coordination (JCCC) in Donbas have informed that the crime of inaction by the so-called "leaders" of certain districts in Donetsk region (ORDO) may soon translate into an environmental disaster with unpredictable consequences.

They ignore applications from enterprises in Donbas for security guarantees for the period of maintenance and repairs to critical infrastructure facilities, the Ukrainian side said on Facebook on Saturday, February 3.

"The situation at sludge collector of the 3rd sector of industrial wastes at coking and chemical facilities of LLC NPO Inkor & Co (located near the village of Novhorodske in Donetsk region) needs to be urgently addressed," the report says.

The JCCC explained that the need for immediate maintenance and repairs to the sludge storage facilities is caused by a large amount of precipitation and seasonal temperature fluctuations.

The Ukrainian side says that it is currently impossible to carry out the repairs as there are no security guarantees from the ORDO.Erica Gaarn-Larsen, 47, admits that if scans had picked up Philip had Downs syndrome, she might have terminated the pregnancy

Watching Erica Gaarn-Larsen playing with her six-year-old son Philip in their third-floor flat in central Copenhagen, it is hard to believe she might so easily have aborted her child.

He is a boisterous bundle of flame-haired energy, full of smiles as he shifts a pile of play mats around the living room.

Sometimes he stops to wave, or simply stare at the strange British visitor, while his mother looks on with maternal devotion.

But Gaarn-Larsen, 47, admits that if scans had picked up her baby had Downs syndrome, she might have terminated the pregnancy.

I did not want a child with disability, she concedes.

I thought my life would be changed and maybe even ruined. I had no real knowledge, just the feeling this would be something terrible.

She only discovered the second of her three children had a learning disability after his birth.

I had 24 hours of going through hell thinking, Why did this happen to me?  she says. But then I looked at my lovely little baby and decided we could handle this. Now I can think of 100 things worse in life than having a disabled child.

The arrival of a child with Downs syndrome is an increasing rarity in Denmark. There were 80 born in 1999  but by 2016 the number had fallen to just 24.

Of those, only four were born after positive pre-natal diagnosis. The Scandinavian nation has the worlds highest termination rate in such cases, with 98 per cent detected in the womb aborted  though Britain is not far behind with 90 per cent.

And with the arrival of more accurate and less risky testing, these birth rates are likely to fall further. Denmark now faces the real possibility that it could become the first nation to wipe out Downs syndrome altogether. And others are likely to follow.

Watching Erica Gaarn-Larsen playing with her six-year-old son Philip in their third-floor flat in central Copenhagen, it is hard to believe she might so easily have aborted her child

Thanks to advances in new testing techniques, it is likely that more and more Downs pregnancies in Britain are likely to be terminated.

A new blood test  Non-Invasive Prenatal Testing  which offers simpler and more accurate screening for Downs and some other abnormalities is being rolled out across the NHS this year.

It has provoked the Church of England to warn the existence of people with Downs syndrome is under question. Its ruling General Synod will discuss the issue in a landmark debate next Saturday.

The arrival of a child with Downs syndrome is an increasing rarity in Denmark. There were 80 born in 1999  but by 2016 the number had fallen to just 24

Zealots such as the biologist Richard Dawkins claim it is immoral to bring such children into the world if scientific advances offer choice. Abort it and try again, he told one woman struggling with the issue.

Other academics have even raised the appalling spectre of terminating babies with Downs syndrome after birth, arguing they might be happy individuals but are an unbearable burden on families and state resources.

As the parent of a child with severe and multiple disabilities, I find this obsessive quest for perfection to be profoundly disturbing.

For if people with Downs are so easily jettisoned, what signal does this send to wider society? And what do such implications of inferiority say about the value of people such as my daughter with more severe conditions?

So I travelled to Denmark to discover for myself how attitudes have hardened and the effect it is having on the families remaining who are still raising children with Downs.

Denmark is a decent, open and sophisticated nation. Yet its experience shows we are sliding into a new age of eugenics with scarcely a murmur of dissent and minimal discussion of ethics, morality or the complex meaning of humanity.

We are moving towards eliminating Downs syndrome and some other disabilities, says John Brodersen, professor in public health at the University of Copenhagen. Theres no doubt this is eugenics.

Downs syndrome, first described by a British doctor in 1866, affects six million people worldwide. In recent decades the life expectancy of sufferers has more than doubled, with many getting married, holding jobs and enjoying full lives.

Thanks to advances in new testing techniques, it is likely that more and more Downs pregnancies in Britain are likely to be terminated.

Research has found these people, who are born with an extra 21st chromosome, to be among the most satisfied in society with their lives and looks, bringing joy to family and friends.

Yet over the past three years, only eight of the 407 Danish cases detected in pre-natal screening survived to birth. Another 83 children with the syndrome were born after false-negatives, such as Philip, or because their parents rejected testing.

Brodersen blames the medical profession for painting too stark a picture for parents as they confront the prospect of life with a disabled child. As I know all too well, this is a disturbing moment as your dreams suddenly dissolve.

Parents want a perfect child and the medical profession is encouraging them, he says. They present a very black and white case, but even within Downs syndrome people are different. Yet they are being seen as monsters, far from human beings.

He argues that as numbers plummet, tolerance declines. They are more likely to be regarded as aliens, he says. Today when people meet a child with such a disability they wonder why was it not terminated or was there a technical mistake.

This is tough moral terrain. I believe women should have full right to choose on early abortion  just as photographer Line Holm did last year after receiving confirmation that her 12-week-old foetus had Downs syndrome.

I was in shock and crying but I knew right away I was going to have an abortion, says Holm, 40, a mother of two boys from Viborg in Jutland.

Unlike many people, she had some insight, having worked on a documentary about people with the condition. I knew it would make a big impact on my family for the rest of our lives and on my children when I am no longer here.

Zealots such as the biologist Richard Dawkins claim it is immoral to bring such children into the world if scientific advances offer choice. Abort it and try again, he told one woman struggling with the issue

Holm has no regrets. Yet where is the debate over the collective impact of rational individual decisions as they weed out people that add to the diversity of humankind?

Denmark is in the vanguard of this brave new world since it has a liberal approach to abortion, partly due to historically high female participation in the workplace. Polls show majority support for terminating foetuses indicating Downs syndrome.

Any woman in Denmark can terminate a pregnancy during the first 12 weeks, then for the next ten weeks if agreed by special regional boards that there is a chance of serious mental or physical disorder, which is deigned to include Downs syndrome.

Ann Tabor, professor of foetal medicine at Rigshospitalet hospital in Copenhagen, counsels many couples in this situation. Most are just so sad and angry that something is not normal, she says.

Denmark is in the vanguard of this brave new world since it has a liberal approach to abortion, partly due to historically high female participation in the workplace

They come in expecting a scan picture for the fridge and suddenly they do not have the perfect child they expected.

'Most parents want a normal child. We know the IQ [of Downs children] is considerably less than that of a normal child. They are not such a big burden when small but can be difficult as teenagers and beyond. They do not have such a big impact on society.

She denies, however, high termination rates mean people with Downs syndrome are less valued  although she accepts that in a perfectionist society there is less space than in the past for people displaying such differences.

Eugenics is now a shamed concept. A century ago, academics and writers debated ideas of eliminating human deficiencies, theories that led with dreadful logic to the Nazi death camps.

ny woman in Denmark can terminate a pregnancy during the first 12 weeks, then for the next ten weeks if agreed by special regional boards that there is a chance of serious mental or physical disorder, which is deigned to include Downs syndrome

Yet almost three decades ago, Troy Duster, a far-sighted New York sociologist, warned that science and genetics were unleashing a new era of eugenics through screens, treatments and therapies. Now this age is arriving.

When talk of mass testing began in Denmark towards the end of the last century, there were even callous suggestions that it was cheaper to offer screening since it reduced the numbers needing care.

One senior doctor openly talked to me about cost-effectiveness of screening, while others fear this still underpins the issue for politicians, including Lillian Bondo, head of the Danish Midwives Association, whose own sister Ida had Downs syndrome.

Bondo admits to being conflicted over this issue, agreeing that most parents instantly seek termination when faced with a Downs baby and readily accepting that medical advances are improving lives.

But she fears we are seeing more children born with severe disabilities, especially when very premature babies are kept alive despite complications, while minor conditions such as Downs are being removed by medicine.

Society is creating some new handicaps while trying to root out others, she says. Perhaps we should establish a pain threshold based on suffering?

She wants more recognition that people with Downs lead valuable lives. But when you are having only 25 people born each year, not 150, this means there is much less chance to meet such a child, she says.

A few families with a Downs syndrome child, feeling unwelcome in Denmark, have even fled to Norway.

The signal being sent is that society does not want people with Downs syndrome, says Lars Brustad, secretary of the Norwegian Network for Down Syndrome.

Eugenics is now a shamed concept. A century ago, academics and writers debated ideas of eliminating human deficiencies, theories that led with dreadful logic to the Nazi death camps

In my opinion this is a horror story. It is very difficult for parents like me to understand. There is no reason to offer these abortions when people with Downs syndrome can live good lives.

Sadly, this issue reflects the lingering hostility towards people who are not normal. And such fears are exacerbated by the crushing fight for support that faces parents of disabled children in countries such as Britain and Denmark.

Yet Brustad, a retired banker, believes the Danes are only being more open than other nations about this dawn of a new eugenics.

Before leaving Copenhagen I chatted with psychologist Line Natascha Larsen, 41, whose seven-year-old son August has Downs.

Larsen admits she and her husband Max were sad when their child was diagnosed but she learned a key lesson from an adult with the condition.

He told me to believe in my child, she says. Dont protect him but help him achieve everything he can.

She has done just that. August is so warm and loving, very funny and living in the present, says Larsen.

Yet those people seen as a bit different can make some others uncomfortable instead of being embraced for enriching society.

We going to make our world so much more boring with this quest for perfection.

She is right. But will we learn to appreciate the wealth of human diversity before it is too late?Archaeologists in Egypt have discovered a 4,400-year-old tomb near the country's famed pyramids at the Giza plateau just outside Cairo.

The tomb was found in a wider area of Giza's western necropolis, which is known to be home to tombs from the Old Kingdom, according to the country's Antiquities Ministry.

It likely belonged to a woman known as Hetpet, who archaeologists believe was close to ancient Egyptian royals of the 5th Dynasty more than four millennia ago.

The tomb, unveiled to the media on Saturday, is made of mud brick and includes wall paintings in good condition depicting Hetpet observing different hunting and fishing scenes.

The tomb, unveiled to the media on Saturday, is made of mud brick and includes wall paintings in good condition depicting a woman called Hetpet observing hunting and fishing scenes

A guide from the Ministry of Antiquities stands inside the tomb of an Old Kingdom priestess adorned with well-preserved and rare wall paintings

The tomb was found in a wider area of Giza's western necropolis, which is known to be home to tombs from the Old Kingdom

Other scenes also depict monkeys, which in pharaonic times were been kept as a domestic animal, picking fruit and dancing before an orchestra. Similar scenes have been found in other tombs belonging to the later 12th dynasty.

It comes after experts said they were starting radar scans of the tomb of boy pharaoh Tutankhamun in the southern city of Luxor.

The 5th Dynasty of Hetpet's time ruled in the 25th century BC, almost 4,500 years ago, while Tutankhamun belonged to the much later 18th Dynasty.

Mr Al-Waziri believes Hetpet had another tomb in Giza's western necropolis and said that excavation work is underway to find that one too.

Hetpet is a previously known figure in Egyptian antiquity though her mummy has not been discovered yet.

Fragments of artefacts belonging to Hetpet were found in the same area back in 1909, and were moved to a museum in Berlin at the time, Antiquities Minister Khaled al-Anani said on Saturday, speaking at the site to reporters and Western diplomats.

'This is a very promising area. We expect to find more,' Mr Al-Waziri told reporters at the site. 'We have removed between 250-300 cubic meters of layers of earth to find the tomb.'

'What we see above the earth's surface in Egypt doesn't exceed 40 percent of what the core holds,' he added.

It likely belonged to a woman known as Hetpet, who archaeologists believe was close to ancient Egyptian royals of the 5th Dynasty

The Egyptian archaeological mission led by the Supreme Council of Antiquities has discovered the Old Kingdom tomb during excavation work in the Giza western cemetery

The tomb was discovered near the country's famed pyramids at the Giza plateau just outside Cairo. Pictured: the Sphinx and a pyramid

According to the ministry, the archaeological mission behind the discovery started excavation work last October

The latest discovery is close to a new museum under construction that will house some of Egypt's most unique and precious artifacts. Pictured: camels rest near the Giza pyramids

Archaeologists have been making discoveries near the site since the 19th century, and Mostafa al-Waziri, who led the mission, believes there is still more to be found

An Egyptian cameraman films wall paintings inside the tomb of the Old Kingdom priestess on the southern outskirts of Cairo

Similar scenes to those on the wall paintings have been found in other tombs belonging to the later 12th dynasty, according to the ministry's statement

Despite all the discoveries already made about ancient Egypt, experts say they hope to find much more - in part thanks to modern technology - treasures still buried under the vast desert.

The area of the latest discovery is close to a new museum under construction that will house some of Egypt's most unique and precious artifacts, including many belonging to the famed boy King Tutankhamun.

The tomb of King Tut, who ruled Egypt more than 3,000 years ago, was discovered in 1922 in the Valley of the Kings, located on the west bank of the Nile river in Luxor.

The antiquities ministry is now searching Tutankhamun's tomb with radar scans to check whether there might be any hidden chambers.

An exact replica of the Boy King's final resting place was unveiled to the world in 2012, in a bid to protect the original.

The first phase of Grand Egyptian museum is expected to be opened later this year while the grand opening is planned for 2022.

In January, Egypt placed the ancient statue of one of its most famous pharaohs, Ramses II at the museum's atrium, which will include 43 massive statues.

It comes after experts said they were starting radar scans of the tomb of boy pharaoh Tutankhamun, whose golden mask is pictured, in the southern city of Luxor

The tomb of King Tut, who ruled Egypt more than 3,000 years ago, was discovered in 1922 in the Valley of the Kings, located on the west bank of the Nile river in Luxor

Tutankhamun's tomb, pictured here while treasures are removed after its discovery in 1922, will be searched with radar scans for any hidden passages which may exist

Archaeologists have also begun to excavate an area near a tomb in the Valley of the Kings (pictured), which they believe contains the body of Tutankhamun's wife Ankhesenamun

An exact replica (pictured) of the Boy King's final resting place was unveiled to the world in 2012, in a bid to protect the original

It also followed reports that the final resting place of Tutankhamun's wife Ankhesenamun may soon be found.

Archaeologists have now begun to excavate an area near a tomb at the World Heritage Site in the Valley of the Kings, which they believe contains her body.

Throughout 2017, the Antiquities Ministry made a string of discoveries across Egypt - including some in the southern city Luxor known for its spectacular temples and tombs spanning different dynasties of ancient Egyptian history.

Egypt hopes the inauguration of the new museum, along with the recent discoveries, will draw back visitors to the country where tourism has been hit hard by extremist attacks and political turmoil since a 2011 uprising.

The government has tightened security around archaeological and tourist sites and spent millions of dollars to upgrade airport security following the 2015 downing of a Russian airliner by the Islamic State group, killing 224 people on board.

The bombing dealt Egypt's vital tourism sector a hard blow after Russia suspended flights to and from Egypt.

In December, Cairo and Moscow signed a security protocol and announced plans to resume Russian flights to the Egyptian capital, due to start this month.Delivered at Abraham Lincoln's second inaugural address, the quote has been VA's motto for the past 59 years and appears throughout the state

The Department of Veterans Affairs is under pressure from female veterans to change its motto as they claim that the Abraham Lincoln quote is exclusionary to women.

Delivered at Lincoln's second inaugural address, the quote has been VA's motto for the past 59 years and appears throughout the state.

'To care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow, and his orphan,' the quote reads.

But the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America asked Virginia Secretary David Shulkin, back in November, if he could change the motto.

They claimed that Lincoln's quote was exclusionary to women service members and represented complications they faced in the VA's health system, according to Stars and Stripes.

'They're missing the point that women don't feel comfortable at the VA,' said IAVA Executive Director Allison Jaslow, a former U.S. Army captain who served in Iraq.

'To care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow, and his orphan,' the quote reads

'We want to be respected and appreciated as much as male veterans are, and the motto is symbolic of overall challenges.'

An altered version of the quote has been introduced, gradually, according to Kayla Williams the director of the VA Center for Women Veterans.

It reads: 'To care for those who shall have borne the battle and their families and survivors.'

But Jaslow asserts that there is a precedent for making changes.

The Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America asked Virginia Secretary David Shulkin (pictured), back in November, if he could change the motto

'I get it. The VA was designed for a male population, and culture change is hard,' Jaslow said.

'But we're talking 16 years we've been at war in Afghanistan. Women veterans are still feeling invisible and articulating they don't feel comfortable at the VA. At what point are we going to get serious about addressing this?'

The Air Force Academy replaced its 'Bring Me Men' sign to 'Integrity First. Service Before Self. Excellence in All We Do' in 2004.

That same year the U.S. Naval Academy changed its school song to include gender-specific lyrics. West Point followed suit in 2008.

Gender-neutral job titles were introduced at the Navy and Marine Corps, in 2016.

An altered version of the quote has been introduced, gradually, according to Kayla Williams the director of the VA Center for Women Veterans. It reads: 'To care for those who shall have borne the battle and their families and survivors

.Harvey Weinstein has denied Uma Thurman's claims that he tried to sexually assault her in a London hotel room and insists he couldn't have because the pair stayed friends for years after the alleged incident.

In an email to DailyMail.com not long after Thurman's accusations were published by The New York Times, Weinstein's spokesman said it was the first he'd heard of the accusation.

He admitted propositioning the actress in a steam room and said it happened after a 'flirtatious exchange' in Paris which he had 'misread'.

After 'making a pass', he says he apologized immediately and the pair went on to remain friends which she does not deny.

He also pointed to a 'number of images that demonstrate the strong relationship' the pair have shared over the years, adding: 'We wish the New York Times would have published them,' said the spokesman.

Later, after consulting his lawyer, the mogul (again through his representative) threatened legal action and accused Thurman of 'embellishing' the truth.

'Why Ms Thurman would wait 25 years to publicly discuss this incident and why according to Weinstein, she would embellish what really happened to include false accusations of attempted physical assault is a mystery to Weinstein and his attorneys.

'Ms Thurman's statements to the Times are being carefully examined and investigated before deciding whether any legal action against her would be appropriate,' they said.

Harvey Weinstein and Uma Thurman are pictured in January 2016 at a brunch she hosted to promote The Hateful Eight, long before Weinstein's fall from grace. He says it, along with others, is proof that he did not sexually assault her as she claims

'Mr. Weinstein acknowledges making an awkward pass 25 years ago at Ms. Thurman in England after misreading her signals, after a flirtatious exchange in Paris, for which he immediately apologized and deeply regrets.

'However, her claims about being physically assaulted are untrue.

'And this is the first time we have heard those details,' the first statement read.

These pictures tell a completely different story Weinstein representative

It went on: 'There was no physical contact during Mr. Weinsteins awkward pass and Mr. Weinstein is saddened and puzzled as to "why" Ms. Thurman, someone he considers a colleague and a friend, waited 25 years to make these allegations public, noting that he and Ms. Thurman have shared a very close and mutually beneficial working relationship where they have made several very successful film projects together.

'This is the first time we are hearing that she considered Mr. Weinstein an enemy and the pictures of their history tell a completely different story.

Weinstein, who has been hiding out in Arizona since dozens of women came forward to accuse him of rape, sexual harassment and bullying in October, also shared this photograph claiming it was proof Thurman likes him. It was taken in 2014 with Heidi Klum

Weinstein with Thurman in 2004. She claims she told Quentin Tarantino about the alleged assault and that he confronted Weinstein over it, prompting an apology

HARVEY WEINSTEIN STATEMENT ON UMA THURMAN CLAIMS FIRST STATEMENT 'We have pulled a number of images that demonstrate the strong relationship Mr. Weinstein and Ms. Thurman had had over the years and we wish the New York Times would have published them. 'Mr. Weinstein acknowledges making an awkward pass 25 years ago at Ms. Thurman in England after misreading her signals, after a flirtatious exchange in Paris, for which he immediately apologized and deeply regrets. However, her claims about being physically assaulted are untrue. And this is the first time we have heard those details. 'There was no physical contact during Mr. Weinsteins awkward pass and Mr. Weinstein is saddened and puzzled as to "why" Ms. Thurman, someone he considers a colleague and a friend, waited 25 years to make these allegations public, noting that he and Ms. Thurman have shared a very close and mutually beneficial working relationship where they have made several very successful film projects together. 'This is the first time we are hearing that she considered Mr. Weinstein an enemy and the pictures of their history tell a completely different story. 'There will be more are detailed response later from Mr. Weinsteins attorney, Ben Brafman.' SECOND STATEMENT 'Ben Brafman, Mr Weinstein's attorney said that Harvey is stunned and saddened by what he claims to be false accusations by Uma Thurman, someone he has worked closely with for more than two decades. 'Mr Weinstein acknowledges making an awkward pass at Ms Thurman 25 years ago which he regrets and immediately apologized for. 'Why Ms Thurman would wait 25 years to publicly discuss this incident and why according to Weinstein, she would embellish what really happened to include false accusations of attempted physical assault is a mystery to Weinstein and his attorneys. 'Ms Thurman's statements to the Times are being carefully examined and investigated before deciding whether any legal action against her would be appropriate.' Advertisement

Thurman is pictured in New York City on Saturday not long after he claims became public

The star looked sombre as she made her way through the streets of NYC

In her interview, Thurman described how Weinstein allegedly attacked her in London's Savoy hotel sometime between 1994 and 2002.

'It was such a bat to the head. He pushed me down. He tried to shove himself on me.

'He tried to expose himself. He did all kinds of unpleasant things.

'But he didnt actually put his back into it and force me.

'Youre like an animal wriggling away, like a lizard. I was doing anything I could to get the train back on the track. My track. Not his track,' she said.

Thurman looked focused as she left her apartment shortly after the claims went public

The 47-year-old is the latest in a series of actresses who have accused the shamed mogul of sexual harrassment - which he claims are false

She said she confronted him the next day about it and that even though the pair carried on working together for years afterwards on films including Kill Bill, she never thought of him in the same way.

The Times claimed to have confirmed with Weinstein that he apologized for the incident, as it was described by Thurman, to Quentin Tarantino later.

Weinstein has not broken cover since he fled to Arizona last year as an army of women emerged to accuse him of serial sexual misconduct.

Weinstein has not been seen since October 5 when he fled New York City as the scandal swamped him

He apologized at the time for behavior which he accepted may have been inappropriate but has consistently denied being physically violent or coercive to any of the women, insisting they all consented to whatever encounters they had.

A common claim from the women is that they all stayed silent and remained friends with Weinstein, in some cases later having consensual relations with him, because they feared he would derail their careers if they acted out against him.

A friend who was with Thurman at the time of the London incident said she told him then that Weinstein threatened to ruin her prospects if she spoke out again about him allegedly attacking her.

She went back to the Savoy hotel, where the alleged attack took place, the next day to confront him about it.

They continued working together on Miramax films and were both illustriously successful as a result but she, and others who the Times spoke to, said her private opinion of him changed.

Among the photographs Weinstein's representative pointed out were photographs taken as recently as 2016.

Many of the actresses who have accused him of misconduct were photographed with him long after the alleged attacks.Eexecutives of the company at the centre of the latest food safety scare could face up to two years in jail if they are found to have breached hygiene rules.

Investigators at the Food Standards Agency are expected to interview key staff at Russell Hume under caution as part of a criminal inquiry. Anyone implicated could also face unlimited fines in court.

The firms six plants have been closed for six weeks after a spot-check at its Birmingham site uncovered concerns over hygiene and discrepancies in use by dates, leading to suspect meat being impounded.

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Eexecutives of Russell Hume, the company at the centre of the latest food safety scare, could face up to two years in jail if they are found to have breached hygiene rules

The company supplied steaks and other meats to pub and restaurant chains including Wetherspoons and Jamies Italian.

The Foods Standards Agency said it was involved in an intensifying investigation against Russell Hume but declined to comment further, saying: We dont want to jeopardise it.

However, FSA chief executive Jason Feeney has admitted the investigation is probing serious and widespread problems.

Investigators at the Food Standards Agency are expected to interview key staff at Russell Hume under caution as part of a criminal inquiry. The firm supplied steak and other meats to the likes of Jamie's Italian

Wetherspoon pubs sourced sirloin steak from the Birmingham company

According to Unison, which represents meat inspectors, the last check at Russell Hume was a year ago.

Union official Heather Wakefield said: The amount of unfit meat that could have been released into the human food chain during this time doesnt bear thinking about.

There must be a permanent inspection presence in meat-cutting plants to protect the public and avoid the endless cycle of scandals.

There is no evidence that anyone became ill after eating meat supplied by the firm.

When asked about individuals being questioned under caution, Russell Hume gave no comment.

After the scare in Birmingham, the firms sites in Liverpool, London, Exeter, Boroughbridge in North Yorkshire and Inverkeithing in Fife were inspected and then shut down.A betting shop worker who stole thousands of pounds from his employer then gambled it away at a rival bookies has been spared jail.

Craig Wallace, 33, texted his boss to apologise and handed himself in to police after splurging about 3,100 from the till in Huddersfield on September 27 last year.

The gambling addict, who was deputy manager of a Coral shop at the time, initially swiped a few hundred pounds during a shift, Leeds Crown Court heard.

Craig Wallace, 33, texted his boss to apologise and handed himself in to police after splurging about 3,100 of his employer's money in Huddersfield on September 27 last year

He hid it in his clothes and went to a nearby William Hill store where he lost it all on bets before returning to steal more money, which he then also gambled away.

Prosecutor Jessica Randal told the court his manager texted him the next day to ask if he was coming into work.

Wallace, who calls himself 'Wally' on Facebook, replied: 'No. I'm on my way to the police station. I've gambled all the money in the safe.

'I need help man. I'm sorry, I've f**ked up.'

The manager texted back: 'Idiot. Where are you?'

He replied: 'I'm on my way to the police station. I'm not lying.'

Wallace, of School Street in Moldgreen, Huddersfield, has 13 previous convictions including theft, handling stolen goods and taking a vehicle without consent.

Representing himself in court, he pleaded guilty to theft and breach of a suspended sentence, which was previously imposed for motoring offences.

Wallace told the judge: 'To be honest your honour, I was very embarrassed at the time of the incident.

'I am quite a proud person and I am very embarrassed.

'It's a horrible thing to weigh on my shoulders.'

Wallace added that he had banned himself from gambling shops, is seeking counselling and is working at an electrical warehouse in Elland, West Yorkshire.

'I've got a house, I'm starting to work, I've just had first contact with my eldest daughter, but I am prepared for the circumstances,' he said.

Wallace hid the money in his clothes and went to a nearby William Hill store (stock photo) where he lost it all on bets before returning to steal more money, which he then also gambled away

Probation officer Mick Berry said that gambling was no longer a problem for the defendant.

He told the court that Wallace spent six years in the army, suffers from depression, has been homeless and has three children to three different women.

But he described his compliance with the probation service as 'excellent and almost beyond reproach'.

He said the gambler had even exceeded the amount of hours of unpaid work he needed to complete for a previous community order.

Recorder Abdul Iqbal QC said: 'Having heard from the probation officer, it is clear to me you have completed all the obligations and you responded very well to it.'

Adding that the public interest would be best served in this way again, the judge sentenced him to a five-day rehabilitation activity requirement, which is in addition to his previous requirement, and ordered him to repay 1,500 in installments of 100 per month.A primary school has been forced to tell parents to stop smoking cannabis at its gates, triggering criticism of the local police forces soft approach to the drug.

Headteacher Pauline Northcott sent out a strongly worded newsletter after reports that the illegal drug was being shared and smoked at the bottom of the school yard, or playground, at the school in County Durham, where pupils are aged between two and 11.

Under the heading Inappropriate behaviour on or around the school premises, Mrs Northcott, head of Dean Bank Primary and Nursery School in Ferryhill, told parents the issue had been reported to the police.

Headteacher Pauline Northcott sent out a strongly worded newsletter after reports that cannabis was being shared and smoked at the bottom of the school yard, or playground, at Dean Bank Primary and Nursery School in Ferryhill, County Durham (pictured)

She also blasted parents for swearing in the playground, saying some had been using inappropriate language which was totally unacceptable.

Parents at the 190-pupil school expressed their fury at the use of cannabis near their children and critics blamed the soft touch policy introduced by Durham Chief Constable Mike Barton in 2015, under which people who use small amounts of the drug escape prosecution.

One father, who did not want to be named, said: You would have thought anything around kids or schools, the police would be right on it. But theyre not bothered.

Parents at the 190-pupil school expressed their fury at the use of cannabis near their children

A 28-year-old mother with two sons at the school, which is set among terraced houses in the former mining town near Durham, said she had smelled cannabis close to where the children played and thought it was disgusting.

Local independent councillor Brian Avery, a former magistrate, said: Its going on all over the place and a lot of the time right under your nose.

'I really dont agree with the soft approach to policing it.

David Raynes, of the National Drug Prevention Alliance, said the attitude of the Durham police had completely normalised the habit adding: The more people think it is acceptable, the more likely it is that parents will think it is fine to smoke cannabis at the school gates around children.

He added: It is no business of the Chief Constable to undermine national legislation.

Critics blamed the soft touch policy introduced by Durham Chief Constable Mike Barton (pictured) in 2015, under which people who use small amounts of the drug escape prosecution

But Mr Barton told The Mail on Sunday: If I had been stood next to someone who was smoking cannabis at the school gate, they would have been nicked  pure and simple  and any of my officers would have done the same.

But we cant execute search warrants looking for a single cannabis plant.

Mrs Northcott said the school had received reports in November that some parents had smoked cannabis directly outside of the school gates, but would not say whether it was when they were dropping off or picking up their children.

She added that the wellbeing of pupils was her prime concern. The school, which was judged to be requiring improvement in its Ofsted report last year, is the latest to issue warnings to parents over standards of behaviour.

In one case, a head urged parents not to wear pyjamas on the school run, while another was forced to remind parents about toilet etiquette after it emerged pupils were urinating in the playground.He earns 50 per cent more than the Prime Minister, owns property in one of Londons most exclusive enclaves and enjoys luxury holidays in the Maldives and Canary Islands every year.

And all from unblocking toilets and fixing leaky taps.

Plumber Stephen Fry is proof of just how lucrative the trade can be  as any homeowner who has faced a bill for an emergency call-out may well suspect.

Plumber Stephen Fry is proof of just how lucrative the trade can be  as any homeowner who has faced a bill for an emergency call-out may well suspect. And although, at 34, he earns 210,000 a year, he doesnt even work weekends

And although, at 34, he earns 210,000 a year, he doesnt even work weekends. Not bad for someone who started life on a council estate, the son of a builder and a supermarket shelf-stacker, and who was out of work at 17.

Now, as a self-employed tradesman for London-based Pimlico Plumbers, Mr Fry certainly puts in the hours. He works from 8am to 6pm on weekdays but is also on call overnight on Monday and Tuesday  meaning he is on duty for 58 consecutive, caffeine-fuelled hours at the start of the working week.

It can drain you, he said, not intending any pun. I am one of Pimlicos best paid plumbers, but also one of the most tired.

Mr Fry occasionally manages to steal a couple of hours sleep in between jobs on the night shift, but otherwise he survives on coffee and Red Bull.

Mr Fry became a plumber when his local Jobcentre suggested an apprenticeship when he was aged 17. I just thought Id give it a go, he told The Mail on Sunday. Im glad I went to the Jobcentre that day.

After completing a four-year apprenticeship, making do on 100 a week, Mr Fry set up his own business when he was in his early 20s.

But he really hit the jackpot five years ago when he started working for Pimlico Plumbers, a company set up by rags-to-riches entrepreneur Charlie Mullins, himself thought to be worth 75 million.

Mr Fry certainly puts in the hours. He works from 8am to 6pm on weekdays but is also on call overnight on Monday and Tuesday  meaning he is on duty for 58 consecutive, caffeine-fuelled hours

Mr Mullins estimates that about a dozen of his 225 tradesmen earn 200,000 or more a year, and around half earn 100,000 or more. He describes Mr Fry as one of the best in the business.

Mr Fry earns more than seven times the average UK salary of 27,271  which is also close to the average plumbers pay.

And despite the long hours, and sometimes unpleasant callouts, Mr Fry says: Every day is fun. You can go to a place where some woman has water gushing through the ceilings and is crying, so its a nice feeling when you stop the water and make her happy.

I cant really see myself stopping any time soon, to be honest. I enjoy my work. Im a worker. Ill be working till I drop, I think. On a Friday night, when people ask if I want to go for a beer, I am shattered. So its straight home to the family.

The family are wife Grace, 33, and son Oliver, 13, and they own a flat in Kensington  a far cry from the estate in Croxley Green, Hertfordshire, where Mr Fry grew up.

Despite not being on the staff of Pimlico Plumbers, he still wears its blue uniform and drives a company van.

The employment status of tradesmen working at the company is currently at the centre of a legal battle, after another plumber claimed he should be given the same legal rights as an employee.

Awash with money: How wages compare Average UK salary: 27,271 Average chief executive: 107,703 Prime Minister: 150,402 Junior doctor in specialist training: 36,461 Average for pilots and flight engineers: 90,146 Legal professionals: 73,425 Vets: 37,763 Bus drivers: 22,176 Average salary of people in their 30s: 28,600 From Office of National Statistics survey 2017/ Instant Offices survey Advertisement

Pimlico Plumbers has been given the right to appeal a previous ruling against it, in a case which will have ramifications for workers across the so-called gig economy.

Mr Mullins, 65, set up his company in the basement of an estate agent in Pimlico nearly 40 years ago, and recently announced plans to run for London Mayor in 2020. He told The Mail on Sunday he has increased wages by about 25 per cent over the past five years, driven by a shortage of plumbers.

He added: The reason we pay so well is we need to attract the top tradesmen in the industry. I believe that you get what you pay for.

Mr Mullins admitted that Pimlico Plumbers charges more per hour than many of its rivals  between 100 during working hours and 200 overnight  but he also claimed that his workers tend to work quicker than rivals.Lainey Hunt and Nathan Hunt are pictured on their wedding day in 2009 at Lake Garda, Italy. Mrs Hunt has accused defence chiefs of failing to provide him with the help that could have stopped him taking his own life

The heartbroken widow of a soldier who fought alongside Prince Harry has accused defence chiefs of failing to provide him with the help that could have stopped him taking his own life.

Lainey Hunts powerful words will put renewed pressure on top brass to set up a 24-hour helpline to combat suicides among troops  a move the Ministry of Defence has rejected as too expensive.

Her husband, Royal Engineer Nathan Hunt, 39, was decorated for his courage after saving the lives of hundreds of comrades in Afghanistan by successfully identifying roadside Taliban bombs. But his nerve-racking battlefield experiences took their toll on his mental health and, after failing to get the care he needed, he hanged himself at home on New Years Day.

Mrs Hunt, 41, told The Mail on Sunday last night: He sought help but said the Armys mental health services were useless.

Warrant Officer Hunt protected Prince Harry as part of a desert reconnaissance unit in Helmand province in 2008, and was later mentioned in despatches.

Last Wednesday, more than 500 family, friends and comrades including several high-ranking officers and one general  filled Lincoln Cathedral for his funeral.

The couples daughter Megan, nine, reduced mourners to tears by reading a poem she had written: Close together or far apart, my daddy will always be in my heart. My daddy was the best.

Royal Engineer Nathan Hunt, 39, was decorated for his courage after saving the lives of hundreds of comrades in Afghanistan by successfully identifying roadside Taliban bombs

Afterwards Mrs Hunt, herself a serving soldier, backed the campaign launched by The Mail on Sunday and General Lord Dannatt, former head of the British Army, for round-the-clock care to prevent suicides among service personnel, including a 24/7 helpline giving direct access to clinical experts.

If there was a dedicated hotline for troops I am 100 per cent sure Nathan would have used it and might still be with us today, said Mrs Hunt. She spoke out as:

The chairman of the Commons Defence Committee backed our campaign and announced an inquiry;

A bishop called on the MoD to provide better mental healthcare as a matter of urgency;

Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson faced blistering criticism from WO Hunts parents.

Former generals, MPs with Army backgrounds and the charity Help For Heroes have all backed our campaign, but Ministers have resisted calls for a helpline, arguing it would not be cost effective.

Mrs Hunt, a Warrant Officer with 32 Engineer Regiment, like her husband, said: Nathan felt like the system let him down and he didnt know who to turn to.

Nathan Hunt is pictured with his daughter Megan on Christmas Day, just a week before he took his own life

I hope that by pointing out where things dont work and where there needs to be change, it will help other soldiers and families going through what we went through.

Nathan was sick of the fact that every time he moved to a new regiment he was given a doctor and he would have to start from scratch and relive the nightmare all over again. I agree with what he said. Ive been through this with him for years and what he said is true.

Criticising the tick box culture of the Armed Forces over mental healthcare, she said: When I came back from Afghanistan I was made to watch a video which basically said I might feel a bit stressed and that it was normal. Afterwards, a junior officer said, Thats that box ticked and made us fill out a form. It is simply not good enough.

WO Hunt suffered depression and mood swings that caused his marriage to end in divorce in 2014.

He wanted to protect us, said Mrs Hunt. He said he had put us through enough.

We broke up but we never separated. He was still my best friend. I still loved him very much and I always will.

Maria and Derek Hunt, the parents of Nathan Hunt, are pictured. WO Hunts mother Maria, 64, said her son had not been looked after when he came home

The family spent last Christmas together, Mrs Hunt said. It was lovely. There was no indication of what was going to happen.

But the depression would come on very fast and Nathan told me as long ago as 2015 that in his darkest moments he wanted to end it all. So Im shocked but Im not surprised.

At his funeral, Mrs Hunt gave the eulogy and spoke of the best soldier I have ever known, adding: We will always be Team Hunt. I hope the nightmares have stopped now.

Speaking at the family home in County Durham, she added: I feel absolutely heartbroken for Megan. Having to sit her down and tell her that her daddy is gone was the hardest thing Ive ever had to do. But she has been so brave.

We came home after the funeral and she lay on my bed. She said, What do I tell people when they ask about my daddy? I told her, You say, daddy was a soldier and he was very brave, but he died. She loved Nathan so much and he always said his greatest achievement in life was being Megans daddy. Its just so hard on her but she has held it together better than all of us.

Mrs Hunt, herself a serving soldier, is pictured with her daughter Megan at the funeral

WO Hunts father Derek, 66, a retired soldier, blamed Government cuts and MoD mismanagement, saying: The MoD let Nathan down. Nathan came back from war and he did not receive the help he needed.

He added that the Army had its priorities wrong, after The Mail on Sunday revealed in December that 1.5 million was spent on a planned rebrand to ditch its Be The Best slogan and its historic crest, depicting a set of crossed swords, which was deemed non-inclusive.

Of the Defence Secretary, he added: Why do they appoint these Ministers who have no expertise in the job they are doing?

WO Hunts mother Maria, 64, added: How can they send our Nathan into these dreadful situations and not look after him when he is home?

The MoD said millions was being invested in mental health, adding: We take the mental health of our Armed Forces very seriously, and work tirelessly to ensure our troops and veterans receive the care they deserve. We are committed to tackling the stigma of mental illness.

But a spokesman said a 24-hour hotline would make it slower for people to get the care they need, adding: Personnel already have 24-hour access to effective services they need in an emergency.A Pennsylvania sheriff's deputy has been suspended for removing a flag with a swastika on it that was flying on private property.

Deputy Colin Meeker was suspended without pay, and is under investigation for allegedly entering the private property of a white supremacist group in Ulysses and removing a flag displaying Nazi symbols while on the job

Daniel Burnside, the director of the National Socialist Movement, told police that around 4pm a neighbor witnessed a deputy get out of a McKean County Sheriff's Department car and enter Burnside's property.

A Nazi flag with a swastika that was flying on the private property of Daniel Burnside (pictured) was removed by a deputy. After Burnside reported it the deputy was suspended without pay

The incident, which took place on January 21, happened while Meeker was serving court papers in the area.

Burnside alleged that Meeker climbed over a wall and went 15 feet onto his property and removed the flag from the flagpole, according to the Olean Times Herald.

The flag images included a Nazi swastika with skull and crossbones in the center, along with SS insignia and Iron Crosses.

Meeker, who also serves in the Pennsylvania National Guard, was later asked by Burnside for a video-taped apology after he had apologized while accompanied by a second deputy and had returned the flag.

Meeker wouldn't do it, and Burnside said that that made him believe the deputy 'had no remorse for his actions' and was 'very unprofessional.'

'It wasn't until he returned my damaged flag that I learned his name,' Burnside said.

Burnside then contacted the state police to report the incident.

The state police station's commander Sgt. Kerby Young confirmed that Burnside did file a report on the theft of a flag.Ukraine's Ministry of Foreign Affairs is considering a request from the Russian authorities for opening four polling stations in Ukrainian territory during the Russian presidential elections in March 2018.

"Ukraine's Foreign Ministry has received a request from Russia's Embassy in Ukraine for arranging polling stations during the Russian presidential election on March 18, 2018, for Russian citizens residing in Ukraine. The said request is being considered by the agencies concerned," the ministry told Interfax-Ukraine in a comment.

In particular, the request concerns opening polling stations in the premises of Russia's Embassy in Kyiv and Russia's consulate general in Lviv, Odesa, and Kharkiv.

The Russian presidential election is scheduled for March 18.Tory MPs have clashed over a warning that the party faces ruin if its male MPs bring down Theresa May just as they did Margaret Thatcher.

The exchanges on a private WhatsApp messaging group for Conservative MPs were leaked to The Mail on Sunday last night.

They show how Mid Bedfordshire MP Nadine Dorries warned male Tories that the party would be in the s***... if TM [Theresa May] is ousted by male MPs.

Mid Bedfordshire MP Nadine Dorries (pictured) warned male Tories that the party would be in the s***... if TM [Theresa May] is ousted by male MPs

She added that male Tory MPs toppling their first female leader in 1990 may have been inevitable, but removing two will be viewed as something else entirely.

Women voters would take revenge, she claimed.

But St Austell and Newquay Tory MP Steve Double claimed it was bonkers to argue the only reason we shouldnt oust the PM is because shes a woman.Detailed plans of Royal helicopter flights have been made public in advance for the first time, posing a massive security risk to the Queen and her family.

Incredibly, air traffic control updates that can be seen by millions now give the exact routes and times of the trips to be taken by senior Royals 48 hours before they take off.

The astonishing decision came amid growing fears that a drone could collide with a helicopter. It was hoped that publicising the routes would minimise this risk.

But there are also fears that terrorists could use the system to plot an attack  security experts have warned jihadis are planning to use drones loaded with explosives as deadly weapons.

Tracked: Prince Andrew (waving) is pictured at Gloucestershire on Friday as he boards the Royal Sikorsky

Using the information made public for the first time last week, The Mail on Sunday was able to see, two days in advance, that the Royal helicopter was flying from Windsor Castle to Cheltenham in Gloucestershire on Friday.

Prince Charles and Prince Andrew had separate official engagements in the area that day. Using co-ordinates given in the update, we were able to get close enough to photograph Prince Andrew boarding the Sikorsky S756 helicopter to fly home to Windsor  ironically after a visit to the Government spy HQ in Cheltenham. Buckingham Palace refused to say if Charles used the aircraft on that day.

The day before, the alert system showed the Royal helicopter was due to fly from Kensington Palace to Membury airfield in Berkshire, where Princess Anne had flown to visit a stud farm.

Last night former head of royal protection Dai Davies warned: This gives me grave concern as to the overall risk potential.

Why bother spending millions of pounds on protecting the Royal Family on the ground, then make this information available in advance? I just despair.

And security expert Professor Anthony Glees said: Its incomprehensible. Far from deterring people from flying drones nearby, they are in fact telling them how best to do so. To publicise where a Royal helicopter will be flying is to encourage terrorists, mad people and pranksters.

High-flyer: Princess Anne on a previous trip on the Royal helicopter

There are some things that should be secret and I think Royal flights are among them.

Documents seen by this newspaper show that the extraordinary move to make the flight details public has been in part prompted by the menace posed by Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, with dozens of near-misses between drones and aircraft last year.

All pilots, including drone enthusiasts, are required before they fly to check a safety alert system known as NOTAM  Notice To Airmen  to see if there are any potential hazards. The alerts are distributed by the Civil Aviation Authority and NATS, the UKs air traffic control body, via websites and apps.

Full details of Royal helicopter flights were not included on NOTAM lists, until a dramatic change last week prompted by a top-secret review.

Royal sources have told this newspaper that Scotland Yard and the Department for Transport did a risk assessment, which weighed up the possible consequences of providing advance notification of flights against the safety risks of not doing so.

The revelation that the details would be made public first came in a CAA newsletter sent out on Wednesday, which stated: For flight safety reasons, the details of Royal helicopter flights are now being published by NOTAM and so will also be depicted on airspace mapping apps.

A briefing sheet added that keeping well clear of Royal helicopters is particularly relevant to operators of small unmanned aircraft (drones) as the crew of the Royal helicopter is unlikely to be able to see and manoeuvre clear of a conflicting drone during these critical stages of flight. Pilots are ordered to keep a good lookout and maintain adequate separation from the Royal helicopter.

Military aircraft in particular must not enter what is known as a Royal Low-Level Corridor, covering an area five nautical miles around the flight route and from the ground to 1,000ft above the flying altitude. The protected zone lasts from 15 minutes before departure to 30 minutes after arrival at points along the route.

Take off: The Royal helicopter carrying Prince Andrew from Gloucester Airport on Friday

The first Royal helicopter flight to appear on the NOTAM system was a trip taken by Princess Anne on Thursday.

She took the Sikorsky  said to cost more than 2,000 an hour to fly  on a 67-mile journey to the Berkshire stud farm, then flew a further 36 miles home.

Before she took off, anyone checking the alerts would have seen the helicopter was due to take off from Kensington Palace at 10.45am, fly over Uxbridge Common, Iver, Cookham and Compton Vor  landing at Membury at 11.20am. A further flight was listed as taking off from the airfield at 1.10pm and landing at the Princesss home Gatcombe Park in Gloucestershire 15 minutes later.

The NOTAM system also alerted pilots  and potential extremists  that another Royal helicopter would be taking to the air on Friday. It said that it would be taking off from Windsor at 9.45am, flying over Ascot Heath and Brize Norton then landing at Cheltenham racecourse at 10.20am  a distance of 90 miles.

Easily spotted: The aircraft flies over Ascot Heath while carrying Prince Andrew from Gloucester

The alert system also revealed that the helicopter would take off from Gloucestershire at 3.30pm and land back at Windsor 35 minutes later. The Court Circular showed that both Charles and Andrew had engagements in the area that day.

Charles visited a canal in Stroud and a timber merchant in Tetbury, before attending an opera performance in Cardiff. Andrew held an event at Cheltenham Racecourse before visiting GCHQ.

Our photographer saw Andrew board the Royal helicopter at Gloucestershire Airport, accompanied by a man and woman. Two pilots arrived shortly before 3.30pm to make checks before take-off.

The NOTAM system also gave advance details of a planned flight from Princess Annes home to Cardiff that was due to take place yesterday. It appeared to tie in with her planned appearance at the Wales v Scotland rugby match.

Last night, aviation consultant Paul Beaver, a former Army helicopter pilot, said he believed publicising Royal flight plans more widely would improve safety as it would encourage pilots and drone operators to stay clear. He said: The greater risk is private planes, airliners, air taxis, air ambulances or drones flying into them.

The CAA insisted that the publication of the flight information had been decided on by the Royal Household itself.

A statement said: Following a review of helicopter flights by the Royal Household, route details will be provided to all airspace users including private pilots and drone users to allow them to remain clear.

A spokesman for the Royal Household said: We are not commenting on the change in arrangements and have nothing to add further to what the CAA has already said. More broadly, in making travel arrangements, the Royal Household always seeks the best balance of security, efficiency and value for money.An ally of Boris Johnson last night denied claims at Westminster that he was considering resigning to trigger a leadership contest against Theresa May.

Security Minister Ben Wallace, a former officer in the Scots Guards, was named by a senior party source as being on a watch list held by Tory whips.

But last night Mr Wallace protested his loyalty to the Prime Minister, saying: I am doing the job I love. Which in politics is rare. The rows are something I couldnt be less interested in.

Security Minister Ben Wallace, a former officer in the Scots Guards, was named by a senior party source as being on a watch list held by Tory whips

When asked about the watch list, he said: It isnt the whips who believe that, I know for a fact. It is others.

Another Minister on the whips watch list is Defence Minister Tobias Ellwood, who is understood to be frustrated at not being promoted to the Cabinet in Mrs Mays botched reshuffle last month.

He is angry at the Treasury over proposed defence cuts and sources say he has a tense relationship with his Secretary of State, Gavin Williamson.

No 10 considered moving Ellwood in the reshuffle due to the terrible personal chemistry between him and Mr Williamson.

But last night Mr Wallace protested his loyalty to the Prime Minister, saying: I am doing the job I love. Which in politics is rare. The rows are something I couldnt be less interested in.

Now party figures fear Ellwood may be tempted to resign.

The 52-year-old, who was a captain in the Royal Green Jackets, became a national hero during last years terrorist attack on Parliament, when he gave mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to police officer Keith Palmer, who later died of his injuries.

Mr Ellwood told The Mail on Sunday: Resign? Resign? At the very moment when theres a duty to step forward? No. Im donning my suit of armour, with the S of S [Secretary of State] for the mother of all battles with the Treasury.Anita Anand has been the presenter of Radio 4s Any Answers since 2012 and had been scheduled to present yesterdays edition

One of the BBCs leading women presenters has been temporarily dropped from her show because of her public criticism of the gender pay gap.

Anita Anand has been the presenter of Radio 4s Any Answers since 2012 and had been scheduled to present yesterdays edition.

But astonishingly, less than 24 hours before she was due to go on air, BBC bosses told her to stand down because the edition was due to feature discussion of the pay dispute engulfing the corporation.

The programme was instead presented by a man, Julian Worricker, although on the BBC iPlayer website, the edition was still illustrated with an image of Ms Anand. It is thought she will return next week.

Critics last night accused the BBC of insulting women journalists by implying that they would be incapable of being impartial. Tory MP Andrew Bridgen said: What the BBC is saying is that none of the victims of pay discrimination can be trusted to discuss the issue impartially and fairly. It smacks of some sort of throwback to the days of Soviet Pravda.

The BBC has been desperately trying to end the dispute over the gender pay gap, which in recent weeks has centred on the dispute between former China Editor Carrie Gracie and her bosses, after she discovered she was earning far less than male colleagues in similar roles.

Anand, 45, has tweeted and retweeted a number of messages in support of the campaign for equal pay. On November 9, she wrote: It is fair and it is a legal requirement. Equal pay for equal work. This applies to all employers and all women.

She is the latest victim of BBC impartiality rules which state journalists and presenters who have spoken out on issues cannot then take part in on-air discussions about the same subject.

In an edition of BBC Radio 4s Womans Hour last week, the shows host, Dame Jenni Murray, had to opt out of a discussion on the BBC pay dispute because she had signed a letter to the BBC highlighting the gender pay gap. Murray was temporarily forced to hand over controls of the programme. She told listeners it was because she had added her support for the letter. When the item on BBC pay ended, Dame Jenni returned to present a feature about the menopause in fiction.

Mother-of-two Anand is one of the BBCs most experienced female journalists.

Last night she was unavailable for comment but a source said she was disappointed about not being able to present a show she was committed to.

A BBC spokesman said: Staff are entitled to their own opinions but if they choose to campaign on a topic publicly, editors must decide on a case-by-case basis whether presenters can interview people on that subject to ensure their programmes are impartial.A 29-year-old man has been arrested after a woman was set alight at a home in Melbourne.

Emergency services found the 22-year-old woman, who suffered severe burns, after they were called to Boronia Avenue in Cranbourne just after 6.30pm yesterday.

Neighbours rushed to help after hearing the woman's blood-curdling scream coming from the home.

A 29-year-old man has been arrested after a woman was set alight at home (pictured)

Emergency services found the 22-year-old woman with severe burns at a Melbourne property

'We smelled smoke, petrol,' neighbour Daniel McCreedy told 7 News.

'My partner took care of the lady who had been severely burnt. After I came out, I noticed there was a jerry can at the back that was on fire,' he added.

The woman was rushed to hospital in a critical condition.

Firefighters were initially called to the property following reports of a house fire.

The 29-year-old man is being questioned by police.

Police investigations are still ongoing.With his hood up and wearing dark glasses, he appears to be the terrifying face of hard-Left anarchy.

But the protester caught on camera as part of a mob wrecking a speech by Jacob Rees-Mogg is a middle-class university graduate whose grandmother has branded him a naughty boy.

Josh Connor, 24, was at the centre of the melee which erupted as the Tory MP gave a talk to the politics society at the University of the West of England (UWE) in Bristol on his life and beliefs on Friday night.

Josh Connor, 24, (above with girlfriend Andreea Dumitrache) was at the centre of the melee which erupted as Jacob Rees-Mogg gave a talk to the politics society at the University of the West of England (UWE)

The event was dramatically interrupted as Connor and others chanted No platform for racists, no platform for homophobes and branded Mr Rees-Mogg scum.

Video footage shows Jeremy Corbyn supporter Connor  who graduated from UWE in Digital Communication and Media  swinging a punch during the fracas, apparently in retaliation after his 25-year-old girlfriend, Romanian-born student Andreea Dumitrache, was struck in the face by a man in a white shirt.

Connors family home  a 300,000 detached house  is in a leafy middle-class suburb in Nottingham, where he went to school.

The Tory MP talked to students about his life and beliefs on Friday night at the Bristol university

Last night his software engineer father Patrick said I really dont think I can help you  Im very busy and closed the door.

But Joshs 82-year-old grandmother Jillian Connor admonished him, saying of the incident: I saw it and I thought surely not. You naughty boy.

Speaking from her cottage in Kent, she added: He is a very keen Socialist, slightly to the left of Trotsky, he is an ardent Labour supporter.

Who doesnt get cross with Rees-Mogg occasionally? I cant say Im surprised, but I thought [Connor] was maturing.

Connor was unavailable for comment yesterday.I Spy: Controversial police chief Anthony Bangham - who called for a crackdown on drivers who break the speed limit by 1mph - also wants motorists to spy on their fellow road-users with in-car video cameras

The controversial police chief who called for a crackdown on drivers who break the speed limit by 1mph also wants motorists to spy on their fellow road-users with in-car video cameras.

Chief Constable Anthony Bangham sparked fury last week when he declared that police should no longer be lenient with those who drive just slightly too fast.

He even angered other police leaders by saying that overstretched officers should focus on enforcing speed limits in order to improve road safety.

But The Mail on Sunday can reveal that he is also risking accusations of trying to recruit a Stasi-like army of informants among the public, who will help police as guardians of the law by reporting bad driving using the dash-cams.

Forces are setting up websites where anyone can upload footage of bad driving from cameras that film the road ahead, capturing other drivers number plates in the hope they can be tracked down.

Mr Bangham, West Mercia Police chief and national lead on roads policing, told a law enforcement conference last week: Fear of being caught is still one of the biggest changes of behaviour.

Weve got to make sure they genuinely fear being caught.

Imagine if you are now clear that the driver next to you could be filming you and police are seeking the footage and will prosecute you for it.

The offending road-user might understand that they are more likely to be caught than not.

He told how the four police forces in Wales now run a website called Operation Snap which encourages motorists to upload dash-cam footage of bad driving.

The first driver to be jailed as a result of dash-cam evidence was James Stocks, from Cheshire, whose dangerous overtaking manoeuvre on a blind bend forced a van off the road. It was seen by a camera in another car, and Stocks was jailed for eight months after pleading guilty to dangerous driving in 2015.

The Mail on Sunday can reveal that he is also risking accusations of trying to recruit a Stasi-like army of informants among the public, who will help police as guardians of the law by reporting bad driving using the dash-cams

Giles York, Chief Constable of Sussex Police, told this newspaper last year his force had also set up a website, called Operation Crackdown, where anyone can report driving that is careless, deliberately aggressive or dangerous, and said he is very up for allegations being backed up by dash-cam footage.

It can be relatively low-level nuisance stuff, but if that causes other people to get frustrated and drive badly, it is really important to us. Even down to people pushing in the queue at the roundabout every day  that causes danger.

Campaigners say that Britains roads are already well covered by speed cameras, CCTV and the Automatic Number Plate Recognition system.

Silkie Carlo, director of civil liberties group Big Brother Watch, said: The idea that motorists should constantly film each other to create fear may be well-intentioned but is woefully misguided.

The UK has more surveillance cameras than any other country in Europe. The ANPR network that surveils innocent drivers already captures 40 million photos a day.

The last thing we need is ordinary people being encouraged to spy on each other too. This is a desperately silly idea that risks breeding a culture of mistrust and suspicion.Ruthless dealers are using Instagram to sell highly addictive and deadly prescription drugs to youngsters across Britain, a Mail on Sunday investigation has found.

Criminals openly lure people to buy the powerful tranquilliser Xanax, responsible for dozens of deaths, through the photo-sharing website used by millions of teenagers.

The brazen pushers make no attempt to hide their harmful and illegal trade, and before our investigation, Instagram  owned by internet giant Facebook  appeared to be making no effort to stop them.

Simply by searching for the phrase xanaxUK and other similar terms on Instagram, Mail on Sunday investigators were able to locate dozens of drug peddlers on the site.

Doing the deal: Hoodie-wearing MZ sells Xanax to our undercover reporter

Within seconds, photographs of the pills and detailed price lists for Xanax, cannabis and ecstasy appeared alongside clear instructions on how to purchase them.

Users are instructed to contact the sellers through a free encrypted messaging app called Wickr  which deletes the messages after they are read  presumably to avoid dealers being traced by the police.

Xanax is a Class C controlled drug, carrying a maximum sentence for possessing, supplying or importing of 14 years imprisonment.

Twenty-four hours after contacting one dealer, we met a hooded young man calling himself MZ. He handed over 110 of the distinctive rectangular pills, which can only be prescribed by doctors, in exchange for 200.

We secretly filmed as he boasted that his business was booming since he started plying his trade on Instagram. He said: Ever since I put it on Instagram Ive been getting messages every day, from Leeds, Scotland, America, all over the gaff. Business is all good. Its so popular at the moment.

Xanax is a tranquilliser 20 times more powerful than Valium. In a craze sweeping Britain, users mix the drug with cough syrup and alcohol. Medical experts warn the cocktail, known as Lean, can cause heart failure, blackouts, memory loss and extreme aggression.

Our expose comes days after it was revealed that between 2013 and 2016, up to 200 million of prescription-only medicines were diverted to the black market. Last month the Government announced an inquiry into the harmful effects and over-prescription of tranquillisers such as Xanax.

Doctors have reported a shocking increase in the number of youngsters arriving at A&E with serious health problems resulting from the abuse of the drug.

Dr Adrian Harrop, based in Scarborough Hospital, said: Xanax is a massive problem. Weve seen increasing numbers of young people overdosing, having obtained it from the internet. Its much more powerful than typical street benzodiazepines [tranquillisers], and much more likely to be deadly in overdose.

'They turned my model girl into a monster' Just a few months ago Zoey was a model pupil, achieving good grades and taking part in school plays. Then the 14-year-old was introduced to Xanax by a friend  and the drug destroyed her world. The problems started last summer when Zoey struck up a friendship with an older girl at her school in North London. Her mother Michaela, 49, said: Once she tried to jump out of a first-floor window just so she could meet someone who was supplying her with Xanax. I was afraid I was going to lose her. Michaela frequently found Zoey in a zombie-like state, she started disappearing at night, and when the Xanax wore off, Zoey became violent and aggressive. Michaela recalled: She punched me, kicked me, slapped me, threw things at me, pulled my hair. Zoey was arrested for assault and her behaviour spiralled as she took to a new lifestyle of raves and almost daily Xanax, stealing from her mother to fund the habit. Michaela, a PA at a legal firm, believes drug dealers were grooming Zoey for the illegal trade  and possibly sexually exploiting her too. Following pressure from Michaela and her MP, Bambos Charalambous, in December police arrested three people on drugs charges. Warnings were issued to six people, ordering them not to approach Zoey. Michaela believes Zoey still might occasionally be taking the drug. She said: Most people know nothing about Xanax  but they need to. Names have been changed Advertisement

Eight people were taken to hospital in Sussex at Christmas after taking the drug, and last May police sent out an appeal when 20 teenagers needed medical treatment in one week after taking Xanax.

Police Scotland issued a warning after at least 27 Xanax-related deaths were recorded there in 2017. In the past two years addiction centre UKAT has seen a 200 per cent rise in people being admitted to rehab for Xanax addiction, more than half of them under 24.

The Mail on Sunday met one dealer who used emojis and hashtags to attract buyers. One photograph of more than 100 pills in rows was captioned: Follow The White Brick Road.

During our meeting in Beckton, East London, MZ told us: Im not even that big on Instagram  but Im going to jump back on it and get some more s*** up there. Youll see more pictures from me there soon.

Other photos of his include the words London meets only written in Xanax tablets. He has captioned them serious enquiries only. The pills are rectangular and had the word Xanax written along the side. They appeared to be identical to ones produced by drug manufacturer Pfizer, although they may be counterfeit. The MoS took them to a Home Office laboratory and found they contained alprazolam, the active ingredient in Xanax.

Our reporter contacted another dealer on Instagram who agreed to meet him in Manchester and sold him 40 pills for 60.

As well as Xanax, his Instagram page features photographs of cannabis and MDMA  the active ingredient in ecstasy. The fresh-faced young man looked to be in his teens and wore a black hoodie. He gave his name as AD and said: Loads of people buy off it [Instagram]. Everyone likes them.

A laboratory analysis of the drugs found these were not Xanax, but another benzodiazepine called Etizolam. It is also a Class C drug and not licensed in the UK.

Karen Tyrell, of support group Addaction, said: The youngsters weve spoken to appear to have little or no knowledge of the risks so we need to make sure they know about the dangers of Xanax  particularly in combination with other drugs and alcohol.

Bambos Charalambous, Labour MP for Enfield Southgate, who highlighted the problem of Xanax abuse in a Commons debate last month, called on Instagram and other social media sites to take action.

And Tim Loughton, a member of the Home Affairs Select Committee, said: Its incredible that Instagram is allowing the platform to be used for something as harmful as this. This is just aiding and abetting dealers in selling harmful drugs.

The Health Department said: Prescription-only medicines can be potent and should only be prescribed by a doctor or appropriate healthcare professional.

Last night, Instagram pledged to remove the accounts of Xanax dealers. A spokesman said: The Instagram community must follow the law and the sale of illegal or prescription drugs is not allowed. As soon as we are made aware of violating content we work quickly to remove it.

Pfizer said: We are alarmed by the rise of counterfeit Xanax and its growing availability on the internet. The photographs provided by The Mail on Sunday appear to show loose US market-style alprazolam 2mg tablets. Pfizer considers that there is a high likelihood they are counterfeit, neither manufactured nor licensed by Pfizer.

Additional reporting: Stephen AdamsA cold-calling claims firm which allegedly bombarded Britons with 200 million phone calls has been raided by Government officials and police.

Officers swooped on the offices of Himaa Group in Nottingham and removed computers after more than 12,000 complaints from the public.

The companys Porsche-driving director, Mian Arshad Mubashar, 32, is suspected of being part of a network of cold-calling kingpins with links to a centre in Pakistan.

Porsche-driving director Arshad Mubashar, director of the Himaa Group, outside his home in Nottingham

Investigators from the Information Commissioners Office (ICO) believe Mubashar and his cronies have made two million cold calls per week since 2015.

Inquiries are ongoing into what would be one of the worst-ever cases of persistent cold-calling in Britain. The firm could be in line for a record fine.

It comes after a company behind 99.5 million nuisance calls was fined a record 400,000 last year.

The latest investigation was launched after large numbers of people complained about receiving calls in which an automated voice said they could claim thousands of pounds in compensation following a car crash. The calls randomly targeted people whether or not they had ever been in an accident.

Officers from the ICO, police and the Claims Management Regulator raided the second-floor office of Himaa Group at Blenheim Court on December 13. The company was established in August 2015 but has yet to file any accounts.

Mubashar was previously a director of a firm called Direct Claims Ltd, which closed in 2012.

Himaa Group are based in this building in Nottingham. Mubashar claims it is delivery company

His wife Valina Arshad, 28, was the director of Claim 4 Compensation Ltd, which was dissolved in 2014. Both list their nationality at Companies House as Pakistani.

Mr Mubashar confirmed his business had been raided when approached at Himaa Groups offices last week by a Mail on Sunday reporter.

But he claimed he was an innocent party, adding: They thought we might be part of a cold-calling operation but we are actually a delivery company. One of my former partners, they were looking for him.

However, he refused to give the mans name. Our reporter also spoke with one of his employees, who said: These people arrived with a warrant and took the computers. I am really not allowed to say who the overall boss is.

ICO group manager Andy Curry said: This is a lengthy and complex inquiry involving several individuals and a network of companies, both in the UK and overseas.

We are hopeful the evidence we are gathering will help put a stop to a group of individuals and companies we believe is responsible for making hundreds of millions of nuisance calls.An off-duty New York City police officer is recovering in a hospital after allegedly shooting himself in the chest during an argument with his girlfriend, police said.

The man, who has not been identified, was found by police inside a Honda Accord in the middle of the street at the intersection of Wythe Avenue and Williamsburg Street on Saturday around 11.05am, police said.

Police said in a memo that the officer was brought to Elmhurst Hospital in Queens and that he is 'currently in stable condition'.

An off-duty New York City police officer is recovering in the hospital after he allegedly shot himself in the chest during an argument with his girlfriend (pictured: crime scene)

He was found inside a Honda Accord in the middle of the street at the intersection of Wythe Avenue and Williamsburg Street in Brooklyn

The New York Daily News reports that the officer currently works in the 94th Precinct in Greenpoint, which borders Williamsburg.

One officer told the Daily News that the shooting was a 'possible suicide attempt'.

The man, who has not identified, was taken to Elmhurst Hospital and is in 'stable condition'. Pictured: the intersection

He was apparently found in the passenger seat, while the girlfriend was in the driver's seat.

'This kind of stuff never happens here,' a resident told the Daily News.

The intersection is in South Williamsburg near the Brooklyn Navy Yard.

The self-inflicted gunshot wound follows to suicides by off-duty NYPD officers in January.The CPV was founded by President Ho Chi Minh and is the pioneer of the working classes and the entire Vietnamese nation.



The emergence of the CPV was a great turning point for the Vietnamese revolution, marking the end of the crisis of searching for national liberation strategies. The Partys inception is the inevitable result of a productive combination of Marxism-Leninism, the Ho Chi Minh Ideology, and the workers and patriotic movements in Vietnam.



Looking back at the past 88 years, although there have been the occasional errors, the Party has always earnestly criticised itself and corrected any mistakes to maintain the trust of the people and lead the country to triumph over all of its challenges to record victory after victory.



Under the leadership of the CPV, the Vietnamese people have prevailed as they created great miracles in the 20th century, with the pinnacle being the August Revolution of 1945 that led to the overthrow of the imperial-colonial regime, followed by the resounding triumphs against the French and Americans to reunite the country as one proud and undivided nation.



Notably, Vietnam has recorded significant achievements in more than 30 years of economic reform as launched by the CPV.



The past 88 years have demonstrated that the Partys sound leadership is a major factor in every victory of the Vietnamese revolution and it is through such leadership, that the CPV is continually challenged and toughened up so as to deserve the continued trust of the people.



At present, the entire Party and people are striving for a modernised and industrialised economy with the goal of staunchly defending the motherland and building a wealthy, strong, democratic, equal, and civilised nation.



2017 was a successful year for Vietnam despite the great number of complicated issues arising both at home and around the world. The entire political system actively pushed for strong reform so that fundamental economic targets were met and often exceeded. Last year was the first time in recent years that Vietnam met all of the 13 socio-economic development targets, with GDP growing by 6.81%, the highest in nearly ten years.



With the onset of 2018, the Vietnamese Party and State will remain steadfast on the path to reform, focusing on economic growth, Party building, and cultural development. The reform of the political system will be implemented along with economic reform in order to meet the requirements of developing a socialist-oriented market economy and deeper international integration.



During the process of leadership, the CPV has always regarded Party building as a key task. The Party building and rectification movement has achieved important early results, helping to prevent political and moral degradation, corruption, wastefulness, and bureaucracy while optimizing the leadership and combat capacity of the Party.



For further growth, the CPV needs to uphold its fine traditions, build a pure and strong organisation, reform its leadership methods, increase interactions with the people, and tap into the strengths of the entire nation.



Celebrating the New Year, the entire Party and people of Vietnam will continue to successfully implement the CPVs resolutions and write new golden pages in the history of national construction and defence.A woman who allegedly bashed an elderly grandmother as she was out walking her dogs yawned in court after hearing the 77-year-old victim would likely die in hospital.

Amy Tran, 30, sparked outrage after she was pictured smiling as she was arrested and handcuffed on Friday morning at around 10.30am.

She was charged with intentionally causing serious injury, and continued to smile as she was led into Melbourne Magistrates' Court on Saturday, Herald Sun reported.

Police allege that she assaulted Le Le, 77, on Thursday night while she was with her two dogs in in Willaton Street, St Albans, causing 'horrific head injuries'.

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Amy Tran, 30, was pictured smiling as police handcuffed and arrested her on Friday morning

Le Le was discovered lying in a pool of blood by her neighbours, and is now fighting for her life

Le Le was walking her dogs (pictured) on Thursday when she was allegedly attacked by Tran

Le Le was discovered lying in a pool of blood by her neighbours, and is now fighting for her life in an induced coma at Royal Melbourne Hospital.

Tragically, 'due to the nature of the injuries, [the victim] is not expected to survive', Senior Constable Scott Riley told 9 News on Saturday.

Her 'devastated' son has maintained a bedside vigil since his mother was admitted.

Tran was arrested at a property (pictured) very close to where the attack allegedly took place

Tran has been remanded to face the Melbourne Magistrates Court again on Monday morning

The accused was arrested at a property about 100m away from where the brutal attack took place. Police allege that the property is popular with drug users.

A homicide detective told the court that Tran has a prior criminal history including assualt with a weapon, trafficking and selling heroin and methamphetamines as well as failing to answer bail.

She has been remanded to face Melbourne Magistrates Court again on Monday morning.

Tran has been charged with charged with intentionally causing serious injury after brutally bashing an elderly grandmother and leaving her lying a pool of blood in St Albans, MelbourneAn attempt by Theresa May to emulate Jeremy Corbyns youth movement was in disarray last night after the young Conservative leading the drive was suspended following an allegation of assault.

Activist Stephen Canning is being investigated by the party over an incident at a London nightclub during which a Tory MPs aide was allegedly struck.

The 25-year-olds friends claim the allegations against him have been trumped up to divert attention from complaints he has made about bullying in the Tory Party. The revelation comes days before Mrs May is due to make a speech on political bullying, intended to highlight reports of intimidation by Labour activists in the pro-Corbyn Momentum group.

Activist Stephen Canning (pictured) is being investigated by the Conservative party over an incident at a London nightclub during which a Tory MPs aide was allegedly struck

The 25-year-old activist frequently posts to social media sharing snaps with MPs. Pictured here with Theresa May

An attempt by Theresa May to emulate Jeremy Corbyns youth movement was in disarray last night after the young Conservative leading the drive was suspended following an allegation of assault

The Tory youth wing collapsed in 2015 over the Tatler Tory scandal involving claims of sexual harassment of activists. Mr Canning aimed to launch a new movement to counter the way Momentum has recruited tens of thousands of young people to back Mr Corbyn.

Deputy Party Chairman James Cleverly and ex Cabinet Minister Priti Patel were among senior Tories who attended an event organised by Mr Canning in December.

The Essex councillor strongly denies the claim, and says that he was defending a female friend from harassment by an ex-boyfriend.

Mr Canning, a member of Mrs Mays 2016 leadership campaign, was suspended by the party three weeks ago following the incident at Maggies, a 1980s-themed nightclub in West London named after Margaret Thatcher. A friend of Mr Canning claimed a researcher for a Tory MP had called an ex-girlfriend a slut and approached the activist aggressively waving his bank card and asking him to buy some drinks.

Mr Cannings hand reportedly made contact with the former boyfriends face, but only in self-defence, said the friend. It is understood that the nightclub incident has not been reported to the police.

The 25-year-olds friends claim the allegations against him have been trumped up to divert attention from complaints he has made about bullying in the Tory Party

Mr Canning was suspended by the party three weeks ago following the incident at Maggies, a 1980s-themed nightclub in West London named after Margaret Thatcher

Mr Cannings allies say that the complaint is being used to persecute him because he has been compiling evidence of bullying by Tory HQ. In this weeks speech to mark the centenary of womens right to vote, Mrs May will urge politicians to take a stand for decency, tolerance and respect as she warns that public life is threatened by growing levels of intimidation and abuse.

A Conservative spokesman said: We do not comment on ongoing investigations. We have introduced a new code of conduct that ensures allegations are investigated.

Mr Canning was not available for comment.Fans have joked about 'white powder' spotted in the background of a Spice Girls Instagram picture celebrating their reunion.

The group were reunited at Geri Horner aka Ginger Spice's house in North London on Friday and posted the social media shot in celebration.

But eagle-eyed fans of the group spotted what looked like white powder on an iphone handset in front of a Union Jack teacup behind the performers and joked it was a 'bit of gear'.

Fans joked that the white line on the phone was 'a bit of gear' after the band uploaded this picture on Victoria Beckham's Instagram

The picture was shared by 43-year-old Victoria Beckham, who has 18.6 million followers on her account.

User Mike Roddy questioned whether there was 'a bit of gear' on the iPhone while an Italian user wrote: 'Look at your telephone.'

As 'Snorty Spice' jokes circulated in response to the post, a source told The Sun the line was a reflection from a candle flame in the kitchen.

Victoria captioned her post: 'Love my girls!!! So many kisses!!! Exciting x #friendshipneverends #girlpower.'

Emma Bunton and Victoria Beckham had met with the other three band members at Geri Horner's home in North London

Emma Bunton, 42, Mel B, 42, Mel C, 44, and Geri Horner, 45, all posted their own pictures of the meeting, which confirmed the band's reunion.

The group are seen hugging one another in the picture while Brit Awards trophies sit on the shelf behind.

The Spice Girls' last performance was at the London 2012 Olympics closing ceremony.

Mel B flew in from the US for the reunion and Geri's nine-year-old daughter, Bluebell, came to see the band at home after school.

Also present was their manage Simon Fuller, 57, who left with Victoria at 3.30pm.

Fuller, who created Pop Idol, is overseeing the reunion, which is expected to make each band member 10million.

Commenting on the reunion, the Spice Girls said: 'We have had a wonderful afternoon catching up and reminiscing about the amazing times we have spent together.

'The time now seems right to explore some incredible new opportunities together.'An Oregon man was so upset that he didn't receive an invite to a family wedding he called two airports and reported that his brother and father were traveling as terrorists sparking an FBI investigation.

Police said Sonny Donnie Smith, 38, placed two anonymous phone calls in September 3, 2016 to the security offices at McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas and the Midland International Air and Space Port in Midland, Texas.

He claimed that his father and brother were terrorists traveling through the airports.

Smith also called McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas (pictured). Investigators said he made the false claims because he was upset he wasn't invited to a wedding his father and brother were attending

The calls prompted the FBI to get involved, according to The Oregonian. The father and brother were temporarily detained at the airports and questioned by investigators. When authorities realized they were not terrorists, they were released.

'Thanks to the FBI agents and partner agencies who worked this case, Mr. Smith quickly found his harassment was far from anonymous,' Loren Cannon, Oregon's FBI special agent in charge, told the outlet.

Police said Smith made the calls because he was angry he wasn't invited to a family wedding his father and brother were attending.

Smith admitted to making the false calls in court on Thursday. He faces a maximum sentence of two years in prison, a $250,000 fine and one year of supervised release.

One of the airports Sonny Donnie Smith, 38, called was the Midland International Air and Space Port in Midland, Texas (pictured). Smith's brother and father were temporarily detained as the FBI investigated the claims

Smith is set to be sentenced May 10.

'The safety and security of our nation's airports and travelers are of paramount importance to law enforcement, and we will continue to swiftly and thoroughly investigate all threats of terrorism,' Billy J. Williams, Oregon's US Attorney, said.Elon Musk's futuristic solar roof tiles and at-home energy storage units are about to become mainstream.

Or, at least, that's what Tesla is hoping, by setting up shop in 800 Home Depot stores across the U.S.

The Tesla-branded kiosks will sell the firm's solar roof tiles and Powerwall batteries at select Home Depot locations beginning sometime in the first half of this year.

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Tesla is going to begin selling its Powerall batteries and solar roof tiles at 800 Home Depot locations nationwide. The move is part of the firm's effort to attract mainstream consumers

The company is also in discussions with home improvement store Lowe's about selling the products there, according to Bloomberg, citing sources familiar with the situation.

Home Depot used to have a partnership with Solar City, the alternative energy company acquired by Tesla in 2016 that has since been phased out.

Now, Tesla will have displays that are 12 feet tall and 7 feet wide, promoting the products and, in some cases, demonstrating how they work.

It's unclear whether Tesla will eventually add kiosks to all of Home Depot's 2,200 stores.

Home Depot locations in Southern California already have the kiosks, while Las Vegas and Orlando stores are expected to open booths next week, according to USA Today.

The move is likely part of Tesla's wider effort to attract mainstream consumers.

Tesla's solar power system costs between $10,000 and $25,000, with batteries costing around $7,000.

The glass tiles are designed to look like a traditional roof, with options that replicate slate

The firm already showcases its solar panels at its 110 U.S. stores, USA Today noted.

Tesla started taking $1,000 deposits for the roof tiles in May 2017.

However, it's taken a while for the solar roof tiles to get off the ground, having only been installed on Tesla employees homes so far.

Musk recently introduced the Powerwall 2, a home battery unit that stores 14 kWh with the aid of solar roof panels developed in conjunction with SolarCity.

Musk said that the Powerwall 2 has enough power to charge lights, sockets and refrigerator for a standard 4 bedroom home for an entire day.

The Powerwall 2 is an improvement upon the original Powerwall, which has only about half of the storage capacity as the new generation of products.Venice has stopped sinking, apparently, but despite years of work on a flood barrier, St Marks Square can still turn into a rococo swimming pool at times.

Some modest flooding last month caused more delight than disappointment: visitors wore shocking pink shoe covers around the city, looking like extras in a particularly camp episode of Silent Witness.

Since then, a lack of rain has turned some canals into a muddy mess. But whatever the weather, Venice has a lot to see and youd be surprised at how much you can squeeze into two full days

Divine: The Venice skyline at sunrise. The city has a lot to see - whatever the weather

Day One

Morning

Start with the best view of Venice from the Campanile at the Church of San Giorgio Maggiore  a short vaporetto ride across the lagoon from St Marks Square. Invest in a two-day vaporetto pass (30, actv.avmspa.it/en/content/prices): hopping on and off is the key to getting around efficiently and it is also one of the best ways to enjoy the city.

Get to San Giorgio when it opens at 9.30am and be first up the bell tower for a wonderful panorama of the city: St Marks is straight ahead, the start of the Grand Canal to your left. Then head to St Marks Square: there are four things you could do here  St Marks Basilica, the Doges Palace, the Campanile or the Correr Museum.

Take a quick look inside the Basilica (its free, so queues can build). Its Byzantine style says much about Venices historical connections with the East (the city was home to China explorer Marco Polo).

In its heyday, however, the Venetians were more concerned about the Turks, bringing back anything the Ottomans had failed to nail down. The Doges Palace is fascinating, especially the prison (reached via the Bridge of Sighs) where Casanova was famously an inmate. If you have time, pop into the Correr Museum, a lesser-known attraction that has a glorious collection of Venetian art.

Afternoon

The Doges Palace is fascinating, especially the prison (reached via the Bridge of Sighs, pictured)

Follow signs to the Rialto (but keep your mobile phone handy as youll almost certainly get lost  satnav will be priceless). Just across the Rialto Bridge youll find the Bar AllArco, a traditional neighbourhood osteria which serves cichetti  the Venetian equivalent of tapas. It also has prosecco on tap.

Head towards the San Stae vaporetto stop and you will come to the Mocenigo Palace, which has a museum devoted to perfume and its manufacture (supported by a fragrance brand called The Merchant of Venice, which really ought to have a rose by any other name would smell as sweet as its motto). Its a delightful building in a quiet part of the city, far from the madding crowd.

Return to the Rialto and visit the Fondaco dei Tedeschi, a wonderful old building that used to be a base for German traders, became the city post office and is now a spectacular shopping mall. Join the queue for a brief chance to enjoy the view from the roof, which is especially good at sunset.

When looking for places to eat, the further you go from St Marks Square or the station, the better the quality and value for money. Giudecca is a separate island and a happy hunting ground. I recommend the Trattoria Pizzeria Do Mori, right next to the Palanca vaporetto stop.

Day Two

Morning

Start at my favourite building in the city, the church of Santa Maria dei Miracoli in Cannaregio, midway between the Rialto and St Marks Square. Built about 540 years ago, the church is a stunning example of early renaissance architecture, a symphony in marble (lavishly refurbished 30 years ago). Gazing at it is the visual equivalent of eating a large, sumptuous bowl of raspberries and cream. Then go to the Fondamente Nove vaporetto stop  a ten-minute walk  and catch the next ferry across to San Michele, the designated burial place for citizens of Venice. In the Protestant section you can find the graves of Igor Stravinsky and his wife, Ballets Russes founder Sergei Diaghilev, and poet Ezra Pound.

Take the ferry back to Fondamente Nove where you can have lunch at the Ristorante Da Alvise (ristorantedaalvise.it).

Afternoon

Go back to the Fondamente Nove vaporetto stop to catch an eastbound ferry to San Zaccaria: this will take you via the Arsenale and the fringes of Venice. Next to the San Zaccaria stop is the church of Santa Maria della Pieta, best known for its association with the composer Vivaldi, who was concertmaster here in the early 18th Century. The church was next to an orphanage from which all-girl orchestras were formed.

Venice has stopped sinking, apparently, but despite years of work on a flood barrier, St Marks Square can still turn into a rococo swimming pool at times

Finish your day with another boat trip, from the San Zaccaria stop to the Venice Lido, from which all other lidos take their name. At the beginning of the 20th Century, a holiday here in one of the Grand hotels  the Des Bains or the Excelsior  was the height of style. The Des Bains features in Thomas Manns novel (and the Visconti film) Death In Venice.

Sadly, the Des Bains is now boarded up and awaiting planning decisions on its fate. So go now and have a look at history, albeit through a fence. Happily the Excelsior is still in business.

For a special end of holiday dinner, try Ai Gondolieri (aigondolieri.it)  a short walk from the Peggy Guggenheim museum in the Dorsoduro area  which seems to have been frequented by every major star and politician of modern times.Love is escaping with your partner for a few days whenever you need to show them how much you care, not just on Valentines Day.

Here are ten lovely places for a romantic mini-break

Chic retreat: At Areias do Seixo in Portugal you can catch your own seafood supper, watch a romantic film in the cinema room, or unwind in the Turkish bath

1 POP THE QUESTION IN THE CITY OF LOVE

How about a one-bedroom Paris penthouse with stunning views over the capital of romance and of the Eiffel Tower just 100 yards away? Guests have been inspired to propose on the balcony, apparently.

From 299 per night, airbnb.co.uk/rooms/827062.

2 SNUGGLE UP IN A HIGHLAND HIDEAWAY

Reached by water taxi, Knoydart Hide, near Inverie, Scotland, has a terrace with hot tub, sauna, wood-burner, double-ended bath, kitchen and a big bed looking out to sea.

From 1,450 per week, sawdays.co.uk, 01687 460012.

3 A REALLY COOL LOVE SHACK

It isnt cheap, but Swedens IceHotel in Jukkasjarvi is unforgettable. This years brilliant artistic ice suites include Wandering Cloud  you sleep within a frozen cloud-shaped bed. Sleeping on ice isnt that cold, but its a good excuse to snuggle up

Three-night break with flights from 1,154pp, discover-the-world.co.uk, 01737 886 131.

4 LOVE YURTS...

Enjoy glamping at The Country Yurt in Carmarthenshire. The hideaway has all mod cons  a hot tub, pizza oven, hammock and an oak king-size bed.

From 85 a night, minimum two nights, thecountryyurt.co.uk, 07971 258030.

5 ENJOY A BIG SCREEN ROMANCE

Chic, eco-friendly retreat Areias do Seixo is an hour from Lisbon, surrounded by trees, dunes and sea. Catch your own seafood supper, watch a romantic film in the cinema room, or unwind in the Turkish bath.

From 230 per night, room-only, i-escape.com.

6 SHARE SOME SPANISH PASSION

Beach picnics, horse-riding and massages await at The Stables, a 20-minute drive from Cadiz in Spain. The cottage, within the grounds of the Casa la Siesta hotel, offers the privacy of a holiday home with the facilities of the hotel.

From 440 per night, including breakfast, casalasiesta.com.

7 THE FOOD OF LOVE

Snow better place for romance: Wrapping up warm for a visit to Swedens IceHotel

The Whitebrook is a restaurant with eight rooms hidden away near Monmouth. Chef Chris Harrods Michelin-star food is sublime, the service exemplary.

Three-course dinner, B&B from 265 for two, thewhitebrook.co.uk, 01600 860254.

8 PUT THE ROMANY INTO ROMANCE

Romantics will love the Romany caravan for two in five acres at Bush Meadows, near Stratton, Cornwall. It comes with bed, electric stove, television, separate bathroom and day cabin. Theres a farm shop on site, and the coast is two miles away.

From 68 per night, airbnb.co.uk/rooms/896158.

9 ADD A LITTLE COLOUR TO YOUR RELATIONSHIP

Your budget wont run to an exotic holiday in Zanzibar, Vietnam or Japan? The brilliant three-star Welcome Hotel in Brussels is the answer, with its 17 country-themed rooms decorated with authentic colours, artefacts and fabrics. The Bali room comes with a whirlpool bath for two.

Rooms 91 per night, hotelwelcome.com.

10 TRULLI, MADLY, DEEPLY

Looking like something from The Lord Of The Rings, trulli are the picturesque cone-shaped stone houses found around Cisternino in southern Italy. Trullo Edera comes with all the mod cons you need, plus a separate bedroom.

From 54 per night, airbnb.co.uk/rooms/432044.A charming historic olde worlde hotel on Broadway? That would be a Broadway melody to savour. New York, alas, has little to offer in this regard.

Broadway, Worcestershire, however, is quite another matter.

This model Cotswold village, once on the must-see list of every US tourist, has a hotel that used to be one of our most celebrated.

Period charm: The Lygon Arms has a history that goes back to the 1300s - both King Charles I and Oliver Cromwell stayed there

The last time I visited the Lygon Arms was towards the end of its heyday in the 1980s when it had been acquired by the Savoy Group. Both the Cotswold stone hotel  and the chocolate-box-pretty village in which it sits  were gorgeous and delightful. And it had everything a colourful, historic hotel should have, including a ghost.

With a history dating back to the 1300s, it had  as you might expect  plenty of famous connections. Both King Charles I and Oliver Cromwell stayed here (Cromwell the night of the decisive Civil War Battle of Worcester). King Charles supposedly had a hidden staircase to his room through which female companions were brought for his delight.

In the 1960s, the hotels scandalous image was burnished when Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor stayed before they became husband and wife (for the first time!).

The hotel's magnificent brasserie. The menu is appetising and affordable  the root vegetables, sage and red onion cobbler is just 15

Food for thought: A heritage tomato salad on the revamped menu

For the past couple of decades, the hotel regularly changed hands and sadly, the Lygon Arms went into a bit of a decline. Its acquisition by the company that owns Cliveden and Chewton Glen has led to a lavish refurbishment and ushered in a glorious new era: the Lygon Arms is back and better than ever.

There are 86 rooms in various wings, a wonderful spa and an excellent swimming pool. It also has a very fine restaurant, situated in the large space where Cromwell famously spent the night.

The Lygon Arms (lygonarmshotel.co.uk, 01386 852255), you would have to conclude, is a Broadway hit all over again.

The place: A picture-perfect spot for a hotel  handily placed for other lovely Cotswolds towns.

The accommodation: Tip-top: no effort has been spared in the recent refurbishment, which has updated the rooms yet succeeded in retaining their period charm.

The food: The hotel has cleverly aimed at a smart, efficient brasserie style. The menu is appetising and affordable  the root vegetables, sage and red onion cobbler is just 15.Theres a place on earth where it hasnt rained for two million years.

Do you know where it is?

The answer is below, along with a host of other incredible facts, from the location of a town called Dildo to the biggest wave ever recorded  and much more.

There is a town called Dildo with a population of around 1,000

Around 150 mobile phones are handed in to Transport for Londons lost property office every day.

The Red Sea is so named because dying algae turns its normally intense blue-green waters to red.

Every Valentines Day around a thousand letters are sent to Juliet in Verona, Italy  the setting for Shakespeares Romeo and Juliet.

Around 150 mobile phones are handed in to Transport for Londons lost property office every day

India has 154,882 Post Offices, more than any other country in the world.

Heres one for flat-earthers - the horizon for someone who is 5ft 7in is just 2.9 miles away. From 100ft its 12.2 miles and from 30,000ft its 211 miles. The earth curves downwards by 7.98 inches per mile.

There is a town named Santa Claus in Indiana, USA. Some say that it put Father Christmas on the map.

Santa Claus in Indiana is billed as 'America's Christmas Hometown'

The only river to flow both northwards and southwards over the equator is the River Congo.

About one third of power generated in Iceland is geothermal.

The driest place on earth is the Dry Valleys in Antarctica, where for at least the past two million years no rain has ever fallen. And theres no snow or ice there, either. This is because ferocious winds, which can reach 200mph, blow away precipitation. Scientists say that it's the closest thing to a Martian environment on earth. The driest non-polar place in the world is the Atacama Desert in South America  it gets about 15mm of rain a year.

The driest place on earth are the Dry Valleys (pictured) in Antarctica, where for at least the past two million years no rain has ever fallen. And theres no snow or ice there, either. This is because ferocious winds, which can reach 200mph, blow away precipitation

The official name in English for Switzerland is the Swiss Confederation, which in Latin is Confoederatio Helvetica. This is why cars registered there sometimes bear stickers with the initials CH.

The Bronx in New York is the only borough in the city to have the as part of its name. It is named after the Bronx River, which is named after the Swede Jonas Bronck, the first European to settle in the Bronx. He arrived in 1639 and purchased land from the local Native Americans.

Finland has the cleanest air in the inhabited world.

The official name in English for Switzerland is the Swiss Confederation, which in Latin is Confoederatio Helvetica. This explains car stickers such as the one pictured

The countries in Europe that touch only one other are Ireland (touches the UK), the UK (Ireland), Portugal (touches Spain), Denmark (Germany), San Marino (Italy), Vatican City (Italy) and Monaco (France).

The oldest national anthem in the world is that of the Netherlands  it dates back to 1572.

The smallest and shallowest ocean in the world is the Arctic Ocean. Its average depth is 1,038 metres and it covers an area of 14 million square kilometres. The average depth of the Pacific Ocean, by contrast, is 4,280 metres. And it covers 161.8 million square kilometres.

About one third of power generated in Iceland is geothermal. Pictured is the island's popular Blue Lagoon spa

Niagara Falls is eroding upstream at the rate of about one foot per year.

The movie Krakatoa, East of Java has one major flaw  Krakatoa is actually west of Java.

Sheep outnumber people by about 170 to 1 on the Falkland Islands. There are nearly half a million sheep and nearly 3,000 residents.

The biggest wave ever recorded was 100ft. It was generated by a landslide in 1958 in Alaskas Lituya Bay.

There is a town in Canada called Dildo. If youre planning a visit it can be revealed that hotels there arent too expensive, averaging about 68 ($90) a night. It has a population of just over one thousand.

There are more miles of canal in Birmingham than Venice.

The highest point in lowly Pennsylvania is lower than the lowest point in lofty Colorado.

Tube stop St Johns Wood is the only station on Londons Underground that does not contain any of the letters of the word mackerel.

Did the earth move for you? Dont be surprised if it did, because there are over 50,000 earthquakes around the world annually.

A quarter of the world's prisoners are incarcerated in America.Advertisement

The countries reportedly labelled as s***holes by President Trump are using the insult to boost tourist numbers.

Trump allegedly called Haiti, El Salvador and Africa's third-world nations 's***hole countries' during an Oval Office discussion about immigration.

But now some of them are using his words to their advantage  on tourism posters.

A Zambian tourism agency called Zambiatourism.com (which isn't the official tourism agency) posted a picture of a safari sunset online that said 'Visit ***hole Zambia - where the only stars and stripes you'll have to see are in the sky and on a zebra!'

The government of Botswana rebranded itself a waterhole country and tweeted a composite picture of elephants, zebras and antelope with the caption Botswana is a waterhole country

As the Wall Street Journal reported, a Zambian tourism agency called Zambiatourism.com (which isn't the official tourism agency) posted a picture of a safari sunset online that said 'Visit ***hole Zambia - where the only stars and stripes you'll have to see are in the sky and on a zebra!'

The government of Botswana rebranded itself a waterhole country and tweeted a composite picture of elephants, zebras and antelope with the caption Botswana is a waterhole country.

And a Haitian ad agency boss, Fabien Dodard, has set up a gofundme campaign to run a series of adverts in the U.S that show off Haitis sh***y landscape, totally sh***y people, and year-round sh***y weather.

The backlash has backing from Airbnb, too, which unveiled a new ad in advance of Tuesdays State of the Union address calling for the United States to open doors, not build walls.

'We heard there's been some expletive-filled interest in these beautiful destinations,' the ad begins, showing scenes from Haiti, El Salvador and Africa.

'We also know a few people who would love to show you around,' the ad says. 'Let's open doors, not build walls.'

The ad closes with the message: '#weaccept.'

Airbnb has more than 116,000 listings in those three regions. The company says its hosts there earned $170 million by sharing homes with travelers last year.

The company said Tuesday that it is establishing formal relationships with the Haitian and Salvadoran governments in order to help boost tourism.Vietnamese Ambassador Vinh spoke of his great appreciation for the many years of cooperation between Arkansas and Vietnam. The ambassador has suggested that the Arkansas government could create favourable conditions for Vietnamese businesses, such as the investment project of the Vinh Long company, and the Vietnamese community living and working in Arkansas. On this occasion, Ambassador Vinh also invited Governor Asa Hutchinson to visit Vietnam.

Governor Asa Hutchinson commended the Vinh Long company, which is the first Vietnamese company to invest in the US state of Arkansas, saying he is ready to help businesses tackle any initial difficulties to develop and invest in Arkansas for the long run.

At a round table discussion with the business community, Ambassador Vinh addressed many of the concerns of businesses regarding the economic potential, opportunities, and business environment in Vietnam.

In addition, he visited the head office of Murphy Oil in El Dorado, Arkansas. The Ambassador expressed his desire for Murphy Oil to expand its investment in Vietnam.

Earlier, in Florida, Ambassador Vinh had a meeting with Congressman Ted Yoho, Chairman of the Asia-Pacific Subcommittee of the US House of Representatives and visited a number of localities and trade and research agencies of the state.

The official also worked with some local businesses, leaders of the Biotechnology Research Centre of the University of Florida, and had a talk with lecturers and students of the Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps.Over 100 years ago the Spectator magazine declared New Zealands Milford Track the finest walk in the world.

But now hikers and conservationists are claiming that the 54km-long route in Fiordland national park, over glaciers and through beech forest, is being ruined by tourists only interested in ticking off their bucket list.

The number of walkers tackling the route has soared in recent years, with 12,000 last year  up by 12.4 per cent compared to 2016 and more than 50,000 more than in 2008.

The number of walkers tackling Milford Track, pictured, has soared in recent years, with 12,000 last year  up by 12.4 per cent compared to 2016

Over 100 years ago the Spectator magazine declared New Zealands Milford Track, pictured, the finest walk in the world

One contractor told Radio New Zealand: On some of the great walk tracks, you find poos and toilet paper just littered down the side of the tracks. Its disgusting

Contractors employed to get the route ready for tourists have complained to media in New Zealand about it being polluted with human waste, according to the Guardian.

It reported that one contractor told Radio New Zealand: On some of the great walk tracks, you find poos and toilet paper just littered down the side of the tracks. Its disgusting.

And Ross Harraway, 74, a Department of Conservation hut warden on Milford Track, told the newspaper that tourists seem more interested in ticking off their bucket list than taking an interest in the area.

He said: They have their headphones in, head down, get up on the pass [Mackinnon], take their photos and the tick is over.

And another contractor told The Guardian that the route now resembles a highway, a conveyer belt.

The route begins at the head of Lake Te Anau and leads visitors across suspension bridges and board walks.

Newzealand.com said: The Milford Track will show you pristine lakes, sky-scraping mountain peaks and enormous valley views; and it will take you to feel the misty breath of Sutherland Falls, the tallest waterfall in New Zealand.

Hikers and conservationists are claiming that the 54km-long route in Fiordland national park, over glaciers and through beech forest, is being ruined by tourists

The route begins at the head of Lake Te Anau and leads visitors across suspension bridges and board walks

On a sunny day it is postcard perfect but some walkers say that only when it rains, and torrents of water cascade down the steep mountainsides, have you truly experienced the magic of the Milford Track.

In 2013 a Sydney-based Indonesian student called Yessica Asmin, 22, died while walking the route.

She was pulled from the Clinton River two days after falling while crossing a stream on the route.

The Mountain Safety Council said at the time that the death highlights the need for all trampers to take extreme care when encountering rivers.She is currently touring the country as part of the grueling Strictly Come Dancing tour.

But X factor winner Alexandra Burke took a break from the ballroom to grab a coffee while in Glasgow on Friday.

The Broken Heels hit maker, who will be dancing with Gorka Marquez, was joined by Strictly co-star Nadiya Bychkova as the pair grabbed Starbucks and giggled in Glasgow City Centre.

Time out: Alexandra Burke took a break from the ballroom to grab a coffee with Nadiya Bychkova on Friday while in Glasgow for the Strictly Come Dancing tour

Wearing jeans, black trainers, and a grey jumper underneath a black jacket the Strictly star embraced professional dancer Nadiya as the pair exchanged looks of shock with one another.

Nadiya wore black heeled boots with gold embellishments, dark blue jeans and an oversized black fluffy coat accented by a red bag and red phone case as the duo stepped out in the Scottish city.

Looking shocked, the pair glanced at each other's phones as they walked the streets ahead of their three-day stint performing in Glasgow.

Animated: Alexandra seemed in good spirits as she stopped to chat with a fan on the outing

Chic: Alexandra looked stylish in jeans, black trainers, and a grey jumper underneath a black jacket as she strolled arm in arm with Nadiya on the night

Seen something? Looking shocked, the pair glanced at each other's phones as they walked the streets ahead of their three-day stint performing in Glasgow

Fellow dancer Debbie McGee was also spotted in the city just hours before her Glaswegian dancing debut with Giovanni Pernice.

Sleek Debbie wore navy Chelsea boots and dark trousers under a black pleated coat and matching handbag.

The former magician's assistant held up her phone and appeared to talk pictures before removing her glasses to look at the phone.

Cosy: Meanwhile, Gemma Atkinson and Gorka Marquez were out together amid ongoing romance rumours. The pair seemed content as they strolled through the city

The 59-year-old, who came third in the latest series of Strictly, wore her white blonde hair pulled back in a messy bun.

Meanwhile, Gemma Atkinson and Gorka were out together amid ongoing romance rumours.

The pair seemed content in each other's company as they strolled through the city, with Gemma showing off her gym-honed pins in a pair of tight leggings.

Chic: Debbie McGee was also spotted in the city just hours before her Glaswegian dancing debut with Giovanni Pernice. The 59-year-old wore chelsea boots and dark trousers

Series 15 winner Joe McFadden was also spotted on his way to the SSE Hydro where the shows are in his native Glasgow.

The Holby City star was wrapped up in a camouflage blue t-shirt, black jacket, navy coat and jeans topped off with new balance trainers as he appeared to be carrying his suit for the show in a dry cleaner's bag.

The dancers will perform in Glasgow for three nights before heading to Nottingham and London to finish the 20 date tour.I'm A Celeb star Jorgie Porter stunned in a white dress as she showed off her enviable curves at the Oxfam Gala on Friday.

The actress wore a low cut white dress and studded cream stiletto heels to the gala at the Mere Hotel in Knutsford, Cheshire.

The Celebs Go Dating star, 30, displayed her ample bosom and tiny waist in a tight white dress with structured paneling.

Lady in white: Jorgie Porter stunned in a white dress as she showed off her enviable curves at the Oxfam Gala on Friday. The actress wore a low cut white dress and studded cream stilettos

The former Hollyoaks actress's blonde tresses were curled into a bob with half tucked back behind her ear as she smiled and posed for the cameras in Cheshire.

The gorgeous dress went past the knee as she showed off tanned ankles and feet in studded cream stilettos.

The starlet kept the look minimal with just one piece of jewelry, single gold bangle on her right arm.

Waving hello: The Celebs go dating star stunned in white dress showing off her amble breast, tiny waist and tanned skin. Her blonde tresses were curled and as she smiled to the camera

Good deed: The Hollyoaks actress stunned in white as more than 500 guests from across north west England raised 150,000 to aid Oxfam's work in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh

Strike a pose: The former Hollyoaks actress's blonde tresses were curled into a bob with half tucked back behind her ear as she pouted posed for the cameras with one hand on her hip

Big smiles: The gorgeous dress went past the knee as she showed off tanned ankles and feet in studded cream and tanned pointed stilettos. She had manicured nails and dark eye make up

Minimalist: The thirty-year-old kept the look minimal with just one piece of jewelry, single gold bangle on her right arm and tiny earrings that were covered by her coiffed blonde tresses

Glammed up: The former Dancing on Ice contestant smiled and pouted for the camera with her stunning dark eye make up showing off her bright green eyes and champagne pink lipstick

The former Dancing on Ice contestant smiled and pouted for the camera with her stunning dark eye make up showing off her bright green eyes and champagne pink lipstick highlighting her white teeth and clear skin.

Also in attendance was Armand Beasley a celebrity make up artist, who wore a suit with with a double breasted deep v-neck waistcoat and string tie.

He was joined by ex-Coronation Street actress Shobna Gulati, who stunned in a floor length black dress accented with a gold bag and earrings.

A long way from Corrie: Actress Shobna Gulati, stunned in a black dress accented with a gold bag at the Rags to Riches gala which helped raise money for Oxfam to help communities

Suited up: Celebrity make up artist Armand Beasley wore a suit with with a double breasted v-neck waistcoat and string tie. He was joined by Coronation Street actress Shobna Gulati

The 51-year-old soap actress showed off her glam looks in a fitting black dress.

The star's outfit was accented with pops of gold. Her pointed stilettos, oversized earrings, bags and bangles and slender necklace were all bright and golden.

Her raven tresses were curled and sat just past her shoulders complementing her deep rouge lip and full eyelashes.

Emmerdale star Bhasker Patel also attended with his daughter Maya, 18. Bhasher looked swarve in a three-piece black suit and polka-dot tie.

His daughter Maya sparkled in a high neck black dress, pink fluffy jack and bold coral earrings.

Golden girl: The star's outfit was accented with pops of gold. Her pointed stilettos, oversized earrings, bags and bangles and slender necklace were all bright and golden

The new black: The 51-year-old soap actress showed off her glam looks in a fitting black dress. Her raven tresses were curled complementing her deep rouge lip and full eyelashes

The gala marks 70 years since the partition of Pakistan and India, and Oxfam's 75th anniversary.

The charity is currently working across South Asia including helping victims of domestic violence in India.

It is also helping communities in Pakistan to access clean water and sanitation, as well as providing much needed emergency relief to hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh.

More than 500 guests from across north west England came together to raise 150,000 to aid Oxfam's work in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.

The Rags to Riches gala event was hosted by Oxfam Patron Dr Nighat Awan, who brought together movers and shakers from the worlds of business, fashion, politics, the media and the arts from all over the North West to raise money for Oxfam's lifesaving work in South Asia.

Scrubs up well: Emmerdale star Bhasker Patel also attended with his daughter Maya, 18. Bhasker looked swarve in a three-piece suit and polka-dot tie with a matching pocket square

Looking swarve: Emmerdale star Bhasker Patel also attended with his daughter Maya, 18 in a three-piece black suit. He smiled to the camera as he approached the Mere Hotel in CheshireThey're the Married At First Sight couple who seemingly confirmed they were still together last week.

Now, Sarah Roza has lavished praised on 'husband' Telv Williams for the way he handled the moment she poured her heart out over her painful double miscarriage.

'It was beautiful,' she told The Fix on Friday, 'I think most people just want to be heard, and I felt like I was heard that night, so yeah it was beautiful.'

How she knew he was the ONE: Married At First Sight's Sarah praises 'husband' Telv's 'beautiful' response to the heartbreaking moment she revealed her double miscarriage

On Thursday's episode, the pair cemented their strong bond, after Sarah opened up to her new husband about her difficult past over dinner.

The revelation came after Telv confessed that he was '100 per cent' keen to have more children if the right person came along.

'I was pregnant with twins, and it was really awful because whether he freaked out or... it was too much for him to deal with, and I was abandoned,' she told him.

For the entire time, Telv sat there and simply listened, eventually getting up and whispering something in her ear.

Cemented: On Thursday's episode, the pair cemented their strong bond, after Sarah opened up to her new husband about her difficult past over dinner

'(What he whispered) Was something like, "Its going to be ok, youre so strong.",' Sarah told the website.

While she doesn't remember the exact words, the reality star insisted 'It was really, really lovely'.

And after pictures emerged of Sarah outside Telv's home, the MAFS star seemingly confirmed the pair were still going strong on Friday.

Beautiful: 'It was beautiful,' she told The Fix on Friday, 'I think most people just want to be heard, and I felt like I was heard that night, so yeah it was beautiful'

'Ive been very lucky and Telv and I have been really chuffed, and just completely overwhelmed by the beautiful support weve had,' she said of the public's support following her miscarriage announcement.

On Thursday's episode, at the conclusion of the dinner, Telv admitted to producers: 'When Sarah was telling me about going through a double miscarriage, it broke my heart.'

'I'm starting to care for her a lot.'

Sweet nothings: She also revealed what Telv whispered in her ear: 'It Was something like, "Its going to be ok, youre so strong"... It was really, really lovely'Her mother Nicole Kidman has a history of failing to mention her at awards ceremonies, amid claims they were estranged for years.

But the actress' adopted daughter Isabella Cruise appeared to extend a very public olive branch to the star, acknowledging her surname in her new fashion line.

The 25-year-old designer proved she wasn't totally distanced from the Lion star by dubbing her range BKC - which stands for Bella Kidman Cruise.

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Family ties: Isabella Cruise (left) has paid tribute to her adopted mother Nicole Kidman (right) by calling her new clothes range BKC - which stands for Bella Cruise Kidman

Isabella line boasts six T-shirts all priced at $85, with her website's bio revealing that it was a 'lifelong dream' of hers to launch a collection.

Her recognition of Nicole comes amid a history of what seem to be 'snubs' from Nicole and rumours that Isabella's dedication to Scientology drove a wedge between them.

The budding designer was adopted by Nicole and Tom Cruise in 1992, followed by her younger brother Connor three years later.

When Top Gun star Tom and Nicole split in 2001 after 11 years, both children went to live with their father and followed him into the Church of Scientology.

Olive branch? The recognition comes amid Nicole's history of failing to mention Isabella at awards ceremonies - including at the Golden Globes and Emmy Awards (pictured)

Former Scientologist Leah Remini published claims in her book 'Troublemaker: Surviving Hollywood and Scientology' implying Nicole may have been made an 'SP' by the church.

An 'SP' is a 'Suppressive Person', a term reportedly given to former members of the church of Scientology, generally indicating they've been 'cut off' from their family.

Leah also claimed in her book that Isabella herself referred to her mother as such. However, the Church of Scientology has reportedly has denied Remini's claims.

Nicole has stayed quiet on the subject, telling Vogue in 2015: 'I've chosen not to speak publicly about Scientology. I have two children who are Scientologists - Connor and Isabella - and I utterly respect their beliefs.'

Millionaire parents: Isabella hails from Hollywood royalty as the adopted daughter of Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise - who split in 2001 after 11 years together

Family photo: Isabella was adopted in 1992, followed by her younger brother Connor three years later. When Tom and Nicole both children went to live with their father

Nicole was also absent from Bella's wedding to IT consultant Max Parker in 2015 and when the actress' father Antony died in 2014, her oldest daughter wasn't physically there to offer her support.

The pair talk 'from time to time' but have not been pictured together since 2006.

Nicola is also mother to daughters Sunday, nine, and Faith, seven, with husband Keith Urban, whilst Tom has an 11-year-old daughter, Suri, by third wife Katie Holmes.

She caused controversy in January when she only mentioned Sunday and Faith during her Golden Globes acceptance speech- leaving fans baffled.

Her previous awards speeches prove the Moulin Rouge! star only ever addresses the children she shares with Keith, not the two she adopted with Tom.

Famous parents: She and younger brother Connor, 22 (pictured), have not been mentioned during several of Nicole's speeches

She didn't mention Isabella and Connor, 22, again at the Emmy Awards in September.

The veteran actress accepted the ceremony's first honour and acknowledged how early in the evening her accolade was presented.

'First cab off the rank, yikes! Thanks. That means my daughters are still awake so Sunny, Faith, I love you, I'm bringing this home to you babies,' she said.

After facing criticism for failing to mention her adopted children at the Golden Globes, she thanked 'all of her children' at the Critics' Choice Awards a week later.

Interesting: Nicola does however, often mention daughters Sunday, nine, and Faith, seven, with husband Keith Urban (all pictured), when she wins awards

'I want to thank all of my children who show me so much love,' she said while taking the Best Actress in a Limited Series gong for her role in Big Little Lies.

While Nicole rarely talks of her family, she described her recent film Lion as a 'love letter' to her adopted children.

She said the movie  about an Indian boy who is adopted by an Australian couple  made her think about their backgrounds, adding: 'You're all intertwined. Your destinies somehow all come together.'She famously left Channel Nine in a reported pay disparity dispute late last year.

But that didn't stop Lisa Wilkinson sharing a snap on Friday with her former Today co-host Karl Stefanovic, whose higher salary reportedly contributed to her departure.

The 58-year-old featured Karl in an awkward group shot she posted as a tribute to TV presenter Gorgi Coghlan, 42, to celebrate the pair reuniting on The Project.

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Old and new: Lisa Wilkinson shared a snap on Friday with former co-host Karl Stefanovic, whose higher salary reportedly contributed to her exit from Channel Nine, and Gorgi Coghlan

In the photo's caption, Lisa mentioned it had been a decade since she had worked with Gorgi on Today and also as host of Carols By Candlight, both alongside Karl.

She juxtaposed an older picture of Karl, Gorgi and herself with a newer shot of Gorgi and her smiling from the news desk as they co-hosted The Project that night.

'We always said we wanted to work together again, and tonight we do!' the veteran journalist enthused.

Throwback: She famously left Channel Nine in a reported pay disparity dispute late last year

'Neither of you have changed in ten years, so well done for that!' gushed one fan in the comments section.

'You look much happier now you're away from all that crazy going on with Karl and people turning against you,' observed another follower.

According to Nine's chief executive Hugh Marks, last year he refused Lisa's agent Nick Fordham's demands for a $2.3 million package for her to stay with the network.

'You look much happier now you're away from all that crazy going on with Karl and people turning against you,' observed another follower

Her co-host for 10 years, Karl, is on a reported $2 million package and in 2017 Lisa was on $1.1 million, but was offered an additional $700,000 for 2018.

She refused the offer and took her to talents to Channel 10, where she co-hosts The Project and has been named executive editor for the network's new site, Ten Daily.

Her new deal with Ten is believed to be worth in excess of $2 million, which would make her the highest-paid woman on Australian television.She's the self-confessed nerd who dressed as a superhero while trying to win the heart of Bachelor Sam Wood in 2015.

But it seems Heather Maltman has gone from a geek to chic, the 31-year-old debuting a new look at Channel Nine's programming launch in Brisbane.

On Thursday, the former reality star was all smiles as she struck a number of poses at the event.

Thigh's the limit! Bachelor star Heather Maltman puts on a leggy display in black mini dress and blue denim boots at Nine launch in Brisbane

Raising questions about whether she's set for a return to TV, the filmmaker joined a slew of other Channel Nine stars including new Weekend Today show host Allison Langdon and Peter Stefanovic.

Flashing plenty of leg, Heather opted for a black mini-dress, which had a V cut-out near the neckline, as well as a pair of thigh-high blue denim boots.

The former reality star completing the fashionable look with costume jewellery -a long statement necklace and ring - along with matching earrings and a nude-coloured clutch.

Perfect pout! For the event, the self-confessed nerd opted for a glamorous look, with her hair pulled back in an elegant bun and a nude-coloured clutch

The starlet also went with a chic dewy look for her make-up, while choosing to wear her brunette hair in a tight bun.

Her appearance comes after the starlet uploaded a video of herself getting a contraceptive implant taken out during a visit to the doctor on Wednesday.

'Miscommunication with my original Dr in Sydney left me with an implanon that didn't workFor 6 months... Cause it was out of date,' (sic) Heather shared.

The ex-Bachelor favourite has found her happily ever after with Brisbane local, Matt Baker.

Signature smile! The starlet appeared at the event alongside a number of the Channel Nine stars, including new Weekend Today co-hosts Allison Langdon and Peter Stefanovic

While the two kept their relationship under wraps until late last year, but lately humorous Heather has hinted at a possible pregnancy.

Taking to Instagram, she uploaded a playful image of 'Girls that are going to get pregnant in 2018' in January - her name included.

With babies on her mind, news of baby Baker-to-be may be imminent.

Year of the baby? Heather Maltman took to Facebook earlier this week to share video of her expired contraceptive implant being removed

Blast from the past: Heather rose to fame on Sam Wood's season of the Bachelor and quickly became a fan favourite

Twinning! The TV starlet has since found love with Brisbane man, Matt BakerHer father Kelsey Grammer, 62, is one of the most recognizable television actors in history thanks to his time on Cheers and Frasier.

And now Kelsey's daughter Mason is starting her own career in front of the cameras.

The 16-year-old, who stands at 5ft 8in, just signed with the high end DT Model Management agency on Friday.

Ready for the red carpet! It seems Kelsey Grammer's daughter Mason is starting her own career in front of the cameras

She will join the agency's 'women's board,' which also includes nepotistically privileged clients such as Ireland Baldwin, Destry Allyn Spielberg, Nala Wayans, Ava Dash and Lydia Hearst.

As a part of the big announcement, her management company released two images of the young stunner which showcased her model looks.

In the first image, Mason wears a classic Guns N' Roses classic tee, which she paired with some striped trousers.

Her soon-to-be-trademark blonde locks were parted in the middle and fell straight down past her shoulders.

Icon: Her father Kelsey Grammer, 62, is one of the most recognizable television actors in history thanks to his time on Cheers and Frasier

Leggy ladies! She will join the agency's 'women's board,' which also includes nepotistically privileged clients such as Ireland Baldwin (left), Destry Allyn Spielberg

Some severe eye make-up, warm blush and rose lipstick made the youngster look like a pro.

The second photo is slightly more artistic and shows the budding model in a partially transparent charcoal top, which is tucked into some green plaid pants.

Accessories included a long grey belt and some impressive disk-pattern earrings.

Mason's mom Camille proudly watched from the sidelines as Mason walked the catwalk at New York Fashion Week in September.

Posing up a storm! As a part of the big announcement, her management company released two images of the young stunner which showcased her model looks

Mason's mom Camille proudly watched from the sidelines as Mason walked the catwalk at New York Fashion Week in September.

Practice makes perfect! And it seems Mason has been preparing for the big day by taking to Instagram

The teen strutted down the runway in a ballgown for Malan Breton, the second time she's walked for the designer.

Like many budding models Mason has been sharing numerous snaps of herself striking model poses to Instagram.

Her snaps include professional shots as well as more candid swimsuit photos.

While her father is obviously a television stalwart, her mother Camille, 49, also has a place on the small screen thanks to her spot on The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.He recently revealed he'll be a first-time father.

And Ronnie Ortiz-Magro seemed to be in great spirits as his pregnant girlfriend Jen Harley joined the Jersey Shore cast in Miami, Florida, on Friday afternoon.

The 32-year-old reality television star showed off his muscular arms in a tight white T-shirt as he filmed portions of the reunion show on the beach with his lady love, and housemates Vinny Guadagnino and DJ Pauly D.

New parents: Ronnie Ortiz-Magro seemed to be in great spirits as his pregnant girlfriend Jen Harley joined the Jersey Shore cast in Miami, Florida, on Friday afternoon

Ronnie donned a pair of cut-off denim jean shorts with distressed patches and paint splatters above his knees.

His girlfriend Jen - who's rumored to be more than six months pregnant - donned a figure-hugging strapless tie-dyed dress which swept down toward the sand.

She wore her long brunette hair down straight past her shoulders as she carried a pair of pink flip flops in the sand.

Friends! The 32-year-old reality television star showed off his muscular arms in a tight white T-shirt as he filmed portions of the reunion show on the beach with his lady love, and housemates Vinny Guadagnino and DJ Pauly D

Boys day: Ronnie donned a pair of cut-off denim jean shorts with distressed patches and paint splatters above his knees

Fun! DJ Pauly D and Vinny enjoyed a game of paddle ball in the sand

Vinny looked comfortable wearing a pale blue T-shirt paired with light grey drawstring shorts.

DJ Pauly D - real name Paul DelVecchio sported one black and one white tank top paired with camouflaged shorts.

The Jersey Shore ladies opted for a day of shopping in the city, with Nicole 'Snooki' Polizzi showing off her ample assets in a black bathing suit and sheer black dress.

Back in black: The Jersey Shore ladies opted for a day of shopping in the city, with Nicole 'Snooki' Polizzi showing off her ample assets in a black bathing suit and sheer black dress

Shop til you drop: Jenny 'JWoww' Farley donned a tight maroon tank top with flowing black pants, while carrying a small black purse across her shoulder

Jenny 'JWoww' Farley donned a tight maroon tank top with flowing black pants, while carrying a small black purse across her shoulder.

Newlywed Deena Nicole Cortese wore a similar ensemble as her gal pal Snooki, opting for a black cover-up worn over a black-and-white bathing suit.

The hit MTV reality series hit airwaves in 2009 and ran for six seasons, focusing on a group of wild roommates and their summer adventures along the famed Jersey Shore, with the cast recently reuniting to film the reunion, Jersey Shore: Family Vacation.

Ronnie announced in December via Instagram that he was expecting his first child with his girlfriend, and later shared in January that she was six months along.Gillian Anderson has been in a relationship with The Crown writer Peter Morgan since 2016, yet insists she is only 'part long-term' in their romance.

Speaking to The Times Magazine, the X Files star, who announced she was bisexual in 2012, said: 'I could be with a woman next year! Part of me looks long-term. As long as there's always a back door.'

She went on to reveal that she has absolutely no issue with her bisexuality. She said: Its just who I am. I have absolutely no issue with it whatsoever, and I dont really care if other people have an issue with it.'

Short term? 'I could be with a woman next year!' Bisexual Gillian Anderson has playfully insisted that she is only 'part long-term' with partner Peter Morgan

While discussing her relationships, Gillian said that she believes all humans are intersectional, complicated beings.

Originally coined in academic circles, intersectionality describes the theory that strands of humanity  such as class, race and sexual orientation  are interwoven and cannot be separated.

Were all intersectional, and that is something that is only just beginning to become accepted or embraced. Were all complicated beings. That is my truth and that is my experience.

The twice-divorced star came out when the woman she had a relationship with in her younger years died from brain cancer. She retains that she did so in order to 'honour' her in wake of her death.

Out and proud: Gillian came out as bisexual in 2012. The 49-year-old believes humans are 'intersectional', which is a theory that describes humanity as strands unable to be broken

Of her new relationship, she told the publication how it was refreshing to be with someone now who works in the same industry.

She said: Im constantly grateful for the symbiosis because I havent had that experience before.'

Reports that she had found love again broke in October 2016 when The Daily Mail's Sebastian Shakespeare confirmed that she was telling friends about dating writer Peter.

Gillian who lives in London, was at a party in New York with Morgan to promote The Crown, where she was overheard telling friends they were in a relationship.

In the past: She was married twice before. Left is her with her first husband, Clyde Klotz, who she was married to from 1994 to 1997. Right is her with her second husband, Julian Ozanne

Last hurrah? She returns in the forthcoming new season of The X Files as iconic character Dana Scully. Yet it is thought to be her last time reprising the role

Peter, whose cinematic hits include The Queen and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, was married to Lila Schwarzenberg - born Princess Anna Carolina zu Schwarzenberg - until 2014. He already has five children with her.

Since the relationship revelation, Gillian supported Peter when The Crown went up for a nomination at The Golden Globes.

She returns in the forthcoming new season of The X Files as iconic character Dana Scully.

Yet it is thought to be her last time reprising the role.The world organisation on January 31 resumed deliveries from the Bab al-Hawa border crossing point in Turkey into Idlib governorate in Syria, said the spokesman.

A total of 25 trucks with food and medical supplies were delivered into Syria on January 31, the first delivery following the UN decision on January 20 to temporarily halt deliveries due to security concerns, said Dujarric. An additional 15 trucks delivered assistance on February 1, he added.

Security remains a concern along the border. Due to the security situation, the United Nations is maintaining its temporary suspension of deliveries through Bab al-Salam, the second border crossing point in Turkey authorised by a UN Security Council resolution, said Dujarric.

Mitigation measures have been put in place to ensure the safety of UN staff at Bab al-Hawa, including the use of armored vehicles and restrictions on staff authorised in the area, he added.

The United Nations estimates that 13.1 million Syrians need assistance.Just seven weeks after welcoming newborn daughter Katherine Swati, Mindy Kaling stepped out Thursday in Los Angeles while rocking glossy red spiked-heel pumps and a black schoolgirl skirt.

The 38-year-old first-time mother - who's keeping the identity of her babydaddy secret - coordinated her leggy look with an equally crimson pout, preppy vest, dotted blouse, and chain-strapped purse for her business meeting.

You'd never know the six-time Emmy nominee - who boasts 15.1M social media followers - had tweeted a day earlier that she was so 'sick' she was 'dying' in a post likely referring to the winter flu.

Red hot mama! Just seven weeks after welcoming daughter Katherine Swati, Mindy Kaling stepped out Thursday in LA while rocking glossy spiked-heel pumps and a black mini-skirt

Mindy (born Vera Chokalingam) looked even healthier on Friday as she hit up a party supply store in a green ensemble alongside her jean jacket-clad gal pal.

This time, the Massachusetts-born funnywoman opted for a V-neck embellished sweater, matching skinny jeans, black moccasins, and a matching quilted chain-strapped purse.

'I think she's ecstatic,' Kaling's former castmate Adam Pally told Us Weekly on Tuesday.

Meeting: The 38-year-old new mother - who's keeping the identity of her babydaddy secret - coordinated her leggy look with an equally crimson pout, preppy vest, and dotted blouse

'I'm dying!' You'd never know the six-time Emmy nominee had tweeted a day earlier that she was so 'sick' she was 'dying' in a post likely referring to the winter flu

Super Bowl bash? Mindy (born Vera Chokalingam) looked even healthier on Friday as she hit up a party supply store in a green ensemble alongside her jean jacket-clad gal pal

Out and about: This time, the Massachusetts-born funnywoman opted for a V-neck embellished sweater, matching skinny jeans, and black moccasins

'She's doing good! She's happy and working, she has a show [NBC's Champions] coming out, which looks really funny. I think she can handle anything.'

The Dartmouth College grad already had her former Mindy Project costume designer Salvador Perez craft little Katherine a 'baby couture' version of the same ruffled dress she donned during the sixth and final season.

There's still been no sighting of the Family Feud video star's princess, but she's shared glimpses of the baby's golden-winged Jeremy Scott stroller and Adidas Originals outfit.

Kaling's former castmate Adam Pally (L) told Us Weekly on Tuesday: 'I think she's ecstatic. She's doing good! She's happy and working, she has a show [NBC's Champions] coming out, which looks really funny. I think she can handle anything'

'I can't even!' The Dartmouth College grad already had her former Mindy Project costume designer Salvador Perez craft little Katherine a 'baby couture' version of the same ruffled dress she donned during the sixth and final season

Gear: There's still been no sighting of the Family Feud video star's princess, but she's shared glimpses of the baby's golden-winged Jeremy Scott stroller and Adidas Originals outfit

Mindy is already back at work co-creating her new sitcom Champions - premiering March 8 on NBC - about gym owner Vince (Anders Holm) discovering he fathered a 15-year-old son with his high school fling Priya (Kaling).

The two-time SAG Award winner will then star as the multi-lingual, Shakespeare-quoting Mrs. Who in Disney's sci-fi fantasy A Wrinkle In Time, which hits US theaters March 9 and UK theaters March 23.

Oscar-nominated producer Ava DuVernay helmed the CG-infused epic also starring Oprah Winfrey, Reese Witherspoon, Chris Pine, and Zach Galifianakis.

Premiering March 8 on NBC! Mindy is already back at work co-creating her new sitcom Champions about gym owner Vince (Anders Holm, R) discovering he fathered a 15-year-old son with his high school fling Priya (Kaling)She's a glamorous A-list movie star.

But Jennifer Lawrence, 27, proved her political bona fides on Friday when she delivered a speech on how to remove corruption from politics.

The Unrig The System Summit takes place in New Orleans, from Friday to Sunday, and features such luminaries from across the political spectrum as Fox News host Steve Hilton, former Louisiana Republican Governor Buddy Roemer and The Big Short director Adam McKay.

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More than a star: Jennifer Lawrence, 27, proved her political bona fides on Friday when she delivered a speech on how to remove corruption from politics

The Hunger Games starlet wore an off-white dress shirt and black trousers for the speaking engagement at Tulane University.

Lawrence wore her blonde tresses untied as she spoke at the event.

According to its website, Unrig The System is 'a gathering of thought leaders from the right and left who are determined to fix American politics'.

Hero: The Hunger Games starlet wore an off-white dress shirt and black trousers for the speaking engagement at Tulane University

Great hair: Lawrence wore her blonde tresses untied as she spoke at the event

Incognito: Here the dressed-down Oscar winner is seen arriving at the event

Recently the Passengers star attempted to inspire the next generation to be involved in politics.

The Winters Bone actress gave many teenagers the thrill of a lifetime as she surprised a group of high school students in Cleveland, Ohio with an inspiring discussion centered around the government.

Lawrence joined non-partisan anti-corruption organization Represent.US to lead a discussion about the current climate in the US and fixing democracy with junior and senior students at Cleveland Heights High School.

Empowering: Jennifer gave many teenagers the thrill of a lifetime as she surprised a group of high school students in Cleveland, Ohio with an inspiring political discussion

According to the adolescents the X-Men: First Class star's presence made a 'big difference' to the students, who were impressed by 'how informed' she was about politics.

Senior Londyn Crehnshaw said: 'It makes a big difference when people who are just 10 years older than us come to talk about political issues.

'When she said, "this is your time," that really made me think.'

Inspiring: The actress joined non-partisan anti-corruption organization Represent.US to lead a discussion about the current climate in the US and fixing democracy with junior and senior students at Cleveland Heights High School

Jennifer has previously admitted she would love to confront President Donald Trump about his current stint in office and has already thought of what she'd say to him.

She said: 'I've got a pretty good speech. And it ends with a martini to the fact.'

Asked if she'd be prepared for the conversation, she said: 'Oh, I would, definitely. Oh, my God, I've been waiting for this moment. I'll give you a hint -- it's not nice. You wouldn't want me to say it to you.'

Opening up: The Mother! actress admitted she has developed an increasing 'obsession' with politics since Trump took office

And Jennifer had 'something to say' to a number of other politicians who she disagreed with.

She said: 'I have something to say for all of them. I watch different characters on the news, and I'm like, "Just you wait."'

The Mother! actress admitted she has developed an increasing 'obsession' with politics since Trump took office.

She said: 'My political passion has almost turned into an obsession. I mean, I don't think you ever do feel settles, [but] as soon as you feel settled with your home and your personal life, you're looking at the world and going, "How in the hell do I fix this? What do we do?"'She's the former Big Brother star who is expecting her first daughter in June.

And Krystal Hipwell (nee Forscutt) has arrived in Fiji for her 'babymoon' with her husband and their three-year-old son, Sunny.

The 31-year-old shared a family snap to Instagram on Thursday as she described their idyllic getaway to Fiji.

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Paradise: Krystal Hipwell (nee Forscutt) has arrived in Fiji for her 'babymoon' with her husband and their three-year-old son, Sunny

The former model held onto her belly in a burnt orange bikini as she sat poolside and smiled broadly at her toddler son, who swam with a tiny pair of flotation devices on.

'So far Fiji has been so much fun, the people are the sweetest and food is amazing... I also now have a whole new understanding of the term "Fiji time",' she joked.

'Things are certainly in slow-mo over here, but thats exactly what we need at the moment! Good to relearn the art of being present and patient,' she continued.

'So far Fiji has been so much fun, the people are the sweetest and food is amazing... I also now have a whole new understanding of the term "Fiji time",' she joked

'And if anyone was wondering, we only had to deal with around 10 toddler tantrums in transit today,' she added.

The former glamour model announced her pregnancy in November and updated her 22,000 Instagram followers last week with a halfway progress shot at 20 weeks.

The blogger and personal trainer looked as fit as ever as she highlighted her changing frame in swimwear and workout gear while on vacation.

Svelte: The blogger and personal trainer looked as fit as ever as she highlighted her changing frame in swimwear and workout gear while on vacation

Krystal shares Sunny and her daughter-on-the-way with husband Neil Hipwell, who she married in 2013.

She rose to fame on the 2006 season of Big Brother, appearing on the show alongside her mother Karen Forscutt.

Afterwards, she posed for Australian lads' mags, such as Zoo Weekly and Ralph, but retired from glamour modelling aged 23 and now works as a trainer.She flaunts her fashion from coast-to-coast.

And Kourtney Kardashian was bundled up for the chilly weather with a heavy fur coat in New York on Friday evening.

The 38-year-old reality television star looked supremely comfortable stepping out in the city with her daughter Penelope, five, and four-year-old niece North West.

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Cozy: Kourtney Kardashian was bundled up for the chilly weather with a heavy fur coat in New York on Friday evening

Kourtney kept her eyes on the little girls as she stepped out of a massive black SUV wearing a grey sweatshirt and matching sweatpants.

She kept warm in the brisk winter weather with a large brown fur coat which swept down to her ankles.

The eldest Kardashian daughter sported a pair of crisp white trainers for her trip to the big city.

Friends! The 38-year-old reality television star looked supremely comfortable stepping out in the city with her daughter Penelope, five, and four-year-old niece North West

City girls: Kourtney kept her eyes on the little girls as she stepped out of a massive black SUV wearing a grey sweatshirt and matching sweatpants

Kourtney's long brown hair was worn straight and she appeard to be nearly makeup-free for the evening adventure.

Penelope matched her mother sporting a tiny leopard print fur coat worn with billowing brown sweat pants and white shoes.

Little North West was enjoying the girls' day out wearing an all-black ensemble complete with black Vans sneakers.

Cuties: Penelope matched her mother sporting a tiny leopard print fur coat worn with billowing brown sweat pants and white shoes

North brought along an adorable light brown moose stuffed animal for her trip to New York.

Kourtney's sons Mason, eight, and Reign, three, seemed to be back at home with their father Scott Disick, 34.

The pair dated for nearly 10 years before calling it quits in 2015, with Kourtney moving on to date Algerian model Younes Bendjima and Scott taking a strong liking to Sofia Richie.

Both of their new partners are more than 10 years younger, as Younes celebrated his 24th birthday in May and Sofia turning 19 last August.She was pictured sporting an extensive collection of bandages on her nose last week.

Yet Daniella Westbrook seemed to be feeling much better on Friday as she attended a charity event at the Mayfair Hotel in London without any plasters.

Keeping her head down, the 44-year-old actress seemed keen to show off her outfit, and it was no wonder as she looked sensational in a black midi dress.

On the mend: Daniella Westbrook seemed to be feeling much better on Friday as she attended a charity evening at the Mayfair Hotel in London without any plasters

Danniella's tight fitting gown showed off her svelte physique, clinging to her figure and falling just below the knee to flash a hint of leg.

The garment was backless in design to flash a hint of flesh whilst remaining demure, whilst the former soap star finished off the look by donning black court shoes.

Sweeping her glossy locks away from her face, she wore her tresses in two french plaits, whilst she opted for a neutral make-up palette.

Leggy lady! Keeping her head down, the 44-year-old actress seemed keen to show off her outfit, and it was no wonder as she looked sensational in a black midi dress

Loving life: Danniella posed up a storm as she waited outside the charity event and kept herself busy by looking at her phone

Danniella seemed to be in better spirits than on Sunday, when she was seen leaving a private hospital in Essex sporting a large bandage across her nose, 17 years after her septum fully collapsed.

The former EastEnders star sported extensive white dressing across her face following another round of surgical treatment.

MailOnline has contacted Danniella's representatives for comment.

Form-fitting: Danniella's tight fitting gown showed off her svelte physique, clinging to her figure and falling just below the knee to flash a hint of leg

Danniella underwent a face lift, as well as a breast augmentation in a bid to recapture her youth last year.

And while it is unclear what procedure she underwent this time round, it seemed as though Danniella was keen on continuing her quest for perfection.

In 2000, Danniella's septum was eroded through excessive use of the narcotic and she now insists, despite turning back to drugs, she was never stupid enough to return to snorting the substance up her damaged nose.

At the height of her drug abuse, it was reported she had taken up to five grams of cocaine a day during her first pregnancy, blowing close to 250,000 on the drug in total.

Hair she comes: Sweeping her glossy locks away from her face, she wore her tresses in two french plaits, whilst she opted for a neutral make-up palette

She admitted to relapsing in early 2017, following a difficult break up with toyboy boyfriend George Arnold.

Last January, the pained actress was similarly seen sporting a bandage under her nose, yet she insisted that the health woe was nothing to do with her drug problem

The actress had been keen to point out that she had stopped taking the drug through her nostril for fear she would suffer the same fate of her septum.

She said: 'People think I was hoovering cocaine up my nose but I wasn't. Yes, I'm stupid to take drugs but I'm not stupid enough to do that. I was dabbing the coke with my finger and wiping it on my gums.'Blanca Blanco took advantage of California's enviable winter weather on Friday by showcasing her bikini body, yet again, on a beach in Malibu.

The 37-year-old actress flaunted her taut 5ft10in figure in a white string two-piece featuring a paint splatter pattern, which was likely designed by her favorite swimwear brand Barebumz.

The Fake News stunner's swimsuit featured cheeky Brazilian-cut bottoms, better to highlight her pert derriere.

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Back on the beach! Blanca Blanco took advantage of California's enviable winter weather on Friday by showcasing her bikini body, yet again, on a beach in Malibu

NoCal-born Blanca basked in the sunshine as she celebrated 'signing a new film contract for a lead role.'

Blanco wore her wavy brunette locks down and sported minimal make-up for her sandy seaside outing.

The brainy beauty reportedly holds a master's degree in social work from Eastern Washington University, but she decided to pursue an acting career instead.

Later that evening, make-up artist Robert Vega and hairstylist Rene Maldonado Cortez glammed up the Spreading Darkness actress for the 26th annual Movieguide Faith & Values Awards.

Barebumz brand? The 37-year-old actress flaunted her taut 5ft10in figure in a white string two-piece featuring a paint splatter pattern

Cheeky: The Fake News stunner's swimsuit featured Brazilian-cut bottoms, better to highlight her pert derriere

Congrats! NoCal-born Blanca basked in the sunshine as she celebrated 'signing a new film contract for a lead role'

Wading in the water: Blanco wore her wavy brunette locks down and sported minimal make-up for her sandy seaside outing

Educated: The brainy beauty reportedly holds a master's degree in social work from Eastern Washington University, but she decided to pursue an acting career instead

Blanca struck a pose in a her sleeveless black and green Bronx and Banco cocktail dress with a matching Jessica Bratich clutch and Kamica Hampton Texas pumps.

Earlier that day, Blanco celebrated the American Heart Association-sponsored 'National Wear Red Day' with a post to her 94K social media followers.

The lovely Latina made headlines last month after being one of the only women to wear the scarlet shade - a racy velvet Atria Clothing cut-out gown - during the all-black Time's Up protest at the Golden Globe Awards.

Green liner: Later, make-up artist Robert Vega and hairstylist Rene Maldonado Cortez glammed up the Spreading Darkness actress for the Movieguide Faith & Values Awards

Red carpet: Blanca struck a pose in a her sleeveless black and green Bronx and Banco cocktail dress with a matching Jessica Bratich clutch and Kamica Hampton Texas pumps

'I love red,' she defended in a January 7 statement to Refinery29.

'Wearing red does not means I am against #timesup movement. I applaud and stand by the courageous actresses that continue to brake [sic] the circle of abuse through their actions and their style choice.

'It is one of many factors leading women to a safer place because of their status in the acting world. I am excited about the Time's UP movement because true change is long overdue.'

For heart health: Earlier that day, Blanco celebrated the American Heart Association-sponsored 'National Wear Red Day' with a post to her 94K social media followers

'True change is long overdue': The lovely Latina made headlines last month after being one of the only women to wear the scarlet shade - a racy velvet Atria Clothing cut-out gown - during the all-black Time's Up protest at the Golden Globe Awards (pictured January 7)

Next Thursday! Perhaps the media-savvy star is plotting to parlay her color controversy into a do-gooding appearance on the catwalk of the AHA's Go Red For Women Red Dress Collection presentation at New York Fashion Week (pictured in 2017)

Perhaps the media-savvy star is plotting to parlay her color controversy into a do-gooding appearance on the catwalk of the AHA's Go Red For Women Red Dress Collection presentation at New York Fashion Week next Thursday.

Blanca and her 68-year-old boyfriend of four years, John Savage, will collaborate onscreen yet again in Yann Thomas' family comedy 6 Children & 1 Grandfather hitting UK theaters later this year.

A twice-divorced father-of-two, Savage (born Youngs) is best known for his roles in films like The Deer Hunter, Hair, Inside Moves, and The Godfather: Part III.She's previously explained how she transforms a casual daytime makeup look to suit a glamorous evening on the town.

Now, Rebecca Judd, 35, has given her fans the scoop on the two products she daily, before even thinking about makeup.

The mother-of-four's routine starts every morning in the shower, she revealed in an Instagram story post on Saturday.

So that's how she does it! Rebecca Judd reveals the two products she uses to maintain her flawless complexion alongside a makeup free selfie taken in the shower

Pictured from above the chest, Rebecca's wet hair was pulled back off her face, which she'd lathered in an AHA & BHA Facial Scrub from The Skincare Company.

'Scrubba dub dub in the shower. So easy!' she wrote in the caption.

An hour later, the beauty continued her routine expose, this time pictured in a closeup selfie from her bedroom.

Looking great without makeup, she wore a striped shirt and showcased her dazzling pear-shaped diamond sparkler on one hand.

Facial scrub: Pictured from above the chest, Rebecca's wet hair was pulled back off her face, which she'd lathered in an AHA & BHA Facial Scrub from The Skincare Company

In the other, she held a blue bottle of Moisturiser with Sunscreen, once again from The Skincare Company.

'And then... errrry day moisturiser w sunscreen,' she wrote in the caption.

The products appeared to have been provided to the socialite as part of a paid promotional deal.

Feeling blue! In the other, she held a blue bottle of Moisturiser with Sunscreen, once again from The Skincare Company

In September, Rebecca revealed the next steps in her routine in a makeup tutorial.

The beauty icon filmed herself painting on darker eye shadow and lipstick to give her daytime look more of an evening edge.

Rebecca has also detailed some additional skincare tips, revealing in a blog post: 'I apply a small amount of Vitamin C serum, starting around the edge of my face and working my way in, making sure you avoid your eye area'.

Promo? The products appeared to have been provided to the socialite as part of a paid promotional deal

Next, she applies Vitamin B5 serum, 'which plumps out fine lines.'

The beauty finishes her morning off with moisturiser on her face, neck and decolletage.

She regularly drinks green tea in the morning, which also aids her complexion.They sparked rumours that they'd struck up a romance on the new season of Bachelor In Paradise after sharing a series of playful Facetime snaps together.

And Tara Pavlovic did little to stop the speculation, as she dedicated a playful message to Davey Lloyd on Instagram on Saturday.

The 27-year-old Bachelor reject shared an image of a kettle with a banana emoji, and wrote 'Miss you' while tagging Davey in the caption.

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Cheeky: Tara Pavlovic dedicated a playful message to Davey Lloyd on Instagram on Saturday as she continued to fuel romance rumours

The pair are due to star alongside each other in dating series, Bachelor In Paradise, on Channel Ten later this year - which they filmed last year.

And Tara hinted that she was keen to return to the idyllic shores of Fiji with her wistful caption.

It comes after the brunette beauty shared a private photo of the duo chatting on FaceTime, using the word 'couple' to caption the screenshot.

Clearly comfortable with each other, they both pulled silly faces as Tara jokingly wrote: 'Couple of tens.'

Hmm: The 27-year-old Bachelor reject shared an image of a kettle with a banana emoji, and wrote 'Miss you' while tagging Davey in the caption

Davey's screenshot displayed the time of 7.59pm, as he shared a similar comedic post, writing: 'same same but kettle.'

Tara was wearing a low-cut white dress, while Davey appeared to be in the car in a black T-shirt.

The Bachelor In Paradise casting announcement was made as part of Channel 10's annual Upfronts in November.

The debut season of Bachelor In Paradise is already living up to the hype, with the likes of Apollo Jackson, Keira Maguire, Laura Fleure, Michael Turnbull and Sophie Monk's 'stage-five clinger' runner-up Jarrod Woodgate joining the cast.

Magician Apollo previously claimed he was keen to strike up something with nanny Tara, who also lives in Queensland.

'From what I've seen of Tara, she seems like so much fun, and I can definitely see the two of us getting on,' he told The Daily Telegraph.

Meanwhile, Tara claimed she was looking for fun on the reality show and not necessarily a man.

'I think Paradise is going to be a bit like schoolies week: getting lit with my mates around a pool  why not?'

The official launch date has yet to be announced, but Channel Ten's Bachelor In Paradise is due to air over the next few months.She's the Bachelor babe known for flaunting her slender frame in revealing bikini snaps.

And Saturday was no exception for Megan Marx, the 28-year-old blonde bombshell taking to Instagram to flaunt her taut tummy and slender arms in a maroon-coloured bikini.

In the sizzling snap, the blonde bombshell knelt on a bed while appearing to gorge on a bar of chocolate.

How does she do it? Bachelor star Megan Marx, 28, took to Instagram on Saturday to share a photograph of herself kneeling on a bed surrounded by chocolate

'Not sure how other West Australians spend their Saturday mornings before heading to the beach...I LOVE YOU @thesmallbatchgiftco,' she posted under the snap.

She then added: 'Seriously this chocolate blows my mind, thank you, love supporting local but mainly eating good.'

Megan's latest sizzling snap comes amid rumours she is in a relationship with Bachelorette hunk Jake Ellis - after her relationship with reality show co-star Tiffany Scanlon fizzled out.

The pair engaged in a saucy exchange earlier this month, after Jake uploaded a shirtless snap.

Fit: The often bikini-clad babe has most recently been linked to Bachelorette star Jake Ellis

Secret sign! Earlier this month, Megan appeared to give a sign - with the pair rumoured to have an inside joke involving penguins

'Usually I always known what to do with my hands! I love this place,' he captioned the image, which ironically saw his fingers awkwardly grasp for a maroon cap.

The provocative words clearly got the attention of fellow Bachelor franchise reject Megan Marx, who wrote 'nipz (sic) for days' beneath the picture, commenting on the reality TV star's nipples.

Not to be outdone, Jake quickly replied beneath her comment a telling: 'jealous?'

'Usually I always know what to do with my hands!' Bachelorette reject Jake Ellis shared a cheeky shirtless snap earlier this month - prompting a rather saucy response from rumoured girlfriend Megan Marx

Stopping traffic... or just Megan! The provocative words clearly got the attention of Bachie reject Megan Marx, who wrote 'nipz (sic) for days' beneath the picture, commenting on the reality TV star's nipples

It comes just days after Jake began noting a penguin emoji beneath Megan's bikini photos - a sign the pair have an inside joke involving the aquatic, flightless birds.

Megan even uploaded a picture which was largely suggested to be taken by the 31-year-old heartthrob.

It showed the blonde beauty perched on the wooden ledge of a balcony, with a Gold Coast beach in the background.

Beaming for the camera, Megan drew attention to her stylish sunglasses, that show the reflection of a shirtless male.

Did Jake Ellis take this? Megan posed for a very raunchy bikini snap while getting out of the pool amid rumours the pair are dating after their Bachelor In Paradise stint

Meanwhile Jake also posted a photo to Instagram at the same time, which also saw him relaxing on a Gold Coast beach.

Looking directly at the camera and resting his arms on his knees, Jake captioned the image, appearing to pay tribute to his late mother Robyn, who recently passed away from cancer: 'Cherish memories, enjoy every moment and hold on to the things that make you truly happy,' alongside the hash-tag #goldcoast.

Last November, Bachelor and Bachelorette stars Megan and Jake were pictured filming scenes together for spin-off Bachelor In Paradise in Fiji.

Jake rose to fame after appearing on The Bachelorette in 2016, making it to the top three before being sent home by Georgia Love.

Is that you Jake? A photo shared to Instagram earlier this month saw Megan perched on the wooden ledge of a balcony, with a Gold Coast beach in the backgroundIt's the television drama portraying life in the aftermath of a zombie apocalypse.

And members of The Walking Dead's popular cast visited Sydney on Saturday to attend the Walker Stalker convention.

The international event, which takes place in Melbourne next weekend, hosted stars including Ross Marquand, Katelyn Nacon, Chandler Riggs and Tyler James Williams.

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Live and direct: Members of The Walking Dead's popular cast visited Sydney on Saturday to attend the Walker Stalker convention

Ross, who plays the recurring role of Aaron in the long-running series, spoke to avid fans gathered at the Sydney Showgrounds.

The actor offered insight into last year's pivotal scenes where Aaron, the series' first gay male character, tragically lost his partner Eric.

Joining him at the event was Chandler Riggs, 18, whose beloved character of Carl Grimes will also see an unexpected exit from the drama later this month.

Excited: Ross, who plays the recurring role of Aaron in the long-running series, spoke to avid fans gathered at the Sydney Showgrounds

Shock: Joining him at the event was Chandler Riggs, 18, whose beloved character of Carl Grimes will also see an unexpected exit from the drama later this month

Low-key: Fellow teen star Katelyn Nacon, who plays Enid, cut a casual figure with the rest of the cast in attendance, opting for jeans, brown boots and a graphic t-shirt

Fellow teen star Katelyn Nacon, who plays Enid, cut a casual figure with the rest of the cast in attendance, opting for jeans, brown boots and a graphic t-shirt.

Although his character of Noah was savagely ripped apart by walkers back in 2015, actor Tyler James Williams also made the trip to Australia to join his former co-stars.

British-born Tom Payne, 35, who plays Paul 'Jesus' Rovia on the show, was snapped with his signature locks flowing loosely and a t-shirt with an eagle motif on it.

Negan's right-hand man Simon a.k.a. Steven Ogg, who shared Sydney tourist snaps from his Instagram the same day, attended the event in a khaki windbreaker jacket.

Return: Although his character of Noah was savagely ripped apart by walkers back in 2015, actor Tyler James Williams also made the trip to Australia to join his former co-stars

Rock chic: British-born Tom Payne, 35, who plays Paul 'Jesus' Rovia on the show, was snapped with his signature locks flowing loosely and a t-shirt with an eagle motif on it

Casual: Negan's right-hand man Simon a.k.a. Steven Ogg, who shared Sydney tourist snaps from his Instagram the same day, attended the event in a khaki windbreaker jacket

Austin Amelio, who plays shady Savior double agent Dwight, threw up the peace sign as he posed for photos by the branded step and repeat sign.

Meanwhile Michael Traynor, who portrayed Nicholas, was seen speaking to the crowd at the convention about his participation in the series.

Walker Stalker is a zombie, horror and sci-fi convention originally launched in America in 2013, which now draws over 200,000 fans annually.

Mellow: Austin Amelio, who plays shady Savior double agent Dwight, threw up the peace sign as he posed for photos by the branded step and repeat signHere are the winners! Here are the winners!

Thousands of people entered our big summer competition from 1 July to 31 August this year. Were you one of the winners? Find out below! Thousands of people entered our big...She was one of the biggest names in Hollywood who joined the #MeToo movement.

But despite her troubled past, Rosario Dawson was all smiles while walking the red carpet at The Social Justice Filming In Italy Awards in Los Angeles on Friday.

The 38-year-old actress looked radiant as she headed inside before being honored at the event.

All smiles: Rosario Dawson was all smiles while walking the red carpet at The Social Justice Filming In Italy Awards in Los Angeles on Friday

Rosario oozed bohemian vibes as she donned a black and gray Hawaiian-print dress that tied in the front with red tassels.

The Rent star teamed her ensemble with suede black boot-heels that but off at her ankles.

Rosario wore a minimal amount of make up while keeping her dark silky tresses off to one side in loose curls.

The native New Yorker finished off her evening look with dangling gold earrings.

Strutting her stuff: The 38-year-old actress looked radiant as she headed inside before being honored at the event

Effortless: Rosario oozed bohemian vibes as she donned a black and gray Hawaiian-print dress that tied in the front with red tassels

Rosario Dawson recently revealed that she was sexually abused as a child at the hands of a family member.

In an interview with the Morado Lens podcast, she explained how the horrifying experience shaped her view of the world and how she wasn't surprised to see similar abuse in Hollywood.

'I was raped and molested as a child, so for me, the world was like that since I was a child' the Luke Cage star told hosts Cindy Rodriguez and Nathalie Farfan.

'So when I saw it in the workplace, it wasnt foreign to me. It was like, well, that even happens within family. It happens with people that are supposed to take care of you when youre a child.'

Rosario was raised in poverty, born in New York City to Puerto Rican-Cuban writer Isabel Celeste, who was only 16 at the time and Patrick C. Harris - who soon disappeared from their lives.He's used to foregoing the luxuries of technology while filming scenes in isolated tropical locations for Australian Survivor.

But that changes when Jonathan LaPaglia returns to his native Los Angeles, where he has a Hoverboard-branded electric scooter to get from A to B.

The 48-year-old self-described 'gypsy' was spotted giving onlookers a thumbs up as he whizzed past a group of parked cars on Friday.

Thumbs up! Australian survivor host Jonathan LaPaglia, 48, cut a trendy figure as he rode around Los Angeles on an electric scooter this Friday

Sporting a khaki green back pack and with a jacket wrapped around his waist he wouldn't have looked out of place attending university in his casual combination.

Late last year Jonathan spoke to BW Magazine about being a free spirit before starting a family.

Like his star brother Anthony, Jonathan lives in Hollywood, leaving his homeland behind several years ago to try and make it as an actor.

Streaming ahead! The 48-year-old self-described gypsy was spotted giving photographers a thumbs up as he streamed past a group of parked cars on Friday

Cool as a cucumber: Sporting a khaki green back pack and with a jacket wrapped around his waist he wouldn't have looked out of place attending university in his casual combination

'As an actor, you end up travelling all around the country and around the world,' he explained to the publication.

'You end up being a bit of a gypsy. And thats OK when you dont have a family, but I have a family now...'

Jonathan married fellow-Australian actress Ursula Brooks in 1998, the pair sharing daughter Tilly.

Following in his footsteps! Like his star brother Anthony, Jonathan lives in Hollywood, leaving his homeland behind several years ago to try and make it as an actor

'Travelling the world': 'As an actor, you end up travelling all around the country and around the world,' he explained to the publication, 'You end up being a bit of a gypsy'

'I like getting up in the morning, doing something I love doing and then coming home to my own house,' he said.

BW placed the reality TV host on their yearly 'Hot List' because of his role on the moderately popular second season of Australian Survivor.

He has often been likened to American Survivor host Jeff Probst.

From free spirit to family man! 'And thats OK when you dont have a family, but I have a family now...' the actor continued

Back in October 2017, after a year of so-so ratings, Jonathan revealed the show's continuation was up in the air.

'We don't know for sure [if the show is coming back]. I think they're going to make a decision at the end of this month,' he told KIIS FM.

In November, the show was eventually renewed for a third season, although no cast, host, or release date has been confirmed.She's one of Australia's most in-demand bikini models.

But Natalie Roser took a day out of her busy schedule to enjoy the Laneway festival with her actor boyfriend Harley Bonner in Melbourne on Saturday.

Clad in a floaty blouse and retro sunglasses, the 27-year-old took to Instagram to share clips from the music festival.

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Cheers to the weekend! Model Natalie Roser, 27, looked chic in a floaty blouse and retro sunglasses as she attended Laneway Festival on Saturday

The blonde beauty began the day by sharing a short clip of herself showing off her luscious blonde locks and pearly smile while readjusting her sunglasses.

In the next clip, the swimsuit model captured herself taking a sip out of a test tube with her beau mimicking her as she guzzled the beverage.

Exhausted by the day's activities so far, the couple then took a break from partying by lying on the ground together.

Cute couple alert! Joining her at the trendy event was her boyfriend Harley Bonner, who featured in a video of her drinking from a test tube

Harley pillow! Exhausted by the day's activities so far, the couple took a break on the grass

Next, she shared a photo of herself posing with her arms around Harley as they watched Billie Eilish perform on stage.

Their music festival date comes after she recently fronted the cover of Women's Health Magazine in December.

Raising eyebrows, she spoke to the publication about her struggles with body confidence.

Bikini babe: Their music festival date comes after she recently fronted the cover of Women's Health Magazine in December and spoke to the publication about her struggles with body confidence

'My body confidence is good now, but there have always been doubts  if you don't get a job, you think, 'Is it because my measurements are bigger than the girl who did?' Natalie told Women's Health Magazine.

'Little things play on your mind. But I learnt pretty quickly that it's not necessarily me; it's about what the client is looking for to represent their brand.'

'Once I realised that perhaps I just didn't fit the bikinis or clothes the way they wanted, I relaxed and started to take care of myself for me,' she continued.She made her name on the Newcastle-based reality hit Geordie Shore.

And Vicky Pattison returned to her Geordie roots as partied the night away in the 'Toon' with friends on Friday .

Despite painting the 'Toon' red, the 30 year-old beauty recently confessed to 'isolated' in the north east, with her time divided between Newcastle and London.

Doon the Toon! Vicky Pattison flashed her toned stomach in white crop top while partying out in Newcastle on Friday yet admitted she missed the 'hustle and bustle' of London

The stunning I'm a Celeb winner rocked a head-to-toe white ensemble, wrapping up against the wintry evening in a wool mid-length jacket.

Her elegant cream crop top and trouser combo gave a glimpse of her rippling abs as she strolled through the city centre.

Her statuesque frame was heightened with her patent nude heels, teamed with a matching suede clutch bag.

With only her engagement ring sparkling in the muted ensemble, the northern beauty styled brunette tresses into a glossy curl.

Wonder in white: Her elegant cream crop top and trouser combo gave a glimpse of her rippling abs as she strolled through the city centre

Her cosmetic choices amplified her natural beauty, with a dark smokey eye and taupe lip to add extra drama.

While she beamed on her night out on the town, Vicky recently admitted to missing the 'hustle and bustle' of London, even trekking 300 miles to stay down to the English capital once a week.

Speaking to The Mirror, Vicky - who had previously moved to Essex with her fiance John Noble - said the quiet country lifestyle wasn't for her and she 'hasn't dealt with it very well.

She said: 'I was living out of suitcases, living in hotels, working hard and defining myself by having a career for five years'

'To go from that to a woman who lives in Newcastle, who doesn't drive, who is stuck at home on my little estate waiting for John to finish work has been a real adjustment'

Back together: Vicky - who had previously moved to Essex with her fiance John Noble - said the quiet country lifestyle wasn't for her and she 'hasn't dealt with it very well

'I haven't dealt with it very well. I got restless and I struggled with the transition. You can't go from aggressive pursuit of your career to loafing overnight.'

Now the Ex on the Beach star travels to the South for a few days a week, so she can 'appreciate' what she has back home with her soon-to-be husband.

Despite spending lots of time away from John, the Geordie said that she is proud of her life in the north east but wanted to 'keep a finger on the pulse' so she doesn't let go of all the work she's put into her career.

Vicky soared to fame in Geordie Shore's 2011 inauguration, yet left the show in 2014's series eight after many dramas played out before she was hurtled into yet more reality stardom including a victorious stint on I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here.

Vicky announced her engagement to her businessman beau in July 2017, but plans for a 2018 wedding were recently put on hold so not to steal the thunder from her sister's big day.

Speaking on The Wright Stuff, Vicky confessed to feeling 'overwhelmed' with the idea of a quick turnaround for the union - which was scheduled to be in six months time and reportedly set to cost 175,000.

She said: 'I've known John for like 10 years and of course I was just so overwhelmed and thrilled, you think I'm going to get married next summer but the practicalities of that, the reality

'It's just very difficult to plan it in a year and I've got some great things coming my way work wise.'He shockingly announced on Tuesday that he had been let go from Strictly Come Dancing's roster of professional dancers, after 15 seasons on the show.

And as the week has gone on, things have gone from bad to worse for Brendan Cole, who has seemingly received a lack of support from his Strictly co-stars.

There's been little support from the fired dancer, 41, as the judges on the show have kept quiet and only one of his pro dancer co-stars have publicly acknowledged the matter with The Sun claiming he feels the latest blow is 'an extra kick in the teeth'.

'Its an extra kick in the teeth': Axed Brendan Cole feels 'snubbed' by his fellow Strictly pro dancers... as Janette Manrara has been the ONLY one to acknowledge him being sacked

Fellow pro Janette Manrara took to Twitter, two days after the news was announced, to post: 'Because of being sick I never got around to saying to my colleague & dear friend @BrendanCole just how much @bbcstrictly will miss him!

'From day 1 he acted like family, guided me, & made me smile! A true LEGEND! I love you so much & THANK YOU for everything!  [sic]'

Thus far, this appears to be the only peep out of the the 16 professionals that have, up until now, appeared alongside Brendan on the series.

Janette - who joined the show in its 11th season, and was paired with Aston Merrygold in the latest, 15th run - is married to another of the pros, Aljaz Skorjanec, who has said nothing about Brendan's leaving, despite his wife clearly being close to the performer.

In support: Fellow pro Janette Manrara took to Twitter, two days after the news was announced

Not a peep: Janette is married to another of the pros, Aljaz Skorjanec, who has said nothing about Brendan's leaving, despite his wife clearly being close to the performer

Co-stars: Brendan is said to be furious about the snub

Brendan is said to be furious about the snub, with a source telling The Sun: 'Its an extra kick in the teeth. Not one of Brendans colleagues came out in support of him, and it didnt go unnoticed.

'Over the years the pro dancers have been on Twitter hundreds of times posting messages about celebrities and professionals as theyve left. For no one to say anything about Brendan who has been on the show since Day One felt like a real snub.'

'He might not have expected anything from the judges for obvious reasons  its well known he clashed with them regularly. But many of the pros have known him for years, so that hurts.'

'He's stunned they haven't been in touch': Sacked Strictly Come Dancing star Brendan 'is yet to hear from the show's judges after shock exit'

A source told MailOnline: 'Not one of the judges have tweeted Brendan to say thank you or good luck for the future'

Brendan appeared on Strictly as a professional dancer for 13 years but is reportedly still yet to hear from the judges as well.

A source told MailOnline: 'Not one of the judges have tweeted Brendan to say thank you or good luck for the future. He is totally stunned they haven't been in contact after being on the show for so long.'

Strictly Come Dancing declined to comment to MailOnline.

His long-standing association with the show sensationally ended amid claims of on-air arguments with judges and consistent criticism of his celebrity partners.

The cold shoulder: Thus far, this appears to be the only peep out of the the 16 professionals that have, up until now, appeared alongside Brendan on the series

But Brendan is now said to be poised for a new TV endeavour in the Australian jungle after making himself available for an appearance on long-running reality show Im A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here!

The 41-year old, whose Strictly contract will not be renewed when the show returns with a 16th series in September, will reportedly say yes to a potential three-week stay in the purpose built camp as he weighs up his options.

A source told The Sun: Now hes no longer tied down to Strictly hes well up for it. It would be a good move for all, hell get a great payday post-Strictly, and bosses will get him spilling the beans about the show to millions.

An ITV source declined to comment when contacted by MailOnline.

Strictly producers 'sacked fiery Brendan after 13 years and 15 series on the show for creating negative press and for his on-air outbursts,' saying that 'no one is bigger than the show', insiders told MailOnline on Tuesday.

All over: His 13-year association with Strictly sensationally ended amid claims of on-air arguments with judges and consistent criticism of his celebrity partners

'Producers were said to be furious over his recent interview, in which he criticised his celebrity partners,' a source claimed. 'Theyve always tolerated his rows with the judges as it creates drama and acceptable headlines but this was a step too far.'

Another source said: 'The producers believe no one is bigger than the show.'

'Theyve been struggling to recruit celebs in recent years and the producers thought this interview was a step too far in terms of negative press for the show, made it more difficult to recruit celebrities and was may have been a factor in the decision to not renew his contract.'

Gutted: The emotional star, who famously rowed with new head judge, Shirley Ballas, during the last series, as well as Bruno Tonioli, talked about his shock sacking during an appearance on breakfast show Lorraine

The emotional star, who famously rowed with new head judge, Shirley Ballas, during the last series, as well as Bruno Tonioli, talked about his shock sacking during an appearance on breakfast show Lorraine.

He said: 'This is hard to talk about. The BBC havent renewed my contract. They have made an editorial decision not to have me back on the show. I have had 15 incredible series on the show, they are a great team.

'I am very disappointed. Its an editorial decision. I will never know the ins and outs.'

The BBC told MailOnline on Tuesday: 'Wed like to thank Brendan for being part of the show since the beginning - winner of the first series - and for the contribution he has made to its success. We wish him all the very best for the future.'She hit out at online trolls who 'fat shamed' her on social media.

And Iskra Lawrence brushed off the remarks as she used her curves to promote her latest perfume Spark X at the Aerie Times Square, in New York City on Friday.

The curvy model, 27, ensured all eyes were well and truly on her cleavage as her lace scooped bra peeped out of her crop top.

Curvy lady: Iskra Lawrence showed off her incredible curves in a plunging crop top and torn jeans as she promoted her perfume at glitzy launch, in New York City on Friday

Stunning Iskra displayed her incredible hourglass figure in distressed jeans, which are ripped at the knees.

Keen to sex up her look, the blonde beauty stood tall in her racy PVC scarlet boots which added to her height with their sky-scraper heels.

The body confidence champion scraped her golden tresses into a half up-do hairstyle which framed her face, accentuated with deftly touches of make-up.

Eye-popping: The curvy model, 27, ensured all eyes were well and truly on her cleavage as her lace scooped bra peeped out of her crop top

Booty-ful: Stunning Iskra displayed her incredible hourglass figure in distressed jeans, which are ripped at the knees

Iskra has always been passionate about body confidence and she has refused to label herself a plus size model and previously protested against the lack of diversity during London Fashion Week.

It is no wonder the blonde has bagged many high-profile invites, after forging a successful modelling career, with the aim to change the industry's perceptions on beauty and size.

At the perfume launch, the golden-haired beauty beamed for cameras as she brushed off the cruel comments from trolls.

Raunchy: Keen to sex up her look, the blonde beauty stood tall in her racy PVC scarlet boots which added to her height with their sky-scraper heels

The body confidence champion divulged how she battles with online trolls who label her a 'fat pig' on her social media account.

Iskra told Harper's Bazaar in January 2018: 'I get comments like fat pig and I just think whatever, but sometimes its good to make something positive from it.

'I deal with it in two ways. I either just block and delete because I know that it's not personal. There are people out there that unfortunately, usually because hurting, like to hurt other people  its for attention or whatever. Other times I like to do something positive with it.'

Beautiful: The body confidence champion scraped her golden tresses into a half up-do hairstyle which framed her face, accentuated with deftly touches of make-up

Cheeky side: Iskra playfully poked her tongue out and flashing the peace sign as she posed up a storm for the slew of photographs at the glitzy events

Proud lady: The model flaunted her new perfume package as she used her sensational curves to promote the latest product

Sexy: The blonde beauty drew attention to her enviable figure in the tie front crop top which she teamed with distressed jeans

Fur-ever stylish: Later the golden-haired beauty threw on a furry jacket to keep warm in the Big AppleHe's been quiet when it comes to talking about his recent split from former girl band glamazon Sophie Monk.

But Stu Laundy has decided to bare his soul to Confidential, apologising to a nation who pinned their hopes and dreams on a love affair born out of reality television.

The 45-year-old millionaire publican admitted that despite the fanfare surrounding their relationship it was realistic that things came to an abrupt end.

'The reality is most of these stories will finish with the couple not together': Stu Laundy apologises to Australia after split with Sophie Monk and admits the love of his life was probably his ex-wife

'Soph's and my story is our story. I'm sorry to Australia but the reality is most of these stories will finish with the couple not together,' he told the publication on Sunday.

Admitting he now believes he and Sophie were always destined to be 'really good mates,' Stu thinks his heart may always be held by another woman.

'Sadly for me I may have had the love of my life in my ex wife and wasted it but I'll keep searching,' he said.

'Soph's and my story is our story': 'I'm sorry to Australia but the reality is most of these stories will finish with the couple not together,' he told the publication on Sunday

He said there will not be any kind of tell-all magazine deal to seal their fate but did agree with Tim Robards sentiments that the 'pressure' contributed to Stu and Sophie's timely demise.

'I agree with [The Bachelor's] Tim Robards and his opinion that they're like arranged marriages,' he said.

But while Tim and his lady love Anna Heinrich are due to wed this year the same can't be said for this year's unlucky in love duo.

Sophie Monk took to Instagram last week to confirm that she and Stu had gone their separate ways.

It's over! But while Tim and his lady love Anna Heinrich are due to wed this year the same can't be said for this year's unlucky in love duo

'I gave it the best shot I could and my intentions were everything I said I was looking for but unfortunately it just didn't work out,' the Date Night actress wrote.

She added: 'As much as I respect him we are just very different people.'

Several days later, the reality TV star broke his silence on the split, telling Nova's Fitzy & Wippa he only heard the news through social media.

'I sort of found out via Instagram,' Stu claimed.

'But having said that, we both knew in our hearts... We had discussed pushing more towards a friendship.'Former Coronation Street star Georgia May Foote appeared to blast her ex boyfriend Sean Ward in a cryptic message sent out on Twitter on Friday.

The actress, 26, took to the micro-blogging site to respond to fellow soap actor and former flame Sean Ward's cryptic tweet he posted on Wednesday - as he had written 'Karma's a patient b***h' alongside a laughing cry emoji.

On her social media channel, the brunette beauty seemingly called out her ex, kicking her diatribe off with: 'karma aint a b***h to people who do nothing wrong'.

'Karma ain't a b***h to people who do nothing wrong': Georgia May Foote hit back at her ex Sean Ward after he throws serious shade in cryptic tweet posted on Thursday

Georgia - who split with Sean in 2015 before moving on to Strictly Come Dancing professional Giovanni Pernice - continued her rambling message: 'Guilt makes people do/say funny things doesn't it.

'I always have to keep my mouth shut and i'm the one who gets the s**t'

She finished by declaring: 'Say what u want cz i really dont care what u all think. I know everything about MY life.

Georgia and Giovanni went on to enjoy a seven-month long romance after they were spotted kissing on a New Year's trip to Disney following the breakdown of her romance with Sean.

'I know everything about MY life': Georgia - who split with Sean in 2015 - continued her rambling message: 'Guilt makes people do/say funny things doesn't it

Georgia and Sean ended their eight-month romance shortly after the Strictly final amidst the actor's 'insecurity' over their relationship, according to the Daily Mirror at the time.

Sources on the BBC reality show at the time claimed Sean struggled with Georgia's closeness with her partner Giovanni with the pair spending most of their time together in rehearsals.

Now three years on from their split, the screen star cryptically shared on his Twitter feed on Wednesday after news broke: 'Karma is a patient b***h' alongside a cry face emoji, which left some of his followers replying in support: 'Sure is'.

Newly single: The ominous tweet comes after it was reported that the actress is reportedly 'struggling' after a split from boyfriend George Alsford, following 18 months together

The ominous tweet comes after it was reported that the actress is reportedly 'struggling' after a split from boyfriend George Alsford, following 18 months together.

The brunette beauty and her now ex called it quits after repeated arguments, a source told The Sun newspaper.

The split came just days after Georgia left fans worried with a slew of downcast snaps and cryptic Instagram posts, hinting all was not well in her love life.

The source said: 'They tried to make it work but called it quits after a series of arguments.

Called it off: The split came just days after Georgia left fans worried with a slew of downcast snaps and cryptic Instagram posts, hinting all was not well in her love life

'Georgia has been left devastated, as she really thought he was The One. She's been struggling.' A representative for Georgia had been contacted for comment at the time.

The former Strictly Come Dancing left fans speculating whether her and George had called it quits earlier this week, after posting a series of cryptic snaps on social media.

Fans first fuelled the speculation when Georgia posted a moody snap alongside a sad face emoji last week.

Failing to raise a smile, the former Coronation Street star looked close to tears as she covered up her gym-honed figure in a fluffy white dressing gown.

The former Strictly Come Dancing star has previously flooded Instagram with pictures of herself with her 26-year-old hunky boyfriend, who is signed to Select Model Management - the same agency she is signed to.

However, Georgia hasn't uploaded a picture of herself with the model since December.She's been with the actress and model for coming up to 19 years.

A bereaved Molly Sims took to Instagram on Friday to tell her 237K followers that her beloved Yorkshire Terrier Poupette had died.

The 44-year-old model and actress shared a gallery of eight snaps of the cutie with a touching tribute.

'She loved me unconditionally': Molly Sims took to Instagram on Friday to post a long and touching tribute to her Yorkshire Terrier Poupette, her BFF for almost 19 years, who has died

'Today I said goodbye to my sweet Poupette,' she wrote. 'She has been my MVP for almost 19 years. She found a way to mend my broken heart and bring me sunshine on my darkest days. She was my constant in a world that never stopped moving.

'From walking the runways with me, traveling to Paris and New York, breakups, love, marriage and 3 babies...Whether I was poor, rich, single or married. She loved me unconditionally,' Molly continued.

'My dear Poupette you gave us 6 babies...Chloe, Thumper, India...so many amazing memories and a LOVE that can never be replaced.

'You are forever in my heart and a part of this Tribe of 5,' she wrote, referring to her producer husband Scott Stuber, 49, and their sons Brooks, five and one-year-old Grey plus daughter Scarlett, two.

Constant companion: The 38-year-old wrote that her pup was always there, 'From walking the runways with me, traveling to Paris and New York, breakups, love, marriage and 3 babies... Whether I was poor, rich, single or married'

Taking a break: 'She found a way to mend my broken heart and bring me sunshine on my darkest days,' Molly wrote. 'She was my constant in a world that never stopped moving.'

'Poupette  you were the BEST GIFT I EVER GOT. Thank you to all the amazing vets who helped my sweet Poupette live her best life until the very end,' she continued, adding a shoutout to Los Angeles-based vet Dr. Tori Countner.

She also thanked fans for their support, saying: 'To all the people who were sweet, kind and loving to her  I CANNOT express how much I appreciate ALL of you.'

Molly's message ended with a touching note: 'I am sure she is now living her dream eating the best treats in heaven with her brother Dukey.

Bounding along: Poupette enjoyed a run on the beach as Molly carried one of her three children as a baby in this Instagram snap

Proud gran: Molly's mother Dottie cuddled her grandson and the fur baby

'I [heart emoji] you more than you will EVER know. RIP POUPETTE You will be forever with me. #LEGEND.'

Last June husband Scott's eight-year-old cream Labrador Duke died and Molly shared that on Instagram saying: 'We are BEYOND devastated Yesterday, we lost our beloved Dukie.'

However, Molly still has Poupette's daughter Chloe to held her get over the loss.

Another tragedy: Last June Molly's producer husband Scott's eight-year-old cream Labrador Duke died and Molly shared that on Instagram saying, 'We are BEYOND devastated'Prince Harrys old flame Antonia Packard and her sister Tessa have been forced to axe their annual high-society Valentines bash

Prince Harrys old flame Antonia Packard and her sister Tessa have been forced to axe their annual high-society Valentines bash after taking the controversial decision to give it a Harvey Weinstein theme.

A dozen high-society names had agreed to attend, dressed as disgraced Hollywood heavyweights Weinstein and Kevin Spacey, and James Franco  who disputes sexual misconduct claims.

The guests were tempted by invitations mocked up to look like Hollywood awards ceremony tickets.

They read: The Weinstein Company in association with the Old Vic invite you to the Cupid Awards. Carriages: When Harvey says so. Dress Code: #metoo (referring to the social media campaign highlighting sexual exploitation).

The bring-a-bottle party was to be held at Antonias smart home in Belgravia.

The invitations went out to a select group of trusted friends  but after some circulated the party plan outside of the group a backlash caused the whole affair to be called off.

Recipients included Robert Sheffield, half-brother of Samantha Cameron, who I am told did not reply.

A dozen high-society names had agreed to attend, dressed as disgraced Hollywood heavyweights Weinstein (left) and Kevin Spacey (centre), and James Franco (right)  who disputes sexual misconduct claims

Antonia is an old flame of Prince Harry (pictured during a walkabout at Cardiff Castle on January 18)

A source close to the sisters, who regularly appear in the pages of Tatler and Vogue, tells me: As feminists and supporters of the Me Too movement they organised this event with the best of intentions, to send up and further undermine the likes of Weinstein and send a message of female empowerment.

'They realised it could be misconstrued so decided to call the whole thing off. They admit it was badly misjudged and are sorry if any offence was caused.

The half-Brazilian sisters hold a party every year to bemoan the miseries of Valentines Day for singletons.

Their friends include Princess Eugenie, who they know from their days at Marlborough College.

Antonia, 31, and Harry are said to have had a fling in 2015.

Their friends include Princess Eugenie (pictured with fiance Jack Brooksbank), who they know from their days at Marlborough CollegeTo share with friends and brethren The Gospel of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ (the Everlasting Gospel), and to prepare a people to stand when He returns to redeem His remnant. Also, to share relevant information of current events, and to show how they relate to prophecy; By means of articles, editorials, opinions, scripture readings, and poetry.

Disclaimer

Endrtimes does not necessarily endorse or agree with every opinion expressed in every article/video posted on this site. The information provided here is done so for personal edification; It's up to the reader to separate truth from error, and to examine everything (like the Bereans) from a Biblical perspective. Let the Holy Scriptures be you guide! - - - FAIR USE NOTICE: These pages/videos may contain copyrighted () material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. Such material is made available to advance understanding of ecological, POLITICAL, HUMAN RIGHTS, economic, DEMOCRACY, scientific, MORAL, ETHICAL, and SOCIAL JUSTICE ISSUES, etc. It is believed that this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior general interest in receiving similar information for research and educational purposes.It was supposed to be the bunny's day.

But Rose Byrne totally upstaged Peter Rabbit at the premiere of his eponymous movie at The Grove in Los Angeles on a sunny Saturday morning.

The 38-year-old looked delightful in a light blue dress covered in red and white flowers on black stalks and silver shoes.

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Walking the green carpet: Rose Byrne looked spring fresh in a flowery frock at the premiere of Peter Rabbit at The Grove in Los Angeles on a sunny Saturday morning

The actress wore her brunette tresses up in a top knot as she posed on the carpet, which was green to look like farmer McGregor's carrot field that Peter famously raids in the beloved Beatrice Potter children's books.

Rose plays Bea, the love interest of the long suffering farmer, played by Harry Potter star Domhnall Gleason in his youth and Sam Neill as the older McGregor.

The Late Late Show host James Corden voiced Peter Rabbit in the family movie based on the books by Beatrice Potter that blends animation with live action.

Pretty as a petal: She looked delightful in a light blue dress covered in red and white flowers on black stalks and silver shoes

Hair story: The actress wore her brunette tresses up in a top knot as she posed on the carpet

Loved up: Rose brought husband Bobby Cannavale

The bunny and his alter ego: James Corden voices Peter Rabbit in the movie that combines animation with live action

Dapper: James looked dapper in a grey suit

Castmakers Rose posed with Domhnall Gleeson, 34, who plays the young Farmer McGregor, Elizabeth Debicki, 27, who voices Mopsy Bunny and producer Will Gluck

What a crowd: The foursome looked gorgeous posing

Brace of beauties: Margot Robbie, 23, who voices Flopsy Bunny looked ready for spring in a floral frock while actress Rachael Leigh Cook, 38, went for a darker outfit

Green carpet family: Jackass star Johnny Knoxville, 46, with wife Naomi Nelson and their son Rocko, eight, and daughter Arlo, six

The 39-year-old, who stood next to Peter on the green carpet, told Extra on Friday that he was hesitant about taking the part at first.

'In truth, when I got the phone call that they were making this film and would I voice this character of Peter Rabbit, I felt slightly nervous, if I am honest,' he said.

The celebrity added: 'Because you know how beloved this is in the UK, everyone grew up hearing these stories.

Family fun day: Actor Patton Oswalt and second wife Meredith Salenger, both 47, with his daughter Alice, eight, who looked cute in pink bunny ears

He's a Family Guy: Actor Breckin Meyer, 43, with his little girl Clover and her older sister Caitlin Willow, 14, at the premiere

Mom and daughter bonding: Days Of Our Lives actress Alison Sweeney, 41, took her little girl, Megan, who turns nine on Monday, along as a treat

'Then I heard the script had been sent to the Beatrix Potter estate and it was the first script they okayed' and that convinced him.

Other stars include I, Tonya's Margot Robbie, who voices Flopsy bunny, Star Wars' Daisy Ridley as Cotton-tail and Guardians Of The Galaxy's Elizabeth Debicki as Mopsy.

The movie is due out next Friday.

Flashy dresser: Young Sheldon star Iain Armitage, eight, wore a silver bowtie to match his silver boots plus a light blue shirt and jeans

Behind the scenes creatives: Composer Dominic Lewis, 33, and producer Zareh Nalbandian

Special guest: And what would the premiere of Peter Rabbit be without an actual bunny

Big shoes to fill: James smiled next to the big bunny

Why hello: The rabbit waved to the crowd

Triple threat: James, Elizabeth, Domhnall had a quick wardrobe change

Nice carrot: Will held a huge carrot for the promotion

Carrot top: Elizabeth looked like a carrot in her orange and green ensemble

Gorgeous: Alicia Machado was a star in stripesHe sparked controversy performing after 'Same Love' at the NRL Grand Final last year.

And a vindicated Macklemore has returned to Australia after a prolonged national debate saw same-sex marriage legalised on December 8.

The 34-year-old reflected on his trailblazing pre-game show and how he 'feared for his safety' with the Herald Sun on Sunday.

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Triumphant: Macklemore, who received threats for performing Same Love at the NRL Grand Final, has returned to Australia after same-sex marriage was legalised in December

The Grammy winner reportedly became a target for the Vote No campaign and received death threats prior to taking the stage, according to the newspaper.

He was forced to hire extra security because he 'was a little scared', he admitted.

Returning to Sydney for a set of shows over the weekend, he offered he was 'definitely feeling less nervous' this time around.

Vindicated: Returning to Sydney for a set of shows over the weekend, he offered he was 'definitely feeling less nervous' this time around

'Same sex marriage has passed, lets celebrate. And no one is going to kill me,' he enthused.

'Sometimes when you have hate, thats what we need as a society to be challenged to move forwards towards love. Otherwise we wouldnt fight as hard for it,' he added.

He described his NRL Grand Final performance as exhilarating, and explained how when he took to the stage he didn't feel the 'hate' and 'fear' he did from social media.

'Same sex marriage has passed, lets celebrate. And no one is going to kill me,' he enthused

'Sometimes when you have hate, thats what we need as a society to be challenged to move forwards towards love,' he added. Pictured at the Grammys in 2014 performing Same Love

'Same Love' reached the top of the Australian charts in 2013, replacing another number one from the Seattle-raised artist, 'Thrift Shop'.

It also reached number one in New Zealand, number two on the Billboard rap charts in America, number four in Canada and number six in England.

The rapper now has a new single, 'These Days', with English group Rudimental featuring Jess Glynne and Dan Caplen, which currently sits in the Australian top 10.She's had a hectic schedule with back to back movie shoots.

But Jennifer Lawrence took a moment to herself as she was spotted on a smoke break in New Orleans on Saturday.

The Oscar winner, 27, stepped out into an alley behind famed Peche restaurant with a mystery man as she puffed on a hand made cigarette.

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High maintenance: Jennifer Lawrence, 27, was spotted on a smoke break with a mystery man in New Orleans on Saturday

With a lighter in one hand and the cigarette in the other, Jennifer sparked up a conversation with her dapper companion.

The Hunger Games starlet looked sophisticated chic in a grey wool jacket as she passed the cigarette back and forth with her friend.

Her statuesque legs were put on center stage as she sported black thigh high boots and a short skirt.

Daring to impress, the gorgeous actress went virtually makeup free with a slight smokey eye and dab of berry lip.

Light it up: With a lighter in one hand and the cigarette in the other, Jennifer sparked up a conversation with her dapper companion

Just a puff: Jennifer inhaled the hand rolled smoke with vigor

Her trademark blonde tresses were left long and loose as they cascaded over her petite shoulders allowing her youthful face to shine.

Jennifer was in New Orleans to attend the Unrig The System Summit where she delivered a speech on how to remove corruption from politics.

According to its website, Unrig The System is 'a gathering of thought leaders from the right and left who are determined to fix American politics'.

Lunch break: She stepped out into an alley behind famed Peche restaurant as she puffed on a hand made cigarette

Au natural: Daring to impress, the gorgeous actress went virtually makeup free with a slight smokey eye and dab of berry lip

Recently the Passengers star attempted to inspire the next generation to be involved in politics.

The actress gave many teenagers the thrill of a lifetime as she surprised a group of high school students in Cleveland, Ohio with an inspiring discussion centered around the government.

Lawrence joined non-partisan anti-corruption organization Represent.US to lead a discussion about the current climate in the US and fixing democracy with junior and senior students at Cleveland Heights High School.

Pass it on: The Hunger Games starlet looked sophisticated chic in a grey wool jacket as she passed the cigarette back and forth with her friend

Legs for days: Her statuesque legs were put on center stage as she sported black thigh high boots and a short skirt

According to the adolescents the X-Men: First Class star's presence made a 'big difference' to the students, who were impressed by 'how informed' she was about politics.

Senior Londyn Crehnshaw said: 'It makes a big difference when people who are just 10 years older than us come to talk about political issues.

'When she said, "this is your time," that really made me think.'

Hair story: Her trademark blonde tresses were left long and loose as they cascaded over her petite shoulders allowing her youthful face to shineChanel Marriott has revealed her harrowing rape ordeal.

The 22-year-old Perth-born actress, who lives in Los Angeles, recalled a traumatic sexual assault that allegedly occurred at the hands of a male friend in July last year.

The Hawaii Five-0 star said she never suspected that a seemingly innocent invitation to his home would end in horror.

'It was terrifying': Perth-born Chanel Marriott has revealed her harrowing rape ordeal in Los Angeles

'He said, 'I've got one of my mates here from out of town and he's talking to this girl. So I'm kind of just here twiddling my thumbs',' she told The Sunday Times this week.

Chanel said the night consisted of heavy drinking and watching movies and after a while she began to get head spins before falling asleep.

Shortly thereafter, the 2014 Young Artist Awards winner allegedly woke up being assaulted in the bathroom at 3am.

Waking up in horror: 'It was really dark. I had no pants on. And someone was having sex with me... We were standing, so he had me bent over the sink basically,' she recalled. Pictured: Chanel as Young Ellie Clayton in the CBS series Hawaii Five-0 in season 5, episode 5

'It was really dark. I had no pants on. And someone was having sex with me... We were standing, so he had me bent over the sink basically,' she bravely recalled.

'I don't know how I got out of bed and into the bathroom, which is terrifying. I pulled away and I just went straight into the toilet so I could lock the door and started crying.'

The case is currently being investigated by the Los Angeles Police Department and no arrests have been made.

No memory: 'I don't know how I got out of bed and into the bathroom, which is terrifying. I pulled away and I just went straight into the toilet so I could lock the door and started crying,' she said

The actress, whose portfolio includes stints on Days Of Our Lives and Rosewood, was forced to endure a rape kit exam and fortunately she tested HIV negative.

When she confronted her alleged attacker and asked why he had assaulted her, his alleged response was: Because I thought you were sexy' and proceeded to slut-shame her.

Chanel is sharing her story in the wake of Hollywood's #MeToo campaign, that has seen a growing number of high-profile stars like Harvey Weinstein face explosive sexual assault allegations.Malcolm Turnbull will meet with Donald Trump at the White House and address a conference of American governors when he visits the United States later this month.

The prime minister will sit down with Mr Trump on February 23 to talk terrorism, economic growth and expanding security and defence co-operation in the Indo-Pacific region.

"The United States is Australia's most important ally," Mr Turnbull said in a statement.

"And there is more we can do to strengthen our partnership and drive economic growth and prosperity across the region."

It's expected Mr Turnbull will also raise the issue of the US taking part in the revised Trans-Pacific Partnership, after Mr Trump signalled he could re-engage in the trade pact if it was in his nation's interests.

"President Trump looks forward to further enhancing our partnership and alliance, and demonstrating our shared commitment to the democratic values that underpin peace and prosperity around the world," Mr Trump's press secretary said in a statement.

The prime minister will also deliver a keynote speech to the National Governors Association, which is partnering with the Australian embassy in Washington.

"This is consistent with our objective of deepening engagement with the US at all levels of government," Mr Turnbull said.

The White House also flagged a celebration of "100 years of mateship through war, peace, and prosperity, charting the course for the coming century of partnership".

Confirmation of the visit came 12 months after details of a robust phone call between the two leaders was leaked to US media.

The Washington Post reported at the time Mr Trump claimed the refugee resettlement deal struck with Barack Obama was "the worst deal ever".

However, the US president later honoured the agreement.

The leaders held a face-to-face meeting in New York in May, at which Mr Trump declared he and Mr Turnbull "get along great".A man accused of keeping a woman as a "sex slave" and repeatedly drugging and raping her at a home in Brisbane's west over a number of weeks has been denied bail.

The 29-year-old, who can't be named for legal reasons, appeared in the Brisbane Magistrates Court on Saturday charged with 28 offences, including deprivation of liberty, six counts of rape and five counts each of of sexual assault.

He was remanded in custody to appear in the Brisbane Magistrates Court on February 26.The Turnbull government is under fire for handing over $430,000 to an American consultancy firm for ideas about resolving problems with Centrelink call centres.

Centrelink telephone services have attracted sustained criticism in recent years, with more than 55 million calls met with an engaged tone in the past financial year.

Telephone wait times also ballooned over the year, with people calling the welfare agency waiting on average 15 minutes and 44 seconds to speak with someone.

Pressure on the system prompted the federal government to team up with outsourcing group Serco late last year to help operate the service, taking on an extra 250 staff to cut through the backlog of calls.

Now, in a development first reported by The Guardian, the federal government has brought in a foreign consultant to improve the call centre's operations.

The contract was awarded on a limited tender to US-based consultancy Brad Cleveland Company LLC for $430,000.

Community and Public Sector Union national secretary Nadine Flood described the spend as an outrageous waste.

"This is an absolutely outrageous amount to spend for this American consultant to tell us what any Centrelink call centre worker or customer already knows," Ms Flood told AAP.

"DHS desperately needs more permanent staff to provide the service standards that Australians need and deserve."

Labor human services spokeswoman Linda Burney said throwing money at consultants and outsourcing groups would not fix the problems at Centrelink.

"Turnbull cut 1200 jobs from Centrelink at last year's budget, and unanswered calls doubled to 55 million," Ms Burney said.

"Centrelink needs permanent, full-time staff, who are qualified and familiar with the often complex issues facing Australians who require income support."

However, Human Services Minister Michael Keenan said the coalition was cleaning up a mess created by Labor.

"The previous Labor government slashed the department's average staffing level and caused call-wait times to balloon," Mr Keenan said.

"The coalition government is investing in major business and IT projects to modernise services, making it easier for people to interact with the department."Fast-rising talent Karis Davidson will get a second crack at toppling global star Minjee Lee in the final round of the Vic Open at 13th Beach.

Playing her first four-round tournament as a professional, the 19-year-old Davidson stormed into outright second spot with one round to play after carding a six-under 67 on Saturday.

It left her at six-under 213, a single stroke behind world No.20 Lee, who had to contend with the most difficult of the afternoon conditions and eventually signed for a two-over 75.

Australian Hannah Green (71) and 2015 Vic Open champ Marianne Skarpnord from Norway (75) were tied for third at 215.

Lee and Davidson will play together in the final group on Sunday, reprising their clash in the 2014 Australian Amateur final when Lee, then 17, beat a 15-year-old Davidson 6 and 5.

Davidson has made a flying start to life in the professional ranks by successfully negotiating the notoriously tough qualifying school on the Japanese tour to earn full playing rights for 2018.

"I had a really good round today but I really wasn't expecting to be one shot off the lead," said the Queenslander.

"My goal coming into this week was top 20.

"This is my first four-day professional event but I'm not feeling any pressure.

"I'm just going to go out tomorrow, and do my best and have fun."

As a three-time winner on the LPGA Tour, Lee remains the favourite to win a second Vic Open title, having previously saluted as an amateur back in 2014.

Among the group tied for fifth spot at two-under 217 was American Cheyenne Woods.

The niece of Tiger Woods has had a rollercoaster tournament to date with rounds of 68, 80 and 69.

"I would love to get back out tomorrow and shoot another 69, 68," said the 27-year-old Woods.

"I think there is (a low number out there). I didn't even birdie the birdieable par-five and the driveable par-four. I did leave maybe two shots out there.

"My goal today was to get inside the top 10."Today's Birthday, February 4: Hannibal Buress, US stand-up comedian, actor (1983 - ).

Popular stand-up comedian Hannibal Buress had a surprise boost to his profile in October 2014 when one of his jokes became a viral hit. Performing in Philadelphia the comedian joked onstage that the "smug" moralist Bill Cosby was a rapist. The filmed routine led to a renewed scrutiny over the decades-old allegations against the former television star.

Chicago-native Buress was named after Hannibal Barca, the Carthaginian general who attacked Rome.

Before briefly attending Southern Illinois University, Buress said he caught the performance bug after choreographing a dance routine as part of a summer college talent show.

While still at university Buress hit the comedy circuit performing stand-up from 2002.

Between 2009-2010 he scored a coveted job writing skits for Saturday Night Live. All bar one of the sketches he wrote for the show never went to air but the executive producers of 30 Rock still noticed his talent, poaching him to write for the fifth season of their show. He also appeared in the hit comedy series as a bum for seven episodes.

Six months later he quit and went on to co-host surreal comedy television series The Eric Andre Show in 2012.

From 2014 Buress played a recurring role in runaway TV comedy hit Broad City. After the independently-produced web series caught the eye of Amy Poehler, the show became a fixture on Comedy Central with an average of 1.2 million viewers.

In 2015, when Eddie Murphy was awarded the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, the legendary comedian acknowledged Buress's role in helping the Cosby allegations come to light.

Buress told NewsCorp Australia in 2016 his career's consisted of "big movie, small role" in films including 2014's Neighbors, Daddy's Home in 2015 and the 2017 re-working of Baywatch.

For the 2017 premiere of Spider-Man Homecoming, the prankster sent along a body double in his place. He posted a screenshot on social media of his imposter doing an interview for the red carpet live stream.

This year the comedian is due to appear in the comedy Tag with Jon Hamm and Leslie Bibb.An elderly woman continues to cling to life days after she was attacked while walking her dogs in suburban Melbourne.

Le Le, 77, was found in a driveway at St Albans on Thursday night with "serious head injuries" and taken to hospital in a critical condition.

She was still fighting for life in Royal Melbourne Hospital late on Saturday night.

A 30-year-old woman accused of assaulting Ms Le faced Melbourne Magistrates Court on Saturday afternoon charged with intentionally causing serious injury.

She is due to re-appear in court on Monday.Xi meets delegates to Party congress of armed police force

EditorLi Jiayao Time2018-02-03

Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, meets all delegates to the third Party congress of the armed police force in Beijing, capital of China, Feb. 2, 2018. (Xinhua/Li Gang)

BEIJING, Feb. 2 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping Friday met all delegates to the third Party congress of the armed police force in Beijing.

Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC), expressed congratulations on the convening of the congress and extended greetings to the delegates and all officers and servicemen of the armed police force.

The congress was convened with approval from the CMC after the transfer of command of the armed police force from the State Council to the CPC Central Committee and the CMC starting from Jan. 1, 2018.

The main task of the congress is to implement Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era and the spirit of the 19th CPC National Congress as well as Xi's thought on making the armed forces stronger.Sydney's iconic Bondi Beach will revisit its past with more than 100 lifesavers to commemorate Australia's largest mass surf rescue on the 80th anniversary of the tragedy.

About 250 swimmers were swept out into the deep on what became known as Black Sunday - February 6, 1938 - when the backwash from three enormous waves took them by surprise.

What's believed to have been a flash rip resulted in 35 unconscious patients and five drowning deaths.

On Sunday, those scenes of panic will be re-enacted as lifesavers demonstrate the remarkable rescue mission using primitive technology of the late 1930s.

"It was quite an operation," President of Bondi Surf Bathers' Life Saving Club Jacob Waks told AAP.

Long before the days of jetskis and inflatable rescue boats, lifesavers used heavy wooden boards.

However their prime pieces of equipment were heavy wooden frames that fed spools of rope out to people in trouble.

While one rescuer was attached to the rope on a belt and swam out, the tool required five people to operate it and on Black Sunday seven spools sprang into action.

"There were a lot of accounts of people pulling on the ropes and jumping on others to try and get themselves to safety," Mr Waks said.

To make matters worse, many desperate rescuers ran in without any equipment and one of the fatalities was a member of the public who tried to help.

"That's something that we try to communicate - that you need to be careful of your own skill level too," Mr Waks added.

He said Black Sunday impacted not only modern-day rescue techniques but boosted the level of awareness.

"There are a lot of reports of people that were visiting Australia and they took it back with them to their countries, saying that this is a volunteer system," Mr Waks said.

"There's not too many services in the world where you're getting volunteers saving other people's lives."

Announcements and signs on Bondi Beach will warn beachgoers that the mass rescue is not a real emergency.

The re-enactment will begin from 3pm when the lifesavers' bell rings three times - the signal for a mass rescue.Lyle Shelton has stepped down from the Australian Christian Lobby to join Cory Bernardi's Australian Conservatives party.

Mr Shelton, a leading activist in the fight against same-sex marriage, has announced he is resigning as managing director of the ACL to pursue federal politics.

He will move from Canberra to his home state of Queensland to prepare for a tilt at the next federal election.

Mr Shelton did not say which party he would represent but sources say he will announce a new role with the Australian Conservatives at a community event in Toowoomba on Sunday.

Mr Shelton's former chief of staff Martyn Iles will take over as managing director of the ACL.A man accused of domestic violence, a robbery and an attempted carjack has been thwarted by a tenacious female witness who trailed him and filmed him on her phone.

Police say the 32-year-old man was involved in a domestic incident at a home in the Sydney suburb of Plumpton on Saturday afternoon.

He then entered a shoe shop in a nearby shopping centre and allegedly threatened the 19-year-old shop assistant and demanded cash.

The clerk handed over the money but a woman in the store confronted him. When he ran from the store, she ran after him and began to film him on her mobile phone.

The man then allegedly got into a passing car and attempted to get the driver to drive off but the woman again confronted him. He left the car and allegedly assaulted the woman and damaged her mobile phone before he was arrested by police.

He was refused bail to appear before Parramatta Bail Court on Sunday.A man is due to face a NSW court over a series of violent incidents.

The 25-year-old was allegedly involved in an argument with his 28-year-old partner at a home in Narrandera in NSW's Riverina region about 1pm on Thursday.

Shortly after 10pm, he returned to the home and became involved in a fight with a 47-year-old man, whom he allegedly struck with a tomahawk, causing head and facial injuries. But he was allegedly stabbed in the stomach by the older man during the fight.

The 47-year-old is in hospital in a serious but stable condition.

The 25-year-old then stopped at a service station on the Newell Highway and threatened the attendant and demanded cash. He also engaged in a brief pursuit before police called it off.

He was subsequently arrested in the early hours of Friday at another home in Narrandera. He was refused bail to appear at Wagga Wagga Local Court on Sunday.Federal Education Minister Simon Birmingham wants smartphones banned from classrooms, saying they are a distraction and "a platform for bullying".

The recent death of 14-year-old Amy "Dolly" Everett, a victim of cyber-bullying, has put the spotlight on the issue of access to social media and the harm it causes.

"There's almost no reason students shouldn't have their phones switched off and in their lockers while they're at school," Senator Birmingham told News Corp.

"Although learning to work with technology is essential, phones can be a distraction from lessons and a platform for bullying unless schools have the right policies in place."A man has appeared in court accused of keeping a woman "prisoner" in a Brisbane home where he repeatedly drugged and raped her over two weeks.

The 29-year-old, who can't be named for legal reasons, faced Brisbane Magistrates Court on Saturday charged with 28 offences, including deprivation of liberty and six counts of rape.

Police allege he initially drugged the victim in the Brisbane CBD with the tranquilliser benzodiazepine on January 18 before taking her to a Fig Tree Pocket home, where she was held against her will until January 31.

"In short, the defendant has kept a young lady prisoner and a sex slave for (a number of) weeks, drugging her and raping her repeatedly, with previous inclinations that would suggest the behaviour is something of a pattern," police prosecutor Mark Gorton told the court.

It's alleged during the same period the man assaulted the woman at a separate Brisbane address, filmed her without consent and distributed the footage.

The man's lawyer, Kylie Bell, told the court her client disputed the charges and claimed any sexual contact was consensual.

Magistrate Bronwyn Springer refused his bail after considering allegations of previous complaints and photos and video footage.

Ms Springer said she was particularly concerned about a video of the accused having sex with the woman where "she can be heard telling him to stop".

"(Along with) the threats to upload videos of her, the threat to kill a woman with whom he was in a previous relationship, in my view the defendant is at unacceptable risk to further offending and of endangering witnesses," Ms Springer said.

He is due to reappear in Brisbane Magistrates Court on February 26.Under-fire FBI Director Christopher Wray told the bureau's 35,000 staff members that "talk is cheap; the work you do is what will endure"

Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Chris Wray told his staff Friday to shrug off the attack on the agency's independence by President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans, and pledged to defend his agents.

"Talk is cheap; the work you do is what will endure," Wray told the 35,000 FBI staff in an internal letter.

"You've all been through a lot in the past nine months and I know it's often been unsettling, to say the least. And the past few days haven't done much to calm those waters," he said.

"Let me be clear: I stand fully committed to our mission... I stand with you."

Earlier Friday, Trump approved the release of a memo by congressional Republicans alleging abuse of power by the FBI and Department of Justice in their handling of an investigation of Trump's election campaign's ties to Russia.

Trump wrote on Twitter ahead of the memo's release: "The top Leadership and Investigators of the FBI and the Justice Department have politicized the sacred investigative process in favor of Democrats and against Republicans - something which would have been unthinkable just a short time ago."

The memo's release raised concerns that Wray could be forced out of the FBI just six months after being appointed by Trump, who fired Wray's predecessor James Comey last May.

Wray's letter made no direct reference to the memo or Trump's comments, and did not suggest that he plans to leave.

He praised the agency's high integrity, work ethic and professionalism that is "unrivaled anywhere in the world."

"We speak through our work. One case at a time. One intelligence product at a time. One decision at a time," he wrote.

"We stay laser-focused on doing great work, even when it's not easy, because we believe in the FBI."A solitary cross remained on November 15, 2017 at a Las Vegas memorial site in front of the Mandalay Bay hotel (background) for the 58 victims of the worst mass shooting in recent US history

An Arizona man was charged Friday with making armor-piercing ammunition without a license and selling it to the Las Vegas gunman whose October killing spree left 58 concert-goers dead.

Stephen Paddock, 64, killed himself after the rampage carried out from his hotel suite on Las Vegas' famed Strip on October 1 -- the deadliest mass shooting in recent US history.

Douglas Haig, 55, is charged with one count of conspiracy to manufacture and sell armor-piercing ammunition and was released on bail pending a preliminary hearing on February 15 in Phoenix.

He faces the maximum penalty of five years in prison, and possibly a $250,000 fine, if convicted.

Paddock allegedly came to Haig's home in Mesa, on the outskirts of Phoenix, in September last year to buy ammunition.

Haig had previously operated "Specialized Military Ammunition," an Internet business selling armor-piercing bullets, some of them high explosive, according to a statement from US Attorney Dayle Elieson of Nevada.

Records show he had done business in Nevada, Texas, Virginia, Wyoming and South Carolina despite having no license to manufacture armor-piercing ammunition.

Haig told investigators he reloads ammunition but does not offer reloaded cartridges for sale, and none of the rounds recovered in Las Vegas crime scenes would have tool marks consistent with his reloading equipment.

But Elieson said forensic examiners had recovered reloaded, unfired .308 caliber cartridges in the shooter's hotel rooms bearing Haig's fingerprints.

Armor-piercing ammunition recovered inside the shooter's rooms had tool marks consistent with Haig's reloading equipment, the statement added.

Police believe Paddock, a wealthy retired accountant and compulsive video poker player who took Valium for anxiety, had lost a significant amount of money before his killing spree.

Technicians scouring Paddock's computer found searches for firearms and elite police response teams, as well as "numerous photos of child pornography," Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo said last month.

Paddock had stockpiled an arsenal of firearms in his room at the Mandalay Bay hotel before he rained fire down on a country music festival where about 22,000 people had gathered.

In addition to the 58 dead, hundreds were wounded. They included 422 people who sustained wounds related to gunfire.A student reacts as parents arrive to pick up their children at Salvador Castro Middle School in Los Angeles, California on February 1, 2018, after a handgun went off accidentally in a student's bag, wounding two teens

A middle school shooting that left two students injured in Los Angeles was the result of a semi-automatic handgun going off by accident in a 12-year-old girl's bag, police said Friday.

A 15-year-old boy sustained a head wound, described as a "graze," while a girl of the same age was hit in the wrist in the incident at Salvador Castro Middle School in central Los Angeles on Thursday.

Both are expected to fully recover, and Los Angeles police said they did not believe the shooting was intentional.

An 11-year-old boy, a 12-year-old girl and a 30-year-old woman "had minor abrasions to the face area, some from glass," Erik Scott of the Los Angeles Fire Department said, adding that none of the three was struck by gunfire.

The suspect was arrested at the scene and charged in juvenile court Friday with felony counts of being a minor in possession of a firearm and having a weapon on school grounds.

The girl, who is not being identified by authorities because of her age, is scheduled to be arraigned Monday, according to the District Attorney's Office, which said it would not release any further information.

Some of her friends told reporters that she claims the gun "went off" when she dropped her backpack.

"At this time, the information suggests that this was an isolated incident, involving the negligent discharge of a firearm, where innocent children and a staff member were unfortunately injured," the LAPD said in a statement.

Speaking Friday on KNX Newsradio, Mayor Eric Garcetti said a single bullet apparently went through the girl's wrist and struck the boy near one of his temples before lodging in his neck.

Chief Steve Zipperman of the Los Angeles School Police Department said Thursday it was unclear how the gun wound up on the secure campus.

"We have laws that mandate that parents who own guns, any adult who owns guns, any gun owner has an obligation to ensure that gun is locked inside a home," he added.

The image of 12-year-old children bringing guns into the classroom has reignited the long-running debate on America's epidemic of gun violence and the ready accessibility of weapons.

Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer said the incident should be a "call to action" for gun owners to ensure weapons are kept away from children while Los Angeles County Supervisor Hilda Solis said she was "horrified" by events.

More than 33,000 people die annually in the United States from gun-related deaths -- two thirds of them suicides -- according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.A prominent Islamic scholar has been charged with rape after two women accused him of assaulting them in hotel rooms in France.

Tariq Ramadan, a professor of Islamic studies at the University of Oxford, was arrested by French police on Wednesday.

He has denied the allegations and filed a complaint for slander against author Henda Ayari, one of his accusers.

Ms Ayari, 41, claims Ramadan raped her at a Paris hotel during a Muslim convention in 2012.

Tariq Ramadan, a professor of Islamic studies at the University of Oxford, has been taken into custody in Paris as part of an investigation into rape allegations

She first made the allegation in October last year as part of the #MeToo movement in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein scandal.

She later made a formal complaint to prosecutors in Rouen, Normandy on October 20, insisting she had been too scared to speak up until now.

The divorced mother-of-three also accused the contemporary Islamic studies professor of threatening her children to stop her from going to the police.

'He choked me so hard that I thought I was going to die,' she told Le Parisien newspaper.

The other accuser is a an unnamed disabled woman also claims the academic raped her in a hotel room in Lyon in 2009.

Ramadan was remanded in custody pending a bail hearing, to be held within four days.

Accuser: Henda Ayari, 41, a feminist activist, says Ramadan raped her in a Paris hotel room during a Muslim convention in 2012

'If there are other victims in France or elsewhere, they now know that the justice system will respond to what has happened to them,' said Jonas Haddad, lawyer for feminist activist Henda Ayari, the first woman to accuse Ramadan.

Women who have testified anonymously during three months of preliminary investigations might now also file rape complaints, one of the sources said.

The married father of four has denied the accusations from the two women.

In November, Oxford University said Ramadan was taking a leave of absence from his post as professor of contemporary Islamic studies, 'by mutual agreement'.

He has also denied allegations in Swiss media of sexual misconduct against teenage girls in the 1980s and 1990s, denouncing them as 'a campaign of lies'.

Lawyers for Ramadan have accused Ayari of slander and suggested the women colluded to try to disgrace him.

As part of his defence, he has presented investigators with Facebook conversations in which a woman identified as Ayari allegedly made explicit advances towards him in 2014, two years after the alleged rape.Concerned surgeons have blasted the expensive penis whitening fad that is making headlines in Thailand.

They have warned the bizarre procedure, considered unsafe, could leave men with burns, scars and taut skin.

Health officials in Thailand have already warned of the potential side effects of the procedure, including infections and serious scarring.

And now leading plastic surgeons have spoke of their fears of the procedure, which often involves lasers beamed onto delicate skin.

They have warned the bizarre procedure, considered unsafe, could leave men with burns, scars and taut skin

Dr Massimiliano Brambilla, a Milan-based plastic surgeon who specialises in genital procedures, told AFP: 'I think it should not be done in a patient that doesn't need it.

'Most of the substances that are used to whiten... are quite aggressive. Whitening is one of those things that I am very careful of.'

Dr Fabien Boucher, from Lyon, France, another practitioner of 'intimate' procedures, said: 'Honestly, I don't think they should be doing it.'

It comes after it was revealed that at least 100 men a month are undergoing the procedure at The Lelux Hospital in Bangkok.

Specialists at the clinic began offering the unconventional treatment six months ago, at a cost of 460 ($650) for five laser sessions.

Dr Mingkwan Wichaidit, director of Thailand's Department of Medical Services, said a penis is bound to return to its natural color.

Human bodies will continue to produce melanin, the pigment that gives our skin its distinct tone, even after the expensive treatment.

This natural process will reverse the whitening over time.

Dr Mingkwan noted last month that there was no evidence to suggest the process was 100 per cent safe on any kind of genital area.

Dr Thongchai Teerahattayakorn, of the Health Service Support Department, added that penis whitening could potentially affect men's fertility.

Speaking about the rise in penis whitening, Dr Boucher said: 'I think it's linked to the pornographisation of society.'

He warned that people today see an 'unrealistic' view of genitals, and that they are often manipulated to represent those of young people.

Dr Boucher revealed that it is normal for the genitals to be more darkly coloured than the rest of the skin.

He said: 'A key defect of our penile reconstruction procedure is that we end up with white penises which are visibly not natural.'

Another reason for the Thai trend is cultural. The Asia Pacific region is a major market for skin lighteners.

Dr Boucher stressed there has been little scientific research into the use of lasers and chemicals for penis-whitening.

And no bleaching techniques or products have been developed uniquely for use in this sensitive area.

'The skin of the penis is different' to that of the face or body, for which the existing products were conceived, said Dr Boucher.

'It is a thin skin... and we do not yet fully understand how it will react. If the colour is uniform, I really see no need.

'But even if there is a reason for intervention, such as an accident, the instruments that we have now to do it, they cannot guarantee... the safety of what you're doing.'Myanmar says it launched a proportionate crackdown on Rohingya rebels, but has blocked reporters and UN investigators from independently accessing the conflict zone

Myanmar on Saturday denied that there were five mass graves of Rohingya Muslims in a village in crisis-hit Rakhine state, saying that 19 "terrorists" had been killed and buried in the area.

The denial was response to an Associated Press report that used testimony from dozens of Rohingya refugees and time-stamped cell phone videos to describe a massacre by soldiers and at least five previously unreported mass graves in Rakhine's Gu Dar Pyin village.

The Myanmar government's Information Committee said in a statement on its Facebook page that a government inspection team had gone to the village to probe the report and found it to be false.

"The inspection team systematically investigated the AP's report on the Gu Dar Pyin village case, including interviewing villagers, and found it not to be true," the statement said.

The report, which AFP could not independently verify, described grisly violence at the hands of soldiers and Buddhist vigilantes, who allegedly attacked villagers with guns, knives, rocket launchers and grenades before dumping bodies into pits and dousing them with acid.

Satellite images showed a village that has been completely wiped out, with villagers interviewed in refugee camps in Bangladesh claiming that up to 400 people could have been killed, according to the report.

The Information Committee said there had been deadly clashes between security forces and Rohingya militants in the village on August 28 which left 19 "terrorists" dead.

"Nineteen dead terrorists were found... the bodies were buried," the statement said, without giving details on the location or nature of the graves.

Myanmar troops are accused of waging an ethnic cleansing campaign against the Muslim minority, nearly 700,000 of whom have fled to Bangladesh since last August.

The army staunchly denies the allegation, saying it is a proportionate crackdown on Rohingya rebels. It blocks media and UN investigators from independently visiting the conflict zone in northern Rakhine.

The severe restrictions on media access imposed by Myanmar make it difficult to verify the flood of testimony gathered from Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh, whose stories have led the UN to accuse Myanmar troops of possible genocide.

This week a spokesman for the UN secretary general said he was "very concerned" about the report of mass graves, adding that it "underscores the need for the UN to have access to Rakhine state".

Last month the army made a rare admission that four members of the security forces had helped kill 10 Rohingya militant suspects in a different village on September 2 and left their bodies in a hastily dug pit.

Rights groups say that incident is the tip of the iceberg.

Doctors Without Borders estimates that at least 6,700 Rohingya were killed in the first month of the military crackdown.

The army has put the official death toll of the conflict at 400.A high tide energized by storm surges in 2014 washed across an island in Majuro Atoll, A high tide energised by storm surges washed across an island in Majuro Atoll, Marshall Islands in 2014, causing widespread flooding and damaging a number of homes

Emergency services were put on standby Saturday in Majuro, as rising king tides threatened to flood the capital of the low-lying Marshall Islands.

The national weather service warned "major inundation" was possible from Saturday evening through to Tuesday at peak tide periods in the Pacific island nation, highlighting its vulnerability to rising sea levels.

"We're on stand-by through Tuesday," Public Works Minister Tony Muller said Saturday as the 30,000 population of Majuro Atoll braced for the expected floods.

Heavy equipment, including bulldozers, was being positioned at critical locations around Majuro so emergency crews can respond quickly in the event of flooding, he said.

Majuro is barely a metre above sea level and the single road along the 30-mile (50-kilometre) length of the coral atoll is often blocked during serious flooding by coral, rocks, sand and garbage tossed up by waves.

The National Disaster Management Office has been placed on high alert and used its mass text messaging system for the first time Friday to issue a high tide advisory.

The US National Weather Service in nearby Guam issued an advisory Saturday morning warning "major inundation of one to two feet is possible, especially during high tides inside the lagoon".

King tides, which are extremely high tides, are a natural phenomenon early in the year in the Marshall Islands caused by the strong gravitational pull from a new or full moon when the moon is at its closest to the earth.Police officers patrol in front of the residence of Myanmar's leader Aung San Suu Kyi in Yangon earlier this week after a petrol bomb was hurled into the compound

Myanmar police say they have arrested a mentally ill man who confessed to tossing a petrol bomb into the Yangon compound of de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi this week.

Suu Kyi was not home when the crude bomb landed inside the gate of her lakeside villa on Thursday, causing little damage other than a fire that burned a water pipe.

But the incident unnerved supporters of the Nobel laureate, who championed Myanmar's democratic transition but has suffered a fallout with the international community over her failure to condemn army abuses against Rohingya Muslims.

Using photos taken by a witness of the attack, officers arrested Win Naing, 48, in the early hours of Friday, according to a report posted on Yangon police's official Facebook page.

"He confessed that he took a bottle filled with petrol...and threw it into the compound," the report said, adding that Win Naing does a security job for a construction company.

Police said they believe Win Naing has "mental health problems" but will continue to take legal action against him.

He told officers that he was motivated to throw the bomb because he had been "cursed by magic", the police report said.

Suu Kyi has not commented on the incident, which took place almost exactly one year after the assassination of one of her top legal advisors Ko Ni.

Ko Ni, one of few Muslims to hold a prominent government position in mainly Buddhist Myanmar, was shot in the head as he waited outside Yangon airport while holding his grandson.

The murder horrified the Muslim community and the ruling party in particular in a country where political assassinations are rare.Sri Lanka's Roshen Silva made 109 before he was the only batsman to be dismissed in the first session of the fourth day of the first Test against Bangladesh

Sri Lanka spinners led by Rangana Herath took three crucial wickets late in day four to leave Bangladesh with an uphill task of saving the opening Test in Chittagong on Saturday.

Bangladesh reached 81-3 at stumps, still needing 119 to make Sri Lanka bat again. The visitors declared their first innings at 713-9 in the final session.

Off-spinner Dilruwan Perera dismissed Imrul Kayes for 19 before left-arm unorthodox bowler Lakshan Sandakan got Tamim Iqbal caught behind for 41.

Herath then removed Mushfiqur Rahim for two with his left-arm spin in the last over of the day.

Mominul Haque -- 18 not out -- was at the crease when the players walked back after another run-filled day.

"We have a pretty good chance to win the Test. It is a pretty good wicket. It is all turning from the rough, and outside the stumps," said Sri Lankan wicketkeeper Niroshan Dickwella.

"We are hoping to start the (fifth and final) day well. We are bowling in good areas, line and length."

Sri Lanka declared their innings in the third over into the final session with a lead of 200 runs in response to Bangladesh's first innings total of 513.

Left-arm spinner Taijul Islam, who returned figures of 4-219, took two wickets off his successive overs to wrap up the Sri Lankan innings.

Taijul got the all-important wicket of skipper Dinesh Chandimal for 87 before off-spinner Mehedi Hasan removed Dickwella for 62 to slow down the Sri Lankan progress.

"It is a batting wicket, but we didn't bowl to that level. I think they made 100 runs too many," said Taijul.

Debutant left-arm spinner Sunzamul Islam got his maiden Test wicket, trapping Dilruwan Perera leg-before for 32.

Roshen Silva joined the run fest in the morning session to post his maiden Test century after Sri Lanka resumed on 504-3.

He made 109 off 230 balls before becoming the first batsman dismissed on the day.

Silva was Sri Lanka's third century maker of the innings after Kusal Mendis and Dhananjaya de Silva, who made 196 and 173 runs respectively.

Mehedi ended Silva's impressive innings when the right-hander edged a low delivery to wicketkeeper Liton Das.

Silva shared a 135-run stand with Chandimal for the fourth wicket and hit six fours and a six.Sri Lanka has ordered a corruption investigation at its national carrier, including the controversial termination of a management deal with Emirates airline, the government said Saturday

Sri Lanka has ordered a corruption investigation at its national carrier, including the controversial termination of a management deal with Emirates airline, the government said Saturday.

President Maithripala Sirisena has appointed a five-member panel to investigate the financial transactions of Sri Lankan airlines from 2006 to 2008, when the deal with Emirates was ended, a statement from his office said.

Sri Lankan, founded in 1979 as Air Lanka, was profitable until the government of strongman president Mahinda Rajapakse, who ran the country from 2005 to 2015, kicked out the Emirates management team.

The deal was cancelled in 2008 after Emirates refused to bump fare-paying business class passengers to give the seats to Rajapakse's family, who were returning to Colombo from London.

A furious Rajapakse removed the Emirates-appointed CEO of Sri Lankan from his post and put his brother-in-law, who had no aviation industry experience, in charge of the airline.

Since then, Sri Lankan airlines has sunk into the red, with an estimated loss of more than a billion dollars and debts of $3.2 billion.

Sirisena's office said he ordered the five-member panel to focus on the "termination of agreements between Sri Lankan airlines and Emirates, including reasons and ramifications thereof."

Emirates paid $70 million to buy a 43.6 percent stake in Sri Lanka's national carrier when it was privatised in 1998 and had a contract to fully manage the airline till it was forced to leave.

Emirates' share of the company was eventually bought by the Sri Lankan government.

A criminal investigation is already underway into the airline's purchase of new Airbus aircraft at a cost of over two billion dollars during Rajapakse's decade in power.

The mounting debt crisis at Sri Lankan airlines has forced the new government to seek international partners to inject capital and manage the airline, but there have been no takers so far.

The move comes amid allegations that Sri Lanka's new government, which came to power January 2015, has been slow to crack down on corruption under Rajapakse.

The government last week set up special courts to investigate charges of corruption amounting to billions of dollars under the former regime.The ICE raids took place in cities including San Francisco, Sacramento and San Jose in the north of California -- a 'sanctuary state'

US immigration officials said Friday they raided 77 California businesses this week as operations intensify in the state, whose own authorities are defying President Donald Trump's hard line on immigration by not cooperating with federal enforcement agents.

The raids took place in cities including San Francisco, Sacramento and San Jose in the north of California -- a "sanctuary state" where, since January 1, law enforcement has been mostly prohibited from working with federal officials seeking to arrest undocumented immigrants.

"The actions taken this week reflect ... stepped-up efforts to enforce the laws that prohibit businesses from hiring illegal workers," with a focus on "protecting jobs for US citizens and others who are lawfully employed," US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said in a statement.

In 2017, the government carried out 1,360 similar raids and arrested more than 300 people -- with businesses paying out over $100 million in restitution and fines, ICE said.

"It's put people in a lot of panic," Mariela Garcia, with San Jose-based charity Sacred Heart Community Service, told the local Mercury News.

"We have people who are quitting their jobs."

US immigration authorities also recently adopted a policy that allows officials to enter courtrooms to arrest undocumented immigrants. Previously, courtrooms were considered "sanctuaries" so as to not discourage witnesses from testifying during trials.

Meanwhile last month, ICE agents carried out visible raids on around 100 7-Eleven convenience stores across the country to discourage managers from hiring undocumented workers.KT McFarland's nomination to be ambassador to Singapore, put forward in May, was returned by the Senate to the White House early last month, only for her to be re-nominated

Former US deputy national security advisor KT McFarland withdrew her nomination to be ambassador to Singapore, in a move that left President Donald Trump "disappointed."

McFarland's nomination proved controversial as senators questioned whether she knew about conversations between Russia's ambassador to Washington Sergey Kislyak and former national security advisor Michael Flynn in 2016.

Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about those discussions in December, having been fired by Trump over the matter months earlier.

McFarland was nominated for the ambassador role after stepping down from her national security post following the arrival of Flynn's successor, H.R. McMaster.

The nomination, put forward in May, was returned by the Senate to the White House early last month -- only for McFarland to be re-nominated a week later.

In a statement released Friday, the president said McFarland, also a former Fox News analyst, served the administration "with distinction" -- but accused Democrats of choosing "to play politics rather than move forward with a qualified nominee for a critically important post."

"I wish K.T. the best as she uses her considerable wisdom and skill as a commentator to explain to the American people how to make American foreign policy great again," Trump added.The DR Congo's powerful Catholic church has clashed with President Joseph Kabila over his refusal to step down

Police "kidnapped" a Catholic priest Saturday after mass in Kinshasa, witnesses said, amid spiralling tensions between the church and the DR Congo's government over the president's refusal to step down.

"Father Sebastien was taken away by police just after morning mass," a nun of the Saint-Robert parish told AFP in N'sele on the eastern outskirts of the capital.

A police vehicle drew up outside the church, officers jumped out and "started to beat the priest," said another nun who had also witnessed the incident.

"They threw him in the jeep and drove off with him," she said, adding that an unidentified man "filmed the priest" on his mobile phone during mass.

Police refused to comment on the incident when contacted by AFP.

Priest Sebastien Yebo has worked for the parish since August 2017.

The incident comes after a deadly crackdown by the government on Catholic-organised protests against President Joseph Kabila.

At least 15 people have been killed in clashes with security forces at rallies on December 31 and January 21, according to the UN peacekeeping mission MONUSCO.

Kabila, 46, has been in power since 2001, at the helm of a regime widely criticised for corruption, repression and incompetence.

His constitutional term in office expired in December 2016 but he has stayed on, stoking a bloody spiral of violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Under a deal brokered by the powerful Catholic Church, he was allowed to stay in office provided new elections were held in 2017.

The authorities then postponed the election until December 23 this year, citing what they said were logistical problems in preparing for the vote.

The delay, coupled with the mounting violence, has placed Kabila on collision course with the church, which has a prominent role in the DR Congo due to its educational and social care work.The Egyptian Cabinet's Information and Decision Support Center (IDSC) on Thursday dismissed rumors originating on social media that the Ministry of Education is planning to postpone the start of this year's second semester in Egypt's schools, reaffirming Saturday 3 February as the semester's official start date.

The IDSC attributed the origin of the rumors to "false" Facebook pages claiming to belong to the minister of education

The center verified the validity of the original date after confirming with the Ministry of Education, and completely dismissed any possibility of postponement.

Egypts current school semester began on 23 September 2017.

Some 22 million students are currently enrolled at Egyptian public schools, while over one million are enrolled at private schools.

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Several Sri Lankan Buddhist temples have pet elephants, which are considered sacred animals and are paraded at annual pageants

A senior Buddhist monk died in hospital Saturday, a day after being attacked by an elephant at his own temple near the capital, police said.

Bellanwila Wimalarathana, 77, was violently pushed to the ground by the tusker, but the mahout managed to prevent the monk from being gored, police said.

The monk was rushed to hospital but died a day later. He was also a vice chancellor of a state-run university and becomes the first high profile monk to be killed by a tamed elephant in the country.

The elephant was gift to the temple by the government of Myanmar in mid 2013 and it had been named "Myan Kumara."

Elephants are considered sacred animals protected by law in Sri Lanka. Several Buddhist temples have pet elephants which are paraded at annual pageants.

Despite laws protecting them, about 200 elephants are killed annually by farmers who say they stray onto their land and destroy crops. About 50 people are killed in wild elephant attacks annually.

Sri Lanka's elephant population has dwindled to just over 7,000, according to the latest census, down from an estimated 12,000 in 1900.African migrants cross their hands over their heads to protest against their detention at the al-Hamra shelter in Libya's Gharian on February 2, 2018

Dozens of Sub-Saharan African migrants at a Libya detention centre got to their knees and crossed their wrists above their heads to protest their imprisonment.

They staged their protest at the Al-Hamra shelter in Gharyan, 100 kilometres (60 miles) south of Tripoli, during a visit Friday by Mabruk Mohammad al-Targui, the tourism minister of Libya's fragile unity government.

"This gesture is a call for freedom," said Saddam, from Sudan's Darfur region, who fears being forced to return to a homeland ravaged by war.

"We have been in this detention centre four months," he said. "For more than a month no organisation has come to see us."

Most of the detainees are from of Chad, Somalia, Eritrea or Darfur. Many worked and saved for years before attempting the trip to Europe, leaving behind violence and insecurity at home.

Sub-Saharan African migrants perform during an event celebrating African culture and folklore at the al-Hamra shelter in the Gharian region of Libya on February 2, 2018

But Libya itself is far from safe. Rocked by lawlessness since the NATO-backed 2011 uprising that toppled and killed longtime dictator Moamer Kadhafi, it has become a key transit country for illicit migration.

Migrants take major risks passing through the North African country.

In October, following weeks of deadly clashes around the western city of Sabratha, a major departure point for migrants attempting perilous sea voyages to Europe, more than 3,000 were arrested.

Between 800 and 1,000 were transferred to the Al-Hamra centre, where they are crammed into 12 buildings intended for around 200 people.

African migrants cross their hands over their heads to protest against their detention at the al-Hamra shelter in Libya's Gharian on February 2, 2018

On Friday the centre organised a party with African music and dance to "help them forget their suffering", according to shelter director Colonel Al-Bahloul Shananah.

He said the event also aimed to highlight "the need to intervene quickly and find solutions for these people".

But he voiced scepticism over the migrants' protest.

"They make this sign to indicate that they are detained," Shananah said. "But their presence... in the shelters is for a reason: they entered Libyan territory illegally."

"These young Africans, if we open the doors to them, they will go back to sea," he added. "We will see new tragedies and thousands of deaths."The Federal Bureau of Investigation is in the eye of a political firestorm, but does it need to clean up its image? Some experts say yes

The Federal Bureau of Investigation, accused of abusing its power in its probe of links between President Donald Trump's election campaign and Russia, has become a political punching bag, experts in the US law enforcement community say.

But after two years of becoming deeply enmeshed in the swirl of American politics -- at one point in 2016, it was investigating both Trump's team and Democratic rival Hillary Clinton -- the FBI also needs to clean up its image, they say.

"I think that there are troubling things that myself, many former agents, as well as current on-board employees, would like to see a full accounting of," said retired special agent James Gagliano.

In the past few years, actions by the agency's top management "have had a deleterious effect on the reputation of the FBI," Gagliano, who is now an adjunct assistant professor at St John's University in New York, told AFP.

The FBI was accused of both aiding Clinton's campaign and causing her loss.

Since then, Trump and his Republican Party claim that the agency has tried to discredit his victory -- and possibly help force him from office -- by opening a special investigation into possible collusion with Moscow.

The FBI took another brutal hit Friday when Trump spearheaded a Republican effort to tar the agency as deeply politicized, with the release of a secret, controversial GOP memo.

But the agency's director Christopher Wray -- who was hand-picked by Trump six months ago, but whose future now seems unclear -- has so far stood tall.

"Talk is cheap," he told his 35,000-strong staff after the memo release, in an internal letter obtained by AFP.

- History of clashes -

Trump's battle with the Justice Department and FBI is not new, and is just one in a long series of fights between presidents and their top law enforcement officials.

Legendary G-Man J. Edgar Hoover, the agency's first director who served for nearly a half-century, turned the FBI into an institution feared by crooks and politicians alike.

Presidents from Harry Truman to Richard Nixon considered dismissing him, but Hoover was seen as too powerful -- and dangerous.

The FBI director is appointed for a term of 10 years -- a method seen as ensuring he or she remains apolitical. But some critics say that goal has not been met.

Actions taken by ousted FBI director James Comey -- seen here being sworn in at a Senate intelligence committee hearing on June 8, 2017 -- are at the root of Trump's battle with the agency

The root of the current battle is former director James Comey's personal handling of the 2016 investigation into Clinton's use of an unauthorized personal email server while she was secretary of state.

His attempts to keep that sensitive probe apolitical fell flat, reaping attacks from both parties even as he twice found the evidence lacking to charge her.

"The Clinton investigation put the FBI in the center of the political battle," said Jeffrey Ringel, a veteran agent who is now director of the Soufan Group, a security consultancy.

"Either way, the FBI was going to come out bruised."

- The Russia probe -

After becoming president, Trump took umbrage when Comey pursued allegations that Russia had meddled in the 2016 election to help the real estate mogul win.

Comey refused to back off and declare loyalty to Trump, who fired him, accusing him of being pro-Democrat.

Since then, Trump has built a campaign against the agency, alleging that Comey, his onetime deputy Andrew McCabe, agents who served on both the Clinton and Trump probes, and some Justice Department officials were biased against him.

Republicans say leaked text messages show that two investigators working both cases were deeply anti-Trump. They note that McCabe's wife was supported by Clinton in a failed run for state office in Virginia.

Before Friday's release of the memo, Trump said leaders of both the FBI and the Department of Justice had "politicized the sacred investigative process in favor of Democrats and against Republicans - something which would have been unthinkable just a short time ago."

- Impossible situation -

FBI agents say Comey made the best of an impossible situation -- investigating two top candidates during an election.

But he also plunged the agency too much into the limelight, and blurred the lines of impartiality, they said.

FBI Director Christopher Wray -- who was hand-picked by Donald Trump just six months ago -- is now in the president's crosshairs

Gagliano says while the agency's current predicament is not unprecedented, "it is unsettling."

He insisted that while agents have their political leanings, they rigorously put them aside on the job, and that only "a few people" had compromised that.

"Their impartiality, their lack of a political agenda has been compromised to some extent via a few people," he noted.

Most analysts have dismissed the criticisms in the so-called "Nunes memo" released by the House Intelligence Committee on Friday as deeply distorted and unfair to the FBI.

But current and former agents say Wray needs to strongly defend the agency -- while clearing the cloud of political bias hanging over the staff.

"Wray needs to stress among the rank and file that the FBI must be seen as apolitical and cannot let their personal opinions affect their investigative actions," Ringel said.US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, right, got a warm welcome in Mexico from his Mexican and Canadian colleagues, even as President Donald Trump argued at home that US allies in the Americas are "laughing at us"

President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson were both addressing drug smuggling and immigration across the southern US border.

But their stark difference in tone during separate Friday meetings underlined a divide that has some asking: "Who speaks for America?"

Trump was in Virginia, meeting border protection officers and calling for harsher measures to deal with those "pouring in from El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, all over."

Tillerson was on the Mexican leg of a Latin American tour, talking to local officials about a shared effort to combat international organized crime on both sides of the border.

At the Border Patrol National Targeting Center, Trump also heard about US efforts to partner with Latin American countries to stem the flow of drugs and illegal migrants.

But his response was scathing: "And what are Mexico and Colombia and these other countries -- what are they doing about it? Nothing? Do you think they're really trying?"

President Donald Trump said at the Border Patrol National Targeting Center that the US is spending billions of dollars in aid to partner countries while "they're pouring drugs into our country"

Trump claimed that the United States was spending billions of dollars in aid to partner countries "and they're pouring drugs into our country and they're laughing at us."

And he explicitly linked the threat of drug gangs in America to migration from south of the border, underlining that this is the reason he is seeking to reform immigration law.

- 'Not helpful' -

The night before Trump's latest outburst, Tillerson had dined in Mexico City with his Mexican counterpart Luis Videgaray and senior Mexican military and intelligence leaders.

And, as Trump was speaking, he was following up with three-way talks with Mexico and Canada on cross-border trade and law enforcement and hearing concerns about immigration rules.

Tillerson too stressed the importance of fighting the "transnational criminal organizations" Washington says are behind the opioid drug epidemic and violent crime on both sides of the border.

But he was careful to acknowledge that the United States has its own share of responsibility in having provided a market for drugs and allowing guns to be smuggled south to the cartels.

And, unlike Trump, he praised Mexico's efforts.

"So this is a joint effort that is very, very active, it is very robust, and we intend to maintain this effort well until we have resolved this problem," he told reporters.

So, is it a robust joint effort, or are the United States' Latin American friends not really trying?

This was not the first time Tillerson's diplomatic efforts abroad have been undercut by Trump's declarations at home.

Last year when Tillerson was in China and talking about holding open diplomatic channels to North Korea, Trump tweeted that he was "wasting his time."

Tillerson has also distanced himself publicly from the president at least once, saying that Trump was speaking "for himself" when he defended far-right demonstrators.

But, since reports last year -- denied by the administration -- that Tillerson had privately called Trump a "moron," officials have stressed they are on the same page.

Friday's conflicting remarks, however, suggested that the difference in tone is not simply a good cop-bad cop act.

Onboard Tillerson's plane from Mexico to his next set of delicate meetings in Argentina, one US official told reporters the president's remarks were "not helpful."

The secretary's closest aides would not criticize Trump directly, but stressed that Tillerson's more optimistic message reflects official US foreign policy.

Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Steve Goldstein said of Trump's remarks: "Different people speak different ways but the policy hasn't changed.

"And the secretary spoke about US foreign policy today," he added, noting that Tillerson felt he had made progress on deepening cooperation with Mexican authorities.

"We leave here feeling that we accomplished a great deal. We have more to do, but we're all on the same page and heading towards the same goal," Goldstein said.

Reform of America's immigration laws, including DACA, an initiative to shield hundreds of thousands of undocumented people brought to America as children, is not Tillerson's job.

Mexican Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray, right, highlighted Tillerson's role in bringing their two countries closer together

But, representing America in Mexico, he felt the need to acknowledge the "value of those people" and admit that it is "painful" for migrants to be living in uncertainty.

Or, as Goldstein described it later: "The secretary today in his meetings was stating US foreign policy as it relates to these issues, and he has respect for all people."

- Mixed signals -

In Washington, foreign diplomats often complain of mixed signals from the administration, between the White House, the US mission at the United Nations and the State Department.

Columnists have started to suggest the United States has two policies, Trump's "America First" versus Tillerson and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis' cultivation of alliances.

Foreign leaders, wary of the disruptive effect of Trump's impulsive tweets, are careful not to publicly take sides.

But, when Tillerson addressed a news conference with Videgaray and Canada's foreign minister Chrystia Freeland, his international colleagues' choice of language was notable.

"I want to highlight the role and leadership of Secretary Tillerson, who has been instrumental to achieving this, and to bring our countries closer," Videgaray said.

And Freeland dubbed Tillerson, in words it is hard to imagine a foreign leader using about Trump, "an incredibly important voice in maintaining the rules-based international order."A picture taken from the outskirts of the Palestinian city of Nablus shows a view of the wildcat Jewish settlement outpost of Havat Gilad on February 2, 2018

The Israeli government is due on Sunday to discuss giving retroactive approval to a wildcat settlement in the occupied West Bank, where an Israeli rabbi was shot dead last month.

The official agenda for Sunday's weekly cabinet meeting says ministers will hear a motion to designate the 15-year-old Havat Gilad outpost as a "new community" which will have the necessary building permits and a state budget.

Rabbi Raziel Shevah was shot dead near Havat Gilad, where he lived, on January 9.

The following week, Israeli troops searching for his attackers shot dead a Palestinian suspect in the city of Jenin in the northern West Bank, about 35 kilometres (22 miles) north of Havat Gilad.

At Shevah's funeral there were calls for "revenge" during a speech by Education Minister Naftali Bennett of the far-right Jewish Home party.

Bennett responded by saying that the only revenge should be in building more settlements.

Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman, sponsor of the forthcoming cabinet motion, spoke on Wednesday of getting official recognition for Havat Gilad.

"We promised and the proposal to normalise Havat Gilad outpost as a regular community will be brought to the cabinet for approval this coming Sunday," Lieberman wrote on Twitter.

According to his cabinet motion the outpost was founded in 2002 and currently houses about 40 families.

Israeli settlements are seen as illegal under international law and major obstacles to peace as they are built on land the Palestinians see as part of their future state.

Israel however differentiates between settlements it has approved and those it has not.

Those without approval are referred to as outposts and are typically populated by hardline religious nationalists who see the entire West Bank as part of Israel.

Past attempts by Israeli authorities to dismantle Havat Gilad have led to clashes with settlers there.

Israel has several times given retroactive approval to outposts and last year work began on the first government-sanctioned settlement built in the Palestinian territories in some 25 years.

Israel faced sharp criticism from the administration of former US president Barack Obama over settlement construction, but that has not been the case with Donald Trump's White House and Israeli officials have sought to take advantage.

European nations and the UN maintain their strong opposition to settlement building.A picture taken on February 3, 2018, shows a Rebel fighter taking a picture of a downed Sukhoi-25 fighter jet in Syria's northwest province of Idlib

A Russian pilot was killed Saturday after his warplane went down over Syria's northwest province of Idlib and he clashed with Islamists on the ground, Russia's defence ministry and a monitor said.

"The pilot was killed as he fought Islamist rebels who had shot down his plane and were taking him captive," said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights chief Rami Abdel Rahman.

According to the British-based monitor, the Sukhoi 25 was shot down over the town of Maasran in Idlib and the pilot came down in a parachute.

He then clashed with rebels and was killed.

Abdel Rahman could not immediately confirm which hardline factions were involved, but said the jihadist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) is active in the area.

Russia's army also confirmed the pilot's death, but there was no immediate claim of responsibility from rebel factions in Syria.

Troops loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad launched a fierce offensive on Idlib in late December, with backing by Russian warplanes.

"There have been dozens of Russian air strikes in the area over the past 24 hours. This plane was also carrying out raids there," said Abdel Rahman.

Opposition factions have shot Syrian regime planes in the past, but downing Russian warplanes is much rarer.

In August 2016, a Russian military helicopter was shot down over Syria and all five people on board were killed.

Moscow began conducting air strikes in Syria in September 2015.

Two months later, Turkey shot down a Russian warplane, leading to the worst crisis in ties between the two countries since the end of the Cold War.Syria on Saturday denied recent accusations by the United States that it had used chemical weapons on opposition forces near the capital Damascus, shrugging them off as "lies."

"The foreign ministry condemns the false claims by the United States that the Syrian government used chemical weapons in Eastern Ghouta," a foreign ministry source said, cited by Syrian state news agency SANA.

Eastern Ghouta is a rebel-controlled enclave adjacent to Damascus.

On Friday, US Defence Secretary Jim Mattis told reporters his government was concerned sarin gas may have been recently used in Syria.

The Pentagon chief cited reports from NGOs and rebel groups in the battlefield who say the toxic gas has been used, although he stressed that the United States currently has no proof to support those accusations.

Syria's foreign ministry seized on his comments, saying even the US acknowledged their own statements were "not based on evidence".

"Claims that the Syrian state used chlorine gas one moment and sarin gas the next prove that these are nothing more than lies," the statement said.

"These are lies based on stories from America's so-called partners on the ground."

Last month, 21 people were treated for respiratory problems after rockets were fired on the rebel bastion of Eastern Ghouta outside Damascus.

Syria has staunchly denied the claims, pointing to its 2013 handover of its chemical stores as part of a deal between the United States and Russia.

That agreement came after accusations that Damascus used sarin gas on Eastern Ghouta in August 2013.

But the United Nations found that Syrian government forces were responsible for chlorine attacks in Syria in 2014 and 2015, as well as sarin use in 2017.

The April 2017 attack on Khan Sheikhun left scores dead and prompted the US to fire 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles at a Syrian air field.

On Thursday, senior US administration officials said Washington was not ruling out fresh military action in the wake of new suspected attacks.A rebel fighter takes a picture of a downed Sukhoi-25 fighter jet in Syria's northwest province of Idlib

A Russian pilot was killed Saturday in fighting with Islamists after his warplane was downed over northwest Syria, Russia's defence ministry and a monitor said.

Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a powerful jihadist-dominated alliance, said it had shot down the plane on an affiliated media channel but made no mention of the pilot.

"We were able to bring down the Russian warplane with a shoulder-fired missile above Saraqib in Idlib this afternoon," said Mahmoud al-Turkmani, who according to the statement heads HTS's "air defence brigade."

He said the attack was in retaliation for a ferocious bombing campaign by Russian warplanes over Idlib.

HTS, which is dominated by Al-Qaeda's former affiliate, controls Idlib and has sought to fight back a ferocious Russian-backed assault by Syrian government troops.

A picture taken on February 3, 2018, shows the site of a downed Russian Sukhoi-25 fighter jet in Syria's northwest province of Idlib

An AFP correspondent who arrived at the crash site on Saturday saw what appeared to be the charred remains of the plane, including a wing with a red star still visible.

Firefighters arrived to put out flames that had been spewing dark smoke into the wintry Syrian sky.

The Russian defence ministry confirmed the Su-25 aircraft was shot down over Idlib province and said the pilot was killed "in fighting against terrorists."

- 'Killed fighting' -

"A Russian Su-25 aircraft crashed during a flight over the Idlib de-escalation zone. The pilot had enough time to announce he had ejected into the zone," the defence ministry said.

"The pilot was killed in fighting against terrorists," it said, quoted by Russian agencies.

It added that "according to preliminary reports, the plane was shot down by a portable anti-aircraft missile system."

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the jet was downed near the town of Saraqib in Idlib and the pilot parachuted to the ground.

A picture taken on February 3, 2018, shows smoke billowing from the site of a downed Russian Sukhoi-25 fighter jet in Syria's northwest province of Idlib

He was killed clashing with rebels as they tried to take him hostage, said the Britain-based Observatory.

"There have been dozens of Russian air strikes in the area over the past 24 hours. This plane was also carrying out raids there," said Abdel Rahman.

Syria's uprising broke out in 2011 with protests against Assad's rule but has since morphed into a complex war drawing in global powers.

Moscow began conducting air strikes in Syria in September 2015, and its intervention has swung the nearly seven-year conflict firmly in the favour of its ally in Damascus.

Opposition factions have shot Syrian regime planes in the past, but the downing of Russian aircraft is much rarer.

Turkey shot down a Russian warplane in November 2015, leading to the worst crisis in ties between the two countries since the end of the Cold War

And in August 2016, a Russian military helicopter was shot down over Syria and all five people on board were killed.

- Deadly fire on Turkish tank -

Russia has been spearheading a more than year-long diplomatic push to try to freeze fighting in coordination with fellow regime ally Iran and rebel backer Turkey.

Ankara has supported an array of rebel groups to fight Syria's government, the Islamic State jihadist group, and Kurdish militia that it has blacklisted as "terrorists."

A picture taken on February 3, 2018, in the Syrian town of Afrin shows the mother (3rd-L), sister (2nd-L) and brother (C) of the Kurdish YPJ fighter Barin Kobani, chanting slogans during a mourning ceremony in her honour

On January 20, Turkey and allied rebel fighters began an offensive on the Syrian enclave of Afrin, held by the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG).

Seven Turkish soldiers were killed on Saturday as part of the assault, including five who died in a single attack on a tank, the Turkish army said.

The losses mark the highest toll in a single day for the Turkish army in operation "Olive Branch."

The Observatory has also counted 104 allied rebels and 102 YPG fighters killed since the offensive began, as well as 68 civilians.

Ankara has denied targeting civilians as part of its Afrin offensive.

Mourners on Saturday gathered in Afrin to commemorate victims of the operation, including female fighter Barin Kobani whose badly mutilated body appeared in a shocking video earlier this week.

The footage sparked accusations by her family and Kurdish officials that she was "defiled" by Turkish-backed rebels.

Syrian Kurds in the northern Syrian city of Afrin on February 3, 2018 take part in a funeral for People's Protection Units (YPG) militia fighters, killed in clashes with Turkey

The opposition's government-in-exile said Saturday it had opened an investigation into the matter.

Thousands of people protested on Saturday in France against operation "Olive Branch," gathering in Strasbourg and Paris to condemn the assault.

They held posters that read "Defend Afrin" and "Erdogan assassin," in reference to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.Syriac Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch, Ignatius Aphrem II, holds mass at the heavily damaged Syriac Orthodox church of St. Mary in Syria's eastern city of Deir Ezzor on February 3, 2018

A solemn group of Christians held their first prayer service in years on Saturday in the ravaged church of St. Mary in Syria's eastern Deir Ezzor city.

Stones, strips of wire, papers and remnants of rockets were strewn across the church floor, and bright sunlight streamed in from the blown-out windows.

Holding thin white candles under pockmarked archways, the congregation of less than two dozen worshippers relished their first service in nearly six years.

Fighting has gripped Deir Ezzor since rebels captured part of the city in 2012, and grew worse when the Islamic State jihadist group shot to prominence there in 2014.

Syrian troops recaptured the entire city in November and residents have slowly begun to trickle back.

Saturday's service -- which was also attended by Muslim clerics -- was led by the silver-haired Syriac Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch, Ignatius Aphrem II.

He presided over the service from behind a small table draped in a white cloth, as the church's altar had been badly damaged.

Syriac Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch, Ignatius Aphrem II, holds mass at the heavily damaged Syriac Orthodox church of St. Mary in Syria's eastern city of Deir Ezzor on February 3, 2018

"It's an indescribable feeling for us to pray in a nearly-destroyed church, which serves as a consolation for our hearts and a message of hope to the people of the city to come back and take part in building it anew," the patriarch said.

And Maurice Amseeh, a local bishop, called on Christians to return to their city.

"The important thing now is for life to come back -- for Deir Ezzor's residents and Christians to come back to it," he told worshippers.

An estimated 3,000 Christians lived in Deir Ezzor before Syria's uprising broke out in 2011.

Shadi Tuma, 31, decided to stay in his hometown despite years of clashes.

"The hard times that Deir Ezzor went through pushed the families to leave, but there was a determination inside of me to stay in this city," he told AFP.

Christian worshippers cross themselves as they attend a mass held by the Syriac Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch, Ignatius Aphrem II, as they are accompanied by Muslim clerics and attendees, at the heavily damaged Syriac Orthodox church of St. Mary in Syria's eastern city of Deir Ezzor on February 3, 2018

"Deir Ezzor will always have coexistence. Christians will always have a presence here."

Much of the city remains practically unlivable, with buildings destroyed, irregular electricity service and no drinking water.

Still, forty-year-old Sally Qassar said Saturday's service had soothed her.

"Prayer for me is like a new life," she told AFP.

"It gave me the determination to come back to Deir Ezzor and put up with the poor provision of services, and participate in rebuilding it."A Palestinian protester confronts an Israeli soldier during an army search operation in the Palestinian village of Burqin in the occupied West Bank on February 3, 2018

A Palestinian man was shot dead in clashes with the Israeli army on Saturday during a raid in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian health ministry said.

The man was shot in the head after fighting broke out during an Israeli army incursion into the village of Burqin in the northern West Bank, it said.

The health ministry identified the dead man as Ahmad Abu Obeid, 19.

The army did not comment on the death, but said in a statement it had entered the village, near the city of Nablus, in an attempt to find suspects in the shooting dead of an Israeli rabbi in January.

Raziel Shevah, a 35-year-old rabbi, was shot dead near Havat Gilad, a wildcat Jewish settlement outpost in the Nablus area, on January 9.

The army has been since launched multiple violent raids to search for the suspected killer, 22-year-old Ahmed Jarrar.

Jarrar is the son of Nasser Jarrar, a member of Islamist militant movement Hamas who was killed while fighting Israeli forces during the second Palestinian intifada.

The army did not say if he had been caught during the raid.Egypt's army forces have arrested a number of extremist suspects and destroyed hideouts used by militants in the Sinai Peninsula border area, the military said in statements on Friday.

A large number of people suspected of aiding extremists have been arrested in North Sinai by the army's second field forces over the past few days.

Eight other suspects were been arrested in central Sinai, the army said in a separate statement.

The operations by the army's second and third field forces, aided by air units, have also destroyed a number hideouts, 4x4 vehicles and motorbikes used by the extremists in the central and northern region.

Terrorist attacks in central Sinai are less frequent than in volatile North Sinai, where extremists have been targeting military and police checkpoints.

The army has killed hundreds of militants in operations while battling Islamist militancy in the border region in the past few years.



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US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson (C) poses for pictures with the president of Argentina's National Parks Eugenio Brear (2nd-R), environmental scientists and officials in the Nahuel Huapi park

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Washington's top diplomat but also a Texas rancher, rode a horse up an Argentinian mountain Saturday to tout US engagement in environmental science.

The former chief executive of oil giant ExxonMobil is not known for his commitment to green causes, but aides said he wanted to meet US-backed scholars and national park staff.

So, on the third day of a five-nation tour of Latin America and Jamaica, he rode up Cerro Campanario above the spectacular lakes of the Nahuel Huapi National Park, outside the resort of Bariloche.

There he met the vice president of Argentina's national parks administration, former Greenpeace activist Emiliano Ezcurra, who took part in a 2010 State Department leadership program.

He also joined Noelia Barrios Garcia, an Argentinian scholar of the US-sponsored Fulbright program who studies the effect of invasive species on the Argentinian environment.

Tillerson chatted to the local experts privately, and would not allow reporters to watch him mount the horse he borrowed from a local tourist ranch and micro-brewery for the ride.

Afterwards, Undersecretary of State Steve Goldstein said Tillerson had discussed plans to sign an agreement to share best practices and carry out personnel exchanges between Nahuel Huapi and US parks.Togolese women dressed in black, some banging on pots, are pictured protesting in the capital city of Lome during a protest rally against Togo's president on January 20, 2018

Thousands of protesters took to the streets in Togo's capital Lome on Saturday, against President Faure Gnassingbe and his government.

The protest came the day after mediators from Ghana and Guinea said that Togo will enter talks on controversial constitutional reform February 15, in a move aimed at ending a crippling political stalemate.

A rolling series of demonstrations against President Gnassingbe have been unfolding for several months, and the country has been rocked by striking teachers and health workers.

The opposition parties want to restrict presidents to a maximum of two, five-year terms of office, and introduce a two-round voting system.

Gnassingbe has been in power since 2005. He took over from his father, who ruled the country for 38 years.

While the mediators said Friday that the leaders of the 14 opposition parties had agreed to "suspend" the public protests, the leaders themselves carried on with Saturday's protest.

"It's our constitutional right to protest. If we want to protest then we will, " said opposition leader Jean-Pierre Fabre.

The marchers clogged up several main roads in the capital, chanting slogans against the regime.

Such demonstrations have become an almost weekly event since early September.

"I don't expect anything from the upcoming dialogue, because the regime in place is not sincere," said one of the marchers, Kossi Djivo.

West African leaders in November called for both sides in Togo to enter talks mediated by President Nana Akufo-Addo, from neighbouring Ghana, and Guinea's Alpha Conde.

The opposition coalition has demanded "measures for de-escalation", including the release of detained prisoners and the withdrawal of security forces.LOS ANGELES (AP) - The mystery of the death of acclaimed actress Natalie Wood has endured for nearly four decades as the investigation has ebbed and flowed like the tides off a California island where her body was found floating on Thanksgiving weekend 1981.

Renewed interest came this week when the lead detective in the case said her widower, actor Robert Wagner, now 87, is considered a person of interest.

Here's a look at what's known about the death and the investigation over the years.

FILE - A Dec. 1, 1981 file photo shows actress Natalie Wood. Investigators are now calling 87-year-old actor Robert Wagner a "person of interest" in the 1981 death of his wife Natalie Wood. Mystery has swirled around Wood's death. It was declared an accident but police reopened the case in 2011 to see whether Wagner or anyone else played a role. (AP Photo/File)

ALL ABOARD

The body of Wood, 43, was found off Catalina Island, a scenic getaway about 30 miles south of the Los Angeles-area coastline. The three-time Academy Award nominee who starred in "West Side Story" and "Rebel Without a Cause" couldn't swim. She was wearing a red down jacket and nightgown.

She had been drinking heavily aboard a yacht with her husband and with actor Christopher Walken, who was filming the thriller "Brainstorm" with Wood. The only other person aboard was the boat's captain.

Wagner, who was starring at the time in the TV drama "Hart to Hart," has denied any involvement in his wife's death, and no charges have been filed.

THEORIES FROM TWO KEY WITNESSES

Wagner wrote in a 2008 memoir that he and Walken argued that night. Walken went to bed and Wagner stayed up for a while, he wrote. When he went to bed, he noticed his wife and a rubber dinghy that had been tied to the yacht were missing.

"There are only two possibilities," Wagner wrote, "either she was trying to get away from the argument, or she was trying to tie the dinghy. But the bottom line is that nobody knows exactly what happened."

Walken has said little publicly over the years about the incident and has offered brusque replies at times when pressed. However, he told Playboy in 1997 that he thought Wood was probably half-asleep and slipped, hit her head and fell from the dinghy.

"Anybody there saw the logistics - of the boat, the night, where we were, that it was raining - and would know exactly what happened," Walken said. "You hear about things happening to people - they slip in the bathtub, fall down the stairs, step off the curb in London because they think that the cars come the other way - and they die. You feel you want to die making an effort at something; you don't want to die in some unnecessary way."

CHANGING INVESTIGATION

Authorities initially ruled the death an accidental drowning, but that changed. They reopened the investigation in 2011 after the boat's captain, Dennis Davern, said he heard the couple arguing the night of her disappearance.

The Los Angeles coroner's office amended Wood's death certificate in 2012 to include "drowning and other undetermined factors."

The change was due in part because investigators couldn't rule out that some of the bruises and marks on Wood's body happened before she went into the water, according to the report. Wood wasn't wearing a life jacket, had no history of suicide attempts and didn't leave a note.

The report also revealed that investigators hadn't preserved Wood's fingernails to determine if she had tried to claw her way back into the dinghy. Scratch marks were found on the craft's hull.

When the case was reopened, Los Angeles County sheriff's Lt. John Corina said Wagner was not a suspect.

This week, Corina told CBS News that he didn't believe Wagner had told the whole story about what happened and called him a person of interest in the case.

Initially, a sheriff's spokeswoman downplayed the report Thursday and said there was nothing new in the case. But later, the department issued a statement confirming that Wagner is a person of interest.

"Do we have enough to make an arrest at this moment? No," spokeswoman Nicole Nishida said.

WHAT WALKEN AND WAGNER TOLD INVESTIGATORS

Investigators made at least 10 attempts to interview Wagner again after reopening the investigation in 2011, including tracking him down in Colorado. But either Wagner or his lawyer refused.

Wagner's attorney, Blair Berk, issued a statement five years ago saying neither Wagner nor his daughters had any new information and blaming people for trying to exploit the 30th anniversary of Wood's death.

"Mr. Wagner has fully cooperated over the last 30 years in the investigation of the accidental drowning of his wife in 1981," Berk said at the time. "Mr. Wagner has been interviewed on multiple occasions by the Los Angeles sheriff's department and answered every single question asked of him by detectives during those interviews."

At the time, Corina said Walken gave a prepared statement and spoke to detectives for an hour.

Detectives also interviewed other actors who knew Wagner and Wood to learn more about their relationship.

NEW WITNESSES COME FORWARD

New witnesses interviewed since the case was reopened gave statements that "portray a new sequence of events on the boat that night," said Nishida, the sheriff's spokeswoman.

One witness described hearing yelling and crashing sounds coming from the couple's stateroom, she said. Shortly afterward, other witnesses heard a man and woman arguing on the back of the boat and believe the voices were those of Wood and Wagner.

Those statements differ from the version of events originally provided by witnesses, including those who were on the boat, she said.

In the past, people on boats moored near the yacht have provided witness statements.

Wagner's publicist, Alan Nierob, declined to comment Thursday.

FILE - This Nov. 30, 1981 file photo shows the "Prince Valiant," the inflatable dinghy used by Natalie Wood, moored at the harbor in Avalon, Calif., after it washed up on the rocks on Santa Catalina Island. Patrolmen discovered the actress' body 200 yards off Blue Cavern Point on Catalina Island, 100 yards away from the boat after a seven hour search. Investigators are now calling her husband, Robert Wagner, a "person of interest" in the 1981 death of Wood. Mystery has swirled around Wood's death. It was declared an accident but police reopened the case in 2011 to see whether Wagner or anyone else played a role (AP Photo/Paul J. Harrington, File)

FILE - In this Dec. 1, 2013 file photo, Robert Wagner attends The Caucus for Producers, Writers and Directors 31st Annual Awards in Beverly Hills, Calif. New witnesses have emerged in the 1981 drowning of actress Natalie Wood, prompting investigators to deem it a "suspicious death" and name her former husband, 87-year-old actor Robert Wagner, a "person of interest," Los Angeles sheriff's officials said, Thursday, Feb. 1, 2018. For nearly four decades, mystery and speculation have swirled around the death of the actress who was nominated for three Academy Awards and starred in "West Side Story" and "Rebel Without a Cause." (Photo by Todd Williamson /Invision/AP)PITTSBURGH (AP) - Evgeni Malkin had two goals and two assists, Phil Kessel added two goals and an assist, and the surging Pittsburgh Penguins rolled past the Washington Capitals 7-4 on Friday night.

Bryan Rust, Carl Hagelin and Patric Hornqvist also scored for the two-time defending Stanley Cup champions, who won their fourth straight to pull within four points of first-place Washington in the crowded Metropolitan Division.

Sidney Crosby had two assists to push his scoring streak to 11 games, the longest active streak in the NHL. Matt Murray stopped 29 shots for Pittsburgh, which won its seventh consecutive home game by jumping on the Capitals early then pulling away late.

Pittsburgh Penguins' Evgeni Malkin (71) celebrates with Sidney Crosby (87) and Bryan Rust (17) after scoring the first of two goals in the third period of the team's NHL hockey game against the Washington Capitals in Pittsburgh, Friday, Feb. 2, 2018. The Penguins won 7-4. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

Alex Ovechkin scored twice to push his season total to an NHL-best 32 and Dmitry Orlov and Evgeny Kuznetzov also scored for the Capitals. Braden Holtby finished with 27 saves but gave up three goals in the opening 8 minutes of the third period before being pulled in favor of Phillpp Grubauer as Pittsburgh broke open a tight game.

WILD 5, GOLDEN KNIGHTS 2

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) - Eric Staal had two goals and an assist to lead Minnesota past Vegas.

Charlie Coyle, Tyler Ennis and Jared Spurgeon also scored, Jonas Brodin had three assists and Matt Dumba added two to help the Wild win their second straight after the All-Star break. Devan Dubnyk stopped 22 shots.

Eric Haula had a goal and an assist, Nate Schmidt also scored, and Colin Miller added two assists for Vegas, which remained a point behind Tampa Bay for the best record in the league. Malcolm Subban made 30 saves.

RED WINGS 4, HURRICANES 1

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) - Darren Helm had a goal and two assists, Petr Mrazek stopped 36 shots, and the Detroit Red Wings beat the Carolina Hurricanes 4-1 on Friday night.

Gustav Nyquist, Danny DeKeyser and Trevor Daley also scored for the Red Wings, who won their second straight after dropping six of eight.

Helm was at the center of it all, assisting on DeKeyser's tying goal and Daley's go-ahead score before finding the net himself on a breakaway late in the third period.

Sebastian Aho scored for the Hurricanes, who snapped a three-game win streak. Scott Darling made 34 saves while losing for the sixth time in his last seven starts.

SHARKS 3, BLUE JACKETS 1

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - Kevin Labanc had a goal and an assist, and Martin Jones stopped 28 shots to help San Jose snap a four-game losing streak.

The Sharks' first two goals came on power plays, with Labanc getting a wide-open look at the net with a 5-on-3 advantage in the second period. Logan Couture and Marc-Edouard Vlasic also scored for San Jose.

Sergei Bobrovsky had 25 saves for the Blue Jackets, who have lost two in a row and five of their last seven. Boone Jenner had the lone goal as Columbus continues to struggle offensively.

Washington Capitals left wing Alex Ovechkin (8) scores against Pittsburgh Penguins goaltender Matt Murray (30) during the third period of an NHL hockey game in Pittsburgh, Friday, Feb. 2, 2018. The Penguins won 7-4. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

Pittsburgh Penguins' Phil Kessel (81) celebrates his second goal of an NHL hockey game with Evgeni Malkin (71) in the third period against the Washington Capitals in Pittsburgh, Friday, Feb. 2, 2018. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

Minnesota Wild's Charlie Coyle, top left, celebrates with teammates his power-play goal against Vegas Golden Knights goaltender Malcolm Subban during the first period of an NHL hockey game Friday, Feb. 2, 2018, in St. Paul, Minn. (AP Photo/Jim Mone)

Minnesota Wild goalie Devan Dubnyk celebrates his team's win over the Vegas Golden Knights in an NHL hockey game Friday, Feb. 2, 2018, in St. Paul, Minn. (AP Photo/Jim Mone)WASHINGTON (AP) - Former FBI Director James Comey has scorned the memo that was released by House Republicans after being declassified by President Donald Trump, saying it doesn't add up to much.

His assessment on Twitter was: "That's it?"

Comey called the memo "dishonest and misleading" and not worth the damage it's done to public trust in U.S. intelligence agencies.

FILE - In this June 8, 2017 file photo, former FBI director James Comey speaks during a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on Capitol Hill, in Washington. Comey defended the agency Thursday, Feb. 1, 2018, on Twitter, writing, "All should appreciate the FBI speaking up. I wish more of our leaders would. " President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans have been attacking the FBI for its investigation of potential ties between Russia and Trump's 2016 campaign. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)

After being declassified by Trump, the memo was released Friday by House Republicans. It claims the FBI abused its surveillance powers in the Russia investigation.

The FBI, Justice Department and Democrats furiously lobbied Trump to stop the release, saying it could harm national security and mislead the public.

Since his firing last May, Comey has made his personal feelings about Trump known, testifying in detail about personal interactions he says troubled him.RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) - A young Palestinian-American is the driving force behind a nascent #MeToo movement in this patriarchal corner of the world, selling T-shirts, hoodies and denim jackets with the slogan "Not Your Habibti (darling)" as a retort for catcalls and writing down women's complaints from her perch in a West Bank square.

Yasmeen Mjalli wants to encourage Palestinian society to confront sexual harassment, a largely taboo subject.

"What I am doing is to start a conversation that people are really afraid to have," said Mjalli as she put her merchandise on hangers in a clothing store.

In this Wednesday, Jan. 24, 2018 photo, Palestinian-American Yasmeen Mjalli displays a jacket with the slogan "Not Your Habibti (darling)," as a ready-made retort for cat calls, in the West Bank city of Ramallah. The 21-year-old is the driving force behind a nascent #MeToo movement in the West Bank, selling her line of T-shirts, hoodies and denim jackets, to encourage Palestinian society to confront sexual harassment, a largely taboo subject. (AP Photo/Nasser Shiyoukhi)

The 21-year-old has faced backlash from conservatives and from some activists who say fighting Israel's occupation is the priority for Palestinians.

Her parents, who grew up in a Palestinian farming town, immigrated to the United States and returned to the West Bank five years ago, weren't pleased, either.

"To be able to have peace with them, I have to check my feminism at the door, which is very difficult because that's really who I am," said Mjalli, who moved to the West Bank last year, after graduating from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro with a degree in art history.

Mjalli and other activists say that starting a conversation about sexual harassment doesn't mean copying the #MeToo movement in the United States, where victims are speaking out in growing numbers.

Cultural differences require a different approach.

Women across the Arab world have made strides toward equality, outnumbering men in many universities and joining the work force in growing numbers. Yet they struggle to break free from the constraints of patriarchy.

Traditional Arab societies assign rigid gender roles, with men as guardians of their female relatives' "honor" - effectively a ban on male-female friendships or sex outside marriage. Women violating those rules risk being ostracized or - in extreme cases - being killed by male relatives, who count on leniency from the courts.

Rules are looser among urban elites. But even in Ramallah - the most liberal West Bank town with many Western-educated Palestinians and foreigners - women watch their step.

Women risk getting blamed if they complain, said Wafa Abdelrahman, who runs a closed Facebook group for female journalists. "The blame will be, 'for sure, you did something wrong or you gave the wrong signal, the way you dress, the way you talk'," she said.

University student Nadine Moussa, 22, said women know the trouble spots.

"I never ever walked in the city center of Ramallah without being harassed verbally, but I don't face that in the neighborhoods," she said, adding that her co-ed campus is relatively safe.

Palestinian police receive few complaints about street harassment, said spokesman Loay Irzeqat. He believes some women fear unintended consequences, such as male relatives attacking accused harassers.

Police mostly deal with online harassment, with about one-third of some 2,000 electronic crimes cases in 2017 revolving around men blackmailing women for sexual or financial gain, he said. Typically, extortionists threaten to publish photos deemed compromising, such as showing a traditional woman without her headscarf.

Women lack legal protection, despite improvements such as the establishment of a police sex crimes unit, said Amal Kreishe, founder of the Palestinian Working Woman Society for Development to which Mjalli donates some of her proceeds.

Reforms of the penal code have been held up by the collapse of Palestinian parliament as a result of a decade-old split between President Mahmoud Abbas' West Bank autonomy government and the militant Hamas group in Gaza. Abbas has ignored appeals to change the code by decree in the meantime.

"All the talk about women's equality and rights is lip service," said Kreishe.

Still, Kreishe has witnessed gradual changes. More women seek counseling from her group, which has referred about 200 complaints to police over the past two years - compared to a few dozen in previous years.

Across the Arab world, the prevalence of street harassment varies.

In Egypt, it remains widespread despite pushback from civil society and a 2014 law threatening up to five years in prison. Cairo has been described by some as the world's most dangerous mega city for women.

In the conservative Gulf Arab region, street harassment is relatively uncommon in smaller countries where religious and tribal codes restrict interactions between unmarried men and women.

In Saudi Arabia, it has become an issue of debate, as women prepare to drive for the first time this June, following the lifting of a government ban. In recent years, several videos went viral showing Saudi women in long black robes being heckled by men. Saudi King Salman has approved legislation criminalizing sexual harassment.

In the West Bank, Mjalli is pushing boundaries with what she calls "typewriter events."

On a recent day, she sat behind a table in Ramallah's Clock Square, taking notes on a typewriter - chosen over a laptop as an attention-getter - as women sitting across from her shared stories about harassment. The event was also meant to generate support for passing laws protecting women, she said.

Her idea of designing clothes with a feminist message goes back to college.

At the time, she decorated her denim jacket with "Not your Habibti," a take on the popular "Not Your Baby" slogan that reflected her Arab roots. Mjalli posted a photo of the jacket online last year for International Women's Day, stirring interest from potential buyers.

For a few months, she bought, transformed and sold second-hand jackets. In August, she launched her business, Baby-Fist, with workshops in Gaza and the West Bank making T-shirts, hoodies and jackets.

Mjalli estimates she has sold close to 500 pieces, with about 70 percent of her sales in the diaspora.

Skeptics expect limited impact on Palestinian society.

Nader Said, a Palestinian pollster, said public discourse is crowded with issues seen as more pressing, mainly Israel's occupation of the West Bank and other lands Palestinians seek for a future state. Respondents listing top concerns in a survey ranked women's rights near the end, he said.

Abdelrahman, the activist, cheered on Mjalli.

"I am open to all things that will open up this dark closet that we prefer to hide in, pretending that everything is alright," she said. "Let's open it and see what comes out of it."

___

Follow Karin Laub on Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/karin_laub

___

On the Web:

http://www.pwwsd.org/

https://baby-fist.com/

___

Associated Press writers Mohammed Daraghmeh and Areej Hazboun in Ramallah, West Bank, Sam Magdy in Cairo and Aya Batrawy in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, contributed to this report.

In this Wednesday, Jan. 24, 2018 photo, Palestinian-American Yasmeen Mjalli holds one of her T-shirt designs with the slogan "Not Your Habibti (darling)," as a ready-made retort for cat calls, in the West Bank city of Ramallah. The 21-year-old is the driving force behind a nascent #MeToo movement in the West Bank, selling her line of T-shirts, hoodies and denim jackets, to encourage Palestinian society to confront sexual harassment, a largely taboo subject. (AP Photo/Nasser Shiyoukhi)BARWON HEADS, Australia (AP) - Australian Minjee Lee shot a 2-over 75 Saturday and held on to a one-stroke lead at the Vic Open, the first tournament of the year on the Ladies European Tour.

Lee had a three-round total of 7-under 212, one better than fellow Australian Karis Davidson, who shot 67 Saturday.

Cheyenne Woods, niece of Tiger Woods, rebounded from a second-round 80 to shoot 69 and was five strokes behind Lee and tied for fifth.

At a PGA of Australia Tour men's event held alongside the women's tournament, Australian Simon Hawkes held a one-stroke lead after a 64.CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) - "Day Zero" is approaching as South Africa's showcase city of Cape Town prepares to turn off most water taps amid the worst drought in a century. Tensions among the four million residents are highlighting a class divide in a country with one of the world's highest rates of inequality.

Cape Town, a top international tourist destination, has both sprawling informal settlements and high-income oceanside neighborhoods. Some say poorer residents are unfairly blamed as concerns rise over wasting precious water. The military is prepared to help secure water collection points if "Day Zero" occurs.

The Associated Press is exploring how residents are coping as water restrictions tighten in an attempt to avoid the possible shut-off in mid-April, and it spoke with researchers about where the water usage problems lie.

A woman collects water in a settlement near Cape Town on Friday, Feb. 2, 2018. South Africa's drought-hit city of Cape Town introduced new water restrictions in an attempt to avoid what it calls "Day Zero," the day in mid-April when it might have to turn off most taps. (AP Photo/Bram Janssen)

Kirsty Carden with the Future Water Institute at the University of Cape Town pointed to the city's leafy suburbs. "It has been in the areas where people have gardens, they have swimming pools and they are much more profligate in the way that they use water, because they're used to the water just being, coming out of the taps," she said.

Some residents appear to be changing their ways, she said, but "there have been problems in the more affluent areas where people are just, 'We'll pay for it.'"

About a quarter of Cape Town's population lives in the informal settlements, where they get water from communal taps instead of individual taps at home, Carden said. "And there are always pictures of running taps and broken fixtures and 'Look at the leakage' and all the rest. But the reality is that those 1 million people out of a population of 4 (million) only use 4.5 percent of the water."

In one of the crowded settlements of corrugated-metal homes, resident Vuyo Kazi washed her laundry outside as others poured used water into the street.

"Before, I was using two kettles of water to wash myself," she said. "So now I use one kettle of water."

Under new water restrictions that began Thursday, residents are asked to use no more than 50 liters (13.2 gallons) of water daily, down from the previous limit of 87 liters (23 gallons). The use of city drinking water to wash vehicles, hose down paved areas, fill up private swimming pools and water gardens is illegal. Residents using too much water will be fined.

Across the city, in the seaside town of Scarborough, resident Kelson da Cruz demonstrated the new normal of water rationing, pointing out the bucket beside his shower. The city has even promoted a Two-Minute Shower Songs project by top South African artists to keep water usage down.

"We are restricted with an amount of the water that we can use per day," da Cruz said. "So we collect that water, and that water you can use to flush the toilet." Another jar of water is used for tooth-brushing and face-washing.

Some 70 percent of water used in Cape Town is consumed in homes, authorities say. Experts have said causes of the city's water shortages include climate change and huge population growth. The local reliance on reservoirs, while projects such as desalination plants were largely left to the future, has been hurt by three straight years of drought.

Scientists are watching how authorities cope, as this would be the world's first major city to go dry.

"We always open the tap, the water is there, easy," da Cruz said. "I was lucky to travel to some dry countries where water has always been a big issue. So when we moved to South Africa that has always been on the back of our mind.

"And I think South Africa is for the first time is really catching up with the rest of the world. They have to change their habits. You can't just take for granted something so precious."

Residents queue to fill containers with water from a source of natural spring water in Cape Town, South Africa, Friday, Feb. 2, 2018. South Africa's drought-hit city of Cape Town introduced new water restrictions in an attempt to avoid what it calls "Day Zero," the day in mid-April when it might have to turn off most taps. (AP Photo/Bram Janssen)

A woman throws away used water in a settlement near Cape Town on Friday, Feb. 2, 2018. South Africa's drought-hit city of Cape Town introduced new water restrictions in an attempt to avoid what it calls "Day Zero," the day in mid-April when it might have to turn off most taps. (AP Photo/Bram Janssen)

A woman throws away used water in a settlement near Cape Town on Friday, Feb. 2, 2018. South Africa's drought-hit city of Cape Town introduced new water restrictions in an attempt to avoid what it calls "Day Zero," the day in mid-April when it might have to turn off most taps. (AP Photo/Bram Janssen)

Residents fill containers with water at a source for natural spring water in Cape Town, South Africa, Friday, Feb. 2, 2018. South Africa's drought-hit city of Cape Town introduced new water restrictions in an attempt to avoid what it calls "Day Zero," the day in mid-April when it might have to turn off most taps. (AP Photo/Bram Janssen)

Vuyo Kazi washes clothes in a settlement near Cape Town on Friday, Feb. 2, 2018. She uses less water than usual, after the drought-hit city of Cape Town introduced new water restrictions in an attempt to avoid what it calls "Day Zero," the day in mid-April when it might have to turn off most taps. (AP Photo/Bram Janssen)IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) - Republicans who control a majority of the nation's statehouses are considering a wide range of abortion legislation that could test the government's legal ability to restrict a woman's right to terminate pregnancy.

The Mississippi House passed a bill Friday that would make the state the only one to ban all abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. In Missouri, lawmakers heard testimony earlier in the week on a bill that would ban abortions after 20 weeks.

The Ohio House is expected to consider bills, already passed in the Senate, that would prohibit the most common type of procedure used to end pregnancies after 13 weeks and require that fetal remains be buried or cremated.

FILE - In this March 2, 2014, file photo, Sen. Curt Bramble, R- Provo, speaks during a news conference at the Utah State Capitol, in Salt Lake City, Utah. Abortion policy has been a hot topic in state legislative sessions that convened or resumed Jan. 2018. Lawmakers already have taken several actions on bills that would expand or restrict access to abortion. In Utah, lawmakers are considering bills that would penalize doctors who do not show an informational video to women seeking an abortion, and another that would bar doctors from performing abortions sought because the fetus has Down syndrome. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, File)

Abortion is a perennial hot button issue in statehouses across the country. Republican-controlled states have passed hundreds of bills since 2011 restricting access to the procedure while Democratic-led states have taken steps in the other direction.

The early weeks of this year's state legislative sessions have seen a flurry of activity around the issue. It comes as activists on both sides say they expect the U.S. Supreme Court to soon consider a question that remains unclear: How far can states go in restricting abortion in the interest of preserving and promoting fetal life?

The state bills debated since the start of the year "are all tests designed to see how far government power to legislate on behalf of a fetus can reach," said Jessica Mason Pieklo, who has been tracking legislation as the senior legal analyst for Rewire, a website that promotes views supporting abortion rights.

She said the outcome will determine whether states can legally ban abortion after a specific time period and outlaw specific medical procedures. Advocates for abortion rights say those strategies undermine the Supreme Court's 1973 ruling that women have the right to terminate pregnancies until a fetus is viable.

In Utah, critics have warned that a pending bill to prevent doctors from performing abortions on the basis of a Down syndrome diagnosis is unconstitutional. But its co-sponsor, Republican state Sen. Curt Bramble, said he is willing to defend the bill in court because its goal is to protect unborn children.

"There are times if the Supreme Court got it wrong, it is appropriate to push back," said Bramble, an accountant from Provo.

The anti-abortion bills have drawn opposition from women who say they have made the excruciating choice to terminate a pregnancy, often after discovering serious fetal abnormalities.

"A 20-week abortion ban sounds OK, but if that gets passed, what's next - 18 weeks, 15 weeks? At what point does it make abortion truly illegal?" said Robin Utz of St. Louis, 38, who submitted testimony this week against the Missouri bill. "It's terrifying and it's willfully ignorant."

Utz recounted terminating her pregnancy in its 21st week in November 2016, after learning her daughter would be born with a fatal kidney disease if she survived birth. She said doctors told her that dilation and evacuation, the most common abortion procedure in the second trimester, was the safest way to terminate the pregnancy.

Undeterred by such stories, the National Right to Life Committee and its allies have been pushing for state laws that ban abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy and outlaw dilation and evacuation. Supporters of both measures argue that fetuses are capable of feeling pain after 20 weeks and call the procedure "dismemberment abortion."

Several court challenges to both types of laws are underway, with federal appeals courts considering the "dismemberment abortion" bans approved last year in Texas and Arkansas. The Kansas Supreme Court is expected to rule soon on the first-in-the-nation ban passed in that state three years ago.

Ingrid Duran, director of state legislation at the National Right to Life Committee, said the model state laws drafted by her group are aimed at U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, a swing vote who wrote the court's 2007 opinion upholding a federal ban on a procedure critics call partial-birth abortion.

She said the court could use similar reasoning to prohibit dilation and evacuation and noted it has never considered whether states have an interest in protecting fetuses from pain.

"We did draft these laws with the bigger picture in mind," Duran said.

The shifted focus comes after the court dealt the anti-abortion movement a blow in 2016 by ruling that strict Texas regulations on abortion clinics and doctors were an undue burden on abortion access and unconstitutional.

Anti-abortion groups hope President Donald Trump will be able to nominate one or more justices to the Supreme Court following last year's confirmation of Neil Gorsuch, potentially making the court more conservative on the issue for decades to come.

In the meantime, some of them are cautioning their allies not to go too far.

Duran said the proposed 15-week ban in Mississippi, which now goes to the state Senate, caught her by surprise. She noted that prior state laws banning abortion after 12 weeks or once a heartbeat was detected have been found unconstitutional.

In South Carolina this past week, state senators tabled a bill that would have banned most abortions to give lawmakers more time to study the consequences. Also last week, a legislative committee in Tennessee amended a bill to remove language that would have outlawed abortion once a fetal heartbeat is detectable, which is usually around six weeks. The bill's sponsor, Republican Rep. Micah Van Huss, said he would be back.

"I will not stop fighting for the lives of babies until abortion is abolished in this state," he said.

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AP reporters Julie Carr Smyth in Columbus, Ohio, and Brady McCombs in Salt Lake City, Utah, contributed.

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Follow Ryan J. Foley on Twitter: https://twitter.com/rjfoleyMcLEAN, Va. (AP) - It's an annual rite in Fairfax County, which has one of the wealthiest, best-educated populations in America: Hundreds of second-graders troop off to private psychologists for IQ tests to prove they're worthy of advanced academic programs in the public schools.

The competition is fierce. Acceptance, some parents believe, can be the key to getting into prestigious Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, a magnet school that routinely sends graduates to the most competitive colleges.

"I guess I never made the cut," said Aaron Moorer, who is African-American and eventually graduated from Mount Vernon High with a 3.8 GPA. "I never made the special class."

Aaron Moorer uses a pipette to draw liquid in a biology lab at Hampden-Sydney College in Hampden Sydney, Va., Wednesday, Jan. 24, 2018. Moorer is from Fairfax County Va., where It's an annual rite in Fairfax County, when hundreds of second-graders trooping off to private psychologists, taking IQ tests to prove they're worthy of the county's advanced academic programs. Data shows that worthy black and Hispanic students are mostly left out. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)

Moorer's family wasn't aware that hundreds of families file appeals every year, armed with private exams costing more than $500, to persuade bureaucrats their child is deserving. This system exacerbates a problem plaguing gifted-and-talented programs across the nation: Black and Hispanic students almost never file the appeals that can secure their admission.

Using the Virginia Freedom of Information Act to obtain 10 years of county records, The Associated Press found that fewer than 50 black and Hispanic second-graders have filed successful appeals. That's less than 3 percent of the 1,737 second-graders admitted through the appeals process, further skewing a program already heavily weighted toward whites and Asians.

Fairfax County has the nation's 10th largest public school system, with more than 188,000 students. Of those, 25 percent are Hispanic and 10 percent are African-American. But over the last 10 years, blacks and Hispanics have constituted only 12 percent of the students deemed eligible for Level IV, the most advanced academic program.

Notably, the data show that when black and Hispanic students do submit intelligence tests, they are just as likely to gain admission as their white and Asian counterparts. The problem is that black and Hispanic students only rarely submit appeals.

Francisco Duran, the school system's chief academic and equity officer, downplayed the disparities in the appeals process, citing successful efforts to enroll more black and Hispanic students through teacher referrals and other means. But he acknowledged that the school system is not where it wants to be in terms of identifying students at an early age who have the potential for advanced academics.

"We want it to be so that we don't have a need for an appeals process," Duran said.

Looking back, Moorer is sure he could have handled more advanced classes if given the opportunity.

"Not being included in the academic program kind of left me feeling unchallenged. I was able to get straight A's but I was often left bored in class. I felt somewhat envious to know that many of the friends that I had in those classes were learning at a more advanced level," said Moorer, now an undergrad at Hampden-Sydney College. He also was accepted at James Madison University but was waitlisted at Virginia Tech and turned down by University of North Carolina.

For talented students, the stakes are high: Children in Level IV, the highest and most competitive, can be assigned to schools with concentrated numbers of gifted students, providing what many parents feel is a more robust learning environment. Lower levels, offered in neighborhood schools, may include occasional enrichment projects, outside classwork and advanced reading assignments.

The appeals culture in Fairfax is so prevalent that nearby George Mason University has graduate psychology students learn their trade by administering the tests. Ellen Rowe, the Cognitive Assessment Program's director, said sliding-scale fees make testing accessible to low-income families, but "we don't control who comes to us."

Even the lucky ones can sense the injustice. Mark Biear of Vienna, who is white, has two kids in Level IV, one of whom successfully appealed. He found that some parents discussed the process openly, while others seemed reluctant to share information might give another family an advantage.

"I wish it was more transparent," said Biear.

Jonathan Plucker, president of the National Association for Gifted Children, said Fairfax County's system "feels pretty extraordinary, but it doesn't surprise me." Wealthy, suburban districts often face intense parental demand for gifted programs, he said.

Plucker applauds the placement testing for all second-graders, but says allowing hundreds of parents to spend hundreds of dollars for a second IQ test defeats the purpose. "Why add a second level to the process that just reintroduces the disparities you're seeking to get rid of in the first place?" he asks.

Carol Horn, who ran the advanced academic program for Fairfax County Public Schools until her recent retirement, acknowledged the enrollment gap. She noted that some form of appeals process is required by the state. She initiated Young Scholars, an effort to enroll and support more minorities in advanced classes, and encouraged teachers to send more kids of color her way, which has led to more diversity.

"If parents don't know about the program, teachers become the advocate for the children," Horn said.

It's not just that appeals are costly, said Tina Hone, who advocated for minority students when she was a Fairfax County school board member. Some black and Hispanic families may be less interested in advanced placement when it means moving a child out of neighborhood school where specialized education isn't offered, she said.

"It's about cultural norms," said Hone, who is African-American. "It's not just about money."

Katherine Cespedes said teachers didn't encourage her to pursue advanced academics after she arrived in Virginia from Argentina at age 7. She said they initially focused more on developing her English-language skills.

"I don't think my teacher believed I was capable back then," Cespedes said. Only after an English teacher at Falls Church High School took interest in her did she push herself to take honors courses, graduating with a 3.5 GPA and earning a scholarship for George Mason University.

There are just a few dozen black students at Thomas Jefferson, where sophomore Alina Ampeh is surrounded by whites and Asians - a situation she's lived with since elementary school. She's grateful that all those years of advanced classes prepared her for TJ's rigorous academics, but says that doesn't necessarily make her special: She thinks many of her classmates simply have parents who worked the system. "If you want to get in, you just complain about it," she said.

Alina's mother, Karen Ampeh, also is grateful, but disappointed that so few African-Americans have benefited from such high-quality instruction.

"In my experience, the AAP program is for students who are pushed by their parents, or possibly other adults, to be in the program," she said. "It is not a welcome environment for black students unless they have a lot of support from home."

In this Sept. 11, 2017 photo, Alina Ampeh, a student at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in the Alexandria section of Fairfax County, Va., speaks to an Associated Press reporter in front of her school. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

Aaron Moorer walks up stairs to the library at Hampden-Sydney College in Hampden Sydney, Va., Wednesday, Jan. 24, 2018. Moorer is from Fairfax County Va., where It's an annual rite in Fairfax County, when hundreds of second-graders trooping off to private psychologists, taking IQ tests to prove they're worthy of the county's advanced academic programs. Data shows that worthy black and Hispanic students are mostly left out. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)

Aaron Moorer looks over notes in the library at Hampden-Sydney College in Hampden Sydney, Va., Wednesday, Jan. 24, 2018. Moorer is from Fairfax County Va., where It's an annual rite of hundreds of second-graders trooping off to private psychologists, taking IQ tests to prove they're worthy of the county's advanced academic programs. Data shows that worthy black and Hispanic students are mostly left out. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)

In this Sept. 11, 2017 photo, Alina Ampeh, a student at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in the Alexandria section of Fairfax County, Va., speaks to an Associated Press reporter in front of her school. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)Egyptian police have arrested six leading members of the banned Muslim Brotherhood group in a raid on a meeting in the Delta city of Mansoura, Daqahliya, where they were plotting acts of "rioting and violence" in order to disrupt the upcoming presidential elections, according to a statement by the interior ministry.

Two of those arrested are wanted in separate violence cases; one for a 2017 case of joining the Al-Hirak Al-Thawry (The Revolutionary Mobilisation), which is the armed wing of the Brotherhood, and the other is a fugitive sentenced in absentia to three years in a 2013 case which involved rioting and violence.

The five men arrested during the meeting were found in possession of $2,000, EGP 41,000, two laptops, a Hyundai minivan, and several documents on the Brotherhood's plans in the upcoming period.

The ministry added that the arrests led them to a warehouse used to store material the suspects planned to use to carry out their attacks, which included a large quantity of banned fireworks, sound bombs and masks.

The police also arrested the caretaker of the warehouse, who is the Brotherhood's head of Al-Hirak Al-Thawry in the governorate of Sharqiya.

Egypt's 2018 presidential elections are set to be held 26-28 March.

Short link:

BEIRUT (AP) - The Latest on the situation in Syria (all times local):

9:15 p.m.

Syria's Foreign Ministry has dismissed as "null and void" U.S. accusations that President Bashar Assad's government is producing and using "new kinds of weapons" to deliver deadly chemicals despite committing to abolish its program in 2013.

A pro-Turkey Syrian fighter waves on Bursayah hill, which separates the Kurdish-held enclave of Afrin from the Turkey-controlled town of Azaz, Syria, Sunday, Jan. 28, 2018. Turkish troops and allied Syrian fighters captured the strategic hill in northwestern Syria after intense fighting on Sunday as their offensive to root out Kurdish fighters enters its second week, according to Turkish officials. (AP Photo)

The ministry said in a statement on Saturday that Syria confirms the American statements are "nothing more than lies" based on the accounts of what the Trump administration called its partners on ground.

Syria also says that reports by Western-backed media outlets about Damascus using chemical weapons "is a new version of U.S. and Western desperate intentions to create" an excuses to attack Syria.

President Donald Trump has not ruled out additional military action to deter attacks or punish Assad, administration officials said earlier this week, although they did not suggest any action was imminent.

___

8:40 p.m.

Turkey says eight of its soldiers were killed near the Syrian Kurdish enclave of Afrin in what has been the deadliest day so far since Ankara's operation there started.

In a statement late on Saturday, the Turkish military said five soldiers were killed after their tank in Syria came under attack near Afrin. It says the soldiers could not be saved despite all attempts.

Earlier in the day, three Turkish soldiers were reported killed in the offensive. One was killed in the area of the tank attack, another in northern Syria and the third on the Turkish side of the border in what Ankara said was an attack by Syrian Kurdish militiamen.

The total death toll for Turkish troops since the operation started on Jan. 20 now stands at 13.

The statement says a Syrian Kurdish militia and the Islamic State group carried out the attack, without providing details.

Turkey launched the incursion into Afrin to rout the U.S.-backed Syrian Kurdish militia, which it considers to be a terrorist organization and an extension of Kurdish insurgents fighting within Turkey.

___

7:35 p.m.

The Russian Defense Ministry has confirmed that a Russian Su-25 warplane crashed in Syria and that the pilot was killed in fighting on the ground.

The report on the ministry's Zvezda TV says preliminary information indicates the plane was shot down in Idlib province on Saturday by a portable ground-to-air missile.

The report says the pilot ejected before the crash, but then was killed in fighting with "terrorists." It says the area is under the control of al-Qaida's branch in Syria.

___

7:30 p.m.

A leading international rights group has accused Turkish border guards of shooting at Syrian refugees trying to cross into Turkey and turning back others after they crossed into Turkey.

Human Rights Watch also says in a report published on Saturday that it documented such cases from May until December last year. HRW also says Turkish guards shot at refugees while they were still in Syria, killing 10 people, including a child.

HRW also points to accounts of abuse by detained asylum seekers, including their forced return to Syria and withholding medical care.

Turkey's presidential spokesman says the allegations will be investigated. Ibrahim Kalin said it was "unlikely" Turkish soldiers would shoot at people and pointed to Turkey's open-door policy.

Turkey is hosting nearly 3.5 million Syrians who have fled the ongoing civil war.

___

6:20 p.m.

A Syrian monitoring group and a Syrian militant say a Russian pilot who ejected from his fighter jet after it was shot down in northwestern Syria was killed after landing alive on the ground.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the Russian pilot is dead but had no immediate further details.

A Syrian militant in the area told The Associated Press that the Russian pilot was shot and killed when he resisted capture by opening fire from his pistol on the militants who tried to capture him alive.

Moscow has not confirmed the downing of its plane or the killing of a pilot.

The militant refused to be identified by his real name because was not authorized to speak to the media.

A video circulating on social media shows a dead man with a bloodied face as bearded gunmen stood around him. One of them shouts: "He is Russian."

The authenticity of the video could not be independently confirmed but it corresponds to events reported by the AP.

___

5:45 p.m.

The Turkish military says two of its soldiers have been killed in Syria and a third was killed on the Turkish side of the border in an attack by Syrian Kurdish militiamen.

The military says Saturday's deaths were related to Turkey's operation against the Syrian Kurdish-held enclave of Afrin, codenamed Olive Branch. One of the soldiers was killed when a Turkish tank was hit in Afrin.

A total of eight Turkish soldiers and at least 24 allied Syrian opposition fighters have died so far in Ankara's offensive, which started on Jan. 20.

The Turkish operation aims to clear Afrin of the U.S.-backed Syrian Kurdish militia, known as the People's Protection Units or YPG, which Turkey considers to be a terrorist group and an extension of the Kurdish insurgency within its borders.

Ankara also says it is fighting the Islamic State group in the area.

___

4:50 p.m.

Syrian opposition activists say rebels have shot down a warplane in the country's northwest where government forces and their allies are advancing under the cover of intense airstrikes.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says the warplane was downed on Saturday afternoon near the rebel-held town of Sarqeb, which Syrian troops have been trying to reach under the cover of Russian airstrikes.

The Observatory's chief Rami Abdurrahman says it's possible the warplane could be Russian. He added that the pilot ejected and landed alive on the ground.

The opposition's Aleppo Media Center says it was a Russian-made Su-25 but did not say whether it was Russian. There was no immediate word from Moscow.

___

4:30 p.m.

Turkish presidential spokesman says Turkey will not tolerate the presence of a Syrian Kurdish militia "anywhere" along its southern border, hinting that Ankara might expand its military operation underway in the Syrian enclave of Afrin eastward.

The spokesman, Ibrahim Kalin, said on Saturday that Turkey's first demand is to see the Syrian Kurdish militia - the People's Protection Units or YPG - move east of the Euphrates River and leave the town of Manbij, where American troops backing the Syrian Kurdish fighters are stationed.

Turkey launched an incursion into Syria on Jan. 20 and is currently fighting the YPG in the northwestern enclave of Afrin. It considers the YPG a "terrorist group" and an extension of Kurdish rebels inside Turkey.

Kalin called on the United States to "disengage" from the YPG and said Turkey will continue communications with "our American allies to avoid any confrontation."

Turkey shares a 911-kilometer border with Syria. The YPG controls much of the territory along the border and an uninterrupted strip from Manbij to the Iraqi border.

___

2:20 p.m.

A Syrian monitoring group and the media arm of al-Qaida-linked militants are reporting intense airstrikes on a rebel-held stronghold in Syria's northwest.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported more than 35 airstrikes on Saraqeb since late Friday, adding that many of its residents are fleeing.

The Ibaa News Agency of the al-Qaida-linked Levant Liberation Committee, said Russian and Syrian warplanes and helicopter gunships have been pounding Saraqeb and Tel Mardeekh village in Idlib province since the early hours of Saturday.

Syrian government forces and their allies pushed into Idlib, an opposition stronghold, inching closer to a key highway that connects Syria's two largest cities, Damascus and Aleppo.

The U.N. says more than 270,000 have been displaced in Idlib because of the government onslaught since Dec. 15.SALT LAKE CITY (AP) - In a story Feb. 2 about Jon Huntsman Sr., The Associated Press erroneously reported the amount of money Huntsman gave to a super PAC supporting his son's presidential campaign. He gave more than $1.8 million, not $1.8 billion.

A corrected version of the story is below:

Jon Huntsman Sr., Utah billionaire and philanthropist, dies

Utah billionaire and philanthropist Jon Huntsman Sr. has died at the age of 80.

By MICHELLE L. PRICE and LINDSAY WHITEHURST

Associated Press

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) - Utah billionaire and philanthropist Jon Huntsman Sr., who overcame poverty to become one of the state's most successful and powerful people, died Friday at age 80.

Huntsman's longtime assistant Pam Bailey said he died in Salt Lake City but she declined to name a cause of death. The Huntsman Corp., which he founded, said in a statement that Huntsman died at his home, surrounded by family.

Huntsman was the founder and longtime executive chairman of the $11 billion company that refines raw materials that go into thousands of products. He was also the father of Jon Huntsman Jr., the U.S. ambassador to Russia and former Utah governor, presidential candidate and ambassador to China and Singapore.

The elder Huntsman and his family have given away more than $1.4 billion, including donations to a Salt Lake City cancer institute that bears his name.

"Cancer is hideous and deplorable and must be conquered, and it will be, as any evil eventually is defeated," Huntsman wrote in his 2014 autobiography. He said he would see to it that the institute continues its mission "if it takes my last dollar--and I expect that will be the case."

In 1970, Huntsman founded the Huntsman Container Corp., which focused on food packaging and pioneered the clamshell container used for McDonald's Corp.'s Big Mac hamburger. He formed Huntsman Chemical Corp. in 1982 and more than a decade later, consolidated his companies as Huntsman Corp., producing materials used in a wide range of products, from textiles and paints to plastics and aviation components.

Huntsman stepped down from his role in December and his son Peter Huntsman took over as the company's leader. His father continued to serve on the company's board of director and was named chairman emeritus.

"He leaves behind a great company, but even more so, a legacy of optimism, ethical behavior and philanthropy that will serve as his greatest accomplishments," Peter Huntsman said in a statement.

After amassing his fortune, Jon Huntsman gave more than $100 million in the mid-1990s to establish a research center at the University of Utah dedicated to finding a cure for cancer through human genetics. Huntsman, who lost both his parents to cancer and fought his own battle with the disease, eventually gave more than $400 million to the Huntsman Cancer Institute and its foundation.

He also wielded his power as a billionaire benefactor to the center. After the cancer institute's director and CEO was fired in April 2017, Huntsman mounted a public campaign criticizing leaders of the university and took out full-age newspaper advertisements calling the officials "inept and uncaring." The director and CEO was reinstated a week after her firing and the school's health care leader and president stepped down.

The billionaire and his family also gave generously to Utah's homeless shelters as well as more than $50 million to the Armenian people after a 1988 earthquake in that country left thousands homeless.

He also played key roles in state and national politics.

Huntsman was a special assistant to President Richard Nixon and briefly ran his own 1988 campaign for Utah's governor.

Huntsman later served as a finance chairman for Mitt Romney's 2008 presidential bid and in 2012, worked for his son's presidential bid, giving more than $1.8 million to a super PAC supporting the younger Huntsman.

Following his son's short-lived race for the Republican nomination, Huntsman kept a toehold in Utah current affairs, occasionally offering political commentary to Utah newspapers and even expressing an interest in purchasing The Salt Lake Tribune.

His son Paul Huntsman purchased the newspaper in 2016 and named his father chairman emeritus.

In the 1980s, Huntsman explored purchasing the Tribune's competitor, the Mormon-church owned Deseret News. He met with high-level leaders with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints but faith leaders did not want to pursue the offer, Huntsman wrote in his autobiography.

A committed member of the Mormon church, Huntsman served in several high-level leadership positions with the faith and had close friendships with the past five church presidents.

The First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints said in a statement that his "legacy of faithful leadership, generosity and goodness" would be a beacon for many around the world.

Huntsman said the family was exposed to the dark side of wealth and fame in 1987, when his then-16-year-old son James Huntsman was kidnapped at knifepoint from his driveway. The teenager was forced to call his father to arrange payment of $1 million ransom. He was later rescued by FBI agents.

Huntsman was born in 1937 in Blackfoot, Idaho and later moved to California, where he met his wife Karen while in junior high there.

The couple later moved to Salt Lake City in the 1970s where they raised nine children, many of whom became involved in the family business.

Huntsman is survived by his wife and eight children. One daughter, Kathleen Ann Huntsman, died in 2010 at age 44 after struggling for years with an eating disorder.

Bailey had no immediate details on funeral plans Friday.

___

This story has been updated to correct the current value of the Huntsman Corp. It is $11 billion, not $13 billion.The FBI is investigating four Honolulu police officers who are accused of forcing a man to place his mouth on a urinal inside a public restroom, according to the police department's top official.

Another officer reported the suspected misconduct after the officers responded to a complaint Sunday afternoon of a person trespassing in the restroom, Honolulu Police Chief Susan Ballard said.

'If true, these allegations violate the core values the HPD stands for,' Ballard said.

'Our officers are sworn to uphold the right of all persons, and I expect every officer to treat every member of the public fairly and with respect. Personally, I am appalled at the behavior, if it is true, and appropriate action will be taken.'

The FBI is investigating four Honolulu police officers who are accused of forcing a man to place his mouth on a urinal inside a public restroom, according to Honolulu Police Chief Susan Ballard (pictured)

The department conducted an initial internal investigation before contacting the FBI on Wednesday.

Because the case involves potential abuse of police power, Ballard said the case was referred to the federal agency.

All four officers, who were not identified, have been placed on restricted duty.

The officers involved each have between three and 16 years of law enforcement experience, according to the department.

They were all assigned to patrol a district that covers downtown Honolulu.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation seal is displayed outside FBI headquarters in Washington, DC, on Friday

Honolulu Mayor Kirk Caldwell commended Ballard's decision to hand the case to the FBI for review.

'Although these officers are presumed innocent, we need an independent agency to investigate exactly what occurred and whether these officers engaged in civil rights abuses,' Caldwell said in a statement.

'Chief Ballard has promised to transform the Honolulu Police Department from a warrior mentality to a guardian mentality, and this is an approach to community policing that I wholeheartedly support.'LAFAYETTE, Colo. (AP) - Police say they're investigating an allegation that a Colorado middle school teacher assaulted a student who refused to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance.

KUSA-TV reports the teacher has been placed on paid administrative leave while officers look into the alleged incident, which occurred Thursday at Angevine Middle School in Lafayette, about 22 miles (35 kilometers) north of downtown Denver.

Police did not give details about the nature of the alleged assault.

Boulder Valley School District spokesman Randy Barber says district policy allows students to stand or sit for the flag pledge.

Barber identified the teacher as Karen Smith, a 20-year employee of the district who teaches physical education. No phone number could be found for her.JERUSALEM (AP) - The legendary former Mossad agent who led the operation to capture Holocaust mastermind Adolf Eichmann has expressed surprising support for the nationalist Alternative for Germany party.

The 91-year-old Rafi Eitan says in a video statement on his Facebook page Saturday that Israel appreciates the party's "attitude toward Judaism" and looks for them to also "become an alternative to Europe."

The party, AfD, won 12.6 percent of the vote in Germany's September election to win seats in parliament for the first time and become the country's third-biggest party. Its leaders have expressed anti-Semitic statements and played down the crimes of the Nazi regime.

Eitan, a former Israeli Cabinet minister, appeared to endorse the party's hard-line toward Muslim immigrants.

Israel's ambassador to Germany, Jeremy Issacharoff, condemned Eitan's statement as "sad and shameful."Abortion policy has been a hot topic in state legislative sessions that began or resumed last month. A look at some of the actions:

- California: The Senate voted for a bill that would make California the first state to require public universities to offer medication abortion, a service that is rare on college campuses.

- Georgia: A committee approved a bill that would require underage girls to justify why they should be allowed to avoid notifying a parent or guardian if they want an abortion.

- Idaho: A Senate panel introduced legislation requiring the state to provide information to women saying medication-induced abortions can be halted after taking just one of two pills.

- Indiana: The Indiana Senate approved a bill that would require medical providers to report additional information about patients who seek treatment for an abortion complication.

- Iowa: A group of Republican House members proposed legislation that would ban abortion once a fetal heartbeat is detected, which is as early as six weeks.

- Mississippi: The House has voted to advance legislation that would make Mississippi the only state to ban all abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. The bill now goes to the Senate.

- Missouri: Lawmakers are considering several bills to restrict access to abortion, including one that would ban abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy.

- Ohio: The Senate has approved a bill that would require Ohio abortion clinics to either bury or cremate fetal remains. The House is expected to consider that measure, along with another already approved in the Senate that would ban the most commonly used procedure to terminate abortions after 13 weeks of pregnancy.

- South Carolina: State senators voted to delay a bill that would likely ban all abortions, saying they need time to consider possible exceptions to the law.

- Tennessee: A lawmaker has proposed banning any Medicaid funding going to abortion providers, such as Planned Parenthood, for non-abortion services. A legislative committee has declined to endorse a plan that would ban all abortions once a fetal heartbeat is detected, amending it to remove that language.

- Utah: Lawmakers are considering bills that would penalize doctors who do not show an informational video to women seeking an abortion, and another that would bar doctors from performing abortions sought because the fetus has Down syndrome.

- Washington: The Senate passed a measure that would require insurers in the state to offer maternity care that also covers elective abortions and contraception.

___

Source: AP researchNEW YORK (AP) - The Latest on actress Uma Thurman's allegations of sexual misconduct by Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein (all times local):

5:45 p.m.

Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein's attorneys have suggested Weinstein could take legal action against actress Uma Thurman, who has accused him of forcing himself upon her sexually years ago.

FILE - In this May 18, 2017 file photo, actress Uma Thurman poses for photographers during the photo call for the Un Certain Regard jury at the 70th international film festival, Cannes, southern France. Thurman has accused embattled Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein of forcing himself upon her sexually and director Quentin Tarantino of making her perform a dangerous car stunt that injured her. Thurman is quoted in The New York Times on Saturday, Feb. 3, 2018, as saying Weinstein attacked her in London. She says he pushed her down and tried to shove himself on her and expose himself. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant)

Weinstein's lawyers say he acknowledges making an "awkward pass" at her in a London hotel room but denies physical assault.

Attorney Ben Brafman says Weinstein is "stunned and saddened" by the allegations, which came in a New York Times interview with columnist Maureen Dowd published Saturday. The attorney says it's a mystery why Thurman would wait 25 years to publicly make the claim.

Brafman says Thurman's statements to the Times "are being carefully examined and investigated" before Weinstein decides whether any legal action against her would be appropriate.

Thurman says Weinstein pushed her down and tried to shove himself on her and expose himself.

___

1:15 p.m.

Actress Uma Thurman has accused embattled Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein of forcing himself upon her sexually and director Quentin Tarantino of making her perform a dangerous car stunt that injured her.

Thurman is quoted in The New York Times on Saturday as saying Weinstein attacked her in London. She says he pushed her down and tried to shove himself on her and expose himself.

Weinstein's representatives say he acknowledges making an "awkward pass" but denies physical assault.

Thurman says when she expressed fear about driving a possibly faulty car in Tarantino's "Kill Bill: Vol. 1" he insisted.

Video shows Thurman crashing into a tree. She says she left a hospital in a neck brace with damaged knees and a concussion.

Tarantino hasn't responded to a request for comment.Thousands of health workers, patients, union members and activists will join a march in London on Saturday to demand an end to the crisis in the NHS.

The Government will be urged to provide more beds, staff and funds to ease the problems facing the service.

The event, called NHS in crisis: Fix it now, is being organised by the Peoples Assembly and Health Campaigns Together.

People take part in a march in London in support of the National Health Service to demand an end to the "crisis" in the NHS.

Activists will march through central London from noon before holding an hour-long rally opposite Downing Street.

Actor Ralf Little recalled how his mother suffered a stroke and had been saved by NHS staff for free while his mother-in-law paid thousands for a routine operation in Florida.

He said: My mother-in-law spent two nights in hospital, had a minor operation, and was discharged two days later. She has excellent insurance so was only presented with a bill for $2,500.

My mother was rushed to hospital in an ambulance, received expert emergency care, stayed in hospital for two weeks to recover, was treated daily by consultants, physical therapists, occupational therapists and nursing staff, was escorted home in a taxi and checked on three times a day for a further five weeks.

Shadow health secretary Jon Ashworth, who will attend the demonstration, said: We should be celebrating the 70th year of our NHS, yet the NHS is going through its worst winter on record. We have a fight on our hands for the future of a universal public NHS.

TUC general secretary Frances OGrady said: Our NHS is in intensive care, starved of the resources necessary to meet the needs of our ageing and diverse society.

Meanwhile, brilliant, dedicated staff have suffered year after year of pay misery and are having to do more, with less, for less. 

Royal College of Nursing president Cecilia Akrisie Anim will address the rally and say: Nursing staff are bearing the brunt of the enormous pressures facing the NHS.

Staff at every level are experiencing burnout and many of our colleagues are turning their back on jobs they love. Its no surprise that nursing staff feel overstretched and undervalued. There are now more than 40,000 nurse vacancies in England alone.

2018 is 70 years since the formation of the NHS and nurses have always been at the heart of it. Urgent action is needed to address the current crisis  if none is taken, it is our patients who will suffer. We will continue to speak out to defend our NHS.Doctors will show a public demonstration of no confidence in their regulator as they protest against the striking off of one of their colleagues.

The General Medical Council (GMC) succeeded in getting Dr Hadiza Bawa-Garba erased from the medical register after taking the case to the High Court last month.

She was found guilty of gross negligence manslaughter over the death of six-year-old Jack Adcock, after he developed sepsis in 2011, and she received a suspended jail sentence in 2015.

Dr Hadiza Bawa-Garba was found guilty of gross negligence manslaughter over the death of six-year-old Jack Adcock (Leicestershire Police/PA)

But many doctors have reacted angrily to the GMCs measures, arguing they are concerned many of the issues raised by the case  such as dangerous levels of understaffing, failure of IT systems, and staff being forced to work in inappropriate conditions  have been ignored.

They are arguing that rather than highlight any of these issues, the GMC is transferring all of the blame to an individual.

Dr David Nicholl, an NHS consultant, has written a letter to the GMC chairman, Professor Terence Stephenson, accusing it of neither protecting the public or doctors and using the junior doctor as a scapegoat.

These actions are bringing the practice of medicine into disrepute by discouraging trainees from pursuing careers in those medical specialities with an associated higher risk, he said.

This is clearly not in the interests of patients.

Dr Nicholl has written of concerns of conflicts of interest and lack of independence and accountability in decision making at the top level of the organisation, and called for chief executive Charles Massey to step down.

Three other doctors have set up a crowdfunding page which has raised more than 275,000 so Dr Bawa-Garba can launch a civil appeal against the High Court decision.

Doctors said they in no way wish to undermine the unspeakable tragedy or grief that Jacks parents and loved ones must be experiencing.

Dr Nicholl added: We are in fact speaking out on this issue to make sure that this kind of scenario with so many systemic failures never happens again.

Jack, from Glen Parva, Leicestershire, had Downs Syndrome and a known heart condition. He died at Leicester Royal Infirmary in 2011 after developing sepsis.

It is claimed staff shortages meant Dr Bawa-Garba was forced to undertake the roles of three or four doctors, and a subsequent investigation at Leicester Royal Infirmary confirmed serious systemic failings at the hospital.

Protesters will gather outside the GMC offices in central London before they join other health workers, patients, union members and activists in a wider march to demand an end to the crisis in the NHS.

The event, called NHS in crisis: Fix it now, is being organised by the Peoples Assembly and Health Campaigns Together.

A spokeswoman for the GMC said: We understand the strength of feeling this tragic case is raising from many doctors, and we want to continue to work with them to address the wider issues.

In particular we are working with the British Medical Association, medical royal colleges and with legal experts to look at how gross negligence manslaughter cases are applied to medical practice.

We recognise that any doctor, no matter how experienced, can make a mistake, particularly when working under pressure. We are doing everything we can to bring positive improvements out of this issue.The Scottish Government has accused Scottish Labour of an embarrassing blunder after the party claimed an outsourcing giant was on the ropes.

Taxpayers in Scotland were facing hundreds of million of pounds in liabilities if Capita collapses, the party said.

The outsourcing firm has been awarded multi-million pound public contracts in Scotland in the past five years, according to the European Procurement Database.

These include a 325 million deal for IT services and a 76 million contract for a modern apprentices training programme for Skills Development Scotland on behalf of the Scottish Government.

Other contracts are to councils, the Scottish Police Authority and the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service.

Capitas share price crashed earlier this week after the firm issued a profits warning, prompting fears about its future.

Not often you see a company's shares lose over half of their value in just two days. #Capita pic.twitter.com/ylVd8m1crW  Ian Jones (@ian_a_jones) February 1, 2018

Chief executive Jonathan Lewis said the company had become far too complex but was on the road to recovery.

Capitas woes come after construction group and outsourcing rival Carillion collapsed into liquidation earlier this month, leaving the taxpayer on the hook for billions of pounds of projects and pension liabilities.

Scottish Labour urged the Scottish Government to review the outsourcing of public contracts.

Jackie Baillie wants the Scottish Government to review outsourcing (Andrew Milligan/PA)

Its economy spokeswoman Jackie Baillie said: Nobody wants firms to fail and it is essential they receive all necessary support to protect jobs and our economy  but we cannot afford another Carillion.

The reality is that, in the same month as the collapse of Carillion, we have another outsourcing firm on the ropes.

Capita has significant engagement in Scotland, having been issued with hundreds of millions of pounds of contracts from the SNP since 2013.

The SNP must review what contracts it outsources or it risks our public services lurching from crisis to crisis, threatening jobs, taxpayers money and leaving people without the services they need.

We cannot continue with such uncertainty  and the SNP is currently at risk of sleep-walking into another outsourcing crisis.

But a spokesman for Keith Brown, Cabinet Secretary for the Economy, said the firm was not at immediately at risk.

He said: This is an embarrassing blunder from Labour, who have got their numbers wrong and should withdraw their claims.

Capita is solvent and not at immediate risk, but in any case contract values dont equate to any payments which would be required in the unlikely event the company did become insolvent  something Labour should understand.

The reality is that Scotland has far less exposure on these issues than elsewhere in the UK. This is because we have not entered into the wholesale use of private firms to deliver public services in the same way the UK Government has, under successive Tory, Labour and Lib Dem administrations.Russian Minister of Transport Maxim Sokolov announced on Friday that five weekly flights between Egypt and Russia will be operational once commercial air services between the two countries resume, Russian news agency TASS reported.

Sokolov added that the five flights are just an initial plan, as talks are still underway, and the number is subject to change depending on passenger demand.

Two of the initial flights will be launched by Russian national airline Aeroflot, while the other three will be launched by Egyptian national airline EgyptAir.

A high-level delegation from Russia's State Civil Aviation Authority visited Egypt in late January to inspect security procedures at Cairo International Airport prior to the planned resumption of direct flights between Moscow and Cairo.

According to Sokolov, flights between Egypt and Russia may resume this month.

"The question about an exact date should be forwarded to the air carriers, they need to assess the passenger traffic, choose suitable dates and acquire slots at airports. Judicial issues are being looked into, and we dont currently see any obstacles that could prevent them from being resolved by mid-February," TASS quoted Sokolov.

In December, Russian President Vladimir Putin issued a decree to resume commercial air traffic between the two countries' capitals, after flights had been banned since 2015 after the crash of a Russian flight in Sinai.

Egypt has since boosted security procedures at many of its airports in response to Russian security conditions for lifting the flight ban.

In January, Aeroflot announced that direct flights to Cairo would resume on 3 February, however, this was postponed for one week after the company failed to provide online booking for flights to Cairo on its website, according to several Egyptian media outlets who cited sources at Cairo International Airport.

Short link:

Rickie Fowler and Bryson DeChambeau took a share of the lead at the halfway stage of the Waste Management Phoenix Open after both shot rounds of 66 on Friday.

DeChambeau birdied the final two holes, while Fowler bogeyed the 17th but was helped by a run of four birdies in six holes on the front nine, including a stunning approach to the sixth.

A 191,400-strong crowd turned out to see the Americans go into the third day 10 under with fellow compatriots Daniel Berger and Chez Reavie a stroke back.

USAs Rickie Fowler is joint leader after day two of the Waste Management Phoenix Open (Richard Sellers/PA)

Back-to-back 66s for @RickieFowler.



Good enough for a share of the lead @WMPhoenixOpen. pic.twitter.com/sDAinuTXub  PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) February 3, 2018

Berger and Reavie both signed for bogey-free rounds of 65, with Reavie carding an eagle on the driveable 17th.

Americans make up the top seven on the leaderboard, with Chesson Hadley, Scott Stallings and Chris Kirk all eight under.

Scot Martin Laird is then in the group at seven under alongside world number two Jon Rahm after a 67.

OH MY!



Robert Garrigus nearly aces a par 4!#QuickHits pic.twitter.com/bDuFIKaGGo  PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) February 2, 2018

Robert Garrigus had spectators in a frenzy after almost making an ace on the par-four 17th, the flag-pole being the only thing to deny him the hole-in-one. He went on to card an eagle, finishing two under for his first two rounds.A variety if stories lead Saturdays papers, from Britons alarming intake of ultra-processed food to a shake-up of marriage laws.

Several papers spice up their front pages with a photo of Victoria Beckham, Geri Halliwell, Emma Bunton, Melanie Brown and Melanie Chisholm, who to the delight of Spice Girls fans have revealed plans to work together again.

The Daily Telegraph carries a picture of the 90s girl band on its front, alongside a lead report on plans for marriage reforms it says will be the biggest changes to laws for 200 years.

What the papers say - February 3

Saturday's The Daily Telegraph: Biggest marriage shake-up in 200 years #tomorrowspaperstoday pic.twitter.com/jQ6BhbEfz4  Helena Wilkinson (@BBCHelena) February 2, 2018

Half of all food purchased in the UK is ultra-processed  produced in factories with industrial ingredients and additives  according to research reported by The Guardian.

Guardian front page, Saturday 3 February 2018: Half of all food bought in UK is ultra-processed pic.twitter.com/oK49ns4HHB  The Guardian (@guardian) February 2, 2018

Security minister Ben Wallace has told The Times that Russian oligarchs face having to reveal the sources of their wealth in a crackdown on corruption reminiscent of BBC One drama McMafia.

Russians in Britain suspected of corruption are being told to reveal how they live in luxury https://t.co/8zeBa7TAyf  The Times (@thetimes) February 3, 2018

British telecoms company Vodafone is in talks to buy large parts of liberty Global that could be worth 14 billion euros (12.35bn)

The Daily Mail reports on calls for prostate cancer funding to be increased to the level spent on breast cancer as it could save the lives of 7,000 men a year.

Meanwhile, the Daily Mirror reports that a drive for 95% of NHS A&E patients to be seen within four hours is being postponed until April.

The Daily Express reports of an icy blast heading in Britains direction for next week.

The Sun has a report on a soap director.

The Daily Star reports the Spice Girls reunion will bring in 50 million.

And the i reports that thousands of military wives have been betrayed by changes to armed forces pensions.Former SNP MP Angus Robertson has quit as the partys depute leader.

Eight months after losing his seat in the 2018 snap general election, Mr Robertson said he was stepping down with immediate effect in order to pursue new career opportunities.

Mr Robertson was one of the SNPs most high-profile losses in the June election, when he was ousted from the Moray seat he had held since 2001.

Former SNP depute leader Angus Robertson (Jane Barlow/PA)

SNP leader and Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon expressed her immense gratitude for the job he had had done.

Thank you @AngusRobertson - you have been an outstanding Deputy Leader of @theSNP and a huge support to me personally. You should be very proud of your enormous contribution to our Partys success. I wish you well and hope to see you back in frontline politics in the future. https://t.co/8F3lACFe1o  Nicola Sturgeon (@NicolaSturgeon) February 3, 2018

He was already the SNPs Westminster leader when he was elected depute leader of the party in October 2016, succeeding Stewart Hosie, who quit the role following claims about his personal life.

Since losing his seat in the general election, Mr Robertson said he had been focused on supporting campaign best practice for local SNP branches, constituency associations, elected members and the party nationally.

But in a letter to Ms Sturgeon he said: I believe I am no longer able to fully discharge my mandate, which was to partner you as Westminster SNP Leader and as a parliamentarian representing a rural constituency.

While it would be my greatest privilege to continue as Depute Leader, I know you understand that I have to focus now on pursuing new career opportunities.

It is for that reason that I believe it is for others to step forward to seek the support of SNP members for the honour to serve as Depute Leader of Scotlands largest political party.

Thanks to all colleagues and constituents over 17 years of public life. It's been a tremendous honour to serve as deputy of @NicolaSturgeon and help transform Scottish politics. Look forward to new opportunities but will always be there to help Scotland reach its full potential. pic.twitter.com/S6qznishFe  Angus Robertson (@AngusRobertson) February 3, 2018

He added he was tremendously honoured to have held the role, and would now work to support public policy development in Scotland as an advisory board member of the Scottish Policy Foundation.

Ms Sturgeon told the former MP he had always been a source of wise counsel to her, noting that when he was first elected to Westminster the SNP had just five MPs.

The party went on to win 56 of the 59 seats up for grabs in Scotland in the 2015 general election, although it lost 21 of those constituencies some two years later.

Ms Sturgeon said: Our political and electoral success over the last decade has been nothing short of extraordinary  and the party owes you an enormous debt of gratitude for the personal role you have played in bringing about that success.

That includes your part in the 2014 referendum which brought the country closer to independence than ever before.

The SNP leader added: We remain the preeminent electoral force in Scotland, and the latest opinion polling shows us 17 points ahead of our nearest rivals almost 11 years into office, which is a remarkable vote of confidence from the people we serve. You can be very proud of the part you have played in this success.

I know that you are keen to pursue other career opportunities at the moment, and I wish you well in those endeavours, but I hope that we may see you return to front-line politics in future.Thousands of people have braved rain in central London to demonstrate in support of fixing what they say is a crisis in the NHS.

Warren Street was teeming with demonstrators brandishing placards who turned out at nearby Gower Street to line up in large numbers in the wintry conditions.

They were there to draw attention to the NHS funding shortage, with signs urging kick the Tories out, and more staff, more beds, more funds.

Keep your hands off our NHS, they chanted as they began marching at 1pm Saturday.

The demonstration, called NHS in crisis: Fix it now, was organised by the Peoples Assembly and Health Campaigns Together.

Among the demonstrators was Jamie, a disability rights advocate who was attending the march in his wheelchair.

He was injured in a serious car crash 21 years ago: I owe my life to the NHS, he said.

There is a tragedy unfolding and the fact is that so many desperate people are traumatised, stigmatised and stressed by work capability testing.

Save Lewisham Hospital campaigner Tamsyn Bacchus, who carried a life-size vulture prop hovering over a bloody-painted NHS placard, said she feared the UK could morph the NHS into a US style user-pays health service.

A protester dressed as the Grim Reaper (Yui Mok/PA)

I have faith, and so do all these folk here, that its so important to have the principle of service that is great the point of use so that when you are ill, when your child is running a high fever, when you need the hospital or a doctor you can get them without worrying about having to pay for it

In rallying Britons to attend the demonstration organisers, the Peoples Assembly said stories of patients dying in hospital corridors and overcrowded waiting rooms revealed a crisis.

It is time this Government stops blaming patients, nurses, doctors, immigrants, flu and the elderly for their shortcomings.

The demonstration began at Gower Street in Central London at midday, and the crowds began their march to Downing Street at 1pm.

Actor Ralf Little, who is expected to speak at the march this afternoon, has previously told how his mother was saved by NHS treatment for free when she suffered a stroke.

He said: My mother was rushed to hospital in an ambulance, received expert emergency care, stayed in hospital for two weeks to recover, was treated daily by consultants, physical therapists, occupational therapists and nursing staff, was escorted home in a taxi and checked on three times a day for a further five weeks.

Following a Twitter row with the Health Secretary, Little penned an open letter to Jeremy Hunt inviting him to attend the demonstration.

Shadow health secretary Jon Ashworth planned to be at the protest. He has claimed the NHS was experiencing its worst winter on record, on the services 70th anniversary year.North Korea has used its embassy in Berlin to acquire equipment apparently intended for its missile or nuclear programmes, the head of Germanys domestic intelligence agency has said.

The comments by BfV agency head Hans-Georg Maassen were released by NDR public television on Saturday before a documentary due to air next week.

Mr Maassen said of the embassy: We have seen that procurement activities took place from there, from our point of view with a view to the missile programme and in part also the nuclear programme.

North Korea (Patrick Semansky/AP)

He added that if we see such things, we prevent them, but it is not always possible to recognise them and the activities often involve goods usable for either civilian or military purposes.

Pyongyang has faced increasing UN sanctions in response to its nuclear and ballistic missile tests.A teenager awaiting sentence after admitting committing terrorism offences has been arrested by police on another terror offence.

West Midlands Police said the 16-year-old was arrested on Saturday and is being questioned on suspicion of distributing a terrorist publication.

He is currently being held at a police station in the West Midlands under PACE legislation and the arrest was intelligence-led, with no immediate threat to the public.

(Joe Giddens/PA)

The youngster was 15 when he was charged in October with another terror offence after being stopped at Birmingham Airport in June.

He had been reported missing by his family.

West Midlands Police said the teenager is due to be sentenced at Stratford Youth Court, east London, on February 20, after having previously pleaded guilty to one count of preparing for terrorist acts under Section 5 of the Terrorism Act 2006 (attempting to travel).A police officer who was attacked and knocked unconscious in a graveyard has been discharged from hospital.

Kent Police launched a manhunt after the male officer was assaulted in the grounds of St Laurence Church in Ramsgate just before 10pm on Friday.

Our officer who was assaulted in #Ramsgate last night is out of hospital. For further details, see here https://t.co/3tVToAoREX  Kent Police (UK) (@kent_police) February 3, 2018

He was taken to hospital for treatment but has since been discharged, a force spokesman said on Saturday afternoon.

The officer was taken to hospital for treatment but has since been discharged, a force spokesman said (PA)

Armed officers attended the scene after it was reported one of the people who carried out the attack had a gun. But no firearm was discharged, police said.

So far no-one has been arrested. Police are appealing for witnesses or anyone with information to come forward.A lone Italian gunman has wounded six African immigrants in a two-hour drive-by shooting spree in the city of Macerata.

The shooting suspect was identified as Luca Traini, a 28-year-old Italian with no previous record.

A video posted by the newspaper il Resto di Carlino showed a man with an Italian flag draped over his shoulders being arrested by armed Carabinieri officers in the city centre, near where he apparently fled his car on foot. Italian news reports said the man did a fascist salute as he was arrested, but no salute was visible in the video.

The shooting spree came days after the killing of 18-year-old Nigerian Pamela Mastropietro and amid a heated electoral campaign in Italy where anti-foreigner sentiment has become a key theme as the country continues to struggle with migrant arrivals.

The head of the anti-migrant Northern League, Matteo Salvini, has capitalised on the killing in campaign appearances, and is pledging to deport 150,000 migrants in his first year in office if his party wins control of parliament and he is named premier.

Police at the scene in Macerata, Italy (Carotti/ANSA via AP)

Macerata mayor Romano Carancini confirmed that six foreigners, all black, were wounded in the shooting spree, one with life-threatening injuries.

They were all of colour, this is obviously a grave fact. As was grave what happened to Pamela. The closeness of the two events makes you imagine there could be a connection, he said.

The teenagers dismembered remains were found on Wednesday in two suitcases two days after she walked away from a drug rehab community. A judge on Saturday confirmed the arrest of the main suspect, identified as 29-year-old Innocent Oseghale.

The Italian news agency ANSA reported that the black car used in Saturdays shooting spree had been seen in the area where the womans body was found and also near where the suspect lived. A video posted by il Resto di Carlino showed what appeared to be a body on the ground on a shopping street.

Police had warned residents to stay inside while the shootings were ongoing. Authorities halted public transport and said students must kept inside schools, which are open on Saturdays.

Italians vote in a general election on March 4 to elect a new government.

Mr Salvinis League, which dropped the northern from its name in a bid for a national following, has joined a centre-right coalition with Silvio Berlusconis Forza Italia and Giorgia Melonis much smaller Brothers of Italy. They are running against Matteo Renzis much-splintered Democratic Party and the populist 5-Star Movement.Dozens of firefighters are battling flames that engulfed a car workshop at a west London industrial estate.

Ten fire engines and 72 firefighters and officers are at the scene of the fire on the Kirby Estate, Trout Road, in West Drayton, the London Fire Brigade (LFB) said.

Crews are working hard at the scene of a fire at a car workshop in #WestDrayton. Ten fire engines remain at the scene https://t.co/aIbojTjQHm pic.twitter.com/9eRyB6hdrO  London Fire Brigade (@LondonFire) February 3, 2018

Three-quarters of the 20-by-55 metre single-storey unit was alight, the LFB said.

Firefighters tackling a blaze at a car workshop in West Drayton (London Fire Brigade/PA)

The brigade was called at 11.36am and crews from Hillingdon, Hayes, Heathrow, Southall, Feltham and other surrounding fire stations are present.

It received 36 calls reporting the fire, the cause of which is not yet known.

Station manager Shaun Coltress said: The fire has been contained to the unit of origin but firefighters are likely to remain at the scene for some time.Kill Bill star Uma Thurman has alleged Harvey Weinstein assaulted her.

The US actress, 47, claimed the disgraced film producer assaulted her following the release of Weinstein-funded Pulp Fiction in a London hotel room, and also recalled a second incident in which it is alleged he threatened to derail her career.

She told the New York Times Weinstein tried to push her down and shove himself on top of her and attempted to expose himself.

Weinstein (PA)

He did all kinds of unpleasant things, she said. But he didnt actually put his back into it and force me. Youre like an animal wriggling away, like a lizard.

I was doing anything I could to get the train back on the track. My track. Not his track.

Thurman said she told Kill Bill and Pulp Fiction director, and close friend of Weinstein, Quentin Tarantino about the alleged incident and the film maker confronted Weinstein at the Cannes Film Festival in 2001.

Hours later The Miramax co-founder apologised to Thurman, she said.

I just walked away stunned, like ok, well theres my half-assed apology, Thurman says.

Following the first alleged assault, she said Weinstein sent her flowers, with a note telling her she had great instincts.

It followed a previous meeting in a Paris hotel room where he stripped to his bathrobe during a discussion about a script, while a later incident left Thurman shaken after he allegedly threatened her career  according to friend and make-up artist Ilona Harman who had met her after the meeting.

The revelations come after she previously suggested on social media she had a Weinstein story to tell in the wake of dozens of allegations against the movie mogul, including from some of Hollywoods biggest stars

The New York Times article includes comments from Weinstein through a spokesman admitting he had propositioned Thurman but denied threatening her career.

Mr. Weinstein acknowledges making a pass at Ms. Thurman in England after misreading her signals in Paris, the spokesman said in a statement to the Times.

He immediately apologised.

Thurman also accuses Tarantino of nearly killing her in the article, as she opened up about an incident from the set of Kill Bill in which she crashed a car during filming.

She had objected to getting in the deathbox car, she said, but Tarantino insisted.

When I came back from the hospital in a neck brace with my knees damaged and a large massive egg on my head and a concussion, I wanted to see the car and I was very upset.

Quentin and I had an enormous fight, and I accused him of trying to kill me. And he was very angry at that, I guess understandably, because he didnt feel he had tried to kill me.

Harvey assaulted me but that didnt kill me, she added.

On Friday Bafta officially terminated Weinstein over a slew of allegations against him. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which votes for the Oscars, also voted to strip Weinstein of his lifetime membership.

Police in the UK are investigating a number of sexual assault allegations against the former Hollywood heavyweight.

Bafta will hold its annual film awards on February 18 where stars are expected to wear black in honour of the Times Up movement for gender equality and in solidarity with the victims of sexual harassment and assault.

Weinstein and Tarantino have been contacted for comment.Al Qaida-linked militants in Syria have downed a Russian fighter jet and killed its pilot after he ejected from the plane.

The pilot, who landed on the ground in the embattled north-western province of Idlib, resisted being captured and fired at the militants who then shot and killed him, according to one of the militants and Syrian monitors.

The Russian defence ministry confirmed the downing of the Su-25 and said the pilot was killed in fighting with terrorists.

Part of a Russian plane that was shot down by rebel fighters over Syria (Ibaa News Agency via AP)

A report on the ministrys Zvezda TV said preliminary information indicated the plane was shot by a portable ground-to-air missile in an area under the control of al Qaidas branch in Syria.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the plane was downed on Saturday afternoon near the rebel-held town of Saraqeb, which Syrian troops have been trying to take under the cover of Russian air strikes.

Russia is a key ally of President Bashar Assad, and has been waging a military campaign on behalf of his forces since 2015.

Since then, Syrian troops have captured wide parts of the country and in recent weeks have been making advances in Idlib. The province is also a base for al Qaidas branch in Syria and other Islamic groups.

A Syrian militant in the area told The Associated Press that the Russian pilot was shot and killed when he resisted capture.

The pilot opened fire from his pistol as the militants were trying to seize him, said the militant.

Earlier in the day, the Observatory and the media arm of al Qaida-linked militants reported intense air strikes in Idlib. The Observatory reported more than 35 air strikes on Saraqeb since late Friday, adding that many of its residents are fleeing.

The Ibaa News Agency, of the al Qaida-linked Levant Liberation Committee, said Russian and Syrian warplanes and helicopter gunships have been pounding Saraqeb and the village of Tel Mardeekh in Idlib since the early hours of Saturday.

Syrias state news agency, SANA, said Syrian troops captured the village of Maasaran as well as the Tel Tokan hill, cutting links between Saraqeb and the rebel stronghold of Maarest al-Numan to the south.

Syrian government forces and their allies launched a push into Idlib six weeks ago, inching closer to a key road that connects Syrias two largest cities, Damascus and Aleppo.

The UN says more than 270,000 people have been displaced in Idlib because of the government onslaught since December 15.

Meanwhile, fighting raged on Saturday between Turkish troops and allied Syrian opposition fighters, and a Syrian Kurdish militia in the northern Syrian enclave of Afrin.

The Turkish military said two of its soldiers were killed in Syria and a third was killed on the Turkish side of the border in an attack by Syrian Kurdish militiamen.

The military said Saturdays deaths were related to Turkeys operation against Syrian Kurdish-held Afrin, codenamed Olive Branch. One of the soldiers was killed when a Turkish tank was hit in Afrin.

A total of eight Turkish soldiers and at least 24 allied Syrian opposition fighters have died so far in Ankaras offensive, which started on January 20.

The Turkish operation aims to clear Afrin of the US-backed Syrian Kurdish militia, known as the Peoples Protection Units or YPG, which Turkey considers to be a terrorist group and an extension of the Kurdish insurgency within its borders.Press Association Sport assesses the impact of the Premier Leagues debutants in the first fixtures since the end of the January transfer window  as well as one departed player.

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (Arsenal)

The 56million striker made a goalscoring start with a lovely chip over Jordan Pickford, albeit having been offside when the ball was played through, though he was overshadowed by fellow newcomer Henrikh Mkhitaryans three-assist home debut and Aaron Ramseys hat-trick in the 5-1 rout of Everton.

We could get used to this link-up play - @HenrikhMkh finds @Aubameyang7 who delicately clips over Pickford#AFCvEFC  4-0  (38) pic.twitter.com/hs4tVJalou  Arsenal (@Arsenal) February 3, 2018

Eliaquim Mangala (Everton)

On the other side of the coin was the Toffees on-loan Manchester City defender, who looked lost and displayed the form which made him a big-money flop at the Etihad Stadium. A deflection on Ramseys second goal put the seal on an evening to forget.

Badou Ndiaye, Kostas Stafylidis (Stoke)

Senegal midfielder Ndiaye, a 14million capture from Galatasaray, was the main bright spot in defeat to Bournemouth. He produced a pinpoint cross to set up Xherdan Shaqiris fifth-minute opener as well as showing his aggressive streak with a cynical tackle to prevent Bournemouth breaking, which brought a deserved booking.

Badou Ndiaye made an early impact (Daniel Hambury/PA)

Greek defender Stafylidis, on loan from German club Augsburg, replaced his fellow new boy with 19 minutes remaining but had little time to make an impact.

Jordan Hugill (West Ham)

Came on with 11 minutes remaining and his team 3-1 down to Brighton. Went alongside Javier Hernandez in attack but barely got a touch of the ball.

Ademola Lookman (RB Leipzig)

The Everton forwards loan move was questioned by manager Sam Allardyce but he announced his arrival in the Bundesliga in style with a late winner against Borussia Monchengladbach barely 10 minutes after coming on as a substitute.The coldest week of the winter could be just around the corner, with most of the population likely to see a few flakes of the white stuff.

A series of weather warnings are in place, forecasting snow and ice from Sunday and throughout next week, the Met Office said.

The mercury could plummet as low as minus 7C (19.4F) in some parts of the UK, while the bulk of the population can expect to shiver through sub-zero temperatures.

Good evening UK! Angie here tonight for weather questions. Staying mainly cloudy with some patchy rain & sleet slowly easing. Drier overnight, with clearer spells developing, giving a risk of frost & ice, especially in the east: https://t.co/lvmvtqQWBN pic.twitter.com/JZguUb3lmY  Met Office (@metoffice) February 3, 2018

Met Office forecaster Craig Snell said the first full week of February will probably be one of our coldest weeks of this winter so far.

He said: Its going to be a cold week, plenty of dry weather around, but many places will probably see some snow at some point during the week, but for a lot of us not really amounting to much at all.

Probably one of our coldest weeks of this winter so far, but snow-fall wise, doesnt really look too disruptive at this stage.

The Met Office said ice was likely to form overnight on Sunday from 2am to 10am along the east coast as temperatures plummet, bringing potentially difficult driving conditions.

On the whole, Sunday will be much drier and brighter than Saturday, with a bitter north-east wind making temperatures feel close to freezing in East Anglia and the South East.

Sunday will be a #cold day for many, especially towards the south and east when you factor in the brisk wind  pic.twitter.com/QYvw417UM7  Met Office (@metoffice) February 3, 2018

A further weather warning for snow and ice is in place from 8pm on Sunday until 10am on Monday, spanning south-east England.

Scattered rain, sleet and snow showers coming in from the north sea are expected to be most frequent in Kent and East Sussex on Sunday evening, before affecting parts of East Anglia and Greater London later into the night.

Around 1-3cm of snow could accumulate inland, mainly over hills above 100 metres.

People enjoy a snow covered hill near Princes Risborough, Buckinghamshire, following a weekend wintry blast in December (Steve Parsons/PA)

Mr Snell said the working week would start on a bitterly cold note, with the bulk of the population waking up to temperatures between 0C to minus 2C (32-28.4F)

The mercury could plummet as low as minus 7C (19.4F) in sheltered parts of Scotland and spots most prone to the cold in the Midlands and Wales.

Then, between 9pm on Monday and 3pm on Tuesday, there is a further chance of snow and ice for the north of England, northern Ireland, north Wales and Scotland.

A spell of rain, sleet and #snow in the north on Monday night may cause some disruption to travel with the risk of icy patches on untreated surfaces. Stay #weatheraware pic.twitter.com/50oWqles5g  Met Office (@metoffice) February 3, 2018

A spell of rain, sleet and increasingly snow will move east across the UK, gradually weakening across England and Wales.

Mr Snell added: Quite a lot of the UK will see some snow as we head through Tuesday but as it ventures into the Midlands, south-west England and eventually later in the day across south-east England, its just going to be a few flakes of snow.

So many people will see some snow but dont expect to build a snowman.

Tuesday morning is again expected to be widely below freezing, with highs of 5-6C (41-42.8F) in spots on the western coast of Wales and south-west England, he added.

Overnight into Wednesday will be another chilly night, while the day will generally be cold, crisp and sunny.

A front of rain is expected to move through the country on Thursday, before the cold air swiftly returns.

The cold snap is expected to grip Britain until at least next weekend, with the chance that milder weather may not arrive until the middle of the following week.The joint opposition (JO) said yesterday it would request Speaker Karu Jayasuriya to allocate maximum time for the JO for the parliamentary debate on the Bond Commissions report.

MP Bandula Gunawardana told a news conference that the JO was the group which spearheaded the campaign which revealed the Central Bank bond scam.

Not only did we reveal the scam, we literally shed blood for this. Our MP Rohitha Abeygunawardena was injured during the protest held near the Central Bank in Colombo when a barrier fell on him. We organised awareness campaigns across the country to make people aware about the scam. Therefore, we deserve the most amount of time at the debate, he said.

The MP said the National Executive Council which was set up during the 100-day programme and its members were also responsible for the bond scam because the council had allowed the appointment of former CB governor Arjuna Madendran.

He said it was the JO which wrote to the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank informing of them about the CB scam. (Lahiru Pothmulla)Hollywood actress and United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) Goodwill Ambassador Ashley Judd would arrive in Sri Lanka next week, the Government Information Department said today.

It said Judd will engage with women and girls from different backgrounds to learn about their livelihoods and views on gender-based violence during her visit to Sri Lanka.

She will also meet with stakeholders from the public sector, private sector and donor community to highlight the importance of investing in the reproductive health and rights of people.

Judd was appointed as a UNFPA Goodwill Ambassador in March 2016, and is a passionate advocate for ending all forms of gender-based violence around the world. While she is best known for an ongoing acting career spanning more than two decades, she has increasingly become involved in global humanitarian efforts and political activism, it said.

Judd has had leading roles in films including Ruby in Paradise (1993), Norma Jean & Marilyn (1996), Kiss the Girls (1997), Double Jeopardy (1999), Where the Heart Is (2000), High Crimes (2002), De-Lovely (2004), Bug (2006), Dolphin Tale (2011), Divergent (2014), Dolphin Tale 2 (2014) and Insurgent (2015).

In 2010, she earned a one-year mid-career masters degree in public administration from Harvards Kennedy School of Government.Sending a congratulatory message on the 70th anniversary celebration of Sri Lankas independence, Queen Elizabeth II said the relationship between Sri Lanka and the UK has continued to grow.

In her message to President Maithripala Sirisena, the Queen said The relationship between our two countries has continued to grow and it is my hope that the connections between our people continue to flourish in the years to come,

She said it gives her great pleasure to send congratulations on the occasion of the celebration by Sri Lanka of the 70th anniversary of Independence.

Although I am unable to be with you as you mark this historic moment, I am very pleased that the Earl and Countess of Wessex are able to represent me and to join you in celebrating all that the people of Sri Lanka have achieved in the past 70 years. I send my best wishes to the people of Sri Lanka on this occasion, she said.The Sri Lankan Government today said it is observing the evolving situation in the Maldives and urged all parties to uphold the rule of law and the Constitution in order to find a peaceful solution to the current situation.

The Maldivian Supreme Court on Thursday ordered the immediate release of former president Mohamed Nasheed and eight other opposition leaders, saying their trials had violated the Constitution and international law, Reuters said.

However, the Supreme Court has also ordered new trials.

The Indian Express today said the Government of Maldives had not yet acted on the Supreme Court ruling.

Meanwhile, Al Jazeera today reported that hundreds of people have rallied in Male urging President Abdulla Yameen to comply with the court ruling to release jailed opposition leaders.Israeli aircraft hit a Hamas compound in the southern Gaza Strip on Saturday, after Palestinians there fired a rocket into Israel, the Israeli army said.

"In response to the projectile fired at southern Israel...fighter jets struck a Hamas compound composed of two military structures," the army statement said.

There were no reports of casualties on either side.

It was the second exchange in 24 hours, after the air force hit a Hamas position in Gaza early Friday in response to a rocket being fired from the Palestinian enclave the night before.

Such rockets are usually fired not by Hamas, the Islamist group that controls the territory, but by fringe radical groups.

Israel holds Hamas responsible for any fire coming from Gaza. Israel launched three deadly military offensives against Gaza since 2008.

*This story was edited by Ahram Online.

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Turkish guards at the border with Syria are indiscriminately shooting at and summarily returning asylum seekers attempting to cross into Turkey, Human Rights Watch said on Saturday.

The spokesman for Turkey's president said it was highly unlikely that Turkish soldiers would shoot at Syrian war refugees but the government would look into the report. Turkey has taken in 3.5 million Syrian war refugees since 2011.

New York-based Human Rights Watch said Syrians were now fleeing heightened violence in the northwestern province of Idlib to seek refuge near Turkey's border, which remains closed to all but critical medical cases.

Syrian armed forces have thrust deeper into the mainly rebel-held province in recent months and Turkey last month launched military action in the nearby Afrin region targeting Kurdish YPG militia fighters.

"Syrians fleeing to the Turkish border seeking safety and asylum are being forced back with bullets and abuse," said Lama Fakih, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch.

Asked about the HRW statement, President Tayyip Erdogan's spokesman said Turkish soldiers were there to protect these people and that Ankara has had an "open-door policy" since the start of Syria's civil war in 2011.

"We will certainly look into it. It's very unlikely that our soldiers would shoot at people," Ibrahim Kalin told reporters in Istanbul. "We never ask anyone whether they are Kurdish or Arab or Muslim Christian, from this region or that region. I don't know if it's an isolated incident or not."

HRW cited U.N. figures saying 247,000 Syrians were displaced to the border area between Dec. 15 and Jan. 15, 2018.

"As fighting in Idlib and Afrin displaces thousands more, the number of Syrians trapped along the border willing to risk their lives to reach Turkey is only likely to increase," Fakih said.

Thirteen of 16 Syrian refugees to whom HRW spoke accused Turkish border guards of having shot toward them or other fleeing asylum seekers as they tried to cross while still in Syria, killing 10 people, including one child, and injuring several more.

Turkey has taken in more Syrian refugees than any other country, granting many temporary protection status and providing them with basic services, including medical care and education.

"However, Turkey's generous hosting of large numbers of Syrians does not absolve it of its responsibility to help those seeking protection at its borders," the HRW statement added.

It said Erdogan's government should issue standard instructions to border guards at all crossing points that lethal force must not be used against asylum seekers and that no asylum seeker is to be mistreated.



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Rebel fighters shot down a Russian plane over Syria's northwest Idlib province on Saturday, a monitor said, taking its Russian pilot captive.

"Rebel factions shot down a Sukhoi 25. The Russian pilot came down in a parachute, before being captured," said Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

He could not immediately confirm which faction had shot down the warplane but hardline opposition factions and the jihadist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) are active in the area.

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Turkey on Saturday said that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad should leave office "at some point" in the future but denied there was any kind of contact between Ankara and Damascus over ending the seven year civil war.

Ankara has been a prime foe of Assad throughout the conflict but has occasionally softened its rhetoric in the last months as Turkey strengthened cooperation with the regime's main ally Russia.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's spokesperson, Ibrahim Kalin, told journalists in Istanbul that Assad was not the leader to unite Syria and had lost legitimacy.

But Kalin said there needed to be a "political transition in Syria", leading to a new constitution and elections.

"It is not going to be easy but that's the ultimate goal to reach and at some point Assad will have to go," he added.

"Where exactly, at what point precisely (Assad leaves), is something that will be answered as we go on, obviously," he said.

He was speaking after Russia on Tuesday hosted a peace congress on Syria, with both Russian President Vladimir Putin and Erdogan expressing "satisfaction", according to the Kremlin.

Kalin, who is also regarded as Erdogan's top foreign policy advisor, also indicated that Turkey believed Russia's priority was ensuring Syria did not become a failed state, rather than concern about Assad himself.

He said the Russian position has been "not so much protecting Assad personally but protecting the state institutions, state apparatus and the Syrian army and the regime elements".

He said: "They want to make sure that the state doesn't collapse completely in Syria."

Turkey's position on Assad has been under ever greater scrutiny since Ankara on January 20 began a cross-border operation with Syrian allied rebel forces against Kurdish militia based in the town of Afrin.

The main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu has called for Ankara to make contact with the Damascus regime as the best way of ensuring Syria's territorial integrity.

But Kalin denied any contact with Damascus "at any level".

"There is no communication, no relationship, direct (or) indirect. Nothing with the Syrian regime, at any level. I can say that categorically and very clearly," he said.

He also rejected the notion that there had been any agreement with Russia allowing the Afrin operation to go ahead in exchange for a deal over the rebel-held neighbouring region of Idlib.

"There's no deal with Russia 'you give Idlib and take Afrin'... they are two separate operations," he said.

Kalin indicated that Turkey's position on Syria was less well aligned with the other major ally of the Damascus regime, Iran.

"Iran supports the regime but we don't, and they want to keep Assad the person and we don't," said Kalin, noting that Tehran had "clear leverage" over the Damascus regime.

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Myanmar on Saturday denied that there were five mass graves of Rohingya Muslims in a village in crisis-hit Rakhine state, saying that 19 "terrorists" had been killed and buried in the area.

The denial was response to an Associated Press report that used testimony from dozens of Rohingya refugees and time-stamped cell phone videos to describe a massacre by soldiers and at least five previously unreported mass graves in Rakhine's Gu Dar Pyin village.

The Myanmar government's Information Committee said in a statement on its Facebook page that a government inspection team had gone to the village to probe the report and found it to be false.

"The inspection team systematically investigated the AP's report on the Gu Dar Pyin village case, including interviewing villagers, and found it not to be true," the statement said.

The report, which AFP could not independently verify, described grisly violence at the hands of soldiers and Buddhist vigilantes, who allegedly attacked villagers with guns, knives, rocket launchers and grenades before dumping bodies into pits and dousing them with acid.

Satellite images showed a village that has been completely wiped out, with villagers interviewed in refugee camps in Bangladesh claiming that up to 400 people could have been killed, according to the report.

The Information Committee said there had been deadly clashes between security forces and Rohingya militants in the village on August 28 which left 19 "terrorists" dead.

"Nineteen dead terrorists were found... the bodies were buried," the statement said, without giving details on the location or nature of the graves.

Myanmar troops are accused of waging an ethnic cleansing campaign against the Muslim minority, nearly 700,000 of whom have fled to Bangladesh since last August.

The army staunchly denies the allegation, saying it is a proportionate crackdown on Rohingya rebels. It blocks media and UN investigators from independently visiting the conflict zone in northern Rakhine.

The severe restrictions on media access imposed by Myanmar make it difficult to verify the flood of testimony gathered from Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh, whose stories have led the UN to accuse Myanmar troops of possible genocide.

This week a spokesman for the UN secretary general said he was "very concerned" about the report of mass graves, adding that it "underscores the need for the UN to have access to Rakhine state".

Last month the army made a rare admission that four members of the security forces had helped kill 10 Rohingya militant suspects in a different village on September 2 and left their bodies in a hastily dug pit.

Rights groups say that incident is the tip of the iceberg.

Doctors Without Borders estimates that at least 6,700 Rohingya were killed in the first month of the military crackdown.

The army has put the official death toll of the conflict at 400.

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BSNL has requested for allocation of 5MHz in 800 MHz spectrum band which is used for 4G services at present. (Photo: BSNL)

New Delhi: State-run telecom firm BSNL has sought Rs 6,652 crore as equity infusion from the government to fund its spectrum purchase worth about Rs 13,885 crore, telecom minister Manoj Sinha informed Parliament on Friday.

BSNL has submitted a detailed project report (DPR) to the Department of Telecom (DoT) for allotting 5MHz spectrum in 2100 MHz band, used for 3G and 4G services, in all telecom circles where it operates, except for Rajasthan.

"BSNL has sought from the DoT Rs 6,652 crore as equity infusion out of total spectrum cost of Rs 13,885 crore. BSNL will pay the balance Rs 7,233 crore of spectrum cost in ten annual installments from its internal accruals," Sinha said in a written statement to the Rajya Sabha.

BSNL has requested for allocation of 5MHz in 800 MHz spectrum band which is used for 4G services at present. The state-run firm has plans to start 4G services this year by installing 10,000 mobile sites in all its telecom circles.Under the NTP 2018, the telecom sector should be able to deploy 2 million public wireless local area network, including Wi-Fi hotspots in the country by 2020.

New Delhi: The telecom sector should be able to address global requirements and attract investments of about USD 100 billion by 2022 under the new policy in works, as per suggestions made by sector regulator Trai today.

The regulator recommended that under the new policy framework, the telecom sector should be able to generate 20 lakh jobs, achieve 900 million broadband subscriptions with download speed of 2 Mbps and connect all gram panchayats with at least 1 gigabit per second with wireless broadband by 2022.

Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) reiterated its long pending demand of putting in place an ombudsman based consumer grievance redressal mechanism "by end of 2018".

The regulator in March 2017 had recommended DoT to set-up ombudsman in the sector, which should have the power to levy penalties on the telecom service providers. The Department of Telecom had sought views of Trai on National Telecom Policy (NTP) 2018 on August 21, 2017.

The regulator listed out seven broad missions and 18 objectives that should be achieved under the NTP 2018. Trai said that the NTP 2018 should be able to enable access at affordable prices for wireless broadband services, including through satellite to 90 per cent population and there should be 65 per cent active unique mobile subscribers by 2022.

The teledensity in the country is around 91 per cent but the total number of subscribers include individuals with multiple mobile connections.

Trai said that the vision of the new telecom policy in works should be developing a competitive, sustainable, and investor-friendly information and communication technologies (ICT) market for rollout of state-of-the-art ubiquitous digital communication infrastructure.

"...to provide resilient, reliable, affordable, and consumer friendly products and services to meet local as well as global needs; and in the process, transform India's knowledge economy, support inclusive development, foster innovation, and stimulate job creation," Trai said.

The regulator recommended that the mission of NTP 2018 should include development of "indigenous technologies, equipments, platforms, and applications ecosystem for providing digital services to local and global markets".

Trai has recommended that NTP 2018 should aim to make the sector net positive in international trade of communication systems and services by 2022.

It said that mission of the sector should attract investments by enhancing ease of doing business through simplification of licensing and regulatory frameworks, rationalisation of taxes, levies and related compliances, and facilitating availability of resources, including spectrum.

The regulator said that NTP should be able "to attract an investment equivalent to USD 60 billion in communication sector by 2020 and USD 100 billion by 2022".

The foreign direct investment in the sector during first half of current fiscal has been to the tune of USD 6.08 billion.

Trai said that an online centralised platform should be created by 2019 for facilitating single window clearance for rolling out telecom infrastructure in the country.

Under the NTP 2018, the telecom sector should be able to deploy 2 million public wireless local area network, including Wi-Fi hotspots in the country by 2020 and 5 million by 2022, enable access for connecting 1 billion internet of things (IoT)/ machine-to-machine sensors or devices by 2020 and 5 billion by 2022 and establish a policy framework for facilitating setting up of data centres by 2019.Globally, silver fell 3.63 per cent to USD 16.58 an ounce and gold by 1.22 per cent to USD 1,331.90 an ounce in New York.

New Delhi: Silver prices slumped below the Rs 40,000 per kg level by falling Rs 500 to Rs 39,800 per kg at the bullion market on Saturday, tracking a weak trend overseas amid reduced industrial offtake.

Gold, however, ruled steady at Rs 31,250 per ten grams largely on scattered buying. Gold of 99.9 per cent and 99.5 per cent purity ruled flat at Rs 31,250 and Rs 31,100 per ten grams respectively.

Sovereign followed suit and maintained a steady trend at Rs 24,800 per piece of eight grams.

Traders on Friday observed a 'bandh' to protest against the ongoing sealing of business establishments in the city. Marketmen said apart from a weak trend overseas, fall in demand from industrial units and coin makers at domestic spot market mainly led to fall in silver prices.

Globally, silver fell 3.63 per cent to USD 16.58 an ounce and gold by 1.22 per cent to USD 1,331.90 an ounce in New York on Friday.

In the national capital, silver ready plunged by Rs 500 to Rs 39,800 per kg and weekly-based delivery by Rs 835 to Rs 38,605 per kg.

Silver coins, however, held steady at Rs 74,000 for buying and Rs 75,000 for selling of 100 pieces.According to leading names in the plastic surgery field, the vaginal surgery, one of the most sought-after, is officially the 'fastest growing procedure'.

New research shows that the desire for a 'designer vagina' has soared by almost 50 per cent over the course of a year.

According to industry figures, a 45 per cent jump in the number of labiaplasties - which involves trimming back the inner lips, like 'Barbie' - across the world is being observed.

According to leading names in the plastic surgery field, the vaginal surgery, one of the most sought-after, is officially the 'fastest growing procedure'.

Speaking about it, Dr Renato Saltz, president of the International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (ISAPS), told AFP that 'vaginal rejuvenation is the new trend'.

IMCAS figures also show spending on cosmetic surgery has jumped by eight per cent in a year, now totalling 7.5 billion ($10.7bn).

Spending on equipment and products used for nips, tucks and lifts is only expected to increase by another nine per cent next year.

Porn has repeatedly been blamed for the thousands of women going under the knife for a labiaplasty, which has soared in recent years.

IMCAS, short for the International Master Course on Aging Science, released its statistics at its own beauty industry conference in Paris and states that sales of equipment such as lasers for hair removal, 'pharmaceutical compounds and 'active' cosmetics were monitored and added up.

Purchases of fat-sucking devices, muscle-freezing toxins such as Botox, wrinkle 'fillers' and breast implants were some of the other items tracked.

The figure spent during 2016 is the equivalent of the total annual exports of Costa Rica, the world's 75th biggest economy.

And Asia is the fastest-growing market, and is expected to overtake Europe for the first time in 2018 in terms of cosmetic spending.Debra Suierveld and her family assumed their dog Abby had died after she ran away in 2008 from their home. (Photo: AP)

Apollo: A family has been reunited with its dog 10 years after the dog went missing.

Debra Suierveld and her family assumed their dog Abby had died after she ran away in 2008 from their home in Apollo, but decade-old sadness turned to joy on Saturday when Suierveld received word someone had found the dog.

The black Labrador mix showed up on George Speiring's front porch in Lower Burrell, 10 miles (16 kilometers) west of Apollo. Speiring contacted Animal Protectors of Allegheny Valley, which discovered the dog's microchip and was able to contact Suierveld.

Someone had taken good care of Abby over the years. Abby is in great health and remembers things the family taught her, Suierveld said.

"She would lie on the floor and cross her paws, and she remembers my daughter's commands, and she remembers the commands I taught her," Suierveld told KDKA-TV.

Suierveld called her 22-year-old daughter, who is a student at Miami University, in Oxford, Ohio, to share the news.

"She cried," Suierveld told the Tribune-Review.

Suierveld's family has planned a reunion dinner on Sunday to welcome Abby back.

"It feels like a part of my kids' childhood is back, part of our family is back," Suierveld said. "It's pretty awesome."They wanted Deepa to withdraw a POCSO case she had file against Srikumar for misbehaving and sending inappropriate messages to her minor daughter.

BENGALURU: A woman has filed a complaint accusing her husband, an owner of a resort and a college, of hiring goons to threaten her to withdraw a POCSO case she had filed against him.

The complainant, Deepa, is the second wife of the accused, B.V. Srikumar, who owns Tulips resorts and Austin College.

In her complaint Deepa had stated that Srikumar, along with Naveen, his son-in-law from first wife and Usha, Srikumars lover, had hired the goons, who had attacked her on January 21.

They wanted Deepa to withdraw a POCSO case she had file against Srikumar for misbehaving and sending inappropriate messages to her minor daughter.

Police said Srikumar was arrested in September and recently got bail. In her complaint Deepa alleged that she was attacked by two bike borne men with canes and lethal weapons, while she her daughter were going on a two-wheeler from J.P. Nagar to Konankunte.

Around 7:45 pm, while I was returning home with my daughter they stopped our vehicle near Amruthnagar Main Road and attacked me with a cane and threatened us to take back the case, Deepa stated. She said that her husband was forcing her to withdraw the case, as it was affecting his reputation, and she has been refusing to do so.

She also suspects the role of Naveen and Usha in this attack. She claimed that Naveen had earlier threatened her saying he knew the local goondas. Konankunte police have registered a case and begun investigation.Two Pakistan-trained Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) militants were arrested during a joint operation by the police, Army and the CRPF. (Representational Image)

Srinagar: Two Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) cadres from Jammu and Kashmir were arrested by the police soon after they returned home from Pakistan via Wagah-Attari border, an official said in Srinagar on Saturday.

The duo had gone to Pakistan on valid visa issued by the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi allegedly to undergo arms training. But before they could formally join the militant ranks, the J&K police with the help of other security forces including the Army and the CRPF arrested them from native district Baramulla in northwest of the Valley.

The police officials identified the accused as Abdul Majeed Bhat and Muhammad Ashraf Mir.

They are residents of Mughalpora,Saloora in Kreeri and Nilla, Palpora in Pattan area of Baramulla, respectively.

They travelled on Indian passports and soon after returning to India via Wagah-Attari border were arrested, said one of the officials.

The officials claimed that the duo has during interrogation admitted to obtaining Indian passports for the purpose of visiting the neighbouring country to meet the LeT leadership and get trained in the use of weapons before carrying out terror acts in Jammu and Kashmir.

They have reportedly named some local Kashmiris who allegedly helped them in getting in contact with the LeT.

They also reportedly told their interrogators that they were imparted arms training in Pakistan along with a large number of Pakistani boys, most of them belonging to Balochistan, and as young as 10.

A police spokesman was quoted by PTI as saying The said terrorist training camps are located near Burma Town, in Islamabad, and being run by a terrorist commander operating under code names Hanzala, Adanan and Omar. Other terrorists imparting training to young boys are operating with code names Osama, Naveed and Hataf.

The spokesman further said, Its pertinent to mention that in the past couple of years, police have unearthed several such modules that lure young boys to Pakistan to get trained and join militancy. In the past, several such boys have been arrested, while some of them were killed in encounters.

Meanwhile, two CRPF jawans and two shopkeepers were injured when militants tossed a hand grenade towards a foot patrol of the CRPFs 180 Battalion along Batagund-Kuchmulla road in Tral area of southern Pulwama district on Saturday. The injured were quickly shifted to Trals government-run sub-district hospital, the police said.

The witnesses said that the CRPF personnel fired their rifles in the air after the blast and then with the arrival of reinforcement from the CRPF and the J&K police launched a search operation in the area. No arrests were made.India's most wanted terrorist Dawood Ibrahim has been linked to a series of properties across Britain. (Photo: File | PTI)

London: India's most wanted terrorist Dawood Ibrahim has been linked to a series of properties across Britain, according to a media report on Saturday.

The 62-year-old fugitive mafia boss, wanted in India as the mastermind of the Mumbai bomb blasts in 1993 and accused of crimes such as match-fixing and extortion, accrued a vast property portfolio across the Midlands and south-east in the UK as well as India, the United Arab Emirates, Spain, Morocco, Turkey, Cyprus and Australia, 'The Times' reported.

The newspaper matched details from a dossier prepared by Indian authorities to records held by the UK's Companies House and the Land Registry, as well as the Panama Papers to form a snapshot of the alleged property portfolio.

It is claimed his syndicate, known as D-Company, once smuggled drugs through Pakistan and across Indian borders for shipment to Europe and North America from the ports at Mumbai, as portrayed in a new BBC series 'McMafia'.

Ibrahim, believed to be hiding in Pakistan, is the inspiration behind an Indian underworld don named "Dilly Mahmood" in the eight-part television series, which highlights the misuse of Britain by globally organised crime syndicates.

"Britain features in his (Ibrahim's) criminal world as a place where he can launder money a classic 'McMafia' tactic.

He is thought to have property interests in a variety of southern English counties like Essex and Kent," Misha Glenny, who wrote the non-fiction book 'McMafia: A Journey Through the Global Criminal Underworld' and is an executive producer on the TV series, told the newspaper.

"But we can't know for certain because the government has been dragging its heels in legislating to force transparency of the beneficial owners of companies registered in our overseas territories," she noted.

In an apparent parallel with Ibrahim, Dilly Mahmood is portrayed as an ambitious gangster rising from a modest background to dominate the black market in Mumbai in the series.

Documents seen by this newspaper also allege that on Ibrahim's behalf his right-hand man, Muhammed Iqbal "Mirchi" Memon, accrued a vast property portfolio in the UK which includes hotels, mansions, tower blocks and houses in suburbs in the south-east of England.

Memon, also a suspect in the 1993 Mumbai attacks, had sought refuge in London after the blasts and attempts to extradite him to India had failed.

He was never convicted of any crimes and denied his involvement in Ibrahim's cartel. Memon, who held 11 company directorships in tiling, construction and lettings firms in Britain, died after suffering a heart attack in London in 2013.

Ibrahim, who has an Interpol red notice against him, has been on the UK Treasury sanctions list for years with three recorded addresses in Pakistan.

The gangster's place of birth is recorded as Kher, Ratnagiri, Maharashtra, and his nationality is listed as "Indian" with a recorded Indian passport, which was subsequently revoked by the government of India.

Financial sanctions in force in the UK cover measures such as prohibiting the transfer of funds to a sanctioned country and targeted asset freezes on individuals.

In relation to the alleged properties associated with him in the UK, Ibrahim would now be a likely target for new 'Unexplained Wealth Orders' introduced by the UK government this week.

UK security minister Ben Wallace, who has described the portrayal of crime bosses in 'McMafia' as "very close to the truth", wants the "full force of the government" to bear down on criminals and corrupt politicians using Britain as a playground and haven.

"'McMafia' is one of those things where you realise that fact is ahead of fiction. It's a really good portrayal of sharp-suited wealthy individuals, but follow the money and it ends up with a young girl getting trafficked for sex," he told 'The Times' in an interview.

"When we get to you, we will come for you, for your assets and we will make the environment that you live in difficult," he warned.

Unexplained wealth orders (UWOs) will require individuals suspected of serious crime or involvement in bribery or corruption to explain the source of property valued at more than 50,000 pounds.

For the first time the UK law also extends recovery powers to cover "politically exposed persons" from countries outside the European Union (EU).

The UK government estimates that about 90 billion pounds of illegal cash is laundered in Britain every year.Guwahati: India's growth story will get speed only when there is all-round development of Northeast and its people, said Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the inaugural session of Advantage Assam-Global Investors Summit18 in Guwahati.

Terming the tagline of the summit as an appropriate one, Modi said Advantage Assam: Indias Expressway to ASEAN was not just a statement but also a comprehensive vision.

He also said the Northeast was at the heart of 'Act East Policy' created by the Government.

The Prime Minister lauded Assam for being ranked first among the North Eastern States in the Ease of Doing Business report.

"With the present leadership of the state government, Assam is going to further improve its current position to emerge as one of the most sought after states for investment," he said.

Speaking on Ayushman Bharat, the health insurance scheme announced in the Union Budget, Modi said the scheme is expected to benefit 45-50 cr people. It has enhanced possibilities of setting up hospitals in tier 2, 3 cities, he added.

Modi said the development of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) sector was a priority for his Government.

"In this years budget we are giving big relief to MSMEs by reducing rate of income tax to 25 per cent on companies reporting a turnover of up to Rs. 250 crore," he said.

He said the Government has allotted an amount of Rs 1300 crore for restructuring the National Bamboo mission which will benefit people of North East, especially the farmers of the region.

Presenting the Union Budget in the Parliament on February 1, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley claimed that the MSMEs are an engine of growth and employment. He announced Rs 3,794 crore to MSMEs for credit support, innovation and capital interest subsidy.The victims suffered injuries in the attack and were taken to the local hospital. (Photo: ANI/Twitter)

New Delhi: Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti has urged the Haryana government to take stringent action against the perpetrators for assaulting two Kashmiri students and demanded a probe into the case.

Mehbooba made the statement on Friday, hours after reports of the Kashmiri students of the Haryana Central University being assaulted surfaced.

The victims were beaten up while returning to the campus after offering congregational Friday prayers in Mahendragarh town.

Irked Mehbooba took to Twitter and said, "Shocked and disturbed to hear reports of Kashmiri students being assaulted in Mahendargarh, Haryana."

Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah tagged Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a tweet and said that the incident goes against the spirit of his outreach for Kashmiris.

"This is terrible and goes against the spirit of what PM Narendra Modi ji said from the ramparts of the Red Fort. I hope the authorities in Haryana act quickly against this violence," Abdullah tweeted.

Jammu and Kashmir Director General of Police Shesh Paul Vaid has been coordinating with his Haryana counterpart to ensure the safety of the Kashmiri youths.

"In touch with DGP Haryana. Police is taking cognisance of the incident," he said.

Mahendragarh District Commissioner, Garima Mittal said that three accused have been arrested and a few others have been identified.

The victims suffered injuries in the attack and were taken to the local hospital. They were, however, released after treatment.Judge Loya, who was hearing the Sohrabuddin Sheikh case, died of cardiac arrest in Nagpur on December 1, 2014, when he had gone to attend the wedding of a colleague's daughter. (Photo: Facebook)

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday sternly said that it was concerned only with the death of special CBI judge BH Loya, and would not go into other aspects including BJP chief Amit Shah's discharge in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case.

The top court, which is hearing petitions seeking an independent investigation into Judge Loya's death in 2014, made it clear that the issue before it was whether further probe should be ordered into it or not.

Judge Loya, who was hearing the Sohrabuddin Sheikh case, died of cardiac arrest in Nagpur on December 1, 2014, when he had gone to attend the wedding of a colleague's daughter.

After his death, special judge MB Gosavi, who took over the trial, had discharged Amit Shah and some other accused.

When the petitions seeking an independent probe into Judge Loya's death came up for hearing before a bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra, one of the advocates said he had filed a plea in the Bombay High Court, which has now been transferred to the Supreme Court. He said he had made Amit Shah one of the respondents.

When the lawyer sought that notices should be issued on his plea, the bench said, "We will permit you to argue. There is no question of issuing notice."

"We are only concerned with the death of the judge. We are not on other cases at all. This message must go loud and clear," the bench, also comprising Justices AM Khanwilkar and DY Chandrachud, said.

When Amit Shah's name was raised, senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, representing the Maharashtra government, said, "This is the real purpose of these petitions".

Senior counsel Dushyant Dave, representing Bombay Lawyers Association, said it was a "very serious matter" and it would be proper if pleadings in the case were completed first.

Referring to a report by Commissioner of Intelligence (CID) of Maharashtra, Dave said an independent probe was required as it contained "bundle of discrepencies" and "contradictions".

At the last hearing, Dave was warned by the top court against casting aspersions on Shah in the case, and on Friday he said that the same set of advocates, who had defended the BJP chief in the matter, were now appearing for the state.

Senior advocate V Giri, representing Congress leader Tehseen Poonawalla, who has also sought a probe into Judge Loya's death, raised questions about the veracity of reports filed by the state, and said the records must be placed before the court.

Rohatgi countered the submissions, saying "Except for maligning the judiciary and have (media) glare, there is something more to it. We have given the entire records, please see that," Rohatgi told the bench.

To this, the bench told Dushyant Dave, "Let us have a bird's eye view of your case and let us see what the documents are."

Dave narrated the sequence of events prior to and after Judge Loya's death, and said serious questions have been raised about what had really happened since there were "overwritings" on several crucial documents.

Dave wanted to know how special judge JT Utpat, who was hearing the Sohrabuddin Sheikh case before Judge Loya took over, was transferred, and said the circumstances warranted an independent probe.

He said the CBI had not appealed against the discharge of Amit Shah, while it did move court to challenge the discharge of some police officials.

When he said a "third person" accompanied Judge Loya's body to his native place, Rohatgi referred to the statements of district judges that said two judicial officers had gone with his mortal remains.

Dushyant Dave, however, insisted that family members of Judge Loya were "kept in the dark", and claimed that statement of Judge Loya's wife was taken under pressure.

"Please call his wife, father and sister, and talk to them in chamber. If they say that they do not want any probe then we will not say anything," he said, and alleged that Judge Loya's son was also under pressure.

Terming the discharge of Amit Shah in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh case as "extraordinary", he said, in such a serious matter, an independent probe was needed, and the court should not "throw out" the petitions at the threshold.

Senior advocate Indira Jaising, appearing for one of the applicants, said the state should be asked to produce the original records, including the register of the government guest house, where Judge Loya had stayed in Nagpur, and his ECG report.

Rohatgi said he would show the original records.

The arguments in the matter remained inconclusive and the court fixed the matter for further hearing on February 5.

Judge Loya's death came under the spotlight in November last year after media reports quoting his sister fuelled suspicion about the circumstances surrounding it, and its possible link to the Sohrabuddin case.

However, Judge Loya's son Anuj had on January 14 said in Mumbai that his father had died of natural causes and that the family does not want any further investigation.

Also Read: Have no doubt on father's death, don't harass us, says emotional Loya son

During the hearing on January 22, the top court had restrained other high courts from entertaining any petition relating to Judge Loya's death and transferred to itself the pleas pending before the Bombay High Court.Tiruvannamalai: Over 1.000 female foeticides are suspected to have been done by a woman doctor at this temple town over the last few months, an investigating team from the Union health ministry has found in what could well be the biggest public health scam in recent times.

Dr Selvambal running the clinic with a scan centre appended to it has gone underground following the probe teams arrival here on Tuesday. We will soon nab her, said district collector K.S.Kandasamy, visibly upset over the massive scale of female foeticides happening in the region despite the government campaign to educate the people on the virtues of having a girl child and the stringent punishment for those indulging in the heinous crime.

The Central team led by deputy director Ajay Kumar arrived at Tiruvannamalai on Tuesday following an alert sent by a member of the public about the mushrooming of scan centres in the town and surroundings and their indulging in the illegal sex-identification tests.

Invariably, the women found to be pregnant with female foeticide opted for abortion and clinics such as the one run by Dr Selvambal were carrying out brisk business for many years.

The Central team, helped by the district administration and the state medical officials, raided some scan centres and clinics in Tiruvannamalai. They sealed Dr Selvambals clinic as well as a couple of other scan centres. The team left late Thursday evening.

We found 1,200 slips relating to the last about six months in Dr Selvambal's clinic. We suspect that these slips represented female foeticide cases. There could have even more since we have not been able to go through the old records at the clinic. The doctor ran the scan centre as well, said the collector, adding that the doctor could have been running the clinic for the last three or four years-she was a graduate from the Madras Medical College.

Despite all the state campaign on the virtues of girl child, cases of female foeticide continue to be on the rise in several parts of Tamil Nadu, with Tiruvannamalai seeming to be the worst affected. The still-birth rate in Tiruvannamalai is a shocking 10.4 per thousand whereas the state average is two.

The maternal mortality rate is also pretty high due to the illegal abortions, at times done by unqualified quacks.

Twelve quacks were arrested during raids done by the district administration a couple of months back, said collector Kandasamy, adding, "We are conducting intensive campaign across the district to educate people against female foeticide and also against going to quacks".

The district administration at Tiruvannamalai-just as elsewhere in the state-appears hamstrung by the 'soft' and 'ineffective' justice delivery system while handling the scourge of female foeticide, abortion clinics and quacks.

Those arrested manage to come out on bail rather quickly and easily, rued collector Kandasamy.Angry locals also set at least three buses on fire in anger. (Photo: ANI | Twitter)

Kolkata: Two college students mowed down by a bus reportedly jumped signal at Chingrighata crossing on the Eastern Metropolitan Bypass (EM Bypass), an arterial road of Kolkata, on Saturday.

The two victims, who died on the spot, are boys from the locality adjacent to the bypass.

Soon after the incident, clashes erupted between locals and police in the area.

Agitated mob started pelting stones on cars and at the police that had rushed to the spot.

Locals also set at least three buses on fire in anger.

The police allegedly resorted to a lathicharge to control the situation and that enraged the crowd.

The stone throwing intensified and when fire engines tried to reach the spot to put out the flames, those were pelted with stones too.

According to reports, the two dead youth Biswajit Bhuiyan and Sanjay Banik, were first year college students who were apparently crossing the road to go to a shop to buy some sweets.

The local Trinamool Congress MLA, Sujit Bose, rushed to the spot but that did not help calm the anger of the agitated mob.

The locals want a subway to cross the busy road. I have spoken to the locals to understand their problems. The government will try to help the families of the two students who died, Hindustan Times quoted Bose as saying.

Bose added that "It was an unfortunate accident but I urge people to remain calm."

Locals complained that the accident on Saturday took place due to lack of vigil by the traffic police near the site.

Traffic has come to a halt for at least two hours on the EM Bypass that connects extreme south Kolkata to the airport via Salt Lake, Rajarhat and Newtown and the IT hub of the city.

Locals also ransacked private cars and taxis. Their anger was also directed at the police. People have been forced to get off stranded transport and walk to their destinations.'We look forward to deepening the relationship between our two air forces,' Goldfein said in his posts on Twitter and Facebook. (Photo: ANI/Twitter)

Jodhpur: The Chief of Staff of the US Air Force, General David L Goldfein, flew India's indigenous light combat aircraft 'Tejas' at the air force station in Jodhpur on Saturday.

Goldfein, who arrived at Jodhpur on Friday, was accompanied by Air Vice Marshal AP Singh as co-pilot during the sortie, defence officials said.

"General David L Goldfein, Chief of Staff of the US Air Force, is on an official visit to India. He flew a sortie in 'Made in India' LCA Tejas aircraft at Air Force Station Stn Jodhpur today," the IAF said on Twitter.

Goldfein interacted with the airmen and pilots at the station on Friday.

"His visit was a gesture of mutual cooperation between the Indian and the US air forces, both of which are considered the best in the world," the official said.

Earlier, General Goldfein had stressed on the "strong relationship" between the two air forces.

"We look forward to deepening the relationship between our two air forces," he said in his posts on Twitter and Facebook.

"Had many great meetings with our @IAF_MCC partners to deepen the relationship between our two air forces. The IAF operates the second largest C-17 fleet in the world and continues to mature their fleet," he added.

Goldfein also sounded optimistic about the military relationship between the two countries, as he added, "I'm also very proud of the strong ongoing relationship forged between the @IAF_MCC and the Rhode Island Air National Guard's 143rd Airlift Wing."

The first squadron of Tejas was inducted into the IAF in July 2016.The TRS government was being accused by the opposition and student organisations of neglecting youth and not providing them jobs in the last 44 months.

Hyderabad: The Telangana government expedited its recruitment process as the Assembly elections were fast approaching.

The TRS government was being accused by the opposition and student organisations of neglecting youth and not providing them jobs in the last 44 months.

The government was on an approval spree to fill directly thousands of vacancies in various departments through TS Public Service Commission (TSPSC).

The finance department issued the order to fill nearly 15,000 posts on Saturday alone. Of these, 14,177 vacancies were approved in the police department where nearly 13,000 vacancies were notified for constable posts and the rest for sub-inspectors. The other order issued pertained to filling of 650 teaching and non-teaching posts in social welfare residential educational institutions.Coimbatore: Exposing rampant corruption in higher education institutions, the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC) on Saturday arrested A. Ganapathy, vice-chancellor of Bharathiar University here, while accepting bribe of Rs 30 lakh from an assistant professor for conformation of his job.

The DVAC also booked Dharmaraj, professor of department of chemistry of the same university, for aiding the vice chancellor. Ganapathy has been accused of fixing Rs 30 lakh for confirmation of T. Suresh, the complainant, as assistant professor in the University and accepted Rs 1 lakh as advance and collected blank cheque leaves from him, which was returned one by one when money was paid in installments.

When Suresh went to hand over one installment in cash to Ganapathy at his residence here as per a plan by DVAC, the vice chancellor was caught red-handed by the sleuths on Saturday morning.

Suresh is working as an assistant professor in the department of chemistry and the vice chancellor demanded payment of the rest of the fixed amount in cash to confirm his job.

The arrest of vice-chancellor of a premier university on corruption charges sent shock waves across the academia though there has been murmurs of high graft in institutes of higher education in Tamil Nadu. Educationists and political parties said the arrest of Ganapathy was just the tip of an iceberg and demanded CBI probe into appointment of Vice-Chancellors to universities in Tamil Nadu.

Sources in the university told Deccan Chronicle that Ganapathy is notorious for demanding huge sums of money for postings and he went ahead with appointment of assistant professors despite charges of irregularities. This has been going on for a very long time and everyone turned a blind eye. More skeletons will tumble out of the university's cupboard very soon, they said.

A Ganapathy, age 67, Vice Chancellor, Bharathiar University, was trapped by DVAC while demanding and receiving bribe of `30 lakhs from the complainant T. Suresh, assistant professor, department of chemistry to complete his probation as assistant professor. Demand amount is paid by Rs 1 lakh in cash and Rs 29 lakh as post dated cheques. Ganapathy reiterated his demand and accepted the bribe amount at his residence, the DVAC said in an official statement.

Already a detailed inquiry has been taken up by DVAC against Ganapathy as per the order of the government of Tamil Nadu, the statement said.

DVAC also conducted elaborate searches in his residence and at his office. Ganapathy has been at the centre of controversy ever since he assumed charge in March 2016.

He first made headlines while he called for applications to fill 82 vacancies in the university and soon students staged protest on the campus alleging irregularities in the recruitment process.Bengaluru: As the countdown for Prime Minister Narendra Modis Sunday visit to Bengaluru began on Saturday, the Congress and BJP took on each other over release of Central assistance to Karnataka by the NDA government .

While KPCC working president, Dinesh Gundurao and Agriculture Minister C Krishna Byregowda wanted Mr Modi to give them a hisab and clarify what happened to the amount owed to the state, state BJP chief B.S. Yeddyurappa slammed the Congress government for telling a 'bundle of lies' to cover up its financial mismanagement of the last four- and- a -half years.

Speaking to reporters, the two Congress leaders hit out at the BJP saying its national president, Amit Shah, was employing less than respectful tactics to see the lotus bloom in the south once again.

The BJP claims it has given us a generous sum, but this is far from true. Mr Shah says Karnataka was given the Rs 3 lakh crores it is entitled to, but he is lying on two counts, first by saying that all the money has been released and second that our devolution is a magnanimous Rs 3 lakh crore. The states total devolution for five years according to the formula is Rs 2,02,370 crore and of this the Centre still owes us 10,553 crores, they said.

Mr Yeddyurappa on the other hand took on the Congress for failing to give an account of how it spenst the Rs 1,35,089 crore received from the Union government during 2017-18 (till November).

It is Chief Minister Siddaramaiahs responsibility to explain this to the people of Karnataka. During the 13th finance commission (from 2010 to 2015), Karnataka received Rs 73,209 crore. But after the BJP-led NDA came to power (from 2014-15 to 2017-18 November), it has received Rs 1,35,089 crore, which is three times more, he contended, claiming the Centre had not released the Rs 10,000 crore due to the state as it had not submitted a utilisation certificate for various schemes.Chennai: Police have seized duplicate watches worth Rs 75 lakh. According to a police source, the duplicate watches of high-end expensive brands like Rado, Rolex, Tissot, Cartier, Seiko and others have been seized from a watch shop in Kasi Chetty lane, Sowcarpet. About 5,000 such watches worth Rs 75 lakh have been seized from the shop by the Elephant Gate police station, the source added.

The raid has been conducted after a specific information and the direction of the city police commissioner, the source said.

The shop has been selling replicas of watches to other small sellers and individual customers. Those watches had been sold for Rs 4,000 to Rs 50,000, the police said.

Following the raid, the police also have arrested shop owner Janav Ram, employees Saravanan, Ganesh and Raji and the case has been handed over to CBCID for further investigation.The government needs to adjust over Rs 5,000 crore at one go in May for farmers sop and has started imposing restrictions on payments from February. (Representational image)

Hyderabad: Telangana government has frozen all payments, except salaries of staff and pensions, to adjust Rs 5,000 crore that will be given as farmers sop.

Though no official orders were issued by the finance department to stop payments, sources in treasury department have said that they have stopped payments based on oral instructions given by higher ups.

With this, implementation of infrastructure projects and welfare schemes have been hit. Contractors have stopped works as their bills are pending with the treasury department. Social security pensions, scholarships, fee reimbursement and Aarogyasri have been affected.

The government needs to adjust over Rs 5,000 crore at one go in May for farmers sop and has started imposing restrictions on payments from February.

Though imposing restrictions on payments is a common phenomenon before the presentation of Budget every year, it has started much in advance this year. Normally, the state government presents Budget in the second week of March and restrictions on payments will be imposed from mid-February. However, this time, the restriction started in the first week of January itself.

Instructions were sent to treasury department to not release any payment, except salaries and staff pension. Out of 31 districts, restrictions were first imposed in 10 districts from January and all other districts were covered now in February.Hyderabad: Aadhar is becoming the most sought-after security document. Even some house owners are asking for the Aadhar card along with deposit and rent. It is the most important document for marriage and property registrations, vehicle booking, new bank accounts, phone connection. Hyderabad and Cyberabad police have advised citizens to seek Aadhaar details before hiring domestic help too.

When I moved into an apartment in Erramanzil, the owner asked me for Aadhar details. They took a picture and returned the ID. When questioned, the owner said, the police have advised house owners to seek Aadhar details while renting out properties and he had to submit a copy of the Aadhar card to the regional police station too. Pan card and voter ID were not enough to serve as a security document, as the owner insisted for a copy of the Aadhaar card, said Ms Angela Shekar.

Recently, the ministry of external affairs scrapped the requirement of a verification letter from IPS, IAS and group 1 officer for passports under the tatkal scheme and made Aadhaar card along with few other documents mandatory.

Advocate Shashi Kiran said, Aadhaar card is asked during marriage registrations, to keep a check on child marriages, bigamy and gender violence in the society. Telecom companies are insisting on Aadhaar details for new SIMs issued too.It is the first discovery to be announced in 2018, said Minister of Antiquities Khaled El-Enany at a press conference held at the step of Hetpets tomb in Giza's western cemetery.

El-Enany explained that blocks of the tomb were unearthed in 1909 by a British explorer who sent them to Berlin and Frankfurt.

The tomb has never been uncovered until October 2017 when the Egyptian mission started excavation in the Giza western cemetery, El-Enany said.

The minister explained that the cemetery was previously excavated by several archaeological missions since 1843, and the most distinguished and important ones were made by renowned Egyptologist and former antiquities minister Zahi Hawass.

The newly discovered tomb belongs to a lady named Hetpet, a top official in the royal palace during the end of the 5th Dynasty.

Mostafa Waziri, secretary general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities and the head of the mission, told Ahram Online that the tomb has the architectural style and decorative elements of the 5th Dynasty, with an entrance leading to an L shape shrine with a purification basin.

On its western rear end there is a rectangular arcade lined with incense and offering holders. There is also a naos with a yet missing statue of the tombs owner. The tomb has very distinguished wall paintings in a very good state of conservation depicting Hetpet standing in different hunting and fishing scenes or sitting before a large offering table receiving offerings from her children.

Scenes of reaping fruits, melting metals and the fabrication of leather and papyri boats as well as musical and dancing performances are also shown on walls, Waziri said. He added that among the most distinguished paintings in the tomb are those depicting two monkeys in different positions. Monkeys were domestic animals at the time.

The first scene shows a monkey reaping fruits while the second displays a monkey dancing in front of an orchestra. Similar scenes are found in other tombs. The first one is painted on the wall of a 12th Dynasty tomb of Khnoum Hetep II in Beni Hassan in Minya governorate; the second is found in the Old Kingdom tomb of Ka-Iber in Saqqara, though it displays a dancing monkey in front of a guitarist not an orchestra.

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Indian Space Research Organisation chairman Dr. K. Sivan being greeted by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on his arrival at CMs office in Secretariat in Thiruvananthapuram on Saturday. Mr Sivan handed over to the Chief Minister a cheque of `16.68 lakh towards the Ockhi fund. Also seen is Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre director S. Somanath. (Photo: DC)

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A knowledge centre will be set up in Thiruvananthapuram with the help of Indian Space Research Organisation. This decision follows a meeting between ISRO chief Dr K. Sivan and chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan here on Saturday. Mr Vijayan entrusted chief secretary Paul Antony, CM's scientific adviser M. C. Dathan and IT secretary M. Sivasankar to hold further talks with VSSC director S. Somanath.

The state will also seek industrial enterprises in IT, electronics and aerospace technology with the help of KINFRA. Dr Sivan informed Mr Vijayan that Knowledge Centre and Science Museum in memory of former President Dr A. P. J. Abdul Kalam will be started at the earliest. He said once he returned to Bengaluru, he would take steps to allot funds. Already the government has sanctioned 1.75 acres for the knowledge centre and science museum at Kowdiar.

The meeting entrusted KELTRON to produce electronic devices for satellites and launch vehicles for the three centres of ISRO in Thiruvananthapuram. The KELTRON will also manufacture more desi satellite phones and Navigation with Indian Constellation (NavIC) devices already agreed between fisheries department and Space Application Centre at Ahmedabad. Mr Vijayan congratulated the ISRO officials who came out with the desi NavIC for fishers in the light of Ockhi Cyclone. The VSSC director also handed out a cheque of Rs 16.70 lakh towards the Ockhi relief fund. The meeting was also attended by ISRO scientific secretary P. G. Divakar, LPSC director V. Narayanan, fisheries minister J. Mercy Kutty Amma and fisheries principal secretary B. Srinivas.The cry for justice and the crusade for their pride and better prices, which once resounded across the Gangetic plain with the venerable Jat leader, the late Mahendra Singh Tikait, leading the charge, is creating ripples in Karnataka too. Farmers, in hundreds and thousands who are tired of waiting and waiting for the water to flow into their canals from the Mahadayi river via the Kalasa Banduri Nala, have said enough is enough and launched a political party of their own. They are yet to emerge as a formidable force but they could steal the thunder from mainstream parties like the BJP and Congress by cutting into their vote banks. With the battle in the Assembly polls, now barely three months away, sure to go down to the wire and a fractured mandate looming, upsetting the calculations in a handful of seats is all the farmers need to do to prove that they cannot be taken for a ride anymore. Much water has flowed under the bridge ever since the foundation stone was laid for the Kalasa Banduri project after a comprehensive report in 1960. The recommendation of a committee headed by Karnataka's first woman MP, Sarojini Mahishi to divert the stream's water to Malaprabha dam, was kept in abeyance primarily due to political games played by the Congress and BJP with an eye on their vote banks. But then came the droughts, one after the other and the dire necessity for water to keep the crops alive in the 13 taluks spread across four districts and soon, a minor protest by the farmers turned into a mass movement. The BJP and Congress had managed to keep their vote banks intact in the region during the last few elections in the absence of a third political force which could have capitalised on their failures to resolve the Mahadayi dispute. But the die has now been cast and farmers have floated their own political outfit with a single-point agenda - to get Mahadayi water after their attempt to tame national parties through NOTA (none of the above) failed to yield results in the panchayat polls. With no well oiled machinery or massive infusion of funds to fight the electoral battle, leaders of the Jana Samanyara Paksha are obviously at a disadvantage but the moot question is whether they will be able to win the hearts of the masses. VITTAL SHASTRI analyses the fast changing scenario in the arid fields of north and central Karnataka where the warriors of a new political outfit, espousing the cause of farmers with the cry for Mahadayi water on their lips, has already set off jitters in the political class

Dressed in a white khadi dhoti and shirt with Barakolu  a stick to cane the bullocks  over his shoulder, sixty-two year-old farmer leader Vijay Kulkarni draws the attention of everyone as he walks through the narrow lanes in his native hamlet Chikka-Naragund of Nargund taluk in Gadag district. He wears a yellow scarf around his neck which represents the flag of North Karnataka, which he hoisted a few years ago to vent his ire against the lackadaisical attitude of politicians to resolve the Mahadayi water dispute with Goa.

Nicknamed Kalasa-Banduri Ajja, he is a father figure for all sections of people in the region and is now ratcheting up support for his fledgling party with the Assembly polls round the corner. Garnering confidence from his presence, hundreds of drought-hit farmers poured out their woes before this correspondent when he visited the village.

Fifty-seven-year-old farmer Shekappa Hooli narrated the ordeal of searching for a bride for his son who has done his graduation. His 31-year old son has not got a bride despite visiting more than 55 houses over the last eight seven years because his family is into farming! Several such victims of the agrarian crisis are leading solitary lives in the village as they have crossed the marriageable age with the drought showing no signs of relenting.

Sensing that they have no future in agriculture and could face the same plight as their parents, many youngsters are rushing elsewhere in search of corporate and government jobs. I was offerred a bride along with hefty dowry when I got married at a young age. Parents of prospective brides used to line up at my door as I had 14 acres of farm land. Those good days are gone, we have been waiting and waiting for the diversion of the Kalasa Banduri stream to Malaprabha river that will ensure water to the tail-end farmers. In its absence, the irrigation canals dry up throughout the year except for 2-3 weeks when water is released for drinking purposes, said Shekappa Hooli.

Kulkarni recollected several instances when he had to intervene and persuade families to give their brides to farmers of the parched region. Hundreds of farmers are now repenting returning to their village after resigning their government jobs under the voluntary retirement scheme(VRS) to take up farming in the 1980s after construction of the Malaprabha reservoir and irrigation canals. With the Supreme Court banning any construction activity on the Kalasa Banduri canal, they find it difficult to give drinking water to even their guests in summer.

The cattle too have disappeared and all that every household has are farm loans running into lakhs of rupees. They do not get compensation for crop loss and farm insurance as their farm land falls under an irrigation belt though no water has flowed into the canals for decades!

Drawing inspiration from the death of his farm labourer Veerappa Kadlikoppa, who was killed in police firing during the farmers rebellion demanding abolition of betterment levy in 1980, Kulkarni threw himself into the Mahadayi agitation. He leased out his 50 acres of farmland to devote himself to the movement as his son too was away, employed in an automobile company. Many political bigwigs, including former CM Jagadish Shettar and Dharwad MP Pralhad Joshi, rose to fame rubbing shoulders with him during these struggles but the project has remained a dream.

Mahadayi

What pains him more is the fact that leaders like Basavaraj Bommai and H.K. Patil were baptized in these struggles but failed to do much for the project after becoming water resource ministers.

Kulkarni has not contested any polls but ensured nearly a lakh NOTA votes in the region through a widespread awareness campaign in the previous Zilla Panchayat elections. Dwelling on the prospects of the Jana Samanyara Paksha, he admits he is still unsure of the impact it will have on national parties which have unabashedly flaunted their caste and money power in the past to win over voters. The Congress and BJP leaders have their farmers wing too and are hoping to neutralise the impact the new party will have. At the other end, farmer leaders are confident that their candidates will play spoilsport for the Congress and BJP if there is a close contest between the national parties in around 20 Assembly seats coming under the Malaprabha river basin. And one of those most likely to suffer if there is a three-way split of votes is former CM and BJP leader Jagadish Shettar who was never considered a mass leader in the region.

Will the clamour for Lingayat religion status, drown out the voices of the farmers for their own identity? Prominent politicos like M.B. Patil, Basavaraj Horatti and Vinay Kulkarni have plunged into the struggle for the religion tag for Lingayats and are confident that farmers will not vote as a single bloc as they belong to the pro and anti-Lingayat factions. The fact that the JD(S), which had won the Navalgund seat last time, has failed to emerge as an alternative political force, has made them supremely confident that they can give the Congress and BJP a run for their money.

But polls are not for Vijay Kulkarni. I will not contest elections until completion of the Kalasa Banduri project though there is pressure on me to contest from Nargund. I will only extend support to candidates fielded by the Jana Samanyara Paksha as the party has assured that it will mobilise Rs 20 crore to take up the project on its own. I am also ready to support any party which promises to implement the project within a month, he said.

There have been leaders like Tikait and Sharad Joshi of the Shetkari Sanghatana who could make farmers come alive with their slogans and struggles for a better morrow for India's heartland and make the sweat roll down many an ambitious politico's neck. In Karnataka, where caste and money power are the biggest divisive factors overriding everything else, it remains to be seen if Vijay Kulkarni and the Jana Samanyara Paksha can really alter the fate of candidates of mainstream parties.

Or is Karnataka witnessing a churning at the grassroots with resentment growing against the ever smiling politico who arrives in the nick of time, before the polls, to flaunt his wares and his wealth? Is the protest before the BJP office in Bengaluru a few weeks ago, which created ripples across the country, an indication of more such struggles in the making? Only time and the EVMs can tell the real story.

Mahadayi: Where the fortunes of two states are intertwined

The Mahadayi originates in Khanapur taluk of Belagavi district and flows 35 km in Karnataka and 52 km in Goa before emptying itself in the Arabian Sea. Farmer leaders claim Karnataka is entitled to get 57 tmc water of the total 200 tmc flowing in the river. The Kalasa Banduri project involves building barrages across Kalasa and Banduri streams, the two tributaries of the Mahadayi to divert 7.56 tmc of water to Malaprabha river to resolve drinking water scarcity. The project will benefit 13 taluks in four districts in the Mumbai-Karnataka region. Though clearance was received from the Centre in 2002, due to objection raised by Goa which claimed the project would affect its flora and fauna, it has been stalled. The Centre has constituted a tribunal to resolve the deadlock with its verdict expected soon.

Farmers unity and awareness the key: Soppin

Deccan Chronicle spoke to farmer leader Vikas Soppin, who has decided to contest against former CM Jagadish Shettar in Hubballi-Dharwad Central Assembly constituency on the Jana Samanyara Paksha ticket. Here are excerpts:

Is there a necessity for a political party to work for farmers when other parties have their own farmer wings?

I think it is a good move to launch a political outfit for this. Merely

contesting elections is not politics. Polls are just a small part of

politics. Mahadayi farmers should not be branded as only protesters, they can also enter politics to fulfill their long-pending demands. All farmer organisations should be brought on a single platform and to attain unity, we want to strengthen the new party, Jana Samanyara Paksha. (JSP)

Can a farmer candidate win against the dominant Congress and BJP?

It's difficult to fight against the Congress and BJP which are dominant in the region. But, we have to overcome the challenges posed by them. Around 15 to 20 per cent people may fall prey to their inducements. But the majority of voters will cast their votes based on the pro-poor agenda of the parties. Therefore, we should create awareness about the plight of farmers in the region.

How can a new party fight polls based on the single agenda to bring Mayadayi water to Karnataka?

The Jana Samanyara Party should not fight polls based on a single agenda when other parties attract people with a lot of promises in their manifesto. The JSP should fight on the broader plank of rural development and for resolving the Mahadayi issue because villages are productive while cities are only consumer and service oriented. The move to give a fillip to the irrigation sector by finding a solution to the water dispute will help curb migration from rural areas.

Are you confident about the preparedness of JSP with Assembly polls just a few months away?

It is a tough task to make preparation in 2-3 months but it is not impossible. Drought-prone farmers want change and are looking for good things to happen as the Congress and BJP have failed to fulfill their promise to resolve the Mahadayi issue.Hyderabad: Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao on Saturday asked his party MPs to raise their voice in Parliament during the ongoing Budget session to secure Central funds for pending projects.

He instructed MPs to take up the issue of Muslim reservations, national status to Kaleshwaram project, funds for Mission Bhagiratha, Mission Kakatiya, Warangal Textile Park and NERGS, among others.

The CM also announced his plans to hold a massive farmers rally at Parade Ground in Secunderabad soon after constituting district-level farmers co-ordination council.

Rao held a review meeting with the ministers, party MPs and senior officials at Pragathi Bhavan to discuss issues concerning Telangana state in the Union Budget and also the states agriculture sector. Putting an end to speculations about the state government appointing a TRS leader to head the State-level farmers council, Rao said it would be headed by a senior bureaucrat and would function as a corporation.

Speculations had been doing the rounds for the past few months that Nalgonda MP Gutha Sukender Reddy, who switched over to the TRS from the Congress, would be appointed as chairman.

We have successfully constituted village and mandal-level coordination councils to organise farmers to ensure MSP from the next season. We should now focus on constituting district-level councils. After this, we should hold seminars across the state with the members of these councils. Finally, a huge public rally will be held in Parade Ground, Secunderabad, inviting members from village to state-level councils," Rao added.

He advised mandal councils to interact regularly with village-level panels to decide the MSP for their produce. The district councils should coordinate between state and mandal councils to ensure MSP for farmers from the next Kharif.Puducherry: The Union budget for fiscal 2017-18 received mixed reactions from Puducherry Chief Minister and the Lt Governor.

Lt Governor Kiran Bedi appreciated the budget and said that the Union budget is excellent for Puducherry while Chief Minister V. Narayanasamy slammed the Union budget presented by finance minister Arun Jaitley and alleged that it has completely neglected the Union Territories including Puducherry and New Delhi.

The Union Budget has let down farmers of the country and the agriculture segment. Farmers in particular was completely neglected, the Union government has cheated our farmers, Narayanaswamy said.

The Union Minister did not mention budget allocation for the defence sector in his budget which is unacceptable, said the Congress leader.

It is clear from the budget speech that the Union government has no idea on how the issue of black money can be tackled. More over the union budget has completely neglected the Union Territory of Puducherry, said the Chief Minister.

At the same time Ms Bedi said that the budget got abundance for the agricultural, medical, education, women, youth, water, fisheries, solar, skills development, urban livelihood and social net cover and more, programs in Puducherry.

Agriculture is the biggest beneficiary along with all other support schemes which will flow from the budget.

The onus is now on the administration of Puducherry to use them optimally, said Ms Bedi in a WhatsApp message. I have no doubt that we shall do so and use these opportunities for the prosperity of Puducherry to the maximum with able leadership provided by knowledgeable and mature public officials at the helm, she added.Hyderabad: AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi on Saturday said the Haryana government was to be blamed for the alleged assault on two Kashmiri students in the state. A group of men attacked two Kashmiri students, Aaftab Ahmed and Amzad Ali, who were on a visit to Mahendergarh in Haryana.

The Haryana police lodged an FIR in connection with the incident at the Central University of Haryana in Mahendergarh. The FIR was registered under Sections 148 (rioting, armed with deadly weapon), 149 (unlawful assembly guilty of offence towards the common object), 341 (wrongful restraint) and 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) of the IPC.

Mr Owaisi said that Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattars government had failed to provide protection to life and limb of the people of the state. He said the incident reflected that the government had failed to live up to its constitutional responsibility. I strongly condemn the beating up of Kashmiri students. Kashmir is an integral part of India and it will remain that way. What crime did they do? he said.Drama unfolded during the pre-budget meeting at the CM's Home Office as Dalit leaders insisted the state government to clarify its stand on implementation of the A. J. Sadashiva Commission report.

BENGALURU: The ire of Dalits came to the fore at a meeting convened by CM Siddaramaiah to discuss allocation of funds for the downtrodden with some leaders staging a walk out after demanding the state government to make its stand clear on the issue of internal reservations within the Scheduled Castes here on Saturday. Drama unfolded during the pre-budget meeting at the CM's Home Office as Dalit leaders insisted the state government to clarify its stand on implementation of the A. J. Sadashiva Commission report. Prominent among them were Bahujan Samaj Party state co-ordinator Marasandra Muniyappa and Dalit Sangharsh Samiti president N. Murthy. They mobbed the Chief Minister, and refused to heed to his plea for suggestions.

Evidently unhappy with the ruckus caused by these two leaders, Mr Siddaramamaih threatened that he would leave the meeting hall. However, these two Dalit leaders boycotted the meeting and walked out.

Later, Mr Murthy charged Mr Siddaramaiah with dividing Dalit communities hurting their interests. We (Dalits) will not allow him to divide us on caste lines. We Chalavadis and Madigas are like two eyes of this community. We have toiled for 45 years to unite various Dalit communities and ensure that they received benefits. But Mr Siddaramaiah is obstructing our work to uplift Dalits and trying tor divide our community on the lines of Lingayts, he said.Hyderabad: Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao on Saturday completed a year by not stepping into his office at the Secretariat, the highest seat of power in the state.

Ever since the construction of Pragathi Bhavan was completed, the CM made it a point not to visit his office in Secretariat and indeed converted Pragathi Bhavan into a mini Secretariat with all the ministers and officials making a beeline for him to conduct meetings and for the functioning of various departments.

There has been strong criticism against the CM for not visiting the Secretariat citing vaastu issues at the Chief Ministers Office in C block of the Secretariat.

Congress Revanth Reddy on Saturday demanded that the CM should be honoured with Kumbhakarna award for not visiting the Secretariat for the last one year.An IAS couple in Mumbai are on the verge of losing their government allotted house in Malabar Hill to the citys mayor, who reportedly has been searching for accommodation for the past 10 months. The house occupied by the senior babus apparently belongs to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) and has been designated as the official mayoral residence.

Sources say that the state government has requested the BMC that Pravin and Pallavi Darade be allowed to live there as long as they are posted in Mumbai. The real issue, sources say, is the ongoing tussle between the Maharashtra government and the BMC over official residences in a city where sarkari accommodation is limited and therefore almost always hotly contested over.

Govts Sebi dilemma

The government is in a bind over appointing whole-time members with capital markets regulator Sebi. To maintain the regulators autonomy and independence it mandates IAS officers to resign from service if they have to take up the job of whole-time member with Sebi. Now Sanjeev Kaushik, a 1992-batch Kerala cadre IAS officer, who was asked by the Centre to resign to take up the Sebi job, has reportedly declined the offer. The IAS officer, currently on deputation with the finance ministry, has instead chosen to return to Kerala to take up the post of principal secretary. Sources say that Mr Kaushik had requested the Centre that he be allowed to go to Sebi on deputation, but this was declined.

Many observers feel that the rule not allowing IAS officers to go on deputation to Sebi may make it difficult for the government to find younger and specialised talent from the pool of officers. No IAS officer would like to take up a three-year job when he has more than 10 years or more of service left with the government.

With Mr Kaushik declining the job, Sebi now has to hunt for two WTMs as the regulator recently created one more post for a WTM.

Cyber babus

A new division called cyber and information security (CIS) was created last November under the ministry of home affairs under which Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre and the Cyber Police Force are being set up. The CIS division will have four wings  security clearance, cyber-crime prevention, cyber security and information security wings each  headed by an undersecretary-level officer. Sources say that home minister Rajnath Singh and home secretary Rajiv Gauba reviewed the progress of the functioning of the new division recently. Apparently, it was proposed to appoint the chief information security officer (CISO) and deputy CISO under the MHA.

The government has created the new division after realising the need to keep a tab on crimes dominating the Internet space. The government wants the division to create an effective mechanism to strictly monitor cyber space and block website flouting Indias laws, especially child porn. An online portal for preparing, follow up and issue of advisory on financial fraud related matters is also in the offing. However, it is still not clear how many babus will work in the division and who will head it. Watch this space for updates.

Tailpiece

A spook by any other name is a writer! Though there are quite many civil servants, present and past, who have displayed writing skills beyond jottings on official files, it is not often that one stumbles upon a former top spook who has found a way to unburden his mind without endangering national security! Having hung up the old cloak and dagger a few years ago, he now authors a blog, which has a refreshing whiff of whimsy about it. Some poetry (in Hindi), tongue-in-cheek piece on the difficulty of linking his Aadhaar to his bank account, an ode to P.G. Wodehouse, and several short reveries about an eventful life. You can read more at kcverma.in. More power to your pen, sir!Lombok has an inviting air to it. The soft sea breeze hitting your face the minute you step on the island is like a glucose shot  it perks you up instantly! After a smooth check-in at the resort, our group headed for dinner at Puri Mas Spa Resort. As people around us got busy with indulging in Indonesian cuisine, I could only patiently wait for the morning to explore the beauty of Lombok. The next day was reserved for paying my respects at the Pura Batu Bolong temple, which is located on a rocky periphery in a bay on the south of Senggigi. Dedicated to Lord Shiva, women have to wrap a mandatory waistband before entering the premises. A lady outside the temple offers long strips of cloth for this. Batu refers to stone and bolong to a hole. The temple gets its name because it is situated on a black rock, which has a hole through which the waves of the Lombok Strait wash up.

Batu Bolong temple entrance

Our guide informs us that it is during full moon nights that the temple welcomes hordes of devotees. The beach called Batulayar near the temple has unique rock formations that are estimated to be around a million years old. There is a seating area outside the temple, and visitors can sip fresh coconut water, or take their pick from fresh fruit cuts such as raw mango, papaya, watermelon and red jamun. As you relish these fruits, take some time to soak in the serenity by gazing at the Lombok Strait as the sun sets. Cilok, which is basically chicken dumplings, are also on offer. Pearl jewellery consisting of bracelets, necklaces and rings are also sold, while ladies offer you a foot massage.

Islamic centre

Rejuvenated, it was time to saunter on Senggigi beach. The entire beach has an impressive lineup of five-star hotels and resorts. Relishing fresh coconut water, you can get your foot, neck or back massaged. While at the beach, I tried Lomboks sweet mango, which is smaller in size compared to the mangoes that we get in India. But, in all honesty, it is just as delicious as the one back home. Talking about fruits one can indulge in, durian is one thing you cannot miss when visiting Lombok. It resembles a jackfruit in appearance, with a very strong, pungent smell and an acquired taste. Probably the smelliest fruit in the entire world, it has a strange combination of sweet, savoury and creamy tastes, all at once. Dont miss the Islamic center, the icon of Lombok and the recipient of a Halal Award. It was constructed to fill the lacuna of guests not being able to eat and drink at marriages that were conducted inside mosques. The centre has a ballroom and an Islamic library.

Senggigi beach

Throughout my stay in Indonesia, the brightly coloured sarongs kept catching my eye and I requested our guide to take us to a weaving village to which he happily obliged. At Sukarara village, traditional hand-weaving is known as songket and it is an intrinsic part of sasak culture. Sasak is the indigenous community of Lombok. Our host for the trip also explained to us how songket is done while I watched live demonstrations. The custom followed in this village is that all the women must know and learn how to weave, in order to be eligible for marriage. It is also a way to ensure that the art is passed on from generation to generation. Its mostly the girls who start learning how to weave from their mothers at the age of about 10. Bamboo sticks are used to weave the design.

Catch the sunset from a swing in Gili Trawangan.

Sarongs with a simple design can take about two weeks to weave, while the more complex patterned ones could be in works for a good month or so. The material used in making these sarongs is cotton, which is also handspun. One of the most interesting bits about the sarong is that the colours used for dyeing are all natural. For example, the red is made from betel nut, chilli and flowers while brown from tamarind and coffee. Saffron imparts an orange colour. Apart from sarongs, scarves, bed covers and dress material are also woven here. The first customary design is called subahnal and refers to a panorama of rice terraces. Bintang, meaning star and bulan meaning moon, are other typical designs.

Sukarara village hand-weaving demonstration.

Souvenir shopping done, it was time for island hopping as Lombok is a convenient base for visiting islands. I recommend a visit to Gili Trawangan and we drove to the Teluk Kodek harbour to take the boat there. Teluk Kodek harbor is the private harbor and the two boat options include speedboats for groups below 10 and slow boat for groups between 10-20 people. I didnt even realise when the 30 minutes passed as I was enjoying the water clarity, its mesmerising hues and the boats passing us on their way back to Lombok from Gili. Some boats were on a fishing spree and had caught tuna and red snipers. Gili Trawangan is an exotic gem waiting to be discovered and you will not be able to stop clicking pictures as there is something waiting to be discovered at every nook and corner. If you are a spa person, then there is a samba massage or the traditional Lombok massage apart from Balinese, Thai and refloxology or foot massages. Highly recommended, you must not miss out on a relaxing massage before you end your Indonesian sojurn.

 Khursheed Dinshaw is a Pune-based travel and lifestyle writer and blogger who writes about travel, heritage, food and cultureAlibaba invested $146 million in the grocer, subscribing to compulsorily convertible preference shares, BigBasket said in a filing to Indian regulators.

Chinas Alibaba became the biggest shareholder in Indias leading online grocer BigBasket after a $300-million funding round, stepping up its rivalry with Amazon in the country. Alibaba invested $146 million in the grocer, subscribing to compulsorily convertible preference shares, BigBasket said in a filing to Indian regulators.

Hari Menon, chief executive officer said that investors picked up stakes in BigBasket through secondary share purchases as well but declined to give a breakdown of the same. But they confirmed that Alibaba now owns the biggest slice. BigBasket, which sells everything from vegetables to shampoo, will use the funds to improve its technology, analytics, infrastructure and marketing, Menon said.

Sands Capital, International Finance Corp and Abraaj Capital also participated in the $300 million funding round.

The Indian company is planning to sign a deal with Paytm e-commerce that runs online marketplace, Paytm Mall, allowing both firms to leverage each others strengths.

Under the deal, which will become effective in the first half of this year, Paytm is expected to become the default payments provider to BigBasket while it will be able to cross-sell groceries on Paytm Mall.

BigBasket, which researcher Forrester estimates accounts for roughly 40 percent of Indias $750 million online grocery market, is competing with SoftBank-backed Grofers and Amazons India business.

Click on Deccan Chronicle Technology and Science for the latest news and reviews. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter.Computer maker Dell Technologies Inc said it was considering a public offering of common stock or a combination with business software maker VMware Inc, its publicly held subsidiary.

Dell, the worlds largest privately held technology company, is under pressure to boost profitability after its debt-laden acquisition of data storage provider EMC Corp for $67 billion in 2016 failed to meet financial targets, hurt by intensifying price competition.

Combining with VMware would provide access to VMWares $11.6 billion in cash, helping Dell trim its $52.5 billion debt pile. Last months US tax reform made servicing that debt more expensive due to caps on deducting interest expense.

The combination would also make Dell a publicly listed company, offering a path for private equity firm Silver Lake to begin selling down its 18 per cent stake if it chooses to. Silver Lake helped bankroll Dell CEO Michael Dell in taking the company private in 2013 in a $24.9 billion leveraged buyout.

A lockup provision prevents Dell from buying out the stake in VMware it does not already own until September. Any merger agreed before then would have to be structured as an acquisition of Dell by VMware: a so-called reverse merger.

We view a reverse merger of Dell by its majority-owned subsidiary, VMware, as potentially the most beneficial alternative for Dell and Silver Lake, Wells Fargo Securities LLC analysts wrote in a research note.

A combination of Dell and VMware would place them under the same management and help them co-ordinate strategy. Dells hardware and VMWares software offerings could potentially be marketed in one suite of products.

As part of our ongoing multi-year strategic planning, Dell Technologies is evaluating a number of potential business opportunities, founder Michael Dell said in a blog post. We do this from a position of strength, with a desire to grow Dell Technologies and its businesses even faster and thrive in the very dynamic IT marketplace.

Dell planned to announce a review of a possible reverse merger with VMware, as well as other options, including an IPO or asset sales. Sources told Reuters VMware was likely to form a special committee to consider a combination with Dell. Dell added that nothing had been decided and the company might end up continuing to operate under its current structure.

The board of directors follows sound corporate governance practices, and will continue to do so in connection with any potential transaction involving our controlling stockholders, VMwares lead director Paul Sagan said in a company statement.

Shares in VMware, which is 82 per cent-owned by Dell, fell 2.4 per cent on Friday to close at $122.72. Dells tracking stock, which Dell issued to finance the EMC deal and which tracks the value of VMwares business, was up a little less than 1 per cent at $70.90.

CHALLENGING PC MARKET

Dell has faced fierce competition in the storage market, with prices pressured by cloud-based rivals such as Amazon.com Incs AWS and Microsoft Corps Azure. Dells infrastructure chief, former EMC executive David Goulden, departed last fall, and the company has been working to reorganize storage operations.

Michael Dell helped shape the personal computer market when he founded Dell in 1984 as a University pre-med freshman with $1,000 in savings. But growing popularity of smartphones and tablets has squeezed the PC market, which shrank by 0.2 per cent in 2017, according to International Data Corporation.

Dells servers have been a bright spot, helping total net revenue growth to $56.7 billion in the nine months to Nov. 3, from $41.6 billion a year earlier. Yet operating expenses soared from $10 billion to $17.3 billion and Dells operating loss widened to $3 billion from $1.6 billion a year ago.

Dell has been considering a sale or initial public offering (IPO) of one of its fast-growing divisions, Pivotal Software Inc, sources have said.Dell, whose technology portfolio spans servers, displays, workstations and gaming PCs, also has a security unit, RSA, and a cloud platform called Boomi.

Click on Deccan Chronicle Technology and Science for the latest news and reviews. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter.The enraged father of three daughters who were sexually abused by Larry Nassar lunged at the former USA Gymnastics national team doctor and tried to attack him during a sentencing hearing in a Michigan courtroom on Friday. (Photo: AP)

Charlotte: The enraged father of three daughters who were sexually abused by Larry Nassar lunged at the former USA Gymnastics national team doctor and tried to attack him during a sentencing hearing in a Michigan courtroom on Friday.

The father, Randall Margraves, was nearly within striking distance of Nassar before officers tackled him to the floor in front of his shocked daughters.

The judge later accepted Margraves explanation that he lost control of his emotions and said she would not punish him.

The chaotic scene began minutes after sisters Lauren and Madison Margraves had concluded tearful victim statements on the second day of a sentencing hearing in Eaton County, following similar presentations by scores of other women during previous court sessions. Nassar has already been sentenced to up to 175 years in prison for his guilty plea in a neighbouring county to molesting young women under the guise of medical treatment.

He is expected to receive an additional sentence on Monday for his guilty plea to similar charges in Eaton County.

At a news conference with his family and attorney hours after the outburst, Margraves apologized for his behaviour, saying he was remorseful and embarrassed after losing his composure.

I am no hero. My daughters are the real heroes, he said, adding that he became enraged when I had to hear what was said in those (victim) statements, and I had to look over at Larry Nassar shaking his head.

I delivered, unintentionally, my three daughters to a demon, he said, expressing his angst as a parent.

Now I have to live with the fact that I failed to protect my daughters. The courtroom disturbance came after Margraves, standing alongside his daughters and wife, gestured toward Nassar and asked Judge Janice Cunnigham to grant him five minutes in a locked room with this demon.

The judge replied that was not an option and rebuked him for his vulgar language in calling Nassar a son of a bitch in court.

Margraves then asked for one minute alone instead. The judge demurred again as some in the courtroom laughed uncomfortably.

Margraves then bolted towards Nassar, seated in an orange jump suit behind a nearby table. His daughters hands flew to their mouths, and one of Nassars lawyers moved to shield his client.

Gasps, cries and shouts filled the courtroom as Margraves was wrestled to the ground, knocking things off a desk on the way down, and handcuffed while Nassar was taken out to safety.

One minute! Margraves demanded repeatedly, his head pinned to the floor. As officers pulled him from the room, he implored them, What if this happened to you guys?

Margraves was then bundled out of the courtroom by uniformed officers, and the judge ordered a break in the proceedings.

Although the judge later declined to cite Margraves for contempt of court, the county sheriff said his office would decide by next week whether to seek criminal charges. An online fundraising page at the website GoFundMe had collected more than USD 9,000 for Margraves potential legal fees by 3 pm.President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump arrive on Air Force One at the Palm Beach International Airport, in West Palm Beach, Florida on Saturday. (Photo:AP)

Washington: The bitterness between Donald Trump and the FBI has intensified after the release of a controversial Republican memo, with the president calling it a disgrace while the agencys chief pledging to defend his agents.

The memo which was released on Friday accuses senior law enforcement officials of misleading a court in order to conduct surveillance on a former Trump campaign adviser during its probe into the alleged Russian collusion in the 2016 election.

The memorandum raises serious concerns about the integrity of decisions made at the highest levels of the Department of Justice and the FBI to use the governments most intrusive surveillance tools against American citizens, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said.

The memo, written by House Intelligence chairman Devin Nunes, alleges that the FBI used the Opposition research dossier on Trump and Russia written by ex-British intelligence agent Christopher Steele to secure a FISA surveillance warrant on former Trump foreign policy adviser Carter Page without disclosing that the dossier was funded in part by Democratic sources.

Mr Trump called the memos contents a disgrace. A lot of people should be ashamed of themselves, he said.

GOP MEMOThe couple, who had an arranged marriage in India in 1988, were divorced in 2014 but continued living separate lives under the same roof. (Photo: Representational)

London: An Indian-origin man in UK on trial for killing his ex-wife and then stuffing her body into a suitcase was sentenced on Friday to at least 18 years in jail for murder.

Ashwin Daudia, 51, had denied the murder charge, claiming he lost his temper during an argument with Kiran Daudia at their home in Leicester last January and did not attack her deliberately. The prosecution, however, claimed that Daudia, who followed the court proceedings through a Gujarati interpreter, had continued to lie about the circumstances surrounding the killing and had committed the murder after growing increasingly resentful of his ex-wife, who had joined a dating agency to meet other men.

"I was angry, I lost control," he told the Leicester Crown Court, adding that Kiran Daudia had initially assaulted him and to silence her, he put his hand over her mouth and then forcefully squeezed her neck.

However, the jury did not accept his version of events and found him guilty of killing his 46-year-old ex-wife.

He admitted in court that he had lied to his two sons, relatives and the police and told them that his ex-wife did not return home from a morning shift at the call centre she worked at and hid her body in a suitcase to prevent his younger son from seeing it. The suitcase, along with the dead body, was discovered by the local police a day after the murder.

The accused was caught on CCTV dragging his ex-wife's body in a suitcase before dumping it in an alleyway.

The couple, who had an arranged marriage in India in 1988, were divorced in 2014 but continued living separate lives under the same roof.

The factory worker husband was to move out of the family home on January 16, 2017, when the attack occurred, the Leicester Mercury reported.

The victim's sister had bought the couple's family home in Leicester to ensure that Ms Daudia could continue living there without her ex-husband after the divorce.

Their two sons chose to "side" with their mother and had relatively little to do with their father.

During the two-week murder trial which concluded on Friday, Ashwin Daudia claimed he lost his temper when his ex-wife shouted at him because he had not packed his bags or moved out. He claimed she swore at him and told him to go and die in India.

He denied the prosecution's suggestion that he had waited for his ex-wife to return home from work to deliberately kill her.

"I didn't do it deliberately, at that time my mind wasn't working," he told the court.Islamic scholar Tariq Ramadan was charged with rape today, a judicial source said, following claims by two women that he assaulted them in French hotel rooms in 2009 and 2012.



Ramadan, who was arrested by French police on Wednesday, has now been charged with connected charges of rape and rape of a vulnerable person, the source said.

The accused is a Swiss citizen whose grandfather founded Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood movement.

After two days of questioning by investigators, the 55- year-old Oxford professor was brought before three magistrates who have been assigned to the case, suggesting that he is facing an extensive investigation, judicial sources said.

Women who have testified anonymously during three months of preliminary investigations might now also file rape complaints, one of the sources said.

The claims against the prominent scholar, which emerged in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein scandal in the United States, have divided many Muslims, with his legions of fans, as well as his lawyers, saying he is the victim of a smear campaign.

But critics have long suggested that despite Ramadan's moderate tone as a familiar face on television programmes, he preaches a more radical line when addressing Muslims in Arabic.

Ramadan is the most high-profile figure to be held in France over the sexual assault and harassment claims that have rippled around the world as a result of the "Me Too" campaign.

The married father of four has denied the separate accusations from the two women.

The first was made by Henda Ayari, a feminist activist who previously practised a conservative strain of Islam. She had described being raped in a book published in 2016, without naming her attacker.

But in October, she said she had decided to name Ramadan publicly as the alleged perpetrator as a result of the "Me Too" campaign, using the French hashtag "Balance Ton Porc" (Expose your pig).

She said Ramadan raped her in his hotel room, telling Le Parisien newspaper: "He choked me so hard that I thought I was going to die."

She lodged a rape complaint against Ramadan on October 20.

Several days later an unidentified disabled woman, a Muslim convert, also accused the academic of violently raping her in a hotel room in the southeastern city of Lyon in 2009.

Vanity Fair magazine, which met the woman, said her lawsuit against Ramadan described "blows to the face and body, forced sodomy, rape with an object and various humiliations, including being dragged by the hair to the bathtub and urinated on".

During three hours of testimony in Paris on Thursday, the woman -- using the pseudonym "Christelle" -- recounted her allegations to the judge in Ramadan's presence.A major fire broke out inside the premises of famous Meenakshi temple here in which at least 40 shops were gutted, police said. However no one was injured, they said.



Temple authorities ruled out any sabotage and said electrical short circuit in one of the shops selling pooja articles caused the fire late last night. The blaze did not cause any damage to the sculptures inside the temple though many of it was covered in soot, police said Fortunately all the sculptures in the 1000-pillared hall were saved by the timely intervention of the temple officials, workers and the fire and rescue service personnel.



A team of fire extinguishers battled past midnight to put out the fire and bring the situation under control. Poojas would be held as per schedule, and cleaning up of the eastern side of the temple would be done in three days, officials said.



Meanwhile, devotees were allowed to offer worship in the temple this morning. District Collector Veera Raghava Rao, who was at the temple told reporters that there was no need for panic, and devotees could offer worship as usual. About 300 police personnel have been deployed in and around the temple for security.As domestic and international pressure mounts, the Maldives has delayed complying with a Supreme Court order for the immediate release and new trials of nine opposition leaders, freeing them to contest presidential elections this year.



The Indian Ocean nation has been mired in political unrest since Mohamed Nasheed, its first democratically elected leader, was ousted in 2012.

He has been in exile on medical grounds from a 13-year jail sentence on terrorism charges.

The Supreme Court on Thursday said the trials of Nasheed and eight others, many of whom had challenged President Abdulla Yameen, had violated the constitution and international law.

It found that prosecutors and judges were unduly influenced "to conduct politically motivated investigations" against them.

On Friday, Attorney General Mohamed Anil said he had held discussions with Chief Justice Abdulla Saeed over the administration's concerns about releasing individuals whose offences ranged from terrorism to corruption and treason.

"The prosecutor general is currently in the process of examining the cases to determine the best way to proceed with the implementation of the Supreme Court's ruling, and the prosecutor general will present recommendations at the earliest," the government said in a statement.

The unexpected ruling frees Opposition leaders to run against Yameen in the presidential poll expected to be completed by October.

The terrorism convictions would normally bar them from competing unless they received presidential pardons after completing a third of their jail terms.

The joint Opposition of the Maldives expressed concern over Yameen's refusal to abide by the order.

"We are deeply fearful that the government's refusal to implement the Supreme Court order could escalate to unrest and incite violence across the country," it said in a statement.

Hundreds of Opposition supporters chanted slogans such as "enforce the Supreme Court ruling," and "defend the Constitution," in a Friday night rally outside the Opposition MDP campaign center in Male, the capital.

The United Nations, the United States, the European Union and India also urged Yameen's government to follow the ruling.

In a statement, the office of UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said, "The Secretary-General reiterates his belief in finding a solution to the political stalemate in the Maldives through all-party talks, which the United Nations continues to stand ready to facilitate."

"We understand the situation is extremely tense," Rupert Colville, a spokesman for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights told reporters on Friday.

The agency was "closely watching how the situation develops in the aftermath of Thursday's decisions by the Supreme Court, and in particular, the reactions of the government, military and police," he added.

The European Union urged the government to hold "inclusive dialogue with the leaders of all political parties that should pave the way for credible, transparent and inclusive elections".

Nasheed, who has been in exile in Britain, had sought UN help to restore the political rights of which he was stripped after a trial denounced as hasty and unfair by the United Nations human rights chief.

Thursday's decision also nullified a ruling in which 12 lawmakers lost their parliamentary seats for defecting last July from Yameen's ruling party, costing him his majority in the 85-member legislature.Indian Oil Corporation will invest Rs 3,400 crore in Assam over the next five years to expand its operations by setting up new units as well as upgrading the existing ones, a senior IOC official said today.



The company will sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Assam Government to this effect at the two-day 'Advantage Assam - Global Investors Summit 2018', beginning here today, the official said.

"We are signing an MoU with the state government that will empower us to invest Rs 3,400 crore in Assam over the next five years. This will be for various projects across the state," Indian Oil Corporation, Executive Director (IndianOil-AOD), Dipankar Ray told PTI at the Summit.

The company's Board has already approved the funding and it may increase in future depending upon the progress of the work, he said.

"The major chunk of this will go for expansion of our refinery capacities. We are going to add new units and also upgrade the existing ones to improve the fuel quality and BS-VI compliant fuel will be required as per norms," Ray said.

The company will also enhance the capacities of its LPG bottling plants at North Guwahati, Silchar and Mirza, he added.

"The petroleum storage capacities are also being enhanced at various places like Barak valley and Digboi. In Barak valley, we are setting up a new depot, which will be well-connected by rail network and will have provision for pipeline connectivity as well," Ray informed.

Besides, IOC's existing depots at Betkuchi in Guwahati, Lumding and Missamari will see capacity expansion under this project, he added.

"Some projects under this MoU have already started, while some will begin soon. These projects will also help create jobs, mostly in contract through indirect route," Ray said.A gangster was killed and nearly two dozen criminals were arrested by police in 15 encounters in different districts of Uttar Pradesh during the past two days, a police spokesperson said here on Saturday.



The encounters took place in Bulandshahr, Shamli, Kanpur, Saharanpur, Lucknow, Baghpat, Muzaffarnagar, Gorkahpur, Hapur and Meerut.

"As many as 24 wanted criminals were arrested and one gangster killed in 15 police encounters reported from 10 districts of the state over a span of 48 hours," the spokesperson said.

Gangster Inderpal, who carried a reward of Rs 25,000, was gunned down by the Special Task Force in the encounter in Naglakhepad jungle on Friday.

According to Superintendent of Police (STF) Rajiv Narain Singh, Inderpal was wanted in more than 30 cases of loot and murder in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand.

The police also claimed to have recovered countrymade arms, ammunition, motorcycle, cars apart from cash which was robbed by the criminals.

The maximum number of encounters was reported from Bulandshahr and Shamli, where four and six criminals were arrested, respectively.

Three of those arrested in Bulandshahr carried a cash reward of Rs 20,000 each on their head. Two encounters took place in Kanpur.

On Friday, two suspected criminals and as many policemen, including a station house officer, were injured in an encounter in Gorakhpur.

The incident took place when Maneesh Yadav and Manoj Yadav were escaping after threatening a village head, the police said.

They said that a team was rushed to the spot after receiving a complaint from the victim. In the encounter, Station House Officer, Khorabar, Sudhir Kumar, and Sub-Inspector, Jhangha, Sunil Kumar Singh suffered minor injuries.

The police have seized a .32 bore pistol, a 12 bore gun, bullets and the motorcycle on which they were escaping.

The criminals were injured in the gunfight. They were subsequently arrested and admitted to BRD Medical College.

The police claimed that they have confessed to their involvement in the murder of businessman Dinesh Gupta of Nai Bazaar, Jhangha, in Gorakhpur on Sunday.

The Uttar Pradesh Police has intensified its crackdown on criminals after the new DGP O P Singh took charge last month.

Chief Minister Yogi Aditynath had vowed to take strict action against the criminals after his government faced criticism over a string of crimes in the state.Unidentified persons have smeared a portrait of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi with black ink at an under-construction Indira Canteen at Suratkal here on Friday night.

The portrait was put up outside the outlet. The police suspect that miscreants may have committed the act in the wee hours on Saturday.

Indira Canteen is a flagship programme of Karnataka government, which will provide food at subsidised rates to the people, working class in particular.Security forces have arrested two Pakistan-trained Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) militants in north Kashmir's Baramulla district, police said today.



The militants, who had gone to Pakistan on valid Pakistani visa to obtain arms training to undertake terrorist activities in the Valley, were arrested during a joint operation by the police, Army and the CRPF, a police spokesman said here.

He said the militants had obtained their passports specifically for the said purpose.

"These militants of Lashkar-e-Taiba were nabbed immediately after returning via the Wagah-Attari border before they could formally join the militant ranks here in Kashmir," he said, identifying the arrested as Abdul Majeed Bhat, resident of Kreeri, and Mohammad Ashraf Mir, from Pattan.

On questioning, the duo revealed "they underwent training in Pakistan along with a large number of Pakistani boys, most of whom were from Balochistan and as young as 10," the spokesperson said.

"The said terrorist training camps are located near Burma Town, in Islamabad, and being run by a terrorist commander operating under code names Hanzala, Adanan and Omar. Other terrorists imparting training to young boys are operating with code names Osama, Naveed and Hataf," he said.

The arrested militants were given Pakistani visas by the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi, the spokesperson said.

"It's pertinent to mention that in the past couple of years, police have unearthed several such modules that lure young boys to Pakistan to get trained and join militancy. In the past, several such boys have been arrested, while some of them were killed in encounters," he added.

A case was registered and an investigation underway, the official said.

"Parents are requested to keep watch on their wards. Their prolonged absence from home should be immediately reported to police so that lives of these boys can be saved," he added.A major fire broke out inside the premises of famous Meenakshi temple here in which at least 40 shops were gutted, police said.



However, no one was injured, they said. Temple authorities ruled out any sabotage and said electrical short circuit in one of the shops selling pooja articles caused the fire on Friday.

The blaze did not cause any damage to the sculptures inside the temple though many of it was covered in soot. All the sculptures in the 1,000-pillared hall were saved by the timely intervention of the temple officials, workers and the fire and rescue service personnel, police said.

A team of fire extinguishers battled past midnight to put out the fire and bring the situation under control. Poojas would be held as per schedule, and cleaning up of the eastern side of the temple would be done in three days, officials said.

Various organisations including Hindu Baktha Jana Sabha, VHP and Hindu Munnani had been demanding to vacate the shops from the temple premises and keep the premises clean. Meanwhile, devotees were allowed to offer worship in the temple this morning.

Hindu outfit seeks action

A Tamil Nadu based Hindu outfit on Saturday demanded action against authorities for "failure" to take preventive measures to avoid the fire mishap at the Madurai Meenakshi temple.

The blaze at the Madurai Meenakshi temple is an example of the "inept" administration by the Hindu Charitable and Endowments Department, founder-organiser of the Hindu Munnani, Rama Gopalan, said.

Considering safety parameters, no shop should be allowed to function within the temple precincts. That no mechanism was in place to tackle the situation in the event of a fire showed the level of deterioration of administration by the HR and CE, he said in a release in Chennai.

"The Tamil Nadu government should take appropriate action against those responsible (temple administrative authorities) for failure to take preventive steps to avoid fire mishap at the Meenakshi temple."The Jammu and Kashmir government today said there is no proposal under consideration to constitute a judicial commission to probe the death of 106 people during the 2016 unrest in the valley.



"No such proposal is under consideration of the government," Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti, who holds the portfolio of home department, said in a written reply in the Legislative Assembly to a question by CPI(M) MLA MY Tarigami.

The CPI(M) legislator had asked the government whether it intended to constitute a judicial commission to probe the killings.

Mehbooba said 85 people were killed in the Kashmir Valley and one life was lost in the Jammu region in law and order incidents in 2016, following the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani in an encounter with security forces.

She said 20 people were killed in incidents of violence in 2017.

The chief minister said 9,042 people were injured between July 2016 and February 27, 2017.

The injured included 6,221 who were hit by pellets and 368 who received bullet injuries.

Mehbooba said a committee headed by the principal secretary, home, was constituted on January 27, 2017 to determine the eligibility of the families or next of kins of those killed in "law and order disturbances" in Kashmir from July 8 2016 to November 2, 2016 for consideration and payment of exgratia.

On the recommendations of the committee, an ex-gratia relief of Rs five lakhs each was sanctioned in favour of the families or next of kins of 77 civilians killed in law and order disturbances in the valley, the chief minister said.

Another committee was constituted under the chairmanship of the divisional commissioner, Kashmir, to identify people who have been permanently or partially disabled in the valley from July 8 2016 to November 2, 2016, she said.

The committee in the first phase recommended 54 victims for grant of exgratia which was sanctioned by the government on January 5, 2018, she said.

In the second phase, Mehbooba said, the committee recommended 10 more cases in December 2017 for grant of exgratia relief. The recommendations are being examined.

She said 13 people have been appointed in various departments by the general administration department on extreme compassionate grounds.

The chief minister said all the injured were treated with due care and specialized treatment was provided whenever required.

She said 936 people were detained under the provisions of the Public Safety Act from July 2016 to December 28 2017.

"Detention cases are being reviewed by the government from time to time in consultation with the criminal investigation department... And a good number of persons have also been released from time to time, she said.

At present, Mehbooba said, there are only 167 people in preventive detention including 16 detenues under the provisions of the Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act.

On pellet guns, Mehbooba said these are used sparingly, strictly as per the standard operational procedure for graded response in law and order situation, particularly when all the other means and methods of controlling the agitating mobs, like teargas, oleoresin grenades and stun grenades fail.

"The pellets are fired, as and when required, below the waist line so as to cause minimum damage to the member of the agitating mobs and the violent protesters. The pellet guns are not being used against any peaceful protest," she said.

The Jammu and Kashmir High Court Bar Association, Srinagar, had filed a PIL before the court seeking ban on pellet guns as means of crowd control in 2016.

The court, its its order on September 21, 2016, had declined to prohibit the use of 12 bore pellet gun, she said.

The high court order has been challenged in the Supreme court and the matter is currently sub-judice, Mehbooba said.Farmers from Navalgund in the district who were on their way to stage a protest during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Bengaluru on February 4 were taken into custody by the local police in Hubballi on Saturday evening and they have been lodged at the DAR grounds in Dharwad.

Nearly 40 farmers, including Mahadayi Kalasa Banduri Raitha Horata Samiti president Loknath Hebsur, members Subhaschandra Gouda and others were taken into custody.

Subhashchandra said Modi should break his silence and initiate steps to resolve the Kalasa Banduri dispute.

"The farmers of the state have been demanding their share of the Mahadayi water, which is their right. The government should stop suppressing the voice of the farmers," he said.

DySP BaPaChandrashekar said the high court had directed not to call for a bandh and hence, the farmers who were going to Bengaluru violating the high court orders, had been taken into custody.The Centre is pushing the states to adopt Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) in disbursing electricity subsidy to farmers.



According to the proposal, all irrigation pumpsets must have meters and farmers must pay the electricity bill. If the State governments want to subsidise the farmers, they may directly transfer the bill amount to the beneficiary farmers' bank accounts.

Since the government proposes to introduce smart meters and eliminate human interference in billing, the bill will be sent to the farmers and electricity distribution companies directly every month. Soon after the farmers pay the bill, the state government concerned must reimburse the amount directly into the farmers bank accounts, said Union Power Minister R K Singh.

The electricity DBT will be on the same lines as LPG subsidy, which the beneficiary consumer gets directly in his bank account after purchasing the gas cylinder.

The Ministry of Power has been discussing this method with the states, which have expressed willingness to introduce the system, he said.

Since the Ministry is also going to amend the Electricity Act soon to make electricity distribution companies accountable for providing uninterrupted power, farmers can enjoy regular power supply. Discoms failing to provide adequate power to consumers will be fined, he said.

Discoms to benefit

Introducing DBT will not only check power theft, it will also help the electricity distribution companies (discoms) recover their dues promptly.

Due to financial mismanagement and non-payment of subsidy by the state governments on time, the discoms are steeped in debt amounting to more than Rs 4 lakh crore.

In some states, financial position of the discoms is so poor that they don't have money to purchase power from the electricity producing companies to supply consumers.At 15, Raheema left her home in Rakhine state in Myanmar, crossed two international borders and was sold to be married to a man in India just a few years younger than her father.

"He had asked the agent if I was married before. I was single so he bought me for Rs 20,000. Married women go for Rs 15,000," Raheema, who gave only her first name, said.

"He was only slightly younger than my father... He would beat me up with electrical wires and not let me leave, saying he had bought me," said Raheema, who now lives in a settlement in northern India housing Rohingya Muslims who have fled Myanmar.

Raheema's husband let her leave last year after five years of abuse. She was five months pregnant with their second child.

In a burgeoning refugee crisis, about 660,000 Rohingyas have fled Myanmar's western Rakhine state across the border to Bangladesh since late August, when Rohingya militants attacked security posts and the army launched a counter-offensive.

They join tens of thousands of Rohingya Muslims already in Bangladesh, while pockets of Rohingya communities are dotted across South Asia, having escaped discrimination and persecution in Buddhist-majority Myanmar.

The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) has said the new arrivals a the majority of them women and children -- are at risk of human trafficking, as officials and aid workers struggle to cope with the influx.

Cases of men and women enslaved in bonded labour or trafficked for marriage have also started to emerge in India after they managed to escape or were rescued and found their way to Rohingya settlements like the one in Nuh in Haryana.

Rohingya started to migrate to India years ago and there are now close to 40,000 Rohingya Muslims living in the country.

Raheema left her home in Myanmar, "surrounded by tall blades of grass and paddy fields" to join her father in a refugee camp in Bangladesh in 2012.

"There was no food at home and my mother thought I would be better off if I joined my father," said Raheema, now 22. "But my aunt at the camp sold me to the agent who told her he would get me married in India."

"I was numb to the idea of marriage. I just followed the agent and reached Kolkata. I didn't know any Indian language, but I thought I will be safe," she said in fluent Hindi, from her home in Nuh.

Bangladesh's chaotic refugee camps are fertile territory for agents like the one who bought and sold Raheema. The promise of marriage is a typical way for traffickers operating in the camps to lure girls.

"Marriage is big for young girls and parents are agreeing to it because they

see better economic stability (for their daughters)," said Iffat Nawaz, spokeswoman for aid and development organisation BRAC.

In December, BRAC volunteers started visiting young girls at the refugee settlements in Cox's Bazar to give them information and support on how to stay safe among so many strangers. "Many of these girls have never been around so many men. They are meeting a lot of new people," said Nawaz.

The girls are trained over 12 sessions on signs they need to look out for - inappropriate touching, offers of money or food and shelter, and ways to differentiate between genuine humanitarian workers and traffickers.

"There are enough incidents of girls going missing...They are being trafficked to India and Nepal. We launched this programme to reduce that risk," Nawaz said.

Across the border in India, cases like Raheema are gradually emerging.

Hasina Kharbhih, founder of anti-trafficking charity Impulse NGO Network that works in India, Bangladesh and Myanmar, said the group was working on reuniting 15 Rohingya girls in India with their families.

"These girls were trafficked and sold in India for sexual slavery or for marriage six to eight years ago. They are at government-run shelters now," she said.

"We have not succeeded in sending any of them back home as we are unable to trace their families in Myanmar."

Kharbhih also received five cases in the last six months of families in Bangladeshi refugee camps looking for girls they say were trafficked to India.

Campaigners say there are more cases of girls sold in India, but there are challenges in identifying them.

"(It's) because of the language issue -- it is difficult to identify them as Rohingya or Bangladeshi as the language is very similar," said Adrian Phillips of Justice and Care, an anti-human trafficking NGO.

Raheema now lives with her two children in a slum in Nuh, in a hut made of tin and cardboard with plastic sheeting for a roof. She shows the small space she has created for a clay stove to cook food.

She is in touch with her mother, who is still in Myanmar.

"I work as a maid servant here and earn Rs 1,200," she said. "But who will feed me if I go back to my mother?"Basking in the winter sun, swaying to the pleasant breeze with the chirping of birds all along, a bunch of school students began their weekend with a mission to protect the nature that surrounded them.



The initiative by these students is an etho of the festival that their school had organised. 'Kere Habba' by the Prakriya Green Wisdom School, Doddakannelli, Sarjapur Road, celebrated the spirit of lakes around Bengaluru, especially the ones near the school.

The students are on a mission to revive Hadosiddapura lake, which they fear, might die a slow death.

The lake which was spread across 36-acres is believed to have shrunk to a mere 16-acres because of encroachments, say gram panchayat officials.

It is a seasonal lake with several species of fish, birds and plants thriving. The cattle egret, the Yellow-wattled lapwing and the kingfisher are most commonly found birds here. While acacia and tamarind trees are abundant, a huge eucalyptus forest is also present near the lake bed.

REVIVAL PLAN

Siddharth Kuppalli, Sabyasaachi Shenoy, Renee Ahluwalia, Kaushik Chengeri, and Neekita Raman, all 8th standard students, preparing a detailed project report (DPR) on the methods to revive the lake.

They plan to submit their report to the gram panchayat officials for further action.

The group also demonstrated various scientific techniques and projects that the government could implement to clean or stop the rampant pollution in city lakes.

Speaking at the event, V Ramprasad, a lake conservationist, said,"We need to redefine the definition of development. Lakes form a central part of the city's existence. If we do not protect lakes, there will be no chance of surviving."A 14-year-old high school student who went missing three days ago was found dead at Basavapura Lake on the city outskirts on Saturday.



Rani, daughter of Satyanarayana and Lakshmi from Pavagada in Tumakuru, was a Class VIII student at a government school in Singasandra near Electronics City on Hosur Road.

The couple had left Rani with her aunt Baghya in Begur for education. Preliminary police inquiries revealed that Rani was irregular to school. Baghya had scolded her a few days ago with a warning that she would be sent back home to her parents if she failed to mend her ways.

Though it appeared that Rani had left for school as usual on January 31, she went missing. Baghya checked with the school to learn that the teenager was absent. She informed Rani's parents, who came to the city and searched in vain. They then lodged a missing complaint with the police.

On Saturday, people passing by the lake found a girl's body floating. They immediately alerted the Electronics City police, who retrieved the body and found a school identity card inside her uniform pocket. Based on the this, the police informed Rani's family, who identified the body.

Electronics City police have filed a case of unnatural death, and are investigating.It is now clear that a grand-strategic, multi-contestant, maritime 'Great Game' is being played out in the Indian Ocean region. Of the two major participants, a 'resident' India and an 'interloper' China are each playing by different rules. While India imagines that the conventions of traditional Shatranj (Chess) will suffice, the Chinese, shrewd practitioners of realpolitik, are playing by the far more complex rules of their strategic board-game Wei qui, or more commonly Go, about which we know very little.



A discussion of this unfolding geopolitical drama must start with an acknowledgment of the audacious vision which has charted the transformation of a traditionally land-oriented China into a maritime power. Early Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) doctrine had relegated the navy to coastal defence, using small craft and submarines to wage 'guerrilla war' at sea. The past two decades have, however, seen a dramatic change in China's strategic outlook. Swift growth of the Chinese economy and the consequent expansion of its commercial interests abroad has enhanced its dependence on overseas energy, natural-resources and markets, as well as the sea lanes of communication (SLOC) that carry them. While China's land borders are relatively tranquil, the unresolved Taiwan issue and complex maritime disputes with six neighbours have led to enhanced focus on sea-power.

Although the die must have been cast at the turn of the century, it was only in 2015 that China's Military Strategy acknowledged that, "The traditional mentality that land outweighs sea must be abandoned...given the new strategic requirement of 'offshore waters defence' as well as 'open seas protection', the PLA Navy (PLAN) will shift its focus and build a combined, multi-functional marine combat force."

China's leadership has astutely grasped the reality that 'maritime power' is much more than just a 'fighting navy'. The results are truly striking; China is today the world leader in ship-building and its 5,000-ship strong merchant marine ranks No.1 in the world. It also owns the largest number of coast guard vessels that protect the world's biggest fishing fleet. It is noteworthy that China's sea-going fishing fleet is viewed in strategic terms as a guarantor of national food security and the marine economy. Chinese shipyards are rapidly adding to its fleet of modern warships as well as merchantmen. Its force of home-built nuclear submarines is operationally deployed, and its first aircraft carrier is at sea, with more to follow. By 2020, the PLAN will overtake the US Navy in numbers, and remain at No.2 only in capability.

As for India, its ancient sea-faring skills and maritime tradition had lain dormant for a thousand years; till revived by a visionary post-Independence naval leadership. The maritime-awakening of our 'sea-blind' politico-bureaucratic decision-makers, however, was triggered not by a sudden 'epiphany' but by a series of disruptive developments, that included the globalisation of trade, rampant piracy, the trauma of a sea-borne terror strike on Mumbai and the spectre of a PLA Navy on the rampage in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR).

India's naval leadership has steadfastly striven for the creation of a strong and balanced three-dimensional navy with indigenous roots. The Indian Navy (IN) has also created its own roadmap via a succession of 'Doctrine' and 'Strategy' documents whose contours are shaped by the need to protect India's national interests, resources and diaspora; to support India's foreign policy; and to assure safety of SLOCs by upholding freedom of the seas.

China's acquisition of economic heft and coercive military power has led to a display of increasing belligerence through a campaign of 'cartographic expansion', as manifest in the '9-dash line' in the South China Sea and repudiation of the 1914 McMahon line on the India-China border. Having already established a chain of maritime footholds in the Indian Ocean, China inaugurated its first overseas military base in Djibouti last year, and PLAN warships and submarines have now become frequent visitors to the Indian Ocean.

Since China's grandiose Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) relies on Indian Ocean ports and sea lanes, India's refusal to participate in this project has caused concern in Beijing. In the emerging maritime equation, former Chinese president Hu Jintao's 'Malacca dilemma' may come to haunt the PLA Navy, given the Indian Navy's ability to dominate IOR sea lanes. In a related context, the recent conclusion of an Indo-Seychelles agreement regarding creation of air and naval facilities on Assumption Island is a welcome development. Similar accords could be in the offing with Mauritius and the Maldives. Similarly, membership of the inchoate US-Japan-Australia-India 'Quadrilateral' is being recommended as a hedge against Chinese hegemony in the Indian Ocean Region. None of these measures would, however, render expected benefits unless they are components of a carefully thought-out, overarching maritime masterplan.

It is becoming increasingly obvious that the Indian Ocean 'Great Game' and India's role in it will be keenly watched by the larger Indo-Pacific region. So, India's decision-makers need to be mindful of a few important factors.

Firstly, India's modern and professionally competent navy is said to be largely home-grown, but until Indian warships and submarines are equipped with indigenously designed and manufactured weapons, sensors and machinery, the navy will remain import-dependent and vulnerable in war. Far from being a regional 'net security provider', the IN may find it a challenge to sustain its own units in distant waters.

Secondly, unlike their Chinese counterparts, Indian decision-makers have failed to comprehend that the navy, by itself, constitutes just one component of the country's maritime capability. Without the remaining elements, India's maritime power will remain hollow. Despite exaggerated claims, India's ports and infrastructure remain backward, our shipbuilding industry is stagnating, the merchant fleet is static, we lack a viable fishing-industry, and sea-bed exploitation is yet to commence.

Finally, the Indian Navy's maritime doctrines and strategies, as well as initiatives like 'Sagar' abroad, and 'Sagarmala' at home, will lack logic and coherence unless backed by a comprehensive national strategy for maritime security. The faithful implementation of this strategy will create urgently-needed capacities that will not only benefit our economy but also reinforce maritime security.

(The writer is a former chief of the Indian Navy)Legislative Assembly Speaker K B Koliwad on Saturday said he would not allow bills to be passed in haste in the House.



Speaking to reporters in Bengaluru, Koliwad said he was of the opinion that there should be a comprehensive discussion before any bill was passed.

"The government should provide copies of the bills well in advance so that members can come prepared. I will raise the matter at the Business Advisory Committee meeting," he said.

The legislature session commences on February 5.On the eve of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Bengaluru, the Congress and the BJP indulged in a war of words over Central grants to the state.



It all began with the ruling Congress on Saturday describing BJP president Amit Shah's claim of the Centre giving a grant to the tune of Rs 3 lakh crore to the state, as an insult to the proud people of Karnataka, and demanding an apology from the saffron party.

"The lies and jumlas of the BJP are well known, but their claim of releasing funds to the state because of their generosity, is an insult to Karnataka as well as all the other states," KPCC working president Dinesh Gundu Rao told reporters.

Rao said Centre was claiming as if it was giving alms to the state. The state is entitled to the grants from the Centre as per the Constitution of India.

The Centre has to release state's share of money (collected in the form of taxes) as recommended by the 14th Finance Commission .

"But, Amit Shah, during his recent visit to the state said the Centre is bestowing the money on Karnataka and demanded that the state government should give accounts of the money being spent," Rao stated.

Soon, the BJP came with a counter. Leader of Opposition in the Legislative Assembly Jagadish Shettar said the Congress was misleading the people."Every citizen has the right to seek information on the grants utilised by the government," Shettar said.

If the government was not getting sufficient grants from the Centre, why it did not take up the issue with Niti Aayog, he sought to know.

Shettar wondered why the government had kept the Rs 4,500 crore provided by the Centre from the central road funds to the state under wraps. "The government is just telling a bunch of lies to cover up its lapses," Shettar charged.

Agriculture Minister Krishna Byre Gowda said the Centre owes the state an explanation on why it has not released the full amount as stipulated by the 14th Finance Commission. The Centre still owes about Rs 10,553 crore.

The Centre has released Rs 84,651 crore during 2015-18 against Rs 95,204 crore recommended by the Finance Commission. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is scheduled to visit Bengaluru on Sunday, should give a hisab (accounts) in this regard, he added.A section of Dalit leaders on Saturday walked out of the pre-budget meeting called by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, protesting against the delay on part of the government in implementing the Sadashiva Commission report on internal reservation among the Scheduled Castes.



Dalit leaders Marasandra Muniyappa, N Murthy and others walked out of the meeting organised at the chief minister's home-office 'Krishna' after indulging in a heated argument with Siddaramaiah. The Dalit leaders accused the chief minister of deliberately delaying the implementation of the report.

The chief minister had convened the meeting to ascertain the wishes of the Dalit leaders in the coming state budget. Siddaramaiah tried to pacify the Dalit leaders, but in vain.

The Siddaramaiah government is in a quandary over implementing the report due to differences among the Dalit leaders: while the Dalit left wing leaders want internal reservation, the right wing leaders are stiffly opposing it.

Murthy later told reporters that Siddaramaiah is not willing to implement the report. He wants to divide the sub-castes among the Dalits, the way he has done with the Lingayats.The state BJP will launch a "Save Bengaluru" campaign highlighting the "increase in crimes, pollution levels and maladministration" in the state capital.



Addressing a press conference in Bengaluru on Saturday, BJP national general secretary incharge of Karnataka P Muralidhar Rao said the door-to-door campaign to be launched in the coming days would also highlight the rise of "mafia raj" in Bengaluru.

"Bengaluru is not safe under the Siddaramaiah regime. Never before has the city seen such rise in criminal activities. The ruling dispensation is protecting criminals," Rao charged. He said the recent killing of BJP worker Santosh was a case in point.

"Santosh was murdered for taking on the drug mafia. Instead of punishing the culprits, the government is protecting Wasim (one of the suspects in the case). The government is making it a fight between Santosh and Wasim to meet its narrow political ends," Rao said. The BJP leader said there is ample evidence that Wasim is a member of the Congress.

He said the government's failure to tackle pollution in Bengaluru had resulted in lakes (like Bellandur) catching fire. "Even water is becoming fuel for fire. It is a testimony of the governance of the Congress," Rao said. The BJP will make the plight of farmers another major election issue, he said.

He dared Home Minister Ramalinga Reddy to prove his charge that the BJP had held secret talks with Lok Sabha member Asaduddin Owaisi on the possibility of an electoral alliance with his party, the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen. "Mr Reddy, you say you have proof about the talks, then make it public. Who is preventing you?" Rao said and added that the BJP was ready for a public debate on the issue.Officials of Karnataka Fire and Emergency Services will be writing to Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) and Bangalore Electricity Supply Company (BESCoM) to halt power and water supply to all the roof-top pubs, bars and eateries in high-rise buildings in the city which have flouted fire safety norms.



They will also write to BBMP to cancel Occupancy Certificates and other permissions given by it to such buildings.

Following a fire accident in Mumbai Kamala Mills compound on December 28, 2017, the fire department cracked a whip on various roof-top pubs, bars and eateries across the city.

"There are more than 50 such high-rise buildings in the city. If they implement the safety norms within the stipulated time, then they will be allowed to function," said M N Reddi, Director General of Police, Karnataka Fire and Emergency Services.

During their inspection on December 30, the department slapped notices on 83 such establishments for violating fire safety norms.

With the notice period set to expire next week, Reddi said that he would write to civic agencies to cut off water and power supply besides other sanctions given by BWSSB.

Most of these illegal high-rises are located in Indiranagar and Koramangala. The officials of BWSSB, BESCOM were unavailable for comments regarding this despite calls.The state government seems to have turned a blind eye to the needs of patients with rare diseases.



Despite a government order to release funds and high court directions to immediately treat the patients, neither funds nor the drugs have reached the patients.

According to Prasanna Kumar B Shirol, co-founder and executive director, Organisation for Rare Diseases India (ORDI), said two children from Koppal who were registered at the Indira Gandhi Institute of Child Health (IGICH) died a few months ago, as they were not given timely treatment.

"When we approached the state government and the High Court of Karnataka, the government released Rs 4 crore for the treatment of Lysosomal Storage Disease (LSD) for 19 children. We made a request for additional funds and a GO was issued in June 2017, to release Rs 4.14 crore as we had additional patients, but the amount has not reached IGICH till date," he added.

Shirol said that they had 12 new patients and now another 15, but IGICH had discontinued the treatment for all patients on January 20 due

to lack funds and drugs.

Another patient, Raghavendra (26), suffering from Pompe disease which comes under LSDs had moved the high court as he was not able to avail treatment at IGICH, a children's hospital. Pompe disease is a rare autosomal recessive metabolic disorder.

Shirol said the Union government had granted Rs 100 crore

for the treatment of rare diseseas after the National Policy for the Treatment of Rare Diseases came into being in 2017.

Under the policy, the Centre would provide 60% of the funds and the remaining would be borne by the state government. Despite ORDI requesting the state government to provide funds, the same had not come by.

There are around 7,000 types of LSDs and nearly 7 lakh persons are suffering from the rare diseases.

One in 10,000 persons suffers from the rare diseases. There is no treatment available for nearly 90% of the rare diseases and 80% of them are hereditary.

Nearly 50% of them are children and 30% of these do not survive beyond the age of five years.

Shirol said for treating Pompe disease, expensive IV fluids, which are mainly imported, are required. There is an apathy towards treating these ailments as the drugs are very expensive.Tofu, sushi and job fair come together at Japan Habba



Bengaluru: Sipping tea from Japan and listening to traditional music or wearing Yukata, a traditional kimono, the Japan Habba had visitors thronging the J N Tata Auditorium to savour the country's culture on Saturday.

The 14th edition of the Habba celebrated Aomori, the 8th largest prefecture (a territorial division) of Japan known for its summer festival and contemporary art movement.

Besides the hundreds of students, even general public visited the festival.

The demonstration of high tea ceremony in the morning session was followed by Origami, Kirigami and Ikebana displays by experts.

Visitors tried writing 'Kanji' ideograms at calligraphy workshop.

There was an added treat of musicians from Aomori, Yoshiyuki Kesai and Hiroti Aizawa playing Shamisen, a traditional string instrument.

"Even those who are familiar with Japanese food and culture were surprised to see the variety of food on offer. Apart from sushi and tofu, we had Dorayaki (a pancake with bean paste), Yakisoba (fried noodles) and other food varieties which many had not heard of. The food on sale at the stalls was sold out soon," said Kaushik Satyanarayana, who was part of the organising committee.

Nikhil Prem, an engineering student, said the event was helpful in not only exchange of culture but also meeting distinguished people. "It was also a kind of job fair. There were seminars by big Japanese companies that briefed us on the kind of talent they require," he said.

Anna Mary Thomas, a student from Christ, said that it was interesting to know that the Japanese were also interested in learning about our culture. "The Japanese say that Indians working in Japan have planted seeds of curiosity in them. These are the things that add strength to India's efforts to become a developed country," she said.

Consulate General of Japan, Bengaluru, Takayuki Kitagawa inaugurated the event in the morning and praised its role in the cultural exchange between the two countries. "It is not a distant dream to make the Japan Habba a unique tourist attraction in Karnataka," he said, indicating that the festival will acquire grandeur in the coming days.Thirteen busy traffic junctions in the city are set to get grade separators (underpasses and flyovers) at a cost of Rs 421 crore.



The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) is preparing a detailed project report (DPR) on the project in consultation with experts and civic stakeholders. Once ready, the report will be sent to the state government for approval. The civic body expects the work to start by the end of this year.

"Once the proposal is approved by the Cabinet, we will invite tenders and start the work towards the end of this year," said S Somashekar, Chief Engineer, Major Roads, BBMP. The 13 junctions were identified as they report heavy traffic, he added. The grade separators are expected to ease traffic. Police had also requested for grade separators at busy junctions, Somashekhar said. In the 2017-18 state budget, the government had approved grade separators at nine busy junctions.Commission meets Feb. 9 in Portland to consider uplisting marbled murrelets

Reception Feb. 8 at Pacific Northwest Sportsmens Show Tweet Friday, February 2, 2018 SALEM, Ore.The Fish and Wildlife Commission will host a reception Thursday, Feb. 8 at the Pacific Northwest Sportsmens Show in Portland and then meet Friday, Feb. 9 at the Sheraton Hotel, Portland Airport, 8235 NE Airport Way. Thursdays reception is in the Green Theater at Portland Expo from 4:30-5:30 p.m. and is a great opportunity to meet Commission members, ODFW Director Curt Melcher and other staff to share thoughts on fish and wildlife issues. Fridays meeting starts at 8 a.m. and follows this agenda, http://www.dfw.state.or.us/agency/commission/minutes/18/02_Feb/index.asp On Friday, the Commission will consider a petition to uplist the marbled murrelet from threatened to endangered under the Oregon Endangered Species Act (ESA). The species is also listed as threatened under the federal ESA. As part of this agenda item, ODFW will present its status review on the species, and the Commission will hear public testimony. If the Commission decides that uplisting is warranted, rulemaking to reclassify the species and adopt survival guidelines would occur at the June 2018 Commission meeting. The Commission will also hear a report about marbled murrelet research from Dr. Jim Rivers, OSU College of Forestry Principal Investigator, during the Directors Report at the beginning of the meeting. In other business, the Commission will be asked to approve new Criminal Records Requirements in keeping with HB 3168. Finally, they will hear an update on the lower Columbia River white sturgeon population and fisheries. Public testimony for topics not on the agenda will be held first thing Friday morning, just after the adoption of temporary rules. Persons seeking to testify on issues not on the formal agenda may do so by making arrangements with the ODFW Directors Office, at least 24 hours in advance of the meeting, by calling 800-720-6339 or 503-947-6044. Reasonable accommodations will be provided as needed for individuals requesting assistive hearing devices, sign language interpreters or large-print materials. Individuals needing these types of accommodations may call the ODFW Directors Office at 800-720-6339 or 503-947-6044 at least 24 hours in advance of the meeting. ### Contact: Michelle Dennehy

(503) 947-6022

Michelle.N.Dennehy@state.or.usCountry

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Principe, Democratic Republic of Saudi Arabia, Kingdom of Senegal, Republic of Serbia and Montenegro Seychelles, Republic of Sierra Leone, Republic of Singapore, Republic of Slovakia (Slovak Republic) Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia, Somali Republic South Africa, Republic of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands Spain, Spanish State Sri Lanka, Democratic Socialist Republic of St. Helena St. Kitts and Nevis St. Lucia St. Pierre and Miquelon St. Vincent and the Grenadines Sudan, Democratic Republic of the Suriname, Republic of Svalbard & Jan Mayen Islands Swaziland, Kingdom of Sweden, Kingdom of Switzerland, Swiss Confederation Syrian Arab Republic Taiwan, Province of China Tajikistan Tanzania, United Republic of Thailand, Kingdom of Timor-Leste, Democratic Republic of Togo, Togolese Republic Tokelau (Tokelau Islands) Tonga, Kingdom of Trinidad and Tobago, Republic of Tunisia, Republic of Turkey, Republic of Turkmenistan Turks and Caicos Islands Tuvalu Uganda, Republic of Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom of Great Britain & N. Ireland Uruguay, Eastern Republic of Uzbekistan Vanuatu Venezuela, Bolivarian Republic of Viet Nam, Socialist Republic of Wallis and Futuna Islands Western Sahara Yemen Zambia, Republic of ZimbabweCoca-Cola India Pvt Ltd said on Friday it is looking to launch Thums Up  India's best selling carbonated beverage  globally, starting with neighbouring countries Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Bhutan and Nepal, by the end of March. "We are all set to take Thums Up to other parts of South Asia possibly by March 2018," Coca-Cola India and South West Asia president T Krishnakumar told newspersons in Kolkata. Thums Up is also the company's first Indian brand that will become a $1-billion brand much before the targeted timeline of 2020, company officials said. Thums Up is a 40 year-old brand which has been with the US beverage major for the past 26 years. In 1993, Coca-Cola bought Thums Up from Parle Bisleri Ltd. Coca-Cola has 40 brands in India including Thums Up and Thums Up Charged. Launched in 1977 by Parle Agro Pvt Ltd when The Coca-Cola Co was forced out of India by the then government, Thums Up quickly became India's biggest cola brand, trumping competitors such as Campa Cola and Double Seven. In 1993, Coca-Cola returned to India and acquired the rights to Thums Up along with other Parle Agro brands such as Gold Spot and Mazaa, to take on global rival Pepsi. Over the past quarter of a century, revenue from Thums Up has scaled up to around Rs6,000 crore and it is now poised to become a $1 billion brand, joining other Coca-Cola brands of that scale such as Fanta and Georgia, said Krishnakumar. Fruit beverage Mazaa, also acquired from Parle Agro, is also expected to become a $1-billion brand by 2023, according to Krishnakumar. Bangladesh will be the first overseas market where Thums Up will be launched, according to a spokesperson for Coca-Cola India. Last year, a study was conducted in these target markets and it was found that consumers in these countries had a similar taste for strong foods and beverages, he said, adding that if Thums Up - with the tagline 'Taste the thunder'' - worked in India, it would work in these countries as well. The product will be manufactured and marketed locally, said Krishnakumar. ''It is a pretty serious move for us,'' he said. Coca-Cola India will ''market and create equity'' for Thums Up in the new overseas markets, he added. India is currently the sixth biggest market for The Coca-Cola Co, said John Murphy, president for the Asia-Pacific region. India is set to overtake Japan within the next two years and become the fifth largest, he added. In India, the US cola giant is pushing for growth in sales of its fruit beverages such as Minute Maid. The company will launch frozen desserts under the Minute Maid brand in India this summer, Murphy said. Although Coca-Cola India has in recent times faced some headwinds thanks to sweetened carbonated drinks getting a bad health rap, ''broader trends remain very optimistic'', Murphy added.







iStock/Thinkstock(HONOLULU) -- The Hawaii Emergency Management Agency employee who mistakenly sent out a mobile alert warning of an incoming ballistic missile said he "was 100 percent sure it was real."



The man, who has asked to remain anonymous, told ABC News, "I did what I was trained to do" by "making the selection to notify the public."



He said, "I heard the middle of the message and the end of it," which he said announced, "This is not a drill."



"I didn't hear the word 'exercise,'" he said. "I was convinced it was real."



It was a "terrible feeling" to learn it was false, he said, adding that he was "very emotional afterward."



"We all did our best to try to remedy the situation," he said.



The last few weeks have been "utter hell," he added. "Death threats, they've been coming into the agency. ... I've been very worried about my safety and the safety of my family."



The erroneous alert sent to the cellphones of Hawaiians on January 13 resulted in panic across the state, including people abandoning their vehicles on the highway. A video of a man putting his child in a manhole went viral.



About 10 minutes after the initial alert, the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency (HI-EMA) tweeted there was no threat.



But HI-EMA didn't send a retraction to cellphones until 38 minutes after the original alert.



That day, while logging into his workstation, "we received a call," he said. "I dont hear the beginning of the message coming across because what were supposed to do is hit speakerphone on the line so everyone can hear the message. So the beginning of the message was lost as far as [hearing the warning] 'exercise'.



"In the middle of the message it said, 'This is not a drill,' and at the end, I didnt hear exercise either," he said. "It was rather chaotic in the office as far as we were just coming on shift during shift change. Logging onto our computers here. We were not ready for the call.



"Immediately afterward, I was very emotional about what happened and just assisted my team as best I could," he said.



The employee, who has since been terminated, said he worked at the Hawaii agency for 11.5 years.



The message "was very real to me," he said, adding he was "100 percent sure it was the right decision based on the message."



Asked if he would do anything differently, he said, "It's hard to say."



"I've learned from it," he said. "I feel a lot of guilt."



He said he empathizes with the families impacted and said he hasn't been able to sleep or eat very well.



A preliminary federal report found at least two previous incidents in 10 years with that employee during which he confused a drill with a real-world situation, officials said Tuesday.



The employee said today that "that's not true."



He added that he thinks the "military should handle this job - missile notifications for Hawaii. I don't think were equipped to do it."



Two more employees have resigned, including the administrator of HI-EMA; a third employee will be suspended without pay, an official said Tuesday.

Copyright  2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.Model Miranda Vee has accused Mohamed Hadid and Paul Marciano of date rape and sexual assault. Vee took to her social media to make the accusation where she elaborated she was accosted at the Guess headquarters by the two moguls.

Vee Speaks Out

The 23-year-old model accused the real-estate developer of giving her a date rape drug and sexually assaulting her.

"Thank you @kateupton it is time people like @paulmarciano & @mohamedhadid get exposed for who they really are! I met with paul at his @guess headquarters that is actually a[n] apartment where he sexually harassed me & after that passed me on to his friend [Mohamed] who was going to meet me for 'coffee,'" Vee captioned the post.

Vee continued that she was blackmailed by Hadid into staying silent and was also threatened that her career would be over.

"LAST year when I tr[i]ed (sic) to speak out about it they found out & made me sign a NON-disclosure agreement & I only agreed to sign because paul threatened me & said he would get me disappeared if I ever say anything," Vee added. "#TIMESUP Why should we have to stay quiet because they have the power? #METOO.," she continued.

Hadid responded to Vee's claims and said that her story was "outrageous" and "totally untrue." Hadid also stated to TMZ that he only met the model once and did not touch her. The 69-year-old tycoon was married to The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star, Yolanda Hadid, with whom has three children, Gigi, Bella, and Anwar. Gigi and Bella are models and Gigi was previously the face for Guess.

Hadid has been engaged to Shiva Safai, who is 33 years his junior and appeared on Second Wives Club.

Vee's claims follow model Kate Upton's accusations against Marciano of sexual assault. Upton alleged that Marciano used his power to "sexually and emotionally" women. After Upton came forward, more women spoke out against Marciano.

Since September 2017, a plethora of powerful men in Hollywood have been accused of sexual misconduct. After producer and movie mogul, Harvey Weinstein was accused by over 80 women of sexual assault, rape, and misconduct, other men have also been outed for alleged sexual crimes.Rose McGowan, the most vocal out of all of Harvey Weinstein's accusers, has revealed another man in Hollywood who allegedly sexually abused her. The actress recently spoke with journalist Ronan Farrow, to whom she opened up about her accusations against Weinstein and the other man who took advantage of her.

Rose's Fight Continues

During the 90-minute interview, McGowan recalled the incident in which she was molested by a powerful man in Hollywood. McGowan stated that at that time, she was 15 years old and wasn't even aware that she had been sexually assaulted.

"This man picked me up when I was 15 years old. He took me home after he met me and he showed me a soft porn movie he had made for Showtime, under a different name. And then he had sex with me," McGowan stated.

McGowan did not name the attacker, however she did state that it wasn't until after Farrow's story broke out about Weinstein that McGowan realized she was molested by that man,

"That creep did this to a 15-year-old. It was not until two weeks after your story broke -- our story, our world's story -- that I was in bed and I started saying, 'Oh my god. I think that's molestation," she continued.

McGowan ended the interview by stating that she is just not defending herself but also speaking for those who have endured abuse in their lives.

"I survived. I have had to protect myself. I live between worlds, not in yours and not in theirs. There is no soft spot right now. There is no soft space to land."

The actress has made several guest appearances in television shows including The View and The Tonight Show with Stephen Colbert, where she elaborated more on the abuse she suffered from Weinstein and promoted her new book, Brave, and her latest docu-series, Citizen Rose.

McGowan has also spoken against her former Charmed co-star, Alyssa Milano, for her relationship with Weinstein's ex-wife, Georgina Chapman, and slammed the #MeToo movement.

The Scream star also spoke out against Weinstein's latest ploy to try and debunk her allegation by using an email from actor Ben Affleck and her former manager, who both allegedly claim they had no recollection of McGowan's accusations.

Farrow is the son of Mia Farrow and Woody Allen. Allen is also currently facing a sexual abuse allegation from his adopted daughter, Dylan Farrow. Allen and Farrow have been estranged for years.Nicole Eggert is challenging Scott Baio right back! The actress was spotted out and about when she was asked about Baio's threat against her during his interview with Good Morning America.

Eggert apparently took a harsher aim at Baio.

"Come Clean, Scott"

Eggert is not refuting her claims but rather urging Baio to come clean for the sake of his daughter. The actress stated to TMZ that she may be talking to the cops sometime soon and also cryptically hinted that someone else from Charles in Charge may also have an accusation against him.

The ongoing war of words between the two began when Eggert responded to a tweet from another user who questioned Baio's undying loyalty to President Donald Trump.

Ask @scottbaio what happened in his garage at his house when I was a minor. Creep. https://t.co/YrQydBKd0a  Nicole Eggert (@NicoleEggert) January 27, 2018

Following this, Eggert made several follow-up tweets where she claimed Baio repeatedly molested her during the production of Charles in Charge. The actress alleged the abuse began at the age of 14 and lasted until she was 17. The Baywatch actress visited the Megyn Kelly Today show where she elaborated that others on set were aware of Baio's behavior.

Baio appeared on Good Morning America where he vehemently denied the allegation from Eggert. Baio stated that he wanted to appear on the show to defend himself and spare his daughter the humiliation she may endure at school.

"So how any of this could've happened is absolutely impossible, and I don't know how anybody can believe what she's saying when her first allegation of having sex when we were 17 had been proved to be 100 percent false and her story keeps changing," Baio stated.

Baio has been in hot water with various celebrities in the past. The actor defended Trump numerous times during the 2016 Presidential election and also told liberal celebrities to move to Canada if they were unhappy with Trump.

Baio is one of the latest actors who has been accused of sexual misconduct. The allegations began surfacing back in September 2017 after an expose article was written about Harvey Weinstein. Following this, a plethora of men in Hollywood were outed for their past sexual crimes.This item is available in full to subscribers.

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Otherwise, click here to view your options for subscribing.We, on behalf of the Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP), a civil rights organisation, would like to draw your attention to the unjust incarceration of Chandrashekhar Azad Ravan, chief of the Bhim Army, a young and dynamic democratic rights activist. He was arrested by the Uttar Pradesh (UP) police on 9 June 2017. Apart from multiple criminal cases, that we believe are being unjustly foisted on him, the draconian National Security Act (NSA) has also been slapped on him since November 2017.

We have learnt that through a shocking order passed on 23 January, the UP government has extended application of the NSA under Section 12(1) of the said act. His detention has been extended for a period of six months starting on 2 November 2017 implying that he will be detained till May 2018. The order says that after consideration of all material on board and the advise of the advisory board (detentions) of the government the period of detention is being extended tentatively.

It must be noted that this order comes at a time when he has already obtained bail in other cases against him in January 2018 itself and was about to be freed.

We are also afraid that his life is in danger as communicated to Pradeep Narwal, National Convenor of the Bhim Army Defence Committee. If anything happens to his health, the UP government apart from the other signatories of the order, namely the UP state and the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), Government of India will be held responsible.

On 5 May 2017, anti-Dalit violence broke out in Shabbirpur and Rampur villages when the Dalit community protested against a Shobha Yatra initiated by the Thakur community members to commemorate Maharana Prataps birth anniversary. The Dalits alleged that there was no permission for the said yatra. In this incident 60 Dalit houses were burnt.

On 9 May 2017, mob violence broke out in Shabbirpur village when the police lathi-charged a group of peaceful protesters who had assembled in Gandhi Maidan under the leadership of the Bhim Army. Several people were grievously injured in the attacks. While the violence that followed the unprecedented lathi charge was of course condemnable, it is important to note that no one was killed or even seriously injured in this violence. This violence has led to a calculated witch-hunt against Bhim Army activists across Saharanpur. In fact given how Azad was already in custody when charges under NSA were brought against him, it appears that the move was just to prevent him from being released.

There was absolutely nothing in the nature of the protests that could have warranted the slapping of NSA as noted by a group of senior judges and civil rights activists in the communication dated 13 May 2017.

The NSA, that gives extraordinary powers to the central and state governments to detain certain persons under Sections 3(1)(a), (b); 3(2), (3), (4), (5) if there is a threat to the national security or the security of the state, warrants careful usage and application on reasonable grounds.

In Azads case, there are reasons to believe that he is not a threat to the security of the state, but simply asserting his democratic and constitutional rights as a citizen. In fact, here it is important to take note of the exemplary work which was being carried out by the Bhim Army under his leadership. The Bhim Army has been working for the education of poor and disenfranchised Dalit children, opening 350 schools that were forcibly thereafter shut down in the past nine months. Two such schools are still being valiantly run in Azads home village of Shabbirpur in UP.

In light of the above facts, we demand that all charges against him under the NSA be dropped immediately and that he be released on bail. We also urge you to take urgent cognisance of his deteriorating health.

Yours sincerely,

Justice P B Sawant (retired Supreme Court judge);

Justice B G Kolse Patil (retired high court judge);

Justice Hosbet Suresh (retired high court judge);

Teesta Setalvad, secretary, CJP;

Pradeep Narwal (convenor, Bhim Army Defence Committee);

Ram Punyani, author and activist;

Javed Anand, journalist and activist, CJP;

Muniza Khan, academic and activist;

Khalid Anis Ansari, professor, Glocal University, SaharanpurNo state government in Karnataka has been re-elected since 1985. Some of the six governments rejected by voters over the last 32 years had performed reasonably well, but faced ouster nonetheless. This grim reality casts doubt on the outlook for any ruling party in the state, including the current Congress government led by Siddaramaiah and which will face the polls before May 2018. Despite some solid achievements, it has encountered severe problems, not the least being three and sometimes four years of drought in different parts of the state.

The Congress also faces a challenge from a party with great political momentum. The Bharatiya Janata Partys (BJP) victory in the Uttar Pradesh state election and its subsequent inclusion in the ruling coalition in Bihar lead many to see it as unstoppable. But Karnataka has its own distinctive political logic, and recent tests of opinion give the Congress a lead. So here, with the help of several valuable surveys and analyses, is a guide to current trends, issues and uncertainties.

Recent Tests of Opinion

Two recent indications of the popular mood are both encouraging for the Congress. First, in February 2016, it outperformed rivals in the zilla panchayat elections (Table 1).

Congress gained over two million more votes than the BJP. It came first or second in over 90% of the contests, as against the BJP in 70% of the seats. It was helped in the southern districts by a decline in the Janata Dal (Secular)JD(S)vote share from 20.09% in the 2013 state elections (Mohit Rao 2016). Second, an opinion survey conducted by C fore, again showing a solid Congress lead emerged in August 2017. The BJP claimed that it had been undertaken for the chief ministers office. However, the survey was apparently commissioned by a Kannada television channel with links to the BJP and that refused to broadcast the results after seeing the numbers. The results then found their way to other outlets. C fores founder has served as a member of the chief ministers vision group, but the Congress did not organise the poll. Its detailed findings for the state assembly of 224 seats are shown in Table 2.1

A little caution would be in order here. Any extrapolation of seat totals from vote shares is prone to error. The large numbers of seats predicted for the Congress in two regions is open to doubt. In Bengaluru, it won only 11 seats in the last election of 2013, and the Congress (with JD[S] support) holds power in the municipal corporation. Its large projected lead over the BJP in HyderabadKarnataka (located in northeast Karnataka) is also questionable, although a secretary of the All India Congress Committee from the region is an effective operator who may be able to counter formidable BJP leaders there.2

C fores record in earlier elections has been good. However, polls conducted by the Congress show 9095 seats in its favour as against 8085 for the BJP,3 thus indicating that the ruling partys lead is not insurmountable. These figures were reconfirmed when BJP President Amit Shah scornfully informed BJP colleagues that they would currently lose, with only 80 seatsbased on private pollingwhile his target is 150. State BJP leaders were offended by his harsh personal attacks on many of them, including a former deputy chief minister, a Member of Parliament (MP), leaders of the party youth and womens wings, and party district presidents. Shah even pulled up another former deputy chief minister for not taking notes on his comments.4 He stressed his potentially accurate belief that hard work over the eight or nine months before voting could retrieve the situation.

Congress Campaign Strategy

At the coming election, the Congress will not suffer from certain disabilities that have crippled it in several other states as also in Karnataka during previous elections. Unlike the Congress in Haryana under Bhupinder Singh Hooda, it has not been weakened by a chief minister who diverted vast resources to cultivate a constituency for his son. It is less vulnerable to a charge that damaged it in Uttar Pradeshthat the caste of the chief minister (whose party was an election ally) had been excessively favoured. Siddaramaiahs programmes have benefited a broader array of disadvantaged groups. The Congress organisation in Karnataka is in far better shape than the terrible, terrible mess discovered in Uttar Pradesh by a senior party strategist.5

The Congress in Karnataka no longer faces the ghastly problems that afflicted it in 200809 and were described thus: utter disarray, (a) string of defections, poor choices of candidates, incessant infighting, and total confusion in the ranks (Shastri and Devi 2014: 464). As in other states, factions flourish,6 but the high command has strongly backed Siddaramaiahminimising the problem. The party is prepared to resist any efforts by the BJP to bribe key district-level Congress operatives to remain inactive. In 2008, the BJP distributed massive illicit funds from the mining lobby to neutralise 24 such people. The Congress will not be damaged by a politically inept election in-charge like Prithviraj Chavan whose bungling allowed a winnable state election to slip away in 2008 (Manor 2008). This time around, Kerala MP K C Venugopal, respected by most state Congress leaders will be the election incharge for the party. He is backed by Rahul Gandhi and is seen by most to be shrewd and well informed, even though he knows little of the states subtleties. The Congresss fund-raising has taken a severe hit due to the obvious fact of it being out of power in almost all major states. The BJP has, in any case, far more money to spend on campaigning. But this factor will not decide the election. Parties with less money have won a large majority of elections in Karnatakaand in Indiasince the early 1980s.

The BJP and Its Themes

The Congress victory in 2013 owed much to a three-way split in the BJP. Former Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa formed his own party which took away Lingayat votes from the BJP. Another formidable defector with influence in the HyderabadKarnataka region also formed a rival party. The split cost the BJP approximately 36 seats many of which were lost to the Congress by narrow margins. Both rebels have now rejoined the BJP, and their combined appeal could regain many seats in central, Bombay Karnataka and HyderabadKarnataka regions although the C fore survey and private polls by both main parties appear encouraging for the Congress except in the Bombay Karnataka region.

Some BJP senior leaders complain about their leaders failure to highlight failings of the Congress government. Embarrassing revelations were instead unearthed by H D Kumaraswamy of the JD(S) who pointed to a diamond encrusted watch worth 70 lakh gifted to Siddaramaiah by a friend and which the former handed over to the speaker of the state assembly to be treated as a state asset. Kumaraswamy also accused the chief minister of wearing shoes costing over 70,000.

Many in the BJP also bitterly resent their national leaders choice of Yeddyurappa as the chief ministerial candidate,7 and several rumours discrediting him have been doing the rounds. One perceptive analyst locates Yeddyurappas main adversaries in the BJP rather than the Congress.8 The complaints in the BJP about his autocratic ways are decades old (Manor 2011). He has not heeded instructions from national leaders and reverted to type, for example, by insisting that supporters observe his birthday. This may well erode many activists commitment during the campaign.

The BJPs organisation in Karnataka is arguably less extensive and strong than that of the Congress. It finds it difficult to penetrate beyond a small coastal region, large urban centres and the district level into rural constituencies that will largely decide the election. Amit Shah has ordered the formation of nine-member committees for all the 66,000 polling booths and it is possible that party activists resentment of Yeddyurappa may undermine the instruction.9 Senior Congress leaders have pledged to visit every booth, but despite having more personnel, the party is not as well coordinated as the BJP. Shah has also ordered detailed dossiers on every constituency though this has for long been a common BJP practice not only in Karnataka but also other states.10 The party will not be able to reinforce its efforts by drawing upon the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) cadres from other states because a majority of them would be unable to speak in Kannada. This forces the party to rely mainly on its local organisation. However, one of Shahs other ideasthat each of the BJPs one crore members in the state reach three others holds promise.

Yeddyurappa is systematically visiting a huge number of localities. That may pay dividends despite the embarrassment caused by the controversy when it was found that the food he ate in 33 Dalit homes had been supplied from outside. He is also cultivating certain backward castes and encouraging caste associations among them, seeking to draw them away from Siddaramaiahs AHINDA (Kannada acronym for backward castes, Muslims and Dalits) coalition. He has promised to help them by lifting the cap on reservations to take them above 50%. (Siddaramaiah responded with a similar promise, although both know that court rulings will prevent that.) Another BJP leader from the same Kuruba (shepherd) caste as Siddaramaiah, former deputy chief minister K S Eshwarappa, has created an organisation that also courts backward castes going against Yeddyurappas express instructions not to do so. But since Eshwarappa seeks to challenge not just the Congress but also Yeddyurappa, this may produce as much disarray as benefit for the BJP (Qureshi 2016).

It is clear that the BJP is struggling to find a winning election narrative. During a visit to Karnataka, Shah declared that the main issues for the campaign would be decided by him, from above, on the advice of a team of 11 national-level aides. This would not include Karnataka BJP activists who understand the subtleties of the states politics, as an unhappy senior state BJP leader pointed out. This was consistent with his disastrously over-centralised management of the Bihar state election campaign in which the BJP threw away an early lead. The BJP leaders there complained angrily that Shah and Modi did not listen to their views (Manor 2016). As one of Shahs close confidants in New Delhi had said at the time, Amit goes into meetings with his mind made up.11

Campaign Themes

Shah has announced three key campaign themes: the state governments alleged misuse of central government funds; the massive corruption it has indulged in; and communal polarisation. Many BJP leaders in Karnataka recognise that this is an unpromising agenda.

The first theme enables Siddaramaiah to re-emphasise a favourite complaint: that the centre has underfunded his government, providing 10,000 crore less than its share under the finance commission rules. He stresses the politically sensitive shortfall for drought relief. Siddaramaiah is also well armed with detailed statistics to show that funds have not been misused. He has presented 15 state budgetssome as finance minister in earlier governmentsand is rather adroit at explaining quantitative data in compelling terms. As opposition leader, his arguments in budget debates were so perceptive that government ministers actually took notes as he spoke. He has already torn apart the BJPs claim about the misuse of funds with persuasive rebuttals.

The BJP may make more headway with allegations of corruption, but here too there is a major problem. One survey of 20 states found that Karnataka was the worst case: 77% of households experienced corruption in accessing public servicesthat is (worryingly for Congress), petty bribery which affects them directly. But the survey may not be reliable: the sample was perilously small an average of 150 households per state, and it was conducted in only two districts in many states (Centre for Media Studies 2017: 4). Karnataka also ranked first among 19 states in a similar study in 2009 when the BJP was in power (Bhaskar Rao and Srivastava 2010: 6). The present government has not faced major scandalsin contrast to the multiple and prolonged controversies that engulfed the previous BJP regime under eddyurappa, the first chief minister to be jailed. Siddaramaiah has hit back resoundingly at Shah, saying that he has no moral right to make this claim when the corrupt are sitting next to him. That reply came before a report emerged suggesting that Shahs son had made huge financial gains since the BJP took power in 2014 (Singh 2017).

Shahs third theme, communal polarisation, also lacks promise. It has never produced a popular response in Karnataka, except in the small coastal region and certain other minor pockets. On the coast, where the right has recently pushed hard Hindutva, it backfired at the last state election. Under the previous BJP government, communal riots took place  with unusual frequency and ferocity  Muslim boys were assaulted merely for talking to Hindu girls. Extremists stormed a pub where young women were slapped, beaten and chased out for violating Hindu culture and tradition by drinking publicly. Indiscriminate looting and atrocities against minorities were the order of the day (Jha 2017: 9697 and 100). In the 2013 election on the coast, a longtime BJP stronghold, voters reacted against these outrages and against an aggressively communal campaign speech there by Modigiving rival candidates 14 of the 17 seats (Manor 2013).12 Shah has either overlooked that episode, or he believes that communal polarisation is important enough to risk a backlash.

There are other signs that polarisation will find little traction. The ideas of Basaveshwara, an iconic historical figure for Lingayats who form the core of the BJPs base, do not lend themselves to communalism. That partly explains why Yeddyurappaa Lingayat leaderhas tended to downplay hard Hindutva. Even the RSS knows that it will alienate Lingayats in the BJPs Bombay Karnataka bastion, and has practised restraint there.13 Attempts to whip up anti-Muslim sentiments away from the coast, in Hubli and at a disputed shrine in Chikmagalur district, have generated little enthusiasm.

More clues to the appeal of BJP themes emerge the shrewdly crafted survey by Lokniti conducted in Karnataka plus Gujarat, Haryana and Odisha (hereafter, Loknitis 2017 survey). Some findings will be discouraging for Hindu nationalists. Half of the (mainly Hindu) Karnataka respondents reported having a Muslim as a close friend as compared to only one-third respondents in other states. Considerably, fewer respondents in Karnataka than elsewhere believe that Hindus are more patriotic than minorities, or that Muslims are mostly violent. Respondents in Karnataka were somewhat more libertarian than in the other states in attitudes to freedom of expression. On the other hand, 80% in the state voiced majoritarian views on issues linked to nationalism.

Despite uncertainty about the appeal of Hindu nationalist themes, hard-line rightists have been given prominence in the BJPs election preparations. B L Santosh, an RSS leader, will have great influence over candidate selection to the dismay of Yeddyurappa. This is partly the result of the partys national leaders distrust of Yeddyurappa who failed to cover his tracks in allegedly illicit land deals as chief minister and who, when he was ousted, denounced them and left the party. The recent surprise appointment as union minister of Anant Kumar Hegde who has had a case registered against him for incendiary comments about Islam reinforces the impression that polarisation will play a big part. The choice of Prakash Javadekar, who hails from Pune and has always been a member of the upper house with little experience of election management, is another sore point for Yeddyurappa. According to a perceptive political analyst from that city, Javadekar is not known for tactical expertise. His main qualification for the role may be his close ties to core RSS sections.14

The emphasis by Modi and Shah on communal themes in the Bihar election backfired. As one BJP leader said, Bihar is not Uttar Pradesh (Pushkarna 2015). Nor is Karnataka.

One crucial unknown factor is the potential impact of Modis campaigning in 2018. At the 2013 state election, he gave two speeches. He was then little known in Karnataka, so state BJP leaders who were worried about embarrassingly low turnouts scheduled one meeting in a hall in Bengaluru where the party has many supporters. The hall was full, but his second speech in a modest open area on the coast, capable of accommodating 50,000, drew a mere 5,000. In 2018, however, the turnout will not pose a problem, and stirring speeches from a popular Prime Minister may make a major difference.

Siddaramaiahs response to Modi will be modelled on that of Ramakrishna Hegde in the 1985 state election campaign when Rajiv Gandhi addressed enormous crowds soon after his landslide victory in the national election. Hegde repeatedly said that whatever the result of the state election, Rajiv Gandhi would certainly not be chief minister. The unstated message then was that the widely disliked Gundu Rao would take power. In that state election, just nine weeks after Gandhi had swept Karnatakas Lok Sabha elections, 105 out of 224 assembly segments swung towards Hegdes party which won an astounding victory (Raghavan and Manor 2009: 187200). The unstated message in 2018 will be that if the BJP wins, the bumbling, scandal-ridden Yeddyurappaand not Modiwill become chief minister.

The Janata Dal (Secular)

A familiar wild card in Karnataka elections is the JD(S), led by former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda and his son (and former chief minister) H D Kumaraswamy. It has far less money to spend than either the BJP or Congress, but has shown that it can win seats without lavish funds thanks to its networks among the Vokkaligas. The community dominates the belt running south and southwest from rural Bengaluru district. It won 40 seats at the 2013 state election, and it hopes for 35 to 40 in 2018, to hold the balance of power in a hung assembly.

That will be a challenge. Siddaramaiah is also popular there and it is his home region. Congress won two by-elections in the far south in April 2017, enhancing its victory margins from 2013. The JD(S) was so unsure of its prospects, even in these southern districts where Vokkaligas are numerically strong, that it boycotted both contests. The Congress won despite the campaigning by former Chief Minister S M Krishna, a Vokkaliga leader who had joined the BJP. The Congress also showed that it can defeat the BJP even in a constituency where Lingayats have a dominant presence. Siddaramaiahs pro-poor policies appear, against initial expectations, to have attracted significant Dalit support (Narayana 2017).

In 201415, the JD(S) was in crisis. Kumaraswamys wife lost the elections first, to the state assembly and later to Parliament. When he also failed to win a parliamentary seat, he spoke of quitting politics. The party also faced serious dissension. The Congress, however, failed to seize this opportunity to cultivate the Vokkaligas, and since then the JD(S) has managed to recover some ground.

It has suffered defections by eight legislators who were impatient with the aloof leadership of Kumaraswamy. One defector has since returned to the JD(S), but seven will probably get Congress tickets, and three or four will probably be re-elected. In a tight election, that could be important.

If the JD(S) wrests seats from the Congress in the southern districts, it will benefit the BJP, which is a minor player in the rural constituencies there. But one BJP tactic may backfire by helping the Congress against the JD(S). Raids by the income tax department (controlled by the central government) on a leading Congress Vokkaliga, B K Shivakumarwho was targeted by the BJP as an example to support allegations of corruption in the state governmentcould trigger a sympathy vote for the Congress from the Vokkaligas.

Electoral Implications

For much of its first three years in power, the state government tended to drift. The chief minister was called Niddaramaiah, a Kannada pun on his name suggesting a sleepy leader. At times, he was even seen to doze. The impression created is summed up in the title of an article by an eminent journalist: That Dull Drone from Bangalore (Qureshi 2015).

Actually, Siddaramaiah was suffering from sleep apnea, for which he was treated successfully. The last two years have seen much more dynamism. But even in that early phase, the government mounted numerous initiatives to benefit disadvantaged groups which provided its main base under the AHINDA strategy: backward castes, Dalits, Muslims, and Adivasis. Most notable was the Anna Bhagya programme to provide heavily subsidised food to poor families. A massive 79% of respondents to a 2017 survey cited it as the best government schemewhich indicates approval for it far beyond the groups who gain from it (C fore 2017: 10). If the Congress reminds people that the BJP opposed the Anna Bhagya, it may resonate with voters.

During the last two years the amount of foodgrains provided under the Anna Bhagya has been increased, and schoolchildren are supplied with milk for five days per week as compared to the three days earlier. Anna canteens offering meals at 10 to all comers have been inaugurated, as has a new scheme to aid pregnant and lactating mothers during the six months before and after childbirth, which includes medical check-ups and inoculations. Another new programme named for Kempe Gowda, a Vokkaliga icon, may wean some of them away from the JD(S). An agricultural loan waiver in mid-2017 has eased, at least somewhat, the plight of drought-affected farmers.

The Congress hopes that the loan waiver, plus the impact of Article 371J of the Constitution which gives Hyderabad Karnataka special status, will strengthen its chances in that region. The article has increased the flow of development funds and provides local residents with reservations in government employment and education. The Congress leader from there, Mallikarjun Kharge (now Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha), played a key role in passing it in 2012. That may enable gains for the party there, partly because in contrast to the BJP bastion of Bombay Karnataka, cooperative societies are not dominated by the Lingayats.

Alongside social programmes, the state government managed to gain more industrial investments in 2016 than any other state.

Rising revenues have enabled the state government to commit substantial resources to social programmes, the loan waiver, etc, without incurring a fiscal crisis. But as one Karnataka minister noted, the Gehlot (Congress) government in Rajasthan had spent heavily on social programmes and still lost.15

He may be too pessimistic. Loknitis 2017 survey found that 96% of respondents were aware of government programmes. This figure was higher than that in Gujarat, Haryana and Odisha, although the average across all four was 90%. The percentages of respondents who were self-reported beneficiaries of pension and employment schemes, and of agricultural policies, were much higher than in the other three states. In Karnataka, 70% reported ease of access to five public services, well above the average of 58% for the four states. And 48%a far higher proportion than in the other statesregarded the state government as strongly liberal in its response to protests against state actions to acquire land.

Again, in April 2017, a survey among workers in the unorganised sectordisadvantaged groupsgauged their awareness of and access to social security benefits provided through the state government. It focused on rural dwellers who will probably decide the result of the forthcoming election. It found that the Dalits and OBCs were nearly as aware as the landed castes of social security programmes, and that their awareness of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), which the state government had strongly promoted amid drought, was quite high. Most households had gained access to between one and three schemes. Large numbers of Dalits availed themselves of pensions, scholarships and health provisions. Overall, the state governments targeting of 15 social programmes had made a significant material difference to disadvantaged households.16

Third and perhaps most tellingly, the findings of the C fore survey reveal broad popular approval for the governments performance. Of the total, 18% respondents were extremely satisfied and 53% were somewhat satisfied against 29% who were not satisfied. When recent Karnataka governments were compared, 44% said that Siddaramaiahs government was functioning better, compared to 28% who named the previous BJP government and 18% who pointed to an earlier government headed by the JD(S). Similarly, when asked whom they preferred as chief minister, the figures were 46% for Siddaramaiah (Congress), 27% for Yeddyurappa (BJP), and 17% for H D Kumaraswamy (JD[S]) (C fore 2017: 7 and 910).

The long recent drought could undo these approval ratings. In 201617, for example, the southwest monsoon was deficient by 18%, and the northeast by 71% (Maramkal 2017). To make matters worse, in 2016 the state government was forced by a decision at the national level to release river waters to Tamil Nadu and thus, for the first time to deny farmers in southern districts water that was crucial for their crops.

The Karnataka authorities did all that they could to ease what threatened to be an agricultural and political disaster. Strenuous efforts were made to provide drinking water and water for cattle. A new system was inaugurated to transfer funds swiftly to farmers, and in mid-2017, loan repayments of 2.24 million farmers were waived.

The state government also sought, throughout its tenure, to maximise the impact of the MGNREGA. That effort was undercut at first, after 79 gram panchayat development officers were suspended leading to a go slow. But after 2015, the pace quickened. Four districts won national prizes for implementing the programme. In 2016, many water conservation works were completed, easing the agony in 2017 amid another poor monsoon. The authorities also worked hardunusually for a state government to inform the rural poor of their rights under the MGNREGA, and from 2016 onward, there was a huge increase in uptake on the scheme (Pattenden 2017).

The governments performance may help in its attempt to gain substantial votes from Dalits (16.2% of the population) but it faces a major problem. Dalits (like all castes in South India) are split ritually between left and right hand groups. Congress is well placed with the latter, but the left Dalits have recently backed the BJP, and they have great numerical strength in northern districts where the election may be decided.

Three things may enable Congress to gain enough left Dalit votes to defeat the BJP. First, many have gained from Siddaramaiahs social programmes and the MGNREGA. Second, the state government has dealt adroitly with the left Dalit demands for reservations internal to the Scheduled Caste (SC) category. Third, a little noted change was stressed by a very knowledgeable Dalit source. The pursuit of the beef issue by national BJP leaders, and consequent attacks on Dalits in Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh (plus a similar atrocity in Karnatakas Chikmagalur district) are well known and deeply resented by both right and left Dalits in the state.

Social Media

Well-informed observers argue that social media is widely followed even in rural areas where the election will be decided, and that it could influence the outcome. The BJP and allied organisations have a strong social media presence. Worried Congress organisers are struggling to play catch-up. They are confident that they can rival the Hindu right on Facebook and Twitter, but they are especially concerned about WhatsApp, where the right has 24,000 groups and where fake news and scurrilous comments flourish. False rumours on WhatsApp seriously undermined government inoculation campaigns in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu (Rao and Govindarajan 2017). Congress activists cite cases in which Hindutva zealots draw many participants into WhatsApp groups by beginning discussions on popular film stars, but then go on to inject misrepresentations and attacks on Congress into the mix. Congress is seeking to infiltrate such groups and to challenge these views, but this is

extremely challenging.17

Promoting Regional Identity

The phenomenon of regional identity in Karnataka has not loomed as large as in some other states, but Siddaramaiah has seized upon a number of issues in an attempt to inspire a sense of regional solidarity. This is intended to serve multiple purposes. It may become a counterweight to the BJPs hyper-nationalism. It may undercut support for the JD(S) which has stressed similar themes. It also reinforces the chief ministers effort to deflect blame onto the central government for denying the state adequate funds and for forcing it to divert its river waters to Tamil Nadu, which has brought excruciating hardship amid drought to Karnatakas farmers.

Siddaramaiah has formed a panel to consider adopting a flag for the state, something that Kannada enthusiasts have been agitating. This triggered apoplectic protests about insults to Indias tricolour from bellowing commentators on television news channels. But within Karnataka their fulminations appear to have strengthened popular support for such a flag and put the BJP onto the back foot. The chief minister dared BJP leaders to oppose the flag, and all but one has remained silent.

He has also backed efforts to promote the use of Kannada and to downgrade Hindi. Siddaramaiah is a logical champion of this cause since, as a minister in Hegdes government in the 1980s, he headed the Kannada watchdog committee. He has spoken forcefully in defence of Kannada, and the recent blacking out of Hindi signs on the Bengaluru Metro by agitators has been officially endorsed. Some observers expect this issue to gain traction mainly in the state capital, but Loknitis 2017 survey of four states contains one surprise, which suggests that it may resonate more widely. The preference in Karnataka for the use of the regional language in public spaces was astoundingly high at 85%much higher than in Gujarat, Haryana and Odisha. Support was especially strong in rural areas, although it also found respondents comfortable with their national identity.

These issues conveniently dovetail with Siddaramaiahs frequent arguments that New Delhi has treated Karnataka unfairly over river waters, and by providing fewer funds than the state deserves under Finance Commission rules. That theme may cushion Modis impact during the election campaign.

Lingayat/Veerashaiva Controversy

Advocates of a separate religious status (as non-Hindus) for Lingayatswhich might gain them government concessions and reservationshave recently attracted huge crowds to rallies in northern Karnataka. This infuriates the BJP which seeks to include them in its drive for solidarity among Hindus, and which fears a split in this group, its core electoral base. The terms Lingayat and Veerashaiva have often been used interchangeably, but of late, Lingayat complaints have increased about Veerashaivas departing from the ideas of Basaveshwara by ceding ground to certain Hindu ideas.

One cannot go into fine details in this article but it is unfortunate that the clearest guide to these complexities was written (before her murder, discussed below) by the late Gauri Lankesh who contrary to scurrilous suggestions by extreme rightists on social media, was a Lingayat (Lankesh 2017).

What is the potential impact of the Lingayat/Veerashaiva controversy on the state election? Siddaramaiah and his ministers believe that the split might fracture the BJP base, but they also know that an aggressive approach might trigger a backlash among Lingayats. So they have tried to keep the issue alive, but have moderated their stance by, for example, calling for religious leaders to resolve the dispute. This is unlikely because several mainly minor swamijis are committed to it. The heads of most major maths (monasteries) have said

little, although some oppose it openly and BJP leaders have maintained an anxious silence, except for Yeddyurappa who after strangely backing separatism, reversed his stand under pressure from national leaders.

Leading analysts of northern Karnataka believe that the controversy will have little effect on the election results. The separatist religious leaders are only minor figures who lack both a firm base within any Lingayat jati (caste) and the capacity to change voters minds. Common people are mostly unmoved and even if they support separatism, converting that into votes is very difficult. They also argue that voting is mainly shaped by more tangible issues and by politicians actions.18 So while the dispute is inconvenient for the BJP, it is unlikely to cost it large numbers of votes. The best hope for Congress is that some of Siddaramaiahs programmes may have benefited the poorer Lingayats.

Murder of Gauri Lankesh

On 5 September 2017, Gauri Lankesh, a campaigning journalist who had sharply criticised the Hindu right, was gunned down outside her home in Bengaluru. Five suspects from an extremist Hindu organisation, Sanatan Sanstha, are reportedly sought by investigators. The BJP has no associational link to that group, but if these reports prove accurate, they could undermine support for hard Hindutva. Modi has remained strangely silent on the murder, despite an angry outcry, in India and abroad. It has also emerged that a rightist zealot who posted grotesque celebrations of her murder online was, embarrassingly, followed by the Prime Minister on social media. But this is not expected to have much influence on the election outcome.

Uncertainties

Much may change over the coming months, and many questions remain unanswered. Will Siddaramaiahs social programmes attract enough support from disadvantaged groups? Will the BJP damage the Congress by winning over some backward castesa fragmented category, not a solid bloc? Will many ritually left Dalits find enough in those programmes to abandon recent ties to the BJP? Will poorer Vokkaligas and Lingayats who have certainly benefited from those programmes, support the Congress? Will many tactical votes by Muslims (12.2% of the population) go to JD(S) candidates if they appear more likely than the Congress to deny the BJP seats?

Will voters decide that the state governments greater dynamism in the last two years compensate for its earlier listlessness? Will farmers see government efforts to ease drought hardships, like the loan waiver, as inadequate? Which governmentcentral or statewill they blame for the loss of river waters to Tamil Nadu? Will the Lingayat/Veerashaiva controversy confound expectations and cost the BJP votes? Will Siddaramaiahs promotion of a regional identity reach enough rural areas to counter Modis emphasis on nationalism? Will communal polarisation evoke a popular response for the first time in Karnataka? Will the BJP move beyond its current, unpromising set of campaign themes? Will voters focus on state-level leaders, as in 1985, or on Modis campaigning? Will Yeddurappas tainted record cost the BJP votes?

Will efforts to invigorate rival party organisations make progress? Crucially, will parties select attractive candidates? Will infighting within either or both main parties damage them? Will Congress erode the BJPs current advantage in social media, will rightist fake news and wild accusations backfireand will those media influence many votes? Will concerns about Kumaraswamys health prove valid and undermine the JD(S) campaign?

The answers to these questions will determine the election outcome.

Notes

1 These comments are based on the authors interviews in Bengaluru and Mysuru with two senior journalists, one Congress minister and a senior adviser to the chief minister on 20, 23 and 28 August, 2017.

2 This is Satish Jarkiholi. He considered leaving Congress after the chief minister dropped him as a minister, but he relented after a long discussion with Rahul Gandhi who made him an AICC secretary.

3 Interview with a well-informed journalist, Bengaluru, 23 August 2017.

4 Interview with a BJP leader who was present in those meetings, Bengaluru, 26 August 2017.

5 Interview in New Delhi with an advisor to Sonia Gandhi, 18 August 2013.

6 See the comments by Sandeep Shastri and Chandan Gowda in Sukumaran (2016).

7 Four interviews with BJP leaders and activists, Bengaluru, 24 and 25 August 2017.

8 Interview with M B Maramkal, Mysuru, 20 August 2017.

9 Personal interview with senior BJP leader, Bengaluru, 28 August 2017.

10 This writer has seen similar analyses, usually by RSS activists, in previous Karnataka elections andfor examplein Madhya Pradesh at the 2003 election.

11 Interview, New Delhi, 19 November 2015.

12 Polarisation also backfired in UP by-elections in September 2014. The BJP got Yogi Adityanath to make ferocious anti-Muslim speeches, but then lost.

13 Interview with M B Maramkal, Mysuru, 20 August 2017.

14 Private communication, 9 September 2017.

15 Interview, Bengaluru, 28 August 2017.

16 I am grateful to D Rajashekar for this evidence. He led the team at the Institute for Social and Economic Change, Bengaluru. 2,232 households were surveyed in 154 villages in diverse regions of Karnataka.

17 These comments are based on numerous interviews with Congress activists and social scientists, Bengaluru, 1730 August 2017.

18 Interviews with M B Maramkal, Mysuru, 20 August 2017, and (by telephone) with M Madan Mohan, 25 August 2017. Quotations are from Madan Mohan.

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Qureshi, Imran (2015): That Dull Drone from Bangalore, Outlook, 6 April, www.outlookindia.com/magazine/story/that-dull-drone-from-bangalore/293808, accessed on 30 September 2017.

 (2016): Why Ktaka Leaders New OBC-ST/SC Brigade Is Unsettling for Both BJP and Congress, News Minute, 22 August, www.thenewsminute.com/article/why-ktaka-bjp-leaders-new-obc-scst-brigade-unsettling-both-bjp-and-congress-48617, accessed on 29 August 2017.

Raghavan, E and James Manor (2009): Broadening and Deepening Democracy: Political Innovation in Karnataka, New Delhi, London and New York: Routledge.

Rao, Menaka and Vinita Govindarajan (2017): WhatsApp Rumours about Vaccinations Hamper Indias Drive to Halt Measles and Rubella, Scroll.in, 24 February, www.scroll.in/pulse/830129, accessed on 2 October 2017.

Shastri, Sandeep (2016): Two Years and Counting, Deccan Chronicle, 10 April, www.deccanchronicle.com/opinion/op-ed/100416, accessed on 30 September 2017.

Shastri, Sandeep and Veena Devi (2014): Karnataka 20089: BJP Penetrates the South, Party Competition in Indian States: Electoral Politics in Post-Congress Polity, Suhas Palshikar, K C Suri and Yogendra Yadav (eds), New Delhi: Oxford University Press, pp 46380.

Singh, Rohini (2017): The Golden Touch of Jay Amit Shah, Wire, 8 October, thewire.in/185512/amit-shah-narendra-modi-jay-shah-bjp/, accessed on 8 October 2017.

Sukumaran, Ajay (2016): Sidda Clinical Therapy, Outlook, 4 July, www.outlookindia.com/magazine/story/sidda_clinical_therapy/297378,

accessed on 18 September 2017.AUSTIN  Democratic gubernatorial candidate Andrew White owns a company that sells heartbeat technology to find people hiding in vehicles, counting the federal government and the state of Texas among its customers.

The Geovox Security Inc. technology isnt used on the U.S. border, White said, although the company has demonstrated it to the Border Patrol and would happily sell it for that purpose if given the chance.

We sell it to anybody to who has a security need, whether it is a prison or a nuclear facility, a border crossing or a military facility. We sell it all over the world, White told the San Antonio Express-News. We will sell it any time anyone wants to buy it.

Whites business interest helps highlight his position on border security and immigration, one that is more than just a soundbite on an issue that roils the political world.

In that respect, its much like his position on abortion, another high-profile issue in the crowded Democratic primary fight for the nomination to challenge Republican Gov. Greg Abbott.

On abortion, White said he is personally pro-life but wouldnt infringe on womens right to choose the procedure. If governor, he said, he would veto legislation that curbs that right.

On border security, White has told the Express-News he has seen first-hand the effect of insufficient border security through its impact on people who cross without authorization. He said he has found dead bodies on a South Texas hunting lease he has with friends.

At the same time, he said theres no need for a wall along the entire border, and he has advocated for the state pulling back on its $800 million border-security effort. Rather than trying to take over the federal government's job of border security, he said, that money should be redirected to education.

In addition, he backs a pathway to citizenship for law-abiding undocumented immigrants, and said the Dreamers brought to this country without documents when they were children should stay.

And he opposes the anti-sanctuary cities law championed by Abbott, which police chiefs including San Antonios William McManus opposed and which raised fears of profiling by ensuring law officers can ask people they detain about immigration status. The law is being challenged in court.

The Democratic primarys other high-profile candidate, former Dallas County Sheriff Lupe Valdez, hasnt gone into the level of policy detail that White has on a number of issues. But she has appeal to those who want a more progressive stance.

On abortion, she said she wouldnt tell a woman what to do with her body. Regarding immigration policy, Valdez expressed support for Dreamers, opposed the anti-sanctuary-cities measure and while sheriff, tangled publicly with Abbott over her policy of detaining immigrants.

Southern Methodist University political scientist Cal Jillson said its a trouble point for White, who has sought to appeal to moderate voters at a time when some party stalwarts decry what they call a Republican light approach.

The Democratic Party is enamored of Lupe Valdez, who has a Hispanic surname and a more standard set of progressive policy views. Andrew White, who has described himself as a conservative Democratic or a moderate Republican, is struggling to articulate his policy positions in a way he thinks can be acceptable to the Democratic primary electorate, Jillson said.

Given the polarization of our parties and of the primary electorate for both parties, a candidate that might be a good general-election candidate has a lot of trouble getting through the party primary, Jillson said.

White  when asked whether he has concern that being chairman of a company like Geovox Security will work against him in the primary, given the political climate  said his views arent mutually exclusive.

I am for border security and a pathway to citizenship. And Dreamers must stay in this country, he said.

White said he became chairman of Geovox Security after last years death of his father, Democratic former Gov Mark White. The two owned it together for two decades, he said.

The system sold by the company, known as the AVIAN Heartbeat Detector, can detect the presence of people hidden in vehicles by finding the movements of a beating heart, according to the companys website.

The detectors are manufactured in Sugar Land, according to the company. The technology was invented by the federal government, and Geovox Security is its licenseholder.

Were finding people who are being sex trafficked or (are the victims of) human trafficking, White added. Around the world, the system is saving lives.

In the United States, he said, the system is being used at nuclear stockpiles, military facilities and federal prisons.

The Texas Department of Criminal Justice also is a customer, according to state records and the company.

Whites border security views are shaped in part by his first-hand experience. He told the Express-News he has found dead people on his hunting lease. Once, when his mother was alone in their lease house while others were hunting, two immigrant women came to ask her for food and water, he said.

His mother helped the women, he said, and ultimately immigration authorities were called.

They needed help, he said. They actually asked us to call immigration, because they knew they were dying.

White said the plight of immigrants who go around checkpoints only to get dehydrated and disoriented points up the need for action.

Its very, very dangerous, so these are sad but true stories, he said. Its one reason why we do need to have better security along our border because its a dangerous proposition for anyone to come across the border.

White, who also is president of Sweat Equity Partners and chairman of Sweat Energy Services, acknowledged that if he won the Democratic nomination he would have to decide what to do with his business interests.

Id have to look at all of my investments and make those decisions for sure, and I will, he said. I havent analyzed it all to see what the obligations are.

pfikac@express-news.netFriends of a mentally ill woman shot by police last week remembered her as a kind-hearted mother beset with struggles.

Kirsten Kloppe, 43, a San Antonio native, was fatally shot during a welfare check around 3 p.m. Jan. 27 at her North Side home in the 13600 block of Bluffcircle.

San Antonio Police Chief William McManus said Kloppe suffered from a history of mental illness. Kloppes friends agreed with McManus assessment but said that doesnt give a full picture of who she was.

She was a friend, a mother and a daughter, said Dana Doffin, 43, who graduated from Churchill High School with Kloppe and remained friends with her for years. She had a heart of gold and was troubled due to things that happened to her.

It was only recently that Kloppe exhibited signs of mental illness, according to 44-year-old Jamie Valder, a childhood friend of Kloppes. Both Valder and Doffin said they maintained contact with Kloppe until around 2014. Thats when the friend they had known as a beautiful person inside and out slowly began to recede from public.

She became more introverted and then more reclusive, Valder said. She lost contact with a lot of friends. I still called her and texted her on occasion. Facebook helped us all reconnect, but then she became very paranoid.

At that point, she cut off contact. She disabled her Facebook and would occasionally resurface for a short time before disappearing again. Valder said the last time she spoke with Kloppe was last year, and there were no red flags.

On Jan. 27, Kloppe called police to report someone was stalking her and interfering with her computer, authorities said.

Responding officers found her front door open. Two officers and a cadet entered the home and discovered Kloppe was locked in an upstairs bedroom. She told them she wasnt armed, but when police forced open the door to perform an emergency detention, they found her with a Glock in her hand, officials said.

She put the gun to her head, and police struggled to take it away from her. During the struggle, the gun began working its way toward one of the officers heads and another officer, a 6-year veteran of the force, opened fire, shooting Kloppe in the abdomen, according to police. Paramedics rushed her to University Hospital, where she was pronounced dead.

Kloppes death was the second officer-involved shooting in a week.

On Jan. 25, officer Paul Armendariz shot and killed 19-year-old Dustin Gonzales Castillo during a struggle in the middle of Loop 410 in which Castillo pulled out a knife and cut Armendarizs hand, according to a San Antonio Police Department report.

McManus has defended his officers actions in both instances.

cdowns@mysa.com

Twitter: @calebjdownsWASHINGTON - San Antonio Republican Will Hurd, a House Intelligence Committee member who voted to release the memo accusing the FBI of abuses, said he did so to let people decide for themselves whether law enforcement went too far in spying on a former Trump campaign official.

Ultimately, there was nothing in this memo that was going to have an impact on ongoing national security issues. And my concern was that unverified information, circular reporting and rumors were used, Hurd said.

In an interview, Hurd said he would not agree with President Donald Trumps strong rebuke of the FBI for politicizing the sacred investigative process.

This is not for me a criticism of the FBI as an entire organization. This is not a criticism of the (Special Prosecutor Robert) Mueller investigation. The Mueller investigation should turn over every rock and follow every lead.

Another San Antonio congressman on the Intelligence panel, Democrat Joaquin Castro, contended that partisan-minded Republicans released the declassified memo - and blocked a Democratic memo rebutting conclusions - to do a favor for the president.

As Americans can see for themselves, this is a very political and one-sided document. I would have preferred that no Republican or Democratic memo be released unless the public could also see the underlying source material that the memos were referring to, Castro said in an interview.

This is a committee that for years had been bipartisan in nature. Recent actions by Chairman (Devin) Nunes and others have severely undermined that bipartisanship.

The release of the so-called Nunes memo - named after the California Republican who chairs the committee - has generated a fierce partisan debate and fostered speculation that Trump might use it to justify removing top Justice Department officials.

U.S. Rep. Lamar Smith, a San Antonio Republican who in the past headed the Judiciary Committee, called the findings in the memo devastating to democracy. In a statement, he said he would understand Trump and Attorney General Jeff Sessions wanted to clean house.

San Antonio Democrat Lloyd Doggett had a decidedly different view, contending that Trump sought to protect himself from the investigation into Russian collusion by approving release of the memo.

Trump, through this unprecedented interferencetakes another big step in the march to authoritarianism, Doggett said in a statement.

Hurd, a former CIA undercover agent, also voted this week against letting Democrats on the Intelligence Committee release their memo because, he contended, it contained passages that would affect existing intelligence gathering.

He said if changes are made, he would support its release.

In the first read of the memo, there were quotes that would have an impact on national security. By tweaking that information, of course I will vote to make sure the Democratic memo is released, he said.

Two of Hurds potential Democratic challengers in November used the occasion to criticize him. Jay Hulings, a former assistant U.S. attorney, argued that Hurd voted to release the memo in a highly misleading format, in the face of FBI and Department of Justice opposition for one reason only - to undermine the Mueller investigation.

Gina Ortiz Jones, a former Air Force intelligence officer, contended in a statement that release of the memo jeopardizes those who gather foreign intelligence. Will Hurd is putting Americans at risk for partisan gain, she said.

Hurd responded: Its unfortunate that my opponents dont care about civil liberties.

Hurd wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post comparing his thinking to what former President Woodrow Wilson wrote in 1885 as a 29-year-old scholar: The informing function of Congress should be preferred even to its legislative function.

Hurd wrote: I voted to release the Nunes memo because, like Wilson, I believe that the duty to inform the American public is one of my biggest responsibilities as an elected representative in our democratic republic.

blambrecht@express-news.netBlanca Torres winces as the needle pierces her skin.

Nurses always have trouble finding her veins, Torres says, almost apologetically. After a couple more tries, Torres, a veteran of both Iraq and Afghanistan, leans back in her recliner as ketamine pumps into her veins.

Torres, 37, has been going to a San Antonio ketamine clinic for two years to treat her post-traumatic stress syndrome. A National Guard sergeant and 11-year veteran, she drove supplies across mine-laden roads during three tours to Kuwait, Iraq and Afghanistan. On her second deployment, she drove over a bridge and hit a pressure-plate bomb.

When she returned home, Torres didnt tell her family members much about what happened overseas. What they noticed was her driving, how she swerves when she sees water bottles on the side of the road, how her tense fingers grip the wheel of her white Chrysler Sebring.

During her worst days, she didnt want to end her life, Torres said, but she wouldnt mind if she suddenly stopped living.

After struggling in traditional therapy, her psychiatrist recommended she try ketamine. The drug, Torres said, has changed her life.

Long used as a sedative for surgery, ketamine has found new life as a treatment for depression and PTSD. Hailed by some mental health experts, the drug so far has achieved good results in clinical trials.

A fledgling industry has emerged on the heels of this research. The number of private ketamine clinics has exploded, and pharmaceutical companies are on the verge of introducing the treatment into the mainstream. Two clinics exist in San Antonio  Kalypso Wellness Centers and Klarisana, where Torres gets her infusions.

The military also is interested in its use, and last fall Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio became part of study on its effects. BAMC will treat active-duty troops in the experiment, while a VA hospital near Yale will treat veterans. The research is funded by the Defense and Veterans Affairs departments.

Due to unique circumstances, ketamine patients already are flocking to clinics before research is fully completed on its effects. The Food and Drug Administration approved the use of ketamine decades ago for sedating people, not for helping them with their traumatic memories. Clinics use the drug off-label, and protocols, staffing and dosing can differ widely from one clinic to the next.

Although ketamine for mental health is given under the supervision of doctors and at a fraction of the dose of the street drug version, Special K, it still is a controlled substance.

Even at low doses it alters the senses. Critics say the effects of longtime use remain unknown and wonder if ketamine clinics put vulnerable patients at risk.

Torres has come to rely on the ketamine shots she gets every few months. As the drug took effect on her recent clinic visit, Torres let the hallucinations wash over her. A faint line traced the path of a tear that curves down her cheek. On the nearby television, fish swam through reefs of vibrant color.

I want to be who I was before, Torres said, but not to anyone in the room. I feel like Im broken. I want to be fixed.

Torres fell silent. The only sound is the click of the intravenous ketamine pump.

Early testing for PTSD

Ketamine already was among the most widely-used sedatives in the world by the time John Krystal began his research on it. Scientists first developed ketamine as an anesthetic in 1962, and within a decade, military surgeons were using it on the battlefields of Vietnam.

Krystal, a professor of Psychiatry at the Yale School of Medicine whos overseeing the research at BAMC and the Connecticut VA hospital, first tested whether ketamine relieves depression.

He presented the treatment in 1992 and published the results of his first test on humans in 2000. The study found a small dose of the sedative reversed symptoms of treatment-resistant depression by as much as 50 percent to 75 percent within 24 hours.

Using the new federal grant money, Krystal last fall began a study testing whether ketamine also could help veterans and service members with post-traumatic stress disorder. PTSD affects as much as 25 percent of veterans, compared with 7 percent of the civilian population.

People with PTSD often have haunting memories too painful to fully process, and ketamine may be able to help them access these feelings, said John Roache, a professor of psychiatry at UT Health San Antonio. Fear or stress can fray neurons in the brain, which can inhibit new learning. Ketamine may be able to repair these neurons.

Roache described the brain as a library filled with memories. Each time someone accesses a memory, they can read it and understand it in a new light. People with PTSD, however, are less able to call up those memories. As a result, there is no opportunity for a painful event to be understood in a new way.

What we think is happening with ketamine, you are able to remember and re-experience under the influence of ketamine, Roache said. After receiving ketamine, your brain is adaptable to making new memories and new experiences.

Roache is deputy director of the STRONG STAR Consortium and lead investigator of the study at BAMC. He imagines a future in which soldiers wounded in combat receive ketamine not just for physical injuries but for mental ones as well.

This could be used in advance theaters to restore them and allow them to return to duty again, Roache said. Thats whats really relevant to the military: the immediate relief.

Research on ketamine for mental health differs from the path most treatments take to market. Theres little precedent for an older generic drug to suddenly have a new use as an off-label treatment, experts say. Because the FDA approved ketamine as a sedative so many years ago, the drug already is manufactured and sold by several companies as a generic medication.

This means private clinics can give ketamine for mental health while research continues. For Krystal, this means encountering clinics with protocols very different than what he created when he first researched the drug.

Private ketamine clinics first opened their doors in 2011, one industry expert said. There were 50 to 100 clinics in 2015. The number since has jumped to more than 1,000.

Kalypso Wellness Centers is run by anesthesiologist Cannon Clifton, who said that in the past two years, his clinic has done more than 1,500 infusions. The other clinic, Klarisana, is run by Carl Bonnett.

At Klarisana, Bonnett gives ketamine at lower doses than he did as a field surgeon in the National Guard. Trained in emergency medicine, Bonnett opened his clinic in 2015. He said so far hes given around 1,700 infusions to about 350 patients.

Torres said the first time she took ketamine at Klarisana, it was as if the hallucinations allowed her to view her life as someone else.

She said the drug allowed her to remember trauma normally too painful to recall. On some visits, she can remember friends now deceased. When I visit my friends, its a great feeling, Torres said.

James Wilde, 30, said ketamine infusions also let him think about his worst experiences without reliving them. The Eagle Pass resident joined the Army as a combat medic and treated soldiers on the battlefield with ketamine  as a sedative. When he got home, he had nightmares of bodies following him. He thought about ending his life but said the infusions helped him.

This is not a cure-all, Wilde said, shortly before a ketamine booster. This is not going to make everything instantly go away. I will say this is a step in the right direction. It has helped me.

After she began making visits to Klarisana, Torres said she felt less anxious and depressed. She talked to people again. She said she was able to laugh again. Torres said on a recent drive as she bounced up and down to music on the radio that she had a sudden realization: she was happy.

Torres recently participated in Krystals study at BAMC, which makes her one of the few people to be given ketamine under Krystals original protocol as well as at a civilian clinic. She said she noticed the difference between the two quickly.

Only some people in Krystals double-blind study actually received ketamine, with others receiving a placebo. When the needle went in, Torres was worried she had received nothing but saline solution. Then, more slowly than she was used to, the drug began to kick in. Torres said she could tell she was getting a lower dosage than at Klarisana.

Healing the brain

When Krystal first published his research, he found an effective and safe dose tied to weight: half a milligram of ketamine for each kilogram a person weighed. For a 70-kilogram, or 154-pound, person, that means a dose of around 35 milligrams. This standard was then sponsored by the National Institute of Mental Health and many other clinics.

Doses are much higher at Bonnetts clinic. Torres received 100 milligrams on her first go. That was pumped up to 150 milligrams over time.

Bonnett called the NIMH standard arbitrary and said he gives some people 50 milligrams, others 200 milligrams, with most in between the two.

Our dosages are a bit higher than the traditional NIMH protocol, Bonnett said. His nurses ask patients: Are you feeling it? Do you want more ketamine? He said clinicians are in complete control of how strong a dose to give, and his practitioners reserve the right to say no. He wants the patient to get the full psychedelic experience, while still being able to speak.

Krystals research, meanwhile, is testing in the opposite direction. Part of the study at BAMC tested lower doses. Lower dosage means lower risk, he said. Theres very little data on doses higher than half a milligram per kilogram, although Krystal said some research shows both going too high or too low in dosage weakens ketamines effect.

Most clinics use the recommended dosage and go higher. At a recent conference in San Francisco, Bonnett said many clinicians told him they go higher as well. At Kalypso, nurses start patients at the recommended dosage and adjust the dosage from there.

Part of the reason Krystal and Bonnett differ in how they view dosage is because they differ in how they believe ketamine works.

For Bonnett, higher doses are important because he believes dissociation is an essential part of the therapy.

It creates this mild disconnection from the world, a mild meditative state  you can unhook from your reality a bit, Bonnett said. Some would argue that thats a side effect, an adverse reaction, we can get rid of it. I would argue  those affects are part of the therapy.

Krystal sees dissociation as a side effect and thinks one day there could be a version of ketamine without it. He said his research suggests the benefits of ketamine  the brain repairing itself  begin within a few hours of the infusion and dont reach their peak for at least 24 hours, well after any dissociation or hallucinations fade.

Ketamine does not work by producing euphoria, but by reversing the effects of PTSD or depression, Krystal said. If you get better, its not because youve gotten high, its because your brain has healed itself.

Turf war

Krystals background is as a psychiatrist, while Bonnetts background is in emergency care.

In the emerging field of ketamine treatment, clinics tend to be run by either by psychiatrists or anesthesiologists and emergency care doctors. The unique emergence of how ketamine came to be used for mental health contributes to this split.

Anesthesiologists and emergency care doctors administered ketamine for decades before it was considered for mental health. Their expertise in ketamine means people trained to treat the body now are caring for the mind. This has rankled some psychiatrists.

You wouldnt want me to do your voluntary surgery, psychiatrist Charles Nemeroff said from Miami. Why would you let an anesthesiologist practice psychiatry? 

On the other side of this turf war, Clifton, the anesthesiologist who runs Kalypso Wellness Centers, defended anesthesiologists and emergency care doctors.

The psychiatrists think, Hey were the ones on mental health, were the experts. Well we have anesthesiologists saying Were the ones who are experts doing IVs and giving ketamine, Clifton said.

In ketamine clinics run by psychiatrists, the infusion is overseen by both a psychiatrist and a nurse. Psychiatrists say clinics need to screen or rescreen patients before treatment. One key is checking for substance abuse problems, as ketamine strengthens the depressive effects of alcohol.

Bonnett said he has nurse practitioners screen clients before and after.

Were not practicing psychiatry, but we have the ability to screen people and keep people safe, Bonnett said.

Setting the standard

What happens after the patient gets better? An article last year in the Lancet on the ethics of ketamine treatment for mental health warned that patients who find a dramatic improvement due to ketamine might face a serious fall in morale after the effects of the drug fade away.

This is happened to Torres.

For Torres, ketamine worked very well on her first visit to the clinic, and then it wore off in later treatments. She wondered if she was broken, so much so that even ketamine couldnt save her. She said she spiraled into a mess of self-destructive behavior.

Today, Torres depends on booster shots of ketamine. Torres had a panic attack a month before her last booster, which convinced her to come in. She said she goes for a booster every few months, in what Bonnett likened to lifetime shots of insulin for diabetics. Torres said Bonnett gave her ketamine lozenges to tide her through between appointments.

Its not that I need my fix, but I need my dose, Torres said.

Research on the long-term use of ketamine for mental health is limited. The American Psychiatric Association argues the number of treatments should be limited, with the goal of eventually tapering and ending treatment, at least until theres more data on long-term use.

We dont want to replicate the opiate problem with a ketamine problem, Krystal said. We can avoid that if we keep the ketamine in the clinic.

Bonnett said the criticism is disingenuous. Ketamine lozenges long have been used in pain therapy, he said, and the lozenges save his clients money.

Ketamine doctors now are pushing for more regulation and standardization among clinics. Steven P. Levine, a psychiatrist who runs a network of ketamine clinics, said ketamine and other psychedelic drugs had as much promise decades ago as they do now.

People need to know this is being done in a sincere way, a safe way, and this is not recreational, Levine said. Were trying to bring some order to this.

jlawrence@express-news.netAUSTIN  Its no secret that Texas has a health crisis on its hands with the alarming number of women dying due to issues related to pregnancy within a year after giving birth, and state leaders havent yet come to a consensus on finding the best policy path forward.

But some womens health experts and state legislators agree one of the first steps is making sure Texas mothers have continuous access to health care before, during and after childbirth.

I think we could have made some changes last (legislative) session, said Rep. Donna Howard, D-Austin. We already knew that access to care was one of the leading problems, and yet we still refuse to do whats necessary to make sure we have more women getting this access to care.

On Thursday, Howard gathered alongside other state legislators, health care experts and Texas care providers for a daylong health care policy conference at the University of Texas at Austin for a slew of panels, from strategies to manage the opioid crisis to addressing maternal health in Texas. Most of the panels, regardless of topic, touched on maternal mortality at some point.

Howard said the first step in tackling the states maternal mortality issue is developing policy to ensure women have continuous health care coverage without any breaks or gaps, so that they get the prenatal and wellness care they need through postpartum under the same program. Under current state law, women are eligible for Medicaid coverage up until 60 days after delivery before theyre kicked off.

That would go a long way to making sure women are going to afford themselves of the care that they need to stay healthy before, during and after the pregnancy, Howard said.

The Maternal Mortality and Morbidity Task Force, an agency under the Department of State Health Services, reported in 2016 that 189 mothers died within a year after of giving birth in 2011-2012. The problem has only worsened, with the states maternal mortality rate nearly doubling since 2011, making the state the worst in the country, according to 2016 research published in a national medical journal, though a recent study has cast doubt on those numbers. Most of the mothers in the study died from heart disease, drug overdose (particularly prescription drugs), hypertension or hemorrhaging.

As a mom, I will tell you its a miracle to have a healthy baby, said Anne Rote, president and CEO of Molina Healthcare of Texas. Theres so many things that can go wrong.

The state task force report made several recommendations on how legislators could examine and address the problem. These included increasing access to care up until a year after birth; increasing screening for mental and behavioral health issues (especially postpartum depression); and improving the quality of death certificate data.

According to a recent study, theres a connection between the lack of quality data and women dying during pregnancy, in childbirth or the 42 days thereafter. It found that the states death rate is not as high as previously found, but its still worse than other states throughout the country.

Some legislators at the panels said the Legislature needs to look at addressing how death certificates are written and signed to clean up some of the data problems.

We need to be sure theres good integrity around the data, said Rep. John Zerwas, R-Richmond, and a candidate for speaker of the House of Representatives. We dont want to try to create solutions for something that the data doesnt really support.WASHINGTON  In a sign of mounting frustration, a group of Texas lawmakers from both political parties joined in a letter to Senate leaders Friday demanding prompt action on an $81 billion disaster relief package that has been held up in partisan gridlock since December.

With all signs pointing to another postponement of disaster aid bogged down in a broader fight over spending, a border wall and immigration, a dozen House members from Texas signed on to the letter pleading for Senate action on a House-passed bill providing recovery funds for the victims of Hurricane Harvey and other natural disasters.

This bill was sent to the Senate for consideration in December, the lawmakers wrote in a letter initiated by Sugar Land Republican Pete Olson, whose district was severely hit by Harveys flooding. We are now entering February with no action by the U.S. Senate. We write asking for prompt consideration  We have constituents who after almost six months, remain in transitional housing and homes that lack weatherization as Texas remains in the grip of an unusually cold winter. It is past time for Congress to act.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott lent his support as well.

Gov. Abbott shares the frustration of the House members and our fellow Texans that much needed federal disaster aid is getting bogged down in Washington, his spokeswoman, Ciara Matthews, said Friday. The governor joins them in urging the Senate to approve and expeditiously pass the promised supplemental funding package.

The House passed the disaster aid package on Dec. 21, but the money remains mired in the Senate in a series of stop-gap funding measures tied to the ongoing partisan battle over immigration and the legal status of Dreamers, young people brought into the country illegally as children.

A temporary funding agreement stemming from last months brief government shutdown expires Thursday. But absent a deal on spending caps and the fate of the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, congressional negotiators are now looking at another extension until later in the month.

One sticking point has been the demand from the Trump administration and some deficit hawks in the Senate that the disaster assistance be offset by cuts in other parts of the budget.

Another unresolved issue involves a controversial provision extending new cotton subsidies as part of the House disaster aid package. Critics have questioned whether changes to a major farm commodity program rightfully belong in an emergency spending measure intended to help storm victims.

The cotton provisions were championed in the House by Republican U.S. Reps. Jodey Arrington and Mike Conaway, who serves as chairman of the House Agriculture Committee. Both represent West Texas cotton-producing districts. They were also backed by Abbott and the states two Republican U.S. senators, John Cornyn and Ted Cruz.

The new letter from the Houston regions House members noted that since Harvey hit in August, Congress has passed two smaller emergency aid bills totaling $50 billion, much of it to be shared with Florida, Puerto Rico and other regions hit with last years storms and wildfires.

The $81 billion bill pending before the Senate also would be spread among all of the U.S. states and territories needed disaster assistance, including California.

Texas officials, who have sought a greater share for the Gulf region, have estimated the damage from Harvey at upward of $125 billion. Abbott traveled to Washington in October seeking a $61 billion down payment for additional aid and infrastructure repairs from Harvey.

The Trump administration responded with a $44 billion proposal covering all of the major disaster areas. The House doubled that to $81 billion.

Cornyn has said he is seeking to increase Texas share of the disaster spending, though it is unlikely that the overall size of the pending aid package will change.

At the same time, Democratic Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York has sought to add billions more for Puerto Rico, where many residents remain without electricity from Hurricane Maria.

That standoff, compounded by the shutdown showdown over immigration, prompted Cornyn, the No. 2 Republican in the Senate, to accuse Democrats of holding hurricane aid hostage. Senate Republican leaders, however, have not tried to force a vote on disaster aid to test whether Democrats would block it.

Any changes in the House-passed aid bill would send the measure back to the lower chamber for another vote, which would further extend the prolonged legislative process.

Further delays, the House members warned, could make the recovery more expensive. We cannot continue to wait to begin work on critical flood control projects that will protect not only the residents who live in the region, but the taxpayers who pay for costly disaster recovery that can be avoided in the future if we invest in needed infrastructure now, they wrote.

Besides Olson, the letter was signed by Texas Republicans Randy Weber, Brian Babin, Blake Farenthold, John Culberson, Michael McCaul, Ted Poe and Kevin Brady. It also was signed by Democrats Sheila Jackson Lee, Gene Green, Al Green and Filemon Vela.If you had to interpret a single year in San Antonios 300-year history artistically, what would you create? Thats the question 300 artists from across the city have been pondering since they were assigned a year in that timespan for their contribution to Common Currents, called a diverse showcase across six venues in celebration of San Antonios Tricentennial. The initial 12 artists chosen to participate chose other artists, who chose others, in a crowdsourcing format.

The first exhibit at Artpace San Antonio features work that is artists response to the citys earliest years (1718-1767). It opened Jan. 18 and runs through March 4. The second exhibit opened Thursday night at Blue Star Contemporary and runs through May 7.Jack Hartin Photography / Contributed photo

Riverdance, with its exciting blend of dance, music and song, is back in the United States after a sold-out run across Europe and Asia.

The acclaimed show, which captures the imagination of audiences of all ages, is celebrating its 20th anniversary with a fresh, young company of performers who are touring with new costumes, new lighting and new projections.MILFORD  Sue Maraczi sailed around the Caribbean islands for three months  but not for pleasure.

Maraczi, of Milford, works as a licensed emergency and critical care nurse at the Animal Medical Center in New York City.

Alongside many veterinary professionals throughout the region, Maraczi arranged a massive food relief effort for hungry animals after Hurricane Irma hit the Caribbean islands on Sept. 6, 2017.

But she quickly decided that wasnt enough and came up with the idea to fly down to the islands and help in person.

Melissa Marter, a friend of Maraczi who lives in Stratford and owns Whos Your Doggie in Milford, immediately got on board.

The two flew to Antigua the morning of Oct. 5, 2017. Getting on that plane, the two had no idea what would await them on the islands. Marter stayed for about a week and Maraczi returned to Connecticut in early January.

There were horses running free, dogs, cats, goats, bulls, Maraczi said.

She said they got in contact with the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, an international nonprofit group made famous through the television show Whale Wars. The two were offered a place on the John Paul DeJoria boat, captained by Jaspal Oberoi.

Maraczi and Marter spent three days on Antigua/Barbuda before setting sail to Dominica and through the Panama Canal.

We had the most amazing crew, Maraczi said. I've honestly never seen a group get along so well in my life. We are still very close.

Being aboard the Sea Shepard meant saving anything that needed saving, Maraczi said.

Black tip sharks, hammerhead sharks, cow nose rays, guitar fish, sea turtles, dolphins, sea lions, birds ... we werent limited to anything who needed help, she said.

Some of the animals Maraczi and the crew encountered had cuts, respiratory infections, musculoskeletal injuries and a few cases of mange.

We did the best we could with what we had, Maraczi said.

In Barbuda, food was scarce for the animals, she said. And in Antigua, she said shelters filled up quickly.

Some of the dogs were beginning to starve and started to elicit pack behavior, so we covered as much as we could with the food we had, Maraczi said. We had to be on the lookout for them and approach every one cautiously.

In Antigua, the crew went to two shelters where many evacuated animals ended up.

Although they were basic dog and cat shelters, it wasnt uncommon to see a goat here or there, Maraczi said.

I watched people lose everything they own, some even lost their pets. Some pets we found and we were able to reunite with the owners. And some pets waited at the shelters, lost, waiting for someone they knew to walk in. It was heartbreaking, she added.

When the idea to make the trip first sparked, Maraczi was out of work, waiting for the facility she works at in New York to finish construction. Thats no longer the case. But she said shell be able to return on the Sea Shepard every so often to help out.

I'll be heading back as soon as I can, Maraczi said. My employer has granted me time to use for Sea Shepard and volunteer opportunities.

Maraczi said more still needs to be done in the Caribbean when it comes to the animals.

The donated supplies and food were needed. They are still needed, she said.President Donald Trumps $1.5 trillion infrastructure plan could leave Connecticut with significantly less federal money to upgrade its overly congested highways and aging bridges and railways.

The plan Trump outlined during his State of the Union speech seeks to reduce the level of federal funding and push states into striking private/public partnerships with developers interested in making a profit.

"We are in danger of becoming the first generation to leave a lesser America for our children in terms of roads, bridges, airports and ports, said U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn.

"The president has offered gimmicks and magical thinking about how to raise the revenue," Blumenthal said. "Its very troubling."

The federal share of highway work and other projects would drop to 20 percent from 80 percent, leaving states to make up the difference and reversing a cost sharing ratio that has been used for decades.

U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy, D- Conn, called Trumps plan a fantasy that will leave states with far less federal transportation money.

More Information Connecticut infrastructure needs: $100 billion over 30 years Including: $36 billion for bridge repairs $22 billion for rail improvements $1.5 billion for airport improvements $732 million for maritime improvements $2.8 billion for bus improvements Source: Connecticut Department of Transportation Quick facts about Connecticut's infrastructure: 338, or 8 percent, of the state's 4,214 bridges are structurally deficient $3.6 billion in drinking water infrastructure improvements needed over the next 20 years 57 percent of 1,512 miles of public roads are in poor condition Motorists pay $864 in costs per year due to roads in need of repair $4.6 billion worth of wastewater infrastructure improvements needed over the next 20 years $87 million in unmet improvements at the parks system Connecticut roads, including the interstate system, accommodated 24 billion vehicle miles of travel in 2016 See More Collapse

"There is not enough private financing to make up for the massive cutback in federal funding the president is proposing," Murphy said. "The only way the plan works is sell every inch of our road and rail system to Wall Street. And thats not possible."

The Trump plan comes as Connecticut grapples with how to fund a projected $100 billion in infrastructure rebuilding over the next 30 years, while also closing budget deficits that in recent years have reached billions of dollars.

The need to improve the states highways and rebuild other infrastructure is well documented: the average driver in Fairfield and New Haven Counties spends 40 hours a year stuck in traffic, mostly on I-95, according to state calculations.

Over 57 percent of the states roads are rated in poor condition, 78 percent of its rail bridges are rated below good condition and 22 percent of commuter rail bridges are in poor condition.

The state annually loses $2.6 billion in operating costs, fuel and accidents due to deficient roads and bridges and $1.6 billion in time and fuel wasted due to congestion, state records show.

Disastrous for Connecticut

Blumenthal said Trumps proposal is a radical reversal of the traditional federal role in funding big infrastructure projects, and even seeks to privatize federal park systems. He said Trump also wants to relax environmental reviews, public protections and speed up permitting processes.

"This would be disastrous for Connecticut," Blumenthal said. "Connecticut does not have the resources at this point. It would be a catastrophic reversal for all states."

The goal of Trumps plan is to push states into public/private partnerships with investors and developers to jointly build roads, bridges and railways, along with managing public facilities such as park systems.

Private investors would likely receive federal tax credits as part of the federal share of the project. In return, investors would obtain ownership or responsibility for a project and make a profit on the venture.

But all of that depends in part on a states ability to contribute large amounts of money and attract private partners through bidding, which could be a problem for Connecticut.

Malloy recently canceled $4.3 billion worth of transportation projects, and proposed raising Metro-North fares by 10 percent, because the state had run out of transportation money. Last week, the governor threw his support behind electronic highway tolls, which officials estimate will raise up to $800 million a year, enough to restore the postponed projects. He also proposed a seven cent increase in the state gas tax and a $3 tax on tires.

Don Shubert, president of the Connecticut Construction Industry Association, said transportation funding is changing and states need to "get ready" for private/public partnerships.

"States that are able to respond quickly with matching dollars will benefit," Shubert said of Trumps plan.

"Connecticut is far away from that in terms of having matching dollars, Shubert said. We dont have the cash to do a bond sale right now without raising fares or cutting capital projects. We are far away from taking advantage of this type of program."

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy said the Trump plan does not work for Connecticut.

"He wants to dedicate $200 billion and that will spur additional money from the private sector," Malloy said. "But if you figure Connecticuts share is two percent of the money that might come, and you have Congress appropriate $200 billion, its not what we need. We need a lot more."

Blumenthal and Murphy said Trumps plan would also pave the way for increased tolling and predicted private investors would jack up fees to make a profit.

Many needs

Malloy noted highways in Fairfield and New Haven Counties are parking lots during rush hour. The governor said the congestion and hassle is driving away jobs and economic development.

"We have one highway [I-95] thats a parking lot and one, the Merritt Parkway, thats a museum," Malloy said.

"Look at Fairfield County," Malloy continued. "That road system does not work, and it does not work for the state. We are not getting our share of job growth that comes from New York City."

A recent report by CDM Smith, a consultant hired by the state to study transportation needs, painted a dismal picture of Connecticuts transportation system.

"A lack of investment has resulted in significant traffic congestion on the highways and delays and travel disruptions across the states rail system, creating daily bottlenecks on Connecticuts most traveled corridors, leading to increased air emissions and costing the states citizens and businesses a massive amount of wasted time, money and aggravation," CDM Smith said.

"The problems associated with under investing in transportation have reached a dimension that is now affecting the well-being of the states economy," the consultant concluded.

State Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff said hes skeptical of private/public partnerships and Trumps proposal in general.

"Sounds like voodoo economics to me," Duff said, adding the state tried public/private partnerships in the 1990s and it didnt work out well.

"Projects cost twice as much," Duff said. "Its not the way I want to go."

A new way

Joe McGee, vice president for public policy and programs for the Fairfield County Business Council, said Trumps plan at least begins a discussion about private/public partnerships.

"Trump has an idea and it needs to be explored," McGee said. "Its the beginning of a conversation. Investment in rail and roads is critical and it can have a tremendous impact on economic development. But we need a new revenue source to do this."

McGee said a possible federal, state and private investment partnership is a long desired express Metro-North line capable of moving passengers to Manhattan in a half hour.

"The issue is  do we have the skill set at state government to craft a deal?" McGee said. "The expertise and the risk goes to the investor. We are moving toward a new investment program in transportation."

Critics point out that roads and rail service are heavily subsidized by taxpayers for a reason: they dont cover operating and maintenance costs.

Judd Everhart, a spokesman for the state Department of Transportation, said fares paid to ride Metro-Norths New Haven line cover only 69 percent of the cost of operating and maintaining the railroad - and thats one of the best ratios in the country.

"On Shore Line East, fares cover about 7 percent of the operational and maintenance costs," Everhart said. "As for buses, fares cover about 20 percent of the cost. This is known as the "fare box recovery ratio."

State Sen. Toni Boucher, R-Wilton and co-chairwoman of the transportation committee, said private/public partnerships must be carefully evaluated, and pointed out that not all deals benefit the public.

"There are things government should be responsible for and take care of," Boucher said. "They should take care of fragile populations, transportation and education."

Boucher cited the example of Indiana, which recently hired a private company to manage and build a toll road. Tolls soon exceeded $40 a trip, she said.

"Im not against private/public partnerships but we need more research," Boucher said. "The bottom line is its appropriate for the public to subsidize transportation."US wheat growers in the States that helped elect Mr Trump are up in arms after analysis by their powerful lobby groups showed Japanese tariffs on wheat imports from Australia will drop by $US65 ($80) a tonne.

Australia, along with TPP-member Canada, is eyeing a much bigger piece of the Japanese wheat market, which is dominated by the US.

The US farming lobby is angry that Mr Trump has failed to deliver the trade deals he promised after abandoning the TPP in January last year.

They are also applying the blow torch over his negative attitude to the North American Free Trade Agreement which underpins US wheat sales to Mexico.

The Australian industry has little sympathy for their counterparts in the US, who generally receive far more in terms of government support.

WAFarmers Grain Section president Duncan Young said the US could have had a seat at the TPP table but chose to turn its back on the trade deal.

Mr Young said it was unclear how the US had calculated the $US65/t advantage for Australia, but there was no doubt local growers would get a big boost from the TPP.

There appears to be a lot of positives for us and I cant see too many negatives, he said.

Japan is fairly unique in that it is still a regulated market with MAFF (Japans Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries) controlling the buying.

It is not black and white what we will get out of it because of that regulated system, but that will become clearer and we see substantial benefit.

The Australian industry has kept a lid on its celebrations amid delicate talks in Japan about the progressive dismantling of the centralised buying system controlled by MAFF in conjunction with Japan Flour Millers Association (JFMA).

Key figures in the trade were in Tokyo for talks and celebrations to mark JFMAs 70th anniversary when the TPP breakthrough was announced last week.

The jubilant Australian delegation was contrasted by US representatives, who were rocked by the TPP breakthrough.

Major Japanese players have already notified Australian exporters they expect the US to be at a disadvantage for one of the few times since 1949 when a trade delegation from Oregon gave it prime position in the market.

The US has averaged annual sales of 3.1 million tonnes of wheat to Japan over the past five years and has about 50 per cent of the total market share.

Kevin Tongue, who runs a 2000 hectare property near Tamworth, New South Wales, of which 25pc is devoted to wheat and barley, said it was important that Australian growers were able to gain access to markets freely without being handicapped by tariffs.

Its got to be a level playing field for everyone, Mr Tongue said.

The more export markets that are open to us the better.

The influential US Wheat Associates (USW), representing 17 States, and the National Association of Wheat Growers (NAWG) warned the TPP put overseas demand for US wheat at risk and sheeted the blame to Mr Trump.

USW policy director Ben Conner said the TPP agreement minus the US sent another discouraging signal to long-time customers in Japan.

Mr Conner said the TPP would put US growers at a $US200 million ($247m) a year disadvantage in the Japanese market.

As the agricultural community warned when the President made the announcement, withdrawing from TPP was short-sighted and unnecessary and now US wheat farmers could take the hit, he said.

NAWG president Gordon Stoner, who farms in Montana, said the TPP agreement should serve as a rallying cry for farmers, ranchers and dairy producers calling for the new trade deals we were promised when the President walked away from TPP.

An already stressed agriculture sector needs the benefit of free and fair trade now, he said.

The export-focused wheat industry in WA will build on its strong relationship with Japan as the almost exclusive supplier of varieties used to make udon noodles.

WA growers sell up to one million tonnes of noodle wheat a year to Japan, with the Japanese anxious to ensure that supply is kept up.

US farmers also want more action from Mr Trump to secure the future of NAFTA as negotiations with Canada and the US drag on into a sixth round.

They joined forces with Canadian wheat growers and Mexican flour millers last week to urge all sides to get on with updating the 23-year-old agreement.

The Australian government, meanwhile, has reignited its campaign to get the US back to the TPP negotiating table, after Mr Trump hinted at a rethink of the US position.

The way it was structured was terrible, he told CNBC in an interview at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

If we did a substantially better deal, I would be open to TPP.

Trade Minister Steven Ciobo spoke to US counterpart Robert Lighthizer about the TPP in Davos at the weekend, while Foreign Minister Julie Bishop used events around the GDay USA promotional weekend in Los Angeles to highlight the importance of the US to the Indo-Pacific region.

On Sunday, Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce weighed into the campaign.

As its not signed yet I dont want to say these positions are finalised, Mr Joyce said in an interview on Sky News.

The final draft of it, I hope, is determined once the United States is part of it.

If there are changes required, minor changes, to bring the US (in)... that should be done.

Mr Joyce also said the government had a duty to explain the benefits of the landmark Pacific-wide trade deal agreed last week  something Labor had been demanding be done through an analysis by the Productivity Commission.

Shadow trade spokesman Jason Clare is pushing for the government to have the Productivity Commission model the final details of the 11-country deal when it is released in March in Chile.

In an era when people are sceptical of trade deals it would help the government  and I think it would be good for Australia  if we had an independent report saying: heres the benefits, this is where the jobs will be created, these are the industries that will benefit, these are the parts of Australia that will be better off and heres the areas where we need to do more work to help people that wont be better off, he said.

Former Labor trade minister Craig Emerson is backing Mr Clares position, writing in Mondays The Australian Financial Review that there is nothing anti-trade or anti-jobs about having the Productivity Commission analyse the agreement.

Dr Emerson cites World Bank modelling showing the revised trade partnership without the US would deliver only a negligible increase in Australias GDP.

But that doesnt mean the TPP is not worth having, he wrote, saying it could become a building block for the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation forums vision for an Asia-Pacific free trade area, and may include China in the long run.State Liberal Upper House member Jim Chown is urging WA grain growers to enter submissions to an inquiry investigating mechanisms for compensation for economic losses caused by contamination by Genetically Modified (GM) crop material.

GRAIN farmers are being urged to submit their views to a political inquiry on crop biotechnology use in WA, to counteract potentially perverse outcomes with facts.

The inquiry by the Standing Committee on Environment and Public Affairs was approved in December last year to investigate mechanisms for compensation for economic losses, caused by contamination by Genetically Modified (GM) crop material.

But Liberal Upper House member Jim Chown  a former Dalwallinu grain farmer  said farmers in WA need to understand there were potentially adverse and perverse outcomes, from the Committees inquiry, for current and future use of GM crop technology.

I think its absolutely essential that growers take part in this inquiry and make submissions justifying their beliefs and showing the facts of their practical experiences in regards to using GM crops, he said.

If they dont, there will be no way to counter the Green lobby which will no doubt be sending in hundreds if not thousands of pro-forma-like submissions.

We need to guard against perverse outcomes.

Otherwise the Committee will be overwhelmed by city-based submissions looking to exploit the emotional misinformation and fear about the use of GMs as opposed to the scientifically proven facts of GMs which have been declared safe for human health and the environment by every credible regulatory agency in Australia and around the world.

Mr Chown said the inquiry was going ahead despite GMs being one of the safest forms of food ever used by the human race which have faced more checks and balances and regulatory scrutiny than any other food technology in history.

He said GM crops can also provide significant human health benefits but the technologys potential is being held back and restricted by fear-based arguments that deliberately ignore scientific proof.

Its just an emotional argument in relation to trying to establish this compensation fund and the anti-GM lobby will be looking to make a plethora of submissions which could lead to perverse outcomes that restrict the future of WA farming, he said.

I am calling on all commercial farmers to submit written submissions in regard to their experiences of growing GM canola in Western Australia otherwise this Committee will become nothing more than an anti-GM campaign on steroids.

Unless growers become actively involved and let the Committee know about their positive experiences with using GM, recommendations could be made from this inquiry, and put forward to the parliament, which could be adverse to the use of GM crops in the future, especially in regards to a compensation fund.

Mr Chown said those pushing the inquirys underlying agenda  to establish a compensation fund for non-growers contaminated by GM crops  should also be careful of what they wish for.

He said an independent statutory review of the Commonwealth Gene Technology Act in 2005-06 looked at the compensation issue and concluded that the current common law provided effective remedies for anyone incurring any actual damage from GM crops.

But he said to legislate for such outcomes, would be very biased and one sided and those seeking to implement the compensation fund needed to be aware financial damages also applied to GM and conventional growers.

Ive had many, many reports of organic growers contaminating non-organic growers in regards to wheat incursions, he said.

Im aware of a case where a grower had to return a truckload of wheat from the CBH receival point because his wheat load was heavily contaminated with ergot which came from a ryegrass infestation from an organic grower who was a direct neighbour, after ryegrass seeds blew into the wheat crop.

And of course, we know that ergot is a fungus that under certain climatic conditions grows on ryegrass and theres no acceptable tolerance for it because its a dangerous hallucinogenic.

If the Committee made recommendations to the Parliament that a compensation fund needed to be regulated or legislated in the form of a levy or otherwise on GM crops to defray financial loss occurred by non-GM growers through contamination, the question has to be asked in regard to significant legal implications of such one-sided discriminatory legislation, when in reality organic farmers cause loss to non-organic farmers due to their lack of conventional weed control.

The inquiry will include an investigation into the approaches taken in WA and by other jurisdictions  likely where the crop is already grown commercially in Australia and other major grain producing regions like the US and Canada.

Its terms of reference also include an examination of any other relevant matter which is likely to see strongly worded submissions made by conventional farmers  including those that produce GM canola  who have suffered economic damages from organic neighbours.

The Committee has not scheduled any public hearings as yet and is an own motion inquiry meaning a reporting date hasnt been set - but the submission period remains open until February 16.Changes to funding arrangements to the Agricultural Education Provisions Trust (AEPT) were announced in December  along with several other cuts to regional education  as part of the Labor Governments bid to save $64 million.

The AEPT funds are generated through the selling of produce from the States five agricultural colleges in Cunderdin, Denmark, Harvey, Morawa and Narrogin, as well as the Esperance Senior High School Farm Training Centre.

The Trust covers the costs of farm machinery and fleet vehicles, fencing, farm development and other recurrent costs, and supports several agricultural education programs in regional and metropolitan schools across the State.

It also acts as a contingency fund to support the college farms if operations are compromised due to poor seasonal conditions.

At present, each agricultural college retains 60 per cent of the income it generated, while the remaining 40pc is injected into the Trust and distributed among the colleges.

However, from 2019 the Department of Education will retain an annual 20pc dividend from funds remitted to the AEPT.

According to Education Minister Sue Ellerys office the amount is expected to be around $200,000 per year, but could vary annually.

The body which oversees AEPT funding allocations  the Combined Agricultural Advisory Committee (CAAC)  has criticised Ms Ellerys decision to raid the Trust.

Committee chairman Barry Pearce said the WA system for agricultural education was considered the best in Australia, and should not be altered.

At a time when the Minister for Agriculture and Food is lauding agricultural production in this State reaching $8.2 billion, it is hard to believe that the Minister for Education is diminishing the value of educating the next generation of prospective agricultural industry participants, Mr Pearce said.

Agriculture is an industry vital to this States economy and must be supported with the best possible education.

The Minister must reverse the decision to skim funds from the system that provides the best education model for people entering agricultural industries.

According to Mr Pearce, the amount expected to be taken by the State would likely be greater than $200,000 annually.

Mr Pearce said if funding changes were initiated last financial year, more than $330,000 would have been taken from the Trust.

This figure is likely to increase yearly by the Government as some of the colleges become more productive, Mr Pearce said.

Mr Pearce said the State already benefited from the Trust, and did not need to take further funds.

About 13pc of the Trust is held as a contingency reserve and sometimes committed funds are carried over for specific longer term projects, Mr Pearce said.

Ten per cent of the Trust budget also supports agricultural programs of 10 metropolitan and smaller regional schools, effectively giving the State Government a 10pc dividend to deliver agricultural education.

However, it seems unlikely Ms Ellery will reverse her decision to take a 20pc dividend from the AEPT, and the funding changes remain on the States agenda.

It is State government funding that pays for the staff, buys the equipment, pays for the operation of the farms, those taxpayer-funded farms then generate an income by selling their produce, Ms Ellery said.

From 2019  for the period of budget repair  the Department of Education will retain an annual 20pc dividend from the funds remitted to the Agricultural Education Provisions Trust.

Each agricultural college will continue to keep 60pc of the income they generate, like they do now.

Ive said from the start that these were tough decisions however budget repair is ongoing.Halle Berry is "livid" with her former manager, who has been accused of sexual abuse.

Halle Berry

The 51-year-old actress says she was "saddened" at first by allegations against her ex-manager Vincent Cirrincione and is now angry that he used his previous professional relationship with her "to lure and manipulate innocent women".

She wrote on Instagram: "Yesterday I was saddened by the alligations against my former manager, Vincent Cirrincione, but today I'm sick after reading the horrifying detailed accounts of his abuse towards 9 women.

"I'm livid that he used me, and the role model he helped me become, to lure and manipulate innocent, vulnerable women of color for his predatory actions. I'm deeply hurt and I want these woman and countless others to know I see you. I hear you. You matter. I will fight for you (sic)."

Nine minority women have accused the Hollywood manager of sexual harassment and claim he made unwanted sexual advances toward them over a period of two decades.

However, he denied any wrongdoing in a statement to the Washington Post, claiming that all relationships were consensual.

He said: "We live in a time where men are being confronted with a very real opportunity to take responsibility for their actions. I support this movement wholeheartedly. I have had female clients and employees my entire career in this industry. I have built a reputation for advancing the careers of women of colour. I have had affairs while in committed relationships, ones I am now ashamed to say are coming to light and shading my past and my reputation. I can say without a doubt that I have never used favours, sexual or otherwise, as a reason for managing anyone. I want to make it clear that not one of those relationships were anything but consensual.

"I take responsibility for my part in the situation and I am not here to diminish anyone's feelings or experiences. I apologise to these women, my past and present partner, my clients and employees for the pain this is bringing them. I was under the impression I was living my life as a supportive man to women. It is with a heavy heart that I see now I was wrong."James McAvoy's mother has passed away.

James McAvoy

The 38-year-old actor has been left devastated after he found out that his mum Liz Johnstone had sadly passed away at the age of 59 in the council flat he grew up in along with his sister Joy in Glasgow, Scotland, following years of ill-health.

A local source told Daily Record newspaper: "Liz had health troubles and faced up to them as well as possible but it meant she really kept herself to herself.

"She had no desire to change her life on the back of his fame. She wished to stay in Drumchapel and that's what she did.

"She never ever held any airs and graces about James and Joy being on TV or in movies and she would play it down. But she was very proud of them both.

"Her parents have always been just the same and never wanted any fuss. They were proud of their grandchildren as any other grandparents would be.

"They are extremely nice and down to earth people and that probably helped keep James fairly grounded despite his big success."

Although he was close with his mother, James was raised by his grandparents after Liz and his dad James Snr decided to split up when he was seven years old.

The 'Split' actor lost contact with his dad after the separation but James Snr believes he "took it hard" because he always longed for his parents to get back together.

In 2008, James Snr told the Daily Mail newspaper: "I think James still had hopes of me and his mum sorting things out.

"It has been hard on me not being in his life, but I'm just glad that he seems happy."With Black Panthers cinematic release right around the corner, the hype game for the upcoming Marvel Cinematic Universe movie has been turned up to 11, and a brilliant new teaser for the film has now dropped. You can check it out below:

Though it doesnt reveal too much from the film, the 30-second piece does prove that the movie is going to be an action-packed jaw-dropper, but something that doesnt take itself too seriously.

Chadwick Boseman is the man taking on the titular role, instantly making history as the first person of colour to lead a film in the superhero/comic book genre. Expected to rake in around $150 million in its opening weekend in the United States alone, it would seem Marvel have another huge hit on their hands with Black Panther.

The film will see TChalla (Boseman) make his return to the African nation of Wakanda following the death of his father, set to take up his place on the throne. When an enemy throws a spanner into the works however, TChallas instantly drawn into a chaotic battle for power that will see both his role as king challenged, and his role as the superhero Black Panther tested.

With the whole world at risk, TChalla must use the technologically advanced nation he calls home to his advantage if hes to stop the danger from destroying all he holds dear. With a number of allies willing to work alongside him, he has a fighting chance to secure the safety of his people, but will be forced to unleash his full power if hes to be a success.

Black Panther comes to cinemas across the UK on February 12, 2018 ahead of US release on February 16, 2018.

by Daniel Falconer for www.femalefirst.co.uk

find me on and follow me onFollowing her incredible win on Celebrity Big Brother last night, Australian drag artist Courtney Act has announced a tour across the UK, already selling out the dates in Manchester and Birmingham. The RuPauls Drag Race star will also be visiting Glasgow, London, Cardiff and Dublin during the tour in June of this year, following dates across Australia and New Zealand.

Coming to the UK this June

The show, which is titled Under The Covers is a full 75-minute seated one, rather than just an appearance at a nightclub.

The release of tickets came this morning, less than a day after Courtney, also known as Shane Janek when not in drag, came out of the Celebrity Big Brother house as this series winner. Former Tory politician Ann Widdecombe came in second place, whilst Boyzone legend Shane Lynch came in third. Jess Impiazzi placed fourth, and Wayne Sleep was fifth.

Courtney took in the biggest vote share of the night, with an astonishing 49.43% of all votes placed in the final, whilst Widdecombe also had a whopping amount with 39.5%. Lynch had 7.42%, with Impiazzi taking 2.75% and Sleep just a tiny 0.9%.

From the moment Courtney went into the house, she was a firm favourite in the bookies, and though Widdecombe didnt look certain to even make it past the first couple of weeks, she quickly became a favourite with some viewers because of her attitude when it came to political topics, such as gender reassignment, traditional marriage and other right-leaning taboos.

Fortunately, Celebrity Big Brother viewers in the majority were looking to the future rather than resting on outdated and sometimes offensives outlooks on life, voting Courtney their winner.

This year, the show has been based off of the theme of Year of the Woman, taking a look at what it is to be a woman in a modern world, and looking at the various ways in which women are treated both by their own sex and the opposite.

During her Celebrity Big Brothers Bit On The Side winners interview, Courtney took the opportunity to say to Ann that this is what equality looks like, pointing towards herself, and we think that thats the perfect way to end the series.

Celebrity Big Brother is expected to return to Channel 5 in the summer.

by Daniel Falconer for www.femalefirst.co.uk

find me on and follow me onCategory Select Category Apparel/Garments Textiles Fashion Technical Textiles Information Technology E-commerce Retail Corporate Association Press Release

SubCategory Select Sub-CategoryNEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / February 2, 2018 / Large urban areas have always provided challenges in terms of quick and efficient transportation for local residents. Increasing traffic and swelling populations often detour city dwellers from making non-essential trips across town, a notion that is partially responsible for the rapid rise of instant delivery services, particularly in New York City. As a growing number of consumers opt to have various purchase types sent directly to their location on demand, EpiFruit, a Manhattan-based digital platform that connects retailers with local delivery options, discusses why small-scale, versatile transport methods are becoming essential for both consumers and businesses within the NYC market.

The city of New York has a long and storied history of same-day delivery services for single items, dating back to when couriers were used to move packages such as legal documents and time-sensitive mail across town to their recipients in a hurry. While this practice is still in effect today, a burgeoning preference for the on-demand receiving of goods and products has gained a significant foothold, now encompassing everything from food to retail items. For many residents, ordering a favorite dish from a local restaurant, or even a box of cold medicine is now routinely done with a few clicks on a smartphone or mobile device, and sent straight to their home. For the businesses supplying the product, this is most often accomplished via third-party logistics, with the reliance upon these outside entities growing increasingly common. According to consulting firm Armstrong & Associates, 86 percent of domestic Fortune 500 companies make use of third-party logistics, an approach that is now making its way to smaller businesses as more options become available.

The reasoning behind the trend is a simple matter of convenience. When faced with the opportunity to receive a product directly rather than actually go and get it themselves, more New Yorkers are choosing to stay put, avoiding the stresses of traveling across the city. However, few retailers have mastered such modernized fulfillment services. "While these companies have spent years optimizing their supply chain and logistics networks for delivering goods to their stores or directly to customers' doorsteps, most have yet to figure out how to profitably bring their store locations into the e-commerce delivery process," writes Business Insider's Daniel Keyes. Simply put, NYC brick-and-mortar retailers can increase sales by electing to offer cheaper, more convenient delivery options for their shoppers through mobile platforms and apps -- or risk missing out on the profits.

EpiFruit is a market-based mobile app that connects individuals and businesses to facilitate a timely and economical delivery of goods and products, avoiding the need for more expensive, conventional delivery methods. The company strives to transcend traditional boundaries and market types, providing convenient access to hassle-free logistics for local retailers and their customers. By utilizing a partner delivery network of independent contractors, EpiFruit mitigates last mile logistics in a user-friendly, streamlined format that is easy to use for all parties involved. The company currently offers their services throughout the Manhattan area of New York City, with plans to expand as their network grows.

EpiFruit - Connecting Retailers with Local Delivery Options: http://epifruitnews.com

EpiFruit (@epifruit) - Instagram photos and videos: https://www.instagram.com/epifruit

EpiFruit Discusses the Evolution of Technology in Retail: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/epifruit-discusses-evolution-technology-retail-203000655.html

CONTACT:

EpiFruit

http://epifruit.com

contact@epifruit.com

SOURCE: EpiFruitThe global isobutene marketis expected to grow at a CAGR of over 4% during the period 2018-2022, according to a new market research study by Technavio

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180203005015/en/

Technavio has published a new market research report on the global isobutene market from 2018-2022. (Graphic: Business Wire)

The report categorizes the global isobutene market by application (automotive, aerospace, antioxidants, pharmaceuticals, and others) and product (methyl tert-butyl ether and ethyl tert-butyl ether). The report also determines the geographic breakdown of the market in terms of detailed analysis and impact, which includes key geographies such as APAC, the Americas, and EMEA.

Save more with Technavio.Buy 2 reports and get the third for free ViewTechnavio's latest discounts and promotions

Market driver: growing demand for rubber from automotive industry

The production of various synthetic chemical products is done using high-purity isobutene or isobutylene. Isobutylene is significantly used in the production of synthetic rubber, butyl rubber, and isobutylene-isoprene rubber (IIR). Copolymerization of isobutylene with small amounts of isoprene yields butyl rubber. In the automotive industry, the demand for butyl rubber in tire manufacturing is growing at a steady rate due to its excellent chemical and mechanical properties such as high vibration damping capabilities and low permeability to air and moisture.

"With a booming automotive industry, tire production has increased exponentially in developing countries like India and China. With the ever-growing need for tires in automotive vehicles by original equipment manufacturers and the aftermarket, the demand for rubber will increase, which, in turn, will drive the isobutene market during the forecast period," says a senior analyst from Technavio forspecialty chemicalsresearch.

Looking for more information on this market? Request a free sample report

Technavio's sample reports are free of charge and contain multiple sections of the report including the market size and forecast, drivers, challenges, trends, and more.

Market trend: increasing R&D and M&A activities

With the increasing consumption of isobutene in various end-user applications, the expenditure on R&D activities, coupled with M&A, has increased significantly. In addition, key players are investing extensively for the expansion of their production capacities. For instance, Evonik Industries, a specialty chemicals company, has expanded its business into manufacturing several C4 products. With its new isobutene facility in Belgium, the company will be able to produce 110,000 tons of isobutene per year, almost tripling its production capacity. The company can become one of the leading suppliers of isobutene in Europe. Similarly, in 2017, Global Bioenergies acquired Syngip, a Dutch-based startup company. This acquisition has helped Global Bioenergies to develop third-generation isobutene using gaseous carbon sources such as carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide.

Market challenge: hazardous effects of isobutene derivatives

Although isobutene derivatives are used in automotive, aerospace, pharmaceuticals, and other sectors, they have been known to have mildly hazardous effects on the environment. With rising concerns about harmful emissions from automobiles, the use of octane boosters or octane enhancers is continuously increasing. MTBE, a derivative product of isobutene, when used as an octane enhancer often goes into the groundwater, resulting in the contamination of drinking water. Due to these toxic effects of MTBE, the US has banned its use as a fuel additive in gasoline. The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) checks the MTBE levels regularly in public water systems.

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Some of the major contributors in the global isobutene market

BASF

Evonik

Global Bioenergies

LyondellBasell Industries Holdings

TPC Group

YEOCHUN NCC

Get a sample copy of the global isobutene market free of cost.

Access Technavio's continuously growing specialty chemicals research library and find expert analysis on hundreds of markets.

About Technavio

Technaviois a leading global technology research and advisory company. Their research and analysis focuses on emerging market trends and provides actionable insights to help businesses identify market opportunities and develop effective strategies to optimize their market positions.

With over 500 specialized analysts, Technavio's report library consists of more than 10,000 reports and counting, covering 800 technologies, spanning across 50 countries. Their client base consists of enterprises of all sizes, including more than 100 Fortune 500 companies. This growing client base relies on Technavio's comprehensive coverage, extensive research, and actionable market insights to identify opportunities in existing and potential markets and assess their competitive positions within changing market scenarios.

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www.technavio.comLOS ANGELES, CA / ACCESSWIRE / February 3, 2018 / The Schall Law Firm, a national shareholder rights litigation firm, announces the filing of a class action lawsuit against Kobe Steel, Ltd. (OTC PINK: KBSTY) ("Kobe Steel" or "the Company") for violations of 10(b) and 20(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rule 10b-5 promulgated thereunder by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Investors who purchased the Company's shares between May 29, 2013 and October 12, 2017, inclusive (the "Class Period"), are encouraged to contact the firm before February 26, 2018, the lead plaintiff motion deadline.

If you are a shareholder who suffered a loss during the Class Period, click here to participate.

We also encourage you to contact Brian Schall, or Sherin Mahdavian, of the Schall Law Firm, 1880 Century Park East, Suite 404, Los Angeles, CA 90067, at (424)-303-1964, to discuss your rights free of charge. You can also reach us through the firm's website at www.schallfirm.com, or by email at brian@schallfirm.com.

The class, in this case, has not yet been certified, and until certification occurs, you are not represented by an attorney. If you choose to take no action, you can remain an absent class member.

According to the lawsuit, Kobe Steel repeatedly misrepresented the quality of its products and the integrity of its operations during the Class Period by emphasizing that it offers "excellent products and services" with "special attention to product safety" as it has "an organizational culture that is highly sensitive to compliance issues." Defendants' statements pertaining to Kobe Steel's products and performance of its operations were materially false and misleading because Kobe Steel had intentionally falsified data on many of its aluminum, copper, iron and steel products, and knowingly sold products that failed quality control tests.

The Schall Law Firm represents investors around the world and specializes in securities class action lawsuits and shareholder rights litigation.

This press release may be considered Attorney Advertising in some jurisdictions under the applicable law and rules of ethics.

CONTACT:

The Schall Law Firm

Brian Schall, Esq.,

Sherin Mahdavian, Esq.,

Schallfirm.com

SOURCE: The Schall Law FirmLambda School, a San Ramon, CA-based provider of free computer science education training individuals for the worlds most in-demand careers, raised $4m in seed funding.

Backers included Y Combinator, Tandem Capital, Tyler Willis, founder of Customer Science, and Jake Chapman of Gelt Venture Capital, among others.

The funding allows the company to cover the cost of education for thousands of individuals who are looking for new opportunities.

Lambda School is a combination of a school and an investment fund whose mission is to find untapped or underutilized talent, and train that talent for the most in-demand jobs in the world.

Students can attend from anywhere in the world and instruction and group work happens live and interactive. Students must be in attendance for all sessions, but each session is recorded and can be reviewed from the archives at any time.

Lambda School has over 50 hiring partners, including IBM, Paypal, and many Y Combinator companies.

At the end of each class Lambda School has a Demo Night for its hiring partners, in which companies can meet students in the San Francisco Bay Area or attend virtually.

Lamba School does not require recruiting fees for sourcing students directly, and instead requests that hiring partners apply any recruiting fees directly toward a students tuition.

The list of investors according to the web site include:

 Y Combinator

 Paul Buchheit  Creator of Gmail

 Ryan Petersen  CEO of Flexport

 Justin Waldron  Founder of Zynga

 Jake Rosenberg  CTO of LendUp

 Karn Saroya  CEO of Cover

 Roger Dickey  CEO of Gigster

 Doug Bergreron  CEO of DGB

 Tyler Willis  CMO of Hired

 Aston Motes  First employee at Dropbox

 Boris Jabes  CEO of Meldium

 Benjamin Bryant  Early employee at Pebble

 Bernardo do Padua  CEO of Quero

 Kanjun Qiu  CEO of Sourceress

 Al Doan  Chairman at MSQC

 Bowei Lee  Chairman of LCY Group

 Tandem Ventures

 Liquid 2 Ventures

 Sound Ventures

 Gelt Ventures

 S2 Capital

 Soma Ventures

 TEEC Ventures

 Social Starts

 Zillionize Ventures

FinSMEs

03/02/2018Brexit negotiations are in full swing, yet there is still a lot of uncertainty surrounding the future, not just for the UK but for many of the countries it does regular trade with. Germany is the UKs second largest trading partner after the USA, accounting for 10.7% of UK exports in 2016 at a value of $43.6 billion. For this reason, after Brexit it is vital for both nations, businesses and SMEs that a good trade deal is put in place.

Current Negotiations

As probably the most powerful nation in the EU, Germany is taking quite a hard-line stance in the UKs Brexit negotiations. In one of the latest round of negotiations they demanded that the UK pay for its financial firms to have access to EU markets and is against any kind of bespoke deal that the UK may be trying to carve out.

In many ways Germanys position poses a big risk to the UKs aim to get a more tailor-made exit route. The only way it will step aside is if the UK drops opposition to substantial budget payments. If this leads to frosty relations developing between the two nations, then agreeing a further trade deal post-Brexit could prove difficult and detrimental to both sides.

Job Risks

Already there are plenty of warning that many jobs in the UK could be at risk after Brexit, especially in the financial sector with a lot of large companies expected to move out of London. Yet there are also risks to the German job market, such as in the auto industry. One report claims that 14,000 jobs at car suppliers in Germany could be lost, for example. Germany and the UK rely on each other in a lot of sectors, so hashing out a trade deal will be in both of their best interests to reduce the chance of job losses.

Logistical Impacts

A key part of trade involves the logistics of arranging deliveries to and from both countries. Fresh barriers after Brexit and that new trade deals could impose may make it a lot more difficult and more expensive for businesses from SMEs to large corporations to send goods overseas.

To deliver a parcel to Germany at the moment is fairly simple. TNT offer services from economy to time definite that can suit all sorts of businesses. After Brexit the costs of sending a parcel to Germany could increase, with additional custom duties, though hopefully logistics companies will be prepared to deal with these.

Challenges and Opportunities for SMEs

At the moment it seems that there are more challenges for SMEs hoping to expand into Germany and vice versa, until the specifics of Brexit and later deals are defined. Extra costs are the main thing, so SMEs will need to prepare for budget adjustments to meet these. As for opportunities, a lot will again depend on whether many financial companies move out of the UK, as this could open a gap in the market for new, innovative businesses.

A post-Brexit deal will prove highly beneficial for both German and British SMEs and trade for a prosperous future.Known as one of the leading authorities when it comes to canines, Wag! has become a respected website that is accessed by many dog owners and lovers looking for information, advice, and resources. The company works with a range of animal shelters and charities in the United States and runs a comprehensive website that is geared toward providing quality information and advice to those with pet dogs.

Recently, an official from Wag! announced that there had been some very good news in terms of investment. A businessman from Japan was so impressed with the company and the website that he has offered an investment of $300 million, which is something that will help the company to continue growing and flourishing. This is great news for Wag! as well as for the many people who turn to the site for advice and information. Finding information in any area has become easier as a result of the internet with people turning to everything from Dore Aesthetic for information about cosmetic surgery through to Trip Advisor for information and reviews on travel destination. Wag! is fast becoming the go to place for those who want information about canines, covering everything from dog related activities and events in specific areas through to information about dog health and habits.

A great investment for the company

This massive investment has come as a huge boon for the company, which has already enjoyed huge growth and success over recent years. As a result of this investment, the company will now be able to develop the site even more as well as continue its work with animal shelters and charities in the United States. The site has already been features in a range of popular publications, which includes Forbes, the New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and the Los Angeles Times.

The site also works as a valuable resource for busy dog owners looking for dog walkers, and many people have already left reviews and testimonials about how excellent the service is. For many dog owners, things such as full time work, studying, and raising a family can affect their ability to spend as much time as they would like to with their pet. Unlike cats, dogs are not as independent, so making sure there is someone available for things such as walks is vital. This is where the company is able to step in and help by ensuring that dog lovers are able to connect with walkers.

In addition to this, the site provides access to a range of resources including the latest dog news, tips and hints, a comprehensive blog, and information on everything from dog grooming through to behavior, health, and breeds. This makes it a one stop resource for those that love and own dogs as well as those thinking of getting a dog for the first time. With the help of this investment, the site and company will be able to go from strength to strength.With its focus on farmers and the poor, the politics of the Budget are clearly aimed at the 17 state elections over the next two years and the 2019 general elections

With major policy disruptions  structural changes like the goods and services tax (GST), demonetisation, and an insolvency law (with last months amendment)  and big economic governance tools (recapitalisation of banks, and greater order through a transparent auctioning of natural resources, disinvestment and steady economic growth) behind it, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, in the Modi government's penultimate election Budget, puts the policy upheavals of the past three years together. Budget 2018 picks up the pieces of this apparently random policy jig-saw and binds it into a political economy narrative. This is a politically-sensitive Budget that consolidates past policies but also looks at and invests in a new future for the Indian economy.

The consolidation has two parts. The first captures the gains of the past. A 29 percent jump in the number of new taxpayers to 8.6 million in one year is no mean feat. Nor is the 28 percent increase in the number of effective taxpayer base to 82.7 million in two years. These are the benefits of demonetisation. Likewise, the formalisation of the Indian economy is now visible: Although the GST was ushered in only on 1 July 2017, the process of entering the tax system has been "massive". Both these policies use technology and finance to make tax evasion a risky business. Catalysing these are banks, with their balance sheets now powered by bonds worth Rs 80,000 crore. The gains from these policies are now being consolidated on two large and troubling frontiers in Budget 2018  agriculture and infrastructure.

In agriculture, the direction is towards doubling farmers' incomes by 2022. That is, to step away from production-centric policies to productivity-focussed ones. With the minimum support price of most Rabi crops engineered to deliver a 50 percent return on investment to farmers already in place, Budget 2018 transposes it on the rest of the crops for the Kharif season as well. But prices are only one component of returns. Often, it is the middlemen, the traders, who pocket the benefits meant for farmers through the statutory agricultural produce market committees (APMCs) set up by state governments. Lack of access prevents small and marginal farmers who comprise 86 percent of all farmers from getting the benefits meant for them.

By linking technology and trading portals e-NAM (electronic national agriculture market) to create platforms for transactions, Budget 2018 proposes to offer small farmers the facility to make direct sales to consumers and bulk purchasers. This is part of a long evolutionary process that would give lower prices to consumers and higher returns to farmers. Being under the control of state governments, however, its success will depend upon on-ground execution in local mandis rather than in statements of a Union Budget document.

As far as Budget 2018 goes, the focus on agriculture is sending out a sharp political message too. The message is: 'Dear farmers, the BJP has plans of prosperity for you.'

The first big test of this message will come in April-May 2018, when Karnataka goes to polls for 223 Assembly seats, and which will be a hugely-contested electoral battle. Before this, three smaller states  Meghalaya, Nagaland and Tripura, with 60 seats each  will have elections, soon after the Budget, in February-March 2018. The end of the year will see elections in another small state, Mizoram, in October-November 2018 for 40 seats. In 2019, as many as 11 States will have elections. This is not counting the big one  the Lok Sabha elections. Each of these elections will be hard fought.

The success of BJP will, consequently, depend on the delivery of agricultural policies, particularly in ensuring farm incomes rise. This will be a double-edged sword: If incomes rise, votes may follow; if not, they will definitely go the other way. The agrarian focus of Budget 2018, therefore, contains high risk as well as potentially high returns.

Coming to infrastructure, the journey will be steeper, given the huge monies involved. Budget 2018 estimates it to be Rs 50 lakh crore, though other approximations place the number as high as $1.5 trillion or Rs 95 lakh crore. Making matters worse is the complexity of contracts in the sector, which have ensured that allegations of corruption and nepotism accompany almost every closure. It would be wise to remain cautious about their execution at such a large scale. Again, since the devil of "make or break" lies in delivery, we hope technology would be able to resolve much of these pains, given, of course, that the policy path is clear in one sector after another, from roads and ports to railways and airports.

It would be the same story of past caution and future technology hopes around building cities. Of the Rs 200,000 crore outlay for 99 Smart Cities, for instance, projects worth only Rs 2,350 crore or 1.2 percent have been completed, while Rs 20,852 crore or about 10.4 percent are under progress. True, speed kills and often breeds corruption, a malaise this government has remained far from thus far. So, the slower speed may express circumspection rather than inertia. Further, unless executed with a new round of political enthusiasm and administrative energy, bundling tourism into the cities programme is a yawn  every minister in every government has attempted to turn tourist cities into revenue streams and failed. Will Budget 2018 be able to change this? Unless the accumulated good intentions of the past 70 years come together and convert themselves into action, this will remain a grand strategy that would be read, analysed and repeated but not executed.

There are changes in taxation that will deliver outcomes. Firstly, the extension of a 25 percent corporate tax rate to companies with a turnover of up to Rs 250 crore. This will positively impact 99 percent of all companies filing tax returns (in his previous Budget, Jaitley had given this benefit to companies with turnovers of up to Rs 50 crore or 96 percent of all companies). Jaitley hopes this will nudge beneficiary companies into investing and creating jobs, neither of which is pre-ordained. But the relief being provided to small companies is real and tangible. More than money, this relief can be seen as an incentive to go legit, to pay taxes and to help them negotiate the "losses" from two digital enablers of a formal economy  demonetisation and GST.

The Rs 7,000 crore of revenue foregone on this count will be pulled out of Jaitley's second change, the reintroduction of long-term capital gains tax on equities and equity mutual funds, from which he hopes to garner Rs 20,000 crore. All capital gains till 31 January 2018, however, will be grandfathered.

The justification for a long-term capital gains tax is terribly weak: "Return on investment in equity is already quite attractive even without tax exemption."

Through this statement, Jaitley is implying that these gains will remain attractive in the future too. That is not possible unless the Indian market becomes an unrelenting outlier, beating all past valuations and going in only one direction, up. What Jaitley is not seeing is the other side of returns  risk. What he should have done instead, and which Parliament must debate and push for, is to increase the definition of "long-term" for equities to three years from 12 months, as in real estate.

On the income taxes front, barring two tiny changes, Budget 2018 delivers what it must  status quo. That is, no change in either the rates of taxation or the slabs on which they would be applicable. Jaitley, however, has reintroduced standard deduction  which former Finance Minister P Chidambaram had removed 12 years ago, in Budget 2005  of Rs 40,000, for salaried taxpayers. This, he says, brings a little balance between the salaried taxpayers and the business or professional taxpayers (in 2017-18, 18.9 million salaried taxpayers paid an average of Rs 76,306 as taxes, while 18.8 million business or professional taxpayers paid an average of Rs 25,753). The number of Rs 40,000 is about 26 percent short of the Rs 50,553 differential. The effective savings will be statistically insignificant, but nobody's crying.

In a small way, Budget 2018 is shifting India towards a future that has already happened, to embrace a forthcoming digital life. By tasking NITI Aayog to launch a programme that brings India at par with the global economy in general and artificial intelligence, machine learning, internet of things, block chain technologies, 5G and 3D printing in particular, it is powering extant schemes like 'Digital India', 'Start Up India', and 'Make in India' with knowledge. What India needs is an ecosystem that nurtures innovation, ideas and products that match the best in the world. This ecosystem can also work to strengthen the countrys defence system and catch up with the leaders  notably, the US, China and Russia.

The days of Budgets being policy statements and media events are over. Budget 2018 does what it is supposed to: Balance the books; the fiscal deficit target of 3.5 percent for Financial Year 2018 and 3.3 percent for Financial Year 2019 are in the right direction, give or take  while driving growth.

With its focus on farmers and the poor (the National Health Protection Scheme that would cover 500 million citizens in 100 million vulnerable households with a health cover of up to Rs 5 lakh for secondary and tertiary care hospitalisation), its politics is clearly aimed at the 17 state elections over the next two years and the 2019 general elections.

The article originally appeared in Observer Research FoundationThe hunt to locate the women in this year's Budget yielded mixed results. While some saw our needs catered to, others feel the needs of women play no role in the Budget planning at all

By Taruni Kumar

As Finance Minister Arun Jaitley delivered his final full Budget before the 2019 Union elections, the camera panned across the Lok Sabha. One quick glance counted just three women amid a sea of men; there are only 64 women members of Parliament in the 543-member Lok Sabha. So when Jaitley repeated "Madam", while addressing Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan, it seemed a little jarring.

But similar to the task of looking for women in a crowded Parliament is the task of looking for women in the 2018-19 Budget. There is no separate section or segment addressed at women, like in the 2017 Budget, which had made a separate allocation of Rs 1.86 lakh crore for various schemes for women and children across ministries. Or the 2016 Budget, which set Rs 1.56 lakh crore in 2016.

This in itself isn't a problem as long as the Budget takes into account women's needs. But as development economist Dr Jayati Ghosh, professor of Economics at Jawaharlal Nehru University, told The Ladies Finger, "The government sees regressive roles of women in the society."

The Budget too seems to remain status quo-ist in that it assumes that it needs to ease the needs of women as per their current social roles. "It uses a certain lens," says Dr Ratna Sudarshan, trustee and former director of the Institute of Social Studies Trust. "It's not a gender-blind Budget statement, but it recognised women in their present role: Women in the household, what can you do to make them better? 'We want women to work' is definitely an underlying idea but it doesn't look at what prevents them from working and what are the challenges. It's not looking at changing the pattern of development. It's assuming that everyone's (all genders and demographics) needs are the same but it's definitely trying to bring women into the processes of economic growth that are already going on."

Despite this baseline criticism, some feminist economists think that overall, this year's Budget is a positive one for women. The National Health Protection Scheme, the new healthcare insurance scheme announced by Jaitley, aimed at covering 10 crore vulnerable families (which adds up to about 50 crore beneficiaries), stands out as a key step. This was announced as the "world's largest healthcare programme"; it will provide a health insurance cover of Rs 5 lakh per family per annum. The scale of the initiative makes it stand out. This is the new version of the Rashtriya Swasthya Suraksha Yojana (RSSY), the renamed version of the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY).

"I think the idea of the insurance cover for the poverty households is a brilliant and meaningful proposal," says Padma Bhushan awardee, economist and writer Dr Devaki Jain. "When women are ill, very often they are not treated as carefully as men in rural India, but with insurance now, they can go to any private hospital and get the best services because they're covered. That will improve access to health and push for treatment for women even among the rural poor or the urban poor."

Dr Sudarshan said, "The health insurance going up to Rs 5 lakh per household is a huge amount. If implemented properly, they won't just be particularly for women, but they'll also make a huge difference. But I think equally important is the statement that there will be wellness and health centres. Now, the question of implementation is there because we don't know what it'll actually look like in practice, but to the extent that we're recognising the need for distributing health facilities widely and close to the place of residence is a very important point."

But not everyone feels so positively about the healthcare scheme.

Dr Reetika Khera, who teaches Economics at IIT Delhi, said, "If the new healthcare scheme is anything like the RSBY, then it's hardly anything to cheer about, because studies show that RSBY did not reduce out of pocket expenditures for patients. Furthermore, insurance companies and private providers can inflate the costs of tests or procedures. In any case, what is required is not just tertiary care; we need a much larger Budget for preventive healthcare as well."

However, the most condemning criticism comes from Dr Ghosh. "Most of the promises made don't have a budgetary allocation. The sheer audacity of this is alarming. That you can claim that so much will be spent and not put in budgetary allocations. So when you're talking about health insurance for 50 crore people or this massive increase in SC/ST allocation or the huge increase in money spent on rural areas, most of them aren't backed up by the numbers. Instead, they're putting most of this in extra-budgetary or non-budgetary sources."

According a report carried by the fact-checking website factchecker.in, there has only been a 2.7 percent increase in allocations to the health sector: From Rs 53,198 crore in 2017-18 to Rs 54,667 crore this year. In fact, spending on the health ministry has declined to 2.1 percent of the total Budget: From 2.4 percent in 2017-18.

According to the National Health Policy, health expenditure should be 2.5 percent of the total GDP by 2025. Given these numbers, it's difficult to fathom how an expansion of the government health insurance scheme will take place when overall spending has reduced.

Aside from the scheme, she added, "They've cut money on the National Health Mission, which is what employs the ASHAs (Accredited Social Health Activists, who are community health workers working for the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare). There is also very little increase on the Integrated Child Development Services which is for the anganwadis and so on."

There has been a 2.1 percent decline in the allocation for the National Health Mission.

Digging deeper to locate women in the Budget narrative, one wonders how the allocations announced for micro, small and medium industries (MSMEs) are likely to affect women. The finance minister allocated Rs 3,794 crore for credit support, capital and interest subsidy to MSMEs. Last year, the Budget had included tax sops to MSMEs to make them more viable. It reduced tax to 25 percent for companies with an annual revenue of up to Rs 50 crore. This year, the Budget proposed the cutting of corporate tax to 25 percent for companies with an annual revenue of up to Rs 250 crore.

"Now small and medium scale industries, as you go further down the line, are the ones that employ women. It's the self-employed women, self-help groups. All these people are under great stress as they don't get enough credit. Ninety percent of India's GDP and 95 percent of employees in India come from the small industries, and they (the government) is normally pampering the rich. So this is an interesting variation from the normal," Dr Jain said.

Sanitation is also a huge issue for women, especially in the rural sectors, and as Dr Sudarshan pointed out, "We don't know how much the investment into 'Swachh Bharat' is leading to behaviour change. There is different feedback that one gets from the field, but nonetheless, toilets do make a very huge difference to womens health."

But even as the digging around finds certain potential for positive movement in women's lives, other not-so-positive developments make themselves known. "The Budget for maternity entitlements has actually been reduced. I'm guessing that's because last year's Budget was more or less left unutilised. The required commitment from the Centre is Rs 8,000 crore, while the Budget this year is Rs 2,400 crore. So, even if all of last year's pending funds are added, it's still only Rs 5,000 crore, which is still too little," Dr Khera said.

Dr Ghosh pointed out that some of the schemes have not actually been well thought out. Like the Ujjwala scheme, that provides free LPG connections to families below the poverty line. The scheme was started in May 2016 and 3 crore households have since received access to cooking gas connections. This year's Budget proposes the expansion of the scheme to include 8 crore poor families.

"It turns out so many of the women who are taking it are subsequently not using it because they can't afford to buy cylinders. And this was not taken into account. And they know this. A large number of the women have not gone back and taken the cylinder because you take the original one and when it runs out, then you dont have the money to go get another one. And yet they're expanding the scheme without this basic thing being thought through," she added.



The hunt to locate the women in this year's Budget yielded mixed results. While some saw our needs catered to, others feel the needs of women play no role in the Budget planning at all. And just as the Budget sees a continuation in the existing roles of women, which are, needless to say, socially suppressed, there seems to be a continuation in the Budget's own proposals as well.

"A lot of this Budget has to do with continuation. If we look at agriculture, women's access to programmes does appear to be through self-help groups which has been the case for a long time so it's not like any new conduit is being created. Apart from health, the other programmes are also already there. I didn't see anything dramatically new in women's role in the economy. It is as perceived," Dr Sudarshan said.

The Ladies Finger is a leading online women's magazine.Middle-income folks, whose annual income is between Rs 3.5-10 lakh, are worst hit by high school fees. Educating children at private schools is burning a deep hole in their pockets.

On 9 January, 2018, Bengaluru resident Razia Khan logged on to the website of St Germain School in the city as soon as online registrations opened  she wanted to get her 5-year-old son admitted to lower kindergarten. Even as she clicked on the Online Application tab, her hopes were dashed. A message popped up saying Registrations Completed.

The reason for this mad rush? St Germain School is one of the few private schools in Bengaluru that offer quality education at an affordable fee  Rs 50,000 admission fee and Rs 20,000 tuition fee annually. In most private schools in the city, fees go are a couple of lakhs. An IT professional, seeking anonymity, says he pays Rs 1.5 lakh as tuition fee annually for his daughter studying in Class IV at Deens Academy, Whitefield. I dont know how much I will end up paying (in school fees) by the time my daughter reaches college.

This is the story of every middle-class parent in Bengaluru and in other tier-I Indian cities. Most schools are fleecing parents and flouting government norms openly. One can expect an admission call only if they declare a hefty income in the admission inquiry form. Parents visiting schools are often greeted with notices such as these:

Middle-income folks, whose annual income is between Rs 3.5-10 lakh, are the worst hit. They dont want to send their children to government schools. And educating them at private schools is burning a deep hole in their pockets. A rudimentary analysis of fees at popular non-elite, private CBSE and ICSE schools  Presidency School and Florence School, Ryan International, Deen's Academy and Dhee Global School  in Bengaluru revealed that the average annual tuition fee in 2017-18 was between Rs 1,00,000-1,50,000 per student per year. Parents have to shell out another Rs 8,000-12,000 for books, uniforms, and stationery, which too are sold by the schools. Then theres the transportation fee, which depends on the distance a student travels.

The ASSOCHAM Social Development Foundation (ASDF) conducted a random survey in May 2015 on the rise in private school fees. The report says: School expenses of a single child, including tuition fees, have risen from Rs 55,000 in 2005 to Rs 1,25,000 per annum in 2015.

It noted, It is becoming difficult for salaried parents in big cities to afford tuition fee and other expenses, which have gone up by 150 percent in the last 10 years.

School fees higher than college fees!

School fees today are higher than engineering college fees, which range between Rs 20,000 and Rs 35,000 annually. A 2007 report by the Unesco Institute for Statistics which focused on the financials of education in 200 countries says, The household contribution drops to 14 percent (for university education), exactly half of what the middle-class spends on primary and secondary education.

Most parents who spoke to Firstpost say they have other financial commitments  EMIs of the house, car or personal loans, medical expenses of ageing parents, insurance premiums  as well, and that exorbitant school fees make it hard for them to meet these. A software project lead with an IT firm in Bengaluru, who wanted to remain anonymous, says, I spent about Rs 1,00,000 last year to admit my child to Class I in Presidency school, R.T. Nagar, and paid another Rs 60,000 in tuition fee, apart from other expenses. I am worried how will I finance my second childs education.

Government norms flouted openly

A draft notification issued by the Education Secretariat of Karnataka on 6 July, 2017, which Firstpost has access to, warns private bodies that run schools: The concerned bodies shall have been formed on non-proprietary and non-profit sharing basis The funds of the institution shall not be channelised for purposes other than furthering education

Further, the Karnataka Education Act 1983 provides a formula for calculation of tuition fee: It should account for the salaries of the teaching and non-teaching staff, plus 30% of the recurring expenditure, divided by the number of students. The Act also stipulates that schools should not charge any term fees up to Class V, and that they charge nominal term fees for higher classes.

But this formula is hardly followed in any private school. In 2016, officials of the Department of Public Instruction conducted a survey of 17 schools in Bengaluru and found that schools were charging up to 138% of the recurring expenses. The Karnataka Education (Second amendment) Bill, 2017 proposed a new fee calculation formula, which would enable schools to charge additional fee based on their geographical location, but is yet to come into effect.

Software engineer Vinodh Rajaraman, 39, who started a movement in Bengaluru in 2015 and filed a PIL in September 2016 in the Karnataka High Court for regulation of school fees, says, A school of 1,000 students with a yearly fee of Rs 1 lakh easily makes Rs 10 crore a year, apart from other incomes such as admission fee and uniform charges, excluding expenses of salaries and building rent.

Its not only people in Bengaluru who are bearing the brunt of schools charging tuition fees arbitrarily. Parents in many Indian cities have organised themselves to fight against unregulated fee hikes by private schools.

The sharp increase in the number of private schools in Bengaluru shows how lucrative the school business is. According to a report by the Department of Public Instruction, there was a four-fold increase in the number of private schools between 2009 and 2014 in Bengaluru  the numbers stand at 1,377 in south and 937 in north Bengaluru.

Challenges posed by the RTE

According to Article 21A of the Constitution of India, it is mandatory for the State to provide free education from ages six to 14. However, the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009, which was inserted as a sub-clause to article 21A, doesnt help the middle-income class. The Act puts several restrictions  only families with income below Rs 3.5 lakh are eligible to apply for seats under the RTE Act; schools must be located within the ward of the parents seeking admission etc  on admission under the RTE quota.

Free education not just for 25 percent

In an interim order passed on 12 February, 2013 by Justice HG Ramesh, the Karnataka HC observed, In view of the Article 21(A) of the Constitution of India, children in that age group (6-14) are entitled to free and compulsory education. This is not only applicable for the 25 percent selected by the state as per the RTE, but all the children in the age group of 6-14 years. It is for the state to reimburse the fees fixed by the respective schools." If the government had taken timely steps towards the implementation of this order, it would have left far reaching consequences.

Parents to their own rescue

Abhilash Matlapudi, a 37-year-old project manager at a Bengaluru IT firm, came back from abroad and realized that paying his childrens school fees was going to be really challenging despite his decent salary. He then came up with the idea of founding a school funded and managed by parents in Whitefield area of the city in 2017. I started a Facebook page seeking peoples opinion on starting a parent-owned school with full transparency. We ended up starting Citizens Gurukul.The CBI has moved an application before a Delhi court seeking a direction to allow it to go for further probe into the Rs 64 crore Bofors payoff case, saying the agency had come across fresh material and evidence

New Delhi: The CBI has moved an application before a Delhi court seeking a direction to allow it to go for further probe into the Rs 64 crore Bofors payoff case, saying the agency had come across fresh material and evidence.

The application was moved before Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Ashu Garg on 1 February, a day before the CBI filed a petition challenging the 31 May, 2005 order of the Delhi High Court discharging all accused persons in the case.

The agency had also informed the apex court about the filing of the application in the trial court which has posted it for further deliberations on 17 February.

"An application under section 173 (8) of the Code has been moved before the trial court which has been directed by the trial court vide order dated 1 February to be taken up for consideration on 17 February," the agency had said in its special leave petition (SLP) filed in the Supreme Court.

The probe agency had on Friday moved the Supreme Court challenging the Delhi High Court's 2005 verdict acquitting all accused in the case.

The agency swung into action after the attorney general orally gave it the go-ahead to file the appeal in the case in which it cited the October 2017 interview of private detective Michael Hershman, who alleged that the then Rajiv Gandhi-led Congress government had sabotaged his probe.

The Rs 1,437-crore deal between India and Swedish arms manufacturer AB Bofors for the supply of 400 155mm howitzer guns for the Indian Army was entered into on 24 March, 1986

Swedish Radio on 16 April, 1987, had claimed that the company had paid bribes to top Indian politicians and defence personnel.

The CBI on 22 January, 1990 had registered the FIR for alleged offences of criminal conspiracy, cheating and forgery under the IPC and other sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act against Martin Ardbo, the then president of AB Bofors, alleged middleman Win Chadda and the Hinduja brothers.

It had alleged that certain public servants and private persons in India and abroad had entered into a criminal conspiracy between 1982 and 1987 in pursuance of which the offences of bribery, corruption, cheating and forgery were committed

The first charge sheet in the case was filed on 22 October, 1999, against Chadda, Ottavio Quattrocchi, the then defence secretary SK Bhatnagar, Ardbo and the Bofors company.

A supplementary charge sheet was filed against the Hinduja brothers  SP Hinduja, GP Hinduja and PP Hinduja  on 9 October, 2000.

A special CBI court in Delhi on 4 March, 2011, had discharged Quattrocchi from the case, saying the country could not afford to spend hard-earned money on his extradition which had already cost Rs 250 crore.

Quattrocchi, who had fled from India on 29-30 July, 1993, never appeared before any court in India to face prosecution.

He passed away on 13 July, 2013. The other accused persons who died are Bhatnagar, Chadda and Ardbo.

Justice RS Sodhi (since retired) of the Delhi High Court on 31 May, 2005, had quashed the CBI case in the Bofors payoff scam.CBI team on Saturday arrested a Central Goods and Service Tax (CGST) commissioner from Kanpur along with six others in a bribery case

Lucknow: A CBI team on Saturday arrested a Central Goods and Service Tax (CGST) commissioner from Kanpur along with six others in a bribery case, officials said.

The commissioner named Sansar Chand is accused of taking bribes from businessmen on a monthly and quarterly basis.

Police said other than the accused official, some inspectors and a group of private persons used to exert pressure on some institutions and businessmen and fleece them for money.

In its report, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) said that others who operated with Sansar Chand included Ajay Srivastava, Aman Shah, Rajiv Singh Chandel all three from Kanpur, and Amit Awasthi (from Rohini, Delhi), Aman Jain (Shivaji Park, Delhi) and Chandra Prakash (Punjabi Bagh, Delhi).

Wife of the arrested official Avinash Kaur has also been made an accused by the CBI. The agency has also accused the CGST commissioner of accepting highly expensive items, electronic goods at his Delhi residence from businessmen.

A source informed IANS that apparently the complaint was filed by a detergent manufacturer who was being asked to pay Rs 2 lakh per month to the commissioner.

Sansar Chand, a 1986 batch Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer, resides in the Customs Colony in Gujaini area of Kanpur. He was arrested from Faizabad district of Uttar Pradesh while the others were arrested from the union capital. The CBI has also arrested office staff Saurabh Pandey and a private operator Manish Sharma in the case.

The CBI has alleged that Chand and other officials were part of organised and systematic collection of illegal gratification.

The excise officials contacted various people through middleman Awasthi for extorting illegal gratification.

These payments pertained to either monthly or quarterly payments as protection money for omission of action by the Central Excise Department on such private parties, the CBI said.

The money was collected by public servants and were transferred systematically through hawala channel to Delhi through Aman Jain.

In certain instances, the bribe would be in form of items like "mobiles, refrigerators and expensive TVs".

The probe agency has booked them under the charges of criminal conspiracy of Indian Penal Code and provisions of Prevention of Corruption Act.A meeting called by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Saturday to discuss allocation of funds for the downtrodden communities saw Dalit leaders walk out.

Bengaluru: A meeting called by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Saturday to discuss allocation of funds for the downtrodden communities saw Dalit leaders walk out, demanding that the government make clear its stand on internal reservation among scheduled castes.

Drama unfolded during the pre-budget meeting as the Dalit leaders insisted that the government clarify its stand on the AJ Sadashiva Commission report.

The meet at the chief minister's residence was to discuss allocation of funds for various welfare schemes for the downtrodden communities.

As soon as it began, Bahujan Samaj Party state coordinator Marasandra Muniyappa and Dalit Sangharsh Samiti president N Murthy demanded that the government make known its stand on report.

They surrounded Siddaramaiah and refused to heed to his plea to come up with suggestions.

Apparently unhappy with the ruckus caused by the two leaders, the chief minister said he would leave the meeting hall.

However, the Dalit leaders boycotted the meeting and walked out.

Later, Murthy accused Siddaramaiah of dividing the Dalit communities "hurting their interests."

"We toiled for 45 years to unite various Dalit communities and ensure that they received their benefits. However, Siddaramaiah is obstructing our work to uplift Dalits," he said.

"Siddaramaiah came to power with the help of Dalits and today he is working against their interests. We will teach Congress a lesson in the 2018 assembly elections," Murthy added.

BSP leader Muniyappa said Siddaramaiah was insisting on seeking the opinion from Advocate General (regarding the implementation of Sadashiva commission report), which he said was not required.

The commission had recommended reclassification of all scheduled castes into four groups of Right Community, Left Community, Touchables and Other Scheduled Castes for equitable distribution of the overall reservation.

The objective behind setting it up was to examine whether the benefits for the scheduled caste reached all sub-sects equally.The Delhi High Court has sought to know whether the adjudicating authority under the new benami law has passed any order on Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain's plea.

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court has sought to know whether the adjudicating authority under the new benami law has passed any order on Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain's plea to cross-examine witnesses in connection with the alleged benami case against him.

Justice Rajiv Shakdher issued the direction on Jain's plea seeking a stay on the proceedings before the adjudicating authority on the grounds that the Initiating Officer's order to provisionally attach the assets allegedly belonging to him was passed without allowing him to cross-examine witnesses.

Advocate Amit Anand Tiwari, appearing for Jain, submitted he has not been given any opportunity of cross-examination of witnesses, whose statements have been blindly relied upon to arrive at the findings.

"The entire proceedings before the adjudicating authority were illegal as various witness testimonies that have been recorded are not being provided to the petitioner."

"It is trite law that fair hearing includes supply of all documents, whether they have been relied upon or not, at the time of final adjudication," the minister has said in his plea.

He contended that the "denial of an opportunity to cross examine the witnesses, on whose statements reliance has been placed, is contrary to all canons and principles of natural justice and fair play".

The counsel also claimed that his application before the adjudicating authority to cross-examine the witnesses has neither been allowed nor dismissed.

Opposing the minister's contention, the counsel for the authorities said that once the adjudicating authority passes the order, the minister will have an opportunity to appeal against it.

However, the bench observed that "how can it be that the adjudicating authority neither accepted the application for cross-examination of the witnesses, nor decided it".

"Prima facie it seems to be very odd," the court said and fixed the matter for further hearing on 21 February.

According to Jain, the alleged benami transactions, from the proceeds of which the attached assets were claimed to have been purchased, took place between 2011 and 31 March, 2016 and hence, the amendment which came into effect in November 2016 would not apply.

His lawyers sought that either the proceedings under the Benami Transactions (Prohibition) Act be stayed or the adjudicating authority be directed not to pass a final order till his petition in the high court is finally decided.

Hundreds of bighas of land and other assets worth over Rs 30 crore, allegedly purchased in and around Delhi by four firms, have been provisionally attached by the department under the new benami law which carries a maximum punishment of up to seven years of rigorous jail term and a hefty penalty.

Under the Act, an Initiating Officer have been notified to conduct an inquiry or investigation regarding benami transactions.

The Initiating Officer will refer the case to the Adjudicating Authority which will examine all documents and evidence relating to the matter and then pass an order on whether or not to hold the property as benami.Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari voiced shock and horror over the alleged honour killing of a photographer in the city and demanded stern action against the culprits.

New Delhi: The Delhi BJP chief on Saturday voiced shock and horror over the alleged honour killing of a photographer in the city and demanded stern action against the culprits.

"Shocked and horrified at cold-blooded murder of Ankit Saxena. Culprits should be punished with the highest quantum," Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari said in a tweet, urging the Delhi Police Commissioner Amulya Patnaik to take stern action against the culprits.

Shocked and Horrified on cold blooded murder of #AnkitSaxena .

Culprits should be punished with the highest quantum @CPDelhi @DelhiPolice #JusticeForAnkit  Manoj Tiwari (@ManojTiwariMP) February 3, 2018

Sir,

All accused persons involved in murder have been arrested. Expeditious and speedy investigation is being ensured under supervision of senior officers. DCP West.  DCP West Delhi (@DCPWestDelhi) February 3, 2018

Tiwari's remarks came a day after Ankit Saxena was killed in a case of honour killing in Delhi's Khyala area on Thursday night.

The Delhi Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief also said he would visit the family of Saxena.

Saxena was allegedly killed by the family of a woman he was in a relationship with.

According to Delhi Police, the woman's family was against their relationship as they belonged to different communities and had told him to end it.India can bring a turnaround in its population growth rate in another 37 years, provided it manages to bring down the birth rate, or total fertility rate (TFR), below 2.0 between 2035-2040, and then achieve a TFR of 1.8 by 2061

In another six years, India is expected to overtake China and become the world's most populated country. However, India can bring about a turnaround in its population growth rate in another 37 years, provided it manages to bring down the birth rate, or total fertility rate (TFR), below 2.0 between 2035-2040, the 2017 revised projections of the Population Division of United Nations' Department of Economic and Social Affairs has said.

The projections also said India is expected to reach its maximum projected population by the year 2061 but will achieve a TFR of 1.8 by that year. TFR is the average number of children born to a woman.

However, by then, India's population would have increased by 33.9 crore (based on the current medium variant projections of the UN report). The slowdown in growth rate is also likely to include an improved sex ratio and a decrease in the number of newborns while an increase in the number of senior citizens, the 2017 revised population projection suggests.

Why does total fertility rate matter? Whether or not India will cross the 2 billion mark depends entirely on birth rate, particularly in heavily populated regions, the data suggested. The 2017 population projections confirm the numbers required from India to maintain a trajectory which would see a decline in population growth. So India is more or less on the correct path. The challenge will be to maintain the current rate.

The country, however, will continue to contribute to global immigration, with over 100,000 people migrating overseas every year.

What's more interesting is that by 2050, all regions of the world except Africa will have nearly a quarter or more of their populations at ages 60 and above. Africa will be relatively younger than the rest of the world.Jammu and Kashmir government has approved withdrawal of cases registered against 9,730 people involved in stone-pelting incidents, including first-time offenders, between 2008 and 2017

Jammu: Jammu and Kashmir government has approved withdrawal of cases registered against 9,730 people involved in stone-pelting incidents, including first-time offenders, between 2008 and 2017, Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti said on Saturday.

The government action to withdraw 1,745 cases is subject to "certain conditions" and is based on recommendations of a committee constituted to look into the matter, Mufti said.

She said her government has also recommended to give amnesty to more than 4,000 people, who are said to be involved in minor incidents of stone pelting over the past two years.

In a written reply to a question in the Assembly, Mufti did not disclose the particulars of first-time offenders due to security considerations for them and their families.

However, she said 3,773 cases were registered in 2016 and 2017, leading to the arrest of 11,290 people, of whom 233 remained untraced.

Seven cases were not admitted and 1,692 were chargesheeted, while 1,841 cases were under investigation, Mufti, who hold the home department portfolio, said.

Intense clashes had rocked Kashmir Valley in 2016 following the death of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani in July that year, resulting in the death of over 85 people.

The chief minister said while 2,904 cases were registered and 8,570 people were arrested in connection with stone-pelting incidents in 2016, the number of such cases in 2017 dropped to 869 in which 2,720 people were arrested.

The highest 2,330 people were arrested in Srinagar followed by 2,046 in Baramulla, 1,385 in Pulwama, 1,123 in Kupwara, 1,118 in Anantnag, 783 in Budgam, 714 in Ganderbal, 694 in Shopian, 548 in Bandipora, 547 in Kulgam and two in Doda districts during 2016 and 2017, she said.

She said 56 government employees and 16 Hurriyat Conference activists were among the 4,949 people found involved in stone-pelting incidents, while 4,074 were not affiliated with any separatist or militant group.All the accused in a case filed by BJP president Amit Shah's son Jay Shah over an article published by news portal The Wire relating to his company denied the allegation of criminal defamation against them on Saturday

Ahmedabad: All the accused in a case filed by BJP president Amit Shah's son Jay Shah over an article published by news portal The Wire relating to his company denied the allegation of criminal defamation against them on Saturday, according to Jay Shah's lawyer.

Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate SK Gadhvi recorded the statements of the accused on Saturday, his lawyer Prakash Patel said.

With the accused denying the allegation that they indulged in criminal defamation, the trial will start from the next hearing on 17 March with Jay Shah's examination, he said.

Jay Shah had moved court alleging criminal defamation by the accused after the article published by the website claimed his company's turnover grew exponentially following the BJP-led government coming to power at the Centre in 2014.

Shah filed the criminal defamation case against the author of the article Rohini Singh, founding editors of the news portal Siddharth Varadarajan, Siddharth Bhatia and MK Venu, managing editor Monobina Gupta, public editor Pamela Philipose and the owner of the portal, Foundation for Independent Journalism.

The accused had earlier moved the Gujarat High Court to get the case quashed, but got no relief.

Jay Shah has separately filed a civil defamation suit of Rs 100 crore against the website over the article.Jammu and Kashmir Assembly witnessed noisy scenes over alleged assault on two Kashmiri students in Haryana, with several Opposition members staging a walkout.

Jammu: Jammu and Kashmir Assembly on Saturday witnessed noisy scenes over alleged assault on two Kashmiri students in Haryana, with several Opposition members staging a walkout during the zero hour, accusing the government of failing to check such incidents.

The state government assured the House that the matter has been taken up with Haryana and three persons have been arrested in the case.

The Opposition members also questioned why the government had called an an all-party meeting to discuss upcoming panchayat elections, when it has already taken all decisions in this regard.

After the house assembled, BJP state president Sat Sharma drew the attention of the house to the the death of three Army personnel in an avalanche in Gurez sector of Bandipora district in north Kashmir and the force rescuing a civilian patient despite adverse weather condition on Friday.

"The opposition should also acknowledge and praise the sacrifice and the rescue effort of the army... They only consider it their duty to criticise the forces," he said amid thumping of desks by the BJP legislators.

Deputy Speaker Nazir Ahmad Gurezi, during the question hour, said the Indian Air Force and the Army were doing a great service to the nation which is praiseworthy. Parliamentary Affairs Minister A R Veeri intervened to make a statement before the start of the question hour, assuring the house that the government was serious on both the issues raised by the opposition.

"As far as Haryana incident is concerned, an FIR has already been lodged by (Haryana police). Two students were attacked by some miscreants, resulting in minor injuries to one of them...On the directions of Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti, Principal Secretary (Home) talked to his counterpart. Besides the state DGP S P Vaid contacted the DGP of Haryana. So far three persons have been arrested in connection with the assault," he said.

After National Conference MLA Ali Mohammad Sagar questioned the logic behind holding an all-party meeting over panchayat elections "when everything has been decided", Veeri said, "we are serious about the meeting which is being chaired by the chief minister herself.

"It is the decision of the cabinet and the outcome of the all-party meet will be discussed at the cabinet and its decision will be final," he said.

The question hour passed off peacefully barring a walkout by BJP legislator Choudhary Sukhnadan over "non-satisfactory" answer to his question related to farmers. However, the zero hour saw

Opposition members vociferously raising the incidents of attacks on Kashmiri students in others states.

Congress MLA GM Saroori claimed that a youth from Kishtwar was killed outside the state and demanded a statement from the government.

NC MLA Altaf Kaloo also read out a purported SMS from a student in which he alleged that they were attacked outside the state. NC members and several Congress legislators later staged a walk out to protest against what they called the government's failure to stop such attacks.

While leaving the house, Kaloo pointed towards ruling PDP legislators and said, You too are Kashmiris.

PDP MLA Mohammad Ashraf Mir said I am Kashmiri first, then Indian".

Later talking to reporters, Sagar said the attack on students outside the state is leading to alienation which is very dangerous. "An impression goes especially in the Valley that we are not safe and secure which is a wrong signal," he said and demanded stern action against the "fringe elements" involved in such attacks .

He said that such persons cannot be friends of the country and are enemies of the nation. "Everyone is free to go anywhere in any college or university and if he is restricted in the name of

religion, region or state, that is not a good thing, the MLA said.Rahat Qureshi, an accused in the killing of a youth in Uttar Pradesh's Kasganj after which communal violence started, was arrested on Saturday, Uttar Pradesh Police said

Lucknow: Rahat Qureshi, an accused in the killing of a youth in Uttar Pradesh's Kasganj after which communal violence started, was arrested on Saturday, Uttar Pradesh Police said.

The main accused in Chandan Gupta's murder, Salim, was arrested two days back.

A countryside pistol and some cartridges were also recovered from Qureshi's possession.

The arrest was made by the special operations group (SOG), an officer said, adding that the accused is being interrogated for his role in rioting, instigating people and murder.

A notice for auction has already been posted on his house and the police raided many places to look for him.

The other accused have been asked, through the auction notice, to surrender before a court by 1 March or face the risk of losing their houses.

So far five FIRs have been registered in the rioting and murder case, and 118 persons arrested.

Of these, 37 have been arrested under the five FIRs and 81 for breach of prohibitory orders clamped under Section 144 of the CrPC.

Of the three main accused in the Chandan murder case  Salim, Waseem and Naseem  only one has been arrested so far and the other two are still at large.

Other accused include Aslam, Akram, Taufeeq, Nasruddin, Aseem, Chillan, Rahat, Shabab, Salman, Mohsin, Saqib, Neeshu, Wasif and Babloo.While expenditure increased by 22 percent in the current year, revenue went up by only 7.6 percent.

With questions being asked over the sustainability of the famed Kerala model of social development in the absence of corresponding growth in the productive sectors of the economy, the Left Front government has set in motion a new experiment.

A brainchild of Finance Minister Thomas Isaac, the new initiative seeks to raise funds outside of state budget to finance infrastructure projects. The funds will be mobilised and channelised to various government agencies by a special purpose vehicle (SPV) called Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board (KIIFB).

Its main source of the fund is general obligation bonds against unconditional government guarantee and revenue bonds with structured payment mechanism to be issued by the state government. An additional source is the profit from an exclusive chit fund that the government will be introducing for Non-Resident Keralites (NRK) from April this year.

The government will give the proceeds from the petrol and vehicle cess it introduced in 2015 to KIIFB to meet the repayment obligations. The agency has been given a tall target of mobilising Rs 1 lakh crore for financing infrastructure projects.

The agency has already received project proposals worth Rs 54,000 crore. Out of these, projects to the tune of Rs 17.28 crore are under various stages of approval. The finance minister has declared a moratorium on new proposals. Instead, he has passed on almost all new projects and schemes he has announced in his budget for 2018-19 to KIIFB.

This includes a Rs 3,500 crore scheme for the revival of the perennially red Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) and a Rs 2,500 crore scheme for building houses for the homeless. This has helped Isaac to get the revenue deficit below the last years level.

If all the projects materialise as envisaged by the finance minister, KIIB will have to find Rs 1 lakh crore over a period of 10 years to repay the debt at nine percent interest. The government will have to provide the fund since no return is expected from the projects to be financed by the KIIFB.

The bulk of the projects sanctioned by the agency so far is upgradation of schools, colleges and hospitals and construction of rural roads, which do not generate any revenue unless the government introduces fees and tolls. The government has no such plan. This means the government will have to provide the required funds to KIIFB from state exchequer as a government grant.

Isaac, a trained economist, is confident that the government will meet its obligations. But economists and opposition parties are not impressed since the state is already grappling with an outstanding liability of Rs 2.40 lakh crore and debts to the tune of Rs 1.37 lakh crore. The debt is bound to go up in the coming years since the state is virtually living hand to mouth.

With the salaries and pensions alone accounting for more than 70 percent of the states annual revenue, the state government is left with no money to meet even the non-plan expenditure. The gap between revenue receipts and expenditure has been widening over the years.

While expenditure increased by 22 percent in the current year, revenue went up by only 7.6 percent. The current financial year will close with a deficit of Rs 13,080 crore. The revenue estimated for 2018-19 is Rs 1,02,801 crore as against the estimated expenditure of Rs 1,15,661.05 crore. In spite of passing the burden on the new projects to KIIBF, the deficit for 2018-19 is estimated to be Rs 12,859.81 crore.

The government has earmarked the cess on petrol, diesel and vehicles for KIIFB, but the proceeds from it are meagre. This yielded only Rs 629 crore in 2016-17. The yield in the current year is expected to be Rs 1,042 crore. This will not be sufficient even to pay the interest on the debt fund to be mobilised by KIIFB.

VK Vijayakumar, a chief investment strategist, termed KIIFB is a big gamble, which has a high probability for failure. He feels that the new growth strategy can backfire and land the state in a serious fiscal crisis if the government is unable to raise funds for the debt repayment.

"No one will object to infrastructure investment through borrowings. But, the problem with KIIFB-led growth strategy is that part of the borrowed money is to be spent on projects that will not yield revenue, like housing for the poor," Vijayakumar said in an article in the Deccan Chronicle.

He pointed out that KIIFB itself had a pathetic performance in the last two years, with targets for fund mobilisation and expenditure falling short by a huge margin. Revenue expectations from higher growth are too optimistic particularly in the context of falling West Asian remittances impacting growth, he added.

Vijayakumar strongly feels that the state should focus on attracting investments as it lags far behind other states. The states future economic growth should be private investment-led growth, he said.

Unfortunately, the budget talks about more investment in PSUs. Kerala has 96 PSUs under different departments, with accumulated losses of Rs 13,969 crore till 2016. Pouring more money into these black holes, as the budget attempts to do, doesnt make economic sense, Vijayakumar said.

Opposition leaders have termed the budget as a KIIB-led exercise. State Congress vice-president and MLA VD Satheesan said Isaac had used the agency to free the government from its responsibility to steer the development.

Isaac has reduced the budget as a mere accounting exercise by passing the burden of implementing the projects and schemes to KIIFB. He also had nothing to do with the tax as GST will take care of it. With the exclusion of tax and development activities, what Isaac presented on Friday cannot be termed a budget," Satheesan said.

But what is worrying the opposition parties is the lack of accountability of KIIFB. Kerala Congress(M) leader and former finance minister KM Mani said the funds the agency mobilises and spends will be outside the purview of the Assembly.

Adikesavan, a banker, said that the finance minister could have tabled a report on KIIFB and fund it collects and spends separately as part of the budget to silence the sceptics. He said this was important since KIIFB is emerging as an alternative pole of the governments strategy for development.

He said that the new model was unavoidable since the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act had placed restrictions on fiscal deficits. This has left little room for the states to borrow funds from the market.

Isaac justified the new model saying that the Central government had prevented the state from borrowing for three months last year. He termed KIIFB as a financial innovation to bypass the Central Act.

When borrowing is stopped, we have to borrow through special institutions outside the budget. If the government waits for its own funds for the development, it will take years. For the young generation, it is better these developments happen now. We cannot sit idle and bid the time, Isaac said.Karni Sena chief Lokendra Singh Kalvi declared that his outfit is the 'real Karni Sena' and that its protests against Sanjay Leela Bhansali's 'Padmaavat' would continue

Jaipur: Shree Rajput Karni Sena chief Lokendra Singh Kalvi on Saturday declared that his outfit is the "real Karni Sena" and that its protests against Sanjay Leela Bhansali's "Padmaavat" would continue, even as a Karni Sena wing whose Mumbai faction had declared it was ending its protest, did a U-turn in the evening.

Sukhdev Gogamedi, national president of Shree Rashtriya Rajput Karni Sena, told reporters that "Whoever saw the film on Friday, did so on personal basis and the person who wrote the letter (ending the protest) has been expelled."

He also said that his outfit has called an emergency meeting of office bearers to take a call on the film.

To a question about a sting operation of those who went to Delhi to see the film, Gogamedi said he will respond when the sting footage comes out.

Earlier in the day, Kalvi said that his group is the "real Karni Sena', and it has made the BJP pay - via its loss in the Rajasthan bypolls - for not respecting the sentiments of the protesting Rajputs.

"There are many fake Karni Senas emerging in India. At present there are eight such entities operating in the country with vested interests," Kalvi said.

The Rajput leader, whose group has been at the forefront of massive protests against "Padmaavat", said there has been a "duplicacy" in matters pertaining to Karni Sena's functioning. He stressed that there was "only one Rajput Karni Sena operating in India and I proudly say that I am the founder of that organisation".

He also asked people to "beware of such similarly named organisations functioning and operating in the market".

The Shree Rajput Karni Sena has been protesting the Deepika Padukone-starrer since its inception, claiming the film distorts history. "We started the initial protests against the release of the film, which we still continue to do," he said.

"However, the other duplicate Karni Senas are creating a dubious situation by releasing contradictory and fake news," Kalvi added.

On the Bharatiya Janata Party's loss in the Rajasthan bypolls, the Rajput leader said: "Around 17 organisations have joined hands and declared that they will make sure that BJP loses elections on each and every seat."

"And we proved what we said. Congress won with a big margin while BJP was a loser on its home turf."

"Jauhar ki jwala mein bahut kuchh jalega. Aur bhi bahut ghatnayen hongi (The fire of Jauhar will burn down many things, there is more to come). 'Padmaavat' will decide many things in future."

Kalvi said: "We want the government to understand via political loss how it has hurt the sentiments of people here."

"We have hit hard on notes as well as votes. Bhansali was expected to get Rs 500 crore return, however, we scuttled his dreams and cut the profit margin to Rs 150 crore.

"Similarly, the vote share of the BJP was reduced," he added.

"I have met 21 Chief Ministers and am looking forward to meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi soon. I have got the call from PMO asking about my schedule and have given them my schedule.

"Will see when can I meet him and apprise him on the present situation," Kalvi added.

The Rajput leader strongly denied having any political aspirations. "None of us have any dream of floating a political party," he said.

The Shree Rashtriya Rajput Karni Sena on Friday had announced that it had decided to end the protests against Bhansali's "Padmaavat" stating that the film "glorifies the valour of the Rajputs".

Shree Rashtriya Rajput Karni Sena's Mumbai leader, Yogendra Singh Kartar said that a few members of the outfit watched the film on the directions of the organisation's national President Gogamedi and found that the "film glorifies" the valour and sacrifice of Rajputs, and "every Rajput would feel proud" after watching it.Four persons, including two paratroopers, were injured on Saturday when militants hurled a grenade at a CRPF party in Tral town in south Kashmir

Srinagar: Four persons, including two paratroopers, were injured on Saturday when militants hurled a grenade at a CRPF party in Tral town in south Kashmir.

Police sources said militants hurled a grenade at a Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) party in Batagund area of Tral in the afternoon.

"Four persons, including two civilians and two CRPF troopers, were injured in the explosion. The injured have been shifted to hospital and the area has been surrounded for searches," sources said.To deter the practice of triple talaq, the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) is all set to introduce a new provision in its model nikahnama.

Lucknow: To deter the practice of triple talaq, the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) is all set to introduce a new provision in its model nikahnama in which the man has to commit that he will not give triple talaq (instant dovorce), a spokesman of the Board said in Lucknow.

The development comes at a time when the government is making a strong pitch for the passage of bill that criminalises triple talaq, a Muslim way of divorce which is still in practice despite the Supreme Court striking it down in August last year, in the ongoing Budget Session of Parliament.

The AIMPLB has maintained that it against the practice of triple talaq, but it has opposed the proposed legislation saying it is an interference in Muslim personal law. The Board has, however, faced criticism for failing to bring reforms in personal laws.

"Yes...we are making a provision in the model nikahnama (Islamic marriage contract) in which there will be column - 'I will not give triple talaq'. Once during nikah (marriage) this column is ticked, one will not be able to give triple talaq," AIMPLB spokesman Maulana Khalil-ur-Rehman Sajjad Nomani told PTI in Lucknow.

He said that a detailed discussion on the matter will be held at AIMPLB meeting in Hyderabad from 9 February.

Besides other social issues, the two-day annual general meeting of the Board is likely to deliberate on developments in the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid case.

The Board is also likely to finalise its roadmap for the coming year.

"In this meeting, the campaign being run against social evils such as triple talaq and dowry will be reviewed. The AIMPLB feels that without social awareness, no system in the country can succeed."

"The Board is running a big campaign in the country. The messengers of the Board will reach every madrassa and mosque and tell people to stay away from social evils like dowry and triple talaq," he said.

A progress report will also be sought on the work done and based on this, a plan for the next year will be prepared, he said.

"Since, the cases of triple talaq happen generally among the less educated, the Board will work hard in rural areas. Students and teachers of madrassas will be included as messengers."

"Their main job will be to spread the message about evils of dowry and triple talaq. If the need for divorce arises, then one should first contact and consult a cleric and stay away from triple talaq," Nomani said.

The spokesperson said that this campaign had gained momentum in the past one year.

Nomani said the board was also using various social media tools in this regard.

"The AIMPLB is strictly against triple talaq, but in some circumstances, triple talaq has been recognised. In many cases, the women themselves seek triple talaq."

"People, who are not involved with the (Muslim) society perceive that all the cases of triple talaq are committed by men. This is completely wrong," Nomani said.

In August, the Supreme Court struck down the controversial Islamic practice of instant divorce or 'talaq-e-biddat' as arbitrary and unconstitutional.

The government later brought the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill which was passed by the Lok Sabha on 28 December. It seeks to declare instant triple a criminal offence with a provision of up to three years in jail for the husband.

Political parties indulged in a slugfest both inside and outside Parliament when the bill was tabled last month in the Rajya Sabha, where the BJP-led NDA does not enjoy majority.

While the government wanted a debate on the bill in the Rajya Sabha, the opposition demanded that it be sent to a Select Committee for scrutiny before it is a made a law.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar has said that cooperation of all political parties has been sought to bring about consensus on the issue to ensure the passage of bill in the current session.

The RJD, AIMIM, BJD, AIADMK and All India Muslim League oppose the bill, calling it arbitrary in nature and a faulty proposal.

The Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill would only be applicable on instant triple talaq or 'talaq-e-biddat'.

It gives power to the victim to approach a magistrate seeking "subsistence allowance" for herself and minor children. A victim can also seek the custody of her minor children from the magistrate.

Under the proposed law, instant triple talaq in any form  spoken, in writing or by electronic means such as email, SMS and WhatsApp  would be illegal and void.No incident of ceasefire violation by Pakistan on the international border has come to light in over a week in the areas guarded by the Border Security Force (BSF), the force's director general KK Sharma said on Friday

Indore: No incident of ceasefire violation by Pakistan on the international border has come to light in over a week in the areas guarded by the Border Security Force (BSF), the force's director general KK Sharma said on Friday.

However, any misadventure by the neighbouring country will get a befitting reply from the paramilitary force which has been deployed along the border, he warned.

Speaking to reporters, Sharma said there has been peace in the areas along the International Border since 23-24 January, where the BSF is deployed. "No incident of ceasefire violation from the Pakistan side has been reported in this area of late," Sharma said.

On 25 January, there was a flag-meeting at the request of the Pakistan Rangers and both sides decided there would be no ceasefire violation on the international border, the top official said.

He also said the BSF is ready to face any situation on the border and if Pakistan indulges in any misadventure it would get a befitting reply.

There were several instances of ceasefire violations by Pakistan last month.Pro-Kannada organisations called off the bandh in Bengaluru, which was meant to coincide with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's election rally in the city

Pro-Kannada organisations called off the bandh in Bengaluru on Sunday, which was meant to coincide with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's election rally in the city, after the Karnataka High Court on Friday termed it "unconstitutional".

The high court stayed the bandh, called by pro-Kannada farmers' groups in the city, on Sunday on the Mahadayi water dispute issue. Passing an interim order, a division bench of acting Chief Justice HG Ramesh and Justice PS Dinesh Kumar asked the Siddaramaiah government to take appropriate steps to prevent breakdown of law and order on that date.

The same pro-Kannada organisations had called for the shutdown last week during BJP chief Amit Shah's visit to the state. The protesters will instead observe a "black day" on Sunday, reported News18.

The high court bench observed that the bandh calls given by Kannada Chalavali Vatal Paksha on 25 January and 4 February "violate(s) the democratic rights of citizens".

The bandh was called to protest the "inaction" by the central and state governments to resolve the Mahadayi river water sharing row.

"Earlier, the prominent judgements of Supreme Court had declared bandhs by political parties and others as unconstitutional, and hence it is appropriate for this honourable court to adhere to the order as it violates the democratic rights of the citizens," the bench observed.

The petition was filed by Bengaluru-based 'Shraddha Parents Association' seeking a direction from the court to term the bandh calls unconstitutional. The bench also considered the petitioner's submission that bandhs resulted in loss to the nation in so many ways, other than damaging public or private properties.

The petitioner also sought a direction to government to take steps to prevent initiation of bandhs by any organisation.

Politicians bicker

Speaking to News18, Kannada leader and ex-MLA Vatal Nagaraj, who called for the bandh on Sunday, said: "The people of Mumbai-Karnataka region have no drinking water. We are demanding our share of the river." He also alleged that the BJP-led government in Goa was acting like an "enemy country" while challenging Modi that if he wanted their votes, "he must speak for us".

The Congress-led state government in Karnataka dismissed allegations of batting for the bandh during the prime minister's visit. "I am not so cheap to back a bandh opposing prime ministers visit," News18 quoted Chief Minister Siddaramaiah as saying.

Modi is set to address a massive BJP rally in Bengaluru on Sunday that marks the conclusion of the party's 90-day Nava Nirman Parivarthan yatra across poll-bound Karnataka. "Modi will arrive in the city on Sunday afternoon and address the rally at the Palace grounds in the evening. Thousands of our cadres from across the state and people from the city will participate in the event," a party official told IANS.

In the run-up to the state election, due in late April and early May, the BJP conducted the yatra, criss-crossing nearly all the 224 constituencies of the Assembly across the state after its national president Amit Shah flagged it off in November.

With inputs from agencies

Click here to follow live updates on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's rally in BengaluruNCP chief Sharad Pawar said no government has the right to interfere in Islamic laws related to talaq, which have their origin in the Quran

Aurangabad: NCP chief Sharad Pawar on Saturday said no government has the right to interfere in Islamic laws related to talaq, which have their origin in the Quran.

He said if banning instant triple talaq was about giving protection to women, then "whatever one intends to do should be done by taking prominent people in the Muslim community and clerics in confidence".

"But talaq is a way provided by the Quran in Islam. It's a message, and no ruler has the right to interfere with that," he said at a party rally in Aurangabad.

The Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill, 2017 was passed by the Lok Sabha in the recently concluded winter session, but could not be passed in the Rajya Sabha with the opposition demanding that it be sent to a Select Committee for a detailed scrutiny.

According to the draft law, instant triple talaq will attract a jail term of three years for the husband.

Pawar also hit out at the NDA government over its agricultural policies.

The growers are not getting good prices for their crops and the government isn't worried about farmer suicides, he alleged.

The government promised an increase in the minimum support price (MSP) for farm produce in the budget, but it didn't spell out how it would be done, Pawar said.

When the UPA government announced a Rs 71,000-crore loan waiver scheme for farmers, money was transferred to farmers' accounts within a few days, he said.

Farmers in Maharashtra are waiting for money even months after the BJP-led state government announced a loan waiver in June 2017.

On violence in Kasganj in Uttar Pradesh, Pawar alleged members of the Muslim community who were celebrating Republic Day were attacked by those who are close to the BJP.

NCP leader and Leader of Opposition in the Maharashtra Legislative Council Dhananjay Munde alleged the state government tried to create hurdles in today's rally by "denying or delaying" permission.

"You may disrupt internet services, but how would you suppress people's voice," he said.Two persons were killed when they were hit by a bus at Chingrighata crossing on the EM Bypass in Kolkata

Kolkata: Two persons were killed when they were hit by a bus at Chingrighata crossing on the EM Bypass in Kolkata on Saturday.

Angry locals set two buses and a vehicle on fire and threw stones at the police after the accident, Bidhannagar city police commissioner Gyanwant Singh said.

The police resorted to baton charge to disperse the mob.

Police reinforcements were rushed to the spot to bring the situation under control, he said.

People were forced to get off stranded transport and walk to their destinations.Two students from Jammu and Kashmir, studying at Mahendragarh's Central University in Haryana, were allegedly thrashed by a group of 15 men on Friday

Two students from Jammu and Kashmir, studying at Mahendragarh's Central University in Haryana, were allegedly thrashed by a group of 15 men on Friday when the duo was returning after offering congregational prayers. Three people have been arrested so far.

Aftab Ahmad and Amjad claimed that they were thrashed by a group of unidentified people on Friday "for no reason".

The two youths alleged that they were surrounded and attacked with "sticks, bricks and helmets" when they went to the market following the Friday prayers, reported NDTV.

"After offering prayers, when we went to the market, some people surrounded us. It seemed like they were following us," the report quoted the students as saying.

They claimed that the mob attacked them at Mahendragarh's Masani Chowk, and didn't even say why they were being targeted. The police, however, claimed that a verbal duel took place between the complainants and two locals, after their motorcycles were involved in a minor accident.

According to News18, the incident occurred at around 2.30 pm. The victims had several bruises on their faces, arms and legs. They were rushed to a government hospital and discharged after their injuries were treated.

An FIR has been registered under sections 506 (punishment for criminal intimidation), 323 (punishment for voluntarily causing hurt) and 341 (punishment for wrongful restraint) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), the News18 report stated.

A police official said, "We have identified six people and three of them have been arrested."

Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti reacted sharply to the incident and demanded her Haryana counterpart Manohar Lal Khattar take strict action against the culprits.

Shocked & disturbed to hear reports of Kashmiri students being assaulted in Mahendargarh, Haryana. I urge the authorities to investigate & take strict action. @mlkhattar  Mehbooba Mufti (@MehboobaMufti) February 2, 2018

Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah described the incident as "terrible" and urged Haryana authorities to act soon.

This is terrible & goes against the spirit of what @PMOIndia @narendramodi ji said from the ramparts of the Red Fort. I hope the authorities in Haryana act quickly against this violence. https://t.co/5vBU2CxHMD  Omar Abdullah (@OmarAbdullah) February 2, 2018

The incident was also raised in the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly on Saturday, when the Opposition demanded a reply from the state government into the matter.

Opposition in Jammu & Kashmir assembly raised the issue of alleged assault on two youth by a mob in Haryana's Mahendergarh, demand reply from state government.  ANI (@ANI) February 3, 2018

The Jammu and Kashmir Police said they would take up the matter with their Haryana counterparts.

Haryana Police has taken cognizance.FIR NO 53 dated 02/02/18 u/s 148/149/341/323 IPC has been lodged in P/S https://t.co/mEHdcEwu0m of our officers is in touch with the boys as well.@MehboobaMufti @spvaid @islahmufti https://t.co/OS9QIR5NsD  J&K Police (@JmuKmrPolice) February 2, 2018

With inputs from PTITwo militants were reportedly arrested from Baramulla in a joint operation by Jammu and Kashmir Police, Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and army

Two militants were reportedly arrested from Baramulla on Saturday in a joint operation by the Jammu and Kashmir Police, Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and the army. News reports quoted the police as saying that they had gone to Pakistan on valid visas to obtain arms training there, according to a media report.

2 Pakistan trained terrorists arrested in Baramulla by Police, Army and CRPF. They had gone to Pakistan on valid Pakistani visa to obtain arms training there for undertaking terrorist activities in the valley: Baramulla Police  ANI (@ANI) February 3, 2018

The arrested terrorists were given Pakistani visas by Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi. Its pertinent to mention that for past couple of years police has unearthed several such modules who lure young boys to Pakistan to get trained and join militancy: Baramulla Police  ANI (@ANI) February 3, 2018

In the past couple of years, the police has successfully unearthed several modules which lure young boys to cross over to Pakistan for training, India TV quoted the Baramulla police as saying.

In January, in a joint operation by Jammu and Kashmir Police and the Indian Army, two militants and nine overground workers (OGWs) were arrested from Sopore.

The operation was conducted by army's marine commandos and Rashtriya Rifles, the Central Reserve Police Force and the state police. The militants were identified as Mushtaq Ahmad Chopan and Shuja-u-din Sheikh. An AK-47 rifle, a pistol and two grenades were recovered from the militants.

With inputs from IANSUnion drinking water and sanitation minister Uma Bharti was admitted to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in after she complained of 'severe knee pain'.

New Delhi: Union drinking water and sanitation minister Uma Bharti was admitted to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in New Delhi after she complained of "severe knee pain".

"She had this knee ailment for some years now. On Friday evening the pain was unbearable for her. She had to be admitted to AIIMS on Friday night", a close aide of the Bharti said on Saturday.

The Union minister is undergoing treatment at the hospital's new private ward.

"She is stable and undergoing required medication," a hospital source said.Amid the criticism over rising cases of encounters in Uttar Pradesh, as many as 16 police shootouts were reported from 10 districts of state in 48 hours

Amid the criticism over rising cases of encounters in Uttar Pradesh, as many as 15 police shootouts were reported from 10 districts of the state in just 48 hours, said a media report.

According to The Times of India, 24 wanted criminals were arrested and one gangster was killed in these encounters.

"The idea is to arrest these wanted gangsters and put them behind bars. The police have been directed to use force only in self-defence when there was no other option. The bottomline is that outlaws who are wanted in criminal cases have to be stopped," Director General of Police OP Singh was quoted as saying by The Times of India.

The most recent incident in the series of these encounters is the shootout between the state police and alleged dacoits on Saturday morning in Lucknow's Krishna Nagar area where two persons were arrested, according to News18.

#BREAKING -- Encounter in Lucknow. Police shootout with dacoits in Krishnanagar area. 2 people have been arrested | @pranshumisraa with more details pic.twitter.com/VXsEF9Bjcw  News18 (@CNNnews18) February 3, 2018

On Friday, two suspected criminals and as many policemen, including a station house officer, were injured in an encounter in Gorakhpur.

The incident took place when Maneesh Yadav and Manoj Yadav were escaping after threatening a village head.

Police said that a team was rushed to the spot after the victim informed that he had been threatened by two people.

In the encounter, Station House Officer, Khorabar, Sudhir Kumar, and Sub-Inspector, Jhangha, Sunil Kumar Singh, suffered minor injuries, they said.

The police seized a 32 bore pistol, a 12 bore gun, bullets and the motorcycle on which they were escaping.

The criminals, who were subsequently arrested and admitted to BRD Medical College, confessed to their involvement in the murder of businessman Dinesh Gupta of Nai Bazaar, Jhangha, on Sunday.

The zonal inspector general had announced a reward of Rs 50,000 on each of them.

According to this Firstpost report, a total of 1,782 fake encounter cases were registered between 2000-2017 across the country and Uttar Pradesh alone accounted for an alarming 44.55 percent (794 cases).

Taking cognisance of the violent crackdown by the state government on criminals, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) had sought a detailed report from the UP government in November last year, News18 had reported.

With inputs from agenciesThe Congress on Saturday accused the ruling BJP of indulging in political witch-hunt against opposition leaders in order to 'divert attention' from its failures.

New Delhi: The Congress on Saturday accused the ruling BJP of indulging in political witch-hunt against opposition leaders in order to "divert attention" from its failures.

"Political witch hunt, vendetta and malicious intent to seek revenge has blinded the Narendra Modi-led central government and the Manohar Lal Khattar-led state government in registering a series of criminal cases against Congress leaders across the country," Congress leader Randeep Singh Surjewala told media in New Delhi, a day after the CBI filed a charge sheet against former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda in connection with a Rs 1,500 crore land deal case.

He said the case in which a charge sheet was filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation in a Haryana court was "false and fabricated" as the Manesar land was released on 24 August, 2007, while the Khattar government filed the case after eight years against unnamed persons.

"The charge sheet and false criminal cases being filed against the Congress leaders exposes the sinister hallmark of the Modi government's style of functioning," Surjewala said.

Accusing the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of using the investigating agencies against opposition leaders, the Congress leader said, "It is being done to divert the attention of the public from the real issues and the failure of the BJP government across the country."

"A similar charge sheet was filed against former Himachal Pradesh chief minister Virbhadra Singh in a court by the Enforcement Directorate few days ago."

The Congress leader said the BJP was using the investigative agencies as "captive puppets".

"The CBI has truly become the BJP's 'Captive Bureau of Investigation'," he said.

Surjewala said the Congress party and its leaders will fight the "conspiracies and the false cases" with full vigor.

"We will not be cowed down nor back down against the obvious attempts at seeking revenge and vendetta," Surjewala added.A local court has issued a notice to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in connection with a case filed against him for his bribery remarks

Panaji: A local court has issued a notice to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in connection with a case filed against him for his bribery remarks made during Goa Legislative Assembly elections held last year.

Judicial Magistrate First Class at Mapusa town, nine kilometers from Panaji, issued the notice to the AAP leader on Friday and fixed the next hearing on 8 February.

In January 2017, the Election Commission had ordered the police to file an FIR against Kejriwal after he publicly appealed to the voters to accept bribe offered by rival parties to vote for them during the Goa elections. The election was held in February last year.

During a series of rallies in Goa between 7-8 January, Kejriwal had appealed to voters to "accept money from the Congress and BJP candidates, but vote for the AAP".

The AAP had contested 39 out of 40 seats with its leader, Elvis Gomes, as the chief ministerial candidate.

A complaint against Kejriwal was lodged by local Election Commission officials with Mapusa police.

The returning officer had approached the judicial magistrate first class in Mapusa in December 2017 with a plea that an offence under section 171 (B) (inducement to voters) and 171 E (bribery) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) be registered against Kejriwal.Congress in Meghalaya dared the National People's Party (NPP), an ally of the BJP at the Centre and in Manipur, to leave the NDA coalition to prove that they were not its proxy party

Shillong: The Congress in Meghalaya on Saturday dared the National People's Party (NPP), an ally of the BJP at the Centre and in Manipur, to leave the NDA coalition to prove that they were not its proxy party.

The ruling Meghalaya Congress also alleged that the saffron party invited NPP leaders from Jaintia hills and Garo hills to Guwahati and jointly got into an exercise on how and where to field candidates.

The BJP and NPP are contesting 27 February poll for 60-member Meghalaya Assembly separately. The counting of votes will take place on 3 March.

"If they say that the NPP is not with the BJP then why don't they leave the NDA, then only people will believe them," AICC media-coordinator Bobeeta Sharma told reporters in Shillong.

Otherwise, no matter how hard the NPP tries to explain their position, their actions will still show that the party is with the BJP, she said.

She said, "They just want to give the impression that they are not in favour of Modi."

State Cabinet Minister Ronnie V Lyngdoh said the party's claim on the BJP-NPP nexus was substantiated when Tura MP Conrad K Sangma's praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his speech in Parliament.

Lyngdoh alleged that the BJP invited NPP leaders from Jaintia hills and Garo hills to Guwahati and jointly got into an exercise to field candidates.

Predicting that the NPP would get only "single digit" seats in the coming state assembly polls, the minister said, "the people here will reject any party which has anything to do with a communal party."

He also cited how the BJP shifted its candidate Banteilang Rumnong from Sohra to Pynursla to aide the NPP candidate, also a former Congress leader P Tynsong.

The NPP is in alliance with BJP at the Centre, in Manipur and Rajasthan and is part of the BJP-led North East Democratic Alliance.

"It goes to prove beyond any doubt that NPP is working together with the party leading the alliance which is none other than the BJP. To say that they are not together is all hogwash," the Meghalaya Congress leader said.

On NPP projection of Bihar Chief Minister and JD(U) President Nitish Kumar as the leader to unseat PM Narendra Modi and not Rahul Gandhi, the Congress media coordinator said the statement of NPP state president Wanwei Roy Kharlukhi was overboard.If Sensex crashes are to be seen as no-confidence motions then Manmohan Singh should have resigned five times over in 2008 alone.

Rahul Gandhi is in high spirits. He has reasons to be. After all, Congress has won three by-election seats in a poll-bound state. Thats quite an achievement. Plus the Sensex has crashed by 840 points a day after Arun Jaitley presented his final Budget. The Congress president was briefly silent while emerging from the Parliament after the Budget presentation (when he possibly didnt know what to tell reporters in absence of a briefing) but soon rediscovered his voice.

4 years gone; still promising FARMERS a fair price.

4 years gone; FANCY SCHEMES, with NO matching budgets.

4 years gone; no JOBS for our YOUTH.

Thankfully, only 1 more year to go.#Budget2018  Office of RG (@OfficeOfRG) February 1, 2018

In Parliamentary language, the Sensex just placed a solid 800 point No Confidence Motion against Modi's budget. #BasEkAurSaal  Office of RG (@OfficeOfRG) February 2, 2018

In two tweets, Rahul took a dig at the Budget and termed the Sensex crash as a no-confidence motion. He also coined a hash-tag to indicate that Narendra Modis time is up. The attempt to cash in on middle-class angst was clear. The Congress president is making a few elementary mistakes. Lets start with a bit of perspective.

If Sensex crashes are to be seen as no-confidence motions then Manmohan Singh should have resigned five times over in 2008 alone. Even a cursory look at the top five Sensex crashes show all have occurred during the UPA regime. The sixth-worst crash came in 2009 when the BSE sensitive index nosedived 870 points to close at 14,043 "on concerns over the high fiscal deficit set by the Union Budget." One may find Rahul Gandhis trolling ironical, but sadly the Congress president is immune to ferrous jibes. Ask his designer Burberry jacket.

Conflating short-term market speculation with politics is daft. It leads to hilarious conclusions. For instance, if a single-day fall of 2.63 percent in bourses that wiped out Rs 4.6 lakh crore of investor wealth is a vote of no-confidence against Modi and his Budget, how do we explain the indexs 2000-point rise in one month? Sensex crossed Mount 34k on 26 December and moved beyond the 35,000 mark on 17 January. If the markets were to recover the losses, will this same "bad budget" suddenly turn "brilliant"?

Markets are driven not by any algorithm or politics, but sentiment. It is possible that punters and investors were reacting adversely to Jaitleys reintroduction of 10 percent tax on the sale of equities if the total capital gains in a year cross Rs 1 lakh. Gains below that threshold wont be taxed. Gains before 31 January, 2018 would be exempted.

The move has evidently displeased Dalal Street and sparked a heated debate. Some such as Andy Mukherjee of Bloomberg feel that the move may scare away foreign investors while some feel that it is an excellent move to tap into a kitty of Rs 3.67 lakh crore which has largely accrued to corporates and LLPs. Apart from swelling the coffers in an election year, it is also a nudge towards redeployment of surpluses towards manufacturing instead of financial assets, as the finance minister put it in his speech.

The fear expressed by bourses is exaggerated. There are more compelling reasons behind the imposition of LTCG tax.

According to Taimur Baig, managing director at DBS Bank, "By global standards, 10 percent capital gains tax is not that prohibitive...

"There are many countries who have had very successful capital gains regimes with significant degree of compliance and at much higher rate. It will not be a big deal at all," he told Boomberg Quint.

Chief investment officer of Motilal Oswal Manish Sonthalia told Boomberg Quint that "there is a ton of cash sitting on the side, waiting to buy into every drop... Unless theres something really fundamentally serious, I dont expect a steep correction."

V Anantha Nageswaran, an eminent economist, has praised Jaitley for bringing LTCG under the tax net, calling it a "job well done" to end the "welfare state for Indian stock market investors".

In an earlier piece, he had called it "bizarre and regressive" to exempt the rich from paying taxes on long-term capital gains. He wrote in livemint: "No respectable country that is not a financial tax haven provides this exemption for capital gains arising out of stock market investments. Capital gains are taxed everywhere... A democratically elected government in a predominantly poor country has no reason to exempt returns to capital from tax."

Economist Haseeb Drabu felt that given the reality that money will come into equities because of the lack of alternatives, there is no reason for the government to forgo a potentially large kitty."

At 3.3 percent, the projected fiscal deficit is still manageable, and given Indias macroeconomic stability under NDA it possibly wont be long before the markets regain their composure. It could be risky for Rahul to rely on market speculation for his politics.

The Congress presidents buoyancy is based on an assumption that the middle class is angry with the prime minister. This isnt an easily quantifiable segment. The Economist reckons that "India has a hole where its middle class should be" in terms of purchasing power. It is varied, layered and resists easy identification. Some of them buy the latest model of iPhone while a large number of this section has never seen the inside of an airplane. "If nearly 300m Indians count as middle class, as HSBC has proclaimed, some of them make around $3 a day," writes the newspaper.

Fluid as it is, the median is vocal, ambitious, aspiring and given Indias scale, it is not a segment that is easily ignored. The middle class wants opportunities and likes to see India remain integrated with the global economy.

Counted among Modis staunch backers, they were hoping for some relief by way of tax exemptions or rejig of income tax slabs from the government in an election year. Apart from a standard deduction for salaried employees which translates into a negligible rise in cash-in-hand and some allowances for senior citizens, the finance minister had precious little for this segment.

The Congress president evidently believes that all that he needs to do is to tap into this anger and Modis ouster is certain. He is mistaken. If Modi is ousted, that wont be due to the fact that the middle class has deserted him in favour of Gandhi. If their anger persists, theyd rather vote NOTA.

BJP wouldnt have scraped through in Gujarat had it not been for the urban middle class who were unimpressed by Rahuls Gabbar Singh Tax jibe. The incumbents faced massive erosion in rural voter base, an area where Modi concentrated the most in his Budget. Some may say this is good politics.

Rahuls optimism is misplaced because the middle class suffers from a historical, deep, indelible cynicism when it comes to the Congress, especially the Gandhis. For decades post Independence this self-made class built its life carefully around the regressive policy frameworks of 1970s and 80s and carried on with their austere lifestyle with a degree of stoicism.

Not until PV Narasimha Raos economic liberalisation that this segment witnessed some prosperity. Rao, an outlier in Congress, opened the windows, which were further widened by Atal Bihari Vajpayee. The 10 UPA years have served to only confirm the middle classs lack of confidence in Congress.

Theres one more reason why Rahul might be misreading middle class anger against Modi. Unlike the stoicism of the past, the middle class is now more invested in the government. It is restive, responsive, vocal, even loud. In social media, it has a platform to vent its spleen. Modi has been a pioneer in harnessing the power of social media to connect with his electorate. This relationship goes deep.

Their displeasure with Modi is evident but they also recognise that his government at least stands for something. It is willing to take risks instead of sitting on the fence, even at the cost of antagonising own voter base. It has implemented disruptive policy decisions with all the finesse of a mace but hasnt been guilty of inaction. The aspirational middle class understands this.

This anger, therefore, is sharp but might not be a bankable commodity for a politician who comes across as insincere, ready to hunt with the hound and run with the hare. Rahul shouldnt bet on it.DAMASCUS, Feb. 2 (Xinhua) -- The Syrian army is only a few kilometers from a strategic stronghold of the al-Qaida-linked militants in the northwestern province of Idlib, a military source told Xinhua on Friday.

As part of the ongoing military offensive against the Levant Liberation Committee (LLC), also known as the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front, the Syrian army captured several areas in the southern countryside of Idlib since its offensive against the key rebel stronghold started in December.

The Syrian forces was a few kilometers away from Saraqeb on Friday, a day after they captured the Tal Sultan area near Saraqeb from the LLC and allied militant groups, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

Once Saraqeb is captured, the Syrian army will be able to reach the international road linking the capital Damascus with the northern city of Aleppo.

The road has been cut off since 2012, when the rebels captured areas in the countryside of Idlib, forcing the government to use another road between Damascus and Aleppo.

Meanwhile, the Syrian forces is close to breaking the two-year siege on the Shiite towns of Kafraya and Foa in the northern countryside of Idlib.

Idlib has emerged as the main destination of rebel groups, which have evacuated several positions in Syria after surrendering to the Syrian army.

The area is now home to rebel groups of several different affiliations, some of which are supported by Turkey, while others, including the LLC, are designated as terrorist groups.

The LLC started to resurface after the near-defeat of the Islamic State group late last year.

The focus of the Syrian army seems to have shifted to the LLC, which controls key areas near Damascus and Idlib.The BJP has decided to forge an alliance with newly floated Nationalist Democratic People's Party (NDPP) led by former chief minister Neiphiu Rio for the 27 February Assembly poll in Nagaland.

Kohima: The BJP has decided to forge an alliance with newly-floated Nationalist Democratic People's Party (NDPP) led by former chief minister Neiphiu Rio for the 27 February Assembly poll in Nagaland.

The BJP has dumped its 15-year-old alliance partner, the ruling Naga People's Front (NPF).

A decision to this effect was taken in New Delhi on Friday at a meeting between BJP president Amit Shah and Rio in the presence of BJP's Nagaland president Visasolie Lhoungu, the party's state media cell convener, K James Vizo said on Saturday.

He said the NDPP would contest 40 of the 60 seats in the state Assembly while the BJP would field candidates in the remain 20 seats.

The BJP is the only party till date to announce that it will contest the election.

Eleven parties including the ruling Naga People's Front on 29 January had decided not to contest the 27 February polls, agreeing to the demand of tribal bodies and civil society groups to resolve the protracted Naga political problem first.

Later, the BJP had announced it would contest the polls.

The state BJP sources said the party's grassroots workers were against the party forging any pre-poll alliance with anyone.Prime Minister Narendra Modis book Exam Warriors may perhaps win him more votes than his election budget that shied away from disbursing sops.

Prime Minister Narendra Modis book Exam Warriors may perhaps win him more votes than his election budget that shied away from disbursing sops.

To be released on Saturday by Penguin Random House India, the authors bio on the book is five paragraphs long. The very first paragraph reads, His victory was propelled by historic support from India's youth, particularly first-time voters.

That is factually correct. A data analysis by political scientist Oliver Heath in 2015 found that the BJPs unprecedented victory in 2014 was propelled less by the votes it snatched away from other parties and more by new, first-time voters.

There were 41.7 crore registered voters in the 2009 general elections. This rose to 55.3 crore in 2014. The 32 percent increase amounts to 13.6 crore voters. Thats more than the total number of votes the Congress won in 2014 (which was 10.6 crores). Heaths detailed constituency-level analysis found the BJP won constituencies that it earlier did not by mobilising new voters.

The number of voters aged 18 or 19 alone was 2.31 crore. Besides, even those who were 22 in 2014 would not have been able to vote in 2009 since they were only 17.

Why first-time voters matter

First time voters are a very important group for any party for various reasons.

Many older voters tend to develop long-term party loyalties. These are the people who will tell you before an election that they vote for the party symbol, without worrying about whether their party will win or not, whether they like the candidate or not, whether the party performed well in power or not. It is difficult for another party to change such long-term loyalties. This is how the Bahujan Samaj Party holds on to a 15-20 percent vote-share even when it hardly wins any seats.

It is, therefore, a smarter idea to persuade new voters  such as the children of those with hardened loyalties. Young, teenage voters are likely to be open to voting differently from their parents. This has been evident in the youth support Narendra Modi received in 2014.

Secondly, after securing a voters first vote, if a party can get her vote again, chances are that such a voter could become a life-long loyal supporter of the party.

Chacha Modi

Modi has been worrying about exam stress in his Mann Ki Baat radio address for three exam cycles now. If a 14-year-old in 2015 was touched by Modis concern for her exam stress, such a student would be 18 years old in 2019.

From the very start of his prime ministership, Modi has consistently tried to become Chacha Modi, a la Nehru, doing photo-ops for children and expressing concern for them. He is seen pulling their ears or appreciating some childs achievement in Mann Ki Baat.

Here he is, interacting with school children in Muslim-majority Lakshwadeep in December 2017. Here he is, answering their questions on Teachers Day. Even on a trip to Japan, he took time off to talk to Indian schoolchildren.

But the centerpiece of his outreach to future voters has been exam stress. There is no better way to connect to a group of voters than to show concern in their most difficult hour. This is now culminating in a book.

As the 2019 general elections come closer, we are likely to see the Modi government reach out more and more to first time voters through innovative events.

The prime minister has already asked for a mock parliament to be organised in every district of the country on 15 August. Through this, he wants children to contribute ideas for New India. This would help impress upon first time voters that Narendra Modi not only wants to deliver change, but is giving them a chance to have their voice in it.

Mobilising millennials

Soon after winning the Gujarat elections with a narrowing margin, Prime Minister Modi set his sights on millennial voters.

Wishing the nation a happy new year, the prime minister counted how those born in the year 2000 would turn 18 this year, making 2018 a special year.

Appealing to their emotions through a book on exam stress and a mock parliament is one thing. But Modi has his eyes set at actually getting them to sign up on the electoral rolls.

Indian democracy welcomes the voters of the 21st century, the new India voters, he had said in his Mann Ki Baat address on 31 December 2017. I congratulate our youth and urge them to register themselves as voters. The entire nation is eager to welcome you as voters of the 21st centuryyour vote will prove to be the bedrock of new India, he said.

At a dinner meet for BJP leaders last month, the prime minister said the partys prime focus for 2019 had to be 18 to 25-year-olds. To mobilise first time voters, it plans to launch a Millenium Vote Campaign with an app that would help first time voters register to vote. The advantage of an app like this is that it would help the BJP collect data and have access to those who sign up. This could in turn be used for campaign outreach.

Replacing old voters with new

Estimates of first-time voters in 2019 range from 1.3 crore to 2 crore. If it's the latter, it could mean an average of around 37,000 new votes in every constituency.

That is a large number of votes to determine outcomes.

The BJP won a clear majority in 2014 with just over 31 percent vote share (not counting pre-poll allies). In other words, the BJP does not need to keep everybody happy to win. Just winning a third of votes can bring it to power thanks to the first-past-the-post system.

As the BJP faces anti-incumbency on account of farmers unrest and its inability to generate enough formal employment, some of those 31 percent could go to other parties, mainly the Congress.

The party could replace those losses with first-time voters. It may not be giving big farm loan waivers, but those angry farmers could be replaced by urban youth who are convinced Modi cares for them since he worries about the most important thing in their lives, exam stress, and wants their suggestions for new India once the exams are over and they are in college.In his wax-eloquent speech, Omar Abdullah squarely blamed the BJP-PDP coalition government in Jammu and Kashmir for the recent civilian killings, particularly in Shopian district.

Jammu: It is a rare moment when politicians of Jammu and Kashmir, cutting across the mainstream political spectrum, openly express their helplessness to influence a change in the state that has been torn apart by turmoil and militarisation over the last three decades. That moment came on Friday when the former chief minister and Leader of Opposition Omar Abdullah stood in the state Assembly to launch a scathing attack on Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti.

Invoking the legendary German character Faust who, despite being highly successful yet dissatisfied with life, makes a pact with The Devil for exchanging his moral integrity and his soul in exchange for worldly gains, Omar compared the alliance of Peoples Democratic Party, of which Mehbooba is the president, with the BJP, as a pact of Faust with The Devil.

"Let us be honest," Omar said in the Assembly during his 45-minute speech, "What sort of logical conclusion will you give to Shopian case when 47 out of 50 requests for prosecution of armed forces (allegedly involved in gross rights abuses, including murder, according to Jammu and Kashmir government probes) have been rejected by Centre since 2000 and three are pending."

While Omars admission of guilt on the floor of the house is an indictment of the failure of the elected governments in Jammu and Kashmir in giving justice to the people victimised by the 'black sheep' in armed forces over the last three decades, it also explains why the impotent regional mainstream players dont enjoy a whiff of credibility or faith among the people.

The revocation of Armed Forces Special Powers Act, which gives sweeping powers to the army during counter-insurgency operations, also provides them with impunity from prosecution in civilian courts, if they were found to be involved in rights abuses. Omars remarks in the Assembly only reaffirm the common belief that when it comes to dealing with the rogue elements in the armed forces deployed in the state, their hands are tied.

In his wax-eloquent speech, Omar squarely blamed the coalition government for the recent civilian killings, particularly in Shopian district, which he said is a stark reminder of the reality of our time in which we live. Omar said it has become a new routine of government to cage people in their homes on every Friday by imposing curfew and restrictions, People have been barred even from offering Eid prayers.

In her defence, Mehbooba again reiterated that the law will follow its own course. We have lodged an FIR but I want to say this here that if there is someone who makes a mistake, there is a law for them. That doesnt mean everyone in the army is same or every soldier is an offender. These are the same forces who have brought a sense of security among people, Mehbooba said.

But its not the AFSPA alone that has exposed the inability of the mainstream parties, like the ruling PDP and National Conference, in ensuring justice for the victims by punishing the culprits in uniform. There have been others occasions also where the state government has been literally forced to eat its words in the face of the pressure mounted by the armed forces to have their wishes granted while operating in Jammu and Kashmir.

Take the issue of the high ground in south Kashmirs Anantnag district, for example, where the army occupies more than 2,000 kanals of land. While the decision to free a fertile 454 kanal patch at Fatehgarh from military occupation was taken years back with the then chief minister Mufti Sayeed even setting up deadlines and the Prime Minister's Office also intervening, the army refused to oblige and has not even paid the rent to the landowners.

The sheer powerlessness of Kashmirs political class is also reflected in their dealings with the governments at the Centre. While the PDP may have found it convenient to form an alliance with the party which is ruling at the Centre, its proposals for the social, political and economic empowerment of the state have not evoked much enthusiasm from the Prime Minister Narendra Modis government.

From the refusal to return two key power projects to the state government, presently under the operational control of the NHPC, to the deliberate cuts in power infrastructure development component in the prime minister's Rs 80,000 crore plus package, the war of words between Mehbooba and Omar is also an indicator that the Centre puts its interests ahead of the interests of people of Jammu and Kashmir.

Kashmirs politicians may squabble inside and outside the Assembly, and bring each other down for petty gains, but in the process, they are slowly shredding the trust of those people who elected them in the first place. If Omar and Mehbooba cant give justice to victims of abuses by armed forces, pray, who will? This should worry us all.While any other government would have expressed deep shock and dismay over the horrific incidents, the Vasundhara Raje government in Rajasthan has largely remained unperturbed, a trait of indifference to near-anarchic conditions demonstrated by several other BJP-led governments

The signs which were available about the decline in the influence of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Gujarat's rural areas during the state assembly elections have been substantiated by the drubbing which the BJP has received at the Congress's hands in the by-elections in Rajasthan, where the saffron party is in power.

Earlier, the Congress had shown that it might well be on the comeback trail by its success in the Chitrakoot assembly by-election in another BJP-ruled state, Madhya Pradesh. In all these by-elections, it was not so much the Congress's victory which was noteworthy as the impressive margins of its success.

Although it is too early to say whether these election trends point to an ebbing of the saffron tide after the overwhelming nature of the wave in 2014 and again in Uttar Pradesh last year, there is little doubt that the BJP has reasons to be concerned.

In fact, the emphasis placed on the rural areas in the latest budget is an indication that the party has taken its setbacks in the Gujarat countryside seriously and is trying to make amends by reaching out to the vulnerable sections.

The proposed health insurance cover for 500 million, 40 percent of the population, is not unlike the previous government's food security programme for 67 percent of the people.

More than what happened in Gujarat, where at least the urbanites stood behind the BJP, what the Rajasthan outcome has shown is that all the sections have voted against the ruling party.

The widespread nature of the discontent underlines a deep and extensive popular unhappiness with governance although a minister has sought to explain the party's defeats by referring to the grievances of the Rajputs over the "Padmaavat" film.

But that can only be one of the reasons. What must have also undermined the BJP's prospects is the violence unleashed by either cow vigilantes or individuals railing against the minorities.

While the lawlessness of the gau rakshaks was exemplified by the lynching of a Muslim cattle trader although he was carrying the required permits for his trade, the psychopathic wrath of anti-Muslim elements was evident in the killing of a migrant labourer from West Bengal.

Both these heinous crimes were filmed and repeatedly shown on television, but while the murderers of the cattle trader, Pehlu Khan, have gone scot-free because of the inability of the police to provide credible evidence although the lynching took place in broad daylight in front of cameras, at least the killer of Afrazul Khan, the migrant labourer, was arrested.

While any other government would have expressed deep shock and dismay over the horrific incidents, the Vasundhara Raje government in Rajasthan has largely remained unperturbed, a trait of indifference to near-anarchic conditions demonstrated by several other BJP-led governments.

What cannot but be worrying for the Narendra Modi-Amit Shah duo is that the virtually unchecked violence of saffron groups like the gau rakshaks or the opponents of love jihad is beginning to take its toll on the BJP's electoral fortunes, notwithstanding all the talk about "Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas" or development for all.

The popular disquiet about the rampaging mobs might have been assuaged if prompt and effective police action was taken and the criminals were put behind bars. But if the absence of such deterrent steps is proving costly for the BJP, the reason is that it is not only the Muslims - or the Christians who have also been targeted by Hindutva outfits in Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh - who are feeling insecure, as then vice-president Hamid Ansari pointed out, but the ordinary citizens are also distressed by the prevailing intolerance and intimidation.

Moreover, this atmosphere has been building up virtually from the time the BJP assumed power at the Centre and in several states as was highlighted by the return of national awards by a number of luminaries in the last two years in protest against the deteriorating situation. A recent open letter written by retired bureaucrats also referred to the "deeply disquieting trends" in the public sphere.

It is obvious that unless the governments at the Centre and in the states run by the BJP deal firmly with such rowdy elements, the party's hope of a repeat run of the last general election in 2019 and even improving on its tally, as Amit Shah hopes, will not be fulfilled.

As is not uncommon in India, it is the failure of governments which usually leads to their fall rather than any efforts of the opposition. This tendency is again evident in Rajasthan where the Congress had just to wait in the wings to reap the electoral benefits of its opponent's missteps.

After the humiliating setback in 2014, the Congress is showing signs of revival. But it will be making a mistake if it hopes to make electoral gains solely on the basis of the BJP's inability or unwillingness to control its militant followers.Former Tripura BJP chief Ronajoy Kumar Deb has resigned from the party after being denied a ticket for the 18 February state polls.

Agartala: Former Tripura BJP chief Ronajoy Kumar Deb has resigned from the party after being denied a ticket for the 18 February state polls.

Ronajoy Kumar Deb was BJP's Tripura Pradesh President for five years from 2001.

In his letter to state party president Biplab Kumar Deb, he said: "Since the party has decided not to nominate me from the Bagbasa Assembly constituency (in northern Tripura) in the assembly elections... I have decided to resign from the party."

Deb had written his resignation letter on 27 January but released it to the media on Saturday.

Terming the resignation as "unfortunate and unexpected", BJP spokesman Mrinal Kanti Deb said he had joined the party in early 80's and had worked a lot for it. "He should not quit the party over mere denial of party ticket."

The BJP is contesting 51 seats in the 60-member Tripura Assembly. It has left nine seats for its electoral ally, the Indigenous People's Front of Tripura (IPFT), a tribal-based party agitating for creation of a separate state containing Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council areas.

Meanwhile, state BJP President Biplab Kumar Deb on Saturday claimed that around 1,635 supporters of ruling Communist Party of India-Marxist and other parties joined the BJP on Saturday.tech2 News Staff

Adobe Flash has long been the bane of security experts and IT admins worldwide. What started out as a multimedia platform for making rich applications has, over the years, turned into a security nightmare.

The vulnerabilities in Flash have been so numerous that most of todays browsers block Flash content by default. In fact, Google Chrome allows Flash to run with user content, but only in a secure sandbox. Granted, Adobe has, over time, managed to make Flash more secure, and the instances of attacks via Flash have reduced. That said, its just as likely that industry disdain for Flash has forced hackers to look for greener pastures.

Its now been reported that a new zero-day vulnerability for Flash has been discovered and apparently, its being exploited by hackers to infect computers in South Korea. As ArsTechnica notes in its report on the matter, researchers havent said outright that North Korea is behind the attacks, but it is very likely.

The vulnerability is being exploited by a hacker group thats been dubbed as Group 123. It spreads via an infected excel file and according to Talos, a security group under Cisco Systems, Group 123 is using social engineering attacks to spread the malware. Talos states that the group is very comfortable with the Korean language and is familiar with the Korean peninsula. The attack can let a hacker take control of an infected system.

Group 123 has not been known to use zero-day vulnerabilities, and previously targeted older, unpatched vulnerabilities.

Adobe has published a security advisory on the matter and indicated that Adobe Flash Player version 28.0.0.137 and earlier are vulnerable. Adobe has stated that the issue will be addressed in a new release planned in the week of 5 February.Shailaja Sharma

The Indian government is focused on deciding clear regulations for trading of cryptocurrencies and a policy framework is expected once the current committee submits its report, Ajeet Khurana, head, Blockchain and Cryptocurrency Committee (BACC) of Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI), said over the phone on Friday.

While India does not yet have clear regulations on cryptocurrencies and exchanges, the govt has maintained that virtual currencies are not held as legal payment instruments in the country, but the Finance Minister did not say that cryptocurrencies were illegal. Cryptocurrency exchanges would argue that neither are gold, stocks, and bonds considered as legal tender. Still, Finance Minister Arun Jaitleys statement in his Union Budget 2018 speech on Thursday were widely interpreted as a ban on the trading of cryptocurrencies.

It is very wise that the government plans to not take any knee-jerk action on the exchanges. We are very happy with the measured, graduated and wise steps the government is taking, Khurana, who took on the BACC role last month, said.

Cryptocurrency regulation spooks investors

Stricter regulation on cryptocurrency trading in many of the world markets already had investors spooked about the future of virtual money when Finance minister Jaitley announced that the country will take measures to clamp down on any crypto-assets financing illegitimate activities.

Since 2013, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has thrice reiterated its cautionary notification on cryptocurrencies for retail investors, which warns of potential economic, financial, operational, legal, customer protection and security related risks associated in dealing with such virtual currencies including bitcoins. But there has been no regulatory action as it is not easy to determine who regulates the new technology of virtual currencies.

In the past, it has been argued that cryptocurrencies should be considered as an asset or commodity and be regulated by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), rather than being considered a currency per se.

The Indian governments clampdown comes after many virtual currencies saw a significant spurt in their valuation. Bitcoins and other cryptocurrencies garnered attention and piqued the curiosity of many in India due to the phenomenal rise in its price in early-mid 2017. As a result, the threat of price volatility, speculative trading, and hack attacks all call for stricter regulation from the government on virtual currencies.

The silence (of the government and regulators) is not to be taken for granted; there is a lot of internal thinking that is going on, Khurana said. Given that I work with a lot of regulators and financial institutions, I must say that there is a lot of conversation going on and there is a lot of interest in understanding this better.

Regulating a decentralised network

Khurana estimates the number of people in India who either presently use a cryptocurrency or have in the past held a cryptocurrency is about 5 million. And this number is growing... Our exchange participants neither allow foreigners to participate nor allow foreign exchange to come in. We are working independently from the world. Despite that, our market mechanism is very vibrant. If you were to ever look at the order book of cryptocurrency exchanges and compare them to forex or stock exchanges, you would feel they are operating similarly, he said.

Cryptocurrencies work on the blockchain technology, which uses a decentralized network. Blockchain technology uses a digital ledger to securely keep a record of each transaction between users within its system. Regulatory framework on cryptocurrencies in India is taking time because of the nature of the technological innovation and confusion over who should regulate it, Khurana said.

A series of developments globally have spoilt the party for cryptocurrency investors.

In September, China moved to ban cryptocurrency exchanges and initial coin offerings (ICOs) to avert any financial risks even as the country remains the largest ground for mining of bitcoins. About 90 percent of global bitcoin trading volume in the past three years had been from China, according to industry estimates. South Korea too is clamping down on its own illegal cryptocurrency exchange trading in a bid to curb instances of money laundering while allowing genuine bank accounts to trade in cryptocurrencies.

A volatile market

It went further downhill for the virtual currency market when Facebook Inc said last week that it was banning all cryptocurrency adverts in the wake of potential scams. While Tokyo-based cryptocurrency exchange Coincheck Inc said hackers stole about $530 million of virtual coins.

Bitcoin, which still is the largest virtual currency in the overall cryptocurrency market, has lost almost half of its value this year after its meteoric rise last year. On 17 December, bitcoin touched an all-time high of about $19,783, according to CoinDesk Bitcoin Price Index, only days before it started to plunge rapidly. On Friday (2 February), it fell below $8,000, signalling that investors still remain cautious about the future of the virtual currency.

Other major cryptocurrencies such as Ripple and Ethereum have also dropped in value in a single day. In just about 24 hours on Friday, more than $100 billion was wiped off the global cryptocurrency market due to concerns over tighter regulation and speculation that the bitcoin price was likely manipulated on a major exchange, a CNBC report said.

The uncertainty and volatility in price of cryptocurrencies has also led to some banks not allowing retail investors to deposit money that they have earned from trading on bitcoin exchanges, according to a 28 January report by The Hindu Business Line.

Security a major concern

Further, the threat of cryptocurrency hacking attacks reoccurring gives enough reason for the governments in several of the countries, including India, to remain sceptical of cryptocurrencies.

From investors point of view, regarding their money and coins, we give them protection for those as an exchange. We are always updating and educating them about recent developments in India and abroad. We want customers to understand the technology behind this before they invest so that they can take an informed decision because this is a little more complex product, said Nischint Sanghavi, head of exchange at Zebpay, India's first bitcoin exchange. We are taking full security measures and have top notch security in place for all customers funds as well as coins in the wallet.

Zebpay said it will work with the government to help it eliminate the use of crypto-assets as part of the payment system.

In April, the government had constituted an inter-disciplinary committee to submit a report on handling cryptocurrencies and challenges of money laundering. Based on the report, another committee was constituted with representatives from the RBI, NITI Aayog, Sebi and others. This report, which could decide the policy framework for virtual currencies and cryptocurrency exchanges, is awaited. In November, a lawyer filed a public interest litigation (PIL) in the Supreme Court, asking the country to regulate the flow of Bitcoin.

In the past, countries including Vietnam, Bangladesh, Iceland, Bolivia, Eucador and Kyrgyzstan have banned either trading of bitcoin or cryptocurrencies in general. While in other parts of the world such as the United States, customers could buy pizza using bitcoins. Japan has been by far the most liberal in officially recognising bitcoins as a legal tender.

Shailaja Sharma is a Mumbai-based financial journalist.Associations representing atomic bomb survivors in Japan criticised on Saturday a change in the policy of the US which advocates modernising its atomic arsenal.

Tokyo: Associations representing atomic bomb survivors in Japan criticised on Saturday a change in the policy of the US which advocates modernising its atomic arsenal and increasing its launch capacity.

Toshiyuki Mimaki of the Japan Confederation of A-and H-Bomb Sufferers Organisations expressed anger over the change in Washington's strategy, saying it posed an obstacle to global denuclearisation, reported Japan's state broadcaster NHK.

Mimaki said "if the President of a global power such as the US wanted to increase and modernize its nuclear capacities, the survivors of the atomic bombings in Japan will never see a world without nuclear weapons".

Mimaki, a survivor of the nuclear bombing by the US on Hiroshima on 6 August, 1945, said that these weapons do not make the world a safer place and should never be used.

Koichi Kawano, leader of Hibakuren, a survivor group based in Nagasaki  which suffered a nuclear attack on 9 August, 1945  said the announcement poured cold water on the historic UN treaty to ban nuclear weapons, adopted last year by over 120 countries.

Kawano warned that the new US strategy, which seeks to develop smaller nuclear arms, could lower the bar for the use of such weapons and raise the likelihood of nuclear war.

He also urged the Japanese government to utilise the US presence in Japan to intensify its diplomatic efforts to prevent such a scenario.

However, Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono in a statement welcomed Washington's move, saying it showed the determination of the US to ensure the effectiveness of dissuasion.

The Nuclear Posture Review of the US, presented on Friday by the Trump administration is in contrast the one in 2010 by then-President Barack Obama (2009-2017), who sought a reduction in the nuclear arsenal.Mike Pompeo (huanqiu.com)

Recently, CIA Director Mike Pompeo told the BBC that China is trying to steal U.S. secrets and exert covert influence over the West. The anti-China hysteria is beyond immigration.

These reports remind me of a Chinese saying, Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Hua Chunying said at a regular press briefing on Thursday. Ones mentality will determine how they see the world. In this sense, it doesnt surprise me in the slightest that such remarks were made by a person who heads the worlds largest intelligence agency.

During his interview, the CIA director told the BBC that China is very focused on stealing American information and infiltrating the United States with spies, adding that his agency sees it in schools, hospitals, and medical systems in the United States and across the world.

However, China pointed the finger back at the United States. Facts speak louder than words, Hua said, adding that it is obvious who is doing all the spying, monitoring, espionage, and infiltration around the world in an attempt to exert greater influence over others.

The U.S. spy chief began his interview with the BBC by bragging that the CIA is the worlds finest espionage service and claiming that we are going to go out there and do our damnedest to steal secrets.

As for the Australian intelligence agency listing China as an extreme threat, Hua said that if some Australians choose to believe that the millions of Chinese travelling between China and Australia as well as Chinese living in Australia are spies, then their nervousness and anxiety is understandable. They have every reason to be so, Hua said.US president Donald Trump has authorised the release of a controversial Republican memo alleging intelligence abuses, hours after he accused the justice department and FBI of a 'pro-Democrat bias'

Washington: US president Donald Trump has authorised the release of a controversial Republican memo alleging intelligence abuses, hours after he accused the justice department and FBI of a "pro-Democrat bias", saying they had "politicised" the probe against Republicans.

White House spokesman Raj Shah said the document has been transmitted to the minority and majority members in the House

Intelligence Committee. The document was also sent to House Speaker Paul Ryan's office, he said. The White House requested no redactions, Shah said, according to CNN.

Speaking in the Oval Office, Trump implied the memo revealed political bias at the FBI. He said he believed the purported bias was a "disgrace" and said certain people should be "ashamed of themselves". The extraordinary decision to release the classified four-page memo with a never-before-used House Intelligence Committee rule would escalate the partisan fight over the investigations into Russian election meddling and possible collusion.

This will likely have major repercussions for the relationship between the Justice Department and Capitol Hill. The memo's release would also threaten to further fracture the frayed relationship between the president and his justice department and intelligence community, both of which opposed the release of the document, which is based on classified intelligence.

The FBI issued a rare public warning on Wednesday that the memo omits key information that could impact its veracity. The memo, spearheaded by House Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes, alleges that the FBI used the opposition research dossier on Trump and Russia written by ex-British intelligence agent Christopher Steele to secure a FISA surveillance warrant on former Trump foreign policy adviser Carter Page without disclosing that the dossier was funded in part by Democratic sources.

In a statement earlier this week, Nunes said, "It's clear that top officials used unverified information in a court document to fuel a counter-intelligence investigation during an American political campaign."

The memo alleges FBI abused its surveillance tools during its probe into the alleged Russian collusion in the 2016 US presidential election.

Trump's accusation is a rarest of the rare instance as it maligns people he appointed to their roles, including FBI director Christopher Wray, who he nominated after firing former James Comey in May. "The top leadership and investigators of the FBI and the justice department have politicised the sacred investigative process in favour of Democrats and against Republicans 

something which would have been unthinkable just a short time ago," Trump said in a tweet.

"Rank and File are great people!" he added.

The tweet also puts Trump squarely on the side of the Republican lawmakers who view the memo as a document that exposes the nefarious designs of the FBI.

In a follow-up tweet, Trump quoted from a recent speech given by American activist and president of conservative watchdog operation Judicial Watch, Tom Fitton, in which he alleged the Democrats attempted to conceal their funding of a dossier that accused Trump of personal ties to the Kremlin.

"'You had Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party try to hide the fact that they gave money to GPS Fusion to create a dossier which was used by their allies in the Obama administration to convince a court misleadingly, by all accounts, to spy on the Trump Team, Tom Fitton'," Trump wrote.NEW YORK (Reuters) -The price of cryptocurrencies plunged and crypto trading was delayed on Tuesday, a day in which El Salvador ran into snags as the first country to adopt bitcoin as legal tender. Shares of blockchain-related firms also fell as crypto stocks were hit by trading platform outages. But the major focus was on El Salvador, where the government had to temporarily unplug a digital wallet to cope with demand.Indian American lawyer Kashyap 'Kash' Patel is the author of the controversial Republican memo critical of the FBI and some Justice Department officials

New York: Indian American lawyer Kashyap "Kash" Patel is the author of the controversial Republican memo critical of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and some Justice Department officials that is roiling the American political landscape, according to media reports.

Patel drafted the document that asserts that there were improprieties in the FBI probe into alleged connections between President Donald Trump's campaign and the Russian government.

The memo prepared on behalf of the Republican members of the House Intelligence Committee was made public on Friday after Trump cleared its release despite opposition from the FBI and the Democrats.

Patel is on the staff of Representative Devin Nunes, the Republican who is chairman of the committee.

Quoting sources "familiar with the memo," Daily Beast said that Patel "read the highly classified intelligence it's based on (something the Justice Department indicates Nunes has not done), drafted the memo, and then dealt with FBI and Justice Department efforts to keep it from being released to the public."

He formerly worked for the National Security Division of the Justice Department, as a counter-terrorism prosecuter, Daily Beast reported.

He joined the committee as a senior counter-terrorism counsel last April.

The crux of the Republcian memo is the allegation that the FBI relied on investigations of Trump that was paid for by the Democratic National Committee and lawyers linked to Hillary Clinton's campaign when applying to a court for permission to wiretap a Trump adviser, Carter Page, and that the FBI did not disclose this fact to the judge.

The anti-Trump dossier was prepared by Christopher Steele, who is described as former British intelligence employee. It was initially commissioned by a right-wing website that was against Trump, but dropped it later and the Democrats then commissioned it.

The memo also alleged that Steele as well as some FBI staffers were anti-Trump and that the wife of Bruce Ohr, a former associate deputy attorney general, worked for FusionGPS, the company through which Steele worked.

The Democrats, who have prepared a counter memo, have said the Republican document is an attempt to wreck the image of the FBI and derail the Russia investigation.

They maintain that the FBI and the courts did not rely on the controversial dossier to get the wiretap approved and that the FBI and Justice Department officials were being smeared.

Patel had made news in 2016 while working for the Justice Department by not wearing a tie while appearing in a federal court.

During a terrorism trial, Patel appeared informally dressed as he had just landed there from Central Asia, abovethelaw.com, reported. Judge Lynn Hughes admonished him for the way he was dressed and demanded to see his passport.Israeli aircraft hit a Hamas compound in the southern Gaza Strip, after Palestinians there fired a rocket into the Jewish state, the Israeli army said

Jerusalem: Israeli aircraft hit a Hamas compound in the southern Gaza Strip on Saturday, after Palestinians there fired a rocket into the Jewish state, the Israeli army said.

"In response to the projectile fired at southern Israel...fighter jets struck a Hamas compound composed of two military structures," the army statement said.

There were no reports of casualties on either side.

It was the second exchange in 24 hours, after the air force hit a Hamas position in Gaza early Friday in response to a rocket being fired from the Palestinian enclave the night before.

Such rockets are usually fired not by Hamas, the Islamist group that controls the territory, but by fringe radical groups.

Israel holds Hamas, with which it has fought three wars since 2008, responsible for any fire coming from Gaza.Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau was heckled on Saturday by protesters during a townhall as he defended his governments decision to support the expansion of a trans-mountain pipeline through British Columbia (BC).

Ottawa: Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau was heckled on Saturday by protesters during a townhall as he defended his governments decision to support the expansion of a trans-mountain pipeline through British Columbia (BC).

The prime minister was greeted by a chorus of boos amidst cheers by another section of people as he walked into the Vancouver Island University hall at Nanaimo town in British Columbia during the last lap of his cross country tour, according to CBC.

The reports said Trudeau defended his decision to approve the Kinder Morgan pipeline by justifying his ideas

about protecting the environment while ensuring the balanced development of the growing economy.

"We wanted a national carbon reduction plan, a national emissions plan that is going to allow us to reach our climate goals, to reach our Paris [climate accord] commitments," he said.

"But in order to do that, part of moving forward is approving the Kinder Morgan pipeline," Trudeau said. "It is something many people feel very strongly about on either side, but that is the nature of the compromise we had to make in the best interests of Canada."Syria's Kurds on Friday accused Turkey-backed rebels fighting them of mutilating then filming the body of one of their female fighters, after a video emerged of her corpse

Afrin: Syria's Kurds on Friday accused Turkey-backed rebels fighting them of mutilating then filming the body of one of their female fighters, after a video emerged of her corpse.

Turkey and allied Syrian rebels have since 20 January pressed an offensive against the Kurdish enclave of Afrin in northern Syria, whose Kurdish fighters Ankara views as "terrorists".

A Kurdish official identified the young woman as Barin Kobani, who took part in a US-backed campaign to drive the Islamic State jihadist group from the northern town of Kobane. The Kurds in a statement blamed the "terrorist allies of the enemy Turkish state" for mutilating the body of Kobani, who was a member of the all-female Kurdish Women's Protection Units.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain- based monitor, said it received the video from a Syrian rebel fighting with Turkish forces in the Afrin offensive. The rebel told the Observatory the footage was filmed on Tuesday after rebels found the young woman's corpse in the village of Qurna near the Turkish border in the north of the enclave.

In the footage, a dozen men, some armed, gather around the badly mutilated body of a woman lying on the ground. The Kurdish community reacted with outrage and social media users shared online a portrait of Kobani smiling next to another shot of her brutalised body.

"Barin did not surrender, she fought to the death," said Amad Kandal, an official with the Women's Protection Units, vowing to avenge her comrade's brutal murder. "This kind of behaviour will only serve to reinforce our determination to resist until victory," said Kandal.

YPG male and female fighters have taken part in the battle by the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) to expel Islamic State from large parts of Syria. SDF spokesman Mustefa Bali said the video of the fighter's body was reason to continue fighting back against Turkey and its allies.

"Imagine the savagery of these invaders with the bodies of our daughters. How would they behave if they took control of our neighbourhoods?" he wrote on Facebook. "All this hatred and barbarity leaves us with a single option to continue the resistance," he said.

Afrin resident Hussein Cheikho, 65, said he was "deeply pained" when he saw pictures of Kobani's mutilated body but said her death will not be in vain. "The death of a young man or a young woman will not weaken us. Out strength will be bolstered every day," he said.

In a statement, the Syrian National Council, the main opposition body in exile, condemned the "criminal acts" and called for "the opening of an immediate investigation" to punish those responsible.A middle school shooting that left two students injured in Los Angeles was the result of a semi-automatic handgun going off 'by accident' in a 12-year-old girl's bag, police said

Los Angeles: A middle school shooting that left two students injured in Los Angeles was the result of a semi-automatic handgun going off "by accident" in a 12-year-old girl's bag, police said.

A 15-year-old boy sustained a head wound, described as a "graze," while a girl of the same age was hit in the wrist in the incident at Salvador Castro Middle School in central Los Angeles on Thursday. Both are expected to fully recover, and the Los Angeles police said they did not believe the shooting was intentional.

An 11-year-old boy, a 12-year-old girl and a 30-year-old woman "had minor abrasions to the face area, some from glass," Erik Scott of the Los Angeles Fire Department said, adding that none of the three was struck by gunfire.

The suspect was arrested at the scene and charged in juvenile court on Friday with felony counts of being a minor in possession of a firearm and having a weapon on school grounds.

The girl, who is not being identified by authorities because of her age, is scheduled to be arraigned on Monday, according to the district attorney's office, which said it would not release any further information.

Some of her friends told reporters that she claims the gun "went off" when she dropped her backpack. "At this time, the information suggests that this was an isolated incident, involving the negligent discharge of a firearm, where innocent children and a staff member were unfortunately injured," the LAPD said in a statement.

Speaking on Friday on KNX Newsradio, Mayor Eric Garcetti said a single bullet apparently went through the girl's wrist and struck the boy near one of his temples before lodging in his neck.

Chief Steve Zipperman of the Los Angeles School Police Department said Thursday it was unclear how the gun wound up on the secure campus. "We have laws that mandate that parents who own guns, any adult who owns guns  any gun owner has an obligation to ensure that gun is locked inside a home," he added.

The image of 12-year-old children bringing guns into the classroom has reignited the long-running debate on America's epidemic of gun violence and the ready accessibility of weapons.

Los Angeles city attorney Mike Feuer said the incident should be a "call to action" for gun owners to ensure weapons are kept away from children while Los Angeles county supervisor Hilda Solis said she was "horrified" by events.

More than 33,000 people die annually in the US from gun-related deaths  two thirds of them suicides  according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.The Maldivian Opposition accused President Abdulla Yameen of resisting local and international pressure to comply with a landmark Supreme Court order to free nine political prisoners

Colombo: The Maldivian Opposition Saturday accused President Abdulla Yameen of resisting local and international pressure to comply with a landmark Supreme Court order to free nine political prisoners.

The Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) said Yameen was yet to release any in line with Thursday's shock decision of the apex court to quash the dissidents' convictions.

"Although Yameen has said he will abide by the ruling, he is yet to comply with the order delivered more than 36 hours ago," Colombo-based MDP spokesman Hamid Abdul Ghafoor said on Saturday morning.

The court on Thursday night said that cases against the nine dissidents, including former president Mohamed Nasheed, were politically motivated and asked the government to release them immediately.

It also ordered the reinstatement of 12 legislators who were expelled for defecting, and effectively gave the Opposition a majority in the 85-member assembly.

In a statement issued overnight, the joint Opposition, which includes Nasheed's MDP, said it feared the regime would ignore the release order and that it would trigger further unrest in the nation of 3,40,000 Sunni Muslims.

" We are deeply fearful that the government's refusal to implement the Supreme Court order could escalate to unrest and incite violence across the country," the joint Opposition said.

Nasheed, the country's first democratically elected president, has urged the government to respect the top court's decision.

The United Nations, Australia, Britain, Canada, India and the United States welcomed the court's decision as a move towards restoring democracy in the politically troubled Indian Ocean nation.

Earlier, Nasheed had said the ruling cleared the way for him to return to the Maldives and contest elections due later this year.

"I can contest and will contest," he told AFP in the Sri Lankan capital Colombo.

For its part, the Maldivian government announced Friday that it had concerns about releasing those who had been convicted of "terrorism, corruption, embezzlement, and treason".

Yameen's office said Attorney General Mohamed Anil had raised the administration's concerns with the chief justice.

Nasheed was barred from contesting any election in the Maldives after a controversial 2015 terrorism conviction internationally criticised as politically motivated.

The Maldives' popular image as an upmarket holiday paradise has been severely damaged by a major crackdown on dissent under Yameen, who has overseen the jailing of almost all his political opponents.

The Opposition said there were sporadic clashes Friday night between anti-government activists and the police in the Maldives.The US welcomed the decision by the Maldives' Supreme Court to order the release of political prisoners and to reinstate elected members of parliament

Washington: The US welcomed the decision by the Maldives' Supreme Court to order the release of political prisoners and to reinstate elected members of parliament on Saturday.

"The United States urges the Maldivian government to respect and abide by the Supreme Court ruling," State

Department spokesperson Heather Nauert said. "It is imperative that the Maldivian president, government, and security services uphold the Constitution and rule of law and implement the court's ruling in full," she said.

Nauert said the US also strongly supports freedom of expression for all Maldivians and calls upon the government to uphold this fundamental freedomMyanmar on Saturday denied that there were five mass graves of Rohingya Muslims in a village in crisis-hit Rakhine state

Yangon: Myanmar on Saturday denied that there were five mass graves of Rohingya Muslims in a village in crisis-hit Rakhine state, saying that 19 "terrorists" had been killed and buried in the area.

The Associated Press used testimony from dozens of Rohingya refugees and time-stamped cell phone videos to describe a massacre by soldiers and at least five previously unreported mass graves in Rakhine's Gu Dar Pyin village.

The Myanmar government's Information Committee said in a statement posted on its Facebook page that a government inspection team had gone to the village to probe the AP report and found it to be false.

"The inspection team systematically investigated the AP's report on the Gu Dar Pyin village case, including interviewing villagers, and found it not to be true," the statement said.

The AP report, which AFP could not independently verify, described grisly violence at the hands of soldiers and Buddhist vigilantes, who allegedly attacked villagers with guns, knives, rocket launchers and grenades before dumping bodies into pits and dousing them with acid.

Satellite images obtained by the AP show a village that has been completely wiped out, with villagers interviewed in refugee camps in Bangladesh claiming that up to 400 people could have been killed.

The Information Committee said there had been deadly clashes between security forces and Rohingya militants in the village on 28 August which left 19 "terrorists" dead.

"Nineteen dead terrorists were found... the bodies were buried," the statement said, without giving details on the location or nature of the graves.

Myanmar troops are accused of waging an ethnic cleansing campaign against the Muslim minority, nearly 7,00,000 of whom have fled to Bangladesh since last August.

The army staunchly denies the allegation, saying it is a proportionate crackdown on Rohingya rebels. It blocks media and UN investigators from independently visiting the conflict zone.

The severe restrictions on media access imposed by Myanmar make it difficult to verify the flood of testimony gathered from Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh, whose stories have led the UN to accuse Myanmar troops of possible genocide.

Based on a survey of refugees, Doctors Without Borders estimates that at least 6,700 Rohingya were killed in the first month of the military crackdown.

The army has put the official death toll of the conflict at 400, including 376 Rohingya "terrorists".

Last month the army made a rare admission that four members of the security forces had helped kill 10 Rohingya militant suspects on September 2 and left their bodies in a hastily dug pit.

Rights groups say that incident is the tip of the iceberg.The film, "Detective K: Secret of the Living Dead," the third installment in a series, revolves around two detectives and a woman with superhuman power who has lost her memory. The three team up to investigate a series of murders.

Actress Kim Ji-won takes on her first period role in her upcoming film, which is set for release next week.

"I read the script in one sitting and I liked it. At the time I was wrapping up a TV drama I appeared in, so I was looking for my next project, and I decided to get on board instantly. Most of all, I didn't want to miss the chance to work with veteran actors like Kim Myung-min and Oh Dal-soo," she said.

Asked how she handled the burden of her first period film, she said, "I worked hard on my diction and tone of voice. But I loved wearing hanbok, or traditional Korean dress. It was also great to have more time to contemplate my role while filming, unlike in a TV series, which often forces actors into a hectic shooting schedule."

The film will hit local theaters on Feb. 8.Plastic surgeons raised red flags this week about a penis whitening fad in skin colour-fixated Thailand.

Paris: Plastic surgeons raised red flags this week about a penis whitening fad in skin colour-fixated Thailand, dismissing the procedure as a phallic "fashion" with uncertain benefits and many risks.

Requiring the use of lasers, acid, or chemicals, the latest craze in genital beautification can leave men with burns, scars, taut skin, or the exact opposite of what they were after in the first place  a darker penis or a spotted one, the experts warned.

"I think it should not be done in a patient that doesn't need it," Milanese plastic surgeon Massimiliano Brambilla, who specialises in genital procedures, told AFP.

"Most of the substances that are used to whiten... are quite aggressive. Whitening is one of those things that I am very careful of."

Earlier this month, a Bangkok clinic said 100 men a month were making use of its penis whitening service just six months after it started offering the procedure.

The clinic charged about $650 (520 euros) for five laser sessions.

According to global statistics produced by the International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (ISAPS), Thailand ranked 21st in terms of the number of cosmetic procedures performed in 2016.

The data also showed a massive rise in genital beautification procedures globally.

Labiaplasty, which involves trimming the inner vaginal "lips" or labia minoria, was by far the fastest growing surgery sector in 2016, with a 45-percent rise from 2015, according to the International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (ISAPS).

'Pornographisation'

Genital whitening was not listed among the data, but industry experts say demand is growing.

"I think it's linked to the pornographisation of society," said plastic surgeon Fabien Boucher from Lyon, France, another practitioner of "intimate" procedures.

"What people see is... a genital aesthetic that in my view is not realistic," he explained, with sex organs shaved and otherwise manipulated to represent those of very young people -- hairless, smooth, and pink.

It is normal for the privates to be more darkly coloured than the rest of the skin, said Boucher.

"I do sex-change surgeries, constructing penises for female-to-male transformations, and these patients want exactly the opposite" of genital whitening  many opting for colour-in tattoos, he added.

"A key defect of our penile reconstruction procedure is that we end up with white penises which are visibly not natural."

Another reason for the Thai trend is cultural.

The Asia Pacific region is a major market for skin lighteners.

Boucher stressed there has been little scientific research into the use of lasers and chemicals for penis-whitening, and no bleaching techniques or products have been developed uniquely for use in this sensitive area.

"The skin of the penis is different" to that of the face or body, for which the existing products were conceived, said Boucher.

"It is a thin skin... and we do not yet fully understand how it will react."

Satisfaction not guaranteed

The Thai health ministry has also warned against the procedure, saying it may cause irritation or infection, even presents a threat to sexual pleasure and reproduction.

"Honestly, I don't think they should be doing it," echoed Boucher, who said he wouldn't perform the procedure until the science shows it is safe.

Brambilla said he has turned down about three whitening requests in his 15-year career.

"If the colour is uniform, I really see no need," he explained.

"But even if there is a reason for intervention, such as an accident, the instruments that we have now to do it, they cannot guarantee first of all the satisfaction, secondly a realistic result, and thirdly the safety of what you're doing," he said.

Penis enlargement, meanwhile, dropped by 28 percent in 2016, according to the ISAPS, likely due to the rise of new, less-invasive booster techniques.The US has warned countries against supporting non-state actors and terrorist groups trying to obtain or employ nuclear weapons.

Washington: The United States has warned countries against supporting non-state actors and terrorist groups trying to obtain or employ nuclear weapons.

"The US will hold accountable any state or non-state actor that supports terrorist efforts to obtain or employ a nuclear weapon," Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, Tom Shannon, told reporters at a Pentagon news conference where the Trump Administration rolled out its 2018 Nuclear Posture Review (NPR).

Neither Shannon nor the NPR report, running into 100 pages, identified any country which could be seen aiding terrorist groups in this regard.

US officials have in the past expressed concern over the possibility of nuclear weapons of Pakistan landing into the hands of non-state actors or terrorist groups and thus has been working with Islamabad in enhancing the security of its nuclear weapons.

Pakistan has repeatedly denied such fears and asserted that its nuclear arsenals are one of the safest and secure ones in the world.

Shannon said that nuclear terrorism remained a major threat in the 21st century and countries need to work to mitigate it.

"The potential threat of non-state actors getting their hands on a nuclear weapon remains at the front of all of our minds," Shannon told reporters at a news conference held at the Pentagon.

Deputy Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette said the US will keep a close watch on nuclear proliferation activities.

"The Department of Energy will continue to focus on nonproliferation, counterproliferation and counterterrorism. Together with our allies and partners, we have enjoyed great, great success in these areas," he said.

In a special section on nuclear terrorism, the report said the US strategy to combat nuclear terrorism encompasses a wide range of activities that comprise a defence-in-depth against current and emerging dangers.

The report said the US would try and prevent terrorists from obtaining nuclear weapons or technology and respond to nuclear incidents by locating and disabling a nuclear device or managing the consequences of a nuclear detonation.

"For effective deterrence, the US will hold fully accountable any state, terrorist group, or other non-state actor that supports or enables terrorist efforts to obtain or employ nuclear devices," the report said.

The report also said that a terrorist nuclear attack against the US or its allies and partners would qualify as an "extreme circumstance" under which the US could consider the "ultimate form of retaliation".

According to the report, the US will continue its efforts to minimise the number of nuclear weapons states, including by maintaining credible US-extended nuclear deterrence and assurance; and deny terrorist organisations access to nuclear weapons and materials.

It will also seek arms control agreements that enhance security, and are verifiable and enforceable.

The US will enhance cooperation with its allies, partners, and international institutions to combat nuclear terrorism, and deterring state support for nuclear terrorism through advanced forensics and attribution capabilities.

Noting that the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) is the cornerstone of the nuclear non-proliferation regime, the report said that nuclear non-proliferation today faces acute challenges.

Most significantly, North Korea is pursuing a nuclear path in direct contravention of the NPT and in direct opposition to numerous UN Security Council resolutions, the report said.

The report also lists Iran as a challenge in terms of nuclear proliferation.

"Although the the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) may constrain Tehran's nuclear weapons program, there is little doubt Iran could achieve a nuclear weapon capability rapidly if it decides to do so," it said.

According to the report, the US will work to increase transparency and predictability to avoid potential miscalculation among nuclear weapons states and other possessor states "..through strategic dialogues, risk-reduction communications channels, and the sharing of best practices related to nuclear weapons safety and security," the report said.

In its report, the Trump administration said, although the US will not seek ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, it will continue to support the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization Preparatory Committee (CTBTO) as well as the International Monitoring System and the International Data Center.

"The US will not resume nuclear explosive testing unless necessary to ensure the safety and effectiveness of the US nuclear arsenal, and calls on all states possessing nuclear weapons to declare or maintain a moratorium on nuclear testing," it said.Google Flights, the tech giants airline flight search engine, now provides reasons for flight delays, predictions on which flights will be delayed and what travelers can expect if they booked the cheapest seats on a plane.

Using historic flight status data and its own algorithms, it can predict some delays even if the information hasnt been released by the airline. Google (GOOGL) said it will only announce the delay if there is an 80% chance the prediction will be correct.

To get the information, users search for their flight using the airline and flight number, or by the airline and flight route.

At a time when many airlines are offering new types of seating on flights, confusion can arise when it comes to which options are available when booking particular fares.

So Google also rolled out a new feature that will break down what customers on airlines can expect  such as seat selection, baggage fees and overhead bin space  when booking fare types such as basic economy.

Google Flights will provide the info to customers using data from American, Delta and United Airlines.

However, Google still recommends not waiting until the last minute to get to the airport in case any unexpected issues occur.The Federal Reserve ordered Wells Fargo on Friday to halt its growth, citing "widespread consumer abuses and other compliance breakdowns" at the bank.

The Federal Reserve Board said in a statement that it "would restrict the growth of the firm until it sufficiently improves its governance and controls. Concurrently with the Boards action, Wells Fargo will replace three current board members by April and a fourth board member by the end of the year. "

The bank is barred from growing beyond its size at the end of 2017 until it has satisfied the Fed that it has improved its compliance and governance polices, the Fed said. The bank's board must submit a plan within 60 days outlining how it plans to address the Fed's concerns.

The Fed action follows sustained compliance issues at Wells Fargo, which has already paid hundreds of millions of dollars in fines to various regulators for abusing retail customers.

Shares of Wells Fargo fell about 2 percent in light post-market trading.

(Reporting by Pete Schroeder)According to the December snapshot from the Social Security Administration, 61.9 million people a month are receiving a benefit from the Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability (OASDI) Trust. A majority of these folks --= 42.4 million to be more precise -- are retired workers. Though these retirees are only taking home an average of $1,404 a month, that's more than enough to pull more than 15 million out of poverty, so says an analysis by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

What's more, Social Security is leaned on by 62% of retired workers for at least half of their monthly income. Without this guaranteed stipend, it'd be safe to assume that retirees would be struggling to make ends meet.

Unfortunately, this critical program that provides a financial foundations for tens of millions of retired workers, the disabled, and survivors of deceased workers, is walking on unstable ground. The 2017 report from the Social Security Board of Trustees estimates that the program will begin paying out more in benefits than it's collecting in revenue by 2022. Just 12 years later, in 2034, the roughly $3 trillion in asset reserves that the OASDI Trust is expected to have in 2022 will be completely gone.

How on Earth will America's most crucial social program deplete $3 trillion in a matter of 12 years? Let's take a look.

1. The retirement of baby boomers weighs on the worker-to-beneficiary ratio

To begin with, some, but nowhere near all, of the blame does lie with the baby boomer generation. These folks had no control over when they were born, but the simple fact remains that as they leave the workforce, there aren't enough new workers to take their place. Ultimately, this is expected to push the worker-to-beneficiary ratio from 2.8-to-1 in 2017 to 2.2-to-1 by 2035.

Why's this important, you ask? Social Security is primarily funded by a payroll tax on earned income. In 2016, 87.3% of the $957.5 billion collected by the program was derived from this 12.4% tax on earned income. In 2018, all earned income between $0.01 and $128,400 is subject to this tax, with employers and employees splitting their liability at 6.2% each. If there aren't enough new workers to replace the roughly 4 million boomers leaving the workforce each year, then the collected payroll tax revenue won't be enough to sustain the current payout schedule as the number of eligible Social Security recipients grows.

2. We're living considerably longer than the program was designed for

A second problem is that we're simply living too long. Trust me, it's a problem few of us are complaining about. Unfortunately, Social Security, when first conceived, was never designed to be a supplemental income source for decades.

The average life expectancy, when the Social Security Act was signed into law in 1935, was only around 62 years of age. This meant the typical retiree was likely to receive benefits for only a few years. However, today's life expectancy is nearly 79 years. In fact, the Social Security Administration notes that the average 65-year-old will live a tad over 20 more years. That could mean two or more decades of benefit checks from the OASDI Trust. It was never designed to provide coverage to retirees for such an extended period of time, and it's straining the program.

3. Income inequality is wreaking havoc

To somewhat build on the previous point, income inequality is also responsible for the expected exhaustion of $3 trillion in asset reserves from the OASDI. The issue with income inequality being that the wealthy are living considerably longer than lower-income folks, and thusly pulling in a higher benefit check for a longer period of time. That's putting increased stress on the program.

The gap in longevity between the rich and lower-income stems from the wealthy's ability to receive preventative medical care and treatment, if necessary. Since cost isn't an obstacle for the well-to-do, they're able to receive medical care as often as needed. Comparatively, lower-income workers and families might be shut out of the healthcare system in America due to an inability to pay. This is what allows the rich to collect significantly more from the program over their lifetime.

4. Monetary easing sapped the OASDI's earning potential

Fourthly, the Federal Reserve can somewhat be blamed for helping to sap the earning power of the OASDI Trust.

You see, Social Security's asset reserves, which are currently near $2.9 trillion, are invested in safe, interest-bearing assets. A majority is invested in special issue bonds, with a small amount invested in certificates of indebtedness. The average yield on these assets is around 2.9%. By the time 2022 rolls around and this excess cash starts dwindling, the interest income earned from these bonds and certificates of indebtedness will begin to fall. By 2034, it'll be completely gone.

The Fed kept its federal funds target rate at historic lows for seven years between December 2008 and December 2015 in order to give a boost to the U.S. economy and lending. However, it also negatively impacted bond yields, resulting in a now unimpressive yield on the OASDI's asset reserves.

5. Beneficiaries lack the needed knowledge to make informed decisions

It should also be noted that current and future beneficiaries don't know a lot about Social Security or their claiming options. Back in 2015, a 10-question, true-false, online quiz conducted by MassMutual Financial Group found that just 28% of the 1,513 respondents passed with seven out of 10 correct, or better. A mere one person got all 10 questions correct, and these questions covered fairly basic topics. The takeaway was that most people don't have a good understanding of the program.

Here's the issue: If people don't understand their claiming options, they could either be leaving money on the table, or bogging down the Social Security program. I believe both answers are plausible.

According to the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College, 60% of eligible beneficiaries claim benefits between ages 62 and 64, with 45% claiming at age 62, the earliest age possible. Even though claiming early does result in a permanent reduction in monthly payouts, which you'd think would be beneficial to the Social Security program, the simple fact that folks are rushing to lay claim to their payout as soon as possible rather than waiting a few years is probably straining the OASDI Trust.

6. Congress can't decide on anything when it comes to Social Security

And finally, we can't forget the role that Washington is playing in the matter -- or should I say lack thereof. Despite both Democrats and Republicans acknowledging that Social Security's current path is unsustainable, no major overhaul of the program has been enacted since 1983. The issue is that both parties have a solution that works, and neither will back down to find a middle ground as a result.

Democrats believe in raising or eliminating the payroll tax earnings cap (the aforementioned $128,400 level mentioned earlier). This cap exists because Social Security has a maximum monthly payout of $2,788 at full retirement age in 2018, and it allows wealthier workers earning more than $128,400 annually to avoid Social Security's payroll tax on some or most of their earnings. Upping the cap, or removing it entirely, would require the rich to pay more without impacting the low- and middle-income workers.

Meanwhile, Republicans want to increase the full retirement age from 67 as of 2022 to 68, 69, or even 70 in the years to come. Increasing the full retirement age is a way of accounting for increased longevity. It would require people to wait longer to receive 100% of their full retirement benefit, or to accept a steeper reduction in their monthly payout by claiming early. Either way, the lifetime benefits paid out by Social Security would fall if the retirement age increases.

There's no chance of fixing Social Security if these two parties can't find a middle ground.

The $16,122 Social Security bonus most retirees completely overlook If you're like most Americans, you're a few years (or more) behind on your retirement savings. But a handful of little-known "Social Security secrets" could help ensure a boost in your retirement income. For example: one easy trick could pay you as much as $16,122 more... each year! Once you learn how to maximize your Social Security benefits, we think you could retire confidently with the peace of mind we're all after. Simply click here to discover how to learn more about these strategies.

The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.Another goof-up: Alappuzha Medical College declares alive patient dead

The relatives, who made arrangements for the cremation, and reached the hospital for receiving the body, were then told that their patient was still alive and under intensive care.Actress and activist Rose McGowan has canceled all upcoming public appearances after getting into an argument with a transgender woman at a New York City bookstore earlier this week.

WARNING: VIDEO CONTAINS EXPLICIT LANGUAGE

McGowan tweeted Friday she canceled appearances because she has given enough and was verbally assaulted by someone she claimed was a paid actor.

The former Charmed star was at a Barnes & Noble in Union Square promoting her memoir Brave when a transgender woman, Andi Dier, asked about controversial comments she made during a podcast in July, the Daily News reported.

While speaking with drag queen RuPaul on his podcast Whats the Tee, McGowan said transgender women hadnt developed as women.

ROSE MCGOWAN: I WAS THE ARCHITECT OF HARVEY WEINSTEINS DOWNFALL

Thats not growing as a woman, thats not living in this world as a woman, McGowan said, and a lot of the stuff I hear trans complaining about, yeah, welcome to the world.

Dier argued transgender women are victims of sexual assault as well.

"Trans women are dying and you said that we, as trans women, are not like regular women. We get raped more often. We go through domestic violence more often. There was a trans woman killed here a few blocks (away), she yelled at the actress.

According to a 2015 U.S. survey of transgender people, 54 percent have experienced some form of intimate partner violence and 46 percent were harassed in the previous year for being transgender.

The explosive argument captured McGowan demanding Dier sit down and not label her.

Dont label me, sister. Dont put your labels on me. Dont you f---ing do that, McGowan said.

Dier was escorted out of the bookstore, but McGowan was not finished. The actress continued to argue, according to video taken of the exchange.

ROSE MCGOWAN GIVES IMPASSIONED RESPONSE TO HARVEY WEINSTEINS RAPE DENIAL

Im not worried, Im f---ing mad with the lies, McGowan said. Im mad that you put s--- on me because I have a f---ing vagina and Im white or Im black or Im yellow or Im purple. F--- off! All of us want to say it. I just do!

McGowan, 44, is one of the most vocal actresses speaking out against disgraced producer Harvey Weinstein. She has claimed Weinstein raped her in 1997  he has denied the allegations.

The day of the book tour argument, McGowan sat with journalist Ronan Farrow and revealed she was raped by another prominent Hollywood man, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

"This man picked me up when I was 15 years old," she said. "He took me home after he met me and he showed me a soft porn movie he had made for Showtime, under a different name. And then he had sex with me."Actress Uma Thurman finally broke her silence amid the ongoing #MeToo movement and accused disgraced producer Harvey Weinstein of sexual assault.

The Kill Bill actress also claimed that her director Quentin Tarantino almost killed her in a stunt gone bad, which soured their long working relationship.

Thurman opened up to The New York Times in an article published Saturday which followed a viral Access Hollywood video from October 2017 that captured her telling reporters she would open up about her experiences with Weinstein when she was ready. The two worked together in Pulp Fiction and Kill Bill.

She had remained mum on Weinstein following the bombshell exposes that revealed decades of alleged sexual abuse from the disgraced producer toward dozens of actresses.

Thurman said she became friendly with Weinsteins first wife, Eve, when she starred in Pulp Fiction and she knew him pretty well before he attacked. She recalled a strange encounter with the famed producer in Paris. She said they were fighting over a script when he changed into a bathrobe.

I didnt feel threatened, Thurman recalled. I thought he was being super idiosyncratic, like this was your kooky, eccentric uncle.

However, he then told her to follow him into a steam room.

I was standing there in my full black leather outfit  boots, pants, jacket, she said. And I was so hot and I said, This is ridiculous, what are you doing? And he was getting very flustered and mad and he jumped up and ran out.

UMA THURMAN, WHO WORKED WITH HARVEY WEINSTEIN, NOT READY TO TALK SCANDAL:IVE BEEN WAITING TO FEEL LESS ANGRY

The first attack came soon after at Weinsteins suite in London.

It was such a bat to the head. He pushed me down. He tried to shove himself on me. He tried to expose himself. He did all kinds of unpleasant things. But he didnt actually put his back into it and force me, she recalled. Youre like an animal wriggling away, like a lizard. I was doing anything I could to get the train back on the track. My track. Not his track.

Thurman said she received roses the next day from Weinstein telling her she had great instincts. Following the assault, Weinsteins representatives called Thurman about upcoming projects.

However, she wanted to confront Weinstein following the assault. She went to his hotel room and told Weinstein, If you do what you did to me to other people you will lose your career, your reputation and your family, I promise you.

The actress friend, makeup artist Illona Herman, told the Times she had been at the London hotel waiting for Thurman to come down from meeting with Weinstein. She called that her friend looked frazzled.

She was very disheveled and so upset and had this blank look, Herman told The New York Times. Her eyes were crazy and she was totally out of control. I shoveled her into the taxi and we went home to my house. She was really shaking.

Herman said Weinstein threatened to ruin Thurmans career over the incident.

A representative for Weinstein told The New York Times he never threatened her career but admitted he misread her signals.

Mr. Weinstein acknowledges making a pass at Ms. Thurman in England after misreading her signals in Paris, the statement read. He immediately apologized.

UMA THURMAN RIPS HARVEY WEINSTEIN IN THANKSGIVING DAY INSTAGRAM POST

Thurman said she had opened up about Weinsteins advances to her Kill Bill and Pulp Fiction director Tarantino, who confronted the producer on her behalf.

However, their relationship soured following a dangerous stunt while filming Kill Bill.

She said the Oscar-winning director coaxed her into driving a blue convertible, which she felt was dangerous. She said he would not take no for an answer.

Thurman recalled Tarantino angrily confronting her in her trailer before convincing her that the car was safe to drive.

However, the actress instincts were right and while doing the stunt, she crashed into a tree.

The steering wheel was at my belly and my legs were jammed under me, she said. I felt this searing pain and thought, Oh my God, Im never going to walk again, she says. When I came back from the hospital in a neck brace with my knees damaged and a large massive egg on my head and a concussion, I wanted to see the car and I was very upset. Quentin and I had an enormous fight, and I accused him of trying to kill me. And he was very angry at that, I guess understandably, because he didnt feel he had tried to kill me.

Following the crash, Thurman demanded to obtain the video of the crash and her lawyer threatened to sue Miramax. It took 15 years for her to get the video.

Thurman said she fought Tarantino over the release of the tape and their relationship went downhill from there.

We had a fateful fight at Soho House in New York in 2004 and we were shouting at each other because he wouldnt let me see the footage and he told me that was what they had all decided, Thurman said.

Thurman claimed the crash left her with lifetime injuries.

Besides the car incident, Thurman said Tarantino also spit in her face and choked her while filming "Kill Bill."

Harvey assaulted me but that didnt kill me, Thurman said. What really got me about the crash was that it was a cheap shot. I had been through so many rings of fire by that point. I had really always felt a connection to the greater good in my work with Quentin and most of what I allowed to happen to me and what I participated in was kind of like a horrible mud wrestle with a very angry brother. But at least I had some say, you know?

Tarantino and Thurman have not worked together since the 2004 film Kill Bill: Volume 2.Gaming mogul Steve Wynn's $7.5 million payment to a former employee involved a paternity claim, according to a published report.

Wynn made the payment in 2005 to avoid distractions for his company, people familiar with the situation told Bloomberg. The sources requested anonymity.

The paternity claim could explain why Wynn paid the former employee such a large sum, the report said. But terms of the settlement are private, so questions abound.

Theres no evidence Wynn, 76, fathered a child in the encounter.

However, the settlement has become a key element of the sexual misconduct controversy surrounding Wynn, Bloomberg reported.

The Wall Street Journal reported Jan. 26 that the woman who received the settlement worked as a manicurist at the Wynn Las Vegas resort, and had told people she was pressured into having sex with him.

The manicurist didnt respond to attempts by Bloomberg to reach her by phone, mail and third parties.

Wynn Resorts board has since launched an independent investigation. Regulators in Nevada, Macau and Massachusetts have said theyre also looking into the matter, with the Massachusetts Gaming Commission investigating why the settlement wasnt previously disclosed, Bloomberg reported. Their investigation could jeopardize the companys $2.4 billion casino under construction in the Boston area.

A Wynn Resorts spokesman told Bloomberg that neither the company nor Wynn himself would comment.

Click here for more from Bloomberg.NEW You can now listen to Fox News articles!

Like the wave of a giant tsunami, news stories about Russian election meddling, government shutdowns, partisan sniping in Congress, sexual misconduct, protest marches, tweet storms, racism, immigration fights and more are sweeping over us morning, noon and night.

Amid charge and countercharge, opponents all claim the mantle of virtue and righteousness. Im right, and youre wrong seems to be the prevailing view of opponents on the left and right across America, the mightiest nation on Earth.

But then again, maybe we arent nearly as mighty as we think.

We are a weak nation when it comes to the most important kind of strength  the kind that can save us all. Ever wonder why God chose Moses? Because, as the Bible puts it: Moses was a very humble man, more humble than anyone else on the face of the Earth.

The lesson? There is great power in humility.

Each day, during each tempting, prideful moment may we and our leaders be great enough to stoop low.

Of course, humility is difficult to achieve. It comes at the expense of pride. Consider a certain pastor who received a beautiful note from a woman in his congregation complimenting him on his preaching and comparing him with the great prophets.

Pastor, she finished by writing, I think you are one of the greatest preachers of all time.

Feeling good about the note, the pastor showed it to his wife and asked: Sweetheart, how many great preachers do you suppose there actually are in the ministry?

The pastors wife looked down at the card, looked up at her husband and replied: One less than you think, dear.

In the Babylonian Talmud, Rabbi Yehuda Nesia argues that the character of a generation reflects that of its leader. Others say just the opposite  that the character of the leader reflects that of his or her generation. But however you look at it, the sages believed that we get the leaders we deserve.

If we get the leaders we deserve, what does that say about us as much as them?

The Hebrew word for Egypt comes from the word narrow. God through his humble servant Moses lead the Israelites from the narrow confines of slavery, and through a narrow sliver of land between a parted sea into a vast, open desert where they found true freedom and faith.

Given the coarseness of our nations politics and culture, the sages would remind us that the plague of darkness that descended over Egypt, that narrow place, was a darkness so dark that people could not recognize the humanity in each other.

The prophet Zechariah would shout to us across 100 generations: Not by might and not by power, but by Gods spirit shall people live in peace.

Might and power alone mean little if uninformed by the spirit of God, by the spirit of a genuine peace that comes from a genuine respect for the other.

I often remember a driving lesson with my dad during which another car merged without yielding to my right of way. I sped up. Slow down! my dad shouted.

But I have the right of way, I shouted back.

My father told me to pull over, then looked me straight in the eyes and said: Dont be dead right.

Doubt is so important. We should doubt that our side of the story is the only side, doubt that our perspective is the only perspective.

Abolish all doubt, and what's left is not faith, but absolute, heartless conviction, says author Lesley Hazleton, who wrote the biography of Muhammad.

Great power without humility is not greatness. It is Pharaoh, Hitler, Stalin, Mao, bin Laden, Assad. It is the belittling, harassing boss, the abusive parent, the cold, indifferent spouse. It is brothers and sisters, parents and children, who do not speak, friendships of so many years blown apart.

One of the saddest days of my life was when I had to attend an arbitration between my family and my uncle in the midst of my fathers worsening dementia and the sign on the conference room door read Leder vs. Leder.

If we want to heal the wounds in our family, friendships and nation, then lets inject some doubt into our self-righteousness. Only doubt enables us to consider: Maybe its me. Maybe she is right. Maybe he does have a point. Maybe I was unkind. Maybe I was too severe, insecure, self-righteous, proud, and aggressive. Maybe I was wrong.

There are so many broken families, so many broken hearts, so many times we feel like we live in a broken country. Why? Because not enough of us reach deep enough into the pocket of humility that says, I am but dust and ash. I am no more special than you. I am not perfect. I am not the center of the universe. I am not without flaws and fault, foolishness and doubt. Real love, real friendship, real leadership is about that pocket of humility.

When I watch protests on the news I often hear the chant: No justice. No peace. I think the protestors have it backwards. What we need is real peace in order to create real social justice.

And what is real peace? Is it merely not disagreeing? Or is real peace something greater than the lack of differences? Of course it is. Real peace is an ethic  a marriage, a family, a workplace, a city, a country, and a world that humbly values, respects and honors different points of view and different human journeys. Humility before God, our loved ones and our fellow citizens is the only hope for real peace.

There is a beautiful old story about a student who came to a sage and said: In the olden days there were those like Moses who saw the face of God. Why dont they anymore?

The wise man replied, Because nowadays no one can stoop low enough.

Each day, during each tempting, prideful moment may we and our leaders be great enough to stoop low.NEW You can now listen to Fox News articles!

A formerly secret memo released Friday by Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee raises serious questions about the judgment and actions of a handful of current and former senior officials at the FBI and the Justice Department.

Those officials were seeking permission to surveil an American citizen, Carter Page, who had been an adviser on Donald Trumps presidential campaign.

A key question: In their dealings with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to gain permission to surveil Page, did the FBI and Justice Department fail in their duty of candor to the judges?

The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 (FISA) set up a secret court that reviews all applications made by the FBI, Justice Department and other federal intelligence agencies seeking classified warrants that allow them to engage in electronic surveillance.

The courts job is to make sure that the applications meet the strict legal standards of the FISA statute. The law requires the government to provide a statement of facts and circumstances relied upon to justify the governments belief that the target is an agent of a foreign power. It also requires the government to show that the facilities or places targeted by the electronic surveillance are being used by the foreign power or an agent of a foreign power.

That application has to be submitted by a Federal officer in writing upon oath or affirmation.

In other words, the FBI counterintelligence agent or the National Security Agency officer involved has to swear that the facts and circumstances in the application are true to the best of his or her knowledge. And each application for a FISA warrant has to be certified by the attorney general or other federal executive officers  such as the director or deputy director of the FBI designated by the president.

Those officials have a duty to make sure that the information in the application is correct. The FISA Court can approve the electronic surveillance warrant only if it has probable cause to believe that the facts and circumstances submitted by the government are true.

According to the FISA memo, on Oct. 21, 2016, the FBI and Justice Department applied for and received a surveillance warrant on Carter Page. At the time, Page was a volunteer for the Trump campaign. That warrant was subsequently renewed three times.

FBI Director James Comey certified three of the applications and Deputy Director Andrew McCabe signed one. At the Justice Department, at least one FISA application each was certified by Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates, Deputy Attorney General Dana Boente, and the current Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.

According to the memo released Friday, top Justice Department and FBI officials failed to reveal pertinent facts in the FISA application  facts crucial to fairly assessing the credibility of the facts and circumstances that were presented and whether there was probable cause to issue a surveillance warrant.

Unproven and uncorroborated claims contained in the Steele dossier  a series of memos compiled by a former British spy whose opposition research on Donald Trump was funded by Hillary Clintons presidential campaign and the Democratic National Committee  were an essential part of the FISA application, according to the House Republican memo released Friday. So essential, in fact, that McCabe testified last December, the agencies would not have sought a surveillance warrant without it, the memo states.

Comey also testified that the dossiers claims were salacious and unverified. Yet the FISA court was informed of none of this.

Nor did the FBI or Justice Department officials inform the FISA Court that the Hillary Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee had paid Christopher Steele $160,000 to prepare the dossier. Justice Department official Bruce Ohr also failed to disclose to the court that Steele had expressed strong opposition to Trumps candidacy.

One would think that senior law enforcement officials would have realized they had a professional duty to tell the court about the origins of the dossier and about Steele himself, since that information was relevant to the credibility of the information drawn from the dossier. Yet, according to the Republican memo, the senior FBI and Justice Department officials involved in the application and re-application process failed in that duty.

The staff memo says nothing regarding what Carter Page is alleged to have done. Thus, the reader is not able to assess whether or not a FISA warrant targeting him was a valid government objective. Nor do we know what information  from the dossier or elsewhere  led the government to reasonably believe that Page was an agent of a foreign power.

Clearly, the FISA memo released is but a portion of a much larger story. If Washington works the way it typically works, the fuller story will come out eventually. It should, because the public has a right to know what happened.

But if the main elements of this staff memo prove to be true  that key government officials failed to disclose the tawdry facts about the unverified Steele dossier, its origin and who paid for it, in the middle of a presidential election  there could and should be serious ramifications for all of those involved.NEW You can now listen to Fox News articles!

President Trump once boasted that his base was so loyal that he could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldnt lose any voters. Now hes putting that claim to the test with his immigration proposal. In his State of the Union address Tuesday, Trump offered to support not just legal status, but a path to citizenship for nearly two million illegal immigrants  the dreamers who were brought to the United States as children through no fault of their own  if Democrats would agree to fund his border wall and limit chain migration.

It is a remarkable offer that goes far beyond the expected granting of legal status to DACA recipients. And it has outraged many of Trumps core supporters. Breitbart declared Trump Amnesty Don and said that supporters were calling his proposal an act of political incompetence, malpractice, greed, betrayal, and self-mutilation. Mark Krikorian, executive director of the hardline Center for Immigration Studies, complained that Trump promoted his amnesty proposal as legalizing more illegal aliens than Obamas DACA program, as though thats a good thing. Dan Horowitz, editor of Conservative Review, called Trumps plan the Self-Impeachment Act of 2018. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) said, I do not believe we should be granting a path to citizenship to anybody here illegally and described Trumps offer as inconsistent with the promises we made to the men and women who elected us. Heritage Action declared that his plan should be a non-starter.

In other words, Trump is doing something quintessentially presidential: He is taking on his own base in an effort to do something big and bipartisan for the good of the nation. That is what great leaders do.

But far from praising Trump for an act of statesmanship and engaging him in serious negotiations, Democrats have attacked him relentlessly. During his speech they scowled, rolled their eyes and even booed, barely masking their utter contempt for the president. Rep. Joseph Crowley (N.Y.), chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, denounced Trumps address as racist, while House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) complained that although Trump presents himself as generous toward dreamers, hes holding them hostage in what she calls the most extreme anti-immigrant agenda in generations.

After Democrats shut down the government and then folded without getting anything, Trump could have rubbed their faces in it. Instead, he put a serious offer on the table that included a major concession with his support for amnesty. It was obviously an opening bid, subject to negotiation, but it showed he is serious about reaching an agreement.

What did Democrats do? That same week, Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.)  under fire from his left-wing base for his mishandling of the shutdown  announced that his offer to fund a border wall was off the table. Schumer knows full well there is no chance of an agreement without funding for the wall.

So this is where things stand: Trump is challenging his base while Democrats are pandering to theirs. The irony is rich. Democrats say Trump is unfit to be president, but when it comes to immigration, he is the one being presidential, while they are behaving like political hacks.

Their reaction raises a question: Do Democrats even want a deal? Or is their hatred of Trump and lust for power so all-encompassing that they cant bring themselves to sit down with the president, negotiate in good faith and reach a compromise  one that would allow dreamers not only to stay but also to become American citizens, a compromise that would secure our borders and reform our immigration system?

Democrats dont like some elements of Trumps proposal, such as his plan to limit chain migration to the nuclear family, which they say would drastically cut legal immigration. Fair enough. Instead of nonstop attacks, they should emulate Trump and make a serious counteroffer with concessions toward his position. For example, they could accept limiting chain migration as long as Trump agrees to expand the number of legal immigrants allowed into the country under the merit-based immigration system that he has endorsed.

There is no reason, with some creativity and goodwill, that an immigration deal cannot be reached. So far, it looks as if there is goodwill only on one side. If the dreamers dont end up getting the path to citizenship that Trump has offered, it will be for one reason only: because Democrats care more about using illegal immigration to bash Donald Trump than they do about actually helping dreamers.NEW You can now listen to Fox News articles!

After just over a year in office, President Trump has clearly established a foreign policy predicated on Americas national interest and the assertion of American power. This is a big improvement over President Obamas weakness, leading from behind and deference to the international community in pursing and defending our vital interests.

American foreign policy, President Trump understands, must be controlled by America  not by any other nation or group of nations.

Admittedly, the presidents stand on a number of issues has been subject to vacillation. His view of the Iran nuclear deal swung from acceptable to unacceptable in the same day. Hes shown similar swings in his views of foreign leaders, such as Chinese President Xi Jinping, who fell from top to bottom and back again on President Trumps list of international friends.

But while its fair to say that President Trump can be emotional and erratic  and that a comprehensive global strategy has not emerged from the White House  the contours of the Trump administrations foreign policy have clearly emerged.

Too many of the presidents critics have taken to hyperbole to blast his foreign policy. For example, writing in The Weekly Standard, Michael Warren contends President Trump does not even have a have a foreign policy. This is absurd.

Warren writes: Trumps foreign policy has been incoherent and usually reflected the views of whoever was most influential with the president at any given moment. Advisers have had to race to keep up with the wavering lines.

In fact, President Trump can point to foreign policy wins and important and well-developed ideas that he has advanced.

For example, the presidents speech when he was in Saudi Arabia to meet with Arab leaders laid out a joint defense strategy to thwart Iranian ambitions. It was a speech that referred to cooperation among Sunni Muslim states on foreign relations, logistics, intelligence and military purchases and activities. Most notably, the president described specific and realistic tactics to defeat terrorism in all its forms.

Also in the Middle East, President Trump acknowledged the obvious fact that Jerusalem has been the capital of Israel since 1948 as well as in ancient times, and announced he would relocate the U.S. embassy there. He did not define the borders of Jerusalem or preclude the Palestinians from establishing a capital for their own state in part of the city if they can negotiate such an agreement with Israel.

By reiterating his belief that nations must react to international belligerence through national sovereignty, President Trump has made clear that he understands that the new world order promoted by presidents Obama and George W. Bush did not result in international equilibrium.

On the contrary, a U.S. in retreat  particularly under President Obama  left a vacuum filled by bad actors such as ISIS. The defeat of ISIS by U.S. and allied troops after President Trump became commander in chief demonstrated the presidents commitment to an assertive stance and the revival of hardnosed realism.

President Trump didnt just denounce ISIS. He unleashed forces that ousted ISIS from its self-proclaimed state and liberated Iraqis and Syrians trapped there by the radical Islamic terrorist group.

And unlike President Obama, President Trump did not handcuff our armed forces by trying to micromanage exactly what they could and could not do in the battle against ISIS forces that are dedicated to killing as many Americans as possible.

In another example of foreign policy leadership, President Trumps speech in Poland was an emotional defense of Western civilization. He correctly noted that individual rights, freedom of conscience and the rule of law are features uniquely associated with this civilization. In articulating this defense, the president was implicitly denouncing the cultural relativism that afflicts the provinces of political correctness, particularly Western European states.

Finally, President Trump has made it clear that ignoring the North Korean ICBM and nuclear tests is unacceptable. He has not kicked the can down the road as his predecessors did. The president realizes there are no more cans and no more road.

President Trumps tough rhetoric is designed to contain North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un and develop a regional defense system that includes South Korea and Japan. While the jury is still out on this matter, President Trump has seemingly faced down the threats and restored some stability to a very volatile situation.

Since we are only one year into the Trump administration much can change. It is increasingly obvious that the State Department needs a strategic vision for coping with Chinese commercial ventures through the neo Silk Road. Similarly, Russian involvement in the Middle East with its Iranian alliance and ties to terrorist group Hezbollah could usher in a direct confrontation between the U.S. and Russia, something both nations would wish to ignore.

Clearly, there is work to be done. Some critics contend President Trumps self-sabotage  his shooting from the hip  has dragged down his ability to formulate a coherent foreign policy. Alas, there is a point to be made in this regard.

Reining in the egregious dimensions of the presidents public persona, from tweets to vulgar commentary, could solidify his foreign policy positions. But to suggest he has been unable to formulate positions on international matters is, as I see it, quite inaccurate.NEW You can now listen to Fox News articles!

President Donald Trumps State of the Union speech was met with strong public support. Seventy-five percent of Americans approved  including 43 percent of Democrats, according to a CBS News poll conducted right after the speech Tuesday. The news media have spent nearly every second since telling those same voters why they were wrong. It was a Groundhog Day moment with journalists playing the Bill Murray role doing the same thing theyve done every day of this administration  criticizing President Trump.

Both CNN and MSNBC cited white nationalist nutball David Duke as supporting President Trumps immigration views. NBCs Capitol Hill Correspondent Kasie Hunt said Duke liked the presidents Americans are dreamers too comment. And CNN Political Analyst Kirsten Powers enjoyed mentioning that white nationalists, David Duke praised him for saying this.

NBCs Today Co-Host Savannah Guthrie falsely claimed Trump is under criminal investigation right now for obstruction of justice. And ABC News Chief Political Analyst Matthew Dowd was Bill Murray-esque, once again claiming, I think we are as divided now as we were in the 1860s.

Perhaps Dowd can point on a map the locations of widespread red and blue armies, sieges or 750,000 deaths like we had in the Civil War.

MSNBC Host Rachel Maddow pretended President Trump wants a war with North Korea. And her fellow Host Joy Reid went further off the deep end, depicting traditional American values in the worst way. Church ... family ... police ... military ... the national anthem ... Trump trying to call on all the tropes of 1950s-era nationalism. If thats the party line on the left, President Trump can count on being in the White House another seven years.

The coverage got so bad that CBS downplayed its own polling, reporting just once that 43 percent of Democrats liked the speech and skipping it the next day. That was better than CNN, where Political Director David Chalian tried to discredit his own poll by claiming the people who watch the speech are fans of the person giving it.

2. A Disaster for the Media: Even a deadly train crash brought out the worst in some prominent media figures. The train carrying Republican Senate and House members to a retreat slammed into a garbage truck, killing a passenger in the truck. Some in the media couldnt resist making wildly inappropriate jokes.

Author Stephen King tweeted : A trainload of Republicans on their way to a pricey retreat hit a garbage truck. My friend Russ calls that karma. He added he was sorry one person died and later apologized for his hateful comment.

The Daily Callers Amber Athey compiled a nice list of the embarrassing statements. The Daily Beasts Sam Stein asked: Did they stage this metaphor? He later erased the insensitive tweet. CNN commentator Keith Boykin referred to the accident as a metaphor for American politics.

CNN regular guest Jonathan Tasini, who the network calls a Democratic strategist, was thrilled by the accident and Rep. Trey Gowdys announced retirement. Wow, btwn train full of Goopers hitting truck and this, God is working hard today to clean up the stink. Thank her. #TreyGowdy, he tweeted. Tasini was mentioned by CNN 30 times in the past year, according to Nexis.

3. Media Struggle With #MeToo: Morning Joe long ago turned on Trump and has used almost any attack it could to discredit the president or his administration. Even that has limits.

Gossip troll/Fire and Fury author Michael Wolff took his act to the program on Thursday and got a rude awakening. That outlet wouldnt tolerate him implying the U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley is having an affair with Trump. Wolff tried to dance around it, despite having said Haley seems to have embraced the rumor that he started, according to The Washington Examiner.

MSNBC Host Mika Brzezinski didnt let Wolff pretend he wasnt tied to the rumor. When he hemmed and hawed, she stopped the segment and kicked him off air. I'm sorry, this is awkward, you're here on the set with us, but we're done. Michael Wolff, thank you, she concluded.

Wolff went off on her and her co-host on Twitter later, saying Trump was right in his many criticisms of Mika. He then added, It really would be hard to gossip more eagerly off camera than Mika and Joe gossip.

Brzezinski wasnt Haleys only defender in the press. New York Times editor and writer Bari Weiss called out the media for slut-shaming and added that when Haley was smeared with the most base, sexist lie, its met with little more than a collective shrug.

Haley needed the help after the Grammys credentialed Wolffs book with a celebrity reading that included has-been politico Hillary Clinton. Matthew Dowd, who pretends to be independent, slammed Haley for calling the book reading trash. He then called on her to have some integrity, apparently lacking any understanding of the words meaning.

MSNBC Host Stephanie Ruhle attacked Haley for daring to criticize the Grammys when the award show staged the reading of Wolffs much-questioned book. It was as if Ruhle ignored the left-wing rumors of the affair and acted shocked that Haley would object.

That wasnt the only disastrous sex harassment problem the media were coping with. Former Boston Globe staffer Hilary Sargent skewered the paper for being unwilling to talk to ex-employees about its problems. She tweeted out a series of criticisms including this perfect one: If you don't treat your colleagues who allege harassment and assault with the same respect as you treated the victims of abuse by the Catholic Church, then Spotlight was just a blip. It should be who you all are, through and through.

Spotlight won three Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Supporting Actor, for attacking the Catholic Church for how it handled a sex scandal. Apparently, Globe management never watched it.

4. Law & Order: SVU Portrayed a Conservative Pundit Getting Raped: Forget the hate that the left reserves for the right during award shows. They really abuse conservatives the rest of the time. This week, in an episode naturally titled Info Wars, the far-left crime drama made a conservative woman the victim of a horrible rape.

Imagine the media outcry if they misrepresented liberal beliefs and then depicted a prominent liberal being sexually assaulted. Its a reminder of just how despicable Hollywood has become.The Pentagon plans to develop two "low-yield" nuclear warheads to be launched from ballistic-missile submarines and warships, to send a message to Moscow -- which the Trump administration accuses of amassing a stockpile of tactical nuclear weapons.

The new plan is outlined in Defense Secretary Jim Mattis's Nuclear Posture Review, released Friday afternoon.

"Expanding U.S. tailored response options will raise the nuclear threshold and help ensure that potential adversaries perceive no possible advantage in limited nuclear escalation, making nuclear weapons employment less likely," the new review said.

The Pentagon says Russias buildup of similar "low-yield" nukes is the reason it must match the threat.

The United States would only consider the use of nuclear weapons in extreme circumstances, said Deputy Defense Secretary Patrick M. Shanahan. Extreme circumstances could include significant non-nuclear strategic attacks, he added without offering specifics.

Russian and Chinese officials were briefed by State Department officials Friday morning about the nuclear posture review.

It's the first such review in seven years, but much has changed since 2010, when the U.S. unilaterally reduced portions of its nuclear arsenal.

Over the past decade, while the United States led the world in these reductions every one of our potential nuclear adversaries has been pursuing the exact opposite strategy, said Deputy Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette. These powers are increasing the numbers and types of nuclear weapons in their arsenal.

After Russia annexed Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula, it deployed nuclear-capable intermediate range missiles to Kaliningrad, a Russian enclave on the border with Poland, leaving NATO leaders feeling helpless.

"Russia's nuclear saber-rattling is unjustified, destabilizing and dangerous," said NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg in 2015. Any deployment of nuclear forces to Crimea would fundamentally change the balance of security in Europe, he added.

Russia is bound by a decades-long arms treaty, known as the INF, from deploying ground-launched intermediate-range missiles. The Pentagon has accused Russia of violating the treaty, noting that Russia is also developing nuclear depth charges, torpedoes and anti-aircraft missiles among its 2,000 tactical nukes.

Russia is also developing at least two new intercontinental range systems, a hypersonic glide vehicle, and a new intercontinental, nuclear-armed, nuclear-powered, undersea autonomous torpedo, according to the review.

The United States has possessed hundreds of tactical low-yield nuclear warheads for decades, but they can only be delivered from planes, including B61 gravity bombs, but are vulnerable because the jets must fly over the target to use them making them susceptible to anti-aircraft missiles and guns.

Currently, only the B-2 stealth bomber can penetrate sophisticated air defenses.

The Trump administration wants to build off the previous administrations concern that the nuclear force needs to be modernized. It has mapped out plans for the U.S. to spend more than $1.2 trillion over the next 30 years.

In 1982, B-52 bombers were equipped with air-launched cruise missiles, but those weapons are now more than 25 years past its design life, according to the review. The newest B-52 is also more than 50 years old, one of the reasons the Pentagon wants a replacement bomber as well replacement for the aging air-launched cruise missile.

The Air Force has 46 nuclear capable B-52H and 20 nuclear-capable B-2A stealth bombers.

Its bomber fleet is not the only aging portion of Americas "nuclear triad."

The 400 Minuteman-III intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) currently deployed across three Air Force bases in the Midwest were first deployed in 1970 with a planned 10-year service life. They are now expected to last until 2030.

The Navy has 14 Ohio-class ballistic missile submarines capable of carrying 24 Trident D-5 intercontinental ballistic missiles, but are roughly 30 years old.

The new posture review calls for each of these submarines to carry a small number of low-yield nuclear warheads, modified from more powerful ones currently inside the Trident missile.

The new missiles could be deployed in the next few years, officials say.

The Pentagon is worried Russia thinks it can use its smaller nukes against NATO in a limited war without a U.S. response.

Effective U.S. deterrence of Russian nuclear attack  now requires ensuring that the Russian leadership does not miscalculate regarding the consequences of limited nuclear first use, the review states.

The last nuclear posture review came out just months after President Obama set as a policy goal a world without nuclear weapons in a 2009 speech in Prague.

Nuclear weapons are the most dangerous legacies of the Cold War," Obama said in the Czech Republic capital. "The U.S. will take concrete steps ... [to] begin the work of reducing our arsenals and stockpiles."

Obama got rid of nuclear-tipped, sea-launched cruise missiles in 2011.

The Pentagon now wants to bring some of those weapons back.

Every U.S. administration over the past six decades has called for a flexible and limited U.S. nuclear response options, said the review. Potential adversaries do not stand still. On the contrary, they seek to identify and exploit weaknesses in U.S. capabilities and strategy. The U.S. nuclear arsenal cannot remain fixed.

Mattis spoke to reporters Friday morning, hours before the release of the Nuclear Posture Review.

"What we're trying to do is ensure that our diplomats and our negotiators are in a position to be listened to when we say we want to go forward on nonproliferation and arms control. At the same time, you do so by having an effective, safe deterrent, said Mattis.

While not mentioning cyberattack directly, the Pentagon makes clear in this document that the U.S. reserves the right to use nuclear weapons to respond to any attack on infrastructure or population centers, even if that attack uses a conventional weapon.

It also addresses the nuclear threat from China, Iran and North Korea, in addition to Russia.

Any nuclear attack by Kim Jong Un would result in the end of that regime, the report says.

Greg Weaver, deputy director of strategic capabilities on the Pentagons Joint Staff said theres evidence the Russians think that their coercive nuclear use strategy has some prospect of success. We want to make sure that we disabuse them of that idea.

The two new low-yield nuclear weapons are designed to do just that, Weaver said.

A sea-launched nuclear cruise missile could be fired from a warship or a submarine, but is still seven to 10 years from being fielded, said Dr. Robert Soofer, deputy assistant secretary of defense for nuclear policy, in a briefing with reporters ahead of the reviews release.

If Russia returns to compliance with its arms control obligation and reduces its tactical nukes, the U.S. may reconsider the pursuit of the sea-launched cruise missile, according to the report.

The Pentagon is hoping history will repeat itself. After the U.S. deployed intermediate-range missiles to Europe, the Soviet Union signed the 1987 INF treaty with the United States. President Reagans secretary of state, George P. Shultz, said if not for the deployment of the American missiles, there would be no incentive for the Soviets to negotiate seriously for nuclear weapons reductions.

Asked how the Russians were likely to respond to the Pentagon calling for low-yield nukes, Soofer replied, I am sure they wont respond well.The controversial memo purportedly detailing federal surveillance abuses was declassified and released Friday following approval from President Trump.

Compiled by the House Intelligence Committee leadership, the memo states that surveillance warrants used on an American citizen was largely requested due to controversial dossier produced by Fusion GPS, a firm that was at one point hired by the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clintons presidential campaign. The dossier contained colorful but unverifiable information about Trump.

Democrats, the FBI and the Department of Justice objected to the release of the memo. In part, Democratic lawmakers suggested that the memo was selectively edited by Republicans to push an agenda of derailing the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election. Intelligence officials have stressed the memo is incomplete.

The day after the memo was released, Trump tweeted that the "memo totally vindicates 'Trump' in probe."

Here is what the newly released memo contained:

The dossier was key to warrant requests

Christopher Steele, who compiled the controversial dossier containing colorful but unverifiable claims about Trump, confirmed to former associate deputy attorney general Bruce Ohr that he was desperate that Donald Trump not get elected and was passionate about him not being president.

FISA warrants are not easy to obtain, but the memo suggests that intelligence officials relied heavily on the dossier as well as a 2016 report from Michael Isikoff to obtain the warrants. Isikoffs Yahoo News report, according to the memo, was derived from information leaked by Steele himself.

The FBI and DOJ officials were able to obtain a FISA warrant to electronically target Carter Page, a former foreign policy adviser to Trump.

Former deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe told the House Intelligence Committee in December 2017 that a surveillance warrant would not have been sought without the dossier and what it purportedly revealed, the memo stated.

The dossiers funding was not recorded in surveillance warrant requests

The surveillance warrants and renewals did not mention that the dossier was paid for, at least in part, by the Democratic National Committee and the campaign for Hillary Clinton. The memo says the DOJ was aware at the time of the initial FISA application that political actors were involved with the Steele dossier.

Neither the initial application in October 2016, nor any of the renewals, disclose or reference the role of the DNC, Clinton campaign, or any party/campaign in funding Steeles efforts, even though the political origins of the Steele dossier were known to senior DOJ and FBI officials, the memo alleged.

Instead, according to the memo, the FISA application said Steele was working for a "named U.S. person"  but did not specifically include Fusion GPS, the firm behind the project, or its co-founder, Glenn Simpson. Fusion GPS was hired by law firm Perkins Coie, which represented the DNC and Clinton campaign.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.The House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence released on Friday a controversial four-page memo claiming to show improper use of surveillance by the FBI and Justice Department during the 2016 presidential campaign.

The news comes after the House Intelligence Committee voted on Monday night to release the memo. President Trump then had five days to review the document and choose whether to release it to the public.

Trump, who was overheard telling a Republican lawmaker at his first State of the Union address on Tuesday that he was 100 percent in favor of releasing the memo, officially authorized its release on Friday.

WHAT IS NUNES FISA MEMO? 6 THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT THE SECRET DOCUMENT

Most Republicans and Democrats are divided on the memo, which was written by House Intelligence Committee chairman Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif. In addition to the FBI, many Democrats condemned its release and argued it could threaten national security. Others said it was selectively edited by Republicans to push a narrative that the Russia investigation is biased against Trump.

But Republicans who supported the memos release argued it was in the interest of transparency.

The audience of this document should not be limited to Members of Congress  the American people deserve to know the information it contains, Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., said in a letter signed by 65 other lawmakers.

Additionally, former FBI Director James Comey tweeted that the memo was "dishonest and misleading," and "destroyed trust with (the) Intelligence Community."

And President Trump has spoken out since the memo's release.

On Saturday, Trump tweeted that "this memo totally vindicates 'Trump' in probe."

Check out some of the reactions to the memo below.

Republicans react

Democrats react

Fox News' Kaitlyn Schallhorn and The Associated Press contributed to this report.The controversial memo detailing alleged federal surveillance abuses was declassified and released Friday following approval by President Trump.

The memo, put together by House Republicans, shows improper surveillance techniques used by the Department of Justice and the FBI in the Russia investigation, GOP lawmakers said.

Democrats have dismissed the memo, arguing that it was selectively edited by Republicans to push a narrative that the Russia investigation is biased against the president. They have their own rebuttal memo they hope to soon release.

Heres what we know about the memo and its connection to the Russia investigation.

So what is this memo?

The four-page memo, put together by the staff of House Intelligence Committee chairman Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., reveals improper use of surveillance by the FBI and the Justice Department in the Russia investigation, GOP lawmakers said.

The memo did raise concerns with the legitimacy and legality of certain DOJ and FBI interactions with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) and represent a troubling breakdown of legal processes established to protect the American people from abuses related to the FISA process, it said.

Some key points of the memo include:

Christopher Steele, who compiled the controversial dossier containing colorful but unverifiable claims about Trump, confirmed to former associate deputy attorney general Bruce Ohr that he was desperate that Donald Trump not get elected and was passionate about him not being president."

The dossier was key to the FBIs FISA warrant in its surveillance of members of Trumps team, according to the memo.

The FBI and DOJ obtained an initial FISA warrant targeting Carter Page, a former foreign policy adviser to Trump.

The surveillance warrants and renewals did not mention that the dossier was paid for, at least in part, by the Democratic National Committee and the campaign for Hillary Clinton. The memo says the DOJ was aware at the time of the initial FISA application that political actors were involved with the Steele dossier.

While Ohr met with Steele, Ohr's wife was employed by Fusion GPS, the firm contracted to produce the dossier, and was assisting in opposition research on Trump, according to the memo. This information was also not included in the warrant.

Former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe told the House Intelligence Committee in December 2017 that a surveillance warrant would not have been sought without the dossier and what it purportedly revealed.

The House Intelligence Committee voted to release the classified memo on what Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., said was a party-line vote. Trump later approved its declassification.

Republicans who support the release of the memo do so in the interest of "transparency" for "anyone who cares about America and our democratic system of government," Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., said in a letter signed by 65 other lawmakers.

What was the argument against releasing it?

Democrats cautioned against releasing the memo, calling into question its factual accuracies and warning that it could be detrimental to national security. And after its release, they said it was misleading and its importance overblown.

The most important thing weve learned from these GOP talking points is that the White House and its Republican allies are determined to undermine a badly-needed investigation into Russias election meddling, Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., said.

The Nunes memo is partisan and misleading, simple as that, said Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. To use it as pretext for firing Deputy AG Rosenstein, Special Counsel Robert Mueller or other DOJ leadership would be viewed as an attempt to obstruct justice in the Russia investigation.

How has Trump reacted to the memo?

Trump declassified the memo without redactions on Friday.

A lot of people should be ashamed of themselves and much worse than that, he said.

Trump also claimed that "this memo totally vindicates 'Trump' in probe. But the Russian Witch Hunt goes on and on."

And the FBI?

In a statement, the FBI said it has grave concerns with the memo.

With regard to the House Intelligence Committees memorandum, the FBI was provided a limited opportunity to review this memo the day before the committee voted to release it, the statement said. As expressed during our initial review, we have grave concerns about material omissions of fact that fundamentally impact the memos accuracy.

Justice Department officials had asked the White House to block the memo's release.

But what is so controversial about the FISA surveillance program in the first place?

Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) allows intelligence officials to oversee communications of foreigners outside of the U.S. without a warrant. Congress reauthorized Section 702 earlier this year  reigniting a debate over the controversial program.

Critics argue that although the law cannot be used to target Americans, U.S. citizens are often swept up in the data collection  which can be viewed without a warrant.

While that particular section of FISA wasnt used to obtain the warrant detailed in Nunes memo, lawmakers still point to it as a dangerous example of violations against Americans Fourth Amendment rights.

Section 702 is far more dangerous. It permits the FBI and other agencies to conduct unconstitutional, warrantless searches on millions of innocent Americans (whose communications were incidentally collected while targeting foreigners overseas), Rep. Justin Amash, R-Mich., said in a series of tweets.

If the speaker and others believe abuses are occurring the execution of one section of FISA, then why would they insist on reauthorizing another section of FISA (702) that has far greater potential for abuse?

The Associated Press contributed to this report.Egyptian archaeologists are hailing the discovery of a 4,400-year-old tomb near the pyramids outside Cairo.

Antiquities Minister Khaled al-Enany told reporters Saturday that the tomb was built for Hetpet, a priestess to Hathor, the goddess of fertility, who assisted women in childbirth, Irelands RTE reported.

The tomb was discovered during excavation work in Giza's western cemetery by a team of Egyptian archaeologists led by Mostafa Al-Waziri, secretary general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities.

The cemetery houses tombs of top officials from the Old Kingdom's Fifth Dynasty (2465-2323 BC), and that several have already been dug up since 1842, according to RTE.

"The tomb has very distinguished wall paintings in a very good conservation condition depicting Hetpet standing in different hunting and fishing scenes or... receiving offerings from her children," the Antiquities Ministry said.

Al-Waziri said the scenes depict a monkey  at the time commonly kept as domestic pets  reaping fruit and another dancing before an orchestra.

Al-Enany said the new tomb includes "a purification basin on which are engraved the name of the tomb's owner and her titles".

"A German expedition had found in 1909 a collection of antiquities carrying this lady's name, or a lady who has the same name, and these antiquities were moved to the Berlin museum at the time," he said, according to RTE.

"And 109 years later, we find this tomb that carries Hetpet's name."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.An Arizona man, previously identified as a person of interest in the Las Vegas shooting investigation, was charged by authorities Friday for manufacturing and selling armor-piercing bullets without having a proper license, according to court documents obtained by The Associated Press.

Fingerprints belonging to Douglas Haig, 55, were found by investigators on a stash of unused armor-piercing ammo in the Mandalay Bay hotel room from which Stephen Paddock launched his bloody Oct. 1 assault, the documents said. It wasnt noted if the bullets were the type used in the attack.

Paddock, the lone gunman in the shooting, fired a stream of bullets into a crowd of concertgoers at the Route 91 Harvest Festival on the Las Vegas Strip. Shooting from his hotel room on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino, Paddock killed 58 people and wounded more than 500. The massacre is considered to be the worst mass shooting in modern American history.

PERSON OF INTEREST IN LAS VEGAS MASSACRE IDENTIFIED FROM COURT RECORDS

During a Friday news conference, Haig, who works as an aerospace engineer and has sold ammunition as a hobby for the last 25 years, said he didn't notice anything suspicious when he sold Paddock the bullets. Haig reportedly met Paddock at a gun show in Phoenix weeks before the shooting occurred.

Haig said he ultimately sold Paddock 720 rounds of ammunition.

"I had no contribution to what Paddock did," Haig said. "I had no way to see into his mind."

When Haig didnt have the total amount of tracer ammunition Paddock was interested in, the pair reportedly set up a sale a few days later at the dealers home. The load of bullets was packed into a box, which contained Haigs name and address on it. The box was later found in the hotel room which investigators searched after the deadly shooting.

Haig said he was shocked and sickened when a federal agent informed him of the massacre 11 hours after it unfolded.

PERSON OF INTEREST IN VEGAS SHOOTING SAYS HE SOLD AMMUNITION TO STEPHEN PADDOCK

During their exchange, Paddock claimed "he was going to go out to the desert to put on a light show, either with or for his friends, Haig said. I can't remember whether he used the word 'with' or 'for.' But he said that he was going out at night to shoot it with friends."

Tracer bullets contain a pyrotechnic charge that illuminates the path of fired bullets so shooters can see whether their aim is accurate.

Haig's lawyer said they held the news conference in a bid to protect his reputation after he was revealed earlier this week to be a person of interest in the investigation. Haig's identity emerged by mistake after his name was not redacted in court documents.

Haig said hes been the subject of unwanted media attention and death threats since his name was released. Still, Haig, who has closed his ammunition business, said he doesn't expect to take any legal action as a result of his name being publicly revealed.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.FBI Director Christopher Wray reportedly sent a letter of support to his employees at the bureau on Friday following the release of the much-hyped FISA memo, Business Insider reported.

In the letter, released Friday evening by a BBC reporter, Wray attempted to rally his team by reminding its members that the work they do is important and will always matter more than what goes on in the press.

The American people read the papers, and they hear lots of talk on cable TV and social media, Wray wrote. But they see and experience the actual work you do -- keeping communities safe and our nation secure, often dealing with sensitive matters and making decisions under difficult circumstances. And that work will always matter more.

"Talk is cheap," Wray wrote. "The work you do is what will endure."

HOUSE MEMO STATES DISPUTED DOSSIER WAS KEY TO FBIS FISA WARRANT TO SURVEIL MEMBERS OF TEAM TRUMP

Wrays words followed the public release of a four-page memo compiled by the staff of the House Intelligence Committee chairman, Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., which details claims that the Department of Justice and the FBI allegedly abused federal surveillance practices during the 2016 presidential campaign. The memo was declassified by President Trump on Friday, despite House Democrats' warnings and cautions against doing so.

In the FBI directors letter, Wray said the bureau does difficult work even when its not easy. But agents do it because they believe in what it stands for and in what this institution means to people.

Were going to keep doing that work, because we know who and what we are, and because we know that our mission comes first, Wray said. The American people come first.

HOUSE INTEL VOTES TO RELEASE CONTROVERSIAL SURVEILLANCE MEMO TO THE PUBLIC

He asked his employees to continue working hard and promised to defend your integrity and professionalism every day.

Thank you for standing strong together, and for keeping your faith in this institution that means so much to all of us, Wray said.

The letter came after members of the FBI Agents Association issued their own statement on Thursday, saying they appreciated Wrays continued support and would continue to work to protect Americans.The handgun that a 12-year-old middle school girl brought into her classroom on Thursday went off accidentally from inside her backpack, police said Friday.

Its not yet clear how the weapon actually discharged.

The episode occurred at Salvador B. Castro Middle School in Los Angeles and the suspect  who has not been named  was taken into custody minutes later.

Investigators are working to determine how the girl got hold of the semi-automatic handgun and why she brought it with her to school, Los Angeles police spokesman Josh Rubenstein said.

LOS ANGELES SCHOOL SHOOTING SUSPECT ALLEGEDLY THOUGHT GUN WAS A TOY

Earlier Friday it was reported that the girl allegedly thought that the gun was a toy.

Jordan Valenzuela, 12, one of the suspects classmates, said the girl was crying after the gun went off and insisted it was an accident.

"She was like: 'I didn't mean to. I had the gun in my backpack and I didn't know it was loaded and my backpack fell and the gun went off,'" Valenzuela told The Associated Press. He added that he saw a hole in her backpack, which she was holding.

The suspect reportedly asked him to hide the gun for her but he said he refused. "Then I moved away from her because I was a little bit scared."

RECENT SCHOOL SHOOTINS IN THE US

One bullet hit a girl in the wrist before hitting a boy in the head, police said. Both victims are 15 years old.

The boy was initially listed in critical condition but doctors said that the bullet didnt hit anything vital or cause any life-threatening injury. The girls wrist wound was considered minor. Three other people had minor face or head injuries, some from broken glass, but they werent shot, officials said.

The suspect is likely to face arraignment on Monday on two felony charges, which include being a minor in possession of a firearm and having a weapon on school grounds, prosecutors said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.A distraught father who lunged at disgraced USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar in a court proceeding Friday seems to have a lot of support from the public.

As of early Saturday, more than 700 donors had pledged a total of more than $23,000 to help Randall Margraves, whose daughters were among Nassar's molestation victims.

Co-worker Aaron Pangborn said he set up the GoFundMe page to help Margraves with any potential legal fees resulting from Friday's courtroom incident, which was captured on video.

Pangborn described the mission as to help a brother and friend in need.

As father of 2 girls, the video made me cry  that you were stopped before you reached him, supporter Robert Wykoski wrote. I would do the same.

Margraves leaped at Nassar on Friday after listening to two of his daughters deliver victim-impact statements, the New York Post reported.

He requested five minutes alone with the demon, then used an expeltive to describe Nassar. When the judge said no, he asked for one minute. When she declined again, he ran at Nassar, but court officers tackled him almost immediately and arrested him, the Post reported.

Judge Janice Cunningham ultimately opted against charging Margraves with contempt of court, but said she could have.

There is no way that this court is going to issue any type of punishment given the circumstances of this case, Cunningham told Margraves after he apologized a "hundred times," the New York Post reported.

Margraves admitted he lost his cool.

I came here in support of my daughters  Im not here to upstage [them], Margraves said. Im here to help them heal.

He agreed to not attend any future court proceedings involving Nassar.

Pangborn said on the page that he would work with Margraves and his family to ensure that the funds collected will go to a good cause to help victims of sexual abuse.A middle school physical education teacher allegedly assaulted a student on Thursday for apparently refusing to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance, police said.

Karen Smith was placed on paid administrative leave from Angevine Middle School in Lafayette, Colo., this week after police were called in to investigate an alleged assault on a male student, Principal Mike Medina said in a statement.

The nature of the assault is not known.

The Lafayette Police Department said they were investigating what Smith did to make the child stand," FOX 31 reported.

OFFICER FATALLY SHOT IN COLORADO IDENTIFIED; MANHUNT UNDERWAY FOR TWO SUSPECTS

Medina said in a statement that he could not discuss details of the incident but confirmed the school was working with police. He also said a substitute teacher would fill in for Smith.

FOX 31 reported the department was still conducting interviews and gathering information on the alleged incident.

DRONES REPORTEDLY USED IN COLORADO MANHUNT FOR SUSPECT WHO KILLED OFFICER

The Boulder Valley School District has a policy allowing students to decide if they want to stand or sit during the Pledge of Allegiance.

It was not immediately clear if any disciplinary action would be taken against Smith.

Parents told CBS Denver that the incident appeared to be blown out of proportion.A federal judge has temporarily halted deportation proceedings against Indonesian Christians who are in the U.S. illegally but are seeking to gain legal status, including a man honored for his work helping to rebuild more than 200 homes after Superstorm Sandy.

The order Friday was issued by U.S. District Judge Esther Salas in Newark in response to a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and applies to Indonesians who have orders of removal dating to before 2009.

The order affects roughly 50 people in New Jersey who had identified themselves to Immigration and Customs Enforcement in 2009 as part of a program to obtain work authorization and stays of deportation, according to the ACLU and Seth Kaper-Dale, co-pastor of a church where some of the immigrants sought sanctuary.

The lawsuit came after several enforcement actions by immigration authorities in New Jersey that targeted Indonesian Christians and rekindled fears in a community that includes people who left Indonesia years ago to escape religious persecution.

Two men were arrested last month after they dropped their children off at school. Harry Pangemanan, who has been in the country since 1993 and lives with his wife and two daughters in central New Jersey, sought sanctuary at the Reformed Church of Highland Park, where he is an elder and where he spent nine months in 2012 under similar circumstances.

Two other men, Arthur Jemmy and Yohanes Tasik, already were living there to avoid detention.

Salas ordered both sides to file briefs over the next month.

A spokesman for ICE's Newark office didn't immediately return a message seeking comment.

Pangemanan has been staying in a room that doubles as a children's library at the church and had to move his belongings when the library is in use. His family joined him recently after their home was broken into and vandalized after his name was included in news reports.

"We are trying to stay strong as a family, take one day at a time," he said in an interview with The Associated Press last week. "You do your best today, do something useful, and tomorrow is in god's hands."

Pangemanan came to the country in 1993 on a tourist visa that was to lapse in five years, he said. His wife came in 1998 during a period of turmoil in Indonesia when Christians were being targeted. They cite that as one reason for not going back.

"A thousand churches were burned to the ground between 1996 and 2003," said Kaper-Dale, of the Highland Park church. "Some islands are safer than others, but it's too simple to say it's safe now."

Pangemanan concedes he didn't know enough about immigration law when he first arrived, and wasn't aware he had one year to apply for asylum. At the time, it didn't seem to matter.

"Nobody asked you, as long as you are a good man, you work hard and help your company, and you pay your taxes," he said. "You're working like everybody else, you don't bother anybody. Then everything changed after Sept. 11."

Working through the church after Sandy devastated the New Jersey coast in 2012, Pangemanan organized more than 2,000 volunteers, matching their skills with the needs of homeowners whose homes had been destroyed. He said he traveled to other areas of the country to perform similar work, including the Carolinas, West Virginia and Texas.

A system put in place after Sept. 11 required non-citizen men and boys from predominantly Arab or Muslim-majority countries to register and be photographed and fingerprinted.

Pangemanan and Jemmy said they complied, and have repeatedly tried to gain legal status since then, without success.Border Patrol agents this week apprehended a Mexican national who was wanted on charges of sexual assaulting a child in Texas, authorities said.

The suspect, identified as Martin Gerardo Perez Garcia, 41, was riding on a bus that was stopped Thursday on the Juarez-Lincoln International Bridge as it was crossing into Laredo, Texas, the Dallas Morning News reported, citing U.S. Customs and Border Protection information.

Perez Garcia had been wanted on an outstanding warrant from Dallas County. He was charged with continuous sexual abuse of a child younger than 14 and sexual assault of a child, authorities said.

He was booked into Webb County Jail in Laredo.

Perez Garcia was one of several fugitives in recent weeks who were arrested while crossing the border and charged with similar offenses, the Dallas Morning News reported.A Massachusetts high school canceled the screening of Disneys Cool Runnings this week after the principal said she received complaints that the 1993 film was racially insensitive.

The film is based on a true story about a bobsled team from Jamaica qualifying for the 1988 Olympics. The PG-rated movie follows the athletes' journey to the Olympic Games.

The student council at Wayland High School announced the institution would watch Cool Runnings Wednesday during their winter week, FOX 25 Boston reported. "Winter week," a school tradition, follows midterm exams and was dedicated as a relaxing time for students.

Following the student councils announcement, the principal, Allyson Mizoguchi, sent an email to students canceling the films viewing.

STEVE WYNNS NAME STRICKEN AT U OF IOWA; MASS. CASINO REGULATORS SAY $7.5M SETTLEMENT WAS HIDDEN

Mizoguchi wrote in the statement: Following the recent announcement that Cool Runnings would be the movie shown this year, I received concerns from members of our community that raised my awareness about elements of the movie that could be viewed as culturally and racially insensitive.

The principal wrote that after researching the movies plot more, she decided it was best to cancel the screening.

While disappointing for students, I want to emphasize that this experience has inspired productive, honest conversation about stereotypes in the media, the nature of narrative, and subtle, racially insensitive messages as compared to overt racism, Mizoguchi wrote.

However, students were not pleased with the cancellation of the viewing. FOX 25 Boston reported students began a chain email with some 150 replies from teens who were outraged by the canceled screening.

"It's a PG movie for kids 8 and above... we are 8 and above, one student wrote.

Other students said they would watch the film on Netflix instead.

"I'm gonna go home and watch it on Netflix, another student wrote.

JUDGE GRANTS BAIL TO MAN SUSPECTED OF HIDING DEAD BODY

The student paper, Wayland Student Press Network did a survey asking what the teenagers thought of the principals decision. The survey, in which 115 students participated, showed only two teenagers supported Mizoguchis conclusion.

Mizoguchi told Metrowest Daily News the movie was not overtly racist but the films subtlety of stereotypes was a problem.

The movie is not really overtly racist, Mizoguchi said. It is the subtlety of stereotypes in the movie.Two Massachusetts women are facing multiple charges after they allegedly tied down and burned a 5-year-old girl in a voodoo ritual.

The girl, whose name has not been released, is permanently disfigured as a result of a ritual that was meant to rid her of a demon that was making her misbehave, the Brockton Enterprise reported.

The two East Bridgewater women, identified as Peggy LaBossiere, 51, and Rachel Hilaire, 40, allegedly blew fire over the young girls face and cut her arm and collar area with a needlelike object, drawing blood, the girls 8-year-old brother told police. The women, who are sisters, according to the Brockton Enterprise, also allegedly poured a substance over the girls eyes which caused them to sting.

Additionally, the women allegedly threatened to cut off the young brother's head with a machete.

The ritual was requested by the girls mother, who is of Haitian descent and was LaBossieres hair stylist. She has not been charged but is receiving mental health treatment.

The two women pleaded not guilty on Jan. 29 to the charges against them, which include mayhem, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, assault and battery on a child with injury, indecent assault and battery on a child under the age of 14, and threatening to commit a crime, according to the paper.

They also denied injuring the girl and threatening her brother.

The sisters will be back in Brockton Superior Court on Wednesday for a hearing to determine whether they're too dangerous to be released.

The sisters told police that they have performed "cleansing baths" for family and friends in the past, something that involves chanting prayers, rubbing frankincense and eucalyptus oils and sea salt on their bodies, and burning myrrh, the newspaper reported. Children sometimes get burned as spirits leave the body, they said.

The girl suffered a third-degree burn across her face that will leave her permanently disfigured, police said. She was treated at a hospital and taken into custody by state welfare authorities, along with her brother, who described to police what happened at the sisters' house over multiple days.

Voodoo refers to religious practices developed centuries ago by enslaved Africans in the Caribbean, primarily in Haiti, where the practices are sometimes spelled "vodou."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.Abraham Lincoln sexist and outdated?

The Department of Veterans Affairs says it has received complaints about its official motto, which is a quote from Lincolns second inaugural address in 1865.

The quote, which has been the VAs motto for 59 years, reads:

To care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow, and his orphan.

The motto appears on plaques at many VA facilities across the U.S.

But in November, the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America asked VA Secretary David Shulkin to change the motto, saying the Lincoln quote excludes women service members and symbolizes the obstacles they face in navigating the VA health system, Stars and Stripes reported.

Theyre missing the point that women dont feel comfortable at the VA, IAVA Executive Director Allison Jaslow, a former U.S. Army captain who served in Iraq, told Stars and Stripes. We want to be respected and appreciated as much as male veterans are, and the motto is symbolic of overall challenges.

In response, Kayla Williams, director of the VA Center for Women Veterans, said the VA has gradually been introducing an altered version of the quote: To care for those who shall have borne the battle and their families and survivors.

But gradual change isnt good enough, Jaslow told Stars and Stripes, noting theres precedent for making such changes:

-- In 2004, the Air Force Academy replaced its Bring Me Men sign at its entrance with Integrity First. Service Before Self. Excellence in All We Do.

-- Also in 2004, the U.S. Naval Academy amended gender-specific lyrics in its school song. The U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., followed suit in 2008.

-- In 2016, the Navy and Marine Corps introduced gender-neutral job titles.

I get it. The VA was designed for a male population, and culture change is hard, Jaslow said. But were talking 16 years weve been at war in Afghanistan. Women veterans are still feeling invisible and articulating they dont feel comfortable at the VA. At what point are we going to get serious about addressing this?

Click here for more from Stars and Stripes.Al Qaeda-linked militants killed a Russian pilot Saturday after shooting down his SU-25 fighter jet in a rebel-held area in Syria, Moscow said confirming reports.

Russias Defense Ministry said the pilot was able to communicate that he had ejected from the aircraft but later died in a fight with the terrorists."

A report on the ministry's Zvezda TV said preliminary information indicated the plane was shot down by a portable ground-to-air missile.

A Syrian militant in the area told The Associated Press that the Russian pilot was shot and killed when he resisted capture by the Al-Qaeda-linked group by opening fire from his pistol on the militants who tried to seize him alive. The militant refused to be identified by his real name because was not authorized to speak to the media.

A video circulating on social media shows a lifeless body of a man, his face stained with blood, as bearded gunmen stand around him. One of the armed men shouts: "He is Russian." The authenticity of the video could not be independently confirmed but it corresponded to events reported by the AP.

According to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights Observatory, the plane was downed on Saturday afternoon in the rebel-held Idlib province, near the rebel-held town of Sarqeb, which Syrian troops have been trying to take under the cover of Russian airstrikes.

Instances of a Russian jet being shot down by Syrian rebels have been rare since Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered troops to Syria to bolster the government of President Bashar Assad in 2015.

Earlier in the day, the Observatory and the media arm of al-Qaida-linked militants reported intense airstrikes on the rebel-held stronghold.

The Observatory reported more than 35 airstrikes on Saraqeb since late Friday, adding that many of its residents are fleeing.

The Ibaa News Agency of the al-Qaida-linked Levant Liberation Committee, said Russian and Syrian warplanes and helicopter gunships have been pounding Saraqeb and Tel Mardeekh village in Idlib since the early hours of Saturday.

Syria's state news agency, SANA, said Syrian troops captured the village of Maasaran as well as the Tel Tokan hill, cutting links between Saraqeb and the rebel-stronghold of Maarest al-Numan to the south.

In recent weeks, Syrian government forces and their allies pushed into Idlib, an opposition stronghold, inching closer to a key highway that connects Syria's two largest cities, Damascus and Aleppo.

The U.N. says more than 270,000 have been displaced in Idlib because of the government onslaught since Dec. 15.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.Palestinian officials say a 19-year-old has been killed in clashes with the Israeli military in the West Bank.

The health ministry says Ahmad Abu-Obeid was shot in the head Saturday during a stone-throwing confrontation near the northern West Bank town of Jenin. The Red Crescent says five other protesters were injured by rubber-coated bullets in the same incident.

The Israeli military had no immediate comment about the casualty, but said it was looking into reports of the injuries.

The military has been conducting arrests raids in the Jenin area in search of the killer of a West Bank settler earlier this month.

Israel had vowed to track down the killers of Rabbi Raziel Shevah, 35, who was shot multiple times from a passing vehicle as he drove.Galveston, TX (77553)

Today

Rain likely. High near 85F. Winds E at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 80%. Rainfall around a half an inch..

Tonight

Periods of rain. Potential for heavy rainfall. Low 78F. Winds SE at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall may reach one inch.Long Beach may soon take next step to transfer Queen Mary to Harbor Departmentbohlah at 3-02-2018 02:10 PM (3 years ago) (m)

Ace actress and award winning Nollywood icon, the gorgeous Fathia Balogun would be one year shy of 50, that's 49 year old come tomorrow Monday, February 5, 2018.



To mark the day and make the occasion a special one we hear that the famous actress and her friends would be heading to Istanbul Turkey, where she would be hosted to classy party by some of her friends in that part of the world.



2 of those we heard would be going to Istanbul to celebrate with one of their own are the duo of Nollywood actress Iyabo Ojo and her BFF, London based Tosin aka Omo-Britico. Omo-Britico is the "newest Best Friend Forever of Iyabo Ojo" and in fact was the one that organised that standout 40th birthday party for Iyabo at a venue in Lekki, which was attended by many including Fathia and some of Iyabo's friends, who she personally introduced herself had come from Istanbul, one of who is a good friend of hers by name Gbenga.

Ace actress and award winning Nollywood icon, the gorgeous Fathia Balogun would be one year shy of 50, that's 49 year old come tomorrow Monday, February 5, 2018.To mark the day and make the occasion a special one we hear that the famous actress and her friends would be heading to Istanbul Turkey, where she would be hosted to classy party by some of her friends in that part of the world.2 of those we heard would be going to Istanbul to celebrate with one of their own are the duo of Nollywood actress Iyabo Ojo and her BFF, London based Tosin aka Omo-Britico. Omo-Britico is the "newest Best Friend Forever of Iyabo Ojo" and in fact was the one that organised that standout 40th birthday party for Iyabo at a venue in Lekki, which was attended by many including Fathia and some of Iyabo's friends, who she personally introduced herself had come from Istanbul, one of who is a good friend of hers by name Gbenga.



The dude who came along with a few of his own friends was probably the "highest spender at that party" on the night, where he was said to have spent not less than "2million Naira!" Gbenga and his friends are said to be "top businessmen", enjoying a lot of "patronage" currently in Istanbul Turkey.



It is in this town that the gorgeous role interpreter, Fathia Balogun, we hear would be throwing down big big. The gist has it that the actresses are planning to depart Lagos Nigeria on Monday, the actual birthday date of Fathia who was born February 5, 1969 and the destination birthday party would then hold on, February 9, 2018.



Those who are conversant with the plans says that it is planned to be great party. One of those hosting Fathia is said to be a very good friend of Gbenga, the very rich businessman and even Gbenga himself.





Happy birthday in advance to Fathia from us at GISTMANIA. The dude who came along with a few of his own friends was probably the "highest spender at that party" on the night, where he was said to have spent not less than "2million Naira!" Gbenga and his friends are said to be "top businessmen", enjoying a lot of "patronage" currently in Istanbul Turkey.It is in this town that the gorgeous role interpreter, Fathia Balogun, we hear would be throwing down big big. The gist has it that the actresses are planning to depart Lagos Nigeria on Monday, the actual birthday date of Fathia who was born February 5, 1969 and the destination birthday party would then hold on, February 9, 2018.Those who are conversant with the plans says that it is planned to be great party. One of those hosting Fathia is said to be a very good friend of Gbenga, the very rich businessman and even Gbenga himself.

Post Reply I have been reporting on latest news from Nigeria for almost 10 years now. I report on every possible news area I come across, but always ensure my reports are compiled with dignity and fact to uphold my personal values and duty as a journalist Posted: at 3-02-2018 02:10 PM (3 years ago) | Addicted HeroThanks for visiting !

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Thank you for your support!(TNS)  QUINCY  The city of Quincy, Mass., hopes its upcoming smart traffic light system will reduce people's travel time by the end of the year.The city is aiming to have new traffic software controlling a dozen major Quincy intersections, said Chris Cassani, the director of the city's Department of Traffic, Parking, Alarm and Lighting, commonly known as TPAL.Cassani said the city is looking at using the new software, likely from a company called Surtrac, for areas such as the Hancock Street corridor, the Wollaston area and Southern Artery. The city hopes the software eases traffic, which is one of the most common complaints among Quincy resident.Surtrac was created by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University. The team behind it says studies showed the system reduced traffic on some main roads in Pittsburgh by 25 percent. Cassani, who took over as director of the city department at the start of the year, said every few minutes shaved off people's commutes is important."Five or six minutes every day makes a big difference over time," he said.Cassani said the system allows the light cycles to become more efficient. For example, if no one is turning left at an intersection but a line of cars is waiting to go straight, it can skip the left turn and lengthen the normal green to help with the flow of traffic.Several of the city's big intersections have sensors and cameras to detect cars already, but they trigger one of a limited set of predetermined actions. The new system doesn't just draw from a set of predetermined options; it figures out what the best thing to do is on the spot, he said."Every time, it's making a unique decision based on all the information that's collected at it," he said. "The Surtrac system is using algorithms to optimize traffic patterns on a second-by-second basis."He said one of the reasons why the city believes it will work well is it involves all of the intersections communicating with each other."The next intersection knows how many cars, roughly, are going to be coming through it," he said. "It's anticipating what's going to be happening."That helps traffic flow more smoothly, he said."What's happening at the intersection of Hancock Street and Squantum Street is really important to what's going on at Hancock and Beale," he said, referring to major North Quincy and Wollaston intersections, respectively.The money to pay for the software and some new sensing infrastructure is coming from the $2.3 million the city allocated for a traffic plan last fall as part of Mayor Thomas Koch's capital improvement plan. Cassani said it's too early to estimate how much of that traffic allocation this will eat up, but it likely will be several hundred thousand dollars.Using collective commitment, statistical data, a screening tool and a database created by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the Albuquerque Heading Home project is having an unprecedented effect on homelessness in the New Mexico city.When the program started in February 2011, 900 eligible individuals  chronically homeless and medically vulnerable  were identified on the streets of Albuquerque. By 2016 there had been an 80 percent reduction in this homeless population.Not only that, the project has had an extraordinary effect on chronic homelessness among veterans. In 2013 HUD estimated there were more than 300 homeless vets on the streets of Albuquerque. Now, by the HUD definition, the city has ended homelessness for that vulnerable group.We have made housing veterans a priority of the city, said Rachael Maestas, public information officer for Albuquerque's Economic Development Department. Since the inception of the program, 577 vets have been identified as homeless, and 518 were housed.The program began as the inspiration of the citys two-term mayor, Richard J. Berry, who came up with the idea after reading an article on Los Angeles' Project 50. The Southern California project started as a pilot in 2007 to find the 50 most vulnerable on skid row and house them.The results of the L.A. project were remarkable. Two years after the program began, 52 of the original 68 participants remained in housing, while saving the city money.Albuquerques efforts have had similar results. According to the programs statistics , approximately 83 percent of homeless individuals in the city suffer from mental health issues, so permanent is about more than just housing  it is also about health.What's more is that the New Mexico program has found that it is 31.6 percent cheaper to house people than it is to have them living on the streets. After the first year of the program, jail costs associated with the homeless decreased by almost 96 percent  a savings of about $43,000 per person  and emergency room visits fell by 32.2 percent.Overall, the program has achieved some $5 million in taxpayer savings, according to officials. To accomplish this, the city cobbled together several tools that include a vulnerability survey that plugs the results into HUD-supplied software, identifying local programs that could provide housing and tracking the individuals that have been helped.With the aim of making the experience of homelessness rare, short-lived and non-recurring, some 10 city agencies and nonprofits make up the provider teams. According to Maestas, anyone on these teams is empowered and committed to identifying those with chronic homelessness due to substance abuse, medical indigence or mental illness.These teams include social workers, hospital staff, even the Albuquerque Police Department and they can administer the Vulnerability Index - Service Prioritization Decision Assistance Tool (VI-SPDAT) to determine eligibility for housing. Community Solutions created the tool to be applied both to individuals and families to assess risk and prioritization when aiding homeless persons.We have modified [the survey] for our own uses, said Heidiliza Heidi Shultz, homeless program division manager for Albuquerque's Office of Homeless Programs and Initiatives. The survey is entered by hand into HUD's Homeless Management Information System , which allows the lead agency to look into our network of providers, she said.The surveyor is also empowered to make a phone call or send an email to make sure those that are eligible get housing as soon as possible.We try for housing within 60 days, Shultz said. We negotiate with landlords and organizations when there is [poor] credit or criminal history.Shultz said keeping track of the homeless that are placed in housing is a HUD requirement, made easier by the agency's Homeless Management Information System. The software is user-friendly and all city agencies and nonprofits have been trained on it. Every one of our project providers collects data and inputs it into this system, she said. The city collects the data and validates it.Every three years, the city contracts with the University of New Mexico for about $50,000 to provide the results of their efforts . It gives everyone on the team an idea of how they are doing with their humanitarian service, and provides good insights for the city, the providers and funders, she explained.(TNS)  Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate visited with leaders of both Democrat and Republican groups Thursday at the Union County Board of Supervisors room in the Union County Courthouse to explain how the state's new voting system will work.What we want to do is make sure we give everyone an opportunity to be a voter, Pate said. The last thing I want to see is them to be disenfranchised because theyre not getting the information they have to have to be successful at voting.The new system includes voter identification cards that are provided to registered voters who do not have a valid, Iowa DOT-issued drivers license or non-operator identification. It has a bar code, used with the E-Poll books poll workers will utilize to identify each voter, as well as the voters signature and a voter ID number.We have new technology called E-Poll books, Pate said. You have them here in Union County. Youve had them for quite a while actually. They are the greatest adminstrative tool weve seen because when we look at our state we have almost 2 million registered voters that we have to manage in this database. On top of that we have anywhere from 120,000 up to 300,000 ghosts, I call them. Those are the inactive voters that havent voted in a long time, but we still have to keep them on the registration rolls.The key to the new system is the bar code, which is found on voters drivers licenses, Pate said that was the driving force behind the idea of the voter identification cards.The interesting thing is, over 93 percent of Iowas voters have a drivers license, Pate said. We mailed out the voter ID card to those that didnt. It was sent out in December. We sent out over 120,000 and we got 15,000 back. Weve identified about 9,000 to 10,000 potential forwarding addresses, so were redirecting them and mailing them again saying, It appears youve moved. Would you like to re-register?Because the cards do not have a photo on them, he said this is not a photo ID bill. It is simply another way to identify voters at the polls so they are able to get in and vote.Voter registration did not change, Pate said. Theres a lot of confusion on that. When we talk to our voters and activists, they need to understand nothing has changed on voter registration. I think were the leading state in that arena. We still have same day voter registration. Were still very generous on our absentee balloting. Were in the top 10 in the nation for that. Were in the top five or six and sometimes even higher when you look at voter participation. Voter registration-wise, were over 90 percent. Ninety-three percent of all eligible voters are registered in the state of Iowa.This year will be a soft roll out of the new system. Pate said the plan is to take a lot of notes and make any adjustments that need to be made in order to make voting a better experience for residents.Lets make it easy for you on election day," he said. "Everyone who shows up will have a chance to vote, but why dont we make it easier for them? Were not here to make it harder.Getting started

Limits of social media

(TNS)  Facebook boasted 1.4 billion active users in December 2017.Twitter has some 330 million active users.Instagram announced last year that it had reached 800 million users.Increasingly, social media is where conversation is happening, and some local municipalities are following the trend to better inform their residents.The majority of Cumberland County communities do not have an official presence on social media. Those who have made the leap are finding it is a valuable tool with fewer problems than casual users of the platforms might anticipate.Carlisle Borough has known for a long time that it needed to be active on social media, Borough Manager Matt Candland said. Residents are not coming to meetings to ask questions so the borough had to go where they are and communicate in the way they are communicating.The reality is theres a large segment of our community that communicates on social media. And, in many cases, that might be their primary source of information, he said.The question, though, was when would be the right time to do it.I think the reason most of your communities arent doing it is because of money. I think everyone recognizes the importance of it, but can you afford doing it? Candland said.Stephanie Taylor was hired in June 2017 as the boroughs public information coordinator, a position created and funded in the boroughs 2017 budget.It may be tempting to think Taylor spends all day scanning social media, but that is only a portion of her job. She checks Facebook and Twitter first thing in the morning for news and to respond to questions and comments from the boroughs followers on those platforms. She also answers email requests through the boroughs website, updates the website, works on the borough newsletters and attends borough events and meetings.Lower Allen Township Manager Tom Vernau said the township has been on Facebook for some time.We understand the power of the communication potential there, he said.The township has designated four people as administrators of the page, which is used to push information to residents. That includes anything the public may want to know such as events, changes to trash pickup, awards won by township employees and many other topics.Lemoyne Borough Manager Cindy Foster, who came on board in June, said the borough started a new Facebook account after she arrived. Former Borough Councilman Mike Sadowski did most of the work in setting it up.Generally the borough uses the account to pass along information it thinks will be of interest to its residents. For example, notices were posted recently about a detour, changes to the trash pickup schedule due to the snow and the swearing-in of new council members.The responsibility for monitoring it falls to Foster, who said she picks up ideas about how to use the account from other municipalities.Its good for us. I think were getting a positive response, she said.Though a page can be found on Facebook, Hampden Township officials made it clear it is not an official page by adding a header and post stating such to the page along with information on how to contact borough officials.Township manager Keith Metz said that the general government does not have a presence on social media though both the police and recreation departments do. The page on Facebook had been established at some point, but changes at the township prompted them to modify the page and discontinue using it.From a general government standpoint, we maintain and update our website as much as possible, Metz said.Like other municipalities, Carlisle posts information on anything that will affect its residents. That can range from an agenda for an upcoming borough council meeting to a notice about a water main break, and many items in between. In addition, Assistant Borough Manager Susan Armstrong said the borough shares posts and information from organizations that have the support of the borough, such as the Downtown Carlisle Association.Taylor said the borough has not seen super negative, unruly commenters on its pages. The boroughs policy on the management of the page is outlined on the about tab of its Facebook page in which it warns that comments may be deleted if they include vulgar language, personal attacks and spam or if they advocate illegal activity or compromise safety, among other considerations.If she has to delete a comment for any of those reasons, Taylor said she keeps a screenshot of the comments so that the record is retained. Other than that, the only posts that may be deleted at a later time are posts that involve missing children who were subsequently found.In responding to comments, Taylor said she only responds to those that ask a specific question. Otherwise, commenters are permitted to blow off steam as long as they are not otherwise violating the comment policy.Comments are permitted on Lower Allens page, but Vernau is clear that profanity is not tolerated, nor are personal attacks. Those engaging in such language are warned, and are kicked off the page if they continue. That hasnt been much of an issue, though, as most of the commenters have been good though some may use the forum for general rants against government.We dont limit that debate as long as there are no personal attacks, Vernau said.Most people would agree that social media may not be the ideal substitute for in-person communication, but it is whats happening, Candland said.One drawback is that words on a screen cant convey the tone and inflection that would be used in regular conversation, which may lead to misunderstandings. Taylor said she tries to minimize that effect by writing the posts in as neutral and impartial a manner as possible.That becomes particularly important when controversial issues come before the council. In those instances, social media posts are designed to share information without taking a side.The purpose of this is not to participate in the debate and deliberation. The purpose of it is to share information. Were going to try and do our best  and there may be times when were not perfect with that  but were going to do our best to share information and not to take positions, Candland said.Armstrong said that while the borough has used its newsletter, the Carlisle Gazette, and press releases as methods of outreach, there were still deficiencies in ways to educate the public about the issues coming before the council at any given time.It really helped us that way, to be able to get the messages out more promptly, and to educate the public on topics of interest and concern within the community, she said.She also said the social media accounts will be handy when work surrounding the Carlisle Urban Redevelopment Plan moves further along, particularly as it relates to road closures.People are going to want to know how the borough is able to balance what we need to get done as far as infrastructure with respect to other things like Carlisle fairgrounds events, she said.Armstrong said the reaction to the boroughs social media accounts has been generally positive, especially in regards to response time to questions posted on the sites.Though municipalities may have reservations about social media in general, it is a smart move for them to add social media to their communications toolbox, Vernau said.The balancing act that we walk is that we have residents of all ages, he said.Facebook is the primary means by which the municipality reaches younger generations, but Vernau acknowledges the popularity of Twitter and Instagram among those residents. Old people, while active to a degree on social media, are more inclined to be reached through the townships robocall system or the township website.Candland said there have been no drawbacks and no regrets to the boroughs decision to jump into the social media fray.It was to hopefully be beneficial to the community and be another way citizens can be informed of whats going on, so we hope its accomplishing that, he said.2018 The Sentinel (Carlisle, Pa.) Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.Following the torrential rains that have battered last week in Haiti, particularly in the northern region, the General Secretariat of the Presidency in a letter, asked the Minister of Economy and Finance, Wilson Laleau, to unblock 150 million gourdes...



Haiti - Justice : USA dress our detainees !





In late January, Charge d'Affaires Robin Diallo, accompanied by Nicholas Hilgert, Director of the Office of Narcotics and Enforcement Affairs (INL), of Deputy Director Brooke de Montluzin, formally transferred 202 instructor uniforms to Bernard Elie, Director of the PNH School, and 11,000 prisoner uniforms to Jean Gardy Muscadin, Head of the PNHs Corrections Authority (DAP). The United States is proud to support the PNH with this contribution, valued at approximately $90,000.



The United States is particularly pleased to learn that women will make up 28 percent of the next Promotion Class scheduled to start in February at the PNH School.



Let's recall that the U.S. support to DAP has included the construction of several prison facilities and training for DAP officials.



The United States hopes that Haitis justice sector authorities will take the necessary steps to combat prolonged pretrial detention to alleviate overcrowding in Haitis prison system.



HL/ HaitiLibre





















Haiti - Education : France supports the school canteens of the Great South





Partner of the National Program of School Canteens (PNCS), France participated this week in its implementation in the departments of South, Southeast, Nippes and Grand'Anse to provide food to 85,000 students.



This week, Laurent Bonneau, Head of the Cooperation Department of the French Embassy, went to La Ruche School in Les Cayes to participate in the launch of the PNCS in the Great South, alongside Ms. Phanese Laguerre, Coordinator. of this Program.



The establishment of the PNCS in the South, will already provide food to 85,000 children of the basic cycle (from the 1st to the 9th year) for 110 school days, or an increase of 35,000 children beneficiaries compared to the previous year underlined Ms. Laguerre



France, an active partner of this program of the Ministry of National Education and Vocational Training (MENFP), spent in 2017 through its Embassy in Haiti $ 2 million for the purchase of 930 tons of local agricultural products (cereals and legumes) for school canteens. In accordance with its purchasing policy, all these purchases were made from producer organizations in Artibonite and North to guarantee their income and support family farming.



The Embassy of France also contributed $ 125,000 to the local purchase program for school canteens implemented by the World Food Program (WFP) in the Nippes, a support that will ensure the distribution of 411,000 meals school.



HL/ HaitiLibre





















Haiti - Culture : D-1, Carnival of children in the Capital





Thursday the Town Hall of Port-au-Prince thanked all the revelers and DJs who took part in the activities of the 3rd pre-carnival Sunday (January 28th) that it described as a "real success".



The 3 advanced medical posts, reported for this 3rd Sunday, have treated 74 cases (24 light cases and moderated 80 cases). A large part of the people have been treated for excessive drinking. On this last point, the Medical Service of the Port-au-Prince Town Hall warns the population and insists on the danger represented by the excessive consumption of alcoholic beverages.



In addition, the Town Hall noticed the deplorable use of "tchatchas", cultural instrument of the history of the carnival, when some malicious carnivals sharpens the point, transforming it into a real weapon... The Communal Administration recalled once again to the DJ's and animators accompanying them, that the obscene remarks as well as the foreign musics are totally prohibited on the course of the carnival.



Lastly, the Town Hall of Port-au-Prince invites disguised children and their parents on Sunday, February 4 from 2:30 pm to participate in the Carnaval des Enfants (Children Carnival). From Bern Street, a walking band, totally for children, accompanied by jugglers, acrobats and "bef lakay", will ensure the atmosphere and give the children their own experience of the carnival. Note that the course will be closed to traffic from 2:00 pm so that the children's carnival runs smoothly.



HL/ HaitiLibre





















Haiti - News : Zapping...





PetroCaribe the debates are closed in the Senate

"The report on the PetroCaribe issue is no longer in discussion or debate in the Senate. Senators can talk about it anywhere in the media. The file has been transferred to the Superior Court of Accounts and Administrative Disputes (CSC / CA) https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-23446-haiti-flash-senate-transfers-petrocaribe-report-to-csa-ca.html " said Joseph Lambert, the Speaker of the Senate, firmly.



Diasponaval : Packages Carnival for the diaspora

The Ministry of Haitians Living Abroad (MHAVE) presents Diasponaval to allow our compatriots to fully enjoy the 2018 carnival ! This offer designed in collaboration with tourhaiti and destination_haiti also includes excursions to Jacmel and the Cote des Arcadins! More information on www.tourhaiti.net



The Minister Cadet in Dakar

Pierre Josue Agenor Cadet, the Minister of Education at the head of a Haitian delegation participates in the Financing Conference of the Global Partnership for Education (PME) held in Dakar under the Franco-Senegalese presidency and which aims to raise $ 3.1 billion for 2018-2020 to provide 870 million children around the world with quality education. At the end of the Summit where more than 2.3 billion were announced, Haiti has committed to devote at least 20% of its annual budget to education...



To find out more about this Summit (in French) : www.ht.ambafrance.org/Qu-est-ce-que-le-Partenariat-mondial-pour-l-education



"Kanaval Timoun" to PAP

Sunday, February 4 at 2:00 pm the Town Hall of ort-au-Prince invites all the children to come to dance with "Filalang", in addition there will be "Bef lakay", acrobats and jugglers to make the show even more beautiful. Avenue John Brown (Lalue), from Rue Bern to Rue Dufort https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-23462-haiti-culture-d-1-carnival-of-children-in-the-capital.html



PetroCaribe, Youri Latortue denounces

"After so much waste of the PetroCaribe Fund, the Republic of Haiti demands accountability. I denounce the surprise session without the Senators Commissioners, members of the press and the general public," Senator Youri Latortue.



Management of the Journal "lUnion"

The Executive entrusted the interim management of the newspaper "L'Union" to the National Coordinating Council of State and Public Service Media.



HL/ HaitiLibre

















Hawaii unions need not fear Janus case

From Grassroot Institute, Feb 2, 2018

Government employee unions are such a fact of life in Hawaii that it's difficult to imagine our state without them. They hold immense political power and have shaped our laws (and liabilities) in numerous ways.

The question now is whether a case being heard by the U.S. Supreme Court will change any of that. The nations highest court is set to hear Janus v. AFSCME, which seeks to abolish mandatory union dues for public sector workers.

The plaintiff in the lawsuit is Mark Janus, a child support specialist from Illinois who objected to being forced to pay union dues to keep his state job.

In Janus' view, AFSCME (the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees) endorses and lobbies for policies he opposes, so being forced to help fund the union violates his freedoms of speech and assembly, as guaranteed by the First Amendment.

Janus has stressed that he isnt opposed to unions, and it's important to note that his case has no bearing on unions as a whole  only government employee unions.

Obviously, we don't know how the Supreme Court will rule, and we wont find out for months. If it were to decide for the plaintiff, it wouldnt be dismantling unions altogether, but a decision by the courts nine justices that state employees can't be required to pay union dues could lead to some interesting outcomes in Hawaii.

Already, the Hawaii Legislature is pondering how to respond if the Supreme Court rules in favor of Janus. But the people who are wrapped up in the political implications of the Janus case are ignoring an opportunity that may actually benefit our public sector unions.

Though unions are treating Janus as though it is a threat to their existence, it's possible that this case could be an opportunity for our state employee unions to modernize and become more responsive to their members.

If the members consider their unions to be valuable voices for their interests, they will gladly support them, even if the dues no longer are mandatory.

If they choose not to pay the dues, the unions will know that they need to change their ways to keep their members satisfied.

In a sense, Janus would simply give the unions a taste of the free market.

It's easy to see why they would prefer the status quo, but a little change doesn't have to be a bad thing.

E hana kakou (Lets work together!),

Keli'i Akina, Ph.D.by Andrew Walden

Grabbing for a $119M cash payout and a doubling of annual State ceded lands payments, the Office of Hawaiian Affairs is pushing SB2136 and its companion, HB1747.

But Ige Administration and University of Hawaii testimony in opposition to the bills exposes the degree to which OHA rent-seeking is driving up hospital bills, public housing rents, and University of Hawaii tuition for everybodyincluding native Hawaiians.

Ironically, the two bills are being heard in the wake of the leaked draft audit of OHA which exposes yet again the deep corruption at all levels of OHA operations.

Here are some key excerpts from the testimony:

Attorney General on SB2136

the Supreme Court in OHA v. State, 96 Hawaii 388, 401, 31 P.3d 901, 914 (2001)(OHA I), held that only the Legislature can establish what OHAs share of the income and proceeds is, because that decision requires policy determinations that only the Legislature can make: 

OHAs position and the amount of the share of the public land trust receipts it asks for, appears to be based on a calculus that applies 20 percent to all receipts that are collected from the use of all of those lands, although it is not yet clear whether this total does, or does not include patient services revenues collected by the Hawaii Health System Corporation or the States two housing agencies. Because OHAs request would increase its share by more than 100 percent and has to impact the rents, fees, and charges that state agencies currently collect, it should be subjected to close scrutiny. 

* * * * *

UH System Legislative Testimony

by Kalbert K. Young Vice President for Budget and Finance/Chief Financial Officer University of Hawaii System

UH is concerned that the term receipts is not clearly defined or appropriately limited by SB 2136 as currently drafted, and may be construed to include UH funds such as student tuition and fees that are currently, and properly, excluded from the computation of amounts due from UH toward OHAs pro rata share of the public land trust. The term receipts may also imply gross receipts as opposed to net receipts thereby jeopardizing the financial stability of campus bookstores.

UH, as a public institution of higher education and also a beneficiary of the Public Land Trust, serves one of the express purposes, and in fact the first-mentioned purpose of the Public Land Trust established by the Admission Act. Under current law, as interpreted and applied by the Office of the Attorney General, receipts from the Universitys educational programs and ancillary services are not subject to apportionment to OHA. Such receipts include student tuition and fees, services of educational departments, and student housing. The University also receives federal and other research grants and contracts, federal reimbursements of UH research overhead expenses, philanthropic gifts, and other funding streams, in addition to the support provided by the Legislature.

Currently, in accordance with past discussions with the Office of the Attorney General, OHA has been determined to be entitled to a pro rata share of specific types of University revenues as described in Conference Committee Report No. 101 to SB No. 2948, which became Act 178, SLH 2006. Those revenue sources are: UH Manoa and UH Hilo parking, faculty housing, non-student housing rentals, including food and vending machines, telephone commissions/collections, and UH Hilo Bookstore logo products, sundries but not books or school supply items. UH acknowledges and accepts its obligation to pay over OHAs allocated share of those items. However, given recent positions taken by OHA, the University is deeply concerned that the use of the undefined term receipts in SB 2136 could lead to claims that other types of University funds are also subject to OHAs pro rata share, leading to potentially complex and costly disputes and unforeseeable and unmanageable financial impacts to the university, students, and taxpayers relating to all State services

* * * * *

DLNR Testimony on HB1747

House Bill 1747 proposes to: 1) establish $35,000,000 as the Office of Hawaiian Affairs (OHA) pro rata share of the public land trust, 2) transfer $119,000,000 less certain funds to OHA for underpayment of the public land trust funds from July 1, 2012 to June 30, 2018, 3) requires the Department of Land and Natural Resources to provide an annual accounting of receipts from lands described in section 5(f) of the Admissions Act, and 4) establishes a committee to recommend the annual amount of the income and proceeds from the public land trust that OHA receives annually. The Department of Land and Natural Resources (Department) opposes the bill because of the financial impact on the Department.

If this measure were to become law, at current revenue levels the Department and other agencies working to generate revenues for the State (in lieu of tax revenues from the general fund) from ceded lands must come up with an additional $15 to 20 million annually. For reference, in fiscal year 2017, the Land Division collected approximately $12 million in total revenue. While the Department understands that it will not be solely responsible to cover the payment of the additional revenues, the bill does not specifically allocate payment obligations among the respective agencies. Therefore, such a severe increase in annual payments to OHA from $15.1 million to $35 million per year may impose a devastating financial burden upon the Department and its natural, recreational and historical resource protection programs.

The revenues collected by the Land Division cover the entire annual operating budget for the Land Division, the Office of Conservation and Coastal Lands, the Dam Safety program, and the Geothermal program. The revenues also fund other positions within the Department such as five (5) positions within the Commission on Water Resource Management, and provide funding support to the Division of State Parks and various resource protection programs administered by the Division of Forestry and Wildlife such as the protection of threatened and endangered species, removal of invasive species, wildland firefighting and lifeguard services.

* * * * *

Department of Transportation opposes this measure

The Department of Transportation, through its Harbors Division, contributed $13.5 million of the $15.1 million transferred from the State to OHA in Fiscal Year 2017. The Harbors Division is a completely self-funded enterprise and contributes the largest portion, about 90%, to the public land trust revenues OHA receives and annually honors its obligation to transfer the appropriate sums owed. However, the Department of Transportation opposes this legislation because it is yet another temporary measure that defers permanent resolution; it does not clarify the language in the Constitution of the State of Hawaii and the Hawaii Revised Statutes to address the long-standing political question of how to appropriately calculate the pro rata share.

Further, the impact of the interim measure on the financial projections of the self-funded Harbors Division is unknown and has not been calculated. This bill will not only jeopardize the Harbors Division and the ongoing Harbors Modernization Plan, but will impact the State of Hawaii as a whole.

* * * * *

Common Cause

we are concerned that the public land trust committee, created by this bill, will not be subject to our Sunshine Laws. As OIP states on its website, the law is intended to open up governmental processes to public scrutiny and participation by requiring government business to be conducted as transparently as possible.1 We do not understand the reasoning for this exemption as it would curtail public participation, and urge you to subject this committee to the Sunshine Law (HRS Ch 92). 

* * * * *

League of Women Voters

we request amendment of SB 2136 so that the proposed public lands trust revenue committee is subject to Chapter 92, Hawaii Revised Statutes. There is no compelling justification to exempt the proposed committee from the Sunshine Law. 

* * * * *Weekly Recap From Hawaii Family Forum, February 2, 2018

Assisted Suicide to be Fast-tracked?

Three suicide bills that were introduced this session by House members have been assigned to a JOINT committee hearing of the Health & Judiciary committees. That means that House leadership only wants ONE HEARING in the House for these bills. We will keep you posted if any of the bills are scheduled for hearing. (The names listed are the legislators who introduced the measure.)

HB2218 | RELATING TO VOLUNTARY ASSISTED DYING.

Introduced by: EVANS, CREAGAN, DECOITE, ITO, KEOHOKALOLE, LOWEN, MCKELVEY, MIZUNO, NAKAMURA, OHNO, SAIKI, SOUKI, TAKUMI, THIELEN, Morikawa, San Buenaventura

Establishes the right of certain terminally ill adults to request and access the process of voluntary assisted dying through self-administration or physician administration of a voluntary assisted dying substance. Effective 7/1/2019. (Pending joint hearing of HHS/JUD)

HB2736 | RELATING TO HEALTH.

Introduced by: Mizuno

Establishes a regulatory process under which an adult resident of the State with a medically confirmed terminal disease and less than three months to live may choose to obtain a prescription for medication to end the patient's life. Imposes criminal sanctions for tampering with a patient's request for a prescription or coercing a patient to request a prescription. Sunsets on June 30, 2023. (Pending joint hearing of HHS/JUD)

HB2739 | RELATING TO HEALTH.

Introduced by: BELATTI, HASHEM, LOWEN, LUKE, MORIKAWA, NISHIMOTO, SAIKI, TAKAYAMA, TODD

Establishes a regulatory process under which an adult resident of the State with a medically confirmed terminal disease and less than six months to live may choose to obtain a prescription for medication to end the patient's life. Imposes criminal sanctions for tampering with a patient's request for a prescription or coercing a patient to request a prescription. (Pending joint hearing of HHS/JUD)

SB2727 | RELATED TO HEALTH

Introduced by: RUDERMAN, INOUYE, K. RHOADS, Dela Cruz, Galuteria, Nishihara

Establishes a medical aid in dying act that establishes a regulatory process under which an adult resident of the State with a medically confirmed terminal disease may obtain a prescription for medication to be self-administered to end the patient's life. (Pending hearing by Senate CPH)

ACTION: We have reason to believe that HB2739 will be the vehicle to move, but we should be prepared for any of these to be put on a schedule for hearing. Please sign our online petition to (1) decrease suicides in Hawaii by 25% and (2) oppose establishing assisted suicide. Supporters will claim that 70% of the population in Hawaii wants assisted suicide. This is your opportunity to say that YOU ARE NOT ONE OF THEM.

Over 13 thousand signatures against assisted suicide were collected last year. Let's get even more this year.

Take Action!

Sign & Promote Anti-Suicide Petition

Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Act Opposed by Hirono & Schatz

This week the U.S. Senate failed to pass S. 2311 , the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, by a vote of 51-46. This bill would have ended elective abortions after 20 weeks. Unsurprisingly, both Hawaii Senators (Hirono and Schatz) were NAY votes.

Read Statement by President Trump on its failure.

What's Coming Up?

Before you file your taxes...

There's still time to sign up for the free workshop on how the new tax laws. will affect you. Click here to sign up and for more information .

Weekly Triple "F" Podcast

Interview with Kelly Rosati, Part TwoSpringville police officers were searching for a suspect after an officer was reportedly assaulted Friday at 1:57 p.m. in the south end of town. He was patrolling in the area of 700 S. Main St.

The officer noticed a man, later identified as Paul Douglas Anderson of Spanish Fork, in a Tabithas Way donation box with just his feet hanging out. The officer approached Anderson and asked him to get out of the donation box to talk with him.

According to Cpl. Cory Waters, police spokesman, as the officer spoke with Anderson, Anderson put his hands in his pockets. The officer asked Anderson multiple times to keep his hands out of his pockets, but Anderson would not comply.

As the officer continued talking to Anderson, Anderson attacked the officer punching him in the face repeatedly.

A citizen passing through the area in his vehicle witnessed the attack and turned around to help the officer, Waters said in a press release. The citizen, who has a concealed firearm permit, drew his gun and ordered Anderson to stop. Anderson then ran from the area.

Officers from multiple agencies responded to assist in the search for Anderson, according to Waters.

A nearby elementary school was locked down while the search was being conducted. Approximately 30 minutes after the attack, a witness noticed a man hiding under a flatbed trailer across the street from where the attack occurred. When officers arrived at the trailer, they identified the man as Anderson and took him into custody without further incident.

Anderson was booked into the Utah County Jail on suspicion of assault on a police officer, resisting arrest, theft, burglary, and failure to stop at the command of a police officer.

The officer was transported to a nearby hospital for treatment of a fractured orbital eye socket and lacerations to his face, according to Waters report.WASHINGTON - Janet Yellen, who completed her term as Federal Reserve chair Friday, plans to start a new job Monday morning as a fellow in economic studies at the Brookings Institution.

Yellen will follow a well-worn path from the Fed's marble headquarters on Constitution Avenue to the nearby Brookings building on Massachusetts Avenue. The roster of Brookings fellows includes her immediate predecessor as Fed chairman, Ben Bernanke, and no fewer than three of her predecessors as Fed's vice chairman: Donald Kohn, Alice Rivlin and Alan Blinder.

"I'm delighted to be joining the Brookings Institution," Yellen said in a statement released by Brookings. "I look forward to continuing to study the economy, especially issues related to the labor market, and contributing to public policy debates on a range of economic issues."

For Brookings, Yellen's arrival fortifies its recent focus on monetary policy, a subject that has commanded significantly greater public interest and scholarly debate since the 2008 financial crisis.

"I congratulate Janet on her outstanding public service and look forward to being her colleague at the Brookings Institution," Bernanke tweeted.

For Yellen, 71, it is a new professional home. She and her husband, George Akerlof, were longtime professors at the University of California, Berkeley, where they still own a house, but Akerlof is now a professor at Georgetown University.

Yellen's four-year term at the Fed ended on a high note Friday. The government estimated that the economy added 200,000 jobs in January, while the unemployment rate held at 4.1 percent. It is the first time the economy has added jobs during every month of a Fed chair's tenure.

Fed Up, a coalition of unions and community groups, said it delivered a giant "Thank You" card to the Fed on Friday afternoon to celebrate Yellen's success in reducing unemployment.

Jerome Powell will be sworn in as Fed chairman on Monday morning.Best Buy Co., the nation's largest consumer electronics retailer, says it will be handing out bonuses to more than 100,000 employees, joining a list of companies sharing a portion of their windfall from the corporate tax reform law with employees.

The chain says that this month it will pay one-time bonuses of $1,000 to full-time workers and $500 to part-time employees.SEATTLE - By most measures, 35-year-old Costco Wholesale is thriving.

Its sales and profits are surging. Traffic to its stores, an important indicator of the health of the business, grew 5.9 percent in the last quarter, the fastest clip in at least a decade. Costco members - whose annual fees make the company profitable - remain fiercely loyal, renewing at a rate of 87 percent even after fees were raised.

But will a new generation of shoppers accustomed to online buying and home delivery join their parents in the cavernous aisles?

The Issaquah, Wash.-based company continues to build. It remains on pace to open 20 to 25 new stores a year, and is establishing toeholds in new international markets, including its first store in China, now under construction in Shanghai and scheduled to open in April 2019.

Meanwhile, Sam's Club - Walmart's wholesale club, once viewed as Costco's principal rival - announced last month it's closing 63 stores.

Costco's stock has reached new highs in recent days.

Gray-haired crowd

After hearing about Costco's performance and prospects from CEO Craig Jelinek at the company's annual shareholders' meeting in Bellevue recently, at least a few people in the decidedly gray-haired crowd had big questions about the future.

How will the world's second-largest retailer adapt to changing shopping habits and appeal to a younger generation, and what is the company doing to contend with online sellers, such as Amazon, now viewed by some as Costco's chief competition?

Jelinek - who also took questions from an octogenarian who struggled to find his car in Costco's vast lots, and others having trouble lifting large quantities of bottled water and kitty litter - addressed them head on.

Reports that millennials are not joining Costco are "not accurate," Jelinek said, noting that the generation represents over 40 percent of its new-member signups.

(Company representatives declined to say how many of its current 90.3 million cardholders are in the millennial demographic.)

That said, they've yet to become Costco's best customers.

"They don't spend the money like the boomers do," Jelinek said. "But they are signing up, and we're hopeful that as boy meets girl, buys house, that will continue to go through their life cycle."

'Treasure hunt'

The company is making moves to better cater to shoppers whose expectations about retail were formed in the time of Amazon. But in doing so, Costco wants to preserve the "treasure hunt" aspect of its main cash-and-carry business that has been fundamental to its success.

"We want to sell stuff online, but we also want to bring people into our Costcos," Jelinek said. "When people say, 'I hate you guys, I came in to buy four things and I spent $400,' that's what we like."

Costco is using its stores to drive online purchasing. Showcase areas in the stores let shoppers see and touch the online wares. They can purchase them on the spot for later home delivery from salespeople outfitted with iPads.

Costco operates e-commerce sites in six markets, and Jelinek said the company plans to expand in the coming two to three years to Australia, Japan, and even China. That would put it in competition with Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group. (Costco first dipped a toe in China in 2014 with an online storefront on Alibaba's Tmall platform.)

While the physical stores remain the company's focus, Costco is expanding its home-delivery options.

In doing so, it's leveraging its 17 Business Centers - stores geared toward small-business owners, with merchandise in even larger lots than the consumer-focused warehouse stores - as fulfillment centers for two-day home delivery of nonperishable items.

"This has started out much stronger than we anticipated, and we're going to continue to grow this business," Jelinek said.

Instacart partnership

Through a partnership with Instacart, people can order Costco goods, including fresh items, for same-day delivery.

Even as it expands delivery options, Costco is experimenting with ways to drive its online buyers back into stores.

In November, Costco began testing a system to allow customers to pick up high-value items ordered online, such as jewelry and laptops, in the warehouses. This eliminates the risk of front-porch theft, and generates another trip to Costco where the treasure hunt can continue.

"There's a method to this madness," Jelinek said.

Costco's e-commerce business grew 40 percent during the holidays, he said, but also noted that it represents "only 5 percent of our business."WASHINGTON - In the 109 years of the FBI's existence, it has repeatedly come under fire for abuses of power, privacy or civil rights. From Red Scares to recording and threatening to expose the private conduct of Martin Luther King Jr. to benefiting from bulk surveillance in the digital age, the FBI is accustomed to intense criticism.

What is so unusual about the current moment, say current and former law enforcement officials, is the source of the attacks.

The bureau is under fire not from those on the left but rather conservatives who have long been the agency's biggest supporters, as well as the president who handpicked the FBI's leader.

Republican critics charge that the birth of the investigation into possible coordination between the Trump campaign and agents of the Russian government was fatally infected by the political bias of senior FBI officials - and President Donald Trump tweeted Saturday that the release of a memo on the issue "totally vindicates 'Trump.' "

Bureau officials say the accusations in the document produced by House Republicans are inaccurate and - more damaging in the long term - corrode the agency's ability to remain independent and do its job.

One law enforcement official summed it up bluntly: "There's a lot of anger. The irony is it's a conservative-leaning organization, and it's being trashed by conservatives. At first it was just perplexing. Now there's anger, because it's not going away."

On Friday, FBI Director Christopher Wray sent a video message to those he leads, urging them to "keep calm and tackle hard."

"You've all been through a lot in these past nine months, and I know that's been unsettling, to say the least. And the past few days haven't done much to calm those waters," Wray said. "So I want to make sure that you know where I stand, and what I want us to do."

Most FBI agents see their mission as fundamentally nonpolitical - ferreting out wrongdoing, even when that occurs inside political campaigns or government.

For decades, the FBI has been trusted to investigate corruption inside the government, even at the highest levels, including the White House. In the 1970s, the FBI's probe of the Watergate break-in led to the resignation of President Richard M. Nixon. In the late 1990s, President Bill Clinton came to detest then-director Louis Freeh, but their distrust did not lead to withering public attacks from the president himself.

After the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the agency was retooled to focus primarily on preventing terrorism, and public confidence in its work grew. In the past two years, however, the probe of Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server while she was secretary of state and a separate Russia investigation are testing whether the FBI can maintain the trust of Congress, the courts and the country.

Wray's vision for leading the agency out of its current predicament is a return to the type of low-profile management favored by former FBI director Robert Mueller III, according to several people who have spoken to him about the current challenges.

Wray's predecessor, James Comey, was fired by Trump in May amid the ratcheting tensions of a criminal probe into the president's former national security adviser, Michael Flynn. At the time, Trump called Comey a "showboat" and a "grandstander."

It makes sense, then, that his successor would want to keep his head down.

Wray's defenders say there is a more strategic reason for the new director's approach - by relying on long-standing law enforcement policies and procedures, he believes the FBI can navigate through the current political storms and get back to a position of widespread trust across the political spectrum, according to people familiar with his thinking.

"Following established process is important," one person said. "Process can protect us."

That approach, though, is a subtle rejection of some of Comey's most controversial decisions. Comey famously held a news conference in July 2016 to announce he would not recommend any criminal charges in the probe of Clinton's use of a private email server when she was secretary of state. Then in October of that year, less than two weeks before the presidential election, he sent a letter to Congress informing them that the FBI was investigating new emails in the case.

Both moves were significant departures from normal Justice Department procedure, and Clinton and her supporters blame Comey for costing her the election.

Comey's firing shocked the FBI's workforce. In the aftermath, many employees posted pictures of him at their desks or other workspaces.

"In some offices, you'd go in and it was just, 'Comey, Comey, Comey' everywhere," said one law enforcement official. "There's still a lot of that, but not as much."

The public attacks from the president have diminished morale inside the FBI, according to current and former officials. Among themselves, senior officials and rank and file frequently debate the best way forward. Several law enforcement officials said they agreed with Wray's low-key approach, as a means of what one called "getting back to Mueller's FBI."

That is a sentiment not without irony because Mueller is now the special counsel leading the Russia investigation so despised by the president and his allies. On Saturday in his tweet, Trump said the "Russia Witch Hunt goes on and on . . . This is an American disgrace!"

Others express doubts about emulating Mueller's detached approach, worried that Wray's calculation not to publicly spar with the president may lead to a gradual erosion of the bureau's reputation and clout. One law enforcement official expressed worry that they might not be able to return to an earlier era because, as he put it, "this Pandora's box of politics has been opened, and we may never get rid of it."

A HuffPost/YouGov poll last month found that 51 percent of the public say they have a fair amount of trust in the FBI - down 12 points from 2015. Most of that drop was driven by Republicans and independents, the poll found.

The #ReleaseTheMemo campaign - a GOP effort to make public the four-page document produced by House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, R-Calif., alleging surveillance abuses by the FBI - is just the latest salvo in an escalating war on the credibility of federal law enforcement. On Friday, over Wray's objection, Trump authorized the release of the Nunes memo and declared, "A lot of people should be ashamed of themselves and much worse than that.''

The document - which Democrats said lacked appropriate context and seemed to be a pretext for conservatives to discredit the investigation into Trump - alleged the FBI misled the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court in obtaining a secret warrant to monitor former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page.

That was because, Republicans alleged, the bureau did not tell the court that they were relying in part on information they had received from an ex-British spy who was working for an opposition research firm hired by the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee. Officials familiar with the matter, though, said the court that approved the warrant was aware some information in the request was funded by a political entity, even if that entity was not specifically named.

"That's it?" Comey tweeted after the memo was released Friday. "Dishonest and misleading memo wrecked the House intel committee, destroyed trust with Intelligence Community, damaged relationship with FISA court, and inexcusably exposed classified investigation of an American citizen. For what? DOJ & FBI must keep doing their jobs."

Trump's attacks on the Justice Department and the bureau are not new. He has called his own attorney general "beleaguered" and claimed the bureau's reputation was "in tatters." But in recent weeks, his claims have been magnified by Republicans on Capitol Hill and buttressed by the release of materials that call into question the actions of some agents.

Late last month, Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., said on Fox News there was "evidence of corruption - more than bias but corruption - at the highest levels of the FBI," and pointed to texts between two key officials who were once assigned to both the Clinton and Trump probes suggesting a "secret society" at the FBI. Those messages about a "secret society" are now widely seen to be a joke, but that has not diminished Republicans' fervor about what they see as malfeasance in federal law enforcement.

Next came days of wrangling over whether the memo should be released, with the Justice Department and Republicans trading barbs over whether the document might harm national security and if it was accurate. Trump ultimately sided with Hill Republicans, even over the advice of his own FBI director.

The Justice Department typically has a unique role in an administration: While it seeks to implement the president's policy goals as a part of the executive branch, it conducts criminal investigations independently and without regard to the will of the chief executive. Trump has defied that norm. He asked Comey for a vow of loyalty, then inquired with Andrew McCabe, who replaced Comey after Trump fired him, for whom he voted.

The president's approach has scrambled old alliances and created some odd new ones.

Privacy advocates - whose mission often centers on trying to rein in what they view as the FBI's overbroad and unchecked surveillance powers - have found themselves defending the agency in the current fight, saying the GOP's claims of privacy abuses lack a factual foundation.

"For a long time we've had a concern about the process for obtaining surveillance, a warrant to surveil an American citizen, and abuses in that process," said Christopher Anders, deputy director of the American Civil Liberties Union's Washington Legislative Office. "And with Congressman Nunes' memo raising concerns that there were abuses in that process, of course that's something that would concern us. The memo itself, though, doesn't prove the case. It doesn't have the kind of evidence in it that you would need to see to say that there was an abuse of that authority."

Ron Hosko, a former FBI assistant director, said some of the president's behavior toward the Justice Department and the FBI might do lasting damage. While the president might now feel he wants the bureau under his firm control, Hosko said, he might regret that if a like-minded president took office and ordered investigations of Trump or his family.

"The battle is incredible, and who's riding to the defense of the FBI? The Democrats," said Hosko. "It just makes no sense."

Current and former law enforcement officials expect the struggle for control of the FBI to intensify.

"Republicans feel the White House is under siege and have suspicions that the FBI was not playing fair,'' said one former senior Justice Department official. "Republicans think this is just part of the war they are fighting."SAN ANTONIO  One day in the mid-1960s, a small-town girl from Arkansas who had fallen under the spell of this history-minded, multi-cultural city found herself in the office of H.B. "Pat" Zachry. The construction magnate and philanthropist had been named CEO of the city's ambitious effort to introduce itself to the world via HemisFair '68.

Sherry Kafka  now Sherry Kafka Wagner -- was seeking the support of "Mr. Pat" for a women's pavilion at the fair. She and other San Antonio women envisioned an architecturally striking structure that would house exhibits showcasing women's contributions to education, law, medicine, business and fashion, among other endeavors.

Wagner and her cohorts got what they wanted, seasoned with a passing observation from Zachry defining the difference, as he saw it, between men and women in the Lone Star State.

"In Texas," he told Wagner, "the women are in charge of the good, the true and the beautiful, and we men just do bidness."

He said it "with a twinkle in his eye," Wagner told me earlier this week. She was grateful for his support, but it didn't take her long to think of women populating San Antonio's colorful past who had no intention of confining themselves to the so-called finer things in life. Because they refused, they helped shape this city as decisively as any mover-shaker businessMAN.

Emma Koehler, Emily Edwards, Adina de Zavala and others helped make sure that one of America's four distinctive cities (a designation attributed to Mark Twain) would prosper, even as it retained its essential character. You don't always find them in history books or memorialized in stone, but this spring as their city begins its 300th-birthday celebration, Wagner wants to make sure, again, that they're acknowledged.

Wagner, now 81, is one of those women. She made me promise not to write about her, but I can't resist a sentence or three. Maybe the only polymath I've ever met, she's a writer, cultural historian and urban planner whose mind, like philosopher Isaiah Berlin's proverbial fox, delves into life wherever her curiosity leads. She discovered in San Antonio years ago a complex weave of cultures that has intrigued her ever since.

Tuesday evening, she and I were sitting at a small table in a bustling bar called Sternewirth, off the lobby of the Emma. The hotel is the centerpiece of the re-purposed Pearl Brewing Company. San Antonio developer Christopher "Kit" Goldsbury's immensely successful project just north of downtown adheres precisely to the people-oriented urban-development approach that Wagner has long promulgated.

A few steps from the hotel-lobby entrance to Sternewirth  named for the rule that allowed brewery workers to imbibe on the job -- is a two-tiered, wood-paneled library stocked with 3,700 volumes from Wagner's eclectic personal collection; hotel patrons are invited to check out books during their stay or to relax in the library and read while they sip a margarita. Wagner, as talkative, busy and engaged as ever, arranges regular cultural events in the library for hotel guests and the general public, including two Valentine's Day-related readings on the 14th and 15th.

You'll find books in the collection about the women who shaped San Antonio, including the woman who gave the hotel its name. Emma Koehler took over as Pearl's president in 1914, when her husband Otto was shot and killed by his mistress, also named Emma. (The shooting took place in a South San Antonio cottage Otto had purchased for the second Emma; her roommate, also Otto's mistress, also was named Emma.)

"We never really look at women like Emma Koehler as power figures," Wagner said, "but she seems to have been very comfortable in her role of leadership. When Lone Star packed up and went back to Germany during Prohibition, she kept everybody employed. When Prohibition lifted, she was ready to roll."

The Pearl abuts the northward extension of the Riverwalk, a San Antonio landmark that likely wouldn't exist if not for the efforts of another determined and resourceful San Antonio woman. Emily Edwards. Born in 1888, she was an artist and art teacher at Breckenridge High School who created a theater space on the banks of the river as it meandered past the campus, with seating on one side and a stage directly across on the other. She could not imagine the historic stream transformed into a flood-control drainage ditch, as city fathers in the 1920s contemplated.

Her efforts and those of preservation cohort Rena Maverick Green led to the creation of the San Antonio Conservation Society, dedicated to preventing the city from "devouring its soul," to borrow local historian Lewis Fisher's pithy phrase. The society has won some and lost some over the years, but the signature victories include preserving the river, the Spanish missions, the Spanish Governor's Palace and other venerable structures that contribute to San Antonio's character today.

Wagner mentioned consulting some years back with Providence, R.I., about constructing a San Antonio-style river walk along the city's Woonasquatucket River. The project, called Riverplace Park, has been a tremendous success, fiscally and otherwise, for a once-moldering New England town. Edwards and her fellow conservationists could have told them so. The farsighted efforts of women who presumably didn't do "bidness" has generated untold billions in revenue for their city.

Pioneer preservationist Adina Emilia de Zavala was passionate about Texas history, not revenues, and yet her efforts to save the Alamo resulted in a fiscal impact as significant as saving the river. Granddaughter of Lorenzo de Zavala, the Texas Republic's first vice president, she was born in Harris County in 1861 and moved with her family to San Antonio in the 1880s. She taught elementary school as a young woman.

In 1908, she mounted what's been called the second defense of the Alamo, barricading herself for three days in the long barracks, or convento, to protest plans for its destruction. Denied food and water  friends managed to smuggle in a few oranges -- she was determined to save the Alamo compound from what she called "business greed." She was semi-successful; the second story of the barracks was knocked off, but the roofless building itself was preserved.

The honor roll of San Antonio women who shaped this city in years past includes Mary Maverick, an early diarist and charter member of the Daughters of the Republic of Texas; Ellen Quillin, a high-school science teacher who founded the Witte Museum; Emma Tenayuca, a young labor leader who organized the pecan shellers in the 1930s; and restaurateurs Virginia Perry and Nannie Randall (La Fonda on Main) and Viola Barrios (Los Barrios).

Their lives remind us, as Wagner will tell you, "that if you read history as it's recorded, you'll miss the fabric of society, because a lot of that fabric is woven by women."WICHITA FALLS - Driving into this mid-sized city on the Wichita a few days ago, I was thinking about Norwood, the main character in Charles Portis' gloriously cockeyed novel of the same name. Early in the novel, the proud son of Ralph, Texas, takes a Trailways bus to New York City, hoping to collect on a $70 debt an old Army buddy owes him. In the Big Apple, the young man encounters a midget circus performer who bills himself "the world's smallest perfect man."

Norwood is impressed with the miniature man's proportions. "If you were out somewhere without anything else around, like a desert," he muses, "and I was to start walking towards you I would walk right into you because I would think you were further off than what you were."

Taking the downtown Wichita Falls exit off the Interstate, I had similar thoughts. Approaching the "world's littlest skyscraper" would I think it was farther off than it really was? Until I was a block or so away, would I feel like I was driving toward a tall building in downtown Dallas?

The answer to both questions is no. In fact, if you don't know precisely where you're headed, you'll likely miss the ridiculous, little landmark on the edge of downtown, corner of Seventh Street and LaSalle.

The famed Robert Ripley of Ripley's Believe It or Not is supposed to have given the structure its nickname. Like many things Texan, it was a product of big dreams - or, more precisely, big schemes. The year was 1912, and oil was gushing out of the ground in nearby Burkburnett, which would soon be producing 68 percent of all the nation's oil and gas. Wichita Falls, the county seat, was the business center of the boom.

'Absolute frenzy'

Thousands of people were pouring into Wichita County, and, as in the current shale oil boom, locals were waking up to find themselves instant millionaires. They were building fashionable new houses in town, trading buggies for Studebakers and Fords faster than dealers could supply them. In Wichita Falls, stocks worth thousands of dollars were being traded on downtown street corners. Oil companies and brokerage houses were frantically doing business in hastily erected tents. Lots were being flipped in a matter of minutes.

"There was an absolute frenzy of crude-oil trading, and people were just crazy with money," local architect Dick Bundy was telling me the other day. Bundy, a historic preservationist, is co-owner of the "skyscraper."

Along comes J.D. McMahon, a Philadelphia oil man and promoter. (Or maybe he was from Amarillo; historians can't pin him down.) Seeing his chance to take advantage of the urgent need for office space, McMahon drew up blueprints for a multi-story structure and set about peddling $200,000 in stock, the equivalent of nearly $3 million today. Investors could envision in their fevered brains another Dallas rising from the plains. A new office building would doubtless be the first of many thrusting toward the blue Texas sky.

McMahon somehow failed to mention that he didn't have the Oklahoma property owner's permission to build or that the space available was only 10 by 16 and 2/3 feet. The investors didn't ask, or, as Robert Palmer, chairman of the Wichita County Historical Commission, suggested, they lived back East and didn't know. All they cared about was McMahon's tout that the building would go up across the street from the thriving St. James Hotel, that it was near the busy train depot and that oil companies were clamoring for office space.

Rendered useless

One more thing McMahon forgot to mention (according to legend, that is): The scale of his blueprints were in inches rather than feet. The Newby-McMahon Building, as it was called, would soar not 40 stories high but four. It would be 12 feet wide by 20 feet deep and stretch all of 40 feet into the air.

By ribbon-cutting time in 1919, McMahon had skipped town and, according to Palmer, was never heard from again. Investors stormed into court but were told they had no case. They'd seen the blueprints, the judge reminded them; McMahon had built exactly what they had approved.

McMahon used his oil-field construction crew to erect the skyscraper. "It was very well built," Bundy said.

The neo-classical style red-brick and cast stone building may have been tiny, but six oil companies immediately rented desks on the lower floor. When the boom played out in the mid-1920s, the tenants left, and the building sat vacant until a 1931 fire rendered it useless except for a warehouse on the first floor. The city acquired it in 1980 and six years later turned it over to the Wichita County Heritage Society, which couldn't figure out what to do with it. Talk of demolition was in the air.

'Destination location'

Meanwhile, the city hired Bundy's firm to stabilize the roofless, burned-out building. The modest, little structure, its interior filled with several feet of pigeon droppings - feet, not inches - intrigued the architect, who arranged a partnership with a business owner across the street from the building. The partners purchased it for $7,500 and spent about $180,000 remodeling. These days the building looks great.

"It made no business sense to buy it," Bundy said, "but we'd love to see it self-sustaining."

He considered approaching the writer Larry McMurtry about expanding his used-bookstore operation in nearby Archer City into the building, but he heard that the Archer City native and occasional resident was trying to downsize. These days the building is home to an attractive consignment shop called Hello Again!. "This is a destination location," shop owner Marcie Brow told me. "I'd say 10 to 20 people a week come in just to see the building."

That continuing interest suggests that maybe there's an additional use. The historic structure could be a museum of graft, greed and boom-town mania, complete with photos and exhibits from Spindletop to the Permian Basin, from Hogtown/Desdemona to latter-day Houston.

Plenty of Texans can relate - but only a handful at a time could visit.AUSTIN - Executives from several companies getting millions of dollars in contracts to rebuild homes damaged by Hurricane Harvey gave thousands to Land Commissioner George P. Bush's re-election fund within days of the contracts being signed.

More than a dozen Horne LLP executives gave $27,500 dollars in political contributions to Bush just three days after the company signed a $13.47 million contract to assist with financial oversight and other administrative duties of federal and state Harvey recovery funds.

In October, James W. Turner Construction won a $20 million from the GLO's office to rebuild homes. A month earlier, James Turner, the president and CEO of the company, donated $5,000 to Bush's re-election campaign.

A few months later, Windstorm Mitigation, a Florida-based company, signed a $9 million contract to install and maintain temporary housing units. But just over two weeks before the contract was signed on Dec. 15, Ken Cashin, the company's president, gave $2,500 to Bush.

None of the contributors from the three companies have given money to other Texas politicians. In 2013, Turner donated $3,000 to Bush.

Influence of money

There are no state laws that prohibit donations from employees of state contractors, but some watchdogs say the donations raise questions about the influence of money in politics.

"The timing - if you take it just before or just after - looks bad both ways, especially if these are people who haven't given before and haven't given to other state officials, it looks like quid pro quo," said Andrew Wheat with Texans for Public Justice, a group that tracks political spending.

Ash Wright, Bush's political director, dismissed any suggestion of any conflict of interest.

"This is the biggest non-story in the history of non-stories," he said. "Yes, businesses support Commissioner Bush, as they do other conservative candidates."

Joey Havens, an executive partner with Horne, said the company does not comment on employees' personal contributions, charitable or otherwise. Havens, who personally gave $3,000 to Bush, said the company has worked with state since 2010.

"I have confirmed that none of our partners or staff have ever discussed the referenced [contract] with the Commissioner nor has the Commissioner requested a political donation," Haven said, noting that the company received the contract through a competitive bid process.

Political foe: Give cash back

Miguel Suazo, a Democrat vying for Bush's seat, suggested Bush should send the money back. The Texas Democratic Party characterized the donations as Bush "[lining] his pockets."

"Everyone knows this stinks. Any way you slice it, an exchange of money for government contracts is never good," said Manny Garcia, the Democratic Party executive director.

The Texas Tribune first reported the donations made by the Horne executives Friday, and the Houston Chronicle found two additional companies whose executives donated to Bush.

Bush is in the midst of a re-election campaign against three other Republicans, including former land commissioner Jerry Patterson, who has strongly criticized Bush's response to Hurricane Harvey.

Wright said the "real story" is that Bush "cleaned up his predecessor's practice of routinely handing out no-bid contracts."

Patterson said "appearance is an issue" with the contributions.

"The contributions don't bother me as much as he is simply not doing his job," Patterson said, noting that Bush has traveled to San Francisco, Washington, D.C., and other cities for fundraising events.

Wheat, the fiscal watchdog, said the donations undermine faith in government.

"It would not be worth taking that amount of money to lose that amount of credibility," Wheat said.In the days after Donald Trump's surprise election in 2016, conservative evangelical Christians made clear their high expectations for the president they had helped put into office.

Has Trump met those expectations?

"When it comes to his very strong statements on life, on support for Israel, on the Iran nuclear deal, on religious freedom and on judges, we fully expect him to keep his pledge  to the American people," Faith and Freedom Coalition founder and chairman Ralph Reed said at the time.

Fully 80 percent of white evangelicals voted for Trump.

Here's a look at how he fared on some of the issues they most care about in his first year of office.

Evangelicals in the White House

Just this week, the Senate narrowly approved Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback as U.S. ambassador for international religious freedom.

Brownback shares fellow conservative evangelicals' views on same-sex marriage and abortion. And he's one of many high-ranking evangelicals in the Trump administration: Energy Secretary Rick Perry, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders and Vice President Mike Pence are just a few with evangelical bona fides.

Other evangelical religious leaders have reveled in their "unprecedented" access to the White House, including dinners in the Blue Room, prayer sessions in the Oval Office and daylong listening sessions next-door at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building.

The Johnson Amendment

"I will get rid of, totally destroy the Johnson Amendment and allow our representatives of faith to speak freely and without fear," Trump announced at his first National Prayer Breakfast.

One executive order and a proposed provision of the tax reform bill later, not much has changed practically. But some evangelicals still point to Trump's actions on the issue as further proof that he is listening to them.

Trump's order directed the IRS not to enforce the Johnson Amendment, which prevents pastors and churches from endorsing a candidate from the pulpit without potentially losing their tax-exempt status. But since the IRS only has investigated a handful of churches in recent decades, and only one has lost its nonprofit status, one legal expert said it amounts to "pretty much nothing."

Only Congress has the authority to repeal the amendment. And while the House's version of the Republican tax bill lifted the restrictions for houses of worship and all nonprofits, it didn't make the final cut.

Immigration and refugees

After calling for a temporary ban on all Muslims entering the U.S., Trump has signed executive orders temporarily suspending the refugees program, banning Syrian refugees and restricting travel to the U.S. from several predominantly Muslim countries and giving preference to refugees claiming religious persecution. He confirmed to CBN News he saw persecuted Christians as a priority.

Those orders have met with mixed reviews from the courts, as well as from conservative Christians, many of whom are involved in refugee resettlement through faith-based agencies including World Relief, Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services, Church World Service, Episcopal Migration Ministries and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Supreme Court

In the days before the election, evangelist Franklin Graham told RNS that he wasn't focused "on his potty mouth or her missing emails," referring to Trump's language and his Democratic rival's trouble over an email server. Rather, Graham said, "It comes down to the Supreme Court, and who do you trust to appoint to the Supreme Court?"

Trump nominated Neil Gorsuch to fill the seat left by the late conservative Justice Antonin Scalia.

Conservative evangelicals were thrilled with Gorsuch's nomination and subsequent confirmation, as well as his vote with the majority in the 7-2 decision favoring Trinity Lutheran Church in its case against the state of Missouri, in which the church claimed religious discrimination after it was denied a grant to improve its playground.

Abortion

This month, Trump declared himself the first sitting president to address the March for Life - which is not entirely true. He is the first president to address the march via satellite. Previous presidents Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush had phoned in.

In his introduction to Trump's brief remarks, Vice President Mike Pence praised him as "the most pro-life president in American history."

But that also is not entirely true.

Buoying evangelicals, many of Trump's appointments hold anti-abortion views, RNS columnist Charles C. Camosy pointed out last fall. The Trump administration recently announced the creation of an office to protect the religious rights of medical providers, including those who oppose abortion. And one of his first acts as president was to reinstate a rule banning U.S. funding for nongovernmental organizations abroad that advocate for or counsel women on abortion. That rule, though, since the Reagan administration, has come and gone depending on whether a Republican or Democrat sits in the White House.

But Trump, who had strongly supported abortion rights until he did an abrupt about-face during his run for president, has not yet kept his campaign promises to defund Planned Parenthood. Neither has he moved to make permanent the Hyde Amendment, which bars federal funding for abortion in most circumstances. He also had pledged to sign into law a ban on abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy that the House has passed but that still awaits Senate approval.

Jerusalem

Evangelicals have long lobbied for the U.S. to relocate its embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Congress also called for the move in the Jerusalem Embassy Act of 1995.

Every president since has granted repeated six-month waivers, keeping the embassy in Tel Aviv.

Trump, like others before him, made moving the embassy a key campaign promise, one he reiterated in December when he declared the U.S. would "finally acknowledge the obvious: that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel." Pence confirmed during a recent trip to Israel that the move will happen in 2019.

LGBTQ rights

The president's sudden announcement on Twitter that he would ban transgender people from serving in the military came two weeks after some evangelical leaders had met at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building for daylong briefings. It was among numerous topics discussed that day and, while they don't take credit for the decision, some praised it as "courageous" and "heartening."

However, the president's ban has been blocked in the courts.A central Texas fire captain is behind bars, accused of inappropriately touching a juvenile firefighting recruit.

Daniel Dilworth, 22, was also a school bus driver and substitute teacher at Burnet Consolidated Independent School District at the time of his arrest, according to KXAN-TV in Austin.

Dilworth heads the Hoover Valley Volunteer Fire Department, a position prosecutors claimed he abused while he and the young male junior firefighter were together.

Now Playing: Texas News & Crime Video: Houston Chronicle

The abuse happened during summer 2017, according to police. The teenager told his father about the incidents on Jan. 29, detailing how Dilworth allegedly touched him while the two were on one of the department's fire trucks.

Burnet Consolidated Independent School District said Dilworth's alleged actions were isolated to his firefighting duties, although he has since been fired from the district, according to the TV station.

OUCH: Man bites Harris County deputy in finger during altercation

"There is no reason to believe this incident is related in any way to his employment with Burnet CISD," Superintendent Keith McBurnett said.

Dilworth was arrested Thursday on a felony attempted indecency with a child charge. He is being held in the Burnet County Jail on a $500,000 bond, according to jail records.

Jay R. Jordan is a breaking news reporter at Chron.com. Follow him on Twitter at @JayRJordan.Letters are in the mail to another 691 Houston homeowners flooded by Hurricane Harvey, informing them they may need to elevate their homes to comply with current city codes when they rebuild.

The letters of substantial damage originate in FEMA requirements and apply only to homeowners in the 100-year floodplain, where structures are deemed to have a 1 percent chance of flooding in any given year.

For the owners of most of those homes  considered so severely damaged that repairing them would cost more than 50 percent of the market value of the structure, not including the land  bringing the houses up to code will mean physically elevating them.

Some homeowners who had flood insurance when the storm hit may be eligible for up to $30,000 in federal funds to help with the cost of raising their homes, but the upgrade is pricey, often costing upwards of $150,000. Arkitektura Development Inc., a Kemah-based firm that specializes in elevating houses, said it typically costs between $65 and $70 per square foot to raise a house.

Houston Public Works, which administers floodplain rules locally on FEMAs behalf, sent 1,611 substantial damage letters to homeowners in early December.

Public Works has said about said 30,500 structures that sit within the 100-year floodplain took on water during Harvey.

All properties declared substantially damaged will be flagged by the city's permitting staff, and requests for building permits will require evidence the home is in compliance with the city's elevation standard.

Today, that rule requires new or rebuilt structures to sit one foot above the projected flood level in 100-year storm.

Mayor Sylvester Turner last week proposed increasing the elevation requirements. His proposal would require these structures to sit two feet above the projected flood level in a more severe 500-year storm, and would require structures everywhere else in the city be raised two feet above ground level.

The mayor has yet to publish the precise wording of those reforms, or some other changes his administration is considering that could change the way Houston protects against flooding as it develops.Winning the governor's mansion in 2018 is a long shot for any Texas Democrat.

Gov. Greg Abbott is the comparatively popular leader of a Republican Party that hasn't lost a statewide election in almost a quarter century. And he has amassed a staggering $43 million campaign fund, almost enough to mail every registered voter in the state a check for three dollars.

ENDORSEMENTS: See who the Houston Chronicle editorial board supports in the primaries

Nonetheless, Democratic voters casting their ballots in next month's primary will choose between nine candidates for governor. Most of them have no chance of winning, but they're running anyway for the simple and admirable reason that they believe somebody has to offer Texans an alternative to the state's cynical current leadership.

Democrats need to choose the candidate who, quite simply, will appeal to the most voters in a contest against Abbott. We believe that candidate is Andrew White.

JOE STRAUS: Texans, make your voices heard in primaries

White, 45, is a Houston entrepreneur who's never before run for office, but he's not exactly a political novice. He's basically the Democratic George W. Bush of this race. Like Bush in 1994, he's never won an election. And like Bush, his most valuable political asset is his father's name. He's the son of former Gov. Mark White, an education reformer who was respected by many Texas Democrats until the day he died last August.

White has cast himself as a common sense Democrat running for governor "to bring sanity and reason back to state government." His top priority is improving public education, and he's campaigning on a pledge to give every public school teacher a $5,000 a year raise. White proposes to fund his teacher pay hike by closing loopholes under which big businesses routinely dodge paying billions of dollars in commercial property taxes.

We're not exactly fans of political dynasties, but White ultimately won our endorsement with his answer to one obvious question. He's the only Democratic gubernatorial candidate who seems to have given serious thought to the state government's role in protecting Gulf Coast residents from flooding. While the other candidates who spoke to our editorial board offered only vague thoughts about this critical issue, White specifically discussed the need for a third reservoir in west Harris County and the importance of leveraging federal funds to build a coastal barrier system.

EDITORIAL: Let 2018 become the year voters demand action on flood control

After Hurricane Harvey, flood control should be the top concern voters in the Houston area consider when they cast their ballots. Maybe White has a grasp of the issue only because he lives here and he piloted his boat around inundated neighborhoods rescuing flood victims. But any serious candidate for governor speaking to people in Houston should have good answers for basic questions about this topic.

Here's how seriously we take flooding issues. If not for his fuzzy answer to this predictable question, we might have thrown our support to another candidate. Adrian Ocegueda runs a private equity firm in Dallas, and he was an economic policy adviser to the mayor of El Paso. Beyond his views on priorities like education and health care, Ocegueda brings up big issues that aren't on any other candidate's radar. He's concerned Texas isn't doing enough to train workers who are about to lose their jobs as technology displaces human labor. He even has the courage to touch the third rail of Texas politics, suggesting we need to seriously discuss introducing a state income tax. Ocegueda is a conspicuously smart and impressive candidate who has little or no chance of becoming governor, but he deserves serious consideration if he decides to run for another office.

HEY HOUSTON: Register to vote now!

Lupe Valdez, the former sheriff of Dallas County, is arguably the most high profile contender in this primary, but she also stumbled over flooding questions. Also on the ballot are Jeffrey Payne, a Dallas business owner; Joe Mumbach, a Houston audio-video technician making his first run for public office; and Grady Yarbrough, a retired educator and perennial candidate for statewide office. Three other candidates - Tom Wakely, James Jolly Clark and Cedric Davis Sr. - did not appear before our editorial board.

Next month, Democrats must pick a standard bearer with the best chance of winning votes not only for him or herself, but also for candidates running in down-ballot races. They would be wise to choose Andrew White as their nominee for Texas governor.Monday is the last day to register to vote in the 2018 Republican and Democratic primaries. If you aren't already registered to vote, please do so. You can find all the information you need about voter registration at votetexas.gov.

But if you want more of a say in how our state and your community are run, registering to vote is only the beginning. In fact, while all of us want more people registered, what we really need in these primaries is more people voting.

Party primaries matter because they often effectively determine the winners of the November elections. But most Texans aren't in the habit of voting in these crucial March contests. In 2014, the last time there was a primary in a non-presidential year, only 10 percent of registered Texas voters took part in the Republican primary, and only 4 percent of registered voters voted in the Democratic primary. These were hardly inconsequential elections: That year, we elected a new governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general and comptroller, among important statewide officeholders.

ENDORSEMENTS: See who the Houston Chronicle editorial board supports in the primaries

In fact, less than half the people who voted Republican for governor that November had cast a ballot in the GOP primary just eight months earlier. In other words, about 1.4 million Texans who felt compelled to vote Republican in the general election did not take part in choosing the Republican nominees.

Small primary turnout creates a disconnect between the 28 million people who live in Texas and the small number of us entrusted with its leadership. Low turnout in primaries gives elected officials an excuse to focus on pleasing a narrow set of voters, interest groups and priorities. In fact, at the end of last year's legislative session, I lamented the fact that there had been more urgency surrounding so-called bathroom bills (which were not a priority of mine) than fixing our school finance system (which was a priority of mine). But many in the state Capitol felt greater pressure from primary voters to act on misguided bathroom proposals than on the more difficult work of improving the way we fund public education.

RAMSEY: Texas GOP's grassroots platform trumps Straus

GREIDER: Texas Republicans can't defend decision to censure Joe Straus

The primary campaigns playing out across the state right now are about much more than choosing nominees for November's general election. These elections are a chance for voters - not party leaders, but voters - to declare which solutions and governing approaches best fit this moment in our state's history.

I, for one, want a Republican Party that embraces and embodies traditional Republican principles such as fiscal discipline and local control, while also looking forward and recognizing that Texas is an increasingly diverse state with diverse needs. I want our party to focus on the serious challenges that affect all Texans and all communities, rather than seizing on divisive wedge issues that accomplish little more than stoking fears and hostilities. I want our party to provide lasting, substantive solutions to challenges like high property taxes.

HEY HOUSTON: Register to vote now!

The ongoing primary campaign season is the time to have those conversations, because it's the time that candidates and officeholders are listening most closely. A campaign should be an exchange of ideas rather than a battle of interest groups, and the transformation begins when we bring more people into the discussion.

Much has been made of the need for the business community to get involved in primary elections, and I agree. Texans on the front lines of growing our private-sector economy need to take a more active role. But the same also goes for educators, veterans, senior citizens, young people and anyone else who cares about the future of our state. A larger electorate will make officeholders consider a broader set of concerns.

The next Legislature will face some very significant challenges, from disaster relief to school finance to needed reforms at state agencies. That's to say nothing of the many important decisions that will be made in the years to come by county commissioners, judges, sheriffs and other local officials who will be on the March primary ballot. The primary is not your last chance to influence government's direction from Washington on down, but it is one of your best chances.

So please register if you haven't already. But remember: There isn't much point in getting registered if you don't actually vote. Early voting in the primaries begins February 20. Between then and 7 p.m. on Election Day on March 6, we will all have a golden opportunity to tell our elected leaders what their priorities should be.

Straus, a Republican state representative from northeastern Bexar County, is the Speaker of the Texas House.NASA supporter

Regarding "Final frontier: The ISS has been orbiting for years, and we need to keep it flying beyond 2024" (Page A12, Thursday), I want to reassure the scientists, engineers and astronauts at NASA that I will fully fund the International Space Station, and I will do everything in my power to keep the International Space Station flying as long as the safety engineers tell us it is feasible to do so.

Everyone who loves and supports America's space program should rest assured that I am one of NASA's biggest fans. I agreed to serve on the Appropriations Committee so that I could one day chair the Commerce, Justice, Science Subcommittee to restore NASA funding to the glory days of Apollo and beyond. I'm already on track to meet that goal.

Any president's budget is simply a recommendation. The president proposes, and Congress disposes. Funding levels for NASA and every other aspect of government operations are entrusted to Congress by Article 1, Section 9 of the Constitution. As chairman of the Commerce, Justice, Science Subcommittee, I will always work to ensure that America is the world's unchallenged leader in scientific research and space exploration, and that our men and women in law enforcement have all the resources they need to protect our lives and property, secure our borders and enforce our laws with due process and equal justice for all.

U.S. Rep. John Culberson,

R-HoustonThe Texas State Republican Executive Committee passed a historic resolution last Saturday censuring Joe Straus. The step was deemed necessary to defend the Republican Party of Texas platform that Straus has opposed as House Speaker.

Censure - not to be confused with censoring - is, at its heart, a formal reprimand. Censuring is difficult to do and is rarely used. However, even a president of the United States - Andrew Jackson - has been censured.

For decades, Texas Republican voters have asked: "How can we hold elected officials accountable?" In 2016, the Republican Party rules committee answered that question by adopting what is known as Rule 44 Censure. That rule requires 43 votes - a supermajority - to pass the SREC.

GRIEDER: Texas Republicans can't defend decision to censure Joe Straus

Straus was elected speaker in 2009 by a vote of all Texas House Democrats and 11 moderate Republicans. By 2017, it became apparent that he was, as in years past, working against the party platform. Resolutions against him quickly appeared statewide. A trickle of formal disapprovals from a few rural counties became a statewide flood. Fifty-nine counties representing more than 70 percent of the Texas population, including Harris County, passed resolutions against Straus.

However, Rule 44 specifies that censure of an official "representing all or a portion of that county" must come from that county. For Straus, that meant Bexar County. After Republicans in Bexar elected a new chair, a Rule 44 compliant censure resolution citing multiple offenses passed the county party by a 77-19 supermajority.

When the SREC took up the issue, the most important offense for many members was Straus' well-known obstruction of multiple bills protecting the most bedrock of all rights - that of life itself.

Another offense was his blocking efforts to reform and improve education. He repeatedly opposed giving parents - including less-fortunate parents whose children attend failing inner-city schools or who have special needs - real choice in where they choose to educate their children.

ENDORSEMENTS: See which candidates are backed by the Houston Chronicle editorial board

Real relief from soaring property tax bills was also killed by Straus when he adjourned the 2017 special session prematurely.

Another problem was how Straus manipulated the Texas House. On numerous occasions, he made committee appointments and referred bills to committees specifically in order to ensure their demise.

He ran roughshod over the intent of our Founders with respect to having government of, by and for the people. He killed bills according to his or his lobbyists' desires, not those of the House membership. Robert's Rules of Order and even House rules themselves were distorted or ignored.

During discussion it was noted that both the grassroots and entire legislative districts were effectively disenfranchised by Straus. Conservative Republican legislators were stymied, unable to pass substantive legislation out of Straus-controlled committees.

No. It wasn't just about the "bathroom bill." Blocking that legislation was mentioned as one of the last of 17 offenses in the Bexar County Rule 44 censure and was not discussed by SREC members.

Life, liberty, school choice, property taxes and shutting down conservative legislation in general for multiple legislative terms were the items dominating conversations.

STRAUS: Texans, make your voices heard in primaries

Rule 44 Censure has a very high bar. It requires three actions opposing the core principles of the state Republican Party. The Bexar County Rule 44 Censure resolution listed Straus as opposing eight of the 10 core principles.

The required two-thirds majority came and went quickly during the 30-second electronic vote. Some votes changed in the last 10 seconds. When time expired, the count stood at 41 to censure, 19 against and four abstaining.

One member's abstention was quickly changed verbally, making the vote 42 to censure, 19 against and three abstaining.

The chair and vice chair do not ordinarily vote unless their vote will change the outcome. After a five-minute eternity, Chair James Dickey, with Vice-Chair Amy Clark beside him, announced in the most gracious way possible, that they both were "supporting this motion and voting yes."

Whether due to pro-life, school choice, procedural tyranny or property tax relief issues, the vote came down to a choice of supporting the Republican Party platform or supporting Straus. This stark choice was actually quite simple. Were the grassroots at the convention - the largest GOP convention in the nation, who wrote the platform that is the envy of the nation - going to be supported or thrown under the bus at the direction of the driver?

Grassroots won the day.

Ramsey represents Senate District 7 on the State Republican Executive Committee.

Send letters to the editor: Viewpoints c/o Houston Chronicle, P.O. Box 4260, Houston, Texas 77210 or viewpoints@chron.com.

We welcome and encourage letters and emails from readers. Letters must include name, address and telephone numbers for verification purposes only. All letters are subject to editing.Last year Texas Monthly listed state Rep. Sarah Davis as one of the best legislators in the session and called her "one of the few true moderates left in an increasingly strident Legislature."

Gov. Greg Abbott apparently doesn't agree and has endorsed her opponent in this primary - Susanna Dokupil.

DOKUPIL: Take gag off judicial candidates, let voters decide

Before explaining our endorsement, we have to ask: Is moderate really the best way to describe Davis? Moderate implies compromise, a willingness to change one's positions and seek out the path of least resistance.

If that were Davis, then she would have spent her time in Austin acting more, for lack of a better word, extreme. At at time when the Texas GOP welcomes conspiracy theories about Jade Helm 15 and the panic about transgender bathrooms, Davis could have spent her days prattling on about black helicopters and the threat of chupacabras in West University and probably avoided a primary challenger. She could have acquiesced to the governor's bizarre personal goal of overriding local tree regulations and easily earned his support.

TEXAS TREES: There's no issue too small for Comrade Abbott's all-powerful central government

But Davis did not seek out the path of least resistance. Instead, she stood alongside House Speaker Joe Straus against the reckless political antics of Abbott, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and their acolytes. She held various leadership roles in the House, which she used to get money for foster care, mental health and women's health programs and tried unsuccessfully to secure property tax relief for some Hurricane Harvey victims.

She fought Patrick's attempt to include private school vouchers in the school funding bill and led an investigation into shenanigans at the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission that resulted in the resignation of the commission's seven top officials, two of them Abbott appointees.

ENDORSEMENTS: See who the Houston Chronicle editorial board supports

Much to our disappointment, she also supported the Donald Trump-style Senate Bill 4, which restricts local law enforcement discretion in immigration issues.

Overall, Davis worked to represent the interests of the white-stocking District 134 in Houston's near southwest side, which includes the Texas Medical Center, Rice University, River Oaks, West University Place, Southside Place and Bellaire.

Voters should reward those efforts by sending her back to Austin for a fifth two-year term.

SPEAKER STRAUS: Texans, make your voices heard in primaries

Davis, 41, is already looking at ways to finance projects such as the much-discussed third flood-control reservoir to prevent another Harvey-like disaster. She also would like to slow rapidly rising property taxes by increasing the state's share of school costs from its current 37 percent to the 50 percent level it once paid.

We think these are all good ideas, but victory is hardly assured when her opponent, a former vice chairwoman of the Harris County Republican Party, has Abbott's endorsement - not to mention the fact that he is fundraising and financing television commercials for her. All this, despite the widespread view that if Davis loses, the district will almost certainly elect a Democrat to replace her. It's as if Abbott would rather have a Democrat in Austin than a Republican who thinks for herself.

DAVIS: Why the debate? Vaccines do work

We don't know much about Dokupil because she chose not to speak with the Houston Chronicle editorial board. But she is raising eyebrows for her support from anti-vaccine activists and her board membership in something called the Seasteading Institute, which wants to build floating cities in French Polynesia where residents will create limited, libertarian governments.

We wish Dokupil luck in her ventures, but we endorse Davis in the race for the Republican nomination.

She knows how things work in Austin, and she has good ideas and good intentions. She would be the stronger voice for Houston in the Legislature, one that will be needed as the city fights for funds to help it recover from Hurricane Harvey.As an existing print subscriber it is easy to get FREE access to all our online content.

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If you are already a print subscriber and want online access, it is free, you simply have to create an online account and then attach your print subscription account number to the online account you create.Jay Clarke, the Manton curator of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs at the Clark Art Institute, gives the final press preview tour before she leaves the museum for Chicago.

New Clark Art Exhibit Draws From Philanthropist's Collection



Regular visitors to the Clark Art Institute might recognize this drawing or, at least, the sculpture it inspired. ( Edgar Degas (French, 18341917), 'Three Studies of a Dancer,' c. 1880. Black, pink, and white pastel on light brown paper, 18 3/4  24 3/4 in. Thaw Collection, Morgan Library & Museum, 2001.12.)

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass.  Jay Clarke, the Manton curator of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs at the Clark Art Institute, is going out with a bang.

Clarke, who is leaving the Clark after nine years to return to the Art Institute of Chicago in her hometown, has curated a show featuring one of the world's finest private collections of drawings: those assembled by New York art dealer and philanthropist Eugene V. Thaw.

Thaw donated his collection of more than 400 drawings to the Morgan Library & Museum in New York, which celebrated the gift with the September 2017 opening of "Drawn to Greatness: Master Drawings from the Thaw Collection," an exhibit that has drawn critical acclaim for the diversity and quality of the works presented. In recognition of Thaw's longstanding interest in the Clark Art Institute, "Drawn to Greatness" will travel to Williamstown for an exclusive presentation at the Clark from Saturday, Feb. 3, through April 22.

The exhibit was supposed to be a tribute to Thaw, but it has ended up being an exhibit in memory to him instead: Thaw died a month before the exhibit opening, on Wednesday, Jan. 3, at his home in Cherry Valley, N.Y., at the age of 90.

"It is an honor for the Clark to have the opportunity to show this exquisite collection in our galleries," said Olivier Meslay, the Felda and Dena Hardymon director of the Clark.

Meslay said Thaw will be remembered as a "legendary figure" in the art world, a "renaissance man" who believed art should be public for everyone to enjoy. This exhibit honors that, Meslay said, describing it as "artistry in six rooms."



Clark Art Institute Director Olivier Meslay introduces the new exhibit of drawings on Wednesday.

"The works in this exhibition provide an incredibly rich and remarkable opportunity to consider the art form as practiced by generations of masters. It is one of the most important and impressive drawing exhibitions that has been assembled in decades.

"Each piece is really a masterpiece," Meslay said during a press preview at the Clark on Wednesday. "Each of them could be the prize of any big institute in the world."

Clarke, leading her last press preview in her role at the Clark, said Thaw himself chose all the mats and frames for the exhibit, matching them to the era of the drawing. Some are actually from the period, while some are made to look like they are, but they all contribute to the experience, she said.

"It really adds to the experience of looking at the drawings," she said.

Looking at drawings is something Thaw himself used to visit the Clark to do, said Clarke, recalling her few meetings with him before his death.

"He was so excited.  He completely came to life seeing the drawings," Clarke said, describing him as a "real gentleman" who really appreciated the museum's academic endeavors as well as its collection. "He was really passionate about the scholarly mission of the Clark."

The exhibit of his collection spans two galleries: a chronologically organized section in the lower level of the Clark Center and a selection of Renaissance-era drawings over in the Manton Research Center. Maps will be provided to help visitors navigate across the campus between the two galleries.



Jackson Pollock (American, 19121956), Untitled (Abstract Ram) , c. 1944. Opaque paint, pen and black and red ink on paper, 29 3/4  19 3/4 in. Thaw Collection, Morgan Library & Museum, 2010.143  2017 The Pollock-Krasner Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

"I didn't want it to be a crowded hang," Clarke said in explaining the decision to split the exhibit, saying she wanted to the drawings to be able to "breathe."





Featuring 150 drawings that tell the story of a visionary collector, the exhibit examines five centuries of western drawing. Sketchbooks belonging to Jackson Pollock, Francisco de Goya, Edgar Degas, and Paul Cezanne and illustrated letters from Vincent van Gogh are among the works exhibited. Several Cezanne works take up one section in the Clark Center gallery.

"I thought they needed a whole wall to themselves," Clarke said, also pointing out the Degas drawings that regular visitors to the Clark will recognize as the studies of the famous "Little Dancer" statue located elsewhere in the museum.

Clarke explained that after this exhibit closes, the drawings will go back to Morgan, where most of them will be put into storage to rest for a few years.

"This is their big moment in the light," she said.

The exhibit extends the museum's relationship to Thaw who, in 2016, made a generous gift to create the Eugene V. Thaw Gallery for Works on Paper in the Clark's Manton Research Center.

"These exceptional drawings, watercolors and collages exemplify both the eternal power of the drawn line and the innovative genius of the artists who have explored the medium over five centuries," Clarke said. "This exhibition is a real feast for the eyes."

This Sunday is free admission; first Sundays are free through May 6. The Clark is open Tuesday through Sunday from 10 to 5.Edith King and Sandra Jordan love the new center.

BMC Opens Central County Renal Dialysis Center



The hospital renovated the inside of the former Berkshire Hematology practice. PITTSFIELD, Mass.  Edith King doesn't feel like the hours she spends receiving renal dialysis is a problem.

"This is the greatest place you can come to if you've got kidney problems. I feel like I don't have a kidney problem. I feel like I am just sitting here, visiting with friends, and having a good time. It is just a great place," King said on Friday as she awaited her doctors to start another procedure.

King is one of the 82 patients being served out of the newly opened renal dialysis center on Conte Drive. Berkshire Medical Center capped off a project to open three renal dialysis centers throughout the county in recent years, bringing the service closer to home.

"First we started in south county, in 2009 that opened, added north county this last year. We renovated south county to expand it and built this new facility this year," said David Henner, medical director of the BMC dialysis centers.

The health system invested $6 million in the project to open three new centers.

In Pittsfield, the center took over space vacated by Berkshire Hematology Oncology. When Berkshire Hematology Oncology became a member of the hospital's practice group, BMC took over the building off of Dan Fox Drive. And for years, the hospital wasn't sure what it was going to do with it.

At the same time, the hospital had been planning out how to move its renal dialysis from the sixth floor of the medical arts building on the hospital's main campus to multiple locations to serve patients from all over the county.

"The problem with where we were is that it is a nice facility but as you can imagine the parking around the hospital is difficult. It wasn't very convenient for them to find a parking spot, coming in and out there is a lot of traffic," Henner said.

The Conte Drive building was ultimately fully gutted, the inside rebuilt, and an addition of 1,000 square feet was added. It joins one in Great Barrington and one in North Adams. The three centers make it easier for patients to receive the care.

"This marks the completion of a multi-year, $6 million, complicated project to provide state of the art facilities in each region of the county in order to ensure convenient access to this essential service that our patients and their families depend on," said CEO David Phelps, in a statement.

"It is unusual for a hospital, or in fact any provider to organize the service this way. Most hospitals have exited the business because the reimbursement available barely covers the cost of providing care and this is a very capital intensive service. As a result, in almost all areas of the state, this service is typically provided by large for-profit companies that often staff differently than we do, using fewer nursing hours for example, and in one centralized location for that region."

Henner said most hospitals have been moving away from providing the service and shuffling it off to for-profit companies. But, Henner said statistics show that the procedures being done by a hospital system results in better outcomes.

"When you actually compare how patients do at a not-for-profit hospital unit like ours compared to for-profit centers that are popping up all over the place, the outcomes are much better in a hospital-based one. Survival rates are better, hospitalization rates are better, patients get more comfort," Henner said.

Henner said the not-for-profit centers have more nurses per patients and provide more comfort items, such as blankets. The treatments take four hours and are done three times a week, taking up nearly all of a person's day when travel and set up time are included.

"This is life support for patients. It is similar to someone who couldn't breathe and needs to be on a breathing machine in the intensive care to keep them alive. This is replacing the kidneys, the vital organs which aren't working. This is keeping patients alive," Henner said.



David Henner said most hospitals are not providing the service. Director of Media Relations Michael Leary added that the aging population of Berkshire County has created a higher demand here than in other places across the state. Instead of shying away from it like other hospitals, BMC saw it as a way to invest in providing a community need.

"We are in a unique market. We have an aging demographic. We have a greater need for this service than other parts of the state. And this health system is always committed to providing care close to home," Leary said.

The new facility is much closer to Sandra Jordon, who has been receiving treatments for more than a decade. She said when she first went the new site, she couldn't believe it.

"I just feel like we are so fortunate to have this center. It is beautiful. Our nurses and techs and all of the staff, we get treated wonderfully," Jordan said. "I've been here for over 10 years and I don't have one complaint. It is like a second family."

The center is already serving 84 patients in the facility but also provides training and equipment for those who do peritoneal dialysis at home. The center opened on Jan. 8.

"If anyone asks me for an example of what makes Berkshire Health Systems different, this service is a prime example. Only a strong health system with a focus on the community it serves will be able to make such a patient-focused service a reality for the most dependent members of our community," Phelps said.#earthquake 2.1 magnitude quake hits southeastern South Korea, no damage reported A 2.1 magnitude earthquake struck southeastern South Korea early Sunday, but no damage was reported. The quake hit some 4 kilometers southeast of Changnyeong County, about 260 k...

#MLB Blue Jays' Ryu Hyun-jin reports no health problems after rough outing After getting knocked around in the worst start of the 2021 season amid whispers of a potential injury, Toronto Blue Jays' starter Ryu Hyun-jin insisted he has no health-related is...



iciHaiti - Carnival 2018 : Meringue of students of the National Institute of Music





The students of the National Institute of Music of Haiti (INAMUH) founded in 2014 (launched by the former President Martelly in 2012 https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-5887-haiti-culture-official-launch-of-the-national-institute-of-music-of-haiti.html ) stand out during this carnival period with the superb meringue entitled "Bel Kanaval"



This achievement, in addition to being an exercise that tests the ability of young music students, is promoting the cultural and tourism, of the department of the Center where is established INAMUH under the authority of the Ministry of the culture.



Remember that this institute trains young people in the department of the Center and ensures them a future in the field of music https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-14309-haiti-music-inamuh-first-promotion-of-young-musicians.html







See also :

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-14309-haiti-music-inamuh-first-promotion-of-young-musicians.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-13631-haiti-culture-important-donation-of-music-materials-for-inamuh.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-10774-haiti-music-presentation-of-the-first-components-of-the-orchestra-of-the-national-music-institute-of-haiti.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-7788-haiti-music-launching-of-the-system-of-orchestras-and-choirs-juvenile-and-infantile-of-haiti.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-5887-haiti-culture-official-launch-of-the-national-institute-of-music-of-haiti.html



S/ HaitiLibre

















Philanthropist T. Denny Sanford Makes Largest Single Donation Ever to San Diego Zoo to Construct New Sanford Children's Zoo

San Diego, California - During an all-hands employee meeting at the San Diego Zoo Friday, philanthropist T. Denny Sanford announced that he is making a $30 million donationthe largest single gift the San Diego Zoo has ever received. This generous gift will go toward the estimated $69 million cost of constructing a brand-new, completely reimagined childrens zoo, to be named The Sanford Childrens Zoo.

This project is the most ambitious ever undertaken at the San Diego Zoo and will result in a one-of-a-kind childrens zoo for the 21st Century, said Mark Stuart, president of the Foundation of San Diego Zoo Global. Denny Sanfords philanthropy is all about making the world a better place for children. Thanks to his transformational investment, San Diego will have the very best childrens zoo in the world.

When the San Diego Zoos current Childrens Zoo first opened in 1957, it was considered advanced for its time. However, when the new Sanford Childrens Zoo is completed, this reimagined 2.3-acre space will give kids greater opportunities to discover the natural world through play, and will be designed in ways to help children develop empathy and better understand and identify with wildlife.

More than 100 species will reside in the new childrens zoo, families will be able to venture through four ecosystemscommunities of plants and animals that have unique adaptations for their environment. In each region, children will learn about the animals and their environments in ways that awaken their senses and inspire creativity, exploration, and empathy for nature through play.

Since so many children have little or no access to nature, the new Sanford Childrens Zoo will provide them with a unique and engaging outdoor adventure where they will learn about animals and their homes as they play, said Debra Erickson, director of communications, San Diego Zoo Global. During their exciting, ever-changing adventures, they will begin developing an empathy and concern for animals and plants which will lay the groundwork for their future involvement in conservation.

As part of the announcement, Sanford officially unveiled The Sanford Childrens Zoo Visitors Pavilion, located on the walkway outside the Childrens Zoo. This new pavilion will give visitors and Zoo members the opportunity to find out more about plans for the Sanford Childrens Zoo project, see renderings of what the area will look like, and view an 8- by 5-foot model showing each of the four unique ecosytems that will be created for children and their families to explore.

Sanford has long been a generous supporter of the San Diego Zoo, and he is the largest donor in cumulative gifts to San Diego Zoo Global. In 2013, Sanford funded San Diego Zoo Kidsan innovative television channel with programs produced primarily for medical facilities that serve pediatric patients and their families. San Diego Zoo Kids programming offers family friendly, animal-oriented stories that are both entertaining and educational. The channel debuted in 2013 at Rady Childrens Hospital in San Diego. Since then, it has been installed in 119 childrens hospitals and Ronald McDonald Houses in 31 states across the U.S. and the District of Columbia, as well as facilities in Mexico, Canada, Australia, and Pakistanand it continues to grow.

A fundraising campaign for the new childrens zoo will start immediately. Based on the success of this effort, it is anticipated that the current Childrens Zoo will close in January 2019, as construction begins on the new Sanford Childrens Zoo, which is expected to be completed in spring 2021. To learn more about The Sanford Childrens Zoo project or make a donation, visit sandiegozoo.org/childrenszoo.

Bringing species back from the brink of extinction is the goal of San Diego Zoo Global. As a leader in conservation, the work of San Diego Zoo Global includes on-site wildlife conservation efforts (representing both plants and animals) at the San Diego Zoo, San Diego Zoo Safari Park, and San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research, as well as international field programs on six continents. The work of these entities is inspiring children through the San Diego Zoo Kids network, reaching out through the internet and in childrens hospital nationwide. The work of San Diego Zoo Global is made possible by the San Diego Zoo Global Wildlife Conservancy and is supported in part by the Foundation of San Diego Zoo Global.Front and center for military consumers

Washington, DC - Military families face all the consumer protection issues other Americans face  and then some. Frequent moves and deployments can pose additional financial challenges for servicemembers. And some of these concerns continue even after theyve settled into civilian life. Thats why the interests of military consumers  servicemembers, veterans, and their families  are front and center at the FTC and should be an important priority for companies doing business with them.

As part of that effort, last summer the FTC sponsored the Military Consumer Financial Workshop: Protecting Those Who Protect Our Nation, an event in San Antonio focused on a broad range of dollars-and-cents issues on the minds of military families. Weve summarized the discussion in an FTC Staff Perspective that accompanies a statement from Acting Chairman Ohlhausen. Youll want to read them both for more information, but here are some of the topics that were on the table:

Car buying. An auto purchase may be a servicemembers first major financial transaction. Before making a big financial commitment, members of the military may benefit from consulting with an on-post financial counselor. As panelists noted, counselors can offer been there advice about making individual purchases and developing effective financial strategies for the future.

Debt collection. Financial struggles can put a servicemembers security clearance at risk. Panelists mentioned that counselors are at the ready with advice and assistance. In addition, some debt collectors may threaten to contact (or may actually contact) a servicemembers commanding officer about a debt, conduct that usually violates the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. Servicemembers should report strong-arm tactics to the FTC, State AG, or BBB.

Credit decisions. Military life can be disruptive and frequent moves and deployment may kick a consumer in the credit. Things can go from bad to worse when servicemembers fall prey to deceptive promises of loans or debt relief. Panelists discussed the options available when a military family is struggling with their day-to-day finances.

Legal rights. Specific statutes  for example, the Military Lending Act  provide significant protections for members of military families. The Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (SCRA) also provides protections when servicemembers are deployed or on active duty. However, not all the benefits of those laws are automatic. Some require servicemembers to take steps to protect their rights.

Financial literacy and capability. Panelists emphasized the need for ongoing financial education at every stage of a military career. Recent recruits may be away from home for the first time and managing their first paycheck. Mid-career servicemembers may face the challenges of buying a house, supporting a family, and saving for the future. Veterans and servicemembers transitioning to civilian life may face employment challenges or other financial issues. What needs to be done to adapt consumer resources to the particular needs of servicemembers and veterans?

The Staff Perspective outlines other initiatives that are part of the FTCs efforts. For example, the agencys Economic Liberty Task Force continues to address unnecessary or overbroad occupational licensing requirements that hit military families particularly hard. The Staff Perspective also discusses law enforcement actions the FTC has taken to challenge deceptive practices that have injured servicemembers and other consumers. Finally, for just about every consumer protection challenge raised by the panelists, the FTC has resources available at www.militaryconsumer.gov.

Why should this matter to your company? That We Support Our Troops sticker on the front door of your establishment should be backed up by honest business practices inside. Can military consumers, including servicemembers, veterans, and their families, count on getting a fair shake from your company?Get a flu shot, now - there is still time

Washington, DC - Senior citizen advocate Dan Weber has issued a call for the elderly, in particular, to get a flu shot if they haven't done so already. He says it is not too late. The flu season began earlier than usual this year and is expected to last for months.

"There's still time and, as the saying goes, better late than never. It could save lives. Seniors, especially those 65 years of age or older, are at greater risk of complications from influenza because their immune systems grow weaker with age," according to Weber, who is president of the Association of Mature American Citizens [AMAC].

A worldwide flu pandemic occurred it 1918-1919, leaving between 50 and 100 million people dead- three percent of the world's population at the time, historian Dan Jones noted in a recent article. There was no vaccine at that time.

No one can predict how long the flu season will last this time around. But, we have vaccines to help significantly reduce the number of people who can become infected with the influenza virus. In fact, even if you get the flu after being vaccinated, the shot will significantly reduce its symptoms among those who had recently received influenza vaccine as compared to those who had not, says American Society for Microbiology. Symptoms include fever, cough, sore throat, runny or stuffy nose, body aches, headache, chills and fatigue.

Dr. Andrea Chisholm is an OB/GYN at the Cambridge Health Alliance and a Clinical Instructor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Harvard Medical School. She says that the risks associated with the flu far outweigh the risks of not getting vaccinated, even among pregnant women.

Dr. Chisholm says "getting vaccinated against the flu during pregnancy has benefits for your baby as well. Newborns, like pregnant women, are more likely to get seriously ill or even die if they get the flu. Your baby can't get a flu shot until 6 months of age. However, if you get the flu vaccine during pregnancy you will pass antibodies to your baby that will protect him or her from the flu in the first few months of life."

The Centers for Disease Control issued a statement at a news briefing on January 12 in which Dr. Daniel Jernigan, director of CDC's Influenza Division, said that while "not everyone needs to get antiviral drugs, but there are certain people that should. CDC recommends that people who are very sick or people with flu symptoms who are high-risk for serious flu complications should be treated as soon as possible with flu antiviral drugs. Who are those people? That means people that are 65 and older. It means young children. It means people with chronic conditions like diabetes, heart disease or asthma. It means pregnant women and others more vulnerable to serious flu illness."

While Dr. Chisholm and the CDC http://www.cdc.gov/flu/protect/vaccine/qa_vacpregnant.htm advise pregnant women to get flu shots, Weber says expectant mothers should consult their OB/GYNs before being vaccinated.

Weber points out that several recent studies have shown that the flu vaccine reduces the risk of catching the flu by 40% to 60% among the general population. "So, it is advised that anyone who hasn't yet been vaccinated should do so as soon as possible."Recent Events in Kenya

Washington, DC - The United States is gravely concerned by Kenyan opposition leader Raila Odingas self-inauguration on January 30. We reject actions that undermine Kenyas Constitution and the rule of law. Uhuru Kenyatta was elected as President of the Republic of Kenya on October 26, 2017 in a poll that was upheld by Kenyas Supreme Court. Grievances must be resolved through appropriate legal mechanisms.

We commend the restraint shown by security forces and urge them to continue to refrain from any unnecessary or excessive use of force. Any arrests and prosecutions must be made in full accordance with the rule of law and demonstrate transparent due process. We urge all Kenyans to reject violence and hatred. Protesters have a right to assemble peacefully, to express their views freely, and to hold opinions without interference.



We are also deeply concerned by the Governments action to shut down, intimidate, and restrict the media. Freedom of expression, including for members of the media, is essential to democracy and is enshrined in Kenyas Constitution. We urge the Government and all Kenyans to respect freedom of expression and implement court orders calling for the restoration of television broadcasts.



We again urge Kenyan leaders and citizens to begin a national conversation to build cohesion and address long-standing issues. The United States continues to support efforts by religious, business, and civil society leaders to begin this conversation in the near future and calls on everyone to participate in this endeavor. The United States stands firmly with the people of Kenya; it is only Kenyans who can find a way to resolve their differences and chart the destiny of this great country.Rose McGowan revealed details about an alleged molestation that happened to her at the age of 15 at the hands of a 'very famous director' while promoting her new memoir Brave and docuseries Citizen Rose.

The actress and activist gave details about the alleged incident during a live interview with journalist Ronan Farrow at the 92Y in New York City last night - something she had initially mentioned to Farrow when he spoke to her for his New Yorker pieces.

While she wouldn't name the "prominent" director, she did say he has "won Oscars" and "worked for my rapist [Weinstein]."

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This man picked me up when I was 15 years old, McGowan detailed. He took me home after he met me and he showed me a soft porn movie he had made for Showtime, under a different name. And then he had sex with me.

After the alleged sexual abuse, she explained she was left in Silver Lake standing on a street corner."

It's something she didn't realise until recently.

In my mind, playing it back, I had been attracted to him, so I always filed it away as a sexual experience," she explained.

Then she deferred to Farrow saying, I dont have a normal trajectory, I dont know if you do either.

Farrow replied, "I do not."

Farrow helped McGowan come to the conclusion that her experience with this director wasn't right.

It was not until two weeks after your story broke  our story, our worlds story  that I was in bed and I started saying, Oh my god. I think thats molestation,'" she explained.

In an off the record conversation with the son of Woody Allen, McGowan did reveal the director's name, however Farrow will let McGowan reveal his name when she's comfortable.

While McGowan describes her encounter with the director as "molestation," it could likely be considered rape because of her age and the circumstances.

McGowan accused Harvey Weinstein of raping her in 1997.The interior of Soufis, a fast-casual restaurant in downtown Toronto, is tailor-made for Instagram. There are white subway tiles, vintage photographs, a chalkboard menu and a selection of bric-a-brac assembled by its owner, Jala Alsoufi, a recent architecture and psychology graduate. The barista (her younger brother, Alaa) even wears the scruffy beard and Blue Jays cap favoured by food-service workers along this hip stretch of Queen Street.

But Soufis offers hints of something more unusual than just a place to get lunch. They include the sinuous melodies of old Arabic pop songs, the whiff of sumac and zaatar in the air and the staffs yellow-and-black T-shirts proclaiming, From Syria, With Love.

Until recently, Syrian cuisine hardly existed in Toronto. With just a few hundred families, the Syrian population was too small to support a restaurant scene. But over the past two years, after the high-profile resettlement of more than 50,000 refugees in Canada, the Toronto area  where more than 11,000 of them live  is experiencing the green shoots of a Syrian-food boom.

Queen Street has become a hub for immigrant cuisines (Alamy) (Alamy Stock Photo)

The entrepreneurs behind these ventures display the diversity of Syrias refugee population. They are as young as 17 and as old as 70, professors as well as farmers. They identify as Shia, Sunni, Druze, Kurd, Alawite, Christian or just Syrian. Some worked in food businesses back home. Others never cooked in their lives.

In a city whose culinary landscape is proudly defined by its immigrant foods (more than half of all Torontonians are foreign-born), the emergence of Syrian cooking illuminates an immigrant communitys integration into the broader population, and the bridge that food can build to a new life.

But this groups arrival in Toronto also points to something new. The Syrians are coming at a time that is very different than other immigrants before them, says Suresh Doss, a food journalist who focuses on the citys immigrant shops and restaurants in suburban strip malls.

Unlike the Filipinos or Sri Lanken Tamils (including Dosss family), who opened food businesses clustered together in immigrant neighbourhoods to cater to their countrymen, the Syrians have spread their enterprises across the Toronto area, at a time when the entire city is obsessed with anything edible.

They can market their meals on platforms like Instagram to a wider audience, tapping into a visual obsession with food that Doss says rewards the most novel, spicy and authentic cuisines that Torontonians can get their hands on. And Canadas embrace of the Syrian refugees has brought them a sort of celebrity status that can translate into sales and long-term success.

There is such a positive attitude towards new businesses that newcomers have been starting here, says Alsoufi, 23.

In August, Alsoufi opened Soufis, one of about a half-dozen Syrian food businesses to appear around Toronto in recent years, with her parents, Shahnaz and Husam, and her brother Alaa, 26. (A younger brother, Ayham, is still in high school.)

Though originally from Damascus, the family lived for two decades in Saudi Arabia, where Husam worked as a civil engineer and Shahnaz as a social worker. Unlike the majority of recent Syrian arrivals, who came as refugees, Jala moved here first in 2012 to study at the University of Toronto, and her family followed three years later. Because Canada did not recognise Husams engineering qualifications, and the family quickly learned about the scarcity of Syrian food in Toronto, they decided to open a restaurant.

We wanted to highlight Syrian cuisine, which had gotten lost in the shadows of Middle Eastern cuisine, Alsoufi says, noting how Lebanese and other Arabic restaurants had cloaked their restaurants in a generic Mediterranean label for broader appeal.

Soufis is defiantly branded as a Syrian restaurant. Shahnaz, speaking in Arabic as her daughter translates, says the family wanted to demonstrate that Syrians were more than just victims. We wanted to consciously be light and airy, Alsoufi adds, because even though the situation in Syria is very unfortunate, it is important to show Syrian culture, music and art.

The Alsoufi family has purposefully struck a balance between traditional Syrian flavours and contemporary Canadian tastes. Soufis employees are exclusively young, Syrian refugees. Some wear headscarves and beards, while others prefer tight jeans and rolled-up sleeves. The meat is halal, but beer is served, and a sticker supporting gay, lesbian and transgender causes is displayed on the front door.

The menu is built around two quintessential Syrian street foods: freshly baked manaeesh flatbread topped with a variety of ingredients, from sujuk (spiced ground beef) to crumbled halloumi cheese with braised, lemony spinach, and knafeh, a warm sweet dish of gooey cheese and phyllo strands, scented with rose water and soaked in syrup.

Alsoufi refuses to make something as overtly fusion-y as a manaeesh burrito, but you can order avocado as a topping, and her vegan knafeh, called banoffeh, is made with coconut caramel, bananas and tahini, inspired by her love of banoffee pie, that edible portmanteau of 1970s supermarket staples like sweetened condensed milk and whipped cream.

The first Syrian food business to make its mark here was Crown Pastries, a small bakery opened by the brothers Ismail and Rasoul Alsalha in 2015 in a strip mall along a stretch of road in Scarborough (the eastern quarter of the city) that is dominated by Lebanese butchers and shawarma shops.

The brothers fled to Canada as refugees in 2009 from Aleppo, citing a dangerous situation they declined to discuss. While Ismail finished high school, Rasoul supported him by working in Lebanese bakeries from dawn until dusk, but the goal was always to open a Syrian bakery.

With other Arab bakeries, you cannot taste the butter or nuts, only sugar, Rasoul says dismissively.

Crown Pastries is a recreation of their grandfathers bakery of the same name, which operated in Aleppos old city from 1980 until the start of the civil war in 2011, when it was abandoned. It is where both brothers learned their trade.

Crown Pastries speciality is dozens of delicate sweets, layered with hand-folded phyllo dough. There are piles of baklava in various shapes and sizes; birds nests of swirled noodles; custard-stuffed semolina and sweet cheese dumplings called halawi jibben; and chocolate mafroukeh, dense chocolate brownies covered in a storm of pistachios, almonds and cashews.

Authentic Syrian ingredients are hard to find in Canada, especially now, as the war goes on. Every six months, Crown Pastries pays more than $500 (350) for a bottle of blood-red Syrian rose water, smuggled across the wars front lines into Turkey and on to Toronto, because Ismail believes that no other rose water will do.

When he arrived in Toronto, Rasoul imagined it would take him 30 years to open his own business. But the bakery has become so successful that the brothers are already planning to expand.

Canadas warm welcome to Syrian refugees was a hallmark of Justin Trudeaus election as prime minister in late 2015, and for many, it remains a potent symbol of Torontos multicultural identity. (The citys motto is Diversity Our Strength.) Syrian food businesses drew an overwhelming degree of media attention, and a customer base that extended well beyond people with Middle Eastern backgrounds.

It was almost too much media, says Amir Fattal, 27, who arrived from Aleppo in 2016 and set up a supper club, catering company and part-time street food stall called Beroea Kitchen with his wife, Nour Amammana.

The response has been overwhelming. The couple have been invited to cater events at City Hall, the University of Toronto and the local offices of Uber. But while Fattal feels great pride in sharing the story of Aleppos grand culinary tradition, he questions whether some Canadians are fetishising Syrian refugees.

There are other people who are refugees, he says, and they need opportunities, too.

No Syrian food business has felt the spotlight more acutely than Newcomer Kitchen, a non-profit group of women who come together each Wednesday to cook a traditional Syrian meal in a small cafe and food business incubator called the Depanneur.

Newcomer Kitchen began in 2016 to give newly arrived Syrian refugees who were temporarily living in airport hotels a chance to cook a meal. But it has grown into a collective of 60 cooks, who rotate in groups of eight to make 50 three-course take-out dinners each week, for $20 apiece.

The group has been the subject of dozens of news stories around the world, and a documentary film is in the works. A year ago, Trudeau visited with the press in tow, and his smiling face is proudly displayed around the kitchen. But expectations that this would lead to government funding for administrative costs have not panned out, and this winter Newcomer Kitchen has appealed to the public for donations. The projects future is tenuous.

One warm morning last fall, that weeks group of cooks milled about the Depanneurs large communal table, sharing jokes and drinking coffee with homemade anise-flavored cookies. Rahaf Alakbani, a 26-year-old Druze woman from Sueda, in Syrias south, and a former graduate student in English literature, urged everyone to don aprons and get to work. There was pita bread to be cut for the fattoush salad, onions to be browned for shakriya, a thick beef stew, and semolina flour to be mixed for the maamoul cookies.

I had no professional cooking experience at all, Alakbani says as she leads the crew, but I have always loved cooking. Like most women here, she learned the recipes at her mothers side.

Syria has one of the worlds oldest and richest cuisines, and regional differences, even between towns, are hotly contested. There is no official translation, says Len Senater, who owns the Depanneur. Sometimes theres 20 different spellings for the same dish, and because each womans version is the gold standard, the taste of the dish changes weekly.

Newcomer Kitchen, at its heart, is a social experiment. Food isnt the end goal, says Cara Benjamin-Pace, a retired software entrepreneur who helped found the group. Its the platform and conversation of how to bring people together and keep the culinary traditions of these women at a certain level.

It is also, crucially, a source of healing. After Isis killed one of her brothers as she watched, Gadda Abdulaha and her family scattered around the world. Two of her brothers now work as cooks in Europe, while she landed in Toronto with her husband and two children.

I felt very comfortable coming here, Abdulaha says, on her first visit back to Newcomer Kitchen since the birth of her daughter, named Rahaf after Alakbani, who she says saved her from post-traumatic stress and depression. Listening to the stories of others makes you feel OK, that you arent the only one who suffers. Cooking with them helped me overcome this trauma.

Alakbani smiles at her little namesake and breaks out in song (always love songs, sexy songs), clapping a syncopated beat, as others thwack maamoul dough onto baking sheets from a mould. Soon the kitchen is a riot of singing, dancing and smells, as a potluck lunch of fresh hummus and baba ghanouj, vegetarian kibbe and spiced meat pies called shamborak fill the table for lunch.

Yallah! Alakbani shouts over the joyful scene. Lets eat.

 New York TimesA BBC journalist was forced to leave the Papua region of Indonesia after her tweets offended the countrys military.

The Asmat area in the east of the country has been hit by a malnutrition and measles crisis that has left more than 60 infants dead.

Rebecca Henschke, who is the Indonesia editor for the BBC, was covering the issue when she posted the tweets that got her expelled.

Papua is one poorest parts of the country and authorities there restrict media output because of sensitivities over an independence movement.

Though Indonesian President Joko Widodo had vowed to lessen restrictions on press freedom, human rights activists have said that foreign journalists still face difficulties and are blocked from reporting on some issues.

Soldiers are supporting humanitarian efforts and helping to deliver aid to the area, which is struggling to deal with the health crisis.

Ms Henschke, who has been based in Indonesia for 12 years, posted a picture on Twitter of some supplies and said: This is the aid coming in for severely malnourished children in Papua  instant noodles, super sweet soft drinks and biscuits.

The countrys military released a statement which claimed that Ms Henschkes tweets has hurt the feelings of the countrys soldiers, who were helping out.

Colonel Muhammad Aidi, a spokesman for the Papua military said: (The food and drink) that she took the picture of at the speedboat pier are not donations or aid. It was merchandise from merchants that was incidentally there.

World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless AFP via Getty World news in pictures 9 September 2020 Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 8 September 2020 A home is engulfed in flames during the "Creek Fire" in the Tollhouse area of California AFP via Getty World news in pictures 7 September 2020 A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho AFP via Getty World news in pictures 6 September 2020 Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open USA Today Sports/Reuters World news in pictures 5 September 2020 Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally AFP via Getty World news in pictures 4 September 2020 A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. Dozens of fires are burning out of control throughout Northern California as fire resources are spread thin AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 August 2020 Students use their mobile phones as flashlights at an anti-government rally at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. Thailand has seen near-daily protests in recent weeks by students demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha AFP via Getty World news in pictures 17 August 2020 Members of the Kayapo tribe block the BR163 highway during a protest outside Novo Progresso in Para state, Brazil. Indigenous protesters blocked a major transamazonian highway to protest against the lack of governmental support during the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories AFP via Getty World news in pictures 16 August 2020 Lightning forks over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland AP World news in pictures 15 August 2020 Belarus opposition supporters gather near the Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester died on August 10, during their protest rally in central Minsk AFP via Getty World news in pictures 14 August 2020 AlphaTauri's driver Daniil Kvyat takes part in the second practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix AFP via Getty World news in pictures 13 August 2020 Soldiers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during a disinfection of the Christ The Redeemer statue at the Corcovado mountain prior to the opening of the touristic attraction in Rio AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 August 2020 Young elephant bulls tussle playfully on World Elephant Day at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya AFP via Getty

Mr Aidi also described two other tweets as misleading.

Ms Henschke, a Jakarta-based Australian citizen, later took down the photograph and tweeted: Adding important NOTE: Other sources say this is NOT aid but normal supplies. Huge relief effort underway here.

The journalist was denied permission to continue her coverage, while being questioned by security forces on Friday. A statement from the military said she was escorted to Timika and held by immigration officers.

She allegedly deleted another tweet which showed soldiers in a photo with a caged bird, ABC News reported, which made it seem like the soldiers were involved in buying wildlife illegally  another claim that Colonel Aidi refuted.

A further tweet that remains on the journalists account said: Children in hospital eating chocolate biscuits and thats it.

Ms Henschke declined to comment but a BBC spokesperson said via email: A BBC team on a deployment to Papua province has now returned to Jakarta.

They had the necessary documentation and the authorities were aware of their visit. The BBC respects local laws wherever it operates.

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Some have suggested that the malnutrition crisis in Asmat could be partly due to some of the areas population relying increasingly on rice over nutritious tubers, as well as energy drinks and instant meals. A lack of vaccinations has also been blamed.

Critics in Papua have criticised officials for failing to care for the region, which is mainly full of Christians in a country that is primarily Muslim.

Andreas Harsono, of Human Rights Watch, said the expulsion of Ms Henschke was evidence that the area still remained problematic for foreign media to report on.

She had her travel permit  the only Indonesian area where foreign journalists need to get a permit to visit  and still got intimidation for a single tweet, said Mr Harsono.

Additional reporting by Reuters.Thousands of campaigners have marched on Downing Street to protest NHS funding shortages, as the health service suffers its worst ever winter crisis.

Protesters carrying placards with the words kick the Tories out, and more staff, more beds, more funds, gathered in central London in large numbers in support of fixing what they say is a crisis in the NHS.

Keep your hands off our NHS, they chanted as they marched towards Downing Street.

The demonstration, called NHS in crisis: Fix it now, was organised by the Peoples Assembly and Health Campaigns Together.

Among the demonstrators was Jamie, a disability rights advocate who was attending the march in his wheelchair.

He was injured in a serious car crash 21 years ago. I owe my life to the NHS, he said.

There is a tragedy unfolding and the fact is that so many desperate people are traumatised, stigmatised and stressed by work-capability testing.

Save Lewisham Hospital campaigner Tamsyn Bacchus said she feared the NHS could gradually transform into a US-style private health service unless urgent action was taken.

I have faith, and so do all these folk here, that its so important to have the principle of service that is [free] at the point of use so that when you are ill, when your child is running a high fever, when you need the hospital or a doctor, you can get them without worrying about having to pay for it.

Actor Ralf Little, who was due to speak at the march, has previously told how his mother was saved by NHS treatment when she suffered a stroke.

NHS in Crisis march: in pictures Show all 25 1 /25 NHS in Crisis march: in pictures NHS in Crisis march: in pictures Protesters call on the government to reverse cuts to the NHS. Rex NHS in Crisis march: in pictures Demonstrators dressed as an undertaker and carrying a fake coffin. Getty Images NHS in Crisis march: in pictures Demonstrators gather on Gover Street in central London ahead of a march towards Downing Street to protest against underfunding and privatisation of the NHS and demand an end to the winter crisis in the health service. Rex NHS in Crisis march: in pictures Health workers and NHS campaigners march through London to a rally outside Downing Street. Rex NHS in Crisis march: in pictures Thousands of protesters marched during the demonstration organised by 'The People's Assembly Against Austerity' campaign group that called for better funding for the National Health Service (NHS) to end the 'winter crisis' in the national health care system. EPA NHS in Crisis march: in pictures A Boris Johnson impersonator lies in a makeshift hospital bed next to an effigy of Theresa May during a People's Assembly demonstration against the Conservative government's health policy. Getty NHS in Crisis march: in pictures A demonstrator in a mobility scooter carries a placard. Getty NHS in Crisis march: in pictures Demonstrators take part in a emergency NHS 'Fix It Now' protest demanding an end to the funding crisis in the Health Service. Rex NHS in Crisis march: in pictures Demonstrators take part in pro-NHS march and protest towards Downing Street in Central London. EPA NHS in Crisis march: in pictures A protestor carries a placard featuring Britain's Health and Social Care Secretary Jeremy Hunt. AFP/Getty NHS in Crisis march: in pictures The demonstration is focused on the current crisis in the National Health Service. Getty NHS in Crisis march: in pictures Demonstrators hold placards and set off flares . Getty NHS in Crisis march: in pictures A demonstrator carries a cardboard skeleton wearing an ambulance uniform . Getty NHS in Crisis march: in pictures Demonstrators hold placards during a People's Assembly demonstration against the Conservative government's health policy Getty NHS in Crisis march: in pictures The Government will be urged to provide more beds, staff and funds to ease the problems facing the service. PA NHS in Crisis march: in pictures Protestors gather calling for an end to the "crisis" in the NHS. AFP/Getty NHS in Crisis march: in pictures Shadow Health Secretary Jon Ashworth M joins people taking part in the march. PA NHS in Crisis march: in pictures A placard reading 'Nurses with fight for the NHS'. AFP/Getty NHS in Crisis march: in pictures Protestors carry placards and shout slogans. AFP/Getty NHS in Crisis march: in pictures People march through central London. PA NHS in Crisis march: in pictures People take part in a march in London in support of the National Health Service. PA NHS in Crisis march: in pictures People hold up a sign in support of the National Health Service to demand an end to the "crisis" in the NHS. PA NHS in Crisis march: in pictures Protestors carry placards featuring Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May and Britain's Health and Social Care Secretary Jeremy Hunt. AFP/Getty NHS in Crisis march: in pictures People take part in a march in London in support of the National Health Service. PA NHS in Crisis march: in pictures Demonstrators carry placards . Getty

He said: My mother was rushed to hospital in an ambulance, received expert emergency care, stayed in hospital for two weeks to recover, was treated daily by consultants, physical therapists, occupational therapists and nursing staff, was escorted home in a taxi and checked on three times a day for a further five weeks.

Following a Twitter row with the Health Secretary, Little penned an open letter to Jeremy Hunt inviting him to attend the demonstration.

The Shadow Health Secretary, Jon Ashworth, also planned to be at the protest.

He has warned the NHS is experiencing its worst winter on record, on the services 70th anniversary year.

It comes just days after it was revealed hospitals are at their fullest point this winter, as the health service struggled to perform under significant strain.

Bed occupancy pressures in the weeks after Christmas saw the heads of major A&E departments write to Theresa May warning that patients were dying prematurely in corridors because they could not be properly cared for.

But now bed occupancy, for the week ending 28 January, has crept even higher, reaching 95.1 per cent across the NHS  the highest weekly average since reporting began at the end of November.

Additional reporting by agenciesWhat the British call a cable car  aerial tramways in other countries  is a very safe form of transport: technology practised, perfected, nowhere better than in the southern Alps of Ticino, Bolzano, and Alto Adige. Even when cable-hauled cabins or gondolas grind to a complete halt  sometimes for hours on end  disaster rarely ensues.

Another relatively safe way to travel is by aircraft. It is freefall that presents the greatest danger. What happens, then, when an aircraft in close proximity to a cable car causes one or other or both to go into freefall? Rewind the clock to 2.35pm on Tuesday, 3 February 1998.

The Prowler sliced its way clean through the two-inch cable of the gondola (REUTERS)

High above his air-base in Aviano, in northern Italy, 30-year old Captain Richard Ashby revs a dated EA-4B Prowler aircraft on a final training exercise before his promotion to fighter pilot. Today is not a repeat of the crews normal Nato reconnaissance flight to Bosnia  where the Yugoslavian war has waged for seven years already  more a farewell to arms.

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In the seat next to Ashby is his decade-serving navigator, Joseph Schweitzer, whose duties are flight plan, mapping an exact route, altitude, and communications with the ground. Just behind him and his pilot are crew members: Captain Chandler Seagraves and Captain William Raney. Weather conditions are good. Very little low cloud. So good is the weather, there is even doubt as to what exactly this mission can accomplish.

After a 'daredevil' negotiation of Lake Garda  some of whose surrounding mountains are 11,000 feet in height  and the rehearsal of a spar (a spoiler-augmented roll), Ashby skirts just west of Trento  capital of the autonomous Italian province Trentino  and proceeds 20 miles north-east, in the process entering the narrow Val di Fiemme, a valley dissected, as so often in the Alps, by its principal cable car.

By amazing coincidence, and probably unknown to any of the four men on board that Prowler, Cavalese, in the heart of the Dolomites, is already known to locals, historians, and newspaper reporters alike as the site of the most deadly cable car derailment since Andrew Hallidies 1873 invention of this mode of transport.

On 9 March 1976, 43 people  including 15 children  skidded 300 feet to their early deaths, trapped in their felled cabin, space additionally crushed by its own three-ton overhead assembly. Four lift officials were subsequently jailed for their gross negligence  which included de-activating that cable cars safety system. Just one person, a 14-year old Milanese schoolgirl, survived that catastrophe.

Cavalese is no stranger to terror: the wreckage from the 1976 crash, which killed 43 people (ANSA)

Twenty-two years on, Captain Ashby skims low over Lago di Stramentizzo and at 3.06pm loses all radio contact with Avianos control tower. Nearby, villagers and visitors are already fed up of the Yanks flying so low at speeds over 500 mph: spooking the livestock; and strafing their farms, their rooftops, even their lidos. Nor have they forgiven their own Italian Air Force for severing electricity cables two years earlier, leading to major power outage.

Charges of manslaughter are read at the court martial but Ashby is acquitted (REUTERS)

Surely the marines are supposed to keep to an altitude higher than 2,000 feet? And even if they were to halve that restriction  a limit some US commanders strenuously maintain is still in force into 1998  a flight height of 1,000 feet would still top hotels, apartment blocks, church spires, pylons, with ease. Why so low? Nato militarys wish and intention is to replicate the real, radar-jamming, conditions of entering a war-zone without being shot at.

When, at 3.12pm Captain Ashby unexpectedly encounters a newly loaded and moving cable car (painted bright yellow) seconds on in its own seven-minute journey to valley floor, he imagines this obstacle to be an 'optical illusion'.No part of his briefing has included cable cars. He and Schweitzer have access only to US maps. Compatriots regard indigenous cartographers with some contempt. Besides, Schweitzer has set todays altimeter at 800 feet. Surely the plane cannot ever have got as low as 300 feet? The altimeter must be playing up.

Whatever, pilot Ashby has absolutely no chance materially to alter his course. So he banks his aircraft suddenly upwards: a response that does not prevent  30 seconds later  his rising right wing snapping those tourists essential lifeline, a sturdy cable, more than two inches thick. In sheer horror, Ranby grabs Seagraves by his shirt front.

Navigator Schweitzer spies the stricken cabin lying in blood-spattered snow 250 feet below  but has to forgo any abortive rescue effort; determining instead to help get this now damaged aircraft back to Aviano, where control staff, back in radio contact, will be waiting for a jet with a split wing, broken tail, leaking hydraulic fluid; waiting indeed to reassure Ashby that his intact under-carriage will permit an emergency landing.

At 3.30pm, fatal hazard duly survived  survival is not an outcome available to all those tumbling tourists  Seagraves and Ranby obey military protocol by running towards the relative safety of a hangar. Looking back, they are a little surprised that neither Ashby nor Schweitzer are budging from their seats. They appear uninjured? Maybe they are in shock? Why is Schweitzer removing a filmed video-tape from his borrowed camcorder, replacing it with a virgin tape newly torn out of its tight cellophane wrapping?

Could it be all four crew members are for the high-jump? Not only is it strictly forbidden to perform stunts like under-flying cables. Not only is it a grave offence to damage a US aeroplane on manoeuvres. the crew is also learning what they sort of know already: not one soul has survived in the we may have hit something cable cabin.

The startled crew additionally learn that, although only three Italians have died (eight German nationals, five Belgians, two Poles, one Austrian, and one Dutch are also perishing), Italian politicians, broadcasters, journalists, citizens, are already livid upon hearing the breaking news. And they are baying for justice. Prime minister Romano Prodi calls the disaster: A terrible act: a flight practically scraping the ground! Italian president Oscar Luigi Scalfaro shares his peoples outrage. Local observers add: Rules of [mock] engagement have been systematically and calamitously disregarded.

Nor does any Italian believe pilot Ashby will ever be held to account for the disaster. On the contrary, there will be an almighty cover-up. And straightway the Americans play into their critics hands: not only by reserving justice to United States jurisdiction, but, insultingly, handing over this complex procedure to the very marine corp, whose members were involved from the beginning.

Public relations is a deft  maybe devious  art. US generals and flight crew soon adopt the vocabulary of minimisation. Ashby was merely on a mishap flight: an errand impeded by instrument malfunction, adding up to a regrettable incident, a pure accident, a forced last-minute diversion.

US marine Brig Gen Guy Vanderlinden, deputy commander of Nato's strike and support in southern Europe, is not keen to apportion any blame. In fact, all through March 1998, secret and internal findings  findings very critical of the American crew, findings garnered by senior generals Pace and de Long  are suppressed within a Washington DC archive until the editor of La Stampa successfully argues for their release in July 2013.

Wreckage from the 1998 crash: the gondola fell 200 metres before crashing into the side of a mountain (PA)

Only president Bill Clinton deviates from the Please Sir, it wasnt me Sir! script by sending his deepest condolences to both families bereaved and the tourists host nation. We shall unambiguously shoulder responsibility for what has happened, he assures whoever is listening. At the same time, Americas 1997 ambassador to Italy, Thomas Foglietta, is dispatched to Cermis to kneel and pray beside the wreckage.

Fast forward a few months. The US grudgingly reimburses the $60,000 each bereft family had been awarded by the Italian government in the interim; rather tactlessly adding to each settlement $5,000 per family, earmarked for the repatriation, burial, cremation, of their loved ones bodies.

At Cherry Point, North Carolina, a sane and well-behaved Captain Ashby with no history of drugs or psychological problems is arraigned before a court martial for involuntary manslaughter and negligent homicide of 20; also for a number of associated charges that add up to a minimum penalty of 200 years imprisonment. But on 4 March 1999, after a trial lasting just 14 days  and despite clear technical evidence that neither the altimeter nor the G-meter were faulty during his final flight  a jury of nine acquit Ashby on all counts. His relatives cheer to the rafters. Italian observers, not surprisingly, are as stunned as they were disappointed.

John Eaves, lawyer for the seven German victims, speaks for many when he splutters: I dont understand this verdict. Theres no justice in the world...

Italian deputy, Ermanno Jacobellis, follows up with this comment: Its a shame these two men were acquitted. Their responsibility is clear and direct.

Anybody who has witnessed the most recent US trials for killer police officers, militant white supremacists, also corrupt prison guards, might not have been so astonished at this outcome.

The cable car was painted bright yellow and easily visible but the US pilot thought it was an 'optical illusion' (PA)

Meanwhile, Schweitzer rejoices that the military prosecutor has automatically dropped all charges against himself: his delight confined only by the discovery of Seagraves accepting a plea-bargain and telling all.

Therefore, in May 1999, there is a second court martial. Is this a belated sop to troublesome Italians? Ashby and Schweitzer are accused of perverting the course of justice, also conduct unbecoming of an officer and gentleman. And not only are they both found guilty: Ashby sentenced to six months imprisonment, reduced to 19 weeks for good behaviour.

Both men are dishonourably discharged from the marines and deprived of all consequent benefits to which they might have been entitled. Inevitably both officers lodge appeals on 12 counts: two concerning 'inadequate' evidence presented to court and too harsh a sentence. Of interest, jurors are never told Schweitzer has, from the start, entered a guilty plea-bargain in order to avoid incarceration.

Neither Ranby nor Seagraves are charged with any offence. Nor does Nato ground command face any punishment, even though many think its ineptitude is manifest. Nor do the Italians turn against any of their own leaders for giving US aviators so much  or so little?  headroom.

And despite Schweitzer's plea bargain, the Prowlers navigator stands outside court and merely says: My immediate plans are basically to wake up tomorrow morning and not have to deal with this [matter] for the first time in 14 months.

Too little punishment, far too late in the day, for aggrieved Italians. They no longer want US aircraft to fly from Aviano or anywhere else. And correctly, they realise that nobody, two, 19, 20, years later is ever going to be held to account for the actual severance of that gondolas cable. Further, nobody is ever going to make meaningful reparation. Nor is anybody ever going to admit issuing dangerous instructions, supplying the wrong maps, being content with haphazard de-briefing. And why has a sister Prowlers crash in Yuma, Arizona only two years earlier  a crash that killed all four people on board  not been taken into account?

Altogether: too many questions, too few answers. And should any student of disaster be complacent enough to assume Strage del Cermis (the Massacre at Cermis) could not happen again, he or she has only to recall the sinking of the Costa Concordia, on 13 January 2012. Almost worse, from a lay investigators standpoint, there is the Germanwings Flight 9525 plunge into Frances Massif des Trois Eveches, on 24 March 2015: its spree-killing co-pilot apparently wanting to commit suicide. More rocks. More hard places.The decision not to charge a man who rammed a van into a crowd of Muslims with terror offences has provoked confusion and anger.

Police and the Government swiftly declared a terrorist incident following Darren Osbornes atrocity in Finsbury Park on 19 June, which left one man dead and nine other victims injured.

But the 48-year-old, who ranted about his desire to kill Muslims and left a suicide note raging about terror attacks and grooming, was charged with murder and attempted murder.

The judge who jailed Osborne for life explained that although he had committed a terror attack, specific legislation was not necessary to prosecute him.

Murder is murder, whether done for terror motives or some other motive, Justice Cheema-Grubb told Woolwich Crown Court.

She used separate laws empowering judges to increase prison sentences where there are aggravating factors to hand Osborne a minimum term of 43 years.

The powers come in Schedule 21 to the Criminal Justice Act 2003, which covers crimes with the purpose of advancing a political, religious, racial or ideological cause, and Section 30 of the Counter Terrorism Act 2008, which covers murder with a terrorist connection.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) acknowledged that the term led to some confusion about whether the person convicted is deemed a terrorist as they are not charged with an offence under terrorism legislation.

A spokesperson told The Independent all crimes can be aggravated by a connection to terrorism, including common law offences like causing an explosion  the crime used to prosecute the al-Qaeda sympathisers behind the 21 July 2005 bombing plot.

In all of these cases those convicted are considered terrorists, because even though they are covered by different legislation than the Terrorism Acts, the crimes committed clearly had terrorist aims, he added.

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Osborne is not the first terrorist to be jailed for murder. Thomas Mair, the white-supremacist who shot and stabbed the Labour MP Jo Cox, received a whole-life term for the crime.

The same punishment was handed to Michael Adebolajo, the Islamist killer of Fusilier Lee Rigby, as he and accomplice Michael Adebowale were jailed for terrorism-aggravated murder.

If the Isis-inspired attackers in Westminster, Finsbury Park and London Bridge had not been killed while committing their atrocities, it is likely that they would have faced the same charges.

In all three incidents that reached court, in Finsbury Park, Birstall and Woolwich, the perpetrators stated their vile views and aims while carrying them out.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said a handwritten note left in Osbornes van and his rants to police officers caused the case to be prosecuted as a terror-related, adding: The note and comments displayed Osbornes resentment towards senior politicians, public figures and Muslims in general.

The court heard how the father-of-four had become radicalised in less than a month by far-right material he consumed after watching a drama on the Rochdale grooming scandal.

Disseminating extremist propaganda or possessing material useful to terrorists can also be prosecuted as a separate offence, but the prison sentences they can be punished with are far outstripped by violent crimes like murder and attempted murder.

Specific terrorism laws were drawn up in the UK to outlaw behaviour that skirted the boundaries of pre-existing legislation, and are mostly used in cases where a common law offence has not been committed.

The most-used provisions are encompassed in a series of laws drawn up over the past two decades, primarily the Terrorism Acts of 2000 and 2006.

They formalised the definition of terrorism and introduced powers of arrest without warrant for suspects, and stop and search without prior suspicion.

The acts created new crimes that made it illegal to collect or possess information of a kind likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism, glorify or encourage terror attacks and disseminate terrorist publications.

The offence of preparation of terrorist acts that was introduced by the Terrorism Act 2006 has been prolifically used to jail people attempting to join Isis in Syria and Iraq, or mount plots at home, and can be punished with life imprisonment.

Police arrested a record number of people for specific terror offences in the UK last year, amid warnings over the rising threat from both Islamists and the far-right.Two police officers are being investigated over allegations they sent inappropriate text messages and filmed individuals in custody.

The messages allegedly refer to sexually assaulting victims of crime, while the videos appear to depict individuals in police custody suites or in police vehicles, the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) said.

A detective constable from the Trident and Area Command unit and a police constable from aviation policing have been suspended by the Met after material came to light during a separate criminal investigation by Surrey Police.

Scotland Yard referred the matter to the IOPC, which is investigating.

The watchdog said the messages and the video footage appear to date from around 2011 when the officers worked together in the Hounslow response team.

Investigators will examine data records and the videos before interviewing the two officers.

The probe is also looking at whether any other officers may have been involved in the incidents.

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 5 September 2021 People enjoy the warm weather on Sandbanks beach, Poole PA UK news in pictures 4 September 2021 Demonstrators from Animal Rebellion and Nature Rebellion protest in Trafalgar Square in London. PA UK news in pictures 3 September 2021 South Africa's Ntando Mahlangu (centre) wins the Men's 200 metres T61 Final ahead of second placed Great Britain's Richard Whitehead at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games PA UK news in pictures 2 September 2021 A young common seal on the beach at Horsey Gap in Norfolk, as hundreds of pregnant grey seals come ashore ready for the start of the pupping season. PA UK news in pictures 1 September 2021 Goldfinches fighting over food in a garden in Strensham, Worcestershire PA UK news in pictures 31 August 2021 Gold Medallist Sarah Storey of Britain celebrates on the podium Reuters UK news in pictures 30 August 2021 Extinction Rebellion protesters hold a a tea party on Tower Bridge in London EPA UK news in pictures 29 August 2021 A police office tussles with a demonstrator on Cromwell Road outside the Natural History Museum during a protest by members of Extinction Rebellion in London PA UK news in pictures 28 August 2021 Members of the British armed forces 16 Air Assault Brigade walk to the air terminal after disembarking a Royal Airforce Voyager aircraft at Brize Norton, Oxfordshire POOL/AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 27 August 2021 Fabio Quartararo crashes during a MotoGP practice session at the British Grand Prix, Silverstone Circuit Action Images via Reuters UK news in pictures 26 August 2021 An Extinction Rebellion activist holds a placard in a fountain surrounded by police officers, during a protest next to Buckingham Palace in London Reuters UK news in pictures 25 August 2021 Gold Medallist Great Britains cyclist, Sarah Storey, celebrates after winning the Womens C5 3000m Individual Pursuit Final at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games. It was her 15th Paralympic gold Reuters UK news in pictures 24 August 2021 A demonstrator dressed as bee during a protest by members of Extinction Rebellion on Whitehall, in central London PA UK news in pictures 23 August 2021 Former interpreters for the British forces in Afghanistan demonstrate outside the Home Office in central London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 22 August 2021 Police officers form a line in front of the entrance to the Guildhall, London, where protesters have climbed onto a ledge above the entrance during an Extinction Rebellion stage a protest PA UK news in pictures 21 August 2021 People take part in a demonstration in solidarity with people of Afghanistan, in London Reuters UK news in pictures 20 August 2021 People zip wire across the sea from Bournemouth pier towards the beach. PA UK news in pictures 19 August 2021 Supporters of Geronimo the alpaca gather outside Shepherds Close Farm in Wooton Under Edge, Gloucestershire PA UK news in pictures 18 August 2021 Former Afghan interpreters and veterans hold a demonstration outside Downing Street, calling for support and protection for Afghan interpreters and their families PA UK news in pictures 17 August 2021 Military personnel board the RAF Airbus A400M at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire, where evacuation flights from Afghanistan have been landing Reuters UK news in pictures 16 August 2021 Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer takes part in a minute's silence at Wolverhampton police station for the victims of the Plymouth mass shooting last week PA UK news in pictures 15 August 2021 2Storm, a ten-metre tall puppet of a mythical goddess of the sea created by Edinburgh-based visual theatre company Vision Mechanics, makes its way alongside the seafront at North Berwick, East Lothian, during a performance at the Fringe By The Sea festival PA UK news in pictures 14 August 2021 A woman and two young girls look at floral tributes in Plymouth where six people, including the offender, died of gunshot wounds in a firearms incident PA UK news in pictures 13 August 2021 Forensic officers in the Keyham area of Plymouth where six people, including the shooter, died of gunshot wounds in a firearms incident on Thursday evening PA UK news in pictures 12 August 2021 Children ride horses in the River Eden in Appleby, Cumbria, during the annual gathering of travellers for the Appleby Horse Fair PA UK news in pictures 11 August 2021 Stella Moris (left) reacts after talking to the media outside the High Court in London, following the first hearing in the Julian Assange extradition appeal, n London, following the first hearing in the Julian Assange extradition appeal. The US government has won the latest round in its High Court bid to appeal against the decision not to extradite Julian Assange on espionage charges PA UK news in pictures 10 August 2021 Students react after they receive their A-Level results at the Ark Academy, in London Reuters UK news in pictures 9 August 2021 The final athletes from Great Britain arrive home including Jason Kenny, Laura Kenny and Katie Archibald (front left-right) at Heathrow Airport, London following the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games PA UK news in pictures 8 August 2021 Great Britain's Laura Kenny during the closing ceremony of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at the Olympic stadium in Japan PA UK news in pictures 7 August 2021 People from the Glasgow Southside community take part in the Govanhill Carnival, an anti-racist celebration of pride, unity and the contributions immigrants have made to the community in Govanhill, at Queen's Park, Glasgow PA UK news in pictures 6 August 2021 Chijindu Ujah of Britain, Zharnel Hughes of Britain, Richard Kilty of Britain and Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake of Britain celebrate winning silver as they pose with Asha Philip of Britain, Imani Lansiquot of Britain, Dina Asher-Smith of Britain and Daryll Neita of Britain after they won bronze in the women's 4 x 100m relay during Olympic Games Day 14 Getty UK news in pictures 5 August 2021 A protester places flowers on a photograph of an executed man during a demonstration organised by supporters of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) to protest against the inauguration of Iran's new president Ebrahim Raisi in central London AFP via Getty UK news in pictures 4 August 2021 England's Joe Root looks on as India's KL Rahul doesn't make it to a catch during day one of Cinch First Test match at Trent Bridge, Nottingham PA UK news in pictures 3 August 2021 Great Britain's Laura Kenny and Jason Kenny with their silver medals for the Women's Team Pursuit and Mens Team Sprint during the Track Cycling at the Izu Velodrome on the eleventh day of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games in Japan PA UK news in pictures 2 August 2021 Great Britains Charlotte Worthington competes during the Womens BMX Freestyle Final at the Tokyo Olympics PA UK news in pictures 1 August 2021 EPA UK news in pictures 31 July 2021 James Guy, Adam Peaty and Kathleen Dawson celebrate winning the gold medal in the mixed 4x100m medley relay final at the Tokyo Olympics AP UK news in pictures 30 July 2021 Great Britain's Bethany Shriever and Kye Whyte celebrate their Gold and Silver medals respectively for the Cycling BMX Racing at the Ariake Urban Sports Park on the seventh day of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games in Japan PA UK news in pictures 29 July 2021 Team GB's Mallory Franklin during the Womens Canoe Slalom Final on day six of the Tokyo Olympic Games. She went on to win the silver medal Getty UK news in pictures 28 July 2021 Canoers on Llyn Padarn lake in Snowdonia, Gwynedd. It was announced that the north-west Wales slate landscape has been granted UNESCO World Heritage Status PA UK news in pictures 27 July 2021 A view of one of two areas now being used at a warehouse facility in Dover, Kent, for boats used by people thought to be migrants. PA UK news in pictures 26 July 2021 A woman is helped by Border Force officers as a group of people thought to be migrants are brought in to Dover, Kent, onboard a Border Force vessel, following a small boat incident in the Channel PA UK news in pictures 25 July 2021 Vehicles drive through deep water on a flooded road in Nine Elms, London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 24 July 2021 Utilities workers inspect a 15x20ft sinkhole on Green Lane, Liverpool, which is suspected to have been caused by ruptured water main PA UK news in pictures 23 July 2021 Children interact with Mega Please Draw Freely by artist Ei Arakawa inside the Turbine Hall at the Tate Modern in London, part of UNIQLO Tate Play the gallery's new free programme of art-inspired activities for families PA UK news in pictures 22 July 2021 Festivalgoers in the campsite at the Latitude festival in Henham Park, Southwold, Suffolk PA UK news in pictures 21 July 2021 A man walks past an artwork by Will Blood on the end of a property in Bedminster, Bristol, as the 75 murals project reaches the halfway point and various graffiti pieces are sprayed onto walls and buildings across the city over the Summer PA UK news in pictures 20 July 2021 People during morning prayer during Eid ul-Adha, or Festival of Sacrifice, in Southall Park, Uxbridge, London PA UK news in pictures 19 July 2021 Commuters, some not wearing facemasks, at Westminster Underground station, at 08:38 in London after the final legal Coronavirus restrictions were lifted in England PA UK news in pictures 18 July 2021 A view of spectators by the 2nd green during day four of The Open at The Royal St George's Golf Club in Sandwich, Kent PA

IOPC regional director Jonathan Green said: "These are worrying allegations about the alleged lack of professionalism of two officers.

"Despite the allegations dating back a few years, the IOPC is concerned that otherwise respected officers may be behaving in such an unacceptable manner.

"It is therefore vital that these matters are carefully investigated by us, independently from the police, to determine if the officers have potentially breached any standards of professional conduct."

Additional reporting by PAPolice are searching for a gang who assaulted an officer and knocked him unconscious in a graveyard.

The male officer was attacked while on duty in Ramsgate, Kent, on Friday night.

The incident happened at around 9.50pm in the graveyard in St Lawrence Chase.

A statement from Kent Police said the officer was taken to a local hospital for treatment and has since been discharged.

It is also believed that one of the people who assaulted the officer may have been in possession of a gun.

While no firearm was discharged, armed officers attended the scene as a precaution.

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 9 September 2021 Troops from Wiltshire based 4 Armoured Close Support Battalion Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers during final inspection at Wellington Barracks in London, ahead of providing troops for the Queens Guard PA UK news in pictures 8 September 2021 Workers cross London Bridge during the morning rush hour in London Reuters UK news in pictures Mixing it up: Painting it up press view in London A gallery employee poses for photographers next to a painting entitled Prairie by British artist, Louise Giovanelli during the exhibition 'Mixing it up: Painting it up' at the Hayward Gallery in London EPA UK news in pictures 6 September 2021 Traders in the Ring at the London Metal Exchange, in the City of London, after open-outcry trading returned for the first time since March 2020, when the Ring was temporarily closed due to the pandemic PA UK news in pictures 5 September 2021 People enjoy the warm weather on Sandbanks beach, Poole PA UK news in pictures 4 September 2021 Demonstrators from Animal Rebellion and Nature Rebellion protest in Trafalgar Square in London. PA UK news in pictures 3 September 2021 South Africa's Ntando Mahlangu (centre) wins the Men's 200 metres T61 Final ahead of second placed Great Britain's Richard Whitehead at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games PA UK news in pictures 2 September 2021 A young common seal on the beach at Horsey Gap in Norfolk, as hundreds of pregnant grey seals come ashore ready for the start of the pupping season. PA UK news in pictures 1 September 2021 Goldfinches fighting over food in a garden in Strensham, Worcestershire PA UK news in pictures 31 August 2021 Gold Medallist Sarah Storey of Britain celebrates on the podium Reuters UK news in pictures 30 August 2021 Extinction Rebellion protesters hold a a tea party on Tower Bridge in London EPA UK news in pictures 29 August 2021 A police office tussles with a demonstrator on Cromwell Road outside the Natural History Museum during a protest by members of Extinction Rebellion in London PA UK news in pictures 28 August 2021 Members of the British armed forces 16 Air Assault Brigade walk to the air terminal after disembarking a Royal Airforce Voyager aircraft at Brize Norton, Oxfordshire POOL/AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 27 August 2021 Fabio Quartararo crashes during a MotoGP practice session at the British Grand Prix, Silverstone Circuit Action Images via Reuters UK news in pictures 26 August 2021 An Extinction Rebellion activist holds a placard in a fountain surrounded by police officers, during a protest next to Buckingham Palace in London Reuters UK news in pictures 25 August 2021 Gold Medallist Great Britains cyclist, Sarah Storey, celebrates after winning the Womens C5 3000m Individual Pursuit Final at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games. It was her 15th Paralympic gold Reuters UK news in pictures 24 August 2021 A demonstrator dressed as bee during a protest by members of Extinction Rebellion on Whitehall, in central London PA UK news in pictures 23 August 2021 Former interpreters for the British forces in Afghanistan demonstrate outside the Home Office in central London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 22 August 2021 Police officers form a line in front of the entrance to the Guildhall, London, where protesters have climbed onto a ledge above the entrance during an Extinction Rebellion stage a protest PA UK news in pictures 21 August 2021 People take part in a demonstration in solidarity with people of Afghanistan, in London Reuters UK news in pictures 20 August 2021 People zip wire across the sea from Bournemouth pier towards the beach. PA UK news in pictures 19 August 2021 Supporters of Geronimo the alpaca gather outside Shepherds Close Farm in Wooton Under Edge, Gloucestershire PA UK news in pictures 18 August 2021 Former Afghan interpreters and veterans hold a demonstration outside Downing Street, calling for support and protection for Afghan interpreters and their families PA UK news in pictures 17 August 2021 Military personnel board the RAF Airbus A400M at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire, where evacuation flights from Afghanistan have been landing Reuters UK news in pictures 16 August 2021 Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer takes part in a minute's silence at Wolverhampton police station for the victims of the Plymouth mass shooting last week PA UK news in pictures 15 August 2021 2Storm, a ten-metre tall puppet of a mythical goddess of the sea created by Edinburgh-based visual theatre company Vision Mechanics, makes its way alongside the seafront at North Berwick, East Lothian, during a performance at the Fringe By The Sea festival PA UK news in pictures 14 August 2021 A woman and two young girls look at floral tributes in Plymouth where six people, including the offender, died of gunshot wounds in a firearms incident PA UK news in pictures 13 August 2021 Forensic officers in the Keyham area of Plymouth where six people, including the shooter, died of gunshot wounds in a firearms incident on Thursday evening PA UK news in pictures 12 August 2021 Children ride horses in the River Eden in Appleby, Cumbria, during the annual gathering of travellers for the Appleby Horse Fair PA UK news in pictures 11 August 2021 Stella Moris (left) reacts after talking to the media outside the High Court in London, following the first hearing in the Julian Assange extradition appeal, n London, following the first hearing in the Julian Assange extradition appeal. The US government has won the latest round in its High Court bid to appeal against the decision not to extradite Julian Assange on espionage charges PA UK news in pictures 10 August 2021 Students react after they receive their A-Level results at the Ark Academy, in London Reuters UK news in pictures 9 August 2021 The final athletes from Great Britain arrive home including Jason Kenny, Laura Kenny and Katie Archibald (front left-right) at Heathrow Airport, London following the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games PA UK news in pictures 8 August 2021 Great Britain's Laura Kenny during the closing ceremony of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at the Olympic stadium in Japan PA UK news in pictures 7 August 2021 People from the Glasgow Southside community take part in the Govanhill Carnival, an anti-racist celebration of pride, unity and the contributions immigrants have made to the community in Govanhill, at Queen's Park, Glasgow PA UK news in pictures 6 August 2021 Chijindu Ujah of Britain, Zharnel Hughes of Britain, Richard Kilty of Britain and Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake of Britain celebrate winning silver as they pose with Asha Philip of Britain, Imani Lansiquot of Britain, Dina Asher-Smith of Britain and Daryll Neita of Britain after they won bronze in the women's 4 x 100m relay during Olympic Games Day 14 Getty UK news in pictures 5 August 2021 A protester places flowers on a photograph of an executed man during a demonstration organised by supporters of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) to protest against the inauguration of Iran's new president Ebrahim Raisi in central London AFP via Getty UK news in pictures 4 August 2021 England's Joe Root looks on as India's KL Rahul doesn't make it to a catch during day one of Cinch First Test match at Trent Bridge, Nottingham PA UK news in pictures 3 August 2021 Great Britain's Laura Kenny and Jason Kenny with their silver medals for the Women's Team Pursuit and Mens Team Sprint during the Track Cycling at the Izu Velodrome on the eleventh day of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games in Japan PA UK news in pictures 2 August 2021 Great Britains Charlotte Worthington competes during the Womens BMX Freestyle Final at the Tokyo Olympics PA UK news in pictures 1 August 2021 EPA UK news in pictures 31 July 2021 James Guy, Adam Peaty and Kathleen Dawson celebrate winning the gold medal in the mixed 4x100m medley relay final at the Tokyo Olympics AP UK news in pictures 30 July 2021 Great Britain's Bethany Shriever and Kye Whyte celebrate their Gold and Silver medals respectively for the Cycling BMX Racing at the Ariake Urban Sports Park on the seventh day of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games in Japan PA UK news in pictures 29 July 2021 Team GB's Mallory Franklin during the Womens Canoe Slalom Final on day six of the Tokyo Olympic Games. She went on to win the silver medal Getty UK news in pictures 28 July 2021 Canoers on Llyn Padarn lake in Snowdonia, Gwynedd. It was announced that the north-west Wales slate landscape has been granted UNESCO World Heritage Status PA UK news in pictures 27 July 2021 A view of one of two areas now being used at a warehouse facility in Dover, Kent, for boats used by people thought to be migrants. PA UK news in pictures 26 July 2021 A woman is helped by Border Force officers as a group of people thought to be migrants are brought in to Dover, Kent, onboard a Border Force vessel, following a small boat incident in the Channel PA UK news in pictures 25 July 2021 Vehicles drive through deep water on a flooded road in Nine Elms, London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 24 July 2021 Utilities workers inspect a 15x20ft sinkhole on Green Lane, Liverpool, which is suspected to have been caused by ruptured water main PA UK news in pictures 23 July 2021 Children interact with Mega Please Draw Freely by artist Ei Arakawa inside the Turbine Hall at the Tate Modern in London, part of UNIQLO Tate Play the gallery's new free programme of art-inspired activities for families PA UK news in pictures 22 July 2021 Festivalgoers in the campsite at the Latitude festival in Henham Park, Southwold, Suffolk PA

"We are carrying out searches of the local area and are being assisted by the National Police Air Service helicopter," the force said.

No arrests have yet been made and anyone with information is asked to call Kent Police.

Earlier this month a police officer needed hospital treatment after he suffered a fractured eye socket during an unprovoked attack in Harrow, north London.

In 2016/17 there were 8,973 assaults on officers resulting in injury across the UK, and 16,531 crimes of "assault without injury on a constable" recorded across all forces.Todays Google Doodle marks what would have been the 197th birthday of Elizabeth Blackwell, the pioneering physician who paved the way for women to enter the field of medicine.

Born in Bristol in 1821, her family emigrated to the United States when she was just 11 years old. Blackwell initially began her career as a teacher, setting up a school with her sisters to provide the family with financial stability after the death of her father, Samuel, in 1838.

However, a family friends terminal illness soon led her to reconsider her career. The friend believed she would have received more considerate treatment from a female doctor and Blackwell became determined to train as a physician.

She began applying for medical colleges and was rejected numerous times. Only one institution, Geneva Medical College in New York, was prepared to even consider her.

Recommended Everything you need to know about the greatest ever black Briton

The faculty allowed the colleges all-male student body to vote on her admission, assuming they would never agree to allow a woman into their school. However, in a joke on their professors, the students voted to allow Blackwell to study with them and her admittance was granted in 1847.

Although she had finally gained a place at a medical school, the struggle was only just beginning for Blackwell and she faced much resentment and prejudice from her fellow students. But, against the odds, she received her MD degree two years later, becoming the first woman in America to do so.

After gaining her degree, she went on to work in clinics in London and Paris, studying midwifery at La Maternite, where she contracted purulent opthalmia, losing sight in one eye and putting an end to her ambitions of one day becoming a surgeon.

The setback did not discourage her however and she returned to the US in 1851 to establish a medical practice in New York, before opening her own dispensary in 1853.

Blackwells sister, Emily, who had by this time also qualified as a doctor, joined another trailblazing female physician, Dr Marie Zakrzewska, to open the New York Infirmary for Women and Children in 1857.

She began making trips back to Britain in a bid to raise funds in order to launch a similar infirmary on the other side of the Atlantic. It was during a visit to England in 1859 that she became the first woman to have her name entered in the British General Medical Council's register.

During the 1860s and 1870s, Elizabeth Blackwell continued to fight in Britain for the acceptance and support of women in medicine. She was able to achieve sufficient backing in America to add a women's medical school to her New York women's hospital, which opened in November 1868.

In 1869, she made the decision to move back to Britain full-time in order to continue her campaign for reform in medicine.

She founded the National Health Society in 1871, with the goal of educating the public on the benefits of hygiene and healthy lifestyles. Their motto Prevention is better than Cure, is still a phrase widely used not just in medical circles, but in society as a whole.

Blackwell had set up a private practice in London in 1870, established the London School of Medicine for Women in 1874 and finally won the right for women to undertake medical degrees in Britain during 1876 following years of campaigning.

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Although she did not actively practice medicine in the last 20 years of her life, Blackwell continued to work tirelessly on a number of courses, including medical education, preventative medicine, sanitation, family planning, women's suffrage, the abolition of prostitution and white slavery, morality in government, and liberalisation of the notoriously prudish Victorian society.

She died in Hastings on May 31, 1910, but left behind a sizeable legacy for women in medicine. IN 1881, there were only 25 registered female doctors in England and Wales but a year after her death in 1911 almost 500 were registered across the country.Angus Robertson has resigned as deputy leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP) with immediate effect.

He is no longer able to fully discharge my mandate and wants to focus on pursuing new career opportunities, he said.

The former Moray MP lost his seat to the Conservatives in last years general election and hinted that no longer holding elected office meant he could not continue in his role.

Recommended SNP Westminster leader Angus Robertson loses his seat

In a letter to Nicola Sturgeon, the Scottish First Minister and SNP leader, Mr Robertson wrote: It is with regret that I inform you of my formal decision to stand down as depute leader of the Scottish National Party with immediate effect.

As we have discussed recently, I believe I am no longer able to fully discharge my mandate, which was to partner you as Westminster SNP leader and as a parliamentarian representing a rural constituency.

He continued: While it would be my greatest privilege to continue as depute leader, I know you understand that I have to focus now on pursuing new career opportunities.

It is for that reason that I believe it is for others to step forward to seek the support of SNP members for the honour to serve as depute leader of Scotlands largest political party.

Adding that he was tremendously honoured to serve as deputy leader and immensely proud of what the SNP has achieved, Mr Robertson said he would continue to support public policy development in Scotland as an advisory board member of the Scottish Policy Foundation.

General Election 2017: Big beasts who lost their seats Show all 7 1 /7 General Election 2017: Big beasts who lost their seats General Election 2017: Big beasts who lost their seats Nick Clegg Darren O'Brien General Election 2017: Big beasts who lost their seats Gavin Barwell Getty General Election 2017: Big beasts who lost their seats Angus Robertson General Election 2017: Big beasts who lost their seats Nicola Blackwood PA General Election 2017: Big beasts who lost their seats Alex Salmond PA General Election 2017: Big beasts who lost their seats Rob Wilson Rex Features General Election 2017: Big beasts who lost their seats Ben Gummer PA

In response, Ms Sturgeon expressed her immense gratitude to Mr Robertson.

She wrote: Our political and electoral success over the last decade has been nothing short of extraordinary  and the party owes you an enormous debt of gratitude for the personal role you have played in bringing about that success.

You can be very proud of the part you have played in this success.

She said Mr Robertson had always been a source of wise counsel and that she hoped to see him return to frontline politics in future.

Mr Robertson was first elected as an MP in 2001 and became the SNPs Westminster leader in 2007. He held the post until last year, when he unexpectedly lost the safe seat of Moray to the Conservatives, who saw their vote share surge in Scotland under the leadership of Ruth Davidson.Jeremy Corbyn will change tack and pledge to keep the UK in the EU customs union, the Welsh First Minister has said.

Carwyn Jones said he had discussed the issue with Mr Corbyn and Sir Keir Starmer, the Shadow Brexit Secretary, and believed a policy change was likely in the next few months.

Urging his party leader to keep all options open and be guided by what is best for working people, Mr Jones said Labour should reject the wrong option of leaving the customs union.

The comments are some of the strongest from a senior Labour representative in favour of remaining in the bloc and add to the growing clamour among Labour figures for the party to change its approach,

Last week, some of Mr Corbyns MPs urged him to get off the fence and stop hedging bets.

The Labour leader has previously said the UK could remain in some form of customs union with the EU but suggested Britain should leave the existing bloc.

Speaking to The Independent, Mr Jones revealed that he expects Labours policy on the issue to shift, saying the current stance is undergoing revision and review.

He said: Jeremy is smart enough to understand that this is a debate that has to be looked at afresh from time to time, but above all we have to be guided by what is best for the people of Britain.

A hard Brexit, which means putting barriers up between ourselves and our biggest market, is not the right option.

Suggesting that the party leadership could bow to mounting calls for a shift, he added: Keir Starmer, Jeremy and I all understand that weve got to find the best way forwards for working people.

 UK will be worse off in every possible scenario after Brexit, concludes leaked Government analysis

And asked if he believed his partys leadership is edging closer to his position on retaining customs union membership, he said: Yes, I think so. Theyre not resistant to it, they are exploring it, and I very much welcome that.

Mr Jones said he believed a final decision on Labours policy was likely within months, saying: It has to be during the passage of the EU (Withdrawal) Bill, which goes to the Lords now, so weve got to get to a position as a party in the next few months.

The First Minister launched a scathing attack on plans for a hard Brexit, which applies to his own party leadership as well as the Conservatives, and claimed leaving the customs union would be a triumph of nationalism over common sense.

He said: Nobody can convince me or show any evidence to suggest wed be better off outside the customs union. Europe is our main market: 90 per cent of our food and drink exports go there, 60 per cent of our overall exports go there and its on our doorstep.

Youre never going to replace that kind of market.

Leaving the customs union is economically daft, its a step driven by ideology and nationalism, not by common sense and pragmatism.

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 9 September 2021 Troops from Wiltshire based 4 Armoured Close Support Battalion Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers during final inspection at Wellington Barracks in London, ahead of providing troops for the Queens Guard PA UK news in pictures 8 September 2021 Workers cross London Bridge during the morning rush hour in London Reuters UK news in pictures Mixing it up: Painting it up press view in London A gallery employee poses for photographers next to a painting entitled Prairie by British artist, Louise Giovanelli during the exhibition 'Mixing it up: Painting it up' at the Hayward Gallery in London EPA UK news in pictures 6 September 2021 Traders in the Ring at the London Metal Exchange, in the City of London, after open-outcry trading returned for the first time since March 2020, when the Ring was temporarily closed due to the pandemic PA UK news in pictures 5 September 2021 People enjoy the warm weather on Sandbanks beach, Poole PA UK news in pictures 4 September 2021 Demonstrators from Animal Rebellion and Nature Rebellion protest in Trafalgar Square in London. PA UK news in pictures 3 September 2021 South Africa's Ntando Mahlangu (centre) wins the Men's 200 metres T61 Final ahead of second placed Great Britain's Richard Whitehead at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games PA UK news in pictures 2 September 2021 A young common seal on the beach at Horsey Gap in Norfolk, as hundreds of pregnant grey seals come ashore ready for the start of the pupping season. PA UK news in pictures 1 September 2021 Goldfinches fighting over food in a garden in Strensham, Worcestershire PA UK news in pictures 31 August 2021 Gold Medallist Sarah Storey of Britain celebrates on the podium Reuters UK news in pictures 30 August 2021 Extinction Rebellion protesters hold a a tea party on Tower Bridge in London EPA UK news in pictures 29 August 2021 A police office tussles with a demonstrator on Cromwell Road outside the Natural History Museum during a protest by members of Extinction Rebellion in London PA UK news in pictures 28 August 2021 Members of the British armed forces 16 Air Assault Brigade walk to the air terminal after disembarking a Royal Airforce Voyager aircraft at Brize Norton, Oxfordshire POOL/AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 27 August 2021 Fabio Quartararo crashes during a MotoGP practice session at the British Grand Prix, Silverstone Circuit Action Images via Reuters UK news in pictures 26 August 2021 An Extinction Rebellion activist holds a placard in a fountain surrounded by police officers, during a protest next to Buckingham Palace in London Reuters UK news in pictures 25 August 2021 Gold Medallist Great Britains cyclist, Sarah Storey, celebrates after winning the Womens C5 3000m Individual Pursuit Final at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games. It was her 15th Paralympic gold Reuters UK news in pictures 24 August 2021 A demonstrator dressed as bee during a protest by members of Extinction Rebellion on Whitehall, in central London PA UK news in pictures 23 August 2021 Former interpreters for the British forces in Afghanistan demonstrate outside the Home Office in central London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 22 August 2021 Police officers form a line in front of the entrance to the Guildhall, London, where protesters have climbed onto a ledge above the entrance during an Extinction Rebellion stage a protest PA UK news in pictures 21 August 2021 People take part in a demonstration in solidarity with people of Afghanistan, in London Reuters UK news in pictures 20 August 2021 People zip wire across the sea from Bournemouth pier towards the beach. PA UK news in pictures 19 August 2021 Supporters of Geronimo the alpaca gather outside Shepherds Close Farm in Wooton Under Edge, Gloucestershire PA UK news in pictures 18 August 2021 Former Afghan interpreters and veterans hold a demonstration outside Downing Street, calling for support and protection for Afghan interpreters and their families PA UK news in pictures 17 August 2021 Military personnel board the RAF Airbus A400M at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire, where evacuation flights from Afghanistan have been landing Reuters UK news in pictures 16 August 2021 Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer takes part in a minute's silence at Wolverhampton police station for the victims of the Plymouth mass shooting last week PA UK news in pictures 15 August 2021 2Storm, a ten-metre tall puppet of a mythical goddess of the sea created by Edinburgh-based visual theatre company Vision Mechanics, makes its way alongside the seafront at North Berwick, East Lothian, during a performance at the Fringe By The Sea festival PA UK news in pictures 14 August 2021 A woman and two young girls look at floral tributes in Plymouth where six people, including the offender, died of gunshot wounds in a firearms incident PA UK news in pictures 13 August 2021 Forensic officers in the Keyham area of Plymouth where six people, including the shooter, died of gunshot wounds in a firearms incident on Thursday evening PA UK news in pictures 12 August 2021 Children ride horses in the River Eden in Appleby, Cumbria, during the annual gathering of travellers for the Appleby Horse Fair PA UK news in pictures 11 August 2021 Stella Moris (left) reacts after talking to the media outside the High Court in London, following the first hearing in the Julian Assange extradition appeal, n London, following the first hearing in the Julian Assange extradition appeal. The US government has won the latest round in its High Court bid to appeal against the decision not to extradite Julian Assange on espionage charges PA UK news in pictures 10 August 2021 Students react after they receive their A-Level results at the Ark Academy, in London Reuters UK news in pictures 9 August 2021 The final athletes from Great Britain arrive home including Jason Kenny, Laura Kenny and Katie Archibald (front left-right) at Heathrow Airport, London following the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games PA UK news in pictures 8 August 2021 Great Britain's Laura Kenny during the closing ceremony of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at the Olympic stadium in Japan PA UK news in pictures 7 August 2021 People from the Glasgow Southside community take part in the Govanhill Carnival, an anti-racist celebration of pride, unity and the contributions immigrants have made to the community in Govanhill, at Queen's Park, Glasgow PA UK news in pictures 6 August 2021 Chijindu Ujah of Britain, Zharnel Hughes of Britain, Richard Kilty of Britain and Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake of Britain celebrate winning silver as they pose with Asha Philip of Britain, Imani Lansiquot of Britain, Dina Asher-Smith of Britain and Daryll Neita of Britain after they won bronze in the women's 4 x 100m relay during Olympic Games Day 14 Getty UK news in pictures 5 August 2021 A protester places flowers on a photograph of an executed man during a demonstration organised by supporters of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) to protest against the inauguration of Iran's new president Ebrahim Raisi in central London AFP via Getty UK news in pictures 4 August 2021 England's Joe Root looks on as India's KL Rahul doesn't make it to a catch during day one of Cinch First Test match at Trent Bridge, Nottingham PA UK news in pictures 3 August 2021 Great Britain's Laura Kenny and Jason Kenny with their silver medals for the Women's Team Pursuit and Mens Team Sprint during the Track Cycling at the Izu Velodrome on the eleventh day of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games in Japan PA UK news in pictures 2 August 2021 Great Britains Charlotte Worthington competes during the Womens BMX Freestyle Final at the Tokyo Olympics PA UK news in pictures 1 August 2021 EPA UK news in pictures 31 July 2021 James Guy, Adam Peaty and Kathleen Dawson celebrate winning the gold medal in the mixed 4x100m medley relay final at the Tokyo Olympics AP UK news in pictures 30 July 2021 Great Britain's Bethany Shriever and Kye Whyte celebrate their Gold and Silver medals respectively for the Cycling BMX Racing at the Ariake Urban Sports Park on the seventh day of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games in Japan PA UK news in pictures 29 July 2021 Team GB's Mallory Franklin during the Womens Canoe Slalom Final on day six of the Tokyo Olympic Games. She went on to win the silver medal Getty UK news in pictures 28 July 2021 Canoers on Llyn Padarn lake in Snowdonia, Gwynedd. It was announced that the north-west Wales slate landscape has been granted UNESCO World Heritage Status PA UK news in pictures 27 July 2021 A view of one of two areas now being used at a warehouse facility in Dover, Kent, for boats used by people thought to be migrants. PA UK news in pictures 26 July 2021 A woman is helped by Border Force officers as a group of people thought to be migrants are brought in to Dover, Kent, onboard a Border Force vessel, following a small boat incident in the Channel PA UK news in pictures 25 July 2021 Vehicles drive through deep water on a flooded road in Nine Elms, London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 24 July 2021 Utilities workers inspect a 15x20ft sinkhole on Green Lane, Liverpool, which is suspected to have been caused by ruptured water main PA UK news in pictures 23 July 2021 Children interact with Mega Please Draw Freely by artist Ei Arakawa inside the Turbine Hall at the Tate Modern in London, part of UNIQLO Tate Play the gallery's new free programme of art-inspired activities for families PA UK news in pictures 22 July 2021 Festivalgoers in the campsite at the Latitude festival in Henham Park, Southwold, Suffolk PA

He added: Why would any sensible, rational, sane government want to look at its most important market and then say well, A, this isnt important and, B, lets put some barriers up to make it more difficult for our own exporters to export to that market, but then say, when it comes to the rest of the world, its the opposite.

His comments came as new analysis commissioned by the Welsh government revealed a hard Brexit could see the Welsh economy shrink by up to 20 per cent, with major employers in industries such as steel and aerospace hit particularly card.

Mr Jones told The Independent the analysis highlighted the need to be sensible on Brexit.

He said: All we want is a sensible Brexit, not one that is going push us off the edge of a cliff.

I dont believe people voted for a Brexit that would cause them to lose jobs, where peoples incomes would fall, so lets have a sensible Brexit thats good for the UK and people who live in the UK.

Mr Jones said he would like a model based on Norways relationship with the EU, including membership of the customs union and full and unfettered access to the single market.

The First Minister is currently at loggerheads with the Government over plans for EU powers on matters that would usually be dealt with by the devolved administrations to instead be handed to ministers in Whitehall  a dispute that could cause a major headache for Theresa May as she attempts to get crucial Brexit legislation through Parliament.

While the Welsh government cannot veto Brexit, it could refuse to give its legislative consent to the EU (Withdrawal) Bill  something the First Minister said was certain to happen unless the bill is amended. Under the long-standing Sewel Convention, the UK Government does not interfere with matters that are under the control of the devolved assemblies.

Mr Jones warned Ms May that she risks causing a constitutional crisis if she overrules the devolved assemblies on the matter.

It would be very serious indeed, he said. It would mean that legislative consent had been refused by the Scottish and Welsh parliaments and ignored by the Westminster Parliament. Thats not the basis for a stable constitutional settlement.

Mr Jones said powers to be returned from Brussels relating to devolved matters should instead be given back to the devolved administrations, who would then agree not to use them until a common UK-wide framework had been agreed. Welsh and Scottish leaders should also be more closely included in the Brexit decision-making process, he said.

There have been suggestions that the House of Lords could refuse to breach the Sewel Convention by passing the EU (Withdrawal) Bill without the consent of the Scottish and Welsh assemblies.

Mr Jones said: The House of Lords is the constitutional guardian of the UK in many ways and I think the House of Lords would be very uneasy about passing a bill without the consent of the Scottish and Welsh legislatures.

With an agreement between the Government and the devolved administrations still some way off, the issue has the potential to delay the approval of the EU (Withdrawal) Bill and potentially even push back the date of Brexit.

Were not close to a solution yet but those discussions are ongoing, Mr Jones said.

The First Minister also claimed he had found interactions with Ms May to be bizarre because she refuses to give him detailed answers to questions.

In the meetings I tend not to get much information, he said. If I ask questions I get pretty stock answers. Weve not really had a discussion on things  thats the problem.

It is quite bizarre in a way Ive never come across before. Gordon Brown was Prime Minister when I became First Minister, then I had David Cameron. There was much more discussion with David Cameron than there is with Theresa May. We quite often didnt agree with each other, but at least there was interaction. It didnt feel staged.

Thats just her personality, its just the way she is.Dominic Grieve has warned the public it is running out of time to change its mind on Brexit, saying the next few months are decision time.

The former Attorney General told The Independent it would soon be too late to reverse the decision to leave the EU, and urged people to make their minds up in the next six months.

The six months we have between now and the autumn are so important, he said. It is going to be decision time. And decision time in the sense of what happens in the next six months being a final decision.

If people do want to change their mind, and they could if they wanted to, the time is now. It cannot be after 29 March 2019, and frankly it cannot be after the end of the autumn of this year.

While he did not endorse calls for a second EU referendum, Mr Grieve said it was important to give people the chance to change their minds on Brexit.

Im not calling for a second referendum, he said. But we should not exclude the possibility that peoples opinion may change. And to start from an opinion on an issue that was expressed 18 months ago, where people are bound to have had their opinion influenced since, we must be very careful to listen about what it is they want.

He continued: It the most extraordinary conundrum. We have an instruction from the electorate, by a small but significant majority, to do something that many of us [in Parliament] think is going to be very hard to achieve without serious damage to the wellbeing of every citizen in this country. It is an ethical conundrum and it is a practical conundrum.

Mr Grieve, who served as Attorney General under David Cameron, has been a vocal critic of the Governments Brexit stance. It was his parliamentary amendment that forced the Government to give MPs a binding vote on the final Brexit deal, leading to him being called a traitor and mutineer by right-wing newspapers.

 Brexit bill: Grieve warns Theresa May of second defeat and says he does not care about 'knives being out for me'

His latest warning comes ahead of a pivotal week for Theresa May as she attempts to find common ground between her warring cabinet ministers over Britains future relationship with the EU.

Ministers are gearing up for a major battle as senior Conservative figures prepare to meet to thrash out the Governments position on the single market and customs union.

Remainers Philip Hammond, the Chancellor, Amber Rudd, the Home Secretary, and Greg Clark, the Business Secretary, have suggested the UK should maintain a customs union with the EU.

Brexit so far: in pictures Show all 53 1 /53 Brexit so far: in pictures Brexit so far: in pictures Brexit campaign Boris Johnson led the VoteLeave campaign PA Brexit so far: in pictures Brexit campaign Boris Johnson MP, Labour MP Gisela Stuart and UKIP MP Douglas Carswell address the people of Stafford in Market Square during the Vote Leave Brexit Battle Bus tour on 17 May 2016. Their lead line on the tour was: We send the EU 350 million a week, let's fund our NHS instead. Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Voting day A man shelters from the rain as he arrives at a polling station in London on 23 June 2016. Millions of Britons voted in the referendum on whether to stay in or leave the European Union AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Referendum results Leader of Ukip, Nigel Farage, reacts at the Leave EU referendum party at Millbank Tower in central London as results indicated that it was likely the UK would leave the European Union AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Protesting the result A young couple painted as EU flags and a man with a sign reading Im not leaving protest outside Downing Street against the voters decision to leave the EU on 24 June 2016 Getty Brexit so far: in pictures David Cameron resigns British Prime Minister David Cameron resigns on the steps of 10 Downing Street on 24 June 2016 after the results of the EU referendum were declared and the United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Theresa May Becomes the new Conservative Party leader Theresa May receives a kiss from her husband Philip, after becoming the new Conservative Party leader on 11 July 2016. May became Prime Minister two days later and although she voted to remain in the referendum was keen to lead Britains Brexit talks after her only rival in the race to succeed David Cameron pulled out unexpectedly. May was left as the only contender standing after the withdrawal from the leadership race of Andrea Leadsom, who faced criticism for suggesting she was more qualified to be prime minister because she had children AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Lancaster House keynote speech on Brexit British Prime Minister Theresa May delivers her keynote speech on Brexit at Lancaster House in London on 17 January 2017. Where she spoke about her offer to introduce a transition period after the UK formally leaves the European Union in March 2019. Despite repeating the pro-Brexit mantra of no deal is better than a bad deal, the Prime Minister claimed she wanted a tone of trust between the negotiators and said Britain was leaving the EU but not Europe. She said there should be a clear double lock needed for the transitional period to make sure businesses had time to prepare for changes to their trading relationships with the EU Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Triggering of Article 50 British Prime Minister Theresa May in the cabinet, sitting below a painting of Britain's first Prime Minister Robert Walpole, signs the official letter to European Council President Donald Tusk invoking Article 50 and the United Kingdom's intention to leave the EU on 29 March 2017 Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Gibraltar nonsense Tensions have risen over Brexit negotiations for the Rock of Gibraltar. The European Council has said Gibraltar would be included in a trade deal between London and Brussels only with the agreement of Spain. While former Conservative leader Michael Howard claimed that Theresa May would be prepared to go to war to protect the territory. Spain's foreign minister stepped in only to assert that there was no need for the dispute Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Shock snap election Soon after triggering Article 50, Theresa May called on 18 April 2017 for a snap general election. The election would be on 8 June and it came as a shock move to many, with her reasoning to try to bolster her position before tough talks on leaving the EU AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Dissolution of Parliament for General Election Campaign Prime Minister Theresa May makes a statement in Downing Street after returning from Buckingham Palace on 3 May 2017. The Prime Minister visited the Queen to ask for the dissolution of Parliament signalling the official start to the general election campaign Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Conservatives lose parliamentary majority An arrangement of British daily newspapers showing front page stories about the exit poll results of the snap general election. British Prime Minister Theresa May faced pressure to resign on 9 June 2017 after losing her parliamentary majority, plunging the country into uncertainty as Brexit talks loomed. The pound fell sharply amid fears the Conservative leader would be unable to form a government AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Labour gains Britains opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn gives a tumbs up as he arrives at Labour headquarters in central London on 9 June 2017 after the snap general election results showed a hung parliament with Labour gains and the Conservatives losing their majority AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Brexit negotiations begin Brexit Minister David Davis and European Commission member in charge of Brexit negotiations Michel Barnier address a press conference at the end of the first day of Brexit negotiations in Brussels on 19 June 2017 AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures May speaks in Florence British Prime Minister Theresa May speaks on 22 September 2017, in Florence. May sought to unlock Brexit talks after Brussels demanded more clarity on the crunch issues of budget payments and EU citizens' rights AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures EU council summit  insufficient progress German Chancellor Angela Merkel joins other EU leaders for a breakfast meeting during an EU summit in Brussels on 20 October 2017. The EU spoke about Brexit and announced that insufficient progress had been made AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures DUP derails settlement on the withdrawal part of Brexit DUP Deputy Leader Nigel Dodds walks off after speaking to members of the media as a protester holding flags shouts after him outside the Houses of Parliament on 5 December 2017. British Prime Minister Theresa May was forced to pull out of a deal with Brussels after the DUP said it would not accept terms which see Northern Ireland treated differently from the rest of the UK Getty Brexit so far: in pictures May suffers defeat over EU (Withdrawal) Bill Theresa May suffers defeat in parliament over EU (Withdrawal) Bill on 13 December 2017. The Government was defeated by Conservative rebels and Labour MPs in a vote on its key piece of Brexit legislation. MPs amended the EU (Withdrawal) Bill against Theresa May's will, guaranteeing Parliament a meaningful vote on any Brexit deal she agrees with Brussels. Ms May's whips applied pressure on Conservative rebels who remained defiant in the Commons throughout the day and in the end the Government was defeated by 309 votes to 305 Brexit so far: in pictures EU council summit  sufficient progress Britain's Prime minister Theresa May arrives to attend the first day of a European union summit in Brussels on 14 December 2017. European leaders discussed Brexit and announced there was finally sufficient progress at the end of the two days AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures The game moves to transition Brexit Secretary David Davis gives evidence on developments in European Union divorce talks to the Commons Exiting the EU Committee in Portcullis House, London, on 24 January 2018 PA Brexit so far: in pictures Trade deal is what May wants French President Emmanuel Macron gestures to Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May after they hold a press conference at the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, on 18 January 2018. May and Macron agreed a new border security deal, through which the UK will pay more to France to stop migrants trying to reach British shores on 18 January 2018 AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Transition period agreed The UK and EU agree terms for Brexit transition period on 19 March, 2018 Reuters Brexit so far: in pictures No agreement on Irish border The EU and UK however failed to reach an agreement on the Irish border during the successful talks on other Brexit issues AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures EU attacks Mays fantasy strategy For months after the March deal is struck there is little significant progress in talks. One senior EU official tears into Britains fantasy negotiating strategy and accuses Theresa May of not even having a position on a variety of important issue Getty Brexit so far: in pictures UK releases Ireland plan Britain releases a new customs plan to solve the Northern Ireland border but Michel Barnier says it leaves unanswered questions and would not prevent a hard border EbS Brexit so far: in pictures Chequers plan agreed The cabinet agrees on a plan known as the "Chequers deal" on July 6 2018. The plan seeks regulatory alignment on goods and food, divergence on services, freedom from the European Courts of Justice and an end to free movement. Many were surprised that the hard Brexiteers of the cabinet would agree to this plan PA Brexit so far: in pictures Chequers plan sparks resignations Brexit Secretary David Davis and Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson and numerous ministers resign in the days following the Chequers agreement Reuters Brexit so far: in pictures Davis out, Raab in On 9 July, Dominic Raab replaces David Davis as Brexit Secretary. Raab is a keen Brexiteer and was a housing minister before taking over from Davis Reuters Brexit so far: in pictures Barnier's "deal like no other" EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier claims on August 29 2018 that they are prepared to offer Britain a trade deal like no other, though he stressed that they will not divide or change the single market to accommodate Britain AP Brexit so far: in pictures "My deal or no deal" In an interview on Panorama on September 17, the Prime Minister insists that any Brexit deal will be offered to the EU on her terms. She asserts this amongst continued attacks on her approach to Brexit by Boris Johnson and the European Research Group, headed by Jacob Rees Mogg BBC/Jeff Overs Brexit so far: in pictures EU leaders reject Chequers Quite the blow was dealt to the Prime Minister at a EU leaders summit in Salzburg on September 20. European Council President Donald Tusk stated that the Chequers deal "will not work" Reuters Brexit so far: in pictures May demands respect Following the rejection of her Chequers plan the day before, the Prime Minister voiced her anger that the EU had dismissed it without offering an alternative. She stated that throughout this process, I have treated the EU with nothing but respect. The UK expects the same. A good relationship at the end of this process depends on it." Getty Brexit so far: in pictures People's Vote march As the People's Vote campaign and The Independent's Final Say campaign gain traction, 700,000 people turn out in London to demand a final say on the UK's Brexit deal on October 20 2018 PA Brexit so far: in pictures More resignations As the Prime Minister settles on a Brexit deal, Brexit secretary Dominic Raab resigns along with Work and Pensions secretary Esther McVey and many other ministers Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Final Say petitions delivered to Downing Street People's Vote supporting MPs Chukka Umunna, Justine Greening and Caroline Lucas and The Independent editor Christian Broughton deliver over a million signatures in favour of a People's Vote to the Prime Minister at 10 Downing Street on December 3 2018 PA Brexit so far: in pictures May delays vote On December 10, the Prime Minister delayed the vote on her Brexit deal as it was near certain not to pass through the Commons due to Tory rebels and lack of DUP support AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures No confidence motion Tory MPs triggered a confidence vote in the Prime Minister on December 12. She won by 200 votes to 117 Reuters Brexit so far: in pictures Commons rejects the deal Following the delay, the Prime Minister's deal was rejected in the Commons by a historic 230 votes AFP Brexit so far: in pictures Corbyn tables a no confidence motion Following the rejection of the Prime Minister's deal, opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn tabled a motion of no confidence in the government, which the government won by a margin of 19 AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Plan B The Prime Minister won the support of the commons to return to Brussels to renegotiate the backstop on January 29. In the same sitting, MPs also voted against a no-deal Brexit in a non-legally binding motion PA Brexit so far: in pictures EU council president savages Brexit campaigners who failed to plan for departure: Special place in hell There is a special place in hell for pro-Brexit campaigners who demanded Britain leave the EU without explaining how it should happen, Donald Tusk has said. The European Council president launched the scathing attack as he accused anti-EU campaigners of pushing for Brexit without even a sketch of a plan how to carry it out safely. Mr Tusk also dismissed suggestions that the EU could reopen negotiations over the controversial Northern Ireland backstop, dealing a blow to Theresa Mays hopes of securing fresh concessions as she tries to get her exit deal through parliament. Speaking in Brussels alongside Irish taoiseach Leo Varadkar, Mr Tusk said: Ive been wondering what a special place in hell looks like for people who promoted Brexit without even a sketch of a plan how to carry it out safely. He also tweeted the accusation moments later Getty Brexit so far: in pictures EU and UK announce talks to restart after Theresa May visits Brussels Both have agreed to restart Brexit talks to find a way through the deadlock in Westminster, following a visit by Theresa May to Brussels. In a joint statement the British government and European Commission said Ms May had had a robust but constructive meeting with president Jean-Claude Juncker, and that the pair would meet again before the end of the month. But the EU again refused to reopen the withdrawal agreement and its controversial backstop  with any negotiations expected to focus on the future relationship between the UK and EU instead Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Brexit strategy lost MPs voted down May's Brext plans, with a majority of 45. The prime minister did not appear in parliament to see another defeat PA Brexit so far: in pictures Labour and Conservative MPs resign and create the Independent Group Back row of Chris Leslie, Gavin Shuker, Chuka Umunna and Mike Gapes, middle row of Angela Smith, Luciana Berger and Ann Coffey and front row of Sarah Wollaston, Heidi Allen, Anna Soubry and Joan Ryan PA Brexit so far: in pictures Non-biding votes on amendments to Brexit motion On February 27 he house held a series of votes, unanimously calling for the UK and EU to guarantee citizens rights in a no-deal scenario AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Attorney General publishes legal advice A hammer blow for May as Geoffrey Cox said her renegotiated deal can still leave UK in backstop against its will. Mr Cox did say the prime ministers efforts had reduced the risk of the UK being trapped in the backstop indefinitely. MPs went on to vote against her deal by 391 to 242 UK Parliament/PA Brexit so far: in pictures No-deal off the table MPs rejected a no-deal Brexit by 43 votes on March 13, with cabinet ministers rebelling in another humiliating defeat for Theresa May. A day later they voted in favour of the prime minister seeking an extension to Article 50 AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures House speaker bans May from third Commons vote on same Brexit deal John Bercow sensationally told Theresa May he would stop her making another attempt to pass her Brexit deal unless she has secured changes. The Speaker said a further meaningful vote would be ruled out of order if the motion was the same or substantially the same  under an ancient convention to stop the government bullying parliament on issues MPs have rejected Parliament Live Brexit so far: in pictures May writes to Tusk The prime minister wrote to Donald Tusk, president of the European Council, to ask for a three-month extension to give her more time to try to get her deal through parliament. However the European Commission advises the EU27 should offer a short extension to May 23 or a longer one meaning the UK would participate in European elections 10 Downing Street/AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures European Council summit Theresa Mays request to extend triggering Article 50 until the end of June was rejected by the EU, and instead offered a shorter time frame. She accepted the offer of a delay until May 22 if her withdrawal deal is approved by Parliament. If MPs rejected it for a third time, the EU said Britain must propose a new plan by April 12. Ms May said she will not support a long delay because it would mean Britain participating in elections for the European Parliament Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Brussels confirms preparations for a no-deal Brexit are completed They warned that it is increasingly likely the UK will crash out. In a statement the European Commission (EC) said preparedness and contingency work, which the EC has been conducting since December 2017, was now finished. The announcement came days after EU leaders agreed to a request by Theresa May to extend the UKs Brexit date AFP Brexit so far: in pictures May resigns Reuters

They were joined by backbench Tory rebels Anna Soubry and Ken Clarke, who said they would try to build cross-party support for maintaining the existing relationship.

However, opponents say a customs arrangement with the EU would stop Britain making new trade deals after Brexit.

Brexiteers Boris Johnson, the Foreign Secretary, Liam Fox, the International Trade Secretary, and Michael Gove, the Environment Secretary, are set to use two crunch meetings of the Cabinets Brexit sub-committee next week to insist that Britain leaves the customs union.

It places them on a collision course with the Prime Minister, who is reported to be considering plans for the UK to remain in some form of customs arrangement with the EU.

Downing Street has said the Prime Minister is keeping an open mind on the issue.

Mr Johnson, Mr Fox and Mr Gove were backed by leading Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg, who chairs the influential European Research Group of pro-Brexit Tory MPs.

He told BBCs Today programme: We need to be free to do deals with the rest of the world.

We must be out of the protectionist common external tariff which mainly protects inefficient EU industries at the cost to British consumers.Senior Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg has accused Treasury civil servants of fiddling the figures on Britains withdrawal from the European Union, dramatically reigniting a row over allegations that officials are trying to undermine Brexit.

The chair of the pro-Brexit European Research Group suggested Treasury staff had produced politically influenced analysis and repeated his claim that officials are trying to sway policy to keep the UK in the EU customs union.

His comments came a day after his Eurosceptic ally, Brexit minister Steve Baker, was forced to apologise to the House of Commons for initially refusing to dismiss the allegation.

The fresh claims are likely to place more pressure on Theresa May to take action against Tory MPs openly questioning the integrity of civil servants.

Recommended Steve Baker makes Commons apology over civil service conspiracy claim

Mr Rees-Mogg told the BBC Today programme: With all forecasts, the assumptions you make at the beginning determine the outcomes that you get.

If you look at the forecasts the Treasury made before the referendum, they were a humiliation. They were clearly politically influenced.

He added: The Office [for] Budget Responsibility was set up by George Osborne because the Treasury forecasts had been politicised. It was thought that they were unreliable on political grounds.

With the referendum and with the EU, the Treasury has gone back to making forecasts. It was politically advantageous for them in the past. It is the same for them now.

So yes, I do think they are fiddling the figures.

Brexit so far: in pictures Show all 53 1 /53 Brexit so far: in pictures Brexit so far: in pictures Brexit campaign Boris Johnson led the VoteLeave campaign PA Brexit so far: in pictures Brexit campaign Boris Johnson MP, Labour MP Gisela Stuart and UKIP MP Douglas Carswell address the people of Stafford in Market Square during the Vote Leave Brexit Battle Bus tour on 17 May 2016. Their lead line on the tour was: We send the EU 350 million a week, let's fund our NHS instead. Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Voting day A man shelters from the rain as he arrives at a polling station in London on 23 June 2016. Millions of Britons voted in the referendum on whether to stay in or leave the European Union AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Referendum results Leader of Ukip, Nigel Farage, reacts at the Leave EU referendum party at Millbank Tower in central London as results indicated that it was likely the UK would leave the European Union AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Protesting the result A young couple painted as EU flags and a man with a sign reading Im not leaving protest outside Downing Street against the voters decision to leave the EU on 24 June 2016 Getty Brexit so far: in pictures David Cameron resigns British Prime Minister David Cameron resigns on the steps of 10 Downing Street on 24 June 2016 after the results of the EU referendum were declared and the United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Theresa May Becomes the new Conservative Party leader Theresa May receives a kiss from her husband Philip, after becoming the new Conservative Party leader on 11 July 2016. May became Prime Minister two days later and although she voted to remain in the referendum was keen to lead Britains Brexit talks after her only rival in the race to succeed David Cameron pulled out unexpectedly. May was left as the only contender standing after the withdrawal from the leadership race of Andrea Leadsom, who faced criticism for suggesting she was more qualified to be prime minister because she had children AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Lancaster House keynote speech on Brexit British Prime Minister Theresa May delivers her keynote speech on Brexit at Lancaster House in London on 17 January 2017. Where she spoke about her offer to introduce a transition period after the UK formally leaves the European Union in March 2019. Despite repeating the pro-Brexit mantra of no deal is better than a bad deal, the Prime Minister claimed she wanted a tone of trust between the negotiators and said Britain was leaving the EU but not Europe. She said there should be a clear double lock needed for the transitional period to make sure businesses had time to prepare for changes to their trading relationships with the EU Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Triggering of Article 50 British Prime Minister Theresa May in the cabinet, sitting below a painting of Britain's first Prime Minister Robert Walpole, signs the official letter to European Council President Donald Tusk invoking Article 50 and the United Kingdom's intention to leave the EU on 29 March 2017 Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Gibraltar nonsense Tensions have risen over Brexit negotiations for the Rock of Gibraltar. The European Council has said Gibraltar would be included in a trade deal between London and Brussels only with the agreement of Spain. While former Conservative leader Michael Howard claimed that Theresa May would be prepared to go to war to protect the territory. Spain's foreign minister stepped in only to assert that there was no need for the dispute Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Shock snap election Soon after triggering Article 50, Theresa May called on 18 April 2017 for a snap general election. The election would be on 8 June and it came as a shock move to many, with her reasoning to try to bolster her position before tough talks on leaving the EU AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Dissolution of Parliament for General Election Campaign Prime Minister Theresa May makes a statement in Downing Street after returning from Buckingham Palace on 3 May 2017. The Prime Minister visited the Queen to ask for the dissolution of Parliament signalling the official start to the general election campaign Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Conservatives lose parliamentary majority An arrangement of British daily newspapers showing front page stories about the exit poll results of the snap general election. British Prime Minister Theresa May faced pressure to resign on 9 June 2017 after losing her parliamentary majority, plunging the country into uncertainty as Brexit talks loomed. The pound fell sharply amid fears the Conservative leader would be unable to form a government AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Labour gains Britains opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn gives a tumbs up as he arrives at Labour headquarters in central London on 9 June 2017 after the snap general election results showed a hung parliament with Labour gains and the Conservatives losing their majority AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Brexit negotiations begin Brexit Minister David Davis and European Commission member in charge of Brexit negotiations Michel Barnier address a press conference at the end of the first day of Brexit negotiations in Brussels on 19 June 2017 AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures May speaks in Florence British Prime Minister Theresa May speaks on 22 September 2017, in Florence. May sought to unlock Brexit talks after Brussels demanded more clarity on the crunch issues of budget payments and EU citizens' rights AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures EU council summit  insufficient progress German Chancellor Angela Merkel joins other EU leaders for a breakfast meeting during an EU summit in Brussels on 20 October 2017. The EU spoke about Brexit and announced that insufficient progress had been made AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures DUP derails settlement on the withdrawal part of Brexit DUP Deputy Leader Nigel Dodds walks off after speaking to members of the media as a protester holding flags shouts after him outside the Houses of Parliament on 5 December 2017. British Prime Minister Theresa May was forced to pull out of a deal with Brussels after the DUP said it would not accept terms which see Northern Ireland treated differently from the rest of the UK Getty Brexit so far: in pictures May suffers defeat over EU (Withdrawal) Bill Theresa May suffers defeat in parliament over EU (Withdrawal) Bill on 13 December 2017. The Government was defeated by Conservative rebels and Labour MPs in a vote on its key piece of Brexit legislation. MPs amended the EU (Withdrawal) Bill against Theresa May's will, guaranteeing Parliament a meaningful vote on any Brexit deal she agrees with Brussels. Ms May's whips applied pressure on Conservative rebels who remained defiant in the Commons throughout the day and in the end the Government was defeated by 309 votes to 305 Brexit so far: in pictures EU council summit  sufficient progress Britain's Prime minister Theresa May arrives to attend the first day of a European union summit in Brussels on 14 December 2017. European leaders discussed Brexit and announced there was finally sufficient progress at the end of the two days AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures The game moves to transition Brexit Secretary David Davis gives evidence on developments in European Union divorce talks to the Commons Exiting the EU Committee in Portcullis House, London, on 24 January 2018 PA Brexit so far: in pictures Trade deal is what May wants French President Emmanuel Macron gestures to Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May after they hold a press conference at the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, on 18 January 2018. May and Macron agreed a new border security deal, through which the UK will pay more to France to stop migrants trying to reach British shores on 18 January 2018 AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Transition period agreed The UK and EU agree terms for Brexit transition period on 19 March, 2018 Reuters Brexit so far: in pictures No agreement on Irish border The EU and UK however failed to reach an agreement on the Irish border during the successful talks on other Brexit issues AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures EU attacks Mays fantasy strategy For months after the March deal is struck there is little significant progress in talks. One senior EU official tears into Britains fantasy negotiating strategy and accuses Theresa May of not even having a position on a variety of important issue Getty Brexit so far: in pictures UK releases Ireland plan Britain releases a new customs plan to solve the Northern Ireland border but Michel Barnier says it leaves unanswered questions and would not prevent a hard border EbS Brexit so far: in pictures Chequers plan agreed The cabinet agrees on a plan known as the "Chequers deal" on July 6 2018. The plan seeks regulatory alignment on goods and food, divergence on services, freedom from the European Courts of Justice and an end to free movement. Many were surprised that the hard Brexiteers of the cabinet would agree to this plan PA Brexit so far: in pictures Chequers plan sparks resignations Brexit Secretary David Davis and Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson and numerous ministers resign in the days following the Chequers agreement Reuters Brexit so far: in pictures Davis out, Raab in On 9 July, Dominic Raab replaces David Davis as Brexit Secretary. Raab is a keen Brexiteer and was a housing minister before taking over from Davis Reuters Brexit so far: in pictures Barnier's "deal like no other" EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier claims on August 29 2018 that they are prepared to offer Britain a trade deal like no other, though he stressed that they will not divide or change the single market to accommodate Britain AP Brexit so far: in pictures "My deal or no deal" In an interview on Panorama on September 17, the Prime Minister insists that any Brexit deal will be offered to the EU on her terms. She asserts this amongst continued attacks on her approach to Brexit by Boris Johnson and the European Research Group, headed by Jacob Rees Mogg BBC/Jeff Overs Brexit so far: in pictures EU leaders reject Chequers Quite the blow was dealt to the Prime Minister at a EU leaders summit in Salzburg on September 20. European Council President Donald Tusk stated that the Chequers deal "will not work" Reuters Brexit so far: in pictures May demands respect Following the rejection of her Chequers plan the day before, the Prime Minister voiced her anger that the EU had dismissed it without offering an alternative. She stated that throughout this process, I have treated the EU with nothing but respect. The UK expects the same. A good relationship at the end of this process depends on it." Getty Brexit so far: in pictures People's Vote march As the People's Vote campaign and The Independent's Final Say campaign gain traction, 700,000 people turn out in London to demand a final say on the UK's Brexit deal on October 20 2018 PA Brexit so far: in pictures More resignations As the Prime Minister settles on a Brexit deal, Brexit secretary Dominic Raab resigns along with Work and Pensions secretary Esther McVey and many other ministers Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Final Say petitions delivered to Downing Street People's Vote supporting MPs Chukka Umunna, Justine Greening and Caroline Lucas and The Independent editor Christian Broughton deliver over a million signatures in favour of a People's Vote to the Prime Minister at 10 Downing Street on December 3 2018 PA Brexit so far: in pictures May delays vote On December 10, the Prime Minister delayed the vote on her Brexit deal as it was near certain not to pass through the Commons due to Tory rebels and lack of DUP support AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures No confidence motion Tory MPs triggered a confidence vote in the Prime Minister on December 12. She won by 200 votes to 117 Reuters Brexit so far: in pictures Commons rejects the deal Following the delay, the Prime Minister's deal was rejected in the Commons by a historic 230 votes AFP Brexit so far: in pictures Corbyn tables a no confidence motion Following the rejection of the Prime Minister's deal, opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn tabled a motion of no confidence in the government, which the government won by a margin of 19 AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Plan B The Prime Minister won the support of the commons to return to Brussels to renegotiate the backstop on January 29. In the same sitting, MPs also voted against a no-deal Brexit in a non-legally binding motion PA Brexit so far: in pictures EU council president savages Brexit campaigners who failed to plan for departure: Special place in hell There is a special place in hell for pro-Brexit campaigners who demanded Britain leave the EU without explaining how it should happen, Donald Tusk has said. The European Council president launched the scathing attack as he accused anti-EU campaigners of pushing for Brexit without even a sketch of a plan how to carry it out safely. Mr Tusk also dismissed suggestions that the EU could reopen negotiations over the controversial Northern Ireland backstop, dealing a blow to Theresa Mays hopes of securing fresh concessions as she tries to get her exit deal through parliament. Speaking in Brussels alongside Irish taoiseach Leo Varadkar, Mr Tusk said: Ive been wondering what a special place in hell looks like for people who promoted Brexit without even a sketch of a plan how to carry it out safely. He also tweeted the accusation moments later Getty Brexit so far: in pictures EU and UK announce talks to restart after Theresa May visits Brussels Both have agreed to restart Brexit talks to find a way through the deadlock in Westminster, following a visit by Theresa May to Brussels. In a joint statement the British government and European Commission said Ms May had had a robust but constructive meeting with president Jean-Claude Juncker, and that the pair would meet again before the end of the month. But the EU again refused to reopen the withdrawal agreement and its controversial backstop  with any negotiations expected to focus on the future relationship between the UK and EU instead Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Brexit strategy lost MPs voted down May's Brext plans, with a majority of 45. The prime minister did not appear in parliament to see another defeat PA Brexit so far: in pictures Labour and Conservative MPs resign and create the Independent Group Back row of Chris Leslie, Gavin Shuker, Chuka Umunna and Mike Gapes, middle row of Angela Smith, Luciana Berger and Ann Coffey and front row of Sarah Wollaston, Heidi Allen, Anna Soubry and Joan Ryan PA Brexit so far: in pictures Non-biding votes on amendments to Brexit motion On February 27 he house held a series of votes, unanimously calling for the UK and EU to guarantee citizens rights in a no-deal scenario AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Attorney General publishes legal advice A hammer blow for May as Geoffrey Cox said her renegotiated deal can still leave UK in backstop against its will. Mr Cox did say the prime ministers efforts had reduced the risk of the UK being trapped in the backstop indefinitely. MPs went on to vote against her deal by 391 to 242 UK Parliament/PA Brexit so far: in pictures No-deal off the table MPs rejected a no-deal Brexit by 43 votes on March 13, with cabinet ministers rebelling in another humiliating defeat for Theresa May. A day later they voted in favour of the prime minister seeking an extension to Article 50 AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures House speaker bans May from third Commons vote on same Brexit deal John Bercow sensationally told Theresa May he would stop her making another attempt to pass her Brexit deal unless she has secured changes. The Speaker said a further meaningful vote would be ruled out of order if the motion was the same or substantially the same  under an ancient convention to stop the government bullying parliament on issues MPs have rejected Parliament Live Brexit so far: in pictures May writes to Tusk The prime minister wrote to Donald Tusk, president of the European Council, to ask for a three-month extension to give her more time to try to get her deal through parliament. However the European Commission advises the EU27 should offer a short extension to May 23 or a longer one meaning the UK would participate in European elections 10 Downing Street/AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures European Council summit Theresa Mays request to extend triggering Article 50 until the end of June was rejected by the EU, and instead offered a shorter time frame. She accepted the offer of a delay until May 22 if her withdrawal deal is approved by Parliament. If MPs rejected it for a third time, the EU said Britain must propose a new plan by April 12. Ms May said she will not support a long delay because it would mean Britain participating in elections for the European Parliament Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Brussels confirms preparations for a no-deal Brexit are completed They warned that it is increasingly likely the UK will crash out. In a statement the European Commission (EC) said preparedness and contingency work, which the EC has been conducting since December 2017, was now finished. The announcement came days after EU leaders agreed to a request by Theresa May to extend the UKs Brexit date AFP Brexit so far: in pictures May resigns Reuters

The explosive claims prolong the furious row that began on Thursday, when Mr Rees-Mogg asked Mr Baker in the Commons chamber whether he had heard an allegation that Treasury officials had deliberately developed an analysis designed to influence policy in favour of staying in the customs union.

He said the allegation had come from Charles Grant, head of the influential Centre for European Reform think tank.

Mr Baker said he was familiar with the suggestion and called it an extraordinary allegation.

However, Mr Grant immediately denied making the claim, and an audio recording of the event in question later confirmed his account.

After an angry backlash and calls for him to be sacked, Mr Baker admitted he had misinterpreted Mr Grants comment and apologised to him and the House of Commons.

However, Mr Rees-Mogg refused to back down and insisted his claims were correct.

The only thing Ill apologise for is that its turned out to be much more serious than I thought, he said.

 Brexit Minister Steve Baker apologises for suggesting he'd heard about a pro-Remain plot

He accused the Treasury of running policy that is not government policy and then giving private briefings to people about it, saying: It is not for officials to invent policy.

Under the ministerial code, officials are not allowed to brief journalists without specific ministerial permission, so we need to know what is going on in the Treasury.

Mr Grant is getting private briefings from the Treasury against government policy, he added.

Speaking on the same programme, Mr Grant hit back and demanded that Mr Rees-Mogg apologise.

Mr Baker, a very honourable man, has apologised to me and to the House of Commons for saying things that werent quite right. I am surprised that Mr Rees-Mogg hasnt apologised.

The Treasury cares about economics so it is naturally pushing for the sorts of Brexit that minimise the economic damage.

Responding to Mr Rees-Mogg, a Treasury spokesperson said: Both Treasury ministers and officials are working hard to deliver the best Brexit deal for Britain. The Prime Minister and the Chancellor have said repeatedly that we will be leaving both the single market and the customs union. Any suggestion to the contrary is simply false.Were it not for an unintended political earthquake in the summer of 2016, Dominic Grieve might well have retired a mere former Attorney General. That he has now added such further sobriquets as traitor and mutineer has surprised him as much as anyone.

It was the passing of Grieves amendment in the House of Commons, seeking to give Parliament a meaningful vote on the terms of any deal with the European Union, that caused him and 10 rebellious Conservative colleagues to be branded traitors on the front of the Daily Mail, a month after The Telegraph had called 15 of them mutineers.

If there is indeed a Tory HMS Bounty, many see Grieve as Fletcher Christian.

Id considered myself a Eurosceptic, he says, over a cup of tea outside his office. I never imagined that this is what would prompt me to be so outspoken. Its not from any wilful decision of my own. But I do see this as a defining moment in modern British history. We are facing a political crisis. It is completely unresolved, and I cant predict how it is likely to be resolved.

He is emphatically not retired. Instead, at 61 years of age, David Camerons Attorney General is in the middle of what he agrees is the fight of his political life. If you care about the future of your country, its not a very good moment to bail out of politics, he says. Like Brexit, its clear Grieve will be here for the long term, whatever that might mean, but it is the very immediate future that concerns him most.

The six months we have between now and the autumn are so important, he says. It is going to be decision time. And decision time in the sense of what happens in the next six months being a final decision. If people do want to change their mind, and they could if they wanted to, the time is now. It cannot be after March 29th 2019, and frankly it cannot be after the end of the autumn of this year.

Of course, people in a democracy are free to change their minds, and Grieve is particularly dismissive of people who have used the referendum as a tool to bully people. To say to them, You must change your mind about whether you think leaving the EU is a good idea.

But even if the public were to change its mind, or has changed its mind already, there is nevertheless no obvious method through which that change of mind can be expressed before the UK leaves the EU in March of next year, a moment Grieve describes as the irrevocable act.

Im not calling for a second referendum, he says, But we should not exclude the possibility that peoples opinion may change. And to start from an opinion on an issue that was expressed 18 months ago, where people are bound to have had their opinion influenced since, we must be very careful to listen about what it is they want.

The consequences of not doing so could not be more serious, for both the Conservative Party and the country. Grieve, a barrister turned Conservative MP and the son of a barrister turned Conservative MP, is in a crowded field, arguably the partys current grand master for succinctly and ever so matter of factly stating almost to the point of understatement the extraordinary gravity of the situation we are all in.

Brexit so far: in pictures Show all 53 1 /53 Brexit so far: in pictures Brexit so far: in pictures Brexit campaign Boris Johnson led the VoteLeave campaign PA Brexit so far: in pictures Brexit campaign Boris Johnson MP, Labour MP Gisela Stuart and UKIP MP Douglas Carswell address the people of Stafford in Market Square during the Vote Leave Brexit Battle Bus tour on 17 May 2016. Their lead line on the tour was: We send the EU 350 million a week, let's fund our NHS instead. Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Voting day A man shelters from the rain as he arrives at a polling station in London on 23 June 2016. Millions of Britons voted in the referendum on whether to stay in or leave the European Union AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Referendum results Leader of Ukip, Nigel Farage, reacts at the Leave EU referendum party at Millbank Tower in central London as results indicated that it was likely the UK would leave the European Union AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Protesting the result A young couple painted as EU flags and a man with a sign reading Im not leaving protest outside Downing Street against the voters decision to leave the EU on 24 June 2016 Getty Brexit so far: in pictures David Cameron resigns British Prime Minister David Cameron resigns on the steps of 10 Downing Street on 24 June 2016 after the results of the EU referendum were declared and the United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Theresa May Becomes the new Conservative Party leader Theresa May receives a kiss from her husband Philip, after becoming the new Conservative Party leader on 11 July 2016. May became Prime Minister two days later and although she voted to remain in the referendum was keen to lead Britains Brexit talks after her only rival in the race to succeed David Cameron pulled out unexpectedly. May was left as the only contender standing after the withdrawal from the leadership race of Andrea Leadsom, who faced criticism for suggesting she was more qualified to be prime minister because she had children AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Lancaster House keynote speech on Brexit British Prime Minister Theresa May delivers her keynote speech on Brexit at Lancaster House in London on 17 January 2017. Where she spoke about her offer to introduce a transition period after the UK formally leaves the European Union in March 2019. Despite repeating the pro-Brexit mantra of no deal is better than a bad deal, the Prime Minister claimed she wanted a tone of trust between the negotiators and said Britain was leaving the EU but not Europe. She said there should be a clear double lock needed for the transitional period to make sure businesses had time to prepare for changes to their trading relationships with the EU Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Triggering of Article 50 British Prime Minister Theresa May in the cabinet, sitting below a painting of Britain's first Prime Minister Robert Walpole, signs the official letter to European Council President Donald Tusk invoking Article 50 and the United Kingdom's intention to leave the EU on 29 March 2017 Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Gibraltar nonsense Tensions have risen over Brexit negotiations for the Rock of Gibraltar. The European Council has said Gibraltar would be included in a trade deal between London and Brussels only with the agreement of Spain. While former Conservative leader Michael Howard claimed that Theresa May would be prepared to go to war to protect the territory. Spain's foreign minister stepped in only to assert that there was no need for the dispute Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Shock snap election Soon after triggering Article 50, Theresa May called on 18 April 2017 for a snap general election. The election would be on 8 June and it came as a shock move to many, with her reasoning to try to bolster her position before tough talks on leaving the EU AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Dissolution of Parliament for General Election Campaign Prime Minister Theresa May makes a statement in Downing Street after returning from Buckingham Palace on 3 May 2017. The Prime Minister visited the Queen to ask for the dissolution of Parliament signalling the official start to the general election campaign Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Conservatives lose parliamentary majority An arrangement of British daily newspapers showing front page stories about the exit poll results of the snap general election. British Prime Minister Theresa May faced pressure to resign on 9 June 2017 after losing her parliamentary majority, plunging the country into uncertainty as Brexit talks loomed. The pound fell sharply amid fears the Conservative leader would be unable to form a government AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Labour gains Britains opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn gives a tumbs up as he arrives at Labour headquarters in central London on 9 June 2017 after the snap general election results showed a hung parliament with Labour gains and the Conservatives losing their majority AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Brexit negotiations begin Brexit Minister David Davis and European Commission member in charge of Brexit negotiations Michel Barnier address a press conference at the end of the first day of Brexit negotiations in Brussels on 19 June 2017 AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures May speaks in Florence British Prime Minister Theresa May speaks on 22 September 2017, in Florence. May sought to unlock Brexit talks after Brussels demanded more clarity on the crunch issues of budget payments and EU citizens' rights AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures EU council summit  insufficient progress German Chancellor Angela Merkel joins other EU leaders for a breakfast meeting during an EU summit in Brussels on 20 October 2017. The EU spoke about Brexit and announced that insufficient progress had been made AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures DUP derails settlement on the withdrawal part of Brexit DUP Deputy Leader Nigel Dodds walks off after speaking to members of the media as a protester holding flags shouts after him outside the Houses of Parliament on 5 December 2017. British Prime Minister Theresa May was forced to pull out of a deal with Brussels after the DUP said it would not accept terms which see Northern Ireland treated differently from the rest of the UK Getty Brexit so far: in pictures May suffers defeat over EU (Withdrawal) Bill Theresa May suffers defeat in parliament over EU (Withdrawal) Bill on 13 December 2017. The Government was defeated by Conservative rebels and Labour MPs in a vote on its key piece of Brexit legislation. MPs amended the EU (Withdrawal) Bill against Theresa May's will, guaranteeing Parliament a meaningful vote on any Brexit deal she agrees with Brussels. Ms May's whips applied pressure on Conservative rebels who remained defiant in the Commons throughout the day and in the end the Government was defeated by 309 votes to 305 Brexit so far: in pictures EU council summit  sufficient progress Britain's Prime minister Theresa May arrives to attend the first day of a European union summit in Brussels on 14 December 2017. European leaders discussed Brexit and announced there was finally sufficient progress at the end of the two days AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures The game moves to transition Brexit Secretary David Davis gives evidence on developments in European Union divorce talks to the Commons Exiting the EU Committee in Portcullis House, London, on 24 January 2018 PA Brexit so far: in pictures Trade deal is what May wants French President Emmanuel Macron gestures to Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May after they hold a press conference at the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, on 18 January 2018. May and Macron agreed a new border security deal, through which the UK will pay more to France to stop migrants trying to reach British shores on 18 January 2018 AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Transition period agreed The UK and EU agree terms for Brexit transition period on 19 March, 2018 Reuters Brexit so far: in pictures No agreement on Irish border The EU and UK however failed to reach an agreement on the Irish border during the successful talks on other Brexit issues AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures EU attacks Mays fantasy strategy For months after the March deal is struck there is little significant progress in talks. One senior EU official tears into Britains fantasy negotiating strategy and accuses Theresa May of not even having a position on a variety of important issue Getty Brexit so far: in pictures UK releases Ireland plan Britain releases a new customs plan to solve the Northern Ireland border but Michel Barnier says it leaves unanswered questions and would not prevent a hard border EbS Brexit so far: in pictures Chequers plan agreed The cabinet agrees on a plan known as the "Chequers deal" on July 6 2018. The plan seeks regulatory alignment on goods and food, divergence on services, freedom from the European Courts of Justice and an end to free movement. Many were surprised that the hard Brexiteers of the cabinet would agree to this plan PA Brexit so far: in pictures Chequers plan sparks resignations Brexit Secretary David Davis and Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson and numerous ministers resign in the days following the Chequers agreement Reuters Brexit so far: in pictures Davis out, Raab in On 9 July, Dominic Raab replaces David Davis as Brexit Secretary. Raab is a keen Brexiteer and was a housing minister before taking over from Davis Reuters Brexit so far: in pictures Barnier's "deal like no other" EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier claims on August 29 2018 that they are prepared to offer Britain a trade deal like no other, though he stressed that they will not divide or change the single market to accommodate Britain AP Brexit so far: in pictures "My deal or no deal" In an interview on Panorama on September 17, the Prime Minister insists that any Brexit deal will be offered to the EU on her terms. She asserts this amongst continued attacks on her approach to Brexit by Boris Johnson and the European Research Group, headed by Jacob Rees Mogg BBC/Jeff Overs Brexit so far: in pictures EU leaders reject Chequers Quite the blow was dealt to the Prime Minister at a EU leaders summit in Salzburg on September 20. European Council President Donald Tusk stated that the Chequers deal "will not work" Reuters Brexit so far: in pictures May demands respect Following the rejection of her Chequers plan the day before, the Prime Minister voiced her anger that the EU had dismissed it without offering an alternative. She stated that throughout this process, I have treated the EU with nothing but respect. The UK expects the same. A good relationship at the end of this process depends on it." Getty Brexit so far: in pictures People's Vote march As the People's Vote campaign and The Independent's Final Say campaign gain traction, 700,000 people turn out in London to demand a final say on the UK's Brexit deal on October 20 2018 PA Brexit so far: in pictures More resignations As the Prime Minister settles on a Brexit deal, Brexit secretary Dominic Raab resigns along with Work and Pensions secretary Esther McVey and many other ministers Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Final Say petitions delivered to Downing Street People's Vote supporting MPs Chukka Umunna, Justine Greening and Caroline Lucas and The Independent editor Christian Broughton deliver over a million signatures in favour of a People's Vote to the Prime Minister at 10 Downing Street on December 3 2018 PA Brexit so far: in pictures May delays vote On December 10, the Prime Minister delayed the vote on her Brexit deal as it was near certain not to pass through the Commons due to Tory rebels and lack of DUP support AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures No confidence motion Tory MPs triggered a confidence vote in the Prime Minister on December 12. She won by 200 votes to 117 Reuters Brexit so far: in pictures Commons rejects the deal Following the delay, the Prime Minister's deal was rejected in the Commons by a historic 230 votes AFP Brexit so far: in pictures Corbyn tables a no confidence motion Following the rejection of the Prime Minister's deal, opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn tabled a motion of no confidence in the government, which the government won by a margin of 19 AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Plan B The Prime Minister won the support of the commons to return to Brussels to renegotiate the backstop on January 29. In the same sitting, MPs also voted against a no-deal Brexit in a non-legally binding motion PA Brexit so far: in pictures EU council president savages Brexit campaigners who failed to plan for departure: Special place in hell There is a special place in hell for pro-Brexit campaigners who demanded Britain leave the EU without explaining how it should happen, Donald Tusk has said. The European Council president launched the scathing attack as he accused anti-EU campaigners of pushing for Brexit without even a sketch of a plan how to carry it out safely. Mr Tusk also dismissed suggestions that the EU could reopen negotiations over the controversial Northern Ireland backstop, dealing a blow to Theresa Mays hopes of securing fresh concessions as she tries to get her exit deal through parliament. Speaking in Brussels alongside Irish taoiseach Leo Varadkar, Mr Tusk said: Ive been wondering what a special place in hell looks like for people who promoted Brexit without even a sketch of a plan how to carry it out safely. He also tweeted the accusation moments later Getty Brexit so far: in pictures EU and UK announce talks to restart after Theresa May visits Brussels Both have agreed to restart Brexit talks to find a way through the deadlock in Westminster, following a visit by Theresa May to Brussels. In a joint statement the British government and European Commission said Ms May had had a robust but constructive meeting with president Jean-Claude Juncker, and that the pair would meet again before the end of the month. But the EU again refused to reopen the withdrawal agreement and its controversial backstop  with any negotiations expected to focus on the future relationship between the UK and EU instead Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Brexit strategy lost MPs voted down May's Brext plans, with a majority of 45. The prime minister did not appear in parliament to see another defeat PA Brexit so far: in pictures Labour and Conservative MPs resign and create the Independent Group Back row of Chris Leslie, Gavin Shuker, Chuka Umunna and Mike Gapes, middle row of Angela Smith, Luciana Berger and Ann Coffey and front row of Sarah Wollaston, Heidi Allen, Anna Soubry and Joan Ryan PA Brexit so far: in pictures Non-biding votes on amendments to Brexit motion On February 27 he house held a series of votes, unanimously calling for the UK and EU to guarantee citizens rights in a no-deal scenario AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Attorney General publishes legal advice A hammer blow for May as Geoffrey Cox said her renegotiated deal can still leave UK in backstop against its will. Mr Cox did say the prime ministers efforts had reduced the risk of the UK being trapped in the backstop indefinitely. MPs went on to vote against her deal by 391 to 242 UK Parliament/PA Brexit so far: in pictures No-deal off the table MPs rejected a no-deal Brexit by 43 votes on March 13, with cabinet ministers rebelling in another humiliating defeat for Theresa May. A day later they voted in favour of the prime minister seeking an extension to Article 50 AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures House speaker bans May from third Commons vote on same Brexit deal John Bercow sensationally told Theresa May he would stop her making another attempt to pass her Brexit deal unless she has secured changes. The Speaker said a further meaningful vote would be ruled out of order if the motion was the same or substantially the same  under an ancient convention to stop the government bullying parliament on issues MPs have rejected Parliament Live Brexit so far: in pictures May writes to Tusk The prime minister wrote to Donald Tusk, president of the European Council, to ask for a three-month extension to give her more time to try to get her deal through parliament. However the European Commission advises the EU27 should offer a short extension to May 23 or a longer one meaning the UK would participate in European elections 10 Downing Street/AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures European Council summit Theresa Mays request to extend triggering Article 50 until the end of June was rejected by the EU, and instead offered a shorter time frame. She accepted the offer of a delay until May 22 if her withdrawal deal is approved by Parliament. If MPs rejected it for a third time, the EU said Britain must propose a new plan by April 12. Ms May said she will not support a long delay because it would mean Britain participating in elections for the European Parliament Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Brussels confirms preparations for a no-deal Brexit are completed They warned that it is increasingly likely the UK will crash out. In a statement the European Commission (EC) said preparedness and contingency work, which the EC has been conducting since December 2017, was now finished. The announcement came days after EU leaders agreed to a request by Theresa May to extend the UKs Brexit date AFP Brexit so far: in pictures May resigns Reuters

It is the most extraordinary conundrum, he says. We have an instruction from the electorate, by a small but significant majority, to do something that many of us [in Parliament] think is going to be very hard to achieve without serious damage to the wellbeing of every citizen in this country. It is an ethical conundrum and it is a practical conundrum.

And it is a conundrum to which a large number of his MP colleagues are reaching for the easy answer, which is not the answer.

No, the party doesnt need a new leader, he says very clearly. There is no evidence a new leader would do better than the Prime Minister at leading the party, and indeed, in view of the obvious fact that the party remains deeply divided over the way in which Brexit needs to be carried out I think trying to change the leadership of the party would be a great mistake.

What is needed, and in a hurry, is willingness to compromise.

People [in the party] have to be willing to be pragmatic, to apply common sense, to have a willingness to compromise with each other. Now Im not aiming that barb at a particular group, it has to apply to all of us. There has to be willingness to compromise. If people are so ideologically committed to particular models that Brexit has got to fulfil, it is going to be very difficult to have a dialogue within the party that will deliver a coherent policy.

Grieve has been an MP for 21 years, but politically active for almost all his adult life. Asked what motivated him to get into politics in the first place, Grieve recalls a relatively distant past with curious echoes of the present.

Recommended Leading Tory rebel warns Theresa May of second Brexit defeat

In the 1970s I thought the country we were in was going down the plughole. We were in appalling social and political decline and I wanted to see it changed. The last 40 years in which Ive been involved in politics has by and large been a period of remarkable success for the country, he says.

There are some problems that are very hard to solve, but this country is in a much better place than it was when I was at university. Some have benefited more than others, but the overall balance sheet has I think been positive, which makes it all the more remarkable that we should be jeopardising this in a very difficult and dangerous world, and it is getting more dangerous very quickly, and yet we are pursuing Brexit.

And the risk is that Brexit is the catalyst for a rapid return to such times.

At the moment we [the Conservatives] are greatly helped by the principal Opposition being all over the place. They dont have a coherent policy on Brexit. They have, to my mind, seriously flawed economic policies that would take this country to economic ruin very quickly, and have been shown to do just that in recent history, in my lifetime. So the prospect of a Labour government fills me with gloom, especially one under its current leader, who is a Marxist, theres no doubt about it, and hes surrounded by a group of Marxists, who will wreck the economy of this country very quickly, Brexit or no Brexit.

The terms of the Brexit debate have become increasingly technical. Canada plus, Norway minus. What will and wont be included in any transition period. The risk, as Grieve sees it is not that some Brexit big bang arrives but instead the big sleep. Even if the next steps are the most urgent, the fight ahead is a long one.

This transition will feel just like staying in the EU. People will wake up and feel like for all intents and purposes were still in the EU. But the irrevocable act will have taken place. We will be gone. We could no longer go back in without renegotiating an entry period, and the state of limbo will be coming to an end, and we will be moving in to a very different sort of relationship, so it will postpone difficult decisions. That is why I am so anxious about the discussions this autumn, because actually transition will lull people into a sense of false security, that they dont have to make some important decisions about the future relationship. They absolutely do.

Grieve is not the elder statesman of Remain, that role falls to Ken Clarke, and their views differ markedly too. Im a Eurosceptic, says Grieve. But Ive never had any doubt about the massive balance of advantage of our membership. And that is about to be chucked out.

So just how long could the struggle go on? Grieve says he doesnt know, but reflects with a curious sense of both melancholy and determination on a career that in simpler times, would be over.

To have spent 40 years in politics, 21 years in Parliament, eight years in government, either as a minister or supporting the government as a backbencher, and to find at the end of that process we are faced with a political crisis of this kind, which is essentially self-inflicted by a decision of our own electorate, it is quite depressing.

But equally ones got to accept that in politics one has to rise to the challenge. There is no point sitting around like the proverbial man of Cape Horn wishing youd never been born. Youve got to get on with what youve been offered.

Which is, of course, precisely what he intends to do.Donald Trump is not worried about the prospect of mass protests when he comes to the UK, the US ambassador to London has said.

Woody Johnson said the president was more than capable of dealing with any discord he may face when he finally visits later this year.

I will assure you of one thing that Im very clear on. This president is not worried about protests. In the US, here, anywhere, he said in an interview with ITV News.

He is very, very certain of where he wants to take the country and hes more than happy to deal with the different views and express his own view.

I think the president is more than capable of handling any sort of discord.

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The US government has won the latest round in its High Court bid to appeal against the decision not to extradite Julian Assange on espionage charges PA UK news in pictures 10 August 2021 Students react after they receive their A-Level results at the Ark Academy, in London Reuters UK news in pictures 9 August 2021 The final athletes from Great Britain arrive home including Jason Kenny, Laura Kenny and Katie Archibald (front left-right) at Heathrow Airport, London following the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games PA UK news in pictures 8 August 2021 Great Britain's Laura Kenny during the closing ceremony of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at the Olympic stadium in Japan PA UK news in pictures 7 August 2021 People from the Glasgow Southside community take part in the Govanhill Carnival, an anti-racist celebration of pride, unity and the contributions immigrants have made to the community in Govanhill, at Queen's Park, Glasgow PA UK news in pictures 6 August 2021 Chijindu Ujah of Britain, Zharnel Hughes of Britain, Richard Kilty of Britain and Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake of Britain celebrate winning silver as they pose with Asha Philip of Britain, Imani Lansiquot of Britain, Dina Asher-Smith of Britain and Daryll Neita of Britain after they won bronze in the women's 4 x 100m relay during Olympic Games Day 14 Getty UK news in pictures 5 August 2021 A protester places flowers on a photograph of an executed man during a demonstration organised by supporters of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) to protest against the inauguration of Iran's new president Ebrahim Raisi in central London AFP via Getty UK news in pictures 4 August 2021 England's Joe Root looks on as India's KL Rahul doesn't make it to a catch during day one of Cinch First Test match at Trent Bridge, Nottingham PA UK news in pictures 3 August 2021 Great Britain's Laura Kenny and Jason Kenny with their silver medals for the Women's Team Pursuit and Mens Team Sprint during the Track Cycling at the Izu Velodrome on the eleventh day of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games in Japan PA UK news in pictures 2 August 2021 Great Britains Charlotte Worthington competes during the Womens BMX Freestyle Final at the Tokyo Olympics PA UK news in pictures 1 August 2021 EPA UK news in pictures 31 July 2021 James Guy, Adam Peaty and Kathleen Dawson celebrate winning the gold medal in the mixed 4x100m medley relay final at the Tokyo Olympics AP UK news in pictures 30 July 2021 Great Britain's Bethany Shriever and Kye Whyte celebrate their Gold and Silver medals respectively for the Cycling BMX Racing at the Ariake Urban Sports Park on the seventh day of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games in Japan PA UK news in pictures 29 July 2021 Team GB's Mallory Franklin during the Womens Canoe Slalom Final on day six of the Tokyo Olympic Games. 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Mr Trump confirmed his intention to make his first visit to Britain as president when he met Theresa May last month at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

The president had previously caused consternation in Whitehall when he announced on Twitter he would not be attending the opening of the new US embassy in London, saying it was a bad deal and he did not like the location of the new building.

It led to speculation he was unhappy after being rebuked by Mrs May for retweeting videos posted by the far-right Britain First group and feared that his visit would be met with mass demonstrations.

However, following his talks with Mrs May in Davos, Mr Trump reaffirmed his commitment to the special relationship with Britain.

Mr Johnson said: I think the president values this special relationship that he has with this country.

His mother is Scottish. He feels an affinity, he knows the importance that the British people play in our shared security and our shared prosperity.

He knows this relationship is very important, he knows we cant have a free world without these alliances and this relationship is the strongest and oldest and most important that we have.

Press AssociationA campaign to win compensation for victims of IRA bombs that used Libyan-supplied Semtex will receive a huge boost next week, amid mounting anger over Boris Johnsons handling of the controversy.

Legislation to set up a reparations fund will clear the House of Lords after the Foreign Office abandoned an attempt to block it, fearing inevitable defeat, The Independent has learned.

The move will be a major embarrassment for Mr Johnson, who enraged campaigners by refusing to establish a fund  despite once describing getting help to the victims as a top priority.

Instead, the Foreign Secretary has floated giving community support and pushed for direct meetings between the families and a Libyan minister  leaving them to fend for themselves, said one critic.

MPs pushing for compensation who held talks with Mr Johnson have complained that he did not have a full grasp of the issue and its urgency, even as some relatives of bomb victims have now died.

This has been an embarrassment for successive governments, but it now falls to Boris Johnson to act  and, so far, he has failed to do so, a source said.

Muammar Gaddafis regime supplied the Provisional IRA with tonnes of weapons, including Semtex explosive which provided a powerful booster for atrocities carried out in the 1970s and 80s.

These included the bombing of Harrods department store in London in 1983, an Enniskillen Remembrance Day ceremony in 1987, Warrington in 1993 and at Canary Wharf, in Londons Docklands, in 1996.

For years, the Treasury has refused to seize money from the 9.5bn of Gaddafi assets frozen in London, despite the US, France and Germany negotiating settlements for their victims.

One MP said he had recently become aware of a relative of someone killed in one of the IRA bombings who had died, still waiting for compensation for the loss of a loved one.

Now a bill put forward by Lord Empey, a unionist peer, is poised to pass the House of Lords next Wednesday, with the Government expected to concede it cannot obstruct it.

It will then be taken up in the House of Commons by Conservative Andrew Rosindell, putting huge pressure on ministers to back it and take steps to seize some of the assets.

Mr Johnson has also come under fire for refusing to say he will take up the fight if, as expected, the controversy reaches the United Nations in the near future.

Libya descended into bloody chaos after the fall of Gaddafi in October 2011, leaving rival militias fighting for power and currently has two governments and two parliaments.

However, if unity can be achieved, a resolution is likely to be brought before the UN Security Council seeking to unfreeze the countrys lucrative assets.

To the disbelief of campaigners, Mr Johnson has indicated that he will refuse to use the UKs security council veto to prevent the funds release unless compensation is paid first.

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 9 September 2021 Troops from Wiltshire based 4 Armoured Close Support Battalion Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers during final inspection at Wellington Barracks in London, ahead of providing troops for the Queens Guard PA UK news in pictures 8 September 2021 Workers cross London Bridge during the morning rush hour in London Reuters UK news in pictures Mixing it up: Painting it up press view in London A gallery employee poses for photographers next to a painting entitled Prairie by British artist, Louise Giovanelli during the exhibition 'Mixing it up: Painting it up' at the Hayward Gallery in London EPA UK news in pictures 6 September 2021 Traders in the Ring at the London Metal Exchange, in the City of London, after open-outcry trading returned for the first time since March 2020, when the Ring was temporarily closed due to the pandemic PA UK news in pictures 5 September 2021 People enjoy the warm weather on Sandbanks beach, Poole PA UK news in pictures 4 September 2021 Demonstrators from Animal Rebellion and Nature Rebellion protest in Trafalgar Square in London. PA UK news in pictures 3 September 2021 South Africa's Ntando Mahlangu (centre) wins the Men's 200 metres T61 Final ahead of second placed Great Britain's Richard Whitehead at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games PA UK news in pictures 2 September 2021 A young common seal on the beach at Horsey Gap in Norfolk, as hundreds of pregnant grey seals come ashore ready for the start of the pupping season. PA UK news in pictures 1 September 2021 Goldfinches fighting over food in a garden in Strensham, Worcestershire PA UK news in pictures 31 August 2021 Gold Medallist Sarah Storey of Britain celebrates on the podium Reuters UK news in pictures 30 August 2021 Extinction Rebellion protesters hold a a tea party on Tower Bridge in London EPA UK news in pictures 29 August 2021 A police office tussles with a demonstrator on Cromwell Road outside the Natural History Museum during a protest by members of Extinction Rebellion in London PA UK news in pictures 28 August 2021 Members of the British armed forces 16 Air Assault Brigade walk to the air terminal after disembarking a Royal Airforce Voyager aircraft at Brize Norton, Oxfordshire POOL/AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 27 August 2021 Fabio Quartararo crashes during a MotoGP practice session at the British Grand Prix, Silverstone Circuit Action Images via Reuters UK news in pictures 26 August 2021 An Extinction Rebellion activist holds a placard in a fountain surrounded by police officers, during a protest next to Buckingham Palace in London Reuters UK news in pictures 25 August 2021 Gold Medallist Great Britains cyclist, Sarah Storey, celebrates after winning the Womens C5 3000m Individual Pursuit Final at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games. It was her 15th Paralympic gold Reuters UK news in pictures 24 August 2021 A demonstrator dressed as bee during a protest by members of Extinction Rebellion on Whitehall, in central London PA UK news in pictures 23 August 2021 Former interpreters for the British forces in Afghanistan demonstrate outside the Home Office in central London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 22 August 2021 Police officers form a line in front of the entrance to the Guildhall, London, where protesters have climbed onto a ledge above the entrance during an Extinction Rebellion stage a protest PA UK news in pictures 21 August 2021 People take part in a demonstration in solidarity with people of Afghanistan, in London Reuters UK news in pictures 20 August 2021 People zip wire across the sea from Bournemouth pier towards the beach. PA UK news in pictures 19 August 2021 Supporters of Geronimo the alpaca gather outside Shepherds Close Farm in Wooton Under Edge, Gloucestershire PA UK news in pictures 18 August 2021 Former Afghan interpreters and veterans hold a demonstration outside Downing Street, calling for support and protection for Afghan interpreters and their families PA UK news in pictures 17 August 2021 Military personnel board the RAF Airbus A400M at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire, where evacuation flights from Afghanistan have been landing Reuters UK news in pictures 16 August 2021 Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer takes part in a minute's silence at Wolverhampton police station for the victims of the Plymouth mass shooting last week PA UK news in pictures 15 August 2021 2Storm, a ten-metre tall puppet of a mythical goddess of the sea created by Edinburgh-based visual theatre company Vision Mechanics, makes its way alongside the seafront at North Berwick, East Lothian, during a performance at the Fringe By The Sea festival PA UK news in pictures 14 August 2021 A woman and two young girls look at floral tributes in Plymouth where six people, including the offender, died of gunshot wounds in a firearms incident PA UK news in pictures 13 August 2021 Forensic officers in the Keyham area of Plymouth where six people, including the shooter, died of gunshot wounds in a firearms incident on Thursday evening PA UK news in pictures 12 August 2021 Children ride horses in the River Eden in Appleby, Cumbria, during the annual gathering of travellers for the Appleby Horse Fair PA UK news in pictures 11 August 2021 Stella Moris (left) reacts after talking to the media outside the High Court in London, following the first hearing in the Julian Assange extradition appeal, n London, following the first hearing in the Julian Assange extradition appeal. The US government has won the latest round in its High Court bid to appeal against the decision not to extradite Julian Assange on espionage charges PA UK news in pictures 10 August 2021 Students react after they receive their A-Level results at the Ark Academy, in London Reuters UK news in pictures 9 August 2021 The final athletes from Great Britain arrive home including Jason Kenny, Laura Kenny and Katie Archibald (front left-right) at Heathrow Airport, London following the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games PA UK news in pictures 8 August 2021 Great Britain's Laura Kenny during the closing ceremony of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at the Olympic stadium in Japan PA UK news in pictures 7 August 2021 People from the Glasgow Southside community take part in the Govanhill Carnival, an anti-racist celebration of pride, unity and the contributions immigrants have made to the community in Govanhill, at Queen's Park, Glasgow PA UK news in pictures 6 August 2021 Chijindu Ujah of Britain, Zharnel Hughes of Britain, Richard Kilty of Britain and Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake of Britain celebrate winning silver as they pose with Asha Philip of Britain, Imani Lansiquot of Britain, Dina Asher-Smith of Britain and Daryll Neita of Britain after they won bronze in the women's 4 x 100m relay during Olympic Games Day 14 Getty UK news in pictures 5 August 2021 A protester places flowers on a photograph of an executed man during a demonstration organised by supporters of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) to protest against the inauguration of Iran's new president Ebrahim Raisi in central London AFP via Getty UK news in pictures 4 August 2021 England's Joe Root looks on as India's KL Rahul doesn't make it to a catch during day one of Cinch First Test match at Trent Bridge, Nottingham PA UK news in pictures 3 August 2021 Great Britain's Laura Kenny and Jason Kenny with their silver medals for the Women's Team Pursuit and Mens Team Sprint during the Track Cycling at the Izu Velodrome on the eleventh day of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games in Japan PA UK news in pictures 2 August 2021 Great Britains Charlotte Worthington competes during the Womens BMX Freestyle Final at the Tokyo Olympics PA UK news in pictures 1 August 2021 EPA UK news in pictures 31 July 2021 James Guy, Adam Peaty and Kathleen Dawson celebrate winning the gold medal in the mixed 4x100m medley relay final at the Tokyo Olympics AP UK news in pictures 30 July 2021 Great Britain's Bethany Shriever and Kye Whyte celebrate their Gold and Silver medals respectively for the Cycling BMX Racing at the Ariake Urban Sports Park on the seventh day of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games in Japan PA UK news in pictures 29 July 2021 Team GB's Mallory Franklin during the Womens Canoe Slalom Final on day six of the Tokyo Olympic Games. She went on to win the silver medal Getty UK news in pictures 28 July 2021 Canoers on Llyn Padarn lake in Snowdonia, Gwynedd. It was announced that the north-west Wales slate landscape has been granted UNESCO World Heritage Status PA UK news in pictures 27 July 2021 A view of one of two areas now being used at a warehouse facility in Dover, Kent, for boats used by people thought to be migrants. PA UK news in pictures 26 July 2021 A woman is helped by Border Force officers as a group of people thought to be migrants are brought in to Dover, Kent, onboard a Border Force vessel, following a small boat incident in the Channel PA UK news in pictures 25 July 2021 Vehicles drive through deep water on a flooded road in Nine Elms, London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 24 July 2021 Utilities workers inspect a 15x20ft sinkhole on Green Lane, Liverpool, which is suspected to have been caused by ruptured water main PA UK news in pictures 23 July 2021 Children interact with Mega Please Draw Freely by artist Ei Arakawa inside the Turbine Hall at the Tate Modern in London, part of UNIQLO Tate Play the gallery's new free programme of art-inspired activities for families PA UK news in pictures 22 July 2021 Festivalgoers in the campsite at the Latitude festival in Henham Park, Southwold, Suffolk PA

The Foreign Office has suggested it lacks support for such a step, but, the source told The Independent: The point is we do not need the support of other members  we have a veto.

Anger over the Governments lack of interest is also fuelled by its willingness to intervene with Libya on behalf of the Lockerbie victims and for the family of murdered PC Yvonne Fletcher.

There are suspicions that the UK is reluctant to act for fear Libya will reactivate a claim for damages for the 1986 bombings of Tripoli and Benghazi by US planes, some allowed to fly from British bases by Margaret Thatcher.

Yet, when he visited the desert country last May, Mr Johnson suggested that he had taken up the cause of the IRA victims.

He raised it a huge amount and very forcefully, a source told a friendly newspaper at the time.

In meetings with MPs from constituencies that suffered bombings, Mr Johnson promised to be more proactive in raising the issue with the Libyan authorities, but gave no detail. Just one meeting has been staged in the past decade.

Jim Fitzpatrick, Labour MP for Poplar and Limehouse, which includes Canary Wharf, said: British victims have not received the compensation that US and German citizens have received  and that is totally wrong.

There are billions of pounds of Libyan assets locked up in banks, including 9bn in London and we should be seeking an agreement to use that money to pay this compensation.

He added: There will be a security council discussion on this matter. The UK has a veto on that council and we should use it if we need to.

A Foreign Office spokeswoman declined to respond to criticism of Mr Johnson and confirmed it had rejected the idea of a fund, paid for by the UK taxpayer, in lieu of Libyan compensation.

The Government wishes to see a just solution for all victims of Qadhafi-sponsored IRA terrorism, she said. The Libyan Government has a responsibility to deal with the legacy of the Qadhafi regime and the UK Government continues to impress upon them the impact of Qadhafis support for the IRA.

The situation on the ground in Libya makes progress on this issue extremely difficult, which is why the UK is supporting an inclusive political process in Libya, in order to help create a stable government.

The Asset Freezing (Compensation) Bill, put forward by Lord Empey, calls for restrictions on assets owned by persons involved in conduct that gives support and assistance to terrorist organisations in the United Kingdom, for the purpose of securing compensation for citizens of the United Kingdom affected by such conduct.Theresa May has begun to soften her stance on keeping student numbers within net migration data, in a sign that she is bowing to pressure from MPs and her own Cabinet on the issue.

The Prime Minister said she is not ready to announce a change yet, but went on to explain that once abuse in the visa system is rooted out, student numbers will have little impact on immigration data anyway.

Her comments  indicating students may not need to be in the data anymore  are a shift from the rigid refusal she has maintained since her days at the Home Office.

It follows pressure from key cabinet figures, including current Home Secretary Amber Rudd, Chancellor Philip Hammond and Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, but also as she faces a Commons revolt on the issue that threatens a key piece of Brexit legislation.

Speaking in China, where she has pushed to promote British universities to an enormous potential student market, she said she would not yet give a different answer from what Ive said over the years.

But she then went on: It was important to look at what was happening with students in the UK when I was Home Secretary.

There was a lot of abuse taking place in colleges  something like 900 colleges can no longer bring in overseas students, because all too often they were being brought in to work, rather than for education.

 Theresa May seeks to strengthen UK-China relations

Once you see that abuse out of the system, students coming in for the period of their education and then leaving actually wash through the numbers. They dont have a long term impact on the numbers.

The Independent and Open Britain, which campaigns for a soft Brexit, are running the Drop the Target campaign against the Conservative policy of reducing net migration to the tens of thousands, which includes calling for overseas students to be omitted from the statistics.

As well as Ms Rudd, Mr Hammond and Mr Johnson, International Trade Secretary Liam Fox and minister Jo Johnson are among those pushing Ms May to rethink her opposition to reforming how students are recorded.

Critics say removing students from net migration data, would not only help the Government meet its tens of thousands target, but also encourage more students to come after Brexit to help boost the economy.

Peers backed a change to exclude foreign students from net migration numbers in a Lords amendment to the Higher Education Bill last year, but the moves significance was swept away by the snap election.

But with the loss of her Commons majority, the Prime Minister is now vulnerable to a defeat on the issue, if an MP tables an amendment to her new immigration bill  a critical piece of Brexit legislation Ms May needs to pass.

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 5 September 2021 People enjoy the warm weather on Sandbanks beach, Poole PA UK news in pictures 4 September 2021 Demonstrators from Animal Rebellion and Nature Rebellion protest in Trafalgar Square in London. PA UK news in pictures 3 September 2021 South Africa's Ntando Mahlangu (centre) wins the Men's 200 metres T61 Final ahead of second placed Great Britain's Richard Whitehead at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games PA UK news in pictures 2 September 2021 A young common seal on the beach at Horsey Gap in Norfolk, as hundreds of pregnant grey seals come ashore ready for the start of the pupping season. PA UK news in pictures 1 September 2021 Goldfinches fighting over food in a garden in Strensham, Worcestershire PA UK news in pictures 31 August 2021 Gold Medallist Sarah Storey of Britain celebrates on the podium Reuters UK news in pictures 30 August 2021 Extinction Rebellion protesters hold a a tea party on Tower Bridge in London EPA UK news in pictures 29 August 2021 A police office tussles with a demonstrator on Cromwell Road outside the Natural History Museum during a protest by members of Extinction Rebellion in London PA UK news in pictures 28 August 2021 Members of the British armed forces 16 Air Assault Brigade walk to the air terminal after disembarking a Royal Airforce Voyager aircraft at Brize Norton, Oxfordshire POOL/AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 27 August 2021 Fabio Quartararo crashes during a MotoGP practice session at the British Grand Prix, Silverstone Circuit Action Images via Reuters UK news in pictures 26 August 2021 An Extinction Rebellion activist holds a placard in a fountain surrounded by police officers, during a protest next to Buckingham Palace in London Reuters UK news in pictures 25 August 2021 Gold Medallist Great Britains cyclist, Sarah Storey, celebrates after winning the Womens C5 3000m Individual Pursuit Final at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games. It was her 15th Paralympic gold Reuters UK news in pictures 24 August 2021 A demonstrator dressed as bee during a protest by members of Extinction Rebellion on Whitehall, in central London PA UK news in pictures 23 August 2021 Former interpreters for the British forces in Afghanistan demonstrate outside the Home Office in central London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 22 August 2021 Police officers form a line in front of the entrance to the Guildhall, London, where protesters have climbed onto a ledge above the entrance during an Extinction Rebellion stage a protest PA UK news in pictures 21 August 2021 People take part in a demonstration in solidarity with people of Afghanistan, in London Reuters UK news in pictures 20 August 2021 People zip wire across the sea from Bournemouth pier towards the beach. PA UK news in pictures 19 August 2021 Supporters of Geronimo the alpaca gather outside Shepherds Close Farm in Wooton Under Edge, Gloucestershire PA UK news in pictures 18 August 2021 Former Afghan interpreters and veterans hold a demonstration outside Downing Street, calling for support and protection for Afghan interpreters and their families PA UK news in pictures 17 August 2021 Military personnel board the RAF Airbus A400M at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire, where evacuation flights from Afghanistan have been landing Reuters UK news in pictures 16 August 2021 Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer takes part in a minute's silence at Wolverhampton police station for the victims of the Plymouth mass shooting last week PA UK news in pictures 15 August 2021 2Storm, a ten-metre tall puppet of a mythical goddess of the sea created by Edinburgh-based visual theatre company Vision Mechanics, makes its way alongside the seafront at North Berwick, East Lothian, during a performance at the Fringe By The Sea festival PA UK news in pictures 14 August 2021 A woman and two young girls look at floral tributes in Plymouth where six people, including the offender, died of gunshot wounds in a firearms incident PA UK news in pictures 13 August 2021 Forensic officers in the Keyham area of Plymouth where six people, including the shooter, died of gunshot wounds in a firearms incident on Thursday evening PA UK news in pictures 12 August 2021 Children ride horses in the River Eden in Appleby, Cumbria, during the annual gathering of travellers for the Appleby Horse Fair PA UK news in pictures 11 August 2021 Stella Moris (left) reacts after talking to the media outside the High Court in London, following the first hearing in the Julian Assange extradition appeal, n London, following the first hearing in the Julian Assange extradition appeal. The US government has won the latest round in its High Court bid to appeal against the decision not to extradite Julian Assange on espionage charges PA UK news in pictures 10 August 2021 Students react after they receive their A-Level results at the Ark Academy, in London Reuters UK news in pictures 9 August 2021 The final athletes from Great Britain arrive home including Jason Kenny, Laura Kenny and Katie Archibald (front left-right) at Heathrow Airport, London following the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games PA UK news in pictures 8 August 2021 Great Britain's Laura Kenny during the closing ceremony of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at the Olympic stadium in Japan PA UK news in pictures 7 August 2021 People from the Glasgow Southside community take part in the Govanhill Carnival, an anti-racist celebration of pride, unity and the contributions immigrants have made to the community in Govanhill, at Queen's Park, Glasgow PA UK news in pictures 6 August 2021 Chijindu Ujah of Britain, Zharnel Hughes of Britain, Richard Kilty of Britain and Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake of Britain celebrate winning silver as they pose with Asha Philip of Britain, Imani Lansiquot of Britain, Dina Asher-Smith of Britain and Daryll Neita of Britain after they won bronze in the women's 4 x 100m relay during Olympic Games Day 14 Getty UK news in pictures 5 August 2021 A protester places flowers on a photograph of an executed man during a demonstration organised by supporters of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) to protest against the inauguration of Iran's new president Ebrahim Raisi in central London AFP via Getty UK news in pictures 4 August 2021 England's Joe Root looks on as India's KL Rahul doesn't make it to a catch during day one of Cinch First Test match at Trent Bridge, Nottingham PA UK news in pictures 3 August 2021 Great Britain's Laura Kenny and Jason Kenny with their silver medals for the Women's Team Pursuit and Mens Team Sprint during the Track Cycling at the Izu Velodrome on the eleventh day of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games in Japan PA UK news in pictures 2 August 2021 Great Britains Charlotte Worthington competes during the Womens BMX Freestyle Final at the Tokyo Olympics PA UK news in pictures 1 August 2021 EPA UK news in pictures 31 July 2021 James Guy, Adam Peaty and Kathleen Dawson celebrate winning the gold medal in the mixed 4x100m medley relay final at the Tokyo Olympics AP UK news in pictures 30 July 2021 Great Britain's Bethany Shriever and Kye Whyte celebrate their Gold and Silver medals respectively for the Cycling BMX Racing at the Ariake Urban Sports Park on the seventh day of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games in Japan PA UK news in pictures 29 July 2021 Team GB's Mallory Franklin during the Womens Canoe Slalom Final on day six of the Tokyo Olympic Games. She went on to win the silver medal Getty UK news in pictures 28 July 2021 Canoers on Llyn Padarn lake in Snowdonia, Gwynedd. It was announced that the north-west Wales slate landscape has been granted UNESCO World Heritage Status PA UK news in pictures 27 July 2021 A view of one of two areas now being used at a warehouse facility in Dover, Kent, for boats used by people thought to be migrants. PA UK news in pictures 26 July 2021 A woman is helped by Border Force officers as a group of people thought to be migrants are brought in to Dover, Kent, onboard a Border Force vessel, following a small boat incident in the Channel PA UK news in pictures 25 July 2021 Vehicles drive through deep water on a flooded road in Nine Elms, London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 24 July 2021 Utilities workers inspect a 15x20ft sinkhole on Green Lane, Liverpool, which is suspected to have been caused by ruptured water main PA UK news in pictures 23 July 2021 Children interact with Mega Please Draw Freely by artist Ei Arakawa inside the Turbine Hall at the Tate Modern in London, part of UNIQLO Tate Play the gallery's new free programme of art-inspired activities for families PA UK news in pictures 22 July 2021 Festivalgoers in the campsite at the Latitude festival in Henham Park, Southwold, Suffolk PA UK news in pictures 21 July 2021 A man walks past an artwork by Will Blood on the end of a property in Bedminster, Bristol, as the 75 murals project reaches the halfway point and various graffiti pieces are sprayed onto walls and buildings across the city over the Summer PA UK news in pictures 20 July 2021 People during morning prayer during Eid ul-Adha, or Festival of Sacrifice, in Southall Park, Uxbridge, London PA UK news in pictures 19 July 2021 Commuters, some not wearing facemasks, at Westminster Underground station, at 08:38 in London after the final legal Coronavirus restrictions were lifted in England PA UK news in pictures 18 July 2021 A view of spectators by the 2nd green during day four of The Open at The Royal St George's Golf Club in Sandwich, Kent PA

Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson, who has become an influential figure after reviving the partys fortunes north of the border, described the current system as distortive, counterproductive and send[ing] out entirely the wrong signals, adding, I hope this change happens soon.

The group of newly elected Scottish Tory MPs are also said to be pushing for change and may lead efforts to push the issue to a Commons vote.

Ms May chose to start her three-day tour of China by announcing deals for the education sector worth some 550m from the city of Wuhan, which has the largest student population of any city in the world.

Chinese people already constitute the largest single source of overseas students in the UK, with 155,000 currently in the country and worth an estimated 5bn annually to the economy.

Research jointly published by the Higher Education Policy Institute and Kaplan International Pathways, recently concluded that almost every part of the British economy benefits from the business brought in by overseas students.

It explained that after taking out the cost, including those related to health and social security, amounting to 2.3bn, the net impact of hosting foreign students in the UK is ten times greater, reaching about 20.3bn annually.A dog that was believed to be dead after suddenly vanishing 10 years ago has been reunited with its owner after being found alive and well.

Debra Suierveld said she had accepted her black Labrador mix, Abby, was gone for good after it went missing from her home a decade ago.

She told the Tribune Review that she and her family had mourned their pet, after Abby wandered off while playing with her children outside their house in Pennsylvania, USA.

But she received a call from the Animal Protectors of Allegheny Valley shelter, who had tracked her down via the dogs microchip. Abby had been listed as deceased by the vet who had micro chipped her.

She kind of came back from the dead, Ms Suierveld told the newspaper. She said her daughter Carly, now a student a Miami University, Ohio had wept upon being told her childhood pet had returned.

My kids all want to know if she answers to her name, Suierveld added, saying she was delighted to learn that she did.

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She said the dog was found about 10 miles from her former home on the front porch of a woman named Judy Spiering, who contacted the police about the discovery.

They, in turn, called the animal shelter, which reunited Abby with Ms Suierveld.

World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless AFP via Getty World news in pictures 9 September 2020 Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 8 September 2020 A home is engulfed in flames during the "Creek Fire" in the Tollhouse area of California AFP via Getty World news in pictures 7 September 2020 A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho AFP via Getty World news in pictures 6 September 2020 Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open USA Today Sports/Reuters World news in pictures 5 September 2020 Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally AFP via Getty World news in pictures 4 September 2020 A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. Dozens of fires are burning out of control throughout Northern California as fire resources are spread thin AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 August 2020 Students use their mobile phones as flashlights at an anti-government rally at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. Thailand has seen near-daily protests in recent weeks by students demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha AFP via Getty World news in pictures 17 August 2020 Members of the Kayapo tribe block the BR163 highway during a protest outside Novo Progresso in Para state, Brazil. Indigenous protesters blocked a major transamazonian highway to protest against the lack of governmental support during the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories AFP via Getty World news in pictures 16 August 2020 Lightning forks over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland AP World news in pictures 15 August 2020 Belarus opposition supporters gather near the Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester died on August 10, during their protest rally in central Minsk AFP via Getty World news in pictures 14 August 2020 AlphaTauri's driver Daniil Kvyat takes part in the second practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix AFP via Getty World news in pictures 13 August 2020 Soldiers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during a disinfection of the Christ The Redeemer statue at the Corcovado mountain prior to the opening of the touristic attraction in Rio AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 August 2020 Young elephant bulls tussle playfully on World Elephant Day at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya AFP via Getty

She said the Labrador was happy, apparently having been well taken care of in her decade of absence, most probably living in another home.

Now relatively elderly at 13 years old, vets say the dog now has a greying snout and some fatty deposits, but is otherwise in very good shape.A man who believes the Earth is flat is planning on launching himself into orbit  though, of course, he may not use that word to describe his stunt.

Flat-earther Mike Hughes, who has previously attempted to launch across the Mojave Desert, has his sights set on the sky after people on private land said he could launch his steam-powered rocket from their plot.

The previous attempt to launch himself across the desert was shut down by the federal government, which said he had no permission to conduct his mission on public property. Even so, his promotion of the rocket launch  which is just phase one in his quest to get enough cash to be able to afford the balloon and suit necessary to get him to near-space  brought him a lot of attention.

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His revised first stage in that plan is a little different than a launch across the desert. This time, hes planning on shooting himself straight up for a third of the mile. Hopefully, he can win back the faith of a public that has turned to mocking him for his lack of faith in the generally accepted shape of the planet.

The flat-Earth stuff, it makes people crazy, Mr Hughes recently told the Washington Post. No matter what I do, people are going to minimise it.

The launch will be broadcast live on the website Noize TV, according to RT, and Mr Hughes is charging $5 per viewer. No spectators will be allowed to join the crew at the launch site, and Mr Hughes has warned that any drones seen on the private property  which is located along Route 66 in Amboy, California  will be shot down.

World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless AFP via Getty World news in pictures 9 September 2020 Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 8 September 2020 A home is engulfed in flames during the "Creek Fire" in the Tollhouse area of California AFP via Getty World news in pictures 7 September 2020 A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho AFP via Getty World news in pictures 6 September 2020 Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open USA Today Sports/Reuters World news in pictures 5 September 2020 Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally AFP via Getty World news in pictures 4 September 2020 A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. Dozens of fires are burning out of control throughout Northern California as fire resources are spread thin AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 August 2020 Students use their mobile phones as flashlights at an anti-government rally at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. Thailand has seen near-daily protests in recent weeks by students demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha AFP via Getty World news in pictures 17 August 2020 Members of the Kayapo tribe block the BR163 highway during a protest outside Novo Progresso in Para state, Brazil. Indigenous protesters blocked a major transamazonian highway to protest against the lack of governmental support during the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories AFP via Getty World news in pictures 16 August 2020 Lightning forks over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland AP World news in pictures 15 August 2020 Belarus opposition supporters gather near the Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester died on August 10, during their protest rally in central Minsk AFP via Getty World news in pictures 14 August 2020 AlphaTauri's driver Daniil Kvyat takes part in the second practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix AFP via Getty World news in pictures 13 August 2020 Soldiers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during a disinfection of the Christ The Redeemer statue at the Corcovado mountain prior to the opening of the touristic attraction in Rio AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 August 2020 Young elephant bulls tussle playfully on World Elephant Day at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya AFP via Getty

The town of Amboy is a ghost town along that famed highway that has no running water, little electricity, but has still managed to keep four residents. The entire town was bout in 2005 at a cost of $435,000, which owner Albert Okura says is quite the drop from a few years earlier when it was listed for $1.2 million.A hunter was knocked unconscious after a goose that was shot and killed fell from the sky in Maryland.

Robert Meilhammer was severely injured after the bird plummeted towards the ground after being shot by a group of hunters.

The 51-year-old was taken to hospital in Baltimore after suffering injuries to his head and face.

These birds weigh anywhere from 10 to probably 14 pounds. They can have a wingspan of up to six feet, Candy Thomson, from Maryland Natural Resources Police, told local media.

So, if theyre 35 yards up in the air, and theyre falling 60 feet and they hit you on the head, its going to definitely cause severe damage.

It was unclear whether Mr Meilhammer was hunting the geese at the time of the accident.

Maryland Natural Resources Police said it occurred near the Miles River where a group of people had leased private land to hunt a flock of geese.

World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless AFP via Getty World news in pictures 9 September 2020 Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 8 September 2020 A home is engulfed in flames during the "Creek Fire" in the Tollhouse area of California AFP via Getty World news in pictures 7 September 2020 A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho AFP via Getty World news in pictures 6 September 2020 Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open USA Today Sports/Reuters World news in pictures 5 September 2020 Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally AFP via Getty World news in pictures 4 September 2020 A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. Dozens of fires are burning out of control throughout Northern California as fire resources are spread thin AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 August 2020 Students use their mobile phones as flashlights at an anti-government rally at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. Thailand has seen near-daily protests in recent weeks by students demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha AFP via Getty World news in pictures 17 August 2020 Members of the Kayapo tribe block the BR163 highway during a protest outside Novo Progresso in Para state, Brazil. Indigenous protesters blocked a major transamazonian highway to protest against the lack of governmental support during the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories AFP via Getty World news in pictures 16 August 2020 Lightning forks over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland AP World news in pictures 15 August 2020 Belarus opposition supporters gather near the Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester died on August 10, during their protest rally in central Minsk AFP via Getty World news in pictures 14 August 2020 AlphaTauri's driver Daniil Kvyat takes part in the second practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix AFP via Getty World news in pictures 13 August 2020 Soldiers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during a disinfection of the Christ The Redeemer statue at the Corcovado mountain prior to the opening of the touristic attraction in Rio AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 August 2020 Young elephant bulls tussle playfully on World Elephant Day at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya AFP via Getty

It doesnt happen often, but youre a hunter, youre concentrating on what youre shooting at, and you dont see something until its too late, Ms Thomson said.

Mr Meilhammer is believed to be in a stable condition.A school shooting that sent two teenagers to the hospital with gunshot wounds appears to have been an accident, police said.

Two schools in Los Angeles were locked down for much of the day after authorities responded to gun shots and took a 12-year-old girl into custody. After interviewing her, police said it appeared that a firearm she brought to school went off unintentionally.

This continues to be an active investigation; however at this time, the information suggests it was an isolated incident involving the negligent discharge of a firearm, where innocent children and a staff member were unfortunately injured, the Los Angeles Police Department said in a press release.

The girl, whose name is not being released because she is a minor, was booked on suspicion of negligent discharge of a firearm. A classmate recounted her telling him that the gun went off when she dropped the backpack it was in, crying and repeating I didnt mean it, the Associated Press reported of Thursdays incident.

As authorities sought to reassure anxious parents, a theme for the investigation quickly emerged: how a student was able to bring a firearm into school. School officials pledged to probe how it might have happened.

As a community we have to examine what is it that would make a child want to come to school with a gun, interim Los Angeles Unified School District superintendent Vivian Ekchian said.

World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless AFP via Getty World news in pictures 9 September 2020 Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 8 September 2020 A home is engulfed in flames during the "Creek Fire" in the Tollhouse area of California AFP via Getty World news in pictures 7 September 2020 A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho AFP via Getty World news in pictures 6 September 2020 Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open USA Today Sports/Reuters World news in pictures 5 September 2020 Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally AFP via Getty World news in pictures 4 September 2020 A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. Dozens of fires are burning out of control throughout Northern California as fire resources are spread thin AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 August 2020 Students use their mobile phones as flashlights at an anti-government rally at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. Thailand has seen near-daily protests in recent weeks by students demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha AFP via Getty World news in pictures 17 August 2020 Members of the Kayapo tribe block the BR163 highway during a protest outside Novo Progresso in Para state, Brazil. Indigenous protesters blocked a major transamazonian highway to protest against the lack of governmental support during the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories AFP via Getty World news in pictures 16 August 2020 Lightning forks over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland AP World news in pictures 15 August 2020 Belarus opposition supporters gather near the Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester died on August 10, during their protest rally in central Minsk AFP via Getty World news in pictures 14 August 2020 AlphaTauri's driver Daniil Kvyat takes part in the second practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix AFP via Getty World news in pictures 13 August 2020 Soldiers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during a disinfection of the Christ The Redeemer statue at the Corcovado mountain prior to the opening of the touristic attraction in Rio AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 August 2020 Young elephant bulls tussle playfully on World Elephant Day at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya AFP via Getty

Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer noted that there are legal consequences for adults allowing children to obtain firearms.

My office prosecutes adults when kids gain access to guns that havent been safely stored. We do so for good reason  safely storing firearms saves lives, Mr Feuer said in a statement.

A 15-year-old boy was shot in the head and a 15-year-old girl was struck in the wrist, injuries that authorities said were not life-threatening. Three others received medical treatment for non-gunshot injuries.A 29-year-old black man says he has captured on video the moment he was racially profiled by clerks at an Old Navy in Iowa  and he plans to sue.

James Conley III said he was checking out at the West Des Moines store when a sales clerk asked if he wanted to purchase the coat he was wearing. Mr Conley said his first reaction was to laugh: He had received the Old-Navy-brand coat more than a month ago, as a Christmas gift.

The store manager insisted he had to scan the coat to make sure it wasnt stolen, Mr Conley said.

Every time I go to this store I have on my same exact winter blue jacket and have never been asked to scan my clothing and the previous non-black customers had on identical apparel as me from Old Navy but was never asked to scan their clothing, Mr Conley wrote on Facebook.

Even after completing the scan, Mr Conley said, the manager wanted him to pay for the jacket. The incident was eventually resolved when Mr Conley asked the district manager to review security footage and confirm that he had walked in wearing the jacket. The managers never apologised, he said.

World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless AFP via Getty World news in pictures 9 September 2020 Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 8 September 2020 A home is engulfed in flames during the "Creek Fire" in the Tollhouse area of California AFP via Getty World news in pictures 7 September 2020 A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho AFP via Getty World news in pictures 6 September 2020 Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open USA Today Sports/Reuters World news in pictures 5 September 2020 Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally AFP via Getty World news in pictures 4 September 2020 A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. Dozens of fires are burning out of control throughout Northern California as fire resources are spread thin AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 August 2020 Students use their mobile phones as flashlights at an anti-government rally at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. Thailand has seen near-daily protests in recent weeks by students demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha AFP via Getty World news in pictures 17 August 2020 Members of the Kayapo tribe block the BR163 highway during a protest outside Novo Progresso in Para state, Brazil. Indigenous protesters blocked a major transamazonian highway to protest against the lack of governmental support during the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories AFP via Getty World news in pictures 16 August 2020 Lightning forks over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland AP World news in pictures 15 August 2020 Belarus opposition supporters gather near the Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester died on August 10, during their protest rally in central Minsk AFP via Getty World news in pictures 14 August 2020 AlphaTauri's driver Daniil Kvyat takes part in the second practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix AFP via Getty World news in pictures 13 August 2020 Soldiers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during a disinfection of the Christ The Redeemer statue at the Corcovado mountain prior to the opening of the touristic attraction in Rio AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 August 2020 Young elephant bulls tussle playfully on World Elephant Day at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya AFP via Getty

Mr Conley recorded some of the incident on video and uploaded it to Facebook, where the post received more than 140,000 shares in four days.

The Old Navy store in question shut down for a full day after the incident. It was not clear whether the shutdown was related to Mr Conleys allegation.

Old Navy addressed the incident in a Facebook post of its own, writing: "This week, one of our customers left our store feeling discriminated against. We have reached out to the customer to apologise for the experience.

To be clear, the company added, Old Navy is a brand that stands for inclusivity and is deeply committed to ensuring all shoppers and employees are treated with respect and dignity.

The company said it would conduct an investigation of the incident and review its policies with employees.

At a joint news conference with the NAACP on Thursday, Mr Conley said he would be filing a lawsuit against the company. Betty Andrews, president of the NAACP Iowa-Nebraska, said at the conference that what allegedly happened to Mr Conley was only the tip of the iceberg.

"It is humiliating. It is hurtful. And it is outrageous," Ms Andrews said, adding that racial profiling "happens every day in America."

Mr Conley, meanwhile, said it was a blessing just to have his story heard nationwide.

"Whatever color your skin, you shouldn't have to deal with that while you're shopping," he said.Oregon is producing three times more marijuana than it can consume with formidable amounts now ending up on the black market, officials have warned.

US Attorney Billy Williams told law enforcement representatives from across the US on Friday that the state, where recreational cannabis use is legal, had a serious overproduction problem.

Mr Williams said officials needed a "bottom-line answer" on how much excess marijuana was being produced and how much of it ends up on the black market.

In pictures: 4/20 Marijuana world rallies Show all 26 1 /26 In pictures: 4/20 Marijuana world rallies In pictures: 4/20 Marijuana world rallies A man wears a marijuana leaf mask during the annual 4/20 cannabis culture celebration at Sunset Beach in Vancouver, British Columbia AP In pictures: 4/20 Marijuana world rallies A lady smokes marijuana on Parliament Hill on 4/20 in Ottawa, Ontario Getty Images In pictures: 4/20 Marijuana world rallies James Reed smokes a joint during the Denver 420 Rally at Civic Center Park in Denver, Colorado Getty Images In pictures: 4/20 Marijuana world rallies People sign a 4/20 sign on Parliament Hill on in Ottawa, Ontario Getty Images In pictures: 4/20 Marijuana world rallies A woman smokes marijuana on Parliament Hill on 4/20 in Ottawa, Ontario. Polling released showed strong support in Canada for a government drive to legalise recreational use of marijuana, but many would like the proposed minimum age for consumption to be raised. Sixty-three percent of respondents told the Angus Reid Institute they support legalisation Getty Images In pictures: 4/20 Marijuana world rallies A man smokes marijuana during the annual 4/20 marijuana rally on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada Reuters In pictures: 4/20 Marijuana world rallies Demonstrators smoke marijuana during the '4/20 Santiago' rally in favour of legalisation in front of the La Moneda presidential palace in Santiago, as part of the Global Marijuana March which is being held in hundreds of cities worldwide Getty Images In pictures: 4/20 Marijuana world rallies People play with a mock marijuana joint during a 4/20 party to demand legalisation and to celebrate marijuana culture outside the Senate building in Mexico City, Mexico Reuters In pictures: 4/20 Marijuana world rallies Adam Eidinger, co-founder of DCMJ, hands out free marijuana joints to DC residents who worked on Capitol Hill as part of the 1st Annual Joint Session to mark '4/20' day and promote legalising marijuana on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC Getty Images In pictures: 4/20 Marijuana world rallies In pictures: 4/20 Marijuana world rallies Police arrest Rachel Ramone Donlan after she handed out free marijuana joints to DC residents who worked on Capitol Hill as part of the 1st Annual Joint Session to mark '4/20' day and promote legalising marijuana on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC AFP/Getty Images In pictures: 4/20 Marijuana world rallies Police arrest Rachel Ramone Donlan after she handed out free marijuana joints to DC residents who worked on Capitol Hill as part of the 1st Annual Joint Session to mark '4/20' day and promote legalising marijuana on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC Getty Images In pictures: 4/20 Marijuana world rallies Thousands of people gather to smoke marijuana during the '420 Santiago'rally in front of the La Moneda presidential palace in Santiago Getty Images In pictures: 4/20 Marijuana world rallies People attend the Denver 420 Rally at Civic Center Park in Denver, Colorado Getty Images In pictures: 4/20 Marijuana world rallies Kevin Barron and Lasean Moore of Raleigh, North Carolina, share a joint during the Denver 420 Rally at Civic Center Park in Denver, Colorado Getty Images In pictures: 4/20 Marijuana world rallies Nic Ruhl takes a pull on a giant hand rolled joint at precisely 4:20pm MDT during the Denver 420 Rally at Civic Center Park in Denver, Colorado Getty Images In pictures: 4/20 Marijuana world rallies Various cannabis paraphernalia on display at a vendor's stall during the Denver 420 Rally at Civic Center Park in Denver, Colorado Getty Images In pictures: 4/20 Marijuana world rallies Mo Banez, of Austin, Texas, lights a joint during the Denver 420 Rally at Civic Center Park in Denver, Colorado Getty Images In pictures: 4/20 Marijuana world rallies A man displays a large container of cannabis during the Denver 420 Rally at Civic Center Park in Denver, Colorado. The rally, held annually, is a celebration of both the legalisation of cannabis and cannabis culture. Colorado is one of twenty-six U.S. states along with the District of Columbia that has legalised the use of cannabis either recreationally or medically AFP/Getty Images In pictures: 4/20 Marijuana world rallies Sitting in small groups on mats shaded by trees in the Rose Garden just across from the Knesset, participants lit up as the clock struck 4:20 for the local version of the traditional worldwide April 20 pro-marijuana events, known as '420' rallies Getty Images In pictures: 4/20 Marijuana world rallies An Israeli smokes a marijuana joint in Jerusalem during a rally at the Rose garden Getty Images In pictures: 4/20 Marijuana world rallies Sitting in small groups on mats shaded by trees in the Rose Garden just across from the Knesset, participants lit up as the clock struck 4:20 for the local version of the traditional worldwide April 20 pro-marijuana events, known as '420' rallies Getty Images In pictures: 4/20 Marijuana world rallies An Israeli girl poses with a mock marijuana joint in Jerusalem during a rally at the Rose garden, to celebrate 420 and to express their defiance of current laws Getty Images In pictures: 4/20 Marijuana world rallies aelis pass around a marijuana joint in Jerusalem during a rally at the Rose garden, to celebrate 420 and to express their defiance of current laws Getty Images In pictures: 4/20 Marijuana world rallies An Israeli smokes a marijuana joint in Jerusalem during a rally at the Rose garden, to celebrate 420 and to express their defiance of current law Getty Images In pictures: 4/20 Marijuana world rallies An Israeli smokes a marijuana joint in Jerusalem on April 20, 2017 during a rally opposite the Knesset to celebrate 420 and express defiance of current laws AFP/Getty Images

In a local newspaper column last month, the attorney warned huge surpluses were attracting criminal networks, causing money laundering and drug violence.

Authorities in 16 other states have reported seizing marijuana produced in Oregon, while postal agents have intercepted more than 2,600 pounds of cannabis (1,179kg) and $1.2m (850,000) in associated cash.

"Here's what I know in terms of the landscape here in Oregon and that is, we have an identifiable and formidable marijuana overproduction and diversion problem," Mr Williams told officials.

Make no mistake about it, we are going to do something about it."

The summit had been called after Attorney General Jeff Sessions withdrew an Obama administration memo guiding states with legalised cannabis on how to avoid federal scrutiny.

Representatives from 13 other US attorney's offices were in attendance, as well as the FBI, the US Postal Inspection Service, US Forest Service and US Customs and Border Protection.

Oregon voters approved the sale of recreational marijuana in 2014 and it became legal the following year. The state has allowed the use of cannabis for medical purposes since 1998.

It now has 900 licensed recreational growers, with more than 1,100 licenses awaiting approval. Some 500 retailers are licenced to sell weed and another 250 applications are pending.

Advocates deny legalisation has caused a spike in black markets sales and instead claim legal cannabis is much easier to track.

However, former Oregon State University professor Seth Crawford told the summit the state had created the overproduction problem by not capping the number of recreational cannabis producers.

"If you were an investor and you had just dropped $4m into a [marijuana] grow and you had thousands of pounds of flower that was ready to go but you had nowhere to sell it, the only thing you can do is sell it on the black market.

"It was a system designed for failure. You created this huge industry that has nowhere to put its product."

He estimated Oregon growers produce up to three times the amount of marijuana that the state can absorb legally each year.

Leland Berger, an attorney who specialises in marijuana cases, said: "When I moved to Oregon in 1979, cannabis was a billion-dollar crop then, so the notion that this is somehow caused by legalisation or by the medical program is something that's misplaced."A woman who killed her pregnant neighbour by cutting the baby from her womb has apologised for the crime as she was sentenced to life in prison without parole.

Brooke Crews, who was convicted of murder, told a court she wished she could take the pain away from the victims family.

The details of how 22-year-old Savanna Greywind bled to death after Crews cut her were revealed for the first time at a hearing in North Dakota.

Crews, 38, had pleaded guilty to the crime, which officials had previously described as a cruel and vicious act of depravity".

In tears, Crews read out a statement in court, which said: "There is no excuse. There is no rationalisation. There is nothing."

Ms Greywind, who is of Native American descent and lived in Fargo, disappeared on 19 August when she was eight months pregnant after leaving her family home to visit a neighbour.

Hundreds of people, including groups of Native Americans from nearby areas, helped to search for the missing woman.

After an eight-day search, the nursing assistants body was found wrapped in plastic in a river by kayakers, without the baby.

The infant was found at Crewss house in good health. DNA confirmed it was Ms Greywinds daughter.

The father of the baby expressed his grief at discovering how his girlfriend, who had lived in Fargo, had died. Ashton Matheny said the facts tore me apart.

World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless AFP via Getty World news in pictures 9 September 2020 Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 8 September 2020 A home is engulfed in flames during the "Creek Fire" in the Tollhouse area of California AFP via Getty World news in pictures 7 September 2020 A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho AFP via Getty World news in pictures 6 September 2020 Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open USA Today Sports/Reuters World news in pictures 5 September 2020 Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally AFP via Getty World news in pictures 4 September 2020 A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. Dozens of fires are burning out of control throughout Northern California as fire resources are spread thin AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 August 2020 Students use their mobile phones as flashlights at an anti-government rally at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. Thailand has seen near-daily protests in recent weeks by students demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha AFP via Getty World news in pictures 17 August 2020 Members of the Kayapo tribe block the BR163 highway during a protest outside Novo Progresso in Para state, Brazil. Indigenous protesters blocked a major transamazonian highway to protest against the lack of governmental support during the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories AFP via Getty World news in pictures 16 August 2020 Lightning forks over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland AP World news in pictures 15 August 2020 Belarus opposition supporters gather near the Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester died on August 10, during their protest rally in central Minsk AFP via Getty World news in pictures 14 August 2020 AlphaTauri's driver Daniil Kvyat takes part in the second practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix AFP via Getty World news in pictures 13 August 2020 Soldiers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during a disinfection of the Christ The Redeemer statue at the Corcovado mountain prior to the opening of the touristic attraction in Rio AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 August 2020 Young elephant bulls tussle playfully on World Elephant Day at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya AFP via Getty

The victims mother said she was pleased that her killer had received the toughest possible sentence.

Norberta Lafontaine-Greywind called the acts against her daughter "beyond evil" in a statement in court, adding that she has suffered nightmares since.

Her husband, Joe Greywind said they were finding it "near impossible" to heal, after the tragic events.

Defence attorney Steven Mottinger had asked for a lesser sentence for Crews, pointing out that she admitted guilt without any promise of leniency.

"Acceptance of responsibility is important," Mr Mottinger said in court. "It has to mean something."

Crews initially claimed that Ms Greywind gave up her newborn daughter, but later admitted taking advantage of the woman to get the child, according to court documents.

Crews's boyfriend, William Hoehn, also faces a trial in May. He has pleaded not guilty. Prosecutors had cited his pending trial in withholding public details of Ms Greywind's death earlier.

Mr Hoehn told police he came home on 19 August to find Crews cleaning up blood in their bathroom. He said Crews presented him with an infant girl and told him: "This is our baby. This is our family."

Mr Hoehn told police he took garbage bags containing bloody shoes and his bloody towels and disposed them away from the apartment complex.

A bill in Congress aimed at protecting Native American women and girls from violence, abduction and human trafficking is being named after Ms Greywind.

Savanna's Act, introduced by Democratic Senator Heidi Heitkamp, would improve tribal access to certain federal crime information databases and create standardised protocols for responding to cases of missing and murdered Native Americans.

Additional reporting by Associated PressStephen King has apologised for calling a fatal crash between a lorry and a train carrying Republican lawmakers karma.

The horror and science fiction author admitted he had been thoughtless to tweet a joke about the collision, which killed one person and seriously injured another in rural Virginia.

His initial post sparked outrage on social media, where his comments were described as vile and crass.

Recommended One killed as train carrying Congress members crashes into truck

Dozens of Republican members of Congress, including House Speaker Paul Ryan, were travelling from Washington to their legislative retreat in West Virginia when their train crashed into a dustbin lorry that was crossing railway lines on Wednesday.

A passenger in the truck died and its driver was seriously injured. No Republicans or their families, who were also travelling on the train, were badly hurt.

The next day, Mr King, a vocal critic of President Donald Trump, tweeted: A trainload of Republicans on their way to a pricey retreat hit a garbage truck. My friend Russ calls that karma.

After being criticised for the post, he added: Of COURSE sorry the truck driver died.

He later followed up with a longer apology, writing: A rather thoughtless tweet from me concerning the train-truck crash, for which I apologise (if one is necessary). It should be pointed out, too, that those Republican politicians, who can be heartless when they vote, immediately got out to help.

Piers Morgan was among the many people who criticised the writer's initial tweet, responding: A man died in that crash, you despicable man.

Others said they would consider boycotting the Kings books over his comments.

The cause of the rail crash, in Crozet, is under investigation. The Amtrak train was travelling at about 60mph when it hit the truck.The Pentagon has warned Russia is developing a nuclear-armed, undersea autonomous torpedo, as Donald Trumps administration outlined a more aggressive stance towards Moscow.

The US defence department said Russia has been constructing a new intercontinental, nuclear-armed, nuclear-powered weapon, in a policy statement known as the Nuclear Posture Review (NPR).

Officials warned that upon detonation, the undersea device could cause large areas of radioactive contamination, with some analysts describing it as a doomsday weapon.

But the White House said Russia would face unacceptably dire costs if it were to threaten even a limited nuclear attack in Europe.

 Doomsday clock set at two minutes to midnight

The Trump administration announced it would continue much of President Barack Obamas nuclear weapons policies, but would take a harder line towards Russia.

The report said Vladimir Putin's regime had been developing a range of new nuclear warheads and launchers and modernising legacy Soviet nuclear systems.

Russia is modernising an active stockpile of up to 2,000 non-strategic nuclear weapons, including those employable by ships, planes, and ground forces, the summary reads.

These include air-to-surface missiles, short range ballistic missiles, gravity bombs, and depth charges for medium-range bombers, tactical bombers, and naval aviation, as well as anti-ship, anti-submarine, and anti-aircraft missiles and torpedoes for surface ships and submarines, a nuclear groundlaunched cruise missile in violation of the 1987 INF Treaty, and Moscows antiballistic missile system.

World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless AFP via Getty World news in pictures 9 September 2020 Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 8 September 2020 A home is engulfed in flames during the "Creek Fire" in the Tollhouse area of California AFP via Getty World news in pictures 7 September 2020 A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho AFP via Getty World news in pictures 6 September 2020 Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open USA Today Sports/Reuters World news in pictures 5 September 2020 Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally AFP via Getty World news in pictures 4 September 2020 A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. Dozens of fires are burning out of control throughout Northern California as fire resources are spread thin AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 August 2020 Students use their mobile phones as flashlights at an anti-government rally at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. Thailand has seen near-daily protests in recent weeks by students demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha AFP via Getty World news in pictures 17 August 2020 Members of the Kayapo tribe block the BR163 highway during a protest outside Novo Progresso in Para state, Brazil. Indigenous protesters blocked a major transamazonian highway to protest against the lack of governmental support during the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories AFP via Getty World news in pictures 16 August 2020 Lightning forks over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland AP World news in pictures 15 August 2020 Belarus opposition supporters gather near the Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester died on August 10, during their protest rally in central Minsk AFP via Getty World news in pictures 14 August 2020 AlphaTauri's driver Daniil Kvyat takes part in the second practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix AFP via Getty World news in pictures 13 August 2020 Soldiers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during a disinfection of the Christ The Redeemer statue at the Corcovado mountain prior to the opening of the touristic attraction in Rio AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 August 2020 Young elephant bulls tussle playfully on World Elephant Day at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya AFP via Getty

The document also outlined the US multibillion nuclear deterrence effort targeted at Russia.

The military is considering developing smaller means of carrying the payloads, after concerns were raised that Moscow saw US nuclear weapons as too big to be used, and therefore not a viable nuclear deterrent.

The report also said North Korea represented a clear and grave threat to the US and its allies, and said any attempt by the North Korean regime to attack would result in the end of that regime.

It also cast China as a potential nuclear adversary, saying the US arsenal is tailored to prevent Beijing from mistakenly concluding that it could gain advantage by using its nuclear weapons in Asia, or that any use of nuclear weapons, however limited, is acceptable.

Mr Trump responded to the reports findings on Friday, saying it confirmed the US commitment to nuclear non-proliferation.

Over the past decade, despite US efforts to reduce the roles and numbers of nuclear weapons, other nuclear nations grew their stockpiles, increased the prominence of nuclear weapons in their security strategies, and  in some cases -pursued the development of new nuclear capabilities to threaten other nations, he said.

The strategy develops capabilities aimed at making use of nuclear weapons less likely. It enhances deterrence of strategic attacks against our nation, and our allies and partners, that may not come in the form of nuclear weapons.

And, importantly, it reaffirms our commitment to arms control and nuclear non-proliferation, maintains the moratorium on nuclear testing, and commits to improving efforts to prevent, detect, and respond to nuclear terrorism.President Donald Trump has refused to rule out firing Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.

Asked in the Oval Office whether he would axe the Justice Department official, Mr Trump said with a scowl to reporters: You figure that one out.

The Presidents comment came after he approved the release of a memo alleging surveillance abuses by FBI officials investigating potential collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. The controversial document was crafted by the staff of Devin Nunes, the Republican chairman of the House Intelligence Committee.

Hours after Mr Trump spoke, a White House spokesman said there have been no discussions or considerations about firing Mr Rosenstein.

Democrats have called the four-page Nunes memo a shameful effort to discredit the FBI, the Justice Department and Special Counsel Robert Muellers probe into Russian meddling in the 2016 election.

The premise of the Nunes memo is that the FBI and DOJ corruptly sought a [Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act] warrant on a former Trump campaign foreign policy adviser, Carter Page, and deliberately misled the court as part of a systematic abuse of the FISA process, the Democrats said in a statement.

None of this is true, they added. The FBI had good reason to be concerned about Carter Page and would have been derelict in its responsibility to protect the country had it not sought a FISA warrant.

But Mr Trump has suggested the memo shows political bias at the FBI that tainted the investigation into his campaign. The President has repeatedly said there was no collusion between his campaign advisers and the Russian government.

A lot of people should be ashamed of themselves and much worse than that, Mr Trump told reporters at the White House.

Donald Trump's first year: in pictures Show all 29 1 /29 Donald Trump's first year: in pictures Donald Trump's first year: in pictures Inauguration - 20 January 2017 US President Donald Trump acknowledges the audience after taking the oath of office as his wife Melania (L) and daughter Tiffany watch during inauguration ceremonies swearing in Trump as the 45th president of the United States on the West Front of the US capital in Washington on 20 January, 2017. Photographer Jim Bourg: "This photo was shot with one of two remote cameras. The cameras were monitored and triggered remotely and the pictures were transmitted to clients worldwide within minutes of being taken." Reuters/Jim Bourg Donald Trump's first year: in pictures Obama farewell address - 10 January 2017 US President Barack Obama wipes away tears as he delivers his farewell address in Chicago on 10 January, 2017. Photographer Jonathan Ernst: "In his final days in office, Obama made a visit home to Chicago. As he spoke from the stage to his wife and daughter in the audience, he became emotional when he talked about what they had sacrificed during his time in office. I turned from photographing the Obama women embracing to find him onstage wiping away tears." Reuters/Jonathan Ernst Donald Trump's first year: in pictures Inauguration - 20 January 2017 A combination of photos shows the crowds attending the inauguration ceremonies to swear in U.S. President Donald Trump at 12:01pm (left) on January 20, 2017 and President Barack Obama sometime between 12:07pm and 12:26pm on January 20, 2009. Reuters/ Lucas Jackson/Stelios Varias Donald Trump's first year: in pictures Liberty Ball - 20 January 2017 US President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump attend the Liberty Ball in honour of his inauguration in Washington on 20 January, 2017. Photographer Jonathan Ernst: "What I see when I look at this picture is the end of a very long day, not to mention weeks and months of preparation by many photographers, editors and network experts and the beginning of everything since." Reuters/Jonathan Ernst Donald Trump's first year: in pictures Inaugural Law Enforcement Officers and First Responders Reception - 22 January 2017 US President Donald Trump greets Director of the FBI James Comey as Director of the Secret Service Joseph Clancy (L), watches during the Inaugural Law Enforcement Officers and First Responders Reception in the Blue Room of the White House on 22 January, 2017. Photographer Joshua Roberts: "I have covered the White House for 16 years and normally either the President or the pool is in position when an event starts. In this case the President was not where anyone expected him to be. In fact, he was almost blocking the door when the pool came in. We had to scramble to find a position without bumping him or the furniture as he greeted and thanked members of law enforcement for their security efforts during the inauguration. Luckily, he greeted FBI Director James Comey a few seconds after the pool had made its way into the room." Reuters/Joshua Roberts Donald Trump's first year: in pictures Private phone calls to world leaders - 28 January 2017 US President Donald Trump, is joined by his staff, as he speaks by phone with Russia's President Vladimir Putin in the Oval Office on 28 January, 2017. Photographer Jonathan Ernst: "Very early in the Trump administration, weekends were as busy as weekdays. On Trump's second Saturday the official schedule said he would be making private phone calls to a number of world leaders including Russia's Vladimir Putin. I arrived early and, before sitting down at my desk walked up to Press Secretary Sean Spicer's office. He, too, was just taking his coat off. I gingerly made the suggestion that previous administrations had sometimes allowed photos of such phone calls through the Oval Office windows on the colonnade. To my mild shock, he didn't even think about it twice. "We'll do it!" he said. In truth, I really only expected the Putin call, but we were outside the windows multiple times throughout the day as the calls went on." Reuters/Jonathan Ernst Donald Trump's first year: in pictures Senior advisor Kellyanne Conway - 27 February 2017 Senior advisor Kellyanne Conway (L) attends as US President Donald Trump welcomes the leaders of dozens of historically black colleges and universities (HBCU) in the Oval Office on 27 February, 2017. Photographer Jonathan Ernst: "We're often asked how much access we have to the Trump administration, and the answer is we have an awful lot. President Trump himself is very comfortable in the spotlight, and his aides are similarly unfazed by cameras. In this instance, senior advisor Kellyanne Conway was so comfortable in our presence she seemed not to consider the optics of kneeling on a Oval Office sofa to take pictures with her phone." Reuters/Jonathan Ernst Donald Trump's first year: in pictures Angela Merkel heads to Washington - 17 March 2017 Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel and US President Donald Trump hold a joint news conference in the East Room of the White House on 17 March, 2017. Photographer Jonathan Ernst: "Chancellor Merkel made one of the earliest important visits of any US allies to meet Trump in his first months in office. When world leaders give joint news conferences they don't always tend to give each other their full attention - but Merkel watched Trump intently at several key moments, and here seemed particularly rapt." Reuters/Jonathan Ernst Donald Trump's first year: in pictures Trump welcomes truckers to the White House - 23 March 2017 President Trump reacts as he sits on a truck while he welcomes truckers and CEOs to attend a meeting regarding healthcare at the White House on 23 March, 2017. Photographer Carlos Barria: "The White House organised a listening session with truckers and CEO's of major American companies, regarding healthcare reform. An 18-wheeler tow truck was parked on the South Lawn of the White House and as Trump welcomed the truckers someone invited the him to come and sit in the driver's seat. Trump jumped into the cab and started yelling and pretending to drive - creating one of the most memorable pictures of the year. A lesson learned, always be prepared for the unexpected." Reuters/Carlos Barria Donald Trump's first year: in pictures Air Force One - 6 April 2017 US President Donald Trump talks to journalists members of the travel pool on board the Air Force One during his trip to Palm Beach, Florida on 6 April, 2017. Carlos Barria: "During the many trips to President Trump's residence in Florida it is usual to see the president coming to the back of the plane to chat with journalists. During one of the trips to the so called 'Winter White House', Trump had a long talk with reporters while the Air Force One entertainment system was playing one of the latest Star Wars movies. As I was listening to Trump talk I was also looking at the movie waiting for a part of the movie to frame the mood of the day. Of the many scenes, I choose the one with Darth Vader." Reuters/Carlos Barria Donald Trump's first year: in pictures 100 Days - 27 April 2017 US President Donald Trump speaks during an interview with Reuters in the Oval Office of the White House on 27 April, 2017. Photographer Carlos Barria: "A day before President Trump's hundred days in office I was part of the team that interviewed the commander-in-chief in the Oval Office. I was only allowed to photograph Trump during the last five minutes of the interview. The time was very tight so I had to move fast as I had pictures in mind that I wanted to shoot. I walked into the Oval Office and saw that the President had printed maps of the country showing areas in red where he won. I raised my hands holding my camera as high as possible to get the best view of the scene using a 16mm wide angle lens." Reuters/Carlos Barria Donald Trump's first year: in pictures 100 Days - 27 April 2017 US President Donald Trump reacts as he arrives at Harrisburg international airport, before attending a rally marking his first 100 days in office in Pennsylvania on 29 April, 2017. Photographer Carlos Barria: "President Trump travelled to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania to celebrate his hundred days in office with a victory rally. He was in friendly territory as he won with a big difference over his opponent Hillary Clinton in Pennsylvania, during the November elections. As usual when the commander-in-chief arrives local residents gather to greet him. This time a small group of military personnel attended the arrival. Surrounded by secret service agents Trump walked from the Air Force One and raised his hand in a sign of victory as the crowd cheered him on." Reuters/Carlos Barria Donald Trump's first year: in pictures White House staffers - 2 May 2017 White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer (L) and White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus watch as US President Donald Trump presents the U.S. Air Force Academy football team with the Commander-in-Chief trophy in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington on 2 May, 2017. Photographer Joshua Roberts: "Covering the White House does not just mean covering the President. White House staffers are an important part of the story and their relationship with the President and each other is an indicator of how things are going in the West Wing. The tendency is to focus exclusively on the President once an event starts but I always try to look around to see how people are reacting as things unfold." Reuters/Joshua Roberts Donald Trump's first year: in pictures Secret Service - 4 May 2017 Secret Service agents use a presidential limousine as cover from spraying water as US President Donald Trump lands via Marine One helicopter in New York on 4 May, 2017. Photographer Jonathan Ernst: "The best part of any trip to New York City with the sitting US President is the helicopter ride into Manhattan. The ride out at night can be stunning. Here, Secret Service agents protect themselves from the spray from the East River as Trump lands on the helipad." Reuters/Jonathan Ernst Donald Trump's first year: in pictures NATO Summit - 25 May 2017 US President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump wait the arrival of French President Emmanuel Macron (unseen) before a lunch ahead of a NATO Summit in Brussels on 25 May, 2017. Photographer Jonathan Ernst: "One of the best parts of travelling overseas for White House coverage is the chance to see the U.S. president in different environments and (literally) a different light. Here, Trump and his wife came out of the shadows to greet France's President Macron." Reuters/Jonathan Ernst Donald Trump's first year: in pictures Trump meets Putin at G20 summit - 7 July 2017 US President Donald Trump meets with Russian President Vladimir Putin during their bilateral meeting at the G20 summit in Hamburg, Germany on 7 July, 2017. Photographer Carlos Barria: "On July 7, I witnessed one of the most important meetings of President Trump's first year in office. Trump met Russian President Vladimir Putin during a bilateral meeting at the G20 summit in Germany. The world's eyes were on these two leaders after speculation about Russian interference during the 2016 US elections. We entered the room for less than two minutes, where I took dozens of pictures. But there was this very interesting moment when Trump extended his hand to Putin for a handshake. Putin paused for a second and looked at Trump's hand. That was the picture that I was looking for, a little moment that seemed to say a lot." Reuters/Carlos Barria Donald Trump's first year: in pictures First lady - 8 July 2017 First lady Melania Trump chats with US President Donald Trump during their return from Germany at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland on 8 July, 2017. Photographer Carlos Barria: "After President Trump's trip to Germany he arrived back at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland. First Lady Melania Trump said goodbye to Trump as she was heading off in a different direction that day. While chatting a breeze blew Melania's hair up in the air." Reuters/Carlos Barria Donald Trump's first year: in pictures Made in America product showcase - 17 July 2017 Vice President Mike Pence laughs as President Donald Trump holds a baseball bat as they attend a Made in America product showcase event at the White House on 17 July, 2017. Photographer Carlos Barria: "This summer the White House organized an event to showcase 'Made in America' products. All kinds of exhibitors brought their products as the President and Vice President toured the event. One of the companies was Marucci Sport, a manufacturer of baseball bats based in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. As Trump approached a table full of baseball bats, photographers at the event, including me, rushed to get a good angle hoping that he would pick up a bat. As we predicted, he did. He took one and joked around as though he was hitting something hard. The only thing closer to him right there, was the media." Reuters Donald Trump's first year: in pictures White House staffers - 25 July 2017 Former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski says hello to reporters as he and White House advisors including Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci accompany President Trump for an event celebrating veterans at AMVETS Post 44 in Ohio, July 25, 2017. Jonathan Ernst: "The most visible person in any White House is naturally the President, followed by the press secretary. But there are also the staff who support them. For those of us covering the Trump administration, there seem to be more compelling figures in the West Wing than ever before. It's crucial to know who's who and why they're important. When I raised my camera and back-pedalled ahead of the group to take this image Lewandowski gave me a hello. I liked the photo, but had no idea it would go a little bit viral, especially since Scaramucci, who was the biggest mover and shaker that week, was hidden back in the pack. But I guess the image catches a glimpse of what it's like to be a West Wing staffer on the road." Reuters/Jonathan Ernst Donald Trump's first year: in pictures Campaign rally - 3 August 2017 US President Donald Trump arrives at a rally in West Virginia on 3 August, 2017. Photographer Carlos Barria: "President Trump travelled to Huntington for one of his usual campaign rallies. While members of his family spoke to the crowd he was waiting under a black curtain to be introduced. Suddenly he walked onto the stage, one of the first frames that I took was of his hand. I set my exposure for the light on the stage hoping to create this dark background and it worked." Reuters/Carlos Barria Donald Trump's first year: in pictures Staring into the solar eclipse - 21 August 2017 Without his protective glasses on, US President Donald Trump looks up towards the solar eclipse while viewing with his wife Melania and son Barron at the White House on 21 August, 2017. Photographer Kevin Lamarque: "On a day when everyone, and I mean everyone, was told not to look at the eclipse without protective glasses, Trump, President of the United States, couldn't help himself." Reuters/Kevin Lamarque Donald Trump's first year: in pictures Hurricane Harvey - 2 September 2017 US President Donald Trump poses for a photo as he and first lady Melania Trump help volunteers hand out meals during a visit with flood survivors of Hurricane Harvey at a relief centre in Houston, Texas on 2 September, 2017. Photohrapher Kevin Lamarque: "Trump, eager to deliver the image of a hands-on response to Hurricane Harvey, made this visit to a relief centre and obliged this woman with a selfie as Melania continued to work." Reuters/Kevin Lamarque Donald Trump's first year: in pictures White House - 15 September 2017 Donald Trump welcomes 11-year-old Frank Giaccio as he cuts the Rose Garden grass at the White House on 15 September. Frank, who wrote a letter to Trump offering to mow the lawn, was invited to work for a day at the White House along the National Park Service staff. Frank was so focused on his task that he did not notice the President arrive to surprise him. He took his father jumping in to grab his attention and point Trump out. Photographer Carlos Barria said: The image of Trump shouting at a kid who is mowing his lawn might have many interpretations in today's politically polarized United States. But for me it was just a kid who loved what he was doing, to the point he almost appeared to ignore the President." Reuters/Carlos Barria Donald Trump's first year: in pictures Take a knee - 27 September 2017 A man kneels with a folded U.S. flag as the motorcade of U.S. President Donald Trump passes him after an event at the state fairgrounds in Indianapolis, Indiana, U.S., September 27, 2017. In September, soon after Trump had made comments condemning NFL players who kneel during the national anthem, he made a day trip to a rally in Indianapolis. Jonathan Ernst managed to capture a man on one knee with a tri-folded flag and was able to use a portion of the sign on the building he was kneeling in front of to track the man down and tell his story in full. US Army veteran Marvin Boatright wanted to send a message against social injustice. Reuters/Jonathan Ernst Donald Trump's first year: in pictures Hurricane Maria - 3 October 2017 President Donald Trump throws rolls of paper towels into a crowd of local residents affected by Hurricane Maria as he visits Calgary Chapel in San Juan, Puerto Rico on 3 October, 2017. Photographer Jonathan Ernst: "During an afternoon visit to Puerto Rico for President Trump to survey damage from Hurricane Maria and greet some of its victims, Trump made a stop at a church where food and supplies were being distributed. Among the items were paper towels and Trump, apparently caught up in the moment, decided to distribute some of the rolls." Reuters Donald Trump's first year: in pictures Jared Kushner - 1 November 2017 White House Senior adviser Jared Kushner sits behind President Trump during a cabinet meeting in Washington on 1 November, 2017. Photographer Kevin Lamarque: "The role of Jared Kushner has gone through a series of changes. He began front and centre as a high profile adviser, but as time has passed and issues surrounding him have surfaced, he has become more of a background figure." Reuters/Kevin Lamarque Donald Trump's first year: in pictures Trump in China - 9 November 2017 Donald Trump and China's President Xi Jinping shake hands after making joint statements at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on 9 November, 2017. Photographer Damir Sagolj: "It's one of those "how to make a better or at least different shot when two presidents shake hands several times a day, several days in row". If I'm not mistaken in calculation, presidents Xi Jinping and Donald Trump shook their hands at least six times in events I covered during Trump's recent visit to China. I would imagine there were some more handshakes I haven't seen but other photographers did. And they all look similar - two big men, smiling and heartily greeting each other until everyone gets their shot. But then there is always something that can make it special - in this case the background made of US and Chinese flags. The first time it didn't work for me. The second time I positioned myself lower and centrally, and used the longest lens I have to capture only hands reaching for a handshake." Reuters/Damir Sagolj Donald Trump's first year: in pictures Air Force One - 10 November 2017 US President Donald Trump boards Air Force One to depart for Vietnam from Beijing Airport in Beijing, China, November 10, 2017. Photographer Jonathan Ernst: "There is a Reuters photographer in the tight pool covering the US president for every appearance he makes 365 days a year. This was just one of 32 images of mine that were transmitted on the Reuters wire of President Trump visiting China and Vietnam that day. You never know when a sudden interaction, a gust of wind or a unique facial expression will lead to a striking image that grabs peoples' attention." Reuters/Jonathan Ernst Donald Trump's first year: in pictures ASEAN handshake - 13 November 2017 Donald Trump registers his surprise as he realises other leaders, including Russia's Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, Vietnam's Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc, President of the Philippines Rodrigo Duterte and Australia's Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, are crossing their arms for the traditional "ASEAN handshake" as he participates in the opening ceremony of the summit in Manila on 13 November, 2017. Photographer Jonathan Ernst: "Having covered a few ASEAN summits, I knew to expect the ASEAN handshake. Not everyone in the room knew to expect the ASEAN handshake. A lot was written about this unscripted moment, and what deeper meaning it might have. The simple truth is that sometimes in life there are unscripted moments." Reuters/Jonathan Ernst

The memo states that Mr Rosenstein signed off on at least one FISA application to surveil Mr Page.

The FBI and its director, Christopher Wray, raised issues over the memo, with the bureau issuing a rare public statement on Wednesday declaring it had grave concerns about the accuracy of the classified document.

Since Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself from all matters related to the Russia investigation, Mr Rosenstein has been overseeing the Russia probe for the Justice Department.

Last May, the Deputy Attorney General appointed Robert Mueller as special counsel to head the federal investigation after Mr Trump made the controversial move to fire FBI Director James Comey, who had been running the bureaus inquiry.

Democrats from the House and Senate sent a letter to Mr Trump on Friday warning him against using the Nunes memo as a pretext to fire Mr Rosenstein or Mr Mueller.

Firing Rod Rosenstein, DOJ (Department of Justice) leadership, or Bob Mueller could result in a constitutional crisis of the kind not seen since the Saturday night massacre, the Democrats wrote, referring to President Richard Nixons firing of the Watergate scandal special prosecutor in the 1970s.

There has already been speculation for months over whether Mr Trump would fire Mr Mueller.

Also on Friday, Mr Sessions went off-script during remarks about human trafficking to praise his deputy. He declared that Mr Rosenstein - along with Rachel Brand, the current No 3 at the Justice Department  both represent the kind of quality and leadership that we want in the department.At least six African immigrants were injured after an Italian gunman opened fire on the city of Macerata in a racially-motivated attack, according to police.

Authorities named the suspected shooter as Luca Traini, a 28-year-old from the same region, located about 125 miles east of Rome.

Police said he had an Italian flag draped over his shoulders when he was arrested in the street by armed officers. A pistol was found in his nearby car.

Earlier in the day, chaos prevailed in the city as authorities advised residents to stay indoors following reports of multiple shootings. All of those injured in the drive-by attacks were of foreign nationality, according to police.

Macerata resident Marcello Mancini said Mr Traini had been targeting coloured people. He said: He drove around in his car and when he saw any coloured people he shot them."

The ruling centre-left Democratic Party (PD) said the suspect had stood as a candidate for the right-wing Northern League at local elections last year and accused him of also firing shots at one of their offices in Macerata before he was arrested.

Luca Traini, 28, who police suspect of opening fire on African migrants (Reuters)

The league backs fiercely anti-immigrant policies and is part of ex-prime minister Silvio Berlusconis centre-right alliance that is leading in the polls ahead of a 4 March national election.

World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless AFP via Getty World news in pictures 9 September 2020 Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 8 September 2020 A home is engulfed in flames during the "Creek Fire" in the Tollhouse area of California AFP via Getty World news in pictures 7 September 2020 A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho AFP via Getty World news in pictures 6 September 2020 Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open USA Today Sports/Reuters World news in pictures 5 September 2020 Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally AFP via Getty World news in pictures 4 September 2020 A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. Dozens of fires are burning out of control throughout Northern California as fire resources are spread thin AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 August 2020 Students use their mobile phones as flashlights at an anti-government rally at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. Thailand has seen near-daily protests in recent weeks by students demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha AFP via Getty World news in pictures 17 August 2020 Members of the Kayapo tribe block the BR163 highway during a protest outside Novo Progresso in Para state, Brazil. Indigenous protesters blocked a major transamazonian highway to protest against the lack of governmental support during the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories AFP via Getty World news in pictures 16 August 2020 Lightning forks over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland AP World news in pictures 15 August 2020 Belarus opposition supporters gather near the Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester died on August 10, during their protest rally in central Minsk AFP via Getty World news in pictures 14 August 2020 AlphaTauri's driver Daniil Kvyat takes part in the second practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix AFP via Getty World news in pictures 13 August 2020 Soldiers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during a disinfection of the Christ The Redeemer statue at the Corcovado mountain prior to the opening of the touristic attraction in Rio AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 August 2020 Young elephant bulls tussle playfully on World Elephant Day at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya AFP via Getty

Newspaper Corriere della Sera said a man fired from a car window at two young African migrants shortly after 11am (10am GMT) on Saturday, injuring one of them. A short while later another migrant and an African woman were shot.

Police said one of the six victims was seriously hurt and needed surgery, but gave no further details.

The shootings happened just days after the body of 18-year-old Pamela Mastropietro was discovered cut up and hidden in two suitcases. A Nigerian migrant has been arrested in connection with the death.

Macerata Mayor Romano Carancini said: They were all of colour, this is obviously a grave fact. As was grave what happened to Pamela. The closeness of the two events makes you imagine there could be a connection.

Reports suggested the alleged perpetrator, Innocent Oseghale, was denied asylum last year but had remained in Macerata to appeal against the decision.

What was this worm still doing in Italy? Northern League leader Matteo Salvini wrote on Facebook, accusing the centre-left government of responsibility for Ms Mastropietros death for allowing migrants to stay in the country. The left has blood on its hands, he wrote.

Local media said the two incidents were linked.

Additional reporting by agenciesRussia has hit back at the bellicose nature of the Trump administrations proposed new nuclear policy  which advocates a more aggressive approach towards Moscow.

The US Department of Defences latest Nuclear Posture Review (NPR) argues that Washington must create a more effective nuclear deterrent, with Russia and other nations holding the misconception that the US would not use its large-scale strategic nuclear weapons in response to nuclear aggression from other countries. Therefore the Pentagon must increase the number of low-yield weapons.

Our strategy will ensure Russia understands that any use of nuclear weapons, however limited, is unacceptable, the NPR said.

Critics say the new stance will increase the chance of a miscalculation between the pair, with Russias response unlikely to dampen such thoughts. The bellicose and anti-Russian nature of this document is obvious, Russias Foreign Ministry said in a statement, adding that it was deeply disappointed.

We, of course, will have to take into account the approach enacted now in Washington and to take the needed measures to secure our own safety, the ministry said.

The review claims Russia has a stockpile of 2,000 non-strategic nuclear weapons, while the US has a few hundred active low-yield weapons deployed in Europe. US officials also argue that since the last NPR in 2010 Russia has expanded and modernised its non-strategic nuclear weapons and annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014. For the first time publicly, the review also says that Russia is developing a hypersonic, nuclear-powered undersea torpedo.

The US is not arms racing, we are responding to Russian initiative here, said Greg Weaver, deputy director of strategic capabilities at the Pentagon. The Russian Foreign Ministry denied the accusations in the report and said that Moscow was ready to work constructively with Washington over arms stockpiles.

While the previous review, in former President Barack Obamas first term, had called for a modernisation of the US nuclear capability, the more aggressive stance stands at odds with Mr Obamas administration and fits Mr Trumps peace through strength world view. The focus on Russia is also in line with the Pentagon shifting priorities from the fight against jihadists to great power competition with nations like Russia and China.

World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless AFP via Getty World news in pictures 9 September 2020 Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 8 September 2020 A home is engulfed in flames during the "Creek Fire" in the Tollhouse area of California AFP via Getty World news in pictures 7 September 2020 A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho AFP via Getty World news in pictures 6 September 2020 Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open USA Today Sports/Reuters World news in pictures 5 September 2020 Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally AFP via Getty World news in pictures 4 September 2020 A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. Dozens of fires are burning out of control throughout Northern California as fire resources are spread thin AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 August 2020 Students use their mobile phones as flashlights at an anti-government rally at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. Thailand has seen near-daily protests in recent weeks by students demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha AFP via Getty World news in pictures 17 August 2020 Members of the Kayapo tribe block the BR163 highway during a protest outside Novo Progresso in Para state, Brazil. Indigenous protesters blocked a major transamazonian highway to protest against the lack of governmental support during the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories AFP via Getty World news in pictures 16 August 2020 Lightning forks over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland AP World news in pictures 15 August 2020 Belarus opposition supporters gather near the Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester died on August 10, during their protest rally in central Minsk AFP via Getty World news in pictures 14 August 2020 AlphaTauri's driver Daniil Kvyat takes part in the second practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix AFP via Getty World news in pictures 13 August 2020 Soldiers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during a disinfection of the Christ The Redeemer statue at the Corcovado mountain prior to the opening of the touristic attraction in Rio AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 August 2020 Young elephant bulls tussle playfully on World Elephant Day at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya AFP via Getty

Both the current president and the Pentagon say the new review treads the fine line between maintaining a nuclear deterrence and encouraging a push for arms control.

In a statement following the release of the review, Donald Trump said: The strategy develops capabilities aimed at making use of nuclear weapons less likely. It enhances deterrence of strategic attacks against our nation, and our allies and partners, that may not come in the form of nuclear weapons. And, importantly, it reaffirms our commitment to arms control and nuclear non-proliferation, maintains the moratorium on nuclear testing, and commits to improving efforts to prevent, detect and respond to nuclear terrorism.

The new NPR calls for a continuation of the nuclear modernisation programme ordered by Mr Obama across the triad of ground-based intercontinental ballistic missiles, submarine-launched weapons and bombs delivered by plane.

Beyond Russia, the review calls North Korea and its leader Kim Jong-un a clear and grave threat to the US and its allies, repeating the Trump administration line that a North Korean nuclear attack against the US or its allies will result in the end of that regime.

It also casts China as a potential nuclear adversary, saying the US arsenal is tailored to prevent Beijing from mistakenly concluding that it could gain advantage by using its nuclear weapons in Asia.

Arms control groups have responded with alarm to the review, claiming that it will blur the lines between nuclear and conventional warfare.

President Trump is embarking on a reckless path, one that will reduce US security, said Lisbeth Gronlund, a senior scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists.

Reuters and Associated Press contributed to this reportTens of thousands of Russians have gathered across the country this week on the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Stalingrad.

Rallies organised by the government-initiated Civic Chamber were organised to mark the defeat of Nazi forces in the city, now called Volgograd, on 2 February 1943, a key turning point in the Second World War.

Police said 60,000 people attended a rally on Saturday at Moscows Vasilyevsky Spusk, an area adjacent to the Red Square. Similar gatherings were held in other cities.

Recommended Vladimir Putin compared to god by Kremlin

Vladimir Putin attended a rally in Volgorad on Friday, lauding the Red Armys victory as a shining example of Russias perseverance amid adversity.

The events were also staged on the anniversary of the military victory in a bid to express patriotic unity and support for Russian athletes ahead of the upcoming Winter Olympics.

Demonstrations came amid criticism that Russian athletes were required to compete in neutral uniforms in the Pyeongchang games after doping scandals.

Some participants in the Moscow rally held signs reading: Athletes without a flag  athletes without a motherland.

What happened at Stalingrad?

A soldier hobbles round a waterlogged crater during the Battle of Stalingrad (Getty)

German forces had advanced across southern Russia throughout the summer of 1942 until they reached the outskirts of the city in late August.

By September, fighting had moved inside the city and Soviet reinforcements bedded down in the city and the battle was fought in close quarters in streets, factories and houses.

Both sides often captured locations while sustaining heavy casualties, only to lose the site again a matter of hours later.

By the end of 1942, the German Sixth Army was surrounded, but Hitler said Nazi forces would never leave the city, instead flying supplies in to troops until reinforcements could be assembled.

However, the Red Army wore down the Nazi resistance over the space of more than a month, until the remaining 91,000 Axis troops surrendered on 2 February 1943.

Why is Stalingrad so important?

A rally in Moscow organised on the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Stalingrad (Getty)

Stalingrad is seen as the single bloodiest battle in the history of warfare, with somewhere between 1.7 million and 2.2 million people killed in little more than five months of fighting.

The battle is not only considered the biggest defeat in the entire history of the German army, but also as a turning point on the Eastern Front and the entire Second World War.

Although the battle saw Germanys Sixth Army wiped out and many of its allies forces severely depleted, the symbolism of Stalingrad proved just as important.

Defeat had shattered German morale and Hitler began to believe he was fighting a defensive war, whereas victory had given the Soviets a new confidence the war could be won.

Many came to believe it was now only a matter of time before Germany was defeated and Allied forces went on to secure several key victories in 1943 to gain the upper hand in the war.In less than two months time, Russia will vote and re-elect Vladimir Putin. As many as eight names may make the ballot papers, but Mr Putins is the only box that counts.

In that sense, little will have changed in March from the last presidential election in 2012. That, too, was a referendum on President Putin. But the comparison stops there. Six years ago the challenge he faced was a protest movement that had swept through the country, which Mr Putin vanquished; this year he has another opponent: voter apathy.

The Kremlin, say multiple reports, wants these elections to leave no doubt of the presidents legitimacy. After all, these are the first presidential elections after the annexation of Crimea  and they may very well be Mr Putins last. So the projected overwhelming first-round win with between 65 per cent and 70 per cent will not be enough. It has to at least feel as if the whole country has joined in.

The Kremlin apparently wants a turnout of at least the 70 per cent that voted in Mr Putins first election. A minimum would be to surpass the nearly 64 per cent support Mr Putin received in 2012 with a turnout of more than 65 per cent.

But it has a problem: How do you create interest in a contest without competition? And how do you selectively reverse a two-decade-old pact, made after Mr Putins elevation to the presidency, where the strongman offered Russians stability in exchange for keeping out of politics?

The 70/70 target, referencing the turnout and Mr Putins final vote percentage, was denied by the Kremlin, though all but confirmed by the governor of Altai district, Alexander Karlin, who was secretly recorded in a meeting. The Chair of the Election Committee may say there is no 70/70 figure, but you can ignore that, Mr Karlin is reported as saying. Nobody has cancelled those thresholds for us, that is a fact... There are no excuses: You have all the tools at your disposal.

World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless AFP via Getty World news in pictures 9 September 2020 Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 8 September 2020 A home is engulfed in flames during the "Creek Fire" in the Tollhouse area of California AFP via Getty World news in pictures 7 September 2020 A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho AFP via Getty World news in pictures 6 September 2020 Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open USA Today Sports/Reuters World news in pictures 5 September 2020 Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally AFP via Getty World news in pictures 4 September 2020 A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. Dozens of fires are burning out of control throughout Northern California as fire resources are spread thin AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 August 2020 Students use their mobile phones as flashlights at an anti-government rally at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. Thailand has seen near-daily protests in recent weeks by students demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha AFP via Getty World news in pictures 17 August 2020 Members of the Kayapo tribe block the BR163 highway during a protest outside Novo Progresso in Para state, Brazil. Indigenous protesters blocked a major transamazonian highway to protest against the lack of governmental support during the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories AFP via Getty World news in pictures 16 August 2020 Lightning forks over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland AP World news in pictures 15 August 2020 Belarus opposition supporters gather near the Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester died on August 10, during their protest rally in central Minsk AFP via Getty World news in pictures 14 August 2020 AlphaTauri's driver Daniil Kvyat takes part in the second practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix AFP via Getty World news in pictures 13 August 2020 Soldiers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during a disinfection of the Christ The Redeemer statue at the Corcovado mountain prior to the opening of the touristic attraction in Rio AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 August 2020 Young elephant bulls tussle playfully on World Elephant Day at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya AFP via Getty

Most analysts surveyed by The Independent suggested that a 70 per cent turnout is unlikely. At last years parliamentary elections, less than half the country voted. While participation in presidential elections is always higher, a jump of that order is unprecedented.

Its possible to get near to the 70 per cent mark, says Valery Solovei, a professor of the Moscow State Institute for International Relations. But for that you would need to create a certain amount of intrigue and allow open competition from the remaining candidates, and that is a dangerous game for the Kremlin.

Even a 60 per cent turnout would need a number of artificial interventions, says Grigory Melkonyants, co-chair of the elections monitor Golos.

 Russia opposition leader Alexei Navalny detained by police at anti-Putin protest

To this end, the Kremlin has already begun tinkering with technical details. The day of voting was switched to 18 March to coincide with the anniversary of the annexation of Crimea. Advertising began right after the date was announced on 18 December, weeks earlier than usual. There will also likely be local referenda on the day of the elections, where voters will be asked to rank future infrastructure projects.

On the day of voting itself, voters will likely be offered all kinds of discounts, lotteries, funfairs and cut-price sausage promotions. Such shenanigans, traditional in Russian elections campaigns, might add 5 or 10 per cent to the turnout.

Larger boosts will need direct intervention, says Grigorii Golosov, Professor of Comparative Politics at the European University at St Petersburg. The first instrument authorities will use will be to compel those who are dependent on the government to vote. Teachers, doctors, military, police, factory workers, long-term infirm, mentally ill  all these groups will be strongly persuaded to vote.

There may be attempts to stuff ballot boxes  a tactic seen in the 2011 parliamentary elections. But according to Mr Golosov, the bigger markups come after voting, when the votes are recorded on official election protocols. Here, the level of manipulation is not uniform. The presidential administration might issue a directive to keep things clean, says Mr Golosov. But local governors know that a poor result for Putin is not good news for them.

The republics of the northern Caucasus are particularly kind to the president, but here there is little room for improvement. In 2012, Chechnya returned a scarcely believable 99 per cent of votes for Putin from a turnout of 99 per cent. In October 2010, on the eve of parliamentary elections, the speaker of the Chechen parliament promised Russias upper house that Chechnya could organise a result of 120 per cent if needed.

The independent electoral researcher Sergey Shpilkin suggests that Russia has now split into two when it comes to elections, with first Russia significantly cleaner than the second. The two Russias are scattered geographically. Russia one, usually major towns and cities, has 80 per cent of the population. Russia two, usually in rural areas and away from observers, has 20 per cent of the population. At the last elections, both populations returned about the same amount of votes for the ruling party United Russia.

According to Mr Shpilkins mathematical modelling, which identifies statistical outliers, the number of, for want of a better description, unusual votes in the system has grown from three million in 2000 to 10 to 15 million in recent elections.

You can see from the maths almost immediately where the manipulations happen, said Grigory Melkonyants. Ultimately the Kremlin has a choice  risk scandal or be happy with a low turnout.A Palestinian-American woman has been heralded the driving force of the Middle Easts Me Too movement after selling clothing with the slogan Not Your Habibti (darling) to women in the West Bank.

Yasmeen Mjalli said she started to design t-shirts, jackets and hoodies with the bold phrase as a way to encourage Palestinian society to confront sexual harassment.

The 21-year-old is the founder of BabyFist  what she describes as a social movement for gender equality in Palestinian territories and the greater Arab world. She started the campaign in response to her own personal experience of street harassment, but it quickly grew into a bigger project.

What I am doing is to start a conversation that people are really afraid to have, she said.

The graduate has also faced backlash from conservatives and some activists who say fighting Israels occupation is the priority for Palestinians.

Her parents, who grew up in a Palestinian farming town and emigrated to the US before returning to the West Bank five years ago, have not supported the campaign either.

To be able to have peace with them, I have to check my feminism at the door, which is very difficult because thats really who I am, she said.

Ms Mjallis idea of designing clothes with a feminist message emerged during her time at the University of North Carolina, where she studied for a degree in art history.

At the time, she decorated her denim jacket with Not your Habibti, a slogan that reflected her Arab roots. She posted a photo of the jacket online last year for International Womens Day, sparking a deluge of interest from potential buyers.

For a few months, she bought, transformed and sold second-hand jackets, then in August, she launched her business, Baby Fist, which now runs workshops in Gaza and the West Bank making T-shirts, hoodies and jackets.

Ms Mjalli estimates she has sold close to 500 pieces, with about 70 per cent of her sales in the diaspora.

World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless AFP via Getty World news in pictures 9 September 2020 Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 8 September 2020 A home is engulfed in flames during the "Creek Fire" in the Tollhouse area of California AFP via Getty World news in pictures 7 September 2020 A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho AFP via Getty World news in pictures 6 September 2020 Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open USA Today Sports/Reuters World news in pictures 5 September 2020 Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally AFP via Getty World news in pictures 4 September 2020 A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. Dozens of fires are burning out of control throughout Northern California as fire resources are spread thin AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 August 2020 Students use their mobile phones as flashlights at an anti-government rally at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. Thailand has seen near-daily protests in recent weeks by students demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha AFP via Getty World news in pictures 17 August 2020 Members of the Kayapo tribe block the BR163 highway during a protest outside Novo Progresso in Para state, Brazil. Indigenous protesters blocked a major transamazonian highway to protest against the lack of governmental support during the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories AFP via Getty World news in pictures 16 August 2020 Lightning forks over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland AP World news in pictures 15 August 2020 Belarus opposition supporters gather near the Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester died on August 10, during their protest rally in central Minsk AFP via Getty World news in pictures 14 August 2020 AlphaTauri's driver Daniil Kvyat takes part in the second practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix AFP via Getty World news in pictures 13 August 2020 Soldiers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during a disinfection of the Christ The Redeemer statue at the Corcovado mountain prior to the opening of the touristic attraction in Rio AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 August 2020 Young elephant bulls tussle playfully on World Elephant Day at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya AFP via Getty

Women across the Arab world have made strides towards equality, outnumbering men in many universities and joining the work force in growing numbers. Yet they struggle to break free from the constraints of patriarchy.

Traditional Arab societies assign rigid gender roles, with men as guardians of their female relatives honour  effectively a ban on male-female friendships or sex outside marriage. Women violating those rules risk being ostracised or  in extreme cases  being killed by male relatives, who count on leniency from the courts.

Rules are looser among urban elites. But even in Ramallah  the most liberal West Bank town with many Western-educated Palestinians and foreigners  women watch their step.

Women risk getting blamed if they complain, said Wafa Abdelrahman, who runs a closed Facebook group for female journalists. The blame will be, for sure, you did something wrong or you gave the wrong signal, the way you dress, the way you talk, she said.

Palestinian police receive few complaints about street harassment, said spokesman Loay Irzeqat. He believes some women fear unintended consequences, such as male relatives attacking accused harassers.

Police mostly deal with online harassment, with about one-third of some 2,000 electronic crimes cases in 2017 revolving around men blackmailing women for sexual or financial gain, he said.

Typically, extortionists threaten to publish photos deemed compromising, such as showing a traditional woman without her headscarf.

Women lack legal protection, despite improvements such as the establishment of a police sex crimes unit, said Amal Kreishe, founder of the Palestinian Working Woman Society for Development to which Ms Mjalli donates some of her proceeds.

All the talk about womens equality and rights is lip service, she said.

Additional reporting by APSyrian rebels have killed a Russian pilot after his plane was shot down in the country's north-west.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says the pilot was killed after landing alive on the ground near the rebel-held town of Sarqeb, in Idlib province.

Syrian troops have been trying to reach the town under the cover of Russian air strikes.

The Russian Defence Ministry said one of its aircrafts had been downed during operations in Syria and its pilot was dead.

Tahrir al-Sham, a jihadi group linked to a former al-Qaeda branch in Syria, claimed responsibility for downing the jet using a shoulder-launched anti-aircraft missile.

A Syrian militant in the area told AP the Russian pilot was shot and killed by rebels when he resisted capture by opening fire from his pistol on the militants who tried to capture him alive.

The downed aircraft, a Sukhoi 25 jet, is used by Russian forces for close air support.

Russia is a key ally of Syrian President Bashar Assad and has been waging a military campaign on behalf of his forces since 2015.

Since then, Syrian government forces have captured wide parts of the country and in recent weeks, but Idlib remains a stronghold for rebels.

Rebel groups, including Tahrir al-Sham, are known to be operating in the region.

Government forces launched a major offensive in Idlib last December, which was supported by Russian air strikes.

World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless AFP via Getty World news in pictures 9 September 2020 Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 8 September 2020 A home is engulfed in flames during the "Creek Fire" in the Tollhouse area of California AFP via Getty World news in pictures 7 September 2020 A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho AFP via Getty World news in pictures 6 September 2020 Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open USA Today Sports/Reuters World news in pictures 5 September 2020 Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally AFP via Getty World news in pictures 4 September 2020 A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. Dozens of fires are burning out of control throughout Northern California as fire resources are spread thin AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 August 2020 Students use their mobile phones as flashlights at an anti-government rally at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. Thailand has seen near-daily protests in recent weeks by students demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha AFP via Getty World news in pictures 17 August 2020 Members of the Kayapo tribe block the BR163 highway during a protest outside Novo Progresso in Para state, Brazil. Indigenous protesters blocked a major transamazonian highway to protest against the lack of governmental support during the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories AFP via Getty World news in pictures 16 August 2020 Lightning forks over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland AP World news in pictures 15 August 2020 Belarus opposition supporters gather near the Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester died on August 10, during their protest rally in central Minsk AFP via Getty World news in pictures 14 August 2020 AlphaTauri's driver Daniil Kvyat takes part in the second practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix AFP via Getty World news in pictures 13 August 2020 Soldiers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during a disinfection of the Christ The Redeemer statue at the Corcovado mountain prior to the opening of the touristic attraction in Rio AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 August 2020 Young elephant bulls tussle playfully on World Elephant Day at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya AFP via Getty

Earlier in the day, the observatory and the media arm of al-Qaeda linked militants both reported intense air strikes on the rebel-held stronghold.

The observatory said there had been more than 35 air strikes on Saraqeb since late Friday, adding that many of its residents were fleeing the town.

The UN says more than 270,000 have been displaced in Idlib because of the government onslaught.

Additional reporting by APMelania Trump has much to be thankful for. A Slovenian model who landed her first gigs in the United States barely 20 years ago and only became a green-card holder in 2001, she now lives in the worlds most recognisable mansion with the worlds most powerful man. Shes rich, shes beautiful, she has a handsome young son and an array of homes to go to at weekends.

She is most fond of Mar-a-Lago, the 126-room villa once owned by cereal heiress Marjorie Merriweather Post in South Florida. We knew this two weekends ago when she was meant to join her husband, Donald Trump, on his brief trip to Davos, Switzerland. Most of us would leap at the chance, particularly since travel was by private 747. But no. She went to the villa instead.

Maybe she doesnt like the cold. But her demurring made us wonder. Was there some kind of marital beef between her and the President? Or was this a signal that actually she wasnt going to be playing by the old rules any more. No more traipsing along with POTUS wherever he goes. No more pandering to the expectations associated with the role of first lady, FLOTUS.

World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless AFP via Getty World news in pictures 9 September 2020 Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 8 September 2020 A home is engulfed in flames during the "Creek Fire" in the Tollhouse area of California AFP via Getty World news in pictures 7 September 2020 A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho AFP via Getty World news in pictures 6 September 2020 Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open USA Today Sports/Reuters World news in pictures 5 September 2020 Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally AFP via Getty World news in pictures 4 September 2020 A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. Dozens of fires are burning out of control throughout Northern California as fire resources are spread thin AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 August 2020 Students use their mobile phones as flashlights at an anti-government rally at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. Thailand has seen near-daily protests in recent weeks by students demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha AFP via Getty World news in pictures 17 August 2020 Members of the Kayapo tribe block the BR163 highway during a protest outside Novo Progresso in Para state, Brazil. Indigenous protesters blocked a major transamazonian highway to protest against the lack of governmental support during the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories AFP via Getty World news in pictures 16 August 2020 Lightning forks over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland AP World news in pictures 15 August 2020 Belarus opposition supporters gather near the Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester died on August 10, during their protest rally in central Minsk AFP via Getty World news in pictures 14 August 2020 AlphaTauri's driver Daniil Kvyat takes part in the second practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix AFP via Getty World news in pictures 13 August 2020 Soldiers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during a disinfection of the Christ The Redeemer statue at the Corcovado mountain prior to the opening of the touristic attraction in Rio AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 August 2020 Young elephant bulls tussle playfully on World Elephant Day at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya AFP via Getty

The tensions-in-the-bedroom theory was instantly more popular. The confirmation from the First Ladys office of her intention to skip Davos came on the heels of a Wall Street Journal report about the President allegedly paying $130,000 (92,000) to a dirty films actress named Stormy Daniels in return for her staying silent about an affair they had purportedly had a decade before. The paper said that transaction occurred just weeks before the presidential election in November 2016.

The lawyer, Michael Cohen, denied the two had ever had a sexual encounter. But the Washington Post said it had two sources confirming that the First Lady had felt blindsided by the report and was furious with the President.

Remarkably, the Stormy Daniels story hasnt consumed political discourse in Washington in the way youd expect. Such is the fraught nature of this presidency: pitch one more hand-grenade in a bathtub full of them and no one takes much notice. And this isnt just a tabloid-titillation deal. Were such a sum indeed paid to suppress a story that might have altered the course of the election, that could be deemed illegal.

 Melania Trump receives a standing ovation arriving at the State of the Union

It is not inconceivable, in fact, that Robert Mueller, the special investigator, may add this to his already long list of matters he considers worthy of his attention. It has nothing to do with colluding with Russia, but Monica Lewinsky had nothing to do with the Whitewater land deals, which were the starting point of Kenneth Starrs probe of Bill Clinton in the Nineties.

But if it hasnt triggered an earthquake, the Stormy affair hasnt gone away either. In Touch, a tabloid magazine, followed the Journal by releasing an interview it conducted with Daniels in 2011 offering more details of the purported relationship. Jacob Weisberg, editor-in-chief of Slate, offered his own corroboration of the outlines of the Journal report, based on interviews he did with Daniels in 2016.

At times, the story has erred into the comical. Daniels, real name Stephanie Clifford, has recounted Trump allegedly sharing with her a special hatred for sharks. That triggered a surge of donations to shark research groups across the United States. One anonymous donor just sent a $2,500 donation to the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy to name a shark after Special Counsel Mueller. And there was this tidbit: Trump once asked Daniels to spank him with a rolled-up copy of Forbes magazine. We also learned from Stormy that Trump did not use a condom and that when she enquired about Melania, he replied: Oh, dont worry about her.

There has also been the denial, non-denial pantomime. Oh yes they did. Oh no they didnt. On the day of the State of the Union, Daniels released a statement apparently meant to knock the story dead. With her own signature attached, it said: I am not denying this affair because I was paid hush money as has been reported in overseas-owned tabloids. I am denying this affair because it never happened. But then on the Jimmy Kimmel Show on ABC that night she said she didnt know where the statement had come from and that the signature didnt look like hers.

You begin to see why every late-night show in the land has been in Stormy heaven. The First Lady has been giving them fodder too. While she did attend her husbands State of the Union on Tuesday, she travelled to Capitol Hill in a separate limo. No first lady has ever done that. When he included a line in his speech about the importance of faith and family, she remained seated while everyone around her stood up. There was even chatter about the white Dior pantsuit she wore. It looked a lot like outfits favoured by Hillary Clinton at key moments in her presidential campaign. Dressing like Hillary would surely get Donalds attention.

Its dangerous to guess at other peoples marriages. But its safe to say that life for Melania Trump, despite all the privileges, is a lonely one. She cant seek solace from the former-first-ladies club because they  Hillary, Laura, Michelle  wont let her in. She isnt finding it from her husband either. And we know also she never wanted the job of first lady in the first place.

But just maybe, her anger and isolation will mean that more than any of her predecessors, Trump will be able to update and modernise the business of being first lady, from slavish subjugation to spouse and office to confident, if occasionally rebellious independence. It will be tricky. The relationship with her husband must be repaired and so too her relationship with the country. But get it right and she could go from figure of fun to figure of inspiration.

The one-time supermodel from Slovenia could even end up making Eleanor Roosevelt proud.For full functionality of this site it is necessary to enable JavaScript. Here are the instructions how to enable JavaScript in your web browserRishi Shah (left), chief executive at Outcome Health, is stepping down from his post as part of a settlement to fraud allegations. The companys president, Shradha Agarwal is also stepping down from her management post as part of the settlement. (Rishi Shah/Twitter photo; Shradha Agarwal/LinkedIn photo)Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agents raided 77 businesses in Northern California, targeting undocumented employees. Indian American Rep. Ro Khanna, D-California, said in a press statement: This is wrong. I firmly believe that law enforcement must prioritize criminals and not tear apart undocumented families who pose no threats to public safety. An owner of a convenience store in Northern California for two decades told India-West: We are all very nervous. All my employees have proper work authorization, but does this mean we have to carry our papers into the shop every day? (ICE photo)Rise and Kill First: Israels Hidden Assassinations

By Koushik Das

February 03, 2018 " Information Clearing House " - Poisoning toothpaste.triggering explosion through cell phones bombs dropped from flying drones! Since its creation in 1948, Israel has carried out nearly 2,700 secret assassination operations in the last 70 years. Although many of these attempts have not been successful, the success rate of Israel is far better than the Western countries.

After a long interaction with the Israeli spies, journalist Ronen Bergman has penned a book   Rise and Kill First : The Secret History of Israels Targeted Assassinations. In his publication based on 1,000 interviews and thousands of documents, Bergman narrates various strange methods  adopted by the Israeli spies over the years  to eliminate personalities who in some way or the other proved to be threat to them.

Before writing the book, the 45-year-old Israeli journalist met a number of agents of Mossad and Shin Bet  the two intelligence organisations of his country. Bergman also interviewed some senior Army officers who were allegedly involved in such expeditions. The 600-page book has enough information to surprise the readers.

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The essence of those secret missions of Israel was: If someone comes to kill you, rise up and kill him first (an ancient Jewish Talmud admonition). The Army officers argue that such missions help avoid costly warfare. They claim that a person will die within a month, if someone mixes poison in his/her toothpaste. Bergman  the intelligence correspondent for Yediot Aharonot daily  mentions in his book that Mossad killed an Iranian nuclear scientist by using this method. An Israeli Army officer has admitted that they killed at least 12 Iranian scientists through various methods after receiving the information that Tehran was secretly implementing nuclear programmes. He further revealed that Mossad assassinated an Iranian scientist through explosives kept in the spare tyre of his car. The Israeli intelligence agency killed another Iranian scientist by dropping a bomb on his car from a home-made drone.

Israel also killed a number of Islamist leaders who backed the Palestinian movement. Interestingly, Bergmans publication hints that the Israeli spies secretly killed former Palestinian President Yasser Arafat on November 11, 2004. However, it has not been possible for the author to narrate the death of Arafat in his book. Bergman said that Israeli military censorship prevented him from revealing the facts.Did Aussies Really Vote For These Sociopaths?

By Jim Dowling

February 03, 2018 " Information Clearing House " - I walked into the kitchen the other day and our illustrious defence industries minister Chris Pyne was on the radio answering a question relating to the recent horrific suicide bombing in Kabul which left 100 dead and 250 wounded.

No this was not a sophisticated military exercise, he explained, But all Australians can see why we need to be there, still.

Ah, usual dribble coming from a minister of war-making, I thought. After all, last time I looked, most Australians were very dubious about our role in Afghanistan, including veterans of that war who are suiciding at terrible rates. Way back in 2003 polls showed 70% of Aussies did not support the pending invasion of Iraq. Pynes government took us there anyway, and Howard effectively doused most opposition with the line, We may not all agree, but now we should all get behind our troops.

As Pyne talked on, I discovered he was not talking about the problems of the Afghan people, but using their pain to help justify our Governments latest noble goal of massively expanding our countrys international arms trading. He wants to loan nearly $4 Billion to any entrepreneurs with a similar goal. Pyne and Turnbull are hoping to make us one of the most successful merchants of death in the world. (Now we are a pathetic 20th in International arms sales. Shame!)

Now, I believe a sociopath is someone with no conscience, and certainly no interest in the truth; someone who will use even the most horrific acts to advance their own selfish goals. Yes, this seemed to be what I was hearing on the radio.

Now, I may not be thinking straight here, not being an expert in defence industries like Mr Pyne, but it struck me that the international arms industry may not be the solution to the problem. The strange thought even occurred to me that the arms merchants may even be the cause of some of this murder and mayhem engulfing Afghanistan.

Lets have quick look at all those attempting to defend Afghanistan for the last 40 years and those supplying weapons for this important and difficult task. After the Russians invaded in 1979, the US and Saudi Arabia supplied most of the weapons used by the Afghan warlords and others to fight the Russians (who of course claimed they were the ones defending the Afghans.) Surely Pyne and Turnbull would have been happy to supply the Mujahedeen freedom fighters, if we only had a bigger defence industry at the time. I am old enough to clearly remember Ronald Regan refer to the Mujahedeen as freedom fighters at the time. This is why he authorised the CIA to help fund the Pakistan maddrasses that established the Taliban and other terrorists (er, sorry, freedom fighters). One of those freedom fighters was Osama Bin Laden, of course.

When the dust settled and a million Afghans had died fighting the Russians, the warlords turned their weapons (er I mean defence exports from the US, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan) on one another to see who would seize power. Kabul was decimated by a continuous new civil war. Enter the Taliban! They defeated all the warlords and liberated Kabul. Sadly the Taliban proved to be just as brutal as the warlords.

The Taliban gave refuge to Bin Laden in the hills of Afghanistan where he possibly organised the Sept11 attacks in New York. Osama never actually confessed to the attacks, but was later executed without trial by those great defenders of freedom we all know well. He did however admit he was at war with the US and gave 3 major reasons:

US support for Israeli occupation and oppression in Palestine The blasphemy of infidel (ie US) troops being allowed to have bases in Saudi Arabia, the resting place of Mahomed, the revered founder of Islam . and, The devastation and death, especially of children, caused by 10 years of Iraq sanctions (The Australian Navy was in charge of the Naval blockade for a long time)

So 9/11 now meant the monster(s) we had created had gone feral and needed to be eliminated -with extreme prejudice. Unlike in Apocalypse Now, however, it was not just a matter of killing one man, but destroying two countries, Iraq and Afghanistan. This Australia has helped do with great success.

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Now back to the topic of real success, making money from the Arms Industry. (Time to really rub our hands together now, Tony and Chris!) Billions of dollars (probably more than a trillion) has been made by mostly US (British, French and others got some too, of course) weapons manufacturers in the so called war on terror. Just one little snippet about my favourite, the Raytheon corporation:

Within a week of 9/11 Raytheon shares rose a staggering 40%. Of course, the average sociopath knew it was time to buy up big! You see Raytheon made the infamous Cruise missile at around $600,000 each (as well as smaller things like cluster bombs). Hundreds of Cruise missiles were dropped on Afghanistan and Iraq at the start of their respective wars, and hundreds more have been dropped since, as we continue to defend those poor people.

Seriously though, how 17 years of war proves we need to manufacture more weapons to make the world a better place I am not sure. Perhaps only a sociopath could work that one out.

The very day before I heard the above radio news item, I had finished reading the fascinating book, Merchants of Menace by Peter Butt. It is about the Nugan Hand Bank, a story which should be up there with Ned Kelly, but it is mostly unknown by present day Australians. It too has to do with arms dealers, (also drug dealers and money launderers). In the 1970s, Michael Hand, a much-decorated US Vietnam/CIA veteran teamed up with Aussie Frank Nugan to form the Nugan Hand Bank. They hoped to become as rich as possible, by any means necessary. The bank they started illegally laundered money for drug dealers, arms dealers, rogue states, and the CIA (though of course the CIA is above any law anywhere).

During the short life of the bank, before Frank Nugan shot himself (or was murdered), Hand went off to South Africa, Rhodesia, and elsewhere to sell arms himself, as well as helping the CIA supply them to rogue states. In 1980 after his partner, (and best friend for many years) Frank Nugan was found dead, Hands immediate comment to another business partner was, Now the prick has left us to deal with this shit all by ourselves. A sociopath, no doubt! Now , Mr Pyne thinks we can deal with the shit we helped create in Afghanistan by making more weapons, and no doubt selling them to the present good guys over there.

After much work, in 2015 Peter Butts finally tracked Michael Hand to a small town in the US where he had started a new life with a new name, despite numerous Australian appeals to the FBI to help bring Hand to justice. Butts found Hand running a company to supply tactical weapons for US Special Forces, Special Ops, and hunters.

Now I am sure Mr Pyne or Mr Turnbull could benefit from a visit to Mr Hand to find the secrets of his successful career. After all Hands crimes of retail murder, drug dealing etc, are minor compared to the ones they will be complicit in when we become one of the world biggest arms dealers. And, hey, maybe the ice trade could do with a few new faces as well..

Oh yes, one more thing, if you think I am being too harsh on Turnbull and Pine, just watch Mr Turnbull, gleefully tell us the only thing the arms industry is about here: https://www.sbs.com.au/news/defence-exports-turnbull-unveils-3-8b-fund-to-boost-foreign-sales-of-australian-arms

====

Join the DiscussionICE Director Brags About How Much He's 'Enjoying' Tearing Immigrant Families Apart



"There's a special place in hell for those who get off on broken families and profit off of incarcerating innocent people."



By Jake Johnson

February 03, 2018 " Information Clearing House " - Riding high off two recent widely denounced deportations that ripped apart immigrant families who have called the U.S. home for decades, acting ICE director Thomas Homan boasted at a conference on Wednesday that he has really begun "enjoying" his role in carrying out President Donald Trump's racist mass deportation agenda .

"This isn't a job I particularly wanted in the beginning," Homan said at a so-called "Border Security Expo" in San Antonio, Texas. "But I'll tell you what, I'm enjoying it."

Homan on sanctuary cities. If ICE agents can't get in local jails, they'll do street or home arrests instead. Guess what, well find others," says. "Well more than likely find others who werent even on my radar. And now theyre going to get arrested.  Roque Planas (@RoqPlanas) January 31, 2018

This is hardly the first time Homan has openly relished in his ability to instill fear in immigrant communities. At a hearing on Capitol Hill last June, Homan said undocumented immigrants "should be uncomfortable" and constantly "looking over their shoulder[s]."

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During his appearance at the "Border Security Expo" on Wednesdaywhich came just hours after Trump ramped up his anti-immigrant rhetoric with a flurry of lies during his State of the Union addressHoman also expressed his opposition to a clean DACA solution supported by immigrant rights advocates, spoke in favor of Trump's "wall," and bragged about how many immigrants his agency has deported since Trump took office.

"If we get a clean DACA bill, shame on all of us," Homan said .

The wall is a necessary tool. We need it. - Homan  Sydney Greene (@thesydneygreene) January 31, 2018

Reacting to Homan's comments on Thursday, immigrant rights activist Tony Choi wrote, "There's a special place in hell for those who get off on broken families and profit off of incarcerating innocent people."

"Homan is the proof that our immigration system isn't broken; it's fundamentally designed to break us," Choi added on Twitter.

This article was originally published by " Common Dreams " -

====

Join the DiscussionHome Turkish Invasion Pits Neocons Against Traditional Imperialists



By Mike Whitney February 03, 2018 " Information Clearing House " - US foreign policy in the Middle East is not merely adrift, it is in a state of severe crisis. Even as Turkish tanks and warplanes continue to pound US allies in northwestern Syria (The Kurds), powerbrokers in the White House and the Pentagon are unable to settle on a way forward. The frantic attempts to placate their NATO ally, Turkey, while trying to assuage the fears of their mostly Kurdish proxy-army (Syrian Democratic Forces) has further underscored the dismal absence of a coherent policy that would not only address the rapidly-changing battlespace but also deal with the prospect that a critical regional ally (Turkey) might seek strategic objectives that are directly at odds with those of Washington. The present disaster that is unfolding in the Afrin canton in Syrias northwest corner could have been avoided had the Trump administration abstained from announcing that it planned a permanent military presence in east Syria, which implied its tacit support for an independent Kurdish state. This, in fact, was the trigger for the current crisis, the provocation that set the dominoes in motion. The unexpected escalation of fighting on the ground (Afrin), along with Turkeys promise to clear the Syrian border all the way to the Iraq, has only increased the sense of panic among Trumps top national security advisors who are making every effort to minimize the damage by trying to bring Turkeys invasion to a swift end. As yet, there is no sign that Turkey will stop its onslaught short of achieving its goals which involve defeating elements of the Peoples Protection Units (YPG) that have joined the US-backed SDF. Ankara has already warned Washington that it will defend its national security against Kurdish forces (which it considers terrorists) whether US troops are located in the area or not. The possibility that one NATO ally might actually attack US Special Forces operating on the ground in Syria has ignited a flurry of diplomatic activity in Washington and across Europe. What started as an announcement that was intended to send a warning to Moscow and Tehran that the US planned to be in Syria for the long-haul, has dramatically backfired pitting Ankara against Washington while casting doubt on the Trump administrations ability to diffuse a potentially-explosive situation. Heres a clip from veteran journalist Patrick Cockburns latest in The Independent: The US may want to get rid of Assad and weaken Iran across the region but it is too late. Pro-Iranian governments in Iraq and Syria are in power and Hezbollah is the most powerful single force in Lebanon. This is not going to change any time soon and, if the Americans want to weaken Assad by keeping a low-level war going, then this will make him even more reliant on Iran. The present Turkish incursion shows that Ankara is not going to allow a new Kurdish state under US protection to be created in northern Syria and will fight rather than let this happen. But the YPG is highly motivated, well-armed and militarily experienced and will fight very hard, even though they may ultimately be overwhelmed by superior forces or because the Turkish and Syrian governments come together to crush them. It was a bad moment for the US to stir the pot by saying it would stay in Syria and target Assad and Iran. A Kurdish-Turkish war in northern Syria will be a very fierce one. The US obsession with an exaggerated Iranian threat  about which, in any case, it cannot do much  makes it difficult for Washington to mediate and cool down the situation. Trump and his chaotic administration have not yet had to deal with a real Middle East crisis yet and the events of the last week suggest that they will not be able to do so. (Patrick Cockburn, The Independent) The Trump administration has made a hash of everything and it is no longer certain that their present Syria strategy is viable. Trumps national security advisor General HR McMaster has made every effort to smooth things over with Ankara, but his promises of accommodation do not approach Turkeys grandiose demands. Consider the list of Turkish demands listed in the Turkish Daily, The Hurriyet: 1. No weapons should be given to the YPG. 2. Weapons already delivered to the YPG should be taken back immediately. 3. Military training given to the YPG should be ceased. 4. No logistical support should be given. 5. All ties with the YPG should be cut. The Trump administration is not prepared to sever ties with its most effective fighters on the ground. Washington intends to use these troops to hold territory in the east, launch destabilizing attacks on the Assad government, and to undermine Irans influence in Syria. As one anonymous US official candidly admitted, The entire US strategy rests on the Kurds. So, while McMaster has already promised to stop all weapons shipments to the SDF, he will undoubtedly reverse his position when the fighting subsides and the crisis passes. Washingtons biggest problem is the absence of a coherent policy. While the recently released National Defense Strategy articulated a change in the way the imperial strategy would be implemented, (by jettisoning the war on terror pretext to a great power confrontation) the changes amount to nothing more than a tweaking of the public relations messaging. Washingtons global ambitions remain the same albeit with more emphasis on raw military power. As for Syria, Washington still hasnt settled on a way to square the circle, that is, a way to support its Kurdish forces on the ground without provoking its Turkish allies who see the Kurds as an existential threat. This conundrum might have continued to be ignored for some time, had not Secretary of State Rex Tillerson let the cat out of the bag and revealed Washingtons real intentions. Which is why McMaster has been doing every thing he can to put the genie back in the bottle. Never Miss Another Story Get Your FREE Daily Newsletter But even these problems are just the tip of the iceberg. The real problem is the fact that there deep and irreconcilable differences between foreign policy elites as to what the policy should be. Check out this excerpt from the New York Times: The White House sent out a message aimed at mollifying Turkeys president on Tuesday, suggesting that the United States was easing off its support for the Syrian Kurds. That message was quickly contradicted by the Pentagon, which said it would continue to stand by the Kurds, even as Turkey invaded their stronghold in northwestern Syria. The conflicting statements appeared to reflect an effort by the administration to balance competing pressures the White House disavowed a plan by the American military to create a Kurdish-led force in northeastern Syria, which Turkey has vehemently opposed. the Pentagon issued its own statement on Tuesday standing by its decision to create the Kurdish-led force. And a senior American commander praised the partnership with the Kurds, whose help was critical in a major American airstrike on the Islamic State, also known as ISIS, over the weekend. (Mixed Messages From U.S. as Turkey Attacks Syrian Kurds, New York Times) The apparent split between the Pentagon and the White House does not reflect the deeper divisions which will become more apparent as the traditional imperialists in the administration face-off with the neocons in a cage-match that will determine the shape of policy in Syria and beyond. Simply put, the neocons favor an independent Kurdish state (that is opposed by Iran, Iraq, Syria and Turkey) while the traditionalists lean more towards accommodating their NATO ally, Turkey. Heres a short excerpt from an article at the neocon braintrust, The Weekly Standard, that makes the case for a Kurdish homeland. The article, which was written in 2017, is titled A Kurdish State is in Americas Interestand the Regions, Too: Americas main Middle East ally, however, is unequivocally in favor of an independent Kurdistan. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said earlier this month that Israel supports the legitimate means of the Kurdish people to obtain their own state. Israel, like many supporters of the Kurds, appreciates the KRGs pro-Western sensibility. And the KRG returns Israels affection, flying Israeli flags at independence rallies.  As Israeli lawmaker Yair Lapid tweeted: The Jewish people know what it is to struggle for a homeland. The Kurds have a moral right to a state of their own. I wish them luck today. Theres little doubt that Israeli officials truly are moved by the KRGs dreams of statehood, but no one in the Middle East can afford to premise national interests on sentimental reasons. Israel sees the KRG as an ally, especially in its struggle with Iran. Jerusalem believes that an independent Kurdish state on Irans border will serve as a bridgehead against what it perceives as the regions main strategic threat. And that puts Israel at cross-purposes with the United States. The Trump administration believes that destroying ISIS is the key issue in the region, which is why it criticizes the referendum. However, the effect of the anti-ISIS campaign is to strengthen further Irans positionat the expense not only of Israel, but all American allies, and the United States itself. Thus, the KRG referendum highlights the strategic picture in the Middle East right now. It doesnt look good for American interests. (A Kurdish State is in Americas Interestand the Regions, Too, The Weekly Standard) While the above excerpt relates to the efforts of Iraqs Kurds to create their own autonomous homeland via referendum, as far as Israel is concerned, the same rule applies to Syrias Kurds, that is, an independent Kurdish state that is not only pro-Western, but directly beholden to Washington, will help to contain, what Israel perceives to be, the regions main strategic threat, Iran. A Kurdish Republic would also help to balkanize Syria, control the flow of oil in the eastern part of the country, and be a constant threat to the other strong, secular Arab countries in the region. It would effectively create a powerful US-Israeli garrison at the heart of the Middle East which would further reinforce Israels claim to regional hegemony. For these reasons we should expect to see a tug-of-war between competing US policy elites in the weeks ahead. Regrettably, neither the Israeli-friendly neocons nor the traditional US imperialists seek a remedy that would end the seven year-long war or allow 5 million Syrian refugees to return to their battered homes. Mike Whitney lives in Washington state. He is a contributor to Hopeless: Barack Obama and the Politics of Illusion (AK Press). Hopeless is also available in a Kindle edition . He can be reached at fergiewhitney@msn.com . This article was originally published by " Counterpunch " - ==== Join the Discussion It is not necessary for ICH readers to register before placing a comment. This website encourages readers to use the "Report" link found at the base of each comment. When a predetermined number of ICH readers click on the "Report" link, the comment will be automatically sent to "moderation". This would appear to be the most logical way to allow open comments, where you the reader/supporter, can determine what is acceptable speech. Please don't use the report feature simply because you disagree with the author point of view. Treat others with respect, remembering that "A man convinced against his will, is of the same opinion still."- Benjamin Franklin. Please read our Comment Policy before posting - Search Information Clearing House === Click Here To Support Information Clearing House Your support has kept ICH free on the Web since 2002. Click for Spanish , German , Dutch , Danish , French , translation- Note- Translation may take a moment to load.Wars Can be at Their Most Dangerous When They're Coming to an End



Debts will have to be paid for the casualties of this war, and some soldiers are becoming rather too over-confident



By Robert Fisk Hama, Syria

February 03, 2018 " Information Clearing House " - Its easy to think the war is over. Until mortars from Ghouta swish over Damascus and explode in the old Christian area of Bab el-Touma with its grocery shops and restaurants. Six dead. Or when an army officer comes and says quite casually to you: Remember Captain Walid? He was martyred four days ago. Ive always felt uneasy about the word martyred  about any soldier, or civilian, anywhere.

But thats the way the man referred to Captain Walid Jabbour Khalil. He was a combat correspondent with the Syrian army. He carried a notebook, not a rifle, and he had a dangerous job.

I knew him, though not well. Last year, he was covering the war on the mountains of Qalamun high above Lebanon, a short, cheerful, moustachioed man who, I thought, was happier as an official military reporter than an infantryman. He had been recording how the bodies of Jabhat al-Nusra fighters lay on the edge of an escarpment just captured by the army and its Hezbollah allies.

Russian and German official combat reporters and photographers had a short life expectancy in the Second World War  their Allied opposite numbers somewhat longer  and they took their chances in battles, cruel and fair, on the side of the aggressors or the liberators. Walid Jabbour, like his colleagues, was making a record of the Syrian armys war, as ruthless a struggle as any in the recent history of the Middle East. He was shot dead by a sniper  probably a Jabhat al-Nusra man  in the battle of Harasta in eastern Damascus. He was wearing a flak jacket. The bullet, very carefully aimed according to his colleagues, hit him just beneath the lower left side of the protective armour.

By one of those awful ironies that war regularly throws up, Jabbour and his fellow cameramen were two weeks ago making a documentary about their own work. So his death, as he scrambled through a doorway, was recorded by one of his own photographer friends. He was a Christian  how we need to note these small matters now, in a war that has plastered coloured sectarian stickers over the landscape of every Syrian map. He was 38 and married, with a young son. His commanding officer, a Damascus general, attended the funeral  he is a Muslim and it was the first Christian church service he had ever attended. He gave a speech by the coffin, he said, amazed by the music and the extraordinary vestments of the priests.

The power of the internet has invaded every war now and its not just Jabbour whose death shocks each family. Soldiers of the Syrian government receive more public notice than the civilians of either side  the casualty figures for the Syrian war, anywhere from 240,000 to 450,000 dead, have now reached fantastically unreliable proportions. For all we know, they may even be closer to half a million, although that is unlikely.

But every Syrian knows  and has watched over and over again  the appalling, moving images of the death of 19-year-old Fadi Zidan, a cadet in the National Defence militia. He had joined up in 2015 and just four days later was seized by Isis fighters in Palmyra. And there his terrible fate was recorded forever  largely unseen in the West, of course, but regarded inside Syria with all the reverence (or hatred, depending on your point of view) humans bestow upon a religious painting.

Because he was an Alawite  or a Nusairi, as he is called by his persecutors in the film  Isis decided that he was a heretic as well as a tank driver (impossible, since he was only four days in uniform) and a chilling, white-shrouded figure standing behind the young man sentences him to be killed as you do to our people. Zidan appears dressed in the orange jumpsuit of Guantanamo and Isis infamy, his feet shackled in chains, the man in white announcing that he will be driven over by a captured Syrian tank.

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The next images show Zidan standing perhaps 20 yards in front of a roaring tank which charges forward on full throttle. He turns desperately away to the right, and half-jumps in his chains to avoid his death but the left-hand side tank track catches up with him. Syrians have seen the unedited footage. Readers should be spared. All that is left in the last frames of the film is a crushed, orange-coloured mass of rags on the road behind the tank, a group of Isis members screaming Allahu Akbar! The Serbs did the same to the Muslims of the Drina Valley. Thus, too, did Uzbek General Dostum punish his enemies in northern Afghanistan.

But how should one contemplate such barbarity? And go on accepting, in the kind of nonchalant, easy way we do in the West, as Syrian civilians are blown apart and gassed and starved? I was in a black-stone village north west of Hama last week  destroyed, of course  when a Syrian army major casually said, My cousin was martyred here three years ago.

Slowly, more figures emerge. In the tiny village of Arabiyah in the same countryside, around 350 of its menfolk had died in uniform  either of the Syrian army or the National Defence groups. The enormity of the figure is only obvious when you realise that the entire village population of men, women and children is scarcely 8,000.

What is the real cost of this war in the ranks of Bashar al-Assads army? I think it passed 70,000 dead some months ago. Eighty thousand, perhaps. What rewards do their families expect from such a sacrifice? There will be debts to be paid.

I have to say, however, that after a 2,000-mile tour over much of Syria, I have  for the first time in recent months  seen neither a single Hezbollah member or Iranian revolutionary guard. And since Western leaders believe Syria is swamped with Iranians, this is interesting.

I travel where I wish  apart, of course, from the small areas still held by Isis  and Im quick to spot a Hezbollah fighter (usually because they come from Lebanon, where I live, and I know some of them). But there are plenty of Russians patrolling the desert highways, even running convoys up the main supply route from Homs to Aleppo.

Yet I cannot forget the flurry of mortars that crashed into Bab Touma a few days ago. And, after passing through literally more than 100 military checkpoints, I find Syrian soldiers a bit too over-confident right now, too ready to believe its almost come to an end. Wars can be most dangerous when they are close to the end.

This article was originally published by " The Independent " -

====

Join the Discussionts the birthday of Ghanaian heartthrob, John Dumelo. The actor turns 34 today and he has so many things to be grateful for, one being the love he gets from fans across the world.

John has seen a steady rise in the Ghana and Nigeria movie industry, that he has become a household name.

There are things about John that we dont know, but these are 7 facts about John Dumelo that you didnt know.

1. He was born February 3, 1984 to John Dumelo Snr. and Antionette Dumelo. He is the last and only boy of three children.

2. John had his primary education at Christ the King International School in Accra, Ghana, where he was selected by GAMA Film Company to play the role as a pupil in the movie Baby Thief. He had his secondary education at Achimota School and further studied at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology where he read Civil Engineering.

3. He started his acting career at an early age. He has been acting since 1991. Featuring in popular Ghana series like Sun City and About to Wed.

4. He won Joy FMs Best Ghanaian Actor in 2009.

5. John has won Africas Most Outstanding Actor 2011 at the Afro Australian Movies and Music Awards in Dec 2011 in Australia.

6. John in spite of his popularity, remains humble and modest.

7. He is a great philanthropist, giving back to the society through charity.

source: StargistMarc Bartra has officially switched from Dortmund to Real Betis, joining for an undisclosed fee.

The former Barcelona defender returns to the La Liga from Germany, signing a five-and-a-half-year deal with Real Betis.

Bartra sustained an arm injury in the bomb attack on the team bus and returns home after a difficult time.

I have no words to describe the moments and feelings that I have lived in only a year and a half, he said in a statement released via his Twitter account.

It has happened very fast but at the same time I feel like I had been [here] many more years. Everything has been very powerful and I have experienced amazing feelings, inside and offside [sic] the field.

Thanks to my colleagues who welcomed me and gave me their love from the first to the last day. Thanks to the trainers who trust on [sic] me.

Above all, millions of thanks to you, supporters. I would never have imagined feeling so much love you are an example to everyone.

I gave everything in every moment and we were able to achieve and celebrate a trophy together [last seasons DFB-Pokal].Nollywood actress and producer, Chioma Okoye, doesnt shy away from controversy and in this interview, she talks about her works, charity and how she is proud of her body. Excerpts:

Late last year, you launched a TV series, Anyanwu Ututu which was basically to promote Igbo culture and tradition. How has the reception been like?

Very great. Its as if people are waiting for such kind of movies. People are calling and asking about the TV series, when it would start running.

Are those just TV stations in the Igbo-speaking states in the country?

No, were just starting with the Igbo speaking states in the country first. So, were opening a Youtube channel for people in the Diaspora.

Talking about Youtube channel, is it more profitable than making DVDs or taking your projects to cinemas?

All of them have their own advantage. Youtube is at your own personal convenience So, its not as if its a cinema where you have a time frame that if you dont get to meet such time, its over. So, Youtube is accessible at any time, any day as long as you have time and you have data to watch. But were creating a channel for Anyanwu Ututu for all our Igbo content because right now, Im investing on Igbo content, Igbo films alone.

Between producing movies in English and producing in Igbo, whats the difference?

Producing in Igbo is a little bit difficult because every Igbo is different. My Igbo is different from Mr Bs Igbo. Im from Anambra State and Anambra does not have one Igbo. So thats why Anyanwu Ututu is trying to discover different dialects because Igbo has 623 dialects. You can imagine. Im from Anambra but somebody else from Anambra can be speaking a different dialect and I dont get to understand what that person is saying. Were discovering dialect by dialect and the series was shot in Omabala dialect. And Omabala is made up of 28 villages. So after Omabala, were going to another community again.

Aside being in Nollywood as an actress and producer, youve also earned a reputation of raising funds for ill Nollywood actors. What was the motivation for these?

Where I came out to help sick Nollywood colleagues was during Leo Mezies kidney issue because Leo is my friend. And when I heard about the incident, I was so shocked. And I believe one thing, when youre friends with somebody, in times of need, you should be there for the person. I dont have money so the only thing I did was to have an agreement with him, give me the consent to raise funds for you. And he said, okay, lets give it a try. And I used my own ability and strategy to raise money for him. And in 10 days, we got the money we want.

Then after that, Obi Madubogwu was the next one that was called upon. I tried to shy away from it but people kept telling me, no, no, no. This is just charity work. You dont have to shy away from it. I said no, I dont want everybody to start calling me because almost 80 per cent of people have problem in Nollywood. So, I said let me just do Madubogwu. In 10 days, I had good result. They now called me for Prince James Uche that has been there in public for over two years asking for funds. On the first day of the outburst, we made about six million naira.

But I felt bad when we raised the money, got the visa, three days for him (Uche) to travel, he gave up. Im not happy because his own weighed me down so much because at the end, I got to meet his family, his children. The pain was much for me so I couldnt carry on to raise any money for people. So, even as much as people keep calling me on the phone, I keep telling them no, no, no, I cant do it.

As youve showed youre a good fund raiser, do you have any vision going into politics to right the wrongs?

Oh yes, I have but not now. Thats why I intended to start from my community. Let me start empowering people because the movie I shot, I didnt use Nollywood stars much. In Nollywood, we have 24 actors from Omabala but I just picked only six. I gave the rest opportunity. I called for audition for two days. And we did rehearsals for three weeks. And we shot for two months seven days. Now, people know me from my community. Before I will now go to 20, 30 communities, people will know me. So, if Im coming for any position, they know Im coming for the masses because its high time we youths came onboard.

Big Brother Naija has started and there are controversies about whether its good programme for youths. Do you watch the show and whats your take on it?

I dont watch Big Brother Naija but Im an entertainer. Anything that entertains people, I dont kick against it. If Im not an entertainer, if you ask me, Ill now say, its very wrong, its not educational, it does not add any value to the children. Thats the irony of life for you. It seems as if negative things works than positive things. But the problem is with we the Nigerians. You might have a good project and go and meet companies, theyll just turn you down.

Hollywood has embraced the #MeToo, kicking against sexual harassment. From your own career in Nollywood, would you say sexual harassment happens and is something to be worried about?

Hmm Its increasing every day, day by day. So, its everywhere not just Nollywood. You cannot separate sexual harassment from your daily business. In every business, its there.

Have you had close-up experience?

Me? Maybe because Im not easy-going person, thats why Ive not experienced that but people have chased me now. Im a fine girl. Im well-endowed so I see people that admire me on a daily basis. Any day I go out, people chase me. So they dont harass me, they chase me because Im well-endowed. God blessed me with everything a woman needs to be a woman in a very pronounced way. There is nothing I will wear that will hide my endowments.

So, how do you handle some unwanted attention?

I give them the number of my boyfriend because if I tell you no, youll still continue.

Theres also this trend of sex dolls for men which is hitting Nigeria whereas women use sex toys. Whats your take?

Were at end times so everything goes. If men say they want sex dolls, theyll have sex dolls. If women say they want their own, they have it too. Do whatever that makes you happy.

Can you date a man that uses a sex doll?

Hmm Unless the man is blind. For me as a woman to be in his life and hes thinking of sex doll. No sex doll is finer than me. You can never see it now. My type is not two in the market. Before you see a woman that has big breasts, big hips, tiny waist, its difficult. You can barely count people that have that kind of shape that when you come out, you cause commotion. So, if that man has me in his life and hes thinking of sex doll, then that means hes not normal.

Last year, gist went around that you prayed for a husband on your birthday. How close is that prayer to being answered?

Prayers are meant for God to answer. If I say Im praying for a husband does not mean I dont have suitors. Its the one of my choice, thats what Im asking God for. I dont want to marry a 419 man, I dont want to marry a drug man. I want to marry a man that has a very good business that can foot my bill.

And is that man currently in your life?

Ive not seen the one that can foot my bill yet. Im still waiting for the one that would foot my bill.

When you say foot your bill what do you really mean?

Hmm. What I mean is that Ive dated rich men. They have spoilt me. Its affecting me now as a young girl. So, Ive not seen a man that can foot my bill. Right now, I cant stay without light. Its not possible. Instead of me to stay without light, let me not eat. Right now, I dont play with my three square meals. And there are some foods that I dont joke with. You must give it to me. No matter anything, I make sure those food are there.

What kind of food are we talking about?

(laughs) Dont worry about the kind of food. Do you want to pursue the potential suitor that is going to come? Do you want to scare him away?

Well, maybe prepare him

I eat organic food. Everything I eat is organic, natural.

And expensive

Hmm even my soap, my cream is expensive, are organic.

Are you saying acting doesnt really pay your bills?

Im a producer. I make money myself too. And now Im venturing into another business soon. I want to start another business before the year runs out.

Whats that?

I want to have a hair line business.

Making hair products?

Yes. Thats why I would advise every actor, every filmmaker to have businesses. Filmmakers are very lazy. The most lazy people Ive seen in the world are filmmakers, especially in Nollywood. Aside movies, they dont have any other thing theyre doing. It is even now you hear people say they sell clothes. What they do is just pay courtesy visits to rich men, get some thank you for coming. Thats what they survive with, then going on Facebook, chasing girls that have money and live abroad. And the women looking for men that are very rich who can take care of them.

But you also talked about looking for a rich man

Hmmm when I say Im looking for a rich man, it does not mean Im not working. I act, I make movies and now Im entering into another business again. Im looking for a rich man not a billionaire, an average rich man. The person must go to school. But before the year runs out, I should be saying I do because Ive found one

Congratulations. Recently you posted a picture on Instagram where you wore black gym clothes and captioned it Body Goal. What were you celebrating?

Im trying to lose some flesh in some areas I dont want. So, I restrain and I go to the gym. Ive cut down my eating habits. So, I eat very healthy organic foods. In the morning, I might just have lettuce, in the afternoon, Ill just have fish and vegetable, in the evening, Ill just have plantain and lots of vegetables. So, Im building a banging body  the body that youll see, youll turn.

Youre not looking at a faster route like surgery.

Surgery is not bad. Its like recreating yourself. Well, I dont condemn people that do liposuction. Its the body that youre trying to modify. Or maybe because Im not in a hurry to get the desire that I want because Im not badly created. Im well-endowed. So, with or without surgery, if I come out, people turn around. Just because human beings that we are, we are never satisfied. We always want something extra. I can do without surgery, I can do without exercise, Im perfect the way I am.

source: ThenationThe Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on Friday filed fresh charges of fraud against the chairman of the Code of Conduct Tribunal, Danladi Umar.

It is understood that the anti-graft agency is dragging Umar to the Federal High Court, Abuja over alleged N11.8 million bribe.

The case was filed by the EFCCs prosecuting counsel, Festus Keyamo with the Charge No: CR/109/18.

Mr. Keyamo is accusing Mr. Umar of collecting N10 million from Rasheed Taiwo, a former Customs official, who was facing false assets declaration charges before the Code of Conduct Tribunal sometimes in 2012.

The prosecution also accused Mr. Umar of receiving N1.8 million of the N10 million bribe sum through one of his personal assistants, Gambo Abdullahi.

The EFCC is slamming the two-count charge against him.Vanguard

Obasanjo playing politics with letter  Tinubu

National Leader of All Progressives Congress, APC, Senator Bola Tinubu has said that the former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo was playing politics with the open letter he wrote to President Muhammadu Buhari which has generated controversy, adding that if the Former President had meant well, he would have met with the President to talk about the issues he raised in the letter since he was Senior to Buhari both in the army, as head of State and as President.

Punch

The Oluwo of Iwo, Oba Adewale Akanbi, has alleged that the Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi, ordered his bodyguard to push him out of the way during the meeting of traditional rulers in the country held in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital.

Thisday

The President of the Senate, Abubakar Bukola Saraki, has paid the 2018 West Africa Examination Council (WAEC) examination fees of a total of 432 indigent students in Kwara Central Senatorial District.

The Sun

Since the New Year, 2018 was ushered in, no issue has dominated public discourse as the killings following the clashes between farmers and the Fulani herdsmen in various parts of the country. But one man whose name is considered to be at the centre of the conflict is the National President, Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore Socio-cultural Association, Bello Abdullahi Bodejo (Lamido Fulbe). He spoke to WILLY EYA on various issues and concluded that the anti- open grazing law enacted by some states caused the crises and insisted that it should be reversed.

Daily Times

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has filed two-count criminal charge against the Chairman of the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT), Mr. Danladi Yakubu Umar before an Abuja High Court over his alleged involvement in N10million bribery.

Guardian

An Upper Area Court III sitting in Kasuwan Nama in Jos North Council of Plateau State yesterday sentenced a 31-year-old businessman, Joseph Vongjem, to fours years in prison for rapping a 13-year-old girl.

Daily Trust

The Sustainable National Party (SNP), one of the 21 newly registered political parties, yesterday, threw its weight behind those clamouring for restructuring and resource control by states.

Tribune

FORMER President Goodluck Jonathan said on Friday that a statement credited to the Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Raji Fashola on February 1 has vindicated the former administration on the management of the economy.

The Nation

The Presidency has condemned an opinion article published by a national daily, (not The Nation) associating President Muhammadu Buhari with the killings in Benue and calling him a murderer.Juju musician, Yomi Peters, has signed an artiste management and promotion deal with US-based Deniver Global Holdings Ventures, DGHV.

Founder of DGHV, Hamzzat Dennis Ayandiran, who is also a musician, disclosed that Peters, whom he has played with, is the first artiste signed to DGHV, and that since Yomi signed with us, it has been progress on progress.

According to him, while he was thinking of the first artiste to sign on, Peters was the first name that came to his mind and when he consulted his wife on it, she agreed that Peters was the right choice.

Ive known Yomi for over twenty years, said Ayandiran.

Hes been a friend and brother. Weve played together as musicians in Nigeria and when Yomi was still in America, we toured the length and breadth of America as well and Im very happy to be working with him again in a professional capacity.

Ayandiran added that were going to market his albums, Iwure and Happy Birthday, in America as well as his upcoming album.

Also speaking on the deal, Peters said hes so happy to sign with Ayandirans outfit because hes a fellow musician so he understands music and the dynamics of the music business. Mind you, I dont see him as just a businessman but my brother, my blood, because we;ve done so many things together and now were still moving to the next level together.

source: ThenationClose Get email notifications on {{subject}} daily!

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Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items.A Chinese national living in the United States has pleaded guilty to working in a racket that smuggles and sell counterfeit Apple products like the iPhone and iPad.

The United States Department of Justice has issued a press release regarding this where it has provided details about the matter. The guilty, Jianhua Jeff Life, 43, through his company Dream Digitals, worked with other conspirators to smuggle and sell over 40,000 electronic devices and accessories in the United States, which includes iPhones and iPads carrying counterfeit Apple trademarks. He received payments totaling over $1.1 million in lieu of shipping these products to other conspirators located all over the United States.

To avoid being caught by the U.S. customs, Mr. Li used to ship the labels and devices separately.

Further, the documents filed in this case and statements made in court showed that Mr. Li shipped devices separately from the labels bearing counterfeit trademarks for later assembly to avoid detection by U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials. The devices were then shipped to conspirators all over the United States. Proceeds from the sales of the devices were funneled back to the co-conspirators accounts in Florida and New Jersey via structured cash deposits and a portion of the proceeds was then transferred to conspirators in Italy, further disguising the source of the funds.

Mr. Li and his partners, Andreina Becerra, Roberto Volpe, Rosario LaMarca, and others, have all been caught and have pleaded guilty for their actions.

[Via Department of JusticeThe Pharmacy Gallery and Art Space 623 E. Adams St., Springfield Downtown

Free

Art & Architecture

Pharmacy member artists will be working in the gallery on Second Saturday Open Studio. This is a wonderful opportunity to stop into the gallery to watch them at work, ask questions and learn about their process as well as to see the exhibit, "Tranquility in Flight," that is on display. Every second Saturday until further notice. Masks are required and social distancing is easily followed in our large gallery space. Free and open to the public. 801-810-9278As most of you already know, people often do not buy a premade PC, they create their own configuration. Pre-made still sells though, some people just dont want to go through all that trouble and simply ask for an opinion on what is in store,This Week in Review

A weekly review of the best and most popular stories published in the Imperial Valley Press. Also, featured upcoming events, new movies at local theaters, the week in photos and much more.CAMPAIGNERS battling to save East Cowes' iconic umbrella tree say an independent study has found it poses no immediate danger to the public.

Tree surgeon Peter Abraham, who used to work for English Heritage, inspected the tree which was planted by Queen Victoria's road manager more than 100 years ago.

He concluded he could find no trace of 'honey fungus' on the tree that was said to be damaging it, raising fears it could be cut down.

His findings have been welcomed by campaigners, Bev Webster and Chris Gutteridge, who commissioned the report and have been battling to save the tree.

Mr Gutteridge said: "I am hopeful now the tree can be saved. I was over the moon about his report's conclusions."

In his report, Mr Abraham, of Beatrice Avenue, East Cowes, said he had checked the condition of the trunk all around and it appeared to be sound. Its bark was also in good condition.

He said: "I would have expected the bark to be peeling off if there was any suggestion of honey fungus."

He added: "I then went back to the crown of the tree, and again, there had been suggestions of die back.

"The twigs which were dead and dying were under the base of the crown and during the summer months when the tree is in full leaf, the twigs under the crown are blocked from the light and this is a natural reaction to trees of this nature.

"The conclusion I found on this tree is that it does not appear to be in any immediate danger to the public, but an annual inspection would be good practice for the public interest."

As reported last week, wildlife presenter, Chris Packham joined forces with campaigners trying to save the tree.

East Cowes Town Council sent a letter to the IW Council calling for an immediate halt to plans to remove the tree.

The council's cabinet member for planning and housing, Cllr Barry Abraham, said the authority was exploring a range of options to prolong the life of the tree and a decision to fell it would only be a last resort.Emily Mieure covers criminal justice and emergency news. She also leads the News&Guides investigative efforts. She has reported for WDRB TV in Louisville, Ky., WFIE TV in Evansville, Ind., and WEIU TV in Charleston, Ill.02/01/18

HAYS, Kan.  Westford Education Group, Al Nahda, United Arab Emirates, has joined Fort Hays State University in a strategic partnership to bring affordable, high-quality business education to the Middle East.

The collaboration leverages the local market intelligence and student support services of Westford Education Group with the academic content and faculty of the Fort Hays State University MBA program to offer an online and on-ground supported MBA program from an American university, said Dr. William Painter, dean of the Westford Group.

This partnership reflects the next step of the universitys World Ready efforts, said Dr. Mark Bannister, dean of Fort Hays States W.R. and Yvonne Robbins College of Business and Entrepreneurship. The university is partnering with one of the worlds leading publishing and training companies in order to benefit students. In doing so, we will enter an important economic region that is seeking quality English language graduate education.

The educational model combines the transfer of some credits, local instructional support, and direct instruction by FHSUs MBA faculty. Westford will recruit students for the 34-credit-hour program and provide instruction for six credit hours. The FHSU Virtual College will provide 28 credit hours.

Students will be in the UAEs Dubai area. The target audience is expatriates and students who are citizens of nearby countries, but living and working in the UAE.

To reach international students, most American universities either build a branch campus or work with a third party to attract international students to the United States, said Painter. This model allows students to remain in their jobs, where they can contribute to the local economy and still receive a high-quality experience at a very affordable price. The costs to both the student and the university are significantly reduced to their mutual benefit.

We are committed to improving access to quality higher education programs for those students who are talented but who cannot quit their jobs and leave their families for several years to attend a U.S. university, said Painter.

The Westford Education Group is an award-winning institution with seven campuses and currently has partnerships with two British universities, Cardiff Metropolitan University and Wolverhampton University, and Marconi University in Italy.The domain fishinghd.com may be for sale. Please click here to inquireJURIST Guest Columnist Ruqaiijah Yearby of Case Western Reserve University School of Law discusses the legality of a work requirement for Medicaid eligibility and the impact this will have on poverty . . .

On November 15, 2017, the Institute for Policy Studies issued a report noting that the three richest people in the United States (Jeff Bezos, Warren Buffet, and Bill Gates) were wealthier than the 160 million people in the bottom half of the country combined. Two months later, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a guidance in support of mandatory work requirements for some of the 160 million individuals to obtain access to health care.

Specifically, the guidance said that based on its authority under Medicaid, CMS would allow states to require that non-elderly, non-pregnant adults (able-bodied adults) work as a condition to their eligibility for Medicaid. CMS asserted that the work requirement would further Medicaids objectives by promoting better mental, physical, and emotional health and help individuals and families rise out of poverty and attain independence. Although these are admirable goals, the work requirement arguably violates the objectives of the Medicaid Act and will not promote better health, lift people out of poverty, or help able-bodied adults attain independence.

Medicaid requires States with monetary support from the federal government to furnish (1) medical assistance on behalf of families with dependent children and of aged, blind, or disabled individuals, whose income and resources are insufficient to meet the costs of necessary medical services, and (2) rehabilitation and other services to help such families and individuals attain or retain capability for independence or self-care[.]

In its guidance, CMS cites the language of independence as support for the work requirement but some argue that, based on the statutory context, this means physical functioning. Even if the language is found to support the need for individual independence, Medicaid requires States to provide services to help families and individuals attain independence. Yet in the guidance, CMS shifts this responsibility to able-bodied adults. This is counter to the plain language of Medicaid, which focuses on states responsibilities, not the responsibility of individuals who qualify for Medicaid. However, in its guidance, CMS prohibits states from using Medicaid dollars to able-bodied adults in meeting the work requirements.

Although, based on the language of Section 1115, CMS can waive compliance of the requirements of Medicaid, such as providing services to help families and individuals attain independence, to enable a state to carry out an experimental, pilot, or demonstration project that would promote the Medicaids objectives, some argue that CMS cannot add requirements to Medicaid, such as working, without Congress providing additional authority.

Under former President Barack Obama, CMS allowed states to expand Medicaid coverage to able-bodied adults and implement voluntary work training programs. As a result of this expansion, a Kaiser Family Foundation literature review showed that Medicaids expansion positively affected access to health care, utilization of services, the affordability of care, the financial security among the low-income population, and it led to reductions in the cost of uncompensated care for hospitals and clinics.

In the past, courts have invalidated waivers that required work requirements because they did not meet the objectives of the statute. In this case the work requirement does not meet the objective of Medicaid, which is to provide health care for poor people. According to the Heritage Foundation and the Kaiser Family Foundation, the Medicaid work requirement will make it harder for able-bodied adults to register for Medicaid, limiting access to health care necessary to keep them well enough to work, and may increase health care costs because these adults will seek care in the emergency room instead of seeking routine care.

Moreover, there is no evidence that the work requirement will fulfill the objectives CMS lists in the guidance: promote better health, help individuals and families rise out of poverty, or able-bodied adults attain independence. According to the Chetty study cited in the CMS guidance, higher income was correlated with greater life expectancy throughout the nation, but there was significant state variation. For instance, in the ten states (Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas) with the lowest life expectancy for low-income individuals there was a significant association with healthy behaviors, not unemployment rates, i.e. working. This is significant because many of these states are seeking Medicaid waivers to require work requirements based on the theory that working promotes better health. The lack of evidence correlating employment to better health is further illustrated by the fact that the guidance says this hypothesis, i.e. that work requirements will improve the health of able-bodied adults on Medicaid, should be proven by states, who have no expertise in conducting health benefits research, without financial or program development assistance from CMS.

Additionally, the work requirement will not lift people out of poverty. A recent University of Berkeley report found that by 2013, US manufacturing workers made 7.7% below the median wage for all occupations, causing 1 of 3 manufacturing workers to go on welfare and almost 1 million manufacturing workers and their families to enroll in Medicaid/CHIP (equal to 15% of all manufacturing workers). Thus, obtaining employment does not guarantee that an individual or their families will rise out of poverty.

Nevertheless, CMS notes in the guidance that in the past many states have had successes with voluntary work programs linked to Medicaid. Yet, CMS does not cite any specific state program that has been successful in lifting people out of poverty or making them independent.

In fact, states that implemented a work requirement for recipients on the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) did not show long-term success in cutting poverty or increasing long-term employment because states did not provide substantial job support such as training, education, and placement. The result of the TANF work requirement was to remove many recipients from the program, causing them to sink further into severe poverty, after which many states stopped tracking the requirement because they did not have sufficient money in their budgets to fund the tracking.

The problems with the Medicaid work requirement are further illustrated by Kentuckys Helping to Engage and Achieve Long Term Health (HEALTH) Medicaid waiver, which was approved on January 12, 2018 and is being challenged in federal court. First, although the waiver requires able-bodied adults to complete 80 hours of community engagement in a 30-day period or state-approved health literacy or financial literacy course to be eligible for Medicaid, it fails to include any information about the state efforts to support unemployed able-bodied adults in meeting the requirements.

Second, in the CMS guidance, applications for waivers allowing work requirements were required to include information about how the state would address market forces and structural barriers to work, such as high unemployment. This information was not included in the approved Kentucky waiver and it is unclear how Kentucky, with the 4th highest percentage of people in poverty out of 50 states, is going to be able to address market forces and structural barriers to work for unemployed able-bodied adults. Hence, arguably CMS violated its own rules by approving a waiver that did not fulfill the requirements of the guidance.

If CMS wants to fulfill Medicaids objective of lifting people out of poverty and helping able-bodied adults attain independence, then CMS should require states to provide support for Medicaid beneficiaries that would make them independent. Specifically, CMS has the authority and should require states to provide Medicaid beneficiaries with:

1. Voluntary job training that is show to result in long-term full-time work;

2. Subsidized work wages until the job provides a living wage;

3. Subsidized transportation to job training and work; and

4. Subsidized or free childcare.

Some of these measures are already being discussed by states, such as Montana and Pennsylvania, to support families and able-bodied adults on Medicaid in becoming independent.

Ruqaiijah Yearby is the David L. Brennan Professor and Associate Dean of Institutional Diversity and Inclusiveness at Case Western Reserve University School of Law. She is a nationally and internationally recognized scholar in the health field with scholarship that focuses on the racial disparities in health care and the intersections of law, justice, and medical research.

Suggested citation: Ruqaiijah Yearby, Medicaid Work Requirements: Are They Illegal and Will They Increase Poverty?, JURIST  Academic Commentary, Feb. 3, 2018, http://jurist.org/forum/2018/02/Ruqaiijah-Yearby-medicaid-poverty.phpAmnesty International (AI) [Official Website] released a report [Text] on Thursday detailing continued abuses by Australia against refugees being held on Manus Island [JURIST news archive].

In October 31, 2017, Australia withdrew support services for the refugee detention center, including shutting off power, water, food and medical supplies to the center. AI claims this was done to force the refugees to move to a new center. On November 23 and 24, police and immigration officials raided the center and forcibly moved inhabitants to newly constructed centers. The new centers are alleged to be poorly resourced with interrupted supplies of electricity and water.

AI claims that the refugees face continued violence from local residents with many reporting robberies and assaults to police that are rarely investigated. There has also reportedly been inadequate support for integrating the refugees in the community.

Currently over 600 refugee and asylum seekers remain on Manus Island. AI states that these refugees have substantial restrictions on their liberty and freedom. This includes restrictions on where they can live, having most of their movements are monitored, being restricted in their travel, and having identification documents disregarded by authorities. The refugees also have difficulty accessing health care and physical and mental health care needs are not met.

AI has called upon Australia to end its practice of offshore processing of refugees and asylum seekers, ensure the highest attainable medical and mental health care, and adequate security. AI has also called upon Papua New Guinea to investigate crimes against the refugees and asylum seekers and ensure they are offered meaningful work opportunities.

Australias offshore processing has been an ongoing source of criticism since it was first started in 2013. In June, Australia agreed to a $90 million settlement [JURIST report] in a class action lawsuit by the Manus Island refugees. Human Rights Watch released a report [JURIST report] in October detailing Australia and Papua New Guineas failure to protect the refugees from physical violence. Australia had announced [JURIST report] that they plan to close the detention center on Manus Island in August 2016, but no final date of the closure was given.A federal judge on Thursday struck down [order PDF] Floridas process for restoring voter rights to former felons, finding that it was unconstitutional.

Florida citizens are automatically disenfranchised after being convicted of a felony under the Florida Constitution [text]. Former felons must wait a period of five to seven years from the completion of their sentence, including post-incarceration probation, and parole, to apply for restoration. The length of the waiting period depends on the severity of the crime. The Florida Constitution authorizes the Governor, with the approval of at least two members of the Executive Clemency Board [official website], to restore a convicted felons voting rights. In striking down this process, Judge Mark E. Walker found that the governor and the board members have the the unfettered discretion to grant, at any time, for any reason; several types of clemency, including the restoration of voting rights. They also have the ability to deny them for any reason.

The case was brought against the current Governor Rick Scott [official website] by a group of former felons in Florida. Governor Scott has argued that the restoration of voting rights of former felons can only occur on the states terms and is within the interest of the state to limit the franchise to responsible voters and to gauge the progress and rehabilitation of former felons. The former felons argue that the unfettered discretion in restoring voting rights violates the First Amendment [text].

Walker ultimately ruled that while Florida, and other states, may have a legitimate interest in limiting franchise Floridas vote-restoration scheme is crushingly restrictive. The scheme crumbles under strict scrutiny because it risksif not covertly authorizes the practice ofarbitrary and discriminatory vote-restoration. He further expressed concern about the motives the state officials would have for denying restoration, saying State officials potential political, racial, or religious biases cannot poison the well of vote-restoration. In addition to the First Amendment, Walker also found that this unfettered official discretion violates the Fourteenth Amendments Equal Protection Clause [text].

Noting that more than one-tenth of Floridas voting population have had their voting rights curtailed, Walker said

If any one of these citizens wishes to earn back their fundamental right to vote, they must plod through a gauntlet of constitutionally infirm hurdles. No more. When the risk of state-sanctioned viewpoint discrimination skulks near the franchise, it is the province and duty of this Court to excise such potential bias from infecting the clemency process.

Walker declined the opportunity to invalidate the waiting periods, finding that the regulations are applied uniformly and that, unlike the exercise of discretion in deciding on applications, they present little risk of promoting discrimination.

Finding that there had been inadequate briefing on appropriate remedies, Walker ordered the parties to file supplemental briefs as to the contours of injunctive relief by February 12.

A ballot measure [JURIST report] allowing for the automatic restoration of voting rights upon completion of a felony sentence will be before Florida voters in November.[JURIST] The UN expressed concern [report] Thursday about human rights abuses in Mali despite the Malian government signing a peace agreement [text, PDF] in 2015 with several armed groups.

The UN monitored the situation in Mali from January 2015 to June 2017, finding 600 cases of human rights abuses, plus 800 more involving unidentified armed elements. Around 2,700 victims were affected by the violence.

According to the report, the human rights abuses included illegal detentions, torture and ill-treatment, extrajudicial executions, enforced disappearances, the recruitment of child soldiers, and sexual violence, along with a failure to investigate human rights abuses. Most of the violations were committed by armed groups who signed the peace treaty or the Malian government. Other perpetrators included non-signatory parties to the Peace Agreement, a branch of Al Qaida, international forces, unidentified groups, and other splinter groups.

The report did note improvements in transitional justice, such as the formation of the Truth, Justice, and Reconciliation Commission.

Last April a UN official called [JURIST report] the security situation in Mali alarming due to an increase in terrorism..  10             ,         .                .      ,       .       .    ...EATON COUNTY, Mich. -- The father of three daughters who were abused by Larry Nassar tried to attack the former doctor in an Eaton County, Michigan, court Friday before he was tackled and arrested by security.

Randall Margraves said he was a "distraught father" and cursed at Nassar, but Judge Janice Cunningham told him that was not allowed in court.

He then asked the judge for personal time alone with the "demon."

"I would ask you, as part of the sentencing, to grant me five minutes in a locked room with this demon," he asked. "Would you give me one minute?"

The judge declined, saying, "That's not how our legal system works."

"Well, I'm going to have to," Margraves responded, and he launched into a sprint toward Nassar.

Security rushed to stop him and grabbed him from behind before he was able to reach Nassar.

"I want that son of a b****!" the man yelled as he was being detained. "Give me one minute with that bastard."

He added, "What if this happened to you guys?"

The incident sparked harsh words from Michigan Assistant Attorney General Angela Povilaitis in court.

"You cannot behave like that," she said. "No one can behave like this. I want to make sure it's crystal clear."

As he was ushered out of the room, Margraves responded: "You haven't lived through it, lady."

Margraves: 'I lost control'

The violent outburst came after more than two weeks of raw, powerful statements from young women who were sexually abused by Nassar over the past two decades. More than 150 women spoke out about Nassar in an Ingham County courtroom during the past two weeks, and dozens more have spoken out about Nassar's abuse here in Eaton County court this week.

Margraves is the father of Lauren and Madison Margraves, two young women who had spoken emotionally about how Nassar abused them just before their father addressed the court. A statement from Morgan Margraves, his third daughter, was read at Nassar's sentencing in neighboring Ingham County last month.

Margraves was brought back into the court in handcuffs during a lunch break, and he apologized to the court. He said he acted out because he did not know beforehand what his daughters were going to say and because Nassar was shaking his head "like it didn't happen."

"I lost control. I apologize a hundred times," Margraves said. "I'm definitely calmed down. I'm embarrassed. I'm not here to upstage my daughters. I'm here to help them heal."

Judge Cunningham agreed to release him without a fine or punishment "given the circumstances of the case," she said, but still affirmed that he acted inappropriately.

"You have to understand that this is a courtroom and this is where we carry out and enforce the rules of law," she said.

"We cannot and I cannot tolerate or condone vigilantism or any other type of action that basically comes down to an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth," she added. "That's not what's best in this situation. What's best here is that we take this horrible tragedy and we learn to educate people."

Nassar, the former doctor for USA Gymnastics and Michigan State University, has pleaded guilty to 10 criminal sexual conduct charges across two Michigan counties. In court, he admitted to abusing his trusted position to sexually abuse girls under the guise of medical treatment.

Nassar is currently in Eaton County Circuit Court as dozens of women have come forward to explain how his abuse changed their lives.

Also on Friday, the US Olympic Committee announced that a law firm has been hired to conduct an independent investigation into what the USOC and USA Gymnastics knew about Nassar's abuse and when, and how they handled the information. The partners leading the investigation for the firm, Ropes & Gray, are former federal prosecutors with experience handling sexual abuse cases.TALENT, Ore. -- A Talent man was jailed Friday after Jackson County Sheriff's Office deputies served a search warrant at Brad's Budget Automotive. Deputies say they found drugs, stolen property, and people living in "squalor."

Bradley Wayne Keever, 46, was arrested on a warrant as well as charges of possession of methamphetamine and first degree theft by receiving.

On February 2, deputies say they searched the property of Brad's Budget Automotive on South Pacific Highway. Deputies seized drugs and stolen property.

Deputies say they found multiple people, including children, in unsafe living conditions at the auto repair shop. Deputies also found evidence of drug use and sewage leaking from travel trailers. Deputies say people were living in those travel trailers. The Jackson County Sheriff's Office says Department of Human Services-Child Welfare caseworkers also came to assess the children's living conditions. Jackson County Code Enforcement will be investigating code violations. Phoenix and Talent Police officers also helped with the search warrant.



Keever was lodged at the Jackson County Jail.HARBOR, Ore. -- The FBI is getting involved in the search for a man accused of a shooting in Curry County. It happened December 28, 2017. That's when 46-year-old William (Bill) Terebesi was shot several times at his storage unite at Strahm Storage on Oceanview Drive in Harbor. Terebesi was able to drive himeslef ot the Sheriff's Office Sub-Station in Harbor while calling 911. Police say that Terebesi indicated that he did not know the assailant and had never seen him before.

SEE THE FBI WANTED POSTER BY CLICKING HERE.

Today, the sheriff's office and FBI issued a warrant for the arrest of Lucas Randall DeYoung in connection to the shooting. He is wanted for Attempted Murder, Attempted Aggravated Murder, Delivery of a Controlled Substance and Manufacture of Marijuana.

The Curry County Sheriff's OFfice is asking anyone with information as to the whereabouts of Lucas DeYoung to notify your local law enforcement agency.

In early January, based on evidence and statements, another suspect was identified as twenty-seven year old Robert Kris Stanley from Brookings, but originally from South Carolina. The Major Crime Team learned that a couple days after the shooting, Stanley had left the area to Shelton Washington and was staying in a motel there.

On 01-05-18, a warrant was obtained from the Circuit Court for Attempted Murder and Assault in the First Degree for the arrest of Robert Kris Stanley. The following day a Curry County Sheriffs Detective and Patrol Deputy along with two Oregon State Troopers traveled to Shelton Washington where they met with the Mason County Sheriffs Office and the Shelton Police Department. Officers and Deputies from the Mason County Sheriffs Office and the Shelton Police Department located Stanley at a local motel there and took him into custody on the felony warrant.

On 01-10-18, The Mason County Sheriffs Office transported Stanley to Portland where he was then picked up by a Curry County Sheriffs Office Detective and an Oregon State Police Detective and then transported back to the Curry County Jail.

As of January 11, Information from family of Terebesi is that Bill is doing better but still at an undisclosed medical facility recovering.Medford, OR. -- This year's flu epidemic is now impacting prescriptions for the virus.

Tib Alvarez, a pharmacist at a Medford Walmart told NewsWatch12 there is a nationwide Tamiflu shortage. Tamiflu is an antiviral that has no substitute.

Alvarez says the ERs and Immediate Cares in Southern Oregon are packed with flu patients, "It's going kinda crazy through the valley right now."

Alvarez told NewsWatch12 if you test positive for the flu virus, most doctors will prescribe Tamiflu. Since the flu is a virus, there isn't a medicine that can fully kill it. However, Tamiflu can help ease the symptoms, and help you fight it off quicker.

Alvarez says because so many people are sick this season, Tamiflu is back-ordered across the country. He says they are having trouble filling the brand name, and the generic version.

He says the affordable cost of the generic brand is adding to the shortage, and health insurance companies are trying to help.

"Some of the insurance companies are not covering the brand name. But because of the shortage they've been making exceptions and covering the brand," says Alvarez.

Alvarez says in order for Tamiflu to work best, you need to take it within 72 hours of getting the flu.UPDATE 4:44 p.m.

MODESTO, Cal. -- According to a family member, Ms. Carol Wallace was found safe and in good health on Friday evening, February 2nd, in Modesto, California.

________________________________________________

FOREST GROVE, Ore. -- Forest Grove Police Department is seeking the public's assistance in locating a missing adult female.

Ms. Carol Wallace left her residence in the city of Forest Grove on January 30th at approximately noon. Ms. Wallace has not been seen or heard from by family since that time. Ms. Wallace's cellular telephone was active in the Salem, Oregon area at 9:50pm on January 30th.

Ms. Wallace has family in Southern Oregon and Northern California. A family member thinks she may have been trying to come south to visit.

The Forest Grove Police Department is asking for any information that may lead to contacting and assuring that Ms. Wallace is safe.

Anyone with information is asked to contact the Forest Grove Police Department at 503-629-0111.

contact the Forest Grove Police Department at 503-629-0111.FILE - In this Thursday, Oct. 11, 2012 file photo, a pedestrian talking on a cellphone is silhouetted in front of a fountain at John F. Kennedy Plaza, also known as Love Park in Philadelphia. Released on Friday, Feb. 2, 2018, two government studies that bombarded rats and mice with cellphone radiation found a weak link to some heart tumors, but the research does not provide any clear answers about the safety of the devices that seem like extensions of our bodies. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland leaves the stage with United States Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, right, and Mexico's Secretary of Economy Ildefonso Guajardo Villarrea after delivering statements to the media during the sixth round of negotiations for a new North American Free Trade Agreement in Montreal, Monday, January 29, 2018. Extending NAFTA negotiations into 2019 would prolong uncertainty for the Canadian economy and trim anticipated growth over the next year, says a forecast released Friday. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham HughesFormer NDP British Columbia Premier Dave Barrett, centre, gets up to greet NDP Leader Jack Layton at a town hall meeting Thursday Sept. 25, 2008 in Victoria. Former British Columbia premier Dave Barrett has died at the age of 87. A statement from Premier John Horgan's office says the former NDP premier died after a long struggle with Alzheimer's disease.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jacques BoissinotA intelligence memo is photographed in Washington, Friday, Feb. 2, 2018. After President Donald Trump declassified the memo, the Republican-led House Intelligence Committee released the memo based on classified information that alleges the FBI abused U.S. government surveillance powers in its investigation into Russian election interference.(AP Photo/Susan Walsh)A picture showing a man identified by the Italian Carabinieri, paramilitary police, as Luca Traini, who is accused of having shot with a firearm to several people in Macerata, Italy, Saturday, Feb. 3, 2018. A lone gunman opened fire on foreigners in drive-by shootings in a central Italian city, wounding an undisclosed number of people Saturday morning before being arrested, police said. The suspectAos motive wasnAot immediately clear, but the city of Macerata is still reeling from the gruesome killing of a young Italian woman this week, allegedly at the hands of a Nigerian immigrant. (ANSA via AP)President Donald Trump listens during a meeting with North Korean defectors where he talked with reporters about allowing the release of a secret memo on the FBI's role in the Russia inquiry, in the Oval Office of the White House, Friday, Feb. 2, 2018, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)FILE - In this Oct. 3, 2014, file photo, Jon Huntsman, Sr. speaks to reporters during a press conference, in Salt Lake City. Utah billionaire and philanthropist Jon Huntsman Sr. has died. Huntsman's assistant Pam Bailey confirmed he died Friday, Feb. 2018, in Salt Lake City. He was 80. Bailey declined to name a cause of death. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, File)FILE - In this May 18, 2017 file photo, actress Uma Thurman poses for photographers during the photo call for the Un Certain Regard jury at the 70th international film festival, Cannes, southern France. Thurman has accused embattled Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein of forcing himself upon her sexually and director Quentin Tarantino of making her perform a dangerous car stunt that injured her. Thurman is quoted in The New York Times on Saturday, Feb. 3, 2018, as saying Weinstein attacked her in London. She says he pushed her down and tried to shove himself on her and expose himself. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant)EUGENE, Ore. -- A software security breach ended in a cancellation of more than 40 appointments at Absolute Dental Hygiene in Eugene.

The dental facility said the breach also gave access to 871 patient's personal information. Things like social security numbers, medical history and more was hacked.

The owner Tamra Johns said We are very disappointed and we take these actions very seriously. We are working hard to protect our customers.

Johns said they are working with police to investigate the security breach. Johns said she believes a relative of a former employee is responsible for the crime.

I greatly value the relationships that I have formed with patients, as an extended family. I am very saddened by this news and will make every effort possible to ensure protection, added Johns.GARNER, Iowa  A woman has been sentenced for stealing pain medication from a nursing home resident.

51-year-old Denise Ranae Wagner of Kanawha pleaded guilty to a serious misdemeanor charge of dependent adult abuse. Authorities say Wagner took a fentanyl patch from a resident of the Kanawha Community Home in June 2017 while Wagner worked there in the kitchen.

On Friday, Wagner was sentenced to 14 days in jail, a $315 fine, and two years of supervised probation. Wagner must also pay restitution of $75.FOREST CITY, Iowa  A California man is facing drug charges in Winnebago County.

19-year-old Carlos Antonio Guizar Lopez of Wasco, CA is accused of possession of marijuana with intent to deliver and failure to affix a drug tax stamp.

Law enforcement was called to the Mills Motel in Lake Mills on January 19 for someone refusing to leave their room. When police arrived at the motel, they say Lopez came to the door and the smell of marijuana could be detected. Lopez was arrested and a Forest City K9 dog was brought into check Lopez suitcase. The dog indicated drugs were inside and law enforcement says a search found a total of about 13 ounces of marijuana in eight separate bags.

Lopez has entered a not guilty plea and his trial is set for March 28 in Winnebago County District Court.LOS ANGELES (AP)  The mystery of the death of acclaimed actress Natalie Wood has endured for nearly four decades as the investigation has ebbed and flowed like the tides off a California island where her body was found floating on Thanksgiving weekend 1981.

Renewed interest came this week when the lead detective in the case said her widower, actor Robert Wagner, now 87, is considered a person of interest.

Heres a look at whats known about the death and the investigation over the years.

ALL ABOARD

The body of Wood, 43, was found off Catalina Island, a scenic getaway about 30 miles south of the Los Angeles-area coastline. The three-time Academy Award nominee who starred in West Side Story and Rebel Without a Cause couldnt swim. She was wearing a red down jacket and nightgown.

She had been drinking heavily aboard a yacht with her husband and with actor Christopher Walken, who was filming the thriller Brainstorm with Wood. The only other person aboard was the boats captain.

Wagner, who was starring at the time in the TV drama Hart to Hart, has denied any involvement in his wifes death, and no charges have been filed.

THEORIES FROM TWO KEY WITNESSES

Wagner wrote in a 2008 memoir that he and Walken argued that night. Walken went to bed and Wagner stayed up for a while, he wrote. When he went to bed, he noticed his wife and a rubber dinghy that had been tied to the yacht were missing.

There are only two possibilities, Wagner wrote, either she was trying to get away from the argument, or she was trying to tie the dinghy. But the bottom line is that nobody knows exactly what happened.

Walken has said little publicly over the years about the incident and has offered brusque replies at times when pressed. However, he told Playboy in 1997 that he thought Wood was probably half-asleep and slipped, hit her head and fell from the dinghy.

Anybody there saw the logistics  of the boat, the night, where we were, that it was raining  and would know exactly what happened, Walken said. You hear about things happening to people  they slip in the bathtub, fall down the stairs, step off the curb in London because they think that the cars come the other way  and they die. You feel you want to die making an effort at something; you dont want to die in some unnecessary way.

CHANGING INVESTIGATION

Authorities initially ruled the death an accidental drowning, but that changed. They reopened the investigation in 2011 after the boats captain, Dennis Davern, said he heard the couple arguing the night of her disappearance.

The Los Angeles coroners office amended Woods death certificate in 2012 to include drowning and other undetermined factors.

The change was due in part because investigators couldnt rule out that some of the bruises and marks on Woods body happened before she went into the water, according to the report. Wood wasnt wearing a life jacket, had no history of suicide attempts and didnt leave a note.

The report also revealed that investigators hadnt preserved Woods fingernails to determine if she had tried to claw her way back into the dinghy. Scratch marks were found on the crafts hull.

When the case was reopened, Los Angeles County sheriffs Lt. John Corina said Wagner was not a suspect.

This week, Corina told CBS News that he didnt believe Wagner had told the whole story about what happened and called him a person of interest in the case.

Initially, a sheriffs spokeswoman downplayed the report Thursday and said there was nothing new in the case. But later, the department issued a statement confirming that Wagner is a person of interest.

Do we have enough to make an arrest at this moment? No, spokeswoman Nicole Nishida said.

WHAT WALKEN AND WAGNER TOLD INVESTIGATORS

Investigators made at least 10 attempts to interview Wagner again after reopening the investigation in 2011, including tracking him down in Colorado. But either Wagner or his lawyer refused.

Wagners attorney, Blair Berk, issued a statement five years ago saying neither Wagner nor his daughters had any new information and blaming people for trying to exploit the 30th anniversary of Woods death.

Mr. Wagner has fully cooperated over the last 30 years in the investigation of the accidental drowning of his wife in 1981, Berk said at the time. Mr. Wagner has been interviewed on multiple occasions by the Los Angeles sheriffs department and answered every single question asked of him by detectives during those interviews.

At the time, Corina said Walken gave a prepared statement and spoke to detectives for an hour.

Detectives also interviewed other actors who knew Wagner and Wood to learn more about their relationship.

NEW WITNESSES COME FORWARD

New witnesses interviewed since the case was reopened gave statements that portray a new sequence of events on the boat that night, said Nishida, the sheriffs spokeswoman.

One witness described hearing yelling and crashing sounds coming from the couples stateroom, she said. Shortly afterward, other witnesses heard a man and woman arguing on the back of the boat and believe the voices were those of Wood and Wagner.

Those statements differ from the version of events originally provided by witnesses, including those who were on the boat, she said.

In the past, people on boats moored near the yacht have provided witness statements.

Wagners publicist, Alan Nierob, declined to comment Thursday.OSAGE, Iowa - Local high school seniors are making an effort to ensure that they are prepared for college.

Osage High School seniors in American Government class came up with several projects relating to change of policies and life skills to present to the school board.

Students Breana Jacobs and Jace Hoved felt that they could be more prepared to enter college, so they created a life skills class that will allow them to meet with counselors for ACT prep and to learn how to apply for scholarships.

They say the course will be beneficial to give students a jumpstart on their future careers.

"These classes are available to all of us, but they all take either a semester or too long and some of us with full schedules don't have the space in their so we would just have this as an elective over a semester, says Jacobs.

School board officials have yet to decide if they will pass the life skills class as an elective.MASON CITY, Iowa - U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley was in Mason City so we asked him about a newly released memo that's causing controversy on Capitol Hill.

Senator Grassley made it clear he wanted this memo released. The memo claims the Department of Justice and FBI sought to use the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act in order to conduct electronic surveillance on foreign policy adviser Carter Page. The memo is meant to discredit the investigation on Russian interference in the 2017 election.

I have confidence they would not write anything that would hurt our national security or hurt anyone's privacy. Taking that into consideration I believe there's been enough concern raised by the emails Ive seen that were made public that raise questions about whether or not there was political interference within both this this years administration and last years, Grassley said.

Former FBI Director James Comey, who was fired by President Trump, says the Department of Justice needs to keep doing its job and ignore the publicity.CONAKRY, Feb 1 (Reuters) - Guinean bauxite mining company La Guineenne des Mines (GDM) shipped the first ore from its project in the western Boke region on Thursday and will target exports of 2 to 4 million tonnes this year, its chief executive said.

The first cargo of 174,000 tonnes of the aluminium ore was loaded onto ships operated by Singapore's Winning Shipping and Chinese firm Shadong Weiqiao at the port of Dapilon.

The companies - the main owners of the Societe Miniere de Boke (SMB) bauxite project - negotiated rights to purchase and export GDM's production.

"We plan, in the short-term, to load and ship two vessels per month," Mori Diane, GDM's CEO and principal shareholder, told Reuters. "We also want to explore other areas we haven't yet touched but for which we hold permits."

The project currently estimates its proven reserves at 40 million tonnes of bauxite, and Diane said GDM has a long-term goal of processing its ore locally.

The bauxite industry in Guinea, Africa's top producer of the ore, is flourishing even as development of huge iron ore deposits in its forested interior have stalled due to a slump in global commodities prices.

Its main exporters are SMB, which produced around 30 million tonnes of bauxite last year, and CBG, owned by the Guinean state, Alcoa , Rio Tinto Alcan and Dadco, with around 15 million tonnes of annual output.

Until 2015, CBG and Russia's Rusal were the only companies exporting bauxite from Guinea.

(Reporting by Saliou Samb; Writing by Joe Bavier and David Evans)The exterior of Trump Hotel shows its theme rooms, including the prison cell. / Photo by Jon Dunbar



By Jon Dunbar



I traveled 284 kilometers south from Seoul to Naju to spend the night in a prison cell. It was one of several theme rooms at Naju's Trump Motel , a stone's throw from Naju Station in South Jeolla Province, just 10 minutes south of Gwangju on the Honam Line.



It all started two weeks ago when I typed "Trump" into Daum Map . That led me to the Naju Trump Muintel Facebook page. A "muintel" is an unmanned hotel, where guests check in through machine rather than with a person, intended to reduce costs and maximize guest privacy. This one is alternately called a muintel, a hotel, a business hotel, a motor hotel, a drive-in hotel and a motel. The motel rooms are on the second floor, and the third floor is run as a business hotel.



The hotel, newly opened in July, has a glitzy neon exterior. And a prison cell theme room! What could they be thinking? I had to stay there myself.



So the next available weekend, I filled up my cats' bowls and headed south, mum to friends about my destination.



Trump Hotel is a short walk from the station, right next to a Lotte Mart. Unsure how it works, I entered the building and took the elevator to the third floor, only to find no lobby. I met owner Hur Jung-oun, his wife Kim Hyo-won and Hur's brother and co-owner Jun-chul and they kindly helped me check in. I got my wish, the prison cell room, for only 55,000 won. I did not identify myself or reveal intentions to write an article.



Guests are expected to enter through the garage, where they get a private parking spot and can walk up a short flight of stairs to the room and a check-in system. But non-drivers are welcome too. The garage displays the hotel logo -- a bunch of playing cards. A reference to Trump's failed casinos?



Once I was alone in the room, I pulled out my camera and took pictures of everything. Trump bathrobes, Trump bed sheets, Trump hairdryer and, of course, the prison bars. They were real metal and if you brought your own padlock you could lock someone in there. I imagined waking up in the morning to find myself locked in.





The prison bars are pretty strong and you could use them to lock someone in. / Photo by Jon Dunbar



Wearing a bathrobe with "Trump" on it in a prison cell feels like a glimpse of the future many hope awaits Donald Trump. Others may see reference to Trump's "Lock her up" slogan against Hillary Clinton.



Setting aside all the bizarre themes, Trump Hotel was tied for the most pleasant stay I've had in Korea.





Trump Hotel at night is lit up like Las Vegas. / Photo by Jon Dunbar



After my vacation ended, I contacted the owners. Hur owns the hotel with his brother, and worked on everything from design and construction to interior decoration. An artist, his medium of choice is motor hotels and business hotels, and he has other properties in Gwangju and Muan. And, yes, he is in the habit of explaining the Trump theme.



"Our hotel's trademark is a trump which is a playing card, not U.S. President Donald Trump. Since our trademark isn't Donald Trump, we do not need to worry about lawsuits," he told me.



"I am not supportive of President Trump but it doesn't mean I am fully against him. I don't care for his politics but I like him as an entrepreneur."



As for the prison cell, it is one of eight theme rooms, along with mirror, light and plumbing theme rooms. There is even a larger event room with a pool table.



"At first I worried the jail theme would frighten guests," Hur told me. "However, many customers told us it's fun and memorable. Today, the jail theme is the most popular."



So either Hur gave me a legal disclaimer, or he genuinely intended no reference to America's 45th president. Either way, it sounds like he's answered this question many times.





The rooms are branded with Trump everywhere. / Photo by Jon DunbarA minor fire occurred at Severance Hospital in Shinchon, northwestern Seoul, Saturday morning. It was extinguished with no casualties. / Yonhap



By Park Si-soo

A minor fire occurred at Severance Hospital in Shinchon, northwestern Seoul, Saturday morning. It was extinguished with no casualties.



Police are investigating the cause of the fire.



The fire reportedly started at 7:56 a.m. near gate No.5 on the third floor of the hospital's main building. It was completely extinguished at 9:59 a.m. Police and firefighters confirmed no one was injured by the fire.



Nearly 400 patients and caregivers were evacuated after fire alarms went off but returned to their rooms later.Seoul HHH hound Just Call Me the Snake sounds the horn for Saturday's hash in Chungmuro, Seoul. / Photo by John Redmond



By John Redmond





Chalk arrows mark the trails of a hash. / Photo by John Redmond

The sounding of a horn, coupled with the group cry, "On, on, on" amid a pounding of feet against the earth, appear to describe the opening scene of the latest war epic. But no, these are the sounds and sights more associated with Hash House Harriers (HHH or H3) groups worldwide.



The Hashers, or H3, is an international group of non-competitive running social clubs that claim to be "A drinking club with a running problem," according to its motto.



An event organized by a local chapter, or kennel, is known as a hash, hash run or simply hashing, with participants calling themselves hashers or hares and hounds.



Hashing originated in December 1938 in Selayang Quarry, Selangor, Malaysia, when a group of British colonial officers and expatriates began meeting on Monday evenings to run, in a fashion patterned after the traditional British paper chase or "hare and hounds."





Seoul HHH with Joo Dog, left, gather for a circle last Saturday. / Photo by John Redmond



Seoul is no stranger to hashers. It has five chapters, also called kennels, comprising Seoul HHH (male only), Seoul PMS (female only), Southside (mixed), Seoul Full Moon (mixed) and Yongsan Kimchi (mixed) that gather on weekends at various locations around the greater Seoul metropolitan area.



A typical hash run involves meeting at a designated point, a group chant, the trail leader -- known as the hound -- sounding the horn, and members beginning the hash following chalk arrows the hare has set.



There are two simple variations.



A "Dead Hare" is where the trail is set beforehand by the hare. It generally starts and finishes at the same point.



The "Live Hare" is where the hare sets the trail during the hash, normally running ahead of the pack to an undisclosed destination.





Hash runs often include views of historical and cultural sites. / Photo by John Redmond



The aim is to catch the hare.



Sawdust, flour and shredded paper are also used to mark the trail. The hare changes with each hash run.



Chapters also follow H3 traditions, including members typically given a "hash name" as the use of real names is discouraged.



Following each hash, a circle, led by chapter leadership, provides a time to socialize and includes welcoming new members, drinking songs and joke telling.



Proud of having "Half a Mind since 1972," Seoul Hash House Harriers is Korea's oldest continuous kennel and was founded in June 1972 by Ian Young, originally from Hong Kong H3.



Seoul HHH meets every Saturday afternoon, regardless of the weather, to run a course of about 10 kilometers through Seoul's mountains, parks and streets.



The aim of Seoul HHH is to have fun, keep fit and see more of the city.





Even elevators are part of typical hash trails. / Photo by John RedmondAround 400 students at Brentwood high and middle schools in suburban St. Louis got part of the day off Friday after a 9-foot-long boa constrictor wriggled out of her aquarium, setting off a frantic search.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that a teacher alerted school officials of the escape around 10 a.m., when the 70-pound snake went missing from an enclosure in a biology class. Students were sent home a short time later.

A broken hinge on the enclosure was blamed on the escape. The snake was found beneath the floor, wrapped around pipes. The ceramic floor was ripped up to retrieve her.

A biology teacher adopted the snake years ago and kept her at school. When she retired she left the snake for the school to keep.

___

Information from: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, http://www.stltoday.com

(Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)Rome, February 1 - 5-Star Movement (M5S) premier candidate Luigi Di Maio has denied a Reuters report that he told investors in London on Wednesday that it was possible the anti-establishment group would be part of a grand coalition if it fails to win a working majority in the March 4 general election. "There won't be a grand-coalition government," Di Maio told ANSA. "As we have always said, we'll present a government team before the elections. "If there is no absolute M5S majority after, we'll make an appeal for agreement on issues. "I repeated this concept to 30 investors. There was probably a translation problem".Rome, February 1 - Economy Minister Pier Carlo Padoan said Thursday he could not see any market speculation over Italy's March 4 general election. Asked if he expected any, he said "not a month of speculation but a situation of expectancy on the markets". He said "I follow the spread and the market situation almost every hour: there is no sign of nervousness". Asked about investment fund Bridgewater shrtselling many Italian blue chips, Padoan replied: "They are small shareholdings".This article appears in the February 2, 2018 issue of Executive Intelligence Review.

Chin a- Cela c Foru m Embrace s Chinas Belt and Road: Will the U.S.A. Join?

by Cynthia R. Rush

[Print version of this article]

Jan. 29In a dramatic development that would have seemed impossible just eight months ago, on Jan. 22 the 33 member-nations of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (Celac), a region encompassing all of the Western Hemisphere minus Canada and the United States, officially endorsed Chinas Belt and Road Initiative (BRI)now the worlds dominant development perspective. Meeting in Santiago, Chile under the title, Working for More Development, Innovation and Cooperation for our People: A Common Destiny, the Second Ministerial Meeting of the China-Celac Forum, which included Chinas Foreign Minister Wang Yi and his delegation, issued a formal declaration supporting the BRI, and expressing its desire to be an active participant in this magnificent development program.

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Xinhua/Xu Rui

Although the text of that statement is not yet available to EIR, Wang Yis remarks to the China-Celac Economic and Trade Cooperation and Business Forum, which met one day later, left no doubt of Celacs commitment:

During the [Ministerial] meeting, the Foreign Ministers issued a special declaration on supporting and participating in the Belt and Road Initiative. It means that with the Second Ministerial Meeting, this visionary Initiative put forward by [Chinas] President Xi Jinping has been extended to Latin America and the Caribbean, and become the largest and most welcomed platform for international cooperation spanning all continents and oceans. It is also the most important public goods that China provides to the world.

China and Celac agreed to jointly build the Belt and Road. As China and other countries work together on the Belt and Road Initiative, LAC [Latin American and Caribbean] countries cannot be absent and should be a meaningful part of it. The ancient Maritime Road had once connected us across the Pacific Ocean. Now, in the 21st Century, China stands ready to work with the LAC countries to revitalize it. Collaboration in this process will create greater space and markets, as well as resources and means for the development of LAC countries.

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Xinhua/Xu Rui

In his congratulatory letter to the Jan. 22 Ministerial meeting, read by Wang Yi, Xi Jinping underscored:

Historically, our ancestors, braving the waves of the vast ocean, blazed the trans-Pacific Maritime Silk Road between China and the LAC countries. Today, we need to draw a new blueprint for our joint effort under the Belt and Road Initiative, and open a path of cooperation across the Pacific Ocean that will better connect the richly-endowed lands of China and Latin America. . . . Let us join hands and set sail toward a better future for China-LAC relations and for humankind.

The China-Celac Forum

The China-Celac Forum was founded in July 2014, during the annual summit of the BRICS nations (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa), held that year in Fortaleza, Brazil. During that summit, President Xi Jinping met separately with all the leaders of Celac, including eleven heads of state. At the First Ministerial Meeting in Beijing the following January, the China-Celac Forum presented a 2015-2019 Action Plan based on the framework of a 1+3+6 formula: one plan (the 2015-2019 Action Plan), three motors (trade, investment and finances), and six fields, (energy, infrastructure building, agriculture, manufacturing, technological innovation and information technology).

There was great optimism coming out of that first Beijing meeting, reflected also in the simultaneous forward motion of the BRICS nations. But by the end of 2015 and going into 2016, this optimism was tempered by a series of de facto coups detat in the region, which installed governments friendly to Wall Street and hostile to the BRICS and the BRI. Neoliberal Mauricio Macri won Argentinas presidency in December 2015; in May 2016, President Dilma Rousseff of BRICS member Brazil was illegally ousted in a bankers coup and replaced by the monetarist Michel Temer; and Wall Street banker Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, or PPK, became Perus President in July that year.

All three have wreaked economic and political havoc in their respective countries, while claiming to favor cooperation with China, and seeking Chinese investments in some key areas. Ideologically, however, they are wedded to the old paradigm of British geopolitics. Yet, the breathtaking speed with which the entire region has moved into the China-inspired New Paradigm over the past 7-8 months, threatens to make them all irrelevant. London and Wall Street, meanwhile, are still trying to figure out how this sea change happened right under their noses.

Having traveled to the LAC region three times since he announced the BRI in November 2013, visiting a total of ten countries, Xi Jinping wasnt deterred by events on the ground. At the May 2017 Beijing Belt and Road Forum on International Cooperation, there was no mistaking his message: Latin America is the natural extension of the new 21st Century Maritime Silk Road. Eight months later, the region is brimming with enthsiastic debate about its future as part of the Belt and Road Initiative.

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Xinhua

Chiles outgoing President, Michelle Bachelet, a staunch ally of China and firm supporter of the BRI, summed the situation up nicely in a Nov. 23, 2017 speech in Santiago celebrating the tenth anniversary of the Confucius Institute at the Santo Tomas University. Today, she said, the world is orienting more than ever toward China and the Pacific Basin, and therefore, we know very well that our relationship with China and the Asia-Pacific . . . is crucial for us to fulfill our destiny. Chinas relationship with Chile goes well beyond trade ties, she added. It is one of our primary political partners on the path to openess, integration and cooperation for progress.

Whither the United States?

In the course of the one-day summit Jan. 22, Wang Yi, as well as other speakers, described the current global strategic situation as fraught with many uncertainties . . . and complexities. In that context, however, Wang Yi emphasized that China is a totally reliable partner whose foreign policy is based on win-win collaboration, mutual respect, a commitment to multilateralism, and non-intervention in other nations internal affairs, seeking only to share its development dividends with all other countries and achieve common prosperity. This, he said, reflects the new kind of international relations outlined by the recent 19th Congress of Chinas Communist Party.

He pointedly stated that China has the resolve and confidence to explore a way of building a great country, that is different from the one followed by the traditional powers, and will always stand side by side with the LAC countries and all other developing countries. Geopolitical contest or zero-sum game is neither our purpose nor our practice, he underscored. We invite all countries, big and small, to discuss the BRI as equals.

None of the speeches at either of the Santiago meetings ever mentioned the United States explicitly. But implicit in the debate and intense diplomacy that took place over two days, was the obvious question of where the United States stands in this rapidly changing situation. Will the Trump Administration join China in the BRIs magnificent regionaland globaldevelopment perspective? Or will it exclude itself as desired by the British-linked elements which are attempting to overthrow the U.S. Presidency? These latter elements want to claim that Chinas growing presence south of the border constitutes aggression against U.S. interests in its traditional backyard.

The rapid turn of events in the region has already set off alarm bells among the proponents of British geopolitics in Washington. Last December the National Endowment for Democracy (NED)a key instrument of regime-change and color revolutions carried out internationally over the last several years in the name of democracyissued a panicked report entitled Sharp Power, Authoritarian Influence, decrying Chinas growing presence in the LAC region. Its chief complaint is that with its economic achievements, impressive growth, and growing global influence, China can now offer the prospect of economic opportunities to the LAC region that other international partners cannot match.

The NED specifically targets the China-Celac Forum as the purveyor of Chinas allegedly nefarious influence, charging that through its ministerial and related meetings, Beijing can leverage more agenda-setting power with regard to the region than it has been able to achieve by more traditional means. Worriedly, it warns of the great danger that an increasing number of the regions political elites, students, scientists, cultural representitives and other renowned influential people, are coming under Beijings hypnotic spell, after traveling to China on all-expenses-paid trips, and then returning home as de facto ambassadors of the Chinese cause!

Build the World Land-Bridge

In contrast to this claptrap, in a Jan. 17 discussion, Schiller Institutes founder Helga Zepp-LaRouche outlined a sane path for the United States to follow, noting that it is only by bringing real economic development to Central America and the Caribbean, in particularregions suffering from often horrific economic conditions and corresponding human sufferingthat the United States can begin to effectively address such acute domestic problems as the drug epidemic or immigration. U.S. collaboration with China in the region would allow for the building of large infrastructure projectsports, railways, new industries, and transportation corridorsby which the region could progress quickly, reaching higher levels of productivity and putting its people to work.

The United States itself is in urgent need of large investments in infrastructure and high-technology projects, and China has offered to partner with it in building them. If built on the necessary scale with the most advanced technologies, including high-speed rail lines, transportation corridors and new cities, construction of these projects would ensure the extension of the World Land-Bridge through all of North America, and across the Bering Strait into Eurasia. It would also be of great benefit to the United States to have a thriving, economically developing Caribbean and Central American region on its southern border.

China intends to move forward in the region, but would much prefer to have the United States as a partner. Join us, was the message delivered by Wu Changsheng, director of the Latin American Studies Center at the China Foundation for International Studies, in remarks to Global Times published Jan. 18. Chinas cooperation with Latin American and Caribbean countries is not exclusive, he said. Its inclusive. We welcome the participation from a third party. So the United States doesnt need to worry.

The Panama Case

This was the point Panamas President Juan Carlos Varela also made last June, shortly after Panama announced it had broken diplomatic ties with Taiwan and established them instead with the Peoples Republic of China (PRC). Panama considers the United States a strategic partner, Varela said, and sees no contradiction in maintaining diplomatic ties with both powers. Washington should not view this as a threat to its interests, he correctly emphasized.

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Xinhua/Dan Hang

Panamas transformation since last June has been stunning, in order, as the Panamanians explain it, to make up for lost time. Varela made a state visit and week-long tour of China last November, and Xi Jinping has accepted his invitation to visit Panama on a soon-to-be-announced date. There is a constant flow of diplomatic and technical delegations going back and forth between the two nations, and intense discussion of expanding economic, trade, and cultural ties. High on the agenda of priority development projects is the strategically important high-speed rail line extending from Panama City north to the border with Costa Rica. The pre-feasibility study for this, to be conducted by Chinese firms, will get underway very soon.

The project involves building two sets of double-tracked rail linesone for passengers which will go as far as the city of David, and the other for freight, which will extend another 50 km to Paso Canoas in Chiriqui Province on the Costa Rican border.

China clearly intends the train to extend through Costa Rica and the rest of Central America to Mexico, for the purpose of vastly increasing regional cargo shipping to and from China, whose ships through the Panama Canal reportedly now return only 40% full. This sharp increase in regional trade will require expanding both the Panama City and Colon ports, at either end of the Canal, along with airports and other major infrastructure. China Airlines is already negotiating direct flights to Panama from Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and Shanghai, to begin in March of this year.

The implications of these plans have sparked enthusiastic debate in neighboring Costa Rica, the only other Central American nation to have diplomatic relations with the Peoples Republic of China. In a Dec. 19, 2017 article published in the Costa Rican daily La Nacion, entitled Panama Challenges Costa Rica, former Planning Minister Carlos Manuel Echeverria pointed out that Panama, with its Canal and location, is already part of this [New Silk Road], and the challenge it has posed to Central America, without saying so, but which is self-evident, is that of continuing that railroad up to Mexico. Otherwise the one that is planned [inside Panama] will only be marginally useful.

Echeverria recalled that plans for such a rail line existed as far back as the 1980s, and even earlier, to promote regional integration. Today, he asked, Why should we remain outside the Silk Road? It would be a crass mistake not to think strategically and be left out of this exciting development. He observed that over just a few years, Panama has made huge advances, with an expanded Canal, a new large airport and subway system, and major infrastructure construction. So now, Echeverria concluded, its time for Costa Rica to be bold, to radically change its way of thinking, organize itself and act, starting with thinking big.

A Diplomatic Anachronism

That boldness has so far not extended to the four Central American nations which the train would have to traverse (Nicaragua, El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala), but whose governments still maintain diplomatic ties with Taiwan. The train would not go through Belize, the fifth Central American nation which continues to maintain ties with Taiwan. In the Caribbean, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Saint Lucia, Saint Kitts and Nevis, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines maintain ties with Taiwan as well.

But given the rapid changes of the past several months, particularly in Panama, this diplomatic anachronism may not last much longer.

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Graphics from Chinas Southwest Municipal Engineering Design and Research Institute (SMEDRIC) video illustrating its Port-au-Prince project. View full size



Despite the lack of formal diplomatic ties, China has maintained consistent economic, trade, and cultural relations with all these countries, the most striking example of which is the proposed $4.7 billion project to rebuild the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince. At the China-Celac Forum, the foreign ministers of these holdout nations nonetheless engaged in lively discussion with Wang Yi and his delegation. El Salvadors Foreign Minister Hugo Martinez, who is Celacs President Pro Tem, was visibly enthusiastic at the prospect of participating in the BRI. Wang undoubtedly made clear, as Wu Weihua, the Charge dAffaires at Chinas Panama embassy, did last August, that China intends to replicate the Panama example in other countries in the region, including offering juicy investments of the kind Panama is now enjoying.

The Challenges Ahead

The 2019-2021 Action Plan agreed to by the China-Celac Forum is extremely ambitious and poses several challenges to the region, the most pressing of which is to accelerate movement away from its traditional role as a raw-materials exporter, toward industrialization and infrastructure development. This is a top priority for the regions governments.

Of the five major points of the new Action Plan which Wang Yi presented on Jan. 22, one calls for developing competitive and sovereign home-grown industries, based on the most advanced technologies. China has the equipment, technology, funding and training opportunities you need, Wang told his audience. Our two sides may speed up industrial cooperation, work to build logistics . . . broaden financing channels . . . explore the establishment of a consortium of development-financial institutions, and build more industrial parks and special economic zones.

Wang also stressed the Action Plans determination to seize the opportunity of innovation-driven growth, enhancing coordination between the Belt and Roads Science, Technology, and Innovation Cooperation Action Plan, and the development strategies of LAC countries. This will involve building a China-LAC Silk Road and a digital Silk Road. This point calls for advancing cooperation in emerging areas, such as aerospace and aviation . . . China is ready to help train more researchers from LAC countries through the China-LAC Science and Technology Partnership and the China-LAC Young Scientists Exchange Program.

Of great importance is the Plans proposal to build a transportation network connecting lands and oceans, emphasizing Chinas support for building the bioceanic railways and tunnels, and open more sea routes and direct air links.

Another key component of the Action Plan is the commitment to intensify cultural and people-to-people exchanges. China, Wang said, is ready to share more governance experience with LAC countries, enhance  exchanges between our political parties and other national organizations involving media, youth, and scientific groups, as well as establishing more cultural centers and more Confucius Institutes in LAC countries to deepen mutual understanding and friendship.

No one doubts that implementing the Action Plan will require hard work and very close collaboration. But as Wang Yi stated at the end of his presentation, As a Chinese poem reads, True friends value their promises to each other and will travel a thousand miles to be together. Let us make this meeting a new starting point in our relations, seize the opportunity offered by the Belt and Road Initiative, and join hands across the ocean to open a splendid new era of China-LAC relations.This article appears in the February 2, 2018 issue of Executive Intelligence Review.

The Memo Voted Out of Committee,

McCabe Fired

First Steps To End the Coup?

by Barbara Boyd

[Print version of this article]

Jan. 30Monday night, Jan. 29, the House Select Committee on Intelligence voted to declassify a four-page memo authored by its staff, and called the Nunes memo by the news media, named after Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.). The memo will now go to President Trump, who has five days, under the Congressional declassification procedure used, to object to the memos contents on national security grounds. Based on leaks to the press so far, the four-page memo includes the fact that a very dirty British intelligence product authored by MI6s Christopher Steele was used to initiate FISA surveillance of the Trump presidential campaign.

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Photo of John Brennan: White House/Pete Souza

As was previously stated, some months back, by EIR in our dossier, Robert Mueller Is an Amoral Assassin, He Will Do His Job If You Let Him, FBI and Justice Department officials dressed up the dirty British memo, and presented it to the FISA court without informing the court that the surveillance application (or applications) was based on a foreign intelligence source working directly for, and being paid by the Democratic National Committee and the Clinton Campaign. The FISA court also was not told that the claims of the Steele Memorandum, in the words of former FBI Director James Comey, were considered by the FBI to be salacious and unverified. What else is in the four-page document has not been leaked to the press, but from the hysterical reactions, it is juicy.

Steele and the British conspired against Donald Trump with Obamas CIA chief John Brennan and other Obama intelligence personnel and officials, in addition to the FBI. As EIR has continuously stressed, the reasons for the coup are located in the terror of the Anglo-American elites as the very decadent foundations of their post World War II order crumble. They know they are faced with an inevitable financial collapse. They believe that turning Russia and China into their satrapies represents potential salvation. Russia and China are not cooperating, but instead are dedicating themselves to launching a new worldwide human Renaissance. Donald Trump, throughout his Presidential campaign, lambasted the Anglo-American neo-liberal globalists and their drive for World War, earning their eternal hatred.

The British intelligence Christopher Steele operation is the source of the fake and demonstrably absurd claim that Donald Trump was a Manchurian candidate blackmailed by Vladimir Putin, and that Putin, like some James Bond villain, used super-potent social media bots and computer hacks to brainwash the American population into voting for Donald Trump. This McCarthyite claim has been openly embraced by the Democratic Party, along with calls for state-sponsored media censorship, a new Cold War with Russia and China, violence against deplorables who voted for Trump, political assassination, independence from executive branch control or Congressional oversight for the FBI and intelligence agencies generally, and similar openly fascist tenets.

Xinhua/Yin Bogu

Also on Monday, Andrew McCabe, the Deputy Director of the FBI, was effectively fired by FBI Director Christopher Wray. McCabes firing came after Wray viewed the Nunes memo in which McCabes role in illegal activities against President Trump is apparently referenced, and after Wray was briefed on the preliminary findings of FBI Inspector General Michael Horowitz concerning his investigation of FBI handling of the Clinton email probe.

Wray had insisted, prior to viewing the Nunes memo and prior to a briefing on the Inspector Generals preliminary findings, that he would not fire McCabe, but, instead, allow him to retire in March. It was the Horowitz investigation which unearthed the now infamous texts between former Clinton and Trump FBI case-agent Peter Strzok and his FBI mistress, Lisa Page. Those texts referred to an FBI insurance policy against Trump assuming the Presidency, an insurance policy discussed in a meeting in McCabes office.

The balance of these texts, during the critical time period following the election and up to the appointment of special prosecutor Mueller, were declared missing last week in a letter by the FBI to Congress, because of a technical glitch. After the ensuing uproar, Inspector General Horowitz stepped forward and offered the information that he was recovering the texts using forensic methods.

Andrew McCabe did not recuse himself from the Clinton investigation despite the fact that his wife received a huge campaign contribution from Clinton money man and general sleazeball, former Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe. McCabe attended meetings at which his wife was recruited as a candidate by McAuliffe. These meetings occurred at a time when both McAuliffe and Clinton were under FBI investigation, and McCabe was the number two man in the FBI.

The money McAuliffe provided was to run a Virginia State Senate campaign against incumbent Senator Richard Black, and followed FBI harassment of Black for his very public condemnation of U.S. actions in Syria. McCabe was also photographed at his wifes campaign events, and Hillary Clinton herself came to Virginia to campaign for Jill McCabe, a State Senate candidate. This story has also been exclusively reported by EIR. But this clear conflict of interest and the Presidents appropriate anger about it, has been portrayed by the fake news media as inappropriate partisanship by Donald Trump, disrespect for the First Amendment rights of FBI agents and their spouses, and similar hysterical whole-cloth fabrications.

Late last week, as Congressional Republicans lined up to view the four-page Nunes memo and declared themselves shocked at the Constitutional abuses against President Trump that it revealed, Republican Senators Chuck Grassley and Lindsey Graham sent a letter to Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez, other former DNC officials, and John Podesta, Hillary Clintons campaign chair, seeking information about who in the DNC and Clinton Campaign knew about the Christopher Steele authored British intelligence dirty dossier and how it was utilized.

Xinhua/Yin Bogu

The letter seeks information about the shopping of the Steele dossier through both the Obama Administration and its intelligence agencies, and the national news media. Grassley and Graham, based on information available to them, classified or otherwise, had previously referred Christopher Steele to the United States Department of Justice for prosecution.

Of particular interest in the Grassley letter is a request for all communications of DNC and Clinton officials with former State Department official Jon Winer and former State Department operative Victoria Nuland. Nuland was the case officer for the 2014 United States-organized coup in Ukraine, which used neo-Nazis as its military front. Winer, a former counsel to John Kerry, is a U.S. friend of Christopher Steele and has vouched for him in U.S. government circles. Winer, otherwise, was deeply involved with British agent Bill Browder in securing the Magnitsky Act sanctions against Russia.

Does this mean that Grassley et al. have finally focused on the role of the British and U.S. State Department/Project Democracy elements central to the coup against Trump as well as the coup in Ukraine? If so, this is an investigative breakthrough.

The coup in Ukraine and the Magnitsky Act sanctions were deliberate geopolitical provocations by the Anglo-Americans against Russia, part of a general plan to isolate and debilitate Russia and China under conditions in which another Western economic collapse is a key strategic element. Christopher Steele had a previous relationship with the State Department concerning the Ukraine coup, issuing dozens of reports to Victoria Nuland and John Kerry. It is claimed that Steeles sources in the dirty Trump dossier were the same ones he sold to the State Department for the Ukraine coup.

The role of Ukrainian intelligence in the Clinton campaign and in the Russia hacked the DNC fabrication is of increasing interest to serious investigators. Ukrainian intelligence and associated State Department entities have played and are playing a leading role in imposing outright media censorship in the United States, based on false assertions that all dissenting voices here are controlled by the Russians.

Additionally, the Grassley-Graham letter asks for any contacts between DNC officials and Cody Shearer. According to the Jan. 30 Guardian, Christopher Steele handed a copy of a memo written by Shearer to the FBI in October 2016, as corroborative of the outrageous claims made by Steele. Cody Shearer, according to press accounts, is a long-time dirty tricks operative on behalf of the Clintons.

Xinhua/Ting Shen

In the wake of these events, the damage-control spinners in both the Republican and Democratic parties and in Robert Muellers office, are on a desperate drive to salvage Robert Muellers investigation and to salvage Russiagate. They are playing against time as the coup itself begins to unravel.

Ever since release of the Nunes memo was mooted, the media have been on a full news-cycle binge of delusional denunciations about how reckless the House Intelligence Committee was and how the White House was coordinating a desperate drive to undercut Mueller and to obstruct justice. The President aptly described the situation in twitter fashion, You fight back, its obstruction.

It is reported that Mueller is fixated on claiming that Trump obstructed justice when he fired James Comey and when he allegedly said, in Comeys account, that he hoped the FBI would let the matter of Michael Flynn go. The corruption at the top of the FBI and the existence of an apparent Get Trump task force within Obamas intelligence community, makes Muellers putative obstruction case, already constitutionally and legally outlandish, something akin to the fantasies of a dictator in a banana republic.

In Greek mythology, Hercules was given the task of cleaning the Augean stables of enormous amounts of cow dung which had accumulated from 3,000 cattle over thirty years. He had to do this in a single day. Hercules did so by diverting two rivers to accomplish the task. We have as little time to deal with what has accumulated at the FBI, the Department of Justice, and our other intelligence agencies under the auspices of the Bushes and the Obamas.

It was thirty years ago, that the prosecution of Lyndon LaRouche was being played out in a federal courtroom in Boston, with Robert Mueller, as U.S. Attorney, overseeing the show. It would be only fitting now, as a result of these events, if a river of public furor swept this country, ending the coup which is dividing and ruining us. The arc of the universe, after all, bends towards justice.Hello! I am trying not to be distracted at my desk by these amazing ruins discovered in Guatemala or this crazy story in The Atavist about American retirees in Mexico, which I will have finally have a chance to read after I finish writing this. So: welcome to this weeks books newsletter from the LA Times. Im Books editor Carolyn Kellogg.

THE BIG STORY

What is the future of books? Agatha French wants to know, and she went to an atypical source  an in-house psychic at Mystic Journey Bookstore. The successful spiritual book and gift shop, in Venice, launched during the 2008 recession  under surprisingly auspicious circumstances. Read more here.

Mystic Journey Bookstore (Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times )

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BORDER CROSSINGS

After Francisco Cantu left his job in the U.S. Border Patrol in 2012, he went to graduate school. His memoir The Line Becomes a River is an impressionistic, literary recollection of the experience, where he observed, writes reviewer Mark Athitakis, how quickly the border strips migrants of their identity and how that loss of identity has toxic consequences. Read the review.

Other U.S. Border Patrol agents at the Rio Grande in 2014. (John Moore / Getty Images )

MORE BOOK STORIES

For her new memoir Ive Got This Round, cocktail-happy YouTube star Mamrie Hart recruited her best friends to join her on crazy adventures. She tells Vera Castaneda all about it.

After having a delightful tea with William Gibson, Nick Harkaway plunged headfirst into writing his massive, complex new novel, Gnomon. Jennifer Vineyard talks to the cult favorite about the book.

The Oxford English Dictionary has added the word hangry and snowflake; Michael Schaub mansplains.

On Tuesday, Rose McGowans book Brave was published. Amy Kaufman had an early look and writes, Brave is in part an exploration and explanation of the rage constantly leaking out of McGowans pores. But her aim is not to engender sympathy  rather its to encourage those feeling disempowered to channel some of her plentiful anger.

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Rose McGowan raises her fist as she speaks during The Womens Convention at Cobo Center in downtown Detroit, Friday, Oct. 27, 2017. (Junfu Han/Detroit Free Press/TNS via Getty Images) (Detroit Free Press / TNS via Getty Images )

BESTSELLERS

The No. 1 L.A. Times bestseller in fiction is the novel The Woman in the Window by A.J. Finn. Its the thrillers third week on the list and its first in the top spot.

For the third week in a row, No. 1 L.A. Times bestseller in nonfiction is Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House by Michael Wolff. The controversial tale is the most talked-about book of 2018.

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See all the books on our bestseller lists here.

President Donald Trump in the Oval Office on Jan. 23, 2018 (Jabin Botsford / The Washington Post )

A PAIR OF GOODBYES

The L.A. Times book blog Jacket Copy predates my time here, but I came on board, initially, to fill it full of book news and commentary. My first post on it was 10 years ago this month, and now were closing its doors. Thats because, thanks to our site redesign, news and commentary can simply live in Books. Read about the change here.

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Caravan Books in downtown Los Angeles will be closing after 64 years. Tom Curwen checks in with owner Leonard Bernstein who says, Its time.

At Caravan books (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times )

carolyn.kellogg@latimes.com

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@paperhausPop, the basic cable network that is a joint venture between Lionsgate and CBS, is being sued over allegations of gender and age discrimination, as well as for failing to prevent a culture of bullying toward women and employees over age 40.

The lawsuit, which was filed Thursday in Los Angeles County Superior Court, comes from a current network vice president who alleges that she endured inappropriate workplace comments. She also contends she was unfairly passed over for a promotion and a raise. The suit alleges that other female employees also faced repeated crude and demeaning comments from their superiors.

Leslie Isaacs, a vice president of West Coast sales at Pop, states that her immediate supervisor, Michael Dupont, made a disparaging remark about employees over a certain age: Good luck getting rid of the oldies, you cant touch them after 40, trust me.

She also said Dupont made derogatory comments about female employees, such as how fat some women were and that some were just a pretty face to take clients out.

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Isaacs alleges that Pops national sales director Beecher Scarlett made a crude comment to her at an office holiday party, using a vulgarism for female genitalia.

It was one of a number of unpleasant interactions the plaintiff said she endured with Scarlett. Another involved a dispute over a client billing that she said resulted in retaliation against her after she took the matter to Lionsgate human resources.

The suit alleges other female employees also had to endure a culture of sexism, with incidents including a male vice president at CBS telling female sales employees at Pop to show your clients your [breasts] if they want to make more sales.

A Pop spokesperson said in a statement: We take allegations of sexual harassment and discrimination very seriously, investigate them thoroughly and independently and take appropriate action. We have long had policies and procedures in place to prevent it and protect our employees, and we are committed to a diverse, tolerant and respectful working environment.

The spokesperson said Dupont and Scarlett were not available for comment.

Isaacs said in the complaint that her attempts to secure a promotion and a raise at Pop were unsuccessful and that Scarlett  who the suit alleges is younger and has less experience  was promoted and named her supervisor. She also said that she was demoted to the title of regional vice president as opposed to vice president of sales.

The suit alleges that Pop hired an outside law firm to conduct a workplace investigation, including looking into claims of a hostile work environment, sexual harassment and discrimination.

It remains unclear if the investigation was complete and if so, what the findings were.

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The complaint states that Pop, CBS and Lionsgate declined to participate in mediation, which compelled the plaintiff to file a lawsuit and make her dispute public.

Isaacs is seeking unspecified damages, including compensatory and punitive damages.

Pop, which is based in L.A., is known for its frothy programming lineup that includes original comedy series such as Schitts Creek and Hollywood Darlings. The network also airs the pro-wrestling series Impact! as well as reruns of old TV series.

david.ng@latimes.com

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@DavidNgLATThe Federal Reserve ordered Wells Fargo & Co. on Friday to cap its growth and improve its corporate governance, punishment for what the regulator called widespread consumer abuses and other compliance breakdowns at the San Francisco financial giant.

The bank, apparently in response to the action, said it would replace four board members. Fed Chairwoman Janet Yellen said Wells Fargo will not be allowed to grow any larger until it can do so without endangering customers.

We cannot tolerate pervasive and persistent misconduct at any bank and the consumers harmed by Wells Fargo expect that robust and comprehensive reforms will be put in place to make certain that the abuses do not occur again, said Yellen, whose term as chairwoman ends Saturday.

The Fed ordered the bank to submit a plan for improving board oversight and risk management. Until the Fed judges that the banks practices have improved, the bank cannot increase its total assets beyond $1.95 trillion, where they stood at the end of 2017.

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In a statement, Wells Fargo Chief Executive Timothy Sloan said the bank is focused on addressing all of the Federal Reserves concerns. On a Friday afternoon conference call with investors, he said Fed leaders believe there is more work that needs to be done, and we agree.

The Feds move is the latest and most serious regulatory action taken against the bank over the last year and a half.

In September 2016, the bank agreed to pay $185 million to regulators for opening accounts for customers without their authorization, a practice first reported by the Los Angeles Times in 2013.

Since then, the bank has also admitted to other improper practices, including charging auto-loan customers for car insurance they did not need and charging improper fees to some mortgage borrowers. Democratic lawmakers, meanwhile, had pressed the Fed to take action against the bank. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) last summer urged Yellen to remove all of the banks board members.

In letters sent to Wells Fargo board members, Michael Gibson, the Feds director of supervision and regulation, said those problems show the banks board failed to properly oversee the bank.

The firms lack of effective oversight and control of compliance and operational risks contributed in material ways to the substantial harm suffered by [Wells Fargo] customers, Gibson wrote.

The Fed also sent letters to former Wells Fargo Chairman and CEO John Stumpf and longtime board member and former Chairman Stephen Sanger, saying their performance was an example of ineffective oversight that is not consistent with the Federal Reserves expectations.

Stumpf, according to the letter, did not take serious measures to address problems with the banks sales practices and continued to support the sales goals that were a major cause of the problem, and the senior executives who were most responsible for the failures.

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Sanger, meanwhile, in his position as lead independent director, failed to press Stumpf and other executives for information even after you were aware of the seriousness of the problems, according to the letter.

Sanger, a former CEO of General Mills, had been Wells Fargos lead independent director for years before taking over as chairman when Stumpf resigned shortly after the sham accounts scandal first came to light.

He and two other longtime board members, Cynthia H. Milligan and Susan G. Swenson, retired effective Jan. 1.

Wells Fargo said Friday that three additional board members  who were not identified  will retire in the coming months and a fourth will step down by the end of the year.

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On Fridays conference call, Sloan noted that the Feds action relates to bad practices already exposed, not to any newly discovered issues.

He also said the cap on assets will not affect the banks day-to-day operations but will require some rejiggering of the banks balance sheet. Those changes, Sloan said, could result in 2018 profits falling by as much as $400 million. That amounts to less than 2% of the banks 2017 net income of $22.2 billion.

Wells Fargo shares were down $3.98, or 6.2%, in after-hours trading to $60.09.

james.koren@latimes.com

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Follow me: @jrkoren

UPDATES:

5:25 p.m.: This article was updated with more details on the Feds action, comments from a conference call held by Wells Fargo CEO Timothy Sloan and additional background.

This article was originally published at 4:25 p.m.About those Grammys ...

Regarding coverage of the Grammy Awards: Hip-hop artists deserve their due and their glory. But when The Times writers insist that hip-hop is now culturally dominant, it raises issues. First, when anyone insists that any art form is culturally dominant to the point of being the Future, it instantly isnt. Second, it seems to imply that other forms of music are no longer relevant, that if we care about justice and truth, well mainly listen to hip-hop (or rock or punk or country). This isnt helpful, because we have a nation of mono-cultures, i.e. people who listen, read or watch only one thing  whether its Fox News or golden oldies or hip-hop. Genius in all other forms goes unnoticed or forgotten. Hip-hop is strong and deserves its day in the sun, but let the art form stand or fall on its own.

Kit Leonard Dennis

Los Angeles

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::

Regarding Musics Reckoning Slow to Take Shape [Jan. 29]: You are so right. There was so much lacking and no exposing of sexual harassment.

Monica Richardson

Los Angeles

::

Regarding No Fire This Time [Jan. 29]: Not everything today has to be politically motivated. I know it is hard to put aside what is going on in our country and the world, but sometimes we just need to escape.

What better way than by listening to music, especially music that can make you feel good and maybe even make you get up and dance. That is why Bruno Mars took six prizes at the Grammys.

Remember, during the Depression, Busby Berkeley made all those movie musicals to tell us to Forget your troubles and just get happy.

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Sherry Davis

Playa Vista

::

Times critic Mikael Woods snipe at the Grammys lengthy Broadway sequence and his comment that the Elton John-Miley Cyrus duet on Tiny Dancer ... had nothing to do with music in 2018 were telling. I guess its because those songs contained melody  you know, that thing where the notes go up and down in gorgeous patterns.

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The loss of music instruction and exposure to melody for a generation of schoolchildren has helped create the divided, uncaring world we live in in 2018. Please dont criticize the great songs and contribute to this loss.

Kirk Jordan

Long Beach

::

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Yes, the nominations may be more in tune to the times, but what I miss is the diversity of music on the televised awards show. Growing up, I looked forward to seeing the show because it sometimes was my only chance to see genres of music such as classical, jazz and bluegrass. The show had live performances of so many genres that it made me grow in my appreciation for all music.

Todays televised ceremony is just for show and doesnt celebrate a lot of the music genres.

Steve Shaevel

Woodland Hills

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::

I am wondering if, in the midst of the current high interest in womens issues, especially involving sexual harassment, anyone has cared to protest against rappers for their denigration of women

Chris Stewart

Newport Beach

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::

Watching the Grammys was like a step back in time. Here was a male host and women dancing in performances with barely covering that clothing. Im a music lover, but I cant stand to watch women in this role. Lets get past this women as sex objects phase.

Ria Levine

Oak Park

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::

Was anyone else offended by the backup dancers in the performance of Despacito? While the men were fully clothed, the women were barely dressed. Both participated in dance moves simulating sex. This perpetuates the stereotype of the Latino culture being built on machismo, with women existing only for their bodies/sex.

How can women ever be treated equally when they allow their bodies to be used like this

Jill Lewis

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Westminster, Colo.

::

What makes Hollywood A-listers think the rest of us give a damn what they think? They dont live in the real world. They may be surprised to learn that we can form our own opinions. Those of us in the fly-over states are doing just fine without their guidance.

Pete Petersen

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Sparks, Nev.

::

Regarding Countdown to the Grammys [Jan. 26]: I would like to know why Led Zeppelin wasnt mentioned. It was one of the most influential rock bands ever.

Mike McNeil

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Methuen, Mass.

Not impressed by SAG Awards

Regarding coverage of the Screen Actors Guild Awards [Jan. 22]: The shock of seeing Frances McDormand on the front page made me wonder, Has she gotten a degree in molecular biology on the sly and discovered the cure for cancer?

I read on to discover the article was about another awards show I had never heard of for entertainers.

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In a world with daily medical breakthroughs, mass poverty and millions of war refugees, I was saddened to see a once great newspaper waste space on a tiny group of the hyper-privileged.

Miguel Apodaca

San Diego

::

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If I counted right, the SAG Awards was the white womens awards. If one counted up the number of white female actresses pictured in The Times, as opposed to black or brown women, it was 85% to 15%.

Mark Walker

Chino Hills

Imitation of Life refresher

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Regarding Hes Having a Monster of a Breakout, [Jan. 22]: In his interview with Trevell Anderson, rising young film star Kelvin Harrison Jr. cites Imitation of Life (1959) as having a profound effect on him.

Yet nowhere in the profile do we learn about the film. For readers unfamiliar with it, the 1959 version underscores the tragic price an individual pays for denying or disconnecting from his or her racial identity  in this case an aspiring, mixed-race performer trying to pass as white.

Given Harrisons mission to channel his activism as a black actor by telling stories that matter to me, these details about the film that set him on his path seem worth mentioning.

John M. Wilson

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West Hollywood

calendar.letters@latimes.comTheres talk of dad beards in here. Dad beards and dog breeds.

Inside the writers room of the CWs Crazy Ex-Girlfriend  a compact room on the shows nondescript lot in North Hollywood  the hive mind behind the quirky and inventive musical dramedy are brainstorming details for an episode in the current third season that aired Friday.

Theyre attempting to pull off a new trick. Not easy for this always creative show.

Co-creator, showrunner and head writer Aline Brosh-McKenna is leading the charge as the group  consisting of Jack Dolgen, Erin Ehrlich, Rene Gube, Michael Hitchcock, Elizabeth Kiernan Averick, Sono Patel, Ilana Pena, Rachel Specter and Audrey Wauchope  take the show through a time jump.

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Donna Lynne Champlin as Paula and Rachel Bloom as Rebecca in a scene from Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. (The CW )

The plot device, in which a story is accelerated forward a significant chunk of time, can breathe new life into a shows storytelling. In its final season, Glee skipped ahead six months. Greys Anatomy, near the end of its 12th season, jumped nine months into the future. Jane the Virgin leaped three years in its third season.

For Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, which follows the misadventures in life and love of Rebecca Bunch (played by co-creator Rachel Bloom) and her kooky cohorts in West Covina, time has sprung forward eight months as of Fridays episode, titled Nathaniel and I are Just Friends!

The move, according to Brosh-McKenna, was driven by the recent development that saw the shows resident grouser Heather (Vella Lovell) agreeing to carry Darryls (Pete Gardner) baby after the original surrogate fell through.

We wanted to advance that, Brosh-McKenna said during the story session last fall. But we didnt want to do that solely for those mechanical reasons. This season, in some ways, people are are stuck in certain dynamics. And so we wanted to kind of jump ahead and see where they land.

On that fall day, the writers  or the engine room of the show, as Brosh-McKenna refers to them were plotting out what fate has in store. Its not an entirely straightforward task when working with an eight-month gap  because as much as things can change, a lot can just as easily stay the same.

So they debate whether Darryl, fully embracing his impending fatherhood, should grow a dad beard  and how impeccably groomed it should be. (In the end, Darryl is beard-free).

Aline Brosh-McKenna,center, co-creator and showrunner of the CWs Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, said pushing the shows timeline forward was meant to push characters out of certain dynamics ... see where they land. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times )

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This season, in some ways, people are are stuck in certain dynamics. And so we wanted to kind of jump ahead and see where they land. Aline Brosh-McKenna, co-creator and showrunner of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend

They know for sure that they want White Josh (David Hull), who is still reeling from his breakup with Darryl, to leave West Covina for a bit  they ultimately decide he will venture to Mexico as part of Habitat for Humanity  and they want him to fill his love void by getting a dog. But what kind?

An Internet search of dog breeds begins, projected onto the wall, just as Bloom charges into the room from rehearsal. She came to suggest a casting option for an upcoming episode but cant resist talking dogs.

I dont want a purebred dog, Bloom says. It should be a rescue. He should have a pit mix! Pits get a really bad rap, but theyre really sweet.

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Can the dog be called Dog Josh? Brosh-McKenna wonders.

Like, we should get a dog that looks like Josh? Wauchope asks.

It should be a pit, like with a square jaw, says Dolgen. A wave of swoons commences as the room starts to browse photos of various dog breeds. In the end, they decide on a French Bulldog. And, in the episode, Josh Chan suggests the canine should be called Dog Josh to the chagrin of White Josh.

So how do things ultimately shake out beyond the small details? Viewers find out roughly 15 minutes into the episode after Heather, feeling good about her work life and personal life and even being pregnant, heads to the backroom at the shows resident hangout and comes back out further along in her pregnancy and hating it.

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Valencia (Gabrielle Ruiz) has settled into her new business as an event planner and has a new beau  a female beau, to be exact. Paula (Donna Lynne Champlin) is grappling with learning that her office mates consider her a mean girl. And as for Rebecca, well, thats where things havent changed.

Shes still having an affair with Nathaniel (Scott Michael Foster), despite knowing he has a girlfriend. But thats part of why it works for her. After being diagnosed with borderline personality disorder and knowing how obsessive she tends to be about romance, Rebecca finds the restrictions as an emotional safety net.

We always knew that Rebecca found a certain level of comfort in approaching the relationship as an affair, because its almost like there is an emotional condom on the relationship, Brosh-McKenna says. When he doesnt text her back, she doesnt freak out because theres clear parameters on that relationship.

Brosh-McKenna and Bloom were intentional in having almost every character transformed in some way in their lives over the course of the time jump, while Rebecca and Nathaniel are stuck in the same place.

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For us, it was a little bit of a comment on those relationships, especially those kinds of TV relationships, that people sort of get stuck in forever. And what do you do when you step back and realize that?

Theres two episodes left this season to see what else the future has in store.

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend

Where: KTLA

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When: 8 p.m. Friday

Rating: TV-14-D (may be unsuitable for children under the age of 14 withan advisory for suggestive dialogue)Marisa Gerber writes narrative stories about life in Los Angeles and across the Southland for the Los Angeles Times. She previously covered L.A. Countys criminal courts for The Times and, before joining the newspaper in 2012, wrote about life on the border for several publications in Arizona. Gerber grew up in Nogales, Ariz., and graduated from the University of Arizona.Immigration activists in Los Angeles planned to rally Saturday, hoping to put more pressure on lawmakers to come up with legislative reforms that would include deportation protection for people whose parents brought them to the U.S. illegally as children.

We cannot stand by and watch Congress disintegrate into playing games and leave the dreams and aspirations of so many young people aside, said Jorge-Mario Cabrera, spokesman for the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights L.A.

Organizers expect 200 to 500 people to attend the march in Westwood to the Federal Building at noon Saturday, he said.

MARCH tomorrow Saturday Feb 3rd at noon! 



Its time we hold Congress accountable not to use our lives as a bargaining chip! #DREAMActNow pic.twitter.com/0nVL9zkbma  CHIRLA (@CHIRLA) February 3, 2018

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President Trump and Congress are scrambling to formulate compromise legislation to address the fallout from his decision last September to end the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program by March. The program currently allows about 800,000 young people who came to the U.S. illegally as children to live and work legally in the country.

Last year, the Trump administration said only DACA recipients whose status expired before March 5 could apply for renewal, and they had to do so by Oct. 5. But in mid-January the government began accepting applications again after a federal judge in San Francisco issued an order temporarily blocking the decision to end DACA.

CHIRLA has helped process about 250 renewal applications in Los Angeles since then, Cabrera said, but organizers believe not all those eligible may be applying for renewal.

Theres still the belief [among recipients] that maybe this is over, so they cant renew, Cabrera said. It might be an issue of money. It may be that folks are losing faith in the system. So one more broken promise by this administration, and a number of young people may not want to renew.

Since October, CHIRLA has organized multiple delegations of DACA recipients and young people in the country illegally without DACA status to pressure lawmakers to pass legislation that would allow the so-called Dreamers to stay in the country, he said.

Democrats broke their promise to block a budget from being passed until there was an immigration solution when they voted to end a short government shutdown, Cabrera said.

It looked like  party politics played a much more important role during the shutdown than a need to come up with a solution, he said.

Also Saturday, the Chinese American Equalization Assn. will rally in front of the Federal Courthouse in downtown L.A. at 11 a.m. to protest the anti-immigrant policies proposed by the White House and the GOP legislators, especially the recent White House proposal to end family reunification in exchange for DACA legalization, according to the organizers Facebook page.

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Irvine resident Shan Wu said she would be attending the rally downtown after hearing about it online. A Chinese national, Wu lives and works in the U.S. as a landscape architect on an H-1B visa. Shes hoping to be approved for a green card, she said.

Im a beneficiary of the current immigration policy, Wu said. My mom is a U.S. citizen, she petitioned for me for green card.

She wants her 3-year-old son to grow up in a cleaner environment than the one in China and have access to a good education, she said.

Times staff reporter Brian Bennett contributed to this story.

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Reach Sonali Kohli at Sonali.Kohli@latimes.com or on Twitter @Sonali_Kohli.Shaun Rickerl begged the parole board not to release her mothers killer.

Even at 84, frail and forgetful, he terrified her. William Bradford, she told them, was a cold man with a deep vengeance. She knew this from up close and for certain.

He is her father.

At a hearing this week, the panel of state commissioners deciding whether to grant Bradford parole asked him how he thought his children felt about their mothers death.

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I dont know, he responded flatly, according to Rickerl.

The panel concluded that Bradford deserved parole, saying they found no evidence hed be a danger to the public  a decision that shocked not only Rickerl but also the L.A. County deputy district attorney who prosecuted him.

John Lewin, a veteran prosecutor, had also made a desperate plea to keep Bradford locked up, telling the parole board there was credible evidence that Bradford had previously threatened to kill Lewin and the prosecutors wife and two children.

This is the one guy that scares me, Lewin said in an interview after the hearing. How dare you play Russian roulette with my family.

But Bradfords attorney, Maya Emig, praised the boards decision, saying her client, who has dementia, heart disease and kidney disease, is too old and too sick to hurt anyone.

He cant put two and two together, she said. He doesnt have the resources to go out and hire a hit man.

The board now has four months to do a legal review. If the case passes that review, it will then go to the governor, who has the power to reject the boards decision. Even with the governors blessing, Emig said, the earliest her client could be released is February 2019.

How dare you play Russian roulette with my family. Deputy Dist. Atty. John Lewin

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Rickerl said she is still worried. The memory of Sept. 16, 1988, feels fresh in her mind.

Her parents, Joan and William Bradford, had been separated for years but had only recently finalized their bitter divorce.

That evening, Rickerl, then 21, and her 16-year-old brother drove from Orange County to their mothers home in Torrance. When they arrived, they saw her car parked in the driveway and let themselves in. But when they called for their mother, nobody answered. Rickerl walked into the living room and noticed her mother, 52, crumpled on the ground. She figured it was a joke, although it wasnt like her mother to be morbid.

As Rickerl moved closer, she noticed a hole in her mothers neck and blood on the floor. She yelled for her brother, who told her to call 911.

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When detectives arrived, they asked her a short question that changed her life: Does your father own a gun?

In that moment, Rickerl said, she was certain her father had killed her mother. Her mind raced back to the times hed said he hated her. She thought about the phrase hed said a few years earlier: Lifes a bitch and then you marry one.

According to court records, Bradford, an engineer, never showed up to work at TRW on the day of the slaying. He didnt call in sick, either. It was so out of character that his boss went to his apartment to check on him. When he saw Bradford, the boss asked why he hadnt called the office. The employee  who seemed depressed  said he didnt feel like it.

Bradfords son tried to contact his father after the killing, but struggled to get ahold of him. When they finally spoke two days later, Bradfords son told him about the slaying. Bradford, according to records, did not express shock, ask who did it, or ask for details.

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That same day, court records show, Bradford agreed to an interview with police. He described his relationship with his wife as unpleasant. Bradford said he had become very depressed recently after learning that, because of a court order, his chunk of money from selling the family house  roughly $40,000  would go to his wife. Asked about his gun, Bradford told police he hadnt seen his revolver or a box of hollow-point .38-caliber bullets in a while, according to court records. He denied shooting his wife.

Bradford was arrested five days later but soon released, as prosecutors declined to file charges, citing insufficient evidence.

The case went cold until 2000, when Torrance police and L.A. County prosecutors reopened the investigation. Bradford was rearrested in 2001 and charged with first-degree murder. Meanwhile, Lewin, the prosecutor, began to prepare for trial  the first cold case of his career.

During his opening statement to jurors, Lewin played clips from Bradfords interview with detectives and showed autopsy photos of Joan Bradfords bullet-ridden body. The hollow-point .38-caliber bullets recovered from the body, he told jurors, were compatible with the revolver Bradford said he had misplaced.

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After two days of deliberation, jurors convicted Bradford, who was sentenced to 26 years to life in prison.

A few months later, Lewin said, he learned an inmate had reported that Bradford was attempting to solicit Lewins murder. The prosecutor said he interviewed the inmate, who told him that hed shared a cell with Bradford for about a month. Bradford, the inmate alleged, not only admitted killing his wife but also spoke about harming Lewin, who he said had destroyed his life.

Lewin said the inmate didnt ask for any favors in exchange for his information and told him hed come forward because he disliked Bradford.

The inmate  whom Lewin declined to identify  agreed to take a polygraph test, and during the questioning said Bradford had spoken about killing Lewins family. Then, the inmate recalled, Bradford said he planned to blow DDA Lewins head off, according to a written account by Lewin. The inmate took three different polygraph tests and passed the first two, Lewin said. The results of the third were inconclusive.

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During the parole hearing this week, Lewin said the commissioner explained that he couldnt find a nexus between what Bradford allegedly told the inmate in 2002 and now  an explanation that shocked Lewin.

Im so disgusted, the prosecutor said.

Rickerl said the boards decision seems to ignore the human factor.

I dont know how anyone could stop and listen to all the facts of this case and say,  we dont think hell commit murder. Theres too big a chance of what if?

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In a statement about how the parole board makes its decisions, Luis Patino of the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said the board considers several factors in determining whether someone should be paroled, including the testimony of victims and their relatives.

The board takes these decisions and their responsibility to the publics safety very seriously, Patino said, adding that appellate courts have repeatedly ruled that inmates who appear before the board should be paroled unless there is evidence of continued dangerousness to the public.

He cant put two and two together. He doesnt have the resources to go out and hire a hit man. Attorney Maya Emig on her client William Bradford

To Emig, Bradfords attorney, the board faced a fairly straightforward decision. Bradford, she said, doesnt even remember who prosecuted him and has never been written up for a serious rule violation behind bars. Emig said her client, who has undergone heart surgery and a skull operation, fell asleep during the hearing and struggled to keep from sliding down in his chair.

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Hes an 84-year-old man who walks with a walker and has dementia, Emig said, adding that, if he lives long enough to be released, her client will need to move into a facility that offers medical care.

Bradford was never prosecuted or disciplined for anything stemming from the inmates claims about planning to harm the prosecutor, which she said had no merit. Emig characterized them as the type of exaggerations often exchanged between cellmates, saying she would have been shocked if her client had been disciplined over the allegation.

I would never expect somebody to get written up for some conversation you had with your cellmate that was so vague and ambiguous that theres nothing to it, she said. Its one persons word against another.

Emig provided The Times with a copy of a two-page letter written by her clients former cellmate about Bradfords alleged comments regarding Lewin.

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He stated he would blow off his head and kill his whole family. He hated Lewin and blamed him for all the trouble he was in, the inmate wrote about Bradford.

The attorney said she has filed a complaint with the chief counsel of the parole board against Lewin, saying she felt that his involvement as a family representative during Bradfords hearing was improper. Asked about the complaint, Lewin said the victims family wanted him to attend and that he felt it was critical to inform the panel of the extreme danger to his own family.

After the hearing, Rickerls mind raced with thoughts.

Her father had looked sick, she thought, but the arrogance and disdain in his voice were so familiar and powerful. She started to become fixated on a grim vision: What if she turned down a dark alley and saw her fathers face? She could outrun him, sure, but what if he had a gun?

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She tried to channel her mothers eternal optimism and her mantra: Everything will be OK.

On Thanksgiving and Christmas, she makes her mothers signature dish of green beans with sauteed mushrooms. And when she stares at herself in the mirror, she sees her mothers features. Rickerl is 50 now, two years younger than her mother was when she was killed.

marisa.gerber@latimes.com

For more news from the Los Angeles County courts, follow me on Twitter: @marisagerberJust months after she struck a plea deal to avoid time behind bars, the fiancee of Marion Suge Knight was sentenced to three years in jail Friday for a probation violation linked to the former rap moguls pending murder trial.

Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Douglas Sortino ruled that Toi-Lin Kelly, 37, helped Knight violate a court order limiting his jailhouse phone communications by aiding him in arranging interviews with the producers of a BET documentary about Death Row Records, the record label he founded in the early 1990s.



For the record: An earlier version of this story incorrectly said Death Row Records was founded in 1988. It was founded in the early 1990s.

Sortino also found that she was indirectly communicating with Knight through a private investigator, violating the terms of probation he granted her in October.

To me its pretty blatant, and frankly, jaw-dropping, Sortino said, adding that Kelly had basically slapped him in the face after he granted her probation.

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Prosecutors last year accused Kelly of selling surveillance footage connected to Knights murder trial to the gossip website TMZ for $55,000. A judge had previously ordered that the recording not be shared with the media.

In October, Kelly pleaded no contest to conspiring to violate a court order. She was ordered to pay $55,000 in restitution, perform 100 hours of community service and serve five years on probation.

On Friday, Kelly broke down in tears while reading a letter to the court, calling her arrests in relation to Knights case a humbling and humiliating experience. She pleaded with Sortino to think about her 8-year-old son, who will be without both parents if she and Knight remain incarcerated. Kelly also said her father died of cancer shortly before she was arrested on the probation violation in December.

The sentencing is the latest blow to Knights inner circle. Last week, two attorneys who have represented Knight at various stages of his criminal proceedings were arrested, but then suddenly released.

The latest case against Kelly began in October after investigators with the Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department learned Knight had been communicating with two journalists from jail.

Knight is barred from making jailhouse calls to anyone but his attorneys under a 2016 court order, but he was using other inmates phone codes to place the calls, according to testimony Friday by sheriffs Sgt. Richard Biddle.

Text messages presented in court showed Kelly had been placing money in those inmates jail accounts, and prosecutors argued the money was provided to help Knight make the phone calls. Prosecutors also showed emails between Kelly and one of the filmmakers in which Kelly advised them on how to contact Knight.

Sortino also ruled that text messages between Kelly and Tony Moore, a private investigator who has been aiding Knights defense, were meant to relay information between Kelly and Knight. She was barred from speaking to Knight as part of the plea agreement reached last year.

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Moore, who was seated in the back of the courtroom, was evicted from the hearing for using his cellphone in court.

Kellys attorney, James Drake, argued that the prosecution was trying to punish Kelly for Knights alleged crimes. He said she did not understand the various court orders limiting Knights contact.

But Sortino scoffed at that notion.

I was born at night, but not last night, Mrs. Kelly, he said.

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Knight has been jailed since January 2015, after he rammed his Ford F-150 Raptor into two men in the parking lot of Tams Burgers in Compton following a dispute on the set of the N.W.A biopic Straight Outta Compton. Terry Carter, 55, was killed. Cle Bone Sloan, 52, survived.

Knight and his attorneys have argued he was acting in self-defense because the victims had attacked him and were carrying guns, but prosecutors say there is no evidence to support that claim.

His trial is scheduled for April.

james.queally@latimes.com

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Follow @JamesQueallyLAT for crime and police news in California.Officials say a Sacramento skinhead street gang member is suspected in the slaying of a fellow white inmate in a California state prison.

The death Thursday of Aaron Glynn, 36, at Calipatria State Prison is the second in less than a month with known white supremacist connections.

Officials say Glynn died of stab wounds to the abdomen, chest and neck. They named as suspects Charles Gilbert Boots Demar, 43, and Bryan Cook, 42.

Sacramento County prosecutors say Demar was convicted of assault and drug crimes benefiting the gang.

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All three were serving life sentences, Glynn from Tehama County, Cook from San Joaquin County and Demar from Sacramento County.

Devlin Stringfellow, a founder of the Public Enemy Number 1 white supremacist gang, was slain at another prison last month.While the federal government remains in a stalemate over immigration, the city of San Diego took the first steps on Friday to create a strategic plan to better welcome and support new arrivals locally.

In a series of brainstorming sessions, residents recommended that San Diego pursue ways to help immigrants grow job skills and businesses.

They suggested the city develop culturally competent policies from education to policing and expand support for immigrants who are able to become U.S. citizens. Several also wanted the city to form an office for immigrant affairs.

The mayors office, in partnership with the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce and several nonprofits, won a grant last year to fund research to create a long-term plan.

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Joel Day, who is in charge of the Welcoming San Diego initiative for the city, said that San Diegos kickoff summit of about 300 people was the largest of any U.S. city that has joined the program, which is co-organized by the New American Economy and Welcoming America.

That is a testament to all of the people already doing work to support and integrate immigrants, Day said.

The idea is for the city to get behind the people already doing great work, Day said, for the city to stand up with them with a guiding vision for the future.

Immigrants make up about 24% of San Diegos population, according to a new report released as research for the plan, and make up about 29% of working-age San Diegans.

Thats significant for San Diegos economic development, said Paola Avila of the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce, because the population of native-born Americans is aging and businesses need the workforce supplied by the regions immigrants.

Our reliance on growing business and growing our economy is heavily on the shoulders of the immigrant population, Avila said.

San Diego immigrants also are about 23% more likely than U.S.-born residents to be job-creating entrepreneurs, according to the report.

The citys multi-sector approach shows that helping immigrants integrate doesnt have to be a partisan issue, said Kate Brick of the New American Economy.

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Its about being pragmatic and recognizing the value in having a robust and supported immigrant community, Brick said.

Though the federal government controls who can immigrate and how, municipalities and states still can have an effect on immigration policy, said Karthick Ramakrishnan, a political science professor at UC Riverside who gave the keynote speech at the summit.

Ramakrishnan gave examples of other movements, like womens suffrage and labor, that started by getting policies enacted at lower levels of government that eventually became national.

Think of states as being able to expand on the types of protections available at the federal level, Ramakrishnan said. Think of the federal government not as a ceiling but as a floor.

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Some residents have resisted previous welcoming efforts in other cities around San Diego County.

Several cities faced a backlash in 2016 when they declared themselves welcoming cities, which is one of Welcoming Americas programs.

Imperial Beach ended up undoing the proclamation after residents voiced concerns about attracting more newcomers to the area. Other cities decided to keep the designation.

Creating a strategic plan for a city goes a step beyond the basic welcoming label to build programs and resources for immigrants.

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Day said he hasnt yet heard about pushback on San Diegos project.

I fully expect there to be folks who are unsure how this impacts them, Day said. The more safe, connected and cohesive we are as a city, the more everyone is going to succeed.

He said the broad coalition taking part in the project should help mitigate concerns.

Were trying to make sure all voices are heard, even dissenting voices, Day said.

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Through brainstorming sessions that covered civic engagement, safe and connected communities, economic opportunity, education and inclusive access to resources, attendees answered questions about whats going on now, where they want to see the city in five years and how to get there.

Those recommendations will become the framework for the strategic plan, which Day hopes will be ready to present to Mayor Kevin Faulconer and the City Council by the end of the summer.

Other cities that have gone through the process created offices for immigrant affairs or funded collaborations between the public and private sector to provide needed resources to new arrivals.

The city will partner with the San Diego Unified School District to host more events for community input at five high schools before compiling a final report. Those interested in giving feedback also can visit welcomingsd.org.

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Morrissey writes for the San Diego Union-Tribune.

kate.morrissey@sduniontribune.com

@bgirledukateDuring his visit to Mexico City on Friday, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was carefully trying to explain to his counterparts from Mexico and Canada just why the United States efforts to restrict both legal and illegal immigration are not mean-spirited.

Just outside Washington, however, President Trump was holding forth with U.S. Homeland Security officials, complaining about immigrants who are in the country illegally and drugs flooding across the southern border and questioning the commitments of both Mexico and Colombia, which Tillerson plans to visit on Tuesday, to stop the traffic. Perhaps he should just cut off their foreign aid, the president groused.

So much for Tillersons weeklong goodwill tour of the region, as Trumps words inevitably traveled south.

The presidents comments were not helpful, said a senior State Department official who accompanied Tillerson, in rare acknowledgment of the messaging gulf between Trump and his secretary of State.

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It was the latest incident in which Trump has undercut Tillerson, Americas top diplomat, by announcing or simply tweeting policies  or insults  at inopportune moments. Last year, memorably, as Tillerson returned from delicate talks with China about cooperating to confront North Korea, Trump tweeted that Tillerson should stop wasting your time with diplomacy on the matter.

Amid Tillersons talks Friday with Mexican Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray and Canadas Chrystia Freeland, Trump spoke at a federal facility in northern Virginia, near Washington, to a roundtable of border and customs agents about illegal immigration and drug trafficking.

And what are Mexico and Colombia and these other countries  what are they doing about it? Nothing, Trump said. When he was told the countries actually were close partners with the United States in policing efforts, Trump replied skeptically, Do you think theyre really trying?

Speaking of the influx of illegal drugs, Trump said, These countries are not our friends. You know, we think theyre our friends and we send them massive aid. And I wont mention names right now, but I look at these countries, I look at the numbers we send them  we send them massive aid and theyre pouring drugs into our country and theyre laughing at us.

I want to stop the aid, Trump added, if they cant stop drugs from coming in.

Diplomats have said that such harsh rhetoric from the president impedes the broader mission of Tillerson and other State Department envoys who seek to build relationships to further the U.S. agenda.

At a news conference after the talks in Mexico City, Tillerson sidestepped a question about how the contradictions between what he and Trump say ultimately make his job more difficult.

Other State Department officials, while carefully avoiding direct reference to Trump, emphasized that it is Tillerson who articulates American foreign policy and who oversees how some immigration policies are shaped. Yet that has not always been the case in the year-old Trump administration. Also, if Tillerson speaks on American policy, and Trump says something else, foreigners are all but certain to accept the presidents version over his aides.

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Tillerson is a respectful person who wants to help those who are in limbo to reach a solution, said Steven Goldstein, undersecretary for public diplomacy and public affairs. He doesnt change his speech, regardless of what might be happening in the world.

Different people speak different ways, but the policy hasnt changed, and the secretary spoke about U.S. foreign policy today, added Goldstein, in remarks to reporters traveling with Tillerson as he flew from Mexico to Saturdays stop in Bariloche, Argentina.

Despite the backdrop of tensions, Videgaray and Freeland lavished praise on Tillerson, though not Trump, with the Canadian foreign minister referring to the American secretary of State as the voice for the respect of international rules.

Mexican officials were apparently so chagrined at Trumps recent rhetoric that they tried at the last minute to conceal who had attended a dinner with Tillerson on Thursday night at the residence of the U.S. ambassador to Mexico, Roberta Jacobson, according to a U.S. official with knowledge of the proceedings. In addition to Videgaray, Mexicos top military brass attended, an unusual twist of protocol.

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Trump, at his meeting at the Border Patrol National Targeting Center in Sterling, Va., seemed surprised to learn that among the countries that have refused to take back deported nationals were China, Guinea and Eritrea.

Those are unusual names, he said, because you normally think in terms of South America.

tracy.wilkinson@latimes.com

For more on international affairs, follow @TracyKWilkinson on TwitterThe Trump administration outlined sweeping changes in U.S. nuclear strategy Friday, calling for two new types of nuclear weapons and warning for the first time that in extreme circumstances the U.S. could use nuclear weapons in response to non-nuclear attacks on infrastructure and civilians.

The strategy, described in a 75-page review released by the Pentagon, constitutes one of the most significant revisions of U.S. nuclear strategy since the Cold War, one aimed at aggressively countering nuclear-armed Russia and North Korea as well as terrorist groups seeking to acquire nuclear arms.

By clarifying potential scenarios when the president might authorize a nuclear attack, officials said, the U.S. was seeking to deter adversaries from conducting large-scale cyber warfare and other non-nuclear but potentially devastating attacks on the U.S. and its allies, a controversial idea that critics said could make nuclear war more likely.

We must look reality in the eye and see the world as it is, not as we wish it to be, Defense Secretary James N. Mattis said in a statement accompanying the report. Given the range of potential adversaries, their capabilities and strategic objectives, this review calls for a flexible, tailored nuclear deterrent strategy.

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In no way does this approach lower the nuclear threshold, Mattis wrote. Rather, by convincing adversaries that even limited use of nuclear weapons will be more costly than they can tolerate, it in fact raises that threshold.

But Joseph Cirincione, a nonproliferation expert at the Ploughshares Fund, a Washington-based advocacy group that seeks reductions in the nuclear arsenal, said the new strategy  combined with President Trumps volatile approach to international threats  could lower the threshold for employing nuclear weapons.

This strategy gives him a massive rebuild of the current Cold War arsenal, complete with new missions and new weapons, to include responding to a cyberattack with a nuclear bomb, Cirincione said. This plan, coupled with this president, greatly increases the risk of nuclear war.

The Obama administration sought to shrink the role of nuclear weapons in U.S. defense strategy. It declared in 2010 that it would consider using nuclear weapons only in extreme circumstances, such as a massive conventional attack by a nuclear armed state or in the event of a mass-casualty chemical or biological attack.

Trumps strategy likewise calls for using nuclear weapons only in extreme circumstances to defend the vital interests of the United States, its allies and partners.

But it specifies that extreme circumstances also could include non-nuclear strategic attacks including those on the U.S., allied or partner civilian population or infrastructure, as well as on U.S. or allied nuclear forces, their command and control, or warning and attack assessment capabilities.

Jon B. Wolfsthal, director of the Nuclear Crisis Group and a National Security Council official in the Obama administration, said the new strategy opened the door to first use of nuclear weapons by the U.S. in more scenarios than before.

The review recommends modifying a small number of existing nuclear warheads on Trident missiles carried on U.S. submarines to reduce the weapons explosive power. In addition, a new nuclear-armed cruise missile launched from naval vessels would be developed, a process likely to take years.

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Both steps, the report says, are aimed at deterring regional aggression, including any decision by Russia, North Korea or other adversaries to carry out a limited nuclear strike in the belief that the U.S. would not respond because it did not want to risk large-scale nuclear war.

Current and former Pentagon officials said that Russian military doctrine increasingly envisions using a limited nuclear strike to win a conflict in Europe, believing the U.S. and its allies might not want to risk large-scale nuclear war under those circumstances.

We need to figure out how to deter a Russia military, which evidently believes it can use nuclear weapons to end and win a conventional conflict, said Franklin Miller, a National Security Council official during President George W. Bushs administration.

The lower-yield warhead for Trident missiles would ensure a prompt response option and would help counter any mistaken perception by Russia, North Korea or other adversaries that the U.S. might hesitate to respond with nuclear weapons to a limited nuclear strike by one of them, the report said.

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Critics say the U.S. arsenal, which includes hundreds of lower-yield nuclear warheads, is adequate to deter any adversary.

It lowers the threshold for using nuclear weapons, a particularly frightening proposition given this presidents support for a nuclear arms race, said Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.). Previous administrations, both Republican and Democrat, have worked to reduce the threat of nuclear weapons, and this review breaks sharply from that bipartisan tradition.

During the Cold War, the Pentagon had sea-launched cruise missiles, which are more difficult for an adversary to detect because they fly at low altitudes. That weapon was retired by the Obama administration in 2011.

Some will say any additional capacity, no matter how measured, increases the chances of using one of these weapons, Deputy Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan said Friday at a Pentagon news conference. On the contrary, it is the exact opposite.

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The plan, the first review of the U.S. nuclear strategy since 2010, reaffirms many long-standing tenets of U.S. nuclear weapons strategy. That includes a promise made by the Obama administration to overhaul the nuclear arsenal by spending more than $1 trillion over the next two decades on new or modernized intercontinental ballistic missiles, bombers, submarine and warheads.

It also maintains the option for the U.S. to use nuclear weapons in a first strike, while not clarifying the exact conditions under which the president might do so. The Cold War-era policy was aimed at deterring Moscow and other adversaries and reassuring allies in Europe and Asia that the U.S. will come to their defense.

The option to develop the new cruise missiles could be reconsidered, the strategy says, if Russia removes a cruise missiles of its own that the U.S. argues it has secretly deployed in violation of an arms control agreement, a claim Moscow denies.

Elisabeth Braw, a London-based nonresident scholar with the Atlantic Council, a foreign policy think tank, said Trumps strategy was likely to reawaken Cold War fears in Europe that it could become a nuclear battleground in a U.S.-Russia conflict.

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We thought that had ended, she said. It feels like that specter is coming back.

Deputy Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan, center, and other officials unveil the Trump administrations nuclear strategy at the Pentagon. (Department of Defense )

david.cloud@latimes.com

Twitter: @davidcloudLATA man who sold ammunition to Stephen Paddock, the gunman who carried out the massacre in Las Vegas, has been charged with manufacturing armor-piercing bullets, according to court documents.

Charges filed against Douglas Haig in federal court Friday included conspiracy and manufacturing armor-piercing ammunition  some of the rounds were found inside the hotel room where Paddock staged his attack and had Haigs fingerprints on them. The documents show Haig does not have a license to manufacture armor-piercing bullets.

The charges were filed the same day Haig held a news conference to address his contact with Paddock before the shooting  an attempt to restore Haigs reputation, according to his attorney, Marc Victor.

He appeared in court Friday afternoon and was released on bond, with a preliminary hearing set for Feb. 15 in Phoenix. If convicted, he faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison, a $250,000 fine or both.

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I think this story has reached its end, Victor said before the charges were made public. Later Friday, he declined to comment on the charges.

Instead, the charges raised more questions as to why Haig would hold a news conference to clear his name while not mentioning the charges during the 20-minute event.

Read the criminal complaint against Douglas Haig 

Haig had been named a person of interest in search warrants unsealed Tuesday. But his name mistakenly had not been redacted from one document, and it was published and then broadcast. For the rest of the week, he said, he endured death threats and was hounded at his home for his connection to Paddock, who killed 58 and wounded hundreds shooting from his Mandalay Bay hotel room.

Haig spent the time at the news conference discussing how his life had changed and what he remembered about selling ammunition to Paddock.

Recounting events from Friday, Haig said the last doorbell ring at his house came at 2 a.m. Up until that point, it had been a steady stream of rings and knocks at his home. One woman shouted through his door that he should die.

I dont know who they are or what they want, Haig said. Id just keep the lights off and stay quiet.

The 55-year-old Arizona man said he learned about his name being made public while he was at work Tuesday.

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My cellphone started to explode with calls, Haig said.

On Friday, he stood before the press  hands folded in front  dressed in tan pants, dark blazer and tie, and tried to explain how little linkage he had to Paddock.

Haig is an aerospace engineer who got into selling ammunition as a part-time hobby in 1991. He sold 720 rounds of tracer ammunition to Paddock a month before the shooting. Police found a box with Haigs name on it in the room, but it was unused.

Police still do not have a motive for the killings, and for months, little was known about the investigation until more than 600 pages of search warrants were unsealed last month and Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo released a preliminary investigative report. The absence of information in the prior months allowed conspiracy theories to bloom, among them that the attack was inspired by Islamic State.

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Up until Haigs name emerged, the only other person of interest named in the Vegas shooting was Paddocks girlfriend, Marilou Danley. She last issued a public comment three days after the shooting and has kept a low profile since then. She said she had been devastated by Paddocks crime, and she has cooperated with authorities during the investigation. Authorities have said that Paddock, who killed himself with a shot through the mouth, was the only gunman to fire on the crowd.

Haig said he didnt even know the shooting had occurred until he was called by federal authorities 11 hours after the massacre. Haig said that he starts his days early at 6 a.m. and that, when told what happened, he felt revulsion.

But he also thought that, as the months passed, his sale of ammunition to Paddock would be a footnote that would eventually fade away. When his name came out, the spotlight burned bright on a man who, according to his LinkedIn page, had developed ammunition and weapons for defense contractors. He is currently listed as a senior engineer at Honeywell Aerospace.

Then on Tuesday, his name was published, then broadcast nationwide.

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Its not been a lot of fun, quite frankly, he said.

He did an interview with CBS This Morning the day after his name was made public, saying he sold Paddock the tracer ammunition. He said he was going to go put on a light show, Haig said in the interview.  And I cant remember whether he said for or with his friends, but thats what he did say. His attorney said Haig hoped that holding a news conference would help him restore his reputation.

Haig said after the 2 a.m. doorbell ring Friday, he was able to get some sleep and arrived at his attorneys office around 8:30 a.m. He said, however, he had to first escape his house. But this took planning. Haig said he waited for a garbage truck to pull up and used it as cover to leave.

Haig drove by himself to the law firm in an office park in Chandler, a Phoenix suburb. He said he saw the television crews setting up tripods outside the law office and suddenly realized he was unsure what to expect.

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Yeah, I was nervous, he said.

When he stepped out in front of the lectern, his attorney, Marc Victor, introduced him. Victor, a high-profile attorney in Arizona who served as a legal analyst for media during the Jodi Arias murder trial, helped prepare Haig.

Haig was direct with his answers  though he had to be reminded at several points during the 20-minute news conference to lean into the microphones clustered atop the lectern.

He said he spoke with law enforcement on four separate occasions for at least six  and maybe eight  hours.

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But the charging documents show authorities served a search warrant on Haigs residence Oct. 19 and seized over 100 items, including armor-piercing bullets. Haig didnt mention that at the news conference.

Haig said he met Paddock at a gun show in Phoenix and later sold Paddock the ammunition at his house. Nothing aroused suspicion, he said. Haig said he usually ships ammunition or sells it at the gun show, but occasionally lets people come by his house to make a purchase.

I have to trust them, he said.

Haig said Paddock got lost on the way but eventually pulled up appearing very well-dressed, very well-groomed, very polite, very respectful.

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Haig said he put Paddocks order in a box. He paid me and put it in his car and drove away. At no time did I see anything suspicious or odd or any kind of a tell  anything that would set off an alarm.

The FBI didnt return a request for comment. Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department referred all questions to the FBI.

But Haigs attorney said he wasnt expecting to get a call from law enforcement saying Haig was no longer a person of interest.

They could keep him as a person of interest for the rest of his life, Victor said at the news conference.

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Haig said he isnt selling ammunition anymore, and he wasnt sure if hed ever get back into it again.

I dont know, he said. I truly dont know.

david.montero@latimes.com

Twitter: @davemontero

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UPDATES:

4:45 p.m.: This article was updated with details about the criminal charges against Douglas Haig.

This story was originally published at 3:20 p.m.A former Hawaii state worker who sent a false missile alert last month said hes devastated about causing panic but was 100% sure at the time that the attack was real.

The man in his 50s spoke to reporters on the condition that he not be identified because he fears for his safety after receiving threats.

He says an on-duty call that came in on Jan. 13 didnt sound like a drill. However, state officials say other workers clearly heard the word exercise repeated several times.

Immediately afterward, we find out it was a drill and I was devastated. I still feel very badly about it, he said on Friday. I felt sick afterward. It was like a body blow.

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Hes had difficulty eating and sleeping since, he said: Its been hell for me the last couple weeks.

The Hawaii Emergency Management Agency fired him after the incident.

The mans superiors said they knew for years that he had problems performing his job. The worker had mistakenly believed drills for tsunami and fire warnings were actual events, and colleagues were not comfortable working with him, the state said.

His supervisors counseled him but kept him for a decade in a position that had to be renewed each year.

The ex-worker disputed that, saying he wasnt aware of any performance problems.

While starting a Saturday shift at the emergency operations center in a bunker in Honolulus Diamond Head crater on Jan. 13, the man said, a co-worker took a phone call over the U.S. Pacific Command secure line that sounded like a real warning, he said.

When the phone call came in, someone picked up the receiver instead of hitting speakerphone so that everyone could hear the message, he said.

The man said he didnt hear the beginning of the message that said, Exercise, exercise, exercise.

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I heard the part, this is not a drill, he said. I didnt hear exercise at all in the message or from my co-workers.

Federal and state reports say the agency had a vague checklist for missile alerts, allowing workers to interpret the steps they should follow differently. Managers didnt require a second person to sign off on alerts before they were sent, and the agency had no procedure for correcting a false warning.

Those details emerged Tuesday in reports from investigations of how the agency mistakenly blasted cellphones and broadcast stations with the missile warning.

It took nearly 40 minutes for the agency to figure out a way to retract the false alert.

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The protocols were not in place. It was a sense of urgency to put it in place as soon as possible. But those protocols were not developed to the point they should have, retired Brig. Gen. Bruce Oliveira, who wrote the report on Hawaiis internal investigation, said at a news conference.

Hawaii Emergency Management Agency Administrator Vern Miyagi resigned as the reports were released. Officials revealed that the employee who sent the alert was fired Jan. 26. The state did not name him.

The agencys executive officer, Toby Clairmont, said Wednesday that he stepped down because it was clear action would be taken against agency leaders after the alert.

Another employee was being suspended without pay, officials said.

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The incident shines a light on the state systems failures, the man who sent the alert said, adding that he believes the federal government should handle such alerts.

Testing of the alert system began in November and protocols were constantly changing, he said. As far as our level of training was concerned, I think it was inadequate, he said.

Hawaii state Department of Defense spokesman Lt. Col. Charles Anthony declined to comment on what the former worker said.

Officials said the man refused to cooperate with state or federal investigations beyond providing a written statement. He wasnt trying to impede any investigations, he said: There really wasnt anything else to say.Good morning, and welcome to the Essential California newsletter. It is Saturday, Feb. 3. Heres what you dont want to miss this weekend:

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Not sold in stores: Of the many cultural touchstones born on the streets of Compton, one of the most lasting is The Chronic. Dr. Dres classic 1992 album brought the nickname for high-grade cannabis into the mainstream, and, to the disdain of many Compton residents, cemented the city as the home of West Coast gangsta rap. But if youre looking to buy the chronic legally, dont come to Compton. Los Angeles Times

Records released: Eighteen alleged cases of sexual harassment, ranging from sharing of pornographic photos to a staff member accused of grabbing a womans buttocks and genitals, were publicly disclosed by the California Legislature on Friday, detailed through investigation records that had been shielded in some cases for more than a decade. Los Angeles Times

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School shooting: Police investigating the shooting of students at Sal Castro Middle School said the small-caliber handgun that was carried into a classroom appears to have fired a single round from inside a backpack. Los Angeles Times

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Please let us know what we can do to make this newsletter more useful to you. Send comments, complaints and ideas to Benjamin Oreskes and Shelby Grad. Also follow them on Twitter @boreskes and @shelbygrad.After what we can be sure was not careful consideration, President Trump on Friday approved the release of a memo prepared by Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee. And, of course, he explained himself in a tweet: The top Leadership and Investigators of the FBI and the Justice Department have politicized the sacred investigative process in favor of Democrats and against Republicans  something which would have been unthinkable just a short time ago.

That indeed is the conclusion of the four-page memo prepared by Republican staffers under the direction of committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Tulare), though the document uses slightly more restrained language. The memo advances the scandalous notion that Democrats were able to bring a former Trump campaign advisor under government surveillance by paying a researcher to gather the dirt used to justify the spying.

But the document doesnt really back up this assertion, despite the seemingly interminable buildup by Republican members of Congress and pro-Trump commentators. Nor does it provide a rationale for the president to abort or interfere with the investigation being supervised by Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller III.

As expected, the memo focuses on the FBIs use of information gathered by Christopher Steele, a retired British intelligence agent, in obtaining orders from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to monitor Carter Page, a New York energy consultant and former advisor to the Trump campaign.

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According to the memo, the government didnt disclose to the court that Steeles research into alleged ties between Trump and Russia was financed by the Hillary Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee, even though the political origins of the Steele dossier were then known to senior Justice Department and FBI officials.

This was important, the memo says, because Steeles information was an essential part of the application for a court order to spy on Page. The memo says former Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe told the committee last December that no warrant would have been sought from the court without information from the Steele dossier.

But Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Burbank), the top Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, pushed back, saying its misleading to suggest that the court had no idea there was a political motivation involved. The memo in general, Schiff said, was a collection of cherry-picked facts. Schiffs counterpart on the Senate Intelligence Committee, Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), said that he had read the documents on which the House memo was based, and they simply do not support its conclusion. (It would be easier to evaluate these statements if Republicans hadnt refused to release a Democratic response to their memo at the same time  another clue to the essentially partisan nature of the memo.)

Any issues with the surveillance of Page have nothing to do with matters that Mueller is currently thought to be investigating.

Yet even if one takes the Republican memo at face value, it doesnt demonstrate that the surveillance of Page was illegitimate. Even if the government should have been more forthcoming about the funding of Steeles information, the former British spy had been a trusted source for the FBI in the past. And whatever McCabe actually told the committee  his testimony was paraphrased in the memo, not quoted  its not clear that Steeles contribution was so vital to the application for a court order that a judge wouldnt have authorized surveillance without it.

Its also worth noting that the memo undercuts the idea that the Steele dossier launched the FBI investigation of whether there was collusion between Russia and people associated with the Trump campaign. The memo acknowledges that the counterintelligence investigation was triggered by information about George Papadopoulos, a Trump campaign advisor who pleaded guilty last year to lying to the FBI.

Finally, any issues with the surveillance of Page have nothing to do with matters that Mueller is currently thought to be investigating. They include the possibility that Trump obstructed justice when he fired former FBI Director James B. Comey and participated in drafting a false statement about a meeting involving Donald Trump Jr. and Russians claiming to have damaging information about Hillary Clinton.

Earlier this week, House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said release of the memo was a completely separate matter from Bob Muellers investigation, and his investigation should be allowed to continue. Its not clear Trump agrees. In addition to his tweet Friday criticizing the top leadership of the Justice Department, he refused to say whether he still had confidence in the man who hired and supervises Mueller: Deputy Atty. Gen. Rod Rosenstein, a Trump appointee who played a role in continuing the surveillance of Page. You figure that one out, the president told reporters.

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On Friday night a White House spokesman told CNN that there are no conversations and no considerations about firing Rod Rosenstein. But Trump undercut such reassurances Saturday when he returned to Twitter to declare: This memo totally vindicates Trump in probe. But the Russian Witch Hunt goes on and on. . . . This is an American disgrace!

Trump reportedly decided to fire Mueller last summer, relenting after his White House counsel threatened to quit. But dismissing Rosenstein also could be a way to strike at the Mueller investigation. On Friday, Democrats in Congress sent a letter warning Trump that firing either Rosenstein or Mueller could result in a constitutional crisis of the kind not seen since the Saturday Night Massacre, when Richard Nixon fired the Watergate special prosecutor in 1973. Thats a message that Ryan and other responsible Republicans need to echo.

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UPDATES:

4:35 p.m.: This editorial was updated to clarify that the surveillance was of a former Trump campaign adviser, not one who was with the campaign at the time.

11:36 a.m., Feb. 3: This editorial was updated with new comments by Rep. Adam Schiff, a White House spokesman and President Trump.Gavin Newsom releases ad that highlights his push to allow same-sex couples to marry By Phil Willon A new ad from Democratic gubernatorial candidate Gavin Newsom features Phyllis Lyon, who with her partner, Del Martin, received the first marriage license after Newsom vowed to allow same-sex couples to marry when he was mayor of San Francisco in 2004. The current lieutenant governors push for marriage equality thrust him into the national spotlight and he has emphasized that effort to portray himself as a bold, progressive leader. Facebook

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Failed California housing bill was not a bad idea, Gov. Jerry Brown says By Liam Dillon Gov. Jerry Brown (Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press) Earlier this month, high-profile housing legislation that would have allowed for four- to five-story apartments and condominiums near transit stops failed to advance in the state Legislature. But had it reached his desk, would Gov. Jerry Brown have signed it? Maybe. I think that was not a bad idea, Brown said of Senate Bill 827 at a meeting with business leaders from the Bay Area Council on Monday afternoon. The bill, written by Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco), attracted national attention and a maelstrom of opposition in part because it would have eliminated single-family zoning near transit stops in favor of apartments or condominiums. Brown said that a relative of his who lives in West Portal, a low-density neighborhood in San Francisco, told the governor he was horrified by the bill. Brown also lamented dramatically rising housing costs. He said he bought his first house in Los Angeles in 1973 for $75,000 at a time when his salary as secretary of state was $35,000. Now, he said, buying a house for a little over twice ones annual salary is virtually impossible anywhere in the state. FOR THE RECORD

May 1, 9:32 a.m.: This post originally misstated the year Brown purchased his house as 1970. It was 1973. Facebook

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John Cox begins California barnstorm with the delivery of gas tax repeal signatures By Javier Panzar Gubernatorial candidate John Cox, left, and Assembly candidate Bill Essayli load boxes of signatures for the gas tax repeal initiative. (Francine Orr) GOP gubernatorial candidate John Cox strolled up to the stack of 12 boxes in front of the Los Angeles County registrar-recorders offices in Norwalk on Monday and placed his hands on top of his partys hope for success in 2018. The boxes, stacked four across and three high, contained 211,000 signatures for an initiative to repeal recent increases in Californias gas tax and vehicle fees. Cox says the effort has gathered more than 940,000 signatures from registered voters to put the measure on the ballot  far more than the 585,407 signatures that are required. The aim: to bring out the partys base to the polls this November and help candidates in tough congressional and legislative races down the ticket. A USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times poll in November found 54.2% of registered voters surveyed said they would repeal the tax and fee hike, but a survey a month earlier by another group said a majority would vote to keep the higher taxes. Cox was flanked by Bill Essayli, a former federal prosecutor who is challenging Democratic Assemblywoman Sabrina Cervantes of Riverside in the June primary. Cervantes voted for the gas tax and Essayli plans to use that vote against her. He even launched his campaign at a 76 gas station in Norco. This is a central issue in my campaign, he said. Cox also submitted signatures in San Diego on Monday and is headed to Bakersfield, Fresno and Sacramento, as well as Shasta and Butte counties in coming days. We are going all across the state, Cox said. The whole state is paying this tax and the whole state wants it gone. Facebook

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All Californians would be able to serve on state boards  even people in the U.S. illegally  under new bill By Jazmine Ulloa Sen. Ricardo Lara (D-Bell Gardens) (Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press) State lawmakers on Monday introduced legislation that would allow all Californians to serve on state boards and commissions regardless of immigration status. Senate Bill 174, by Sen. Ricardo Lara (D-Bell Gardens) and Assemblywoman Wendy Carrillo (D-Los Angeles), comes as the state is locked in a broader legal battle with the Trump administration over state immigration laws and his call for mass deportations. Lawmakers point to what they say is the states own discriminatory history as their basis for introducing the legislation. The proposal would amend an 1872 provision that was first adopted to exclude Chinese immigrants and other transient aliens from holding appointed civil positions. At the time, antipathy toward the Chinese had been building in California, though, Chinese immigrants opened hundreds of businesses across the state and would play a critical role in building the transcontinental railroad. The Senate bill would delete the phrase transient aliens from the government code and make clear that any person, regardless of citizenship or immigration status, can hold an appointed civil office if they are at least 18 years old and a resident of the state. That would allow any Californian to serve on hundreds of boards and commissions that advice in an array of policy areas, including farm labor, history and employment development. Californias two million undocumented immigrants are a source of energy for our state, Lara said in a statement. It is shocking to read the words of fear and exclusion that are still in California law but belong in historys trash can. Facebook

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Tony Mendozas fundraising dries up after resignation amid harassment inquiry By Patrick McGreevy Former state Sen. Tony Mendoza (D-Artesia). (Steve Yeater / Associated Press) Political contributions to Tony Mendoza, who resigned from the state Senate under pressure amid sexual harassment allegations, have nearly dried up. New documents he filed with the state in his bid to reclaim the seat he once held show that his support has eroded. As a result, five other candidates for the 32nd District senate seat in the June 5 election have raised more than Mendoza so far this year. With the June 5 election approaching, Mendoza has reported raising just $7,750 in cash from six supporters during the nearly four-month period from Jan. 1 to April 21. Mendoza, a Democrat from Artesia, went on a leave of absence from the Senate Jan. 3 and resigned a month later under the threat of expulsion from colleagues. An investigation ordered by the Senate found a pattern of unwanted flirtatious or sexually suggestive behavior based on testimony from six women. Mendoza has denied wrongdoing. Last year, Mendozas reelection campaign raised $412,600, or an average of about $34,000 per month, from more than 350 supporters. Most of Mendozas 2018 total was contributed by the political arm of the Southern California Pipe Trades District Council 16 on Jan. 22, a month before Mendoza resigned. Mendoza also reported that his campaign loaned $125,000 this year to his legal defense fund. That left him with $446,600 in his campaign account at the end of April. Mendoza is running against eight Democrats and two Republicans. Democrat Bob J. Archuleta, a Pico Rivera city councilman, raised the most, $210,000, during the period. On Monday, Mendoza suffered another setback when the State Legislative Womens Caucus endorsed Democrat Vicky Santana, a member of the Rio Hondo College Board. Facebook

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Newsom and Villaraigosa affairs coming to TV ads in California By Phil Willon An independent political committee backing Republican John Cox for governor released an ad blasting both Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom and former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa for their past sexual affairs. The California Deserves Better ad, which was first reported by Politico, criticizes Newsom for having an affair with a woman on his staff in 2005 while he served as mayor of San Francisco. It also goes after Villaraigosa for having an extramarital affair with a television reporter in 2007 while he was mayor of Los Angeles. The ad, which begins airing on Fox stations in the states top media markets Monday, links Newsom and Villaraigosa to the men accused of sexual impropriety in the #MeToo movement, including movie mogul Harvey Weinstein and disgraced Today show veteran Matt Lauer. Powerful men are finally being held to account, punished for inappropriate sexual conduct with women over whom they exercise power, the ad begins. Newsom and Villaraigosa think the rules shouldnt apply to them. The independent campaign committee, called Restore Our Values, already has raised more than $100,000, said Leigh Teece of Emeryville in Northern California, co-founder of the group. Teece, the CEO of a nonprofit that helps line up students with professional mentors, said the campaign will actively support Cox. She called him a true conservative and noted that he supports cutting taxes and opposes Californias sanctuary state policy. John is a business person who has demonstrated integrity, Teece said. Facebook

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Was that Cisneros in the voicemail? Dispute is latest espisode of Democratic infighting in crowded primary races By Christine Mai-Duc Gil Cisneros speaks during a forum at Fullerton College in January. (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times) With less than five weeks to go before Californias primary, insults and accusations are flying with abandon in the most crowded races Democrats hope to ultimately win. The latest example of this is in the 39th Congressional District, where a half dozen Democrats are vying for a chance to replace Rep. Ed Royce, whos retiring. Its one of several California contests where Democratic leaders are already worried that divisions could ultimately split votes and shut Democrats out of key pickup opportunities. In that race, millionaires Gil Cisneros and Andy Thorburn are going negative  about going negative. Cisneros was recently elevated to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committees Red to Blue program in hopes it would serve as a signal to Democratic activists and donors that his campaign was the most viable. But both Cisneros and Thorburn have poured millions into the race, which promises to be a knock down, drag out fight through June 5. At the center of the latest controversy is a voicemail, allegedly left by Cisneros on Thorburns home answering machine earlier this month. The recording, which the Thorburn campaign turned over to media outlet The Intercept, lasts less than 10 seconds. Hi Andy, its Gil Cisneros. Im gonna go negative on you, a mans voice is heard saying. Cisneros campaign manager Orrin Evans denied the candidate made the call, posting a cease and desist letter to The Intercept on Twitter. The letter, sent by a Cisneros campaign attorney, called the voicemail fabricated and demanded that the story be taken down, calling it defamatory. It gave the publication until 3 p.m. Friday to take down the story before they pursue all legal rights and remedies. An attorney for The Intercept, in a letter to Cisneros, said the publication confirmed with multiple sources familiar with Mr. Cisneros that his voice was on the recording, and that it stands by its reporting. Thorburns camp says it flatly rejects Cisneros denial, and that the timing of a negative website filled with unflattering background on Thorburn, released three days later, suggests it was him. Track the California races that could flip the House According to The Intercepts report, Cisneros campaign manager did not respond to initial inquiries about the voicemail, calling its questions ridiculous. In a follow-up statement Friday, Evans said called the episode a dirty, desperate trick by the Thorburn campaign and said they are readying to pursue legal action for defamation and false light against both him and the publication. It sounded like him to me! said Thorburns wife, Karen, in a statement released by the campaign. She was the one who first heard the voicemail, they said. Thorburn campaign manager Nancy Leeds called Cisneros threats Trump-like tactics and accused the candidate of trying to harass and intimidate anyone who stands in his way. Its not the first time candidates from the same party have clashed in the lead-up to the June 5 primary, and its all but certain to not be the last. Cisneros sued two of his opponents, Thorburn and Sam Jammal, over their ballot descriptions until they had to change them. Earlier this month, Democrat Bryan Caforio asked his opponent, Katie Hill, to sign a pledge rejecting the use of independent expenditure committees, entities that neither of them can legally coordinate with, in the race to unseat Rep. Steve Knight (R-Lancaster). Hill refused and called the attempt hollow and likened it to political theater, while Caforio accused her of empty campaign promises. Facebook

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California Politics Podcast: The money raised in the race for governor hints at a race thats now red hot By John Myers With less than six weeks before election day, the cash raised in the California governors race mirrors the overall dynamics: one major front-runner and a heated race for second place. This weeks podcast episode offers a glimpse into those cash reports and how the Republican field seems more settled in a new statewide poll than the battle between Democrats. We also examine the reasons why a nationally talked-about housing bill in Sacramento was killed by the Democratic authors own allies. Im joined by Times staff writers Melanie Mason and Liam Dillon. You can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, SoundCloud and Stitcher. Facebook

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L.A. County politician sexually assaulted woman when she was 16, lawsuit claims By Dakota Smith A woman sued an unnamed politician in Los Angeles County on Friday, alleging the man sexually assaulted her when she was a teenager after he gave her an unusual-tasting drink. The politician, identified as John Doe, was in his early 40s and a public figure at the time of the 2007 assault, according to the lawsuit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court. The man is an elected official today and lives in Los Angeles, said attorney Lisa Bloom, who is representing the woman identified in the lawsuit as Jane Doe. Bloom declined to say what branch of government the man represents. Read More Facebook

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Villaraigosa touts his working-class upbringing, accomplishments as mayor in first TV ad By Phil Willon Democrat Antonio Villaraigosa released his first TV ad in the governors race Friday, touting his record and accomplishments as mayor of Los Angeles when up against the economic downturn during the recession. The 30-second television spot opens with a sweeping shot of Los Angeles and cuts to Villaraigosa sitting on a bus. In kindergarten, my sister and I took three buses to get to school. As mayor, I remembered that, Villaraigosa says into the camera. And despite the recession, we built more new schools and rail lines than any city in America, added 200,000 living wage jobs, built 20,000 units of affordable housing and nearly doubled graduation rates. Campaign spokesman Luis Vizcaino said the ad will air statewide over the next week at a cost of approximately $1 million. The commercial will being airing Saturday. Two Democratic rivals in Californias race for governor, Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom and state Treasurer John Chiang, also launched ads this week, signaling the biggest ramp-up of the campaign as the June 5 primary approaches. Newsom is the front-runner, while Villaraigosa is battling for second place with Republican John Cox. One recent poll has Villaraigosa trailing both Cox and Republican Assemblyman Travis Allen of Huntington Beach. Chiang has been stuck in the single digits in almost all polling in the race. Last week, an independent expenditure group called Families and Teachers for Antonio Villaraigosa for Governor, funded largely by a trio of wealthy charter school backers, launched a spot in support of the former mayor of Los Angeles. That ad campaign is focused on increasing Villaraigosas chances of coming in second in the June 5 primary and moving on to the general election. Villaraigosas ad, titled Three Buses, emphasizes the struggles he faced growing up in East Los Angeles and addresses one of his central campaign themes  that hes the candidate best suited to help working-class Californians. I know how far a bus can take you, Villaraigosa says in the ad. Facebook

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Sen. Dianne Feinstein wont participate in pre-primary debate By Sarah D. Wire (Tom Williams / CQ Roll Call) California Sen. Dianne Feinstein will not participate in a proposed pre-primary debate because there are too many candidates in the race, her campaign spokesman said Thursday. Political activists with the group Indivisible Los Angeles said they had a venue and date  May 5  reserved for a debate with four of the Senate candidates. But they said if Feinstein does not participate, it will be canceled. Feinstein faces 31 primary opponents in her bid for a fifth full term representing California in the Senate. Feinstein staffers initially said she had a prior commitment on May 5 in San Francisco. When organizers offered to let her campaign pick another date, her campaign said it wasnt fair for the group to invite only some of the candidates when there is such a big field, said Tudor Popescu, volunteer community organizer with Indivisible Los Angeles. The invited candidates, all Democrats, were Feinstein, state Sen. Kevin de Leon, political action committee director Alison Hartson and lawyer Pat Harris. They were selected based on fundraising and poll numbers. There are 11 Republicans, 10 Democrats, nine independents and 2 third-party candidates running for Senate on the June ballot. Indivisible Los Angeles is still hoping Feinstein will pick another date, Popescu said. Feinstein spokesman Jeff Millman pointed to a San Francisco Chronicle endorsement of Feinstein, which indicates that she told the editorial board she would be willing to have a debate ahead of Novembers general election. Senator Feinstein looks forward to debating her opponent in the general election, Millman said in an email. Feinstein holds a substantial lead in both fundraising and in the polls. Front-runners in statewide races have routinely declined to debate their challengers, knowing that its free publicity for candidates who dont have the cash to increase their name recognition on their own. De Leon spokesman Jonathan Underland said the state senator has done candidate forums before, but planned to attend the May 5 debate only if Feinstein did. We basically said well clear his calendar 100%, well clear his calendar if Feinstein shows up, Underland said. Wed love to make it happen, but we want her to be there. Facebook

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NRA, Olympic shooter sue California over its restrictions on ammunition sales By Patrick McGreevy Olympian Kim Rhode is a plaintiff in a lawsuit filed by the NRA and its state affiliate against California. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times) The National Rifle Assn. and its state affiliate have filed a fourth lawsuit against California over its gun control laws, this time challenging new restrictions on the sale and transfer of ammunition. The NRA and the California Rifle and Pistol Assn. filed a challenge in federal court to a requirement that ammunition sales and transfers be conducted face to face with California firearms dealers or licensed vendors, ending purchases made directly from out-of-state sellers on the internet. The lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Southern District of California also challenged a requirement starting next year for background checks for people buying ammunition. The lawsuit was filed in the name of Kim Rhode, a six-time Olympic medal-winning shooter, and others. It challenges Californias new ammunition sales restrictions as a violation of the 2nd Amendment and the commerce clause of the United States Constitution. Restrictions on ammunition purchases were included in Proposition 63, approved by voters in 2016, and in bills approved by the Legislature. As a result of these laws, millions of constitutionally protected ammunition transfers are banned in California, Chris W. Cox, executive director of the NRAs Institute for Legislative Action, said in a statement. Californias law-abiding gun owners are sick of being treated like criminals and the NRA is proud to assist in this fight. Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, who is running for governor, defended his initiative and vowed to fight the NRA lawsuit. We wrote Proposition 63 on solid legal ground and principle: If youre a felon banned from possessing guns in California, then you should not be able to purchase the ammunition that makes a firearm deadly, Newsom said in a statement. California voters said loudly and clearly that guns and ammunition do not belong in the hands of dangerous individuals  but once again, the NRA has prioritized gun industry profits over the lives of law-abiding Californians. Facebook

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Republicans hope to ride a gas-tax repeal to victory By Patrick McGreevy In a Central Valley barn decked out in red, white and blue, dairyman and state Senate candidate Johnny Tacherra drew cheers from a crowd of fellow farmers when he said he opposes the California Legislatures hike on gas taxes and vehicle fees. I would not have voted for that. It is not the time to be voting on (raising) the gas tax, said Tacherra, a Republican running against Democratic Assemblywoman Anna Caballero, who voted for the tax increase last year. Three hundred miles away the same week, a campaign mailer arrived at homes in Orange County from an Assembly candidate with a message blaring from the cover in bold type: Republican Greg Haskin  tough enough to stand up to Jerry Brown and repeal the gas tax. Read More Facebook

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Treasurer John Chiang launches ad in governors race touting his record as a fiscal steward By Seema Mehta In his first television ad in the governors race, state Treasurer John Chiang touts his record on fiscal issues as California faced the recession. Some thought we were done, Chiang says in a voiceover in the 30-second spot he released Thursday, with images of him standing seriously at a lectern and complimentary headlines about his work as controller and treasurer. But I knew better. I made the tough calls. And brought California back from the brink of financial disaster because you trusted me to manage our economy. Chiangs campaign is spending about $500,000 to air the ad in Los Angeles and San Diego in coming days. That buy is dwarfed by seven-figure purchases for ads supporting Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom and former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. Newsom is the front-runner, while Villaraigosa is battling for second place with Republican businessman John Cox. Chiang has been mired in the single digits in almost all polling in the race. His ad, called Quiet Storm, tries to portray Chiang as a progressive who is effective and can move policy in Sacramento. Chiang points to his work challenging Wells Fargo before arguing that he could accomplish what doubters say is impossible to improve the states healthcare, housing and schools. I say, we got this, Chiang concludes. Facebook

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Been ignoring the race for California governor? Thats OK, in some ways its just starting By Mark Z. Barabak On a recent trip to Iowa, Eric Garcetti  the mayor of Los Angeles and a possible 2020 White House contestant  raised eyebrows with a bit of exuberant outreach. Los Angeles and Iowa, Garcetti insisted, have a ton in common, and he didnt simply mean both are inhabited by carbon-based life forms needing oxygen to survive. Urban or rural, farmer or fashion plate, all of us harbor the same hopes and dreams, the mayor suggested, and if it wasnt a terribly original thought it also wasnt the most egregious sort of political pandering  like, say, ordering that every home in Los Angeles be powered by Iowa-produced ethanol. Read More Facebook

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California voters should expect to decide on an $8.9-billion water bond in November By Liam Dillon (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times) A proposal to borrow $8.9 billion for improvements to Californias water quality systems and watersheds and protection of natural habitats is eligible for the statewide ballot in November, Secretary of State Alex Padilla announced in a press release Wednesday. Padilla said the measure, which is backed by agricultural interests, had exceeded the 365,800 valid signatures it needed to qualify for the general election ballot. The bond measure will appear on the ballot unless proponents withdraw it by June 28, the release said. The bond is one of many voters could decide on in 2018. A $4-billion bond for parks and water infrastructure improvements will appear on the June 5 ballot. State lawmakers approved it last year. Facebook

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They came for Darrell Issa. They stayed with their inflatable chicken, blue wall and signs for political therapy By Christine Mai-Duc (John Gibbins / San Diego Union-Tribune) A mother of two turned ringleader of the resistance and more than a hundred of her faithful followers gathered on Tuesday morning outside Rep. Darrell Issas office in a northern San Diego County suburb. Across the street was her foil, a wedding DJ in a red Make American Great Again cap, setting up hefty speakers for an upcoming war of words. For about 65 weeks the deep divide in America played out along this 100-yard stretch of road in Vista. Here, at 10 a.m. every Tuesday, passersby found signs, chants, songs and, if they were lucky, sometimes a 20-foot-tall inflatable chicken with a Trump-esque coif. Theyd also glimpse the state of the body politic in 2018, a time when shock has turned to anger and post-2016 calls for reconciliation have morphed into grudging acceptance that each side might be better off in their respective corners. Or in this case, their sides of the street. On Tuesday, the anti-Issa, anti-Trump contingent fought this particular battle for the last time, declaring it their final protest at the congressmans office. They said they planned to use their energy to knock on doors and get out the vote, with an occasional protest on the side. Their pro-Trump rivals vowed to show up wherever they do. Read More Facebook

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Efforts to regulate bail companies have some unlikely allies: bail agents By Jazmine Ulloa Jane Un, chief executive and founder of Abba Bail Bonds, works with a client. ( Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times) In recent years, the seriousness and number of official complaints related to the bail industry in California have significantly increased while bail agents and bounty hunters face limited oversight, putting vulnerable communities at risk of fraud, embezzlement and other forms of victimization. This year, as Gov. Jerry Brown has pledged to work with lawmakers in a push to overhaul how courts assign defendants bail and to better regulate bail agencies, even some who profit from the court practice admit its time for regulation. These bail and bail-recovery agents could become unlikely allies, saying they advocate for change because theyve seen the system abuse the poor. Read More Facebook

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California voters: Get ready for an onslaught of television ads By Seema Mehta After a sleepy campaign, California voters are now being bombarded with television advertisements in the governors race, an onslaught that is expected to ramp up in coming weeks. The ads most frequently seen on television are those promoting Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, the front-runner in the race, and former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who is trying to secure the second spot in the June primary. Newsoms campaign and an outside group backing Villaraigosa are spending seven figures weekly on these efforts, according to filings with the California secretary of states office and a media buyer who asked not to be identified in order to freely discuss the ads. Other gubernatorial candidates are expected to hit the airwaves soon, the media buyer said. State Treasurer John Chiang has reserved a half-million dollars in the coming days in the Los Angeles and San Diego markets, and Villaraigosas campaign has requested availability in at least five of the states biggest TV markets. The GOP candidates in the race, who will be seeking the state Republican Partys endorsement at its convention next weekend, have been much less active. Businessman John Cox in recent weeks has been spending about $90,000 per week, but doubled that this week in Los Angeles and added small buys on KFI-AM radio and cable in markets including Fresno, Bakersfield and Salinas. State Assemblyman Travis Allen of Huntington Beach, who has been scooping up Republican Party endorsements across the state, has yet to make a notable television or radio buy, though he and Cox have received some attention as commentators on Fox News. Facebook

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Republicans ready to turn in signatures for ballot measure to repeal California gas-tax increase By Patrick McGreevy A Chevron gas station in Sacramento shows prices last year. (Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press) Republican activists said Tuesday that they have collected at least 830,000 signatures for an initiative to repeal recent increases in Californias gas tax and vehicle fees, more than enough to qualify the measure for the November ballot. The activists need 585,407 signatures of registered voters to qualify the ballot measure. Because signatures are still being processed and counted by the campaign, backers hope to have 900,000 by the time they begin turning them in to the counties on Friday, according to Carl DeMaio, a former San Diego City Council member and organizer of the drive. The breadth and depth of voter anger over the car and gas tax hikes is just amazing, said DeMaio, who hosts a radio talk show. We are seeing Democrats, independents and Republicans sign the petition and volunteering to carry the petition, people from all walks of life. The initiative targets a law approved in April 2017 by the Legislature and Gov. Jerry Brown that is expected to raise $5.4 billion annually for road and bridge repairs and improvements to mass transit. The money comes from a recent 12-cents-per-gallon increase in the gas tax, a 20-cent increase in the diesel fuel excise tax and a new annual vehicle fee ranging from $25 for cars valued at under $5,000, to $175 for cars worth $60,000 or more. The petition drive raised more than $2 million with significant contributions from the California Republican Party and Republican members of Congress from California, including House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy of Bakersfield and Reps. Ken Calvert of Corona and Mimi Walters of Irvine. Republicans hope the issue will help their candidates for office in this years election and hurt Democrats who support the higher taxes. I think this is going to put Democrats in real bad spot, DeMaio said. A spokesman for Brown declined to comment until the signatures are filed. DeMaio said there were approximately 20,000 volunteer petition circulators who brought in more than 250,000 signatures, with the rest collected by paid circulators who received $1 to $2.50 per signature. Its a pretty comfortable margin [of signatures] that we have been able to hit here, DeMaio said. Opposition will grow, he said, as more Californians get their annual vehicle registration notice. The repeal campaign hopes to raise $5 million for the campaign to pass the constitutional amendment, which would not only repeal the increase in the gas tax and vehicle fees but require future increases to be submitted to voters. We know that Gov. Brown and his cohorts are going to spend an amazing amount of money to mislead voters, DeMaio said. But I feel pretty confident that we will repeal the gas tax. Read More Facebook

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Rep. Duncan Hunter sets up trust to raise money for legal expenses amid ongoing criminal investigation By Morgan Cook Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Alpine, has filed paperwork to establish a legal expense fund amid an ongoing federal criminal investigation into misused campaign cash. Hunter filed the required paperwork March 27, seeking a rarely granted Legal Expense Fund through which members of Congress under investigation or being sued in connection with doing their jobs or running for office can raise money for their legal expenses. Such funds are administered by an independent trustee and allow donors to give above the maximum amount they can contribute a candidates campaign. Hunter has spent more than $600,000 of campaign money on lawyers. Read More Facebook

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Kamala Harris says she wont take corporate donations anymore By Sarah D. Wire (Jose Luis Magana / Associated Press) California Sen. Kamala Harris says she will no longer accept money from corporate political action committees. In an interview with WWPM-FMs The Breakfast Club, in New York that aired Monday, the senator said she wasnt expecting a question at a town hall this month about whether she would accept money for corporations or corporate lobbyists. At the time, Harris said it depends, but she said on Monday that she had reflected on the matter and changed her mind. Money has had such an outside influence on politics, and especially with the Supreme Court determining Citizens United, which basically means that big corporations can spend unlimited amounts of money influencing a campaign, right? Harris said. Were all supposed to have an equal vote, but money has now really tipped the balance between an individual having equal power in an election to a corporation. So Ive actually made a decision since I had that conversation that Im not going to accept corporate PAC checks. I just  Im not. You can watch the video of the interview here. (Harris corporate money comments come about 30 minutes in.) Harris wouldnt be on the ballot for a second Senate term until 2022, though its widely believed that she is planning a presidential bid in 2020. Other potential 2020 presidential candidates, including Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), have also ruled out taking corporate PAC money. Soon after Mondays show aired, Harris campaign sent out a fundraising request noting her new stance. As corporate PACs continue to corrupt our politics and twist Congress priorities at your expense, were going to focus on raising money from small-dollar, individual donors like you, the email says. Facebook

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With money tied up in court, California lawmakers try again with new plan to spend $2 billion on homeless housing By Liam Dillon A man sleeps on the sidewalk in front of the Union Rescue Mission in the skid row neighborhood of Los Angeles. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times) A measure to spend $2 billion on housing homeless Californians could be on the November statewide ballot. State Sen. Kevin de Leon (D-Los Angeles) is pushing the idea to deal with what he said was a burgeoning humanitarian crisis whose epicenter is here in California. De Leons new measure is a do-over for a 2016 plan passed by the Legislature to redirect $2 billion toward building homeless housing from a voter-approved 1% income tax surcharge on millionaires that funds mental health services. A Sacramento attorney sued over that decision, arguing that the move violated constitutional rules on approving loans without a public vote and that lawmakers shouldnt take money away from mental health treatment. The case remains active in Sacramento Superior Court and its unclear when, or if, the state will be able to spend the $2 billion. De Leons Senate Bill 1206 would put the $2-billion loan on the ballot in November, freeing up the money if voters approve the measure. De Leon said had he been able to predict the 2016 plan would end up in court, he would have sought a ballot measure at the time. We thought this was like apple pie and baseball and puppies, De Leon said. Who would oppose the idea of repurposing the dollars to build immediate housing as a permanent solution for homelessness? Obviously with a crystal ball, had I anticipated the litigation, I would have worked to place it on the ballot. De Leon noted that the 2016 plan had bipartisan supermajority support in the Legislature, something his new bill also will need to get on the ballot. Sen. John Moorlach (R-Costa Mesa) is a coauthor of the plan. SB 1206 is scheduled for its first hearing in the Legislature on Wednesday. Should De Leons measure be approved, it will join a crowded list of housing issues before voters in November. Californians will decide on a separate $4-billion bond to help finance new low-income housing and home loans for veterans. De Leon said hes not worried those two measures will compete against each other because voters are aware of the scale of the states housing problems and the proposed homeless housing bond redirects existing dollars instead of raising taxes. Once [voters] know that the impact on their pocketbook is not existent, Im confident that theyll join me and my colleague John Moorlach in support of this measure, De Leon said. Facebook

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California lawmakers say too many former felons are being denied professional licenses By John Myers Assemblyman David Chiu (D-San Francisco) along with supporters of bills to allow more former felons to receive professional licenses. (John Myers/Los Angeles Times) A trio of California Assembly members urged colleagues on Monday to pass legislation that would prohibit state commissions and agencies from rejecting a professional license for those who were once convicted of less serious crimes. We cant say we want to rehabilitate people, and then block them from getting the jobs that they need when theyre released, said Assemblyman David Chiu (D-San Francisco). That leads to more recidivism and to more crime. The bills, scheduled to be heard in Assembly committees Tuesday, would ban the use of arrest or conviction records as the reason for denying a professional license. The bill would not apply to Californians who served time for any of the offenses on the states list of violent crimes. The authors, all Democrats, said that a government-issued professional license is required for some 30% of all jobs in the state. Their bills would change the licensing process at the California departments of Consumer Affairs and Social Services and agencies that certify emergency medical technicians. The bills would block prior convictions from leading to the delay or denial of a license unless that crime is directly related to the profession the person intends to pursue. Two of the bills also specifically say convictions less than 5 years old could continue to play a role in licensing decisions. Last year, Gov. Jerry Brown signed a law that keeps private sector employers from inquiring about a job applicants conviction history prior to an offer of employment. Advocates joined the lawmakers at a press conference in Sacramento to point out that limits on awarding licenses should focus only on those whose prior criminal activity could pose a threat to consumers. Continuing to hold people back for crimes that are 6, 7, 8, 10, 20 years old does not actually make sense if youre looking at public safety, said Jael Myrick of the East Bay Community Law Center. One of the proposals, Assembly Bill 2293, seeks to make it easier for ex-felons to get a license allowing a job with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection  the same agency that often uses prison inmates to battle blazes around the state. If a person is good enough to risk their life fighting fires for the state of California as an inmate, said Assemblywoman Eloise Gomez Reyes (D-Grand Terrace), their previous actions should not prevent from having a job utilizing the skill set that they learned. Facebook

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Assembly speaker rebukes building trades union after it targets Assemblywoman Cristina Garcia By John Myers ( (Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press)) The decision by a politically powerful labor group to openly campaign against an embattled Los Angeles-area lawmaker drew a sharp rebuke on Friday from Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon. The Lakewood Democrat lashed out hours after the State Building and Construction Trades Council of California filed paperwork for a political action committee to defeat Assemblywoman Cristina Garcia (D-Bell Gardens). Garcia, whos seeking her fourth term, took an unpaid leave of absence in February following allegations of sexual misconduct. She has denied the reports and an Assembly investigation remains underway. Rendon didnt criticize the labor group by name, insisting instead that the decision was driven by oil and gas industry interests. This is a thinly veiled attempt by Big Oil and polluters to intimidate me and my members. It is an affront to my speakership, Rendon said in a statement. We are proud of the work that the Assembly has done to increase jobs and wages while defending our environment. We will vigorously defend the members of our caucus from any ill-advised political attack. A statement from the labor group, which sparred with Garcia last year on her effort to link new climate change policies with a crackdown on air pollution, said it had decided to reverse past support for her. The Trades have thousands of hard working members in Garcias district, and we look forward to lifting up another Democrat in the 58th Assembly to better represent them and their families, said the statement. The political action committees campaign finance filing on Friday listed nonmonetary in kind contributions from Erin Lehane, a public affairs consultant aligned with the building labor group. Lehane said she had begun researching Garcia in November. In January, a former legislative staffer accused her of groping him in 2014. Lehane, who identified herself as a spokesperson for the labor groups political action committee, said on Friday that she believed Garcias hypocrisy threatened a movement that will dictate how much harassment and abuse my daughter will face in her work life. Garcia, who has been an outspoken advocate for women in the #MeToo movement, has complained that her political opponents helped fan the flames of the accusations. Through a campaign consultant, she declined to comment on Friday. Rendons critique came on the heels of a full-page ad in The Times on Friday, partly paid for by the Trades Council, that criticized well-funded ivory tower elites who push proposals that hurt the oil and gas industry. We are the real jobs that fuel the real California economy, read the advertisement. Facebook

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Legal tiff breaks out over independent committees ad backing Antonio Villaraigosa for governor By Phil Willon An attorney representing Gavin Newsoms campaign for governor is demanding that California television stations cease airing an ad by an independent political committee supporting his Democratic rival Antonio Villaraigosa. Attorney Thomas A. Willis, in a letter to the stations, said the ad is false and misleading and violates California law because it uses snippets of video footage from Villaraigosas own campaign ads. Willis called that illegal coordination between the campaign and PAC. Under California law, advertisements made by entities other than a candidate are presumed to be coordinated  and thus not independent expenditures  when the advertisement replicates, reproduces or disseminates substantial parts of a communication, including video footage, created and paid for by the candidate, the letter states. A representative for the independent expenditure committee  Families & Teachers for Antonio Villaraigosa for Governor  fired back. Attorney Brian T. Hildreth says those allegations have no merit and accused the Newsom campaign of being misleading. Hildreth sent a letter to the television stations in response, urging them to ignore the Newsom campaigns accusations. He said the Newsom camp appears to intentionally misrepresent the law and that the video use was permissible. He said only six seconds of video from Villaraigosas campaign ads was used, which is well within the legal limits. The independent committee is sponsored by the group California Charter Schools Assn. Advocates, according to the California secretary of states office. The ad is airing on broadcast and cable stations statewide. The committees ad is focused on Villaraigosas record as Assembly speaker and as mayor of Los Angeles when there was a drop in crime. Facebook

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Governors race snapshot: Californians are generally upbeat but not focused on the campaign By Mark Z. Barabak Armand Werden, a 29-year-old community college student who works the taps at Dust Bowl Brewery in Turlock, said the state is on the upswing. (Phil Willon / Los Angeles Times) As California chooses a new governor  one of just a handful in the last 40 years not named Jerry Brown  the state seems to be enjoying something unusual in these tumultuous political times: a feeling of relative contentment. Not to say things are perfect. Still, more than 100 random interviews conducted over the length and breadth of the state  from Redding in the north to Santee in the south, from the Pacific coastline to the edge of the Sierra Nevada  found most saying things are looking up, at least so far as Californias direction is concerned. Read More Facebook

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Sierra Club backs Gavin Newsom for California governor By Phil Willon Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks with members of the public following a debate at USC in January. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times) The Sierra Club endorsed Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom in the race for California governor, with officials in the established environmental group praising the Democrats record on climate change and clean energy. He has a proven record for leading on environmental protection, public health and clean energy, Kathryn Phillips, director of Sierra Club California, said in a statement released by the Newsom campaign. He understands that we are feeling the effects of climate change and that California must reduce carbon emissions and reach 100% renewable energy to achieve our climate goals. Phillips said the Sierra Clubs extensive network of volunteers will campaign for Newsom as the June 5 primary approaches. Sierra Club executive director Michael Brune also praised the Democrat, saying he will protect California from Donald Trumps attacks on our clean air and water. The Sierra Club joins a series of other influential groups in California that have backed Newsom. The California Medical Assn., the powerful state doctors lobby, announced its endorsement of Newsom on Thursday. The California Nurses Assn. and the Service Employees International Union, one of the most powerful labor unions in the state, also support Newsom. Newsom is the races front-runner in polls and fundraising. A poll released earlier this month by the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California found that 26% of likely voters backed Newsom. John Cox, a Republican from Rancho Santa Fe, was favored by 15% of likely voters and former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, a Democrat, by 13%. Facebook

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Californias GOP House members are taking their challengers more seriously and the numbers show it By Christine Mai-Duc For much of last year, consultants and campaign managers for some of Californias most vulnerable Republican incumbents maintained a bullish tone on the prospect that the GOP would hold the House in this years midterms. The National Republican Congressional Committee insisted that longtime Republican incumbents in California had built up reputations as effective champions of local issues that would help them weather a flood of Democratic enthusiasm. Since then Rep. Ed Royce (R-Fullerton) and Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Vista) have decided not to seek reelection and the NRCC has opened a West Coast headquarters in Orange County. Read More Facebook

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California officials say Pentagon has confirmed National Guard funding despite Trump threat By John Myers (Evan Vucci / Associated Press) The awkward dance between Gov. Jerry Brown and the federal government over the National Guard jerked back toward discord on Thursday, when Trump said he would refuse to pay for a new deployment of troops  just hours after his administration said otherwise. And a few hours later, California officials said they had received written confirmation from the Pentagon that the mission would indeed be funded. Trump had earlier called Browns decision to approve 400 troops for a mission focused on combating transnational crime and drug smuggling a charade in a tweet. We need border security and action, not words! the president wrote. Governor Jerry Brown announced he will deploy up to 400 National Guard Troops to do nothing. The crime rate in California is high enough, and the Federal Government will not be paying for Governor Browns charade. We need border security and action, not words!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 19, 2018 A spokesman for Brown pointed to a tweet written Wednesday night by Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, thanking the California governor for his efforts. Trump was meeting on Thursday with Nielsen at his Mar-a-Lago estate not long after his tweet was posted. A tweet later posted by the California National Guard said that almost three hours after Trumps comment, the state received written confirmation from the Pentagon to fund the mission as outlined by Brown the day before. In short, nothing has changed today, said a subsequent Guard tweet. Just spoke w @JerryBrownGov about deploying the @USNationalGuard in California. Final details are being worked out but we are looking forward to the support. Thank you Gov Brown!  Secretary Kirstjen M. Nielsen (@SecNielsen) April 19, 2018 Brown was the last of the nations border governors to respond to Trumps insistence earlier this month that National Guard troops were needed to assist with immigration-related duties at the U.S.-Mexico border. And he has consistently refused to allow California troops to engage in any mission related to federal immigration law. This will not be a mission to build a new wall, Brown wrote last week to Nielsen and Defense Secretary James N. Mattis. It will not be a mission to round up women and children or detain people escaping violence and seeking a better life. Exactly what the California operations will cost remains unclear, as state officials have said it will depend on decisions made once the mission begins. The funds would not be transferred to the state, but instead would be paid directly by the Department of Defense. Trump has critiqued California several times over the past few days, often writing tweets that embrace the actions by some cities and counties to join his administrations lawsuit against the states sanctuary immigration law. He made similar comments to reporters on Thursday afternoon. If you look at whats happening in California with sanctuary cities  people are really going the opposite way, Trump said. They dont want sanctuary cities. Theres a little bit of a revolution going on in California. 2:26 p.m.:This article was updated with additional information from the California National Guard and with remarks from Trump. This article was originally published at 9:51 a.m. Facebook

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Gay conversion therapy services would be banned under measure advancing in California By John Myers (Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press) The California Assembly voted Thursday to add gay conversion therapy to the states list of deceptive business practices, following a debate that focused on the personal experiences of several lawmakers and hinted at potential lawsuits to come. It is harmful and it is unnecessary, Assemblyman Evan Low (D-Campbell), the bills author and one of the Legislatures most vocal LGBTQ members, said of the practice. Low, who told Assembly members that he explored conversion therapy as a teenager and suffered depression over his sexual orientation, insisted that the bill would be limited to efforts that involve the exchange of money. Theres nothing wrong with me, he said in an emotional speech on the Assembly floor. Theres nothing that needs to be changed. The bill, which now heads to the Senate, has become the focal point of intense debate on social media. Some religious groups have said that such a law would be a violation of their constitutional rights, while advocates insist the provisions are narrow and theres no credible evidence that the services work. One key part of the debate centers on whether Assembly Bill 2943 would stretch beyond businesses that charge for these programs and extend to printed documents, even Bibles. An analysis by the Assembly Judiciary Committee says the bill would apply only to services that purport to change a persons sexual orientation and offered on a commercial basis, as well as the advertising and offering of such services. Lawmakers who spoke in support of AB 2943 also made clear that they believe those kinds of services have been discredited. This is fraudulent, it should not be occurring, said Assemblywoman Susan Eggman (D-Stockton). But you can still try to pray the gay away, if you like. Assemblyman James Gallagher (R-Yuba City), who said the bill addresses a difficult issue, nonetheless said that its important to ensure laws dont tamper with religious freedom. We have to think about the legitimate experience of people who have gone through conversion therapy and said this was a good thing for them, Gallagher told his colleagues. California law already bans the use of conversion therapy by mental health professionals on those under age 18. Lows bill would expand the states efforts beyond minors. It would join a list of commercial activities deemed unfair or deceptive acts or practices and therefore banned under state law. Facebook

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Gavin Newsom gets backing from doctors group, despite differences over single-payer healthcare By Melanie Mason Gavin Newsom speaks at the California Democrats State Convention in San Diego on Feb. 24. (Kent Nishimura) Californias doctors are siding with Gavin Newsom in the governors race, even though they dont see eye-to-eye on a defining issue of the campaign: single-payer healthcare. The California Medical Assn., the state doctors lobby and a political heavyweight, announced its endorsement of the lieutenant governor on Thursday. Gavin is a lifelong champion for health care in California, and we know he will continue to fight for pragmatic solutions to our most crucial health care challenges, including working to achieve universal access and tackling our states physician shortage, CMA President Theodore M. Mazer said in a statement. Newsom has made his support for state-financed healthcare a centerpiece of his campaign, and he earned the early backing of the most ardent single-payer supporters, the state nurses union. The doctors, meanwhile, oppose the nurses bill, SB 562, which emerged as a flashpoint in the healthcare debate last year. The CMA said the bill would dismantle the healthcare marketplace and destabilize Californias economy. Newsom has said SB 562 should advance in the Legislature, but also said it has open-ended issues that still need to be addressed. The doctors group is also battling with another prominent Newsom endorser, the Service Employees International Union, over a new measure that would impose price caps on an array of medical services paid for by commercial health insurers in the state. The SEIU is a leading sponsor of the proposal; the doctors fiercely oppose it. Newsom and the physicians group have a history of political alignment. Newsom was the first statewide official to support Proposition 56, a 2016 tobacco tax pushed by the CMA that raised revenue in part to increase money for doctors who saw Medi-Cal patients. That year, the association also endorsed two initiatives championed by Newsom: Proposition 63, which imposed new gun control measures, and Proposition 64, which legalized recreational marijuana. Facebook

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Independent committee backing Antonio Villaraigosa for governor hits the airwaves with first ad By Phil Willon Antonio Villaraigosa speaks at the 2018 California Democratic Party Convention in San Diego in February.. (Denis Poroy / Associated Press) A well-financed independent committee backing Antonio Villaraigosas bid to be Californias next governor released its first television ad Thursday, praising his record for working with Republicans and as a candidate for all of California. The ad, which is to air statewide on broadcast and cable stations, is focused on Villaraigosas record as Assembly speaker and mayor of Los Angeles, including on education and a drop in crime while he was at City Hall. To move California forward, we need to help more Californians get ahead, the ad says. Thats why Antonio Villaraigosa brought both parties together to balance the state budget with record investments in public schools and new career training programs. The independent expenditure committee behind the ad campaign, Families & Teachers for Antonio Villaraigosa for Governor 2018, is sponsored by the California Charter Schools Assn. Advocates, according to the California secretary of states office. The committee is spending seven figures per week on the ad buy, said Josh Pulliam, a political consultant for the committee. As mayor of Los Angeles, Villaraigosa clashed with teachers unions, starting with his failed attempt to take political control of the Los Angeles Unified School District. His fight with those unions continued after he left office in 2013. Money has poured into the committee this month from wealthy charter schools supporters: Reed Hastings, chief executive of Netflix, donated $7 million, and Los Angeles billionaire and philanthropist Eli Broad donated $1.5 million. On Wednesday, former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan donated $1 million. The independent expenditure committee is expected to provide a boost to Villaraigosas campaign. Democratic front-runner Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom has a major advantage in fundraising over all other candidates in the race and has received the backing of the California Teachers Assn. and other education unions. A recent Public Policy Institute of California poll also showed Villaraigosa lagging in third place in the race, trailing Newsom and Republican businessman John Cox. The candidates who finish in the top two in the June 5 primary will advance to the November general election, regardless of their party affiliation. Facebook

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Gov. Jerry Brown says Trump administration will fund his National Guard mission  without immigration duties By John Myers (Alex Wong / Getty Images) Gov. Jerry Brown formally mobilized 400 California National Guard members Wednesday for transnational crime-fighting duties, thus preventing any effort by President Trump to have the troops focus on immigration enforcement on the Mexican border. The governor announced that federal officials have agreed to fund the plan he announced last week  a mission to combat criminal gangs, human traffickers and illegal firearm and drug smugglers in locations around California, including near the border. The order Brown signed makes clear that the troops will not be allowed to perform a broader set of duties as envisioned by Trumps recent comments. California National Guard service members shall not engage in any direct law enforcement role nor enforce immigration laws, arrest people for immigration law violations, guard people taken into custody for alleged immigration violations, or support immigration law enforcement activities, the order read. The cost of the mission, a spokesman for Brown said, will be paid directly by the federal government. No initial estimate has been made, as the exact amount will depend on exactly how the troops will be used. Though the duties of California Guard members were outlined last week, the state had been waiting for an agreement by federal officials to pay for the operations. Since that time, the president has taken Brown and the state to task over its decision to avoid any immigration-related duties at the border. On Wednesday morning, Trump tweeted, Jerry Brown is trying to back out of the National Guard at the Border, but the people of the State are not happy. Want Security & Safety NOW! There is a Revolution going on in California. Soooo many Sanctuary areas want OUT of this ridiculous, crime infested & breeding concept. Jerry Brown is trying to back out of the National Guard at the Border, but the people of the State are not happy. Want Security & Safety NOW!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 18, 2018 Looks like Jerry Brown and California are not looking for safety and security along their very porous Border. He cannot come to terms for the National Guard to patrol and protect the Border, Trump tweeted Tuesday. There was no immediate reaction from the White House to Browns announcement. On Tuesday, Brown told reporters in Washington that his plan was consistent with a safer border. That sounds to me like fighting crime, the governor said. Trying to catch some desperate mothers and children, or unaccompanied minors coming from Central America, that sounds like something else. The order Brown issued Wednesday after returning from a brief trip to talk climate change in Toronto and to speak to a national trade union and visit with reporters in Washington is set to expire at the end of September. It specifically says no Guard service member may participate in a mission that would exceed the mission scope and limitations related to transnational crime activity. It also says troops cannot help build any new border barrier. 5:27 p.m.: This article was updated with information related to the cost of the Guard mission and Browns trip to Washington. This article was originally published at 5:13 p.m. Facebook

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California bill aims to end practice that keeps workplace misconduct cases out of court By Melanie Mason A California bill would prohibit employers from requiring workers to use private arbitration to settle disputes, a practice that critics say shields improper workplace conduct from public view. The bill by Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher (D-San Diego) would bar businesses from making employees, when they are hired, waive their future rights to take any harassment, discrimination or other claims to court. Arbitration can be a highly effective dispute resolution method when both parties can choose it freely, when both parties are equal, Gonzalez Fletcher said at a news conference on Wednesday. It is far less successful when the more powerful party forces the other to accept those terms, especially as a condition of employment. Forced arbitration has come under increasing scrutiny since the #MeToo movement, with high-profile figures such as former Fox News anchor Gretchen Carlson pointing to the practice as shielding workplace abusers from public disclosure because arbitration resolutions often include nondisclosure agreements. Last year, a bipartisan bill was introduced in Congress to end mandatory arbitration in employment agreements. Gonzalez Fletcher said she was pursuing an unusual tool to draw attention to the issue  a subpoena issued by the Legislature to compel testimony from a worker bound by a nondisclosure agreement as a result of arbitration. The Legislature has subpoena power but it is rarely used. The bills sponsors believe lawmakers last issued a subpoena in 2001 while investigating price manipulation by Enron. Gonzalez Fletcher said she has requested Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon (D-Lakewood) to issue the subpoena to require Tara Zoumer, who sued the company WeWork in 2016 for overtime pay, to testify before the Assembly Judiciary Committee next week. Zoumers suit was moved to arbitration and resolved. She is now subject to a nondisclosure agreement and could face a financial penalty for speaking publicly about her case. A spokesman for Rendon said the subpoena request is under consideration. Business groups oppose the bill, AB 3080. The California Chamber of Commerce has dubbed it a job biller, claiming it would dramatically increase legal costs for businesses. Banning such agreements benefits the trial attorneys, not the employer or employee, the group said. The bill must first advance from the Assembly Labor Committee on Wednesday. Facebook

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At least 240 House lawmakers want a vote on immigration. California supporters say they arent ready to force one By Sarah D. Wire Rep. Jeff Denham (R-Turlock), flanked by Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-Redlands) and Rep. Will Hurd (R-Texas) speak about DACA legislation (Bill Clark / CQ Roll Call) Rep. Jeff Denham says at least 240 of the 430 current House members have signed onto his resolution to hold votes on four immigration bills, and he hopes House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) and President Trump are paying attention to the show of support. But, the Republican from Turlock and his allies said Wednesday that they are not yet willing to commit to forcing Ryans hand through a little-used procedural move called a discharge petition; they acknowledged theres no guarantee that all of 47 Republicans and 193 Democrats House co-signers will back them up if they try to force the issue. Im sure that it is something that will be discussed in the coming weeks. You should not need a discharge petition. When you can show the overwhelming majority of the House, the support of it, you should not need a discharge petition, but it is something we would talk about in the future, Denham said. It is far too early to talk about next steps. Ryan said last week that he opposes Denhams effort, saying its a waste of time for the House to vote on bills the president might veto. Denhams resolution would prompt debate and votes on four very different immigration bills: one favored by the Trump administration, one preferred by Democrats, one bipartisan proposal and another immigration bill of Ryans choice. Whichever got the most votes would move forward to the Senate. All four bills would help Dreamers to differing degrees and include varying levels of border security or immigration enforcement. For example, the Trump-backed bill would also dramatically reduce legal immigration, while the Democrats would only deal with legal status for Dreamers. Democrats say they dont expect the show of support will sway Ryan. Congressional Hispanic Caucus Chairwoman Rep. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D-N.M.) said Tuesday night she expects Ryan will have to be forced into allowing a vote. It doesnt matter how many signatures we get. We could have every signature, technically, except his, on the floor of the House and... if he doesnt want to, it doesnt happen, Lujan Grisham (D-N.M.) said. Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-Redlands), who gathered the Democratic co-sponsors for Denham, also wouldnt give a deadline for House leaders to act, but said the co-sponsors are only willing to wait weeks not months. We do want to give them an opportunity to bring up the rule and to use whatever process they want, Aguilar said. They do have options, but I think they need to understand that we have options too. Facebook

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Billionaire Democratic activist Tom Steyer endorses Kevin de Leon in his insurgent bid against Sen. Dianne Feinstein By Seema Mehta Tom Steyer, left, and California state Sen. Kevin de Leon (D-Los Angeles). (Getty Images; Los Angeles Times) Billionaire Democratic activist Tom Steyer is endorsing state Sen. Kevin de Leon in his insurgent challenge to Sen. Dianne Feinstein, and did not rule out funding an outside effort to boost De Leons chances. I think hes the kind of young progressive that reflects California and would be a very strong advocate for our state nationally, Steyer said in an interview on Tuesday, pointing to De Leons efforts on issues such as immigration, climate change and gun control while he was the state Senate leader. I know him well and hes a friend. We share a lot of values. Steyer, who flirted with running for the Senate seat, did not criticize Feinstein as he has in the past. Sen. Feinstein has been an outstanding public servant who has dedicated the bulk of her adult life to the service of our state and the country, he said. These are two strong, very good Democrats. I just believe Kevin is the true progressive and he reflects something we need representing California going forward. I have nothing bad to say about Dianne Feinstein. I have a lot of good to say about Kevin de Leon. De Leon faces enormous odds as he tries to oust Feinstein, who has served in the Senate for a quarter-century, is well known to the states voters and has daunting leads in polls and fundraising. But De Leon has gained notable endorsements, most recently from the 2.1-million-member California Labor Federation last week. Campaign finance reports released this week show that Feinstein has more than $10 million in the bank, while De Leon has just more than $670,000. Feinstein, a multimillionaire and one of the wealthiest members of the Senate, has already lent her campaign $5 million and could easily write another check. But Steyer, a billionaire former hedge fund manager, could write a larger one. He is among the largest Democratic donors in the nation and has already committed more than $50 million to push for the impeachment of President Trump and to register young voters. He was noncommittal when asked if he would fund an independent expenditure group on behalf of De Leon. I dont have any concrete plans for that, he said. Read More Facebook

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Californias largest pension fund sends next years invoice to state government: $6.3 billion By John Myers The California Public Employees Retirement System building (Max Whittaker / Getty Images) As part of a shift toward less optimistic expectations for investment returns to pay for government worker pensions, board members of the California Public Employees Retirement System voted Tuesday to require an almost $6.3-billion payment from the state budget in the fiscal year that begins on July 1. The action, which could receive final approval on Wednesday, reflects a gradually higher annual contribution to public employee pensions by the state and from local governments across California. In 2016, CalPERS approved a half-percentage point decrease in its official estimate of the long-term investment return on its $353.3-billion portfolio. That shift was designed to happen over several years, in hopes it would lessen the financial shock of shifting more of the costs onto government employers. The highest costs are also, in part, a reflection of increases in the size of the states payroll. The states CalPERS payment will be about $450 million more than the total paid in the current fiscal year and more than double what it was only a decade ago. CalPERS board members voted on Tuesdays staff proposal with little discussion, save for a question about the increase in contributions also required from workers hired after a pension overhaul that took effect in June. It seems like it will be a ding on peoples salaries, said Theresa Taylor, the chairwoman of CalPERS finance committee and a member of SEIU Local 1000, the union that represents some 96,000 state employees. The $6.299-billion payment required from Californias state government must now be factored into the budget crafted by the Legislature and signed into law by Gov. Jerry Brown in late June. Brown had already assumed a similarly sized payment in his budget proposal unveiled in January. In February, a coalition representing city governments warned about the effects of rising pension costs under the expectations of less money from Wall Street investments. The report issued by the League of California Cities projected an average increase of more than 50% in annual pension payments made by the states largest cities over the next seven years. A CalPERS staff report notes that the net return on all of the funds investments for the fiscal year that ended in July was 11.2%. But expectations on profits over the next 30 years remain significantly more modest, and theres long been a robust debate about how to properly set those future expectations. The lower the rate of projected investment return, the larger the share of pension costs that must be covered by taxpayers and some employees. Overall, CalPERS officials believe the system has assets to cover 71% of its long-term obligations. Facebook

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California warns legal pot sellers not to participate in unlicensed 4/20 events By Patrick McGreevy Marijuana on display at a dispensary in Los Angeles. ( (Frederic J. Brown / AFP/Getty Images)) The state issued a warning Tuesday that businesses holding licenses to sell marijuana could face penalties if they participate in unlicensed temporary events away from their stores, including on Friday, April 20, which has become an annual celebration for counterculture groups. The warning was issued ahead of 4/20 by the state Bureau of Cannabis Control. Since Jan. 1, the bureau has issued more than 700 state licenses to sell marijuana for medical or recreational use. The bureau has issued 47 temporary event licenses to groups that are limited to holding the marijuana celebrations on county fairgrounds that have authorized such events with city approval. Any bureau licensee participating in an unlicensed cannabis event may be subject to disciplinary action, the warning said, adding that lawful participation by bureau licensees in any temporary cannabis event that allows sales and/or consumption is dependent upon issuance of the appropriate licenses from the bureau. While many Californians have been issued medical approval to sell or use marijuana, the law does not allow them to participate in unlicensed events, also referred to as Proposition 215 events after the ballot measure that legalized medical pot two decades ago in the state. Participation in such events may lead to civil penalties for unlicensed commercial cannabis activity, the warning said. Meanwhile, a survey of some 1,000 marijuana users that was released Tuesday by the firm LendEDU found that the average 4/20 participant plans to spend $71 on marijuana to celebrate the unofficial holiday, and about 35% of respondents are planning to take off work Friday. Facebook

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California police groups shift position on officer discipline records, now consider support for making some of them public By Liam Dillon Los Angeles Police Department recruits at a graduation ceremony in April (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times) Some major law enforcement groups signaled Tuesday they are willing to support making part of police officer disciplinary records public, a dramatic departure from their past positions. Local and national attention on police shootings and misconduct has led law enforcement organizations to reconsider their blanket opposition to proposals that would give public access to some internal disciplinary investigations of officers. Were going to be open to supporting efforts that would allow for some records to be released, said Ryan Sherman, a lobbyist with the Riverside Sheriffs Assn. Debate over secrecy provisions in officer disciplinary files came during a legislative hearing on Senate Bill 1421 from Sen. Nancy Skinner (D-Berkeley). Skinners bill, which advanced out of the Senate Public Safety Committee on Tuesday, would require public disclosure of all internal officer shooting investigations and confirmed cases of sexual assault and lying while on duty. Currently, all police discipline information is confidential outside of a courtroom in California, which has some of the nations strictest standards against public disclosure. Unfortunately, the fact that we have such strict restrictions on any access to public records has affected certain communities trust towards our law enforcement, Skinner said during the hearing. Prior to Skinners effort, other have tried to loosen these rules, some of which date back 40 years. Most recently in 2016, a bid by then-Sen. Mark Leno (D-San Francisco) failed in a Senate committee. In debate two years ago, no major law enforcement groups indicated they would accept changes to state laws that would make individual internal investigations public, saying they were essential to protect officer privacy and safety. But Tuesday, Sherman and other lobbyists including those representing the states largest police labor organization, signaled they might be willing to entertain changes. They said they were negotiating with Skinner on the bills details. Law enforcement groups still have major concerns about SB 1421 as written. Ed Fishman, an attorney for the Police Officers Research Assn., told legislators that the bill would wrongfully expose police officers who acted within departmental policy to invasions of their privacy. It has unintended consequences that are extreme and will hurt the public, Fishman said. Tuesdays hearing featured testimony from many who have had relatives killed by police officers in recent years advocating for the bill. Senators on the Public Safety Committee also gave public rebukes to law enforcement lobbyists, criticizing them for a lack of diversity and insensitivity to concerns raised by communities of color. I think that you are completely and utterly out of touch with the realities of how those you are representing are perceived by major segments of California, said Sen. Holly Mitchell (D-Los Angeles). You are not going to be able to continue to lobby your way out of it. The bill faces at least one more committee hearing in the Senate before reaching the floor. It will have to pass both houses of the Legislature by the end of August. Facebook

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Newest member of the California Assembly arrives ready to work on criminal justice issues By John Myers Assemblywoman Sydney Kamlager-Dove prepares for the oath of office from Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon with her husband, Austin Dove. (California Assembly Democrats) Two weeks after winning a Los Angeles special election, the newest member of the California Assembly says she hopes to focus on reforms to the states criminal justice system during her time in Sacramento. Assemblywoman Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-Los Angeles) took the oath of office on Monday, filling one of three vacant seats representing Los Angeles County in the lower house. The Democrat, a former community college trustee and legislative staffer, thanked her mentors in remarks from the Assembly rostrum. So many women, and in my life so many black women, have paid in giving me the kind of morals and integrity and grit that is required to fight on behalf of people that you know, and people that you dont know, she said. Kamlager-Dove won handily on April 3, receiving 70% of the votes cast in the 54th Assembly District which encompasses communities west of downtown Los Angeles, from Crenshaw to Culver City and as far north as Westwood. She will serve the remaining eight months of the term of former Assemblyman Sebastian Ridley-Thomas, who resigned last year citing health concerns. She has said she hopes to focus her attention on poverty issues and on reform of the states criminal justice system. I think we have an opportunity to really push the needle in terms of how we look at rehabilitation, how we look at incarceration, and how we look at changing the lives oftentimes of poor men and women of color, Kamalager-Dove said on Monday in a video released by Assembly Democrats. Facebook

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Survivors of violent crime raise their voices in California to call for a new approach to criminal justice By Jazmine Ulloa Aaliyah Smith marches with her cousins. (Jazmine Ulloa / Los Angeles Times) Her father, uncle, a cousin and two older brothers. Those are some of the family members 16-year-old Aaliyah Smith has lost to gun violence. Then there are her friends. Jermaine Jackson Jr., 27, was shot and killed in 2016 while he painted over graffiti in San Francisco. Toriano Tito Adger, 18, was shot there a year later at a bus stop. He called Smith, who was nearby, and warned her to run. She made it inside a library moments before the crack of gunfire. Last week, Smith was among hundreds who gathered in Sacramento for annual National Crime Victims Rights Week events, where calls were issued for a new approach to criminal justice and public safety in California, one that puts survivors at the center of policy. But a debate is brewing over what that entails. Read More Facebook

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California expects $14 billion in tax payments this month By John Myers State workers handle income tax returns at the California Franchise Tax Board offices. (Laura Morton / For The Times) Gov. Jerry Browns proposed state budget is built on what taxpayers might find an audacious assumption: almost $14 billion in tax payments in the month of April, an average of $83 million collected per hour on every business day of the month. Most of that money will come from the taxes Californians pay in advance of Tuesday nights filing deadline for income tax returns. If history is any guide, the rate of payment could quadruple by weeks end. While tax rules have shifted some of the payment schedules to other months, April remains a vitally important month to the fiscal health of state government. The state controllers office reports more than 15% of all personal income tax revenues in 2017 were collected in April. In the recession years of a decade ago, tax revenue predictions were frequently off the mark by hundreds of millions of dollars. The last two state budgets have seen significant windfalls of personal income tax revenue, thanks in part both to an improving economy and to the continuation of a temporary surcharge on the wealthiest taxpayers  extended by voters in 2016. In the budget plan he sent to lawmakers in January, Brown projected a $6.1-billion windfall and proposed using a sizable amount to top off Californias rainy-day fund ahead of schedule. The independent Legislative Analysts Office reports that through the end of last week, the months income tax tally stood at $3 billion, slightly ahead of projections. By the end of the current week, a single days total could be almost that large. Lawmakers began reviewing the governors $190.3-billion spending plan during the winter, but few decisions are made until they get a look at Aprils tax revenues. The governor will release a revised plan based on the new data next month; lawmakers are required to send him a completed budget no later than June 15. Facebook

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Feinstein war chest tops $10 million while Kevin de Leon struggles to keep pace By Sarah D. Wire Sen. Dianne Feinstein widened her already-massive fundraising advantage in the run-up to Junes primary, raising twice as much in the first quarter than her strongest Senate challenger has sitting in the bank. Feinstein raised $1.3 million between January and March, bringing her war chest to just over $10 million as Californias U.S. Senate race begins in earnest, according Federal Election Commission reports. Former state Senate leader Kevin De Leon, the best known of the more than 30 people who will appear with Feinstein on the June primary ballot, raised just $575,991 in that same period, bringing his cash on hand to $672,331, according to his quarterly FEC report. Read More Facebook

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Trump has met his match, says Gov. Jerry Brown in promoting climate action on a quick trip to Canada By John Myers (Rich Pedroncelli/Associated Press) Gov. Jerry Brown told a Canadian audience Monday that he believes President Trumps efforts to reverse course on climate change policy are a momentary deviation as others in the United States seek limits on greenhouse gas emissions. Thats very temporary, I can assure you, Brown said at a joint event in Toronto with Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne. The governors quick international trip, announced only late last week, comes as Wynnes Liberal Party faces a stiff challenge in Junes election from the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario and its leader, Doug Ford. Critics of Wynnes party have called for Ontario to pull out of the Western Climate Initiative, a cooperative agreement between three Canadian provinces and California on efforts to limit greenhouse gases. Brown sought to link the efforts of Canadian conservatives with Republicans in the United States who oppose existing climate change programs. In contrast, he told the audience, several GOP lawmakers voted last summer to renew Californias cap-and-trade program. I would say to the conservatives of Canada, wake up and see what your friends in California are doing, he said. The Democrat took particular notice of Trumps efforts to shift away from climate change policies from the administration of former President Obama, as well as a push by the Environmental Protection Agency to cancel Californias strict limits on automobile emissions. If Trump tries to change that, well have litigation well beyond his term in office, Brown said while also noting Chinese government efforts to produce more low-emissions vehicles. Between California and China, Trump has met his match. What hes saying is not going to happen. Many of the governors remarks, though, were aimed at the tough political situation in which Wynne finds herself with seven weeks to go before Ontarios parliamentary elections. Dangers abound, but success is right in our hands, Brown said. So dont blow it! Facebook

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California voters are getting to know the states attorney general through his aggressive stance challenging Trump By Patrick McGreevy Less than two months from his first statewide election, California Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra has become adept not only at challenging President Trump but at using the bully pulpit of his office to raise his profile with voters. The aggressive effort may help boost the former Los Angeles congressmans chances at winning a full term in office this fall, almost two years after he was appointed to replace Sen. Kamala Harris in 2017. Appointed by Gov. Jerry Brown, Becerra took office as attorney general four days after Trumps inauguration. Thats afforded him an opportunity to get in front of Californians  and potential voters  on an array of issues including immigration, healthcare and the environment. Read More Facebook

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Gov. Jerry Brown forms commission for 2020 census outreach By Melanie Mason In an effort to make sure California has a strong showing in the next national census, Gov. Jerry Brown on Friday established a state commission to prepare outreach for the decennial count. It is vitally important for California to do everything it can to ensure that every Californian is counted in the upcoming census, Brown said in a prepared statement. The commissions formation comes on the heels of a Trump administration plan to ask about citizenship status as a part of the census. State officials fear that such a question, which has not been asked in a census since 1950, could chill participation among California residents. That could result in the state losing billions of dollars in federal funds and a seat in Congress. The 23-member panel, appointed largely by Brown as well as picks by legislative leaders, comes from private- and public-sector backgrounds, including civil rights groups, religious institutions and educational institutions. Facebook

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Garcetti kicks off Iowa visit with 2020 on his mind and a hardhat on his head LA Mayor - and 2020 prospect - Eric Garcetti makes his Iowa debut at the Carpenters Union Training Center. Fearlessly flaunts the never be photographed in head gear/safety glasses rule. pic.twitter.com/14bUOPXMvF  Mark Z. Barabak (@markzbarabak) April 13, 2018 Facebook

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Asm. Rocky Chavez takes the lead in race to replace Issa, while Doug Applegate slips By Joshua Stewart A new poll shows that Republican Assemblyman Rocky Chavez has taken a clear lead over 15 other candidates running to replace Rep. Darrell Issa in Congress and has overtaken Democrat Doug Applegate, the previous frontrunner. In a SurveyUSA poll by 10News and The San Diego Union-Tribune, Chavez, R-Oceanside, has support of 16 percent of likely voters, putting him ahead of Applegate, a lawyer, who was favored by 12 percent of voters and is in second place. The top two vote-getters in June, regardless of party, will proceed to a November runoff election. Competing with Applegate for the No. 2 spot is Democrat Mike Levin, also a lawyer, with support of 9 percent of voters. Several other candidates were right at his heels. Democratic Businessman Paul Kerr and Board of Equalization Member Diane Harkey, R-Dana Point, were tied for fourth at 8 percent each. Read More Facebook

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Pro-Kevin de Leon group launches ad castigating Dianne Feinstein By Seema Mehta A group that is supporting Kevin de Leons bid for the U.S. Senate launched a blistering ad against Sen. Dianne Feinstein on Thursday, questioning her progressive principles and tying her to President Trump. The ad buy from A Progressive California is minuscule  $10,000 to air it in Los Angeles for one day on CNN and MSNBC during programming such as The Rachel Maddow Show, Hardball with Chris Matthews and Anderson Cooper 360. The minute-long ad features news clips about Feinstein not getting the California Democratic Party endorsement earlier this year, as well as footage of Feinstein saying that Trump can be a good president and appearing to share a laugh with Trump. That moment actually came during a White House meeting in the aftermath of the Parkland, Fla., school shooting when the president suggested an assault weapons ban should be included in a bipartisan bill to expand gun background checks. It also features extensive clips of de Leons speech at the state partys convention. De Leon, who just ended his final term as leader of the state Senate, announced last year he would run against fellow Democrat Feinstein as she seeks her fifth full term. Feinsteins longtime political advisor dismissed the ad, noting the size of the buy. Its not really a buy, said Bill Carrick. Ten thousand dollars in cable in L.A. Poof, its gone. Still, he said he planned to have the campaigns lawyers review the ad to see if it violates campaign law that limits what outside groups like A Progressive California can do. Such groups cannot coordinate with campaigns or candidates, and are limited in how much their messages can support a candidate. Ann Ravel, the former chair of the Federal Election Commission and the California Fair Political Practices Commission, said if the ad was in a state race, she is certain that the state commission would open an investigation into potential coordination with de Leons campaign because of the messaging and the types of footage in the ad. But the bipartisan federal commission cant agree on how to enforce the federal regulations, she said. The problem is [outside groups] understand that given the lack of very strong enforcement at the federal level, theres the ability to stretch the law, she said. A spokeswoman for the FEC declined to comment. Dave Jacobson, a spokesman for A Progressive California, disputed the suggestion that the ad violated campaign law. This frivolous allegation shows that Sen. Feinstein is afraid of the public seeing an ad which showcases her own words, that Donald Trump can be a good president, he said. Facebook

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Dispute over money emerges in campaign to repeal Californias gas tax increase By Patrick McGreevy A motorist prepares to gas up her vehicle in San Rafael, Calif., in 2015. (Justin Sullivan / Getty Images) A proposed initiative to repeal hikes to Californias gas tax has been caught in the middle of a dispute involving Republican rivals in the governors race. Assemblyman Travis Allen, a Republican candidate for governor, decided in January to drop plans for his own initiative and said he would urge supporters to sign a separate petition being supported by several Republican members of Congress. Then last week, the committee Allen formed to finance his ballot measure reported a $300,000 contribution from PISF Inc., a Novato, Calif., real estate firm. Now, an organizer of the still active Give Voters a Voice committee is urging the Allen committee to immediately donate their funds in support of the ongoing signature gathering efforts. There is only one gas tax repeal measure currently in circulation and that is the measure sponsored by the Give Voters a Voice Committee, said Dave Gilliard, a consultant to the group. PISF Inc., he said, gave to repeal taxes aAllies balk at Trump administration bid to block Chinese firm from cutting-edge telecom markets By David S. Cloud Britain and Germany are balking at the Trump administrations call for a ban on equipment from Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei, threatening a global U.S. campaign to thwart Chinas involvement in future mobile networks. Both countries are expected to limit Huawei and other Chinese companies from providing core components including routers. But other types of Chinese equipment for next-generation, high-speed communications could still be installed on British and German networks, officials and analysts say. The U.S. push to ban Huawei has provoked a global dispute in recent weeks, with senior U.S. officials, including Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo, publicly urging NATO allies in Europe to exclude the company and warning that the United States might limit its military presence in countries that did not do so. Read More Facebook

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Confucius Institutes: Do they improve U.S.-China ties or harbor spies? By Don Lee Hanging red lanterns welcome visitors to the University of Marylands Confucius Institute, the oldest of about 100 Chinese language and cultural centers that have popped up over the last 15 years on American campuses, subsidized by millions of dollars from Chinas central government. But last fall, when four U.S. Senate investigators walked into the Confucius offices in Maryland and spent hours questioning staff, they werent looking for an educational exchange. The committee has been seeking detailed information from the university about the program, including contracts, email exchanges and financial arrangements that school administrators have kept under wraps since it started in 2004. American colleges once viewed these jointly funded institutes as an economical way to expand their language offerings  one that could also bring warmer ties with China and, importantly, an influx of Chinese international students paying full tuition. Read More Facebook

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Watch Live: White House holds surprise news briefing amid government shutdown Facebook

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U.S. policy toward China shifts from engagement to confrontation By David S. Cloud For decades, China had no closer American friend than Dianne Feinstein. As San Francisco mayor in the 1970s, she forged a sister-city relationship with Shanghai, the first between American and Chinese communities. As U.S. senator, she dined with Chinese leaders at Mao Tse-tungs old Beijing residence. And in the 1990s, she championed a trade policy change that opened a floodgate of Western investment into China. Today the Democratic senator sees China as a growing threat, joining a broad array of Trump administration officials, national security strategists and business executives who once favored engagement with Beijing and now advocate a confrontational approach instead. Read More Facebook

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Mnuchins attempt to calm markets backfires as Trump takes another shot at the Federal Reserve By Jim Puzzanghera An attempt by Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin to calm plunging financial markets backfired Monday, further rattling investors with new fears about whether major U.S. banks have enough cash on top of worries about interest rates, political instability in Washington and a slowing global economy. Adding to the volatile mix was a fresh attack on the Federal Reserve by President Trump, who declared that the central bank was the U.S. economys only problem and that it didnt have a feel for the market. The Fed is like a powerful golfer who cant score because he has no touch -- he cant putt! Trump said on Twitter. Read More Facebook

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He speaks to Democratic hearts. But is Beto ORourke a serious White House contender? By Mark Z. Barabak Hes a failed U.S. Senate candidate with an undistinguished congressional record who, for the moment, is a blazing-hot 2020 presidential prospect  despite the fact that he may not run and faces long odds if he does. Beto ORourke suggests the will-he-or-wont-he speculation is something he himself cant quite fathom. I think thats a great question, he responded in a Dallas Morning News interview when asked whether his unsuccessful November Senate bid merited a promotion to the White House. I ask that question myself. Read More Facebook

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Russian disinformation teams targeted Robert S. Mueller III, says report prepared for Senate By Craig Timberg, Tony Romm, Elizabeth Dwoskin Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III. (Associated Press) Months after President Trump took office, Russias disinformation teams trained their sites on a new target: special counsel Robert S. Mueller III. Having worked to help get Trump into the White House, they now worked to neutralize the biggest threat to his staying there. The Russian operatives unloaded on Mueller through fake accounts on Facebook, Twitter and beyond, falsely claiming that the former FBI director was corrupt and that the allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 election were crackpot conspiracies. One post on Instagram  which emerged as an especially potent weapon in the Russian social media arsenal  claimed that Mueller had worked in the past with radical Islamic groups. Such tactics exemplified how Russian teams ranged nimbly across social media platforms in a shrewd online influence operation aimed squarely at American voters. The effort started earlier than commonly understood and lasted longer while relying on the strengths of different sites to manipulate distinct slices of the electorate, according to a pair of comprehensive new reports prepared for the Senate Intelligence Committee and released Monday. Read more Timberg, Romm and Dwoskin report for the Washington Post. Facebook

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President Trump announces Mick Mulvaney as acting White House chief of staff By Associated Press President Trump says budget director Mick Mulvaney will serve as acting chief of staff, replacing John F. Kelly in the new year. I am pleased to announce that Mick Mulvaney, Director of the Office of Management & Budget, will be named Acting White House Chief of Staff, replacing General John Kelly, who has served our Country with distinction. Mick has done an outstanding job while in the Administration....  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 14, 2018 Facebook

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It aint over when its over: In Michigan, Wisconsin and elsewhere, losers seek to undermine election results By Mark Z. Barabak Democrat Gavin Newsom has yet to become California governor, but already a candidate for state Republican Party chairman is promoting a recall effort. In Michigan and Wisconsin, GOP lawmakers have rushed through legislation to thwart their incoming Democratic governors and hamper others in the opposing party from doing the jobs voters chose them to do. In Congress, GOP leaders have echoed President Trump and sought to undermine the legitimacy of Democrats strong midterm performance, raising unsubstantiated allegations of fraud and political malfeasance. Read More Facebook

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New CFPB Director Kathy Kraninger says she wont be a puppet of Mick Mulvaney By Jim Puzzanghera On her first full day leading the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Kathy Kraninger said she wont be a puppet of Mick Mulvaney, the controversial acting director whom she replaced in the powerful regulatory position. To underscore that point, the former White House aide said she would even reconsider a Mulvaney action that critics saw as a gratuitous jab at Democrats who championed the agencys creation: changing its name to the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection. Kraningers declaration during a meeting with reporters Tuesday addressed one of the main criticisms of her selection. She is considered a protege of Mulvaney, her boss at the White House Office of Management and Budget who has executed a dramatic, industry-friendly shift at the watchdog agency. Read More Facebook

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Trumps pick for chief of staff, Nick Ayers, out of running By Associated Press Nick Ayers, right, with Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch, at the funeral service for George H.W. Bush on Dec. 3. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Associated Press) President Trumps top pick to replace John F. Kelly as chief of staff, Nick Ayers, is no longer expected to fill that role. Thats according to a White House official who is not authorized to discuss the personnel issue by name and spoke on condition of anonymity. Ayers is Vice President Mike Pences chief of staff. The official says that Trump and Ayers could not agree on Ayers length of service. The father of young children, Ayers had agreed to serve in an interim capacity though the spring, but Trump wanted a two-year commitment. The official says that Ayers will instead assist the president from outside the administration. Trump announced Saturday that Kelly would be departing the White House around the end of the year. Thank you @realDonaldTrump, @VP, and my great colleagues for the honor to serve our Nation at The White House. I will be departing at the end of the year but will work with the #MAGA team to advance the cause.  #Georgia  Nick Ayers (@nick_ayers) December 9, 2018 Facebook

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U.S. hiring slows to 155,000 jobs, unemployment rate holds at 3.7% By Jim Puzzanghera Job growth slowed significantly in November but still was solid, indicating the economy remains in good shape but not expanding so quickly that it will lead to sharply higher interest rates. U.S. employers added 155,000 jobs last month, well below analyst expectations and a steep decline from Octobers strong 237,000 figure, the Labor Department reported Friday. Still, monthly job gains are averaging 206,000 this year, the best since 2015. Even the slower pace of 170,000 over the last three months is close to last years average of 182,000 and well above the amount needed to keep up with population growth. Read More Facebook

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Trump is expected to pick State Department spokeswoman for U.N. ambassador By Associated Press Heather Nauert at a briefing at the State Department on Aug. 9, 2017. (Alex Brandon / Associated Press) President Trump is expected to nominate State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert to be the next U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Two administration officials confirmed Trumps plans. A Republican congressional aide said the president was expected to announce his decision by tweet on Friday morning. The officials were not authorized to speak publicly before Trumps announcement. Trump has previously said Nauert was under serious consideration to replace Nikki Haley, who announced in October that she would step down at the end of this year. Trump has been known to change course on staffing decisions in the past. Nauert was a reporter for Fox News Channel before she became State Department spokeswoman under former Secretary Rex Tillerson. Facebook

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Senate confirms new consumer financial protection chief: Kathy Kraninger, protege of industry-friendly Mick Mulvaney By Jim Puzzanghera The Senate, in a party-line vote Thursday, confirmed White House aide Kathy Kraninger to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and experts predicted a continuation of the industry-friendly shift it has taken since President Trump installed an acting director last year. Kraninger is a protege of acting director and White House budget chief Mick Mulvaney, an outspoken critic of the agency that was created in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis to prevent predatory lending and other abuses that led to it. Democrats and consumer advocates have denounced him for sharply departing from the aggressive watchdog role the bureau had pursued under its first director, Obama-appointee Richard Cordray, including scaling back enforcement and moving to reassess tough new rules on payday loans and narrow the definition of abusive practices by banks and other firms. Read More Facebook

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Shutdown postponed by two weeks under plan approved by Congress By Erik Wasson Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), shown at the Capitol on Tuesday, says President Trumps border wall is a waste of money. (J. Scott Applewhite / Associated Press) Congress passed a two-week stopgap spending bill that will delay the chance of a partial government shutdown until Dec. 22 as lawmakers and President Donald Trump negotiate over his demands to pay for a wall on the southern border. The House and Senate passed the measure Thursday without dissent, and Trump has indicated hell sign the bill before the current shutdown deadline of midnight Friday. Negotiations were delayed by memorial services this week for former President George H.W. Bush. The temporary measure gives Democrats and Republicans more time to find a resolution to their biggest hurdle: funding a wall on the U.S. Mexico border wall. Trump says he wants $5 billion for parts of a concrete wall on the southern border and is willing to shut down the government if he doesnt get it. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York has said Democrats will provide no more than $1.6 billion for border security, because the wall is a waste of money. The presidents demands for wall funding from Congress come after he said during the campaign that Mexico would pay for it. This week he said on Twitter that a $25 billion border wall would pay for itself in two months, without providing evidence. Most of the U.S. governments $1.2 trillion discretionary budget has been appropriated already by Congress for the fiscal year that began on Oct. 1. Departments at a risk of a partial shutdown late this month include the departments of State, Interior, Agriculture, Commerce, Justice, Treasury and Homeland Security. Talks to resolve the differences have been on hold since a meeting among Trump, Schumer and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California originally slated for Dec. 4 was postponed due to Bush memorial events. The three are scheduled to meet on Tuesday, according to a person familiar with the matter. Senate Appropriations Chairman Richard Shelby of Alabama told reporters the rest of the seven-bill spending package being negotiated is basically done. Shelby in recent weeks had tried to broker a compromise in which Trumps $5 billion request would be split over two years, but Schumer has rejected that. Some Democrats have been willing to trade border wall funding for deportation protections for young undocumented immigrants. Pelosi ruled out such a deal in remarks to reporters Thursday. The stopgap government funding measure also would extend the National Flood Insurance Program, which provides subsidized coverage for homes in flood-prone areas, to Dec. 21. Facebook

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Bipartisan Senate group wants to formally blame Saudi crown prince for journalists killing By Karoun Demirjian Saudi Arabias Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman at the G-20 summit in Buenos Aires. (Associated Press) A bipartisan group of senators filed a resolution Wednesday condemning Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman as responsible for the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, directly challenging President Trump to do the same. This resolution -- without equivocation -- definitively states that the crown prince of Saudi Arabia was complicit in the murder of Mr. [Jamal] Khashoggi and has been a wrecking ball to the region jeopardizing our national security interests on multiple fronts, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said in a statement accompanying the release of the resolution. It will be up to Saudi Arabia as to how to deal with this matter. But it is up to the United States to firmly stand for who we are and what we believe. The resolution put forward by Graham and Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), who are expected to lead the Judiciary Committee together next year, comes just one day after CIA Director Gina Haspel briefed leading senators about the details of the agencys assessment that Mohammed ordered and monitored the killing and dismemberment of Khashoggi in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, Turkey. Senators emerged from that closed-door briefing furious not only with Saudi Arabia, but Trump as well for dismissing the heft of the CIAs findings. You have to be willfully blind not to come to the conclusion that this was orchestrated and organized by people under the command of MBS and that he was intricately involved in the demise of Mr. Khashoggi, Graham said following the briefing, referring to Mohammed by his initials. He added that Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo and Defense Secretary James N. Mattis, who briefed senators last week, were at best being good soldiers and at worst were in the pocket of Saudi Arabia for presenting the evidence of Mohammeds involvement as inconclusive. The release of the resolution condemning Mohammed also comes as the Senate is preparing to move ahead with debate on a resolution to curtail U.S. support for the Saudi-led military campaign in Yemen. Though the Yemen resolution does not directly address Khashoggis murder, its popularity is a sign of how strained the United States patience with Saudi Arabia is on multiple fronts, including its role in worsening the civilian cost of the war in Yemen, cited by the United Nations as the worlds worst humanitarian crisis. Last week, the Senate voted 63 to 37 to advance the Yemen resolution past an opening procedural hurdle. But Graham and Feinsteins resolution on the crown prince has the potential of drawing broader support, especially from Republicans, who are deeply divided about how fiercely to punish Saudi Arabia over Khashoggis killing. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), who has been an outspoken advocate for human rights and is seen as one of the more influential foreign policy voices in the GOP, did not vote for the Yemen resolution last week or sign on to a bipartisan measure last month to sanction Saudi officials and cease weapons transfers to the kingdom. But he is an original co-sponsor of the resolution condemning Mohammed over Khashoggis death. So is Sen. Todd Young (R-Ind.), who represents the other end of the GOP spectrum in terms of recent Saudi-related votes and endorsements. Young was an initial co-sponsor of the bill Graham wrote with Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) to sanction Saudi officials deemed responsible for Khashoggis killing and stop the sale of anything but exclusively defensive weapons to the kingdom until it ceased hostilities in Yemen. Young also voted to advance the Yemen resolution  something Graham did as well, though Graham has signaled he will not be lending any similar support to the measure, fearing it may establish a precedent of invoking the War Powers Act too broadly. Sens. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) and Chris Coons (D-Del.) are listed as original co-sponsors of the resolution condemning Mohammed, which also urges Saudi Arabia to negotiate with Houthi rebels to end the Yemen war, work out a political solution to its standoff with Qatar and release political prisoners. But how much sway the resolution has probably comes down to how forcefully the administration decides to heed it -- and thus far, Trump has not shown any interest in condemning the crown prince the way the senators hope he will. Demirjian reports for the Washington Post. Facebook

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Los Angeles County offices and U.S. Postal Service closed Wednesday in honor of George H.W. Bush By Brian Park The Honor Guard carries the casket of former U.S. President George H. W. Bush following his funeral on Dec. 5 in Washington, DC. (Doug Mills - Pool/Getty Images) The U.S. Postal Service will suspend regular mail delivery Wednesday, which President Trump has declared a national day of mourning in honor of former President George H.W. Bush. All retail postal outlets will be closed, and package delivery will be limited. In Los Angeles, all nonessential county departments, offices and libraries will be closed for the day, L.A. County officials said. The Los Angeles County Library said no overdue fines will be assessed for books, and due dates will be moved forward one week. Los Angeles County Department of Public Health offices also are closed Wednesday. The Sheriffs Department, Fire Department, clinics and hospitals will continue to operate, the county said. The Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health clinics are being operated with reduced staffing, and the department asked patients to confirm or reschedule any appointments. All county courts and the disaster recovery centers for the Woolsey fire in Malibu and Agoura Hills will remain open. Larger federal government operations will be closed Wednesday. To honor the life and legacy of President Bush, the Postal Service will observe the National Day of Mourning. Learn how Postal operations will be affected. https://t.co/Mffch7bPCh pic.twitter.com/vG46BsIOpm  U.S. Postal Service (@USPS) December 4, 2018 L.A. County offices and libraries will be closed tomorrow (Dec 5) in observance of the #NationalDayOfMourning for President George H. W. Bush.



The Countys Disaster Recovery Centers in Malibu & Agoura Hills will remain open from 10 a.m. - 8 p.m. pic.twitter.com/Sv1J7GoJ7T  Los Angeles County (@CountyofLA) December 4, 2018 @LAPublicHealth offices will be closed tomorrow December 5 in observance of the national Day of Mourning for President George H. W. Bush. Essential Services including clinics and other services will remain open: https://t.co/tZGoGGHRlg pic.twitter.com/ypXsV6vlYY  LA Public Health (@lapublichealth) December 4, 2018 Facebook

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Former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick to skip 2020 White House race, sources say By Associated Press Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick speaks during an interview in Boston on Dec. 15, 2014. (Elise Amendola / Associated Press) Former Gov. Deval Patrick of Massachusetts will soon announce he wont launch a 2020 presidential campaign, according to three sources familiar with his plans. They did not say why the Democrat decided against a run. A formal announcement was delayed as the country observed a day of mourning for President George H.W. Bush, one source said. News of Patricks plans was first reported by Politico. Patrick, 62, served two terms as governor, from 2007 to 2015, was assistant attorney general for civil rights in the Clinton administration and since leaving the governors office has been a managing director for Bain Capital. Patrick traveled the country in support of Democratic candidates in the recent midterm election. Earlier this year, some of Patricks supporters and close advisors started the Reason to Believe political action committee, a grassroots organization dedicated to advancing a positive, progressive vision for our nation in 2018 and 2020. Reason to Believe PAC had been holding meetups across the country, including in early presidential primary states. While Patrick is opting against a 2020 run, dozens of Democrats are considering jumping in, including nearly a half-dozen members of the Senate, several House members, and other Massachusetts politicians. On Tuesday, Michael Avenatti, the attorney for adult film star Stormy Daniels and a vocal critic of President Trump, said in a statement that he would run. Patrick had previously expressed some concerns about breaking through if he sought the nomination, telling David Axelrod, a former advisor to President Obama, that he wasnt sure he could stand out in such a large field. Its hard to see how you even get noticed in such a big, broad field without being shrill, sensational or a celebrity, and Im none of those things and Im never going to be any of those things, Patrick said in a September interview with Axelrod. Facebook

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Former Trump adviser Roger Stone invokes 5th Amendment right and wont testify before Senate Judiciary Committee By Associated Press Roger Stone in 2017. (Joe Raedle / Getty Images) Roger Stone, an associate of President Trump, says he wont provide testimony or documents to the Senate Judiciary Committee. An attorney for Stone said in a letter to Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the committees top Democrat, that Stone was invoking his 5th Amendment right against self-incrimination in refusing to produce documents or appear for an interview. Stone has been entangled in investigations by Congress and special counsel Robert S. Mueller III about whether Trump aides had advance knowledge of Democratic emails published by WikiLeaks during the 2016 election. Stone has not been charged and has said he had no knowledge of the timing or specifics of WikiLeaks plans. In the letter to Feinstein, Stone said the committees requests were far too overbroad, far too overreaching and far too wide-ranging. Facebook

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Watch live: Vice President Pence and lawmakers honor George H.W. Bush at the U.S. Capitol before he lies in state Facebook

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Rebuilding crumbling infrastructure has bipartisan support. But who gets to pay for it? By Jim Puzzanghera The grades for major U.S. infrastructure would give any parent indigestion if they were on a childs report card. Roads: D; bridges: C+; dams: D; ports: C+: railways: B; airports: D; schools: D+; public transit: D-. The nations overall grade: D+, which translates to being in fair to poor condition and mostly below standards with significant deterioration and a strong risk of failure, according to an evaluation last year by the American Society of Civil Engineers. Read More Facebook

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Trump calls former lawyer Michael Cohen a weak person who is lying By Associated Press President Trump says his former lawyer Michael Cohen is lying to get a reduced sentence. The president is reacting to Cohens guilty plea Thursday to lying to Congress about work he did on a Trump real estate project in Russia. During a surprise court hearing, Cohen admitted to lying in testimony to the Senate Intelligence Committee about a plan to build a Trump Tower in Moscow. Cohen in his guilty plea said he made the false statements to be consistent with Trumps political message. Cohens lawyer says he continues to cooperate with special counsel Robert S. Mueller IIIs investigation into Russian election interference and possible coordination with Trump associates. Facebook

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As California Republicans confront a congressional wipeout, GOP leader Kevin McCarthy faces a reckoning By Mark Z. Barabak When the House voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act, Kevin McCarthy trooped with other Republican lawmakers to a splashy Rose Garden celebration, smiling alongside President Trump as they celebrated the moment. As majority leader, McCarthy had helped round up the votes to narrowly pass the hard-fought legislation, convincing 13 other California Republicans to go along, even though several faced tough reelection fights. Fewer than half will be returning in January. Read More Facebook

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As California Republicans confront a congressional wipeout, GOP leader Kevin McCarthy faces a reckoning By Sarah D. Wire When the House voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act, Kevin McCarthy trooped with other Republican lawmakers to a splashy Rose Garden celebration, smiling alongside President Trump as they celebrated the moment. As majority leader, McCarthy had helped round up the votes to narrowly pass the hard-fought legislation, convincing 13 other California Republicans to go along, even though several faced tough reelection fights. Fewer than half will be returning in January. Read More Facebook

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Michael Cohen, President Trumps ex-lawyer, pleads guilty to lying to Congress about Trump real estate project in Russia By Associated Press Michael Cohen, President Trumps former personal lawyer, pursued a Russian real estate project on candidate Trumps behalf well into the 2016 campaign, he said Thursday while pleading guilty to lying to Congress. Cohen had previously said that the project was abandoned in January 2016, but he now admits he continued to pursue a deal and says he updated Trump and members of his family about the negotiations, according to a new court document. Read More Facebook

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James Comey says acting Atty. Gen. Whitaker may not be the sharpest knife in our drawer By John Wagner Acting Atty. Gen. Matthew Whitaker speaks at the Justice Department in Washington on Nov. 14. (Pablo Martinez Monsivais / Associated Press) Former FBI Director James B. Comey apparently isnt too impressed with the mental prowess of President Trumps acting attorney general. Matthew Whitaker may not be the sharpest knife in our drawer, Comey said during a radio interview on Monday night in which he sized up the man Trump installed this month to replace ousted Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions. Comey was asked by WGBH News in Boston if he thinks Whitaker could derail the investigation of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. Whitaker has spoken critically of the probe, and Trump  as recently as Tuesday  continues to call it a witch hunt. I think its a worry, but to my mind not a serious worry, Comey said. The institution is too strong, and [Whitaker], frankly, is not strong enough to have that kind of impact. He may not be the sharpest knife in our drawer, but he can see his future and knows that if he acted in an extralegal way, he would go down in history for the wrong reasons, and Im sure he doesnt want that, added Comey, who was fired by Trump last year and later wrote a book that portrays the president as an ego-driven congenital liar. Whitaker, a former U.S. attorney in Iowa, was Sessions chief of staff before being picked by Trump to lead the Justice Department. Trump has called Whitaker a very smart man. Earlier this year, Trump called Comey an untruthful slime ball. Wagner writes for the Washington Post. Facebook

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Interior Department watchdog clears Zinke in investigation of Utah national monument By Juliet Eilperin Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke, third from the left, and Gov. Jerry Brown tour fire damage in Paradise, Calif., on Nov. 14. (Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press) The Interior Departments Office of Inspector General has cleared Secretary Ryan Zinke in a probe of whether he redrew boundaries of a national monument in Utah to aid the financial interests of a Republican state lawmaker and stalwart supporter of President Trump. In a Nov. 21 letter to Zinkes deputy, David Bernhardt, Deputy Inspector General Mary Kendall wrote that her office found no evidence that the secretary or his aides changed the boundaries of Utahs Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in an effort to help former Utah state representative Mike Noel, who serves as executive director of the Kane County Water Conservancy District. Last December, Trump shrank the monument, first established by President Clinton in 1996, by 46% based on Zinkes recommendation. Noel owns 40 acres that had been surrounded by the monument, but now lies outside its boundaries. The new boundaries also would make it easier to construct the proposed Lake Powell Pipeline, which would deliver water to sites in Kane County that include Noels property. Earlier this year, the Interior Department had proposed selling off 120 acres of federal land from the former monument that lay adjacent to some of Noels land holdings, but later reversed the plan. We found no evidence that Noel influenced the DOIs proposed revisions to the [monuments] boundaries, that Zinke or other DOI staff involved in the project were aware of Noels financial interest in the revised boundaries, or that they gave Noel any preferential treatment in the resulting proposed boundaries, Kendall wrote. Neither the Interior Department nor the inspector generals office would release the actual investigative report. In the letter, Kendall writes that her office will provide the report to Congress no sooner than 31 days from Nov. 21, when it is provided it to Zinkes office. The Associated Press first reported the inspector generals conclusions Monday night, but did not provide details from the report itself. Noel emailed Zinke about the effort to alter Grand Staircase-Escalante, according to emails released by Interior under the Freedom of Informational Act. But those emails do not make references to Noels land holdings. Noel also pushed to rename a Utah highway in honor of Trump, but abandoned that effort in March after some of his fellow Republicans objected to the idea. Noel did not respond to requests for comment Tuesday. The inspector generals office still has at least two ongoing probes of the secretary, including one focused on his real estate dealings in Whitefish, Mont., and another regarding his decision to deny a permit to two Connecticut tribes who were hoping to jointly run a casino after MGM Resorts International lobbied against it. Interior Department spokeswoman Heather Swift welcomed the watchdogs conclusions. The report shows exactly what the secretarys office has known all along  that the monument boundaries were adjusted in accordance with all rules, regulations and laws, she said in an email. This report is also the latest example of opponents and special interest groups ginning up fake and misleading stories, only to be proven false after expensive and time consuming inquiries by the IGs office. But Kendalls spokeswoman, Nancy DiPaolo, defended the inquiry, even though she said the report has not been publicly released and we will not be speaking specifically about the matter at this time. The OIG opens investigations based on credible allegations and reports our findings objectively and independently, DiPaolo added. Any time or resources spent investigating conduct or activity that may be a violation of law, regulation or policy is a service to the public, Congress and the Department. Rep. Raul Grijalva of Arizona, the top Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee, said in a statement that he still intended to investigate the way Zinke and his colleague redrew the boundaries for Grand Staircase-Escalante and another Utah national monument, Bears Ears, next year. I have great respect for the inspector general, and I accept these findings, but Secretary Zinke should have known the people he listened to while destroying our national monuments had disqualifying conflicts of interest, he said. Should I chair the Natural Resources Committee in the next Congress, the process he and President Trump used to destroy Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante will be front and center in our oversight and investigations efforts. We need to know why they ignored overwhelming public expressions of support for both Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante, why they ignored Native American tribes throughout their decision-making, and why they removed protections on parcels of land with known mineral deposits. Eilperin and Rein report for the Washington Post. Facebook

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Trump advisor Larry Kudlow says China must do more to end trade war By Jim Puzzanghera Larry Kudlow, President Trumps top economic advisor, said Tuesday that Chinas response to U.S. efforts to rework the two economic superpowers trade relationship has been extremely disappointing but the planned meeting this weekend between the nations leaders is an opportunity for a breakthrough. They have to do more. They must do more, Larry Kudlow, director of the White House National Economic Council, told reporters ahead of a Saturday dinner between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Group of 20 Summit in Argentina. I think the president is exactly right  to show strong backbone when prior administrations did not, to break through these Chinese walls, Kudlow said. Theyre so resistant to change. We have to protect the country. We have to protect our technology, our inventiveness, our innovation. Read More Facebook

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Watch live: White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders holds a media briefing amid tensions at the border By Los Angeles Times Staff Facebook

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Democrat TJ Cox grabs lead over Republican David Valadao in nations last remaining undecided House race By Maya Sweedler Democrat TJ Cox slipped past Republican incumbent David Valadao on Monday to take the lead in the countrys sole remaining undecided congressional race, positioning Democrats to pick up their seventh House seat in California and 40th nationwide. Cox, who trailed by nearly 4,400 votes on election night, has steadily gained as ballot counting continues nearly three weeks after the Nov. 6 election, a pattern consistent with the states recent voting history. On Monday, he pulled ahead by 438 votes after Kern County updated its results. Read More Facebook

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Former CIA director Michael Hayden hospitalized after suffering a stroke By Deanna Paul Then-CIA Director Michael Hayden testifies before a Senate committee in 2008. (Saul Loeb / Getty Images) Former CIA Director and retired Air Force Gen. Michael Hayden has been hospitalized after suffering a stroke, his family said Friday. He is receiving expert medical care for which the family is grateful, according to a statement issued by his namesake organization. The General and his family greatly appreciate the warm wishes and prayers of his friends, colleagues, and supporters. Hayden, 73, served as director of the CIA and National Security Agency during the George W. Bush and Obama administrations. He retired from the CIA in 2009. Hayden has been a vocal critic of Donald Trumps campaign and presidency. Earlier this year, after Trump decided to revoke the security clearance of former CIA director John Brennan, Hayden was one of several former intelligence leaders who signed a statement in opposition. Criticizing the president for crossing a line, he quickly became one of the individuals whose security clearance Trump threatened to review. Deanna Paul writes for the Washington Post. Facebook

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Trump tells troops hes thankful for what hes done for the U.S. and rails against courts and migrants By Associated Press President Trump talks with troops via teleconference from his estate in Palm Beach, Fla., on Thanksgiving. (Susan Walsh / Associated Press) President Trump used his Thanksgiving Day call to troops deployed overseas to pat himself on the back and air grievances about the courts, trade and migrants heading to the U.S.-Mexico border. Trumps call, made from his opulent private Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Fla., struck an unusually political tone as he spoke with members of all five branches of the military to wish them happy holidays. Its a disgrace, Trump said of judges who have blocked his attempts to overhaul U.S. immigration law, as he linked his efforts to secure the border with military missions overseas. Trump later threatened to close the U.S. border with Mexico for an undisclosed period of time if his administration determines Mexico has lost control on its side. The call was a uniquely Trump blend of boasting, peppered questions and off-the-cuff observations as his comments veered from venting about slights to praising troops  You really are our heroes, he said  as club waiters worked to set Thanksgiving dinner tables on the outdoor terrace behind him. It was yet another show of how Trump has dramatically transformed the presidency, erasing the traditional divisions between domestic policy and military matters and efforts to keep the troops clear of politics. You probably see over the news whats happening on our southern border, Trump told one Air Force brigadier general stationed at Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan, adding: I dont have to even ask you. I know what you want to do, you want to make sure that you know who were letting in. Later, Trump asked a U.S. Coast Guard commander about trade, which he noted was a very big subject for him personally. Weve been taken advantage of for many, many years by bad trade deals, Trump told the commander, who sheepishly replied, Mr. President, from our perspective on the water  we dont see any issues in terms of trade right now. And throughout, Trump congratulated himself, telling the officers that the country is doing exceptionally well on his watch. I hope that youll take solace in knowing that all of the American families you hold so close to your heart are all doing well, he said. The nations doing well economically, better than anybody in the world. He later told reporters, Nobodys done more for the military than me. Indeed, asked what he was thankful for this Thanksgiving, Trump cited his great family as well as himself. I made a tremendous difference in this country, he said. Facebook

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Trump contradicts CIA assessment that Saudi crown prince ordered Jamal Khashoggi killing By Josh Dawsey | Washington Post (Susan Walsh / Associated Press) President Trump on Thursday contradicted the CIAs assessment that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had ordered the killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, insisting that the agency had feelings but did not firmly place blame for the death. Trump, in defiant remarks to reporters from his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, defended his continued support for Mohammed in the face of a CIA assessment that the crown prince had ordered the killing. He denies it vehemently, Trump said. He said his own conclusion was that maybe he did, maybe he didnt. I hate the crime .... I hate the cover-up. I will tell you this: The crown prince hates it more than I do, Trump said. Asked who should be held accountable for the death of Khashoggi, who was killed at the Saudi Consulate in Turkey, Trump refused to place blame. Maybe the world should be held accountable because the world is a very, very vicious place, the president said. He also seemed to suggest that all U.S. allies were guilty of the same behavior, declaring that if the others were held to the standard that critics have held Saudi Arabia to in recent days, we wouldnt be able to have anyone for an ally. Trumps remarks came after he held a conference call with U.S. military officers overseas, during which he repeatedly praised his administration and sought to draw the officers into discussions of domestic policy. Facebook

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Former FBI Director James Comey gets subpoena from House Republicans By Bloomberg Former FBI Director James B. Comey said he has received a subpoena from House Republicans, according to a Twitter post on Thursday. Bloomberg News reported last week that Comey would be receiving a subpoena alongside former Atty. Gen. Loretta Lynch as part of continuing probes into their handling of investigations into Hillary Clinton and Russian election meddling, according to a top House Democrat. Happy Thanksgiving. Got a subpoena from House Republicans. Im still happy to sit in the light and answer all questions. But I will resist a closed door thing because Ive seen enough of their selective leaking and distortion. Lets have a hearing and invite everyone to see.  James Comey (@Comey) November 22, 2018 Read More Facebook

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Republican David Valadaos lead slips to 447 votes over Democrat TJ Cox in still-undecided Central Valley House race By Mark Z. Barabak Rep. David Valadao (R-Hanford), right, finds himself in an increasingly harrowing cliffhanger against Democrat TJ Cox. (Bill Clark / CQ Roll Call) On election night, it looked like Rep. David Valadao had survived a close shave and was destined to return to Washington for his fourth term. But on Wednesday, when Fresno County announced its latest vote totals, the Hanford Republican found himself in an increasingly harrowing cliffhanger against Democrat TJ Cox, with his lead in the Central Valley district shrunken to 447 votes. Thousands remain to be counted. Valadao, a repeated Democratic target, finished election night with a lead of nearly 4,440 votes. Cox, an engineer and a business owner who unsuccessfully ran for Congress in 2006, has steadily gained ground in the 21st Congressional District ever since. The trend is consistent with historic patterns showing Republicans in California tend to vote early and Democrats later, meaning their mail ballots continue to stream in past election day. Under California law, ballots postmarked up to midnight on Nov. 6 will be counted. Democrats have already picked up six House seats in California. They ousted Reps. Dana Rohrabacher, Mimi Walters, Steve Knight and Jeff Denham and won the seats of retiring Reps. Ed Royce and Darrell Issa. All six represented districts that backed Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump in 2016. Valadao was the seventh California Republican in a district Clinton won, though his previous successes  he last won reelection by a 14-point margin  suggested his ouster was a longer shot for Democrats. If Cox prevails, it would give Democrats a 40-seat gain nationwide, far more than the 23 seats needed to take control when Congress reconvenes in January. Facebook

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Trump says no new punishments against Saudi Arabia in Jamal Khashoggi murder By Eli Stokols In this Oct. 25 photo, candles are lit in front of a photo of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. (Lefteris Pitarakis) President Trump made it clear on Tuesday that he does not intend to punish Saudi Arabia or Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for the murder of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi, an American resident killed by Saudi officials in Turkey in October. In a remarkable statement replete with exclamation points, Trump cast doubt on the CIAs reported conclusions that it has a high degree of confidence that the crown prince ordered Khashoggis murder and sent his closest allies to Saudi Arabias consulate in Istanbul to carry it out. Read MoreThis article has been updated with staff. Facebook

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Sixteen House Democrats vow to oppose Nancy Pelosi as next speaker By Mike DeBonis | Washington Post House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (J. Scott Applewhite / Associated Press) Sixteen House Democrats said Monday that they will vote to deny Rep. Nancy Pelosi another stint as House speaker, a show of defiance that puts her opponents on the cusp of forcing a seismic leadership shake-up as their party prepares to take the majority. Their pledge to oppose Pelosi (D-San Francisco), both in an internal caucus election and a Jan. 3 floor vote, delivered in a letter sent to Democratic colleagues, comes as Pelosi has marshaled a legion of supporters on and off Capitol Hill to make her case. But her opponents said Monday they are convinced it is time to select a new leader. We are thankful to Leader Pelosi for her years of service to our Country and to our Caucus, they wrote. However, we also recognize that in this recent election, Democrats ran on and won on a message of change. Pelosi has expressed complete confidence that she will retake the speakers gavel in January  eight years after she lost it following massive Republican gains in the 2010 midterms and 16 years after she was first elevated to the top Democratic leadership post in the House. Come on in, the waters fine, she said Friday about a potential leadership challenge. The signers might not be able to force Pelosi out themselves. The size of the Democratic majority remains in flux, but Democrats have already won 232 seats, according to the Associated Press, with five races still undecided. All those races have Republican incumbents, but the Democratic challenger is ahead in only one of them. If the leads hold in the uncalled races, Democrats would have won 233 seats, a 16-seat majority. That means Pelosi could lose as many as 15 Democratic votes when she stands for election as speaker on Jan. 3. Read More Facebook

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Democratic senators sue over Whitakers appointment as acting attorney general By Associated Press Acting U.S. Atty. Gen. Matthew Whitaker (Nicholas Kamm / AFP/Getty Images) Three Senate Democrats filed a lawsuit Monday arguing that Acting Atty. Gen. Matthew Whitakers appointment is unconstitutional and asking a federal judge to remove him. The suit, filed by Sens. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, Mazie Hirono of Hawaii and Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, argues that Whitakers appointment violates the Constitution because he has not been confirmed by the Senate. Whitaker was chief of staff to Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions and was elevated to the top job after Sessions was ousted by President Trump on Nov. 7. The Constitutions Appointments Clause requires that the Senate confirm all principal officials before they can serve in their office. The Justice Department released a legal opinion last week that said Whitakers appointment would not violate the clause because he is serving in an acting capacity. The opinion concluded that Whitaker, even without Senate confirmation, may serve in an acting capacity because he has been at the department for more than a year at a sufficiently senior pay level. President Trump is denying senators our constitutional obligation and opportunity to do our job: scrutinizing the nomination of our nations top law enforcement official, Blumenthal said in a statement. The reason is simple: Whitaker would never pass the advice and consent test. In selecting a so-called constitutional nobody and thwarting every senators constitutional duty, Trump leaves us no choice but to seek recourse through the courts. The lawsuit comes days after a Washington lawyer challenged Whitakers appointment in a pending Supreme Court case dealing with gun rights. The attorney, Thomas Goldstein, asked the high court to find that Whitakers appointment is unconstitutional and replace him with Deputy Atty. Gen. Rod Rosenstein. Rosenstein, the second-ranking Justice Department official, has been confirmed by the Senate and had been overseeing special counsel Robert Muellers Russia investigation. Whitaker is now overseeing the investigation. The Justice Department issued a statement Monday defending Whitakers appointment as lawful and said it comports with the Appointments Clause, the Federal Vacancies Reform Act and legal precedent. There are over 160 instances in American history in which non-Senate confirmed persons performed, on a temporary basis, the duties of a Senate-confirmed position, Justice Department spokeswoman Kerri Kupec said. To suggest otherwise is to ignore centuries of practice and precedent. Facebook

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Gov. Rick Scott says Sen. Bill Nelson concedes Florida Senate race By Associated Press Republican Senate candidate Rick Scott speaks with his wife, Ann, by his side at an election watch party in Naples, Fla., on Nov. 7. (Wilfredo Lee / Associated Press) Floridas Republican Gov. Rick Scott says incumbent Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson called him to concede defeat in their extremely tight race. Scott issued a statement Sunday saying Nelson graciously conceded their Senate race shortly after the states recount ended. The final results show Scott defeated Nelson by just over 10,000 votes out of 8 million cast. Nelson is scheduled to release a videotaped statement later Sunday. The defeat ends Nelsons lengthy political career. The three-term incumbent was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 2000. Before that he served six terms in the U.S. House and as state treasurer and insurance commissioner for six years. Scott spent more than $60 million of his own money on ads that portrayed Nelson as out-of-touch and ineffective. Nelson responded by questioning Scotts ethics and saying he would be under the sway of President Trump. Facebook

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Orange County goes blue, as Democrats complete historic sweep of its seven congressional seats By Michael Finnegan Gil Cisneros defeated Republican Young Kim on Saturday in the last of Orange Countys undecided House races, giving Democrats a clean sweep of the states six most fiercely fought congressional contests and marking an epochal shift in a region long synonymous with political conservatism. With Cisneros victory, Democrats will constitute the entirety of Orange Countys seven-member congressional delegation, the first time since the 1930s that the birthplace of Richard Nixon, home of John Wayne and spiritual center of the Republican Party will have no GOP representative in the House. Sitting back in the 1960s, I would never have believed this would happen, said Stuart K. Spencer, a party strategist who spent more than half a century ushering Republicans, including President Reagan, into office. Read More Facebook

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Going, going ... with midterm wipeout, California Republican Party drifts closer to irrelevance By Michael Finnegan For a party in freefall the last two decades, California Republicans learned that its possible to plunge even further. The GOP not only lost every statewide office in the midterm election  again, in blowout fashion  but Democrats reestablished their supermajority in Sacramento, allowing them to legislate however they see fit After major defeats in Orange County and the Central Valley, two longtime strongholds, Republicans will have a significantly smaller footprint on Capitol Hill. (Democrats hold both Senate seats.) When the vote-counting is finished, the GOP may not even have enough lawmakers in Californias 53-member House delegation to field a nine-person softball team. Read More Facebook

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Congresswoman-elect Katie Porter says she will support Rep. Nancy Pelosi for speaker By Maya Sweedler Democratic Rep.-elect Katie Porter is congratulated by volunteers at her campaign headquarters in Irvine. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times) Congresswoman-elect Katie Porter said she plans to support Rep. Nancy Pelosis bid for speaker of the House and will make campaign finance reform her top priority when she enters the chamber in January. Im going to continue to have conversations, but so far I feel like Leader Pelosi is definitely making the things that were a priority to the families that elected me her priorities, including announcing her support for campaign finance reform and anti-corruption as HR1, Porter said in her first public appearance since being declared the winner in Californias 45th Congressional District on Thursday evening. It means a lot to me that she is a Californian. She understands our state, Porter added. When we talk about environmental protections, this is a person who understands as a Californian how fragile our environment is and whats at risk in things like drilling off our coasts. Porter, a law professor at UC Irvine, defeated two-term Republican Rep. Mimi Walters. The 45th District, covering inland Orange County, has never been represented by a Democrat. Porter became the third Democrat to claim a Republican-held seat in Orange County, following the victories of Harley Rouda in the 48th District and Mike Levin in the 49th. A fourth, Gil Cisneros, is running slightly ahead of his Republican opponent in the race for the open seat in the 39th District, which extends into Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties. Porter attributed the massive political shift in the county, for decades a conservative stronghold, to increased levels of political engagement. Folks here care about education, they care about the environment, they believe climate change is real, they want healthcare that protects preexisting conditions, they want a tax system that doesnt punish California, they want our schools and places of worship to be safe from gun violence, she said. Those are the issues we campaigned on, and to the extent that Donald Trump and Mimi Walters were on the wrong side of those issues, the voters have made clear what direction they want us to go. Porter was flying back from the East Coast when her race was called, she said. She turned on her phone to find 167 text messages from friends and supporters. Among them was Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), who was one of Porters teachers in law school and with whom she has remained close. The pair spoke via FaceTime this morning, she said. Facebook

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Bitter battle for Senate seat in Florida goes to hand recount By Associated Press Employees look through damaged ballots during a recount Thursday in West Palm Beach, Fla. (Wilfredo Lee / Associated Press) Floridas acrimonious battle for the U.S. Senate headed Thursday to a legally required hand recount after an initial review by ballot-counting machines showed Republican Gov. Rick Scott and Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson separated by less than 13,000 votes. But the highly watched contest for governor between Republican Ron DeSantis and Democrat Andrew Gillum appeared to be over, with a machine recount showing DeSantis with a large enough advantage over Gillum to avoid a hand recount in that race. Gillum, who conceded the contest on election night only to retract his concession later, said in a statement that it is not over until every legally casted vote is counted. The recount so far has been fraught with problems. One large Democratic stronghold in South Florida was unable to finish its machine recount by the Thursday deadline due to machines breaking down. A federal judge rejected a request to extend the recount deadline. We gave a heroic effort, said Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections Susan Bucher. If the county had three or four more hours, it would have made the deadline to recount ballots in the Senate race, she said. Meanwhile, election officials in another urban county in the Tampa Bay area decided against turning in the results of their machine recount, which came up with 846 fewer votes than originally counted. Media in South Florida reported that Broward County finished its machine recount but missed the deadline by a few minutes. Counties were ordered last weekend to do a machine recount of three statewide races because the margins were so tight. The next stage is a manual review of ballots that were not counted by machines to see whether there is a way to figure out voter intent. Scott called on Nelson to end the recount battle. Its time for Nelson to respect the will of the voters and graciously bring this process to an end rather than proceed with yet another count of the votes  which will yield the same result and bring more embarrassment to the state that we both love and have served, the governor said in a statement. The recount has triggered multiple lawsuits, many of them filed by Nelson and Democrats. The legal battles drew the ire of U.S. District Judge Mark E. Walker, who slammed the state for repeatedly failing to anticipate election problems. He also said the state law on recounts appears to violate the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that decided the presidency in 2000. We have been the laughingstock of the world, election after election, and we chose not to fix this, Walker said during a morning hearing. Walker vented his anger at state lawmakers and Palm Beach County officials, saying they should have made sure they had enough equipment in place to handle this kind of a recount. But he said he could not extend the recount deadline because he did not know when Palm Beach County would finish its work. This court must be able to craft a remedy with knowledge that it will not prove futile, Walker wrote in his ruling turning down the request from Democrats. It cannot do so on this record. This court does not and will not fashion a remedy in the dark. The overarching problem was created by the Florida Legislature, which Walker said passed a recount law that appears to run afoul of the 2000 Bush vs. Gore decision by locking in procedures that do not allow for potential problems. A total of six election-related lawsuits are pending in federal court in Tallahassee as well at least one lawsuit filed in state court. Walker also ordered that voters be given until 5 p.m. Saturday to show a valid identification and fix their ballots if they have not been counted due to mismatched signatures. Republicans appealed the ruling, but an appeals court turned down the request. State officials testified that nearly 4,000 mailed-in ballots were set aside because local officials decided the signatures on the envelopes did not match the signatures on file. If those voters can prove their identity, their votes will be counted and included in final official returns due from each county by noon Sunday. Walker was asked by Democrats to require local officials to provide a list of people whose ballots were rejected. But the judge appointed by President Obama refused the request, calling it inappropriate. Under state law, a hand review is required with races that have a margin of 0.25 percentage points or less. A state website put the unofficial results showing Scott ahead of Nelson by 0.15 percentage points. The margin between DeSantis and Gillum was at 0.41 points. The margin between Scott and Nelson had not changed much in the last few days, conceded Marc Elias, an attorney working for Nelsons campaign. But he said that he expected the vote tally to shrink due to the hand recount and the ruling on signatures. The developments fueled frustrations among Democrats and Republicans alike. Democrats want state officials to do whatever it takes to make sure every eligible vote is counted. Republicans, including President Trump, have argued without evidence that voter fraud threatens to steal races from the GOP. Facebook

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Democrat Gil Cisneros pulls ahead of Republican Young Kim as more votes are tallied in Orange and San Bernardino counties By Michael Finnegan Congressional candidate Gil Cisneros (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times) Democrat Gil Cisneros pulled ahead of Republican Young Kim in one of Californias undecided congressional races Thursday, an ominous sign for a GOP already reeling from its loss of four House seats in the state. In updated vote counts released by the registrars for Orange and San Bernardino counties, Kim fell 941 votes behind Cisneros in the contest to succeed Republican Rep. Ed Royce in Californias 39th Congressional District. The 39th straddles Los Angeles, San Bernardino and Orange counties. In another unresolved House race, Democrat Katie Porter pulled further ahead of Republican incumbent Mimi Walters in the 45th District, which includes Mission Viejo, Tustin, Irvine, Rancho Santa Margarita and Laguna Hills. Porter, a consumer attorney and UC Irvine law professor, is now 6,203 votes ahead. The Nov. 6 midterm election has been devastating to Republicans in California. If Cisneros and Porter win, the party will have lost six of its 14 House seats in the state, essentially a wipeout in every contest that both parties spent heavily to win. The three Republicans already bounced from Congress are Reps. Dana Rohrabacher of Costa Mesa, Steve Knight of Palmdale and Jeff Denham of Turlock in the San Joaquin Valley. Democrat Mike Levin won the seat of retiring GOP Rep. Darrell Issa of Vista in the fourth district flipped so far. Facebook

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Florida Senate race likely headed to second recount By Associated Press A Palm Beach County Sheriffs deputy walks past boxes of ballots before a recount on Nov. 15 in West Palm Beach, Fla. (Wilfredo Lee) Unofficial Florida election results show that the governors race seems to be settled after a machine recount but the U.S. Senate race is likely headed to a hand recount. Republican Ron DeSantis is virtually assured of winning the nationally watched governors race over Democrat Andrew Gillum. Florida finished a machine recount Thursday that showed Gillum without enough votes to force a manual recount. Unofficial results posted on a state website show the margin between U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson and Gov. Rick Scott is still thin enough to trigger a second review. State law requires a hand recount of races with a margin of 0.25 percentage point or less. Counties have until Sunday to inspect the ballots that did not record a vote when put through the machines. Those ballots are re-examined to see whether the voter skipped the race or marked the ballot in a way that the machines cannot read but can be deciphered. The election will be certified Tuesday. Read More Facebook

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Pelosi says she has the votes to become the next House speaker By John Wagner Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi speaks during a news conference in Washington on Nov. 14. (Susan Walsh) House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi insisted Thursday that she has the votes to become the chambers speaker despite solid opposition from more than a dozen Democrats who want fresh leadership when the party takes control next year. I have overwhelming support in my caucus to be speaker of the House, the San Francisco lawmaker told reporters. I happen to think at this point, Im the best person for that. A vote within the Democratic caucus is scheduled for Nov. 28. The full House votes on Jan. 3 to elect a new speaker. During her remarks, Pelosi touted the size of the Democratic victory in the midterms, which she called almost a tsunami. With a few races still to be decided, Democrats are poised to pick up close to 40 seats in the chamber. Pelosi called that the biggest victory for the Democrats since 1974, when the Watergate babies came in. Pelosis comments come as she faces solid opposition from at least 17 Democrats, setting the stage for a battle over who will ascend to one of the most powerful positions in Washington. After a campaign in which some Democrats prevailed in competitive districts by promising to oppose her, a coalition of incumbents and newly elected members has denied her a smooth path to the speakership. The defections, if they stand, would leave Pelosi, who has led the Democrats for more than 15 years, several votes short of the 218 she would need when the full House votes for speaker Jan. 3. However, no Democrat has stepped forward to run against her for a job she held from 2007 through 2010. Rep. Marcia Fudge (D-Ohio) told reporters Wednesday that shes being encouraged to stand for speaker if Pelosi doesnt have the votes. In an interview with the Washington Post on Thursday, she said she has been overwhelmed by the support from many of her colleagues for her possible entry into the race for House speaker. Over the last 12 hours, Ive been overwhelmed by the amount of support Ive received, Fudge said, adding that there are probably closer to 30" Democrats who have privately signaled that they are willing to oppose Pelosi. Things could change rapidly, Fudge said. Fudge, 66, a former chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, said she is building a diverse coalition as she mulls a speaker run, talking with allies in the caucus, moderate Democrats and newly elected members. To this point, Pelosi has enjoyed the strong backing of the Congressional Black Caucus. On Thursday, Rep. Bobby Rush (D-Ill.), one of its members, wrote a letter to colleagues praising her insight, fortitude and strategic thinking and urging support for her speakership bid. Former Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr., an African American who is contemplating a 2020 presidential bid, also voiced support for Pelosi, praising her in a tweet as an architect of the recent midterm success. Rep. Seth Moulton (D-Mass.), a leader of the resistance to Pelosi, said during an interview on CNN on Thursday that Fudge is the kind of new leader that we need in this party. Shes in touch with middle America. She understands what the American people want. Shes a next-generation leader that people will look to and say, Thats the future of our party, thats the future of our country, and thats exactly the kind of leader that I want to see as our next speaker. Wagner reports for the Washington Post. The Posts Robert Costa, Erica Werner, Mike DeBonis, Paul Kane and Elise Viebeck contributed to this report. Facebook

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GOP Rep. Jeff Denham concedes to Democrat Josh Harder in Central Valley race By Maya Sweedler Rep. Jeff Denham (Bill Clark / CQ Roll Call) Republican Rep. Jeff Denham has conceded to Democrat Josh Harder in the race to represent Californias 10th Congressional District in the San Joaquin Valley. It has been an absolute honor to serve our community and represent the Central Valley in Congress over the past eight years, the 51-year-old congressman said. The enormity of the responsibility was never lost on me. My wife Sonia and I look forward to starting the next chapter of our lives. Harder said he had spoken with Denham and the two were committed to a productive transition. Denham, an Air Force veteran, previously represented the region in the state Senate for eight years and founded a company specializing in plastic packaging used in agriculture. While a member of Congress, he sat on the Transportation and Infrastructure, Veterans Affairs and Agriculture committees. First-time candidate Harder was born and raised in the district. After graduating from Stanford University, he served as vice president of a Silicon Valley venture capital firm. Since moving back, he has been teaching at Modesto Junior College. Denhams House seat is one of four in California that Republicans lost in the Nov. 6 election, with two contests in Orange County still undecided as of Thursday morning. Jeff Denham called me this morning and we had a very productive conversation. I'm honored that I've been chosen to serve our community in Congress, and we're both looking forward to a productive transition that best serves the people of District 10.  Josh Harder (@JoshHarder) November 14, 2018 Facebook

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Democrat Katie Porter now nearly 3,800 votes ahead of GOP Rep. Mimi Walters By Maya Sweedler Rep. Mimi Walters thanks all of her supporters as she watches election results in Irvine on Nov. 7, 2018. (Alex Gallardo / Associated Press) Democrat Katie Porter opened a 3,797-vote lead Wednesday over Republican Rep. Mimi Walters in Orange Countys 45th Congressional District. In the neighboring 39th, Democrat Gil Cisneros has nearly tied the race against Republican Young Kim. Cisneros now trails Kim by a razor-thin margin of 122 votes. The 39th District straddles Los Angeles, Orange and San Bernardino counties; Wednesdays updated ballot counts came from the latter two. There are more than 202,000 ballots left to count in Orange County, which includes parts of seven congressional districts. The 45th is entirely in inland Orange County. In California, the ballots counted first tend to lean Republican and those tallied later skew Democratic. In the Central Valleys 21st Congressional District, Democratic challenger TJ Cox has pulled within 2 percentage points of Rep. David Valadao, who is serving his third term. The Associated Press had projected a win for Valadao on election night, but his 4,839-vote advantage has shrunk to 2,090. Back in CA-21, Valadao (R) wins a batch of ballots from his stronghold in Kings Co., but by a considerably smaller margin (14 points) than his previous ~30-point margin in the county. We're moving to Lean R from Likely R; today a bit scary for Valadao.https://t.co/WqJVUVkqGW  Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) November 15, 2018 A spokesman for Valadao told the Fresno Bee that the changes were expected and that [s]tatistically, David Valadao has won this race. Democrats in California have already flipped four House seats, defeating three Republican incumbents and claiming an open seat previously held by the GOP. Reps. Steve Knight of Palmdale, Dana Rohrabacher of Costa Mesa and Jeff Denham of Turlock have already lost their races, and retiring Rep. Darrell Issas San Diego County seat was claimed by Democrat Mike Levin. Facebook

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Trump aide departs West Wing after rebuke from Melania Trump By Associated Press First Lady Melania Trump. (Alain Jocard / AFP-Getty Images) Deputy national security advisor Mira Ricardel is leaving the White House, one day after First Lady Melania Trumps office issued an extraordinary statement calling for her dismissal. No replacement was named. Aides said Ricardel clashed with the first ladys staff over her visit to Africa last month. Yet it is highly unusual for a first lady or her office to weigh in on personnel matters, especially the presidents national security staff. White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Ricardel would have a new role in the administration. On Tuesday, Stephanie Grisham, the first ladys spokeswoman, released a statement saying, It is the position of the Office of the First Lady that she no longer deserves the honor of serving in this White House. President Trumps White House has set records for administration turnover. Ricardel was the third person to hold the post under Trump. An ally of national security advisor John Bolton, Ricardel began her service in the Trump administration as associate director in the White House Office of Presidential Personnel, then moved to the Commerce Department last year. Bolton brought her into the West Wing shortly after taking the job in April. He is traveling in Asia this week alongside Vice President Mike Pence. Facebook

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Race for House Minority Leader is Kevin McCarthys to lose By Associated Press (Bill Clark / CQ Roll Call) House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy is running to take over next years shrunken caucus in closed-door elections that will set the tone for the new Congress. The race for minority leader is McCarthys to lose Wednesday. But the California Republican, who is an ally of President Trump, must fend off a challenge from conservative Jim Jordan of Ohio. Jordan is a leader of the House Freedom Caucus. The two encountered questions and finger-pointing during a private meeting with lawmakers Tuesday night as the GOP sorted through the midterm defeat that put Democrats in the majority next year. Elections Wednesday will also determine party leadership in the Senate. Voting for the biggest race, Nancy Pelosis bid to return as the Democrats nominee for speaker, is later this month. Read More Facebook

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Melania Trump calls for the firing of deputy national security advisor By Justin Sink First Lady Melania Trump arrives at the Chateau de Versailles outside Paris on Nov. 11. (Alain Jocard / AFP/Getty Images ) First Lady Melania Trumps office said she wants Mira Ricardel, the deputy national security advisor, ousted from the White House. It is the position of the Office of the First Lady that she no longer deserves the honor of serving in this White House, Trumps spokeswoman, Stephanie Grisham, said in a statement in response to a question about reports the first lady had sought Ricardels removal. Ricardel is the top deputy to national security advisor John Bolton. She drew the first ladys wrath after threatening to withhold National Security Council resources during Melania Trumps trip to Africa last month unless Ricardel was included in her entourage, one person familiar with the matter said. Grishams statement comes as several media outlets have reported that President Trump is considering a broader shakeup of his administration, including ousting Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen. Sink and Jacobs report for Bloomberg. Read More Facebook

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CNN sues Trump over the suspension of Jim Acostas White House press credentials By Jim Puzzanghera CNN said Tuesday that it is suing President Trump and other administration officials over the decision to suspend the White House press credentials of correspondent Jim Acosta after a conflict at a news conference last week. The suit, to be filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, escalates an ongoing battle between Trump and the cable news outlet that he frequently accuses of disseminating fake news for its aggressive coverage of him and his administration. The wrongful revocation of these credentials violates CNN and Acostas 1st Amendment rights of freedom of the press, and their 5th Amendment rights to due process, CNN said in a written statement. If left unchallenged, the actions of the White House would create a dangerous chilling effect for any journalist who covers our elected officials. Read More Facebook

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Maxine Waters to take aim at Wells Fargo and Deutsche Bank as new head of House Financial Services Committee By Jim Puzzanghera Rep. Maxine Waters plans to zero in on two big banks  Wells Fargo & Co. and Deutsche Bank  when she becomes head of the powerful House Financial Services Committee. The Los Angeles congresswoman, now the committees top Democrat, is widely expected to gain the gavel after her party won control of the House in last weeks elections. While Waters has outlined a wide-ranging agenda, she said her focus on bank oversight will target two large institutions she has been tangling with for a while  including one, Deutsche Bank, that spills into her bitter feud with President Trump. With Trump in the White House, I know that our fight for Americas consumers and investors will continue to be challenging. But I am more than up to that fight, Waters wrote in a letter last week to her Democratic colleagues on the committee that was obtained by The Times. Read More Facebook

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Heres how a controversial voting system will decide a congressional race in Maine By Kurtis Lee For the first time in U.S. history, a controversial voting system known as ranked choice is being used to decide a federal election. Its happening in Maine, which adopted the system in 2016. Rather than marking a single candidate, each voter ranks them all, assigning a first-place vote, a second-place vote and so on down the ballot. Read More Facebook

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ACLU files suit to stop Trumps new asylum limits By Associated Press A group of Central American migrants march to the office of the U.N.'s humans rights body in Mexico City on Nov. 8. (Rebecca Blackwell / Associated Press) The American Civil Liberties Union has filed a legal challenge to President Trumps order denying asylum to migrants if they cross the U.S.-Mexico border illegally. The lawsuit was filed Friday in federal court in San Francisco and argues the new rules are against the law. Attorney Lee Gelernt said the regulations will put families in danger. The suit seeks to declare the regulations invalid and wants a judge to stop the rules from going into effect while the litigation is pending. The new rules were spurred in part by caravans of Central American migrants slowly moving north on foot, but officials say they will apply to anyone caught crossing illegally. Officials say about 70,000 people who enter the country illegally claim asylum. The order invoked the same national security powers Trump used to push through his travel ban. Read More Facebook

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Trump on new acting AG: I dont know Matt Whitaker By Associated Press President Trump talks with reporters before departing for France on the South Lawn of the White House on Nov. 9. (Evan Vucci / Associated Press) President Trump is moving to distance himself from Matthew Whitaker as he faces criticism over his choice for acting attorney general. Trump told reporters Friday that I dont know Matt Whitaker and said he didnt speak with Whitaker about special counsel Robert Muellers Russia investigation. Whitaker has made public comments critical of Muellers investigation, and critics have called on Whitaker to recuse himself from oversight of the inquiry. Under former Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions, the investigation was overseen by Deputy Atty. Gen. Rod Rosenstein. Of the scrutiny Whitaker is facing, Trump said: Its a shame that no matter who I put in they go after. He also called Whitaker a very highly respected man. Whitaker was Sessions chief of staff before Trump made him Sessions interim replacement. Facebook

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Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg out of hospital after fall By Associated Press The Supreme Court says 85-year-old Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is home after being released from the hospital. She had been admitted for treatment and observation after fracturing three ribs in a fall. The court said Ginsburg was released Friday. Supreme Court spokeswoman Kathy Arberg says she is doing well and working from home. The court had previously said the justice fell in her office at the court on Wednesday evening and went to George Washington University Hospital in Washington early Thursday after experiencing discomfort overnight. Ginsburg broke two ribs in a fall in 2012. She had two prior bouts with cancer and had a stent implanted to open a blocked artery in 2014. Facebook

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Gun-control activist Lucy McBath defeats GOP Rep. Karen Handel in Georgia By Associated Press Lucy McBath speaks during a rally for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams on Nov. 2 at Morehouse College in Atlanta. (Alyssa Pointer / Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP) Democratic gun-control activist Lucy McBath has defeated Republican Rep. Karen Handel of Georgia in a suburban congressional district long considered safe for the GOP. Handel had to seek reelection after winning her seat last year in a close special election race against Democrat Jon Ossoff. McBath became an advocate for stricter gun laws after her son, Jordan Davis, was fatally shot at a Florida gas station in 2012 by a man angry over loud music the teenager and his friends were playing in a car. McBaths margin of victory was narrow enough for Handel to have requested a recount. The Associated Press declared McBath the winner Thursday after Handel conceded. Handel conceded in a statement Thursday morning, stating that after reviewing all of the election data, its clear she came up a bit short in Tuesdays vote. Handel congratulated McBath, offering good thoughts and much prayer for the journey that lies ahead for her. McBath, who is African American, declared victory Wednesday. Facebook

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Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg hospitalized after fracturing 3 ribs in fall By Associated Press Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg (Jacquelyn Martin / Associated Press) The Supreme Court says 85-year-old Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg fractured three ribs in a fall in her office at the court and is in the hospital. The court says the justice went to George Washington University Hospital in Washington early Thursday after experiencing discomfort overnight. The court says the fall occurred Wednesday evening. Ginsburg was admitted to the hospital for treatment and observation after tests showed she fractured three ribs. Ginsburg broke two ribs in a fall in 2012. She has had two prior bouts with cancer and had a stent implanted to open a blocked artery in 2014. Facebook

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White House suspends press pass of CNNs Jim Acosta after heated exchange with Trump By Associated Press The White House on Wednesday suspended the press pass of CNN correspondent Jim Acosta after he and President Trump had a heated confrontation during a news conference. They began sparring after Acosta asked Trump about the caravan of migrants heading from Latin America to the southern U.S. border. When Acosta tried to follow up with another question, Trump said, Thats enough! and a female White House aide unsuccessfully tried to grab the microphone from Acosta. White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders released a statement accusing Acosta of placing his hands on a young woman just trying to do her job as a White House intern, calling it absolutely unacceptable. The interaction between Acosta and the intern was brief, and Acosta appeared to brush her arm as she reached for the microphone and he tried to hold onto it. Pardon me, maam, he told her. Acosta tweeted that Sanders statement that he put his hands on the aide was a lie. CNN said in a statement that the White House revoked Acostas press pass in retaliation for his challenging questions Wednesday, and the network accused Sanders of lying about Acostas actions. This conduct is absolutely unacceptable. It is also completely disrespectful to the reporters colleagues not to allow them an opportunity to ask a question. President Trump has given the press more access than any President in history.  Stephanie Grisham (@PressSec) November 8, 2018 Contrary to CNNs assertions there is no greater demonstration of the Presidents support for a free press than the event he held today. Only they would attack the President for not supporting a free press in the midst of him taking 68 questions from 35 different reporters...  Stephanie Grisham (@PressSec) November 8, 2018 As a result of todays incident, the White House is suspending the hard pass of the reporter involved until further notice.  Stephanie Grisham (@PressSec) November 8, 2018 Sanders provided fraudulent accusations and cited an incident that never happened. This unprecedented decision is a threat to our democracy and the country deserves better, CNN said. Jim Acosta has our full support. Journalists assigned to cover the White House apply for passes that allow them daily access to press areas in the West Wing. White House staffers decide whether journalists are eligible, though the Secret Service determines whether their applications are approved. Facebook

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Trump spars with reporters at post-election news briefing, ordering several to sit down By Associated Press  President Trump assails CNNs Jim Acosta at a White House news conference. President Trump sparred with reporters at his post-election news conference, ordering several to sit down and telling another hes a rude, terrible person. He told another reporter hes not a fan of yours, either. The presidents mood turned sour Wednesday after reporters pressed him on why he referred to a migrant caravan making its way to the U.S. on foot through Mexico as an invasion. Trump ramped up his anti-immigrant rhetoric against the caravan in the final days of the midterm elections. Trump was also pressed on why his campaign aired an ad featuring a Mexican immigrant convicted of killing American police officers and linking the mans actions to the caravan. Several television networks pulled the ad after airing it or declined to air it at all. Facebook

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Im living one hour at a time at this point By Christine Mai-Duc Republican congressional candidate Young Kim and gubernatorial candidate John Cox campaign in Rowland Heights. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times) Republican congressional candidate Young Kim greeted gubernatorial candidate John Coxs giant campaign bus, the words HELP IS ON THE WAY emblazoned across it, as it rolled into the parking lot outside her Rowland Heights field office. Standing beside Cox on Saturday, Kim predicted that a string of GOP victories Tuesday would start with voters repealing the gas tax hike. Can you imagine Gavin Newsom being our governor? Can you imagine Gil Cisneros being your representative? Kim asked the crowd, to loud boos and cries of Nooo! The former state assemblywoman who worked for retiring Rep. Ed Royce (R-Fullerton) is vying for his seat with Democrat Gil Cisneros. She led the crowd in chants of Enough is enough! and, though short-lived, Drain the swamp! Ive served you in Sacramento and Ive seen dysfunction personally, Kim continued. We cannot continue that route. She urged her supporters to stay and help make phone calls or walk neighborhoods. Lets get out there  the 72 hours is really critical. Its all going to come down to a few votes, it could be your vote, she said pointing to her left, then pivoting right, it could be your vote. So dont sit back and do nothing. Every night I go to sleep thinking, OK, how many more votes can I get or how many more people can I call tomorrow? Kim said. It can be physically exhausting but Im mentally, emotionally very energized. She listed off her events so far that day  and the next one she was heading to. Thats just what I can remember, she said. Im living one hour at a time at this point. Kims campaign invited press to two of her events on Saturday. After she was whisked away to her next event  a high tea fundraiser in Walnut, a couple dozen volunteers remained. John Freeman, a statewide field manager for the state Republican Party, tried to pump them up. This is the Super Bowl. Were not in an NFL stadium, were not getting paid millions of dollars, but you know what? Freeman said. Were walking on the field right now. This is that high-stakes-level game. Facebook

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Its going to be tough out there Democratic candidate Katie Porter speaks to volunteers in Mission Viejo. Jon Bauman, Bowzer from the band Sha Na Na, is in the background. (Victoria Kim / Los Angeles Times ) Judging from the cheers in the crowd, about half those assembled at Katie Porters campaign headquarters in Mission Viejo Sunday morning were old enough to remember 70s rock n roll star Bowzer from the band Sha Na Na. Jon Bauman, as Bowzer is known off stage, said it was her position on senior issues including retirement and social security that has him out supporting Porter over her opponent, incumbent Rep. Mimi Walters. I want you to make sure every phone is called and every door is knocked, he told the crowd of about 80 volunteers. There has never been a more important election. Both Bauman and his nephew, California Democratic Party Chairman Eric Bauman, were interrupted by yells from Trump supporters coming from an adjoining hillside. We love Trump, the voice cried out. We love him too, he makes great fodder, the younger Bauman retorted, before introducing Porter. Porter, a UC Irvine law professor and first-time candidate, acknowledged the uphill battle some of her canvassers might face in this more conservative end of the long-red Orange County district. I know its going to be tough out there, she said, motioning to the hillside. But she said the attacks meant the other side viewed her campaign as a significant threat. This election is going to be close, she said. If we dont fight all the way to the finish line, until 8 oclock on Tuesday, this could slip away. Bowzer then took to a keyboard piano to lead the crowd in a reworded rendition of the song Good Night Sweetheart: Good night, Mimi Walters, he crooned. A woman in a black tank top, jeans and flip flops holding a cup of coffee later joined the crowd with her two sons, 17 and 14, the younger one wearing a Trump 2016 T-shirt. She declined to give her name, saying she was concerned about being attacked, but said she lived up the hill and said she had been the one yelling. She said she was encouraging her sons to talk to people on both sides and make up their own minds. We need to have a government that runs the way government teachers are telling kids its supposed to be run, said the woman, a retired registered dental assistant who voted early for Mimi Walters. Referring to Democrats, she said: Theyve had control over all these years and Californias gone to crap. Among those canvassing was Stacie Campbell, 37, who was at the launch with her husband Jerome and three children, the youngest of whom was 2 months old. Campbell, a Mission Viejo resident who runs a business, had never canvassed or volunteered for campaigns before, and her husband is a French citizen and unable to vote. She said they had been talking to their children  the older ones are 5 and 2  about the presidency and the government since Trumps election. Together, they worked on homemade Katie Porter lawn signs and put them up around town. This is the first time its felt like a big deal and there isnt a president up for election, she said. Because her city is a mix of conservatives and liberals  her next-door neighbor is an NRA-supporting Republican  she the race felt mBurbank residents and members of the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority tried to pinpoint the cause of increased noise from takeoffs at Hollywood Burbank Airport on Thursday.

Members of the authoritys operations and development committee held a special meeting at the airport to allow Burbank resident Audrey Ford and other members of Burbank for Quiet Skies, a local Facebook group, to have a dialogue with authority members and airport staff regarding the possible effects of the Next Generation Air Transportation System, better known as NextGen, which was implemented at airports in Southern California last March.

For several months, residents have been approaching airport officials and the Burbank City Council with their concerns and frustrations regarding NextGen, which is the Federal Aviation Administrations new satellite-based radar system.

The systems goal is to make departures and arrivals at airports safer and make travel routes more fuel and time efficient.

However, Ford and other residents have said noise from airplanes departing from Hollywood Burbank have gotten louder since NextGen was implemented.

Patrick Lammerding, the airports deputy executive director of planning and development, has stated on two occasions  once during an authority meeting in December and again during a Burbank City Council meeting on Jan. 23  that the perceived increase in noise from takeoffs may be due to heavier passenger and cargo loads on aircraft, warmer weather or wind direction.

Ford gave a presentation during Thursdays meeting, citing data that she said she has pulled from Hollywood Burbanks quarterly noise monitoring reports and data she has compiled from WebTrak, an online flight-tracking service used by numerous airports that the public can use to track noise and flight paths of aircraft.

From the information she gathered, Ford said that she and her neighbors think that airplanes have been departing the airport at a lower altitude, thus the increase in noise during takeoffs.

According to her data and information that Lammerding provided during the meeting, the average noise at certain monitors ranges from about 58 decibels to roughly 63 decibels.

Residents complain quite often that their windows are rattling as aircraft go over, Ford said. We frequently cannot go out in our backyards because its so loud.

Lammerding said there is no reason to doubt the data that Ford has gathered, but added that the noise levels have gone down compared to levels in 2011.

However, Terry Tornek, the authoritys president and mayor of Pasadena, rebutted by pointing out that noise levels have been on the rise since 2015.

What I tend to do is look at trend lines, and the trend line as I look at 2015 forward is that [noise levels] at each of these monitors is up, Tornek said.

Though there was not a consensus between both parties about the cause of the increased noise levels, it was clear from both sides that more work needs to be done to figure out the cause.

Ford asked if there can be additional noise monitors installed in the Magnolia Park neighborhood in Burbank, and Tornek said that airport staff would look into it.

Additionally, Tornek asked the airport staff to bring back further information on departure altitudes at the airport.

anthonyclark.carpio@latimes.com

Twitter: @acocarpioSeveral Orange County hotels have received AAA four- or five-diamond awards.

The Resort at Pelican Hill in Newport Coast and the Montage Laguna Beach resort earned five diamonds, the companys highest rating.

Earning four-diamond awards were the Avenue of the Arts hotel in Costa Mesa, Huntington Beachs Hyatt Regency and Waterfront Beach Resort, Laguna Beachs Surf & Sand Resort and Newport Beachs Balboa Bay Resort, Fashion Island Hotel and Duke Hotel.

Alexander McQueen and Givenchy boutiques coming to South Coast Plaza

Alexander McQueen and Givenchy, two of the worlds top luxury fashion retailers, will open boutiques in late spring at South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa.

The Alexander McQueen boutique will be the brands only location in Orange County, and the Givenchy boutique will be a Southern California exclusive, according to South Coast Plaza.

Both stores will be on Level 2  Alexander McQueen in the Nordstrom wing and Givenchy near Jewel Court. The opening dates will be announced later, the shopping center said.

Also at South Coast Plaza, Aritzia, a fashion boutique, recently opened a 6,500-square-foot store in the Bloomingdales wing.

Pain du Monde celebrates 30 years

Pain du Monde, a small cafe chain, celebrated its 30th anniversary Thursday.

The company was started on Balboa Island in Newport Beach by Scott McVean selling artisan breads, espresso drinks and pastries. The chain now has locations in Corona del Mar, Fashion Island, on Bristol Street near John Wayne Airport and in Dana Point.

Pain du Monde celebrated its milestone by giving away cinnamon twists and gift cards.

St. John opens in Fashion Island

St. John, a womens clothing and accessory retailer, has opened a location in Fashion Island in Newport Beach.

The brand was founded in 1962. The Fashion Island store is across from Bloomingdales.

Pimco names a new director

Newport Beach-based Pacific Investment Management Co., or Pimco, has hired Sung-Hee Suh as a managing director and global head of regulatory risk and compliance.

According to a news release, Suh has worked for the U.S. Department of Justice and a New York investigations practice. She is a graduate of Harvard University.

J.D. Power hires chief data officer

Seongjoon Koo has been named to the new position of chief data officer at J.D. Power in Costa Mesa.

He will lead the creation of new capabilities in data engineering, data science, machine learning and artificial intelligence, as well as support existing products and services, according to a news release.

Koo last worked at Encore Capital Group, a global finance company. He is a graduate of Seoul National University and has a Ph.D. from UCLA.

Newport firm buys student housing complex near Iowa State

Arrimus Capital, a Newport Beach-based real estate private equity firm, has acquired Stadium View, a student housing development next to Iowa State University.

The price of the 518-bed complex was $38.6 million. The sale closed in December.

H.B. advertising firm acquires agency

Innocean Worldwide, a Huntington Beach-based advertising agency, has acquired David & Goliath, an independent ad agency, for about $71 million.

Innoceans clients include Hyundai Motor America and Vizio.

David & Goliath is based in El Segundo.

Newport company debuts meal kits

True Food Innovations, based in Newport Beach, is debuting its True Chef Meal Kits in stores.

The recyclable kits will initially be sold in Texas-area Costcos and a grocery store chain throughout Arizona.

Pacific Life Foundation makes charitable donations

The Pacific Life Foundation, based in Newport Beach, recently announced that it expects to give $7 million in charitable funding this year.

Of the funds, $2 million in grants were presented to 214 nonprofits on Jan. 25. Some of the recipients were from Orange County, including UC Irvines foundation.

Pacific Life, an investment firm and insurance provider, is celebrating its 150th anniversary.

bradley.zint@latimes.com

Twitter: @BradleyZintSeveral years after deciding to stop taping candidate forums, the Costa Mesa City Council will discuss dusting off the cameras for the upcoming election cycle.

Council members are set to provide direction Tuesday on whether staff should participate in recording such forums, showing them on Costa Mesas public-access channel, CMTV/3, or posting them on the citys website.

The city began recording and broadcasting council candidate forums in 2000 and continued doing so into the 2014 election cycle, according to a staff report.

However, at that point, legal counsel recommended that city staff no longer take part in the taping of candidate forums and that any recordings of forums not be available on any city resources to avoid any and all potential conflicts, the report states.

In 2016, the council majority at the time voted to officially stop the practice, citing concern about using public resources for events that might not be politically neutral.

Another issue raised was that the number of such forums could make it problematic for the city in taping some events and not others.

CMTV taped three candidate forums in 2008, four in 2010 and five in 2012, according to the staff report.

Three forums were held during the 2016 election cycle  Feet to the Fire, one sponsored by the Eastside Costa Mesa Neighbors Group and another put on by Mesa Verde Community Inc.

Should the council decide to resume recording, broadcasting and posting such events, a policy should be put in place that clearly outlines staffs role and a process for determining which forums qualify to be taped, the staff report states.

Event venue review

Council members also will review the Planning Commissions approval of an event venue called Alleylujah planned for 2955 Randolph Ave.

Alleylujah would occupy about 2,300 square feet of indoor space and include a sizable outdoor area. It would be used for business meetings and other private events.

Mayor Sandy Genis asked to look at the commissions decision, writing in her review application that shes concerned about parking, including implementation and monitoring of [the] conditions of approval.

There arent enough parking spaces at 2955 Randolph to satisfy the citys requirements, so Alleylujah would tap into available spots at two other properties: 2991 Randolph and 765 St. Clair St. Valet services also would be used.

Other business

The councils agenda also is packed with items held over from its two meetings in January, including:

A proposed partnership with the Costa Mesa Sanitary District for a pilot program to provide mobile restrooms to serve the local homeless population;

A discussion about noise issues stemming from John Wayne and Long Beach airports;

A proposal to direct staff to analyze options for filling Costa Mesas city attorney position;

The proposed work plan to review the citys small-lot ordinance, urban plans and overlay districts;

A proposed resolution supporting local authority to certify and regulate residential recovery facilities and sober-living homes.

Tuesdays meeting starts at 6 p.m. at City Hall, 77 Fair Drive.

luke.money@latimes.com

Twitter @LukeMMoneyNewport Beach Mayor Marshall Duffy Duffields State of the City speech Friday night focused on how hed like to improve the harbor.

On waterfront development, he suggested a report card-style assessment to see if projects are living up to their stated intentions.

For example, zoning tweaks on the Rhine Channel allowed mixed uses, but what resulted was simply an inexpensive way to build a house on the bay, Duffield told the audience at the Marriott Hotel & Spa in Newport Center.

Had we gone back and studied those developments, we would have seen that it wasnt working as it was intended, he said. The commercial element on the first floor was simply a ruse for having a residence above.

The ground-floor businesses have little parking and street exposure, leading to unsuccessful ventures, he said.

He also cast a critical eye on the Vue condominium-retail project on Balboa Boulevard near the Newport Pier, saying it displaced a boat yard, a boat sales lot and five other marine businesses.

Duffield praised sea wall improvements being added around Balboa Island and the citys new in-house harbor operations department and said he has longer-term plans for a new fireboat and less-expensive, more efficient dredging.

In off-the-water issues, he committed to protecting residents from noise and pollution from nearby John Wayne Airport and suggested a city charter amendment to allow residents input on major taxpayer-funded debt obligations, like the $140-million Civic Center complex that was completed in 2013.

Voters should have been able to vote on the Civic Center certificates of participation [a financial instrument for issuing bonds] that funded the project, he said. Maybe voters would have supported it, but they never had the chance. That should change.

In 2016, the City Council tabled a proposal to put a measure on the ballot asking voters whether they want to require public approval before the city could use a certificate of participation or lease revenue bond greater than $10 million.

Ever the waterman, Duffield closed his speech by telling the origin story of his Duffy electric boats.

hillary.davis@latimes.com

Twitter: @Daily_PilotHDUC Irvine student Leslie Martinez learned she was undocumented when she was a sophomore at Orange High School.

Her mother had told her about it when she was younger, but it didnt register until that moment at school.



For the record: For the Record: In the original version of this article, Martinez said that while in high school she applied for a full-ride scholarship to Chapman University and was selected as one of the top five recipients but had to forfeit the award because she didnt have a Social Security number. In an email Feb. 6, Chapmans director of public relations, Sheri Ledbetter, said the university has no record of Martinez applying there and that Chapman admits students regardless of immigration status.Martinez told the Daily Pilot she has been trying to obtain paperwork providing details about the scholarship.

Martinez, now 18, said it took a big toll on her academically and emotionally. She described feeling like she had reached a dead-end on her dreams of becoming a surgeon.

On Tuesday, Martinez said, she regained a sense of leadership as a guest of Rep. Lou Correa (D-Santa Ana) to hear President Trump deliver his first State of the Union address in Washington, D.C.

A news conference Tuesday presented by the Congressional Hispanic Caucus in Washington, D.C., included Dreamers who attended the State of the Union address. (Courtesy of Rep. Lou Correa )

Martinez had visited the nations capital two weeks earlier with other Dreamers  people who were brought into the United States illegally as children  to speak with members of Congress. She heard some say they were planning to invite Dreamers as guests for the State of the Union.

But she was dumbfounded when she received Correas invitation.

At that moment, I thought theres like 800,000 Dreamers; I wasnt going to get chosen, Martinez said. When I got the invitation, it was crazy.

This was the second time Correa had invited a student as his guest for the address.

Taking students is a win-win, Correa said. You expose them to government, show them that democracy is part of their life, that its within their reach.  This is whats important to me. Dreamers are important to me.

Martinez, he said, was there for business.

On Tuesday, Martinez met Correa at his Washington office, where they exchanged stories. Martinez told of how she was brought to the U.S. from Mexico at age 2 and eventually interned at UC Irvine Medical Center as a junior in high school with the help of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, a federal government program created in 2012 by then-President Obama to allow immigrants brought in illegally as children the temporary right to live, study and work in the United States.

The program is in limbo after Trump in September announced plans to rescind it and called on Congress to find a replacement by March.

UC Irvine student Leslie Martinez, 18, shares her thoughts about President Trumps State of the Union address with Univision. (Courtesy of Rep. Lou Correa )

Moments before Trump began his speech Tuesday, Martinez was nervous to hear what he would say, she said. She said she expected a unifying message after hearing Trump say he wanted a law that would give young immigrants like her legal status and a way to achieve full citizenship in 10 to 12 years.

That would come as part of a package including money for his proposed southern border wall and new limits on legal immigration.

In the end, Martinez said she felt a renewed sense of confidence even though she was let down by Trumps speech, in which he did not acknowledge the Dreamers in the audience.

I never thought Id do this, Martinez said. I never thought Id be the voice for 800,000 Dreamers  I never thought Id be advocating for us. I was never someone to be open about my status. Id always avoid the question or topic, but I realize I have to if I want something done. I have to advocate for myself.

Oscar Teran, director of the Dreamers Resource Center at UCI, said: Im always impressed when students put themselves out there to advocate for others, and Leslie took this bold opportunity to be Correas guest. I think it took a lot of courage.

Priscella.Vega@latimes.com

Twitter: @vegapriscellaThe Womans Club of Laguna Beach honored the two-decade tenure of Councilwoman Toni Iseman with a luncheon Friday.

The five-term politician, a Nebraska native who moved to Laguna in 1970 and was first elected to the City Council in 1998, thanked her supporters at the event, held at the clubs headquarters on St. Anns Drive.

Her 20 consecutive years on the council is a record in a city that incorporated in 1927.

Despite the headaches that go with public office, In Laguna, she said, its worth it.

Iseman used her time at the podium to warn about the dangers of over-development in Laguna, which has long suffered from traffic congestion and lack of parking in its village setting. She said residents are feeling cranky, tired and impatient.

Were a coastal town, but not a coastal resort, Iseman said. We are being loved to death.

John Pietig, Laguna Beachs city manager, talks about Councilwoman Toni Iseman on Friday during a luncheon in her honor. (Kevin Chang / Staff Photographer )

Iseman suggested installing parking meters in South Laguna to dissuade out-of-towners from using the neighborhood for free, all-day beach parking.

She singled out businesses she said make Laguna great, such as The Ranch at Laguna Beach, Urth Caffe, La Casa del Camino and the Old Pottery Place, and institutions like the Laguna Art Museum, Laguna Playhouse and Laguna College of Art + Design.

Its an amazing town, she said, with too much to do.

Isemans term expires this year. She didnt announce Friday whether she is running for a sixth term, but didnt rule it out either.

She did, however, joke about opening a seniors-only bar where IDs are checked at the door to ensure an appropriate age.

Do I Come Here Often? could be its name, Iseman said.

Laguna Beach Councilwoman Toni Iseman plays with a gift during a luncheon the Womans Club of Laguna Beach presented in her honor Friday. (Kevin Chang / Staff Photographer )

Iseman concluded her remarks with a call to civic duty.

We have a responsibility to the next generation, she said. So all of us, lets do the right thing.

City Manager John Pietig praised Isemans interest in seemingly mundane issues, such as vector control and wastewater, and her extensive network of contacts to get help for the city.

You have to admire her educational background, her experience, her tenacity, the way she represents her constituents, her resiliency, added retired City Manager Ken Frank.

He noted how shes no flash in the pan.

Resident Rita Conn praised Isemans commitment, saying shes never shown a hidden agenda.

Compassion is not a choice; its an instinct, Conn said, and she has that.

Realtor Chris Tebbutt, who established the Laguna Beach LGBT Heritage and Culture Committee, praised Isemans efforts on behalf of the community. He noted how she came to the groups first meeting and, as mayor in May, presided over a city proclamation that made June Laguna Beachs Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Heritage and Culture Month.

You work tirelessly, behind the scenes, to get things done, Tebbutt said.

Iseman was also credited with helping AIDS victims in the diseases early days, which were particularly devastating in Laguna Beach. Those remarks received a standing ovation. Another followed when Iseman concluded her speech.

bradley.zint@latimes.com

Twitter: @BradleyZintPresident Trump opened his State of the Union address by acknowledging the heroic first responders who came to the aid of victims in the floods that devastated Houston and the wildfires that engulfed California. Its a pity that he didnt mention what made these natural disasters so deadly and costly: climate change.

Natural disasters in 2017 produced record-shattering damage estimated at $306 billion. In fact, 16 individual events cost the U.S. more than $1 billion each, according to the National Centers for Environmental Information.

The severe weather behind these disasters has worsened over the years because of rising temperatures. Some of last years most costly disasters include:

Hurricane Harvey, which dumped more than 4 feet of rain in the Houston area. Ball State University estimates this disaster cost $198 billion.

Hurricane Irma, a Category 5 storm with sustained winds of 185 mph. Damage is estimated at $66 billion.

Hurricane Maria, which devastated Puerto Rico and caused about $90 billion in damages, according to USA Today. Many Puerto Ricans still lack electricity and clean water.

In California, drenching rain early in the year produced vegetation that became kindling during the summer because of dry, hot air (San Francisco hit 106 degrees). The result: California experienced its most destructive wildfire season in history with $11.8 billion in damage, according to Time.

Both the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and NASA confirmed that 2017 was the hottest year on record without an El Nino. As the trend for global warming continues up, we can expect such natural disasters to be more intense and more frequent, eventually outpacing our ability to respond and adapt.

Responding to threats is clearly a priority of President Trumps. According to his own military leaders, climate change is a clear and present danger. In 2017, Secretary of Defense James Mattis told the U.S. Senate, Climate change is impacting stability in areas of the world where our troops are operating today.

In the 2014 Quadrennial Defense Review, the military warned that climate change is a threat multiplier, aggravating issues like poverty, political instability and social tensions. On our own shores, rising seas threaten our military bases.

While the executive branch remains stubbornly ignorant on this issue, lawmakers see it with clearer eyes. In December, 106 members of Congress sent Trump a letter asking him to include climate change in Americas National Security Strategy.

It is imperative that the United States addresses this growing geopolitical threat, stated the letter, signed by Republicans and Democrats alike.

And the bipartisan drumbeat for climate action grows with each passing month. In the House of Representatives, the Climate Solutions Caucus had 18 members at the start of the 115th Congress, half Republican and half Democrat. Since then, its ranks have steadily increased to 68 members while maintaining party balance.

Caucus co-chair Rep. Carlos Curbelo (R-FL) has said, according to a Yale University journal, I came to realize that this issue was hyper-politicized and highly polarized. And we knew that unless we worked to change that, to extract some of the politics from the issue then it would be very hard to have a rational conversation about whats happening and what we can do about it.

What can we do about it?

A solution that finds support from conservatives and liberals alike is an approach known as carbon fee and dividend. This policy would put a fee on all oil, gas and coal we use in the United States. That would make clean energy cheaper and more attractive than dirty, polluting energy.

The money raised would be returned to Americans in the form of a monthly rebate. In 20 years, carbon fee and dividend would reduce our CO2 emissions 50% below 1990 levels. Plus, it would create jobs and put money into the pockets of hard-working Americans, so people can adapt and prosper.

Despite the presidents omission, its obvious that the state of our union is closely linked to the state of our climate, and its encouraging to see that Republicans and Democrats in Congress understand the risks our nation faces from a failure to act. When Congress introduces and passes bipartisan climate legislation, the state of our union will be undeniably stronger.

Coronado resident MARK REYNOLDS is executive director of the Citizens Climate Lobby, which is active in Newport Beach.Following interim guidelines on construction of secondary dwelling units, known as granny flats that adhered to stricter standards mandated by the state, the Glendale City Council Tuesday adopted a slightly amended, yet still conservative, ordinance regulating their construction.

The Glendale City Council last year responded to a 2016 state law, which requires the construction of granny flats to deal with an affordable housing shortage, with an urgency ordinance that set the maximum size at 500 square feet compared to the states 1,200-square-foot limit.



For the record: A previous version of this story said an amended section of the adopted granny flat ordinance would no longer allow the conversion of garages in horse overlay zones.

The 4-1 vote adopted an ordinance that mirrors the previous one but with amendments to three sections: the maximum size of a granny flat is set at 600 square feet, a tenant leasing the property is prohibited from subleasing either the flat or main residential dwelling and a portion relating to horse overlay zones is removed to allow the conversion of garages in those zones.

The amended ordinance retains most of the previous guidelines, which include that if the owner isnt present, the property must be rented as a whole, with both structures leased together not separate, they cannot be seen from the street in historic neighborhoods, they must sit on a 5-foot setback from the property line and granny flats built above a garage are prohibited in historic districts.

Also, granny flats cannot be built in frontyards, alter the propertys facade and must be architecturally compatible with the neighborhood.

Before the vote, almost 30 speakers  many representing homeowners associations, neighborhood councils or Realtor groups  addressed the proposed ordinance during the public-comment portion of the meeting, with most asking that council members maintain the more restrictive regulations.

Lorna Vartanian, president of the Rossmoyne Mountain Homeowners Assn., encouraged the City Council to adopt provisions similar to what the cities of Burbank and Pasadena recently put in place, which only allow one dwelling on a property be rented if the owner is not living on the property, as well as maintain the 500-square-foot limit.

Weve heard the argument that a property owner could invite as many people as they want to live in their home, but the goal is to minimize the number of unsupervised people that could live on a property in the absence of an owner-occupant, Vartanian said.

At the suggestion of Councilman Vrej Agajanian, who argued that a total footprint of 500 square feet was not enough living space when accounting for structural impediments, each council member agreed to increase the maximum size to 600 square feet.

According to an estimate by Kristen Sapp, a senior planner with the city, a 500-square-foot space, based on a 25-by-20 footprint, loses about 90 square feet of living space when factoring in walls.

At 600 square feet, based on a roughly 30-by-20 footprint, 100 square feet is lost in the walls, but provides about 500 square feet of living space, Sapp said.

Glendale municipal code requires that construction of one-bedroom apartment units must be at least 600 square feet, as a comparison.

Councilwoman Paula Devine agreed with the increase in allowable square feet but cast the only dissenting vote because she wanted a requirement that the owner be present on the property when leasing either dwelling unit.

I would have compromised on the 600 square feet, I think thats fair, but the other one I cannot, she said.

jeff.landa@latimes.com

Twitter: @JeffLandaCity Council approved the adoption of a resolution that will place on the ballot  during a special municipal election in June  a measure asking voters whether or not they want to amend the city charter to consolidate local elections with state primaries.

If approved, general municipal election dates will shuffle from the first Tuesday in April of odd-numbered years to coincide with California primaries, in this case, March 2020 and 2022.

The resolution also calls for a special municipal election to be held on June 5, when residents will vote on the new measure.

Council members decided last year that Glendale can no longer run its own general municipal elections every odd year in April due primarily to the California Voter Participation Rights Act, or SB 415.

The legislation  signed into law by Gov. Jerry Brown in 2015  prohibits local governments from holding a municipal election on a date other than a statewide election if the voter turnout for the previous four local elections is at least 25% less than the average voter turnout for the previous four statewide elections.

Another motivating factor for the change is rising costs associated with running a local election.

According to a city staff report in November, if Glendale were to continue its April election date, the costs would be between $1.3 million and $2.3 million, depending on the number of seats on the ballot. To compare, L.A. County estimates a consolidated election would cost around $250,000 during primaries or about $230,000 during general elections.

The consolidation with Californias primaries would extend the terms of council members elected in 2015, Vartan Gharpetian and Paula Devine, and those elected last year, Vrej Agajanian, Zareh Sinanyan and Ara Najarian, by 11 months.

The terms for the city clerk and city treasurer would also be extended the same amount of time.

Although voters may reject the amendment in June, City Atty. Mike Garcia previously said there is still a very strong argument that state law would preempt the voters decision.

jeff.landa@latimes.com

Twitter: @JeffLandaWhen the Downtown Central Library reopened its doors last year after more than a year of renovations, it dedicated a space for reflection and examination of human rights atrocities.

The ReflectSpace Gallery, as its known, opened an exhibit last week that navigates issues of immigration with artwork that highlights the visible and invisible effects of the U.S.-Mexico border wall has on those living on either side.

In|visible: Negotiating the U.S.-Mexico Border, on display through March 14, is curated by Ara and Anahid Oshagan and features work by artists Dulce Pinzon, Claudia Cano, Teresita de la Torre, Tom Kiefer and Joan Zierhut.

Dominating the exhibit is a site-specific installation that emulates a segment of the San Diego-Tijuana border wall and splits the gallery in two. The wall is modified with nine open portions so that attendees can subvert the obstruction and view artwork displayed on either side.

A look through one part of the wall reveals a series of photographs by Pinzon, where real immigrant laborers are dressed as famous superheroes and captured working their daily jobs.

The Real Story of the Superheroes by Dulce Pinzon is on display at the Downtown Central Library as part of an exhibit on immigration, on display through March 14. (Ara Oshagan )

They are invisible, doing a lot of the work many wouldnt do here, Anahid Oshagan said. They are visible to the countries that they come from, sending their low wages to Mexico and other places south of the border.

Another series of photos by Kiefer, documents the collection of possessions confiscated and tossed by agents, which he saw while working as a custodian at the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol processing facility in southwest Arizona for more than a decade.

The exhibit also contains a project by de la Torre that documents her year wearing a shirt discarded by an immigrant and performance art by Cano, where she adopts an alter-ego as a cleaning lady who is an immigrant.

Another major installation is a collaboration between Zierhut and students in the Glendale Unified School District. Throughout the library are sculptures made out of tape that recreate the silhouettes seen on the once-common Caltrans signs cautioning drivers along the Golden State (5) Freeway about immigrants crossing illegally into California.

When you put up a sign like that, that is hated, it draws attention to it and creates a context where people can have a relationship to the sign, Ara Oshagan said. It serves a dual purpose  many millennials have no idea what that sign is.

Only one of those signs remains on the 5 Freeway.

For more information, visit bit.ly/2ottGdZ.

jeff.landa@latimes.com

Twitter: @JeffLandaArchaeologists in Egypt have discovered a 4,400-year-old tomb near the countrys famed pyramids at the Giza plateau just outside Cairo, the Antiquities Ministry said Saturday, the latest discovery that authorities hope will help revive the countrys staggering tourism sector.

The tomb was found in a wider area of Gizas western necropolis, which is known to be home to tombs from the Old Kingdom.

It likely belonged to a woman known as Hetpet, who archaeologists believe was close to ancient Egyptian royals of the fifth dynasty.

The tomb, unveiled to the media Saturday, is made of mud brick and includes wall paintings in good condition depicting Hetpet observing different hunting and fishing scenes.

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Other scenes also depict a monkey  in pharaonic times, monkeys were commonly kept as domestic animals  picking fruit. Similar scenes have been found in other tombs belonging to the later 12th dynasty, according to the ministrys statement. Another scene shows a monkey dancing before an orchestra.

This image taken from video on Saturday, Feb. 3, 2018, shows wall paintings inside a 4,400-year-old tomb near the pyramids outside Cairo. The tomb likely belonged to a high-ranking official known as Hetpet during the fifth dynasty of ancient Egypt, officials said. (Associated Press )

According to the ministry, the archaeological mission behind the discovery started excavation work in October. Archaeologists have been making discoveries near the site since the 19th century, and Mustafa Waziri, who led the mission, believes there is still more to be found.

This is a very promising area. We expect to find more, Waziri told reporters at the site. We have removed between 250 and 300 cubic meters of layers of earth to find the tomb.

What we see above the earths surface in Egypt doesnt exceed 40% of what the core holds, he added.

Waziri believes Hetpet had another tomb in Gizas western necropolis and said that excavation work is underway to find that one too.

Hetpet is a known figure in Egyptian antiquity though her mummy has not been discovered. Fragments of artifacts belonging to Hetpet were found in the same area in 1909 and were moved to a museum in Berlin at the time, Antiquities Minister Khaled Anani said Saturday, speaking at the site to reporters and Western diplomats.

Despite all the discoveries already made about ancient Egypt, experts say they hope to find much more treasures  in part thanks to modern technology  still buried under the vast desert.

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The area of the latest discovery is close to a new museum under construction that will house some of Egypts most unique and precious artifacts, including many belonging to the famed boy King Tutankhamun.

The first phase of Grand Egyptian museum is expected to be opened later this year, while the grand opening is planned for 2022.

In January, Egypt placed the ancient statue of one of its most famous pharaohs, Ramses II, at the museums atrium, which will include 43 massive statues.

Throughout 2017, the Antiquities Ministry made a string of discoveries across Egypt  including some in the southern city Luxor, known for its spectacular temples and tombs spanning different dynasties of ancient Egyptian history.

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Egypt hopes the inauguration of the new museum, along with the recent discoveries, will draw back visitors to the country where tourism has been hit hard by extremist attacks and political turmoil following the 2011 uprising that toppled longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak and the authorities struggles to rein in an insurgency by Islamic militants.

The government has tightened security around archaeological and touristic sites and spent millions of dollars to upgrade airport security, especially following the 2015 downing of a Russian airliner over the restive Sinai Peninsula by the Islamic State group, killing 224 people on board.

The bombing dealt Egypts vital tourism sector a hard blow after Russia suspended flights to and from Egypt.

In December, Cairo and Moscow signed a security protocol and announced plans to resume Russian flights to the Egyptian capital, due to start this month.6ix9ine, the New York rapper whose rapid rise has been plagued by controversy over a 2015 sex offense conviction, will no longer be performing in Easton.

The venue One Centre Square, which had scheduled 6ix9ine to perform on Feb. 9, announced Friday afternoon that the performance has been canceled because of the rapper's history.

6ix9ine's involvement in sexually-explicit videos featuring a child prompted Easton resident Karolina Davis to organize a protest outside of the venue before the show.

In a statement, the venue said that organizers had become aware of the details of the crime after booking the artist.

"As we learned more about the unsettling incident in question, we no longer found the artist to be a suitable performer for our venue and we obviously do not condone his behavior in the incident," the statement reads.

The statement said that the show would be canceled even though "the artist is scheduled to perform a number of reputable venues including a college facility, the University of South Florida's Sun Dome later this month."

The venue's co-owner Billy Cornish initially declined comment when contacted about 6ix9ine's offenses and the planned protest.

"We refrained from earlier comment on the issue until we formalized the cancellation with the artist's representatives," the venue's statement reads.

6ix9ine, who also goes by Tekashi69 and whose real name is Daniel Hernandez, came to prominence on the strength of his 2017 song "Gummo," which has racked up more than 100 million views on Youtube. He has also caught attention with his eccentric personal style, rainbow-colored hair and prominent tattoos.

But his fame has come with renewed attention to his involvement in a series of videos that featured a 13-year-old girl in sexual situations. According to the Manhattan District Attorney, he appeared in and shared videos that show the girl nude and performing a sex act with a different man.

Hernandez took a deal to plead guilty to participating in one video. The rapper has said he didn't know the girl's age and has since apologized. He can avoid jail time if he completes a list of requirements, but has struggled to complete the mandate to get his GED.

We've reached out for comment to Davis, the Easton resident who planned the protest, and will update this story with her response.

Andrew Doerfler may be reached at adoerfler@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @adoerfler or on Facebook.TURKEYS

Is it asking too much for a flu shot that works for more than a small slice of the population -- better than three in 10, possibly even one in ten? Each year to pharmaceutical companies and research firms work to come up with a line of defense against influenza, which this year is hitting the U.S. hard. Lehigh Valley Health Network, along with other hospitals, has set up outside treatment tents to augment emergency rooms. Doctors say a limited vaccine is better than none, and are urging anyone who hasn't gotten a shot to do so. Still, we have to do better. Health experts say money should be spent to develop a universal vaccine that could be used anywhere in the world and be effective against any strain. Sounds like a penny-wise, pound-of-prevention plan.

Motorists in Washington Township, Northampton County, have been plagued by an insidious road hazard. Township police someone spread nails welded together in pointy spherical shapes on O.W. Road and Molasses Road. Several drivers reported tire punctures, according to Police Chief Scott Miller, who said roofing nails, bolts and nuts also were found on roads. No injuries were reported. Anyone with information is asked to call township police via the county's 911 non-emergency line, 610-759-2200.

TROPHIES

A group of volunteers researching records at Straw Church Cemetery in Pohatcong Township has solved a mystery. Going through old documents, they discovered an unmarked grave is the resting place of Aaron Kichline, a Civil War veteran who died in 1921. He will be remembered this spring, when a headstone will be placed on the grave. The community is invited to take part in the event, including a planning meeting at 1 p.m. Feb. 11 at the church hall across Route 22 from the cemetery. The volunteers leading the effort are Dave and Charlotte Morris and Carol and David Hoff, who are digitizing the cemetery's records.

It could have ended differently. When Christopher Baj barricaded himself inside a Bethlehem Township home -- after firing a handgun through a bathroom door, where his wife was seeking refuge -- a Pennsylvania State Police negotiator took over. For more than eight hours Baj ignored their pleas to surrender. His wife and two boys, who were not injured, were able to get out before the standoff began. Rather than storm the house, police negotiated with Baj with a loudspeaker from an armored vehicle. The incident ended peacefully when he gave himself up. Baj, who had been served with divorce papers before the incident, was charged with attempted murder and other crimes.The San Francisco Police Department released a video Friday of an auto break-in suspect running over a plainclothes police officer and an alleged accomplice Thursday near Alamo Square.

The police officers union said the attack shows how the departments policy prohibiting officers from firing at moving vehicles puts its officers lives in danger.

The Police Department released the video while identifying three suspects in the attack as young San Francisco men, two of whom were booked on suspicion of charges including attempted murder.

The video was captured just before noon from a security camera near Pierce and Hayes streets.

A black Infinity sedan pulls up and two people wearing gray hooded sweatshirts get out.

Police officials said the men were part of a team breaking into cars at the famed tourist draw, across from the Painted Ladies. Plainclothes officers were at the scene amid a spiking epidemic of car break-ins around the city.

Ten seconds after the men get out of the car, one of the alleged accomplices runs back into the vehicle. A second man, though, gets tackled directly behind the car by an undercover officer who had been patrolling on a bicycle.

A second plainclothes officer then runs up alongside the car. But rather than surrender, the driver reverses over the officer and the suspect behind the car.

The second officer pounds on the vehicle as the driver then speeds forward, possibly again hitting the two men on the street. The second officer draws his gun and aims it at the driver, but doesnt fire.

Tell me that these officers did not show the utmost restraint by not shooting the suspect who just ran over a San Francisco police officer and his own accomplice, said Martin Halloran, president of the San Francisco Police Officers Association.

In December 2016, the San Francisco Police Commission approved a policy that prohibited police officers from opening fire at moving vehicles.

The commission unanimously approved the policy following a recommendation by the U.S. Department of Justices community-policing division, which began reviewing the department after several controversial police shootings, including the fatal shooting of Mario Woods in 2015.

In May 2016, a police sergeant shot and killed 29-year-old Jessica Williams, who was allegedly trying to flee officers in a stolen car. The shooting prompted the ouster of then-Police Chief Greg Suhr.

The police union, which had an ally in Suhr, has been critical of the policy, and even filed a lawsuit saying the commission violated the unions collective bargaining rights by enacting the policy.

Shortly after Thursdays attack, Halloran issued a statement again saying the policy must be changed.

It is so frustrating to SFPD officers that our use-of-force policy prohibits us from shooting at a suspect in a vehicle even if that suspect is trying to kill or seriously injure innocent civilians or our officers, he said.

The injured officer was treated at a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

Deputy Chief Michael Redmond characterized the incident as a violent assault that could have had deadly consequences to our officers.

All three suspects were later apprehended after the driver crashed eight blocks away from the initial scene. The suspect who was run over was treated at a hospital.

They were identified by the Police Department as San Francisco residents Devonta Lofton, 25, Adrian Landers, 23, and Jamon Butler, 19.

Lofton and Butler were booked on suspicion of crimes including attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon, burglary and hit-and-run causing injury. They are being held on $2 million bail.

Evan Sernoffsky and Annie Ma are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: esernoffsky@sfchronicle.com, ama@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @EvanSernoffsky, @AnnieMa15

To view the video: http://bit.ly/2EAWXIF"Mallrats" actor, Jeremy London was arrested in the front yard of his Mississippi home on Friday, Feb. 2, 2018, for domestic violence after a dispute with his wife, Juliet Reeves.

According to TMZ, the 45-year-old was booked on one count of domestic violence simple assault, which is considered a misdemeanor.Film series planned at library branch

ALBANY  The Albany Public Library will host a free Social Justice Film series, including documentary screenings and discussions, every month at the Howe Branch, 105 Schuyler St.

This new program series is a partnership among the library, YouthFX, WMHT and EquiVisible.

The sessions will take place from 6 to 8 p.m. on select Mondays.

Upcoming films are:

"13th," Monday, award-winning film by director Ava DuVernay explores the progression from the 13th Amendment to the modern-day American prison industry

"Cracking the Codes: The System of Racial Inequality," March 5, 12 and 19. This documentary by director Shakti Butler examines the causes and consequences of systematic inequality and features stories from racial justice leaders. This film will be shown in three parts on consecutive Mondays.

"All the Difference," April 2, This film by Tod Lending follows the path of two teens from the South Side of Chicago who dream of graduating from college.

For more information, go to https://www.albanypubliclibrary.org.

Income tax help set at library branches

ALBANY  Free federal income tax preparation services for people with an annual household income limit of $54,000 will be provided on select days through April 4 at two branches of the Albany Public Library.

The Washington Avenue branch, 161 Washington Ave., will offer appointments Wednesdays through April 4. The Delaware avenue branch, 331 Delaware Ave., will offer appointments Tuesdays and Thursdays March 1 through 29.

Tax help will be available by appointment only and must be scheduled by calling the United Way 2-1-1 hotline.

Albany Public Library branches also stock basic New York State and limited federal forms (1040, 1040-A, 1040-EZ) for individual filers.

The income tax preparation services are provided by APL's partners  volunteers from the Internal Revenue Service Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program and the AARP Tax-Aide program.

Every year, more than 1,500 people get their taxes prepared for free at Albany Public Library resulting in more than $2 million in refunds coming back to the community.

For more information about tax assistance and resources, go to https://www.myfreetaxes.com.

Workshop for youth, parents on Saturday

ALBANY  "Using our Psychological Resources to Succeed" will be the topic of a free workshop for youth and their parents offered from 2 to 4 p.m. Saturday at Al-Fatemah Islamic Center of Albany, 10 South Family Drive.

Participants will learn how to develop strengths to tackle life's challenges and cope with stress, anxiety, loneliness and depression in healthy ways.

Sessions for youth and parents will be held separately.

Medical students and mental health professionals will answer questions. Information on community resources will be provided.

For more information, call 518-322-5296.

Programs scheduled at area visitor center

NEW SCOTLAND  Two programs are scheduled for the Thacher Visitor Center, atop the Helderberg Escarpment:

"The Helderberg Escarpment: A Herpetofaunal Hot Spot," 2 p.m. Saturday. Learn about the assortment of wildlife habitats including limestone cliffs, small caves, headwater streams and extensive wetlands complexes as Alvin Breisch, state Department of Environmental Conservation amphibian and reptile specialist (retired) will speak. His book, "The Snake and the Salamander: Amphibians and Reptiles from Maine to Virginia," will be available for purchase.

"Ecology and Behavior of Fishers in Suburbia," 2 p.m. Feb. 17. Learn about the natural history of fishers and the ecological and behavioral insights uncovered during a suburban fisher research project near Albany as Scott LaPoint shares his research using high-resolution GPS tracking data, accelerometer-derived motion data, camera trap detections, and snow tracking efforts.

For more information, call 518-872-0800.

Tick-borne diseases Feb. 11 forum topic

CLAVERACK  A free public forum on Lyme disease and other tick-borne diseases will be offered at 2 p.m. Feb. 11 at the A.B. Shaw Firehouse, 67 Route 23.

The purpose of the forum is to push for action at state and federal levels.

Dr. Ananthakrishnan Ramani, an infectious disease specialist from Columbia Memorial Hospital, will be the featured speaker. Victoria McGahan, health educator for the Columbia County Department of Health, will provide handouts and tick-removal kits from the Columbia County Department of Health.

Presented by Assemblywoman Didi Barrett, a Democrat who represents Columbia and Dutchess counties, in conjunction with the Claverack Free Library, the event is part of a new social media and educational campaign "#GetTickedOff," which includes public forums.

A question and answer session will follow. Refreshments will be served.

For more information, call 518 851-7120 or go to http://claveracklibrary.org.

Local artist to teach watercolor class

SCHENECTADY  Seniors can break up the winter blues with a free watercolor class followed by lunch from noon to 2 p.m. Feb. 14 at Congregation Gates of Heaven, 852 Ashmore Ave.

The class will be taught by local artist and art instructor Amy Friedman, who believes art is a tool for physical and emotional healing.

The Senior Moments lunch and program is free and open to the public but donations up to $5 will be accepted. Reservations are required. Call 518-374-8173 or email: klaws@cgoh.org.

Scrabble tournament to aid library efforts

NASSAU  Registration is under way for a non-traditional, team Scrabble tournament to be held 2 to 4 p.m. Feb. 25 at Grace United Methodist Church, 42 Church St.

Teams of two to four players may participate and each team must supply its own standard Scrabble game board and tiles. Register as a team or come as a single player and form or join a team.

The event, sponsored by the Friends of the Nassau Free Library, will include a silent auction and free refreshments. Entrance fee is $10 a player. Proceeds will be used to enhance the display and availability of large print books for the Nassau Library.

Snow date March 4.For information and to register, call 518-766-2715.

 Azra HaqqieAbout 200 people turned out to meet the local candidates during a "Whistle Stop Tour" in The Woodlands Friday, Feb. 2.

Nearly 30 candidates were on hand for the tour, which was described by The Woodlands Area Chamber of Commerce, the organizers of the event, as an "old-fashioned political campaign stop." The chamber hosts similar events every even-numbered year.

Local residents attending the event at the community building of Lone Star College System Office had a chance to meet the candidates in person, as well as listen to brief statements that were limited and strictly timed by a monitor.

Among the those on hand were the three candidates running in the March 6 Republican primary for a spot in the general election in November for justice of the peace in Montgomery County's Precinct 3. Dan Zientek, Matt Beasley and Ronnie Yeates are all vying for the position. The three are running to fill the post being vacated by Edie Connelly, a longtime justice who announced last fall she would not be seeking re-election.

Zientek and Beasley both touted their law enforcement and public service experience when they addressed the gathering, while Yeates pushed his background as a prosecutor.

Zientek told the gathering he has worked in public service for nearly three decades.

"I served as a public servant for the past 29 years, as a paramedic and police officer," Zientek said.

Likewise, Beasley pitched his law enforcement experience as well.

"I was patrolling the streets of The Woodlands before community policing even happened." Beasley told the crowd.

For his part, Yeates talked of his background as a prosecutor with the Grimes County District Attorney's Office, saying he's the "only attorney running for the post."

Separately, all three spoke to The Villager, with Yeates repeating his pitch he was the only attorney running of the three, while Zientek and Beasley

touted their law enforcement work.

"As a lawyer I'm familiar with civil law, evenditiary law, court and criminal procedure, the penal code, transportation code," Yeates said. "Everything a lawyer is supposed to know. "

Zientek pointed to his work as an investigator as a reason why voters should choose him.

"With my background in homicide, I worked death investigations for over 10 years," Zientek said. "I have forensic training in blood stains, crime scenes and all that. I actually teach for Texas A&M Forensic Academy and teach death investigations and crime scene around the state."

Beasley spoke of his work in the constable's office, as a detective, but also as a volunteer.

"I have the law enforcement background, but I also have a track record of participating in the community on a volunteer basis, not just a job," Beasley said. "In addition to that I manage the capital projects for the county commissioner's office. I have experience collecting fines and fees. I do that every day, and that's what part of the JP court does."

The matter of wedding ceremonies has come up during the campaign, with, Yeates saying he would not be performing ceremonies because of the time it consumes, while Beasley said he would "prefer not" to conduct the ceremonies. But Zientek said he would.

"My position has always been the same, I prefer not to do any weddings, whether it's for any couple," Beasley said. "Whether they're gay or not gay. It's just something that I prefer not to do. I'm not compelled to do it."

As for Yeates, he said the time spent conducting weddings would be time taken away from other court matters.

"I am not going to do weddings because as I've stated, the growth is exponential and you need the time in court," he said. "So instead of taking 20 to 30 minutes throughout the day to do weddings, I believe it more important to move the case load and the dockets as more people are coming into the county."

But Zientek said if he's elected to the office, wedding ceremonies would continue.

"I am not going to take a way a service from the court to provide to the public," he said. "I will be performing marriages."

Also during the campaign stop, Montgomery County Judge Craig Doyal and challengers Mark Keough and Jay Stittleburg addressed the gathering. Keough, who currently represents District 15 in the Texas state House of Representatives, is challenging Doyal for the judge seat in the March Republican primary.

Doyal spoke of the current financial condition of the county under his watch, including its AAA credit rating.

Keogh said he would fight to keep property taxes from rising and would "honor the will of the people."

Stittleburg told the gathering he is a "fiscally conservative Democratic candidate."Washington

K.T. McFarland, who was a deputy national security adviser in the Trump administration and then was picked to serve as ambassador to Singapore, withdrew her ambassadorial nomination Friday after it had stalled in the Senate.

McFarland's nomination had become embroiled in the controversy over the Trump campaign's contacts with Russian officials, with some senators left wondering if she had answered questions deceptively when asked if she knew of discussions between Michael T. Flynn, the former national security adviser, and a Russian ambassador.

"Unfortunately, some Democrats chose to play politics rather than move forward with a qualified nominee for a critically important post," President Donald Trump said in a statement released Friday by the White House. "I wish K.T. the best as she uses her considerable wisdom and skill as a commentator to explain to the American people how to make American foreign policy great again."

Senate Republicans could have approved her nomination unilaterally, but the fact that it was never brought to a vote suggested that she had made even some of them uneasy.

McFarland was a member of the Trump transition team and then became Flynn's deputy on the National Security Council, where she ruffled feathers with her intense partisanship.

In one meeting of the council, which sees itself as apolitical, she bragged to staff members that she was wearing shoes from Ivanka Trump's brand. In another, she told the assembled career staff members, most of whom had been in the same roles during the Obama administration, that they needed to "make America great again."

Flynn's successor, Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, pushed McFarland out in an effort to return the council to a traditional professional operation. Her nomination as ambassador to Singapore was seen as an effort to reward her loyalty.RICHMOND, Va. - The blue wave that leveled the balance of power in the General Assembly last fall was driven largely by voters in rapidly growing northern Virginia, who swapped veteran Republicans for Democrats in counties like Fairfax and Prince William.

But it also wiped out much of the region's seniority in the legislature, a key reason that many of the bills sponsored by the newcomers - including several that aim to address specific problems in the District of Columbia suburbs - have failed to survive even a committee hearing.

Down went a bill prohibiting cars from using bike lanes to pass another car on the right, an issue that resonates in traffic-choked communities in the region that are trying to become more bike-friendly.

A bill to suspend rush hour tolls on I-66 for carpoolers during the state's road-widening project inside the Beltway also quickly died. So did another that would have prohibited mapping software companies from suggesting local neighborhood streets as faster routes during rush hour.

Meanwhile, northern Virginia state legislators were battling to keep a $150 million Metro funding bill from leaning too heavily on their region, in the form of higher taxes and transportation funds already meant for other projects.

Political analysts say the loss of veteran Republican delegates Dave Albo of Fairfax, Jim LeMunyon of Fairax and Jackson Miller of Prince William is making it harder for the region to get its concerns addressed while the freshmen Democrats who replaced them are still learning to navigate Richmond's political terrain.

With the Washington suburbs growing much faster than the rest of the state, northern Virginia will likely develop more clout as its new lawmakers gain seniority and legislative districts are redrawn after the 2020 census.

But for now, their power is limited in a political climate where Republicans still maintain a majority in Richmond - however slim - with few of their members hailing from northern Virginia.

"The political shock wave of this last election was really a northern Virginia story," said Quentin Kidd, director of Christopher Newport University's Wason Center for Public Policy.

But, "as much as it says about where political momentum is in Virginia as a whole, it doesn't mean practically anything right now because all those new legislators are in the minority, so they can't really pass things that Republicans don't support," he said.

Northern Virginia has long had a complex relationship with the rest of the state, which both depends on and frequently resents the more urban, wealthier area.

The region is home to nearly a dozen Fortune 500 companies and some of the country's wealthiest counties, with its residents making up a third of Virginia's population of 8.5 million people.

That translates to nearly half of the $13 billion in annual personal income taxes collected by the state, according to Fiscal Analytics Ltd., which analyzes Virginia's economy for local governments.

Over the years, the region has benefited from local lawmakers in powerful positions.

During his four decades in the state senate, recently deceased Republican Charles Colgan was instrumental in getting state funds for road improvements in his Prince William County district. In 2013, Del. Tom Rust, R-Herndon, helped usher through a state transportation funding law that has largely benefited the region. Rust left the legislature after declining in 2015 to seek re-election.

But the region's long shadow has also provoked disdain among lawmakers from other parts of the state, who've argued that D.C.-area problems like traffic congestion, transit, crowded schools and poverty should be handled with local money.

Del. Tim Hugo, R-Fairfax, recalled learning that shortly after he was first elected in 2002.

He had co-sponsored a bill that would change the state's school funding formula so wealthier jurisdictions like Fairfax could better deal with their increasingly crowded classrooms and teacher shortages - a perennial goal for northern Virginia jurisdictions who argue that they are being shortchanged under the current formula that favors localities with lower overall property values.

"When they figured out it was a Fairfax plan, it just went down," Hugo said.

Hugo, who narrowly hung onto his seat last fall, is now the sole ranking Republican in the General Assembly from northern Virginia and is serving as chair of his party's caucus.

The position has helped him push legislation that has benefited his district, including a law signed last year that exempts defense contractors in the area from local business and professional license taxes.

His new Democratic colleagues, however, are struggling.

Del. Lee Carter, D-Manassas, looked deflated inside the state legislature's Pocahontas Building one recent afternoon after six of his bills had failed, including one that sought to punish drivers in northern Virginia as much as $500 for not yielding to pedestrians crossing highways.

"At a certain point, you have to wonder whether these decisions are being made based on the merits of the ideas or not," he said. "It's been rough."

Nearby, Del. Danica Roem, D-Manassas, fine-tuned her argument for a bill calling for a study of ways to alleviate traffic congestion on Route 28, a signature issue that helped her win office to become the country's first openly transgender state lawmaker.

Roem - who'd been passed over for a spot she coveted on the House transportation committee - was hungry for success after seeing two bills fail that proposed reforms to the state's Freedom of Information Act, moving her to pull another FOIA bill from consideration.

After Roem delivered an impassioned speech before a House rules subcomittee, the Route 28 bill died. In the same meeting, two more of her bills - dealing with commuter rail in her district and suicide prevention in local schools - also failed.

Frustration on the part of the northern Virginia lawmakers is bipartisan.

In a Senate transportation committee meeting earlier this week, Sens. Jeremy McPike, D-Prince William, and Richard Black, R-Loudoun, mounted a united front to roll back rush hour tolls on I-66 until the state widening project is finished and new commuter parking lots are built near the Beltway.

Their complaints about area commuters being forced to pay as much as $47 were echoed by a trio of northern Virginia lawmakers on the committee, but their colleagues seemed mostly indifferent.

Sen. John Cosgrove, R-Chesapeake, noted that rush hour tolls are also set to go into effect along I-64 in the Hampton Roads area.

"I don't see why Hampton Roads should be treated differently than northern Virginia," he said.

The bill died in a 7-6 vote, with promises from the Department of Transportation to try to speed work on the commuter parking lots.

McPike and Black were visibly angry.

"We have a tremendous problem here," Black told the committee.

"Our families can't wait," added McPike, before they both left.

Political analysts say northern Virginia's fortunes are bound to improve after redistricting in 2021, when the area's increasing population is likely to lead to more seats in the General Assembly.

Former delegate Albo, whose decision to retire opened the door for Del. Kathy Tran, D-Fairfax, to win election in November, said any new seats for the region will help with funding for local schools and transportation.

"The northern Virginia delegation is very tight on issues of funding and money," Albo said. "So the more seats we have, whether it be Republican or Democrat, are only going to help us."A backlash against a minimum wage hike in South Korea shows the challenge facing President Moon Jae-in as he seeks to become the "jobs president."

While millions of workers are happy with higher pay, others say employers are dodging the increases and even laying people off instead of paying them more. Businesses complain that they can't afford to pay the new wage, which rose by 16 percent to 7,530 won ($7.05) an hour as of Jan. 1.

The minimum wage has become the subject of global debate. While cities including Ontario and Seattle have pushed ahead with big increases, nationwide hikes like South Korea's have been rare. Its impact will be closely watched.

How Moon handles the backlash and whether he can push the wage even higher could also determine the success of his administration's goal of creating jobs and giving more people a shot at a "decent life." Though still relatively high, Moon's approval rating in a Gallup poll last week dropped to 64 percent, the lowest since he took office in May. Many cited the wage hike as one reason for their disapproval.

"Small businesses supported President Moon, who promised a fair economy and consideration for the vulnerable, but we are upset as we don't feel the benefits," said Choi Seung-jae, chairman of the Korea Federation of Micro Enterprise.

The latest increase is a key part of Moon's plan to spur economic growth through consumption, with a goal of raising the minimum wage by another third to 10,000 won by 2020. The current wage still lags that of South Korea's peers in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

While hundreds of thousands of new jobs will be created this year, the wage hike is likely to reduce the number by 10,000 to 20,000, according to the central bank. But it also expects the change to support private consumption and raise economic growth by 0.05 percentage point in 2018.

The impact will depend on how keenly employers abide by the law. About 14 percent of Korean workers were paid less than the minimum in 2016, and that ratio is expected to rise as the pace of increases accelerates.

According to a January survey by the Federation of Korean Trade Unions, 66 percent of the surveyed 217 member unions said their employers were evading the hike by using loopholes such as counting incentives or welfare benefits as base salary or were cutting work hours.

Moon's administration has threatened to release the names of business owners who break the law. Those found guilty can also face fines of up to 20 million won or up to three years in jail.

Hundreds of petitions have been submitted to presidential office via its website since the latest hike took effect. Petitions that attract signatures of more than 200,000 will elicit an official response from presidential office or ministers.

One woman who said she had two children wrote that she was fired from the night shift at a factory as soon as the new wage took effect. The company told her it could no longer manage night-shift expenses, said the woman, who didn't give her name.

Business owners also complain that they are being hit hard by the change.

Yoon Chang-hyuk, who runs magnet-wire manufacturer Hwail Electronics Co., said he would have to consider expanding the company's China operations if the minimum wage keeps rising at a similar pace. He suggested the wage remain on hold in 2019 until the government can assess the effects of the increase.

"The fundamental question of whether business owners can manage the higher wage burden should have been considered," Yoon said.

Oh Sang-bong, a research fellow at the Korea Labor Institute, said it's "a little too early" to say whether the harmful effects of the increase will outweigh the benefits.

"It would take at least a quarter to monitor data on jobs, and then consideration should follow regarding the pace of the next wage hike," Oh said.Visalia, Calif.

As Washington was abuzz Friday over the release of a classified memo, Democrats and Republicans were up in arms over its allegations. And right in the middle was Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., the memo's chief architect.

Here in his home district, a conservative farming region in California's Central Valley, Nunes remains wildly popular and his constituents, by and large, greeted the memo, and their congressman's role at the center of it, with a collective shrug. The memo, which has incited a political firestorm, accused the FBI and Justice Department of abusing their surveillance powers at the start of the investigation into possible ties between the Trump campaign and Russia.

Instead, everyone wanted to talk about water, or more precisely, the lack of it.

"He listens, and he really took on the water issue, which is a big fight here," said Tom Pinkham, 47, a plum farmer.

And speaking of water, Pinkham, a Republican, said of Nunes: "No one thinks for one second that he's carrying water for Trump. He's for less government. A no BS guy. That's it."

In this district, Nunes is more closely associated with campaigning for farmers on water issues than anything to do with Russia  pushing for more dams and trying to get more water from Northern California in the face of a shortage that many fear could turn into another drought.

His efforts have largely failed to solve the problem, which his Republican constituents here blame on environmentalists and Democrats in Sacramento, California's capital.

Many people interviewed here Friday were unaware of the memo and the stir it had caused in Washington, or not concerned with it.

"The more information the better," Pinkham said over lunch at Philly's, a cheesesteak restaurant. "The whole thing stinks. I'm not a fan of big government," he said.

Based in the heart of the heavily agricultural Central Valley, Nunes' district includes miles of farmland, but also parts of suburban Fresno County. Latinos slightly outnumber whites in total population, but that does not necessarily reflect the electorate makeup.

Democrats have made California a prime target in their efforts to recapture Republican seats in the coming midterm elections.

Nunes represents a solidly Republican part of the state and is not on that list: He won re-election in 2016 with a lopsided 67 percent of the vote. That said, Democrats have become increasingly optimistic about making strong showings across California this year, given President Donald Trump's unpopularity. And they have suggested that Nunes might be in their cross-hairs, in no small part because of his role as House Intelligence Committee chair and the contention by Democrats that he is misusing that post to block actions in the Russia probe on Trump's behalf.

Not everyone supports Nunes, and The Fresno Bee, in an editorial, called Nunes "Trump's stooge," for pushing for release of the classified memo.

The editorial said "he (Nunes) certainly isn't representing his Central Valley constituents or Californians, who care much more about health care, jobs and, yes, protecting Dreamers than about the latest conspiracy theory."Washington

The Federal Reserve is imposing more penalties on Wells Fargo, freezing the bank's growth until it can prove it has improved its internal controls. In addition, bank agreed to replace four board members.

It's the latest blow against the San Francisco bank that has had its reputation tarnished by revelations it opened phony customer accounts and sold auto insurance to customers who did not need it.

The new penalties were announced late Friday on Fed Chair Janet Yellen's last day at the central bank.

"We cannot tolerate pervasive and persistent misconduct at any bank," Yellen said in a statement. "The enforcement action we are taking today will ensure that Wells Fargo will not expand until it is able to do so safely and with the protections needed to manage all of its risks and protect its customers."

The Fed said it is restricting the bank's assets to the level where they stood at the end of last year until it can demonstrate that it has improved its internal controls.

The announcement came after the close of trading on Wall Street Friday. Wells Fargo's stock fell more than 6 percent in after-hours trading.

"We take this order seriously and are focused on addressing all of the Federal Reserve's concerns," CEO Timothy Sloan said.

Wells Fargo said that it is confident it will satisfy the Fed's requirements and reiterated that it remains "open for business."

The bank said it will continue to meet customer's financial needs, including saving, borrowing and investing.

It said it has the flexibility on its balance sheet to pull back from certain activities to meet the Fed's growth limits, although its exact steps have not been determined.

Sloan also emphasized that the order is related to prior issues, not any new matters.

"While there is still more work to do, we have made significant improvements over the past year to our governance and risk management that address concerns highlighted in this consent order," he said.

The company has agreed to replace three directors by April and another one by year-end. It did not specify which board members would be affected.Gene Sharp, a scholar and onetime conscientious objector who wrote penetratingly about civil disobedience, was often called "the Machiavelli of nonviolence" and who became an influential backstage figure in international peace movements from Serbia to Egypt, died Jan. 28 at his home in Boston. He was 90.

The death was confirmed by Jamila Raqib, executive director of the Albert Einstein Institution, a Boston-based nonprofit Dr. Sharp founded in 1983 to advance "the study and use of strategic nonviolent action in conflicts throughout the world." The cause was not disclosed.

From his academic perches at Harvard and elsewhere and his prolific writing about the peace movement's dynamics, theories and strategies, Sharp helped provide the intellectual energy accessed by activists confronting dictators and strongmen around the world. His books, including the three-volume "The Politics of Nonviolent Action" (1973), were translated into dozens of languages.

Sharp, who was inspired by Mohandas Gandhi, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and other proponents of civil disobedience, saw himself as a pragmatist who advised specific actions such as "sick-ins," mockery of authoritarian rulers and declining to use officially sanctioned currency. He disliked being called a pacifist or a "peace researcher," telling Progressive magazine such descriptions were "quite naive" and that conflict was often preordained and necessary.

That did not mean engaging in conventional warfare and other violent tactics. "Why should you choose to fight with your enemy's best weapons?" he told National Public Radio. "That doesn't make sense at all. Nonviolent struggle is a kind of people-power. You have a much greater chance of succeeding by you choosing the means that they're not equipped to deal with effectively."

He wrote of nonviolence as an "alternative weapons system" and described it a "means of combat, as in war. It involves the matching of forces and the waging of 'battles,' it requires wise strategy and tactics, employs numerous 'weapons' and demands of its 'soldiers' courage, discipline and sacrifice."

Among those taking to heart his teachings were Yugoslav students in 1998 and their Serbian group Otpor (Resistance). With no tanks, bombs or guns, but well armed with 5,000 copies of Sharp's 1993 volume "From Dictatorship to Democracy," they found moral support and a road map for their cause.

Slobodan Milosevic, the so-called Butcher of the Balkans, had managed to cling to power despite NATO bombing of Serbia and other efforts to dislodge him from power. Violent attacks by outside forces only empowered Milosevic's repressive leadership and justified a crackdown on opposition movements like Otpor. It was only after Milosevic tried to cling to power after he lost an election in September 2000 that Otpor saw its moment - with displays of civil disobedience and mockery that were credited with helping topple him.

Milosevic was removed from office that October and the following April was arrested on charges of genocide and war crimes. He died before a verdict was reached. In two years of organized resistance, no Otpor member was killed.

Some peace activists saw the hand of Sharp's writings in uprisings from Burma to Ukraine and resistance struggles from Latin America to Africa. Regimes in Syria, Iran and Venezuela have reportedly accused him of being on the payroll of the CIA and the White House. (He denied any connection to any governments.)

His books were said to have had an impact on leaders of the 2011 Arab Spring protests in Cairo's Tahrir Square against Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak. Sharp said perhaps the most important lesson embraced by the young activists, whose persistence led to Mubarak's resignation, was loss of fear.

"Once a regime is no longer able to frighten people," he told NPR, "and people then act wisely and keep nonviolent discipline, which is extremely important, then that regime is in big trouble."

Gene Elmer Sharp was born Jan. 21, 1928, in North Baltimore, Ohio, and spent his high school years in Columbus. His father was a traveling Protestant minister, his mother a teacher. After earning a bachelor's degree from Ohio State University, he received a master's degree in sociology from Ohio State in 1951.

He moved to New York and worked as an elevator operator and a guide for a blind social worker. "I wasn't interested in having a real job," he told the New York Times in 2012. "I wanted subway fare and food and to research Gandhi."

He protested his conscription for military service during the Korean War. Arrested and convicted as a conscientious objector, he served more than nine months in the Danbury, Connecticut, federal prison. He passed the time reading.

Aware that physicist Albert Einstein was a pacifist, Sharp wrote to him at Princeton University for his views on conscientious objection. The scientist wrote to the 25-year-old dissident: "I earnestly admire you for your moral strength and can only hope although I really do not know that I would have acted as you did had I found myself in the same situation."

Uplifted by the reply, Sharp, then working on his book "Gandhi Wields the Weapon of Moral Power," persuaded Einstein to write the foreword. It came out in 1960, five years after Einstein's death. In the intervening years, Sharp worked in the United States for pacifist A.J. Muste and spent a period in Norway, studying the country's nonviolent resistance movement against a pro-fascist regime during World War II. Some citizens, he noted, put a potato or toothpick on their clothes as a silent protest.

"Everyone always talks about the boys in the mountains fighting against the Nazis," he told the Times, "but what interested me was the teachers, the clergy and the labor movement. Those were the real resisters."

Sharp received a doctorate in political theory from the University of Oxford in 1968. He taught political science and sociology at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth, among other colleges.

Among his honors was he 2012 Right Livelihood Award, sometimes called the Alternative Nobel. He was the subject of Ruaridh Arrow's 2011 documentary "How to Start a Revolution."

Sharp, who never married, had no immediate survivors.

"In a world that often considers the use of force as the only 'realistic' open when confronted with crises and threat, Gene Sharp dedicated his life's work to show us another way," said Randall Amster, director of the Justice and Peace Studies Program at Georgetown University. "We have lost a great peacemaker."

- - -

McCarthy, a former Washington Post columnist, directs the Center for Teaching Peace in Washington.WASHINGTON - Rod Rosenstein's tenure as deputy attorney general and the top Justice Department official overseeing the Russia investigation appears to be in peril after President Donald Trump refused to say Friday whether he had confidence in him.

After Trump authorized release of a controversial memo on FBI surveillance practices by House Intelligence Committee Republicans, he was asked by a reporter whether he was more likely to fire Rosenstein and whether he had confidence in the 27-year-veteran of the Justice Department who oversees its day-to-day operations and special counsel Robert Mueller III's investigation.

"You figure that one out," Trump replied.

The memo says that Rosenstein signed an application to renew a surveillance warrant on Carter Page, a former Trump campaign adviser, and says that information justifying that and other warrant requests to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court was tainted by political bias. The FBI has said it has "grave concerns" that the memo leaves out important material, creating an inaccurate impression of its work.

Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., said in a statement that he wanted Attorney General Jeff Sessions to seek the criminal prosecution of Rosenstein and several former Justice Department officials whom he described as "traitors to our nation."

But in a letter to the White House, Democratic congressional leaders rushed to Rosenstein's defense.

"We are alarmed by reports that you may intend to use this misleading document as a pretext to fire Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, in an effort to corruptly influence or impede Special Counsel Bob Mueller's investigation," top House and Senate Democrats wrote Trump.

"Firing Rod Rosenstein, DOJ Leadership, or Bob Mueller could result in a constitutional crisis of the kind not seen since the Saturday Night Massacre," the Democratic leaders wrote, referring to President Richard M. Nixon's decision during the Watergate scandal to fire special prosecutor Archibald Cox, an order that led to the resignations of Attorney General Elliot Richardson and Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus.

On Friday morning, Rosenstein and other senior Justice officials carried on with their work as speculation swirled in Washington about the fallout from the memo's release. Rosenstein, Sessions and Associate Attorney General Rachel Brand, the third-highest-ranking Justice official, came together publicly for the first time to kick off an all-day summit on combating human trafficking held in the department's Great Hall.

Sessions went off-script at the event to praise Rosenstein, saying he represents "the kind of quality and leadership that we want" at the Justice Department.

No one addressed the issue of the memo, but Sessions in a statement later said, "I have great confidence in the men and women of this department. But no department is perfect. . . . I am determined that we will fully and fairly ascertain the truth."

Rosenstein, 53, previously the longtime U.S. attorney in Baltimore, has been shadowed by the investigation into possible coordination during the 2016 campaign between Trump associates and agents of the Russian government since he became deputy attorney general last April.

A month after he was overwhelmingly confirmed by the Senate, Rosenstein, a Republican, came under fire for his role in the firing of former FBI director James Comey. Sessions and Rosenstein met with Trump at the White House the day before Comey was fired, and the president asked them to put in writing a rationale for the dismissal.

After Trump fired Comey, White House officials said the memo that Rosenstein wrote about Comey's handling of the Hillary Clinton email investigation was the main reason for Trump's action. Rosenstein threatened to resign over that narrative because the president had decided to fire Comey before Rosenstein wrote the document.

A few days after the firing, Trump told NBC News' Lester Holt that he was considering "this Russia thing" when he fired Comey.

Rosenstein was overseeing the Russia investigation at that time because Sessions had recused himself a few months earlier after The Washington Post disclosed that he had met several times during the 2016 election campaign with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak - a fact he had not disclosed during his confirmation hearing when asked about contacts with Russians.

Rosenstein, who had been confirmed by the Senate 94 to 6 and was known as an independent and apolitical prosecutor, was harshly attacked for his role in the Comey firing. Before his appointment, Rosenstein had been the sole holdover U.S. attorney who had worked in both the George W. Bush and Barack Obama administrations.

On May 17, about a week after the Comey firing, Rosenstein announced that he had appointed Mueller as special counsel to conduct the Russia investigation. The decision took Trump by surprise and angered him.

"I am being investigated for firing the FBI Director by the man who told me to fire the FBI Director! Witch Hunt," Trump tweeted in June, in an apparent reference to Rosenstein.

At some point over the summer, Mueller's office interviewed Rosenstein, which put the investigators in the unusual position of interviewing the man who had authority over their investigation.

Questions were raised by some lawmakers about why Rosenstein did not recuse himself after he was interviewed by the special counsel's team about his role in the Comey firing. Rosenstein has declined to discuss the issue.

Trump continued to publicly attack Sessions and the Justice Department, but Sessions and Rosenstein moved ahead with their conservative agenda and began undoing Obama-era criminal justice and civil rights initiatives.

On Jan. 5, Rosenstein traveled to Florida to speak to the Palm Beach Forum Club about the rule of law.

"We spent the day helping to protect our nation and promote the rule of law," Rosenstein said. "And I am proud to work for a president and an attorney general who support our efforts to achieve those goals."

Recently, Rosenstein defended Mueller when Rosenstein was questioned by the House Judiciary Committee about whether bias might have tainted the special counsel's investigation.

Rosenstein said that he had not seen good cause to fire Mueller, and that although some members of the special counsel team had political views, that did not necessarily taint their work. He disputed the notion that the probe is a "witch hunt."

"We recognize we have employees with political opinions. It's our responsibility to make sure those opinions do not influence their actions,'' Rosenstein said. "I believe that Director Mueller understands that, and he is running his office appropriately."

But Rosenstein again raised the president's ire over the House Intelligence Committee's memo. Along with FBI Director Christopher Wray, he made a last-ditch plea this week to White House Chief of Staff John Kelly about the dangers of releasing the document.

In an interview with Fox News on Friday night, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, R-Calif., who orchestrated the memo's release, declined to say whether he thought Rosenstein should be fired.

"I personally like Rod Rosenstein, but the bottom line is Mr. Rosenstein, Attorney General Sessions and [FBI Director Chris A.] Wray have work to do," Nunes said. "Admit first that you have a problem, and they've been unwilling to do that." Nunes added that he thinks Rosenstein "can fix the problems over at DOJ, and we're willing to work with him."The author of a memo arguing for a government takeover of development of the nation's 5G mobile network has been removed from the National Security Council staff. The memo's unauthorized release this week caused uproar in the telecom community and created embarrassment for the White House

A senior administration official confirmed to me that Air Force Brig. Gen. Robert Spalding is no longer serving as NSC senior director for strategic planning. Spalding was not fired, according to the official, who said his detail had ended and was not renewed. His last day as a White House staffer was Jan. 31. Spalding was not implicated in the leak of the memo, but officials said his advocacy for the plan had gone beyond his role, contributing to the NSC leadership's decision to send him back to the Air Force.

Spalding was informed that his White House tenure was ending last week, the senior administration official said, before his memo and PowerPoint proposal was leaked. The Jan. 28 Axios storysparked alarm, drawing opposition from major telecom companies and catching the White House off guard.

Part of Spalding's job had been to canvas private industry and outside groups about the plan, but in recent weeks senior officials became concerned that he had become too aggressive in pushing the idea, getting out ahead of the administration's still nascent deliberations. He has not been disciplined formally and is free to seek a new job in the Defense Department.

Another senior administration official said there was considerable upheaval inside the White House this week after the 5G memo story broke. Although it is unclear whether Spalding leaked the memo, because he had shared it so widely, some officials judged him responsible.

White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters Jan. 29 that consideration of the plan was at its "earliest stages" and the administration was nowhere near a decision. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said spending federal dollars to build a 5G network would be a "costly and counterproductive distraction" from the competitive, market-driven approach that was needed.

"There is nothing that would slam the brakes more quickly on our hard-won momentum to be the leader in the global race for 5G network deployment," Jonathan Spalter, chief executive of the industry trade group USTelecom, said in a statement.

Spalding was known both inside and outside the administration as a China hawk. From 2014 to 2016 he led the China division at the Joint Chiefs of Staff and before joining the Trump White House he was the U.S. defense attache at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing. One key argument for Spalding's 5G plan was that only the government can properly defend technological infrastructure from Chinese interference.

There are no plans to replace Spalding, officials said. Spalding declined to comment.WASHINGTON - Though President Donald Trump and his allies hope the controversial release of a GOP-written memo alleging surveillance abuses by the FBI will tarnish the legitimacy of the entire Russia probe, that argument may be undercut by a single sentence buried near the end of the four-page document.

The memo highlights the role of Trump campaign foreign policy adviser Carter Page in the investigation, alleging that information used in October 2016 to obtain permission to monitor his activities was politically tainted.

But the memo also points to information about another individual with ties to the Trump campaign, George Papadopolous, as a key factor in the FBI's Russia probe.

Papadopoulos, a young foreign-policy consultant who pleaded guilty in the special counsel's investigation, is now reported to be a cooperating witness.

"The Papadopoulos information triggered the opening of an FBI counterintelligence investigation in late July 2016 by FBI agent Pete Strzok," the memo noted in its final paragraph.

That timing is significant, given the FBI did not seek authorization to conduct surveillance on Page until three months later, on Oct. 21, 2016.

Democrats quickly seized on that sentence to assert the Republicans' own memo shows the Russia investigation would be underway with or without the surveillance of Page, and - more critically - even if the government had never seen the dossier of information about Trump that was compiled by Christopher Steele, a former British spy.

The dossier was funded by the Hillary Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee, fueling GOP claims that some underlying evidence used by the FBI was politically motivated and therefore illegitimate.

"The authors of the GOP memo would like the country to believe that the investigation began with Christopher Steele and the dossier, and if they can just discredit Mr. Steele, they can make the whole investigation go away regardless of the Russians' interference in our election or the role of the Trump campaign in that interference," Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee wrote in response to the memo, which was put together by the committee's Republican chairman, Devin Nunes, Calif.

"This ignores the inconvenient fact that the investigation did not begin with, or arise from Christopher Steele or the dossier, and that the investigation would persist on the basis of wholly independent evidence had Christopher Steele never entered the picture," the Democrats added.

It also underscores what Democrats say is a disconnect between intelligence documents that have not been made public and the conclusions Republicans have drawn from them.

"Unlike almost every House member who voted in favor of this memo's release, I have actually read the underlying documents on which the memo was based," said Senate Intelligence Committee Vice Chairman Mark Warner, D-Va. "They simply do not support its conclusion."

Even some Republicans cautioned against drawing too broad a conclusion from the memo and what it alleged about the initial motivations of the investigators.

The FBI's actions last year ultimately led to what has become a separate independent probe, which is being led by special counsel Robert Mueller III, who is himself a former director of the agency.

"As I have said repeatedly, I also remain 100 percent confident in Special Counsel Robert Mueller. The contents of this memo do not - in any way - discredit his investigation," Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., tweeted. Gowdy, who announced Wednesday that he will not run for reelection, is an influential voice, given he led the politically charged House probe into the 2012 attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi, Libya.

Papadopoulos appears nowhere in the 16 reports Steele wrote between June and December 2016 that are now known collectively as the Steele dossier.

Instead, people familiar with the matter have told The Washington Post that the FBI was first alerted to Papadopoulos from the Australian government in late July 2016, around the time WikiLeaks posted thousands of internal DNC emails online.

According to the Australians, Papadopoulos bragged to one of their diplomats during a boozy night at a London bar in May 2016 he had been told the Russians had emails that would be damaging to Clinton. The Australian connection was first reported by the New York Times.

The FBI ultimately interviewed Papadopoulos in January 2017 and then arrested him in June. He pleaded guilty in October to lying to the FBI about his Russia contacts and acknowledged he had been told by a London-based professor in March 2016 that the Russians had Clinton-related emails.The student body president at Texas State University apologized Thursday night after classmates shared images and comments he had posted on social media that many students found racist and offensive.

"Did I do something stupid four years ago? Yes," Connor Clegg, a senior, said by telephone Friday. But he challenged anyone to look back on high school and ask themselves if they had done anything then that seemed ill-advised in retrospect. And he said the student who publicized his comments had been blatantly racist in a column he wrote about white people.

The controversy came amid cultural tensions at the large public university, where the recent anti-white column in the student newspaper generated death threats, and where repeated appearances of posters with white-supremacist messages worried students.

At many campuses across the country, issues of race and free speech are simmering, with some students posting racially offensive comments and images, writing about race and identity in provocative terms, and finding white-supremacist posters on walls. The Anti-Defamation League said incidents of white supremacists bringing their messages to colleges more than tripled in 2017. Texas campuses saw the most, they said - more than 50 just this past fall.

At least two factors may explain that increase, said Oren Segal of the Anti-Defamation League. White-supremacist groups may see a greater openness to their ideas on college campuses than in the past. And because universities have become a symbol of issues white-supremacists rail against - "diversity, multiculturalism, liberalism, P.C. culture," Segal said - schools may have emerged as targets.

At Texas State, where for the past two years more than half of the nearly 39,000 students have identified as a racial or ethnic minority, several instances of racially provocative posters appearing on campus have been reported. In December, university police at the San Marcos school caught five men, none of them students, with posters and warned them to stay off campus.

In late November, Clegg, the student-body president, called for editors of the campus newspaper, the University Star, to be fired and funding revoked after he read student Rudy Martinez's column titled, "Your DNA is an abomination."

The column included lines such as, "Ontologically speaking, white death will mean liberation for all . . . accept this death as the first step toward defining yourself as something other than the oppressor," and, "Until then, remember this: I hate you because you shouldn't exist. You are both the dominant apparatus on the planet and the void in which all other cultures, upon meeting you, die."

The university's president, Denise Trauth, issued a statement saying she was deeply troubled by the column, which she called racist and abhorrent.

Martinez said Friday he wrote the column hoping to "grab young white students at Texas State University and the surrounding community and throw them into an arena of cognitive dissonance," to make them question their position as a white person in America. To call it racist, he said, "I think it comes out of a place of fear." He said Clegg and Trauth "take shelter within this white power structure we have in this country. I don't think they wanted to see the nuances in that piece."

At a hearing on free speech held on campus earlier this week, Martinez described the column as a metaphorical essay on white privilege, according to university spokesman Matt Flores. Flores said Martinez and editors at the paper reported getting death threats after the column ran.

The editors later apologized and said Martinez would no longer write for the paper.

Earlier this week, Martinez shared social media postings by Clegg with the comment, "Connor Clegg is indicative of what Texas State has become in the last 16 months: 'A billboard for racism.' If we want to take our campus back, it begins with removing this pig from office. #impeachclegg".

"I deem Connor Clegg a racist," Martinez said. "He is in no way adequate to be our student-body president."

The University Star published images of 2014 posts from Clegg's Instagram account, which they said was deactivated Thursday afternoon. One was a selfie with two Asian men in the background and hashtags such as "#kimjongil", "#pearlharborwasbad" and "a - holes." Another showed photos of nuns walking away with comments including "holybooty," "idcloisterthat-ss" and "amen."

An online petition calling for his impeachment had more than 1,400 digital signatures Friday.

On Friday, the president of Texas State issued a statement, saying, "We expect our students to uphold the university's core values of diversity, inclusion and unity - especially our student government leaders. Connor has apologized. I am hopeful that his apology truly reflects his sentiments."

A photo posted by Clegg in 2017 came from a Halloween party. It showed several people including Clegg and a person in an Abraham Lincoln costume with a comment about emancipation that Clegg described as "a little bit boorish - culturally insensitive." He said it was in bad taste but "it was not racist."

Clegg said he grew up in a small town in Texas that was "a little bit of an echo chamber" and said college had taught him the richness of cultural diversity.Where have we heard this before?

President Donald Trump's attacks on the Justice Department and the FBI - and his eagerness to release Republican allegations of surveillance overreach on Friday - echo his complaints dating back to the 2016 election about a "rigged system" bent on denying him the presidency.

It's an underdog, us-against-them narrative that fits Trump's flair for the theatrical and keeps his most loyal supporters energized.

The finger-pointing also takes a page from authoritarians, such as Russian President Vladimir Putin, who systematically seek to sow doubt about democratic institutions that might stand in their way.

"I think it's a disgrace what's happening in our country," Trump said Friday when asked about release of the memo from Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee claiming abuses in the Russia investigation.

"A lot of people should be ashamed of themselves and much worse than that," Trump told reporters.

The president's latest confrontation assails the credibility and impartiality of the nation's justice system, or at least the part connected to the ongoing investigation of Russian meddling in the 2016 election and potentially improper links between Trump associates and the Russian government.

"The top Leadership and Investigators of the FBI and the Justice Department have politicized the sacred investigative process in favor of Democrats and against Republicans - something which would have been unthinkable just a short time ago," Trump wrote on Twitter hours before ordering the release of the formerly classified memo. "Rank & File are great people!"

Never mind that the top leadership of the Justice Department and the FBI are men selected by Trump for those jobs, and never mind that the FBI took the remarkable step of publicly raising "grave concerns" that the memo is skewed and inaccurate.

"The president's attacks on the 'top leadership and investigators' of the Department of Justice and the FBI, like his attacks on the press and the judiciary, appear to be intended to undermine public trust in institutions that may hold him accountable," said John Bellinger III, who held a political post as the top State Department lawyer during the George W. Bush administration and was previously a career Justice Department lawyer.

"The president is again elevating his personal interests over the national security of the country," Bellinger said. "If long-term damage to our government is to be avoided, members of Congress and current and former leaders of the Department of Justice must speak up to defend the department and the FBI."

Democrats leaped to do just that on Friday; Republicans not so much.

The memo written by Republican staffers on the House Intelligence Committee outlines what it calls "concerns with the legitimacy and legality" of some FBI and Justice efforts to win court approval for surveillance of a former senior Trump campaign adviser.

The document claims partisan political bias against Trump infected the investigation of the adviser, Carter Page, who is a figure in the broader probe now led by special counsel Robert Mueller III. Trump is expected to use the memo to further his repeated claim that Mueller's inquiry is a baseless "witch hunt."

During the campaign, Trump took similar aim at the Republican primary system and the integrity of the election itself.

"Hillary Clinton should have been prosecuted and should be in jail. Instead she is running for president in what looks like a rigged election," Trump tweeted in October 2016, about three weeks before an election his Democratic opponent was heavily favored to win.

Trump's claim that the election was fixed beforehand, and his refusal to say that he would accept the results if he lost, were a challenge to democratic norms unseen in modern politics.

No one should be surprised now by Trump's impulse to attack the legitimacy of perceived opponents, said Brian Fallon, a Justice Department spokesman during the Obama administration and the press secretary for Clinton's unsuccessful 2016 campaign.

"He likes to have a foil, he likes an enemy," Fallon said. "He needs someone to bully, and he needs a narrative so there isn't just scrutiny of him. That's why he tries to keep Hillary Clinton out there," more than a year after the election, "and it's why there is this personification of some kind of 'deep state' " government conspiracy against him, Fallon said.

Questions about Russian meddling in the election and his campaign's dealings with Russian representatives have loomed over Trump's presidency and may now be coming to a head with the Mueller investigation.

Trump's outrage at the probe - "no collusion!" he says at every opportunity - has kept the "rigged system" narrative alive even as Trump appointees take their places in charge of that very system.

Trump tweeted in December that the FBI's reputation was "in tatters." He later unloaded during a campaign-style rally in Pensacola, Florida.

"This is a rigged system. This is a sick system from the inside," he said. "And, you know, there is no country like our country, but we have a lot of sickness in some of our institutions."

Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., a frequent critic of Trump, took the president to task the same day.

"This is not a sick system, Mr. President, nor is it a rigged system," Flake wrote on Twitter. "Let's not sow distrust in our democratic institutions."

Since then, Trump has asked for loyalty from government officials whose oath is to the Constitution, not the president. The Washington Post reported this week that Trump recently suggested that he should fire Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, the person officially overseeing the special counsel's investigation.

Such complaints, and Trump's repeated attempts to pressure senior law enforcement officials through firings or other means, have now become one of the main focuses of the investigation, The Post reported. That includes Trump's order last summer to fire Mueller, which prompted White House counsel Donald McGahn to threaten to quit before Trump backed down.

Though Trump is following his own pattern, he is also hewing at least in part to what Russia watchers call a playbook of doubt and division.

Putin's Kremlin has undertaken a systematic effort to corrupt fragile European democracies and meddle in elections as a means to spread Russian influence but perhaps more importantly as a way to delegitimize the very idea of democratic governance, according to scholars such as Russian-born author Masha Gessen.

Even when Russian interference is ham-handed or easily exposed, it serves to erode "public confidence, trust and credibility in democratic systems," Heather Conley, senior Europe scholar at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, wrote in a report called "The Kremlin Playbook."

"There is an undeniable elegance to these 'win-win' tactics for the Kremlin; it is the perfect strategy to erode the foundations of democracy from within, powerfully discrediting the Western model of governance," she wrote.Washington

The Trump administration on Friday announced it will continue much of the Obama administration's nuclear weapons policy, but take a more aggressive stance toward Russia. It said Russia must be convinced it would face "unacceptably dire costs" if it were to threaten even a limited nuclear attack in Europe.

The sweeping review of U.S. nuclear policy does not call for any net increase in strategic nuclear weapons  a position that stands in contrast to President Donald Trump's statement, in a tweet shortly before he took office, that the U.S. "must greatly strengthen and expand its nuclear capability until such time as the world comes to its senses regarding nukes." In his State of the Union address Tuesday, he made no mention of expansion, though he said the arsenal must deter acts of aggression.

A 74-page report summarizing the review's findings calls North Korea a "clear and grave threat" to the U.S. and its allies. It asserts that any North Korean nuclear attack against the U.S. or its allies will result in "the end of that regime."

It also cast China as a potential nuclear adversary, saying the U.S. arsenal is tailored to "prevent Beijing from mistakenly concluding" that it could gain advantage by using its nuclear weapons in Asia, or that "any use of nuclear weapons, however limited, is acceptable."

The Pentagon-led review of the U.S. nuclear arsenal and the policies that govern it was ordered by Trump a year ago. In a written statement, Trump said U.S. strategy is designed to make use of nuclear weapons less likely. In an apparent reference to the threat of catastrophic cyberattack, he said the U.S. aims to strengthen deterrence of major attacks against the U.S. and its allies, including those that "may not come in the form of nuclear weapons."

Known officially as a nuclear posture review, and customarily done at the outset of a new administration, the report drew blistering criticism from arms control groups.

"President Trump is embarking on a reckless path  one that will reduce U.S. security both now and in the longer term," said Lisbeth Gronlund, a senior scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists. She said the administration is blurring the line between nuclear and conventional war-fighting.

The Trump administration concluded that the U.S. should largely follow its predecessor's blueprint for modernizing the nuclear arsenal, including new bomber aircraft, submarines and land-based missiles. It also endorsed adhering to existing arms control agreements, including the New START treaty that limits the United States and Russia each to 1,550 strategic nuclear warheads on a maximum of 700 deployed launchers.For years, the senior boys at San Antonio Christian School have hosted barbecues to raise money as a class gift for the school.

But this year, they did something different: they gave the $4,012 they raised to the First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs.

For weeks, the senior boys encouraged everyone on their campus to spend $10 on a barbecue plate Friday. They spent Thursday night cooking up a storm.

They had a huge grill here, and they barbecued briskets and ribs all night long, said Tracy Smith, the schools director of development.

Pastor Frank Pomeroy, whose church became the site of the worst mass shooting in modern Texas history, attended the lunch on Friday and spoke to the students. Many of the girls were in charge of desserts, making almost all of the 79-student senior class involved in some way or another.

He prayed with the students and gave them hope and encouragement, that even if you go through hard times and difficult times, we still have hope and the sun still shines, Smith said.

Joshua Pink, a senior, came up with the idea and everybody just came behind him and said, Lets do this, Smith said.

She said the effort was a message to Sutherland Springs: You are not forgotten.

sfosterfrau@express-news.netA San Antonio man who spent 14 years on the lam playing Santa Claus in northern Mexico has been sentenced to 18 months in federal prison.

James Earl Bailey, 69, a self-proclaimed hippie, pleaded guilty in September in San Antonio to charges of manufacturing more than 100 marijuana plants.

Bailey stood out during his sentencing this week in the courtroom of Chief U.S. District Judge Orlando Garcia. With his white hair and beard flowing over his blue jail jumpsuit, Bailey was a contrast to the younger prisoners with bald heads or short hair, some with tattoos up to their necks.

His lawyer, Tom McHugh, said Bailey was in San Francisco during the Summer of Love, and also was into marijuana there before he moved to Texas.

Though he left San Francisco in 1968, San Francisco never left him, McHugh said. If truth be known, he was more hippie than criminal. He was just too good at what he did. It is reported that he grew an exceptional product. His real sin was his generosity in giving his product to friends.

After skipping bail in 2003, Bailey settled in Nuevo Laredo and lived in a modest home there with the earnings he got from playing ol St. Nick and taking pictures with people in the town square of his adopted home.

Bailey was embraced as Papa Noel  how Santa Claus is referred to in many Latin American countries. He spoke some Spanish, volunteered at an orphanage and lost weight.

His secret life came to an end in March 2016 after federales in Mexico tracked Bailey down at the request of American authorities, and he was deported back to Texas.

By irony, (on Wednesday) in San Francisco it was announced that San Francisco will wipe thousands of marijuana convictions off the books, McHugh said. Bailey is a kind, gentle and generous person. He saved our government much money by not collecting Social Security when he was first eligible seven years ago.

With credit for time served, Bailey could be out by Christmas, McHugh said.

gcontreras@express-news.net | @gmaninfedlandFinally, San Antonio has a transformative transit plan that shouldnt go off the tracks.

Thats because this plan, if done right, should not include any rail, and therefore no tracks. But even if it somehow does  say, for a rail line to serve the airport  the plan is far too compelling to fail.

The seven high-speed transit corridors VIA Metropolitan Transit is studying would radically transform this city. Rare is the project that eases congestion, connects the community, cuts across economic segregation, improves air quality and promotes economic development.

EDITORIAL: From Stone Oak to downtown San Antonio in rapid time? We like the transportation idea

Yet, here it is. Right before our eyes. If the community cant rally around this plan, seeing its obvious potential, then maybe we deserve to be stuck in traffic in one of the most economically segregated cities breathing in dirty air.

Courtesy, VIA

Its early in the planning process, but we have no time to waste. If you think traffic is bad now, just wait for 2040 when 1 million more people live in the region.

Officials have mapped out the general rapid transit corridors: One would run from Stone Oak on the North Side to the airport and then downtown. Another corridor would follow along Interstate 10, serving University of Texas at San Antonio and the Medical Center. Other corridors blanket the South, West and East sides, linking key institutions such as Texas A&M University-San Antonio, Brooks, AT&T Center and our bases.

Yes, exact routes have to be studied. So does the mode of transportation. But if you look at the transit corridors, the benefits of the plan are obvious. These routes are where people drive.

And if you think about the mode  rail or bus  the case for bus rapid transit is far more compelling than light rail.

RELATED: San Antonio named a top 10 city for high-wage job growth

It is significantly cheaper. Its flexible in terms of changing or tweaking routes. It can always be upgraded to rail. If its in a dedicated lane, which means it would run separate from traffic, bus rapid transit is just as quick as light rail.

Its also way more politically palatable in a rail-challenged town. And emerging technology for bus rapid transit helps bridge the gap on the cool factor.

China has been testing a driverless electric-powered trackless train. Its a rubber-tire bus that looks and feels just like a train. It can carry 300 passengers and reach 43 miles per hour. Just imagine where the technology will be by 2025, when the first rapid transit corridor here might become reality, let alone 2040.

For all these reasons Mayor Ron Nirenberg is intrigued.

Its more of a future-proof technology and can easily be scaled to rider demand, he said.

The mayor has a number of ideas to pay for the construction and operation of any transit system. He has characterized these ideas as loose, but there are certain tough choices looming.

First, the community should consider repurposing Advanced Transportation District dollars to VIA. At present, ATD funds are split between VIA, the city of San Antonio and Bexar County. But VIA receives significantly less overall sales tax revenue than other major transit systems in Texas. This would help make up some of that difference.

RELATED: Maps show San Antonio's most dangerous roads for pedestrians

But not all of it, which is why the community should consider shifting funding for Edwards Aquifer protection and linear creeks to the citys bond program. These are popular programs that would help lift any city bond, and it would open up precious sales tax dollars for VIA and this new transit system.

Any additional state or federal funding would be icing on the cake.

These would be tough conversations. But Nirenberg said he is willing to have them. Hes also committed to taking the transit plan to a vote. Even if its for a bus rapid transit system  no rail.

If we are serious about mobility, air quality, economic development and bridging economic segregation, then we have to be serious about making these rapid transit corridors reality. Part of that reality means hopping on the bus to keep this plan from going off the rails.

Correction: Last week I misspelled congressional candidate Jenifer Sarvers first name, which, as you can see, has but one n. My apologies to Jenifer, and to readers.

jbrodesky@express-news.netThe past several months have been deeply troubling for our country as stories of sexual assault and harassment have emerged across many sectors of society, impacting all communities.

Victims often cite fear of retribution from abusers as a primary barrier to sharing their story. Unfortunately, those who have been victimized might also be silenced by the very document they thought would protect them: a nondisclosure agreement, or NDA.

NDAs are critical tools to ensure the protection of proprietary data, such as the design of a new product or idea, but they should never be used to discourage or prohibit the reporting of assault or harassment.

The textbook example is the case of Olympic gold medalist McKayla Maroney, who was among the more than 150 child victims of Dr. Larry Nasser during his tenure as team doctor for USA Gymnastics, or USAG. After coming forward, Maroney was forced to sign an NDA that deprived her of speaking out even after his guilty conviction. Her voice was finally heard when USAG, under massive public pressure, announced it would not pursue the sanction.

Many of the victims of disgraced film producer Harvey Weinstein also were subjected to NDAs as part of legal settlements that allowed the Hollywood mogul to buy their silence. We may never know how many people were victimized by high-profile, powerful men, in part because the atrocities they committed were buried under the protection of nondisclosure contracts, including by some at Fox News, NBC, Catholic Healthcare West, Google and Binary Capital, as well as actor and comedian Bill Cosby.

Historically, workers have been protected under the National Labor Relations Act, known as the Wagner Act. Passed by Congress in 1935, it protects the rights of employees and employers by encouraging collective bargaining and restricting certain private-sector labor and management practices. But the enforcement of contracts such as NDAs remains a matter of state law, giving little or no protection to the many victims of harassment cases who regretfully signed such a document. The pain of the assault is only magnified when survivors realize there are not enough laws protecting them from the penalties that result from speaking out.

The stories weve heard from so many brave individuals in recent weeks have spurred a national dialogue about workplace harassment. As our nation grapples with the aftermath of long-held secrets that have wounded so many lives, we as legislators have a duty to listen and take action.

Nondisclosure agreements should never be allowed to protect any type of criminal activity. This is why I will author a bill that will prohibit nondisclosure or confidentiality agreements that keep employees from reporting harassment, abuse, assault or other crimes.

Im not against NDAs that protect intellectual property and proprietary business practices, but this paperwork shouldnt prevent individuals from reporting criminal acts. They shouldnt be used to buy a victims silence. No one who has experienced harassment or assault should be silenced or punished for speaking out.

This legislation would be a part of making the workplace an environment in which people are treated with respect and dignity. No one who has experienced harassment or assault should be silenced or punished for speaking out.

Working with SMU law professor Joanna L. Grossman, I have learned about the need to review the widespread use of NDAs, which Grossman says can create a harmful system of secrecy around the pervasive problem of workplace harassment.

I have asked the Texas Legislative Council to draft legislation for the 2019 session so I may pre-file it in November. Our job as legislators and our responsibility as citizens is to defend against abuse of power, and that is what sexual harassment and assault in the workplace is.

State Sen. Jose Menendez, D-San Antonio, represents Senate District 26.An Austin company is partnering with USAA Real Estate to build a 19-acre retail development across Interstate 10 from The Rim.

CSW Development plans to break ground in the second quarter of this year on the first phase of the development, at the southeast corner of the crossing of Fiesta Texas Drive and La Cantera Parkway, CEO Todd Wallace said. It will include 35,000 square feet of retail space and is expected to open its doors in early 2019, he said."As the Prophets saw, as the Apostles taught, as the Church has received, as the Teachers express in dogma, as the inhabited world understands together with them, as grace illumines, as the truth makes clear, as error has been banished, as wisdom makes bold to declare, as Christ has assured, so we think, so we speak, so we preach, honouring Christ our true God, and his Saints, in words, in writings, in thoughts, in sacrifices, in churches, in icons, worshipping and revering the One as God and Lord, and honouring them because of their common Lord as those who are close to him and serve him, and making to them relative veneration. This is the faith of the Apostles; this is the faith of the Fathers; this is the faith of the Orthodox; this faith makes fast the inhabited world."

Excerpt from the Synodikon of the Sunday of Orthodoxy (http://www.anastasis.org.uk/synodikon.htm)

By the Grace of God, here are presented a few true stories of the Saints, sayings of the Holy Fathers, sacred icons, and many other things so that, maybe in a small way, we may remind ourselves that (though we might not be ready to accept it)I must say that I am not a part of the clergy, so I hope to primarily put forth quotations from the Gospel, Saints and Holy Fathers, and not my own opinions. But if you see my own words or opinions, keep in mind that they are my opinions or comments and they have little weight, as opposed to the quotations from Christ, the Saints and the Fathers which do.I ask forgiveness if in this site any of my passions are acting, hindering the Grace of the Holy Spirit because of my sins. I apologize for any errors of mine, mistakes, problems with translations, etc. due to my ignorance and conceit. If anyone notices any mistakes or can suggest a better translation, please let me know. I try to post all of my sources. Please also let me know if I am violating any copyrights or other laws, and I will do my best to comply.click to go to homepageThe domain gamesworlditalia.com may be for sale. Please click here to inquireCHICOPEE -- Part of East Street remained closed to traffic Saturday, as officials worked to determine the cause of a three-alarm Friday fire that destroyed a victorian home being used by T&L Antique shop.

The building, located at 105 East Street, had a surreal and icy look Saturday -- hours after firefighters were able to extinguish the blaze which sparked Friday afternoon and continued into the night.

Investigators for the Massachusetts Fire Marshal's office were on site Saturday to look over the damage to the building, which was deemed a total loss.

Officials used a drone to get an aerial view of the building.CHICOPEE - The Police Department is notifying residents that a new Level 3 sex offender has moved into the community.

David Gamelli, 75, is living at 32 Rose St., Police Sgt. Richard Henry said.

David Gamelli

Gamelli is described as white, 5 feet, 7 inches tall, weighing about 215 pounds. His hair is gray and his eyes are brown.

He was convicted in January of 1999 of indecent assault and battery on a child under 14, Henry said.

There are more than 40 Level 3 sex offenders living in the city. The Level 3 offenders are those most likely to re-offend and are required to register with the local department every year.

None of the Level 3 offenders are wanted by police. It is also illegal to harass an offender, police said.GRANVILLE -- Firefighters have responded to a morning blaze that has reportedly destroyed a business on Granby Road, officials said Saturday.

Firefighters responded to a fire at 407 Granby Rd. just before 6 a.m., Granville Fire Capt. Joshua Rutola told WWLP.

Part of the building, which housed a business filled with wood-working equipment, collapsed on itself as firefighters worked to extinguish the blaze, Rutola reportedly said.

Crews will have to tear the building apart to ensure the fire is put out, the news outlet reported. The cause of the fire remains unclear.

Firefighters from other departments in Massachusetts and Connecticut also responded to the fire.

No injuries have been reported in conjunction with the blaze, according to WWLP.MATTAPOISETT -- A 39-year-old Rochester man has been sent to an Eastern Massachusetts hospital after being pulled from a pickup truck that crashed into a tree and caught fire on Route 195 East in Mattapoisett, state police reported Saturday.

Troopers from the Massachusetts State Police barracks in Bourne responded to reports of a single vehicle crash on Route 195 just after 10 a.m.

Upon arriving at the scene, Troopers Matthew Holden and Brandyn Henson said they saw smoke and flames coming from the engine compartment of the pickup truck, according to state police. The driver of the vehicle, they reported, appeared unconscious.

Holden attempted to put out the flames with a fire extinguisher from the state police cruiser while Henson smashed the driver's side window and cut the seat belt to free the man from the truck, police reported. Both troopers then pulled the man from the truck and dragged him toward the wood line.

The man was sent to Tobey Hospital for treatment of injuries sustained in the crash.

Police said the crash appears to have occurred when the truck's driver drifted from the right lane to the right side of the road into snow and began to fishtail. The vehicle then crossed back over both travel lanes and struck a tree in the median, officials reported.

Mattapoisett Police and Fire, and Marion Fire officials assisted state police on scene.BOSTON -- The state's gas, electric, and water companies have been ordered to submit plans to lower their customer billing charges because of a new federal law that slashed the corporate tax rate.

The Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities on Friday directed a slew of distribution companies to submit proposals by May 1 to revise their "cost of service" calculation and pass the tax savings on to consumers, retroactive to Jan. 1.

President Donald J. Trump on Dec. 22 signed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, which lowered the corporate tax rate from 35 to 21 percent. In Massachusetts, taxes are a factor used by utility regulators to calculate "just and reasonable" rates.

Attorney General Maura Healey in December urged the DPU to open an investigation, and Eversource and National Grid quickly agreed to cut their distribution rates.

Healey's office on Friday celebrated the comprehensive formal order, which covers private water companies such as the Eversource-owned Aquarion; natural gas distributors such as Berkshire Gas and Columbia Gas; and electric companies across the state.

"With today's ruling, the DPU has agreed with our position that all utility companies in Massachusetts must use the corporate savings from this federal tax bill to lower rates for customers," said Healey in a statement. "This is a huge victory for ratepayers who deserve the benefit of this major tax break for utilities."

Healey noted that she was the first attorney general nationwide to call for the utility cuts, and said she led a petition to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to encode the tax cuts into natural gas pipeline costs. FERC later agreed and ordered pipeline developers to adjust their proposals to reflect the windfall.

"Every utility customer in Massachusetts will benefit from these rate decreases," said Healey's office.

Eversource last month said its federal tax cut works out to $8.3 million per year in its Western Massachusetts territory, where regulators in November authorized a $25 million rate hike. Eversource now plans an increase of only $16.5 million a year in its former Western Mass. Electric Co. region, according to a proposal it filed in January.One person has died in a double shooting in Dorchester on Saturday afternoon, according to multiple media reports.

The shooting happened on Trull Street around 2 p.m., according to WBZ News and WCVB News.

One person was killed and another person was injured, the news stations reported.

Both victims were taken to a local hospital, according to Boston 25 News.

Boston police did not immediately return a phone call seeking more information.NORTHAMPTON - In 1960, when Ruby Bridges was just six years old, she became one of the first African American children to integrate into a white school in the South.

Bridges, who is 63 now, vividly described that period of her life to an audience of thousands at Smith College in Northampton Friday night. The event was so well attended and saw so many crammed into the school's John M. Greene auditorium that security began turning people away out of fear of causing a public safety hazard.

Born in Tylertown, Mississippi the same year that Brown vs. Board of Education was enacted, Bridges and her family moved when she was only two-years-old to New Orleans, where she would be given the opportunity to integrate into the city's all white public school system.

There she was tested in kindergarten alongside many other African American youth to determine whether she would be eligible to integrate. She would ultimately be one of only six students that were chosen, and was the only one to enroll at William Frantz Elementary School.

Bridges described her first day of school, in which she was driven to school by armed federal marshals, past angry mobs of protesters. Once at the building, the federal agents shepherded her inside and secured her in the principle's office, while livid white parents stormed through the school outside, shouting and protesting the decision to integrate, she said.

"I remember thinking it was Mardi Gras," Bridges said, of the volatile day that was so full of chaos and noise.

The rest of her trips to school that year would be equally militant affairs. Every day she would be picked up by the marshals who would drive her to the school past angry, shouting mobs, she said.

But her teacher, Mrs. Barbara Henry, was incredibly kind to her, Bridges said. She would teach Bridges, alone, in an empty room for the remainder of the year, after white parents had pulled their children out of enrollment. Mrs. Henry continued to lobby on her behalf every day to the school's principal to bring more white students into the school.

Now Bridges is in a very situation than that little girl. A statue of her stands in the courtyard of William Frantz; a TV movie has been made about her; in 2011, Bridges met with President Barack Obama who credited her as being an inspiration for his own success. Still, Bridges said, a lot she has done as an adult and continues to do has been determined by her experiences as that six-year-old girl in an empty school.

Bridges said Friday that she remembers the kindness that Mrs. Henry showed her, a kindness that helped her to think in terms of character, not of race.

"Racism is a form of hate," she said, likening it to a disease. "We pass it on to our young people. When we do that we are robbing children of their innocence." Racism, Bridges said, was largely why "we are in the situation we are in today."

Bridges' speech largely eschewed discussions of contemporary events or politics, trading instead in universal themes that focused on issues of human choice and moral action.

There is an "us" and a "them," Bridges said, but it is a contest between "good and evil," not ethnicities or skin colors.

"Evil looks like you and I," she said. "I know what evil looks like, and I know that it comes in all shades and colors."

It was at this point in the talk that Bridges shared that her oldest son Craig was shot to death on the streets in New Orleans in 2005--an altercation spurred by an earlier episode of violence involving her younger son.

"We all have a common enemy and it is evil," Bridges said. "Evil isn't prejudiced. It doesn't care what you look like, it just wants a place to rest. It's up to you whether you give it that place."

That idea of moral action dovetailed with another focus of Bridges' speech, which was a plea to the audience to see past issues of race. Bridges ended her speech by quoting Martin Luther King Jr. "You should never judge a person by the color of their skin but by the content of their character," she said.

After ending her speech, Bridges fielded questions from audience members.

A freshman at Smith College asked Bridges what she thought about students of color forming their own social groups, exclusionary of white students--a concept that has been entertained by on certain campuses in recent years. "Hearing my message today, how do you think I might feel about that?" Bridges said. "It's time that you find common ground," she said. "Try a little harder."

Another audience member wanted to know if, at that young age, Bridges was deeply bothered by the racial slurs hurled at her?

Bridges answered no, not really. "I think of the experiences of my parents and grandparents who were afraid to go outside and cut their family member down from a tree," Bridges said. "I'm not saying that that's appropriate, and I'm not saying that it makes me feel good to hear that word used, but we have much, much bigger things to conquer today," she said.File photo / The Republican

Massachusetts House and Senate lawmakers cast ballots on measures ranging from measures to reimburse municipalities for the costs of early voting to coordinating efforts to combat Alzheimer's, as they met for various legislative sessions this week.

Here's how members from the Western part of the state voted on those proposals:

Don't Edit

HOUSE:

Don't Edit

Steven Senne

$1 million to reimburse cities and towns for the costs of early voting

The House, on a 151-to-0 vote, approved an amendment to provide $1,063,978 to reimburse cities and towns for the costs they incurred for the implementation of the state law mandating that communities allow early voting for the November 2016 election.

Amendment supporters said allowing early voting worked out very well and argued the state, not struggling cities and towns, should pay for these expenses.

Voting "Yes," or for the amendment were: Reps. Brian Ashe, John Barrett, Donald Berthiaume, Nicholas Boldyga, Michael Finn, Solomon Goldstein-Rose, Carlos Gonzalez, Stephen Kulik, Paul Mark, Thomas Petrolati, William Pignatelli, Angelo Puppolo, John Scibak, Todd Smola, Jose Tosado, John Velis, Joseph Wagner, Susannah Whipps, Bud Williams.

Reps. Tricia Farley-Bouvier, Peter Kocot and Aaron Vega did not vote.

No one voted against the amendment.

Don't Edit

Scott Eisen

Plan to coordinate efforts to combat Alzheimer's

The House, on a 153-to-0 vote, approved and sent to the Senate a bill requiring the governors Executive Office of Health and Human Service to assess all current state programs that address Alzheimers disease and create and maintain an integrated state plan to overcome the illness.

The plan would include accelerating the development of treatments that would prevent, halt or reverse the disease; helping to coordinate the health care and treatment of individuals with the disease; ensuring the inclusion of ethnic and racial populations, who have a higher risk or are the least likely to receive care for the disease; and implementing a strategy to increase the diagnostic rate.

Another provision requires doctors, physician assistants and nurses to complete a one-time course of training and education on the diagnosis, treatment and care of patients with Alzheimers, dementia and other cognitive impairments.

The measure also creates an Advisory Council on Alzheimer's Research and Treatment to work with closely with state agencies and the Legislature.

Alzheimers disease is a growing epidemic. Its impacting hundreds of thousands of Massachusetts residents, said Jim Wessler, president and CEO of the Alzheimers Association, Massachusetts/New Hampshire Chapter.

Supporters said that this disease affects more than 120,000 people in the Bay State and according to the Alzheimer's Association, that number is projected to increase by 25 percent to 150,000 by 2025. They argued deaths from Alzheimers have nearly doubled from 2000 to 2014 and it is time for the state to step up to the plate and lead the way in the care for people with Alzheimers and in the fight to eradicate it.

Voting "Yes," or for the bill were: Reps. Brian Ashe, John Barrett, Donald Berthiaume, Nicholas Boldyga, Michael Finn, Solomon Goldstein-Rose, Carlos Gonzalez, Stephen Kulik, Paul Mark, Thomas Petrolati, William Pignatelli, Angelo Puppolo, John Scibak, Todd Smola, Jose Tosado, John Velis, Joseph Wagner, Susannah Whipps and Bud Williams.

No one voted again the bill.

Reps. Tricia Farley-Bouvier, Peter Kocot and Aaron Vega did not vote.

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SENATE:

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6'$R

Used vehicle record book

The Senate, on a 36-to-0 vote, approved and sent to the House a bill repealing the outdated current requirement that all car dealers maintain a book in which they enter extensive hand-written information about each used vehicle sold. This law was put on the books decades ago to ensure that used car sales were tracked so that police and other law enforcement could access them. The bill would allow the information to be maintained in the dealers online database.

Supporters said dealers switched to online record-keeping years ago but under this antiquated law are still required to also maintain this hand-written book which duplicates what is online and is a waste of the dealers time. They said they dont know of a single case in the past few decades in which a law enforcement official has asked to see this book.

Voting "Yes," or for the bill were: Sens. Anne Gobi, Adam Hinds, Donald Humason, Eric Lesser, Stanley Rosenberg and James Welch.

No one voted against the bill.

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HOUSE AND SENATE:

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Lauren Schneiderman

$15 million for schools helping hurricane victims

The House, on a 153-to-0 vote, and the Senate, on a 38-to-0 vote, approved different versions of a fiscal 2018 supplemental budget. The Senate version now goes to the House for consideration.

Both versions include $15 million to help school districts educate students who came to the Bay State from Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands following Hurricanes Maria and Irma. Another $420,000 is in both versions for the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination (MCAD) to hire additional employees and to conduct training on sexual assault and harassment to address the recent rise in these complaints.

Supporters said the $15 million will help reimburse cities and towns for the additional costs of absorbing an estimated 2,400 new students who fled here with their families following the hurricanes. They argued that the additional funding for the MCAD is needed in order for it to do its job properly.

This funding supports school districts across the state that have faced a sudden influx of new students, said Sen. Karen Spilka, an Ashland Democrat and the Senate Committee on Ways and Means chairwoman. It is our duty to welcome these students with open arms and ensure they continue to have access to high-quality education.

Voting "Yes," or for the budget were:

House: Reps. Brian Ashe, John Barrett, Donald Berthiaume, Nicholas Boldyga, Michael Finn, Solomon Goldstein-Rose, Carlos Gonzalez, Stephen Kulik, Paul Mark, Thomas Petrolati, William Pignatelli, Angelo Puppolo, John Scibak, Todd Smola, Jose Tosado, John Velis, Joseph Wagner, Susannah Whipps and Bud Williams.

Senate: Sens. Anne Gobi, Adam Hinds, Donald Humason, Eric Lesser, Stanley Rosenberg and James Welch.

No one voted against the measure.

Reps. Tricia Farley-Bouvier, Peter Kocot and Aaron Vega did not vote.

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Last week's votes

How they voted: Western Mass. lawmakers weigh in on archaic laws, housing packageThe way we deal with our emotions shapes everything that matters: our actions, careers, relationships, health and happiness. In this deeply moving, funny and potentially life-changing talk, psychologist Susan David challenges a culture that prizes positivity over emotional truth, and shares some powerful strategies for emotional agility. A talk to share.

Watch now https://ted.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=07487d1456302a286cf9c4ccc&id=37e6d230a8&e=d3135666a2We attempted to send a notification to your email address but we were unable to verify that you provided a valid email address. Please click here to update your email address if you wish to receive notifications. Otherwise, you may click here to disable notifications and hide this message.Highlights:

Adults from Israel appeared to be at an increased risk for end-stage renal disease (ESRD) if they suffered from kidney disease in childhood.

The increased risk appears to be present even after apparent complete resolution of the condition in childhood.

Children with childhood kidney disease should therefore be regularly monitored so that adequate measures can be taken to prevent ESRD.

Childhood kidney disease can increase the risk of end-stage kidney disease (ESRD) in adulthood, even after complete healing. This was the finding of a study from Israel and published in the New England Journal of Medicine.



The scientists involved in the study obtained information of childhood kidney diseases by sifting through the medical records of more than 1.5 million adolescents who were recruited for compulsory military service in Israel between the years 1967 and 1997. The average age of the adolescents included in the study was 17.7 years. Subsequent information of the occurrence of ESRD in adulthood was obtained from the Israeli ESRD registry.

Advertisement

Children who suffered from kidney disease in childhood appear to be at a higher risk for end-stage renal disease (ESRD) during adulthood, even after apparent complete resolution of the condition during childhood.

Kidney Disease in Children Increases the Risk of End Stage Renal Disease(ESRD) in Adulthood



The scientists noted that:

The adolescents who suffered from childhood kidney disease had normal kidney function and blood pressure measurement at the time of recruitment into the military.

A total of 2490 recruits suffered from ESRD in later life. Individuals who had a kidney disease in childhood were at a higher risk of ESRD than those without a documented childhood kidney disease. The increased risk was despite the fact that the kidney problem had resolved in childhood. The ESRD also developed at an earlier age in these individuals.

The increased risk for ESRD was independent of the type of childhood kidney condition. The childhood kidney diseases considered in the study included congenital malformations of the kidney and the urinary tract, infection (pyelonephritis or glomerular diseases.) The study thus implies that it is important to monitor the kidney function in individuals who suffered from kidney disease at a young age, even if they had an apparent complete recovery. The scientists suggest that children with kidney disease may have lesser number of nephrons or filtering units of the kidney at birth. Also, the injury to the kidney in the early days of life may result in some scarring, which may go undetected and contribute to ESRD in later life.



Advertisement The accompanying editorial in the same journal points out a number of missing links in the study. These include details of the childhood kidney disease in terms of symptoms, the age of diagnosis of the kidney disease, treatment that the individuals underwent, or details of imaging studies to confirm the resolution of the kidney disease (if they were done). The study population mainly included Israeli Jewish men, and it is not clear if the results can be extrapolated to women or other populations.

About Childhood Kidney Diseases Kidney diseases in children can affect the growth and development of the children. They can be acute, and if not resolved, can progress into a chronic form.

Advertisement

Childhood kidney diseases can also be caused due to the following:

Birth defects like kidney dysplasia or absent kidney, inherited conditions like polycystic kidney disease and Alport syndrome .

Infections can also result in conditions like hemolytic uremic syndrome and acute post-streptococcal glomerulonephritis, nephrotic syndrome.

Generalized disorders like diabetes and systemic lupus erythematosus or trauma to the kidney due to injury, dehydration, surgery or reflux of urine into the kidney. Besides the treatment of the kidney disease, other issues like school attendance, involvement in sports, playing with friends and getting a job at a later date should also be taken care of in this population.



References :

Ingelfinger JR. A Disturbing Legacy of Childhood Kidney Disease. N Engl J Med 2018; 378:470-471. DOI: 10.1056/NEJMe1716499 Calderon-Margalit R et al. History of Childhood Kidney Disease and Risk of Adult End-Stage Renal Disease. History of Childhood Kidney Disease and Risk of Adult End-Stage Renal Disease. N Engl J Med 2018; 378:428-438 DOI: 10.1056/NEJMoa1700993 Kidney Disease in Children - (https://www.niddk.nih.gov/health-information/kidney-disease/children) Caring for a Child with Kidney Disease - (https://www.niddk.nih.gov/health-information/kidney-disease/children/caring-child-kidney-disease)



Source: Medindia Advertisement The accompanying editorial in the same journal points out a number of missing links in the study. These include details of the childhood kidney disease in terms of symptoms, the age of diagnosis of the kidney disease, treatment that the individuals underwent, or details of imaging studies to confirm the resolution of the kidney disease (if they were done). The study population mainly included Israeli Jewish men, and it is not clear if the results can be extrapolated to women or other populations.Kidney diseases in children can affect the growth and development of the children. They can be acute, and if not resolved, can progress into a chronic form.can also be caused due to the following:Besides the treatment of the kidney disease, other issues like school attendance, involvement in sports, playing with friends and getting a job at a later date should also be taken care of in this population.Source: Medindia The scientists noted that:. The scientists suggest that children with kidney disease may have lesser number of nephrons or filtering units of the kidney at birth. Also, the injury to the kidney in the early days of life may result in some scarring, which may go undetected and contribute to ESRD in later life.Advertisement

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The authors examined previous cases where neuroscientific techniques have been used to determine truth and infer intent. The use of these techniques brings into question the violation of an individuals' right to privacy that can come with this, and whether neuroscientific techniques should be permitted in court."In the United States, current rules of federal evidence provide strict criteria, which constrain how brain science can be used," explains Prof. Giordano. "Yet, threats to individual rights persist when considering the use of neurological evidence. These threats include vague definitions of what constitutes the "private domain" of the mind, how this relates to the right to privacy, and a lack of guidelines for informed consent when using neuroscientific evidence."By revealing the current contingencies in legal neuroscience, or neurolaw, Prof. Giordano from Georgetown University and Calvin Kraft from University of Notre Dame encourage discussion on the need for clear guidelines."What may be required is a more explicit definition of what the law would require of the brain sciences -- and if and how the brain sciences can provide such tools and methods," suggests Prof. Giordano.This review focused on how key aspects of the use of brain science relevant to the United States' Constitution's Bill of Rights. However, it can act as a starting point for investigating the relationships between brain science, ethics and law internationally."An ongoing question is whether current and proposed uses of brain science infringe on civil liberties, and what this might infer and evoke, both in the United States, and on the global stage," says Prof. Giordano.Source: EurekalertTHUMB AREA -- There is a new mobile app available to help those who are on the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services' Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program.

"Between the Huron County and the Tuscola County health departments, we provide services to 2,500 WIC families every year," said Ann Hepfer, who is the director of both of those health departments. "The WIC program is for pregnant women and children up to age five."

The free Michigan WIC Connect app offers existing clients the ability to view their benefits, available food benefits, location of nearby grocery stores that access the program, and upcoming WIC appointments on their mobile device.

The program not only helps with nutrition for mothers and children, but also the local economy.

"Over $1 million dollars goes back into our local economy when they purchase their WIC benefits," Hepfer said. "As an added bonus, they get coupons in the summer to purchase fresh fruits and vegetables from farm markets.

"We also provide breastfeeding food packages tailored to the mom and infant's needs," she added. "We offer breastfeeding support services and that are provided by certified breastfeeding staff."

WIC is a federally funded program that provides nutritious food, nutrition education, promotes breastfeeding and support as well as referrals to health and other services for eligible women, infants and children up to age five.

"WIC has made so many advances in the past few years by offering more varieties," she said. "The program has breads and buns such as whole wheats, whole grains, whole wheat and white pasta that come in name brands such as Barilla and Delallo, Spartan and Kroger, Tortillas, cold and hot cereals, infant formula, infant fruits and vegetables, eggs, cheese, yogurts, low fat milks, soy beverages, peanut butter, and 100 percent fruit juices."

According to Hepfer, income guidelines "are very gracious," and children in the WIC program also receive lead testing, hemoglobin testing and immunizations as part of their WIC visit.

To get the free Michigan WIC Connect go to the app store or Google Play. For more information, visit Michigan.gov/wic.Bringing a furry or feathered friend for emotional support aboard a United Airlines flight will get a little more difficult in March.

United Airlines, which recently banned a traveler from taking a emotional-support peacock on a flight out of New Jersey, unveiled changes to its policies relating emotional support animals Thursday. The changes do not affect service animals.HADDAM  Health-care professionals, emergency service personnel, social service providers, elected officials and families who have lost children to opioid abuse met recently to give U.S. Sen. Christopher Murphy, D-Conn., a report from the front lines in the battle against the plague.

More than 40 people gathered at the Haddam Fire Station to share their thoughts about an overdoes crisis that took the lives of 1,076 Connecticut residents in 2017, and which shows no signs of relenting.

Murphy was on a recent five-town visit to cities and towns, with stops in Branford, Colchester, North Stonington and Waterbury, in addition to Haddam.

Murphy said he wanted to meet with people in the center of the fight against the scourge of opioid addiction to hear about their best practices, their successes and the obstacles you face.

Murphy came bearing little good news, saying, This is getting worse, not better.

Its taken us far too long to wake up to the problem, even though, We had tons and tons of warnings. Were getting smarter and we are doing better. But we still have more people who are dying, Murphy said, adding, This is a problem I work on every day in Washington.

In 2016, Congress allocated $1 billion to deal with the opioid crisis, he said. But that is $1 billion divided by 50 states.

In 2017, the picture became even bleaker, as advocates for more aid to deal with the crisis faced cuts to Medicare totaling 44 percent, Murphy said. That could mean a reduction of 35 percent to 40 percent in aid for Connecticut to fund the fight against opioids, Murphy said.

The senator underscored the depth of the problem by noting while Congress had allocated $1 billion to fight opioid addiction, it allocated $4 billion in 2015 to fight the Ebola virus.

Only four or five people in this country got Ebola, Murphy said, asking the painful question, Why on earth did Ebola get $4 billion and opioids only got $1 billion?

In large part, Murphy said, the answer is discrimination.

This is not discrimination based on race or religion, but perhaps an even more pernicious concept: that folks who get addicted need to fix it because its their fault, Murphy said. Despite a staggering rise of deaths, we are not treating this as a public health crisis.

Weve got to attack that bias and prejudice head-on, he said.

But, to date, the ruling party in Congress and the president have been loath to confront the issue head on and adequately fund it, Murphy said.

Murphy disparaged the presidents choice to help lead the nations response to the continuing crisis: Taylor Weyeneth.

According to a Huffington Post report, Weyeneth is a 24-year-old former Trump campaign worker who was appointed last year to be the deputy chief of staff at the Office of National Drug Control Policy, the agency tasked with coordinating federal drug-control efforts.

As the conversation expanded, several speakers criticized hospitals for discharging patients who overdosed without dealing with the larger issues, which often include mental health issues.

Murphy was sympathetic, but he said in many cases, hospitals are forced to discharge patients  and not just addicts  because they do not have enough beds. The reason? They are not being adequately reimbursed by Medicare.

Catherine Rees, community benefit officer at Middlesex Hospital said, Hospitals in Connecticut are talking about this. Fortunately, Connecticut is a small enough state that we can work together.

A spokeswoman for the Shoreline Collaborative said members get together every month in a different community to discuss for dealing with social problems, including homelessness.

The states 211 help line exists in part to asset the homeless.

But that we dont have that for people with mental health issues, she said.

Murphy said it is not fair to just blame hospitals. Weve got to get tough with the drug companies that are pushing these pills and with the health-care providers who continue to prescribe them.

For many people afflicted with opioid addiction, their problems began when they were prescribed oxycodone, which served as a gateway drug to heroin and other even more dangerous drugs.

Two women who lost family members of the opioid crisis took the system to task for unregulated sober houses.

One family member said, Youve got to be high to get admitted to some of these sober houses, so addicts go out and buy drugs in an effort to get admitted for treatment.

But as soon as an addict starts to feel better, many of the sober houses send them right back out on the street. Its a joke, she said.

Ann Lindstrom, who lost her 28-year-old daughter, a talented glass maker, to an overdose last year, said the entire issue of drugs revolves around two realities: greed and money.

Theres no accountability to anyone, Lindstrom said. I was involved every single day because I was trying to save my childs life.

But all too often, rehab treats you for drugs, not for the underlying mental problems.

Lindstrom called upon the state to enact a Baker Law, which allows a family to commit a member to a treatment facility if he/she poses a threat to his or herself.

Essex First Selectman Norman Needleman pushed for more education programs to alert people to the dangers of drugs. He was joined by another speaker in calling on Murphy to do more to halt the wave of synthetic drugs  in particular fentanyl  flooding into the country.

Its almost a homeland security issue, the man said.

Needleman also said the insurance industry needs to be brought to heel.

Murphy said he has proposed placing a fee on each oxycodone pill to build up a fund to provide enhanced treatment. However, he said the prospects for passing such legislation are not good.

Murphy said he wants to see addicts brought back into the community so they begin to re-enter society and in doing so have access to a fuller range of assistance.

Reporter Jeff Mill covers East Hampton, Portland and Cromwell. Contact him at jeff.mill@hearstmediact.com./NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO U.S. NEWSWIRE SERVICES OR FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES/



CALGARY, Alberta, Feb. 02, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Bayshore Petroleum Corp. (Bayshore or the Company) (TSX-V:BSH) announces it has moved its office to #340, 600 Crowfoot Crescent N.W., Calgary, Alberta, T3G 0B4. Phone and fax numbers remain the same.

On behalf of the Board of Directors

BAYSHORE PETROLEUM CORP.

"Peter Ho"

Chairman and CEO

Bayshore Head Office:

PHONE +1403 265 8820

ccc@bayshorepetroleum.com

Unit 340, 600 Crowfoot Crescent N.W.

Calgary, Alberta, T3G 0B4

This news release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any of the securities of the Company in the United States. The Company's securities have not been and will not be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "U.S. Securities Act"), or any state securities laws and may not be offered or sold within the United States or to U.S. Persons unless registered under the U.S. Securities Act and applicable state securities laws or an exemption from such registration is available.NEW ORLEANS, Feb. 02, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC (KSF) and KSF partner, former Attorney General of Louisiana, Charles C. Foti, Jr., remind investors that they have until February 20, 2018 to file lead plaintiff applications in a securities class action lawsuit against Credit Suisse Group AG (NYSE:CS), if they purchased the Companys American Depositary Receipts (ADRs) between March 20, 2015 and February 3, 2016, inclusive (the Class Period). This action is pending in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.



What You May Do

If you purchased ADRs of Credit Suisse and would like to discuss your legal rights and how this case might affect you and your right to recover for your economic loss, you may, without obligation or cost to you, contact KSF Managing Partner Lewis Kahn toll-free at 1-877-515-1850 or via email (lewis.kahn@ksfcounsel.com), or visit http://ksfcounsel.com/cases/nyse-cs/ to learn more. If you wish to serve as a lead plaintiff in this class action, you must petition the Court by February 20, 2018.

About the Lawsuit

Credit Suisse and certain of its executives are charged with failing to disclose material information during the Class Period, violating federal securities laws.

The alleged false and misleading statements and omissions include, but are not limited to, that: (i) the Company consistently failed to comply with its own risk protocols and control systems governing its investment operations; (ii) the Company acquired risky, highly illiquid securities valued in the billions of dollars; and (iii) as a result of the foregoing, Credit Suisses financial statements were materially false and misleading at all relevant times.

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

lewis.kahn@ksfcounsel.com

1-877-515-1850

206 Covington St.

Madisonville, LA 70447MOUNT PLEASANT, MI -- Michigan conservatives aim to keep the energy and movement behind Donald Trump's presidency alive going into the Nov. 6 midterm election.

"If we let this go in any way, we have squandered the last chance God gave us," said Terry "Thayrone X" Hughes, a host for WAAM radio in Ann Arbor who was master of ceremonies for part of a two-day Republican convention over the weekend at the Soaring Eagle Casino and Resort.

More than 500 people gathered Friday and Saturday for Battle Cry '18, an event billed as the biggest conservative conference in the Midwest.

Many at the event spoke of keeping Michigan red this coming midterm election, where the governor's office, attorney general's office and all seats in the state House and Senate are up for grabs.

To do that, it'll take continuing the grassroots movement, which helped propel Trump into the presidency, said Marian Sheridan, co-founder of Michigan Trump Republicans.

"It's keeping Trump supporters engaged for the 2018 elections," Sheridan said. "There were so many people who flipped from Democrat to vote for Trump. We won't let it be stopped."

From banners to auctioned-off sparkling wine bearing his brand, the president's name was unavoidable at Battle Cry. Another auction item included Russian-style nesting dolls styled after the Trump family.

Support for the president is something several people said is a top quality for candidacy, be it at the state or federal level, during the midterms.

"I don't mean blindly supporting the president," said Russ Price of Commerce Township. "I mean supporting the president's agenda as far as moving the country forward."

Price said he was disillusioned with the Michigan Republican Party until he connected with groups like Michigan Trump Republicans and the Michigan Conservative Coalition, sponsors of Battle Cry.

"This group brought faith back to me with Republicans; This is what's bring people back to the Republican Party," Price said. "It feels like a real awakening happening. It's like the spirit of 1776 coming back again, and it just energizes me. Groups like this keeping that spirit alive."

Another often-mentioned quality for candidacy was a politician who doesn't bend to special interests and instead listens to the people and carries through on campaign promises.

"We put them into office and they seem to forget that," said James Tokarski of Rochester Hills. "Sometimes we have to fight our own party, our own side to get the issues we care about addressed."

Of all three years the conference has run, the Battle Cry '18 turnout was the biggest yet, said Diane Schindlbeck, founder of West Michigan Republicans and co-founder of Michigan Trump Republicans.

Part of the draw, she said, was two big-name speakers.

Trump's former campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, headlined the event Friday evening with a presentation called "Let Trump be Trump."

The other big speaker was Dinesh D'Souza, author of "The Big Lie: Exposing the Nazi Roots of the American Left."

Next year, Schindlbeck said Battle Cry will expand its presence at the casino to include another room to fit another year of expected increased attendance.Tickets for Elton John's farewell tour sold out almost immediately after they went on sale. So, is it too late to get tickets to see the living legend? Yes and no.

The tour announced the first 60 shows of his "Farewell Yellow Brick Road" tour sold out shortly after they went on sale on February 2, 2018. Those 60 shows are the initial U.S. leg of his final tour.

John will perform more than 300 concerts across five continents beginning in September 2018 and ending in 2021. He will be at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit on Fri., Oct. 12, 2018 and at Van Andel Arena in Grand Rapids on Mon., Oct. 15, 2018. The tour will last three years.

ALL THE BIG CONCERTS ANNOUNCED FOR 2018 SO FAR

Both Michigan concerts are among those which sold out. However, more U.S. concert dates are set to be announced next week. It's possible another Michigan concert will be added, but doubtful.The tour says John will visit the U.S. multiple times over the course of the farewell tour.

So while Michigan's concerts are sold out, if you are willing to travel, you can score tickets if there's a city to your liking which has yet to be announced. Or, if you have a little extra cash to spend, you can always buy secondhand tickets.

About Elton John:

John is one of the top-selling solo artists of all time, with 38 gold records and 31 platinum and multi-platinum albums and over fifty Top 40 hits. He he has sold more than 300 million records worldwide and holds the record for the biggest-selling single of all time, "Candle in the Wind 1997," which sold over 33 million copies.

To date, Elton has delivered more than 4,000 performances in more than 80 countries since launching his first tour in 1970. He has earned five Grammy Awards including the Grammy Legend award, a Tony and an Oscar, a Best British Male Artist Brit Award, induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame, the Kennedy Center Honor, Legend of Live Award, 13 Ivor Novello Awards and a knighthood from HM Queen Elizabeth II for "services to music and charitable services."ANN ARBOR, MI - Four years after buying a downtown property from the city of Ann Arbor with stated intentions of building new apartments and commercial space, Dennis Dahlmann is suing the city in hopes of getting another four years to make a project happen.

Dahlmann, who owns and manages several properties in Ann Arbor, never built the building city officials wanted to see when they agreed to sell a public parking lot to him for $5.25 million in April 2014.

The Y Lot -- the former site of a YMCA next to the Blake Transit Center -- now sits empty on the north side of William Street between Fourth and Fifth avenues, across from the downtown library.

Local attorney Tom Wieder filed a lawsuit against the city on Dahlmann's behalf in Washtenaw County Circuit Court on Friday, Feb. 2, blaming the city for the failure of the development plans.

The letter repeats some of the arguments Wieder spelled out in a letter to city officials on Dahlmann's behalf last June, when he told city officials Dahlmann wanted his $5.25 million back plus more than $400,000 in damages for money spent on architectural, engineering and environmental services, taxes and other expenses.

While that's still one alternative form of relief Dahlmann is seeking, he's also asking in his lawsuit to essentially push the reset button and have another four years to get something built.

"It was with extreme reluctance that Mr. Dahlmann authorized the filing of the suit," Wieder said in a statement on Friday.

"He has lived and done business in Ann Arbor since he graduated from the University of Michigan over fifty years ago, and he has no desire to be in conflict with the city."

Wieder said the reason for the suit is simple.

"Dahlmann purchased the property to construct a project, the city put special development requirements upon him, the city has made it impossible for Mr. Dahlmann to construct the agreed-upon project, and the city has rejected several reasonable settlement proposals to resolve these issues. What he is seeking is the opportunity to build the project that he promised to build," Wieder said.

According to terms of the agreement four years ago, Dahlmann, who competed against other developers to win city approval to buy and develop the Y Lot, was to redevelop the site within four years and build a new mixed-use building rising at least five stories, with ground-floor retail/restaurant space, and office space and apartments above.

If the agreed-upon development didn't happen by April 2018, the city could buy back the lot for either the appraised value or $4.2 million, whichever is lower, according to the agreement.

Reached by phone on Friday, City Attorney Stephen Postema said he hadn't seen a copy of the lawsuit yet and he had no comment.

According to the lawsuit, the city has told Dahlmann an appraisal shows the Y Lot is worth $12 million or more, and the lawsuit claims the city would be "unjustly enriched" if it gets the property back from Dahlmann - whether it paid $4.2 million or returned Dahlmann's full $5.25 million. The lawsuit claims the city stands to make millions in profits by flipping it to a new developer.

Wieder argues one of the requirements imposed by the city that has hindered Dahlmann's development plans was that vehicle access to parking on the site must be through an underground connection from the city's Library Lane underground garage across the street.

"Unfortunately, the city's representation that this below-grade structure existed is untrue. The interconnection did not exist then, and it does not exist now," Wieder said, arguing Dahlmann would not be able to obtain a required certificate of occupancy for anything he builds without the access through a "non-existent interconnection."

City and Downtown Development Authority officials have said for years the extension of the Library Lane underground garage under Fifth Avenue to William Street, allowing a connection with the adjacent Y Lot, was approved in 2009 but deferred, so it can still happen.

Former City Administrator Steve Powers assured Dahlmann in a letter in September 2015 that the city and DDA could move forward quickly on construction drawings to meet his needs in terms of the underground parking connection when ready to proceed.

Wieder said Dahlmann made a number of attempts to resolve the issue and offered in November 2016 to contribute $500,000 (subsequently raised to $600,000) to the city's affordable housing fund in exchange for relief from "the city's special requirements" that include the underground interconnection.

"It was ten months before the city finally responded to his repeated offers, and it rejected them. He has made other proposals since, to which the city has never responded," Wieder said.

Records obtained by The Ann Arbor News under the Freedom of Information Act show emails traded between Wieder and Postema last June and July, indicating they had at least one phone conversation and also discussed setting up a meeting to discuss a possible legal settlement.

Postema told Wieder in a July 5 email all settlement discussions would be considered confidential. Wieder says he never agreed to that.

It's now clear whatever discussions took place did not result in a mutually agreeable outcome.

In his statement on Friday, Wieder said it seems it's the city's intent to profit from the situation by taking the property back from Dahlmann with a profit of more than $1 million and to reap additional profits by reselling it to another developer at a higher price.

City officials have discussed doing that, but no final decisions have been made. It's ultimately up to the City Council to decide.

"This lawsuit is intended to prevent this scenario from unfolding," Wieder said.

The 24-page complaint recalls the process in 2013 that led to Dahlmann buying the Y Lot in 2014. It states Dahlmann's corporate counsel, Steven Zarnowitz, was aware that the Planning Commission had made recommendations to the City Council regarding future development of the lot and he reviewed those.

The Planning Commission's Aug. 20, 2013, resolution stated, "The City Planning Commission has specific recommendations for this site that include: 1) discouraging surface parking, 2) discouraging vehicular access beyond the street curb, and 3) encouraging all vehicular access via the investment the city made in a stub from the existing Fifth Avenue underground parking structure."

The lawsuit filed on Friday claims the Planning Commission erroneously suggested the "stub" already existed.

The lawsuit also notes that when the City Council voted on Feb. 17, 2009, to approve the site plan for the Library Lane underground garage, the council scaled back the plan to defer construction of a southern section of the garage, requiring additional council approval if that section was to be constructed in the future.

That's the section that would go under Fifth Avenue down to William Street, running along the eastern edge of the Y Lot and potentially providing a future connection to parking on the Y Lot.

"No attempt has been made by the DDA to seek City Council approval, as would be required by the council's 2009 amended resolution, to construct the southern section portion of the original site plan," the new lawsuit states. "An interconnection between the parking garage and the Y Lot has never existed, and no action has been undertaken by the city to authorize or build it."

The lawsuit asks the court to consider several different potential forms of relief, including voiding the contract between Dahlmann and the city and awarding damages. It claims Dahlmann has been damaged by city's alleged misrepresentation, expenditures of more than $500,000 toward development of a project on the Y Lot, lost profits and the investment value of the $5.25 million paid to the city.

The lawsuit notes the intention of both parties was that Dahlmann would build what was agreed upon within four years.

It suggests, if given another four years, Dahlmann and his company could make a project happen under different terms.

"The intent of the parties could be appropriately enforced by reforming any valid contract, deleting the requirement of use of an interconnection, and allowing plaintiffs four years from and after the date of such reformation to complete a project in compliance with the remaining conditions," the lawsuit states.

But as it stands now, the lawsuit contends, it's impossible for Dahlmann to meet the conditions of the current contract because of the absence of the underground interconnection.

The lawsuit asks the court to order that any valid contract be reformed to delete the requirement for such a connection and give Dahlmann another four years to make a project happen.

Alternatively, it asks the court to order the city to "promptly construct the envisioned interconnection and reform the agreement," while giving Dahlmann another four years to make a project happen.

It also asks the court to rescind any agreement found to have been properly formed by the parties and order the city to refund Dahlmann's full $5.25 million plus damages.

Though there are multiple ways this could go given those requests for relief, Wieder said Dahlmann's preference is to get another four years to make a project happen without the interconnection requirement.

While Dahlmann expresses interest in getting four more years to make a project happen, his lawsuit also plainly states that the degree to which public transit buses are idling at the street curbs around the Y Lot make development of the site impractical.

The lawsuit claims noise and air pollution from buses significantly increased after he purchased the property, making obtaining a development partner more difficult.

"The significant increase in bus activity around all four sides of the Y Lot has made the envisioned development of the property impracticable, owing to the significantly increased noise and air pollution and traffic congestion resulting therefrom," it states.YPSILANTI, MI - Sixth graders Fiona Dority and Stella Dority didn't think much of it at first when they were told their school was going into lockdown on Friday, Feb. 2.

The twin sisters attend Washtenaw International Middle Academy in Ypsilanti Township, and they said staff told them the school was in lockdown due to a medical issue.

The girls had been through a medical lockdown before and knew it meant they had to stay in their classrooms and no one would be able to enter or exit the school.

But they started to get scared when they found out they would have to evacuate the school, and word quickly spread there had been a bomb threat.

"We were all scared," Stella said.

"We just had to evacuate and leave our stuff," said Karter Tamblyn, a sixth grader and friend of the Dority sisters. "People were crying."

Other students seemed undisturbed, talking and joking with friends as they boarded school buses and Ann Arbor Area Transportation Authority buses to evacuate the school.

Stella, Fiona and Karter described the experience as they left school Friday afternoon with their parents.

A bomb threat was discovered Friday morning on a boys' bathroom door at WIMA, according to the Washtenaw County Sheriff's Office.

WIMA, which is part of the Ypsilanti Community Schools district, shares the building at 510 Emerick St. with Washtenaw International High School, which is overseen by the Washtenaw Educational Options Consoritum.

The schools' principals immediately contacted police about the threat around 10:25 a.m., said Taryn Reid, marketing and communications coordinator for Ypsilanti Community Schools.

That was when both schools went into a lockdown, and students and staff were later evacuated from the building.

By about 12:05 p.m., they had boarded the buses that took them to the Shadford Field parking lot to wait for law enforcement to check the building for bombs.

"Neither dogs or officers found any explosive materials," said Nhu Do, principal of WIHI and WIMA, in an email to parents sent Friday afternoon. "Law enforcement deem the school building safe for all students and staff to return."

Students and staff were back at school by 1 p.m. WIMA and WIHI both remained in session for the rest of the school day, and parents could pick up their children early if they wanted.

Amyleigh Johnson, the mother of sixth grader Karter Tamblyn, said she appreciated Ypsilanti Community Schools' communication with parents as the situation unfolded.

"Ypsilanti Community Schools did send out an email right away and kept us advised of what was going on," Johnson said. "We knew it was serious but knew they were taking the best precautions."

Marlene Hurshman, of Ypsilanti, first heard about the bomb threat from her ninth-grade daughter and then checked MLive.com for updates.

While she thought the threat was likely a false alarm, Hurshman said she was confused by the decision to keep students in the school on lockdown in response to the bomb threat.

"That didn't make sense to me, like why would you make everyone stay in the school where a bomb was going to be?" she said while waiting to pick up her daughter on Friday afternoon after the students returned to the school. "So I was wondering about that, but I'm sure they were doing the best they could."

School staff followed the direction of the sheriff's office in putting WIMA and WIHI on lockdown first and then evacuating all students and staff, Reid said.

A note found Friday morning on a boys' bathroom door at WIMA said a bomb would off about 1 p.m. that day, said Derrick Jackson of the Washtenaw County Sheriff's Office.

Carson Woollams, 14, a ninth grader at WIHI, said he stayed calm and followed directions when the lockdown was announced.

"We just kind of stayed calm and didn't do anything rash. We knew there was a threat," said Carson, from Manchester, as he walked out of the school with his mom on Friday.

He contacted his mom once he got access to his phone.

"I was a little freaked out," said Erika Woollams, Carson's mom, adding that she appreciated the school district's email update on the situation.

"I felt like they had it handled because by the time I talked to (Carson), they were already out of the school," she said.FLINT, MI -- The Flint Board of Education has been informed Superintendent Bilal Tawwab will not seek to renew his contract following the 2018-19 school year.

A statement Friday, Feb. 2 from school board president Diana Wright notes the governing body was informed of the decision by Tawwab, first selected to the hold the position in July 2015.

Tawwab served as an assistant superintendent at Detroit Public Schools prior to moving over to Flint to take over for Larry Watkins who served on an interim basis for two-and-a-half years before stepping down.

The district was able to dig out of a nearly $22 million deficit in two years under Tawwab's leadership, but the school district continues to lose students, falling to the fourth-largest district in the county by fall 2017 count figures -- behind Grand Blanc, Davison, and Carman-Ainsworth.

Wright noted board members will initiate a search to identify candidates to "continue the positive momentum built over the past two years by Superintendent Tawwab, including a focus on academic outcomes and enrollment, the expansion of the Community Education Initiative, and commitment to a robust early childhood education program."

The board will also work with community partners during the search process to continue the district's primary objective of "strengthening student performance across all school," said Wright.GRAND RAPIDS, MI -- The Grand Rapids City Commission is readying to make a decision on the city's next top administrator this week as Greg Sundstrom has officially retired as of Feb. 2.

The commission is asking for the public's input at a candidate forum 5:30 p.m. Monday, Feb. 5, at the Wealthy Theatre at 1130 Wealthy St. SE.

A final round of interviews with three candidates will take place at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 6, at city hall. The commission is expected to make a decision Tuesday on extending a job offer to one of them.

The vote is slated for a week after the names of the candidates were first revealed publicly one by one as they interviewed with the city commission.

Read the city's FAQ on its search process

The city has relied on its $25,000 consultant, GovHR, to recruit candidates nationwide. Out of the 61 applicants, 14 were selected to move forward by the consultant. Five of the 14 dropped out, citing concerns for their current job status.

Out of a list of nine applicants privately presented to the city commission, five were selected for interviews Jan. 29. The commission then picked three candidates to move forward to the second round.

An administrator from Washington D.C. and two officials from mid-sized Michigan towns are now in the running to oversee Grand Rapids' 1,500 city workers and $528 million budget.

Jane Bais-DiSessa

As deputy mayor of Pontiac, a city of 59,000, Bais-DiSessa acts as chief of staff in the mayor's executive office, overseeing the city departments of finance, public works, economic development and building and planning.

Bais-DiSessa has managed a number of cities in Michigan and in Texas, including Berkley (2001-2015), Franklin (1998-2001), Holly (1990-1992) and as an assistant at Grosse Pointe Woods (1993-1998).

James Freed

As the Port Huron city manager, Freed is responsible for an annual budget of $90 million and 400 employees across all city departments, including police and fire. The city's population is about 30,000.

Freed has worked for two other cities, managing both of them at the same time. He was the city manager in Stanton (2011-2014) and was the village manager in Lakeview (2008-2014).

Carol Mitten

As the deputy manager of Arlington County, Virginia, Mitten oversees 400 people in the county's $97 million Department of Environmental Services and 57 people in the county's $9 million economic development department.

Mitten has worked as an administrator for two major federal agencies, the National Park Service (2010-2011) and the Department of Homeland Security (2011-2015).

She represented Amtrak during negotiations for the expansion of Penn Station in New York City from 2007 to 2009 -- a project that eventually stalled on multiple fronts and is now moving forward again. Her first public sector job was in 2003 when she worked in the District of Columbia's office of property management.

Her early career started in the private sector as a real estate appraiser.

Here are four things to know about the three finalists:

1. Bais-DiSessa has the most experience with city government

Out of the three, Bais-DiSessa has logged the most years working for a city. She started in her career in 1979 with the city of San Antonio, Texas, in the human resources department, and worked her way up to a budget analyst. Since then, she has been the top administrator at three cities and the second-in-command at two cities.

2. Freed is the only candidate currently managing a police and fire department

Though he may have the shortest resume, Freed is the only candidate that is currently managing a police department and a fire department.

Bais-DiSessa previously has managed a public safety departments, most recently in Berkley, a city of 14,500 near Royal Oak. In Pontiac, where she currently works, the city is policed by the Oakland County Sheriff.

Mitten does not have direct experience managing a police or fire department.

3. Mitten has the most experience with large-scale organizations

In addition to being the only finalist from outside of Michigan, Mitten also has the most experience working in a large-scale organization -- from the Department of Homeland Security to the National Parks Service to Amtrak.

4. All of the candidates have master's degrees

The three candidates each have advanced degrees. Bais-DiSessa received a master's degree in public institutional administration from St. Mary's University in San Antonio.

Freed received a master's of business administration from Northwood University DeVos Graduate School in Midland.

Mitten received a master's of business administration from The Ohio State University.GRAND RAPIDS, MI -- Funeral services are Saturday, Feb. 10 for a 16-year-old found dead in Kalamazoo in what police say is a homicide.

Services for Mujey Dumbuya are 11 a.m. at Eastern Avenue Christian Reformed Church, 514 Eastern Ave. SE.

Visitation is 12-2 p.m. and 4-6 p.m. Friday, Feb. 9 at the church.

Mujey's went missing Jan. 24 after heading to a bus stop to catch a city bus to East Kentwood High School.

Her body was found in the 800 block of North Prairie Avenue Sunday, Jan. 28 by two people walking in the area.Former Gov. John Engler announced his first public move as interim president of Michigan State University Friday evening, appointing Carol Morey Viventi as vice president and special counsel to the president.

Viventi, an MSU grad who most recently served as deputy director of the Michigan Department of Civil Rights, will start Monday - the same day Engler takes on his new role at the university.

"Carol has the depth of experience, cultural sensitivity and ability to manage complex operations that will be invaluable to the difficult task ahead. Today is a new day at MSU, and she will help us move swiftly and decisively to implement changes to protect everyone affiliated with our campus," Engler said in a statement. "I am grateful she has agreed to take on this new role as the MSU community moves forward together."

Viventi was the first woman and minority to serve as secretary of the Michigan Senate, a position she held from 1995 to 2015. In her role there, she oversaw sexual harassment policy, travel for senators and staff members, and led the staff of 75, according to a news release from MSU.

She then went on to serve as director of special projects for the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services.

She received a bachelor's degree in divisional social sciences from MSU and wen to earn a law degree from Thomas M. Cooley Law School. In addition, Viventi worked as an adjunct professor at Western Michigan University and sat on the Board of Governors of the Japanese American National Museum.

"MSU is at a pivotal moment in its history," Viventi said in a statement. "We will do everything in our power to create a culture of accountability to ensure the safety and well-being of all students, faculty and staff. Together, as a team, I hope we can renew the trust and pride in our great University, and do whatever I can to help the community begin a new day at MSU."

Engler's appointment as interim president follows the resignation of longtime university President Lou Anna Simon, who stepped down Jan. 24 amid growing outcry over the university's handling of the Larry Nassar sex-abuse scandal.

Following Simon's resignation, the board appointed Vice President and Secretary of the Board of Trustees Bill Beekman as acting president on Jan. 26. His last day as acting president was Friday.

On Wednesday, the board appointed Engler as interim president.

University spokesman Kent Casella did not immediately respond to a message asking what role Beekman will serve in at MSU moving forward.JACKSON, MI - A rejection earlier this week from Jackson City Council to build a $260,000 house on Ganson Street sent city officials scrambling to find a way to spend leftover grant funds.

A large chunk of the funds were allocated at a special meeting at 7 a.m. on Friday, Feb. 2, at City Hall, 161 W. Michigan Ave. Council voted unanimously to allocate roughly $360,000 to lighting projects along the Martin Luther King Equality Trail and in Partnership Park.

About another $20,000 will go toward design costs for a planned $1.4 million renovation of the King Community Center, Mayor Derek Dobies said.

"When the vote went down Tuesday, we scrambled. Council left the meeting without any sort of plan to come forward," Dobies said. "We've had a lot of public engagement in the first two meetings of the year talking about street lights. I'm glad we were able to repurpose this toward street lights to enhance the trail."

Dobies and councilwomen Arlene Robinson and Colleen Sullivan voted in favor of the house at the Tuesday, Jan. 30 meeting. City Manager Patrick Burtch told council the city would likely lose the money if it didn't approve the project.

City officials met Wednesday morning to map out new options after the house was voted down.

It's now a race against the clock for the city, with a tight deadline, to finish the lighting along the MLK Trail and Partnership Park with the Community Development Block Grant funds. It received an extension from the federal government from April 1 to May 1 to get it done.

The expedited process started immediately, with city officials planning to buy light poles and fixtures Friday. Bids to put up the lights are due March 8 and will be awarded by Burtch on March 9. Work must begin on the 48 lights by March 19 and finish by April 27.

"This is a very difficult thing to pull off," Burtch said. "It wasn't an attempt to be untransparent to the public. We are trying very desperately to save this money."

Any funds not spent by May 1 will come out of the general fund. Burtch said he's 90 percent sure the city can finish the project on time.

The city couldn't do streetlights with these funds because the process takes longer when dealing with the public right-of-ways with streets, Burtch said.

LED lights along the MLK Trail will go on 20-foot poles, with a similar style to the ones installed along W. Michigan Avenue in 2017. It spans from Morrell Street to Prospect Street.

Every other pole will have a plug, in case the city wants to install security cameras in the future.

At Partnership Park, all 75 lights will be converted to LED lights.

These aren't the only CDBG funds expiring this spring. The other chunk of the approximately $610,000 remaining may go toward rehabilitating apartment units in the vacant Huron Camera building at 159 W. Michigan Ave., Dobies said. Council will vote on that at its Feb. 13 meeting, he said.

More streetlights

City Council did approve spending nearly $52,000 in public improvement funds for design costs on Tuesday for various streetlight projects throughout the city.

Citizens have urged council at recent meetings to add streetlights in the neighborhoods.

"I love the downtown area. When I come in, it's so beautiful and lit up," resident Diane Washington said. "But we want the rest of our city to be lit up, too."

Burtch said he drove around southside neighborhoods starting at 5 a.m. in January to see the conditions for himself. It was difficult to spot kids in the dark streets as they headed to school, Burtch said. He and Dobies met with community members to talk about the problem, they said.

"(Streetlights) certainly help to deter crime in some respects," Dobies said. "It brings some of the progress we've seen downtown out into the neighborhoods and to the people that haven't seen that sort of progress in a long time."

The following projects approved for design costs on Tuesday.

Morrell Street from Francis Street to S. Cooper Street

Adrian Avenue from Stevens Street to Morrell Street

Merriman Street from Barberry Drive to Stevens Street

Redwood Lane from Adrian Avenue to Cypress Drive

Cypress Drive from Redwood Lane to Mitchell Street

Mitchell Street from Adrian Avenue to Cypress Drive

The MLK Equality Trail from Morrell Street to Prospect Street (Tuesday's initial agreement only had the lights spanning south to High Street)

Exchange Park

Loomis Park

Most of the projects could finish in 2018, City Engineer Jon Dowling said, if council decides to allocate the appropriate funds for them.

Many of the current lights are high-pressure sodium lights, Burtch said. They give off an orange glow, unlike the brighter, whiter, more energy efficient LED bulbs, he said.

The city currently owns 1,054 lights in the city and pays for another 2,106 lights owned by Consumers Energy, Dowling said. To properly light the whole city will take decades and millions of dollars, Burtch said.SAN DIEGO, Feb. 02, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- After Tuesdays State of the Union Address, The Recover examines Trumps message to lower prescription costs and fight for the dying rights of those with terminal conditions.



In his speech he addressed the Right to Try Legislation that was proposed but is waiting on approval from the FDA. "We also believe that patients with terminal conditions should have access to experimental treatments that could potentially save their lives," the president said.

"People who are terminally ill should not have to go from country to country to seek a cure  I want to give them a chance right here at home. It is time for the Congress to give these wonderful Americans the 'right to try,'" he says.

The prescription drug cost has been rising in recent years, with medications dramatically increasing 44% since 2003, and continues to grow with out interference. Trump proposes to prevent that from happening under his administration, but without a clear plan.

"One of my greatest priorities is to reduce the price of prescription drugs. In many other countries, these drugs cost far less than what we pay in the United States," Trump stated.

"And it is very, very unfair," he said. "That is why I have directed my administration to make fixing the injustice of high drug prices one of our top priorities. Prices will come down."

The President will also have to address the issue that some of these prescription drugs have led to the opioid problem the country faces. Other pain relievers and stimulant prescription drugs can be misused and can cause an addiction to the user.

Alex Azar was in attendance at the address, a former drug company executive, lobbyist and spokesperson who has been sworn in as Secretary of Health and Human Services under President Trump's cabinet. Mr. Azars former profession brings into question how someone from that industry could possibly have a hand in disrupting their profit and helping the people of America. While introducing Azar, Trump mentioned several times that he shared his desire in reducing prescription drug prices.

Author: Kevin Leonard

Organization: TheRecover.com

Address: 27420 Jefferson Ave 101a, Temecula, CA 92590

Phone: 888-510-3898

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/cf3a285e-8af4-4ac2-89ce-40e8b07cda15JACKSON, MI - Bishop Ira Combs Jr. of Jackson has been appointed to the Michigan Civil Rights Commission, sparking some outrage from Democrats, the state's American Civil Rights Union and Equality Michigan for his history of opposition to gay marriage and "LGBT equality measures."

Founder and pastor of Greater Bible Way Temple Church of the Apostolic Faith, Combs, who has a record of advocating for fair housing and banking practices, will serve a four-year term ending in December 2021, Gov. Rick Snyder's office announced on Thursday.

The conservative Republican believes in "traditional marriage values" and spoke against Jackson's passage last year of a nondiscrimination ordinance, which bans disparate treatment based on gender identification and sexual orientation. Combs called it overreaching and the language "severe," but says he does not support discrimination.

He believes a person's religious beliefs should not trump the Constitution or the law. "It is inappropriate to discriminate against any person because of your religious views when they are operating in a secular, progressive environment," Combs said on Friday.

Equality Michigan, an LGBT advocacy group, released a statement on Friday condemning Snyder's selection. "Combs' 20-year track record of demonizing and vilifying LGBT Michiganders is embarrassing. It should go without saying that someone so committed to depriving a group of Michiganders of their basic civil rights has no business on the Civil Rights Commission."

Kary Moss of the ACLU Michigan echoed the sentiment. "At a time when our nation is so divided, the Governor's appointment to the commission of someone who has blatantly opposed the rights of the LGBTQ community is a huge disappointment," she said in the same statement.

Tanya Baker, a spokeswoman for Snyder, issued a written response: "The governor appoints people of various backgrounds and experiences to many different boards and commissions. Yesterday, he appointed a Democrat, a Republican and an Independent - as required by law - who will each bring their own distinct backgrounds to discussions and actions by the Civil Rights Commission."

The governor also named Stacie Clayton of Detroit, who worked for Snyder in the Office of Urban Initiatives, and longtime Democratic lawmaker Alma Wheeler Smith of South Lyon to the eight-member board charged with protecting civil rights and investigating alleged acts of discrimination. No more than four members can be from the same political party.

Snyder's office noted its appointments division has no record of commission recommendations made by Equality Michigan, however, the division scheduled a meeting with the group next week to review the process and "discuss how to work in partnership on this and other important issues."

Democratic Floor Leader Christine Greig, D-Farmington Hills, asked Snyder to withdraw the appointment. "Placing people like Bishop Ira Combs on the Michigan Civil Rights Commission sends the signal that, in fact, Michigan is not welcoming to people in the LGBT community, and that our state is going backward instead of forward as far as equality is concerned," she said in a statement.

State Reps. Jeremy Moss, D-Southfield, Jon Hoadley, D-Kalamazoo, and Tim Sneller, D-Burton, made the same demand. "There are many people in our state who have done great work to protect the rights of all who live and work here, and surely one of them deserves a place on the Civil Rights Commission."

Combs defended his qualifications. As an activist, he started speaking out against discrimination in Jackson's bank lending policies in the late 1980s. He pushed for more minorities in the Jackson area's mental health system and encouraged banks to make more low-income and minority loans.

"Is there anyone in Jackson with more experience?" Combs asked. "Not living."

Now, involved in community management, he is founder and executive director of Christ Centered Homes Inc., which provides residential services to those with disabilities and mental illness.

His corporation hires and supports and he has sit on boards promoting people of the LGBT community, he said.

Combs' opinions have long been public. As president in the 1970s of Michigan State University's Pan-Hellenic Council, which he helped create to oversee black fraternities, he spoke out against a gay student who ran for president of the student body because he did not represent "family values," according to a Citizen Patriot profile published in 2001, when Combs served on a steering committee for then President George W. Bush's "faith-based initiative."

When a Gay-Straight Alliance was in the works at Jackson High School almost 20 years ago, he made sure the school also gave a prayer group the green light.

He says he has no agenda, but his passions surround those with disabilities. "They have been overlooked and discarded," he said.

Combs also sees as important the civil liberties of children and women and supports victims, as scandals unfold across the country, including at Michigan State University, where leaders face harsh criticism in the wake of former Dr. Larry Nassar's criminal convictions for sexually assaulting women and girls.

The opposition sees him as unqualified because they disagree with his stances, which are not surprisng, he said.

"I have a conservative position on social issues; everyone knows what that means."JACKSON, MI - East Jackson Elementary School fourth-grade teacher Sammy Niehaus got busy creating a Makerspace lab for her students immediately after winning first place in an educational technology contest.

The $1,500 winnings from the Michigan Educational Technology Specialists Idea Slam contest at the Michigan Association for Computer Users in Learning conference, along with a donation from Classic Metal Finishing, purchased items students use for hands-on learning in the creative space.

"The Makerspace materials allow them to kind of just explore and think and figure out, and fail and then succeed because they are learning from their failures," Niehaus said. "This gets them up and out of the norm and gets their brain flowing. It helps them to think critically."

A free Makerspace Family Night took place Thursday Feb. 1, during which students gathered in the school gym and shared what they learn in the classroom with their parents.

"I think the best part of Makerspace in my classroom has been that students want to share what they're doing," Niehaus said. "They want to tell people about it and show people what they've learned."

One of Niehaus' students created lyrics to a song about Makerspace. She got Niehaus' entire class to sing along in a video.

Parent Amy Boatright said she enjoys checking on Facebook for the photos and videos that Niehaus shares of her daughter and other students using the Makerspace materials.

"(My daughter) will come home and say, 'Look at what Miss Niehaus posted,'" Boatright said. "She loves Miss Niehaus. She is always interacting with the kids and has a different teaching style so she meets all the kids' expectations of learning, and that's awesome."

Niehaus has also influenced other East Jackson teachers to implement more creative, hands-on lessons in their classrooms.

Third-grade science teacher Stacey Hampton has used the internet find creative things her students can do with recycled cardboard.

"We are going to make marble runs out of cardboard and yarn to practice the effect of gravity and force in motion, which is all part of the curriculum in third grade," Hampton said.

Recycled cardboard was part of Thursday night's event. Kids were encouraged to use their imagination to create whatever they wanted out of the material.

Some students made cardboard armor and swords. Aother student made throne and called it "The Cardboard King."

"Usually when we are doing stuff on the computers I want to be like touching it," 9-year-old third-grader Elaina Lounsbery said.

Elaina said she has been inspired to join the robotics team when she reaches middle school.

"I want to be able to make a robot. Like the actual robots with the science kids over there," she said.

East Jackson robotics teams, The Actuators and Trojan Bots, were present at the family night event, driving their robots around the gym.

"Always explore," 9-year-old Kilah Boatright said. "If you don't think you'll like it, you should just try it and maybe you'll like it."

Niehaus said she hopes to make this an annual event and grow the program even more.KALAMAZOO, MI -- Dr. Lukasz Niec, soon after dropping his stepdaughter off at the bus stop on a Tuesday morning, got a knock at the door that turned his life in a direction of uncertainty.

Three ICE agents stood on the front step of his home near Kalamazoo.

"I did not think this was happening," Niec, 43, said by phone Friday, Feb. 2. He was released on bond Thursday, Feb. 1, more than two weeks after he was arrested and jailed.

When the agents put handcuffs on him and put him into a vehicle for transport, Niec realized it wasn't a joke. They asked for his Green Card and passport and put him in the back of a car, he said.

The agents said they were there because of two misdemeanor convictions from 1992, Niece said, though one was wiped from his record because he completed probation under Holmes Youthful Trainee Act, which allows young offenders to have convictions taken off their records.

He believes a tip prompted ICE to investigate him.

"The inclination is that there was a call made into the tip line," he said. "Then they started looking in deeper and deeper.

"That's why they came for me," he said.

When asked if he believes the tip was from his ex fiancee who is involved in a legal battle with Niec over child custody, Niec said, "I can't think of anyone else."

"I don't know for sure," he said. "More things are coming up that point to that person."

The custody battle includes allegations of child abuse against Niece, which he previously denied in court testimony and denied again on Friday.

ICE has not responded to questions about whether or not a tip was sent to the agency.

ICE officials have said that the agency began an investigation of Niec because of child abuse allegations against him.

Niec has taken care of immigration detainees in his job as a doctor at Bronson HealthCare, but he said he doesn't know much about how the immigration agency works.

He is a citizen of Poland and came to the United States with his family at age 5.

ICE said he came to the U.S. legally and he is amenable to removal proceedings as a result of two 1992 state convictions for malicious destruction of property and receiving stolen property, both of which are crimes involving "moral turpitude," ICE said.

In the destruction of property case, Niec said he did not do anything wrong, but was guilty by association. In the receiving stolen property case, he said friends used a card to get money, and some of it was given to him.

He completed probation after the stolen property case and believed it would be wiped from his record.

"Everybody can make mistakes when they were young," he said. "Obviously I turned my life around I feel like. I didn't continue that kind of behavior."

Niec most recently came under agency scrutiny as a result of 18 encounters with local law enforcement, ICE said. The agency did not provide further specifics of the encounters.

Kalamazoo County District Court records show Niec has 22 cases generated from 18 contacts with police. Violations include four no proof of insurance violations, seven speeding tickets, failure to change address on license, causing an accident, careless driving, seat belt violation, driving without due care, and parking near a fire hydrant.

Niec pleaded guilty to a 2008 operating impaired by liquor offense in Kalamazoo County. He completed probation, and the conviction was set aside, the plea withdrawn and the case dismissed, as part of a plea agreement.

He was charged with domestic violence in 2013 and a jury found him not guilty after a trial, record show.

After the arrest by ICE, Niec said he absolutely wants to obtain citizenship.

"I had no clue, I thought having a permanent Green Card was very similar to having citizenship," he said."Obviously I wish I had done it earlier because I wouldn't be in this predicament."

Hindsight is easy, he said.

"I wish I did it, I got busy, just too many things," he said when asked about obtaining citizenship. "I was married, and medical school, both my parents passed away and everything just got delayed and delayed between college and just trying to move forward with my life."

He put it on the "back burner," he said, thinking there was no reasonable likelihood he would be in the situation he is in now.

He doesn't know the odds of deportation.

"I absolutely want to stay," he said.

His employer, Bronson HealthCare, has been supportive, he said, and he can go back whenever he is willing to, likely next week, he said. He thanked all of his supporters.

He's felt upset, shocked and frustrated since his arrest, but he said he's trying to make the best of it. He was happy Friday night to be with his family and friends.

"I've obviously realized I just have to go through it," he said about the immigration proceedings.

He doesn't blame ICE for enforcing the laws, but he believes the laws could be given another look.SPRING LAKE TOWNSHIP, MI - A furniture manufacturer in Spring Lake Township has released three new products meant to encourage emotional comfort, personal connections and warmth.

Izzy+, 17237 Van Wagoner St., introduced Peyton seating, Dale side tables and Forum Naturals lounge tables this month.

"Our inspiration for 2018 is around familiar spaces, those nostalgic settings where friends and family laugh, learn and create," said Katie Ostreko, director of marketing and product development for Izzy+, in an email.

Peyton, designed by Joe Ricchio and Matt Duncan, is a seating collection that includes a low and traditional rocker, guest chair and lounge seating.

Dale is a wood stump end table offering integrated power and USB outlets. The product includes imperfections found in nature, with each log having its own characteristics.

Forum Naturals coffee tables, made of ash or walnut, feature the curves and knots found in wood. Forum has a "mid-century modern look."

"Like the individuals who use them, Peyton, Dale and Forum Naturals make each space they inhabit truly unique by offering a blend of warm, rich and vibrant colors that celebrate the natural imperfections found in wood," states an Izzy+ news release. "Designed to complement each other, the woods, paints and urethanes come together to create eye-catching environments making each space its own."

The products will be available to order beginning Feb. 14, and will be featured at Neocon World's Trade Fair of furniture in Chicago this June.

Izzy+ specializes in creating "cool places for people to work, meet, learn, heal and eat." The company works in design, manufacturing and marketing of its products. Its product lines can be found in offices, schools and healthcare spaces around the world.

Izzy+ is part of JSJ Corporation.SAGINAW, MI - Saginaw Police and the Saginaw Fire Department responded to an RV on fire outside of Hoyt library around 4:50 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 2.

No one was injured as a result of the fire. A man who claimed to be the owner of the RV and his dog, Sadie, were okay. The van he was using to tow the trailer wasn't damaged.

Saginaw Fire Department Captain Krenz said the owner only discovered it was on fire after being alerted by another man nearby.

The owner of the van and RV said he had stopped by to drop off library books.

"I get out to grab my books, and there's this guy waving at me," the man who claimed to be the owner said. "I look around to where he's pointing and the RV's all in flames."

The man said he tried to grab his own fire extinguisher but was deterred upon opening the door and having flames spew out. He also reported to have a Harley in the back of the RV that was lost.

No cause for the fire was reported at the scene.SACRAMENTO, Calif., Feb. 03, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- An Advance Health Care Directive is a legal document that allows a client to state his/her wishes regarding medical treatment in the event of his/her incapacity, as well as allowing the client to determine who will be responsible for making sure his/her wishes are followed. The Advance Health Care Directive sets forth your preferences in matters such as life support, life-sustaining care (i.e. cardiac resuscitation), the use or non-use of certain medications, blood transfusions, mechanical respiration, nutrition, and hydration. For someone that does not currently have an Advance Health Care Directive, Sacramento Estate Planning Attorney Robert Jeff Busch can be of assistance with drafting one.



Individuals have the right to determine what care they do or do not wish to receive in the event of their incapacity. If those wishes are not set forth in a valid, legally binding Advance Health Care Directive, there is a very real danger that wishes may not be followed, and the person making those decisions will be someone else.

The Law Office or R. Jeff Busch provides thorough, comprehensive services for individuals throughout the greater Sacramento area who require assistance in the preparation and execution of Advance Health Care Directives, Durable Powers of Attorney, Wills or Revocable Trusts. Attorney R. Jeff Busch is a licensed California attorney with over 30 years of experience helping hundreds of families and individuals with their estate planning needs. Attorney R. Jeff Busch is available to consult immediately. Attorney R. Jeff Busch will work in line to create a plan according to his/her wishes so he/she can have a peace of mind that things will be taken care of upon incapacity or death.

Author: Attorney R. Jeff Busch

Organization: Law Office of R. Jeff Busch

Address: 9245 Laguna Springs Dr #200, Elk Grove, CA 95758, USA

Phone: +1 916-859-0370

https://robertbuschlaw.com

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/c857d163-705c-4e18-b4dd-5734a6f0fb8aassam, sarbananda sonowal

Assam will host its first global investors summit from tomorrow to showcase its manufacturing opportunities and geostrategic advantages to foreign and domestic investors.

The 'Advantage Assam: Global Investors Summit 2018', which will be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, aims at highlighting Assam's geostrategic advantages and core competencies in different sectors along with the policy initiatives taken by the state government.

"So far, 4,500 delegates have registered for participation that include representatives from 16 countries. Prime Minister of Bhutan Tshering Tobgay has already arrived while industrialists like Mukesh Ambani and Ratan Tata are expected to attend the summit," Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal told PTI.

The chief minister said the February 3-4 event will showcase the manufacturing prowess and the opportunities offered by Assam in terms of export-oriented manufacturing and services to growing economies such as the ASEAN and the Southeast Asian countries.

Sonowal said the prime minister's special focus for the development of the Northeast and his multiple initiatives for the region will be the basis for the success of the summit.

Apart from the prime minister, several Union ministers including Nitin Gadkari, Suresh Prabhu, Ravi Shankar Prasad, Smriti Irani, Dharmendra Pradhan, Jitendra Singh, Kiren Rijiju, are expected to take part in the summit.

The state has identified a number of focus sectors, including agriculture and food processing, organic cultivation and bamboo, handloom, textile and handicrafts, inland water transport, port township and river front development and logistics.

Other focus areas include information technology and information technology enabled services, pharmaceuticals and medical devices, plastics and petrochemicals, power, tourism, hospitality and wellness, petroleum and natural gas and civil aviation.

Bangladesh Industry Minister Amir Hossain Amu, Cambodian Tourism Minister Thong Khon, Myanmar Commerce Minister Than Myint, Lao PDR's Vice Minister of Information Culture and Tourism Ounethoang Khaophanh are also likely to attend the event.

Ambassadors, High Commissioners and business delegations from 16 countries such as the USA, Vietnam, the UAE, the Netherlands, Nepal, Korea, Japan, Israel, Indonesia, Germany, Czech Republic and Canada are expected to attend the two-day event.

Dilip Shanghvi of the Sun Pharmaceuticals, Anand Burman of the Dabur, Subhash Chandra of the Essel Group along with a host of industrialists are also expected take part in the summit.

As a precursor to the main event, roadshows were organised at various domestic and international locations to invite investors to the summit and also showcase the business potential and investment opportunities in the state.

Chief Minister's media advisor Hrishikesh Goswami said roadshows held in Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai, Toronto, San Francisco, New York, Tokyo, Seoul and Singapore have generated very positive response from the investors.

"Very aptly, 'India's Expressway to ASEAN' has been chosen as the tagline of the summit," he said.

"The objective of the Summit is to position Assam as India's Expressway to ASEAN. Advantage Assam will be the largest ever investment promotion and facilitation initiative by the Government of Assam," said the summit's Nodal Officer A P Tiwari.

"Besides, the summit will showcase the opportunities offered by the state in terms of export-oriented manufacturing and services to ASEAN and BBN countries," Tiwari said.

"Assam has a unique advantage of being at a strategic geographic location with a strong connectivity network, making it an ideal destination for doing business with the ASEAN countries," Tiwari said.

Assam is no longer at the periphery but at the centre of the vast and vibrant economy of the Southeast Asian market, he said.

"Assam Government also understands the criticality of providing ease of doing businesses in order to gain attention from national and international investors," Tewari said.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley proposed in the Union Budget for 2018-19 that mutual fund houses will have to pay a Dividend Distribution Tax (DDT) of 10 percent on dividends declared under equity schemes.

This will make dividend payout and capital gains equitable in terms of tax for equity funds.

Currently, mutual funds already pay DDT of 28.84 percent on dividends declared under debt schemes, while there is no DDT on equity-oriented mutual fund schemes. Also, DDT is not applicable for mutual fund schemes that invests at least 65 percent of its assets in equities.

This move may hit dividend seekers or senior citizens who largely rely on dividends. DDT will reduce the in-hand return to investor, if unit holder opts for dividend options. The fund houses will have to deduct DDT before declaring dividend.

Industry experts said that this move may prompt mutual fund houses to promote growth option of equity mutual funds over dividend option offered by equity schemes to defer the tax liability.

Standoff between SEBI and mutual funds on scheme name change

SEBI in a formal meeting has asked them to drop names like Prudence and Balanced from schemes which have 65 percent exposure to equities.

Similarly, SEBI has suggested that the word Monthly should be dropped from MIPs (Monthly Income Plans). MIPs are hybrid products that invest predominantly in fixed income securities and generally take equity exposure of 10-30 percent.

The market regulator has one more directive for the fund houses. Not more than one scheme of a fund house can have the word Focussed, even though the investment philosophy may be focussed for all the schemes. For instance: Motilal Oswal Mutual Fund is known for its schemes which has the stamp of Focused across most of their funds. For instance, one scheme is focussed on 35 multicap scrips. Now the name will have to change.

Edelweiss MF launched a scheme that invests in recently listed and upcoming IPOs

Edelweiss Mutual Fund on Feb 2 launched Edelweiss Maiden Opportunities Fund  Series 1. The fund will remain open for subscription until February 16 and will invest in recently listed companies and upcoming initial public offerings (IPOs).

The three-year, close-ended equity scheme will invest across large, mid and small cap stocks.

The fund will predominantly invest in maiden ideas from recently listed universe, and some portion shall be invested in upcoming listings to capture listing and potential future gains.

Mahindra Mutual Fund seeks SEBI fund nod to launch Rural Bharat Yojana

The open-ended equity scheme will deploy at least 80 percent of its corpus in equity and equity related instruments in companies having exposure towards rural India, while up to 20 percent can be deployed in companies other than having exposure to rural India.

The scheme also has the provision to deploy up to 20 percent in debt and money market instruments collaterised borrowing and lending obligation, reverse repo. It can also invest up to 10 percent in real estate investment trusts and infrastructure investment trusts.

This scheme will be managed by Ratish Varier.Congress

The Congress today accused the central government of having "utterly failed" on the national security front and said instead of taking strategic steps to protect India's interests, it was relying upon rhetoric and yajnas.

The party's communications in-charge Randeep Singh Surjewala alleged that the government has abdicated its duties in protecting the country's borders and Prime Minister Narendra Modi has instead resorted to self-propagation of his strategies.

His reply at a Congress briefing came in response to a question on BJP MP Maheish Girri's announcement to hold a yagna to ward off "conspiracies by inimical forces".

"Instead of taking strategic and diplomatic steps for protecting India's national interests, they (central government) are relying upon rhetoric and yajnas. This is typical of all symbolism and no delivery style of the government," he said.

Last month, Girri had announced that a week-long 'Vedic yagya' will be organised from March 18 at the Red Fort to blunt "conspiracies" by forces "inimical" to the country and said President Ram Nath Kovind and the prime minister have been invited for it.

Surjewala alleged that the government has abdicated its solemn duty to protect India's borders both from external and internal threats and said the prime minister has "utterly failed" to stop Pakistan-sponsored terror that is taking the lives of Indian jawans and civilians on a daily basis.

"While yajnas and offering prayers are part of our philosophy and faith, the government cannot abdicate its duties towards national security by just holding yajnas," the Congress leader said.

"Modi ji is so busy in self-propagation of his strategies that he is blind to the threats on our eastern, western and northern borders which have become extremely volatile because the Chinese government has aggressively infringed upon India's territory and caused serious concern by fortifying its military position on the Doklam plateau," he said.

Surjewala said that the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor is passing through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and the Chinese now have a presence both at Gwadar Port in Pakistan and Hambantota Port in Sri Lanka.

"Yet the BJP government remains a mute spectator and is relying upon rhetoric and yajnas," he said.Representative Image.

The Delhi High Court on Friday asked aviation regulator DGCA to reconsider the norms on duty and rest hours for the cabin crew and to come out with a fresh one within 12 weeks.

Justice Vibhu Bakhru passed the order on a plea by an NGO and some Air India cabin crew members working on long haul flights, who had challenged the existing CAR 2016 on the ground that it did not take into account the fatigue faced by them due to their duty hours and the time they get for rest.

The Civil Aviation Requirement (CAR) pertains to flight duty time and flight time limitations.

The NGO--Dedicated to Aviation Safety and Health-- represented by senior advocate Vivek Kohli in the court, had claimed in its plea that cabin crew fatigue affects and puts at risk their safety and those of the passengers.

Advocate Anubha Singh, who also represented the NGO as also the cabin crew, said the high court did not quash the CAR 2016 and gave the Directorate General of Civil Aviation 12 weeks to come out with new guidelines.

DGCA comes out with a number of CARs on issues which deal with operation, safety and management of airlines.

She said that the court, while passing the order, took on the record their contention that the CAR was "arbitrary, irrational, inhumane and exploitative in nature" and that DGCA did not take into account the international standards on the issue.The Congress in Meghalaya today dared the National People's Party (NPP), an ally of the BJP at the Centre and in Manipur, to leave the NDA coalition to prove that they were not its proxy party.

The ruling Meghalaya Congress also alleged that the saffron party invited NPP leaders from Jaintia hills and Garo hills to Guwahati and jointly got into an exercise on how and where to field candidates.

The BJP and NPP are contesting February 27 poll for 60- member Meghalaya Assembly separately. The counting of votes will take place on March 3.

"If they say that the NPP is not with the BJP then why don't they leave the NDA, then only people will believe them," AICC media-coordinator Bobeeta Sharma told reporters here.

Otherwise no matter how hard the NPP tries to explain their position, their actions will still show that the party is with the BJP, she said.

She said, "They just want to give the impression that they are not in favour of Modi."

State Cabinet Minister Ronnie V Lyngdoh said the party's claim on the BJP-NPP nexus was substantiated when Tura MP Conrad K Sangma's praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his speech in Parliament.

Lyngdoh alleged that the BJP invited NPP leaders from Jaintia hills and Garo hills to Guwahati and jointly got into an exercise to field candidates.

Predicting that the NPP would get only "single digit" seats in the coming state assembly polls, the minister said, "the People here will reject any party which has anything to do with a communal party." He also cited how the BJP shifted its candidate Banteilang Rumnong from Sohra to Pynursla to aide the NPP candidate, also a former Congress leader P Tynsong.

The NPP is in alliance with BJP at the Centre, in Manipur and Rajasthan and is part of the BJP-led North East Democratic Alliance. "It goes to prove beyond any doubt that NPP is working together with the party leading the alliance which is none other than the BJP.

To say that they are not together is all hog wash," the Meghalaya Congress leader said. On NPP projection of Bihar Chief Minister and JD(U) President Nitish Kumar as the leader to unseat PM Narendra Modi and not Rahul Gandhi, the Congress media coordinator said the statement of NPP state president Wanwei Roy Kharlukhi was overboard.A Delhi court has dismissed a man's plea against doctors of a renowned private hospital here for allegedly cheating him by overcharging for a pacemaker implant surgery of his father.

The man moved the court challenging an order by which the doctors were summoned as accused for offence of dishonest misappropriation of property under the IPC. He had instead sought framing of cheating charge against the doctors.

Additional Sessions Judge S K Gupta rejected the plea saying it was a second revision petition as another sessions court had already rejected his plea in 2015.

"The revision against the summoning order was filed. The court has considered the fact whether any graver offence is made out or not. The revision petition was dismissed.

"The said order has attained finality meaning thereby that the respondents (doctors) will be proceeded for offence under section 403 of IPC. The present revision tantamount to the second revision. This court cannot sit over the order passed by then revisional court," the judge said.

It, however, said proceedings against the hospital under section 403 (dishonest misappropriation of property) of the IPC shall continue.

A trial court had on March 6, 2014 summoned two doctors of the Okhla-based hospital for the offence under section 403 of the IPC.

According to the complaint, the father of complainant and revisionist Saurabh Singh was admitted in the hospital in 2012 and Rs 8.40 lakh was charged for pacemaker implant surgery.

Later, his father was informed by another hospital that the pacemaker was not functioning properly so he was once again admitted to the accused hospital and operated upon.

On August 22, 2012, the old pacemaker was replaced with a new one and he was billed Rs 2.66 lakh, the complaint stated.

The complainant came to know that the cost of the new pacemaker was Rs 80,000 less than the old one, but he was charged more by the hospital.

The hospital, however, had denied the allegation and said the difference of price in the cost of the two pacemakers was sent to them through courier, adding there was no dishonest intention or misrepresentation on the part of the hospital or its doctors.

The counsel for the revisionist had contended that the hospital never told him that the implant was of a different make which showed there was dishonest intention on their part to cheat him.Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti on Friday ruled out revoking the controversial Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act in Kashmir "due to the prevailing situation" and asserted that the Indian Army is the "most disciplined" force in the world.

Mehbooba said the Army's footprint in the valley had increased due to the deteriorating security situation.

"If the situation deteriorates, the footprint of security forces will increase. If militancy or stone pelting increases, you will see more footprint of police. We don't want that to happen," she said while replying to a discussion on demand of grants for the departments under her charge.

On CPI(M)'s MY Tarigami raking up the issue of revocation of AFSPA, Mehbooba retorted and asked: "Can AFSPA be revoked in such a situation? Is it realistic?"

"The Indian Army is most disciplined force in the world. It was instrumental in bettering the security situation... that is the reason we are here today... They have made huge sacrifices," she said.

On the National Conference's concerns about the fate of an FIR registered against Army men over the killing of three civilians in alleged firing in Shopian last month, Mehbooba said: "The Army has a great reputation, but when someone commits a wrong the legal process has to follow."

She said her government was reaching out to Kashmiri youths to wean them away from militancy.

The chief minister said her government withdrew cases of stone-pelting against more than 9,700 youths which were pending since 2008.

Mehbooba hoped that "all shades of opinion" in Jammu and Kashmir would join the dialogue process initiated by the Centre's representative Dineshwar Sharma to "cut through the unending cycle of violence and uncertainty in the state".

The central and state governments were on the same page on the subject, she said.

Mehbooba said political outreach was a must to get people out of despair while and mainstream political parties had a major role in it.

She favoured "cross-LoC cooperation" in the sectors of tourism, environment, disaster management, among others.Representative Image

Left parties in Andhra Pradesh have called for a bandh (shutdown) on February 8 to protest against the "injustice" done to the state in what the parties called an "anti-people" budget.

In a press release jointly issued here by the Communist Party of India, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) and students and labour organisations, they asked people to participate in large numbers to make the bandh a success.

These parties, in the release, alleged that the Centre had ignored the state while doling out huge sums of money to states which are heading for polls in the near future.

The Left parties added that the Union Budget 2018 had ignored the poor and neglected the country's rural economy.US President Donald Trump welcomed six North Korean defectors to the Oval Office on Friday, a high profile and potentially provocative show of support.

The group - whose stories Trump described as "incredible and truly inspirational" - included a banker with knowledge of the regime's overseas operations, a former political prisoner and amputee Ji Seong-ho.

Seong-ho escaped from North Korea in 2006 and was given a place of honour just seats away from First Lady Melania Trump at Tuesday's State of the Union address.ABCNews.com(LAWRENCE, Kan.) -- A Kansas father of three, who was detained by immigration officials last week as he was getting his kids ready for school, is facing deportation.



U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents arrested Syed Ahmed Jamal, 55, outside his home in Lawrence, Kansas, on Jan. 24. He's since been detained and will be deported to Bangladesh, where he's from, ICE said in a statement.



Jamal has been living in the United States for decades and attained his undergraduate and master degrees here, his family told ABC affiliate KMBC-TV. He and his wife, who is also from Bangladesh, have three children who are all American citizens.



Now, his family worries they'll never see him again.



"I don't really understand why this is happening." Jamal's daughter, Naheen, told KMBC-TV as tears rolled down her cheeks. "So that's frustrating because he hasn't done anything wrong."



An online petition to stay Jamal's deportation has garnered well over 8,000 signatures. The petition describes him as a "family man, scientist and community leader" who has lived in the United States for 30 years.



"He's obviously a very dedicated dad," Jamal's eldest son, Taseen, told KMBC-TV. "I just want him to come back."



ICE told ABC News in a statement that Jamal initially legally entered the United States in July 1998 on a temporary nonimmigrant visa. After he overstayed that visa, a federal immigration judge gave him 120 days to depart the United States. Jamal abided the judge's order and left for Bangladesh in July 2002, according to the statement from ICE.



Three months later, Jamal legally re-entered the United States on a temporary nonimmigrant visa. He again overstayed his visit and a federal judge gave him 120 days to depart. But Jamal violated the judge's order and failed to leave the United States, so the judge issued a final order of removal, or deportation, according to the statement from ICE.



ICE said Jamal came to the agency's attention in September 2012 after he was arrested on misdemeanor criminal charges in Johnson County, Kansas. ICE agents took Jamal into custody and subsequently released him on an order of supervision, requiring him to report to an ICE office in November 2012. In May 2013, the Board of Immigration Appeals dismissed Jamal's appeal of his removal order, according to the statement from ICE.



"To effect this removal order, deportation officers with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested Jamal outside his residence on Jan. 24, 2018. He is currently in ICE custody pending his removal to Bangladesh," ICE said in the statement.



Jeffrey Bennett, a Kansas City lawyer reportedly retained by the Jamal family, did not immediately respond to ABC News' request for comment.

Copyright  2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.February 03, 2018 Freelancer Despairs: "My Lies About Hizbullah Can't Compete With Trump" - (Updated) [Updated throughout - Feb 3, 2:30pm EST]

--- There is a special class of young, enterprising journalists and 'experts' who claim to have access to the inner thinking of the Lebanese resistance organization Hizbullah. Journalists with decades of on the ground experience in Lebanon like to mock them: Elijah J. Magnier @ejmalrai - 6:49 AM - 3 Feb 2018

"Hezbollah experts": "I was walking in "Hezbollah stronghold" & bumped into a man who turned out to be a "High commander". As a sign of courtesy of our 1st encounter, revealed to me Hezbollah will attack 7 countries. He delivers all plans to me & went off". U have to believe me. The story below touches on that phenomenon. But there is more to it. Such journalists and experts are tools for planting Israel's propaganda into the minds of their readers. That is the real plot behind this curious story. A few days ago the Columbia Journalism Review published a whiny piece about dwindling foreign reporting in U.S. media: Freelancing abroad in a world obsessed with Trump The story is build around one U.S. freelance reporter in Lebanon, Sulome Anderson, who laments that her work is no longer requested or published. Like all other miserable issue in this world Anderson's lack of income is caused by one Donald Trump: Sulome blames a news cycle dominated by Donald Trump. Newspapers, magazines, and TV news programs simply have less space for freelance international stories than beforeunless, of course, they directly involve Trump. It that really the problem Anderson has? Before the 2016 election cycle, Sulome would pitch a story once, maybe twice, before finding a home for it. Now she pitches anywhere from three to 10 editors before a story gets the green light, if it gets picked up at all. Maybe it is not Trump but the crude propaganda, and abysmal sourcing Anderson tries to sell: In October 2017, Sulome thought she had landed the story of her career. The US had just announced a $7 million reward for a Hezbollah operative believed to be scouting locations for terror attacks on American soilsomething it had never done before. Having interviewed Hezbollah fighters for the last six years, Sulome had unique access to the upper echelons of its militants , including that specific operatives family members. Over the course of her reporting, Hezbollah members told her they had contingency plans to strike government and military targets on US soil and that they had surface-to-air missiles, which had not been reported before. Why didn't she offer that story to The Onion - they would have had fun with it. Consider: Hizbullah is known for its extremely tight media control. There is no such media access, zero, none, to the "upper echelons" of Hizbullah - certainly not for some U.S. freelancer with a dubious background (see below).

Hizbullah does not talk about its weapons to this or that journalist. If it wants to make a specific capability known, it will make a public announcements about it. That is what Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah did when he said that Hizbullah could attack Haifas ammonia storage tanks. It was the announcement that Hizbullah had acquired a new, precise, mid-range missile.

Will Hizbullah operatives talk to their family members about their secret business? Would those family members relate those secrets to some American freelancer? No and no.

Hizbullah's surface-to-air missiles have never been reported on? What about the 2006(!) IHS Janes report? MoA, this very site, wrote about them in 2008! Hizbullah leader Nasrallah publicly talked about them and Israel's intelligence service confirmed the capability. Hizbollah is known to have MANPADS (see pic), SA-22 Pantsyr-1 systems and at least access to S-200 surface to air missiles including the necessary radar systems. The CJR piece continues: Convinced she had struck gold, she was elated when the piece was commissioned by a dream publication shed never written for before. But days later, that publication rescinded its decision, saying that Sulome had done too much of the reporting before she was commissioned. Sulome was in shock. She went on to pitch the story to eight other publications, and no one was interested. Obsessive Trump coverage let the editors turn that story down? Or could it be that no one was interested in Sulome Anderson's story because it was obvious propaganda crap? Could it be that no one was interested because Anderson's claimed access to Hizbullah has for years been laughed about? Could it be that that no one was interested because her July 2017 story for Newsweek (scroll to its end) needed five(!) factual corrections and had additional serious problems? Because the video she made for Newsweek of alleged Hizbullah fighters she interviewed showed fighters with the insignia of Fatah al-Intifada, a Syrian-Palestinian group? Could it be because the fighting scenes in that video seemed staged? (In her rebuttal of those accusations Anderson admits some errors, obfuscates others, but also claims to have interviewed "a Hezbollah division leader". Hizbullah is not organized like a conventional army. Its armed resistance does do not have "divisions" - nor does it have "division leaders".) No editor likes to publish pieces which will get flogged by experts and the public. Editors hate to publish corrections. It is the disaster of Anderson's Newsweek story, not Donald Trump coverage, that prevents other editors from commissioning her with a similar piece. Sulome Anderson has been duped for years by some enterprising Lebanese stringers who sell her "access to Hizbullah officials" by introducing her to their barber or some local thugs. An alternative explanation is that she is knowingly selling fairy-tales and propaganda. She certainly isn't the only journalist with such a problem. In 2012 Vice published a widely shared - and ridiculed - story about Paintballing with Hezbollah in which four western journalist competed with four local dudes who falsely claimed to be "Hizbullah fighters". The CJR story about Sulome Anderson's sales problem was written by Yardena Schwartz, a freelancer in Tel Aviv. Schwartz discloses that "Sulome was a classmate of mine at Columbia Journalism School from 2010 to 2011." Having friends in Tel Aviv increases the chance that "upper echelons" of Hizbullah will trust you with knowledge about their plans and air-defense capabilities? Bragging about ones orthodox Jewish and Zionist boyfriend, as Anderson does, helps to pass through Hizbullah's strict media controls? Thinking this over one comes to see the propaganda plan behind this whole affair. Consider: The U.S. puts some high reward on someone's head for allegedly being Hizbullah and planning something nefarious within the United States. Next comes Sulome Anderson, who just by chance has access to the family of the dude. She also learns from "upper echelon" Hizbullah commanders that, yes, what the U.S. alleges is exactly what Hizbullah wants to do. Moreover - Hizbullah confesses to Anderson that it has all these scary MANPADS. Might it want to smuggle those into the States? Does it want to down Air Force One or a commuter flight out of New York? That surely would have been a perfect scare story, an 'independent' confirmation of the U.S. allegations and another reason to put more sanctions on Hizbullah. But no one in the U.S. was willing to publish that crap. After the Newsweek disaster Anderson's claims of Hizbullah access had been seriously burned. The story would not stand. Is there another way to plant the meme into American minds? How about a whiny story in the CJR, written by her friend in Tel Aviv, that simply repeats these claims? Not as good as 'original' reporting published in the New York Times but surely enough to put those claims on the record. It is disappointing that CJR published this sorry excuse for the unreliable reporting of Sulome Anderson. Excessive Trump coverage in U.S. media may be a reason for less foreign reporting. Costs are certainly another one. This case though is about factual errors, unreliable sourcing, planting pro-Israel propaganda or, at best, about getting duped by some local jokers. Posted by b on February 3, 2018 at 15:02 UTC | Permalink CommentsThe Hotel Caribe in Cartagena sits at the western end of a peninsula, a first-class hotel in a first-class city. But there are things that even the finest hotels do not offer, and one of those is a box of Cardboardeaux. At home I prefer the whimsicality of Black Box or Bota. So the other night I decided my first foot expedition would be to celebrate my brush with airline death with una caja de vino, as the locals say.

They may say it, but they dont sell it. But I outpace myself. From the Caribes end-of-the-line setting you exit only northeastish. There are six roads heading that way, known unimaginatively as Streets 1 through 6. If you are not on one of those, you are in the Caribbean sea. Number 1 parallels the north shore beach. Street 2 is Touristville. Street 3 is Localville. Streets 4-6 go but a few blocks before terminating in boredom.

I picked #3 because I labor under the delusion that one day I may learn how to speak Spanish better than a four year-old Hispanic girl. Ive been under that spell for more than 25 years now, but I never tire of the effort which, I admit, is generally minimal. What makes this enormous joke even more remarkable is that I am an inordinately shy person. For me meeting strangers almost always borders on pain.

On top of that there is an undeniable truth about learning a new language: Youre going to get your hands dirty. Youll have to embarrass yourself, to look stupid, to fail more than succeed. Occasionally communication occurs. But you really can do this, though it never seems quite so at the time. My college roommate went through the process in Russia, where they make sounds that are harder to understand than Double Dutch.

Thats why I didnt take Street 2. All the hustlers speak a kind of Spanglish there. You dont quite understand what it is theyre saying, but theyre not saying anything you want to hear anyway. No, as your attorney, I advise you to go down Street 3. No one speaks English in that neighborhood. And whatever it is youre looking for  in my case a box of wine  youre going to have to work for it. You will learn things there that you cannot possibly forget. Todays word is corkscrew, sacacorchos, meaning literally to pull or remove cork. In its structure, logic, and regularity Spanish was designed for people who have trouble learning anything. How can you not admire something that forgiving?

I ended the night at a sidewalk restaurant, having found neither a box of wine nor un sacacorcho. The place advertised pasta bolognesa, Admittedly, this is a dish on no ones idea of a lo-carb menu, but that along with a bottle of Jaegermeister and a bag of peanuts  the three basic food groups for weary travelers  can get you through the battle of Stalingrad.Amateur astronomer Scott Tilley was in his home office on a recent evening, using his radio equipment to scan space in a needle-in-a-haystack search for a spy satellite operated by the U.S. Air Force.

Tilley, 47, launches himself on missions like this nightly. Since he was about 8, he has been a devoted but earthbound space explorer, looking for hidden satellites in the sky for hours on end.

As he scanned the skies that night a few weeks ago, he did not find what he was looking for, but he came across something possibly even better: A different satellite, a weather craft NASA lost more than a decade ago. NASA had searched for the spacecraft, worth about $150 million, for two years before giving up.

For an amateur astronomer, it was the stuff of dreams.

"By far, it's the most important thing I've discovered," said Tilley, an electrical engineer. "It's a pretty cool thing in my world."

Tilley, who lives in British Columbia, had single-handedly located the weather-tracking spacecraft IMAGE, which NASA launched in 2000 and lost contact with five years later.

At dinner, he told his wife about his discovery. She told him to tell NASA.

"I said, 'Well, how do I do that?' " Tilley said. "She said, 'If you can find a satellite in space, surely you can find who built the thing.' "

So Tilley posted on Twitter what he had found. Then he got some names of scientists who had worked on the project and sent some emails.

"When I woke up, my inbox was filled with emails from people who worked on it in the early 2000s," Tilley said.

NASA confirmed his discovery through identification data collected by scientists at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Maryland. Now the agency is trying to learn more about the condition of IMAGE and see whether it can once again collect the data the craft was initially sent up to gather.

"We are all very, very excited we might get the satellite back," said Patricia Reiff, who was co-investigator for the IMAGE satellite and is a professor of physics and astronomy at Rice University. She had worked on the project since its inception in 1989.

NASA had stopped looking for IMAGE in 2007 because of funding, she said, and she did not expect it to ever be found again. The problem now is, because IMAGE's technology is so old, NASA has to be creative in finding ways to communicate with the craft's aging software.

The mission of IMAGE was to collect space weather data that would affect technology such as GPS devices and radio waves. The satellite had been doing its job efficiently until 2005 when it went dead. Scientists say they believe there was a glitch in its battery that caused it to shut down. It may have recharged using solar power after being inactive for over a decade and was sending a homing signal out in space, waiting for someone to find it.

That someone was Tilley.

"They'd given up looking for it, and I happened to stumble across it," he said.

Tilley traces his interest in space back to a "60 Minutes" special he saw when he was a kid. His father was an amateur radio operator, so he was able to use his father's equipment found around the house to tinker and explore.

He said his love of space is not fueled by the goal of discovering satellites or other man-made objects. He loves exploration for the journey. It is not so bad to find something important that had once eluded brilliant scientists.

"You feel like you've contributed something of value to science," he said.WASHINGTON  The U.S. House Intelligence Committee on Friday released a highly controversial memo involving the FBIs surveillance methods of the Trump campaign, capping off a dramatic week within the oversight arm that includes three Texans: U.S. Reps. Mike Conaway, R-Midland, Will Hurd, R-Helotes and Joaquin Castro, D-San Antonio.

At its heart, the four-page memo aims to discredit a dossier commissioned in 2016 of then-candidate Donald Trump and the alleged activities of him and his associates with Russia.

Known in Washington as the Nunes memo, named for U.S. House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes of California, the document charges that because Democrats in part paid for the dossier, it should not have been used in surveillance court arguments involving a former Trump adviser, Carter Page, in 2016.

Republican leaders said over the course of the week that the memo must be released as a matter of protecting American citizens civil liberties and for government transparency.

Democrats, Justice Department officials and leaders of the FBI strongly urged against the memos release, arguing it would jeopardize the sources in which federal government collects intelligence. Critics have also questioned the memos accuracy. Furthermore, Democrats argue the main reason for the memos release was to begin to lay the groundwork to upend the ongoing investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election by giving senior administration officials grounds to fire those overseeing the investigation.

Before President Trump authorized the declassification of the memo on Friday morning, the House Intelligence Committee voted for that outcome on Monday on a party-line vote. The committee is the most secretive arm of Congress but it released a transcript of its deliberations earlier this week that revealed how members came to their decisions.

Conaway is the most prominent Texan on the Russian issue and was tapped last year to lead the House Intelligence Committees investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 elections.

I intend to vote in favor of releasing the minority memo to the House under the  subject, of course, that it does not disclose information that would be harmful to national security, said Conaway at the meeting. It is sight unseen. I would vote for it assuming that  sight unseen  assuming that we could trust our colleagues to not reveal issues that would be harmful to national security.

Castro, the lone Texas Democrat on the committee, had a far different view at the Monday meeting and has appeared on television all week arguing against the memos release.

He urged against releasing the Republican memo and added that if the committee did so anyway, he hoped it would be disclosed along with a Democratic rebuttal.

If the majority is going to move forward and release its memo to the public, I would hope that it would have the courtesy and fairness to either wait for the minority's memo to also be ripe, as you have described it, or to somehow release them at the same time, he said.

To not do that would be reckless, he added.

Conaway said he would not support the release of a second memo, a Democratic rebuttal, saying such a motion would be premature.

I am not sure of the efficacy of waiting on our memo, Conaway said. It is in fact right I believe to send it to the president. But to ask us to do that with a memo we have just read -- or havent even actually read I think would be irresponsible.

Beyond the members positions, the transcripts are revelatory in how this secretive committee functions.

Conaway proved over the last year to be something of a peacemaker who calmed tensions between Democrats and Republicans on the committee.

Through the meeting, Conaway stuck with his GOP colleagues in their determination to release the memo, but he frequently interjected with clarifications that appeared to assuage the Democrats on the committee.

I just want the gentleman to know that I respect his efforts and the extraordinarily complicated position he is in in these endeavors, said U.S. Rep. Mike Quigley, an Illinois Democrat.

But even that personal affection had its limitations.

Later, Quigley invoked his hometowns notorious reputation for bareknuckled politics.

I saw the worst of the worst, he said of Chicago politics. They got nothing on you on this one, folks.

Hurd, the other Texas Republican serving on the committee, has unique insight into the debate as a former CIA agent but was mostly quiet throughout the meeting, according to the transcript.

On Friday morning  just before the memos release  he penned an op-ed published by the Washington Post explaining his decision.

My vote to release the memo was not about discrediting the special counsels investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, Hurd wrote. It was not about debasing the hard-working men and women serving in the FBI. Rather, I supported the release because I do not agree that an American citizens civil liberties should be violated on the basis of unverified information masquerading as intelligence.

He pointed to the dossier as problematic but maintained that the memo ought not be grounds to obstruct the ongoing special counsel investigation into the 2016 election.

Let me be clear, special counsel Robert S. Mueller IIIs investigation must continue to ensure that our democracy was not compromised by Russian interference, Hurd wrote.A Clackamas, Oregon, man Thursday pleaded guilty to placing calls to airports in Nevada and Midland, reporting his father and brother as terrorists because they got an invitation to a family wedding and he didn't.

Sonny Donnie Smith, 38, admitted to placing anonymous phone calls to security offices at McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas and the Midland International Air & Space Port.

He falsely claimed that his father and brother were terrorists traveling through the airports, according to prosecutors.

Both calls were made Sept. 3, 2016, Assistant U.S. Attorney Hannah Horsley said.

The calls prompted an FBI investigation that revealed no terrorist threats. Smiths father and brother were temporarily detained and questioned by investigators as a result, and the brother missed his flight that day.

The calls resulted from a family feud, according to court documents. Sonny Smith made the threatening calls because he was told he wasn't welcome at a family wedding they were heading to, according to the plea agreement.

Thanks to the FBI agents and partner agencies who worked this case, Mr. Smith quickly found his harassment was far from anonymous, said Loren Cannon, Oregons FBI special agent in charge.

Smith faces a maximum sentence of two years in prison, a $250,000 fine and one year of supervised release. Hes set to be sentenced May 10.

The safety and security of our nation's airports and travelers are of paramount importance to law enforcement, and we will continue to swiftly and thoroughly investigate all threats of terrorism, said Billy J. Williams, Oregons U.S. attorney.

***

Horsley told the Reporter-Telegram on Friday afternoon that she couldnt provide information on whether the brother or father live in Midland.A Midland man was arrested Wednesday after allegedly causing bodily injury while committing a theft, according to court documents.

Chevar Lamont Saddler, 29, was being held Friday on a $50,000 bond for a second-degree felony charge of robbery.

Midland police were dispatched to a motel at about 8:50 p.m. Wednesday in reference to a disturbance.

A male was working in a motel room when a man  later identified as Saddler  walked in and asked about a car, according to his arrest affidavit. Saddler allegedly took keys and attempted to start a vehicle.

The male pulled him out of the vehicle, and a physical altercation started, according to the affidavit. Saddler allegedly punched the male in the face four to five times and kicked him in the thigh twice.

If convicted of the second-degree felony charge, Saddler could face up to 20 years imprisonment.A stripper embarked on her latest gig at 10805 School House Lane in Austin on Thursday.

When she arrived she was surprised to discover she was at Noel Grisham Middle School.

The details were laid out to parents in a letter from Round Rock School Independent School District officials, according to a report from the Austin American-Statesman.

RELATED: Law enforcement in Bexar County are not sure how to feel about cite-and-release

District officials said a student, who they quickly identified after the mishap, called the stripper's agency on his cell phone and even paid with a credit card.

The woman arrived around 11:30 a.m., and called the school when she realized she was pranked, according to the report. She did not enter the school.

The student is reportedly in trouble and facing disciplinary action.

"Our staff handled the situation with the utmost decorum and professionalism," Principal Paige Hadziselimovic reportedly said in an email to parents. "While regrettable, the incident had no negative impact on any students, other than the student who is responsible."

Fares Sabawi covers crime in San Antonio and Bexar County for mySA.com. Read more of his stories here. | fsabawi@mysa.comIn Focus with Allison Walker is a 30-minute public affairs program, featuring a roundtable of newsmakers representing a range of perspectives, including local officials and expert analysts as they tackle topical issues of importance to Floridians.

In Focus airs Sundays at 11:30 a.m. and 8:30 p.m., right after Political Connections.Starting a new business is not an easy task. But one Sanford entrepreneur is sharing his secrets of success with other aspiring business owners.

Sanford entrepreneur shares business secrets at workshop

Smith successful after selling Mello Steves Pnuts



Smith wants to help bring new businesses back to Goldsboro community

Steve Smith, Jr. said something about his boiled peanuts made them an instant hit.

It became a trend. Everybody was posting pictures with their peanuts and sharing with their peanuts, said Smith.

The level of success he experienced selling Mello Steves Pnuts at farmers markets and around town may have been a bit unexpected.

But Smith said his recipe for success is clear.

Make sure that you have consistency and quality, and that will make the difference, said Smith.

On Friday, Smith held an entrepreneur workshop to share what hes learned about selling a product with some aspiring new business owners.

Because its important to give back, said Smith.

The aspiring business owners may have an uphill climb. Many of them at the workshop want to start business in the historic Goldsboro community where booming business has been hard to come by for decades.

Despite a brand new streetscape down Historic Goldsboro Boulevard, several empty storefronts remain.

Small businesses are what really run the economy when it really boils down to it, said Smith.

Smith hopes his success will help create a blueprint for others to begin their own start-ups, and help build business as part of an ongoing effort to bring new businesses back to the Goldsboro community.

Smith said after some ups and downs, he sees his boiled peanut business continuing to thrive.

I love that the demand is a lot higher than the supply is, and thats how I know I have something significant and special, said Smith.

Steve Smith, Jr. said he will continue to help young entrepreneurs as much as he can.

He can be reached at (407) 562-7688 and through Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and other social media.MERIDEN  Now over 100 days into his stay at Unitarian Universalist Church, Indonesian immigrant Sujitno Sajuti stays busy with prayer, reading, and visits from friends.

The 69-year-old has been in sanctuary at the Paddock Avenue church since Oct. 9, when his last request for stay was denied and Immigration and Customs Enforcement moved forward with deportation orders.

Friends and supporters gathered at the church Friday evening to show solidarity.

Prayer doesnt mean anything if you dont take action, Sajuti told those gathered. Thank you, thank you for all that you have done.

Rev. Paul Fleck, of the Hamden Plains United Methodist Church, lead the more than 50 community members gathered in a song expressing resilience.

We resist, we refuse to let hatred in. We rise up, we wont back down, were in this to the end, the chorus rang.

Universalist Church pastor Rev. Dr. Jan Carlsson-Bull lead prayer and reminded the packed room to keep supporting immigrants. Other immigrants who have faced the threat of deportation came in solidarity, including Meriden resident Marco Antonio Reyes Alvarez, who was granted temporary reprieve in November.

Until hes able to leave the church without fear of arrest and deportation, Sajuti spends time praying and reading. The church invites him to participate in activities and he often has visits from friends.

We do as much as we can to do activities at the church and making sure his needs are met, Alok Bhatt, community defense coordinator for the Rights Alliance and a good friend of Sajuti, said. Hes handling it as well or better than most people would.

In December, Bhatt said Sujitno received certification from the Hartford Police Department, which was needed to apply for a U visa.

The U visa is available to individuals that have been victims of crimes and suffered substantial mental or physical abuse as a result of the crime. Sajuti was the victim of an armed robbery while working at a convenience store in 1995.

Bhatt said New Haven Legal Aid is exploring other options. Theres been some pretty significant progress in his legal case, Bhatt said.

Sajuti first came to the United States in 1981 on a Fulbright Scholarship, earning advanced degrees from Columbia University and the University of Connecticut. After overstaying his student visa, Sajuti chose to remain in the United States. He registered with immigrations officials in 2001. After being detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement for a period in 2011, he had been granted stays of removal since 2013. He was living in West Hartford until Oct. 9, when ICE moved forward with deportation orders and the Unitarian Universalist Church took him in.

bwright@record-journal.com

203-317-2316

Twitter: @baileyfaywrightSOUTHINGTON  Led by utility investments and real estate expansion, the towns list of taxable property grew by 1.6 percent in 2017.

Motor vehicle value decreased slightly, but real estate grew by 1.17 percent and personal property by 14.25 percent.

The value of real estate in town grew by nearly $41 million. Residential property growth is 60 percent of the increase and commercial growth 40 percent.

Much of the commercial growth was the building of new businesses on West Street and Queen Street. Brian Lastra, director assessment and revenue for the town, noted the West Street Homegoods, Michaels, and Chips Family Restaurant development added $3.3 million in property value, and the Hartford Healthcare medical facility on Queen Street added another $2.6 million. Aldis on Queen Street is worth $2.2 million.

Lastra said theres also a host of other business under construction, including a new Courtyard by Marriott hotel on West Street.

In my 10 years as assessor, this is the highest level of commercial activity Ive witnessed, and obviously does not include projects commenced during the last four months, he wrote in a grand list report.

Personal property grew by $30 million, which Lastra said was led by a $21-million Eversource investment in the utility companys Belleview Avenue facility. Webster Bank, which moved into the former Hartford insurance buildings off West Street, brought in $2 million worth of personal property.

Motor vehicle value dropped by 1.5 percent, which Lastra attributed to a nation-wide slump in new car purchases.

The top 10 taxpayers list included utility companies, Yarde Metals, Home Depot, Lowes and major plazas.

Chris Palmieri, a Democrat and Town Council chairman, was beyond excited about the growth and said it would help counterbalance losses in state funding.

Its going to help ease the burden on our residents, he said. It really will help bridge the gap.

Michael Riccio, a Republican councilor and former chairman, credited the work of the towns economic development director Lou Perillo, former town manager Garry Brumback, and the previous council for the unprecedented growth. At the current tax rate, the increase in taxable property generates nearly $2 million in new revenue for the town.

Southington is a model for success in the state of Connecticut, Riccio said.

Riccio was disappointed that Palmieri, who took over leadership of the council from Riccio in November, had eliminated the Economic Strike Committee.

Thats where a lot of the brainstorming takes place, Riccio said. You cant brainstorm at a council meeting where everyones trying to put on a show for the cameras.

Palmieri said the quarterly economic development discussions with the council that he started help put a greater and more transparent focus on growth.

Its so important that I want all nine of us to play an active role, he said.

The growth in personal property was mostly due to utility investment which the strike committee didnt plan or prompt, Palmieri said. The committee meetings were difficult for the public to attend and were often cancelled.

jbuchanan@record-journal.com

203-317-2230

Twitter: @JBuchananRJA woman who was reported as missing in Humboldt County was found this week in a rather visible place  the reality series "The Bachelor."

Rebekah Martinez, 22, of Fresno, was reported missing on Nov. 18 by her mother, who told the Humboldt County Sheriff's Office that her daughter had gone to the area to work on a marijuana farm.

The North Coast Journal included Martinez in a cover story featuring images of the 35 people listed as missing in Humboldt County on the California Department of Justice's website.

The story titled "The Humboldt 35: Why does Humboldt County have the highest rate of missing persons reports in the state?" was published on Facebook on Thursday in a post that asked readers if they recognized anyone.

Amy Bonner O'Brien of Trinidad was the first to respond on the Facebook post and identify Martinez as a contestant on the current season of "The Bachelor."

"My sister always calls me Sherlock Holmes," O'Brien said. "I was just scrolling through the 35 missing people and I recognized some of them from news stories. When I got to her, I was like wait a minute, she looks so familiar and I instantly thought of 'The Bachelor.'"

O'Brien doesn't regularly tune into "The Bachelor," but on a recent visit to see her sister they watched this season's first episode together.

The North Coast Journal reached out to the Humboldt County Sheriff's Office, who contacted Martinez over the phone and promptly removed her from the missing person's list.

"(The mother) had phone contact with Bekah via a friend on November 12th," said Public Information Officer Samantha Karges. "Bekah had told her she was coming to Humboldt County to work on a marijuana farm and she wouldn't be able to contact her for a week or so."

On "The Bachelor," Martinez got attention for her 14-year age difference with the lead Arie Luyendyk Jr.

She has been actively posting on Instagram and Twitter since she was reported missing and often posts about appearing on the show. When her bizarre story was reported by media on Feb. 2, she tweeted a message referring to the photo used in the missing person's report.

"Honestly the scariest thing about this story is that my efforts to conceal The Worst Drivers License Photo Of All Time have been thwarted," she wrote.

Find more of her Tweets in the gallery at the top of the story.The announcement Tuesday that Amazon, JPMorgan Chase and Berkshire Hathaway would be joining forces to create a health care company moved stock markets and prompted optimistic predictions of major reform in a notoriously complex industry.

But while the three companies bring successful management, technological expertise and substantial capital to the venture, many health industry experts expressed doubts about whether their results would match their ambition.

Here are a few reasons that experts suggest we temper expectations.

It has been tried before

Over the years, faced with rising costs, employers have banded together to try novel approaches to health insurance benefits. Some have pioneered strategies like working directly with health systems or have achieved significant savings compared with competitors. But none have made a major dent in overall health care spending.

They contribute in the small wins, said Jonathan Kolstad, an associate professor of business at the University of California, Berkeley. But those tend to be swamped by growth in health care, which is so high. Theyre not silver bullets.

Health care is very local, and companies have traditionally had a hard time preventing hospitals and doctors from raising prices or delivering mediocre care, because they dont have enough leverage to force health care providers to do things differently.

The part that is the most difficult is trying to influence the underlying system, said Michael Thompson, the chief executive of the National Alliance of Healthcare Purchaser Coalitions, which represents employer groups. Any single company, even broad coalitions, have a hard time.

Technology giants have attempted health care innovation before. Google and Microsoft started health ventures in recent years to a lot of fanfare, with little success.

None of these players have expertise in health

The three companies dont have much direct experience in providing health insurance or services. Chase has invested in the industry, and Berkshire Hathaway has owned insurance companies, but none have worked extensively in health benefits or in managing doctors, hospitals or pharmaceutical companies.

Just because you know an industry is underperforming and you have a lot of money doesnt mean you have a successful strategy, said Leemore Dafny, a professor at Harvard Business School, in an email. Dafny said she was excited to see such serious players take on this problem but noted there were numerous examples of outsiders trying, and failing, to succeed in the health care system.

Health care is a business that requires a lot of regulatory compliance and negotiation with established players. A new entrant could bring innovative approaches to old problems, but it may also become stymied by the industrys complexity. The entrepreneurs who launched Oscar Health, one of the insurance startups to sell policies under the Affordable Care Act, wanted to create something radically different from the competition. But it has had a difficult time living up its initial hopes and has lost substantial sums in what has proved to be a very challenging business.

Classic disruption rarely applies in health care

Most disruptive companies enter a market with a product that is lower in value than that of market incumbents but much lower in cost. Thats the model for classic disrupters, like Southwest Airlines or Japanese carmakers. Health care tends to be different, because consumers dont usually want to settle for a lower-quality product, even if it is substantially cheaper.

Amitabh Chandra, a health economist at Harvard, said that perhaps the easiest way to squeeze a lot of dollars out of the health care system would be to reduce what he called low-value services  health care treatments that are expensive but only slightly more effective than cheaper options.

But reducing their use is hard because many people still want the better therapy, even if its not a particularly good value. Highly compensated employees, like those at Chase or at Amazon headquarters, may be particularly attracted to cutting-edge cancer treatments or the latest prescription drugs, he noted. A health plan that cut out such services might hurt the ability to recruit and retain workers needed to succeed in other parts of the business.

If there was pure inefficiency, I think it would be a lot easier to make progress, he said. The problem is that all of this stuff has some small benefit.

There are some ways that a smart company might seek to wring real inefficiencies out of health care. It could, say, lower the prices paid to monopoly hospitals, eliminate services that have no value or tighten the supply chain for drugs. Optimists about the venture say, if the company succeeds, it will most likely do so by finding strategies that improve care and reduce cost.

These are really different companies, with different priorities

The three companies are each large but also very different, and they may have different priorities about how to structure their health benefits.

JPMorgan Chase is a financial services company, based in New York, with highly compensated employees. Berkshire Hathaway is a consortium of companies, spread throughout the country, in a variety of industries. And Amazon is a technology company with a hub of highly paid workers in Seattle, and with lower-wage workers spread in warehouses around the country. Will they all want or need the same sort of health plan?

In general, companies with a lot of highly paid workers tend to offer generous benefits. Health insurance is not taxed in the same way as other forms of compensation, so an investment banker may prefer a health plan that covers everything instead of one with a big deductible that she has to pay out of her post-tax salary. A lower-wage worker in an Amazon warehouse, by contrast, may want a skimpier health plan and more wages.

There is not a clear strategic incentive to sell whatever they learn

Big stock market moves after the announcement suggest that investors think that whatever the companies develop could become broadly adopted, undermining the business of existing health care players, and transforming health insurance across the country. This is consistent with some of Amazons previous strategies, like expansion of its web services business, which was begun as an internal product and has become dominant in the industry.

But savings on health care would accrue directly to the companies bottom lines, allowing them to hire more workers or increase their profits relative to their competitors. That means selling such services to their competitors would need to be profitable enough to make up for giving competitors that business edge.

Its not going to transform the economy unless they then share all of those ideas and best practices with their competitors, said Craig Garthwaite, a health economist who teaches corporate strategy at the Kellogg School at Northwestern. That would not be good for long-term shareholder value for their firms.Tehran, Iran

Climbing atop a 5-foot-tall utility box in one of the capital city's busiest squares, an Iranian woman removed her headscarf, tied it to a stick and waved it for all to see.

It was no small feat in Iran, where women can be arrested for flouting the Islamic requirement that they cover their hair.

There she stood, her curly hair blowing in the breeze. No one protested. In fact, she was applauded. Taxi drivers and older women took her picture.

"I was anxious and feeling powerful at the same time. And proud, I felt proud," the 28-year-old said, asking not to be named out of fear of arrest.

She was not alone. On Jan. 29, several other women made the same symbolic gesture: taking off their headscarves in public and waving them on a stick. At least one of the women protesting was arrested, a shopkeeper who witnessed the arrest said.

The protests are a rare public sign that dissatisfaction with certain Islamic laws governing personal conduct may have reached a boiling point.

Some said this might just be the beginning. "My guess is that more of these protests will follow," said Nasrin Sotoudeh, a human rights activist. "Some women want to decide for themselves what to wear."

The actions have provoked angry reactions in some quarters.

"These protests are done by instigators, saboteurs and vandalists and anarchists," said Kazem Anbarlooie, editor of the hard-line newspaper Resalat. "Recently our enemies were communists and liberals, now Americans are provoking masochists against us."

The first protest in December took place on a Wednesday and seemed connected to the White Wednesday campaign, an initiative by Masih Alinejad, an exiled Iranian journalist living in the United States. Alinejad has reached out to Iranian women on Persian-language satellite television and through social media, where she runs a website called My Stealthy Freedom. On the website, women post images of themselves without headscarves, demanding an end to the compulsory headscarf law.

While discriminatory Islamic divorce and inheritance laws pose problems for individual women, the headscarf is a public symbol of a set of personal rules imposed by Iran's clerical leaders, who decide what people can wear, what music they can listen to and what television shows and movies they can see. Men are also the subject of clothing laws: They are forbidden to wear shorts in public.

During the past decade, influenced by the rise of the internet, satellite television and cheap foreign travel, many Iranians have grown resentful of rules they can see for themselves are out of step with most of the world. Many have become relatively secular and feel increasingly unwelcome in the fixed-in-stone state version of Shiite Islam, and many have taken to flouting the rules. Public protests are a symbolic rejection of authority and a statement some young women are ready to emulate.Starting next week, Connecticut youths can apply to participate in the third annual future law enforcement youth academy.

The New Haven Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Yale University Police Department announced the third annual overnight summer camp. From July 15 to July 21, students will be chaperoned by law enforcement and FBI employees while they complete daily events.

The program will include Yale police officers, FBI employees and academy alumni. The alumni will be assigned to students from their same county in an effort to create some preliminary networking opportunities.

The purpose of the program is to promote future law enforcement career paths for youths in Connecticut. The students will receive classroom training and practical exercises. The classes will feature information on cyber-technology techniques for combating violent crime, gang awareness, civil rights and hate crimes, counter intelligence and other state and federal violations.

To participate in the program, youths must be between the ages of 15 and 16 and returning to a Connecticut high school in the fall of 2018. Participants must be full-time Connecticut residences with a commitment to physical fitness and a minimum 2.7 GPA in school.

To apply, students can visit fbi.gov/newhaven, where they will be promoted to submit an application and a 200-word written essay. The application process opens on Feb. 9. Applications can be submitted until 5 p.m. on April 6. The program is looking for a total of 30 students  15 girls and 15 boys.

Those who submit applications will need to participate in an initial phone interview and in a final panel-style interview at FBI New Haven headquarters. The program is free of charge.

Any questions can be sent to fleyaprogram@fbi.gov.Plans to eliminate weekend and some weekday services on Connecticuts Metro-North branch lines and to shelve funding for improvements on the Waterbury line are meeting resistance.

Several state legislators are gearing up for a fight when an emergency session of the General Assembly begins next week.

Im working on legislation right now that will prevent them from eliminating weekend service, said state Sen. Toni Boucher, R-Wilton, who co-chairs the legislative Transportation Committee.

They are going to have a real battle on their hands if they try to do this, promised Boucher, who grew up in Naugatuck, which is served by the Waterbury line.

Naugatuck Valley state legislators met Friday afternoon and have created a Waterbury Rail Line Caucus. The idea was proposed by state Rep. David Labriola, whose 131st House District includes Oxford, Naugatuck and Southbury.

I thought it was necessary to pool our resources in a bipartisan way, Labriola said. This line is absolutely the engine of economic growth in the Valley. Its absolutely essential that we not only keep these lines open on the weekends, but that we increase the services.

Following Fridays summit, which was called by Naugatuck Mayor N. Warren Pete Hess, the legislators selected state Sens. George Logan, R-Ansonia and Joan Hartley, D-Waterbury, and state Reps. Linda Gentile, D-Ansonia, and Rosa Rebimbas, R-Naugatuck, as their caucus leaders.

Our task will be to ensure adequate funding for improvements on the Waterbury line, said Labriola, R-Oxford. Were going to meet at the start of the session to discuss strategies and priorities.

If I were you guys, I would look for small wins first, suggested Hess, a Democrat who is supporting Republican Shelton Mayor Mark Laurettis gubernatorial run. Hess said property value within three-quarters of a mile from a train station goes up 40 percent.

Dead set against tolls

Seymour First Selectman Kurt Miller urged the state legislators to just look out the window, of the Naugatuck Town Halls fourth floor, where they were gathered.

Theres millions in more tax revenue down there if the rail improvements are done, Miler said.

All this comes as Gov. Dannel P. Malloy is pushing highway tolls, upticks in the gas tax and a new $3 per tire fee to fund transportation projects amid a mounting deficit.

All these are are just more taxes heaped on the residents of Connecticut, said Lauretti, Sheltons 14-term mayor. No ones talking about reducing fees or spending. Were in serious trouble here.

Boucher and Logan agreed.

Seventy-five percent of the tolls will be levied against Connecticut residents, Boucher said. She said 30 percent of the tolls go unpaid in states that have them..

Logan said Connecticut needs to prioritize its spending, after hearing $80 million was spent on a Naugatuck High School addition.

Do we want to build another high school? Do we want to modernize another high school? Or do we want to bring more jobs into Connecticut? he asked. We have to decide.

For nearly 90 minutes Friday, Hess, Lauretti, Miller, Ansonia Mayor David Cassetti, Derby Mayor Richard Dziekan, Beacon Falls First Selectman Christopher Bielik and Waterbury Mayor Neil OLeary stressed the importance of the Waterbury line in the redevelopment of their downtown areas. Ansonia, Beacon Falls, Derby and Shelton have all built or are planning to build apartments downtown.

Were experiencing an economic development boom in our downtown, and the train stop is within walking distance, Cassetti said. I cant stress how vitally important the improvements are to Ansonia, Derby and Shelton and the rest of the line. We need to increase service, not reduce or eliminate it.

Pushing for upgrades

Bielik said an apartment complex designed to serve millennials was built within walking distance of his train stop.

The reason more people arent using (the train) is because of its limited runs and the unreliability of the service, he said. We need to meet the demand.

Currently there are eight weekday runs from Waterbury to Bridgeport and seven return runs from Bridgeport to Waterbury. The train stops in Waterbury, Naugatuck, Beacon Falls, Seymour, Ansonia and Derby before ending in either Waterbury or Bridgeport, where passengers must transfer to the Grand Central or New Haven run.

Rick Dunne, the executive director of the 19-member Naugatuck Valley Council of Governments  representing municipalities where nearly 448,000 people live  said at least 1,000 passengers travel on the line every weekday, and another 1,500 per weekend day.

He pointed out that the Commodore Hull Bridge on Route 8 in Shelton, which is backed up sometimes into Stratford during afternoon rush hours, is designed to carry only 48,000 cars daily and instead carries nearly 100,000.

It would cost $1 billion to replace the bridge for capacity and the expansion would go on for a half mile, Dunne said. He said only half that amount is needed to fund the requested improvements on the Waterbury line. This would include direct access to New Haven through a transfer station in Devon.NEW HAVEN  Omar Moussa, a refugee from Syria, has learned English in the last two years, is progressing through his classes at Wilbur Cross High School and will apply to schools to eventually become a physicians assistant.

He started working in a restaurant in Jordan when he was 11 to help his family survive in that country after they fled the fighting in Syria and waited for entrance to the United States. As a refugee in Jordan, he was denied an opportunity to go to school there.

The 17-year-old junior at Cross, who is making up for lost time, said his one regret is leaving several siblings behind.

We are hoping the rest of his family can come and join him, Chris George, the executive director of Integrated Refugee and Immigrant Services, or IRIS, said in a visit to an English as a Second Language class for refugee teens enrolled in the citys largest high school.

Delays have held up tens of thousands of refugees, slowed down in the process, George said to U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, who visited the school on the first anniversary of President Trumps executive order banning refugees, immigrants and visitors from seven Muslim countries.

That ban has gone through three iterations and been blocked several times by the courts. It is now back in effect after the Supreme Court lifted the injunctions that were in place and is fast-tracking the case. Applications for refugee status from at least two of Omars siblings are caught in the court fight.

Moussa said there are 12 children in his family; four and his parents are here, five are in Jordan, two in Syria and one in Lebanon.

The school and Blumenthal also promoted IRISs Run for Refugees, a 5-K race on Sunday that starts at 10 a.m. at Cross High School. A high participation is expected by the Cross students to call attention to refugees.

Blumenthal went from table to table in the classroom at Cross meeting students and encourging them to do well in school.

Dennis Wilson, the education and advocacy coordinator for IRIS, was also there, talking to two siblings from Eritrea and their friend from Congo.

Wilson does some tutoring himself and manages the 16 volunteer tutors from IRIS that go into seven schools to help refugee students.

Wilson said he showed up unannounced for a visit to the family of Yohannes Kisanet, 17, and Awet Kisanet, 14, before Christmas to drop off some things. The whole family was in the living room together learning English ... doing quizzes together. It was amazing to see, Wilson said of the Eritreans.

Awet said his favorite subject is math.

Wilson has known them since they arrived a year ago. They work so hard, he said. They have come so far, after only speaking Tigrinya, he said.

Blumenthal, in addressing the press, said refugees not only bring diversity, they bring skills and talents. New Haven is showing the world how much we can gain by giving refugees what they need to be productive and contributing members of our society.

The senator said, like Moussa, his father came to this country at an early age when he emigrated in 1935 from Frankfurt, Germany to Elis Island in New York City.

While Moussa had some family members with him when he arrived in the U.S., the senators father came alone, but was able to sponsor his parents and three siblings within the next five years to join him here.

Trump wants to limit the number of family members refugees can sponsor.

This is an American story. We are a nation of immigrants. I am moved particularly because he (Moussa) faces political opposition that my dad was spared, at least personally, even though some of the refugees at that time were in fact turned away  there was no question, Blumenthal said.

Donald Trump has basically set in place huge barriers to refugees coming here. The administrative hurdles he has raised have presented real obstacles to families reuniting. If you look at his State of the Unon speech he seems to be doubling down, the senator said.

Blumenthal also criticized the policy of sending unaccompanied minors out of the country without a fair hearing as to why they are seeking asylum.

Blumenthal said these policies are even more objectionable than the wall. Border security is something we need ... We should implement more secure borders. A wall is probably a lot less effective and more costly than other methods, like surveillance and sensors and additional training, but if a compromise requires a wall, I am certainly willing to consider it. But cracking down on children who are seeking to escape murder or violence and sending them back to those countries I think is contemptable. His immigration proposals seem to be founded on the nativist, far-right ideological view of immigration.

If the president wants to boast about a wall, and it means saving 800,000 lives, I would compromise even though I think $28 billion is an enormous waste of money ...,  Blumenthal said of the cost of the wall along the Mexican border.

The 800,000 he referred to are young adults covered by DACA, or Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, who were brought here as children. They can work here legally, but the protections are expiring and the program will end completely March 5.

George said from 2010 to 2015, IRIS had an average of 500 refugees a year, a number that jumped to over 1,000 in 2016 because of the 50 groups in the state that volunteered to help sponsor refugees. It was under 500 in 2017 and will likely be under 400 this year.

He said he is supporting the bill sponsored by Blumenthal that asks that at least 45,000 refugees, which he called shamefully low, be allowed into the U.S. this year and 75,000 next year.

The interest and resources are here, in Connecticut, George said of religious institutions that formed partnerships, and separately students from the University of Connecticut, Quinnipiac and Yale that work in coalitions to settle people.

He said that model of private sponsorship is getting national attention.

George said they are not taking jobs from Americans. For a total of 1,000 refugees, he estimated that would probably mean 200 minimum wage jobs total.

George said New Haven is receiving an unusually high number of families from Afghanistan because they are telling their relatives and friends back home to come here near them.

Cross has 1,541 students split among four themed academies - law and public service, business and fine arts, the international academy and health and culinary arts.

mary.oleary@hearstmediact.com Call 203-641-2577WASHINGTON - Indiana has become the second state to win permission from the Trump administration to require certain low-income residents on Medicaid to work, study or perform public service to qualify for the health insurance.

Federal officials' approval Friday came almost exactly three years after the Obama administration allowed Indiana to test novel rules within its Medicaid program - among them, charging insurance premiums to even those in deep poverty - but rejected the state's attempt to impose work requirements.

Blocked in 2015 from compelling people on Medicaid to hold or prepare for jobs, Indiana officials created a voluntary "Gateway to Work" as part of their expansion of Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. The state has been referring people working fewer than 20 hours a week to programs that could help them train or search for jobs.

In the summer, with a conservative new administration in Washington, the state altered a federal application submitted to renew its experiment, known as the Healthy Indiana Plan 2.0. The amended version said the voluntary method "has not been successful in connecting individuals with sustained employment" and revived the request for a work requirement.

This time, the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services was supportive.

Alex Azar, who was sworn in Monday as health and human services secretary, traveled to Indianapolis on his first trip in office to announce the approval alongside Gov. Eric Holcomb, R.

"Today's announcement is just one step in a long legacy of innovation" in the state's health care, Azar said at a public hospital where nearly half the patients rely on Medicaidand almost one in five is uninsured. He said the change "recognizes that Medicaid can be a pathway out of poverty."

HHS is now discussing similar requests for a work requirement with officials in 11 other states, Azar noted, saying, "it seems to be getting a great deal of excitement to deal with the social determinants of health."

Holcomb called his state's approach to Medicaid "the gold standard for the nation."

CMS officials approved the Indiana waiver less than three weeks after they gave Kentucky permission for the nation's first Medicaid work requirement. Each plan reflects a profound rightward shift in the federal government's stance on the relationship among access to health care, government entitlements and economic self-reliance.

Democrats have long held that Medicaid, a program originating in the Great Society era of the mid-1960s and expanded over the decades, is a right for anyone who is eligible, and that affordable health care is integral to poor people improving their lives. Republicans maintain the first priority for poor people is finding jobs to wean them off dependence on government programs and end poverty.

CMS Administrator Seema Verma is a leading proponent of the conservative view. Before joining the Trump administration, she was an Indiana-based health-care consultant and the main architect of Indiana's first attempt, while Vice President Mike Pence was the governor, to include work and other forms of "community engagement" within its plan.

Verma said she would recuse herself from consideration of Indiana's renewal application.

When the earlier parts of the state's plan were approved, Obama administration officials made a trade-off: They allowed the farthest-reaching requirements of Medicaid beneficiaries at the time in exchange for Indiana expanding the program.

Under those requirements, people in the program already must pay monthly insurance premiums into Personal Wellness and Responsibility (POWER) accounts intended as incentives for them to stay healthy and use cost-effective care - or risk losing eligibiilty or certain benefits. People who fail to keep up their premium payments are being locked out of the program if their incomes are above the poverty line - or bumped down to a level of coverage with fewer medical benefits if they are in poverty.

The requirements will continue, although the way premiums will be set is changing.

According to Indiana's application, an estimated 130,000 residents on Medicaid - roughly 30 percent of those covered by HIP 2.0, as the state experiment is called - will need to come into compliance with the new rules because they do not work enough hours and will not qualify for any exemption.

The broad contours of the work requirements, which will begin in 2019 and last three years, are similar to those Kentucky will impose starting in July. Both states will exempt Medicaid beneficiaries who are a primary caretaker, pregnant, disabled, a former foster child or someone who gets welfare cash assistance or food stamps and meets either program's work requirements.

Yet Kentucky will immediately require people to fulfill at least 80 hours per month of work, job-preparation or other community engagement. In Indiana, the required hours will be phased in over 1 1/2 years, eventually reaching 20 per week.

Indiana will exempt people over 60 and those who are chronically homeless or recently incarcerated. Its rules will likely be tougher on parents, excluding only main caregivers of children below required school age - 6 years old in that state. Kentucky says one adult in a household may avoid the requirements if they have a minor child, which officials there say they expect to apply up to age 18.

Indiana asked to use federal Medicaid funds to support the new requirements, requesting $90 monthly per beneficiary to assess their skills, train them, help them search for work and track how they perform. CMS denied the request. Outside Medicaid experts expected that outcome, saying the section of Medicaid law that defines federal aid for the program is separate from rules that can be waived.

Jennifer Walthall, secretary of Indiana's Family and Social Services Administration, said the federal approval will expand access to substance abuse treatment, including for opioid addiction.

Azar, a former top executive at the Indianapolis-based Eli Lilly, used his first public appearance as secretary to try to tamp down concern raised by Democrats at his recent confirmation hearings that he would be disinclined to work on curbing drug prices because of his past in the pharmaceutical industry. "The president and I are working on an aggressive agenda" to lower drug prices, he said.

The approval of Indiana's waiver drew swift denunciations Friday from congressional Democrats and other ACA proponents."In his first major act since joining the administration, Secretary Azar has given Indiana the greenlight to discriminate against low-income Americans who are just trying to stay healthy and get ahead," Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said in a statement.

Frederick Isasi, executive director of the liberal consumer health lobby, Families USA, said in a statement: "This waiver continues a profound and deeply saddening departure from our nation's commitment to the health of our families."WASHINGTON - For much of the past decade the District of Columbia school system has been the crown jewel of public policy in the nation's capital, held up as a national model for education reformers and a shared source of pride for the District's fractious elected officials.

Former U.S. education secretary Arne Duncan pointed to the District as an example of "what can happen when schools embrace innovative reforms and do the hard work necessary to ensure that all students graduate ready for college and careers." Philanthropists have poured more than $120 million into the school system since 2007.

Many are now asking whether that confidence was misplaced.

With the revelation this week that more than 900 students - one-third of last year's high school graduates - should not have been awarded diplomas because of truancy and other problems, the school system has turned virtually overnight into an embarrassment for the city and its elected leaders, who are publicly re-examining their assumptions about the system's progress.

The FBI, U.S. Education Department and District Office of the Inspector General are investigating the school system, with a focus on Ballou High School, where questions about graduation rates first emerged, according to a current and a former District government employee familiar with the probe.

The scandal is reverberating far beyond the District, as a busy cottage industry of education policy analysts takes stock of whether the inflated graduation rates point to basic flaws in reforms the city has exported to other struggling school districts.

Jack Jennings, founder of the Center on Education Policy and former general counsel for the House of Representatives Committee on Education and Labor, said school leaders across the country are paying "a great deal of attention" to what is happening in the District - especially because high graduation rates have been so heavily emphasized by reformers as a measure of success.

"This has been identified by several presidents in a row, and by numerous governors and state legislators, as the primary goal in education," Jennings said. He said the District's problems with graduation rates could ultimately be a moment of reckoning similar to the 2009 cheating scandal in Atlanta's public schools, which led to racketeering convictions for 11 teachers who tampered with standardized test scores to hide students' poor performance.

That scandal, Jennings said, "caused educators around the country to pause a moment" in the headlong pursuit of better metrics.

American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten said the District graduation problems illustrate the "toxic" consequences of overreliance on potentially misleading measures of success.

"It's yet another wake-up call about this flawed logic that metrics are the be-all and the end-all," Weingarten said. "When these metrics and targets become more important than learning, they create a fertile climate, an environment, for scandal and for abuse."

At the local level, parents and activists are trying to gauge the extent to which the school system's vaunted transformation may have been overhyped.

"This absolutely is a challenge to the image that D.C. has burnished as a leader in urban education reform - there's no question," said Conor Williams, a senior researcher in the education policy program at the New America Foundation and father of two children in District charter schools. "It's clear that there are systemic problems around rigor, around accountability and around transparency."

But Williams said those problems should not distract from real improvements that have taken place since the District embarked on its school-reform project in 2007. He pointed to the system's prekindergarten program, which provides near-universal schooling to 3- and 4-year-olds, and to the reshaping of District Public Schools as a "working, functional bureaucracy." The graduation scandal was an "embarrassing situation around only one metric," he said.

Longtime backers of the city's reform policies say they fear the graduation scandal could distract from other gains - such as improving standardized test scores and increasing enrollment - and supply ammunition to critics.

"My worry is that elected officials and advocates with their own agenda might try to score political points off this story, rather than embracing the nuances of school improvement," said Catharine Bellinger, director of the District's chapter of Democrats for Education Reform. "Progress is never going to be linear. It's fast in some areas and slow in some others."

Such concerns might be premature: There have been no calls from any District public officials to repeal the main tenets of education reform put in place by former mayor Adrian Fenty and former schools chancellor Michelle Rhee - such as mayoral control of the public schools and the linking of educators' salaries and job security to numeric measures such as student test scores and graduation rates.

In fact, Mayor Muriel Bowser, D, has responded to the crisis by saying those measures will be more rigorously assessed and enforced.

There is little evidence yet that problems in the schools will do short-term political damage to Bowser, who is in the midst of a reelection campaign.

With just four months until the Democratic primary - which typically determines the general-election winner in overwhelmingly Democratic Washington - Bowser is sitting on a $2 million war chest and has no serious opponents.

The only potential challenger, former mayor and current District Council member Vincent Gray, D, could be poorly positioned to attack Bowser on school problems, since some are blaming Kaya Henderson, the chancellor Gray appointed in 2011, for fostering an organizational culture that overemphasized performance data, creating pressure on school administrators to fudge graduation rates.

"If it is a Bowser versus Gray race, neither one of them have much to say," said RiShawn Biddle, editor and publisher of the school reform commentary site Dropout Nation. "And if anything, Bowser will get the credit for cleaning things up."

The changed political dynamic surrounding public education in the nation's capital has nevertheless been evident in recent weeks, as Bowser and Antwan Wilson, whom she installed as chancellor last year, have felt compelled to defend a school system that for years has provided bragging rights, not political headaches.

"Let's make no mistake about it: We are in a very different place with our public schools," Bowser said in a briefing to District Council members Tuesday on the graduation scandal. "I feel very confidently that our public education in the District advanced dramatically in the last 10 years. We see more of our families coming back to our schools. We see significant improvement at the elementary levels."

There have always been flaws in the argument for the District's education reform experiment as an unalloyed success. The city continues to have some of the nation's widest achievement gaps between low-income students and their more affluent peers. Some have attributed improved standardized test scores to changing demographics - arguing that gentrification, not better policy, has boosted performance.

Max Eden, a senior fellow at the conservative Manhattan Institute, said the revelation of systemically inflated graduation rates is vindication for opponents of metrics-based reform who have warned that students would suffer as their teachers and principals gamed the numbers.

"I think it poses a profound problem for the education reform movement, which held D.C. to be its star child," Eden said.

Questions about improperly awarded diplomas - first disclosed in a report on Ballou High School by WAMU-FM (88.5) - come on the heels of two other scandals in the past nine months that called into question the integrity of school policies and performance data.

In July, The Washington Post reported that the school system had misrepresented its student suspension rates, barring many students from attending high schools because of behavior problems without formally marking them as suspended.

In May, The Post reported that Henderson, the former schools chancellor, had helped well-connected parents - including two senior Bowser aides - skirt the requirements of a lottery system that is supposed to ensure a fair shot at the best public schools for all families.

Many questions are still unanswered about the District's graduation rate, which in 2017 was ostensibly at a record high of 73 percent. A city investigation released Monday found that about one-third of those students should not have graduated because they missed too many classes or improperly took make-up classes.

Teachers felt pressure from school administrators to pass students, the report found, but it is unclear how long that practice has been common and whether there was a deliberate effort to manipulate graduation numbers from top school officials.

Responsibility for the situation is also muddied by the school system's leadership changes over the past 18 months: Henderson stepped down in September 2016 and was succeeded by an interim chancellor, John Davis, who was replaced by Wilson last February - about four months before the class that is now under scrutiny graduated.

Wilson, with Bowser's backing, has pledged to retrain principals and teachers on the city's graduation policies and begin a centralized review of graduates' academic transcripts to ensure that they are eligible to receive diplomas. By 2022, he said, schools citywide will also hold end-of-course exams to assess whether students mastered material in core subjects.

But after the latest scandal, future claims to have fixed this problem - and others in the schools - could be met with more intense scrutiny than in the past.

"When we are told repeatedly that numbers are rising and progress that we are making is fantastic and wonderful, and then we find out it may be based on faulty or fudged information," said District Council member Mary Cheh, D, "that makes one skeptical."

- - -

The Washington Post's Moriah Balingit and Perry Stein contributed to this report.ISTANBUL - Syria's former al-Qaida affiliate claimed responsibility Saturday for the downing of a Russian warplane in northern Syria, apparently using a surface-to-air missile.

The pilot was killed after he ejected and exchanged gunfire with militants on the ground, the Russian Defense Ministry and a monitoring group said.

Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, a powerful rebel alliance that publicly split from al-Qaida last year, said it had used a man-portable antiaircraft system to shoot down the Su-25 fighter jet as it flew low over the opposition-held town of Saraqeb.

That claim was echoed by Russia's Interfax news agency, quoting the Defense Ministry, as well as the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The incident could raise tensions between Russia and Turkey, which is monitoring a so-called "de-escalation zone" in the northern province of Idlib as part of an agreement made during Syrian peace talks in the Kazakh capital, Astana.

It also raises questions about the source of the apparent MANPADS, a weapon for which Syria's rebels have repeatedly pleaded from their international backers. The United States in particular has been strongly opposed, fearing that antiaircraft weapons could fall into the hands of the country's extremist groups.

State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said any allegation that the United States has provided MANPAD missiles in Syria was untrue, and she denied that U.S. equipment was used in shooting down the Russian plane.

"The United States has never provided MANPAD missiles to any group in Syria, and we are deeply concerned that such weapons are being used," she said.

Saraqeb has come under heavy bombardment from Russian and Syrian warplanes in recent days as pro-government forces try to recapture a strategic highway linking Damascus to Aleppo. The White Helmets civil defense group said Saturday that seven civilians had been killed in at least 25 strikes on largely residential areas, some of them using barrel bombs.

In the hours after the Russian jet was downed, Moscow also claimed to have killed more than 30 militants in the area, Interfax reported. The agency quoted the defense ministry as saying it used "precision-guided weapons" to carry out the strike, but without giving details.

The use of MANPADS in a province where Turkish forces are nominally present could also anger Russia. The two countries have improved ties and cooperated in Syria in recent months, but relations hit an all-time low in 2015, when Turkey, a longtime supporter of the country's rebels, also shot down a Russian warplane inside Syria.

Turkey set up observation points in Idlib last year, ostensibly to monitor the fighting between the rebels and government forces, but it has also been accused of fostering closer ties with HTS.

Moscow entered Syria's civil war in 2015 on the side of President Bashar Assad. And its intervention turned the tide of the brutal war, allowing Syria's government to recapture the city of Aleppo from the rebels and beat back militants in other parts of the country.

But Idlib remains under militant control, and HTS exercises significant influence even over areas it does not formally hold.

"Mahmoud Turkmani, the military commander of the HTS air defence battalion, managed to shoot down a military plane by an anti-aircraft MANPADS in the sky of Saraqeb in the Idlib countryside in late afternoon today," Ebaa News, the unofficial media outlet used by HTS, reported Saturday.

"That is the least revenge we can offer to our people and those occupiers should know that our sky is not a picnic," Mahmoud reportedly said.

Idlib province is also home to more than a million displaced people from around Syria, and renewed fighting has pushed close to a quarter of a million residents to flee again since mid-December, cramming into already-packed houses and tented settlements across the region.

Despite repeated appeals to their international backers, rebel groups in Syria have never had a sustained supply of MANPADS. But they have occasionally used individual weapons captured from the battlefield. Rebels forces have shot down Syrian fighter jets and other Russian military aircraft. In August 2016, a Russian transport helicopter was shot down as it was flying over Saraqeb, killing all five people aboard.

Videos circulating online showed the alleged crash site of the fighter jet in Idlib's Saraqeb, which the United Nations said has recently suffered "heavy shelling and aerial bombardment." According to the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, an airstrike on a potato market there earlier this week killed at least 16 people, and the town's hospital was also attacked.

Both Russia and the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that the pilot Saturday was killed after exchanging fire with the rebels. He was able to communicate that he had ejected from the aircraft in an area held by HTS, but later "died in a fight with the terrorists," Russia's Defense Ministry said. The ministry also said it was working with Turkey to bring the pilot's body home.

Syria's war has raged for seven years, and half a million people have been killed. The conflict has sucked in world powers - like Russia - but also the United States and Iran.

- - -

Loveluck and Zakaria Zakaria reported from Kilis, Turkey. Andrew Roth in Moscow also contributed to this report.ROME - A man draped in Italy's tricolor flag wounded at least six "people of color" in a drive-by shooting in a central Italian city Saturday before being detained, authorities said. The suspect had been a candidate for the anti-immigrant Northern League party in municipal elections last year, according to a party spokeswoman.

The suspect's motive in the shootings in Macerata was not known, but a young Italian woman was gruesomely murdered in the city this past week, allegedly by a Nigerian immigrant, prompting a wave of anger in a nation where many were already seeking to reduce the entry of migrants.

The attack's connection to the Northern League was likely to unsettle Italy as it approaches national elections March 4. Far-right groups have been gaining in the polls, and the Northern League looks as though it may have a chance to govern as a junior member of a coalition with other right-wing parties.

A police spokesman said 28-year-old Luca Traini was detained near Macerata's central war memorial early Saturday afternoon. A handgun was in the suspect's car, and the green-white-and-red flag of Italy was tied around his shoulders, the official said. Traini admitted his guilt as he was arrested, added the spokesman, who declined to be publicly identified under ground rules set by the force. The five men and one woman who were shot were expected to recover, Macerata Mayor Romano Carancini said.

Local news outlets said the man was detained after he stepped out of his black Alfa Romeo 147 near the memorial, gave a fascist salute, and shouted "Italy for the Italians." It was not clear whether the victims were Italian citizens.

After the attack, Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni called on political leaders on all sides to stop a "cycle of violence."

"Let's stop this risk, let's stop it now, let's stop it together," he said in a nationally televised statement from his residence, the Palazzo Chigi, in Rome. "Hate and violence won't be able to divide us."

Large numbers of migrants began sailing across the Mediterranean toward Italy after Libya plunged into lawlessness and civil war following the 2011 downfall of Libyan dictator Moammar Gaddafi. More than 620,000 migrants, many of them African, have arrived in Italy since the beginning of 2014, contributing to a growing sense among Italians that the country was taking in far more people than it could handle.

Anti-immigrant sentiment has become a main theme in the campaign leading up to next month's elections. Northern League leader Matteo Salvini has vowed to expel 150,000 immigrants from Italy and close the country's borders to most new arrivals.

The murder in Macerata this past week of 18-year-old Pamela Mastropietro drew national attention to the city of 43,000 and added fuel to the debate on migration. On Wednesday, her dismembered remains were found packed into two suitcases. A 29-year-old Nigerian man, Innocent Oseghale, was charged with her murder.

"What was this maggot still doing in Italy? He wasn't fleeing war, he brought war to Italy," Salvini wrote on Facebook on Thursday.

The suspect in Saturday's shooting ran as a Northern League candidate last June for a seat on the municipal council of Corridonia, a town of 15,000 people just south of Macerata, according to a Northern League spokeswoman who spoke on condition that her name not be used.

"Violence is never the solution, violence must always be condemned. And those who are wrong need to pay," Salvini wrote on Facebook on Saturday after the Northern League connection to the attack became clear. "Out-of-control migration brings chaos, rage, social clashes. Out-of-control migration brings drug-dealing, rapes, thefts and violence."

He did not further address the alleged assailant's connections to his party.

During the campaign, Salvini visited Corridonia and met with local candidates,according to the town's center-left mayor, Paolo Cartechini, although it was not immediately clear whether the suspected shooter was present. The mayor said in an interview that last year's campaign focused on the same issues that were being debated nationally, including immigration, but that the Northern League politicians did not use violent rhetoric.

One of Traini's longtime acquaintances said the suspect gradually radicalized over at least six years. Traini would openly give the stiff-armed fascist salute and complain about African immigrants in the town, using a highly offensive term for them, said Francesco Clerico, who owns the gym where Traini trained for a decade. Clerico said the 28-year-old was stripped of his gym membership in October because of his views.

"It was very hard for him to relate to others," Clerico said. "More than a criminal, he's an individual with psychological problems."

Asked about the shootings at a news conference earlier Saturday, before it became clear that a former Northern League candidate was the suspect, Salvini said that "whoever shoots is a criminal, no matter the skin color," adding that "uncontrolled" migration leads to clashes, according to Italy's ANSA news agency.

The Northern League's opponents seized on the killing as evidence that the right-wing party's rhetoric was stirring violence and division within Italian society.

"What happened today in Macerata demonstrates that inciting hatred and excusing fascism, as Salvini does, has consequences," said Laura Boldrini, the president of the lower house of Italian parliament and a member of the left-wing Free and Equal alliance of parties.

The mayor of Macerata said the city had been unsettled by Mastropietro's slaying this week, which added to an already-tense discussion of migration.

"Everything that happened between the death of Pamela and today was fanning the flames of hate between people," said the mayor, Romano Carancini, of the center-left Democratic Party, in an interview. "It could have caused individuals who might not be entirely balanced to commit crimes like this."

- - -

Birnbaum reported from Brussels.WASHINGTON - Justice Department official Bruce Ohr found his way into the Russia investigation in a circuitous way. He knew a former British intelligence officer who authored the controversial dossier alleging contacts between Russian officials and the Trump campaign, and - apparently at the intelligence officer's urging - discussed the matter with the opposition research firm that hired the officer to dig into Trump.

Those contacts have thrust Ohr into the center of a political controversy over whether bias has infected the Russia probe. On Friday, Republicans named him in a memo alleging the Justice Department misled a court to obtain a secret warrant to monitor a former Trump campaign operative.

The memo, produced by House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, R-Calif., has roiled Washington for the past week - increasing the partisan rancor on Capitol Hill and pitting President Donald Trump against his own Justice Department. It broadly alleges that the FBI relied on faulty, biased information to obtain and renew a warrant to monitor Trump campaign adviser Carter Page.

Ohr is a curious target for Republican ire. He was not assigned to work on counterintelligence matters, and he is not thought to have played a direct role in obtaining or renewing the warrant to monitor Page.

But Ohr did have a relationship with Christopher Steele, the former intelligence officer who authored the controversial Trump dossier, and his wife did work for the firm, Fusion GPS, that hired Steele to research Trump. Fusion was hired by the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton's campaign after researching Trump for the conservative Washington Free Beacon.

Republicans pointed to conversations between Steele and Ohr as key evidence in their case that the Page warrant was flawed because it relied in part on Steele's Democrat-funded work.

Ohr and his wife, Nellie Ohr, did not return messages seeking comment.

According to the memo, Ohr had been in talks with Steele before and after the FBI considered the former British intelligence officer a source, and at some point, Steele told Ohr he was "desperate that Donald Trump not get elected and was passionate about him not being president." The memo alleged that the "clear evidence of Steele's bias was recorded by Ohr at the time and subsequently in official FBI files - but not reflected in any of the Page FISA applications."

FISA refers to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which is the type of warrant that authorities sought to monitor Page.

The timeline of Ohr's dealings with Steele is somewhat murky. Steele had his own relationship with the FBI and approached the bureau about his Trump research in summer 2016. The memo alleged that Steele admitted his bias to Ohr in September 2016, the month before the warrant on Page was first obtained, and in that same time period, Ohr's wife was doing opposition research on Trump for Fusion.

The memo alleges that Ohr "later provided the FBI with all of his wife's opposition research," and that their relationship with Steele and Fusion were "inexplicably concealed" from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.

Fusion GPS founder Glenn Simpson told the House Intelligence Committee in November that both he and Steele had known Ohr previously; Simpson said his relationship with Ohr was through organized crime conferences.

Simpson said that after Trump won the election, when it was not clear to what extent top U.S. government officials were aware of his organization's research on connections between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin, the group felt they should put the material in the hands of someone "higher up."

Steele, Simpson said, suggested he give some information to Ohr. Simpson said he and the Justice Department official "eventually met at a coffee shop, and I told him the story."

Fusion declined to comment for this story.

That Steele's information was used to obtain the warrant on Page - and his views on Trump not disclosed - is not necessarily problematic, former law enforcement officials said Friday.

Page was on the FBI's radar before October 2016 for contacts with Russians as part of a separate investigation begun years earlier. It is likely that previous probe - as well as other information - was a part of the application, the officials said.

"If you have a U.S. citizen - who was presumably approached by the FBI and continued to circle with Russians - there's going to be an ongoing concern about what his relationship is," said Ron Hosko, a former FBI assistant director. "Is he being co-opted? Are they using him for their purposes? I'm assuming that was going on, and that there was an ongoing concern about this guy. How the Steele information, or how you characterize Steele - I'd want to see it in the broader context, and that's missing" in the memo.

Until late last year, Ohr had worked as an associate deputy attorney general and as head of the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces, one of the Justice Department's components ferreting out gangs and drugs. But after Simpson testified in November about his and Steele's dealings with Ohr, Ohr was stripped of his role as an associate deputy attorney general.

A Justice Department official said that was at least part bureaucratic, so Ohr could be more focused in his job leading the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces. But Ohr was soon also removed from that job, and he now works in the criminal division, a Justice Department official said Friday.

Ohr's being removed from his previous jobs was first reported by Fox News.

Nellie Ohr's LinkedIn profile - which does not list Fusion - describes her as a Eurasia analyst and cybersecurity expert at Accenture iDefense since 2017. In 2010, she was listed as a researcher at the Open Source Works, which does intelligence analysis for the CIA. She also worked as a linguist for many years and speaks six languages. She received her bachelor's degree in history and literature from Harvard University and her doctorate in history from Stanford University, where she wrote a thesis titled "Collective farms and Russian peasant society, 1933-1937: the stabilization of the Kolkhoz order."A man wanting to hang out with his girlfriend instead spent his Friday night biting a Harris County sheriff's deputy, authorities said.

The man drove to a home in the 8500 block of Sweetwater around 5 p.m. to see his significant other but apparently was unwelcome by his girlfriend's mother, who called 911 to report him as a suspicious person in her home.A popular teacher at Sarah King Elementary School, Lucia Ruiz Serna was often approached by former students who wanted her to teach their own children.

They would stay in touch with her through the years  come looking for her at the school all the time, her sister Alice Serna-McDougald said. Theyd bring their kids, their kids kids, to get them into Lucias class.

Serna died of Jan. 16 after battling multiple myeloma for six years. She was 68.

The eldest of eight children, Serna grew up helping her mother take care of her younger siblings.

She was the queen bee running our house, Serna-McDougald said. She was like a second mother to me.

A gifted student from a young age, Serna was featured on local television once as a remarkable Mexican-American child who was excelling in school, her sister recalled. She spoke with no accent.

More Information Lucia Ruiz Serna Born: March 12, 1949, Seguin Died: Jan. 16, 2018, San Antonio Preceded by: Brothers Guillermo "Willie" Serna Jr. and Gabriel Paul Serna; sister Mary Ann Hernandez Survived by: Parents Marcelina Ruiz and Guillermo Cardenas Serna; sisters Sara G. Serna and Alice Serna-McDougald and sister-in-law Lisa E. McDougald; brothers Steve L. Serna and John D. Serna; niece Irene Maria Serna See More Collapse

Graduating from high school in Lamesa, where her parents had settled after being migrant workers for many years, Serna attended Our Lady of the Lake University with the help of the parish priest.

She was the first in her family to attend college.

Choosing to study education, Serna had a love for learning herself and realized really early that you teach what you want to lecture in, her sister said. She was excited about school and about becoming a teacher.

Graduating from OLLU in 1975, Serna started at King shortly after, while continuing to work on her masters degree.

Teaching mostly third-graders during her 30 years at King, Serna brought what was then the New Jersey Writing Project of Texas to the school.

She took her students through the writing, the editing process, Serna-McDougald said. They would make books and bind them  had book signings with the parents.

Serna also served for decades on panels selected by the Texas State Board of Education to review textbooks.

It was one of her biggest challenges because she always got voted out of what she wanted taught, Serna-McDougald said.

Retiring about eight years ago, Serna was diagnosed with multiple myeloma a couple of years later.

Though she fought for six years, she became too tired to continue just before Thanksgiving.

She always did everything on her terms, her sister said. And she made the decision to let go.

mheidbrink@express-news.netHere's a quick breakdown of the allegations in the memo.

1. The dossier put together by ex-British spy Christopher Steele and partially funded by Democrats formed "an essential part" of the FBI's application to spy on Trump campaign aide Carter Page.

Getting a secret court to approve spying on an American citizen is no small thing. It requires an application that former FBI director James Comey has said is "thicker than my wrists." Former FBI Agent Asha Rangappa told The Post that a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act application likely involved a dozen people's insights and intelligence.

Page was also on the FBI's radar at least since 2013, so it would be remarkable if the dossier, which was shared with the FBI in late 2016, was the essential piece of information used for the application.

2. Senior Justice and FBI officials knew Democrats were funding this research but didn't tell the court of the party's role.

When BuzzFeed published this dossier in January 2017, we didn't know who funded Steele's work. A conservative publication hired opposition research group Fusion GPS to get dirt on Trump during the GOP primaries. After Trump won the Republican presidential nomination, the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign started paying Fusion GPS to continue the research. That's when Fusion GPS hired Steele.

This memo alleges that the FBI and top Justice officials knew Democrats were funding the dossier, but it did not share that with the court.

More Information Papadopoulos data sparked FBI probe Though President Donald Trump and his allies hope that the controversial release of a GOP-written memo alleging surveillance abuses by the FBI will tarnish the legitimacy of the entire Russia probe, that argument may be undercut by a single sentence buried near the end of the four-page document. It confirms for the first time that the event that set the FBI's counterintelligence investigation in motion was not the surveillance of Trump adviser Carter Page - a subject upon which most of the memo dwells - but rather that it was opened as the result of information the bureau had received about George Papadopoulos, a young foreign policy consultant who in October became the first person associated with the campaign to plead guilty in the special counsel's investigation. He is now reported to be a cooperating witness. "The Papadopoulos information triggered the opening of an FBI counterintelligence investigation in late July 2016 by FBI agent Pete Strzok," the memo noted in its final paragraph. Democrats quickly seized on that sentence to assert that the Russia investigation would be underway with or without the surveillance of Page, and - more critically - even if the government had never seen a dossier of information about Trump that was compiled by Christopher Steele, a former British spy. Washington Post See More Collapse

3. The FBI should have terminated a contract with Steele after he spoke with the media.

The rest of the memo attempts to provide corollary evidence that Steele was not a reliable source for the FBI.

Here, House Republicans argue that the FBI hired Steele during the campaign as one of its informants and then didn't let him go after he talked to the media - including a September Yahoo News article. The FBI only cut him off after he disclosed his relationship with the FBI in an Oct. 30 Mother Jones article.

The memo also alleges Steele lied to the FBI about talking to Yahoo News and other media outlets more than a month earlier, ostensibly to keep his job: "Steele improperly concealed from and lied to the FBI about those contacts," the memo reads.

4. Steele had his own political bias that the FBI "ignored or concealed."

Here's another reason Steele's information can't be trusted, House Republicans allege: He had it in for Trump.

The memo alleges that Steele told a top Justice official he "was desperate that Donald Trump not get elected and was passionate about him not being president." The memo says that Justice official told the FBI of the "clear evidence of Steele's bias," but it was "not reflected in any of the Page FISA applications."

5. At least two FBI officials had a clear bias against Trump

At the very end of the memo, its authors also mention FBI officials Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, who were having an affair and texted frequently about the investigation, including exchanging pro-Clinton texts and expressing anti-Trump sentiments.

6. Republicans released this memo because "the public interest in disclosure outweighs any need to protect the information."

Legal experts, Democrats, intelligence officials, and even some Republican members of Congress have heavily criticized this memo for needlessly declassifying information to prove a political point. The process this memo went through to get released is highly unusual, say former congressional staffers.

The White House pushes back on that characterization by saying "the public interest in disclosure outweighs any need to protect the information."If you want to take Americas temperature, few issues are more revealing than immigration.

Americans who feel anxious or insecure about the economy or their community are quick to blame a flow of new people into the United States. They do so despite consistent evidence that immigrants do not cause their problems.

Unfortunately, these concerns are as old as the Founding Fathers. While the Declaration of Independence argued for the American Colonies right to populate through immigration, Benjamin Franklin expressed misgivings about the German immigrants to Pennsylvania. He complained that they would never assimilate to the culture and customs established by the English colonists.

It is easy to laugh at his prediction today: Germans are Americas largest ethnic group. All these citizens, presumably, are as American as their neighbors of other origins.

Still, it is disheartening to realize that nearly identical arguments have been made about successive groups of immigrants since Franklins time. These arguments correspond more with broader social and economic anxieties than with particular characteristics of the immigrant groups to which they are directed.

Dont blame the economy

Animosity toward immigrants and anxiety about immigration levels correspond particularly to two phenomena: politicians discussing immigration in negative terms, or a poor economic outlook.

The culprit couldnt be the economy because it strengthened significantly in 2017. True, many Americans feel they personally have not recovered from the Great Recession. And wage growth is tepid, while millennials are predicted to be the first generation in U.S. history that will be worse off than their parents. Yet our economy is running at full employment. GDP growth has been higher lately. And consumer confidence has increased.

The culprit is instead political rhetoric. Politicians at all levels make negative statements about immigration, but the 2016 presidential election was a low point in recent years for rhetoric on immigration and immigrants themselves.

Unfortunately, negative statements continue, increasing public anxiety that eventually gets released against immigrants. The red-hot language has created a storm of anger toward immigrants. Facts do not support the desire to blame them, but attitudes about immigration tend to reflect our collective psyche. We want someone to blame, especially if we feel that no one else is below us on the economic ladder.

That frustration often leads some to believe that the solution is to drastically reduce the number of immigrants we allow annually into the U.S. They also want to reduce the undocumented population through stronger interior enforcement and deportation efforts.

The frustration may be real, but immigrants are not the source of the problem.

Take wages. Take-home pay may have grown at a paltry rate since the 2008 financial crisis, but economic studies of the effect of immigrants on wages show an incredibly modest negative effect on low-wage workers in the short run only. Actually, the impacted low-wage workers are often recent immigrants, not native-born Americans.

This isnt to say there is no pain associated with lackluster wage growth. But many factors contribute to the slow and unsatisfactory growth, particularly among lower-skilled workers. The solutions lie in domestic policy reforms that encourage economic growth that in turn drives wage growth. Restricting immigration is not one of those policies, and continually directing energy toward this as a solution is wasting opportunities to address the real roots of the problem, such as declining worker mobility and a lower rate of new business formation.

The truth is that American workers have more to fear from technology than from immigration. Technology has dramatically increased the productivity of the American worker since the early 2000s.

Manufacturing is an excellent example. Productivity in manufacturing increased so much between 2000 and 2010 that the U.S. would have required an additional 20.9 million workers if productivity had remained steady since 2000. Because of the dramatic increase in productivity, the U.S. manufacturing sector only required 12.1 million workers in 2010. Continually acquiring new skills will alleviate the anxiety that workers understandably feel.

And heres another reality: Studies show that immigrants do not steal jobs from Americans. Americas Advantage: Handbook on Immigration and Economic Growth, a recent Bush Institute report, reveals that immigrants are more likely than native-born workers to create jobs. They start businesses at nearly twice the rate of native-born Americans and are more likely to be self-employed. Immigrant-owned businesses with employees other than the owner employ, on average, 11 additional workers.

The labor market is not a fixed pie. A new worker like an immigrant who enters the labor market does not need to displace a currently employed worker to find a position. In fact, immigrants often are not perfect substitutes for native-born American workers and therefore are not competing directly with each other for the positions.

Their skills typically complement native-born workers skills, and they seek positions where there is a scarcity of native-born labor. This happens for immigrant workers at all skill levels.

Immigrants arent driving the budget deficit

Another common myth is that immigrants put a strain on the federal budget. Here, too, the reality is different. Immigrants are not the strain on the federal budget they are made out to be.

Consider entitlement programs such as Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security, which are the biggest items in the federal budget. Immigrants cannot unduly burden these programs because their access to them is limited.

Legal immigrants, for example, do not qualify for federal entitlement benefits for five years after their arrival in the U.S. Once they do qualify, they use them at lower rates than native-born Americans. And undocumented immigrants cannot receive any federal entitlement benefits, although their U.S.-citizen children do qualify.

So, even with millions of immigrants in the U.S., they simply cannot use enough benefits to strain the budget. The fact that they, overall, add value to the economy reduces or negates any fiscal burden they might put on the federal budget.

The fiscal costs they do impose are mostly borne at the state and local level. As an example, immigrants without health insurance are likely to burden public hospitals, just as native-born Americans in the same situation are likely to do.

Our country undoubtedly faces challenges over the next several years  fiscal irresponsibility, the growth of entitlements, technological disruption in the workforce and more. These problems require tough solutions.

But the problems are not about immigration. Instead, the U.S. owes a great deal to the immigrants who built America and made our nation great.

Thats the ultimate reality we should remember.

Laura Collins is deputy director of the Economic Growth Initiative at the George W. Bush Institute. This essay first appeared in The Catalyst, a publication of the institute.President Donald Trump has had impure thoughts about special counsel Robert Mueller.

That much, we know. The New York Times reported recently that Trump asked White House counsel Don McGahn to fire the special counsel. When McGahn resisted, Trump backed off and left Mueller in place.

Talking their clients out of bad ideas  especially impulsive clients likely to blunder into gross mistakes  is what lawyers are supposed to do.

The Trump-Mueller episode is like the Saturday Night Massacre if Richard Nixon had merely thought about firing Archibald Cox, then got dissuaded by his advisers and, under advice of counsel, began cooperating with the Watergate special counsel.

Is it more meaningful that Trump wanted to fire Mueller, or that the special counsels work has continued apace for the past six months, with indictments, guilty pleas and extensive interviews of White House officials? Surely it is the latter, but Trumps critics argue that his withdrawn directive establishes motive in a prospective obstruction-of-justice case.

What it establishes is what we already knew: Trump hates the investigation and everyone associated with it. He considers the FBI officials who have been central to the probe politically compromised hatchet men. He disdains his own attorney general, Jeff Sessions, for recusing himself from the matter, and has no use for Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, either.

We dont need an investigation to know any of this, because Trump advertises it all the time. What else is his Twitter feed for?

What we dont know, at least with certainty, is whats behind Trumps animus? Its one thing if he hatched a high-level conspiracy with the Russians during the election that hes ham-handedly trying to cover up; it is another if he knows there was no such conspiracy and believes the investigation is, as he repeatedly says, a witch hunt.

This is why it makes no sense for Democrats and the press to blow right by collusion  compelling evidence of which has not yet emerged  to obsess with alleged obstruction instead. If there was no collusion, it is doubtful that Trump has the corrupt motive necessary to make an impeachable obstruction-of-justice case against him.

Absent collusion (or some other sinister secret), Trump is guilty of raging against an investigation that, at the end of the day, really is built on sand. In which case, itd be better if Trump, secure in his ultimate vindication, lowered the temperature around the investigation. But the scorpion is going to sting the frog  especially if the frog is getting round-the-clock cable coverage.

One of the counts against Trump is that he told Lester Holt of NBC News that he fired FBI Director James Comey over the Russia investigation. This isnt quite right. I said, you know, Trump explained to Holt, this Russia thing with Trump and Russia is a made-up story. Then, he went on to say he was happy for the investigation to continue.

The thrust of the interview accords with Trumps conversations with Comey. The FBI director repeatedly told the president that he himself wasnt under investigation. Trump badgered Comey about getting this out. At the same time, Trump stipulated that he was fine with a probe of any satellites of his suspected of wrongdoing. The picture is of a president desperate to remove an unwarranted cloud around his presidency, rather than a president shuttering an investigation at all costs.

It is certainly true that Trump has not, if he ever will, made the transition from thinking like the owner of a family business to thinking like a president entrusted with the care of our institutions.

If Trump had his druthers, hed probably appoint his personal fixer Michael Cohen his attorney general and run the Department of Justice like an arm of The Trump Organization. But there are all sorts of political and institutional constraints to acting on these impulses, including a White House counsel willing to say No.

comments.lowry@nationalreview.com

PBS NOVA Premiered "The Impossible Flight" documenting the first solar plane to circle the globe

Photo courtesy of PBS/NOVA

It is one of the greatest aviation undertakings of our time: a 26,000-mile perilous journey to circle the globe in a plane that doesnt use a single drop of fuel. The launch of the Solar Impulse II in March 2015 is the culmination of a 13-year bold endeavor to push the boundaries of human flight and demonstrate the potential for renewable energy. In the new documentary, THE IMPOSSIBLE FLIGHT , NOVA, a production of WGBH Boston, embarks on an ambitious quest with two intrepid pilots and a team of brilliant engineers, meteorologists, and flight controllers as they design, construct, and fly around the world the first zero-fuel, solar-powered airplane. In case you missed it, we have included it here below.

NOVA puts viewers in the cockpit for the adventure of a lifetime, said Paula S. Apsell, Senior Executive Producer for NOVA. The Impossible Flight showcases the passion and perseverance of two inspiring pilots and their team as they soar to new heights in aviation and sustainable technology.





Bertrand Piccard , joined by Andre Borschberg , a former fighter pilot in the Swiss Air Force and engineer with a graduate degree in management from MIT. With the help of a diverse team of leading experts in aerospace engineering, meteorology, and flight control, these two daring adventurers create and fly an extraordinary and unique aircraft. In order to construct the plane, which many experts considered impossible, the team had to employ a number of groundbreaking technologies including ultrathin solar cells, high-capacity batteries, and massive but light carbon-fiber wings.



The Impossible Flight follows Bertrand and Andres quest as they tackle seemingly insurmountable challenges, both technical and personal, in their mission to build and fly the solar-powered plane around the world. The first dilemma is how to build an aircraft big enough to collect maximum sunlight, but lightweight enough to run on as little energy as possible. NOVA reveals the multi-year design and testing process required to come up with a plane light, efficient, and powerful enough to make the voyage. The result is an aircraft with a revolutionary design, powered by 17,000 solar cells, each as thin as a human hair, which collect and transform the suns rays into electricity, to be distributed to batteries for storage and to four 17-horsepower engines. The planes structure is lighter than many gliders with a wingspan equivalent to that of a 747. The aircrafts skeletal structure is largely hollow, similar to the bones of a bird, and created from carbon fiber three times lighter than paper in a unique honeycomb sandwich design. The four, lithium ion polymer battery packs, able to store enough spare energy to power the aircraft through the night, weigh nearly 1,500 poundsapproximately 25% of the planes total weight.





Photo courtesy of PBS/NOVA

After years of the development and construction of the plane, NOVA cameras capture the

emotional moment of takeoff. The plane departs from Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates on March 9, 2015, heading from there to India, Myanmar, and China, facing multiple unwelcome delays as weather closes in along the way. Then, Andre faces the greatest challenge, taking the controls for 5 long days and nights over the Pacific Ocean to land triumphantlyand to everyones reliefin Hawaii. From there, Bertrand flies to the continental U.S., greeted by the sight of San Franciscos Golden Gate Bridge.



Each leg of the journey presents its own challenges and discomforts. In the unpressurized cockpit, with no heat or cooling, temperatures inside range from -40F at the highest altitudes to 104F when they descend over parched deserts. Bertrand, heir to a family legacy of exploration, had previously set a record by flying a balloon around the world. But this challenge is more difficult as he has less experience as a pilot and Solar Impulse II proves a difficult plane to control. Bertrand requires additional training mid-journey when he runs into trouble on a flight. There are frequent conflicts with Mission Control in Monacothe team of engineers, meteorologists, and flight controllers who consider both Bertrand and Andre too ready to take risks. And weather is always a looming hazard; rain, humidity, crosswinds, and even sun-blocking clouds could easily doom the mission, while a sudden downdraft or updraft could break the aircraft apart. Everyonepilots and the team at Mission Controlare prepared for the worst to happen, including aircraft failure and bailing out over the ocean, if necessary.



The flight around the world takes more than a year, with costly and disheartening delays for weather and repairs needed along the way. Finally, and triumphantly, Bertrand lands the plane back in Abu Dhabi where the journey began, a testament to technological ingenuity and perseverance. But ultimately the goal of the project was to deliver a message as the world faces the perils of climate change: If renewable energy can work on a fragile plane in the air, it can surely work on land.





The Impossible Flight is a NOVA production by Far West Film Co. for WGBH Boston. Produced and directed by Noel Dockstader and Quinn Kanaly. Executive Producer is Chris Schmidt. Senior Executive Producer for NOVA is Paula S. Apsell.



National corporate funding for NOVA is provided by Draper. Major funding for NOVA is provided by The David H. Koch Fund for Science, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and public television viewers.

Featured onBy ANI

SRINAGAR: Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti has urged the Haryana government to take stringent action against the perpetrators for assaulting Kashmiri students and demanded a probe into the case.

Mehbooba made the statement on Friday, hours after reports of the Kashmiri students of the Haryana Central University being assaulted surfaced.

The victims were beaten up while returning to the campus after offering congregational Friday prayers in Mahendragarh town.

ALSO READ: Situation not conducive for withdrawing AFSPA in Jammu and Kashmir, says Mehbooba Mufti

Irked Mehbooba took to Twitter and said, Shocked and disturbed to hear reports of Kashmiri students being assaulted in Mahendargarh, Haryana.

Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah tagged Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a tweet and said that the incident goes against the spirit of his outreach for Kashmiris.

This is terrible & goes against the spirit of what @PMOIndia @narendramodi ji said from the ramparts of the Red Fort. I hope the authorities in Haryana act quickly against this violence.

The reason behind the attack is yet not known.

Jammu and Kashmir Director General of Police Shesh Paul Vaid has been coordinating with his Haryana counterpart to ensure the safety of the Kashmiri youths.



In touch with DGP Haryana. Police is taking cognisance of the incident, he said.

The victims suffered injuries in the attack and were taken to the local hospital.

They were, however, released after treatment.On the 3rd day of their visit to Sri Lanka, Britain's Prince Edward and Countess Sophie of Wessex visited Nuwara Eliya city located on a mountainous region in the center of Sri Lanka in order to receive detailed information about "Mentally Handicapped Children and Families Educational Project (MENCAFEP) and to see on site works performed for the project. The project which began with only 6 children in 1988 presently helps more than 3000 children and their families in Sri Lanka.For Subscribers 5 things we learned from local high school football teams in Week 1

It was a split for the local teams, with two wins and a pair of losses.Copy Editor/Entertainment Editor

Frank Pieper is a copy editor and entertainment editor at The News-Gazette, and the author of Frank's Faves and Frank's Weekend Faves. His email is fpieper@news-gazette.com, and you can follow him on Twitter (@frp308).Reporter

Mary Schenk is a reporter covering police, courts and breaking news at The News-Gazette. Her email is mschenk@news-gazette.com, and you can follow her on Twitter (@schenk).Success! An email has been sent to with a link to confirm list signup.One of Editor & Publishers 10 That Do It Right 2021Mumbai: Tata Sons on Friday launched a frontal attack on its ousted former chairman Cyrus Mistry, saying after his removal from the group he behaved like a "Trojan Horse", and also questioned whether the National Company Law Tribunal can adjudicate upon a board's decision to remove the chairman.

"If you have friends like Cyrus (Mistry), one needs no enemies," Tata group counsel Abhishek Manu Singhvi told the NCLT.

After his removal, Mistry was behaving like a "Trojan Horse", he added.

Mistry's behaviour after his removal was malafide, reckless and unprecedented as he failed in his fiduciary responsibilities as a director on the board of Tata Sons, Singhvi said.

As an example, he cited the detailed reply Mistry sent to the Income Tax department's notice in December 2016 even when he had no compulsion to send it.

"But he did so only with malafide intention to cause trouble for a company which he continued to serve as a director," he said.

There were heated moments during the argument today as Singhvi claimed that Mistry's lawyer Somashekar Sunderashan was trying to bring in points which were never raised in the original pleadings.

Sunderashan took exception and sought permission to correlate his latest submission with the original pleadings.

The tribunal, however, said whether arguments should be confined to the points raised in pleadings was a matter of ethics.

Mistry continued to be a director on the board of Tata Sons for five months after his removal as the chairman on October 24, 2016.

The shareholders voted him out of the board on February 6, 2017.

Wondering whether the NCLT can adjudicate on Mistry's removal by the board which had lost confidence in him, Singhvi argued in fact, Mistry has not yet challenged his removal but is only questioning the process of removal.

Mistry and the Tatas are locked in a bitter legal battle since his ouster from the Tata group.

Two Mistry family firms  Cyrus Investments and Sterling Investments  have moved the NCLT alleging oppression of minority shareholders and mismanagement at the Tata group.Srinagar: Two militants of Lashkar-e-Toiba have been arrested in Jammu and Kashmirs Baramullah district by a joint team of the police, Army and CRPF.

Identified as Abdul Majeed Bhat and Mohammad Ashraf Mir, the two had gone to Pakistan on a valid Pakistani visa and received arms training before returning to India via the Attari-Wagah border, a police press release said.

The two had obtained passports to specifically go to Pakistan for training, it added.

On being questioned, the duo revealed that they had undergone terrorist training in Pakistan along with large number of Pakistani boys, many of them from Balochistan and as young as 10-years-old.

The camps in which they were trained were said to be located near Burma Town, Islamabad, and being run by one terrorist commander operating under the code names Hanzala, Adnan and Omar. Other terrorists imparting training were codenamed Osama, Naveed and Hataf.

The arrested militants have been given Pakistani visas by Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi.

Police have unearthed several such modules in the recent past who lure young boys to Pakistan to get trained and join the militancy. Such boys have either been arrested and or killed in encounters.

On February 4, 2017, two militants identified as Azharuddin alias Qazi and Sajad Ahmad alias Babar were killed in an encounter in Amargarh, Sopore. Both of then gone to Pakistan on valid visa and obtained arms training.

Police have requested parents to keep a watch on their wards and their prolonged absence from home should be immediately reported to police so that their lives can be saved.Lucknow: One dreaded criminal was killed and eight other wanted men arrested by the Uttar Pradesh Police in the last 24 hours after four major encounters.

Early on Saturday morning, police caught four members of the Bavaria gang after an encounter in Lucknows Krishnanagar area. Two of the gang members were injured during the shootout. According to police officials, the dacoits were recently involved in robberies in Chinnhat, Kakori and Mallihabad areas. The police have also recovered large quantities of ammunition from them. The injured criminals were admitted to the nearby Trauma Centre.

The injured criminals have been identified as Mahendra alias Mahesh and Manoj alias Chhotu. Both of them are residents of Bikaner in Rajasthan. The other two are Rajesh alias Palha and Ramesh alias Raju. One 12-bore gun, three country-made pistols, live cartridges along with empty cartridges have been recovered from these four, said SSP Lucknow Deepak Kumar.

On Friday, two criminals, carrying cash rewards of Rs 50,000, were injured during a police encounter in Gorakhpur. The shootout took place around 3 am near Ram Nagar Kadjaha in Khorabar. Two police officers were also injured in the incident. Few days ago, a businessman named Dinesh was shot dead and these two, Manish Yadav and his aide Sandeep, were the main accused. They carried a reward of Rs 50,000 on them. After the encounter, a weapon and a bike were recovered from them, said Superintendent of Police Ganesh Shaha.

In Muzaffarnagar, a joint team of Special Task Force (STF) Noida and Muzaffarnagar police gunned down a dreaded criminal on Friday. The criminal, Indrapal, carried a cash reward of Rs 25,000 on his head. The encounter began after the police were tipped-off about the criminals location. Police got to know that Indrapal was hiding in the jungle with five or six of his aides.

The ensuing encounter resulted in Indrapal being injured and his accomplices fleeing. The dreaded criminal succumbed to his injuries in the hospital. Police have recovered a huge cache of live cartridges, two pistols and a gun from the encounter spot.

Furthermore, in Noida Phase III, police arrested two criminals on Friday after an encounter. A stolen car, laptop, mobile phones, two pistols and cartridges were recovered after the shoot-out.

On the basis of information, vehicles were being checked near Transport Nagar in Sector-69. When police tried to stop two youths for checking, they tried to flee. The duo opened fired on the police when they were being chased. When the police retaliated, the criminals car lost control and collided with a divider. After an encounter that lasted for around half an hour, the police arrested both of them, SP (City) Arun Kumar Singh.

The duo has been identified as Ankit Sharma, resident of Sonipat in Haryana and Rahul, resident of Phulpur in Gautam Buddha Nagar. Both carried a cash reward of Rs 10,000 on their heads.New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modis book Exam Warriors is primarily addressed to students on dealing with the pressure that comes with exams, but the book also has a little something for parents.

Heres the letter in the book from the Prime Minister to parents of students facing exams.

Dear Parents,

Family is the strongest support system for any child, more so as he or she prepares for examinations. I do understand that these are crucial times, for both the student and his or her family. During this time, if there is anybody whose encouragement will make your child happy, it is you.

Keep doing everything that you can to support your children. This includes lightening the childs mood and ensuring he or she appears for the exam in a happy and stress-free manner.

You are your childs best mentor. You know your child better than anyone else, having seen him or her grow up in front of your eyes. Thus, I would request you: always accept rather than expect. The burden of expectations is even heavier than the school bag, and theres no point in weighing your children down with it. Ask yourself: Are you burdening your child with unreasonable expectations?

Sometimes, parents seek to realise their own unfulfilled desires through their children. In the process, the child loses a happy childhood and the parents miss out on the joy of seeing their child grow up and blossom in front of their eyes. The dreams, aspirations and ambitions of children can differ from those of their parents. Accept this and give your children the space to pursue their own dreams.

As parents, you always want the best for your child, including good schooling and a comfortable lifestyle. But one of the best gifts you can give your child is a spirit of adventure, which will inspire your child to do something new and different.

In this book, too, I have told my young friends to step out of their comfort zone. Comfort weakens the mind and body. Adventure prepares one to face lifes challenges and that too with poise and determination.

Spend quality time with your child. The exam season is naturally characterised by a scramble for time. Make the most of every moment you spend with your child. Remain positive and laugh.

Always listen to what your child has to say. Those children who are not heard can never become good listeners and learners themselves.

Once the board exams are over, children are required to choose their subjects, colleges and universities. Guide your child to make those decisions based on his or her interests and strengths. As I have said in the book, there are several opportunities waiting to be created and harnessed. Let there be no limitations or pressure on the children.

My best wishes to you as you extend invaluable support to our young and valorous Exam Warriors.

Yours,

Narendra ModiNew Delhi/Lucknow: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Member of Parliament from Western Uttar Pradeshs Kairana, Hukum Singh passed away in a hospital in Greater Noida on Saturday evening. Hukum Singh, who had won the 2014 Lok Sabha election with a massive margin, had been suffering from an illness for the last few months. Parliament proceedings will be cancelled on Monday to pay condolences to the deceased Member of Parliament. He was 79 years old at the time of his death.

While the full details of Singhs illness are yet to emerge, highly-placed BJP source said he had been suffering for the last three months. He was unwell for three months, but it wasnt that bad until last month. For the last 20 days or so, he has been bedridden and was struggling to hold on. Even though he had kept himself healthy for most of his life, age seems to have caught up, said one BJP leader.

Born in Shamli districts Kairana, which he went on to represent in the Lok Sabha, Hukum Singh started practising law in the nearby city of Muzaffarnagar in 1969. By 1974, he entered active politics and became a Member of the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly (MLA) after contesting on a Congress ticket. In the 1990s, he switched from Congress to the BJP and got elected to the UP assembly on a BJP ticket in 1996. Hukum Singh quickly rose up the ranks of politics due the massive support he enjoyed from Western UPs sugarcane farmers. In 2014, when Modi wave swept through Uttar Pradesh, Hukum Singh was elected as the Member of Parliament from his hometown. His followers affectionately referred to him as Babu Sahab.

Hours after his death, Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted his condolences and said, Anguished by the demise of MP and veteran leader from Uttar Pradesh, Shri Hukum Singh Ji. He served the people of UP with great diligence and worked for the welfare of farmers. My thoughts are with his family and supporters in this hour of grief.

Sanjeev Balyan, Hukum Singhs friend, colleague and MP from neighbouring Muzaffarnagar, told News 18, Babu Sahab was a true son of the soil. From the very beginning of his life till the very end, he was connected to the farmers of the region and he understood their pain like few else would. We have lost a great leader with his death.

However, Hukum Singhs political career was not without its fair share of controversy. In 2013, his name featured among the list of BJP MPs who were accused of stoking communal violence in UPs Muzaffarnagar. Communal tensions in western UP were at a high in the months of June and July in 2016 after Hukum Singh alleged that 250 Hindu families had fled Kairana in a mass exodus over the last few years due to pressure from another community. Singh went as far as to claim that Kairana was becoming another Kashmir with Hindu families fleeing. While the BJP leadership endorsed his claims, the district administration and the ruling Samajwadi Party had vehemently denied them.

According to the local administration, only three families had left Kairana due to worsening law and order. Singh, however, received a huge fillip after the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) vindicated his claims and held riot-refugees responsible for altering the demographics of the small town. This had led to a disagreement between the NHRC and the National Commission for Minorities (NCM), which held that the reports of an exodus were exaggerated.

Singh was also accused of nepotism and lobbying for his daughter Mriganka Singh, who contested and lost the 2017 UP Assembly polls from the Kairana seat.New Delhi: The CBI has moved a Delhi court to investigate the Bofors gun kickback case, which had once implicated late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and other Congress leaders.

The agency has filed an application before a trial court to further investigate the politically sensitive case.

The application was filed by the CBI on Thursday under the provisions of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC), which enables an investigating agency to take up the matter to investigate a case further after permission of the trial judge.

The trial court has fixed the case for hearing on February 17.

According to the application, certain new material has surfaced which warrant a further investigation into the Bofors case.

The CBI's plea mentioned a television interview by private detective Michael Hershman, who claimed that the Rajiv Gandhi government had sabotaged his investigation, and that he was open to assist the Indian agency in getting to the truth.

Hershman, who is the president of the United States detective agency Fairfax, had also claimed in the interviews that former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was furious when the detective reportedly found a Swiss bank account in which bribe money from the Bofors scandal was parked.

"Hershman has stated that he is in possession of material which would show the payment of bribes in the Bofors deal, and that the involvement of powerful persons may be the reason for the checkered history of this case," stated the CBI's application, seeking a permission to further probe the case.

A day after moving the trial court, the CBI also filed an appeal against the Delhi High Court order, closing the case against Hinduja brothers.

It pointed out that since it intends to now investigate the case further, it must file an appeal against the closure of the case in the top court.

Explaining the 12-year-long delay, the agency contended that although the HC judgment was legally untenable, it could not file an appeal since the government of the day (UPA-I) and the law officer concerned denied it the permission.

The CBI, relying upon the principle that a crime never dies, requested the SC to admit its appeal

"In the present case, given the gravity of the offences and the weighty public interest involved, it is submitted that this court would decide this petition not on the basis of the time but on the touchstone of the necessity to ensure that the guilty do not escape the long arm of the law and go unpunished, the agency submitted in the apex court.

It maintained that the accused cannot be let go scot-free without trial as it would jeopardise national and public interest.Panna: Police in Madhya Pradesh's Panna district on Saturday arrested a criminal six days after he took hostage policemen of a Dial 100 First Response Vehicle and hijacked it to abduct a girl.

The accused, Devraj Singh, is a notorious criminal of the area and is an accused in three murder cases.

He was arrested after an encounter with the police and sustained some injuries. Two policemen were also reportedly injured in the encounter and have been admitted to hospital.

Superintendent of Police, Panna, Riyaz Iqbal, said that they had received a tip off that the accused was hiding in the forests of Mathri Kuthar in Panna. He then led a team and surrounded Devraj in the forest.

After being challenged by the police, Devraj opened fire on them and a fierce gun battle ensued. The shootout left TI Arvind Singh Dangi and a constable Rahul Baghel injured while Devraj was also wounded.

Police recovered a country-made pistol and live cartridges from his possession.

On January 28, Devraj and four of his associates had held captive two police personnel deployed in Dial 100 vehicle and used it to abduct a 20-year-old girl from Bamuraha village.

The fugitives were on the run for next few days while keeping the girl with them before the police managed to nab Devrajs accomplishes and recovered the girl. Devraj, however, managed to slip away. He was later found by the police leading to the encounter.

The two policemen have been suspended on charges of patrolling unarmed.

The Congress has criticized the BJP-led state government for the incident, saying that even police are not able to secure themselves.London: India's most wanted terrorist Dawood Ibrahim has been linked to a series of properties across Britain, according to a media report today. The 62-year-old fugitive mafia boss, wanted in India as the mastermind of the Mumbai bomb blasts in 1993 and accused of crimes such as match-fixing and extortion, accrued a vast property portfolio across the Midlands and south-east in the UK as well as India, the United Arab Emirates, Spain, Morocco, Turkey, Cyprus and Australia, 'The Times' reported.

The newspaper matched details from a dossier prepared by Indian authorities to records held by the UK's Companies House and the Land Registry, as well as the Panama Papers to form a snapshot of the alleged property portfolio.

It is claimed his syndicate, known as D-Company, once smuggled drugs through Pakistan and across Indian borders for shipment to Europe and North America from the ports at Mumbai, as portrayed in a new BBC series 'McMafia'.

Ibrahim, believed to be hiding in Pakistan, is the inspiration behind an Indian underworld don named "Dilly Mahmood" in the eight-part television series, which highlights the misuse of Britain by globally organised crime syndicates.

"Britain features in his (Ibrahim's) criminal world as a place where he can launder money a classic 'McMafia' tactic. He is thought to have property interests in a variety of southern English counties like Essex and Kent," Misha Glenny, who wrote the non-fiction book 'McMafia: A Journey Through the

Global Criminal Underworld, and is an executive producer on the TV series, told the newspaper.

"But we can't know for certain because the government has been dragging its heels in legislating to force transparency of the beneficial owners of companies registered in our overseas territories," she noted.

In an apparent parallel with Ibrahim, Dilly Mahmood is portrayed as an ambitious gangster rising from a modest background to dominate the black market in Mumbai in the series.

Documents seen by this newspaper also allege that on Ibrahim's behalf his right-handman, Muhammed Iqbal "Mirchi" Memon, accrued a vast property portfolio in the UK which includes hotels, mansions, tower blocks and houses in suburbs in the south-east of England.

Memon, also a suspect in the 1993 Mumbai attacks, had sought refuge in London after the blasts and attempts to extradite him to India had failed. He was never convicted of any crimes and denied his involvement in Ibrahim's cartel. Memon, who held 11 company directorships in tiling, construction and lettings firms in Britain, died after suffering a heart attack in London in 2013.

Ibrahim, who has an Interpol red notice against him, has been on the UK Treasury sanctions list for years with three recorded addresses in Pakistan. The gangster's place of birth is recorded as Khed, Ratnagiri, Maharashtra, and his nationality is listed as "Indian" with a recorded Indian passport, which was subsequently revoked by the government of India.

Financial sanctions in force in the UK cover measures such as prohibiting the transfer of funds to a sanctioned country and targeted asset freezes on individuals. In relation to the alleged properties associated with him in the UK, Ibrahim would now be a likely target for new 'Unexplained Wealth Orders' introduced by the UK government this week.

UK security minister Ben Wallace, who has described the portrayal of crime bosses in 'McMafia' as "very close to the truth", wants the "full force of the government" to bear down on criminals and corrupt politicians using Britain as a playground and haven.

"'McMafia'is one of those things where you realise that fact is ahead of fiction. It's a really good portrayal of sharp-suited wealthy individuals, but follow the money and it ends up with a young girl getting trafficked for sex," he told 'The Times' in an interview.

"When we get to you, we will come for you, for your assets and we will make the environment that you live in difficult," he warned. Unexplained wealth orders (UWOs) will require individuals suspected of serious crime or involvement in bribery or corruption to explain the source of property valued at more than 50,000 pounds.

For the first time the UK law also extends recovery powers to cover "politically exposed persons" from countries outside the European Union (EU). The UK government estimates that about 90 billion pounds of illegal cash is laundered in Britain every year.Lucknow: The Yogi Adityanath governments pick for Gorakhpur in the latest IPS reshuffle has become fresh fodder for controversy in Uttar Pradesh, with the opposition accusing it of saffronising the police force.

The man in the eye of the storm is 1992-batch UP-cadre officer Dawa Sherpa, who will soon take charge as the Additional Director General (ADG) of Police in Gorakhpur, the home turf of Yogi Adityanath. The bone of contention is Sherpas previous stint with the BJP and his absence from service for four years.

According to the official records, Sherpa was absent from service from 2008 till 2012. He had reportedly applied for Voluntary Retirement Scheme (VRS) in October 2008 and proceeded on long leave from his posting at Sitapur as Commandant, 2nd Battalion PAC. The state home department, however, could not decide on whether to accept Sherpa's plea as he had not completed 20 years of service, a must to be eligible for VRS.

During this absence, Sherpa went back to his hometown Darjeeling and emerged as a well-known face of Gorkhaland politics. He later joined the BJP, becoming the partys state secretary.

Sherpa reportedly wanted to contest the 2009 Lok Sabha elections from Darjeeling, but lost out the BJP ticket to Jaswant Singh at the 11th hour. He then resigned from the party and joined the Akhil Bharatiya Gorkha League (ABGL). He also held the post of convenor in the Democratic Front, which comprised six regional parties, including the ABGL.

Sherpa, who was once considered close to former BJP chief Rajnath Singh, returned to active police service in Uttar Pradesh in 2012. He was promoted to the post of Deputy Inspector General (DIG) in 2013 and later to the post of Inspector General. His latest posting was as the ADG in Crime Branch-CID division.

Strongly objecting to Sherpas flip-flop between police service and politics, former UP police chief Vikram Singh said, While in service, you cannot do such things. If you really want to do politics, then take off that uniform and go ahead with full-time politics. Nobody is stopping anyone. But you cannot do politics and be an IPS officer at the same time. You have identified yourself with a particular outfit and a particular political ideology. Therefore, you have no right to be in the All India Service."

"Under the All India Service Rule Section 3-1, absolute intellectual and moral integrity is required for public service. This officer might have resigned in order to do politics, but when he failed, he joined back. This also raises questions on corruption in the system. This matter should be investigated. Under what circumstances did he return? How come his resignation was not accepted? Was it manipulation? The fact remains that you have indulged in politics for a few years. That is sufficient reason for you to not wear the uniform," Singh said while speaking to News18.

Objecting to Sherpas new posting, Samajwadi Party spokesperson Sunil Singh Sajan said the BJP is picking officers who share its ideology. The BJP is trying to place officers who are somehow in agreement with the partyline not just in police force, but on all important positions. They want to suppress the Oppositions voice, but let me assure you that they wont be able to suppress the voice of the Samajwadi Party, Sajan said.

The government must clarify on where Dawa Sherpa was during his absence, which party he was linked to and for whom was he was working. When everybody knows that he was in politics, a serious question arises on whether he would function according to the constitutional oath taken by him or will he function according to the oath he took while working for the BJP, Sajan added.

The Congress demanded Sherpas removal from the post and an inquiry into how he was allowed to re-join the force after working for the BJP.

Mr Sherpa should be immediately removed from his posting and an independent inquiry should be conducted to ascertain where he was for almost four years of his service break. How was he allowed to join back as an IPS after working for the BJP and other political outfits? This is a very serious issue and the home ministry should answer these questions. How can anyone expect him to function without political bias when he has been a BJP member and an active politician in Gorkhaland politics? asked Congress spokesperson Zishan Haider.

The Chief Minister is working on saffronisation agenda. The officers who share the same mentality are being appointed to help the government suppress any voice raised against them, Haider added.

When contacted, BJP spokesperson Rakesh Tripathi said, Right now, I am not aware of this situation. The party will take note of it as the BJPs only agenda is to bring transparency in the system and appoint responsible officers. We want good governance from responsible officers and not at all want them to act as party representatives.New Delhi: Exam Warriors, a book penned by Prime Minister Narendra Modi for students, will be released on Saturday in the presence of External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Human Resource Development Minister Prakash Javadekar.

The book is the fifth one to be written by the Prime Minister and the first on the need to develop stress-free attitude to exams. Catered for young minds, the books also incorporates interactive elements such as bar codes for e-reading.

It compiles nuggets from his radio addresses and anecdotes from his own life on how he coped with stress during exams. It inspires students to take up creative and physical activities to deal with stress.

In one of the chapters, Modi shared an anecdote about the time he was participating in a school play.

I had to deliver a particular dialogue which, for some reason, I was struggling with. The director of the play got impatient and said he would be unable to direct me if I kept saying the dialogue in that manner. Naturally, I thought I was doing it perfectly, so I found it perplexing that the director would say this about me. The next day, I asked him to act like me and show me what I was doing wrong. In a matter of seconds, I realised where I was going wrong and was able to improve myself, said Modi.

The PM has also reached out to teachers and parents through the book, a source familiar with the books content said.

Keep doing everything that you can to support your children. This includes lightening the childs mood and ensuring he or she appears for the exam in a happy and stress-free manner, the PM advised parents in the book.

Addressing teachers, Modi said they should enable their students to be original and rooted thinkers who are blessed with a thirst for knowledge, a spirit of inquiry and a zeal for innovation.

Saturdays book launch will be followed by a town hall gathering on February 16 where the PM will interact with students from across the country. At the event, which is likely to be held in Delhis Talkatora stadium or the Indira Gandhi arena, the PM will also take questions from students via social media and videoconferencing.

This is not the first time Modi is addressing the issue of exam stress. Last year, Modi, to the surprise of many, made exam stress the topic of his monthly Mann Ki Baat radio address to the nation. In the past, the PM has exhorted students not to treat examinations as a matter of life and death.

According to a national study, a student commits suicide in India every hour. A 2012 report by Britains Lancet magazine said that India has one of the worlds highest suicide rates for youth aged 15 to 29.

Experts have repeatedly highlighted the need to tackle this issue, and the PM has tried to weigh in by speaking to students before the exam season every year. In 2017s first Mann Ki Baat, he had asked students to treat exams like festivals and urged them not to take too much stress. A happy mind is the secret of a good mark sheet, he had said.

He also cited the example of former President APJ Abdul Kalam, who had once revealed that he had tried to join the Air Force and failed, but that did not stop him from becoming a brilliant scientist.Rajouri: A day after two Kashmiri students were attacked in Mahendergarh, Haryana, the father of one of them has alleged that his son was attacked for wearing a skullcap.

The students, Amjad and Aftab, of Central University of Haryana were allegedly beaten up by a group of around 10-15 men and suffered several bruises on the faces, arms and legs.

Students of the university said that the attack was completely unprovoked and the two were targeted only for their Kashmiri identity.

"There is no protection. My son was returning after the Friday prayers when a few bike borne men beat him up for wearing a skullcap," said Aftabs father Adbul Qayoom.

Qayoom urged the Jammu and Kashmir government to take required action.

On Saturday, the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly witnessed noisy scenes over the unfortunate incident with opposition members staging a walkout during the zero hour.

The state government assured the House that the matter has been taken up with Haryana and three persons have been arrested in the case.

Worried over the safety of his son, Aftab, Qayoom sought protection for his ward and at the same time advised him to get rid of his beard.

"He is a religious boy, he can't stop offering namaaz, but I have asked him to shave off his beard," said Qayoom.

BS Sandhu, Director General of Police, Haryana, was quoted by a Srinagar based news agency - GNS - saying: "We have arrested three youth among six identified.

The agency quoting Inspector Ramesh Kumar, SHO, Mahendergarh, said the names of arrested were Arvind, Suresh, Satveer. Some who are still at large were Pankaj, Ram Niyas and Yogesh.

"We have constituted a SIT headed by IGP Dr SC Roy and procured a clip which will help us identify all those responsible," Sandhu told the news agency.

Qayoom, meanwhile, stressed that every university has students from J&K, and it won't work if students are viewed as from this religion or that. He said students from other states also study in J&K.

Last night Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti reacting to a News18 tweet and picture of the injured boy had asked JKDGP to take up the issue with Rajasthan counterpart.

Mehbooba tweeted to Haryana chief minister ML Khatter urging him to take action against the culprits. In the morning Khatter tweeted back saying police have started investigation and lodged an FIR.

On Saturday, the NC and Congress MLAs walked out of state Assembly protesting the beating of the students.

Despite the helplines set up by state and central governments, reports of profiling of the Kashmiris continue to pour across the country.Jodhpur: The Chief of Staff of the US Air Force, General David L Goldfein, flew the 'Made in India' light combat aircraft Tejas in Jodhpur on Saturday.

With this he became the first foreign military chief to fly the LCA that has been in the making for 30 years and seen criticism about its performance.

"General David L Goldfein, Chief of Staff of the US Air Force, is on an official visit to India. He flew a sortie in '#MadeinIndia' LCA Tejas aircraft at AF Stn Jodhpur today," the IAF said on Twitter.

General David L Goldfein, Chief of Staff of the US Air Force, is on an official visit to India. He flew a sortie in '#MadeinIndia' LCA Tejas aircraft at AF Stn Jodhpur today. pic.twitter.com/UQB7Rvl1PJ Indian Air Force (@IAF_MCC) February 3, 2018

Goldfein is a command pilot with 4200 flying hours under his belt. He has flown in the Gulf war and in Afghanistan as well. His co-pilot on the flight was Air Vice Marshal AP Singh.

Goldfein along with General Terrence O'Shaughnessy, Commander of US Pacific Air Force, landed in New Delhi on Thursday to boost military ties between the two nations and has had several rounds of discussion with key functionaries of the IAF, including Air Chief Marshal BS Dhanoa.

The first squadron of Tejas was inducted into the IAF in July 2016.Jaipur: Shree Rajput Karni Sena chief Lokendra Singh Kalvi on Saturday dismissed reports that his outfit has withdrawn protests against Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Padmaavat and said it must be some "fake news" circulated by a "fake Karni Sena".

He also said that his group has made the BJP pay - via its loss in the Rajasthan bypolls - for not respecting the sentiments of the protesting Rajputs.

"There are many fake Karni Senas emerging in India. At present there are eight such entities operating in the country with vested interests," Kalvi told IANS.

The Rajput leader, whose group has been at the forefront of massive protests against Padmaavat, said there has been a "duplicacy" in matters pertaining to Karni Sena's functioning.

He stressed that there was "only one Rajput Karni Sena operating in India and I proudly say that I am the founder of that organisation".

He also asked people to "beware of such similarly named organisations functioning and operating in the market".

The Shree Rajput Karni Sena has been protesting the Deepika Padukone starrer since its inception, claiming the film distorts history.

"We started the initial protests against the release of the film, which we still continue to do," he said.

"However, the other duplicate Karni Senas are creating a dubious situation by releasing contradictory and fake news," Kalvi added.

Speaking on the Bharatiya Janata Party's loss in the Rajasthan bypolls, the Rajput leader said: "Around 17 organisations have joined hands and declared that they will make sure that BJP loses elections on each and every seat."

"And we proved what we said. Congress won with a big margin while BJP was a loser on its home turf."

"Jauhar ki jwala mein bahut kuchh jalega. Aur bhi bahut ghatnayen hongi (The fire of Jauhar will burn down many things, there is more to come). 'Padmaavat' will decide many things in future."

Kalvi said: "We want the government to understand via political loss how it has hurt the sentiments of people here."

"We have hit hard on notes as well as votes. Bhansali was expected to get Rs 500 crore return, however, we scuttled his dreams and cut the profit margin to Rs 150 crore.

"Similarly, the vote share of the BJP was reduced," he added.

"I have met 21 Chief Ministers and am looking forward to meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi soon. I have got the call from PMO asking about my schedule and have given them my schedule.

"Will see when can I meet him and apprise him on the present situation," Kalvi added.

The Rajput leader strongly denied having any political aspirations.

"None of us have any dream of floating a political party," he said.

The Rajput Karni Sena on Friday had announced that it had decided to end the protests against Bhansali's Padmaavat stating that the film "glorifies the valour of the Rajputs".

Shree Rashtriya Rajput Karni Sena's Mumbai leader, Yogendra Singh Kartar said that a few members of the outfit watched the film on the directions of the organisation's national President Sukhdev Singh Gogamadi and found that the "film glorifies" the valour and sacrifice of Rajputs, and "every Rajput would feel proud" after watching it.Jammu: With Leader of Opposition in the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly Omar Abdullah drawing a parallel between the PDP-BJP alliance and the "deal with the devil", Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti on Friday said she can accept going to hell to save Kashmir.

During his address, Abdullah narrated the story of Faust and Satan - the pact between a person and Satan or a lesser demon in which the person offers his or her soul in exchange for diabolical favours and said today's situation reminds him of the story.

Abdullah o Friday demanded the constitution of a high-level special investigation team (SIT) to probe the killings of three people in firing by security forces when a convoy was attacked by stone-pelters in Shopian district.

"You (Mehbooba) have also entered into such a trade politically for six years of rule. They (BJP) gave you full six years of rule with respect, dignity, honour, with a design to take away your political soul," Omar said.

The former CM said the end of this story depends upon you. In case, she (Mehbooba) wants to save herself from the fire of hell (as per the story), then it better to take corrective measures.

"You undertake prayers like Faust, bring change in the governance of this state so that you can restore your political soul and save yourself from fire of hell," he said.

Responding to Omar's comments, Mufti said she doesn't believe in mythology and stories.

"Now, he (Omar) has left by giving me fatwa of going to hell but I feel that God has given us the paradise - the paradise of Kashmir," Mehbooba told the Assembly after Omar had left the House.

She said, "I can accept going to hell a hundred times to save this paradise. I will be happy to do that if I can be able to bring people out of this hell here. It will not be a big price for me to pay."

Mehbooba, who was replying to a discussion on the budgetary demands of the home department, said she can sacrifice herself if people of Jammu and Kashmir could get rid of their agony and pain.

She said it was the mission of former chief minister and her father Mufti Mohammad Sayeed to pull the people of the state out of the vicious circle of violence.

Omar blamed Mehbooba Mufti for selling people with dreams of self-rule, dual currency, joint mechanism of a legislative body of both sides of Kashmir.

"But what you said here that whatever people of Jammu and Kashmir will get, can be from the Constitution of India and will get nothing outside of that," he said.

Mehbooba Mufti said that BJP is biggest and strongest party in the country and it is not a weak one.

"We should not insult people who have chosen them (BJP and its alliance partners)to rule the country", she said while taking a dig at Omar's remarks.

Reacting to Abdullah's remarks, Deputy Chief Minister Nirmal Singh said, "He (Omar) is adding fuel to the fire with his remarks. He has targeted security forces. He has tried to create polarisation between Kashmir and rest of India."

The deputy chief minister said he had high respect for Abdullah but lost it today.New Delhi: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has poured cold water on speculation the government could advance general elections, ordinarily due in May 2019, to later this year to coincide with the Assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh.

A steady stream of comments this week from the President, Prime Minister and the Law Minister making the case for simultaneous elections had triggered speculation that they were setting the stage for advancing general elections.

But Jaitley told News18 Network that he did not see that as a possibility.

"Government wants simultaneous elections, but it is not necessary that dates will be advanced for that," he said in an exclusive interview to Network 18 Editor in Chief Rahul Joshi. The full interview will be telecast on Monday.

Jaitley also rejected the possibility that the Assembly elections in MP, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh, due at the end of 2018, could instead be postponed and held along with the general elections. He said such a move would need changes to the Constitution.

"Till the time Constitution is changed, and there is consensus on the issues, the Assembly and Lok Sabha elections will not overlap," he said.

"And going by the reaction the issue evoked, it seems people (opposition) are not in favour of any such move," the Finance Minister added.

Speculation has swirled in political circles that by clubbing the Assembly elections with the Lok Sabha elections the BJP could counter any anti-incumbency to its state governments and emerge victorious riding the popularity of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who continues to have high approval ratings in opinion polls.

The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government led by the BJP completes its full five year term in May 2019.

Modi has made no secret of his desire to have simultaneous state and central elections on grounds a continuous electoral cycle disrupted governance.

He repeated his call earlier this week too. At the beginning of the current session of parliament, he urged parties to rise above political lines to explore the idea.

Before him, President Ram Nath Kovind, in his address to the joint session of parliament at the beginning of the budget session, also stressed on the need to have simultaneous polls to the Lok Sabha and state Assemblies.

The response thus far from the main opposition party- the Congress  thus far has been tepid. Former Finance Minister P Chidambaram called the idea "another jumla".

"In a parliamentary democracy, especially when we have 30 states, under the present Constitution you cannot have simultaneous election," Chidambaram said at a book release function earlier this week.

Chief Election Commissioner OP Rawat has also been of the view that simultaneous Assembly and LS polls will require constitutional changes though the Commission was logistically prepared to hold the two together.New Delhi: The Congress on Saturday charged the Modi government with targeting political opponents by implicating them in false cases to divert people's attention from the "paralysis of governance", a day after party leader Bhupinder Singh Hooda was chargesheeted by the CBI in a corruption case.

Congress communications in-charge Randeep Surjewala said that the party would not be cowed down by "such political vendetta" the Modi government had been unleashing against its leaders with a view to save itself from public outrage ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

He cited the example of the Bofors case and alleged that the BJP-led central government was keeping the issue alive to defame the Congress. The CBI on Friday filed a petition in the Supreme Court challenging a 2005 order of the Delhi High Court quashing all charges against accused persons in the politically-sensitive Bofors pay-off case.

Surjewala alleged that this was being done purely with a view to divert attention from "paralysis of governance" and was part of a "conspiracy hatched by the Modi government and the BJP leadership for their vested political interests".

"The Modi government is indulging in political vendetta by lodging Congress leaders in false cases. As its political graph is falling down, the government is getting Congress leaders implicated in baseless and false cases through CBI and other agencies.

"But, Congress leaders will fight these conspiracies and false criminal cases with full rigour," he told reporters here.

Former Haryana chief minister Hooda and 33 others were on Friday chargesheeted by the CBI in the case of alleged corruption in Manesar land deals worth over Rs 1,500 crore, in which around 200 farmers were cheated.

Surjewala also targeted the Haryana government, alleging that these cases were also being used as a ploy to divert the attention from the abject "failure" of the state government in Haryana, where law and order has "broken down completely and anarchy prevails".

He said that several Congress leaders such as Bhupender Singh Hooda, Virbhadra Singh, Ashok Gehlot, Sachin Pilot, P Chidambaram and his family, Ashok Chavan, Sheila Dikshit and Harish Rawat have been booked in false cases.

"There is public outrage against the Modi government in the country. The government wants to throttle opposition voice," the Congress leader said.

He said that the BJP-led government is using agencies such as the CBI as their "captive puppets".

"CBI has truly become a BJP's 'Captive Bureau of Investigation'. Rank politicisation of CBI by Modi Government to seek revenge against opposition leaders is writ large in successive cases," he also said.

According to the CBI FIR in the Manesar case, it is alleged that on August 27, 2004 and August 25, 2005, the Haryana government issued separate notifications for the acquisition of 912 acres of land for setting up an industrial model township at Manesar, Naurangpur and Lakhnoula villages in Gurgaon.

Threatening the farmers with the government's acquisition process, builders allegedly purchased around 459 acres from farmers at prices in the range of Rs 20-25 lakh per acre to Rs 1.50 crore per acre, the CBI has alleged.

Around 350 acres of land were bought at throwaway price of Rs 20-25 lakh per acre, while another 50 acres at the rate of even Rs 1.50 crore (approx) per acre, it said.

In 2007, the builders allegedly gave a plea in the office of the then chief minister, Bhupinder Singh Hooda, seeking withdrawal of the acquisition process which was done two months later on August 24, the CBI has alleged.

Surjewala said that Manesar land was released on August 24, 2007 and the Harayana's Khattar government lodged an FIR after eight years - on August 12, 2015 against unnamed persons, which was then handed over by "a predetermined design" to the CBI.Kohima: After the BJP broke rank, Naga People's Front (NPF) and Congress too made it clear that they will contest the state assembly elections, scheduled for February 27.

These developments come less than a week since the dramatic all-stakeholders meeting in Dimapur, which decided that none of the political parties would contest the polls.

In a press note issued by the NPF, it said the Government of India repeatedly pointed out that holding timely elections was a constitutional requirement and that it was bound by constitutional provisions. Therefore, it became apparent that the February 27 election will be a reality.

The NPF went on to blame lack of consensus amongst NGOs and themselves as the reason they have to take part in the polls. They, however, did maintain that their commitment towards a solution of the Naga political issue shall continue as in the past.

The Congress decided to blame BJP and NPF, and said, Since all political parties, led by the NPF and BJP, are gearing up to take part in elections, Congress will soon be releasing its 2018 Election Manifesto.

Congress especially blamed the BJP for forcing elections against the wishes of the people. It also blamed the party of planning to flood the state with money to lure candidates and buy out the voters. They simply brushed aside the Joint Declaration of January 29 and made a scapegoat out of their senior party functionaries, said the Congress statement.

BJP was the first party to announce its candidates for the polls. The party would contest the elections for the cause of solution to the Naga political problem. This came soon after Union Minister of State and BJP's man-in-charge of Nagaland elections, Kiren Rijiju said, "The Union Government is sensitive about the sentiment of Naga people and is committed to an early solution to their issue. The government will implement the solution as soon as it is reached."

The Congress and NPFs willingness to declare candidates is because they do not wish for a redux of 1998. Back then, all parties, apart from Congress had boycotted the polls after a similar call by the Naga apex tribal body, Naga Hoho. Congress won 53 seats, while independents got seven. NPF was de-recognised and their symbol frozen for boycotting the polls.

It is expected that all the major parties would file their nominations before February 7, the last date for doing so.Bhopal: Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan expanded his cabinet by drafting in three ministers on Saturday.

All three are prominent faces of their respective regions and are expected to bolster BJPs plans of snatching the Mungaoli and Kolaras assembly seats from the Congress during the upcoming bypolls. The move is also to try and rein in the simmering farmers discontent.

In a function organised at Raj Bhavan on Saturday morning, Governor Anandiben Patel administered oath of office to Balkrishna Patidar from Khargone, Narayan Singh Kushwah from Gwalior and Jalam Singh Patel from Narsinghpur.

With little over six months in reserve for their ministerial term, at least in this tenure of the BJP government, the newly inducted ministers vowed to work for the party especially during the upcoming assembly polls.

Whenever new colleagues join, they bring in energy and help us in better governance, said CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan after the function. He, however, baffled many when he laughingly said, "Lets wait for another mini-expansion."

His remarks come in the wake of reports that he wished to include Gopilal Jatav, a prominent Dalit face from Ashoknagar but his name was said to be dropped at the eleventh hour after Congress moved Election Commission alleging that a person from a poll-bound constituency cannot be made minister in accordance with the Model Code of Conduct.

Narsinghpurs Jalam Singh Patel is the brother of former Union Minister Prahlad Singh Patel and represents the Lodhi community, which has close to 18,000 voters in Mungali and around 10,000 in Kolaras. Narayan Singh Kushwah who comes from Kachhi community in Gwalior, would have the backing of 15000 voters in Kolaras and around 8,000 in Mungaoli.

The inclusion of veteran Balkrishna Patidar from Khargone brings representation of Patidars, who were majorly a part of the farmers stir in June, especially in Mandsaur. Placating agitated farmers is CM Shivrajs biggest concern ahead of the by-elections.

The party high commands influence, though, can be seen in the inclusion of Jalam Singh Patel, younger brother of senior leader Prahlad Singh Patel, a known CM Shivraj detractor and close aide of former Chief Minister Uma Bharti. Patel senior also enjoys sizable backing in PM Narendra Modi and party chief Amit Shah.

Meanwhile, disappointment was well-written on the face of BJP general secretary Kailash Vjayvargiya as he said, Shivraj ji is Indore ke Jan Nayak aur Mahnayak hain, isiliye Indore se kisi ke pratinidhitva ki jarurat nahin (Shivraj ji is Indores public hero, that is why Indore doesnt need a representative). The former cabinet colleague was referring to a cabinet berth not being allotted to anyone from Indore, his hometown.

Kushwah has been assigned a cabinet rank while the remaining two would be discharging their duties as ministers of state. Allotment of portfolios would take place later.

Meanwhile, CM Shivraj left three remaining berths in his cabinet vacant conveying the message that he was not in the mood to trigger any discontent ahead of the by-polls. He is also hinting about a possible cabinet rejig in preparation for the assembly elections.Stronger iPhone prices and hints by Apple on Thursday that it could return more than half of its $285 billion in cash to shareholders eased concerns among investors, even as the world's biggest technology company gave a disappointing revenue outlook for the current quarter. Apple also reported it sold fewer iPhones over the holiday quarter than Wall Street had expected.

But the revenue outlook for the first three months of 2018 "was not as bad as some feared," said Jun Zhang of Rosenblatt Securities Inc. Apple's comments about plans for its $163 billion in net cash helped boost shares 3.3 percent to $173.48 in after-the-bell trading. Over time, we are trying to target a capital structure that is approximately net neutral. We will have approximately the same level of cash and debt on the balance sheet, Apple's chief financial officer, Luca Maestri, told Reuters in an interview.

Were going to take that balance down from $163 billion to zero," Maestri said, referring to Apple's current level of cash net of debt. He did not say whether the reduction in net cash would come in the form of returning capital to shareholders, capital expenditures or acquisitions. The cash plans are a "pleasant surprise," Brian Colello, an analyst at Morningstar, said. "This goes a bit against Apples historically conservative capital structure."

Trip Miller, managing partner at Gullane Capital Partners and an Apple investor, said the move to a level balance sheet was good news. "Let's face it, this cash has been doing nothing for us over the last six years," he said. Apple forecast revenue of $60 billion to $62 billion and gross margins of between 38 percent and 38.5 percent for its fiscal second quarter ending in March. Analysts were expecting $65.7 billion in sales and a gross margin of 38.9 percent for the March quarter, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S, though some had forecast sales as low as $60 billion.

Thrivent Financial analyst Peter Karazeris said the low revenue forecast had been expected by many analysts and investors following a string of credible reports that Apple had cut parts orders. "Im happy weve gotten the bad news that I was expecting guided into the stock. It was probably a little overbaked," he said. "Now we're focusing on metrics that really matter like free-cash generation and shareholder returns." Thrivent holds Apple shares.

Bright spots in the fiscal first quarter ended Dec. 30 included average selling prices for the iPhone that topped Wall Street predictions, at $796 versus expectations of $756. The strong prices offset unit sales of iPhones that missed Wall Street expectations, coming in at 77.3 million units versus estimates of 80 million. It was really driven by the success of the iPhone X and also the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus, Maestri told Reuters of the pricing strength. The new lineup has done incredibly well."

The company posted revenue of $88.3 billion and profit of $3.89 per share, from $78.4 billion and $3.36 per share a year earlier. The results beat analyst expectations of revenue of $87.3 billion and profits of $3.86 per share. Apple's services business, which includes Apple Music, the App Store and iCloud, grew 18 percent to $8.4 billion, missing analyst expectations of $8.6 billion. Maestri said the lower services revenue was because the holiday quarter was only 13 weeks rather than 14 weeks.

The services revenue was down slightly from $8.5 billion the quarter before. "That's something to watch as we roll further into 2018," said Miller of Gullane Capital. "Does that continue to stagnate, or was that a one-time bump in the road?" Maestri also said Apple's installed base of active devices reached 1.3 billion, 30 percent higher than two years ago and representing an expansion of potential customers for the services business.

Apple said it expected its tax rate for the March quarter to be 15 percent following changes in U.S. tax law. The company said last month it plans to make a one-time tax payment of $38 billion on its overseas cash and has a five-year, $30 billion U.S. capital expenditure plan. The company did not say how much of its overseas cash it would bring back to the United States in the short term and gave no new information about its capital return program, which it typically updates each April.

Also read: Motorola Moto X4 (6GB RAM) Review: Its Better And More Powerful NowKabul: Afghan President Ashraf Ghani left open on Saturday the possibility for talks with militants who accept peace but said the door was closed to those who cause tragedies like recent attacks in the capital, Kabul.

An attack on the Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul on January 20 and a suicide bombing on a crowded city street a week later have stoked public anger and stepped up pressure on Ghani's Western-backed government to improve security.

The attacks, which killed more than 130 people and were claimed by the Taliban, have also raised fresh doubt about long-running efforts to initiate talks with the insurgents.

The president's office said on Tuesday the militants had crossed a "red line" and peace would have to be won on the battle field.

But Ghani raised the possibility of reconciliation with some militants in a speech to Islamic clerics in Kabul.

"Those who are responsible for this tragedy and do not want peace, the door of peace is closed to them," Ghani said.

"Those who accept peace, they will witness that the nation will embrace them. But there is a clear difference, our commitment to bringing peace does not mean we will sit quietly and won't retaliate."

"We will dig them out from any hiding holes."

Afghanistan's government has made such vows for years but the insurgency appears ever more resilient. Peace efforts have been made in fits and starts but without progress.

US President Donald Trump appeared to dash any hope for peace efforts on Monday when he condemned the Taliban for the Kabul violence and rejected the idea of talks.

Trump last year ordered an increase in US troops, air strikes and other assistance to Afghan forces, to force the Taliban to negotiate.

But his comments on Monday suggested he saw a military victory over the Taliban, an outcome that US military and diplomatic officials said could not be achieved with the resources and manpower he had authorized.

US Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan said in Kabul on Tuesday the U.S. strategy had not changed and the aim was still to press the Taliban militarily to convince them that they had to negotiate.

The Taliban are fighting to drive out foreign troops and re-establish their form of strict Islamic law.

Afghanistan has long accused neighbouring Pakistan of failing to act against Taliban plotting violence from safe havens on the Pakistani side of the border.

On Friday, Ghani accused Pakistan of being the "Taliban centre" and said he was waiting for Pakistani action.

Pakistan denies helping the Taliban and a Pakistani delegation led by Foreign Secretary Tehmina Janjua visited Kabul on Saturday with the aim of fostering cooperation. Janjua called for both sides to stop the "blame game", Pakistani media reported.

The United States said last month it would cut security aid to Pakistan, complaining it was not doing enough to fight militants sheltering there.New York: They shot to fame in 2015 with a portrait of Vladimir Putin made of bullet shells from the killing fields of eastern Ukraine. Now, the two Ukrainian artists are back with a portrait of Donald Trump made from coins and poker chips.

Threats forced Daria Marchenko, 35, and Daniel Green, 34, to leave their homeland in November 2016. They now lead an itinerant life, traveling and exhibiting their work in the United States and Latin America.

The Trump portrait finished one month ago, is made of nearly 4,000 one cent and five-cent pieces. Poker chips are used for the US president's shoulders.

The artists are now searching for a place for a public unveiling.

As with their "Face of War" portrait of the Russian leader, the Trump version, called "Face of Money" plays in the light revealing different expressions. Marchenko's favorite? The one in which "he is very proud of himself," she tells AFP in New York.

They came up with the idea of the enormous portrait  nearly eight foot by five foot (2.4 meters by 1.7 meters)  last summer when Putin ordered the United States to reduce its diplomatic footprint in Russia by 755 employees.

Trump responded by thanking Putin, saying it would allow the United States to cut down its payroll and "save a lot of money."

"I thought, 'oh my God, you are so cheap, how can you be American president'?" says Green. "At that moment, I thought coins is the best way to show his portrait."

The duo deliberately chose one cent and five-cent pieces, the smallest denominations of US currency, to illustrate their point, Green explains.

Coins darkened with fire are used for the pupils, eyebrows and to emphasize the chin.

The poker chips are a nod to the casinos the billionaire once ran in Atlantic City, New Jersey  but also, in Green's words, to his brand of international diplomacy.

"He does international politics like he's playing. Sometimes he wins, sometimes he loses big," says the artist.

'Make waves'

Green singles out the US president's announcement in December that he was recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, and preparing to relocate the US embassy from Tel Aviv.

"When only eight countries follow you, it shows America has lost all power," he says.

The artists left Ukraine following the backlash over their Putin portrait, and after a kidnap attempt against Marchenko.

"We had threats by email. When you are walking on the street, somebody comes to you and tells you something," says Marchenko, her dreadlocks tucked into a beanie.

"Mostly not direct threats but 'Guys, don't hurry to create... be in a hurry to leave," she carries on. "We became tired of this. Morally it was very difficult. So we left."

But the Trump portrait isn't making things easier for them.

They offered it for exhibition at New York's Ukrainian Art Institute of America, which is already exhibiting their work on Putin and the war in Ukraine.

The institute, however, was reluctant "to make waves," between Kiev and Washington, Green said.

The two artists now hope to show their Putin and Trump portraits together, perhaps in Las Vegas, Los Angeles or San Francisco.

"They will be face-to-face, they will have a dialogue," says Marchenko dryly.

She and Green, who both took part in the pro-European uprising of 2013-14, now consider themselves political refugees without a fixed home, traveling in the United States and Latin America at the invitation of benefactors.

Their next project is a portrait of Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, even if that could complicate their return one day to Ukraine, Marchenko says.

For Poroshenko's portrait, the artists may use chocolate wrappers  a reference to the chocolate company where he made his fortune.Cottbus, Germany: Arab refugees and Germans carrying pro-immigrant and anti-fascism placards marched in Cottbus on Saturday to denounce what they say are attempts by far-right groups to stoke tension in the eastern city after two knife attacks by Syrian teenagers.

"We want to stop this hate between Germans and Arab refugees," said Ahmad al-Barqouni, a 28-year-old Syrian student, marching through the city with around 1,500 other people.

"Some people made mistakes but not everyone should pay the price for it," he added, referring to the knife attacks.

Police beefed up security in the city of 100,000 near the Polish border, where the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) party did well in an election last year. Residents and far-right groups will hold a counter demonstration later on Saturday against what they see as rising crime by migrants.

Last month, two Syrian teenagers injured a 16-year-old German boy with a knife and a group of three Syrians aged under 17 threatened a German couple with a knife outside a mall in Cottbus.

The attacks prompted almost weekly demonstrations by residents opposed to more people seeking asylum coming to their city. The interior ministry in Brandenburg, the federal state in which Cottbus lies, stopped sending refugees to the city last month.

"We are here to make a clear stance against a rightist hate campaign," said Lea Bunke, a 25-year-old German student, adding that the knife attacks by Syrian teenagers did not justify demands by some residents that all refugees leave the city.

She said Cottbus residents should be more alarmed by a rise in xenophobic attacks against refugees.

ANXIETY

The anti-immigrant AfD came first in Cottbus in last year's election, beating Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives by appealing to voters angry with her decision in 2015 to welcome more than a million asylum seekers.

Anxiety about immigration is high in Cottbus, as in many eastern regions in Germany, where older generations grew up under communism, having little contact with foreigners.

Hans-Christoph Berndt, leader of 'Zukunft Heimat' or Future Homeland, an umbrella group that has been organizing anti-immigrant protests, said his supporters were protesting against the government's immigration policy, not against migrants.

"The media have been misrepresenting us," Berndt said. "We are protesting against the decision to welcome everyone. There aren't enough police, not enough kindergarten places and not enough teachers. We are demanding that Merkel step down."

Police on Wednesday arrested six members of the far-right National Democratic Party (NDP) - which Germany's Constitutional Court last year ruled resembled Adolf Hitler's Nazi party - who were handing out tear gas and flyers to Cottbus residents.

The city's technical university draws hundreds of international students each year, and the influx of foreigners and refugees has stopped the population from shrinking below 100,000 from about 145,000 on the eve of German reunification in 1990.Moscow: Moscow on Saturday denounced the "bellicose" and "anti-Russian" nature of new US nuclear policy, warning it would take necessary measures to ensure its own security.

"The bellicose and anti-Russian nature of this document is obvious," the foreign ministry said in a statement, adding that it was "deeply disappointed".

"We must take into account the approaches that are now circulating in Washington and take necessary measures to ensure our security," the ministry said.

The Pentagon on Friday revealed plans to revamp its nuclear arsenal, largely in response to Russian actions in recent years.

The United States already has a massive nuclear arsenal, including 150 B-61 nukes stored across multiple European countries that can be configured for low-yield options.

The new weapons envisioned by the Pentagon would be launchable from submarines or ships, so would not need to be stockpiled in Europe.

Moscow also said the move was "an attempt to put into question (Russia's) right to legitimate defence".

"We hope that Washington is conscious of the high level of danger," the new policy represents, it said.

The document is filled "with all sorts of anti-Russian cliches" and "ends with unfounded allegations" that Russia has breached agreements on arms control.

The foreign ministry said Russia would "strictly respect its obligations in respect to all the international accords."

The US says Russia has developed, tested and deployed an intermediate-range missile system that breaks its commitments under a 1987 treaty between Washington and the Soviet Union.

Moscow has repeatedly denied claims that its recent deployment of a land-based missile system breaks the treaty.Islamabad: Pakistani provincial minister Mir Hazar Khan Bijarani, who was found dead in his house along with his wife, first killed her and then committed suicide with the same weapon.

Bijarani and his wife Fariha Razak were found dead on Thursday at their residence in Karachi.

The police said they suspect a domestic dispute to be behind the incident, Geo News reported.

A press release by the police stated that the initial reports revealed that all the bullet casings collected from the crime scene were fired from the same weapon.

The minister had one bullet wound in his head whereas his wife was shot thrice, a report said.

Bijarani, a veteran leader of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), was the Planning and Development Minister in Sindh province. His wife was a journalist.

Funeral prayers for the minister and his wife were held shortly after Friday prayers. While Razzaq's funeral was held in Karachi's Defence Housing Authority area, prayers for Bijarani were offered in Kashmore.Washington: Former FBI Director James Comey scorned the memo that was released by House Republicans after being declassified on Friday by President Donald Trump, saying it doesn't add up to much. "That's it?" Comey said on Twitter.

"Dishonest and misleading memo wrecked the House intel committee, destroyed trust with Intelligence Community, damaged relationship with FISA court, and inexcusably exposed classified investigation of an American citizen. For what?" Comey wrote, adding: "DOJ & FBI must keep doing their jobs."

The tweet was the latest in a series from Comey this week as Trump clashed with the FBI over the release of the GOP-written memo. On Thursday, Comey stood up for the bureau's position against the document's disclosure and took aim at unnamed people he calls "weasels and liars."

"All should appreciate the FBI speaking up. I wish more of our leaders would," Comey tweeted Thursday night amid news that the FBI had lobbied the White House to block the release of a partisan memo on the Russia investigation.

On Friday morning, the president continued his verbal attacks against the FBI, writing on Twitter, "The top Leadership and Investigators of the FBI and the Justice Department have politicized the sacred investigative process in favor of Democrats and against Republicans  something which would have been unthinkable just a short time ago. Rank & File are great people!"

Trump and congressional Republicans have been attacking the FBI for its investigation of potential ties between Russia and Trump's 2016 campaign. Trump and Republicans on the House intelligence committee followed up on those attacks through the publication Friday of a GOP-authored memo that they say shows improper use of surveillance by the FBI in the initial stages of the investigation.

The FBI, Justice Department and Democrats furiously lobbied Trump to stop the release, saying it could harm national security and mislead the public.

On Twitter, Comey urged his former colleagues to "take heart: American history shows that, in the long run, weasels and liars never hold the field, so long as good people stand up."

He concluded, "Not a lot of schools or streets named for Joe McCarthy"  a reference to the senator who, in the 1950s, conducted hearings aimed at rooting out Communists in the US government.

Since his firing last May, Comey has made his personal feelings about Trump known, testifying in detail about personal interactions he says troubled him.

He also authorized a close friend to share with reporters details from a memo he produced documenting one such encounter  a February conversation in the Oval Office in which he said Trump encouraged him to drop an FBI investigation into former national security adviser Michael Flynn. That revelation prompted the Justice Department's appointment of a special counsel to run the Russia investigation.

Comey has also used language about "weasels" before, most notably in a September 2016 congressional hearing when he defended the FBI's handling of the Hillary Clinton email investigation.

"You can call us wrong, but don't call us weasels," Comey said. "We are not weasels. We are honest people and we did this in that way."Istanbul: Turkey on Saturday said that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad should leave office "at some point" in the future but denied there was any kind of contact between Ankara and Damascus over ending the seven-year civil war.

Ankara has been a prime foe of Assad throughout the conflict but has occasionally softened its rhetoric in the last months as Turkey strengthened cooperation with the regime's main ally Russia.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's spokesperson, Ibrahim Kalin, told journalists in Istanbul, that Assad was not the leader to unite Syria and had lost legitimacy.

But Kalin said there needed to be a "political transition in Syria", leading to a new constitution and elections.

"It is not going to be easy but that's the ultimate goal to reach and at some point, Assad will have to go," he added.

"Where exactly, at what point precisely (Assad leaves), is something that will be answered as we go on, obviously," he said.

Kalin was speaking after Russia on Tuesday hosted a peace congress on Syria, with both Russian President Vladimir Putin and Erdogan expressing "satisfaction", according to the Kremlin.

Kalin said the Russian position has been "not so much protecting Assad personally but protecting the state institutions, state apparatus and the Syrian army and the regime elements".

He said: "They want to make sure that the state doesn't collapse completely in Syria."

Turkey's position on Assad has been under ever greater scrutiny since Ankara on January 20 began a cross-border operation with Syrian allied rebel forces against Kurdish militia based in the town of Afrin.

But Kalin denied any contact with Damascus "at any level".

"There is no communication, no relationship, direct (or) indirect. Nothing with the Syrian regime, at any level. I can say that categorically and very clearly," he said.

He also rejected the notion that there had been any agreement with Russia allowing the Afrin operation to go ahead in exchange for a deal over the rebel-held neighbouring region of Idlib.

"There's no deal with Russia 'you give Idlib and take Afrin'... they are two separate operations," he said.A cloned fluorescent dog Ruppy (R), a seventeen-month-old beagle, and her three-month-old puppy are seen at Seoul National University's College of Veterinary Medicine in Seoul. The puppy is one of 2nd generation Ruppies", offspring of "Ruppy", the world's first transgenic dogs which carry fluorescent genes. They took a fluorescent protein, much like that produced by some sea anenomes, and inserted it into the cell of a beagle. The name "Ruppy" is a combination of the words "Ruby" and "Puppy", and the offsprings of such dogs will possess the same fluorescent gene as their mothers. (Image: Reuters)Harare City Council is the major polluter of the capitals main water sources and ironically spends huge sums of taxpayer money on treatment chemicals.



Council is distributing frothy, smelly and coloured water due to limited funds to purchase treatment chemicals.



Although the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe has released US$6 million for chemical purchase, there is a growing feeling among residents that Town House should be held accountable for polluting water.

The first consignment of the chemicals is expected in a fortnight.





Last week, Environmental Management Agency spokesperson Mr Steady Kangata told The Sunday Mail that apart from council, industries are dumping dangerous chemicals in water bodies.





We have done several studies and have found out that Harare City Council, together with companies, are the major polluters of water bodies. Burst sewer pipes are left unattended for a long time in most suburbs and raw sewage ends up in water bodies.





In addition, there are leaking sewer pipes near water, which are not being replaced; resulting in raw sewage flowing into water bodies. There are some industries that are also discharging chemicals in water bodies.





Councils corporate communications manager, Mr Michael Chideme, said chemicals acquired through the RBZ will help normalise the situation.

All our suppliers have been fully paid for and now we are awaiting deliveries. Some of the chemicals were imported from as far as China and it takes up to 45 days for the consignments to arrive here.





We only learnt recently about other places which do not have clear and clean water such as Kuwadzana and Warren Park, but we are going to fix that problem.





Urban planning expert Mr Percy Toriro said, The problem of water pollution in the city of Harare is a geographical and behavioural problem. Geographically, Harare sits on its catchment, meaning that the source of its water supply rivers is where the city is located.





The implication of this situation is that the quality of raw water is affected by the behaviour of residents; any sewerage bursts, industrial pollution or whatever is deposited in the city drains end up in water supply dams.

The easiest and cheapest solution is to raise awareness and monitor pollution in Harare.

There are a few biological methods being used in similar situations elsewhere, but what is easily within our control is preventing pollution so that the quality of Harare raw water is not bad.

In 2015, the city audit committee highlighted that Harare City Council was failing to implement proper industrial chemical waste management.





Harare recycles treated waste water back into its supply dam, Lake Chivero, with the local authority using nine chemicals to treat the water at a cost of US$3 million every month.





In December last year, Harare Mayor Bernard Manyenyeni said Harare water was chemically safe to drink. Sunday MailMDC formations and civic groups have welcomed the appointment of Justice Priscilla Chigumba as Zimbabwe Election Commission (ZEC) chairperson, saying she has the attributes and qualifications required for the job. Justice Chigumba was sworn into office by President Mnangagwa on Thursday. MDC-T spokesperson Mr Obert Gutu said Justice Chigumba had a strong personality.



Justice Chigumba is an astute legal mind with a strong sense of independence and integrity, he said. As the MDC, we are confident that if she is given the proper latitude to perform her duties as the ZEC chairperson she will definitely excel.



The Welshman Ncube-led MDC welcomed Justice Chigumbas appointment.





As the MDC, we welcome the new ZEC chairperson who is a distinguished lawyer and brings a wealth of experience as a judge. A lot is expected of her because she has a huge task of delivering credible, free and fair elections, the partys spokesperson Mr Kurauone Chihwayi said.





The Zimbabwe Elections Support Network an umbrella body of NGOs called upon Justice Chigumba to ensure free and fair elections.





ZESN notes the appointment of Justice Priscilla Chigumba as the new chairperson of the ZEC. ZESN calls upon the newly appointed Chairperson to spearhead the requisite legislative and administrative reforms to ensure that the 2018 elections are, free, fair and credible, ZESN said in the statement.





As head of the electoral commission, Justice Chigumba must strive to safeguard and protect the independence of ZEC by ensuring that principles of good electoral management such as transparency, integrity, professionalism, competence and fairness are upheld.





Furthermore, the network calls upon the new ZEC chairperson to ensure that provisions of the Electoral Act that guarantee freeness and fairness of electoral processes are respected by all electoral stakeholders in particular political parties. HeraldPRESIDENT Emmerson Mnangagwa has intervened in a labour dispute between Hwange Colliery Company Limited (HCCL) and its employees which had seen the workers spouses protesting since Monday.



Wives of HCCL employees have been demanding that the coal mining company fulfils its pledge to pay them outstanding salaries after agreeing to a scheme of arrangement last year.



Hundreds of women camped at the management office in Hwange where they used tree branches to close gates to block management from entering the premises. Some of them have been sleeping at the premises as part of their demonstration.





Yesterday Home Affairs Minister Dr Obert Mpofu visited Hwange and addressed the protestors.





He said he had been sent by President Mnangagwa to listen to their concerns as Government is committed to addressing workers welfare.





I am from this place and it pains me to see this. The President sent me to come and talk to you and listen to your grievances. We understand all your issues which border around non-payment of salaries and hunger. I am here to get your concerns which I will present to the President tomorrow. What I can say is that we have heard your concerns, and I plead with you to give us time and I will be back to report to you and my promise is that on Monday government will give its position, said Dr Mpofu.





He said Government was committed to workers welfare.

The Minister said President Mnangagwa had directed that the demonstrators must not be victimised.

If his Excellency and his deputies didnt care about you we wouldnt be here. Lets work together in a way that helps the country. Its touching the way you have handled this issue and presented your grievances. Women are the worst affected hence you are here and there could be some people who could be making promises to you but I tell you this is not political, said Dr Mpofu.





The President has been touring other countries where the world has pledged support. Give him time to deal with your issues in management, operations and women, he said.

The employees wives resorted to a demonstration after management reneged on paying them outstanding salaries in terms of the scheme of arrangement reached last year.





Yesterday, the women said they wanted the managing director Engineer Thomas Makore removed from the post.





Ms Thokozile Ncube who briefed the minister on behalf of the women, handed over a petition with their grievances.





Our husbands havent been paid since October last year and we were shocked when we were told that the money will he paid in July.





Our husbands are being harassed while our children are no longer going to school and some marriages have broken up, she said.





Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions president Mr Peter Mutasa also handed over a copy of the protestors grievances to the minister after the trade union body also addressed the women.





Dr Mpofu asked the demonstrators to remove the barricades into the offices and allow management into the premises, but they refused saying they will continue camping at the gate until their demands are met.





Women who spoke to Chronicle said they had been reduced to beggars as they were failing to look after their families, while children of some have dropped out of school.





What the company is doing to us is not good at all. We are literally living in abject poverty as a result of non-payment of salaries.





We can no longer afford to send our children to school and after enduring for so long the company begins to play games with us. Until we get answers we are going to be here, said another.





Others said families were breaking down as there was no longer any joy in their homes since fights over money were becoming a common thing. ChronicleThe Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans Association (ZNLWVA) Bulawayo province will hold a meeting today in preparation for their indaba with President Emmerson Mnangagwa.



Todays meeting will be held at the organisations Entumbane suburb offices.



The provincial war veterans meeting is expected to discuss matters to be tabled at their indaba with President Mnangagwa that would be held on a date which is yet to be announced.





The ZNLWVA Bulawayo provincial chairperson, Cde Cephas Ncube said all war veterans must attend todays meeting.





There is a general meeting for all war veterans on February 3 at 9 Oclock to raise issues that affect all war veterans, he said.





Cde Ncube first announced last week that they would be meeting today to discuss issues that have to do with their welfare.





Speaking during the burial of war hero Cde Siphetheni Tshuma at the Bulawayo Provincial Heroes Acre recently, Cde Ncube said one of the issues he was concerned about was the failure by Government to meet expenses during the burials of war veterans.





War veterans are not supposed to use their pensions to pay for funeral policies because burying war veterans is the responsibility of Government, he said. ChronicleZimbabwe will conduct fresh research on post-Independence civil disturbances in Matabeleland and Midlands to establish exact issues that require redress. This will inform decisions related to the disturbances.



The National Peace and Reconciliation Commission is leading the research, which includes one-on-one interviews in affected communities. The Commission will soon visit Gwanda and Bindura, engaging religious organisations, civil society, traditional leaders and any concerned residents.





NPRC Acting Chairperson Mrs Lilian Chigwedere told The Sunday Mail: We need to address the real issues, but we cant do that without visiting the past and the affected communities to hear what they experienced, otherwise we will be making assumptions.





As it stands, what we know is what (civil groups) say. What do the people say? Only the affected communities can really tell us what happened. There is need to follow up with proper research.





The communities will open up during our consultations and then we will investigate further and come up with our own reports. All these reports (there is talk of the Dumbuchena report; the Chihambakwe report, both of which are said not to have been released)  Then there is the CCJP (Catholic Commission on Justice and Peace) report.





Our focus as we go out is to encourage people to tell the truth, with the ultimate goal of sustainable peace. This is going to be a community-driven initiative.

Even recommendations are going to come out of what society wants; if it is an apology they want, if it is compensation or reburials, the communities will guide us accordingly. We will walk with the people all the way.





Mrs Chigwedere said the NPRC would deal with other past conflicts apart from Gukurahundi.

Conflicts date back to time immemorial. They are specific to communities or periods. The issues raised by people from Mashonaland Central are likely to be different from those that will be raised in Masvingo or Matabeleland.





Section 10 of the NPRC Act gives us the power to engage anyone whom we believe can contribute to our findings. So, while it is still too early to say whom we will engage, no one is above the law.

Apart from addressing post-conflict (scenarios), the Commission also seeks to mitigate future conflicts through early detection of potential conflict areas.





In an interview with the BBC in Switzerland two weeks ago, President Emmerson Mnangagwa said Government wanted to bring closure to matters around Gukurahundi.

Vice-President Kembo Mohadi heads the Organ on National Peace and Reconciliation.

The NPRC, which was in 2013 given a 10-year mandate to achieve peace and bring about healing and reconciliation through the Constitution, has the mammoth task of investigating the conflicts that the country has endured in the past and come up with recommendations.





Nine members, led by the late chairperson Cyril Ndebele, were sworn into office on February 24, 2016. President Mnangagwa signed the National Peace and Reconciliation Bill into law on January 5, 2018, operationalising the Commission.





Already five years have been lost so we have to move with speed, said Mrs Chigwedere. We have to do 10 years work in the remaining five years and we are eager to move Zimbabwe to a level of cohesiveness, where there are no demarcations.





According to Section 252 of the Constitution, the NPRC is mandated to ensure post conflict justice, healing and reconciliation and developing programmes that promote national healing, unity and peaceful conflict resolution. Sunday MailHe Spent Weeks

on the Pile After 9/11.

What Did It Do to His Brain?(Newser)  It's not a TPS report, but it may be just as stress-inducing. Business Insider reports that things aren't exactly hunky-dory at Whole Foods in the wake of Amazon's acquisition of it, and the 27 current and newly former employees it spoke with say the OTS system is a big part of the reason why. That's "order-to-shelf." The Austin Business Journal explains it's an inventory-management system that, as the name suggests, tries to move products from the truck right to the shelf, ideally increasing efficiency while trimming waste. But the employees say it's leading to food shortages, anxiety, crushed morale, and tears. "Seeing someone cry at work is becoming normal," says a West Coast employee. One of the more damning quotes from a Georgia employee: "We've lost team leaders, store team leaders ... and even a regional vice president. Many of them have left because they consider OTS to be absurd."

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The issue seems to largely be with the "scorecard" component of OTS. Per internal documents viewed by BI, managers are tasked with verifying things are stocked and displayed as they should be using the checklists; points are lost if an item "is even an inch outside of its designated spot," says a Colorado employee. Overall scores below 89.9% are considered failures, which BI's sources say can lead to firings. It's worth noting that Whole Foods has been chipper about the change, with execs telling investors it's achieving its noble aims. And Gizmodo notes OTS isn't an Amazon innovation: A Columbia Business School professor calls it a "pretty old practice," and Whole Foods announced it would use the system a few months prior to the acquisition. (Read more Whole Foods stories.)(Newser)  An entrepreneur in Sweden may have saved his company only to get himself deported in the process, the Local reports. Hussein Ismail was living in Lebanon when he co-founded Birka Biostoragelocated in Swedenin 2011. He worked remotely until it finally became necessary to physically be at his company and came to Sweden in 2014 on an employee's residence permit. The following year, Birka started having financial difficulties. "We agreed that as we were going through a tough time economically in the start-up, we needed to make sacrifices in order to keep going and survive," Ismail says. He says he voluntarily took a pay cut to save the company.

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Now, Birka Biostorage is thriving and recently celebrated plans to get "ten times bigger." Ismail says if he hadn't taken the pay cut back then they "wouldnt be in the position we are in now, with the plans we have." The only problem: The Swedish Migration Agency says Ismail violated the minimum salary requirements of his collective employment agreement. It declined to extend his work permit and gave him four weeks to leave the country. The law is meant to keep employees from being exploited. "We fully understand that it may seem harsh, but the law as it is designed today does not provide space for people with an employees residence permit to consciously waive legally defined requirements," a Migration Agency spokesperson says. She says it would be different if Ismail had gotten a residence permit as an entrepreneur. Read the full story here for Ismail's plans to appeal. (Read more Sweden stories.)(Newser) 

"The detonation of Status-6 in any [large US port city] would essentially wipe out their population into the far suburbs," says a senior analyst with the National Institute for Public Policy. Status-6a mysterious Russian nuclear weapon described in the Nuclear Posture Review released Friday by the Trump administrationis what NPR calls "a doomsday machine. Or at least a doomsday-ish machine." The report describes Status-6 as "a new intercontinental, nuclear-armed, nuclear-powered, undersea autonomous torpedo." The underwater drone could travel for years underwater and carry a nuclear payload larger than any current US or Russian weapon. While Russian state TV leaked an image of Status-6 in 2015, Friday's report is the first time the US has publicly acknowledged it, according to CNN

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Russia would likely use Status-6 as a "third-strike" weapon if it's attacked by the US and unable to use its other nuclear missiles. However, it's also possible Status-6 doesn't exist. Edward Geist of the Rand Corp. says Russia may have simply enlarged a drawing of a normal torpedo "to get our attention." The Trump administration could have included it in the report to drum up support for its plan to strengthen the US nuclear arsenal. "There is no indication from public information that Russia is actively developing the system, but it is alarming to see it in a Pentagon document," says Adam Mount at the Federation of American Scientists. Elsewhere in the report, the US discusses plans to make new, smaller atomic bombs as a deterrent against Russia. The Russian foreign minister calls the plan "confrontational" and "anti-Russian," the BBC reports. (Read more nuclear weapons stories.)(Newser)  North Korea made nearly $200 million last year by violating UN sanctions and shipping coal to multiple countries, according to an exclusive Reuters report. But that's not all. A confidential report prepared by independent UN monitors and seen by Reuters on Friday also states North Korea supplied weaponsincluding ballistic missile systemsto Syria and Myanmar. UN monitors say they found 15 shipments of coal from North Korea to Russia, China, South Korea, Malaysia, and Vietnam that violated UN caps on North Korean coal exports between January and August of last year. They say they found another 23 shipments in potential violation following the UN outright banning North Korean coal exports on Aug. 5.

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The report to the UN Security Council's sanctions committee states these shipments were mostly made by doctoring paperwork to show the coal came from Russia or China. So far, no country named has fessed up to accepting improper coal shipments. The UN monitors also say they investigated 40 unreported shipments from North Korea to Syria's Scientific Studies and Research Centre, which is in charge of Syria's chemical weapons program, between 2012 and 2017. Their report states North Korea delivered "items with utility in ballistic missile and chemical weapons programs." And one unidentified country says it has proof Myanmar received shipments of ballistic missile systems, rocket launchers, and more from North Korea. Myanmar's ambassador to the UN denies any "ongoing arms relationship" with North Korea. (Read more North Korea stories.)(Newser)  In 1988, California man William Bradford killed his ex-wifeshooting her five times, the Daily Breeze reports. Thirteen years later, he was arrested, charged, and sentenced to 26 years to life in prison after the cold case was reopened, according to the Los Angeles Times. And on Tuesday, Bradford was granted parole despite the strenuous objections of his own daughter and the man who prosecuted him. I have spent a lifetime living with the knowledge and grief that goes along with losing my mom to murder at the hands of someone that I used to call dad," 50-year-old Shaun Rickerl tells the Breeze. "The safety of everyone connected to the trial should take precedence over the release of a man convicted of murder.

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Rickerl isn't the only one afraid for her safety. John Lewin, deputy district attorney for Los Angeles County, says Bradford had only been in prison a few months when Lewin heard from a cellmate that Bradford was threatening to kill Lewin, his wife, and his children. "This is the one guy that scares me," Lewin tells the Times. "How dare you play Russian roulette with my family." But Bradford's lawyer, Maya Emig, says her 84-year-old client is too old and sicksuffering from dementia and moreto hurt anyone. She says he doesn't remember who prosecuted him and fell asleep during the hearing. "He can't put two and two together," Emig says. "He doesn't have the resources to go out and hire a hit man." State commissioners agreed, ruling Bradford isn't a danger to the public. The earliest Bradford could be released is 2019. His parole could still be overturned by the governor. (Read more parole stories.)Sorry!

This content is not available in your regionFAIRBANKS - Mark Stamm doesn't remember much about the last time he ran the Yukon Quest. It was, after all, 30 years ago.

But he remember the bitter cold. At the time, Stamm and his border collie-Alaska husky mix sled dogs lived in Monroe, Washington  northwest of Seattle  and hadn't adjusted to the winter weather they'd face in a race that bills itself as the toughest sled dog race in the world. The race started hard, but they learned as they went, Stamm said recently during his trip from Washington to the Yukon Quest start line for his second running of the race.

"It was really cold that year. I was running from cabin to cabin and checkpoint to checkpoint," he said. "My dogs weren't acclimatized and were sick before the start of the race. I was in 48th place, but we ended up placing 18th."

The Yukon Quest has changed enormously since the last time Stamm ran it, thanks to faster dogs, lighter equipment and conditions that have generally trended warmer. Stamm's middling 1988 finish time of 15 days, 5 hours and 29 minutes was almost a week slower than the 2017 Red Lantern winner.

Of all the other mushers who ran the race with him in 1988, only one is signed up for the 2018 race. Dave Dalton, of Healy, who has started more Yukon Quest races than any other musher.

Stamm chose to come back for the 2018 Yukon Quest because he just turned 60 and had always wanted to return to the race.

"Now was the time when I could still do it. I'm starting to get arthritis in my back and my arms. It's going to be a tough race," he said. "I've got good dogs, I've just got to be able to hang on."

Stamm now lives at an elevation of 4,300 feet on the eastern side of the Cascade Range north of the Colville Indian Reservation. He feels more prepared for the cold weather he's likely to encounter on the Quest.

In the three decades since his last Quest he's done many other races, including the 2005 Iditarod. In 2007 and 2009 he won Montana's 300-mile Race to the Sky.

Stamm's dogs this year are all descendants of his 1988 team. They're Alaska huskies from a George Attla line, mixed with border collies. Stamm's leaders Elmly and Blaze are each half border collie.

Stamm has always run border collie-mixes, and he bred more collies into his line when the collie genetics became too diffuse.

"I was losing their brainpower and their mannerism and their loyalty," he said. "I really like that about the border collie crosses, so I put border collie in there again."

The only problem with the breed is sometimes it's too loyal, he said. If a friend runs his team and passes him, sometimes the dogs will turn around to look at him instead of running on down the trail.

2018 Yukon Quest mushers The 2018 Yukon Quest mushers, in start order Tim Pappas - Yukon Quest 2018 Quest status: Rookie Torsten Kohnert - Yukon Quest 2018 Quest status: Veteran Claudia Wickert - Yukon Quest 2018 Quest status: Rookie Christine Roalofs - Yukon Quest 2018 Quest status: Rookie Rob Cooke - Yukon Quest 2018 Quest status: Veteran Jason Campeau - Yukon Quest 2018 Quest status: Veteran Matt Hall - Yukon Quest 2018 Quest status: Veteran Ryne Olson - Yukon Quest 2018 Quest status: Veteran Hugh Neff - Yukon Quest 2018 Quest status: Veteran Paige Drobny - Yukon Quest 2018 Quest status: Veteran Katherine Keith - Yukon Quest 2018 Quest status: Veteran Nathaniel Hamlyn - Yukon Quest 2018 Quest status: Rookie Laura Neese - Yukon Quest 2018 Quest status: Veteran Bernhard Schuchert - Yukon Quest 2018 Quest status: Rookie Riley Dyche - Yukon Quest 2018 Quest status: Rookie Jennifer Campeau - Yukon Quest 2018 Quest status: Rookie Dave Dalton - 2018 Yukon Quest Quest status: Veteran Mike Ellis - Yukon Quest 2018 Quest status: Veteran Ed Hopkins - Yukon Quest 2018 Quest status: Veteran Severin Cathry - Yukon Quest 2018 Quest status: Rookie Vebjorn Aishana Reitan - Yukon Quest 2018 Quest status: Rookie Ike Underwood - Yukon Quest 2018 Quest status: Rookie Allen Moore - Yukon Quest 2018 Quest status: Veteran Alex Buetow - Yukon Quest 2018 Quest status: Rookie Mark Stamm - Yukon Quest 2018 Quest status: Veteran Luc Tweddell - Yukon Quest 2018 Quest status: Veteran

Contact Outdoors Editor Sam Friedman at 459-7545. Follow him on Twitter: @FDNMoutdoors

If You Go

What: Yukon Quest International Sled Dog Race

When: 11 a.m. Saturday

Where: Griffin Park, behind the Morris Thompson Cultural and Visitors CenterYukon Quest 300 rookie Jessie Holmes pets his dogs before leaving Central checkpoint after the mandatory layover there during the Yukon Quest 300 on Sunday, February 7, 2016. Holmes was the second musher to leave Central checkpoint and the first musher to leave Circle checkpoint.Let us know what you're seeing and hearing around the community.

Submit hereThe Daily News-Miner encourages residents to make themselves heard through the Opinion pages. Readers' letters and columns also appear online at newsminer.com. Contact the editor with questions at letters@newsminer.com or call 459-7574.

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Send Community Perspective submissions by mail (P.O. Box 70710, Fairbanks AK 99707) or via email (letters@newsminer.com). Submissions must be 500 to 750 words. Columns are welcome on a wide range of issues and should be well-written and well-researched with attribution of sources. Include a full name, email address, daytime telephone number and headshot photograph suitable for publication (email jpg or tiff files at 150 dpi.) You may also schedule a photo to be taken at the News-Miner office. The News-Miner reserves the right to edit submissions or to reject those of poor quality or taste without consulting the writer.

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Send letters to the editor by mail (P.O. Box 70710, Fairbanks AK 99707), by fax (907-452-7917) or via email (letters@newsminer.com). Writers are limited to one letter every two weeks (14 days.) All letters must contain no more than 350 words and include a full name (no abbreviation), daytime and evening phone numbers and physical address. (If no phone, then provide a mailing address or email address.) The Daily News-Miner reserves the right to edit or reject letters without consulting the writer.Bengaluru:

North East Zone of Bengaluru Police has arrested 5 members of the notorious Bheel Gang of Madhya Pradesh who had attacked a policeman on January 17 late night and snatched the loaded rifle of one of the police constables. After the incident, a special team headed by Girish, DCP North East Zone, Bengaluru was constituted to nab the culprits.

Speaking to News Nation, T Suneel Kumar, Police Commissioner of Bengaluru said, During the investigation of this case, we found that the attack was carried by the members of Bheel Gang of Madhya Pradesh who is known for carrying thefts across the country. We formed a special team to arrest the accused and have arrested 5 persons who hail from the Dhar district of Madhya Pradesh and 2 persons belonging to Bengaluru were also arrested who have helped this gang in Bengaluru. We have recovered the snatched rifle and some gold ornaments from the accused."

After arresting the 4 accused, police came to know that the head of the gang Raisingh has fled to Madhya Pradesh after the incident. This gang used to flee from Bengaluru after committing the crime. A special team was sent to Madhya Pradesh headed by ACP level officer to arrest Raisingh.

Seemant Kumar Singh, additional commissioner of Bengaluru East Zone said, "Once our team reached the village of Raisingh, villagers attacked our team but with the help of the local police our team managed to arrest Raisingh after firing few rounds in the air to disperse the violent crowd."

During interrogation, Raisingh and his five associates confessed that they have carried out more than 100 thefts in and around Bengaluru in last few months. They used to target only locked houses and at the time of the theft they used to lock the surrounding houses of the target house so that nobody could come out, added Singh.Bengaluru:

In the poll-bound state of Karnataka, the Cow Welfare Cell of Karnataka BJP has organised a 24 hour Gau Raksha Asthayama Yagna to create awareness about cow slaughter and illegal cow slaughter-houses in Bengaluru. The yagna started on Friday around 3 pm at Ganesha Devasthana grounds in JP Nagar, Bengaluru.

Siddharth Goenka, convenor State Cow Welfare Cell said, More than 200 illegal slaughter-houses are working in Bengaluru and the blood that exudates from these illegal slaughter-houses contaminates our water bodies leading to water-borne diseases. We want to create awareness through this programme.

The Congress has called the yagna an election gimmick. Rizwan Arshad, Congress leader said, "I am happy they are doing yagna for the cow but they should also do yagna for the poor and unemployed people. Elections are near so they want to divert the attention of people from the failures of the Modi government."

However, BJP denies the allegations of Congress and says this is the routine work of the Cow Welfare Cell.

The yagna will conclude on Saturday 3 pm.New Delhi:

After creating a lot of brouhaha over the release of Padmaavat, the Shri Rajput Karni Sena has finally announced its decision to withdraw the protests against Sanjay Leela Bhansali's magnum opus.

In an unexpected move, the Sena took a complete U-turn over its earlier stance stating that the movie glorifies the valour of the Rajputs.



Notably, Karni Sena had raised objection over the release of the period drama over the portrayal of queen Padmavati. Post-release, the film has attracted criticism from certain quarters over the unidimensional portrayal of Khilji as an evil, imbalanced ruler, which some historians say is inaccurate.



However, while announcing the withdrawal of protests, Shri Rashtriya Rajput Karni Sena's Mumbai leader Yogendra Singh Katar said that the decision was made after few members of the group watched the movie in Mumbai on Friday on the directions of organisation's national President Sukhdev Singh Gogamadi.



Reportedly, after watching the movie the group members were assured that Padmaavat gives a proud feeling to every Rajput as it glorifies their valour and sacrifice.



Besides, the magnum opus had no objectionable scene between Alauddin Khilji and Queen Padmavati which could hurt the sentiments of the Rajput community which was the major concern for them.



According to a letter issued by the Karni Sena, the group has decided to take back the protest and has reportedly assured to help the administration in the release of Padmaavat in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, as well as across all cinema houses in India.



Padmaavat faced severe and violent protests over the release in these states and several cinema hall owners refrained from screening the movie citing law and order issues.



However, the movie, which was released across India on January 25 amidst tight security, has done wonders at the box-office with a healthy collection of over Rs 150 crore in the first week itself. Padmaavat features Ranveer Singh, Shahid Kapoor, and Deepika Padukone in the lead.

For all the Latest Entertainment News, Bollywood News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.Srinagar:

Four persons, including two CRPF personnel, were injured in a grenade attack in Pulwama district of south Kashmir on Saturday, the police said. Militants lobbed a grenade at a CRPF party in Batagund area of Tral, a police official said

Four persons, including two CRPF jawans, were injured in the incident, he said. The area has been cordoned off and a search operation is underway, the official said.

Earlier, Pakistani troops had violated the ceasefire along the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmirs Poonch district in the end of last month.

Notably, India has witnessed a total of 881 ceasefire violations in 2017 along the international border in Jammu and Kashmir.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.New Delhi:

A clash broke out between members of two communities in Biharsharif of Bihars Nalanda district on Saturday in which three persons received gunshot injuries, police said.

Superintendent of Police of Nalanda, Sudhir Kumar Porika, said the incident took place in the district headquarter town of Bihar Sharif where members of two communities clashed over a trivial issue at Paharpur locality.

Gunshots were fired and stones hurled from both sides for about an hour until police reached the spot and brought the situation under control, the SP said.

Also Read | Army 'disciplined, AFSPA won't be revoked in Kashmir, says J&K CM Mehbooba Mufti

Three persons received bullet injuries. The condition of two of them was critical and they have been referred to a hospital in Patna while one of the injured is undergoing treatment at the Sadar Hospital in Bihar Sharif, Porika said.

The situation was tense but under control and a meeting of peace committee will be convened soon to restore complete normalcy in the area, the SP added.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.New Delhi:

Maharashtra Police recovered three rifles and Maoist literature following an exchange of fire with naxals in Kumadpar forest area in Gadchiroli district of Maharashtra, an official said on Saturday.

"An anti-naxal operation was conducted at Kumadpar jungle by C-60 commandos of Gadchiroli police, during which unidentified people started firing at the police team around 8.45 am on Friday," a statement issued by Gadchiroli police said.

"There was an exchange of fire between the police and the naxalites. Under heavy firing from the police, the naxals ran away into the jungle," it said.

During an inspection of the area after the exchange of fire, police recovered one .303 rifle, two 12-bore rifles and other naxal material from the spot, the statement added.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.New Delhi:

At least two Kashmiri students of the Haryana Central University of Haryana in Mahenderhgarh were assaulted by unknown assailants on Friday while returning to the campus after offering Friday prayers in Mahendragarh town.

I and my friend had gone to the mosque to offer Friday namaz. After we came out of the mosque we noticed some people following us. Just as we were leaving on my motorbike, a group of about 15-20 people started to beat us, said Aftab, one of the victims.

Aftab said no one came forward to help them.

Soon after police arrived at the spot. We went to the hospital for a check-up and returned to the university campus. We told faculty about the incident and lodged a complaint with the University, said Aftab.

Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti has reacted aggressively to the incident. She has demanded that Haryana government take strict action against the perpetrators of the assault on Kashmiri students and also demanded a probe.

Shocked & disturbed to hear reports of Kashmiri students being assaulted in Mahendargarh, Haryana. I urge the authorities to investigate & take strict action. @mlkhattar

 Mehbooba Mufti (@MehboobaMufti) February 2, 2018

Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah also took to Twitter and tagged Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a tweet and said that the incident goes against the spirit of his outreach for Kashmiris.

This is terrible & goes against the spirit of what @PMOIndia @narendramodi ji said from the ramparts of the Red Fort. I hope the authorities in Haryana act quickly against this violence. https://t.co/5vBU2CxHMD  Omar Abdullah (@OmarAbdullah) February 2, 2018

The reason behind the attack is yet not known. Jammu and Kashmir Director General of Police SP Vaid is coordinating with his Haryana counterpart to ensure the safety of the Kashmiri youths.

"In touch with DGP Haryana. Police is taking cognisance of the incident," he said.

Jammu and Kashmir Police have issued a statement: With regard to the physical assault on some students of J&K in Haryana's Mahenderhgarh, Haryana Police has taken cognizance. FIR u/s 148/149/341/323 IPC has been lodged in Mahenderhgarh police station. 0ne of our officers is in touch with the boys as well.

Meanwhile, Garima Mittal, Mahendragarh District Commissioner has informed that three accused have been arrested and few identified.

We will make sure proper investigation is done, medical help will also be provided to victims, said Mittal

Kamaldeep, SP Mahendergarh said, Total 6 people are accused in the incident of assault on 2 Kashmiri youth in Mahendergarh out of which 3 people have been arrested and 3 others identified on the basis on a CCTV footage. Investigation is underway.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.New Delhi:

Security forces have arrested two Pakistan-trained Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) militants in north Kashmirs Baramulla district, police said today.

The militants, who had gone to Pakistan on valid Pakistani visa to obtain arms training to undertake terrorist activities in the Valley, were arrested during a joint operation by the police, Army and the CRPF, a police spokesman said here.

He said the militants had obtained their passports specifically for the said purpose.

These militants of Lashkar-e-Taiba were nabbed immediately after returning via the Wagah-Attari border before they could formally join the militant ranks here in Kashmir, he said, identifying the arrested as Abdul Majeed Bhat, resident of Kreeri, and Mohammad Ashraf Mir, from Pattan.

On questioning, the duo revealed they underwent training in Pakistan along with a large number of Pakistani boys, most of whom were from Balochistan and as young as 10, the spokesperson said.

The said terrorist training camps are located near Burma Town, in Islamabad, and being run by a terrorist commander operating under code names Hanzala, Adanan and Omar. Other terrorists imparting training to young boys are operating with code names Osama, Naveed and Hataf, he said.

The arrested militants were given Pakistani visas by the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi, the spokesperson said.

Its pertinent to mention that in the past couple of years, police have unearthed several such modules that lure young boys to Pakistan to get trained and join militancy. In the past, several such boys have been arrested, while some of them were killed in encounters, he added.

A case was registered and an investigation underway, the official said.

Parents are requested to keep watch on their wards. Their prolonged absence from home should be immediately reported to police so that lives of these boys can be saved,he added.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.New Delhi:

Waseem Rizvi, the controversial Uttar Pradesh Shia Waqf Board Chairman on Friday made a statement suggesting that those Muslims who oppose the construction of Ram Temple in Ayodhya must go to Pakistan and Bangladesh.

This comes at a time when the Supreme Court is scheduled to hear the Babri Masjid/Ram Janambhoomi dispute from February 8.

"Those who are opposing the Ram Janambhoomi temple in Ayodhya and want to build the Babri Mosque there... People having such fundamentalist mentality should go to Pakistan and Bangladesh. Such Muslims do not have any place in India," said Rizvi who offered Friday prayers at the disputed site and met Acharya Satyendra Das, the chief priest of the Ram Janambhoomi.

"Those who want to spread Jehad in the name of the mosque must go and join the forces of Abu Baqar Baghdadi, the ISIS chief in Syria," said Rizvi.

Fundamentalist Muslim clerics are trying to destroy the country. They must migrate to Pakistan and Afghanistan, he added.

The remarks have not gone down well with the Shia clerics who have demanded that he be arrested for trying to communalise the atmosphere.

"Rizvi is a criminal involved in grabbing and illegal selling of Waqf properties," said President of Shia Ulema Council Maulana Iftekhar Hussain Inquilabi.

"He has been charge-sheeted by the CB-CID and to save himself from the claws of the law he is enacting a big drama," he said.

"During the rule of the Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh, he was patronised by Mulayam Singh Yadav and then minister Azam Khan. Now, during the BJP government, he wants to be spared," added Inquilabi.

(With PTI inputs)

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.New Delhi:

The Chief of Staff of US Air Force will take a sortie on India's indigenous light combat aircraft, the Tejas, from the Jodhpur Air Force station on Saturday morning.

This will be the first time, the head of a foreign military is flying Tejas and the move will somehow silence the critics of home grown fighter jet.

Goldfein along with General Terrence O'Shaughnessy, Commander of US Pacific Air Force, landed in New Delhi on Thursday to strengthen military ties between the two nations. The top brass of the United States Air Force already had several rounds of discussion with key functionaries of IAF, including Air Chief Marshal B.S. Dhanoa at Air Force headquarters.

The top ranking US military officer had reached India on Thursday on an official visit to deepen relations. "There is already a strong relationship between our two air forces and I'm looking forward to making it stronger," he wrote in a Facebook post shortly after being welcomed at Air Headquarters in the national capital.

He also referred to the IAF's acquisition of the C-17 Globemaster transport aircraft that is capable of lifting tanks to the border with China and Pakistan.

"The IAF operates the second largest C-17 fleet in the world and continues to mature their fleet operation to support regional mobility needs," the US Air Force Chief said.

For the Tejas that is being inducted in the Air Force, it is also seen as the biggest endorsement of the fighter that has been in the making for more than three decades.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.London:

An Indian-origin UK man on trial for killing his ex-wife and then stuffing her body into a suitcase was on Saturday sentenced to a minimum of 18 years in jail for murder.

Ashwin Daudia had denied the murder charge, claiming he lost his temper during an argument with Kiran Daudia at their home in Leicester last January and did not attack her deliberately.

But the jury did not accept his version of events and found him guilty of killing the 46-year-old call centre worker.

The 51-year-old accused was caught on CCTV dragging his ex-wife's body in a suitcase before dumping it in an alleyway.

"I was angry, I lost control," he told the Leicester Crown Court, adding that Kiran Daudia had initially assaulted him and to silence her he put his hand over her mouth and then forcefully squeezed her neck.

He admitted he then lied to his two sons, relatives and the police by falsely claiming his ex-wife did not return home from a morning shift at a call centre and hid the body in the suitcase to prevent his younger son from seeing it.

The couple, who had an arranged marriage in India in 1988, were divorced in 2014 but had continued living separate lives under the same roof.

Also Read | Hyderabad: Baby girls severed head found in residential building; Police suspect human sacrifice

The factory worker husband was to move out of the family home on January 16, 2017, when the attack occurred, the Leicester Mercury reported.

Kiran's body was discovered in the suitcase by policethe next day.

Her sister had bought the couple's family home in Leicester to enable the victim to continue living there without her ex-husband after the divorce.

Their two sons chose to "side" with their mother and had relatively little to do with their father.

During the two-week murder trial which concluded on Friday, Ashwin Daudia claimed he lost his temper when his ex- wife shouted at him because he had not packed his bags or moved out.

He claimed she swore at him and told him to go and die in India.

He denied the prosecution's suggestion that he had waited for his ex-wife to return home from work to deliberately kill her.

Also Read: Delhi based Gangster killed after rival gang pumps 15 bullets into his chest outside Rohini eatery, says police

"I didn't do it deliberately, at that time my mind wasn't working," he told the court.

The prosecution claimed that Daudia, who followed the court proceedings through a Gujarati interpreter, had continued to lieabout the circumstances surrounding the killing andhad committed the murder after growing increasingly resentful of his ex-wife, who had joined a dating agency to meet other men.

For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.Sota Fujii, the youngest professional shogi player, won a key match on Thursday and was promoted to fifth dan from fourth dan, becoming the first to hold the higher rank while being a junior high school student.

Fujii beat fourth-dan Hirotaka Kajiura, 22, in his ninth match in class C2 in the qualifying round for the right to challenge the Meijin title holder, after winning all of his previous eight matches in the class. With Thursday's victory, Fujii was also promoted to class C1 in the qualifying system.

Fujii, now 15 years and six months old, became the second youngest to join class C1 and hold the rank of fifth dan, after ninth-dan Hifumi Kato, 78, who made such achievements in 1955 at the age of 15 years and three months.

But as the date of Kato's promotion to C1 and fifth dan was April 1 in the year, when he became a high school student, based on rules at the time, Fujii is the first to win the promotions while attending a junior high school.

159Japanese police have arrested a murder suspect whose life as a fugitive in Thailand ended when a photo of his prominent tattoo was posted on Facebook.

Investigators arrested 74-year-old Shigeharu Shirai on Friday when a plane carrying him from Thailand landed at the Chubu international airport in central Japan.

The former gangster is suspected of conspiring to shoot and kill a senior member of the Yamaguchi Gumi crime syndicate in 2003.

Police had placed him on an international wanted list.

Shirai's whereabouts were unwittingly revealed when a resident in a central Thai province posted the photo.

Thai police arrested him in January on suspicion of staying in the country illegally and other charges.

Shirai is said to be admitting to the murder charge. Japanese police plan to investigate his motive, as well as how he led his life in Thailand.Snow blanketed Tokyo and surrounding areas for the second time this winter on Friday, disrupting transport and forcing delays in entrance exams at educational institutions.

As of 10 a.m., central Tokyo had seen snowfall measuring 1 centimeter, while Utsunomiya in Tochigi Prefecture and Kumagaya in Saitama logged 6 cm and 5 cm, respectively.

The latest wintery blast came less than two weeks after the capital was hit by its heaviest falls in four years when 23 cm of snow was deposited on the city between Jan. 22 and 23.

Some train lines in suburban Tokyo have temporarily suspended operation due to trees impeding tracks.

The circular expressway around central Tokyo was closed and Japan Airlines canceled at least 30 domestic flights, most of them scheduled to depart from or arrive at Tokyo's Haneda airport.Tokyo Metropolitan Police have busted a so-called aJKa (joshi kosei) school girl business in Maeda City that is believed to have masqueraded as a how-to service for smartphones while supplying underage female employees for sex, TBS News

In November of last year, Norimasa Maeda, the 31-year-old manager of Smartphone Support Committee Machida, allegedly provided a girl, aged 17 at the time, to provide sex services to a male customer while knowing that she was a minor.

According to police, the parlor claimed on its web site to offer young girls as teachers to demonstrate the operation of smartphones. However, if the girls did not provide sex they were not paid.

Maeda denies the allegations, police said.

Many such businesses, known by the abbreviation JK, or joshi kosei, bill themselves as offering massages when in fact a separate menu including such services as osampo, whereby customers take girls out for a stroll, which can lead to the provision of sex.

A female employee quoted by TBS News said that such a menu existed at Smartphone Support Committee Machida.

In December, Maeda sensed the police were closing in on Smartphone Support Committee Machida. He the closed the business and opened another one.WASHINGTON  Spread out over what used to be a cherry orchard, a small group of citizen scientists kept their eyes on a fresh cover of snow Saturday morning, hunting for rabbit tracks.

This patch of brambly woods, the volunteers first stop on a stroll across the 500-acre Macricostas Preserve, was off the trail but would be the perfect spot for a rabbit to find some food.

But the tracks would serve merely as a tool for what the group was really after  small pellets of what was, hopefully, New England cottontail rabbit droppings.

Got some over here! yelled Rory Larson, a conservation and program leader with the Steep Rock Association, who led the group.

The others rushed over to help Larson put a few of the pellets in a plastic bag, which they would label with the longitudinal and latitudinal coordinates of the spot where the little pile had been left.

Over the course of the morning, the group would collect five bags of droppings to send to the states Department of Energy and Environmental Protection. The tiny round pellets would then be sent to a lab to determine whether they were, in fact, from the New England cottontail.

If one of them is a cottontail, theyll probably want to do a more standardized study, Larson told the group, explaining how DEEP officials might form a grid of the entire property. That way we can see where they are and where they arent.

Saturday was the first time a pellet survey had been performed on the grounds, Larson said. The survey would help the state determine where there are still populations of New England cottontails, which were a candidate for the federal endangered species list until 2015, when conservation efforts helped the animals rebound.

The cottontails, Connecticuts only native rabbit species, were first considered for the list in 2006. At that time, the species range had decreased by 85 percent, mainly due to habitat loss, according to DEEP.

State, federal and non-governmental organizations across the region began working in 2009 to save the cottontails from the list by creating and monitoring habitats and through captive breeding programs.

The Steep Rock Associations pellet survey let non-professional volunteers contribute to the effort.

During the day the group learned how to track the rabbits and spot their droppings, but Larson also answered questions about the propertys swamps, brooks, plant species, bobcat population and general conservation efforts.

It creates an awareness when you do things like this, said Mark Zerbe, of Roxbury.

Alexis Barbalinardo, of Washington Depot, said it was one of several citizen science opportunities she participates in with the organization. Steep Rock also hosts a bald eagle survey, a macro-invertebrate sampling, a frog watch and surveys of the nesting boxes on its properties throughout the year.

For Paul Begley, of Harwinton, it was an opportunity to learn something new while also getting outdoors, which he said can sometimes be difficult in the winter.

Im fascinated by wildlife in general, Begley said. When we have a chance to get out in nature and learn, you cant beat it. This time of year you almost have to force it, but when you do, youre rewarded.

aquinn@newstimes.comBROOKFIELD  A Catholic school on the verge of closing is exploring something new in Fairfield County, reviving the fabled methods of the one-room schoolhouse.

With an infusion of technology, of course.

But the clock is ticking. And if St. Joseph School is to launch a new teaching model in the fall that emphasizes individualized learning, it will have to overcome the reluctance of teachers and the apprehension of parents, who are used to the traditional model of age-based grades.

And with customizable and interactive technology, teachers can guide students through individualized lessons and keep track of their progress.

We are going to make this happen, to be honest, said the Rev. George ONeill, the pastor of St. Joseph Church. This model addresses each student not by age, but by stage, so you can use an iPad to make a track for each child and the child follows that track.

St. Joseph made headlines in January when Bishop Frank Caggiano gave the under-enrolled diocesan school until March to replace its traditional grade structure with more fluid groupings of students who would learn at their own paces.

Fewer teachers would be needed, since grades would be combined  much like recent changes at the Burnham School in Bridgewater, and at St. Peter/St. Francis School in Torrington, both of which were also on the verge of closing due to low enrollment.

At the beginning it is very hard to wrap your head around how to meet the needs of each learner, with two grades in one classroom, said Cathie Mastrogiovanni, a 20-year veteran who teaches a blend of 6-, 7- and 8-year-olds at St. Peter / St. Francis. What is great about it is I have them for two years, so when they come to me in their second year, I already know where theyre at and what they need, so I can keep taking them as far as they need to go.

The multi-age classroom model has been around for decades, but recently has become more popular, particularly with the advent of touch-screen technology.

This is a very interesting approach  not just for Catholic schools but for Connecticut in general, where many districts are looking at declining enrollment, said Catherine OCallaghan, chair of the Education Department at Western Connecticut State University. The key to making this work is going to be professional development for the teacher.

Caggianos idea is to revitalize the 150-student St. Joseph School by making it an attractive alternative to quality public education in Brookfield.

The enrollment crisis at St. Joseph is part of a larger problem driven by families having fewer children, and a Connecticut economy that has not recovered from the Great Recession as fast as other parts of the country. As a result, parochial schools here and across the Tri-State area are typically left with two choices: to close or to merge.

The irony for St. Joseph School is its been given a chance to start over at a point where it was out of options.

Sometimes out of a crisis comes opportunity, said Steven Cheeseman, the superintendent of schools for the Bridgeport Diocese, which has pledged $250,000 toward technology and teacher training costs.

A parent who serves on a task force that will present a plan for a new St. Joseph School to parents in early March said she was optimistic about the future.

The bishop has given us a clean slate to build a model that will appeal to more people, said Allyson Kane, who has two children in the school. Kids learn at different levels, and the way they learn can be addressed individually. Some might do better with manipulatives, while others might do better putting on the headphones and learning a lesson on the computer.

It remains to be seen what specific components of the multi-age classroom the St. Joseph task force will incorporate when it presents its recommendation to school parents. Principles of blended learning include:

Grouping students by learning stages rather than by ages.

Integrating technology to make learning individualized.

Helping kids meet learning standards at their own pace.

More one-on-one time with teachers.

Student group collaboration.

Giving kids multiple ways to demonstrate their learning.

Frequent assessment.

Caggiano said the pilot program at St. Joseph could be a model for parochial schools in the diocese, which covers greater Danbury and all of Fairfield County.

You will have a smaller school with personalized learning for our children that is financially solvent and doesnt require you to make a magic (enrollment) number, Caggiano told parents during a late January meeting. It is innovative, it is creative, it is new, and you have to take a leap of faith.

The challenge of change

Principal Jo-Anne Gauger recalls the tense situation three years ago when dwindling enrollment forced St. Peter / St. Francis School to choose the multi-age education model as the only way to survive.

At the time, there was only one Catholic school in the Hartford Archdiocese that taught blended classes, and that school abruptly closed.

My parents were up in arms, saying, There is our model and now they are closing, recalls Gauger. The worst part about it was we had to let teachers go ... But we also lost quite a few students, because parents felt this was the last nail in the coffin.

Gauger saw her enrollment go from 120 students in pre-K through 8th grade to 80 students the first year of the multi-age classes. Today, enrollment has climbed to 93.

Our first year was rough, Gauger said.  I had parents say, This isnt going to work for my child. But since then they have all been great about it. I mean, we have not lost students because they werent happy.

In Brookfield, Caggiano and the members of the task force understand there might be teachers who do not want to work in a multi-age classroom, and there might be parents who feel it would be a bad fit for their children.

But advocates believe in the multi-age model for St. Joseph, which is running a $200,000 annual deficit.

In a traditional classroom everyone teaches to the middle because you have to engage as many students as possible  so the very bright students often times could easily get bored and the ones who need particular help in a subject get frustrated, Caggiano told parents during a Jan. 20 meeting to announce the initiative. Technology allows us to motivate each child to their capability.

Mastrogiovanni agrees.

There is no ceiling to the learning, Mastrogiovanni said during a recent visit to her classroom.

She taught a younger group math at the smartboard while older groups solved math problems at two round tables on the other side of the classroom.

This is really the way learning should be, because they are pushed, and they are getting exactly what each of them needs, Mastrogiovanni said.

In the classroom next door, 16-year veteran Christine Kupcho said the multi-age model gives her the flexibility to teach to the students strengths.

They are not on my level  they are all on their own indivicual level, said Kupcho, who teaches 3- and 4-year-olds. I can create my own lesson plans and can be as accommodating or as creative as I need to be.

In Brookfield, the proof of the models appeal will come when the school looks at its registration in the fall.

Although there is no minimum enrollment number  Caggiano suggested the new school could run as well with 80 students as 300  the school cannot survive without the commitment of families.

Mastrogiovanni shared some advice.

As rough as it is to get started you need to just embrace it and go with it and do what you can to keep Catholic education alive, she said. Because we need it.

rryser@newstimes.com 203-731-3342.RIDGEFIELD  A group of residents and business owners, who teamed up last summer to promote the town, have decided to hire SandorMax marketing agency.

Wayne Addessi, who started the group, said the Newtown-based company will help it develop a website. The group was started last summer to advertise Ridgefield and has since collected nearly $50,000 in private donations and created a promotional video about the town, Addessi said at a Board of Selectmen meeting this week.BRANFORD  Acoustic bluesman Toby Walker, a finger-style guitar virtuoso who was the winner of the 2002 International Blues Challenge in Memphis, will take on the winter blues Saturday in the latest entry in the Branford Folk Music Societys concert series.

Showtime is 8 p.m. in the auditorium of the First Congregational Church of Branford on the Town Green. Tickets are $20 for nonmembers, $17 for members and $5 for children ages 12 and under.

For more information, call 203-488-7715 or visit branfordfolk.org.

Walker, also known as Little Toby Walker, who made his Branford Folk debut in 2013, combines elements of blues, ragtime, country, bluegrass, rock and old-time jazz in his playing.

He has been hailed by the likes of Jorma Kaukonen of Hot Tuna and Jefferson Airplane, who said of Walker, Flat out ... you have to hear this great musician. ... Im blown away.

Kaukonen has employed Walker as a teacher at his internationally famous Fur Peace Ranch Guitar Camp for more than a decade.

Walker was recognized in 2014 as a Master Blues Artist by the New York Blues Hall of Fame and four years previous won the New York Music Award for Best Instrumental CD, sharing honors on stage with Mariah Carey, Rufus Wainwright and Judy Collins, among others.

He has toured the United States, England, Wales, France, Germany, Belgium, Holland and, most recently, Cyprus.

Walkers passion for blues, rags, folk and other traditional American music forms drove him at a young age to leave an apartment crammed full of recordings, books and instruments for the Mississippi Delta, Virginia and the Carolinas.

In those places, he tracked down several of the more obscure  but immensely talented  bluesmakers of an earlier era, learning directly from Eugene Powell, James Son Thomas, Etta Baker and R. L Burnside, among others.

Walker has released several instructional guitar DVDs for Homespun Tapes and recently released an album of traditional blues, entitled From The Ground Up.

mark.zaretsky@hearstmediact.comNEW HAVEN  It only took Shellye Valauskas and her Shellye Valauskas Experience a decade or so to finally put out History of Panic, the full-length follow-up to her 2008 EP, Box It Up.

But guess what?

Its out and its a fine, highly polished bit of pure pop music that features some pretty solid guest artists  including Jon Auer (of The Posies and Big Star) and drummer Dave Mattacks (Fairport Convention, XTC, Nick Drake and Paul McCartney)  who will be with her, her partner in the SVE, Dean Falcone, and brother/bassist Ed Valauskas when they hold a CD release party on Saturday at Cafe Nine. Showtime is 9 p.m.

Auer, who lives in Paris but is able to play because they timed the release for when he would be in this country, will perform a solo set in addition to playing with the Shellye Valauskas Experience. Tickets are $12 in advance at cafenine.com, or $15 at the door.

(There also will be a second CD release party in the Boston area, also with Auer and Mattacks, on Feb. 11 as part of The Burren Backroom Series at 247 Elm St. in Somerville. Showtime for that one is 7-9 p.m. Tickets for the Somerville show are $15, available at tickets.burren.com.)

Shellye Valauskas, a Hamden resident who teaches biology at Branford High School by day, is pretty excited about it.

Its full length and we had the chance to work with some people that weve always admired, which is pretty cool, she said in a recent phone interview.

This time out, we did more shared writing, Dean and I, she said. It took a super long time to make. It took five years, because we only went into the studios sporadically. ... Its a little more rocking in parts and theres some cool harmonies that the guest musicians contributed to.

Valauskas said it was a thrill working with Maddock  whom she called a really amazing drummer  and Auer, who played on four tracks, and that made the recording process really fun.

The CD release party is likely to be a little different from a standard Shellye Valauskas Experience gig, because my normal band wont be playing the release parties, she said.

Instead, theyre doing the CD release party with the guys who recorded the CD with them, she said.

Also contributing to History of Panic were Matt Pynn, who has worked with Dwight Yoakam and Miley Cyrus, as well Ed Valauskas (Juliana Hatfield, The Gravel Pit), Scott Janovitz (The Figgs, Graham Parker), Jen DAngora (Jenny Dee & the Deelinquents, The Downbeat 5), Abbie Barrett and Brendan Haley. Also on the album is drummer Jim Balga, who goes back to the early 80s with Falcone, when both were members of legendary New Haven pop combo The Excerpts.

New music from Valauskas has been eagerly awaited by some. The previous EP was named one of the top 10 local releases in the yearly roundups in the New Haven Register and New Haven Advocate.

The new CD  with an LP version coming out on vinyl in March  was recorded at Q Division Studios in Somerville, and Firehouse 12 in New Haven.

While it has a big name, at its core, the Shellye Valauskas Experience is Valauskas and Falcone  who also is well known locally for his own music with Dean and the Dragsters and many others, as well as his work on a national level with Norah Jones, Brian May of Queen, Aimee Mann, Lydia Loveless, Susannah Hoffs and Neko Case.

(You also may know Falcone for his work writing and producing music for films, including area filmmaker Gorman Bechards upcoming film Pizza, A Love Story.)

mark.zaretsky@hearstmediact.comScranton's miners are gone but their descendants live on.

The old Pennsylvania coal town ranks No. 1 in the concentration the descendants of immigrants from Poland, Wales and Lithuania living in a U.S. city, according to a Bloomberg study of ancestral data. It also ranks No. 2 for its concentration of Russians and No. 3 for Italians, Slovaks, Austrians and Ukrainians.

If you take a stroll around Scranton, where immigrants once dug for anthracite coal, you are seven times more likely to run into a person of Polish descent, eight times more likely to meet someone with Welsh roots and 12 times more likely to bump elbows with someone of Lithuanian blood, than anywhere else in the U.S.

Experienced miners from Germany and Wales were the first to arrive followed by the unskilled, said Bode Morin, site administrator for the Anthracite Heritage Museum. Today, the Scranton area boasts a diversified economy, yet legacies remain -- Orthodox church domes, shops stocking kielbasa and Italian eateries. "You can't throw a rock and not hit an Italian restaurant or pizzeria," Morin said.

The greatest concentration of an ethic group in the continental U.S. is in Duluth, Minnesota -- on the shores of Lake Superior -- where you would be 50 times more likely to meet a person whose descendants immigrated from Finland than in other parts of the country. Finnish homesteaders were drawn to northern Minnesota by its vast pine forests and mining, according to the St. Louis County Historical Society in Duluth. Scandinavian immigrants -- from Sweden, Norway, and Denmark -- tended to settle in the upper Midwest.

In California, Chinese immigration can be traced to the building of the Transcontinental railroad. The fortunes of the Central Pacific Railroad, which linked up with the Union Pacific in Utah in 1869, rested largely on the shoulders Chinese laborers. As a result, San Francisco and San Jose rank No. 2 and No. 3 in terms of Chinese ethnic concentration. Urban Honolulu, Hawaii, takes No. 1.

Three Texas border towns -- Laredo, McAllen and Brownsville -- have the greatest concentration of people of Mexican heritage. To the north, French Canadians top the list in three New England cities -- Lewiston, Maine; Manchester, New Hampshire; Burlington Vermont.

Among other U.S. cities with the highest ancestral representation, it's German in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin; Irish in Ocean City, New Jersey; Italian in New Haven, Connecticut; Puerto Rican in Vineland, New Jersey; Norwegian in Grand Forks, North Dakota; Dutch in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Bloomberg calculated the top three metro areas with the highest concentration of population with each ancestral origin. The Census Bureau broadly defines ancestry as "a person's ethnic origin or descent, 'roots', or heritage, or the place of birth of the person or the person's parents or ancestors before their arrival in the United States." Also included were home-grown identities such as Natives (American Indians and Alaskan Natives) and the Pennsylvania German. Ancestry affiliations were self-identified and specific; for example, the following identities were not grouped: Spaniard/Spanish/Spanish American, Czech/Czechoslovakian, French/French Canadian/French Basque, English/British.Head and Spiritual Leader of INRI Spiritual and Evangelical Church, Oke Afa, Isolo, Lagos, Primate Elijah Babatunde Ayodele, has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to heed the advice of former President not to seek re-election, but allow and support Senate President Bukola Saraki to fly the flag of All Progressive Congress, APC in the Presidential election next year.Primate Ayodele who stated this during a chat with Saturday Vanguard yesterday said: the President as good-hearted leader should step down for Senate President Abubakar Bukola Saraki as presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to face whoever would emerge as opposition in the 2019 general election, adding that Bukola Saraki has what it takes to continue with the good job he has done and drive it to a logical and more successful end.He added: Buhari should step down for Saraki so that his second term will not come with more dangerous challenges for Nigeria. Bukola Saraki has all that it takes to turn Nigeria around from where Buhari will stop. That is what I have seen and the Lord does not lie, he said.Clarifying the both divine statements coming from him, the Ikere-Ekiti, Ekiti State-born church leader said, There is no difference in what I said then and what I have just seen now. I had seen and said that Buharis second term was dicey and that it would come with challenges but that he however would win if APC presented him as candidate for the 2019.Several persons have been declared missing and many houses razed after suspected Fulani herdsmen launched attack on Nanev village in Uikpam...

Several persons have been declared missing and many houses razed after suspected Fulani herdsmen launched attack on Nanev village in Uikpam, Guma LGA of Benue State.

Guman is the country home of the state governor, Samuel Ortom.





The commmunity was also attacked on January 1 where over 50 persons were hacked to death.

It was gathered that the gunmen, armed to their teeth stormed the village, Friday evening, shooting sporadically into the air and setting houses on fire.





A resident of the community hinted that over 23 houses were burnt down completely.





This incident came barely three days after seven Fulani natives were burnt to death in Gboko area of the state





Confirming the incident, Hon. Anthony Shawon, Chairman of Guma Local Government Area of Benue State said the timely intervention of mobile police prevented the armed men from causing more damages.





This night 2/2/18 the Fulani militia attacked Uikpam village. The mobile police repelled them. They are now burning Nanev Villages, he said.





Meanwhile, text message to the Benue State Police PRO, Moses Yamu was not replied at the time of this report.











The Oluwo of Iwo, Oba Adewale Akanbi, has alleged that the Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi, ordered his bodyguard to push him out of the ...

The Oluwo of Iwo, Oba Adewale Akanbi, has alleged that the Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi, ordered his bodyguard to push him out of the way during the meeting of traditional rulers in the country held in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital.

Oba Akanbi made the allegation in a statement on Friday.





The bodyguard of the Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi, in what seemed to be an errand message, pushed Oluwo at the public gathering of the first-class paramount rulers held at the Presidential Hotel, Port Harcourt, the capital of Rivers State last Tuesday.





Dignitaries at the event were taken aback by what they considered as a desecration of the crown as the bodyguard of the Ooni pushed a first-class paramount ruler, Oluwo.





As shown in the pictures, the Ooni was called to make a vote of thanks as the Oluwo was engaging the Minister of Interior, Abdulrahman Dambazau, who came to represent President Muhammadu Buhari.





While the Ooni was coming to his seat, his security guard descended on the Oluwo and asked him to give way or he would push him. Oluwo tried to plead with him to be patient, but he (bodyguard) resisted. He then pushed the Oluwo.





The monarch excused himself in order to maintain peace. The Ooni was observing and he felt satisfied with the action of his guard. Oluwo stepped aside and thereafter revisited his conversation with the minister, the statement from the monarch read.





However, the Ooni has dismissed the accusation as false.





A statement issued by his Director of Public Affairs, Mr. Moses Olafare, reads: There was no altercation between Oluwo and anybody at that venue at all.



There are three intelligence agencies in Nigeria, namely DSS, NIA and DIA. Each of them is headed by Northern Muslims. Two out of the thr...

There are three intelligence agencies in Nigeria, namely DSS, NIA and DIA. Each of them is headed by Northern Muslims. Two out of the three are from the same Katsina State as President Buhari. One out of the three comes from the Presidents hometown, Daura.

Is there a balance in our intelligence agencies? With no Christian or Southerner in the top intelligence strata, how can intelligence on issues like killer Fulani herdsmen and other national security challenges not be biased in favour of those who share religious and ethnic affinity with these intelligence chiefs?





But an even more important question is this: Was Ayo Oke, the sacked DG of the NIA, set up to make way for a core Northern Muslim Director General?





This is a valid question when you consider that two people were sacked at the same time, namely, Babachir Lawal, the thieving former Secretary to the Government of the Federation and Ambassador Ayo Oke.





But while Babachir Lawal, was replaced by someone from his own state of Adamawa (actually his own cousin from the same village as him), Ambassador Ayo Oke, who is from Oyo State, was replaced by Mr. Ahmed Rufai Abubakar, who is allegedly from the same Katsina state as the President but suspected to be from Chad.





But why the anomaly? Why the difference in sourcing Babachir Lawals successor and Ambassador Okes?





But it gets curiouser and curiouser. Obviously, Babachir Lawal is a pilferer. He was caught red-handed and was rightly sacked, but what was Ambassador Ayo Okes crime?





The flat in which US$43.4 million, 27,800 and N23million Naira ($75,000) were found was identified to be a safe house. Such practices are not strange all over the world. The money did not belong to Ambassador Ayo Oke. It was money meant for covet operations. It was not found in his account. To paraphrase the late Sabo Bakin Zuwo, it was a case of government money in government house.





Till today, many Nigerians cannot fathom why ambassador Oke was sacked.





The Buhari administration inaugurated a committee to probe the incidences surrounding the notorious Ikoyigate scandal and now four months after the Vice President Yemi Osinbajo committee submitted its report, the public still does not know the outcome of its investigation.





I understand that there may be some national security implications, but the whole story seems fishy and looks to me and many others like a set up to remove the only Southerner heading one of the nations three intelligence agencies and replace him with a core Northern Muslim Northerner.





At a time when Nigeria is facing an unusual upsurge in killings by Muslim Fulani herdsmen, it is suspicious, to say the very least, that the only non-Northerner is removed under a cloud and as now have a troika of core Northern Muslims manning our intelligence agencies.





As at today, these are President Muhammadu Buharis men that are expected to save Nigerians from killer Fulani herdsmen:





-Minister of Defense, Muslim Northerner





-Minister of Interior, Muslim Northerner





-NSA, Muslim Northerner





-Chief of Army staff, Muslim Northerner





-IG of Police, Muslim Northerner





-Chief of Air staff, Muslim Northerner





-DG NIA, Muslim Northerner





-DG DIA, Muslim Northerner





-DG DSS, Muslim Northerner





-CG, Prison, Muslim Northerner





-CG Customs,Muslim Northerner





-CG Immigration, Muslim Northerner





(Full disclosure, the chief of Naval staff is from the South, but the Navy has little or no role in the anti-terror war)





Please make of this list what you will





Never in the history of Nigeria have we had our military and security architecture so firmly concentrated in the hands of core Northern Muslims as we have today. This is nepotism on steroids. The heads of the Army, the Air Force, the Police and ALL the three intelligence agencies are securely in the hands of core Northern Muslims. Is there not even one competent Southerner that President Buhari could find to head just one of these agencies?





And Nasir El-Rufai warned us but we did not heed his warning. On October 4, 2010, El-Rufai said as follows:





Mallam El-Rufai wishes to remind General Buhari that he has remained perpetually unelectable because his record as military head of state, and afterwards, is a warning that many Nigerians have wisely heeded. His insensitivity to Nigerias diversity and his parochial focus are already well-known.





And what El-Rufai said in 2010 is eerily similar to what General Babangida said in August of 1985 after he overthrew Buhari. He said inter alia: Regrettably, it turned out that Major-General Muhammadu Buhari was too rigid and uncompromising in his attitudes to issues of national significance. Efforts to make him understand that a diverse polity like Nigeria required recognition and appreciation of differences in both cultural and individual perceptions, only served to aggravate these attitudes.





With the way President Buhari has been so one-sided and sectional in his appointments, if he had the power, would he not have appointed a core Northern Muslim as the President of the Christian Association of Nigeria!





What sin did we commit as a nation to deserve such a lopsided government? A government that overwhelmingly handed almost the entire Nigerian security architecture to core Northern Muslims in a country almost evenly populated by Christians and Muslims.





This is a man who believes in one law and set of standards for himself and his favoured section of the country and another law and set of standards for others.





Five months ago, President Buhari summoned Igbo elders and berated them for not calling Igbo youths to order and blamed them for the rise of Nnamdi Kanu and his Indigenous People of Biafra.





Well, let us consider the Presidents logic.





President Buhari is a Fulani elder. Using his logic, should we blame him for not calling Fulani herdsmen to order? At least IPOB didnt kill. Herdsmen kill with abandon! The President applies rules on others that he is not prepared to apply to himself or his kinsmen. For instance, how can the Buhari government say Fulani herdsmen have the right to move around Nigeria at will and then turn around to advise Rabiu Kwankwaso that he should not come to Kano? Does it mean that killer Fulani herdsmen have more freedom of movement than a bonafide Nigerian citizen?





And why must we surrender our lands for cattle colonies as the Buhari administration would want? Is that the hidden agenda behind the blatant Northernization policy of the Buhari regime?





Let me sound a strong warning to any state that allows cattle colonies. They will take the land you give them. They will increase in population. They will appoint a king. They will ask for more land. You will say no. It is at that point that such a state will know the real meaning of the word colony. If in doubt, go and read about the history of Ilorin. History is about to repeat itself, but on a wider scale.





If a Nigerian goes to America to kill Americans, President Donald Trump will rightly ensure he is executed. If foreign Fulani herdsmen come to Nigeria to kill Nigerians, President Buhari will ensure they are given free land for cattle colony. Yet Nigerians criticize Trump!





Americas greatest national security threat is a missile from North Korea. Europes greatest national security threat is a missile from Russia. But Nigerias greatest national security threat in the 21st century are Fulani cattle rearers with AK-47! Is Nigeria still in the Stone Age?





And now that they have the total security and intelligence infrastructure firmly in their grasp, what does the Buhari administration want to do?





The unintelligent so-called minister of defence, Mansur Dan-Ali, blamed Nigerians and the anti-grazing law for Fulani herdsmen killings and amazingly declared that henceforth the Buhari administration will now monitor social media to help secure the nation.





What is the correlation?





Buhari should invest the time and money he wants to use in monitoring social media and arresting hate speech makers to monitoring farmlands and arresting killer Fulani herdsmen. Misplaced priority.





He rode on free speech to power and wants to remove the ladder that got him there. He is desperate for a second term, yet he is not performing. So what will now happen when he gets the second term and does not need our votes again? If Buhari is doing little to nothing to stop Fulani herdsmen now, imagine how much worse they will be if he gets a second term!





Let me conclude by saying that I just read how 430 Nigerian prisoners are pursuing degrees at NOUN. Buhari was overthrown in 1985 and returned to power 30 years later. In those 30 years, did he improve himself like these prisoners? He did not further his education. No degree, no books written. Even his WAEC certificate is suspect.



The Federal Government has commenced Automatic Exchange of Tax Information (AETI), on overseas assets held by Nigerians.Yelwa, told Vanguard that the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee, FAAC, had not been adhering to provisions of the law.The Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, disclosed this while receiving Progress Report on Tax Laws Reform by the Vice Chairman of the National Tax Policy Implementation Committee, Mr. Taiwo Oyedele, in Abuja, yesterday,She expressed satisfaction with the data being supplied to Nigeria by foreign countries under the AETI.Her words, The data received in Nigeria with regard to overseas assets held by Nigerians has been impressive and will underpin a long term improvement in the nations tax to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) ration, in turn, will improve life for the masses.The data on bank accounts, property and trusts, which has come automatically from a number of countries is being used to support the Voluntary Assets and Income Declaration Scheme (VAIDS) by allowing the tax authorities to check the accuracy of declarations received.The Federal Government is also using the data to generate nudge letters which are being sent to those identified as being potential tax defaulters.She disclosed that Nigeria had written to a number of nations to request specific information about offshore trusts and bank accounts held by its citizens.Mrs. Adeosun urged users of offshore structures to take advantage of VAIDS to regularise their taxes before the expiry of the amnesty programme.The offshore tax shelter system is basically over. Those who have hidden money overseas are being exposed and whilst Nigerians can legally keep their money anywhere in the world, they must first pay any taxes due to the Nigerian Government so that we can fund the needs of the masses and create jobs and wealth for our people.The moral argument against illicit financial flows and tax evasion and the strong international co-operation are such that every Nigerian tax payer should do the right thing. The needs of our people for development override any other argument against payment of tax, she stated.She stressed the need for a sustainable revenue that could deliver infrastructural development for Nigeria and improve the tax to GDP ratio of the country.She assured that the Federal Government would build a robust tax system and implement the recommendations by the National Tax Policy Implementation Committee (NTPIC) on tax laws reform.Earlier in his address, Mr. Oyedele, said the committee considered three major policy documents namely; the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP), the National Tax Policy and Ease of Doing Business Plan.He said seven major tax areas that would have the highest impact. These include: Company Income Tax (CIT), Value Added Tax (VAT), Customs & Excise Tariff (CET), Personal Income Tax (PIT), Pension Contributions, Industrial Development Income Tax Relief (IDITR); and Tertiary Education Trust Fund.The Presidency on Saturday said out of a total of N900bn allocated to the the present administrations National Social Investment Programme in the 2016 and 2017 Budgets, only N110bn was released.The Senior Special Assistant to the Vice-President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Laolu Akande, disclosed this in a statement while giving updates on the programme.Akande said, A total of N900bn was appropriated for the SIPs in 2016 and 2017; with N500bn appropriated for 2016 and N400bn appropriated for 2017.However, the total amount released was N110bn for 2016 and 2017, with the total expenditure of N109n.Below is a breakdown of the N109bn released between October 2016 and November 2017 for the SIPs, namely: GEEP, CCT, NHGSFP, N-power, and general expenditure.The GEEP expenditure was N11,700,200,466, while the CCT gulped N5,235,401,087.In the same vein, between October 2016 and November 2017, N22,370,719,017 was expended for the Home-grown School Feeding Programme; while N69,731,256,122 was expended on N-power, which is the Job Creation component of the SIP, during the same period.Akande also disclosed that over 246 million meals have been served to date to primary pupils across 20 states in the country, since the first meal served in December 2016 under the National Home Grown School Feeding Programme.He said the figure would be increased reach 313,928,420 meals by the last week of February 2018.He added that the programme now feeds 6,044,625 pupils in 33,981 public primary schools across 20 states.More states, according to him, are expected to be added to the programme this year.The NHGSFP plans to implement feeding in a total of 28 States, while it aims to link farmers to school feeding markets, he added.Akande said many other milestones were recorded by the present administrations NSIP in 2017, in line with its inclusive growth plan, which includes tackling poverty and hunger, and creating jobs for Nigerians.He added, About 40,000 direct jobs have since been created from the School Feeding Programme across the participating states.The 20 states that have so far been covered by the NHGSFP include Anambra, Enugu, Oyo, Osun, Ogun, Ebonyi, Zamfara, Delta, Abia, Benue, Plateau, Bauchi, Taraba, Kaduna, Akwa-Ibom, Cross River, Imo, Jigawa, Niger, and Kano.Also, in 2017, the school feeding programme collaborated with the Federal Ministry of Health to deliver an integrated deworming programme for pupils in all public primary schools classes 1 to 6 across 17 states nationwide.He disclosed that the school feeding programme now has a social media-based quality assurance tracking system, #TrackWithUs, ensuring that required standards for menu for pupils and meal distribution are adhered to across the states in a transparent manner.Similarly, the Conditional Cash Transfer has so far recorded over 280,000 beneficiaries in 21 states, while about 300,000 Government Enterprise Empowerment Programme micro-credit, interest-free loans have been disbursed nationwide.In the same vein, in 2017, the N-power scheme, which is targeted at providing jobs for unemployed young graduates, started its physical verification process for the 2017 applicants. In 2018, more beneficiaries are expected to be added to about 200,000 young graduates currently employed under the scheme, he added.Walter Onnoghen, chief justice of Nigeria (CJN), says e-mail will be the only means of communication of important information in Nigerian c...

Walter Onnoghen, chief justice of Nigeria (CJN), says e-mail will be the only means of communication of important information in Nigerian courts beginning from July 16.

He said this on Friday during the launch of the newly retrofitted court and legal email system at the supreme court, Abuja.





Onnoghen said this would basically be between judges, lawyers and court staff.





He said the measure is in line with the judiciarys quest for excellence and to help in phasing out the manual forms of communication.





He also said such means of communication would help in achieving confidentiality, integrity and availability within the legal system.





Henceforth lawyers who have acquired the legal e-mail can now communicate electronically with the courts and with each other, the CJN said.





However, by July 16, it becomes mandatory.





The supreme court will only serve processes by electronic means. Hence all new filings as from July 16 must bear counsels legal email address.





To ensure compliance, it is also imperative that all other heads of courts aquire the legal email addresses for their courts from the JITPO committee, especially for the litigation department staff.





Onnoghen also encouraged all courts in the country to start serving lawyers notices through email.





He added that the official email system also affects communication between the various judicial bodies in the country.





The quick adoption of the system will enable us move forward to improve and implement the other components that depend upon it, he said.



The Arewa Youths Assembly has reacted to the formation of third force by former President Olusegun Obasanjo.

The Arewa Youths Assembly has reacted to the formation of third force by former President Olusegun Obasanjo.

The group in a statement signed by its Speaker, Mohammed Salihu, alleged that Nigerias democracy under Obasanjo between 1999 and 2007, was almost derailed because of his leadership style.





The Arewa youths said, In 2006 towards 2007, the powerful OBJ not satisfied with the eight-year tenure mandate given to him by Nigerians, decided to manipulate the constitution to pave the way for yet another term called Third Term.





Thank God for notable Nigerians who resisted the plan and rendered it toothless. Since that time till date, even after handing over power to the late President Shehu YarAdua, OBJ has refused to lie low as being demonstrated by his predecessors and others.





The Northern part of Nigeria which overwhelmingly supported OBJ despite his rejection by his Southwest home, later became the worst hit.



Carlos Aliciea- Antonetti, a landscaper working in Camden, learned the morning of May 12, 2014 that one of his former clients was thinking of buying a car, and had the cash for the purchase at home.

Hours later, prosecutors say, he and an employee were driving around Cherry Hill and Pennsauken, making purchases with the $8,000 that Fatima Perez had saved for her new car.

As they spent her money, Perez was tied up in the backseat of the van with duct tape over her mouth and eyes.

As they spent her money, Perez was tied up in the backseat of the van, duct tape over her mouth and eyes. Hours later, they drove her to a wooded area in Monroe Township, Gloucester County, where he dug a shallow grave, placed her in it, and covered her with dirt, lime, an old tire and other branches and debris.

Two days after she was reported missing, Ramon Ortiz, the employee in the van with Alicea-Antonetti, took authorities to the gravesite.

Ortiz, 60, pleaded guilty to first-degree aggravated manslaughter and was sentenced to 25 years in prison in July 2016. A jury found Alicea-Antonetti guilty in December.

In Judge Gwendolyn Blue's courtroom Friday, Perez's relatives read statements before Blue sentenced Antonetti on murder, kidnapping and robbery charges.

Perez's sister, Vanessa Sing, said that despite what had happened to her sister who was loved so dearly, she did not feel hatred toward Antonetti.

She described speaking with him on the phone pleading for him to return Perez.

"At the end, you just hung up the phone on me," she said.

"I can honestly tell you, I don't hate you," Sing said. "But that doesn't mean I don't wish you the worst in your miserable life."

"I'm glad there's no death penalty in New Jersey," she continued. "I want thoughts of what you did to torture you before you go to sleep at night."

Fatima Perez seen at a family event in a photo shown at the sentencing on Friday.

Besides the three statements, the judge was also shown a slideshow of photos of Perez with her family. At barbecues, birthday parties. Celebrating the New Year 2011.

The family members packing the courtroom appeared shocked when Alicea-Antonetti, through a court interpreter, denied any involvement in the murder.

"The truth is that I do not have remorse. Yes, it causes me pain to know what happened to Fatima Perez, because I'm a human and it hurts. But I don't have any remorse because I did not kill Fatima Perez.

"You are entitled to your opinion," Blue said. "But every decision I make in my courtroom is based on the facts before me." At another point in the proceeding she noted that there was "overwhelming" evidence in support of Alicea-Antonetti's conviction.

Blue handed down a sentence of life without parole in a maximum security facility on the murder charge, along with other sentences on the robbery and kidnapping charges.

Both the judge and assistant prosecutor Christine Shah remarked during the proceeding that they had never seen such a brutal incident in all their years of experience.

Blue commended Perez's family, particularly her daughter Jennifer Garcia, for facing Alicea-Antonetti despite the immense emotional pain they were feeling. Garcia read a letter from her 10-year-old brother, who was seven when Perez was murdered.

"Don't let this man end your sister's legacy," Blue said. "Keep it going ... Don't let a decision that this man made control who you are."

Alicea-Antonetti, who was represented by a public defender, will spend his sentence in a maximum security facility.

Joe Brandt can be reached at jbrandt@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JBrandt_NJ. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

Have a tip? Tell us. nj.com/tipsA fast-moving fire that spread to three homes left 12 families displaced Saturday morning.

More than 60 firefighters battled the three-alarm blaze for hours in frigid conditions on Flemming Avenue where the fire started in a two-story residence and quickly jumped to two neighboring homes shortly before 2 a.m., according to Newark Public Safety Director Anthony Ambrose.

Newark's Fire Division's Arson Unit is still investigating but officials believe the cause of the fire was a space heater.

Firefighters were able to get the fire under control by 5 a.m., according to officials.

Newark police say the homes were destroyed, leaving 33 people without a home.

As a result, the American Red Cross of New Jersey, according to Communications Director Diane Concannon, responded to the scene with six volunteers to hand out emergency financial assistance for food, clothing and other immediate needs.

Only two families needed lodging assistance, and the rest of the families are staying with friends and family Concannon said.

Three members of the Newark Fire Division were injured, all suffering from shoulder injuries and one also injuring his hip from a fall. They were treated at University Hospital.JERSEY CITY -- The Hudson County Prosecutor's Office has ruled that a Kearny police officer was justified in shooting a suspected shoplifter as the man fled the Walmart parking lot in a car in September 2016.

"The investigation consisted of witness statements, video evidence, and the collection of physical evidence recovered at the scene," according to the HCPO. "Based on the undisputed facts reached during the investigation, the HCPO has determined that... the officer's use of force was justified under the law."

On the morning of Sept. 16, 2016, the officer responded to Walmart on Harrison Avenue on a call of a shoplifting and upon arrival, a story employee pointed at a Honda driven by Ramon Martinez, 44, of Jersey City, according to the HCPO.

The officer has his gun drawn and was ordering the driver to get out of the car but the Honda backed out of a parking space and slammed into a car behind it, according to the HCPO.

At this point, the police officer was in between his cruiser and the Honda driver's side when it accelerated forward and the officer fired three shots. The Honda turned away from the officer who stopped shooting. The Honda fled, according to the HCPO.

When Martinez was located in Newark later that morning he had a wound to his left arm and right shoulder. His car had three bullet holes in it in an area that corroborated the officer was near the front of the car when he fired, according to the HCPO.

"...the police officer reasonably believed he did not have sufficient time to safely move out of the Honda's path and there was no reasonable way for the police officer to determine whether the Honda would turn towards him or away from him," according to the HCPO.

The result of the HCPO's investigation was reviewed by the New Jersey Attorney General's Office which agreed with its conclusion. As a result of the ruling, no charges against the officer will be presented to the grand jury.

Martinez was charged with eluding police, receiving stolen property and shoplifting. A co-defendant was charged with receiving stolen property, an official said at the time. An update on the status of their prosecutions was not immediately available this afternoon.SECAUCUS -- Live coverage of The Jersey Journal's 59th Annual Hudson County can be viewed below.

Refresh your browser every few minutes to see updates on the bee, and watch the competition live through The Jersey Journal's Facebook Live feed, embedded below.

Posted by The Jersey Journal on Saturday, February 3, 2018

12:46: Sania Naik, of Academy 1 in Jersey City, is the champion of the 59th Annual Jersey Journal-Hudson County Spelling Bee after she successfully spells"vamplate," which is defined as a round plate of iron mounted on the shaft of a lance or tilting spear to protect the hand.

12:42: Rafi spells "Ibis," incorrectly... the spellers will reset -- Naik is back in the bee.

12:40: Naik spells "quiddity" incorrectly... Rafi must now answer the final question correctly.

12:36: Two contestants remain... Adnan Rafi (34) and Sania Naik (51).

12:34: Zheng (32) misspells "coronary," defined as relating to the heart.

12:32: Magdum (16) and and Kovacs (21) are eliminated. Four spellers remain...

12:30 p.m.: Round 8 begins.

12:28 p.m.: Singh (39) is eliminated after misspelling "remedial."



12:27 p.m.: Sayaan (37) is elimiated after misspelling "officiant."



12:20 : As round 7 begins, only eight contestants remain: Carlone Kovacs (21), Anusha Magdum (16), Benny Zheng (32), Adnan Rafi (34), Raine Sayaan (37), Saloni Singh (39), Sania Naik (51), and Sky Lewit (55).

12:12 p.m.: Round 5 ends. Four spellers were eliminated -- 13 remain.

12:01 p.m.: Only 17 spellers remain after the conclusion of round 4.

11:45 a.m.: Round 3 ends -- 13 more spellers have been eliminated. Round 4 commences.

11:05 a.m.: Round 2 ends. Seven spellers have been eliminated; 39 contestants remain.

10:39 a.m.: Round 1 ends. Six spellers have been eliminated. The second round will be a vocabulary round.

10:30 a.m.: "Melba" is spelled correctly by contestant 48. Melba is defined as a fruit served with ice cream , rasberry sauce and whipped cream.

10:29 a.m.: "Credible" is spelled incorrectly by contestant 46.

10:25 a.m.: Speller 40 correctly spells "chipotle."

10:08 a.m.: Speller 9 is eliminated after misspelling "cameo."

10:03 a.m.: Speller 1 is asked to spell "bagel." She answers correctly.

9:57 a.m.: The students finish introducing themselves. 53 kids are in the competition.

Blomquist explains the rules of the spelling bee, including the fact that there will be "spelling rounds" as well as "vocabulary rounds."

During vocabulary rounds, students are required to choose between two choices of what a provided word means.

9:42 a.m.: Blomquist welcomes the bee's pronouncer, James Broderick of New Jersey City University; Jersey Journal Editor-in-Chief Margaret Schmidt; the scorekeeper, Joe Waks with the Hudson County Office of Cultural and Heritage Affairs; and the judges -- Stephen Rajcyk with AAA, and Ellen Wayman-Gordon with the New Jersey City University.

9:33 a.m.: "We are in the presence of some of Hudson County's brightest young men and women," said David Blomquist, publisher of The Jersey Journal in his introduction.

9:30 a.m.: The stage is full of students as their families look on from the audience. The 58th Annual Jersey Journal-Hudson County Spelling Bee is set to begin.

The spelling bee, which is organized and directed by The Jersey Journal and is presented this year by AAA, is sponsored by the Hudson County Office of Cultural and Heritage Affairs. County Executive Tom DeGise underwrites the champion's national participation.

The bee is being held at the Arthur F. Couch Performing Arts Center at Secaucus High School.Another corrections officer has been accused of sexually assaulting women incarcerated at the women's prison in Union Township, according to authorities.

Ronald Coleman Jr., 39, of Bethlehem Township, Pennsylvania, was arrested at his home Friday on 15 charges, which stem fom his alleged sexual relationships with three female inmates, the Hunterdon County Prosecutor's Office said in a statement Saturday.

Ronald Coleman Jr.

Coleman is the seventh staff member at the Edna Mahan Correctional Facility to be charged with sexually assaulting inmates in the last three years. After the earlier arrests of the corrections officers and one staffer, corrections officials have said the charges stemmed from isolated incidents.

But an NJ Advance Media investigation involving numerous interviews with inmates uncovered a pattern of sexual exploitation and assault in the prison, where some staff members allegedly traded contraband for sexual acts or forced the women to perform sex acts under threat of violence or disciplinary charges.

While some women remained silent, others did report the incidents and said their claims were covered up by other officers and administrators at the prison.

The investigation found that in 2010, the prison fired three officers after one was accused of abusing more than a dozen inmates, but he was never charged with a crime and the disciplinary actions were not made public.

In September, Hunterdon County Prosecutor Anthony Kearns said he had requested a meeting with state Attorney General Christopher Porrino and Corrections Commissioner Gary Lanigan to lay out evidence and make the case for changes at the prison.

In December, two inmates filed a lawsuit alleging abuse at the prison. A week later, a class-action suit was filed on behalf of all inmates and anyone released since 2014 claims male guards had "unfettered access" to women even when they were naked and could conduct strip searches "without reason." Two of the three named plaintiffs alleged sexual assault as well.

The Edna Mahan Correctional Facility in Union Township.

In Coleman's case, according to the prosecutor's office, an investigation found that Coleman "engaged in a sexual relationship with three inmates."

Under state law, any sexual contact between inmates and staff is a crime because prisoners cannot legally consent.

The release did not give details of Coleman's conduct with the three women.

He faces two counts of sexual assault, two counts of conspiracy to commit sexual assault, three counts of criminal sexual contact, seven counts of official misconduct, and one count of "pattern of official misconduct," according to the prosecutor's office.

Coleman is a senior corrections officer who has worked for the Department of Corrections since 2000. His salary as of September was $60,493.

A spokesman for the Department of Corrections declined to comment on the arrest and said information about whether Coleman had been suspended was unavailable because it was the weekend.

Rebecca Everett may be reached at reverett@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @rebeccajeverett. Find NJ.com on Facebook.A 43-year-old Jersey City firefighter is facing criminal charges after a woman told police that he rubbed his exposed penis on her leg at a Downtown bar last week.

Jaimi Pappas, of Jersey City, has been charged with criminal sexual contact, lewdness and harassment for the alleged incident, according to a criminal complaint.

The alleged victim told police she is a Jersey City police dispatcher, the complaint says.

John Coyle, Pappas' attorney, told The Jersey Journal the firefighter disputes the allegations.

"This guy's a single parent, he's a model fireman, he's never been in trouble before," Coyle said. "I fully expect the case to be resolved favorably as to Mr. Pappas."

Pappas was off duty at the time of the alleged incident and has since been suspended without pay until further notice, according to city spokeswoman Kim Wallace-Scalcione.

The woman who reported the alleged incident to police said she was at a Bright Street bar with a friend when they saw Pappas "dancing as if he was a stripper," the criminal complaint says. She told police she began taking video of his dancing "just in case" an incident happened, the complaint says.

Pappas approached the women and put his arms around them, the woman alleged, then walked away when she told him she works for the police department, according to the complaint.

He returned, she said, with his "penis exposed and rubbing his penis on her leg," bragging about its size, the complaint says. The woman told the bar's owner, who asked the man to leave, according to the complaint. She reported the incident to police after she returned home.

Pappas turned himself in on Monday after a warrant was issued for his arrest, according to a police report.

He joined the fire department in 2007 and makes $108,969, city payroll records show.

Terrence T. McDonald may be reached at tmcdonald@jjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter @terrencemcd.Firefighters rescued two people after their car crashed into a lake in Hamilton Saturday morning, leaving them trapped in the submerged car for around 15 minutes in frigid conditions, according to fire officials.

Hamilton police Lt. Richard Mastropolo identified the driver as Bernadette Joseph, 40, and the passenger as Annelisa Forestin, 18. Both Hamilton residents were in critical condition Saturday afternoon, he said.

Divers from the Trenton Fire Dept.'s marine rescue unit pulled both people from the vehicle and they were rushed to a Trenton hospital, according to Trenton Fire Battalion Chief Clifford Willever.

"Hopefully they pull through," he said. "Our guys did a good job."

Hamilton Fire Capt. Ferdinand Mather said they got a call around 9:10 a.m. for a car that had driven into Gropp's Lake with two people trapped inside.

Mastropolo said in a release that the car had been eastbound on South Broad Street near the Route 195 East exit ramp when Joseph apparently lost control and struck a guardrail.

"After striking the guard rail the vehicle continued to accelerate as it drove across the median," went across the westbound lane of South Broad Street and into the lake, Mastropolo said.

The car ended up submerged about 50 feet from shore, Mather said. Willever said it was in about 12 or 15 feet of water.

Trenton firefighters were dispatched at 9:15 a.m. and two divers were in the water at 9:27 a.m., Willever said. The first diver to the car was able to pull open a car door, despite the water pressure, and pull the victims out, he said.

After they were transported in ambulances to Capital Health Regional Medical Center in Trenton, a third diver went in the water to assist with towing the car from the water, he said.

All three divers were also taken to the hospital as a precaution, Willever said. "They were cold," he said.

Firefighters from White Horse and Rusling fire companies in Hamilton Hose assisted in the rescue, Mastropolo said.

Anyone with information about the crash is asked to call the Hamilton Police Traffic Unit at 609-581-4000 or the anonymous tipline at 609-581-4008.

Rebecca Everett may be reached at reverett@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @rebeccajeverett. Find NJ.com on Facebook.A federal judge in Newark on Friday issued a temporary restraining order halting the deportations of two Indonesian Christians taken into custody last week while they were dropping their daughters off for school.

U.S. District Judge Esther Salas issued the order after the ACLU went to court, arguing that the summary deportation of the men violated their due process and deprived them of the opportunity to argue their case for asylum.

"These community members, our neighbors, are entitled to argue their case with the protections of due process, especially when the stakes are life-and-death," said ACLU-NJ Executive Director Amol Sinha.

Gunawan Liem of Franklin Park and Roby Sanger of Metuchen, who both had pending removal orders, were arrested a week ago without warning by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, as part of an increasingly aggressive enforcement effort by the Trump Administration targeting illegal immigration.

A third man, Harry Pangemanan, was not home when ICE agents showed up at his house and he sought sanctuary at the Reformed Church of Highland Park, where Rev. Seth Kaper-Dale has long been championing the cause of the Indonesian Christian community.

"This case involves life-and-death stakes and we are simply asking that these longtime residents be given opportunity to show that they are entitled to remain here," said Lee Gelernt, deputy director of the ACLU Immigrants' Rights Project. "As in other recent similar cases in Detroit, Boston, Miami and Los Angeles involving mass deportations, we are asking the court to make clear that the fundamental protections of due process apply to non-citizens."

ICE officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Earlier this week, a federal judge in a similar case in Massachusetts also ordered the government to halt the removal of another group of Indonesian Christians, according to the ACLU, which filed that case too.

The judge ruled that they needed more time to file and receive decisions on motions to re-open their immigration cases over their claims of increasingly perilous conditions for Christians in Indonesia, a predominately Muslim nation.

A sign reads "Let the stay" at The Reformed Church of Highland Park. (Jody Somers | For The Star-Ledger)

According to court documents filed in the New Jersey case, the ACLU sought stays of removal for Liem, Sanger and others to give them a reasonable period of time "to compile and present evidence that would permit them to file motions to reopen their removal cases, including evidence of recent changes in country conditions that make Indonesia increasingly dangerous for Christians."

In its the complaint against ICE, its Newark director for enforcement and removal, and the Department of Homeland Security, the ACLU said most of those facing detention had U.S. citizen children, and argued their removal would rip apart families.

"They are devout and extremely active in their churches, some in official roles. Many volunteer their time to help disadvantaged members of their local community and beyond: participating in disaster relief efforts and volunteering through their churches," they said in the complaint.

In a statement, Farrin Anello, senior staff attorney for the ACLU of New Jersey, said the Constitution and laws recognizes that people must not be jailed or deported without an opportunity to seek court review of those harsh actions.

"We are extremely heartened and relieved that Judge Salas has ruled that these families may not be deported while she reviews their case," she said.

Ted Sherman may be reached at tsherman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @TedShermanSL. Facebook: @TedSherman.reporter. Find NJ.com on Facebook.On Feb. 2, 2017, an anxious and excited Timothy Piazza attended a Beta Theta Pi pledge party after accepting the fraternity's bid. But the Penn State sophomore died two days later, succumbing to injuries allegedly sustained at the party following an alcohol-fueled hazing ritual.

Nearing the first anniversary of his death, Timothy's parents, Evelyn and James Piazza, continue to speak about the dangers of hazing, penning an open letter to parents and appearing on NBC's Megyn Kelly TODAY.

"The nation, and much of the world, one year later knows that Timothy J. Piazza, our amazing, caring, goodhearted 19-year-old son -- the strapping redhead from western New Jersey known for his love of life and desire to help those in need -- was the victim of violent, organized fraternity hazing and brutal neglect," the Piazzas wrote. "That's not on his death certificate, but that's what we get to live with every day."

At the party, Timothy Piazza reportedly ran "the gauntlet" - a hazing ritual in which he consumed 18 drinks in 82 minutes - before falling head-first down the basement stairs.

It apparently took fraternity members 12 hours to call 9-1-1. By the time Piazza arrived at Hershey Medical Center later that day, it was estimated 80 percent of his body's blood supply was in his abdomen. He was taken off life support on Feb. 4, 2017.

"The cause of death was multiple traumatic injuries, including a fractured skull, lacerated spleen and a severe brain bleed," the letter reads. "He just wanted to join an organization. How could this happen?"

In the year since, the Piazzas advocated for stricter hazing penalties, Beta Theta Pi was banned from campus, fraternity members were criminally charged and three other pledges around the country died from hazing.

"Tim's death was the first hazing fatality in 2017, but by no means was it the last. We now belong to a national club no parent should ever aspire to join," the Piazzas wrote.

On Feb. 23 and 24, the Lebanon couple will join other parents who lost children due to hazing at a conference in South Carolina.

Their lives have stood still since Timothy's death, Evelyn Piazza said Friday morning on TODAY, where the discussion focused mostly on Penn State's actions.

"I think they have tried to put some policies in place but they have a lot more to do," she said. "We don't know that they have followed through with everything they said they wanted to do. So, we have asked for it but we haven't gotten actual confirmation...they say they are trying but I don't know that they are accomplishing a lot."

Penn State University President Eric Bannon also released a letter Thursday touting changes made to Greek life in 2017.

Changes include deferred recruitment policy, authorities reducing crowd sizes at fraternity gatherings, required risk-management programs and implementing new safety programs. Along with Beta Theta Pi's ban, 13 other Greek organizations have been suspended for safety violations, the letter states.

"This is important progress," Barron wrote. "While these consequences demonstrate that we mean business, the large number of suspended chapters also shows that many students have ignored the call for behavior change and fallen short of our values and expectations."

Jim Piazza told Kelly the university hasn't enforced many requested changes, including third-party bouncers and bartenders at parties, and surprise checks to chapter houses.

In the letter, the Piazzas urge parents to have conversations with their children debating of rushing a fraternity or sorority.

"It is important to talk openly about what has transpired this past year, and over many years, and to remind your children that they are important to you. Tell them to take nothing at face value, be cautious, guard against peer pressure," they said.

The Piazzas encourage students to pledge as a group, follow their instincts and call for help if something doesn't feel right.

"It is too late for Tim, but it is not too late for your son or daughter."

Sophie Nieto-Munoz may be reached at snietomunoz@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her at @snietomunoz. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

Have a tip? Tell us. nj.com/tipsMatt Gray | For NJ.com

Thirty-five New Jersey inmates are currently listed as escapees from state custody.

The most recent of these escapes, from a halfway house, occurred Jan. 29. The oldest cases on the list occurred nearly 50 years ago.

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When one of the state's 20,000 inmates escapes from a prison, youth facility or halfway house, the NJ Department of Corrections' fugitive unit works with local police and the New York/New Jersey Regional Fugitive Task Force, led by the U.S. Marshals Service, to track them down. In 2016, U.S. Marshals tracked down more than 88,400 federal, state and local fugitives nationwide.

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Few fled from prisons

Of the 35 currently listed escapees on the New Jersey DOC website, only five fled from prisons. All of those escapes occurred in 1970s.

"It's really extremely rare that somebody escapes from a prison," said DOC spokesman Matt Schuman. "You see it in movies and on TV, but it doesn't happen often at all."

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Most flee halfway houses

Most of the escapees on the list absconded from halfway houses. These are minimum custody inmates who have demonstrated they can be placed in a setting with fewer restrictions as they serve out the remainder of their terms. This setting is intended to prepare them for life after prison, Schuman explained.

Unlike escaping from a prison, there are no bars to break through or fences to climb at a halfway house. Residents leave for work or school, with requirements that they check in with halfway house personnel when the workday or school day is over. Escapees often simply choose not to return to the halfway house for some reason.

"Inmates are given the opportunity to succeed, Schuman said. "If they don't take advantage of that opportunity, they are going to come back to prison."

Escapees aren't the only ones who face penalties in these incidents. In some cases, halfway house operators have been fined for not providing timely notifications of escapes from their facilities.

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The penalty

Those who do skip custody usually don't remain free for long. "In almost every case, they are apprehended pretty quickly," Schuman said.

Inmates face an additional 3 to 5 years in prison for escaping from either a halfway house or prison. If violence was involved in the escape, the inmate may face even more time.

The following offenders are listed in order of their escape, from most recent to oldest.

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NJ Dept. of Corrections

Salassie J. Adams

Salassie J. Adams, 27, escaped from the Fletcher House halfway house in Camden on Jan. 29. He was serving time for robbery and was due for release by June 2019, according to DOC records.

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NJ Dept. of Corrections

Khadija T. Malik

Khadija T. Malik, 28, escaped from Garrett House, a halfway house in Camden for female offenders, on Jan. 24 of this year. She was serving sentences for attempted aggravated assault and drug offenses.

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NJ Dept. of Corrections

Raymond B. Evans

Raymond B. Evans, 26, escaped from Fletcher House in Camden, on Dec. 21, 2017. He was serving a sentence for weapons possession and was due for release by November of this year, according to state records.

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NJ Dept. of Corrections

Aldo V. Moro

Aldo V. Moro, 28, escaped from Fletcher House in Camden on Dec. 7, 2017. He was serving a 5-year sentence for a pair of robberies and was due for release by December 2018, according to prison records.

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NJ Dept. of Corrections

Adriean Hull

Adriean Hull, 33, escaped from the Kintock North Substance Abuse facility in Newark on Dec. 2, 2017. He was serving out the remainder of a four-year sentence for theft and was due for release by March 2019.

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Waverly McCray

Waverly McCray, 44, escaped from an Urban Renewal Corp. halfway house in Newark on Nov. 3, 2017. He was serving the remainder of a term for robbery, aggravated assault and theft, and was due for release by May 2018.

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NJ Dept. of Corrections

Dominique McKinnie

Dominique McKinnie, 24, escaped from the Kintock North Substance Abuse facility in Newark on Oct. 23, 2017. He was serving a 6-year term for distributing drugs on school property and was due for release by July 2020.

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NJ Dept. of Corrections

Malachi Fields

Malachi Fields, 23, escaped from the Kintock North Substance Abuse facility in Newark on Oct. 10, 2017. He was serving the remainder of a term for drug and weapons charges and was due for release by October 2018.

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NJ Dept. of Corrections

Luis H. Hernandez

Luis H. Hernandez, 46, escaped from the Kintock North Substance Abuse facility in Newark on Sept. 29, 2017. He was serving a 10-year term on a drug charge and was due for release by July 2021.

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NJ Dept. of Corrections

Thomas Eisengart

Thomas Eisengart, 28, escaped from the Kintock North Substance Abuse facility in Newark on Sept. 21, 2017. He was serving an 8-year term for robbery and was due for release by June 2018.

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Kristopher Fudali

Kristopher Fudali, 39, escaped from Hope Hall halfway house in Camden on Sept. 19, 2017. He was serving terms for burglary and theft, and was due to be released in July 2019.

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Andy Lopez

Andy Lopez, 33, escaped from Hope Hall halfway house in Camden on Sept. 18. He was serving 10 years for a drug charge and was due to be released in June 2021.

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NJ Dept. of Corrections

Dyesha Brunson

Dyesha Brunson, 25, escaped from Millicent Fenwick House, a halfway house in Paterson, on Sept. 12, 2017. She was serving time for burglary and credit card fraud and was due for release by September 2018.

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NJ Dept. of Corrections

Daquan A. Watt

Daquan A. Watt, 21, escaped from the Kintock North Substance Abuse facility in Newark on Sept. 8, 2017. He was serving time for drug and weapons charges and was due to be released by January 2019.

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NJ Dept. of Corrections

Michael J. Walker

Michael J. Walker, 45, escaped from Hope Hall halfway house in Camden on Aug. 24, 2017. He was serving a 4-year term for burglary and was due to be released by Dec. 2019.

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Joseph L. Brown

Joseph L. Brown, 47, escaped from Hope Hall halfway house in Camden on Aug. 14, 2017. He was serving 5 years on drug charges and was due to be released by August 2019.

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NJ Dept. of Corrections

Forrest D. Graves

Forrest D. Graves, 30, escaped from Fletcher House in Camden on Aug. 11, 2017. He was serving the remainder of his term on robbery and theft charges and was due for release by March 2019.

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NJ Dept. of Corrections

David Brisbon

David Brisbon, 35, escaped from Hope Hall halfway house in Camden on July 11, 2017. He was serving the remainder of his sentence on weapons and criminal trespassing charges and was due for release by June 2019.

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NJ Dept. of Corrections

Melvin A. Rivera

Melvin A. Rivera, 36, escaped from Fletcher House in Camden on May 11, 2017. He was serving the remainder of a sentence on a weapons charge and was due to be released by November 2018.

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NJ Dept. of Corrections

Edward S. Rosario

Edward S. Rosario, 28, escaped from the Kintock North Substance Abuse facility in Newark on Jan. 5, 2017. He was serving a 4-year term on a weapons possession charge.

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Amon Boseman

Amon Boseman, 26, escaped from the Kintock North Substance Abuse facility in Newark on June 3, 2016. He was serving time on robbery, drug and hindering apprehension charges and was due for release by February 2018.

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NJ Dept. of Corrections

Luis C. Parrilla

Luis C. Parrilla, 33, escaped from the Kintock North Substance Abuse facility in Newark on Feb. 11, 2016. He was serving an 8-year term on a drug charge and was due for release by March 2019.

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NJ Dept. of Corrections

Jesus M. Cubano

Jesus M. Cubano, 36, escaped from the Kintock North Substance Abuse facility in Newark on July 10, 2011. He was serving time on drug and conspiracy charges.

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Ignacio M. Cosme

Ignacio M. Cosme, 46, escaped from Tully House, a halfway house in Newark, on Jan. 22, 2002. He was serving time for burglary and drug offenses, and was originally incarcerated in 1999.

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Benjamin Delcerro

Benjamin Delcerro, 63, escaped from Tully House in Newark on June 26, 1999. He was serving time for burglary.

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Rudolfo Arroyo

Rudolfo Arroyo, 57, escaped from a Kintock halfway house in Newark on Sept. 22, 1997. He was serving time on drug charges.

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Nelson V. Amador

Nelson V. Amador, 40, escaped from Tully House in Newark on Aug. 18, 1997. He was serving time for a robbery conviction.

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Enrique Silva

Enrique Silva, 73, escaped from Riverfront State Prison on May 16, 1995. He was serving time for drug distribution.

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Allen Poindexter

Allen Poindexter, 57, escaped from Fletcher House in Camden on July 27, 1990. He was serving time on theft, drug and conspiracy charges.

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Jorge Vera

Jorge Vera, 66, escaped from Bergen County Jail's pre-admission facility on Jan. 11, 1984. He was serving time on an armed robbery charge. The DOC could not provide a photo of Vera.

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Joanne Chesimard

Joanne Chesimard, 70, was sentenced to life in prison in 1979 for murdering a New Jersey state trooper in 1973.

She escaped from the Edna Mahan Correctional Facility for Women near Clinton on Nov. 2, 1979, after three visitors to the facility pulled guns on the guards and escorted Chesimard to freedom. She now lives in Cuba under the name Assata Shakur.

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She's included on the FBI's list of most wanted terrorists. Former Gov. Chris Christie and President Donald Trump have called on Cuba to return Chesimard to the United States.

The FBI and New Jersey Attorney General's office have offered a $2 million reward for information leading to her arrest.

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Edna Anderson

Edna Anderson, 80, escaped from the Edna Mahan Correctional Facility for Women on March 20, 1976. She was serving a 6-year sentence on drug charges.

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NJ Dept. of Corrections

Magnolia Sheffield

Magnolia Sheffield, 71, was four years into a 10-year sentence for murder when she escaped from the Edna Mahan Correctional Facility for Women on March 10, 1975. She was convicted in 1971 in Passaic County.

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Reuters/NJ Dept. of Corrections

George Wright

George Wright, 74, was serving a 30-year sentence for murdering World War II veteran Walter Patterson at a Wall Township gas station in 1963 when he escaped from Bayside State Prison on Aug. 22, 1970. He fled with fellow inmate George Brown by hot-wiring the warden's car, according to news reports.

The pair joined the Black Liberation Army and took part in the 1972 hijacking of an airliner before escaping in Algiers.

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Wright was tracked to Portugal in 2011, where he had apparently been living since 1993. Portugese authorities refused to extradite him to the United States, arguing that he was now a citizen of that country and the statute of limitations for his charges in the United States had expired.

Wright remains in Portugal, where he married and raised a family. He remains on the FBI's most wanted list.

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NJ Dept. of Corrections

George Brown

George Brown, 73, remains on the list of New Jersey escapees. In 1978, he was arrested in France in connection with the hijacking and sentenced to 5 years in prison. Efforts to extradite him to the United States have proven unsuccessful, New Jersey prison officials said.

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Here's how you can help

Anyone who knows the whereabouts of an escapee on the list should contact their local police department or call NJ DOC's Special Investigations Division at 609-292-4036, ext. 5617.

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ARISTIDE ECONOMOPOULOS

Matt Gray may be reached at mgray@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @MattGraySJT. Find the South Jersey Times on Facebook. Have a tip? Tell us: nj.com/tips.As the Trump team begins its second year in power, it's awash in questions demanding answers.

What will President Donald Trump do about those in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program -- immigrants brought to the U.S. as children who are now here illegally but who've known no other homeland? Will he fire Rod Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general overseeing the Robert Mueller investigation -- or even special prosecutor Mueller himself? Having raided the federal kitty to butter up Wall Street and the wealthy, how will Trump finance all the goodies promised in his State of the Union message? Will he strike North Korea?

They're critical questions. But they pale in significance to another question, the answer to which is vital to the future of the Trump administration and the welfare of the country:

What's Vladimir Putin got on the 45th president of the United States, if anything?

There's nothing casual or ad hoc about Trump's kowtowing to the Russian leader. It's a calculated strategy brought home to Americans last week by two presidential decisions:

First, Trump's failure to mention in the State of the Union speech that Moscow meddled maliciously in the 2016 presidential election. And second, his blanket refusal to implement new sanctions against companies and oligarchs with ties to Moscow's defense and intelligence services.

The sanctions law was enacted over Trump's objection. The president has given no reason for ignoring it, though the State Department muses that the mere threat of sanctions is enough to chill pending foreign deals for purchases from Russian arms suppliers. We're to take State's word for that one, I guess.

It looks even worse. Trump repeatedly cites Putin's denial that Russians did anything nasty to affect the American election. "What, us?" Putin told Trump -- in effect, "Perish the thought."

Trump believes Putin's every word. What he doesn't believe is the word of our own intelligence services that the Russians were up to their furry Cossack caps in election meddling, presumably to further Trump's campaign and cripple Hillary Clinton's.

I'm not sure about that one. The evidence made public to date raises a red (pun intended) flag, but it's less than completely clear whether and how deeply the Trumpies collaborated. The Trumpies don't strike me as capable collaborators -- or capable anything.

But I'm more inclined to believe our intel guys and the FBI than Putin. From what I can tell, Vlad is as serial a liar as The Donald is. They're a matching set.

Trump discounts the idea of Russian meddling because it would discredit his election. He's got that one right. And odds are that we won't get closure on the extent of Russian meddling until Mueller makes the call. Stay tuned.

Meanwhile, I can envision another reason for Trump's assault on U.S. intelligence agencies: the need to protect and promote his sometimes shaky financial empire. Trump wasn't exactly the darling of American lenders, including banks, for instance. For starters, there were his bankruptcies -- the casinos, for example, four of them, as I recall.

One would think it's not too easy to go bankrupt in the gambling business, especially when you're the house. Takes some doing, but The Donald did it. Then there was his defunct airline. And the perilous purchase of the Plaza Hotel, not to mention the loss he suffered when his university went belly-up with a lot of bad publicity involving students who felt defrauded.

Along the way he acquired a reputation for stiffing contractors. And some in the financial press even questioned whether he was as rich as he so often boasted.

But for all the bad news that's buffeted Trump over the years, he found money and credit somewhere. Russia, with its Putin-connected crony capitalists, could be that "somewhere," in fact one of his sons suggested as much some time ago.

Ordinarily, Trump's financial shenanigans would seem to be outside Mueller's warrant -- but not if the Mueller's probing unearths a serious connection between the Trump operations and Russian money. We don't know how deeply Mueller has dug into Trump's financial empire -- or if he has at all -- but any serious effort by the Mueller team in that direction would likely set off a firestorm in the White House.

A potentially fruitful source of information on just where and from whom Trump has received money would be his income tax returns. Alas, unlike recent presidents, Trump refuses to release them.

Too bad. They'd go a long way to showing him to be clean as a hound's tooth -- or a president who has become a Russian asset.

Bookmark NJ.com/Opinion. Follow on Twitter @NJ_Opinion and find NJ.com Opinion on Facebook.WASHINGTON -- A big-name Republican announced on Saturday that he would run for the congressional seat being vacated by retiring Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen.

Assemblyman Jay Webber, R-Morris, became the first Republican to enter the race following Frelinghuysen's announcement and joins lawyer Martin Hewitt in the GOP primary.

"I'm all in," said Webber, 45.

In an election year seen as a referendum on Donald Trump, who has record-low approval ratings, Webber praised the president's first year in office, promising to "continue the progress we've made in the last year toward reviving our economy, creating more and better paying jobs, strengthening the rule of law, and restoring America's security and standing in the world.

He also took aim at critics of the Trump administration, deciding not to "give in to the angry intimidation of the far left who seek to 'resist' every idea that comes from someone who doesn't share their outlier extremism" and instead choosing to "stand up for the beliefs and principles that have served our country so well for so long."

Trump won the district, albeit with less than 50 percent of the vote, and Frelinghuysen voted against the Republican tax bill championed by the president. The legislation disproportionately affected New Jersey by gutting the federal deduction for state and local taxes.

In the Assembly, Webber opposed efforts by New Jersey Democrats to force Trump to disclose his income tax returns. Trump is the only president in 40 years to refuse to release his returns. Another New Jersey lawmaker, Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr., D-9th Dist., has led the fight in Congress to get the tax returns

The race is considered a toss-up by the two Washington-based publications that track congressional races, the Cook Political Report and Inside Elections.

Webber has served in the Assembly since 2008. Because New Jersey elects its state legislators in odd-numbered years, he does not have to give up his seat to run for Congress.

He starts with a financial disadvantage. Democrat Mikie Sherrill, a former Navy pilot and federal prosecutor, raised $1.2 million last year and entered January with almost $822,000 in the bank, Federal Election Commission filings show.

New Jersey's 11th District is one of two open-seat races in the state. Besides Frelinghuysen, Rep. Frank LoBiondo, R-2nd Dist., is retiring. Both men were elected in the 1994 House Republican landslide that ended 40 years of Democratic control.

Jonathan D. Salant may be reached at jsalant@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JDSalant or on Facebook. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook.Larry Nassar cowered as the father of one of his victim's tried to attack him Friday (Feb. 2) in a Michigan courtroom.

But support for that dad - Randall Margraves, who turned a victim impact statement into physical anger - is visible through thousands of dollars collected in online donations in just a few hours.

Co-worker Aaron Pangborn started the collection on Go Fund Me just before noon. Within 2 hours, the donations climbed to more than $7,000. Twenty minutes later, the total topped $8,000.

The initial goal: Just $1,000, "to help a brother and friend in need."

Margraves called himself a distraught father after two of his daughters spoke about their experience with Nassar, the serial sexual predator and former physician who assaulted dozens of women he encountered through his role as a USA Gymnastics doctor. They were among the victim impact statements given in front of Judge Janice Cunningham in Eaton County Circuit Court, near Lansing.

Three of his daughters were abused by Nassar.

Margraves asked to give a statement, then asked the judge to "grant me five minutes in a locked room with this demon."

As the judge declined, Margraves asked for one minute, before he rushed toward a seated Nassar.

Court officers subdued Margraves, who was wearing an IBEW sweatshirt.

That logo - signifying membership in the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers - prompted Pangborn's show of support, since they are coworkers in the Lansing-based union. He was not available Friday afternoon to comment.

The IBEW is a connection that is resonating with donors, too.

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Comments include:

"Hope this helps brother."

"From one Union Father to Another, I would (have) done the same thing, proud of you Brother!"

"IBEW Local #1 in St. Louis is behind you Brother!"

"On behalf of fathers all over this country. Hats off to you sir."

"My prayers are for healing your family. That guy will be (dealt) with on a much higher level."

"Thanks for doing what everyone else should have. Proud to know you."

A short time after the outburst, the judge said Margraves won't be charged.

The father then apologized to the courtroom, saying he lost control of himself following his daughters' testimony.

Margraves said his daughters would not let them see their statements beforehand, and that he heard things he didn't know.

"I realize they may never trust a man again," he said.One day after Malcolm Alexander was released from prison after spending almost 38 years behind bars for a crime he didn't commit, his sweet pup "Innocence" walked free, as well.

Alexander, 58, was reunited Wednesday (Jan. 31) with the black Labrador Retriever he had nicknamed Inn, after The Innocence Project, the group which helped him gain his freedom.

Inn playfully rolled on her back as Alexander rubbed and scratched her tummy when the two were finally brought back together.

"You ain't got nothing to worry about no more. I told you we gone be free. I told you they was gonna get us out," he told the 9-month-old pup.

A Jefferson Parish judge vacated Alexander's 1980 aggravated rape conviction and his mandatory life sentence on Tuesday ruling that Joseph Tosh, his attorney during the one-day trial, didn't provide him the legal assistance that was his Constitutional right.

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DNA evidence discovered in 2013 also excluded Alexander as a suspect in the sexual assault, which occurred in 1979 at an antique store in unincorporated Gretna.

Alexander, who spent decades proclaiming his innocence, was welcomed home Tuesday by his 82-year-old mother, his son and his grandson - both named Malcolm, and other relatives. But Alexander, who did not return to the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola after his release, left his belongings and Inn at the prison.

Inn was born at the prison to another dog at the facility, and Alexander raised her, according to Vanessa Potkin, an attorney with The Innocence Project.

Potkin and other staffers traveled to Angola Wednesday to retrieve Inn and Alexander's property. The returned the pup to a grateful Alexander.

"I feel beautiful," Alexander said. "I feel happy. Very happy."A 25-year-old New Orleans man was indicted Thursday (Feb. 1) by a federal grand jury on charges of distributing heroin in the Black Pearl neighborhood in Uptown New Orleans and in Jefferson Parish, including a charge that some of the heroin caused the death of a 33-year-old man in 2015, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office in New Orleans.

The FBI began investigating Jaron Bias, also known as Pee Wee or P, in 2017, according to a press release, after receiving information from an informant that he was selling large quantities of heroin.

The indictment says Bias had distributed or possessed 100 grams of a mixture containing detectable amounts of heroin since some point before June 2015 until the indictment was handed down Thursday (Feb. 1).

On June 29, Bias provided a heroin mixture to a man only identified as "R.M.", and the drug caused that man's death, the indictment said. Bias also was charged with distributing heroin Aug. 17 and 23, 2017.

"This case was brought as part of Project Safe Neighborhoods, a program that has been historically successful in bringing together all levels of law enforcement to reduce violent crime and make our neighborhoods safe for everyone," the U.S. Attorney's Office said in the news release.

The Project Safe Neighborhoods program was created in 2001 to help local police and prosecutors work closely with their federal counterparts to reduce gun and gang violence. It was temporarily suspended before being reinstituted by Attorney General Jeff Sessions in October 2017.

U.S. Attorney Duane Evans said the investigation leading to the indictment included the FBI, New Orleans Police Department and the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office. Assistant U.S. Attorney Brittany Reed is overseeing the case.By Todd A. Price

You need energy to jump for beads and dance to the marching bands. And you might need a beer or two to get you in the Mardi Gras spirit.

Use our guide to find food and drinks all along the New Orleans parade route to find the fuel you need.

KEY: Black = grocery store; Green = bars and restaurants; Yellow = food trucks

Note: Not all parades start this far Uptown.

Max Well

6101 Magazine St.

The healthy, vegetarian restaurant will have soups, chili and grab-and-go options for Thoth on Feb. 11.

Reginelli's

5961 Magazine St.

Pizza by the slice and a full bar will be available for the Thoth parade on Feb. 11.

Kenton's

5757 Magazine St.

Quarter, half and whole muffulettas to go during all parades. On Thoth Sunday (Feb. 11), an outside bar will also be set up.

Whole Foods Market

5600 Magazine St.

Full grocery store with wide selection of craft beers. Special grab-and-go and catering trays available for Mardi Gras. (NOTE: Closes at 6 p.m on Feb. 11 and all day Feb. 13)

District Donuts

5637 Magazine St.

Quality coffee, juice and oversized doughnuts.

St. Joe's Bar

5535 Magazine St.

Neighborhood bar with a devout decor.

Juan's Flying Burrito

5538 Magazine St.

Filling California-style Tex-Mex.

Guy's Po-Boys

5259 Magazine St.

One of the best po-boy joints in town. Look for the bright blue building.

Tee-Eva's

5201 Magazine St.

Pralines, mini-pies, jambalaya and more.

Henry's Uptown Bar

5101 Magazine St.

The Big Cheezy, the grilled cheese sandwich restaurant, runs the kitchen of this classic New Orleans neighborhood dive.

Tito's

5015 Magazine St.

The Peruvian restaurant will have ceviche, chick and beef skewers, yuca fries and full bar outside with beer, wine, pisco sours and other cocktails.

Pizza Domenica

4933 Magazine St.

Slices of cheese, pepperoni and Neapolitan-style pizza and beer available as grab-and-go on parade days.

D'Juice

4838 Magazine St.

The smoothie and fresh juice bar will debuts its new brunch menu during the parades with dishes such as rabbit etouffee, grits and grillades and stewed chicken along with meat pies and crawfish pies.

Le Bon Temps Roule

4801 Magazine St.

24-hour bar with pool tables.

Tal's Hummus

4800 Magazine St.

The Middle Eastern restaurant will have a selection of pita sandwiches available for grab-and-go.

Apolline

4729 Magazine St.

The Uptown bistro will be alligator sausage po-boys, loaded fried and have a full bar outside for parades.

La Boulangerie

4600 Magazine St.

A French bakery now owned by Donald Link's restaurant group.

Del Fuego Taqueria

4518 Magazine St.

On Sunday Feb. 4 and Feb. 11, the taqueria will have a special all-day buffet with access to bathrooms for $30 ($10 for kids under 12). The first event benefits the Hogs for the Cause team Sweet Swine O' Mine. Call 504.309.5797 for advance tickets.

SukhoThai

4519 Magazine St.

Traditional Thai cuisine with quick options during the parades.

New York Pizza

4418 Magazine St.

New York style pizzas.

Rouses Market

4500 Tchoupitoulas St.

Full grocery store with a deli and wide selection of beer and liquor.

Ms. Mae's The Club

4336 Magazine St.

A dive known for the cheapest drinks in town.

Hey! Cafe

4332 Magazine St.

Roaster and coffee shop.

Zara's Little Giant Supermarket

4838 Prytania St.

Small grocery with beer and po-boys.

Creole Creamery

4924 Prytania St.

Clever ice creams.

St. James Cheese Company

5004 Prytania St.

Fantastic selection of fancy cheeses.

St. Stephen Catholic School

1025 Napoleon Ave.

Red beans, hot dogs, jambalaya, nachos and more along with drinks (including beer) are sold as a fundraiser for the school. Bathroom access is $5 per day ($10 on Bacchus Sunday). (Note: Food sales will start on Saturday, Feb. 3)

Milan Lounge

1312 Milan St.

Neighborhood bar known for Jello shots during Mardi Gras.

Superior Seafood

4338 St. Charles Ave.

Seafood specialist with a large oyster bar.

Fat Harry's

4330 St. Charles Ave.

Classic Uptown bar with burgers and other pub fare.

New Orleans Hamburger & Seafood Co.

4141 St. Charles Ave.

Local burger and seafood chain with a coffee and beignet shop around back. The menu is limited during parades.

Martin Wine Cellar

3827 Baronne St.

Large liquor and wine store with sandwiches and a full gourmet deli.

La Cocinta

River side of General Taylor on St. Charles Ave.

Local food truck with Mexican and South American food.

Columns Hotel Bar

3811 St. Charles Ave.

Historic hotel bar. Access requires a $10 per day wristband for bathrooms and inside bar. Food will be sold inside. A bar for the general public will be set up outside.

Superior Grill

3636 St. Charles Ave

Americanized Mexican food, always jumping during Carnival. Access to bathrooms may be limited the second week of parades to customers only depending on the crowds. On Bacchus Sunday (Feb. 11), a $20 wrist band will be required for access, although the cost can be applied to food and drinks.

The Delachaise

3442 St. Charles Ave.

Fashionable wine bar with excellent menu of small plates.

Sovereign Pub

1517 Aline St.

A classic British pub.

Aline Street Beer Garden

1515 Aline St.

German-themed pub.

Fresh Market

3338 St. Charles Ave.

Full grocery store.

Verret's Lounge

1738 Washington Ave.

A retro lounge a few block off the parade route.

Gracious Bakery

2854 St. Charles Ave.

For parades, the local bakery will have a full bar with beer, wine, Bloody Marys and cocktails. Parade specials include andouille sausage rolls and pot roast po-boys.

Still Perkin'

2727 Prytania St.

Neighborhood coffee shop.

Igor's

2133 St. Charles Ave.

A 24-hour dive bar.

Bonafried

Riverside of St. Charles Ave. on Josephine St.

Local truck that specializes in fried chicken sandwiches.

Hotel Pontchartrain

2031 St. Charles Ave.

The courtyard at the historic hotel will be open during parades and serving to-go cocktails. The hotel's venues, Silver Whistle Cafe, the Bayou Bar and the rooftop Hot Tin bar will have extended hours.

Please U Restaurant

1751 St. Charles Ave.

Classic greasy-spoon diner.

Afrodisiac

Lakeside of St. Charles on Polymnia St.

Jamaica meets New Orleans at this local food truck.

Avenue Pub

1732 St. Charles Ave.

The city's best beer bar will turn over its taps to low-alcohol sippers during Carnival. Bathroom access require food or drink purchase. The first weekend of parades, the bar will host Tart-I-Gras (Feb. 3), with sour beers from NOLA Brewing, and on Feb. 4 the launch of a Mardi Gras collaboration beer by Shreveport's Graft Raft and D.C.'s Blue Jacket. Check theavenuepub.com for a schedule of when the balcony is open to the public.

Blind Pelican

1628 St. Charles Ave.

Bar and restaurant with an oyster bar.

Tacos & Beer

1622 St. Charles Ave.

Traditional Mexican taqueria.

Krewe du Brew

1610 St. Charles Ave.

Locally owned coffee shop with sandwiches.

Lula

1532 St. Charles Ave.

The restaurant with an onsite distillery will have an outside booth with cocktail and beer along with food. It is also hosting Lula Gras in its private dining room facing the parade route, with a buffet, bathrooms, viewing stands and a cash bar. Price for Lula Gras varies by day. See www.lulanola.com.

Slice Pizzeria

1514 St. Charles Ave.

New York-style pizza by the slice.

Voodoo BBQ

1501 St. Charles Ave.

Local barbecue chain.

Mr. Ed's Oyster Bar

1327 St. Charles Ave.

A seafood specialist.

Dryades Public Market

1307 Oretha Castle Haley Blvd.

Market with sandwiches, pastries, coffee, beer, wine and an oyster bar.

Emeril's Delmonico

1300 St. Charles Ave.

The elegant restaurant has a second floor dining room with a fine view of the parades.

Popeyes Fried Chicken

1243 St. Charles Ave.

The national chain began in New Orleans.

American Sector

945 Magazine St.

The family friendly restaurant is located inside the National WWII museum.

Flamingo A-Go-Go

869 Magazine St.

A sprawling bar and restaurant with a big patio has a king cake daiquiri and will offer its happy hour special whenever the parades roll.

Ariaane

634 Julia St.

Mexican canteen with drinks and tacos.

Carmo

527 Julia St.

Tropical cuisine, including vegetarian and vegan friendly options.

Rouses Market

701 Baronne St.

Full grocery with large beer and liquor selection.

Balise

640 Carondelet St.

Justin Devillier of La Petite Grocery's more casual restaurant and bar.

Ace Hotel

600 Carondelet St.

The hip hotel has a lobby bar, a Stumptown coffeeshop and two restaurants, Seaworthy and Josephine Estelle.

Drip Affogato Bar

703 Carondelet St.

Coffeeshop that specializes in affogato, or gelato drown in espresso.

Capdeville

520 Capdeville St.

Hip gastropub with gourmet burgers, fries and other bar food.

Mother's

401 Poydras St.

Po-boys, breakfast and classic New Orleans cooking.

Compere Lapin

535 Tchoupitoulas St.

The celebrated restaurant from chef Nina Compton will have grab-and-go sandwiches during parades.

Barcadia

601 Tchoupitoulas St.

An arcade-themed bar.

Revelator Coffee

637 Tchoupitoulas St.

Part of a Southern-based chain of coffeeshops.

St. James Cheese Co.

641 Tchoupitoulas St.

The downtown location of the cheese specialist.

Lucy's Retired Surfers Bar

701 Tchoupitoulas St.

Surf-themed bar with tacos.

Did we miss your favorite parade route spot for sustenance and alcohol? Let us know in the comment section below.

Correction: The original version of this story had the wrong closing date for Whole Foods.The Krewe of Oshun rolled Friday (Feb. 2) on the Uptown parade route, followed by the all-women Krewe of Cleopatra.

Founded in 1996, the Krewe of Oshun is named for the Yoruba goddess of love and intimacy.

Cleopatra's theme this year is "Animal Kingdom.'' The krewe, which previously rolled on the West Bank, is celebrating its 45th anniversary.The state will soon be pushing the locally elected officials of Powhatan out of the way to administer the finances of the northwest Louisiana village that in mid-July had only $105 in its general fund and is hiring a cop to drum up some money fromThe party decor in shades of turquoise, orange, pink, purple and gold evoked Morocco, just the right ambiance for "Arabian Nights," a party held Jan. 14 in honor of Kaitlyn August. She's a daughter of Gregory T. August and the late Pamela Chevalier-August.

Hosted by her father and sister, previous Original Illinois Club debutante Hannah Chevalier, the party at the Delgado Community College Student Center gathered Kaitlyn's family - including siblings Alyssa August and Joey August -- and friends from Lusher Charter School to celebrate this Original Illinois Club debutante. While feting was on the agenda, before Kaitlyn made her grand entrance there was an official program that featured an introduction of Original Illinois Club members and Kaitlyn's fellow debutantes: Brice Berger, Alyssa Lastraptes, Andi Robinson, Victoria Thomas, Anya Washington and Jaya Young.

Toasts were made in Kaitlyn's honor, followed by her doing the club waltz with her father, then with club President Lynn Dedeaux. Club debutantes and members also waltzed, with members then waltzing with their wives or dates. The party got into full swing with dancing to music from D.J. Symphonic (earlier in the night, the Lusher Jazz Band performed), with food from Burt's Cafe and Catering and a whimsical cake by CakeBeenBaked.A woman trapped in a burning apartment building in New Orleans East threw her child from a second-story window into a water-filled boat parked below Saturday morning (Feb. 3). The three-alarm fire injured five people, including a firefighter, the New Orleans Fire Department said.

The fire was reported at 12:25 a.m. when someone called 911 to say a vehicle was burning at the apartment complex in the 14400 block of Peltier Drive at Alcee Fortier Boulevard. Subsequent callers reported the flames spreading the the apartments.

Firefighters arrived at 12:31 a.m. "Almost simultaneously, 911 operators had begun to receive multiple calls stating residents were trapped inside the burning occupied building, which housed commercial units on the first floor and apartments on the second and third floors," the Fire Department said. Heavy smoke and fire were visible coming out of the structure's roof, heavy flames from the back of the building.

Going door to door, firefighters evacuated residents. A second alarm was sounded at 12:37 a.m., after which firefighters confirmed that some residents were trapped inside and that buildings adjacent to the burning one also were in danger.

"As firefighters began an aggressive interior attack of the fire, a company officer heard screams coming from a rear second-floor window located in the building's courtyard-parking lot area," the Fire Department said. "As firefighters were raising a ladder to rescue the trapped residents, a woman threw her child out of the rear second-floor window."

A department spokesman said the child, a girl, landed in a water-filled boat parked behind the window. She was not injured from the fall but was treated for smoke inhalation.

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At 1 a.m., the fire intensified and a third alarm was called in. Firefighters evacuated residents from a two-story, eight-unit apartment building that shared a courtyard and parking area.

In all, 77 Fire Department personnel and 26 fire vehicles responded, controlling the blaze at 3:09 a.m., officials said. Emergency Medical Services and Police Department personnel assisted.

Residents in the rear building were allowed to re-enter their apartments after it was determined to be safe, officials said.

The cause of the fire remains under investigation.

One firefighter injured his right shoulder while fighting the blaze and was taken to a hospital. "The full extent of his injury is currently unknown but not believed to be lifethreatening," the Fire Department said.

Two women and two young girls, including the one dropped out of the window, were taken to a hospital by Emergency Medical Services. One woman had a hip injury and was being treated for smoke inhalation, and the other woman and the children were being treated for smoke inhalation.A full house of nearly 1,500 people is expected at the 2018 Equality Illinois Gala on Saturday night to hear about the successes and ongoing challenges of building a stronger Illinois in the face of national headwinds against LGBTQ civil rights.

The gala, which benefits the yearlong statewide LGBTQ civil rights work of Equality Illinois Institute, will recognize Planned Parenthood of Illinois, transgender youth activist Jazz Jennings, and longtime LGBTQ activist Jim Bennett. Guests will also hear from three Illinois residents who will speak on the multidimensional work of the organization and how their lives have been directly impacted by it.

Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, and 100 other elected officials and candidates will be introduced, plus community members, dignitaries, and allied supporters plan to attend the gala, which is annually the Midwests largest LGBTQ formal celebration, on Saturday, February 3, 2018 at the Hilton Chicago. Some of the worlds most recognizable corporate and brand names are among the sponsors of the event.

On the national level we are seeing a really big rise in anti-LGBTQ sentiment, particularly from the administration in Washington, said Brian C. Johnson, CEO of Equality Illinois. Seeing that happen in Washington, so many of our allies and champions in the state just were willing to say those efforts and actions dont represent our values here in Illinois, and its incumbent upon us to make sure that Illinois demonstrates its values of being a fully equal and inclusive state. We will be celebrating that commitment at the gala.

Three significant legislative wins over the last year, achieved with bipartisan support, include laws to end the anti-LGBTQ panic defense, modernize the state law so transgender Illinoisans can get correct birth certificates without surgery, and build LGBTQ representation on state boards and commissions.

However, our conversations with LGBTQ people throughout Illinois bring home the challenges they continue to face in our schools, in accessing health care, and in the criminal justice system, and we will be discussing at the gala how we plan to tackle those issues in the years ahead, Johnson said.

The three honorees will be recognized Saturday night for working to improve the lives of LGBTQ people. For her activism on behalf of her fellow transgender youth, Jazz Jennings will be honored as the first recipient of the Equality Illinois Spotlight Award. The 2018 Freedom Award will be presented to Jim Bennett, recently retired after 11 years at Lambda Legal, for his work throughout the Midwest fighting for LGBTQ rights, including chairing the Illinois Unites for Marriage coalition. Planned Parenthood of Illinois will receive the Business Leadership Award for its century of providing reproductive health care and expansion in recent years into providing transgender health care services.

Gov. Rauner and Mayor Emanuel will give brief remarks to lead off the gala dinner. Other public officials and candidates who are planning to attend include former Gov. Pat Quinn, U.S. Reps. Robin Kelly, Mike Quigley, and Brad Schneider, Secretary of State Jesse White, state Treasurer Michael Frerichs, state Comptroller Susana Mendoza, Illinois Senate President John Cullerton, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, Cook County States Atty. Kim Foxx, Cook County Assessor Joseph Berrios, Cook County Clerk of the Circuit Court Dorothy Brown, Lake County Board Chairman Aaron Lawlor, Chicago City Clerk Anna Valencia, Chicago Treasurer Kurt Summers, and many other state legislators, county commissioners, aldermen, judges, and candidates.

Illinois businesses and the states philanthropic community continue to provide robust support for the gala and the ongoing work of Equality Illinois.

The Presenting Sponsor of the 2018 Equality Illinois Gala is United Airlines.

Platinum Sponsors are Breakthru Beverage Illinois, GCM Grosvenor, Hilton Chicago, Sidetrack, and Bruce and Diana Rauner.

Gold Sponsors are JB and MK Pritzker, TAWANI Foundation, MillerCoors, Takeda, and Fred Eychaner, Alphawood Foundation.

Silver Sponsors are Laura and Brooke Ricketts, McDermott Will & Emery, Morgan Stanley, Kirkland & Ellis, C.N.A., and Exelon.

Bronze Sponsors are Hinshaw & Culbertson, Neal, Gerber & Eisenberg, Walgreens, BMO Harris, Eileen Dordek and Chris Landgraff, Seyfarth Shaw, Chapman and Cutler, Sidley Austin, Schiff Hardin, Allstate, DLA Piper, Katten Muchin Rosenman, Akerman, Supergurl Images, and Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom.Feb 3, 2018 NR

Mohan Babu is all set for a sensational come back with the film Gayatri. He is playing a negative role in the film that also stars Manchu Vishnu and Shriya Saran in other lead roles. Mohan Babu is playing Gayatri Patel in the film directed by Madan Ramigani. The film has grabbed attention with a stunning introductory teaser of Mohan Babu's character. The trailer totally focuses upon Mohan Babu's trademark dialogues and mannerisms. He simply steals the show with his inimitable delivery of dialogues and flawless expressions.

The storyline also seems interesting as the trailer intrigues without giving away much about the plot. Gayatri will be hitting the screens on February 9. Vishnu Manchus 24 frames Factory is planning for a big release worldwide. Click the Movie button below for more info:

GayatriIn the 2016 presidential campaign, Donald Trumps proposal to erect an all-encompassing wall along the US border with Mexico struck many people as, if nothing else, original. Was it?

During the campaign, both supporters and critics characterized the border wall as something new. However, a series of physical wallsincluding triple-fencing in some areasas well as virtual sensors and surveillance technology, have been in place along much of the US-Mexico border since the 1990s. And the institution of border enforcement goes back much further. The U.S. Border Patrol was established in 1924, during a period of heightened nativism. A network of border checkpoints and roving patrols was implemented in the 1940s to police the flow of Mexican laborers. And the ideology of border security emerged in the 1970s in the context of the war on drugs. You might say that Trump made an old idea sound new by transforming the wall into a dramatic spectacle and emblem of populist nativism.

So this is an extension of a long-running pattern along our border?

Its important to emphasize that the expansion of border enforcement has not been confined to the territorial border. One notable development in this history took place in the 1970s. In a series of Supreme Court rulings about the legality of border searches more than 40 miles away from the border, the judiciary established the precedent of a flexible and expansive border that actually moves to wherever the border crosser goes. One of these rulings made it legal for border agents to include Mexican appearance as a factor in their decision to conduct a search. This is just one of many examples that complicates the presumption that border security is limited to the actual border.

Were these efforts precursors for the practice of what you and other scholars now call crimmigration?

Yesover the last four decades, the institutions and laws of immigration enforcement and crime enforcement have been increasingly integrated. In the 1990s, local law enforcement officers were deputized to carry out immigration enforcement. After 9/11, Bush made the act of border-crossing a crime and implemented a program called Secure Communities, which mandated data sharing between local prisons and federal immigration enforcement. And Obamas efforts to reform immigration enforcement explicitly focused on violent criminals and recent border crossers, rather than families with deep ties to the nation. This last measure was publicized as a way to humanize the deportation system. In reality, however, people were being racially profiled, detained, and deported for minor traffic infractions and immigration-related crimes, including the crime of border crossing. In fiscal years 2013 and 2014, the Obama administration deported 684,587 people235,775 of which were interior apprehensions. You could say, then, that crimmigration is the most recent and most dramatic set of policies through which border enforcement has expanded into the interior.

Given that history, how does Trumps approach to at-the-border expulsion and interior deportations differ from that of his predecessors?

One of the main distinctions between Trump and his predecessors is ideological. Since the passage of the Immigration and Nationality Act in 1965, US presidents have made a point of celebrating the role of immigrants in the fabric of American life. In contrast, Trumps nativism echoes the racist and anti-immigrant rhetoric of the early decades of the twentieth century and serves as a reminder that these sentiments are also deeply rooted in the nations history. While recent presidents have made concerted efforts to shield the public from the dark realities of the deportation system, and to downplay the role of racism within it, Trump has turned the detention and deportation of undocumented immigrants into a public spectacle of white nationalist supremacy. In terms of actual enforcement, what we are seeing is a continued increase in the number of arrests and detentions in the interior of the country with less emphasis on criminal records. In 2017, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, detained 110,568 individuals, up from 77,806 in 2016. Of these, 33,888 had no prior criminal convictions, compared to 11,500 the year before. So despite Trumps obsession with the wall, border removals actually decreased during his first year in office. The trend is clear: Families who have lived in the United States for long periods of time are increasingly at risk.State House Entebbe. Some NRM losers want to storm State House and ambush the president

President Museveni could be facing fresh unrest inside the ruling party, this time over unmet promises of millions of shillings in financial support to former parliamentary candidates.

Some of the disgruntled members inside the party have now proposed to either picket, or force their way into, State House to demand for what is due to them.

The Observer has seen correspondences between members of the 2016 NRM parliamentary flag bearers group sent through WhatsApp where these options have been discussed.

If we stormed State House and ambushed the president, will they kill us? Will they jail us? I think it is better for us to storm and demand to be paid, one group member posted.

He was supported by another who reminded his colleagues that a soft approach wont get them anything.

Gentility has never won anything from NRM, we have in fact been so patient and they cannot accuse us of [bringing the party into] disrepute since we have not leaked this to the media; we go.

Members of this grouping are drawn from among those who lost the parliamentary election. They plan to ambush Museveni and remind him to pay Shs 20m reportedly promised to each of them in October last year.

The promise is reported to have been made during Musevenis meeting with more than 600 members of the ruling partys National Executive council (NEC).

The meeting was held on October 27, 2017 at State House Entebbe to whip up support for the then so-called age limit bill and now Constitution Amendment Act 2017, which scrapped age limits for presidential candidates.

As Museveni asked the NEC members to popularise the amendment, Ibrahim Kitatta, the coordinator of a youth group; Kick Age Limitations Out of the Constitution (KALOC), reportedly advised Museveni to release funds.

If you want to improve your productivity without increasing acreage, you apply fertilisers, Kitatta is quoted to have said.

Museveni agreed and fixed another meeting two days later on October 29 to agree on budgets. It was attended by leaders of the various leagues which constitute the NEC.

The NEC includes MPs, district chairpersons and municipal mayoral flag bearers and the women, youth, entrepreneurs, veterans and elders leagues.

On average, each of these groups came up with a Shs 3bn budget. But the 2016 parliamentary losers drew a $5.2 million (Shs 18.7bn) budget which startled Museveni into directing that the figures be reviewed for harmonisation.

Besides that, he made a promise of Shs 20m to each of us to facilitate our mobilisation. It was not part of the budget, it came out of him because what we had asked for in the budget could not be dealt with at the moment, a source told The Observer.

ANGER

According to the source, Musevenis directive was that his aide Maj Gen Proscovia Nalweyiso begins to pay them effective November 2. Some feel that their leaders could have received the money but were not honest enough to distribute it to all.

The group is led by Dennis Ssekabira (Nakaseke South), Patrick Obura (Oyam South), Juliet Nalunga (Kayunga Woman) and Iddi Isabirye (Bunya South).

Obura, the groups general secretary, however, told The Observer that no such money was ever promised.

The only money that the president promised was [for starting] a [savings and credit cooperative] Sacco. He [Museveni] asked us to form a Sacco so that he can facilitate us to engage in developmental projects like agriculture, Obura said.

Uganda Media Centre boss Ofwono Opondo recently acknowledged that their behind-the-scenes political work had established that a lot of effort would be needed to have the controversial bill accepted by Ugandans.

Before cabinet came out openly, the president had asked us to go and test the ground and when we came back, we told him that we [government] cannot be bystanders, we must be part of it; take the lead so that the narrative is ours, Opondo said on January 20.

Opondo, however, denied that Museveni made any financial promises to NRM leaders.

Your sources are either fabricating or misrepresenting the facts; I dont remember a time where the president made individual promises for money; if he promised anything, it can be through group Saccos, Opondo said.

Way back in July 2016, Museveni hosted a dinner for NRMs district leaders at Hotel Africana, Kampala where the leaders resolved to support the scrapping of presidential age limits. In return, Museveni promised cars for the partys district chairpersons and motorcycles for the sub-county chairpersons.

FORMER MPs

Meanwhile, with some members of the WhatsApp group having been in the 9th Parliament, another Museveni promise of Shs 100m each to those who lost their re-election bids has also come up.

The promise was made in April 2016 as MPs debated the Income Tax Amendment Bill 2016 to exempt them from paying taxes on their allowances.

They have since held meetings with Speaker of Parliament Rebecca Kadaga, Finance minister Matia Kasaija and the prime minister, Ruhakana Rugunda, lobbying them to remind Museveni about the pledge.

On the WhatsApp group, a former minister said he recently met with the state minister for Planning, David Bahati, who informed him that cabinet discussed and agreed to provide for this pledge in the 2018/19 national budget.

sadabkk@observer.ugisnt anywhere close to being a comedy.

READ: Get Out Will Be Labeled A Comedy For Golden Globe Awards

While speaking at the 2018 Writers Guild Association Beyond Words Panel in Los Angeles, Peele revealed the one scene in the film that left him in tears.

There was a point in the process where I got to something that was very vulnerable. The fun evolved into tears, Peele said according to Cinema Blend. I mean, when I was writing the scene about Chris in the hypnosis and The Sunken Place, I ended that day crying, and it was a cathartic thing. I wouldnt describe it as fun.

Honestly, its understandable as to why that would be the scene that led to Peele crying. After all, its the first moment where we realize that all isnt right with the Armitage family, as Missy Armitage hypnotizes her daughters boyfriend, Chris, and sends him into The Sunken Place for the first time.

In another recent interview, Peele revealed that he once gave up his dream to be a director.

I left my dream of being a director behind long ago, and I think that was because, while I have a great respect for film, I didnt really believe there was a place for very many black directors, Peele said to the Los Angeles Times. I thought it would be harder for me as a person of color to convince someone to let me use their money to make a movie. Many years later after an odyssey through acting and comedy, I came back to my original dream. And the fact that its been received the way it has been received teaches me a lot about how I internalized the system.

Get Out for four awards is up including Best Pictures at this years Oscars.

Source: Cinema Blendcharged with aggravated murder after killing her allegedly abusive father, will be released from a mental health facility on Sunday.

READ: The Story Of Cynthia Brown, A Child Sex Slave Imprisoned For Killing Her Abuser, Resurfaces

We have in fact heard from Breshas family that she is being released from her confinement at a mental health facility on Sunday, a tweet from her supporters Twitter account read.

We have in fact heard from Bresha's family that she is being released from her confinement at a mental health facility on Sunday. #FreeBresha  #FreeBresha (@freebresha) February 2, 2018

As part of a plea deal Meadows pled true (essentially guilty) to shooting her allegedly abusive father when she was 14 years-old. She will be on probation for two years but her records will be sealed and purged.

Prior to this she had spent ten months in Trumbull County Juvenile Detention Center in Ohio, and was sentenced to 60 more days in juvenile detention followed by six months in a mental health facility.

Meadows story is somewhat similar to that of Cynthia Browns, a Nashville woman who was imprisoned at the age of 16 for killing a child predator who paid her for sex.

Brown admitted that she shot and killed Johnny Mitchell Allen, the man who paid Brown for sex. but did so because she feared he would kill her. However, prosecutors argued that Brown robbed Allen after she killed him, with his pants, wallet, and some guns in her possession when apprehended. Ultimately, she was sentenced to life in prison, only eligible for parole after serving 51 years.

Currently Browns lawyers are looking to overturn her life sentence.By Keith Schneider, Los Angeles Times

CORVALLIS -- It's not quite Stagg Field, the University of Chicago site of the first nuclear chain reaction in 1942. But perched in what looks like a giant birdcage at Oregon State University is a steel cylinder nearly 20 feet tall, thick as a redwood, bristling with gauges and wrapped in a tangle of wires.

Nearby, in a windowless control room, two dozen digital displays surround a central operations bench. Jose Reyes, the founder of NuScale Power, showed off the facilities like an owner appraising his barn of prize thoroughbreds. "Year by year we are getting closer to our goal," he said.

If Reyes and other experts are right, his steel cylinder -- a one-third scale model of the reactor his company hopes to build -- will lead a revival of commercial nuclear power by overcoming two problems that have crippled the industry: escalating costs and the risk of devastating accidents.

NuScale's 50-megawatt reactor is tiny compared with conventional reactors and would generate a twentieth of the electricity. But because it is small, it would contain much less fuel and much less energy -- and therefore could be operated with much less risk.

It is designed as a modular unit that could be built in a factory, shipped by truck and put in place.

Other companies also are intent on gaining a place in the nuclear sector amid fresh interest in design and development of commercial reactors.

Nine projects are underway in California, 47 more in 19 other states, and five in Canada, according to the Third Way think tank in Washington. Several are focused on small reactors. In January, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission ruled that the design of the NuScale reactor -- which relies on air circulation for cooling -- is so safe that it does not need the emergency pumps and backup electrical systems required of big conventional reactors.

The decision brings NuScale closer than any company in decades to gaining a license to operate an entirely new reactor design in the U.S. for commercial use.

"The NuScale reactor has crossed a very important safety threshold," said Todd Allen, professor of nuclear engineering at University of Wisconsin. "It's an inflection point for advanced reactor designs. The question we can't answer yet is, will they make it work in the market?"

With more than $700 million in government and private investment, Reyes' company already has a customer: A consortium of municipal utilities in six Western states hopes to string 12 of the reactors together in Idaho to create a 600-megawatt power plant for the bargain price -- compared with other nuclear facilities -- of $2.85 billion.

Even some environmental groups that once opposed nuclear power are willing to consider it now as a way of weaning off fossil fuels to combat global warming.

"The stars may be aligning for licensing small modular reactors," said Matthew McKinzie, a physicist and director of the Nuclear Program in the Washington office of the Natural Resources Defense Council.

Several prominent physicists, however, expressed deep skepticism about the NuScale reactor's economic viability, especially with solar power, wind farms and other renewable energy sources steadily getting less expensive.

"It takes steel and concrete and other materials to build these things," said Gregory Jaczko, a physicist and former NRC chairman. "You're not going to have better economics with small reactors as compared to big ones. They're going in the wrong direction. Absolutely nobody out there is going to buy these small reactors."

And small plants won't solve perhaps the biggest problem with nuclear power: what to do with the radioactive waste. NuScale plans to store it onsite in concrete casks "until the government decides what to do with it," Reyes said.

Nuclear power now supplies 20 percent of U.S. electricity. But the number of reactors is on the decline, from a peak of 104 in 2012 to 99 today, with seven more scheduled for decommissioning in the next seven years.

In the latest blow to the industry, Westinghouse, the premier commercial nuclear designer, went bankrupt last year, and the two 1,100-megawatt reactors it was building in South Carolina were abandoned after completion costs more than doubled to $25 billion and the construction schedule was extended by a decade.

To Reyes, those difficulties are evidence that nuclear power needs to move in a new direction.

"The design for this reactor is so different," said Reyes, 62. "There is so much that is automated. It is so much simpler in terms of safety. I eliminated a lot of equipment. Yet we can demonstrate a much higher level of safety."

He has been fascinated by atomic energy since he was growing up in New Jersey in the 1960s, when nuclear plants were just starting to be built.

U.S. plans for a nuclear future atomized in a cloud of radioactive gas on March 28, 1979, with the meltdown at Three Mile Island, an accident that Reyes helped investigate as a research engineer at the NRC.

The disaster didn't shake his commitment to nuclear power, but made clear that safety had to be the priority. He spent a decade at the agency before leaving in 1987 for Oregon State, where he rose to head the nuclear engineering department.

In 2000, Reyes was awarded a U.S. Department of Energy grant to design his reactor. Seven years later he launched NuScale, which has grown to 450 employees. The Energy Department has invested $226 million in NuScale since 2013.

Karla Olsen, a spokeswoman for the department's Office of Nuclear Energy, praised the reactor's "innovative design" and said the government was encouraged by the company's progress.

The company's biggest supporter is Texas-based Fluor Corp., which has bet $416 million since 2011 that the reactor will be the core of a nuclear construction business to power industrial installations, military bases and remote communities.

Critics note that although construction costs are projected to be far lower than for traditional nuclear plants, they are still far higher than for other kinds of power.

Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems -- the consortium of Western utilities that wants to build a 600-megawatt plant in Idaho -- plans to spend roughly $5 million for each mega-watt.

A government study last year found that figure is $1.1 million for a natural gas plant and $2.2 million for a solar plant.

Douglas Hunter, the utility's chief executive, said the savings would come on the operations side. At 6 cents per kilowatt-hour, the plant would be cheaper to run than the utility's wind farms in Idaho and Wyoming, and on par with its natural-gas-fired plant in Utah.

"We wanted to develop an option for nongreenhouse reliable generation," Hunter said. "This was the only viable path to get there." The facility would be built by Fluor at Idaho National Laboratory, a federal nuclear reactor testing ground near Idaho Falls. If all goes as planned, it would start up in 2027.

-- Los Angeles TimesThe independent investigation into how Portland Public Schools helped a longtime educator evade allegations of sexual misconduct will also look at the district's handling of another former teacher.

The school board's chair and two co-vice chairs called for that addition in a memo sent to investigators Friday.

Board leadership asked investigators to look at how district employees responded to questionable conduct by former longtime teacher Norm Scott, particularly how they handled his departure from the district and subsequent reference checks by other school districts where he sought work.

The move is another signal that the investigation the board launched in response to an August 2017 investigation by The Oregonian/OregonLive is intended to zero in on systemic problems and patterns in order to offer recommendations to protect students against sexual misconduct. The news story revealed how the district botched students' first-hand complaints of sexual misconduct against educator Mitch Whitehurst. It found a system that protected Whitehurst, not students, at many turns.

The board's independent investigators, who have been at work for months on the Whitehurst matter, were given a broad scope.



Norm Scott had a long career in Portland Public Schools, including at Sellwood Middle School and Grant High. Last year he was found guilty of sexually touching six Oregon City middle school students on a single day that he served as their substitute gym teacher.

The board leaders' memo said, "We would like the investigation to be informed by the district's response to allegations raised about inappropriate conduct of former (Portland Public Schools) teacher Norm Scott, including the agreements entered into between the district and Scott and employment references provided by PPS to other districts," the memo read.

"Upon review of the district's practices and actions, we have concerns with how Scott's employment termination was handled."

Scott taught in Portland Public Schools for 36 years, retired under pressure in 2012 then went on to substitute teach.

Before he retired, he was warned in writing not to text students or give them personal or romantic gifts. He subsequently texted a student aide, but the text was an innocuous request to locate some school-related paperwork.

The deal that Scott struck with the district at the time of his retirement shielded other districts from learning most of those details.

The district agreed to provide limited details to any future employers: what dates Scott worked, positions he held and that he retired. Scott was ordered to only say he chose to retire "after taking a short leave of absence," and not mention any details about his agreement with the school district or what led up to it, according to the retirement agreement.

It also said that, "with regard to the current inquiry into an allegation of misconduct  an allegation that Mr. Scott refutes  the district will seal all investigative materials mentioning such investigation...the district acknowledges that no formal investigation findings or recommendations were reached and no discipline issued."



Read other developments from The Oregonian/OregonLive's Benefit of the Doubt investigation here.

 Bethany Barnes

Got a tip about Portland Public Schools? Email Bethany: bbarnes@oregonian.comKaty Perry's "Witness Tour" hit the Moda Center in Portland on Friday with a performance saturated in spectacles, including enormous puppets with televisions for heads, dice big enough for dancers to crawl in and out of and exploding cannons full of confetti.

"Witness," released June 9, 2017, is Perry's fifth studio album since "Katy Hudson," which came out in 2001.

Carly Rae Jepsen was featured as the opening act.

The show, which has been touring North America for over five months, will travel north to Tacoma on Sunday, skip Seattle and land in Vancouver for performances on Feb. 5 and Feb. 6.

Perry's previous tour was called "Prismatic World Tour" and debuted in 2015.

MORE:

@markwgravesOur Southern Oregon community owes a heartfelt thank you to the Parsons family and Pacific Forest Trust for a partnership that will preserve the Mountcrest Forest, 1,771 acres of extraordinary habitat in Ashland's backyard.

Establishment of a conservation easement arranged by the trust will ensure that forestland that has been owned by Jud Parsons and his family for much of the past century will be managed for multiple benefits, including sustainable timber production. Straddling the crossroads of the Klamath, Siskiyou and Cascade ranges, Mountcrest is one of the most biodiverse places in the world. The forest is home to northern spotted owls, Coho salmon and gray wolves -- all listed under the Endangered Species Act -- as well as dozens more rare or imperiled species such as the Pacific fisher, western pond turtle and northern goshawk.

As the agreement illustrates, collaborative conservation can preserve our landscape, protect fish and wildlife and contribute to the economic vitality of our communities. Mountcrest can and should be a model for other similar projects across the state.

-- Rep. Pam Marsh, District 5

She lives in Ashland.In hindsight, it really was too good to be true.

News stories last month revealed that a group of powerful elected officials was planning to campaign for repeal of a constitutional amendment long reviled by justice reform advocates. Out of nowhere, it seemed, there was momentum to change a discriminatory 1934 law that requires only 10 of 12 jurors to agree on a guilty verdict for defendants to be convicted of most felonies. Oregon is one of only two states in the nation that recognizes non-unanimous jury verdicts.

And strangely enough, the group leading the charge was the Oregon District Attorneys Association, which represents the top prosecutors of Oregon's 36 counties. Despite benefiting from the law, some of the district attorneys expressed discomfort with the law's genesis in Oregon's racist history. The district attorneys' stand seemed an impressive commitment to justice and fair play, over any self-interested desire to simply win their cases.

That is, until the rest of the story came out.

As The Oregonian/OregonLive's Shane Dixon Kavanaugh reported, there was more to the group's plan than just seeking repeal of the non-unanimous jury law. The association also wanted to ask voters to revise the provision granting defendants the right to have a judge hear their case instead of a jury.

Oregonian editorials

Editorials reflect the collective opinion of The Oregonian/OregonLive editorial board, which operates independently of the newsroom. Members of the editorial board are Laura Gunderson, Helen Jung, Mark Katches and John Maher.

To respond to this editorial, post your comment below, submit an OpEd or a letter to the editor.

If you have questions about the opinion section, email Laura Gunderson, editorial pages editor, or call 503-221-8378.

It's unclear what specific solution the group had in mind, and to be fair, word of the possible campaign went public before the group had fully fleshed out its plans. The association told Kavanaugh that prosecutors want greater say in the ability to waive a jury trial, like prosecutors in some other states have. But the coupling of the two provisions led to understandable concern by reform advocates that the right to waive a jury trial - a key constitutional right recognized in every state in the country - could be undermined. The district attorneys' association has now dropped its efforts to change either provision.

That may be for the best, at least for now. Oregon certainly should not do anything that simply swaps its outlier status on non-unanimous juries for outlier status on waiving jury trials.

But the problems posed by Oregon's non-unanimous jury law remain, as we have written about previously. Criminal defendants face a lower threshold for conviction than most everywhere else in the country. Oregon itself has a ridiculous double-standard in which the state requires jury unanimity for murder and misdemeanor charges, but not for the broad swath of serious crimes like rape, manslaughter and arson. And the racist and xenophobic background of the law's passage as well as the persistent disparities that show up in the criminal justice system from who is arrested to who serves on juries only reinforces the reality that Oregon needs to change this unfair law.

That can still happen. There's another group of elected leaders who have the power to refer this measure directly to the ballot - the Oregon Legislature. Conveniently, they are about to start a 35-day legislative session. And while the 2018 ballot may be too soon for a coordinated campaign on the issue, legislators should assess how and when to get this before Oregon voters. It's way past time to join the 48 other states and the federal government in recognizing that a non-unanimous verdict is not a defensible one.

- The Oregonian/OregonLive Editorial BoardBy Jon Owens

The McKinsey Global Institute forecasts that half of current work activity could be automated by 2055. Or even sooner. While that does not mean there will be a 50 percent decline in employment, the projection has important implications for Oregon, which is more dependent on manufacturing than other Western states.

Oregon must prepare its workforce for the inevitable change in manufacturing technology and methods to retain these jobs and to capitalize on new opportunities that will arise. Helping Oregonians develop the skills to maintain their jobs and thrive in an automated workplace will require increased investment in education and training by both private employers and the government -- investment that's possible only if Oregon corrects its fiscal imbalance.

In the past, industrial transformations have delivered improved worker productivity and safety, higher living standards and better health. That potential exists again, but only if we make the right investments. And we are not meeting the challenge. Economists point to the rising share of males age 25 to 54 years old who are without work as one sign that automation has left too many workers with inadequate skills.

At the Oregon Business Plan Leadership Summit in December, futurist Steve Brown described what businesses and communities must do to make the transition: educate, adapt and embrace. For Esco Corp., and many other manufacturers, this approach comes naturally. We have a long history of educating our employees, adapting to new demands from our customers and embracing change.

These changes are taking place in a global economy, where Esco has operations in 18 countries with about 3,000 employees worldwide. For our operations to remain competitive, we need a workforce that is attracted to, and skilled in, emerging technologies.

Esco is eager to confront these challenges, as we have done in the past. Founded in Portland in 1913 as a steel foundry company, Esco's early years catered largely to the Northwest timber industry. We now provide products and services globally for a variety of industries. We have succeeded in lasting that long by adapting to change and evolving to meet opportunity. In the 1950s and 1960s, we expanded our business through licensee relationships around the world. In the 1970s, we embraced a wave of manufacturing advancement by modernizing our Portland facilities, and opening new plants in Mississippi and Canada. By the 1990s, the age of globalization was well underway, and we started expanding around the world. Today, Esco is a truly international company, with sales, distribution and manufacturing operations around the globe.

For many companies like Esco, the question remains: What will we need our workers to do in the future? Even futurists like Brown shy away from specific predictions. However, we know our manufacturing plants will operate differently in the future, and we will need technologically skilled employees who are ready to adapt.

Successful businesses must anticipate changes and invest in education and training to grow and adapt. Recently, assessing potential customer needs in areas of both quality and productivity, Esco made significant investments to enhance technology and automation at our plant in Newton, Miss. These advancements inspired a partnership with local community colleges, which provide technically trained candidates who are ready to contribute. Similarly, in Portland, we sponsored engineers to return to school for advanced automation degrees. Support for higher education in emerging technologies will enable our skilled workforce to successfully contribute to a vibrant and changing manufacturing economy.

Successful states must do the same for their citizens. Ideally, employers and governments invest together to prepare the workforce for the future to develop stronger communities. Oregon has taken steps recently to improve workforce training and development. The Oregon Manufacturing Innovation Center in Scappoose will be an important space to help workers and employers adapt to automation and other changes in production technologies. Measure 98, approved by voters in 2016, increased investment in continuing education, though the Legislature has not fully funded the measure.

Oregon has a better chance to produce a workforce of the future if the state creates a stable, sustainable fiscal foundation, and makes adequate investment in training and education, especially for science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) programs.

Jon Owens is president & chief operating officer of ESCO and a member of the Oregon Business & Industry board of directors.

Share your opinion

Submit your essay of 800 words or less on a highly topical issue or a theme of particular relevance to the Pacific Northwest, Oregon and the Portland area to commentary@oregonian.com. Please include your email and phone number for verification.Prosecutors say witness testimony, audio and video evidence, plus bullet trajectory analysis yielded one conclusion: FBI agent W. Joseph Astarita lied about firing two shots at the truck of refuge occupation spokesman Robert "LaVoy" Finicum in 2016 after he swerved into a snowbank.

The information is detailed in a 32-page government response to Astarita's motion to dismiss the federal indictment against him. He's pleaded not guilty to three counts of making false statements and two counts of obstruction of justice. Astarita's lawyer claimed the indictment was based on "junk science.''

The government response also reveals that Oregon State Police SWAT troopers at the scene, ordinarily required to wear body cameras, didn't that day at the request of the FBI. The FBI did obtain video from FBI surveillance planes flying above the scene.

State police detectives also normally record interviews of officers who might be involved in a shooting, but they didn't that night when questioning the FBI Hostage Rescue Team members, again at the FBI's request. A follow-up interview with the hostage team members also came with unusual conditions, prosecutors note.

Astarita fired after Finicum's truck swerved into a snowbank at a roadblock and then stepped out of his pickup, investigators said. Astarita's first rifle shot missed Finicum's truck entirely and the second entered Finicum's truck from the roof, "sending sparks into the cabin and blowing out the left rear passenger window next to Ryan Bundy,'' according to federal prosecutors. Finicum wasn't struck.

On cellphone video taken by passenger Shawna Cox, Ryan Bundy, crouched in the back seat, could be heard saying, "I got hit, too,'' according to the government filing.

The shooting came as the FBI and state police moved to arrest the leaders of the armed occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge as they drove to a meeting in John Day on Jan. 26, 2016.

The bullet that entered the top of the truck came from the right side, slightly to the rear of the truck, and its path could have come only from Astarita or his immediate supervisor, according to Deschutes County Sheriff's Office detectives, who investigated the shooting. The supervisor, identified as B.M., was eliminated as the source, but the government response doesn't say how.

Finicum, 54, was shot and killed by state police a short time later at the scene after he walked away from the truck and reached into his jacket pocket, where he had a loaded pistol, investigators said. The Malheur County district attorney later ruled that the fatal shooting was justified.

Another FBI supervisor, identified by the initials "I.M.,'' responded to the scene to find out if any of the hostage team agents had fired their weapons.

I.M. asked Astarita if he had fired his rifle. Astarita's response was "markedly different'' than the other team members but he "clearly communicated'' that he hadn't fired his rifle, prosecutors wrote.

Astarita apparently responded with an angry retort, questioning I.M's authority to ask, and another hostage team member told Astarita that he needed to respond, the court filing says. Astarita's lawyer has argued that his client's remark was unresponsive and can't be construed as a false statement.

Three other members of the FBI hostage rescue team who were at the roadblock on U.S. 395 also said they hadn't taken any shots, according to prosecutors.

As a result, "evidence that would otherwise have been gathered and preserved was not,'' Astarita's weapon wasn't seized, examined or secured and an FBI shooting investigation wasn't initiated, prosecutors wrote.

Astarita's second response to B.M., his immediate FBI supervisor, was "direct and unequivocal'' that he had not fired his rifle, prosecutors noted.

The FBI ceded the shooting investigation to local authorities, thinking none of the federal agents present had fired their weapons.

Astarita told state police investigators that he was among the agents at the roadblock and described how Finicum's truck approached at about 70 mph. Astarita said he believed Finicum had struck another hostage team agent as he swerved into the snowbank.

"He expressed concern for that operator's safety,'' according to prosecutors. Astarita said he moved into position to help the fallen agent but was unsure of his exact position because he was moving, according to the government's document.

Since Finicum's truck was still running and the engine was revving, Astarita told investigators that it was difficult to hear what was going on but heard other gunshots and saw Finicum fall after Finicum had moved away from the truck.

"At no point in the interview did defendant disclose that he had fired, nor did he mention that evidence, such as shell casings, had been removed from the scene,'' prosecutors wrote.

A major incident team of local authorities processed the shooting scene and Finicum's truck. They found no spent rifle casings in the roadway, though witnesses reported seeing them there.

Using a metal detector, investigators did find two spent casings buried in the snow that were matched to a state police SWAT trooper's rifle.

Deschutes County investigators shared their concerns about missing evidence and unaccounted-for shots with FBI officials in the days after the shooting. I.M., the FBI supervisor who had first questioned Astarita, also expressed frustration to another FBI leader about Astarita's odd response to his routine question. More FBI supervisory agents spoke with Astarita.

On Feb. 6, 2016, two state police detectives reinterviewed Astarita, but by then the hostage rescue team agents knew there were unaccounted-for gunshots and missing shell casings. The agents set conditions for the interview: They could only be interviewed as a group, the interview couldn't be recorded and their lawyer could be present on a speakerphone.

The state police detectives found those conditions "particularly an unrecorded group interview - odd and problematic, but reluctantly agreed to them, believing that the alternative would be no interview at all,'' prosecutors wrote.

B.M., the leader of Astarita's team, served as the "spokesman'' for the group and did most of the talking. The hostage rescue team agents conveyed individually and through their spokesman that they didn't fire any shots.

While Astarita's lawyer has urged the court, at the least, to dismiss four of the five charges, arguing they are repetitious, prosecutors say each charge is warranted because Astarita made false statements to three different FBI supervisors , who each had a different role to play and each lie "further impaired the FBI's investigation.''

-- Maxine Bernstein

mbernstein@oregonian.com

503-221-8212

@maxoregonianPortland voters could get the chance this fall to weigh in on a proposed tax on sales at powerhouse national retailers operating inside city limits. The surcharge is intended to fund initiatives to put a dent in global climate change.

The city attorney released an official ballot title for a proposed measure Friday. If proponents gather enough signatures, the campaign would pit a broad coalition of liberals and environmentalists against the corporations that would be affected by the tax.

The petition would amend city code to apply a 1 percent tax to all Portland sales by large corporations except medicine, health care and certain groceries. Companies would be affected if they have at least $1 billion in annual sales and sales of $500,000 within Portland city limits. It's not clear how much money the surcharge would raise.

Revenue generated by the tax would be deposited in a fund earmarked for renewable energy projects, environmentally friendly construction and green sector job training targeted at people of color, women, the disabled and chronically unemployed.

The petition's backers are organized via a group called the Portland Just Energy Transition Initiative, which boasts dozens of local member organizations involved in climate and civil rights advocacy. The group is being assisted on a volunteer basis by veteran Democratic campaign operative Paige Richardson, who managed former Gov. Ted Kulongoski's re-election efforts. Richardson also headed the campaign to put special labels on genetically modified foods sold in Oregon that failed by the narrowest of margins in 2014.

E.D. Mondaine, one of the measure's two chief petitioners, said in a statement that the proposal is meant to help the city reach its greenhouse gas emissions goals "while ensuring there is an equitable and just distribution of resources so that all Portlanders benefit." Mondaine, a pastor active with the local NAACP, said his measure can "create a consistent funding stream" for environmentally-friendly projects that specifically assist Portlanders in poorer neighborhoods.

The Portland Business Alliance has already lined up to oppose the proposed ballot measure. In a statement, the group said the tax "will ultimately be passed on to consumers and small businesses." The group also said the tax does not address Portland's most pressing issues: homelessness, traffic jams and a lack of affordable housing.

If their petition qualifies for the ballot, the green energy coalition will likely have to build a war chest to compete against a number of business and retail giants that will oppose their measure. Last time a similar, but statewide, tax was on the ballot  Measure 97, in 2016  corporate interests raised nearly $28 million and soundly defeated the tax by framing it as bad for consumers. Even with that level of spending by opponents, however, Measure 97 passed 57 percent to 43 percent in Multnomah County, and city of Portland voters historically have been more pro-tax than county voters as a whole.

Friday's release of the ballot title kicks off a seven-day period during which any registered voter living in Portland can challenge the title in Multnomah County Circuit Court. After any challenge is resolved, backers of the proposal have until early July to gather the 34,156 valid signatures needed to put the petition on the November 2018 ballot, said Deborah Scroggin, Portland's top elections official. The petitioners have filed paperwork showing they intend to hire paid signature gatherers, she said.

Several things can happen if backers gather enough signatures: City councilors could adopt the petition outright, sponsor their own competing measure or let the voter-sponsored petition head to the ballot.

While city officials sometimes refer measures to Portland ballots, it is rarer for a citizen-sponsored petition to go before voters. The last times that happened was in 2013, when city voters overwhelmingly rejected Measure 26-151, a proposal to fluoridate Portland's drinking water, and in 2014, when city voters also turned down a citizen-sponsored measure that would have wrested control of the city's water and sewer system and given it to an independent board.

-- Gordon R. Friedman

503-221-8209; @GordonRFriedmanA confrontation between a private security officer and several people near the Burnside Bridge led to a shooting currently under investigation by Portland police, the bureau said in a news release.

Officers responded to the bridge just before 1:30 a.m. Saturday and, after speaking with witnesses, found the private security officer. The guard had fired several warning shots during the confrontation, police say.

A search of the area near Skidmore Fountain yielded evidence of gunfire and one person was reported to sustain minor injuries nearby.

This is the second shooting investigation Portland police have undertaken this week. Davonte D. Kerney, 22, sustained fatal injuries in another incident in the Pearl District Wednesday night.

The agency asks anyone with information about the Skidmore Fountain shooting to contact detectives at 503-823-0479.

--Eder Campuzano | 503.221.4344

ecampuzano@oregonian.comA 19-year-old man accused of killing a 21-year-old acquaintance steps away from the Portland State University campus told police he shot at the man and was stupid.

I really regret doing what I did, suspect Nicholas Lane Hannan told police in a recorded interview. I really screwed that up.

A prosecutor played Hannans interview Friday in Multnomah County Circuit Court while arguing to Judge Kelly Skye that Hannan should remain in jail pending trial for the murder of Diego Tejeda-Manzo.

The judge agreed and denied Hannans request to post bail.

During the hearing, Detective Rico Beniga disclosed new details about the Nov. 7 shooting outside the Vue apartments at 1717 S.W. Park Ave.

Hannan told police that he had met Tejeda-Manzo a few weeks earlier when the two got into a violent fistfight in Sherwood. Hannan said he suffered eight broken teeth, was upset and went into Portland looking for Tejeda-Manzo on the night of the killing, according to the recorded police interview.

Witnesses reported seeing a group of three people badly beating Tejeda-Manzo in in a courtyard next to the Vue. The courtyard is ringed by an entrance to the apartment tower, a Subway sandwich shop, Rogue Hall brewery and Starbucks. Its across the street from the universitys campus. Scores of apartments and student housing units also look out on the courtyard.

Emergency dispatchers received 21 calls to 911, starting at 12:54 a.m., on the night of the killing.

Police believe Hannan fired seven shots from a .45-caliber handgun.

One bullet pierced the left side of Tejeda-Manzos chest, and he died at the scene, they said. Two other bullets struck the closed brewery, one that sailed through a window and one that hit a window frame, police said.

Based on witness statements, police think Hannan shot first and Tejeda-Manzo responded by firing two rounds in return. Hannan was struck in the leg.

Police said Hannan and the others fled in an SUV. About 16 minutes later, surveillance video at Legacy Meridian Park Medical Center shows Hannan arriving at the hosptial. He was helped into the emergency room by his brother, David M. Brown, 26, the detective said. Hannan lied to medical staff by saying hed been shot in Sherwood, where he lives, the detective said.

Brown also has been charged with a crime, third-degree assault, for allegedly taking part in the beating just before the killing.

Deputy District Attorney Amity Girt said Tejeda-Manzo was outnumbered and held down while his attackers kicked him in the face and stomped on his head -- part of the time while curled up into the fetal position to try to protect himself from the blows.

It was a very unfair fight, Girt said. She argued that any claim of self-defense offered by Hannan doesnt hold water.

Defense attorney Jason Short, however, pointed to Hannans statement to police that he fired at Tejeda-Manzo only because Tejeda-Manzo had pulled out a gun. Hannan said he heard the gun slide, indicating that Tejeda-Manzo was about to fire.

I didnt want to die, so I fired back, Hannan told police.

Short also criticized the accuracy of a witness who said Tejeda-Manzo was shot while he was still in the fetal position. Thats contradicted by other witnesses who said they saw Tejeda-Manzo walking away from his assailants and toward the door of the Vue at the time shots were fired.

In ordering that Hannan remain in jail, the judge said she found the proof evident and the presumption strong that Hannan intentionally killed Tejeda-Manzo.

Skye said the theory that Hannan was acting in self-defense doesnt hold up in this case. When there was a brief break in the fight, Hannan could have left but he didnt, she said. The judge also noted that Hannan admitted seeking out Tejeda-Manzo and that he and the others severely beat him.

At that point, Tejeda-Manzo would have been the only one justified in pulling out his gun, the judge said.

Hannan's trial date has been scheduled for January 2019.

-- Aimee GreenA crash between two vehicles near the University of Portland campus Friday night also caught three pedestrians, one of whom was sent to the hospital with non life-threatening injuries, police say.

The Portland police are still investigating the incident, which happened just after 10 p.m.

The university's student newspaper, The Beacon, reports that the crash happened near the intersection of Willamette and Portsmouth boulevards. Photos published by the newspaper show a silver Chevrolet Camaro with dents on its front driver's side at the scene.

A UP student told the paper he saw the Camaro jump the curb and hit the three students.

--Eder Campuzano | 503.221.4344

ecampuzano@oregonian.comMonthly stipends for 11,000 disabled student veterans are delayed this month, potentially causing the former troops to be late paying rent, food and other pressing bills.

The money from the program known as Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment subsistence allowance payments would normally have been disbursed Jan. 31. But now they will be delayed until Tuesday, due to a computer glitch, according to an internal memo obtained by The Washington Post.

The memo instructs operators to apologize to veterans and tell them their payments are on the way.

The program is popular because it helps disabled veterans who return home get job counseling and obtain college degrees or pursue technical skills. They are offered internships and help with contacts and resumes, which will allow them to work despite often severe injuries.

Afghanistan War Army veteran Rick Collin in Portland, Oregon, is one of the veterans who didn't receive his stipend. He said he had to put off paying bills and will now have to pay late fees. Collin is suffering from severe memory loss and post-traumatic stress disorder, along with chronic back and shoulder pain from a car accident on his way to psychiatric therapy at Fort Riley, Kansas. He has four children, ages 9, 7, 2 and 9 months.

"This was going to be my first month with money left over after bills and now that will all go to late fees," said Collin, 30. He is studying photography at Portland Community College.

He said he's currently in his fifth week of the term, has yet to receive a computer he was promised and only last week received his camera.

The troubled Department of Veterans Affairs has been under scrutiny for a range of issues, from long wait times for appointments to a surgeon leaving a scalpel in a veteran's gut.

"Any large bureaucracy has their glitches, but anytime veterans are not getting their benefits on time, especially when on a program like this, it's a real hardship," said Garry Augustine, executive director of 1.3 million-member Disabled Veterans of America.

The glitch "has been"fixed and it won't occur again the future," said Curt Cashour, press secretary of Department of Veterans Affairs in an emailed statement after receiving inquiries from The Washington Post.

"We apologize to the Veterans affected by this inconvenience," Cashour wrote.

-- The Washington PostSPRINGFIELD -- Police say a Springfield charter school principal who killed himself Thursday is under investigation for sexual misconduct allegations involving a minor.

The Register-Guard reports Michael Fisher was placed on leave from the Academy of Arts and Academics Wednesday, prompting an hour-long lockdown at the school.

Springfield Police Lt. Scott McKee said Friday the lockdown was a result of Fisher attempting to buy a gun at a nearby pawn shop.

Police say Fisher was found dead Thursday by his wife in the garage of their home. Police say he did not die by firearm.

Fisher had been principal at the charter school since 2005.

The investigation is ongoing.

McKee says the female victim, who is now an adult, lives out of state and recently came forward with the allegations.echisholm 5/2016

Have a relative (sort of) who works at a 3M plant. Shit still occasionally happens.

> You can't just say that and go away!! How are you not irresistibly

> interested in that?? I would've interrogated that relative so hard

It just came up in passing at Thanksgiving! I don't really know him that well; he's an in-law. He mentioned being able to throw small washers and bolts at the field and watching them get repelled. People got interested, and so someone came with a voltmeter, and after throwing a couple more, they checked for voltage, and there was a residual charge after they finally caught on on a plastic sheet to prevent immediate grounding. It also had a very slight magnetic field. It's apparently fairly common, but engineering hasn't come up with a solid explanation why.

ALSO: dc469 5/2016

I met this guy at an ESD meeting in austin once. He said the strength of the field maxed out his equipment at a distance so he couldn't get a maximum measurement.

After he published the paper he was contacted by NASA and all the three letter agencies asking for more info. He wanted to experiment around with it but no company had millions to throw into such a project (presumably, the government did). It had to be a pretty narrow window of temperature, pressure, humidity, etc. They kept the garage door open so that's where the insects and sparrows got sucked in (which obviously ruined the product).

He said it was actually known to the technicians for awhile before he experienced it and they just were kinda like "meh". Eventually they fixed the grounding issue on the machine and the problem never popped up again.

edit: found the ESD website. David Swenson apparently is still with them on their board of directors. http://centxesdassoc.homestead.com/

LINKS WIRED magazine 1/2018

ESD Journal

Askreddit 2017

Reddit TIL

Sticky Electrostatics, classroom physics demos

Another poly unwind setup (vid) Problems: coulomb forces would be expected to attract a person into the "chamber" formed by the PP film, and the attractive force should increase linearly across distance. There should be no "wall" in the center, a discrete wall is repulsive, also nonlinear.

If for some reason a person was repelled from the center of the chamber rather than being attracted, there still should be no "wall," since the repulsion force should exist over a large distance; it should act like a deep pillow which exerts more and more force as one moves deeper into it. Large fuzzy fields, this is how magnets and iron behave, and this is how e-fields and conductive objects should also behave.

A thought: unspooling of film typically generates a much higher net charge on the long piece of film than on the small surface of the spool. However, since charge is created in pairs, and net charge is conserved, the imbalances of charge must be equal and opposite. The charge on the entire length of moving film must be equal in magnitude to the charge on the spool. Yet the charge on the film is very large and is continuously increasing. The limited surface-charge on the spool required that opposite charge is being lost through some unseen path.

Very probably the spool is spewing out enormous quantities of ionized air with polarity opposite that of the charge on the moving plastic film.

Charged air would be created by discharge in the cleft between film and spool as the film was peeled from the spool. I wonder if film was being peeled from the top of the spool, so that any ionized air created in the cleft would be launched into the "tent-chamber" region? (If it was peeled from the bottom of the spool, the charged air would end up outside the "tent.") Or, if a corona discharge arises in the cleft between film and spool, perhaps the UV and e-fields of this corona can ionize the air on both sides of the exiting plastic film, and spray the charged air everywhere.

So, if the charged "tent" of film is negative in the above situation, and if a large quantity of positively charged air is being generated by the spool, then perhaps the "invisible wall" is caused by a cloud of suspended air ions held in position by e-fields. Perhaps it's a pressure gradient created by ionized air trapped under the tent by electrostatic attraction. Yet again this effect would be expected to create a diffuse zone of increasing force, not a "wall", but an "invisible pillow." Added note: concrete floors behave as conductors (resistors) in this situation. Where megavolts at microamps are involved, the division between insulators and conductors is at 10^6/10^-6 = 1000 gigaohms. Concrete resistivity is in the realm of megohms, so it behaves like a grounded metal sheet.

However, a volume of charged air is somewhat analogous to iron filings near a magnet. If a solid sheet of iron filings is held in place by a magnet, then a literal "wall" is created, and this wall will resist penetration by nonferrous objects. If in the above manufacturing plant, a sheet of highly charged air is for some reason being held in place by the fields created by the charged film, then a transparent "wall" made of charged air would come into being. It might produce pressures on surfaces, and resist penetration by human bodies.

My question is this: if the entire situation could be turned on its side, so the "invisible wall" became an "invisible floor", could a person *stand* on it? Have we discovered the long-sought "Zero-G waterbed?" :) - B.B. Reference: Article about the "Wall" in ESD Journal (IT'S BACK! 8/2000)

Sign up to receive daily headline news from Ottawa Citizen, a division of Postmedia Network Inc.

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The next issue of Ottawa Citizen Headline News will soon be in your inbox.Brown Machine Group recently announced its merger with Freeman Co., a leading manufacturer of thermoform tooling used predominantly in the high-volume food packaging industry.

Brown is a leading manufacturer and servicer of highly-engineered thermoforming and automated material handling equipment used in the conversion of plastic sheet into high-value-add products. The company provides its equipment and related services under the Brown, Lyle, Nalle Automation Systems ("NAS"), and EPCO brand names.

Freeman was founded in 1892 as the Louis G. Freeman Co. It is located in Fremont, Ohio in a world-class tooling facility utilizing state-of-the-art equipment. Freeman manufactures thermoform tooling for the high-volume food service and packaging industries. Freeman has a proven record of innovation and product performance leadership, led by an experienced engineering and production staff. Freeman endeavors to build the highest performance tooling with unmatched quality and service with a goal of maximizing the customer's value proposition.

"Brown's customers enjoy a complete package of process engineering, tooling, productivity enhancement kits, spare parts, 24/7 customer service and access to our state-of-the-art prototyping laboratory for thermoforming processes," Brown Machine Group CEO Bryan Redman said. "We are the only thermoforming manufacturer in the United States that offers a full range of products, and the corresponding support services, that ensure our customers' success. The addition of Freeman provides a more complete tooling solution, further establishing Brown's position as a comprehensive solutions provider in the thermoforming equipment realm."

Larry Mears, Freeman CEO, will be retiring after the Brown Machine Group combination with Mike Mullholand, Freeman COO, assuming full leadership responsibilities of the Freeman operation. Mullholand said, "Larry and I have been looking for the right partner for some time now, and we are very happy to be joining the Brown Machine Group family. We are all thrilled about the enhanced product offering for our collective customers, and the re-investment into the business we are all making to ultimately benefit the thermoforming industry."Among the thousands of brave souls that hailed from Michigan during the Civil War, there is one band of soldiers that Midlander Quita Shier wants to highlight: Company K of the 1st Regiment Michigan Volunteer Sharpshooters. Shier's new book, "Warriors in Mr. Lincoln's Army," details the lives of the members of the all-Native American company and their contribution to America's deadliest war.

Shier's interest in Native American culture began at age 10 when, one summer, some ruins were excavated near her hometown of Lincoln, Illinois. Fascinated by the discoveries of native relics, she checked out books about different American Indian cultures when her parents took her to the library every Saturday. She continued to admire native cultures through her college years as a pre-med student and into motherhood. By the time her children were teenagers she was ready to seriously commit to writing a book about American Indians in the Civil War.

"It kinda blows some people's minds. They think, 'Indians in the Civil War?' They think they're out there running around with bows and arrows," Shier said.

The 140 members of Company K - all of whom were Native American except two officers - had more than bows and arrows at their disposal. In fact, Company K was part of a regiment that specialized in marksmanship. According to Shier, the idea was to train sharpshooters who were then distributed to other infantry outfits and support the artillery. At first the state was forbidden to enlist Native Americans, but as the war dragged on and the Union realized they needed all the help they could get, officials decided to form a regiment of sharpshooters with one company solely comprised of Native Americans. As fortune would have it, Company K's marksmanship was among the best, even without the use of scopes on their guns.

"Of course they were good because lead was expensive to make bullets and they had to be very careful when they hunted for food that every bullet counted," Shier said. "They had to make sure that they were good at what they were doing. And they were; Company K was among the best sharpshooters in the regiment."

Although books have been published about Company K, Shier noticed that the materials focused on the regiment as a whole or simply glossed over the individual members of the company. Her book takes a more personal approach, following each individual from their pre-war lives through their service in the Civil War. The book is divided into two parts, military and biography, and is organized in profile form rather than chapters to make it easier for readers to follow an individual soldier through the course of time.

"I wanted to present them as human beings, not just soldiers, that they had a human side like everybody else."

The characters who formed Company K were very colorful. Among their numbers were chiefs and sons of chiefs, hunters, a teacher/violinist/landscape painter, boatmen, mechanics and even two ministers (one Episcopal, one Methodist). Shier admits she does have favorites among them, including a lumberjack, Thomas Kechittigo, and Thomas Wezoo who met President Abraham Lincoln while recuperating in a field hospital in City Point, Virginia, just days before the president was assassinated.

"Lincoln came up to him and extended his hand. He took his hand ... Thomas said 'I will never forget it. His handshake was so strong. This was my president shaking my hand. Of all they guys that he would shake hands with, I got to shake his hand.' His granddaughter said he never forgot it."

Shier's research comes from various sources, including pension records, birth and death certificates and medical files. When accounts were hard to find or obtain, she got in contact with the soldiers' descendants such as Wezoo's granddaughter.

She has four boxes of files and notes collected from libraries, the National Archives and the Michigan Historical Collection that she plans on donating to the Central Michigan University's Clarke Historical Library.

"It's almost like having a kid and not giving him up. I'm just so attached to these files and these guys that it's really hard for me to give them up."

Shier describes her book, which took her 26 years to complete, as "a labor of love" for her Native American friends. Her search for the men of Company K gave Shier a better understanding of what they faced and their great courage and skill.

"I feel I know them. They're real to me as if they were standing over there ... They spoke to me. They spoke to me in some of the dialogue that was reproduced or written down in the pension papers."

The final product is more than 550 pages long and contains information on a broad spectrum of subjects including medicine, genealogy, national and Michigan history and American Indian culture, just to name a few.

"As large as this book's going to be, put it on your coffee table but don't drop it on your toe," Shier joked.

The author hopes that the book will appeal to readers in the medical and historical fields and will promote an understanding and appreciation of a group of men who fought to protect their homeland and families even though they were outcasts in society.

"I just wonder what they would think, the ones I wrote about, that someone was interested enough to talk about them, that they were important in their own time, that they meant something to somebody."

"Warriors in Mr. Lincoln's Army" is will be available for purchase on Amazon and iUniverse at a later date.The two Evangelical Lutheran Churches of America churches located in Midland are teaming up to bring "40 Days a New Beginning" for the Lenten season. The focus of worship will be drawing closer to God by changing habits you might like to get rid of for new habits that will change your life for the better.

On Ash Wednesday, Feb. 14, three worship services are scheduled -- 7 a.m. at Trinity Lutheran Church, 3701 Jefferson Ave.; noon at St. Timothy Lutheran Church, 2417 Abbott St., and 6 p.m. at Trinity Lutheran.

Midweek services begin Wednesday, Feb. 21, and continue through the Lenten season leading up to Easter. Weekly services are noon at St. Timothy Lutheran, which will be followed by a soup luncheon. Trinity Lutheran will host a 5:15 p.m. soup dinner weekly, followed by a 6 p.m. worship service.

There are no costs associated with any of the services.More Information

The City of Midland Fire Department was established by the City Council, under the authority granted by the City Charter adopted November 7, 1944, and effective January 1, 1945, to protect and preserve the lives and property of the citizens of Midland from fire and to assist them in emergency situations, according to the City of Midland's website.

A September 1946 Daily News article states, "The Midland fire department will go on a full-time basis Sept. 1 with a staff of 14 men, thus eliminating the need for calling the volunteers by the long familiar siren atop the city hall.

"Only in extreme emergencies when the regular force is unable to cope with the blaze will the siren sound to call a diminished staff of emergency volunteers.

"Roster of the professional department now includes Chief Earl Engwis, Omer Brooks, assistant chief, Orin Brown Jr., assistant chief, Archie Wyman, Orville Dull, Robert Garno, Carl Engwis, Kermit Squire, Kenneth Nagle, Grant Palmer, Howard Mills, Frank Thurlow, Gerald Palmer, Dale Starks and Dean Moore.

"The men will work the two platoon system of 24 hours every day with one day off after eight working days. Living quarters for the firemen have been completely remodeled.

"Recent purchase of a 500 gallon pumper and ladder truck with 170 feet of ladder and a 1,000 gallon double stage pumper now on order will greatly increase the efficiency of the fire department."

Today's city fire department operates at a strength of 45 members and serves a population of more than 40,000 citizens, according to the city of Midland's website.

Fire chief is Chris Coughlin.

The department operates from three stations that provide services to a geographical area of more than 36 square miles, including residential, business, and industrial complexes.Lt. Gov. Brian Calley attended the Republican 4th Congressional District Roundup in Clare to share his vision for governor.

"What I represent in this race for governor of Michigan is keeping the comeback going and bringing it to the next level. We have built a strong foundation," said the former Michigan state representative.

Calley has served as lieutenant governor for two terms under Gov. Rick Snyder. Both are term limited and cannot seek a third term.

"I've always been focused on results. That's why I am running for governor. I am so excited about where we could go from here. It's all about our people and our families," Calley said.

Since 2010, when Calley became the lieutenant governor, the state has gained 530,000 new jobs.

"We are a top 10 state in terms of income growth," the former banker said. "We hit a 17-year low in our unemployment. Our debt is down and we have seven years in a row of balanced budgets. They've been four months early."

The turnaround process started with balancing the budget and tax reform. During the last seven years, state liabilities and debt have been reduced by $20 billion.

The future holds one big problem for Michigan--not enough people to fill all the new jobs, Calley said. He estimates that the state needs to add at least 100,000 jobs over the next few years. That starts with having the best K-12 education system and bringing skilled trades back.

"It's about our people, because strong people build strong families and strong families build strong communities. Strong communities make our state strong and strong states make America strong," he said. "The most important work we do is with our people at the community level."Three Republican GOP candidates plan to attend the Saginaw Gubernatorial Town Hall on Monday at Curtiss Hall on the campus of Saginaw Valley State University.

Lt. Gov. Brian Calley, Dr. Jim Hines and State Sen. Patrick Colbeck will gather at 7:30 p.m. Monday for the third town hall. Doors open at 7 p.m. Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette has declined to take part in the series of town halls.

"Bill Schuette looks forward to the opportunity to answer questions and debate policies in the future, but these town halls were not organized to do that. Rather, they were conspired through a secret alliance to take down the lead candidate. While other candidates engage in political gimmickry, Bill Schuette is focused on his paycheck agenda to bring tax cuts, jobs, and growth to Michigan," a Schuette campaign spokesperson stated.

The first town hall took place last Monday in Grand Rapids. Jackson hosted the second town hall on Wednesday.

"The first town hall proved how valuable it is for Republican voters to be able to engage with the candidates running for governor," Calley said in a release. "I was excited to share my detailed plan for how to continue Michigan's comeback and build on the 540,000 new jobs that have been created over the last eight years. Any candidate who wants to be the GOP nominee ought to have the courage to stand in front of voters and take questions."

Hines is a medical doctor who has delivered thousands of babies over the last 30 years. As a missionary medical doctor, he ran two mission hospitals and 20 Urgent Care facilities for four years in the Central African Republic. He has led medical teams all over the world, bringing healthcare to those most in need.

Colbeck said in a release, "These town halls have been a great way for us to hear the concerns of voters and answer the questions. Voters can hear how our 'principled solutions' compare to what the other candidates are proposing to make Michigan the best that it can be."To help spread the word about womens risk for heart disease and stroke, Rose Davidson started volunteering with Go Red for Women. After surviving a stroke in July, the Coleman resident credits her own survival to the heart health movement.

Go Red for Women is a national initiative formed by the American Heart Association to end heart disease and stroke in women. The main goal of the movement is raising awareness that these are the No. 1 killer of women, despite predominantly being categorized as an older mans disease.

Im more empowered to teach women about it than I was even before, Davidson said. It can happen to everyone. I was doing everything right, but theres nothing you can do about heredity. But you can still do other things preemptively even if the deck is stacked against you.

This includes things like knowing your family history to see if you are more at risk, adopting a healthy, active lifestyle and listening to your body if something feels wrong. Davidson is one of three women from the Midland area who shared why putting these ideas into practice has saved their life at the 2018 Great Lakes Bay Region Go Red for Women Luncheon on Friday.

Davidson, 49, has been involved with Go Red for Women for the past nine years. She suffered a spontaneous inch-long tear in her internal carotid artery, which caused her stroke, but was recently given the go-ahead by her doctors to exercise again and has no lasting brain damage.

Davidson has a history of stroke in her family, but still never expected she was in danger of having one herself.

It can happen to even the fittest of people, Davidson said. I just know if I had been the average 49 year old woman I probably wouldnt have come out of it as good as I did.

If Davidson would have doubted some of her early stroke symptoms, it could have easily been fatal, she said. Knowing the importance of listening to her body is something she learned through Go Red for Women and helped her survive.

This rang true through each woman's story, including Laurie Nevill. The 60-year-old Midland resident has a congenital heart defect, and was told she was at a high risk for sudden death after a routine checkup.

"I was experiencing a lot of dizziness," Nevill said. I should have paid attention."

Nevill chocked up a lot of her symptoms to aging. But after the alarming doctor visit, she received her first open heart surgery in 2010. By 2013 she had her mechanical valve replaced with a bovine valve, and is awaiting another surgery.

"If someone says it's all in your head, ignore them," Nevill said. "You have to be in charge of your life."

Alanna Lee's involvement in Go Red for Women stems from this same message of self advocacy after the Midland resident was told she had an often misdiagnosed heart disease.

Lee, 30, got discouraged as she was in and out of doctor appointments over an eight year stretch until she was finally diagnosed with severe atrial tachycardia. Her condition means her heartbeat was often too fast or off-beat, which can cause fainting or stroke if left untreated.

"This is about education," Lee said. "It's not just about heart disease, but about advocating for yourself. With women in general and the quality of healthcare we sometimes get, we are often brushed off with our symptoms, thinking it's anxiety driven."

Lee said she was told by doctors that she needed to get her anxiety in check, and that she was wasting their time. Lee kept going to the emergency room because her heart was racing uncontrollably, and treated as if it were a heart attack.

"I don't have a lot of the precursors people tend to associate with heart disease," Lee said. "I also wasted eight years of my life not being listened to."

Lee's disease is not treatable, but once she was finally diagnosed she received surgery in 2011 and it became manageable, she said.

If Lee had not pushed for a second opinion and questioning her doctors, she would not be in the place where she is today, if alive at all, she said.

"I've been able to lead a normal life, I got married and had a son," Lee said.

For Lee, the most important thing she wants people to take away from her story is being an advocate for yourself, even aside from heart disease.

"I'm going to fight for answers," she said. "It's just so important to keep that message."

More information about how to volunteer or make a donation to Go Red for Women and the American Heart Association can be found at the organization's website.The Hope Portal for Mental Health made its first public appearance Friday at a Midland Area Chamber of Commerce breakfast.

Midland County residents now have a complete source for mental health care information, resources and providers.

Kathy Dollard and Sarah Kile explained Hope Portal at the Great Hall.

"The portal is a place people can visit and find mental health resources in a one-stop place that is confidential and that is 24 hours a day," said Dollard, director of Behavioral Health at MidMichigan Health.

Members of the public can dial 211 to access an online database for resources related to depression and anxiety, physical and mental abuse, suicide, eating disorders, elder care, veterans' services and other issues. The agency can help individuals from children to military veterans to seniors with specific resources.

"This fits well with our mission because we are a gateway. We don't want people to stop at 211. It is a place to go and get information that they need and then move forward," said Kile, executive director of 211 Northeast Michigan.

The Hope Portal is unique in that it is non-profit, and it plans to be comprehensive. They said it is the first such community online resource in the state.

An advisory committee led by Dollard and Kile governs Hope Portal. Initial funding was provided by a grant from The Dow Chemical Co., and we are thankful for that support.

One in four families in this region have a mental health issue. We can see the potential for Hope Portal as a real life saver.

All that is left is to get the word out -- that there is help available, and we do not need to hesitate to seek help.

To access the portal, visit: myhopeportal.comAbout Me William Kelly I am a freelance writer, journalist and historian whose major interests are music and history, with a special emphasis on the assassination of President Kennedy. View my complete profile

Blog ArchiveWhen the accusations of sexual assault and harassment against Harvey Weinstein first began to break a few months ago, Uma Thurman hinted during a viral red carpet interview that though she would share her experiences soon, she was waiting until she could process her anger to some degree. Now, she's beginning to reveal the extent of the trauma she's been through.

In a new interview with the New York Times, Thurman alleges that Harvey Weinstein "attacked" her multiple times in the beginning of career, following the success of Pulp Fiction, which Weinstein produced. "He used to spend hours talking to me about material and complimenting my mind and validating me. It possibly made me overlook warning signs," she said, before describing the first sexual advance he made in a hotel room in Paris:

"It went right over my headI didn't feel threatened. I thought he was being super idiosyncratic, like this was your kooky, eccentric unclethen I followed him through a door and it was a steam room. And I was standing there in my full black leather outfit  boots, pants, jacket. And it was so hot and I said, 'This is ridiculous, what are you doing?' And he was getting very flustered and mad and he jumped up and ran out."

Shortly after, Weinstein physically attacked her for the first time in a London hotel room, Thurman alleges:

"It was such a bat to the head. He pushed me down. He tried to shove himself on me. He tried to expose himself. He did all kinds of unpleasant things. But he didn't actually put his back into it and force me. You're like an animal wriggling away, like a lizard. I was doing anything I could to get the train back on the track. My track. Not his track."

Hoping to confront Weinstein about his behavior, Thurman asked him to meet at the hotel bar. When she arrived to meet him, Thurman says Weinstein's agents pressured her into meeting him at his hotel room instead. She says she reluctantly agreed, and told Weinstein, "If you do what you did to me to other people you will lose your career, your reputation and your family, I promise you."

Related | Harvey Weinstein Now Accused of Sex Trafficking



Thurman's memory of that encounter stops there, though. Her friend Ilona Herman recalled to the Times that when Thurman finally returned downstairs, "She was very disheveled and so upset and had this blank look," Herman said. "Her eyes were crazy and she was totally out of control. I shoveled her into the taxi and we went home to my house. She was really shaking." Herman said that when Thurman was able to speak again, she said that he had threatened to derail her career.

Thurman described the complicated feelings she had toward Weinstein.



"I am one of the reasons that a young girl would walk into his room alone, the way I did," she told the Times. "Quentin [Tarantino] used Harvey as the executive producer of 'Kill Bill,' a movie that symbolizes female empowerment. And all these lambs walked into slaughter because they were convinced nobody rises to such a position who would do something illegal to you, but they do."

Thurman also said that Creative Artists Agency, her former agency, was complicit in Weinstein's behavior. The agency has since issued a public apology. "I stand as both a person who was subjected to it and a person who was then also part of the cloud cover, so that's a super weird split to have," Thurman said.



Of her red carpet moment in October, Thurman said, "I used the word 'anger' but I was more worried about crying, to tell you the truth," she says now. "I was not a groundbreaker on a story I knew to be true. So what you really saw was a person buying time.""



A statement from Weinstein's representative said, "Mr. Weinstein acknowledges making a pass at Ms. Thurman in England after misreading her signals in Paris. He immediately apologized."

She does recall the "half-assed apology" that Weinstein gave her, and went onto describe her relationship with Tarantino and his involvement and knowledge of Weinstein's actions as "the Tarantino of it all." She talks in depth of being pressured into an unsafe car stunt during a shoot in Mexico for Kill Bill that left her permanently injured, describing her "dehumanization to the point of death" as an actress.

She said, "Personally, it has taken me 47 years to stop calling people who are mean to you 'in love' with you. It took a long time because I think that as little girls we are conditioned to believe that cruelty and love somehow have a connection and that is like the sort of era that we need to evolve out of."

Image via Getty

These five words (The Government is Committed to) should be banned from the usage by any Indian politicians, more so by Bihari politicians like Nitish Kumar, Sushil Kumar Modi, other 'netas', and their minions.

The truth is, after decades of abuse, this phrase has lost its sheen and does not mean anything. It is also designed to fool people, and is just a way to weasel out of making a real promise without bearing the risk of being held responsible for it in future.

"Our government is committed to improve education in Bihar". "Our government is committed to improve health care in Bihar". "Our government is committed to improve employment situation in Bihar". "Our government is committed to eradicate dowry system in Bihar". "Our government is committed to improve law and order in Bihar". "Our government is committed to empower the women of Bihar". "Our government is committed to improve the condition of farmers in Bihar" blah blah blah!

We get it, Mr. Chief Minister, that you are very committed to everything. Nothing wrong with that except for a teensy-weensy technicality  you don't do anything about them; you just keep repeating it like a trained parrot.

For 12 long years you have declared your 'commitment' to everything under the sun but besides banning alcohol, which, by the way, was not the part of your original commitments in the early years of your 'raj'; and holding rallies and yatras, your success in terms of economic development in Bihar still remains grim compared to 'your commitments'.

Suggestion for you  forget your maniacal obsession with social engineering. Social engineering like ban on alcohol or introduction of uniforms in schools don't do crap, pardon my French. Most people know you have given up on real and tangible development and so in order to hide your failures, you go on tangents like prohibition, dowry system, child marriage, school uniform, sanitary napkins for girls and other similar social issues that, though certainly good causes and worth taking up, do absolutely nothing to improve economic situation of Bihar. They do not generate employment and definitely don't bring revenue to the state that is required to improve the infrastructure in the state. And when there is no infrastructure, there is no investment.

Take this for example - on February 1, 2018, you inaugurated the national Khadi Fair in Patna. Fine, I don't have any problem with that except for the fact that you keep organizing such 'melas' (Saras Mela, Vasant Mela, Mahila Udyog Mela, Hast Shilp Mela, etc. on a regular basis to avoid talking about the real issues facing Bihar and to cover up your failures. Your modus operandi is obvious to all except to your die-hard sycophants - "keep people occupied in these useless things so no one talks about your success, or the lack thereof, in areas of job creation, health care, education, law and order, and investment."

In your inaugural speech at the Khadi Fair in Patna, you once again expressed your 'commitment' to promote Khadi nationwide and urged people to wear dresses made of Khadi at least once or twice a week. Yet another example of 'social engineering' that you hold so dear to your heart. Why do you care about what people wear, eat, drink, watch, or do in their spare times? Why such obsession with controlling mind, body, and soul of a human being? And who or what gives you the right to tell people how to live their lives?

I say drop this fixation with controlling human behavior and concentrate only on creating jobs, inviting investment, making sure education in Bihar is second to none and healthcare is comparable to big cities of India. That's all you have to worry about; nothing else! Is that really too much to ask from you? Leave people of Bihar alone and just do your REAL job, not the ones that falsely gives the impression that Bihar is the land of milk and honey under your 'raj'.

If this is too much for you, I say resign immediately and let someone else run the show who has some clue on how to generate employment, improve infrastructure, and bring real academic and healthcare changes in Bihar's schools, colleges and hospitals and someone who just not repeats the word 'commitment' as if it was some sort of magic wand. You obviously are not fit for the job.14 people belonging to the same family have been confirmed dead in a gory accident at Anyinam on the Kumasi-Accra Highway.



The fatal crash occurred Thursday evening after a Sprinter Benz Bus attempted to overtake another Benz vehicle but unfortunately crashed into an onrushing cargo car.



Five out of the 14 people who died on the spot were children. The accident occurred around 11 pm Thursday evening.



According to Starr FMs Eastern regional correspondent, the deceased are family members who were travelling from Atewa to Ningo to attend a funeral.



An eyewitness who spoke to Starr News said all the deceased persons have been conveyed to the Roman Hospital.

Source: starnews









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Featured VideoThe Auditor-General on Friday reminded all public office holders of their responsibility to declare their assets and liabilities in accordance with Article 286 of the 1992 Constitution.



This was in a statement signed by Reverend Joseph Kingsley Ghunney, the Director of Public Affairs, Audit Service of Ghana and copied to the Ghana News Agency in Accra.



The statement said public officers are to take notice that the contents of Assets and Liabilities Declaration form shall be verified by the Auditor-General or his representative upon submission.



It said declarants are to submit their declarations in person and are also requested to bring along a nationally accepted identification card such as passport or drivers licence, which bear signature of the declarant to facilitate the verification.

Source: GNA









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

Featured VideoLast Monday in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, the 30th African Union (AU) Summit ended with a call for strengthening the continents resolve and capacity in the fight against corruption and poverty as part of actions towards the early attainment of the unions long-term vision dubbed: Agenda 2063.



Other highlights of the summit included the election of Rwandan President, His Excellency Paul Kagame, as the new Chairman of the union, operation of the Continental Free Trade Area (CFTA) policy to enable the free movement of persons and goods, implementation of the Single African Air Transport Market (SAATM), as well as the launch of a levy on eligible imports policy and many more.



New leader





The election of President Kagame was refreshing, as he has proven to be a capable leader in the transformation of his own country Rwanda from ashes to beauty. He is the leader of the African country of eight million people that was plunged into a chaos of slaughter which left over one million dead.



To his credit, President Kagame has, since he took over after the genocide in his country, provided the leadership that has made it possible for widows, orphans, killers and survivors to find the heart to forgive, recover and rebuild the amazing Rwanda we see today.



Given what he has done with and for his country, I have no doubt in my mind that President Kagame has what it takes to mobilise the AU for the attainment of Agenda 2063 which has been clearly envisioned and spelt out.



He has experience in managing and ending conflicts, poverty, corruption and above all putting in place measures for socio-economic transformation.



His country is the only one in the world where there are more women in the legislature than men.



He must be a master craftsman at gender mainstreaming and re-engineering for development to have achieved such a record in favour of women in the National Assembly.



But that is not all - his leadership has so far delivered, sustainable progress in economic growth, health, education, technology, agriculture, manufacturing, infrastructure, enterprise, etc.



My only concern with Rwanda during my last visit in December 2015 was the feeling that I was in a Police State, from the airport to the hotel and everywhere I went till my departure. But I was assured the presence of armed policemen everywhere was part of the security system required for rebuilding the nation without any disruptions. It will soon be over, I was assured by a Rwandan management academic that I shared my concern with.



New problems



Few hours after the refreshing developments at the AU Summit, opposition National Super Alliance (NASA) Leader, Raila Odinga, presented a hitherto unknown problem in the continents political governance history. Odinga had taken an unofficial oath as the Peoples President of Kenya, compelling incumbent President Uhuru Kenyatta to jet back into the country from his five-day official visit to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where he participated in the AU Summit that saw the election of President Kagame as the new Chairman.



President Kenyatta is reported to have landed at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in style and to an unusual reception that asserted his authority as the Head of State and Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces of Kenya. The message was unequivocal  I am the elected President and I am in charge!



No one knows how the new problem in Kenya will pan out. What I am certain of is that Odingas move is a dangerous one that must not be allowed to stand as precedent on a continent that is already late in the race to development. It must, however, be managed with absolute tact and care so as to avoid destabilising Kenya which is critical for the anticipated peace and development in the entire horn of Africa region.



Capable leadership



New as the Kenyan challenge may be, I am hopeful that appropriate solutions will be found. Kenyans have seen conflict before and they know where this contention can lead their lovely country if it is allowed to get out of hand.



As an incoming Chair of the AU, President Kagame showed a deep appreciation of the African challenge, as well as what it would take to overcome. In his address at the summit, he said: Africas defining challenge is to create a pathway to prosperity for our people; especially the young people, adding that: Elsewhere, this has been achieved through industrialisation. But the growth trajectory that transformed Asia is not necessarily any longer a viable option for Africa, simply because we waited too long. Technology has evolved so rapidly in recent years, that Africas window to follow that strategy is narrowing much more rapidly than previously understood. We are running out of time, and we must act now to save Africa from permanent deprivation.



Well, when you hear such forward-looking statements from a leader with a sense of urgency, it can only boost your confidence in his or her ability to deliver to expectation. It is my hope and prayer that Chairman Kagame will remain focused and dynamic in his leadership of the continent as the challenges keep changing. Yesterdays solutions will not necessarily solve todays problems. Dynamism is required!

Source: Graphic.com









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Featured VideoNinety migrants are feared drowned after a boat capsized off the Libyan coast, says the UN's migration agency.



Three survivors said most of those who drowned were Pakistani nationals. Libyans were also aboard.



Libya has for years been a major transit route for migrants trying to reach southern Europe by sea.



EU countries have wrangled over both reducing migrant numbers and deciding which countries are responsible for processing migrants on arrival.



The EU struck a deal with the Libyan coastguard last year to help intercept migrants and return them to Libya.



But aid agencies and the UN accused European governments of taking an "inhuman" approach.



What happened in the latest disaster?



From a boat carrying more than 90, only three survivors are reported - two of whom managed to swim to shore, while the third was picked up by a fishing boat.



"Ten bodies are reported to have washed up on Libyan shores," the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said in a statement.



Unusually, there were also Libyans among the dead and survivors of the shipwreck, reports the BBC's North Africa correspondent Rana Jawad.



The Facebook page of the security directorate in the coastal city of Zuwara, where the bodies washed up, said a Libyan woman had drowned, but that of the three survivors two were Libyan nationals.



What's unusual about the nationalities of those on board?



The majority of incidents of this kind involve migrants from sub-Saharan Africa.



In this case, most of those on board were Pakistani. The IOM says this is becoming more common.



While Pakistanis were 13th on a list of the number of migrants trying to reach Europe last year by nationality, so far this year they are third, the IOM says.



Perhaps aware of the danger, Libyans rarely attempt the boat journey from their country to southern Europe.



Some cases of illegal Libyan migration were documented last year, but they usually involved sturdier boats that were carrying few people.



Although it is not the first time Libyans have attempted this crossing, this is a rising development that European countries will likely be watching with concern.



The EU's entire strategy to curb illegal migration from Libya onto its southern shores is built on refugees and asylum seekers from countries like Syria, Eritrea and Sudan, as well as the broader swathe of sub-Saharan African countries which generate the most economic migrants.



It's largely been about border controls in the south, as well as getting the Libyan coastguard to intercept more migrants so they can be "voluntarily repatriated" to their countries of origin.



As the uncertainties over the country's future as a functioning state continue to mount, Libyans are getting increasingly desperate. I've been told by a UN special rapporteur for human rights that some of the country's internally displaced people have recently been expressing a desire to make the illegal journey to Italy.



Haven't the numbers of migrants reaching Europe been declining?



Overall this year, the IOM reports that there have been 6,624 arrivals by sea to Europe, compared to 5,983 in the same period of 2017.



So the numbers are comparable but this year's figures still represent a considerable bounce-back following a dramatic fall over the second half of 2017, the IOM told the BBC.



Some of last year's decline can be attributed to the EU's controversial deal with the Libyan coastguard, but the IOM also believes there were difficulties within the people-trafficking industry.



"We think that there was a lot of pent-up demand in terms of migrants being held in warehouses by the smugglers," said the IOM's Joel Millman.



If the channels have been opened again, that might explain the sudden surge which has seen numbers increase again.



What about the European migrant management programmes?



The latest deaths come just after the EU border agency Frontex announced the launch of Operation Themis on Thursday.



Unlike its previous mission, known as Triton, migrants rescued at sea will now be taken to the country that is co-ordinating the rescue, rather than just Italy.



Italy has increasingly vocally complained about a lack of EU solidarity in managing migration. It is also conscious of popular unease ahead of a 4 March national election.



However, as Italy undertakes the vast majority of sea rescues in waters between North Africa and its coast, Themis is unlikely to have more than a token effect on the numbers arriving in the country.











Source: BBC









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Featured VideoThe Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) has read with dismay comments attributed to the First Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Joseph Osei Owusu, suggesting that Parliament does not consider the Right to Information (RTI) Bill as a priority. We are even more saddened and amazed by the Deputy Speakers view that an RTI Law will not change anything as far as citizens right to access public-interest information is concerned.



The Deputy Speaker, who is also the Member of Parliament for Bekwai Constituency, is reported to have made the above comments during an interview on Radio XYZ on January 31, 2018.



The Honourable Joseph Osei Owusu said the right to information is guaranteed by the Constitution and that what the RTI Bill seeks to do is to set limits on this right; it is at this point that there are no limits that you have the widest power to ask for any information, the Deputy Speaker is reported to have said.



We find the Deputy Speakers comments rather unfortunate, misleading and contemptuous of the efforts and opinions of civil society organisations that have led the quest of Ghanaians for an RTI Law over the past one decade.



It is misleading because the RTI Bill does not proceed from the assumption that Ghanaians have unlimited constitutional right to access public information which is supposed to be curtailed by the RTI Law. On the contrary, it seeks to expatiate on the constitutional guarantee by clearly defining the administrative framework and rules of engagement for the exercise of this right. An appropriate analogy is the adoption of the Free Compulsory Universal Basic Education (FCUBE) policy to give practical effect to the right to free basic education guaranteed by the constitution.



The Deputy Speaker is reported to have alluded to the Bus Branding Saga and asserted that persons, especially journalists, who feel that some public-interest information is being withheld from them, should seek a court order. This call betrays a certain elitist attitude that pretends that anyone interested in receiving information from public officials and institutions has the means to go to court. It also reduces such information to a commercial product available to only those who can afford it.



Its not different from any other Bill. As far as Im concerned, its like any other Bill. For me, if you ask me, the more critical Bills that are still pending are the Property Rights of Spouses and the Interstate Succession Bills. These are the things that affect the everyday people, the Deputy Speaker is quoted to have said.



If the above remark is anything to go by, then the Honourable Deputy Speaker considers all the precious time, energy and resources that have gone into RTI advocacy and the efforts that have gone into the drafting of the Bill as a storm in a tea cup. We do not suggest that the other Bills he mentioned are not important. However, we think it is unfortunate for the Deputy Speaker to suggest that they are more urgent and relevant than the RTI Bill, which has been before Parliament for several years now.



Was this the Deputy Speakers opinion when his party, the New Patriotic Party was promising in their manifesto to pass the RTI Bill into law if the previous Parliament delayed in passing it? Was this his opinion when Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia promised, exactly a year ago, that the NPP government will pass the RTI Bill before the end of 2017?



Is it not a sad irony that while the President was committing himself to collaborate with Parliament to speed up the process of passing of the RTI Bill, the Deputy Speaker of Parliament, who wields considerable influence in the House, was habouring a different agenda on the matter?



The MFWA believes, like the President and his Vice, that the RTI Law will help ensure greater transparency and accountability in the management of public resources and delivery of public services. It is an indispensable tool in the fight against corruption, as evidenced in the Bus Branding Saga. And contrary to the MPs assertion, an RTI Law would have saved Occupy Ghana the time and legal fees they spent to obtain the necessary information regarding the Bus Branding contract.



We therefore wish to reiterate our recent call on the government to fulfill its promise of passing the RTI Bill into Law as part of its efforts at ensuring transparent governance and fighting corruption.

Source: MFWA









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

Featured VideoMinority members on the ad hoc committee tasked by parliament to investigate the infamous cash-for-seat saga have released their report citing Ashim Morton, President of the Millennium Excellence Foundation, for forgery.



According to the two-member Minority side of the five-member committee, There is evidence on record to the effect that in its initial conception, the event had the President of the Republic as the centre of attraction and that payment for seats bore a direct relationship to the distance of the payors seat from the presidential high table. Furthermore, the evidence shows clearly that Mr. Ashim Morton forged documents in a desperate attempt to cover up this blatant fact.



Mr Morton had told the committee that the use of teh word president in the $100,000 offer made to expatriates for a reserved seat at the presidents table, was in reference to him as president of the foundation which organised the event and not President Nana Akufo-Addo.



However, the Minority said Mr Mortons claims are false.



This was contained in a report sighted by ClassFMonline.com authored by James Klutse Avedzi and Dr Dominic Akuritinga Ayine, the two Minority members on the committee.



The Minority further accused the ministry of wrongdoing and pointed out that the MoTI contravened existing laws on public financial management, particularly the Financial Administration Regulations, by allowing the use of an existing account for the receipt of monies that it claimed were private funds.



They also accused the ministry of serious ethical violations by allowing its credibility as a public agency to be used to amass profit for a private non-profit organisation.



Below is the detail of the minority report:



REPORT OF THE SPECIAL COMMITTEE TO INVESTIGATE MATTERS RELATING TO THE GHANA EXPATRIATES BUSINESS AWARDS



MINORITY REPORT



REPORT OF THE SPECIAL COMMITTEE TO INVESTIGATE MATTERS RELATING TO THE GHANA EXPATRIATES BUSINESS AWARDS



MINORITY REPORT



I. INTRODUCTION



On January 5, 2018, this Honourable House debated a motion filed by the Honourable Member for Asawase, Hon. Muhammed-Muntaka Mubarak. The motion requested that this Honourable House investigates the levy and collection of various sums of money in United States of America Dollars from the expatriate business community during the Ghana Expatriate Business Awards held on December 4, 2017. Having debated the motion and taking into account the general mood of the House and the need to avoid what Mr. Speaker rightly called a praetorian political society, a Special Committee of Parliament was established pursuant to article 112(3) of the Constitution and Order 38 of the Standing Orders of Parliament.



The Committee comprised three Members of the Majority and two Members of the Minority as follows:



1. Mr. Kwasi Ameyaw-Cheremeh (Sunyani East)Chairman;

2. Dr. Mark Assibey-Yeboah (New Juaben South)Member;

3. Mr. Yaw Buaben Asamoa (Adentan)Member;

4. Mr. James Klutse Avedzi (Ketu North)Member; and

5. Dr. Dominic Akuritinga Ayine (Bolga East)Member.



In accordance with Order 198(1) of the Standing Orders of Parliament, the Clerk-to-Parliament appointed the following staff of Parliament to assist the Committee in the execution of its assigned task:

1. Mrs. Rosemary Arthur Sarkodie- Clerk to the Committee

2. Mr. Louis Boakye- Assistant Clerk to the Committee



Staff of the Hansard Department were coopted to provide assistance to the Secretariat of the Committee with respect to the recording and transcription of proceedings.



At the direction of Mr. Speaker, the Committee was tasked with the following Terms of Reference:



i. To investigate the alleged levy and collection of sums of money by the Ministry of Trade and Industry from expatriate businesses during the recently held Ghana Expatriate Business Awards in Accra;

ii. To inquire whether any payments were made and received and, if so, how disbursements was effected and whether such disbursement offended any law;

iii. To investigate any relevant related matters;

iiii. To recommend appropriate measures aimed at redressing violations, if any, that may have occurred and the prevention of such violations; and

v. To produce a report for the attention of Parliament on the 24th day of January, 2018.





II. BACKGROUND



At an Emergency Sitting of Parliament held on Friday 5th January, 2018 pursuant to article 112(3) of the 1992 Constitution and Order 38 (1) of the Standing Orders of the House, the Hon. Minority Chief Whip and Member of Parliament for the Asawase Constituency, Alhaji Muhammed-Mubarak Muntaka moved a motion in the following terms:

That this Honourable House investigates the levy and collection by the Ministry of Trade and Industry of the Ghana Cedi equivalent of various sums of money in United States of America Dollars, from expatriate businesses and related matters during the recently held Ghana Expatriate Business Awards (GEBA) in Accra.

In moving the Motion, the Honourable Members alleged that people had to pay money to sit close to the President and expressed worry over same. He also stated that he had a document which stated that the moneys had to be paid.

Indeed, he stated, among other things, as follows:

Mr. Speaker, I said that it was very worrying not only for me but many Ghanaians, both home and abroad, to wake up to the news that it was possible in our country Ghana today that sitting in proximity to the President cost money.

Mr. Speaker, the document available to me, which I am ready to tender in, says: Meeting of 23rd October 2017. It was signed by my Hon Colleague, Mr. Carlos Ahenkorah.

Mr. Speaker, that document clearly states that these sums of money, ranging from US$15,000 to US$100,000, would have to be paid 

Mr. Speaker, the sum had to be paid for attendees to have access to sit in proximity to the President.

He took the view that the allegation, to him, raised serious ethical issues if they were to be established and proven. On this he stated:

Mr. Speaker, this is a very worrying situation. For me, if it is established and proven, it could be a very difficult ethical issue for us as a country.

Mr. Speaker, it is unethical to even imagine such a thing would happen. So, even if it is proven, it would be a very interesting one

The Honourable Member referred the House to article 175 of the 1992 Constitution, the Public Financial Management Act, 2016 (Act 921) and the Financial Administration Regulations 2004 (L.I.1802). He referred specifically to Regulations 16 to 18 of L.I. 1802, and Section 7 of Act 921 and maintained that, in accordance with the statute and the Regulations, the sums of money collected by the Ministry of Trade and Industry from the expatriate businesses constituted public resources.



Hon. Muntaka further alleged that the Ministry of Trade denied the issue and Industry (MOTI) when it was first raised at the Parliamentary Committee on Trade, Industry, and Tourism and also on the 15th December 2017 on the floor of Parliament. He further alleged that On the 17th of December, 2017 the Ministry issued a statement; paragraph 5 of that statement categorically stated that the Ministry of Trade and Industry had nothing to do with resource mobilisation.

He said there was, however, a subsequent interview on Joy FM with him and Hon. Carlos Ahenkorah in which the latter admitted that the Ministry had collected monies but every pesewa from that money they collected was transferred to the Millennium Excellence Foundation.



Hon. Muntaka further stated: Mr. Speaker, on 21st December 2017 there was another statement from the Ministry of Trade and Industry that they did not have anything to do with resource mobilization. However, they moved from that denial to acceptance that they collected GH2.6 million and they spent GH2.3 million. To him, the said statement of 21st December 2017 had admitted that official receipts were issued for the monies collected and that meant that once they issue official receipts, these become part of our public resources. So, in spending it, they had to go through the laid down structure for spending. Mr. Speaker, all these were not done.



According to the Honourable Member for the Asawase, he was most worried that the 21st December 2017 Statement had said that the Presidency had nothing to do with what happened as he felt that position was inconsistent with a 17th December 2017 press release by the Ministry on the matter.

He finally called for a public inquiry into the matter. He delivered himself thus:

Mr. Speaker, in conclusion, let me say, it is important that these matters are properly investigated. This should be done in the public view to create the necessary image. Once again, Parliament has the biggest opportunity to prove to the people of this country that as a House, we would do what is right to establish, if there is any doubt, how finances are used in this country.

In seconding the Motion, the Honourable Member of Parliament for North Tongu, Mr. Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa thanked the Rt. Hon. Speaker for the opportunity to second the Motion and expressed the conviction that the matter was one which satisfied the requirements of the law for the establishment of a Committee to investigate it. He stated, inter alia, that:

Mr. Speaker, this is a matter that I am convinced satisfies the requirement in article 103(1) and (3) of the Constitution of Ghana, and if I may quote with your permission;

(1) Parliament shall appoint standing committees and other committees as may be necessary for the effective discharge of its functions.

Clause 3 says;

(3) Committees of Parliament shall be charged with such functions, including the investigation and inquiry into the activities and administration of ministries and departments as Parliament may determine; and such investigation and inquiries may extend to proposals for legislation.

The Honourable Member was convinced that the Motion satisfies Standing Order 191, which is to the effect that: The House may at any time by motion appoint Special or Ad Hoc Committee to investigate any matter of public importance The Honourable Member was also convinced that this cash-for-seats scandal, which had engaged the nations attention met the criteria of public importance as outlined by Erskine May in his Parliamentary Practice Book.



He stated further that leading anti-corruption crusaders like Ghana Integrity Initiative, which is the local chapter of Transparency International, Mr. P.C. Appiah-Ofori, Honourable Kennedy Agyapong and Dr. Kojo Asante of the Centre for Democratic Development (CDD) had called for an inquiry into what was being referred to as cash-for-seats scandal. He expressed optimism that it was a matter that the House has a locus and which also falls very much within its purview. He informed the House further that:

The Presidency attempted earlier to investigate this matter per a statement issued on 21st December, 2017, but clearly, this would have been the Presidency becoming a judge in their own court (sic), and it would not generate the confidence that we need to delve into these matters.

He alleged that there had been so many inconsistencies relating to the matter and prayed the House to set up a Committee to look into the matter. He stated further that in the opinion of the Minority several laws have been breached. He stated thus:

Mr. Speaker I wish to submit that in our opinion, several sections of the Public Financial Management Act have been breached, as well as the Financial Administration Regulations, and article 284 of the Constitution of Ghana. That is why I second the Motion which has been ably moved by the Hon Muntaka.

In contributing to the debate on the Motion, the Honourable Minority Leader, Mr. Haruna Iddrisu, stated that the matter was of public importance and called on the Rt. Hon. Speaker to set up a Committee of Five Members to investigate the matter pursuant to Order 191 of the Standing Orders of the House. He stated thus:

Mr Speaker, undoubtedly, this is a matter of public interest and importance, that the highest office of the land was engaged in some transaction to which there are questions relating to payments of certain amounts of money, ranging from US$75,000.00 to US$100,000.00, whether a person was seated on the right hand side or the left hand side of the President, which is the highest office of the land.

Mr. Speaker, for us to set up an Ad hoc Committee, I believe, pursuant to Order 191, it should be a Committee of five (5) members.

Also contributing to the Motion, the Honourable Majority Leader, Mr. Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu affirmed Parliaments responsibility to oversee Executive performance and stated that; So, if anything untoward happens, it should be within the remit of Parliament to investigate any infractions. He however indicated that: Mr. Speaker, ordinarily, a Motion relating to extortion of funds, as it has been put out there, must be supported. Except that, I believe that in this particular instance, the resort by Hon Colleagues amounts to a gross abuse of the process of the House.



Whilst agreeing in principle that Parliament could investigate matters within the realm of the executive branch of Government, he took issue with the competence of the Motion and the Memorandum requesting the Speaker to summon the House under article 112(3) and called for the correction of the Motion.





III. APPROACH TO THE ASSIGNMENT



The Committee held its first meeting on Monday, 8th January, 2018 to determine the modalities and procedure for regulating its deliberations and executing its mandate. The Committee was particularly mindful of Order 197, which states among others, that:

The deliberations of the Committee shall be confined to the matter referred to it by the House and any extensions or limitations to it made by the House.

However, for transparency, openness, and integrity of the deliberations and processes, the Committee decided to hold all its sittings in public but reserved the right to take evidence in-camera should the circumstances and public interest so dictate.

For purposes of its public sittings, the Committee identified the following key witnesses:

i. Proponent of the Motion - Hon. Alhaji Muhammed-Mubarak Muntaka;

ii. Seconder of the Motion  Hon. Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa;

iii. The Ministry of Trade and Industry;

iiii. The Millennium Excellence Foundation (MEF);

v. Representatives of the Expatriate Businesses; and

vi. The Controller and Accountant-General

The Committees sittings were generally held in public and were covered live on TV and Radio stations. However, at the request of the expatiate business, the evidence of their representatives was taken in-camera.

The Committee received documents from the various witnesses who appeared before it and also took oral evidence from the witnesses by examining them on oath, affirmation or otherwise. Thus, in investigating the matter, the Committee examined the following:

 Audio recordings and transcripts of interviews granted by witnesses;

 Material evidence in relevant media publications; and

 Written and oral submissions/evidence adduced witnesses

A total of fourteen (14) witnesses appeared and provided evidence, out of which five (5) were examined in public and nine (9) in-camera. All these Witnesses were examined on oath and had the opportunity to be legally represented. They were given the opportunity to correct the transcript of the hearings involving each witness.

The public evidence sessions of the Committee were held on 11th, 12th and 15th and 25th January, 2018 to which the media and the general public were invited. The witnesses that appeared during these hearing included the under-listed:

i. Hon. Alhaji Muhammed-Mubarak Muntaka  MP for Asawase;

ii. Hon. Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa- MP for North Tongu;

iii. Hon. Alan John Kwadwo Kyerematen- Minister for Trade and Industry;

iiii. Ambassador James Victor Gbeho- Chairman, Millennium Excellence Foundation;

v. Ambassador Ashim Morton- President, Millennium Excellence Foundation; and

vi. Mr. Eugene Asante Ofosuhene  Controller and Accountant General.

The Committee also sat in-camera on the 23rd January 2018 and took evidence from representatives of the under-listed expatriate businesses:

1. Gopal Vasu-MD, M&G Pharmaceutical

2. Joe Mensah-CEO, Kosmos

3. Salem Kalmoni-MD, Japan Motors

4. S. Ramella-MD, Consar Ltd

5. Mukey Thakwani-MD, B5 Plus

6. Amar Deep S. Hari-CEO, IPMC

7. Saeed Fakhry-Interplast

8. Roshi Motman- Airtel-tigo

The Committee further received written submissions from the following expatriate buninesses who were unable to appear before the Committee due to prescheduled assignments or the absence of the respective CEO from the juridisction. :

1) Unilever Ghana Limited

2) Zenith Bank (Ghana) Ltd

3) Aviance Ghana Limited

4) Melcom Group of Companies

5) Barry Callebaut

6) De Simone Ltd.

7) Mohinani Group

8) Queiroz Galvao

9) Sunon Asogli Power

10) M & K Ghana Ltd.

11) Amandi Ltd.

12) Geodrill Ltd.



IIII. REASONS FOR FILING OF MINORITY REPORT



The Minority Members of the Committee participated diligently in the deliberations of the Committee but decided to file a separate report in dissent. This decision was not taken either lightly or in haste. First of all, at the conclusion of deliberations, it became patently clear that the Majority Members of the Committee had made up their minds about the issues of fact and the conclusions to be drawn from the evidence adduced before the Committee. As would be made clear in the remainder of this Report, some of the findings made and conclusions drawn by the Majority Report come nowhere close to a vraissemblance of reality. These findings and conclusions were against the overall weight of the evidence placed before the Committee. Indeed, as a tribunal of fact, the Committee had a responsibility not only to Parliament but to the entire people of Ghana to ensure that whatever it put out was absolutely consistent with the facts on record. The Majority, in our view, deviated from this responsibility in many respects by its interpretation of the facts.



Secondly, the Majority Report glosses over a number of critical ethical and legal issues raised by not only the proponent of the Motion but also by the Committee itself during the course of its deliberations. Some of these legal and ethical matters were also discussed widely within the public sphere a consequence of the wide media coverage that the sittings of the Committee received. Matters such as the possible forgery of documents designed to deceive the Committee, possible violations of foreign corrupt practice legislation and international conventions by the involvement of the foreign businesses in this scheme and fraudulent misrepresentations relating to the benefits of the awards scheme have all been glossed over by the Majority. As part of its mandate to investigate related relevant matters, the least the Committee could have done in this regard, would have been to examine these matters and to objectively explain why they are either not related or relevant. We deem this not to be in consonance with the constitutional mandate of parliamentary committees as watchdogs over the affairs of ministries, departments and agencies of state.



V. PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS



The first observation we wish to make in this Report is that the work of the Special Committee has generated a lot of public interest. But, as Lord Denning MR (as he then was) once said, it is not everything that is interesting to the public that is in the public interest. However, the matter under consideration in this Report is exceptional in the sense that it is both interesting to the public and is in the public interest. The matter under investigation generated so much interest in media circles but we believe that that is not the reason why Mr. Speaker set up the Special Committee to investigate it; we believe that the fundamental reason for the establishment of the Special Committee is that the findings and recommendations of the Committee would inure to the benefit of the people of Ghana as a whole. That is the definition of the public interest under article 295 of the Constitution.



Secondly, it has been said of this matter that Parliament should have stayed its hand once the President of the Republic had indicated, through a letter issued by the Minister of Information (Exhibit OK..), that there was no wrongdoing on the part of the Honourable Minister of Trade and Industry. Whilst that may be true of matters that are within the exclusive preserve of executive power, in matters that border generally on the public interest such as this one, it would be extremely derelict on the part of Parliament to stay its hand. This is most especially the case where the possibility exists that the executive branch may be engaged in some manner of self-dealing. In this particular case, we strongly believe that there is a justifiable case for parliamentary intervention given the surrounding circumstances.



Thirdly, there is sufficient evidence on record to show that the involvement of the Ministry of Trade and Industry in the organization of the first Ghana Expatriate Business Awards was borne out of a desire to lend credibility to the event. Notwithstanding the claims of a great track record in the organization of such events by the Foundation, we have serious doubts as to whether the Foundation, on its own, would have been able to convince the expatriate business owners to part with significant sums of money for this event. Indeed, as the findings of fact on record would show, some businesses expressed reservations regarding the role of the Foundation. The chief executive officer of a major steel manufacturing company informed the Committee in his evidence that the most important aspect was that the money would go to a government body. The same chief executive had earlier informed the Committee that he had run checks on the Foundation just to be sure how genuine they were.



Furthermore, it is important to underscore the fact that during the hearing, much was made of the fact that this was a novel partnership between a private sector entity (the Foundation) and the Ministry of Trade and Industry to develop a scheme for the recognition and reward of the expatriate business community in this country. And it is indeed a laudable idea. But having said that, it is significant to note that partnership has implications with respect to rights and responsibilities. A core principle of partnership law is that partners come in pairs when it comes to issues of liability; partners are jointly and severally liable for the acts of the partnership. In consequence, the attempt by the Ministry to distance itself from the actions of the so-called organizers of the event is inconsequential. In other words, the Ministry cannot run away from the matters arising out of or in connection with the organization of the Ghana Expatriate Business Awards, especially as they relate to the so-called sponsorship package that placed the President of the Republic at the center of the event. In the context of the relationship that it forged with the Foundation through the execution of a Memorandum of Understanding (Exhibit MEF4), the Ministry cannot turn around and deny responsibility for its role in the design of the entire scheme.



Consequently, the central issue is whether the Ghana Expatriates Business Awards was conceived, designed and executed with a view to raising funds using the President of the Republic as the center of attraction for the businesses that opted to provide sponsorship. As would be made clear in the part of this Report dealing with the issue of payments and receipts, there is incontrovertible evidence on record that the intent and purport of the so-called sponsorship package, which was sent out to the expatriate business enterprises with the tacit support or approval of the Ministry of Trade and Industry, was to tie payment values to the distance of the payor from where the President of the Republic, as opposed to the so-called President of the Foundation, was seated. However, the question whether and the extent to which the President knew about this arrangement is disputable. In other words, there isnt sufficient evidence on record to conclusively state that the President was aware of the arrangement.



VI. FINDINGS OF FACTS AND ANALYSIS



As stated above, the Committee held both public and in-camera hearings involving scores of witnesses and reviewed documents tendered in evidence by them. The primary objective of that exercise was to make findings of fact in support or disavowal of the allegations made against the conduct of the Ministry of Trade and Industry and the Foundation in this matter. In conducting the hearings, the Committee was mindful of its obligation of fidelity to the terms of reference handed to it by the leadership of this Honourable House through the directive of the Rt. Honourable Speaker. The first task of the Committee is inquire into whether, as a matter of fact, as opposed to law, there was a levy and collection of various sums of money by the Ministry of Trade and Industry. The second task involves making findings of fact with respects to payments to and disbursements made by the Ministry of Trade and Industry and whether such disbursement offended any law. The third leg of the work of the Committee involves an investigation into relevant related matters. That is, matters connected to and arising directly out of the two previous terms of reference. And finally, the Committee is tasked with making appropriate recommendations for redress and for the prevention of future occurrence of any violations of the law.



a. Levy and Collection of Sums of Money by the Ministry of Trade



In moving the motion for the establishment of the Committee, CW1 urged this Honourable House to investigate the levy and collection of various sums of money from expatriate businesses and related matters. The Committee took pains to understand what exactly the proponent of the motion meant by the phrase levy and collection of sums of money.



As a result, when CW1 appeared before the Committee he was asked to explain what he meant by the term levy. In his testimony before the Committee, he explained that he had used the term levy in a generic sense and that he took its meaning from Collins Dictionary which defined it as a sum of money that you have to pay. He further explained that he had contemplated the possibility of the Ministry of Trade and Industry asserting a right to under law to collect the sums of money that it did from the expatriate businesses and that he used the phrase levy and collection to encapsulate every possible thought. Pressed further on this point by Members of the Committee, CW1 would seem to have abandoned his position on the use of the term levy and rather placed reliance on the use of the word collection.



It is however important to point out that the starting point of the Committees inquiry was the legal-technical meaning of the word levy. This comes out most poignantly in the following exchange between CW1 and the Honourable Member for New Juaben South:



Dr. Assibey-Yeboah:Mr. Chairman, first, he gave use a definition of levy that it is a sum of money that has to be paid. My Wikipedia definition of levy is that it is a tax, fee or fine. In the context of our Ghanaian legislation.what is his understanding of levy as used in his Motion?

Alhaji Muntaka:Mr. Chairman, like I said earlier, my use of levy in my Motion was to make it broad enough to convey (sic) every possible area, so that in moving the motion, I would not have been shut down

Dr. Assibey-Yeboah:So per you're your understanding, the activities of the even organizers and the facilitation role of the Ministry in raising money falls within the scope of a levy.

Alhaji Muntaka:That is not the only terminology I used there. I also used collection. So, to be fair to me, I can say that all that I knew were collections. I said that to make my Motion broad enough, I decided to add levy.



Subsequently, CW1 added that for the avoidance of doubt, he had not said anywhere that the Ministry had imposed a levy because the Ministry does not have the power to do so and that it is only Parliament that has the power to impose levies. Clearly, this last statement was a reaction to the query to justify the legal-technical definition of the word levy, which informed the line of questioning of the Committee and the witness caved in to the pressure to justify his motion from a purely legal-technical standpoint. As a tribunal of fact, the Committee cannot put itself in the position of an inquisitor but must act as a neutral third party committed to making impartial determinations of matters of fact. The foregoing exchange is more argumentative than factual and does not really assist in making objective findings of fact.



Both the Honourable Minister of Trade and Industry (CW4) and the Controller and Accountant-General (CW5) confirmed the legal-technical conception of the term levy which informed the line of questioning of the Committee. In his testimony before the Committee, CW4 stated that a levy is a tax, fee or fine imposed, charged and collected by compulsion or legal authority. He asserted that in relation to the Ghana Expatriate Business Awards, the sponsorship consisted of voluntary contributions by individuals towards the organization of the event and therefore the Ministry of Trade and Industry could not have been said to impose a levy. On his part, CW5 also flatly rejected any suggestion that the sums of money paid into the account of the Ministry of Trade and Industry could qualify as levies.



These assertions notwithstanding, an objective assessment of the evidence on record reveals that the Ministry of Trade and Industry played a key role in getting the expatriate businesses to pay the sponsorship fees requested by its private sector partner- the Foundation. In other words, whilst there may not be a law imposing the amount to be paid, the element of compulsion may still be lurking in the background due to the pre-eminent role of the Ministry in the entire scheme of things. It must be said that during the hearings of the Committee, none of the expatriate business executives who attended upon the Committee admitted to having been compelled to pay money. But we don't think that any Member of the Committee expected a rational businessman or woman operating in Ghana to make an admission that they had been forced to pay money towards an event openly supported by the Government.



Thus, whilst the proponent of the motion could not justify his use of the word levy from a legal-technical point of view, it cannot be denied that, from the evidence on record, the Ministry of Trade and Industry played a pre-eminent role in the determination of the amounts solicited by the MEF. In short, the manner in which the sponsorship package was designed and executed conforms to CW1s conception of a levy as money that you have to pay. The pre-determined sums of money were paid with the backing of the Ministry of Trade and Industry, the agency with oversight responsibility for the business sector of the economy.



Before the Committee, there was no controversy with respect to the issue of collection of the sums of money to be paid to the Ministry of Trade and Industry by the expatriate businesses. The evidence on record shows that the Ministry had undertaken, as part of its obligations under the MoU (Exhibit) to serve as the collection point of payments. Indeed, all payments were made to Room 308 at the Ministry and subsequently into a designated account of the Ministry.



CW1 had informed the Committee that he used the word collection as an alternative or as an addition to the word levy. In this view, the word and in the phrase levy and collection must be read as disjunctive and not conjunctive. This would also mean that, in essence, there could have been collection of sums of money without the imposition of a levy both in the sense in which he understood the term or in the legal-technical sense proffered by both CW3 and CW5. However, we take the view that the more appropriate position is that the two words are interdependent in that the levy precedes the collection. As noted above, the evidence on record supports the conclusion that the payment for seats was an inherent part of the sponsorship package designed with and agreed to by the Ministry of Trade and Industry. That being the case, the expatriate businesses had to pay money ranging between USD15,000.00 and USD100,00.00 to a designated officer of the Ministry of Trade and Industry and into a designated account of the same Ministry depending on their choice of package.



Finally, on the issue of levy and collection, if the Committee accepts the position put forward by the CW3 and CW5, then the burden shifts on to them to provide the legal justification for the collection of the various sums of money. For, if it is not a levy as they claimed before the Committee because, in the words of CW3, it is not collected by compulsion or legal authority, then there must be some other legal basis for the collection of the various sums of money by a public agency such as the Ministry of Trade and Industry. We will deal with this aspect in the next section of the Report dealing with payments and disbursements.



b. Payments and Disbursements



The most contentious issue before the Committee was the issue of payment and disbursements. In the public discussion prior to the establishment of the Committee, evidence of which was placed before the Committee, the critical issue related to who paid and how much was paid and whether the payments made had anything to do with where the payor sat in terms of proximity to the so-called Presidential High Table and to the benefits enumerated in the sponsorship package such as an exclusive dinner with the President at a later date.



In his evidence before the Committee, CWI had asserted that information available to him indicated that certain expatriate businesses had paid sums up to USD100,000.00 to attend the Ghana Expatriates Business Awards and he sought to bring this to the attention of the Ministry when its officials appeared before the Parliamentary Committee on Trade, Industry and Tourism. However, both the Deputy Minister who attended the Trade Committee meeting and the Chief Director expressed surprise about this information. In the course of time, another Deputy Minister, Hon. Carlos Kingsley Ahenkorah, admitted that payments had been made to the Ministry by the expatriate businesses but that the entire amount realized from these payments had been disbursed to the MEF. This was corroborated by CW2 when he appeared before the Committee.



According to CW1, the Ministry of Trade and Industry subsequently released a more detailed statement in which it claimed that it had, in collaboration with MEF audited the account for the event and can confirm that an amount of Ghc 2,667,215.00 was raised against an expenditure of Ghc2,367,426.06. In that statement, the Ministry also indicated that it had agreed with MEF that a portion of the funds realized from the event in excess of expenditure be retained by the Ministry to fund the organization of the next event.



This was confirmed by CW3 when he appeared before the Committee. He provided the Committee with documents evidencing the payments as well as the disbursements made out of the designated account numbered 1112001498401 with the National Investment Bank (NIB). The following two tables show the payments and the expenditures made:



Table 1: Exhibit MOTI 3- Ghana Expatriate Business Awards Receipts





NO.



DATE



CHEQUE NO.



NAME OF COMPANY



MOTI RECEIPT NO.



AMOUNT (GH)



1.



14-11-2017



000246



AVIANCE GH. LTD USD 15000



14/0190501



66,000.00



2.



14-11-2017



000014



ALLIANZ LIFE INSURANCE



14/0190502



20,000.00



3.



14-11-2017



095360



CANWEST LTD



14/0190503



15,000.00



4.



16-11-2017



888342



M. BARBISOTI & SONS LTD USD

15,000



14/0190504



66,000.00



5.



20-11-2017



005036



C. WOERMANN (GH)



14/0190505



65,850.00



6.



20-11-2017



000412



CHENSHIN CO.LTD



14/0190506



66,000.00



7.



20-11-2017



005542



AMANDI INVESTMENT LTD



14/0190508



66,000.00



8.



22-11-2017



201090





M&G PHARMACEUTICAL LTD



14/0190510



15,000.00



9.



22-11-2017



000422



NIIT



14/0190509



44,000.00



10.



22-11-2017



161225



SUNON ASOGLI POWER (GH LTD)



14/0190511



176, 108.00





11.



23-11-17



008015



GEODRILL GHANA LIMITED



14/0190512



110,250.00



12.



24-11-2017



005675



B5 PLUS LTD



14/0190513



110,000.00



13.



24-11-2017



005676



B5 PLUS LTD



14/0190513



110,000.00



14.



24-11-2017



485085



MELCOM LTD



14/0190516



110,145.00



15.



24-11-2017



CASH



CORAL PAINT USD 25,000



14/0190514



109,750.00



16.



24-11-2017



781244



HFC BANK GHANA LTD



14/0190519



88,072.00



17.



24-11-2017



DIRECT



ZENITH BANK GH LIMITED



14/0190528



330,270.00



18.



27-11-2017



DIRECT



UNILEVER GH



14/0190529



227,500.00



19.



27-11-2017



000210



KEY ARCHITECTURAL CO.LTD



14/0190518



22,000.00





20.



28-11-2017



000215



QUIEROZ GALVAO



14/0190520



66,750.00



21.



12-04-2017



432672



KOSMOS ENERGY



14/0190521



109,250.00

22.







000473



BARRY CALLEBAUT GH LTD USD 15,000



14/0190523



65,850.00



23.



12-05-2017



161382



JAPAN MOTORS USD 3,000



14/0190524



13,170.00



24.



12-05-2017



428570



INTERPLAST LTD



14/0190525



440,000.00



25.



12-12-2017



000037



CONSAR LTD USD 25,000



14/0190526



109,750.00



26.



14-12-2017



009744



DESIMONE LIMITED



14/0190527



44,500.00











TOTAL





2,667,215.00















Table 2: Exhibit MOTI 4- Ghana Expatriate Business Awards Expenditure





NO.



DATE



NAME OF PAYEE



CHEQUE NO.



AMOUNT(GH)



1.



17-11-2017



GRAPHIC COMMUNICATION



00098



6,307.53



2.



20-11-2017



CHIEF DIRECTOR & GRA



00100 & 000110



18,000.00



3.



20-11-2017



CHIEF DIRECTOR & GRA



00102 & 000108



13,500.00



4.



27-11-2017



GRAPHIC COMMICATIONS GROUO LTD





00114





12,615.00



5.



27-11-2017



CHIEF DIRECTOR



00113



3,000.00



6.



24-11-2017



MILLENIUM EXCELLENCE FOUNDATION





000112





484,265.31



7.



12-06-2017



MILLENIUM EXCELLENCE FOUNDATION



000115



57,758.20



8.



12-06-2017



CHIEF DIRECTOR



000116



10,000.00



9.



12-06-2017



STONE LODGE



000117



6,289.10



10.



12-06-2017



GHANA REVENUE AUTHORITY



000119



428.80



11.



12-06-2017



MILLENIUM EXCELLENCE FOUNDATION



000120



23,889.00



12.



12-06-2017



MILLENIUM EXCELLENCE FOUNDATION



000121



86,673.12



13.



12-06-2017



MOTI DEST INSP SCHEME



000122



40,000.00



14.



13-12-2017





MILLENIUM EXCELLENCE FOUNDAT6ION



000124



1,604,700.00









TOTAL







2,367,426.06





According the evidence of CW3, a total amount of Two Million, Six Hundred and Sixty-Seven Thousand, Two Hundred and Fifteen Ghana Cedis (Ghc2,667,215.00) was paid by the expatriate businesses as shown in Table 1 above. Out of this amount, Two Million, Three Hundred and Sixty-Seven Thousand, Four Hundred and Twenty-Six Ghana Cedis and Six Pesewas (Ghc2,367,426.06) was paid out to the MEF as shown in Table 2 above. CW3 maintained in his evidence before the Committee that the Ministry of Trade and Industry retained 10% of the total amount for expenses on agreed future activities.



As shown in Table 1 above, the payments made were fairly consistent with the sponsorship package designed by the MEF with the approval of the Ministry of Trade and Industry. These ranged between USD15,000 (e.g. Aviance Ghana Ltd) and USD75,000.00 (e.g. Zenith Bank). From the evidence adduced by the expatriate businesses that appeared before the Committee, some businesses which paid less than the minimum amount stipulated in the package actually negotiated those sums with the MEF before making payment inconsistent with the design of the sponsorship package (e.g. Japan Motors). In other words, a deviation from the standard package put together by MEF with the approval of the Ministry of Trade and Industry had to be negotiated.



In the course of the Committees hearings, both CW3 and CW4 (Mr. Ashim Morton) stressed the fact that there were companies that attended without making a payment. According to them, what this meant was that participation in the event was never tied to any payment for a seat. Of course, in light of the evidence provided the Committee, the organizers expected a high patronage by inviting close to 450 expatriate businesses. However, if the evidence of payment is to be believed, then it means that just a small number of companies responded positively with respect to the payment for seats. Thus whatever amount was realized from the sale of seats was used to subsidize the participation of those who either could not afford to pay or could have paid but refused to do so for reasons best known to them.



As noted above, the critical issue before the Committee was whether the payments made were in anyway related to where a person sat relative to the distance from the table where the President of the Republic was seated. Both CW3 and CW4 vehemently denied before the Committee that this was the case. CW3 actually informed the Committee that he had issued instructions to MEF and for that matter CW4 not to sell any seats on the presidential high table. In his evidence before the Committee, CW4 actually repeated this instruction to the Committee as if its mere repetition attracted believability. The credulity of the statement is enormous for at least two reasons. First, if the issue of sale of seats close to the President of the Republic had been such a big deal to the GEBA partners as they described themselves, they would have written it into the MoU so as to make it legally binding. Secondly, having failed to reflect it in the MoU, CW3 should have communicated in writing to CW4 so as to make it objectively verifiable. Repeating the statement ad nauseam after the controversy broke seems more like an ex post facto rationalization.



Moreover, the purported instruction runs against the grain of the evidence before the Committee for a number of reasons. The first is that the President was put at the center of the entire scheme; he was the incentive for the price tag on the seats. The evidence of this is as follows: the MoU imposed a legally binding obligation on the Ministry of Trade and Industry to ensure the presence of the President at this and other future Ghana Expatriate Business Awards; the entire program was advertised as being under the auspices (i.e., patronage, supervision, guidance etc.) of the President of the Republic and was postponed several times so as to accommodate his schedule; the seating design was done in concentric circles with the presidential circle attracting the highest price-tag. The second reason why this claim runs against the weight of the evidence is that, when the matter became one of public concern, CW4 quickly claimed that he was the one being referred to in the documents as the President on whose table guests were to be seated if they paid USD100,000.00.



Besides brazenly making this rather ludicrous claim publicly at a news conference, CW4 repeated it before the Committee and was then confronted with documents showing that he had tried to change his designation from Chairman of MEF to President of MEF in order to be able to validate this claim. In Exhibit MOTI 6, which is a letter written to inform the Ministry of Trade and Industry about the proposed Ghana Expatriate Business Awards, CW4 is described as President. However, though properly dated and signed with slightly different signature, Exhibit MOTI 6 contained no evidence that it had been received by the Ministry. So, when the Committee noticed this fact and requested for the original and it was brought, it showed that it had been received on April 26, 2017 and stamped with the official seal of the Ministry of Trade and Industry. On this original letter, CW4 is described as Founder/Chairman. In other words, Exhibit MOTI 6 was forged with a view to deceiving the Committee that the correct designation of CW3 was President and not Founder/Chairman as in the original. CW4 however put up a brave defense and insisted that his position as Chairman changed in July 2017 to President. Exhibit MOTI 6 nailed that defense in the coffin.



The third reason why the claim that reference in the sponsorship package to the presidential high table is not a reference to the President of the MEF is that, in a desperate attempt to counteract the allegation that the price tag of seats was tied to how far one sat from the President of the Republic, CW4 quickly redesigned the sponsorship package and took out the ministerial circle, the next area of seating to that of the President of the Republic. This, we believe, was done in response to the evidence of CW1 and CW2 in relation to the issue. In their evidence before the Committee, the two had queried whether, if the CW4 claimed to be the president referred to in the sponsorship package, how come that the said package made reference to a ministerial circle? The Committee believes that the package was redesigned to respond to this query. Indeed, after tendering in the redesigned package that omitted the ministerial circle, two of the expatriate businesses that were invited to the event and supplied with sponsorship packages by MEF came before the Committee and tendered in evidence the sponsorship package that were referred to by both CW1 and CW2.



In sum, these efforts at doctoring documents in a rather desperate attempt to prove that CW4 was the president referred to in the sponsorship package rather ended up exposing him as a witness with very little, if any, credibility. The probative value of the evidence he gave before the Committee on this matter rather exposes his desperate attempt to cover up the fact that in its initial conception, the event had the President of the Republic as the center of attraction and that payment for seats bore a direct relationship to the distance of the payors seat from the presidential high table.



c. Relevant Related Matters



The Committee, as noted above, was tasked with investigating relevant related matters. The Committee interprets this mandate to mean that it could investigate any matter arising directly out of the proceedings and which bore a relationship to the main terms of reference of the Committee. In other words, this mandate is not a license to embark on a fishing expedition.



A number of critical and related issues arose during the course of the Committees proceedings. These included the allegation that the payments made by the expatriate businesses amounted to extortion by the Ministry of Trade and Industry; ethical considerations arising out of the conduct of the Ministry and its officials; lack of openness in the scrutiny of the expenses of the MEF; the forgery of documents by CW4 in a bit to deceive the Committee; deceit in the organization of the event and possible foreign corrupt practice violations. It is the view of the Committee that these arise directly out of the work of the Committee as set out in its terms of reference.



i. Extortion by Ministry of Trade



The issue of extortion arose in the course of the evidence of CW2 who had issued a press statement on the entire event and described the receipt of funds from the expatriate business entities as extortion. In his evidence before the Committee, CW2 was asked directly by the Honourable Member for New Juaben South whether the organizers and the Ministry extorted money from the expatriates. In answer to the said question, CW2 stated that he considered the practice as extortion because the Ministry deviated from the standard practice whereby public institutions provided endorsement of events organized by private sector entities without official involvement such as was done in this case by the Ministry of Trade and Industry. He gave the example of the fact that the expatriates were directed in the sponsorship letter to make payments in Room 308 and to pay their cheques into a designated account of the Ministry. In his view, this was designed to let the expatriates know that the Ministry was watching to know who had made payment thus injecting a certain amount of compulsion into the process.



In our criminal legislation extortion is a crime. Therefore, the allegation that the Ministry had extorted money, if proven, would require further investigation by the law enforcement agencies to establish whether the elements of the crime of extortion exist in this case. For the purposes of the work of the Committee, we must state upfront that the Ministry is neither a natural person nor a corporate entity capable of committing a crime. So if a crime has been committed, it would be the individual officers of the Ministry involved directly in this matter who would bear criminal liability.



That said, there is some merit to the allegation by CW2 that some form of extortion took place. The Criminal and Other Offences Act, 1960 (Act 29) defines the crime of extortion by a public officer as follows:

A public officer is guilty of extortion who, under colour of his office, demand or obtains from any person, whether for public purpose or for himself or for any other person, any money or valuable consideration which he knows that he is not lawfully authorized to demand or obtain

For this crime to be committed, one need not prove that the public officer making the demand or obtaining the money or other valuable consideration put a gun to the head of the person from whom he was making that demand or obtaining the money or other valuable consideration. A voluntary payment induced by a promise by a public officer either to perform or desist from performing an official act is sufficient. Sometimes the demand for money or valuable consideration is explicit but it may also take the form of what Justice Stevens of the United States Supreme Court described as subtle extortion in the case of McCormick v. United States, 500 U. S. 257 (1991).



The evidence before the Committee shows that the Ministry of Trade and Industry formed a partnership with MEF for the purposes of the organization of the GEBA. Pursuant to its legally enforceable role under the MOU, it wrote letters introducing MEF to the expatriates. Also in fulfilment of its obligations under the same MOU, MEF also designed a package of benefits which was delivered to the expatriates as a means of soliciting financial support for the organization of the GEBA. Was this a legitimate solicitation or the exaction of money in exchange for promised benefits? The evidence before the Committee tilts more in favour of a conclusion that the money was exacted in exchange for promised benefits such as being seated close to the President during the award ceremony and having an exclusive dinner for two with the President at a future date.



ii. Ethical Considerations



In the course of its investigations, the Committee stumbled upon facts that raised serious ethical issues relating to the organization of the event. First, the Ministry of Trade claimed, among other things, that the purpose of the event was to recognize and reward the contributions of the expatriate business community to the development of our dear nation. In its letter introducing the concept and the Foundation to the expatriate business enterprises, the Ministry was emphatic that this was the central purpose of the event. In other words, in the view of the Ministry and its private sector collaborator, the nation owed the expatriate business enterprises some measure of gratitude for their positive contributions to her economic progress.



In consequence, we found it patently unethical to design an event that depended heavily on sponsorship by the same persons to whom we, as a people, wanted to express gratitude. Put crudely, we demanded payment for the expression of our gratitude.



Secondly, a benefits package designed with the tacit support of the Ministry promised an exclusive dinner for two with the President. Assuming without admitting that the reference to the President was even a reference to the President of the Foundation (which we have just shown could never have been the case), in his evidence before the Committee, Mr. Ashim Morton categorically stated that the exclusive dinners for two with the President and other benefits, though promised and stated in the benefits package communicated to the expatriate business community, would never be delivered. That is highly unethical and the Ministry should never have lent its support to an enterprise designed with the knowledge that the promised benefits would never be delivered. Indeed, the Honourable Minister of Trade made it clear to the Committee that, given the busy schedules of H. E. the President, he could never have agreed to a benefits package that contemplated exclusive dinners with the President. Granted that that statement is true, we find it highly unethical for the Ministry to have agreed to a package that was communicated to the business community but which, unbeknown to the latter, was never going to be honored. The pertinent question is whether the Ministry knew or had reason to know that the promised benefits would not be delivered?



Thirdly, the Ministry created an opportunity for an otherwise non-profit organization to make profit, described as a fair return on their investment, without explicit provisions in the Memorandum of Understanding as to how the profit so made was to be utilized towards the achievement of corporate objects of the organization. According to the MOU, whereas the 10% of the funds reserved for the Ministry was to be utilized for specific future activities, no provision was made for the utilization of excess funds held by MEF after meeting all expenses relating to the organization of the event. We deem this as an unethical practice in that the Ministry, as a public agency, should have acted with probity in relation to the funds and how they would ultimately be utilized. CW1 described this as the ethics of using the President to collect money for private persons.



Another ethical dimension to this event is that the whole notion of an access fee, even whilst being disputed, erodes confidence and trust in public officeholders. As CW2 stated poignantly at the hearing:

Mr. Chairman, I believe that public officers come by their positions because of public trust. The power that we have is from the people. It is the peoples right to have access to us. When the people have elected us into high offices, we cannot then make access by the people to us a matter of who can pay or who can afford.



iii. Possible Deceit in the Organization of the Event



The Committee noted that the MEF had been involved in deceitful practices related to the organization of the GEBA. In their evidence before the Committee, both CW3 and CW4 created the impression that they had designed objective criteria for determining who obtained an award at the GEBA. Indeed, they tendered in evidence a set of criteria designed by the accounting firm KPMG for the selection of companies for various categories of award.



However, in the course of its proceedings, the Committee learned from at least three of the businesses that they had not even sent information to KPMG in order to qualify for the nomination for an award but were called and informed that they had been selected for the award by none other than CW4. Indeed, in one case, a telecommunications company objected to paying for any of the packages, refused to send information to be selected for an award but was still given an award which was announced by CW4. In each case, there was no official communication from KPMG.



The Committee takes a serious view of this matter because it would appear that the so-called partnership between the Ministry and MEF is an empty shell that allows MEF or its chief executive to raise funds on the back of the credibility of Government as a partner.



iiii. Lack of Transparency in Relation to the Expenses of MEF



Notwithstanding that the funds raised were deposited into a public account and constitute, in our considered opinion, public funds, in its evidence before the Committee MEF refused to account for how it has spent the funds allocated to it pursuant to the MOU. As stated earlier, MEF obtained over Two Million Ghana Cedis from the funds raised but conceded that it had spent only Forty Thousand Ghana Cedis in advance of the event.



In view of the collaboration between the Ministry and MEF, it is important to ensure that it accounts for all funds received as a consequence of the partnership with the Ministry. It bears repeating that the Ministry of Trade and Industry has a duty under the law to act with probity when it comes to resources mobilized through its activities. And it should not matter if it is collaborating with a private sector entity.

v. Possible Forgery of Documents



As we noted above, in a desperate attempt to counteract the allegation that the price tag of seats was tied to how far one sat from the President of the Republic, CW4 quickly redesigned the sponsorship package and took out the ministerial circle, the next area of seating to that of the President of the Republic. This, we believe, was done in response to the evidence of CW1 and CW2 in relation to the issue. Furthermore, we have pointed out that Exhibit MOTI 6 was forged with a view to deceiving the Committee that the correct designation of CW3 was President and not Founder/Chairman as in the original.

Forgery is a criminal offense under the laws of Ghana. Unlike the case of extortion, it is clear that CW4 forged documents and brazenly tendered same in evidence with a view to deceiving the Committee to arrive at erroneous conclusions. By extension, the forgery is intended to deceive Parliament as a whole and must be further investigated and punished.



vi. Possible Foreign Corrupt Practice Violations



In the course of its hearing and bearing in mind the fact that the business entities in question are foreign-owned businesses, the Committee questioned CW3 on whether any due diligence was done regarding possible violations of foreign corrupt practice legislation in the countries of origin of the said business enterprises or treaties and conventions to which these countries are parties. CW3 answered the question in the negative.



However, one of the companies that appeared before the Committee mentioned the fact that, prior to making payment, it had to request for headquarters clearance in relation to possible violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) of the United States of America. Another company mentioned that it had elevated the package for the event and its corporate business governance rules did not permit it to make payments towards such an event. We are sure this company could not convince headquarters that it would not violate foreign corrupt practice rules. And we suspect it was also because of the deep involvement of the Government in the organization of the awards and, in particular, the solicitation of funds.



This is an important aspect of doing business globally and so the Ministry of Trade and Industry must take it seriously if it intends to continue to solicit funds from businesses for future events.



VII. CONCLUSION- SUMMARY OF FINDINGS



In light of the evidence adduced before the Committee, we are convinced that:

1. In the overall circumstances surrounding the organization of the Ghana Expatriate Business Awards, whilst the proponent of the motion could not justify his use of the word levy from a legal-technical point of view, it cannot be denied that, from the evidence on record, the Ministry of Trade and Industry played a pre-eminent role in the determination of the amounts solicited by the MEF. In short, the manner in which the sponsorship package was designed and executed conforms to Honourable Muhammed-Muntaka Mubaraks conception of a levy as money that you have to pay. The pre-determined sums of money were paid with the backing of the Ministry of Trade and Industry, the agency with oversight responsibility for the business sector of the economy;

2. Notwithstanding denials to the contrary, there is evidence on record to the effect that, in its initial conception, the event had the President of the Republic as the center of attraction and that payment for seats bore a direct relationship to the distance of the payors seat from the presidential high table. Furthermore, the evidence shows clearly that Mr. Ashim Morton forged documents in a desperate attempt to cover up this blatant fact;

3. The Ministry of Trade and Industry contravened existing law on public financial management, particularly the Financial Administration Regulations, by allowing the use of an existing account for the receipt of monies that it claimed were private funds;

4. The Ministry of Trade and Industry engaged in serious ethical violations by allowing its credibility as a public agency to be used to amass profit for a private non-profit organization which it cannot hold to public standards of accountability as well as by using the name of the President of the Republic as a means to make such profit;

5. The MEF engaged in deceitful practices in the process of the organization of the awards event by selecting companies for awards even when the companies had not submitted information meeting the designed criteria and also forged documents meant to deceive the Committee and Parliament as a whole; and

6. The Ministry of Trade and Industry failed or neglected to take account of possible violations of foreign corrupt practice laws and regulations in the conception, design and organization of the expatriate business awards.





Dated in Accra this 2nd Day of February 2018





----------------------------------------------

Hon. James Klutse Avedzi, Member















--------------------------------------------

Hon. Dr. Dominic Akuritinga Ayine, Member









Source: classfmonline.com









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Featured VideoPennsylvania's Auditor General says that he has full confidence in the integrity of the Pennsylvania Lottery following a review in response to a PennLive investigation in 2017 that found some Pennsylvanians have claimed lottery tickets with seemingly improbable frequency.

In an interview Monday, Eugene DePasquale said he met with lottery officials and was given a thorough tour of its operations and an explanation of its security procedures.

DePasquale added that the lottery told him it had investigated the most frequent claimants PennLive identified and found no wrongdoing.

"I have a high degree of confidence from the beginning of the system to the end that it's a clean system," DePasquale said.

But statisticians consulted by PennLive said that many of the winning patterns PennLive identified remain improbable, raising questions about the thoroughness of the review.

PennLive's series, Defying the Odds, found that Pennsylvania's most frequent winner, Nadine Vukovich, claimed 209 prizes from instant tickets worth $600 or more between 2004 and 2016, winning $348,000.

Investigations into unusually frequent prize winning in other states have sometimes found those wins rooted in fraud; from retailers secretly stealing winning tickets from prize claimants to schemes where people cash in winning tickets on behalf of others to avoid having debts deducted from their prizes.

Philip Stark, a statistician at the University of California Berkeley consulted by PennLive, analyzed Pennsylvania lottery data. He found that luck or frequent play couldn't plausibly explain how more than a dozen frequent winners in Pennsylvania - including multiple retailers - could win so often.

In the case of Vukovich, a Mechanicsburg veterinarian, Stark found that even if every Pennsylvania resident spent $7.8 million on lottery tickets, there would still be less than a 1-in-10 million chance that any of them would win as many prizes as she did.

READ MORE: The math behind PennLive's analysis of frequent lottery winners

Asked on Monday how the Pennsylvania Lottery explained the frequent winning identified by PennLive, DePasquale said lottery officials maintained that the claimants were simply frequent players. He said they gave an explanation for why PennLive's analysis was incorrect but he couldn't remember their argument.

In a follow-up email asking for more information, Susan Woods, a spokeswoman for the Auditor General's office, said her office had no further comment.

In an interview on Wednesday, Stark said while it was always possible there was a bug in the computer code used to run his calculation, he had checked his calculations thoroughly.

If anything, Stark said, his calculations were likely underestimating the improbability that certain claimants, like Nadine Vukovich, could win so often.

"I don't know how to explain how small these numbers are," Stark said. "Even if they had spent those millions and millions of dollars, even if 12 million people had spent one million dollars, it would still be incredibly unlikely that any of them won this much."

Stark added that his method, developed with two other mathematicians in 2014, was well-vetted and based on long-standing statistical principles. That same method exposed suspicious behavior in the Florida Lottery that led to major security reforms.

Three other statisticians consulted by PennLive this week said Stark's methodology was sound.

Bill Notz, a statistician at Ohio State University, who examined frequent lottery winning in Ohio several years ago, said Stark's method was more sophisticated than his own analysis and particularly conservative.

"In other words, when his calculations show that a probability is very small, the true probability is even smaller than the value he calculates," Notz said.

Ronald Wasserstein, the executive director of the American Statistical Association and a former statistics professor, also said he supported Stark's method.

Based on his review, Wasserstein said, the frequency of prize claims by a number of Pennsylvania's most frequent claimants couldn't be plausibly explained by luck.

READ MORE: How hard is it to win the lottery? Try our simulator

"I would dare the lottery to find a competent statistIcian who would agree that it's just frequent play," Wasserstein said.

Jan Hannig, a statistician at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill who has analyzed frequent winning in the North Carolina Lottery, likewise supported Stark's analysis.

Hannig said that, among Pennsylvania's top ten most frequent winners, he felt the frequent claims of a few could plausibly be explained by gambling addiction.

But the frequent prize claims of at least five of them, he said, were clearly suspicious.

"There's no way this is by luck," Hannig said.

In response to questions, the Pennsylvania Lottery reiterated Wednesday that it believes the state's most frequent claimants are simply frequent players.

Asked whether it had changed security procedures in response to PennLive's stories, the Pennsylvania Lottery declined to provide details.

"New measures are implemented on a regular basis, but we do not discuss specific measures for obvious security reasons," said Gary Miller, a spokesman.HARRISBURG--Seven Democratic candidates for Pennsylvania lieutenant governor took questions from progressive voters Friday night and appealed to that base during an event in downtown Harrisburg.

The group Keystone Progress sponsored the two-hour debate at the Hilton hotel as part of its annual summit. The three female candidates were seated on the left side the stage, with four male candidates, including incumbent Mike Stack, on the right.

Candidate John Fetterman, the populist mayor of Braddock, claimed to be the most progressive person to ever run for executive office in the state. He voiced support for legalizing marijuana several times. But candidate Aryanna Berringer arguably staked out a political position to the left of him.

Berringer, an Army veteran and IT manager from Westmoreland County, was the only candidate on the stage to propose a ban on hydraulic fracturing" for natural gas, drawing loud applause from the audience in the ballroom.

Fracking is the process of injecting high-pressure liquid into the ground to extract natural gas, but the method had drawn environmental and community concerns. Pennsylvania is the nation's second largest natural gas producer

All of the other candidates, including Fetterman, said natural gas was a "bridge" or stepping stone to renewable energy sources.

Fetterman also noted that there are a lot of poor communities that aren't very far along with "green technologies," so making an abrupt switch could "leave them behind."

The race for lieutenant governor has drawn stronger interest and attention than usual this year as the embattled incumbent Stack stepped into several controversies last year.

The job is viewed as largely ceremonial but pays more than $163,000 per year, comes with its own mansion and presents the possibility of assuming the state's top job if the governor were ever unable.

In Pennsylvania, the governor and lieutenant governor candidates run separately in the spring primaries, then as a team in the fall election.

But Stack's relationship with Gov. Tom Wolf has been strained and Wolf notably has not issued an endorsement in the race. A question posed Friday night asked how each candidate would be able to work with Wolf, prompting anticipation for Stack's answer.

"Gov. Wolf and I have different styles," Stack said directly addressing the perceived rift. "I'm from Philadelphia. He's from York. But we have been active partners on a number of issues. We are in lock-step on every major issue that Pennsylvanians care about.

"And as somebody from Philadelphia, we are not going to win the governorship unless we do well in Philly. It's the largest city. It's where the most Democratic and progressive votes come in, so I've been an envoy for the governor there."

Fetterman noted that his campaign had drawn donations from 3,400 individual donors, a "broad base" of support that he could wield to help Wolf get re-elected.

Questions for the debate Friday night came from audience members and from social media. A question about sexual harassment and accountability highlighted a difference in how the male and female candidates responded.

While all the candidates stood firm against sexual harassment, and in solidarity with victims, only the female candidates said they had publicly asked for the resignation of Sen. Daylin Leach, a fellow Democrat.

An investigative report by Philly.com in December about Leach highlighted accusations by former female staffers of a hostile work environment. The complaints included allegations of sexually suggestive banter that Leach persisted in with little regard for how it made younger, female campaign and legislative staffers feel, and at least two allegations of inappropriate touching.

Gov. Wolf previously has asked for Leach to resign, but he remains in position.

Leach submitted an op-ed that apologized "for ever saying or doing anything that has made anyone uneasy, uncomfortable, or distressed." He promised to change his conduct.

State Rep. Madeline Dean, from Abington in Montgomery County, said she also had publicly asked for Rep. Thomas Caltagirone, a Democratic lawmaker from Berks County, to resign after it was discovered that House Democrats spent $248,000 in taxpayer money to settle a 2015 sexual harassment complaint against him.

Dean noted the state only has about 18 percent representation from women in the Legislature and zero women at the table in leadership.

"We need women at the table in leadership," she said. "I have a feeling those type of settlements wouldn't take place."

The candidates also were asked about how they would work with the Republican majority and how and when they would compromise.

Berringer and Fetterman took hard stances, with Fetterman saying, "You can't really compromise with crazy."

Kathi Cozzone, a Chester County commissioner, said there are times to compromise and times to fight for progressive ideals. She advocated earning trust and respect across the aisle and quoted former Vice President Joe Biden, by saying "Our opponent is not our enemy."

Candidates used the event Friday to bring up issues important to them, and for Ray Sosa, a banker/insurance broker from Montgomery County, he repeatedly brought up the state's 75-percent recidivism rate for prisoners.

More support and opportunities need to be provided to people who have paid their debt to society, he said.

Dean pushed back against cash bail requirements which she said discriminate against the poor, and carry a heavy pricetag to keep people behind bars who are awaiting trial.

Cozzone said someone with her experience in local government would be an asset in a statewide leadership job. As it stands, she said, the state continues to cut necessary funding to counties to provide important services, including for mental health treatment.

She said the level of funding her county now gets for mental health is the same as 17 years ago.

Craig Lehman, a Lancaster County commissioner, was the only candidate to not voice support for a single-payer healthcare system financed by taxes. Instead, he said he would support working to improve the Affordable Care Act.

Lehman said he thought his job, political and military experience made him the "most qualified" candidate for lieutenant governor.The Great American Outdoor Show is a nine-day event in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania that celebrates hunting, fishing, and outdoor traditions treasured by millions of Americans and their families.

The show is the largest in the country and will run Feb. 3-11 at the Pa. State Farm Show Building.Pennsylvania State Police's mounted patrol unit will be hitting the streets of Philadelphia on Sunday to keep fans safe as the Eagles take on the Patriots in Super Bowl LII.

About 20 troopers on horseback will patrolling the streets on Sunday, according to Cpl. Carrie Neidigh. She explained troopers on horseback have the advantage of being about 10 feet in the air, so they can see more in crowded situations.

"For us, one horse is equal to about ten guys on the ground," Neidigh said. "So by taking 20 horses out to Philadelphia, that's like having 200 ground guys out on the streets with a lot less assets, resources as far as manpower goes."

The unit is looking for a few horses to replace some in the unit that are getting up there in years.

The animals must be geldings between 5 and 15 years old and stand at least 5 feet 4 inches at the shoulder, or 16 hands tall, but less than 18 hands tall, state police said. Drafts and draft-crosses are preferred. Thoroughbreds and other "hot bloods" are less desirable, officials said.

A veterinary examination will be performed on prospective horses and the animals will be accepted on a 120-day trial basis to determine whether they fit with the program. Horses must have quiet, sound dispositions and should be free of serious stable vices.

To arrange a donation or get more information about the program, contact Cpl. Carrie Neidigh at 717-533-3643 or cneidigh@pa.gov.By Eugene Robinson

Presidents don't win fights with the FBI. Donald Trump apparently wants to learn this lesson the hard way.

Eugene Robinson (PennLive file)

Most presidents have had the sense not to bully the FBI by defaming its leaders and -- ridiculously -- painting its agents as leftist political hacks.

Most members of Congress have also understood how unwise it would be to pull such stunts. But Trump and his hapless henchmen on Capitol Hill, led by Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), have chosen the wrong enemy. History strongly suggests they will be sorry.

The far-right echo chamber resounds with wailing and braying about something called the "deep state" -- a purported fifth column of entrenched federal bureaucrats whose only goal in life, apparently, is to deny America the greatness that Dear Leader Trump has come to bestow.

It is unclear who is supposed to be directing this vast conspiracy. Could it be Dr. Evil? Supreme Leader Snoke? Hillary Clinton? This whole paranoid fantasy, as any sane person realizes, is utter rubbish.*

The asterisk is for the FBI.

The bureau has no political ax to grind, and the attempt by Nunes and others to portray it as some kind of liberal cabal is comical. But it does have great institutional cohesion, a proud sense of mission, and a culture that inculcates the "us vs. the world" attitude that is so common among law enforcement agencies.

The asterisk is for the FBI.

The bureau has no political ax to grind, and the attempt by Nunes and others to portray it as some kind of liberal cabal is comical. But it does have great institutional cohesion, a proud sense of mission, and a culture that inculcates the "us vs. the world" attitude that is so common among law enforcement agencies.

I'm old enough to remember the days when J. Edgar Hoover ran the place like his own private Stasi -- wiretapping civil rights leaders such as the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., infiltrating anti-Vietnam War groups with informers and provocateurs, seeking or manufacturing damaging "evidence" against those he targeted, keeping copious files on the peccadilloes of the politicians who were theoretically his masters. Presidents from Franklin D. Roosevelt through Richard Nixon coexisted warily with Hoover, afraid to fire him for fear of all the beans he might spill.

Harry S. Truman was an especially bitter opponent. "We want no Gestapo or secret police. The FBI is tending in that direction," he said. "They are dabbling in sex-life scandals and plain blackmail. . . . J. Edgar Hoover would give his right eye to take over, and all congressmen and senators are afraid of him."

But when Truman left office, Hoover was still FBI director. He held on to the job from the FBI's founding in 1935 until his death in 1972 -- six weeks before the Watergate break-in.

The day after what Nixon's spokesman would call "a third-rate burglary attempt" took place, the FBI's major-crimes duty officer, a supervisor named Daniel Bledsoe, opened a federal wiretapping investigation. According to Bledsoe, he received a phone call from Nixon aide John Ehrlichman ordering him to shut down the probe. His simple reply: "No."

It was another FBI man -- Mark Felt, then an assistant director -- who became the famous source Deep Throat, secretly meeting Post reporter Bob Woodward in a parking garage to guide the paper's illumination of the president's crimes.

In 2004, according to journalist Tim Weiner's book "Enemies: A History of the FBI," President George W. Bush was confronted by the man he had appointed to lead the bureau: Robert S. Mueller III. In Weiner's telling, Mueller threatened to resign unless Bush curtailed some aspects of the domestic electronic surveillance that was taking place in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. Bush reportedly agreed to put the program on a more legal footing.

Now comes Trump. His oafish attempts to neutralize the FBI director he inherited, James B. Comey -- trying to extract a Godfather-style loyalty pledge, asking him to drop the investigation of Michael Flynn, ultimately firing him -- are potential fodder for what may be an obstruction-of-justice case against Trump being assembled by Mueller.

Comey wrote everything down. The FBI always writes everything down.

Do you see a pattern here? The idea that the likes of Trump and Nunes are going to put a scratch on the FBI with ludicrous innuendo -- we're supposed to believe the bureau is a nest of Bolsheviks? -- and selectively edited memos would be laughable, if Mueller and his team were the laughing kind. Which they're not.

The Trumpists were so proud of themselves when they found evidence that Peter Strzok, an FBI agent originally on Mueller's team, thought Trump would be a bad president. Now, however, someone has leaked to CNN that Strzok drafted the "October surprise" Comey letter that reopened the bureau's investigation into Clinton's emails -- without which Trump probably would have lost the election.

Trump and his minions seem to think they can out-leak the FBI. Obviously they haven't been paying attention.Let's get a few of things out of the way up front.

One: This year is an election year.

Two: Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf is running for re-election.

And, three: on Tuesday, the York County pol will roll out his fourth state budget proposal to a joint session of the Legislature.

But if you ask Wolf, it's not an "election-year" budget.

"This is the budget that I'm presenting because it makes sense for Pennsylvania," Wolf said during a brief telephone interview on Friday.

It's an answer that's vintage Wolf, shot through with enough of the idealistic, political science professor-in-chief pose that he's struck for the last three-plus years, that it's actually pretty convincing.

But it's also going to be impossible to entirely divorce election year politics from the spending plan that Republicans in the House and Senate are all-but-guaranteed to pounce on just seconds after Wolf's final words echo through the hall of the House of Representatives around on midday on Tuesday.

And that's because you can't turn around in the state Capitol without running into a Republican who's running for some kind of higher office.

Consider this: State House Speaker Mike Turzai, R-Allegheny, and Sen. Scott Wagner, R-York, are both vying for the GOP nomination for governor.

House Majority Leader Dave Reed, R-Indiana, is a freshly announced candidate for the 9th Congressional District.

And, oh by the way, all 203 members of the House and half the 50-member state Senate are facing the voters this year.

So even in an intensely political year like this one, that's a serious helping of partisan politics ladled on top of a speech in which Wolf will want want to come off as the clear-headed grown-up who deserves another four years in the top spot.

Wolf, either a tad naively or disingenuously, take your pick, said Friday that he hopess lawmakers will rise above their partisan tendencies.

"It seems to me that people, no matter what their motivations are, will want to do this right for the people of Pennsylvania," he said. "This budget will be something that people can be proud of."

About the only thing that might stem the partisan tide is an unwillingness to rock the boat too hard. Never known to be risk-takers, lawmakers tend to become even more risk-averse in election years. This year, they might figure that getting a budget done is enough, declare victory, and head for the hills.

Wolf wouldn't go into too much detail Friday on what he's going to include in his new spending proposal. Republicans will probably be relieved to find out that he's sticking with last year's decision to stay away from boosting the state's personal income or sales tax.

House Republicans and their allies in the business community probably won't be relieved to hear that Wolf will renew his call for a severance tax on natural gas drillers. Based on the revenue plan it passed last year, the Senate seems to have already made its separate peace with an extraction tax.

And Wolf isn't talking about that severance tax bill currently marooned in the state House, the one that got so gussied up with unfriendly amendments that even state Rep. Greg Vitali said he couldn't support it.

"I'm looking for a clean bill," Wolf said. So game on there, right?

To be sure, lawmakers in the state House and Senate have their own priorities.

Democrats, unsurprisingly, find theirs more in line with those of Wolf.

"Common sense priorities - jobs, health care, seniors, safety net, violence prevention, environment and education - with a focus on the needs of families is how we should approach this upcoming budget," state Sen. Vincent Hughes, D-Philadelphia, wrote in an op-ed for PennLive. "Let's deal a fair hand so working families hit the jackpot."

Sen. Lisa Baker, R-Luzerne, says she hopes partisan politics won't override common sense.

"Given the disruptive and unsettling budget crises of the past three years, and the still uncertain return of the revenue measures put in place, principles of fiscal responsibility seem to dictate a conservative approach to state spending," she wrote in her own PennLive op-Ed.

The holy grail, of course, is that the hope that taxpayers won't be put through another protracted siege, as was the case with Wolf's first and third budgets.

The work might be made easier by the fact that there's more tax revenue coming into the state's coffers. The state collected $2.8 billion in December, which was $198.1 million, or a 7.6 percent improvement over tax collections in December 2016, according to the Independent Fiscal Office.

Through November of last year, tax collections were running $26.1 million ahead of estimate. Assuming trends continue, that could take a bit of pressure off budget negotiators.

"Thanks to laying a good foundation over the last three years, this should be a relativelye easy budget," Wolf said. "We're running ahead of estimate and we've done a lot of things over the last three years to establish that foundation."

This being Pennsylvania, of course, if anything can go wrong, it probably will. But keep Wolf's words in mind on Tuesday and in the rush to comment afterward.Pa. Supreme Court Justice David Wecht

Want to know why the rule of law is a good thing?

Consider this. Right now, it seems to be the only thing keeping the fight over the validity of Pennsylvania's Congressional maps from devolving into a knife fight.

The intensity of the battle ratcheted up to a more personal level Friday when the state top Republican legislative leaders raised questions about whether two justices in the four-person majority that ordered new Congressional maps last month should have even participated in the case.

Speaker of the House Mike Turzai, R-Allegheny County, and Senate President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati, R-Jefferson County, seek Justice David Wecht's disqualification from the case.

They argued that a series of statements made on redistricting issues by Wecht as a candidate for the court in 2015 showed that he had a pre-determined position on the Congressional map.

That position, the leaders' said, was strong enough for a reasonable person to question whether Wecht could judge a case about the maps without bias and based on the evidence and law before him.

Wecht did not respond to a call from PennLive Friday afternoon.

But attorneys for the registered Democratic Party voters who are challenging the current maps dismissed the filing as "yet another desperate attempt to hold on to an unconstitutional map that violates voters' rights.

"They should get to work on creating a map that respects the rights of all of the citizens of Pennsylvania," said Mimi McKenzie, of the Philadelphia-based Public Interest Law Center.

The stakes are high: The loss of just one vote from the 4-3 court majority that ordered an 11th-hour redraw of Pennsylvania's Congressional maps for this year's elections could be a kill shot for the state GOP.

By erasing that majority, the order for new lines for the state's 18 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives would be voided, as would a separate 4-3 decision in November through which the court took and fast-tracked the case.

Voiding those decisions, the legislative leaders say, would keep the current maps in place for 2018.

In Friday's filing, the defendants hang their hats on a series of statements by Wecht in which he railed against extreme partisan gerrymandering in general and, specifically, Pennsylvania's Congressional map.

They cited one forum in Philadelphia in which Wecht was quoted as saying:

"These maps have been drawn to disenfranchise the majority of Pennsylvanians. And they have been drawn by skilled political operatives, and it needs to stop.

"There are a million more Democrats in this Commonwealth, but... there are only five Democrats in the Congress, as opposed to 13 Republicans," Wecht continued. "Think about it. Do we need a new Supreme Court? I think you know the answer."

The lawmakers said the comments should trigger a clause in the state's Code of Judicial Conduct that states judges must disqualify themselves from a case if their impartiality can reasonably be questioned because of past public statements "that commit the judge to reach a particular result or rule in a particular way in the proceeding or controversy."

They also argued that similar comments on partisan gerrymandering by Justice Christine Donahue should be fully disclosed, so they can evaluate whether or not she should recuse.

There is a stark partisan backdrop here.

Republicans drew the current maps after the 2010 Census, when the GOP held the governor's office and majorities in both chambers of the General Assembly.

Democrats have smarted about those lines ever since, and considered it a major levelling of the playing field for 2021 redistricting when state voters gave the party a 5-2 majority on the state's high court in the 2015 race.

Each of the justices in the Jan. 22 majority - which in addition to Wecht and Donahue also included Kevin Dougherty and Debra Todd - was elected as a Democrat.

Experts on recusal issues reached by PennLive Friday said the legislative leaders appear to have raised a legitimate question.

"It seems to they (Wecht's comments) do push the envelope a bit," said Charles Wolfram, a retired professor of legal ethics at Cornell Law School.

But they also noted that judicial disqualification is a high hurdle to clear.

That's in part because judges generally get to decide bias questions for themselves and, once having reached an individual determination, their colleagues are often reluctant to overturn it.

Secondly, given the very public nature of the 2015 campaign, the court could say that the defendant's appeal on bias should have come at the start of the Supreme Court's involvement in the present case.

"I would say this is probably a longshot," said Richard Flamm, whose made a national practice out of consulting on disqualification and conflict-of-interest issues.

The disqualification issue opens a second front for the Republican lawmakers in their fight to preserve the current maps; they are also awaiting U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito's ruling on a request for a stay of the state court's order.

Last briefs in that case were filed Friday. Alito is likely to rule early next week.

Pennsylvania's map has been rated by some political science measures as one of the most gerrymandered in American history.

Its critics point to the reliable 13 R / 5 D breakdown of the Pennsylvania delegation since 2012 - despite wide variance in the results of other statewide races - as proof of extreme partisan gerrymandering that has reached the point of "viewpoint discrimination" against Democrats.

In their brief to Alito, the Democratic voters argued because the Pennsylvania court's ruing is based on issues presented by the state Constitution, the federal court must defer to its judgment and let it stand.

Defenders of the status quo have countered there are no Constitutional guarantees on election outcomes, and say the variance between statewide election results and Congressional district outcomes actually prove the point that specific elections are a function of candidates, campaigns and issues.

Here, they say, the state court has improperly injected itself into the elections process, and that a change in the maps now would do political harm to candidates - and their supporters and donors - that have been running campaigns based on the current maps for months.York County state Sen. Scott Wagner may have been the first Republican to jump into this year's governor's race but the last entrant emerged on Saturday as a potential spoiler in Wagner's frontrunner status.

The combined straw votes in the party's Northwest and Southwest caucuses taken on Saturday resulted in House Speaker Mike Turzai walking away with more support than Wagner, which Turzai's campaign strategist Jeff Coleman said signifies a momentum shift in this race to be the most viable Republican to challenge Democratic incumbent Gov. Tom Wolf in the Nov. 6 election.

It also signals that next Saturday's full Republican State Committee meeting at the Hershey Lodge should be an interesting one as committee members decide whether to endorse candidates in this and other statewide races and if so, which candidates should get the party's backing.

"Late last year some were talking about nomination by acclamation given the millions invested by other candidates---that's just not the case today. The grassroots leaders of the party want to make certain we're putting up the best we have to offer against Mr. Wolf, and the Speaker is offering the biggest contrast to the rest of this field," Coleman said.

"With over a dozen debates on the schedule in the next few months, the rest of the voters will soon have an opportunity to see just how effective he's communicating the conservative message."

Wagner's preferred running mate Jeff Bartos and U.S. Rep. Lou Barletta emerged as the two caucuses' favorites in their respective races for lieutenant governor and U.S. Senate.

A breakdown of Saturday's regional caucus straw votes shows in the Southwest Caucus - the home base of Turzai as well as retired health care executive Paul Mango, and attorney Laura Ellsworth, all of Allegheny County - Wagner won 30 votes to Turzai's 28; Mango's 2, and Ellsworth's 1.

In the Northwest Caucus, Turzai captured 23 votes to Wagner's 14 and Mango's 1.

When combined with the four other regional caucus straw votes, Wagner won 175 - which his campaign says it has confirmed is the number needed to win the state committee's endorsement. Turzai's combined total from the six regional caucuses is 113 while Mango collected 16 votes and Ellsworth, 3.

While Turzai's camp was elated with the results of these latest straw votes, Wagner's campaign staff says it shows he is the popular choice overall of GOP committee members.

"Today's results are an indication that Scott is the clear favorite to receive the party's endorsement going into the next weekend's final State Committee meeting," said Wagner's campaign manager Jason High. "His ability to defeat his opponents in their home caucus shows that his mission to bring change to Harrisburg is supported by party leaders in all corners of the Commonwealth."

Mango's campaign has said it wouldn't release a statement about the regional straw vote results until after the state committee meets. However, Mango, a political newcomer, offered an explanation for his poor showing in the these test votes when speaking at the Pennsylvania Press Club last month.

"Hey, I'm a newcomer in this group. I don't expect them to embrace me right away," he said.

Ellsworth, meanwhile, is urging the state GOP committee to break from a 40-year tradition of endorsing candidates in the governor's race and let it be an open primary.

"The best course for the party is to let the candidates take their case directly to the people and let the voters decide who their candidate is," said Ellsworth campaign spokeswoman Brianna Buczkowski.

That possibility does seem likely.

Charlie Gerow, another longtime committee member, said he thinks this is the first time in all his years involved with the state GOP committee where an endorsement for governor appears to be the least likely.

"It's an active discussion among many members of the state committee largely because folks don't believe that anybody will drop out if they are not endorsed. That's always been the major force of an endorsement," Gerow said.

The four Republican candidates either have the personal resources or said they have the ability to raise the substantial amounts of money needed to run a statewide campaign with or without the party's resources that come with an endorsement.

Blair County Republican Chairwoman Lois Kaneshiki is strongly in favor of letting it be an open primary and created a "Stop State Committee Endorsements!" Facebook page to rally support for one.

The endorsement process is a holdover from old times when party bosses picked the candidates instead of letting the candidates be chosen through "the people's primary," she said.

What's more, endorsing a candidate three months before the primary sets up the party to be placed in an awkward position if its endorsed candidate loses in the primary as was the case last year with endorsed Superior Court judicial candidate Paula Patrick.

"It's an embarrassment and it creates a lot of bad blood within the party and a lot of resentment," Kaneshiki said.

Meanwhile, state Democratic Party spokeswoman Beth Melena said endorsement or not, "one thing that is sure about the Republican gubernatorial primary is that it will be a race with Wagner, Mango, Turzai, and Ellsworth willing to do anything to convince their primary voters that they are the most extreme Trump-like candidate."

As for the four candidates seeking the Republican nomination in the lieutenant governor's race, Bartos, of Montgomery County, came away from Saturday's two caucus straw votes winning 45 votes to Berks County's Otto Voit's 35 votes and Lancaster County's Gordon Denlinger's, 14. Montgomery County's Joe Gale received no votes.

In the U.S. Senate race, Barletta received 64 votes from the two caucuses that met on Saturday with state Rep. Jim Christiana of Beaver County capturing 36 votes. Adams County's Cynthia Ayers received 1 vote and the other two candidates in that race, Franklin County's Bobby Lawrence and Delaware County's Paul Addis received no votes.B.C. Liberal leadership candidate Todd Stone speaks during the first leadership debate in Surrey, B.C., on Sunday October 15, 2017. One of the contenders vying to lead British Columbia's Liberal party won't have the backing of 1,349 prospective members who were disqualified from voting because of incomplete applications. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl DyckGerald Stanley, accused in the in the 2016 death of Colten Boushie, is seen in an August 10, 2016, handout photo taken by RCMP at the time of his arrest. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO-Saskatchewan Justice, *MANDATORY CREDIT*Stephen Harper speaks to the media in his office on Thursday June 26, 2014 in Ottawa. The former Conservative prime minister says he was aware of sexual assault allegations against a Conservative candidate in the 2015 federal election. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian WyldUnder Secretary of State for Political Affairs Thomas Shannon, left, speaks next to Deputy Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan, and Deputy Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette, during a news conference on the 2018 Nuclear Posture Review, at the Pentagon, Friday, Feb. 2, 2018. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)Former Maldives President Mohamed Nasheed poses for a photo following an interview with Associated Press in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Friday, Feb. 2, 2018. The Maldives' Supreme Court ordered the release of imprisoned politicians, including exiled ex-President Nasheed, saying their guilty verdicts had been politically influenced. (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena)The elegant cocktail in my hand, a rye-spiced Deshler tinged with the sweet, quinine kiss of Quinquina and Curacao, was inspired by a recipe created a century ago. And in the amber glow of Royal Boucherie  where glorious raw bar towers, Chartreuse snails, and splendid terrines are served beneath a pressed-tin ceiling to diners in church pew booths and a carved cherry wood bar  this pre-Prohibition relic drink felt like it belonged.

If I'd stumbled not knowing better into this rambling Old City space, with its flickering front lanterns and French-door facade, I'd be tempted to think it was a well-preserved tavern of yore. But I'd be wrong. This evocative air of yesteryear took loads of vision and rehab cash to peel back the layers of trashy martini bar history  so many smoke machines and disco balls  that characterized Glam, a previous tenant whose door handle was shaped like a leg and whose emcees apparently ran sexy banana-eating contests.

Such low-tide nightclubs have been a canker on the higher aspirations of Old City's more serious restaurant impulses. And the neighborhood, once a focal point for destination Philly dining with stars like Buddakan, Fork, and Amada, was at risk of sliding into seedy nightlife irrelevance. So I could hardly blame the owners of neighboring Khyber Pass, Steven Simons, Dave Frank, and Suzanne O'Brien, for buying the nuisance bar next door in hopes of steadying their end of the Second Street strip.

What they've achieved with this excellent new restaurant, however, feels like one more sign of a changing mood, buoyed also the new Museum of the American Revolution. And the experience is a complete one: the antique allure conjured up by O'Brien and designer Marguerite Rodgers; the stellar cocktails from Dom Carullo (who roams from classics to his own frothy politi-cocktail, A Very Stable Genius); the polished young servers who strike an appealing balance between informal charm and well-informed, professional grace.

But the real key to Royal Boucherie's success is the owners' decision to partner with one of the city's most brilliant kitchen stars in Nicholas Elmi. This is the second fascinating alliance for the gastropub specialists who also own Triangle Tavern, Royal Tavern, Cantina Los Caballitos, and Royal Izakaya, where chef Jesse Ito, backed by his renowned chef-father, Matt, has blossomed into a stellar sushi talent.

Elmi, of course, is already a proven draw, a Top Chef champ with four bells for the modern French tasting menus at Laurel on East Passyunk Avenue, and another three for his innovative In The Valley (ITV) wine bar next door. There's a slightly more classic take on his French roots at Royal Boucherie, where his time at Brasserie Perrier and Le Bec-Fin surface across the menu, executed deftly by chef de cuisine Steve Forte.

The silvery pot of champagne-braised wild snails in Chartreuse-hazelnut butter is straight out of the Perrier playbook, but updated with an herb butter so vivid, it's Eagles green. The extra-toasty hunk of roasted baguette on the side was baked by South Philly's Machine Shop Boulangerie, whose co-owners, Katie Lynch and Emily Riddel, are both Perrier alums, too. The salmon pave, a mille-feuille stack of sheer smoked salmon layered with salmon mousse, is another beautiful vestige from Le Bec.

A perfect link of Toulouse sausage bending over the tangy funk of house-fermented cabbage is also a legacy of Elmi's classic Gallic training, as are the house terrines. The Madeira-splashed pork terrine studded with nuggets of sweetbread beside roasted apple puree was understated charcuterie perfection. A special terrine was showier but just remarkable, with braised pheasant layered into a marbled slice between foie gras and truffles beside a glistening scoop of sweet mead gelee. Put them all together on a platter alongside some silky smokehouse slices of rare country ham from Tennessee's Ed Rice, and I could stay for a while. A luscious but zippy steak tartare paired with Lancaster cheddar crisps for scooping, as well as those nutmeg-scented duck meatballs glazed in a creamy Swedish gravy, were further proof it's a good idea.

With well-made cocktails to explore (the Gibson, a honeyed Gold Rush, and smokey Oaxacan Penicillin were favorites) and an excellent collection of esoteric Euro wines assembled by general manager Nancy Benussi, there are multiple good choices for drink pairings with every dish, with dry whites from Macedonia and Majorca, earthy mid-weight reds from the Loire, Beaujolais, and Burgenland, even a handful of sparkling curiosities from Sussex, England.

I loved the creamy citrus notes of a Corsican vermentino-chardonnay blend (Domaine de Terra Vecchia Ile de Beaute) with the delicately baked Cape May oysters dusted in buttery crumbs. Something crisper, or even one of the intriguing bubblies (the Austrian gruner or Contratto from Piedmont), would be ideal for the gorgeous salad of razor clams. Their blade-shaped shells served as slender spoons for mounds of tender diced clam with juicy bits of apple in a tarragon vinaigrette dusted with horseradish snow.

A hefty sagrantino-sangiovese Montefalco blend from Umbria was the right move for the lamb crepinette. But that Franken-lamb was my biggest letdown on the menu  a chop wrapped in braised meat then a layer of overcooked sausage for a giant meat mallet that was more of a chef's caul fat parlor trick than a meaningful tribute to lamb.

The fact that there were only three desserts was another small disappointment in itself, a concession to the lack of pastry chef. But that was softened by the simple delight of the Pennsylvania "sugar pie" with huckleberry puree and the creamy frozen nougat with brandied cherries and pistachios that Elmi's crew pulled off fine.

There were too many successes to dwell on a few shortcomings. I can't imagine a breast of duck more perfectly cooked than this one, lusciously pink and lightly gamy flavor, its softness edged by a crisply rendered skin that played against fermented quince, micro-turnips, and soft coins of sweet potato. Tiny poussin is roasted over cauliflower and pickled apples. Pork cheeks are braised until the meat just barely holds together, then practically melts off the fork-fresh chestnuts roasted in Armagnac.

The scallops are both delicate and stunningly rich, dabbed with the earthy poufs of frothed porcini and vermouth, trumpet mushrooms, squash puree, and the salty-sweet crumbles of pumpkin seed granola. There's only one pasta, a seemingly simple farfalle with lobster. But I can't stop thinking about how every element vibrates with flavor. The handmade bow ties had the perfect al dente snap, but also exuded the oceanic glow of having been boiled in lobster stock. Scattered with nuggets of moist lobster meat and glossed in a truffle butter filled with fines herbs and lemon, each bite was solid gold seafood pasta luxury.

With such refined delicacies to occupy the gourmands, is it wrong I feel just as obsessed about Boucherie's burger? It's another double-pattied entry into the Big Mac upgrade rally that's been happily rising across the region, from a.kitchen to Butcher Bar, Rooster Soup Co. and Stove & Tap in the burbs. Royal B. has an ace in Steve Forte, who has revised the juicy beauty I kvelled over when he was at Meritage, and amped it with Breakaway Farms Lancaster beef, a delicate blade of bacon, truffled black garlic mayo, and a pain au lait bun from Machine Shop that, with its ability to remain soft without falling a apart, is the ideal frame for this fistful of juicy pleasure.

Also, those pork fat fries.

Yes, the place might look like a vintage saloon with classic cocktails, traditional French pleasures, and a rambling upstairs that brings to mind a Victorian bordello. But Royal Boucherie is very much a beautiful creation of our own era, wrapped in an air of history, but with an eye on making Old City great again.Students walk between buildings at Westminster Choir College in Princeton, NJ on March 3, 2017. DAVID MAIALETTI / Staff Photographer Read more

Rider University can continue negotiating the controversial sale of its century-old Westminster Choir College, a judge ruled Friday.

The decision in federal court in Trenton came as the university's faculty union, the American Association of University Professors, sought an injunction to stop any sale while arbitration over pending layoffs looms.

In October, the university announced plans to lay off 70 faculty members, both full-time and part-time, on Aug. 31. School officials have said the potential buyer plans to rehire the professors, but the union is skeptical and is contesting the layoffs.

University officials have not identified the prospective new owner of the celebrated school, but described it as an "international partner from Asia" who intends to hire the college's faculty after a deal is finalized.

In blocking the injunction, U.S. District Judge Peter G. Sheridan said the school had fulfilled its obligation to notify professors of layoffs and enter into arbitration.

"The professors are looking to preserve the job not for the money but because it is a great job," he said, but "Rider will continue to be an ongoing institution next year  there's a remedy here for professors as they go to arbitration."

Throughout the nearly four-hour hearing, Rider's attorneys contended that Westminster has added to the university's financial troubles. Rider has been working to stem its deficit by increasing enrollment, but its lawyers said in court papers that Westminster's costly one-on-one instructional model and low student-faculty ratio posed a burden.

The music conservatory, on a separate 23-acre Princeton campus, has seen total deficits of $10.7 million over the last three years, according to court documents. It enrolls around 400 students each year and tuition is a little over $37,000 annually, according to its website. Rider, with its main campus in Lawrenceville, has a total enrollment around 4,000.

"This is a step in the direction that Rider needs to go," Michael Lebowich, an attorney representing the university from New York-based law firm Proskauer Rose, said of the planned sale.

Rider spokeswoman Kristine Brown said the university is working to finalize a term sheet with the prospective buyer and aims to complete the deal this spring.

"Rider is engaging in this process to find a partner for Westminster to ensure the future of the college is long," she said. "Westminster is still operating, open, and recruiting a class for next year."

In the courtroom were a handful of professors from Westminster Choir College and Rider University who were disappointed by the judge's decision.

Joel Phillips, a professor of music theory and composition at the college, said he has been teaching at the school, his "second home," for 33 years. He said he was blindsided by the layoff notice.

Despite assurances that the buyer will rehire the professors, Phillips said, he feels uneasy.

"Those are wishful thoughts. The school will have their hands washed if Westminster is sold," he said. "Show me a piece of paper that says [the buyer] is committed to that."

Jeff Halpern, the union's chief grievance officer, said the group would consider appealing Friday's decision.

At an arbitration hearing set for March 29, Halpern said, the union will argue that the layoffs breach its contract and will present audits showing that Westminster Choir College is not in a financial crisis.

"This is not the end of the line for us," he said.

Founded in 1926, the college merged with Rider University in 1992. Its symphonic choir has performed with major orchestras throughout the United States and Europe, including the New York Philharmonic, and at the New York World's Fairs in 1939-40 and 1964-65.A 21-year-old man was in stable condition after being shot on a SEPTA Regional Rail platform in North Philadelphia late Friday afternoon, police said.

The victim was waiting in a shelter area on the northbound side of the North Broad Street Station about 4:50 p.m. when he was shot in the back and wrist, said Chief Inspector Scott Small. The victim ran into a train that had just stopped and was aided by SEPTA Transit Police. He was taken by medics to Temple University Hospital.

The victim was not cooperating with police, Small said. Five spent shell casings were recovered on the platform.

SEPTA reported residual delays on the Regional Rail system.Though American Ballet Theatre principals James Whiteside and Isabella Boylston have long displayed their envy-worthy friendship on Instagram, this week the Cindies (their nickname for each other) offered viewers an even deeper glimpse into their world. While on tour with ABT at the Kennedy Center, the duo sat down in front of the camera to answer some questions from their fans via Facebook Live.

Starbucks in hand, they discuss their mutual love of food (particularly pasta and Japanese curry), the story behind the Cindy nickname and what its like picking up contemporary choreography versus classical. Boylston also delves into her experience guesting with the Paris Opera Ballet, her dream of choreographing an avant-garde ballet on Whiteside to a Carly Rae Jepsen song and best and worst Kennedy Center memories (like the time she fell onstage while doing fouettes at the end of La Bayaderes first act).

Whiteside, on the other hand, imitates a unicorn, talks about preparing for roles and creates a new middle name for Boylston. The twosome also offer heartfelt advice for aspiring professional dancers.

Check out the highlights in this video below; for the full 24-minute version, click here.Investigators at the scene where a Caldwell County (TX) Sheriff's deputy was shot multiple times Friday night. (Photo: KXAN screen shot)

A Caldwell County (TX) Sheriffs Office deputy was shot multiple times and seriously wounded Friday morning.

The deputy was flown to a trauma center. At 12:21 p.m. the Texas Department of Public Safety said he was in stable condition.

Deputies responded to a call on Hidden Oak Road in Dale, Texas, around midnight. Thats when someone fired at them. One deputy was shot multiple times. Officials have not yet said why deputies were originally called out to the scene. Two suspects are reportedly in custody, KXAN reports.ShotSpotter has announced an agreement with Verizon to bring the ShotSpotter solution to cities by leveraging Verizon's Light Sensory Network, an IoT platform deployed on street lights.

Verizon's Light Sensory Network is part of Verizon's Smart Communities technology, which offers a range of services to cities including lighting control, traffic analytics, parking optimization, public safety support and now gunshot detection.

By utilizing a city's lighting infrastructure, it will now be easier and more cost effective to deploy ShotSpotter gunshot detection capability in key urban locations and cover a much broader area in cities, according to ShotSpotter. With the ubiquity of street lighting in nearly every area in a city, the company says now the entire city can benefit from near real-time alerts to gunfire.

ShotSpotter is used in more than 85 cities across the country to help law enforcement agencies reduce gun violence. Through its acoustic sensing capability and enterprise-grade software, ShotSpotter can detect and locate gunfire in near real time. Alerts are then broadcast to 911 dispatch centers, patrol cars and even smartphones, with the location, number of rounds fired, and approximate number of shooters, to law enforcement and public safety officials. These alerts are designed to help enable first responders to get to the gunfire location quickly and aid victims, collect evidence and apprehend offenders.

"We are very pleased to add ShotSpotter to our Smart Communities solution suite in the interest of supporting public safety in communities throughout the U.S.," said Sean Harrington, Vice President of City Solutions, Smart Communities at Verizon. "The combination of the nation's most reliable network with a leader in the gunshot detection industry deployed across street lights can create a robust and cost effective solution to help cities fight gun violence."

"Verizon's Light Sensory Network, part of their Smart Communities technology suite, is an ideal platform for ShotSpotter to be deployed more broadly and more affordably in key areas of a city," said Ralph A. Clark, President and CEO of ShotSpotter. "We are already helping communities across the country to address chronic gun violence issues, and with the increasing interest in IoT, we have even more opportunities to partner and leverage city infrastructure to expand this critical public safety tool to more cities.

"In 2017, we continued to shape Sacramento as an urban technology lab by entering into a $100 million public-partnership with Verizon," said Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg. "With this partnership, we are helping to increase access with free Wi-Fi, to bridge the city's digital divide, and to build infrastructure in support of our evolving technology ecosystem. The tools provided by this partnership allow us to leverage the capabilities of the Verizon backbone to use technologies such as ShotSpotter as part of the city's public safety efforts."

For more information, visit www.shotspotter.com.1.4k SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard

Intelligence Committee member Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) raised doubts as to whether Devin Nunes has even read his own memo that was released today.

Video:

Rep. Eric Swalwell suggests that Devin Nunes hasn't read his own memo. pic.twitter.com/pwILNNpXzv  Sarah Reese Jones (@PoliticusSarah) February 3, 2018

Swalwell said on MSNBCs All In with Chris Hayes, Devin Nunes has not even read the FISA application. He also said that in the interview. Im not convinced that hes read his memo. There was evidence disclosed that demonstrated the political motivations.

Devin Nunes is not only corrupt. Just like Trump, he is also lazy, ignorant, and stupid. The Republicans who are trying to get Trump out of the Russia investigation are just as dumb as he is. It is the blind leading the blind. There is no master plan or brilliant scheme. What happened is that a group of Republican idiots fell upwards into power, and now they are trying BS and bully their way out of a criminal investigation.

Rep. Nunes is dumb as a rock, and if this is the person who Trump is counting to be the tip of his spear in the counterattack against the Russia investigation, this president is going down fast.1.8k SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard

Rep. Jackie Speier (D-CA) busted Trump on CNN for running memo plot from the White House as she made it publicly known that none of the Republicans pushing the memo read the 50 page FISA warrant against Carter Page.

Video:

House Intel Democrat Rep. Jackie Speier says the FISA warrant application on Carter Page was 50 pages long. pic.twitter.com/DwCo20YgkN  Sarah Reese Jones (@PoliticusSarah) February 3, 2018

Speier said on CNNs Erin Burnett Out Front, First of all, we know now that this memo has been released, that its really a political document. Its political talking points. And it was written by one staffer, the author of the memo, the chairman, Nunes, never even took the time to read the underlying FISA application of 50 pages. There were only three members of the committee that even had access to that. And yet we were taking on faith this political document and allowing it to become public? I mean, thats how low they have gone in terms of trying to protect the president. And I think its all being orchestrated out of the White House. And the entities that they are now criticizing are run by Republicans. So it really smacks of just a bad effort to try and, once again, create another distraction.

With Devin Nunes involved, it is a certainty that this was a White House operation. Nunes refused to answer when asked during an Intelligence Committee meeting if he had communicated with or if the White House had written the memo. It is obvious that the White House didnt just see the memo recently. This was a Trump run scam, an effort to conspire with his lackey in the House to abuse his oversight power to give the President cover to fire Rod Rosenstein.

The memo was a Trump run operation, which is why it was no surprise when the whole thing laughably fell apart.798 SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard

Lets consider the totality of Trumps policy on immigration.

The people ICE is deporting are overwhelmingly people of color. Trump wants Muslims banned. That was the objective of his first travel ban, the second and the one that is currently winding its way through the courts.

He wants to reduce entry to the United States by people from shit hole countries, meaning countries that are mostly populated by people of color. He really longs for more Norwegians (preferably Nobel Laureates, super athletes and women with super grabbable p*ssies). Its undeniable that Trump is saying when it comes to immigrating to America, only white people need apply, people with blond hair and blue eyes are preferred.

I apologize for the graphic description. I dont apologize for the sentiment behind it because there is only one conclusion that can be drawn when one looks at the totality of Trumps policies. If we look at Trumps vision for immigration reform and we look at who is being picked up by ICE, we see the disturbing picture that reminds me of the ethnic cleansing that occurred in what used to be Yugoslavia. Muslims were the main target of the predominantly Slavic and mostly ethnic Serb country.

In varying degrees, Serbia, Croatia and the other former Yugoslav Republics tried to achieve ethnic purity through, mass deportations, and worse. The notable exception was Melania Trumps native Slovenia, which was already all but ethnically pure before the Balkans wars and the subsequent break up Yugoslavia. Trivia Point: Russia used its power as a permanent member of the UNSC to run interference for Serbia.

While mass deportation of people based on race or ethnicity may appear to be more humane the objective is the same: its about destroying the community in whole or in part. So when a president establishes policies to deport virtually exclusively people of color and establish immigration policy that excludes them from lawfully immigrating here, there is only one conclusion that can be made. Trump is trying to ethnically cleanse people of color from America.

If the merit based immigration system Trump and other Republicans are heavily promoting was about merit, meaning achievement, Trump would welcome people of color, rather than calling them the worst of the worst sent by shit hole countries. The ratio of immigrants from Africa and Haiti who have post-secondary degrees is higher than the ratio of native born Americans with post-secondary degrees.

Facts show that Trumps immigration policies have nothing to do with merit.

You can have multiple professional degrees, run a successful business, save lives or fight American wars. But if you are a person of color, no matter what you do, no matter what you accomplish, you arent welcomed in Trumps America.

Immigrants are doctors, lawyers, writers, teachers, business people. They are also people who clean American houses; care for our children; pick our crops, build our buildings, roads and bridges; cook our meals and make our beds.

Immigrants are people and like any category of people they come with a diversity of characteristics, abilities, strengths and goals. This begs the question, who is going to fill the shoes of people that Trump et al claim contribute nothing to the economy, but who filled jobs Americans dont want?

Like native born Americans, immigrants have goals and dreams, families they love and who love them. This isnt rocket science, nor is it political correctness. Its recognizing the fault lines between the real world and the evil fiction Trump is trying to make reality.

I wont suggest that no immigrant in the history of America has ever committed a crime. But, in terms of risk an immigrant is more likely to be law abiding than a native born American.

It isnt because one group of people is inherently good and the other is not. Its because immigrants face higher stakes if they break the law. Even the tiniest infraction can result in deportation.

As I write, Dr. Lukasz R. Niec an internist who lived in Michigan for forty years, is in custody awaiting deportation proceedings. The basis on which he was arrested by ICE, minor legal infractions when he was seventeen.

Trump is deporting veterans. People who the white supremacists consider good enough to fight our wars, but not good enough to live here.

One such person is a Chicago resident, Miguel Perez jr. He was brought to the United States when he was eight years old. He served in Afghanistan twice. His two children are American citizens. But, the only thing that matters to serial draft dodger Trump is that Perez was convicted on drug charges. Deportation proceedings are on-going. Meanwhile, Perez is on a hunger strike and hes seeking a pardon from the Governor of Illinois.

Or how about the couple ICE arrested at a hospital where their son was having surgery. Neither of them has a criminal record. What about the two fathers who were arrested dropping their kids off at a New Jersey school? The third father ICE was after took refuge at a church. Their story of coming to America, according to WPIX:

WPIX reported that the three men entered the United States in the 1990s from Indonesia in an attempt to escape violence against Christians there. All three fathers children were born in the United States, thus making the children US citizens.

In El Paso, Texas ICE officials arrested a woman at a court house. She was there to testify against her domestic abuser. Heres the kicker. Its possible her domestic abuser was the one who tipped ICE.

As a direct result of Trump policies, domestic violence reports by Latinas dropped by 10%. It also follows that this policy empowers domestic abusers more and further disempowers their victims. In other words, aside from being the Republican partys rhetorical punching bag, undocumented immigrant women live with the very real fear that if they report domestic abuse, their abuser can turn them into ICE.

With the exception of Dr. Niec, the one thing the rest of the people I described have in common is they are people of color. Trump is ethnic cleansing America, under the pretense of enforcing immigration law.

One might assume that the life of hell that Trump created for immigrants with his rhetoric, his mass deportation program, his desire to establish a white nationalist immigration policy is deserved by human beings who are routinely dehumanized with labels like illegals, criminal aliens,aliens and related terminology.

It doesnt end with the rhetoric and the deportations. Immigrants families can include American citizens, who suffer the consequences that come with policies designed to tear families apart. There is no escaping the fact that policies designed to dehumanize immigrants hurt the American citizens in their families too.

Trumps idea of an immigration reform includes elimination or serious restrictions on family reunification. This amounts to telling present and future immigrants the price of coming to America includes permanently abandoning any hope of bringing your family with you. Contrary to the hairy, scary monster images conjured by the anti-immigrant crowd, were talking immediate family: parents, children, spouses.

If Trump was still a third rate reality show star, his hostility toward immigrants wouldnt matter. But as the president, Trump is the face of America to the world  including future Nobel Prize Laureates and people who do work that is honorable but unappreciated in terms of its contribution to the economy.

Im reminded of what Trumps first wife, Ivana, said in 2016 in her attempt to defend the policies on immigration Trump hoped to achieve.

As long as you come here legally and get a proper job  we need immigrants. Whos going to vacuum our living rooms and clean up after us? Americans dont like to do that,

I doubt there will be many blond, blue-eyed Nobel Laureates who will abandon their dignity, along with their families, careers and quality of life so they can come here to clean up after us.HSINCHU, Taiwan and WUHAN, China, Feb. 3, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- JHL Biotech (TPEx: 6540) announced that the Taipei Exchange ("TPEx") granted approval on February 2 for the termination of trading of JHL's shares on the Emerging Stock Market of TPEx. JHL had submitted an application to voluntarily delist from TPEx. JHL's Board of Directors believes this is in the best interests of the company and its shareholders because it enables JHL to pursue planned expansion activities and to explore various fundraising strategies (including potentially listing on an overseas exchange).

TPEx granted approval via Approval Letter No.: 10700029171. JHL shares will cease to trade on the Emerging Stock Market of TPEx as of February 17, 2018. During the period from February 17, 2018 to April 7, 2018, JHL will purchase the shares eligible for sale at the price of NT$63 per share, pursuant to relevant laws.

Media Contact:

Jill Liu, [email protected], phone: +886 3-658-3899

Amber Chen, [email protected], phone: +886 3-658-3899

About JHL Biotech

JHL Biotech, Inc. is a biopharmaceutical startup founded by a group of industry veterans with deep experience in pharmaceutical development and operations. JHL is backed by premier financial firms, including Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Sequoia Capital, Biomark Capital, Milestone Capital, Fidelity, and the China Development Industrial Bank. JHL Biotech's mission is to provide the world with low-cost medicines of exceptional quality. JHL is focused on research and development of new protein-based therapies and biosimilars. JHL is developing proposed biosimilars to rituximab, dornase alfa, bevacizumab, and trastuzumab. JHL1101, JHL's proposed rituximab biosimilar, is undergoing clinical trials in the European Union. In addition to biosimilars, JHL also co-develops innovative new molecules and provides contract manufacturing services to select clients. JHL has two world-class facilities built in accordance with United States, European Union, and ICH cGMP regulations and standards. For more information, please visit www.jhlbiotech.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements. Statements in this press release are not historical facts, including but not limited to the statements regarding JHL's future plans and its ability to complete the proposed Voluntary Delisting and maximize shareholder value, represent only the current expectations, assumptions, estimates and projections of the Company and are forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements involve various risks and uncertainties. Important risks and uncertainties that could cause the actual results to be materially different from expectations include but are not limited to, capital markets conditions. The Company does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statement, except as required under applicable law.

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/333015/jhl_Logo.jpg

Related Links

http://www.jhlbiotech.com



SOURCE JHL Biotech, Inc.PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad and Tobago, Feb. 2, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- On Carnival Sunday February 11, 2018, eleven of the world's finest bartenders will demonstrate their inventiveness and skill as they find creative uses for world-famous ANGOSTURA aromatic bitters, ANGOSTURA orange bitters, Angostura Rums and Amaro di ANGOSTURA in a Cocktail Competition like no other.

Photo -https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/637315/Angostura_GCC_18_Judges_ad_FAW_screens.jpg

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/637316/GCC_18_Bartenders_ad_FAW_press_2.jpg

Each finalist has survived the fierce rivalry of the early rounds of the Challenge, in which 260 participants competed from 47 countries. Only the best of the best have made it to T&T!

Now, in the final round from which only one true champion can emerge, the contestants must make two cocktails in just seven minutes: A "Rum Cocktail" (made with one or more of Angostura's rums plus ANGOSTURA aromatic bitters and/or ANGOSTURA orange bitters) and an "Amaro Cocktail" (made with Amaro di ANGOSTURA).

The ultimate winner of the Finals takes home a cash prize of US$10,000, the title of "Angostura Global Cocktail Challenge Champion 2018," and a two-year contract as Angostura's Global Brand Ambassador, representing ANGOSTURA aromatic bitters, ANGOSTURA orange bitters, Angostura Rums and Amaro di ANGOSTURA.

Individual trophies will also be awarded for the "Best Rum Cocktail" and the Best Freestyle Cocktail."

Judging the competition will be a world-famous panel led by renowned drinks personality, Mike Ryan, Director of Bars at Kimpton Hotels, with more than 15 years of experience in mixology, bartender education and developing new bar concepts. The other five judges are Monica Berg holder of the Linie Honorary Award for ambassadorship for Norwegian food & drink, JJ Goodman, founder and owner of The London Cocktail Club bar group, Sandrae Lawrence of The Cocktail Lovers magazine, Neal Ramdhan of Trinidad and Tobago, Angostura Global Cocktail Challenge Champion 2016, and Carol Homer-Caesar, Trinidad and Tobago: Angostura's Senior Manager - Blending, New Product Development & Quality Assurance.

The eleven finalists include Leesha Marcellin of Antigua, Martin Tummino of Argentina, Daniel Gregory of Australia, Maximiliano Vallee Valletta of Canada, Pedro Martinez of France, Johnny Mansour of Lebanon, Joshua Ivanovic of Malaysia, Ray Letoa of New Zealand, Kishion Guillaume of Trinidad and Tobago, Thomas Kirk of the UK, and Alexander Kirles of the USA.

The competition will be held at The House of Angostura in Laventille.

For more information visit www.AngosturaGlobalCocktailChallenge.com .

Related Links

http://www.angostura.com



SOURCE House of AngosturaThiruvananthapuram, Jan 30 : CPI-M state Secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan on Tuesday brushed aside fraud allegations against his son, even as the opposition has alleged that the ruling Left was trying to hush up the matter.

Addressing reporters at Thrissur, Balakrishnan said: "This issue has occurred in Dubai and before us here (in Kerala) there are no issues.

"I do not know why the Arab person is travelling here on this issue, It's better for him to tackle this in his country. Moreover Binoy is in Dubai. No one has met me on this issue," said Balakrishnan, and added that it's not correct to use the party forum to discuss the issue.

"You felt that this issue is going to be a big issue. Don't worry, everything is fine," added the top CPI-M leader.

Meanwhile, state BJP general secretary K. Surendran pointed out that hectic damage control operations are currently going on to settle the issue of Rs 13 crore alleged fraud committed by Binoy Balakrishnan, the elder son of Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, with a Dubai-based company.

A three-page letter, dated January 5, from H.I.A.Al Marzooqi, sponsor of the Dubai company which was made available to the media states that he has started legal procedures against Binoy for the alleged fraud.

"The UAE national and his counsel was in Alappuzha for the past two days as two legislators and a few top CPI-M leaders are engaged in hectic parleys to settle the issue," said Surendran.

The issue had surfaced in the state assembly last week with the Leader of Opposition Ramesh Chennithala taking the case up, which led to angry exchanges between the treasury and opposition benches, forcing the opposition to walk out.

On Tuesday, former Congress state Minister K.C. Joseph raised the issue with the Speaker, pointing out that the video of the Kerala Assembly proceedings of January 25 does not contain the issue of Binoy that was raised by Chennithala in the House.

Replying, Speaker P. Sreeramakrishnan said that after Chennithala raised the issue a few members had complained that some statements of his needed to be expunged.

"According to the general norm, when a complaint is raised it has to be looked into and once that is done it will be put up," said Sreeramakrishnan.

Meanwhile, eyebrows have been raised after Ram Kishor Singh Yadav, the counsel of Al Marzooqi, has booked the Trivandrum Press Club hall here to hold a press meet on February 5 to "explain the real facts" and share documents related to the controversial case in UAE involving Kerala persons.

Yadav is the additional advocate general of Uttar Pradesh.

A senior Congress leader on condition of anonymity told IANS that what's happening now is that a "settlement" is going on and if not why should someone book a press meet one week in advance and let that be known to the world.

The image of the CPI-M in general and Kodiyeri Balakrishnan in particular has taken a severe beating over the issue, especially as the CPI-M state secretary is all set to seek another three-year term in office. The issue also comes ahead of the assembly by-election at Chengannur, following the death of its legislator K.K. Ramachandran Nair early this month.Srinagar, Jan 31 : Another youth injured in security force firing in Shopian district on Saturday succumbed to injuries on Wednesday taking the toll of civilian deaths in the incident to three.

Sources in the Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS) here said 19-year-old Rayees Ahmad admitted in the hospital on Saturday succumbed on Wednesday morning.

With this the death toll in Ganowpora village firing rose to three. Javaid Ahmad and Suhail Ahmad were killed in the army firing when a stone pelting mob attacked an administrative convoy of 10 Garhwal unit on Saturday.

Army said its personnel had fired in self-defence after a junior level officer fell unconscious following the mob attack.

Police has registered an FIR of murder against the soldiers of the unit.

The BJP has demanded withdrawal of the FIR while the Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti said the investigation into the killings of the civilians would be taken to its logical conclusion.

A magisterial probe has also been ordered by the state government into the firing incident.New Delhi, Jan 31 : The Uttar Pradesh government in its report to the Union Home Ministry on Wednesday said it was in the process of ascertaining if the violence and arson were pre-planned in Kasganj where communal riots broke out after a youth was killed on Republic Day.

In the report, the Uttar Pradesh Police said it "swung into action after the violence was reported and brought it under control quickly", according to Home Ministry officials.

It mentioned about the arrests made by the police and the circumstances leading to the death of 22-year-old Chandan Gupta.

"All facts are being ascertained to know if violence was pre-planned or not," said the report.

The Uttar Pradesh government's move comes a day after the Home Ministry sought a detailed report on the incident and the current situation in the state, including on measures taken to ensure peace in the district.

Meanwhile, Inspector General (Aligarh range) Sanjeev Gupta said the Uttar Pradesh Police has arrested the main accused in the Kasganj arson. He was identified as Salim.

Kasganj S.P. Piyush Srivastava said that notices pertaining to attachment of properties of the accused earlier arrested in connection with the violence have been pasted on their houses.

Following the killing of the youth, three shops, two buses, and a car were burnt by a violent mob. The district administration said it had taken a slew of measures to contain lingering tension, with the state government removing the Superintendent of Police.

As many as 118 persons have been arrested in connection with the violence, according to inputs with the Home Ministry's Control Room.

Besides police, units of the anti-riot Rapid Action Force have been deployed in sensitive locations in the district to check untoward incidents, a senior Home Ministry official said.Agra, Jan 31 : Supporters of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and other Hindutva organisations on Wednesday took out a procession and two-wheeler rally in Agra in Uttar Pradesh despite restrictions imposed on the assembly of four or more persons in the town.

Though the district administration had deployed additional security at road crossings and localities inhabited by members of a particular community and also imposed Section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (banning assembly of four or more persons), no efforts were made to stop the processionists riding two-wheelers through the town's main streets.

A few of the processionists raised provocative slogans also.

Holding Tricolours, the rallyists marched from the Shaheed Smarak to the Collectorate headquarters to present a memorandum to the District Magistrate to demand Rs 50 lakh compensation for the family of Chandan Gupta, who was killed in the Kasganj violence.

They also demanded a government job for one member of the bereaved family, a plot of land and action against anti-national elements in Kasganj.

Communal clashes were reported in Kasganj on Republic Day on January 26, in which one youth was killed following a 'Tiranga Yatra' by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh-affiliated Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad and the Vishva Hindu Parishad.

Unidentified miscreants had pelted the motorcycle rally with stones. Chandan was killed, several persons injured and dozens of vehicles damaged in the ensuing clashes.Lucknow/Delhi, Jan 31 : As the situation in violence-hit Kasganj district was "normal" on Wednesday, Uttar Pradesh Police said a key accused had been arrested while the state government told the Centre it was probing if the violence was pre-planned.

Inspector General of Police (Aligarh Range) Sanjeev Gupta said main accused Salim Javed had been arrested for the arson reported on the Republic Day.

Based on leads provided by Salim, the police said, it was looking for his accused brothers Naseem and Waseem, reportedly close to the opposition Samajwadi Party.

Police claimed an illegal firearm had been seized from Salim's house and that he had admitted to shooting at 22-year-old Chandan Gupta, who died later, leading to a spate of arson and mob violence in Kasganj.

Kasganj Superintendent of Police Piyush Srivastava said notices for attachment of properties of the accused arrested earlier for the violence have been pasted on their houses.

The stringent National Security Act would be slapped on the accused, the police said. It said investigators are trying to find other linkages through pictures of certain persons found in an album seized from Salim's house.

The police have arrested a few leaders and workers of the Rashtriya Lok Dal, after they were trying to enter the strife-torn areas to meet people affected by the violence.

As many as 145 persons have been arrested in connection with the violence so far.

A tense calm prevails in the town with residents on the edge due to apprehensions of more trouble.

Security deployment continues in the district, with extensive police patrolling going on. Besides police, units of anti-riot Rapid Action Force were deployed in sensitive locations in the district to check untoward incidents.

The Uttar Pradesh government sent a detailed report to the Home Ministry, saying "all facts are being ascertained to know if violence was pre-planned or not" in Kasganj.

A day earlier, the Ministry had sought a report on the violence and the current situation in the state, including on measures taken to ensure peace in the district.

In the report, the Uttar Pradesh Police said it "swung into action after the violence was reported and quickly brought it under control," according to Ministry officials.

It mentioned the arrests made and the circumstances leading to one death.

Following the young man's killing, three shops, two buses, and a car were burnt by a violent mob. The district administration said it had taken a slew of measures to contain lingering tension, with the state government removing the Superintendent of Police.New Delhi/Bengaluru, Jan 31 : The much awaited "Supermoon" became visible in India a little later than expected on Wednesday but when it did, millions of stargazers across the country relished the rare celestial triple delight with a sense of awe.

The January 31 sighting of a "Blue Moon" and a total lunar eclipse occurred in India for the first time after 1982.

While the Moon was in the Earth's shadow, it took on a reddish tint known as a "Blood Moon".

During the eclipse, the Moon was just a day past perigee which is the closest point to Earth in its orbit -- making it appear very large and bright (about 14 per cent) -- and so a "Supermoon".

Lastly, it is also the second full moon of the month, commonly known as a "Blue Moon". The last full Moon of the month was on January 2.

Many organisations across the country stepped in to enhance the show which was also visible to the naked eye.

View more pictures of this spectacular lunar experience here

SPACE India, a start-up focused on astronomy education and astro-tourism services, organised several events at various locations across the country to observe the phenomenon from 6 p.m.-9.30 p.m.

At India Gate, SPACE India used the Dobsonian telescope which gave a very clear and crisp view of the "Supermoon".

The instrument allowed skywatchers to view the Moon 20 times bigger than it appears to the naked eye.

"Apart from Delhi, Space India organised the event in five other cities -- Chennai, Bengaluru, Surat, Dehradun and Meerut - and also at DAV school in Gurgaon. Over 500 people gathered at India Gate to watch this phenomenon," Dr. Mila Mitra, Scientific Officer, Head, Research and Publications, told IANS.

Yashwe, a 7th class student from St. Thomas School at Mandir Marg, said: "It's a rare opportunity and being a member of an astronomy club, I feel delighted after watching the eclipse live."

In Bengaluru, thousands of stargazers gathered at the Nehru Planetarium in the city and other open spaces to catch a glimpse of the celestial spectacle.

"This lunar eclipse is special because a Supermoon (when Moon appears larger than usual when its closest to Earth), blue Moon (second full Moon of each month) and blood Moon (Moon appears red during eclipse) will all coincide at once," its Director Pramod G. Galgali told IANS.

The planetarium in the city centre had hundreds of children, students and adults queuing up to view the once in a Blue Moon event clearly through telescopes and binoculars.

The Indian Institute of Astrophysics in Bengaluru had also set up few telescopes in open spaces for public viewing of the eclipse.

Not just a visual treat, but the celestial spectacle was an opportunity for astronomers to study Earth's natural satellite, the Moon.

"The lunar eclipse would give scientists a special opportunity to study the Moon using the astronomer's equivalent of a heat-sensing, or thermal camera," NASA said in a statement earlier.

The Moon, which goes around the Earth in an elliptical orbit, gets closest to the Earth at one point -- known as perigee.

Several Hindu temples were shut across the state on Wednesday, with many devout Hindus staying away from eating till the end of lunar eclipse, as it is feared to be inauspicious.

Renowned Hindu worship places in Karnataka like Manjunatheshwara Temple in Dharmasthala, 300 km from Bengaluru and Krishna Mutt in Udupi, about 400 km from Bengaluru, were shut till the end of the eclipse at about 9.30 p.m.

-- With inputs from IANSMexico City, Feb 3 : US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has met his Mexican counterpart, Luis Videgaray and they agreed to continue cooperation on bilateral security.

During a brief visit to Mexico in a five-country tour of the region, Tillerson discussed regional topics with Videgaray, including development in Central America.

"Foreign Minister Videgaray reiterated the shared commitment which Mexico and the US have to promote a prosperous and competition region," said the Mexican foreign ministry in a statement on Friday, Xinhua news agency reported.

The US and Mexican officials agreed to continue bilateral dialogue, while strengthening cooperation mechanisms for security, immigration and competitiveness.

Despite being by far Mexico's main trading partner, the US has insisted that the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which both countries are in with Canada, should be renegotiated.

Between January and November 2017, bilateral trade between the US and Mexico was greater than $470 billion, according to official figures.

Tillerson will leave Mexico on Friday afternoon to continue a tour to Argentina, Peru, Colombia and Jamaica, where he will complete his trip on February 7.New York, Feb 3 : Indian American lawyer Kashyap "Kash" Patel is the author of the controversial Republican memo critical of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and some Justice Department officials that is roiling the American political landscape, according to media reports.

Patel drafted the document that asserts that there were improprieties in the FBI probe into alleged connections between President Donald Trump's campaign and the Russian government.

The memo prepared on behalf of the Republican members of the House Intelligence Committee was made public on Friday after Trump cleared its release despite opposition from the FBI and the Democrats.

Patel is on the staff of Representative Devin Nunes, the Republican who is chairman of the committee.

Quoting sources according "familiar with the memo," Daily Beast said that Patel "read the highly classified intelligence it's based on (something the Justice Department indicates Nunes has not done), drafted the memo, and then dealt with FBI and Justice Department efforts to keep it from being released to the public."

He formerly worked for the National Security Division of the Justice Department, s National Security Division as a counter-terrorism prosecuter, Daily Beast reported.

He joined the committee as a senior counter-terrorism counsel last April.

The crux of the Republcian memo is the allegation that the FBI relied on investigations of Trump that was paid for by the Democratic National Committee and lawyers linked to Hillary Clinton's campaign when applying to a court for permission to wiretap a Trump adviser, Carter Page, and that the FBI did not disclose this fact to the judge.

The anti-Trump dossier was prepared by Christopher Steele, who is described as former British intelligence employee. It was initially commissioned by a right-wing website that was against Trump, but dropped it later and the Democrats then commissioned it.

The memo also alleged that Steele as well as some FBI staffers were anti-Trump and that the wife of Bruce Ohr, a former associate deputy attorney general, worked for FusionGPS, the company through which Steele worked.

The Democrats, who have prepared a counter memo, have said the Republican document is an attempt to wreck the image of the FBI and derail the Russia investigation.

They maintain that the FBI and the courts did not rely on the controversial dossier to get the wiretap approved and that the FBI and Justice Department officials were being smeared.

Patel had made news in 2016 while working for the Justice Department by not wearing a tie while appearing in a federal court.

During a terrorism trial, Patel appeared informally dressed as he had just landed there from Central Asia, abovethelaw.com, reported. Judge Lynn Hughes admonished him for the way he was dressed and demanded to see his passport.

(Arul Louis can be reached at arul.l@ians.in)Washington, Feb 3 : US President Donald Trump has discussed over phone with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe the situation on the Korean Peninsula and the relocation of a US base in Japan.

The White House said in a statement on Friday that Trump and Abe also discussed the pending relocation of a US Marine base on Okinawa and ways to strengthen Japan's defence capabilities including an expanded missile defence system, Xinhua news agency reported.

The situation on the Korean Peninsula remained volatile throughout 2017, as North Korea conducted its sixth nuclear test and the US conducted large-scale military drills with South Korea, sending aircraft carrier groups, strategic bombers, nuclear submarines and other strategic assets there.

Washington has also maintained its so-called "maximum pressure" against North Korea, yet so far the strategy has not achieved its expected goals.

Ri Yong Ho, Foreign Minister of North Korea, has accused the US of undermining inter-Korean reconciliation process and aggravating the situation on the Korean Peninsula on Wednesday in a letter sent to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

The US authorities are "seeking to intentionally aggravate the situation by introducing the strategic assets including nuclear powered aircraft carrier strike groups into the vicinity of the Korean peninsula at a time when north and south of Korea are charting a course of peace together," Ri said in the letter.Washington, Feb 3 : Senior Democrats have warned President Donald Trump not to use a controversial memo as a "pretext" to fire the special counsel probing alleged Russian involvement in the 2016 US election.

Democrats said the memo's release was a "shameful effort to discredit" the FBI and inquiries into Russian meddling.

They warned that such action could trigger a "constitutional crisis not seen since the Nixon era", the BBC reported.

The memo, written by Republicans, accused the FBI of abusing its powers.

Trump approved the declassification of the memo on Friday and said it "revealed a disgraceful story".

The memo focused on the court-approved wiretapping of Carter Page, a foreign policy adviser to the Trump campaign who was put under electronic surveillance by the FBI.

The memo accused the FBI and the Justice Department of using "unsubstantiated evidence" to obtain the October 2016 warrant.

It said that they did not tell the authorities their claim to the warrant was partially based on a dossier funded in part by the rival campaign of Hillary Clinton, the BBC report said.

It also said that the author of that dossier, a former British intelligence agent called Christopher Steele, told a senior Justice Department official that he was "desperate that Trump not win".

Democrats said the release of the memo was aimed at disrupting the probe into alleged links between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin.

Trump, who has consistently denied any such collusion, had in May 2017 even fired former Federal Bureau of Investigation Director James Comey over the probe.

Comey on Friday tweeted that the memo was "dishonest and misleading". The FBI said key facts had been omitted in the memo.

In a statement, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, House Minority Nancy Pelosi and eight other senior Democrats warned Trump against trying to sack special counsel Robert Mueller or Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.

"We write to inform you that we would consider such an unwarranted action as an attempt to obstruct justice in the Russia investigation," the statement said.

They said such action could result in a constitutional crisis not seen since the 1970s when then President Richard Nixon gave orders to fire justice officials involved in the Watergate scandal.

The White House later said "no changes" would be made at the Department of Justice and Rosenstein was fully expected to continue in his job.

Asked about the contents of the memo, Trump said a lot of people should be "ashamed of themselves".

Although Devin Nunes, who commissioned the memo, said it showed "serious violations" of public trust, not all Republicans supported the release of the memo.

Instead, Senator John McCain accused his party colleagues, and Trump, of playing into the hands of Russian President Vladimir Putin, The BBC reported.

"Our nation's elected officials, including the President, must stop looking at this investigation through the warped lens of politics and manufacturing partisan sideshows," he said in a statement.

"If we continue to undermine our own rule of law, we are doing Putin's job for him," Mccain said.: Jaipur: Rajasthan Congress unit President Sachin Pilot celebrates after the party raced ahead of the BJP in the Lok Sabha constituencies of Ajmer and Alwar and the Mandalgarh Assembly seat in ... Image Source: Ravishankar Vyas/IANS

Rajasthan Congress unit President Sachin Pilot celebrates after the party raced ahead of the BJP in the Lok Sabha constituencies of Ajmer and Alwar and the Mandalgarh Assembly seat in ... Image Source: Ravishankar Vyas/IANS

New Delhi : The signs which were available about the decline in the influence of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Gujarat's rural areas during the state assembly elections have been substantiated by the drubbing which the BJP has received at the Congress's hands in the byelections in Rajasthan, where the saffron party is in power.

Earlier, the Congress had shown that it might well be on the comeback trail by its success in the Chitrakoot assembly byelection in another BJP-ruled state, Madhya Pradesh. In all these byelections, it was not so much the Congress's victory which was noteworthy as the impressive margins of its success.

Although it is too early to say whether these election trends point to an ebbing of the saffron tide after the overwhelming nature of the wave in 2014 and again in Uttar Pradesh last year, there is little doubt that the BJP has reasons to be concerned.

In fact, the emphasis placed on the rural areas in the latest budget is an indication that the party has taken its setbacks in the Gujarat countryside seriously and is trying to make amends by reaching out to the vulnerable sections.

The proposed health insurance cover for 500 million, 40 per cent of the population, is not unlike the previous government's food security programme for 67 per cent of the people.

More than what happened in Gujarat, where at least the urbanites stood behind the BJP, what the Rajasthan outcome has shown is that all the sections have voted against the ruling party.

The widespread nature of the discontent underlines a deep and extensive popular unhappiness with governance although a minister has sought to explain the party's defeats by referring to the grievances of the Rajputs over the "Padmaavat" film.

But that can only be one of the reasons. What must have also undermined the BJP's prospects is the violence unleashed by either cow vigilantes or individuals railing against the minorities.

While the lawlessness of the gau rakshaks was exemplified by the lynching of a Muslim cattle trader although he was carrying the required permits for his trade, the psychopathic wrath of anti-Muslim elements was evident in the killing of a migrant labourer from West Bengal.

Both these heinous crimes were filmed and repeatedly shown on television, but while the murderers of the cattle trader, Pehlu Khan, have gone scot-free because of the inability of the police to provide credible evidence although the lynching took place in broad daylight in front of cameras, at least the killer of Afrazul Khan, the migrant labourer, has been arrested.

While any other government would have expressed deep shock and dismay over the horrific incidents, the Vasundhara Raje government in Rajasthan has largely remained unperturbed, a trait of indifference to near-anarchic conditions demonstrated by several other BJP-led governments as well such as in Haryana.

What cannot but be worrying for the Narendra Modi-Amit Shah duo is that the virtually unchecked violence of saffron groups like the gau rakshaks or the opponents of love jehad is beginning to take its toll on the BJP's electoral fortunes, notwithstanding all the talk about "Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas" or development for all.

The popular disquiet about the rampaging mobs might have been assuaged if prompt and effective police action was taken and the criminals were put behind bars. But if the absence of such deterrent steps is proving costly for the BJP, the reason is that it is not only the Muslims -- or the Christians who have also been targeted by Hindutva outfits in Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh -- who are feeling insecure, as then Vice President Hamid Ansari pointed out, but the ordinary citizens are also distressed by the prevailing intolerance and intimidation.

Moreover, this atmosphere has been building up virtually from the time the BJP assumed power at the Centre and in several states as was highlighted by the return of national awards by a number of luminaries in the last two years in protest against the deteriorating situation. A recent open letter written by retired bureaucrats also referred to the "deeply disquieting trends" in the public sphere.

It is obvious that unless the governments at the Centre and in the states run by the BJP deal firmly with such rowdy elements, the party's hope of a repeat run of the last general election in 2019 and even improving on its tally, as Amit Shah hopes, will not be fulfilled.

As is not uncommon in India, it is the failure of governments which usually leads to their fall rather than any efforts of the opposition. This tendency is again evident in Rajasthan where the Congress had just to wait in the wings to reap the electoral benefits of its opponent's missteps.

After the humiliating setback in 2014, the Congress is showing signs of revival. But it will be making a mistake if it hopes to make electoral gains solely on the basis of the BJP's inability or unwillingness to control its militant followers.

(Amulya Ganguli is a political analyst. The views expressed are personal. He can be reached at amulyaganguli@gmail.com)New Delhi : Title: Moisture Trapped In a Stone: An Anthology of Modern Telugu Short Stories; Translated from Telugu by K.N. Rao; Publisher: Niyogi Books; Pages: 484; Price: Rs.595 Short stories in regional languages mostly represent their respective cultures and the words are deeply rooted in that particular language and culture. When translated in other languages, especially English, it is a challenge to find equivalent terms while retaining the original essence and message.

Kasukhela Narasimha Rao or K.N. Rao, a nonagenarian, has managed to overcome the challenge while translating 28 selected short stories written by the stalwarts of yesteryears, as also new authors making waves in the realm of Telugu literature.

The book, featuring 17 writers, including nine women, provides non-Telugu readers with an insight into the world of Telugu short stories. The rich diversity of the selected stories, ranging from the serious to the satirical, from light-hearted humour to the gravely discursive makes it all the more interesting.

The stories are about everyday lives and ordinary people, highlighting the issues confronting society and covering a wide spectrum of topics.

Feudalistic prejudices to present-day problems and realities, every story has something fascinating to tell.

For instance "A Gift of Gingelly Seeds" (original Telugu title "Tiladanam") by Rentala Nageswara Rao is about a poor Brahmin priest struggling to make both ends meet and his Maoist son who has gone underground.

"The Citadel in Disrepair" ("Koolina Bruzu") by Kethu Vishwanath Reddy highlights how factional violence ruined a village in the Rayalaseema region of Andhra Pradesh.

"The Meticulous Calculator" ("Lekkala Mastaru") by Vasundhara is an interesting story of a man for whom maths is an anathema, and his wife, who is a master in doing calculations.

"The Cover" ("Dakkan") is about the travails of a Muslim family that migrates to Hyderabad for livelihood and is caught in the swirl of communal tension.

The story that gives the book its title, "Moisture Trapped In a Stone" ("Raathilo Thema) by Madhurantakam Rajaram, describes how the wife of a feudal lord questions his decisions and saves a group of people from persecution.

"The Homing Pigeon" ("Aedarilo Koyila") by Madhurantakam Rajaram captures the journey of a youth to a remote village in Rayalseema in search of his roots.

In fact, seven stories by Rajaram form part of this anthology. "I am a great admirer of Rajaram. Most of his stories are about the teaching community," said Rao, who retired as a lecturer in a college in Chennai.

Rajaram, one of the foremost modern Telugu short story writers, was winner of the Sahitya Akademi award in 1993.

Six of the stories in the anthology are by Vasundhara, the pen name of Dr Jonnalagadda Rajagopala Rao, a retired scientist.

K.N. Rao is himself a short story writer in Telugu and his stories were published in magazines. "But I am not a prolific writer," he says humbly.

The 94-year-old was a teacher of Botany and an author of 30 books on the subject, most of them in English. He was in no way connected with English literature.

However, the love for his mother tongue Telugu and his urge to introduce Telugu writers and their short stories to the outside world made him take up the task of translation.

He feels that Telugu short stories are not as popular as the short stories in other South Indian languages. He always believed that Telugu stories and the writers deserved recognition. He pointed out that "Galivana", a short story by his teacher Palagummi Padmaraju, was adjudged the second-best in a world short story competition conducted by the New York Herald Tribune in 1952.

The centenary of Telugu short stories in 2011 provided a spark to take up the pen and translate some of the stories in English. He translated and printed 53 stories in four volumes with one of the volumes dedicated to women writers.

He then thought of publishing an anthology and approached Mini Krishnan, Translations Editor, Oxford University Press (India), who backed the idea.

K.N. Rao says he received immense help from editor Gita Rajan in picking up the selected short stories and giving them a shape.

"If this helps in getting recognition for Telugu short stories and the writers, I will feel I have done something," K.N. Rao added.

(Mohammed Shafeeq can be contacted at m.shafeeq@ians.in)Washington, Feb 3 : A Russian programmer accused of being the mastermind behind spreading ransomware through a large botnet, was extradited to the US, a statement from the Department of Justice said.

The statement published late Friday, said programmer Pyotr Levashov is "alleged to have controlled and operated the 'Kelihos botnet'.

The botnet was used to distribute hundreds of millions of fraudulent e-mails per year, intercept credentials to online and financial accounts belonging to thousands of Americans and spread ransomware throughout our networks."

The accused who was extradited from Spain was presented before a US Magistrates Court in Connecticut on Friday.

Levashov, 37, with many alias, including Petr Levashov, Peter Severa, Petr Severa and Sergey Astakhov, is from St. Petersburg in Russia, it said.

Levashov was detained on April 7, 2017, by Spanish authorities.

It is alleged that, for years, Levashov profited handsomely by controlling a botnet that infected computers and affected computer users all over the world.

Levashov is facing an eight-count indictment in the US -- with one count each of causing intentional damage to a protected computer, accessing a protected computer to commit fraud, wire fraud, conspiracy, threatening to damage a protected computer and aggravated identity theft.

He was also indicted on two counts of fraud in connection with email, RT News reported.

Levashov pleaded not guilty to all eight counts during his first US court appearance, his Russian's lawyer Igor Litvak told Sputnik.

Litvak said they have "no documents from the prosecutor's office, no evidence of crime."

Levashov had previously said his life would be in danger if Spanish authorities complied with the US extradition request and was afraid that he might face torture in America "in order to extract Russian secrets".

The programmer is also wanted in Russia on cyber-crime charges, including hacking the site of a medical facility in St. Petersburg and spreading malware. Moscow issued an international warrant for his arrest in August.Mumbai, Feb 3 : A swank new ladies toilet complex, built by a group of Norwegian ex-junkies and former convicts, including at least five women, became operational near Mumbai Central station here on Saturday, officials said.

The toilet was formally inaugurated on Friday by Yuva Sena leader Aditya Uddhav Thackeray in the presence of Mumbai Mayor Vishwanath Mahadeshwar, Norwegian Consul General in Mumbai Ann Ollestad, Tarini Jindal-Handa of JSW which co-sponsored the project and other prominent personalities.

The all-women's facility comprises seven toilet blocks, a child-feeding enclosure, a changing room and a sanitary napkin dispenser, all constructed at a cost of around Rs 20 lakh ($31,000).

The entire complex built by a 15-member group, called 'Back In The Ring' (BITR) led by Alexander Medin, a Norwegian Yoga instructor, started work on it in February 2017 and it was completed within a few months.

The Norwegian nationals, most of them former junkies and ex-convicts who later became ardent followers of Yoga, took up the challenge as part of their 'Karmayoga' in view of the sorry state of civic amenities for Mumbai women, especially those who commute long distances and hours from home to work daily.

Armed with funds from a Norwegian NGO, BITR and the Mumbai-based steel giant, JSW Group, the BITR completed the project and handed it over to the local authorities for running and maintenance.

Ollestad remarked that while India's future is all about 'empowering women', during her travel around this country, she noticed the need for sanitation and toilet facilities for women.

Mahadeshwar said though Mumbai is building mega-projects like coastal roads, highways, bridges, etc, there is a dire need for women's toilets and facilities like these (BITR toilet) will bring a smile on the faces of young women.

The BITR has completed similar projects in Karnataka and Goa during their previous tours in India with plans to come back for more such social service initiatives.

BITR conducts free Yoga classes and organises similar community service projects for ex-drug addicts or former convicts as part of the process to reform them and re-enter the social mainstream.Lucknow, Feb 3 : Four members of a criminal tribe gang from Rajasthan were arrested here in after an encounter with the police early Saturday, an officer said.

The arrested men were said to be part of the notorious Bawaria gang from Bikaner that has been committing dacoities in the state capital over the past few weeks, striking at three places and killing two.

Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Lucknow Deepak Kumar said two of the dacoits were injured in the gun battle.

They have been identified as Manoj aka Chotu and Mahendra. The other two arrested have been identified as Rajesh aka Patella and Ramesh.

Kumar said the four were part of a gang that had struck at houses in Kakori, Chinhat and Malihabad between January 18 and 22.

A combing operation by the police was underway to find Ramdeen, Kalia and Dayaram, who were on the run.

The police also recovered a 12-bore gun and several country-made pistols, along with some live cartridges.

An officer said that after committing the crimes, the gang members had fled to Bikaner, Jhunjhunu and Anwar in neighbouring Rajasthan.

When the Lucknow Police raided their hideouts they came back to the city here "to challenge the police". But a police encounter at Gangakhera disrupted ther plans.

Only a day back, the state government had transferred Inspector General of Police (Lucknow) and the Additional Director General of Police (Lucknow) for their failure to control the spiraling crime figures.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath was particularly miffed at the spate of dacoities in the state capital and had reportedly warned the Lucknow SSP to crack the cases at the earliest or face the axe.Jammu, Feb 3 : Opposition MLAs on Saturday walked out of the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly protesting against the assault on Kashmiri students in Haryana.

National Conference (NC) MLA, Altaf Kaloo, stood up during zero hour in the assembly and informed the House that he had received messages from Kashmiri students studying in Haryana, who were apprehensive about their safety.

He said two final year students in Haryana Central University were "ruthlessly beaten up", creating fear among other students from the state studying there.

"The students have been beaten up because they are residents of Jammu and Kashmir. Our students studying outside are now planning to give up studies and return home," the legislator said.

Immediately after Kaloo levelled allegations of non-seriousness and inaction against the state government in ensuring the safety of local students studying outside the state, the entire opposition, including NC and the Congress, stood up and walked out of the assembly.Chandigarh, Feb 3 : The Haryana Police on Saturday arrested three people for allegedly assaulting two Kashmiri students in Mahendergarh town in south Haryana.

"Guilty will be punished. The incident began over a minor collision of motorcycle of the accused. Three people have already been arrested and senior officer (SP) is on the spot," Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar tweeted on Saturday after the matter was raised by his Jammu and Kashmir counterpart, Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti.

The police had earlier on Saturday registered a case following the alleged assault on two Kashmiri students a day ago.

The two Kashmiri youth, Aftab Ahmad and Amjad, students of the Central University of Haryana near Mahendergarh town, around 125 km from Delhi, were discharged from hospital after first aid late on Friday night.

Both were allegedly assaulted by local youth on Friday evening when they had gone to the market. The Kashmiri students have alleged that they were assaulted without any provocation.

The case was registered under several sections of the Indian Penal Code for rioting, unlawful assembly, wrongful restraint and voluntarily causing hurt.

Mehbooba Mufti has urged authorities in Haryana to probe the incident and take action.

"Shocked & disturbed to hear reports of Kashmiri students being assaulted in Mahendergarh, Haryana. I urge the authorities to investigate and take strict action," Mufti had tweeted.

Following Khattar's response on Twitter about action in the matter, Mufti tweeted: "Thank you for your prompt action @mlkhattar ji."New Delhi, Feb 3 : The Congress on Saturday accused the BJP government of conspiring against it, saying it (the CBI moving SC to reopen Bofors case) was being done to "save itself from facing public backlash in the 2019 general elections" and to divert attention from its failures.

"The decision of the Delhi High Court in the Bofors case established how Congress leadership, including (former Prime Minister) Rajiv Gandhi, was a victim of the smear campaign of the BJP decades ago," Congress leader Randeep Singh Surjewala told reporters here.

Hitting out at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Surjewala said: "The smear campaign of the BJP against the Congress was exposed in 1991 by the people's mandate. And even after the death of Rajiv Gandhi the top courts exposed their conspiracies."

The Congress leader was referring to the Delhi High Court ruling of February 4, 2004, giving a clean chit to Rajiv Gandhi in the Rs 64-crore Bofors pay-off case.

The court in its order said that no convincing evidence has been brought before it to prove that he received any kickbacks in the Rs 1,437 crore deal to buy 155 mm Howitzer guns from AB Bofors of Sweden.

Surjewala's remarks came a day after the CBI filed an appeal in the Supreme Court challenging the 2005 Delhi High Court verdict discharging Britain-based Hinduja brothers -- Srichand, Gopichand and Prakash Hinduja -- in the case of alleged corruption in the purchase of Bofors 155 mm howitzers.

Targeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government, Surjewala alleged that the "conspirator BJP government under Modiji is indulging in cheap politics by using the Bofors issue again to divert the attention of the public from the real issues".

"A failed Modi government is using such cheap tricks to save itself from being dethroned in 2019.

"They are indulging in cheap politics but they are not going to succeed," the Congress leader said.

Surjewala also said that even Attorney General K.K. Venugopal in his letter said that there is no evidence or truth in the case.

"Despite that, after 27 years of the death of Rajiv Gandhi, filing an appeal in the courts exposes the Modi government," he said.

The Rajiv Gandhi government (1984-89) was rocked over the allegations of kickbacks in the purchase of 155 mm howitzers from the Swedish arms manufacturer.

The CBI on January 22, 1990, registered an FIR for alleged criminal conspiracy, cheating and forgery under the provisions of Indian Penal Code and sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act against Martin Ardbo, the then President of AB Bofors, alleged middleman Win Chadha and the Hindujas.Hyderabad, Feb 3 : A police officerl of Telangana probing two sensational murder cases and who had gone 'missing' was on Saturday traced in Andhra Pradesh.

M. Venkateswarlu, circle inspector at II town police station in Nalgonda, was found in Bapatla town of Nalgonda district in the neighbouring state.

Inspector General of Police Stephen Ravindra told the media that the inspector was safe and a police team had left for Bapatla to bring him back.

Venkateswarlu disappeared after leaving his weapon and official mobile phone at the police station on Friday. His personal mobile phone was also switched off and the efforts of senior officials to reach him proved futile.

The police official was probing two sensational cases including murder of the husband of Nalgonda municipal chairperson Boddupally Lakshmi belonging to opposition Congress.

Bodupally Srinivas was murdered by few people near his residence on the night of January 24. He was a close follower of former minister and Congress legislator Komatireddy Venkatreddy.

The town was rocked by another brutal murder on January 29. The decapitated head of a 25-year-old P. Ramesh was found kept on the wall of a roadside religious structure. Police later recovered the torso from another place.

Venkateswarlu had reportedly told his close associates that he was under pressure from his seniors on the one side and politicians on the other.

A senior police official, however, had said that the inspector may be facing some personal problems.New Delhi, Feb 3 : Pakistan is offering scholarships to Kashmiri students to prepare a generation which will be inclined towards it and most of the youth on student visa in the neighbouring country were relatives of militants, the National Investigation Agency said in its chargesheet in the terror funding case.

"During the course of investigation, it was ascertained that students who were proceeding to Pakistan on student visas were either relatives of ex-militants or relatives of families of active militants who had indulged in various anti-national activities and had migrated to Pakistan or they were known to Hurriyat leaders," it said.

The probe agency also claimed that their visa applications were recommended to the Pakistani High Commission in New Delhi by various Hurriyat leaders including hardline Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani.

The chargesheet filed in a court here on January 18 revealed that militants who fled to Pakistan had pursued their admission matters with the help of Hurriyat leaders based in Pakistan and Pakistan administered Kashmir.

The NIA said that scholarships are offered for MBBS and engineering seats under various schemes of the Pakistan government.

"This shows a triangular nexus wherein the terrorists, the Hurriyat and the Pakistan establishment are the three vertices and they are ostensibly patronising the Kashmir students in order to prepare a generation of doctors and technocrats in Kashmir who will have leanings towards Pakistan," the NIA said in the chargesheet, a copy of which is in the possession of IANS.

NIA seized a document from the house of Nayeem Khan wherein he recommends a student for admission in a "standard medical college" in Pakistan because "her family has remained committed to the freedom struggle through thick and thin".

Similarly, a document seized from the house of Shahid-Ul-Islam clearly shows that the Hurriyat leaders were sending recommendation to the Pakistan High Commission for the issuance of visa, it said.

The chargesheet has named Pakistan-based terrorist leaders Hafiz Saeed and Syed Salahuddin, seven arrested Kashmiri separatist leaders and three others in the case.

The Hurriyat leaders are Aftab Hilali alias Shahid-ul-Islam, Ayaz Akbar Khandey, Farooq Ahmad Dar alias Bitta Karate, Nayeem Khan, Altaf Ahmad Shah, Raja Mehrajuddin Kalwal and Bashir Ahmad Bhat alias Peer Saifullah.

Shah is the son-in-law of Geelani who is a strong votary of Jammu and Kashmir's merger with Pakistan. Hilali is a close aide of moderate Hurriyat leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq.

The NIA has alleged that the separatists, arrested on July 24 last year, conspired with Saeed and Salahuddin to wage war against India and secede Jammu and Kashmir from India. All of them have been booked under stringent anti-terror laws.

The NIA also chargesheeted businessman Zahoor Ahmad Watali and two alleged stone pelters -- Kamran and Javed Ahmed Bhat.

Watali has been associated with the LoC trade and has worked as the president of the LoC Traders' Association in the past.

(Amiya Kumar Kushwaha can be reached at amiya.k@ians.in)Male, Feb 3 : Maldives President Yameen Abdul Gayoom is not attempting to flee the country, his spokesperson has said, refuting rumours that the leader was planning on travelling to Singapore amid the turmoil after the top court's landmark order to free former President Mohamed Nasheed along with other high-profile prisoners.

Gayoom's spokesperson Ibrahim Muaz Ali on Friday tweeted that the "talk was all false and that the picture of a ticket being spread in the social media, purportedly belong to President Yameen, was falsified".

He called "the rumours a deliberate attempt to spread fear and panic".

The Supreme Court on Thursday night ordered an immediate release of the jailed politicians, including Nasheed, and said the "questionable and politically motivated nature of the trials of the political leaders warrant a re-trial".

It ordered the re-reinstatement of the 12 members who had been stripped of their seats for "defecting". The decision effectively gave the opposition a majority in Parliament, which has the power to impeach the President.

India along with the UN, the US, Australia, Britain and Canada had welcomed the court's decision as "a move towards restoring democracy in the politically troubled Indian Ocean nation".

Hundreds of Nasheed supporters took to the streets to celebrate the ruling but clashes broke out after Gayoom fired the country's police chief, whose department had announced that it would uphold the verdict.

The government said it had concerns about releasing those who convicted for "terrorism, graft, embezzlement and treason".

Nasheed, the country's first democratically elected leader, took office in 2008. He was ousted in a coup in February 2012 The country has seen political unrest since he was sentenced to 13 years in jail in 2015 on terrorism charges. He was given political asylum in the UK in 2016.

After the Supreme Court's ruling, Nasheed called Gayoom to resign and said he planned to return to Male, The Maldivian opposition accused Yameen of resisting local and global pressure to comply with the court's order, reports said. In a joint statement, the opposition parties said they feared "the regime will ignore the release order triggering further unrest in the nation".

"Although Yameen has said he will abide by the ruling, he is yet to comply with the order delivered more than 36 hours ago," Nasheed's Maldivian Democratic Party spokesman Hamid Abdul Ghafoor said.

Meanwhile, the opening of the country's Parliament which was scheduled for Monday and due to be addressed by Yameen, was cancelled indefinitely for "security reasons", the Maldives Independent reported.

Former Solicitor General and constitutional lawyer, Ibrahim Riffath, told the daily "it was possible the cancellation was to deter a potential impeachment motion against the Parliament Speaker".Shimla, Feb 3 : The Himachal Pradesh government on Saturday allowed amending of the Himachal Pradesh Town and Country Planning rules, 2018 to allow sealing of unauthorised buildings in the state.

The sealing of buildings would be done after giving the defaulters an opportunity of being heard, a government spokesperson told IANS. However, this will give relief to the hoteliers as their objections will be invited now.

A decision in this regard was taken at a meeting of the Cabinet presided over by Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur in Dharamsala town.

Approval was accorded by the Cabinet to grant interim relief to the regular government employees, pensioners, and family pensioners at the rate of eight per cent basic pay to be payable from January 1, 2016, as was announced by the Chief Minister on January 25.

This will put a burden of Rs 700 crore to the state exchequer.

The Cabinet also decided to increase the maternity leave of women contractual employees from 135 to 180 days, thus equating them with regular women employees in granting of maternity leave benefit.

It also decided to invite expression of interest for procurement of design consultant for carrying out a detailed feasibility study of 2,000 km of road length proposed under the World Bank assistance for Himachal Pradesh State Roads Project Phase-II.

A decision was also taken that the budget session of the state assembly would be held from March 6 to April 5 with a break from March 17 to 25.

It was also decided to impose a ban on general transfers of all categories of employees.New Delhi, Feb 3 : The Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) and the South Asia Media Defenders Network (SAMDEN) have urged the Maldives government and its security forces to respect the ruling of the country's Supreme Court for the release of all political prisoners and ensure its enforcement.

The two groups said the Supreme Court's order for the fair re-trial of all the political prisoners is a landmark ruling. The government's pressure on the court during trials of political prisoners violated the Maldives' Constitution and international law, they said in a statement.

"We support the strengthening of human rights, democratic institutions, and respect for the rule of law in the Maldives. The latest ruling reaffirms the fundamentals of the separation of powers. We believe this is a step in the direction of bolstering democracy and good governance in the Maldives."

The statement was issued by Wajahat Habibullah, Chairperson, Executive Committee, CHRI, and Sanjoy Hazarika, International Director, CHRI, on behalf of the South Asia Media Defenders Network (SAMDEN).

The Maldives Supreme Court on Thursday night ordered immediate release of jailed politicians, including former President Mohammed Nasheed, and said the "questionable and politically motivated nature of the trials of the political leaders warrant a re-trial".

India along with the UN, the US, Australia, Britain and Canada have welcomed the court's decision as "a move towards restoring democracy in the politically troubled Indian Ocean nation".Thiruvananthapuram, Feb 3 : Congress MP Shashi Tharoor stole the show on the second day of the three day Mathrubhumi International Festival of Letters being held here as he took the centre stage to explain what prompted him to pen his latest book "Why I am a Hindu".

Explaining this at a session with journalist and author Mihir Bose, Tharoor said penning the book resonated from his upbringing and the fact that Hinduism "has now been reduced to a contemporary political distortion".

"It has now been distorted to a faith of delirious fanaticism. The time has come to say to the public that what you portray is not Hinduism but pseudo-'sick'ularism, which is the famous term of abuse by trollers," he told the packed audience.

He added that his book is not on Hindutva but on Hinduism.

"It is saying that Hindutva is not Hinduism which is a religion of acceptance, a religion of ahimsa and satya," he added.

Another interesting session of the day was a panel discussion moderated by acclaimed writer Anita Nair where Centre for Elephant Studies Director T.S. Rajeev and wildlife photographer and nature conservation activist N.A. Naseer shared their experiences.

The session "Malayaliyude Aana - kodum sneham, kodum droham (Elephants of Malayalees - extreme love and extreme atrocity)" covered several aspects of the Malayalees' love for the elephant, which according to the panellists, was now an obsession with little regard for the welfare of the animal.

Rajeev explained the physical and behavioural peculiarities of the elephant that made the animal a misfit for the role imposed on it by Malayalees - that of leading processions at temple festivals.

"Elephants have a lower body temperature than human beings, so the animals should not be exposed to extreme hot weather. But temple festivals are held at the hottest time of the year," he said.

Nair recalled the pride with which "temple committee members showed off the number of elephants arranged for the festival" at her hometown in Kerala while no one spared a second thought about the inconvenience caused to the animals in the process.

Her latest book "Kaakae, Kaakae koodu evide" was also released.

Naseer, who shot to fame 25 years ago with this disturbing photograph of an injured elephant being used in a temple procession, said he was at the event hoping to bring awareness to the issue.

The three day event, which ends on Sunday, has seen William Dalrymple, Ukrainian novelists Oksana Zabuzho and Andrei Kurkov, Ghanian Ayesha Harruna Attah, Malaysian novelist, poet and educator, Bernice Chauly and around 100 writers from 10 countries taking part.Lucknow, Feb 3 : The lone rhinoceros at the Lucknow zoo died on Saturday after a brief illness.

The 35-year-old rhino, named Lohit, was a major draw at the zoo and was its inmate since the last 20 years.

Lohit shot into infamy in 1995 when it killed the zoo vet and later also killed a youth who accidentally entered its enclosure after his kite fell inside.

Doctors at the zoo told IANS that the rhino had given up eating for the past one week and despite their best efforts died in the afternoon.

Several vet consultants from the Central Zoo Authority (CZA) and the Indian Veterinary Research Institute (IVRI) had come to supervise his treatment, but all efforts failed.

He was brought to the Lucknow zoo on April 6, 1995.Shillong, Feb 3 : Megahalaya' ruling Congress on Saturday dared the National People's Party (NPP) to first sever ties with NDA government to prove to the state's electorate that they are not a "proxy party" of the BJP.

"No matter how hard the NPP may try to explain their position, they cannot deny that they are an alliance partner of the BJP at the Centre, Manipur and Rajasthan," state Urban Affairs Minister, Ronnie V. Lyngdoh told journalists in response to NPP President Wanwei Roy Kharlukhi's statement hinting at a possibility of post-poll alliance with the Congress after the February 27 assembly polls.

"The Congress here is our opponent. When the need arises, we don't rule out in future. But we are not working with anybody here because we are sure that this time we are getting an absolute majority and we are sure that we don't have to work with anyone," Kharlukhi told journalists.

However, the Congress leader termed NPP's statement was to "fool" the people of Meghalaya.

"They are trying very hard to convey to the people of Meghalaya by saying that the NPP is fighting the BJP in the state. But the people of Meghalaya are intelligent and cannot be fooled by such false claims," Lyngdoh said.

"If they are so serious, why don't they sever ties with the BJP-led NDA and North East Democratic Alliance (NEDA) instead of going overboard projecting Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar as the next Prime Minister after the 2019 Lok Sabha elections," he asked.

"It is known to everybody that before BJP finally decided its candidates that they had called NPP leaders from Jaintia and Garo Hills to Guwahati and jointly got into an exercise on how to field and where to field candidates," he said.

He also mocked the BJP for not being able to field candidates in all the 60 assembly constituencies.New Delhi, Feb 3 : Exhorting students who are set to appear for their board and secondary school examinations this year, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Saturday suggested that they should not compete with others but with themselves and they need to learn from their mistakes.

Sushma Swaraj was speaking here on the occasion of launch of a book "Exam Warriors" written by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

"The book is most relevant one in this exam season as it aims to instill confidence in the students and prepare them to face the difficult moments during examinations and life," she said addressing a gathering.

She also described in detail the 25 'mantras' for students given by the Prime Minister in his book and urged them to read the book. The book is available on the 'Narendra Modi App' and students can communicate with the Prime Minister through it.

Describing Modi as an extremely good communicator, she said: "If students learn from their past and enjoy the present then they would be able to get a bright future."

The book is a compilation of Prime Minister's address to students focused on busting stress during exams in his monthly radio programme "Mann ki Baat".

"The students should compete with themselves and there is no need to compete with others. They should also use technology during preparation of examinations," she said, suggesting that students should play games and practice yoga to overcome stress.

During her interaction with students Sushma Swaraj mistakenly said "March me Chunav ka mausam hota hain (March is the time for elections)" and repeated the word "election" at least three times in place of "examination" - prompting the gathering to burst out in laughter.

However, she corrected it after realising the mistake, saying "We are leaders and election comes to our mind often."

Human Resources Development Minister Prakash Javadekar, who was also present on the occasion, said: "This book will help the students in beating the stress. It is for everyone. Not only for students but also for their parents."

He said that the book fits the Prime Minister's call of "Sabka Sath Sabka Vikas".

Urging parents not to put pressure on their children during exams, Javadekar said that the Prime Minister will interact with the students on February 16 before the start of examination session.New Delhi, Feb 3 : Uttar Pradesh finally ended their drought of wrestling gold medals through Greco-Roman grapplers Arshad (46 kg), Anup Kumar (54kg) and Rahul (63kg) on the penultimate day of the wrestling competition at the inaugural Khelo India School Games here on Saturday.

On an action-packed day of closely-fought encounters, Arshad won that elusive wrestling gold for his state after he beat Maharashtra's Rohan Bhosale in the final.

An Asian Cadet Wrestling gold medallist in a lower-weight category, Arshad was competing in the boy's 46kg division for the first time and he defeated wrestlers superior to him in physical strength throughout his campaign.

Quick and nimble on his feet, the last few seconds of Arshad's final bout saw him transform into a more attacking and aggressive combatant as he claimed a convincing victory over Bhosale.

Uttar Pradesh's second gold came from Anup Kumar who vanquished Maharashtra's Parth Kandare.

With a 5-1 lead after the first round, a loss was something Parth would have least expected. But he realised that no bout is won or lost on just the opening period as Anup Kumar turned the tables after the break.

"There was no alternative, I told myself. I had to win," Anup said.

His team-mate Rahul maintained his lead despite sustaining a mid-match injury. He finished what was an overall perfect day for the State.

One of the biggest surprises of the day was the girls' 52kg bronze medal match between Uttar Pradesh's Sadhana Yadav and Delhi's Shivani.

It saw a twist towards the end. With a four-point lead, Sadhana had a firm hold on the medal. But the Delhi girl was resilient and in one fantastic move, narrowed the lead.

There was no turning back from that stage for Shivani.

"I wanted to win this from the moment I stepped on to the mat," said the youngster representing SKV Gokalpur Village. "There was a lot of pressure when I was trailing initially but I forgot about that. I just gave my 100 per cent," she said.New Delhi, Feb 3 : The Jamaat-e-Islami Hind (JIH) on Saturday accused the Uttar Pradesh government of bias against the minority communities after many Muslim youths were arrested in a case of violence in the BJP-ruled state's Kasganj in which one person was killed.

JIH Secretary General Muhammad Salim Engineer demanded a judicial probe into the incident, saying the Uttar Pradesh Police had let off "the real culprit".

"The law enforcement agencies in Kasganj are having a very biased attitude against the minorities which is reflected in the substantially high number of arrest of youths from the Muslim community," he told reporters here.

"The CrPC (Code of Criminal Procedure) sections invoked against the arrested Muslim youths on charges of inciting and committing violence in Kasganj are also very strict while the real culprits have been let off or charged under very mild CrPC sections so that they can be bailed out easily."

The JIH also questioned the Yogi Adityanath government for allowing a 'Tiranga rally' on January 26 -- which led to the violence -- saying it was clear that the people behind the rally had communal agenda "to vitiate the peaceful atmosphere of the city and create communal strife".

A delegation led by JIH visited Kasganj recently to assess the situation and get first-hand information from those affected by the violence and arson, he added.Agartala, Feb 3 : India wanted peaceful relations with Pakistan, but its forces have been told that if one bullet come from across the border, they should fire countless bullets to retaliate, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh said here on Saturday night.

"I have given standing orders to our forces to shoot limitless bullets to retaliate a single fire on our territory by the Pakistani forces," he said at an election rally at Barjala on the state capital's outskirts.

"As our neighbour, we do not want to attack on Pakistan first. We want to live with peace and harmony with our all neighbours. But, most unfortunately Pakistan is trying to tear down Jammu and Kashmir and continue attacks on our forces and Indian territory," he added.

Hitting out at the Left Front government, Rajnath Singh said that during its 25 year uninterrupted rule, it did nothing for the development of Tripura, economic prosperity of the state and to remove huge poverty and unemployment.

"During CPI-M's 35 years rule in West Bengal, they ruined that state, and if the Left parties after the February 18 assembly polls are allowed to rule Tripura further, they would destroy the future of the state and its people," he alleged.

He said that only his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) can develop the country and the northeastern states including Tripura.

"BJP and its allies are now ruling 19 states in India. Why so many states are under BJP and its allies' governance ? Because people of these states trust BJP and people sincerely believe that only BJP can remove their pverty and provide jobs to the youth."

Rajnath Singh said that Tripura has huge natural resources and if BJP comes to power in the state, it would make this northeastern state a number one state in India.

"You have given scope to the Left parties in Tripura many times, give scope to BJP once this time to rule for genuine development of the state with all-round growth of all sections of people," he said.Itanagar, Feb 3 : Nine existing government hospitals in Arunachal Pradesh would be upgraded into e-hospitals besides a full-fledged National Institute of Electronics & Information Technology (NIELIT) would come up here, Union Electronics and Information Technology Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad announced on Saturday.

Prasad said 200 plus hospitals across the country have been turned into e-hospitals and assured central government's full support in making nine hospitals - along the length of Arunachal Pradesh - into e-hospitals.

He directed National Informatics Center (NIC) to fast track the procedure and sought active support of the state government.

Lauding the Pema Khandu government for its initiatives to make governance digital, Prasad emphasized the importance of information technology in transforming the way of life and governance for the poor.

"India's Talent - IT - plus Information Technology - IT is equal to India Tomorrow - IT," he said.

Reiterating that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is committed to develop northeast states at par with other states, Prasad said India cannot develop if the region is not developed.

He however, regretted that implementation of Common Service Centers (CSCs) in the state is poor and urged the state government to increase the presence of CSCs, especially at the gram panchayat levels manifold.

He pointed that CSCs, if established in every gram panchayat, would transform rural economy and take central and state government schemes to the grass root. He informed that around 10 lakh people are engaged in running CSCs across the country and 45,000 of them are women.

Prasad also emphasized on the BPO sector and suggested establishment of call centres as is being done successfully in Nagaland.INDUSTRIAL + ASIA 2018 is a market entry strategy for companies prepared to invest in their own success in Asia

Dominion House has launched INDUSTRIAL + ASIA 2018 to promote innovative Australian products to architects, developers and construction professionals across China and Southeast Asia. Applications are now open for Q2 in April.

Austrade notes that, in 2014 China had 17,406 architecture and design firms with 330,028 architects and designers. The big trade expos in China draw crowds of 30,000  60,000 Chinese and Southeast Asian professionals in search of fresh ideas and quality products. Dominion House places Australian design solutions in front of specifiers and decision-makers with a well-crafted mix of trade shows, product presentations, and online promotion.

Our clients rely on us to navigate the complexities of a very different business environment  from due diligence of potential distributors and selection of the right partners, to regulatory compliance and logistics support. Our job additionally is to make it easy for local buyers to learn more about the products and place orders, and our Shanghai office is a key asset in the sales and delivery cycle, according to Jeremy Barnett, Managing Director.

Since 2005, Dominion House offers its clients areas of capability in foreign markets, within which they can operate with the full advantage of local knowledge and an immediate presence in Asia without the risk. INDUSTRIAL + ASIA 2018 is a market entry strategy for companies prepared to invest in their own success in Asia, and features of the program include: 12-month minimum engagement, non-exclusive representation, total transparency (buyers pay direct), and designed for maximum rebate under the Export Market Development Grant.

Dominion House is assisting TILT Industrial Design to assess sales opportunities in Asia with INDUSTRIAL + ASIA 2018. We look forward to building a stronger global company based on this competitive advantage and utilisation of distribution networks identified by Dominion House. Tim Phillips, Managing Director, TILT Industrial Design

Q2 applications close mid-March. Register interest with the Sydney office on +61 2 9375 2450 or email enquiries(at)dominionhouse(dot)com for further details.San Francisco Corporate and Business Tax Service While the new tax law does not affect our tax preparation services for the 2017 tax year, our clients are keenly interested in how the next tax law will impact their corporations and businesses.

Safe Harbor LLP, considered one of the best business and corporate tax services in San Francisco, is proud to announce a new series to its blog on the Trump tax changes. Businesses and corporations throughout California and the San Francisco Bay Area are keen to understand the new tax changes going forward.

While the new tax law does not affect our tax preparation services for the 2017 tax year, our clients are keenly interested in how the next tax law will impact their corporations and businesses, explained Chun Wong, Managing Partner at Safe Harbor LLP. Accordingly, we are announcing a to-the-point blog series on the Trump tax changes.

To read the first post in the series on changes to the US tax code, visit http://www.safeharborcpa.com/the-new-tax-changes-changes-to-exemptions-and-itemized-deductions/. Subsequent posts will be uploaded to the blog over the next four weeks. Persons looking for one of the best corporate and business tax services in San Francisco can learn more at http://www.safeharborcpa.com/business-tax/. There, they can click on the black "Consultation" icon to request a consult via the Web form, or just call into Safe Harbor CPAs at 415-742-4249. With tax season in full swing, corporate and business types in San Francisco are urged to act fast if they are looking for a tax service for this current season. Those interested in exploring the impact of the Trump tax code changes can reach out for a one-on-one consultation at a more leisurely pace, as the tax changes do not impact the 2017 tax year.

CONTINUAL CHANGE IN THE US TAX CODE

Here is background on this release. While corporate America both in the nation as a whole and in the city of San Francisco has greeted the Trump tax code with some level of uncertainty and anxiety, the reality is that the complicated US tax code is an ever-evolving animal. Congress and the IRS make tweaks to the tax code constantly, whether through legislation on the part of Congress or through clarifications of the tax code on the part of the IRS. In addition, the situation of any corporation or business in San Francisco also changes. A small startup that had just a few employees may grow to a more substantial entity and require financial advisory services. A mom-and-pop restaurant may face a transition when the original owners grow old and retire. And a young thirtysomething may enjoy stock options from a booming Bay Area technology venture and need to "cash them out" to purchase a starter home in San Francisco. The skill of a seasoned accounting firm like San Francisco's own Safe Harbor CPAs is to blend knowledge of the tax code (which is ever-changing) with the ever-changing situation of business and corporate clients.

Reading the blog series is an important first step in self-education. A good second step is to reach out for a consultation. Indeed, bloggers and journalists interested in covering the impact of the Trump tax changes on local San Francisco businesses are urged to reach out for interview opportunities.

ABOUT SAFE HARBOR LLP  A PROFESSIONAL CPA FIRM IN SAN FRANCISCO

Safe Harbor LLP is a CPA firm that specializes in accounting and tax services for individuals and businesses throughout the San Francisco Bay Area and greater California. Safe Harbor CPAs helps both individuals and businesses with tax preparation, IRS audit defense, and audited financial statements. The firm prides itself on friendly yet professional service and utilizes state-of-the-art Internet technology to provide quality customer service.

Safe Harbor CPA

http://www.safeharborcpa.com

Tel. 415.742.4249ASCP Joins UICCs World Cancer Day Initiative to Raise Awareness of Unequal Access to Cancer Detection, Treatment and Care Services

On World Cancer Day, cancer leaders call for equal access to reduce premature cancer deaths by 25%



World Cancer Day 2018 highlights the global equity gap in accessing early detection, treatment and care services

UICC calls for more equal access to reduce premature cancer and non-communicable disease deaths by 25% by 2025 in line with WHO targets

Consolidated country-by-country statistics on cancer incidences and mortalities, national cancer control plans and registries and access to radiotherapy based on latest GLOBOCAN and WHO data

World Cancer Day: On Sunday, Feb. 4, World Cancer Day raises awareness of the millions of people world-wide facing unequal access to cancer detection, treatment, and care services. With cancer leaders, health professionals and supporters across the world pushing for urgent action to reduce the rate of premature cancer deaths globally, the day calls for diagnostic and treatment access to be prioritized.

The global target of a 25% reduction in premature deaths from cancer and non-communicable diseases* (NCDs) by 2025 is possible. However, to deliver on this global commitment, the current inequities in risk factor exposure, and in access to screening, early detection and timely and appropriate treatment and care, must be addressed.

Professor Sanchia Aranda, President of UICC and CEO of Cancer Council Australia:

Set in 2011, the World Health Organizations target to cut premature NCD deaths by 25% within 14 years is coming towards its half way mark. We can meet the target, but more action than ever will be required. Inequality in access to prevention, diagnosis, treatment and care makes reducing premature deaths from cancer difficult. If we are committed to achieving this goal, we must act quickly and decisively to make access to cancer services more equal all around the world.

Dan A. Milner, Jr., MD, MSc(Epi), FASCP, Chief Medical Officer, the American Society for Clinical Pathology (ASCP):

ASCP is pleased to join with the UICC on World Cancer Day to raise awareness of the importance of improving access to quality cancer diagnostics and treatment as part of the UICCs We Can. I can. campaign.

World Cancer Day, led by the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC), every year rallies the worlds voices against what the World Health Organization (WHO) recently recognized for the first time as the leading cause of global morbidity.

Today, there are an estimated 8.8 million deaths from cancer every year . However, it is the low- to middle-income countries who are bearing the brunt, as approximately 70% of deaths occur in developing countries, which are the most ill-equipped to cope with the cancer burden .

Inequities are also acutely experienced in high- to middle-income countries, particularly within certain populations, including the indigenous, immigrant, refugee, rural, and lower-socioeconomic populations.

Professor Sanchia Aranda:

In the last year of the We can. I can. campaign for World Cancer Day, we hope to inspire real action from governments and civil society in addressing the inequities in cancer diagnosis, treatment and care, which unfortunately largely affects the most vulnerable populations in every country.

For example, approximately 650,000 people in Africa develop cancer annually, and about 510,000 cancer deaths occur annually due to limited treatment and resources. (There is one pathologist per approximately 1 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa.) ASCP, through its Partners for Cancer Diagnosis and Treatment in Africa initiative, is establishing telepathology laboratories in multiple resource-limited areas, including Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, and Haiti to provide patients with access to rapid cancer diagnostics and appropriate care and treatment.

Meanwhile, ASCP is also working with Novartis and the American Cancer Society (ACS) to devise a common approach to improve access to cancer treatment in several countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. ASCP is building healthcare capacity for immunohistochemistry (IHC) analysis in seven hospital laboratories in Ethiopia, Rwanda, Uganda, and Tanzania. ACS is supporting the training of healthcare professionals in Ethiopia, Tanzania and Uganda to ensure quality processes in the transportation of biopsy samples and in the administration of chemotherapy. Novartis will provide funding to support the technical work. This initiative will serve as a pilot for the future roll-out of similar activities to other countries.

As an urgent response to the global equity gap and the critical need for an in-country response, UICC today officially launched, Treatment for All. It marks the second new initiative by UICC in as many years to mobilize national action to improve access to diagnosis and treatment for cancer, and is a direct acknowledgement that the cancer burden cannot be alleviated exclusively through prevention to reduce cancer incidence. ASCP supports the Treatment for All initiative as its concept is a central pillar of the ASCP Partners project.

Dr. Cary Adams, Chief Executive Officer of UICC:

The tsunami of cancer cases anticipated in the coming decades requires a persuasive and robust response at all levels  global and national. Treatment for All, in tandem with its sister initiative, C/Can 2025: City Cancer Challenge, will work to accelerate progress by translating global commitments to evidence-, safety- and quality-based national actions. ASCP is the lead medical laboratory organization for the C/Can 2025: City Cancer Challenge.

By empowering individuals, cities, countries and governments to lever Treatment for Alls four pillars of cancer treatment and care, we can achieve:



Improved quality of cancer data for public health use

Increased number of people with access to early detection and accurate cancer diagnosis

Greater timely and quality treatment for early and metastatic disease

At a minimum, basic supportive and palliative care service for the current 32.6 million people living with cancer .

Today, on World Cancer Day, We can. I can. improve access and deliver on the global target of a 25% reduction in cancer and NCD premature deaths by 2025.

*Non-communicable - or chronic - diseases are diseases of long duration and generally slow progression. The four main types are cardiovascular diseases, cancer, chronic respiratory diseases and diabetes.

The global community has committed to reduce premature deaths from cancer and NCDs by 25% by 2025 as set out in the Global Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of Non-communicable Diseases

The major modalities of treatment for cancer includes radiotherapy, surgery and medicines including chemotherapy

The wide disparity in cancer services and patient outcomes depending on where you live is often called the Postcode Lottery

-ENDS-

Notes to Editors

About World Cancer Day 2018

World Cancer Day takes place every year on Feb. 4 and is the single initiative under which the world can unite to raise the profile of cancer in a positive and inspiring way. Spearheaded by the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC), World Cancer Day takes place for the last year under the tagline We can. I can., which explores how everyone  as a collective or as individuals  can do their part to reduce the global burden of cancer. Just as cancer affects everyone in different ways, everyone has the power to take action to reduce the impact that cancer has. World Cancer Day is a chance to reflect on what you can do, make a pledge and take action. For more information, please visit: http://www.worldcancerday.org

About World Cancer Day activities and grassroots events

Local and international associations around the world are coming together to hold events dedicated to raising awareness and education about cancer, including the Chain for Change in Canada and the One Step at a Time Cancer Warrior Walk in South Africa. For more information about specific events, please visit: http://www.worldcancerday.org/map.

About ASCP

Founded in 1922 in Chicago, ASCP is a medical professional society with more than 100,000 member board-certified anatomic and clinical pathologists, pathology residents and fellows, laboratory professionals, and students. ASCP provides excellence in education, certification, and advocacy on behalf of patients, pathologists, and laboratory professionals. To learn more, visit http://www.ascp.org. Follow us on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/ascp_chicago and connect with us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/ASCP.Chicago.

About the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC)

UICC is the largest international cancer-fighting organization, with over 1,000 member organizations across 160 countries representing the world's major cancer societies, ministries of health, research institutes, treatment centers and patient groups. The organization is dedicated to taking the lead in convening, capacity building and advocacy initiatives that unite the cancer community to reduce the global cancer burden, promote greater equity, and integrate cancer control into the world health and development agenda.

UICC and its multi-sectorial partners are committed to encouraging governments to look towards the implementation and scale-up of quality and sustainable programs that address the global burden of cancer and other NCDs. UICC is also a founding member of the NCD Alliance, a global civil society network that now represents almost 2,000 organizations in 170 countries. For more information, please visit: http://www.uicc.org

About Treatment for All

Over the last seven years, the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC) has united the cancer

community to position cancer on the global health and development agenda, with the inclusion of cancer and

non-communicable diseases in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in 2015 and culminating in the

successful adoption of a cancer resolution at the World Health Assembly in 2017.

Treatment for All is the name of a new, bold and inspiring advocacy initiative run by UICC. It calls on the

international cancer community to address the global equity gap in access to cancer services by getting

behind four essential pillars of cancer treatment and care:

Improving the quality of cancer data for public health use

Increasing the number of people with access to early detection and accurate cancer diagnosis

Providing timely and quality treatment for early and metastatic disease for all

Providing a basic supportive and palliative care service for all.

For more information, please visit: http://www.uicc.org/TreatmentforAll

Consolidated data tables:

1. Cancer incidences and mortalities by country (GLOBOCAN, 2012)

2. Countries with national cancer control plans and cancer registries (World Health Organization, 2014)

3. Number of radiotherapy machines and machines per one million population by country (IAEA, 2017)

To access the data tables, please visit: http://www.worldcancerday.org/exclusive-content-uicc-members

Media contact:

Susan Montgomery

Email: susan.montgomery(at)ascp(dot)org

Tel: (312) 541-4754What we want to do is remind people that even after the Christmas season we need to fill our pantries so we created a fun event called Souper Bowl.

Gallucios Italian Restaurant, which has been named Delawares Best Italian Eatery & Irish-Style Pub, has teamed up with the Salvation Army for Souper Bowl. The event takes place on Saturday, February 3, at Gallucios, 1709 Lovering Ave., Wilmington, DE.

The Salvation Army began this event here four years ago with the notion that having finished Christmas our pantries are empty and people are still hungry, said Carl Colantuono, Director of Marketing, Salvation Army of Delaware. What we want to do is remind people that even after the Christmas season we need to fill our pantries so we created a fun event called Souper Bowl.

This event has been hosted by Gallucios since 2015. Colantuono approached Greg Dorak, General Manager of Gallucios, about hosting this event and Dorak replied, Sure, its a no-brainer, citing Gallucios involvement in the Wilmington Community.

Donation to Souper Bowl is $10 and includes all-you-can-eat soup, donated by Gallucios, and a souvenir mug. There will be door prizes and other surprises at this popular Delaware event. The festivities start at noon.

The Salvation Army exists to meet human need wherever, whenever, and however it can. To donate directly to the Salvation Army, please visit http://www.salvationarmyusa.org/usn/ways-to-give/.

About Gallucios Italian Restaurant

Gallucios serves quality Italian fare using authentic Italian cooking methods and the freshest ingredients. Gallucios also offers casual bar fare, online ordering, take-out and delivery, and takes reservations for large parties of up to fifty people. For more information, please call 302-655-3689, or visit http://www.gallucios-de.com. The restaurant is located at 1709 Lovering Ave., Wilmington, DE 19806.

About the NALA

The NALA offers small and medium-sized businesses effective ways to reach customers through new media. As a single-agency source, the NALA helps businesses flourish in their local community. The NALAs mission is to promote a business relevant and newsworthy events and achievements, both online and through traditional media. The information and content in this article are not in conjunction with the views of the NALA. For media inquiries, please call 805.650.6121, ext. 361.The nine cylinders on the EOS M 290 build plate.(Photo courtesy of ITAMCO)

ITAMCO (Indiana Technology and Manufacturing Companies) has additively printed parts made with EOS 17-4 PH IndustryLine metal powder that outperformed 17-4 PH Stainless Steel in tensile strength in a recent research project.

The Research Project

The goal of the research project was to explore the properties of additive-manufactured parts made with the new EOS Stainless Steel 17-4 PH IndustryLine metal powder for Direct Metal Laser Sintering (DMLS). ITAMCO prepared the build of nine cylinders with Sunata software by Atlas 3D. Sunata automatically chose the best orientation for the parts and generated the necessary support structures for the build on ITAMCOs EOS M 290 3D printer.

Three cylinders were built horizontally, three were built at 45 to the horizontal, and three were built vertically. After the build, the cylinders were cut from the build plate and sent for heat treatment. The heat treatment followed the recommended steps by EOS.

First, the cylinders were heated to 1040 Celsius and kept at that temperature for 0.5 hour. The cylinders were then quenched by argon. After that, the cylinders were reheated to 480 Celsius and kept at the temperature for one hour. The cylinders were quenched again by argon. The hardness was between 40 and 47 HRC and the estimated tensile strength was 190 KSI after heat treatment.

The cylinders were then shipped to SGS MSi, a metallurgical testing laboratory. The key results for ITAMCO were the tensile strength (PSI) numbers: The tensile strength of the nine cylinders outperformed the tensile strength of raw material 17-4 PH that had been heat treated. The average tensile strength (PSI) of the nine cylinders was 192,000.* The average tensile strength (PSI) of six heat-treated stainless steels (H900, H1025, H1075, H1150, H1150-M, H1150-D) is 144,000 (Source: https://www.beststainless.com/17-4-ph-stainless-steel.html).

(Call or email Joel Neidig at ITAMCO for the complete test results at (574) 935-6918 or jdneidig@itamco.com.)

We conducted the research so we could compare the wrought properties of metal to parts made through additive manufacturing with the new EOS 17-4 PH Stainless Steel metal powder. It is quite amazing to us that we achieved the wrought properties of metal, said Joel Neidig, Business Development and Technology Manager with ITAMCO.

Another interesting finding from the research was that although the nine cylinder samples were built with three orientations, the tensile strength, yield strength, elongation and reduction of area were fairly consistent for all the samples. In other words, the material properties are near isotropic for those samples built additively with different build orientations in the EOS M 290 3D printer.

The Future of EOS 17-4 PH IndustryLine Metal Powder at ITAMCO

ITAMCO is building additively manufactured parts for the medical device market; therefore, the EOS metal powder is of particular interest to the company. EOS Stainless Steel 17-4 PH IndustryLine is a high-strength, easily curable, highly corrosion-resistant and acid-resistant material, making it ideal for manufacturing surgical and orthopedic instruments. However, the product will also be used to build gears and related components for ITAMCOs customers in Mining, Oil, Gas, Aerospace, Automotive and Energy.

Dr. Tobias Abeln, Chief Technical Officer at EOS said this about the metal powder: Planning security and reliability are top priorities for customers who are engaged in serial manufacturing. For its Stainless Steel 17-4PH IndustryLine, EOS provides reliable and statistically proven data for the most important material properties of finished parts. He added, This significantly raises quality standards in Additive Manufacturing. The customer can use the data 1:1 to qualify the technology for large-scale production and therefore minimize the time required as well as cut the cost of in-house material and process qualification.

The Magic Triangle

Laura Gilmour, the Global Medical Business Development Manager with EOS North America recently told Mr. Neidig that ITAMCO was a referred contract manufacturer because ITAMCO was running the complete EOS solution or the magic triangle. Ms. Gilmour said, ITAMCO is running the balanced trianglethe combination fully tested by EOS material scientists in Finland of 17-4 PH IndustryLine metal powder, the grid nozzle for optimized Argon gas flow, and the scanning parameters provided by EOS. EOS is sharing ITAMCOs tests results with their potential customers. The referrals and support by EOS validates our move into additive manufacturing, said Mr. Neidig. We are more than capable of using additive manufacturing to expand our market position and deliver real benefits to our customers.

About ITAMCO

Since 1955, ITAMCO has provided open gearing and precision machining services to many heavy-duty industries including Mining, Off-Highway Vehicles, Marine, and Aviation. In addition to the companys offerings in traditional manufacturing, the technology team at ITAMCO has released over 65 apps for mobile devices; designed and markets iBlue, the first industrial Bluetooth transmitter; developed an award-winning Google Glass application; and launched their Strategic Technology Initiative for Additive Manufacturing in 2015.

ITAMCO

6100 Michigan Road

Plymouth, Indiana 46563

http://www.itamco.com

Learn more about ITAMCO at http://www.itamco.com or call (574) 936-2112.

About EOS

EOS is the global technology and quality leader for high-end solutions in the field of additive manufacturing. Founded in 1989, EOS is a pioneer and world leader in the field of Direct Metal Laser Sintering (DMLS) and a provider of a leading polymer technology. Learn more about EOS at http://www.eos.info/en.Welcome Guest! You Are Here:Welcome Guest! You Are Here:

Home Regional News EastThe Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Despite Group of Companies, Dr. Osei commissioned a newly constructed ultramodern Childrens Block at the 37 Military Hospital he built from his personal funds as a birthday gift to improve child health care delivery.

Dr. Kwame Despites wife, Ewurama was among the personalities who graced the auspicious ceremony.

She looked ravishing in a white top designed with ruffles and black trouser. Mrs. Osei is definitely a style influencer. Keep your eyes peeled for more photos of her. Her makeup, hairstyle, and accessory choices were perfect for the occasion.

The health facility named "The Osei Kwame (Despite) Children's Block" has an paediatric oncology (cancer) unit, paediatric physiotherapy, two extra private wards for general paediatric admissions among others.The Barbadian pop star is scheduled to be in Senegal on Friday to appear at a high-level summit in Dakar but religious group called "No to Freemasonry and homosexuality" are protesting her visit.

According to Jeune Afrique ,the "No to Freemasonry and homosexuality" made up of around 30 religious groups suspect the pop star of belonging to the Illuminati, according to Jeune Afrique.

These claims although dismissed by Rihanna's team years ago still sit in the minds of people.

In case you have never stumbled into that particular weird corner of the internet, the Illuminati are believed to be a group of powerful people who have the ability to influence and control all aspects of society around the globe.

Quite what Rihanna has done to demonstrate she is a part of this clan isn't obvious, but Newsweek reports that it might be because of a shot in the video for her song 'S&M', where she holds up a newspaper with the headline "Princess of the Illuminati."

In addition, there has been a long-standing theory that stars like Rihanna, Jay-Z and Beyonce are established members of the Illuminati members due to the heavy use of triangles  a symbol of the Illuminati  in their marketing.

Rihanna will be visiting the West African nation in her role as an ambassador for the Global Partnership for Education (GPE).

She is supposed to attend the funding conference of the Global Partnership for Education - which will be co-chaired by President Macky Sall and his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron - in Dakar.Attorney General Jeff Sessions praised his second-in-command, Rod Rosenstein, hours before the disputed Devin Nunes memo came out on Friday.

Sessions was preparing to speak at a Justice Department event when he paused to applaud Rosenstein and associate attorney general Rachel Brand after she had introduced Sessions to the audience.

"Thank you, Rachel, for your kind words and, more importantly, for your strong leadership as our third in command at the department," Sessions said.

"Rod and Rachel are Harvard graduates, they are experienced lawyers. Rod's had 27 years in the department, Rachel's had a number of years in the department previously, so they both represent the kind of quality and leadership we want in the department," Sessions continued.

Watch Sessions speak below:

His remarks preceded the release of the memo alleging in part that Rosenstein improperly extended surveillance of the Trump campaign adviser Carter Page during the 2016 election.

Rosenstein is one of several law-enforcement officials who signed off on surveillance of Page as part of the investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 US election. Page had been a concern for US counterintelligence officials since 2013.

Rosenstein in May 2017 appointed special counsel Robert Mueller to oversee the Russia investigation and he has since been the target of some of President Donald Trump's harshest public criticism. Those criticisms have prompted speculation that Trump was looking for reasons to fire Rosenstein.

When reporters asked Trump on Friday whether he would move to dismiss Rosenstein, Trump said "You figure that one out." A White House spokesperson told CNN on Friday night that there would be "no changes" at the Justice Department.

The memo, written by House Intelligence Committee chairman Devin Nunes and other top Republican lawmakers, accuses some officials at the FBI and the DOJ of acting on what it calls political bias against Trump.The White House is reportedly split over the direction of President Donald Trump's approach to addressing North Korea's provocations, with some believing that the Pentagon has been hesitant to give Trump too many military options, according to officials cited in a New York Times report published Thursday.

The report comes two days after Trump indicated that the US would take tangible steps toward answering North Korea's military posturing. Trump said during his State of the Union address on Tuesday that "complacency and concessions only invite aggression and provocation."

During the speech, Trump said the US is "waging a campaign of maximum pressure" to keep North Korea in check.

The alleged wrangling within the Trump administration on this issue gained attention internally after one of North Korea's missile launches in July, The Times reported.

While on a National Security Council conference call with other US officials, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis were reportedly heard expressing concern about what was described as signals that meetings scheduled by the council to discuss options for North Korea showed the effort was becoming too aggressive.

The Times said Tillerson and Mattis were overheard discussing this after National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster, who had been on the conference call earlier, had already left the room, the newspaper reports.

One military official in July also appeared to suggest the US was planning military options related to North Korea, but downplayed its significance.

"There is always a military option. That's why you pay $600 billion a year," US Special Operations Command commander Raymond Thomas said in an interview with the Aspen Institute. "It is an ugly, ugly option, but you cannot play elements of power, and then discount that there is no military option."

"Would you expect your military to be prepared for the contingencies that might come if somebody blinks," Thomas continued, "I think your answer is yes."

Though officials said that McMaster favored diplomacy with the regime and acknowledged that a military strike against North Korea would endanger South Koreans, he is believed to be skeptical of the North's recent overtures indicating its openness to dialogue.

He has also echoed some of Trump's rhetoric criticizing previous approaches to North Korea. According to officials cited by The Times, McMaster believes military preparedness is essential.

News of the policy wrangling comes amid the White House's continued search for an ambassador to South Korea.

Victor Cha, who directed Asian affairs for the National Security Council during the George W. Bush administration, was widely expected to be confirmed, but instead had his nomination pulled after expressing concerns about speculation that the US was floating the possibility of a limited strike on North Korea, according to multiple news reports.Other Facebook users shared dissenting opinions on the matter including Ace Ankomah, a private legal practitioner.

He noted that: "A woman, even when she works (and every woman should work, if she can) should provide only if she wants to. But she is in charge of everything else that has to do with the home. Yes, it is her kitchen, not mine. Thats why she chose everything in there. My only space in the house is my basement. Everywhere else is hers. I dont care. Just dont paint our room pink. Thats all, portions of his post read.Dont MAKE her do it. PROVIDE the means to do it so that even if she doesnt do it herself or isnt there to do it, it still gets done. For example, I expect dinner when I get home; and meals when Im home. You dont have to cook it. You dont have to serve it. Just make sure the system I have provided for produces and delivers the food.In the same vein, I dont wash, clean, sweep, vacuum, dust, or do any house work. I am DADDY. Thats why I live in Ghana and not in the US."

His comments infuriated Dela Goldheart, who accused him of growing up in a patriarchal society and as such, has no education on gender issues.

"I never thought I will say this about you but I guess career excellence and knowledge in law doesn't make you exceptional when it comes to issues affecting women. You grew up in a patriarchal society," she wrote.

She continued: "The system is designed to favour you. You had no education on gender equality when growing up. But you know what? That can be changed. You have everything your wife has. I know you are smart enough to see that your wife does not use her vagina to cook or order food. And when it comes to strength, you even have more (likely). So if anyone should work and cook, it should be you. And one more thing, the meaning of daddy and mommy has never been static. Those who improve the world understand that change is one of the factors of progress. Think about it."

In a strongly worded reply, Mr Ankomah questioned if she was stupid or just deranged? He also described her as an angry, rabid and misdirected feminist.

"Dela Goldheart And where did you get the nonsense from about cooking with a vagina? Are you stupid or just deranged? Does the anonymity of social media give you the right to speak tosh to everyone. You would be proud to be associated with my wife for just 5 minutes in your life. Twit!!The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Fadare, who claimed to be a mechanic, was charged by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) for trafficking Indian hemp.

ALSO READ: Motorcyclist tells court he is guilty of drug trafficking

The suspect was reportedly arraigned on January 29 and pleaded guilty to the charge.

Following his plea, the prosecutor, Mr Jeremiah Aernan, revealed the facts of the case to the court, led one witness in evidence and tendered some documents to support the case.

The documents included a written statement of the accused, a request for scientific aid form and a bulk of the exhibit.

The prosecution added that the convict was arrested on September 17, 2017, at Ajah, Lagos State with one kilogramme of the narcotics.

The offence contravened the provisions of Section 11 (C) of the NDLEA Act, Cap 30, Laws of the Federation, 2004.

The prosecutor urged the court to sentence the accused in accordance with section 356 (2) of the ACJA 2015 and based on evidence submitted.

Represented by Mrs H. Oguneye, Fadare begged the court to show him mercy as well as give him a second chance to change his ways.

Oguneye added that Fadare was prepared to become a better person in the society if given another chance.

ALSO READ: NDLEA arrests two drug mules in Abuja

In her judgment, Justice Oluremi Oguntoyinbo, found the accused guilty as charged and sentenced him to two years imprisonment beginning from the date of his arrest.

The convict is hereby sentenced to two years imprisonment, to be calculated from the date of his arrest.Cuban state-run media, Cubadebate website reported that, "Diaz-Balart, who had been attended by a group of doctors for several months due to a state of profound depression, committed suicide this morning."

READ MORE: Landlord catches class 6 pupil tenant having intimate sex with his wife

The 68-year-old man also known as "Fidelito" because of how he resembled his father reportedly died on Thursday, but it is not clear from the reports how he killed himself.

According to Africanspotlight.com, before his death, Fidel Castro Diaz-Balart had been working as a scientific counselor to the Cuban Council of State and Vice-president of the Cuban Academy of Sciences, having studied nuclear physics in the former Soviet Union.The court, presided over by Mrs Lydia Osei Marfo, consequently sentenced them to 30 years with hard labour on each count to run concurrently.

Facts

Presenting the facts of the case, Inspector Eric Asare said acting on intelligence; the Ashanti Regional Police Command arrested the convicts at their hideouts at Appiakrom, a village near Nyinahin, on January 18, 2018.

He stated that around 4 a.m. on Monday, January 18, this year, the three laid ambush at the Asenayo Forest on the Afepaye-Nyinahin trunk road, where they robbed passengers on board a Benz bus, with registration number WR 844-X.

Inspector Asare added that the convicts ordered the occupants and the driver out of the bus and asked them to lie down.

They subsequently robbed the driver and the passengers of an unspecified amount of money and more than 20 mobile phones, after which they bolted into the forest.

Luck, however, eluded them when the police found their hideout and arrested them.

Inspector Asare said the police retrieved two single barrel guns, 20 assorted mobile phones, seven wraps of dried leaves suspected to be Indian hemp, a cash of GH1,350, torchlight and a strip of tramadol capsule during a search in their room.It was many multiples of what I made, said. He stayed there. I left.

It was a Monday in late January, and Bickford was at a table with four other women in a semiprivate room at Kikis, a Greek restaurant in the Chinatown neighborhood in Manhattan.

They included Gayl Johnson, a director of administration in New York Citys Department of Sanitation; Alix Keller, director of product technology at Hello Alfred, a home concierge service;

Melissa Robbins, a Philadelphia-based political strategist; and Kimberly Webster, formerly a lawyer at a New York firm.

The women were of different backgrounds, ages and professions, but they had one thing in common: All said they had experienced gender-based wage discrimination over the course of their careers.

Though the pay gap has long been in the public consciousness  on average, U.S. women make 80 cents for every dollar men make  three recent incidents have brought renewed scrutiny to an issue many women in the workplace say they continue to confront on an almost daily basis.

Early last month, Debra Messing and Eva Longoria chastised E! on the Golden Globes red carpet for paying Catt Sadler, the former co-host of E! News, half of what her male colleague, Jason Kennedy, made. (Sadler left the network in December.)

The next day, Carrie Grace, the former China editor of the BBC, resigned that position after figures released by the broadcaster showed a pay gap between male and female talent.

And, of course, there is the perhaps the most famous recent incident  the revelation that Michelle Williams was paid $80 a day for reshoots on All the Money in the World while her male co-star, Mark Wahlberg, was paid $1.5 million in total (he later donated it to charity, after an outcry)  that got many women in offices around the country swapping tales of when in their own careers they found out they were being paid less than their male counterparts and what they did (or did not do) about it.

I never really complained about the pay discrepancy, Bickford, 76, said, pausing between bites of moussaka. I was brought up in a culture where it was considered gauche.

I missed that class, Johnson said. (Age? You can say 55 plus.') Johnson, who was sitting diagonally across from Bickford, took a bite of her lamb chop. Ive been doing this job for over 20 years, Johnson said.

I started as a clerk and worked my way up. Ive had five promotions. But my white male counterparts earn $25,000 to $30,000 more a year than I do.

Johnson is one of 1,000 women on whose behalf a local union filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in 2013, claiming that the city paid women and minorities substantially less than their white male colleagues.

In 2015, the EEOC ruled in favor of the women and recommended that the city negotiate a payout. The suggested starting point was $246 million. Though the city and the union came to a broad agreement in April, the details are still being worked out.

To help the union build its case, Johnson spent years gathering information. And she was not shy about demanding her rights. Once, she said, she called a supervisor and asked why she was making less than a male counterpart. The answer, she said: He has a family to support.

Johnson is a single mother of three. Her experience is one example of whats called the motherhood penalty, a term for the economic and career setbacks women experience when they have children.

(Mens earnings went up more than 6 percent when they had children, if they lived with them, and womens decreased 4 percent for each child they had, a study found. And research has shown that employers rate fathers as the most desirable employees.)

Keller, 35, is raising a 9-year-old son alone. Ive made about 40 percent less than a colleague thats maybe only a tiny level above me, someone I didnt report to, Keller said. Ive been in a situation where a male colleague was making 100 percent more. I almost died inside.

Next to Keller was Robbins. The last campaign I was working on, I told my campaign manager, Were going to lose if we do this your way,' said Robbins, who declined to provide her age. Sixty-five percent of my salary was cut. My leadership as a black woman meant nothing to them.

Robbins described another job in sales where she asked for a raise, from $14 an hour, after bringing in a major client. According to Robbins, the companys owner refused. After quitting, Robbins said, a man was hired to replace her. His salary? More than twice as much. That was the most humiliating experience that I have ever had, she said.

Sitting across from Robbins was Webster, 36, who says she left the law firm she was working for in 2016 after she wrote a letter to the partners suggesting that they were acting out unconscious bias.

At least for one case, and it may have been for multiple cases, my time was being billed out at a lower rate than two of the three white, male paralegals, Webster said.

The very next business day, I got put on a performance improvement plan, she added. They were putting the paperwork in motion to either justify firing me or getting me to leave.

Retaliatory practices toward employees who complain about discrimination are far from abnormal. The EEOC reported that 48.8 percent of the complaints filed by workers in 2017 contained an allegation of retaliation.

Toward the end of the evening, entrees were forgotten and talk turned to the current moment and the future. I believe were at a tipping point, Bickford said. The computer has really helped us disseminate information, and I think men are on notice now.

Bickford and her colleagues in the business world have formed the Paradigm for Parity, which provides a five-step plan for gender equality that they have persuaded dozens of corporate leaders to implement.

Robbins was recently one of the speakers at the Womens March in Philadelphia and is working to help elect more female leaders.

And Johnson plans to stick around in city administration and in the union as long as she can. We have to look out for the ones who follow behind us, Johnson said. There are more battles to be fought. Everyone deserves a chance.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.According to reports, Beevi who led the prayer at Wandoor Cherukod village in Malappuram is said to be the first Muslim woman to lead the Friday prayer for both men and women in India.

Beevi's act of leading prayer for a mixed congregation has stirred controversy as her action is considered forbidden among orthodox Muslims except the congregation is all female.

However, the 34-year-old woman said the Quran contains no injunction that says only men can lead prayers.

ALSO READ: 10 things every Imam should do

She said: I believe in the Quran and the Quran teaches equality between the sexes. All this discrimination against women is man-made, imposed by the male clergy and I want to change it.

The Quran says all human beings are equal and anyone can lead prayers. The Quran is the basis of Islam, not the hadith, which were created by men after the prophets death. For 1,400 years, men have decided things, only men have made decisions. It is time for all that to change now,

Beevi who reportedly belongs to a small sect called the Quran Sunnat Society said she is not scared of the death threats she has been receiving on social media.

These are extremists who cannot tolerate any reform. I have had threats on WhatsApp, on YouTube, on Facebook, but I am not scared,.We reported earlier that there are leaked chats showing a conversation between the OAP's husband and a student of Bell's University, Ota, Ogun state identified as Yolanda Nifise Ayemo.

The young lady is alleged to be his mistress and in the chat agrees to meet him up, per his invite, with him paying for her reservations at Eko Hotel and Suites.

However, the embattled businessman and realtor took to Insta-stories this morning to deny reports that he cheated on Coker.

He shared photos which show him at a filling station, with the words, "Fake news" inscribed on them.

Following some investigation by LIB, it was also discovered that the Yolanda whom Olumide still follows on Instagram, has now locked her account, removed her profile photo and changed her username.

As you well know by now, Stephanie Coker and Olumide Aderinokun got hitched in a lavish affair in Greece, in August 2017.

However, Coker is yet to have the marriage she dreamed of, if Aderinokun's arrest for fraud, subsequent incarceration at Kirikiri Prisons, and now, his alleged infidelity, is anything to go by.

All the same, the media personality has managed to stay on top of her game, not letting these issues dapper her mood or put an end to her celebrity lifestyle and social media activities, which many have found strange and have even called her out for.

In fact, Coker was seen flaunting her wedding ring on social media just yesterday, Friday, February 2, 2018.The suspect identified as Ayo Akinleye was subsequently remanded in Ilesa Prisons while facing a three-count charge, bothering on murder and unlawful membership in a secret cult.

ALSO READ: Suspected cultist remanded in prison over alleged murder

The presiding Magistrate, Mrs Olubukola Ayilara, ordered that the defendant should be held in prison, due to the magnitude of the offence committed, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports.

According to Prosecutor, Insp. Joshua Oladoye, the defendant committed the offence sometime on August 5, 2017, at about 6:30 p.m. along the Old Garage area in Osogbo.

Oladoye told the court that Akinleye, who belonged to an unlawful society known as Aiye Black Axe Secret Cult, used a gun to shoot one .

The offence contravenes Sections 312, 64(a) (b), 316 and is punishable under Sections 319(1) of the Criminal Code Cap. 34 vol. II, Laws of Osun State, 2002.2 killed in Panchthar tractor accident

Two persons died and another sustained critical injuries in a tractor accident at Salleri Bazaar of Hilihang Rural Municipality-7 in Panchthar district on Saturday morning.The teenager identified as Maryam Muazu is reportedly five months pregnant and is a primary 6 student at L.E.A Anchau, Taka-Lafiya in Kubau local government of Kaduna State.

ALSO READ: Police arrest 3 suspects for allegedly raping minor

Daily Post reports that the parents of the young girl are considering an abortion to avoid public disgrace.

According to the reports, Maryam was reportedly raped by the eight men which includes her neighbour, an elderly Imam who has molested her severally.

Maryam said, They usually call me and give me N500 naira when l am coming back from school and when I went out hawking, they usually forced me into it, and they have been warning me not to tell my parents, they vowed to kill me if I dared tell my parents.

They threatened killing me each time they raped me, that is why I refused telling my parents, I was so afraid that is why I kept quiet over the issue.

Maryam's father, Mallam Muau Shittu, said, Eight men raped my daughter and now she is pregnant, they usually give her money while some give her gifts to have sex with such a young girl when she goes out hawking.

They usually give her five hundred naira and have sex with her the way they want it, they merely turned her like sex machine.

He added that he has reported the case to Upper Sharia Court lkara local government area to seek for justice.

Shittu also explained that for the past five months, they have been unable to rest easy seeing the problems Maryam is facing, carrying a set of twins at her age.

He added, she is too small to be carrying twins, and there is no single one among the rapists that is ready to take the responsibility as the father of the unborn babies."

Because of what he did to my daughter, I have stopped going to join them in prayer in the mosque because I cannot follow the prayer of a rapist who wants to destroy my family.

I dont like a bastard child in my family, that is why l am doing my best to protect the integrity of my family, he explained.

Meanwhile, Daily Post reports that the suspected rapists were arraigned before the court on Friday, February 2, and were subsequently granted bail.

The father of the victim also reported the case to a Human Rights Organization in search of justice for his daughter.

Founder of Arridah Relief foundation of Nigeria, a Non-Governmental Organization, Hajiya Rabi Salisu Ibrahim, confirmed the situation, saying, We received the case in our office.

For the past two years, we have treated over 400 cases of rape and child abuse but we have never come across this type of inhuman act.A suspected motorcycle thief was burnt to death in the Yawuri area of the state.

Photos show the victim burnt beyond recognition for his crime.

This seems to be the first of such case in 2018 although there was a massive surge in jungle justice from mid-2016 to mid-2017.

Petty thefts and other crimes have been judged and sentences carried out on the streets, and it usually ends in a gory, brutal death.The search of Coincheck's headquarters in Tokyo's Shibuya district was carried out by the Financial Services Agency, which had already slapped the company with an administrative order following the hack.

"We have launched an on-site inspection to ensure preservation of clients' assets," Finance Minister Taro Aso said at a briefing.

Japanese officials have suggested Coincheck lacked proper security measures, making itself vulnerable to theft.

The January 26 hack, which saw thieves syphon away 523 million units of the cryptocurrency NEM, exceeds the $480 million stolen in 2014 from another Japanese virtual currency exchange, MtGox.

Earlier this week, Japan's FSA gave Coincheck until February 13 to investigate the cause of the incident, "properly" deal with clients, strengthen risk management and take preventive measures.

Coincheck has said it will use its own funds to reimburse all 260,000 customers who lost holdings, at a rate of 88.549 yen per NEM.

The refund, which will be paid in yen, not virtual currency, will set the firm back about 46.3 billion yen ($422 million).

In the wake of the MtGox scandal, Japan passed a law on cryptocurrencies that requires exchanges to be regulated by the FSA. The law went into effect in 2017.

Coincheck had submitted an application to the FSA for a licence and was allowed to continue operating while it awaited a decision, the agency said.

Japan is a leading market for cryptocurrencies, with nearly a third of global bitcoin transactions in December denominated in yen, according to specialist website jpbitcoin.com.

Virtual currencies are popular elsewhere in Asia, including South Korea and China, but India's government on Thursday said it would crack down on their use.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, in his annual budget, said New Delhi would "take all measures to eliminate use of these crypto-assets in financing illegitimate activities or as part of the payment system".Speaking at an engagement workshop in Abuja, Fashola advised Nigerians not to put their country down in comparison with other countries of the world.

In his words: Stop putting yourselves down, we are a great country. We have challenges, let us go and deal with them together.

The former governor also said as a nation, Nigeria has taken great strides in the area of development and has the potential to compete favorably with other developed and emerging economies if the citizenry collectively resolved to tackle her identifiable challenges.

Fashola, who frowned at some Nigerians who put the country down in comparison with other countries both in and outside Africa especially in power production, explained that the power that any country needs is not only a function of its population but also a function of the level of its development and industrialization.

We have left mining. We are now in oil and gas. Dr. Fayemi in the Ministry of Mines and Steel is just trying to reset us back. We are trying to support their mining power demands whenever they are ready, he said.

Speaking further on power and it's generation in Nigeria, Fashola said: Niger is running on 80MW, Republic of Togo 200MW less than Abuja, Ghana is about 3,000MW installed capacity and they are not producing all of that; Lagos alone is getting 1200MW, one state, half of another country. So we must understand the dynamics of electricity use.

Your country is exporting power too, to Niger, to Republic of Benin, to Togo and we are selling Gas to the West African sub-region.

Advocating a collective resolve to solving the nations challenges rather than putting her down, Fashola said it would be hard for any individual to appreciate efforts of the government if the efforts aren't understood.

If you dont understand what we are saying and why we are saying it, it will be difficult to really appreciate where we even make progress, Fashola said.

The Minister reiterated the Federal Governments commitment to the full implementation of the Power Sector Recovery programme (PRSP) as means of solving the seeming intractable challenges in the nations Power Sector saying the commitment could not be doubted because it was encapsulated in the governments Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP) where Power forms one of the five major pillars.

Power Generation

On Friday, February 2, 2018, the Federal Government said the implementation of the Power Sector Recovery Programme (PSRP) will ensure a minimum baseline daily power supply of 4,500Mega Watts (MW) from 2018.

What is the PSRP?

The PSRP is a series of policy actions, operational governance and financial interventions being implemented by Federal Government over the next five years to reset the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry for future growth.

The programme, among other objectives was designed to strengthen the sectors institutional framework and improve power supply reliability to meet growing demand of electricity consumers in the country.

Nigerian ranked 2nd worst country in electric supply

Nigeria has been ranked the second worst country in electricity supply for 2017 by the Spectator Index after the country was only able to supply a daily average of 3,851 megawatts (MW) to its 180 million population.

According to the report, the electricity supply in 137 countries were examined and Yemen ranked as the worst nation with Nigeria, Haiti, Lebanon and Malawi following the war-torn middle east nation to round off a list of top 5 countries.

Other African economies that ranked high on the list were Ethiopia (37th), South Africa (41st) and Algeria (45th).

National Grid failure

On Tuesday, January 2, 2018, there was a total collapse of the national grid. It was a national blackout arriving just hours after President Muhammadu Buhari touted his administrations gains in the power sector in his New Year message.Malam Dahiru Nuhu, the officer in charge of Anti-Begging Unit of the Board, disclosed this while speaking with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Saturday in Kano.

Nuhu said that the suspects were arrested during different raids in the metropolis, adding that 24 of them were children, while 70 were adults.

He said the arrests were carried out in areas around motor parks and restaurants but were however released and warned after confirming that they were first time offenders.

Nuhu urged people to shun begging but instead, use their hands to better their livelihood.A reliable source close to the Inspector-General of Police Intelligence Response Team (IRT) confirmed the arrest to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos, on Friday.

The source said the suspects were arrested on Friday, stressing that they kidnapped the officer on Jan. 14, while conducting a check on his men on duty.

NAN gathered that the suspects suddenly blocked and kidnapped the officer using AK-47 rifles.

He was eventually released three days later after ransom was paid, the source said.

Irked by the development, IGP Ibrahim Idris was said to have deployed the Intelligence Response Team to Abia.

Based on the IGPs directive, one of the best IRT teams was deployed and after six days of unrelenting follow up, five of the kidnappers were arrested alive and one died during a gun battle with IRT operatives.

Exhibits recovered are: one AK-47 Rifle with S/No. 56-2550382 with two Magazines and 60 live ammunition, one Barretta Service Pistol of the Mopol Unit Commander.

Other items include one locally made pistol and two cartridges, one police bullet proof jacket, one police vest, two head warmers, one Mopol jungle cap among others, the source said.SaharaReporters reports that Abubakar, who is unhappy with the development, ordered an investigation into the leakage of the vital information.

It was further reported that the directive barring directors' movement was issued in a memo dated January 19, 2018 and signed by J. Abba on behalf of the DG.

The memo insisted that the leakage of information is "clearly aimed at damaging the agency, misleading the public and ridiculing the government as a whole".

The memo, as reported, also stated the objective of the investigation, which is to unearth the perpetrators and ensure they are punished.

ALSO READ: Buhari appoints Ahmed Abubakar as head of intelligence unit

"In the light of the foregoing, I am to convey further directive that you should remain in Abuja and not travel without written approval from the DG, NIA, as you may be required to appear before the investigative committee set up for the purpose," the memo stated.Premium Times reports that the meeting lasted 30 minutes at the Emir's palace in Kano on Saturday, February 3, 2018.

While there was no information on what was discussed, it was reported that the meeting might be linked with recent happenings in the country including the Senator Kwankwaso/Governor Ganduje faceoff.

Osinbajo, who was in Kano to attend his aide Hafiz Ibrahims marriage ceremony, was treated to a rousing welcome by hundreds of All Progressive Congress, APC.

ALSO READ: Osinbajo meets Sanusi behind closed doors

After the meeting, Osinbajo was reported to have also inspected a bridge project under construction by the Ganduje administration at Katsina road.

The Vice President was said to have left Kano at about 3 p.m. for Lagos for another meeting according to his media aide Laolu Akande.Punch reports that the attackers stormed the village around 10pm on Thursday, February 1, 2018 after Governor Darius Ishaku, raised an alarm of an impending attack on the state.

It was also reported that the suspected herdsmen stole some motorcycles and other valuables in the attack which has heightened tension in the area.

A community leader, Tyav Ngutswen, insisted that the attackers were herdsmen saying his people were sleeping when they were attacked.

ALSO READ: People are planning to attack Taraba - Gov Ishaku

Ngutswen alleged further that problem started after some cows belonging to one Dapel Lolo and one another Buruti invaded farms and caused serious damage.

We caught 12 of their cows that eat our crops and handed over to them peacefully, but we demanded a compensation of N40,000 which they reluctantly paid, but threatened to attack us, he reportedly said.

I can confirm to you that Alhaji Burutis sons were among the over 20 of herdsmen who attacked us.

We cant stay here because there is no security, thats why we are rushing to conduct the burial and leave before it gets dark.

ALSO READ: Suspected herdsmen kill 7, burn houses

Police confirms attack on village

The Taraba police command has confirmed the attack on the Ngutswen village.

Spokesman of the state police command, David Misal, confirmed the attack on the village on Friday, February 2, 2018.

Misal, however, dismissed reports that they were herdsmen, saying the command is yet to ascertain the identity of the perpetrators.

The police spokesman also said the command received information of the attack around 3am but arrived at the scene after it had occurred.

Some people suspected to be armed robbers invaded the community. They shot four people dead and catered away motorcycles.

No arrest has been made so far. Before we arrived the scene, they had ran away. So we are gathering intelligence and trying to see how we can arrest the perpetrators.

Nobody can say at the moment if they were herdsmen or not. Their mode of operation was to attack the people and cart away their motorcycles, just like armed robbers.

So what we have so far gathered shows they are armed robbers. Form the look of things, it was an armed robbery incident and we are yet to verify the identities of the attackers, he said.

Meanwhile the Inspector-General of Police, Idris Ibrahim has reportedly said that the implementation of the anti-grazing law in Benue State caused the recent massacre of its people by Fulani herdsmen.

Herdsmen attacks in 2018

Cattle herders have been linked to a string of violent killings across the country in the first month of 2018.

In the most devastating attacks that heralded the turn of the new year, a series of attacks in Guma and Logo Local Government Area of Benue State between December 31, 2017, and January 6, 2018 led to the death of 73 men, women and children.

Herders have also been linked to several other attacks in Taraba, Plateau and Ekiti that have left dozens dead, and more injured.

Government's plan to stop herdsmen crisis

The Nigerian presidency believes that bandits masquerading as herdsmen are behind the killings across the country.

To this end, decisive military force will now be fully engaged to deal with the bandits believed to be behind the killings in parts of the country especially regarding the crisis often associated with herdsmen, a highly placed presidency official told Pulse.

The role of bandits and suspected mercenaries in what has become known as has provoked the need for a fresh approach to dealing with the crisis, sources close to the Working Group formed recently by the National Economic Council (NEC) disclosed on the condition of anonymity; because they haven't been authorized to speak on the subject.

The Working Group

The Working Group was formed a little over a week ago by the National Economic Council. It has nine Governors and is chaired by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo.The UNFPA Country Representative in Nigeria, Dr Diene Keita, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Friday in Abuja that the campaign has been successful, in spite of no prosecution of offenders.

This is especially so with the enactment of Female Genital Mutilation and Cutting (FGMC) legislation in states covered by the joint UNFPA/UNICEF programme on FGMC in Nigeria at national and in Imo and Oyo states.

The UNFPA support to states and national advocacy efforts to the legislative houses of assembly through its political partners and coalition of CSOs improved discussion and attention on improving legislative framework for FGMC, she said.

According to her, this advocacy advances action and influence health peer rivalry among political and government actors at this levels to accelerate efforts to enact legislation on FGMC.

A UNFPA 2017 estimates that one in four females between the ages of 15 and 49 have undergone genital mutilation in Nigeria.

Keita said efforts to encourage implementation and enforcement are yet to yield the expected dividend as there has been no known public prosecution of offenders and perpetrators of FGMC.

Yet, according to her, the campaign against FGMC in Nigeria, on the platform of the joint FGMC programme, is succeeding.

She said: At present, 1,050 communities have declared abandonment of FGMC since the commencement of the joint programme in 2014.

The programme has reached a total of 329,878 persons with information about the need to abandon FGMC and 103,755 persons, including pregnant and nursing mothers, accessed health services through capacity enhancement for health workers on the treatment and management of FGMC survivors, Keita said.

She added that since the commencement of the campaign, the joint programme has successfully supported the enactment of the Violence Against Persons (Prohibition) and FGMC legislation at the national and state levels.

The campaign has succeeded in improving engagement and discussions at community levels with women, men, boys and girls.

The programme supported the development of a manual with the National Human Rights Commission to enable adequate reporting of FGMC indicators in templates for routine human rights country reports.

The programme also succeeded in integrating FGMC global indicators into the National Health Information Systems (NHIMS)

and continues to support the expansion of FGM/C indicators to reflect in the modules in the National Development Health Survey (NDHS) and the Multi-Sector Indicator Survey (MICS).

According to Keita, the UNFPA/UNICEF joint programme is encouraging the change of language at the community level from Circumcision to Mutilation to align with the WHO definition of FGMC adopted by the joint programme.

She said the word circumcision, normalises the act of FGMC and enables communities tolerance and condonment of the practice.

It fails to situate FGMC in the context of rights violation, but instead keeps it at the margin of cultural practice is beneficiary to both individuals, families and communities.

This further moralises FGMC practice in communities instead of criminalising the practice and contributes to further classification of the practice as a good social norm that can be used to modulate sexual relations and maintain fidelity.

On the contrary, the language of Mutilation expresses the fact that FGMC is a violation of human rights of women and girls  right to health, life, bodily integrity, freedom from torture and so on.Airlines hike fuel surcharge

The Airlines Operators Association of Nepal (AOAN) on Friday decided to increase the fuel surcharge from Monday in line with an increase in aviation fuel prices.This was disclosed by the party's National Secretary, Mark Adebayo, while speaking at the party's Lagos State congress at Light Chapel Event Centre, Ilupeju, Lagos, on Saturday, February 3, 2018.

He also revealed that gubernatorial aspirants contesting for tickets under the party will be subjected to the same assessment so as to produce the best candidates for important political positions in 2019.

He said, "There will be a written examination for presidential candidates of KOWA Party, and governorship candidates. At least for those two categories. We need a candidate who can sell the party profitably to Nigeria."

According to Adebayo, the party is eager to choose its presidential flag bearer on August 18, 2018, the date the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has scheduled for primary elections to commence.

While speaking, he confirmed that KOWA already has four aspirants, including Professor Remi Sonaiya, vying for its presidential ticket.

Prof Sonaiya, who was also at the congress, was the party's flag bearer in the 2015 presidential election and will be expected to be the favourite to win the ticket again for 2019.

In 2015, she won 13,076 votes, 0.05% of the total votes cast, as incumbent, President Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressives' Congress (APC) coasted to victory with 15,424,921 (53.96%) votes.

Lagos gets incomplete SEC

At the congress of the party's Lagos division, six new members were elected to the State Executive Committee (SEC) to oversee its operations.

With 79 out of 489 registered delegates voting through the party's electronic voting platform, Dr Fadahunsi Fajuyitan was elected as the party's state chairman after serving as interim since 2016.

Other officers elected include: Dr Bimbo Oyedokun as Deputy Chairman; Emmanuel Ayomide-Baafog as Secretary; Emenyi Abang as Organising Secretary; Abhulimen Marvins as Public Relations Officer; and Chimezie Nwosu as Youth Caucus Leader.

The six new officers make up an incomplete committee as there were no contestants for positions such as women leader, treasurer, and legal adviser.

National Secretary, Adebayo, pointed out the absence of any female contestants which was in violation of the party's constitution which demands that such a committee is made up of, at least, 35% of the female gender.

He advised the new chairman, Dr Fajuyitan, to conduct a supplementary election to rectify the situation.

KOWA's apology for Osun LG elections

Following its woeful performance at the local government elections in Osun State which held on January 27, 2018, Prof Sonaiya issued an apology on behalf of the party.

"Good day. We owe the public an explanation and apologies on the Osun State LG election. In promoting leadership by younger people, the risk of mistakes due to lack of experience is high. Means we need closer supervision. This has cost us a lot, but we're learning. We are sorry", she tweeted.

Origin of KOWA PartySurgeon Samanta Lal Sen, who last year hailed his cure as a milestone in medical history, now admits Bajandar's case may be more complicated than first thought.

His patient, who has been unable to work for years and whose young family lives in the hospital, says he fears he will never be cured.

"I am scared to have any more surgeries. I don't think my hands and feet will be okay again," the 27-year-old told AFP at the Dhaka hospital where he first came for treatment in January 2016.

Bajandar suffers from epidermodysplasia verruciformis, an extremely rare genetic condition known as "tree-man disease".

Intrigued by his condition, doctors at the Dhaka Medical College Hospital treated him for free, surgically removing more than five kilos (11 pounds) of growths from his hands and feet.

He has been there ever since with his wife and family, who live together in a small room in the hospital.

"We thought we had achieved (a cure). But now it seems to be a time-consuming case," surgeon Sen told AFP.

"We will keep on investigating to reach the ultimate success, though it's tough to say how long it will take."

This week Bajandar underwent his 25th surgery to remove some of the growths from his hands.

Fewer than half a dozen cases

For his wife Halima Khatun, life is on hold as she tends to her husband and looks after their four-year-old daughter.

"We're grateful for the free treatment, we couldn't have afforded to pay for it," said Khatun, who passes her time in the ward making jewellery for a little cash.

Fewer than half a dozen people worldwide have epidermodysplasia verruciformis, according to Sen.

Last year the Dhaka Medical College Hospital treated a young Bangladeshi girl suffering from the condition.

Doctors declared surgery to remove the growths a success, but her father later said they had grown back in even greater numbers.

He withdrew her from treatment, saying he did not want to watch her grow up in a hospital ward.

"Nobody deserves to be in a hospital forever," said a nurse working in the plastic surgery unit.

"Unfortunately, he (Bajandar) may have to stay here for a while."

Meanwhile Bajandar worries about money, and how he will pay for his daughter's education.

"She's growing up so fast," he said.One day recently, home with his family in Fontenay-le-Comte, a sleepy city in the Loire valley, he methodically opened boxes containing dozens of drawings he has made of the images burned into his brain.

It is the only way he knows of coping with the traumas he witnessed, and suffered, in Syrias torture chambers.

In one, men wearing only their underwear carry a corpse in what looks like a sheet or blanket, for eventual disposal, Bukai says, in the back of a truck in a pile of other bodies. He recalls a number, 5535, on the young mans chest.

They had been ordered to strip to their underwear, Bukai explained, so they could be easily spotted if they tried to escape.

Art saved me, he said, while laying the drawings out on a tabletop.

His art reminds many critics of the work of Slovenian artist and Holocaust survivor Zoran Music  haunting, dark and extremely realistic.

In his drawings, some prisoners hang by their hands and others undergo other forms of torture, all while their cellmates eat their meals calmly, desensitized to the displays of inhumanity around them.

I was observing everything and making art in my head, he said about his time in a crammed cell, where prisoners had to take off their clothes because of the unbearable heat.

He still remembers the smell of rotten flesh, the screams of other prisoners and how, horrifically, he and others grew accustomed to it all.

Today, Bukai (pronounced boo-Kay) travels across France to raise awareness about the horrors of the detention centers, while the French publishing house Editions du Seuil is preparing to publish a book of his drawings.

His experiences during Syrias civil war were not all that different from those of tens of thousands of other young men who took to the streets demanding democracy and human rights  except, perhaps, in that he survived.

He was arrested three times for his participation in the protests. He was incarcerated in 2012 for a month and for 11 months in 2014.

According to rights groups, the government of President Bashar Assad has tortured tens of thousands of political opponents, many of whom have never been seen by their families again. No one knows exactly how many disappeared.

I have not seen anything like the methods of torture that the Syrian security services have used in any other country, said Sara Kayyali, a researcher with Human Rights Watch.

Bukai, 47, was lucky to come out of Assads prisons alive, but more than 40 members of his family died in 2012 in a bombing of their neighborhood in Judaydat Artuz, a Damascus suburb. That he managed to survive and, eventually, escape from Syria was a tribute to the determination of his wife, Abir Jassoumeh.

Both times he was arrested she searched until she found him, 10 days the first time, 20 days the second. She then bribed officials to win his freedom  more than $20,000, or around 10 times her annual income, raised with the help of siblings living abroad.

They chose to settle in this small French city because one of his brothers, a doctor, was living here. Bukai already had a connection to France  he enrolled in a bachelors program in Rouen in the 1990s, after studying drawing in the Syrian city of Homs and fine arts in Damascus.

He had a comfortable if unremarkable upbringing, at least until the Arab Spring. His father, who worked in an oil refinery in Homs, was secular and not politically engaged.

But many of his relatives opposed the countrys autocratic rulers, Hafez Assad and the current president, Bashar Assad, and were among the first to join the peaceful protests that broke out in 2011. In the first protest in Judaydat Artuz, 15 of the 25 participants were members of the Bukai family.

Bukai firmly believed that freedom and democratic values would prevail. He filmed videos of the protests and posted them on the internet. He thought the governments days were numbered.

When we saw that international forces took down Gadhafi, we thought This is our chance to make the Assads fall,' he said, referring to the NATO bombing of Libya in 2011 and the Libyan leader, Moammar Gadhafi.

They expected a similarly rapid end for Assad: We never thought he would butcher Syrians without anyone budging. We knew that maybe a few hundred would die, but it was a small cost for our freedom.

So Bukai stayed in Syria even though he knew he risked arrest. Police had searched and burned his mothers house in 2012. Still, he lived with the family until police caught up with him.

I was always scared, Jassoumeh said. But even when I asked him to stop, he wouldnt.

His first arrest came in July 2012 as he was commuting to work at the International University for Science and Technology in Damascus, where he was teaching art.

He made the mistake of staying on his bus as it went through one of the many checkpoints that appeared in Damascus as the civil war was heating up.

The guards found his name of a list of wanted people. They made him get off the bus, called him a traitor, handcuffed him, blindfolded him with his own shirt and took him to a detention center.

There he was beaten so badly that he suffered multiple broken bones and temporary hearing loss. His wrists still bear scars from that day, and he says he still hears the screams of the other prisoners.

Jassoumeh paid about $1,000 to get him out of jail, but the charges remained. He then spent two years in hiding. In 2014, he and his family decided to make their escape from Syria.

They bribed someone to have his name omitted from a watch list at the border, then dressed as Christians, wearing crosses. But they had been betrayed: Bukais name was still on the list. He was arrested and taken back to the same detention center  facility number 227.

By this time, the abuses had reached new levels of depravity, and the prisoners were forced to watch and participate in the torture. Once again, Jassoumeh paid a bribe, this time $6,000, to have her husband transferred after 70 days to a jail where he was not tortured and was allowed family visits.

I am lucky. I love life. I am attached to life, Bukai said about how he got through the ordeal. I had a big hope of getting out and of seeing my wife and my daughter again.

His wife traveled every week to see him, crossing war zones 38 times to give him the courage, he says, to stay alive.

After she paid a final bribe, he was released from jail, and in October 2015, certain that his name had been removed from the wanted list, they left Syria for good, carrying the few drawings he had done in the jail and musical instruments to attract the custom officers attention away from the art.

When they made it to Lebanon, they immediately requested asylum at the French Embassy in Beirut.

Today, they are slowly trying to build a life abroad. But they still hope to return to Syria one day after the toppling of the Assad government. Until then, Bukai will keep sketching.

It is a personal therapy that allows me to evacuate, he said about his work. The whole time I was in hell, I tried to not see nightmares. Instead, I forced myself to see beautiful dreams.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.Newshub News Desk

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For transfer instructions to GoDaddy, please click here.Assistant sub-inspector arrested with illegal gold from TIA

An assistant sub-inspector of Nepal Police has been arrested with 20 tolas of illegal gold from Tribhuvan International Airport.Chief ministers office set up in Province 3

The Chief Ministers Office has started its operations in Province 3. After provincial Chief Secretary Reshmiraj Pandey assumed office on Friday, the CMs office started day-to-day administration.Overall, the populist/ electoral elements in the budget have remained measured with the finance minister being clearly aware of a higher-than-expected rise in oil prices, less-than-planned tax revenues and the wider deficit for FY 17/18, constraining his margin of manoeuvre, says Claude Smadja.

Illustration: Uttam Ghosh/Rediff.com

This was Finance Minister Arun Jaitleys last full-year Budget before the general elections due in 2019, and also with the perspective of four state elections to be held this year.

So, there was no surprise that much of the resources were devoted to the agriculture and rural sectors that are crucial for the outcome of the next elections.

In that respect, the results of the Gujarat elections in which the frustration of the rural sector boosted the performance of the Congress, were a warning that the Prime Minister Narendra Modi could not ignore.

However, should the electoral context and tone of the Budget be something that would worry the international business community? Not necessarily.

First of all, after the double shock created by the banning of the high-value currency notes in late-2016, and then the chaotic implementation of the Goods and Services Tax, which together significantly disrupted economic activity, it was important for the government to show that this would be a steadier year.

The growth projection for FY18-19 is basically in line with the forecast of the IMF and while the Budget deficit is seen at 3.3 per cent of GDP -- higher than the 3 per cent target which will not be achieved again -- it marks a decrease from the 3.5 per cent announced for FY17-18.

This is in line with what was widely expected inside and outside India.

Overall, the populist/ electoral elements in the budget have remained measured with the finance minister being clearly aware of a higher-than-expected rise in oil prices, less-than-planned tax revenues and the wider deficit for FY 17-18, constraining his margin of manoeuvre.

More importantly, some significant increases of resources allocations in this budget focus on areas where the government attention and actions had been found wanting for too many years.

For instance, the additional expenditures towards railways, road transport and airports.

This also relates to more funding for education, health and social security, as the too small percentage of resources devoted to health and education has been a scourge for India and one of the factors responsible for the lackluster growth performance.

The measures announced to support new hirings with the government contribution to the EPF, and women employment, as well as those in favour of MSMEs, also go in the same direction.

Many companies might complain that there is nothing significant for it, except the reduction to 25 per cent of the corporate tax rate for companies with a turnover of up to Rs 250 crore, which leaves bigger businesses disappointed.

But it is also fair to recognise that this government has already made important progress in terms of ease of doing business.

It was also important that the budget allows for additional funding and action on developing the digital economy and is paying attention to the development of artificial intelligence and to exploring the potential of the blockchain technology, areas which are crucial for being a player in the 21st century economy.

There is, of course, no underestimating the electoral considerations.

At the same time, there is no sign of the kind of spending spree that would have raised legitimate concerns in the international markets.

But the government will be under tremendous scrutiny in the coming months to see how this budget will be implemented and it is certainly aware that foreign markets and investors would react very badly at any sign that populist temptations and electoral pressures are supplanting fiscal caution and good governance.

Claude Smadja is president of Smadja & Smadja,

Sumit Sekhar has contributed to the write-up.Experts believe that states will be in a predicament because of their tight fiscal position and reluctance to replace their own health schemes with this newly announced National Health Protection Scheme.

Illustration: Dominic Xavier/Rediff.com.

Two days after Finance Minister Arun Jaitley announced the worlds so-called largest health insurance scheme covering 500 million people in the country, the NITI Aayog and the Union health ministry indicated that the governments new flagship scheme was likely to cost the exchequer anywhere between Rs 100 billion and Rs 120 billion.

The Union government said it would provide 60 per cent funds, and the state governments were expected to pool in the remaining 40 per cent.

The NITI Aayog estimated that the new health insurance scheme would cost around Rs 60 billion in the first year. The governments calculation was based on the assumption that the premium per family would be between Rs 1,000 and Rs 1,200.

We are expecting to cover around 50 per cent beneficiaries depending on the state governments acceptance of the scheme, said Alok Kumar, adviser at NITI Aayog. Of the total Rs 60 billion expenditure in the first year, the Centres share will be Rs 36.6 billion.

The state governments, however, are yet to provide their consent for implementing this scheme. Experts believe that states will be in a predicament because of their tight fiscal position and reluctance to replace their own health schemes with this newly announced National Health Protection Scheme (NHPS).

About 24 states provide some sort of health scheme to their residents.

We will speak to the state governments, said Vinod Paul, member, health, at NITI Aayog.

Paul said the NHPS, which would provide a health cover of up to Rs 500,000 to 100 million families, was expected to be launched in the next six to seven months.

This has given rise to speculation that the NHPS will become operational just before assembly elections of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh, scheduled in November. According to a PTI report, the government is planning to launch the scheme either on August 15 and October 2.

The success of the health insurance scheme might benefit the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government in the upcoming general elections.

Officials said an early roll-out and success of the new health scheme, however, rested with the state governments. The Centre is providing the states with options to either adopt a trust model, whereby the latter can appoint a public insurance company to provide health coverage to people in the state, or award the contract to an insurance company with the lowest bid.

Paul said it would be wrong to say that government had not allocated funds for the new health insurance scheme in the Union Budget.

The finance minister has provided Rs 20 billion for the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY) and we are also expecting to get funds from the health and education cess, he said. The government has raised the health and education cess to 4 per cent in the budget and is expecting to collect around Rs 110 billion in 2018-19.

Officials said the NHPS would subsume the RSBY, which was launched in 2008, to provide secondary care to people living below the poverty line. Under the RSBY, the beneficiaries were provided health coverage of Rs 30,000 per family and the cost was shared by the Centre and states in a 75:25 ratio.

Of the Rs 500 insurance premium, the Centre contributed Rs 375 and the remaining Rs 175 was paid by the respective state governments.

The RSBY, however, remained successful only on paper. Of the 50.9 million intended beneficiaries, the government could reach only 30.6 million families in 10 years. The RSBY also failed in its objective to reduce out-of-pocket expenses.

The RSBY had become redundant with states providing better insurance schemes. The Union government has been surrendering funds allocated for the RSBY. For the financial year 2017-18, revised estimates for the RSBY stand at around Rs 4.7 billion, a health ministry official told Business Standard.

The government believes more people will be attracted to the new insurance scheme because of a rise in health coverage to Rs 500,000. The government said it had identified the beneficiaries, who were listed under the seven deprived categories in the Socio-Economic and Caste Census of 2011.

Union Budget 2018: Complete CoverageNitish Kumar has failed to curb communal forces and hoodlums across communities.

And that is ominous for Bihar's present and future, warns Mohammad Sajjad.

Illustration: Dominic Xavier/Rediff.com

On January 23, 2018, in two different villages -- Makhdumpur-Kodaria in the western subdivision, and Assiya in Gaighat in the eastern subdivision -- in Muzaffarpur district, north Bihar, there was acute communal tension leading to violence, the saving grace being that there were no fatalities.

The immediate provocation was the route through which the idols of Saraswati, the goddess of learning, were being taken for immersion.

Saraswati Puja thus far was not an occasion for Hindu-Muslim tension.

Historically, since colonial times, it is around the processions of Durga, Mahabiri Jhanda, Muharram etc when there would be communal tension and violence. Since then, in government schools, all students, cutting across religious lines, would participate in the Saraswati Puja festivities.

At the most, the immersion procession saw little or lesser participation by Muslim students, and the only slogan shouted relatively more mildly and gently, and with long pauses, was, 'Saraswati Mata ki jai'.

The only worry used to be the coercive fund collection by students and unemployed youth for arranging the Saraswati Puja.

This year, there are reports of a new development. Even the processions to immerse the idols of Saraswati involved a raging demonstration of weapons -- traditional (such as swords and spears), as well as arms like country-made pistols, which would be fired in the air, particularly while passing through Muslim localities, and chanting of slogans.

Eyewitnesses testify that the body language, the decibel level of the slogan chanting, and the demonstration of weapons would become much more aggressive while passing through Muslim localities.

The immediate reason for the clash in Makhdumpur-Kodaria village near the Muzaffarpur aerodrome was over the route for the immersion procession.

Here, tension has been simmering since long.

Seeing the tension and anticipating a communal clash, the administration had already sanctioned an alternative route for the procession through the south-west to immerse the idols in the Kadaaney rivulet/canal.

The processionists, however, defied this and insisted on passing through Muslim settlements, northward, and coming out on National Highway 102, and then going eastward, to Tirhutiya canal of Pakri Pakohi, close to the Muzaffarpur aerodrome.

The Muslims of Makhdumpur-Kodaria agreed to the procession passing through their settlement, provided it did not comprise 'strangers' or 'outsiders'.

Around 50 such people had arrived on about 25 motorcycles, covering their faces with saffron gamchhas (scarves) and carrying weapons. Despite all the anticipation of violence, only a small number of policemen had been deployed there.

As the situation aggravated, more policemen, led by Inspector Shujauddin Khan, were sent to the scene.

Khan is supposed to be a competent officer, and heads the Sadr thana in Muzaffarpur. He was severely injured in the stone-pelting carried out by the mob. They deleted video recordings of the violence.

The police seized some motorbikes, and arrested 13 people, of whom six are Muslims (including a lady in her 60s, besides two other Muslim women and a young boy).

An FIR has been lodged by the police and the senior superintendent of police, Vivek Kumar, has issued a statement underlining that the situation turned violent only because of the presence of 50-odd 'strange' people.

The fact ought to be noted that a locality historically free from communal violence was now getting rapidly communalised.

A few kilometres to the west of Makhdumpur-Kodaria, Azizpur (Saraiya) saw a communal clash on January 18, 2015, for which some Bajrang Dal activists were later held by the police with the help of a journalist's video-recording. They now face trial.

Barely 40 kilometres away, in Agarpur-Lalganj (Vaishali), communal violence flared up on November 18, 2015.

On August 5-6, 2016, communal violence erupted in Maker village and spread up to Chapra in Saran district. This village, too, is hardly 40 km from Makhdumpur-Kodaria.

Last year, too, some dispute had erupted on the occasion of Saraswati Puja in Makhdumpur-Kodaria.

The district administration intervened and a joint meeting of Hindus and Muslims resulted in an amicable settlement.

Soon after this, some Bajrang Dal activists jumped into the fray, but, by then, things had already been resolved.

Ever since, the Bajrang Dal and Vishwa Hindu Parishad have been more active in the locality.

In late June 2017, an NDTV photographer, Munne Bharti, a resident of Vaishali, was forced by Bajrang Dal members to chant 'Jai Shri Ram' on the way to Samastipur via Muzaffarpur on National Highway 28.

In late November 2017, there was communal tension in a nearby village, Damodarpur, where a Muslim girl was eve-teased by some Hindu boys. One of the accused was said to be a member of the Bajrang Dal.

The discontent of upper castes and saffronisation of the lower castes

The Kanti assembly seat, well known for the Muzaffarpur thermal power station, has been electing Bhumihars, an upper caste that is politically and educationally dominant.

In 1995 and in 2000, it elected Muslims, the only one of the district's 11 assembly seats to do so.

For long, it also elected a nominee of the leftist Socialist Unity Centre of India, Professor Nalini Ranjan Singh, a London-educated Bhumihar landlord.

In 1995, he defected to the Samata Party, lost the election, and then joined the BJP and has since been in political oblivion.

Makhdumpur-Kodaria also happens to be among the few Muslim populated villages of Muzaffarpur from where Muslims were the first to go to the Gulf in the early 1980s, mostly as waiters, and in similar humble posts.

The Muslims from these villages are mostly mechanics, drivers, vehicle-painters, etc in which capacities some of them have also become slightly affluent. Otherwise, they are mostly poor, marginal, peasants, and least educated.

The recent wave of communal hatred against Muslims is also caused partly by the rise of a tiny middle class among Muslims, and their employment in the Middle East is one of the factors contributing to their affluence.

In my earlier columns (which you can read in the Related Links), I have been reported the communalisation of Bihar's Hindus and Muslims.

The Bajrang Dal -- joined by the backward castes, but more prominently by the community of Mallahs (fishermen) -- is becoming more visible and assertive, specifically in Bihar's Saran, Tirhut and Mithila regions.

In the 2015 assembly election, Kanti elected a Dalit, Ashok Chaudhry, who had contested as an Independent.

Thus, it is one of the rare seats which elected a Dalit even though it is not reserved for the scheduled castes.

Chaudhry defeated the incumbent MLA, Ajit Kumar, a Bhumihar and former minister in the Nitish Kumar cabinet who had defected to Jitan Manjhi's Hindustan Awam Morcha, a BJP ally.

In July 2016, there was an atrocity against Dalits in Paroo, Muzaffarpur, which was essentially a conflict between the Bhumihars and Paswans.

On January, 23, 2018, in Asiya village, in Gaighat in eastern Muzaffarpur, violence broke out between the Yadavs and Kurmis, leaving a large number of people injured.

Gaighat is a seat with a considerable Yadav and Muslim population. In 2015, it unseated the BJP's Rajput MLA, Veena Devi.

Here, too, tension has been brewing since Muharram in early October 2017.

In a nearby village, Ramnagar, Muslims of adjoining villages used to assemble with their taziyas every Muharram.

Last year, on the 10th day of Muharram, October 2, by the time the taziyas could assemble, some Hindus from the Kurmi caste -- which, incidentally, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar belongs to -- had gathered at the site to perform a ceremony.

This was dismantled by the Yadavs and the Muharram ceremony was performed, as the Muslims had been doing there every year.

On January 23 this year, when the Saraswati idol immersion procession insisted on passing through Assiya village, the Yadavs objected, resulting in violence between them and Kurmis.

Some observers would say that in recent years, those assembly seats with a history of having an elected Muslim MLA are witnessing increased activity by saffron outfits. Efforts are on to consolidate the Hindus for electoral advantage.

Secondly, ever since Lalu Yadav was incarcerated in December 2017 by the CBI court in the fodder scam case, there is a perceptible rise in Backward-Dalit consolidation in favour of the Rashtriya Janata Dal.

The Yadavs, and sections of other backwards and Dalits sympathetic to the RJD, now apprehend that Tejaswi Yadav and Misa Yadav would also not be spared by the BJP, and that before the next election they too would be imprisoned in cases of disproportionate assets.

Political observers in the locality say that some strange strands of politics are unfolding. The saffron forces are trying to consolidate Hindu OBCs, for which they need communal polarisation.

Rising unemployment, more accentuated since demonetisation with many labourers from unorganised sectors coming back to their villages, combined with agrarian distress, is providing ready recruits to saffron outfits like the Bajrang Dal and VHP.

The BJP is also understood to be trying to marginalise Nitish Kumar and emerge as the only alternative in the next election.

Nitish Kumar, fearing political oblivion in the days to come, is trying to win over the Bhumihars, sections of Ati-Pichhrha, Mahadalit and, more importantly, women, first through a liquor ban and now through a sensitisation against dowry, besides empowerment through reservations in the local bodies and some welfarist educational schemes.

Through symbolism and tokenism, Nitish Kumar may naively hope to win over not only the Bhumihars but also Muslims who are upset with him for having ditched the Mahagathbandhan and re-aligning with the BJP in July 2017.

However, it would perhaps be quite unrealistic to hope that with such tokenism, Nitish would be able to win the support of either of the two targeted communities.

Rather, the need of the hour is to firmly deal with communal forces and hoodlums across communities.

Nitish Kumar is just not able to do this.

And that is ominous for Bihar's present and future.

Mohammad Sajjad is professor, Centre of Advanced Study in History, Aligarh Muslim University.'He is not leader of the party in the Rajya Sabha or the Lok Sabha. He is just an MP.'

'In the order of precedence of the Republic of India, Rahul Gandhi is at 21st position,' says Sudhir Bisht.



IMAGE: Rahul Gandhi watches the Republic Day parade from the 6th row of the VIP enclosure. Photograph: ANI.

Robert Browning's monumental work, The Ring and the Book, was published in the 19th century, the work spanning over 12 books. In the 11th book titled Guido, there is a beautiful line that caught my eye.

Whine on, wail ever, 'tis the loser's right!

This sequence of simple words has such profound meaning. Whining and wailing is an acceptable form of displaying one's agony.

To open up one's wound for garnering the sympathy of onlookers is commonplace even today. It is believed that wailing helps lighten the heart and also assuages mental suffering.

Ordinary mortals like me and many readers are expected to moan and squeal and yelp and howl when wounded by the enemy in a battle of supremacy. But royalty and longstanding members of nobility are not supposed to 'whine on and wail ever'. They are expected to remain strong and show fortitude and bear their suffering in silence.

The Congress camp has been visibly smarting under the 'insults' inflicted upon them by the current dispensation over the last seven days.

But as is expected, the royal household of the Congress (you know who it means), has displayed a remarkable degree of stoicism. It is the long-lasting noblemen of the first family who are squealing and squirming, sometimes directly and other times through their friends in the media.

It all started with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's India visit. He met neither Sonia nor Rahul Gandhi.

Coomi Kapoor writes in the Indian Express in her widely read column, Inside Track: 'Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not meet Rahul or Sonia Gandhi during his recent trip to India although it is customary in diplomacy for visiting heads of States to also speak to the leader of the Opposition. This was the accepted practice until Narendra D Modi came to power.'

'As PM, Modi decreed that a meeting with the Opposition leader should not be included in the official protocol by the ministry of external affairs. When the Congress protested that this was against accepted democratic tradition, the government took shelter under the fig leaf that the Congress did not have 10 per cent of the strength of the Lok Sabha to be officially recognised as the main Opposition party.'

While I am personally unconcerned with who the Israeli PM meets and who he chooses to skip (or was requested to skip), I am amazed at the protest from the Indian National Congress.

Their point is all about the visiting leaders not meeting the Gandhis. It is not about meeting the party president, but about not meeting Rahul Gandhi and/or Sonia Gandhi.

Shouldn't the Congress party show similar emotion about their party leaders in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha? No, because the alpha and omega of the Congress party are Sonia and Rahul Gandhi, not necessarily in that order though.

And why should Netanyahu stop at just meeting the Gandhis?

Should he not meet with the leaders of the Communist parties or the Aam Aadmi Party?

In fact, since Netanyahu spent considerable time in Delhi, shouldn't Arvind Kejriwal, the Delhi chief minister, get primacy over others in meeting the visiting dignitary from Israel?

The second plaint the Congress has, is that its president was allocated the sixth row in the VIP enclosure at the Republic Day parade.

The complaint is ludicrous, to say the least. Rahul Gandhi is the president of a political party.

He is not the leader of the party in the Rajya Sabha or the Lok Sabha. He is just a member of Parliament.

In the order of precedence of the Republic of India, Rahul Gandhi is at 21st position.

I should mention here that the Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, Ghulam Nabi Azad, is the senior-most Congress leader in the list of Congressmen, coming in at the 7th position.

Rahul Gandhi was seated along with Azad, which shows he was upgraded and not downgraded by the administrators of the Republic Day parade function.

Hence, Rahul Gandhi or his close confidantes like Randeep Surjewala have no case to quarrel.

I am also told by scribes who have covered the Bharatiya Janata Party for a long time that its past presidents like Nitin Gadkari and Rajnath Singh were often relegated to the last row at the Republic Say parade. So I don't know why Congress leaders are nitpicking about Rahul Gandhi getting a seat in the sixth row in the VIP enclosure.

Here I would like to criticise the sense of entitlement that some of our netas seem to believe is their birthright and flaunt it openly.

I also feel that if Surjewala feels that Rahul Gandhi was insulted by the administration, he should have advised Rahul NOT to sit in the VIP enclosure, but to take a seat in the stands meant for the general public.

The television cameras would have kept their focus on him for this unusual act and he would have won the hearts of the hoi polloi.

I also read in the newspapers that the Congress party was unhappy that its leader in the Lok Sabha, Mallikarjun Kharge, had not been invited to the dinner hosted at Rashtrapati Bhavan.

In October 2015, the Congress boycotted the dinner hosted by Prime Minister Modi for African leaders because External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj had not mentioned Jawaharlal Nehru or any other Congress leader in her opening address at the Africa Summit.

Coming back to Kharge not being invited to the dinner or the 'At Home' hosted by the President on Republic Day, the government's position was clear from day one.

The leader of the Opposition gets invited for the 'At Home' at Rashtrapati Bhavan and Kharge for all his impressive position as the leader of the Congress party in the Lok Sabha, is not the Leader of the Opposition as the Congress does not have the numerical strength in the Lok Sabha to claim that slot.

These frequent boycotts of official dinners and expression of anger at not being invited for official dinners is something that does not behove the large political party that has ruled the country for 64 years.

It shows the party in bad light and portrays it as a party that is serious only about petty issues that involve the false prestige of its leaders.

And for the victorious party, I just have to say what the poet-prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee once said: 'Victory and defeat are a part of life which are to be viewed with equanimity.'

Sudhir Bisht, PhD, Delhi-based author and columnist, tweets at @sudhir_bishtBy hosting the 10 ASEAN leaders on Republic Day, India amply demonstrated that ASEAN is a central pillar of its Act East policy.

But is India 'central' for ASEAN, asks Dr Rahul Mishra.



IMAGE: President Ram Nath Kovind and Prime Minister Narendra D Modi with the 10 ASEAN leaders at the Republic Day parade, January 26, 2018. Photograph: Press Information Bureau

2018 began with intense diplomatic footwork for India.

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj visited Thailand, Indonesia and Singapore in early January.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu paid a week-long visit to India from January 14 to 19.

This was followed by Prime Minister Narendra D Modi's visit to Davos to deliver a speech at the World Economic Forum's annual meeting where he highlighted the three most significant challenges to human civilisation: Climate change. Terrorism. The backlash against globalisation.

However, the most intense and extravagant diplomatic engagement, at least in terms of deployment of diplomatic and security paraphernalia, was the visit of the 10 Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) leaders to India for the ASEAN-India Commemorative Summit.

Celebrations of the 25th anniversary of the ASEAN-India dialogue partnership, and ASEAN-India Commemorative Summit were successfully concluded in New Delhi on January 25, 2018. After the summit, the 'Delhi Declaration of the ASEAN-India Commemorative Summit to mark the 25th Anniversary of ASEAN-India Dialogue Relations' was also issued.

In a bid to showcase the salience of ASEAN for India, Modi had invited the 10 leaders of the ASEAN member countries as guests of honour at the 69th Republic Day celebrations. India has not invited so many heads of States or governments ever for Republic Day, and membership of a regional grouping never functioned as an 'essential qualification' for the invitation either.

With this event, India has proved, at least symbolically, that it is Acting East with ASEAN positioned as the 'central pillar' of its policy.

2017 was important in several ways. ASEAN completed 50 years of its existence. The India-ASEAN dialogue partnership turned 25, summit-level partnership completed 15 years, and their strategic partnership turned five.

Therefore, it was the appropriate time to tell the member countries that India considers the ASEAN region a top priority, and is ready to play a greater role in shaping the regional security architecture.

That India has been engaging 'East' is evident from the fact that India has been inviting leaders from the East Asian countries since 2010. That year, then South Korean president Lee Myung Bak; in 2011, then Indonesian president Susilo Yudhoyono; then Thai prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra in 2012; Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was invited in 2014.

Such warmth has been reciprocated by the East Asian leaders and India-ASEAN ties have improved over the last two decades.

Nevertheless, such a gathering should not be considered as a one-off, and the future course of action needs to be carefully charted out to achieve medium to long-term tangible gains as there still exist a few challenges.

For one, India-ASEAN two-way trade is yet to achieve its fullest potential, especially when compared with China-ASEAN two-way trade.

In 2016-2017, India's trade with ASEAN stood at $70 billion; China-ASEAN trade crossed the $500 billion mark the same year.

One of the major objectives behind the Look East Policy was to be regionally integrated with the economies of the region. However, the trade and investment realities still fall short of expectations.

There is an urgent need for India to improve trade and investment stakes in ASEAN economies and regional supply chain networks. Positioning at less than three per cent of ASEAN's external trade will not lead India far.

India should also work for early conclusion of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership.

Almost all the Southeast Asian countries, despite being apprehensive of China's rising military prowess and increasingly assertive postures, are inching closer to China because of the potential gains of China's ambitious One Belt, One Road project.

The reason why countries such as the Philippines are overlooking their differences with China is that these countries are trade-dependent on China and are in desperate need for fast and cheaper infrastructure development.

China is willing to fulfil their short-term demands for its own bigger gains in the future.

India is not able to provide either huge trade interdependence or infrastructure development to a majority of the ASEAN countries.

Shared interests bind India and the countries of the Southeast Asian region together. China's unwillingness to amicably and multilaterally resolve outstanding issues such as the South China Sea dispute is a cause of concern for all the countries in the region.

China's increasing influence and presence in the ASEAN region and India's neighbourhood, should act both as an opportunity and a challenge in stepping up cooperation with countries across South Asia and Southeast Asia.

India seems to endorse the idea of a more benign 'Quad Plus' instead of just a 'Quad' which has been superimposed with a stereotypical image of a 'military alliance to contain China' by some analysts.

This is hardly surprising as the other three partners in the Quad -- Japan, Australia, and the US -- are indeed military and strategic allies, with the former two enjoying the benefits of alliance with the US.

Overlooking the repeated signals given by the Indian and Japanese governments, some analysts have themselves defined the 'Quad' as a military alliance, and then get disappointed that the 'Quad' does not work like a military alliance and is giving out 'confusing signals'.

Such an analysis also fails to understand the comprehensive nature of the India-Japan or India-US partnership which is more than military ties to counter a perceived adversary.

Nevertheless, to assuage the concerns of Southeast Asian countries, New Delhi has recently reiterated that the 'Quad could be significant in ensuring security in the Indo-Pacific region with ASEAN at its core'.

India's connectivity efforts are still marred by procedural issues.

While China is working on improving connectivity with countries across several regions, India and its ASEAN partners are still unable to complete the sub-regional connectivity projects initiated more than a decade back.

India's hesitant and uncertain moves, such as 'Sagarmala' and the 'Cotton Route', are not helpful in either its power projection, or the ambition to provide a viable alternative to China's OBOR.

It is important that both India and ASEAN member countries focus on the under-utilised aspects of the physical, economic, digital, and people-to-people connectivity. Improving economic and transport connectivity is a key component in that context.

India's maritime linkages including port development and maritime transport facilities are yet to catch up with countries such as Singapore which needs great amount of attention.

Nevertheless, what still works in India's favour is its strategic location.

No regional connectivity plan can be completed in its entirety without India's participation.

While India and ASEAN have certainly benefitted from each other in the past, they are yet to become key elements in shaping each other's future.

The time has come to earnestly strive for achieving long-term tangible gains.

By hosting the 10 ASEAN leaders, India has amply demonstrated that ASEAN is a central pillar of its Act East policy.

What remains to be seen is whether India is that 'central' for ASEAN.

Evidently, India has miles to go before it can achieve that status.

Dr Rahul Mishra is a senior lecturer, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur.'N Ram and I met on the lawns of Mani Shankar Aiyar's bungalow.'

'I pulled out a rolled printout from my jacket and handed it to him.'

'In the cut-throat world of journalism, this was like high treason.'

'But letting a story be killed because you can't publish it is a bigger crime than passing it to the competition,' recalls Shekhar Gupta.



IMAGE: Meryl Streep in Steven Spielberg's film, The Post: You can read the Rediff Review here.

Besides politics, this is a time marked by talk of The Post, the film about how The Washington Post and its great editor-publisher (as Americans call the newspaper proprietor) duo of Benjamin Bradlee and Katharine Graham made history, and set new standards in courageous journalism.

The story has been told many times before, in books (both Graham and Bradlee have written stellar autobiographies, and then, indeed, All The President's Men).

You can never have enough of hearing, reading and seeing it.

Watergate and the Pentagon Papers remain the gold standard globally for journalistic courage. Generations of journalists have drawn inspiration from them.

Since enough time has passed, I can now talk in some detail about how the Pentagon Papers became an inspiration for something unusual we did at The Indian Express in the winter of 2006.

Or, even at the risk of giving some suspense away, what was done between The Indian Express and The Hindu, together.

The two papers were not direct rivals in either's important markets, but competed furiously in the realm of ideas and philosophies, particularly economic and strategic policies.

Comparisons with The Post-NYT situation would be pompous, so we won't go there.

We'd just limit ourselves to saying that the philosophical, ideological and therefore editorial worldview of the two papers was quite contrary, unlike The Post and NYT, both rooted in the same American liberal space.

The Hindu, under N Ram's editorship, was inclined to the Left on economic and strategic issues, and we to the Right. Both were socially liberal.

In today's over-simplified if not idiot-proofed discourse, you'd call The Hindu then Left-liberal and us, at the Express, in search of a non-hyphenated liberal utopia: Liberal on society, liberal on the economy. But very impatient to break out of old Cold War foreign and strategic policies and burdens.

It is important to understand these facts underlying the drama that is about to unfold.

In fact, it only makes it more dramatic -- and I'd say for Mr Ram and The Hindu, enormously more creditable.

Let me also give some more suspense away: This story also involved one institution making so much news last month, the Supreme Court Collegium.

In the weeks leading up to November 2006, Ritu Sarin, who owns the chief investigative reporter's hallowed spot not just in The Indian Express but the entire Indian media, broke two brief stories on our page one.

These were about then President A P J Abdul Kalam objecting to the elevation of Delhi high court Justice Vijender Jain as chief justice of the Punjab and Haryana high court because of some collegium members' reservations.

Each time, then prime minister Manmohan Singh asked him to consult then Chief Justice of India Y K Sabharwal, who insisted that the appointment should go through.

Kalam was persistent. He returned the file for the third time. This time he did something no President had as yet done -- and I am not sure if any President has done subsequently.

He wrote, in two succinct paras his reservations.

He said, in the consultative process, three senior judges had raised doubts on the appointment.

Further, that to still push it through, the size of the collegium had been increased by a judge, which was against the procedure.

Quite inevitably, Ritu landed in the newsroom, 'scoop' painted all over her face, with a copy of Kalam's note.

There was the usual buzz as we got down to processing it, and questions were asked from the relevant high offices.

We were all set to publish and then catastrophe struck.

This, Delhi-wallahs would recall, was the year of large-scale demolitions and sealing of illegal, irregular or unlicensed constructions all over Delhi by an empowered high court committee set up by the bench headed by Justice Jain.

Our offices were located in two buildings on the southern edge of the city in what is called Qutub Institutional Area. These lands had been allotted cheap to charities and trusts for institutional purposes, but many had been sold, over-built or had rented more than they were permitted to.

The committee's enforcers arrived that November 18 afternoon, sealed seven buildings where ownership had been changed, and added the two where we were located. We were suddenly homeless.

Worse, however, was the realisation that we could no longer publish the story with Kalam's note.

How could a newspaper ever publish a story 'against' the judge whose orders had just locked it out of its newsrooms?

We consulted every top lawyer in the country. They all figured the issue, but had the same advice: You can't publish.

It will be seen as vengeful and be a possible case of contempt. So here we were, working literally from the pavement and our homes, with that never-before wrench: Having a story we couldn't publish.

I keep a closet filled with the copies of the paperback edition of Benjamin Bradlee's A Good Life to use as a gift for fellow -- especially younger -- journalists.

Flipping through a copy absent-mindedly I stopped at the mention of the Pentagon Papers. My colleagues and I thought we had found a way out. Not to get back to our old newsrooms, but to get that story out.

I called Mr Ram in Chennai and, after pleasantries, asked if he remembered what happened when a judge injuncted The New York Times from publishing Neil Sheehan's scoops on The Pentagon Papers?

Of course, he said, the papers were then given to The Washington Post, which started publishing because it hadn't been injuncted.

I said we had a similar situation. We readily became complicit in ensuring this story would not remain unpublished. Never mind our arguments.

Ram said he and I might conclude this at Mani Shankar Aiyar's daughter Yamini's wedding lunch-reception in Delhi, for which he was coming.

We met on the lawns of Aiyar's bungalow. I pulled out a rolled printout from my jacket and handed it to him.

In the cut-throat world of journalism, this was like high treason. But letting a story be killed because you can't publish it is a bigger crime than passing it to the competition.

The story was the front-page flier in next morning's The Hindu.

Its reporter had added much value to it, also by talking to a key collegium judge quoted anonymously in the story.

The CJI still insisted on going through with Justice Jain's appointment as chief justice of the Punjab and Haryana high court. But that was between him and Kalam.

It was never our objective to block the appointment. Nor do we know if that story in The Hindu had any impact on the choices the collegium made for the Supreme Court subsequently.

We were only obsessed with a most important and factual story that had 'Must Publish' written on it.

That it was published is a tribute to the large-heartedness of The Hindu and Mr Ram. The inspiration -- if not instigation -- had come from The Pentagon Papers.

Reporter's luck: Dainik Jagran was the first Indian media group to bring Foreign Direct Investment.

Its first investor was the company owning the Irish Independent. In early 2007, it threw a party in Delhi to introduce the board of its investors.

I found two familiar faces. The first looked just like, and was, Sean Connery. He was on the board of the Irish Independent.

I walked up to the second, a very distinguished-looking old man, and told him he looked just like Benjamin Bradlee.

"I am Bradlee, young man," he said. He was also a board member.

I told him the Express-Hindu story and how it had been inspired by his exploits and got him to agree to an interview on NDTV's 'Walk the Talk' the next morning.

It is a conversation to cherish even if so non-TRP friendly.

By Special Arrangement with ThePrintA gangster was killed and nearly two dozen criminals were arrested by police in 15 encounters in different districts of Uttar Pradesh during the past two days, a police spokesperson said on Saturday.

The encounters took place in Bulandshahr, Shamli, Kanpur, Saharanpur, Lucknow, Baghpat, Muzaffarnagar, Gorkahpur, Hapur and Meerut.

As many as 24 wanted criminals were arrested and one gangster killed in 15 police encounters reported from 10 districts of the state over a span of 48 hours, the spokesperson said.

Gangster Inderpal, who carried a reward of Rs 25,000, was gunned down by the Special Task Force in the encounter in Naglakhepad jungle on Friday.

According Superintendent of Police Rajiv Narain Singh, Inderpal was wanted in more than 30 cases of loot and murder in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand.

The police also claimed to have recovered countrymade arms, ammunition, motorcycle, cars apart from cash which was robbed by the criminals.

The maximum number of encounters was reported from Bulandshahr and Shamli, where four and six criminals were arrested respectively.

Three of those arrested in Bulandshahr carried a cash reward for Rs 20,000 each on their head. Two encounters took place in Kanpur.

On Friday, two suspected criminals and as many policemen, including a station house officer, were injured in an encounter in Gorakhpur.

The incident took place when Maneesh Yadav and Manoj Yadav were escaping after threatening a village head, police said.

Police said that a team was rushed to the spot after receiving a complaint from the victim.

In the encounter, Station House Officer, Khorabar, Sudhir Kumar, and Sub-Inspector, Jhangha, Sunil Kumar Singh suffered minor injuries, they said.

The police have seized a .32 bore pistol, a 12 bore gun, bullets and the motorcycle on which they were escaping.

The criminals were injured in the gunfight. They were subsequently arrested and admitted to BRD Medical College.

Police claimed that they have confessed to their involvement in the murder of businessman Dinesh Gupta of Nai Bazaar, Jhangha, in Gorakhpur on Sunday.

The Uttar Pradesh Police has intensified its crackdown on criminals after the new DGP O P Singh took charge last month.

Chief Minister Yogi Aditynath hnd vowed to take strict action against the criminals after his government faced criticism over a string of crimes in the state.The BJP leadership believes these parties are flexing their muscles in the run-up to the Lok Sabha polls for better seat-sharing deals.

Archis Mohan reports.

The Telugu Desam Party, a key ally of the Bharatiya Janata Party, on Friday, February 2, said it was disappointed with the Union Budget, but would not walk out of the National Democratic Alliance just yet.

The Shiv Sena, another key ally, said it remained to be seen how much of the Budget presented by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Thursday was implemented on the ground.

The statements by these two parties have added to the murmurings of discontent within the BJP-led NDA.

In recent days, several of the BJP's important allies have become more vocal in their criticism of the Narendra D Modi government.

The BJP leadership, however, believes that these parties are flexing their muscles in the run-up to the Lok Sabha polls for better seat-sharing deals.

The TDP complaints come in the wake of reports in Andhra Pradesh media that the Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy-led YSR Congress is warming up to the BJP.

On Friday, Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut said the Gujarat elections were a trailer and the BJP's losses in the Rajasthan by-polls the interval.

'Now, we will show the entire film in 2019. There is no going back on our decision to go it alone in the Lok Sabha polls,' he said.

Raut said the Modi government's 'last full Budget was a good read but only on paper'.

'We will need to wait at least a month to assess if its so-called farm friendly measures are effective on the ground and whether it succeeds in putting a stop to farmer suicides in Maharashtra,' Raut said.

TDP sources say at the party's coordination committee meeting in Amaravati, Andhra Chief Minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu apparently dissuaded his senior party colleagues from speaking about the fate of the alliance with the BJP and dwelt on the Rajasthan bypoll results

The TDP said it was 'disappointed' that the FM did not address the state's needs, but the party won't opt out of the alliance yet. This was indicated by Naidu at the coordination committee meeting, party sources said.

Sources said the meeting discussed the 'injustice' heaped on the state in the Budget proposals and there was a 'strong mood' among TDP leaders to break away from the alliance with the BJP.

Senior TDP leaders said off the record that almost everyone, including many district unit chiefs, wanted the TDP to end the alliance with the BJP after the Budget 'ignored' the state.

Not just the Sena and TDP, some of the BJP's allies in Bihar have also taken to complain that their concerns are being neglected.

On Monday, January 29, Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Raghuvansh Prasad Singh claimed that the Upendra Kushwaha-led Rashtriya Lok Samata Party and Jitan Ram Manjhi's Hindustani Awam Morcha-Secular were in talks with his party.

Kushwaha's RLSP has three seats in the Lok Sabha while Manjhi's party contested the Bihar assembly polls in 2015 as a BJP ally.

On Thursday, February 1, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar lauded the Budget, but his party has ruled out any possibility of heeding the PM's call to hold simultaneous Lok Sabha and Bihar assembly polls.

Shiromani Akali Dal chief Parkash Singh Badal also complimented the FM for a farmer-friendly Budget, but his party is weighing its options for the Lok Sabha polls.

TDP sources said the Rajasthan by-poll results -- where the BJP tasted defeat in the Ajmer and Alwar Lok Sabha constituencies and in the Mandalgarh assembly seat -- according to Naidu, are a clear example that people will be unsparing if governance is not good.

Naidu also reportedly expressed 'serious displeasure' over the Union Budget and wondered why the Centre ignored the state.

'Bengaluru, Mumbai and Ahmedabad got a substantial allocation for various projects, but none of our projects, including the Vijayawada and Visakhapatnam Metro rail, got anything,' one of the TDP sources quoted Naidu as saying at the meeting.

'At the time of the state bifurcation, I was the only one who demanded equal treatment to both the states. Though gross injustice was done to Andhra on account of bifurcation, I aligned with the BJP only because having good relations with the Centre could undo the injustice,' Naidu apparently told the TDP leaders.

IMAGE: Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley at Parliament House before the Budget Session. Photograph: Manvender Vashist/PTI PhotoThe Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force, General David L Goldfein, on Saturday flew Indias indigenous light combat aircraft Tejas at the air force station in Jodhpur.

Goldfein, who arrived on Friday, was accompanied by Air Vice Marshal A P Singh as co-pilot during the sortie, defence officials said.

General David L Goldfein, Chief of Staff of the US Air Force, is on an official visit to India. He flew a sortie in #MadeinIndia LCA Tejas aircraft at AF Stn Jodhpur today, the IAF said on Twitter

Goldfein on Friday interacted with the airmen and pilots at the station.

His visit was a gesture of mutual cooperation between the Indian and the US air forces, both of which are considered the best in the world, the official said.

Earlier, General Goldfein had stressed on the strong relationship between the two air forces.

We look forward to deepening the relationship between our two air forces, he said in his posts on Twitter and Facebook.

The first squadron of Tejas was inducted into the IAF in July 2016.

Photographs: @IAF_MCC/TwitterDurbarmarg gang rape: Suspension recommended for Inspector Thakuri

The Metropolitan Police Range, Kathmandu, has recommended the Nepal Police Headquarters to suspend Inspector Laxman Thakuri of Durbarmarg Police Circle over the Durbarmarg gang rape incidentHoly strays

Wednesday. 2 pm. An elderly bull, living in the stray cattle shelter near the Pashupatinath Temple, is dying.Lack of iodine causes congenital disabilities

A recent study by Apang Sarokar Sangh and International Nepal Fellowship, an International Non Governmental Organisation (INGO) in Nisikhola-4, 5 and 6 of Baglung district, shows 277 people with congenital disabilities due to lack of iodine.Motorable road reaches remote Kalikot villages

Remote villages in Kalikot district in western Nepal have been connected with the Karnali Corridor and the national highway network following the completion of the Sannigad-Sipkhana road.Nepal and UNDP pact will benefit 14,000 farmers

The government of Nepal and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) on Friday signed an agreement to implement the Cooperative Market Development Programme that will benefit 14,000 farmers in six districts.Nepal-China power line feasibility report filed

The Energy Ministry has sent a preliminary feasibility report for a cross-border transmission line to the Chinese government which will allow electricity trade between Nepal and Chinas Tibet Autonomous Region.Nuwakot farmers happy growing strawberries

Okharpauwa resident Kanchha Man Tamang, a member of the Japanese Agricultural In-service Training Institute (Jaiti) Nepal, started growing strawberries on his farm in Kakani with six plants.Remembering a rock called Miss Hawley

It was the day of Bhai Tika. He could not hope to rush things like he desired. What he did desire was to dash to Durbar Marg, where he would be interviewing for a job. But that was not happening. His sisters fussed over the procedure. Over the special meal. Over the garlands and the lights. And he got delayed.A Place for All Conservatives to Speak Their Mind.Residents call off Rukumkot strike, change strategy

Rukumkot residents Friday called off the nine-day district-wide token strike and changed their protest strategy.Swaraj pledges help for new govts

External Affairs Minister of India Sushma Swaraj has said Nepals leaders can unleash development and ensure peoples rights by respecting the peoples mandate as they form governments at the Centre and in the provinces.The struggle to get by

Ani Ghar chahi kata paryo ni? So where is your house? This popular conversation opener in Nepal conveys the cultural importance of owning private property, and further shows the implicit assumption that everyone has a place of belongingUS willing to work with new govt

A senior United States government official has remarked that the US was looking forward to working with the new government of Nepal in its quest for development and prosperity.(Agencia CMA Latam) - The upcoming presidential elections in Latin America pose risks to fiscal and structural reforms in the region, said Moody's rating agency in a new report on the region.

"New governments may be less committed to pursuing ambitious reform agendas, following several years of weak growth. Even if commitment to reform remains, implementation may be challenging due to lack of political support," the agency warned.

Moody's analysts noted that corruption allegations against elected officials and weak economic performance throughout the region had fueled discontent with the current governments. "As such, there has been a surge in candidates that oppose reforms ahead of 2018 presidential elections in Brazil (Ba2 negative), Colombia (Baa2 stable) and Mexico (A3 negative) -- some of them new to or unaffiliated with traditional parties, promoting policies that tend to be at odds with those advocated by the established parties," said the report.

"Given the popularity of such candidates in Mexico and Brazil, these two countries face increased risk of policy reversals that could undermine fiscal consolidation and structural reform efforts," Moody's said.

In Colombia, despite growing dissatisfaction with the current government, institutional features, as well as support from the leading presidential candidates for prudent fiscal policies, would contribute to policy continuity despite political polarization, according to the rating agency.

by Agencia CMA Latam

For comments and feedback: editorial@rttnews.com

Economic News

What parts of the world are seeing the best (and worst) economic performances lately? Click here to check out our Econ Scorecard and find out! See up-to-the-moment rankings for the best and worst performers in GDP, unemployment rate, inflation and much more.Yemen Revolution Leader calls on Sudan to withdraw its troops, stop fighting Yemeni people [03/February/2018]



SANAA, Feb. 3 (Saba) - Yemen's Revolution Leader Sayyed Abdul Malik al-Houthi on Friday called on the Sudanese government to withdraw its troops from the Saudi-led aggression coalition and stop fighting the Yemeni people.



The call came in a televised speech aired by the state satellite TV on Friday night.



"I call on the dear Sudanese people to pressure their government into stopping to send its troops to fight the Yemeni people," Sayyed al-Houthi said.



The leader al-Houthi said that the Sudanese people are the dear brothers of the Yemeni people, but blaming the Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir for being "greedy for Saudi money."



"But because of the Saudi money, the Sudanese president is sending the Sudanese army as mercenaries to fight the Yemeni people in the interest of the Saudi and UAE regimes," leader al-Houthi said.



He said "the Saudi Arabia and UAE are no more than tools at the hands of the United States... they are implementing A U.S. agenda to divide the unity of our people and our country... and in response, we will fight back to free our homeland from those foreign invaders."



The leader al-Houthi praised the achievements of the Yemeni Army and the Ballistic Missiles Forces for their patriotic role in defending the country against the Saudi-led military aggression.



"If we leave this life to tyrants, who use the force against the peoples, then there will be no more peace in this world," Sayyed Abdul Malik al-Houthi said.



Sameera H.-Zak

SabaArmy causes heavy casualties on Saudi enemy army, its mercenaries [03/February/2018]



SANAA, Feb. 3 (Saba)  The army and popular forces waged military operations on sites and groups of Saudi enemy army and its mercenaries over the past 24 hours, causing heavy casualties, a military official told Saba on Saturday.



In border province of Jizan, the army and popular forces waged a military operation upon sites of Saudi army in al-Majazia and al-lahj village, killing and wounding a number of the soldiers and destroying two military trucks.



Also in Jizan, the army and popular forces killed and wounded a number of Saudi-paid mercenaries, destroyed a military vehicle and seized different weapons.



The army's sniper units shot dead three Saudi soldiers in al-Shabakah of al-Khuba area, Qawa, and Qamar villages, and the artillery shelling of the army hit Saudi military groups in Mahwlah military center Hamadhah village, al-Montazah, al-Shabakah and al-khaqaqah sites in the same border province.



Separately, the army and popular forces launched an artillery attack upon gatherings of Saudi soldiers in military site of Nahwqa in Najran border province.



In Asir border province, the artillery units of the army and popular forces killed a number of the Saudi soldiers and their mercenaries in Saudi military sites of Majaza, Sabahtel, al-Hanjar mountains and al-Sawda hilltop.



Meanwhile, a number of the mercenaries were killed and injured when the army and popular forces repelled two mercenaries' offensive towards areas of Bir Basha and Osayfarah in Taiz province.



Also in Taiz, the army and popular forces waged a military operation on the mercenaries in Omqan in Hifan district, killing and wounding dozens.



The army and popular forces launched an artillery shelling on mercenary gatherings in Zughn area and shot down mercenary four in Serwah district of Marib province.

In Medi border front, the army and popular forces waged an artillery attack upon gatherings of the mercenaries in the desert.



According to the official said that the top mercenary commander, Ibrahim Dawod al-Khadmi, was killed by the fire of the army and the popular forces in Nehm area of Marib province.





AA/Zak

SabaReport: 3 Yemeni civilians killed in over 25 aggression airstrikes over Friday [03/February/2018]



SANAA, Feb. 3 (Saba)  Three Yemeni civilians, including a child, were killed and others injured in more than 25 airstrikes launched by US-backed Saud-led aggression coalition on several province of Yemen over Friday, officials and medics told Saba News Agency on Saturday.



In Saada province, a child was killed and another wounded in airstrikes on Saada city, while two civilians were killed and others injured in an airstrike targeted a main road in Ghamer district.



Also in Saada, the warplane launched an airstrike on Azhur area of Razeh district, an airstrike on Shumaia area of Ghamer district, and five airstrikes targeted Aal-Ammar and Mahather areas of Suhar district, and in popular market in Saada city.



In Bagem district of Saada, the fighter jets waged two airstrike on Munabeh area.



Meanwhile, missile and artillery shelling targeted several areas of Razeh district, Ghor area of Ghamer, and the west areas of Munabeh border district.



In the Red Sea port city of Hodeidah, an airstrike was launched on Hais distract.



In Jawf Yemen province, four air strikes hit a civilians home in Bart-Marasni and reports that some children were seriously injured.



In Hajja province, seven Saudi aggression airstrikes were waged on Hardh and Medi districts.



In Taiz province, the warplane launched a strike on Salw district.



In border Saudi province of Asir, the aggression warplane launched an airstrike hit on Rabuaa city.



Writing by Sameera al-Mahdi, Editing by Zak

SabaReport: Yemen army, committees inflicts Saudi army, mercenaries heavy losses over Friday [03/February/2018]



SANAA, Feb. 3 (Saba)  Yemen army and popular forces have inflicted Saudi-led aggression coalition troops and its mercenaries heavy losses during military operation including artillery, missiles and snipping attacks, in coalition sites and its gatherings over Friday, according to army media reports combined by Saba News Agency on Saturday.





In Jizan Saudi boarded province, Saudi soldiers gatherings were shelled by artillery in Hamedha village, and in sites of Shabaka and Muntazah, while an offensive operation was waged on Saudi-paid mercenaries in Qais mountain, destroying a military vehicle, seized various weapons, killing and wounding dozens.



Also in Jizan, three Saudi soldiers were shot dead in Shabaka of Khubah, Kamer village, and Khazan hill of Qewa village.



In Khaqaqa site of Jizan, Saudi soldiers gatherings were targeted by artillery



Furthermore, army and committees carried out an offensive operation on Saudi armys sites in Majaziea, and al-Lahj village, killing and wounding dozens and destroying two military vehicles.



In Ramdha site of Jizan, five Saudi-paid mercenaries were gunned down while artillery shelling targeted Mahula military center.



In Najran border province, Saudi soldiers gatherings were shelled by artillery in Nahuqa site.

In border province of Asir, dozens of Saudi soldiers and mercenaries were killed and wounded by artillery shells in Saudaa hill of MAjaza, Sebahtal mountain, and Hanjer site.



In Taiz province, mercenaries infiltrations were foiled toward Balas hill of Bir-basha, and toward Osaifera, killing and wounding dozens.



In Haifan district of Taiz, an offensive operation was carried out on mercenaries sites, killing and injuring dozens.



In Medi district of Hajja province, artillery force shelled gatherings of mercenaries in the northern Medi desert.



In Nehm district, some 50 km north of the capital Sanaa, Major Ibrahim al Hadhmi of the aggression coalition-run 1st infantry brigade was killed in an attack by the army and committees in Nehm front.



In Marib province, artillery force of the army and committees shelled mercenaries gatherings in Zughn area, causing direct causalities, ambulances were seen rushing to the target site.



Also in Marib, four Saudi-paid mercenaries shot dead in Serwah front.



Writing by Sameera al-MAhdi, Editing by Zak



SabaWoman, 80, lives tragedies of war and triumphs of politics

When the CPN (Maoist) Centre elected 34-year-old Krishna Shah to the Provincial Assembly under the proportional respresentation category, it was her 80-year-old mother-in-law Ayerawati Acharya who seemed most pleased by the partys gesture.By SA Commercial Prop News

Fresnaye remains popular with big-budget foreign buyers. A German buyer paid R42 million for this luxury, seven-bedroomed villa.



Foreign buying on Cape Towns Atlantic Seaboard and in the City Bowl remains steady at about 3-4% of total sales.

Over the past year, around 86 properties to the value of close to R550 million have been sold to foreign buyers with British and European buyers representing 67,39% (62 properties) of total foreign sales. Despite the economic challenges faced in the UK and Europe, it seems that they still find value in properties here, according to Seeff Atlantic Seaboard managing director, Ian Slot.

The largest percentage are UK buyers, at 23,91% (22 properties), followed by German buyers at 10,87% (10 properties). Buyers from the Netherlands, France and Norway represent 3,26% each (3 properties each). Americans only bought 3 properties, about 3,26% of total sales.

African buyers are growing steadily and now represents 18,48% of all foreign sales. The largest portion though, is still Namibian buyers at 7,61% (7 property sales) of all sales, followed by Tanzanian buyers at 3,26% (3 property sales). Other African buyers include Kenya, Congo, Nigeria and Senegal.

While South Africas membership of BRICS will hopefully bring about increased interest in property here, Slot says only 1 property sold to a Brazilian buyer over the past year. There were also sales to Japanese (2) and UAE (2) buyers.

About 70% of all foreign sales were in the coastal suburbs of the Atlantic Seaboard, he says. In Sea Point and Green Point, some 27 properties sold, mostly apartments at an average price of R2,4 million and R2,6 million respectively. Camps Bay has been a particular favourite with foreign buyers with 14 sales at an average price of just over R8,8 million. In Clifton, 3 apartments were bought at an average price of R7,6 million by buyers from the UK, Sweden and the USA. In Bantry Bay, 5 properties sold at an average price of R14,1 million including one sale to a Japanese buyer. All of these were cash transactions. Fresnaye achieved the highest average sales price with 4 sales at an average price of close to R18 million.

At the V&A Waterfront, 4 properties sold to foreign buyers. Sales include a R3,025 million sale to a Namibian and a R6 million sale to a British buyer. Apartments in Ellesmere and Parama also sold for R5 million and R5,8 million recently to an Italian and Swiss buyer respectively.

There were also two foreign sales in Llandudno, both to Belgium buyers; the most recent being a luxury house on Fishermans Bend that sold in April for R25,5 million.

The CBD and City Bowl suburbs remain popular with European buyers says Slot. A total of 27 properties (29% of total sales) sold to foreign buyers over the past year including 6 sales in Tamboerskloof; the most recent being a house in St Michaels Road that sold for R6m to a Swedish buyer.

Slot says that while foreigners continue to invest in property here, it needs to be borne in mind that just about as many foreign-owned properties are sold and there is thus usually a negligible net effect. Foreign buying also usually peaks around the tourism season, between November and April when about 90% of all sales take place.WASHINGTON (AP)  Twitter loves lies. A new study finds that false information on the social media network travels six times faster than the truth and reaches far more people.

And you can't blame bots; it's us, say the authors of the largest study of online misinformation.

Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology looked at more than 126,000 stories tweeted millions of times between 2006 and the end of 2016  before Donald Trump took office but during the combative presidential campaign. They found that "fake news" sped through Twitter "farther, faster, deeper and more broadly than the truth in all categories of information," according to the study in Thursday's journal Science .

"No matter how you slice it, falsity wins out," said co-author Deb Roy, who runs MIT's Laboratory for Social Machines and is a former chief media scientist at Twitter.

Twitter funded the study but had no say in the outcome, according to the researchers.

The scientists calculated that the average false story takes about 10 hours to reach 1,500 Twitter users, versus about 60 hours for the truth. On average, false information reaches 35 percent more people than true news.

While true new stories almost never got retweeted to 1,000 people, the top 1 percent of the false ones got to as many as 100,000 people.

And when the researchers looked at how stories cascade  how they link from one person to another like a family tree  false information reached as many as 24 generations, while true information maxed out at a dozen.

Concern over bogus stories online has escalated in recent months because of evidence that the Russians spread disinformation on social media during the 2016 presidential campaign to sow discord in the U.S. and damage Hillary Clinton.

Social media companies have experimented with using computer algorithms and human fact-checkers to try to weed out false information and abuse online. Twitter earlier this month said it is seeking help from outside experts to better deal with the problem. And Facebook this week announced a partnership with The Associated Press to identify and debunk false and misleading stories about the midterm elections.

"We have witnessed abuse, harassment, troll armies, manipulation through bots and human-coordination, misinformation campaigns and increasingly divisive echo chambers," tweeted Twitter co-founder and CEO Jack Dorsey. "We aren't proud of how people have taken advantage of our service, or our inability to address it fast enough."

The MIT study took the 126,285 stories and checked them against six independent fact-checking sites  snopes.com, politifact.com, factcheck.org, truthorfiction.com, hoax-slayer.com and urbanlegends.about.com to classify them as true, false or mixed. Nearly two-thirds were false, just under one-fifth were true, and the rest were mixed.

The six fact-checking websites agreed with each other on classification at least 95 percent of the time, plus two outside researchers did some independent fact-checking to make sure everything was OK, said co-author Sinan Aral, an MIT management professor.

Lead author Soroush Vosoughi, an MIT data scientist, said the three false stories that traveled the farthest and fastest were about a Muslim guard called a hero in the Paris bombings of 2015; an Iraq war veteran finishing as runner-up to Caitlyn Jenner for an ESPN courage award ; and an episode of "The Simpsons" that had a story line in 2000 about a Trump presidency. (It was in 2015.)

University of Pennsylvania communications professor Kathleen Hall Jamieson, a co-founder of factcheck.org, had problems with the way the study looked at true and false stories. The MIT team characterized a story's truth on a 1-to-5 scale, with 1 being completely false. Factcheck.org, Jamieson said, looks more at context and does not label something either true or false.

She also suggested that calling this bogus information "false stories" does not capture how malignant it is. She said it would "better be called viral deception. VD. And treated as analogous to venereal disease."

The researchers looked at obvious bots  automated accounts  and took them out. While the bots tweeted false information at a higher rate than humans, it wasn't that much of a difference, and even without bots, lies still spread faster and farther, Roy said.

David Lazer, a political and computer scientist at Northeastern University who wasn't part of the study but wrote an accompanying report, praised the MIT research but said the scientists may have missed a lot of bots and cyborgs  sort of in-between humans. His ongoing, not-yet-published research has found that about 80 percent of false stories come from just one-tenth of 1 percent of users.

The researchers dug deeper to find out what kind of false information travels faster and farther. False political stories  researchers didn't separate conservative versus liberal  and stuff that was surprising or anger-provoking spread faster than other types of lies, Aral said.

"Falsehood was significantly more novel than the truth," Aral said. "It's easy to be novel when you make things up."

That fits perfectly with previous research on the psychology of fake information, said Yale University's Dan Kahan and Dartmouth College's Brendan Nyhan, scientists who study the phenomenon.

"The more strange and more sensational the story sounds, the more likely they are going to retweet," Kahan said.

Nyhan and Lazer said that while more fact-checking and education of people on how to tell fake from real can be helpful, the more effective solution will have to come from the social media platforms themselves.

Roy said the study results reminded him of the often-cited quotation that essentially says a lie can travel halfway around the world before the truth can get its boots  or pants  on. It's been attributed to Mark Twain and Winston Churchill. But that would be misinformation. Politifact traced a version of it back to Jonathan Swift in 1710.

___

Follow Seth Borenstein on Twitter at @borenbears . His work can be found here .Family values and Culture.

Those are the two things Luetta Peterson will miss when she returns to the United States of America. Ms. Peterson is not new in Samoa because this is her second time visiting the.

When the Sunday Samoan caught up with her, she was shopping for some souvenirs at the Savalalo Flea Market.

I live in the States but I always come here to visit as one of my daughters is married to a Samoan, she said.

So I just come to visit my son-in-laws family and its a way for me to get away from everything and relax.

When I first came to Samoa I thought wow what a wonderful place and yet people dont really know that such place does exist.

Its a lot less hectic compared to the States. The life is simple and the people are beautiful and so down to earth. Its peaceful and its just amazing.

She went on to say that during her visit in Samoa, one thing continues to amaze her.

Family, she said. I mean as a mother family is very important to me and back in the States thats the lesson I always teach my children - the importance of family.

I mean I cannot speak for the country because thats not how it is there but for my family we are very close.

So when one of my girls married a Samoan guy we visited his family for the first time and that was the first thing I admired about Samoa is that family is very important.

I mean they help each other, the relationship between the children and the parents and the respect the children give to their parents is amazing.

And that is how I want my palagi family to be, I want my children to give respect where there is needed in order for them to earn respect in return.

So what will she miss the most?

Ill miss my son-in-laws family because they have been so good to me during my stay here, she said.

The hospitality that they gave to me to ensure my stay here goes well and that I would enjoy is just amazing.

Most especially I am so going to miss the Samoan Cocoa (koko Samoa) I have never tasted anything so delicious in my life and the way they make it is just hard work.

Ive got some to take back with me and I dont think Ill share it with anyone.

So whats unique about Samoa?

Well Samoa is unique because of its culture and the people, said. Ms. Peterson.

From the young ones up to the senior citizens they value their culture so much that they wouldnt change it for anything in the world.

I wish we have a culture that is as rich as the Samoan culture but we dont and thats is why we face a lot of problems.

And despite the hot weather the beaches as well as the rivers are beautiful.

So even though Samoa is such a small country but the way they live and the things they have is more than enough to survive and be happy.samoa

"We'll use fair comment to defend ourselves": party

The Human Rights Protection Party (H.R.P.P.) has confirmed receiving court documents advising of civil contempt proceedings against two of its unsworn-members, a solicitor and a broadcaster filed by the Faatuatua i le Atua Samoa ua Tasi (F.A.S.T.) and the Prime Minister.GOLD COAST, Australia (AP)  World records on the cycling track and in the pool gave host Australia a late boost on the opening day of competition at the Commonwealth Games after the setback of losing hometown hero Sally Pearson.

The Australian swimmers have a tradition of setting the tone for the rest of the team at the Commonwealth Games, but the English made a faster start before the home team rallied with a big statement in the last event of the night.

Sisters Bronte and Cate Campbell, Emma McKeon and Shayna Jack set a world record 3 minutes, 30.05 seconds in the 4x100-meter women's freestyle relay, lowing the mark the Australians set at the 2016 Olympics.

"It was beyond my wildest dreams," Cate Campbell said. "My coach said 'The atmosphere out there is electric, go out, soak it up.' I think that is what we've done."

England finished Thursday with six gold and 12 medals overall, and Australia had five gold and 15 in total. Malaysia had two golds in weightlifting for third spot, and Canada was fourth in the standings with one gold and seven overall.

Olympic champion Mack Horton won Australia's first gold of the meet in the 400-meter freestyle, while Canada's Taylor Ruck (200-meter freestyle) and England's Aimee Willmott (400 individual medley) and James Wilby (200 breaststroke) also claimed gold in the pool.

England lost the chance at another gold medal world champion swimmer Ben Proud was disqualified after winning his first heat in the 50-meter butterfly.

The Aussies picked up three gold medals further north in Brisbane at the Anna Meares Velodrome, winning the men's 4,000 team pursuit in a world-record time and also capturing the women's team pursuit and team sprint.

In the first-of categories: two-time world champion Flora Duffy won the women's sprint triathlon to secure the first gold medal of the games for Bermuda, and Malaysian weightlifter Muhammad Izhar Ahmad won the first of the men's titles on offer at the Gold Coast. The first team title went to the English men in gymnastics.

Some highlights on Day 1 of competition:

___

SO LONG SALLY: The morning after a prominent role in the opening ceremonies, world and former Olympic champion hurdler Pearson announced her withdrawal from the athletics competition because a long-standing Achilles injury had flared in training this week.

Pearson, who was promoted as the face of the games, knew the day before the opening ceremony that she wouldn't be able to compete, but kept it pretty much secret.

"The timing was not great and she certainly didn't want it to detract from the games or the opening ceremony or anyone else's journey here," coach Craig Hilliard said. "I think that's important to realize. So today was the most convenient," to make it public.

___

FIRST GOLD: Competing in the bright morning sun, Duffy cruised to victory by 43 seconds over Jessica Learmonth and had time to grab a Bermuda flag as she completed the sprint distance.

"Pretty cool that I won the first gold medal of these games," she said.

The men's race was far less predictable. South Africa's Henri Schoeman broke away early in the run leg to finish in 52 minutes, 31 seconds and beat Jacob Birtwhistle of Australia by seven seconds. Marc Austin of Scotland took the bronze.

Two-time Olympic champion Alistair Brownlee and his brother Jonathan finished 1-2 in Glasgow four years ago but were well out of the medals this time. Alistair, who had surgery on his hip last August, placed 10th in an afternoon race hit by rain.

"It was pretty terrible today," said Jonathan Brownlee, who was seventh. "From start to finish I didn't feel great."

___

WEIGHT LIFTED: Izhar Ahmad lifted a games record total of 261 kilograms in the 56-kilogram category a day after his birthday.

His 144 in the clean and jerk secured the record and an unbeatable lead, and he celebrated with a jig and a jog around the lifting area with the Malaysian flag.

Gururaja Poojary picked up silver for India, missing two attempts before a successful last lift that relegated Sri Lanka's Chaturanga Lakmal into third spot.

India collected its first gold medal when Chanu Saikhom Mirabai won the women's 48-kilogram competition in a games record.

___

RECORD CYCLES: Australia won both the men's and women's 4,000-meter team pursuits in record times.

Kelland O'Brien, Leigh Howard, Alex Porter and Sam Welsford beat England in a world record 3 minutes, 49.804 seconds, lowering the mark set by the British at the 2016 Olympics.

The Australian women's pursuit team overtook New Zealand on the last lap to win in a games-record time, and also won the women's team sprint.

The New Zealanders picked up their first gold medal on the track with a victory over England in the men's team sprint.

___

11 YEARS YOUNG: Anna Hursey made her Commonwealth Games debut at the age of 11, and drew plenty of attention as the youngest athlete competing at the Gold Coast.

With Wales needing a win to stay alive in its opening round against India, Hursey partnered Charlotte Carey and produced some big forehands to help in 3-2 victory.

The game was part of the table tennis team event, a best-of-five series, which Wales lost 3-1 against one of the medal favorites.

___

PROUD OUT: World champion Proud was disqualified from the 50-meter butterfly after winning his morning swim in the preliminaries.

He touched first in first place but a referee ruled that he'd moved on the blocks before the start.

"I am in the shape of my life and am gutted to miss out on the opportunity to show what I can do," said Proud, who lost an appeal against the disqualification. "I really wanted to come into the competition to retain both my titles and to have that opportunity taken away in the first heat is heartbreaking."NEW YORK (AP)  As stocks hit record after record in the past decade, investors didn't much care if a stock was cheap or expensive. What mattered most was: Is it growing quickly?

If the answer was yes, the stock was in high demand, almost regardless of the price. Investors were ravenous for companies able to add customers and deliver fat growth. So they were willing to pay premium prices for an Amazon or a Netflix. Left behind were stocks in more staid industries, even if they looked like better bargains by several measures.

Suddenly, though, the siren song of high growth has gone dissonant. As markets tumbled in recent weeks, the stocks that were soaring the highest have fallen the fastest. Worries about interest rates and global trade are raising concerns about the companies' future growth. Plus, high-growth stocks had further to fall given how much more expensive they had grown versus the rest of the market by various measures.

So far this month, high-growth stocks in the Russell 3000 index have sunk 9 percent, versus 6.5 percent for their lower-priced counterparts known as "value" stocks, as of Wednesday. It's the biggest such monthly gap in performance since November 2016.

If the long run of dominance is indeed over for growth stocks, the stakes could be huge. It would mean pain for investors who went all-in on the sexy, high-flying stocks that so dominated cocktail-party conversations.

Even investors with more-vanilla index funds would take a hit. The supercharged performance for high-growth stocks means companies like Amazon, Facebook and Google's parent have swelled in market value. Those three, plus Apple and Microsoft, make up more than 15 percent of the S&P 500 index by themselves. So, movements in their stock price have more influence on S&P 500 index funds than smaller stocks.

Perhaps more ominous is the market's track record. The last two times the pendulum swung sharply between dominance for value and growth stocks occurred around two of the most dramatic implosions in the stock market's history: the 2000 dot-com crash and the 2007 onset of the Great Recession.

To be sure, many investors say the market can shift from one led by growth stocks to one led by value stocks without cratering. And the market has given head fakes before, where it seemed like value stocks were about to regain leadership, only to fade back again. On Thursday, growth stocks once again led the way as the market clawed back some of its losses from the last few weeks.

But many investors nevertheless see a reversal as inevitable, simply because high-growth stocks have become much more expensive than value stocks.

"We know that this condition is more indicative of a mania of some sort, though we couldn't tell you when it ends," said Barry James, president and portfolio manager at James Advantage Funds and an investor who prefers what he calls "bargain stocks." ''But when it ends, it ain't pretty."

To see how strong the fervor has been, consider the stocks in the Russell 3000 Growth index, which includes Facebook, Visa and Home Depot. It was trading at 28.97 times its earnings, as of the end of September. That means investors essentially were willing to pay nearly $29 per share for each $1 in earnings per share that the companies produced in a year.

Stocks in the Russell 3000 Value index, meanwhile, were trading at a more modest price tag of $16.46 for each $1 in earnings per share. The prices were so different because earnings for the first group were rising at nearly triple the rate for the second.

The high price-to-earnings tags for growth stocks make them vulnerable as interest rates rise. The Federal Reserve has been gradually raising interest rates over the past two years, after keeping them at ultra-low levels following the recession.

When rates rise, bonds pay higher amounts of interest and suddenly look more attractive to investors than riskier stocks. Higher rates can also slow economic growth and increase borrowing costs for companies, which taps the brakes on their earnings gains. That's why price-to-earnings ratios often drop for stocks when interest rates are rising.

And over the last month, it's often the stocks with the highest price-earnings ratios that have been hit hardest. That means growth stocks.

Beyond that, some of the hottest areas among growth stocks are facing their own challenges. Internet giants are under increasing government scrutiny not only in the United States but around the world, which further threatens their growth.

Of course, growth stocks have appeared ready to cede their crown at other points during this bull market. In 2016, for example, value stocks did better as a group, only to fall behind growth stocks again in 2017.

One point in favor for growth stocks is that revenue for many of them has become more stable, in the form of recurring revenue rather than one-time purchases, which makes their growth more durable.

Growth stocks also don't look anywhere near as expensive as they did in 2000, the last time they gave up long-term leadership to value stocks. At the time, the dot-com bubble had sent companies, even those with no profits, to astronomical prices.

Michael Liss, a senior portfolio manager on four mutual funds at American Century that focus on value stocks, has heard that argument a lot. He doesn't buy it.

"That's the thing people say: It's not as crazy," he said. "But does it have to get to the worst-possible situation ever, or worse than that, for it to be out of control? No, if you take out the tech bubble, this is crazy," he said, citing how much more expensive high-growth stocks have become than the rest of the market.

"This is way outside the bounds."The Samoa Rugby Union (S.R.U) has refused to neither confirm nor deny reports that Sir Gordon Tietjens is the new coach of the Manu Samoa Sevens.

Contrary to claims made on the Tala o Taaloga programme on Monday night, the Unions Chief Executive Officer, Faleomavaega Vincent Fepuleai, said an official announcement should be made at the end of the week.

The Union hasnt issued an official release yet, he told the Samoa Observer yesterday.

We will be making an official release on Friday this week which will be done by the Chairman.

The Chairman is Prime Minister, Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi.

Asked if the Union has finalised an appointee to replace the sacked Damian McGrath, the C.E.O said not yet.

There hasnt been any confirmation because we are currently going through negotiations. We are also trying to contact other people who have applied. All I can say is that there has been no official release.

Up until this point, the Union has also not been able to confirm whether Tietjens has applied for the job.

We saw reports on the paper that he (Tietjens) said the rugby union has sought his help but we havent, Faleomavaega said in an earlier interview with the Samoa Observer.

He is welcomed to apply if he hasnt already applied but the opportunity was open to anyone; local and overseas. It wasnt restricted to anyone.

Faleomavaega had also recently refuted a list of applicants - including names such as Tietjens, Waisale Serevi, Stephen Betham, Faamaoni Lalomilo, Brian Lima, Faaofo Junior Leota, Soifua John Schuster and Ramsay Tomokino.

The Sevens coaching position became vacant after the Union sacked Damian McGrath and his management team including Assistant Coach, Muliagatele Brian Lima.

The sacking is now the subject of a lawsuit against the Union.

Tietjens

Sir Gordon Frederick Tietjens is a former coach of the All Blacks Sevens.

He is a World Rugby Hall of Fame coach, having coached the the All Blacks Sevens to 10 series titles in the IRB Sevens World Series, the Rugby World Cup Sevens crown in 2001, and gold medals in four of the five Commonwealth Games in which the sport had been contested. He has also won the Rugby World Cup Sevens crown a number of times.

Tietjens has coached many young players who have gone on to become All Blacks, including Christian Cullen, Jonah Lomu, Joe Rokocoko, Mils Muliaina, Rico Gear, Cory Jane, Ben Smith, and Liam Messam. As of June 2016, Tietjens has coached 44 players who have gone on to become All Blacks in the 15-a-side game and he is the only remaining active international coach from the amateur era.

After an unsuccessful 2016 Olympics campaign, Tietjens stepped down.Dear Editor





Re: Samoa Rugby bankruptcy fears

I know there are many people who are not even surprised to hear this news.

We have heard from time and time again the answers to questions about the use of funds and who is profiting from donations and money given to help our rugby from other countries and as well as kind donations from our own people.

Its the same people.

The Union owes Damian McGrath millions of dollars for their wrong decision from two years ago when all of a sudden they let MGrath go after a successful one-year campaign.

After a year by Gordon Tietjens that provided the worst standing by Manu Samoa 7s, and you know what, Tietjens has even more say about the team.

But they say its all about results.

Hahaha, isnt that funny? Now they let go of a new rugby manager with only 3 months?

The C.E.Os explanation about this flop doesnt make sense again.

The people of the country deserve to hear the true reasons for these actions. One day the dishonesty of these men will be revealed before our eyes.

I feel bad for our young athletes who put their talents and commitment for the name of our country.

Samoa will never see success as long as certain men continue to be involved.

P.M. Tuilaepa, C.E.O Fepuleai and many others, do the right thing and step down. You have been there too long to make a difference but so far, there is nothing to show.

Mauga TuiotiCounty officials say the plan to update Carlsbads airport will make it quieter and safer, but many residents doubt that, saying the proposed improvements will bring more noise and traffic.

The county is nearing the end of a four-year process to rewrite the 20-year-old master plan, a document that guides development at McClellan-Palomar Airport. The latest draft of an environmental impact report for the plan was presented at a community meeting Tuesday at a Holiday Inn near the airport.

The airport, built by the county in 1959, has gradually transitioned over the years from serving mostly small, propeller-driven private aircraft to one that now serves mostly mid-sized corporate jets. Overall air traffic peaked in 1999 with 285,122 takeoffs and landings, but dropped to 149,029 in 2016 with the decreasing use of personal aircraft, according to the draft EIR.

Still, its the small, personal planes that make most of the noise and generate the complaints.

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Pamela Chana told officials at the meeting that she frequently hears small planes fly over her house south of Poinsettia Avenue, more than a mile from the airport, and that the number of planes appears to be increasing.

It seems like (the airport) is expanding too fast, Chana said.

A resident of Ocean Hills, in Oceanside miles northeast of the airport, said small planes often fly low and slow over his home as they approach the Carlsbad runway.

We are experiencing a considerable amount of noise in the mornings and afternoons, said Ralph Semien, who asked county officials to increase their efforts to improve compliance with voluntary noise abatement procedures.

We understand its a concern, said Lee Ann Lardy, a project manager for San Diego County.

However, the Federal Aviation Administration will not allow mandatory noise controls at the Carlsbad airport, she said. Local officials can only recommend voluntary procedures, such as for pilots to follow specific flight paths, to help limit noise over nearby neighborhoods.

Most of the improvements recommended for Carlsbad would make the airport safer for the aircraft already using it, officials said. Those recommendations include the installation of materials at both ends of the runway that stop a plane that overruns the strip, much like the ramps that can halt a runaway truck at the bottom of a steep road.

More controversial is a plan to extend the airports only runway by 200 to 800 feet. That would allow planes that already use the airport to take off with more fuel, so they could reach more distant destinations without refueling. A longer runway also would reduce noise west of the airport because aircraft could take off sooner and gain altitude faster.

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Another proposal is to move the entire runway 123 feet north to increase the separation between the runway and the taxiway, which would reduce the chance of collisions.

But some people say any improvements would only encourage more pilots to use the airport.

Why are we making this airport easier for these  jets to land? asked Kris Wright, a 39-year Carlsbad resident. The county should be looking for ways to make the airport better for residents, not pilots, she said.

Forecasts of the airports expected growth in operations (total takeoffs and landings) by 2036 range from a low of 160,000 annually (4,000 fewer than the 2016 actual number) estimated by the FAA, which takes into account no commercial flights, to a high of 208,000 in an estimate by the San Diego Association of Governments, which includes the addition of commercial flights.

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Copies of the proposed master plan update and related environmental documents are available at the San Diego County website, www.sandiegocounty.gov.

An open house to discuss the plan is set for 4 to 7 p.m. Feb. 7 at the airports commercial passenger terminal, 2198 Palomar Airport Road. Another formal presentation is scheduled from 6 to 8:30 p.m. Feb. 13 at the Holiday Inn, 2725 Palomar Airport Road.

The completed update is expected to go to the county Board of Supervisors for final approval sometime next summer.

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philip.diehl@sduniontribune.com

Twitter: @phildiehlLast week, people traveled to the Mexican border for John Luther Adams Inuksuit, a composition that integrated environmental sounds into the concert experience.

On Friday at the UC San Diego Music Department, people heard sounds from the border  and other San Diego County locales  transplanted into Conrad Prebys Music Center. There, Professor Erik Carlson on violin and guest percussionist Greg Stuart led a performance of asleep, forest, melody, path by Michael Pisaro.

In this hour-long piece, local field recordings by Samuel Dunscombe were selected, edited and altered by Pisaro. By using delays and adding sine tones, the composer denatured the original recordings. These new aural landscapes, distributed across four speakers behind 14 performers, were heard by themselves and with musicians.

Adams and Pisaros works were part of the San Diego Symphonys Its About Time Festival, described as a festival of rhythm, sound and place. More than any other festival event, these two pieces were broad meditations on the ideas of rhythm, sound and place.

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In Inuksuit, the accidental sounds of its performance space  the border wall near the Pacific Ocean  framed the entire work. Pounding surf and vehicle noises slowly gave way to the musicians, and as the performers quietly closed the work, dropping out one by one, the sounds of the border prevailed again.

In asleep, forest, melody, path, various places  the U.S. border on the coast and remotely inland, State Route 52, a Lakeside dairy and San Diego Airport (recorded during the travel ban protest last year)  were captured acoustically and presented onstage. However, they never seemed to evoke those places, but rather existed as sonic material to be manipulated by the composer.

Pisaros manipulations were minimal. The recordings were mixed down to mono, artificializing the originals. These were then mechanically delayed at the same interval (one second, for instance), moving from left to right across the four speakers. Each recording faded in and slowly faded out twice. On the second appearance, Carlson and Stuart played long, soft melodies, accompanied by 12 musicians (all UCSD students) who quietly played sustained tones or gentle instrumental noises (breath sounds, tapping, scraping).

The rhythms of Inuksuit, once underway, were mainly repetitive, patterns that either accumulated or stripped down. Zoom out to the duration of the entire work, and rhythm became form. The form of Inuksuit was one large organic crescendo and decrescendo.

In Pisaros piece, manmade rhythms were imposed on the random rhythms of the environment. The delays in the recordings were so precise, they sounded like nonfading echoes. However, the musicians meandered across this landscape in a random manner.

The form of asleep, forest, melody, path was repetitive: three minutes of a recording, three minutes of the recording with musicians, three minutes of the musicians alone, and one minute of silence. This structure was repeated six times, yet the paths taken within by the performers had the random rhythms of nature.

Stuart is one of Pisaros biggest champions  his sympathetic understanding shaped this lovely performance, aided by Carlsons solos and the respectful but adventurous sounds of the 12 UCSD students.

Unlike the accessibility of Inuksuit, Pisaros composition challenged listeners; there were a number of walkouts during the performance. But for those who stayed, calm settled over us, as well as occasional delight at an unexpected sound. Adams and Pisaro are Americas greatest living experimental composers, and those who heard both of their works on this festival will have much to contemplate long after Its About Time concludes.

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Hertzog is a freelance writer.A motorist was shot and killed early Saturday as he was driving in the Jefferson Park neighborhood west of downtown Los Angeles, police said.

The shooting occurred about 4 a.m. as the driver and his male passenger were driving near the intersection of 29th Street and Western Avenue, just south of the 10 Freeway, said Capt. Darnell Davenport of the Los Angeles Police Department.

The driver was shot multiple times and his car collided with a parked vehicle, Davenport said. The passenger was unhurt. Neither was identified.

The driver, who was described as being in his 20s, was pronounced dead at the scene, Davenport said.

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The suspect remains at large, he said. It was unclear whether the shooter was in a car or on foot.

Francine Lee, a woman who identified herself as the victims aunt, showed up at the crime scene Saturday morning. She said her nephew was going to school and studying to be an electrician.

He was a good kid, she said. He was very faithful to his children. He was trying to get himself together as far as going back to school.

The victims wife, who also showed up at the crime scene but did not want to give her name, identified her husband as Ervin Galbreath, 28, and said he was the father of twins.

irfan.khan@latimes.comAn Oklahoma man who gunned down a woman and her 4-year-old daughter in Long Beach and tried to kill the childs father was sentenced today to two life-without-parole prison terms, but he had to be restrained in court after trying to walk away.

At the beginning of his sentencing hearing, Brandon Ivan Colbert Jr., 23, stood up and tried to walk out of the court, but three bailiffs pounced on him and wrestled him to the floor.

The hearing had to be delayed while Colbert was restrained in a safety chair and brought back into court.

Superior Court Judge Jessie I. Rodriguez sentenced him to two consecutive terms of life in prison without parole for the Aug. 6, 2016, killings of Carina Mancera, 26, and her daughter, Jennabel Anaya. Colbert was also sentenced to another life term for the attempted murder of Luis Anaya, along with 75 years to life for personally discharging a firearm.

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In a sentencing memorandum, Deputy District Attorney Cynthia Barnes cited the nature of the crimes and total lack of remorse shown by the defendant and the number of people killed to justify her request for back-to- back life-without-parole terms.

The prosecutor wrote that the attack was without any provocation.

A Long Beach jury found Colbert guilty a week ago of two counts of first-degree murder and one count of attempted murder.

Jurors also found true the special circumstance allegations of murder while lying in wait and multiple murders, along with allegations that he personally discharged a firearm.

Prosecutors opted not to seek the death penalty against Colbert.

Authorities said he hid behind a sign and opened fire on the family with a shotgun.

Mancera and her daughter were gunned down near 9th Street and Locust Avenue about 10:20 p.m. Aug. 6, 2016, as the family was returning home from grocery shopping. The gunman also fired at Luis Anaya, but missed, according to police.

Long Beach police Chief Robert Luna said Colbert was arrested about three weeks after the killings by Los Angeles police on suspicion of driving a stolen vehicle. A DNA swab was obtained from him, ultimately linking him to the killings, for which he was arrested in November.

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The surviving victim told investigators that a man walked up to his longtime girlfriend and their daughter and suddenly -- without provocation -- opened fire, then ran off. He said he did not recognize the man, nor did anyone else in the neighborhood.

Colbert acted as his own attorney during the trial.While the federal government remains in a stalemate over immigration, the city of San Diego took the first steps on Friday to create a strategic plan to better welcome and support new arrivals locally.

In a series of brainstorming sessions at a summit held in Golden Hall, San Diegans interested in helping immigrants integrate recommended that the city pursue ways to help immigrants grow job skills and businesses.

They recommended the city develop culturally competent policies from education to policing and expand support for immigrants who are able to become U.S. citizens. Several also suggested that the city form an office for immigrant affairs.

The mayors office in partnership with the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce and several nonprofits won a grant last year to fund research to create a long-term plan.

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Joel Day, who is in charge of the Welcoming San Diego initiative for the city, said that San Diegos kickoff summit of about 300 people was the largest of any U.S. city that has joined the program co-organized by the New American Economy and Welcoming America.

That is a testament to all of the people already doing work to support and integrate immigrants, Day said.

The idea is for the city to get behind the people already doing great work, Day said, for the city to stand up with them with a guiding vision for the future.

Immigrants make up about 24 percent of San Diegos population, according to a new report released as research for the plan, and make up about 29 percent of working-age San Diegans.

Thats significant for San Diegos economic development, said Paola Avila of the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce, because the population of native-born Americans is aging, and businesses need the workforce supplied by the regions immigrants.

Our reliance on growing business and growing our economy is heavily on the shoulders of the immigrant population, Avila said.

San Diego immigrants are also about 23 percent more likely than U.S.-born residents to be job-creating entrepreneurs than U.S.-born residents, according to the report.

San Diegos multi-sector approach shows that helping immigrants integrate doesnt have to be a partisan issue, said Kate Brick of the New American Economy.

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Its about being pragmatic and recognizing the value in having a robust and supported immigrant community, Brick said.

Though the federal government controls who can immigrate and how, municipalities and states can still have an effect on immigration policy, said Karthick Ramakrishnan, a professor from UC Riverside who gave the keynote speech at the summit.

Ramakrishnan gave examples of other movements, like womens suffrage and labor, that started by getting policies enacted at lower levels of government that eventually became national.

Think of states as being able to expand on the types of protections available at the federal level, Ramakrishnan said. Think of the federal government not as a ceiling but as a floor.

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Some residents have resisted previous welcoming efforts in other cities around San Diego County.

Several cities faced a backlash in 2016 when they declared themselves welcoming cities, which is one of Welcoming Americas programs.

Imperial Beach ended up undoing the proclamation after residents voiced concerns about attracting more newcomers to the area. Other cities decided to keep the designation.

Creating a strategic plan for a city goes a step beyond the basic welcoming label to build programs and resources for immigrants.

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Day said that he hasnt yet heard about pushback on San Diegos project.

I fully expect there to be folks who are unsure how this impacts them, Day said. The more safe, connected and cohesive we are as a city, the more everyone is going to succeed.

He said the broad coalition taking part in the project should help mitigate concerns.

Were trying to make sure all voices are heard, even dissenting voices, Day said.

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Through brainstorming sessions that covered civic engagement, safe and connected communities, economic opportunity, education and inclusive access to resources, attendees answered questions about whats going on now, where they want to see the city in five years and how to get there.

Those recommendations will become the framework for the strategic plan, which Day hopes will be ready to present to Mayor Kevin Faulconer and City Council by the end of the summer.

Other cities that have gone through the process created offices for immigrant affairs or funded collaborations between the public and private sector to provide needed resources to new arrivals.

The city will partner with San Diego Unified School District to host more events to gather community input at five high schools across San Diego before compiling a final report. Those interested in giving feedback can also submit it online at welcomingsd.org.

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Immigration Videos On Now New developments in family separation case 9:53 On Now A San Diego woman volunteered as a medic in Texas helping migrant families 2:35 On Now Immigration policy protests in Carlsbad nearly cancelled after permit issue 1:38 On Now When children are separated from their parents at the border, here is where they go next On Now Prospects of a deal for 'Dreamers' may hinge on separating Trump from hard-liners on his staff On Now What is DACA? On Now Border wall prototype contractors selected On Now Video: Ukrainian boxer wins asylum in U.S. On Now 30 apprehended after Border Patrol agents discover tunnel On Now Video: Kurdish diaspora prepare to vote on independence

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Follow me on Facebook for live updates about immigration news

kate.morrissey@sduniontribune.com, @bgirledukate on TwitterU.S. relations with Mexico have been in a tailspin for the last year over President Trumps anti-immigrant jibes, his threats to scuttle a crucial trade pact, demands that Mexico pay for a border wall and his apparent antipathy toward Mexicos president.

On Friday, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson assumed his now-familiar role of damage controller and held talks with Mexicos President Enrique Pena Nieto and other senior officials in an effort to repair relations with one of the United States largest trading partners and, historically at least, one of its closest allies.

If there were no breakthroughs, there were no ruptures either after Tillerson met with the Mexican and Canadian foreign ministers, Luis Videgaray and Chrystia Freeland. All three are involved in trying to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement, a trilateral trade deal that Trump has threatened to kill.

At a news conference after the meetings, Tillerson defended Trumps attempts to modernize the NAFTA agreement, and to crack down on both legal and illegal immigration. He said the president wants to clean up the troubled U.S. immigration system and lift the cloud of uncertainty on immigrants living without proper documentation.

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I know its painful, the process, Tillerson said as the three diplomats stood before their nations flags.

Freeland praised Tillerson as an incredibly important voice in maintaining the rules-based international order, an implicit rebuff of Trumps more freestyle flouting of diplomatic norms.

Videgaray also painted a rosy picture, telling reporters he is confident the trade talks wont become a chess game with winners and losers but will produce a win-win-win outcome benefiting all three countries. The sixth round of NAFTA talks ended this week in Washington and will resume later this month in Mexico.

Some Mexican officials have threatened to curb cooperation with Washington in the fights against illegal immigration and drug trafficking if the NAFTA talks collapse, but both governments say that has not happened.

Tillersons visit here marked the start of a five-nation tour of Latin America and the Caribbean, his first multi-country mission in the region. He next flies to Bariloche, Argentina. From there, he continues to the Argentine capital of Buenos Aires; Lima, Peru; Bogota, Colombia, and Kingston, Jamaica.

Mexico, like much of Latin America, is at odds with the Trump administration over numerous policies.

Stepped-up deportation of Mexicans living in the U.S. without proper documentation, for example, has a direct impact on Mexicos economy. Last year, Mexicans working in the U.S. sent their families in Mexico nearly $28 billion in remittances, an amount 6.6% higher than in 2016, the Bank of Mexico reported Friday.

The bank said this was the largest sum of remittances on record.

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Outside the marble halls of the Mexican presidential compound, Los Pinos, and the Foreign Ministry, the reception for Tillerson was decidedly frosty. Protesters on the street called for his ouster, and a financial newspaper editorialized that he was preaching primal colonialism.

The question is, what else is Videgaray giving to Trump and his collaborators in exchange for preserving NAFTA? political columnist Salvador Garcia Soto wrote in El Universal newspaper.

That came partly in response to reports floated in the U.S. that Washington would make concessions on NAFTA if Mexico allowed armed air marshals on commercial flights between the two countries.

Videgaray has denied such quid pro quo and said any decision on NAFTA will be carefully analyzed. But he has been criticized here for opaque maneuvering.

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Tillerson is eager to cement the security cooperation relationship as much as possible so that it doesnt get contaminated by the NAFTA talks should they turn sour, said Eric Olson, senior advisor to the Mexico Institute at the nonpartisan Wilson Center think tank in Washington.

So far, the Mexican government has been a willing partner in these discussions, Olson added. But that could change if no progress is made  or if a leftist president is elected in voting scheduled for July 1.

Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, a nationalist from the left, is riding a surge in anti-American sentiment to lead the polls so far.

The Mexican military, meanwhile, has enjoyed unusually good relations with the Pentagon. The two nations military forces and intelligence agencies cooperate closely on drug interdiction and arrests of drug cartel figures.

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But Mexican military officers also are worried about a backlash in or against Mexico if NAFTA collapses  or the wall is built  and are considering contingency plans, people with knowledge of the deliberations said.

tracy.wilkinson@latimes.com

For more on international affairs, follow @TracyKWilkinson on TwitterRepublicans have out-raised Democrats in every race for county office.

Reporting period covers the second half of 2017.

About 36.6 percent of San Diego County voters are Democrats, while 29.6 percent are Republicans. Another 28.4 percent do not belong to a party.

Despite a smaller share of the countys electorate, Republicans lead Democrats in campaign fundraising in races for two Board of Supervisors seats as well as for district attorney, sheriff and assessor.

Republican Bonnie Dumanis of Little Italy, a former district attorney who is now running for supervisor, raised $317,200 in the second half of last year, according to campaign finance reports filed this past week. Her haul gives her a lead over the four Democrats running against her.

Dumanis entered the race months after the other candidates but was still able to raise more money from a more diverse coalition of donors than the others, her campaign consultant, Jason Roe, said by email.

Dumanis also has $43,691 in campaign debt, more than any other candidate.

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Former State Assemblyman Nathan Fletcher of City Heights raised $301,665 and has $255,567 in his account, approximately $3,000 more than Dumanis.

Nathan Fletcher will have the resources to run a great grass-roots campaign in every neighborhood and beat back the Republican special interests hellbent on maintaining their stranglehold on county government, Fletchers campaign consultant, Dan Rottenstreich, said in a statement.

Omar Passons, a lawyer and first-time candidate from North Park, raised $88,765. After expenses and debts, he is $4,129 in the red. While Lori Saldana, a former state assemblyman from Clairemont, raised $14,833 and has $7,437 in the bank.

Ken Malbrough, a retired deputy fire chief who lives in Encanto, raised $25,507, a figure that includes a $12,000 loan taken by his campaign.

And Marcia Nordstrom, a real estate adviser from Pacific Beach, received $2,825 including a $1,000 loan.

The district is currently represented by term-limited Republican Ron Roberts. It includes about half of the city of San Diego and runs from La Jolla to Kearny Mesa to Encanto to Ocean Beach. Democrats have a large advantage with 44.2 percent of registered voters, while Republicans have 19.9 percent. Another 30.2 percent do not belong to a party.

In North County, the race to succeed term-limited Republican Bill Horn on the Board of Supervisors has effectively been whittled down to two candidates. Democrat Esther Sanchez, an Oceanside councilwoman, didnt raise any money in the reporting period, and has raised $1,500 since launching her campaign.

San Marcos Mayor Jim Desmond raised $76,793 in the reporting period, more than double his nearest opponent, Oceanside Councilman Jerry Kern. Desmond also leads with money on-hand of $193,761 to Kerns $111,643. Desmond, however, has $23,696, while Kern just has $3,109. Kern and Desmond are both Republicans.

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Democrat Genevieve Jones-Wright raised $108,040 in the race for district attorney, behind appointed incumbent Republican Summer Stephan, who raised $148,280 in the reporting period and $357,173 in the last year. Jones-Wright, from Encanto, launched her campaign just after the start of the reporting period, so her totals reflect everything her campaign has raised.

The district attorney, sheriff and assessor-recorder-clerk are all countywide races. Democrats have a registration advantage with 36.6 percent of voters to the GOPs 29.6 percent. Another 28.4 percent do not belong to a party.

Republican Sheriff Bill Gore leads his Democratic challenger, Cmdr. Dave Myers, with nearly twice as much money. Gore, from Mission Hills, collected $113,102 in the reporting period, while Myers, from La Mesa, received $58,322. Gore has $166,072 in the bank and $16,672 in debt, while Myers has $46,268 in his account and $4,000 in debt.

Ernie Dronenburg, the incumbent Republican assessor-recorder-clerk, raised $29,725 in the reporting period including a $10,000 loan. His Democratic opponent, Matt Strabone, raised $18,648. Strabone raised significantly more than Dronenburg over the year, with some $65,369 in contributions, but because of leftover funds from prior campaigns, the incumbent has more money in his war chest. Dronenburg, from Fallbrook, has $56,722 cash-on-hand to Strabones $24,639.

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Dronenburgs report did not reflect $25,000 in debt he reported from the first half of last year, nor does it show a repayment of those funds. Dronenburg did not respond to a request for comment.

Todays reports make it clear that our campaign is the one to beat, Strabone said in the statement.

The top two finishers in Junes primary will face each other in the general election unless one of them receives more than 50 percent of the vote. If so, theyll be declared the winner off the primary alone. The seats are non-partisan but elections often follow partisan lines.

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Twitter: @jptstewart

joshua.stewart@sduniontribune.com

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(619) 293-1841Young, first-time candidates are leading two congressional races in campaign finances, putting them in viable positions in this years midterm elections.

After contributing nearly $1.1 million of her own money into the race, Sara Jacobs, 28, has more money than the three other Democrats running to represent the coastal San Diego Congressional district being vacated by Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Vista.

Inland, Ammar Campa-Najjar, 29, has outraised incumbent Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Alpine, and fellow Democrat Josh Butner.

Campaign finance reports submitted this past week show that Jacobs has raised $316,500 from individual donors and has given $1.07 million of her own funds. Her committee has about $1.24 million in the bank, far beyond the three other Democrats running. Jacobs, a former CEO of a nonprofit, launched her campaign for the 49th Congressional District in November.

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Sara has always been up front about the fact that the campaign will be financed with a combination of money raised from supporters and from her own personal contributions, because when you consider the millions that Trumps team is going to pour into this District, Democrats better be ready to compete, Jacobs campaign manager, Chelsea Brossard, said in a statement.

The granddaughter of Qualcomm co-founder Irwin Jacobs, Sara Jacobs has at least $12.8 million in assets, according to financial disclosures. She grew up in the area and moved back in October after a decade on the East Coast.

Campa-Najjar raised $176,181, far outperforming Hunter, who collected $50,703, and Butner, who raised $106,536.

I am working really hard, and Hunter is hardly working. Hes a little preoccupied, Campa-Najjar said by telephone, referencing Hunters ongoing campaign finance scandal. I think having been on a campaign before, and having worked in Washington, I know what it takes, it takes a big sacrifice. You have to be all in, and when I jumped in the race, I was all in. But I didnt have the connections in Washington, so I had to dig into the community.

Campa-Najjar grew up in East County, worked in Washington and came back after last years election. The 50th Congressional District is one of the most conservative in the state, but Campa-Najjar said he has made inroads by early canvassing and phone banking.

A lot of people are first-time donors. They came on line not just because of me, but because of last years election. They think this is a resistance race, he said. Later, he added that hes also discussed his policies in an effort to go beyond a message thats just anti-President Donald Trump.

49th Congressional District

The 49th Congressional District is one of the most-watched in the country after Issa won re-election by a mere 1,621 votes in 2016, the closest federal race in the country. On Jan. 10, Issa announced he would not run for re-election.

After Jacobs, Mike Levin, a Democrat and an attorney, leads the pack with $319,585 raised in the last quarter and $1.2 million since launching his campaign. He has consistently received about $300,000 in contributions per reporting period and has $486,224 left in his account after expenses.

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The answer is recurring small contributors and consistent small contributions, thats the best way to do this, Levin said by telephone. If you look back at Obama or Bernie Sanders and others like that, you do a lot of low-dollar events.

He said he anticipated having to campaign against candidates who could fund their own campaigns: Issa, Jacobs and another Democrat, Paul Kerr, are millionaires several times over.

But Levin said hes confident that the 12,000 individuals who have given to his campaign are a better sign of strength than just a few big checks.

Kerr, who owns a business in the real estate industry, raised $509,162 in the quarter, including $450,000 he gave to his own campaign. He has received $1,013,489 since launching his race, and has pledged to match contributions with his own money; $712,728 has come from his own pocket. He has $520,041 cash-on-hand.

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Paul is absolutely committed to flipping this seat and taking back the House, his campaign manager, Andrew Grunwald, said in a statement. This is the only path to passing Medicare for All, reversing the deplorable trends in income inequality and protecting our environment. This is why he will continue to dedicate his own money as necessary, and ensure he can get his message out.

Issas opponent from 2016, Oceanside attorney Doug Applegate, raised $137,279 in the last quarter of 2017 and $865,261 in all of the year, less than the other candidates who had announced by the end of the reporting period. All but $4,000 of the contributions he received in the last quarter came from individual donors. Applegate, whose campaign did not return a request for comment, has $249,463 left in his account.

Four Republicans and one more Democrat have also entered the race this year but have not yet had to file campaign finance reports.

50th Congressional District

The 50th Congressional District has been in focus because of the campaign finance scandal that has dogged Hunter for over the last year. Past financial reports showed campaign contributions were spent on video games, trips overseas and home improvements, purchases Hunter later said were honest mistakes that were repaid with his own money. The FBI, however, is investigating and a grand jury is considering evidence.

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Records show that the end of 2017 was the worst of his career for fundraising. His campaign did not return a request for comment.

Butner, a member of the Jamul-Dulzura Union School District board and a retired Navy SEAL who works in the aquatic diving industry, has $276,694 cash on hand, about $22,000 behind Campa-Najjar and $14,000 behind Hunter.

Everywhere I go from Temecula to Jamul, the people of Californias 50th Congressional District yearn for ethical leadership, Butner said in a statement.

Republican Shamus Sayed raised $185,539, including a $100,000 loan. He spent $38,053 and has $147,4865 cash on hand, figures that put him ahead of the other Republican challenger, Andrew Zelt. Records also show that Sayed gave $500 to Butners campaign in July.

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joshua.stewart@sduniontribune.com

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(619) 293-1841At a breakfast in Southeast San Diego on Saturday, trailblazing California Assemblywoman Shirley Weber said black women need to run for political office so we can be in a position to tell our story.

That line resonated with attendee Nasheema Harvey, 28, who waited in line after the Women of Color ROAR Breakfast to give Weber a hug. Harvey was one of 80 young black women offered free admission to the event, which was organized by the political advocacy group Indivisible Watu (Watu mean people in Swahili). The events goal was to encourage black women to run for public office.

Harvey moved to San Diego from her native Florida last year after earning her masters degree in public administration. Shes not sure about a career in politics, but she said Weber and the other speakers inspired her to find work where she can make an impact in the community.

I really love that these women helped to keep the fire lit for us, Harvey said.

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A capacity crowd of 300 attended the three-hour event at the Jacobs Center for Neighborhood Innovation. The program featured films, speeches and music (including a sing-along to Helen Reddys 1972 feminist anthem I Am Woman). Awards were also given to three local black women politicians.

Honoree Weber, who represents the 79th congressional district, was the first black woman south of Los Angeles elected to the California legislature. She is also the founder of the Black Womens Institute for Leadership Development (BWILD).

Honoree Myrtle Cole is the first black woman to serve on the San Diego City Council. And Lemon Grove Mayor Racquel Vasquez is the first black woman to serve as mayor in San Diego County.

A fourth, surprise honor was bestowed on community fixture Kathleen Harmon, who has served as a Democratic delegate, committee member and organizer for more than 40 years.

State assemblywoman Shirley Weber, state senator Toni Atkins and Lemon Grove mayor Raquel Vasquez at the Indivisible WATU Women of Color ROAR breakfast in San Diego on Saturday. (Nancee E. Lewis / San Diego Union-Tribune )

Weber told the crowd that women, particularly black women, are vastly under-represented in political and business leadership roles.

They say this is the year of the woman, but its not the women who look like me, she said. Theres no more powerful women in the world than black women.

Attendee Genevieve Jones-Wright said black children benefit from seeing people of color in positions of influence. The San Diego native said she was 8 years old when U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall inspired her to pursue the law. Now, the 12-year public defender is running for district attorney. If elected, shed be the first black woman in the job.

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Not all of Saturdays speakers were women whove reached the mountaintop. Khea Pollard, 24, is just starting her climb. The University of San Diego graduate works as a policy adviser for county Supervisor Greg Cox. As the only black woman in an advisory role in county government, she said it hasnt been easy breaking down barriers.

Its tough, she said. People look at you like you dont know what youre talking about and thats compounded by ageism. We need people to understand we have a voice that deserves to be listened to.

Pollard praised Indivisible Watu founder Angela de Joseph for organizing the event and finding donors to sponsor all the young women in the audience.

A lot of people are saying they want young people to be politically engaged  but they dont walk that talk. Today I see young people here and I know theyre serious, Pollard said.

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Among the sponsored guests was Juel Copeland, a world history and AP government and politics teacher at Orange Glen High School in Escondido. She brought along two of her students, juniors Janna Scroggins and Mya Feige, both 16.

Copeland acknowledges that millennials havent been as politically engaged as previous generations, in part because theyre not convinced that their votes will matter. But by bringing politicians, judges and other leaders into her classroom, she said her students are beginning to open their eyes.

Feige, who hopes for a career on Broadway, said Saturdays experience is unlikely to turn her toward political office, but it did achieve one goal.

It makes me realize how important it is for women of color to speak out, be represented and follow their dreams, she said.

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De Joseph, who started planning this first-time event three months ago, said she was thrilled at the turnout and the support she received from the community to sponsor so many young attendees.

Besides a free invitation Saturday, de Joseph said the goal is to provide these young women with resources and a network of connections for future internship opportunities.

What were doing is giving them access, she said. They need entryways to their future and this will help them in their journey.

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pam.kragen@sduniontribune.comTensions escalated at Chicano Park on Saturday as a small group of park critics waving U.S. flags and gathered for a Patriot Picnic faced off against a larger group of park supporters defending the parks cultural heritage and community importance.

There were no direct physical clashes between the two sides, as San Diego police kept the two groups behind barricades on different sides of Logan Avenue. But for two hours, the small park was the setting of some angry feelings and intense verbal exchanges.

The galvanizing event was organized by a group that calls itself Bordertown Patriots whose members are critical of the parks murals and oppose the flying of the Aztlan flag on the parks main flagpole. It comes five months after a similar picnic last September led to shouting matches between park supporters and picnic participants who said they came to have lunch and see the murals.

San Diego police reported three arrests, one for battery on a police officer, but it was not clear which side any of the suspects were connected to. The officer suffered a bloody nose as he tried to arrest a suspect who refused an order to get out of the street, said police spokesman Lt. Scott Wahl. The arrestee was not injured. A fourth person found urinating on a mural was detained by San Diego Harbor Police; he was cited and released, said Lt. James Jordan.

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To avert any problems on Saturday, police worked very closely with all sides that were involved, said Wahl. We conveyed what the rules of engagement were so we could maintain public safety. We want to make sure were protecting First Amendment rights, but not allowing criminal behavior.

1 / 21 A person who attended the Bordertown Patriots Patriot Picnic at Chicano Park, left, and a Chicano Park supporter, right, came face-to-face as the Bordertown Patriots group was being escorted out of the park by police. 2 / 21 Brandon Tamariz, left, and Jenmichel Marquez, right, held their banner before the Bordertown Patriots held their Patriot Picnic across the street in the park. (Howard Lipin / The San Diego-Union-Tribune) 3 / 21 A person who attended the Bordertown Patriots Patriot Picnic at Chicano Park, left, and a Chicano Park supporter, right, came face-to-face as the Bordertown Patriots group was being escorted out of the park by police. (Howard Lipin / The San Diego-Union-Tribune) 4 / 21 John Purano who attended the Bordertown Patriots Patriot Picnic at Chicano Park holds an American flag. The police used barriers to keep the two groups separated. (Howard Lipin / The San Diego-Union-Tribune) 5 / 21 A person who attended the Bordertown Patriots Patriot Picnic at Chicano Park, left, and a Chicano Park supporter right, came face-to-face and expressed their feelings as the Bordertown Patriots group was heading to their vehicles. (Howard Lipin / The San Diego-Union-Tribune) 6 / 21 Police officers create a buffer around fellow officers as they arrest a person as they escorted those attending the Bordertown Patriots Patriot Picnic at Chicano Park out of the park. (Howard Lipin / The San Diego-Union-Tribune) 7 / 21 A San Diego police officer, center, separates a person who attended the Bordertown Patriots Patriot Picnic at Chicano Park, left, and a Chicano Park supporter, as the Bordertown Patriots group was being escorted out of the park by police. (Howard Lipin / The San Diego-Union-Tribune) 8 / 21 Those attending the Bordertown Patriots Patriot Picnic were separated from Chicano Park supporters by police using barriers. (Howard Lipin / The San Diego-Union-Tribune) 9 / 21 Chicano Park supporters Steven Nieder, left, and Lacey Stpsey, right, hold signs expressing their feelings about the people attending the Bordertown Patriots Patriot Picnic at the park. (Howard Lipin / The San Diego-Union-Tribune) 10 / 21 Police officers arrest a person as the police escorted those attending the Bordertown Patriots Patriot Picnic at Chicano Park out of the park. (Howard Lipin / The San Diego-Union-Tribune) 11 / 21 One of the people attending the Bordertown Patriots Patriot Picnic at Chicano Park wore socks with photos of President Trump. (Howard Lipin / The San Diego-Union-Tribune) 12 / 21 Those attending the Bordertown Patriots Patriot Picnic were separated from Chicano Park supporters by police using barriers. (Howard Lipin / The San Diego-Union-Tribune) 13 / 21 Chicano Park supporters held signs as the Bordertown Patriots held their Patriot Picnic across the street in the park. (Howard Lipin / The San Diego-Union-Tribune) 14 / 21 Chicano Park supporters held signs as the Bordertown Patriots held their Patriot Picnic across the street in the park. (Howard Lipin / The San Diego-Union-Tribune) 15 / 21 A person attending the Bordertown Patriots Patriot Picnic at Chicano Park draped an American flag around them as they walk past one of the many murals at the park. (Howard Lipin / The San Diego-Union-Tribune) 16 / 21 Alfred Nieto held a combination Mexican American flag in Chicano Park before the Bordertown Patriots started held their Patriot Picnic across the street in the park. (Howard Lipin / The San Diego-Union-Tribune) 17 / 21 Dianna Purano was one of a few dozen people attending the Bordertown Patriots Patriot Picnic at Chicano Park across the street from about 700 Chicano Park supporters. 18 / 21 Police officers escort a man out of Chicano Park. A few dozen people attended the Bordertown Patriots Patriot Picnic at the park which was met with a strong largely verbal response from supporters of the park and curtal activities going on. One person was arrested for punching a police officer, breaking his breaking his nose and jaw. (Howard Lipin / The San Diego-Union-Tribune) 19 / 21 Chicano Park supporters held signs and some waved combination Mexican and American flags as the Bordertown Patriots held their Patriot Picnic across the street in the park. (Howard Lipin / The San Diego-Union-Tribune) 20 / 21 There was a large police presence separating the supporters of Chicano Park from those attending the the Bordertown Patriots Patriot Picnic in the park. (Howard Lipin / The San Diego-Union-Tribune) 21 / 21 A paper mache pinata that looks like President Trump is in a trash can at Chicano Park before the Bordertown Patriots held their Patriot Picnic across the street in the park. (Howard Lipin / The San Diego-Union-Tribune)

The event started about 10 a.m., with police initially reporting both sides to be law-abiding and peaceful. Dozens of officers were at the scene, closely monitoring the crowd that grew to an estimated 700 people, with park advocates far outnumbering the 50-or-so picnickers.

Several of the park critics wrapped themselves in American flags, while others wore protective vests and military-style helmets, and covered their faces with scarves. The participants sent out different messages: One man who said he was running for the U.S. Senate railed against Jewish communist agitation; others wore shirts and hats expressing support for President Donald Trump, or said they were there to oppose illegal immigration; still others said they simply wanted to ensure that Chicano Park was accessible to everyone.

Were just a group of Americans who found out about this park and how they exclude people if you are not Chicano or Mexican. This should be an American park for the American people, said Jesse Medina, a business owner from Los Angeles.

The event today is not a protest, Roger Ogden, a picnic organizer, said in a statement. The goal is just to demonstrate whether there is City-sponsored discrimination at Chicano Park against certain people, due to their race, ethnic background and politics.

On the other side of Logan Avenue, several groups mingled amid the parks colorful murals for an event billed as an Educational Tour Day. Aztec dancers performed a dance of peace and love, inviting people to join in. Speeches by community members and representatives of the clergy rang out from the main stage.

I dont want to give them any attention, said steering committee member Alberto Lopez Pulido, referring to the Patriot Picnic group. This is our story, and will remain our story. We want to let people know what the park means, the fact that we have 88 murals here, we have National Landmark status.

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The park, he said, is sacred for some people, like a church would be or a synagogue or a mosque. It has that feel because this park comes out of struggle, or resistance, and people identify with that.

Other groups also were participating, including members of the San Diego Brown Beret. Were here to unite against people who are against us, said a 27-year-old man with a covered face who said he was with the Antifa movement, who bill themselves as anti-facists.

We want to keep the spirit of the park alive, make it better than it is, its gone through a lot of struggle, said Bonita resident Jose Valdez, a contractor, who came with his two daughters and son, all holding Mexican flags. Everyone has a right to carry any flag you want, the problem is how you send the message, he said.

Tensions rose as members of the Patriot Picnic group prepared to leave with a heavy police escort, and members traded angry words with park supporters. A few people  it wasnt clear which side they supported  were instigating fights in the street as the crowds were dispersing, police said.

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sandra.dibble@sduniontribune.com

@sandradibbleThe Republican National Committee is siding with President Donald Trump on his order to bar transgender individuals from serving in the U.S. military.

In a resolution passed at its annual winter meeting Friday, the committee voted to support Trumps August demand that military recruitment policy consider transgender as a disqualifying psychological and physical condition

Trumps order has suffered legal setbacks. Three federal courts have ruled against the ban, prompting the RNC to take the position standing with Trump.

An effect of one court ruling was that the military would be required to allow transgender people to enlist beginning Jan. 1.

The issue has divided the GOP. Some Republicans in the Senate , including military veterans Joni Ernst of Iowa and John McCain of Arizona, have objected to Trumps ban.

The Defense Department is undertaking a review of recruiting policies, a process expected to be completed in the coming months. RNC member Bob Kabel said he expects Trump to abide by the recommendations in the Pentagons review.

While the resolution states the committee supports Trumps intent and prerogative to strengthen our military with sound personnel policies, it also urges the Justice Department to seek U.S. Supreme Court action.

Its customary for the RNC to pass resolutions supporting the president, especially when policies are challenged in court. There was no public debate on the measure during the RNCs general session Friday.The Trump administration on Friday announced it will continue much of the Obama administrations nuclear weapons policy, but take a more aggressive stance toward Russia. It said Russia must be persuaded it would face unacceptably dire costs if it were to threaten even limited nuclear attack in Europe.

The sweeping review of U.S. nuclear policy does not call for any net increase in strategic nuclear weapons, a position that stands in contrast to President Donald Trumps statement, in a tweet shortly before he took office, that the U.S. must greatly strengthen and expand its nuclear capability until such time as the world comes to its senses regarding nukes. In his State of the Union address Tuesday, he made no mention of expansion, though he said the arsenal must deter acts of aggression.

A 74-page report summarizing the reviews findings calls North Korea a clear and grave threat to the U.S. and its allies. It asserts that any North Korean nuclear attack against the U.S. or its allies will result in the end of that regime.

There is no scenario in which the Kim regime could employ nuclear weapons and survive, it says.

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The Pentagon-led review of the U.S. nuclear arsenal and the policies that govern it was ordered by Trump a year ago. Known officially as a nuclear posture review, and customarily done at the outset of a new administration, the report drew blistering criticism from arms control groups.

President Trump is embarking on a reckless path  one that will reduce U.S. security both now and in the longer term, said Lisbeth Gronlund, a senior scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists. She said the administration is blurring the line between nuclear and conventional war-fighting.

The Trump administration concluded that the U.S. should largely follow its predecessors blueprint for modernizing the nuclear arsenal, including new bomber aircraft, submarines and land-based missiles. It also endorsed adhering to existing arms control agreements, including the New START treaty that limits the United States and Russia each to 1,550 strategic nuclear warheads on a maximum of 700 deployed launchers.

The treaty, negotiated under President Barack Obama, entered into force on Feb. 5, 2011, and its weapons limits must be met by Monday. The U.S. says it has been in compliance with the limits since August and it expects the Russians to comply by Mondays deadline. As of Sept. 1, the last date for which official figures are available, Russia was below the launcher limit but slightly above the warhead limit, at 1,561.

Moscow has repeatedly stated its intention to meet those limits on time, and we have no reason to believe that that wont be the case, State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said Thursday.

The Pentagons nuclear review concluded that while arms control can advance American interests, further progress is difficult to envision, in light of what the U.S. considers Russias aggression in Ukraine and violations of existing arms deals. Administration officials briefed Russian and Chinese officials Friday prior to the reviews public release.

The Trump nuclear doctrine breaks with Obamas in ending his push to reduce the role of nuclear weapons in U.S. defense policy. Like Obama, Trump would consider using nuclear weapons only in extreme circumstances, while maintaining a degree of ambiguity about what that means. But Trump sees a fuller deterrent role for these weapons, as reflected in the plan to develop new capabilities to counter Russia in Europe.

The administrations view is that Russian policies and actions are fraught with potential for miscalculation leading to an uncontrolled escalation of conflict in Europe. It specifically points to a Russian doctrine known as escalate to de-escalate, in which Moscow would use or threaten to use smaller-yield nuclear weapons in a limited, conventional conflict in Europe in the belief that doing so would compel the U.S. and NATO to back down.

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Recent Russian statements on this evolving nuclear weapons doctrine appear to lower the threshold for Moscows first-use of nuclear weapons, the review said.

The administration proposes a two-step solution.

First, it would modify a small number of existing long-range ballistic missiles carried by Trident strategic submarines to fit them with smaller-yield nuclear warheads. John Rood, the undersecretary of defense for policy, declined to provide an estimate of the cost, saying it would be partially included in the 2019 budget that will be submitted to Congress later this month. He said the missile would be fielded in the near term, but he refused to be more specific.

Second, in the longer term, the administration would develop a nuclear-armed sea-launched cruise missile  re-establishing a weapon that existed during the Cold War but was retired in 2011 by the Obama administration.

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Robert Soofer, a senior nuclear policy official at the Pentagon who helped direct the policy review, said Moscow is likely to push back on the U.S. plan for fielding those two additional weapons.

Im sure they wont respond well, Soofer said Thursday.

The press secretary at the Russian Embassy in Washington, Nikolay Lakhonin, said he would not comment until the review had been made public.

Asked whether the two new nuclear weapons are needed to deter Russia, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said Friday, We are deterring nations that have spoken about using nuclear weapons.

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Associated Press writer Josh Lederman contributed to this report.San Diego Sheriffs Department deputies, fearing large-scale protests over the construction of President Donald Trumps border wall prototypes last fall, logged more than 10,000 hours of overtime in a three-month period before and after project construction.

The department had previously disclosed it had spent $764,278 on overtime for security. It was the largest single expenditure  more than the $715,170 in wages paid out  of a total expense of $1.6 million.

In all, some 356 employees racked up overtime hours on 46 separate dates from Sept. 7 through Dec. 15, according to a county spokeswoman. Collectively, they totaled 10,227 hours of overtime work.

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A more precise breakdown of the overtime payouts was not provided. Spokeswoman Alex Bell said that the amount of OT worked varied  some employees earned as little as a half hour, and others up to a full day.

Public safety staffing is dynamic, and the Sheriffs Department scaled up and down staffing as necessary based on intelligence information over the three-month period, Bell said in an email that accompanied the information.

Deputies did not provide security for the construction site itself, which was located near the international border on Otay Mesa, about 1.5 miles east of Enrico Fermi Drive. Instead the security was for anticipated protests, demonstrations or marches that local law enforcement had been warned about by Department of Homeland Security officials.

No protests occurred during the month-long construction of the eight prototype walls. Local activists said that they ignored the project so as not to draw attention to it.

Bell said the majority of overtime hours were logged from the period of Sept. 25 through Oct. 1, the first week of construction work. Another chunk came for a small rally near the site held Dec. 9, long after the walls were up and construction crews had departed.

The city of San Diego also patrolled the area away from the building site and paid out $277,898 in overtime and supplies and services during the month-long construction period. The San Diego Union-Tribune has requested more information on those expenses.

Twitter: @gregmoran

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greg.moran@sduniontribune.comBen Segawa never forgot what happened to his family in 1942, when the U.S. government ordered Japanese-Americans into prison camps during World War II. He wanted the public to remember, too.

He wasnt an angry man, he was a sharing man, said Linda Canada, archivist for the Japanese American Historical Society of San Diego, which Mr. Segawa helped found. He saw what the government did, saw how right-thinking people didnt speak up, and he wanted to make sure it didnt happen again.

Mr. Segawa, a retired farmer, businessman, real-estate agent and community leader, died Jan. 26 after a brief illness. The Bonita resident was 87.

Born and raised in the South Bay, where his family farmed 40 acres of spinach, string beans and beets, he was 11 in April 1942, four months after Pearl Harbor, when 120,000 Japanese-Americans were forced into relocation camps.

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The Segawas  mother, father and 10 kids  went to Poston, in the Arizona desert, and into hastily constructed barracks with wooden floors and tar-paper walls, surrounded by barbed wire and towers with armed guards. Almost 18,000 eventually were imprisoned there, including more than 1,100 from San Diego.

We were issued a cot each with a mattress stuffed with hay, Mr. Segawa told the Union-Tribune in a 1991 interview. We made furniture without nails and we used tin can tops to plug the holes in the floors.

There was no air conditioning in the rooms, where temperatures sometimes hit 120. Dust drifted in through gaps in the walls; scorpions crawled up through gaps in the floors. The prisoners ate in mess halls and showered in communal bathrooms without stalls.

All the physical deprivations paled next to the hurt many felt inside: That people looked at me differently than other Americans, Mr. Segawa said.

After more than two years at Poston, the Segawas came home. They were luckier than most. A neighbor had kept their farm running. But that didnt mean the return was easy.

The bottom line is how we managed not to throw in the towel against all odds, Mr. Segawa said in a 1997 Union-Tribune interview. No other immigrant group has had to start over twice like we were forced to do.

Mr. Segawa served in the Air Force during the Korean War, got married, raised a family and continued farming. He sold pesticides and equipment to other farmers. He went into real estate. For many years, taking cues from his parents and other elders, he didnt talk openly about what happened during the war.

That began changing in the late 1980s, after a federal commission called internment a grave injustice caused by race prejudice, war hysteria and a failure of political leadership. Congress approved a bill offering a formal apology and $20,000 for each surviving internee.

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Mr. Segawa used his reparations to take his family to Washington, D.C., so they could learn about democracy and see why it fell down, Canada said.

In 1991, a committee of Poston internees organized a reunion in San Diego, which led to formation of the Japanese-American Historical Society here. Mr. Segawa was the first president.

He helped organize museum exhibits on local Japanese-American history. He loaned photos and other artifacts for exhibits and books. He gave presentations in local schools and led tours to Poston.

The hurt runs pretty deep what our country did to us, Mr. Segawa told the Union-Tribune, and he saw the various remembrances as a way to open the door to relieve the hurt.

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Mr. Segawa is survived by his wife, Grace; his sons, Mike (Mary Beth) of Olympia, Wash., Randy of Sacramento, and Eric of San Leandro; his daughter, Debra (Ken) Kodama of Chula Vista; and four grandchildren.

A memorial service was held Friday at First United Methodist Church of Chula Vista.

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john.wilkens@sduniontribune.comWhen voters approved Californias high-speed rail project in 2008, supporters promised a cost-effective, rapid way of traveling around the state. The project was supposed to cost $34 billion and would include 800 miles of track to connect Californias major hubs. Its been almost a decade since those promises were made and none of them have been fulfilled. High-speed rail is riddled with budget overruns, constant leadership changes, missed deadlines and broken promises.

While our bridges and roads crumble, the government continues to allocate California taxpayer dollars into the black hole known as high-speed rail. Experts told voters that bullet trains were the future of transportation, attracting billions in private investments and federal transit funds. They claimed that the state would be on the hook for less than a third of the projects $34 billion price tag. A decade later, that number has ballooned to more than $67 billion and the state is picking up the tab.

Related: California bullet train can overcome hurdles

High-speed rail proponents overestimated the projects appeal to investors. If high-speed rail actually had any private investors (which it doesnt), they would be livid with the projects delays and cost overruns. Clearly, no one thinks this is a good way to spend their money. This leaves Californians saddled with a project thats costing the state $5 million a day.

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To make matters worse, the first 119-mile phase of the project isnt even close to being complete, and its already running $2.8 billion over budget.

How much more money will Californians have to dole out before high-speed rail proponents put an end to this extremely expensive project?

As if the cost overruns werent bad enough, the project keeps losing vital members of its leadership team. Over the last 10 years, key leaders like the chief executive and director of risk management have left their posts, shaking up the stability and continuity of the project. In fact, many employees are floating in and out of the authority, leaving it understaffed. Not surprisingly, according to the Los Angeles Times, a survey found that morale among staffers was dismal.

With this much turnover, its hard to meet deadlines on such a large-scale project. There are also several other problems that have delayed the project even further. For example, estimates for how long it would take to acquire the land to build on have proven to be incredibly optimistic. This has been a time-consuming and costly mistake.

As challenges to the land acquisition wound their way through the courts, workers and equipment sat idle for 17 months. The contractors still got paid even though the delay was caused by the projects management, and California taxpayers are getting the bill.

Californians were promised that the train would be done by 2020. More recent projections by the High-Speed Rail Authority show that the train wont be done until 2029. The next projections will likely show even further delays.

The idea of California having a high-speed rail sounds appealing. Who wouldnt want to travel from San Francisco to Los Angeles in two hours and 40 minutes? The reality is not only the huge cost overruns and decade long delays, its also the fact that the high-speed rail wont actually be high-speed. Thats because the train will share track with commuter trains and pass through urban areas, and expected travel times have increased significantly. If by some miracle the train is considered high-speed, it will be the slowest high-speed rail in the world.

High-speed rail was a good idea in theory. Californians deserve a variety of quick, safe and comfortable options to travel up and down the state. Unfortunately, the reality of planning, building and funding the train has not lived up to those lofty expectations.

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If the mismanagement, delays and budget issues plaguing the project are any indication of future performance, high-speed rail might never get done. If we dont want to end up with miles of an unused railway skeleton, we should cut our losses now. We need to put the brakes on the bullet train because California deserves better than this boondoggle.

Maienschein, R-San Diego, has represented Californias 77th Assembly District since 2012.President Donald Trumps August comment regarding North Korea, They will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen, reminds me of Gen. Douglas MacArthurs threat 67 years ago to create a Manchurian nuclear wasteland bordering Korea. Outrageous threats by political and military leaders often lead to disastrous and unexpected consequences.

At the end of World War II, Korea was divided into Soviet and U.S. zones, split by the 38th parallel into North and South Korea. After two years of confrontation, North Korean forces invaded South Korea on June 25, 1950, capturing Seoul. The United Nations committed U.N. forces under Gen. MacArthurs command to end the invasion.

In September 1950, after North Korean forces had captured 90 percent of South Korea, U.N. forces led by MacArthur landed at Inchon, Seoul was retaken and, a month later, the North Korean capital, Pyongyang, captured. North Korea was defeated and, at that critical juncture, a united Korea was a distinct possibility. MacArthur, despite warnings from his Washington superiors, ordered his forces to drive north to the Manchurian border and threatened that Communist China could be a target for U.S. power, including the atomic bomb.

Those threats and actions led to a Chinese invasion of Korea. Within just a few weeks the Chinese drove south and recaptured Seoul.

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After U.N. troops retaliated with a shock and awe campaign of air attacks against North Korea, causing the death of 20 percent of the population, Chinese forces were driven back to the 38th parallel. Peace talks began in July 1951, but bitter fighting continued.

I was commissioned as a second lieutenant at my 1952 Princeton graduation. In July 1953, I was serving as a forward observer with the 7th Division in Korea just north of the 38th parallel when Chinese forces overran Pork Chop Hill. I was sent to Hill 347 overlooking Pork Chop to provide artillery support for 7th Infantry soldiers counterattacking Chinese soldiers who had holed-up in many of our overrun monsoon-drenched bunkers and trenches on Pork Chop.

The fighting ended after six days with the Chinese capture of Pork Chop Hill. At noon on July 27, 1953, an armistice became effective. We stood on top of our bunkers and trenches and greeted the Chinese 150 yards away. As a young lieutenant, I was struck by the lack of animosity, only curiosity, on both sides. I realized that the Battle for Pork Chop had been a pointless sacrifice for the nearly 7,000 American and Chinese dead and wounded.

The war should have ended with North Koreas military defeat in October 1950. Instead, partly because of threatening rhetoric from U.S. leaders, we have remained in a dangerous stalemate for 65 years.

The Korean War cost in human life, both civilian and military was staggering: although estimates vary, North and South Korea saw approximately 2 million dead; the Chinese nearly 1 million killed; U.N. and U.S. forces at least 50,000 dead.

It is the responsibility of leaders to restrain themselves from making grandiose and bullying remarks that can escalate into war. The only certainty of war is catastrophic human suffering  with young men, and now women, paying the ultimate price. When considering war as an option, political and military leaders must consider the timeless saying, War is old men talking and young men dying. Certainly President Donald Trump and North Korea Chairman Kim Jong Un should consider that wise saying in their talk.

My close friend, Chang Yim, who survived the tragic consequences of the Korean War, tells me there are two wishes of all Koreans.

First, no war.

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Second, let relatives who live in the North and South visit each other.

President Trump, 71, has been talking war in his vitriolic threat to destroy North Korea. It is ironic that in 1950 General MacArthur, also age 71 at the time, was talking war in his arrogant threat to devastate communist China The result was an extended Korean War ending with an armistice, not peace, the cause of the current Korean situation.

Hopefully the unexpected opposite is now happening. There may be a chance to replace the 1953 armistice with a true peace treaty. Kim Jong Uns overtures to South Korea and agreement to participate in the Korean Winter Olympics may be a start towards ending the 67-year-old Korean War. It is up to both South and North Korea to resolve their countrys fate, first with a peace treaty that could lead to a prosperous united Korea, as happened with German reunification.

President Trump must encourage, not dominate, the Korean effort and understand that arrogant and overbearing rhetoric can lead to disastrous consequences.

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As a young lieutenant, I was struck by the lack of animosity, only curiosity on both sides. I realized that the Battle for Pork Chop had been a pointless sacrifice for the nearly 7,000 American and Chinese dead and wounded.

Thompson, a resident of Del Mar, is a Korean War veteran and a former consultant who has worked with Korean business, political and military leaders.As an advocate for promoting more women into senior leadership, I was proud to join the hundreds of thousands of women and men who took to the streets recently around the country. Speaking with women along the march here in San Diego, I was inspired by their incredible stories that reinforced my own passion for greater womens rights and a more fair and just society. At the same time, we are facing a bigger question: how to encourage more immediate change and impact.

According to McKinsey Global Institutes annual Women at Work survey, there are no higher percentages of women in senior management today than there were 10 years ago. In my own consulting work, I see an increasing number of talented women frustrated with a lack of progress.

But perhaps progress is stalled because the urge to erase male bias and the push for equality of power is not enough to create significant change. Perhaps we need to address the issues from both sides more collaboratively to engage more men to support a real change.

This is particularly important as we face the potential of an unintended backlash. I recently talked to a sincere male leader who was concerned that taking another female colleague to lunch could be misunderstood. The rules of correct behavior around women and toward women tend to be more collectively defined at the extremes, which leaves a range of ambiguities that threaten to dampen the current wave of enthusiasm for change. The drive to elevate women into leadership by using quotas also seems unfair and arbitrary to many male professionals, as well as to the women themselves who want to be judged fairly.

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Its my belief, asserted by research, that the world will be better off when the leadership synergy of men and women is fully expressed. As outlined by psychology research by Jeanine Prime of Catalyst, when men become conscious of the unfair impacts of gender bias, their minds shift to believing that opportunity equality for women is an important issue. And that self-awareness can help men envision themselves as a driving force to build a whole generation of capable women leaders who work with men as equals and partners to get better results. So how do we change the narrative and get men more involved in changing a system so that the leadership potential of both men and women can be equally cultivated and promoted from within?

Here are five approaches that every man can consider now to take a step in that direction. They are part of a wider effort that is being led by the Institute for Leadership Synergy at National University to help businesses leverage the leadership styles of both women and men:

Sponsor women: Identify and advocate women to lead important opportunities.

Coach and mentor: Share executive priorities, key success indicators and financial metrics.

Promote networking opportunities: Create favorable times and circumstances to engage your contacts.

Individual encouragement: Inspire women to grow their careers and see themselves as leaders.

Champion and model inclusiveness and respect: Promote the business case for women, challenge bias, encourage women to be heard in meetings and promote women-supportive policies.

I examine research virtually every day that confirms that when the strengths of both women and men are valued and supported, breakthroughs take place in both performance and value. Women should not need to elbow their way to get a voice at the leadership table. They shouldnt have to fight for recognition once they get there. They should be recruited and sought after and welcomed to strategic conversations and decisions of every organization.

Whats needed is a greater understanding and appreciation among men for the value that women bring to the wider organization, and the clear benefits, both for the social good and economically, for businesses to do so. This is not an unrealistic dream, and its definitely something to inspire us to keep marching on  together.

Marre is co-founder of the Institute for Leadership Synergy at National University, which launched Jan. 30. He is also co-founder and former president of the Covey Leadership Center which brought the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People to millions worldwide.The last time the Legislature asked state Auditor Elaine Howle to review the California High-Speed Rail Authority, her 2012 report on its handling of the states ambitious bullet-train project was scathing. Howle found that the projects funding situation has become increasingly risky because the authority had not identified how it could pay for what was then a $98 billion project; that in projecting the tab for the Los Angeles to San Francisco segment, the authority failed to factor in an eye-popping $97 billion in operating and maintenance costs: that questions about long-term ridership projections had gone unanswered; and that the project managers progress reports were error-filled and inconsistent.

This week, the Joint Legislative Audit Committee finally did what it should have done in, oh, 2013, and ordered a follow-up audit by Howle. The report last month that the projected cost of the 119-mile initial segment was $10.6 billion  up 77 percent from initial estimates  is just the latest evidence that Howles 2012 concerns about the finances and transparency of the states costliest project ever were well-founded. Unfortunately and indefensibly, the committee limited the scope of the new audit to contracting issues  not the projects financial viability. Nevertheless, Howles record suggests she will give what is within her purview a thorough review.

Howle expects to finish the audit by October. But the four Democratic gubernatorial candidates who have offered vague support for whats at least a $64 billion project  Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, state Treasurer John Chiang and former state Superintendent of Public Instruction Delaine Eastin  cant wait until a month before their election to be specific. They must explain how they would salvage the project now  starting with explaining how they would cover the $50 billion-plus shortfall in project funding. If one offers a plausible theory, that will be more than the rail authority has ever accomplished.

Twitter: @sdutIdeas

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Facebook: San Diego Union-Tribune Ideas & Opinion

Twitter: @sdutIdeas

Facebook: San Diego Union-Tribune Ideas & OpinionRe House Republicans release memo alleging FBI abused surveillance in Russia probe (Feb. 2): Devin Nunes is guilty of obstruction of justice

Confidence in Congress was already at an all time low when Nunes, possibly with the help of Donald Trump, concocted the classified document scheme to smear the reputation of the FBI. The constant harassment of the Justice Department by various Republicans, especially those on the House Intelligence committee, should be viewed as obstruction of justice.

As is obvious to everyone, the goal is to smear the reputation particularly of Rod Rosenstein, which would give Donald Trump a pretext for firing him.

This would add another instance of obstruction of justice by Trump and result in a constitutional crisis. It is by no means certain that this Republican party would consider impeachment proceedings. If not, what would be the consequences? I am afraid the turmoil of 1968 would pale in comparison.

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It is time for the gutless Republicans in Congress to do the right thing for once.

Edward Lusby

Fallbrook

Can our Constitution handle all the divisive chaos pouring out of Washington, D.C.? Is the classified Nunes memo a smokescreen for diversion? Will the government shut down again next week and blame the FBI?

We all must ask: Why doesnt the White House and Congress want to find answers to the massive Russian hacking in our 2016 elections?

Most importantly: Allow Robert Muellers team to complete all its work giving us a clear picture of what happened and what we must do to fix critical issues before our next election.

Fred Peter

Chula Vista

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Re Lets put this Russia nonsense behind us (Jan. 31): Indeed demagogues use of the House Un-American Activities Committee to track down and persecute Hollywoods communists and others inspired hysteria at the time.

There has been a similar reaction to the continuing developments in the current Russian-meddling investigations. The distinction is that today the Trump White House is the epicenter of un-American activities.

R. Lowell Smith

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Mission Heights

Now in my mid-70s, it seems like Ive seen this movie before. In the 1950s I listened as U. S. Sen. Joe McCarthy falsely asserted U.S. government employees, motion picture actors and others were Communist sympathizers thereby destroying many good peoples lives. In the 1970s, I watched as John Dean described President Nixons suppression of evidence of the burglary of Democrats offices as producing a cancer on the presidency.

In 2018, Republicans in the House of Representatives, despite opposition by Democrats, the FBI and the Department of Justice, seek to publish their memorandum charging the FBI with criminal/treasonous conduct while the special counsels noose may be tightening on the Trump campaigns possible complicity with, or obstruction of investigation into, Russian interference in the 2016 elections.

Assuming our nation survives this most recent debacle, what comes next?

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Gary E. Nelson

San Diego

It took 241 years for our citizens to build a nation that has been idolized by the rest of the world. Donald Trump has in one short year, turned that wonderful achievement to dust in the eyes of our allies and friends and made us a laughing stock.

It is past time for us to take control, put petty differences aside and bring Trumps feet to the fire. There is evidence that he is unfit to be president. In his dealings with foreign nations he has endangered us by pulling out of agreements made by previous thoughtful administrations.

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He has twittered us into a confrontation with North Korea that could end in the firing of nuclear missiles. This is not acceptable. It is time to act. Time to hold hearings about his conduct and file articles of impeachment to give us a chance to heal the wounds he has inflicted.

Richard Susskind

Coronado

Sandi Gonzales (Republicans must put nation before politics  Feb. 1) tells us that we should be standing up and supporting the FBI, instead of releasing the memo. She then suggests that if Republicans do so, they may be traitors.

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Does Sandi understand that the majority of America wants to find out whats been going on and that burying ones head in the sand is not the answer?

Does Sandi realize that the FBI works for us and not for political gain? I sincerely hope so.

Dave Dowler

Valley Center

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Most members of the GOP in Congress have aligned themselves with Trump to such a degree that protecting our democracy is of little or no concern to them. Their first priority is keeping their rich donors satisfied, protecting the NRA, and slashing the budgets of agencies that should be protecting us. This administration is so corrupt, it will take many years to undo the damage it has caused.

I urge all who are concerned about our democracy to do anything you can to stop this runaway train.

Marilyn Coffey

Carlsbad

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Follow @UTLetters on Twitter and UTOpinion on Facebook.On any given day, San Diegans gather peacefully at Chicano Park to celebrate Mexican-American heritage with art and family picnics. Come Saturday, it will transform into the battleground for cultural identity that its been for decades.

On Saturday, a right-wing group plans intends to raise an American flag where Chicano Park currently flies a flag of Aztlan, the mythical homeland of the Aztecs. Defenders of the parks Mexican-American identity say they too will show up.

What some fear could become yet another heated clash between right-wing activists and counter-protesters was the talk of social media this week with many people preparing for a confrontation.

Chicano Park is no stranger to conflicts. But for the second time in one year, supporters of President Donald Trump have targeted the park to protest its murals and identity.

Heres how we got to this point:

Who are the Bordertown Patriots and what do they claim?

The group Bordertown Patriots Inc. is made up of local conservatives who say there is a stigma over the parks identity. The group also says it should not be tolerated to fly only one foreign flag in a city owned park without the accompanying American flag.

The park, which is the hub of San Diegos mostly-Hispanic neighborhood known as Barrio Logan, is known for its mural paintings depicting Aztec symbols and Mexican-American icons.

On Facebook, the group touts the event with slogans like All Lives Matter and Make America Great Again, Trumps campaign slogan.

What do counter-protesters claim?

Defenders of the parks identity say the right-wing group wants to foment division and spread hateful rhetoric.

Ahead of a rally by the right-wing group in September, the Chicano Park Steering Committee offered a warning, asking all visitors show respect for the park and its many beautiful murals and sculptures, according to La Prensa.

One of the organizers urged others on Facebook to assemble peacefully and avoid engaging with members of the right-wing group.

What happened in September?

On Sept. 3, a brief shouting match erupted between the right-wing group and counter-protesters.

About half a dozen members of the Bordertown Patriots showed up that day, while several hundred counter-protesters did. San Diego police officers were there to separate the two groups, and no one was reported hurt.

How is this new or different from past protests?

Chicano Park became an official public park of the city of San Diego in 1969, but it was an organized protest against construction the following year that cemented its identity. The first demonstration at Chicano Park happened in April 1970 when Mexican-American residents protested the construction site for a California Highway Patrol station.

Others have also taken issue with the parks mural portraits of Fidel Castro and Che Guevara, two icons of communism.

But last years removal of a Confederate plaque in downtown San Diego  similar to other Civil War-era memorials across the U.S. that Trump condemned as changing history  galvanized right-wing groups to protest Chicano Parks core Mexican identity.

Are city officials worried?

Yes. On Jan. 17, San Diego City Attorney Mara Elliott issued a public letter asking the group to be respectful of the people who frequent this park, as well as the laws that keep our residents safe.

Clashes between right-wing groups and counter-protesters have attracted fears since Aug. 12 when a woman was killed during a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. At the time, white supremacists were protesting the removal of a Confederate statue.

Have some thoughts to share?

Join me in a conversation: Shoot me a private email with your thoughts or ideas on a different approach to this story. As always, you can also send us a tweet.

Email: luis.gomez@sduniontribune.com

Twitter: @RunGomez

Read The Conversation on Flipboard.

Thank you for reading! On your next view you will be asked to log in to your subscriber account or create an account and subscribepurchase a subscription to continue reading.A man who Oakland City Council President Larry Reid says tried to bribe him to help obtain a cannabis dispensary permit also allegedly offered two businessmen assistance in getting a dispensary license in exchange for bags of cash, The Chronicle has learned.

The man, local developer Dorian Gray, tried last month to give Reid an envelope he said had $10,000 in it, Reid said. Gray then approached the city official who oversees Oaklands cannabis permit office and offered him a free trip to Spain to tour cannabis lounges there.

City Administrator Sabrina Landreth has referred Reids allegation to the Alameda County district attorney's office, officials said Friday. The citys Public Ethics Commission has opened its own investigation.

Gray, who said he was seeking a dispensary permit himself and also working on behalf of another applicant, acknowledged that he offered the Spain trip to licensing official Greg Minor, but said it was not a bribe. On Friday, he denied the allegations made by Reid and the two businessmen.

Its very unfair and not true, Gray said. I didnt do anything.

Reids allegation came to light this week after he reported it to Landreth. The alleged bribery incident, however, occurred several weeks ago, Reid said. He did not explain why he had waited to report it. No city ethics law requires someone report another persons wrongdoing. Reid also did not mention the alleged bribe attempt in an interview with The Chronicle two weeks ago, when he first acknowledged having met with Gray.

He mentioned the meeting at that time in response to questions about the allegations raised by the two permit applicants who said theyd also been approached by Gray. The men said Gray told them he worked with Reid and Councilwoman Desley Brooks.

The two men spoke to The Chronicle on the condition their names not be used because they were concerned about their ability to get a license in the future. They said they decided to tell their story after two people identifying themselves as federal agents stopped one of them outside their place of business last month and began asking questions about their experiences with the citys permit process.

The men said a mutual acquaintance set up a meeting between them and Gray in October. The men said they had never seen Gray before and didnt know his surname. Shown a photo of Gray, both confirmed he was the man they had met.

At the meeting, they said, Gray gave them only his first name, Dorian, and told them that they needed to give him three brown paper bags filled with cash  one for him, one for Reid and one for Brooks  and that he would take care of the rest.

As proof of his connection, they said, Gray held up his iPhone to show Brooks and Reids names on his favorites screen and offered to call them on the spot.

Both Reid and Brooks said they knew Gray, but said they had no involvement with his actions.

More on Dorian Gray Businessman offered Oakland pot official free trip to Spain

I know Dorian, but he is not a friend of mine. He is an acquaintance, Brooks said. If hes dropping my name, it wouldnt be the first time someones done it.

Reid and Gray met years ago in East Oakland, where Gray was building single-family homes, Reid said. Anybody can throw my name around, Reid said. That doesnt mean anything.

The businessmen said Gray had told them he made a similar arrangement with another group called the Plug, which was trying to open an Oakland dispensary. The Plugs website says it was founded by growers who had opened a cannabis club in Barcelona.

The Ethics Commission sent a letter this week to Gray and Aidan Sciandra, the Plugs CEO, informing them of its investigation. Sciandra did not respond to requests for comment.

Its not clear what an Oakland City Council member could have done to influence the permit process. The city allotted eight dispensary authorizations this week, using a lottery for some qualifying applicants and a point-based system for others. Council members were not on the panel of city staff that awarded those points. More than 100 people had applied for permits.

Two weeks after their October meeting with Gray, the businessmen said, he asked to talk again. But the two said they havent met with him since the first encounter.

The men said their concerns grew after one of them was stopped last month outside their warehouse by a man and woman who flashed Justice Department badges. That businessman said they asked him whether anyone had approached him with anything unsavory in relation to his permit application. They also asked whether he was connected to people at City Hall and what it was like working with Brooks, the businessman said.

He said he told the agents hed never met Brooks, but said he did not reveal the October meeting with Gray because he was uncomfortable with the questioning and wanted his attorney present.

Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts.

A spokesman for the Justice Departments Northern California field office said he couldnt confirm or deny the existence of an investigation, and a spokeswoman for the Washington headquarters declined to comment.

Brooks said shes had no involvement in cannabis permit decision-making and had no knowledge of any offers Gray may have made to permit applicants. She said Gray had called her to set up a meeting about cannabis, but she didnt take it. She said the last time she met with Gray was more than two years ago.

Reid said Gray called him repeatedly to set up a meeting before they finally spoke for about 10 minutes in his City Hall office several weeks ago. There, Reid said, he just opened up his coat, and there was an envelope in the inside pocket. ... I said, Hey man, I dont work that way. Gray said there was $10,000 with your name on it, according to Reid, who said he didnt actually view the cash.

As Gray was leaving the office, Reid said, he asked whether he was sure. Reid said he had rebuffed him a second time.

Reid did not explain why he had waited weeks to tell Landreth about the meeting. He said he did tell his council colleague Lynette Gibson McElhaney about the incident soon after it happened because Gray lives in her West Oakland district, and thats where Gray was trying to open a dispensary. He said he had warned her against meeting with Gray.

Gray said he had applied for a dispensary permit himself  he wasnt among this years winners  but denied doing anything improper. He acknowledged offering Minor a trip to Spain.

That was an opportunity to help the city of Oakland out to be exposed to whats going on, he said of the proposed trip. You got another country thats already been doing this a lot longer, and to be able to get it right would be the most profound thing that one can do.

Minor said the proposal, about a month ago, was so out of the ordinary that he reported the encounter to his supervisor, City Administrator Landreth. Neither he nor Landreth clarified when the report was made.

Kimberly Veklerov and Otis R. Taylor Jr. are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: kveklerov@sfchronicle.com, otaylor@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @kveklerov, @otisrtaylorjrIn a remote canyon tucked into the East Bay hills, the glassy waters of Los Vaqueros Reservoir were nearly brimming last week, a welcome sight in a winter thats been desperately short on rain.

Several Bay Area communities say the lake could hold far more water. With memories of Californias drought still fresh, and concern growing of more dry times ahead, about a dozen water agencies are pushing to expand the Contra Costa County reservoir into a regional giant that would share its bounty with San Francisco and the South Bay.

But the $914 million plan has hit a financing snag. In a report released Friday, California water officials found that Los Vaqueros Reservoir managers havent shown that enough public benefit will come with the expansion. As a result, they may get little or no state funding.

The same was said of 10 other water-supply projects competing for dollars from voter-approved Proposition 1. Among them are the biggest dams proposed in California in decades, including Temperance Flat on the San Joaquin River east of Fresno and Sites along the Sacramento River in Colusa County. The report could doom or delay any of these efforts.

While Prop. 1 was passed with the intention of advancing such drought-response ventures, the 2014 measure requires water-supply projects to do more than store water. They have to boost water flows for fish, for example, or create recreational opportunities like boating  and its these areas where state officials say the proposals fall short.

If youre asking for $1 million, wed like to know youre giving $1 million in public benefit, said Chris Orrock, a spokesman for the California Water Commission, which is awarding the money.

Proponents of Los Vaqueros and other projects insist they have plenty to offer beyond water storage. They plan to submit a challenge to the states analysis, which the water commission will welcome through Feb. 23.

Its very difficult when youre talking about a project this complex, said Marguerite Patil, special assistant to the general manager for the Contra Costa Water District, which operates Los Vaqueros. But were (still) feeling pretty confident that well do well.

As Patil stood atop the reservoirs roughly 225-foot earthen dam, she pointed to a crest on a hillside that would mark the new high-water point if the lake is extended. The grassy shoreline below would be submerged, as would a small marina that would eventually be rebuilt  bigger and better, according to the district.

It says its project would yield other benefits, such as greater fishing opportunities, more water to restore wetlands, and emergency drinking water reserves.

The proposal calls for draining the lake before elevating the dam 55 feet, which would increase the reservoirs capacity by 70 percent. The larger facility would store 275,000 acre-feet of water, enough to supply more than a half million households for a year and plenty for the district to pass along to its Bay Area neighbors.

The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, Santa Clara Valley Water District and East Bay Municipal Utility District are among the partners hoping to tap into the expansion. The coalition is seeking $434 million of Prop. 1 money. About $2.7 billion of the measures total $7.5 billion is available for water storage.

The competition includes four other reservoir projects, including the expansion of Pacheco Reservoir in eastern Santa Clara County. Most other applications are for underground storage, in which surface water is stashed in aquifers during wet times and taken out during dry ones.

In recent decades, reservoirs have been a tough sell in California. The rush to dam rivers, resulting in more than 1,000 reservoirs last century, slowed in the 1970s. Completion of the New Melones Dam on the Stanislaus River in 1979 marked the last major facility.

The reasons for the drop-off are numerous. Not only are the best spots for dams taken, but water managers have a better understanding of the harm that dams do to rivers and fish. Meanwhile, government funding for the pricey endeavors has largely dried up.

Efforts to revive the era of big dams have occasionally surfaced, especially during dry spells. Prop. 1, which emerged in the throes of the recent five-year drought, presents perhaps the biggest opportunity for new projects.

But the measures fine print seeks to deter repeats of the ecologically damaging and less economical reservoirs of the 1900s. Those pitching new projects must show that their public benefit matches the funding they seek. The money will not cover the costs of building new storage alone.

This is to keep folks from just building big water-supply projects, said Jeffrey Mount, a senior fellow at the Public Policy Institute of Californias Water Policy Center, noting that many reservoirs have historically been highly subsidized affairs that serve specific interests. In most of these big projects in the past, if the people who benefited from the water had to pay for it, they couldnt afford it.

As good as the intentions of Prop. 1 may be, the financing conditions are proving difficult, Mount said.

Fridays report took issue with the purported benefits of the 11 projects. For instance, while the application for the Los Vaqueros Reservoir expansion said every dollar spent on the effort would yield a public benefit of $3.60, the state countered that the demonstrated benefit was just 46 cents.

None of the projects produced a public benefit equal to their cost, according to the state.

There is the possibility weve painted ourselves into a corner with this bond language, Mount said.

If the proposals cant demonstrate greater value, he added, state officials would probably have to go back to voters to amend the proposition.

Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts.

Orrock, the water commission spokesman, said the agency expects to get the money out and will begin reviewing challenges to the report as soon as theyre submitted. Final decisions are expected this summer.

For many of the projects, including Los Vaqueros, Fridays report cited missing information and inadequate modeling, which proponents said they could easily address.

As the sun beat down on the lake and a pelican splashed in the water, Patil said Los Vaqueros Reservoir has a built-in advantage: its location. The dam is not on a river and therefore doesnt damage the health of a waterway.

The reservoir pipes in water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, several miles to the east. The expansion, she said, would add another pipeline able to move water to Central Valley wetlands. A commitment to sending supplies to environmental refuges has won the project rare support from conservation groups.

This water supply could dramatically improve conditions for birds, snakes, turtles and many other critters, said Rachel Zwillinger, a water policy adviser at Defenders of Wildlife. In the Central Valley, weve lost about 95 percent of our historic wetlands.

Zwillinger is pleased that the state is scrutinizing Prop. 1 applications and trying to weed out projects without environmental benefits, but she thinks Los Vaqueros Reservoir should qualify.

Contra Costa Water District officials hope to finish the planning and approval process for the expansion over the next three years. Construction is expected to take another six years.

The added capacity would far exceed the districts water-storage needs, allowing the agency to hold water for other Bay Area suppliers as well as a handful of Central Valley irrigation districts.

The plan, the district says, is for water surpluses to be collected during wet years and kept until theyre needed in dry years. Initial projections show that the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission would be one of the biggest recipients.

The old version of dams was trying to figure out how to squeeze as much water out of our rivers as possible. Thats not what Contra Costa is doing here, said Barry Nelson, a water consultant and project supporter.

This is water in the bank, he said. Its really important to make sure San Francisco, Silicon Valley and the East Bay dont run out of water during droughts.

Kurtis Alexander is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: kalexander@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @kurtisalexanderNeither Chinese American leaders nor white officials in San Francisco made any real efforts to close the houses of prostitution that flourished in Chinatown in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Only one group of people stood up for the sex slaves imported from China to work in the brothels: Protestant missionaries, most of them women.

The past two Portals described how the prostitutes who tried to escape were severely beaten or killed by tongs, the secretive, brutal organizations that ran the brothels. Almost as horrific was the plight of another group of Chinese immigrants  little girls known as mui tsai who had been sold into bondage and worked as domestic slaves.

Of all the Protestant missionaries who fought for the victims, one towered above the rest: an indomitable woman named Donaldina Cameron.

As Mildred Crowl Martin writes in Chinatowns Angry Angel: The Story of Donaldina Cameron, Cameron was born in 1869 on a New Zealand sheep ranch and came to California when she was 2. When she was a young woman, Cameron heard about a Presbyterian mission in Chinatown that rescued Chinese slave girls, called Occidental Mission Home for Girls, and decided to volunteer there for a year. She ended up giving her life to the cause.

When Cameron walked into Mission Home at 920 Sacramento St. in April 1895, she was greeted by its leader, Margaret Culbertson. That very day, Culbertson told her, tong members had placed sticks of dynamite on the houses front porch. Did Cameron want to reconsider her decision?

A photograph of Cameron at the time shows an attractive 25-year-old woman with a hopeful expression, piercing eyes and a granitic set to the mouth. Cameron said no, she would not like to reconsider.

Cameron met the girls who were staying in the house. A 12-year-old named Chun Loie was typical.

Three years earlier, Culbertson was told that a 9-year-old mui tsai was being savagely beaten at the corner of Washington Street and Dupont Street, now Grant Avenue. Accompanied by police, Culbertson brought the little girl to the home.

She was in pitiable condition, Culbertson wrote in a ledger. Two cuts from a hatchet were visible on her head, and her mouth, face and hands (were) badly swollen from punishment she had received from her cruel mistress. The woman was arrested and fined $25 for cruelty to children.

Not all the stories had happy endings. In a ledger entry dated Aug. 15, 1892, Culbertson described the rescue of a prostitute named Sing Ho.

She is very small of stature  looks like a midget  has an old and peculiar face  give her age as 22 years, Culbertson wrote. Sing Ho says her mother died in San Francisco and her father returned to China  that her parents owed money and that she entered upon a life of sin to pay their debts. Sing Ho was a victim of the opium habit and after spending a night in the Home decided to return to the brothel  she could neither eat nor sleep.

A few weeks after she arrived, Cameron embarked on her first rescue. With Culbertson, an interpreter and two police officers of the Chinatown Squad, a special force created to patrol the district, she went to a squalid house on Bartlett Alley, now Beckett Street.

The police used sledgehammers to break through a window and found a terrified girl in a room. They asked if she wanted to go to Mission Home. I come! I come! the girl said. The girls owner ran in, screaming, You break my house! and abused the cringing girl in Chinese, saying, May all your ancestors curse you, and turn you into a turtle!

Then the girl was led away to safety.

Exhausted and in poor health, Culbertson resigned in 1897 and died soon after. Cameron was named Mission Home superintendent in 1900.

The rescue work was grueling, and the tongs constantly threatened her. At one apartment she was called to, she found an effigy of herself with a dagger through the heart.

She once shared a slave girls jail cell in order to free her. While she had the assistance of the Chinatown Squad, some officers accepted bribes to warn tong owners of impending raids.

Slave owners had spies throughout Chinatown, and would hide the girls in secret rooms or move them across rooftops or into cellars and tunnels. Cameron would chase them, sometimes catching up, sometimes not. The tongs also fought her in the courts, using unscrupulous white lawyers to draw up writs of habeas corpus, accusing their slaves of having committed crimes and obtaining search warrants to seize the girls.

Mission Home provided not just a safe haven for the 50 to 70 girls who lived there at a given time, but schooling, including Bible study, and training in sewing, cooking and other skills. Older girls took care of younger ones. The girls also went on outings to Golden Gate Park and to the beach.

Cameron was sustained by the love of her charges. One day, when she was riding on a ferry to Oakland with eight girls, a tourist woman heard one of the girls say, Its my turn to sit next to Mama. The girls gave Cameron the Chinese name Lo Mo, which means old mother.

Camerons campaign to stamp out slavery in Chinatown went on for decades, with a tough but kind Chinatown Squad cop named Jack Manion providing indispensable help. The war was not won until 1935, when Cameron and her allies won a court case that smashed a major human trafficking network, sent some of its ringleaders to jail and deported others.

Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts.

Cameron retired from Mission Home the year before. During her 39 years of service, she had rescued 2,000 to 3,000 girls from slavery.

Donaldina Cameron died in 1968. Today, the brick building at 920 Sacramento, which was renamed Cameron House in 1942, still serves the citys Asian American community, offering a range of social services and popular youth programs.

And at the corner of Joice Alley and Sacramento Street, if you look up, you can still see the second-story corner room where one of San Franciscos greatest heroes lived.

Gary Kamiya is the author of the best-selling book Cool Gray City of Love: 49 Views of San Francisco, awarded the Northern California Book Award in creative nonfiction. All the material in Portals of the Past is original for The San Francisco Chronicle. Email: metro@sfchronicle.com

Trivia time

The most recent trivia question: What is Hangtown Fry and how did it get its name?

Answer: An omelette of eggs and oysters. It was supposedly invented in Gold Rush Placerville, either by a newly rich prospector who ordered the most expensive dish in the house, or by a condemned man hoping to postpone his execution while oysters were obtained.

This weeks trivia question: Where was Happy Valley?

Editors note

Every corner in San Francisco has an astonishing story to tell. Gary Kamiyas Portals of the Past tells those lost stories, using a specific location to illuminate San Franciscos extraordinary history  from the days when giant mammoths wandered through what is now North Beach to the Gold Rush delirium, the dot-com madness and beyond. His column appears every other Saturday, alternating with Peter Hartlaubs OurSF.Four former employees of the New York outpost of Mission Chinese are suing the restaurant for racial discrimination and unpaid wages, according to recent reports.The intel comes via Eater NY, which published a story this week about the lawsuit naming chef-owner Danny Bowien and two managers at the New York spot  Jane Hem and Adrianna Varediare.

The report doesnt mention anything about the culture at San Franciscos Mission Chinese, which was Bowiens first brick and mortar. The restaurant was a media darling as soon as it opened in 2010, praised for its endearing quirkiness. Bowien opened the New York Mission Chinese four years later.At the 10th annual San Francisco Beer Week, which begins Friday, Feb. 9, youll find 10 collaboration beers  one-time-only creations made collectively by brewers from different regions around the Bay Area and Santa Cruz County. For those counting, thats an impressive nine more official event beers than last year.

These 10 beers are a celebration of a behind-the-scenes evolution in Bay Area craft beer: Joanne Marino, executive director of the San Francisco Brewers Guild, is hoping to bring all of the regions craft breweries  there are close to 200  into the organization.

The plan is for the guild to expand from its current 30-member, city-defined association to one with five regional chapters, advocating collectively for independent breweries in San Francisco, the North Bay, the South Bay, the East Bay and the Santa Cruz-Monterey Bay area.

In past years, guild members have usually created a single collaboration beer for Beer Week. This years 10 brews run the gamut from a coffee-smoked porter (East Bay), to a saison with non-psychoactive cannabis terpenes (San Franciscos Dogpatch neighborhood), to an IPA with oranges, tangerines and grapefruit (South Bay). These Beer Week-backed collaboration brews serve both as simulacrums for intra-industry camaraderie and as arguments for why the entire Bay Area region should be considered a world-class beer destination.

Beer Week has provided this region with substantial attention over the years. Its a marketing machine, Marino says. When were unified as a region, we really have a strong voice as establishing the greater Bay Area as the heart of craft beer.

As breweries proliferate nationwide, and as San Francisco real estate grows more expensive, the city has ceased to be the central hub of regional beer production. However, many beer companies in Bay Area satellite communities dont have strong local associations to represent their endemic interests. There is the California Craft Brewers Association, which fights for breweries statewide, but it cant meet breweries varying regional business needs.

Thats where the San Francisco Brewers Guild aims to step in. By extending its membership boundaries, the guild can promote the local industry by championing its products and also addressing issues exclusive to the Bay Area.

Mason Trinca/Special to The Chronicle

There is an encouraging precedent. The growth of the San Diego Brewers Guild to more than 120 members, many outside the city proper, has been a boon to its local economy, according to a case study by the city, especially during its annual beer week. While its not known how much San Francisco Beer Week generates for the region, it increased business for 87 percent of participating businesses last year, a guild survey found. Regional unification and promotion of Bay Area beer could mean greater industry vitality during Beer Week and year-round.

Its going to take a lot of work to get there. Our whole structure will have to evolve, Marino says. She has enlisted the help of UC Berkeleys Haas School of Business to formulate a plan.

The proposal has a few immediate, but cautious, fans. Greg Coll, general manager at Fogbelt Brewing in Santa Rosa, has long sought to foster an alliance of North Bay breweries. The issue in the past was a lack of funding, so when the guild reached out, it seemed that support from the home base was just what theyd need.

Once the fires (in October 2017) happened, it wasnt a priority, but now the community is moving forward again, Coll says. I think its more important than ever, not just for the beer industry but for the community as a whole.

That North Bay community gathered recently at HenHouse in Santa Rosa to brew its collaboration beer, a West Coast-style IPA. HenHouse co-founder Collin McDonnell is just as excited as Coll about the prospect of joining the San Francisco Brewers Guild. McDonnell learned to brew from industry vets at 21st Amendment in San Francisco and Drakes in San Leandro, and he embraces the opportunity to align with mentors and other brewers.

Anything we can do as a group to attract more tourism ... I think its great, he says. I came up in a really collaborative set of breweries who saw the benefit in growing the community. This feels like an extension of that to me.

Mason Trinca / Special to The Chronicle 2018

Food Guide Top 25 Restaurants Where to eat in the Bay Area. Find spots near you, create a dining wishlist, and more.

For J.C. Hill, co-founder of Alvarado Street Brewery in Monterey  the self-described no-mans land between the bay and the Central Coast  participation in Beer Week wouldnt have happened without the guild. The brewery also contributed to its regions collaboration beer, a sea-salted caramel stout.

Its great to be lumped in with the brewers in the greater Bay Area, Hill says. Were happy, were honored to be part of (it) and we think it will represent us well in various events.

Marino estimates it could be months, possibly years before they get governance and infrastructure, nuts and bolts figured out. Until then, some breweries have been wait and see.

For example, Alex Wallash, co-founder of Berkeleys the Rare Barrel, says: I think its definitely going to be challenging to organize a large number of breweries over a pretty large geographical area. But if it goes through, he adds, Im also optimistic that this could bring our community closer together.

Alyssa Pereira is an SFGate staff writer. Email: apereira@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @alyspereiraSeven Stills Brewery & Distillery, San Francisco Beer isnt even Seven Stills main hustle. The San Francisco company, founded in 2016 by Tim Obert and Clint Potter, is primarily known as a distillery, and for distilling whiskey from craft beer. So far, it has worked with prominent breweries like Bottle Logic, Libertine and Almanac, but almost two years after opening, Seven Stills own fresh beers  often big, bold and a little experimental  are beginning to cultivate a fan base of trend-seeking beer drinkers all on their own. The beer menu at its Bayview taproom, designed by Obert to feature murals and a few indoor porch swings, offers beers like Crude Oil, a viscous 14.3 percent barrel-aged Russian imperial stout, and Kahuna Shake, a tropical milkshake IPA brewed with lactose, mango and pineapple.

Humble Sea Brewing Co.

Humble Sea Brewing Co., Santa Cruz Leagues away from its modest origins in co-founder Taylor Wests grandmothers Ben Lomond carport, Humble Sea Brewing Co. finally anchored itself in a Santa Cruz brewhouse and nautical-theme taproom in 2017. It took a few more months before West and his co-founders, Frank Scott Krueger and Nick Pavlina, could produce enough beer to keep up with demand for their excellent hazy IPAs, coconut porters and balanced saisons. Beers with cheeky names like Mankini, Ship Happens and Broceanography point to their playful approach to brewing, but Humble Sea does invest in serious endeavors, too. The founders recently launched a beer-wine hybrid program, pushing the boundaries of what defines beer.When then-candidate Donald Trump told The Washington Post in March 2016 that his newly announced foreign policy advisory team included a man from the energy industry named Carter Page, neither he nor our editorial board could have imagined what was to follow.

Page's involvement in the campaign - or, more specifically, that he came under FBI surveillance after having been added to Trump's team - is central to the current debate over a memo produced by staff for Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif. That memo, released publicly on Friday, argues in part that the Page warrant, issued under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), stemmed directly from information conveyed to the FBI by a former British intelligence officer named Christopher Steele. Steele was the author of the reports included in the infamous "dossier," which included multiple reports involving Page.

Page traveled to Moscow in July 2016 with the Trump campaign's approval and, while there, he allegedly met with officials from a Russian energy firm and the Russian government, according to what Steele was told by sources. Page denied those contacts (though he did later report to the campaign that he'd had a conversation with a different government official who expressed his support for Trump).

The memo alleges that Steele expressed direct bias against Trump's election and that the warrant relied heavily on his reporting despite that. This, Trump and many of his allies seem to believe, illustrates that the investigation into the Trump campaign was fatally marred by political bias.

Now Playing: President Donald Trump says a newly declassified GOP memo alleging FBI abuses shows, "a lot of people should be ashamed of themselves." (Feb. 2) Video: Associated Press

That argument, though, is itself flawed. The Page warrant - issued after Page took leave from the campaign - is only a small part of a broad investigation that's already resulted in two guilty pleas and charges against two other individuals.

We created the accompanying illustration to show the scope of the investigation being conducted by special counsel Robert Mueller III, to the extent that we know its elements.

The use of the dossier for the Page warrant is marked with an arrow. Let's walk through the other elements that we know about.

Page first came to the FBI's attention in 2013, when a Russian suspected to be linked to the country's intelligence agencies identified him in a recorded conversation as someone who might be able to be leveraged for information. The Post's original story about the Page warrant noted that this incident was part of the warrant application, which isn't mentioned in the newly released memo. There may also have been other components of the warrant that haven't yet been made public.

How much of the rest of Steele's dossier is included in the Mueller investigation isn't clear.

Paul Manafort and Rick Gates came to the Trump campaign in early 2016. Manafort served as Trump's campaign chairman and Gates, a longtime business associate of Manafort, joined him. Manafort's ties to the Russian government weren't secret; he'd helped the campaign of a Russian-linked candidate in Ukraine several years earlier. He left the campaign in August 2016 following questions about illicit payments from a Ukrainian political party. Mueller's team eventually charged Manafort and Gates with charges including conspiracy to commit money laundering.

Michael Flynn traveled to Russia in 2014 for an event for the government-backed television network RT. After he got involved with Trump's campaign, he came under scrutiny for an unreported lobbying contract with a business linked to the Turkish government and, during the Trump transition, for his contacts with the Russian ambassador. In early 2017 he misrepresented those conversations in an interview with the FBI and, last fall, was charged with lying to the FBI. He's believed to be cooperating with the Mueller investigation.

George Papadopoulos was named to the Trump foreign-policy team at the same time as Page. He was then contacted by a London-based professor with links to the Russian government who eventually connected him to someone within Russia to ostensibly set up a meeting between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. The professor also told Papadopoulos that the Russians had "dirt" on Hillary Clinton, a revelation which Papadopoulos later shared with an Australian diplomat. When emails started being leaked, the Australians tipped off the FBI, launching the initial counterintelligence operation - in July 2016.

Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts.

Papadopoulos admitted lying to the FBI last fall and is also believed to have been co-operating with the investigation.

Once Trump was in office, the obstruction of justice issue was raised. First, he allegedly told former FBI director James Comey that he hoped the investigation into Flynn could be "let go." Later, when reports of a meeting with a Russian attorney in Trump Tower were revealed by the New York Times, the Trump team's initial, untrue response to those reports became a focus of Mueller's investigation. (Mueller took over in May, following the firing of Comey.)

There may also be other incidents or individuals who aren't yet known about publicly who are part of Mueller's investigation. (These bars aren't necessarily precisely to scale of importance, mind you, but we've tried to weight them roughly to that end.)

There are four people who have been indicted or admitted wrongdoing so far in the Mueller investigation. What else may follow isn't clear. Perhaps nothing. Perhaps something related to the obstruction of justice case. Perhaps something else entirely. It's not yet clear.

What is clear is that taking the dossier out of the mix - indeed, taking Page himself out of the mix - doesn't do much to affect the scope of the investigation.WASHINGTON - Republicans claim that when the FBI got a secret court order to spy on Trump campaign foreign adviser Carter Page during the election, it relied "extensively" on information from a politically motivated ex-British spy who was being funded by Democrats to find dirt on Donald Trump. And it didn't share those political motivations with a secret court that ultimately authorized the surveillance.

That's the gist of the declassified memo written by House Republicans, which Trump agreed Friday to release despite concerns from the FBI and Justice Department that this memo is inaccurate and risks undermining source-gathering methods and ongoing investigations.

Here's a quick breakdown of the allegations in the memo and the outstanding questions surrounding it.

1. The dossier funded by Democrats formed "an essential part" of the FBI's application to spy on Trump campaign aide Carter Page.

Getting a secret court to approve spying on an American citizen is no small thing. It requires an application that former FBI director James B. Comey has said is "thicker than my wrists." Former FBI agent Asha Rangappa told The Post that a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act application (referred to as "FISA application" in the memo) likely involved a dozen people's insights and intelligence. This memo alleges the dossier put together by ex-British spy Christopher Steele was "an essential part" of that application.

Page was also on the FBI's radar at least since 2013, so it would be remarkable if the dossier, which was shared with the FBI in late 2016, was the essential piece of information used for the application.

Outstanding questions: Given this seems to be THE key point of the memo - the FBI relied on a politically motivated document to spy on a U.S. citizen - its description of how important the Steele memo was to the FBI's surveillance of Page is vague. How much is "an essential" part of the application? The FBI officials have told the Post that the memo was far from the only piece of intel it used to get a court to spy on Page.

2. Senior Justice and FBI officials knew Democrats were funding this research, but didn't tell the court of the party's role.

When BuzzFeed published this dossier in January 2017, we didn't know who funded Steele's work. We now know Democrats were indirectly. A conservative publication hired opposition research group Fusion GPS to get dirt on Trump during the GOP primaries. After Trump won the Republican presidential nomination, the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign started paying Fusion GPS to continue the research. That's when Fusion GPS hired Steele.

This memo alleges that the FBI and top Justice officials knew Democrats were funding the dossier, but it did not share that with the court that approved the original surveillance order or any of the four renewals. (A surveillance order must be renewed every 90 days, where FBI officials must convince federal judges the warrant is yielding relevant and legitimate information to the FBI's case.)

Outstanding questions: Does who funded dossier really matter to the court? The company behind the dossier testified to Congress that Steele's report isn't fake, was not politically motivated and did not set out with the intention to smear Trump, least of all to find collusion.

3. The FBI should have terminated a contract with Steele after he spoke with the media.

The rest of the memo attempts to provide corollary evidence that Steele was not a reliable source for the FBI.

Here, House Republicans argue that the FBI hired Steele during the campaign as one of its informants and then didn't let him go after he talked to the media - including a September Yahoo News article. The FBI only cut him off after he disclosed his relationship with the FBI in an Oct. 30 Mother Jones article.

The memo also alleges Steele lied to the FBI about talking to Yahoo News and other media outlets more than a month earlier, ostensibly to keep his job: "Steele improperly concealed from and lied to the FBI about those contacts," the memo reads. More:

"Steele's numerous encounters with the media violated the cardinal rule of source handling - maintaining confidentiality - and demonstrated that Steele had become a less than reliable source for the FBI."

Outstanding question: It's not immediately clear how this impacts the information that made its way into the FISA warrant.

4. Steele had his own political bias that the FBI "ignored or concealed."

Here's another reason Steele's information can't be trusted, House Republicans allege: He had it in for Trump.

The memo alleges that Steele told a top Justice official he "was desperate that Donald Trump not get elected and was passionate about him not being president." The memo says that Justice official told the FBI of the "clear evidence of Steele's bias," but it was "not reflected in any of the Page FISA applications."

Outstanding questions: It's an open question whether Steele's bias matters if the information he provided was sound.

Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts.

Talking about how the FBI got the information is a distraction from what agents found, Jens David Ohlin, a dean at Cornell Law University, told The Post earlier this week: "Consider an analogy. Say there's a murder in a small town and the police aren't making any progress. In frustration, the family of the victim hires a private investigator who turns up evidence and gives it to the police. What should the police do? Answer: They should act on it if there's something there."

5. At least two FBI officials had a clear bias against Trump

At the very end of the memo, its authors also mention FBI officials Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, who were having an affair and texted frequently about the investigation, including exchanging pro-Clinton texts and expressing anti-Trump sentiments.

This memo also alleges the FBI needlessly mentioned former Trump foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos in its application to spy on Page. Papadopoulos later pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his conversations with Russians during the campaign.

Outstanding question: Unless House Republicans are alleging the entire FBI was biased against Trump, it's not clear how this impacts the FISA application that ultimately let them spy on Page. Strzok was a key member of the team investigating Russia interference in the 2016 election, but he was reassigned after the FBI discovered these texts.

6. Republicans released this memo because "the public interest in disclosure outweighs any need to protect the information."

Legal experts, Democrats, intelligence officials, and even some Republican members of Congress have heavily criticized this memo for needlessly declassifying information to prove a political point. The process this memo went through to get released is highly unusual, say former congressional staffers.

The White House pushes back on that characterization by saying "the public interest in disclosure outweighs any need to protect the information." White House lawyer Donald McGahan wrote that in a letter attached to the memo.

Outstanding question: The memo has yet to answer why Trump's handpicked head of the FBI disagrees.California Rep. Devin Nunes much-vaunted memo is the political equivalent of a shaggy-dog story, in which endless testimonials to an unseen canines superlative shagginess end with the disappointing presentation of an animal that is, after all, not so shaggy.

Based on classified information available to Nunes Intelligence Committee, the memo was said to reveal excesses worse than Watergate  which is perhaps what would be required to distract from the Nixonian echoes of President Trumps standoff with federal authorities. Now that its been released, however, the scandal is not in the memos anticlimactic contents but in the nakedly partisan attempt by Republican lawmakers and Trump to undermine law enforcement in a desperate bid to protect their power.

The memo seeks to raise questions about the investigation of the Trump campaigns relationship with Russia by focusing on the FBI and Justice Departments classified applications for Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court permission to monitor a former Trump adviser, Carter Page. The memo points out that officials relied partly on a dossier compiled by a former British intelligence official, Christopher Steele, who was conducting research that, unbeknownst to the court, was surreptitiously paid for by Hillary Clintons presidential campaign and the Democratic National Committee. From this shadow of a doubt, the document strives mightily to discredit the entire investigation and the ranking officials of both parties who oversaw it.

Its worth noting that Steele is widely regarded as a credible professional who (as the memo notes) had been consulted by the FBI before, and that he was hired by a firm that had been conducting the same opposition research for Republicans. But even if one accepts the contention that Steele was tainted and unreliable, the memo does not detail the rest of the information federal officials relied upon, some of which might have arisen from the FBIs investigation of Pages Russian ties well before he worked for Trump. Its clear that there is more to the story, given the objections of Intelligence Committee Democrats led by California Rep. Adam Schiff, whose competing memo has been bottled up, and, more remarkably, the FBI, now led by a Republican Trump personally chose, Christopher Wray.

Nor is it clear that Page is in any way integral to the investigation, which (as the memo also notes) started months earlier as a result of information about another Trump adviser, George Papadopoulos. Special Counsel Robert Muellers team has not accused Page of any wrongdoing, but it has obtained guilty pleas from Papadopoulos and Michael Flynn, Trumps former national security adviser, as well as an indictment of his former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort.

What is disturbing about the memo, as Republican Arizona Sen. John McCain noted, is its escalation of the dishonest and corrosive campaign to undermine the investigation and the institutions behind it. Among the officials it disparages is Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, also a Republican promoted by Trump, who appointed and supervises the special counsel. There is little doubt that Mueller and his investigation are the memos ultimate targets, but if McCain is not Congress last courageous Republican, it should backfire badly.

This commentary is from The Chronicles editorial board. We invite you to express your views in a letter to the editor. Please submit your letter via our online form: SFChronicle.com/letters.GOP Rep. Devin Nunes may be Public Enemy No. 1 for Democrats nationally, but in his Central Valley hometown of Tulare, hes easing his way toward a new term in office.

As chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Nunes is the man behind a disputed memo released Friday that suggested leaders of the FBI and Justice Department abused their powers to wiretap an adviser to Donald Trumps 2016 presidential campaign.

Nunes successful effort to declassify and release the Republican staff-written memo prompted Democratic leaders Rep. Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco and Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York to call for him to be removed as head of the committee.

Activist group Common Cause accused Nunes of leading a gross politicization of a grave national security matter for partisan gain. Credo, a progressive activist group, has started a petition to remove Nunes from the committee, saying his independence from President Trump has been compromised. And Democrats have him on their growing list of California congressional targets for November.

But it would take a partisan tsunami of unprecedented proportions this fall to oust the 44-year-old Nunes from the seat he was first elected to in 2002.

The dispute over the intelligence memo wont have any effect, said Rep. Jared Huffman, D-San Rafael. Hes alienated every Democrat within 1,000 miles of his district, and hell still be re-elected.

Nunes district includes much of Fresno and Tulare counties, as well as part of the city of Fresno and all of Tulare, Clovis (Fresno County) and Visalia (Tulare County). Republicans hold a 43 percent to 33 percent registration advantage, and Nunes was re-elected in 2016 with better than two-thirds of the vote.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee added Nunes to its target list in May, after he was forced to recuse himself  at least temporarily  from his committees investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election because of questionable dealings with the Trump White House.

The Democrats seven top GOP targets in California, however, are all in districts that Hillary Clinton won in 2016. Trump won Nunes district, 52 percent to 43 percent.

I dont see (the intelligence memo) as being something Nunes cant explain to his constituents in a way that satisfies them, said Nathan Monroe, a political science professor at UC Merced. If the Republican registration advantage were two percentage points instead of 10, he added, then there might be something to worry about.

The southern Central Valley has become one of the most reliably Republican parts of the state, and the increasing partisan flavor of the national political debate makes it tougher than ever to oust entrenched incumbents, Republicans and Democrats alike.

Voters out there arent evaluating candidates over and over, checking to see if they still agree with their views, Monroe said. Now a huge part of the electorate is saying, Im a Republican and hes a Republican, so were on the same team. And the same with Democrats.

Central Valley Republicans on the Democrats hit list, such as Reps. Jeff Denham of Turlock (Stanislaus County) and David Valadao of Hanford (Kings County), represent districts where the GOP registration advantage is less lopsided, forcing them to downplay their support of Trump.

Nunes, in contrast, has been able to join House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, who represents a neighboring district that includes Bakersfield, in full-throated backing of the president in his growing war with the nations intelligence apparatus.

Its clear that top (FBI and Justice Department) officials used unverified information in a court document to fuel a counter-intelligence investigation during an American political campaign, Nunes said in a statement Wednesday.

Thats probably good enough for many voters in Nunes district, Monroe said.

There are enough questions being raised by Republicans about the investigation, he said. Theres plenty out there for people who want to support him to hold onto.

That doesnt mean that Nunes hasnt paid attention to the nuts and bolts  and dollars  of his re-election bid. His campaign finance statement released this week showed that on Dec. 31, Nunes had $3.8 million in the bank. His Democratic challengers, Andrew Janz and Bobby Bliatout, had a mere $84,647 and $59,979, respectively.

Democrats havent done a thing to indicate theyre competing for this seat except putting Nunes name on a D.C. hit list, Jack Pandol of the National Republican Congressional Committee said in an email. Central Valley voters know Congressman Nunes is a crusader for more water and good-paying jobs.

But a long shot isnt the same as no shot, and Democrats in Nunes district keep working in the hope that something might happen between now and Nov. 6 that will put the seat in play.

Janz, 33, is a deputy district attorney for Fresno County who is making his first run for elective office. His campaign team knows its an uphill battle, but there are signs for encouragement.

Were definitely feeling the change since the talk of Nunes memo hit the national news, said Heather Greven, Janzs campaign manager. Were hearing from Democrats, independents and Republicans unhappy with Nunes. In the past seven days, weve raised about $100,000 in online donations.

A recent poll suggested that 61 percent of independent voters in the district are willing to vote for a Democrat, she said, although that doesnt cut into Nunes GOP support.

That doesnt matter, Greven said.

This is the first time (Nunes) has had a real challenge, she said. My goal is to make him spend every dime of his money in the bank.

John Wildermuth is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jwildermuth@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @jfwildermuthSteve Kahn, an artist whose minimal, mural-scale photographs of the 1970s helped to convince a skeptical art world of his mediums gravitas in the gallery, died Thursday. He was 74. His death, at Alta Bates Summit Hospital in Oakland, was announced by his San Francisco gallerist, Julie Casemore of Casemore Kirkeby.

Kahn was born in Los Angeles on Dec. 29, 1943, to Virginia and Eugene Kahn. He graduated from Reed College in 1966.

As early as 1973, his work was included in the exhibition 24 From LA at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. That same year he published an influential book, Stasis, which was followed by other important exhibitions. In 1980, he was awarded a fellowship by the National Endowment for the Arts.

In 1986, however, he moved to New York to work as a commercial photographer, and his profile in the art context gradually faded. He eventually moved to Berkeley in 2012, and around the same time began again to show the earlier work.

His reintroduction was met with marked success, as works were acquired in the past two years by major institutions throughout the U.S., including the Museum of Modern Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, National Gallery of Art, Art Institute of Chicago, J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and San Franciscos de Young Museum and SFMOMA.

A solo exhibition of Kahns work, planned for September at the de Young, will proceed. In addition, a book, Chemical Plants, is to be published by Nazraeli Press later this year.

He is survived by his daughter, Zoe Kahn of New York, and sister, Susan Ansen of Los Angeles. He was married for 23 years to Zoes mother, Robin Amos Kahn, who lives in New York.

Charles Desmarais is The San Francisco Chronicles art critic. Email: cdesmarais@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @Artguy11. Yes. The bus service is underfunded, and the money will ensure another route.

2. Yes. Its COVID relief money, and plenty of people depend on public transportation.

3. No. The COVID funds are a short-term fix. The city cant afford a big outlay next year.

4. No. The city isnt getting much for its money. Another transit solution is needed.

5. Unsure. Its a hard to say whether HOP ridership will validate the expenditure.

Vote

View ResultsCustoms agents at U.S. airports don't need any evidence of wrongdoing to search the contents of passengers' laptop computers, a federal appeals court ruled Monday.

Reinstating child pornography evidence against a passenger at Los Angeles International Airport, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco said a computer is no different from a suitcase, a car or any other piece of property subject to search at an international border.

Although police need probable cause - specific evidence of criminal activity - to search someone on the street, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that no such evidence is necessary for a border search. Courts have also ruled that an international airport is the equivalent of a border.

Border agents would need grounds for suspicion before conducting a body search, but a "piece of property simply does not implicate the same dignity and privacy concerns as highly intrusive searches of the person," the court said. Judge Diarmuid O'Scannlain wrote the 3-0 decision.

The ruling overturned a federal judge's decision barring the computer evidence and has implications for a suit filed in San Francisco two months ago by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a privacy-rights group, and the Asian Law Caucus.

Citing complaints about airport interrogations and searches from returning travelers, mostly South Asians and Muslims, the suit seeks information from the Department of Homeland Security on the policies that guide agents in searching or copying material from laptops, cell phones and other electronic devices. The groups also want to know what standards agents use in questioning travelers about their trips and their political views.

The suit seeks only information and does not challenge the searches themselves. But Marcia Hofmann of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a lawyer in the San Francisco case, said Monday's ruling "makes it all the more critical ... to know what the government's standards are in deciding whether to search a laptop and what to do with the information."

Marilyn Bednarski, lawyer for the defendant in Monday's case, said she will ask the full appeals court for a new hearing.

A search of a personal computer is more intrusive than an inspection of someone's car or luggage, she said, because people use computers as "an extension of ourselves. It really is like looking into someone's mind, rather than looking into a box or a folder or a purse."

The ruling would authorize airport searches of other electronic devices such as cell phones without evidence of wrongdoing, Bednarski said.

Her client, Michael Timothy Arnold, 43, an Orange County resident, was singled out apparently at random for a luggage search in July 2005 after a flight from the Philippines. A customs agent told him to turn on his computer, and agents then searched the desktop folders and computer equipment and found images they believed to be child pornography, the court said.

Arnold was charged with transporting child pornography and with traveling to the Philippines to have sex with a minor.On stretches of the BART system, which once boasted that its trains were "smooth, virtually noiseless and vibration-free," riders cover their ears and have to shout to be heard over the screeching, roaring and banging din.

"What?!" shouted Crystal Glantz, 44, of Alameda, smiling, as a reporter tried to interview her aboard a train hurtling through the Transbay Tube. "It's very noisy. It would be nice to be able to listen to music or have conversations."

The Chronicle surveyed the BART system, sending a reporter on all 208 miles of rails - 104 in each direction - accompanied by a handheld sound-level meter. The survey found that noise levels can reach 100 decibels - the equivalent of a jackhammer - at points in the Transbay Tube. But the tube is not the only noisy part of the system, as many riders can attest. Trains produced noise levels of 90 decibels - as loud as a diesel truck - or higher at 23 locations.

BART spokesman Linton Johnson acknowledged that the system's trains can be noisy in spots, but said a recent study gave the agency a top rating among comparable rail systems nationwide.

"Customers riding at times may not believe it," he said, "but we're the quietest in the country."

Much of the noise on BART is caused by steel-wheeled trains repeatedly rolling over steel rails, creating microscopic ripples that produce shrill noises. BART uses two rail-grinding machines to smooth the rails and reduce noise.

What's too loud?

Noises as low as 85 decibels can cause hearing damage, according to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, but that's with prolonged exposure. People can be exposed to 91 decibels for two hours before hearing damage may occur, according to the institute's recommendations. At 100 decibels, the recommended exposure limit is 15 minutes. BART riders are exposed to those noise levels only intermittently, and usually for brief periods.

"We talk about your sound exposure over a whole 24 hours," said Linda Howarth, program coordinator for Dangerous Decibels, which aims to reduce noise-caused hearing loss. "If you have a fairly quiet day and get on the subway and have a few minutes of 90 decibels or even 100 decibels, you'll be fine." But even if BART's noise isn't a hearing hazard, it can be annoying.

"People can be irritated by 70 decibels or 80 decibels," Howarth said. BART monitors decibel levels inside trains to protect train operators, who are exposed to high noise levels four to five hours a day, Johnson said. Operators are encouraged to wear hearing protection, he said.

The worst spots

So, where is BART the most irritating? Not surprisingly, the Transbay Tube, heading westbound, had the highest reading of 100 decibels several times, causing some riders to cover their ears, and drowning out conversation.

"It's way too loud," said Bob Haeger, 54, a Berkeley attorney familiar with the cacophony of the tube. "The stress of listening to the noise is tiring."

Haeger said he wishes BART would slow trains in the Tube to diminish the din - a move that would probably annoy most riders more than the noise.

While the Transbay Tube - where trains travel up to 80 mph in concrete enclosures - is understandably noisy, the ride was nearly as loud eastbound between the Glen Park and 24th Street Mission stations, where the sound hit 99 decibels. Seven other stretches - Balboa Park to Glen Park, 24th Street Mission to 16th Street Mission, 16th Street Mission to Civic Center, the Transbay Tube westbound, Embarcadero to Montgomery Street, Rockridge to Orinda and North Concord/Martinez to Pittsburg/Bay Point - exceeded 95 decibels.

Noise levels, of course, vary widely depending on the train's speed, the rider's location, whether the train is accelerating or braking, whether another train is passing, and the number of passengers aboard.

Johnson said trains are the noisiest when they're heading up or down inclines or traveling around curves and produce ear-piercing screeching sounds. Many riders, he said, are bothered more by the high pitch of the noise than the loudness. Many riders don't realize it, Johnson said, but the Transbay Tube curves as it passes beneath the Bay Bridge. The stretch between Civic Center and Balboa Park also contains curves.

Another big factor, predictably, is whether the tracks are underground. Nearly all of the 20 noisiest stretches were in tubes, tunnels or subways, where the surrounding concrete walls trap the sound. Above-ground tracks were much quieter.

A little peace

The quietest ride on the BART system was between the Hayward and South Hayward stations, where the southbound train zipped along smoothly - on flat ground and a berm - recording a maximum sound level of just 73 decibels, about as loud as a hair dryer.

The northbound train on that same stretch was the next quietest at 77 decibels. Noise levels stayed below 80 decibels over five other stretches of track - Union City to Fremont, Colma to South San Francisco, Castro Valley to Dublin/Pleasanton, Hayward to Bay Fair and Pleasant Hill to Walnut Creek.

While it's impossible not to notice the noise, many BART riders said they take it in stride.

"It's really just a short period of time," said Rafael Torres, 50, of Antioch, a restaurant manager. "You just have to put up with it, I guess."

Hearing expert Howarth advises riders disturbed by the noise to listen to their instincts, and take action.

"If it sounds too loud for you, it probably is," she said. "So do something about it: Wear earplugs, or put your fingers in your ears if that's all you have."

But don't use your headphones - and music - to drown out the din.

"It doesn't work," she said. "You're just exposing yourself to more noise."The Oakland public school district sent nearly 100 graduates off to college with laptop computers.

PeopleSoft donated the machines to the nonprofit computer refurbishing center, Oakland Technology Exchange.

The Exchange gave the computers to students who excelled in high school and received scholarships from the Marcus A. Foster Educational Institute.

Since 1996, the Exchange has been taking corporate computer castoffs and teaching Oakland students how to upgrade and repair them. The hand-me-downs are then sent to classrooms and families who can use them. So far, the Exchange has sent 4,000 computers to the Oakland schools and 2,000 to needy Oakland families.

Students earn their computer by attending, along with one parent, a basic computer training class. The Exchange finds new homes for the computers and keeps them out of landfills.

Oakland Technology Exchange is a partnership between the school district, Oakland Technical High School, and the Marcus A. Foster Educational Institute. It is housed at Oakland Technical High, and has a second space in the Jack London Square warehouse district.

POSTER GIRL: She may not be old enough to drive, but Oakland second-grader Rebecca Wong knows a lot about traffic safety. Her poster of a girl in a seat belt with the words, "Sit In The Back," was chosen for the grand prize in the annual traffic safety poster contest run by the California State Automobile Association.

Each year, 80,000 children across the country submit artwork for consideration in the contest.

Rebecca took home a $100 check and certificate of appreciation, and her teacher Michelle Stone at Crocker Highlands Elementary was honored with a plaque for encouraging her students to enter the contest for the last 27 years.

RICHMOND TEENS RALLY: Richmond high school students are mobilizing to create safe havens from street violence in their city.

Students from Kennedy, Richmond and De Anza High who are members of the nonprofit Youth Together have created the One Land, One People initiative to raise funds and lobby legislative leaders on behalf of teen issues.

They became active during the last school year, after four youths were shot and killed while walking on the streets in the middle of the day. One of the slain students was shot while standing across the street from Richmond High. He ran across the street and died in the principal's office.

One Land, One People has raised $750,000, and has a list of ideas to help reduce youth violence.

Members want a Youth Cafe to provide a safe haven and offer after-school activities such as violence prevention, job training and homework help.

"Richmond youth have nowhere to go but to the mall," said Crystal Clark, a junior at Kennedy High.

"We're trying to create a youth center so they don't have to resort to violence," she said.

Over the summer, Richmond teenagers surveyed community members about youth needs and solutions to youth violence. They will use the results to draft a youth violence prevention proposal. They plan to take their proposal to local, state and federal policymakers.The path to citizenship for Baudelio Burciaga began 12 years ago when, at 19 years old, he left Zacatecas, Mexico, for Oakland, seeking political asylum as a gay man.

Five years ago, he got a green card. Saturday, he stood outside a City College of San Francisco classroom holding a completed naturalization form, ready to submit it after one final review.

Ive been waiting ... for this day, Burciaga said.

He was one of more than 150 people who attended the free citizenship workshop hosted by the SF Pathways to Citizenship Initiative to assist those navigating the costly and sometimes complicated route to becoming a U.S. citizen.

The citys Office of Civic Engagement and Immigrant Affairs funds the workshop, which takes applicants through a four- to five-step process that lasts at least two hours. People often arrive early in the morning before the event begins, said Adrienne Pon, executive director of the immigrant affairs office.

WATCH: Bay Area residents rally for immigrants amid ICE crackdown (story continues below)

All these good people coming here sometimes stand in line for hours, Pon said. Theyre so eager to become citizens.

Volunteers set up rooms at City Colleges Multiuse Building to serve as different stations for each leg of the process. Translators on site offered help in the most common languages applicants use: Mandarin, Cantonese, Spanish, Tagalog, Arabic, Vietnamese and Russian.

After registration, applicants go through screening to determine whether they meet basic eligibility requirements  like holding a green card for at least five years. If anything complicates their case, they meet with attorneys for one-on-one consultations. If not, they go straight to filling out a 21-page N-400 naturalization form.

The form takes at least an hour to complete and costs about $780 to file, said Jamie Richardson, a spokeswoman for the citys immigration affairs office. People on public benefits are eligible for a fee waiver, but the steep price still deters many people from applying, she said.

Those who opt to complete the form at the workshop have the application reviewed by attorneys offering pro bono services at the event, then volunteers help them send it off to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. It takes from six months to a year for the agency to process the forms.

A lot of folks dont know how complicated naturalization and the immigration system is, Richardson said. Its an intimidating process.

Mayor Mark Farrell stopped by, walking through each station and shaking hands with volunteers as he asked about their work. Farrell said he has vivid memories of his mom, a German immigrant, taking her naturalization oath around the time he graduated from college.

Our city is made up of immigrants, he said. Especially in the face of the anti-immigrant rhetoric we see coming out of Washington, D.C., now its so important, I think,  as leaders, as volunteers, as professionals on the ground  that we emphasize that San Francisco will stay strong and stand with our immigrant community.

This particular workshop has run for five years, and sometimes the people who obtain citizenship afterward come back to lend a hand.

Raymund Borres, now a workshop volunteer, earned his citizenship after going through the workshop himself. He said he started volunteering to familiarize himself with the process before applying for citizenship four or five years ago. Now, he keeps coming back to help others fill out forms and help translate for fellow natives of the Philippines.

You feel grateful and you want to give back, he said.

Everyone has their own journey to citizenship. For himself and his wife, he said, it took 20 years to get a green card, all in the hopes of reuniting with his father-in-law, a World War II vet living in San Francisco who was feeling lonely without his children. They moved to San Francisco six years ago. By the time they received citizenship, his wifes father was in his 90s, Borres said.

It was his wifes dream to move to America to be with her father again, Borres said, so it became his dream, too.

Theres a story behind each person that finally takes the oath, he said. Its a final milestone of a really long journey.

Jenna Lyons is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jlyons@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @JennaJournoFor the second time in the past week, a Facebook post showing meat delivery workers using "unsanitary" practices in the Bay Area is going viral.

This particular video shows two delivery men from Yosemite Meat Co. unloading pig carcasses from a truck at City Super, a San Francisco Chinatown grocery store. In the video, the men can be seen slinging the carcasses over their shoulders, much to the disgust of Allegra Johnson, the woman who shot the video.A swastika and the words "Hitler did nothing wrong" were found in a bathroom stall on the campus of Evergreen Valley College in East San Jose on Friday morning.

According to a report from the San Jose Evergreen Community College District police, the symbol and words were found in the 1st floor men's bathroom located in the MS3 Math, Science and Social Science building and reported to campus police.An eon or two ago, Eastman Kodak was a bleeding-edge technology company. It hired the smartest engineers and put them to work racking up patents, pioneering new chemical processes and building a globe-spanning camera and film business that, at its peak, employed 145,000 people.

But the digital photo age passed Kodak by, and today, the company exists mostly in the past tense. Many of the patents have been sold, buildings have been rented out or demolished, and the company has continued to shrink since it filed for bankruptcy in 2012.

Now, the 130-year-old company is trying an unlikely sort of comeback  by betting on cryptocurrency. Its a bold gamble that has excited some investors, perplexed others and raised questions about how closely Kodak vetted its cryptocurrency business partners, which now include a paparazzi photo agency, a penny-stock promoter and a company offering what has been called a magic moneymaking machine.

Kodak recently lent its name to KodakCoin, billed as a photo-centric cryptocurrency to empower photographers and agencies to take greater control in image rights management. The basic idea is to use blockchain to help photographers manage their collections by creating permanent, immutable records of ownership. The company also struck a licensing deal for a bitcoin-mining computer called the Kodak KashMiner, which allows users to generate their own cryptocurrency.

Kodaks stock rose more than 200 percent after the announcements, but stumbled late in the week after it postponed the offering for several weeks.

Blockchain  the mathematical ledger system that forms the basis of digital currencies  has a kind of talismanic effect in todays stock market. As investors seek to capitalize on the popularity of currencies like bitcoin and ether, a number of struggling companies have reversed their fortunes, at least temporarily, simply by adding blockchain to their names or announcing a cryptocurrency venture unrelated to their previous line of work. (The most notorious example is Long Island Iced Tea Corp., a beverage company that tripled its value overnight after it rebranded itself Long Blockchain Corp.)

These sudden, brazen moves have also attracted the attention of regulators. In a recent speech, Jay Clayton, chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, said that the agency was looking closely at the disclosures of public companies that shift their business models to capitalize on the perceived promise of distributed ledger technology.

Kodak is the most prominent old-line company to enter the cryptocurrency game so far, and maybe the most controversial. Almost immediately, critics characterized the plans as a desperate money grab.

It feels like a publicly traded company issuing a token to raise its stock price from the grave, said Kyle Samani, a partner at the cryptocurrency trading firm Multicoin Capital.

Jill Carlson, a blockchain consultant, said, I would not be sleeping very well if I was involved in this.

Kodak CEO Jeff Clarke said the companys blockchain ambitions are genuine. He began looking into blockchain technology last summer, he said, and realized that it could solve a perennial problem for photographers  proving ownership of their images, tracking down copyright violators, and getting paid.

This is not a dog food company thats creating a currency, Clarke said. This is a real solution around digital rights management that Kodak has been involved in for many years.

In theory, photographers will be able to upload their images to a service called KodakOne, create a blockchain license for each image, and use Web-crawling software to scour the Internet looking for copyright violations. Instead of using dollars, photographers can have clients pay them in KodakCoins.

KodakCoins initial offering is expected to raise as much as $20 million. (Last week, KodakCoins website said that it would delay the offering by several weeks to verify the credentials of potential investors.) But there are few details about what that money will be used for, or why a similar system could not be built without blockchain. There is also a more obvious question: Why would photographers want to be paid in digital tokens, rather than cash?

In several calls with KodakCoin leaders, straight answers to these questions were scarce. And KodakCoins white paper, a technical document that details the plans for the currency, is a 40-page mishmash of marketing buzzwords and vague diagrams.

Make no mistake: Digital rights management is a real issue for photographers, and blockchain does, in theory, offer a compelling solution. But the specific attributes of KodakCoin present some red flags.

First, despite the name, KodakCoin is not actually a Kodak project. The company behind the offering, Wenn Digital, is a California affiliate of a British agency specializing in paparazzi photo licensing. Under their agreement, Kodak will not receive any direct revenue from the public offering. It will receive a minority stake in Wenn Digital, 3 percent of all KodakCoins issued and a royalty on future revenue.

You might think that a digital currency that is trying to democratize photography and make licensing fair to artists, in Clarkes words, would be easily accessible. But because of regulatory requirements, KodakCoins will be available only to accredited investors in the United States. An accredited investor is defined as a person with a net worth of $1 million or more, or an annual income above $200,000.

How many cryptocurrency-obsessed millionaire photographers do you know?

Even if photographers do meet the requirements to participate, they could have a hard time spending their KodakCoins, or redeeming them for cash.

Cryptocurrency experts also do not seem impressed with the KashMiner, a bitcoin-mining machine advertised at this years CES electronics trade show. According to the ad, users will pay $3,400 to rent the machine, a Kodak-branded computer that solves complex math equations to unlock new bitcoin, for two years. Half the bitcoins successfully mined with the KashMiner will go to Spotlite, the company licensing Kodaks name, and the user will keep the other half.

Kodak hasnt shared many details about its KashMiner deal. In its CES ad, KashMiner estimates that each renter will earn $9,000 from mining bitcoin over the two-year contract. Experts said in interviews that the figure was most probably inflated, because bitcoin mining gets harder over time. And they pointed out that the KashMiner appears to be simply a rebranded version of a popular bitcoin-mining machine that can be purchased outright for less than the rental cost.

All of this  the origins of KodakCoin, the currency itself and the lofty claims about the KashMiners moneymaking potential  points to the possibility that Kodak may be in over its head.

The best-case scenario is that they believe that the technology will eventually be able to deliver what theyve pitched, said blockchain consultant Carlson. The worst-case scenario is that they are just being very opportunistic.

CEO Clarke characterized the blockchain projects as a small part of the companys overall strategy, and said it was ironic that critics were faulting Kodak for embracing a young technology like cryptocurrency, given that its past problems were caused by a failure to innovate.

This isnt speculative, Clarke said. Were taking an emerging new technology in blockchain, and were using it to solve a real problem.

Kevin Roose is a New York Times writer.When Xerox introduced its popular copying machines in 1959, their wizardry was considered as high tech as the iPhone when Steve Jobs presented it to the world almost 50 years later.

But just as Xerox made carbon paper obsolete, the iPhone, Google Docs and the cloud made Xerox a company of the past.

On Wednesday, Xerox said that, after 115 years as an independent business, it would combine operations with Fujifilm Holdings of Japan. The deal signaled the end of a company that was once an American corporate powerhouse, and played a crucial role in Silicon Valleys rise.

Xerox is the poster child for monopoly technology businesses that cannot make the transition to a new generation of technology, said David Yoffie, a professor at the Harvard Business School.

The move offers a stark reminder that no matter how high a company may fly, it is still vulnerable to the next big breakthrough. Xerox joins once formidable tech companies like Kodak and BlackBerry that lost the innovation footrace.

Under the deal, Fujifilm will own just over half the Xerox business. There are plans to cut $1.7 billion in coming years. Fujifilm said it would cut its payroll by 10,000 workers worldwide.

How Xerox fell so far is a case study in what management experts call the competency trap  an organization becomes so good at one thing, it cant learn to do anything new.

Xerox traces its origins to the founding in 1903 of the M.H. Kuhn Co. But it was an invention dreamed up in a makeshift Queens lab in the 1930s  a forerunner of the Silicon Valley garages used by the likes of Jobs  that changed Xeroxs trajectory.

That invention, by Chester Carlson, a patent lawyer, led to the creation of the modern copy machine. He even came up with a term for the process: xerography. In 1959, Xerox, which had won the right to explore the technology, offered the office copier that went mainstream.

Soon, Xerox copying machines were a booming business and central to office life, a spot for informal conversations and gossip. In larger companies, Xerox rooms became a place to hang out.

High-end Xerox machines  essentially, complex paper-processing computers  became symbols of modern technology, sometimes getting the upper hand on hapless humans. In a classic scene from the 1980 movie 9 to 5, a copier overwhelms an office newcomer played by Jane Fonda.

Its corporate name even became a verb.

During the good times, Xerox invested in new technology. In the 1970s, it set up a research center in Palo Alto, to invent the office technology of the future.

The technologists at the lab, the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center, did not invent the mouse and graphical-user interface. But they refined them and built a usable prototype personal computer, the Alto. More than 1,000 Altos were made and put to work, including a few in Jimmy Carters White House in the late 1970s.

In 1979, in a visit that is the stuff of business legend, Jobs toured the lab. Later, the ideas he saw there found their way into the Apple Macintosh.

Over the years, Apple has had its own ups and downs. But whenever Jobs became convinced that something new was afoot, he moved forcefully and refocused the company. He did not fall into the competency trap, and today Apple is the most valuable corporation in the world.

At Xerox, when the corporate managers took over its personal computer project and tried to commercialize the Alto, named the Xerox Star, they priced it at more than $16,000. It flopped.

The Xerox Star was priced more like a copier, an expensive office machine, rather than a personal computer. In 1981, the same year the Star came to market, IBM introduced its PC for business, pricing it at less than $1,600. Three years later, the Apple Macintosh sold for about $2,500.

In the 1980s, with the patents on its copier technology expiring, Xerox faced stiff competition from lower-cost Japanese competitors like Canon and Ricoh. With its business under pressure, Xerox dabbled in financial services. It bought a casualty insurer, Crum & Forster, and an investment management firm, Van Kampen Merritt.

The move into financial services ran into trouble, and the company sold it off in the 1990s.

Since then, Xerox has struggled with the rise of email and the move by offices around the world to send and share documents electronically. Less paper and fewer copies undermined the companys once lucrative franchise.

In recent years, Xerox moved to recast itself more as a business services supplier, helping companies streamline their flow of documents and work in fields like health care, human resources and financial compliance. It won some high-profile contracts  like operating the computer and payment systems behind E-ZPass highway tolls.

Yet none of its efforts delivered a sizable profit maker to make up for its declining copier business. Activist shareholder Carl Icahn pushed the company to go further.

We believe Xerox still has potential, but it will go the way of Kodak if there arent major changes, Icahn said in December.

Company leaders saw the problem. The world is changing, Ursula Burns, then CEO, said in an interview with NPR in 2012. And as that world changes, if you dont transform your company, youre stuck.

Xerox never managed to get ahead of the digital wave to enjoy anything like its former prosperity.

Under Wednesdays deal, Xerox will become part of an existing Fuji Xerox joint venture, which sells office products and services in the Asia-Pacific region. As part of the deal, it will issue a combined $2.5 billion in dividends to its shareholders.

The Palo Alto Research Center, which has dropped the Xerox name and just calls itself PARC, will remain open, a company representative said.

The combined company is expected to have $18 billion in annual revenue and will continue to trade on the New York Stock Exchange under Xeroxs ticker symbol, XRX.

I am confident that Fujifilms ability to drive change as well as its experience of successful reinvention will give a competitive edge to the new Fuji Xerox, Shigetaka Komori, chairman and CEO of Fujifilm, said in a statement.

Fujifilm still makes film, but it has branched out considerably, using its chemical and imaging technology in products as varied as ingredients in cosmetics and medical equipment.

Still, Fujifilm said on Wednesday that there are challenges ahead. The company reduced its expectations for operating income by nearly 30 percent in an earnings forecast. It warned that the environment for its Fuji Xerox venture was increasingly severe and said that a fundamental structural reform will be implemented.

Xeroxs shares, which have been mostly flat in recent years despite a broad run-up in the stock market, rose about 12 percent over the past month in anticipation of a deal.

The joint venture with Fuji, begun in the early 1960s, has been a bright spot for Xerox, said Ben Gomes-Casseres, a professor at the Brandeis International Business School.

Initially the stronger partner, Xerox has benefited from shared technology and know-how from its Japanese partner. The merger, Gomes-Casseres said, is probably the best path ahead for Xerox.

They could have failed years ago without Fuji, he said.

Chronicle staff writer

Benny Evangelista contributed to this report.

Steve Lohr and Carlos Tejada are New York Times writers.Provided by Pleasant Hill Police

Pleasant Hill police officers have apprehended a mentally ill man who was seen Friday evening wielding an assault-style rifle and wearing a ballistic vest while walking the streets of Pleasant Hill.

Pleasant Hill police dispatcher Martha Barajas confirmed that the 33-year-old man had been secured at some point Saturday. Police detained him at his apartment on Boyd Road, Lt. Dave Nichols said in a statement.WASHINGTON  Newly released emails show Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt personally monitored efforts last year to remove much of the information about climate change from the agencys website, especially President Barack Obamas signature effort to reduce planet-warming carbon emissions from coal-fired power plants.

The internal EPA messages from April 2017 were released this week following a Freedom of Information Act request filed by the advocacy group Environmental Defense Fund. They show then-newly arrived political appointees in the agencys press office directing career staffers to make a list of changes to epa.gov. The emails show Pruitt wanted the updates to appear as soon as possible and had specific changes he wanted made.

John Konkus, a former Republican campaign operative hired as EPAs deputy associate administrator for Public Affairs, emailed staffers on the evening of Saturday, April 1.

We need to start building an updated page for the clean power plan ASAP with the goal of having it go live sometime on Monday, Konkus wrote. Is there any way we can get a little time put in on this project over the weekend so that were off on the right foot on Monday morning?

Four days before the email, President Trump signed an executive order on energy independence that included a directive to start the process of rescinding the Clean Power Plan and other environmental regulations that potentially burden the domestic production of fossil fuels.

Konkus message triggered a flurry of emails over the following days about extensive changes to the agencys web pages, including some edits ordered directly by Pruitt. Among the changes were stripping away data about climate change and modifying search results for Clean Power Plan to show a page touting Trumps executive order featuring a photo of the president posing with smiling coal miners, Pruitt and other members of his cabinet.

EPA began its formal repeal of the Clean Power Plan in October. Trump also announced last summer he intends to withdraw from the Paris climate accord signed by Obama in 2015, potentially making the United States the only nation in the world that is no longer committed to reducing carbon emissions under the landmark international agreement.

The changes made to epa.gov last year sparked widespread concern from scientists, environmentalists and others worried a key public repository of information and data about climate change was being lost. A coalition of scientific and academic groups rushed to make copies of the government webpages before they disappeared.

Michael Biesecker is an Associated Press writer.A recent report by the Polaris Project, an anti-human trafficking organization, found that there are over 3,300 massage parlors in California that are posing fronts for sex trafficking.

The report states that there are at least 9,000 "illicit massage businesses" nationwide, meaning that California is home to a third of these establishments. The estimated revenue of these businesses is $2.5 billion annually.

"There may be women who choose to sell sex either along with or under the guise of massage therapy," the report states. "But evidence suggests that many of the thousands of women engaging in commercial sex in massage parlors are victims of human trafficking."

The authors of the report note that women who are forced into the business are usually women who "recently arrived from China or South Korea, carry debts or are otherwise under extreme financial pressure, speak little or no English, have no more than a high school education, are in their mid 30s to late 50s, [and] are mothers."

"While some [businesses] keep a low profile, many others blatantly advertise 'Asian gals,' or bear sexualized names like 'Good Girl Spa,'" the report states.

The Polaris Project states that there are at least 181 illicit massage businesses operating in San Francisco and 244 operating in San Jose. The report names Los Angeles, Orange and Santa Clara counties as the counties with the highest number of illicit massage businesses in the state.

The report also notes that San Francisco had 400 of these businesses just three years ago, but San Francisco's Department of Public Health has helped shut many of them down.

Indicators that a massage parlor may be engaging in commercial sex include low prices, a locked front door where customers can only enter if buzzed in or through a side door, and covered windows.

In addition, if a parlor appears to only have male clientele or if women appear to be living there, the establishment may be an illicit massage business.

The report also answers the question of "why don't the women just leave," stating that traffickers often use coercive methods to frighten the victims.

These coercive methods include telling victims that they will be arrested for prostitution or deported by immigration officials if they try to leave the business as well as threatening to tell victims' family members back home that "they have shamed them by having sex with thousands of men."

The Polaris Project suggests a number of potential legal solutions to end illicit massage businesses in the United States. Some of these solutions include discouraging law enforcement from arresting these women for prostitution and instead connecting them with a network of service providers who offer pathways to economic empowerment.

The authors also list a number of ways individuals can help, including advocating for tighter regulations of the massage business at the local level and "sharing what you know about massage parlor trafficking."Life Cycles

Change and continuity in the student co-ops

by Davi Napoleon

From the February, 2018 issue

I was a U-M student in the late 1960s, when the military draft loomed, women joining the workplace discovered glass ceilings, and the civil rights struggle was in full gear. We marched and sat-in, somehow also managing to study as we worked together to create a better society.



I lived at Osterweil Co-op on East Jefferson, loving it, and not just because co-ops cost less than other campus housing. In our self-governing house, we engaged in a messy democratic process, sharing chores and decisions, making the house run while trying to change how the country ran. Sure, we alone didn't end the Vietnam War, but it sure felt like it.



Before my time, in 1956, the writer Marge Piercy lived in Osterweil. "We were two or three to a room, all women," she emails. "We had male boarders who ate with us. It was a close-knit house. A lot of folk singing and cheap food."



That's just the way I remember Osterweil, plus a lot of arguing about how the change we all wanted should be achieved. If passersby didn't hear raised voices through an open window, they might have heard us gathered around the piano, singing with determination that We Shall Overcome.



Not wanting to leave when my undergrad days were over, I picked up an MA before moving to New York with my husband, Greg. A former Osterweil boarder, he had to forgo graduate work in philosophy and enlist in the Teacher Corps to avoid being drafted.



We enjoyed New York until the late '70s, when our first son, Randy, was born and the urban strife got to us. I found myself recurrently singing "I wanna go back to Michigan, to dear Ann Arbor town ..."



Greg quit his job, even though he had no employment prospects here. I told my editors at city magazines that I could no longer cover New York events. We packed a U-Haul. We bought a house on South

...continued below...

Forest. And here we were in a lovely town with a vibrant cultural life, with good schools and safe parks. Why didn't it feel like Ann Arbor?No longer mobilized by an immediate threat, Ann Arborites seemed settled in the routines of everyday life--work, kids, recreation. We made friends, joined a babysitting co-op and a skills exchange group, but nothing fully satisfied my longing for connection. Was Ann Arbor in Michigan or did it exist in a time and not a place? Was Michigan a state of mind?---I began to feel I'd come home, however vicariously, when our second son, Brian, moved into a co-op. Brian was born with cerebral palsy, and after graduating from Pioneer High in 2000, he wanted to live independently but needed more support than most. Nonstudents can be voted into what is primarily student housing, and he moved into a co-op down the block from us on Forest. Since 2006, he has been living or boarding at Black Elk Co-op, a vegetarian house on Baldwin.Elkers come and go, but since there's always carryover from previous years in the twenty-two-member house, there's some consistency. Some of the stickers inside the front door date to the George W. Bush era. One of my favorites: "A woman's place is in the House--and the Senate."Like many people with disabilities, Brian had difficulties integrating into the social life of Ann Arbor until he found an inclusive community. He's taken trips to Boston, Austin, and the U.P. with housemates. "We've gone to movies and apple picking and laser tag and hot tub oasis," Brian says. "There are board game nights and puzzle nights.""Everyone is a little weird," says Elk member Aliza Gersing, a philosophy major who appreciates the nonjudgmental environment. "For people who have been judged and had trouble finding their people, there's a sense of family."Brian says he's shared the house with "people from Japan, China, India, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Austria, England, Russia. People have different cultures and different religions and different majors. They are gay and straight and gender-neutral, Caucasian and African American." It's like having all of Ann Arbor in one house, working and enjoying life together.---I recently stopped by Osterweil. It looks the way I remember it--an upright piano in the living room, posters on the walls, one long dining table for all--except the basement has been renovated beautifully and the members aren't obsessed with politics. House president Ellie Epskamp-Hunt says Osterweil has its own social events that create community. Yiwen Lin, who was cooking dinner for everyone, lived in an apartment last semester. "It was more isolated. I feel a sense of connection here," she says.Over the years, I also have felt more connected to Ann Arbor--writing an occasional story for the Observer helps--but never so much as since November 2016. I haven't been going to D.C. to march as I once did. Now we march downtown, alongside other Ann Arborites. As we cry out together against varied injustices, I feel I'm back in Ann Arbor, my town. [Originally published in February, 2018.]In preparation for the 100th anniversary of the armistice that ended World War I  an event that left us with the War Memorial Building and Opera House as civic markers  Ken Maley has been reading through The Chronicles archives.

Maley discovered that on Oct. 6, 1918, a month before the armistice, The Chronicle organized the making of a movie. Citizens of San Francisco were invited to come to a location in Golden Gate Park to be filmed waving to the soldiers fighting in France. The headline on a Page One story that ran on Oct. 4: Entire City Is Aroused Over Chronicle Movie Plan.

Citizens assembled near the ball field in Golden Gate Park (I think at Seventh Avenue) and then marched together to what was then the Memorial Museum, where filmmakers under the direction of moviemaker Thomas Ince, positioned atop a 40-foot tower, would shoot images of each passerby waving. How were participants to know that they would be seen by the soldier to whom their individual wave was directed? It is as certain as a United States bond, said the story. It is the guarantee of the United States Government that this film, to be taken on Sunday, will be shown in all the rest camps in France.

The day after To the Boys Over There From Relatives and Sweethearts Over Here was shot, The Chronicle said that 150,000 citizens had participated in its making. The writers speculated that the soldiers somewhere are seeing on the screen the faces they soon will see in fact. That added a poignant and personal touch of genuine drama to the picture showing yesterday and brought years for the unremunerated players in this pageant of patriotic devotion and personal affection. ... The silent kisses that were thrown to the cameras unblinking eye when the picture was taken, Oct. 6, are mainly from the lips of white-haired mothers.

P.S. Curious about the credentials of Ince, I did a bit of research and discovered that six years after making this film, the so-called King of the Westerns died in somewhat mysterious circumstances, aboard the Oneida, yacht of William Randolph Hearst. His death was the subject of a somewhat fictionalized movie, The Cats Meow.

Did Alphonso Blunt just happen to be one of the four Oakland lottery participants who won the right to open a cannabis shop? Thanks for noticing that, Mike Miller. Worthy of mention, but not exactly a Caen-ian namephreak, however, because it seems to have been the product of invention rather than coincidence.

As to other news about names, Allen Matthews was on the Berkeley campus when he overheard a student observe to another, Whoa! Jerry Browns first name is really Edmund.

Janice Hough, known around here as an enthusiastic contributor of news-based one-liners, is by day a travel agent. She read in Travel Weekly, a professional newsletter, that there are only two countries with a decreasing number of international travelers: Turkey and the United States.

The same edition of the publication included, What will happen to undocumented workers? Hotels wait and worry, a story providing professional insight to an issue much discussed in Congress right now. This is far from a bleeding-heart progressives support for Dreamers. Its about what Wyndham Hotel Group CEO Geoff Ballotti said was the hotel industrys top issue: How will hotels find affordable staff if cheap labor isnt available?

Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses, wrote Emma Lazarus, whose message might be amended for the current era, so they can deliver terry cloth bathrobes and extra pillows.

 A month into the new year, writes Lee Don McDuff, and I am on track with resolutions, except one: stop procrastinating. I plan on tackling this one in March. April at the latest.

The news release from a public relations firm hired to publicize February as Gum Disease Awareness Month, carries usual warnings, noting that 80 percent of Americans suffer from some degree of gum disease. The release goes on to link the scourge with cancer, strokes ... and, As if that werent enough, systemic connections have also been suggested between gum disease and erectile dysfunction.

So  because Valentines Day is coming up, and following that is Presidents Day and oh, so many reasons for wild celebration  go floss yourself.

Leah Garchik is open for business in San Francisco, (415) 777-8426. Email: lgarchik@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @leahgarchik

Public Eavesdropping

I didnt say it was your fault. I said I was blaming you!

Man at Sausalito Yacht Club, overheard by Jim SchockA Berkeley middle school teacher and activist has filed a motion to dismiss charges of assault against her in connection with a 2016 demonstration in Sacramento.

Yvonne "Yvette" Felarca was charged in July with felony assault, participating in a riot and inciting a riot for her actions in a face-off between white nationalist groups and counter-protesters in the state capitol in June 2016.

Felarca, a national leader of the activist group By Any Means Necessary, also characterized as an anti-fascist or "Antifa" group, was charged in a felony complaint filed by the Sacramento County District Attorney's Office.

The complaint alleges that Felarca, a teacher at Berkeley's Martin Luther King Middle School, committed felony assault on a man named Nigel Walker "by use of force likely to produce great bodily injury," as well as urging others to riot when a "clear and present danger of acts of force and violence" existed.

Two of her fellow activists, Porfirio Paz and Michael Williams, were also charged in the complaint. They were charged with assault with a deadly weapon, a club.

Felarca's motion, filed Thursday, does not seek action regarding the charges against Paz and Williams.

The motion asks for all charges against Felarca to be dropped, characterizing the charges as discriminatory prosecution, insufficient evidence and violating her alleged right to confront the witnesses against her.

According to the motion, "The criminal charges brought against Felarca, Paz, and Williams are a political witch-hunt ..."

The 33-page motion doesn't say Felarca didn't commit the crimes with which she was charged. Rather, it asserts that "in the reams of documents and videos provided by the (California Highway Patrol) and the (District Attorney), there is not a single witness statement that Felarca did any of the above acts."

Also, the motion alleges that Felarca herself, as well as other of her fellow activists, were attacked by members of the white nationalist groups, but no charges were filed in the alleged attacks.Officers made arrests in two violent incidents on BART Friday at two different stations, one in San Francisco, one in San Leandro, transit police said today.

A man allegedly assaulted another man at the Sixteenth Street station in San Francisco around 10:45 p.m., and the victim fought back, according to transit police.

Kendricx Manansala, 24, of Daly City, who police described as the aggressor, was arrested on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon and possession of illegal weapons, police said. He was booked at the San Francisco County Jail, according to police.

The victim suffered bruises to his back, police said.

In the second incident, a man was arrested on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon at the San Leandro station, police said.

Kirby Cabrera, 40, of San Leandro, was booked into jail after his arrest, according to police. The victim declined medical treatment, police said.

Police issued prohibition orders to both Manansala and Cabrera.

BART police began issuing prohibition orders in 2013. These orders can be issued against anyone who commits certain offenses on BART, and ban the person for 30 days to a year.

The offenses include violence against passengers or employees, or repeated infractions such as urinating in public or defacing property.

"BART police officers have completed extensive training on applying the law, including ways to work with special-needs populations such as individuals with mental illness or homeless persons," then-BART Police Chief Kenton Rainey said at the time.

"Now it's time to begin using the authority as one of the tools we have to keep our riders and workers safe," Rainey said. Rainey has since retired and was replaced by Carlos Rojas, a former Santa Ana police chief.PACIFICA (BCN)

Police are asking for help locating a man wanted for shooting his pregnant ex-girlfriend in the head almost two years ago in Pacifica.

Ricardo Colindres has been at large since the shooting, which was reported at 8:11 a.m. April 27, 2016, in the 1000 block of Terra Nova Boulevard.

Police said Colindres, now 28, was a transient and a former resident of Brisbane. He's described as a Hispanic man, 5 feet 5 inches tall, 125 pounds with brown hair and brown eyes.

Police issued a warrant for Colindres on suspicion of two counts of attempted murder and attempted kidnapping.

The shooting was initially reported when someone heard a gunshot and screaming. Before the shooting, the Colindres and the victim were arguing, Capt. Joe Spanheimer said on the day of the shooting.

Despite being shot in the head the woman survived, according to Capt. Chris Clements.

Police said they are working with the U.S. Marshal's Service to apprehend Colindres, who has family in the Brisbane area as well as in Lodi and Burson. He also spends time in Las Vegas, Nevada, according to police.

Anyone with information about the whereabouts of Colindres is asked to call the U.S. Marshal's Service tipline at (800) 336-0102 or the Pacifica Police Department at (650) 738-7314.

Police said the public should consider Colindres armed and dangerous and anyone who sees him should call 911.The U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials confirmed today that agents contacted 77 businesses in San Francisco, San Jose and Sacramento this week.

ICE spokesman James Schwab said that these businesses were served notices of inspection, which alert a business owner that ICE is going to audit their hiring records to determine whether or not they are complying with the law.

ICE does not use the term raid to describe these investigations.

Schwab explained that employers served with these notices, also known as I-9 audits, have three days to produce their company's documentation. If they fail to do so, ICE conducts "an inspection for compliance."

According to Schwab, ICE operations this week were a part of ongoing efforts to step up enforcement of laws that prohibit companies from hiring employees who are not legally authorized to work in the U.S.

"...Worksite enforcement strategy is focused on protecting jobs for U.S. citizens and others who are lawfully employed, eliminating unfair competitive advantages for companies that hire an illegal workforce, and strengthening public safety and national security," Schwab said.

When asked if a specific industry or type of business was targeted this week, Schwab said that "multiple businesses mostly unrelated to each other" were served with the notices.

Previously, 21 people were arrested and ordered to appear in immigration court during a nationwide ICE operation that targeted 7-Eleven franchises on Jan. 10.

"If the person was here unlawfully they would administratively arrest that person," Schwab said after the Jan. 10 operations. "But this wasn't like a SWAT operation," he said.

Schwab said that no one was arrested in ICE's efforts on this enforcement, lasting from Monday to Wednesday, and that he does not believe anyone has been arrested since.

The spokesman confirmed that ICE will continue to use I-9 audits and civil fines to encourage compliance with the law, as ICE Deputy Director Tom Homan previously stated he wants to increase the number of operations to include more audits in furtherance of pursuing more criminal investigations.

Schwab said that the investigation is ongoing and did not have an estimated time of conclusion.

Immigration rights organizations gathered at the ICE office in San Francisco today to denounce the operations and help educate the community about their rights as employers and documented or undocumented immigrants.

Susan Lubeck, a national director for the Jewish partnership Bend the Arc, teamed up with Jon Rodney, a director from the California Immigrant Policy Center, to lead a two-part event (a vigil and a news conference) in support of the immigrants being affected by ICE operations.

Lubeck said that at least 100 people attended the event and were enthusiastic about being a community of support.

A vigil was held in which attendees were led in song by the organizers. Directly following that came remarks from allies.

Lubeck also said that American Jews were energized in speaking out because Jewish immigrants had been used as scapegoats in the past, like undocumented immigrants are by the Trump administration.

Lubeck, Rodney, their organizations and the others who came in support like Mujeres Unidas y Activas, Service Employees International Union United Service Workers West and SF Jobs with Justice took time during remarks to comment that the public should, in fact, use the word audit.

They don't agree with calling the investigations "raids" because it is a term generally associated with arrests and can provoke fear, according to the statement released about the event.

Next Thursday, the national budget resolution expires and the federal government will need to take another look into funding strategies. These organizations are still hoping that coverage for DACA will be included, Lubeck said.

The same team that held today's event will put on daily vigils next week in front of the ICE office Monday through Thursday at noon, according to Lubeck.

"People should know how important it is to know your rights, to keep calling your elected officials and keep organizing and taking action to uphold California values, human dignity and our Constitution," Lubeck said.

San Francisco state Sen. Scott Wiener released a statement today in the wake of learning about ICE's operations, noting that California law prohibits employers from cooperating with ICE to put the inspections into action unless they have a judicial warrant.

"We will stand with our immigrant communities as this administration continues to attack American values and tear apart families," Wiener said in the statement.

Wiener and Assemblymember David Chiu co-authored Assembly Bill 450, which requires that employers notify their employees of audits by immigration officials as well as requires them only to cooperate with ICE if ICE has a judicial warrant. The bill was signed last October by Governor Jerry Brown and went into effect on Jan. 1.

Chiu was at the vigil and press conference in San Francisco today. He said that a threat to California values, due process and the Constitution is a threat to everybody, "indifferent or not."

206-8656OAKLAND (BCN)

A judge ruled today that an Oakland man who was only 16 when he allegedly fatally shot an off-duty paramedic in the Oakland hills in 2013 should be prosecuted as an adult.

Christian Burton, who's now 21, stood trial in adult court in 2015 for his alleged role in the fatal shooting of Santa Clara County paramedic Quinn Boyer, 34, shortly before noon on April 2, 2013, on Keller Avenue just below Skyline Boulevard.

But on Sept. 14, 2015, jurors deadlocked 7-5 in favor of finding him guilty.

Co-defendant David McNeal, who was 15 at the time of the shooting, was found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to 48 years to life in state prison.

Four other teenage boys participated in the crime. Three of them pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in juvenile court for being accessories and are serving their sentences with the state Division of Juvenile Justice.

The fourth pleaded guilty in adult court to a carjacking charge and was sentenced to 15 years in state prison.

The Alameda County District Attorney's Office has been planning to prosecute Burton a second time, but Proposition 57, which was passed by California voters in November 2016, took away prosecutors' ability to charge minors accused of serious crimes such as murder directly in adult court.

Instead, judges must now hold hearings to determine whether adult or juvenile court is most appropriate for each youth who's accused of such crimes.

Alameda County Superior Court Judge Rhonda Burgess conducted a lengthy hearing for Burton that met on intermittent days starting last year and concluding today.

Burgess said among the factors that made her decide that Burton should again stand trial in adult court are the degree of sophistication in Boyer's fatal shooting, her belief that he can't be rehabilitated by the time juvenile courts lose jurisdiction over him when he turns 23 and his poor performance when he was on probation for a previous conviction.

Burton's attorney, Ernie Castillo, argued passionately that Burton should be prosecuted in juvenile court because he has cognitive development issues and grew up in a troubled home.

"I adamantly refuse to accept that he should be prosecuted in adult court when he was only 16 at the time," Castillo said.

The defense attorney also said he doesn't think Burton was the person who shot Boyer because the description of the shooter that was provided by the only witness in the case more closely matched one of the other teens who was involved in the incident and didn't match Boyer.

But Burgess said that for the purpose of determining whether a youth should be prosecuted in adult or juvenile court she must assume that the youth is guilty as charged.

Burgess also said the evidence she has seen indicates that Burton "made the decision to point the gun and pull the trigger."

Boyer, who lived in Dublin and had been married for less than a year, crashed his car down a ravine in the 5200 block of Keller Avenue on April 2, 2013, after he was shot and died two days later of a single gunshot wound to his head.

Boyer grew up in Oakland and had been in the city that day to take his father, Roger Boyer, to a medical appointment.

In the 2015 trial, prosecutor Glenn Kim said Boyer "was doing the right thing that day" because he had pulled his Honda Civic off to the side of the road to respond to a text message on his cellphone and "was an innocent person."

In contrast, Kim said Burton and McNeal, and four other juveniles were supposed to be in school that day but instead were involved in a crime spree that included several carjackings and a robbery in addition to the shooting.

Boyer's father and many other family members, colleagues and friends attended Burton's hearing.

Burton is scheduled to return to court on Feb. 8 to schedule further proceedings in his case.

272-6213

Defense attorney Ernie Castillo (510) 686-1555 or (415) 608-0282PETALUMA (BCN)

Officers arrested a man Friday night on suspicion of driving under the influence after he hit a parked car in Petaluma, toppling his pickup truck, police said this morning.

John Edward Barella, 70, was arrested around 8:45 p.m., allegedly exhibiting signs of being under the influence, according to police.

The case began when officers were dispatched to the 700 block of Elm Drive on a report of a collision. They found a newer-model Chevy pickup truck on its side, police said.

The driver, later identified as Barella, was trapped in the passenger compartment, and Petaluma firefighters freed him from the vehicle, according to police.

The officer learned that Barella was traveling southbound on Elm Drive and allegedly hit a parked car, turning the parked car perpendicular in the road and sending Barella's truck onto it side, police said.A Salinas man has been sentenced to 18 years in prison for causing the death of a homeless man in 2015, Monterey County District Attorney Dean Flippo announced Friday.

Davion Smith was convicted of involuntary manslaughter, battery with serious injury, causing great bodily harm and trying to dissuade a witness from testifying, prosecutors said.The U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials confirmed Friday that agents contacted 77 businesses in San Francisco, San Jose and Sacramento this week.

ICE spokesman James Schwab said that these businesses were served notices of inspection, which alert a business owner that ICE is going to audit their hiring records to determine whether or not they are complying with the law.

ICE does not use the term raid to describe these investigations.

Schwab explained that employers served with these notices, also known as I-9 audits, have three days to produce their company's documentation. If they fail to do so, ICE conducts "an inspection for compliance."

According to Schwab, ICE operations this week were a part of ongoing efforts to step up enforcement of laws that prohibit companies from hiring employees who are not legally authorized to work in the U.S.

"...Worksite enforcement strategy is focused on protecting jobs for U.S. citizens and others who are lawfully employed, eliminating unfair competitive advantages for companies that hire an illegal workforce, and strengthening public safety and national security," Schwab said.

When asked if a specific industry or type of business was targeted this week, Schwab said that "multiple businesses mostly unrelated to each other" were served with the notices.

Previously, 21 people were arrested and ordered to appear in immigration court during a nationwide ICE operation that targeted 7-Eleven franchises on Jan. 10.

"If the person was here unlawfully they would administratively arrest that person," Schwab said after the Jan. 10 operations. "But this wasn't like a SWAT operation," he said.

Schwab said that no one was arrested in ICE's efforts on this enforcement, lasting from Monday to Wednesday, and that he does not believe anyone has been arrested since.

The spokesman confirmed that ICE will continue to use I-9 audits and civil fines to encourage compliance with the law, as ICE Deputy Director Tom Homan previously stated he wants to increase the number of operations to include more audits in furtherance of pursuing more criminal investigations.

Schwab said that the investigation is ongoing and did not have an estimated time of conclusion.

Immigration rights organizations gathered at the ICE office in San Francisco Friday to denounce the operations and help educate the community about their rights as employers and documented or undocumented immigrants.

Susan Lubeck, a national director for the Jewish partnership Bend the Arc, teamed up with Jon Rodney, a director from the California Immigrant Policy Center, to lead a two-part event (a vigil and a news conference) in support of the immigrants being affected by ICE operations.

Lubeck said that at least 100 people attended the event and were enthusiastic about being a community of support.

A vigil was held in which attendees were led in song by the organizers. Directly following that came remarks from allies.

Lubeck also said that American Jews were energized in speaking out because Jewish immigrants had been used as scapegoats in the past, like undocumented immigrants are by the Trump administration.

Lubeck, Rodney, their organizations and the others who came in support like Mujeres Unidas y Activas, Service Employees International Union United Service Workers West and SF Jobs with Justice took time during remarks to comment that the public should, in fact, use the word audit.

They don't agree with calling the investigations "raids" because it is a term generally associated with arrests and can provoke fear, according to the statement released about the event.

Next Thursday, the national budget resolution expires and the federal government will need to take another look into funding strategies. These organizations are still hoping that coverage for DACA will be included, Lubeck said.

The same team that held Friday's event will put on daily vigils next week in front of the ICE office Monday through Thursday at noon, according to Lubeck.

"People should know how important it is to know your rights, to keep calling your elected officials and keep organizing and taking action to uphold California values, human dignity and our Constitution," Lubeck said.

San Francisco state Sen. Scott Wiener released a statement Friday in the wake of learning about ICE's operations, noting that California law prohibits employers from cooperating with ICE to put the inspections into action unless they have a judicial warrant.

"We will stand with our immigrant communities as this administration continues to attack American values and tear apart families," Wiener said in the statement.

Wiener and Assemblymember David Chiu co-authored Assembly Bill 450, which requires that employers notify their employees of audits by immigration officials as well as requires them only to cooperate with ICE if ICE has a judicial warrant. The bill was signed last October by Governor Jerry Brown and went into effect on Jan. 1.

Chiu was at the vigil and press conference in San Francisco Friday. He said that a threat to California values, due process and the Constitution is a threat to everybody, "indifferent or not."

A Berkeley middle school teacher and activist has filed a motion to dismiss charges of assault against her in connection with a 2016 demonstration in Sacramento.

Yvonne "Yvette" Felarca was charged in July with felony assault, participating in a riot and inciting a riot for her actions in a face-off between white nationalist groups and counter-protesters in the state capitol in June 2016.

Felarca, a national leader of the activist group By Any Means Necessary, also characterized as an anti-fascist or "Antifa" group, was charged in a felony complaint filed by the Sacramento County District Attorney's Office.

The complaint alleges that Felarca, a teacher at Berkeley's Martin Luther King Middle School, committed felony assault on a man named Nigel Walker "by use of force likely to produce great bodily injury," as well as urging others to riot when a "clear and present danger of acts of force and violence" existed.

Two of her fellow activists, Porfirio Paz and Michael Williams, were also charged in the complaint. They were charged with assault with a deadly weapon, a club.

Felarca's motion, filed Thursday, does not seek action regarding the charges against Paz and Williams.

The motion asks for all charges against Felarca to be dropped, characterizing the charges as discriminatory prosecution, insufficient evidence and violating her alleged right to confront the witnesses against her.

According to the motion, "The criminal charges brought against Felarca, Paz, and Williams are a political witch-hunt ..."

The 33-page motion doesn't say Felarca didn't commit the crimes with which she was charged. Rather, it asserts that "in the reams of documents and videos provided by the (California Highway Patrol) and the (District Attorney), there is not a single witness statement that Felarca did any of the above acts."

Also, the motion alleges that Felarca herself, as well as other of her fellow activists, were attacked by members of the white nationalist groups, but no charges were filed in the alleged attacks.

Labor organizers allege that the arrest of a black man at a protest in Berkeley on Thursday against alleged pay inequality throughout the University of California system indicates that university is honoring the repressive legacy of the Jim Crow South.

John De Los Angeles, a spokesman for Local 3299 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees said David Cole, a 51-year-old cook at a UC Berkeley dining hall, was protesting peacefully when he was arrested near the intersection of Telegraph Avenue and Bancroft Way about noon on Thursday.

De Los Angeles said Cole sustained injuries to his head and had to have stitches in his eyes and nose after officers threw him to the ground when they arrested him.

But UC Berkeley Vice Chancellor Marc Fisher said in a statement that Cole had been part of a protest that blocked the intersection of Telegraph and Bancroft and that Cole ran toward an occupied vehicle that was making its way through the intersection and threw the sign he was carrying at the vehicle.

Fisher said when a UC police officer tried to detain Cole "he became uncooperative and disregarded instructions from the officer."

Fisher said the officer asked for assistance and he and other UC officers tried to detain Cole but Cole resisted so multiple officers were needed to take him into custody.

Fisher said Cole was arrested on suspicion of vandalism and resisting an officer.

Cole sustained a cut that required treatment at a hospital and he later was transferred to the Berkeley City Jail, where he was booked, according to Fisher.

Cole was then released from jail because UC police advocated that he be cited and released without needing to post bail, Fisher said.

De Los Angeles disputed Fisher's account of the incident, saying that witnesses said Cole didn't do anything to the vehicle.

De Los Angeles said the vehicle drove toward the protesters who were in the intersection and made contact with several of them and then someone other than Cole threw something at the car.

The union spokesman said the protest at UC campuses across the state was scheduled to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the deaths of two black Memphis sanitation workers, Echol Cole and Robert Walker, killed when their truck's compactor malfunctioned, prompting a strike by union workers.

Dr. Martin Luther King was visiting the striking sanitation workers when he was assassinated in April 1968, De Los Angeles said.

In a statement, the union said, "As AFSCME workers across America reaffirmed their commitment to the cause of racial equality, dignity, and respect for workers, the University of California chose to honor the repressive legacy of the Jim Crow South."

The union said, "This incident only underscores UC's deplorable record and continued resistance on issues of racial justice. We will not rest until UC agrees to provide its workers with adequate protections for immigrants and people of color."

In his statement, Fisher said UC police and the campus administration "always see the use of force as a last resort and it is used only when a person is not cooperating or complying with the instructions of officers involved in carrying out their duties."

He said UC police command staff "will carefully review this incident," which he said is standard practice in all incidents involving the use of force by campus police.

Fisher said anyone with information about the incident should call UC police at (510)642-6760 and ask to speak with an on-duty watch commander.

He said that after the police review is completed, he and other campus leaders, including the chancellor, will determine whether an independent review is needed and proceed accordingly.

A judge ruled Friday that an Oakland man who was only 16 when he allegedly fatally shot an off-duty paramedic in the Oakland hills in 2013 should be prosecuted as an adult.

Christian Burton, who's now 21, stood trial in adult court in 2015 for his alleged role in the fatal shooting of Santa Clara County paramedic Quinn Boyer, 34, shortly before noon on April 2, 2013, on Keller Avenue just below Skyline Boulevard.

But on Sept. 14, 2015, jurors deadlocked 7-5 in favor of finding him guilty.

Co-defendant David McNeal, who was 15 at the time of the shooting, was found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to 48 years to life in state prison.

Four other teenage boys participated in the crime. Three of them pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in juvenile court for being accessories and are serving their sentences with the state Division of Juvenile Justice.

The fourth pleaded guilty in adult court to a carjacking charge and was sentenced to 15 years in state prison.

The Alameda County District Attorney's Office has been planning to prosecute Burton a second time, but Proposition 57, which was passed by California voters in November 2016, took away prosecutors' ability to charge minors accused of serious crimes such as murder directly in adult court.

Instead, judges must now hold hearings to determine whether adult or juvenile court is most appropriate for each youth who's accused of such crimes.

Alameda County Superior Court Judge Rhonda Burgess conducted a lengthy hearing for Burton that met on intermittent days starting last year and concluding Friday.

Burgess said among the factors that made her decide that Burton should again stand trial in adult court are the degree of sophistication in Boyer's fatal shooting, her belief that he can't be rehabilitated by the time juvenile courts lose jurisdiction over him when he turns 23 and his poor performance when he was on probation for a previous conviction.

Burton's attorney, Ernie Castillo, argued passionately that Burton should be prosecuted in juvenile court because he has cognitive development issues and grew up in a troubled home.

"I adamantly refuse to accept that he should be prosecuted in adult court when he was only 16 at the time," Castillo said.

The defense attorney also said he doesn't think Burton was the person who shot Boyer because the description of the shooter that was provided by the only witness in the case more closely matched one of the other teens who was involved in the incident and didn't match Boyer.

But Burgess said that for the purpose of determining whether a youth should be prosecuted in adult or juvenile court she must assume that the youth is guilty as charged.

Burgess also said the evidence she has seen indicates that Burton "made the decision to point the gun and pull the trigger."

Boyer, who lived in Dublin and had been married for less than a year, crashed his car down a ravine in the 5200 block of Keller Avenue on April 2, 2013, after he was shot and died two days later of a single gunshot wound to his head.

Boyer grew up in Oakland and had been in the city that day to take his father, Roger Boyer, to a medical appointment.

In the 2015 trial, prosecutor Glenn Kim said Boyer "was doing the right thing that day" because he had pulled his Honda Civic off to the side of the road to respond to a text message on his cellphone and "was an innocent person."

In contrast, Kim said Burton and McNeal, and four other juveniles were supposed to be in school that day but instead were involved in a crime spree that included several carjackings and a robbery in addition to the shooting.

Boyer's father and many other family members, colleagues and friends attended Burton's hearing.

Burton is scheduled to return to court on Feb. 8 to schedule further proceedings in his case.

Artwork donated by actor James Franco to Palo Alto High School in honor of his time as a student was removed last week "in the best interests of students," according to the school district's interim superintendent.

Superintendent Karen Hendricks sent out a statement Thursday night acknowledging media reports that had arisen from a mural removed from the school's Media Arts Center on at the campus.

"The decision to remove the mural, and now artwork, was not made lightly but we will always prioritize the physical and emotional well-being of our students over any other concerns," Hendricks said.

Palo Alto High School graduate Franco donated multiple pieces of artwork and two murals to the high school campus, according to Hendricks. The school and district appreciated his donation but said that it was intended to be temporary in nature and would be respectfully returned or painted over at some point.

The first mural donated was removed in 2016, and the artwork in the library was taken down in the summer of 2017 during "a renovation process," according to Hendricks.

The Latinos Unidos group is working with Palo Alto High School's Associated Student Body and Visual and Performing Arts Department to create a new mural. Currently, their idea includes celebrating the cultural backgrounds and diversity of the campus, Hendricks said.

Remaining artwork Franco donated that was not removed at the MAC is being transitioned out as new places are being found to replace them.

Franco is under fire after multiple women took to social media and public comment to allege that he had sexually harassed them after he wore a "Time's Up" pin to the Golden Globe Awards in January. He has since publicly acknowledged the claims on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.

In her statement, Hendricks did not comment on the allegations against Franco, but said that she leads RISE, a taskforce whose mission is to ensure Title IX compliance. She said that many changes have been made to the high school's reporting systems and that the task force will continue to make efforts in improving them as well as bringing experts in to talk about the "difficult conversations about sexual harassment."

The school district has made resources on complaint filing policies and counseling available on their website at https://www.pausd.org.

Ten contractors face prosecution for felony contracting without a license in a declared disaster area after a sting operation at a fire-damaged home in Santa Rosa, the Contractors State License Board said Friday.

The CSLB targeted unlicensed contractors and those advertising illegally on Craigslist who responded Saturday to a sting house where only part of a garage remained in a Santa Rosa burn area.

Thirteen contractors from the Bay Area responded and 10 face a fine up to $10,000 or three years in prison or both on the felony charge.

CSLB investigators posing as owners of the home received bids for framing and rough carpentry on a 200-square-foot room, or re-establishing electrical or plumbing service to the structure.

Bids for the framing job ranged between $850 to $13,000, for plumbing between $1,500 and $4,500 and one electrical bid for $2,100.

Two of the contractors also face a felony charge of illegally using a contractor license number and two were formerly licensed contractors - one whose license expired in 2003 and the other whose license expired in 2010. They face up to one year in prison and a fine up to $10,000 or both.

All 13 contractors face a misdemeanor charge of illegal advertising.

The CSLB and the Sonoma County District Attorney's Office are seeing unlicensed contractors looking for tree removal and fencing jobs in burn areas during weekly sweeps.

"That's why fire survivors need to be extra vigilant and make sure the contractor they hire is properly licensed and qualified to do the needed work," CSLB Registrar David Fogt said in a news release.

"We will continue to work with the CSLB to identify and prosecute those who are violating the law," Sonoma County District Attorney Jill Ravitch said.

Five people were displaced including an infant and two Victorian homes burned in a fire that was set on purpose early Friday morning in San Francisco, police and fire officials said.

The two-alarm fire was reported at 3:11 a.m. in the 1200 block of Fulton Street in the Alamo Square neighborhood near the famous Painted Ladies.

Displaced residents received help from the American Red Cross and city services. Fire officials said no one was injured.

Police said no arrest has been made in the case.

Air samples taken during a fire Tuesday at a metal shop in Richmond showed higher than the recommended level of a carcinogen but lower than what a person experiences during daily activities, Contra Costa County officials said Friday.

The fire started at about 5 p.m. at Sims Metal Management at 600 S. Fourth St. and prompted a shelter-in-place order for some residents in the area.

The level of the carcinogen benzene across the street from where the fire as the fire was burning Tuesday evening was 318 parts per billion compared with the recommended exposure level of eight to 12 parts per billion, Randy Sawyer, chief environmental health and hazardous materials officer for Contra Costa County, said.

But Dr. David Goldstein, Contra Costa Health Services Deputy Health Officer, said pumping gas exposes a person to more than one part per million, which is higher than the level measured across from the fire.

"The real concern would be long-term exposure," Goldstein said, adding that this event does not meet the threshold for long-term exposure.

Still he said it's difficult to say whether there would be no impacts. Goldstein said the best thing to do when smoke is present is to limit exposure as much as possible.

Existing community monitors in the area also measured air quality during the fire. A monitor in Point Richmond recorded benzene levels of 23 parts per billion, also higher than recommended exposure level.

The level of benzene at all other monitors was below the recommended exposure level, county health officials said.

By 4 a.m. Wednesday, benzene levels in the area around the fire were back to normal, Sawyer said.

Of the other chemicals and particulate matter sampled, the levels were not elevated.

Goldstein said people with respiratory conditions such as asthma may have experienced some symptoms such as wheezing and shortness of breath.

Anyone who has concerns about their health since the fire are encouraged to get in touch with their doctor, Goldstein said.BERKELEY (BCN)

Labor organizers allege that the arrest of a black man at a protest in Berkeley on Thursday against alleged pay inequality throughout the University of California system indicates that university is honoring the repressive legacy of the Jim Crow South.

John De Los Angeles, a spokesman for Local 3299 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees said David Cole, a 51-year-old cook at a UC Berkeley dining hall, was protesting peacefully when he was arrested near the intersection of Telegraph Avenue and Bancroft Way about noon on Thursday.

De Los Angeles said Cole sustained injuries to his head and had to have stitches in his eyes and nose after officers threw him to the ground when they arrested him.

But UC Berkeley Vice Chancellor Marc Fisher said in a statement that Cole had been part of a protest that blocked the intersection of Telegraph and Bancroft and that Cole ran toward an occupied vehicle that was making its way through the intersection and threw the sign he was carrying at the vehicle.

Fisher said when a UC police officer tried to detain Cole "he became uncooperative and disregarded instructions from the officer."

Fisher said the officer asked for assistance and he and other UC officers tried to detain Cole but Cole resisted so multiple officers were needed to take him into custody.

Fisher said Cole was arrested on suspicion of vandalism and resisting an officer.

Cole sustained a cut that required treatment at a hospital and he later was transferred to the Berkeley City Jail, where he was booked, according to Fisher.

Cole was then released from jail because UC police advocated that he be cited and released without needing to post bail, Fisher said.

De Los Angeles disputed Fisher's account of the incident, saying that witnesses said Cole didn't do anything to the vehicle.

De Los Angeles said the vehicle drove toward the protesters who were in the intersection and made contact with several of them and then someone other than Cole threw something at the car.

The union spokesman said the protest at UC campuses across the state was scheduled to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the deaths of two black Memphis sanitation workers, Echol Cole and Robert Walker, killed when their truck's compactor malfunctioned, prompting a strike by union workers.

Dr. Martin Luther King was visiting the striking sanitation workers when he was assassinated in April 1968, De Los Angeles said.

In a statement, the union said, "As AFSCME workers across America reaffirmed their commitment to the cause of racial equality, dignity, and respect for workers, the University of California chose to honor the repressive legacy of the Jim Crow South."

The union said, "This incident only underscores UC's deplorable record and continued resistance on issues of racial justice. We will not rest until UC agrees to provide its workers with adequate protections for immigrants and people of color."

In his statement, Fisher said UC police and the campus administration "always see the use of force as a last resort and it is used only when a person is not cooperating or complying with the instructions of officers involved in carrying out their duties."

He said UC police command staff "will carefully review this incident," which he said is standard practice in all incidents involving the use of force by campus police.

Fisher said anyone with information about the incident should call UC police at (510)642-6760 and ask to speak with an on-duty watch commander.

He said that after the police review is completed, he and other campus leaders, including the chancellor, will determine whether an independent review is needed and proceed accordingly.

438-1961

UC Berkeley spokesman Dan Mogulof (510) 642-3715iStock/Thinkstock(WASHINGTON) -- The Pentagon's new Nuclear Posture Review calls for the development of two new submarine-launched missiles with low-yield nuclear warheads that could serve as a deterrent to Russia's modernization of its inventory of 2,000 tactical weapons.



Developed over the last year, the new report acknowledges the changes around the world since the previous 2010 review that had as a goal the eventual reduction of Americas nuclear weapons arsenal.



That report also saw Russia as a partner in de-nuclearization efforts, but the new Nuclear Posture Review (NPR) reflects the complicated reality of Americas relationships with Russia, China and North Korea.



While nuclear weapons reduction remains a long-term goal, it also addresses a gap in deterrence strategy towards Russia, which is undergoing an intense modernization of its low-yield nuclear weapons systems, a development that has led the Pentagon to determine that Russian nuclear strategy now does not discount the first use of such low-yield nuclear weapons on the battlefield.



The new NPR makes the point that Russia appears to have made a calculus that these types of tactical nuclear weapons could actually be used on a European battlefield without drawing a large scale American nuclear response.



Over the last decade Russia has modernized an inventory of tactical nuclear weapons like air-to-surface missiles, short range ballistic missiles, gravity bombs, depth charges and anti-aircraft missiles and torpedoes.



Over that time the United States has not modernized or reduced its inventory of such weapons.



To respond to that gap with Russia the NPR calls for the U.S. to reconfigure a small number of submarine-launched intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) into low-yield nuclear weapons, with nuclear explosive yields smaller than the atomic bomb dropped by the United States on Hiroshima.



It also calls for the long-term development of submarine-launched cruise missiles with low-yield warheads, a weapons program phased out by the 2010 review.



A focus of the new NPR is the tailored response to scenarios posed by Russia, China, North Korea and Iran.



A "one size fits all" approach has its limits, said Deputy Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan at a Pentagon news conference. This NPR ensures we can deter any potential adversary, because they are not all alike.



That point was also reinforced by John Rood, the Pentagons top policy adviser, who stated repeatedly today that there is no automaticity to a scenario that a possible nuclear response is always going to depend on the context at hand.



The United States does not want to use nuclear weapons, said Shanahan. We do want to maintain an effective deterrent to keep Americans and our allies and partners safe and secure.



A draft version of the NPR leaked several weeks ago drew criticism from arms control experts who said the development of the new low-yield weapons would lower the threshold for a nuclear weapons escalation.



But Rood and other officials countered that it would have the opposite effect.



"The capabilities and the type of approach that we're pursuing is intended to raise the nuclear threshold by making the type of punishment that we could employ against an attack on the United States so high that it would not be countenanced by an adversary," said Rood.



The NPR also addresses a tailored response to the growing North Korean nuclear missile threat to the United States that it says "may now be only months away".



Our deterrence strategy for North Korea makes clear that any North Korean nuclear attack against the United States or its allies and partners is unacceptable and will result in the end of that regime," says the report.



"There is no scenario in which the Kim [Jong Un] regime could employ nuclear weapons and survive," it added.



The NPR and Pentagon officials made the point that Americas missile defense system has the capability to intercept and defeat North Koreas ability to conduct effective missile strikes.



Copyright  2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.Students and faculty work on patients at the Marquette University Dental School, which would receive $520,000 for expansion under Gov. Scott Walkers proposed state budget. Credit: Rick Wood

By of the

Madison - To respond to global competition and an aging workforce, Gov. Scott Walker wants to invest nearly $100 million to build a faster system to track jobs data, tie technical school and university funding to filling high-demand professions and require nearly 76,000 people to train for work to collect food stamps.

The sweeping proposals - some of the biggest in worker training in more than a decade - would expand the Medical College of Wisconsin to Green Bay and Wausau and draw in millions of dollars in added federal money toward the goal of equipping the workforce for needed jobs as welders, nurses, accountants, machine operators and rural doctors.

The measures encompass big parts of the Republican governor's 2013-'15 budget being introduced on Feb. 20, as well as separate legislation to be introduced on Monday.

Many of the proposals will likely find bipartisan support in the Legislature, while others will likely be greeted with dissatisfaction from Democrats pushing for bigger investments from the governor to backfill the cuts he has made in the current budget to the state's technical colleges and universities.

One potentially contentious plank - and one with big implications for Milwaukee - is Walker's proposal to require able-bodied adults without dependent children to train or search for work to receive benefits under the state FoodShare program. Providing the training will cost the state $17 million a year and won't save money directly on the federally funded food benefits.

But in an interview, Walker said he believes the recipients will gain confidence and move into the workforce and off other costly state benefits.

"I want to provide a hand up, not a permanent handout, and I think the idea here is it's not enough to just say, 'You should go find a job.' We're willing to put our money where our mouth is and say we'll train you," Walker said.

The scope of the proposed changes is ambitious, reaching from 4-year-old kindergarten through university study and into training in the workplace. The measure draws on reports by Competitive Wisconsin, former Bucyrus International executive Tim Sullivan and Walker's Read to Lead Task Force.

More investments in education will likely come in the budget, but likely not be enough to placate Democrats. They've stewed about Walker's higher-education cuts in the current budget, which included some $300 million over two years to the University of Wisconsin System alone.

"Governor Walker made the biggest cuts to education and worker training in our state's history," said budget committee member Sen. Jennifer Shilling (D-La Crosse). "It has widened our skills gap and resulted in waiting lists (at technical colleges) of up to three years in some high-demand professions."

Walker made the UW cuts - as well as ones to local governments and school districts - just after approving a measure that all but eliminated collective bargaining for public workers and required them to pay more for their pensions and health care.

He argued Friday that those savings and the added flexibility offset the cuts, and that to him his proposed spending in the next budget amounts to new money.

FoodShare

The FoodShare proposal would not affect the elderly, disabled or those with minor children. It would limit able-bodied recipients' benefits to three months over any three-year period unless they are working or doing at least 20 hours per week of job training or searches.

The state will attract federal matching funds for the training costs for a total of $33 million over two years.

The proposal will face skepticism from advocates such as Sherrie Tussler, executive director of Hunger Task Force in Milwaukee. Tussler remembers previous state requirements as creating more jobs for social workers than it did for FoodShare recipients, who she said were taught just basic skills.

"There's this huge bureaucracy to get people to do the work and make sure they've done it. It ends up costing more to mandate the work than the good you get. . . . You're trying to take away people's food to get them to get a job," she said.

Currently, the training element to the program is voluntary, and Tussler said she has struggled to get state funding for a proposal to pay FoodShare participants $10 an hour to work at a farm growing vegetables for the needy. That's because of tight federal restrictions, she said.

Technical Colleges

The governor is also proposing linking current state funding to technical schools with their performance at placing their more than 78,000 students in the right jobs.

Starting in 2014, Walker wants 10% of the general state aid to technical colleges to be awarded based on job placement and how well the schools do at catering to fields that are in high demand.

That percentage would ramp up in future years, until all state funds would be allocated on a performance basis, starting in 2020.

The technical colleges would see a $5 million boost in general state aid, bringing it to $88.5 million a year. That's a 5.9% boost in its current funding, but does not come close to replacing all the money Walker cut from technical colleges in 2011.

That year, funding for technical schools dropped by 30%, from $119.3 million to $83.5 million.

The $88.5 million Walker will propose for technical colleges accounts for just a sliver of overall funding for those schools, which also receive property taxes, tuition and federal aid.

UW System

For state universities, Walker is proposing awarding $20 million for programs that help the economy, develop a skilled workforce and make higher education more affordable.

He also plans to give $2 million in state aid to the UW System to start up its flexible degree program, and $1 million in other funding also would be used.

The program is meant to allow people already in the workforce to get degrees in programs such as nursing, information systems or medical imaging more quickly by getting credits for knowledge they already have, whether they learned it on a job site or through online courses.

Walker's budget would also require the university and technical college systems to establish a core set of 30 college credits that can be transferred between all public institutions in the state.

Private colleges would have a chance to opt into that system.

In a provision that could rankle GOP lawmakers, Walker wants to allow the UW-Madison chancellor to determine the pay plan for employees without going through the Legislature.

Similarly, the UW Board of Regents would be able to set pay for other campuses without getting sign-off from lawmakers - flexibility that UW System President Kevin Reilly said was essential to closing a pay gap with salaries at other institutions.

"Over time, if we can't give our people hope we'll be able to close that 18 percentage point gap, people who are mobile and attractive to other universities will leave," Reilly said. "The biggest threat to students of the future is that they will not be taught by the best and brightest."

Health care

Walker's budget would also seek to increase the number of doctors and dentists in Wisconsin, particularly in rural areas.

It would:

Provide $7.4 million in bonding so the Medical College of Wisconsin could establish campuses in the Green Bay and Wausau areas. In addition, the college would receive $1.75 million over two years to add 12 more family medicine residents.

Give $3 million over two years to the UW School of Medicine so it can expand training for doctors who will serve rural areas and inner cities.

Provide $4 million for rural hospitals so they can receive national accreditation and take on medical residents, along with $1 million in grants to hospitals so they can take more doctors in training.

Give $520,000 to the Marquette Dental School so it can expand.

Provide $5 million to the Wisconsin Health Information Organization, which is meant to make health care costs more transparent and make people wiser health care consumers.

Education, other items

Walker's budget would also expand testing in schools so by the 11th grade teachers can identify and better prepare students who are ready for college or a career when they graduate.

The testing would cost $11.5 million over two years and would be covered by the state. The proposal would also screen the reading readiness of students in 4-year-old kindergarten and first grade in the fall of 2013. The following year, screening would also be used for second-graders. The plan would cost $2.8 million over two years.

Starting in sixth grade, students could develop an academic and career plan, under Walker's budget. The plan would be updated throughout a student's school career so he or she can graduate from high school with a job plan. Schools would receive about $1.1 million starting in the fall of 2014.

The second set of Walker's proposed workforce changes will be stand-alone legislation that will be introduced on Monday, said Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester). He said he hoped to pass the measure by the end of March.

That bill would cost $20 million over two years and would:

Spend $15 million over two years in grants to organizations that train workers.

The competitive grants would go to technical colleges, local workforce boards and regional economic development organizations working in partnership with state businesses, which could provide matching funds.

Create a four-person state Office of Skills Development to coordinate the scattered worker-training systems of the state and adapt them to the needs of employers.

Spend roughly $5 million to develop a system to better track the state's labor market by some time in 2014.

If successful, it would more quickly deliver to students, guidance counselors and businesses data from the state's unemployment system that currently takes six months to become public.

The system would link jobless workers to openings they are qualified to fill and provide students and guidance counselors with better information about career opportunities. If successful in getting the unemployed back to work even a week sooner, the system could save the state tens of millions of dollars.

Walker, who has struggled to meet his pledge to create 250,000 private-sector jobs in his first term, said the system wasn't an attempt to gloss over the current figures, just deliver the same data more quickly.

Karen Herzog of the Journal Sentinel staff contributed to this report.The jihadis in Egypts Northern Sinai had killed hundreds of soldiers and police officers, pledged allegiance to the Islamic State, briefly seized a major town and begun setting up armed checkpoints to claim territory. In late 2015, they brought down a Russian passenger jet.

Egypt appeared unable to stop them, so Israel, alarmed at the threat just over the border, took action.

For more than two years, unmarked Israeli drones, helicopters and jets have carried out a covert air campaign, conducting more than 100 air strikes inside Egypt, frequently more than once a week  and all with the approval of President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi.

The remarkable cooperation marks a new stage in the evolution of their singularly fraught relationship. Once enemies in three wars, then antagonists in an uneasy peace, Egypt and Israel are now secret allies in a covert war against a common foe.

For Cairo, the Israeli intervention has helped the Egyptian military regain its footing in its nearly 5-year battle against the militants. For Israel, the strikes have bolstered the security of its borders and the stability of its neighbor.

Their collaboration in the North Sinai is the most dramatic evidence yet of a quiet reconfiguration of the politics of the region. Shared enemies like Islamic State, Iran and political Islam have quietly brought the leaders of several Arab states into growing alignment with Israel  even as their officials and news media continue to vilify the Jewish state in public.

U.S. officials say Israels air campaign has played a decisive role in enabling the Egyptian armed forces to gain an upper hand against the militants. But the Israeli role is having some unexpected consequences for the region, including on Middle East peace negotiations, in part by convincing senior Israeli officials that Egypt is now dependent on them even to control its own territory.

Seven current or former British and U.S. officials involved in Middle East policy described the Israeli attacks inside Egypt, all speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss classified information. Spokesmen for the Israeli and Egyptian militaries declined to comment.

Both neighbors have sought to conceal Israels role in the air strikes for fear of a backlash inside Egypt, where government officials and the state-controlled media continue to discuss Israel as a nemesis and pledge fidelity to the Palestinian cause.

The Israeli drones are unmarked, and the Israeli jets and helicopters cover up their markings. Some fly circuitous routes to create the impression that they are based in the Egyptian mainland, according to U.S. officials briefed on their operations.

In Israel, military censors restrict public reports of the air strikes.

El-Sissi has taken even more care, U.S. officials say, to hide the origin of the strikes from all but a limited circle of military and intelligence officers. The Egyptian government has declared the North Sinai a closed military zone, barring journalists from gathering information there.

David D. Kirkpatrick is a New York Times writer.1 War on drugs: Nearly 50 people suspected of using and selling drugs were killed by officers in the past two months, the Philippine National Police said Friday, contradicting earlier pronouncements that the governments war on drugs would become less deadly. The figure was the first released since President Rodrigo Duterte reactivated the police in December as the countrys lead agency in carrying out a crackdown on illegal narcotics. Duterte temporarily placed the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency in charge of the drug war last year after police officers were found to have killed three teenagers and then lied about how the boys died. News of their deaths prompted protests and a Senate investigation. The number of people killed since Dutertes drug war took effect in 2017 is unknown. The government says fewer than 4,000 suspects, but Human Rights Watch last week estimated the figure at more than 12,000.

2 London attack: A man who drove a van into worshipers near a London mosque, killing one man and injuring a dozen others, was sentenced Friday to at least 43 years in prison for what a judge called a crime driven by malevolent hatred. Judge Bobbie Cheema-Grubb said Darren Osbornes mind was poisoned by far-right ideas before the June 2017 attack targeting Muslims and that he had shown no signs of remorse. Makram Ali, 51, was killed and 12 people were injured when Osborne drove a rented van into people leaving evening prayers during Ramadan.Puratchi Thalapathy Vishal lauded actress Amala Paul for boldly handling the sexual harassment happened to her recently while she was rehearsing for an event.





Hats off to your guts @Amala_ams for your boldness in the recent incident. Salute you. Needs a lot of determination and guts to move a case on sexual harassment. Sincere thanks to the police department for the swift action taken. Case filed, hope these culprits learn a lesson, tweeted Vishal.



STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- New York Wheel has agreed to pay up to $460,000 of fired contractor Mammoet-Starneth's costs to store parts, including four legs valued at $9 million, for the 630-foot observation wheel, while also consenting to enter mediation to resolve certain issues in Mammoet's pending bankruptcy case, court documents show.

Mammoet wants to auction off at least $68 million in parts in line with Chapter 11 proceedings it filed in December in federal Bankruptcy Court in Delaware.

Mammoet claims the company is paying $700,000 per month to store the wheel's parts in the Brooklyn Marine Terminal, according to court documents.

A dispute between New York Wheel and Mammoet has stalled the massive waterfront project for almost nine months. New York Wheel subsequently fired Mammoet, its main contractor, which had walked off the job in May.

In August, New York Wheel announced plans to hire the builder of the Las Vegas High Roller and the new Gov. Mario Cuomo Bridge (formerly the Tappan Zee Bridge) to finish constructing the hoped-for tourist attraction on the St. George waterfront.

However, since that announcement, there has been no reported movement on getting the new contractor on board.

On Thursday, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Laurie Selber Silverstein ordered the two sides to abide by the new agreement.

Under it, New York Wheel will shell out up to $460,344 for Mammoet's February storage costs.

Both sides have also agreed to mediation in a bid to resolve, among other things, certain issues in Mammoet's Chapter 11 bankruptcy case.

Judge Selber Silverstein will hold a hearing on March 5 to decide whether the parts auction can proceed, court documents said.

The parts the contractor seeks to sell off, and their value -- according to Mammoet-Starneth -- include: legs, $9.2 million; frame braces, $3.4 million; rim parts, $13 million; capsules, $23 million; drive towers, $3.3 million; supply of cable spokes, $4.4 million; bend limiters, $847,500; dampers, $565,000; hubs and spindle, $2.7 million; bearings, $1.2 million, and drive and control units and system, $6.4 million.

"The developer of the New York Wheel continues to work diligently to reach final terms with American Bridge," Anne Champion, a lawyer representing New York Wheel, said in a statement, according to a report in Crain's.STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- The three Staten Island members of a TV crew who were accused of trying to pass through Newark Liberty International Airport security with a fake bomb pleaded not guilty during a court appearance Friday in Essex County, according to NJ.com.

Ruben Montenegro, 44, of Annadale; Michael L. Palmer, 51, of Rossville; and Adolfo Lacola, 51, of Richmond Valley, were charged with public false alarms, interference with transportation and conspiracy after the Jan. 18 incident, said Port Authority Police spokesman Joe Pentangelo.

Prosecutors said they were very concerned about the details in the criminal complaint, while a defense attorney for several of the defendants doesn't believe they will be indicted, the report said.

The men are due back in court March 5, the article said.

The Port Authority Police were called to the security screening at Terminal One to investigate a suspicious package in a carry-on bag that looked like an explosive device, Pentangelo said.

The investigation found the contraption was not dangerous, and had the making of an improvised explosive device (IED), Transportation Security Administration (TSA) spokeswoman Lisa Farbstein said.

The defendants claimed they were filming for a television show, but could not provide media credentials, Pentangelo said.

The crew was associated with the CNBC show "Staten Island Hustle."

The series, which is coming in the spring, reportedly "centers on a group of life-long friends and investors from Staten Island," according to a report in Variety.

Endemol Shine North America, the production company behind the program, previously said the incident was a misunderstanding.

Also arrested were: Samuel Micah Berns, 39, Hollywood, Calif.; Jacob M. Towsley, 34, Portageville, N.Y.; William Oaks, 36, Brooklyn; Philip K. Nakagami, 26, Jersey City, N.J.; Carlos F. Gonzalez, 33, Queens; and Timothy S. Duffy, 34, Sparta, N.J.By clicking Agree, you consent to Slates Terms of Service and Privacy Policy and the use of technologies such as cookies by Slate and our partners to deliver relevant advertising on our iOS app to personalize content and perform site analytics. Please see our Privacy Policy for more information about our use of data, your rights, and how to withdraw consent.

AgreeSystem error

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context: ... 21: </%method> 22: 23: % foreach my $c (@categories) { 24: <%perl> 25: my $category_id = $c->get_id(); 26: my @stories = Bric::Biz::Asset::Business::Story->list ( { element_type_id=>1148, category_id=>$category_id , Order=> 'cover_date', publish_status => 't' , OrderDirection=> 'DESC' , Limit=>10 } ); 27: </%perl> 28: <table width="90%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> 29: <tr> ... code stack: /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html:25

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According to a new research paper published by the Parliamentary Library, while a large number of minor parties were elected at the last federal election, the figure was expected to decrease over upcoming electoral cycles.

Fewer minor parties are expected to contest elections for Senate seats in upcoming federal elections. Credit:Andrew Meares

The paper analysed voting trends for the upper house following changes to how senators were elected. Voters were asked to mark a minimum of six preferences above the line, or 12 below the line.

Previously, voters had to only mark a 1 above the line or number every box below the line.Bitcoin whipsawed investors, falling below $US8,000 for the first time since November before recovering most of Friday's losses, as a miserable 2018 continued for cryptocurrencies, with investors confronting a mounting list of concerns about the future of the industry.

Since reaching a record high of $US19,511 on December 18 shortly after the introduction of regulated futures contracts in the US, Bitcoin has wiped out more than half its value amid waves of negative news.

A collection of bitcoin tokens: The miserable year for cryptocurrencies continues. Credit:Chris Ratcliffe

Setbacks included escalating regulatory threats from authorities around the world including India, South Korea, China and the US, a record $US500 million heist at Japanese exchange Coincheck, fears of price manipulation and Facebook's ban on cryptocurrency ads.As a very young reporter, he had watched five war criminals being hanged one sunny morning in Singapore, and noted the birds were chirruping brightly as the cowls were placed on their heads. He covered a war in Korea, a revolution in Algeria and assorted disasters, including one of the worst train crashes the world has known, but his biggest love was sport. Michael Gordon (middle) with former prime minister Bob Hawke. Credit:Craig Abraham My beginnings were more sheltered, though Harry gave me some advice when I covered my first plane crash in my second year at The Age. Check the time on the pilot's watch and it might give you an angle, he suggested. It did. The tip proved handy when I covered the bushfire that ripped through Victoria's western district three years later in February 1977, razing the historic township of Streatham. Clocks tell the nightmare time, said the headline. Illustration: Jim Pavlidis Credit:Jim Pavlidis

Most of the violence I witnessed as a young reporter was in the back bar of the John Curtin Hotel, the watering hole of choice for union leaders when Bob Hawke was running the ACTU. It was not the kind you could write about. Covering the Trades Hall back then was the perfect prelude to observing national affairs: a madcap pantomime involving politics, economics, and conflict, complete with a cast of mad dogs, mavericks and Maoists. Soon after Hawke left the ACTU for Canberra, I followed. Michael Gordon observes the House of Representatives at Parliament House, Canberra. Credit:Andrew Meares It was Peter Bowers, that eccentric giant of the press gallery, who remarked that Australian politics was a body contact sport, except that the politicians delivered blows with their tongues, not their fists. And it was Paul Keating who articulated what motivates most of us who work in the press gallery when he delivered the Placido Domingo speech at the National Press Club in 1990.

This was the speech Bob Hawke cited as justification for reneging on his Kirribilli commitment to hand the prime ministership to Keating, but it was about much more than Keating's ambition. Mostly, it was a tribute to Chris Higgins, the head of Treasury and Keating's close friend, who had suffered a heart attack and died an hour after meeting with Keating the previous day. "I was reflecting today on what was one man's contribution, and I suppose what I wanted to say to you was that this game is all about whether you want to be a participant or a voyeur," Keating said. Being a participant didn't mean being partisan, he explained. It meant separating what is important from what is not. "There is a lot of fairy floss in public life and you're combing through it, looking for something good, and trying to do something better." What he was saying was something my father had understood very early on: that people-watching is pointless unless it has a purpose. Often enough, my purpose seemed to be giving voice to those who didn't have one. In my early days, this group included Maurice Cole, the rebellious surfing champion stripped of his Victorian title because he was sent to prison for possession of marijuana.

It was John Howard who got me thinking about Aboriginal Australia when, in 1996, he was asked whether he intended to visit Aboriginal communities as prime minister. He replied that he did, but not in any tokenistic way, before adding: "Like all Australians who in their upbringing have not had much contact with Aboriginal people ... I have a lot to learn and understand about their culture." And it was the Howard government that was the catalyst for a focus on the plight of asylum seekers banished to indefinite detention in Nauru and Manus Island. After the children overboard saga of 2001, an inquiry was told that it was government policy not to allow the release of any images or information that personalised or humanised the "SUNCS" [suspected unlawful non-citizens]. From that moment, my mission was to investigate who these people were and to tell their stories. Loading When Harry was about the same age I am now, he left daily journalism to focus on writing in a longer form at a less frenetic pass, and to pursue other passions. Today, I am about to do the same.Labor says legal advice from Poland shows it has an open and shut case that Liberal MP Jason Falinski is a dual national, threatening to ensnare the first week of Parliament in a fresh round of trench warfare on citizenship.

Mr Falinski swiftly dismissed the advice as just wrong. The MP, who holds the safe Sydney seat of Mackellar, previously held by Bronwyn Bishop, by 16 per cent has long been eyed by Labor as the government MP under the longest citizenship shadow.

A Polish expert consulted by Labor has said information from the Office of Citizenship in Warsaw shows Mr Falinskis father is indeed a Polish citizen as he migrated from Poland on a Polish passport.

Jolanta Wolski, an immigration consultant who divides her time between Poland and Australia, said this made Mr Falinski Polish by descent.

Legal advice from the Krakow-based firm Lexmotion, also obtained by Labor, states that Polish passports are conclusive proof of Polish citizenship, as they are (and were) issued to Polish citizen[s] only.It's one of the simplest, most intuitive and least intrusive pieces of technology in the public sphere: a terminal with four plastic buttons adorned with faces ranging from a smiling dark green to an angry bright red.

You may have noticed them around - at overseas airports, in your doctor's surgery, at a shopping centre, your gym or local cafe.

A customer registers their feedback via a HappyOrNot terminal in the Chadstone Shopping Centre food court. Credit:Eddie Jim

And you can expect to see a lot more of them, with an Australian outfit investing substantially in Finnish tech company HappyOrNot's customer feedback system, and its next iteration in the form of touchscreens due to land here in March.

HappyOrNot is distributed in Australia and New Zealand by Push My Button, its sole reseller in the two countries.Your case being fairly straightforward, the CSHC's ATI simply counts your taxable income. Other sources of income that it counts are irrelevant to you, namely, target foreign income (i.e. foreign income that is neither taxable nor a fringe benefit), net investment losses, employer provided benefits, and "reportable superannuation contributions", e.g. salary sacrifice).

The term "adjusted taxable income", or ATI, can be complex and differs for various welfare payments. For example, the ATI for the Low Income Supplement includes untaxed superannuation income, which is ignored by the CSHC's test.

The Commonwealth Seniors Health Card or CHSC is allocated on the basis of an income test alone. This adds an "adjusted taxable income" to any "deemed income" from an allocated pension begun after January 1, 2015. Current deeming rates assume the first $50,200 for singles ($83,400 for couples) earns 1.75 per cent and the excess, 3.25 per cent although it is almost impossible to earn 3.25 per cent without taking on risk, much to many pensioners' annoyance!

I am 71 and want to find out whether I have the Commonwealth Seniors Health Card illegally. I have had the card since 2011 and am a self-funded retiree with a CSS pension of about $11,000, rental income around $22,000, plus I have $145,000 in bank and generated interest of $4300 last year. In my self-managed super fund, I have $137,000 in the bank and $327,000 in a managed fund. The total amount of the managed fund is in accumulation, and I haven't drawn down any pension on it because I stopped working in December 2015 when my boss passed away. My questions are: 1. Is it compulsory that I must draw down from the SMSF once I stop working? 2. My SMSF pays tax on the interest earned from the bank and on the dividend which is reinvested back into the fund. Will Centrelink deem the earning of the total amount of $464,000 (i.e. $137,000 plus $327,000) in accumulation even if I pay tax on the earnings of both? A.A.

Curiously, this income test does not deem super accumulation funds (as does the age pension's income test once a person reaches age pension age) but, if you begin an allocated pension from your SMSF, the income test will currently "deem" the total of $464,000 to earn $14,327 a year. When this is added to the $37,300 of taxable income you have listed, the total income measured by the income test will come to around $51,627.

Now the cutoff threshold for the CSHC is annual income of $53,799 for singles and $86,076 for couples, or $107,598 for couples separated by illness, respite care or prison.

So no, you are not receiving the card illegally but, if you begin a pension with all your superannuation savings, you will be getting close to the cutoff point. However, you are not required to begin a super pension at any time and, if you wish to withdraw sporadic lump sums to immediately pay bills, then these are not treated as income or assets.

We are a married English/Australian couple claiming a part age pension from both Australia and Britain. I am 67 and my wife 76. We became Australian citizens in 1994 and have been in Australia for 26 years. My total income from these two age pensions for the tax year 2016-2017 was $23,749 and my wife's income $20,324. I have a super fund in Australia of about $220,000, from which I draw $1000 a month, and two SIPPs in England containing the equivalent of about $70,000. We have no other form of savings and our assets are shares totalling just over $4000, a small car worth about $7000, and standard furniture etc, no antiques or valuables. Our only liability is the mortgage which currently stands at $15,000. I have two questions, one is that I would like to take out roughly $35,000 from the English pensions to buy a new car but I have been warned by well-meaning friends that I will lose a lot of it in tax, a loss of one third was mentioned. The second thing is that my wife is going to inherit 50,000 (about $88,000) sometime next year and we are afraid this will mean that we will lose our Australian age pension. I believe there will be no inheritance tax, but of course, this will increase our assets substantially and our annual income for that tax year. What would be your advice on these two points? P.C.

For other readers, a "SIPP" is a British "self-invested personal pension" plan, roughly equivalent to our accumulation funds in the Australian superannuation system.Ride-sharing company Uber came under fire last year for allegedly failing to comply with federal workplace laws amid claims of sham contracting. Credit:Gene J. Puskar The Melburnian accepts work via the platform as a courier, handling assembly work, installs, logistics and difficult furniture removal tasks from apartments and offices across the city. "I've teamed up with a mate and we've got a high-roof van and we do the jobs no-one else wants to do, like removing large furniture from small apartments around corner stairways," Berechree says. Contributing to his own superannuation is the last thing on Berechree's mind, and Airtasker isn't responsible for paying it on his behalf. The 38-year-old admits that meeting his tax liabilities is a far more pressing concern right now. "It's no different to all the years I've done in hospitality, though. I never had any superannuation paid because of sham contracting and dodgy operators," he says.

Both of these gig economy workers are classic examples of the perfect storm brewing in Australia right now. Stark differences Those who are self-employed have always been exempt from compulsory superannuation, but the changing nature of employment means there is now a growing number of gig economy workers and freelancers. Most choose not to make voluntary contributions to super and experts predict that the gap is only going to widen as the gig economy grows. While tax concessions have led to some self-employed saving for retirement through superannuation contributions, average balances have remained relatively low. In 2013-14, the average superannuation account balance for self-employed males was about $155,000, compared with about $386,000 for male wage and salary earners. For women, the difference is just as stark ($86,000 versus $159,000), according to figures from the Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia (ASFA).

It estimates that there are about 100,000 workers in Australia who use web-based platforms to obtain work on a regular basis, or about 0.8 per cent of the workforce, however these numbers are set to grow as web-based platforms cater for an increasingly wide variety of industries and professions. The problem is under investigation, with ASFA recently admitting that the case for change is strong. The rise of the gig economy will have potentially profound effects on the nature of work and the relationship between workers and those who engage them, according to ASFA chief executive Dr Martin Fahy. ASFA recently released a discussion paper on the changing nature of work and the implications of this for Australian workers, including their superannuation. The discussion paper suggests a couple of options for adjusting current settings. These include: Extending coverage of the Superannuation Guarantee to independent contractors and the broader group of self-employed workers.

Removing the $450-a-month wages threshold for the SG to be paid to employees.

Of particular concern is where workers are engaged under a contract and have work arrangements resembling those of an employee. These so-called "dependent contractors" don't receive the benefits that employees receive. "In Australia, some platforms with workers who inhabit this legal 'grey area' are showing strong growth in worker numbers. This issue will only become more prevalent," Fahy says. Sham contracting, where an employer attempts to disguise an employment relationship as an independent contracting arrangement to avoid responsibility for SG contributors is also of concern, Fahy says. Meanwhile, ride-sharing company Uber came under fire last year for allegedly failing to comply with federal workplace laws amid claims of sham contracting, prompting the Fair Work Ombudsman to launch an investigation following allegations that Uber had underpaid tens of thousands of drivers by classifying them as independent contractors rather than employees. A different approach

Market research conducted by new industry player gigSuper suggests that 75 per cent of self-employed are not contributing to their super, despite admitting that they know it's important. "And 25 per cent of self-employed workers risk retiring with no superannuation. This is a financial disaster waiting to happen, not just on a personal scale, but nationally," gigSuper co-founder Peter Stanhope says. Gig economy workers will be drawn to the fund because it has built greater flexibility into its product, taking into account the fluctuations in income across the year, Stanhope says. "We've designed a linked non-super investment account where money earmarked for super can be deposited through the year, and transferred into super at the click of a button at the end of financial year. "This means you can get back into the habit of putting money aside for your retirement regularly, but can still access those funds should you need to," Stanhope says.

System undermined The way in which employers engage workers is evolving and superannuation contributions aren't mandatory for gig workers, which is perfectly legal. "However, this is undermining the entire system," says David Kennedy, who owns retirement planning firm Hillross Pacific Advisory. "The majority of gig economy workers and freelancers don't take responsibility for their long-term retirement plans by contributing to superannuation," Kennedy says. Raising awareness of new legislation that allows individuals to make tax deductions as part of an incentive since July 1 last year could encourage individuals to make contributions, he says. He also suggests that the industry watchdog needs to create a sufficient incentive for individuals to contribute regularly to super as part of the solution.

"The financial services sector needs to think through the implications of the disconnect in the way that we engage with this particular workforce, and the affect on long-term savings outcomes that flexible work flow can bring." He urged gig economy workers and freelancers to get into a routine so that a percentage of their income is regularly going towards superannuation. Self-employed super There are two basic ways of making your own super contributions if you're self-employed. 1.If you pay yourself a wage, remember to also send at least 9.5 per cent of your before-tax income to your super fund, or

2.If you pay yourself out of your business revenue, most super funds will let you send a lump sum when you can. You can contribute up to $25,000 a year and receive a tax deduction, or make non-concessional contributions of up to $100,000 a year. There are also provisions to let you play catch-up. Spousal contributions are another provision that gig economy workers and freelancers can consider. On July 1, 2017, the spouse income threshold increased, meaning more people are eligible to claim the tax offset for the 2017-18 and future financial years. You can claim the maximum tax offset of $540 if: You contribute to the eligible super fund of your spouse, whether married or de-facto, and

Your spouse's income is $37,000 or less. For more information about voluntary super contributions, head to the page about contributing extra to super.John Howard was interviewed by Michael Gordon in January. "Micky was the most beautiful person you could hope to meet," The Age's editor Alex Lavelle said on Saturday. "A great friend and colleague, he was genuine, warm, kind and an incredibly talented journalist. He deserved all the accolades that came his way. Michael Gordon arrived at The Age in 1973 as a 17-year-old cadet. Credit:Jim Pavlidis "I can't think of anyone in The Age newsroom who has been a more positive influence over the past few decades.



"We are all devastated he is gone and will miss him greatly. We send all our love and best wishes to his family and many friends."

Fairfax Media CEO Greg Hywood described him as "not merely one of the great journalists of his generation" but also "one of the most loved". Michael Gordon with his father Harry at the 2005 Quill Awards, where he won the Graham Perkin Award for Australian Journalist of the Year. Credit:Nic Kocher "His passing is a tragedy for all who knew him and respected his enormous contribution to the national debate. "His 40-plus year body of work on politics, Indigenous affairs and refugees reflected his basic values of care, fairness and scrupulous honesty. Michael Gordon (centre) with former prime minister Bob Hawke. Credit:Craig Abraham

"But beyond that ... he was a wonderful man. "Our deepest sympathy goes to his wife Robyn and children, Scott and Sarah, and his broader family." Writing last year to mark his Walkley win, his colleagues in The Age and Sydney Morning Herald Canberra bureau described him as a man who "led by example with his courageous, fair and meticulously accurate reporting". "While extremely modest, Michael was always happy to share the lessons he had learnt from his decades in journalism, to give constructive feedback on stories and to give you a hug if you were having a rough time," they said. "Softly spoken and without a shred of self-importance, he was never too busy to help out and offer support."

Former Labor prime minister Paul Keating remembered him as a "very ethical journalist" who had "left a mountain behind" in the form of his life's work. "Michael was a substantial man who cared about the right things," he said. Long-serving Coalition prime minister John Howard said he had great respect for Michael.



"He was a man who wrote what he believed and always checked his facts."



Mr Howard said he had recently been interviewed by him and it was a "most pleasant meeting" with a man he considered to be "a gentleman". Former prime minister and current Liberal MP Tony Abbott described him as a "warm and engaging human being" and one of Australia's "finest political journalists". "It's so typical of his vitality and desire to live life to the full that he should have been out and about when tragedy struck ... "For me at least, tomorrow's Cole Classic will be swum in his honour."

Journalism was in Michael's blood, and he entered what he called "the family business" at the age of 17. His father, Harry Gordon, was editor of The Sun (which later merged with The Herald to become The Herald Sun), so Michael applied for a cadetship at rival newspaper The Age. As a young reporter he covered rounds including police, industrial relations and sport, but politics became his specialty. He had stints at other newspapers during his career  at The Herald in the late 1980s as New York correspondent and The Australian as national political editor in the '90s. His peerless reporting turned an unflinching spotlight on the treatment of asylum seekers, particularly those shipped offshore by successive Australian governments, and the injustices faced by many Indigenous Australians.

Amid the stories he broke was a 2016 piece on the impact of government offshore detention policies on the babies of asylum seeker families. The story caused a national outcry and led to a softening in policy for families impacted. His departure from The Age in June was noted by prime minister Malcolm Turnbull and Opposition leader Bill Shorten among many other politicians who praised his contribution to the national conversation. Michael was also an avid surfer, music lover and Hawthorn supporter. A history of the AFL club, written with his father, was one of seven books he had published. Hawthorn president and former Victorian premier Jeff Kennett described him as "a journalist of distinction". "We thank Michael for the lasting legacy and record he has left the Hawthorn Football Club and future generations of our members and supporters," he said.

"We miss him already." Seven-time world champion surfer Layne Beachley was the subject of another of his books. "I loved his demeanour  how respectful, how passionate he was," she said. "He was a great author, because he did not let you get away with shit. It's nice talking to someone who takes the time to understand the people he was writing about." Long-time friend and Age colleague Tony Wright said he last spoke to Michael on Friday.

"I hadn't heard Michael so happy with his life since he had left The Age," he said. "He was involved in a new project with Melbourne University interviewing and writing on leaders and had been told that the project would be expanded and continued for the foreseeable future. "He'd spent part of the week with his new grandson, Harry, named after his legendary father, and his daughter Sarah. "Last year he spent several months with his son, Scott, in Sierra Leone, where Scott is working on an aid project. "He had his surfboards on top of the car and he was heading to the retreat he shared with his partner Robyn Carter in the hills not far from Phillip Island.By March, Roland DG received a call to say one of "Peter's" printers wasn't working. David Edwards, a field service engineer was sent out for repairs. As he worked away he noticed the printer was loaded with a clear polymer film. Megaloudis was part of a sophisticated counterfeiting ring printing $50 notes. The operation came undone after Megaloudis' brother, Nicholas, handed two of the notes to a burger chain worker, after which point they found their way to police Detectives tracked the notes back to Megaloudis and his brother, eventually discovering enough polymer to make notes with a face value of more than $40 million. At trial, District Court judge Ross Letherbarrow, SC, said he was "unable to tell them apart from real currency". A fistful of dollars Thirty years ago when the first Australian polymer bank note was introduced, the idea they could be faked with off-the-shelf printers and materials was unthinkable.

There are now about 1.5 billion Australian bank notes in circulation, worth almost $73 billion. And despite some heralding the end of cash, "paper" still accounts for 37 per cent of transactions. The most widely circulated  and counterfeited  note is the $50 bill which makes up about 47 per cent of all bills in circulation and more than 80 per cent of all counterfeits. The $50 note offers the best profit for a counterfeiter looking to make a lot of money with minimal risk. "If you are going to spend several hours counterfeiting a bank note, you want to get the biggest return," said Michael Andersen, head of note issue at the Reserve Bank of Australia. "Hundred-dollar bills are not as common in circulation, you don't often see them and counterfeiters want less scrutiny."

The rate of counterfeiting in Australia is low. A person would have to go through 50,000 notes in a year to come across a counterfeit. But the rates are rising. In 2003-04, the rate was around 5 notes per million. Today it's 17 notes per million. And in 2015 Australia was one of only four countries, alongside New Zealand, Norway and Sweden, that saw counterfeiting rates rise. Authorities know that the forgers are finally catching up. This year saw the release of two new bank notes  the $10 and $5 bills. Those in the business know they need to constantly outsmart the forgers. After all, they've been left with egg on their face in the past, in an episode which proved so embarrassing, it forced authorities to rethink their bank notes and led to the creation of the polymer money we have today.

The Times Bakery counterfeit It was October 1966 and just as the Christmas-shopping season was gathering steam, forgers decided to act. In cafes, hotels shops and horse-racing tracks 10-dollar notes began to change hands, near identical to the real article, but also subtly different for those who bothered to check. For months, no one batted an eyelid. But on one rainy summer morning in December a man walking to work stumbled upon 43 sodden 10-dollar notes on a nature strip in Melbourne. There was something odd about these bills. The paper felt too waxy, and the "10" was noticeably blurred. Holding it up to the light also revealed the metal security thread running down the middle of the bill was indistinct. Police soon discovered the bills had been circulating for months. The timing couldn't be worse, two days before Christmas when every supermarket was flogging its prize ham and Christmas turkey.

It was an embarrassing find, with decimal currency in Australia just eight months old, supposedly with near-impenetrable security features. "The printing and distribution of the notes was probably the best planned operation ever carried out in Australian criminal history," detectives told The Canberra Times that year. It came to be known as the "Times Bakery counterfeit" because the horizontal lines on a depiction of the Times Bakery were, on inspection, not quite flush with the vertical edge of the building. Police begun hunting down suspects. Initial raids led to the seizure of around $1.6 million worth of notes. Police even tried to chase down a car en route to Sydney, believed to be carrying $150,000 in cash, but without success. By January, police had still failed to find the masterminds or printing equipment.

"The forgeries could continue to turn up for years unless the plates and the masterminds behind the swindle are discovered," Senior Detective Page said at the time. The criminal operation was so successful police continued to discover forgeries for months afterwards at a rate of around three a day. Beyond paper The Reserve Bank of Australia was at a loss. By the standards of the mid-'60s its bills were considered state of the art. After the fiasco, it established a think tank with scientists from the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation tasked with identifying innovative approaches to creating more secure bank notes. They suggested a plastic-based substrate be used as the basis for a new generation of bills. It was the beginning of Australia's polymer bills. In 1988 the bank released its first polymer bill  a commemorative $10 bank note.

The public were told the note was a special issue to commemorate the anniversary of Captain Cook's arrival in Australia, but it was also a discreet test of the polymer note. Some notes were quietly collected by the RBA after a period in circulation. They found that the public were harder on the note than expected. "There was a feature on one of the windows and at the time the public damaged it quite a bit," Andersen said. By 1996, all Australian notes were on polymer. The first recorded polymer counterfeits occurred the next year, but authorities were not worried. The manufacturing techniques were labour-intensive and non-viable. Counterfeiting rates plummeted. In 1994 Detective Sergeant Dennis Carr from the AFP's Currency Squad remarked in an internal police publication that due to the sophistication of bank notes, "it could be argued that the squad will cease to have a role to perform in the future."

Within 10 years the forgers were at it again. In May 2006, in the South American country of Colombia, police detectives supported by Interpol swooped on a printing facility as they hunted down a suspect involved in the manufacture of 319,000 in counterfeit bank notes. What they found was a stash of printing presses, computers, materials, partially completed notes, including Australian $100 bank notes with a face value of around $5 million. Disturbingly, the counterfeits contained high-quality reproductions including the distinctive clear window with its white pattern  the main security feature of Australian notes. The polymer note was now vulnerable. 'Really good fake money'

In May 2015, Kasey McFarlane walked into the Clayton branch of the National Australia Bank to exchange some American dollars. The bank, which had four people checking money before it went into their stock, handed her three $50 notes. When she went to a local supermarket and pulled out one to pay for groceries the teenager at the checkout identified it as a fake. "If you look at them and compare them, you're like, 'there's something not right,'" she told Fairfax Media at the time. "But if you were just handed them you wouldn't pick them up."

Stories like these sounded the death knell for the $50 dollar bill. Next year, the RBA will release a new $50 note, the culmination of 12 years of research and testing at a cost of around $37 million. "The whole program is a recognition counterfeits are getting better," Mr Andersen said. A lot has to be taken into account when creating a new bill. Bank notes have many distinctive features which many of us would recognise, but never consciously consider. The crunching sound a note makes when scrunched, its weight, the waxy texture, the light shellacked feel on the glossy windows of the slightly raised embossed foil images. "The first point of contact for a bank note is person to person so overt features have to meet two key objectives  firstly, they need to be difficult to replicate, secondly they need to be identifiable," Andersen says. There are stiff penalties for counterfeiting  up to 14 years  and it's illegal to fail to report a counterfeit note.

But counterfeiting is unusual among crimes. By reporting a counterfeit and handing it over, individuals are also forfeiting the value it represents. Like a note stuck together by sticky tape, there's a temptation to pass it on and make it someone else's problem. Federal Agent Mark Weber is the Australian Federal Police's Counterfeit Currency Liaison Officer. "If they [the public] do believe they are in position where they have come across some counterfeit notes they should let us know and submit them so we can have a look at them. If they are found to be genuine, they will be returned," he said. He said passing them on is a crime. "With the severity of the penalties involved that you open yourself up to, there is some consideration as to what is the easier option," he said.A lonely NSW grandmother who unwittingly helped her online "fiancee" carry out a $100,000 phishing scam that defrauded a Wagga Wagga retiree of his life savings has been sentenced to six months' jail.

Georgina Masters believed she was in a committed relationship with an African man named Joseph Trimble when she agreed in February 2017 to let him use her bank account for a series of money transfers.

Scammed: Georgina Masters admitted in court that her actions in dealing with the cash were 'reckless'. Credit:Georgia Matts

She told police the pair had connected on Facebook and spoke on the phone daily, but had never met in person. Still, she said Trimble had confessed his love and planned to move to Australia so they could marry.

So Masters said she didn't hesitate when Trimble initially asked her to accept a stranger's deposit of $15,000 into her account.Senator Burston sits behind Senator Hanson. This week he was nominated as deputy in charge of the party's NSW campaign. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen The revelations are the latest scandal to rock the party after two of its senators, Rod Culleton and Malcolm Roberts, were disqualified for being legally deemed ineligible over a conviction for a scuffle with a tow truck driver that was later anulled and caught up in the foreign citizenship affair respectively. Mr Roberts' replacement, Fraser Anning, is tipped to join another right-wing party after Senator Hanson said she had "abandoned" him to be an independent MP following an internal dispute about staffing. Knowingly misleading Parliament has historically been one of the most serious transgressions for MPs in Westminster democracies. In Australia it can result in a $5000 fine or six months' jail but is typically resolved by a parliamentary ethics committee's investigation. In December Senator Burston, who attended US President Donald Trump's inauguration, used a parliamentary letterhead without mention of his party affiliation to send an inflammatory letter to NSW school principals about Islam.

Islam, the letter claimed, commands adherents to "kill non-Muslims as their ticket into paradise". Further inconsistencies in the senator's claim to a university job have been unearthed by examining his own contribution to Hansard. Senator Burston was employed at the former Newcastle Teachers College. Yearbooks list him as a "lecturer" in technical education but not as holding qualifications besides a TAFE Diploma in Education. "In May 1987, I resigned my position [in the TAFE system] because of the rape of the education system overall by the NSW Liberal government," he told parliament last August, adding that he mainly trained apprentices in turning, fitting and boilermaking. The university and college were later merged as part of a nationwide overhaul of vocational education, but this was two years after Senator Burston's resignation.

Senator Burston's media adviser is Ku-rin-gai councillor Peter Kelly, who has said he obtained a doctorate from an unaccredited "university" incorporated in Florida and Gambia; he also claimed to have been a professor at the defunct Poseidon International University and to have advised a Malaysian sultan on Islamic law in Borneo. Soon after a 4 Corners expose this year into multiple alleged violations of electoral law by his party, Senator Burston threatened to vote against much of the government budget unless the broadcaster's funding was cut by $600 million. A decade ago Senator Burston was one of three members of a hastily convened party board after its treasurer was sacked and payments of $215,000 in electoral commission rebates were approved to be paid to Senator Hanson as a salary and directly into a personal bank account. Police did not act on complaints about that transfer. Senator Hanson spent 11 weeks in jail in 2003 for fraud for allegedly falsely registering the party as eligible to claim election funding before the three-year conviction was quashed on appeal. Senator Burston's office requested questions be emailed to his Parliament address but he did not respond to phone calls, text messages and emails.

IN THE FIRING LINE It's been a turbulent few years for One Nation, which has produced a cast of colourful characters who have brightened the landscape of politics. Malcolm Roberts: Disqualified senator for Queensland Mr Roberts was disqualified for being a British dual national in October after the High Court found he inherited the status through his Welsh father. A noted conspiracy theorist, Mr Roberts believed global warming data had been falsified by NASA and that international bankers such as the Rockefellers were seeking to use global warming to gain power. He attempted a comeback at the recent Queensland state election but was not elected. Rod Culleton: Disqualified senator for Western AustraliaThe Berejiklian government has given the developer of a proposed coal mine near Gloucester the unusual right to challenge the project's refusal in court, an opportunity routinely denied mining opponents.

Last December, the independent Planning Assessment Commission rejected Gloucester Resources Ltd's proposal to begin an open-cut mine near the mid-north coastal town.

Denise Gilbert at her Forbesdale residence near Gloucester, which overlooks the proposed Rocky Hill coal mine, pictured in the background. Credit:Liam Driver

The commission found economic benefits of the Rocky Hill mine with its 220-metre deep pit within a kilometre of homes were outweighed "by the detriment to the quality of life for residents near the mine site".

News that Planning Minister Anthony Roberts had granted GRL the right to appeal the decision was only revealed during a community consultation meeting in Gloucester on Friday despite being made before Christmas.The controversial Sirius site in The Rocks could house a sex shop under planning changes proposed by the NSW government, which also envisage the demolition of the Brutalist-designed public housing block.

A rezoning of the site would permit a number of uses including a hotel, child care centre, registered club and "restricted premises", which include sex shops and similar premises, as part of the NSW government's plan to sell the building to fund new social housing.

Architect Shaun Carter, the chairman of the Save Our Sirius Foundation, said "anything is possible if it is permissible under the zoning".

"Sydney is desperate for affordable housing, Gladys [Berejiklian]'s number one priority in her premiership, then why is she demolishing perfectly good and robust housing that could make the city run more efficiently?" he said. "Seems odd, doesn't it?"An elderly woman is unlikely to survive after she was bashed and left for dead by a stranger while walking her dogs in Melbourne's west.

Amy Tran, 30, of St Albans, faced court on Saturday charged with intentionally causing serious injury after 77-year-old Le Le was found in a pool of blood in a driveway near her St Albans home on Thursday night.

Homicide detective Scott Riley told the Melbourne Magistrates Court that witnesses had heard screams and the woman had "significant head injuries".

"Due to the nature of the injuries the victim is not expected to survive," Detective Senior Constable Riley said.A late-night operation by HMAS Warramunga on Thursday yielded a $124 million heroin haul, bringing the total value of drugs intercepted by the vessel since it was deployed to the Middle East region to the billion-dollar mark.

The Royal Australian Navy crew seized 414 kilograms of heroin during the operation in the Western Indian Ocean, after the ship's Seahawk helicopter detected the smuggling vessel during a surveillance operation. The narcotics were transferred to Warramunga and then disposed at sea.

Parcels of narcotics seized by HMAS Warramunga lay on the deck of a smuggling vessel in the Middle East.

Commanding Officer of HMAS Warramunga, Dugald Clelland, said it was a significant milestone for Australian maritime operations.

As a result of this latest seizure, Warramunga has now taken more than $1 billion of narcotics out of circulation, meaning the funds raised from this sale are no longer available for use by terrorist organisations around the world, he said.British and US generals have good reasons to be grateful to Russian President Vladimir Putin. For the first time since the Cold War, Russia serves as a compelling argument in the budgetary tug-of-war and a focus of military strategies - a far easier one than the non-state threats that confounded military thinking for the last quarter of a century.

The problem with the generals' take on the Russian threat, though, is that they want more money for old-school kinetic might and military bases, when the actual Russian threat is elsewhere.

Monday's speech by Sir Nicholas Carter, Britain's top general, was aimed at supporting the military establishment's push for more military spending - they are seeking closer to 3 per cent of economic output than the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation's 2 per cent commitment.

In the speech, Carter made much of the Russian threat: As he put it, the threat is the "most complex and capable security challenge we have faced since the Cold War".Bangkok: A health crisis is sweeping the Philippine islands as many parents refuse to have their children immunised amid controversy over the worlds first wide-scale dengue immunisation program.

Health officials say immunisation rates for polio, chicken pox, tetanus and other diseases are significantly down from previous years after the government suspended the sale and distribution of the Dengvaxia vaccine which had been administered to 837,000 Filipino children.

Our programmes are suffering(Filipinos) are scared of vaccines, Health Under-Secretary Dr Rolando Enrique Domingo told reporters, adding some immunisation rates have dropped as much as 60 per cent.

Department of Health Undersecretary Dr Rolando Enrique Domingo Credit:AP

The office of Health Secretary issued a statement saying this issue continues to sow fear and confusion, especially to the parents of children who have been injected with Dengvaxia.US President Donald Trump says a controversial memo attacking federal law enforcement written by congressional Republicans vindicates him in the investigation of Russian meddling in the 2016 US presidential election.

Trump's fervent embrace of the memo raised again the prospect that he may use it as justification to fire special counsel Robert Mueller, who is conducting the investigation, or Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who oversees Mueller.

Tweeting from his resort in Palm Beach, Florida, Trump said the memo "totally vindicates" him but added "the Russian Witch Hunt goes on and on. Their (sic) was no Collusion and there was no Obstruction." He called the investigation "an American disgrace".

The White House said on Friday there would be no changes at the Justice Department as a result of the memo's conclusions.Carter Page, a former foreign policy adviser of US President-elect Donald Trump, speaks at a news conference at RIA Novosti news agency in Moscow in 2016. Credit:AP Here's the problem with the claim that the memo shows that FBI was spying on the campaign: Carter Page was no longer associated with the campaign when the court order was approved. Here's the timeline March 16, 2016: In an interview with The Washington Post, Trump names Page as one of his foreign-policy advisers:

"Well, I hadn't thought of doing it, but if you want I can give you some of the names. . . Walid Phares, who you probably know, PhD, adviser to the House of Representatives caucus, and counterterrorism expert; Carter Page, PhD; George Papadopoulos, he's an energy and oil consultant, excellent guy; the Honorable Joe Schmitz, [former] inspector general at the Department of Defense; [retired] Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg; and I have quite a few more. But that's a group of some of the people that we are dealing with. We have many other people in different aspects of what we do, but that's a representative group." July 7-8: Page attracts attention by travelling to Moscow and delivering a speech harshly critical of US policy toward Russia. He emails campaign officials about "incredible insights" from his trip. August 5: The Trump campaign begins to back away from Page when The Washington Post reports on the unease in both parties caused by Page's remarks in Russia. Asked to comment on Page's public statements and campaign role, Trump spokeswoman Hope Hicks said Page was an "informal foreign policy adviser" who "does not speak for Mr. Trump or the campaign." September 23: The Trump campaign denies Page was ever part of the campaign. "Mr Page is not an adviser and has made no contribution to the campaign," campaign spokesperson Jason Miller said. "He's never been part of our campaign. Period." The statement comes as Yahoo News reports that a U.S. intelligence probe was trying to determine if Page had "opened up private communications with senior Russian officials - including talks about the possible lifting of economic sanctions if the Republican nominee becomes president." September 26: Page himself announces he is taking "a leave of absence" from the campaign, saying the reporting on his remarks has created a "distraction."

October 21: Nearly a month after the Trump campaign says Page was never part of the campaign, FBI seeks and receives a FISA court order to begin surveillance on Page. The order is renewed at least three more times over the next year, meaning that the FBI is able to convince the judges that surveillance continues to provide assistance to investigators. The Wall Street Journal reported that all of the judges who approved the orders were appointed by Republicans. February 16, 2017: Trump denies he ever met Page. "I don't think I've ever met him," he told reporters at a news conference. "And he actually said he was a very low-level member of, I think, a committee for a short period of time. I don't think I ever met him. Now, it's possible that I walked into a room and he was sitting there, but I don't think I ever met him. I didn't talk to him, ever." In other words, the surveillance began long after Page had supposedly left the campaign. Trump denies he ever met or spoke to Page. So it's hard to see how a court order on a former campaign adviser - less than three weeks before the election - would constitute spying on the campaign. The memo also discloses that the FBI opened a counterintelligence operation in July because of allegations concerning other Trump adviser, George Papadopoulos. But Papadopoulos was never mentioned in the Steele dossier. He came to attention of the FBI because he had told an Australian diplomat that the Russians had obtained thousands of Clinton's emails. He has pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI and is cooperating with the special counsel. Page was interviewed at length by the FBI in March, according to news reports, but that is before Mueller was named special counsel. As far as can be determined, Page is not a major figure in the Mueller probe.Rome: A man who ran as a mayoral candidate for the fiercely anti-immigrant Northern League political party allegedly opened fire on African migrants in the central Italian city of Macerata on Saturday, injuring six people in the racially motivated attack before he was captured, police said.

Police named the suspected shooter as Luca Traini, 28, and said he had an Italian flag draped over his shoulders when he was seized in the street by armed police. A pistol was found in his nearby car.

The ruling centre-left Democratic Party (PD) said Traini had stood as a candidate for the rightist Northern League at local elections last year and accused him of also firing shoots at one of their offices in Macerata before he was arrested.

The League backs fiercely anti-immigrant policies and is part of ex-prime Silvio Berlusconi's centre-right alliance that is leading in the polls ahead of a March 4 national election.Washington: A Russian man accused of operating a network of infected computers used by cyber criminals has been extradited to the United States from Spain and will make an initial court appearance on Friday, the US Department of Justice said.

U.S. prosecutors said Peter Levashov, 37, ran the Kelihos botnet, a network of more than 100,000 infected devices used by cyber criminals to distribute viruses, ransomware, phishing emails and other spam attacks.

Pyotr Levashov, an alleged Russian hacker. Credit:AP

Levashov denies the charges in an eight-count indictment handed down by a federal grand jury in Connecticut in April.

Levashov, who fought the extradition, told Spain's High Court in September that he had worked for Russian President Vladimir Putin's United Russia party for the last 10 years, Russia's RIA news agency reported.PORT ST. MAARTEN:--- Last week Port St. Maarten representatives, and stakeholders  Intermar Group/St. Maarten Shipping and Stevedoring NV President George Pelgrim and CMA CGM Managing Director Liliane Hohl, met with representatives of the French side Chamber of Commerce based on an invitation by its President Jean Arnell, to discuss pre and post Irma cargo flows and operations from the Dr. A.C. Wathey Cruise & Cargo Facility to the French side of the island.

The St. Martin Chamber of Commerce were briefed about Port St. Maartens improvement ratings post-Irma in particular cargo flow to the French side that would aid in the build back phase of both sides of the island.

Representatives of the chamber were very much pleased with the positive track record and recovery phase of the Port, and commended Port St. Maartens steadfast approach in ensuring an efficient flow of cargo as the island embarks upon the rebuilding phase of both North and South.

The Port St. Maarten presentation highlighted: port position pre and post Irma; operational percentage pre and after the hurricane; target to gain back full operational excellence with clear target dates; the execution of a solid, structured and strategic plan to aid in the reconstruction process; providing details of Port St. Maartens improvement matrix; highlighting the ports progress bar, in particular, delivery of French side cargo / container gate outs which increased expeditiously since the passing of Irma.

The other stakeholders present also gave crucial or key points to highlight from a stevedore and agent perspective; their current and future plans, and about new key investments currently made to ensure regaining full operational excellence.

CMA-CGM also highlighted what they are doing to ensure efficient and timely deliveries to the French side by steadily alleviating the backlog of containers since post Irma, for more efficient deliveries and working with all business on the French side as pointed out by Arnell particularly looking forward to the 10 week gate out of current block stow containers destined for French St. Martin importers as well as improved communication and collaboration between entities.

The St. Martin Chamber of Commerce were very receptive and thanked port representatives and stakeholders for the objective and open dialogue that will now aid and allow them to inform their respective bodies/the St. Martin Chamber of Commerce Board about the efforts being made by Port St. Maarten and stakeholders involved in a quick return to a state of normalcy as far as Cargo and other operations are concerned.

The French St. Martin Chamber of Commerce would like to express gratitude to the port officials for receiving us, providing clarity on port operations as well as pre and post-Irma performance data. We are satisfied to learn of the new investments and the capacity build-up being made by the port and its stakeholders, Jean Arnell was quoted sharing in the meeting.

Port St. Maarten cargo imports are already seeing positive double-digit growth as it relates to cargo volume incoming, with further double-digit growth expected as the build back process continues, Port St. Maarten Management said on Friday.

For the month of January compared to same period in 2017, we have experienced robust 19 % increase on full imports compared to prior years. As such it is paramount that this further translates into efficient and steadfast improvement/repairs to the Port  post-Irma, to ensure we meet our service and operational excellence targets as we are steadily on our way to full operational capabilities, Port St. Maarten Management added.

Port St. Maarten Press ReleaseORANJESTAD, Aruba:--- The year 2017 is expected to be closed with a financial deficit of 3.1% GDP. According to the National Ordinance on temporary financial supervision (LAft) a financial deficit of 0.5% is allowed. In order to be able to comply with its responsibilities, Aruba has taken out additional loans to the amount of AWG 130 million. It is expected that this will increase the debt quote up to 87% GDP as per the end of 2017. In 2018 the public finances threaten to get in disarray as well. It is therefore of the utmost importance that the government of Aruba presents as soon as possible a financial plan in which measures for 2018 are incorporated.

Deficit norm LAft greatly exceeded

The progress report on the third quarter of 2017 displays a troublesome sight. The collective sector of Aruba has a preliminary deficit of 2.6% GDP over the period up to the third quarter. This is 2.1% more than the lawfully permissible deficit norm of 0.5% GDP for 2017. The memorandum to the 2017 budget amendment shows that the deficit of 2017 has further deteriorated in the recent months and will amount to 3.1 GDP according to calculations. The deficit of 2017 is amongst others caused by dissatisfying (non) tax revenues of AWG 50 million and the write-off of the budgeted earnings of the Refineria di Aruba amounting to AWG 73 million. The loan amount thus had to be increased by AWG 130 million to an amount of AWG 569 million. During 2017 it became increasingly clear that it was no longer feasible for Aruba to comply with the LAft norm.

Budgetary cuts as of 2018 unavoidable

Aruba is facing a huge financial challenge for 2018. Based on the LAft, a surplus of 0.5% GDP must be realized, and according to the LAft the deficit of 2017 also has to be fully compensated in 2018. Seeing that in 2018 there is no possibility to spread the deficit compensation over multiple years, the LAft norm seems out of reach in 2018.

Aruba recognizes the precarious financial situation and wants to come up soon with a financial plan. It is now crucial that these measures start and yield effect in 2018, and form part of the adopted budget for 2018. Actions will also be needed after 2018 in order to get prospect on sustainable public finances. A package consisting of structural measures from Aruba to cut costs is therefore inevitable. In addition, the economy must be strengthened in a sustainable way. The reopening of the refinery has again been delayed and at the moment it is unclear what exactly will happen to the refinery.

Work visits CAft

As is usually the case during the visits of the Board to Aruba, meetings were held with the acting Governor, the Minister of Finance, the Council of Ministers and the Parliamentary Committee of Finance, Economic Affairs and Government Organization. The CAft also paid a visit to the Central Bank Aruba and met with the Aruba National Audit Office. Furthermore, the Board received information about the tax system in Aruba and its necessary reform.

CFT Press ReleaseImproving access to health for the most vulnerable, ensuring sufficient financing for health, and preparing health services to withstand the effects of climate change are among her priorities for the next five years.

Washington, D.C., 2 February 2018 (PAHO/WHO):--- Dr. Carissa F. Etienne, Director of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and Regional Director for the Americas of the World Health Organization (WHO), yesterday formally began her second term as head of the 115-year-old regional public health agency.

In this Region, most of our countries have reached the stage where many of the easy public health gains have already been achieved, said Etienne in her inaugural address, which means that each incremental improvement in the health of our peoples requires a redoubling of our efforts, in order to reach those most vulnerable and marginalized individuals that still lack health care.

She said that increasing overall investment in health will not be enough to meet this challenge. Targeted interventions that make a tangible difference in the lives of underserved populations will be the key to our success, said Etienne.

Over the next five years, Etienne will work with PAHO member countries to advance toward health for all. A high-level commission formed by PAHO will analyze progress toward this goal since the 1978 Alma-Ata declaration on primary health care and will examine the persisting gaps and challenges to further progress in the Region toward universal coverage and universal access to health.

Etienne begins her second term on a path already set by the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda, the WHO General Program of Work, the PAHO Strategic Plan, and the Sustainable Agenda for the Americas, which provide an intersectoral framework for social and economic development in all countries.

Attending Etiennes inauguration today were Secretary-General of the Organization of American States (OAS) Luis Almagro, Secretary-General of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Irwin LaRocque, and U.S. Assistant Secretary of Health and Human Services Eric Hargan.

Etienne said she would be advocating for increased funding to be allocated for health and for that funding to be well spent and focused on primary care, with the goal of reaching the most vulnerable. She will also prioritize strengthening of health information systems, to ensure that we have quality data that will help us to better identify inequities and vulnerabilities and to inform the development of health policies and plans. Towards this end, Etienne recently created a new PAHO department on Evidence and Intelligence for Action in Health.

Etienne is the first Caribbean woman to lead the hemispheric health organization and will also focus on preparing health services in the Region to withstand the effects of climate change.

A key part to ensuring that the health sector responds adequately to natural disasters lies in the development of resilient health systems, she said. Her native country, Dominica, was among those countries most affected by hurricanes in the past year.

Etienne first five-year term began in February 2013. She was re-elected by PAHO Member States during the Pan American Sanitary Conference last September 2017. She was also named Regional Director for the Americas for WHO by the WHO Executive Board in Geneva in late January 2018.

Over the past five years, PAHO has helped countries in the Americas expand access to health services, strengthen regulatory systems for medicines and health technologies, strengthen the health workforce, and improve access to safe and efficient health services, among other priorities.

Under Etiennes leadership, PAHO has also supported member countries during a series of epidemics, including Zika, chikungunya and yellow fever. The Region of the Americas became the first WHO region to eliminate endemic transmission of measles, rubella, and congenital rubella syndrome as well as neonatal tetanus. Four of the regions six countries that are endemic for onchocerciasis have eliminated that disease, and one country has eliminated trachoma. Meanwhile, several countries are close to certifying their elimination of malaria. Seven countries and territories have received validation of their elimination of mother-to-child transmission of HIV and congenital syphilis, following Cubas becoming the worlds first country to be so validated.

Efforts to prevent and control noncommunicable diseases have also been a priority for PAHO in recent years. A number of countries have made particular progress in the areas of food labeling legislation and taxation of sugary beverages.

Etienne joined PAHO in 2003 as Assistant Director in charge of technical areas at PAHO headquarters in Washington, D.C. From 2008 to 2012, she was Assistant Director for Health Systems and Services at WHO in Geneva, where she focused special attention on renewing the primary health care approach and strengthening health systems based on primary care.

Before joining PAHO/WHO, Etienne held positions in her own country, Dominica, including coordinator of the National AIDS Program, coordinator for national disasters in the Ministry of Health, president of the National Committee on HIV/AIDS, and director of Primary Health Care Services. She began her career as a medical officer in Princess Margaret Hospital, where she rose to the post of Medical Director.

Etienne received her degree in medicine and surgery from the University of the West Indies in Jamaica and a masters degree in community health in developing countries from the London School of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.

PAHO Press ReleaseWashington, DC, 2 February 2018 (PAHO/WHO):--- High-level officials from Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, St. Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia and St. Vincent and the Grenadines joined the Director of the Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization (PAHO/WHO), Carissa F. Etienne, today in signing a new multicountry strategy for technical cooperation in health through 2024.

This strategy is your vision of how PAHO/WHO can best support the work of your ministries of health in improving the health of their people, Etienne told the Caribbean health leaders. It is aligned with your countries national health policies, strategies and plans as well as with established Caribbean-wide health goals and the United Nations Multicountry Sustainable Development Framework for the Caribbean.

The new strategy is the second agreement of its kind between PAHO and this group of countries. It focuses on achieving previously unmet goals while also addressing new challenges the countries face, including health sector reform required to respond to the needs of aging populations, the growing burden of noncommunicable diseases, and the health effects of climate change, among others.

The 2018-2024 Multi-country Cooperation Strategy for Barbados and Eastern Caribbean Countries is based on five strategic priorities: strengthening the countries health systems to advance universal health coverage and access; reducing deaths and illness from communicable diseases like HIV, tuberculosis and hepatitis B; achieving optimum family health throughout the life course; reducing the burden of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs); and strengthening preparedness and response to health emergencies and disasters while also reducing environmental threats and risks.

We hope that the priorities defined in this strategy will provide the support you need in the coming years to continue to make your health systems more resilient and to ensure that you achieve universal access to health and universal health coverage, as well as your other national health goals, said Etienne.

During the signing event, Dr. Godfrey Xuereb, PAHO/WHO Representative for Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean countries, noted that the strategy was developed through a consultative process involving all the countries and representatives from the public and private health sector, other government ministries, nongovernmental organizations, civil society and key development partners.

Present to sign the agreement at PAHO headquarters in Washington, D.C., were: Minister of Health and Environment of Dominica Kenneth Darroux; Minister for Health and Wellness of Saint Lucia Mary Isaac; Chief Medical Officer of Antigua and Barbuda Rhonda Sealey-Thomas; Chief Medical Officer of Grenada George Mitchell; Ambassador to the US and the Organization of American States (OAS) of Barbados Seldon Charles Hart; Ambassador to the US of St. Kitts and Nevis Thelma Phillip-Browne; and Alternate Representative to the US and the OAS of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Gareth Bynoe. Also attending the signing event was the Director General of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States Secretariat Didacus Jules; and Ana Treasure, Head of PAHOs Country and Subregional Coordination.

PAHO/WHO looks forward to continue working with other agencies and institutions, such as the Caribbean Public Health Agency, the University of the West Indies and the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States Secretariat, to improve the health of the Peoples of Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean, Etienne said. The signing took place a day after Etienne assumed her second term as PAHO Director.

PAHO Press ReleasePentagon pushes for new, low-yield nuclear weapons



Washington, Feb 2 (AFP) Feb 02, 2018



The US military wants to revamp its nuclear arsenal and develop new low-yield atomic weapons, largely in response to Russian actions in recent years, the Pentagon said in a policy statement released Friday.

The so-called Nuclear Posture Review outlines the Pentagon's nuclear ambitions under President Donald Trump and is the first time since 2010 that the military has spelled out how it foresees nuclear threats in the coming decades.

"The strategy develops capabilities aimed at making use of nuclear weapons less likely," Trump said in a statement. "It enhances deterrence of strategic attacks against our Nation, and our allies and partners, that may not come in the form of nuclear weapons."

"And, importantly, it reaffirms our commitment to arms control and nuclear non-proliferation, maintains the moratorium on nuclear testing, and commits to improving efforts to prevent, detect, and respond to nuclear terrorism," he said.

The document marks a sobering break from the vision for America's atomic future under Barack Obama, who during a famous speech in Prague in 2009 called for the elimination of nuclear weapons.

While it underscores the administration's concerns about North Korea, Iran and China, the focus falls largely on Russia.

"This is a response to Russian expansion of their capability and the nature of their strategy and doctrine," Defense Secretary Jim Mattis wrote in the introduction to the 75-page document.

"These developments, coupled with Russia's seizure of Crimea and nuclear threats against our allies, mark Moscow's decided return to Great Power competition," he also wrote.

The Pentagon worries Russia assumes America's regular, large-yield weapons are essentially too big to ever be detonated, as their use would likely result in large-scale retaliation and wipe much of humanity off the map.

"There are strong indications that our current strategy posture and capabilities are perceived by the Russians as potentially inadequate to deter them," Greg Weaver, the deputy director of strategic capabilities for the military's Joint Staff, told reporters.

"The US and NATO require a wider range of credible low-yield nuclear options to do a very specific thing: to convince the Russian leadership that if they initiate limited nuclear use, in a war with the alliance, our response will deny them the objective they seek and impose costs that far outweigh those benefits they can achieve," he added.



- More reliance on subs and ships -



The document, an earlier version of which was leaked last month, says that by having additional smaller nukes, the Pentagon can counter adversaries' "misperceptions" that the United States would not respond to another country using its own low-yield bomb.

The new strategy calls for a continuation of the nuclear modernization program ordered by Obama that encompasses all pillars of the "triad" -- ground-based intercontinental ballistic missiles, submarine-launched weapons and bombs delivered by plane.

But unlike the Obama strategy, which stressed reducing the role of nuclear weapons, the new policy has a more assertive tone.

Low-yield nuclear weapons, also known as "tactical" nukes, are still extremely powerful and can pack as much destructive punch as the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of World War II.

America already has a massive nuclear arsenal at its disposal, including 150 B-61 nukes stored across multiple European countries that can be configured for low-yield options.

The new weapons envisioned by the Pentagon would be launchable from submarines or ships, so would not need to be stockpiled in Europe.

They could also get around Russian air defenses more easily.

The bombs would not add to America's nuclear horde, and would instead repurpose existing warheads, but critics say the Pentagon would be going against the spirit of non-proliferation agreements.

"We are on the cusp of a new era of nuclear proliferation," warned Barry Blechman, co-founder of the Stimson Center, a nonpartisan anti-nuclear proliferation think tank in Washington.

"This is the great nuclear danger raised by the new" nuclear policy.

Weaver disputed media accounts that the nuclear posture review lowered the threshold for America to use nuclear weapons.

"The purpose of these capabilities is to make a US response to nuclear use more credible, not to make US first use more likely," he said.N.Korea's Berlin embassy used to acquire nuclear tech: spy chief



Berlin, Feb 3 (AFP) Feb 03, 2018



Germany's domestic intelligence agency chief has revealed North Korea has been acquiring equipment and technology for its nuclear and weapons programmes through its Berlin embassy.

BfV head Hans-Georg Maassen said: "We have noticed that so many procurement activities have taken place from the embassy."

"From our point of view, they were for the missile programme but also partly for the nuclear programme," Maassen added in an interview with German public television channel ARD, to be aired on Monday.

Extracts of the interview were published on Saturday.

Although the exact nature of the technology was not specified, the intelligence chief said they would have civilian and military uses.

"When we see such things, we stop them. But we cannot guarantee that we spot and block each attempt," he said.

Germany's domestic intelligence agency obtained clues on the technology procurements in 2016 and 2017, according to an investigation by ARD.

In 2014, it said a North Korean diplomat attempted to obtain equipment used in the development of chemical weapons.

The German accusations come after the publication on Friday of a United Nations report which says North Korea is flouting sanctions by exporting coal, iron, steel and other banned commodities, earning nearly $200 million in revenue last year.

A UN panel of experts also found evidence of military cooperation by North Korea to develop Syria's chemical weapons programmes and to provide Myanmar with ballistic missiles.Syria jihadists claim downing of Russia plane: propaganda arm



Beirut, Feb 3 (AFP) Feb 03, 2018



A jihadist-dominated alliance claimed Saturday to have downed a Russian fighter jet in northwest Syria with a shoulder-launched missile, in a statement issued through an online propaganda channel.

Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) made the claim through the affiliated media channel Ibaa, but it did not mention the fate of the warplane's pilot.

"We were able to bring down the Russian warplane with a shoulder-fired missile above Saraqib in Idlib this afternoon," said Mahmoud al-Turkmani, who according to the statement heads the alliance's "air defence brigade."

HTS controls Idlib province and is dominated by fighters from Al-Qaeda's former Syrian affiliate.

The Russian defence ministry confirmed the Su-25 aircraft was shot down over Idlib province and said the pilot was killed "in fighting against terrorists."

"A Russian Su-25 aircraft crashed during a flight over the Idlib de-escalation zone. The pilot had enough time to announce he had ejected into the zone," the defence ministry said.

"The pilot was killed in fighting against terrorists," it said, quoted by Russian agencies.

It added that "according to preliminary reports, the plane was shot down by a portable anti-aircraft missile system."

Troops loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad launched a fierce offensive on Idlib in late December, with backing by Russian warplanes.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also claimed the pilot was killed as he clashed with the anti-government fighters who had shot down his plane.Published: 29.01 - 2018



During an investor conference in Whistler, British Columbia, on 25 January, Chuck Magro, Nutrien's President and CEO, told that the company has an intention to stop buying phosphate rock from Western Sahara. This was reported by Reuters.

However, Reuters did not report on the most interesting part of the news: the CEO informed that the contract between the Moroccan exporter OCP and the part of Nutrien that used to be called Agrium is ending now in 2018.

Nutrien emerged as a new Canadian company on the first week of January 2018, as a merger between PotashCorp and Agrium. According to WSRW's calculations, the new company Nutrien is, by far, the biggest funder of the illegal occupation of the territory of Western Sahara. The company purchases half of the phosphate rock from Western Sahara. Since it began its imports in 2013, Agrium has imported around 27% of the phosphate rock that Morocco is excavating in the territory under occupation. This has a value of approximately 276 million USD, paid to the Moroccan government. Agrium was during these years the biggest importer from Western Sahara. This practice is now coming to an end.

The second biggest importer from 2012 to 2017 is PotashCorp, with 22% of the total puchases, at a value of 250 million USD. Western Sahara Resource Watch (WSRW) on 7 January 2018 wrote about the massive involvement of Nutrien.

The clarification from the Nutrien CEO last week that the current imports to PotashCorp contitutes "a little bit" is not correct.

The importing plant of PotasnCorp in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, imported last year phosphate worth 33 million USD. That equals approximately all the international humanitarian aid given to the Saharawi refugees (who owns the rock) last year. The Saharawi government has in 2017 taken the first legal actions against the players involved in the trade with Morocco over the phosphate rock. The Saharawis have not given permission to PotashCorp to purchase the phosphate rock from the government that is illegally occupying their territory.

Over the course of the last years, both Agrium and PotashCorp have been blacklisted by several dozen institutional investors due to matters of international law and human rights. It is expected that many investors during the first six months of 2018 will automatically apply the old Agrium/PotashCorp exclusion decisions on the new company Nutrien. The CEO of Nutrien acknowledged the pressure from the owners on the matter.

In addition to announcing the halt of imports directly into Canada, Mr. Magro told that the company will, in half a year from now, make a decision on what to do with the PotashCorp imports from the territory.

"While we welcome the intention of Nutrien to halt imports from the occupied territory, we are not convinced until we have seen the last vessel sail in to the harbours of Baton Rouge and Vancouver. The imports of PotashCorp is still massive, and still ongoing. Agrium had made the same promise of diversifying its supply chain to its owners for the last five years, but with effect only now in 2018. At the same time, PotashCorp has been in a state of denial. The people of Western Sahara cannot wait for Nutrien to stop at the same, slow pace to Baton Rouge as it has done to Vancouver", chair of WSRW, Sylvia Valentin, stated.

Even if the Vancouver imports are halted, Nutrien would still be the second biggest purchaser in the world, due to its imports into Baton Rouge, USA, providing the trend from last year continues.

"While we welcome the decision to halt imports to Vancouver, we call on global investors who have already excluded one of the two companies to immediately apply their exclusions to Nutrien. Investors need to shy Nutrien until its role in the plunder has effectively stopped, and the last vessel has been shipped to the company", Valentin said.

Already in a letter from Agrium to WSRW in April 2017, the company stated that it looks to other sources for its production in Redwater, Canada, imported via Vancouver.

On 10 January 2018, the General-Advocate of the EU underlined that EU and Morocco cannot include Western Sahara in a bilateral fisheries agreement, as Western Sahara is a separate territory from Morocco. He underlined that Western Sahara is under occupation, and that the international humanitarian law applies. The General-Advocate said that self-determination is a human right. Agrium and PotashCorp have never addressed that concern in their correspondence with WSRW, and the two have failed to seek or obtain consent from representatives of the Saharawi people.

Besides Nutrien, there are only three other companies globally that purchase from Western Sahara: an Indian subsidiary of the Moroccan exporting company, in addition to two farmer-owned cooperatives on New Zealand.

According to WSRW's calculations, during the period from 1 January 2013 to 31 December 2017, Agrium and PotashCorp took in 75 of the 186 vessels carrying phosphate rock from the territory. These 75 vessels contained 4,54 million tonnes of rock, out of a total exported volume of 9,15 million tonnes. (SPS)

062/SPS

http://wsrw.org/a105x4051Brussels (Belgium), Feb 3, 2017 (SPS) - About a hundred organizations of the Sahrawi civil society expressed Saturday, their deep concern regarding the negotiations between the European Union (EU) and Morocco, to include products from Western Sahara in their trade agreements, without the consent of the Sahrawi people, condemning a destructive and unsustainable approach of the European commission.

We express our deep concern regarding the ongoing negotiations between Morocco and the European Union to include Western Sahara in the trade agreements with Morocco without the consent of the Sahrawi people through its legitimate representative, the Polisario Front, wrote these organizations coming from the occupied territories, liberated territories, refugee camps in Tindouf and the diaspora in a letter to the European Commission.

The organizations expressed serious concerns about the attitude of the European Commission, affirming that its persistent will to ignore or circumvent a decision of its highest jurisdiction violates the fundamental rights of the Sahrawi people and allows the continued illegal exploitation of Western Saharas natural resources.

The organizations of the Sahrawi civil society underlined, in this regard that to this day, no serious examination of this negotiations process has been authorized, given that the mandate granted by the Council of the European Union to the European Commission last May, to negotiate with Morocco, with an amendment to the text of the agreement liberalizing agricultural products was kept secret.

Regretting that the European executive has not made any attempts to engage with the Polisario Front as the legitimate representative of the Sahrawi people, the Sahrawi organizations recall that however, the Court of Justice of the European Justice (CJEU) ruled that no trade treaty between Morocco and the European Union can legally apply to Western Sahara except if the Sahrawi people consent to it. (SPS)

062/SPS/APS



English02/02/2018

SRNA News Roundup /I/ - February 2, 2018





REPUBLIKA SRPSKA



BANJALUKA - Republika Srpska President Milorad Dodik has announced that he will launch an initiative to redefine the position regarding amendments to the Election Law of BiH, i.e. to keep the current provision of the BiH Constitution that Republika Srpska elects a Serb member of the BiH Presidency.



BANJALUKA - Republika Srpska President Milorad Dodik has said that he will firmly defend Republika Srpska and told the Bosniak presidency member, Bakir Izetbegovic, not to calculate with any figures in order to endanger it either securely or politically.



PRNJAVOR - Republika Srpska Prime Minister Zeljka Cvijanovic has stated that the 2018 Srpska budget /BAM 3.3 billion/ is stable and that all liabilities will be fulfilled.



PRNJAVOR - Republika Srpska Prime Minister Zeljka Cvijanovic has stated the agrarian budget in Srpska will increase from BAM 60 to 70 million.

BANJALUKA - Republika Srpska Prime Minister Zeljka Cvijanovic has stated she supports every form of combating crime and corruption, which means that the Srpska institutions should be strengthened and the legislative framework should be improved.



BANJALUKA - Between 2004 and November 2017, the Ministry of Refugees and Displaced Persons of Republika Srpska provided a total of BAM 35,369,513 for the returnees from the ranks of Croat people through the projects implemented from the budget funds of the Srpska Government.



BANJALUKA - Director of the Republika Srpska Radio, Dragan Pajic, told SRNA today that this public service is operating in new and modern premises, progressing from year to year technically, radio programme wise and in terms of staff.



BANJALUKA - The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development /EBRD/ has approved a loan to Addiko Bank Banjaluka in the amount of EUR 5 million in order to support the growth and development of small businesses in the local market, the bank has announced.



BRATUNAC - Bratunac Municipality Mayor, Nedeljko Mladjenovic, points out that capital projects with a total value of approximately BAM 100 million are being implemented during the last three years in the Bratunac area.



SOKOLAC - More than BAM 113.500 has been paid for the regular work of the municipal War Veteran Organisation Sokolac and the supplementary rights of families of fallen veterans, war invalids and demobilized soldiers in 2017, and this organisation is pleased with the support of local government.



ZVORNIK - Pupils of Bosniak background are attending school again in a regional unit in Snagovo, which is part of the Sveti Sava Primary School Zvornik, school principal Radomir Petrovic confirmed to SRNA.



BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA



SARAJEVO - BiH Presidency Chairman Dragan Covic has stated that adequate changes to electoral legislation could be achieved in BiH, without amending the Constitution, regardless of what kind of model is applied.



SARAJEVO - The trial of Elfeta Vesela and Sakib Halilovic for the murder of 12-year-old boy Slobodan Stojanovic in 1992 near Zvornik will resume in the Court of BiH today.



MOSTAR - The Serb poet Aleksa Santic, the author of the anthological poems "Ostajte ovdje", "Emina", "Vece na skolju", "Ne vjeruj", Pretpraznicko vece" ... died on February 2 in 1924.



FEDERATION OF BiH



ZAVIDOVIC - The Prime Minister of the Federation of BiH, Fadil Novalic, arrived in Zavidovici today to give answers to the gathered workers of the Krivaja Company about the undertaken measures to rescue the company.



SERBIA



BELGRADE - Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic has said that Belgrade has a crystal clear position on BiH and no interests other than peace and stability in the region, as well as that the Serbs and others in BiH feel safe.



BELGRADE - Johannes Hahn, Commissioner for European Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations, has stated that 2025 is roughly a date for the admission of new members to the EU, and that Serbia can only achieve it if it quickly implements the decisive reform steps and "permanently and obligatory normalizes the attitude towards /self-proclaimed/ Kosovo".



BELGRADE - Dragomir Andjelkovic, a political analyst, has said that the candidacy of the founder of the Humanitarian Law Centre Belgrade, Natasa Kandic, for the Nobel Peace Prize, behind which are American congressmen who are open anti-Serb lobbyists and representatives of Albanian and Bosniak interests, has denounced the true nature of most NGO organizations in Serbia.



REGION



BANJALUKA - Editor-in-chief of Vecernje Novosti, Milorad Vucelic, believes that the redrawing borders in the Balkans have not been completed yet and that the powers, especially the western ones, are planning to create conflicts in that area.



ZAGREB - Leader of the Serbian National Council /SNV/ Milorad Pupovac has stated that the meeting between the presidents of Serbia, Aleksandar Vucic, and Croatia, Kolinda Grabar Kitarovic, is important to make a cut and move towards the creation of preconditions for good communication in relations between the two countries. /end/vosGene Ransom's day was ruined within minutes of Attorney General Jeff Sessions' announcement that he was giving federal prosecutors more freedom to go after marijuana transactions in states that have legalized medical cannabis.

"Our phones just blew up," said Ransom, the head the Maryland State Medical Society. "We must have had 400 physicians calling to ask us what this was going to mean."

Sessions' Jan. 4 bombshell came just a month after Maryland launched its own medical marijuana program, further roiling a health care community struggling with how - or even whether - to bring pot into mainstream practice.

Already nervous, some doctors who had signed up promptly backed out when Sessions reversed the hands-off policy of the Obama era.

"I know of two who had already registered who decided not to take the risk after all," Ransom said. "One of them had already written recommendations for several patients."

The problem isn't limited to Maryland, one of 28 states that has legalized medical cannabis. The reluctance of doctors, particularly on the East Coast, to embrace medical marijuana has become the final and highest hurdle in the push to normalize the drug, advocates say.

New Jersey and Pennsylvania have both reported physician resistance. In New York, only 1,200 of the state's 97,000 licensed doctors have registered to offer cannabis, according to state officials. In Massachusetts, just 218 doctors have registered three years into the program, limiting the number of patients able to gain access to state-certified dispensaries.

"I think it has been a huge impediment," said Nichole Snow, president of the Massachusetts Patients Advocacy Alliance.

In Maryland, the top federal prosecutor, acting U.S. Attorney Steve Schenning, told a legal publication last week that he had no plans to go after growers, dispensaries and physicians in the state-sanctioned system. But the uncertainty remains, chilling an already reluctant community of doctors.

Almost 20,000 patients have registered with the state's Medical Cannabis Commission, the first step in gaining access to legal marijuana. Next they must find a registered doctor to recommend it, and then go to an approved dispensary - there are now 22 open statewide - to buy it. But with 200 to 400 new patient online applications arriving a day, the number of doctors signing up has "flatlined" at just under 700, according to a commission official, leading some to fear that finding a doctor is going to be hard for some patients.

The Sessions scare isn't the only reason some docs are hesitant. Many already stay away on principle, seeing no reason to reassess marijuana's street-drug rep. Others work for corporate practices or hospitals that aren't ready to touch the stuff.

But physicians willing to make the jump are confronted by the purple haze of uncertainty that surrounds a medicine that wasn't taught in med school.

"It's a product that most doctors don't know anything about," said Ehsan Abdeshahian, a Waldorf-based pain specialist appointed to the cannabis commission in July by Gov. Larry Hogan (R). "The priority now is to educate the providers."

Abdeshahian is leading the commission's plan for an online program to answer as many questions as they can for eligible providers, which includes physicians, nurse practitioners, midwives, podiatrists and dentists. A bill currently before the legislature would add physician assistants to the list.

Unlike most pharmaceuticals, cannabis didn't arrive with an FDA pedigree of clinic trials, dosage guidelines and a list of specific uses. That work is beginning to be done, advocates say, but as the patient rolls swell, many providers are stymied by some basic questions: Is it really safe? Is it actually effective? Is it truly legal?

"I don't think we're ready for it," said Gary Pushkin, an orthopedic surgeon in Baltimore for the last 34 years. He's waiting for science to back up claims by advocates - and a growing number of patients - that cannabis can help with seizures, nausea, wasting, anxiety, cancer and host of other ills. It's all anecdotal until the data is in, he said.

"It seems we're being driven by YouTube videos now," said Pushkin said.

Puskin serves as the president of the Maryland State Medical Society, the state's largest doctors association. He opposed medical marijuana during the long debate before the state legislature, but the group itself stayed neutral.

"Our members are just like the public, they are split on the issue," said Ransom.

But now that Maryland's program has launched - more than four years after being signed into law - the group is working to make it as orderly as possible for the doctors who want to participate. And one the of biggest quandaries for providers who may get a third or more of their income from Medicare or other federal sources: Sussing out the legal risk of prescribing a drug still outlawed by the federal government.

Mathew Mintz, a longtime internist at George Washington University Medical School who recently set up his own practice in Bethesda, Maryland, said liability fears are a big reason most of his peers are still wary of the cannabis program. But he decided it was worth the risk and has written about a dozen recommendations for patients in the last month.

"I've really been impressed with how medical marijuana has changed the lives of people with chronic conditions," Mintz said, citing cases of anxiety and insomnia he has witnessed.

Mintz is eager for researchers to backfill some of the healing claims made about cannabis, but he's confident that the drug is safe enough for many patients to at least try.

"The more we learn about it, the more we understand that it's a non-addictive substance that's probably safer than alcohol," he said. "It's probably safer than Tylenol."

Still, the process is far less precise than scribbling in Latin on a prescription pad, knowing the pharmacist will fill the order down to the milligram and type exact directions on the label.

Like many participating doctors, Mintz consults with his patients, decides if they might benefit and then largely leaves it up to the dispensary to come up with a dose and type of cannabis to try. They are the experts in this still fledgling field of cannabinoids, tinctures, flower strains, vaping and edibles.

"I tell my patients to talk to the dispensary," Mintz says. "I just recommend that they don't smoke anything."

That puts him at odds with some in the dispensary field, who want the doctors to be as specific as possible about the what the patient needs.

"The doctors are looking to us to provide the patient with specifics on the different strains," said William Askinazi, co-owner of Potomac Holistics in Rockville, Maryland. "We can do that, but we don't venture into the more traditional medical areas of the underlying illnesses."

Some doctors are far more comfortable making specific recommendations, but even they have to navigate a system can feel more ancient apothecary than modern pharmaceutical.

Patricia Frye' s clinic in Takoma Park, Maryland is geared specifically to elderly patients who are eager to try cannabis but aren't looking to get high. On a January morning, an elderly couple and their adult daughter face Frye across her desk.

The mother, 79, sits, sometimes squirming in discomfort, as her family describes her case: Years of abdominal pain, anxiety, lethargy, poor sleeping, low appetite, hallucinations. She has been hospitalized multiple times, and Frye takes notes on the range of medications she's on.

"We've tried everything," said her the daughter, who asked not to be named to protect her mother's privacy. She had a friend who said she was helped dramatically by cannabis so the woman registered her mother and persuaded her reluctant parents to give it a try.

After giving them a quick primer on marijuana as medicine, Frye writes a recommendation for the woman: 10 mg of CBD, the non-psychoactive cannabinoid and, at bedtime, 2.5 mg of THC, the one that makes you sleepy (and buzzed). She'd like her to have both in tincture form, placed under the tongue. But she can't be sure what the dispensary has available. Gauging the amounts present in various strains is far from exact.

"Have them call me," she tells them. "I will talk it through with them."

The family leaves, still having to register with the state as caregivers so they will be allowed to buy cannabis for the mother. Up next is negotiating the shifting inventories of buds and oils and edibles.

Their session with Frye cost $250, which is not covered by most insurance. The daughter was pleased.

"There are so many complexities," she said. "It's good to feel like we have a doctor who is our advocate."Tonight is the night! The 29th edition of the OBrien Awards, celebrating and honouring the best in Canadian harness racing, takes place this evening, Saturday, February 3 at the Hilton Mississauga / Meadowvale Hotel in Mississauga, Ontario.

If you are attending, just a reminder that the red carpet show and cocktail reception kicks the evening off at 5:30 p.m. Dinner will be at 6:45 p.m. and the award presentations will start at about 9:00 p.m. A dance will round the evening off.

The OBriens will be video streamed live on standardbredcanada.ca starting at approximately 9:00 p.m. (EST), Live updates will be posted from @trotinsider on Twitter and on the Standardbred Canada Facebook page. The hashtag for the OBriens is #obriens17.

The Standardbred Canada Industry Communications team will provide live news and commentary on all the happenings from the Hilton Mississauga / Meadowvale Hotel throughout the night. Winners will be announced through the live twitter feed below as they happen.

The whos who of the harness racing will be on hand to receive their coveted OBrien bronzes. The awards are named in honour of the late Joe OBrien, a trainer-driver from Prince Edward Island who was highly regarded and a member of the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame.

Eighteen O'Brien Awards will be given out for the 2017 harness racing season. Thirteen of these honour the premier horses over the past racing season including the most coveted trophy, Canada's Horse of the Year. The horse awards are divided by age, sex and gait. There are two finalists in all of the categories.

In addition there are five people awards, one each for Driver of the Year, Trainer of the Year, Armstrong Bros. Farm Breeder of the Year, the O'Brien Award of Horsemanship, and Future Star. In addition, three Media Excellence Awards and an award for Outstanding Groom will be doled out.

Standardbred Canada extends their congratulations to all of the evenings finalists!The tactical-strategic situation on the Artsakh-Azerbaijan line of contact has been relatively calm from January 28 to February 3, the ministry of defense of Artsakh told Artsakhpress.

February 3, 2018, 12:52 Relative calm on Artsakh line of contact over past week

STEPANAKERT, FEBRUARY 3, ARTSAKHPRESS:In a statement, the ministry said that Azerbaijani forces violated the ceasefire nearly 150 times during the abovementioned period. Azerbaijan fired more than 1500 rounds at positions of Artsakh.

The Defense Army mainly refrained from taking countermeasures and took necessary steps to reliably organize the defense of military positions, the statement said.Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown MP wants the Cotswolds to be declared a National Park.

THE Cotswolds should be given National Park status, says its recently-knighted MP. Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown said there is a clear case for the move following a visit to the South Downs National Park Authority (SDNPA).

He was joined on the visit by members of the Cotswolds Conservation Board.

The Cotswolds  already an Area of Natural Beauty (AONB) that begins in Ilmington in Stratford district  is marginally bigger than the South Downs at just over 2,000 square kilometres.

They each have a National Trail running from end-to-end and both cover 15 local authorities.

National Park status offers areas another layer of protection to its landscape and wildlife, specifically on planning matters. There are currently 15 across the UK.

And Sir Geoffrey said now was the time to begin what he described as extensive discussion and consultation that would be required.

"Having gathered evidence on how well the National Park works in the South Downs, in my view there is a clear case for at least considering if the Cotswolds could be conserved and enhanced further by designating the area as a National Park by the Secretary of State, he said.

Mr Lane added: "The visit to the South Downs was highly informative. It demonstrated how the Park Authority had introduced a new and successful planning arrangement, which worked for differing partners with differing needs, across the whole Park area.

We agree that the time is right to explore whether a National Park for the Cotswolds would be good for local communities, the environment and the economy."

A report was published just before Christmas by the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) and National Association for Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONBs) which highlighted the pressure that the Cotswolds AONB was facing from housing developments.

For much more news, arts and sport download the Herald every week HEREColombo: City in the Dark View(s):

Misaki Shimakawa is a university student from Japan who visited Sri Lanka last year as a member of a Japanese group of students. Groups of Japanese university students visit Sri Lanka every year. They interact with Sri Lankan university students and, carry out their study tours in Colombo and other parts of the country. As part of the study tour, they explore the socio-economic issues in Sri Lanka and prepare for seminar presentations once they get back to Japan.

After completing the Sri Lanka study tour, Misaki has made a presentation about an interesting issue that not many Sri Lankans would have thought of: Colombo is dark in the night! Consequently, as Misaki observed, there are higher levels of traffic accidents, sexual harassments, and robberies in Colombo. When there is inadequate night light in the countrys capital Colombo, people and especially tourists do not feel comfortable and safe.

Stray dogs and messy trash

Together with Misaki, two of her other group members  Haruna and Nahoko, also had interesting presentations that Sri Lankans should not ignore: Harunas presentation was about the problem of stray dogs in Sri Lanka and its consequences. She also elaborated how the people and the authorities are suffering without a proper plan and a solution and, brought about case studies from Japan, Germany and USA.

Nahokos presentation was about the habit of throwing trash everywhere and the Sri Lankan struggle to solve the Garbage Problem. As a case study, she also reflected how Japan has managed the garbage problem.

Japan is one of the cleanest and safest countries in the world and it was not surprising to me that these students picked up from Sri Lanka some pretty obvious and very peculiar issues to them. In both presentations on stray dogs and stray trash problems, they have inferred how both people and authorities have been groping in the dark without any direction.

I would be happy to talk about economics of all three issues, but today let me pick up the issue of economics of the city in the dark.

Light means prosperity

Generally light means that there are economic activities carried out by people. Therefore, some locations on the face of the earth illuminates with lights in the night where there are economic activities and people. The Western Province in Sri Lanka (where Colombo is located) has the highest concentration of the countrys economic activities and the people. About 5.8 million people (29 per cent of Sri Lankas total population) live in the Western Province, generating US$32 billion worth of GDP which is over 40 per cent of the countrys total GDP.

The Tokyo metropolitan on the other hand has 35 million people (28 per cent of Japans total population) who generate $1450 billion worth of GDP which is about 32 per cent of the countrys total GDP. Thus, Tokyo is much bigger than the entire Sri Lanka in terms of population. However, it is also much bigger than the Western Province of Sri Lanka in terms of per capita income as well: GDP per capita of the Western Province of Sri Lanka is $5,690 compared to over $40,000 in Tokyo.

The Western Province has 24 per cent of the countrys electricity accounts, contributing to 37 per cent of the countrys total electricity sales and 47 per cent of revenue from electricity sales. By national standards, the electricity usage in the Western Province is overwhelmingly higher than rest of the country; but still Colombo is in the dark!

Light means life in the night

Colombo sleeps at night too. Many other cities in the Asian region are illuminated with night lights because for them there is little difference between day time and night time. But Colombo, just after late evening goes to sleep.

I am not referring to night clubs and casino clubs, which are anyway operating in Colombo too. I am specifically referring to normal economic activity such as travelling, shopping and eating out. There might be historical reasons for Colombo not to emerge as a city with night life and one of them probably is the sense of fear and insecurity. Therefore, night is the time to be safe at home. Colombo, which is limited to a relatively tiny geographical location, is not a residential area as such since millions of people who gather in the morning rush leave the city before sunset.

Light means energy

Light means energy consumption in economic activities. Thus, electricity consumption projects the volume of economic activity and the intensity of electricity usage in such activities.

It is surprising that, even being a lower middle-income country, Sri Lanka is one of the few countries in the region with the lowest level of electricity consumption. According to World Bank data, Sri Lankas average electricity consumption per person is 531 kw compared to South Asian average of 707 while the East Asian and Pacific average is 3680 kw.

Thus we have an important puzzle to sort out: Why is Sri Lanka so poor in electricity consumption? The most plausible reason is the higher electricity prices in Sri Lanka. Sri Lankas average electricity tariffs are considered to be high by international standards even after the reduction of tariffs a few years ago.

Light means costs

Colombo is in the dark not only because of the smaller volume of its economic activities but owing to the higher price of electricity which is a vital input in such economic activities. People in Sri Lanka do not use electricity like those in other countries, because electricity is expensive for households and businesses.

If Sri Lankas electricity prices are relatively higher, then it is a valid reason to argue that the country has lost the cost competitiveness of its economic activities. It is not necessary to explain that higher electricity prices affect our export competitiveness, in addition to its negative impact on living standards.

Light means taxes

What is bizarre is that even with higher electricity prices in Sri Lanka, the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) is making losses! The operating losses of CEB in 2017 is in excess of Rs. 39 billion, as reported in the Budget Speech 2018. This is about 2 per cent of the governments total tax revenue compelling us to pay more taxes to cover the CEB losses too. In fact the CEB is only one of many institutions in which losses have to be taken care of by taxpayers.

With the introduction of the Statement of Corporate Intent (SCI) for just five of the state enterprises including the CEB, these state enterprises are expected to enhance oversight and financial discipline, according to the Annual Report 2016 of the Treasury. Until and unless it happens, taxpayers have to bear the losses. As long as someone else (people) is there to bear the losses, there is hardly any incentive or rationale for anyone to enhance oversight and financial discipline. When the spoon is in your hand, help yourself!

Light means growth

Historical data confirm that electricity demand and economic growth moves closely due to both ex-ante factors (because industry and commercial demand for electricity pushes economic growth) and ex-post factors (because income growth pushes household demand for electricity).

According to the CEB, electricity demand will double within 15 years (2015-2030) by growing at over 5 per cent per annum. If there is an acceleration of the rate of growth, the corresponding electricity demand is expected to rise even further. If the country is not investing in electricity generation, the power shortage will constrain the potential economic growth. And more importantly, investment in power generation is a multi-billion mega project that extends over many years so that you need to hold your growth prospects for that period of time.

Electricity consumption 2014

Source: World Development Indicators, World BankEmergency moves to restore confidence in Ceylon Tea By Sunimalee Dias View(s): View(s):

Sri Lankan authorities are battling on two fronts to restore confidence in Ceylon Tea, sending delegations to Japan and Russia where the countrys main agriculture export has encountered problems.

Efforts are being made to boost the product image in Russia while the delegation to Japan aims to discuss new regulations on use of weedicides in the absence of the popular glyphosate in Sri Lanka.

Earlier Ceylon Tea was temporarily banned and lifted in Russia and to rectify the damage, a tea promotion campaign was being held during Sri Lankas Independence Day celebrations.

The PR programme would be carried out on February 26 and 27 as we feel that there was a very much negative impact so this will boost the image of the Ceylon Tea, Sri Lanka Tea Board (SLTB) Promotions Director Premila Srikantha told the Business Times.

She noted that a major trade show starting on February 3 had been organized as the SLTB had wanted to participate in the celebrations to mark 70th Independence Day in Russia.

With the Sri Lankan Embassy making plans to mark the event the SLTB had already been part by organizing a Ceylon Tea party on February 26.

The special Ceylon Tea promotions would be held alongside the event and a dedicated event with winners of tea masters from the different regions also participating to demonstrate Ceylon Tea and how it could be brewed along with cultural events and a special tea commercial shown as well. This commercial is said to be part of the global tea promotion.

Authorities had increased the scale of the event with the promotions held at a special venue Lotte Hotel in Moscow, officials said.

Meanwhile, a delegation headed by SLTB Chairman Dr. Rohan Pethiyagoda and including Tea Research Institute Director Dr. Sumith Abeysinghe and SLTB Laboratory Director Nishantha Jayatilleke have gone to Japan to discuss new regulations by the Japanese authorities on residue levels found in tea.

According to these rules, Japanese authorities want residue levels to be at 0.01 level and in this respect in the absence of the use of glyphosate in Sri Lanka authorities want to ascertain how it could be worked out for substances like NCPA, another weedicide.

Sri Lanka has seen a few of its Ceylon Tea shipments to Japan getting rejected due to the high residue levels of weedicide found in it. Japan imports nine million kilos of tea worth over US$70 million from Sri Lanka.

Tea Exporters Association President Jayantha Karunaratne said that this high residue levels in the tea was affecting the industry as certain buyers in Japan cannot buy the teas as authorities would have rejected them based on random checks carried out on the teas.

Local authorities have been in discussion with the industry as well on this matter with a meeting held last Tuesday as well in this regard.Global insurers eye SL amidst Janashakthi sale By Duruthu Edirimuni Chandrasekera View(s): View(s):

Janashakthi Insurance PLC (Janashakthi)s Rs. 16.4 billion sale this week of its general insurance business to multinational insurer, Allianz has set off wide speculation that global insurance players are eyeing Sri Lanka.

The deal, which appeared to have caught the st0ck market by surprise, triggered reports that the other remaining Sri Lankan insurance companies, barring local giants Sri Lanka Insurance (SLI) and Ceylinco Insurance PLC (Ceylinco), would offload their general insurance business if they get attractive offers. Janashakthi officials said the deal has been in the works for the past 18 months.

This weeks transactions make it four deals since 2014 in which three local insurers have sold their general insurance business to foreign companies. In the other case, AIA sold its general insurance business to Janashakthi in 2016 which has now sold its entire general insurance unit to Allianz.

As Sri Lankan insurance companies adjust to changes in the market after life and general units were segregated by regulation in 2016, divesting general insurance has become an emerging trend here, an industry expert said.

Growth in the general insurance segment is expected to be slow and result in a tight battle for smaller players in years to come as insurance giants  especially foreign firms  consolidate the general segment. Local firms are divesting their general insurance segment and focusing on life as competition is intense with 62 per cent of the premiums coming from motor insurance.

Foreign insurers are interested in general insurance to scale up their operations, analysts said.

They (foreigners) are interested in product innovation, research and development, etc. Most local firms are inward looking which is why they arent interested to sustain general insurance arms because of slow growth, impending challenges and the competition, the industry expert said.

Even with 28 insurance companies operating as at December 31, 2016, the insurance reach is only 14 per cent of the population with large numbers untapped.

Of the 28, 12 companies deal with only life insurance, 13 are in the general insurance business and three are handling both  life and general.

In a sizable deal in 2014, foreign insurer, Fairfax Asia acquired 78 per cent of Union Assurance PLCs (UAL) general insurance business and two years later bought 100 per cent in Asian Alliances (AA) general insurance arm.

Fairfax, a financial services holding company, then set up an amalgamated entity Fairfirst Insurance allowing it to leverage on the combined strengths of the former UAL and AAL general units.

Less than two years after Janashakthi Insurance completed the amalgamation of Janashakthi General and AIA General Insurance Lanka, the company has sold its general insurance stake to Allianz, the global financial services entity. The transaction is subject to regulatory approval and is expected to complete in the first quarter of 2018.

Ramesh Schaffter, Executive Director Janashakthi told the Business Times, on the sidelines of Fridays briefing, that these deal-making discussions were held in Singapore and done through the managing agent to this transaction, Capital Alliance PLC (CAL).

CALs regional consulting partner, NMG Consulting in Malaysia had roped in Allianz for this deal. Our mandate to CAL was to find us an international partner in terms of technology, Mr. Schaffter added. He said no local insurer approached them and the near 18 month long discussions by CAL saw multiple parties from different countries in the world.

He said Allianzs transaction was a natural progression. This is an evolution of a business  a marriage. Now Janashakthi has 25 per cent in the life insurance segment with their long term business, Prakash Schaffter, Managing Director at Janashakthi Insurance Co PLC said. We can now focus on life. Its less competitive than general insurance.Women remain marginalised in fisheries in Trincomalee By Raj Moorthy View(s): View(s):

While there are discrepancies, hegemonies, racism and marginalisation of various castes of people around the country, the fisheries industry in Trincomalee faces the situation on a much larger scale. There is lack of recognition and inclusion of women in fishing-related decision-making and fisheries management positions.

Last week the Centre for Poverty Analysis (CEPA) conducted its 57th open forum at the Sri Lanka Foundation in Colombo with the topic being, Even fish have an ethnicity, a Ph. D research study carried out by Gayathri Lokuge, a senior professional at CEPA in the coastal Trincomalee.

During the presentation Ms. Lokuge stated, globally studies have established the contribution of women to the fisheries sector with 19 per cent of people engaged in fishing being women. There is lack of recognition and inclusion of women in fisheries-related, decision-making and fisheries management positions, she added.

In Trincomalee there is a lack of women representation at the community level. Only 159 women are engaged in the inland fisheries sector in Trincomalee, she noted while stressing that there is no data disaggregated by sex for the marine sector.

Elaborating on the structural inequalities, she said, In the case of a Sinhala woman they are not involved in fishing in Trincomalee. Muslim women take fishing as a traditional job and continue for generations from the grandmother in the family. Tamil women only share the caught fish within their caste in Periyappadu in Trincomalee.

Stressing on the masculinities and marginalisations, she mentioned that there were Tamil and Muslim women earlier in the old wholesale fish market, according to a Muslim fisherman. There were 12 stalls for Tamils and three stalls for Muslims. After the war ended all of them left. Now all the fisheries women are Sinhalese and they dont allow Tamils to do business there, she said quoting fishermen as her source.

She pointed out that livelihoods are embedded in social, political and cultural worlds of men and women. A uni-dimensional understanding of identity is insufficient to explain marginalisations and social tensions. Men and women are marginalised at the intersection of different identity categories. There is need to understand power and positionality as a relational dimension. They are not passive victims of structural forces, noted Ms. Lokuge.

According to the government draft on fisheries and aquaculture it is clearly stated that the government will assist women in the fisheries community to set up micro business enterprises and promote equal opportunities for womens participation in the activities of the sector. She pointed out that the government needs to recognize womens diverse contribution to the fisheries sector in policy and practice, base policy on economic activities such as fishing with an understanding of the social and structural inequalities, not just men and women but other social categories. The government should also provide support to strengthen the economic activities of fisheries women within wider issues of stock depletion and climate related vulnerabilities, she noted.UPFA gang vandalises statue of Uva-Wellassa hero View(s):

Political rivalries can sometimes claim the most surprising of victims. An example is when a group of United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) supporters ran amok in Bibile town this week and vandalised a statue of celebrated patriot and hero of the Uva-Wellassa Rebellion, Bootawe Rate Rala. The vandals had broken and destroyed the statutes sword and also damaged the statue by attacking it with rocks.

The events had allegedly taken place after a UPFA campaign rally held in the town under the patronage of President Maithripala Sirisena came to an end on Thursday night. The group of UPFA supporters are also alleged to have attacked and damaged several party offices of rival Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP).

The vandalisation of Bootawe Rate Ralas statue is also believed to have been politically motivated as the person responsible for its construction and placement is contesting the upcoming election from the United National Party (UNP). A prominent UPFA Minister, an area politician, who was elected to Parliament from the National List at the last General Election, is reported to have been behind the attack.

Police are examining CCTV footage to identify those involved. Bootawe Rate Rala is revered in the region as one of the first leaders to join the Uva-Wellassa Rebellion of 1818.

Candidates also confused over symbols

With political parties contesting under different symbols and parties to attract the highest number of votes, the candidates too have been confused at times.

For instance, the United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA), whose symbol is the betel leaf is also contesting under the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) whose symbol is the hand, in some of the areas. This week one of the candidates during his rounds of canvassing in the Kataragama area told voters to support the betel leaf for the good work done by former President Mahinda Rajapaksa.

He was asked isnt he under the leadership of President Maithripala Sirisena, but he had replied that yes, he was with President Sirisena but that it was former President Rajapaksa who was with the betel leaf clearly showing that he was not fully aware of the politics that was taking place in Colombo with all these symbols and coalitions.

Bond scam: Shocked banker asks for poison

A Bank of Ceylon top official who expressed shock at high rates at which bids had been accepted at Treasury Bond auction had told a Central Bank colleague it was not ethical and asked her to send him a vial of poison.

The report of the Commission of Inquiry into the bond scam identifies the official as J.K.D. Dharmapala, Chief Manager of the Risk Management Department of the Bank of Ceylon.

He has been speaking on the telephone to Steffie Fernando of the Public Debt Department of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL).

Polls fever: President cancels independence reception

President Maithripala Sirisena has cancelled the customary reception that follows todays 70th Independence Day ceremonies.

Colombo-based diplomats, United Nations agency heads and other invitees were advised on Friday that it was being put off due to unavoidable circumstances.

However, Government sources said it was due to the ongoing local polls campaign. It was reaching its peak with just five more days to go for the poll on February 10. Officials were aware of the polls when invitations were sent out. However, instructions are learnt to have come from President Sirisena.

At least 600 guests were expected at the event which is held annually after the independence day. Its not a formal sit down dinner but a buffet to which mainly senior public officials and diplomats are invited to, an official of the Secretariat said.Some of the diplomatic missions were told to collect their invitations from the Presidents Secretariat only to be told later that the event had to be cancelled.

Meanwhile, some consuls who have been invited for todays function said they have not been told of the postponement. They said they were also puzzled over the wordings of the invitation for todays dinner at Presidents House. The card says, On the direction of the His Excellency Maithripala Sirisena, President of., Austin Fernando, Secretary to the President requests the honour of the company of .

The invitees wonder whether the host will be Mr. Fernando instead of the President, who is tirelessly working for his partys victory at Saturdays election

Loquacious ITAK politico slapped with Rs. 100 million letter of demand

Squabbles within the Illankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi (ITAK) are coming out into the open in the heat of the election campaign.

Addressing a political meeting, rebel ITAK MP Annamali Nadesu Sivasakthi charged that some ITAK MPs accepted bribes amounting of Rs 20 million to vote for the governments last budget. But the allegation has resulted in him being slapped with a hefty letter of demand.

ITAK General Secretary and Jaffna district MP Mavai Senathirajah in the letter sent through his lawyers is demanding Rs. 100 million for his defaming to some party members. The party says the money given to the ITAK lawmakers was from the decentralised budget and all MPs irrespective of the party they represent are entitled to receive it.

Polls eve price reduction: Opposition political parties cry foul

The Ministry of Industries and Commerce on Thursday announced that prices of seven essential food items were being reduced in view of the 70th Independence Day. The items included Basmati rice, white raw rice, broken rice, dhal, green gram, big onions and dried chilies.

The move drew the attention of opposition political parties which claimed that the reduction has nothing to do with Independence Day, but everything to do with next weeks local council elections. Inquiries were made from the Election Commission whether the price reduction violated election regulations as the move amounted to enticing voters.

But, the Commission said the benefits were not directly offered by a candidate, but action would be possible only through court action.

Under the regulations, an elected member could be unseated on the grounds of enticing voters, but in this case there was no candidate involved.

However, the question remains as to why the food prices cannot be reduced for longer periods.

Digital era dance: Step up and step down

A new creation dance to be performed at the Independence Day celebrations today using laptops as a prop was changed after a backlash on social media. The laptop which was used in place of the winnowing fan (kulla) which is used in the traditional dance drew more ridicule when photographs of the laptop dance appeared in newspapers and were widely circulated on social media.

An Education Ministry official said that the dance will be performed at todays celebrations but minus the laptops.

The cultural pageant for this years celebrations will consist of 550 dancers, musicians and drummers.Confusion and confused in this miracle of Asia View(s):

Who would you believe in this age of yahapalanaya? As the election campaign to elect to local bodies even larger numbers of parasitic politicians surviving on the public purse gets into high gear the more the public is regaled with stories, promises and old wives tales.

Open-mouthed politicians are roaming the country spreading confusion with new political constructions whose shelf-life is 48 hours or less. One political high-ups fairy tales told today are denied or contradicted tomorrow by a senior from the same camp.

So who is the public expected to believe- Tweedledee or Tweedledum? Is there anybody left who can be relied on to tell the people what is plausible and possible instead of selling contrived hopes or future political rearrangements? Is deception clothed in the garb of some new moral messiah the way out of the deepening crises in governance?

If these attempts at hoodwinking the people are seen through by an alert citizenry there is always the perennial scapegoat  the media  to blame and possibly shame. Or is a bored public to say a plague on both your stories and curl up and go to sleep? Has politics in this country reached a stage when a disgusted people cannot trust politicians or officials to tell the simple truth because they have so much to hide?

Officials are following their political masters blatantly breaking the law by refusing to reveal information at hand. That will be disclosed in the coming days as now this is the time for the political theatre of the absurd.

The glorious gaffes political leaders and their pandang karayas inevitably make because they cannot stop yapping or trying to wriggle out of some unholy mess they themselves have created, is sought to be quickly covered up before it becomes too embarrassing.

Time and again this column has pointed out the escape route these saviours of the nation and their diplomatic acolytes have carved out for themselves to camouflage the faux pas of their colleagues and friends.

At a recent campaign meeting he addressed in Ratnapura, President Maithripala Sirisena was reported to have said that he is willing to establish a government led by the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (led by him that is), if all 96 United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) parliamentarians joined hands with him.

I am ready to create an SLFP-led Government if the 96 UPFA members were ready to stand with me, he was quoted as saying.

The Sunday Times of January 28 reported that the President had said the previous day he is willing to form a new government, if all 96 members elected to Parliament from the UPFA at the last 2015 general election, stand with him.

Some who have formed a new coalition are saying they will join if an SLFP-led Government is formed. I am telling them, if all those elected come and stand with me, I am prepared to form a Government led by the SLFP. Leave that garbage dump and sewerage pipe founded by G.L. Peiris and come.

The Sunday Times and the Daily Mirror were not the only newspapers to report President Sirisenas appeal to the sitting members of the UPFA. Other news outlets including at least two Tamil language media also carried the story.

Two days later a state-run newspaper reported Susil Premajayantha, Minister of Science, Technology and Research, trying to bury Sirisenas fervent appeal under several tons of political garbage. Having put more spin on the Sirisena proposal than Muralidharan did in his heyday, Premajayantha returned to the politicians perennial pastime of shifting the blame on to the media.

Addressing the media at the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) headquarters, the minister had said that the media had misunderstood the President when he said that he would form an SLFP government if all 96 UPFA MPs pledged their support to him.

It is true that the President wants all of the UPFA MPs to join hands with him. He emphasised that they need to maintain unity without being divided into several parties. He does not want to see them all going in different directions, he said.

So that is what it is. It seems the local media consist of a dumb lot like some of those diplomats we have sent abroad to lie for the good of the country. All the media covering the presidents speech got it wrong. He, according to Premajayanthas interpretation, was only trying to unite those not in the unity government, nothing about leading a new government.

OK, for the sake of argument lets say the minister of research did some quick research and found the media got it all wrong. So maybe the minister could point to the media that reported it correctly, meaning giving it the same spin as the minister had.

While Premajayantha was trying to wriggle out of Sirisenas carrot-waving invitation, the president found himself searching for the reverse gear. Shifting his campaign from Ratnapura to far more familiar territory the president struck out on a different path at Polonnaruwa.

With Mahinda Rajapaksa and those in his faction of the SLFP guffawing at the presidential invitation to share a hopper or two with him, Sirisena quickly dropped the idea. He told a Polonnaruwa rally that he knew Rajapaksa loyalists in the SLFP will not join him to form a government.

Although I said I will form a government if all 96 SLFP MPs stand by my side, I know they cannot come near me because they do not accept my policies, Sirisena reportedly said contradicting Premajayanthas interpretation.

So while Premajayantha was looking for a way out to dampen Sirisenas gung ho approach, the Rajapaksa loyalists were already hooting with laughter at Sirisenas desperation. Not to be left out of this political farce Ranil Wickremesinghe was saying that the National Unity Government in which he is a leader and prime minister, will continue to 2020.

So the head of the Unity Government is reaching out elsewhere and looking for a different unity while Wickremesinghe wants to proceed with the unity deal he had struck three years ago despite the fact that for the last few months they have been throwing rotten eggs at each other, metaphorically speaking of course.

If there is confusion stirred up by the political leaders it is no surprise. They are confused as well and that confusion has spread among the people who do not know what lies ahead. Take the Bond Commission report which the UNP has accepted with alacrity, at least publicly, despite what appears to be some misgivings. State Enterprise Development Minister Kabir Hashim would like to claim that no blame has been attached to the UNP though Ravi Karunanayake has been named over some other matter.

But however much the UNP tries to deftly turn matters away from the UNP, it cannot get away so easily. If the Bond Commission has named no political names the UNP cannot claim a clean bill of health. What one should do is retrace the steps that led to the appointment of the commission.

The principal dramatis personae in this bond (not James surely) play are the then Governor of the Central Bank Arjuna Mahendran and the main beneficiary of the bond auctions Arjun Aloysius of Perpetual Treasuries Ltd, now named as suspects.

Is there a connection between Mahendran and Aloysius? Of course there is. Governor Mahendran is the father-in-law of Aloysius.

In the absence of this nexus would such a scam have been possible or even attempted? Yes but that would have called for another kind of relationship not one of such close relativity as the Mahendran-Aloysius link.

Now who brought Mahendran in as head of the Central Bank? Prime Minister Wickremesinghe having grabbed the Central Bank from the finance ministry that traditionally oversaw it and plunked it down in his ministry that had to do with national policy and what not, nominated Mahendran as governor.

Mahendran occupied the post as head until his predecessor Nivard Cabraals unfinished term was completed. Thereafter Wickremesinghe reportedly insisted that President Sirisena reappointed him as governor.

Even in parliament, Prime Minister Wickremesinghe defended Mahendran when some around him were questioning Mahendrans integrity and the unusual manner in which he acted and issued instructions to senior bank officials before the first bond auctions.

Would such a suspicious auction have happened so shortly after Maithripala Sirisena won the presidential election unless Mahendran and his son-in-law felt confident and politically entrenched to carry out what the Bond Commission says allegedly happened.

The question then is who brought Mahendran to the Central Bank and planted him there? Had Mahendran not been in such a position would this scandal have taken place?

So it was at least bad judgement on the part of the prime minister and UNP leader or something else that created the opening for the duo to act as the Commission says they did.

Is the UNP completely blameless then for it was the UNP leader in the role of prime minister who brought the man from Singapore to the top spot in the Central Bank?

There is the lighter side to yahapalana governance too. Last month the president and his finance minister were engaged in a battle over the bottle. Mangala Samaraweera got rid of a 60-odd year old law that banned women from buying liquor or working in liquor stores or distilleries.

A few days later the president wanted the old law restored. In support of the reinstatement of the law one minister claimed that 95% of women in the country do not consume alcohol. If that is so why not let them buy the stuff. Cheers.President highlights corruption issue in bid to prevent Rajapaksas breakaway party from gaining ground





Bond Commission makes serious charges against Ravi, but he refuses to step down as UNPs Assistant Leader





Magistrates court issues orders relating to Mahendran and PTLs Aloysius and Palisena; sub-judice issue on Tuesdays debate possible





With just five days to go for the local polls, a joke doing the rounds on mobile phones this week is about an old American, a Russian and a Sri Lankan talking to God.

When will my country come out of the recession asked the American and god replied a hundred years. He cried saying I will not live to see that day. The Russian wanted to know when will my country become prosperous? He cried too lamenting he will not live to see that day when god repliedit would take fifty years.

It was now the turn of the Sri Lankan. When will my country become corruption free, he asked. This time, the joke goes; god began to cry saying I will not live to see that day. The moral of the story, if there is one, is how sceptical even gods are when it comes to Sri Lanka and the suggestion that corruption at its high levels is an eternal affair for the country.

However, jokes apart, the word corruption has been echoing in both Sinhala and Tamil, in the far corners of the country, both villages and towns alike, in the past many weeks. Tragic enough, like the predator and the prey both preaching the same ideals, the corrupt and those claiming to be Lilly white are vying with each other to punish or even put behind bars those involved. Their hoarse voices from campaign platforms have reached a crescendo with just five more days for the local council polls, the first since 2011. Promises, like those made during the presidential and later parliamentary elections in 2015, to deal with high profile cases no sooner the polls were over were galore. Then, for three years there was little or no action. Whether, like the proverbial gods cry, the old and the new issues will go into the limbo of forgotten things until the next election campaign remains an obvious question.

The credit for introducing a national issue into a local polls campaign goes unquestionably to President Maithripala Sirisena, the leader of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), which is under political siege. At first he spoke of the findings of the Commission of Inquiry that probed the bond scam at the Central Bank. That it gave a more startling version of how a father-in-law (former Governor Arjuna Mahendran) and son-in-law (Arjun Aloysius of Perpetual Treasuries) literally looted public money at the bond auctions. A Committee of Inquiry which probed the matter first, the Commission noted, had not made any comment on the highly flawed bond auctions on February 27, 2015. Then the Commission shed a different light from the report on the subject from the Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE) of Parliament. The revelations were then followed by the Presidential Commission of Inquiry which probed specific issues under the previous administration. All this was kudos for Sirisena.

However, in the wake of making assertions over the findings by the Commission and other political disclosures, Sirisena left behind a trail of contradictions. The resultant confusion raised concerns over his credibility as President. It was made worse by his remarks, some bizarre, just this week.

At his residence at Paget Road last Tuesday morning, Sirisena met Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe at his private drawing room for a 45 minute chat. It had been brokered by Speaker Karu Jayasuriya. During the conversation, at one point, the Sunday Times learnt Sirisena had declared that as a result of what he was saying more UNPers were now coming out (in support of their party). That claim seemed to suggest that he was in fact helping his coalition partner. Though paradoxical, the statement was correct. In fact, Wickremesinghe told his supporters on Thursday he was happy more UNPers would vote at the local polls in the light of Sirisenas remarks. He said some what jokingly that he was grateful to Sirisena for this unsolicited act.

The Sirisena-Wickremesinghe meeting was the result of an appeal Speaker Jayasuriya made. He had met Sirisena during a public function and told him that the political ceasefire he brought about where the two leaders would not attack each other had lasted only a day. Thereafter, he told Sirisena laughingly that you have been firing multi-barrel rockets and the ceasefire is gone. Sirisena had replied he would get in touch with the Speaker so he could arrange another meeting. A source familiar with what transpired said Jayasuriya took most of the time telling the two coalition leaders that the Colombo-based diplomatic community and the trade sectors were very concerned about what was being perceived as the spat between the two leaders.

The former had voiced reservations over the return of the Rajapaksas whilst the latter had also alluded to Sirisenas comments that trillions of rupees in foreign funding has gone missing. There were fears that such remarks impacted adversely on would-be foreign investors. They listened intently, both nodding their heads on different occasions, until it was time to leave for the weekly ministerial meeting, said the source adding that Jayasuriya had wanted to leave after getting them together but was told to stay behind. Thus, the weekly ministerial meeting last Tuesday, the first since Sirisena staged a dramatic walk out, was confined to approving different memoranda.

Sirisena was to again breach the political ceasefirewhen he told a group of media personnel that a move by Parliament for a one day debate on the two Commission reports was a gimmick. He had earlier charged that the decision by party leaders to conduct the debate on February 20 and 21 would be to get over the local polls, he challenged that the debate be held before February 10. Premier Wickremesinghe responded at a UNP rally in Deniyaya by offering to hold it on February 8. The move drew representations from Election Commission Chairman Mahinda Deshapriya that it may interfere with the 48 hour moratorium on political activity and media reportage. That requirement has been made mandatory to allow the voter an even chance to decide upon his or her candidate.

At a party leaders meeting, the conduct of the debate before the local polls became the subject of discussion. Reiterating the UNPs position, House Leader and Minister Lakshman Kiriella insisted that the debate should be held, as agreed previously, on February 20 and 21. However, strong objections were raised by Dinesh Gunawardena, leader of the Joint Opposition in Parliament and Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake. Weighing in their favour was SLFP Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe. He said as the official representative of the party he was authorised to say that the debate should be held before the local polls. This was particularly in the light of President Sirisenas challenge to other parties to conduct it before February 10. Thus, the party leaders agreed to choose February 6 as recommended by the ElectionsCommission Chairman Deshapriya. He had also said that February 5 was also a suitable date.

Sirisenas subsequent remarks that the one-day debate was a gimmick prompted the Speakers Office to announce that more days will be allocated later for the same debate. Now, the political parties have gone into high gear preparing their own positions. This has naturally led to alarm bells ringing in the UNP though its leaders have declared categorically that the party is in no way involved in the bond scam. Yet, a thorn in the flesh, these leaders felt, was former Finance and later ex-Foreign Minister Ravi Karunanayake. It was at President Sirisenas request, that he was first shifted from his portfolio of Finance to Foreign Affairs.

And later, he was told to step down by his own party with the assurance that he would be reinstated after the findings of the Commission of Inquiry into the bond scam. Thus, it was made clear that the appointment of Tilak Marapana as Foreign Minister was only temporary. Yet, such a reappointment did not materialise and the Commissions findings appear to have gone against Karunanayake. This is not withstanding the fact that he claims he is not connected with the bond scam per se.

The Commission of Inquiry that probed the matter has said, the evidence establishes that Global Transportation and Logistics (Pvt) Ltd. is a Company which is owned and controlled by members of the family of Ravi Karunanayake. It paid the sale price of Rs 165 million to M.A. Vinodini by using the Proceeds of a Loan obtained from Seylan Bank. When asked how the loan was repaid, he had replied that his family made the arrangements and that he was unaware of the precise nature of those transactions. That companys Chief Financial Officer Sinniah had said the loan was repaid using monies given to the company by Lakshmi Kanthan who lives in Britain. He had visited Sri Lanka on two or more occasions and brought the money required to pay the Loan, in bags of cash which were kept in the safe of the company.

The Commission has declared that it has been clearly proved that, from February 2016 till end of September 2016, Karunanayake and his family continued to occupy the Monarch Apartment taken on lease by Walt and Row Associates (Pvt.) Ltd, which paid the Lease Rentals.

A more damning disclosure is the Commissions declaration that evidence establishes that, Walt and Row Associates (Pvt) Ltd is a company which is a member of the Perpetual Group Companies/Free Lanka Group and that, as at 14th December 2015, the sole shareholder of Walt and Row Associates (Pvt) Ltd was Perpetual Capital Holdings (Pvt) Ltd, which is, ultimately, fully owned by Arjun Aloysius and Geoffrey Aloysius. Pointing out that in these circumstances, it is clear that, Walt and Row Associates (Pvt) Ltd is an Associate Company of Perpetual Treasuries Ltd and that it is owned and controlled by Arjun Aloysius and Geoffrey Aloysius, the Commission added that when giving evidence Karunanayake agreed it was inappropriate.

The Commission has added that we find it difficult to believe that he was initially unaware and was informed of this fact, till much later. The Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption (CIABOC) has been told to probe this matter. In addition, the CIABOC and the Attorney General have also been asked to initiate action against him under the Penal Code for certifying on oath, that he had no personal, business or official relationship with Arjun Aloysius. This is in addition to requesting the AG to take action over incorrect evidence.

Last Tuesday, Premier Wickremesinghe, the UNP leader, summoned Karunanayake for a meeting at Temple Trees.He urged that Karunanayake steps down from the post of Assistant Leader of the UNP at least until such time the current issues are resolved. The Sunday Times learnt that his initial response was to refuse such a request. He had told many a confidant he had worked tirelessly to ensure Maithripala Sirisena won the presidential election and bring the UNP back to office. He had said he would not allow himself to be the scapegoat and charged that an influential group within the UNP was manoeuvring against him.

Thereafter, UNP General Secretary and Minister Kabir Hashim, who has also been at the butt end of Karunanayakes bitter criticism together with party chairman and Minister Malik Samarawickrema, issued a carefully crafted statement. It noted that a three-member Committee named by the leader Premier Wickremesinghe had recommended that Karunanayake should not exercise any duties in his capacity as Assistant Leader. The Committee was headed by Foreign Minister Marapana. This was until such time the Attorney General or the Bribery Commission decides no action is to be filed or if a case is filed then until legal proceedings conclude. The tenor of the statement, UNP sources said, was more persuasive and the idea was to let him make a voluntary decision. In fact, senior party members have been meeting him to urge that he step down, at least temporarily. So far, it has not materialised and Karunanayake is stubbornly holding on to his position.

Wickremesinghe later met UNP parliamentarians of the Colombo District. The subject of discussion was whether candidates for the Colombo Municipal Council from the Colombo North areas would follow suit if Ravi Karunanayake was removed as Assistant Leader of the party. One of the participants, a State Minister, declared that the candidates would still remain loyal to the party. The party leader then urged the MPs to extend their election campaign to the Colombo North areas as well.

This comes at a time when the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) detectives have sprung into action over the bond scam. They filed a B report in the Fort Magistrates Court on Friday listing three suspects  Arjuna Mahendran, Arjun Aloysius and Kasun Palisena. The Court ordered that Mahendran should make a statement to the detectives before February 15. A legal source said failure to do so may lead to the issue of a warrant against him. The Court also made an interim order prohibiting the transfer to third parties of properties of Perpetual Treasuries Ltd. or the duo leaving the country. The fact that the bond issue is now before Courts has raised questions on whether Parliament could debate a matter that may be sub judice.

The Commission of Inquiry has held that Arjun Aloysius and Kasun Palisena were in control of day-to-day operations and transactions of Perpetual Treasuries Ltd, during the period of its mandate from February 1, 2015 to March 31, 2016. It said that they can be, properly, considered to be the persons who have primary responsibility for the actions of their company.

They had made a Net Profit of Rs 5.124 billion (more than five billion rupees) in the Financial Year ended March 31, 2016 and a Net Profit of Rs 6.365 billion (over six billion rupees) in the Financial Year ended March 31, 2017. These phenomenal profits, the Commission revealed had been made using inside information (price sensitive information) to obtain very high values of Treasury Bonds at low prices and very attractive Yield Rates at the Treasury Bond Auctions held on 27th February 2015 and 29th March 2015.

Pointing out that Perpetual Treasuries Ltd often succeeded in obtaining Treasury Bonds at auctions at attractive prices and yield rates, the Commission noted that as a result, they were able to acquire a substantial value and profits made by them accrued from Trading on these when the opportunity to do so arose.

The Total Net Cash Inflows received (monetary gains made) by Perpetual Treasuries Ltd from all sales of Treasury Bonds bearing seven specified ISINs (International Securities Identification Number) to the EPF and other Statutory Bodies and Government Institutions, during the period relevant to the mandade of the Commission, aggregate to Rs 11,145,221,479/99 (over Rs 11 billion 145 million). The evidence establishes, the Commission has pointed out that, the estimated Total Net Cash Inflows bearing the aforesaid ISINs, to the EPF and other Statutory bodies and Government Institutions, aggregate Rs 8,529,964,495/61 billion (over Rs 8 billion 529 million).

Evidence before the Commission, the report says, establishes among other matters the following:

At meetings held at the Ministry of Finance, prior to the Treasury Bond Auctions held on 29th March 2016 and 31st March 2016, the officers of the three State Banks were directed to bid at low Yield Rates at these Auctions by the Minister of Finance, and that the State Banks did so;

The recording of telephone conversations between Arjun Aloysius and Kasun Palisena on 29th March 2016 make it clear that, Perpetual Treasuries Ltd received inside information from a source within the PDD (Public Debt Department) or the CBSL (Central Bank of Sri Lanka) with regard to the cut off rate and other relevant details regarding the Treasury Bond Auctions held on 31st March 2016 including the fact that the State banks had been directed to bid at low Yield Rates,

The recording of the telephone conversations between Arjun Aloysius and Kasun Palisena on 29th March 2016 make it clear that, neither Aloysius nor Palisena considered it unusual that Aloysius possessed such insider information. That raises a strong inference that there was a pattern of Perpetual Treasuries Ltd receiving inside information from the PDD and the CBSL.

The Data extracted from Aloysiuss mobile phone establishes that, Aloysius was in frequent telephone contact with one or more key officers of the PDD.

Perpetual Treasuries Ltd has deliberately misrepresented, to the CBSL, the details of transactions which Perpetual Treasuries Ltd had entered into and the prices at which these transactions were done. They have misrepresented these details and prices on 266 days during the period of the Commissions mandate. This is approximately 70 per cent of the related reports submitted by Perpetual Treasuries Ltd to the CBSL misrepresented details and prices of transactions entered into by Perpetual Treasuries Ltd.

These misrepresentations made by Perpetual Treasuries Ltd resulted in the CBSL receiving a false picture of the Yield Rates at which Perpetual Treasuries Ltd carried out its transactions. The CBSL has acted on those incorrect Yield Rates when publishing them in the Secondary Market and assessing the value of transactions done in the Secondary Market. That was especially so, due to the high volume of transactions reported by Perpetual Treasuries.

Other evidence establishes that, following the Treasury Bond Auctions held in September and October 2015, Perpetual Treasuries Ltd entered into a series of transactions. By this, they sold Treasury Bonds to the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) and other parties at low prices (High Yield Rates). Then, they resold the Treasury Bonds to the same party and then bought the Treasury Bonds back from the same parties at lower prices (higher Yield Rates).

Capital Gains made by Perpetual Treasuries Ltd. In June 2015 Rs 749.6 million, in November 2015 Rs 2.607 billion, in January 2016 Rs 983.790 million, in April 2016 Rs 1.561 billion and in May Rs 2.091 billion.

There is evidence that Perpetual Treasuries Ltd paid inducements to dealers in the EPF and several other institutions with which Perpetual Treasuries Ltd entered into transactions which were profitable to them.

Whether the vigour with which state investigative agencies are now pursuing new and outstanding cases will continue the same way after local polls on February 10 remains to be seen. Nevertheless, whoever wins the polls, some of the positions taken up by Sirisena and other coalition leaders will continue to reverberate and raise all important issues.

One in particular is the relations between Sirisenas SLFP and coalition partner the UNP. As periodically pointed out in these columns in the past months, the acrimony on both sides had risen to newer levels that the foundation for cohabitation has been badly shaken or even partly cracked. The fallout of the new investigations will only add to that.

Unlike the previous polls, the upcoming one has many complexities. The new electoral system is being put to test for the first time. There has been no high visibility of a poll and the Police deserve to be commended for the job of keeping posters and cut outs away. Yet, national issues have played out. In 2011, local polls were held in three stages, in March, July and October. Then the UPFA secured 56.45 per cent of the vote whilst the UNP won 31.73 per cent. Since then, there has been an increase in the number of voters besides a new system being put to test.

A close look at the campaign trail has laid bare some realities. One is the fact that Mahinda Rajapaksas Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) has been breaking new ground in the southern districts and the coastal belt north of Colombo not to mention a few other areas. It is not a case how many local councils he will win but one of how much votes from Sirisenas SLFP will erode. The fact that it remains likely threatens to push Maithripala Sirisena into the third place unless there is a miraculous turn of events. This will portend a great blow for a President who has a high work agenda for the rest of his term. Thus, the guess is whether the UNP would face a formidable contender in the SLPP or not.

As Sri Lanka marks the 70th year of its independence, the conduct of elections has remained a noble tradition though politicians at times have sought to tinker with it. Now, it is that poll which portends the political future of Sri Lanka.Noxious political actors and an election that is uninspiring View(s):

As furious competition for votes in the forthcoming local government elections reaches fever-pitch, hostility (real or contrived as the case may be) between the bedraggled actors that strut on Sri Lankas political stage has become positively noxious.

Braggadocio and shifty evasion

We may look in vain for inspiring policy driven speeches of the past or at the very least, for an honest owning up to mistakes made and genuine contrition therein. Instead, what we have is braggadocio and shifty evasion quite apart from the most disgraceful of language being used on political platforms. Can citizens who are so disgusted that they may abstain from voting in the February 10th elections be blamed?

Certainly it is not the best of circumstances in which to celebrate Independence Day. This charade betrays the ugly truth of what Sri Lanka has been reduced to, decades after independence from colonial rule, despite an all too fleeting glimpse of hope in 2015. The contradictions and the hypocrisies not only by politicians but also by others take ones breath away.

Members of the Buddhist clergy appear in support of one political party or another and talk of culture, shuddering in horror at an admittedly ill-timed effort by the Ministry of Finance to withdraw an ancient excise notification prohibiting women from buying alcohol within the premises of a tavern but allow the most violent of abuses to take place against women and children in this country without scarcely a whisper. Female candidates are now given a quota in the hustings but election monitors have warned of hate speech practiced against them in particular areas.

The Constitution and discriminatory regulations

In last weeks column, I referred to the fact that President Maithripala Sirisenas withdrawal of the withdrawal of that gazette notification was prompted by a disdain for what may be termed as liberal niceties, given that he has declared war to all intents and purposes on his coalition partner, the United National Party and withdrawn to his familiar constituencies of support. But the larger question here for the President and his advisors who supported such precipitate action is the role of the law and the Constitution in this regard. While the matter is before the Supreme Court and remains to be decided, it may usefully be observed that the Court itself is no stranger to such discriminatory rules, regulations and notifications being challenged before it.

Writing almost twenty years ago in these column spaces (Challenging Gender Bias in Sri Lanka, Focus on Rights, 30th May 1999), I discussed the Supreme Courts striking down in that month of a secret discriminatory policy regarding the granting of residence visas in Sri Lanka. The Controller of Immigration and Emigration had, in a constitutional challenge to his refusal to grant a residence visa to a German male national married to a Sri Lankan female citizen in the Court, pleaded that that Sri Lanka follows a patriarchal system; hence Residence Visas are normally granted only to female spouses of Sri Lankans. Those guidelines were stamped Secret- for official use only.

That defence was summarily and justifiably dismissed by the Court. Immigration rules were directed to be revised to ensure gender equality. This is judicial thinking that ought to be taken into account by politicians and policy makers. It is a sad reflection that with all the time that has passed between then and now, we still have to contend with such anachronistic notions and debate these issues.

Tensions and tangible benefits

Despite nonsensical tangos embodying cultural and societal hypocrisies that are performed before us by politicians, there is a tangible benefit emerging out of the (apparently disagreeable) tensions between the major political parties that need to be marked. For better or for worse, President Maithripala Sirisenas tirades against corruptors on both sides of, taken together with the reports of the two Commissions respectively on the Central Bank Bond Issuance in the time of the current Government and the numerous grave frauds that were committed during the Rajapaksa Presidency, appear to have (somewhat) shaken the political establishment.

This is however an observation that is made with some trepidation. Full foreknowledge of the deviousness of our politicians means that concrete results emerging from these battles of blaming each other across the political divide yet remains to be tested.

The second Commission report details extraordinary instances of alleged corruption on the part of the Rajapaksas and their acolytes, ranging from the forcible acquisition of vast tracts of private lands to the misappropriation of public funds allocated for the Negombo Lagoon Development Project. The notorious Avant Garde case with a specific focus on depriving a considerable income to the Navy by handing over the floating armory project to Avant Garde and not issuing permits under the Firearms Ordinance to the weapons possessed by the company has received particular attention.

Accountability for politicians and parties

Some welcome developments are evidenced. The Cabinet has approved the amendment of the Bribery Act in order that corruption cases will be heard by a three-bench trial-at-bar in the High Court. A proposal to amend the Commissions of Inquiry Act (1948) to vest the Bribery and Corruption Commission with the same powers given to the Attorney General by the Amendment Act of 2008 to institute criminal proceedings in respect of any offence based on material collected in the course of an investigation or inquiry or both an investigation and inquiry before a Commission of Inquiry is also a positive step.

Equally so, law reform must oblige political parties to maintain regular accounts clearly and fully recording therein all amounts received by them and all expenditure incurred as is, for example, the requirement in Germany. This was, in fact, a major proposal put forward by the Law Commission of India, when considering reform of Indias electoral laws. (Law Commission of India, One Hundred Seventieth Report on Reform of the Election Laws, May 1999)

The Law Commission recommended that the audited accounts be submitted to the Elections Commission before the prescribed date every year with the Commission being required in its turn to publish the said accounts for public information. The Commission reasoned that it was important to introduce an element of transparency and openness in the financial matters of political parties, being backed in this regard by a powerful judgment of the Supreme Court in Gajanan Bapat v Dattaji Meghe (1995, SCC, 347). Law reforms in Sri Lanka must ensure that actions of commission and omission covered by offences, corrupt and illegal practices of individuals acting as agents of parties should result to the discredit of such parties rather than only to the individuals. Parties themselves should be made to suffer severe penalties.

Thoughts to remember

Corruption, one might say, is as old as politics itself in Sri Lanka. So indeed is disregard for the Constitution and the law by those in power. Since independence, breathtakingly ingenious ways have been employed to twist the constitutional document of the day to suit political or even personal agendas.

But, as we may recall, what distinguished the Rajapaksa Presidency was not the pure occurrence of fraud and corruption. It was not that Rajapakse siblings, in-laws, sons and daughters, nephews and nieces, cousins and relatives, perchance twenty times removed from the seat of Presidential power, were placed at different levels of political or financial power. It was not even the fact of mismanagement and outright swindling that was the only question. Rather, what was fundamentally disturbing, (as much as the fact of such corruption), was the supremely arrogant manner of its occurrence. Not even unconvincing explanations were offered when those in power were called to account for monumental losses suffered by state institutions.

Indisputably that level of arrogance and imperviousness to the Rule of Law cannot be allowed to return.Will the bud from the mud be nipped in its first bloom? Pohottuwa will be the biggest loser if election victory hopes are dashedWhat has for years been a contest to decide who best can clean the drains and sewage, who best can rid a towns tons of garbage, who best can light the streets lamp posts and best deliver a communitys demands and service its needs, has suddenly turned from a genial, genteel, urbane affair to elect city fathers and mothers, into a gigantic life or death war between titans battling for Lankas throne. One whose outcome may well portend the downfall of the Government in the years to come; foreshadow the breakdown due to irreconcilable differences of the SLFP-UNP union of convenience; and ring the death knell to the lotus hopes of Rajapaksas faction, the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna, as it faces its baptism of fire. But whatever the outcome of this local government election, you can bet your bottom buck that both the two major parties, the UNP and the SLFP, even if they lose, will survive the holocaust; and will live to rise again to fight another day. But can the same be said of the SLPP, the G.L. Peiris front for Mahindas third advent? Can one dare to place the new Central Bank 1000 buck note issued this week to commemorate Lankas 70th year of independence, on a wager that the Rajapaksa party will have an afterlife to speak of should it die in battle on February 10? Thus would it not have been with some trepidation, some iota of lurking doubt that Prof. Peiris, chairman of the SLFP breakaway faction, the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna, the SLPP, and its ghost leader and chief sponsor Mahinda Rajapaksa would have awoken this Sunday morn wrapped in the quilt of fear that they may be proved wrong in their proud boast they have the peoples backing, come this Friday when their swank and swagger is put to the test? For all their wild bragging, for all their bravura performances on the nations stage to brainwash the collective psyche that the masses are still with them; for all their pompous claims made not even a month after Rajapaksa lost to Sirisena in the 2015 January presidential election, that whatever the poll results determined that eventful January day, the masses were then and still are solid in their support for the former Rajapaksa regime and crave the return of Mahinda R to rule the roost, assume the throne once more, at the helm of political power, what will be their future were the peoples verdict to rule otherwise? That the fantasy bubble  the balloon of hope they have blown so big with much hot air  will burst should the people prick it with the pin of their ballot and prove them all wrong? That their partys symbol  the lotus bud  will only rise from the mud to expose its presence above the watermark, each and every one of its thousand white petalled lips splattered with the self same mire from which it rose, with its core rotten black, only to wilt and droop in the Yahapalana sun and fall to the muddy origins from whence it was born? Though the bets are heavily placed on the UNP as odds on favourite to steal a gallop to the post over its rivals  even though it is handicapped, encumbered as it is with the bond scam dead weight  the spectators binocs should be firmly fixed and focused on the two stallions running in this greyhound race exalted to the level of a Royal Ascot, gasping for air in the final furlong to outdo each other and win a respectable second position to gain a credible outing in the all important 2020 Derby to follow. In this three cornered battle, the fight to the death is not between Ranil, Maithripala and Mahinda. The battle is for second place. Between Sirisena and Rajapaksa. A war between Sirisenas belief in just governance which is steadfast in spirit but slow in implementation for it takes not only him but the masses from every strata of society to abide by the faith uphold it faithfully and Mahindas conviction in his own Chinthanaya which is swift and final which needs naught but himself to implement without any divergence of opinion as the best course for Lanka. That enabled him to claim he reunited Lankas North with the rest of the country only to end up giving the Chinese a foothold on Lankan soil by creating an appendix of land on Colombos shores. Its not that the people have lost their faith in democracy. They demonstrated their commitment to its ideals when they voted for Sirisena three years ago for his vision to dawn a new era based upon the precepts of democracy, called by another name, namely, Yahapalanaya. The worrying factor is the peoples short term memory. The hard disk is solid. But the RAM can crash overnight. Especially DRAM, Dynamic Random Access Memory, which demands the memory must be constantly refreshed or it will lose its contents. And perhaps it was to refresh this fickle memory province of the Lankan mind that UNP Finance Minister Mangala Samaraweera chose to address last week when he issued a statement to warn the masses of their frequent fits of amnesia and the need to guard against it when he said:

It is an election that will determine if Sri Lankans will live free or under the yoke of fear, impunity and grotesque abuse of power by a single family and its henchmen. For this local government election on February 10 is much more than a regional contest to capture political power in urban and municipal precincts. It is an old regimes first real attempt to recapture power and restore an old, corrupt and dictatorial order.

As memory fades and we are embroiled in the politics of the present, it is easy to forget that once, not so many years ago, a Government shot and killed its citizens for the crime of demanding clean water. We need to ask ourselves, where all the white vans have gone. Where have the grease yakas gone? We must question why the Governments political critics and dissidents are not being thrown in jail. Why media organisations are not attacked and burned any longer. Why journalists are not being abducted or killed. Remember the night races  the gift of an indulgent father who wielded all the power of his presidential office to ensure his sons could have a good time? Remember the time when young men paid with their lives for the crime of being a rugby rival? Remember when an incompetent brother-in-law to the President ran the national airline to the ground? Remember how it was impossible to speak openly about the excesses of the ruling family except in hushed whispers not so long ago? Of course, these are basic freedoms that citizens in any functioning democracy should take for granted. But it must never be forgotten that there is a profound correlation between the end of this tyranny imposed upon the citizenry and the fall of the Rajapaksa regime in 2015. And it is this culture of extravagance, abuse of state property and state terror that is trying to make a comeback in the February 10 local government election. Electoral inroads made in this poll could be used to attempt to recapture national control in future elections. So while the forthcoming election may be a little one it has national consequences that could reverberate for years to come, casting long shadows over the lives of Sri Lankans who have begun to live unfettered and free again today. Yes, perhaps we are not where we hoped to be by this time. But we will get there. Change is incremental, political systems are entrenched and sometimes immovable; but the will to change remains as strong as ever. With the Rajapaksa regime and its fellow barbarians at the gates once more, Sri Lanka is at another crossroads at this election. In a way, this makes the choice clearer for all those citizens who want liberty, democracy and peace. On February 10, the people will have to choose once more  will we continue the march to freedom or herald a return to fear? Or in other words, will the fears of the past be turned to future tears should the ogre at the gates storm Sirisenas Yahapalana citadel and take the whole nation hostage? Sirisena and Rajapaksa know the knackers yard awaits them both if they lose to win second place in their sprint to the finishing line. Should Rajapaksa win over Sirisena, Sirisenas dream of being president for a second term will be over. If Rajapaksa were to lose, his claim to possess the charismatic right to the love of the people and thus declare his divine right to the throne of Lanka will end with his fantasy and die with his dream?

It would not matter much to the nation if the UNP won or lost and surrendered supreme place to Sirisenas SLFP at the local government election this coming Saturday. Life will go on as usual. Youll hardly notice the difference. A coconut may be a hundred bucks, but precious liberties, the right to life itself, will remain safeguarded, even as it has been for the last three years. And though strikes, especially the doctors strike over SAITM, have served to cripple the nations forward march, the Government has not deemed it fit to make the white van fleet an essential service to quell the dissent. But on this 10th, if Maithripala gets steamrolled and lies flattened under Mahindas merciless destructive juggernaut, think what a world of difference it will make to the nation. What it would mean to this nations future and how it will shake the shattered pillars of democracy which the coalition government have only just begun to restore from scratch, if the people were to shout open sesame to Ali Babas cave of countless thieves and set them free to enjoy their ill gotten wealth? Think before you vote. Its not for better drains or brighter city lights. Not for better sewage disposal or better garbage collection. But for a better lifestyle that guarantees your right to breathe the ozone air of fundamental freedoms. The right to life itself.

For, after all, man does not live by bread alone. But has often died a countless deaths under the jackboot of tyranny in his cowardly quest for a piece of rich cake to stock and fatten his belly rather than seek rich fulfillment in replenishing his larder of self respect.Flawed Democracy better than dictatorship View(s):

Prince Edward, the Earl of Wessex, will be in attendance today to see the Lion flag of Lanka being raised, 70 years after his grand-uncle, the Duke of Gloucester witnessed the same flag unfurl as the Union Jack was brought down after nearly 450 years of foreign rule.

Having already spent a few days on the island, the visiting Royal couple might well think that the Divide and Rule policies of colonial rule continue to thrive despite Independence. However, they must be, no doubt, briefed that the political leaders of this country going for each others throats is only because there is an election in the offing.

Elections and democracy as this country knows of today are also a legacy of British rule. The Colebrook-Cameron Commission (1833) first recommended limited representative government in this country, which was still under the yoke of colonial administration. A Legislative Council was established with little say for the outnumbered native members, but by the early 20th century, the Donoughmore Commission recommended Universal Adult Franchise in Sri Lanka  one of the first in all Asia  even before Independence in 1948.

Local Government itself is not an inheritance of British rule. In ancient Lanka, the Gam Sabha (Village Assembly) was in use as a vibrant meeting-point to discuss local issues and resolve disputes. They even had an element of judicial power. A reputed senior village elder was chosen by consensus to preside over proceedings, often held under a shady tree, and open to the public. They met in harmony and decisions were taken by conciliation and mediation. The King had appellate jurisdiction only over serious crimes.

The Colebrook-Cameron Commission recognised the usefulness of the Gam Sabha system in resolving local issues and recommended its continuation. However, with trade expanding in the country by the 20th century and townships emerging with big markets, a judicial system of their own and colonial laws coming into force, the Gam Sabha system went into disuse. British-style Ordinances introduced Village Councils, Town Councils, Urban Councils and Municipal Councils depending on the population and geographical area. In many towns around the country, there are references to the places where their ancestors met. In some towns even today, main roads intersect these places where old Lanka ran local government, and they are known as Gam Sabha handiya (junction).

With the advent of the Donoughmore Constitution in 1931 and the first State Council election that followed, members contested as Independent candidates. It was only thereafter that the political party system took root and representative government took a different turn in the politics of the nation.

There is now no turning back. Political parties are an essential ingredient of democracy and elections worldwide and in Sri Lanka too, they have become part and parcel of democracy and elections. We witness frenzied campaigning by all leading political parties and leaders today to win the hearts and minds of the voters even though next weekends election is labelled a punchi chande or mini-poll. For elections is a great leveller.

Until 1987, and the introduction of the Provincial Council system, the local councils that are being hotly contested for, were the nursery for the National Legislature. No longer is that the case and these councils are now throwing up only the third layer of politicians  in a nation of professional politicians.

Since Independence, the people elected and rejected successive Governments at national level. On the one hand it showed their aspirations were not met by those they elected to govern Free Lanka. On the other, it showed democracy at its best  that Governments were changed by the free will of the people and by the ballot, not the bullet, as is the case in so many countries that also received their Independence shortly after Sri Lanka did. That is why political leaders reach out to the people at periodic intervals and facing the daunting prospect of being sent home rather than to office.

It was not that politicians did not tinker with the electoral process and the franchise of the people along the way since 1948. An independent Elections Commission remained the great defender of the peoples rights to select, elect and reject their representatives. Independent Courts often upheld violations of Election laws and Members of Parliament have been unseated on election petitions.

The 1972 Republican Constitution was arguably the first major move to infringe upon the franchise of the people. The then Government (SLFP-LSSP-CP) unilaterally extended the life of the then Parliament from five years to seven by patent arithmetical jiggery-pokery. Not to be outdone, the Government that followed (UNP) usurped the peoples franchise to elect its representatives by by-passing a parliamentary election and holding a referendum in 1982. In 2010, the shenanigans that took place (by those now in the SLPP) with the still mysterious abduction of the then Commissioner of Elections in the middle of a crucial count, are all recorded in the contemporary history of Sri Lanka.

The JVPs attempts at disrupting elections by threatening to shoot voters, and the TNAs meek capitulation and then defence of the fascist LTTE that called for the boycott of Presidential elections need no reminding. These are the main political parties in the fray for next weeks elections extolling the virtues of democracy, the rights of voters, and of representative government.

One can only hope that these are only aberrations of the past. All political parties seem to have come together after long and arduous deliberations and found an acceptable, and largely agreeable electoral system  a combination of the old FPP (First Past the Post) and the PR (Proportional Representation) systems.

A return to the Ward basis enables the citizen to know his or her representative to the council, while political parties that cannot win a ward, but obtain sufficient votes nevertheless in a council will find representation in that council and not be left out of governance forcing them to seek extra-parliamentary methods of having a say in running the country.

An element of disillusionment with local politics and self-serving politicians has triggered an apparent disinterest among voters and fears of a low turnout at next weeks elections. This has a direct bearing, therefore, on this negative view of representative government. But as the Election Commission Chairman quite rightly says  the alternative to a flawed democracy is a flawed dictatorship. That is something Sri Lanka has successfully managed to keep at bay for seven long decades whatever the countrys other faults may have been.The Sri Lankan National Flag View(s):

When Vijaya, the first King of the island of Sri Lanka, arrived in Sri Lanka from India in 486 BC, he brought with him a flag with a symbol of a lion on it. Since then the Lion symbol played a significant role in the history of Sri Lanka.

It was used extensively by monarchs who followed King Vijaya and it became a symbol of freedom and hope. When the legendary King Dutugemunu embarked on the campaign in which he defeated the Tamil King Elara, who had occupied part of Sri Lanka, he carried with him a banner which portrayed a lion carrying a sword on his right forepaw along with two other symbols, the Sun and the Moon.

The banner was in use until 1815, when the reign of the last king of the Kandyan Kingdom, King Sri Vikrama Rajasinha, was brought to an end with the Kandyan nobilitys signing of the Kandyan Convention on March 2, proclaiming King George III as King of Ceylon and replacing the Lion Flag with the Union Flag as the national flag of Ceylon.

The government of British Ceylon used its own flag. The Lion Flag was taken to England and kept at the Royal Hospital Chelsea. As the years passed, the design of the flag was forgotten by the Sri Lankan public.

Then, as the independence movement in Sri Lanka gained strength in the early 20th century, E. W. Perera, a prominent figure of the independence movement with the help of D. R. Wijewardene, owner of the Sinhala newspaper Dinamina discovered the original

Lion Flag kept at the Royal Hospital, Chelsea, UK.

A picture of it was subsequently published in a special edition of the Dinamina newspaper to mark 100 years since the end of Sri Lankan independence. The Lion Flag then became a centrepiece of attraction to the public, who for the first time since the fall of the Kandyan Kingdom were now aware of its actual design.

The first Prime Minister of independent Ceylon Hon. D. S. Senanayake, hoisted the Lion Flag at the ceremony on February 4, 1948. This flag depicted a yellow lion holding a sword in the right hand, facing the hoist, on a dark red background, with a yellow border, with four pinnacles of a Buddhist dagaba in the four corners.

The National Flag Committee was formed in March 1948 and on March 2, 1951, the Lion Flag was accepted, with a few changes as the countrys National Flag. Two vertical bands, one green and the other orange, were included in the flag to represent the Muslim and Tamil communities respectively.

Finally in 1972, when the country adopted the local name of Sri Lanka, the flag was modified once more, with four stylized leaves of the Bo (Pipul) tree, a Buddhist symbol, added to the four corners to replace the four pinnacles. In 1978, the leaves were made more natural.

Symbolism of the Lion Flag

The lion: The Sinhalese ethnicity and the strength of the nation

The Bo leaves: Buddhism and its influence on the nation.

They also stand for the four virtues of Kindness

(Mettha), Compassion (Karuna), Equanimity

(Upeksha) and (Muditha) Happiness

Sword: The sovereignty of the nation

Vertical Orange stripe: The Tamil community

Vertical green stripe: The Muslim community

Yellow border: People from other cultures living in Sri Lanka24K night for Mars; Bruno wins six awards View(s):

R&B artist Bruno Mars won the top prize at the Grammy Awards, denying rappers Kendrick Lamar and Jay-Z the honour of becoming the first hip-hop artist in 14 years to win the coveted album of the year award.

Mars won six Grammys including song of the year for his hit single Thats What I Like, and both record and album of the year for 24K Magic.

These songs were written with nothing but joy, with love, and thats all I wanted to bring with this album, seeing everybody dancing, Mars, 32, said.

He also paid tribute to his album of the year rivals  Jay-Z, Lamar, Childish Gambino and Lorde  saying: Thank you, guys, for blessing the world with your music.

Lamar, 30, regarded as one of the most innovative rappers of his generation, won five prizes mostly in rap categories, for his album DAMN. and single Humble.

Lamars victories came at the expense of veteran Jay-Z and his soul-baring album 4:44. Jay-Z won none of his eight nominations and chose not to perform at the three-hour show. Rap last year surpassed rock as the dominant genre in U.S. music.

Meanwhile, on the night before the Grammy awards, Jay-Z took the stage at a New York dinner attended by music industry titans to discuss his complex relationship with musics highest honors.

Jay-Z, who was honoured by the Recording Academy at veteran music producer Clive Davis annual pre-Grammy party on Saturday, spoke about his decision to boycott the Grammy awards in 1998 when rapper DMX did not get any nominations despite having two hit albums out that year.

Jay-Z said he only returned to the awards show in 2004, when Beyonce, to whom he is now married, was nominated for her breakout solo album.

The Academy, theyre human like we are and theyre voting on things that they like, its subjective  we care because were seeing the most incredible artists standing on that stage and we aspire to be there, so I was like, I have to be here, the rapper said. Its our duty to make sure that not only are we making the greatest art, that were upholding and supporting things that are super real, he added. In 60 years of the Grammys, only two hip-hop albums have ever won album of the year; Lauryn Hills The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill in 1999 and Outkasts Speakerboxxx/The Love Below in 2004.

(REUTERS)

Main awards and winners

ALBUM OF THE YEAR

24K Magic  Bruno Mars

RECORD OF THE YEAR

24K Magic  Bruno Mars

SONG OF THE YEAR (Songwriters award)

Thats What I Like  Christopher Brody Brown, James Fauntleroy, Philip Lawrence, Bruno Mars, Ray Charles McCullough II, Jeremy Reeves, Ray Romulus & Jonathan Yip

BEST NEW ARTIST

Alessia Cara

BEST POP VOCAL ALBUM

Divide  Ed Sheeran

BEST URBAN CONTEMPORARY ALBUM

Starboy  The Weeknd

BEST R&B ALBUM

24K Magic  Bruno Mars

BEST ROCK ALBUM

A Deeper Understanding  The War on Drugs

BEST COUNTRY ALBUM

From A Room: Volume 1  Chris Stapleton

BEST ALTERNATIVE MUSIC ALBUM

Sleep Well Beast  The National

PRODUCER OF THE YEAR, NON-CLASSICAL

Greg KurstinFrench cinema in Colombo Theatres View(s):

Alliance Francaise de Kotte has come out with a new concept to promote cinema, specially the French films to have monthly film screening at a public theatre. The film screenings in partnership with Ceylon Theaters and ARTRA Magazine will be held at Empire Cineplex, Majestic City and Alliance Francaise de Kotte.

The lineup of films for the next few months have been made and they include recently released and critical acclaimed award winners.

There will also be a special selection of animations for kids under the title Bonjour Cinema KIDS.

The screenings in public theatres- Empire and Majestic City Cineplex will be for tickets while the screening at the Alliance Francaise de Kotte will be free of charge.

The film for February will be Cezanne et moi (Cezanne and me) directed by Daniele Thompson which is a movie based on the friendship between the major French painter Cezanne and the French writer Zola in Southern France. The French version with English subtitles will be screened at 7 pm on February 21 and 28 at Empire, Arcade Independence Square.

The historical drama traces the lifelong friendship between two renowned 19th century French artistes  painter Paul Cezanne (Guillaume Gallienne) and writer Emile Zola (Guillaume Canet)  from their first meeting as schoolmates to their creative rivalry as fame and success continue to elude Cezanne.

Cezanne et moi stars Guillaume Canet, Guillaume Gallienne, Alice Pol, Deborah Francois and Sabine Azema and it was named as one of four films on the shortlist for the French submission for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film at the 89th Academy Awards.How free do they feel? By Tera Jayewardene and Hiranyada Dewasiri Our Millennials have their say View(s): View(s):

At the dawn of the 70th anniversary of Sri Lankas Independence, the Sunday Times Magazine looks at this historic event, the culture and traditions built around it through the eyes of todays youth. Born at least five decades after Independence, growing up through years of conflict, the experiences and ideas of Sri Lankas Millennials reflect how far, they feel, Sri Lanka has come since 1948.

Chathuri Kottage (22)

Bentota, Law student:

It is hard for Sri Lanka to become truly globalised because of the religious and cultural beliefs that prevail here, Chathuri feels. She believes that religion needs to adapt to some cultural changes, citing the issue of abortion and how Sri Lanka hasnt accepted these changes because of the hold that religion and tradition have on our society. Women should have the right to consume alcohol if they want to, she adds.

Asked what a truly independent Sri Lanka would look like to her, she stated it would be where Sri Lanka would conform more to international standards and there would be more independence for women. The current male dominated society needs to change in her view.

Kanathy Kohularangan(20)

Jaffna, Law student:

The Tamil people were discriminated against and it was the majority perception that Tamils supported the LTTE if they were from Jaffna, Kanathy says. She now feels that the general public have accepted Tamils, and she sees how in the poorer areas Tamils and Sinhalese live in harmony.

A truly independent Sri Lanka to Kanathy is a place where Tamils have more of an identity, have a greater voice, and face less discrimination in suburban areas in Colombo.

Thilakshi Walpita (22)

Kadawatha, Sociology student:

She used to enjoy hoisting a flag outside her home on Independence Day when she was a child but she notes that Sri Lankas Independence was granted because the British no longer wanted to remain here, not that it was won. Looking at the education system, she has sometimes felt that it would have been better if Sri Lanka was under British rule. Most of Thilakshis friends are trying to migrate to pursue their higher studies. Like her friends, she too feels that it is better to settle abroad than in Sri Lanka. In her opinion, this is not very different from preferring to live under foreign rule.

Shamil Akbar (22)

Colombo, Science student:

Growing up, Independence Day to Shamil meant a school holiday and watching the Independence Day parades on TV. The political value of the Independence of 1948 was not the same as what his father may have felt, he says, as his father lived through it. Now, Independence Day to him is an icon that the nation looks up to, celebrating the efforts of Sri Lankans who achieved that independence and trying to learn from them. This is the only celebration that the entire Sri Lankan populace celebrates as one for their love of the country, Shamil said.

We can no longer look up to 1948 and expect what would have been there 70 years ago since Sri Lanka has changed in the course of time, but it could be an inspiration to become economically independent as a nation.

Thaveesha Warusavitarne (19)

Colombo, Business Management student

Thaveesha believes that Sri Lanka isnt truly independent as there is influence from the UN and China. She believes that if Sri Lanka is truly sovereign then these external factors wouldnt affect the country. For Thaveesha a truly independent Sri Lanka would be a country devoid of discrimination between peoples of different religions and races, where everyone could live in harmony. There should be more access for higher education, a more efficient healthcare system and more job opportunities,Thaveesha says, adding that the younger generation should be given a chance to participate in politics.

Saambaviy Sivaji (24)

Uduvil, Student of English:

Although Independence Day in Colombo is an important event, it is not so in the North, says Saambaviy. For her it is a holiday like any other. During the war people were given flags and it was compulsory that they hoist them. Schools and vehicles were given flags as well. Saambaviy feels that the post-Independence negotiations could have been more successful since they took place among rivalries of Tamil political leaders like Chelvanayagam and G.G. Ponnambalam.

For her, Independence means being able to do what she wants no matter what her race or ethnicity is. She believes that all people who lost loved ones in the civil war, regardless whether they are from the north or the south, should be able to memorialise the dead. She is sceptical about politics and power and said that unless progressive people take office, the devolution of power may not be able to make much difference.

Kanishka Werawella (22)

Peradeniya, Economics student:

Kanishka, says it is difficult for him to speak of how Independence has impacted his life, because he doesnt know what life was like under colonial rule. Independence from Imperialism is good, but whether 1948s declaration granted any such Independence is a question, he says. Kanishkas family believed that 1948 was a turning point in Sri Lankan history and that it was an event to be valued. This influenced his perception of independence as a child. Yet it changed as he grew up.

Independence Day and the celebration of it is a ritual that nations practise globally, he says. He was always influenced by nationalistic ideals and believed that progress should be made as a country. Expressing his ideas about the devolution of power, Kanishka said he believed local governing bodies at the grassroot level must get autonomy and power for the betterment of the country.

Sivamshan Sivapalam (22)

Jaffna, Law student:

Sivamshan questions whether Sri Lanka is a truly independent nation because people in the north and east sometimes feel like they are different, not independent; that they cant express their opinions freely. This is very subjective, he adds -living in Colombo he doesnt feel that personally and feels able to express himself.

For Sivamshan a truly independent Sri Lanka would be a place where everyone is able to express themselves without hindrance and where everyone has autonomy. He wants minorities to have this right as well.

Zaitun

Colombo, Law student:

Zaitun states that what we have learnt from the Independence struggle is that being united as a country would do us a lot more good than being separated on ethnic and religious lines. The diversity in the country should be utilised so that it leads to unity and not separatism. Zaitun believes that the unity we had during independence should have been taken forward.

Zaitun believes that Independence comes from attitudes that promote mutual respect. Through that everyone has autonomy and this creates independence on a larger scale. The country is independent when the people are strong and have freedom of speech. You shouldnt be swayed by majority opinion or minority opinion, all opinions should be taken into consideration, she says.

Chathura Perera (22)

Colombo, Marketing Executive:

Chathura feels that that Independence has not brought about any systematic changes. Independence Day has always been a holiday for him. He finds the military parades of less importance because the Sri Lankan military were not involved in the struggle for independence; instead personalities like Weera Puran Appu should be commemorated on Independence Day and even cultural parades should focus on such personalities, he feels.

Since Sri Lankas trains still run on rails laid by the white man, Sri Lanka would have been in a better place in the world if it had not received Independence, he says, adding that if Sri Lanka was also able to use dollars as its currency, the economy would be in better shape.

Devrangee Weerasinghe (22)

Nugegoda, Law student:

Peace and freedom are the immediate by-products of independence and for someone who grew up during the war, peace and freedom were never felt until its conclusion in 2009. Therefore in terms of national importance, the end of the conflict was deeply felt and was found more relatable for her generation compared to the Independence of 1948, Devrangee says.

Real Independence for Sri Lanka, she believes was when the first Republican Constitution was created rather than the immediate freedom from colonialism. She doesnt feel it is something to celebrate on such a grand scale because of how it was received but she is grateful for the people that did push for Sri Lankas Independence. The 1972 Constitution, she says was made with our effort, and that is the Independence we strived for and rightfully got.

Stephanie Sansoni (22)

Kandy, International Relations student:

Stephanie always had a great sense of national pride. She remembers how Independence Day was celebrated in school and how her family hoisted a flag. Independence, for her, is an entity gaining freedom from external control. As a student of International Relations, Stephanie feels that over time she has come to understand that the word independence has a plurality to it and that the global dynamics of Independence is changing.

As a Burgher she had often heard her elders say that if the British had stayed, Sri Lanka would have been a more developed nation. But Stephanie felt that if things remained the way they were, Sri Lanka would have been another island under the enslavement of the colonizers. Stephanie feels that Independence is not possible in todays world as it would require a country to be entirely self-sufficient.Music that goes beyond the bounds of language By Purnima Pilapitiya The Mirror Magazine caught up with Chirkutt, the Bangladeshi fusion band that performed recently in Colombo View(s): View(s):

When Bangladeshi band Chirkutt took the stage at the 2018 Fairway Galle Literary Festival, audiences were treated to a unique brand of Bangla music which may even strike a chord close to home. Many have tried to label the internationally acclaimed band from urban folk, to bluegrass. But the members wont have any of that. Their influences are infinite. Inspired by life, philosophy, nature Pink Floyd, Bob Dylan, and their own folk bards and minstrels, its no wonder they decided to stick to fusion music. But the strains of their authentic vocals backed by folk melodies and surprise electric guitar solos have taken Chirkutt to international heights.

When they first began back in 2002, imagination and creativity through music we only wanted to sing with our hearts out: to express our thoughts, unleash imagination and creativity through music, they tell us over an email interview. Starting off their career in what they describe as a closed environment, the band never imagined international recognition let alone any recognition at all. In 2010, they launched their debut album. Two years later, they found themselves performing at their first international concert at India Music Week. It was the first gig that opened their eyes to their potential: Perhaps we have some things to offer to the others across the world. Their successful show was followed by a steady stream of memorable performances including a performance at the Indian President House Concert (2014), the South By South West (SXSW) carnival in Austin (2016), where they were the first Bangladeshi Band to perform and six-city tour in Norway, with the Norwegian rock band Casa Murillo, at South Asian Band Festival in India.

Back in 2013, the band found themselves in front of an enthusiastic crowd at the Jaffna Music Festival- the reason why theyre back to perform in Sri Lanka. In a twist of fate, one of their songs, featured in a film also won a SAARC Award in Colombo last year. Since then, so many of our Sri Lankan friends have been asking us to perform at the Galle Lit Fest, and when the Bangladesh High Commission approached the curator of the festival, they were on to their next big musical escapade.

Their first time in Sri Lanka was a memorable experience. Not knowing much about Sri Lankan music before they arrived, they werent afraid to literally capitalise their excitement when having to describe their first reaction to the local music scene. We are now fans of the Sri Lankan percussion, they said, citing Santush and Naadro as some of their favourite acts. The other favourite they let on is the crowd. Their truly worldwide appeal was evident in the audience response at the Jaffna festival.

We sang one of our songs at the big stage in front of a 25,000 Jaffna crowd, and was moved by the crowd that even caught on to some of the Bangla words. It was electric. But their most beloved memory of Sri Lanka was far away from the stage. While going back to their hotel the bell boy sang a key word from one of their songs, which he asked them to sing at their next show there. That touched our hearts: we felt, we share the similar emotion, similar mood. Its just two  three languages that separate us.Bellanwila prelate dies from accident when feeding temple elephant View(s):

One of Sri Lankas most respected Buddhist prelates, the Ven. Prof. Bellanwila Wimalarathana Thera, died yesterday after injuries he suffered in a fall when trying to feed an elephant at the Bellanwila Rajamaha Viharaya. The 75-year-old prelate was until recently the Anunayake of the Kotte Sri Kalyani Samagri Dharma Maha Sangha Sabha of the Syamapali Maha Nikaya. He was also the Chancellor of the Sri Jayewardenepura University. On Friday, he was treated at a Colombo private hospital, where he passed away.

Temple authorities said that the prelate had told them that the elephant had not attacked him and what happened was an accident. He was initially rushed to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the Kalubowila Teaching Hospital before being transferred to the private hospital. A large number of Buddhist monks, dignitaries and devotees started gathering at the Bellanwila Rajamaha Vihara last afternoon as news of the prelates death came in. Orange flags were hoisted at the temple at houses and business premises around it.

A funeral committee, convened by the temples Dayaka Sabha last night announced that final rites of the late Thera would be held at 3 pm on Thursday, February 8, at the Sri Jayewardenepura University grounds. The funeral committee is co-chaired by Speaker Karu Jayasuriya and Western Province Chief Minister Isura Devapriya.Polls violence continues, but at low intensity By Shaadya Ismail View(s): View(s):

All forms of election violence including attacks against women candidates and also abuse of public money and resources, are comparatively less in this local government elections, based on data from NGOs that are observing the campaigns.

But data can be misleading because not every incident is reported.

Complaints also show that there are hundreds of incidents of violence and that women candidates are being targeted. One Muslim cleric has been observed insulting women with profanities.

Election violence monitoring organisations stated that the new electoral voting system adopted at this years Local Government Election has reduced election violence. They have witnessed a diminishing trend in the severity of the violence.

The executive director of Peoples Action for Free and Fair Elections, Rohana Hettiarachchie, told the Sunday Times that while the new electoral voting system has made a huge impact in reducing the incidents of violence, the strict implementation of laws and regulations by the Elections Commission and the police have also played a vital role in diminishing violence.

There have been complaints about misusing public funds, for instance some candidates have rebuilt roads while some have given loans, he said.

There have also been campaigns to mislead voters.

According to the new election Laws, it is illegal for government field officers to contest, but some have dishonestly nominated family members and are displaying the photos of the field officers to show the voters that they are being backed by those individuals.

According to data from PAFFREL, as of January 31, there have been 737 reported violations. A report notes that 121 violations are acts of violence, 69 cases of abuses of state power, resources and misusing state sector employees, and 413 other violations.

Mr Hettiarachchie said there have been 90 complaints in the Colombo district as of Thursday, February 1. This is the highest.

There has been one complaint from Mannar  the lowest.

The National Coordinator of the Centre for Monitoring Election Violence, Manjula Gajanayake, said that distributing goods, using public funds at campaigns and exceeding the number of people used for election activities were the only violations that were treated seriously.

CMEV has received more than 400 complaints and the highest number was from the Northern Province at 51 complaints, while the lowest was from Kurunegala District. Mr Gajanayake said there were no major violations.

In the previous local government elections held in three stages in 2011, there were more than 900 complaints of which 200 were threats and grievous assault, he noted.

He explained the difference in data from each organisation saying it depends on the capacity and commitment.

During election campaigns, CMEV has used 70 long-term observers whereas PAFFREL has long-term observers in all electorates. This could also explain the vast difference in complaints data.

We have received 288 complaints of election violence. Out of which, 134 were about candidates carrying out illegal election propaganda, 62 were related to the abuse of public property and misusing state sector employees, and 44 were related to assault and threats, said Rajith Keerthi Tennakoon of the Campaign for Free and Fair Election.

According to him in Embilipitiya, a vehicle of a candidate was burnt down and created a lot of chaos.

He reiterated that the new electoral system has reduced incidents of election violence.

The media spokesman for the Network for Election Monitoring, lawyer Chaminda Gunasekara, said 448 complaints had been received as of February 2.

The misuse of state sector employees and distribution of goods, have been increasing, he said.

Army personnel on leave have been engaging in election propaganda in the Matara district. While employees of the National Housing Development Authority have campaigned in the Hambantota District, Mr. Gunasekara said.

PHYSICAL, VERBAL VIOLENCE TARGET WOMEN We have received 16 complaints of violence against women, Rohana Hettiarachchie from the Peoples Action for Free and Fair Election.PAFFREL has received reports from the Puttalam District that violence against female candidates had been organised and directed on a religious basis.Moulavi Niyas Siddhuk from Thihariya has openly campaigned against women engaging in politics and wide publicity has been give through social media, he said. In Thambuttegama, Anuradhapura, a candidate has been subjected to sexual violence, while assaults were reported in Moneragala and Polonnaruwa Districts. There were also reports of damage to party offices in Puttalam, Kandy and Gampaha Districts. The CMEV has received 34 complaints of violence faced by female candidates. Mr Manjula Gajanayake said none of these complaints was filed by the candidates themselves. The data was collated by the CMEV by personally speaking to the women candidates. The female candidates are facing a lot of violence and inconvenience, houses are burnt down, some of them have received threatening calls and many were not given nominations. There were also instances where at campaign meetings if the main candidate of the particular electorate is female, she is denied the chance to speak to the gathering, he said. Rajith Keerthi Tennakoon said many women candidates are subjected to character assassination and are made to feel uncomfortable during campaigning. In most areas the woman candidate is not highlighted, instead a powerful male official of the party is portrayed during the campaign, he said.

RIGHTS BODY HEARS GRIPES T he Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka has set up an election complaints desk to record violations of fundamental rights of the candidates at local government elections. It will take note of women candidates, in particular. Most of the incidents do not result in a complaint. We hear them through the media. We have received only a few complaints on violence against women, said.

The commission is investigating the assault of a woman candidate in the Wellawaya electorate.Former SC judge heads commission to probe SriLankan, Mihin Lanka Full scale inquiry on nine aspects of the national carriers from 2006 to Jan. 31 this year View(s): View(s):

Retired Supreme Court Justice Anil Gooneratne will head a Commission of Inquiry that will probe the management of two national carriers  SriLankan Airlines and Mihin Lanka from January 1, 2006 to January 31, 2018. The period covers management during the Mahinda Rajapaksa Administration and the present Administration.

The other members of the Commission, Gazetted on Friday, will be Gamini Rohan Amerasekera (Judge of the Court of Appeal), Piyasena Ranasinghe (retired Judge of the High Court), Don Anthony Harold (retired Deputy Auditor General) and Jayaseeli Kapugama Geeganage, (Director General of the Sri Lanka Accounting and Auditing Standards Monitoring Board).

The probe will cover nine different aspects. They are:

n The management, administration and conduct of affairs of SriLankan Airlines Limited, SriLankan Catering Limited and Mihin Lanka (Private) Limited.

Whether there has been any malpractice, irregularity or non-compliance with or disregard of the proper economic and financial prudence, norms, guidelines, procedures and best practices applicable in relation to such management, administration and conduct of affairs resulting in loss, damage or detriment, either direct or imputed, to the Government, any statutory body or any other entity including SriLankan Airlines, SriLankan Catering, Mihin Lanka and the nature and magnitude of such losses;

Whether any contractual obligations related to SriLankan Airlines, SriLankan Catering, and Mihin Lanka relating to the said matter referred to in the said schedule hereto have been entered into or carried out, fraudulently, recklessly, negligently, imprudently or irresponsibly, without due professional care or due diligence, considering accepted norms, guidelines and best practices resulting in loss, damage or detriment, either direct or imputed, to the Government, any statutory body or any other entity including SriLankan Airlines, SriLankan Catering, Mihin Lanka and the nature and magnitude of such losses;

Whether proper economic and financial prudence, norms, guidelines, procedures, best practices and adequate safeguards have been adopted to ensure that the matter referred to resulted in obtaining optimum benefit, to the Government, any statutory body or any other entity including SriLankan Airlines, SriLankan Catering, Mihin Lanka and the nature and magnitude of such losses.

The person or persons responsible for the act, omission or conduct, which has resulted in such loss, damage or detriment, either direct or imputed, to the Government, any statutory body or any other entity including SriLankan Airlines, SriLankan Catering, Mihin Lanka in respect of the said matter;

Whether any inquiry or probe into the aforesaid matter referred to in the said schedule hereto had been obstructed or prevented in any manner, resulting in loss, damage or detriment, either direct or imputed, to the Government, any statutory body or any other entity including SriLankan Airlines, SriLankan Catering and Mihin Lanka, and, if so, the person or persons responsible for such obstruction;

The procedures and guidelines which should be adopted in the future to ensure that such matter referred to in the said schedule hereto are carried out with transparency and with proper professional care and accountability with a view to secure optimum benefit to the Government, any statutory body or any other entity including SriLankan Airlines, SriLankan Catering and Mihin Lanka;

Whether there has been misuse or abuse of power, influence, interference, fraud, corruption and nepotism or any other action or omission in relation to the said matter referred to in the said schedule hereto;

Make recommendations with reference to the said matter referred to that have been inquired or investigated into under the terms of this warrant.

The Gazette notification signed by Presidential Secretary Austin Fernando said that the Commissions investigation is in addition to and without prejudice to any measures that have been taken or which may be taken by relevant authorities including the Police, the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption and the Attorney General.

Ten vital issues in warrant

The warrant issued to the Commission seeks a probe into alleged irregularities in:

(a) Infusion of funds through share capital and borrowings including funding by the General Treasury, Bank of Ceylon, Peoples Bank and any other financial institution or entity, and investment of such funds.

(b) Establishment, operations, and winding up of Mihin Lanka.

(c) Termination of agreements between Sri Lankan Airlines and Emirates, the International Airline of the United Arab Emirates, including reasons and ramifications thereof.

(d) Entering into, extension, and cancellation of agreements pertaining to the purchase, sale, lease, sale and leaseback, transfer, exchange, release, and disposal of aircraft and any other assets.

(e) Procurement of goods and services and re-fleeting of aircraft, including purchase, sale, lease, sale and leaseback, transfer, exchange, release, and disposal of aircraft and any other assets, value of which exceeds Rs. 50 million.

(f) Hiring and appointment of agents, brokers, consultants, firms and any other individual or entity for the provision of goods, services or any other task.

(g) Opening, maintenance and discontinuation of route network and offices in other countries.

(h) Transactions between SriLankan Airlines, SriLankan Catering and Mihin Lanka.

(i) Human resource management including recruitment, appointment, remuneration, promotion, transfer, retrenchment, and retirement of personnel, appointment of Boards of Directors, Chief Executive Officers, Chairmen, and other senior management.

(j) Financial reporting, compliance with applicable accounting and auditing standards, and financial and operational performance and condition.Medical degrees: Minister issues regulations for minimum standards View(s):

Regulations for the maintenance of minimum standards of medical education have been issued by Health Minister Rajitha Senaratne.

They come after months of controversy over the medical degree programme at the private South Asian Institute of Technology and Medicine (SAITM), with the Government Medical Officers Associations and university students strongly protesting against SAITM degrees.

The regulations have been made in consultation with the Sri Lanka Medical Council and on the consideration of the comments of each university or institution which grants or confers any qualification which entitles a person to obtain registration under the Medical Ordinance. Every recognised university or institution within or outside Sri Lanka which grants or confers a medical qualification, alone or jointly with any Sri Lankan or foreign recognised university or institution under affiliation or under a twin medical programme is required to ensure that the minimum standards set out in the regulations are adhered to and maintained in the conduct of its medical education.

For students who enter the educational programme directly from secondary school, with at least twelve years of schooling, the duration of the medical educational programme shall be at least five academic years. Every student admitted to the medical degree programme of a university or institution should have passed the General Certificate of Education (Advanced Level) Examination of Sri Lanka or an equivalent examination, in the subjects of biology, chemistry and physics with minimum grades of credit passes in the subjects of biology and chemistry, at one and the same sitting.

The university or institution will be allowed to formulate and implement a policy on admission based on principles of objectivity and make a clear statement on the process of selection of students. The policy will be required to take cognizance of the admission policy of the relevant state higher education system, opportunities for differently-abled students and the transfer of students from one programme or university or institution to another when the curricula are compatible and there is academic continuity.

The regulations also set the minimum number hours required in clinical training for medical students in different disciplines. Access to a field practice area to provide students with adequate community based clinical experience and access to facilities for training in clinical forensic medicine and pathology are also required.

The regulations will come into operation on approval of Parliament.Pioneer plastic surgeon Dr. Joe Fernando passes away at 90 View(s):

Dr Joe Fernando, who gave leadership to Plastic Surgery in Sri Lanka through the 1970s-80s, and established the first Burns and Plastic Surgery Unit in Sri Lanka at the NHSL, passed away yesterday. He was 90 years.

Having obtained his MBBS Degree in 1952, he qualified as a Surgeon in Edinburgh, as well as in London in the 1960s. Thereafter, he worked in Matara and Chilaw as Surgeon, before going to the UK to qualify as a Plastic Surgeon. On his return to Sri Lanka in 1971, he requested the Ministry of Health to post him to Kandy and Kurunegala. Despite enduring immense hardships due to shortage of equipment, he established a Plastic Surgery Unit in Kurunegala, to which patients were transferred from Colombo. The entire Unit was transferred to Colombo, along with him, when the Burns & Plastic Surgery Unit was ready at NHSL. Dr Fernando also secured support from the Canadian Government to improve his area of work.

In retirement, he had an active practice and briefly worked in Oman and Australia, and thereafter continued to support teaching many prospective Surgeons. In recognition of his Leadership to establish Plastic Surgery, the Sri Lanka College of Surgeons presented him with a Lifetime Achievement Award. He was also President of St Lukes Catholic Doctors Guild.John DOylys fake news campaign and the fall of the Kandyan Kingdom As Sri Lanka celebrates 70 years of independence from British rule today, a month shy of the 203rd anniversary of the signing of the Kandyan Treaty that ceded the whole island to the British, Chandani Kirinde looks back on that intriguing and bloody chapter of our history View(s): View(s):

British rule in the Kandyan country was as incompatible as yoking a buffalo and a cow in the same plough. This view expressed by a subordinate Kandyan chief was related by a British officer who appeared before a Select Committee of the British Parliament on Ceylon which sat between 1849-1850 to inquire into the grievances of people of Kandy and the omissions by officials of the British Government in Ceylon.

The simple analogy drawn by a person resident in the Kandyan Provinces in the early part of the 19th century is quoted by historian Tennakoon Vimalananda in his book The Great Rebellion of 1818: The Story of the First War of Independence and Betrayal of the Nation, and it speaks volumes of the incompatibility of the relationship between the inhabitants of the country and its colonizers. With the signing of the Kandyan Convention in March 1815, the British rulers expected a smooth transfer of power to their hands and for the locals to fall in line with their rules and regulations but less than two years later, a bloody rebellion led by some of the very chieftains who were signatories to the convention, left thousands of native people dead and the fertile lands of the Kandyan provinces plundered and laid waste by the military might of the colonizers.

As Sri Lanka celebrates 70 years of independence from British rule today, a month shy of the 203rd anniversary of the signing of the Act of Settlement of the Kandyan Kingdom better known as the Kandyan Convention, the Treaty signed on 2nd March 1815 remains a subject of intense scrutiny and interest in the country.

Gananath Obeyesekere, Emeritus Professor of Anthropology at Princeton University in his book titled The Doomed King  A Requiem for Sri Vikrama Rajasinha released last year divulged in detail how the spread of fake news by the British master spy on the island John DOyly led to the unceremonious dethroning of the last King of Kandy and cleared the way for the signing of the Treaty.

Once Ceylon became a Crown Colony (in 1802, the coastal districts of the island were ceded to the British from the Dutch by the Treaty of Amiens entered into by the warring European powers) it was clear that there was no room for two monarchs to rule over the island. It had to be either the British Monarch or the King of Kandy. Hence they (the British) set about to remove the King in a very efficient way but it took them a long time to achieve their goal, said Professor Obeyesekere.

Having failed disastrously in 1803 to invade the Kingdom of Kandy, their attempt repulsed by the natives who used guerrilla tactics and put their intimate knowledge of the terrain to best use, the British adopted different tactics to bring the Kandyan provinces under their rule.

The man who drafted the Act of Settlement, John DOyly had come to Ceylon in 1801 during the tenure of Governor Frederick North. He was among a number of British colonial officials who were recruited to serve on the island to be trained to integrate with the locals by learning their language as well as their customs. Eleven years later, Robert Brownrigg arrived in the country as the new Governor and working together, the two men pulled off a constitutional coup of sorts ensuring that the Kandyan chieftains sign away their sovereignty to a foreign power.

Professor Obeyesekere says Brownriggs dismantling of the Kandyan Kingdom cannot be understood apart from the work of DOyly who during Thomas Maitlands (Governor of Ceylon 1805-1811) tenure had become the chief translator or in other words the chief spy and was  in full form by the time Brownrigg arrived on the island.

Brownriggs contempt for Raja Sinha as well as the Kandyan people becomes apparent from the correspondence he sent to Earl Bathurst, Secretary of State, said Professor Obeyesekere. In a letter dated March 15, 1813, the Governor refers to Raja Sinha as having a tyrannical disposition while of the Kandyan people he shows even more contempt saying, their treachery and cunning is such that appearances are never to be relied upon and they remain contemptible as a military power.

The coming together of DOyly and Brownrigg sealed the fate of Sri Vikrama Raja Sinha. Aided by Ehelepola who was the First Adigar as well as others in the Kandyan provinces who had grown weary of the Kandyan King, DOyly built up a spy network not only to fill him in on developments within Raja Sinhas inner circle but also to spread stories discrediting the King.

Raja Sinhas downfall came on February 18, 1815 when the unfortunate monarch was captured, plundered of his valuables and dragged away to be eventually banished to India.

Less than a month later, D Oyly had ready the Official Declaration of the Settlement of the Kandyan Provinces. At what was described as a solemn conference held at the Audience Hall (Magul Maduwa) of the Palace of Kandy, Governor Brownrigg, on behalf of his Government and the Adikars, Dissaves, and other principal chiefs of the Kandyan Provinces on behalf of the people signed on the dotted line ceding the Sinhala Kingdom to the British Crown.

The Official Bulletin sent by the British Headquarters , Kandy on March 2, 1815 states, A public instrument of treaty, prepared in conformity to conditions previously agreed on, for establishing His Majestys government in the Kandyan Provinces, was produced and publicly read in English and Cingalese (Sinhalese), and unanimously assented to. The British flag was then for the first time hoisted, and the establishment of the British dominion in the Interior was announced by a royal salute from the cannon of the city.

Article Five of the Treaty declaring the Religion of the Boodhoo (Buddha) inviolable and the promise to maintain and protect its rites, Ministers and Places of Worship was the saving grace which the Sinhala Chieftains had insisted upon if they were to put their signature on the document. But, as expected, there was opposition from the Christian elements particularly missionaries.

Gamini Iriyagolle writing on the Kandyan Convention- A conditional Treaty of Cession between the Sinhalese and the British, cites a letter dated March 15, 1815 in which Governor Brownrigg explains to his Government why the condition relating to Buddhism had to be in the Treaty. The 5th confirms the superstition of Boodhoo in a manner more emphatical than would have been my choice. But as the reverence felt towards it at present by all classes of the inhabitants is unbounded and mixed with a strong shade of jealousy, and doubt about its future protection- and that in truth our secure possession of the country hinged upon this point. I found it necessary to quiet all uneasiness respecting it, by an article of guarantee couched in the most unqualified terms, Brownrigg wrote.

While in the immediate aftermath of the signing of the Convention there was an uneasy co-existence between the two sides, it was short-lived. By 1817, the majority of the Sinhala Chieftains were up in arms, small disturbances snowballing into full blown rebellion which lasted almost a year. The Uva-Wellessa rebellion as it came to be known, was put down by the British in the most brutal manner.

John Davy, the army surgeon and physician-in-attendance to Governor Brownrigg between 1817  1819 in his An account of the Interior of Ceylon and Of its Inhabitants published in 1821, makes little effort to hide the brutality with which the rebellion was put down by the British. The loss of the natives, killed in the field or executed, or that died of disease and famine, can hardly be calculated; it was, probably, ten times greater than ours, and may have amounted, perhaps, to ten thousand, he wrote.

Other British writers too have recorded the brutality of the British military campaign with Sir Archibald Lawrie who served as a Judge of the Supreme Court in Ceylon 1892 writing that the story of the British rule in the Kandyan country during 1817 and 1818 cannot be related without shame.

While the colonizers overcame the local inhabitants by the use of superior forms of military ware to quell the rebellion, what was lost was their inability to enforce the terms of the Treaty in its true spirit.Letters to the Editor View(s):

Dumping Colombos garbage in Arawakkadu: A disaster in the making?

It has been in the news these days that garbage of Colombo and the suburbs is to be transported by rail for disposal in Arawakkadu, an area bordering the Wilpattu National Park.

There are over 100 elephants who inhabit this area and this move would be a definite death knell to them and many other wild animals big and small which abound in the area.

The purported dump sites are within the area claimed by Holcim and are disused excavation pits which were dug for the extraction of lime stone for the manufacture of cement.

The rail network used to transport the lime stone from Arawakkadu to the cement factory at Puttlam is probably to be used for the transport of the garbage to its sites via Puttalam.

The stench that will emanate from this site in addition to the flies, will affect the thousands of people from the villages of Karaitivu, Tirikkapallama, Gangewadiya, Serakuli, Eluwankulam and even Wanathavillu and of Kalpitiya, a popular tourist destination which is only a few kilometres across the Puttlam Lagoon, from the site.

This stench will definitely attract elephants from the sanctuary to the dumpsite and will cause an elephantine problem.

The seepage from the garbage dumped into these deep pits with the collection of rain water will certainly contaminate the adjoining Puttlam Lagoon, the nearby Kala Oya and catastrophically the deep underground water channels which will eventually pollute and render unusable the deep water and other wells which the people of the area depend on for their survival.

Though several attempts have been made by environmental organisations to put a stop to this ill-conceived project, it seems that it is well underway from what has been reported. It is still not too late for all concerned wildlife enthusiasts and environmentalists to raise a joint voice against this venture.

If the argument of the entities favouring the project is that this will not harm the environment nor affect the wildlife of the area etc since the disposal will be done in a scientific and methodical manner, let them find a site within their province.

The people in the villages mentioned are fishermen, farmers and small time traders who have no way of voicing their opinion whilst most of them are not even aware of the impending and looming disaster which is to befall their communities if the envisaged project goes ahead.

It is also alarming to note that some very vociferous politicians who represent the people of the area have not made any significant representation or any agitation to avert this impending disaster.

Kiyaz Deen Colombo 7

A plea to bring back our lost bus stands

The people of Kesbewa are thankful to the authorities for finally putting up a bus shelter, two weeks ago, on the Horana Road (on the side of the temple), at the Kesbewa main junction, after two years of agitation for it.

But, it is a matter for regret that authorities have turned a blind eye on the Kesbewa lake side, on the same road, at the same junction. There were two bus halts (one with a shelter) at the lake side of the 120 bus route but they were removed, like the clock tower, during an expansion project.

These two bus halts were never rebuilt neither was the clock tower, which authorities promised would be brought to the city centre, as was the original plan.

For the past two years the people made many representations (including some library members and myself) to the RDA, the Kesbewa TC and the Transport Ministry to instal these two bus halts as bus drivers stop according to their own whims and fancies, specially favouring the younger women.

Can we have these two bus halts back is the plea of the people of Kesbewa as many government institutions such as the Ayurveda Clinic , Maternity Clinic, the Post Office, the Public Library, and the walking path are all situated on the lake side.

Sumith de Silva Kesbewa

Citizen Silva, your comment on Mr. Kumarasinghe is unfair

Dear Citizen Silva, I appreciate the forthrightness and good sense of your articles. But your comment on P.G. Kumarasinghe, President Maithripala Sirisenas brother, in the Sunday Times of January 7, was not fair.

You cannot equate the appointment of P.G. Kumarasinghe as Chairman SLT, with that of Nishantha Wickremasinghe, President Rajapakshas brother-in-law. In all fairness, Mr. Kumarasinghe is a qualified and experienced professional administrator with two MBAs. An MBA is a qualifier for promotion in the public sector and the private sector. Mr. Wickremasinghe has no qualification for a high executive position whatsoever. Is it a fair comparison?

I am non-partisan between these two factions. I am for objectivity and fair-mindedness.

One must remember that P.G. Kumarasinghe was previously deprived of a promotion just because he was President Sirisenas brother. You are old enough to remember what Sir John Kotelawala once said when he was criticised for appointing his nephew Dixon as Director, Civil Aviation:  He shouldnt be deprived of his appointment because he is my nephew.

Mr. Kumarasinghe is a grassroots man. I am too and I presume you are too since you are Citizen Silva

Patrick Jayasuriya Maharagama

Thoughts on passing a parking meter

Ambling along on the pavement on Galle Road, Wellawatte, I paused to study the new parking meters that are being installed.

Heres what I saw:

Exact Change- No Refunds- Charge for cars Rs 30 per hour. There are no place to insert coins on the meter. Now how is one to deposit Rs 30 without a ten rupee coin? There are no ten Rupee notes any more.

Or is one to deposit Rs 40 and forfeit Rs 10 on every occasion?

Nihal Ratnayake DehiwalaMonument to freedom I say, why dont you build something like that audience hall in Kandy?; These words by John Kotelawala then a minister went on to cement the design for the Independence Memorial Hall. Randima Attygalle looks back View(s): View(s):

Four smart white clad relay runners from the ends of Lanka bearing scroll messages of hope and goodwill for the future entered the Independence Square sharp at 4.15 p.m. yesterday to complete the last act of Ceylons first anniversary celebrations of independence. It was a magnificent effort of co-ordination. The four scrolls were handed over to four girls representing the womanhood of the nation. The girls then turned towards the Premier and read the messages in Sinhalese, Arabic, English and Tamil.. The Prime Minister proceeded to lay the foundation stone of the Independence Column and immediately after a large number of pigeons were released. This was followed by Prime Ministers address. Thus records the Ceylon Observer of February 5, 1949.

The report further provides a detailed description of the kap planting ceremony at the site chosen for the Independence Monument. Ancient Sinhalese ceremonial was observed when at 10.35 a.m. yesterday the auspicious time, Sir John Kotelawala, Minister of Transport and Works, deputising for the Prime Minister performed the kap planting ceremony. Earlier pooja ceremonies under E.A. Delgoda, the Basnayake Nilame were performed by the kapuralas. Milk was boiled at the Northern end of the octagon and coconuts were broken.

Independence Memorial Hall, is indeed one of the most outstanding sights of Colombo and one which, once seen, will not be forgotten, true to the words of its principal architect T.N. Wynne Jones. More than a monument celebrating the countrys emancipation from colonial rule, this iconic edifice had been privy to occasions of national significance; both ceremonial and sombre, Parliament assemblies and civic receptions since its opening in late 1953. The Hall stands on the site of the temporary assembly hall, where the first Parliament was inaugurated on February 10, 1948 by the Duke of Gloucester.

Signing the decisive Kandyan Convention in the Magul Maduwa or the Audience Hall in Kandy in 1815 was the final blow to our national sovereignty. In a twist of destiny, the Magul Maduwa, replica now stands as a symbol of Independence. Interestingly, the design had however, been unpremeditated, according to Dr. Justin Samarasekera, a celebrated first generation local architect honed in the best of both the vernacular tradition and that of the West.

Dr. Samarasekera was among the Lankan architects who collaborated with Wynne Jones, on the Independence Memorial Hall. Citing her communication with Dr. Samarasekera in her work, Architecture and Nationalism in Sri Lanka- the trouser under the cloth, Dr. Anoma Pieris notes: D.S. Senanayake, the first Prime Minister, who had once been a draughtsman at the PWD (Public Works Department), initially volunteered the design services of a friend in the Survey Department. He produced a design for a colonial saluting platform- a form wholly inappropriate for a nascent nation-state. H.J. Billimoria of the PWD, a pragmatic soul, suggested a hospital. Sir John Kotelawala, a minister- later to be Prime Minister called up Wynne-Jones and said, I say, why dont you build something like that audience hall in Kandy? PWD architects were asked to sign a no protest form to this recommendation.

Fashioned on the Magul Maduwa, the Independence Hall takes the form of a long narrow open-sided structure with a two-pitched Kandyan roof. The Hall constitutes four corner towers and 48 pillars, based on the typical Kandyan design, with their elaborate pekadas. The ridge of the roof is modelled to the outline of the balustrades of the Temple of the Tooth Relic. Immediately above the column capitals and as viewed from inside the Hall, there will be a series of 28 vertical panels each of which is adorned with a pictorial design depicting an incident from our folklore. Below the hall is a large chamber of the same plan-dimension with 21 alcoves which was envisaged by the designers, to be a museum dedicated to the countrys history. The lower terrace with three tiers to the ground level includes a range of modelled lions to all four sides.

The hall is mounted on a raised tiered terrace, enabling any person standing anywhere on the floor to be fully visible from quite a short distance up to half a mile or so from the long sides, as the principal architect of the project, Wynne Jones in his report The Independence Commemoration Hall in CEYLON Today (the journal of the Ceylon Government Information Department) of September 1953 notes.

While drawing inspiration from the Magul Maduwa- the creative labour of the royal architect, Devendra Mulachari, the architects were conscious of its adaptability to a modern age. It has been fully realized that this is the modern age, centuries later than the originals, and that the scheme is in a different location for a different purpose; and again, that the scale and materials and viewing angles are all entirely different, documents Wynne Jones. The structure is completely free of wood work and even the reepers are of precast concrete making the roof completely weather-tight. Thus there is thus nothing to decay and nothing that can burn. Pure white quartz obtained from a source discovered near Opanayaka gives the edifice its scintillating whiteness. Remarking that, it would be both incorrect and unwise to insist upon slavish copying of earlier examples; it is indeed most desirable that there should be a spontaneity of enthusiastic co-operation and contribution by the craftsmen, Wynne Jones further records that the best craftsmen from the country were selected for the purpose.

Speaking to the Sunday Times, eminent chartered architect and archaeologist Dr. Roland Silva notes that the choice of the design for the independence monument couldnt have been better. Recalling the celebration he saw as a 15-year-old youngster, Dr. Silva chuckles: the most vivid memory of mine is the blocking of the roads on the day the first Parliament was inaugurated! I travelled with my father from Giriulla for almost half-a-day to witness the celebrations at the temporary Assembly Hall.

Dr. Silva endorses that all professionals and craftsmen involved in the making of Independence Hall were well groomed for a neat job done. The location chosen for the Hall, he points out had one time been an aerodrome. During the World War the airstrip used to go from the Thurstan Road up to the present Independence Square where there was a hangar. The Independence Hall now stands where the runaway was.

The Independence Hall had been declared a Protected Monument during Dr. Silvas tenure as Archaeological Commissioner and Director General of the Central Cultural Fund. This was an exception to the 100-year requirement for a monument to be declared a protected one. It was done under very special approval. He feels that today the character of the monument should be preserved at least within a radius of half a mile from it. There should not be any developments done in this area which would hinder the environment the monument enables, he adds.

Independence Hall which had been completed in late 1953 became the chosen site for the ceremonial opening of the third session of the second Parliament in 1954 graced by Queen Elizabeth 11. As The Royal Visit published in the May-June, 1954 edition of CEYLON Today journal records, Her Majesty wore her coronation robes for the occasion.

Under the bold banner Break with tradition not with the past the Ceylon Daily News of February 5th, 1957 records that In Colombo the scene then shifted to the Independence Square not Galle Face Green as in the past, where 2500 school children from over 30 schools delighted the largest ever Independence gathering with a march past, gymnastics and a physical drill display. Among the guests who graced the first ever Independence Day celebrations to be held at the Independence Hall, were the Governor General Sir Oliver Goonetilleke, Premier S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike and the Chinese Premier Chou En-lai and his entourage. The report says that the folk dances and the mass physical display by 700 school girls moved the distinguished Chinese visitor to lean forward in his chair.

If the Hall could talk, it would hold testimony to the one sea of heads that the Independence Square was on February 4, 1957 to witness the spectacle on a new stage. The heavy rains which had fallen just a few minutes after the Independence Day public meeting began, could not dampen the spirits of the crowds. Instead, the Chinese Premier Chou En-lai who brushed aside repeated offers of an umbrella and chose to stand bareheaded in the rain sent ripples among them and as newspaper accounts of the day record, the Premiers example was infectious. As the umbrellas came down the crowd stayed on to applaud almost every sentence of his speech.

Truly a monument to freedom, this striking edifice marrying simplicity with architectural and artistic mastery rooted in a rich tradition, enables any visitor to be riveted in the tranquility it exudes. The Hall will continue to be a living embodiment of the prophetic words of Prime Minister D.S. Senanayake who reflected after laying its foundation stone: Let us follow the truth, seek justice and work hard. There will then be enough for all in this fair island of ours. I trust that the monument which will arise here will inspire us all to more intense effort.

(Pix courtesy Ceylon Observer, Ceylon Daily News, CEYLON Today Journal, the Architect 50 (1957-2007 Commemorative Volume of The

Sri Lanka Institute of Architects))

What they remember Speaking to the Sunday Times, Chartered Architect Nela De Zoysa, daughter of Dr. Justin Samarasekera, says that she was a very young child when her illustrious father was engaged in the Independence Hall project. Although my recollection of this particular endeavour are bleak since I was very young, I remember accompanying my father on various other projects he was assigned to, during his time as the Chief Architect of the Public Works Department and even later on when he pursued his private practice, says Ms. De Zoysa who is the only Lankan architect to be bestowed an Honorary Fellowship of the American Institute of Architects after Geoffrey Bawa. Veteran artist Sybil Wettasinghe, then Sybil de Silva working at the Times of Ceylon had to daily submit illustrations for the companys newspapers. I had to take my grandfathers lunch to the site where the Independence Hall was being constructed, says Sybil Wettasinghe, her grandfather being sculptor K.D. Samaris de Silva, one of the handpicked artists who lent his creative touch towards the lions who guard the Independence Monument. I still remember how he was immersed in his work, surrounded by cement and mortar, Sybil says.Pathi, the silent doer is no more View(s):

I had just finished reading the article by Rajitha Weerakoon in the Sunday Times last week on a felicitation to Dharmasena Pathiraja (Pathi as we always called him). My friend Buddhi Galappatti had just then had a cleverly drafted message on his Facebook in Sinhala. Translated into English it read: Pathi, you are now on your own in the distant skies. Thousands of stars will keep you company. Good night, Pathi. (The reference to the distant skies was about Pathis cinematic creation Ahas Gawwa, his first feature film). Pathi had said goodbye.

Much has been written during the last week about Pathi and his contribution to Sri Lankan cinema. Pathis last public appearance was in June last year. It was at Pathita Panahai organised on the initiative of the then Director-General of Information, Ranga Kalansooriya to acknowledge Pathis effort to make Sinhala films more meaningful and authentic.

In the short speech he gave at the felicitation, he made a few observations. One exposed the standard of journalism today: I got a telephone call a few days back. The caller asked me Hello, is that Dharmasena. I was a bit hesitant to give a reply. Naming the FM channel he said he was calling from, he asked, Havent you completed fifty years? Again I was hesitant to answer. I should have said Yes  twenty five years back.

This obviously led him to think whether he could be called a professional filmmaker. I dont consider myself as one, he said. He confessed that he never earned his living by making films though the producers did pay him for his services. I was a university lecturer from the time I joined the Vidyalankara (now Kelaniya) University in 1968 until my retirement from the Colombo University in 2008.

To him filmmaking in Sri Lanka was not a professional industry. But there are many who are into filmmaking. He has seen a lot of capable, talented young men who are keen to become filmmakers. He made a request from the President who was present at the ceremony. The government must intervene and provide them with capital and infrastructure facilities.

On a personal note he said that this was the first time he was attending a function of this nature. I have never celebrated my birthday, he said.

Cutting his teeth first as a script-writer helping Sugathapala Senerat Yapa in Hantane Kathawa based on university life in Peradeniya (Pathi himself did his first degree there), he tried his hand at film direction with Ahas Gawwa in 1974. Unemployment and the difficulty to find a job was the theme of the film. Encouraged by the success of the film and with his left leanings, Pathi made social issues the theme of his films. He read and absorbed a lot. He was influenced by the writings of contemporary radical filmmakers and other writers.

Having embraced filmmaking, Pathi made it his subject for post-graduate studies. For his PhD at Monash University, Australia his thesis was on Bengali cinema. He valued his stint at the Jaffna University where he was able to form a film society and to make a film in Tamil, Ponmani (1978)  the first and only Tamil film to be made by a Sinhala film director.

His early films saw lesser known actors Wimal Kumar de Costa, Amarasiri Kalansuriya, Daya Tennakoon and Vijaya Kumaranatunga showing their skills under Pathis direction. Even Malini Fonseka blossomed in his films and won an award for her performance in Eya Den Loku Lamayek (1975) at the Moscow Film Festival. Pathi himself won a special award from the Peace Council of USSR.

Veteran Joe Abeywickremas acting in Bambaru Avith (1978) and Soldadu Unnehe (1981) was much talked about. In the latter Henry Jayasena too showed his talent on screen. Both films won awards at the Presidential Awards with the latter bagging several OCIC awards.

Almost all his early films were screened at foreign festivals.

Pathi did not forget the small screen. He produced over ten tele-dramas. The award-winning Kadulla (1992) was applauded by everyone.

The drama he wrote, Kora Saha Andhaya produced by Dhamma Jagoda had just three players  Wimal Kumar de Costa, Daya Tennekoon and Malini Weeramuni  and was well received.

Among his numerous lyrical creations, Udumbara, the theme song in Bambaru Avith (sung by T.M.Jayaratne/Ivor Dennis/Sunil Abeysekera) and Hemin Sere Piya Vida in Dharmasiri Bandaranayakes HansaVilak (TM and Sunil)  both maestro Premaasiri Khemadasas compositions  have remained extremely popular for several decades.

Pathi is no more but his role in taking Sri Lankan cinema in the right direction in the 1970s and 80s will be remembered forever.

D.C. RanatungaProud of their heritage; proud to be Lankans By Kaveesha Fernando and Oshani Alwis View(s): View(s):

If you ask most Sri Lankans about the races of Sri Lanka  they will reply that Sri Lanka is home to the Sinhala, Tamil, Muslim and Burgher communities. Yet, Sri Lanka is also home to many other minorities who over the years have contributed greatly to the colourful tapestry of our society.

Although their numbers are small, they are proud of their heritage as well as being proud Sri Lankans. With the gaining of independence, their fortunes changed due to political upheavals, but every community feels they would not have survived if they hadnt successfully integrated into society.

Here is a glimpse of some of these communities and their lifestyles:

Malays

Also known as Ja Minissu, the Malays originated in Java. They are known for their bravery and loyalty  traits which the British greatly valued and rewarded with high positions in the military and other government departments. Malay Association President Taslim Rahaman feels that today most Malays do not actually speak Malay, known officially as Bahasa (Sri Lanka). The association is attempting to teach the younger generation their language  a dialect which is

spoken only in Sri Lanka and differs from Bahasa (Indonesia) and Bahasa (Malaysia).

The Malays are also famous for their cuisine, which includes Nasi Goreng, Sirikaya (Watalappam), Cheenakueh (cake)  etc. Taslim feels that the economic status of Malays has improved but migration has resulted in dwindling numbers, although there is a still an 80,000 strong Malay community in Sri Lanka at present.

Colombo Chetties

This community originated in Kodagu, India and came to Sri Lanka many years ago in the time of the ancient Kings of Sri Lanka. Former President of the Colombo Chetty Association Shirley Pulle Tissera estimates that the current population is around 175,000. He says that the exact number cannot be verified because many people identify themselves as Sinhalese or Tamil based on the majority community of the area they live in. He feels that the community suffered greatly with the introduction of the Sinhala Only Act, which forced the Chetties, who mainly spoke English at the time, to study in Sinhala.

Mr. Tissera recalls a time when the bride and bridegroom would see each other for the first time only during the marriage ceremony, which was arranged by their parents. The Chetties national costume comprising a shervani, chetti cap, sash and sword is rarely worn today. He feels that the Chettis should be proud of their rich heritage. If you are a peacock you must show your feathers  otherwise they will mistake you for a turkey and cook you, he says.

Sindhis

Sindhis originate from the Sindh province in North India (now Pakistan). The province is home to Hindu and Muslim Sindhis, of whom only Hindu Sindhis arrived in Sri Lanka. They are one of the smallest minorities of Sri Lanka, and the Sindhi Association of Sri Lanka estimates that the total population of Sindhis is 500, a decline from the early 1950s when there were about 700.

There are only a few people who speak Sindhi or even understand it in Sri Lanka now.If youre lucky and your family speaks Sindhi then maybe you might pick it up, says President of the Association Mahesh Dadlani, who estimates that the language will die out in one or two generations to come. The Sindhis have retained most of the customs they practised in India, although they have changed certain aspects to suit modern times. For example, the funeral rites require that the body be cremated on a pyre. If wood is not available, they now use gas. The Association allows flexibility in choosing certain rituals of marriage and funeral rites etc. with the understanding that certain aspects of the ancient customs are impractical today.

Parsis

There are only 30 members of the Parsi community in Sri Lanka today. This might be because for someone to be a Parsi, both their parents must be Parsi, which means that a number of Parsis who married out of the community are not counted. While this may sound extreme, the reasoning behind this is that the Parsis who fled from Iran to India assured the Indians that they had no intention of colonising and perhaps it was to keep this promise that this strict criterion was established. The Parsis are Zoroastrians  a religion which follows the teachings of the Prophet Zoroaster. We may be small in number but the Parsis in Sri Lanka have done very well for themselves, says Rumba Karunaratne (nee Sabavala), who was born a Parsi. She describes some of the famous Parsi dishes  Dhansak  lentils cooked with chicken or mutton, Sali Murghi  chicken with fried matchstick potatoes, and ravo  a semolina dessert. The Parsis celebrate the New Year in August and celebrate weddings by inviting friends and family to a big feast of Parsi food.

Chinese

Not to be mistaken with the Chinese who have migrated to Sri Lanka in recent times, the Chinese community has lived in Sri Lanka for generations  so long in fact that Wai Tsing Dias

(nee Paktsun), a senior member of the community never learnt Chinese because she spent so much time learning English and Sinhala. Her grandfather came to Sri Lanka in the early 1900s and her father opened the first Chinese restaurant in Sri Lanka  the Free China Hotel.

Textiles and dentistry were also associated with the early settlers.

Although many Chinese came to Sri Lanka for trade and hoped to return to China one day, the advent of Communism deterred them from going back. Mrs. Dias feels that the Chinese community was not always treated fairly by the Sri Lankan Government  they were initially denied citizenship and free education. She also feels that race was not as important in the past as it has become now. She says of her school days at Methodist College, Nobody cared who we were or what race we were  we were all just girls.

Malayalee

The ancestral roots of Malayalees lie in Kerala, South India from where most of them arrived in Ceylon through the major port city of Kochi (formerly Cochin). As a result, the Malayalees were called Kochchi Minissu (Kochchi people) in Colombo. In the pre-Independence era most Malayalees came to Sri Lanka in search of better working opportunities and they lived in boarding houses, M.K. Rahulan, President, Sree Narayana Guru Society said. It was said that you couldnt walk in Colombo without knocking onto a Malayalee. Influenced by left wing political ideologies that prevailed in Kerala, Malayalees living in Sri Lanka were strong

communists and supported the Lanka Sama Samaja Party (LSSP) and other leftist parties. Their concerns on creating a society with equal opportunities for all is depicted in the words of the sayings of Sree Naraya Guru Dev. (Malayalee religious leader) one of which,

One caste, one religion, one God for mankind, we see written on the walls inside Sree Narayana Guru Society Malayalee Memorial Hall in Colombo 14. Malayalees have assimilated with other communities and assistant secretary of the society R.G. Chanassery points out similarities between Sinhala and Malayalam words which have the same pronunciation and meaning. Malayalam is still spoken among the families in Sri Lanka while the Society conducts weekly programmes to promote the language.

Memons

Predominantly a business community originating from Gujarat in Western India, the Memons migrated to Sri Lanka in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The community benefited

following Independence in 1948, and their enterprises flourished with the open economy introduced in the late 70s. Prioritizing higher education is a significant change among Sri Lankan Memons of today. Earlier soon after one left school the next step would be an arranged marriage and joining the family business.

The population of Memons is around 8,000-9,000 and they identify themselves as a patriotic and generous community who easily assimilate with others. Being Muslims, most still practise their traditional customs  at weddings, including the nikah, extended wedding feasts and the traditional dance Dandiya, performed by young women carrying sticks.

Kutchi is the language spoken by Memons in Sri Lanka. Shiraz Yoonus, a member of the Memon Association of Sri Lanka says, Even though we are originally from India, we now call ourselves Sri Lankans and are proud to be so.

Kaffirs

Known for their colourful outfits, and love of music and dance, this community is believed to have originated from Mozambique and other South African regions, the Kaffir men being first brought to Sri Lanka by the Portuguese in the 1500s for domestic service. The ancestors of Kaffirs today are considered to be the group that arrived in 1817 and were permitted to settle in Sri Lanka with their wives and children, obtaining land ownership and job opportunities, marking it to be the year of receiving freedom. Approximately 400 Kaffirs live in Sirambiadi, Puttalam today and some are found in the areas of Kalpitiya, Trincomalee and Colombo 13. The majority of the community are Catholics and they have their own unique language, a form of Portuguese Creole which they use in composing songs.

The Kaffirs are keen to pass on their own cultural identity to the younger generation. Our community, our music is more recognized today, says Sherin Alex, a member of the Kaffir music group Ceylon African Manja. As a result of marrying outside the community, lots of Kaffirs have Sinhala names today, earlier they were chosen from the Bible.

Dawoodi Bohras

The Dawoodi Bohras who first came to Ceylon in the 1800s were known for their expertise in business and trade. They were mostly engaged in imports during pre-Independence times

which expanded into exports, post Independence. The growth has been tremendous after independence but we were no less before, states Vice President of the Anjuman e-Saiti Trust Khuzaimah Jafferjee. Today with the development in trade, tourism, industry, exports and energy, Bohras have flourished with a population around 3,000. As followers of Islamic principles, Bohras have four distinct mosques in Galle, Pettah, Bambalapitiya and Jaffna. A childs naming ceremony on the sixth day after birth, burials taking place as quickly as possible and the third day funeral feast to obtain blessings for the dead person are some of the distinctive Bohra customs.

Some familiar eats such as samosa, Bohra Biriyani and Bombay Sweets are Bohra delicacies. The younger generation of the community mostly converse in Sinhala and English though Tamil was mostly used by older generations. In mosques the sermons are preached in Dawat ni Zaban, a religious language that is a mixture of Gujarati and Arabic.

Bharathas

The Bharathas are a trading community who hail from Tuticorin (Thoothukudi) in Tamil Nadu, India. The Bharathas are Roman Catholic, and the festival of Our Lady of Snows from Tuticorin celebrated at St. Philip Neris Church, Pettah in August is a significant event. The closed economy during Sirimavo Bandaranaikes regime affected the community as most of them were traders and businessmen. Some Bharathas still own family businesses which have been passed down from generation to generation.

Then in her early 20s and engaged to be married, Therese Motha was invited to the independence ceremony in 1948 as her father I.X.Pereira was an eminent member of the State Council. It was really crowded at Independence Square. I could vaguely remember that the ceremony lasted around an hour and I wore a saree, recalls Therese.

Her family was registered as citizens of Sri Lanka in 1949 and she is still a citizen by registration even though she was born in Sri Lanka. During her schooldays at St. Bridgets Convent, Therese was recognized as of Indian origin but there was unity despite ethnic diversity. There was lot of fellowship among students and I had friends from all the races, she says.Tonys recipes spices up Raffles Residences 18th bday By Oshani Alwis View(s): View(s):

Raffles Residence, in the heart of Nugegoda marked its 18th anniversary with an elegant evening celebration last Sunday at the Grand Ballroom. The evening was paired with the launch of a recipe book by the man behind the venture itself, Tony Bohoran, Raffles Managing Director.

Inspired by his 35 years of experience as a chef, Tonys Recipes runs the gamut from exquisite starters, soups and salads to sea food, poultry, meats, desserts and refreshing beverages , all tried, tested and tasted.

Raffles being launched to meet Tonys wish to start something of his own, the recipe book is a proof indeed of his skills and talents as a chef. The book is dedicated to Surahee Bohoran, Tonys beloved mother who was the pillar behind his success. Speaking at the event Tony said, We are really proud of our journey through good and hard times since 1999, the establishment of Raffles  one of the few companies to have achieved the ISO standard in the field of catering and banquets.

Tourism Minister John Amaratunga was the Chief Guest on the occasion and also present were members of the Board of Directors of Raffles, Oscar Wanigasekara, Mohan De Silva and Shan Nawaz.

Addressing the gathering, Minister Amaratunga stated, It is a time when people are searching for quality banquet facilities out of Colombo, at affordable prices. Raffles is an ideal example of such a place.

Tonys Recipes, a Sarasavi publication, is available at Sarasavi Bookshops at

Rs 2500.50th Anniversary of Alotau

In 1968, the capital of Milne Bay Province, was moved from Samarai to its present location at Alotau, and the town is this year celebrating its 50th anniversary. Valued reader Arthur Smedley is assisting the organisers with historical research - and there are a few things you may be able to help with.

One is a copy of an article published in the Cameron High School magazine in the early 1970s. It was by Richard Jackson (no relation) and others and entitled, 'Alotau: a new town in Papua New Guinea. Arthur is also hoping to hear about your memories and stories and get hold of photographs. You can contact him here agsmedley@gmail.comVIRGIL, N.Y. -- Three Central New York men have been arrested after police say they assaulted a woman and attempted to rob her, according to the Cortland County Sheriff's Office.

Jeffrey Scutt, 22, of Tully, Joshua Kinney, 30, of Cortland, and Collin Chorley, 20, of Tully, were charged with the following:

Second-degree attempted robbery

Fourth-degree attempted grand larceny

Fifth-degree conspiracy

Third-degree assault

Deputies are still investigating and more charges are possible, according to the Cortland County Sheriff's Office.

The three had been visiting a Route 392 residence in the Town of Virgil on Thursday, according to deputies. By the time police responded to the residence, the three had already left, but deputies say the three had assaulted one of the residents and tried to take her phone while she called 911.

While driving away, a car the three were in hit the victim, though it grazed her and she had minor injuries, deputies said. The victim was taken to the Cortland Regional Medical Center, according to deputies.

Officers found the three at a Blodgett Mills residence, where they were arrested and taken to the Cortland County Sheriff's Office.

At the time the release was sent from the Cortland County Sheriff's Office, the three were awaiting arraignment.

None of the three are listed in VineLink, an inmate tracking database.Everything. That's what audience members expect from opera, and that's exactly what they get in Syracuse Opera's triumphant production of Giuseppe Verdi's "La Traviata," or "The Fallen Woman." Kathleen Stakenas must have few director's notes from Friday's show to share with the company before a repeat performance Sunday at 2 p.m. The production is transformative, carrying viewers to luxurious mid-19th century Paris for the story of a consumptive courtesan and her ill-fated love.

If it all seems timeless and familiar, that's because it is. Verdi adapted Alexander Dumas's novel, "The Lady of the Camelias," and, after the first run, set the story in the 1850s, what was then modern times. In the next century, the opera inspired Baz Luhrmann's "Moulin Rouge," and Verdi's melodies were used in movies and ads. It is "La Traviata" on stage in the red-dress scene from "Pretty Woman," when Julia Roberts, a high-end escort in the movie, and Richard Gere watch from box seats. The camera is fixed on Roberts's face as tears well up in her eyes and roll down her cheeks.

Had cameras been turned on the audience Friday, they would have recorded similar reactions from many in the crowd as people took to heart the plight of Violetta and Alfredo, two of the Romantic Period's most psychologically complex characters.

Raquel Gonzalez is flawless as Violetta Verde, authentically portraying the well-kept woman's shifting emotions and failing health. When the young soprano sings Violetta's Act I aria, "Sempre Libera," her voice glides through the challenging arpeggios, and her high notes rise so effortlessly that she creates the impression she could simply continue on indefinitely up the scale. Despite its being Gonzalez's first time in the role, one of standard opera's most difficult, she shows no hesitancy or uncertainty but, instead, conveys the confidence that comes from abundant talent and deep character study.

This is the third of Verdi's "popular trilogy," and it clearly elevates Violetta to star status, making the courtesan the center of every scene and situation, from the opening party in her lavish apartment to her tragic end. Gonzalez, who enchanted Syracuse audiences last year as Tatyana in "Eugene Onegin," wins their hearts again as Violetta.

New to Syracuse Opera, but not new to his role, tenor Mackenzie Whitney plays the love-struck Alfredo. Like Gonzalez, he quickly establishes his aptness for the part through fine acting and expressive singing. In Act I, when asked to propose a toast, he sings the well-known drinking song that elevates true love. It is that sentiment that precedes Violetta's "Sempre Libera," in which she celebrates her freedom to remain uncommitted. But, conflicted and weary of her demanding life, she turns away from the whirlwind society she has embraced and accepts the love Alfredo offers.

In Act II, Alfredo's father, Giorgio Germont, played by Verdi baritone Todd Thomas, appears at Violetta's country house to demand she reject his son. She sadly agrees while Alfredo is back in Paris to raise funds after he learns she has been selling off property to support them. It's hard to imagine anyone but Thomas playing the father, a complex authoritarian who wants to uphold the status of his family by removing the courtesan from their circle but who, later, rebukes Alfredo for throwing money at Violetta to shame her, and who ultimately tells the truth--that it was he who convinced Violetta to rebuke Alfredo.

Thomas's rich, resonant voice sometimes reverberates through the auditorium and sometimes flows soothingly in expressive legato. He is a favorite of the crowd, earning the first standing ovation during curtain calls.

Brooke Larimer's lusty presence and commanding voice make her a stand-out as Violetta's fun-loving friend Flora. Stepping from the chorus are local tenor Tallon Larham as Alfredo's friend Gastone; Adam Paul Fine as Barone; Easton Clark as Marchese, Jake Goz as Guiseppe, and Bruce Paulson as Dottore Grenvile. Fresh from her role as Matilda Joselyn Gage in "Pushed Aside: Reclaiming Gage," is local mezzo-soprano Danan Tsan as loyal servant Annina.

Chorus Master Nancy James brings the Syracuse Opera Chorus, which has been growing stronger with every appearance, to new heights in this production. Symphoria, under the baton of Music Director Christian Capocaccia, produces thrilling sound, from the wispy strings opening the overture, to the mournful, heart-breaking final notes of Verdi's score as Violetta's short-lived joy upon Alfredo's return fades, and she dies in his arms.

Delightful, sometimes surprising, details enrich this production--a tableau during the overture, mesmerizing dancers, lush scenery, elegant costumes, and dramatic lighting all contribute to the total success. With "La Traviata," the second of the "Doomed Divas" season, Syracuse Opera gives the audience, well, it gives the audience everything.

THE DETAILS:

What: Giuseppi Verdi's "La Traviata"

Who: Syracuse Opera. Christian Capocaccia conductor; Kathleen Stakenas, director

Where: Crouse-Hinds Theater, John H. Mulroy Civic Center, 411 Montgomery St.

When: Reviewed Feb. 2; plays again Sunday, Feb. 4, at 2 p.m.

Running Time: Approximately two and a half hours with one 20-minute intermission

Language: Sung in Italian with projected surtitles in English

Tickets: From $26; students, $10; season tickets still available

Purchase: online at syracuseopera.org or by phone at 315-476-7372This page no longer exists or may have been moved.If you believe this is a mistake please emailTotal Worldwide Smartphone Shipments in 2017 Brand IDC Strategy Analytics 1. Samsung 317.3 317.5 2. Apple 215.8 215.8 3. Huawei 153.1 153.0 4. OPPO 111.8 118.0 5. Xiaomi 92.4 91.3 Others 577.7 611.9 Total 1472.4 1507.5

Samsung remains to be the top selling smartphone brand in the world, a title that it's been holding since 2012, following the sharp decline of former world #1 Nokia.

Despite just being the #2 most prolific handset seller, Apple is the undisputed top earning smartphone maker worldwide;

Although the two companies employ different means of gathering data from across the planet, they had come up with practically the same list of top-selling handset brands for 2017.Here's IDC's list:And here's the one from Strategy Analytics:And here's a side by side comparison each company's annual shipment figures as reported by the two research agencies:Just a few notes:1.2.3. Last year, Apple was able to amass a total revenue ofUSD from selling iPhones alone compared to Samsung Mobile's KRW 25.47 Trillion orUSD revenues from Galaxy Android smartphones. ( source 1 4. Chinese brand Xiaomi got the biggest year-on-year increase in total shipments from 2016 to 2017 at an incredible 74.5%, which represents a stunning comeback from a falling off IDC's top 5 list in 2016. In stark contrast, Apple's year-on-year shipment increase within the past two years is just a measly 0.2%.5. Other Chinese brands Huawei and OPPO show consistency in their standing in the top 5 as well as their annual total shipment increase.In December 2017, Google announced that the YouTube TV service would arrive on the Roku and Apple TV soon, and now, at least one device has the feature.

Since its launch, the YouTube TV service has had limited support from devices, only being available on select smart TVs as well as the Android TV, Xbox One, and Chromecast.

Roku is now the latest platform to get the YouTube TV app. The launch means Roku users now have access to another cord-cutting alternative at their disposal. However, the service will only arrive on select Roku devices.

The supported devices include all Roku TVs, the Roku Ultra, Roku Streaming Stick Plus and regular Streaming Stick, the Roku Express and Express Plus, as well as Roku Premiere and Premiere Plus. There is also support for the Roku 2, Roku 3, and Roku 4.

YouTube TV Features

For those unaware of the YouTube Live TV service, it is simply a live broadcast service that allows users to watch content without a cable box. It is similar to services such as Hulu with Live and DirecTV Now.

The YouTube TV app is a $35 a month charge that gives users access to over 40 channels to watch live TV without having a cable box. The included channels feature local stations such as ABC, NBC, Fox, and CBS, as well as cable channels such as AMC, Bravo, ESPN, and more.

The app also gives users cloud DVR service with no storage limit. This means users can stream their library in any location and record different shows simultaneously, all without running out of space.

Users with YouTube TV will be able to add six different users per account. Everyone will get their own personal login and can utilize all features on the app.

Initially restricted to a handful of cities, YouTube TV is now available in more than 80 markets nationwide, covering 80 percent of the U.S. population.

YouTube TV is currently available in over 80 metro areas across the United States.

Other Devices That Support YouTube TV

Back when YouTube TV launched, it was only available on PCs, smartphones, and tablets. However, the only way to watch the TV service was from the smartphone to Chromecast.

Aside from the Roku, there are a handful of devices the YouTube TV app is supported by. These devices include the Roku, Chromecast, Xbox One, Android TV, and Samsung and LG TVs from 2016 and 2017.

Apple users will soon see support on the Apple TV. Google announced back in December that support will arrive for Roku and Apple TV in Q1 of 2018.

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.iHeartMedia announced its first bot for iHeartRadio, its popular digital music streaming service, during CES 2018. Now, the music service is set to release its first update for Facebook Messenger bot.

According to the company, iHeartRadio is adding several curated Valentine's Day stations, including Love Songs Radio, which will be hosted by Kelly Clarkson.

Listen To Love Songs On Facebook Messenger

Clarkson will be playing some of her favorite love songs and chatting with listeners about her picks, until Feb. 18. Her hosting comes with good timing as it is still fresh from this year's Valentine's Day celebration.

"We're excited to offer this new Valentine's Day treat to Facebook Messenger users -- the platform provides an engaging way to reach music fans and connect them with their favorite music on iHeartRadio," Chris Williams, Chief Product Officer of iHeartMedia, told Tech Times.

"The Valentine's Day theme is the first of many fun features and updates we plan to release for the iHeartRadio bot throughout the year. Holidays and timely moments are great opportunities to offer something special, keep things fresh, and continuously engage our listeners," Williams continued.

A New Way To Play Music

Why launch an iHeartRadio bot for Facebook Messenger? The company's idea was to provide listeners a new way to access music. They can ask the bot to play music based on a specific genre or geographic location, and once selected, iHeartRadio will stream an ideal live radio station.

iHeartRadio promises an experience that would make it easy for listeners to discover new songs and artists via Facebook Messenger.

The Most Requested Genres And Locations

Like its music app, iHeartRadio's chatbot for Facebook Messenger lets listeners choose songs from multiple genres, including the Top 40 & Pop, Country, Hip Hop & R&B, Alternative, Rock, Dance, and Classic Rock, in addition to playing the latest news and talk shows.

According to iHeartRadio, the most requested genres through its Facebook Messenger bot to date include Hip Hop and Country. Meanwhile, Atlanta, Chicago, Nashville, and New York are some of the more popular geographic locations using the bot.

After the Valentine season, listeners can look forward to iHeartRadio's other curated playlists for its Facebook Messenger bot for some of the remaining holidays and events of the year.

"Some features may include Christmas in July, iHeartRadio Music Festival, and others," Williams said.

Stations announcing their signature events would also be added.

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is concerned over a number of people turning to anti-diarrhea medication to get high, using significant amounts of Imodium A-D to satisfy their opioid addiction.

It's not surprising at all, though. For starters, the said medicine can be acquired over the counter and is inexpensive. It is also readily available and completely legal.

On Jan. 30, the FDA requested manufacturers to produce packages with low quantities of the drug for short-term use in an attempt to curb the problem.

Loperamide

Loperamide, the generic name of the medicine, is considered safe at 8 milligrams a day, or four tablets. There's a 16-milligram cap for prescription strength doses, too, but these are generally low levels and can't enter the blood or brain. Some individuals, however, are consuming between 50 to 400 pills each day to feel high, said William Eggleston, pharmacist and clinical assistant professor at Binghamton University. He's also Upstate New York Poison Center's clinical toxicologist.

Ingesting that many pills each day is practically impossible, but people have been creative. Eggleston explained that, for example, one patient crushed hundreds of anti-diarrhea pills and mixed them in with this smoothie.

But why? Well, Eggleston said loperamide can act as an opioid, but when taken in low levels, it does not incur the same effects anywhere, except in the intestinal region of the body. When someone takes somewhere up to 50 pills a day and above, they'll feel akin to having injected heroin or even morphine.

"You can get that same high sensation, that euphoria," said Eggleston. The sensation of being high, however, isn't as potent as one would encounter by injecting more severe drugs. It doesn't provide the same level of "head rush" that heroin does, he said.

Abusing Loperamide To Avoid Withdrawal

Some abusers are taking significant amounts of loperamide not to satisfy their addiction, but to actually prevent it. Some patients abuse the drug to function without the use of morphine, fentanyl, or heroin. But given a high enough dosage, some patients report feeling an opiate-like experience.

"The issue of opioid misuse and abuse remains one of my highest priorities and we believe it's going to take carefully developed, sustained, and coordinated action by everyone involved to reduce the tide of opioid addiction and death afflicting our communities; while maintaining appropriate prescribing for patients in medical need," said FDA commissioner Scott Gottlieb.

As a preliminary preventive measure, the FDA is changing how loperamide is packaged. As mentioned, it's asked manufacturers to limit the amount of loperamide in retail packaging. For example, a blister packaging that contains eight 2-milligram capsules. It also plans to reach out to online distributors and ask them voluntary steps to mitigate the issue. It wants to eventually stop bulk sales of the medicine, which is one of the ways that could lead to individuals abusing it.

Currently, loperamide can be purchased on Amazon for $10.99, which contains 400 pills. The FDA's solution can't persist in the long term, according to Eggleston. Making loperamide a behind-the-counter drug might work, but that's a huge step to take, and will likely only happen when the abuse grows more abysmal.

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.Snapchat is selling new merchandises through the company's freshly launched in-app Snap Store. The purpose of the latest push is to build "brand loyalty," the firm stressed.

The storefront currently sells five products, and among the notable item is the Dancing Hot Dog Plushie that is up for grabs for only $20, which is also the cheapest of the bunch. Snapchat said the store will change the displayed items without warning, meaning a product or two will be removed anytime, so if the plan is to buy, it's best to make that decision quick.

However, there will be new merchandises to drop on Feb. 8, and Snapchat has elected not to divulge the details on them for now.

One thing is clear, though: the new thrust is at an experimental stage, as the company has confirmed that the new store is way to serve the Snapchat community. The specific reason given by the company was "to drive brand loyalty," according to the exclusive report posted by TechCrunch.

Likewise, the move is to provide increased visibility to the company's brand name, the report added.

Where Snapchat Is Headed

Selling items, apart from its main business of maintaining its own social media platform, is nothing new to Snapchat. Previously, the company had launched similar initiatives, but the most notable was the Snap's Spectacles that debuted back in 2016. It proved disastrous for the firm.

Hundreds of thousands of Spectacles were manufactured by the company, but only a small fraction of the products attracted buyers. As a result, Snapchat gradually withdrew the line from the market and was forced to incur losses on the failed venture, which reportedly reached around $40 million.

Clearly for this latest drive, the company is on cautious mode as evidenced by its own declaration that the new Snap Store is not designed to open up an additional revenue stream for Snapchat. To tap into another source of income may not be the company's intention at the moment, but if the store will click, doors will open eventually.

One possible scenario is for Snapchat to draw in sellers on its online store, which is accessible by exploring the Discovery tab and realize income via the revenue-sharing scheme. The company can also sell ads if the store traffic will explode.

In any case, Snapchat can certainly use some sort of a boost on its income-generating schemes. The company has been hampered by similar failed ventures in the past that it had to implement operational adjustments, which led to some employees getting the dreaded pink slip.

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.The Army is seeing an increase in emergency room visits linked to vaping synthetic cannabinoid oil. Two have died and more than 60 soldiers were hospitalized due to this emerging public health threat.

The United States Army Public Health Center has issued a health alert, warning the public on the health effects of vape oil containing unknown substances. The advisory said users of e-cigarettes and vaporizer pens must ensure that the products they purchase do not contain Cannabidiol oil, tetrahydrocannabinol, or synthetic cannabinoids.

The army banned the use of pot and other products derived from marijuana, so some soldiers use synthetic oil through vaping.

Consumer Vigilance On Vaping

"Consumers must be extremely vigilant if they are going to use vaping oils and should seek medical attention immediately if they feel they are having an adverse reaction to one of these products," says Chanel Weaver, a spokesperson for the center.

An estimate of 60 patients with medical conditions potentially related to vaping were admitted to the Womack Army Medical Center at Fort Bragg and at the Naval Medical Center at Camp Lejeune.

The hospitalized troops experienced symptoms including headache, nausea, vomiting, palpitation, dizziness, agitation, and seizures. Two service members died from accidents resulting from seizures, while a soldier suffered a significant neurological damage due to seizure.

Four public cases have been reported in North Carolina and 33 cases in Utah, all from the use synthetic cannabinoids.

What Is Cannabidiol?

Cannabinoid is the primary psychoactive compound in cannabis. The most common cannabinoid is the phytocannabinoid. Cannabidiol or CBD is extracted from cannabis and exhibits various effects.

CBD oil, also known as hemp oil, is a derivative of Cannabidiol. CBD oil is made from high-CBP, low-THC hemp. Over the years, it has become a much-sought-after compound and is now widely available in drugstores and groceries. A person doesn't need a medical card to purchase CBD oil. These chemical substances are designed to mimic the effects of cannabis or pot.

The CBD works by interacting through the body's endocannabinoid system. This system regulates the body's homeostasis or general state of balance, and impacts functions such as mood, sleep, appetite, hormone regulation, pain, and immune response.

The use of e-cigarettes and vapes have been officially banned in the United States Navy on May 14, 2017, after incidents of exploding vaping equipment that caused serious injuries to soldiers aboard ships.

Unknown Substances In Vapes

This health concern problem may spread quickly across the Army because of soldiers' use of vaping products.

"The health of our forces remains a top priority, and we are working diligently to better educate our soldiers on the potentially adverse health effects associated with using vaping oils with unknown substances," said Weaver.

Aside from CBD, THC, and synthetic cannabinoids, vape oils may contain other undisclosed substances that may contain illegal and potentially harmful substances.

Since most vapes are made up of unknown products, consumers may unintentionally purchase and use CBD, THC, and other synthetic cannabinoids.

Stopping this vaping trend is among the army's top priority especially with the rising health threat.

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.You have permission to edit this article.

Edit ClosePurchases made via links on our site may earn us an affiliate commissionIn a surprise move, rural Tangipahoa Parish  just west of St. Tammany Parish  is being eyed for a potential riverboat casino.

The owners of the DiamondJacks riverboat casino in Bossier City announced Friday that they are considering whether to upgrade their facility there or move it to the Tangipahoa River just south of Interstate 12.

For Peninsula Pacific, a Los Angeles-based company, to make the move, the Legislature would have to make several changes in state law, and the voters of Tangipahoa Parish would have to approve it in a special election.

This is a long process, and this is only the first step, Ronnie Jones, the chairman of the Louisiana Gaming Control Board, said in an interview. His board also would have to approve any move.

We will do whats in the best interest of the state and fulfill the legislative policy of promoting economic development, Jones said. Thats what riverboat gaming is supposed to be about, economic development.

Legislation proposed to help Louisiana casino industry A legislative task force Tuesday recommended turning Louisianas 15 licensed riverboats casi

The proposal would put a casino a short drive from St. Tammany Parish and Mississippi. A casino industry official said St. Tammany residents who gamble typically visit the casinos on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, which are substantially further away.

Brent Stevens, manager of Peninsula Pacific, has briefed Gov. John Bel Edwards  Tangipahoas most famous resident  but thats all he knows, said spokesman Richard Carbo.

A company news release said Peninsula Pacific would invest $100 million in either Bossier City or Tangipahoa.

Louisianans deserve the best and we look forward to creating a destination that is both fun, successful and rewarding to the community and the state, Stevens said in a news release. In either of these two locations, we will be able to create economic development and drive revenue into critical public sectors like infrastructure, education and quality of life.

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DiamondJacks faces fierce competition in its current home. There are three other riverboat casinos in Bossier City and two across the Red River in Shreveport.

The notion of a riverboat casino on the Tangipahoa Parish seemed like a joke to several parish residents contacted on Friday. One wag noted that the river is only 30 feet wide there and is only deep enough for use by kayakers and canoeists.

But the Legislature is considering a change to the state riverboat casino law that would allow the vessels to move onto land within 1,200 feet of their approved berthing site. That proposed change, recommended by a task force chaired by Jones, would apply to all 15 of the riverboat casinos allowed to operate in Louisiana. The gist is that the casino would simply have to be next to the river, not in it.

For the boat to go to Tangipahoa Parish, the Legislature also would have to authorize the river as a designated waterway.

Peninsula Pacific has had several meetings with Robby Miller, the parish president. He did not respond to a phone call or text but said in a statement: This $100 million investment in our community could create hundreds of jobs and an economic stimulus that would ripple throughout the parish. This project deserves our interest and attention. A quality project like this could also provide new, much-needed revenue for our schools, infrastructure, and drainage programs.

Daniel Edwards, the sheriff and the governors younger brother, said the company has briefed him on the plan.

Im not taking a position one way or the other, Sheriff Edwards said. Im not anti-gaming or pro-gaming. The voters can make up their own minds.

State Sen. Beth Mizell, R-Franklinton, represents a rural portion of Tangipahoa Parish. She had heard about the proposal only from others.

By and large, theyve been known to be pretty conservative about gambling, she said about her constituents.

State Sen. Bodi White, R-Central, who also represents Tangipahoa Parish, did not return a phone call or text.Environmentalists lost another round in court Friday in their continuing fight to stop the Bayou Bridge pipeline project from going forward.

The latest skirmish involved the Louisiana Bucket Brigades attempt to get a 19th Judicial District court judge to intervene in a battle over access to public records.

+2 Louisiana environmental groups turn to courts in Bayou Bridge pipeline battle Opposition to the proposed Bayou Bridge pipeline is heating up as environmental groups turn to the courts to challenge not just the regulators

Environmentalists had requested a variety of records from Gov. John Bel Edwards' office concerning meetings and communications between government staff and pipeline builders.

But Attorney Pam Spees of the Center for Constitutional Rights, representing the environmentalists, said the governors office didnt turn over some records responsive to their request that were later mentioned in news accounts about the pipeline project.

She asked District Judge Wilson Fields to mandate the governor's office perform the search again to see if any other documents would turn up.

Fields denied the request, saying Edwards's legal team appears to have tried to comply with the records request as best they could and made additional documents available once it was discovered they hadnt been provided.

Bayou Bridge, which recently began construction, will carry crude oil between Lake Charles and St. James. Environmental groups have brought several lawsuits against the company building the pipeline and regulators who signed off on it. A judge has previously ruled in a separate suit that the pipeline company is not subject to public records laws.

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In their suit over access to records from the governors office, environmentalists said that Edwards's attorneys returned some documents. But they said they did not initially turn over records about contacts with former Senator Mary Landrieu and public relations professional Randy Hayden, both of whom lobbied on behalf of the pipeline.

The documents that werent provided in the initial response included emails with Hayden and plans to schedule a meeting with Landrieu. Those documents turned up when a freelance journalist filed a separate public records request.

Matthew Block, Edwards's executive counsel, and Tina Vanichchagorn, deputy executive counsel, said in court that there were several reasons why the Landrieu and Hayden emails were not discovered as their office went back and forth with the Bucket Brigade on the records request.

Early on, the conservation group didn't specify names of particular individuals, so the governor's office cast a wide net for responsive documents, the attorneys for the governors office said. And at one point, a staffer accidentally, though not maliciously, neglected to update a search input from an unrelated request, which may have narrowed the results.

The two sides also sparred in court on whether certain documents would have technically fallen under the Bucket Brigade request at all.

Block and Vanichchagorn emphasized that once records were discovered while responding to the reporter's request, they sent the new findings on to the environmentalists.

Spees said it was worth investigating what else the governor's staff missed the first time around.

"We think the search was clearly faulty and ineffective," she said.Louisiana leaders ended another week Friday without a firm agreement on addressing the state's nearly $1 billion fiscal cliff.

Gov. John Bel Edwards, a Democrat, and House Speaker Taylor Barras, a New Iberia Republican, are expected to meet again as early as Monday to continue discussions on shoring up the state's finances for the coming budget year.

Edwards and Barras have both said that they want the Legislature to meet in a special session in February to address the shortfall the state faces when temporary tax measures expire June 30.

+4 OhioCheckbook.com? Government transparency website moves to forefront of Louisiana budget discussion As Louisiana politicians try to find solutions for the state's seemingly never-ending financial struggles, a website that sheds light on anoth

Edwards has proposed permanently eliminating some tax credit programs that have been temporarily halted, as well as a series of revenue-generating measures, including taxing some services and business utilities.

House Republican leaders, meanwhile, have voiced support for a separate slate of measures that they say will help cut government spending: A user-friendly transparency website, new co-pays and work requirements for some Medicaid recipients and a lower government spending cap.

The Legislature's regular session begins March 12, and lawmakers can't take up revenue-raising measures during the regular session this year that ends June 4.Medicaid expansion is working well in Louisiana. It is saving the state money. And reverting to the old status quo  where low-income adults wPresident Donald Trump claps at his first State of the Union address in the House chamber of the U.S. Capitol to a joint session of Congress Tuesday, Jan. 30, 2018 in Washington. (Win McNamee/Pool via AP) ORG XMIT: DCEJ143Anyone following the investigation into the Trump campaign's possible collusion with Russia will learn next to nothing from reading the so-called Nunes memo, and yet its release is significant, if only because it demonstrates how far the Republican Party is willing to debase American democracy in support of Donald Trump, and how weaponised conspiracy-mongering has crept from the fringes to the heart of American politics.

The memo is named for Devin Nunes, the Republican chairman of the House Intelligence Committee that is ostensibly conducting its own investigation into the Russia allegations. Nunes is a loyal Trump soldier who made his name during the endless Congressional investigations into the Benghazi scandal that found absolutely no wrongdoing on behalf of Hillary Clinton, but nonetheless served its purpose admirably.

Former FBI Director James Comey. Credit:Alex Brandon

"Everybody thought Hillary Clinton was unbeatable, right? But we put together a Benghazi special committee, a select committee. What are her numbers today? Her numbers are dropping," the congressman Kevin McCarthy told Fox News in a moment of inadvertent candour.

Nunes later served on Trump's transition team and since Trump has been in office Nunes has used his position on the House Committee to hamper and discredit the collusion investigations.When The Sun-Herald backed a campaign in 2014 to rid cosmetics of tiny microbeads used in exfoliating skin scrubs that had found their way into the food chain, the response from big industry was encouraging. For good reason. At Middle Harbour scientists discovered 60 to 100 particles of plastic micro-debris in 100 millilitres of sediment  among the highest levels recorded in the world. The sediment can be ingested by worms that are consumed by fish and we eat the fish.

Several companies such as Unilever and The Body Shop were early adopters of a call by then NSW environment minister Rob Stokes and environmentalist Jon Dee, founder of advocacy group DoSomething for a voluntary ban by the end of 2016. Australian model Miranda Kerr, whose cosmetic range uses only natural alternatives to microbeads, added her voice to the campaign. Understandably, changing formulas for cosmetic preparations doesn't happen overnight. Products have to be tested and re-tested to ensure there are no harmful outcomes for the consumer.

Vivian Sim, at the University of NSW studies microbeads found in Sydney Harbour. Credit:microbeads

As our story today relates, 80 per cent of relevant mainstream manufacturers have stopped using microbeads. The remaining 20 per cent have committed to do so by mid-2018. Jeff Angel of the Boomerang Alliance, which represents Australia's leading community and environmental groups, describes the progress as "world leading".

But it seems that isn't the entire story. Microbeads have been replaced with substances such as silica, pumice, clays, polenta, rice powder and fruit kernels. Scientists are now saying that these non-plastics also can cause problems. Tests on marine worms and mussels show they can react by producing scar tissue that can lead to death.The 2017 Ombudsman's report, Investigation into Victorian government school expulsions, described the damaging impact of exclusion on the expelled child. This child could be as young as four or five. They probably have a disability. They might be in out-of-home care. Often they identify as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander. They've likely experienced significant trauma.

Last year the Victorian Ombudsman reported that hundreds of children are formally expelled from school, and thousands more are excluded by other means. Last week, while lunches were being packed and the traffic thickened, I was thinking of those barred from school. I was thinking of how we're failing these children  whose development is already impaired  by enforced social isolation and lack of access to education. And in doing so, we're causing them more developmental harm.

As to the involvement of the Victorian Department of Education and Training, the Ombudsman exposed failure in terms of legal compliance, keeping adequate expulsion data, and overseeing and monitoring formal and informal expulsions. She urged the minister and department to overcome entrenched and accepted exclusionary behaviour that exists within the government school system.

The Education and Training Reform Act 2006 states as its first principle for government education in Victoria that "the state provides universal access to education". The second principle is that "every student has the right to attend a designated neighbourhood government school".

The legislation does not say that universal access to education for compulsory-aged school children will be revoked if a child behaves in a way that doesn't comply with the acceptable social or emotional development of his or her peers. Nor does it contain any proviso that a child's right to education in Victoria is forfeited should that child not meet the accepted behavioural norms of their peers. Yet, this is the way that our government school system operates.

The Ombudsman recorded stories of excluded children and their families, describing their experiences as "heartbreaking". These children were not bad children, she said, but children "who had bad things happen to them". The report shone a spotlight on how it's the most vulnerable, arguably those most in need, who are excluded en masse from schools by formal expulsion and, worse still, informal expulsion leading to complete disengagement from education.

Formal expulsion is supposed to follow departmental guidelines so that the excluded child remains within the education system and attends another school. Informal expulsion sees the school letting the child or family know that they are not welcome. It's this second form of expulsion that's rampant in Victoria.Eva, 5, and Ananya, 13, go to Westbourne Grammar School. Their parents Rupa Ganguly and Swarup Bose put away money each month for their education. Credit:Jason South

Parents can expect to fork out as much as $39,000 a year to send their children to the top private schools in Victoria, with tuition fees increasing at a higher rate than average wages.

Schools with fees that have risen by more than 4 per cent since last year include Xavier College, St Leonards College and Trinity Grammar School in Kew.

Trinity now charges $32,280 for Year 12 tuition. Thats a 4.96 per cent increase since last year, more than double the rise in the rate of average pay, which is at 2 per cent.

Of a sample of 16 of the states top private schools, fees have risen by 3.3 per cent on average.A Sydney dentist who potentially exposed almost 1000 patients to infection by failing to properly sterilise his equipment has allegedly treated at least one patient after he was investigated and barred from practising.

NSW Health authorities last week contacted 930 patients who had invasive dental procedures performed by Dr Nicholas Southall at Cronulla Dental Surgery. Patients were urged to undergo testing for hepatitis b, hepatitis c and HIV after an investigation found evidence of poor cleaning and sterilisation of dental equipment in his practice.

Nicholas Southall outside his Lilli Pilli home. Credit:Jessica Hromas

South East Sydney Local Health District stressed the risk of contracting a blood-borne infection from dental treatment was low, and no patients had returned positive results.

The investigation was triggered by a complaint to the Dental Council of NSW in September and Mr Southall was banned from practising dentistry from October to December while the investigation was under way. The Dental Council put conditions on his registration, barring him from practice until it could be reviewed. His registration has since lapsed and he can no longer practise.Rickets is re-emerging in Australian children, spurring calls for a major campaign about the risk of vitamin D deficiency in pregnant women and babies.

Despite living in one the sunniest places on the planet, hundreds of children have been diagnosed with vitamin D deficiency rickets, a preventable bone disease that can cause delayed growth and skeletal deformities.

A recent spate of unusual cases at Monash Childrens Hospital in Melbourne has rung alarm bells.

Baby Willow was diagnosed with vitamin D deficiency when she was born. She is pictured with pediatric endocrinologist Jacky Hewitt. Credit:Jason South

It saw four infants over six months with complications including rickets and seizures.Many Australian workers face a "significant shock" to wages and job prospects due to the impact of automation and technological change, says jobs website Seek.

In a submission to a Senate inquiry into the "Future of Work and Workers", the companys chief financial officer, Geoff Roberts, warned of a hollowing out of mid-level jobs in Australia.

Unease about the use of robots and automation to replace human workers has been on the rise amid a climate of flat wages and digital upheaval.

It has led to calls for a universal basic income to offset rising inequality and fears that jobs that are made redundant will not be replaced by new ones in other areas.

The Senate inquiry was established last October.Shocking images have emerged after a crash near Nelligen on Friday in which a man from the ACT suffered suspected internal injuries.

Police said that before the 55-year-old man's ute left the Kings Highway and was smashed to pieces about 6.30pm, his vehicle and another orange ute had been seen overtaking each other.

Bystanders helped a man walk away from this crash on the Kings Highway on Friday. Credit:Batemans Bay Post

A NSW Ambulance spokesperson said the man was lucky to walk away from the crash scene, about 15km west of Nelligen.

The man was travelling without a passenger towards Batemans Bay and left the Kings Highway near Lyons Road, Currowan.As authorities scour parts of a central Queensland national park, police have confirmed they have "other persons of interest" in the 25-year-old double-homicide case, despite already charging a man with murder.

The investigation into the 1993 disappearance of Robert Grayson, 26, and Derek Van Der Poel, 23, had become a cold case until Monday, when detectives announced a breakthrough arrest.

Derek Van Der Poel (left) and Robert Grayson, who police allege were murdered following their disappearance from Gladstone in 1993. Credit:Queensland Police Service

Russell James Williams, 51, was charged with two counts of murder and drug production on Monday, with police alleging the two victims and the accused were involved in the "substantial" production of cannabis in a national park south-west of Gladstone.

Police, 60 SES personnel and a search dog specialising in human remains detection were expected to spend the weekend searching a 300-square-metre section of Kroombit Tops National Park, about 90 kilometres south-west of Gladstone, for the bodies of Grayson and Van Der Poel.Police are questioning a man over an incident in Melbourne's outer east that has left in a woman in hospital with severe burns.

Emergency services were called to a home in Boronia Avenue in Cranbourne just after 6.30pm after neighbours reportedly heard a blood-curdling scream.

A 29-year-old Cranbourne man is assisting police with their enquiries.

A 22-year old Cranbourne woman sustained severe burns and was taken by ambulance to hospital in a serious condition.

Neighbour Daniel McCreedy said he could smell smoke and petrol at the scene.Washington: She was sitting on the steps of her hotel, in the middle of Saigon, when the military jeeps zipped by, headed toward the sound of gunfire.

So that's where Kate Webb headed, too.

"I left my steel pot (helmet) in the car," the New Zealand-born war correspondent, then 24, would later write. "I wish I hadn't."

The young Kate Webb as UPI reporter in Saigon.

What Webb found when she arrived at the American Embassy in those early morning hours of January 31, 1968, was chaos - a violent raid by Viet Cong guerrillas on the newly constructed building, perhaps the most visible symbol of the US presence in South Vietnam. The audacious attack was part of the Tet offensive, a massive military campaign orchestrated by the North Vietnamese that, though it failed, would cripple the American public's already waning support for the war.Berlin: The Polish government was trying to solve a domestic problem in recent days when it pushed through legislation long sought by hard-line supporters who say the country is unfairly maligned for the horrors that unfolded on its soil during the Holocaust.

But in looking to criminalise those who suggest Poles took part in Nazi atrocities, lawmakers sparked an international uproar. The fallout has included rifts with close allies, condemnation by Jewish groups worldwide and an intense focus on the very questions of complicity that nationalist Poles were hoping to sweep aside once and for all.

Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki lays a wreath as he visits the Ulma Family Museum of Poles Who Saved Jews during WWII, in Markowa, Poland. Credit:AP

"The government achieved exactly the opposite of what it wanted," said Piotr Buras, head of the Warsaw office of the European Council on Foreign Relations. "The unintended consequences and the international damage have been huge."

The episode is just the latest in a series that have left Poland, a nation of 38 million that sits strategically at NATO's eastern frontier, estranged from its Western partners.Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, a powerful rebel alliance that publicly split from al-Qaida last year, said it had used a man-portable anti-aircraft system to shoot down the Su-25 fighter jet as it flew low over the opposition-held town of Saraqeb.

A photo supplied by the media arm of al-Qaidas branch in Syria shows part of a Russian plane that was shot down by rebel fighters over northwest Idlib province in Syria Credit:Ibaa News Agency/AP

The Russian pilot was killed after he ejected and exchanged gunfire with militants on the ground, the Russian Defense Ministry and a monitoring group said.

Istanbul: Syria's former Al-Qaida affiliate claimed responsibility on Saturday for the downing of a Russian warplane in northern Syria, apparently using a shoulder-launched surface-to-air missile.

That claim was echoed by Russia's Interfax news agency, quoting the Defense Ministry, as well as the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

In the hours after the Russian jet was downed, Moscow also claimed to have killed more than 30 militants in the area, Interfax reported. The agency quoted the defense ministry as saying it used "precision-guided weapons" to carry out the strike, but without giving details.

The incident could raise tensions between Russia and Turkey, which is monitoring a so-called "de-escalation zone" in the northern province of Idlib as part of an agreement made during Syrian peace talks in the Kazakh capital, Astana.

It also raises questions about the source of the apparent MANPADS, a weapon for which Syria's rebels have repeatedly pleaded from their international backers. The United States in particular has been strongly opposed, fearing that anti-aircraft weapons could fall into the hands of the country's extremist groups.

Saraqeb has come under heavy bombardment from Russian and Syrian warplanes in recent days as pro-government forces try to recapture a strategic highway linking Damascus to Aleppo. The White Helmets civil defense group said on Saturday that seven civilians had been killed in at least 25 strikes on largely residential areas, some of them using barrel bombs.Syrian rebels said on Saturday they had brought down a Russian warplane in an area of northern Syria's Idlib province that has seen heavy air strikes, and two rebel sources said they had captured the pilot who was badly injured.

A rebel source said the Sukhoi plane was shot down over Khan al-Subl town near the city of Saraqeb, close to a major highway that has come under fierce air attack, where the Syrian army and Iranian-backed militias are trying to advance on the ground.

Syrian rebels had brought down a Russian warplane, sources say. Credit:AP

Two rebel sources said the pilot was badly injured after escaping the crash by parachute. A third rebel source said he was killed. There was no immediate comment from the Russian or Syrian armies.

At least five civilians were killed in the bombing of rebel-held Saraqeb city on Saturday, which residents blamed on Russian jets. Syrians in rebel-held areas say they can distinguish between Russian warplanes and those of the Syrian air force, because the Russian planes fly at higher altitude.The ForceCast: February 2nd - Rebels Trailer Breakdown

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Then the guys break down the final trailer for Star Wars Rebels--shot by shot.





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Contact Us!NORWALK, Conn.  Every time Robert Deluca of Westport thinks of the ocean, he thinks of his father.

The two loved to scuba dive together, and Delucas father had a passion for all things related to the sea.

So when his father passed, Deluca didnt think a traditional burial was fitting. Instead, he went online in search of something special. Thats how he discovered Eternal Reefs, a company that incorporates cremated remains into structures designed for coral reefs to grow over. His father is now part of a reef off the shore of Florida, between Miami and Fort Lauderdale.

Its just beautiful, because its so much better than a regular cemetery, Deluca said. When you drive past a regular cemetery, you think, what a waste. But with a reef, its great  youre creating something new, something alive. Its a great way to remember loved ones.

He has already made arrangements in his will to do the same with his body after he dies.

More and more, people are prearranging their own funerals and moving away from traditional burials, funeral directors throughout Fairfield County told the Hearst Connecticut Media Group.

People want to find more personal meaning in their funerals, said Rebecca Lautenslager, funeral director of Shaughnessey Banks Funeral Home in Fairfield. I think its just part of society now. Everything is tailored to be unique to each person, which is a good thing.

The number of burials, which had long been the most common type of funeral in Connecticut, fell behind the states number of cremations in 2014, according to statistics from the National Funeral Directors Association. As of 2018, 58 percent of dead bodies in the state are cremated. And funeral directors only see that trend rising  the NFDA projects that 80 percent of dead bodies in Connecticut will be cremated by 2030. The Connecticut Department of Public Health has already reported seeing the number of funeral homes licensed to provide cremation services rise over the past few years.

With the rise of cremations came the rise of the question of what exactly to do with those cremains.

While a burial necessitates a plot and a casket, a cremation opens both to deliberation. A casket can be rented to show the body before the cremation for considerably less than the $2,000 the Federal Trade Commission estimates to be the cost of an average casket, but the step can also be skipped all together.

And while a plot eventually works out to be cheaper for urns than caskets (three urns are allowed per plot, according to John Lesko, the director of the Hoyt-Cognetta Funeral Home in Norwalk), the decision of whether or not to inter often comes down to religion. Hinduism embraces cremation and families often scatter ashes in a meaningful location, while the Catholic Church maintains that cremains should be kept together and placed in a grave or a tomb. Cremation is off-limits to Orthodox Jews altogether.

A changing society has also impacted decisions to purchase plots. As Gary Miraldi pointed out, You have no idea where your kids are going to be ... will your kids really visit it like we used to? Also, with population growth, theres less free land.

If not in a cemetery, then where? Miraldi has been designing jewelry in Connecticut for 36 years, and his work has unexpectedly led him to grapple with the question.

Over two decades ago, a customer who had lost a son in a car accident came to him with what was then an unusual request. The person wanted to create a piece with the ashes that didnt seem religious, and Miraldi was able to help.

Since then, objects incorporating peoples ashes  known as keepsakes  have become a significant part of Miraldis business, A Soul to Heart.

Its more acceptable, he said. Jewelry remains a common choice, but he once inserted ashes into a Disney Service Award and has also turned a microphone into a keepsake memorializing a karaoke-loving mother.

You try to give them what they want that makes them connected to the person they lost, he said.

At Nicholas F. Cognetta Funeral Home in Stamford, Crematory Manager Anthony Notaro opened a case of urns ranging from the classic to the unconventional.

Those are actual Harley Davidson parts, Notaro explained of an urn that resembled industrial tongs with drums on either end. The transmission pan and pistons. And inside the transmission pan can go cremated remains.

Other options at the funeral home included an organically shaped vessel made of corn starch, salt and non-toxic glues, designed to dissolve in water for a burial at sea, and a metal rose which could unscrew to hold ashes within the stigma.

The funeral home is one of only four in the state that has its own crematory on the premises and has witnessed cremations rise in popularity. Lesko said that now many people are surprised by all of the options. We ask: What would you like to do? Merchandise evolved for cremation out of the needs of people and what theyd like to have.

But many, like Deluca, have already decided on the ritual that means the most to them. Dolly Curtis of Easton said that when her husband passes away, her family plans to cremate his body and incorporate it into one of her sons works of handblown glass.

It would just be the natural thing to do for his dad, she said. I wouldnt think of anything else.NORWALK  Cassandra Herring has worked in retail for several years but she learned only recently the depth and complexities of the industry.

Herring, who lives in South Norwalk and works at Macys at the Stamford Town Center, was one of 15 people to complete the first Retail Customer Service and Sales certificate program at Norwalk Community College.

It taught us about defining retail, understanding the customers  because you have different kinds of customers that come into a store  recognizing the economics of the retail and understanding customer service, Herring said. We learned about products and services.

Herring said she and her classmates also learned about distribution channels, from manufacturer to wholesaler to retailer. She credited instructor Celia Batan with bringing the subject matter to life and making it relevant.

NCC and the Norwalk Community College Foundation launched the program in partnership with General Growth Partners, the Chicago-based mall developer now building The SoNo Collection off West Avenue in Norwalk.

Part of their commitment and agreement was to provide workforce training for the community in which the mall is being built, said Kristina Testa-Buzzee, associate dean of extended studies and workforce education at NCC. They provided $250,000 to the Norwalk Community College Foundation to support the development and implementation of this certificate program.

The program helps entry-level sales and service associates learn skills related to frontline work in retail and other industries that value customer service and sales skills, according to NCC.

Herring and other students enrolled in the 10-week course learned about the retail industry, customer service, sales, store operations and landing a job.

Fifteen students completed the class, 10 of whom also passed the National Professional Certification in Customer Service and Sales Examination offered by the National Retail Federation. Theyll have their $25 enrollment fee refunded, according to Testa-Buzzee.

She cast the course as part of a broader five-year program aimed at training 500 students for everything from entry-level retail to an advanced sales and service, and supervision and management.

For Herring, now a sales clerk in the fine jewelry department, the course and certificate are only the start of further higher education. She said she plans to enroll in additional classes at NCC and pursue a degree in business administration with a minor in music.

Dont be surprised to see her at The SoNo Collection, which GGP plans to open late next year.

I think theres a great possibility that I will be working in that mall in some capacity, Herring said. Im looking forward to it because its in my community and thats where you make the best impact, when you do things in your community.

Slated to open in October 2019, the nearly million-square-foot shopping center will be anchored by a Bloomingdales store on the south side of North Water Street, a Nordstrom store to the north, and 80 to 100 smaller retailers and public realm space in between on the dozen-acre site off West Avenue and Interstate 95.

The next classes in the Retail Customer Service and Sales certificate program at NCC will begin in mid-March. For more information, contact program coordinator Lenisha Nathaniel at 203-857-7078.Special Events

Friday, Feb. 2  A Couple of Couples  Paintings and Photography Art Exhibition and Reception, 6-7:30 p.m. Wilton Librarys art exhibition this month features two very talented couples. Artists Julie Leff and Charles Douthat live in Weston and artist Leona Frank lives in Westport with her husband, photographer Richard Frank. The exhibition showcases more than 60 of their works in a variety of media including oil, acrylic, charcoal drawings and photography with subject matter encompassing portraits, still life, abstracts, botanicals, landscapes and more. Reception free and open to the public. Exhibition runs through Feb. 23. Most works available for purchase with a portion of the proceeds benefiting the library.

Saturday, Feb. 3  Take Your Child to the Library to See Animal Embassy!, 10:30-11:30 a.m. Take your child to Wilton Library for a fun and educational program with Animal Embassy. Animal Embassy will show how animals prepare for winter in a variety of ways. Some migrate, some get new fur coats, some hibernate and some store food to last through the winter. Animal Embassy will help children to define and understand terms such as hibernation, migration, and adaptation. Families will meet a variety of animals such as a rabbit, a ferret, an African bullfrog, a South American chinchillas, an axolotl and more. Supported by the Amadeo Family. Registration required, ages 4 and up with caregivers. Register online or call 203-762-6336.

Now through Wednesday, Feb. 28  2018 Winter Reading Olympics at Wilton Library During the 2018 Winter Olympic Games, young readers will have to complete different reading challenges, inspired by Olympic events, in order to place in bronze, silver or gold. Register Feb. 1 through Feb. 9. Children must be able to read on their own.

Saturday, Feb. 3  (Not) Just for Kids  Sounds from the Heart: Strings, 3-4 p.m. The Norwalk Symphony Orchestra (Not) Just For Kids program is a lively, fun and interactive program designed to be educational as well as entertaining. Members of the orchestra demonstrate their string instruments, play for the children, and answer questions in this hourlong presentation. All programs end with attendees having a chance to hold and try to play a beginning level instrument in the 'Petting Zoo.' Series schedule on Saturdays: March 10, 2018  Tap! Bang! Boom!  Percussion; May 12, 2018  Soft and Sweet  Winds. No charge. Registration recommended. Register online or call 203-762-6336.

Monday, Feb. 5 through March 19  More Sign, Say, and Play, 10:15-10:45 a.m. The Baby Signs Program teaches caregivers and children from 6 months of age to the toddler stage signs for everyday activities so they can communicate before the child can speak fluently. Each workshop session focuses on one everyday activity. The signs are learned through activities, songs, and a book. Every participant will go home with a handout. There will be 6 workshop programs. There is no session Feb. 19. Please register for each session separately. Ages 6 months to toddlers with caregivers. Register online or call 203-762-6336.

Tuesday, Feb. 6  Random Acts of Kindness (RAKtivist) Club for Middleschoolers, 3:30-5:30 p.m. We're looking for students in grades 6-8 who would like to join RAKtivists  a world-wide movement which practices Random Acts of Kindness. On the first or second Tuesday of every month we'll do something nice and think of ways to spread kindness and put smiles on peoples faces. We'll bake cookies for a senior living community, make dog and cat toys for animal shelters, decorate gingerbread houses for local agencies, read to the elderly and more. Additional dates: 3/6, 4/3, & 5/1. Full seasons commitment is highly encouraged. Sponsored by the John & Patricia Curran Teen Fund. Registration required. Register online or call 203-762-6342.

Thursday, Feb. 8, 15 & 22  Winter Poetry with Judson Scruton: Poetry, Power, and Politics, 10:30 a.m. to 12 p.m. Judson Scruton leads this four-part series exploring the key speeches and their contexts in four of Shakespeare's plays: A Midsummer Nights Dream, Twelfth Night, Henry IV Part One, and Julius Caesar. Judson Scruton, M.A (The Johns Hopkins University, The Writing Seminars, specializing in poetry), has taught creative writing and literature at prep schools and universities. He is currently an Adjunct Professor of English at Fairfield University. Poetry packets available at front desk. No charge for the program. Advance registration required. Register online or call 203-762-6334.

Classes in Innovation Station this week include  Saturday, Feb. 3: Embroider or Monogram a Valentines Day Gift, 12-2 p.m.President Orban has the courage and integrity to stand up to the secularist bullying of the European Union and to the efforts to force Hungary to allow countless Islamic immigrants into its midst. And yet even heroes need correcting when they get things wrong

The discussion of Hillaire Bellocs writing on Europe and the Faith, which was the subject of my last essay , serves as a preamble to a discussion of the Christmas address given a few weeks ago by Hungarian President, Viktor Orban, which was published here at The Imaginative Conservative . One can see many commendable parallels between Bellocs critique of Europe and the Faith and President Orbans, and yet, amidst all the glitter and gold of solid reasoning, there are problems that, if not addressed, could lead to the gutter of ethnolatry, the worship of ones own race and nation.

Lets start with the following paragraph from President Orbans speech:

When we draw the boundaries of our identity, we mark out Christian culture as the source of our pride and sustaining strength. Christianity is a culture and a civilisation. It is within this that we live. The essence is not how many people go to church, or how many pray with true devotion. Culture is the reality of everyday life: how we speak and behave towards one another; the distance we keep from one another and how we approach one another; how we enter this world, and how we leave it. For European people, Christian culture determines the morals of our daily lives.

At first glance, we might be edified and encouraged by words such as these. There is, however, a devil in the detail; or, in fact, several devils in several details. Christianity should always be a source of humility and never of pride, the latter of which is the banner of Christianitys enemies. Even though pride, like love, has many applicable meanings, it is dangerous to employ the word, and even more dangerous to succumb to the thing itself. To say that there is such a thing as good pride is to wander into dangerous territory.

Then there is President Orbans definition of Christianity as a culture and a civilisation. This is to get things exactly backwards. Christianity is the worship of the one true Triune God, who became Incarnate in the person of Jesus Christ, who shall come to judge the living and the dead. Any culture or civilization which arises from the practice and belief of this religion is a fruit of the religion; it is not the religion itself. To return to our original quibble with Belloc, culture and civilization do not forge Christianity, they are forged by it. And, contrary to the claims of President Orban, the essence of a Christian culture is determined by how many people go to church, or how many pray with true devotion. The faith of a people, or a peoples lack of faith, is crucial to the health and wellbeing and ultimate sustainability of a culture. The fewer people who believe and practice the Faith, the fewer people will be truly civilized and truly living the culture. As Chesterton rightly perceived, the modern world is living on its Christian capital. It is spending what it is no longer earning. It is, therefore, becoming spiritually and morally bankrupt. This is directly connected to the number of people practicing the Faith. If we want a renewal of Christian culture and Christian civilization we must have a spirit of evangelization. We must encourage people to return to church in ever greater numbers. We must encourage them to pray more often and with greater fervour.

Lets return to President Orbans speech:

Our culture is the culture of life. Our starting-pointthe alpha and omega of our philosophy of lifeis the value of life, the dignity that every person has received from God. Without this we could not evaluate human rights and similar modern conceptions. This is why we doubt whether we can export this into the life of civilisations built on other foundations.

It is true indeed that Christian culture is the culture of life, rooted in the dignity of the human person as having been made in the image and likeness of God, but it is not true that contemporary European culture is the culture of life. On the contrary, the culture of death, which includes the death-cultures of Revolutionary France, Revolutionary Russia, and National Socialist Germany are all European in origin, having as their roots the anti-Christian apostasy of the Enlightenment. The same apostasy has also led to the killing of millions upon millions of unborn children, the slaughter of the innocents, the death toll of which rises daily. This is the legacy of Europes apostasy, her rejection of the Faith. President Orban would no doubt agree. And yet we are being disingenuous when we choose to claim that this ugly reality is not also part of the reality which we call Europe.

And what are we to make of President Orbans doubt that the Christian culture of life can be exported into the life of civilisations built on other foundations? Is he saying that Christianity is only for Europeans because only Europeans are civilized enough to believe in it? Is he forgetting that Europe was itself built on other foundations, pagan foundations, and that it was the evangelical zeal of the early Christians which converted our European ancestors to the One True Faith? And is Mr. Orban unaware of the spread of Christianity around the world? Is he unaware that the Faith is flourishing in civilizations built on other foundations, such as China, for instance, and that the Faith is growing in these parts of the world at a faster rate than it is decaying in Europe? Is he aware that African Bishops are defending the ancient and traditional integrity of the Faith from modernist attacks upon it by European bishops? No, Mr. Orban, the Faith is not the private possession of Europe, which has actually become dispossessed of it because of its indifference to it or its hostility towards it. Dare we prophesy that Europe will be re-evangelized in the future by Christian missionaries from Africa or China, which would be a delicious irony indicative of a divine sense of humour?

Lets return one final time to President Orbans speech:

They do not want us to be who we are. They want us to become something which we do not want to be. By the light of Christmas candles we can clearly see that when they attack Christian culture they are also attempting to eliminate Europe. They want to take our life from us, and exchange it for something that is not our life. In return for the life we have lived up to now they are promising one which is new and more enlightened. This, however, is a utopia: not the essence of real life, but distilled from abstract, theoretical sophistry. Utopias are dreams: potentially wonderful, and therefore alluring. But they are just as incoherent, impenetrable, obscure and meaningless as dreams are. One cannot live in them, or be guided by them.

Once again, it is difficult to read such words without being uplifted, without being edified. We sense in President Orban a political leader who has the courage and integrity to stand up to the secularist bullying of the European Union and to the efforts to force Hungary to allow countless Islamic immigrants into its midst, with the disastrous consequences that are currently playing themselves out in all those other European countries that have already done so. Viktor Orban is a wise and courageous leader; no doubt about it. He is also right about utopias, but only partially so. He is right that utopias are not the essence of real life, but distilled from abstract, theoretical sophistry. They are indeed dreams. The problem is that they are dreams which quickly become nightmares. President Orban is, therefore, only partially correct in believing that people cannot live in them, or be guided by them. It is not possible to live in a utopia because it is, as its etymology indicates, a no-place, a nowhere; a dream. And yet countless people are guided by utopian dreams, and it is these dreams that turn the real world into a living nightmare. The dreams of the French or Russian revolutionaries, or the Nazi stormtroopers, never came true because they are mere ideological fantasies; but the efforts to make the dream come true has created real-life nightmares, a fact that President Orban, as a veteran of the struggle against communist tyranny in Hungary, knows only too well. If utopias were only dreams, they would not matter. The problem is that they become a vision by which people are turned into monsters who kill their neighbours, and even their own children.

In spite of my critiquing of President Orbans speech, much of which I applaud wholeheartedly, I remain an avid admirer of his courage and determination to fight secularist tyranny in Europe. He is a modern-day hero. And yet even heroes need correcting when they get things wrong. As Chesterton said of his relationship with his brother, they were always arguing but they never quarreled. In similar vein, I see President Orban as a brother, as a brother in arms against common anti-Christian enemies. The foregoing is, therefore, a gentle disagreement, or perhaps a civilized argument; it is not, and will hopefully never be, the beginning of a quarrel.

The Imaginative Conservative applies the principle of appreciation to the discussion of culture and politicswe approach dialogue with magnanimity rather than with mere civility. Will you help us remain a refreshing oasis in the increasingly contentious arena of modern discourse? Please consider donating now.

The featured image is from the European Peoples Party and is licensed under Creative Commons 2.0.TANYA ZERIGA-ALONE

PORT MORESBY - We should denounce knowledge-based education and concentrate on skills-based education.

Let us not judge our children by their ability to memorise and regurgitate information, let us assess them for being innovative.

Let them do it in Pidgin too. Speaking fluent English does not put food on the table, entrepreneurship does - money does not speak just one language.

We are an intelligent people. Our ancestors learnt by observation. Nothing has changed in our psyche.EDWARDSVILLE  Madison County is offering residents an inexpensive way to make sure their homes are safe from a colorless, odorless killer.

County officials are urging residents to test their homes for Radon.

Radon, a gas produced by the natural breakdown of uranium and radium in rock formations, can enter a home by moving up from the soil through cracks and holes in the foundations of a home.

The Madison County Health Department is emphasizing the importance of having your home tested by offering radon test kits for $6 for residents.

Erin Broester, Madison County Health Department health protection manager, is encouraging residents to take advantage of the program.

Residents can come to MCHD to purchase a radon test kit during regular business hours (8:30 a.m.  4:30 p.m.) at 101 E. Edwardsville Road in Wood River, Broester said. Staff members will assist residents with the instructions on using the test kit as well as providing information regarding radon, radon measurements and radon mitigation.

It is estimated that more than 20,000 lung cancer deaths each year are caused by radon exposure.

If radon levels are determined to be above unhealthy levels, they can be corrected with mitigation.

The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency suggests tests should be done on the lowest level of a home that is frequently occupied. Tests should also be done in kitchens, bathrooms, laundry rooms, utility rooms and around sump pumps in basements.

According to the IEPA, the average indoor radon level in the U.S. is about 1.3 pCi/L.

The Illinois Emergency Management Agency reports that the average indoor radon level in Illinois is about 4.9 pCi/L.

The U.S. Surgeon General and the EPA recommend fixing homes with radon levels at or above 4 pCi/L.

For more information about the MCHD radon test kits call (618) 296-6079.Insta-Stories are ilustrated journeys from wired wanderers. We asked Nicholas Saputra why hes always traveling and got a quick answer: To fulfill my curiosity, says the 33-year-old actor and model. I have a lot of interest in architecture, in nature and in culture.

Nicholas loves to travel, whether its trekking for 10 hours up the hills outside Wamena, Papua (If I slipped, Id be dead) or celebrating Carinval in Rio de Jainero (For once I am not a minority. People really celebrate differences and being mixed is OK).

Famous for roles in arthouse and blockbuster movies like Postcards from the Zoo and Ada Apa Dengan Cinta? (Whats Up with Love?), Nico says he loves to get away about eight to 10 times a year. Hes also not afraid to travel without an itinerary.

I realized that there was a direct flight from here to Colombo, Nico told J+ by The Jakarta Post, when asked about how planning his trips. In the next five days, I was in Sri Lanka. I booked a hotel for only two nights.

Nico says he was 15 when he made his first trip sans parentsa trip from Jakarta to Bandung with some high school friends. We initially wanted to have more of an adventure. Lets just go to Bandung, take a train. Lets not book any place. Lets just stay in a mosque and take public transportation.

Read also: Nicholas Saputra invites you to help protect Sumatran elephants

He pauses. After we got off the train, we didnt know where to go, so we hired a car. We stayed at the Sheraton hotel, because our parents were so concerned about us. Then we went shopping for shoes....so it wasnt as adventurous as we expected. Nico laughs.

Traveling solo, though, is Nicos passion. In Jordan, Nico spent 10 days alone, traveling to see the rock-cut architecture of the Petra ruins and camping in the desert by Wadi Rumthe Valley of the Moonjust east of Aqaba. During the day, there was sand-boarding and hiking. At night, Nico marveled at the stars from a Bedouin-style tent. To make the 230-or-so kilometer trek from Amman to Petra, Nico hired a local taxi driver, who showed up with the owner of the taxi (for some company) and picked up a police officer passenger at a checkpoint. Theyre police and talking in Arabic and this guy jumped in the car, Nico says, setting the scene. So theres a stranger, a taxi driver and a policeman. I was just trying to be relaxed, but also its probable that this is very common. It could have been worse. It was a formula for disaster, but actually the policeman just wanted to hitchhike to his station.

For a two-year period, Nico says promised himself only to travel around the archipelago, which led to 10 trips to Komodo, among other places. Exploring Indonesia is so eye opening, Nicholas said. The more you go east, the more diverse it is. If you go to Flores, for example, in a few hours you find another language. I realized how important the Indonesian language is. It connects people.

Tangkahan, North Sumatra, is one of Nicos favorite places. Hes made the trip to see the nearby Gunung Leuser National Park about 15 times in the last decade or so. I like it as wild as possible, and thats where I find it, Nico says. He stays in lodges owned by local residents and enjoys spending time with rescued elephants, who live in a reserve. Nico also volunteers for NGOs like Fauna & Flora International, The Nature Conservancy and the World Wildlife Fund and speaks with obvious passion about how the NGOs cultivate nature and help people to live better, sustainable lives.

When I was in Tangkahanin the middle of the forest in the river, sunk in the fresh water, looking at the National Parkthats luxury for me. Sometimes the word luxury is a bit overrated. Its not about what you think it is. Its something that you dont get anywhere else.Research by the iPrice Group has found that online shopping during office hours is popular among Indonesian consumers, with activities spiking at 11 a.m., iPrice Group senior content marketer Andrew Prasatya said at a discussion in Jakarta on Tuesday.

According to data collected from e-commerce outlets in Southeast Asia during the third quarter of 2016 through to the second quarter of 2017, the number of orders at 11 a.m. were on average 69 percent higher than other hours, Antara reported.

Online retail companies also received a high number of orders at 4 p.m., close to the end of office hours.

Read also: Online shops not causing closure of retail outlets: BPS

The research further noted that Indonesian online retail consumer behavior differed from Singapore, where many orders are placed from 4 p.m. until the early hours of the morning.

Moreover, consumer activity in Indonesia increased on Wednesdays, which on average was 12 percent higher than any other day. The habit of online shopping on Wednesdays, Andrew said, was also prevalent in other Southeast Asian countries.

According to the iPrice Group research, Indonesian shoppers throughout the third quarter of 2016 until the second quarter of 2017 spent an average of US$36, far lower than Singaporeans who spent an average of $91 on online shopping throughout the same period. (liz/asw)Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sat, February 3, 2018 17:57 1316 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c3d1a1a 1 Politics journalist,bbc,Papua,asmat,TNI Free

The Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI) has criticized the government for banning three BBC Indonesia journalists from reporting on a measles and malnutrition outbreak in Papua because of the tweets posted by one of them.

Australian journalist reporting for BBC Indonesia, Rebecca Henschke, was told to leave Papua after she posted several tweets criticizing the provision of aid. She posted a picture, showing boxes of food and drinks on a dock, captioned This is the aid coming in for severely malnourished children in Papua- instant noodles, super sweet soft drinks and biscuits.

The Indonesian Military (TNI), which is taking part in the health mission in Asmat, claimed that what she wrote did not reflect the truth. In the photo, [the food and drinks] were not humanitarian aid, but products sold by merchants and accidentally placed [on the dock].

Immigration Directorate General spokesperson Agung Sampurno said in his written statement Henschkes tweets were offensive not only to the government but also to Indonesian people, as well as marring to journalism as a profession.



The AJI said that Henschke and her two co-reporters, Dwiki and Affan, were investigated by the police because of the tweets on Friday, and banned from reporting in Papua since then. The three of them were sent back to Jakarta.

We condemn the expulsion of the BBC journalists. The incident shows that the government is afraid of foreign reporting of the conditions in Papua, AJI chairman Abdul Manan said on Saturday.

He said he regretted the fact that the Twitter posts were cited as the reason for expelling the journalists from Papua and not administrative violations.

President Joko Jokowi Widodo, he said, had repeatedly stated his commitment to open Papua for foreign journalists. [This] shows the government is not serious about its promise to open journalistic access to Papua. (gis/ahw)Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin (The Jakarta Post) Indonesia  Sat, February 3 2018

New Zealand and Indonesia are marking the start of a year-long commemoration of 60 years of formal diplomatic relations with the release of an official logo.



The relationship between our two countries was founded on people-to-people linkages, the exchange of knowledge and the sharing of experience. These have successfully guided the partnership over the course of the past 60 years, said New Zealands Ambassador to Indonesia, Trevor Matheson, according to a press statement issued on Friday.



The logo was jointly created by the Indonesian Embassy in Wellington and the New Zealand Embassy in Jakarta and was released in Jakarta on Thursday during an event attended by various officials from the two countries.



The logo, which depicts number 60 and flags of both countries dominated with red and blue colors, will be used to mark events in Indonesia and New Zealand ...Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin Wahyoe Boediwardhana (The Jakarta Post) Surabaya  Sat, February 3, 2018 16:07 1317 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c3d08f1 1 National teacher,Madura-Island,school-violence Free

An art teacher in Sampang, Madura, has died, allegedly after receiving a blow to the back of his neck from a student.

The teacher, identified as Ahmad Budi Cahyono, 27, died in Dr Soetomo Hospital, Surabaya, East Java on Thursday, Feb. 1 after lapsing into a coma.

A student in his drawing class, identified only as HI, has been charged with assault resulting in death, Sampang Police chief Adj. Comr. Budi Wardiman said as quoted by kompas.com.

According to the police, Ahmad was teaching drawing in his class at SMA 1 Torjun state high school in Sampang, Madura island, when HI started to disrupt other students by painting in their books.

After several ignored warnings, Ahmad approached HI and smeared his cheek with paint. The student responded by hurling expletives at the teacher, who then hit him with a classroom attendance book.

HI allegedly then responded by striking a blow to Ahmads neck. Ahmad fell to the floor while students rushed to restrain HI.

The school sent Ahmad home to rest.

At home, the teacher complained of constant neck pain and subsequently fell unconscious. He was taken to a local hospital in Sampang but as his condition continued to decline, he was rushed to Surabaya. He died, reportedly following a blood clot to the brain, around 9 p.m.

Chief of the crime division of Sampang Police, Adj. Comr. Hery Kusnanto, said the police had arrested HI. The student, a trained martial arts athlete, received an assurance that he could continue his education and take the National Examination while under police investigation. (gis/ahw)Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sat, February 3, 2018 07:43 1317 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c3c40ee 1 Politics KPK,IndoensiaLeaks,corruption Free

IndonesiaLeaks, an independent whistleblower platform co-founded by Indonesian media outlets and civil society organizations, is mulling over plans to collaborate with the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK).

It hopes to share information in the form of investigative journalism, which the anti-graft agency could then use as leads in corruption cases.

"We can share information with each other, IndonesiaLeaks spokesperson Nawawi Bahrudin said after meeting with KPK leaders in Jakarta on Friday.

KPK chairman Agus Rahardjo was appreciative of the proposal, which he lauded as a form of the citizens participation in corruption eradication efforts.

"We hope that our output can influence public policymaking processes and support law enforcement in the country," said Nawawi, who is also chairman of the Legal Aid Institute for the Press (LBH Pers).

Launched in December, IndonesiaLeaks is also considering a collaboration with the Press Council and the Witness and Victim Protection Agency (LPSK).

I can guarantee the whistleblowers anonymity, he said.

The platform provides secure access for whistleblowers in cases related to public interest, especially corruption. The information from trustworthy sources who wish to remain anonymous will be verified through journalistic methods and published in the form of investigative reports. (srs/ahw)Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin (The Jakarta Post) Depok  Sat, February 3 2018

The chairman of the University of Indonesias Student Executive Body (BEM UI) held up a yellow card as a sign of protest against President Joko Jokowi Widodo during his visit to the university complex in Depok, West Java, on Friday.



The student, identified as Zaadit Taqwa, moved from his seat and walked toward the stage raising a yellow book and blew a whistle as if he was handing out a yellow card, usually used by referees to caution players in soccer, after the President finished his speech commemorating the universitys 68th Dies Natalis anniversary.



He was then escorted out of the hall by the Presidential Security Detail (Paspampres).



The action was part of a larger peaceful protest staged by student members of the BEM UI to demand Jokowis attention on several issues.



Zaadit confirmed he meant to raise the yellow card as a warning fo...Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin Benjamin Legendre (Agence France-Presse) Paris  Sat, February 3, 2018 10:39 1317 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c3c68e6 2 World TariqRamadan,rape,French,scholars Free

Islamic scholar Tariq Ramadan has been charged with rape, a judicial source said, following claims by two women that he assaulted them in French hotel rooms in 2009 and 2012.

Ramadan, who was arrested by French police on Wednesday, was charged on Friday with connected charges of rape and rape of a vulnerable person, the source said.

The accused is a Swiss citizen whose grandfather founded Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood movement.

After two days of questioning by investigators, the 55-year-old Oxford professor was brought before three magistrates who have been assigned to the case, suggesting that he is facing an extensive investigation, judicial sources said.

"If there are other victims in France or elsewhere, they now know that the justice system will respond to what has happened to them," said Jonas Haddad, lawyer for feminist activist Henda Ayari, the first woman to accuse Ramadan.

Women who have testified anonymously during three months of preliminary investigations might now also file rape complaints, one of the sources said.

The claims against the prominent scholar, which emerged in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein scandal in the United States, have divided many Muslims, with his legions of fans, as well as his lawyers, saying he is the victim of a smear campaign.

But critics have long suggested that despite Ramadan's moderate tone as a familiar face on television programmes, he preaches a more radical line when addressing Muslims in Arabic.

Ramadan is the most high-profile figure to be held in France over the sexual assault and harassment claims that have rippled around the world as a result of the "Me Too" campaign.

The married father of four has denied the accusations from the two women.

The first was made by Ayari, a feminist activist who previously practised a conservative strain of Islam. She had described being raped in a book published in 2016, without naming her attacker.

But in October, she said she had decided to name Ramadan publicly as the alleged perpetrator as a result of the "Me Too" campaign, using the French hashtag "Balance Ton Porc" (Expose your pig).

She said Ramadan raped her in his hotel room, telling Le Parisien newspaper: "He choked me so hard that I thought I was going to die."

She lodged a rape complaint against Ramadan on October 20.

Several days later an unidentified disabled woman, a Muslim convert, also accused the academic of raping her in a hotel room in the southeastern city of Lyon in 2009.

Vanity Fair magazine, which met the woman, said her lawsuit against Ramadan described "blows to the face and body, forced sodomy, rape with an object and various humiliations, including being dragged by the hair to the bathtub and urinated on".

During three hours of testimony in Paris on Thursday, the woman -- using the pseudonym "Christelle" -- recounted her allegations to the judge in Ramadan's presence.

She also revealed that Ramadan had a small scar on his groin that would not have been noticed except in the case of close contact, a source said.

Rejecting her testimony, the scholar refused to sign the official summary of the account, sources close to the case said.

"Both sides maintained their positions," one of the sources said.

During three months of investigations since the allegations emerged, police have interviewed dozens of people close to both Ramadan and the two women, and examined email and social media exchanges between them.

In November, Oxford University said Ramadan was taking a leave of absence from his post as professor of contemporary Islamic studies, "by mutual agreement".

He has also denied allegations in Swiss media of sexual misconduct against teenage girls in the 1980s and 1990s, denouncing them as "a campaign of lies launched by my adversaries".

Lawyers for Ramadan have accused Ayari of slander and suggested the women colluded to try to disgrace him.

As part of his defence, he has presented investigators with Facebook conversations in which a woman identified as Ayari allegedly made explicit advances towards him in 2014, two years after the alleged rape.

The accusations have sparked heated online debate between supporters of Ramadan, who commands a following of more than two million fans on Facebook, and his opponents.

Despite his leave of absence from Oxford, Ramadan continues to head the Islamic Institute for Ethical Training in France.

Ayari was placed under police protection in November after receiving death threats. (ahw)Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sat, February 3, 2018 12:26 1317 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c3c77be 1 City jakarta,#supeltas,#pakOgah,police,#traffic Free

The fate of voluntary traffic attendants (supeltas), colloquially known as "Pak Ogah," ubiquitous on the streets of Jakarta, seems to be stuck behind a red light.

The Jakarta Police initiated a policy last year to hire Pak Ogah and train them to be traffic attendants. The idea, however, was opposed by then governor Djarot Saiful Hidayat who argued that they should not be paid with the city's budget as they volunteer.

However, Jakarta Police traffic management director Sr. Comr. Halim Pagarra said he had been in talks with Jakarta Deputy Governor Sandiaga Uno, who plans to support the supeltas.

I havent enquired about the details of the supposed support, nor the salary. I am hoping it will be in accordance with the minimum provincial salary (UMP)," said Halim.

Halim explained that they had held training sessions for the supeltas all over Jakarta, with uniform vests provided courtesy of several supporting banks and companies.

Since October last year, Halim had expressed his interest in meeting with Governor Anies Baswedan and Deputy Governor Sandiaga Uno to discuss the supeltas salary.

Separately, deputy head of the Jakarta Transportation Agency Sigit Wijatmoko said that as the supeltas were recruited, trained and managed by the Jakarta Police traffic directorate, they were not considered part of the Jakarta regional working unit (SKPD), and therefore not entitled to be funded by the regional budget.(jlm)Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin (Agence France-Presse) Washington  Sat, February 3, 2018 05:43 1317 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c3c2283 2 World Pentagon,nuclear-arsenal,bomb Free

The US military wants to revamp its nuclear arsenal and develop new low-yield atomic bombs, largely in response to Russian actions in recent years, the Pentagon says in a policy statement released Friday.

The so-called Nuclear Posture Review outlines the Pentagon's nuclear ambitions under President Donald Trump and is the first time since 2010 that the military has spelled out how it foresees nuclear threats in the coming decades.

It marks a sobering break from the vision for America's atomic future under Barack Obama, who during a famous speech in Prague in 2009 called for the elimination of nuclear weapons.

While the document underscores the administration's concerns about North Korea, Iran and China, the focus falls largely on Russia.

"This is a response to Russian expansion of their capability and the nature of their strategy and doctrine," Defense Secretary Jim Mattis wrote in the introduction to the 75-page document.

"These developments, coupled with Russia's seizure of Crimea and nuclear threats against our allies, mark Moscow's decided return to Great Power competition," he also wrote.

The Pentagon worries Russia assumes America's regular, large-yield weapons are essentially too big to ever be detonated, as their use would likely result in large-scale retaliation and wipe much of humanity off the map.

"There are strong indications that our current strategy posture and capabilities are perceived by the Russians as potentially inadequate to deter them," Greg Weaver, the deputy director of strategic capabilities for the military's Joint Staff, told reporters.

"The US and NATO require a wider range of credible low-yield nuclear options to do a very specific thing: to convince the Russian leadership that if they initiate limited nuclear use, in a war with the alliance, our response will deny them the objective they seek and impose costs that far outweigh those benefits they can achieve," he added.

The document, an earlier version of which was leaked last month, says that by having more, smaller nukes the Pentagon can counter adversaries' "misperceptions" that the United States would not respond to another country using its own low-yield bomb.

The new strategy calls for a continuation of the nuclear modernization program ordered by Obama that encompasses all pillars of the "triad" -- ground-based intercontinental ballistic weapons, submarine-launched rockets and bombs delivered by plane.

But unlike the Obama strategy, which stressed reducing the role of nuclear weapons, the new policy has a more assertive tone.

Low-yield nuclear weapons, also known as "tactical" nukes, are still extremely powerful and can pack as much destructive punch as the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of World War II.

America already has a massive nuclear arsenal at its disposal, including 150 B-61 nukes stored across multiple European countries that can be configured for low-yield options.

The new weapons envisioned by the Pentagon would be launchable from submarines or ships, so would not need to be stockpiled in Europe.

They could also get around Russian air defenses more easily.

The bombs would not add to America's nuclear horde, and would instead repurpose existing warheads, but critics say the Pentagon would be going against the spirit of non-proliferation agreements.

"We are on the cusp of a new era of nuclear proliferation," warned Barry Blechman, co-founder of the Stimson Center, a nonpartisan anti-nuclear proliferation think tank in Washington.

"This is the great nuclear danger raised by the new" nuclear policy.

Weaver disputed media accounts that the nuclear posture review lowered the threshold for America to use nuclear weapons.

"The purpose of these capabilities is to make a US response to nuclear use more credible, not to make US first use more likely," he said.Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sat, February 3, 2018 13:52 1317 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c3cbd5c 1 City #reclamation,#defamation,#Police,#Jakarta Free

A property buyer on a reclaimed islet off Jakarta's north coast was detained on Friday after developer of islet C and D PT Kapuk Naga Indah filed a defamation case against her.

Jakarta Police spokesperson Sr. Comr. Argo Yuwono confirmed the arrest, saying the suspect, Lucia, will undergo confinement for 20 days, starting on Friday.

The dispute started in a meeting between PT Kapuk Naga Indah and property buyers on Dec. 9 last year. A commotion started when buyers questioned the status of their permits and rights for their paid-for properties.

After a recording of the meeting went viral on social media, Agung Sedayu Group, as PT Kapuk Naga Indahs parent company, filed a police report through their lawyer, Lenny Marlina, on Dec.11.

Meanwhile, Lucia, who paid off two units of property, argued that while she indeed said the words the developers are irresponsible, she did not mean it as defamation or slander, as she felt that she had good reasoning.

When we first purchased the property, we understood that they [the developers] had permits. We asked them to show the permits, said Lucia, adding that consumers only found out that the developer did not obtain the necessary permits after the ongoing construction had been suspended.

As a consumer I have the right to ask. But now even asking is not allowed, she said.(jlm)The Spanish capital will surprise the first-time visitor with its size, charm and efficiency, says Madrileno Sean Retana Vallely.

This city will always be home to me, says Sean, a tour guide born on the outskirts of the metropolis in 1975. I could see Madrid in the distance. As soon as I got permission from my parents, I started taking the bus into town.

We asked Sean where to go beyond the Palace and the National Museum. Heres what we found out.

Whats the perfect lazy Sunday in the city?

Sundays are for Rastro, as we say in Madridand Rastro is the Sunday street flea market with 2,300 street vendors! It is so authentic and huge. It makes you wonder how these things can still coexist with Amazon and eBay. Then tapas, down by La Latina.

For kids?

A walk in the Casa de Campo park, the largest forest park in Madrid, to end with tapas (of course) at one of the restaurants around the lake. Take a siesta and enjoy the stunning views of Madrid from the west before you decide whats next.

Read also: Spain surpassed US as tourism destination in 2017: Rajoy

Whats the best part of the city?

Madrid's Gran Via (Madrid Tourism/File)

Old world architecture paired with some of the best urban infrastructure in Europe, the intensity of Spanish street lifeplus perhaps the highest ratio of bars and restaurants per capita in the world.

Whats your magic Madrid moment?

Evenings are a strange and fascinating part of the day, and they can be long and warm in Madrid. The sun sets behind the mountains and leaves a violet and orange dye in the sky. Everybody notices the day is breaking down and finally surrenders. It is a great time for a little chat and a little walk in the old part of town, along the viaduct towards Las Vistillas, in Retiro Park or Alcala Streetand if you are into bullfighting, then an evening at Las Ventas bullring is a must.

Where to see the real Madrid?

Take a stroll down the Salamanca district, starting at Mercado de la Paz and ending by Cristopher Columbus squaredoing a bit of shopping along the way, having a drink at Platea or tasting some wine at Mantequerias Bravo. On the opposite side of Castellana Avenue, explore the Chamberi district and find yourself in Olavide square sharing the morning with the locals and sitting down for some Spanish omelettes with salad and sangria.

Whats overrated?

I would dare say that would be La Latina area, which is totally overrated when it comes to nightlife and infested with young Madrilenos trying to look trendy. I wouldnt stay too long at Puerta del Sol either.

Read also: Tracing the rise and fall of Islam in southern Spain

Whats overlooked?

A statue of the Spanish author Don Quixote (Madrid Tourism/File)

Visitors tend to stay within the east-west axis connecting the Prado Museum and the royal palace south of Gran Via. Whereas the old part of town north of Gran ViaChueca, Malasana, Conde-Duque and Salesasis just as rewarding, as are the 19th century neighborhoods of Salamanca, Chamberi, Moncloa, Retiro and Delicias.

How about food?

Lamb is religion in this part of Spain. The Castilian tradition in Madrid dictates that the lamb should go to the slaughter house at the age of 21 days. Madrid is home to probably the second largest fish market in the world after Tokyo. Spain is really the only western nation where people know about fish and take it seriously. Try the restaurant La Castela in the Retiro district, or El Barril de Arguelles in Chamberi.

A good tip for fish and seafood lovers: every Saturday at Mercado de la Cebada in La Latina, the fishmongers sell their stuff fresh after the sale is done to take away or eat on the spot, which is what most locals do. White wines and beer available at ridiculously inexpensive prices, as is the food! Messy, sticky, noisy, smelly, crowded... absolutely great!

Off-the-beaten track tips from Sean

Sean Retana (Courtesy of Sean Retana/File)

For art: Beyond the Museo Nacional del Prado, Sean recommends Museo Sorolla, Museo Lazaro Galdiano, Museo Cerralbo and the Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando.

Exploring pop-ups : Sean says to check out Kitchen 154 at Mercado de Vallehermoso in the Chanberi district to see how traditional markets are turning into hip food courts.The one-way street of Jl. Tanjung Duren Barat is known as one of West Jakarta's culinary areas. Various types of foods can be found here, from Chinese cuisine to Indonesian delights.

How to get there

You can explore the street using public transportation, such as the blue angkot (public minivan) serving the Grogol-Kopro route, bajaj (three-wheeled motorized vehicle) and Metro mini B91 catering to the Tanah Abang-Batu Sari route.

For those using their own vehicle, do note that some of the food establishments have limited or no parking spaces.

What to wear

Casual outfits like T-shirts, shorts and sandals are acceptable. Apply sunscreen and wear a hat if necessary.

What to eat

Whats Up Cafe tries to follow the current trend among youths by combining instant noodles with various ingredients, to make hybrid dishes such as Indomie carbonara, Indomie seafood tomyum and Indomie black pepper beef. It also has an Indomie Special Whats Up menu with different levels of spiciness.

Another interesting place to visit is Bakmi Ayam '166' Lili, which offers bakmi (meat noodles) with different toppings, such as chicken, meatballs and pangsit (wonton). Its bakmi pangsit, for instance, has a clear both with generous toppings. The eatery also offers several side dishes and Chinese food. Food prices start from Rp 40,000 (US$2) for bakmi pangsit.

A post shared by julius (@juliuspsi) on Sep 9, 2017 at 11:09pm PDT

Walk further and you will find Pisang Goreng Madu (Honey Fried Banana) Bu Nanik at Jl. Tanjung Duren Raya. It is so popular among Jakartans that it topped the 2017 list of merchants in Jakarta for Go-Jek's food delivery service Go-Food. No wonder the place is usually crowded with app-based ojek (motorcycle) drivers.

Different types of dishes are offered by 'Pisang Goreng Madu Bu Nanik' (Bu Nanik's honey-fried banana) on Jl. Tanjung Duren Raya, West Jakarta, on Jan. 25. (JP/Wienda Parwitasari)

Read also: Jakpost guide to Pluit

Aside from fried banana, Pisang Goreng Madu Bu Nanik also offers other snacks, such as honey-fried pineapple, spaghetti risoles (Indonesian fried spring rolls) and honey-fried cempedak (jackfruit-like fruit with a unique smell). Food prices start at Rp 5,000.

A meatball restaurant, Bakso Solo Samrat, sits near Pisang Goreng Madu Bu Nanik. Among the dishes it offers are bakso isi daging (beef-filled meatball), bakso puyuh (quail egg meatball) and bakso tenis rusuk (egg-filled meatball with ribs). Its bakso isi daging, for example, has a thick broth with soft-textured meatballs. With prices starting at Rp 35,000, customers can choose whether they want to have their meatballs with yellow noodles or rice noodles.

'Es Pisang Ijo' (green banana ice) from Kedai Es Pisang Ijo Pemuda in Jl. Tanjung Duren Utara, West Jakarta, on Jan. 25. (JP/Wienda Parwitasari)

While you are in the Tanjung Duren area, it is recommended to sample one of its famous desserts, es pisang ijo (green banana ice) at Kedai Es Pisang Ijo Pemuda. Located at Jl. Tanjung Duren Utara, the establishments green banana ice consists of banana covered in pandan dough and topped with shaved ice, milk, syrup and a thick sauce of coconut milk. The price of the dessert starts at Rp 25,000.

What to buy

Pisang Goreng Madu Bu Nanik also has a store that sells traditional snacks and beverages, namely kripik balado (crackers with spicy chili sauce), different types of sambal, lidi (snack that is shaped like a coconut leaf stick) and cafe latte.

Moreover, Jl. Tanjung Duren Barat is home to Kiubi Waxing Studio, which offers eyelash extensions. The women-only service is open from Monday until Saturday.

There are also several pet supply stores in the area, such as Happy Pets and Glory Petshop Jakarta, for those who want to indulge and buy food and toys for their furry friends.

Tips:A Singapore Airlines flight bound for Singapore from Taiwan on Friday (Feb 2) was delayed by a bomb hoax, local media said.

Flight SQ879 departed Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport at 5.45pm on Friday and arrived in Singapore at 10.35pm that same night, some 15 minutes later than originally planned.

A spokesman for SIA told The Straits Times on Saturday it confirmed that there was a bomb threat concerning flight SQ879 on Friday.

"The threat was determined to be a hoax by the authorities, and the aircraft landed uneventfully at Singapore Changi Airport at approximately 10.35pm," said the spokesman. "We regret we are unable to provide further details."

Read also: Singapore Airlines scraps Canberra-Wellington flights

Taiwan's Apple Daily news site said in a report on Friday that the plane was on the runway when Taipei police informed the airport police that a woman had made a report using a public phone, claiming that there was an explosive on flight SQ879.

She said that "someone has placed a bomb on SQ879".

The aircraft was notified, but the plane took off after it was determined to be a hoax.

The Taipei police are conducting investigations, Apple Daily said.Helena Bassil-Mozorow, Glasgow Caledonian University

This article contains spoilers about Black Mirror, season four

Do we have free will, or are we controlled by a higher power? The capacity to act and determine ones own actions in an increasingly technologised world is the most prominent theme in the latest season of Netflixs Black Mirror. And the question writer Charlie Brooker addresses in his bleak sketches is as old as human consciousness itself.

Black Mirror.

Before the Industrial Revolution and the first sci-fi narrative (Mary Shelleys Frankenstein , 200 years old this year) warning us of the dangers of replacing an inscrutable ancient god with a scientific one, people tried to determine two opposing but closely related things: how much agency they had, and whether they could rely on miraculous help from above in a time of difficulty. For free will is both a burden and a blessing. While we are imperfect, our vision limited by our perception, surely God is omniscient, omnipotent and wise? When were in trouble, he can save us and redeem our mistakes.

Isnt technology a better god than the previous god? In the past, people asked deities about weather patterns, love, luck, and everything else. Their predictions worked, at best, 50% per cent of the time. Now we have weather forecasts delivered to our mobiles, predictive dating apps and GPS trackers. Dont we all want to live in a world in which our fallible agency is replaced by technological perfection?

Brookers answer to this question is a resounding no. Technology is certainly a more efficient god since it has turned magic into reality, but the human issue of free will is still a big part of our relationship with it. Seeing how clever, precise, omniscient and infallible this new god is, we have decided to entrust it with a range of mundane tasks we previously used to perform ourselves: counting, translating, finding our way, even expressing emotions and, of course, shopping.

A mirror to reality?

This is a tendency Brooker particularly despises. In his view, human laziness is what is going to destroy civilisation. Brooker predicts a world in which the scope of action for free will  our error-prone but nevertheless important decision-making capacity  becomes so narrow that we forget how it feels to be human, how to feel pain and to make mistakes. Thanks to smart phones, tablets, Alexa and Google, we have cognitively unloaded anything requiring an effort or possessing a margin for error to artificial intelligence (AI). All these functions will now be taken care of by the god of technology, by the All-Seeing Algorithm.

Even the more optimistic episodes of the latest (fourth) season  Hang the DJ and Black Museum  show that the human desire for an all-controlling, all-knowing supreme being does, indeed, result in exactly this kind of supreme being, but not in a good way.

In Hang the DJ, we are shown a world in which finding a mate no longer involves going through a series of disappointments and bouts of happiness. An app finds a persons perfect match while their copies, trapped within what is called the system, make mistakes and suffer broken hearts instead of their originals who are waiting for the result in real life.

Although the episodes finale is unexpectedly uplifting and positive, its overall message is not: as people, we have gone too far in shielding ourselves from any errors in the decision-making process. We wanted more perfection and less agency, and thats exactly what we got.

Netflix

This perfection, however, comes at a price. In Arkangel, a mother implants into her baby daughter a tracking device which monitors her well-being and detects her location. The device also allows the mother to see the world through her daughters eyes and to blur out any disturbing information. However, the daughter fights for her right to make mistakes and to handle the unpleasantness of the world. Keen to break up the unhealthy attachment aided by technology, the girl ends up taking drugs and having sex. Instead of the flawless child, the mother is faced with a rebellious teenager who ends up beating up and leaving her over-protective parent.

When good technology goes bad

Instead of being helpful and protective, technology becomes terrifying in Metalhead  a stark black-and-white vignette reminiscent of The Terminator  in which a sole female survivor is pursued by a robotic dog-like creature after a failed warehouse raid. The dog is autonomous, relentless and problem-solving. It does not make mistakes. Although the protagonist manages to outsmart the canine terminator on a number of occasions, in the end the technology is so powerful and ubiquitous that killing herself is her only escape.

Those hoping to survive the onslaught of technological precision must look for rare flaws in it. This is what happens in USS Callister  probably the best episode in the series. Copies of real people trapped inside a private version of a space video game attempt to escape from it through a wormhole which temporarily appears, only to find themselves in the commercial version of the same game. Although they have more agency, they are still not entirely free.

And again, in Crocodile, the technology does not fail, but the human being does, try as she might. The recently invented memory-retrieving device prevents Mia from concealing the murders she has committed. Interestingly enough, Brooker makes us sympathise with the murderer as we witness her struggle to evade the relentless power of technology. Her agency is thwarted by the device, leaving her with no chance of escape.

In all episodes, Brooker shows the inevitable end of human agency as daily routines are taken over by artificial intelligence. Technology leaves only a small margin for human error. This is an excellent god. It has realised so many of our dreams, but is it the god we wanted?The Rugby Job Development Authority board met last week at the JDA Office in Rugby to discuss various issues while the search continues for a new JDA Executive Director.

The meeting opened with a few words by Heart of America Medical Center CEO Patrick Branco speaking about recent layoffs, which were more than anticipated.

I think the layoffs have now ended. I cant guarantee there wont be one or two more, but as of today the number is 37 total. Branco said. This includes layoffs, early retirements, resignations and terminations. Branco expressed his remorse about the layoffs but indicated the hospital should be fine going forward.

The new reduction at the hospital took the percentages to approximately ten percent. In addition, the hospitals day care center will now be open to the public.

Other meeting items discussed were as follows:

 The Executive Director Search committee reported on a light applicant pool, and have decided to extend the open position until February 12 to encourage more applicants to apply. Karin Fursather said the committee has posted the position in quite a few places, and will continue posting through the 12th.

 Mike McNeff, superintendent of Rugby Public Schools, reported on a Mental Health meeting which took place January 25th. The meeting discussed rural options for mental health. It it was decided that between the jail, social services and the school district in Rugby, there is a need to have mental health contractor in private practice, counselor or Master Social Worker hired. They will try to find someone that is available on contract to fill a position immediately.

 Father Tom Graner reported that the natural gas talks were postponed until January 30. The Rugby Housing Conference has been postponed until March.

 The Main Street initiative conference in Bismarck will be held February 12 & 13. Daunne Heilman has three tickets for people from Rugby to attend the event. Contact her for information.

 A discussion took place about who would be on the board going forward. Graners and Dave Cichos spots are coming to a close, but it was moved that they continue as is, until the new executive director is hired, and they will let the new Director implement the change.

 In other JDA business, Fursather agreed to coordinate with McNeff to ensure the 1099 forms for student loans are sent out before the end of the month.High School Football: Watertown loses in home opener to Brookings

The home opener didnt go as hoped for the fifth-rated Class 11AA Watertown High School football team on Friday night at Watertown Stadium.Montreal, CA (H4T1V6)

Today

Light rain this morning. Some sunshine breaking through this afternoon. High 23C. Winds W at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 30%..

Tonight

Partly cloudy. Low 13C. Winds NW at 5 to 10 mph.Friday, February 2, 2018

The national anthem of Canada was changed this week to become a gender-neutral anthem. The line "in all thy sons command" was changed to "in all of us command." Bill 210 "An Act to amend the National Anthem Act (gender)" passed its third reading in the Canadian Senate on January 31, 2018. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau reportedly described the change as "another positive step toward gender equality."

(mew)

https://lawprofessors.typepad.com/international_law/2018/02/canadas-national-anthem-goes-gender-neutral.htmlIf anything happens to me, please tell my story. This was...Friday, February 2, 2018

New York Times (Jan. 29, 2017): Ireland to Hold Abortion Referendum by the End of May, by Ed O'Loughlin:

The Irish government will hold a referendum at the end of May to consider repealing a constitutional provision that has resulted in an almost complete ban on abortion. The 8th Amendment to the Irish Constitution requires that authorities defend equally "the right to life of the unborn" and the "equal right to life of the mother." The provision has been interpreted to only allow abortion when a woman's life is in danger. The referendum will ask voters if they want to keep the 8th Amendment or repeal it allowing the legislature to pass legislation that would allow women access to abortion in a broader set of circumstances.

Prime Minister Leo Varadkar [] confirmed that the minister of health is preparing legislation to allow unrestricted access to abortion up to the 12th week of pregnancy, and later in cases of rape, incest or fatal abnormality. That legislation, which echoes recommendations delivered by an all-party parliamentary committee last month, will be put before Parliament if the country votes to repeal the constitutional ban.

The U.N. Human Rights Committee has criticized Ireland's current abortion laws finding that they discriminate against women and can result in cruel and degrading treatment. Because of the abortion ban, 3,265 women traveled to the U.K. for abortions in 2016. The Prime Minister also noted that over 2,000 women and girls take pills to self-induce abortion each year and that the current laws prevent them from obtaining medical supervision or assistance if needed.

https://lawprofessors.typepad.com/reproductive_rights/2018/02/ireland-to-hold-abortion-referendum-by-the-end-of-may.htmlRegulator Ofgem will study estimates Ovo Energy gave cutomers

The energy watchdog is to investigate whether Ovo Energy gave inaccurate information to customers over the amount of energy they had used.

Regulator Ofgem will study the estimates that the upstart energy firm gave customers to determine whether it has breached its licence conditions.

Ofgems investigations will be centred on estimates the supplier gave customers during winter 2016/17, and the accuracy of the annual consumption figures that it issued in annual statements.

An Ofgem spokesman said incorrect estimates can lead to inaccurate bills.

He added: This in turn can lead to customers being unable to properly manage their accounts and deciding to switch [supplier] based on incorrect information.

Ovo, which was founded in 2009 and currently has about 800,000 customers, said: We have a great track record in customer service and are always open to ways to improve it.

Earlier this month Ofgems boss told MPs he is not getting a bonus this year as he apologised for moving too slowly to protect vulnerable gas and electricity consumers.

Dermot Nolan was accused at a parliamentary committee hearing of a passive approach to his job of regulating the market, which had led to many customers paying higher bills.

Nolan said he regretted not taking swifter action to cap payments by vulnerable people on power companies standard variable tariffs.Astrazeneca is hailing a breakthrough in China as exports of its pioneering drugs hit 420million.

The pharmaceuticals giant has seen sales in China surge 30 per cent as the country has become its second biggest market behind the US.

Astrazeneca boss Pascal Soriot is targeting even faster growth, driven by the demand to meet the medical needs of the country's massive and ageing population.

Millions of Chinese have gained access to healthcare as the nation's middle-class rapidly expands.

Astrazeneca has seen sales in China surge 30 per cent as the country has become its second biggest market behind the US

As part of Prime Minister Theresa May's trade mission to China this week, Astrazeneca also announced a tie-up with Chinese tech conglomerates Alibaba and Tencent.

Its partnership with Alibaba will see patients handed digital devices to help them find the correct medicines and ensure that they are taken properly.

With Tencent, meanwhile, it is pioneering a tracking system that will help detect counterfeit drugs.

Astrazeneca's success in China is down to a combination of factors, not least its 25-year presence in the country.

Chronic air pollution problems in cities mean there is widespread demand for respiratory medicines  one of Astrazeneca's specialities. But bosses also said local staff had performed strongly.

EASTERN PROMISE 420m Astrazeneca drugs exported to China every year  its second biggest market

11,000 employed by Astrazeneca in China  just under one in six of all its employees

4bn spent by Astrazeneca on research and development in 2016 alone

Soriot hailed 2017 as a defining year for the business, boosted by a flurry of recent drug approvals.

It is the fifth largest pharma company in the world, employing 59,700 and selling its products in more than 100 countries.

It is also a major investor in research and development, spending 4billion in 2016 alone.

Soriot, 58 , said the company's success in China had smashed expectations. The Frenchman added: 'China has changed dramatically in the past ten years.

'It is now in many ways a developed country and in some ways actually ahead of the US and Europe. The population is enormous and the potential there is absolutely gigantic.'

His optimistic tone was in spite of a fall in revenues and profits at Astrazeneca. Soriot failed to meet a pledge to restore sales to 2013 levels by 2017.

He made the pledge after fighting off a hostile takeover bid from US rival Pfizer four years ago.

But yesterday he insisted the firm was only just shy of hitting its target  if the same exchange rates were used to calculate figures.

'I think we can say that we have delivered on that commitment,' he said.

The company forecast yesterday it would return to full-year growth this year. It posted sales of 15.8billion for 2017, down 2 per cent, and profits of 2.6billion, down by a quarter.

Astrazeneca has been laid low in recent years as it rushes to restock its pipeline of potential blockbuster drugs  those that rack up more than $1billion of annual sales.

This was after some of the company's bestselling medicines fell out of patent protection, putting sales under siege from cheaper copycats.

Shares in the group yesterday rose 3.1 per cent, or 150p, to 5036p.A spat has broken out between Purplebricks and investment bank Jefferies over allegations the online estate agent sells fewer homes than it claims.

The dispute, which concerns the proportion of properties sold on Purplebricks' website within ten months, first erupted on Thursday when Jefferies compared a listing with the online agent to a '1,000 coin toss'  basically suggesting homeowners had a 50/50 chance of selling their property.

Purplebricks charges a flat fee rather than a percentage of the sale price, but customers have to pay the fee regardless of whether the property is sold or not.

Jefferies said that Purplebricks' sales success rate was just over 51 per cent and in line with traditional estate agents, compared to previous claims it sold 88 per cent of homes listed.

Questions: Investment bank Jefferies has suggested online estate agent Purplebricks sells fewer homes than it claims

Analyst Anthony Codling said: 'Our analysis suggests that Purplebricks' success rate is near the middle of the pack.

However, although only just over half actually sell their home, everyone has to pay. With a traditional High Street agent, the homeowner only pays if the agent sells their home.

'A review of Purplebricks' accounting policies raises concerns to us that either its contractual obligations to its customers end with their home being listed on the major property portals, or revenue may have been overstated and deferred income provisions understated in its audited accounts.

'Should the model stumble, the share price may do likewise.'

The comments sent shares in Purplebricks down more than 7 per cent on Thursday and forced the firm to publish a statement yesterday refuting the criticism.

Purplebricks argued that Jefferies' data is based on a single month and did not include properties that had yet to be uploaded to the Land Registry  a process it claimed can take 'several months'.

STOCK WATCH - IFG Shares in financial services company IFG plunged after it revealed the full extent of its tax charge and confirmed it had received a number of approaches for its Saunderson House subsidiary. Last May the firm revealed it was facing a 1.8million tax charge from HMRC over investments in its unregulated biofuel scheme, Elysian Fuels. But yesterday the company said the charge could be as high as 20million, sending its shares plunging 4 per cent, or 7.25p, to 173.75p.

It reiterated its most recently published sales success rate of 78 per cent, which it claimed more accurately reflects its sales performance.

It added that Jefferies, which acts as a broker to traditional rival Countrywide, had a history of miscalculating its figures, having claimed in 2016 that only 14 per cent of its homes progressed to competition.

But, despite rigorously refuting the note, the estate agent slipped 8 per cent, or 34.4p to 418.6p.

The FTSE 100 finished down 0.6 per cent, or 47 points, at 7443.43 while the FTSE 250 finished down 1.1 per cent, or 223.08 points, at 19962.46.

Aerospace and defence firm Cobham dipped 6.4 per cent, or 7.95p, to 116.8p after revealing it had agreed to sell its test and measurement business to California-based Viavi Solutions for 322million.

The sale is the latest stage of its turnaround effort and comes after it revealed plans in August to sell the units, use the proceeds to reduce debt and further strengthen its balance sheet after a string of profit warnings.

It said the sale of its Avcomm and Wireless test business will enable it to pay down around 440million of debt by combining the proceeds from the deal with existing cash.

Infrastructure and support services company Stobart jumped 1.9 per cent, or 4.5p, to 245p yesterday after announcing the appointment of Richard Laycock as chief financial officer.

Engineering company Wood Group nudged up 0.1 per cent, or 0.8p, to 650.2p after revealing it will benefit from President Donald Trump's tax reforms.

Energy provider Fulcrum Utility was also given a boost after agreeing to acquire electrical infrastructure firm Dunamis for 22million.

The company, which provided the gas infrastructure to light the Olympic flame at London 2012, edged up 1.7 per cent, or 1p, to 60.2p.

Telford Homes jumped 0.7 per cent, or 3p, to 410p after chairman Andrew Wiseman cashed in 512,000 worth of shares.Unemployment is one real and serious socioeconomic issue that the country is facing and currently, many families and the youth is affected by it.



Also, college and university graduates are affected by unemployment and this has made a boomerang effect, especially among the youth.

Model Pearl Mkhonta, an Environment Health Degree holder from the University of Swaziland, is not different from the other casualties who are battling with unemployment woes.



This beautiful ramp queen from Mahwalala in Mbabane, has saw the positive in a somewhat dismaying situation.

Between her part-time jobs and dropping applications, Pearl opted to be a ramp queen because of the talented body and beauty that she possesses and to top it all, to have an income.



The features that I have command me to be a ramp queen but for me, I saw this as an opportunity to make a little extra income while I am sorting out my career, she said with confidence.



Because of her striking looks, Pearl has been part of Fashion Without Borders, Tshwane Fashion Week in Pretoria, SADC Fashion Show, Mpumalanga Fashion Week and Design and many other local fashion shows, and she did all this, with her degree which she acquired in 2015.



Since then, the beauty has had no permanent employment.

This situation has not destroyed my spirit. I am still bound for success and thanks to modelling, my hope is restored every day, she said.



ON MODELLING...

As a little girl Ive always had love for fashion and modelling. I had role models such as Tyra Banks and Naomi Campbell. My friends and family would always tell me I have all it takes to be a model and my dad at one point wanted me to join Miss Swaziland but I never did.

I guess beauty pageants were never really my thing. In 2012, I was like, let me do this. Someone referred me to Top Model Swaziland Director Mbalenhle Manana and that is where it all started. So far it has been a great journey for me and I am looking forward to more great things as I continue with my modelling journey. Highlights in my modelling career.... ehm!

Id say doing shows in SA and rubbing shoulders with the best designers from different parts of Africa...Ive done shows such as Maboneng fashion week . So far, my best was the Mpumalanga Fashion and Design Week.



ON EMPLOYMENT AND FAMILY...

I would not say modelling has been my means to make ends meet. I have been working temporal jobs, whatever I find at that moment but Im still out and about looking for permanent employment. I have recently embarked on a business venture which I trust will be a success.

My family is behind me a 100 per cent and also my friends. They keep me going, not to mention the inspiration they are to me. In a nutshell, I consider myself blessed.

I can honestly say it is hard out there but perseverance should become part and parcel of their daily life. Other youth should never give up, and continue sending those applications and keep praying. One never knows when you are going to have a breakthrough.

Also, I would say books should come before anything else; looks fade but education is a lifetime investment. Moreover, as young people, we should learn to put God first in all we do. Follow your dreams, be yourself and do not let anyone tell you what you can or cannot do.MBABANE  For the Swaziland Posts and Telecommunications Corporation to survive as a company, it needs to adopt an aggressive approach and test laws regulating the industry.



This is the assertion of industry players following Swazi MTN launching its fixed mobile product and services.

The consensus is that if nothing is immediately done to have SPTC become a major industry player, it would most likely be the first telecommunications company in the region under government control to fold.



The concern is not only shared by SPTC staff as the Minister of Information, Communication and Technology, Dumisani Ndlangamandla has already instructed the SPTC Board to come up with a strategy on how to keep the company afloat.



The minister, sharing his concerns, stated that he has already asked the Board what the plan forward was given the current situation before he could proceed to advise Cabinet on what measures to take to capture the situation.



Sentiment



His sentiment is that Swazi MTN has not broken any law.

The law allows MTN to operate in that space, said the minister.

While the minister waits for the Board to report back to him, the obvious outcome is that SPTC will be eroded drastically through loss of revenues and the rest is pretty clear.



What MTN has essentially done, is that it has rolled out practically the same but improved services of SPTC Fixed wireless products.

These products were a component of the Next Generation Network and were equipped with internet technology.SHISELWENI  When confronted with difficult situations, some people find themselves making statements, which they would not have made in normal situations.



A manager of a certain company is said to have found himself in such a position and subsequently made statements, which demean the countrys laws and how they are enacted.



He is alleged to have made the derogatory remarks during a staff meeting early last month, after the employers had made him aware that there were legislations that authorised trade unions in the country.



strategies



About 40 employees are said to have attended the meeting, where they were drawing strategies for the New Year.

Some of the workers have revealed that it all started when the manager advised the workers against being members of the union.

The manager who was leading the meeting gave us a new slogan saying for those who would not withdraw from the union this year it would be Omunye Phezkomunye, something we translated as a threat to mean that it would be the survival of the fittest.



During the meeting some of the vocal employees are said to have queried their supervisor about the alleged hatred of the union.

We told him that unions were allowed in the country because they operated under a legal instrument, a law that was signed by authorities. To our shock though, the manager still insisted that in this company it would not be the case.



These employees alleged that over the years they have been frustrated for subscribing to their union, the Public and Private Sector Transport Workers Union (PPSTWU).MBABANE  All they should be concentrating their efforts on is proper service delivery to ratepayers, but instead, they continue astounding themselves  they gallivant.



This is what some municipal councils and town board managers seem to be enjoying at the detriment of ratepayers. This time, they are in a process of taking a trip to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to attend the 9th Session of the World Urban Forum.



Matsapha Municipality is one of the municipal councils who, through a Special Council in Committee meeting held last month, agreed to allow two of its officials to attend the forum.



This trip to overseas comes at a time when the Minister of Housing and Urban Development Phiwayinkhosi Mabuza had recently disapproved of the municipalitys intentions to go on a retreat costing about E 0.5 million in South Africa for just three days at the beginning of the year.



Councillors had agreed to this extravagant retreat as illustrated in the contents of the Special Council in Committee meeting held in December last year.

For partaking in the three-day retreat; each of the 11 councillors would have received over E15 000 as subsistence allowance. A major outcry led by ratepayers in the town resulted in council abandoning the trip and opting, instead to convene their retreat at Simunye Country Club on a much cheaper budget.





LETTER TO MINISTER



Despite this, the Sukati-led council has since written a letter requesting Mabuza to allow them to be part of the ministers delegation going to Malaysia next week.



In the request to be considered for approval letter, the Matsapha Municipality disclosed that they had participated in the endeavour by government to localise the goal and meetings were held where the local authorities played a vital role in informing the forum.

The council has requested the minister to allow the Mayor of Matsapha, Nkhanyeti Ngwenya, as well as the Chief Executive Officer, Lucky Sukati, to attend the forum.



If allowed, they are expected to leave Swaziland for the conference on today, for the forum that is expected to commence on Wednesday and return on February 15, 2018 as stated in the letter written to the minister.



Similarly, the Municipal Council of Manzini will also attend the forum and council is expected to foot the bill.

According to information reaching this publication, the Deputy Mayor, Councillor Bongani Shongwe, city treasurer and city engineer will be attending the forum.



Linda Khanya, who is the acting Public Relations Officer (PRO), said attendance at the World Urban Forum was free of charge. She said all participants were expected to cover are the costs of their travel, accommodation and all other expenses related to the trip.

Khanya confirmed the fact that it was not the first time that council attended the forum and they had gained immensely from their involvement over the years.



An example of how the city had gained from attending the WUF over the years was the slum upgrading project.

This has been one of councils biggest projects; adopting participatory slum upgrading principles, she said.

She said the Murray Camp Demographic Survey was successfully carried out in partnership with the community.

There was also an upgrading of Councils procedure or policy to incorporate the principles of Participatory Slum Upgrading.Please log in to keep reading.

Enjoy unlimited articles at one of our lowest prices ever.The state Division of Military and Naval Affairs is reminding residents about key dates affecting New Yorkers during the 100-year anniversary of America's entry into World War I. The information, excerpted here, is provided through the New York State Military Museum in Saratoga Springs.

When the African American National Guard Soldiers of New York's 15th Infantry Regiment arrived in France in December 1917, they expected to conduct combat training and enter the trenches of the Western Front right away.

They could not have been more wrong. The troops were ordered to unload supply ships at the docks for their first months in France, joining the mass of supply troops known as stevedores, working long hours in the port at St. Nazaire.

In St. Nazaire, the soldiers learned they would work to prepare the docks and rail lines to be a major port of entry for the hundreds of thousands of forces yet to arrive in France.

But officers, leaders and the combat soldiers had not signed up for labor. They were committed to fighting the Germans and winning the war.

The regiment's best advocate was their commander, Col. William Hayward. He would bring with him the regiment's most formidable weapon in swaying opinion: the regimental band, lauded as one of the finest in the entire Expeditionary Force.

While the regiment literally laid the tracks for the arrival of the two million troops deploying to France, the regimental band toured the region, performing for French and American audiences at rest centers and hospitals. The band is credited with introducing jazz music to France during the war.

After some three months of constructing nearby railways to move supplies forward, soldiers learned they had orders to join the French 16th Division for three weeks of combat training. They also learned they had a new regimental number as the now-renamed 369th Infantry Regiment. While the 369th Infantry would become part of the U.S. Army's 92nd Infantry Division, it would be assigned to fight with French forces.

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This solved the dilemma for Pershing and the American Expeditionary Forces of what to do with the African-American troops.

The black troops would see combat, but alongside French forces, who were accustomed to the many races and ethnicities already serving in the ranks of their colonial troops.

After learning lessons in trench warfare from their French partners, the soldiers of the 369th finally had their chance to prove their worth as combat troops when they entered the front lines, holding their line against the last German spring offensive near Chateau-Thierry. Their value was not lost on the French and the regiment continued to fight alongside French forces, participating in the Aisne-Marne counter offensive in the summer of 1918 alongside the French 162st Infantry Division.Salt Lake City

Utah billionaire and philanthropist Jon Huntsman Sr., who overcame poverty to become one of the state's most successful and powerful people, died Friday at age 80. Huntsman's longtime assistant Pam Bailey said he died in Salt Lake City but she declined to name a cause of death.

Huntsman was the founder and longtime executive chairman of Huntsman Corp., a $13 billion company that refines raw materials that go into thousands of products. He was also the father of Jon Huntsman Jr., the U.S. ambassador to Russia and former Utah governor, presidential candidate and ambassador to China and Singapore.

The elder Huntsman and his family have given away more than $1.4 billion, including donations to a Salt Lake City cancer institute that bears his name.

"Cancer is hideous and deplorable and must be conquered, and it will be, as any evil eventually is defeated," Huntsman wrote in his 2014 autobiography. He said he would see to it that the institute continues its mission "if it takes my last dollar  and I expect that will be the case."

In 1970, Huntsman founded the Huntsman Container Corp., which focused on food packaging and pioneered the clamshell container used for McDonald's Corp.'s Big Mac hamburger. He formed Huntsman Chemical Corp. in 1982 and more than a decade later, consolidated his companies as Huntsman Corp., producing materials used in a wide range of products, from textiles and paints to plastics and aviation components.

Huntsman stepped down from his role in December and his son Peter Huntsman took over as the company's leader. His father continued to serve on the company's board of director and was named chairman emeritus.

Huntsman gave $10 million to the University of Utah in 1992 to establish the Huntsman Cancer Institute, a research center dedicated to finding a cure through human genetics. Two years later, he gave $100 million to the institute, at the time the largest financial contribution to medical research.

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Huntsman, who lost both his parents to cancer and fought his own battle with the disease, said he wanted the institute to help make Utah the cancer research capital of the world.

After the cancer institute's director and CEO was fired in April 2017, Huntsman mounted a public campaign criticizing leaders of the university and took out full-page newspaper advertisements calling the officials "inept and uncaring." The director and CEO was reinstated a week after her firing and the school's health care leader and president stepped down.

He also played key roles in state and national politics. Huntsman was a special assistant to President Richard Nixon in 1971-72 and briefly ran his own 1988 campaign for Utah's governor.

Huntsman later served as a finance chairman for Mitt Romney's 2008 presidential bid and in 2012, worked for his son's presidential bid, giving more than $1.8 billion to a super PAC supporting the younger Huntsman.She begged him not to.

"No, daddy, please don't, don't do it," 9-year-old Faith Battaglia screamed before bolting for the door.

But her father didn't listen.

Instead, John Battaglia opened fire, gunning down Faith and her 6-year-old sister Liberty while their mother listened on the phone in horror.

"Merry f***ing Christmas," he growled.

Then he started shooting again.

On Thursday, after nearly four hours of delays sparked by last-minute claims of dated injection drugs and botched executions, the 62-year-old Dallas man was put to death for his crimes.

Before his death at 9:40 p.m., Battaglia stared toward the viewing room to smile at his ex-wife - the mother of his slain children - and greet her by name.

"Hi Mary Jean," he said. "See y'all later. Go ahead please."

He took 22 minutes to die, according to a Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokesman.

Battaglia's was the third execution of the year, both in Texas and across the nation. Last year, amid a long-term decline in capital punishment, Texas put to death seven prisoners, the most of any state.

In the months before his death, appellate attorneys zeroed in on claims surrounding the former accountant's mental competency. His lawyers said he didn't have a rational understanding of his execution. The state said that he did.

In a related claim turned down Thursday by a federal appeals court, Battaglia's lawyers alleged that he was wrongly denied funding to investigate his competency claims.

Then, just four hours before he was scheduled to die, Battaglia's defense counsel asked for a reprieve in light of freshly surfaced claims about the state's last two lethal injections, including one where witnesses said the prisoner appeared to be jerking in pain, and another where the inmate said the drug burned.

"Ohh weee, I can feel that it does burn," Houston serial killer Anthony Shore said as the lethal dosage began coursing through his veins during his Jan. 18 execution, witnessed by a Chronicle reporter.

Less than two weeks later, William Rayford grimaced and twitched on the gurney before he died, witnesses said.

"William raised the upper part of his body to about 30 degrees. He was shaking and looked at me as if he wanted to say something, as if in distress, as if asking for help," witness Liliane Sticher wrote in an affidavit. "He was shaking. The upper part of his body was shaking."

The Texas Department of Criminal Justice begged to differ.

"This is nothing more than legal maneuvering," said spokesman Jason Clark, pointing out that both men received more than twice the lethal dose of death drugs and were pronounced dead after 13 minutes. "The executions took place without incident. To claim otherwise is not factual."

The problem behind the execution drugs, lawyers for the condemned Dallas man allege, is that the state's supplies of the lethal barbiturate sodium pentobarbital are simply too old, and should have been tossed close to a year ago.

"It looks like Texas might have caused a botched execution by using substandard compounded drugs that they knew had passed their original beyond use date," said Maya Foa, an expert who works with pharmaceutical companies on protecting medicines from misuse in executions. "They have systematically flouted the regulations on compounding, using secrecy to hide their activities, and potentially causing enormous suffering to prisoners."

But federal courts did not agree, rejecting his appeals late Thursday.

***

Years before the killings that sent him to death row in 2001, Battaglia had a troubled history with women.

EARLIER: Houston's 'Tourniquet Killer' put to death in first execution of 2018

He terrorized his first wife, following her, tapping her phone, blackmailing her and even landing in jail after throwing a rock through her car window, according to court records.

But after he beat the woman unconscious and dislocated her jaw, she left him and fled to Louisiana.

Battaglia started over, this time setting his sights on Mary Jean Pearl. The couple married in 1991 and Pearl gave birth to Faith in 1992 and Liberty in 1995.

The girls were still young when Pearl filed for divorce. But on Christmas of 1999, the paperwork wasn't yet final when Battaglia showed up at his ex's house to take the girls to church. He got angry and beat the woman in front of her children - so she had him arrested and he ended up on probation, records show.

A little over a year later, around Easter 2001, Pearl got an obscenity-laced message on her phone. Fed up, she called Battaglia's probation officer, who had a warrant put out for his arrest.

He didn't find out until May 2.

That evening, he called up his girls to make dinner plans. He said he wasn't hungry because he might be arrested that night and wouldn't see them for a while.

A short time later, Pearl dropped her daughters off at their father's. Afterward, she drove over to a friend's. By the time she arrived found a message from her ex.

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When she called back, Battaglia answered and put the call on speaker, saying the girls had something to ask.

"Mommy," Faith said, "Why do you want Daddy to go to jail?"

Pearl pleaded with her ex, then heard her older girl begging - and screamed for her daughters to run.

Next, came the gunshots - and the obscene outburst.

The gunfire continued, and Pearl hung up and called 911.

Police found Faith with three gunshot wounds, including one to the back of the head and another that severed her spinal cord, according to court records.

Liberty was shot five times. Both girls were left face-down in puddles of blood.

Liberty had made it just 10 feet from the front door.

Authorities found multiple guns, and a chilling answering machine message left just after the murders.

"Good night my little babies. I hope you're resting in a different place," Battaglia said. "I wish that you had nothing to do with your mother. She was evil, vicious, stupid. You will be free of her."

After the slaying, Battaglia went to a bar before stopping at a tattoo parlor - where he got inked with red roses to commemorate his daughters.

THIS WEEK: Texas carries out nation's second execution of 2018

In April 2002, he was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death. The defense did not call any witnesses and emphasized that Battaglia was not pleading insanity.

During the punishment phase of his trial, one psychiatrist said Battaglia suffered bipolar disorder but still knew what he was doing at the time of the crime. Another averred that he said "all he wanted to do was to get the girls out of trouble, so they wouldn't be drug addicts, strippers, hate their parents, or be prostitutes."

On appeal, Battaglia raised concerns about the state's use of prior evidence of his past assaultive and abusive behavior, even though it helped explain the prosecution's theory that he'd killed his girls as an act of vengeance against his wife. He also argued that his mental illness should have been enough to render him ineligible for execution, claiming an Eighth Amendment violation.

The Supreme Court has previously declared that prisoners can't be executed if they lack a rational understanding of why, and Battaglia's attorneys have argued that Texas courts did not correctly evaluate that.

But, amid claims of malingering, courts refused to side with the condemned man - until the day before his first scheduled execution in March 2016. With hours to go before he was scheduled to die, the condemned man won a reprieve.

Nine months later, he faced another death date - and another reprieve. But on Thursday, he became the second Dallas County killer put to death in three days.[February 02, 2018] Vencore Labs' Chief Scientist to Moderate an IoT Security Panel at IEEE World Forum in Singapore

CHANTILLY, Va., Feb. 2, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Vencore, Inc. announced today that chief scientist at Vencore Labs, Subir Das, Ph.D., will chair and moderate a panel discussion at the IEEE 4th World Forum on Internet of Things (IoT), taking place February 5-8 in Singapore. The IEEE 4th World Forum is the premier event for IEEE's IoT initiative, bringing together participants from the research community, public sector and industry to discuss the latest technology developments and innovations driving IoT applications, as well as the challenges to deploying IoT solutions. Dr. Das will be moderating a panel on IoT security under the 'Industry Forum' segment of the conference. The session, which is titled "IoT Security: Issues and Challenges for Mass Market Deployment," features IoT security experts from Comcast, Intel Corporation and National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). The panel will discuss a range of security issues, including secure onboarding and commissioning, authentication, access control and Over-the-air (OTA) secure update. Dr. Das brings more than 25 years of research and development experience to the discussion, with expertise in mobile wireless IP networking, low power personal area networking, network and Interet of Things (IoT) security. He is a leading contributor to various standards and is currently the Chair of IEEE 802.21 and ZigBee Alliance JupiterMesh WG targeting the utility and IoT networks, as well as an executive member of the IEEE 802 LAN/MAN (Large Area Network/Metropolitan Area Network) Standards Committee. Dr. Das was also the recipient of the 2009 IEEE Region I Award for outstanding contribution to next generation wireless networks, protocols and its standardization efforts.



For more information about the IEEE 4th World Forum on Internet of Things, visit http://wfiot2018.iot.ieee.org/. About Vencore

Vencore is a proven provider of information solutions, engineering and analytics for the U.S. Government. With more than 40 years of experience working in the defense, civilian and intelligence communities, Vencore and its transformational applied research organization, Vencore Labs, design, develop and deliver high impact, mission-critical services and solutions to overcome its customers most complex problems. Vencore has 3,750 employees and is based in Chantilly, Va. For more information about Vencore and Vencore Labs, visit www.vencore.com and www.vencorelabs.com. This press release contains forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are made on the basis of the current beliefs, expectations and assumptions of the management of Vencore and are subject to significant risks and uncertainty. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on any such forward-looking statements. All such forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are made, and Vencore undertakes no obligation to update or revise these statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Although Vencore believes that the expectations reflected in these forward-looking statements are reasonable, these statements involve a variety of risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from what may be expressed or implied in these forward-looking statements. View original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/vencore-labs-chief-scientist-to-moderate-an-iot-security-panel-at-ieee-world-forum-in-singapore-300592772.html SOURCE Vencore, Inc.

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]EQUITY ALERT: Rosen Law Firm Announces Investigation of Breaches of Fiduciary Duty By Management of Guess?, Inc. - GES

Rosen Law Firm, a global investor rights law firm, announces it is investigating potential breaches of fiduciary duty by management of Guess?, Inc. (NYSE:GES) resulting from allegations that management may have issued materially misleading business information to the investing public.

On January 31, 2018, it was reported that Paul Marciano, Guess's Executive Chairman of the Board and Chief Creative Officer, used his power in the fashion industry to allegedly sexually harass women. On this news, shares of Guess fell $3.26 per share or over 17% from its previous closing price to close at $15.11 per share on February 1, 2018.

If you currently own shares of Guess, please visit the firm's website at http://www.rosenlegal.com/cases-1282.html or more information. You may also contact Phillip Kim or Daniel Sadeh of Rosen Law Firm toll free at 866-767-3653 or via email at pkim@rosenlegal.com or dsadeh@rosenlegal.com.







Follow us for updates on LinkedIn (News - Alert) : https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-rosen-law-firm or on Twitter (News - Alert) : https://twitter.com/rosen_firm.

Rosen Law Firm represents investors throughout the globe, concentrating its practice in securities class actions and shareholder derivative litigation. Since 2014, Rosen Law Firm has been ranked #2 in the nation by Institutional Shareholder Services for the number of securities class action settlements annually obtained for investors.

Attorney Advertising. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180202005696/en/[February 03, 2018] Energy Efficiency Comes to the Indigenous Community of Jean Marie River

HAY RIVER, NT, Feb. 3, 2018 /CNW/ - Energy efficiency is hard to see, but we feel the benefits in our homes, neighbourhoods, environment, economy and wallets. A clean energy future includes federal investments in innovation to drive economic growth, reduce environmental impacts and create new, clean technology jobs for Canadians. Member of Parliament for Northwest Territories, Michael McLeod, on behalf of Canada's Minister of Natural Resources, the Honourable Jim Carr, today announced $204,400 over two years to bring home energy efficiency to two local Indigenous communities as part of the transition to a low-carbon economy. The Arctic Energy Alliance will work with the community of Jean Marie River this year, and a second community to be chosen next year, to demonstrate replicable ways of improving the uptake of energy retrofits in Indigenous communities, particularly in homes occupied by low-income residents, in a manner that respects the communities' culture. The total project value is $420,500, including cash and in-kind contributions from the community and Arctic Energy Alliance. Recognizing that buildings and homes contribute approximately 17 percent of Canada's greenhouse gas emissions, the Government of Canada



Through Canada's national energy dialogue, Generation Energy, Canadians made it clear that the transition to energy-efficient buildings is necessary for Canada's low-carbon future. Through the combined efforts of federal, provincial and territorial governments, we continue to support projects that will create jobs and advance Canada's clean future and a Canadian Energy Strategy. Quotes

"Energy efficiency is the quickest, cleanest and cheapest way to support the transition to a low-carbon economy and meet our future energy needs. We are proud to work with the local community to help low-income residents see the benefits of energy efficiency."

Michael McLeod

Member of Parliament for Northwest Territories "We're pleased that we've had the opportunity to partner with the Jean Marie River First Nation on this project. It's great to see a community so dedicated to helping its residents save money on energy bills and make their homes warmer and more comfortable to live in, all while reducing their greenhouse gas emissions."

Craig Thomas

Interim Executive Director, Arctic Energy Alliance

Associated Links Arctic Energy Alliance

Generation Energy

NRCan Green Infrastructure Programs Follow us on Twitter: @NRCan (http://twitter.com/nrcan) NRCan's news releases and backgrounders are available at www.news.gc.ca. SOURCE Natural Resources Canada

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]Update, 3/8/2018, 8:14am PT: MSI announced that the Optix MPG line is now available and that a special launch edition bundle featuring a SteelSeries QcK Prism mousepad, which boasts 12-zone RGB lighting with the same GameSense integration as these monitors, will be available from March 8-April 8 or while supplies last. To claim the bundle, you have to register your Optix MPG monitor via MSI's website. See below for specs and a link.

Original article, published 2/2/18, 3pm PT:

The beginning of 2018 saw the introduction of several new monitors from the usual suspects. Dell, HP, LG, Lenovo, and MSI revealed a bevy of displays to feast our eyes on. We've continued to update this article as new monitors are introduced, and already-announced monitors become available.

Asus

Asus showcased a pair of portable picture boxes that are aimed at professionals and on-the-go power users. The Asus ProArt PQ22UC is a 21.5" OLED display with a resolution of 3840 x 2160 offering 99% of the DCI-P3 color gamut, an impressively low 0.01ms pixel response time, and a thin and lightweight design for content creators in the field.

The ZenScreen Go MB16AP is the successor to the MB16AC, with a 15.6" 1920 x 1080 display that houses a 7,800mAh battery under the thin and light hood, offering up to four hours of operation at peak brightness. Like most of the products revealed at CES 2018, pricing and availability of the ProArt and ZenScreen Go are currently unknown.

Asus ProArt PQ22UC TODAY'S BEST DEALS View Site

Asus ProArt PQ22UC TODAY'S BEST DEALS View Site

Dell

Dell announced a duo of monitors, the S2419HM and S2719DM, focused on premium design. Dell says theyre ultra thin, but thats only the case on the top edge. They come in 24" and 27" versions that are otherwise equivalent except for size. The panels have a 600-nit peak brightness, but with only an sRGB color gamut, they wont make for the best HDR experience.

Dell S2419HM TODAY'S BEST DEALS View Site

HP

HP introduced the Z Series monitor lineup at CES. The new line of Z Series ultra-thin IPS LCD monitors feature sleek metal bezels and micro-edge display panels. Each Z series model shares the same basic specifications: They all produce a 1080p image at 60Hz, and they offer 178-degree viewing angles. The new display lineup also features AMDs FreeSync dynamic refresh rate technology to produce a tear-free gaming experience when paired with a compatible Radeon graphics card.

Perhaps the most remarkable feature of the Z Series lineup is the micro-edge displays panels, which are perfect for nearly seamless multi-monitor configurations. The Z series monitors are available in five sizes ranging from 21.5" to 27".

HP 22F TODAY'S BEST DEALS View Site

HP 23F TODAY'S BEST DEALS View Site

HP 24F TODAY'S BEST DEALS View Site

Lenovo

At CES, Lenovo revealed two ThinkVision monitors. There's the ThinkVision P32u, a 32" 4K UHD monitor for professional image and video creation. The color gamut of the ThinkVision P32U covers 99.5% of AdobeRGB, but its 300-nit maximum brightness means it isnt HDR capable. Beyond standard video inputs, the P32u has Thunderbolt 3 input with charging capability, and TB3 output for daisy-chaining a second display. The P32u will be available starting from March 2018 at $1,349.

Lenovo also announced the ThinkVision X24, which is an affordable 24" monitor with an edge-to-edge display. The X24 features extremely narrow bezels (1.1mm), which would work well for multi-monitor configurations. The X24 is also impressively thin (4mm) so it wont take up much space on your desk. The Lenovo X24 will be available starting from January 2018 at $249.

Lenovo ThinkVision P32U TODAY'S BEST DEALS View Site

Lenovo ThinkVision X24 TODAY'S BEST DEALS View Site

LG

LG brought two newest monitors are the LG 34WK95U and the LG 32UK950. The LG 34WK95U is a 34" 5K (5120x2160) ultrawide monitor with a 21:9 aspect ratio.It's an excellent option for professional content creators who wish to work with 4K media because the extra width allows for full-screen previews without covering your toolbar. LG also introduced the 32UK950, which is a 32" 4K monitor with AMD FreeSync technology. The 32UK950 features a Thunderbolt 3 interface with a pass-through connection that supports daisy-chaining a second 4K Thunderbolt 4 display.

LGs new displays both feature Nano IPS technology, which enhances the intensity and purity of displayed colors. The Nano IPS display also reproduce a color gamut that covers 98% of DCI-P3 and supports the HDR 600 standard. LGs new displays also boast four-side edge-to-edge borderless design.

LG 32UK950 TODAY'S BEST DEALS View Site

LG 34WK95U UltraWide TODAY'S BEST DEALS View Site

MSI

MSI Introduced a new lineup of displays called Optix MPG, which includes two 27" models; the Optix MPG27CQ, with a WQHD panel, and the MPG27C, which includes a 1080p panel. Both Optix models feature 144Hz refresh rate and 1ms response time along with an 1800R curve to provide a wrap-around gaming experience.

The new Optix MPG series also include multiple RGB lighting zones that add accents and new functions to the display. The rear of the MPG series displays features RGB accent lighting that shines on the wall behind it to change the ambiance of your room. The displays also include five configurable RGB light zones on the lower edge of the front bezel. The front RGB lights feature SteelSeries GameSense integration, which enables you to configure the lights to provide game notifications, such as skill cooldown timers, health, and ammo levels, and even chat notifications.

The Nvidia BFGD Displays

Although Nvidia says that its "BFGD" displays are totally not TVs, they totally are TVs. Yes, one could set up one of these 65" beasties in a "gaming den"--that's certainly how Nvidia had them set up in its CES suite when we saw them--but they're going to be ideal for living room setups. They don't have TV tuners on board, but that won't stop anyone from parking them in front of the couch. The displays offer 4K resolution G-Sync, and they come with Nvidia Shield embedded as well as Nvidia GameStream and GeForce Now support.

Thus far, Acer, Asus, and HP have all stepped up to build BFGDs, and although all are presently prototypes, they're all working prototypes. We learned at CES that some of the details yet to be nailed down include the number and type of inputs, so it's not as if Nvidia and these OEM partners are still figuring out how to make them work; it's just a matter of time before they'll hit store shelves. Expect the first of them to be on the market some time this year.

As you'll note below, full details are scant--including the price. All we know is that they'll have four-figure price tags.

Acer Predator TODAY'S BEST DEALS View Site

Asus ROG Swift PG65 TODAY'S BEST DEALS View Site

HP Omen X 65 TODAY'S BEST DEALS View Site

Update, 2/6/18, 2:05pm PT: Added entries for Asus monitors. Article originally published 2/2/18, 3pm PT."The Kansas City Kansas Fire Department has conducted an internal investigation of alleged events in former Mayor Mark Hollands neighborhood. Investigations included speaking with neighbors; face to face and by phone. This neighborhood canvass was done by Interim Fire Chief Kevin R. Shirley and the Departments Fire Marshal. One neighbor did confirm that they heard a sound that they thought could have been a siren that morning.





"Facts regarding this investigation concluded that the Fire Department did respond to a medical call in a nearby neighborhood that morning. It was confirmed that on the return trip to the station that a siren was set off for a period of 1 to 3 seconds in the area near former Mayor Hollands house.





" Those firefighters that were involved will be dealt with as necessary to ensure that activation of sirens and lights will only be done in compliance with current policies. "

Friday follow-up to a story of civic conflict wherein supporters of former Mayor Holland argued against alleged bullying using taxpayer resources and firefighter proponents claimed the charge was nothing more than sour grapes in the aftermath of an election defeat.TKC readers who denied the incident should check this confirmation from the KCKFD as1st responders now face discipline for being "bad winners" of an political contest.You decide . . .Kansas City Council Lady Teresa Loar Supports The Troops As Board Chair Of The Veterans Community Project

Social Justice Warriors Stay Winning As "Ban The Box" Ordinance Approved

Kansas City Mayoral Candidate Phil Glynn Garners Grassroots Support

We're out of the Winter doldrums as the Kansas City discourse heats up and quite a few intense debates lie ahead. For now, here's a look at the top local power players who influenced the conversation this week . . .This week. A lot of people don't know this but 2nd District Council memberand has worked tirelessly to help he group achieve their mission. There are plans for more Vet housing on the way but this week the Council Lady deserves respect and support for her efforts in the community.Kansas Citymostly because of testimony from. Like it or not, the group is at the forefront of community activism and progressive local policy. This latest success is just one of many items on their 2018 agenda.This contender claims thatand there's no doubt that he's making an aggressive play among urban core denizens to push his upstart campaign ahead of a great many elected-officials who also have their eyes on the top office at City Hall.And so . . .This list has been compiled according toand it's a weekly comprehensive guide to local powerful people.Building Kansas City 2018

Top 5 construction projects in KC - Kansas City Business Journal This week, the Kansas City Business Journal ranks the area's top construction projects by construction cost. The accompanying gallery shows the top five on The List. For the full List, subscribers can take a look at the weekly print edition of the Kansas City Business Journal.

Scary KCMO Home Attack Case

Criminal charge filed on KC home invasion involving kidnapping, assault Jackson County prosecutors have accused a 25-year-old man with with first-degree kidnapping, burglary, assault and armed criminal in conjunction with a Jan. 23 home invasion. Prosecutors allege Michael Holland draped a plastic bag over the head of the victim, held him at gunpoint and demanded money, jewelry and other valuables.

Local Social Media Consequences

Facebook live video lands KC man in federal court and jail KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) - A Kansas City felon accused of waving a gun around in a Facebook Live video faces a federal charge. Twenty-four-year-old Deleon Reed was charged Thursday with being a felon in possession of a firearm. No attorney is listed for him in online court records.

Busted Kansas City Infrastructure Still Impacts Local Old School Residence

Six months after flash flooding in south KC elevators still not working at senior community KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Some seniors in South Kansas City say their lives have been difficult for nearly six months because flooding damage to their apartment building has not been fully repaired. Some older tenants say they're frustrated with their living conditions at the Willow Creek Apartments near 100th Terrace and Wornall Road.

Southland Springs Forward???

South Kansas City sees new growth at Red Bridge Shopping Center KANSAS CITY, Mo. - A shopping center in South Kansas City is seeing growth and development after about two decades of being stagnant. "A while ago it was Devry and the shopping center wasn't as developed. There weren't too many people," said Cathy Alegre, who both went to Devry and lives in South Kansas City.

Presenting Local Veteran Life In Pix

Hope 22 - a powerful, poignant photo exhibition opens today The Box Gallery: Feb. 2 - Mar. 30 Free & Open to the Public HOPE 22 was named for the alarming fact that approximately 22 veterans take their own lives each day according to the Department of Veteran Affairs.

Dutch Crunch Bread Coming Soon

Bay Boys Specialty Sandwiches to Open West Plaza Restaurant After two years of popping up inside of Johnny Jo's Pizzeria, Julian Garcia and Jake Wilson are ready to give Bay Boys Specialty Sandwiches a permanent home. The two partners signed a lease in October, taking over a small but serviceable space in a building just around the corner from their original pop-up location.

OPEN THREAD

Right now we celebrateat the conclusion of the work week and more forward from there, take a look:And this is thefor right now . . .NEW YORK  Among the major contributions the ancient Greeks have made to Western civilization is democracy or self-rule as it is described in a lecture series mentioned in an article on The Federalist website, What Our World Owes to the Ancient Greeks: Self-Rule and a Focus on the Common Good.

The third lecture in the series by Professor Paul Rahe discusses the Greek miracle of democracy or self-rule as opposed to what was, at that time, the most common type of government, monarchy, usually a king supported by a group of bureaucrats.

The Greek city-states that emerged began to develop a species of self-government as reported on the Federalist, adding that their governments began to consist of councils that met to determine the agenda for a larger decision-making assembly, and replacing kings with magistrates who served for limited terms.

Prof. Rahe noted, as the Federalist reported, that the development of self-government coincided with the development of the hoplite phalanx, a military form that armed ordinary people and required them to work in unison for victory. Hoplites were citizen soldiers with that eras equivalent of day jobs  what we might today call a militia. Arming the common man and making him equal to his peers in battle, as well as honoring his choice to risk his life for his city, created political expectations of self-rule.

Political communities depend on people being willing to lay down their bodies for the common good, Prof. Rahe said, as quoted on the Federalist.

Courage was therefore valued by the ancient Greeks as the first virtue which allows the practice of all the other virtues, and politics was seen as a vital part of society. Prof. Rahe cites the renowned Athenian orator Pericles, as quoted on the Federalist, We do not say that a man who takes no interest in politics is a man who minds his own business. We say he has no business here at all.

Even early on in the history of the United States, politics was seen as a valuable subject of study. One of the founding fathers, John Adams wrote in a letter to his wife, Abigail, as reported in the Federalist article, I must study Politicks and War that my sons may have liberty to study Painting and Poetry, Mathematicks and Philosophy. My sons ought to study Mathematicks and Philosophy, Geography, Natural History, Naval Architecture, Navigation, Commerce and Agriculture, in order to give their Children a right to study Painting, Poetry, Musick, Architecture, Statuary, Tapestry, and Porcelaine.

French diplomat, political scientist, and historian, Alexis de Tocqueville, best known for his works Democracy in America (appearing in two volumes: 1835 and 1840) and The Old Regime and the Revolution (1856) analyzed the improved living standards and social conditions of individuals, as well as their relationship to the market and state in Western societies. Considered an early work of sociology and political science, Democracy in America was published after Tocquevilles travels in the United States and also noted the concern of Americans, at the time, for public affairs, especially for their local community.

Prof. Rahe noted the ancient Greeks connection between politics and war, as reported on the Federalist, adding that words, reflection, and rumination lead to glorious deeds, and those deeds take place on the battlefield, in the hoplite phalanx, and the centerpiece of politics was speech.

Speech is, of course, the main alternative to war, as reported on the Federalist, We talk things out so we dont fight. The Greeks considered mans rational and verbal capacities to be a mark of their descent from the gods, as contrasted with animals, which neither speak nor reason.

This assumes we can rise to the occasion and make better decisions deliberating together, Prof. Rahe said, You listen to other people because you take for granted that they are also interested in the common good. To rise to the common good requires the virtue whereby we overcome our diversity of interests.

Talking things out was essential to the development of democracy and it worked for the ancient Greeks because it was on a city level where people interacted with one another in person on a daily basis. In the United States, that may not be possible on a national level which is why the founders based many elements of the budding nation on the Greek model but could not in the end establish it as a true democracy.

In a Q&A session that followed the lecture, as noted on the Federalist, Prof. Rahe said, Communities where everyone knows everyone are more favorable to talk, to conversation, to rational speech, to assembling and making decisions by consensus. As the Federalist reported, the founders of the U.S. borrowed a great deal from the ancient Greeks and tried to improve on the system, while putting into practice the idea of self rule, no king required, as Prof. Rahe pointed out, Greeks make no distinction between the government and themselves. The government is us.

The phrase, of course, calls to mind, and turns on its head, the famous quote attributed to the absolute monarch Louis XIV of France, the Sun King, who allegedly said, Letat, cest moi or I am the State.

Read more here.

RELATED TOPICS: Greece, Greek tourism news, Tourism in Greece, Greek islands, Hotels in Greece, Travel to Greece, Greek destinations , Greek travel market, Greek tourism statistics, Greek tourism report

Photo Source: Wikimedia Commons Copyright: Adam Carr License: CC-BY-SA

Source: thenationalherald.comVinci, a global player in concessions and construction sector, said one of its units, Vinci Energies has won a major contract from the Senegalese government to install five new extra-high-voltage (EHV) transformer stations, nearly 200 km of overhead and underground transmission lines, over 100 distribution substations in various parts of the country and a regional load dispatch centre across the country.

The project is part of Societe dElectricite du Senegal's (Senelec) transmission and distribution grid expansion, reinforcement and reliability enhancement programme (the 2016-2020 Strategic Plan), said the statement from Vinci.

The 197-million ($246 million) project will take 36 months to complete and involves the cities of Dakar, Diass, Diamniadio, Thies, Kounoune, Tobene and Tambacounda.

The contract is fully financed by a banking pool made up of French and Senegalese lenders and is backed by the French authorities via a BPI Assurance Export guarantee and the Senegalese authorities via a Ministry of Economy, Finance and Planning guarantee, it stated.

The project will enhance the reliability of the Senegalese electricity grid. In Dakar, it will give the strategic city-centre neighbourhoods three new sources of supply.

An extra high voltage transformer station will be built to secure the power supply in the new suburb of Diamniadio. A second transformer station will be installed in the city of Thies to secure the electricity supply of several towns in the vicinity, said the statement.

The new contract covers reinforcement of the distribution grids in Dakar, Tambacounda, Kounoune, Diamniadio and Thies, it stated.

Access to electricity is a key economic and social development goal in Senegal, where Vinci Energies is increasingly expanding the business activity of its Senegalese subsidiary via transfer of expertise from its Moroccan and French subsidiaries.

In 2017, the business unit was awarded the contract to build photovoltaic solar power plants with combined capacity of 17 MW. It is currently carrying out BoP electrical works at the 21 MW Kahone solar power plant, it added.-TradeArabia News ServiceState-owned oil giant Saudi Aramco and Google parent Alphabet, two of the worlds biggest companies, are in talks about jointly building a large technology hub inside the kingdom, said a report citing people familiar with the potential deal.

As part of the potential joint venture, Alphabet would help Aramco, build data centers around Saudi Arabia, the people said. It isnt clear specifically whose data the centers would house or who would control them, reported The Wall Street Journal.

Senior executives at Aramco and Alphabet have been in talks for months on the potential joint venture, these people said.

The talks have included Alphabet Chief Executive Larry Page and have been encouraged by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who is enamoured with Silicon Valley and wants to bring more tech expertise to the kingdom, some of the people said.

Prince Mohammed has been leading the kingdoms plan to take Aramco public.

Still, there are many details to work out, and it is unclear whenor whethersuch a deal will be finalized, stated the WSJ report.

The size of the potential joint venture is unclear, although it could be big enough to become listed on Saudi Arabias stock exchange, it added.

An alliance would help bolster the development of the technology sector in Saudi Arabia, a goal Prince Mohammed has pointed to as a key part of his plan, known as Vision 2030, to wean the kingdom off its reliance on oil.

Alphabets Google is chasing both Amazon.com Inc. and Microsoft Corp. in the business of renting computing power and storage online, and a joint venture with Aramco would give it a key foothold in Saudi Arabia as it rushes to develop its tech sector, said the report.

None of the three companies have massive data-center complexes, known as regions in industry parlance, in the area, though Amazon has plans to open one in Bahrain and Microsoft has announced it will open two data-center operations in South Africa this year.

Amazon is also close to finalizing a $1 billion deal to build three data centers in Saudi Arabia, people familiar with that deal said. The deal is expected to be announced during a trip to the US by Prince Mohammed early this year.

A data-center region in Saudi Arabia could potentially help Google win business from oil-industry customers that are looking to shift their computing operations to the cloud. The costs for such centers can run into the hundreds of millions of dollars, stated the WSJ report, citing sources.

Most data for the Middle East is piped from Europe, slowing surfing to the most-trafficked websites, which are accessed via long-distance undersea cables, according to a person familiar with the Alphabet-Aramco talks.

Local data serverswhich would store content but also cached memory of personal-navigation data or social-media contentwould speed up access and help the country be more competitive in the digital economy, it added.editorial@tribune.com

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, February 3

The District TB Sanatorium is facing a shortage of medicines despite the fact that the authorities concerned had placed an order for the same with the warehouse of the Health Department around two months ago.

As a result of the shortage of medicines, which otherwise are given free of cost to patients, they have to buy these from private chemists, suffering unwanted financial burden. Patients suffering from asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder and other breathing problems fall in this category.

An insider at the sanatorium said the government had sanctioned a total of around 70 different kinds of medicines for free distribution to the patients but presently only 20 medicines were available.

The health institutions are required to place an online order for delivery of the medicines after which the nearest warehouse is required to make the delivery.

Hospital in-charge Dr Naveen Pandhi said they had received a few medicines but the staff were busy getting these recorded in the hospital record books. He said they were also in touch with the authorities regarding the medicines which had not been delivered so far.editorial@tribune.com

Tribune News Service

Mohali, February 3

A 30-year-old man was killed after he was hit by a car near the Punjab School Education Board (PSEB) office in Phase VIII here late on Friday night.

According to the police, the deceased has been identified as Gurvinder Singh, a resident of Dhelpur village in Mohali.

The police said the victim was driving towards his residence from Chandigarh in his Alto car when the mishap took place.

According to police, a speeding Maruti car, bearing a registration number of Haryana, rammed into the victims car. Due to the collision, the victims car lost its balance and crashed into the median.

The injured Gurvinder was rushed to Cosmo Hospital in Phase VIII where doctors declared him brought dead.

The driver of the Maruti car fled the spot, the police said.

On the complaint of Gurvinder Singhs cousin, a case has been registered against the unidentified car driver under Sections 279 (Rash driving or riding on a public way) and 304 A (causing death by negligence) at the Phase VIII police station.

The investigating officer said, The victim sustained a serious head injury. One of the passersby informed the police about the accident. The number of vehicle has been traced and we will soon nab the accused car driver.

The police said the post-mortem examination was conducted today and the body handed over to the deceaseds family members.

Sources said the victim, who worked as a mechanic with a private company in Mohali, is survived by his wife and two children.ROBINSINGH@TRIBUNE.COM

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, February 2

The two-day national seminar on Globalisation, Environment and Human Rights concluded today at Panjab University with Ambuj Sharma, secretary general, NHRC, as the chief guest of the day.

During the seminar, about 50 research presentations were made by students and faculty of various departments, besides expert lectures, discussions, deliberations and interactive sessions.

Dr Gurmeet Singh, chairperson, Department of Hindi, and coordinator of the seminar, said, The seminar became a platform to approach the theme of globalisation, environment and human rights from an interdisciplinary perspective as it saw participation from departments, including Hindi, Environmental Studies, Centre for Human Rights, Political Science, English, Library Sciences, Botany, Public Administration and Interdisciplinary Centre for Swami Vivekananda Studies.

Dr Shyamli Singh from the Indian Institute of Public Administration spoke on Environmental Challenges and Road Ahead. She brought forth several statistics that showed the alarming state of affairs in terms of environment crises. This was followed by an expert lecture from Prof Nandita Singh, coordinator, Interdisciplinary Centre for Swami Vivekananda Studies.

Third speaker for the day Nirmal Kashyap, environment engineer, Haryana Pollution Control Board, spoke on the topic of Environment and Waste Management. Dr Roshan Sunkaria, principal secretary, Environment, discussed measures to deal with environmental pollution.

Ambuj Sharma, special guest of the day, spoke on conservation of natural resources and saving the planet for future generations.ROBINSINGH@TRIBUNE.COM

Tribune News Service

Mohali, February 2

The Special Task Force (STF), Mohali, seized 116.17 gm of opium, 707.47 gm of gold jewellery worth Rs 21 lakh, an amount of Rs 1.91 lakh and documents of 12 properties, allegedly bought with drug money, from the locker of an Ambala-based woman, who was arrested along with her accomplices in December 2017 in a drug peddling case.

Sleuths of the STF had arrested the accused, Sweety, her husband Baldev Singh along with aides Rakesh Kumar, Gurpreet Singh, Manoj Kumar, alias Mamu, and Simran Kaur, alias Indu, on December 6, 2017, in connection with supplying narcotics and had booked them under Sections 21, 29, 61 and 85 of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act.

The police brought the accused, Sweety, on a production warrant from the Nabha jail and opened a locker, registered in her name at a State Bank of India (SBI) branch in Ambala after obtaining permission from the court.

STF SHO RD Sharma said, During interrogation, it was found that the accused had hidden drugs and money in a bank locker. The locker was sealed and after obtaining legal permission, the locker was opened yesterday and the haul seized.

The police said Sweetys husband Baldev Singh used to peddle opium and was lodged in a Patiala jail. In prison, he came in contact with another notorious peddler, Manoj, alias Mamu, and together they were now running a network from the jail with the assistance of Sweety. The police said Sweety was arrested with 370 gm of heroin.

STF SP Rajinder Singh Sohal said, The accused hails from Shalimar Colony in Ambala. We have traced four cases against her in Ambala, one in Mohali and investigation is on to trace the involvement in other cases of drug peddling in Punjab. Mamu, who hails from Muktsar and is currently lodged in the Ropar jail, has 12-13 cases registered against him and he was also questioned by the Jagraon police.

The police said the accused used to procure narcotics from Delhi and supply these in various regions of Punjab, including Khanna, Sirhind, Jagraon, Chandigarh and Mohali, adding that the names of two youths from Dhanauri and a Nigerian national had come up as part of the nexus. The accused used the proceeds of drug sale to purchase gold and 12 properties, allegedly worth crores, in Ambala.

The police said the accused would be produced in the court. Her husband, Baldev Singh, has been shifted to the Bathinda jail.

Was let off after search in Delhi last year

STF officials said last year in May, Sweety, along with an accomplice, was stopped in a car by a police party in Delhi. However, they were let off as no narcotics were recovered after a search.

STF probing link with Nigerian nationals

STF officials said they were probing links with some Nigerian nationals, allegedly involved in supplying drugs from Delhi. An STF official said, A Nigerian national was recently rounded up and another Nigerian, Ubi, named by the accused, is on the run. We will send a team to Delhi to nab the accomplices.ROBINSINGH@TRIBUNE.COM

Bhartesh Singh Thakur

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, February 2

The Department of Evening Studies, Panjab University, has put up worst show among all departments with over 80 per cent students failing in BA, MA Punjabi, MA History and MA English exams alone in 2016-17. The only saving grace was BCom.

In total, 445 students were enrolled in BA, BCom, MA Economics, MA Punjabi, MA History, MA Political Science and MA English, but over 71 per cent couldnt pass the exams.

The Department of Evening Studies is a multi-disciplinary department of the PU and offers variety of courses.

As per the data provided by the department under the National Institution Ranking Framework (NIRF) to the PUs Internal Quality Assurance Cell (IQAC), in BA, it had 184 students in 2016-17 with 156 boys and 28 girl candidates. But just 30 boys and seven girls passed, and out of that, a total of 18 passed in second division. The total pass percentage was 20.1 per cent which implied close to 80 per cent students failed. The pass percentage of boys was just 19.23 per cent.

In MA English, a total of 42 students took admission, but just eight passed (19 per cent). It implied over 81 per cent students failed.

In MA History, there were 27 students, but just four passed (17.39 per cent), which implied 83 per cent students failed. There were four girls in the class and all failed.

In MA Political Science, 48 students appeared and just 12 passed, which implied 75 per cent students failed. In MA Punjabi, just five students passed out of 24. Here too, around 80 per cent failed.

In MA Economics, 51 students were there and just 20 passed (39.22 per cent). It implied over 60 per cent failed. In BCom, however, 42 passed out of 69 (60.7 per cent), which implied about 40 per cent failed.

Prof Gurpal Singh, chairman, Department of Evening Studies, said, "Non-seriousness of students is behind the poor show. Earlier, we had given admissions to dropouts. But now we have reduced BA seats from 341 to 200, so we have got good students. We are now strict with attendance. Our results are set to improve now."

He added A number of students take admission in evening studies just to stay in the PU for one reason or other.

We have reputed teachers but we need to change admission policy in post graduation. There should be no distinction in admission process for morning and evening batches. More hostel seats should be allocated for evening studies students, said senator Prof Keshav Malhotra.

When randomly results of other teaching departments were checked for 2016-17, it came out that most of the departments have around 70 per cent or above pass percentage. The Department of Laws has over 90 per cent pass percentage in undergraduate course. MA Geography has over 87 per cent pass percentage, there is 100 per cent result in MSc Botany and in MSc Biophysics. Over 80 per cent students passed in MSc Biochemistry. In Hindi Department also, the pass percentage is over 93 per cent.

The History Department has 68 per cent students passing MA History while English and Cultural Studies has posted over 78 per cent pass percentage in MA English.editorial@tribune.com

Chandigarh, February 3

A local court today held a teenaged boy guilty of raping a minor girl. Rajeev, a resident of Sector 25 who worked as a waiter, was booked for allegedly kidnapping and raping his neighbour. However, he has been found guilty of rape and acquitted of the kidnapping charge.

On December 3, 2016, the girls father had lodged a complaint with the Sector 39 police station. He had stated that his 14-year-old daughter had gone to a school for playing at around 3 pm. However, when she did not return home in the evening, he tried to find her but in vain. Her friends informed that she had left the ground at 5 pm and was last seen near a gurdwara in Sector 38.

On the complaint of the victims father, a case of kidnapping was registered against an unknown person. The girl was found by the police the next day along with Rajeev. She informed the police that she had gone with Rajeev on her own. The girl recorded her statement, following which charges of rape and relevant sections of the POCSO Act were added to the FIR and Rajeev named in it. However, the victim refused to get her medical examination done.

The case initially went to the juvenile court as the accused claimed he was aged 17 years and a half. However, he turned out to be major. Then, the case was transferred to a special court.

During the trial, the charges of kidnapping could not be proved against the accused. However, he was found guilty of rape. The court will pronounce the quantum of sentence on Tuesday.  TNSeditorial@tribune.com

Our Correspondent

Dera Bassi, February 3

The CIA wing of Mohali arrested two persons from near Mubarikpur village here and recovered two pistols and four live cartridges from their possession at a naka here on Friday.

A case under the Arms Act has been registered against both accused.

Sources said the accused, Chote Lal Rathore (40) of UP and Lakhan Pal, alias Singhara, (19) a resident of Mubarikpur village, were in the business of supplying illegal weapons to local criminals.

Both accused were produced in the court here on Saturday where the CIA staff had procured a two remand of Lakhan Ram to interrogate him further while his accomplice Chote Lal was sent to judicial custody, sources said.

Tarlochan Singh, CIA in-charge, said they had a tip-off about the movement of the accused following which the CIA team had laid a naka near Mubarikpur village and arrested the accused while they were coming towards Mubarikpur village to deliver the weapons to their clients.

The CIA officials said during preliminary interrogation of the accused it came to fore that they used to buy weapons at cheaper rates from Uttar Pradesh and sell it to local criminals. Chote Lal worked as a driver, while his accomplice Lakhan Pal had been employed with a private firm.ROBINSINGH@TRIBUNE.COM

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, February 2

A special court here sentenced Jatinder Singh, a constable with the Chandigarh Police, to two-year rigorous imprisonment in a six-year-old graft case. Jatinder Singh, son of a Chandigarh Police sub-inspector, was arrested by CBI sleuths while taking a bribe of Rs 15,000 in August 2012. He was found guilty by the court on Tuesday. His father was also present in the court during his sentencing today.

Jatinder, who was deployed with the technical cell at the Police Headquarters in Sector 9, had completed three years in service at that time. A Sector 15-based shopkeeper had filed a complaint that he was being harassed by the constable as he had found a mobile phone lying abandoned. The constable was asking for money, he had stated.

The owner of the missing phone had complained to the police and the technical cell had put his mobile on surveillance. Constable Jatinder Singh then found the missing mobile phone to be in the possession of the shopkeeper and started blackmailing him. The shopkeeper approached the CBI and a trap was laid.

Jatinder had demanded a bribe of Rs 15,000 to settle the matter and called the complainant to his home at the Police Lines in Sector 26. The CBI laid a trap and caught him while taking the bribe.amansharma@tribunemail.com

Washington, February 3

A controversial Republican memo that accuses the FBI of political bias has primarily been written by Indian-American lawyer Kashyap "Kash" Patel, according to a media report.

The "Kash memo" portrays the FBI in a negative light, alleging that the agency helped the Democratic party and its presidential candidate Hillary Clinton against Donald Trump, the eventual winner of the 2016 presidential elections, The New York Times reported.

Patel, however, refuted the media report and termed the story as "wholly inaccurate".

"The 'Times' story is wholly inaccurate. It is sad to see such a well-known media organisation refuse to state the facts, especially since they both requested and received them," Patel, a Senior Counsel for Counter-terrorism at the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, told PTI.

The report said the explosive memo was primarily written by Patel, a committee staff member for Representative Devin Nunes, Republican of California and the chairman of the Intelligence Committee.

The office of Congressman Nunes where Patel works has refuted the report that he is the author of the memo which they assert is a collective and team effort.

"The problem is the lack of facts. Kash being the 'driving force' behind the memo is not a fact. Kash being the 'pusher of the memo' is not a fact. Unnamed people referring to 'the Kash memo' is not a fact," Jack Langer, a spokesperson for Nunes was quoted as saying by the Daily Beast.

In an email to The New York Times, Damon Nelson, staff director of the House Select Committee on Intelligence said that no single member was responsible for the memo and that its creation was a "team effort" that involved investigators who had access to source material.

"The clamour to identify 'an author' is indicative of an alarming trend by opponents of our investigation which is to promote spurious allegations against committee members and staff. They will not impact the committee's focus and commitment to continue this investigation," Nelson was quoted as saying.

At the same time, he praised Patel, saying, "We value Kash's dedication and his contributions to the committee's oversight efforts".

According to media reports, Patel attracted media attention early this summer when he travelled to London along with another staffer in search of Christopher Stelle, author of a controversial dossier on Trump.

However, he could not succeed in his effort.

Patel, 37, who grew up in New York, graduated from the University of Richmond in 2002. He is the chairman of the House Select Committee on Intelligence. He is senior counsel on counter terrorism.

Before joining the House Select Committee on Intelligence, Patel was a trial attorney in the National Security Division of the Justice Department.

He joined the house committee in April 2017.  PTIROBINSINGH@TRIBUNE.COM

Mahendragarh, February 3

Three youths were today arrested in connection with an attack on two students from Jammu and Kashmir in Haryanas Mahendragarh town yesterday.

On Twitter, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti urged her Haryana counterpart Manohar Lal Khattar to take strict action against the guilty.

(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)

Residents of Rajouri, the two students of Central University were assaulted while returning to the campus after offering Friday prayers. We identified the assailants on the basis of CCTV footage and managed to arrest them last night. Three accomplices have also been identified, said Deputy Commissioner Garima Mittal.

Denying any communal angle, she said the accused had engaged in a verbal spat with some labourers after their motorcycle scraped past them. The students were standing nearby, which led to some confusion among the accused, who attacked them as well, she said.

The government will bear all medical expenses of the victims. A PCR jeep has been deputed on the university campus, Mittal said, adding that she had interacted with the victims  Aftab Ahmad and Amjad Ali  enrolled in the geography department.

Sources said IGP (South Range) CS Rao and Mahendragarh SP Kamaldeep Goel got the students medically re-examined.

Aftab and Amjad were assaulted without any reason. The assailants fled and the police took the two to hospital but did not register a case, said a friend.  TNSeditorial@tribune.com

Sushil Manav

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, February 3

The construction of houses for the poor under the Prime Minister Awas Yojana (PMAY) is moving at a snails pace in Haryana.

Under the scheme, the Centre has been informed about the demand of about 2 lakh houses in 80 statutory towns in the state, envisaging an investment of Rs 1,743 crore. Of this, the Centre is to pay Rs 375 crore.

However, only 85 projects have been sanctioned for the construction of 24,980 houses so far and out of which only 720 houses have been completed. Further, the state has submitted no proposal to the Centre under the In-situ Slum Rehabilitation (ISSR) component despite a huge potential in view of 3.3 lakh slum households (Census 2011).

Union Minister of State for Housing and Urban Affairs Hardeep Singh Puri was here today to review the progress of flagship programmes of his ministryAtal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT), Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM), Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY), and Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana-National Urban Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NULM). He asked the state authorities to expedite the completion of sanctioned houses and fast-track proposals for additional demands, particularly for the poor and slum-dwellers.

Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar and Urban Local Bodies Minister Kavita Jain along with senior officers of the departments concerned attended the meeting.

Puri seemed happy with Haryanas performance in the Swachh Bharat Mission. Haryana is a certified open-defecation free state and needs to be lauded for this achievement. The state has achieved 100 per cent door-to-door collection of garbage in 966 of 1,475 wards. However, it is processing only 3 per cent of the waste generated. The state needs to take steps to process all the waste being produced, Puri emphasised.

Under the DAY-NULM, the state has achieved 64 per cent of the target of training of candidates in the current year. Only 8 per cent of these trained persons could be suitably placed.

Puri, while speaking to mediapersons after the meeting, said that the Centre had sanctioned 60 smart projects worth Rs 2,342 crore for Karnal and Faridabad, the two smart cities of the state. The projects include rejuvenation of the Badhkal Lake and Barahi Talab in Faridabad to improve the environment in these cities and also provide more leisure facilities.

The Union minister said that under AMRUT the state has a target of providing 2.74 lakh new tap connections, thereby providing water connections to the entire urban population of Haryana. As many as 80,000 connections had already been provided, he added.

Under the mission, contracts worth Rs 722 crore had been awarded and projects worth Rs 86 crore were at the tendering stage, he said.editorial@tribune.com

Tribune News Service

Solan, February 3

MP Virender Kashyap today demanded inclusion of Himachal apple in the special product category to safeguard the livelihood and economy of apple growers.

Kashyap requested Union Commerce Minister Suresh Prabhu to increase the import duty on apple from the WTO-bound rate of 50 per cent to check the import the surge from the USA, Australia, New Zealand and China. He said it was a matter of concern that the apple import from these countries had increased from 1,22,265 tonnes to 3,00,000 tonnes in the last five years, which had adversely hit the domestic apple growers. The rate of domestic apple has crashed in the market, causing huge losses to the growers, he said. The craze for foreign apple in Indian consumers mindset had lowered the demand of domestic apple although delicious Himachali apple far surpassed its imported fruit in taste and quality. Kashyap stated that apple was the source of income of more than 1.60 lakh families in the state and was cultivated in nine out of 12 districts.

Himachal is acclaimed as the apple state of the country due to its supremacy in producing quality apple and it is the lone cash crop of the people living in remote, inaccessible and tribal snow-bound areas. The subsistence of a majority of the people is dependent on remunerative prices of the apple crop, which has a short season from June to September. At present, apple is cultivated over around 2.89 lakh hectares in the country with the production of about 29.00 lakh tonnes being confined to the Himalayan states.

He requested the Union Minister to direct the Central agencies for undertaking innovate research in domestic apple and enhance infrastructural facilities like cold storage, food processing in the apple growing belt. Study tours of growers to the developed countries should also be arranged.

Domestic apple growers hitrchopra@tribunemail.com

Srinagar, February 3

Four people, including two CRPF personnel, were injured in a grenade attack in Pulwama district of south Kashmir on Saturday, police said.

Militants lobbed a grenade at a CRPF party in Batagund area of Tral, a police official said.

(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)

Four people, including two CRPF jawans, were injured in the incident, he said.

The area had been cordoned off and a search operation was under way, the official said. PTIeditorial@tribune.com

Srinagar, February 3

Security forces have arrested two Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) militants, who had gone to Pakistan on valid visas to obtain arms training, the police said.

They have been identified as Abdul Majeed Bhat of Mughalpora, Saloora Kreeri and Mohammad Ashraf Mir of Nilla Palpora, Pattan.

The militants were nabbed immediately after returning via the Wagah-Attari border before they could formally join the militant ranks here in Kashmir, a police spokesperson said.

On questioning, the duo revealed that they were trained along with large number of Pakistani boys, most of them from Balochistan and as young as 10 years old.

The said terrorist training camps are located near Burma Town, Islamabad, and being run by a terrorist commander operating under code names Hanzala, Adanan and Omar. The arrested militants have been given Pakistani visas by the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi, he said.

The spokesperson said for the past couple of years, the police had unearthed several such modules where in youths had gone to Pakistan on valid passports for arms training. In the past, several such boys have been arrested and some of them killed in encounters, he claimed.  TNS

3 injured in Tral grenade attack

Anantnag: A CRPF man and two civilians were injured after militants hurled a grenade at a paramilitary patrol party at Tral in Pulwama district on Saturday. The explosion took place around noon in the Batgund area of Tral town. Police sources said the grenade was aimed at a CRPF patrol party. It fortunately exploded some distance away. Three persons received minor injuries in the explosion, a senior police officer said. He said the injured were rushed to a hospital. Following the attack, the area was cordoned off and a search operation was carried out. However, it triggered clashes. ocrchopra@tribunemail.com

New Delhi, February 3

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has arrested a Kanpur-based Commissioner of GST and Central Excise and others in a bribery case pertaining to the Excise Department, an official said on Saturday.

Sansar Chand, a 1986 batch IRS Officer posted as Commissioner in GST and Central Excise in Kanpur, and three superintendents of the department--Ajay Srivastava, Aman Shah, Rajeev Singh Chandel--were arrested on Friday night, a CBI official told IANS.

Besides the three officials, the CBI also arrested an office staffer named Saurabh Pandey and three others.

The CBI has alleged that Chand and other officials were part of the organised and systematic collection of illegal gratification.

(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)

The excise officials contacted various people through middleman Awasthi for extorting illegal gratification.

These payments pertained to either monthly or quarterly payments as protection money for omission of action by the Central Excise Department on such private parties, the CBI said.

The money was collected by public servants and was transferred systematically through hawala channel to Delhi through one Aman Jain.

In certain instances, the bribe would be in the form of items like mobiles, refrigerators and expensive TVs.

The probe agency has booked them under the charges of criminal conspiracy under the Indian Penal Code and provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act. IANSamansharma@tribunemail.com

Satya Prakash

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, February 3

A day after the CBI moved the Supreme Court to revive the politically-sensitive Bofors payoffs case after more than 12 years, former Union law minister and senior Congress leader Ashwani Kumar on Saturday questioned the agencys decision terming it utterly untenable.

Kumar alleged that it was a politically-motivated decision that went against the considered opinion of the Attorney General KK Venugopal.

The decision of CBI to move the Supreme Court in the Bofors case in an unprecedented negation of the sanctity of the considered legal opinion of the Attorney General. Yet another constitutional institution stands weakened, the former Law Minister said in a statement.

Venugopal had advised the CBI not to file an appeal against the May 31, 2005, verdict of the Delhi High Court discharging all the accused, including Europe-based industrialists Hinduja brothers.

Any SLP (special leave petition) at this stage, in my view, is likely to be dismissed on account of the long delay itself, the Attorney General had opined. It is understood he later gave oral permission for filing of appeal.

Terming it a brazen infraction of judicial norms and the settled principle of jurisprudence that criminal prosecution must not be allowed to prolong endlessly and there should be finality to litigation, Kumar said, The law of limitation cited by the Attorney General in support of his opinion is based on this principle.

The CBI cited an October 2017 interview of private detective Michael Hershman, who alleged that the then Rajiv Gandhi-led Congress government had sabotaged his investigation into the payoff case.

But Kumar said: The reason given for reopening a case 12 years after the High Court decision is utterly untenable. The ex-facie self-serving statement by a foreign private detective to a TV channel cannot displace the voluminous record of investigation and the well-considered judicial verdict in the matter. The politically motivated decision of the government is a gross act of malice.

The question that begs itself is whether this is a case of lawful prosecution or political persecution. The matter will finally be decided in the peoples court, he said.

The top court is already seized of an appeal filed by advocate Ajay Agrawal, who fought the 2014 Lok Sabha election against Congress leader Sonia Gandhi from Rai Bareli. Agrawal had a difficult time on January 16 before the Supreme Court which questioned his locus standi to file a special leave petition to revive the Bofors payoffs case.ROBINSINGH@TRIBUNE.COM

Bijay Sankar Bora

Tribune News Service

Guwahati, February 3

Prime Minister Narendra Modi today termed the eight Northeastern states, Asta Lakhshmi, as the new growth engine of the countrys development.

Inaugurating the two-day maiden Global Investors Summit titled Advantage Assam in the presence of top-bracket corporate giants and host of his cabinet ministers, Modi said Indias growth story would further pick up speed when there is an all-round development of the Northeast.

Reiterating the commitment of his government to purge the country of black money and corruption, Modi said the incumbent governments efforts had paid dividends in the form of India becoming one of the most favoured nations for foreign direct investment.

The country received FDI worth $60 billion in 2016-17 while the forex reserve now stands robust at $480 billion, Modi said, while highlighting the changed environment conducive for doing business.

Lauding the Assam Government for showing a positive approach by organising such a mega event, he said the Northeast region was in the core of the Act East Policy that aims at emboldening trade and people-to-people contact with South East Asian countries.

The slogan of the event  Advantage Assam-Indias Expressway to ASEAN  is not only a statement but the holistic vision of the government, Modi said, reiterating the commitment of the BJP to covert the region into the new hub of countrys development through the policy of transformation by transportation.

Our vision is development of the eastern part of India, as the countrys fast pace of development will only be effective when people living in the northeast develop, he said, adding that roads and railways were being constructed at a faster pace in the northeast.

Within the next two-three years, the Centre will spend Rs 90,000 crore on construction of rural and national highways in the Northeast to provide the producers of the organic and rural northeast easy access to the market. Around 4,000 km of national highways is being constructed in the region at the cost Rs 33,000 crore, the PM said, adding that Rs 5,300 crore were being invested per year in the region to expand and improve railway connectivity.

Ambani, Tata to investamansharma@tribunemail.com

Shiv Kumar

Tribune News Service

Mumbai, February 3

An oil tanker carrying a cargo of petrol with 22 Indian crew members may have been hijacked off the West African country of Benin, according to the shipping company.

(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)

According to information put out by Hong Kong-based Anglo-Eastern Ship Management, which owns the MT Marine Express, the ship was last traced to the port of Coutonou in Benin where it was anchored on January 31.

The tanker was carrying 13,500 tonnes of petrol worth $8.1 million, according to information available from Anglo-Eastern Ship Management.

Authorities have been alerted and are responding . our top priority is the safety of the crew whose families have been contacted, the statement added.

According to trade publication Maritime Executive, the Panama-registered MT Marine Express was the second ship to have been lost over the last few days. Pirates had last month hijacked another tanker MT Barrett. However, all the crew members were let go after six days when its owner, Union Maritime apparently paid a ransom to the pirates, according to the trade sources.

Information available from Anglo Eastern Ship Management, which has an office in Mumbai, the crew of the MT Marine Express comprise entirely of Indians.

Officials from the company said the Director General of Shipping in New Delhi has sought information from officials in Nigeria and Benin to locate the MT Express.

So far it is not clear where the vessel has been taken, relatives of the crew members have been told by the company officials.monicakchauhan@gmail.com

New Delhi, February 3

Pakistan is offering scholarships to Kashmiri students to prepare a generation, which will be inclined towards it and most of the youth on student visa in the neighbouring country were relatives of militants, the National Investigation Agency said in its chargesheet in the terror funding case.

"During the course of investigation, it was ascertained that students who were proceeding to Pakistan on student visas were either relatives of ex-militants or relatives of families of active militants who had indulged in various anti-national activities and had migrated to Pakistan or they were known to Hurriyat leaders," it said.

The probe agency also claimed that their visa applications were recommended to the Pakistani High Commission in New Delhi by various Hurriyat leaders, including hardline Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani.

The chargesheet filed in a court here on January 18 revealed that militants who fled to Pakistan had pursued their admission matters with the help of Hurriyat leaders based in Pakistan and Pakistan administered Kashmir.

The NIA said that scholarships are offered for MBBS and engineering seats under various schemes of the Pakistan government.

"This shows a triangular nexus wherein the terrorists, the Hurriyat and the Pakistan establishment are the three vertices and they are ostensibly patronising the Kashmir students in order to prepare a generation of doctors and technocrats in Kashmir who will have leanings towards Pakistan," the NIA said in the chargesheet, a copy of which is in the possession of IANS.

NIA seized a document from the house of Nayeem Khan wherein he recommends a student for admission in a "standard medical college" in Pakistan because "her family has remained committed to the freedom struggle through thick and thin".

Similarly, a document seized from the house of Shahid-Ul-Islam clearly shows that the Hurriyat leaders were sending recommendation to the Pakistan High Commission for the issuance of visa, it said.

The chargesheet has named Pakistan-based terrorist leaders Hafiz Saeed and Syed Salahuddin, seven arrested Kashmiri separatist leaders and three others in the case.

The Hurriyat leaders are Aftab Hilali alias Shahid-ul-Islam, Ayaz Akbar Khandey, Farooq Ahmad Dar alias Bitta Karate, Nayeem Khan, Altaf Ahmad Shah, Raja Mehrajuddin Kalwal and Bashir Ahmad Bhat alias Peer Saifullah.

Shah is the son-in-law of Geelani who is a strong votary of Jammu and Kashmir's merger with Pakistan. Hilali is a close aide of moderate Hurriyat leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq.

The NIA has alleged that the separatists, arrested on July 24 last year, conspired with Saeed and Salahuddin to wage war against India and secede Jammu and Kashmir from India. All of them have been booked under stringent anti-terror laws.

The NIA also chargesheeted businessman Zahoor Ahmad Watali and two alleged stone pelters -- Kamran and Javed Ahmed Bhat.

Watali has been associated with the LoC trade and has worked as the president of the LoC Traders' Association in the past.

IANSmonicakchauhan@gmail.com

Smita Sharma

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, February 3

With crucial final and board examinations just round the corner, Prime Minister Narindra Modi has penned a book asking students, parents and teachers to turn into Exam Warriors, Not Worriers.

A compilation of the PMs conversation on the subject of examination and academic stress in his monthly Mann Ki Baat programmes, the 193-page book contains 25 Modi mantras, illustrations, anecdotes and activity chapters among others.

Revise and Be Wise, Failure is Not Final, Compete With Yourself, Practice Yoga Regularly and To Cheat is To Cheap are a few of the mantras shared in the book with students. In the book, he has also asked the students to take a pledge against cheating.

Launching the book, HRD Minister Prakash Javdekar said the book would help the students in beating the examinations stress.

Quoting from Aamir Khans successful movie Three Idiot, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj elaborated upon the PMs Mantra to Compete with Yourself.

Interestingly, election fever seemed to preoccupy Swarajs mind who twice mistakenly referred to examinations as elections. And then drew an analogy that political parties have to ask the Election Commission to postpone elections during March-April because of the scheduled exams.

Promising to be an exam warrior, a Class XII student Kalpana Jehangir spoke about the influence of the book one her on the occasion.ROBINSINGH@TRIBUNE.COM

Shiv Kumar

Tribune News Service

Mumbai, February 3

An oil tanker carrying a cargo of petrol with 22 Indian crew members may have been hijacked off the West African country of Benin.

(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)

According to information put out by Hong Kong-based Anglo-Eastern Ship Management, which owns the MT Marine Express, the ship was last traced to the port of Coutonou in Benin where it was anchored on January 31.

The tanker was carrying 13,500 tonne petrol worth $8.1 million, according to information available from Anglo-Eastern Ship Management. Authorities have been alerted and are responding Our top priority is the safety of the crew whose families have been contacted, the statement added.

According to trade publication Maritime Executive, the Panama-registered MT Marine Express was the second ship to have been lost over the last few days. Pirates had last month hijacked another tanker MT Barrett. However, all the crew members were freed after six days when its owner Union Maritime apparently paid a ransom to the pirates.

Information available from Anglo Eastern Ship Management, which has an office in Mumbai, the crew of the MT Marine Express comprises entirely Indians. Officials from the company said the Director General of Shipping in New Delhi has sought information from officials in Nigeria and Benin to locate the MT Express. So far, it is not clear where the vessel has been taken, relatives of the crew members have been told by the company officials.amansharma@tribunemail.com

Narsinghpur (Madhya Pradesh), February 3

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Saturday extended its support to 81-year-old former Union Minister and senior BJP leader Yashwant Sinha, who is on a sit-in here to fight for the rights of displaced farmers in Madhya Pradesh.

Alok Agarwal, AAP convener of Madhya Pradesh, reached out to Sinha in Narsinghpur on the third day of his sit-in.

Agarwal declared full support of his party to the senior BJP leader, who is spending the winter nights under the open sky.

Cases have been filed against the farmers, who were displaced due to an NTPC project, as they resorted to demonstration after promises made to them were not fulfilled.  IANSeditorial@tribune.com

Parvesh Sharma

Tribune News Service

Sangrur, February 3

A court today extended the police remand of gangster Ravi Deol, who had surrendered on January 30, till February 11. He is facing 12 cases.

During his appearance in the court, Deol accused an OSD of an ex-Union Minister and SAD leader of pushing him into the world of crime. He alleged: Amanveer Singh Cherry, OSD to Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa, and his close friend Manu, who works with the Education Department, are real gangsters. They used me as their muscleman in their illegal acts. When I refused, they threatened me as both are very influential in Sangrur due to their proximity with senior Akali leaders.

Cherry is reportedly a close relative of former Finance Minister Parminder Singh Dhindsa. Cherry gave me Rs 12 lakh through his close friends when I threatened to expose him last year. Even in the Congress leader Ricky Dullat murder case, the real culprit is Cherry, alleged Deol.

Cherry and Manu denied the allegations. Manu alleged that Deol had been defaming him since 2013 after he refused to help him in a drug case.amansharma@tribunemail.com

Chandigarh, February 3

Punjab was asked to expedite the work on becoming an open defecation-free (ODF) state in a review meeting of the Centre's flagship urban development schemes here on Saturday.

Union Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Hardeep Singh Puri reviewed the progress of the Centre's flagship schemes -- AMRUT, Swachh Bharat Mission, Smart Cities Mission, Pradhan Mantri Aawas Yojana and Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana -- National Urban Livelihoods Mission -- in Punjab, Haryana and Union Territory of Chandigarh.

Talking to reporters, Puri said urbanisation posed a formidable challenge.

"As per the 2011 Census, 31 per cent of India lived in urban spaces which come at about 337 millions. The kind of urban challenge we have that by 2031, the number of people living in urban areas will be in the order of 600 millions. It will involve urban development and re-development," said Puri, flanked by Punjab local bodies minister Navjot Singh Sidhu and Haryana local bodies minister Kavita Jain.

He said the Centre had fixed a target to construct 62 lakh toilets by October 2019 and out of which, 52 lakh had already been made.

"At least one year in advance that is by October 2018, we should have 100 per cent ODF throughout country and we should have all toilets made in urban areas. It will be a real pity if, during 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, we cannot get this objective. But I am sure we will do it," he said.

On Swachh Bharat Mission, it was informed that Punjab had aimed to declare the state ODF by October 2018.

"However, so far only 61 Urban Local Bodies out of 164 have been declared as ODF. The state has agreed to expedite," according to a PIB release.

The state has achieved 100 per cent door-to-door collection in 2003 wards out of its 3,043 wards. However, the state is processing only 15 per cent of the waste generated.

The state needs to take steps to process all the waste being produced, it further said.

Haryana is a certified ODF state and needs to be lauded for this achievement, it further said.

"The state has achieved 100 per cent door-to-door collection in 966 wards out of its 1,475 wards. However, the state is processing only three per cent of the waste generated," the release said.

UT Chandigarh is a certified ODF city. It has achieved 100 per cent of the mission target for individual household latrine, it was informed in the meeting.

The city has achieved 100 per cent door-to-door collection in all its 26 wards. However, it is lagging in solid waste management with only 30 per cent of the waste generated being processed, the release said.

Punjab proposed to provide 4.6 lakh new house water connections under AMRUT - Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation.

"It has already provided 1.45 lakh tap connections. Under the Mission, 10 contracts worth Rs 335 crore have been awarded and tenders for three projects worth Rs 160 crore have been invited. The state was urged to complete the preparation of DPRs worth Rs 1,708 crore," the release said.

In Haryana, the state has a target of providing 2.74 lakh new tap connections, thereby providing water connections to the entire urban population of Haryana, it said.

On Smart Cities Mission, it was informed in the meeting that detailed project report (DPR) of all three cities Amritsar, Jalandhar and Ludhiana in Punjab were under preparation.

"Thus 11 projects worth Rs 3,385 crore in Amritsar, 19 projects worth Rs 1,899 crore in Jalandhar and 19 projects worth Rs 1,898 crore are at the DPR stage," it said.

"Two smart cities have been selected in Haryana -- Karnal and Faridabad. In both the cities, 60 projects worth Rs 2,342 crore have been approved and are at the DPR stage. The projects include rejuvenation of Badhkal lake and Barahi Talab in Faridabad, These when implemented will improve environment in these cities and also provide more leisure facilities," it said.

In Chandigarh, 70 projects worth Rs 6,214 crore have been approved and central assistance amounting to Rs 196 crore released for the city.

Punjab was also told to fast-track proposals under Pradhan Mantri Aawas Yojana.

"The state has submitted proposals to cover 12 per cent of its demand so far. It is required to fast-track proposals for about 1.25 to 1.5 lakh houses to saturate 50 per cent of its demand by 2017-18. Further, only one proposal for 1,025 houses has been received under in-situ slum rehabilitation component despite huge potential from 2.9 lakh slum households (Census 2011)," it said.

Punjab was also told to improve solid waste processing in Amritsar which has been declared as heritage city.  PTIeditorial@tribune.com

B.N.Goswamy

From the boards pale Harlequin

First salutes the spectator

Sorcerers from Bohemia

Fairies sundry enchanters

 Guillaume Apollinaire. French poet, 1909

For some odd reason, the circus has been on my mind lately: not because of some childhood memories, of which I have some but not many. It is because I have been looking at Picassos wonderful work that belongs to his Pink Period, pre-dating Cubism, and I am struck by his fascination for the world of acrobats and clowns and trapeze artists. He does not use the word circus anywhere in the captions to his paintings of course, but the French word harlequin comes in ever so often, as does saltimbanque. Itinerant and street performers interested him, and he explored their world in his art, in his own fashion, filled as it was with impermanence and that tremulous mixture of laughter and sadness which he tapped into with perfection. It was not a world of trained horses and tamed tigers, or of ring-masters and sorcerers that he entered through his work, but of humanity living on the edge, as it were.

There were others of the times  the French poet Apollinaire, who exercised such an influence on artists and art-movements of his age, for instance; or the pointillist painter, Seurat, also French, who caught in some of his works the incredible energy of equestrian performers  who come to mind in the context of the circus. But my own unexpected interest in circus owes itself also, at least in part, to the currently showing film that is making such news: The Greatest Showman, woven around the life of P.T. Barnum, founder of the famous Barnum & Bailey Circus in America. However, in the midst of all this, what I am writing on here is not the Big Tops of Europe or America: I write here of the circus-centred work of a contemporary Indian photographer, Vivek Desai, a small book on whom arrived, unannounced, in my mail the other day, sent by a young friend: Anuj Ambalal. I had never heard of Vivek Desai till now, but this little book, based on a show of photographs titled Circus and Me, curated jointly by Navroze Contractor and Anuj  both gifted photographers themselves  I found to be full of compelling images.

In his short essay in the book, Vivek speaks of how he became hooked to the circus from his childhood, and how as an adult he went about, after having abandoned the idea of becoming an investigative journalist, entering the world of the artistes of the circus as an intimate, an insider. By the time he committed himself to this world, the circus, as one knew it once, had changed in many ways: wild animals had virtually gone out of the repertoire, there were no freaks to be shown, truly dangerous stunts were on their way out. But it still offered a spectacle, whether it was the Gemini, or the Great Bombay, or the Amar, or the Great Rayman. Still around, however, were gymnasts and acrobats and skimpily clad circus ladies, and clowns. And what interested Vivek was to learn about the way they lived: constantly on the move; in private life, shorn of all glamour and showmanship; perpetually insecure in their skins in so many ways. This, however, needed to be done not in words, but through images. So, Vivek merged himself in the crowd of performers. It was not easy to begin with: No Photographs inside the private tents was the stern rule read out to him. But, slowly, he got over that hump. And what went on the show recently was a small part of what he was able to document: but then document perhaps is not the right word to use here, since he was in some manner co-living that experience.

What one sees through Viveks eyes are some rare sights: a sprightly young woman, a gymnast perhaps, tying a rakhi-thread on the wrist of a midget clown: evidently a fellow-performer; two lasses peeping into the main ring, waiting for their cue to enter; a clown taking a nap on a ramshackle bed surrounded by an incredible mess of things like shoes and boxes and curtain strips and broken fans. At one point one sees workers fixing wires standing on a shaky tent top; at another young girls in a dormitory like tent stretched out on beds, one of them playing with her infant. There is warmth in these images and an invitation asking the viewer to enter a rusty but different world.

Long years ago, the Austrian poet, Rilke, sat down to write on a now celebrated Pink Period painting of Picasso: Family of Saltimbanques. The painter had seen them perhaps, he wrote, as a symbol of human activity always travelling with no fixed abode even a shade more than the rest of us. Possibly therefore, he said, he had placed them in a desolate desert landscape, standing on a threadbare carpet to suggest the ultimate loneliness and isolation of Man in this incomprehensible world, practicing their profession from childhood to death as playthings of an unknown will  When Vivek captures an acrobat, all dressed up in his pristine white, figure-hugging costume, sitting all by himself in a chair outside a virtually vacant tent, ready for action but staring into nothingness, is he speaking of isolation, perhaps even the meaningless-ness of it all?rajivbhatia82@gmail.com

Amit Sengupta

There is a grotesque campaign underway, factually wrong as it is always when it comes to Hindutva luminaries and trolls, naming Muslim boys in what is a deadly and diabolical communal twist. That is, these boys actually stoned the GD Goenka School bus at Gurugram, instead of the goons of the Karni Sena, who had earlier torched a bus near the same site with the alleged intent of burning the 30 passengers inside, as the bus driver later said.

In a tale of two grotesque public spectacles, a Modi-bhakt and ex-feminist, and a hardline ex-journo fanatic, are in the midst of some vicious controversy; she, first, celebrating the fictitious piece of organised rumour, and, he, correcting her, and, then, she, accepting her mistake in a tweet, hiding a Freudian, slippery disappointment, which is as transparent as her initial celebratory glee.

In this grotesque scenario, they seem to have totally forgotten to see the 13-second video shot inside the bus. The video recounts the horror story of teachers and children, who were finally lucky to escape. It shows that anything disastrous could have happened to them, the teachers asking the kids to duck and lie down, a little child clutching onto her female teacher in desperation, another crying loudly in fear, others screaming as the nightmare continues with stones being hurled in a volley, and iron rods breaking the glass windows under whom the teachers and students were crouching.

The grim picture

Indeed, the tragedy is that events around the metropolis and its satellites still make news, while the margins are fillers or capsules in the inside pages. Hence, the nation does not seem to want to know that children of a school called St. Pauls Convent at Jaura in Ratlam district of Madhya Pradesh had just about recently gone through a similar ordeal. Terrorised, the parents did not even dare to file a police complaint. And what was the crime of the school kids? They were dancing in the school function on a song Ghoomar from the film Padmaavat.

So, is this for the first time that violence has happened on the sets, while shooting, or before the screening of films in India? No. However, it is as clear as the beginning and end of a fairy tale that this is no fairy tale. The Frankenstein monsters operating like Neo-Nazis unleashed by the mainstream and fringe in power, where they two operate as if in a jarring orchestra, has now moved from bylanes into the heart of darkness, whereby the State apparatus itself becomes a catalyst and predator in its bid to polarise society, violating all democratic institutions, notably, the Censor Board and the Supreme Court. And, indeed, without even watching the film, or, accepting the fact that it is a 16th century magic-realism fantasy, not based on historical facts  even while glorifying Sati  threatening that Rajput women yet will commit mass suicide if the film is released.

In this history of infamy, Deepa Mehtas Water and Fire were brutally attacked; their sets damaged, they physically threatened, thereby postponing the release for months. Parzania  based on a true story of the Gulbarg Society massacre in Ahmedabad, Gujarat 2002, whereby a Parsi couple lost their little son after an organised mob-attack burnt and hacked 69 residents of the society, including a former MP and scholar Ehsan Jaffrey  was not allowed screening in Gujarat. I saw the premier of the film with a handful of people at a Delhi auditorium, along with director Rahul Dholakia and actress Sarika. The film had shaken the audience with its poignant depiction of the tragedy.

Can eliminating the film eliminate the truth of that massacre? Can banning individuals and their creative work  also eliminate scripts, ideas, images, sounds, text, music, theatre, memories, archives?

As for Padmaavat, according to reports, the CBFCs Examining Committee asked the films producers  the director was not present during the censor screening  to remove the shots where the stomach of the lead actress was visible. However, this kind of editing or photo-shopped images would have damaged the choreography of the dance chorus (Ghoomar). Absurdly, the director, apparently, preferred to conceal Deepika Padukones body using computer graphics.

Then, it was better

Indeed, earlier, the routine cabaret in Bombay movies was enacted by a side-actress, often a vamp, who had to finally die an unnatural death protecting the hero or some sundry good man from a blood-thirsty villain. It was Helen, a magical dancer, who lifted the original item song to scintillating heights without subverting basic moral or family values, never pushing titillation to the limits of vulgarity. In contemporary Bollywood, let us not even dare to rewind the raunchy item songs made (in)famous by top actresses, who have hitherto taken over from the side-actresses, in full public spectacles of skin and flesh, with lyrics loaded with obscene innuendo to match the rising adrenaline of sex-starved male audiences in India. Fevicol or Sheila ki Jawani would give a raunchy run for its money to item songs like Rambha ho or Padma Khannas famous striptease in Jewel Thief  Husn ke Saat Rang.

Playing with scissors

Earlier, it was Censor Board chief Pahlaj Nihalani who put a spanner in the wheels of mainstream films. Nihalani himself has made raunchy films with dance sequences, which would make even the most lecherous go pink. However, once he took the high pulpit, he became the god of morality.

To name a few, Udta Punjab by Anurag Kashyap, on the drug problem in Punjab, was literally canned. It got its life after a protracted campaign by the director, his colleagues in the industry, and civil society. Lipstick Under My Burkha by Alankrita Shrivastava, was hounded by Nihalinis Censor Board. She was humiliated. Finally, after its release, the audience discovered, how great this movie was, and how it opened up questions which Indian society was refusing to address.

Similarly, S Durga, (earlier, Sexy Durga), in Malayalam, by avant garde filmmaker Sanal Kumar Sasidharan, despite being widely acclaimed by critics in Kerala and international film festivals, was hounded. This, despite the Kerala High Court okaying it. It was not screened at the Goa International Film Festival hosted by the Information and Broadcasting Ministry.

The film depicts the nocturnal underbelly of a predatory, brutish and macho society. A stranded couple on the streets, suddenly discovers, that the whole world has turned an enemy, and the young woman Durga, otherwise named after a goddess, who is worshipped in temples and homes, is suddenly turned into an object of lust and violence. It narrates the dark underbelly of the night streets of our urban spaces, where women, even with a companion, cant venture out by design or by mistake. She is at once dubbed as an object who should be brutalised.

Darker overtones

The dark irony is that the big guns in the Mumbai film industry have chosen to duck the controversy. Not one of them have stood up for Bhansalis freedom of expression, the murderous threats against Deepika Padukone, and the violence unleashed on cinema theatres and streets. A fairy tale or a grotesque story?rajivbhatia82@gmail.com

Legendary theatreperson Habib Tanvir was physically attacked for his famous plays because he celebrated the secular folk traditions of the Indian countryside. His plays Jis Lahore Nahi Dekhya and Jamadarin/ Ponga Pandit were attacked by VHP/RSS men in Gwalior, while Tanvir, 80, refused to succumb.

Jis Lahore Nahi Dekhya was written by noted Urdu writer Asghar Wajahat. Ponga Pandit, composed originally by Chhattisgarhi playwrights Sukhram and Sitaram, resurrects rural aesthetics with spoof, caricature and laughter, while dissecting entrenched social layers. Tanvirs Naya Theatre has been staging the plays since 1960s. After the Babri Masjid demolition, the Hindutva brigade found it objectionable and attacked it violently.

There has not been a larger ban on music, except for Kishore Kumar, who was banned from the All India Radio for not toeing the Sanjay Gandhi line during the Emergency. Kishore refused to accept the diktats of a budding dictator. The Heavy Metal bands 2006 album Christ Illusion was surprisingly banned after Catholic churches took offence to the artwork of the album and a few song titles. The album was taken off the shelves.

In 1999, Maharashtra government banned Marathi play Me Nathuram Godse Boltoy, which, apparently, glorified the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi. The notification was challenged before the high court that rejected the ban. In 2004, Eve Ensler's The Vagina Monologues was banned in Chennai. The play has been a roaring success all over India. In a peculiar aberration, censorship of theatre in Maharashtra dates back to 1948. Theatre groups had to submit two copies of the script to Maharashtra State Performance Scrutiny Board to be finally cleared by the police. Amol Palekar and Alyque Padamsee led the campaign against these bureaucratic restrictions. The practice has now been stopped.  ASeditorial@tribune.com

Pushpa Girimaji

During a vacation, my wife accidentally slipped on a banana peel and suffered serious fractures. Because of the severe pain, she had to be hospitalised there itself and the doctors prescribed surgery. I immediately contacted the health insurance company and informed them of it and sought clearance for cashless payment. They, however, did not respond even after a day. As my wife was in great pain, we could not wait and paid for the treatment ourselves. Subsequently, when we made the claim, the insurance company rejected it on a flimsy ground that my wife was suffering from migraine and this information was not made known to the insurance company at the time of filling the form. In fact, they accused us of concealing the information and thereby violating the policy condition!

It is true that my wife gets headaches occasionally, but who doesnt? We never thought of it as something serious enough to deserve a mention in the proposal form. In fact, even the insurance agent said it was inconsequential and need not be mentioned. This whole issue came about because my wife had a severe headache a couple of days after the surgery and she told the doctor that she did get headaches occasionally. In any case, I fail to understand the connection between her headache and our claim. We have had this policy for the last eight years and have never made a claim. What should I do now?

Please lodge a complaint with the insurance ombudsman with all the relevant details. It is true that a policy of insurance is a contract of utmost faith and both parties to the contract have to disclose all material information and failure to do so or concealing any important information pertaining to the health of the insured can render the contract void. But the focus here is on material information. So the question is whether the occasional headache was important or relevant enough to be mentioned. Obviously, no one fills the form with a list of toothache or headache or leg ache that one got at some time or the other in the policy because that is not material to the contract. And you have been paying for the policy for eight years without any claim. Even a pre-existing disease is covered after 48 months! So the insurance company cannot come up with such flimsy excuses to deny a genuine claim.

Can you quote a similar case decided by the ombudsman?

If you go to www.gbic.co.in, you can find the decisions of the insurance ombudsmen on disputes pertaining to both life insurance and non-life insurance cases, including individual mediclaims. I will quote an award of the ombudsman from the list (Kamlesh N Patel V/S Iffco-Tokio Genl. Insurance Co. Ltd. Complaint No: AHD-G-023-1617-1511; Policy No: 52646045; Date of Award: 12/04/2017). In this case, the complainants wife consulted a hospital for knee pain on August 4, 2016 and was admitted to the hospital for treatment of osteoarthritis of right knee joint and incurred an expenditure of Rs 2,06,474. However, her claim was repudiated by the insurance company on grounds of non-disclosure of material fact. Here, the complainant and his family were insured with New India Assurance Company since 2000 and had ported to Iffco-Tokio General Insurance in July 2015. The insurance companys argument was that the complainants wife was suffering from hypertension for 10 years and this information was disclosed in the consultation paper of the doctor. However, this was not mentioned in the form filled by the insured when they changed the insurance company. This constituted breach of trust and rendered the insurance contract void.

The complainant agreed that his wife was suffering from BP for 10 years, but there was no nexus between BP and knee replacement. After considering all facts, the ombudsman pointed out that first of all, there was no nexus between BP and knee replacement, for which the claim was made. Second of all, the insured had all the accrued benefits under the policy for 15 years, beginning 2000-2001 when she first took the policy. So the complainant was entitled for relief. Taking all facts and circumstances into consideration, the insurer should pay Rs 2,06,474 to the complainant, the ombudsman said.

Before I end, I would advise all those who take insurance policies never to conceal any material information relevant to the policy and answer all queries in the form truthfully. Failure to do so will render the contract void. Of course, this is also applicable to insurers and their agents, who have to disclose all terms and conditions, including exclusion clauses to the person purchasing the policy.Ira Pande

Among some recent books I received (gifts or review copies), were two cookbooks with family recipes and a short history behind each one. I must confess I am a sucker for collecting recipe books and although I may never cook from them, I just love reading the stories and memories that they contain. The two books brought alive an era when families sat together and savoured delectable food, lovingly cooked by a matriarch or prepared under her supervision. As I read them, I was transported to an age when life was not just more leisurely and gracious but when food was meant to be enjoyed and shared with family and friends.

Long before kitchen aids and ready-made masalas were invented, the kitchen was the hub of a home. First, a fire was lit in the chulha from the embers buried under the ash of last nights fire and then came the banging of pots and pans, the cutting of mounds of vegetables and the grinding of masalas as large quantities of varied meals were prepared. Along with the tinkle of the puja bell and the sounds of splashing water in the bathroom (seldom attached to a bedroom then), these noises were the alarm that woke us up in time for school. I am sure that anyone who grew up in the fifties and sixties has similar memories.

In these politically-correct times, it may be awkward to recount some others as they relate to the rituals and recipes of certain castes and faiths but we have to accept that such practices also helped to pass on traditions and ways of behaviour that we have lost. For instance, adjoining my grandmothers house in Almora was another one that belonged to a relative who had fallen in love with a Christian woman and then banished from the clan when he married her. Separated by a wall, the two courtyards marked two separate lifestyles and cuisines. My grandmothers Brahmin kitchen served purely vegetarian food (sans onions and garlic) while from the house next door wafted the tempting aromas of mutton curries and kebabs. My mother has written a hilarious account of how, unknown to the elders, the children had worked out rates of exchange and slyly passed on forbidden foods across the Berlin Wall that separated them. My own memories of shared food date from lunch breaks at school, my first introduction to Punjabi, Bengali and Muslim cuisine as we shared our tiffin boxes.

Both the recipe books I have mentioned above describe the traditional food of two gracious, nawabi cities: Delhi and Lucknow. And while it is interesting to discover the secrets behind an authentic korma or biryani, these recipes are those found on the tables of the wealthy families of these cities. Avadhi and Mughlai cuisine is rich and heavy with ghee, dry fruits and exotic flavourings such as saffron and cardamom and out of the reach of modest kitchens. Such recipe books are great to read but difficult to recreate and digest and many end up on a bookshelf and occasionally picked up for ideas of how to make these recipes acceptable to palates and stomachs nourished on less exotic meals. I hope one day someone will come up with menus to suit our times: regular dal-chawal stuff, with interesting ways of cooking lauki-tinda so that fussy children can be coaxed into eating what is good for them. I know a friend who was writing one that was aimed at exactly this kind of segment, with interesting suggestions for packed school lunches and birthday parties. I think she self-published it a while ago and if you Google the name Sharmila Ribeiro, you may find it.

I am not on Facebook but I occasionally peep into my husbands wall out of curiosity. This is how I discovered that SP Gautam was no more. Although we were no longer in regular touch, he dates back to the time when all of us were new lecturers at Panjab University. He sported a goatee and always wore khadi kurtas. I seldom saw him without a cigarette in his hand and an argument on his lips. Along with Pritam Singh Gill (now in Oxford) and Bhupinder Brar, he was a vital part of the JNU Young Turk gang and furiously engaged in the politics of the day. During the Emergency and the rise of the Janata Party, he was present at every meeting held in the Coffee House and elsewhere. Unencumbered by a nagging girlfriend or wife, he devoted himself to the spread of radical ideas among youth. Like many in those times, he was a Socialist with strong Marxist beliefs and remained true to this creed even when many others dropped off. We ran into him here in Delhi once in a while and promised to meet but that never happened. However, the affection and mutual respect we had for each other never waned. He and I were born the same year and his death has suddenly reminded me how unpredictable life can be. I feel terribly sad that there is no one in his family that I can send our condolences to so here is my tribute to a man who remained true to his calling all his life.Sanjam Preet Singh in Chandigarh

Sanjam Preet Singh in Chandigarh

Dr Diwan Singh Kalepani? Maybe, a student of history would have read about him. Dr Diwan Singh is among several unsung heroes of the freedom struggle. He was a doctor in the Indian Army. During his posting in Dagshai, he gave the call for swaraj. As a punishment, he was packed off to Rangoon and then to the Andaman Islands. After the Imperial Japanese Navy captured the island in 1942, Dr Diwan Singh was arrested on charges of espionage. After suffering brutal torture for 82 days, he died on January 14, 1944. He was a poet as well, and wrote in free verse.

Over the years, history has been unkind to him. If not for the efforts of Dr Diwan Singhs family, his name would have been lost in the pages of history. A museum in Siswan, about 15 km from Chandigarh, fills the gap in the narrative of freedom struggle. The brain behind this is Mohindar Singh Dhillon, one of the four sons of Dr Diwan Singh.

The idea started taking shape when he, along with his wife Gurdarshan Kaur, visited Andaman & Nicobar for the first time in 1968. Then, both were professors in Ludhiana. On the request of then PU senator, they went to Andaman to start a college.

When the ship docked, I saw a sea of people at the port. At first, I thought they had come to see off or receive their loved ones. The moment we stepped out of the ship, people started embracing my husband. Some of them were crying. It was an unbelievable scene, says Gurdarshan Kaur, now 84.

When they reached their accommodation, the house was filled with people. Some were crying and some were narrating stories of Dr Diwan Singh. It seemed a body was lying in the next room. It was terrifying, she recalls.

The couple stayed there for two years, listening to tales of the unsung martyr. It was then Mohindar Singh realised the family had not given the due respect to Dr Diwan Singh, Gurdarshan Kaur says. After returning from Andaman, he started collecting documents and material on his fathers life and compiled them into a book  a biography titled A Titan in the Andamans.

Next on his agenda was a museum. He asked his brothers and relatives to contribute in whatever way they could. Dr Diwan Singhs grandson Gurpartap Singh Dhillon gave a chunk of his land in Siswan, while others pitched in with funds.

In 2001, Shaheed Dr Diwan Singh Kalepani Museum came into being, but it was still a work in progress. After Mohindar Singhs death in 2007, the museum suffered neglect. It was then Mohindar Singhs daughter, Sonia Dhillon, took it upon herself to take the project forward. In 2009, she met then Punjab Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal. He gave Rs 5 lakh to the museum. With this and a little contribution from relatives and friends, Dr Diwan Singh Kalepani Trust was formed. The money was deposited in a bank in the form of a fixed deposit.

A person, who was designing the Virasat-e-Khalsa, was roped in. In 2012, his team started working. As it turned out, Sonia was unhappy with the work. So, she decided to be in charge of designing. Just like my father thought about his father, I did it for my father. My fathers dream became my dream, Sonia says.

She, her mother and two others got down to work in March 2013. For nine months, they worked tirelessly. Gurdarshan Kaur did the translation, while Sonia designed the museum.

The museum is divided into five sections. The first section Timeline provides a glimpse into Dr Diwan Singhs life and, at the same time, mentions about important events in India and abroad at that time. The other sections are named Punjabiat, Faith, Humanism and Nationalism. At the end of the museum, a cell as it would have been in Andamans  14 ft x 7 ft with a height of 10 ft  has been recreated.

With all this done, on December 23, 2013, former CM Parkash Singh Badal inaugurated the museum. Today, the museum is in good shape. All that the family wants is that more and more people should visit the museum and learn about the great sacrifices of our freedom fighters.

Dr Diwan Singh KalepaniSushil Manav in Chandigarh

Sushil Manav in Chandigarh

Villagers, largely youth, gather near the banks of the Ghaggar in Farwai Kalan village in Sirsa where some workers and engineers have been digging a 1000-ft deep bore-well with heavy machinery. They say they would bring out water of the mythical Sarasvati which, they believe, continues to flow that much, or more, deep under, says a youth. Will our village get water? asks a villager, vacuously. None has any answer.

The Haryana governments hype and hoopla apart, no one even in the Khattar cabinet or the bureaucracy seems sure about the real objective of reviving the mythical river. The government wants to introduce people to their history. The Sarasvati revival project is aimed at bringing to the fore the places from where the Vedic river flowed over 4,000 years ago. The purpose is not meant to meet the water needs of the people, says state health minister Anil Vij.

Such is the fanfare about the river that on Jan 18, the state government organized an international Sarasvati Mahotsav at Adi Badri, (Yamunanagar). Chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar told the attendees that archeologist, Dr Vishnu S Wakankar, had told him 32 years back that Adi Badri is the origin of the Sarasvati. Since then, the CM, said, he had a wish to develop the area. After the BJP came to power in 2014, we formed Haryana Sarasvati Heritage Development Board (HSHDB) the next year to revive the river. The plan is to store water of several seasonal rivers and rivulets of the Shivalik range by constructing a dam on the Som near Adi Badri. The dams project report will soon be sent to the Centre for approval so as to ensure flow of water in the Sarasvati at the earliest, said Khattar.

Meanwhile, the dry areas

Large swathes of south Haryana --- Mewat, Rewari, Mahendragarh, Bhiwani and parts of Hisar and Sirsa -- are water-deficient where women have to walk miles to fetch drinking water.

Dr Mahabir Jaglan, a professor in geography in Kurukshetra University, questions the HSHDBs justification for the rivers revival. If the Sarasvati is a lost river, then whats the point in its revival? Can humans revive a river that was lost due to change in surface configuration or climatic conditions? If the Sarasvati is to be revived by digging a drain to be filled by diverting seasonal rivers, then what would be the financial and ecological costs? Where is the surplus surface water in Haryana that would be made to flow in the proposed Sarasvati channel? asks Dr Jaglan. Southwest Haryana is converted into a pool of dry-land agriculture as the irrigated area has declined by 33%, he said.

Politics seeps in

Former CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda accuses the Khattar government of trying to divert the peoples attention from core problems. This government works like an event management company. On the one hand, it has scrapped Dadupur Nalvi canal, a lifeline for farmers of three districts, and on the other, it is wasting taxpayers money on unproductive works. States Congress legislature party leader and former tourism minister Kiran Choudhry has said a major revival of Adi Badri was initiated on her watch. But the BJP government is mixing religion with politics.

Though efforts to resurrect and revive the river began in 2003 when the NDA government launched the Sarasvati Heritage Project, the UPA government abandoned it when it came to power in 2004. The Modi government revived the project and the HSHDB was formed.

The Indian National Lok Dal (INLD), too, accuses the BJP of doing river politics. Party spokesperson Praveen Atri, who is from Pehowa in Kurukshetra district, says members of his family have been priests at a Saraswati temple for generations. The holy river existed and still exists.

The state government has sanctioned Rs 50 crore for the Sarasvati project. The government has promised to pump in more funds as the work progresses. Under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, a channel was dug up for a few kilometres in Yamunanagar and people were asked to believe that it is the course of the vanished river.

In 2015, the BJP government ordered archaeologists to trace the vanished river, since the RSS believed that the proof of the physical existence of the river would bolster their concept of a golden era of Hindu India.

Boards rush job

On October 12, 2015, the HSHDB was born with the CM as its chairman. Within nine months the Board conducted a trial run of the Sarasvati route by filling the river bed with 100 cusecs of water which was pumped into a dug-up channel from tube-wells at Uncha Chandna village in Yamunanagar.

The HSHDB has hired Oil and Natural Gas Commission for digging 10 bore-wells along the Sarasvati route under guidance of experts from Water and Power Consultancy Services (WAPCOS), a government of India undertaking.

Of the 10 sites identified for digging of wells, five are in Yamunanagar (Adi Badri, Mugalwali, Bihta, Pabni Kalan and Uncha Chandna), two in Kurukshetra (Mangna and Issargarh) and one each in Kaithal (Kakor Majra), Fatehabad (Bhirdana) and Sirsa (Farwai Kalan).

SS Chehal, a retired superintending engineering heading operations by the WAPCOS, says that the target is to dig bore-wells up to 400 meters (1,312 feet), but at certain places the engineers had to stop work because of obstructions. For instance, at Farwai Kalan in Sirsa, the digging stopped at 290 metres (951 feet) as further penetration was impossible due to rocks on the surface bed.

We are putting 300 mm pipes to the depth of 1,000 feet and 150 mm beneath this and put motors of 30 horsepower (HP), 25 HP or 10 HP depending on the quantity of water available in a particular well, says Chehal. Each tubewell can cost Rs 35 to 40 lakh.

The HSHDB has not responded lately as its deputy chairman Prashant Bhardwaj remains unavailable on his mobile phone. Yet Bhardwaj had told The Tribune in October last that the report of an expert committee formed by the Centre had concluded that the mythological river did exist, but the complete report was unlikely to come in public domain due to sensitive border issues involved.

He had said 71 organizations were involved in the research and development work of the Sarasvati project. The organizations include the Archeological Survey of India (ASI), the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), Central Arid Zone Research Institute, Jodhpur, Central Ground Water Board (CGWB), Geographical Survey of India, several IITs, institutes of archaeology, anthropology and many others.Aakanksha N Bhardwaj in Jalandhar

Aakanksha N Bhardwaj in Jalandhar

Five Pakistani nationals allegedly involved in espionage and lodged in north-west Delhis Lampur detention centre have reportedly been rendered stateless. Reports say they completed their prison terms, but have nowhere to go as Pakistan has refused to accept them despite Indian authorities writing to their counterparts over the past five years. Their cases surfaced a month after the two countries exchanged a list of prisoners lodged in each others jails under a 2008 agreement on consular access.

Sources say India handed a list of 250 Pakistani civilian prisoners and 54 others who have competed their jail terms. It is not known if the five Pak nationals figure on the list. Pakistan, too, handed a list of 58 such civilians. The Indian side, sources say, also conveyed New Delhis concerns about Pakistans denial of consular access to Kulbhushan Jadhav (former Naval officer) and Hamid Nehal Ansari (a Mumbai resident reportedly lodged in a Peshawar jail six years after he failed to find his love in that country and disappeared).

Disowned, disregarded

The lists, generally, dont mention the convicted spies because of disownment the two sides insist on. That leads to a very complicated situation for securing the release of such prisoners. Only rights activists on both sides of the border struggle to get them freed. In Pakistan the Ansar Burney Trust International is actively working in such cases. And in Punjab, from where several border area residents are believed to be lodged on the other side, Ranjan Lakhanpal keeps up his fight. He is also chairman of the World Human Rights Protection Council.

An advocate, Lakhanpal has been working for a decade to make the release of the spies possible, free of cost. He says four such cases of spies; are pending with the Supreme Court. The services of spies are not recognized by either the government or those in their social circle. The result is they along with their families are left to suffer, says Lakhanpal. In several cases, the post-return life is even more traumatic.

With the efforts of people like him and Ansar Burney, Kashmira Singh, an alleged Indian spy who was lodged in Pakistani jail was released in 2008. Kashmiras wife Paramjit Kaur says she has suffered a lot after he remained in jail for 35 years. When he was arrested by the Pakistan government, our daughter was five years old. When he returned, I was already a grandmother, says Kaur. Kashmiras hands bear bruise marks, and his back still hurts  the result of severe physical torture in jails. His wife says the government has not done anything for the family.

Still hiding, from his own

Surinder Pal (64) of Barhian village of Hoshiarpur is living in disguise in his own country. This time for another reason: It started when he was just 23. He was recruited as a spy and went to Pakistan, changing his name to Iqbal Khan. Back in India, Chhinda  as he was called by his neighbours -- wants to hide himself, clamming on what happened years ago. He wants to forget everything. Can he?

He crossed the border, for the first time, in1976, and was arrested in Pakistan in 1979. Pal was interrogated and tortured continuously. He was shifted to various jails from 1979 to 1988. And when he came back, he was nobody. That lost identity hit him so badly that Surinder Pal doesnt even want to speak about the tragedy of his life.

Who is going to listen to us now? says his wife angrily. He murmurs: I have gone through a lot. You cannot imagine what it means to be a captive in the enemy countrys jail. I suffered every pain when I was young. Pal works in the night shift in a private factory doing menial job as a machine operator, earning less than Rs 10,000 a month.

His return was not simple. I wrote an unstamped letter (because it would reach its destination) to my parents who were in Canada. Luckily the letter reached them and they approached an advocate David Cook who later became a minister in Canada. Cook helped me out and somehow I reached India.Ajay Banerjee in New Delhi

Ajay Banerjee in New Delhi

Eminent defence data analyst Global Firepower Index says the Indian military has a combined 4,207,250 active and reserve personnel in service. Various defence groups rate Indias military as one of the top five biggest in the world. India is also the worlds largest importer of weapons and military equipment, accounting for 13% of all such international imports, according to the Sweden-based think-tank Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) in its report.

Lined up before the country are the top defence manufacturers ever since the BJP came to power in 2014 and promised to open up the sector through Make in India route. The objective is not only to generate thousands of jobs but also replace obsolete equipment and offer the best weapons and platforms to the defence forces. That has not been simple in the absence of adequate manufacturing ecosystem, veils of secrecy in a severe bureaucratic environment and dithering among some manufacturers to part with sensitive cutting-edge technology. Nevertheless, arms manufacturing companies see it as a golden chance. Sample this:

Europes Airbus Group wants to sell its Panther helicopter. It says if it wins a contract, it would make India its global hub for the multi-purpose choppers. The company currently builds them at Marignane in France.

Lockheed Martin says if its F-16 fighter jets are selected (it may compete with Saab for a $15 billion order) it will support the advancement of Indian manufacturing expertise.

Germanys ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems and Frances Naval Group want to vie for a contract of up to $10 billion to build submarines in a South Asian country.

It is clear India imports at least 90% of its defence equipment. It is banking on foreign companies to bring in new technology. The lowest bid is one key selection factor that worries some of the competitors. Wed like to see the Indian government work with the US government to ensure that these acquisition policies dont disadvantage US firms just because we cant get the lowest price, Cara Abercrombie, former US deputy assistant secretary of defence for southeast Asia, told a panel in New York.

The procurement model

Indias attempt to join the nations producing world-class military equipment hinges on a new policy: strategic partnership (SP) model. Production of four crucial military items fighter jets (both for the Navy and IAF), submarines, helicopters (for all three services) and new-generation tanks are listed under this model, all cutting-edge equipment needed in a battle.

The SP model allows the Ministry of Defence (MoD) to select an Indian private company to collaborate with a foreign partner and produce military equipment in India. On paper, it looks fine, but technology transfer is tricky.

In May last year  ending almost two years of discussions with industry and experts  the Modi government cleared the SP model. It was made a part of defence procurement procedure (DPP), the guiding framework of making military equipment in India.

The red-tape

Why should MoD select and nominate an Indian partner for foreign companies some of whom are in the Fortune 500 list? It is a question often asked in industry circles. For the Indian companies, this clause could create a monopoly. The ideal situation should be to allow a foreign company to select its own partner from a bunch of Indian companies cleared by the MoD.

It has seen some success and also failures. The Rs-32,000 crore Make in India project to build 12 advanced minesweepers for the Navy with a South Korean firm was cancelled in January this year. An artillery programme for specialized artillery guns, the K-9 Vajra, has moved forward.

The plan to include new rifles for the Army has been on the drawing board for long. Several rounds of talks later, 72,400 rifles have been cleared and the remaining 6.5 lakh will be purchased from eligible Indian vendors in tie-up with foreign manufacturer. Bullet-proof jackets are being made in India.

On Jan 16, defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman allowed direct proposals from builders instead of the existing system of the MoD sending out a request for information. The industry, start-ups or individuals can suggest their projects, as per a list put out by the armed forces. The industry can also have a foreign tie-up to the tune of 49% foreign holding.

Ready for a long haul

Several big-tickets items are listed to be made in India. In reality it could take years for them to fructify. Itd also reflect if India can shed the position of being a leading arms importer or continues to be dependent on others for technology. The SP-model can help in building a military industrial complex and a failure could leave India still struggling with technology.

Whatever decisions Sitharaman takes will decide timelines of new inductions and the quantum of transfer of technology offered by foreign partners to their Indian counterparts.

Since the new policy was announced, the MoD has invited and studied proposals for the Make in India six stealth submarines costing Rs 75,000 crore. Four major global players -- Naval Group-DCNS (France), ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems (Germany), Rosoboronexport Design Bureau (Russia) and Saab Kockums (Sweden) are vying to bag contracts running into thousands of crores.

The MoD has asked global helicopter makers to send in their bids to make a total of 234 copters for the Indian Navy. These copters will be of two types, 123 naval multi-role helicopters (NMRH) with anti-submarine warfare (ASW) capabilities, and another 111 armed light naval utility helicopters (NUH). The two contracts are estimated to cost nearly $10 billion (Rs 65,000 crore). Overall, 1,000 copters are needed; some 400 are being built by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) under two separate projects, one with the Russians and another of its own.

The next big buys

In Nov 2017, the Army sent out a global bid for 1,770 Future Ready Combat Vehicle (FRCV)  a fancy name for a tank

India is looking for some 200 single-engine jets for which talks have been conducted under the SP-model

The ministry has placed an order for 114 pieces of Dhanush, a variation of the Bofors design and transfer of technology. The Army is carrying out exploitation-trials

The desi-made Advanced Towed Artillery Gun System, jointly developed by DRDO and the private sector, has completed winter trials

Armys Field Artillery Rationalization Plan aims to acquire 2,800-3,000 155 mm/52-calibre guns of all kinds and 155 mm/39-calibre lightweight howitzers by 2027

The big if in FDI

On July 25, 2017 the ministry said there been a mere Rs 1.13 lakh crore FDI in the defence sector in the past three years

In Sept, secretary of defence (production) Ashok Gupta (now retired) speaking at the US-India Strategic Partnership Forum said: The government would be open to consider 100% FDI in defence, should a company be willing to provide full technology transfer

100% FDI is allowed in defence sector, out of which up to 49% is under automatic route. FDI above 49% is permitted through govt route on a case-to-case basis

The collaborationslaxmi@tribune.com

Dehradun, February 3

A SIT, which is investigating the NH-74 land compensation scam that originated in Udham Singh Nagar, has filed a chargesheet against 12 persons, including former SDMs DP Singh and Bhagat Singh Fonia, in the Uttarakhand High Court.

In the chargesheet, the 12 persons have been accused of land embezzlement that resulted in a loss of

Rs 211 crore as revenue to the government. The SIT has completed its investigation at Jaspur, Kashipur and Sitarganj tehsils. In the second stage, it will carry out investigations at Bajpur, Gadarpur, Rudrapur and Kicha tehsils.

SSP, Udham Singh Nagar, Sadanand Date, said, The investigation will now shift focus to other tehsils after which a supplementary chargesheet will be filed.

Three months ago, the SIT had arrested two SDMs and sent them to jail for their alleged role in the scam. So far, at least 15 persons have been jailed. TNSlaxmi@tribune.com

Tribune News Service

Dehradun, February 3

Social activist Anna Hazare will be on a two-day visit to Uttarakhand from February 13. He will be addressing rallies in Srinagar and Tehri.

State coordinator of the anti-corruption movement Bhopal Singh Choudhury said Anna would arrive in Dehradun on February 13. He will leave for Srinagar the same day and address a rally there on February 14. He will address another rally in Tehri on February 15.

Choudhury said prior to his fast in New Delhi from March 23 seeking the appointment of Lokayukta, Hazare would meet people in Uttarakhand and set up an organisation for spearheading the anti-corruption movement.pardeepdhull@gmail.com

Washington, February 3

Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Chris Wray told his staff on Saturday to shrug off the attack on the agencys independence by President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans, and pledged to defend his agents.

Talk is cheap; the work you do is what will endure, Wray told the 35,000 FBI staff in an internal letter.

Youve all been through a lot in the past nine months and I know its often been unsettling, to say the least. And the past few days havent done much to calm those waters, he said.

Let me be clear: I stand fully committed to our mission... I stand with you.

On Friday, Trump approved the release of a memo by congressional Republicans alleging abuse of power by the FBI and Department of Justice in their handling of an investigation of Trumps election campaigns ties to Russia.

Trump wrote on Twitter ahead of the memos release: The top Leadership and Investigators of the FBI and the Justice Department have politicized the sacred investigative process in favor of Democrats and against Republicans - something which would have been unthinkable just a short time ago. The memos release raised concerns that Wray could be forced out of the FBI just six months after being appointed by Trump, who fired Wrays predecessor James Comey last May.

Wrays letter made no direct reference to the memo or Trumps comments, and did not suggest that he plans to leave.

He praised the agencys high integrity, work ethic and professionalism that is unrivaled anywhere in the world. We speak through our work. One case at a time. One intelligence product at a time. One decision at a time, he wrote.

We stay laser-focused on doing great work, even when its not easy, because we believe in the FBI.  AFPamansharma@tribunemail.com

Rome, February 3

A man opened fire on passersby in the central Italian city of Macerata on Saturday, injuring several African migrants, police said, in an attack that appeared to be racially motivated.

Italian police said they have arrested a man suspected of opening fire on foreigners from a vehicle.

The shootings happened just days after the dismembered body of an 18-year-old Italian woman was discovered hidden in two suitcases near Macerata. A 29-year-old Nigerian migrant has been arrested in connection with her death.

Local media reported that at least six migrants, including one woman were shot by a man driving around the city, located about 200 km east of Rome, and firing from his car window.

"Shots fired in Macerata. People injured. Police operation under way. Stay out of the way and avoid open places," the police said on Twitter. Shortly afterwards, police said one man had been arrested.

State television Rai said the suspect was a white Italian man who came from Macerata.

The website of newspaper Corriere della Sera said a man fired from a car window at two young African migrants shortly after 11 am on Saturday, wounding one of them. A short while later two other migrants, including a woman, were shot.

It was not immediately clear how serious their injuries were.

Right-wing politicians campaigning ahead of national elections on March 4 leapt on the gruesome death of the teenager Pamela Mastropietro to promote their anti-migrant message.

A preliminary postmortem on the teenager could not immediately identify her cause of death. The Nigerian suspect, who was denied asylum last year but has remained in Italy, has refused to talk to police.

"What was this worm still doing in Italy?" Matteo Salvini, head of the far-right League, wrote on Facebook, accusing the centre-left government of responsibility for Mastropietro's death for allowing migrants to stay in the country.

"The left has blood on its hands," he wrote.

Magistrates say witnesses saw the Nigerian suspect carrying the suitcases that were later found to contain the teenager's body. They also found blood-stained clothes and knives in his possession.  ReutersROBINSINGH@TRIBUNE.COM

London, February 3

Indias most wanted terrorist Dawood Ibrahim has been linked to a series of properties across Britain, according to a media report.

The 62-year-old fugitive mafia boss, wanted in India as the mastermind of the Mumbai bomb blasts in 1993 and accused of crimes such as match-fixing and extortion, accrued a vast property portfolio across the Midlands and south-east in the UK as well as India, the UAE, Spain, Morocco, Turkey, Cyprus and Australia, The Times reported. The newspaper matched details from a dossier prepared by Indian authorities to records held by the UKs Companies House and the Land Registry, as well as the Panama Papers to form a snapshot of the alleged property portfolio.

(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)

It is claimed his syndicate, known as D-Company, once smuggled drugs through Pakistan and across Indian borders for shipment to Europe and North America from the ports at Mumbai, as portrayed in a new BBC series McMafia.

Ibrahim, believed to be hiding in Pakistan, is inspiration behind an Indian underworld don named Dilly Mahmood in the eight-part television series, which highlights the misuse of Britain by globally organised crime syndicates.

In an apparent parallel with Ibrahim, Dilly Mahmood is portrayed as an ambitious gangster.  PTIamansharma@tribunemail.com

The Hague, February 3

Fame and fortune have smiled on Hermien the Dutch cow, who escaped as she was being sent to slaughter, and has become a social network star after a month on the hoof.

Thanks to her tenacity and a crowd-funding campaign which has raised 48,000 euros ($59,820), the three and a half-year old red Limousin will get to live out her days in pasture.

Hermiens plucky bid for freedom came as she was about to loaded into a truck to be taken to the abattoir and spawned an outpouring of support.

For more than four weeks she has refused to be caught, hiding out in the safety of the woods in northern Friesland, while Twitter lit up with hashtags such as #JesuisHermien, #GoHermien and #MeKoe. The latter is a play on the #MeToo campaign, incorporating the Dutch word for "cow".

Even the royal family took up her case, with Pieter van Vollenhoven, the son-in-law of former Queen Beatrix urging "we've got to save Hermien".

"Let's all buy her together and give her freedom," he said.

Officially called "Joke 18" after the wife of her owner, Toon van den Enk, Hermien escaped with another cow, which was swiftly re-caught.

"She must have been stressed at the moment she was walking into the truck for the abattoir. Since then we haven't been able to catch her," vet Edo Hamersma told AFP.

At night, Hermien has been sneaking into nearby stables for food, before disappearing again into the shadows.

According to the AD daily, the campaign has raised enough money for her to live comfortably in the fields for the rest of her days.

But she still needs to be recaptured, and remains "very fearful," said Hamersma.

"We'll have to leave her alone, and wait for better weather when the herd goes out into the fields. Then she'll probably approach them by herself."  AFPsanjiv@tribunemail.com

Male, February 3

Maldivian authorities on Saturday announced an indefinite postponement of parliament as President Abdulla Yameens regime resisted international pressure to comply with a landmark Supreme Court order to free political prisoners.

The Peoples Majlis (parliament) told local reporters in a brief message that the assembly will not have its scheduled sessions on Monday due to security reasons. No fresh date was given for the sessions.

The move followed a shock order Thursday by the countrys Supreme Court to release nine political dissidents. It also restored the seats of 12 legislators who had been sacked for defecting from Yameens party.

Yameens office says he dismissed Ahmed Saudhee today and appointed Deputy Police Commissioner Abdulla Nawaz to act as interim police chief. Yameen has fired a national police chief for the second time in three days.

The reinstatement of the dozen legislators has given the opposition a majority in the 85-member assembly, and it can now potentially impeach Yameen as well as his cabinet.

The main Opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) said Yameen was yet to release any political prisoners. Although Yameen has said he will abide by the ruling, he is yet to comply with the order delivered more than 36 hours ago, Colombo-based MDP spokesman Hamid Abdul Ghafoor said.

In a statement issued overnight, the joint Opposition, which includes Nasheeds MDP, said there were concerns the regime would ignore the ruling and that it would trigger further unrest in the nation of 3,40,000 Sunni Muslims.

The United Nations, Australia, Britain, Canada, India and the United States welcomed the courts decision as a move towards restoring democracy in the politically troubled Indian Ocean nation.

Earlier, Nasheed had said the ruling cleared the way for him to return to the Maldives and contest elections due later this year. I can contest and will contest, he said in the Sri Lankan capital Colombo.

Meanwhile, Yameens spokesperson Ibrahim Muaz Ali refuted the claims that the President is trying to flee to Singapore. He said the talk was all false and that the picture of a ticket being spread in the social media, purportedly belong to President Yameen, was falsified. PTI

Open to early poll

Maldives president Yameen Abdul Gayoom has said that he was willing to hold an early presidential election to allow voters to decide whom they want to lead the Indian Ocean archipelago. Speaking publicly for the first time since Thursdays Supreme Court order to release politicians opposed to him, Yameen said was open to holding an election several months before his term ends next November.Despite rising deaths, police officers and other first responders are among those most hesitant to get the vaccine and their cases continue to grow. Plus, 10 charts that trace the variant's spread, and a new guide to safely enjoying activities.pardeepdhull@gmail.com

Washington, February 3

A Russian man accused of operating a network of infected computers used by cyber criminals has been extradited to the United States from Spain and will make an initial court appearance on Friday, the US Department of Justice said.

US prosecutors said Peter Levashov, 37, ran the Kelihos botnet, a network of more than 1,00,000 infected devices used by cyber criminals to distribute viruses, ransomware, phishing emails and other spam attacks.

Levashov denies the charges in an eight-count indictment handed down by a federal grand jury in Connecticut in April.

Levashov, who fought the extradition, told Spains High Court in September that he had worked for Russian President Vladimir Putins United Russia party for the last 10 years, Russias RIA news agency reported.

He told the court that investigators in the United States would torture him for information about his political work if he was sent there to face the charges, RIA said.

Levashov was charged by US prosecutors with causing intentional damage to a protected computer and wire fraud, which carry a potential prison sentence of up to 52 years if he is convicted at trial.

He was arrested while on holiday in Barcelona last April and in October, Spains High Court granted a U.S. request to extradite him. Levashov was scheduled to appear in court in Bridgeport, Connecticut, the Justice Department said. Reuterssanjiv@tribunemail.com

Washington: The Trump administration has announced a policy to modernise its nuclear arsenal by developing smaller atomic bombs and enhancing its deterrence capabilities. Defence Secretary Jim Mattis said maintaining an effective nuclear deterrent is much less expensive than fighting a war that the US was unable to deter. Our commitment to the goals of the treaty on the NPT remains strong, he said. PTI

Kim used embassy for N-procurement

Berlin: The head of Germanys domestic intelligence agency says North Korea has used its embassy in Berlin to acquire equipment apparently intended for its missile or nuclear programmes. BfV agency head Hans-Georg Maassen said of the embassy: We have seen that procurement activities took place from there, from our point of view with a view to the missile program and in part also the nuclear programme. PTIrchopra@tribunemail.com

Washington, February 3

The United States has warned countries against supporting non-state actors and terrorist groups trying to obtain or employ nuclear weapons.

The US will hold accountable any state or non-state actor that supports terrorist efforts to obtain or employ a nuclear weapon, Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, Tom Shannon, told reporters at a Pentagon news conference where the Trump Administration rolled out its 2018 Nuclear Posture Review (NPR).

Neither Shannon nor the NPR report, running into 100 pages, identified any country which could be seen aiding terrorist groups in this regard.

US officials have in the past expressed concern over the possibility of nuclear weapons of Pakistan landing into the hands of non-state actors or terrorist groups and thus has been working with Islamabad in enhancing the security of its nuclear weapons.

Pakistan has repeatedly denied such fears and asserted that its nuclear arsenals are one of the safest and secure ones in the world.

(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)

Shannon said nuclear terrorism remained a major threat in the 21st century and countries needed to work to mitigate it.

The potential threat of non-state actors getting their hands on a nuclear weapon remains at the front of all of our minds, Shannon told reporters at a news conference held at the Pentagon.

Deputy Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette said the US would keep a close watch on nuclear proliferation activities.

The Department of Energy will continue to focus on non-proliferation, counter-proliferation and counter-terrorism. Together with our allies and partners, we have enjoyed great, great success in these areas, he said.

In a special section on nuclear terrorism, the report said the US strategy to combat nuclear terrorism encompassed a wide range of activities that comprised a defence-in-depth against current and emerging dangers.

The report said the US would try and prevent terrorists from obtaining nuclear weapons or technology and respond to nuclear incidents by locating and disabling a nuclear device or managing the consequences of a nuclear detonation.

For effective deterrence, the US will hold fully accountable any state, terrorist group, or other non-state actor that supports or enables terrorist efforts to obtain or employ nuclear devices, the report said.

The report said a terrorist nuclear attack against the US or its allies and partners would qualify as an extreme circumstance under which the US could consider the ultimate form of retaliation.

According to the report, the US will continue its efforts to minimise the number of nuclear weapons states, including by maintaining credible US-extended nuclear deterrence and assurance; and deny terrorist organisations access to nuclear weapons and materials.

It will also seek arms control agreements that enhance security, and are verifiable and enforceable.

The US will enhance cooperation with its allies, partners and international institutions to combat nuclear terrorism, and deterring state support for nuclear terrorism through advanced forensics and attribution capabilities.

Noting that the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) is the cornerstone of the nuclear non-proliferation regime, the report said nuclear non-proliferation today faced acute challenges.

Most significantly, North Korea is pursuing a nuclear path in direct contravention of the NPT and in direct opposition to numerous UN Security Council resolutions, the report said.

The report also lists Iran as a challenge in terms of nuclear proliferation.

Although the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) may constrain Tehrans nuclear weapons programme, there is little doubt Iran could achieve a nuclear weapon capability rapidly if it decides to do so, it said.

According to the report, the US will work to increase transparency and predictability to avoid potential miscalculation among nuclear weapons states and other possessor states.

..through strategic dialogues, risk-reduction communications channels, and the sharing of best practices related to nuclear weapons safety and security, the report said.

In its report, the Trump administration said although the US would not seek ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, it will continue to support the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organisation Preparatory Committee (CTBTO) as well as the International Monitoring System and the International Data Centre.

The US will not resume nuclear explosive testing unless necessary to ensure the safety and effectiveness of the US nuclear arsenal, and calls on all states possessing nuclear weapons to declare or maintain a moratorium on nuclear testing, it said. PTIAccording to a Reuters report, Tesla is working with several leading North American fleets to install a network of electric truck charging stations. Photo: Jack Roberts

At the Tesla Semi truck launch in Hawthorne, California, last fall, CEO Elon Musk made passing reference to a planned network of high-capacity charging stations that would eventually be put in place to recharge his electric trucks and extend their daily range. Details on that network were sparse, however.

Now, Reuters has learned that Musk and Tesla are collaborating with several logistics leaders in North America to put the beginnings of that charging network in place. According to a report from Reuters, Anheuser-Busch, PepsiCo and United Parcel Service are working with the electric truck builder to construct on-site charging terminals at their facilities as Tesla ramps up production of its new truck next year. These firms are among nine major logistics providers in North America that have placed pre-orders for the new electric truck.

According to the report, details of the deal are still under negotiation, but will include design and engineering input from Tesla. Reuters notes that the agreement bolsters Musks claims that Tesla can put a charging network in place in time to support the new truck, and is, in fact, working to overcome one of the most widely cited shortcomings in his publicly stated plans for the Semi truck. The agreement is also a strong indication that Tesla truck customers are taking both the vehicle and its deployment seriously, and working with the company to ensure as smooth a launch as possible once the trucks enter production.

Reuters reports the companies it spoke to indicated their initial effort will be to install charging equipment on their own premises, with the first Tesla Semis deployed on routes that will return them to their home base at the end of a daily run, before the batteries run down.

Reuters also noted in the report that Tesla is also working on establishing its own network of electric truck stops, which will sell electric charges to truckers. Tesla already operates more than 1,100 supercharger stations globally for drivers of its passenger cars. Musk noted during the Semi launch last fall Tesla intends to construct a network of solar-powered megachargers that he said could recharge a Semi truck battery in as little as 30 minutes.

However, the report also noted that Tesla is stretched thin and burning cash, raising more questions as to how quickly the company is capable of putting the planned truck-oriented charging network in place. Some analysts and trucking executives, the report adds, doubt that Tesla can deliver the Semi in 2019, much less a vast charging infrastructure to support it.This (mostly) pilgrimage trip to Sri Lanka was inspired by my Guru, H.E Tsem Rinpoche, who encouraged me to bring my family on a blessed pilgrimage trip instead of a regular holiday to places which do not have much meaning.

I thought about what my Guru said, and it makes a lot of sense especially since my children are growing up into their teenage years, and are already facing the real world. It is definitely extremely beneficial for children to receive the blessings of the Buddhas, so that they can hold the Buddhas teachings in their heart when they grow up. It is also beneficial for us adults to visit holy places and receive the Buddhas blessings too.

I thank Rinpoche for everything on this trip.

Lew Kwan Leng

Day 1: 29 November 2017

We arrived in Colombo at 9.30 am local time. We will be spending three nights in Sigiriya area (about 150km away from Colombo Airport), because it is near to Dambulla and the two ancient cities, Polonnaruwa and Anuradhapura.

Enroute to Sigiriya, we visited Mahamevnawa Buddhist Monastery and Bambaragala Ancient Temple. Mahamevnawa Buddhist Monastery is home to more than 700 Buddhists monks and nuns with over 50 branches in Sri Lanka and overseas, including USA, Australia and Europe. The monastery we visited in Polgahawela is the headquarters of the organisation.

It has a big prayer hall with a golden Buddha statue decorated very nicely with lights. Behind the prayer hall, there is a stupa-shaped hall with another Buddha statue. The compound beyond the second hall is restricted to monks only, and we could hear the sounds of the monks chanting. The environment was very calm and peaceful. There are also a few peacocks roaming around the compound.

After Mahamevnawa Monastery, we visited Bambaragala Old Temple which was just five minutes away. It is a small and old cave temple with a reclining Buddha statue and a Bodhi tree, with a monk living next to the temple.

Day 2: 30 November 2017

We left for Polonnaruwa early in the morning as the journey takes about 1 hour and 20 minutes from Sigiriya to Polonnaruwa. Before reaching Polonnaruwa, we stopped to pay our respects to a replica of Avukana Buddha near Giritale. This standing Buddha is 12 meters (39 feet) tall and is believed to have been built during the 5th century, although some sources suggest it was constructed in the 12th or 13th centuries. This statue is situated next to a man-made lake built by King Agbo II in the 12th century. There is a bus stop right in front of the Buddha, and locals are often seen coming down from the bus to make a donation then hopping back into the bus.

It took another 25 minutes to get to the Ancient City of Polonnaruwa. Polonnaruwa was the capital city of the Kingdom of Polonnaruwa in the 11th century for about 180 years, and it has a great deal of history related to Buddhism.

The entrance fees for Polonnaruwa are USD25 for adults, and half price for children aged 6 to 12. It is recommended to get a local guide which costs around USD20. We started the tour in the museum to get a general understanding of the kingdom. Throughout the museum and ancient sites, we could see that many Buddhas were without their heads and hands. This is because blue sapphires were offered on the heads and hands of the Buddhas, and during the war, the heads and hands were broken and looted for the sapphires.

After the museum, we proceeded to the first ancient site which features the royal palace, audience hall and swimming pool. The second ancient site, called Sacred Quadrangle, is more related to Buddhism and is considered to be a sacred place. It has three buildings which housed the Buddhas tooth during the Polonnaruwa period. In ancient Sri Lanka, the Buddhas tooth was a symbol of the king.

Sacred Quadrangle area Sacred Quadrangle area

Inscriptions that detail historical events Inscriptions that detail historical events

Atadage, the oldest building in the Sacred Quadrangle, has been identified as the first building to house the Buddhas tooth Atadage, the oldest building in the Sacred Quadrangle, has been identified as the first building to house the Buddhas tooth

Hetagage, the second building to have housed the Buddhas tooth Hetagage, the second building to have housed the Buddhas tooth

Vatadage, the third building to have housed the Buddhas tooth Vatadage, the third building to have housed the Buddhas tooth

We did prayers in Vatadage We did prayers in Vatadage

The same site also has a Bodhisattva Hall, a pavilion where the king listened to chanting, and an ancient temple.

Bodhisattva Hall. Many of the Buddha images had blue sapphires engraved as the Buddhas eyes, and on the Buddhas hands, and were destroyed during the war for the precious gemstones Bodhisattva Hall. Many of the Buddha images had blue sapphires engraved as the Buddhas eyes, and on the Buddhas hands, and were destroyed during the war for the precious gemstones

The pavilion where the king listened to chanting The pavilion where the king listened to chanting

The exterior of the ancient temple. Some restoration work is being carried out] The exterior of the ancient temple. Some restoration work is being carried out]

The shrine area inside the ancient temple. The taller statue is about 3 metres high The shrine area inside the ancient temple. The taller statue is about 3 metres high

The last and final stop for us in Polonnaruwa was Gal Vihara, which was also the most impressive. It has four statues of Buddha carved from one large piece of granite:

Large seated image depicting the Buddha in meditative posture with the dhyana mudra. Height: 15 feet 2.5 inches (4.636 m). A smaller statue similar to the above seated image. Height: 4 feet 7 inches (1.40 m). Large standing image with arms folded across the chest, in para dukkha dukkhitha mudra or sorrow for the sorrow of others. Height: 22 feet 9 inches (6.93 m) Large reclining image, the largest Buddha image in Gal Vihara, depicting the Buddhas parinirvana. Length: 46 feet 4 inches (14.12 m).

There are offering tables in front of each statue for visitors to place offerings on, as well as places for offering incense. The four statues are covered by a roof structure erected by UNESCO to preserve the ancient monument. In total, we spent about three hours in Polonnaruwa.

Gal Vihara, which means Rock Monastery in Sinhalese Gal Vihara, which means Rock Monastery in Sinhalese

Large seated Buddha at 15 feet 2.5 inches Large seated Buddha at 15 feet 2.5 inches

Smaller seated Buddha, protected by a metal cage Smaller seated Buddha, protected by a metal cage

Close up of the smaller seated Buddha Close up of the smaller seated Buddha

Large standing Buddha at 22 feet 9 inches Large standing Buddha at 22 feet 9 inches

Large reclining Buddha at 46 feet 4 inches long Large reclining Buddha at 46 feet 4 inches long

After Polonnaruwa, we proceeded to the Kaudulla National Park Safari where more than a hundred wild elephants can be observed.

The jeep, our transport into the national park The jeep, our transport into the national park

Wild elephant herds can be observed around the lake Wild elephant herds can be observed around the lake

The elephants are not too far from us! The elephants are not too far from us!

Day 3: 1 December 2017

We started our day early in the morning again, and it took about 1 hour and 30 minutes to arrive in Anuradhapura from Sigiriya. The Anuradhapura period spans from 377 BC to 1017 AD (almost 1,400 years), before the Polonnaruwa period. Many of the buildings here were built more than 2,000 years ago.

The entrance fees for Anuradhapura are USD25 for adults and half price for children aged 6 to 12. We engaged a local tour guide for about USD25, which is highly recommended because Anuradhapura is much bigger than Polonnaruwa. It was a public holiday and the entire Anuradhapura area was quite crowded with many local devotees who came to make offerings and pray.

We started by visiting monks meditation caves. It is believed that the first Buddhist monks in Sri Lanka meditated under these rocks some 2,300 years ago. These granite caves are quite small compared to limestone caves, and would have provided very good shelter from the rain for the meditating monks.

More than 2,000 years ago, monks sat underneath these rocks and meditated here More than 2,000 years ago, monks sat underneath these rocks and meditated here

The rocks were cut across so that the rain would fall straight down instead of flowing inside the cave, to keep the cave dry so that monks could continue to meditate even when it was raining. Inscriptions are commonly seen here. The rocks were cut across so that the rain would fall straight down instead of flowing inside the cave, to keep the cave dry so that monks could continue to meditate even when it was raining. Inscriptions are commonly seen here.

There are many small holes on the floor and it is believed they are the result of grinding medicines. This is said to have been the clinic. There are many small holes on the floor and it is believed they are the result of grinding medicines. This is said to have been the clinic.

Another cave which is very conducive for meditation Another cave which is very conducive for meditation

View from within the cave View from within the cave

Breaking rocks 2,000 years ago: Make some shallow holes, place oil inside the holes and burn the oil. With enough heat, the rocks will break Breaking rocks 2,000 years ago: Make some shallow holes, place oil inside the holes and burn the oil. With enough heat, the rocks will break

Another cave suitable for meditation Another cave suitable for meditation

We did our prayers here; may we have the merit to be able to meditate in a cave in this life We did our prayers here; may we have the merit to be able to meditate in a cave in this life

This cave was used by monks from royal families, before they were ordained, for resting and meditation. This cave was used by monks from royal families, before they were ordained, for resting and meditation.

We then moved on to Isurumuniya Temple which was built around the same period to house 500 young monks of high-caste when they were ordained. It has a beautiful reclining Buddha statue, wall paintings, a Bodhi tree and a small stupa on top. You will need to pay a separate entrance fee for Isurumuniya Temple (about USD1.50 for adults and half price for children aged 6 to 12 years old).

Making offerings in front of the main shrine. Many visitors offered flowers to the Buddha Making offerings in front of the main shrine. Many visitors offered flowers to the Buddha

Beautiful wall paintings Beautiful wall paintings

Buddha in parinirvana Buddha in parinirvana

Replica of the Buddhas footprints Replica of the Buddhas footprints

The stupa in Isurumuniya Temple The stupa in Isurumuniya Temple

We did prayers next to the stupa in Isurumuniya Temple We did prayers next to the stupa in Isurumuniya Temple

A group photo in Isurumuniya Temple A group photo in Isurumuniya Temple

Our next stop was the Jaya Sri Maha Bodhi, a sacred fig tree said to be a branch of the historical Bodhi Tree in Bodh Gaya, under which Buddha Shakyamuni became enlightened. The Mauryan Emperor Ashokas daughter, Sangamitta Maha Theri, brought a branch from the original Mahabodhi Tree in Bodh Gaya to Sri Lanka and she offered it to the reigning monarch, King Devanampiya Tissa who, in 288 BC, planted it here in Anuradhapura.

Jaya Sri Maha Bodhi is considered to be the worlds oldest living human-planted tree with a known planting date. This sacred tree is surrounded by protective walls and railings, and many devotees chant prayers around the sacred tree.

Jaya Sri Maha Bodhi is one of the oldest living human-planted trees, over 2,300 years old! Jaya Sri Maha Bodhi is one of the oldest living human-planted trees, over 2,300 years old!

Another angle of the Jaya Sri Maha Bodhi Tree Another angle of the Jaya Sri Maha Bodhi Tree

It is traditional to wear white when visiting temples in Sri Lanka. Many devotees sat around the Jaya Sri Maha Bodhi to chant prayers, led by a monk. It is traditional to wear white when visiting temples in Sri Lanka. Many devotees sat around the Jaya Sri Maha Bodhi to chant prayers, led by a monk.

We also did our prayers here We also did our prayers here

There are many other Bodhi trees surrounding the original tree There are many other Bodhi trees surrounding the original tree

Next, we took a stroll to Ruwanwelisaya, a stupa said to contain the Buddhas relics. This is one of the Solosmasthana (the 16 places of veneration) and the Atamasthana (the 8 places of veneration) in the ancient sacred city of Anuradhapura. Ruwanwelisaya is one of the worlds tallest monuments, with a height of 103 metres (338 ft) and a circumference of 290 metres (951 ft).

Ruwanwelisaya Stupa Ruwanwelisaya Stupa

The main entrance of the stupa The main entrance of the stupa

There are many shrines around the stupa with many flower offerings There are many shrines around the stupa with many flower offerings

Many devotees circumambulate the stupa Many devotees circumambulate the stupa

Another shot of the magnificent stupa Another shot of the magnificent stupa

We then went to Thuparamaya, which is also a Solosmasthana, where the right collar-bone of the Buddha is enshrined. This is the earliest stupa to be built (in 200 BC, 2,200 years ago) after the introduction of Buddhism to Sri Lanka.

Thuparamaya Stupa Thuparamaya Stupa

Making flower offerings at the stupa Making flower offerings at the stupa

Stone pillars around the stupa suggest there is a structure with a conical roof surrounding the stupa Stone pillars around the stupa suggest there is a structure with a conical roof surrounding the stupa

Our last stop was the Jetavanaramaya Stupa, which is said to contain part of the sash or belt of Buddha Shakyamuni, and was the tallest stupa in the ancient world. There is a small temple with a reclining Buddha in front of the stupa.

Group photo at Jetavanaramaya Stupa Group photo at Jetavanaramaya Stupa

The small temple next to the stupa The small temple next to the stupa

We did our prayers inside the temple We did our prayers inside the temple

Anuradhapura Ancient City is bigger than Polonnaruwa and it took us five hours to cover all the above sites. We also took the time to do prayers at most of the sites. If you plan to cover all Buddhist sites, it is recommended to spend two days in Anuradhapura.

Our next destination was the Avukana Buddha, which is about 1 hour and 20 minutes from Anuradhapura. Avukana Buddha was built about 1,500 years ago with a height of 13 metres (42ft). This huge statue, depicted in a variation of the Abhaya mudra, is carved from a large piece of granite rock. The statue is now covered with a roof for preservation purposes. The entrance fee is USD7 for adults, and half price for children aged 6 to 12.

Avukana Buddha Avukana Buddha

Another shot of Avukana Buddha Another shot of Avukana Buddha

The Bodhi tree in front of the statue The Bodhi tree in front of the statue

Making prayers in front of Avukana Buddha Making prayers in front of Avukana Buddha

Day 4: 2 December 2017

We packed our bags and headed for Kandy, the second largest city in Sri Lanka. We had one more temple to visit in the Sigiriya area, which is the famous Dambulla Golden Temple and the Cave Temple. The Cave Temple is situated on top of a small hill, and you can start your climb from the Golden Temple. There is another shorter way up to the Cave Temple which is about 10 minutes drive from Golden Temple. Using the shorter route, it took us about 15 minutes to reach the Cave Temple. While climbing up the stairs, dont forget to turn back and look at the beautiful view.

Dambulla Golden Temple Dambulla Golden Temple

Circumambulating around the golden stupa Circumambulating around the golden stupa

Another beautiful view of Dambulla Golden Temple Another beautiful view of Dambulla Golden Temple

Prayers in front of the Golden Buddha Prayers in front of the Golden Buddha

The stairs leading up to the Cave Temple The stairs leading up to the Cave Temple

Beautiful view while climbing up Beautiful view while climbing up

Bodhi tree Bodhi tree

Exterior view of the Cave Temple Exterior view of the Cave Temple

Rocks are cut to keep the cave dry Rocks are cut to keep the cave dry

The entrance fees for Dambulla Cave are USD10 for adults, and half price for children aged 6 to 12. You may also consider engaging a tour guide for about USD15. This temples history dates back to the first century BC. There are five caves in the Cave Temple, and each cave has tables for visitors to place flower offerings. The entire ceiling of all the caves are painted with beautiful Buddha images and patterns.

We started with the second and largest cave. Called the Temple of the Great King, it is 172 feet long. This cave is said to have 16 standing, 40 seated and 1 reclining Buddha, with the Bodhisattvas Maitreya and Avalokiteshvara, and a stupa.

There are many statues inside Cave 2 There are many statues inside Cave 2

The two left most statues are Maitreya and Avalokiteshvara The two left most statues are Maitreya and Avalokiteshvara

Elaborate and beautiful wall paintings Elaborate and beautiful wall paintings

There is a crack in the ceiling which is said to drip healing water There is a crack in the ceiling which is said to drip healing water

The third cave, called the Great New Monastery, is 90 feet long (second largest cave). It is about 300 years old, which is considered new, and houses 50 Buddha statues in various positions.

The statues in Cave 3 The statues in Cave 3

Wall paintings in Cave 3 Wall paintings in Cave 3

The fourth cave, called the Western Temple, is about 54 feet long. The main image is a seated Buddha with the dhyana mudra. There is a stupa in the cave which is said to have been broken by thieves for the jewellery contained inside. Although the stupa has since been reconstructed, the cracks are still visible.

The stupa in Cave 4 The stupa in Cave 4

The fifth cave is a small one with the Sleeping Buddha as the main image.

Cave 5 Cave 5

The Reclining Buddha in Cave 5 The Reclining Buddha in Cave 5

Wall paintings in Cave 5 Wall paintings in Cave 5

We then went back to the first cave, called Temple of the King of Gods. The main image here, about 47 feet in length, depicts the parinirvana of the Buddha, with His main disciple Ananda standing next to the Buddha.

Buddha in parinirvana in Cave 1 Buddha in parinirvana in Cave 1

The shrine in Cave 1 The shrine in Cave 1

After we finished touring the five caves, we went back to the second cave to do our prayers there.

Prayers in Cave 2 Prayers in Cave 2

En route to Kandy, we also visited the Aluvihara Rock Temple whose history can be traced back to the 3rd century BC, where the Tripitaka (Pali canon) was first written down completely on palm leaves in order to preserve the Buddhas teachings. The compound has a Bodhi tree, stupa, and a small cave temple with Buddha statues in various postures and beautiful wall paintings of the Jataka Tales. From here, you can also see a huge golden Buddha statue up in the mountains, which is a 1.2km hike away.

Entrance of the Aluvihara Rock Temple Entrance of the Aluvihara Rock Temple

Making prayers in front of the Bodhi Tree Making prayers in front of the Bodhi Tree

The small but beautiful rock temple The small but beautiful rock temple

Wall paintings Wall paintings

Outside the rock temple Outside the rock temple

After arriving in Kandy, we went for a cultural dance performance before proceeding to the famous Temple of the Tooth Relic. The entrance fees are USD10 for adults and half price for children aged 6 to 12. You may also consider engaging a tour guide for about USD8 to explain and guide you through the complex. The Temple of the Tooth Relic has three food offering ceremonies every day  at 5.30 am, 9.30 am and 6.30 pm. We arrived in time for the 6.30 pm ceremony, and it is highly recommended to witness the offering ceremony although it can be rather noisy. During the ceremony, visits to the tooth relic are temporary closed.

The exterior of the Temple of the Tooth Relic at night The exterior of the Temple of the Tooth Relic at night

Food offering ceremony Food offering ceremony

Wall paintings depicting food offering Wall paintings depicting food offering

We started queueing at 6.40 pm, and waited for about 10 minutes before visits were allowed again. You will not be able to see the Buddhas tooth directly because it is enshrined inside a seven-layer stupa. Since many people are queuing to pay homage to the Buddhas tooth relic, you only have a short time to make offerings of flowers (and a monetary donation if you wish) before you must move on. After making our offerings, we joined other devotees on the floor around the relic and did our prayers.

The long queue of people patiently waiting to pay homage to the Buddhas Tooth The long queue of people patiently waiting to pay homage to the Buddhas Tooth

The seven-layer stupa housing the Buddhas Tooth Relic The seven-layer stupa housing the Buddhas Tooth Relic

Doing prayers in the temple Doing prayers in the temple

Many devotees outside the hall of the Buddhas Tooth Many devotees outside the hall of the Buddhas Tooth

There is also a library and shrine with a beautiful Buddha, but unfortunately photography is strictly prohibited.

On a separate note, Kandy hosts a huge annual parade called Kandy Esala Perahera, which is one of the oldest and grandest of all Buddhist festivals in Sri Lanka, featuring dancers, jugglers, musicians, fire-breathers, and lavishly decorated elephants. This 10-day event is held in July/August which is the time of the year that commemorates the first teaching given by the Buddha after he attained Enlightenment.

Day 5: 3 December 2017

Today we spent time in three temples in the Kandy area. As it is the full moon day, the temples were more crowded than usual as it is a holy day for Buddhists in Sri Lanka to pay homage to the Buddhas.

Our first stop was Bahirawakanda Temple which features an 88-ft Buddha statue which can be seen from the entire city of Kandy. The entrance fees for Bahirawakanda Temple are USD2 for adults and half price for children. There is a Bodhi tree here and you can make water offerings to the Bodhi tree. Throughout our visit, we could hear a Dharma talk by the Chief Monk in Sinhalese language on the loudspeakers. We also had the chance to make offerings to the Chief Monk after his Dharma talk. You can also view the entire city of Kandy from this temple.

Shrine with beautiful paintings on the walls] Shrine with beautiful paintings on the walls]

Offering water to the Bodhi Tree Offering water to the Bodhi Tree

Beautiful view of Kandy from Bahirawakanda Temple Beautiful view of Kandy from Bahirawakanda Temple

Making offerings to the Chief Monk Making offerings to the Chief Monk

We then went to Ranawana Purana Rajamaha Viharaya which is about 700 years old. It is said to be one of the most beautiful temples in Sri Lanka, featuring a 100-ft high Walking Buddha statue. The entrance fees are USD2 for adults and half price for children. It also has a cave which houses a shrine and an ancient stupa. It is believed that the relics of the Buddha are enshrined in this stupa.

This temple also has a Dhamma school. Daily gilanpasa (permissible food & drinks after noon) pujas and monthly eight precepts programs are some of the many religious activities conducted at the temple.

The entrance of Ranawana The entrance of Ranawana

There are many beautiful sculptures in the temple There are many beautiful sculptures in the temple

Sculptures depicting the story of the Buddha with the devoted elephant and monkey Sculptures depicting the story of the Buddha with the devoted elephant and monkey

Sculptures depicting the Buddhas chariot driver assisting Him to escape the palace. The chariot driver is Kyabje Trijang Rinpoches previous life Sculptures depicting the Buddhas chariot driver assisting Him to escape the palace. The chariot driver is Kyabje Trijang Rinpoches previous life

100 ft tall Walking Buddha 100 ft tall Walking Buddha

Doing prayers in front of the Walking Buddha Doing prayers in front of the Walking Buddha

The Buddha and His main disciples The Buddha and His main disciples

Sculptures depicting the story of Devadatta hurling a huge stone at the Buddha Sculptures depicting the story of Devadatta hurling a huge stone at the Buddha

Chanting session Chanting session

Wall paintings in the cave Wall paintings in the cave

The stupa and Bodhi Tree The stupa and Bodhi Tree

Our last stop of the day was ancient Gadaladeniya Rajamaha Viharaya, built more than 600 years ago. It features a 2.43 metre (8 ft) high statue of a seated Buddha in dhyana mudra pose. This temple also features a stupa complex, with one central stupa (12.3 m or 40 feet) surrounded by four smaller stupas. The entrance fees are USD2 for adults and half price for children. Many locals come to offer flowers and oil lamps in this temple.

The famous stupa complex in Gadaladeniya The famous stupa complex in Gadaladeniya

Each of the four sides of the stupa has a small shrine like this Each of the four sides of the stupa has a small shrine like this

8 ft high statue 8 ft high statue

Doing prayers inside the temple complex Doing prayers inside the temple complex

The shrine beside the Bodhi tree The shrine beside the Bodhi tree

The shrine and Bodhi tree The shrine and Bodhi tree

Day 6: 4 December 2017

We went to the southern part of Sri Lanka to visit two major Buddhist sites: Buduruwagala and Kataragama. En route to Buduruwagala, we stopped at Saliyala Purana Rajamaha Viharaya, the temple with the longest (132 feet) Sleeping Buddha statue in South Asia. The entrance fees are USD2 for adults and half price for children.

After that, it was a long journey of 150 km with endless stretches of winding mountainous roads, passing by tea factories, various waterfalls, Nuwara Eliya (Little England) and Ella.

Tea plantation Tea plantation

Tea factory Tea factory

One of the many waterfalls One of the many waterfalls

Mountainous views in the Nuwara Eliya area Mountainous views in the Nuwara Eliya area

After almost five hours, we finally arrived at Buduruwagala. There arent many historical records about this ancient site but it is generally believed to be dated around the 9th or 10th century (about 1,000 years ago). Situated within a forested area, it consists of seven statues in a wide open space. The central statue is a Buddha Shakyamuni (16 m or 52 feet tall) with three statues on either side. The central figure on the left is Avalokiteshvara and next to him is Tara. The place is very calm and surreal, and it is said that wild elephants come to this place at night. The entrance fees are USD2.50 for adults and half price for children.

Buduruwagala and the beautiful seven statues Buduruwagala and the beautiful seven statues

Doing prayers Doing prayers

The three statues on the left of the main statue. In the centre is Avalokitesvara, and Tara is on the left The three statues on the left of the main statue. In the centre is Avalokitesvara, and Tara is on the left

The three statues on the right of the main statue. The three statues on the right of the main statue.

Just to the left of the main Buddha statue is a carved flame which is about three feet (0.91 m) wide and four feet (1.2 m) high. Previously, the walls of the flame were wet with an oil that smelled very much like mustard oil, and many locals believed it had healing power. Nowadays, there is no longer any oil coming from the carved shape.

Carved flame next to the main statue Carved flame next to the main statue

After checking in to our hotel, we proceeded to Kiri Vehera Stupa in Kataragama, one of the 16 sacred places (Solosmasthana) in Sri Lanka that Buddha Shakyamuni visited, believed to have been built 2,500 years ago. According to legend, Buddha met with King Mahasena on His third and final visit to Sri Lanka. After the king listened to the Buddhas discourse, he built the stupa on the exact spot where Buddha gave the teaching as a token of gratitude.

Kiri Vihara at night. There werent many visitors as it was raining. Kiri Vihara at night. There werent many visitors as it was raining.

There is a sheltered courtyard within the compound of the stupa, where we sat and did our prayers. There is a sheltered courtyard within the compound of the stupa, where we sat and did our prayers.

This ancient temple is unique because it facilitates a close and beautiful relationship between Buddhism and Hinduism. There is also a huge ancient Bodhi tree in Kataragama Temple. It is believed that this sacred tree is 2,300 years old and originated from the Bodhi Tree in Anuradhapura.

Kataragama Temple, where the Bodhi Tree is planted Kataragama Temple, where the Bodhi Tree is planted

The other entrance to Kataragama Temple The other entrance to Kataragama Temple

The 2,300-year-old Bodhi Tree The 2,300-year-old Bodhi Tree

It drizzled when we did our prayers around the Bodhi tree It drizzled when we did our prayers around the Bodhi tree

Day 7: 5 December 2017

Early in the morning, we left Kataragama for Bentota, a town which is about two hours away from Colombo. It was quite a long drive of more than 220 km. We stopped at Bentota Beach for a quick photo and also joined a two-hour river safari in Maduganga Lake which had many mangrove trees, a cinnamon island, and a few ancient temples.

Maduganga Lake is nine square kilometres and has 56 islands Maduganga Lake is nine square kilometres and has 56 islands

Going through a mangrove tunnel Going through a mangrove tunnel

Situated on one of the small islands, Kotdoowa Temple features a seated Buddha, a reclining Buddha and a Bodhi Tree Situated on one of the small islands, Kotdoowa Temple features a seated Buddha, a reclining Buddha and a Bodhi Tree

One of the many Buddha statues in Maduganga Lake One of the many Buddha statues in Maduganga Lake

Day 8: 6 December 2017

On our last day of pilgrimage, we visited three temples: Kande Vihara in Beruwala, Gangaramaya Temple and Kelaniya Raja Maha Vihara in Colombo.

We woke up early in the morning and arrived at Kande Vihara at 6.30 am where we witnessed many people making offerings of flowers, fruit and rice to the Buddha before going to work. This temple was founded 300 years ago although it was much smaller at that time. Since then, much renovation and development work has been commissioned and today, it has a huge 48.8 m (160 ft) Samadhi Buddha. There is also a stupa and a Bodhi tree which is believed to be 300 years old within the temple.

Doing prayers at the feet of the big Buddha Doing prayers at the feet of the big Buddha

The Bodhi Tree and the main prayer hall on the right The Bodhi Tree and the main prayer hall on the right

The stupa next to the main prayer hall The stupa next to the main prayer hall

Beautiful statues inside the main prayer hall Beautiful statues inside the main prayer hall

The Reclining Buddha inside the main prayer hall The Reclining Buddha inside the main prayer hall

Devotees come to offer flowers, rice, milk, etc. before starting their day Devotees come to offer flowers, rice, milk, etc. before starting their day

We then headed to Colombo to visit the National Museum. This museum is huge with a great number of exhibits, many of which are related to Buddhism. It would have taken us at least four hours to cover everything but unfortunately we ran out of time.

Exterior of the National Museum Exterior of the National Museum

9th century bronze standing Buddha statue 9th century bronze standing Buddha statue

There are many Buddha statues in the museum There are many Buddha statues in the museum

A stupa with many Buddhas A stupa with many Buddhas

Our next stop was Gangaramaya Temple which has strong influences of Mahayana Buddhism and a mixture of Sri Lankan, Thai, Indian and Chinese architecture, quite different from the other temples in Sri Lanka. It features a prayer hall with beautifully sculpted and painted Buddhas, a white stupa with a white jade statue, a Bodhi tree, and a relic chamber which is said to contain the Buddhas hair. It also has an assembly hall for monks in the middle of Beira Lake, which is about 150 metres away from the main building.

Inside the main prayer hall with its many beautiful and large Buddha statues Inside the main prayer hall with its many beautiful and large Buddha statues

Beautiful wall paintings Beautiful wall paintings

We did our prayers in the main prayer hall We did our prayers in the main prayer hall

One of the statues was being restored One of the statues was being restored

A Bodhi Tree A Bodhi Tree

The white Jade Buddha in front of the white stupa The white Jade Buddha in front of the white stupa

Seating area around the Bodhi Tree for chanting and prayer sessions Seating area around the Bodhi Tree for chanting and prayer sessions

Many rare and valuable Buddha statues are exhibited here Many rare and valuable Buddha statues are exhibited here

Buddhas hair is in this glass chamber Buddhas hair is in this glass chamber

The assembly hall for monks in the middle of Beira Lake The assembly hall for monks in the middle of Beira Lake

The Bodhi tree and stupa next to the assembly hall by the lake The Bodhi tree and stupa next to the assembly hall by the lake

The last temple we visited on our trip was Kelaniya Raja Maha Vihara. It is one of the 16 Solosmasthana and it is said that the temple was consecrated by Buddha Shakyamuni during his third and final visit to Sri Lanka.

The temple was built during Buddhas time, about 2,500 years ago, and the original stupa of this sacred temple enshrined a throne on which the Buddha sat and preached during his visit. There is also a huge Bodhi Tree here, which many devotees queue and offer water to. When we left around 6.15 pm, a monk was leading many devotees in a chanting session in front of the Reclining Buddha inside the prayer hall. There is also an 18-foot stone statue of the Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara next to the stupa.

Stupa in Kelaniya Vihara Stupa in Kelaniya Vihara

The main prayer hall next to the stupa The main prayer hall next to the stupa

Beautiful wall paintings inside the main prayer hall Beautiful wall paintings inside the main prayer hall

The stupa inside the main prayer hall The stupa inside the main prayer hall

Many devotees queue to make water offerings to the Bodhi tree Many devotees queue to make water offerings to the Bodhi tree

We did our prayers inside the main prayer hall We did our prayers inside the main prayer hall

A monk led a chanting session in front of the Reclining Buddha A monk led a chanting session in front of the Reclining Buddha

More Interesting Places We Did Not Manage to Visit

Mihintale , where Buddhism in Sri Lanka is believed to have started

, where Buddhism in Sri Lanka is believed to have started Adams Peak , one of the most sacred pilgrimage places in Sri Lanka

, one of the most sacred pilgrimage places in Sri Lanka Nagadeepa Purana Viharaya in northern Sri Lanka

in northern Sri Lanka Sigiriya Lion Rock , an ancient rock fortress and a UNESCO World Heritage Site

, an ancient rock fortress and a UNESCO World Heritage Site Royal Botanical Gardens in Kandy

in Kandy Brief Garden in Bentota

Travel Tips in Sri Lanka

Visa applications are done online. It takes about two hours for approval. Booking hotels in Sri Lanka is quite an easy task, as you can use online hotel booking sites such as Booking.com. A decent and clean guest house costs around USD30-40 per night for a double room, including breakfast. Although you can take public transportation to various places, I would recommend to rent a car or van with a driver, because this is much faster and you will be able to visit more places. It cost us USD480 to hire a 9-seater van and driver for eight days. Visiting tourist attractions such as Sigiriya Lion Rock, ancient sites, etc. can be expensive. Do check prices before you travel. Most hotels and tourist attractions accept both US dollars and Sri Lankan rupees. However, it is recommended to pay in rupees for better exchange rates. If you need a 3G/4G data plan, you can get a SIM card for about USD10 that comes with 7GB of data (valid for one year). Most of Sri Lanka has 4G coverage and decent internet speed. The sun rises at about 6.15 am and sets around 6 pm. Most of the roads are single lane and the speed limit is 70 km/h for cars/vans. Restaurant food which is suitable for foreigners is typically priced around USD5-8 per person. It generally takes about 40 minutes to prepare the food. Restaurants will usually wait until all the dishes are ready before they serve you, and the food can be cold by the time it is served. Most restaurants and guest houses can prepare vegetarian food upon request. Buddhists usually wear white-coloured clothing when visiting temples. You are required to wear long pants or long dresses when entering the temples. If you are wearing shorts, then you must cover your legs with a piece of cloth. You must take off your shoes/hat in temple areas. It is traditional to offer flowers in Buddhist temples and fruits in Hindu temples. You can sit almost anywhere inside the temples to do your prayers, including inside the Dambulla Cave and Tooth Relic Temple. Never take a photo with your back facing the Buddha. It is considered very disrespectful. If you see signs like Please obtain a license to take a photo, you are generally allowed to take photographs; but not when you see signs like Strictly no photographs. When in doubt, please check with the staff.

For more interesting information:



Copyright Disclaimer: Under Section 13 of the Malaysian Copyright Act 1987, allowance is made for fair dealing for purposes such as non-profit research, private study, criticism, review or the reporting of current events. The Operator and author(s) of TsemRinpoche.com, a not-for-profit blog, do not claim ownership on the intellectual property rights of the contents, images and/or videos reproduced in this article. Any subsisting intellectual property rights shall belong to the legal owner of the contents, images and/or videos.The domain turkeytelegraph.com may be for sale. Please click here to inquireHi, my name is Scott C. Waring and I wrote a few books and am currently a ESL School Owner in Taiwan. I have had my own UFO sighting up close and personal, but that's how it works right? A non believer becomes a believer when they experience their first sighting. You witnessed it, your perceptual field changes, so now you need to share it.





I created this site to help the UFO community get a little bit organized. I noticed that there was a lot of chaos when searching for UFO sighting reports, so I hope this site helps. I wanted to support those eyewitnesses who have tried to tell others about what they have seen, yet were laughed at by even closest of friends.





More and more each day the governments of the world leak bits and pieces of UFO information to the public. They have a trickle down theory in hopes of slowly getting citizens use to the idea that we are not alone in universe and never have been. The truth is being leaked drop by drop until one day we look around and find ourselves neck high in it.





The discovery of alien species in existence is the most monumental scientific event in human history, suppression of that information is a crime against humanity.





About me:

I live in Taiwan. I OWN MY OWN ENGLISH SCHOOL, AND ONCE HAD 5 SCHOOLS.

Am Former USAF at SAC base (flight line).

Age: 42

Educ: BA in Elem ed. Masters in Counseling ed.





I had two UFO sightings, (30+bus size orbs) in military and in 2012 personally saw the UFO over Taipei 101 building on New Years Day (and recored it).In an article compiled by bloggers on the renowned travel site, the village is listed 14th out of the 16, and described as a hidden gem in the world heritage-listed Ha Long Bay.

There, visitors can gaze at the beautiful limestone karsts and isles of Ha Long Bay, take photos of the floating village with its colourful raft houses and witness first-hand the daily lives of local fishermen.

According to the website of the Viet Nam National Administration of Tourism (vietnamtourism.com), Cua Van is home to more than 170 households who depend mainly on fishing for their livelihoods. Last year the village had made it to a list of the top 30 travel destinations around the globe as voted by readers by the US-based Travel + Leisure magazine.

In 2015 it had been named the worlds most charming little town by the US online newspaper Huffington Post.

Figures from Ha Long city reveal that last year the city received 6.9 million visitors, including 2.94 million foreigners, up 12.9 per cent from 2016.JD has decided to invest in Tiki

Foreign companies took full advantage of the year-end occasion to showcase their financial potential. As always, Lazada Vietnam was a retailer that triggered the 2017 year-end shopping season.

With a goal of increasing sales by five times compared with ordinary days, Lazada Vietnam offered to sell 150,000 product items at preferential prices on November 9-11. One month later, it organized an event called a revolution in online shopping, offering big discounts for products and free deliveries.

Shopee, a Lazadas big rival from Singapore, launched a program called Super Sale. On December 12-14, Flash Sale was applied to hundreds of product items, while bank card holders enjoyed another 10-20% discount.

Online Fever, applied throughout South East Asia, was the campaign launched by Zalora, a fashion product online retailer.

Adayroi and Tiki, the two Vietnamese retailers, also ran sale promotion programs in mid-December.

In order to prepare for the years most important sale season, Lazada Vietnam put four new order taking centers into operation.

In 2017, Lazada Vietnam for the first time applied a 50% discount reduction program to sellers.

Analysts said that its offering free delivery for buyers and cutting required discount for sellers was a move to compete with Shopee Vietnam, which has been growing rapidly though it joined the market two years ago.

Players with powerful capital

Analysts say that the Vietnamese e-commerce market bears strong influences from foreign players who have powerful financial capability.

Under SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) analysis model, the challenges in joining industries are mentioned as an important factor.

Meanwhile, the war between Lazada Vietnam and Shopee Vietnam, according to analysts, are generating big barriers for domestic firms.

While Lazada Vietnam creates barriers when spending big money on ad campaigns to attract users, Shopee Vietnam focuses on supporting delivery and money collection services.

Although both companies did not disclose the amount of money they spend on advertising and shipping in Vietnam, experts in the e-commerce industry can estimate.

Analysts estimated that Shopee spends tens of billions of dong every day.

To compete with foreign giants, Vietnamese firms need support from foreign investors.

In the latest news, JD, the biggest rival of Alibaba in China, has reached an agreement on investing in Vietnams Tiki.(Photo: AFP/Lex van Lieshout)

In an open letter to the director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, an alliance of more than 2,000 health organisations voiced "deep concern" and said the deal would only help Heineken broaden its marketing reach.

"Transnational corporations producing and aggressively marketing alcohol rely on the harmful use of alcohol for their sales and profits," the letter said.

It accused companies such as Heineken of undermining and subverting evidence-based alcohol policy implementation "at the same time as they expand distribution networks and marketing to grow their market in low-and middle-income countries".

The open letter, a copy of which was sent to Reuters, was addressed to the Global Fund's incoming executive director Peter Sands, its board chair Aida Kurtovic, as well as its interim executive director.

It was signed by Katie Dain of the NCD Alliance, which groups 2,000 health organisations from around the world, by Kristina Sperkova of the anti-alcohol group IOGT International, and by Sally Casswell of the Global Alcohol Policy Alliance.

The Global Fund, a grouping of governments, civil society and the private sector which invests some US$4 billion a year into programmes to fight infectious diseases, announced a new partnership with Heineken last week which it said would "further advance a common goal" of fighting disease epidemics in Africa.

Under the deal, Heineken - the world's second-largest brewer - would lend expertise in logistics and communications to help the Global Fund reach specific demographic groups most at risk of HIV, tuberculosis and malaria.

Seth Faison, a spokesman for the Global Fund, said the letter had been received and noted.

"We ... appreciate the points it makes about the role of alcohol in public health and development," he said in an emailed reply to Reuters. "We take these concerns seriously."

He added, however, that the risks and benefits of the Heineken partnership had been thoroughly reviewed by Global Fund senior managers in mid-2017 before the deal was approved.

He said Heineken's supply chain experts would work with Global Fund planners to better deliver medicines and health supplies to people who need them.

Heineken said in an emailed comment that it is committed "responsible marketing" and advocates moderate consumption of alcohol in its advertising.

It said the Global Fund would enable both organisations "to collectively serve more people throughout Africa".

The health campaigners said, however, that they were deeply concerned about the partnership's implications for health.

"We therefore respectfully request that you end the partnership with Heineken and that you take our concerns into consideration when ... exploring future partnerships," they wrote.Several Vietnamese companies have introduced Viet Nams cultural features, natural landscapes and cuisine to visitors at the 60th Brussels Holiday Fair. - VNA/VNS photo Kim Chung

At the event, representatives from Vietnam Airlines, the national flag carrier, have provided visitors with information on its inbound and outbound flights, especially air routes from Belgium and other European nations to Viet Nam.

Vietnamese Ambassador to Belgium Vuong Thua Phong took the opportunity to promote the image of the Vietnamese land and people to Belgians and other international partners.

Nguyen Thi Dung Hanh from the Gvietnamtravels Company said that this time her company was offering tours designed to fit the requirements of each group of customers and cater to all services, from visa application to buying flight tickets.

According to her, Belgium is a promising market for Vietnamese travel agencies.

At the event, several Belgian companies have also introduced their attractive tours to Viet Nam.

Vietnam News Agencys correspondent quoted Willy Somers, a representative of Belgian Lauwers Tourism Company, as saying that his company had introduced to its customers many tours from north to south Viet Nam that could be completed in 12 days to 15 days.

He said the companys customers have booked all the tours to Viet Nam departing next month.

According to the plan, the company will conduct tours to Viet Nam throughout 2018, and this proves the Vietnamese market is interested in Belgian customers.

Viet Nam welcomed nearly 13 million international tourists in 2017, up 29.1 per cent compared with the previous year, of which 1.9 million tourists were from Europe, including more than 29,000 Belgians.

The 60th Brussels Holiday Fair is taking place from February 1 to February 4 in Brussels. This is a good opportunity for tour operators, airlines, hotels and tour operators in Belgium, as well as foreign partners to seek partners and business opportunities.President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with North Korean defectors where he talked with reporters about allowing the release of a secret memo on the FBIs role in the Russia inquiry, in the Oval Office of the White House on Friday in Washington.

remaining of

Thank you for reading! On your next view you will be asked to log in to your subscriber account or create an account and subscribepurchase a subscription to continue reading.Funeral Announcements A daily list of current funeral annoucements as heard on KXRA 1490 AM/100.3 FM

News Updates The daily news, sports, and events delivered daily from Voice of Alexandria.



Sports Update This current sports headlines delivered daily from Voice of Alexandria.

Upcoming Events This email is the events of the area delivered daily from Voice of Alexandria.

Breaking News The big news. Sent only as it happens.An accurate count of everyone is vital in our representative democracy. It determines how the 435 House of Representatives seats are allocated.

The rationale for collecting immigration status for the first time is specious. Rep. Steve King, an Iowa Republican and lead House sponsor of a bill requiring the immigration status question, argues it will help gain a more accurate count of immigrants without proper documentation.

More likely it will do the opposite. Many noncitizens, even those with legal status, will simply not participate, much as they now fear cooperating with police and governmental agencies or asking them for help.

Turning the census into a political weapon is not some minor stretching of the Constitution. It's a corruption of an essential mechanism of the republic its framers envisioned.

 The Times Union, Albany

There is an increasing likelihood that New York will legalize recreational marijuana.

But first things first. It should not be lost on anyone that, while Gov. Andrew Cuomo wants a commission to look at this issue, the state has struggled mightily to gets its medical marijuana program running in an effective manner, which should be the priority.Friends,

It is my honour to read out a message of greetings to participants in the Syrian National Dialogue Congress from President of Russia Vladimir Putin. Here it is:

Ladies and gentlemen,

I am happy to welcome the participants, observers and guests of the Syrian National Dialogue Congress to Sochi.

Your forum is called upon to reunite the people of Syria after a nearly seven-year-long conflict that has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives and forced millions to flee from their homeland. This is a good opportunity to bring to reality the desire of the Syrian people to end this fratricidal war, eradicate terrorism and resume normal life.

Russia continues its efforts to assist Syrians in the restoration of a lasting peace and stability in Syria and to strengthen its sovereignty, unity and territorial integrity. The Syrian Army, acting with support from the Russian Aerospace Forces, has defeated the ISIS terrorists, who attempted to turn the country into a base area for international terrorism. Thanks to the Astana format launched by Russia, Turkey and Iran, temporary but efficient de-escalation zones have been created to ensure a sustainable ceasefire, to improve the humanitarian situation, to start restoring the ruined social and economic infrastructure and to build up trust among Syrians.

We can say with confidence that conditions have been created for turning this tragic page in Syrias history. Considering the nascent positive trends, a truly effective intra-Syrian dialogue must be launched towards achieving a UN-led comprehensive political settlement based on the decisions of the international community, primarily UN Security Council Resolution 2254.

It is with this aim in mind that Russia has advanced the initiative of this congress, which has been supported by the UN. Working with our partners in the Astana process, influential Arab countries and Syrias neighbours, we tried to convene a forum that will be as representative as possible based on the belief that the Syrian people alone has the right to determine their future.

At present, the constructive forces of Syrian society are facing the crucial task of formulating a common view on ways to overcome the crisis and mapping out reforms that will enable all Syrian citizens regardless of their religion, ethnicity or social status to feel safe and at peace in their own country.

I wish you fruitful work and success.

Vladimir Putin

Ladies and gentlemen,

Friends,

I would like to express my personal sincere gratitude to our colleagues from the Islamic Republic of Iran, Turkey and the UN for their contribution to our collective efforts to prepare this forum. In view of the unprecedented nature of this meeting, which is being attended by representatives of so many ethnic, social and political groups of Syrian society, it is, of course, important to start by building mutual trust and our ability to work together.

I propose that the Special Presidential Envoy for Syria, Ambassador at Large Alexander Lavrentiev, act on behalf of the host country, that is, Russia, and the other guarantor countries  Turkey and Iran  to help us organise the work of this Congress and its panel discussions. If there are no objections, I call for a vote on this proposal.We, the delegates of the Congress of the Syrian national dialogue, representing all segments of Syrian society, its political and civil powers, ethnic, confessional and social groups, have assembled at the invitation of the friendly Russian Federation, in the city of Sochi, with the intention to put an end to seven years suffering of our people, through the achievement of a common understanding of the necessity for the salvation of our homeland from armed confrontation, social and economic ruin, the restoration of its dignity on the regional and world stage, the provision of fundamental rights and liberties for all its citizens, and most importantly, the right to a peaceful and free life without violence and terror. The only way to achieve this particular goal is the political settlement of the problems of our homeland on the basis of the following principles:

1. Respect of and full commitment to the sovereignty, independence, territorial integrity and unity of the [Syrian Arab Republic / state of Syria] as a land and a people. In this regard no part of the national territory shall be ceded. The people of Syria remain committed to the recovery of the occupied Syrian Golan by all lawful means in accordance with the UN Charter and international law;

2. Respect of and full commitment to Syrias national sovereign equality and rights regarding non- intervention. Syria shall take its full role in the international community and the region, including as part of the Arab world, in conformity with the UN Charter, and its purposes and principles;

3. The Syrian people alone shall determine the future of their country by democratic means, through the ballot box, and shall have the exclusive right to choose their own political, economic and social system without external pressure or interference, in line with Syrias international rights and obligations;

4. The [Syrian Arab Republic / state of Syria] shall be a democratic and non-sectarian state based on political pluralism and equal citizenship irrespective of religion, ethnicity and gender, with full respect for and protection of the rule of law, the separation of powers,judicial independence, the full equality of all citizens, the cultural diversity of the Syrian society, and public freedoms, including freedom of belief, featuring transparent, inclusive, accountable and answerable governance, including before the national law, with necessary effective measures to combat crime, corruption and mismanagement;

5. A state committed to national unity, social peace, and comprehensive and balanced development with fair representation in local administration;

6. Continuity and improved performance of state and public institutions, with reforms where necessary, including the protection of public infrastructure and property rights and provision of public services to all citizens without discrimination, in accordance with the highest standards of good governance and gender equality. Citizens shall benefit from effective mechanisms in their relations with all public authorities in such a way as to ensure full compliance with the rule of law and human rights and private and public property rights;

7. A strong, unified, meritocratic and national army that carries out its duties in accordance with the constitution and the highest standards. Its functions are to protect the national boundaries and the people from external threats and terrorism, with intelligence and security institutions to maintain national security subject to the rule of law, acting according to the constitution and the law and respecting human rights. The use of force shall be the exclusive prerogative of competent state institutions;

8. Unqualified rejection of - and active commitment to combat - terrorism, fanaticism, extremism and sectarianism in all its forms and to tackle conditions conducive to their spread;

9. Respect and protection of human rights and public freedoms, especially in times of crisis, including non-discrimination and equal rights and opportunities for all without regard to race, religion, ethnicity, cultural or linguistic identity, gender or any other distinction, with effective mechanism for their protection, which give due regard to the political and equal rights and opportunities of women, including by the taking of active measures to ensure representation and participation in institutions and decision- making structures, with mechanisms aimed to achieve a level of representation of at least 30% for women, and the goal of parity;

10. A high value placed on Syrias society and national identity, its history of diversity and the contributions and values that all religions, civilizations and traditions have brought to Syria, including the coexistence among its various components, along with the protection of the national cultural heritage of the nation and its diverse cultures;

11. Combatting and eliminating poverty and providing support for the elderly and other vulnerable groups, including persons with special needs, orphans and victims of war, which shall include ensuring the safety and refuge of all displaced persons and refugees, as well as protecting their right to voluntary and safe return to their homes and lands;

12. Preservation and protection of national heritage and the natural environment for future generations in accordance with environmental treaties and the UNESCO declaration concerning the intentional destruction of cultural heritage.

We, the representatives of the proud people of Syria, having lived through terrible misery and having found enough strength to fight against international terrorism, herewith declare our determination to restore the well-being and prosperity of our homeland and to make life decent and comfortable for each and every one of us.

To that end we agreed to form a constitutional committee comprising the Government of the Syrian Arab Republic delegation along with wide-represented opposition delegation for drafting of a constitutional reform as a contribution to the political settlement under the UN auspices in accordance with Security Council Resolution 2254.

The Constitutional Committee would at the very least comprise Government, Opposition representatives in the intra-Syrian talks, Syrian experts, civil society, independents, tribal leaders and women. Care would be taken to ensure adequate representation of Syria`s ethnic and religious components. Final agreement is to be reached in the UN-led Geneva process on the mandate and terms of reference, powers, rules of procedure, and selection criteria for the composition of the Constitutional Committee.

We appeal to the United Nations Secretary-General to assign the Special Envoy for Syria for the assistance of the Constitutional Committee work in Geneva.2018 Annual Art Competition for Young Artists

Gibraltar Cultural Services, on behalf of the Ministry of Culture is reminding local artists to participate in the annual Art Competition for Young Artists that will be held in February 2018. Closing date for receipt of entries is 6pm on Friday 16th February 2018.

The competition is open to Gibraltarians and residents of Gibraltar attending school in years 9 to 13 (or College equivalent), as well as to young Gibraltarian artists and residents of Gibraltar aged up to 24 years old as at 26th February 2018. Works must be original and not previously entered competitively, with the exception of non-winning entries in the 2017 Spring Visual Arts Competition and 2017 International Art Competition.

Artists may submit a maximum of three paintings/drawings and two sculptures. Unframed artworks will also be accepted. All entries will be exhibited at the John Mackintosh Hall from the 27th February to 9th March 2018.

Prizes to be awarded are:

1st Prize - The Ministry of Culture Prize - 1,000

2nd Prize - The AquaGib Award - 500

The Alwani Foundation Award - School Years 9 to 11 - 500

The Alwani Foundation Award - School Years 12 to 13 - 500

The Arts Society Gibraltar Sculpture Award - 500

All the artworks listed above will become property of the Ministry of Culture. Entry forms and full conditions are available from:

 Bayside and Westside Comprehensive Schools

 Gibraltar College of Further Education

 The Fine Arts Gallery, Casemates

 Mario Finlayson National Art Gallery, City Hall

 Gibraltar Exhibitions of Modern Art (GEMA), Montagu Bastion, Line Wall Road

 John Mackintosh Hall, 308 Main Street

 Or via email from: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or www.culture.gi

Entries may be handed in at the John Mackintosh Hall as from Wednesday 14th February 2018 from 3.30pm to 6pm.Jessica Williams and Phoebe Robinson. Photo: HBO

If you like 2 Dope Queens the podcast, youll like 2 Dope Queens the HBO series. Like most things on television, its possible to watch the four-part comedy special anytime you like. But theres something that feels especially right about watching it, as HBO intended, at 11:30 p.m. on a Friday night. While hosts Jessica Williams and Phoebe Robinson, along with the talent that joins them, are essentially here to perform, they do so in a way that feels like theyre engaging in a loose, late-night conversation with their audience. You want to unwind with 2 Dope Queens over a drink, but maybe only one, because you want to keep your mental faculties sharp.

The HBO series is essentially the same as the WNYC podcast that came before it, just a little fancier and, obviously, more visual. Williams and Robinson engage in casual verbal volleys on topics ranging from their first New York City apartments to bad dreadlocks. Stand-up comedians pop in to do short sets, and high-profile guests show up to chat with the Queens. But now, all of it is happening at Kings Theatre on a stage that has been stylishly designed to resemble a Brooklyn rooftop, albeit one that features 2 Dope Queens spelled out in large, illuminated numbers and letters. Williams and Robinson, who always look chic, also look extra put together for premium cable. In the middle of the first episode, I actually paused my screener to look up the shoes Williams was wearing. (I still dont know where she got them.)

Essentially, 2 Dope Queens is a late-night show doing valuable things that the major network late-night shows do not. First and foremost, it puts two black women in an authoritative role as emcees and tastemakers, which is most welcome. Second, its conversations have a much more organic vibe than the sit-down interviews on the Tonight Show or Late Show. Williams and Robinson have clearly planned out some elements of their discussions: When Jon Stewart appears in the first episode, for example, they ask him to play a game that involves blind taste-testing pizza, which must have been orchestrated ahead of time. But theres an improvisational air to the proceedings that suggests everyone is more comfortable just going with the flow. Surely it helps, too, that the episodes are directed by Tig Notaro, who obviously has a feel for capturing the spontaneity of live comedy.

Ive seen the first two episodes of 2 Dope Queens, and of the two, the second is stronger. Thats partly because the comedians who appear in that hour  Aparna Nancherla, a regular on HBOs Crashing who also provides the voice of Hollyhock on BoJack Horseman; Rhea Butcher, co-creator of the late Seeso comedy Take My Wife; and Fresh Off the Boat writer Sheng Wang  are consistently great. But the Queens and their guest, Sarah Jessica Parker, also stay more laser-focused on the identified theme of the episode: Hair.

When Robinson and Williams invite Parker to ask any questions she may have about black hair, it starts a conversation about how African-American women manage their dos, one in which the Queens freeze out any attempts to giggle at the Divorce star for her lack of knowledge in this area.

I dont know, um, how it stays. How you can have really incredible  Parker starts, trying to formulate a question.

Everyone shut your mouths! Robinson shouts at the audience, hearing light laughter.

This is a safe space! Williams adds.

You know that Im about to ask the very thing that you dont know either, Parker says wryly to the audience.

Oh, yes! Robinson cheers. Drag them, Sarah!

To be clear, white cluelessness is still a ripe subject for eye rolls in 2 Dope Queens. The first episode kicks off with the ladies running down a list of the various white people who should apologize to them on live television. (Heres one, Williams offers. The white guy at the bar who says, I love chocolate.) Much like they are on their podcast, Williams and Robinson keep it real but inclusive. Their observational comedy is incisive, but never mean.

Although there are only four episodes of 2 Dope Queens, the ones Ive seen make a convincing case that we need to see Williams and Robinson in late night on a more regular basis. Heres another reason why: There are two of them. Anyone who listens to podcasts  or, for that matter, anyone who used to watch old 70s variety shows like Sonny and Cher  knows theres something special about watching a program co-hosted by two people who really know how to catch each others passes. Yet most late-night shows are solo acts with the occasional sidekick or bandleader who acts as a sounding board for jokes. We rarely see hosting partnerships that are true partnerships. The late-night talk format could use some shaking up, and the best way to shake it up on a more regular basis might be to send in the Queens.High Maintenance Namaste Season 2 Episode 3 Editors Rating 3 stars * * * Previous Next  Photo: HBO

This weeks episode of High Maintenance examines the world of New York real estate, an unstable institution where socioeconomic battles are fought every day. Namaste features two stories about how housing can create and limit opportunities, especially for people of color and/or middle-class New Yorkers. A home functions as tangible shelter and a symbol of domesticity  its the place to hang your proverbial hat and a demonstration of stability and adulthood  but in an environment when rapid gentrification props up class barriers in every square inch of the city, it takes determination and a little luck to game the system in your favor.

The first story stars Regine (Danielle Brooks), a hard-working Realtor living in Brooklyn whos anxious to buy property in her neighborhood. Its strongly implied that Regine, a black woman, tries to encourage and support fellow members of her community to rent property in the area, a small act that stymies the demographic changes. She butters up an elderly brownstone owner (Anthony Chisholm) with beer and loose cigarettes just so hell keep her in mind when he wants to sell. She even buys weed from a black dealer (Rob Morgan of Stranger Things), even though his supply cant keep up with the white dealers who deliver to the neighborhood.

Namaste communicates Regines desire for upward mobility in simple, grounded terms. Director Shaka King warmly shoots the interior of the brownstone by emphasizing its elegance, not its extravagance. Most importantly, he frames Brooks in a humble position when she admires the living room; its an effective way to communicate her aspirations. Brooks works hard, supports her community, and she wants a piece of the better life.

Unfortunately, luck isnt on Regines side. As she walks back from a class at the Namastuy Healing Collective, featuring a cameo from Dawnesha (Tijuana Ricks, who appeared in last weeks episode), she discovers that her beloved brownstone has been put on the market with a sale pending. Is this karmic retribution for Regine selling out and buying weed from the Guy? Namaste never explicitly draws the connection, but allows the viewer to make their own assumptions about the mysterious ways of the universe.

The second story follows Candace (Candace Thompson) and John (John E. Peery), a couple with deep roots in the High Maintenance universe. Though they currently enjoy living in a hippie co-op, their lives change when their application for the affordable housing lottery has been selected. Suddenly, Candace and John are touring a small apartment in a fancy Greenpoint building. This is just some tax write-off for some really rich building owner. This is low-income housing, grumbles John. Uh-huh, Candace replies, and we are low income.

Despite the cheap rent and a cool location, subsidized housing (surprise, surprise) has its downsides, most notably stratified amenities in the building. Nonsubsidized residents can access the rooftop, the bike room, a yoga studio, and a sauna, but subsidized residents cannot. Theres also a security guard (Sean Ringgold) patrolling the building to make sure people like Candace and John stay in their lane, so to speak. Its an easy way to create a class-divided community that relies on renter apathy to flourish. After all, its not like anyone else in the building is fighting for Candace and John to share in the building services.

In order to level the playing field, Candace finds the code for the sauna on a neighbors fridge and invites the Guy over for a small get-together. The three friends smoke weed in the apartment, but they have to tape the sides of the door and use a sploof because John previously got caught smoking in the building. They head down to the sauna afterward, but the security guard eventually catches them inside. Candace explodes, saying that its unfair to separate people within the building, and that its an example of economic oppression. Though Candaces point is sound, Namaste also illustrates her shortsightedness: She takes out her frustration on a guy employed by the building, a pawn in the larger capitalist apparatus. Its his job to be the asshole in the situation, even if he likely doesnt care that the three are using the sauna.

Namaste is a little thinner than the previous two episodes this season. Both stories this week are snapshot portraits by design, and though they contain subtle depths, they also feel a little less weighty. High Maintenances structure necessitates storytelling shortcuts, which force the series to compress narrative moves and character work to the absolute essentials, allowing viewers to fill in the gaps. This is easily the series best structural trait, but theres also the risk of some stories failing to communicate their own consequence, or some stories feeling truncated. Nevertheless, the episode ends on a nice image: Candace and John sharing a bath together as they scheme to rent out their friends baby to try to get a two-bedroom apartment. Like many folks in High Maintenance, theyre just trying to game the system before it plays them.

Stems and Seeds

 This is the first episode of the series not credited to either Ben Sinclair or Katja Blichfeld. It was written by Hannah Bos (who played Reagan in the web-series episode Sufjan), Paul Thureen (who played Dean in last seasons Tick), and Shaka King. King, who directed Namaste, previously directed the 2013 feature Newlyweeds and most recently directed episodes of the TBS series People of Earth.

 Candace and John previously appeared in two episodes of the High Maintenance web series: Trixie, which covered their disastrous attempt to rent out their apartment to Airbnb guests, and they make a brief cameo appearance in Rachel.

 Namaste also features a return appearance from Justin (Elijah Guo), the virtual-reality programmer who first appeared in Grandpa from last season. Hes testing out some new ASMR virtual-reality technology before being interrupted for a house meeting.

 When an elderly doorman asks for his name in the lobby of Candace and Johns building, the Guy offers Ben Button. Later, when he leaves, the doorman has become a young boy.

 Its hard work, but its honest work, says the Guy as he watches a man lasso on the street.That exaggerated Slovenian accent and smokey eye shadow was all for something, girl. (And the power pouting! Definitely the pouting.) Cecily Strong, whos been impersonating Melania Trump on SNL since the presidential election, is apparently on the receiving end of some real-life First Lady affection. As Strong explained on The Tonight Show, the Trumpess simply appreciates the Strong Method as opposed to, we dont know, the Benanti Method of impersonations.

I dont remember her saying anything, really, she recalled when they met at an SNL dinner. She pointed at me when she walked in, and then I think [Donald Trump] said, She likes your impression. I heard through the grapevine that she watches the show and likes it. Not only that, but Strong believes the First Lady is purposely going out of her way to give the show some fun material: When she decorated the White House for Christmas, I think that was a gift she gave to us. And that white dress staring at the ballerina, that was for us. Maybe!Cashing in on car makers is something most every state wants to do.



WAAY 31's I-Team took a trip to Tennessee to dig deeper. A decade ago, Alabama may have lost Volkswagen to Chattanooga. Now, though, theres plenty to study about VWs impact there.

Volkswagen Chattanooga Assembly Plant

Hundreds of VW Passat sedans and Atlas SUV's are staged outside the Volkswagen Chattanooga Assembly Plant where its 3,400 employees manufactured the vehicles. Hundreds of VW Passat sedans and Atlas SUV's are staged outside the Volkswagen Chattanooga Assembly Plant where its 3,400 employees manufactured the vehicles.

Dozens of rail cars are lined up waiting to transport VW Passat sedans and Atlas SUVs to dealers. Dozens of rail cars are lined up waiting to transport VW Passat sedans and Atlas SUVs to dealers. Volkswagen Chattanooga Assembly Plant

Putting a price on progress and its payoffs can be challenging to calculate. In the case of the Toyota-Mazda joint ventures auto assembly complex coming to our area, that price tag is pushing three-quarters of a billion dollars in tax breaks.

Is it worth it? And whats the payoff?

WAAY 31 has an in-depth look at how Toyota-Mazda here in North Alabama might compare to a nearby auto assembly operation.

Alabama's still celebrating Toyota-Mazdas decision to invest $1.6 billion to build cars and crossovers in the southeastern tip of Limestone County. Thats the part of Limestone where Huntsville has extended its city limits.

But across the state line, Tennessee started celebrating ten years ago. That celebration came at Alabamas expense.

In 2008, Volkswagen chose Chattanooga as the site for a $1 billion plant to build VW Passats.

"The state of Tennessee was very aggressive in pursuing Volkswagen," Mike Pare told WAAY 31. Pare is Deputy Business Editor at the Chattanooga Times Free Press.

Pare covered Chattanoogas courtship of Volkswagen from the beginning.

What did Tennessee give up?

"A tax incentive package, Pare explained. About $554 million in local, state and federal incentives that went to Volkswagen.

A $554 million record. It was history-making in 2008. Thats until Alabamas deal with Toyota-Mazda this year.

Huntsville announced they were giving up about $700 million worth of incentives, Pare told us.

Our issue has been with the incentive package that we offered, Helen Burns Sharp told WAAY 31. Sharp founded the public advocacy group Accountability for Taxpayer Money. We believed there needed to be incentives given the competition including, I believe, with Huntsville back then.

Sharp says Volkswagen is a net positive for Chattanooga. But she questions if more than a half-billion bucks in tax incentives is worth the price.

"We gave them the sun, the moon and the stars. Maybe, the sun and the moon might have sufficed."

And Sharp wonders, whos advocating for the public interest?

"In other words, for wages for our employees, for trying to tighten the package as much as possible and for making it, like transparency, there's not much in the way of reporting requirements, Sharp told WAAY 31.

Back at the Chattanooga Times Free Press, Mike Pare told us, "I'd say they've delivered on their promises. The newspaper says it's holding Volkswagens feet to the fire. And Pare believes, so far, VW has held up its end of the deal.

"They've got about 3,400 employees now, Pare said. Those are good jobs. Excellent benefits. It's a world class company.

Already, the German auto maker has more than doubled in size and nearly doubled its workforce in Chattanooga. VW expanded the plant to produce a new midsize SUV.

The VW Atlas started rolling off the assembly line it shares with the Passat in December 2016. Volkswagen invested another $900 million for that second phase. And the jobs inside the VW plant arent the only ones producing paychecks.

"Auto assembly plants tend to have a big multiplier effect, Pare said. You know, they not only have the jobs that they create there, but also the supplier jobs. And there are companies who support the suppliers. So, there's a big economic ripple to auto assembly plants."

The expansions multiplier effect added, in total, another 9,799 jobs according to a study by the University of Tennessee. UT says thats on top of the 12,400 direct and indirect jobs created before VWs Chattanooga expansion.

Volkswagens total investment is now comparable to what Toyota-Mazda is committing to spend in Limestone County and Huntsville.

But theres expected to be hundreds more jobs inside the Toyota-Mazda plants and hundreds more in spinoff jobs for North Alabama.

Twenty years from now, I dont think youll recognize that area, David Seibert told WAAY 31.

Seibert helped put together Limestone County/Huntsvilles bids both for Volkswagen and Toyota-Mazda.

He was county commission chairman when he tried to convince VW to call Limestone County home. Now, Seibert is coordinator for the commissions economic development efforts.

We asked if $700 million is too high a price to have Toyota-Mazda in Alabama?

Theyre going to start at 4,000 initial jobs, Seibert said. And then you have the construction workers. And then you have the suppliers. And then you have all the retail. I dont know how youd predict it.

Unlike Alabama, Tennessee has no income tax. So, here, Alabama will take in income tax money from Toyota-Mazda employees who live in-state.

That's one payback Alabama gets that Tennessee misses out on.

In Tennessee some critics don't like the 30 years of property tax forgiveness VW is getting. They say that's money that should be going to libraries, parks and public safety.A Shoals attorney indicted for attempting to bribe a juror has now had his license suspended by the Alabama Bar Association, which means he can no longer practice law.

Colbert County attorney Billy Underwood has practiced law for 38 years. In January he was indicted by a Colbert County Grand Jury for trying to bribe a juror in a civil case. He was booked into the Colbert County Jail and released on a $5,000 bond.

Sources close to Underwood told WAAY31 he was handling 75 to 125 cases when his license was suspended, those same sources said his clients are being referred to other attorney's in the Shoals.

The Alabama Bar Association said they could only confirm that Underwood'd license was suspended for disciplinary procedures. They could not comment further on the matter.

The Alabama Attorney General's Office presented evidence during the grand jury case after the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency investigated Underwood.

Underwood's attorney's maintain his innocence. If he is found guilty of trying to bribe a juror he could face prison time.Jane Disney, Director of Education, MDI Biological Laboratory said, "The app is really exciting because it's going to allow people to take their phones in the field and really document anything that they see.

A new mobile application allows folks to be involved in scientific research.

Users can observe or take pictures to scientific projects and stay informed about the results the research may find.

"The Anecdata app was really created to help get people more engaged in science and to help break down barriers between scientists and the public, said Disney.

Thursday, MDI Biological Laboratory held a launch party on the pier in Bar Harbor with more than fifty students.

"We are engaging a lot of adults and community members of all ages in making observations in the world around them and making data that can potentially be used in science" said Disney.

With an application that's made for documenting scientific research, organizers say what better way to host a launch when there is a king tide.

"We are gathering data on these king tides that happen about twice a year and these are very high tides. These tides can actually help predict what it's going to look like in the future with climate change and as the oceans slowly rise" said Ducan Bailey, Systems Developer at MDI Biological Laboratory.

With one photo, organizers say it could mean something in the future.

Bailey said, "What we are doing here greatly exemplifies what researches are allowed to collect."After Pullout of Afghanistan, US Marks 20 Years Since 9/11Director Luca Guadagnino (A Bigger Splash) chronicles the confusing, often conflicting sexual urges and coming-of-age of an introverted adolescent experiencing his first romance.

Set in a picturesque 17th century villa in a small, bucolic town near Lake Garda in northern Italy during the summer of 1983, a dramatic conflict erupts when restless 17 year-old musician Elio (Timothee Chalamet) encounters 24 year-old Oliver (Armie Hammer), a visiting American graduate student.

Ostensibly there to help Elios father (Michael Stuhlbarg), an eminent professor of Greco-Roman culture, confident, curious Oliver casually befriends capricious Elio, not realizing that his seductive presence has awakened Elios youthful ardor. Although both Elio and Oliver have dalliances with local women, an engaging, erotic, clandestine attraction soon develops between them.

Adapted by James Ivory from Andre Acimans 2007 autobiographical novel and sumptuously photographed by Sayombhu Mukdeeprom, its a showcase for Oscar-nominated Timothee Chalamet, who exhibits heartbreakingly raw awkwardness, coupled with infectious enthusiasm.

Also for 65 tall Armie Hammer, who looks like a perfectly proportioned Praxiteles sculpture and is the great grandson of industrialist Armand Hammer; Armie catapulted to fame as the Winklevoss twins in The Social Network.

The third member of the outstanding acting trio is Michael Stuhlbarg, as the understanding, accepting father, who just wants his son to find happiness. He delivers an idyllic, advice-giving speech about tolerance and love that crucially affects the entire scope of the story.

Since its obvious that both young men are bisexual, the storyline gives the impression that homosexuality is a choice. Thats a controversial topic because, while many scientists claim that sexual preference is genetically determined, the film seems to suggest sexual preference can be changed. And watching this film opens up that discussion.

We both realized that the story was simultaneously important, fresh, relevant, artistic and out there, admits Chalamet.

On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, Call Me By Your Name is a subtly stirring, sensitive 7 - about a sensuous summer that could change the course of a boys life.Harvey Law Group founder and worldwide managing director Jean Francois Harvey (right) and country manager for the Philippines Dr. Paul Boldy.

A Canadian law firm offers to help Filipinos widen their travel options around the world by acquiring a second citizenship and passport that comes with more mobility and greater ease of travel. Global citizenship is all about freedom of movement. Thats what it is. It is to permit people pretty much to go to where they want, when they want and how they want, says Jean Francois Harvey, the founder and worldwide managing director of Harvey Law Group, an immigration and business law firm based in Montreal. The company is present in several Asian cities where they offer residence and citizenship-by-investment programs in over 20 jurisdictions. HLG says not all passports are created equal, with a Philippine passport having an access to only 62 countries, compared to 150 countries within the reach of a Cyprus citizen or 127 countries of St. Kitts and Nevis citizen. Philippine passport is not an easy passport to travel with. Of course, by getting a second citizenship, it gives you a full freedom of movement. By example, St. Kitts and Nevis will give you a free access to over 120 countries without visa. You can do a lot of business. That is the biggest advantage. There is of course a big advantage tax-wise, because it permits you to divide a few of your assets into tax jurisdictions that will give you advantage, Harvey says in an interview at Discovery Primea in Makati City during the companys first anniversary in the Philippines on Jan. 30.HLGs residency and citizenship-by-investment programs allow successful investors to travel to a minimum of 115 countries without having to apply for visas. Investors can also purchase homes, retirement lodges and beachfront properties in countries such as Cyprus, St. Kitts and Nevis, Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Saint Lucia, Grenada and Vanuatu. If youre an investor who spends a lot of leisure time traveling, pursuing a residency or citizenship program can set you up with property in strategic locations, which you can develop into a home away from home. If youre a parent, these programs allow you to expose your children to a variety of cultures early. If youre an entrepreneur, you will have more opportunities to widen your network and connect with potential business partners and industry leaders, says HLG country manager for the Philippines Paul Boldy. Loralee Baron-Soong, a Philippine passport holder and managing director of SoFA Design Institute, says she had to apply for a visa five times in 2017 to travel overseas. Filipinos are required to obtain visa to travel to the United States, Canada, Australia, Europe, the UK, Japan and other most developed economies. On the other hand, Rhiza Pascua, chief executive of concert promoter Music Management International Corp., says she is able to travel to different countries with ease because she carries Philippine and US passports. Pascua says her friends who have only Philippine passport suffer the inconvenience of obtaining a visa and incurring additional costs when they travel abroad. Stephen Ku, the founder of event management agency Eventscape Manila, says being a Filipino passport holder, he usually gets stopped at immigration counters in Singapore. Harvey says his company aims to help Filipinos attain a second nationality or passport that will allow them to travel to more countries without the need of a visa. He says this is particularly important for Filipino investors who have business dealings in different countries. Harvey says acquiring a second citizenship is no longer an issue of nationalism. It is 2018 now. This thing is less and less in peoples mind. It is nothing against your own nationality to acquire another one. The best example I can give you is China. One of the successes of China is they let people out for many, many years. People immigrated to other countries, got the ideas and brought them back to China. To acquire another citizenship for Chinese is a great thing for the Chinese economy, he says.HLG is now looking at the Philippines as an emerging market with a growing middle-income population. The market is just starting right now in the Philippines. That is why we are here now to make sure that we dont miss it. The challenge is we have to educate the market, he says. Harvey says their services are valuable to people who need mobility. Of course, it is for people with some assets. But you dont have to be a millionaire to apply for a second citizenship. Higher middle class or even middle class people can qualify now for second citizenship, he says. One of the most affordable options costs about $100,000. On the other hand, Cyprus will ask you to invest 2 million euros worth of real estate, but that is your money. It is a pure investment in real estate which is very safe. In my view, the most expensive one is Malta. Pretty much you have to give away 1 million euros, without any chance to have it back. That for me is very, very expensive, says Harvey. HLG aims to provide services to 100 Filipinos in the first half of 2018. We believe that it is an emerging market for global citizenship in Manila. Easily for the first six months of 2018, we can easily reach 100 families, he says. Harvey says pursuing permanent residency or citizenship-by-investment programs can help Filipinos attain key personal goals, from experiencing comfortable, hassle-free travel; gaining access to quality education and health services; creating and managing businesses; to growing and maximizing wealth across borders. Harvey, however, says not all applicants qualify for a second citizenship. One of the reasons why we screen applicants is because jurisdictions will screen them too. Granda and Cyprus do full diligence. If we think that the client is not proper, then we just pay back the client and say sorry we cannot take your case, he says. He says conducting due diligence also addresses the issue of money laundering. Different jurisdictions for second citizenship are very, very straightforward and very strict on money laundering. That is why we have to do a full AML [anti-money laundering] report on each client, he says. Boldy says a second citizenship also offers second- and third-generation family members the opportunity to study in European universities at a more favorable cost. Having access to a wider variety of degree programs and potential internship and employment opportunities will allow future entrepreneurs and executives, particularly those with family-run businesses, to gain the knowledge and skills necessary to take their businesses to the next level, he says. In addition, their parents and grandparents get access to health services and treatments in these advanced economies, Boldy says.Posted Saturday, February 3, 2018 5:45 am

Overregulation has been claimed so often over the past decade that the charge now frequently falls upon deaf ears. Regulatory proponents usually assert that the specter of overregulation is largely a myth  a widely-held belief that tells a good story, but the closer you get the harder it is to find.

But true overregulation does exist; we have seen it in real life. Perhaps the most egregious example of government overreach in recent times was the Waters of the United States rule that President Obama first proposed in 2011 and finalized in 2015. Known as WOTUS, this rule sought to expand the definitions of Waters of the United States and navigable waters to include far more than the previous definition and bring millions more acres under federal government regulation.

Rather than limiting the scope of its power to major waterways in keeping with landmark rulings by the U.S. Supreme Court, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) extended the definition to waters adjacent to navigable waters, and even to areas with a significant nexus to those waters. This fuzzy and vague definition resulted in over 99 percent of Missouri being defined as Waters of the United States, and thus subject to EPA regulation. This could have allowed EPA to require landowners to ask governmental permission before doing almost any ordinary activity on their own land, even if it is almost always completely dry  something unjustified by science, completely impracticable to enforce, blatantly against the original intent of the law and totally contrary to American tradition.

Thankfully, a more logical view prevailed, as legal action stayed the WOTUS rule to keep it from going into effect, and last spring President Trump announced his intention to re-write the rule and keep it within the boundaries of the law. The EPA is now considering the comments it received on its proposal to withdraw the old rule and is expected to announce a final decision this spring.

Farm Bureau supports the withdrawal of the old rule and crafting a new rule that provides clarity and common-sense guidance to landowners. A new nationwide Farm Bureau social media campaign involving a childs rubber duck puts it more simply: If you cant #FloatUs, its not #WOTUS. Dry land should not be defined as navigable water  allowing it to be defies all common sense. If environmentalists want to expand the law, they should do it the right way: Convince enough Congressmen to vote for your proposal, not just twist the plain language of existing law into a pretzel to get their way.

Eric Bohl, Columbia, is director of public affairs for Missouri Farm Bureau, the states largest farm organization.Iranian authorities cracked down on anti-mandatory headscarves protests in Tehran and arrested 29 activists, media reports said.

Women across the country have been protesting by climbing onto telecom boxes, taking off their headscarves and waving them aloft on sticks.

Irans prosecutor general, Mohammad Jafar Montazeri, described the protests on Wednesday as childish, emotionally charged and instigated from outside the country.

The compulsory headscarf has been in place in Iran since 1979, after the Iranian revolution.

The anti-hijab protest come after Iran was rocked last month by violent protests against worsening economic conditions.

The wave of anti-government demonstrations last month was sparked by concerns over rising living costs and a stagnant economy, but also provided an opening for Iranian women to push for equal rights.WiGBits Headline News Would you like to receive our WiGBits? Signup today!

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Digital Issue Would you like to receive our Digital Issue? Signup today!Stranded at sea for 16 days, 23-year-old Samuel Moss says he's grateful to be alive.

Moss lives in Nassau, Bahamas and says he traveled to Hialeah to purchase a boat from Craigslist for $3,500.

However, after he left he discovered the gas gauge wasn't working. He ran out of gas on the first day trying to get back to the Bahamas and used his knowledge of the water to help him through the more than two weeks at sea.

Moss, speaking at a news conference Friday in West Palm Beach, says he was never lost. He always knew where he was, but lost cell service and had no way to contact anyone or make his way back to land. He used the waves to help him drift closer to shore.

He was surviving off cookies, chips and water but eventually ran out. Moss says he wrapped himself in canvas on the boat to protect himself from crashing waves. He says he never gave up hope.

On Monday, day 16, a boater spotted Moss and called the Coast Guard. The Coast Guard rescued him about 10 miles off the coast of West Palm Beach.

He was brought to St. Mary's Medical Center where ER Doctor Kevin Buford says he was extremely dehydrated.

Dr. Buford says Moss's body had gone into starvation mode. He says he's not sure how Moss survived. He called him lucky and says his age and health helped him survive this experience. He says Moss probably would not have made it much longer at sea.

He says Moss was very weak, had a high heart rate and dangerous electrolyte levels. He could only speak in one-word sentences. He had some cuts on his body, and they immediately gave him IVs and vitamins. Dr. Buford says they had to wait 24 hours before giving him food or water.

He was discharged from the hospital on Wednesday. He plans to fly back to the Bahamas next week.

This was not his first time stranded at sea. It happened once before, and he says the lesson learned in all of this is to plan ahead better.LAFAYETTE, Ind. (WLFI)  Travis Nichols was sentenced today to 17 years behind bars and one year on supervised probation.

He was convicted of conspiracy to deal meth, dealing meth and possession of meth in early December.

As we previously reported, he had a medical emergency in jail and was airlifted to an Indianapolis hospital on December 12th.

Related: Details still murky on meth dealer's escape

Nichols was able to walk out of an Indianapolis hospital in December. Superior Court Judge Randy Williams approved an unsupervised medical release after Nichols had a medical emergency in jail.

He was supposed to return on his own recognizance. Instead, he allegedly left the hospital on his own once he was well enough.

Related: Escaped meth dealer back in custody

He was located and arrested in Gary on January 10th.



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Sorry, the page you requested was not found. If you're having trouble locating a destination on Womenofchina.cn, try visiting the Womenofchina Home pageNorth Wales Police issue appeal to help trace missing teenager

This article is old - Published: Saturday, Feb 3rd, 2018

North Wales Police are appealing for information to help trace a missing teenager who may have travelled to London via Wrexham.

14-year-old William Hutcsh has been missing from the Bala area since midday on Friday 2nd February

It is thought William could be trying to get to the London area and it likely he has gone via Wrexham train station

Police say William is slim, around 57 tall, has a London accent and of Afro Caribbean ethnic origin.

He was wearing a grey top with a North Face body warmer and grey Nike tracksuit bottoms.

Anyone sightings or further information can be reported to North Wales Police on 101 quoting reference number 19746.The Justice4Grenfell (J4G) campaign held a public meeting in North Kensington on Thursday, titled, How do we get justice for Grenfell?

The only answer provided to an audience of around 150 was through the various bodies of the capitalist statefirst and foremost the governments official Inquiry under Sir Martin Moore-Bick.

Immediately after the Grenfell Tower fire that claimed at least 71 lives, angry residents demanded that those responsible must be arrested and brought to justice. A series of meetings were organised at which survivors and residents repeatedly denounced Moore-Bicks bogus consultation over the proposed Inquiry.

Nearly eight months later, the inquiry is being given support by Justice4Grenfell, with just a few minor caveats. Its website declares that J4G will be engaging with the Public Inquiry on behalf of its membership.

In its call for the meeting, Justice4 Grenfell declared, Its vital that those in authority begin to act upon community demands immediately, and lessons are learned, so that no community ever has to face what this community has endured in the last eight monthsonly through the responsible authorities implementing action and change, will Justice be done and be seen to be done, by those that matter (emphasis added).

The first public meeting Justice4Grenfell has held for months featured a platform of tried and tested representatives of the Labour and trade union bureaucracy, brought together by the dominant political tendency in the organisation, the Socialist Workers Party (SWP).

Matt Wrack speaking at the Justice for Grenfell meeting

The featured speaker was Labour MP Emma Dent Coad, who was elected as the MP for North Kensington covering the Lancaster West housing estate where Grenfell Tower was based. The other main speakers were Fire Brigades Union (FBU) General Secretary Matt Wrack and National Education Union joint leader Kevin Courtney, both of whom have longstanding connections to the SWP. Chairing the meeting was Moyra Samuels, an SWP activist.

Detailing the proposed terms of his cover-up inquiry, Moore-Bick stated that he would not allow any discussion over issues of a social, economic and political nature.

The Inquiry has no powers to prosecute anyone and will not even report on the first stage of its proceedingsinto how the fire started and spreaduntil autumn this year, well over a year since the Grenfell fire.

Meanwhile the criminal investigation being held by the Metropolitan Police has not resulted in the questioning, let alone arrest of a single person.

Moyra Samuels

All that Samuels could muster in protest was to register a creeping sense that justice is not going to be served. Her only concrete complaint was that we have not been allowed a diverse community panel in the inquiry.

Dent Coad attempted to convince the audience that she felt their pain. Im also from round here and Im very, very angry  and this ... anger is driving me every day, she said, after stating, I cant see we are getting justice.

Dent Coad had problems with the choice of judge, problems with the terms of reference. But mainly because Moore-Bick is a white maleI went to the opening session [of the Inquiry] and I just saw a whole room full of white men. Nothing against white men, but it doesnt look anything like us lot, did it?

Dent Coad is of Spanish and English parentage.

She said that residents seeking the truth should vote at the next local elections in May for Labour politicians and, specifically, for Dent Coad, who is standing again as a councillor as well as an MP.

A few months ago, as it became clear to everyone that the Inquiry would be the latest in a long-line of government cover-ups, the FBU threatened to withdraw its support, with Wrack stating last August, How is it remotely possible to seriously examine the causes, spread and results of the fire without examining social, economic and political matters?

Moyra Samuels and Emma Dent Coad (speaking)

Despite such reservation, Wrack personally released a statement to FBU members that the union will participate as fully as possible in the public inquiry and had been granted core participant status.

In reply to the question, What else can I do about the Grenfell tower fire? Wrack instructed union members to make sure politicians keep Grenfell at the forefront of their minds. FBU members should raise the issues with their local MP, councillors and take part in the unions campaigning work.

The pleas from the platform to work with Moore-Bick and pin all hopes in the election of Labour councillors and MPs was met at times with angry interjections from members of the audience who demanded that those responsible for what several referred to as social murder be arrested and sent to jail.

Samuels actually left her seat on one occasion in an attempt to placate and calm down some of the more vocal audience members, who were demanding that the interests of those survivors who are still homeless and living in hotels needed to be addressed.

Brian Richardson speaking at the Justice for Grenfell meeting

One man who demanded to know several times why no one responsible had yet been arrested, interrupted the speech of Brian Richardson, a barrister and representative of Stand Up to Racisma meeting point for Labour lefts, trade union functionaries and the SWP.

When Richardson was speaking about the case of murdered teenager Stephen Lawrence, the man shouted out, People did get arrested at the time. No ones been arrested at the moment Its not a hard case, this case. Whoever gave the green light for the cladding to go up needs to get arrested.

Richardson attempted to make the question of racism a central factor in the Grenfell fire, but was again shouted down. Racism was undoubtedly a significant factor in the contemptuous way in which local council treated people, not just in Grenfell but in this part of the borough in the last few years, he said.

In response an audience member replied, Why are you making it about racism? Its not a race thing. Were multi-cultural around here.

Another shouted, Its a class thing.

In her final intervention, Dent Coad cynically claimed direct affinity with those who have suffered and been made homeless as a result of the Grenfell fire.

I have been homeless, she asserted. Ive sofa surfed. And I lived in a squat for two years, so I do know what its like to be homeless and I dont know too many MPs that can say that. This is why Im fighting for you because I do know what its like.

Dent Coad doesnt know what its like. Her background is one of wealth and privilege. Her father, Professor Charles Enrique Dent CBE, was a professor of medicine whose ancestry can be traced back to Christopher Columbus and 19th century British prime minister, Spencer Percival. Dent Coad was brought up in Paultons Square, Chelsea, one of the capitals most affluent areas. Her first husband was Sir Hadley Gregory DOyly, 15th Baronet.

She graduated from the Royal College of Art with an MA in History of Design in 1992 and served as a councillor for 12 years, including a spell as leader of the opposition group, before becoming an MP. Whatever experience of homelessness she experienced was an interlude in a life of comfort that depends on her ability to sell the Labour Partywhich has socially cleansed more working class Londoners than the Conservativesas an ally and friend.

The Grenfell Fire Forum, established by the Socialist Equality Party, opposes the governments cover-up inquiry. The Forum was established as a democratic platform to discuss the way forward in the fight for justice, not on the basis of appeals to the representatives and institutions of the capitalist state, but in opposition to them.

The next meeting of the Grenfell Fire Forum takes place on February 17 at 2 p.m. at the Maxilla Social Hall in North Kensington. All are welcome to attend. Details below:

Grenfell Fire Forum meeting

February 17, 2 p.m.

Maxilla Hall Social Club, 2 Maxilla Walk

London, W10 6SWThe thousands marching today in defence of the National Health Service (NHS) represent millions opposed to its destruction.

The NHS faces far more than a winter crisis. Rather, this winter has exposed how years of funding cuts, running down of services, combined with chronic staff shortages is threatening the safety and lives of patients.

In December, more than 300,000 patients waited more than four hours in Englands A&E departments to be seen, treated and discharged or admitted. The percentage of patients being treated within four hours fell to its lowest-ever level of 77.3 percent. Only three out of 137 NHS trusts managed to meet the official 95 percent target.

NHS units are unable to discharge many patients due to lack of social care and the loss of available beds. Many hospitals are running at a dangerous level of bed occupancy of more than 95 percent10 percent higher than recommended as safe.

Standard targets for Accident and Emergencies (A&Es), cancer treatment and planned operations have all been missed. This year began with news of NHS Englands decision to postpone tens of thousands of non-urgent operations and outpatient clinics until the end of January to help hospitals cope with demand.

An Ambulance Service whistle-blower told the Health Service Journal that in the East of England alone at least 40 patients had been harmed or died following significant ambulance delays in less than three weeks between mid-December and early January.

A 57-year-old man in Suffolk froze to death after a 16-hour wait for an ambulance. An 81-year-old woman in Clacton on Sea, Essex died complaining of chest pain after a four-hour wait for an ambulance. An 88-year-old woman from Portsmouth died following a seven-hour wait for a bed, having spent five hours in an ambulance and another two hours on a trolley in a corridor at Queen Alexandra Hospital.

A recent joint report by Oxford and Cambridge Universities and the University of London found that cuts to NHS and Social Care provision since 2010 could result in nearly 200,000 excess deaths by the end of 2020 in England.

Prime Minister Theresa May and her Secretary of Health and Social Care, Jeremy Hunt responded by claiming that the NHS was better prepared for this winter than ever before.

In January, 68 senior doctors who are responsible for day-to-day functioning of A&E departments in England and Wales replied, The fact remains that the NHS is severely and chronically underfunded.

We have insufficient hospital and community beds and staff of all disciplines especially at the front door to cope with our ageing populations health needs... this current level of safety compromise is at times intolerable, despite the best efforts of staff.

They noted that patients are sleeping in makeshift wards set up in side rooms. Others faced trolley waits of up to 12 hours. Thousands of patients are left stuck in the back of ambulances. More than 120 patients a day are being managed in corridors, some dying prematurely.

Their appeals for more funding and resources will also fall on deaf ears.

One of the major companies involved in the backdoor privatisation of the NHS was Carillion, which collapsed last month. As a result, the NHS was forced to trigger emergency contingency plans across 14 hospital trusts to maintain essential services. This is only a foretaste of what is to come as a result of the efforts of the major corporations and the government to bleed the NHS dry.

The NHS is being deliberately brought to the brink of collapse to generate a crisis that will then justify the ongoing privatisation of the profitable parts of health care, leaving chronic care to be rationed by a diminished state sector.

The organisers of todays demonstration, the Peoples Assembly and Health Campaigns Together, maintain that the NHS will be defended by the health unions, while the election of a Jeremy Corbyn-led Labour government offers a political road forward.

Both these contentions are false. Year after year, the unions have defended nothing and have betrayed every struggle mounted by workers against the employers and the government. They are responsible for the destruction of the NHS.

Behind his rhetoric about the fight to defend the NHS and calls for some minimal reforms, Corbyn leads a right-wing, pro-capitalist party that, in government, laid the basis for the privatisation of the public health care through its massive expansion of the Private Finance Initiative (PFI). Likewise, it was Labour that pioneered the savage austerity measures required to pay for the 1 trillion bailout of the banks following the 2008 global financial crash, including the first 20 billion to be withdrawn from the NHS in efficiency savings.

This party would rather see the NHS razed to the ground than come into conflict with the banks and major corporations. And not only will Corbyn continue to place unity of the Labour Party above any considerations of principle, but he also has no policies with which to defend the NHS.

Corbyn has promised to repeal the 2012 Health and Social Care Actwhich removed the responsibility from the Health Secretary to provide a universal health care system in Englandand to end the PFI rip-off. But where will he get the billions of pounds needed to adequately fund the NHS when Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell has promised big business that Labour will be a fiscally responsible government? What is he going to do about the domination of big pharma and cancelling PFI repayments running into billions?

Access to health care is a basic social right, which is being destroyed by a money-mad ruling elite that sees all areas of social need only as the means to accumulate further massive profits. Therefore, the only way to defend the NHS is by taking control of public health care out of the hands of the ruling elite, in a political struggle against the capitalist class and for socialism.

Health workers and all those who want to fight in defence of the NHS must now undertake to build a new leadership, which fights for socialism. In 2012, the Socialist Equality Party initiated the NHS FightBack campaign to take forward such a struggle, independent of the trade unions, among health workers and throughout the working class.

Contact NHS FightBack today. For further information visit nhsfightback.org and facebook.com/Fight4theNHS.Asia

China: Teachers protest over unpaid benefits

Hundreds of teachers, including many retired education staff, protested in Beijing on January 29 over unpaid pensions and other benefits.

Despite sub-zero temperatures, current and former teachers participated from Heilongjiang, Liaoning, Jilin, Guangxi, Hebei, Jiangsu, Shandong, Sichuan, Hunan, Hubei, Inner Mongolia and Beijing took part. The event was described as the first nationally coordinated rally of teachers in a number of years over pay and benefit arrears.

The teachers demonstrated outside the Ministry of Education demanding reemployment for community teachers who had been laid off before reaching retirement. They also called for the full payment of entitled pensions, an exemption on pension contributions for those who are legally retired, and compensation payments to the families of teachers still due retirement pay.

National legislation introduced in 1993 supposedly granted community and substitute teachers the same status as civil servants, along with comparable wages and benefits. Many local governments, which hire teachers, however, have never implemented the law. Kindergarten teachers, for instance, are among the lowest paid educational professionals in China.

India: ASHA workers strike in Haryana state

Almost 22,000 Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHA) employees held a four-day strike on January 27 in Faridabad, Haryana state to demand job permanency and higher pay. The ASHA workers, who are employed by Indias Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, assist expectant mothers and provide post-natal care, including the immunisation of babies. The strike also involved a three-day boycott of a national polio eradication program.

The workers want permanent employment and the governments paltry 1,000-rupee honorarium or ex gratia payment, and other incentives, increased so they receive a minimum 18,000 rupees ($US280) per month. ASHA employees have not had a pay rise for over three years.

Workers protest wages and sackings at Bajaj Auto in India

Workers at Bajaj Auto plants at Chakan and Akurdi in Maharashtra state are demanding the company increase wages and reinstate victimised employees. Bajaj, the countrys largest manufacturer of two- and three-wheel vehicles, has three plants in India.

In May 2010, the company signed a nine-year deal with the Vishwa Kalyan Kamgar Sanghatana (VKKS), the auto labour union, under which wages were to be increased every three years. Pay rises for 201619, however, have been stalled since April 2016, despite 40 negotiating meetings with the company.

Baja Auto management has also rejected demands for reinstatement of eight workers sacked by the company over their involvement in industrial protests in 201314 and six other militant workers who refused to accept forcible transfers to other plants.

This week VKKS president Dilip Pawar demagogically announced that he would begin a fast to the death this week and that union members at the Chakan and Akurdi plants would boycott breakfast and lunch provided by the company.

The campaign is bogus, with the union, which covers 1,000 of the 2,500-strong workforce at Chakan, assuring management that there would be no disruption to production at both plants. On Thursday the Pune labour commissioner directed Bajaj Auto management to hold conciliation talks with the union.

Bangladesh: Non-government teachers and employees end fast

On Monday, the Besharkari Shikkha Jatiyakaran Liaison Forum, which represents hundreds of teachers and employees of non-government secondary schools and colleges in Bangladesh, called for an end to a fasting protest outside the National Press Club in Dhaka. The directive was made after the governments five-member education ministry team made various empty promises to protestors.

The teachers and education staff are employed under the so-called monthly payment order (MPO) system. They are demanding nationalisation of the non-government education institutions and permanent jobs. The education ministry team told the unions that the nationalisation issue would be raised in the governments 201819 budget.

A day before the hunger strike was shut down about 500,000 teachers and education staff from about 35,000 non-government MPO-schools and colleges were involved in protests over the issue.

The teachers have warned they will resume their demonstrations if nothing positive occurs during the governments pre-budget discussions.

Pakistan: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa university staff strike

Non-teaching staff at the government-run University of Haripur in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa boycotted work this week to demand permanent jobs, promotions and the removal of teaching staff from administrative positions. The sit-down protest outside the vice-chancellors office began on Monday and was still underway three days later.

About 80 workers including clerical, janitorial and other assistance staff are affected. In line with cuts to non-teaching positions, university administration has also transferred some workers to part-time and casual office assistant positions.

Pakistan railway workers protest

Hundreds of Pakistan Railway workers demonstrated outside the Workshops Divisional Superintendents office in Lahore on January 24 to demand permanent jobs for contract workers, increased pay and a decent service structure. They also opposed government moves to privatise the railways and other public sector services.

In line with International Monetary Fund demands, the Pakistan government has slashed public sector spending, including major budget cuts to the railways. A permanent freeze has been placed on new hires, with management employing large numbers of temporary workers and demanding permanent employees work longer hours. The protest was called by the Railway Workers Union.

Sindh university teachers begin province-wide strike

Hundreds of academic staff from nine major public universities in Pakistans Sindh province began an indefinite strike on Wednesday in protest against the governments ongoing failure to address long outstanding demands. The walkout followed a one-day boycott of duties on January 24.

The main issue raised by the teachers is their opposition to the Sindh Universities Law (Amendment) Act of 2013, which overrides university administration autonomy.

Other main demands include approval of pending hardship promotions, housing for teachers, increases in the PhD allowance, more scholarships and higher budget allocations for universities.

The strike, which was called by Federation of All Pakistan Universities Academic Staff Association (FAUASA), was launched after the government failed by the January 30 deadline to meet the teachers demands. Teachers were also angry over the reappointment of Asim Hussain as Sindh provinces Higher Education Commission (HEC). Hussain led previous and unsuccessful negotiations with the teachers.

Peshawar secondary school teachers demand promotions

Teachers of government-run secondary schools in Peshawar, the capital of Pakistans Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, demonstrated in the city on January 26 to demand a one-step pay-scale upgrade.

Holding banners and placards, protesters marched through the city chanting slogans denouncing the government for ignoring them in the upgrade of basic pay rates for other government employees. The teachers said that secondary school teacher pay scales had not been increased despite a two-year old departmental recommendation.

The All Secondary School Teachers Welfare Association, who called the protests, has threatened to boycott classes on February 1 and demonstrate again if teachers demands are not granted.

Sri Lanka doctors walk out for 24 hours

On December 30, the Government Medical Officers Association (GMOA) launched a 24-hour strike over several demands. These included, the rectification of salary anomalies, payment of various allowances and provision of tax concessions and duty leave.

The GMOA also demanded the government shut down a private medical collegethe South Asian Institute of Medicine and Technology (SAITM). According to the union, the government had agreed to close SAITM before December 31.

The GMOA ended the strike by noon December 30, telling the media that the minister of health had agreed to fulfil the unions demands. Union officials, however, have released no details on its deal with the government.

Australia and the Pacific

Australian Paper seeks court intervention into dispute

Around 90 Australian Paper (AP) workers at the companys plant in Melbourne are continuing indefinite strike action. They walked out on January 16 after negotiations for a new enterprise bargaining agreement that began last March broke down.

Owned by Japans Nippon Paper Group, the company is demanding cuts to wages and working conditions, including a reduction in rostered days off (RDOs)from 16 to 14 annuallyand changes to classification structures that will financially disadvantage workers.

This week AP applied to the Fair Work Commission (FWC), the federal governments industrial tribunal, to mediate negotiations.

The FWC has regularly intervened in other disputes, following calls by employers and the unions. These interventions are to shut down industrial action and impose outcomes in line with the employers demands.

Australian Manufacturing Workers Union organiser Dean Griffiths enthusiastically backed the companys move, declaring, We are just waiting for the commission to set a date and a time so we can kick off negotiations. The union, which last year imposed wage cuts on AP workers at the companys Maryvale plant, has isolated the strikers.

New South Wales power unions suspend industrial action

A campaign of industrial action overwhelmingly endorsed last month by thousands of Ausgrid workers was suddenly suspended this week by the power unions following a meeting of about 100 delegates on Thursday. Ausgrid is a partly privatised New South Wales (NSW) electricity distributor.

The delegates were presented with a new enterprise offer following closed door negotiations between the company and the power unions. The four unions involved were seeking a 3 percent annual pay increase over three years and changes to the companys classification system, which underrates skills and makes promotions difficult.

The companys latest pay offer is for three annual increases, all below 3 percent and, and a one-off $1,600 bonus. No details have been provided about the companys push for a two-tier workforce with new starts paid at lower rates.

The Electrical Trades Union claimed that the company had agreed in negotiations that there would be no forced redundancies. Thousands of jobs, however, have already been axed across the NSW power industry using union sanctioned voluntary redundancies. Since 2014, Ausgrid has eliminated nearly 2,000 jobs and driven up productivity by an estimated 43 to 62 percent.

New Zealand: Rail workers in Auckland to vote on industrial action

Rail workers in Auckland will begin voting next week on further industrial action in opposition to proposed driver-only services. Workers struck on this issue for 24-hours on December 8. Voting will take place over two weeks.

The Rail and Maritime Trades Union (RMTU) has been in negotiations with Auckland Transport and private contractor Transdev since May. A proposed restructure will affect up to 300 workers, 160 of whom are on-board train managers who will be replaced by electronic ticket gates.

The union initially announced that it would not strike because this would be illegal. When it eventually called a strike, the walkout was limited to 24 hours under the pretext that members dont want to inconvenience the public.

The RMTU have separated this struggle from Wellington rail workers, also employed by Transdev, who held a 24-hour strike in November over a proposed Multi-Employer Collective Agreement which will reduce wages, cut staff and degrade working conditions.The Democratic Party was thrown into disarray Friday after the publication of a classified memo exposing as a factionally-motivated witch hunt the investigation by leading intelligence agencies into the Trump administrations alleged collusion with Russia.

The so-called Nunes memo, which Democratic lawmakers, US intelligence agencies and major newspapers had been seeking to block for days, alleges that the FBI under the Obama administration used discredited sources and withheld key information to initiate a wiretap of former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page.

The Democrats responded to the prospective release of the Nunes memo with undisguised hysteria, declaring that it threatened national security and was insufficiently deferential to the US intelligence agencies. Now that the memo has been released, the Democrats claim that it contains sensitive national security secrets has been exposed as lies.

The memo, written by staffers for Republican House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, claims that the FBI obtained a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance (FISA) court authorization to wiretap Page in the fall of 2016 based on a memo compiled by former British intelligence official Christopher Steele.

The so-called Steele dossier, which was released to the public last year, made lurid allegations that Russian government officials had recordings of Trump engaging in perverted sexual acts with prostitutes which have been arranged/monitored by the FSB [Russian intelligence service]. According to the Nunes memo, FBI director James Comey called the Steele Dossier salacious and unverified in congressional testimony in June 2017.

In perhaps its most explosive passage, the memo alleges that Andrew McCabe, a deputy FBI director who just stepped down this past week, testified before the House Intelligence Committee in December that no surveillance warrant would have been sought without the Steele dossier information.

In addition, the FISA application ignored or concealed [Steeles] anti-Trump financial and ideological motivations, i.e., the fact that his research had been funded by the Hillary Clinton campaign.

The Republican memo does not specify what information was collected by the wiretap or whether it captured any conversations with Trump.

The contents of the memo are another demonstration of the manufactured and partisan character of the anti-Russia campaign and the Democrats allegations that Trump colluded with Russia. What is playing out is a partisan battle between two criminal and reactionary factions of the state apparatus, centering ultimately on differences over foreign policy.

The release of the memo once again underscores the fact that the US intelligence agencies have massively intervened in US politics. This is true not only with regard to the concocted narrative about Russian "meddling" in the 2016 election and collusion between Trump and Moscow, but equally so with James Comeys public announcement about re-opening an investigation into Hillary Clintons emails just days before the presidential vote, which Clinton claims may have cost her the election.

The memo has undermined the aura of professional impartiality that the Democrats and their allied news outlets, the New York Times and the Washington Post, have sought to cultivate around the so-called intelligence community.

The real fear of the Democrats is that the exposure of the anti-Russia campaign will undermine the credibility of the FBI. The selective release and politicization of classified information sets a terrible precedent and will do long-term damage to the intelligence community and our law enforcement agencies, declared Rep. Adam Schiff of California, the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, on Friday.

Schiff added, If potential intelligence sources know that their identities might be compromised when political winds arise, those sources of vital information will simply dry up, at great cost to our national security.

But all such arguments about national security have been rendered absurd by the release of the document, which contains no sensitive information besides the wrongdoing of the FBI and the Democratsincluding Schiff himself.

In an editorial published Friday, ahead of the documents publication, the New York Times accused congressional Republicans of undermining the credibility of the law enforcement community that they had once defended so ardently.

It was left to the satirical news website the Onion to point out the obvious absurdity of such arguments:

Stressing that such an action would be highly reckless, FBI Director Christopher Wray warned Thursday that releasing the Nunes Memo could potentially undermine faith in the massive, unaccountable government secret agencies of the United States. Making this memo public will almost certainly impede our ability to conduct clandestine activities operating outside any legal or judicial system on an international scale, said Wray, noting that it was essential that mutual trust exist between the American people and the vast, mysterious cabal given free rein to use any tactics necessary to conduct surveillance on US citizens or subvert religious and political groups.

Responding to the Democrats allegations that the publication of the document would threaten national security, journalist Glen Greenwald tweeted, What conceivable argument is there that any part of the Nunes Memo could jeopardize national security?

The Times editorial effectively argues that no documents critical of the actions of the US intelligence apparatus should be published. To make this point, the Times quotes Democratic Senator Ron Wyden, who argued against the release of the memo on the grounds that the public would see this release as proof that selective classification is used more often to deceive them than to protect them.

It is, of course, true that selective classification is used to deceive the American people. This was demonstrated by the publication in 1971 of the classified Pentagon Papers, which documented how flagrantly and extensively the Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon administrations lied to the American people about the Vietnam War.

As The Post, the recently-released film by Stephen Spielberg, effectively documents, the New York Times and Washington Post made the decision at the time to defy the Nixon administration and publish the Pentagon Papers, rejecting the spurious argument that their publication would harm national security.

The editorial published in the Times Friday reads like a cruder version of the arguments put forward by the Nixon White House to block the release of the Pentagon Papers. If one were to take the editorial at face value, one would conclude that if the Times had had the Nunes memo in its sole possession, it would never have published it.

The Times has become little more than a mouthpiece for the US intelligence agencies, whose aim is to prevent the dissemination of any information that they see as harmful to the interests of the American ruling class and the capitalist state.Swiss mining conglomerate Glencore is continuing the lockout of around 190 workers at its Oaky North underground coal mine near the central Queensland town of Tieri. The workers were locked out on June 9 after they rejected a new enterprise bargaining agreement (EBA) that cut wages and working conditions, and took limited industrial action.

This week Glencore provocatively applied to the FWC to terminate the current EBA. This means that, if the lockout were lifted, Oaky North miners would be employed under an industry award, on inferior pay and conditions.

On January 24, workers voted downby 164 to 11an in principle EBA negotiated by the company and the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) at the Fair Work Commission (FWC)Australias pro-business industrial tribunal. The CFMEU has released no details of this in principle deal.

It was the third time that the workers have rejected EBA offers that erode conditions relating to severance and retrenchment, dispute procedures, casual hire and workplace representation, and allow Glencore to alter rosters without consultation.

The six-month lockout is the longest in Australian history. While the CFMEU union demagogically denounces Glencores threatening behaviour, it has utilised the Fair Work legislations anti-strike provisions, which outlaw all solidarity industrial action by other workers, to isolate the miners and create the conditions for acceptance of a deal that would satisfy the companys demands.

The CFMEU has not called any industrial action by the 19,000 workers it covers across the Australian coal industry to back the locked-out workers. It has allowed production to continue unhindered at Glencores other coal mining operations in the central Queensland Bowen Basin.

In December, the union ended all industrial action by 1,400 of its members at Glencores Hunter Valley coal mines in New South Wales, pushing through new retrograde EBAs.

At the same time, the CFMEU has enforced directives by FWC judges, ensuring that Oaky North production continues using contract labour and managerial staff.

The locked-out workers have been restricted to an ineffective protest next to the main road leading to the mine site. The protestors have even been forbidden by a FWC ruling from shouting denunciations of the scab workforce entering the site.

The CFMEUs actions are in line with its role in facilitating a sweeping cost-cutting restructure across Glencores coal operations that included hundreds of sackings, the gutting of conditions and the increased use of contract labour. The restructure allowed the company to increase revenue from its Australian coal assets from $US1.77 billion to $3.1 billion in the first half of 2017.

The CFMEU has likewise worked with management across the entire sector. Last November, for example, it overrode substantial rank-and-file opposition to push through an EBA at Griffin Coal in Western Australia that slashed workers hourly pay rates by 25 percent.

Last July, Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) secretary Sally McManus made a flying visit to Oaky Creek, pledging her solidarity with the locked-out workers. Her pledge was nothing but hot air.

McManuss photo-op trip to Oaky Creek, along with fleeting appearances at other industrial disputes, is part of the ACTUs campaign to divert the deep-going working-class anger over job destruction, falling living standards and the draconian Fair Work regime behind the election of yet another pro-market Labor government.

McManus claims that the Fair Work laws are broken and would be fixed by a Labor government. In fact, the Rudd Labor government introduced the laws in 2009 with the full support of all the trade unions. Far from being broken, the legislation is functioning exactly as intended: to politically strangle the working class and prevent any opposition to the big business assault on working conditions and basic rights.

The most recent example is the January 25 FWC ruling that banned a planned 24-hour strike by New South Wales rail workers. The rail unions immediately complied with the FWC directive, which illegalised any form of industrial action whatsoever for six weeks. Under the Fair Work laws, the commission can outlaw any industrial action it deems a potential threat to the economy or public safety.

The Oaky North miners are taking a courageous stand against the corporate drive to dismantle all past gains. They cannot be left to fight the combined forces of the company, the CFMEU, the capitalist courts and political establishment alone.

Miners and other workers must organise action to break this isolation as an important step toward initiating a unified campaign across the entire working class against the employers offensive. Such a struggle necessarily means breaking out of the grip of the unions and Labor, which act at all times to defend the capitalist profit system.

New organisations of struggle, including rank-and-file committees under the democratic control of workers, must be established. Above all, what is required is a socialist perspective, aimed at establishing a workers government that would dismantle all laws restricting workers rights and place all key industries, including the mining, oil and gas corporations, under public ownership and workers control.The Turnbull government this week rejected calls by a wide range of groups to narrow the scope of its draconian foreign interference bills or provide clearer exemptions for political, media, university and human rights activities.

Attorney-General Christian Porter said he was open to minor amendments to the laws, which would brand and criminalise many forms of political activity as treasonous. But he ruled out what he derided as sweeping, blanket exemptions for a variety of professions, including journalists, academics and lawyers.

Numerous submissions and testimonies given to a rushed two-day parliamentary committee hearing this week underscore how far the bills would eviscerate free speech, political dissent and media reporting.

Fuelling the virulent anti-China witch-hunting campaign in the media, Porter and others suggested that the critics are playing into the hands of enemies seeking to damage Australias national interests.

Porter defended the tenfold increase, to 20 years, in the potential penalties for breaches of official secrecy laws, and the extension of the laws to cover material deemed harmful to Australias interests, even if not classified as secret. That is simply about having the proper and modern disincentives in place for people to deal with information in a way thats contrary to our national interests, he said.

Government MP and former SAS captain Andrew Hastie, who heads the parliamentary committee examining the billsthe Joint Committee on Intelligence and Securitydeclared he was not convinced any changes to the proposed bills were needed.

Before any hearings were even held, Hastie told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation: I think if youre seeking to build Australia, and not undermine it as an Australian citizen, then you shouldnt be concerned.

Hastie added: Our agencies have told us that were experiencing unprecedented levels of espionage and foreign interference in this countrydirected against our political institutions, our commercial interests, our critical infrastructure and our migrant communities.

The Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) itself intervened. Deputy director-general Peter Vickery told Hasties committee that Australia faces adversaries on a scale that exceeds the Cold War, during which ASIO conducted massive operations against government opponents in the name of combating alleged subversion by the Soviet Union. We do have examples, current examples of (countries) where the threat level is at extreme, he declared.

While Vickery declined to name any country, a government source confirmed to Channel 9 News that China topped the ASIO list of extreme threats to national security.

ASIOs intervention further points to an orchestrated operation, conducted in collaboration with its US partners to poison public opinion in preparation for military conflict against China.

CIA director Mike Pompeo this week insisted that China posed as big a threat to the US as Russia, and the Washington Post has reported that the Trump administration regards Australia as a catalyst for proposing similar foreign interference measures.

These comments confirm that the Australian bills, while purportedly directed at improper influence by any foreign power, are aimed particularly against China, which hysterical media reports have demonised as a menace to Australia.

Bound up with these ideological preparations for war, the package of five bills has profound implications for basic democratic rights, imposing prison terms of up to 20 years for undertaking any political activity in partnership with an overseas organisation.

In addition, all individuals or organisations engaged in any political campaigning involving an international group or individual would have to register under an invasive and complex Foreign Influence Transparency Scheme.

This weeks parliamentary submissions and hearings provided some graphic examples of the anti-democratic consequences.

The US-based Human Rights Watch said the bills would outlaw reporting on abusive governmental policies or misconduct by intelligence agencies. Disclosing any information deemed to prejudice national security would be criminalised.

Its submission pointed out that the bills define national security to include the countrys political, military or economic relations with another country or other countries. In effect, national security means protecting the profit interests and predatory activities of the Australian capitalist class, which rest on the US for military and strategic support.

Paul Oosting, the national director of the lobby group GetUp!, testified that requiring donors to provide statutory declarations when donating more than $250 a year, in order to enforce a ban on foreign donations, would choke his organisations revenue stream and impose an unmanageable administrative burden. It would simply wipe out organisations like GetUp! he said.

Charities said the legislation would have a chilling effect on public debate by requiring all political campaigners that spent more than $25,000 a year on political activities to register and lodge financial records if they might receive foreign donations. Community Council for Australia chief executive David Crosbie said: I cant think of a single charity I work with that wouldnt be a political campaigner.

Universities Australia (UA), representing 39 public universities, said the more than 350,000 international students living in Australia could be classified as foreign principals under the bills. If a university was to make a representation to government on their behalf, this could potentially become registrable conduct, it said.

UA pointed to the crippling impact on research, which often requires international collaboration. For example, a recently-announced blood test for eight rare cancers, which could save thousands of lives, might be jeopardised because some Australian researchers received funding from a US university.

A coalition of media companies said journalists, editorial staff and lawyers could be jailed for possessing harmful information, even before publishing. The bills provide a defence where information is dealt with in the public interest and in the persons capacity as a journalist. However, the bills declare that information likely to harm or prejudice the health or safety of the public or a section of the public can never be in the public interestthus significantly restricting the scope of such a legal defence.

The media alliance also objected to the registration scheme covering communication activities with a foreign principal for the purpose of political or governmental influence. This could extend to TV programs like The Simpsons and Saturday Night Live, not just Russia Today and Al Jazeera, and newspaper content derived from the Financial Times or the Wall Street Journal.

The Law Council of Australia said lawyers making representations to a government on behalf of a foreign client, perhaps an asylum seeker in detention, would not be protected by a narrow exemption extending only to advice or representation in actual court proceedings.

As its submission indicated, the same would apply to assisting a client to seek a government approval or a social security payment, and to advocacy, public or private, by a lawyer or professional association, for a policy change.

None of these submissions, however, referred to the underlying agenda of war preparations. Instead, most emphasised their agreement with the supposed need to ramp-up the protection of national security.

One witness urged the Liberal-National government to go further. Former Greens candidate Professor Clive Hamilton submitted a 48-page dossier claiming to document huge influencing operations in Australia by the Chinese Communist Party that included manipulating 130,000 Chinese students, as well as university institutes and business activities. The dossier complained that many of these activities could escape the bills coverage.

The Labor Party underlined its bipartisan backing for the bills, while warning that some justifiable concerns could make them unusable. Opposition legal affairs spokesman Mark Dreyfus stated: Labor will always support practical measures that strengthen protections in line with our national security interests, but it is highly likely that the governments bill will need amendment in order for it to be workable.

The Greens were even more vehement in urging the government to sharpen the bills focus. Greens justice spokesperson Senator Nick McKim said: The legislation is shoddily drafted and too broad in scope, and needs amending to ensure that it properly targets foreign interference in our political system.

This is a revealing political line-up. As the WSWS has explained, the far-reaching anti-democratic measures in the bills are bound up with preparations for draconian political repression, amid fears in the ruling elite of rising popular discontent over the dangers of war and deteriorating social conditions.The Sri Lankan government has announced a pompous ceremony on February 4 to mark the 70th anniversary of formal independence from British colonial rule in 1948. Reeling under the impact of the world economic crisis, rising geo-political rivalry and explosive social tensions at home, the government will exploit the ceremony to crank up reactionary nationalist sentiment.

Already, the government has demonstrated the Sri Lankan bourgeoisies subservience to imperialism by inviting Prince Edward to attend as the representative of Britains Queen Elizabeth.

President Maithripala Sirisena is scheduled to address the nation from Colombos Galle Face Green. As he has nothing to offer working people, undoubtedly he will declare his determination to rid the country of corruption. This is now the main ploy of every faction of the ruling elite to deflect attention from the real root of all the countrys illscapitalism.

Sirisena came to power in January 2015 to derail seething mass opposition against former President Mahinda Rajapakses anti-democratic rule and attacks on living conditions. The national unity government formed by Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe to take on the working class is now tearing itself apart as both blame each other for the countrys crisis.

There is no popular enthusiasm among working people for these independence celebrations. Strikes, student marches and peasant protests have been increasing for months. The election chief this week urged trade unions not to call industrial action until February 15 under the guise of not disturbing local government elections scheduled for February 10. The real fear in the ruling elite is the prospect of mass struggles as part of the radicalisation of the working class internationally.

The country is under the supervision of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which is pressing for deep austerity measures, including halving the 2015 budget deficit. The top 20 percent of the population receives 51 percent of national income while the bottom 20 percent gets just 5 percent.

More than a quarter century of communal war against the islands Tamil minority was brought to a bloody end in 2009 by the Rajapakse regime with the support of all the major foreign powers. The war left nearly 200,000 dead. Tens of thousands people still live in rudimentary huts without essential facilities in the islands north and east, which remains under military occupation.

These politically explosive conditions are replicated throughout South Asia, where Britain only granted formal independence, in collusion with the national bourgeoisies, to abort the mass struggles that erupted against colonial rule in the late 1940s.

India has become one of the most unequal countries in the world, with the top 1 percent taking 23 percent of all income while the poorest 50 percent, or 600 million people, receive only 15 percent. The Hindu chauvinist Bharatiya Janatha Party, which took power in 2014 by capitalising on popular anger and disgust with Indian National Congress rule, is continuing to attack the living and social conditions of the masses in a bid to attract foreign investment.

A military-backed regime rules in Pakistan. In Bangladesh, Prime Minister Sheik Hasinas government is adopting ever-more authoritarian measures. None of the countries in the region has any other way of propping up capitalist rule against the rising tide of opposition.

Amid sharpening geo-political antagonisms, the danger of a catastrophic world war between nuclear-armed powers is growing. All the countries of South Asia are being drawn into the maelstrom as the US seeks to use its military might to maintain its global dominance, particularly against China. India has become a frontline state in Washingtons war drive against Beijing, while Pakistan is increasingly under US pressure to distance itself from China.

In Sri Lanka, the US orchestrated the regime-change operation that installed Sirisena because it regarded Rajapakse as too close to China. Behind the backs of working people, the national unity government is integrating the country into the US military plans against China.

Throughout the Indian subcontinent, and indeed in all so-called post-colonial countries around the world, the capitalist classes and their political servants are demonstrating that there is no real independence from imperialism. Moreover, they have failed utterly to fulfill their promises to provide genuine democratic rights and a decent standard of living for all.

Seventy years ago, the Bolshevik Leninist Party of India (BLPI) and Fourth International founded in 1938 by Leon Trotsky were alone in exposing the fake independence being granted. BLPI leader Colvin R. de Silva explained that the independence was merely a transition from methods of direct rule to methods of indirect rule.

Facing a rising revolutionary upsurge of workers and poor in India, British imperialism conspired with the leaders of the Indian National Congress and the Muslim League to partition the sub-continent into a Hindu India and Muslim Pakistan in 1947. The Stalinist Communist Party of India backed the carve-up, which led directly to bloody communal violence in which millions were killed.

The BLPI opposed the partition. De Silva explained: Partition has proved in the one respect only a means for reforging chains for the imperialist enslavement of the masses... In the other respect, it has proved but a means of beguiling two states to thoughts of mutual war as the only means of canalising internal communal feelings away from civil convulsions.

Though the BLPI later adapted to the post-war arrangements, retreated politically and entered the Lanka Sama Samaja Party (LSSP), its far-sighted prognosis has proven to be correct. India and Pakistan have fought three full-scale wars since independence and their ruling elites have used communalism as their main political weapon to divide working people and suppress the class struggle.

In Sri Lanka, the first act of the United National Party (UNP) government following formal independence was to strip more than a million Tamil plantation workers of Indian origin of all citizenship rights. The Colombo political establishment has repeatedly resorted to whipping up anti-Tamil chauvinism to divide the working class along ethnic lines to prop up its rule.

The political degeneration of the LSSP culminated in its open rejection of the fundamental principles of socialist internationalism by entering the capitalist government of Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) Prime Minister Sirima Bandaranaike in 1964. This betrayal was aided and abetted at every step by Pabloism, an opportunist faction of the Fourth International led by Michel Pablo and Ernest Mandel that broke from Trotskyism in 1953.

In entering the Bandaranaike government, the LSSP scuttled a mass movement of the working class and embraced the Sinhala supremacist ideology of the ruling elite. In 1972, the SLFP-LSSP coalition government, along with the Stalinist Communist Party, imposed a new constitution that made Buddhism the state religion and Sinhala the only official language.

The confusion created by the LSSPs betrayal was exploited by the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) to gain a following among Sinhala rural youth based on an eclectic mixture of Castroism, Maoism and Sinhala populism. Among Tamil youth, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) won a hearing for its calls for Tamil separatism and the armed struggle.

The LSSPs betrayal paved way for the discredited UNP to return to power in 1977 and impose its pro-market program on the working class. When public sector workers resisted these attacks, President J.R. Jayawardene sacked 100,000 employees and resorted to one communal provocation after another to divide the working class. In 1983, he launched the all-out war that devastated the island.

The Revolutionary Communist League (RCL), the forerunner of the Socialist Equality Party (SEP) was formed in 1968 as the Sri Lankan section of the International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI) to fight the betrayal of the LSSP on the basis of socialist internationalism. It alone has opposed all forms nationalism and chauvinism, and sought to unite workersSinhala, Tamil and Muslimagainst war and attacks on basic social and democratic rights.

The struggle of the RCL and SEP has been rooted in Trotskys Theory of Permanent Revolution, which demonstrated the organic incapacity of the so-called national bourgeoisie in backward countries like Sri Lanka to meet any of the social and democratic aspirations of the masses. This program and perspective was powerfully confirmed by the socialist revolution in Russia in 1917, led by Lenin and Trotsky, that created the first and, to date, only workers state.

Every faction of the Sri Lankan bourgeoisie has demonstrated its regressive, anti-working class character. The JVP has long ago traded its military fatigues for parliamentary seats and is completely integrated into the Colombo establishment. The LTTE, which always represented the interests of Tamil bourgeoisie, sought to carve out a separate capitalist state with the backing of imperialism. The LTTEs defeat in 2009, after the major powers turned decisively against it, proved once again the bankruptcy of nationalism.

The various pseudo-left organisationsthe Nava Sama Samaja Party, United Socialist Party and Front Line Socialist Party, an offshoot of the JVPare nothing but appendages and apologists for the major bourgeois parties. All of them lined up behind the US-backed operation in 2015 to install Sirisena.

The SEP is the only party that advances the program of international socialism in Sri Lanka. We fight for the political independence of the working class from every faction of the bourgeoisie and for a workers and peasants government to implement socialist policies to meet the pressing needs of working people, not fatten the profits of the wealthy few.

The SEP calls for a Sri Lankan and Eelam Socialist Republic as part of a federation of South Asian socialist republics. Only through the fight for socialist internationalism and the unity of the working class can democratic rights be defended and the threat of war stopped. The essential political weapon in this international fight is the World Socialist Web Site (wsws.org), the organ of the ICFI.

Through its Independence Day celebrations, the Sri Lankan ruling class is desperately attempting to whitewash its deplorable history of seventy years of anti-democratic rule and social decay. We urge workers, peasants, youth, students and intellectuals to reject this reactionary charade, study the program and perspective of the SEP and ICFI, and join the revolutionary struggle to abolish capitalism and create a socialist future for humanity.Thousands of teachers across West Virginia staged one-day strikes or protests on Friday to demand a decent pay increase and protection of their benefits. Teachers from the historic coal mining battlegrounds of Logan, Mingo and Wyoming counties defied state law and carried out one-day strikes.

Approximately 2,000 educators converged on the state capitol, filling the rotunda as the state Senate considered a proposed paltry one percent pay increase. The striking teachers, who were bussed up from the southern part of the state, were joined by bus drivers, custodial workers, cafeteria workers, other public employees, as well as by other educators from across the state.

The derisory pay package, Senate Bill 267, passed 33-0, as protestors looked on. Teachers in the state have not had a pay increase since 2014 and are presently ranked 48th out of 50 US states in average salary. Moreover, the pay increase is actually a pay cut, as it is accompanied with demands for increased deductibles and copays to health insurance as well as attacks on seniority. The Senate bill will now go to the House of Delegates.

Districts in Kanawha, Boone, Monongalia and Berkeley counties organized walk-ins and rallied with students and parents prior to the start of school in defense of teachers rights. Similar actions and continued protests are scheduled throughout the weekend and next week. Strike votes in additional counties are expected soon.

Many students also rallied to show their support for educators. At South Charleston High School, about 30 students started the day in the parking lot in front of their school holding signs in support of their teachers. At Martin Middle School in Cabell County, teachers, parents and students held a protest, all wearing purple, and lining the roads, demonstrating their support for pay increases for educators.

The American Federation of Teachers West Virginia (AFT-WV) and the West Virginia Education Association (WVEA) have been meeting with Republican Governor Jim Justice, who promoted the bill, for the last two weeks. The unions did not take responsibility for the illegal strikes, telling the media that the striking teachers were acting independently.

In fact, the determination of protesting teachers was palpable. Were here because we are the coalfields. Weve been taught since we were little not to put up with this kind of treatment, and we wont anymore, Angie Butcher, a special education teacher at Verndunville Elementary told the Charleston Gazette-Mail.

Referring to additional strike votes, she said, Since its moving region to region, I think theyre going to pay attention at different times. If legislators dont listen, this will be a statewide movement. In a lot of ways, it already is.

Our kids are too important not to fund public education, Kanawha County teacher Yvonne Martin told MetroNews. Vouchers and savings accounts? West Virginia wake-up! Thats just another way to take funding away from public education. Martin has been a teacher for 39 years.

Physical Education teacher Greg Garber said, For years theyve promised benefits in lieu of raises and they promised us sick leave days in exchange for insurance  theyve taken that away. They have increased our deductibles and co-pays every year, Garber said. Now they have bills that do away with seniority, the MetroNews also reported.

Tiffany Sargent, a Logan County third-grade teacher, told the Gazette -Mail, Were pushing for our rights, because it has been so bad for teachers for so long, and they expect us to do more with less. We have been doing that, but they keep taking more and more.

The proposed increases in the Public Employees Insurance Agency (PEIA) premiums and deductibles will not just affect teachers, but all state employees. Public hearings on the PEIA measures are scheduled in Morgantown, Charleston and Beckley over the next two weeks. Adding insult to injury, PEIA has imposed a $25 per month penalty on public employees in 2015 should they fail to meet healthy lifestyle goals.

Erin Robinson, Franklin Elementary Reading Specialist, told WTAP TV, our health insurance is slowly eroding every year to the point where we cant afford to go to the doctor.

In the wake of the vote, Sen. Robert Karnes, R-Upshur, lamented, It's as much as we can do. We'd like to do more, but it's all we have, stated Sen. Mike Azinger, R-Wood, adding, somewhat more explicitly, Raising taxes on industry is not the thing wed like to do

The attacks on educators in fact merely escalate the ongoing transfer of wealth from workers in the state to the coal bosses and other big business interests. Both Democratic and Republican state legislators have for years pushed through massive tax cuts on the extraction industry and other major corporations. They dramatically cut the Corporate Net Income Tax and eliminated the Business Franchise Tax entirely.

The same legislators are now pushing for a phase-out of industrial personal property tax. This new gift to big business in the state would translate to another $150 million in budget cuts to public services or substantial increases in local personal taxes, according to the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy.

Senate Minority Leader Roman Prezioso lamely tried to distance himself from the deeply unpopular attacks on public education. We have felt compelled to work with the governor over the past two years, he explained. On Thursday, in last minute posturing designed to preserve some credibility, the Democrats had proposed an amendment to increase teacher pay by the reasonable level of three percent for one year, followed by the same one percent per year as the Republican measures.

Prezioso admitted to the Gazette-Mail that his proposal for such a paltry increase would likely not appease people, indicating the fears of the states big businesses of the escalating opposition by teachers. Prezioso added, People are angry. I havent seen this kind of anger since 1990. In any event, the Democrats pro forma amendment predictably failed along a party line vote. The only previous teachers strike in West Virginia history was an 11-day walkout in 1990.

For their part AFT-West Virginia president Christine Campbell and WVEA president Dale Lee described the passage of the bill as encouraging. I think it had to pass at one percent, said Campbell.

Brittany Bauer, an AP biology and AP environment teacher at Wyoming East High School, like many educators, raised the need for further strike action, invoking 1990. Then, it was just teachers, and today its more than thatall public employees are rallying too, because of PEIA, she explained to the Gazette-Mail.

Asked about the state threats to carry out mass firings or arrests, she replied, Its got to the point that its worth giving up everything, Bauer stated, If they arent going to listen to us, we may have to, making clear the rising tide of anger throughout West Virginia.

The region has long been associated with powerful struggles of the working class and violent state repression. The Mine Wars of the 1920s and 1930s gave rise to the term "Bloody Mingo," referring to the state's southern county. Neighboring Logan County was the scene of the Battle of Blair Mountain in 1921 when some 10,000 miners fought for unionization in pitched battles with police, strikebreakers and the US Army.

Such experiences and militant traditions live on in social consciousness despite decades of betrayals by the United Mine Workers of America and other unions. The teachers strike is the harbinger of a new period of mass struggle.

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Hundreds line up for free medical care in West Virginia

[23 October 2017]The drop in the percentage of Texas public school students receiving access to special education services has been so stark that it has brought a warning from the US Department of Education.

On January 11, 2018, the federal education department issued a letter to Commissioner Mike Morath of the Texas Education Agency (TEA), stating that the 32,000 drop in the number of students receiving special education between 2003 and 2016 is noteworthy. The drop comes even though the student population in Texas public schools increased by more than 1 million, bringing it to 5,359,127a number larger than the population of 23 states.

On the basis of a yearlong investigation, the DOEs Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) found that the TEA failed to ensure that all children  in need of special educationwere identified, located and evaluated, to ensure that a free appropriate public education (FAPE) was made available to all children, and that the states school districts lived up to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).

In the school year of 2003-04, the state provided special education to 11.6 percent of its students, already one of the nations lowest percentages. Now, according to data gathered as part of a 2016 expose by the Houston Chronicle, only 8.6 percent of Texas school children have access to special education programs, the lowest level in the country. Basing itself on national averages, the Chronicle estimates the number of students affected by TEAs failure is 250,000, many of whom may be entitled to compensatory education or tuition reimbursement.

It is even worse in large Texan cities. In 2016, Houston provided special education services to 7.4 percent of its students, and Dallas to only 6.9 percent. By way of contrast, 19 percent of children in New York City receive special education services. Dallas and Houston are not alone. Indeed, of the 100 largest school districts in the US, only 10 serve fewer than 8.5% of their students. All 10 are in Texas, the Chronicle notes.

That Texas now offers special education services to only 8.5 percent of students was a conscious policy decision made by TEA officials. Kathy Clayton, one of the four officials who established the benchmark, admitted to the Chronicle that no research was involved, and that the number was arrived at randomly as a means of driving down the number of students receiving special education assistance.

Well, it was set at a little bit of a reach, Clayton commented. Any time you set a goal, you want to make it a bit of a reach because youre trying to move the number.

In other words, if a district served 12 percent of its students with special education programs, it would indicate they might possibly be over-identifying children for special education. Yet in response to the original Chronicle investigation, TEA officials absurdly attempted to chalk up the decline to improvements in classroom strategiesthat students who may have previously been in special education programs were lifted up to participate fully in the regular classroom setting.

TEA imposed the 8.5 percent measure through a system called Performance-Based Monitoring Analysis System (PBMAS). Failure to meet the benchmark brings forth various levels of intervention by the TEA that require time-consuming use of school staff, and the possibility of fines.

What is clear is that Texas deliberately set about to deny access to special educationwhich costs schools approximately twice as much per studentin knowing contravention of federal rules.

One of the most important mandates of IDEA is referred to as Child Find. It requires school districts to take the initiative to identify, locate, and evaluate all children who may be eligible for special education programs regardless of each ones level of severity.

Under the Child Find mandate, teachers, counselors, other administrators, and particularly important, parents, may refer a child for evaluation of his or her eligibility for special education services. In other words, those who are most in the know with regard to a childs development, the parents or teacherscertainly not the bureaucrat or politicianare responsible for getting children tested by professional diagnosticians in his or her respective school district.

But, if the district can throw up road blocks, provide band-aid fixes to disabilities, such as minor accommodations for students with difficulties, or obfuscate and redirect the referrers, then they can lower the number of children whom they serve in special education.

The OSEP confirmed in many interviews what the Houston Chronicle had learned in their investigations: road blocks were put up everywhere.

In its 2016 report, the Chronicle cited one parent, Maritza Woodard, in Klein School District in northwest suburban Houston, whose 15-year-old daughter suffered from bipolar disorder. Woodard said that when she approached the Klein administration, she was given a list of private schools in the area that could help her better.

One district in the small East Texas town of Henderson was especially creative. They took all the evaluation-request forms out of the schools and put them in the central administration office where they could only be accessed by permission from supervisors.

Teachers are routinely encouraged to steer students away from special needs classes. Melanie Urbis, who teaches math in West ISD, told the Chronicle, They sit you down and basically interrogate you about whether this kid really needs to be evaluated for special ed services, and if you really think that, and if youre sure.

Despite the transparent attempt by the TEA to cut spending on special education for students, Governor Greg Abbott criticized local school districts for their dereliction of duty in failing to serve students.

H.D. Chambers, the superintendent of Alief school district in suburban Houston, who is also the president of the Texas School Alliance, an advocacy group, replied, We werent derelict: The state of Texas was derelict, the Texas Education Agency was derelict. We were following what they put in place.

In the 2017 legislative session, the Texas legislature focused much attention on education. However, the attention it paid was directed toward Lieutenant Governor Dan Patricks pet project, the bathroom billan attempt to deny the use of public restrooms based on gender identityand decreasing the funding of the Teacher Retirement Systems health care program to levels that increased out-of-pocket expenditures for retirees by thousands of dollars.President Donald Trump told Republican National Committee members in a closed-door gathering Thursday night that he'll travel to Nevada to back Sen. Dean Heller in a competitive Republican primary.

He also committed to trips to Minnesota -- where two Democratic senators are up for re-election this year -- as well as California and South Dakota, three sources in the room said.

Other states' delegations tried to get the President to promise visits there, as well. At one point, RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel intervened and told the crowd to stop asking the same question. Trump began deflecting their requests to McDaniel.

Trump quizzed Nevada's delegation about how Heller's numbers looked headed into competitive match-ups in the GOP primary against Danny Tarkanian and, if he advances, in the general election against Democratic Rep. Jacky Rosen.

State GOP chairman Michael McDonald told Trump that Heller is in good shape. The two also talked briefly about the Las Vegas shooting.

"Any time we can get the President to come out, we're very happy to have him out there," McDonald said Friday.TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (WTHI) - Students out with the flu earlier this week have begun returning to class at Otter Creek Middle School. OCMS had about 20% of its student body out earlier this week. The Vigo County School Corporation believes most of those cases were due to the flu.

The school remained in session despite requests from parents to close it. The School Corporation felt they had a pretty good handle on what they were dealing with, and it didn't take long for flu numbers at Otter Creek to drop.

Once a school sees 20% of its student body absent, it must report that to the state. If it's health-related, the local health department also gets a call. The School Corporation says while 20% is a very high absence rate, it's not unheard of this time of year.

"Historically if you look back at weeks 19, 20 and 21... that's where we are on the calendar... you can see these things will probably occur," said Dr. Tom Balitewicz of VCSC.

Dr. "B" (he gave us permission to call him this) also told us school secretaries use a form asking specific questions of parents and guardians calling in kids sick for the day. Most of the form deals with flu-like symptoms. So if a parent reports those symptoms, VCSC will track that data.

"We were ahead of this," said Dr. B. "We make sure we're documenting these things as they call in."

Dr. Darren Brucken of the Vigo County Health Department said flu numbers in the county remain steady. We are seeing a shift, however, from Influenza A to Influenza B. Influenza A typically has respiratory-related symptoms: coughing, etc. Influenza B sees more gastrointestinal symptoms, such as nausea and vomiting. Dr. Brucken says to wash your hands often, and stay home if you feel sick.VIGO COUNTY, Ind. (WTHI) - Many people want to help out, but aren't sure how. Well, there's now a new website for the Wabash Valley to find ways to give back!

It's called Volunteer Wabash Valley.

The website shows you organizations in our community that are in need and are looking for help. This is put on by the United Way of the Wabash Valley.

Over the past few months, non-profits and charities began posting their volunteer opportunities and events.

They include everything from fostering animals with the Parke Vermillion Humane Society to helping at the Happiness Bag.Here's a look at the life of former Cuban leader Fidel Castro.

Personal:

Birth date: August 13, 1926

Death date: November 25, 2016

Birth place: Biran, Cuba

Birth name: Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz

Father: Angel Castro, wealthy landowner

Mother: Lina Ruz, cook and maid to Angel Castro's first wife

Marriage: Dalia Soto del Valle (date unavailable-November 25, 2016, his death); Mirta Diaz-Balart (October 12, 1948-1955, divorced)

Children: with Natalia Revuelta: Alina; with unknown woman: Jorge Angel; with Dalia Soto del Valle: Alexis, Alexander, Antonio, Alejandro, Angel; with Mirta Diaz-Balart: Fidel "Fidelito"

Education: Colegio Dolores in Santiago de Cuba, 1942; Colegio Belen in Havana, 1945; University of Havana, doctorate in 1950

Other Facts:

Led the overthrow of the Batista dictatorship of Cuba in 1959.

Made Cuba the first Communist country in the Western Hemisphere.

Brought social reforms to Cuba, but was criticized for oppressing human rights and freedom of speech.

During his time in office, thousands of Cubans sought exile in the United States.

Timeline :

1947 - Castro participates in an unsuccessful rebellion in the Dominican Republic against Generalissimo Rafael Trujillo.

1952 - Castro runs for parliament. The government is overthrown on March 10, 1952, by Fulgencio Batista, and the elections are suspended.

July 26, 1953 - Castro and approximately 150 others attack the Moncada military barracks in Santiago de Cuba in an unsuccessful attempt to overthrow the Batista regime.

October 16, 1953 - Castro is sentenced to 15 years in prison.

May 15, 1955 - Fidel and Raul Castro are released as part of a general amnesty for political prisoners. They go into exile in Mexico. While in Mexico, they meet Argentine physician Che Guevara. The three organize a group of Cuban exiles into a new guerrilla group.

December 2, 1956 - Eighty-two exiles land in Cuba, on a yacht named Granma. Most are killed immediately. The survivors, including Guevara and the Castros, flee to the Sierra Maestra Mountains. Between 1957 and 1958, they wage a guerrilla campaign from this base, which includes skirmishes with government troops and burning sugar crops.

January 1, 1959 - Batista is overthrown by Castro's forces.

January 2, 1959 - Manuel Urrutia is named the new president. Jose Miro Cardona is appointed prime minister.

February 16, 1959 - Castro takes over as prime minister.

April 15-26, 1959 - Castro visits the United States.

May 8, 1960 - Cuba and the Soviet Union establish formal diplomatic relations.

September 1960 - Castro addresses the United Nations General Assembly.

April 17, 1961 - A group of approximately 1,300 Cuban exiles land at Playa Giron (Bay of Pigs). Armed with US weapons, they make an unsuccessful attempt to overthrow Castro. The survivors are released in December 1962, in exchange for $53 million in food and medicine.

May 1962 - A Soviet delegation visits Cuba. During the visit, Soviet officials meet with Castro to discuss installing nuclear missiles in Cuba.

December 3, 1976 - Castro becomes president of the State Council. This new title replaces the posts of president and prime minister.

March 18, 1977 - US President Jimmy Carter ends the ban on US travel to Cuba.

April-September 1980 - Some 125,000 Cubans immigrate to the United States. This exodus becomes known as the Mariel Boatlift.

April 19, 1982 - US President Ronald Reagan reinstates the ban on US travel to Cuba.

August 19, 1994 - US President Bill Clinton announces an end to the "open door" policy on Cuban refugees, established by US President Lyndon Johnson in 1966. From now on, Cubans intercepted at sea will be repatriated, but those who reach land will be allowed to stay.

January 21-25, 1998 - Castro welcomes Pope John Paul II as the pontiff begins a historic five-day visit. This marks the first time a pope has ever visited Cuba.

December 13, 2000 - Russian President Vladimir Putin meets with Castro in Cuba.

June 23, 2001 - Appears ill during a speech and is helped from the podium.

Spring 2003 - Castro cracks down on dissidents, giving long sentences to 75 arrested activists.

October 20, 2004 - After delivering a speech, Castro falls while leaving the podium.

July 31, 2006 - A statement read on Cuban TV announces that Castro is undergoing intestinal surgery and has provisionally handed over power to his brother Raul. The arrangement is expected to last for several weeks while Castro recuperates.

June 3, 2007 - Castro is shown on Cuban TV standing and greeting a visitor.

October 29, 2007 - Castro publishes his autobiography "My Life" in the United Kingdom. The book contains a series of interviews done with journalist Ignacio Ramonet. The book is released in the US in early 2008.

February 19, 2008 - Due to ailing health, Castro announces his resignation as president in a letter published in the middle of the night in the online version of Cuba's state-run newspaper, Granma.

December 4, 2008 - In an essay, writes that Cuba would be willing to talk with US President Barack Obama's administration.

March 22, 2011 - In an essay published in Cuban state media, Castro writes that he resigned as head of the Communist party when he fell ill on July 31, 2006, and never tried to resume his position.

February 3, 2012 - Castro publishes a two-volume memoir of his life, "Fidel Castro Ruz: Guerrilla of Time," based on conversations with the journalist Katiuska Blanco.

October 22, 2012 - The Cuban government steps up efforts to prove Castro is still in good health. Former Venezuelan Vice President Elias Jaua claims to have met with Castro and shows reporters a photo of the two of them together.

January 26, 2015 - A published letter purportedly written by Castro endorses the fledgling talks to restore diplomatic relations between Cuba and the United States even though Castro still "doesn't trust" US policies.

March 2, 2015 - Cuba's state-run press publishes photos of Castro speaking with five Cuban intelligence agents recently released by the United States in a prisoner swap.

April 19, 2016 - Castro addresses his mortality at the end of a three-day Cuban Communist Party Congress saying, "Soon I will turn 90 years old, never would such a thing have occurred to me and it's not the outcome of any effort; it was fate's whim, soon I will be like everyone else. To all of us comes our turn."

November 25, 2016 - President Raul Castro announces the death of his older brother. Cuba begins an official mourning period where all activities and public performances stop, and the flag will fly at half-staff in public and military establishments. Radio and television will broadcast patriotic and historical programming, the Cuban state news outlet reported.

February 1, 2018 - Castro's oldest son, Fidel "Fidelito" Castro D-az-Balart, takes his own life, according to Cuban state media.CALEDONIA, Miss. (WTVA) - An investigation continues into a Caledonia juvenile, resulting in an arrest.

According to Lowndes County Chief Deputy Marc Miley, the sheriff's department arrested the unnamed juvenile Thursday for the possession of a weapon by a minor.

"This investigation was a result of complaints of this juvenile making some disturbing comments and exhibiting some disturbing behavior," Miley stated.

Miley says a social media post mentioned a firearm the juvenile was in possession of. Miley says a video posted confirmed this.

"The investigation did indeed reveal a firearm and raised concerns of law enforcement and residents in the Caledonia area," Miley stated. "At this time, investigators have no direct knowledge that the juvenile had made any direct threats that would be criminal in nature."

Miley says the Lowndes County School District assisted the sheriff's department with the investigation and the juvenile was detained while in school.

"However, no firearm was found at the school and the firearm in question was actually located at the juvenile's residence," Miley stated.MONROE COUNTY, Miss. (WTVA) - Two men have been charged with the possession of stolen property in Monroe County.

Antonio Reese | Photo: Monroe County Jail Antonio Reese | Photo: Monroe County Jail

Kennie Fields | Photo: Monroe County Jail Kennie Fields | Photo: Monroe County Jail

Kennie O'Neal Fields, 37, of Becker, and 21-year-old Antonio Reese, Jr., 21, of West Point, were both arrested on Thursday. Both currently sit in the Monroe County jail awaiting arraignments.

Monroe County Sheriff Cecil Cantrell says the two were in possession of a stolen vehicle from Massachusetts.

Cantrell says the duo stated they had bought the vehicle via a wire transfer, but investigators believe the two are lying about how they came to be in possession of the vehicle.

Monroe County investigators are working with law enforcement in Massachusetts to piece everything together.TALLAHASSEE, FL (WTXL) -- Saturday, Florida A&M's gym was full of robots for the regional VEX competition. Students were in the zone, controlling their robots to complete tasks and score points for their team.

Middle and high school students from 8 schools across the Big Bend participate in the annual VEX Robotics Competition. Amanda Wiman, a Rickards High School Student, says "It's something that you can see that you're doing. It's just so much fun to learn about how to build new things." Many aspire to be architects and engineers, saying they look forward to this event each year.

Each school's team gets a kit with all the materials they can use and VEX creates new tasks each year. Harmony Reddick, a FAMU DRS student, tells us "It gives a lot of experience if your interested in the STEM program or you want to go into engineering or science."

The 15 teams earn points from different games and obstacles. After months of building and rebuilding, students are putting their robots to the test. One task this year involves stacking as many cones possible into your team's end zone.

The competition builds a team spirit and challenges students in a unique way. Many say, this is not the first year they have entered and it won't be the last. Jane McDonald, Coordinator for the VEX Robotics Competition, adds, "It allows them the opportunity to think creatively and develop their creative thinking skills. As well as giving them some hands on experience as opposed to just sitting at a computer."

At the end of the day, the 3 teams with the most points are qualified to go to the state competition next month. It's a friendly competition, but students take great pride in their robots and the skills they gain from the experience.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-02 23:01:15|Editor: pengying

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Russian President Vladimir Putin stands in front of the Eternal Flame at the Battle of Stalingrad State Historical and Memorial Museum-Reserve in Volgograd, Russia, on Feb. 2, 2018. Russian President Vladimir Putin Friday took part in the celebration of the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Stalingrad against Nazi Germany in World War II (WWII). (Xinhua/Bai Xueqi)

MOSCOW, Feb. 2 (Xinhua) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin Friday took part in the celebration of the 75th anniversary of a major battle against Nazi Germany in World War II (WWII).

The Battle of Stalingrad, which is the former name of Volgograd, was one of the longest battles during WWII, fought from August 1942 to February 1943. It radically changed the course of the war, heralding the victory over Nazi Germany in 1945.

Putin addressed WWII veterans and other guests at the solemn event in the city of Volgograd on the Volga River.

The defenders of Stalingrad left a great heritage -- love for the motherland, readiness to defend its interests and independence, standing firm in any trial, and working for the country's prosperity, Putin said.

"We have no right to leave uncompleted work, to show cowardice and indecisiveness. We must follow the example of our fathers and grandfathers to be worthy of their accomplishments, to be ready to reach the set goals, and to achieve more than we have already achieved," he said.

Putin visited the Battle of Stalingrad memorial complex, laid a wreath at the Eternal Flame in the Hall of Military Glory and honored the memory of Soviet troops with a minute of silence.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-03 01:37:09|Editor: yan

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BERLIN, Feb. 2 (Xinhua) -- German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel has signalled a desire to retain his current post in Germany's prospective new "grand coalition" government, the magazine Spiegel reported on Friday.

"To serve one's country in such internationally confusing times is naturally very exciting and a great honor. It would consequently be strange if I would not like to continue in the role," Gabriel told Spiegel.

While voicing the opinion that he had done a good job as foreign minister in the current government, the Social Democratic Party (SPD) politician acknowledged that his party had "every right" to reshuffle positions in a new cabinet as it wished.

Gabriel's political future also formed the subject of debate at a recent SPD trade union conference. According to Spiegel, several labor representatives as well as party leader Martin Schulz advocated for the foreign minister to form part of what would already be Chancellor Angela Merkel's fourth cabinet.

However, senior SPD figures have spoken of strained relations between Schulz and Gabriel and expressed the view that it would be impossible for both politicians to join a new government.

Ever since party delegates narrowly approved a progression to final-stage coalition talks with the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and Christian Social Union (CSU), Schulz has heard growing calls in Germany not to assume a ministerial post in a new "grand coalition" himself.

In spite of such internal opposition and an earlier pledge to return with the SPD to the opposition bench if he lost national elections in September 2017, Schulz recently insisted he would be a part of Germany's next ruling cabinet.

Despite nearing the end of "grand coalition" negotiations, the SPD has yet to publicly announce its list of federal ministers and will only do so following a vote by party members on whether to sign a final coalition agreement with the CDU and CSU.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-03 03:32:35|Editor: pengying

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United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres speaks during a brief statement to reporters at the UN headquarters in New York, on Feb. 2, 2018. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Friday welcomed the outcome of the intra-Syria talks in Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi, saying Russia kept its word that the Sochi talks would be a contribution to the UN-led Geneva process. (Xinhua/Li Muzi)

UNITED NATIONS, Feb. 2 (Xinhua) -- UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Friday welcomed the outcome of the intra-Syria talks in Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi, saying Russia kept its word that the Sochi talks would be a contribution to the UN-led Geneva process.

The UN's presence in Sochi was based on a common understanding between the United Nations and Russia on the nature and outcome of the meeting and its contribution to the Geneva process.

The Sochi talks concluded with a statement fully in line with that common understanding, Guterres told reporters at UN Headquarters in New York.

The final declaration at the Sochi talks embraced a vision of Syria for all Syrians -- as reflected by the 12 living intra-Syrian principles put forward by his special envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura late last year, said Guterres.

The two-day Sochi talks ended Tuesday. The talks affirmed that a Constitutional Committee should be formed under UN auspices in accordance with Security Council Resolution 2254, which provides for a roadmap of political settlement of the Syria crisis that has entered into the eighth year.

The Sochi talks also made it clear that a final agreement on the mandate, terms of reference, powers, rules of procedure, and selection criteria for the composition of the Constitutional Committee is to be reached in the UN-led talks in Geneva, he said.

"My special envoy will now draw on this Sochi outcome to meet our shared goal: full implementation of Security Council Resolution 2254 and the Geneva Communique. He will also work for the talks to address the other areas determined by Resolution 2254."

Guterres, however, expressed concern over the situation on the ground. "We must never forget that progress toward a political settlement needs to be accompanied by progress on the ground."

Yet in the last two months, he said, not a single convoy of life-saving relief has reached a besieged area -- no medical supplies, no food. "Humanitarian aid is not getting in. And people suffering dire health conditions are not getting out."

He also expressed concern over "disturbing new reports" about the possible use of chemical weapons.

Guterres called on the Syrian government and opposition delegations and all countries with influence to cooperate with his special envoy. "We must ensure that the UN-led process moves ahead in Geneva, credibly and seriously."Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-03 06:13:13|Editor: yan

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BERLIN, Feb. 2 (Xinhua) -- The ongoing strike of German workers forced German automakers to halt production on Friday.

Germany's biggest union IG Metall called on workers to strike for better pay and shorter working hours since Wednesday. According to the union, about 500,000 employees have taken part in walkouts at around 280 businesses in last three days.

Alone on Friday, 300,000 employees laid down their tools. German big names like BMW, Audi, Daimler and Porsche all came to a standstill.

IG Metall has demanded a salary rise of 6 percent for its members, while employers have offered about the half of the demand. Meanwhile, the union also demands that working hours of employees, who are parents of very young children or who need to take care of sick relatives, should be reduced from 35 to 28 per week for two years.

"Now it's up to the employers to understand this signal and step up their game," IG Metall chairman Joerg Hofmann said to German news provider dpa.

"If the employers show this willingness, negotiations can continue Monday," Hofmann said.WASHINGTON, Feb. 2 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. Defense Ministry on Friday officially published the 2018 Nuclear Posture Review (NPR), the guiding principle for the future U.S. policy seeking enhanced nuclear deterrent which is already the world's most powerful.

"The United States now faces a more diverse and advanced nuclear-threat environment than ever before, with considerable dynamism in potential adversaries' development and deployment programs for nuclear weapons and delivery systems," the document claimed.

The comprehensive report, which is largely in line with the 2010 review done by the Obama administration, reaffirms commitments to non-proliferation treaties but emphasizes the need to enhance capabilities to match with Russia, showing supports for U.S. nuclear modernization projects.

The review, the first of this kind since 2010, also calls for a "lower-yield" option with less powerful explosive capacity for ballistic and cruise missiles launched from submarines.

The lower-yield weapons would enhance the credibility of the U.S. arsenal, the review claims. It also says that nuclear weapons could be used to respond to "extreme circumstances," including non-nuclear attacks.

Elisabeth Braw, a researcher with the Atlantic Council, said: "While the Nuclear Posture Review may contain no radical departures from the Obama administration's nuclear policy, the public debate is already focusing on the low-yield nuclear weapons."

"The European public will see this as another dangerous Trump policy at an already tense time in the transatlantic relationship," he added.

"The U.S. nuclear arsenal remains the largest and most capable in the world, consisting of thousands of warheads loaded on intercontinental ballistic missiles and submarines-launched ballistic missiles, along with nuclear bombs and cruise missiles carried by long-range bombers," Michael Klare, professor and director of the Five College Program in Peace and World Security Studies, told Xinhua.

"Most of these warheads are of the type that can destroy entire cities, but the U.S. also deploys bombers in Europe that are capable of dropping bombs with lower explosive yields," Klare said, warning that any U.S. nuclear buildup may lead to "a renewed arms race and a more dangerous world."

According to the review, the U.S. will sustain its strategic nuclear triad systems, largely deployed in the 1980s or earlier, until the planned replacement programs are deployed.

The United States currently operates 14 OHIO-class submarines and plans to replace them by the COLUMBIA-class submarines. The COLUMBIA program will deliver a minimum of 12 submarines to replace the current OHIO fleet and is designed to provide required deterrence capabilities for decades, the review says.

The U.S. landbased intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM) force consists of 400 single-warhead Minuteman III missiles deployed in underground silos and dispersed across several states.

The United States has also initiated the Ground-Based Strategic Deterrent (GBSD) program to begin the replacement of Minuteman III in 2029. The GBSD program will also modernize the 450 ICBM launch facilities that will support the fielding of 400 ICBMs.

The current U.S. non-strategic nuclear force consists exclusively of a relatively small number of B61 gravity bombs carried by F-15E and allied dual capable aircraft (DCA). The United States is incorporating nuclear capability onto the forward-deployable, nuclear-capable F-35 as a replacement for the current aging DCA.

The review requires an "investment in a credible nuclear deterrent with diverse capabilities," chief Pentagon spokesperson Dana White said one day before its publication.

The review, aligned with the National Defense Strategy and the National Security Strategy, came nearly one year after U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order directing the review.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-03 07:53:36|Editor: pengying

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CARACAS, Feb. 2 (Xinhua) -- The ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) has elected President Nicolas Maduro to be its candidate in upcoming presidential elections, the party's vice president Diosdado Cabello said on Friday.

"Approved by acclamation and unanimity," Cabello said during a special party congress in Caracas, where the rank and file voted in favor of the nomination.

Cabello, who is also a member of the National Constituent Assembly (ANC), an all-powerful legislative body tasked with drafting a new Constitution, said Maduro was nominated after assessing his popularity among Venezuelans.

Maduro, who attended the congress, thanked Cabello and praised the ANC for deciding to move up end-of-year elections to some time before an April 30 deadline.

The move aimed to take advantage of the PSUV's strong showing in elections last year to elect the members of the ANC. While the right-wing opposition boycotted the elections, more than eight million Venezuelans ignored their call and went to the polls.

On Friday, Maduro said the presidential elections will take place "with or without" the opposition's participation.

"We are going to elections with you or without you," Maduro said in a message directed at the coalition of opposition parties, the Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD).

The two sides have been holding talks since September to overcome the political deadlock that has brought the government to a standstill, with the executive branch in the hands of the PSUV, and the National Assembly, or parliament, under the control of the MUD.by Matthew Rusling

WASHINGTON, Feb. 2 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday sparked a whirlwind of controversy here by releasing a controversial GOP memo that accuses the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) of political bias and abusing its powers of surveillance.

Experts said this will further damage the already poor relations between the White House and the FBI, and could even endanger U.S. security.

"Longer-term, it politicizes intelligence, counterintelligence, and law enforcement in a way that is fundamentally dangerous for the country's security," Dan Mahaffee, senior vice president and director of policy at the Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress, told Xinhua, speaking of the Republican Party memo's release.

The issue is complex. But in a nutshell, Friday saw Trump authorize the release of the so-called "Nunes memo" -- a four-page secret memo written by House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, a Republican.

The document alleges that the FBI abused its surveillance authority, especially when it tried to get a court order allowing it to surveil a former advisor to now President Trump -- a very serious and unusual accusation.

The memo accuses the FBI and Justice Department leadership of bias against Trump and essentially argues that top Justice Department and FBI officials were determined to derail Trump.

The document is a crucial piece of information regarding Nunes' bid to investigate the U.S. Justice Department and FBI over their ongoing probe into whether members of the Trump team colluded with Russia to clinch the 2016 elections.

Trump's move is the latest in a long and drawn-out fight between Republicans and the FBI over whether the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential elections is political in nature.

Indeed, the White House contends that the investigation is purely a political witch hunt, as the Washington establishment had wanted Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton to clinch the White House, rather than businessman and political outsider Trump.

"Republicans are looking for evidence that the FBI was partisan in its activities so they can taint the Russia investigation. They want to suggest it was a partisan witch hunt," Brookings Institution Senior Fellow Darrell West told Xinhua.

Addressing reporters at the White House on Friday over the memo, Trump said it's a "disgrace what's happening in our country," and that many people "should be ashamed of themselves."

For its part, the FBI had not wanted the memo to be released, arguing that there were crucial pieces of information that were left out of the document. The agency argued that the release of the document would cast the agency in a bad light in front of the U.S. public, and taint its image.

Trump on Friday took to social media, tweeting that the leadership of the FBI and Justice Department have "politicized the sacred investigative process in favor of Democrats and against Republicans -- something which would have been unthinkable just a short time ago."

He added, however, that he greatly respects the rank and file of the U.S. intelligence community.

Experts said the release of the document is highly controversial.

"This is very controversial," Mahaffee said.

That's because a tool designed to allow the Congressional intelligence oversight committees to uncover malfeasance in the intelligence community is being used in a highly politicized way, he added.

Mahaffee maintained that one piece of an abundance of information is being used to put the FBI in a negative light.

"Chairman Nunes and the Trump administration have used one limited part of the FBI investigation into the election and the surveillance of individuals in communication with Russia to try and paint an image of FBI bias," Mahaffee said.

HAS TRUMP'S MOVE BACKFIRED?

Some experts have also said that the Trump administration may have shot itself in the foot with the release of the sensitive document.

That's because Tuesday saw Trump's first State of the Union address, which was meant to be an olive branch to Democrats, and was considered by many to be a well-delivered speech that focused on boosting the economy.

But now, the White House, by releasing the document, has drawn attention away from Tuesday's message, and back to a politically sensitive issue.

"The political impact is two-fold: even with a positively received State of the Union address, the administration has again brought the public's attention to the Russia investigation," Mahaffee said.

Friday's release of the memo may also further damage the already chilly ties between the White House and the Justice Department, as well as the intelligence services overall -- the latter two having been against the release of the document.W celu swiadczenia usug na najwyzszym poziomie stosujemy pliki cookies. Korzystanie z naszej witryny oznacza, ze beda one zamieszczane w Panstwa urzadzeniu. W kazdym momencie mozna dokonac zmiany ustawien Panstwa przegladarki. Zobacz polityke cookies.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-03 09:54:10|Editor: pengying

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BRASILIA, Feb. 2 (Xinhua) -- A Brazilian court on Friday canceled a decision last week to confiscate the passport of former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, to stop him from travelling abroad.

Judge Bruno Apolinario reversed the decision, made last week by a different federal court, with Lula being able once again to leave the country.

The seizure of the passport on Jan. 25 was ordered by judge Ricardo Leite from the 10th federal court, one of the judges supervising a case in which Lula is accused of using his influence to help the Brazilian air force buy jet fighters from Sweden.

At the time, Leite justified the decision by saying there was a risk that Lula might seek political asylum in a country that did not have an extradition agreement with Brazil.

As a result, Lula had to cancel his participation in a meeting with global leaders in Ethiopia to discuss efforts to eradicate famine on the continent.

In a different case, on Jan. 24, an appeals court confirmed Lula's guilty verdict for corruption and money laundering and sentenced him to 12 years and one month in prison.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-03 10:44:16|Editor: Lifang

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BEIJING, Feb. 3 (Xinhua) -- China is willing to expand ties with Uruguay in a comprehensive way in order to better benefit the two countries and peoples, Chinese President Xi Jinping said Saturday.

Xi made the remarks in a congratulatory message to his Uruguayan counterpart, Tabare Vazquez.

The two presidents exchanged congratulatory messages to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the establishment of bilateral diplomatic ties.

Noting that China and Uruguay are good friends and partners, Xi said bilateral relations have witnessed great progress over the past three decades, especially since the establishment of a strategic partnership in October 2016.

China attaches great importance to the development of bilateral ties, Xi added.

In his message, Vazquez said bilateral relations between Uruguay and China have witnessed remarkable achievements in recent years. The two sides will work together to push forward bilateral ties to a new high. Uruguay supports the Belt and Road Initiative and looks forward to taking part as early as possible.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-03 11:09:24|Editor: Lifang

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UNITED NATIONS, Feb. 2 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations Postal Administration (UNPA) is issuing a special personalized stamp sheet to celebrate the Chinese Lunar New Year.

The stamp sheet, which is scheduled for issuance on Feb. 2, consists of 10 stamps of a denomination of 1.15 U.S. dollars, with the UN logo on the left and paper-cut images of dogs on the right, as the Chinese lunar year for 2018 is the Year of the Dog.

The dogs are in gold and red, the two traditional colors for the Chinese Lunar New Year, or Spring Festival, the most important holiday for Chinese around the world. This year's Spring Festival falls on Feb. 16.

This new sheet will be the ninth of the UNPA's Lunar New Year stamp series.

The tabs of the stamps and the background design were illustrated by Tiger Pan, a renowned packaging designer, said UNPA.

According to the artist, the inspiration for the animal stamp design arose from "figure-ground reversal," which perfectly interprets the meanings of "cooperation" and "sharing."

The sheet is designed by Sergio Baradat of the UNPA's design team.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-03 11:29:27|Editor: Mengjie

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WASHINGTON, Feb. 2 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump and his South Korean counterpart Moon Jae-in discussed the upcoming PyeongChang Winter Olympics, the situation on the Korean Peninsula and bilateral trade over the phone Friday.

The White House said in a statement that Trump wished Moon and the South Korean people a successful Winter Olympic Games.

Trump also reiterated his commitment to addressing the trade imbalance between the two countries, the statement said.

Some media reports said the White House withdrew its nomination of Victor Cha as the U.S. ambassador to South Korea because of his opposition to military options against the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK).

Cha, a veteran Korea expert, denounced the idea in public last month, saying such a move would invite a full-blown war on the Korean Peninsula, putting the whole South Korean population in danger.

South Korea has demanded the United States name another nominee for the ambassador post before the Olympics. The post has been empty since Trump assumed office last year.

The situation on the Korean Peninsula remained volatile throughout 2017, as the DPRK conducted its sixth nuclear test and the United States conducted large-scale military drills with South Korea, sending aircraft carrier groups, strategic bombers, nuclear submarines and other strategic assets there.

Washington has also maintained its so-called "maximum pressure" stance against the DPRK, yet so far the strategy has not achieved the expected results.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-03 11:49:30|Editor: Mengjie

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SAN JOSE, Feb. 2 (Xinhua) -- With only two days to go before Costa Ricans head to the polls to elect their next president, the uncertainty and disillusionment of many voters do not allow any degree of certainty when predicting the election outcome.

While the latest polls published by the University of Costa Rica and OPol Consultores show the candidate of the right-wing National Restoration Party (PRN), Fabricio Alvarado, in first place with 16.9 percent, the number of undecided voters surpasses that of his supporters at 36 percent.

Behind Alvarado comes Antonio Alvarez Desanti, from the National Liberation Party (PLN) with 12.4 percent, and Carlos Alvarado, of the official Citizens' Action Party (PAC) with 10.6 percent.

A former security minister, Juan Diego Castro, led polls late last year thanks to his tough approach to crime, but the rise of Fabricio Alvarado has seen his support diminish.

For Gustavo Araya, a political communications expert and professor at the University of Costa Rica, the rise of the religious conservative Fabricio Alvarado is due to a single event. Until December, he was polling at 2-3 percent when the Inter-American Court of Human Rights called on Costa Rica to recognize gay marriage, triggering a backlash in the deeply Catholic country.

Araya explained that this reactionary switch to defend Alvarado, who has vowed never to recognize gay marriage, has been facilitated by a lack of party allegiance in the country.

"The campaign did not allow for the discussion of the most relevant topics, and stuck to the simplest, most polarizing and most opinionated topics," he said.

Araya also warned that it was highly unlikely for a candidate to claim the 40 percent margin to win a first-round vote, meaning a second round between the top two will be held on April 1.

The expert added that this polarizing issue had also favored Carlos Alvarado, the official candidate, who has expressed support for gay marriage.

When pressed about who would progress or win the second round, Araya said this was a very difficult question given that the margins are so close.

He pointed instead to another major issue during the campaign, namely the country's fiscal deficit, which stood at 6.2 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) at the end of 2017.

"The deficit is a very complex topic as the solution goes through the issues of expenditure, revenue, the creation of internal debt and how this affects the population, in taxes that will have political costs for the parties," Araya said.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-03 13:04:43|Editor: Lifang

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by Noemi Galban

HAVANA, Feb. 2 (Xinhua)-- Executives from major publishing houses of China and Cuba agreed here Friday to expand cooperation in several areas, and establish a better dialogue between both cultures and peoples through literature.

As part of the activities at the Havana 27th International Book Fair, representatives from around 60 Chinese publishing companies and their local counterparts ratified the will to expand the presence of Chinese writers in Cuba and vice versa.

Friday at the China's pavilion, Chinese and Cuban editorial groups signed 10 accords on cooperation, co-editing, and copyright transfer.

"These projects will promote the publication of books of quality and build a bridge of culture between the two cultures," said Zhou Huilin, deputy head of the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television of China.

Zhou noted that this occasion was a turning point for deeper and broader collaboration between the publishing industries of Havana and Beijing.

Cuban Vice Culture Minister Kenelma Carvajal told Xinhua that events like these were very important.

"It is very important because the millenary Chinese experience and potential in the publishing field is essential for us to learn from them, and the signed agreements will help improve the quality of books in Cuba," she said.

Iyami Palomares, director of Cuban publishing house Art and Literature, told Xinhua that the island country's public is eager to know more about what's going on in China.

"The titles we published three years ago were sold out immediately, thus I believe more Cuban readers want to know about China," she said.

"One of the most demanded titles was Lu Xun's Diary of a Madman ... and soon we will print its fourth edition," added Palomares.

Another relevant deal was the integration of the Cuban publisher New Millennium with the alliance of academic publications belonging to the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative.

The project launched in 2017 by the Renmin University of China is supported by the Publicity Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television.

The goal is to establish channels for bilateral or multilateral cooperation and exchange programs that will serve as an effective communication platform between Chinese culture and the world, said Li Yongqiang, director of China Renmin University Press.

Juan Rodriguez, president of the Cuban Book Institute, reiterated Cuba's stance to expand cooperation in this area, and implement the agreements achieved at the fair.

Chen Lujun, president of the Chinese Intercontinental Press, recalled that China and Cuba signed an agreement on a cooperative translation project of Chinese and Cuban Classical Works in 2011.

That was the first agreement of such reached between publishing institutions of both countries and resulted in the publication of 10 books, including six from Cuban authors translated into Mandarin and four Chinese contemporary literary works translated into Spanish.

"I hope that with the joint effort, more excellent Chinese books will reach Cuban readers while more Cuban classics will be known in China," Chen said.

The 27th Havana International Book Fair opened on Feb. 1 at the old Fortress of San Carlos de la Cabana in Havana and is considered the most important cultural event in the Caribbean nation.

It will conclude its first stage in Havana on Feb. 11 before traveling through the rest of the country until it ends on May 13 in the eastern city of Santiago de Cuba.YANGON, Feb. 3 (Xinhua) -- The first elevated express road will be constructed in Myanmar's Yangon in December, the official Global New Light of Myanmar reported Saturday.

Under the management of the Ministry of Construction, the 40.5-km express road, as Yangon Inner Ring Road and Outer Ring Road, will link Yangon Strand road and Yangon-Mandalay highway.

The project would reduce travelling hours to 20 minutes to reach the Yangon International Airport from downtown area in Yangon.

The project will also be linked with the Hantharwady International Airport project, Yangon-Mandalay highway project and Thilawa Special Economic Zone (SEZ).Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-03 13:24:48|Editor: pengying

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HOUSTON, Feb. 2 (Xinhua) -- Global demand for renewables will increase by 4.5 percent annually by 2040, while that for oil will decline slightly annually, an ExxonMobile report said Friday.

The global demand for oil and coal would decrease about 0.4 percent and 2.4 percent per year, perspectively, while natural gas demand would increase about 0.9 percent per year, said the report "Energy & Carbon Summary: Positioning for a Lower-Carbon Future and its Outlook for Energy: A View to 2040."

The global scenarios assessed by ExxonMobil, which include a full range of energy technologies, contemplate limiting global greenhouse gas emissions to have a likely chance of holding atmospheric concentrations to the equivalent of 450 parts per million CO2 in 2100.

The 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change mitigation, which the United States pulled out of last June under President Donald Trump, aims to prevent global temperatures from rising more than 2 degrees Celsius, above pre-industrial levels by 2100.

ExxonMobil's report, a non-binding annual climate report which was a result of a shareholders vote last year after years of pressure from environmentalists and investors, describes a rapidly growing global population and rise in living standards in developing countries that will drive a demand in worldwide energy of about 25 percent from 2016 to 2040.

At the same time, energy efficiency gains and gradual reductions in the greenhouse gas intensity of the energy system will help to moderate energy use and reduce by nearly 45 percent the carbon intensity of the global economy.

"Our job is to supply the energy the world needs in an environmentally responsible way," said Darren Woods, ExxonMobil chairman and CEO. "Since 2000, out investments to develop lower-emission energy solutions have totaled about 8 billion U.S. dollars."

ExxonMobil, the largest publicly traded international oil and gas company headquartered in Texas, is one of the largest refiners and marketers of petroleum products and its chemical company is also one of the largest in the world.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-03 13:29:51|Editor: pengying

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KABUL, Feb. 3 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Vice President Mike Pence has condemned the recent terrorist attacks in Afghanistan and assured U.S. firm support to the Afghan government and its people, the Afghan Presidential Palace said on Saturday.

In a telephone conversation with Afghan President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani on Friday night, Pence also offered condolences and expressed sympathy over the deadly attacks.

"We continue to stand alongside the people and the government of Afghanistan at this critical stage," the palace quoted him as saying.

More than 100 people, mostly civilians, had been killed and more than 200 others injured in deadly terrorist attacks in the capital city of Kabul and the eastern Jalalabad city in January.

President Ghani, according to the palace, besides expressing gratitude to the United States for its support to Afghanistan, also stated that the Afghan government will not negotiate with terrorist groups.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-03 14:14:56|Editor: pengying

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RIO DE JANEIRO, Feb. 2 (Xinhua) -- Brazilian President Michel Temer denied Friday that the social security system reform would be abandoned.

In a TV interview aired earlier in the evening, the president said the government did not admit a defeat of the reform, denying rumors of failure and statements made by Chief of Staff Eliseu Padilha earlier this week that the battle to approve the reform would end this month.

"I have not given up," said Temer, adding that the social security reform bill must be voted on at least for the first round in February.

As a constitutional amendment proposal, the social security reform needs to be approved in two rounds in both the House and the Senate.

The problem is that the bill is so controversial that there are insufficient votes for it to be approved.

The government has been working to convince congressmen for months to support the bill, which needs 308 votes to pass, but is said to have garnered only 270 votes in favor of the reform.

The social security reform bill will be submitted to a vote in the House for the first round on Feb. 19.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-03 14:34:59|Editor: pengying

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MAIMANA, Afghanistan, Feb. 3 (Xinhua) -- A total of 25 militants have been killed over the past 24 hours as the government forces attacked Taliban positions in the northern Faryab province, a police spokesman said Saturday.

Four Taliban group commanders, including the notorious Mawlawi Yusuf, were also among those killed in the raids in Khawja Sabzposh district, spokesman Sayed Sarwar Hussaini said.

Khawja Sabzposh district has been regarded as Taliban hotbed in the relatively troubled Faryab province.

The spokesman also noted that the crackdown against Taliban would continue to ensure lasting peace there.

Taliban militants are yet to make comment on the report.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-03 14:50:03|Editor: Lifang

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BEIJING, Feb. 3 (Xinhua) -- China's development brings opportunities rather than threats to Latin America, said Mexican ambassador to China Jose Bernal.

China's investment in the field of sci-tech and infrastructure is very important for Latin America, Bernal said at a news briefing held by the embassy Friday.

The economic and trade cooperation between China and Latin America saw steady growth despite a global economic slowdown in recent years, with bilateral trade volume exceeding 200 billion U.S. dollars, Bernal said, adding that China's financing cooperation with Latin America has benefited more than 80 livelihood projects in over 20 countries.

The ambassador said China's deepened reform and opening-up policy has brought new business opportunities to Latin American countries.

"We have noticed opportunities to strengthen economic and trade cooperation, tap into the Chinese market and deepen mutually beneficial cooperation between the two sides," Bernal said.

The export volume of the Latin America and Caribbean region increased by 13 percent in 2017 from the previous year, while China contributed one-third of the increase, according to a report issued by the Inter-American Development Bank in 2017.

Addressing the second ministerial meeting under the framework of the China and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States Forum, China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi said China will actively support Latin America in the fields of transportation, infrastructure and energy.NEW DELHI, Feb. 3 (Xinhua) -- India's Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has moved the country's Supreme Court, seeking a fresh probe in a decades-old arms scandal case involving late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi of main opposition Congress party.

The scandal broke out in 1987 when Swedish Radio alleged that Swedish defense firm Bofors paid bribes to top Indian politicians, including Rajiv Gandhi, and top defence officials to bag a multi-million dollar deal to supply artillery guns to the Indian Army in 1986.

Rajiv Gandhi - the husband of Sonia Gandhi and father of Congress chief Rahul Gandhi - was named an accused but exonerated in 2004 in the alleged payoffs case. And a year later, the Delhi High Court ordered closure of the case.

"But the CBI Friday approached the Supreme Court against the 12-year-old Delhi High Court's order dropping all charges against Indian-origin British industrialists, the Hinduja brothers, and the Swedish defense firm in the case," a senior official said Saturday.

"This is despite the government's top lawyer advising the probe agency against an appeal in the case, saying it may not stand in the court of law due to lapse of time," he said.

The 1986 Bofors scandal brought down then Congress government of Rajiv Gandhi and ruined the party's prospects of returning to power for several years.

Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated in 1991 by suicide bombers of erstwhile Sri Lankan rebels Liberation of Tamil Tigers Eelam.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-03 15:23:06|Editor: Zhou Xin

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A pet dog dressed in festive costume competes in the dog costume competition held in Singapore's Chinatown on Feb. 3, 2018. Singapore's Chinatown held a dog costume competition to greet the upcoming Chinese New Year. (Xinhua/Then Chih Wey)Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-03 15:20:10|Editor: Zhou Xin

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HAVANA, Feb. 2 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese cultural gala held here on Friday as part of the events of the 27th Havana International Book Fair enthralled the local audience with traditional artistic pieces.

The colorful and exciting show at Havana's Alicia Alonso Grand Theater was performed by the Shandong Art Troupe from eastern China, who displayed folk music, dance and acrobatics to the audience's delight.

The gala also served as the preamble of the celebrations in Cuba for Chinese Spring Festival, and represented a highlight moment of various activities where China is the nation guest of honor.

Abel Prieto, Cuban minister of culture, said the variety and beauty of the gala was an example of China's diversity.

"I am very happy with how the Chinese government assumed the commitment to be the nation guest of honor at our book fair ... They made a real effort to bring China's culture as an important gift for readers and in general for the Cuban public," he said.

The gala was held at the end of a fruitful day that included the signing of agreements between both nations' publishers to expand cooperation in several areas, and to establish a better dialogue between both cultures and peoples through literature.

Prieto said that these exchanges will lead to new joint projects, as is the case of Cuba's interest in displaying at the local theaters screening contemporary Chinese films.

The 27th Havana International Book Fair opened on Feb. 1 at the old Fortress of San Carlos de la Cabana in Havana and is considered the most important cultural event in the Caribbean nation.

It will conclude its first stage in Havana on Feb. 11 before traveling through the rest of the country until it ends on May 13 in the eastern city of Santiago de Cuba.NEW DELHI, Feb. 3 (Xinhua) -- Police in northern Indian state of Haryana have arrested three people for assaulting two Kashmiri students, officials said Saturday.

The two Kashmiri Muslim students at the Central University of Haryana in Mahendragarh, about 100 km from New Delhi, were thrashed by nearly 15 people on late Friday afternoon.

"Yesterday after offering congregational prayers, when we were walking through a market place, we were surrounded by around 15 people who attacked us without any reason," Aftab Ahmad, a victim, said. "We continued to ask them why they were beating us but they went on attacking us with sticks, bricks and helmets."

The two students suffered injuries on their face and bruises on arms and legs. They were reportedly taken to hospital and later on discharged.

Following the incident India-controlled Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti approached Haryana Chief Minister M L Khattar over the incident, urging strict action.

"Three people have been arrested and three others have been identified through CCTV footage," a senior police official said. "We would soon arrest all the accused in the accident."

The attack has shocked Kashmiri students and triggered an outrage in Indian-controlled Kashmir.

"We feel threatened and are in constant fear here," a fellow student said. "This is example of growing intolerance in Indian states against Kashmiris."

In the past incidents of assault on Kashmiri students in Indian states have been reported.JAKARTA, Feb. 3 (Xinhua) -- Whirlwind has hit Central Java province of western Indonesia, leaving one person dead and 161 houses damaged, a government official said on Saturday.

The natural disaster took place on Friday night in Cilacap district of the province, an official in charge of the national disaster management agency said.

"The damages and casualty were caused by whirlwind. Currently one person was recorded dead and the number of houses destroyed was 161 units," the official told Xinhua.

Risks assessment of the disaster is being carried out by local authorities, The disaster has forced scores of people to flee home and take shelters in their neighbor's or relatives' houses, the official said.

Whirlwind has frequently stricken across the archipelagic nation, leaving damage and casualties.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-03 15:55:17|Editor: Zhou Xin

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NANJING, Feb. 3 (Xinhua) -- Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University (XJTLU), a Chinese-British joint venture university, plans to build a new campus in east China's Jiangsu Province.

The plan was announced Friday by Professor Dame Janet Beer, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Liverpool, as she accompanied British Prime Minister Theresa May on her visit to China.

The new campus of XJTLU, a partnership between China's Xi'an Jiaotong University and the University of Liverpool, will be constructed in Taicang City, not far from the school's base in Suzhou City, also in Jiangsu.

The Taicang campus is expected to open in 2020 and grow to have a community of 6,000 students by 2025.

The campus will foster graduates in science and technology with expertise in AI and robotics. It will provide opportunities for students to work with and within the city's expanding industrial base.

Founded in 2006, XJTLU has more than 12,000 students and over 1,000 faculty members. It hopes to have 24,000 students by 2028.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-03 16:20:21|Editor: Zhou Xin

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BEIJING, Feb. 3 (Xinhua) -- An exhibition on Marxism will be open to the public every Tuesday to Sunday in Beijing with free admission to commemorate the 200th anniversary of Karl Marx's birth.

The exhibition on Marxism's early spread to China was also held to commemorate the 170th anniversary of the publication of the Communist Manifesto.

It uses pictures, objects, documents and art to depict the hardships during the early stage of Marxism's spread to China and Marxists' solid faith and efforts to save the nation.

A launch ceremony was held on Friday at the Beidahonglou branch of the Beijing Luxun Museum (the New Culture Movement Memorial of Beijing) by the Central Compilation and Translation Bureau and the State Administration of Cultural Heritage.

Marx, born on May 5, 1818, was largely ignored by scholars in his own lifetime, though his social, economic and political ideas gained rapid acceptance after his death in 1883.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-03 16:25:22|Editor: Zhou Xin

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BEIJING, Feb. 3 (Xinhua) -- A total of 55 suspects in telecom and online fraud cases have been returned to China from Indonesia, the Ministry of Public Security said Saturday.

The suspects have been linked to more than 60 criminal cases, covering more than 20 Chinese provinces and involving 30 million yuan (about 4.7 million U.S. dollars), the ministry said in a statement.

Chinese police sent a team to Indonesia in June 2017 to work with local police. In August 2017, 143 such suspects were brought back to China from Indonesia.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-03 16:40:25|Editor: Zhou Xin

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NANJING, Feb. 3 (Xinhua) -- Rescuers are searching for three crew members who remain missing after a shipwreck on Friday evening in the Yellow Sea, local authorities said Saturday.

The body of the vessel, with six people aboard, cracked at around 7:30 p.m. in the waters off Guanyun County in east China's Jiangsu Province, according to the county's publicity office.

The crew members called the police. Temperatures as low as minus 9 degrees Celsius and rapid currents hampered rescue efforts, said the office.

At around 10 p.m., rescuers found three people near the prow, the only part of the boat that appeared above the water, and saved them an hour later. The survivors are being treated in the hospital.LOS ANGELES, Feb. 2 (Xinhua) -- A girl aged 12 was charged with two felony counts in court following Thursday's accidental shooting injuring five at a middle school in the western U.S. city of Los Angeles, local authorities said Friday.

Prosecutors have filed one felony count each of being a minor in possession of a firearm and having a weapon on school grounds, in connection with the shooting incident Thursday at Salvador Castro Middle School, said Los Angeles County District Attorney Jackie Lacey in a statement.

The teenage girl has not been identified, as the California state law dictates that information about juvenile court proceedings and records are confidential and shall not be made public.

The girl carried the handgun in her backpack which accidentally "went off" on Thursday, leading to a shooting in a classroom that eventually injured five. The investigation is still underway, the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) said in a statement earlier Friday.

Among the five injured people, a 15-year-old boy and a 15-year-old girl were hit by a bullet in the incident. The bullet went through the wrist of the girl and struck the boy in the head, the LAPD said.

The other three, including two students and a 30-year-old woman, suffered minor injuries that were not caused directly by the shooting.

"At this time, the information suggest that this was an isolated incident, involving the negligent discharge of a firearm, where innocent children and a staff member were unfortunately injured," the LAPD said.

It's still not clear how the girl obtained the handgun and brought it to the school.

The city's mayor Eric Garcetti was quoted as saying by a local news outlet, City News Service, that the girl's parents are believed to be separated, and her father has allegedly denied that he owns the weapon.

The girl in custody should be provided with counseling and emotional support, Garcetti said.

A total of 14 shootings have occurred on school campuses across the United States in 2018 as of Thursday, according to Everytown for Gun Safety, a non-profit organization committed to measuring U.S. gun violence with comprehensive and up-to-date data.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-03 17:10:32|Editor: Shi Yinglun

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BEIJING, Feb. 3 (Xinhua) -- After decades of speedy advances, China is shifting its economic focus to high-quality development, with "developing a modernized economy" high on the agenda.

Now an economic catchphrase, the idea provides a blueprint for the world's second largest economy during the next five years and beyond.

It will be embodied in innovation-driven industries with coordinated development, an open and fair market, efficient and fair income distribution, coordinated urban-rural and regional development, energy conservation and environmental friendliness, and an open economy with higher standards.

Efforts will be made to give full play to the role of the market, while the government is expected to play a better part.

FOCUS ON REAL ECONOMY

The real economy, once outshone by rampant real estate prices and financial speculation, has again gained traction.

While presiding over a group study of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee Xi Jinping described the real economy as the foundation of the modernized economy, advocating the use of new technology including the internet, big data and artificial intelligence to boost traditional industries.

To develop a modernized economy, China should channel more energy into improving the quality of supply and grow into a manufacturing powerhouse, said Wang Yiming, deputy director of the Development Research Center of the State Council.

The government has rolled out an array of measures such as "Made in China 2025" and "Internet Plus" strategies.

Funds that used to flow into the virtual economy due to high yields are returning to factories that produce tangible goods. New loans in the real economy rose 11.34 percent to 13.84 trillion yuan (around 2.2 trillion U.S. dollars) last year.

Thanks to rising investment, innovators sprouting up across the country are injecting new vitality into the economy. More homegrown tech firms are transforming from followers to leaders in the international tech community.

Technology is playing a bigger role in driving the economy. Tech is estimated to have contributed 57.5 percent to economic growth last year, up from 56.2 percent in 2016, according to Wang Zhigang, vice minister of science and technology.

OPENING UP OF HIGHER STANDARDS

During the group study, Xi called for a diverse, balanced, secure and efficient system for opening up on all fronts, with better use of global resources and markets and promotion of international cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative.

As 2018 is the 40th anniversary of China's reform and opening up policy, the country's door to the world will only become more open.

At the World Economic Forum annual meeting in January, senior Chinese official Liu He said more measures are in the pipeline to further open the country's finance, manufacturing and service sectors, and step up protection of intellectual property.

The Chinese government has been striving to ease market access for foreign investment and build a level playing field for players from home and abroad.

Foreign direct investment in the Chinese mainland hit an all-time high of 878 billion yuan last year, with 35,652 foreign-funded businesses established.

China has promised to boost imports, announcing plans to purchase more than 10 trillion U.S. dollars of goods and services in the next five years. The first China International Import Expo will be held in Shanghai in November, which is expected to bring together thousands of enterprises from more than 100 countries.

Liu said China will make more efforts to cut tariffs on products including cars. Import taxes on 187 products were slashed last year, with the average rate down from 17.3 percent to 7.7 percent.

The Belt and Road Initiative is also an important part of China's opening up to the world.

Industrial cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative will prompt a re-balancing of the world economy, said Zhang Yansheng, researcher at the China Center for International Economic Exchanges.

China's non-financial outbound direct investment (ODI) to countries involved in the Belt and Road Initiative totaled 14.4 billion U.S. dollars last year, 12 percent of the total ODI, up from 8.5 percent in 2016.

LET THE MARKET DECIDE

China's modernized economy will continue to be market-oriented and follow market rules, with stronger reforms to break barriers and bring vitality to the economy.

A market system that is unified, open, competitive and well-ordered is needed, Xi said during the group study, adding that China will give full play to the market and prompt a better role for the government.

One of the major tasks is the consolidation of state-owned enterprises (SOEs).

Debt-ridden and loss making state-owned "zombie companies" are reorganized via mergers and acquisitions or face bankruptcy according to market rules. Some have begun to carry out mixed-ownership reforms to improve competitiveness. Of the 19 state firms piloting the reform, seven have brought in more than 40 investors and the injection of over 90 billion yuan.

Meanwhile, the private sector will receive stronger support. At the 19th CPC National Congress, policy makers pledged to introduce a negative list for market access and do away with regulations and practices that impede fair competition.

The government has rolled out measures to build a sound business environment for the private sector, including less red tape, better services and lower fees and taxes. During the first three quarters of 2017, 4.51 million new businesses were registered, up 12.5 percent from a year ago.

More policies can be expected to protect property and the rights of private businesses, relieve their burdens and allow them to enter more key industries.COLOMBO, Feb. 3 (Xinhua) -- The Sri Lankan government on Saturday called on all parties in the Maldives to uphold the rule of law and find a peaceful solution to the ongoing political crisis.

"Sri Lanka is observing the evolving situation in the Maldives. We urge all parties to uphold the rule of law and the constitution, and find a peaceful solution to the current situation," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Clashes have been reported in the Maldives between police and protesters since Friday as supporters of former President Mohamed Nasheed took to the streets celebrating a ruling by the Supreme Court to release him along with other opposition leaders.

The Maldivian Supreme Court on Thursday ordered the immediate release of all high-profile prisoners, including former President Mohamed Nasheed and former Vice President Ahmed Adeeb.

The court said in a brief statement that the prisoners must be freed until fair trials can be conducted without undue influence.

Nasheed, who was elected as the president of the country in 2008, was ousted in February 2012.

He was sentenced to 13 years in jail in 2015 on terrorism charges after allegedly ordering the arrest of a judge during his presidency.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-03 17:35:39|Editor: Zhou Xin

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Zhang Dejiang, chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, speaks at a forum concerning Hong Kong's role in Belt and Road Initiative in Beijing, capital of China, Feb. 3, 2018. Hong Kong should give full play to its advantages in the process, build a diverse cooperation platform, and promote cultural exchanges, Zhang said Saturday at the forum. (Xinhua/Ding Lin)

BEIJING, Feb. 3 (Xinhua) -- China's top legislator Zhang Dejiang urged Hong Kong to actively contribute to the national development strategy when participating in the Belt and Road Initiative.

Hong Kong should give full play to its advantages in the process, build a diverse cooperation platform, and promote cultural exchanges, Zhang, chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, said Saturday at a forum.

The central authority supports the participation of Hong Kong and Macao in the Belt and Road Initiative as part of opening up and joint development, Zhang said.

Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor, Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, said Hong Kong will better adapt to national development on the basis on the "one country, two systems" principle.

Hong Kong will play a significant role in finance and investment, infrastructure and shipping, economic and trade cooperation, people-to-people ties, development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, and project interfacing and dispute settlement, Lam said.

The Belt and Road Initiative, proposed by China in 2013, aims to build trade and infrastructure networks connecting Asia with Europe and Africa based on ancient land and maritime trade routes.JALALABAD, Afghanistan, Feb. 3 (Xinhua) -- At least 13 militants loyal to the Islamic State (IS) group were killed in government forces' operations in eastern Afghanistan, a government spokesman said Saturday.

The government forces stormed the militant group's hideouts in Achin and Haska Mina districts of the Nangarhar province on Friday, spokesman for the provincial government Attaullah Khogiani said.

The government forces-backed aircraft targeted the hideouts of the IS group in Achin district on Friday afternoon, killing nine insurgents on the spot.

Similarly, the government forces in operations against the hardliner outfit in the neighboring Haska Mina district on the same day left four more fighters dead.

Several more insurgents sustained injuries during the raids, the official asserted.

Militants loyal to the IS are yet to make comments.WINDHOEK, Feb. 3 (Xinhua) -- Namibia has tightened measures meant to curb spending by ministers and various officials as the government aims to reduce expenses over the next three financial years.

The administrative directive dated Feb. 1 and issued by the Office of the Prime Minister says the aim is to promote efficiency and contain expenditure.

The directive comes a day after President Hage Geingob announced that he had suspended all trips outside the country by ministers, deputy ministers and all political office bearers with immediate effect until the end of February.

According to the directive, the government seeks to establish control systems that will reduce personnel and related expenses as well as reduce transport costs in the next three financial years.

With immediate effect, all air travel will be by long-haul flights, and that those travelling by road can only drive for more than 500 kilometers where there is no other option.

The number of those travelling outside the country has been limited to two people, and where there are more, then the Secretary to Cabinet has to be consulted.

The directive also limits travels outside the country to two trips per year and just three within the country although there will be exemptions.

All permanent secretaries, according to the directive, will have to seek permission to travel from the Secretary to Cabinet, who will then consult the minister before approving.

Furthermore, the directive bans any ministry from buying new vehicles with the Secretary to Cabinet's approval and restricts the use of government vehicles strictly to official use.

With immediate effect, the directive says, departmental meetings can be held via telephone or video conferencing to reduce travelling costs and lost production time.

The directive also encourages the use of email to reduce printing of letters, memorandum and photocopying and delivery of documents.

"Posts that remain vacant for more than six months should be abolished and may be given up for compensatory reductions," the directive says, adding that the Secretary to Cabinet will have to approve any new posts.

Also, the directive says supervisors will now have to approve overtime work that has to be done in the most cost-efficient manner.

Those who fail to comply, according to the directive, may face disciplinary action.COLOMBO, Feb. 3 (Xinhua) -- Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena on Saturday appointed a special Presidential Commission to investigate alleged large-scale frauds and malpractices in the country's national airline carrier.

The Presidential Commission will probe all the alleged frauds in SriLankan Airlines, SriLankan Catering Ltd and the state-owned budget carrier Mihin Lanka (Pvt) Ltd during the period from January 1, 2006 to January 31, 2018, a statement from the President's Office said.

The president signed the Gazette Notification appointing the Presidential Commission and accordingly a five-member panel also has been named, the statement said.

The new commission will look into several irregularities in the relevant companies including monetary allocations, loans, shares, investments and other finances from the Treasury, the Central Bank, the People's Bank, the Bank of Ceylon or any other financial institution.

The statement said the commission will also look into the reasons behind the termination in 2008 of the agreement between the SriLankan Airlines and Emirates Airlines.

SriLankan Airlines has in recent years been bogged in a financial crisis with Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe announcing last year that the airline was facing a massive debt of 3 billion U.S. dollars and was a "landmine" for the country's economy.

Wickremesinghe blamed the previous administration for mismanaging the national airline, thus leading to the colossal losses.

He said the government was seeking an international investor to manage the airline on the basis of a public and private partnership.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-03 18:15:46|Editor: Zhou Xin

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Students from Beijing and Medgar Evers College Preparatory School of New York take a group photo after a culture exchange event in New York, the United States, Feb. 2, 2018. Nearly 100 students from China and U.S. met together and enjoyed themselves at the event of learning and experiencing Chinese traditional culture as the Chinese Lunar New Year is coming. (Xinhua/Wang Ying)

by Xinhua writers Zhang Mengxi,Zhou Saang

NEW YORK, Feb. 2 (Xinhua) -- More than 100 students from China and the United States gathered Friday in New York City's Brooklyn Borough Hall, presenting their understanding of the two countries' cultures ahead of the Lunar New Year.

About 80 students from the Medgar Evers College Preparatory School in Brooklyn welcomed their guests by singing the song Jasmine Flower in Chinese, one of the most famous Chinese folk songs that is also included in Giacomo Puccini's opera Turandot.

They also practiced traditional Chinese painting and calligraphy during the event which kicked off a series of activities by local communities to mark the Chinese Spring Festival which falls on Feb. 16.

"As we celebrate the Lunar New Year, it's really great to have cultures coming together," said Steve Mei, director of Chinese American Planning Consul's Brooklyn Community Services.

Mei said it's very beautiful to see students from the two countries interact and be involved in the arts together.

The Chinese Spring Festival, also known as the Lunar New Year, is one of the most important Chinese festivals celebrated at the start of the first calendar month.

In the beginning of the cultural exchange event, all students watched a cartoon video about China's 24-solar-term system, an ancient Chinese calendar with 24 periods to indicate climates and proper agricultural activities. It introduced the solar term as the fifth invention of China.

The first solar term is Lichun or Spring Commencement that falls on Feb. 4 this year, marking the beginning of the spring. As there are customs and traditions associated with solar terms that people still adhere to, the calendar is still being "renewed" till today.

Ge Siyu, an 11-year-old girl from Beijing, said she wants more people to know about China's 24 solar terms.

In order to do that, she participated in a solar term logo design contest. Her work, inspired by famous western paintings like Vincent van Gogh's Sunflower for Autumn Commences and Jean-Francois Millet's The Gleaners for Autumnal Equinox, was on exhibition in the United Nations New York headquarters last month.

Li Liyan, consul and director at Cultural Office of the Chinese Consulate General in New York, said "New York City, especially Brooklyn Borough, is the melting pot of cultures around the world ... It is important that people of all culture especially our children should take advantage of that and learn from each other."

Nicole Shirley, a 13-year-old girl from Medgar Evers, translated Chinese dish names during the event. She said it was a precious opportunity to learn Chinese, a skill which could get one far in life. "You'll be able to get more jobs, because you have more communication skills. So I think that's good."

She has been learning Chinese for three years at her school where 500 students, almost one third of the school's students, study Chinese as a foreign language.

"I really like Chinese calligraphy. I think it's beautiful, like how the brush strokes look. That's really nice," Nicole said.

Jean Adilifu, assistant principal of Medgar Evers College Preparatory School who visited China for the fifth time in November, was very happy and proud that her students could interact and speak with their Chinese peers.

"Chinese is a world language," she said, adding that that was why the school had instructed all 6th-8th graders to learn Chinese.

"It was the first opportunity for them to speak directly with as many students from China as we have represented today, (who are) very noteworthy as well as our students," she said

Friday's event is like an immersion experience for language learning, she said. "They don't have to go to Beijing today. They come to city hall and then they can see other students. It makes their language learning more real."Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-03 18:35:49|Editor: Jiaxin

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JERUSALEM, Feb. 3 (Xinhua) -- Israeli fighter jets struck two targets at a Hamas military complex in the southern Gaza Strip early Saturday, in response to the projectile fired at southern Israel Friday evening from the Gaza Strip, said the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) Saturday.

The IDF reiterated in the statement that the army "holds Hamas accountable for all violence emanating from the Gaza Strip."

The IDF's airstrikes came hours after a rocket was fired from the strip, setting off warning sirens in the southern Israel. No one was hurt and no damage was caused by the rocket fire.

Early Friday morning, an Israeli aircraft targeted a Hamas observation post in the northern Gaza Strip in retaliation for earlier rocket fired by Hamas from the Gaza Strip at southern Israel, according to the statement made by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF).

This round of Hamas rocket fire and the IDF airstrike happened after nearly one month of relative calm. The last attack from the Gaza Strip took place at the beginning of January when three mortars were fired from Gaza at southern Israel, causing no injuries or damage.KABUL, Feb. 3 (Xinhua) -- Up to 47 anti-government militants have been killed in the eastern and northern regions of Afghanistan over the past 24 hours as the government forces have stepped up operations against armed militants in the war-battered country, officials said Saturday.

The security forces have killed 25 insurgents and captured a bastion of Taliban militants in Khawja Sabzposh district of the northern Faryab province since Friday, police spokesman in the northern region Sayed Sarwar Hussaini said Saturday.

According to the official, four Taliban group commanders including the notorious Mawlawi Yusuf and Mullah Yar Mohammad are among those killed in the raids.

A total of 23 more insurgents sustained injuries in the operations which lasted for several hours, the official said, adding the militants fled away.

And in an identical operation against Taliban insurgents, the government forces have killed nine militants in Andar and Deyak districts of the eastern Ghazni province since Friday morning,according to provincial government spokesman Aref Nuri.

During the ongoing operations backed by aircraft, Nuri added that nine more militants and nine security personnel had sustained injuries.

Similarly, the security forces in operations against Islamic State (IS) group in the eastern Nangarhar province, have killed 13 armed fighters and injured several others in Achin and Haska Minda districts on Friday, spokesman for provincial government Attaullah Khogiani said Saturday.

Taliban and IS groups are the two brutal fighting forces that have challanged the government in Afghanistan.

Security officials including Defense Ministry spokesman General Dawlat Waziri have said that the government forces would continue to mount pressure on anti-government militants in winter to weaken the insurgents ahead of spring and summer commonly known as fighting season in Afghanistan.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-03 18:40:52|Editor: Zhou Xin

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BEIJING, Feb. 3 (Xinhua) -- A total of 55 suspects in telecom and online fraud cases have been returned to China from Indonesia, the Ministry of Public Security said Saturday.

The suspects have been linked to more than 60 criminal cases, covering more than 20 Chinese provinces and involving 30 million yuan (about 4.7 million U.S. dollars), the ministry said in a statement.

Chinese police sent a team to Indonesia in June 2017 to work with local police. In August 2017, 143 such suspects were brought back to China from Indonesia.

The ministry said that the 55 suspects were on Indonesia's Bali island according to tips provided by Chinese police. On January 11, police took action to destroy three dens and arrest them, it said.

The ministry said that the telecom and online fraud, in which people pretend to be police, prosecutors and court officials, severely infringed on people's property rights and interests.

It said that Chinese police will maintain a tough crackdown on such crimes, enhance cooperation with other countries, and bring criminals to justice.Photo of a calf of the endangered Kenyan Mountain Bongo in Kenya. (Xinhua)

NAIROBI, Feb. 3 (Xinhua) -- A calf of the endangered and almost extinct Kenyan Mountain Bongo has been born at the Mount Kenya Wildlife Conservancy, officials said on Friday.

Donald Bunge, Mount Kenya Wildlife Conservancy Wildlife Manager, said the birth of the striking Mountain Bongo calf, provides renewed purpose toward the survival of the critically endangered antelopes' species.

"The birth has renewed hope for the survival of this rare Mountain Bongo antelope whose population of about 100 in the wild worldwide is still below the threshold of 250 mature individuals required to make a genetically stable population," Bunge said in a statement.

Bunge said efforts to breed the rare Mountain Bongo continue through viable support from Kenyan and international stakeholders.

Conservationists say Kenyan Mountain Bongo's population has declined due to unrestricted hunting, poaching, loss of habitat, illegal logging in forests among other reasons.

Bunge said the birth, recorded late last week, has effectively raised the population of Kenyan Mountain Bongo antelopes at the Mount Kenya Wildlife Conservancy to 67.

A similar birth was recorded on Dec. 31, 2017 with several more expected this year.

The Kenyan Mountain Bongo's natural habitat include the Aberdares, Mount Kenya, Mau and Eburu Forests. It is one of the two sub-species of Bongo antelopes, the other one being the Lowland Bongo.

Kenyan Mountain Bongos are characterized by a striking red chestnut color with about 9 to 16 white stripes on either side of the torso and long, spiraled horns.Kenya's National Super Alliance (NASA) leader and opposition chief Raila Odinga gestured to his supporters after taking an oath at Uhuru Park Grounds in Nairobi, capital of Kenya, Jan. 30, 2018. (Xinhua/Fred Mutune)

NAIROBI, Feb. 3 (Xinhua) -- The United States, the European Union (EU) and the Africa Union (AU) have expressed concern about the political developments in Kenya in particular the swearing-in of opposition leader Raila Odinga on Tuesday, terming it unconstitutional.

In separate statements issued on Friday, the United States, the EU and the AU called on Kenyan leaders to respect the constitution and rule of law.

U.S. State Department Spokesperson Heather Nauert said President Uhuru Kenyatta was validly re-elected in the Oct. 26, 2017 repeat presidential poll that was upheld by the Supreme Court.

"Grievances must be resolved through appropriate legal mechanisms. We reject actions that undermine Kenya's constitution and the rule of law," Nauert said in a statement.

The United States also commended security forces for the restraint shown during the "oathing" of the opposition leader, urging Kenyans to resolve grievances through appropriate legal mechanisms.

The EU called on political leaders to recognize the outcome of the elections and the re-election of President Kenyatta.

"Kenya's election year is over, and the challenges laid bare by the electoral process will have to be addressed. All actors should contribute to calm," the EU said.

"The Kenyan people now have the opportunity to take the country forward and work together on their historical path towards democracy and development," it added.

The African Union Commission chairperson Moussa Faki Mahamat on his part rejected all actions that undermine constitutional order and the rule of law.

Mahamat urged all concerned parties to desist from any such actions, which also put the political stability of Kenya at risk, and urged all stakeholders to act in strict compliance with the Constitution of Kenya and other relevant texts.

"The Chairperson of the Commission urges the people of Kenya to earnestly continue on the path of the rule of law and consolidation of their democratic institutions, and to eschew any acts that could undermine the stability of their country and its socio-economic development," Mahamat said.

He expressed the readiness of the African Union to assist in any way deemed appropriate in defusing the current tension on the basis of the fundamental principle of the respect of constitutional order and the rule of law.

Odinga took oath on Tuesday as the "People's President" on at ceremony attended by thousands of his supporters in Nairobi, action that the government had termed illegal.

Initially, there were fears of chaos due to confrontation between the police and opposition supporters after the government banned the event.

However, police officers who had been sent to guard Uhuru Park, the venue of the ceremony, withdrew allowing thousands of opposition National Super Alliance (NASA) supporters to attend the fete.

Meanwhile, the United States also expressed concern over the move to shut down TV stations, urging the government's to respect freedom of expression and implement court orders calling for the restoration of television broadcasts.

Stressing on the need to have dialogue, Washington also called on the government to build cohesion and address longstanding issues.

The EU also called on the government to restore transmission of KTN, NTV, Citizen and Inooro stations which were shut down by the government on Tuesday.

"It also means the respect of freedoms of assembly, media and speech and implies lifting any ban on media operating within the law," the EU said.

The High Court on Thursday directed the country's communications industry regulator to allow four privately owned television stations to resume broadcasting. The four media houses were still off-air on Friday.

KTN News, NTV and Citizen Television stations were shut down by the Communication Authority of Kenya early Tuesday minutes after they had started airing the event.PYONGYANG, Feb. 3 (Xinhua) -- The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) on Saturday slammed some South Korean conservative media and politicians for calling an upcoming military parade here as "provocation."

The official daily Rodong Sinmun published a signed article on the military parade to be held on Feb. 8 in Pyongyang, on the eve of the opening of the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics in South Korea.

The article said that the event will mark the 70th anniversary of the founding of the Korean People's Army (KPA), and accused some South Korean conservative media and politicians of twisting facts and making irresponsible comments on their neighbor's important event.

"It is a unique idea of the Korean army and people to celebrate the founding date of the KPA and no one has the right to make irresponsible comments on it," it said.

DPRK used to celebrate the military founding day on April 25, which marked the founding of a guerrilla troop by Kim Il Sung in 1930s to fight the Japanese occupiers.

Less than two weeks ago, the nation declared that Feb. 8 will be marked as the founding anniversary of the KPA and the "Army-Building Day," as DPRK's Founding President Kim Il Sung established the regular revolutionary armed forces on Feb. 8, 1948.

In this regard, April 25 will be marked as the founding anniversary of the Korean People's Revolutionary Army.

The DPRK and South Korea have agreed to cooperate in the upcoming Pyeongchang Winter Olympics to be held during Feb. 9-25 in South Korea, which could bring about a detente on the Korean Peninsula.by Liu Tian, Ji Wei

ISLAMABAD, Feb. 3 (Xinhua) -- For Muhammad Khan Niazi, the trip to Gwadar, a small and remote port town in Pakistan's southwestern Balochistan, earlier this week was an unbelievable one as he was attempting to extend his seafood business in the town from the country's largest port city of Karachi.

Niazi, who was busy giving out his company's pamphlets to potential clients in the first ever international exposition held in the port's free zone, told Xinhua that the Gwadar port will become a regional shipping center in the near future and by taking this advantage and Gwadar's excellent fishing resources, he wants to set up a branch in the small town so as to send his seafood to more overseas markets.

"Price of material in Gwadar is competitive and now it has a free zone which allows us to export easily. It is good for our exporters, businessmen and people in Balochistan and Pakistan," said Niazi, who is the managing director of his family business which has been in operation for over 20 years.

The first phase of Gwadar's free zone was formally inaugurated on Monday. Pakistani Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi said during the inauguration that every harbor needs a free zone to boost its development and Gwadar's free zone will link Pakistan with central Asia, adding that Gwadar's potential was recovered through the construction of the free zone.

According to the operator of Gwadar port, some 30 companies in different businesses such as hotel, bank, logistics and fish processing have entered the free zone with direct investment of about 474.3 million U.S. dollars and are expected to output annual value of 790.5 million dollars after full operation.

Ismail Sawwa, sales manager of Aqua Seafood Pasni, told Xinhua during the Gwadar Expo that the construction of the free zone is a "big change" for Gwadar. "You can see a lots of people here who have their own works and there are a lot of opportunities for people to get a job here in Gwadar. It is very easy when you compared with the previous years."

Sawwa said that Gwadar is much more developed than before and now it is easy for businessmen to reach the direction of international markets through Gwadar.

He said that his company catches seafood around Gwadar and Pasni waters, but needs to get to the international markets via Karachi. "Now, we can send our goods directly from Gwadar, the route is short now, and cost is also short."

Witnessing the development of Gwadar port, Dostain Khan Jamaldini, chairman of Gwadar Port Authority, believes that Gwadar will be a rising city in Pakistan to bridge Pakistan with the rest of world.

"We are bringing a new life to Gwadar port, to the free zone and to the city," Jamaldini told Xinhua, adding that through current development, Gwadar has been attracting more and more international investors. "Gwadar will be a hub of industry, commerce and tourism. We are planning to hold expo every year and such events of construction, automobile and tourism sectors are on our list."

The chairman said that Gwadar means "the gate of wind" in local Balochi language and it will become a gate leading to development, prosperity and peace. "In the future, the free zone of Gwadar will become an international free zone" as more and more investors are coming to Gwadar and injecting confidence to the small port, he said.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-03 20:06:08|Editor: Zhou Xin

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by Zhu Ruiqing, Tang Lu

COLOMBO, Feb. 3 (Xinhua) -- Sri Lanka is reaping early harvests from the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative, featured with the launch of operation at Hambantota Port through a joint venture between the two sides last year.

Since Sri Lanka and China started joint operation of the Hambantota Port in southern Sri Lanka, there have been doubts in the western media over the profitability and the future of the port.

However, the smooth and excellent performance of the port and the properly addressing concerns of the former employees have proven that time will answer all doubts lingering over China-Sri Lanka cooperation in Hambantota Port.

Indeed, Hambantota Port had witnessed a relatively slow pace of growth and development in the past. However, with the great potential of the port gradually realized and the joint venture established between Sri Lanka Ports Authority and China Merchants Port Holdings (CMPH) to co-develop the port, the operation of Hambantota Port has remarkably improved.

Chief Operating Officer from the joint-venture Hambantota International Port Group Tissa Wickramasinghe told Xinhua recently that since the joint venture took over the operation of the port in December, the port has been functioning "extremely well," with the roll on-roll off (RO-RO) business picking up more than expected.

Major global players in the RO-RO business have all visited the port, with a view to developing new transshipment and related businesses, the chief operating officer said.

"We are also receiving many overseas inquiries for the development of new break-bulk and bulk-cargo business, which has been only made possible by leveraging on the global network of CMPH."

The future of the Sri Lanka-China cooperation in Hambantota Port is promising, just as Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said at the official launching of the joint venture, "We have made arrangements for the management and long-term success of Hambantota Port. The operations of the joint venture will ensure an additional port in the Indian Ocean."

Today, Hambantota Port, located near the main shipping route, is prospering every day and gains increasing confidence from the Sri Lankan community.

Senior fellow from the Institute of National Security Studies of Sri Lanka Lasantha Wickremesooriya told Xinhua that for the flow of vessels between the West and the East, the major transshipment hub is Singapore. But he added that Hambantota Port is more economical for them.

"With the technical know-how, marketing know-how, and the investment capability by CMPH, the port will eventually turn into a profitable venture in the future with more modern vessels coming in," he said.

Mangala P.B. Yapa, managing director of the Agency for Development of the Sri Lankan Ministry of Development Strategies and International Trade, also expects a bright future of Hambantota Port.

"We are confident that this collaboration and partnership will bring in success to Sri Lanka and our partner CMPH. A commercially viable and efficient Hambantota Port will be catalytic in the economic development of the south of the country and resulting in better livelihood for the people in that part."

As an example of fruitful cooperation between China and Sri Lanka within the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative, the joint venture, in essence, is also a case of commercial restructuring between the Sri Lanka Port Authority and CMPH.

Like other restructurings, there are "teething" problems faced at early stages. In the case of the Hambantota Port, the problem is about the resettlement of the employees from Magampura Port Management Company (Pvt) Ltd (MPMC), the local company which ran the Hambantota Port in the past.

What is comforting is that after the effective negotiation between the former employees and Sri Lanka Ports Authority, both sides hammered out a lasting solution last month. The Sri Lanka Ports Authority said it would re-employ 138 former MPMC workers and the compensation for other affected employees would be more than 1 million rupees (about 6,500 U.S. dollars) per head.

Hambantota Port is the second port project between Sri Lanka and China. The Colombo International Container Terminal (CICT), which has proven to be one of the fastest growing terminals in the world, has recorded 2.35 million TEU containers since it came into service in 2014.

Hambantota Port, just as the CICT, will eventually demonstrate its capability to rejuvenate the island nation's economy and play an important role in the world's shipping industry.ANKARA, Feb. 3 (Xinhua) -- A total of 84 Syrian refugees in their overloaded boat have been rescued off Turkey's Mediterranean province of Mersin, state-run Anadolu Agency reported on Saturday.

According to a statement from Mersin Governor's office, the overloaded boat carrying 84 Syrians, including women and children, was stranded off Silifke district of Mersin when it ran into engine trouble on Friday.

The refugees were rescued by Turkish Coast Guard and transferred to safety in boats.

Turkey has been a main route for refugees trying to cross into Europe. In recent years, hundreds of thousands of people have made the short but perilous journey across the Mediterranean and Aegean to reach Europe.

Some 192 migrants deaths have been recorded in Mediterranean in first 11 days of 2018, according to UN migration agency, IOM.

The UN appealed for more resettlement places and other safe alternatives to protect refugees.SKOPJE, Feb. 3 (Xinhua) -- 61 percent of respondents in Macedonia said that they supported a solution to the name issue between Macedonia and Greece, with the belief that this solution would pave the way for the country's accession into the European Union and NATO, a poll showed Saturday.

The poll, conducted by MProspect agency for the Institute for Democracy Societas Civilis-Skopje, involved 1,000 respondents, who were interviewed on January 19-26, 2018.

50 pct of Macedonians said they would support a name change to enable the country to become a member of the EU and NATO.

Asked whether a name change would change the meaning of what Macedonia and the Macedonian people are, 34 percent said it would be changed completely, 19 percent said that somewhat would be changed and 33 percent said it wouldn't be changed at all while 4 percent said it would be somewhat unchanged, according to poll results.

Solving the name issue has turned into a key priority of the Macedonian government which has step up efforts to reach a deal with neighboring Greece.

Macedonia is formally called the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) at the UN. However, Macedonia is also the name of a northern province in Greece and the Greek authorities are worried that the use of the same name by the neighboring state could lead to territorial claims.YAOUNDE, Feb. 3 (Xinhua) -- At least two civilians were killed in an attack by the terror group Boko Haram early Saturday morning in Kolofata of Cameroon's Far North region, local sources told Xinhua.

The attack took place between 01:00 am and 02:30 am local time in Yawa of Kolofata subdivision. The jihadists killed a man in his 50s and a young student, said Mahamat Golime, a local resident.

The assailants, a dozen according to sources, also took away four motorcycles, a water pump, and other properties before escaping. "Once arrived, they (the Boko Haram elements) fired three times into the air to rouse the people, and that's how everyone started to flee in disorder. The bullet took away our friend (student victim)", said a friend of the deceased student who asked not to be named.

The subdivision of Kolofata, near the group's base in Nigeria, is regularly targeted by Boko Haram. Despite the assurances of the Cameroonian authorities, the terror group continues to make both civilian and military victims. The Far North region has recorded 26 dead in about 30 Boko Haram attacks in the last month.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-03 20:56:15|Editor: Zhou Xin

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DHAKA, Feb. 3 (Xinhua) -- Hundreds of Bangladeshi music lovers were recently enthralled by the wonderful performance of the Jiangdu Spring Drum Art Troupe from China and they clapped and waved energetically as musicians played.

"This is the most amazing drumming performance I've ever experienced," said Abdul Jabbar, a member of the audience. "What I saw was a superb, flawless performance. It was breathtakingly gorgeous."

The sensational drumming, which was conducted on Thursday night at the National Theatre Hall at the Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy, came from north China's Shanxi Province which has long been considered the cradle of famous Chinese drumming, dating back to the Tang Dynasty (618-907).

The performance aimed at celebrating the upcoming Chinese Lunar New Year which falls on Feb. 16 this year, and further bolstering ties between Bangladesh and China.

Over the past years, Chinese artists visiting Bangladesh have consistently displayed their unique artistic traditions. Chinese traditional folk music and other artistic performances have captured imagination of the Bangladeshi people and the artists have won audiences' hearts and respect here.

Bangladeshi Cultural Affairs Minister Asaduzzaman Noor, a prominent actor, among other distinguished personalities, also enjoyed the entire performance.

"People in China celebrate Chinese New Year with great enthusiasm and passion, in much the same way as we celebrate our Bengali New Year (also called Pohela Boishakh) here."

"The Chinese New Year festivities continue for many days and are a very special time of year. On the occasion of the festival, I would like to congratulate all the people of China," Noor said.

He went on to express his hope that through such cultural exchanges, the friendly relations between the people of Bangladesh and China will be further strengthened.

"This will be my wish when China ushers in its new year."

As for the performances, such as those titled "Dragons Flying and Phoenixes Dancing," "Drums of Yellow River" and "The Legend of Drum Mountain," he said that the passionate Chinese artists have enchanted the local audience with their power, rhythm and unique style.

Deputy Chief of Mission at the Chinese Embassy in Dhaka, Chen Wei, said Chinese New Year, which dates back 4,000 years, is a time of marvelous festivities.

Chinese New Year means spring will come and winter will go, he said, adding that when he came, he saw all the decorations and all the people. "I felt the warmth of the Bangladesh people. I am so happy that people in Bangladesh can also enjoy Chinese New Year."

He wished all Bangladeshi friends a very happy and prosperous Chinese New Year, and China and Bangladesh an everlasting and ever growing friendship.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-03 21:11:21|Editor: Zhou Xin

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BEIJING, Feb. 3 (Xinhua) -- China's benchmark power coal price ended declines during the past week due to rising consumption from coal-fired power plants.

The Bohai-Rim Steam-Coal Price Index, a gauge of coal prices in northern China's major ports published weekly, stayed flat with a week ago at 577 yuan (91.75 U.S. dollars) per tonne, according to Qinhuangdao Ocean Shipping Coal Trading Market Co. Ltd.

Analysts said falling temperatures boosted electricity demand in coastal areas. Daily coal use of major power stations has hit a new high since the beginning of the year, while stockpiles continued to shrink.

The coal price had been falling as the government rolled out policies to ensure supply until surging seasonal demand stopped the losing streak.

Pressure from the coal shortage is likely to continue as the upcoming Spring Festival holiday will curb transport efficiency, analysts said.

China is in the middle of capacity cuts in the coal and steel sectors. Last year's annual targets to slash steel capacity by around 50 million tonnes and coal by at least 150 million tonnes were fulfilled in August and October, respectively.PARIS, Feb. 3 (Xinhua) -- Tariq Ramadan, a well-known Islamic studies scholar and Oxford professor, was charged with rape in France Friday.

The 55-year-old Swiss national faces two charges of raping two women in French hotels in 2009 and 2012. Following the accusations, he had been ordered to remain in custody in France.

A preliminary probe was opened in October 2017 after the two women filed complaints.

Ramadan was arrested on Wednesday by French police and after 48 hours of questioning, a judge Friday ordered him to be held in custody.

If convicted, he could face up to 15 years in prison for rape, and up to 20 years for raping a vulnerable person.

The Geneva-born professor has denied the accusations that forced him to take leave of absence from Oxford since November 2017.

Ramadan is the grandson of Hassan al-Banna, the Egyptian imam who founded the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt in the 1920s. Ramadan has written several books on Islam and the Western world which, according to experts, project a moderate and tolerant view of Islam.ROME, Feb. 3 (Xinhua) -- A man has been detained after at least four people were injured by a shooting from a vehicle in the central Italian town of Macerata on Saturday.

Police said a suspect was held two hours after the shooting began at about 11 a.m.local time. Local reports said a second person may have also been in the car.

Local media said the shooting appears to be racially motivated and the mayor of Macerata, the town in the region of Marche some 200 kilometers northeast of Rome, has urged local residents to stay indoors.

During the drive-by shooting, at lest four people were injured and all the victims are people from Africa, according to local media.

Local newspaper Corriere della Sera said schools were put into lockdown and residents warned to stay inside after shots were fired in the city center from a dark-colored car.

The number of victims has not been officially confirmed, but ANSA news agency said they are all black people. In Macerata, killing of a young Italian woman happened earlier this week, her remains were found in two suitcases. Police said the key suspect is a Nigerian immigrant.

ANSA said witnesses reported that Saturday's drive-by car was seen in the area where the woman's body was found.

Local police did not give the exact number of victims in Macerata, which has a population of 43,000.ADDIS ABABA, Feb. 3 (Xinhua) -- Weeklong protests in Ethiopia's northern Amhara regional state have left 15 people dead, a press statement from Amhara regional government said on Saturday.

The press statement added that the violence which started in Woldiya city, 507 kms north of Addis Ababa on January 20 during a religious procession spread to neighboring cities of Kobo and Mersa in the following days, leaving 15 dead in total. Thirteen of the dead were civilians while two of the dead were security forces.

The violence in Woldiya city happened as crowds shouting anti-government slogans clashed with security forces, leaving six civilians and one security force dead. The deaths happened during Epiphany celebrations commemorating the baptism of Jesus Christ.

The remaining eight fatalities occurred in the nearby cities of Kobo and Mersa as crowds enraged at deaths in Woldiya clashed with security forces.

The violence also saw dozens of private houses, cars, hotels and private farms set ablaze leaving millions of US dollars' worth of damage.

Ethiopia's Amhara regional state plunged into unrest in the second half of 2016 for reasons including a rumored disgruntlement of reallocation of a district to neighboring region.

Many Amharas that make up about 28 percent of Ethiopia's population allege political and economic marginalization by the central government based in Addis Ababa.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-03 22:21:34|Editor: Zhou Xin

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BEIJING, Feb. 3 (Xinhua) -- Leshi Internet Information and Technology, the listed arm of technology company LeEco, expects 5.62 billion yuan (893.69 million U.S. dollars) of debts to mature this year.

The debts were only a part of the company's total unpaid liabilities from financing and loans worth 9.29 billion yuan as of the end of last year, according to a statement by Leshi.

"If the company's business volume fails to rebound to the previous level, the cash flow will tighten further, which will put us under pressure to repay the debts," Leshi said.

The company warned investors of the risks.

The statement came after the company's shares traded in Shenzhen dropped by the 10-percent daily limit for eight straight days. Before the slumps, it had suspended trading since April last year due to capital restructuring.

But the plan was dropped due to financial woes of LeEco, which was in deep water as aggressive expansion into electric cars and other markets resulted in a rapid build-up of debts.

Leshi expects about 11.6 billion yuan in net losses for last year.ISLAMABAD, Feb. 3 (Xinhua) -- At least one man was killed and seven others were injured when a bomb went off in Pakistan's northwest Swat district on Saturday night, local reports said.

The incident happened in Kabal town of Swat district located at the country's northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, local TV channel Dunya reported.

The injured people have been shifted to a nearby hospital.

The nature and target of the blast has not been ascertained yet.

No group or person has taken claim of the explosion, according to initial reports.

The area has been cordoned off for investigations.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-03 22:31:35|Editor: Liangyu

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An archeologist works at a newly discovered tomb on the Giza plateau on the southern outskirts of Cairo, Egypt, on Feb. 3, 2018. An Egyptian archaeological mission has discovered an Old Kingdom tomb of a lady called "Hetpet" who was a top official in the royal palace during the end of the Fifth Dynasty, according to Egyptian authorities Saturday. (Xinhua/Ahmed Gomaa)

CAIRO, Feb. 3 (Xinhua) -- An Egyptian archaeological mission has discovered an Old Kingdom tomb of a lady called "Hetpet" who was a top official in the royal palace during the end of the Fifth Dynasty, according to Egyptian authorities Saturday.

The tomb was found during excavation work carried out in Giza western cemetery, which houses tombs of the Old Kingdom's top officials discovered by previous archaeologists since 1842, Mostafa Wazir, secretary general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities said during the inauguration ceremony.

The Old Kingdom is the period in the third millennium (c. 2686-2181 BC), which is also known as the "Age of the Pyramids."

The newly discovered tomb of "Hetpet" has the architectural style and the decorative elements of the Fifth Dynasty with an entrance leading to an L-shaped shrine with a purification basin, he said.

On its western end, Waziri said, there is a rectangular arcade lined with incense and offering holders.

"There is also a naos with a yet missing statue of the tomb's owner," he added.

The tomb has distinguished and well-preserved wall paintings depicting "Hetpet" standing in different hunting and fishing scenes or sitting before a large table receiving offerings from her children.

Scenes of reaping fruits, melting metals and the fabrication of leather and papyri boats as well as musical and dancing performances are also shown on the wall.

Among the most distinguished paintings in the tomb are those depicting two monkeys in two different positions, the official said.

As one of the most ancient civilizations, Egypt has been working hard to preserve its archaeological heritage.

In an attempt to revive the country's ailing tourism sector, Egypt is keen to uncover the Pharaohs' archaeological secrets as well as other ancient civilizations throughout the country.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-03 22:31:35|Editor: yan

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ROME, Feb. 3 (Xinhua) -- At least six people were wounded by an Italian man who repeatedly opened fire in the streets of Macerata, central Italy, on Saturday.

All of those injured were foreigners, and the suspect was arrested shortly after the attacks, according to the mayor and police.

The series of shootings began at around 11 a.m. local time, with the suspect driving across the city, and shooting from his car window in several areas, including the train station.

The mayor called on residents to stay indoors until the danger was over with messages on Facebook. Local police also informed the population of the incident on twitter, urging them to "avoid open places."

"Shots fired in Macerata, people injured, police operation underway," police warned.

The man, 28, was detained after about two hours. He had an Italian flag wrapped around his shoulders, when he was stopped by police near the city's war memorial, and did not resist the arrest, according to local media.

He did raise his arm in a Fascist-style salute, before being brought away by Italy's military Carabinieri police, La Repubblica daily said.

The newspaper also reported at least five of the people wounded in the multiple shootings were hospitalized, with one of them undergoing surgery, according to police. Local media said the attack was racially motivated.

On Jan. 31, an 18-year-old girl was found dead in Macerata, her body dismembered and hidden in two separate suitcases. A 29-year-old Nigerian national was arrested over the killing. Some witnesses would have seen him carrying at least one of the suitcases, and some of the girl's clothes would have been found in his apartment, Ansa news agency reported citing judicial sources.

However, the cause of her death was not clear yet, after a preliminary autopsy. She had left a drug rehabilitation center two days before her body was found.

The episode sparked shock and anger across the country, inflaming the mood of the on-going electoral campaign for elections in early March. Anti-immigrants comments were launched from right-wing politicians.

The Nigerian man lived in one of the areas in Macerata where the suspect shot fire on Saturday.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-03 22:41:36|Editor: yan

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ISTANBUL, Feb. 3 (Xinhua) -- Turkish police on Saturday detained 82 Islamic State (IS) suspects in Istanbul, including 77 foreigners, local media reported.

The suspects have acted in the name of the IS or gone to conflict zones in Syria and Iraq, and they were "preparing a terrorist act" in Istanbul, the state-run Anadolu Agency said.

Many documents were seized along with the suspects during raids launched in 10 districts of the city, the agency noted.

Turkey has been cracking down hard on IS suspects as the terror group is being driven out of neighboring Syria and Iraq.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-03 23:21:42|Editor: Xiang Bo

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VIENTIANE, Feb. 3 (Xinhua) -- General Secretary of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party Central Committee and President of Laos Bounnhang Vorachit met here Saturday with Xinhua News Agency President Cai Mingzhao, who came to Vientiane to attend the first Laos-China Belt and Road Cooperation Forum.

Bounnhang congratulated the successful holding of the forum, saying it is a historic event, and embodies the firm cooperative relations between Laos and China as well as the spirit of good neighbors, good friends, good comrades and good partners.

The Lao president said that Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and Chinese president, paid a successful state visit to Laos in November, and emphasized that the two countries are a community of shared future and should work together for common development and progress.

Bounnhang added that the governments and media sectors of the two countries should join hands for the goal.

For his part, Cai said the leaders of the two countries reached important consensus on further developing China-Laos relations in their meeting in November, and the forum was organized to implement the consensus, and serve as a platform for information exchange and strengthening cooperation between the industries of the two countries.

On Friday, Lao Prime Minister Thongloun Sisoulith met with Cai here in Vientiane. The prime minister spoke highly of the constructive role Xinhua has played in deepening Laos-China traditional friendship and pushing ahead bilateral cooperation, and hoped for strengthened cooperation and exchanges between media sectors of the two countries.Israeli airstrikes hit 2 Hamas military targets in southern Gaza on Saturday. (AFP Photo)

JERUSALEM, Feb. 3 (Xinhua) -- Israeli fighter jets struck two targets at a Hamas military complex in the southern Gaza Strip early Saturday, in response to the projectile fired at southern Israel Friday evening from the Gaza Strip, said the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) Saturday.

The IDF reiterated in the statement that the army "holds Hamas accountable for all violence emanating from the Gaza Strip."

The IDF's airstrikes came hours after a rocket was fired from the strip, setting off warning sirens in the southern Israel. No one was hurt and no damage was caused by the rocket fire.

Early Friday morning, an Israeli aircraft targeted a Hamas observation post in the northern Gaza Strip in retaliation for earlier rocket fired by Hamas from the Gaza Strip at southern Israel, according to the statement made by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF).

This round of Hamas rocket fire and the IDF airstrike happened after nearly one month of relative calm. The last attack from the Gaza Strip took place at the beginning of January when three mortars were fired from Gaza at southern Israel, causing no injuries or damage.Turkey police arrest 77 foreign IS suspects in Istanbul on Saturday. (AFP Photo)

ISTANBUL, Feb. 3 (Xinhua) -- Turkish police on Saturday detained 82 Islamic State (IS) suspects in Istanbul, including 77 foreigners, local media reported.

The suspects have acted in the name of the IS or gone to conflict zones in Syria and Iraq, and they were "preparing a terrorist act" in Istanbul, the state-run Anadolu Agency said.

Many documents were seized along with the suspects during raids launched in 10 districts of the city, the agency noted.

Turkey has been cracking down hard on IS suspects as the terror group is being driven out of neighboring Syria and Iraq.Egyptian Minister of Antiquities Khaled Al-Anani (C) visits the tomb of an Old Kingdom priestess on the Giza plateau on the southern outskirts of Cairo, that was unveiled on February 3, 2018, after being discovered during excavation work in Giza's western cemetery by a team of Egyptian archaeologists. (AFP Photo)

CAIRO, Feb. 3 (Xinhua) -- An Egyptian archaeological mission has discovered an Old Kingdom tomb of a lady called "Hetpet" who was a top official in the royal palace during the end of the Fifth Dynasty, according to Egyptian authorities Saturday.

The tomb was found during excavation work carried out in Giza western cemetery, which houses tombs of the Old Kingdom's top officials discovered by previous archaeologists since 1842, Mostafa Wazir, secretary general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities said during the inauguration ceremony.

The Old Kingdom is the period in the third millennium (c. 2686-2181 BC), which is also known as the "Age of the Pyramids."

The newly discovered tomb of "Hetpet" has the architectural style and the decorative elements of the Fifth Dynasty with an entrance leading to an L-shaped shrine with a purification basin, he said.

On its western end, Waziri said, there is a rectangular arcade lined with incense and offering holders.

"There is also a naos with a yet missing statue of the tomb's owner," he added.

The tomb has distinguished and well-preserved wall paintings depicting "Hetpet" standing in different hunting and fishing scenes or sitting before a large table receiving offerings from her children.

Scenes of reaping fruits, melting metals and the fabrication of leather and papyri boats as well as musical and dancing performances are also shown on the wall.

Among the most distinguished paintings in the tomb are those depicting two monkeys in two different positions, the official said.

As one of the most ancient civilizations, Egypt has been working hard to preserve its archaeological heritage.

In an attempt to revive the country's ailing tourism sector, Egypt is keen to uncover the Pharaohs' archaeological secrets as well as other ancient civilizations throughout the country.A man holds a national flag during the 'Russia is in my heart!' rally in support to Russian athletes on February 3, 2018 in central Moscow. (AFP PHOTO)

MOSCOW, Feb. 3 (Xinhua) -- Tens of thousands of people rallied across Russia Saturday to demonstrate national unity on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the defeat of Nazi forces in the Battle of Stalingrad.

The Battle of Stalingrad, which is the former name of Volgograd, was one of the longest battles during World War II (WWII), fought from August 1942 to February 1943. It radically changed the course of the war, heralding the victory over Nazi Germany in 1945.

More than 60,000 people joined a concert titled "Russia in My Heart" in central Moscow and similar rallies were held in other cities across the country to commemorate those who died in WWII.

In some regions, participants also expressed support for Russian athletes who will participate in the Winter Olympic Games in South Korea's PyeongChang from Feb. 9-25.

The athletes have to compete as neutrals as the International Olympic Committee has banned Russia from the 2018 Winter Olympics following an investigation into scandals about Russian athletes doping in the 2014 Winter Games.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-04 00:06:54|Editor: Liangyu

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ROME, Feb. 3 (Xinhua) -- An Italian man shot and wounded six African immigrants in what the authorities described as a racially motivated attack in the southern city of Macerata on Saturday.

The man named as Luca Traini, 28, went on a drive-by shooting rampage targeting at immigrants in various parts of the city, then drove to a monument, gave the Fascist salute, wrapped himself in the Italian flag, and awaited arrest, local media reported.

Macerata Mayor Romano Carancini told RAI public broadcaster that one of the victims was seriously wounded in the abdomen while the others are in stable non life-threatening condition.

Traini's rampage -- which caused what local media described as scenes of "panic in the streets" -- took place during a court hearing upholding the pretrial detention of Innocent Oseghale, a Nigerian immigrant accused of killing and dismembering 18-year-old Pamela Mastropietro, stuffing her body parts in two trolleys and dumping them in the countryside.

While the mayor would not say whether the two events were related, he called on everyone to calm down. "We were shocked by what happened to Pamela, but this does not justify hatred and feeding hatred," Carancini told RAI. "Whether or not you agree with the government's immigration policies, we must not stoke violence," he said.

Mastropietro's uncle, Marco Valerio Verni, told RAI in a televised interview that the family wants justice for Pamela but "taking justice into our own hands is wrong".

In 2017, the shooter, Traini, ran for local office as candidate of the Northern League, a rightwing anti-immigrant party whose leader, Matteo Salvini, is aiming for the premiership in the next national election to be held March 4.

"I can't wait to get elected and restore security throughout Italy," Salvini told reporters in televised comments in the aftermath of the Macerata shootings. "Out-of-control immigration brings social conflict," he said.

Other political leaders, including Senate Speaker Pietro Grasso, said the Northern League leader has encouraged racist violence with his rhetoric in an election year.

Interior Minister Marco Minniti has met with Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni to discuss the incident, and is heading to Macerata for a security committee meeting, local media reported.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-04 00:16:56|Editor: yan

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NEW DELHI, Feb. 3 (Xinhua) -- Irate residents in India's eastern state of West Bengal on Saturday torched three buses and resorted to vandalism after one of the buses ran over two college students, police said.

The buses were burnt at Chingrighata crossing on Eastern Metropolitan Bypass in Kolkata city, the capital of West Bengal.

Reports said a bus jumped a traffic signal in the locality and killed two youths. The killing of students enraged residents who went on rampage and clashed with police, throwing stones on them.

Police used teargas to disperse the protesting residents who also vandalised police vehicles.

"We have arrested the driver of the bus and ordered an investigation into the accident," a senior police official said.

Deadly road accidents are common in India, often caused by overloading, bad condition of roads and reckless driving.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-04 00:16:57|Editor: yan

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DAMASCUS, Feb. 3 (Xinhua) -- Syrian rebels on Saturday shot down a suspected Russian warplane that was carrying out airstrikes on the countryside of Idlib Province in the northwest of the country, a monitor group reported.

The warplane was brought down over the city of Saraqeb in the eastern countryside of Idlib, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The destiny of the pilot is still unknown, even though he was seen parachuting and landing after his war jet was hit, the monitor group said.

But British Sky News TV said the Russian pilot was captured by the rebels.

There was no immediate comment from Damascus or Moscow on the incident.

The London-based monitor, which says it relies on a network of activists on ground, said Saraqeb had suffered 50 airstrikes on Saturday.

A day earlier, a military source told Xinhua that the Syrian army was just a few kilometers from Saraqeb, a key bastion of the al-Qaida-linked Levant Liberation Committee (LLC) in Idlib, after a two-month-long offensive by the Russian-backed Syrian army in the area.Syrian rebel fighters shot down a Russian plane over Syria's northwest Idlib province on February 3, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, taking its Russian pilot captive. (AFP Photo)

DAMASCUS, Feb. 3 (Xinhua) -- Syrian rebels on Saturday shot down a suspected Russian warplane that was carrying out airstrikes on the countryside of Idlib Province in the northwest of the country, a monitor group reported.

The warplane was brought down over the city of Saraqeb in the eastern countryside of Idlib, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The destiny of the pilot is still unknown, even though he was seen parachuting and landing after his war jet was hit, the monitor group said.

But British Sky News TV said the Russian pilot was captured by the rebels.

There was no immediate comment from Damascus or Moscow on the incident.

The London-based monitor, which says it relies on a network of activists on ground, said Saraqeb had suffered 50 airstrikes on Saturday.

A day earlier, a military source told Xinhua that the Syrian army was just a few kilometers from Saraqeb, a key bastion of the al-Qaida-linked Levant Liberation Committee (LLC) in Idlib, after a two-month-long offensive by the Russian-backed Syrian army in the area.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-04 00:31:59|Editor: yan

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VIENTIANE, Feb. 3 (Xinhua) -- The first movie jointly produced by China and Laos debuted here on Saturday, depicting stories of beautiful love between Lao and Chinese nationals as well as the friendly relations between the two countries.

The production of the movie, Champa blossoms, started in 2016 on the occasion China and Laos celebrated the 55th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations.

The movie was released here at the conclusion of the first Laos-China Belt and Road Cooperation Forum.

The two-day forum, themed "Opportunities and Outlook of Laos-China Cooperation - Strategic Integration of Laos' Strategy of Transformation from a Landlocked to a Land-linked Country and the Belt and Road Initiative," is jointly organized by the Commission for Propaganda and Training of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party, the Lao Ministry of Information, Culture and Tourism, China's Xinhua News Agency, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and the Lao Chinese Chamber of Commerce.

Over 500 delegates from government departments, enterprises and other sectors attended the forum, which also witnessed the release of "Report on China-Laos Cooperation Opportunities under the Belt and Road Initiative in 2018."Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-04 00:47:01|Editor: Liangyu

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NEW DELHI, Feb. 3 (Xinhua) -- India has sought the help of Nigeria and Benin to find an Indian ship that has been missing in the sea for the past 48 hours off the coast of west Africa, fuelling fears of a hijack, officials said Saturday.

The tanker vessel, owned by a Mumbai-based firm, is carrying gasoline worth nearly 8 million U.S. dollars and crew of 22 Indians.

"India has sought the help of the navies of Nigeria and Benin to track down the missing vessel. The Ministry of Shipping has also contacted its counterparts in Nigeria and Benin to help locate the missing vessel," an official said.

"Nothing is known at this point of time," he added.

In January, another ship went missing off the coast of Benin and two days later, it was confirmed to have been hijacked.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-04 01:17:06|Editor: yan

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TRIPOLI, Feb. 3 (Xinhua) -- Three Libyan army troops were killed on Saturday in clashes with Islamic State militants near Dahra oil field in Zalla town, 750 km southeast of the capital Tripoli, according to a statement issued by a military unit of army's Oil Installation Guards.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-04 01:27:07|Editor: Liangyu

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BELGRADE, Feb. 3 (Xinhua) -- Serbia is ready to continue negotiations with Kosovo authorities within the Brussels dialogue, after they were stopped recently as a result of assassination of a prominent Kosovo Serb politician Oliver Ivanovic, Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabic told head of the United Nations Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) Zahir Tanin.

According to the government press release published on Friday evening, Brnabic estimated that the general security situation in Kosovo was "very sensitive and serious after the murder of Ivanovic" that took place on January 16 in the city of Mitrovica.

Less than three weeks ago, several hours after Ivanovic's murder, all major media in Serbia reported that the Brussels dialogue, the process aiming to normalize the relations between Serbia and Kosovo, was stopped, and that the Serbian delegation that was about to begin another round of talks on that same day left Brussels and returned to Belgrade.

Serbian southern province of Kosovo and Metohija was put in 1999 under UN interim administration after the bombing campaign of the Northern Athlantic Threaty Organization (NATO) against Yugoslavia.

Kosovo unilaterally declared independence from Serbia in 2008. Serbia rejects it and considers Kosovo its own province.

According to the release, Brnabic expressed her dissatisfaction with the fact that the Serbian security services are not allowed to participate in the investigation of the assassination, while Tanin replied that investigators in Pristina will increase their efficiency in solving the crime, with the support of all international agencies in the field.

The release reads that Tanin stressed the importance of the normalization of relations with the authorities in Pristina by continuing negotiations and implementing agreements, while Brnabic insisted that so far the other side obstructed the negotiation because it failed to establish the Association of Serbian municipalities in Kosovo envisaged by the Brussels Agreement.

The two talked about the importance of UNMIK's presence in Kosovo and that UN Security Council should continue to hold frequent public meetings about the province.

The exact date of the next round of talks between Belgrade and Pristina in Brussels hasn't been announced so far.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-04 01:32:08|Editor: yan

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DAMASCUS, Feb. 3 (Xinhua) -- A Russian pilot was killed after his warplane was targeted by the Syrian rebels in the northwestern province of Idlib on Saturday, a monitor group reported.

After parachuting from his targeted warplane, the Russian pilot landed and clashed with the rebels who were attempting to capture him, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Meanwhile, other activists posted a photo purporting to show the body of a dead man, saying he was the Russian pilot.

British Sky News TV said Russian missiles, believed to be launched from a warship in the Mediterranean, hit Idlib.

The Russian Defense Ministry confirmed the downing of the warplane and the killing of the pilot.

A day earlier, a military source told Xinhua that the Syrian army was just a few kilometers from Saraqeb, a key bastion of the al-Qaida-linked Levant Liberation Committee (LLC) in Idlib, after a two-month-long offensive by the Russian-backed Syrian army in the area.A picture taken on February 3, 2018, shows smoke billowing from the site of a downed Sukhoi-25 fighter jet in Syria's northwest province of Idlib.

Rebel fighters shot down a Russian plane over Syria's northwest Idlib province and captured its pilot, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. (AFP Photo)

DAMASCUS, Feb. 3 (Xinhua) -- A Russian pilot was killed after his warplane was targeted by the Syrian rebels in the northwestern province of Idlib on Saturday, a monitor group reported.

After parachuting from his targeted warplane, the Russian pilot landed and clashed with the rebels who were attempting to capture him, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Meanwhile, other activists posted a photo purporting to show the body of a dead man, saying he was the Russian pilot.

British Sky News TV said Russian missiles, believed to be launched from a warship in the Mediterranean, hit Idlib.

The Russian Defense Ministry confirmed the downing of the warplane and the killing of the pilot.

A day earlier, a military source told Xinhua that the Syrian army was just a few kilometers from Saraqeb, a key bastion of the al-Qaida-linked Levant Liberation Committee (LLC) in Idlib, after a two-month-long offensive by the Russian-backed Syrian army in the area.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-04 02:22:13|Editor: Liangyu

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JUBA, Feb. 3 (Xinhua) -- South Sudan has recalled its ambassador to the United States, a day after the American government imposed an arms embargo on the East African nation, presidential spokesman Ateny Wek Ateny said on Saturday.

Ateny, said Garang Diing Akuong has been recalled for further consultations without giving details. The South Sudanese envoy was deployed to Washington in May 2015.

"This is routine for any country to recall its ambassador for further consultations. It may not be related to the arms embargo," Ateny told Xinhua by phone.

The Trump administration on Friday announced arms embargo on South Sudan and urged the UN Security Council to enforce a global arms ban on the world's youngest nation.

The U.S. also called on the African Union (AU) and the East African regional bloc, Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) to consider sanctions measures against those who undermine the peace process.

South Sudan has been embroiled in four years of conflict that has taken a devastating toll on the people, creating one of the fastest growing refugee crises in the world.

A peace deal signed in August 2015 between the rival leaders under UN pressure led to the establishment of a transitional unity government in April 2016, but was shattered by renewed fighting in July 2016.A picture taken on February 3, 2018, shows a Rebel fighter taking a picture of a downed Sukhoi-25 fighter jet in Syria's northwest province of Idlib. (AFP PHOTO)

MOSCOW, Feb. 3 (Xinhua) -- A Russian pilot was killed after his plane was shot down by militants in Syria's Province of Idlib, the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement on Saturday.

"A Russian Su-25 aircraft crashed during a flight over the Idlib de-escalation area," the ministry said in the statement.

"The pilot died in a fight with the terrorists," the statement said, adding that preliminary information showed that the plane was downed by use of a man-portable anti-aircraft missile system.

"The Russian center for reconciliation of opposing sides in Syria and the Turkish side overseeing the Idlib de-escalation area are working to bring the Russian pilot's body home," it said.

The pilot had reported earlier that he ejected by parachute in the area, controlled by Nusra Front militants.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-04 04:22:28|Editor: yan

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KHARTOUM, Feb. 3 (Xinhua) -- Sudan's Foreign Ministry on Saturday condemned the terrorist bombing targeting a tax office in Turkey's capital Ankara on Thursday.

"Sudan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs expresses its strong condemnation of the terrorist blast which targeted the tax office in the Turkish capital Ankara and caused great damage to the building," the ministry said in a statement.

The bombing is "a crime contradicting all humanitarian values and principles," it added.

The ministry also highlighted "Sudan's full solidarity with the government of Turkey in facing criminal acts," and called for the international community to intensify efforts and cooperation against all forms of terrorist acts.

The Turkish authorities said on Thursday that the explosion at the tax office in Ankara was caused by a bomb and the suspected bomber was killed by police.Re-elected Finnish President Sauli Niinisto (L) and his wife Jenni Haukio greet the public from the balcony of the Presidential Palace during presidential inauguration on February 1, 2018 in Helsinki, Finland. (AFP PHOTO/Lehtikuva/Markku Ulander/ Finland OUT)

HELSINKI, Feb. 3 (Xinhua) -- Finnish President Sauli Niinisto and his spouse Janni Haukio had a son on Friday evening, one day after he was inaugurated as the president for a second six-year term.

Niinisto announced the birth both on his personal Facebook account and in a press release of the presidential office.

The president thanked for the congratulations the couple has received. The website of the presidential office collapsed for some minutes after the announcement.

Niinisto, now 69, and Jenni Haukio, now 40, got married in 2009. When married, Mrs Haukio chose to keep her surname.

Finnish media started speculation about the child's name. As the parents have different surnames, they have to decide whether the son will be a Niinisto or a Haukio.

The son was born at the Women's Clinic of the Helsinki University Hospital, located in Meilahti, a few kilometers from the official residence of the president. The hospital is currently the only hospital offering birth services in Helsinki.

Niinisto's previous wife Marja-Leena died in an auto crash in 1995. Niinisto has two adult sons from his previous marriage.

The baby is Haukio's first child.

Before the marriage, Haukio worked as the information chief of the Finnish conservative party. Their dating had been known by a very small circle only prior to the wedding.

This is the first time a Finnish president gets offspring while in office.Students from Beijing and Medgar Evers College Preparatory School of New York take a group photo after a culture exchange event in New York, the United States, Feb. 2, 2018. (Xinhua/Wang Ying)

by Xinhua writers Zhang Mengxi,Zhou Saang

NEW YORK, Feb. 2 (Xinhua) -- More than 100 students from China and the United States gathered Friday in New York City's Brooklyn Borough Hall, presenting their understanding of the two countries' cultures ahead of the Lunar New Year.

About 80 students from the Medgar Evers College Preparatory School in Brooklyn welcomed their guests by singing the song Jasmine Flower in Chinese, one of the most famous Chinese folk songs that is also included in Giacomo Puccini's opera Turandot.

They also practiced traditional Chinese painting and calligraphy during the event which kicked off a series of activities by local communities to mark the Chinese Spring Festival which falls on Feb. 16.

A student from Medgar Evers College Preparatory School of New York learns how to paint with a brush pen during a culture exchange event in New York, the United States, Feb. 2, 2018. (Xinhua/Wang Ying)

"As we celebrate the Lunar New Year, it's really great to have cultures coming together," said Steve Mei, director of Chinese American Planning Consul's Brooklyn Community Services.

Mei said it's very beautiful to see students from the two countries interact and be involved in the arts together.

The Chinese Spring Festival, also known as the Lunar New Year, is one of the most important Chinese festivals celebrated at the start of the first calendar month.

In the beginning of the cultural exchange event, all students watched a cartoon video about China's 24-solar-term system, an ancient Chinese calendar with 24 periods to indicate climates and proper agricultural activities. It introduced the solar term as the fifth invention of China.

The first solar term is Lichun or Spring Commencement that falls on Feb. 4 this year, marking the beginning of the spring. As there are customs and traditions associated with solar terms that people still adhere to, the calendar is still being "renewed" till today.

Students from Medgar Evers College Preparatory School of New York taste Chinese tea during a culture exchange event in New York, the United States, Feb. 2, 2018. (Xinhua/Wang Ying)

Ge Siyu, an 11-year-old girl from Beijing, said she wants more people to know about China's 24 solar terms.

In order to do that, she participated in a solar term logo design contest. Her work, inspired by famous western paintings like Vincent van Gogh's Sunflower for Autumn Commences and Jean-Francois Millet's The Gleaners for Autumnal Equinox, was on exhibition in the United Nations New York headquarters last month.

Li Liyan, consul and director at Cultural Office of the Chinese Consulate General in New York, said "New York City, especially Brooklyn Borough, is the melting pot of cultures around the world ... It is important that people of all culture especially our children should take advantage of that and learn from each other."

A student from Beijing teaches a student from Medgar Evers College Preparatory School of New York how to write Chinese calligraphy during a culture exchange event in New York, the United States, Feb. 2, 2018. (Xinhua/Wang Ying)

Nicole Shirley, a 13-year-old girl from Medgar Evers, translated Chinese dish names during the event. She said it was a precious opportunity to learn Chinese, a skill which could get one far in life. "You'll be able to get more jobs, because you have more communication skills. So I think that's good."

She has been learning Chinese for three years at her school where 500 students, almost one third of the school's students, study Chinese as a foreign language.

"I really like Chinese calligraphy. I think it's beautiful, like how the brush strokes look. That's really nice," Nicole said.

Jean Adilifu, assistant principal of Medgar Evers College Preparatory School who visited China for the fifth time in November, was very happy and proud that her students could interact and speak with their Chinese peers.

"Chinese is a world language," she said, adding that that was why the school had instructed all 6th-8th graders to learn Chinese.

"It was the first opportunity for them to speak directly with as many students from China as we have represented today, (who are) very noteworthy as well as our students," she said

Friday's event is like an immersion experience for language learning, she said. "They don't have to go to Beijing today. They come to city hall and then they can see other students. It makes their language learning more real."Mugshots.com Writing Staff. Tallahassee, FL In a harsh rebuke of Floridas voting restoration process for felons, U.S. District Court Judge Mark Walker of the Norther District of Florida issued a landmark opinion ruling that the process is unconstitutional. In the scathing opinion, he ruled that Floridas voting restoration scheme violates both the First and the Fourteenth Amendments.

Under Floridas scheme, felons have to wait five or seven years, depending on the offense for which they were convicted, after release and parole has ended to be eligible for restoration of their voting rights. However, Floridas Executive Clemency Board and the Governor essentially have unfettered discretion to grant or deny restoration at any time for any reason. In fact, the Court actually cited a restoration hearing in which the Governor said, We can do whatever we want.

The restoration process was challenged as violating affected felons First Amendment rights, specifically the right to free association and expression. The Court agreed with the challenge and ruled that the process violates both the right to free association and expression.

The Court noted the sanctity of the right to free association. Protecting such rights is crucial in preventing the majority from imposing its views on groups that would rather express other, perhaps unpopular ideas. Floridas voting restoration process unconstitutionally interferes with this fundamental right because it grants specific state officials the unfettered right to prohibit felons the right to free association with the political party of their choice by voting for like-minded candidates.

As the Court reminded, Government suppression of political expression based on its actual or perceived content is one of the most repugnant actions that the First Amendment prevents. The Court cited to the Citizens United case in which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that corporate expenditures during a campaign constitute core expressive First Amendment activities. It then reasoned that if expending funds during political campaigns is expressive activity protected by the First amendment then so too is the end-result of these other protected activities, i.e., the actual casting of votes.

Florida officials unfettered discretion in restoring voting rights violates expressive First Amendment activities because the very real risk exists that the discretion can be used in a viewpoint or content based manner. For example, during one hearing, the Court cited to a case where a felon who illegally voted in an election told the Governor that he actually voted for him. His voting rights were restored. The Court noted that the possibility exists where those who hold views contrary to the Florida officials at the restoration hearing wont have their voting rights restored.

Again, the Court cited multiple cases where the felons expressed disagreement with the whole restoration process, and their rights were not restored. The Court also cited to cases where the felons expressed views similar to the Florida officials and subsequently had their voting rights restored. This actual or even apparent content-based determination is wholly unconstitutional, the Court concluded.

In the end, the Court held: Floridas vote-restoration scheme providing government officials with unfettered discretion and no meaningful time restraints on the exercise of that discretion violates the First and Fourteenth Amendments. The Court didnt rule that Floridas disenfranchisement statutes are unconstitutional because states, under the U.S. Constitutional, have the authority to disenfranchise felons. What the Court ruled unconstitutional is Floridas process to restore voting rights.

Pictured: U.S. District Judge Mark Walker (Mike Ewen/Democrat)Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-04 06:32:49|Editor: Liangyu

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WARSAW, Feb. 3 (Xinhua) -- Online video sharing service YouTube has apologised for a translation error that misrepresented Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki by suggesting that Nazi German death camps "were Polish", Polish Press Agency reported Saturday.

Morawiecki made a public TV address on Thursday about a controversial anti-defamation bill, outlawing historically inaccurate use of the term "Polish death camps" among other provisions.

As part of his speech, Morawiecki declared: "The camps in which millions of Jews were murdered were not Polish. That truth must be protected because it is part of the truth of the Holocaust." However, YouTube's automatic translation software rendered the sentence as: "Camps where millions of Jews were murdered were Polish."

"The mistake was caused by automatic translation on YouTube, for which we apologise," Adam Malczak, the service's press representative, wrote in a mail in reply to a question by Bloomberg News.

Overnight between Wednesday and Thursday, Polish senators voted 57 to 23 in favor of the controversial anti-defamation bill. The legislation is now pending the final approval of the president.

The bill proposes to jail or fine a person who blames Poland or the Poles for Nazi crimes against humanity which were committed in Nazi-occupied Poland during World War II. The bill also prohibits phrases such as "Polish death camps."

About six million Jews were killed by the Nazis in World War II, and many of them in the death camp of Auschwitz and other death camps in Poland.

The new legislation has already sparked an uproar in Israel.SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 3 (Xinhua) -- A man and a woman were shot dead on Saturday in a dispute over "guns or drugs" in the State of Washington on the U.S. west coast, local authority said.

Pierce County Sheriff's Department said on Facebook that sheriff deputies responded to calls about shots fired and they found bodies of a 35-year-old man and a 25-year-old woman at a mobile home in Key Peninsula, about 48 km southwest of Seattle, the largest city of Washington state.

The couple's bodies were found in the driveway of the mobile home near two vehicles, and an initial probe showed that the shooting was related to an argument over guns or drugs.

The victims' two-year-old son was in the back of their vehicle in the driveway area during the shooting, but he was not injured, the Sheriff's Department said.

He has been placed with a relative who does not live on the property, the police said.

Police officers saw a 27-year-old male suspect in the nearby area and placed him into custody, the Sheriff's Department said.

Police believed the suspect was involved in a recent domestic violence assault.

Pierce County, the second most populous county in Washington state, has seen rising gun- and drug-related crimes in recent years.

By 2016, about 38 percent of the methamphetamine labs cleaned up by the Washington Department of Ecology were in Pierce County.Thank you for reading!

Please purchase a subscription to read our premium content. If you have a subscription, please log in or sign up for an account on our website to continue.UNION GAP, Wash. -- Residents evacuated from the base of Rattlesnake Ridge amid concerns of a potential massive slide are worried they will have to pay rent for the time they were absent in order to be allowed to return to their homes.

That concern was voiced during a Friday morning meeting with Yakima Valley Office of Emergency Management officials, who issued evacuation notices early last month. Officials called the meeting to let residents know why the evacuation notice was lifted  a recent geological report found no immediate danger of a massive slide anytime soon.

But residents were wary about returning, saying danger may still exist and that their landlord wanted rent payments for the time they were gone in addition to this months rent.

Antonio Martinez said he and his wife have nearly exhausted a $3,000 loan they took out after evacuating, and that living out of a hotel with their four children for more than four weeks has been expensive.

This is very embarrassing for us, he said. Theres all kinds of expenses not expected. Food is at least $60 a day. We cant keep a lot of food in there, its a small space  were just going day by day.

About 20 people, many of them families, have been staying at the Ledgestone Hotel on Fair Avenue since the evacuation. Columbia Asphalt and Gravel, which operates a quarry on the ridge, has agreed to cover their hotel costs until Feb. 12.

Last year, the company moved its quarry operations to the south  away from the crack after noticing it  and hired a geologist to study and monitor any movement. Meanwhile, some residents say they are struggling to come up with the rent to return or get into a new place.

Octavio Lopez, his wife and three children  ages 2, 13 and 19  arent sure what they will do come Feb. 12.

We are stressed now because we (found) a place to move, but we wont be able to go into that place until the end of February or the first of March, he said. We need to stay here for the rest of the month.

Landlord Patty Dills said she does expect tenants to pay January and February rent in order to return. Dills said residents left without notifying her son Nathan Dills, who manages the property.

Residents were told that if they paid Januarys rent, their homes would be held for them when they returned, she said.

Columbia Asphalt and Gravel at one point hinted to paying Februarys rent for the tenants in a meeting last month, but the company has not returned phone calls, Dills said.

Columbia has not paid us and has not returned our calls for 10 working days, she said. We made them an offer and they have not returned our calls.

Jeff Emmons, Yakima Valley Emergency Management director, told residents he didnt receive an answer from Columbia Asphalt about whether it would pay any rent or offer additional assistance.

Company spokesman K.C. Klosterman said Columbia Asphalt attempted to work with the landlord to cover one months rent but was unable to reach an agreement.

As to the specifics of working with the landlords, we prefer not to talk about it, Klosterman said.

Without elaborating, Klosterman said his company was assisting tenants with moving into a new place.

That is the extent of my comment on that at this point, he said.

Because the evacuation notice has been lifted, the Red Cross wont be setting up a shelter for those displaced, Emmons told residents.

Emmons said his office had no choice but to issue an evacuation notice in January because safety wasnt guaranteed at that time.

I feel bad that its caused all these financial problems, but my primary concern was their safety, he said.

 Phil Ferolito can be reached at 509-577-7749 or pferolito@yakimaherald.com. Follow him on Twitter at philipferolito@twitter.com.Providence, RI - Two Connecticut bounty hunters were arrested Thursday for illegally apprehending a suspect wanted on a warrant, according to Rhode Island State Police.

Authorities said Angel Guadalupe, 45, of Bristol, and William Sobota, 40, of Burlington, appeared in District Court in Providence, where they faced kidnapping and conspiracy charges.

Col. Ann C. Assumpico said the men "detained the suspect based on an outstanding warrant for failure to appear for misdemeanor crimes in Connecticut. However, Rhode Island General Laws do not allow for out-of-state bounty hunters to operate in this state."

Lt. Col. Kevin Barry of the Rhode Island State Police shared similar sentiments.

"A trooper working the security detail was alerted that somebody just got handcuffed in the hallway," Barry told NBC 10 News. "That's not how the protocols happen. Nobody gets handcuffed or transported in the hallways."

State police put out an alert and stopped the bounty hunters, who were headed south on Interstate-95, where they arrested them.

But a lawyer for the bounty hunters said they had the authority to do what they did and even had help from authorities doing it.

"My clients were informed by Capitol Police with whom they were working that they could take this gentleman with them to the jurisdiction of Connecticut, where he is a fugitive from justice, and bring him back lawfully," Ryan McGuigan, a defense attorney told NBC 10 via phone. "It was the Capitol Police who took my clients' handcuffs, placed them on the subject, and escorted the subject to my clients' waiting automobile."

While McGuigan said a federal law dating back nearly 150 years allows bounty hunters to cross state lines, police don't see it that way.

"Rhode Island law does not have a law that allows out of state bounty hunters to come in," Barry said.

Guadalupe and Sobota were released on personal recognizance, and the suspect was also released without incident.IRONWOOD  The six-year Capital Improvement Plan recently adopted by the Ironwood City Commission includes a $600,000 two-year downtown facade improvement proposal and a separate $50,000 local effort.

The plan represents a wish list of projects in the city, many of which are dependent on receiving necessary grants.

The federally-assisted facade improvement program would be for fiscal years 2018-19 and 2019-20, estimated at $300,000 for each year.

The grants would be sought from the Michigan Economic Development Corporation to incentivize property owners in the Downtown Ironwoo...Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-03 00:06:49|Editor: yan

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KIEV, Feb. 2 (Xinhua) -- Ukraine has adopted about 400 European Union (EU) regulations in the farming industry in the recent few years, the Ukrainian state-run Ukrinform news agency said on Friday, citing an official.

According to the agency, Ukraine's Representative to the EU Mykola Tochytskyi said that the results were achieved through the implementation of the Association Agreement between Ukraine and the EU.

"It contains an important clause on aligning the Ukrainian legislation with those of the EU, including on sanitary and phytosanitary standards," Tochytskyi was quoted as saying.

The comprehensive Association Agreement, which includes a free trade deal and a broad range of legislation and regulation topics, came into full force on Sept. 1, 2017. The treaty has been provisionally applied since November 2014.

In January-November 2017, Ukraine's exports of agricultural products to the EU jumped by 38.2 percent year-on-year to 5.2 billion U.S. dollars.WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump and his Republican allies in Congress on Friday escalated a campaign against U.S. law enforcement agencies over their probe of Trump`s ties to Russia, releasing a disputed memo that the FBI warned was misleading and inaccurate.

The previously classified document, written by Republicans on the House of Representatives intelligence committee, alleges that the federal probe of potential collusion between Trump`s 2016 presidential campaign and Russia was a product of political bias against Trump at the FBI and Justice Department.

Ignoring a plea from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Trump approved the release of the memo without redactions, deepening an extraordinary breach between the president and senior law enforcement officials over a probe that has dogged him during his first year in office.

Democrats said the four-page memo mischaracterises highly sensitive classified information and was intended to undermine Special Counsel Robert Mueller`s criminal probe into the Russia matter launched in May 2017 that grew out of an earlier FBI investigation. They warned Trump against using it as a pretext to fire Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who hired Mueller and oversees the investigation, or Mueller himself.

Asked by reporters whether the memo made him more likely to fire Rosenstein or whether he had confidence in him, Trump replied, "You figure that one out." Dismissing Rosenstein would likely ignite a political firestorm, much as his firing of FBI chief James Comey did last year.

Hours after Trump spoke, a White House official said there have been no discussions or considerations about firing Rosenstein.

Mueller also is examining whether Trump has committed obstruction of justice in trying to thwart the Russia probe.

The memo alleges that the FBI concealed the Democratic ties of a source the agency used to justify surveillance on a former Trump campaign advisor with ties to Russia. The memo listed a string of senior Justice Department officials including Rosenstein who it said signed off on this.

"I think it`s a disgrace what`s happening in our country," Trump told reporters when asked about the memo, adding that "a lot of people should be ashamed of themselves."

Some lawmakers accused Trump of playing into the hands of Russian President Vladimir Putin after, as Republican Senator John McCain put it, Russia "engaged in an elaborate plot to interfere in an American election and undermine our democracy."

"If we continue to undermine our own rule of law, we are doing Putin`s job for him," McCain, who is being treated for brain cancer, said in a statement.

Mueller`s probe has led to guilty pleas by two of his foreign policy advisers to charges of lying to the FBI, and indictments of former campaign manager Paul Manafort and Manafort`s business partner Rick Gates.

Trump has called the investigation a "witch hunt," denying any collusion with Russia or obstruction of justice. Moscow has denied any election meddling.

`SACRED INVESTIGATIVE PROCESS`

In a swipe at U.S. law enforcement leaders on Twitter hours before the memo`s release, Trump said, "The top Leadership and Investigators of the FBI and the Justice Department have politicized the sacred investigative process in favour of Democrats and against Republicans - something which would have been unthinkable just a short time ago."

It was his latest attack on top law enforcement officials. Trump fired Comey last May as the FBI pursued the Russia probe, leading to Mueller`s appointment by Rosenstein.

The FBI on Wednesday had expressed "grave concerns about material omissions of fact" in the document and urged that it not be made public. Writing on Twitter, Comey branded the memo "dishonest and misleading."

FBI Director Christopher Wray sent a message to bureau employees apparently aimed at boosting morale after the memo`s release. "I stand by our shared determination to do our work independently and by the book," Wray said in the message, excerpts of which were seen by Reuters.

The memo was commissioned by the Republican chairman of the House intelligence panel, Devin Nunes. It focused on court-approved surveillance of former Trump campaign aide Carter Page and said the FBI used a source who was strongly biased against Trump - former British spy Christopher Steele - to justify the action.

It alleged that a dossier of alleged Trump-Russia contacts compiled by Steele, and funded in part by U.S. Democrats, formed an "essential part" of requests to a special court to be allowed to conduct electronic surveillance on Page that began in October 2016.

It said the initial application and subsequent renewal applications, signed off on by various senior Justice Department officials, did not mention the link between Steele and the Democrats. It also portrayed Steele as "passionate" about Trump not becoming president.

Despite the memo`s charges, neither the focus on Page nor the FBI`s investigation of Trump-Russia ties began with the Steele dossier.

Page appeared on the FBI`s radar screen as early as 2013, when he met in New York with Russians who were officers of the Kremlin`s foreign intelligence service, sources have said.

The memo acknowledges that the FBI counterintelligence investigation began in July 2016 - three months before the request for electronic surveillance on Page - as a result of the activities of another Trump campaign aide, George Papadopoulos.

Papadopoulos told an Australian diplomat in May 2016 that Russia had political dirt on Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, information Australian officials passed to the U.S. government, the New York Times reported in December.

The entire file that the Justice Department used to apply for permission to eavesdrop on Page remains highly classified, making it hard to evaluate the memo`s contents.

"The selective release and politicization of classified information sets a terrible precedent and will do long-term damage to the Intelligence Community and our law enforcement agencies," House intelligence committee Democrats said in a statement.

They said they hoped the panel would vote on Monday to release their own memo responding to the allegations.

U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who has recused himself from the Russia investigation, indicated he planned to refer the memo`s allegations to the Justice Department`s inspector general for investigation.

A White House official said Trump had always been inclined to release the Republican memo, despite the FBI`s urging that he not do so, and he relied heavily on Chief of Staff John Kelly and White House Counsel Don McGahn in approving the release.Washington: President Donald Trump spoke with his South Korean counterpart Moon Jae-In and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe about the upcoming Winter Olympics and the current situation in the Korean peninsula, the White House said today.

During yesterday's call, Trump wished Moon and the Korean people a successful Winter Olympic Games.

"The two leaders discussed the importance of improving the human rights situation in North Korea and underscored their commitment to work together on this issue," the White House said in a readout of the call.

Trump also reiterated his commitment to addressing the trade imbalance between the two countries, the White House said.

In his phone call with Abe, Trump thanked the Japanese prime minister for his country's efforts to maintain international pressure on North Korea, including recent efforts to clamp down on Pyongyang's attempts to circumvent sanctions in the waters surrounding the Korean Peninsula.

"Both leaders agreed on the need to intensify the international maximum pressure campaign to denuclearise North Korea," the White House statement said.

"The two leaders discussed the pending relocation of a US Marine base on Okinawa and discussed ways to strengthen Japan's defence capabilities including an expanded missile defense system," the statement said.Bengaluru: Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to address a massive BJP rally here on Sunday that marks the conclusion of the party's 90-day 'Nava Nirman Parivarthan Yatra' across poll-bound Karnataka.

According to reports, PM Modi will arrive in the city on Sunday afternoon and address the rally at the Palace grounds in the evening.

Thousands of our cadres from across the state and party supporters are expected to participate in the event.

PM Modi was initially scheduled to address the rally on January 28, on the conclusion of the three-month yatra that commenced on November 1, however, it was put off to February 4 due to PM's hectic schedule.

A BJP functionary said that due to the Budget Session of Parliament and the Union Budget presentation on February 1, PM Modi could not attend the rally on last Sunday.

Elaborate security arrangements have been put in place for the rally at the sprawling venue in the city centre where the party is expecting at least one lakh people to attend and listen to Modi's speech.

"We have invited thousands of youth, especially techies and executives of IT and bio-tech companies in the city to personally listen to Modi's speech though it will also be telecast live on news channels and available on YouTube," asserted the official.

The party's state unit has opened an online registration and is using the social media, including Facebook, Twitter, and WhatsApp to personally invite the youth, techies, educated class and prominent citizens to the venue, assuring them of seating arrangements.

In the run-up to the state election, due in late April and early May, the BJP conducted the yatra, criss-crossing nearly all the 224 constituencies of the assembly across the state after its national president Amit Shah flagged it off.

The yatra, held with a view to bringing the BJP back to power in the southern state on the plank of transforming Karnataka through development, was led by its state unit president and former Chief Minister BS Yeddyurappa and party's other state leaders.

Besides Shah, party's central ministers Prakash Javadekar and Piyush Goyal who are in-charge of the BJP poll campaign in Karnataka, Ananth Kumar, D.V. Sadananda Gowda and Ananthkumar Hegde who hail from the state and the party's all-state leaders will participate in the rally and address the public.

As the pro-Kannada organisations have withdrawn their call for a Bengaluru shutdown on Sunday for the Prime Minister's intervention in the sharing of the Mahadayi river water with Goa state, the party's organisers are betting on a huge response to the rally from the public on a weekend.

(With IANS inputs)New Delhi: One of the four students, accused in connection to the mysterious death of Class 9 student, is allegedly on the run. Cops apprehended the other three minors on Friday evening.

Tusshar, a student of Class 9 in Jeevan Jyoti Senior Secondary School in northeast Delhi's Karawal Nagar, was found unconscious by fellow students in the school washroom on Thursday. He was rushed to GTB Hospital where he was declared brought dead by doctors.

After the initial investigation and examining the CCTV footage, the police claimed that Tusshar was allegedly beaten to death inside the toilet by four students. Later, a case of culpable homicide not amounting to murder was registered against unknown persons.

CCTV footage revealed that some students went after Tusshar in the washroom and allegedly punched him in the neck and face, police said.

On Friday evening, the police detained three minors.

It is suspected that the student died of internal injuries he suffered during the scuffle, added the investigating officials.

"During preliminary investigation, there were no visible injuries marks found on his body. However, the deceased`s family members alleged foul play and said he was beaten up by some students inside the school`s toilet," the police has earlier said.

The school's management, on the other hand, claimed that Tushar was allegedly suffering from diarrhoea and fell unconscious, which led to his death.Ada County, ID - A retired priest at St. Marys Catholic Church in Boise was arrested Friday by the Idaho Internet Crimes Against Children Unit for alleged sexual exploitation of a child.

W. Thomas Faucher, 72, was taken to the Ada County Jail after authorities obtained a warrant to search his Boise residence. A tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children sparked the investigation, the Idaho Attorney Generals Office said in an after-hours news release.

Fauchers exact charges were unclear Friday night. The law hes charged under includes a range of crimes, from possessing or sharing sexually exploitative material to actually being involved in creating such materials. Scott Graf, spokesman for the AGs office, declined to provide clarification.

Gene Fadness, communications director for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Boise, told the Statesman that Faucher had not been an active priest for the past three years.

Because of Father Fauchers retirement three years ago, he has not held any pastoral assignments since that time, the diocese said in a statement. Because of the seriousness of the allegations, Faucher will be unable to minister in the Diocese of Boise in any way. The diocese will cooperate fully with law enforcement officials in their investigation.

Faucher (pronounced foh-SHAY) grew up in Boise and attended St. Marys as a child. He was ordained on June 4, 1971, in Boise, and became pastor of the church at the corner of 26th and State streets in 2002.

He was an activist among Boise priests. He favored a just path to citizenship for illegal immigrants. He opposed the death penalty and unsuccessfully urged Idaho not to put Paul Ezra Rhoades to death for two of three murders that Rhoades committed in 1998 in Eastern Idaho.

He opined on the Catholic Churchs sexual-abuse scandals, writing in the Idaho Statesman in 2010 that then-Pope Benedict XVI should retire because he was much too old to lead the church through this mess. Benedict was 82 then.

Boises then-presiding bishop, Michael Driscoll, responded with a Statesman column of his own, writing: Father Fauchers generalizations when speaking of other local dioceses, other bishops and the Pope himself as regards to their handling of sexual-abuse cases do no justice to the issue at hand.

When Benedict resigned in 2013, Faucher faulted the popes record on sex scandals. He said Benedict did not discipline the bishops who caused the cover-up.

Faucher also advocated for gay rights. He supported same-sex marriages while opposing any requirement that churches perform them. When a male Rutgers University student took his own life in 2010 after his roommate broadcast a webcam image of him with another male, Faucher said homosexuality is not a choice, and he called for respect for gays.

Idaho is a state that likes to think it is conservative, he wrote. But on some issues  and gay rights is one of them  it is not really conservative, it is close to being bigoted.

Faucher urged greater recognition of women in the church. He was pastor when St. Marys was renovated a decade ago. The renovation included a new painting that showed Mary and Jesus surrounded by 18 women from across Catholic history. We need to have stronger images of women as the saints of the church, and this is one way of doing that, Faucher said in 2009.

St. Marys had a sex scandal early in the 2000s when a deacon, Rapelyea Rap Howell, viewed child pornography on the internet. Howell went to federal prison in 2005. Driscoll had not removed Howell despite Driscolls issuance of a zero-tolerance policy for sexual misconduct six months before Howell was discovered. Howell continued to preside at Mass, baptisms, weddings and funerals until he resigned voluntarily in October 2004.

Faucher became pastor just one month after Howell was fired from his job over the child porn. Faucher said that Howell had told him he quit over ideological differences, and that neither Fauchers predecessor, the Rev. Joseph McDonald, nor Rick Bonney, then director of deacons for the Boise diocese, had told him Howell was fired for viewing porn. Faucher said he kept Howell away from vacation Bible school and St. Marys school, but left his service as a deacon up to Driscoll.

Faucher sometimes represented priests in church legal proceedings as a canon lawyer. In 2014, for example, he represented a priest who had been removed from a parish in Bend, Oregon, for undisclosed reasons. Faucher criticized the local dioceses bishop for failing to defend the priests reputation, saying that people had drawn incorrect conclusions.

He is also a novelist. In 2015, he self-published Describing Color to the Blind: A Novel to Stir the Soul, about an elderly woman who has survived abuse.

If you have information about the exploitation of children, call police, the Attorney Generals Idaho Internet Crimes Against Children Unit at 208-334-4527, or the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children at 1-800-843-5678.NEW DELHI: Another accused has on Saturday been apprehended in connection with the suspicious death of a 14-year-old student of a school in Delhi's Khajuri Khas.

The teen, a student of the Jeewan Jyoti School in Khajuri Khas, was found unconscious inside school premises on February 1. He was immediately rushed to the hospital, however, was declared brought dead.

According to police, five people including the deceased student were seen fighting inside a bathroom of the school in a CCTV footage. Three other accused have already been arrested.

Following the incident, people staged a protest outside the school.

Earlier, the family of the 14-year-old student had claimed that he had died more than two hours ago. They had further claimed that he had been in a fight with someone before dying.

"School called us saying he is unconscious. When we came here, they refused to admit him. We then took him to another hospital which declared him dead. He had died over 2 hours ago. Looking at his body we realised he had been in a fight with someone," uncle of the deceased had said.

The incident comes in the wake of the suspicious killing of Pradhuman Thakur, a Class 2 student, who was found dead in his school's toilet with his throat slit.

The brutal murder incident took place on September 8, last year. Seven-year-old Pradhuman was a student of Gurugram's Ryan International School.Srinagar: Two Kashmiri students, on the way back to campus after offering Friday evening prayers, were allegedly assaulted by a mob in Haryana's Mahenderhgarh.

Me and my friend had gone to the mosque to offer namaz yesterday. After we came out of the mosque, we noticed some people following us. Just as we were leaving on my motorbike, a group of 15-20 people started to beat us, said Aftab, one of the victims.

Both the victims are students in the Central University of Haryana.

No one came forward to help us. Soon after police arrived at the spot. We went to the hospital for checkup and returned to university campus. We told faculty about incident and lodged a complaint with University, added Aftab.

The other victim tweeted:

Sir v the student of Central University of haryana and today we r gone for the jumma nimaz out side the campus n some of the people are starting thrashing us @OmarAbdullah @listenshahid @chzulfkarali @MehboobaMufti @HMOIndia @narendramodi @jkedumin @spvaid @JmuKmrPolice pic.twitter.com/RfNYByfxeC  javid iqbal jagal (@iam_javid) February 2, 2018

The victims were later taken to the local hospital.

Demanding an immediate probe into the incident, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti urged Haryana government to take strict action against the perpetrators.

The victims were beaten up while returning to the campus after offering congregational Friday prayers in Mahendragarh town.

"Shocked and disturbed to hear reports of Kashmiri students being assaulted in Mahendargarh, Haryana," tweeted later Mehbooba.

Tagging Prime Minister Narendra Modi, former J&K chief minister Omar Abdullah tweeted, This is terrible & goes against the spirit of what @PMOIndia @narendramodi ji said from the ramparts of the Red Fort. I hope the authorities in Haryana act quickly against this violence.

The Haryana Police has registered a case.

With regard to physical assault on some students of J&K in Haryana's Mahenderhgarh, Haryana Police has taken cognizance. FIR u/s 148/149/341/323 IPC has been lodged in Mahenderhgarh police station. One of our officers is in touch with the boys as well: Jammu and Kashmir Police, tweeted news agency ANI.

Jammu and Kashmir Director General of Police Shesh Paul Vaid also tweeted, "In touch with DGP Haryana. Police is taking cognisance of the incident."

With agency inputsNEW DELHI: Haryana Police on Saturday said that the attack on the Kashmiri students was not targeted and it happened due to misunderstanding.

"Two incidents happened in Mahendragarh yesterday. Two Kashmiri students went to offer prayers in mosque and thereafter to market. Suddenly they were attacked and injured, one boy managed to flee while the other was admitted to the hospital by police," CS Rao, IGP South Range, Haryana, said.

According to police, five labourers were apparently returning from the mosque when they had a quarrel with two locals. The labourers then outnumbered the locals who then called their friends.

"At the same time, 5 UP labourers who it seems were returning from mosque had a quarrel with 2 locals (accused in case). Labourers outnumbered locals who then called their friends and it seems Kashmiri youth were attacked in misunderstanding that they were with labourers," Rao added.

Two Kashmiri students, on the way back to campus after offering Friday evening prayers, were allegedly assaulted by a mob in Haryana's Mahenderhgarh. Both the victims are students in the Central University of Haryana.

The victims were beaten up while returning to the campus after offering congregational Friday prayers in Mahendragarh town.

One of the boys managed to flee while the other was admitted to the hospital by police.

Two cases have been registered and six accused have been identified so far, out of which three have been arrested.

"Registered two cases, one in attack on Kashmiri students and second in fight between UP labourers and locals. Six accused identified, three arrested and other and will be arrested soon. We'll probe further. It seems attack on Kashmiri students was due to misunderstanding and not targeted," Rao said.

The incident sparked an outrage, with Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti demanding an immediate probe into the incident.NEW DELHI: Union Minister for Human Resource Development Prakash Javadekar on Saturday launched 'Exam Warriors' - a book written by Prime Minister Narendra Modi for students.

Javadekar, in the book release event, was accompanied by External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj.

HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar & EAM Sushma Swaraj launch 'Exam Warriors', a book written by PM Narendra Modi for students pic.twitter.com/ug4cNeDaXS  ANI (@ANI) February 3, 2018

PM Modi has often reached out to students during his Mann ki Baat radio show. Since the inception of the show, he has, on many occasions, talked about the challenges faced by students and even encouraged them to overcome those challenges.

The Prime Minister has written the book for students who battle stress and anxiety during examinations. The book talks about the ways in which students can tackle the stress.

The book has been titled Exam Warriors and mentions various means such as practicing yoga. The book has been brought out by publishing major Penguin.

It lays special stress on the challenges faced by students who appear for class 10 and class 12 board examination. Modi, in his book, talks about why knowledge should be given priority over marks secured in examinations.

The book, which has been conceptualised by PM Modi himself, would encourage students to take up education in a manner that would strengthen and build their future.GURUGRAM: As the investigation is underway into the attack on Aftab, a young man from Kashmir who was assaulted in Haryana, his father expressed gratitude to Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti for all the help.

"I thank CM Mehbooba Mufti for raising this issue. I am also grateful to those who helped my son and also the media," Aftab's father Mohd Quyoom said.

Recalling how Aftab was saved, he said: "Some Hindu boys identified my son as their classmate. Two boys from Haryana helped a lot and took them to hospital."

Three persons have been arrested after two Kashmiri men were brutally assaulted in Mahendragarh in Haryana. Three more have been identified with the help of CCTV footage. Six people have been accused in the incident.

The two Kashmiri men, students of the Central University of Haryana, were allegedly attacked by a mob on Friday evening while they were on their way back to university campus after offering Friday namaz.

Speaking about the incident, Aftab said: "I and my friend had gone to the mosque to offer namaz yesterday. After we came out of the mosque, we noticed that some people are following us. Just as we were leaving on my motorbike, a group of 15-20 people started to beat us."

The incident sparked an outrage, with CM Mehbooba Mufti demanding an immediate probe into the incident.

The Haryana Police registered a case in the incident under certain sections of the Indian Penal Code.Jodhpur: In a first, General David L Goldfein, chief of staff of the US Air Force, flew a sortie in the indigenous Light Combat Aircraft 'Tejas' at the IAF station here in Rajasthan on Saturday.

According to reports, General Goldfein, who is on an official visit to India, was accompanied by Air Vice Marshal AP Singh as a co-pilot during the short flight.

The flight took off from Jodhpur Air Force station.

The Indian Air Force (IAF) also later tweeted a picture of Goldfein preparing to fly Tejas.

"General David L. Goldfein, Chief of Staff of the US Air Force, is on an official visit to India. He flew a sortie in '#MadeinIndia' LCA Tejas aircraft at AF Stn Jodhpur today," the Indian Air Force said in the tweet.

General David L Goldfein, Chief of Staff of the US Air Force, is on an official visit to India. He flew a sortie in '#MadeinIndia' LCA Tejas aircraft at AF Stn Jodhpur today. pic.twitter.com/UQB7Rvl1PJ  Indian Air Force (@IAF_MCC) February 3, 2018

Gen Goldfein had reached the Air Force Station in Jodhpur on Friday and flew the aircraft today. He also met Air Chief Marshal BS Dhanoa today.

He was accompanied by US Pacific Air Forces Commander Gen Terrence OShaughnessy.

They discussed ways to further enhance cooperation between the two air forces.

The US officials arrived on February 1 and a Guard of Honour was organised on their arrival at Air Force Headquarters in New Delhi.

General Goldfein also thanked the Indian Air Force for the welcome reception.

''The IAF operates the second largest C-17 fleet in the world and continues to mature their fleet operation to support regional mobility needs. There is already a strong relationship between our two air forces & Im looking forward to making it stronger, he had said in a post on Facebook and Twitter.

Had many great meetings with our @IAF_MCC partners to deepen the relationship between our two air forces. The IAF operates the second largest C-17 fleet in the world & continues to mature their fleet. pic.twitter.com/NWWASXNM7m  Gen. Dave Goldfein (@GenDaveGoldfein) February 2, 2018

Indigenously developed by the Aeronautical Development Agency, and produced by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, Tejas, a fourth generation aircraft, can fly at 1,350 km per hour, with a payload capacity of 4,000 kg.

In November 2017, Singapore Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen flew in a Tejas jet.

The first squadron of Tejas was inducted into the IAF in July 2016.

(With ANI inputs)New Delhi: The National Investigating Agency (NIA), which is probing the cross-border financing of terror operators in J&K, has claimed that Pakistan is offering scholarships to Kashmiri students to gradually alienate them from India.

The NIA said this in its detailed chargesheet filed in connection with the terror funding case against separatist leaders and their Pakistan-backed sponsors.

The probe agency claimed that Pakistan is offering student visa to Kashmiri youths and relatives of terrorists active in J&K.

"During the course of investigation, it was ascertained that students who were proceeding to Pakistan on student visas were either relatives of ex-militants or linked to families of active terrorists who had indulged in various anti-national activities and had migrated to Pakistan or they were known to Hurriyat leaders," the NIA said in the chargesheet running into several thousands of pages.

Tightening the noose against the Kashmiri separatist leaders, the NIA claimed that the visa applications of Kashmiri students were recommended by them to the Pakistani High Commission in New Delhi.

The NIA named various Hurriyat leaders, including hardline Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani, in this connection.

The NIA chargesheet filed in a court on January 18 revealed that militants who fled to Pakistan had pursued their admission matters with the help of Hurriyat leaders based in Pakistan and Pakistan administered Kashmir.

The NIA said that scholarships are offered for MBBS and engineering seats under various schemes of the Pakistan government.

The investigation done by NIA exposes a triangular nexus wherein the terrorists, the Hurriyat and the Pakistan establishment are the three vertices and they are ostensibly patronising the Kashmir students in order to prepare a generation of doctors and technocrats in Kashmir who will have leanings towards Pakistan.

The probe agency had even seized a document from the house of Nayeem Khan in which he had recommended a student for admission in a "standard medical college" in Pakistan because "her family has remained committed to the freedom struggle through thick and thin".

Similarly, a document seized from the house of Shahid-Ul-Islam showed that the Hurriyat leaders were sending recommendations to the Pakistan High Commission for the issuance of visa, it said.

The chargesheet has named Pakistan-based terrorist leaders Hafiz Saeed and Syed Salahuddin, seven arrested Kashmiri separatist leaders and three others in the case.

The Hurriyat leaders who are accused in the terror funding case are - Aftab Hilali alias Shahid-ul-Islam, Ayaz Akbar Khandey, Farooq Ahmad Dar alias Bitta Karate, Nayeem Khan, Altaf Ahmad Shah, Raja Mehrajuddin Kalwal and Bashir Ahmad Bhat alias Peer Saifullah.

Shah is the son-in-law of Geelani who is a strong votary of Jammu and Kashmir`s merger with Pakistan. Hilali is a close aide of moderate Hurriyat leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq.

The NIA has alleged that the separatists, arrested on July 24 last year, conspired with Saeed and Salahuddin to wage war against India and secede Jammu and Kashmir from India. All of them have been booked under stringent anti-terror laws.

The NIA also chargesheeted businessman Zahoor Ahmad Watali and two alleged stone pelters - Kamran and Javed Ahmed Bhat.

Watali has been associated with the LoC trade and has worked as the president of the LoC Traders` Association in the past.

(With IANS inputs)New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi's book 'Exam Warriors', which he had penned to reach out to the students across the country ahead of their exams, will be launched on Saturday.

According to ANI, the book, which aims at helping the students beat exam stress, will be launched by External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj in the presence of Prime Minister Modi.

'Exam Warriors' has been published by noted publishers Penguin India and the book runs into 208 pages.

Non-preachy, practical and thought-provoking, Exam Warriors by @narendramodi is a handy guide for students in India and across the world. #CoverReveal #TheCountdownBegins pic.twitter.com/UNCX0uKus2  Penguin India (@PenguinIndia) January 31, 2018

Penguin India took to Twitter to share the teaser of the book cover and wrote alongside, "Non-preachy, practical and thought-provoking, Exam Warriors by @narendramodi is a handy guide for students in India and across the world. #CoverReveal #TheCountdownBegins".

PM Modi's book aims to instill confidence in the youths and prepare them to face the difficult moments of examinations and life.

In the soon-to-be-launched book, Prime Minister Modi had shared anecdotes from his own life on how he coped with stress during exams.

The book offers 25 mantras to students on how to counter exam stress.

Exam Warriors: PM Modis book offers 25 mantras to counter exam stress https://t.co/oC2IlIr2LL via NMApp pic.twitter.com/JVvYtGt23t  Kiren Rijiju (@KirenRijiju) February 3, 2018

Besides students, the book also gives a piece of advice to parents and teachers, and suggest some easy yoga 'asanas' for a healthy and stress-free living.

In his popular monthly radio talk 'Mann Ki Baat', PM Modi had urged the students to celebrate examinations like festivals in order to beat stress.Pulwama: A group of unidentified terrorists hurled grenades on a CRPF patrol party in Jammu and Kashmir's Tral in which five persons, including two civilians, were injured.

According to ANI, grenades were hurled at the CRPF patrol party in Tral's Batagund village.

#Visuals from spot: 2 civilians & 2 CRPF personnel injured in grenade attack by terrorists on CRPF party in Tral's Batagund Village (visuals deferred by unspecified time) #JammuAndKashmir pic.twitter.com/U0o5wGM1oB  ANI (@ANI) February 3, 2018

Three CRPF jawans and 2 civilians were among those injured in the attack.

According to initial reports, a patrol party of 180 battalion of CRPF was crossing Tral's Batagund Village in Pulwama district when terrorists hurled grenades at them.

After hurling grenades at the security forces, the terrorists managed to flee from the spot.

A massive search and combing operation has also started in the area to nab the attackers.

Additional troops have been rushed to the spot to assist in the ongoing operation there.

The injured civilians have been identified as Shabir Ahmed Bhat (35) and Bilal Ahmed Sheikh (37).

They have been shifted to a hospital in Tral.

The condition of all the three jawans, including CRPF constable Gopi Chand who sustained a minor injury on the right cheek, is said to be out of danger.

(With ANI inputs)THANE: A major fire broke out at a warehouse in here in which at least four godowns were gutted, police said. The incident took place in Bhiwandi's Mankoli.

The cause of the fire is yet to be ascertained. More than six fire tenders rushed to the spot to douse the blaze.

Thane: Four godowns gutted in a fire which broke out at a warehouse in Bhiwandi's Mankoli; more than six fire tenders present at the spot #Maharashtra pic.twitter.com/KAeUnROLHH  ANI (@ANI) February 3, 2018

On January 31, as many as 16 scrap godowns were gutted in another massive fire that broke out in the industrial Bhiwandi township of the district.

However, no injury or casualty was reported in the blaze, according to officials. The fire broke out in the Gayatri Nagar locality where a few huts also suffered damages in the mishap.

Today's incident took place almost a month after the devastating Kamala mills fire tragedy that claimed lives of 14 people.

On December 29, a massive fire had broken out at Kamla Mills Compound in the Lower Parel locality of Mumbai killing 14 people and injuring another 30.

Just a week after the Kamala mills mishap, another fire was reported from Cinevista studio in east central Mumbai's Kanjurmarg.NEW DELHI: The Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) on Saturday released a list of 20 candidates for the ensuing General Election to the 13th Nagaland Legislative Assembly.

The Polling on all 60 seats in Nagaland will be held on February 27 while the counting of votes will be done on March 3.

On January 18, the Election Commission of India had announced the polling dates for Assembly elections 2018 in the northeastern states of Tripura, Meghalaya and Nagaland.

As for the Nagaland state assembly, the Naga People's Front is currently dominating the House.

Nagaland chief electoral officer Abhijit Sinha had earlier said that the final rolls published has 11,89,264 voters, lower than the electorate size of 11,92,377 enumerated in 2013.

State's Chief Minister TR Zeliang had met Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and briefed him about the 'desire' of various civil society organisation and church leaders in Nagaland for a "Solution before Election".

"The assembly election in Nagaland will be held on schedule," Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh had assured him.

Various Naga groups had called for deferring the upcoming assembly elections in order to facilitate a solution to the seven-decade-old Naga insurgency.

Nagaland-based civil society groups have demanded the signing of a final peace accord with the insurgent group NSCN-IM before the assembly elections in the state.

Recently, the Naga Hoho, an apex Naga tribal body, had sought Prime Minister Narendra Modi's help in postponing the forthcoming Nagaland assembly elections, saying that the vexed insurgency problem should be resolved first.KASGANJ: The police arrested another person in connection with the death of Chandan Gupta during the recent communal clashes in Uttar Pradesh's Kasganj district.

Rahat Qureshi, a resident of Kasganj's Smilpur Road, was arrested by cops on Saturday.

Twenty-two-year-old Chandan Gupta was killed after clashes broke out between two groups in Kasganj following an unauthorised bike rally, organised to mark Republic Day 2018. Two others were also injured. Following his death, shops and buses were torched after by a mob.

On Wednesday, the police arrested main accused Salim. So far, at least 118 people have been arrested in connection with the violence.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had earlier warned of stringent action against those behind the communal clashes in Kasganj.

Raising the issue of atrocities against minorities, Samajwadi Party leader Ram Gopal Yadav on Friday alleged of police inaction in the Rajya Sabha.

Meanwhile, Chandan Gupta's family was provided security after his father alleged that he had received threats from some people.

"I was sitting outside, some people came on the bike in morning. Stopped bike for a second and said that the accused are going to jail, but others are still there. Don't take enmity with us. We will see you," Chandan's father had said.LUCKNOW: BJP MP Rajveer Singh on Saturday visited the residence of Chandan Gupta who died during the recent communal clashes in Uttar Pradesh's Kasganj district.

Singh went to meet Chandan's family members who were provided security after his father alleged that he had received threats from some people.

"I was sitting outside, some people came on the bike in morning. Stopped bike for a second and said that the accused are going to jail, but others are still there. Don't take enmity with us. We will see you," Chandan's father had said.

Rajveer Singh had won the 2014 general elections from the Lok Sabha constituency of Etah, met his family members.

Earlier in the day, Rahat Qureshi, a resident of Kasganj's Smilpur Road, has been arrested in connection with Chandan's death.

Twenty-two-year-old Chandan Gupta was killed after clashes broke out between two groups in Kasganj following an unauthorised bike rally, organised to mark Republic Day 2018.

Two others were also injured. Following his death, shops and buses were torched after by a mob.

On Wednesday, the police arrested main accused Salim. So far, at least 118 people have been arrested in connection with the violence.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had earlier warned of stringent action against those behind the communal clashes in Kasganj.

Raising the issue of atrocities against minorities, Samajwadi Party leader Ram Gopal Yadav on Friday alleged of police inaction in the Rajya Sabha.London: An Indian-origin UK man on trial for killing his ex-wife and then stuffing her body into a suitcase was today sentenced to a minimum of 18 years in jail for murder.

Ashwin Daudia had denied the murder charge, claiming he lost his temper during an argument with Kiran Daudia at their home in Leicester last January and did not attack her deliberately. But the jury did not accept his version of events and found him guilty of killing the 46-year-old call centre worker.

The 51-year-old accused was caught on CCTV dragging his ex-wife's body in a suitcase before dumping it in an alleyway. "I was angry, I lost control," he told the Leicester Crown Court, adding that Kiran Daudia had initially assaulted him and to silence her he put his hand over her mouth and then forcefully squeezed her neck.

He admitted he then lied to his two sons, relatives, and the police by falsely claiming his ex-wife did not return home from a morning shift at a call centre and hid the body in the suitcase to prevent his younger son from seeing it.

The couple, who had an arranged marriage in India in 1988, were divorced in 2014 but had continued living separate lives under the same roof.

The factory worker husband was to move out of the family home on January 16, 2017, when the attack occurred, the Leicester Mercury reported.

Kiran's body was discovered in the suitcase by police the next day.

Her sister had bought the couple's family home in Leicester to enable the victim to continue living there without her ex-husband after the divorce.

Their two sons chose to "side" with their mother and had relatively little to do with their father.

During the two-week murder trial which concluded on Friday, Ashwin Daudia claimed he lost his temper when his ex-wife shouted at him because he had not packed his bags or moved out.

He claimed she swore at him and told him to go and die in India.

He denied the prosecution's suggestion that he had waited for his ex-wife to return home from work to deliberately kill her.

"I didn't do it deliberately, at that time my mind wasn't working," he told the court.

The prosecution claimed that Daudia, who followed the court proceedings through a Gujarati interpreter, had continued to lie about the circumstances surrounding the killing and had committed the murder after growing increasingly resentful of his ex-wife, who had joined a dating agency to meet other men.

The US military wants to revamp its nuclear arsenal and develop new low-yield atomic weapons, largely in response to Russian actions in recent years, the Pentagon said in a policy statement released Friday.

The so-called Nuclear Posture Review outlines the Pentagon`s nuclear ambitions under President Donald Trump and is the first time since 2010 that the military has spelled out how it foresees nuclear threats in the coming decades.

"The strategy develops capabilities aimed at making use of nuclear weapons less likely," Trump said in a statement. "It enhances deterrence of strategic attacks against our Nation, and our allies and partners, that may not come in the form of nuclear weapons."

"And, importantly, it reaffirms our commitment to arms control and nuclear non-proliferation, maintains the moratorium on nuclear testing, and commits to improving efforts to prevent, detect, and respond to nuclear terrorism," he said.

The document marks a sobering break from the vision for America`s atomic future under Barack Obama, who during a famous speech in Prague in 2009 called for the elimination of nuclear weapons.

While it underscores the administration`s concerns about North Korea, Iran and China, the focus falls largely on Russia.

"This is a response to Russian expansion of their capability and the nature of their strategy and doctrine," Defense Secretary Jim Mattis wrote in the introduction to the 75-page document.

"These developments, coupled with Russia`s seizure of Crimea and nuclear threats against our allies, mark Moscow`s decided return to Great Power competition," he also wrote.

The Pentagon worries Russia assumes America`s regular, large-yield weapons are essentially too big to ever be detonated, as their use would likely result in large-scale retaliation and wipe much of humanity off the map.

"There are strong indications that our current strategy posture and capabilities are perceived by the Russians as potentially inadequate to deter them," Greg Weaver, the deputy director of strategic capabilities for the military`s Joint Staff, told reporters.

"The US and NATO require a wider range of credible low-yield nuclear options to do a very specific thing: to convince the Russian leadership that if they initiate limited nuclear use, in a war with the alliance, our response will deny them the objective they seek and impose costs that far outweigh those benefits they can achieve," he added.The document, an earlier version of which was leaked last month, says that by having additional smaller nukes, the Pentagon can counter adversaries` "misperceptions" that the United States would not respond to another country using its own low-yield bomb.

The new strategy calls for a continuation of the nuclear modernization program ordered by Obama that encompasses all pillars of the "triad" -- ground-based intercontinental ballistic missiles, submarine-launched weapons and bombs delivered by plane.

But unlike the Obama strategy, which stressed reducing the role of nuclear weapons, the new policy has a more assertive tone.

Low-yield nuclear weapons, also known as "tactical" nukes, are still extremely powerful and can pack as much destructive punch as the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of World War II.

America already has a massive nuclear arsenal at its disposal, including 150 B-61 nukes stored across multiple European countries that can be configured for low-yield options.

The new weapons envisioned by the Pentagon would be launchable from submarines or ships, so would not need to be stockpiled in Europe.

They could also get around Russian air defenses more easily.

The bombs would not add to America`s nuclear horde, and would instead repurpose existing warheads, but critics say the Pentagon would be going against the spirit of non-proliferation agreements.

"We are on the cusp of a new era of nuclear proliferation," warned Barry Blechman, co-founder of the Stimson Center, a nonpartisan anti-nuclear proliferation think tank in Washington.

"This is the great nuclear danger raised by the new" nuclear policy.

Weaver disputed media accounts that the nuclear posture review lowered the threshold for America to use nuclear weapons.

"The purpose of these capabilities is to make a US response to nuclear use more credible, not to make US first use more likely," he said.ISLAMABAD: Pakistani provincial minister Mir Hazar Khan Bijarani, who was found dead in his house along with his wife, first killed her and then committed suicide with the same weapon, the police said on Friday.

Bijarani and his wife Fariha Razak were found dead on Thursday at their residence in Karachi. The police said they suspect a domestic dispute to be behind the incident, Geo News reported.

A press release by the police stated that the initial reports revealed that all the bullet casings collected from the crime scene were fired from the same weapon.

The minister had one bullet wound in his head whereas his wife was shot thrice, report said.

Bijarani, a veteran leader of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), was the Planning and Development Minister in Sindh province. His wife was a journalist.

Funeral prayers for the minister and his wife were held shortly after Friday prayers. While Razzaq`s funeral was held in Karachi`s Defence Housing Authority area, prayers for Bijarani were offered in Kashmore.In January, President Poroshenko signed the law letting foreign armies participate in the multinational military drills scheduled for this year in Ukraine. 112 International found out about the countries that are to send military units to Ukraine, their field strength and things Ukraine will pay for

Giving Ukraine Javelin man-portable missile launchers turned into a real buzz. Many were eager to criticize the weak Europe and the U.S., saying they did not give the weapons to the country that protects democracy in the entire world. Since the beginning of Donbas conflict, the U.S. political and military leaders have been more and more persistent about non-lethal military assistance for Ukraine  unlike the psyched-up part of the Ukrainian society. The U.S. is keen on training people and sharing with them experience of NATO member countries. One can only speculate how much money Washington pays for the training of Ukrainian servicemen  something U.S. officials mention in their speeches much more frequently than Javelins.

In 2018, Ukraine is to host five large-scale international drills: Rapid Trident, Sea Breeze, as well as multinational exercises  Light Avalanche and Clear Sky and Ukraine-Romania drills, The Riverian. The exercises aim to make Ukrainian troops more compatible with those of the Alliances member countries.

Previously, 112 International reported on NATO standards and the course of their implementation in the Ukrainian army, considering its current state of affairs. For the sake of better understanding of these drills, we will remind the audience several theses from previous reports.

The Alliance consists of almost 30 member countries; each of them has its own peculiarities in managing its troops. Every member country has its own national system of standards. However, when the servicemen act within the NATO contingent, they are guided by the common standards  even which oil to use when greasing the turbines.

Open source

The goal of all these drills is the same  to reach compatibility of Ukrainian troops with NATO forces. Standards of the Alliance are not something fancy or something supposed to merely improve the current standards. They are like DSTU, the Ukrainian state-approved quality standard; they are common for all Alliance members  from feeding to planning and managing combat operations. Say, if a commander shapes up an assault team of four men (a British, an American, a Lithuanian and a German), who are supposed to clear the building, he merely assigns the missions. He doesnt need to waste any time for explanations. Every one of them already knows what his particular task is. So, whenever someone says aspiring for NATO standards, it is about compatibility and simplicity of working, planning, giving orders and completing combat missions together with Ukrainian servicemen.

In January, the President signed the law On the approval of the Presidential decision about letting foreign armies units into Ukraine for participation in multinational drills in 2018 and approved hosting these exercises. The document stipulates which particular units are allowed in Ukraine this year, their field strength, the kinds and numbers of their armament and military vehicles, the period of their stay, etc. It also designates the location of troops within the specified periods of drills.

1. The multinational drill on training army units

This is the tactical drill, which is already running at Yavoriv firing range in Starychi, Lviv region (western Ukraine). Since January till the end of the year, the servicemen will practice in planning and conducting military operations within multi-national contingents. The Ukrainian Army plans to send 10,000 people and ten aircraft. The U.S. sends up to 1,500 servicemen with military vehicles, including three airplanes and helicopters. Other Alliance member countries will send approximately the same amount of troops.

As far as funding is concerned, Ukraine pays for the fuel for its military vehicles and the services regarding the customs procedures on the state border. The rest of participants pay for transport services for their respective units, accommodation and feeding, and cover their own needs in fuel.

One of Ukrainian units, a battalion of the 14th Detached Mechanized Brigade began practicing at Yavoriv range on January 22  as scheduled.

2. Ukraine-U.S. exercise Rapid Trident 2018 (Ukraine, the USA)

Rapid Trident, the Ukraine-U.S. military exercise has been taking place at the International Centre for Peacekeeping and Security in Lviv region since 2006. This year, the drills will be running from June through November; then, the servicemen will show what theyve learned  in front of their superior officers and the media. The schedule says that the exercise involves about 4,000 servicemen plus 30 planes and helicopters. Ukraines Armed Forces will send up to 2,000 soldiers and ten aircraft. The U.S. is to send 1,000 servicemen and ten aircraft. The rest of participants will join in from other member countries of the Alliance and those from the Partnership for Peace program. Within these drills, Ukraine will pay for feeding and fuel materials for its own army and, again, for the services regarding the customs procedures on the state border. The rest of the participants feed, transport and re-fuel their vehicles within their own means.

On January 29, Ukraines General Staff of the Armed Forces reported that the hosting side began planning the largest ground force exercises within Rapid Trident 2018; they involve ground units of Ukrainian and foreign armies. The hosts are now working on the joint documents, which stipulate every particular stage of the forthcoming exercises.

3. Ukraine-U.S. exercise Sea Breeze 2018

This command post exercise has been held in Ukraine since 1997; this year, the area of the drills will involve the waters of the Black Sea, military air fields and shooting ranges of Ukrainian army, landing strips at Tendrivska sandspit (Ochakiv, Mykolaiv region, southern Ukraine); the international airport and sea ports of Odesa, as well as the naval base in Ochakiv. The goal is to improve the level of coordination and interaction among the countries of the Black Sea region  except Russia, as well as conducting manoeuvres on sea and land. The drills will be running from June till October.

The overall field strength makes 3,700 servicemen with weaponry and military vehicles, up to 50 naval vessels, 30 aircraft and up to five submarines. Ukraines Armed Forces will send 1,500 men, 30 ships and ten aircraft. The United States is to send up to 1,000 men, two submarines, ten ships and ten aircraft. Other countries will add up to 1,200 soldiers, up to ten naval vessels, three submarines and up to ten aircraft.

Ukraine pays for customs services, representational expenses, accommodation for those participating on the behalf of the Ukrainian Army. Other countries will pay for the transport services back and forth, the fuel, as well as for accommodation and feeding for their respective troops.

4. Multinational drills Light Avalanche 2018

From August till October, Yavoriv firing range will host the training session of Tysa, the multinational engineering battalion that consists of Ukrainian, Romanian, Hungarian and Slovakian units. The battalion emerged in 2002, as a rapid response team that prevents and reacts to any possible flood, which may threaten the countries in the Carpathian region  specifically, in the basin of Tysa river, which flows on the border of Ukraine, Romania, Hungary and Slovakia.

This year, 600 servicemen with weapons and armored vehicles will be joining the exercise. Ukraine is to send 300 fighters, the other countries will send 100 soldiers each.

5. Multinational drills Clear Sky 2018

Maintaining the operative and combat compatibility in the airspace over Europe is our common priority. This is why Ukraine and the neighboring countries will host the Clear Sky 2018, the joint military maneuvers of air forces. These were the words of Viktor Muzhenko, the head of the General Staff of Ukraines Armed Forces during his meeting with U.S. Air Forces in Europe commander Tod D. Walters.

The tactical exercises will be running in the skies over Ukraine and on the military air bases across Ukraine, from May through November 2018. 700 armed servicemen and approximately 40 aircraft will participate. 350 men and 20 aircraft will be joining in on the behalf of the Ukrainian Army; the U.S. Army will send 250 men and 15 aircraft. The rest will come from other NATO member countries.

NATO drills in Estonia, August 2017 Facebook Roman Bochkala

Ukraine will pay for customs services, accommodation and feeding for its participants and for the fuel for the armys vehicles; the Alliance member countries are to pay for transport services, fuel, accommodation and feeding for their respective participants.

6. Ukraine-Romania drills Riverian 2018

The goal of these drills is to improve the coordination of efforts of maritime units of the Ukrainian Army and those of the participant countries as they organize and conduct operations, aiming for regional security in the Black Sea region, as the plan puts it. Besides, the units will work on their patrolling skills and those regarding search and rescue operations.

The designated area of the drills covers Danube river and its creek, as well as the waters of the Black Sea and the territory of Romania.

The Riverian will involve up to 200 servicemen, ten vessels and 2 aircraft. Ukraine will send a hundred men and four boats; Romania is to send the rest of the mentioned forces. The exercises will be running from April till November 2018.

Open source

Besides, Ukrainian troops plan to join the international drills in other countries  23 various exercises slated for this year, to be precise. Ukrainians are to participate in the drills in Germany, Georgia, Bulgaria, Lithuania, Romania, Norway and Poland. Ukraines Defence Ministry plans to spend roughly 1.3 million U.S. dollars to prepare the troops for these drills; these funds have been assigned from the ministrys budget.

Last but not least  lets not forget that the American government pays well for participation and assistance of the U.S. troops in the drills that are held in Ukraine. In late 2017, President Donald Trump signed the defense budget, which stipulates that 350 million dollars will go to cover Ukraines needs in the defense and security area. Apart from U.S. instructors training Ukrainian servicemen, that also includes treatment of the wounded Donbas conflict veterans in the U.S. medical facilities. Besides, part of the money is supposed to be used for boosting the combat effectiveness of the Ukrainian Navy and the Air Force.Open source

On Saturday, February 3, four shellings of pro-Russian militants were reported in the area of Donbas conflict. As a result of the shellings, two Ukrainian servicemen were injured. This is reported by the press center of the antiterrorist operation headquarters in Facebook.



On the Luhansk direction, militants from 120-mm mortar shells and 82-mm IFV armament, anti-aircraft guns and heavy machine guns fired at the strong points of the Ukrainian forces near the village of Luhansko. From the grenade launchers of various types and large-caliber machine guns, the enemy shelled the positions of the Armed Forces at Lozove. From small arms, the militants fired a fire in the Zaitseve district.



On the Donetsk direction for more than 20 mines of 82-mm caliber exploded on the approaches to Avdiivka.



"Since the beginning of the day, there have been 4 shellings of our strong points by illegal armed formations. As a result of enemy shellings, two servicemen of the Armed Forces of Ukraine received injuries," the report said.

Related: Prosecutor's Office of Crimea checks Ukrainian ex-official's involvement in annexation of peninsula

Related: Klimkin in the Netherlands discussed UN peacekeepers in Donbas and MH17 case issuesOpen source

Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Pavlo Klimkin during his stay in the Netherlands discussed the issue of the introduction of the UN peacekeeping mission in occupied territories of Donbas. This was reported by the press service of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry.



In particular, during negotiations with Dutch Foreign Minister Halbe Zijlstra, an agreement was reached to strengthen cooperation within the international organizations in order to counteract Russian aggression, including in the context of the non-permanent membership of the Netherlands in the UN Security Council in 2018.



"The ministers paid special attention to the issue of the introduction of the UN peacekeeping mission in occupied territories of Donbas. The Netherlands confirmed the invariability of the position on observing the sanctions regime against the Russian Federation until Russia fully implements the Minsk agreements," the Foreign Ministry said.



It is noted that the ministers positively assessed the first results of the implementation of the Association Agreement between Ukraine and the EU, which creates additional opportunities for the further development of trade and economic cooperation between Ukraine and the Netherlands. The parties also discussed prospects for further expansion of cooperation in the agrarian and IT sectors, in logistics, water management, waste management, energy efficiency.



The priority issue on the agenda, the Foreign Ministry noted, remains the prosecution of the perpetrators of the downing of MH17 aircraft within the framework of the Dutch legal system.



Following the meeting with the Vice Prime Minister, the Minister of Internal Affairs and the administration, the parties agreed to strengthen coordination in the issue of countering Russian propaganda and other hybrid challenges, which is especially relevant against the backdrop of recent cyber attacks on the banking infrastructure of the Netherlands.



In addition, the Netherlands will assist in improving management processes in Ukraine at the central and local levels using best practices and IT solutions.



Related: OSCE patrol almost under fire on militant territory



Related: U.S. intends to keep pressuring Russia for withdrawal of military in Donbas, - MattisThe Crimean Prosecutor's Office verifies the involvement of ex-official of the presidential administration of Viktor Yanukovych Andriy Portnov to the decree of the Verkhovna Rada of Crimea during the occupation of the peninsula. This was stated in the air of Hromadske Radio by the deputy prosecutor of Crimea, Olexander Udovychenko.



According to Udovychenko, the reason for the inspection was the so-called "Glazyev films." "The films are the materials of a criminal case which, according to my information, is being investigated by another subdivision of the prosecutor's office. Not by the Prosecutor's Office of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea. But of course we are in a state of constant media monitoring, and any information regarding the peninsula, persons connected, involved in its occupation, the processes that are taking place now, all of this is monitored by us. When such information is found, it is immediately checked by investigative actions in one or another criminal proceeding. You said that Portnov was the author of the Verkhovna Rada decree on Crimea during the occupation of the peninsula - it's in our field of vision. We are now carrying out procedural actions aimed at confirming it or refuting it," he said.



Note that the website "Censor.NET" has information that the draft resolution of the Verkhovna Rada of Crimea during the beginning of the Russian occupation in 2014 was prepared by the then deputy head of the presidential administration, Andriy Portnov.



The proof of this is a telephone conversation between the presidential adviser Sergei Glazyev and a certain "Vladimir Andreevich", which was recorded by Ukrainian intelligence on March 1, 2014 and promulgated by prosecutors during the Obolonsky court session on the case of the former president of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych. In it, in particular, Glazyev informs the interlocutor that the Verkhovna Rada of Crimea should adopt some resolution, which was prepared by Andriy Portnov, and explains that it is necessary to adopt this document "so that it is clear that not all of Ukraine directly wants to sign an association agreement with the European Union".



According to the publication, prosecutors did not identify Glazyev's interlocutor, Vladimir Andreevich, but the voice of this man is very similar to the voice of Vladimir Andreevich Konstantinov (the so-called chairman of the state council of the Republic of Crimea).US Secretary of Defense James Mattis considers the law on national security of Ukraine to be a priority and calls on the authorities of the country to adopt this legislative initiative as soon as possible.





In particular, the head of the Pentagon noted this during a meeting with the Minister of Defense of Ukraine Stepan Poltorak , according to the website of the US Department of Defense.

"The Minister of Defense (Mattis, ed.) alled the law on national security a priority issue. The law is aimed at bringing the national security system of Ukraine in line with the norms of NATO and the EU. He expressed the hope that the presidential administration and the Ukrainian parliament

will take quick steps and adopt legislation that will provide a solid legal basis for implementing defense reforms in support of a secure and democratic Ukraine, "the report said.





It is added that Mattis also noted the importance of the US-Ukraine partnership in the field of security.

He praised Stepan Poltorak for the courage of the country in the face of Russian aggression and reaffirmed US support for the Ukrainian defense reform.





The interlocutors promised to strengthen a lasting partnership between the United States and Ukraine, based on joint security interests and common principles.





Earlier, the National Security and Defense Council approved the bill "On National Security of Ukraine", which should become the basis for the development and updating of legislation in the field of national security and defense.

Poltorak was satisfied with the draft law and noted that he takes into account all proposals of the Ukrainian defense department.





We recall, earlier the defense minister of Ukraine Stepan Poltorak met in Washington with the head of the Pentagon, James Mattis

As the Ukrainian minister reported, during the meeting they discussed issues related to the US decision to provide lethal weapons to Ukraine, as well as the implementation of the Minsk agreements by Russia.Open source

Introducing new sanctions against the Russian sovereign debt could have a negative impact not only on Russian economy but also the American investors and their assets, the report of the U.S. Department of Treasury disclosed by Bloomberg said.

The report says sanctions against the sovereign debt market would put downward pressure on Russian economic growth, increase strain on the banking sector and lead to Russian retaliation against U.S. interests.

Given the size of Russias economy, its interconnectedness and prevalence in global asset markets, and the likely over-compliance by global firms to U.S. sanctions, the magnitude and scope of consequences from expanding sanctions to sovereign debt and derivatives is uncertain and the effects could be borne by both the Russian Federation and U.S. investors and businesses, the report finds.Four Ukrainians have returned home today after many years of captivity in Libya, as President Petro Poroshenko wrote on Facebook.

Im happy for the return of our four citizens after many years of captivity in Libya. Im thankful to our diplomats and foreign intelligence for four more saved Ukrainians, he wrote.

The state of security deteriorated in Libya in 2017, as the activity of terrorist organizations increased. Sea vessels are systematically detained in the country. Last may, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry called on people to abstain from trips to this country.

On Jan. 13, a Ukrainian doctor was released from captivity in Libya.Poltorak, Mattis in Brussels, June 2017 Stepan Poltorak Facebook

Stepan Poltorak, Ukraines Defence Minister, met U.S. Secretary of Defence Jim Mattis on Feb. 2, as Ukrinform reports.

Weve discussed all issues, including the one connected to the decision of the U.S. to hand over lethal weapons to Ukraine. Weve discussed the mechanism of how it will be developing and weve reached an understanding. The decision of the USA was very timely and right, and the handing over of weapons will be timely and thought-out, Ukraines Defence Minister said.

He also noted that this weapons supplies will be a big sign for Ukraine and a sign for Russia that Ukraine isnt left one to one against Russian aggression.

Voice of America writes that Mattis and Poltorak also discussed the implementation of the Minsk agreements. Jim Mattis noted that the U.S. was trying to influence Russia through diplomatic means and the State Department was working so that Russia abides by the Minsk agreements.Thank's for the fish. -- Douglas Adams

Come back again sometime. Thank you for visiting.Over a year in the making, Beloveds first full length LP, The Cabin Sessions is just about ready to be unleashed on the world. Come help New Mexicos hot new insurgent indie folk/alt-country group celebrate the delivery of our new baby.

Beloved will be our full lineup of original players from the album for this special presentation of the full 60 minute work in its entirety undiluted with cover songs etc. The evening will be kicked off by Paul Hunton's (Silver String Band) much aniticipated new solo project Dust City Opera and be capped by an always amazing set by Bill Palmer's TV Killers.

Location is a closely guarded secret. We'll blast to all interested shortly before the event.

From the liner notes: Harkening back to the great '70's Topanga Country/Folk movement The Cabin Sessions is a collection of new recordings of songs written between 1992 and 2016. They are largely the product of living, loving and wandering the great American asphalt wilderness. The album spans the catalog of songwriter David Garcias work with a gem by Nikelle Garcia and a sweet little tune in the bonus tracks by Henry Moon.

Recorded at The Cabin in the historic Nob Hill district of Albuquerque, New Mexico, the lush recording takes listeners on a journey through Highway 1 motorcycle escapes, burned out South Austin back houses and the aftermath of fog-bound San Francisco bubble crashes. A fabulous travel companion, it's all thumb out on the side of the road with holes in the knees of its jeans waiting to be picked up and popped into your playlists.YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 3, ARMENPRESS. Clear weather has been reported along all roads and highways of inter-state and republican significance as of 10:00, February 3.

The ministry of emergency situations told ARMENPRESS that all roads are open for traffic.

Georgian authorities said the Stepantsminda-Lars road is also open for all types of vehicles.

The Stepantsminda-Lars road is the only land connection between Armenia and Russia, which runs through Georgia. Stepantsminda is a small town in north-eastern Georgia. The road is used for both passenger and cargo transportations and is of major significance. Vehicles pass through the Verkhni (Upper) Lars customs checkpoint into Russia.YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 3, ARMENPRESS. The Iraqi military began an operation on February 3 to eliminate ISIS fighters near the border with Saudi Arabia, Mahmud Al-Fellahin  commander of the operation said, RIA Novosti reports.

He said multiple forces, including police, army and border guards, began the operation with assistance of the coalition air force in the desert areas of the Anbari region.

Earlier in December, the Iraqi PM had already announced the elimination of ISIS in the country.YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 3, ARMENPRESS. The tactical-strategic situation in the Artsakh-Azerbaijan line of contact has been relatively calm from January 28 to February 3, the ministry of defense of Artsakh told ARMENPRESS.

In a statement, the ministry said that Azerbaijani forces violated the ceasefire nearly 150 times during the abovementioned period. Azerbaijan fired more than 1500 rounds at positions of Artsakh.

The Defense Army mainly refrained from taking countermeasures and took necessary steps to reliably organize the defense of military positions, the statement said.YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 3, ARMENPRESS. With his speech at the annual gala dinner of the Coordination Council of Armenian Organizations of France (CCAF) in Paris, French President Emmanuel Macron has given new hopes among French-Armenians, CCAF said in a statement.

His decisions on declaring April 24 as the Armenian Genocide commemoration day in the national calendar, restoring the law criminalizing the denial of the Armenian Genocide, assisting the creation of a center of Armenian memory and civilization meet the expectations of ethnic Armenians of France, who are the descendants of the first genocide of the 20th century, the statement says.

CCAF expressed gratitude to President Emmanuel Macron for supporting the solution of the abovementioned issues.

CCAF emphasized that it will mobilize efforts to achieve the goals.

We sincerely accept Emmanuel Macrons honesty and we will do our best that his assumed commitments become reality as soon as possible, knowing that nothing hinders him in struggling for the long Armenian struggle for justice, especially against the Turkish state, the statement said.YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 3, ARMENPRESS. OSCE Parliamentary Assembly President George Tsereteli has said that international actors should continue close cooperation for the settlement of protracted conflicts.

Tsereteli made the statement after a meeting with UN officials in the US.

President Tsereteli and OSCE PA Secretary General Roberto Montella held a series of meetings including with the President of the UN General Assembly Miroslav Lajcak; Under-Secretary-General Vladimir Voronkov, UN Counter-Terrorism Office; Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs, Miroslav Jenca; and Yannick Glemarec, Deputy Executive Director of UN Women, among others, OSCE reported.

During the meetings the sides focused on protracted conflicts, including unresolved conflicts in South Caucasus, as well s issues related to humanitarian matters, migrations and terrorism.

The OSCE and the UN are natural partners in so many fields of work, and as we all work for more peace, security and development, its crucially important to capitalize on each others strengths, said Tsereteli. As OSCE parliamentarians continue work on issues such as countering terrorism, finding sustainable solutions to migration flows, and seeking solutions to unresolved conflicts, Im pleased that we can build on excellent work in all these fields by the United Nations, Tsereteli said.YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 3, ARMENPRESS. Armenian-American professor Mark Moogalian, the first passenger to tackle a gunman during a terrorist attack on a high-speed train traveling to Paris from Amsterdam in 2015, will play himself in Clint Eastwoods upcoming film The 15:17 to Paris, Armenian Weekly reports.

According to sources, the film also stars Moogalians wife, Isabelle Risacher Moogalian, who was also on board that day.

During the high-speed train ride on Aug. 21, 2015, Moogalian tackled gunman El-Khazzani, who was armed with an AK-47 assault rifle. After Moogalian took the gun away, the assailant managed to draw another weapon and shoot him in the neck.

Moogalian, who is from Midlothian, Va. and teaches English at Paris-Sorbonne University, was quickly rushed to a hospital where he was rehabilitated and eventually made a full recovery from his injuries.

In Sept. 2015, less than a month after the incident, Moogalian was awarded the Legion dHonneur, Frances highest honor for bravery, by then French President Francois Hollande at the Elysee Palace.YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 3, ARMENPRESS. A criminal case was launched in the investigative committee of Kotayk on the kidnapping of a minor  the suspect has been arrested.

The investigative committee told ARMENPRESS that a woman reported to police on February 1 that her underage daughter has been kidnapped by one of her acquaintances. The other woman, who had deceitfully taken the child to her home, demanded the mother to return her debt, and only later she would let her daughter return.

Police found out that the woman owed her long time acquaintance just under 100 dollars, which was the reason why she took the 10 year old hostage to demand the debt back.

Police intervened and the daughter was safely returned to her mother. The suspect was arrested and an investigation was launched.YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 3, ARMENPRESS. A man, identified as Elmedin Aliyev, has killed his own father in Baku, Azerbaijan.

The murder happened in the Azerbaijani capitals Zirya Khazarski district.

Azerbaijani media said the son killed his 57 year old father in his uncles home, and later set it on fire.

Forensic expertise showed multiple traumas on the body before it was burnt.

The 21 year old son of the victim, along with two others, have been arrested.YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 3, ARMENPRESS. Dominique de Buman  President of the National Council of Switzerland , the lower house of the parliament, will arrive in Armenia on February 3 on an official visit.

General Secretary of the Armenia-Switzerland parliamentary friendship group Sargis Shahinyan told ARMENPRESS that the visit must be viewed on its highest representative level, since the delegation includes the National Council President, First and Second Vice Presidents, and representatives of all parties.

The main goal of the visit is bilateral relations in terms of both political and economic development. Lets not forget, that several important events will be marked in Armenia in 2018  first of all the 100th anniversary of the First Republic and several other important points. However, this visit is also important with the fact that this is Dominique de Bumans first official foreign visit, which will last extraordinarily longer  6 days. And one thing is noteworthy, which has happened rarely or not at all. Dominique de Buman will have the opportunity to have a speech in the Parliament and convey his address, Sargis Shahinyan said.

The Swiss delegation is expected to meet Armenias President, Prime Minister, Foreign Minister, as well as the Catholicos.

We will also visit the Armenian Genocide Memorial, and the Museum-Institute. Lets not forget Switzerlands support during the Spitak Earthquake. For the support and work of that times, two people will receive the Medal of Honor from the Parliament, he said.

Shahinyan also mentioned that Switzerland will arrive in Armenia with a 20 person delegation during the upcoming Yerevan La Francophonie Summit.YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 3, ARMENPRESS. Finnish President Sauli Niinisto, 69, has announced the birth of his third son.

President Sauli Niinisto and his spouse - Jenni Haukio, welcomed their third son at 20:00, February 2, the presidents office said.

The 69 year old won re-election in a landslide victory Sunday and was sworn into office for a second term Thursday before his second wife gave birth to a healthy boy on Friday evening.

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 3, ARMENPRESS. Clear weather is forecast for the afternoon of February 3, February 4 to February 8.

Meteorologists of the ministry of emergency situations said temperature will gradually rise by 2-4 degrees February 3-5, with an increase of 4-6 degrees expected in the eastern regions.

Daytime temperature will reach +14 degrees in Yerevan during the upcoming five days.YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 3, ARMENPRESS. The US-Turkey relations have become strained in the recent period due to the Turkish military intervention in Syrias Afrin, an anti-Kurdish operation under the pretext of fighting terror  known as Operation Olive Branch.

The US Congress is preparing sanctions against Turkey as part of the 2012 Magnitsky Act.

The sanctions might target certain ministers and politicians of Turkey, Hurriyet reports.

The US government acknowledges that necessary means must be taken to stop Turkey, but at the same time the US tries to prevent the possible clash of the Turkish and American troops in the Syrian territory, Hurriyet said.

The Magnitsky Act is a bipartisan bill passed by the U.S. Congress and signed by President Obama in NovemberDecember 2012, intending to punish Russian officials responsible for the death of Russian tax accountant Sergei Magnitsky in a Moscow prison in 2009.

Under the law, the US bans the entry of foreign officials, who have abused human rights, to the country and their real estate in the US is frozen.YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 3, ARMENPRESS. Exhibitions, lectures, concerts, discussions  numerous events are planned in France on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the First Republic of Armenia and the May Battles.

Murad Papazyan, co-chair of the Coordination Council of Armenian Organizations of France (CCAF) told a press conference that the events will be held nationwide  in various cities.

This year is significant for Armenia, it is the 100th anniversary of two important events. It is a very good occasion to carry out information work in order for the international community to be informed about these important chapters of our history, how the Armenian people were able to create statehood in 1918, after the 1915 genocide, he said.

He said the CCAF will actively participate in upcoming events in Armenia as wlel.

In the end of May, an official delegation from France, led by the minister of foreign affairs, will arrive in Armenia on this occasion.YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 3, ARMENPRESS. Soon lawyers will begin working to once again introduce the issue of criminalizing the denial of the Armenian Genocide in France to the agenda, Co-Chair of the Coordination Council of Armenian Organizations in France Murad Papazian told a press conference.

Our lawyers didnt begin working with the governments lawyers yet. As you know, during the annual dinner of CCAF, President Macron said he is in favor for this process to have new course. The President also gave his agreement for April 24 to be declared as Armenian Genocide Commemoration Day in the calendar. We must again go into this struggle, but already from a new angle, he said.

According to Papazian, since the majority of MPs of France have changed after the election, active work with parliamentarians is implied. The Armenian community has already begun establishing contacts with them.

Another important event is the Francophonie Summit in Yerevan of 2018, which the French President will attend.

We, as Diaspora, as French-Armenians, must have our role. I think also to give political nature to that event, use this opportunity and have new allies. To remind that Turkey and Azerbaijan arent participating, he said.YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 3, ARMENPRESS. A day ahead of World Cancer Day  Armenias President Serzh Sargsyan visited the Fanarjyan National Oncology Center in Yerevan.

The President toured the renovated departments of chemotherapy and reviewed the treatment conditions, the Presidents Office told ARMENPRESS.

The President was briefed on the innovations and structural changes of the center  the hospital is equipped with an e-healthcare system, separate reception and testing facilities.

Armen Tananyan, director of the center, briefed the president on the main directions of the facilitys activities and upcoming re-equipment works for 2018.

President Sargsyan expressed readiness to support programs of further development of the center.

In another visit, the President viewed the development process of the capitals hotel sector.

The President visited the Ibis Yerevan Center and Golden palace Boutique Hotel of Yerevan and got acquainted with the investments, jobs and services of the facilities.

Ibis Hotel executives told the President they hosted nearly 19000 visitors from 80 countries in 2017, and they expect 25% growth for 2018.

Nearly 15 million USD was invested in the Golden Palace Boutique Hotel, which was opened in 2018.YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 3, ARMENPRESS. The Fanarjyan National Center of Oncology has been equipped with a new general and childrens chemotherapy unit.

Professor Armen Tananyan, director of the center, told reporters that the 3000 sq.m. facility is located on the 7th floor.

He said that up to 100 people receive chemotherapy courses daily.

5000-8000 chemotherapy interventions are done in the country, 80% of which in our center, he said.

Although the rise of cancer diseases worldwide, including Armenia, the director said successes have also been recorded  nearly 40,000 people have survived cancer in Armenia.

Nearly 12 thousand people receive outpatient treatment in the center annually.YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 3, ARMENPRESS. A delegation of the Armenian Parliament comprised from committee chairmen and faction leaders are on a visit to Artsakh February 2-4.

The Parliamentarians from Armenia visited on February 3 the Stepanakert Memorial Complex and laid flowers in honor of the fallen soldiers of the war. The MPs were accompanied by Vahram Balayan, Vice Speaker of the Parliament of Artsakh.

An expanded format meeting of parliamentarians of both countries took place later on the same day in the Parliament of Artsakh.

Speaker Ashot Ghulyan highlighted the yearly improving relations with the Parliament of Armenia, regular meetings on the level of committees and the sessions of the inter-parliamentary cooperation commission.

Vahram Baghdasaryan, leader of the ruling party faction of Armenia, thanked for the reception and praised the level of partnership between the two parliaments.

He presented Speaker Ara Babloyans instruction on awarding Speaker Ashot Ghulyan with the Medal of Honor of the Parliament of Armenia for significant contribution in strengthening the friendly inter-parliamentary ties on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the Karabakh Movement.YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 3, ARMENPRESS. The Fanarjyan National Center of Oncology has been equipped with a state of the art device, director Armen Tananyan told reporters.

The device, Varian Clinac IX, has been acquired thanks to Armenian and Iranian businessmen and is the only similar device in the country.

Tananyan said the new management model enabled to invest nearly 820 million drams in one year alone.

According to him, radiotherapy is rather expensive globally, but according to contracts, therapy in Armenia will be affordable for citizens.

I am sure that a segment of patients will undergo treatment under state-funded conditions. Nearly 20 percent of oncology sector needs are provided under state-funded conditions, he said.

Radiotherapy prices start from 25,000 Euros in European countries, from 8,000 dollars in Iran, and 4000 in Georgia, whereas the price in Armenia will be up to 3000.

The new device is a modern super-prevision radiotherapy tool.

The device has an integrated robot-vision system, enabling ultra precision.LOS ANGELESMolly Stewart loves food, so much so that its often a recurring subject in her chatroom.

You can ask anyone in my room, halfway through a broadcast I'll be talking about something I did eat, something I've wanted to eat, or something I'm going to eat, says the model known as Miss Molly in the MyFreeCams community.

I love trying new things and testing my cooking skills. Like eating kangaroo pizza in Australia or frog legs in the South. If I had to pick one thing, I guess my favorite thing to eat is a delicious steak topped in marinated onions and peppers with a side of mashed potatoes and gravy, a slice of garlic bread on the side.

Whether its discussing exotic eats, her need for speed or her knack for playing a character, Miss Molly knows how to keep her members engaged. Its why she's become a top draw on MFC, not to mention an in-demand model whose credits include being the September 2017 Penthouse Pet and July 2017 Playboy Cyber Girl of the Month.

The self-described exhibitionist is also an independent woman who knows who she is.

Doing things for myself, finding ways to overcome challenges, living my life the way I wantthat is what makes me happy, Molly says.

In this exclusive Q&A for CAMStar, Molly talks about her passion for motorcycles, playing video games and her philosophy on camming, along with 12 pages of photos captured by photographer Keith Munyan.

To see the digital issue, click here.Now that it is fully apparent, to all who have the ability to pay some modicum of attention, that Imposter President Biden has extreme cognitive issues, in addition to being an inveterate liar: Can OUR Republic continue with this Executive Office that has completely failed, so many times, on far too many issues here at this early date in this abysmal presidency?

No, Joseph R. Biden is completely unqualified, morally and cognitively, to represent real Americans, and lead this Republic of disparate peoples.

Yes, Joseph R. Biden has started whispering again, even softer now than before; so, I know he still cares, plus, OUR media will soon stop reporting on Afghanistan in favor of OUR Socialist issues.Calls for more rehabilitation programs, job training, and aid for inmates to make transition to mainstream society have wide support

While North Carolina leaders address a multitude of problems behind the state's prison walls, a new national poll shows growing support for criminal justice reform. At least 75 percent of Americans think prisons need a makeover , show data from the Justice Action Network . Support crosses party lines, with 68 percent of Republicans and 80 percent of Democrats saying the system "needs significant improvements."Top corrections officials in North Carolina agree.Insufficient staffing and poor training are alarming trends inside state prisons, N.C. Public Safety Secretary Erik Hooks said during a Jan. 25 presentation before members of the General Assembly.Underfunding, insufficient mental health treatment, and over-reliance on solitary confinement are big issues, too, said Chris Brook, legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina.Hooks, who took office one year ago, faced two prison tragedies early on. Five prison workers died in attacks at Bertie and Pasquotank Correctional Institutions in April and October. Several other employees and inmates were hurt.The year was one of the most violent in North Carolina corrections history, but problems have gone on for years, Hooks said.In 2014, a horrific ordeal at Alexander Correctional Institution in Taylorsville resulted in the death of Michael Kerr - a 53-year-old schizophrenic - during his transfer to Central Prison hospital in Raleigh.In September 2012, inmates at Lanesboro Correctional Institution stabbed a member of a rival gang 13 times with crude shank knives. The event is just one of many investigated by the Charlotte Observer since 2015 Last year, Hooks ordered a top-to-bottom evaluation of the N.C. Department of Public Safety. The agency is fueled tohe said.Security and staffing at Pasquotank are a mess, a report from the National Institute of Corrections shows.Prisons are home to the state's most dangerous criminals, and staff safety is a priority, said Kenneth Lassiter, director of prisons at DPS. The state must hire more corrections officers and beef-up security measures, said another review commissioned by the N.C. Governor's Crime Commission.But the system should also focus on rehabilitating people to become productive, law-abiding citizens, Brook said. An overwhelming majority of Republicans and Democrats agree.Ninety percent of Americans thinkthe survey states. Another two-thirds of voters support practices allowing job applicants to discuss their qualifications before they're asked about criminal records.North Carolina falls short on inmate rehabilitation, said Susan Pollitt, senior attorney at Disability Rights North Carolina. The corrections system is the largest mental health provider in the state. Yet there are few treatment programs, and social workers are overloaded - and in short supply.Among roughly 37,000 prisoners, about 5,000 are locked in solitary confinement. More than one in five of those prisoners suffer mental illnesses.Isolation is used to punish inmates who suffer psychosomatic episodes. Most of the time, isolation worsens their condition, said Pollitt.Prisoner violence and staff safety is a serious issue, Brook said. But since most prisoners end up back on the street, North Carolina should focus on retraining inmates for life on the outside.Superintendents shared concerns about oversight and potential micromanagement by legislature

Flexibility was the word of the day in a meeting of the Joint Legislative Task Force on Education Finance Reform.Several superintendents and local education agency finance officers Wednesday, Jan. 31, shared recommendations with legislators on reforming the school funding formula. These included increasing flexibility on how allocated funds are spent in regard to meeting school districts' unique needs.The task force was created last year to address what many say is an outdated model on school funding. Legislators have until Oct. 1 to send a final report with proposed legislation to the Joint Legislative Education Oversight Committee.Three superintendents and three LEA finance officers offered recommendations on how the school funding model should be reformed to address challenges unique to each school district. These included counties and districts with decreasing populations, those lagging to recover economically, and those with a high percentage of impoverished students.said Superintendent Rob Jackson of Edenton-Chowan Schools.Representatives from the N.C. Association of School Administrators and N.C. School Boards Association weighed in. The NCASA suggested slowly phasing in changes to a new funding formula to ensure a smooth transition.said Stephen Fisher, superintendent of Cleveland County schools.Fisher said flexibility in funding allows school districts to meet the specific needs of large and small schools. Jackson and Superintendent Tim Markley of New Hanover County Schools echoed the Cleveland superintendent's views about flexibility.Other concerns included addressing numerous allotment revisions, which superintendents and finance officers say slows the budgeting process. Carol Hendron, chief finance officer for the Rowan-Salisbury school system, said the district received 29 allotment revisions. Jackson said his district received 59 revisions.Jackson said.Another common recommendation included the idea of untangling funding for charter schools and school districts. Many presenters advocated funding charter schools via direct allotment, meaning charter schools would avoid the school system in getting funding. County commissioners would sign the checks instead.Rep. Frank Iler, R-Brunswick, said he was for as much flexibility as possible, but he wondered whether it could result in a lack of money in certain areas.said Fisher.Fisher said increased flexibility could cause problems, but it also opens the way for innovation toward meeting the diverse needs of students and schools.Sen. Jerry Tillman, R-Randolph, said the school districts had more funding flexibility five years ago. But because they mismanaged money, the legislature took it away. He wants to return more flexibility to the school districts, as long as they maintained responsibility for spending decisions.Tillman said.Tillman said the legislature shouldn't micromanage what school districts need to spend in each category, but he said they must be held accountable.The chairman of the task force, Rep. Craig Horn, R-Union, said reforming the school funding model is a long process and many voices, including charter schools, have yet to be heard.Horn said.If the governor directs where money goes and for what purpose, is it government spending?That is just one of a number of questions that arose after Gov. Roy Cooper announced that Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP) and its utility partners had agreed, hours after it received regulatory clearance from the Division of Water Quality, to pay $57.8 million into an escrow fund for three purposes specified by the governor. The governor will choose the third-party institution that will hold the escrow account, and there is no indication the plan anticipates going through the normal appropriation process.Gerry Cohen, former special counsel to the General Assembly, compared this arrangement to Golden LEAF, which provides grants to private organizations from the Master Settlement Agreement between tobacco companies and states. The money for Golden LEAF, however, is appropriated each year by the General Assembly, but Gov. Cooper hopes to have these funds held in a private institution outside the state treasury where he would direct its use through executive order.Former House Majority Leader Skip Stam considers the payment a fine that should go to public schools according to the state constitution. That may be accurate, even though only a portion of the payment is based on anticipated harms to the environment, with the rest dedicated to economic development and renewable energy projects. Even those funds for the environment are aimed at mitigation and are not considered a penalty. Stam also calls it an "exaction," which is more like an impact fee than a fine for wrongdoing. If it is a fee instead of a fine, then there is no requirement for the money to go to education.The agreement also does its best to avoid another section of the N.C. Constitution. Article V, Section 7 states, "No money shall be drawn from the State treasury but in consequence of appropriations made by law," that is, by the General Assembly in the state budget. There is also a statutory requirement specifying that the governor must submit his proposed spending plan or revisions to the existing plan to the General Assembly, not by an executive order.Although the agreement declares, "Nothing in this Memorandum shall be construed as affecting the authorities of any party," the money trail specifically avoids the normal appropriations process both in the creation of an escrow account and in directing the money through executive order instead of state budget appropriations.Gov. Cooper is no stranger to overstepping his bounds in directing money from legal agreements, as with North Carolina's portion of a 2015 multi-state settlement with Standard and Poor's overinflated mortgage ratings. In that case, as Attorney General, he gave his ideas about how the state should use the $21.5 million payment Perhaps the most direct analogy is Gov. Mike Easley's 2001 attempt , with the General Assembly's blessing, to shore up the General Fund with $225 million intended for the Teachers and State Employees Retirement System despite prohibitions against misappropriating pension funds. The courts eventually agreed with state employees that the move violated both state and federal constitutions and ordered the funds be repaid.What gives this agreement between Gov. Cooper and the companies involved in the ACP its particular aroma is its timing. Fridays are widely recognized as the day to dump bad or controversial news, so the Department of Environmental Quality announced approval of the pipeline for water quality regulations. Only later in the day did the Governor's Office make known its agreement with ACP. Did the pipeline companies agree to pay $57.8 million under threat that they would not get regulatory approval without the payment? Was it a more amicable market transaction that left both parties pleased with the outcome? The digital trail of communications will be interesting to see.Four papers on which he is a co-author were found to contain statistical discrepancies. Not one or two, but roughly 150. That revelation led to further scrutiny of Wansink's work and to the discovery of other eyebrow-raising results, questionable research practices, and apparent recycling of data in at least a dozen other papers. All of which has put the usually ebullient researcher and his influential lab on the defensive.

Wansink and his fellow researchers had spent a month gathering information about the feelings and behavior of diners at an Italian buffet restaurant. Unfortunately their results didn't support the original hypothesis. 'This cost us a lot of time and our own money to collect,' Wansink recalled telling the graduate student. 'There's got to be something here we can salvage.' [my italics]

In this review, we present the most recent and pertinent data on the consequences of our current scholarly communication system with respect to various measures of scientific quality...These data corroborate previous hypotheses: using journal rank as an assessment tool is bad scientific practice [my emphasis].

These journals aggressively curate their brands, in ways more conducive to selling subscriptions than to stimulating the most important research. Like fashion designers who create limited edition handbags or suits, they know scarcity stokes demand, so they artificially restrict the number of papers they accept. The exclusive brands are then marketed with a gimmick called "impact factor".... Just as Wall Street needs to break the hold of the bonus culture, which drives risk-taking that is rational for individuals but damaging to the financial system, so science must break the tyranny of the luxury journals. The result will be better research that better serves science and society.

Take, for instance, the fact that universities rely far too heavily on the number of journal publications to judge scientists for promotion and tenure. Brian Nosek [who is trying to reform the system] said that when he went up for promotion to full professor at the University of Virginia, the administration told him to print out all his publications and deliver them in a stack. Being ten years into his career, he'd published about a hundred papers. 'So my response was, what are you going to do? Weigh them?' He knew it was far too much effort for the review committee to read one hundred studies.

Professor Brian Wansink is head of the Food and Brand Lab at Cornell University. The lab has had problems, some described in an article called " Spoiled Science " in the Chronicle of Higher Education early in 2017: More recently , Wansink's lab published data purporting to come from 8- to 11-year-old children that were in fact obtained from 3- to 5-year-olds.Compared to these gaffes the lab's next problem looks like a very minor one:Four publications emerged from the "salvaged" buffet study. The topic is no doubt of interest to restaurateurs but unlikely to shed light on the nature of human feeding behavior. It's entertaining. The study is correlational, not causal-no experiments were done. These are all characteristics typical of most of the "science" you will read about in the media: a distraction and a waste of resources, perhaps, but not too harmful.The real problem, the probable source of all of Wansink's other problems, is hinted at by the bit in italics. It's pretty clear that Professor Wansink's aim is not the advancement of understanding, but the production of publications. By this measure, his research group is exceedingly successful: 178 peer-reviewed journal articles, 10 books, and 44 book chapters in 2014 alone. Pretty good for 10 faculty, 11 postdocs, and eight graduate students.The drive to publish is not restricted to Professor Wansink. It is universal in academic science, especially among young researchers seeking promotion and research grants. The concept of the LPU ("least publishable unit," i.e., the least amount of data that will get you a publication so your total can be as large as possible. The analogy is to physical units such as BTU=British Thermal Unit.) has been a joke among researchers for many years. I described the new industry of "pop-up" journals that have arisen to meet this demand in Part I.The positive feedbacks I described earlier-popularity allows a journal to be selective, which makes it more popular and more able to select and so on-has nevertheless produced a handful of elite journals. The two most popular general-science journals are Nature, published in the U.K., and the U.S.-based Science.But the emphasis in academia on publishing is misplaced. The number of publications, even publications in elite journals, is not a reliable proxy for scientific productivity. Great scientists rarely have long publication lists, and a paper in an "elite" journal isn't necessarily a great paper. I will give just two examples. W. D. "Bill" Hamilton (1936-2000) was probably the most important evolutionary biologist since Charles Darwin. He published his first paper in 1963 and by 1983 had published a total of 22, a rate of just over one paper a year. Several of these papers were groundbreaking, his discovery of the importance of what evolutionists call inclusive fitness being perhaps the most important. But the number of papers he published is modest-compare them with Professor Wansink's prodigious output or Brian Nosek's promotion package below. One paper a year would now be considered inadequate in most research institutions.My second example is personal: my first publication , which was in Science. The basic idea was that pigeons (the standard subject for operant conditioning experiments) could follow the spacing of rewards: working hard for food when it came frequently, more slowly when it came less frequently. Here is what I found. Never mind the details, just notice that the output cycles (individual in the middle, the average of three subjects at the bottom) track the input cycle at the top beautifully. But, paradoxically, the pigeons worked harder when the reward was infrequent (low points of the cycle) than when it was frequent (the high points). An older colleague pointed out a possible artifact, but I could find no evidence for his suggestion at the time.It turned out he was in fact right; I confirmed his idea much later with a better recording technique. Pigeons do track rewards but they track in terms of something called wait time, not in terms of response rate. By the time I found that out, this area of research was no longer fashionable enough for publication in Science.So why did Science publish what was, in fact, a flawed article? I think there were three reasons: the data were beautiful, very orderly, and without any need for statistics. Second, feedback theory was then very much in fashion and I was trying to apply it to behavior. And third, the results were counter-intuitive, an appealing feature for journal editors wishing to appear on the cutting edge.Do top journals such as Nature and Science really publish the best work? Are they a reliable guide to scientific quality? Or do they just favor fashion and a scientific establishment, as the two writers in this Times Higher Ed article claim? Nobel Prize winner Randy Shekman, in a Guardian article , along with the many authors whose work is described in a 2013 review article , co-authored by German researcher Bjorn Brembs, agree that fashion is a factor but point to more important problems. First, painstaking follow-up work by many researchers has failed to show that elite (or what Shekman calls "luxury"), high-rank journals reliably publish more important work than less-selective journals. Brembs et al. write:Acceptance criteria for elite journals do not provide, perhaps cannot provide, a perfect measure of scientific excellence. Impact factor (journal rank) is an unreliable measure of scientific quality, for reasons I described earlier. Elite journals favor big, surprising results, even though these are less likely than average to be repeatable. Neither where a scientist publishes (journal rank) nor how often he publishes (the length of his CV)-the standard yardsticks for promotion and the awarding of research grants-is a reliable measure of scientific productivity.The top journals are in fierce competition. Newsworthiness and fashion are as important as rigor. As Shekman says:The present system has additional costs: the peer-review process takes time and often several submissions and re-submissions may be necessary before an article can see the light of day. The powerful incentives for publication-at-any-price make for "natural selection of bad science," in the words of one commentary.Efforts to change the system are underway. Here is a quote from a thoughtful, if alarmingly titled, new book on the problems of science:Clearly, change is needed. Science administrators can change right away: less emphasis on quantity and place of publication, and much more attention to what aspiring researchers' papers actually say.The way that science is published should also certainly change. But exactly how is difficult to discern: open publication (there are a few examples), substitute commentary for formal review, encourage longer, more conclusive-or shorter, but quicker to appear-papers...New practices will certainly take time to evolve. What they might be is a topic for another time.Must Read Newspaper Articles...Again

In the past I have directed my Silliness Awareness at the Foolishness practiced by my local newspaper of labeling at least one article in every issue as Must Read.



I really don't have time to read everything but I am concerned that these Must Read Articles might be a requirement of a Federal Law. If that be the case, I am fearful that I might get sent to jail because, don't tell anyone, I do not read every one of them.



The Headline for a recent Must Read Article was: Monkey Cannot Own Copyright to 'Selfie', U.S. Judge Says



Thank heaven there is a least one judge still left in the Good Ole USofA who has Ole Fashioned Common Sense. If you don't recognize the term "Common Sense", Google It!



Here are excerpts from the article...

 A rare crested macaque that took a now internationally famous "selfie" cannot own the copyright to the photograph because he is not human, a U.S. judge ruled in a suit brought by animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals on behalf of the monkey.

 PETA brought the case in September 2015 on behalf of the seven-year-old monkey Naruto against British photographer David Slater, who self-published the photo in a wildlife book.

 Naruto, who resides on a reserve in Indonesia, took the image and several others in 2011 using a camera left unattended by Slater, the suit said.

 PETA argued he should be declared owner of the photos and receive damages for copyright infringement that would be Used for Habitat Preservation.

 "Used for Habitat Preservation"... This tactic is often used by the Sneaky People of this world we live in. They propose something Foolish and tie it to a "How Can Anyone Be Against This" touchy feely sentiment or cause and reach out to the Touchy Feely Heart Strings of so many of us and, next thing we know, we have a Touchy Feely Law on the books.

 PETA General Counsel Jeff Kerr told Reuters that the group is reviewing its legal options... Mr. Kerr issued this statement, "Although we are disappointed, we are celebrating the fact that this is a historic case. For the first time we are arguing that an animal can own property, rather than merely being a piece of property himself."



My only disappointment in this judge is he processed the case through his court using proper judicial procedures. My regret is that he did not say, "Get the hell out of my courtroom!" as soon as he realized what was being presented before him.



Would I kid u?

Smartfella



Lagniappe: Not only did this judge have Common Sense but the way he plays with words brings a tear to my word loving heart. He said in his court papers, "Monkey see, monkey sue is not good law".



Sad Lagniappe:

September 17, 2017

SAN FRANCISCO -- A lawsuit over who owns the copyright to selfie photographs snapped by a monkey has ended in a settlement before a federal court could answer the novel legal question.



Lawyers for an animal-rights group said Monday that they would ask a federal appeals court to dismiss the case. They say photographer David Slater, whose camera was used to take the photo, agreed to donate 25 percent of any future revenue to charities dedicated to protecting crested macaques.



A joint statement posted to PETA's website Monday read: "PETA and David Slater agree that this case raises important, cutting-edge issues about expanding legal rights for nonhuman animals, a goal that they both support, and they will continue their respective work to achieve this goal."

The era of portable speakers is here to stay, and bringing one to any function is an instant party starter. However, with so many options to choose from, not just any speaker will check all the necessary boxes. You've got to have one that can do it all. It's got to sound good, look good, READ THE RESTSaddam Hussein met the end of his days at the end of a rope in 2006, sentenced to death for crimes against humanity. It's a fate many argued was justly deserved. In 2003, the New York Times estimated that the number of individuals murdered, killed in wars the dictator started or who simply vanished during his despotic rule of Iraq could be as high as one million people. Given the atrocities Hussein is infamous for, the idea of anyone under his rule opposing him sounds like the stuff of a bad melodrama.

But it's exactly what Dr. Hussain al-Shahristani, an Iraqi citizen, did.

An expert in the design of nuclear reactors, Dr. Shahristani was personally approached in 1979 by Saddam Hussein to assist his regime with their nuclear weapons program  a request that Dr. Shahristani turned down. His refusal to aid the Iraqi dictator's quest to build a nuclear arsenal resulted in his being imprisoned in the notorious Abu Ghraib prison, where he was routinely tortured for a decade. In 1991, during an allied bombing raid, Dr. Shahristani managed to escape his captors, returning to freedom, his family and starting down the road to a career in politics.

The story of Dr. Shahristani's time in prison and his daring escape is one of the most badass tales of defiance that you're likely hear. This past week, the BBC spoke to the good doctor, who recounted his story. If you've got a few minutes, it's definitely worth a listen.

Image courtesy of Wikipedia CommonsNews / National

by Staff reporter

NewZimbabwe.com reported that all white farmers who have taken the government to court over disputed farm seizures have been told to withdraw their cases and instead engage the State on how to resolve the wrangles, a government minister has said.Addressing scores of white farmers in Marondera this week, David Musabayana, the Mashonaland East resident minister, implored white farmers who have approached the courts seeking redress over the acquisition of their farms by the government to withdraw the cases."It is important that you withdraw your cases before the courts and instead engage the government on how best we can resolve the disputes," Musabayana said."As part of our agreement, we also thought it would be prudent that we open communication lines with our farmers wherever you are. It is important that you open communication lines with the government so that we know what is happening. We don't want you to rely on social media to make decisions," he said.His call comes when several white farmers in the province have approached the High Court seeking redress after their farms were seized by the government following the controversial land reform programme in 2000.Last year, two brothers, David and Stephen Worswick, took two former Cabinet ministers, Tabitha Kanengoni-Malinga and Edgar Mbwembwe to the High Court for "illegally seizing" their farms in Marondera. The cases are still pending before the courts.Musabayana also urged the white farmers not to pay "protection fees" to government and Zanu-PF officials so that their farms are not seized."You have been asked to pay protection fees so that you keep your land. This should be a thing of the past in the new dispensation. You are answerable to no one except the government. You don't need to pay anyone to protect your land. It is a privilege offered to every Zimbabwean," Musabayana said.Vous etes confrontes a une infestation par la puce, la punaise de lit ? Voici plusieurs actions qui sont a mettre en uvre pour faire []News / National

by staff reporter

The Daily News reported that senior secret service operatives who were put on one-year renewable contracts after reaching their retirement age have now been released from the CIO.Reports also suggest that there are some senior officers whose employment contracts were terminated as well even though they were still to reach retirement age, although this could not be verified at the time of going to print."Most of the people were given their letters of termination last week. Those who were affected had, in most cases, reached the age of 55. There were some, however, who had not reached that age but were also affected by the changes," a high-level source told the Daily News last week."Most of those affected had retired and were on yearly contracts... Most of those affected are war veterans and other career agents who were hanging onto their jobs because of the camaraderie that existed between them and their superiors".Efforts to get a comment from Vice President Constantino Chiwenga, who is responsible for both the intelligence and defence portfolios, were fruitless.The new CIO director-general, Isaac Moyo, was also not available for comment.Since assuming office late last year, Mnangagwa's administration has made far-reaching changes in the security services, perhaps to get loyalists in strategic positions while getting rid of those who were sympathetic to his predecessor  ousted former president Robert Mugabe.In the CIO, Mnangagwa appointed Moyo  the country's former ambassador to South Africa  to head the secretive spy service ahead of Aaron Nhepera whom many thought was a shoo in for the position.Nhepera was the acting spy chief until December 8 when Moyo was made CIO director-general.Mnangagwa also rang changes in the Zimbabwe Defence Forces and the Zimbabwe Republic Police where long-serving commissioner-general Augustine Chihuri was retired.The changes, according to analysts, are meant to strengthen Mnangagwa's hand by getting rid of spies perceived to be loyal to Mugabe and the vanquished Generation 40 (G40) cabal.G40 had fought a bitter war of attrition against Team Lacoste but could not stand a chance when the military showed its muscle last November by staging a soft coup that targeted its members, including Mugabe.Several G40 functionaries were arrested on a litany of allegations during the month-long military intervention, while others had to skip the country.The changes in the security sector are also meant to support Finance and Economic Development minister Patrick Chinamasa's austerity measures that include trimming government expenditure.Currently, over 70 percent of the national budget is going towards staff costs.To rein in runaway expenditure, Chinamasa has adopted a policy to retire those who have reached the retirement age.While the retirement age for civil servants is 65, in the secret service officers can exit the service at 55, if not earlier.Because of the mistrusts currently obtaining between Mnangagwa's administration and security personnel who were close to Mugabe, the changes do not come as a surprise.University of Zimbabwe political science lecturer Eldred Masunungure opined recently that after going through a transition of the nature witnessed in Zimbabwe, it was inevitable that such clean-up of State security institutions would follow.Mnangagwa rode to power with the help of the military after his Team Lacoste faction had been completely overwhelmed by G40.When it stepped in, the military did not seek assistance from the police or the CIO.In fact, it clamped down on these two security institutions because they were thought to be loyal to Mugabe and G40.Masunungure has observed that the Lacoste faction was now cleaning any G40-infested institution, among them the police and the CIO, which is now headed by a Mnangagwa loyalist."The CIO was also perceived to be a pillar of the G40 camp. I don't think it will end there but will extend to other departments of government  it was expected that the vanquished faction will pay a heavy price," said Masunungure.Other analysts have criticised the shake-up of security services as akin to a cleansing exercise targeting those who supped with the G40 faction.They argued that security sector reform entails reorienting, retraining officers, changing training curriculums to embrace more rights based and non-adversarial approaches, changing service charters, among other things.Political analyst, Maxwell Saungweme, argued recently that what is currently obtaining is political factional cleansing and purging of G40-aligned service women and men, adding that the whole exercise does not transform the security sector into a professional outfit but politicises it."The idea is to remain with Lacoste aligned and loyal service women and men. These reduce our security service to be political running dogs of the ruling faction than a professional service loyal to country."Calling what is happening security sector reform is ignorant and uninformed. Proper reforms are preceded by proper human resources and skills audit of the force, consultation around which model of reforms is ideal and then do the reforms."What is happening is just like how G40 ministers were chased around. That was not reform but factional purging," said Saungweme.News / National

by Staff reporter

Two students in Triangle who gained straight As in their A''Level results are appealing for scholarships or financial assistance to proceed to university.The two Terry Goss High School students Tatenda Ganyani and Tafadzwa Mwedzi received a string of perfect results in the four A'' Level subjects they sat for but are failing to proceed to university because they are both from a disadvantaged background, with both their fathers employed as shop-floor workers at Triangle, the local unit of South African sugar processor Tongaat Hulett.Ganyani achieved straight As in Maths, Further Maths, Biology, Physics and Chemistry while Mwedzi also sat for the same subjects and got As in all the subjects and a B in Chemistry. Ganyani and Mwedzi have 25 and 24 points respectively.Both learners - who look set to be excluded from the higher education system simply on the basis of their parents' socio-economic status  said if they get help, they were eager to proceed to the country's leading research and teaching institutions, and plan to study to become medical doctors.The high-achieving, low-income students, appealed for financial assistance from well-wishers saying they wanted to be the first in their families to attend college to break their cycle of generational poverty.Ganyani told the Daily News his father works in the Triangle Garage as an aide and was unable to bankroll his university fees.He said he has set himself on getting a graduate degree and always thinks about his future but worries about the financial means he needs to get there."That is why I am making this financial aid appeal or even a scholarship to get into university because of my family's financial circumstances," he said.The total number of candidates who sat for the November "A'' Level 2017 examination was 49 494 as compared to 41 549 in November 2016, an increase of 19,12 percent."The number of candidates who obtained Grade E or better was 46 387. This gives a percentage pass rate of 93, 7 percent," Zimsec said in a statement.This comes as government's science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) programme is facing a critical funding shortfall.Opinion / Interviews

The SABC's Foreign Editor Sophie Mokoena speaks to Jonathan Moyo, the former Higher Education minister under former president Robert Mugabe. Moyo fled the country during the military-backed takeover by now President Emmerson Mnangagwa in November 2017.Moyo has re-iterated his views that the new administration is the product of a coup and that Sadc and the African Union erred in recognising it.Q: What happened in Zimbabwe?A: The so-called succession dispute between the (Mnangagwa) faction which called itself Lacoste and the so-called G40 that we were associated with was a power grab related to factional fights within Zanu-PF.It had nothing to do with the public interest; it had nothing to do with national interest, nothing to do with territorial integrity of Zimbabwe.It was an unprecedented act by the military in Zimbabwe that had never been seen before in the region to descend down to the level of squabbles in a political party.Q: Before this happened, there was a constant attack on Mnangagwa and those perceived to be Lacoste and you were classified as a member of the G40. That was provocation if you listen to what the first lady was saying at rallies.A: Are we being told that if there is a spirited political campaign in a political party, and in this case the ruling party, and it is being said at meetings, rallies where there is robust debate and tough things are said about political leaders, that in the new Sadc and new AU, when that happens, it's a recipe for a coup, it's a recipe for a military coup? Is that what we are being told?There was an equivalent spirited debate taking place in the ANC here in places such as Kwa-Zulu Natal and many others were strong ideological views to do with state capture, the state of the economy, corruption accusations that even the president of South Africa faced where some quite robust debate took place , let alone the deputy president.Are we being told that when that happens, then the army should use force and unleash tanks, in order to take a side?The Zimbabwe precedent is a dangerous one, it's uncivilised. It is unbelievable that in 2017 you can get an army descending unprofessionally, unconstitutionally to the level where a permanent secretary in the ministry of Information believes that he has been insulted at a political rally, therefore because he is good buddies with the head of the army, they are going to use that to justify the deployment of an army in the whole country.The country was under military siege from the 15th of November to the 18th of December because of that.What is really of concern to the members of the former Zanu-PF as it was before is that ED, General Chiwenga (Constantino), and all these people in the military cabal associated with the bloody coup are the very same people who orchestrated the downfall of the-then vice president Joice MujuruQ: But the first lady herself constantly attacked Emmerson Mnangagwa who was vice president.A: First of all, I want to repeat the fact that even if what you are saying were true, which of course is not true, but assuming that it is, it cannot justify a military coup.This is the most important point than the one you are making.We cannot accept a situation where we start taking a position that the end justifies the means so as long as we want to grab power.You start to find a pretext to say did you not see the humiliation of a particular leader by the first lady.Let us go to the facts. The fact of the matter is that Grace Mugabe as the first lady and the president went through unbelievable humiliation, unbelievable humiliation.The people who are raising this either suffer form selective memory or were part of the coup.Q: Are you corrupt?A: No. In fact, that is laughable. Seriously laughable. Firstly, this is coming from the most corrupt politicians and public officials in the history of our country.They cannot account for the assets that they have.The richest individual in Zimbabwe is ... Mnangagwa. The one person responsible for setting up Zanu-PF companies when he was secretary for finance is Emmerson Mnangagwa.There is not a single cent that comes out of those companies that includes a bank and investments in the region in countries like Namibia and South Africa.The person who led the plunder of resources even in foreign countries such as DRC leading to the United Nations investigating him and coming up with a report that is still there is.... Mnangagwa along with the military cabal of General Chiwenga and SB Moyo.The person who brought the Chinese to plunder diamonds in Chiadzwa to a point where we have at the very least over a period from 2007 to 2014 some $12 billion to $15 billion worth of diamonds revenue that cannot be accounted for that went into the pockets of individuals.These people have staged this coup not only for the sake of power grab, but to cover up for their corruption. That command agriculture was nothing but a looting scheme.Q: But some are saying that programme was aimed at assisting farmers and that you are only saying that to cover up for your own corruption.A: What is our own corruption? In my case they say for example that I took $430 000 from Zimdef when they know very well that of all the money in question, which does not even amount to that, about $200 000 went to the ministry's participation in Zimbabwe International Trade Fair (ZTIF) in 2016 and we won.We became the first ministry to win the top prize since its establishment during the Rhodesia era.The remainder of that money supported approved Zanu-PF programmes, the other $100 000 went to support a programme designed to bring together government departments, schools and traditional leaders to support science education in Tsholotsho, one of the marginalised districts in the country and victim of Gukurahundi atrocities committed by the same cabal. Not a single cent came to me.Q: But people say you were dispensing patronageA: When does it become patronage? The fact of the matter is that I was a minister with discretion to decide how to use the funds and there were procedures for using the funds.Q: Is the problem perhaps how Zanu-PF has conducted itself using State resources earmarked for all Zimbabweans to sustain itself. The party abusing State resources?A: I think there are serious questions like that that need to be answered Q: It was under Mugabe when it was happeningA: It was under .... Mnangagwa, let us not play this simple game of saying it was under president Mugabe and now we have a different government, different from Mugabe's government when in fact the instigators and main players over the 37-year period are these especially (Emmerson) Mnangagwa.Mnangagwa cannot convince the world that he is different from Mugabe. It is going to be the worst act of treachery, the worst that the region has ever seen.Q: But he is changing policies?A: No, he has not changed policies, he has slogans and anecdotes that are cynical, that are desired to placate the western world, to make it appear that he is very different.There is no economic policies, his minister of Finance, is also the minister of Economic Development, there is no economic development policy as we speak right now that is different from the one which was in place in 2013 that Zanu-PF adopted.Their 100 days so-called is driven by anecdotes and slogans. It is not driven by any coherent underlying policy or message with a new fundamental.Is he really trying to tell the world that there is something he wanted to do in 37 years but he could not do because he was stopped by Mugabe from doing that and he has to get rid of president Mugabe in order to do that?Is that what Emmerson Mnangagwa wants to say? Is Emmerson Mnangagwa telling the world that he had nothing to do with Gukurahundi atrocities?Q: But he has reached out those who were affected.A: First of all it's a lie, he has not done that, I was in the leadership with him in making the new Zimbabwean Constitution adopted in 2013. Emmerson Mnangagwa and Patrick Chinamasa who were the frontline voice of Zanu-PF during that process, fought very hard to ensure that the national peace and reconciliation process that is in the Constitution does not have the "truth."First of all they did not want it in Zanu-PF. Emmerson Mnangagwa and Patrick Chinamasa led the opposition of peace and reconciliation commission.They did not want it, they came to the politburo, we had long contestations nights, we debated those issues.Emmerson Mnangagwa did not want that commission at all, I want to place this on record, that's number one. Number 2, as a result of that, we ended up with a weakened down commission that did not include the truth.The proposal was to have a truth and reconciliation commission, you cannot have peace and reconciliation when you had atrocities like Gukurahundi.We must have truth telling, Emmerson Mnangagwa and Patrick Chinamasa succeed in removing the truth component and got Zanu-PF to accept the current structure in the constitution of a peace and reconciliation only on grounds that it did not include truth.This is very important. He can't come today and say I had done this when recent history tells a different story. Much more telling is when the former vice president `Phelekezela Mphoko was spearheading the bill which became law recently.It was spearheaded in Parliament not by Emmerson Mnangagwa but by Phelekezela Mphoko. Emmerson Mnangagwa and his Lacoste members of Parliament gave Mphoko a torrid time, they did not want it . They wanted to kill it and we ended up with a watered down bill because of the opposition that it faced from Mnangagwa and Lacoste members of Parliament that made it clear that they did not support it ,they did not hide it.They did not think there would be a coup in Zimbabwe on the 15th of November, history would have it.It has created this opportunity for Mnangagwa, which he is not able to take, because he came to power via the gun and found on president Mugabe's desk a bill already passed, waiting just to be signed and he has signed it opportunistically after fighting this. And as he signs it, five years has gone for the National Peace and Reconciliation Commission.It's a commission with only 10 years from August 2013. He can't associate with it, it is not going to deliver what it was meant least not because it is now driven by the number one perpetrator of atrocities.Q: There are allegations that you are a foreign agent. How far true is this? Are you working for foreign governments to destabilise Zimbabwe?A: This is a startling allegation coming from people who have used this way back even before independence.When it comes to people like Mnangagwa and general Chiwenga in particular, if you are educated and not available to them, not working for them, you are by definition a spy, you are a foreign agent because as far as they are concerned, patriotic Zanu-PF members support them and you work for them. If you are not, you must be an agent, working for the so called enemy.In the world of espionage, spies, VPs and generals who sit in Joc (Joint Operations Command) and know what is being planned; these are the people who sell information. They used to say that to young people joining the liberation struggle for training coming wearing a T-shirt with a number and say that, 'aaah, it's your spy number.'But you must be well positioned to be a spy so you can make a deference..Q: Are you willing to go back to Zimbabwe?A: The issue is not about us reconciling with coup makers. It's about returning the country to constitutional order, the country must return to civilian rule.Q: But how does that happen under the circumstances given that the region and the continent have accepted him and some people are moving forward?A: A lot of people said that about Rwanda, that there was a stable government and that people had moved on, but look carefully back and take some lessons. The fact that Q: Are we saying there is likely to be internal conflict in Zimbabwe?A: If the fundamental issues around the coup are not resolved, there is no doubt about that. There is a lot of bottled up tension.Q: Is that perhaps a threat and are you not involved in mobilising people?A: No, but I mean look; does anyone really rethink in 2017 you can put tanks in the streets, brutalise people in the way they did and torture members of State organs responsible for security in the president's department, the police and the army and get away with it?Q: But the new government has warned against any retaliation.A: But he says one thing during the day and something completely happens during the night. Everyone now knows there are serious tensions between him and the military cabal led by general Chiwenga, very serious tensions.He told the AU that president Mugabe is safe and secure and got applauded but that is not true.He also said he is working hard to preserve his legacy when he is doing the opposite. They are harassing the president's family on a daily basis.Q: The family is allegedly involved in corruption. Are they not supposed to account for that?A: He says he is preserving his legacy and at the same time says his family is involved in corruption. What judicial process has come up with this information.People are using political and media platforms to harass the president.When you make conclusions outside judicial processes, you are harassing the president and his family.That is what harassment is. You are engaging in dirty politics, you want to silence them, and you are instilling fear.If there is a case, a civilised constitutional government follows the judicial process; it does not follow rallies, innuendos. And Mnangagwa has been going to these countries because he is panicking.He knows more than many people know about his legitimacy, so he wants to convince these countries that I am legitimate. In the process, he is telling a lot of false stories which humiliate the president.When he left Namibia he alleged that when he had a phone call with him he didn't remember that he had fired him. Which is preposterous?What he didn't understand was that while he was holed up somewhere wherever he was, when the president made that phone call, he was not making it alone.The African Union and Sadc should not base their decisions on what the coup makers say about what the people of Zimbabwe say and on what the victims of the coup say.The only legitimate way is to have a fact-finding mission. You can't have these conclusions that it was a bloodless coup and lawful so forth without coming down to the ground to hear also from the victims.If as we say in southern Africa, if Zimbabwe did it, why can't Malawi do it, why can't Zambia do it, why can't Mozambique do it?.Q: Have you spoken to Mugabe recently?A: No, I have not spoken to him recently. I would like to do that and I can only do that when an opportunity avails itself.We are concerned about his continued harassment. Certainly I hope he is well and had peace of mind.But rationally speaking, he cannot be. How can he be well when we know that he was forced to resign when we know that he did not voluntarily write that letter.He was threatened that if he did not sign, he was going to go the (former Libyan leader Muammar) Gaddafi way, that they were going to mobilise people and let them march to his residence, he was confined there, tried to engage the coup makers but they were bent on humiliating them. So how can he be well?A: And that his peers where quiet when that was happening?Q: I think this is why some of them have a lot of thinking to do and I am sure their God has been visiting their conscience because some of what they allowed to happen might, will happen to them and they will regret.And you know, this whole thing to say, you say while this was wrong, yes it was a coup, because it was about removing Mugabe, then its fine, doesn't work.That cannot be a civilised virtue. Just because we have issues with Mugabe does not justify a foul means.Q: But he had stayed for too long.A: Are you going to say if you are elected such that you say too long?Q: But people argue that the elections were not free and fair?A: Therefore let's have a military coup? Is that what you are prescribing?Interview transcribed by Mugove TafirenyikaThe Union Government has announced Rs.1.4 lakh-crore Kisan Urja Suraksha evam Utthaan Mahaabhiyan (KUSUM) scheme for promoting solar farming i.e. decentralised solar power production of up to 28,250 MW to help farmers. The Union Budget 2018-19 has allocated Rs. 48,000 crore for the scheme for the ten-year period.

Key Facts

KUSUM scheme will start with building 10,000 MW solar plants on barren lands and providing 1.75 million off-grid agricultural solar pumps. It will provide extra income to farmers, by giving them an option to sell additional power to grid through solar power projects set up on their barren lands. It will help in de-dieselising the agriculture sector as India had about 30 million farm pumps that include 10 million pumps running on diesel. The surplus electricity generated by farmers will be bought by state electricity distribution companies (discoms). Thus it will help boost the countrys emerging green economy.

Components of scheme

Building 10,000 MW solar plants on barren lands

Providing sops to DISCOMS to purchase the electricity produced,

Solarising existing pumps of 7250 MW as well as government tube wells with a capacity of 8250 MW

Distributing 17.5 lakh solar pumps.

Government will provide 60% subsidy on solar pumps to farmers. It will be shared between Centre and States while 30% will be provided through bank loans. The balance cost will be borne by farmers.

Positive outcomes

It will promote decentralised solar power production, reduce of transmission losses of discoms as well as provide support to improve financial health of DISCOMs by reducing subsidy burden to agriculture sector. It will also promote energy efficiency and water conservation and provide water security to farmers.Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI) signed project agreement with World Bank and for Jal Marg Vikas Project (JMVP) i.e. National Waterway-1 on Ganga River from Varanasi (Uttar Pradesh) to Haldia (West Bengal). It also inked US $375 million loan agreement for the project.

Background

The signing of agreement follows approval of Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) for implementation of US $800 million JMVP for capacity augmentation of navigation on River Ganga. Out of remaining amount, $380 million will be sourced by Central Governments counterpart funds from budgetary allocation and proceeds from bond issue. Another US $ 45 million will come from private sector participation under the PPP mode.

Jal Marg Vikas Project (JMVP)

The JMVP is being implemented by IWAI with the financial and technical support of World Bank. It will develop waterway between Varanasi and Haldia on Ganga River, covering distance of 1620 km by March, 2023. It will enable commercial navigation of vessels with capacity of 1500-2,000 tons on NW-I.

The project covers Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal. It aims to develop fairway with three metres depth to enable commercial navigation of at least 1500 tonne vessels on river. It also includes development of fairway, multi-modal terminals, strengthening of open river navigation technique, conservancy works, modern River Information System (RIS) etc.

Significance 



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This website follows the DNPA Code of Ethics.From time to time, the United States identifies certain individuals as crucial to the operation of terrorist organizations. Most often these are top leaders or prominent members within the group, or they help finance terrorist organizations.

On January 23, the U.S. identified Khalid Batarfi, Siddhartha Dhar and Abdelatif Gaini as Specially Designated Global Terrorists. All three were designated under Executive Order 13224, which seeks to deprive these terrorists of the resources they need to carry out their nefarious plans. The designation allows the United States to freeze their assets, lock the terrorists out of the global financial network, and prosecute them for terrorist activities. It also prohibits any U.S. citizen or resident from doing business with then.

Khalid Batarfi, also known as Abu al-Miqdad al-Kindi, is a senior leader of Al Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP: a previously designated Foreign Terrorist Organization. He oversaw the group's media network. He was in charge of AQAPs 2011 takeover of Yemen's Abyan Governorate. There he held the position of emir. He is also a former member of AQAPs shura council.

Siddhartha Dhar and Abdelatif Gaini are members of ISIS. Dhar, who was born in London to a family of Indian origin, changed his name to Abu Rumaysah on converting to Islam. He acted as spokesman for the now-defunct terrorist organization Al-Muhajiroun. In 2014, Dhar, his wife and their children traveled to Syria to join ISIS. There he has evidently replaced as chief ISIS executioner, Mohammad Emwazi, also known as Jihadi John, who was killed in a 2015 drone strike.

Abdelatif Gaini is a Belgian-Moroccan citizen believed to be fighting for ISIS in the Middle East. He has a connection to United Kingdom-based ISIS sympathizers Mohamad Ali Ahmed and Humza Ali, who were convicted in the U.K. of terrorism offenses.

Todays action notifies the U.S. public and the international community that Khalid Batarfi, Siddhartha Dhar and Abdelatif Gaini have committed or pose a significant risk of committing acts of terrorism.Terrorist designations expose and isolate organizations and individuals, and deny them access to the U.S. financial system. Moreover, designations can assist the law enforcement activities of U.S. agencies and other governments.Tehrans hard-line provisional Friday Prayer leader, Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami, has explicitly threatened protesters in Iran with the death penalty.

On February 2, Khatami said that according to Shia religious rules, the just sentence for those who pour into the street and oppose the ruler is the death penalty. He described those who rise against the establishment as baghi, an Arabic word that literally means tyrant or aggressor.

Khatami was referring to the recent protests against tyranny, poverty, and unemployment that broke out on December 28 in Irans holiest Shiite city, Mashhad, and soon spread across the country.

The protesters, rallying against economic hardship, chanted slogans against Supreme Leader ayatollah Ali Khamenei, calling for the downfall of the theocratic regime.

Lambasting authorities for releasing an unknown number of protesters detained nationwide, Khatami said, The honorable authority says in an interview that all protesters have been freed. This is pampering them when they should be punished.

Khatami, who is renowned for his raging speeches, continued, Those who had been hoodwinked and deceived should be awakened, punished, and commit themselves in writing to refrain from further devilry and being pawns at the hands of rioters.

During the recent uprising in Iran, at least 25 people were killed and thousands detained.

On January 6, Tehran Prosecutor-General Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi reported that 70 detainees had been freed on bail.

Judiciary spokesman Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei echoed Dolatabadis comments, saying, If there were any detentions during the riots, we had insisted to keep them out of prisons lest it become a criminal record for the deceived rioters.

Khatami targeted both Mohseni-Ejei and Dolatabadi in his speech. The honorable official gives an interview and says all detainees were released. They should be warned in order to see that they have been wrong; since the insurgents, whoever they might be, either university or seminary students, should be punished, he said.

Khatami called for hanging those allegedly responsible for the recent uprising, despite no reliable sources concerning the number of people detained during the protests.

While a pro-reformist Tehran MP had put the figure at 3,700, his fellow legislator, Allahyar Malekshahi, who led a parliament delegation visiting notorious prison Evin, said around 5,000 had been arrested.

Moreover, there have been reports that at least four of the detained protesters were allegedly killed after being battered by intelligence agents while in custody.

Judiciary officials have dismissed the allegations. They insist those who died behind bars were not related to the protests, saying two were addicts and drug dealers who committed suicide and two others were terrorists killed in armed clashes with the security forces.Members of parliament in Iran have prepared a motion for implementing Article 27 of the Islamic Republics Constitution, on public gatherings, a legislator has reported.

The new motion will be presented to parliament in a few weeks, after debates on President Hassan Rouhanis budget bill, according to Abol-Fazl Torabi, quoted in parliaments news website.

Article 27 of the Islamic Republics Constitution stipulates that citizens have the right to hold assemblies, "provided arms are not carried" and the assemblies "are not detrimental to the fundamental principles of Islam".

But in practice, it is almost impossible to obtain permits for protest gatherings or rallies; a fact many officials have admitted, including former interior minister Mahmoud Mirholi.

Torabi, a member of parliaments Councils Commission, said the motion formulates the ways of holding assemblies as well as their security related aspects.

Immediately after the recent widespread uprising against the Islamic Republics establishment that surprised and shocked the leaders of the ruling system, Tehran City Council, controlled by the reformist camp, hurriedly ratified a double-urgency motion for allocating a particular location for holding rallies and assemblies.

Six days later, Saturday, January 13, the Interior Ministrys spokesman, Salman Samani described Tehran City Councils motion as merely a proposal that political and security aspects of holding assemblies have been ignored in it.

Now, Torabi says that one of parliaments side streets is proposed as the place for holding future rallies.

Based on the new motion, depending on the size of a gathering, members and leaders of parliament will be obligated to show up and answer protesters concerns.

This seems to show that the main concern behind the new legislative initiative is to try to create an opportunity for the public to vent its grievances and to show more responsiveness; at least by the parliament.

However, Article 27 of the Islamic Republic explicitly insists on freedom of assembly anywhere and anytime, provided being unarmed and not detrimental to the fundamental principles of Islam.

Nevertheless, the Islamic Republic authorities, evoking complicated regulations, have so far rejected all non-governmental bodies requests for holding a rally.

Based on Ministry of Interiors regulations, whoever wants to hold an assembly should present the list of persons responsible for its security and disciplinary aspects, as well as the exact time of holding it, long before the date of the gathering.

Furthermore, apparently, the new motion is silent about holding peaceful assemblies outside the capital, while majlis is expected to present comprehensive motions for the whole country.

Whether parliaments initiative will receive support from hardliners and security forces is a big question. Given the Islamic Republics track record, some expect that a designated venue for assemblies will turn out to be just another spot for holding organized, pro-regime gatherings.

The new motion will be presented to parliament in a few weeks, after debates on President Hassan Rouhanis budget bill, according to Abol-Fazl Torabi, quoted in parliaments news website.

Article 27 of the Islamic Republics Constitution stipulates that citizens have the right to hold assemblies, "provided arms are not carried" and the assemblies "are not detrimental to the fundamental principles of Islam".

But in practice, it is almost impossible to obtain permits for protest gatherings or rallies; a fact many officials have admitted, including former interior minister Mahmoud Mirholi.

Torabi, a member of parliaments Councils Commission, said the motion formulates the ways of holding assemblies as well as their security related aspects.

Immediately after the recent widespread uprising against the Islamic Republics establishment that surprised and shocked the leaders of the ruling system, Tehran City Council, controlled by the reformist camp, hurriedly ratified a double-urgency motion for allocating a particular location for holding rallies and assemblies.

Six days later, Saturday, January 13, the Interior Ministrys spokesman, Salman Samani described Tehran City Councils motion as merely a proposal that political and security aspects of holding assemblies have been ignored in it.

Now, Torabi says that one of parliaments side streets is proposed as the place for holding future rallies.

Based on the new motion, depending on the size of a gathering, members and leaders of parliament will be obligated to show up and answer protesters concerns.

This seems to show that the main concern behind the new legislative initiative is to try to create an opportunity for the public to vent its grievances and to show more responsiveness; at least by the parliament.

However, Article 27 of the Islamic Republic explicitly insists on freedom of assembly anywhere and anytime, provided being unarmed and not detrimental to the fundamental principles of Islam.

Nevertheless, the Islamic Republic authorities, evoking complicated regulations, have so far rejected all non-governmental bodies requests for holding a rally.

Based on Ministry of Interiors regulations, whoever wants to hold an assembly should present the list of persons responsible for its security and disciplinary aspects, as well as the exact time of holding it, long before the date of the gathering.

Furthermore, apparently, the new motion is silent about holding peaceful assemblies outside the capital, while majlis is expected to present comprehensive motions for the whole country.

Whether parliaments initiative will receive support from hardliners and security forces is a big question. Given the Islamic Republics track record, some expect that a designated venue for assemblies will turn out to be just another spot for holding organized, pro-regime gatherings.A teachers trade union association in Iran is protesting what it calls the repression of teachers by security agents across the country.

In a statement published on January 31, the Teachers Trade Unions Coordination Council (TTUC) criticized the security approach of President Hassan Rouhanis government in response to teachers protesting in the provinces of Esfahan and Lorestan, and other regions of Iran.

The new approach is a part of the same old tricks used against Iranian teachers. For years, the teachers of this land have suffered illegal banishment, dismissal, and sacking, the statement said.

On January 18, the TTUC reported that several teachers, both active and retired, had been temporarily detained.

Referring to two teachers from the city of Aligoudarz in Lorestan who were detained for two weeks during the widespread uprising against the establishment, the TTUC welcomed their release on bail.

But the TTUC says the harassment continued. Confronting teachers did not end. Through a telephone conversation, one of the principals in Aligoudarz was ordered to present himself to the citys Intelligence Bureau. There, he was beaten and interrogated before being released, it said.

According to the statement, the Education Ministrys official in Aligoudarz suspended him whereas he was expected to legally follow up on the case.

Referring to the same case, Teachers Trade Union Center said in a statement published on social media app Telegram, In an official session with the headmasters of the city, Mojtaba Hassanvand, responsible for intelligence and security affairs of the Ministry of Educations department in Aligoudarz, described the protesters as rioters...

A day later, the statement noted, The principal was summoned to the intelligence and security department of the city where he was interrogated and battered.

The organization also announced that the principal was dismissed from his job with an order directly coming from education minister.

Rouhanis administration has yet to respond to the allegations.

The TTUC also addressed Iranian leaders, asking, Why are you not able to stopp looters of the nations assets from escaping the country but capable of repressing the teachers who educate your own children?

Currently, three prominent members of the TTUC -- Esmail Abdi, Mokhtar Assadi, and Mohsen Omrani -- are in prison while Ali Akbar Baghani lives in exile and Mohmmad Beheshti has been granted furlough.

During the recent protests that took place across the country, the TTUC sympathized with protesters.

In its Telegram statement, it also noted that untenable management at different levels, improper and illogical planning, as well as widespread abuse of official positions and national structures were the reasons behind the protests.

No independent union is officially recognized as legal in Iran Many activists affiliated with them are serving prison terms.WASHINGTON (AP)  Taking aim at Iran's global footprint, the Trump administration on Friday hit six people and seven businesses linked to Hezbollah with terror sanctions, calling it "the first wave" in a pressure campaign that will escalate throughout the year.

The sanctions aim to squeeze Hezbollah financier Adham Tabaja, who is already designated by the U.S. as a global terrorist, by freezing out a network of companies in Lebanon, Ghana, Liberia and elsewhere.

The Trump administration said companies and their executives act on Tabaja's behalf, forming "conduits" of funding for the Lebanon-based militant group.

"We will be relentless in identifying, exposing, and dismantling Hezbollah's financial support networks globally," Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said.

The campaign comes as the Trump administration works to undermine Iran's ability to stoke unrest and expand its influence throughout the region.

Senior Trump administration officials said the U.S. estimates Iran sends Hezbollah about $700 million per year, arguing that Hezbollah has become the Iranian government's primary tool to project its power in the Arabic-speaking world.

Formed by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard in 1982 to fight Israel's invasion of Beirut, Hezbollah has morphed into a powerful political player in Lebanon, and is a member of the Mediterranean nation's coalition government.

The U.S. considers Hezbollah a terrorist organization and has hit the group with sanctions before. More recently, the U.S. has grown concerned about the group's involvement in other conflicts, including in neighboring Syria, where it's sent thousands of fighters to shore up Syrian President Bashar Assad.

U.S. officials said Hezbollah is also helping train and advice Shiite Houthi rebels in Yemen who are being pummeled by a Saudi-led coalition supported by the United States.

Trump officials said more sanctions would be coming against Hezbollah, the results of an investigation into the group that President Donald Trump ordered last summer. They said there were "dozens" more financial networks linked to Hezbollah that could be targeted.

The officials weren't authorized to speak publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. The first wave of penalties target Al-Inmaa Engineering Contracting, a company run by Tabaja and based in Hezbollah's stronghold south of Beirut.

The construction company is mostly active in predominantly Shiite areas in Lebanon such as Beirut's southern suburbs and the southern market town of Nabatiyeh.

"We will no longer allow corrupt Hezbollah and other Iranian regime cronies to hide their crimes behind front companies," White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said on Twitter.

The other companies named Friday are mostly based in Africa, where tens of thousands of Lebanese  many of them Shiites  have been living for decades.

Most of the individuals targeted had not been publicly known to be Hezbollah financiers and are not prominent names in Lebanon. The sanctions freeze any assets in the U.S. and bar Americans from dealing with those being sanctioned. ___Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 3

By Nigar Guliyeva  Trend:

OSCE Parliamentary Assembly President George Tsereteli, during his meetings with senior United Nations officials, underlined the importance of continued close cooperation among international actors particularly related to resolving protracted conflicts, reads a message of the OSCE PA.

In New York, Tsereteli and OSCE PA Secretary General Roberto Montella held a series of meetings, including with the President of the UN General Assembly Miroslav Lajcak, Under-Secretary-General for UN Counter-Terrorism Office Vladimir Voronkov, Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs Miroslav Jenca, and Deputy Executive Director of UN Women Yannick Glemarec, among others.

The meetings served particularly as an opportunity to explore areas for further cooperation in priority fields of work. The sides paid particular attention to issues related to the protracted conflicts, including unresolved conflicts in the South Caucasus, developments in Central Asia and South East Europe, as well as humanitarian concerns, migration and terrorism.

The OSCE and the UN are natural partners in so many fields of work, and as we all work for more peace, security and development, its crucially important to capitalize on each others strengths, said Tsereteli.

As OSCE parliamentarians continue work on issues such as countering terrorism, finding sustainable solutions to migration flows, and seeking solutions to unresolved conflicts, Im pleased that we can build on excellent work in all these fields by the United Nations.

The Parliamentary Assembly of the OSCE is the parliamentary dimension of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, whose 57 participating states span the geographical area from Vancouver to Vladivostok. The primary task of the 323-member Assembly is to facilitate inter-parliamentary dialogue, an important aspect of the overall effort to meet the challenges of democracy throughout the OSCE area.Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 3

By Leman Zeynalova, Ali Mustafayev  Trend:

Kazakh businessman Kairat Boranbayev did not finance the reconstruction of a mosque in Shusha city, the press service of the Kazakh embassy in Azerbaijan told Trend.

"According to the available information, Kairat Boranbayev never visited Nagorno-Karabakh, and didnt plan financing any projects there," the press service said.

Previously Kazakh media outlets disseminated information that the Kazakh businessman Kairat Boranbayev, who appears on the Forbes 50 list of the country's richest people, announced intention to finance the restoration of the Upper Mosque in Shusha city, which currently remains under the occupation of the Armenian armed forces.

The press service of the Kazakh embassy in Azerbaijan officially refutes the information disseminated by the media.

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.Details added (first version posted on 12:20)

Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 3

By Ilhama Isabalayeva  Trend:

The position of Azerbaijani youth in society is increasingly strengthening, Head of the Department for Youth Policy and Sport Issues at the Azerbaijani Presidential Administration Yusuf Mammadaliyev said.

Mammadaliyev made the remarks in Baku at the annual conference of the Youth Foundation under the President of Azerbaijan, dedicated to the Youth Day, celebrated on Feb. 2.

He stressed that the Azerbaijani youth is achieving great success on international scale.

Mammadaliyev added that over six years the Youth Foundation has managed to achieve the main goals in the implementation of the youth policy.

"The effectiveness of the Youth Foundations activity is directly dependent upon young people, he said. The more qualitative and longer is the project, the better the Foundation will be able to contribute to the youth policy. Our young people must be sure that state organizations rendering services to young people will always listen to their opinions and are open to new proposals."

He added that there are many talented young people in the country.

"We must do our best for each young person, having potential, to be able to take advantage of the Youth Foundations opportunities, he said. "I am sure the young people who are making efforts for the welfare of the country are bound to the Motherland, customs and traditions. The country's leadership trusts young people and always supports them, because such young people with a healthy spirit are the future of Azerbaijan."Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb.3

By Nigar Guliyeva  Trend:

The US co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group for the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict's resolution, Andrew Schofer, arrived in Baku for the talks with the country's authorities that are scheduled for the next week, a diplomatic source told Trend.

The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group Igor Popov (Russia) and Stefan Visconti (France) will visit Baku on Feb. 6. The diplomats will meet with Azerbaijani officials on Feb. 7.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.

The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 3

Trend:

The U.S. Embassy in Baku and American Councils for International Educations Azerbaijan office have kicked off a year-long celebration of the 25th Anniversary of the (FLEX) Program, with a reception on February 1 celebrating 25 years of FLEX alumni achievement and the ongoing exchange of culture and ideas between the United States and Azerbaijan. The primary goal of the FLEX high school exchange program is to improve mutual understanding and develop long-term relationships between the American and Azerbaijani people.

In his opening remarks, Ambassador Robert F. Cekuta emphasized the FLEX programs positive impact in Azerbaijan over the last quarter century, and the contributions FLEX alumni have made on Azerbaijani society. Director of American Councils in Azerbaijan Jodi Blankenship and several FLEX alumni then shared reflections on the impact the program has had on Azerbaijan and their lives. An alumnus from 1993 spoke about how participation in the program opened his eyes to a new, global perspective after years in Soviet schools and society.

Begun in 1993, the Future Leaders Exchange (FLEX) program is a competitive, merit-based scholarship program funded by the U.S. Department of State. FLEX students pass multiple rounds of testing to earn a scholarship to spend an academic year in the United States living with a volunteer host family and attending a U.S. high school. Through the exchange year, they gain leadership skills, learn about American society and values, and teach Americans about Azerbaijan and its culture. Azerbaijan has nearly 1000 FLEX alumni, many of whom are now leaders in their fields, making important contributions to building a strong future for Azerbaijan.Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 3

By Ilhama Isabalayeva  Trend:

The annual conference of the Youth Foundation under the President of Azerbaijan, dedicated to the Feb. 2 Youth Day, was held in the Baku Congress Center on Feb. 3.

The event was attended by the Head of the Department for Youth Policy and Sport Issues at the Presidential Administration Yusuf Mammadaliyev, the Executive Director of the Youth Foundation Farhad Hajiyev, members of the Supervisory Board of the Foundation, MPs, and representatives of youth organizations.

Azerbaijan is one of the few countries where the Youth Day is celebrated, said Farhad Hajiyev, the executive director of the Foundation, addressing the audience.

A total of 3,909 projects presented by youth and youth organizations have been supported since establishment of the Foundation up until today and serious achievements have been made, he added.

Projects carried out in mountain villages last year were one of our successes. It is delightful to see that the projects were delivered by the residents of the villages as well. We try to build transparent relations with youth, especially via internet. That is why young people living in distant, mountain villages dont necessarily need to visit Baku to present their projects," Hajiyev said.

The Head of the Department for Youth Policy and Sport Issues at the Presidential Administration Yusuf Mammadaliyev and Deputy Minister of Youth and Sport Intigam Babayev spoke about the state youth policy of Azerbaijan in their speeches at the conference.

Plenary sessions began after the speeches.Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 3

By Anvar Mammadov  Trend:

An opening ceremony of a feed processing enterprise was held in Jojug Marjanli village of Azerbaijans Jabrayil district, the Azerbaijani Ministry of Economy said in a message.

According to the message, the enterprise was built within the "Social and Economic Development" project, jointly financed by the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Azerbaijani government.

There are a production site for feed processing and a warehouse at the enterprise. Two seed cleaning aggregates with a capacity of two tons per hour and a feed grinding unit were installed at the enterprise.

Delivering speech at the opening ceremony, Azerbaijani Deputy Minister of Economy Sahib Mammadov said the implementation of various business projects in Jojug Marjanli village, in particular, the establishment of a feed processing enterprise, will contribute to the social and economic development of the village and ensure employment.

On June 15, 2017, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev signed a decree on measures to continue the reconstruction work in Jojug Marjanli village of the Jabrayil district.Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 3

By Ali Mustafayev  Trend:

Kazakhstan exported 25,000 tons of rice in four months (September-December) of 2017-2018 marketing year (MY), 63 percent more compared to the previous season, according to data from the Statistics Committee of the Kazakh National Economy Ministry.

In the same period of the last MY, Kazakhstan exported about 15,300 tons of rice to foreign markets.

The main sale markets for Kazakh rice are Tajikistan, Ukraine, Mongolia, Afghanistan, Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan.

Rice production in the country totaled 185,700 tons in 2017, 3.3 percent higher than in 2016.

Rice cultivation in Kazakhstan is mainly concentrated in Kyzylorda Region. Total rice cultivation area in 2017 was more than 90,000 hectares, 10,000 hectares more compared to 2016.

Farmers in Kyzylorda ground 174,900 tons of rice, 3.1 percent more than in 2016.Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 3

By Nigar Guliyeva - Trend:

The Cabinet of Ministers of Uzbekistan has exempted all irrigation systems from customs payments.

Under a Cabinet of Ministers decree, amendments and additions were made to the list of rootstocks, seedlings and equipment for drip irrigation imported by farms and other organizations, releasing them until Jan. 1, 2021 from customs duties (except for customs clearance fees).

In addition to drip irrigation systems and related components, rain and other irrigation systems have been added to the list.

Now the list includes the following: rootstock for fruit crops, fruit seedlings, parts for drip, rain and other types of irrigation systems (bends, filters for water purification, hydropods, etc.), components (control panels, cables, metrological sensors) and other details of automation, drip, rain and other systems of irrigation, pump installations, drip pipes and fittings, rain and other systems of irrigation, and others.

The countrys horticulture sector is an especially important source of all-season employment in rural areas and provides a significant number of jobs for women. Moreover, horticulture crops generate significantly higher revenues for farmers than wheat and cotton. Fruit and vegetable production accounts for as much as 50 percent of the value of crop output and over 35 percent of agriculture export value.

In 2016, agriculture accounted for 17 percent of gross domestic product, 15 percent of export revenues, and over one-third of employment.

(8175.77 UZS = 1 USD on Feb. 3)Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, Feb. 3

By Huseyn Hasanov - Trend

Investments should be actively attracted to Turkmenistans economy, Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov said.

President Berdimuhamedov made the remarks during the recent governmental meeting, the Turkmen Dovlet Habarlary state news agency reported Feb. 3.

The work must be carried out to increase the amount of foreign currency earnings, the president said.

Stressing that it is necessary to widely use market mechanisms in the monetary and financial systems, the president demanded to speed up the reforms aimed at improving the state administration.

"It is necessary to continue to diversify the national economy, implement measures to increase the share of the non-state sector in it and actively use its potential," the president said.

Turkmenistan holds one of the key positions in the supply of natural gas in the region. Gas is sold to China and in the direction of Iran.Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 3

By Ali Mustafayev - Trend:

Azerbaijan and Pakistan have all opportunities to increase the number of tourists visiting Azerbaijan from Pakistan, said the Minister of Culture and Tourism of Azerbaijan Abulfaz Garayev during a meeting with the members of Pakistani Rawalpindi Chamber of Commerce and Industry, led by the president of the organization Zahid Latif, Pakistani media reported.

In addition, the minister said that last year about 2 million tourists visited the country.

Speaking about the Decree signed by the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan on the application of visas through the "ASAN VISA" system at the international airports of our country, Abulfaz Garayev said that this Decree is one of the next important steps towards the development of tourism.

Ambassador Said Khan Mohmand and former Senior Vice President of Pakistan RCCI Rashid Waien were also present on the occasion. On this occasion, Minister Abulfaz Garayev briefed RCCI delegation on Azerbaijans tourism potential, recent work on tourism development in our country, adopted normative legal documents and projects to be implemented in the future.

Pakistani Ambassador Said Khan Mohmand, in turn, emphasized that he had an opportunity to get acquainted with the tourism opportunities of Azerbaijan during his lifetime and informed the businessmen and heads of major business organizations of Pakistan.

He also expressed his desire to make a great contribution to Azerbaijans tourism sector.

Zahid Latif Khan emphasized that there is dire need of close cooperation between Chambers of Commerce of both countries including exchange of trade delegations. Organizing bilateral meetings of businessmen of the two countries will be fruitful and suggested that the cooperation of the Congresses Bureau of Azerbaijan and the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Pakistan and said that this joint activity would be important for both organizations.Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb.3

By Nigar Guliyeva - Trend:

The national companies of Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, "Uztransgaz" and "Tajiktransgaz", are considering the technical possibilities of resuming Uzbek gas supplies to Tajikistan, Tajik media reported citing Energy and Water Resources Minister Usmonali Usmonzoda.

Previously, the issue of the gas supplies from Uzbekistan to Tajikistan was considered at the last meeting of the Intergovernmental Commission on Trade and Economic Cooperation, which was held in Dushanbe in early January.

The minister noted that within the framework of the event held at the level of prime ministers of the two countries, both companies were instructed to study the possibilities of resuming the gas supplies.

Usmonzoda added that the gas enterprises of the two countries had already held several rounds of talks.

Uzbekistan suspended gas supplies to Tajikistan in 2012 and cited a shortage of resources as the key reason. Since 2008, Uzbekistan has gradually increased the cost of natural gas for Tajikistan, while reducing the supply.

So, the price for Uzbek gas increased from $145 per 1,000 cubic meters in 2008 to $300 in 2012. The volume of fuel fell from 600 million cubic meters in 2008 to 200 million cubic meters in 2012.

The main consumers of Uzbek natural gas were "Tajik Aluminum Company" and some other industrial enterprises, including the Dushanbe Cement Plant. After the cease of gas supplies, almost all Tajik enterprises that used natural gas as fuel changed technology, and switched to other types of fuel.

Tajikistan produces natural gas in the south of the republic in insignificant amounts (just over 3 million cubic meters per year).

The proven reserves of natural gas in Uzbekistan are 1.1 trillion cubic meters. Total reserves are estimated at the level of 5 trillion cubic meters. In 2017, gas production in Uzbekistan amounted to 56.4 billion cubic meters. This year, this figure is planned to increase to 66 billion.Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, Feb. 3

By Huseyn Hasanov  Trend:

During a government session, President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov drew attention to numerous power outages in January, local newspaper Neutral Turkmenistan reports.

The head of state entrusted vice-premier Dadebay Amangeldiyev with comprehensive inspections at all power plants of the country.

Numerous orders concerning preparation of energy services for the winter season had been given at the previous government sessions, the president said.

President Berdimuhamedov seriously reprimanded vice-premier Amangeldiyev for improper performance of duties and loosening control over supervised ministries and agencies, with a final warning for the soonest correction of faults.

Total electricity output in Turkmenistan is to be increased to 33 billion kWh until 2024, which is 27.2 percent higher than plans for 2018, Turkmen Ministry of Energy announced earlier.President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev held a telephone conversation with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, Kazinform with reference to the Akorda press service reports.

The Presidents discussed the results of the Syrian National Dialogue Congress which was held in Russia's Sochi on January 29-30, and Nursultan Nazarbayev noted the significant contribution of the Russian Federation to the settlement of the Syrian conflict.

The sides also discussed the Kazakh-Russian cooperation within the framework of Eurasian economic integration in the light of the recent meeting of the Eurasian Intergovernmental Council and the Digital Agenda in the Era of Globalization Forum in Almaty.

During their conversation, Nursultan Nazarbayev and Vladimir Putin also exchanged views on other topical issues of the regional and international agenda.Representatives of Tajikistan and Saudi Arabia discussed issues of cooperation between law-enforcement agencies of the two countries, local news agency TajikTA reported.

Tajik Ambassador to Saudi Arabia Zarobiddin Kosimi met with Saudi Arabias attorney general Saud bin Abdullah al-Mujib. The parties discussed cooperation between law-enforcement agencies of the two countries during the meeting, the message reads.

They also mulled issues of mutual actions, especially against organized and cross-border crime, terrorism and extremism.

The sides confirmed commitment to the strengthening and development of cooperation between law-enforcement agencies in security sphere.Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 3

By Fatih Karimov  Trend:

The latest statistics released by the Turkish Statistical Institute indicates that the exports of Turkey to Iran in December 2017 were valued at about $378.106 million, 13.35 percent more compared to $333.585 million in December 2016.

Meanwhile, the country imported goods worth $474.777 million from Iran in the same month, compared to $536.383 million worth of imports in December 2016.

Trade turnover between the two countries reached $852.88 million in December 2017.

The trade turnover between Iran and Turkey stood at $10.75 billion during the January-December 2017. The figure indicates a rise by 11.2 percent compared to the same period of the preceding year ($9.67 billion).

Turkey's exports to Iran in the period amounted to $3.26 billion, compared to $4.97 billion in the 12-month period of 2016.

The country also imported $7.492 billion worth of goods from Iran in 2017, 59.4 percent more compared to January-December 2016 ($4.699 billion).

So, the trade balance between the two countries in 2017 was $4.23 billion, in favor of Iran.

The trade turnover between the two countries was $13.71 billion in 2014, which stood at $9.76 billion in 2015, indicating a 29-percent plunge.Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 3

By Fatih Karimov  Trend:

Iran's non-oil exports, including gas condensate, reached $35.61 billion during the first 10 months of the current fiscal year (started March 20, 2017).

The figure indicates a fall by 2 percent, compared to the same period of the preceding year, according to Iran's Customs Administration data.

The volume of the exported goods reached 99.31 million tons in the 10-month period, 7 percent less year-on-year.

Iran includes gas condensate and some raw hydrocarbon products, like propane, butane, etc. in its non-oil export basket.

During the period, the country exported 14.48 million tons of condensates, worth $5.68 billion, making 16 percent of Irans overall non-oil exports in terms of value.

Irans condensate exports witnessed fall by 8 percent in terms of volume and value, year-on-year.

The countrys petrochemical exports reached 22.45 million tons in the period, 15 percent less compared to the same months of the preceding year. The value of Irans petrochemical exports accounted to $10.67 billion, showing a 9 percent fall on a yearly basis.

Liquefied propane (worth $1.21 billion), light oils and products (excluding gasoline) - (worth $997 million), methanol (worth $984 million), and iron ore (worth $845 million) were the other top exported goods in the 10-month period (March 20, 2017-Jan. 21).

China was the main importer of the Iranian goods during the period. Irans non-oil exports to China registered a rise by 11 percent and stood at $7.42 billion.

The volume of exports to China was 28.19 million tons, 5 percent less year-on-year.

The United Arab Emirates ($5.135 billion, fall of 19 percent), Iraq ($5.04 billion, fall of 1 percent), South Korea ($3.4 billion, an increase of 33 percent) and India ($2.28 billion, fall of 3 percent) were other top importers of Iranian non-oil goods during the first 10 months of current Iranian fiscal year.Georgia is a sovereign country with a sovereign foreign policy, Georgian Foreign Minister Mikheil Janelidze said in response to Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasins recent commentsabout Georgia-NATO relations, Agenda reports.

Our choice is based on the choice of the Georgian people  to be integrated with European and Euro-Atlantic structures, to have ensured peace, stability and more opportunities for peaceful and economic development, Janelidze said.

Minister Janelidze said this is the countrys goal both on internal and foreign political levels.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin told TASS news agency that his country is concerned by the "activation of NATO and the United States in Georgia.Several foreign nationals have been injured in an incident where an armed man opened fire on people in a series of drive-by shootings in a central town in Italy, police say, Press TV reported.

According to Macerata police, the shootings on Saturday morning were carried out in different parts of the town, including near the train station, leading to the injuries of six people, mostly African migrants. Police suspected that the shootings were racially motivated.

Shots fired in Macerata. People injured. Police operation under way. Stay out of the way and avoid open places, the local police said in a posting on its official Twitter account.

The shootings began at 11:00 a.m. local time (1000 GMT), and two hours later, police said an Italian had been arrested on suspicion of opening fire on foreigners from a vehicle. State television Rai said the suspect was a white Italian man who came from Macerata. Reports said at least one woman was among the wounded. Four of the injured are reportedly in a critical condition.

Earlier in the day, Macerata Mayor Romano Carancini had announced a shutdown of schools and offices while the armed assailant remained at large in the town, located about 200 kilometers east of the capital Rome.

Theres an armed man in a car shooting in town. We stopped public transport. We asked schools to keep children inside until further notice. It is recommended not to pick them up until further notice, he said in a Facebook post.

The shootings took place just days after the amputated body of a young Italian woman was discovered concealed in two suitcases near Macerata. A 29-year-old Nigerian migrant was arrested in connection with the horrible death.An Israeli aircraft targeted at a Hamas observation post in the northern Gaza Strip on early Friday morning in retaliation to earlier rocket fire at southern Israel, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) told Xinhua.

The IDF held Hamas accountable for all violence emanating from the Gaza Strip in the statement made by the IDF on early Friday morning.

On Thursday night, a rocket was fired at southern Israel from the Gaza Strip and there were no immediate reports of injuries or damage in the strike, said the IDF in an earlier statement.

This attack and the IDF response happened after nearly one relatively "quiet" month. The last attack from the Gaza Strip took place at the beginning of January when three mortars were fired from Gaza at southern Israel, causing no injuries or damage. And Israel's military carried out an airstrike on a main militant site in the Gaza Strip.

The IDF made a statement on Friday evening that a violent riot was instigated in the village of Abu Dis East of Jerusalem when an Israeli civilian entered the area earlier Friday. Approximately 200 Palestinians hurled rocks, burned the civilians' vehicle and blocked his exit from the village. The IDF and border police troops entered the village in order to extract the civilian who was lightly injured. The incident will be looked into, said the IDF.A Brazilian judge on Friday ordered that former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's passport be returned to him, Deutsche Welle reports.

A lower court judge had ordered authorities to seize da Silva's passport hours before he was set to fly to Ethiopia for a United Nations conference on January 26, for fear he would seek asylum abroad.

"There is no way to conclude that [da Silva] was planning to flee the country" Judge Bruno Apolinario said in his ruling. The trip "was justified by a previously scheduled professional commitment," he added.

Lula's lawyer, Cristiano Zanin, said Friday's ruling had "corrected" the lower court order that had violated the former president's constitutional right to freedom of movement.North Korea violated United Nations sanctions to earn nearly $200 million in 2017 from banned commodity exports, according to a confidential report by independent U.N. monitors, which also accused Pyongyang of supplying weapons to Syria and Myanmar.

The report to a U.N. Security Council sanctions committee, seen by Reuters on Friday, said North Korea had shipped coal to ports, including in Russia, China, South Korea, Malaysia and Vietnam, mainly using false paperwork that showed countries such as Russia and China as the coal origin, instead of North Korea.

The 15-member council has unanimously boosted sanctions on North Korea since 2006 in a bid to choke funding for Pyongyangs nuclear and ballistic missile programs, banning exports including coal, iron, lead, textiles and seafood, and capping imports of crude oil and refined petroleum products.

The DPRK (North Korea) is already flouting the most recent resolutions by exploiting global oil supply chains, complicit foreign nationals, offshore company registries and the international banking system, the U.N. monitors wrote in the 213-page report.

The North Korean mission to the United Nations did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the U.N. report. Russia and China have repeatedly said they are implementing U.N. sanctions on North Korea.At least 11 security personnel, including an army officer, were killed and 13 others injured on Saturday when a suicide bomber blew himself up near a military camp in the Swat district of northwestern Pakistan, army officials said, Anadolu reported.

The suicide bomber struck in the Kabal area of theSwat district, Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR), a media wing of Pakistan army said in a statement.

In a statement, the outlawed militants groups Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), claimed responsibility for the attack.

Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi strongly condemned the attack and expressed his grief over the losses of security personnel.

"Coward enemy terrorists are no match for our valiant sons of the soil and no attack can deter us in pursuing our struggle against the menace of terrorism," Abbasi said in a statement.A Su-25 fighter jet of the Russian Aerospace Force was shot down by militants in Syria on Saturday, the pilot ejected but was killed later by terrorists, the Russian Defense Ministry said, TASS reported.

"On 3 February 2018, a Russian fighter jet Su-25 crashed when flying over the Idlib de-escalation zone. The pilot was able to report ejection from an area controlled by Jabhat al-Nusra militants (the terrorist group banned in Russia - TASS)," the defense ministry said. "The pilot was killed while fighting against terrorists."

"According to preliminary information, the jet was brought down with a portable anti-aircraft missile system," it added.Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 3

Trend:

Seven Turkish soldiers were martyred on Saturday during Operation Olive Branch, according to a Turkish General Staff statement, Turkish media reported.

The statement said one soldier was martyred in clashes with PKK/KCK/PYD-YPG and Daesh terror groups and the other in Turkey's Kilis province in an attack perpetrated by the same terror groups.

Later on Saturday, the Turkish General Staff said five more soldiers had been martyred in Sheikh Haruz, northeast of Afrin, when the terrorist group targeted a Turkish army tank.

On Jan. 20, the Turkish Armed Forces, together with the Free Syrian Army, launched the Operation Olive Branch in Afrin, Syria.

F-16 fighters of the Turkish Air Force are involved in the operation, inflicting strikes on the positions of PYD/YPG on the Syrian-Turkish border.Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 4

Trend:

Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron discussed Turkeys ongoing Operation Olive Branch in Syrias northwestern region of Afrin over the phone, Turkish media reported.

Erdogan and Macron also exchanged views on bilateral relations and on the outcome of the Syrian National Dialogue Congress held in the Russian coastal city of Sochi this past week.

Erdogan shared information about Operation Olive Branch and informed Macron about the cross-border rocket attacks perpetrated by the terrorist PYD/PKK oraganization on Turkey's bordering Hatay and Kilis provinces.

During the conversation, Erdogan said Turkey does not have any design on any countrys territory and added the operation was aimed at clearing PYD/PKK, YPG and Daesh terrorists from Afrin.

The leaders agreed to keep close contact oreagarding regional issues, particularly on the political process in Syria.

On Jan. 20, the Turkish Armed Forces, together with the Free Syrian Army, launched the Operation Olive Branch in Afrin, Syria.

F-16 fighters of the Turkish Air Force are involved in the operation, inflicting strikes on the positions of PYD/YPG on the Syrian-Turkish border.KYODO NEWS - Feb 3, 2018 - 12:08 | All, World

North Korea continued to flout international sanctions to earn nearly $200 million in 2017 from banned exports of coal and other commodities, according to a U.N. experts' report seen by Kyodo News Friday.

The confidential report to a U.N. Security Council sanctions committee also referenced information that the reclusive country provided ballistic missile systems to Myanmar.

The report comes despite the 15-member council having ramped up its sanctions on Pyongyang to suffocate funding for its nuclear and ballistic missile programs.

"The DPRK is already flouting the most recent resolutions by exploiting global oil supply chains, complicit foreign nationals, offshore company registries and the international banking system," the report said, referring to the country by its formal name -- the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

After scrutinizing more than 30 coal shipments from the North to ports in China, South Korea, Malaysia, Russia and Vietnam, the committee identified at least 16 that should have been reported, although these transactions took place prior to the Aug. 5 U.N. resolution banning all coal exports.

The committee said Malaysia reported one shipment during this time, while the remaining 15 violated sanctions. It chalked up the majority of these failures to "falsified paperwork accompanying the coal (that) claimed its origin as countries other than the DPRK."

"The network of foreign traders responsible for violations of the coal ban operates through numerous front companies registered in multiple jurisdictions," the committee said.

It pointed out "extensive use of a combination of multiple evasion tactics including indirect routes, detours, loitering, false documentation, trans-shipment through third countries" and other methods to obfuscate routes and hide the origin of North Korean coal.

"The consistency and similarity of the tactics suggest that they are part of a centralized DPRK strategy to evade the commodities ban," the document said.

Apart from coal, it accused North Korea of continuing to export "almost all the commodities prohibited in the resolutions," with major sources of revenue coming from banned trade in resources such as iron and steel as well as iron ore.

Over the past year, North Korea has been subject to three Security Council resolutions imposing sanctions for detonating its sixth and most powerful nuclear test as well as a spate of ballistic missile tests showing signs of advanced technology.

The council moved to curb North Korea's coal exports -- the cash-strapped country's biggest foreign currency earner -- in 2016 and introduced a total ban on them in August 2017.

Concerning North Korea's weapons provision to Myanmar, the report cited an anonymous country as saying it has evidence of the transactions, and that in addition to ballistic missiles Pyongyang also supplied conventional weapons, including multiple rocket launchers and surface-to-air missiles.

The committee also investigated cases of ship-to-ship transfers of petroleum products in violation of the U.N. sanctions and found that the network behind these vessels is primarily based in Taiwan, the report said.

North Korea has continuously defended its right to maintain its nuclear weapons as a means of protecting itself from the United States. It sees Washington as a threat, and especially objects to the annual military drills that it jointly conducts with South Korea, which typically increase tensions in the region.KYODO NEWS - Feb 3, 2018 - 02:23 | Sports, All

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Friday he and U.S President Donald Trump agreed to work together with South Korea in pressing North Korea to abandon its nuclear and missile development programs.

During their telephone talks, Abe also called on Trump to ensure the safety of U.S. military helicopter flights in Okinawa following a series of emergency landings and accidents in the southern Japanese island prefecture, which hosts the bulk of U.S. military facilities in Japan.

In Washington, the White House said in a statement that the two men "agreed on the need to intensify the international maximum pressure campaign to denuclearize North Korea."

The hourlong phone talks came ahead of a visit to Japan on Tuesday by U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, who will fly on to South Korea to attend the opening ceremony of the Pyeongchang Olympics.

Abe will also attend the ceremony and meet with South Korean President Moon Jae In on Feb. 9.

The prime minister praised Trump's first State of the Union address earlier this week that pledged to continue a U.S.-led maximum pressure campaign on North Korea.

The two leaders agreed that they will urge South Korea to share the need to implement sanctions on Pyongyang with various countries, according to Abe.

The White House said they also "discussed ways to strengthen Japan's defense capabilities including an expanded missile defense system."

Abe and Trump did not discuss a possible U.S. return to the Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade deal as mentioned by the U.S. leader recently.

The phone talks, which were held at Tokyo's request, were the first since November last year and the longest between the two leaders, according to the Japanese government.PHILADELPHIA (February 2, 2018) - In general, the term "medical futility" applies when, based on data and professional experience, no further treatments, procedures or tests will provide benefit and may, in fact, be more burdensome and create undue suffering for the patient and the patient's family.

As expected, discussing futility at end of life is complex and emotionally draining for patients, families, and clinicians. Because it is often used imprecisely, the term "futile" -- and newer terms including "potentially inappropriate" -- can cause confusion and result in disagreements about end-of-life care. A University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing (Penn Nursing) perspective article cautions that care must be taken by clinicians to guard against the misuse of language when guiding patients and families on death and dying.

"The reconceptualization of futility language requires further clarification and analysis of how newer terms impact the patients and families who rely on their clinicians for expert care and compassion at end of life," wrote author Connie M. Ulrich, PhD, RN, FAAN, the Lillian S. Brunner Chair in Medical and Surgical Nursing and Professor of Nursing. The article, "End-of-Life Futility Conversations - When Language Matters" has been published in the journal Perspectives in Biology and Medicine.

"How clinicians use words to give meaning to the dying process for those who are seriously ill can be a salve that is long remembered amidst the initial disbelief and grief suffered by so many," wrote Ulrich.

###

About the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing

The University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing is one of the world's leading schools of nursing. For the second year in a row, it is ranked the #1 nursing school in the world by QS University, and has four graduate programs ranked number one by U.S. News & World Report, the most of any school in the United States. Penn Nursing is currently ranked # 1 in funding from the National Institutes of Health, among other schools of nursing. Penn Nursing prepares nurse scientists and nurse leaders to meet the health needs of a global society through research, education, and practice. Follow Penn Nursing on: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram & YouTube.Privacy

Will new border tech put privacy rights at risk?

The Electronic Frontier Foundation is concerned that some technologies being proposed in House border security bills are a potential threat to privacy.

The group is concerned that an immigration bill from Reps. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) and Michael McCaul (R-Texas), respectively the heads of the Judiciary and Homeland Security committees, could come up for debate in the Senate.

EFF is concerned about surveillance technology, such as facial recognition, license plate readers, unmanned aerial drones and social media monitoring efforts that are included in the bill could pose privacy threats -- not only to immigrants the technologies is meant to monitor, but also to U.S. citizens living in the border region, EFF Senior Staff Attorney Adam Schwartz said in the post.

Schwartz suspects the Goodlatte-McCaul bill could be a means to fulfill Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's (R-Ky.) promise to let the Senate move to pass an immigration bill that deals with the future of legal protections afforded young adults under the Obama administration's Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.

The bill, he said, would require collection of biometric samples from foreigners leaving the U.S, as well as expanded surveillance tech-heavy drone operations with unspecified flight paths, provide $125 million Department of Homeland Security to upgrade its automated license plate reader technology at the border and authorize the agency to look at social media site of visa applicants from "high-risk" countries.

"Such high-tech spying would unduly intrude on the privacy of immigrants and Americans who live near the border and travel abroad," said Schwartz.

The technologies mentioned in EFF's post, however, are not necessarily the technologies that promise more efficient security alongside the physical barrier at the border proposed by the Trump administration, according to a former head of Customs and Border Protection.

"The EFF issue has been going on a long time along with ACLU and other [non-governmental organizations] objecting to and litigating the fact that at the border they call it a constitutional free zone" because of expansive authority granted to border patrol and other forces to conduct searches and check identification said former CBP Commissioner Gil Kerlikowske in an email to FCW.

Those constitutional search and seizure concerns are longstanding, he said, and they've only gotten more complicated as technologies emerge. Indeed, CBP recently released new policy on device searches at the border designed to impose more structure and accountability over the process.

"The changes over the last decade plus involve the complexity of searching electronic devices, very different from opening a suitcase. [It] remains to be seen how the courts, eventually the Supreme Court, deal with this," Kerlikowske said.

Those technological concerns, he said, are different and largely separate from the technologies that would help secure the border physically. The sensors, communications systems and other systems that could help secure thousands of miles of border territory "are far more efficient than a wall," he said.

Lawmakers and top administration officials want a mix of technology and physical barriers to secure the border because they have said a wall alone is neither practical nor effective.

President Donald Trump has sent mixed signals how his border wall campaign promise will be fulfilled. He has long touted a physical barrier as his solution. In the last few weeks, however, he has seemed to waiver between a stand-alone wall and a mix of barriers and technology to secure the border.

In a mid-January tweet, Trump countered Chief of Staff and former DHS Secretary John Kelly's assertion that his thinking had evolved about using a stand-alone wall spanning the entire length of the U.S./Mexican border.

However, on Jan. 25, the White House posted its Framework on Immigration Reform & Border Security. That document says securing the southern and northern borders "takes a combination of physical infrastructure, technology, personnel, resources, authorities" and legal measures.Comment

Security for the exploding Internet of Things ecosystem

For how many years now have federal CIOs and IT managers heard the bromide "security must be baked in, not bolted on?" It is one of those phrases that gets repeated so often that it's lost its meaning, but the fact that it's still considered wisdom today is itself meaningful.

The uncomfortable reality of cybersecurity is that it remains our nation's biggest technology challenge. Despite high-profile security breaches that have embarrassed agencies and corporations, keeping up with vulnerabilities and staying ahead of hackers from both a technology and user education standpoint isn't easy. This task is further complicated by the prevalence of siloed legacy technology, which drains agency budgets and limits their ability to make the most of mobile technologies. On average, agencies spend about 75 percent of their IT budgets operating and maintaining existing systems, leaving little opportunity to modernize, according to the Government Accountability Office.

This is finally changing, thanks to the Modernizing Government Technology Act and May 2017 Cybersecurity Executive Order. Cybersecurity is now topping agency agendas, and new funds are beginning to be allocated to address data protection. When approached thoughtfully and strategically by agency leaders, endpoint security can play a key part in government IT modernization and mobile transformation.

Strong mobile security makes it more feasible to equip federal employees and contractors with smartphones and tablets for their work away from agency offices, finally giving them the freedom and flexibility to be productive wherever the task takes them.

Locking the Gates

The universe of technology intended to protect endpoints encompasses several different strategic approaches: software-based, managed services and hardware. Often these are deployed in combination, building a custom solution that addresses an organization's unique needs.

This is really the key to endpoint security: No two situations are the same. Rather than adopting an off-the-shelf security package, agencies should consider engaging a partner who can combine best-in-class mobile technologies, technical expertise and partnerships to create customized mobile solutions that include well-integrated security.

Ideally, a mobile security solution should start with the devices themselves. A hardware-based security platform is the epitome of "baked in," in that it is integral to the device and can protect data from the instant the device is powered on. Add the right software and professional services to that base, and a truly robust mobile endpoint security solution can be created.

In evaluating the strength of an endpoint security offering, consider these features:

Malware Protection: Once malicious code gets past the outer defenses, it can find a path to spread through the network and mission-critical systems. A solution should integrate and protect across multiple systems (app store, MDM, etc.) to block malware from infiltrating the device, applications and underlying operating systems, and detect threats as quickly as possible.

Once malicious code gets past the outer defenses, it can find a path to spread through the network and mission-critical systems. A solution should integrate and protect across multiple systems (app store, MDM, etc.) to block malware from infiltrating the device, applications and underlying operating systems, and detect threats as quickly as possible. Authentication and Biometrics: Mobile devices can be easily lost or stolen. Strong endpoint security includes features such a multi-factor authentication and biometric verification to ensure that the device can't be used by an unauthorized person.

Mobile devices can be easily lost or stolen. Strong endpoint security includes features such a multi-factor authentication and biometric verification to ensure that the device can't be used by an unauthorized person. Mission Action Verification: Even when the user is authenticated, the agency may have policies about when and where certain data transactions are allowed. This function ensures the user adheres to those policies.

Even when the user is authenticated, the agency may have policies about when and where certain data transactions are allowed. This function ensures the user adheres to those policies. Encryption: All data intended for secure transmission or storage should be encrypted.

All data intended for secure transmission or storage should be encrypted. Cryptographic Digital Credentials: This feature can eliminate the need for physical Common Access Cards (CAC), so the user has one less item that is prone to loss or theft.

This feature can eliminate the need for physical Common Access Cards (CAC), so the user has one less item that is prone to loss or theft. Containerization: Containerization allows IT managers to set up "walls" on mobile devices to keep some apps and data separated from others. This is especially useful for, but not limited to, BYOD settings. Containerization can keep sensitive data separated from everyday apps, making it harder for attackers to reach. The ability to remotely wipe the device's memory is an added safeguard.

IoT Opens a New Threat Vector

Just as agencies begin to tackle BYOD and dual persona challenges, a new threat has emerged to disrupt the threat landscape yet again. We're now facing a new wave of endpoints in the form of the Internet of Things (IoT) and connected devices such as remote sensors, weapons systems, vehicles, wearables and appliances. All of these new mission-focused endpoints provide even more digital surface area for dangerous botnets, spyware, insider threats and DDoS attacks to exploit.

Industry and federal agencies alike are monitoring the IoT challenge, and it remains a classic balancing act between fast-paced innovation and retrospective security. In August, Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) introduced the Internet of Things (IoT) Cybersecurity Improvement Act of 2017 to establish ground rules and heighten security standards around IoT device security. While many applaud the move, others are concerned that the legislation does not go far enough. So while IoT applications can be transformative in government, it's up to agencies to ensure the IoT remains a major consideration in any agency's overall endpoint security strategy.

The Human Factor

Regardless of the endpoint, no technology is good enough to overcome human error. The final piece of a strong endpoint security solution is a set of strong, sensible policies that the agency enforces. Mobile devices and other endpoints should be considered just another part of the enterprise an included in overarching policies.

There are several questions to consider: What data will be stored on or transmitted through the devices? How are they managed now, and should that change? Who is authorized to use a mobile device, and under what circumstances? Can the agency allow employees to bring their own smartphones to the job, or would it be safer to allow only agency-issued devices?

However you answer these questions, the ultimate effectiveness of an endpoint security strategy depends on finding the right mix of policy, hardware security, software and services, and then adjusting it as necessary over time to keep pace with evolving threats. Working with a proven partner that understands this full landscape and the agency's unique challenges can be invaluable in deploying a mobile strategy that can fully harness forward-looking mobile capabilities, drive productivity and truly meet mission needs.

From with auditing vulnerabilities to defining endpoints within the organization, a solution provider can help an agency embrace a step-by-step multi-layered strategy for shoring up devices, strengthening the overall security posture and maximizing IT investments.When the internet exploded in the late 1990s, billions, if not trillions, of investor money poured into internet stocks. There were two types of companies -- some that had an actual, sustainable business, such as Microsoft and Amazon.com, which worked out well for investors over the long run.

And then there were speculative internet stocks, which represented companies with no real businesses, or unsustainable business models -- but with words like "internet," "dot-com," and other buzzwords in their titles and descriptions. As you may remember, these didn't work out well for investors.

A similar trend is playing out in the young and growing digital currency industry. Sure, there are some companies that could end up making lots of money from blockchain technology, but most so-called "bitcoin," "cryptocurrency," or "blockchain" stocks are speculative vehicles whose underlying businesses don't justify their price tags. Here are four examples to stay away from.

Stacks of gold coins with bitcoin symbol.

Image source: Getty Images.

Four cryptocurrency stocks to avoid

First Bitcoin Capital Corp. (NASDAQOTH: BITCF)

This small over-the-counter stock surged in 2017, and refers to itself as "the world's most prolific generator of cryptocurrencies."

The company develops new digital currencies and blockchain technologies, but has little going for it to justify its market cap of more than $250 million. There are nine projects currently listed on its website, but as my colleague Jordan Wathen recently wrote, most of them are of the "coming soon" variety and the company's other assets mainly consist of some thinly traded cryptocurrencies (like WEED coin).

Also, First Bitcoin has changed its name, focus, or country five times in just a dozen years, which should be a major red flag to investors.

Riot Blockchain (NASDAQ: RIOT)

This is another example of a failing company that changed its focus to try to ride the cryptocurrency wave. Until October 2017, Riot was known as Bioptix, and before November 2016, it was Venaxis. Then, less than four months ago, the struggling biotech company abruptly changed its name and shifted its focus to blockchain-based investments.

Story continues

Riot Blockchain initially announced an investment in Canadian cryptocurrency exchange Coinsquare, and has also made a few other investments since then, particularly in bitcoin miners. However, the company's assets don't come close to justifying its share price -- this is purely a speculative bet.

Yet another red flag when it comes to Riot Blockchain is that the company's CEO recently unloaded more than 30,000 shares of the stock at an average sales price of $28.61, roughly double the current share price. When insiders start to head for the exits this early in a new venture (remember, the company has only been blockchain-focused for less than four months), it's certainly a troubling sign.

Bitcoin Investment Trust (NASDAQOTH: GBTC)

The Greyscale Bitcoin Investment Trust essentially functions as an exchange-traded fund, or ETF, that allows investors to pool their money to buy bitcoin. On the surface, this seems no worse than simply buying bitcoins yourself on an exchange.

The problem is the premium you pay. To be fair, an investment fund of this nature deserves to trade at a mild premium. After all, buying bitcoins on an exchange can be complicated and can also come with high transaction fees. And it also deserves a management fee for the services provided -- someone has to actually buy the bitcoin and ensure its safety from hackers.

However, it's not worth the premium you pay. As of Jan. 29, 2018, each share of the trust represented 0.00100733 bitcoins. Based on the $10,400 market value of bitcoin as of this writing, this means that each share's intrinsic value is $10.48. Shares of the trust are trading for $18.25 -- a massive 74% premium over the value of the bitcoin owned. In addition, the annual management fee of 2% is several times more than you'd pay on a similar gold, silver, or commodity-based ETF.

The bottom line: If you want to own bitcoin, you're better off simply buying bitcoin.

Eastman Kodak (NYSE: KODK)

Shares of Eastman Kodak (yes, the camera company) have more than tripled in 2018. And it's not because the company came out with new, innovative photography equipment or anything like that. It simply decided to join in the cryptocurrency boom, and the stock jumped.

To be fair, the premise sounds reasonable. The market for image and video rights is a big one, and a centralized, efficient platform to manage it could be a moneymaker.

Kodak plans to create an image and licensing marketplace using blockchain technology, where people will be able to purchase rights using a newly created digital currency called KODAKCoin. Why people couldn't simply use U.S. dollars, or other currencies, is unclear. Instead of simplifying the process, or solving a problem, it seems to add complexity. To put it mildly, it seems like a long and difficult road ahead.

The takeaway and how to invest instead

Investing in stocks that simply add "blockchain" or "bitcoin" to their name, funds that trade at ridiculous premiums to the value of the bitcoin they own, or established but struggling companies that suddenly jump into the cryptocurrency space aren't the best way to get a piece of the upcoming cryptocurrency or blockchain industry.

Instead, my suggestion is to look at some thriving businesses that could also benefit if cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology continue to gain momentum. Payment-processing company Square (NYSE: SQ) is a name that comes to mind, as the core business is growing at a breathtaking rate, and the company is experimenting with bitcoin on its Square Cash app. Or American Express (NYSE: AXP), whose credit card business is firing on all cylinders, and is also partnering with cryptocurrency company Ripple to develop a more efficient payment transfer system.

If you want to gamble, buy bitcoin or another cryptocurrency or invest in one of the four stocks I discussed above. If you want to invest, you're better off looking elsewhere.

More From The Motley Fool

John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Teresa Kersten is an employee of LinkedIn and is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. LinkedIn is owned by Microsoft. Matthew Frankel owns shares of American Express and Square. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Amazon. The Motley Fool owns shares of Square. The Motley Fool recommends American Express. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.Most of us spend more time on our phones than our computers, but how secure is your smartphone? Protect yourself online, while youre on the go, by going through this checklist of 5 phone settings.

1) Dont use your social logins to sign into third party sites

Its an increasingly common sign-in feature when logging in. A pop-up appears giving you the option to sign-in with one of your social media accounts, like Facebook, Twitter, or Google. While you might be relieved to get this option (because you forgot your password for the umpteenth time), dont do it. Youll be paying for the convenience by giving up privacy because youre basically linking accounts and letting them both track you, collect data and access your personal information. The worst part is: if one account gets hacked, your other profiles will also be compromised.

2) Clean up your permissions settings

Backtrack and go through each of your social accounts to revoke access you may have already given to companies. On Twitter, click on your image for the dropdown menu, and find Settings and Privacy. Click on Apps and revoke access and remove any apps and sites you dont use anymore.

On Facebook, go to Settings and then on the tab on the left find Apps. While doing this for my own account, I was pretty shocked to see over 50 apps I havent used in years like Words with Friends and Candycrush  and even apps like Autorap by Smule, a rapping app I was addicted to a few years ago. I inadvertently let those apps collect data on me and get access to my friend list for years.

3) Turn off location trackers

Do not let your social media apps track your location. Switch off the option that allows for your whereabouts to be posted the moment your photo goes up  and remove all geotags on previous photos. No one needs to know where you are at all times, especially when youre on vacation thousands of miles away from home.

4) Disable the ability to auto-connect to public wifi

Story continues

The free wifi offered at a cafe, hotel, or airport should only be used to browse the internet. To do anything beyond that, especially if its money- or banking-related, you need a secure connection. Otherwise hackers can get access to your logins, credit card numbers, and bank accounts through these public, unsecured network connections.

5) Set up a secure passcode

This is another situation where you need to give up convenience for added security. Set your phone to require a touch ID and passcode immediately. Even waiting one minute to require verification is too long. While youre at it, change your passcode every few months to something more secure, opting for a 6 digit passcode instead of 4. And make it something other than 1-2-3-4-5-6.

What are some steps youre taking to protect your privacy and identity? Share them with me on Twitter or in the comments below.

Jeanie is a senior producer and reporter at Yahoo Finance. Reach out by email jeaniea@oath.com; follow her on Twitter @jeanie531.

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Feb 2 (Reuters) - Independent U.S. refiner Andeavor said on Friday it had acquired a liquefied natural gas (LNG) facility in Kenai, Alaska, from ConocoPhillips.

"This acquisition further strengthens our integrated value chain by optimizing our operations in Kenai and providing low-cost fuel for our refinery," the company said.

The company did not disclose financial details of the transaction.

ConocoPhillips said that the sale of the facility had closed and the operation had been transferred to Andeavor on Jan. 31.

Sale of the plant completed the company's exit from the Cook Inlet region and will allow ConocoPhillips Alaska to direct its full attention to operations in North Slope region where it is investing in new projects, the company said.

The facility, which entered service in 1969, last exported LNG in 2015, according to federal data. It has the capacity to liquefy 0.2 bcf per day of gas.

Andeavor also operates a 62,700 barrel-per-day refinery in Kenai. (Reporting by Vijaykumar Vedala in Bengaluru)With the yellow stuff climbing more than 12% last year, gold investors, in general, had reason to rejoice. Usually, the movements in gold-oriented companies' stocks are highly correlated. There are always outliers, though -- gold stocks that far exceed (or lag) the price of gold. And in 2017 it was no different.

Shareholders of several companies -- royalty and streaming companies like Franco-Nevada Corp. (NYSE: FNV), and gold miners like Kinross Gold (NYSE: KGC), Gold Fields Limited (NYSE: GFI), B2Gold (NYSEMKT: BTG), and IAMGOLD (NYSE: IAG) -- had portfolios that ended 2017 a little more lustrous than when the year began.

A gold bar lies next to a stack of gold coins.

Image source: Getty Images.

Breaking records and beating expectations

The strong performance of B2G's stock in 2017 can be traced back to the beginning of the year, when the company reported its fiscal 2016 earnings. For one thing, the company reported record annual consolidated gold production of 550,423 ounces. Breaking more records, it reported an all-time-high consolidated gold revenue of $683.3 million on record sales of 548,281 ounces; furthermore, there was a record $412 million in operating cash flow for the year.

Later in the year, unexpected good news about the Fekola mine in Mali reinvigorated investors' enthusiasm. Commencing commercial gold production one month ahead of schedule, the Fekola mine exceeded management's expectations for the amount of gold produced. Whereas the original forecast for fiscal 2017 gold production at Fekola was for 45,000 ounces to 55,000 ounces, management announced, in December, the expectation that production would be between 100,000 ounces and 110,000 ounces.

BTG Chart

BTG data by YCharts.

No shovels required

Franco-Nevada keeps the lights on by providing up-front payments to gold-mining companies; in exchange, it receives the rights to purchase the mined metal at present prices, or to receive a percentage of mineral production from a mine. This leaves Franco-Nevada less susceptible than gold miners to the significant capital costs of sustaining operations at a mine.

Story continues

The company had no blockbuster announcements during the year that helped to drive shares higher. To the delight of shareholders, however, 2017 marked the 10th consecutive year in which Franco-Nevada has increased its dividend. This distinguishes the company from its peers, since many gold-oriented companies offer either nominal dividends or none at all.

During the year, the company also mitigated risk by further diversifying its portfolio. Although gold accounts for about 70% of its revenue, Franco-Nevada is making increasing investments in oil and gas assets. Spending about $300 million in fiscal 2017, the company acquired three royalties related to oil and gas.

Out of Africa

Located in South Africa, Gold Fields Limited operates eight mines in Peru, Ghana, Australia, and South Africa. The company suffered several blows in the first quarter: There were two deaths and several falls of ground (the unexpected and uncontrolled release of debris and rock) at the South Deep mine. The company, consequently, faced restricted access to high-grade areas and haulage infrastructure. But, reporting earnings for the first half of the year, Gold Fields indicated that operations were back on track. Management, moreover, affirmed fiscal 2017 gold production guidance of 315,000 ounces.

Gold nuggets on a wooden table

Image source: Getty Images.

During the H1 2017 earnings report, management affirmed other aspects of the company's fiscal 2017 guidance: attributable equivalent gold production of 2.1 million ounces to 2.15 million ounces, and all-in sustaining costs (AISC) between $1,010 per gold ounce and $1,030 per gold ounce.

Investors were also encouraged through the second half of the year as Wall Street took kindly to the stock, which received upgrades from analysts at Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank.

Looking for the yellow stuff in the Great White North

Highlights for IAMGOLD in 2017 included the development of projects in the company's pipeline. In June, management announced the results of a prefeasibility study for its Cote Gold project in northern Ontario. According to the study, the project has proven and probable gold reserves of 5.9 million ounces, and is estimated to achieve annual gold production of 320,000 ounces over a mine life of 17 years. Further supporting the optimism around the project, Cote Gold is forecast to have AISC of $689 per gold ounce and an after-tax internal rate of return of 14%.

Addressing other organic growth prospects, IAMGOLD provided a reserve and resource update for the Rosebel mine. Whereas the mine had 2 million ounces of attributable reserves at the end of 2016, it has 3.5 million ounces -- an 80% increase -- as of the end of the third quarter.

Learning more about Mauritania

Beating analysts' earnings expectations, Kinross Gold delighted investors in May -- shares climbed 27% in the month -- when it released first-quarter earnings. But the most notable news from the company in 2017 was about its organic-growth projects. In September, Kinross announced its decision to proceed with the Phase Two expansion of its Tasiast mine in Mauritania. Combined with the Phase One expansion, the Phase Two expansion is expected to result in average annual gold production of 812,000 ounces, at AISC of $655 per ounce. Phase One and Phase Two are expected to begin production in Q2 2018 and Q3 2020, respectively.

In addition to the Tasiast, Kinross announced its intent to pursue development of the Round Mountain Phase W project in Nevada. Among other things, Phase W includes construction of a new heap leach pad and the relocation of some existing infrastructure. The project is expected to add gold production of 1.5 million ounces over the life of the mine, and has an estimated internal rate of return of 13%.

Gold investors: take care

Soaring more than 30% through 2017, these five companies -- B2G, Franco-Nevada, Gold Fields, IAMGOLD, and Kinross Gold -- all exceeded the 12% rise in the price of gold in 2017. Besides the increased price of the yellow stuff, a number of other factors benefited their stocks. But even though these stocks gleamed brighter than their peers, investors must exercise extreme caution before considering any positions, since investing in gold is fraught with risk.

More From The Motley Fool

Scott Levine has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.UPenn_Prof.jpg





Most of the attention, flurry and investment around blockchain technology is in the West, where people are investing in cryptocurrencies and focused on a slew of novel applications, like using a blockchain to track vegetables from the field to store shelves. But the greatest impact of blockchain technology will be in developing countries, such as Zimbabwe and Venezuela.

At least, that is the view of David Crosbie, a lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania. He thinks blockchain technology will bring the same everyday levels of convenience and automation to the developing world that we take for granted in places like the U.S., and he is convinced it all comes down to a notion of moving trust away from society. A Matter of Trust Trust is essential to how society functions. Many years ago, we used to run around on the savanna, and we only trusted our blood kin, Crosbie said in an interview with Bitcoin Magazine. He explained that we went on to put our trust in the church, which used ideas like hell and damnation to get people to follow the the rules, and then, for better or worse, we put our trust in government. The problem is we have handed governments the ability to lock us up, take away our belongings and even kill us, in exchange for a reliable and predictable legal structure, he says. Blockchain technology is the first real effort to expand on that trust model with any success. Because it is so effective in providing trust, blockchain is most effective in environments where there is no competition, said Crosbie. In other words, in places where the state does not provide a good trust model, blockchain technology can step in and provide a way around existing rules and regulations. That is not to say there is no need for blockchain technology in the developed world, says Crosbie; its just that the use cases in the West are not as compelling. We already have good banking and court systems in the U.S., for example, that support most peoples needs. Life With Blockchain Technology If blockchain technology does establish itself in the developing world, life there would look a lot more like life in the Western world, says Crosbie. As an example, he tells how he recently had to file a renewal for a limited liability company. He was able to do his research, collect details and fill out the forms online. I did it all from my chair, he said. In a lesser-developed country, a similar task would have required a lot more exertion. In most places in Africa and India, for instance, state organizations are inefficient and poorly run, and record keeping is predominantly paper-based. Renewing a business license would likely require getting on a bus, going into town and standing in a queue for hours. And since computers are too costly in those areas, official documents are often typed by hand. While record-keeping systems in the West have steadily evolved from paper to computer to online and, as a next step, maybe blockchain technology or maybe not, says Crosbie, blockchain technology may be a way for lesser-developed countries to jump those intermediate stages. Blockchain provides something fundamentally funded by the end user who provides access, and that enables [documents] to be computerized without the government having to spend the money, he said. Efficiency improvements in developing countries would open roads to productivity because people would have more time, says Crosbie. Ownership would be easier to establish. If you wanted to show someone you owned a piece a land, rather than investing a day in chasing down a paper document, you could simply show them a link on the blockchain. Crosbie says chain of custody is another use case. Blockchain technology would enable someone to figure out if the brake pads they were buying for a car were real, so they would not run the risk of a serious accident. Or it could help ensure the vaccines received in a small village had been handled properly. Smart contracts (applications that run on the blockchain and control the transfer of digital assets between parties) could also provide value in areas where the legal system is too expensive, slow or untrustworthy. And establishing an identity on the blockchain would be a core part of giving people access to services. As far as banking goes, mobile banking already exists in Kenya with M-Pesa and other mobile phonerelated services. Whether blockchain can compete depends entirely on whether it can be done in a cost-effective and quick and reliable way. And I actually think that blockchain is not there yet, Crosbie cautioned. Deployment Getting blockchain technology deployed in developing areas around the world requires a different technology mindset, however. Right now, most of the technology is targeted to areas like the U.S., where infrastructure and connectivity are good and computer systems are affordable. In many developing areas, people do not have access to computers or laptops or even Wi-Fi, but they do have access to smartphones and cellular connectivity. We need to move our technology focus from desktop and servers and high-speed networks to smartphones on 3G networks, Crosbie said. That requires being smart not only about how we write data to the blockchain, he says, but also how we read data from it. Smartphones, for example, dont have the capacity to download an entire blockchain, and that means finding new workarounds. If it has been tracked on the blockchain, how do I know the vaccine I have received in rural Kenya is good if I cant read it from my smartphone while standing in the hospital? he said. He points out the importance of looking at alternatives to move large amounts of data without relying on networks. One idea is to ship a USB device with the physical goods and then to use the blockchain to validate the authenticity of that data. Those are the areas Im looking at, he said. And I think that is what is going to allow people to expand from blockchain being a few thousand to millions and billions of nodes. Crosbie will be discussing the social impact of blockchain technology on a panel at the Blockchain Economic Forum in Singapore, February 46, 2018.

This article originally appeared on Bitcoin Magazine.By Liana B. Baker and Sonam Rai

(Reuters) - Computer maker Dell Technologies Inc said on Friday it was considering a public offering of common stock or a combination with business software maker VMware Inc (VMW.N), its publicly held subsidiary.

Dell, the world's largest privately held technology company, is under pressure to boost profitability after its debt-laden acquisition of data storage provider EMC Corp for $67 billion in 2016 failed to meet financial targets, hurt by intensifying price competition.

Combining with VMware would provide access to VMWare's $11.6 billion in cash, helping Dell trim its $52.5 billion debt pile. Last month's U.S. tax reform made servicing that debt more expensive due to caps on deducting interest expense.

The combination would also make Dell a publicly listed company, offering a path for private equity firm Silver Lake to begin selling down its 18 percent stake if it chooses to. Silver Lake helped bankroll Dell CEO Michael Dell in taking the company private in 2013 in a $24.9 billion leveraged buyout.

A lockup provision prevents Dell from buying out the stake in VMware it does not already own until September. Any merger agreed before then would have to be structured as an acquisition of Dell by VMware: a so-called reverse merger.

"We view a reverse merger of Dell by its majority-owned subsidiary, VMware, as potentially the most beneficial alternative for Dell and Silver Lake," Wells Fargo Securities LLC analysts wrote in a research note.

A combination of Dell and VMware would place them under the same management and help them co-ordinate strategy. Dell's hardware and VMWare's software offerings could potentially be marketed in one suite of products.

"As part of our ongoing multi-year strategic planning, Dell Technologies is evaluating a number of potential business opportunities," founder Michael Dell said in a blog post. "We do this from a position of strength, with a desire to grow Dell Technologies and its businesses even faster and thrive in the very dynamic IT marketplace."

Story continues

Reuters reported on Thursday that Dell planned to announce a review of a possible reverse merger with VMware, as well as other options, including an IPO or asset sales. Sources told Reuters VMware was likely to form a special committee to consider a combination with Dell.

Dell added on Friday that nothing had been decided and the company might end up continuing to operate under its current structure.

"The board of directors follows sound corporate governance practices, and will continue to do so in connection with any potential transaction involving our controlling stockholders," VMware's lead director Paul Sagan said in a company statement.

Shares in VMware, which is 82 percent-owned by Dell, fell 2.4 percent on Friday to close at $122.72. Dell's tracking stock(DVMT.N), which Dell issued to finance the EMC deal and which tracks the value of VMware's business, was up a little less than 1 percent at $70.90.

CHALLENGING PC MARKET

Dell has faced fierce competition in the storage market, with prices pressured by cloud-based rivals such as Amazon.com Inc's (AMZN.O) AWS and Microsoft Corp's (MSFT.O) Azure. Dell's infrastructure chief, former EMC executive David Goulden, departed last fall, and the company has been working to reorganize storage operations.

Michael Dell helped shape the personal computer market when he founded Dell in 1984 as a University pre-med freshman with $1,000 in savings. But growing popularity of smart phones and tablets has squeezed the PC market, which shrank by 0.2 percent in 2017, according to International Data Corporation.

Dell's servers have been a bright spot, helping total net revenue grow to $56.7 billion in the nine months to Nov. 3, from $41.6 billion a year earlier. Yet operating expenses soared from $10 billion to $17.3 billion and Dell's operating loss widened to $3 billion from $1.6 billion a year ago.

Dell has been considering a sale or initial public offering (IPO) of one of its fast-growing divisions, Pivotal Software Inc, sources have said.

Dell, whose technology portfolio spans servers, displays, workstations and gaming PCs, also has a security unit, RSA, and a cloud platform called Boomi.

(Reporting by Liana B. Baker in San Francisco and Sonam Rai in Bengaluru; Additional reporting by Jim Finkle in San Francisco; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty, Bill Rigby and David Gregorio)Dell Technologies is exploring an initial public offering or another kind of financial maneuver involving data center software company VMware, Dell said in a regulatory filing on Friday.

The disclosure confirms media reports last week that said Dell was considering going public after operating for roughly five years as a private company.

Dell also said in the filing that it was considering a business combination with VMware vmw , without elaborating. CNBC reported this week that Dell was considering selling itself to VMware in a so-called reverse merger as a way for Dell to be listed on the public markets without having to go through the formalities. At the time, both Dell and VMware declined to comment.

Dell also said on Friday that it could choose to not do a major business deal and instead continue operating as is.

Nothing has been decided and alternatives are just being considered at this stage, Dell said in the filing. While this process continues, it is business as usual for team members, customers and partners with no changes to current structures, practices and processes.

The company said it would normally keep our deliberations confidential, but because it owns about 82% of VMware, its required to share some details in a public filing. Dell owns a majority stake in VMware as a result of buying data center conglomerate EMC in 2015 for $67 billion.

Get Data Sheet, Fortunes technology newsletter.

Dell did not say why it is exploring a major deal, but previous media reports have speculated that it is seeking financing to help pay off the $46 billion in debt that it took on as part of its EMC acquisition. The company said in the regulatory filing that it has repaid around $10 billion in debt since closing the EMC acquisition.

Dell CEO Michael Dell has previously called VMware, which sells virtualization software that lets one server perform the tasks of many, the crown jewel of the EMC portfolio of companies.

VMware shares are relatively flat in midday trading on Friday at $125.85.Estee Lauder Companies Inc. EL reported second-quarter fiscal 2018 results, wherein both top and bottom lines grew year over year and came ahead of the Zacks Consensus Estimate. Notably, this marked the companys 14th and 4th straight quarter of earnings and sales beat, respectively. The superb quarter also encouraged management to perk up its outlook for fiscal 2018.



Needless to say, the splendid results and outlook were a treat to investors as evident from a 2.8% rise in Estee Lauders shares in the pre-market trading session. In fact, the cosmetics giants past record has kept investors bullish for quite some time. Evidently, this Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) stock soared 64.4% in a year, outperforming the industrys gain of 34%.











Quarter in Detail



The company posted adjusted earnings per share of $1.52 that surged 25% year over year and beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.44. On a currency-neutral basis earnings grew 23% on the back of robust sales, solid cost savings and progress with the Leading Beauty Forward initiatives.

Estee Lauder Companies, Inc. (The) Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise



Estee Lauder Companies, Inc. (The) Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise | Estee Lauder Companies, Inc. (The) Quote

On including certain one-time items like restructuring costs associated with Leading Beauty Forward initiative and charges related to the U.S. Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), earnings came in at 33 cents, down significantly from $1.15 reported in the year-ago period.



Estee Lauders net sales of $3,744 million surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $3,673 million. Moreover, sales increased 17% from the prior-year quarter, driven by acquisitions of BECCA and Too Faced, which contributed about 2 percentage points of the reported sales growth. Further, sales advanced 14% on a constant currency basis, courtesy of exceptional growth in travel retail, Asia and the companys global online sales. Further, several regions in Europe and most product categories delivered double-digit sales growth. Also, the brands delivered stellar e-commerce results in the holiday season, with customizable gift choices being major contributors.



Gross profit increased 16% to $2,991 million but gross margin shrank 20 basis points (bps) to 78.3% as improved revenues were offset by higher cost of sales.



Product Based Segment Results



On the basis of product category, Skin Care reported sales growth of 20% year over year (up 17% on a constant currency basis) to $1,494 million, owing to double-digit improvements in brands including GLAMGLOW, La Mer, Origins and Estee Lauder. Clinique brand also depicted solid growth. However, skincare sales were partly hindered by soft Aveda sales.



Makeup revenues were up 16% (up 13% on a constant currency basis) to $1,515 million on the back of incremental sales stemming from the acquisitions of BECCA and Too Faced. Tom Ford, Estee Lauder sand MAC brands also generated robust sales.



Fragrance category reported revenue growth of 14% (up 10% on a constant currency basis) to reach $565 million driven by increased sales of luxury brands and Estee Lauder fragrances.



Hair Care sales amounted $144 million that advanced 5% (4% on a constant currency basis), driven by higher sales of Bumble and bumble and Aveda brands. While Aveda gained from solid online performance, Bumble and bumble sales were backed by its launch in Ulta Beauty ULTA. These were somewhat countered by lower salon sales.



Regional Results



Sales in the Americas increased 5% (on a constant currency basis as well) to $1,308 million, with North American sales benefiting from the acquisitions of Too Faced and BECCA and improvements in many other brands. This in turn was backed by higher holiday season demand. The companys online and specialty-multi channels also registered strong growth in the region. Sales in Latin America and Canada also witnessed noteworthy improvements. All these upsides were partially offset by soft retail traffic in few U.S. brick-and-mortar stores.



Sales in Europe, the Middle East & Africa region improved 20% (up 15% on a constant currency basis) to $1,562 million owing to double-digit sales growth in retail travel sales and in regions like Italy, Benelux and India. Moreover, emerging markets like Russia and Turkey contributed to sales growth. Foreign currency changes also favorably impacted the regions results, with UK and Italy being the main contributors. However, the Middle East region registered lower sales owing to macroeconomic challenges.



In the Asia/Pacific region sales soared 33% (up 30% on a constant currency basis) to $874 million. The upside was driven by spectacular performance in Hong Kong, Thailand and China, while Taiwan and Japan also posted handsome gains.



Other Financial Updates



The company ended the quarter with cash and cash equivalents of $ 2,105 million, long-term debt of $3,374 million and total equity of $4,589 million.



Net cash flows from operating activities for the first half of fiscal 2018 came in at $1,450 million, while the company incurred capital expenditures of $263 million.



Estee Lauder also announced a quarterly dividend of 38 cents per share, which is payable on Mar 15, to shareholders of record as of Feb 28.



Fiscal 2018 Guidance



Estee Lauder expects continued growth opportunities in the global prestige beauty industry, which is expected to grow 5% in fiscal 2018. Additionally, acquisitions, better-quality products, innovation and improved market reach are expected to positively impact sales during the year. However, economic challenges, social and political issues affecting consumer behavior in certain countries keeps management somewhat cautious. The company also remains watchful regarding soft store traffic in the United States.



Nevertheless, the growth drivers, a solid first half and expected gains from the recently enacted tax reforms keeps management encouraged about continuing with its above-industry improvement  in the second half and fiscal 2018. That said, management raised its sales and earnings outlook for fiscal 2018, alongside providing a favorable view for the third quarter.



For fiscal 2018, Estee Lauder now expects net sales to grow 12.5-13.5%, from the previous expectation of 10-11%. Foreign currency is expected to positively impact sales by 2.5% during the year. On a constant currency basis, net sales are now expected to jump 10-11%, up from 8-9% forecasted earlier. The companys acquisitions of Too Faced and BECCA are expected to contribute approximately 2 percentage points to the companys overall sales growth.



The company now envisions fiscal 2018 adjusted earnings in a range of $4.27-$4.32, compared with the previously expected range of $4.04-$4.12. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for fiscal 2018 is currently pegged at $4.21 per share. On a constant currency basis, adjusted earnings are now expected to grow 19%-20%, up from the prior forecast of 12-14%.



Q3 Guidance



For the third quarter, Estee Lauder forecasts net sales growth of 12-13%. Foreign currency is expected to positively impact sales by 3%. On a constant currency basis, sales are expected to improve 9-10% during the quarter.



The company expects adjusted earnings in the range of $1.02-$1.04 per share for the quarter. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the quarter is currently pegged at $1.01 per share. On a constant currency basis, adjusted earnings are expected to improve 7-9%.



Looking for More Promising Cosmetic Stocks? Check These



Helen of Troy HELE with a splendid earnings surprise history carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.



Inter Parfums IPAR, carrying a Zacks Rank #2 has a long-term earnings growth rate of 12.3%.



Breaking News: Cryptocurrencies Now Bigger than Visa



The total market cap of all cryptos recently surpassed $700 billion  more than a 3,800% increase in the previous 12 months. Theyre now bigger than Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and even Visa! The new asset class may expand even more rapidly in 2018 as new investors continue pouring in and Wall Street becomes increasingly involved.



Zacks has just named 4 companies that enable investors to take advantage of the explosive growth of cryptocurrencies via the stock market.



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Inter Parfums, Inc. (IPAR) : Free Stock Analysis Report



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Estee Lauder Companies, Inc. (The) (EL) : Free Stock Analysis Report



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To read this article on Zacks.com click here.



Zacks Investment ResearchBy Liana B. Baker and Greg Roumeliotis (Reuters) - U.S. computer maker Dell Technologies Inc and business software provider VMware Inc have decided to explore options that could include a potential merger of the two companies, people familiar with the matter said on Thursday. The move, which may not result in any deal, comes as Dell, the worlds largest privately held technology company, seeks new avenues for growth following its debt-laden acquisition of data storage provider EMC Corp for $67 billion in 2016. Dell plans to announce as early as Friday that it will review a possible reverse merger with VMware, as well as other alternatives, including an initial public offering or asset divestitures, the three sources said. VMware plans to announce that it will form a special committee of board directors to consider a combination with Dell, according to the sources. VMware is 80 percent-owned by Dell, so the special committee is aimed at making any combination subject to approval by disinterested directors who will safeguard the interests of VMware minority shareholders, the sources added. The sources asked not to be identified because the matter is confidential. Dell declined to comment, while VMWare did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Dell is under pressure to boost its profitability after the EMC deal failed to deliver the cost savings and performance it projected, while higher component costs and a challenging data storage market have eroded its margins. The Round Rock, Texas-based company has struggled with fierce competition in the storage market, as cloud-based rivals such as Amazon.com Incs AWS and Microsoft Corps Azure put pressure on prices. Dells infrastructure chief, former EMC executive David Goulden, departed last fall, and the firm has since been working to reorganize its storage operations. The PC market, which Dell CEO Michael Dell helped shape by founding Dell in 1984 as a college freshman with $1,000 in savings, has remained stagnant due to the popularity of smart phones and tablets, shrinking by 0.2 percent in 2017, according to International Data Corporation. A reverse merger would see VMware, which has a market capitalization of $51 billion, buy Dell, rather than Dell buy the minority stake in VMware it does not already own. A lockup provision prevents Dell from buying out VMware until September. "Irrespective of whether VMware or Dell is the acquirer, we think the terms of trade would have to entail a premium to VMware minority shareholders," UBS Securities LLC desk-based analyst Evren Ergin wrote in a sales commentary note on Thursday. Another consideration for Dell in its deliberations is offering an eventual path to private equity firm Silver Lake to cash out on its investment in the company. Silver Lake helped bankroll Michael Dells $24.9 billion deal in 2013 to take the company private and owns about 18 percent of the company. (This version of the story was refiled to add dropped reference to Ergin in penultimate paragraph) (Reporting by Liana B. Baker in San Francisco and Greg Roumeliotis in New York; Editing by Leslie Adler and Lisa Shumaker)By Taiga Uranaka

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's financial regulator on Friday swooped on Coincheck Inc with surprise checks of its systems and said it had asked the Tokyo-based cryptocurrency exchange to fix flaws in its computer networks well before hackers stole $530 million of digital money last week.

Security gaps in Coincheck's systems were among the reasons the exchange had not been given official approval to operate, the Financial Services Agency said. Coincheck had been allowed by the regulator to operate pending registration.

The comments came after 10 FSA officials conducted surprise checks on Coincheck's office on Friday morning, as authorities stepped up efforts to pin down how hackers pulled off one of the world's biggest cyber heists.

The inspection, launched at 8 a.m. on Friday, focused on compensation for customers, financial conditions and system management at the exchange, and Coincheck's efforts on consumer protection, a senior FSA official said.

Coincheck has said the virtual coins were stored in a "hot wallet" instead of the more secure "cold wallet," which operates on platforms not directly connected to the internet. The exchange was also not using an extra layer of security known as a multi-signature system.

The regulator's knowledge of flaws in Coincheck's systems before the theft will likely draw further focus on Japan's approach to regulating cryptocurrency exchanges.

Japan last year became the first country to regulate exchanges at the national level - a move that won praise for boosting innovation and protecting consumers, contrasting sharply with crackdowns in South Korea and China.

The theft highlights the vulnerabilities in trading an asset that policymakers are struggling to regulate, as well as the broader risks for Japan as it aims to leverage the fintech industry to stimulate economic growth.

The FSA earlier this week issued a business improvement order to Coincheck and said it would investigate all cryptocurrency exchanges in Japan for security gaps following the hack.

Story continues

The regulator said on Friday it had ordered all cryptocurrency exchanges to submit a report on their system risk management.

Coincheck had been ordered to submit a report on the hack and measures for preventing a recurrence by Feb. 13. But Friday's surprise inspection was conducted ahead of the deadline to "ensure protection of users," Finance Minister Taro Aso told reporters.

The FSA has already conducted an interview-based hearing with Coincheck but questions remain, a source with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters on Friday.

In 2014, Tokyo-based Mt. Gox, which once handled 80 percent of the worlds bitcoin trades, filed for bankruptcy after losing bitcoins worth nearly half a billion dollars to a hacking attack. More recently, South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Youbit shut down and filed for bankruptcy after being hacked twice last year.

INVESTIGATIONS

Coincheck said on Sunday it would repay about 46.3 billion yen ($425 million) of the virtual money. The FSA has said it had yet to confirm whether the company had sufficient funds for the reimbursement.

Coincheck has turned over communication records to police in Tokyo investigating the heist, the Nikkei business daily said on Thursday. A Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department spokesman declined to comment.

Authorities in several countries are also investigating last week's heist involving the NEM cryptocurrency, a member of the foundation behind the digital coin said on Thursday.

Last year's explosive rise in the value of digital coins and the flood of new retail investors drawn to the market have rattled global regulators nervous about a sector used largely for speculation. Officials have said cryptocurrencies are used by criminals to launder money.

Bitcoin, the world's largest cryptocurrency, skidded 11 percent on Thursday to its lowest since November, as a Facebook ban on cryptocurrency adverts and a growing regulatory backlash against the nascent market frightened investors.

Bitcoin extended its slide to $8,639 on Friday after skidding a day earlier to as low as $9,022 on the Luxembourg-based Bitstamp exchange, less than half the peak price of almost $20,000 it reached in December.

(Reporting by Takahiko Wada, Tetsushi Kajimoto, Taiga Uranaka and Kaori Kaneko; Additional reporting and writing by Thomas Wilson; Editing by Richard Pullin & Shri Navaratnam)NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / February 3, 2018 / Pomerantz LLP is investigating claims on behalf of investors of Banc of California, Inc. ("Banc of California" or the "Company") (BANC). Such investors are advised to contact Robert S. Willoughby at rswilloughby@pomlaw.com or 888-476-6529, ext. 9980.

The investigation concerns whether Banc of California and certain of its officers and/or directors have engaged in securities fraud or other unlawful business practices.

[Click here to join a class action]

On December 8, 2017, Bloomberg reported that a former Banc of California employee had filed a lawsuit against the bank alleging, in part, that: (1) revenue generated by the Company in 2016 was improperly carried over to the following year in order to inflate 2017 profits; and (2) the Company had ignored its former Chief Financial Officer's use of Company funds to patronize strip clubs.

On this news, Banc of California's share price fell $0.60, or 2.76%, to close at $21.15 on December 8, 2017.

The Pomerantz Firm, with offices in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Paris, 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.

SOURCE: Pomerantz LLPBitcoinRealEstateNJ 1

Zillow

A $2.3 million house in Middletown, New Jersey, is accepting bitcoin as a form of payment.

Bitcoin is becoming increasingly accepted in the real estate market with hundreds of listings accepting the cryptocurrency over the last six months.

There are a lot of risks to using bitcoin for payment due to the cryptocurrency's volatility, but buyers and sellers are finding creative ways to deal with it.

A house for sale in one of America's most desirable places to live is accepting bitcoin as payment, a growing trend in the real estate market.

The Middletown, New Jersey, house was nominally listed for $2.15 million on Zillow in late January. The listing, however, stipulates that seller will accept bitcoin as payment based upon a "non-negotiable" sale price of $2.3 million.

Far from Silicon Valley and other tech hubs, the listing in Middletown, often ranked one of the best places to live in the US, shows just how far cryptocurrency and bitcoin have reached into the national conversation.

The listing is far from the only one in the US to accept bitcoin.

Over the last six months, an increasing number of real estate listings have begun accepting or requesting cryptocurrency for payment. There have even been some that only accept bitcoin as payment.

Bitcoin Real Estate, a website specializing in real estate listings that accept cryptocurrency, told Mercury News in late January that it has nearly 400 homes listed on its website.

Real estate website Trulia told Mashable last week that it had around 80 listings that mentioned cryptocurrency in some way, while Redfin said it had seen the number of listings accepting cryptocurrency rise from 75 in December to 134 in January.

BitcoinRealEstateNJ 2

Zillow

Meanwhile, Ben Shaoul, the president of New York-based Magnum Real Estate Group, told CNBC in October that he plans to accept bitcoin as payment for condominiums in a building he is currently redeveloping in Manhattan's Lower East Side. Should a buyer pay in bitcoin for an apartment, which range in price from $700,000 to $1.5 million, Shaoul said he would hold the bitcoins as an investment.

Story continues

A 1.4 acre home in Lake Tahoe, California, was the first home to be sold with bitcoin in 2014. It sold for 2,739 bitcoins, which were converted to $1.4 million cash by BitPay, a global bitcoin payment service provider headquartered in Atlanta.

Most real estate sales involving cryptocurrency have operated similarly. The parties agree on a fixed price in dollars and then decide on a fair exchange rate at closing. The bitcoins are then converted to cash by a third party, like BitPay, which are then given to the seller. Buyers therefore assume all the risk.

The problem with buying or selling real estate with bitcoin currently  or any other cryptocurrency  are the massive fluctuations in value on a day-to-day, and even hour-to-hour, basis. What seems like a fair exchange rate at the time, can seem like a steal or ripoff months later.

The first known real estate purchase using exclusively bitcoin (i.e. not bitcoin-to-cash conversion) occurred late last December.

Bitcoin aficionado Ivan "Paychecks" Pacheco paid 17.741 bitcoin to Frank Mainade Jr. for a two-bedroom condo in Miami's Upper East Side, reported The Real Deal. At closing, that was equivalent to $275,000 with an exchange rate of about $15,500 per bitcoin.

As of publish time on Thursday, those 17.741 bitcoins were worth $159,577.

NOW WATCH: The easy steps everyone should take to get out of debt, according to a certified financial planner

See Also:

SEE ALSO: Paying taxes on bitcoin isn't nearly as hard as it sounds

DON'T MISS: Bitcoin just hit an all-time high  here's how you buy and sell itStocks are down on Friday morning amid a mixed jobs report and varied earnings results from top tech companies like Apple (AAPL), Amazon (AMZN), and Alphabet (GOOGL). Nevertheless, earnings season has been strong across the board, and many market-moving companies are slated to announce their latest results soon. Make sure to keep an eye on these companies as they prepare to report during the week of February 5!

Stocks are down on Friday morning amid a mixed jobs report and varied earnings results from top tech companies like Apple AAPL, Amazon AMZN, and Alphabet GOOGL. Nevertheless, earnings season has been strong across the board, and as Wall Street heads toward the last wave of Q4 reports, many market-moving companies are slated to announce their latest results soon.

After a remarkable 2017, the pressure was on the technology sector to deliver a solid Q4 report season and set the tone for another strong year. So far this season, 73% of the 553 already-reported companies in our Computers and Technology group have met or surpassed earnings estimates, so in many ways, the sector has done just that.

But several major tech companies have yet to report, and the upcoming week promises to be another busy stretch. Luckily, investors can always use the Zacks Earnings Calendar to plan out their schedules for earnings, dividend announcements, and other important financial releases. This handy tool is your perfect one-stop-shop to properly prepare for the market events that will have an impact on your own portfolio.

Today, weve made that task even easier for you. Using the Earnings Calendar, we looked ahead to next week and selected the biggest technology reports to watch. Make sure to keep an eye on these companies as they prepare to report during the week of February 5.

1. Tesla Inc. (TSLA)

Electric car giant Tesla is scheduled to release its latest quarterly results after the market closes on Feb. 7. While not technically a technology company, tech investors will want to pay close attention to this report given the companys ability to serve as a bellwether for emerging trends. Shares of Tesla have moved about 11% higher over the past month, but the stock is sporting a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell).

Based on our consensus estimates, we expect Tesla to report a loss of $3.19 per share, down more than 360% more the loss of $0.69 per share it witnessed last year. Revenues are expected to come in at $3.30 billion, up about 44% year-over-year. Tesla said it delivered 29,870 vehicles, which fell short of expectations. The company also recently pushed back production targets for the Model 3.

Story continues

2. Nvidia Corporation (NVDA)

Graphics chip behemoth Nvidia is slated to release its latest earnings report on Feb. 8. Nvidia has been on fire for well over a year, including another 12% surge over the past month. The stock has emerged as a favorite pick for exposure to AI, self-driving tech, and gaming. NVDA is currently sporting a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) as we head into its report date.

According to our current consensus estimates, Nvidia is projected to report earnings of $1.16 per share and revenues of $2.66 billion. These results would represent year-over-year growth rates of 17% and 22%, respectively. Gaming-focused GPUs continue to be the companys bread and butter, but investors should look to see if Nvidia can extend its streak of remarkable growth in its datacenters unit.

3. Activision Blizzard, Inc. (ATVI)

Video game publishing company Activision Blizzard is scheduled to release its most recent quarterly results on Feb. 8. Shares of ATVI have gained more than 13% over the past four weeks, and the stock is currently sporting a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Activisions strong release schedule, including the debut of Call of Duty: WWII, could propel results for the quarter.

Based on our current consensus estimates, ATVI is expected to report earnings of $0.92 per share, which would be flat from the year-ago quarter. Revenues are projected to be $2.61 billion, up more than 6% year-over-year. Investors should note that Call of Duty: WWII reportedly generated $500 million in its first three days of release.

Want more analysis from this author? Make sure to follow @Ryan_McQueeney on Twitter!

Breaking News: Cryptocurrencies Now Bigger than Visa

The total market cap of all cryptos recently surpassed $700 billion  more than a 3,800% increase in the previous 12 months. Theyre now bigger than Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and even Visa! The new asset class may expand even more rapidly in 2018 as new investors continue pouring in and Wall Street becomes increasingly involved.

Zacks has just named 4 companies that enable investors to take advantage of the explosive growth.

Click here to access these stocks. >>



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To read this article on Zacks.com click here.



Zacks Investment ResearchFacebook is weathering a storm: The dominant global player in social networks has witnessed increasingly worrisome revelations about its role in the 2016 U.S. elections, raising concerns about the companys power. This has coincided with a revival of interest in antitrust policies on the left and a growing suspicion of Facebooks liberal politics on the right. Meanwhile, a growing body of research points to the psychological harm caused, especially to young people, by the addictive qualities of Facebooks mobile app. All of this has made Facebook the least loved of the biggest American technology companies  and led founder and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg to pledge to fix Facebook. And who better to do that, he says, than Facebook itself?

History would suggest otherwise.

The U.S. economy has seen a litany of super-successful businesses that faced backlashes when they got too big. John D. Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie, J.P. Morgan, Henry Ford: each discovered that the economic benefits of large-scale enterprise sooner or later incurred regulatory costs. Neither promises to reform, nor political lobbying, nor high-profile philanthropy sufficed to ward off the backlash.

Standard Oil was originally praised for raising industry efficiency and for lowering the price of kerosene from 26 cents in 1870, when Rockefellers market share was 4%, to 7 cents in 1890, when his market share reached 90%. But muckraking investigative journalism, especially Ida Tarbells The History of the Standard Oil Company, fueled public outrage over Rockefellers anti-competitive business practices, which included rigging railroad prices against rivals.

Antitrust was animated by what Supreme Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis termed the curse of bigness  the idea that firms could be too big to treat employees on equal terms, to be efficient and to treat rivals fairly. This laid the political groundwork for the 1911 landmark judgment in Standard Oil Co. of New Jersey v. United States, which broke Standard Oil up into 34 separate firms.

Story continues

Yet the chances of a successful anti-trust action against Facebook  or any of the other big tech companies  seem small. Proving that the companys near monopoly on online social networking hurts consumers would be very hard indeed. After all, using Facebook is free.

The biggest threat to Facebooks future is instead its founders insistence that Facebook is a technology company, not a content publisher, and that it can fix its problems by tweaking its News Feed algorithm and hiring ten thousand content moderators. This response glaringly conflicts with reality. Sooner or later it will surely be challenged  most likely by an amendment to the mid-1990s legislation that currently exempts all Internet platforms from liability for the content they host.

A better analogy for Zuckerberg and Facebook, then, is William Randolph Hearst and his newspaper group  which Facebook has now eclipsed as the biggest content publisher in American history. Zuckerberg would do well to consider Hearsts fate.

Having been expelled from Harvard, Hearst was given the San Francisco Examiner in 1887 as a gift from his wealthy father, who had won it in a bet. Hearst invested in superior printing technology and hired top writers such as Mark Twain to transform the paper into The Monarch of the Dailies.

In 1894, Hearst bought the New York Journal, going head-to-head with Joseph Pulitzer and 16 other New York dailies. In all, Hearst founded or acquired 42 newspapers, including at least one newspaper in every major American city. He later added magazines (such as Cosmopolitan), news services and radio (WINS). At their peak in the mid-1930s, Hearsts papers reached 20 million readers a day, one in four Americans.

With high circulation came great power. Hearst papers appealed to the urban working class, mixing populist and progressive politics with nationalism and xenophobia and later isolationism. In the 1890s, Hearst backed the populist Democratic presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan. In 1901, he was blamed by some for the assassination of President William McKinley by an anarchist. Hearsts role in pressing for the Spanish-American War (the Journals War) is a notorious case of fake news (known in those days as yellow journalism) leading to a major political event.

Some have speculated that Mark Zuckerberg harbors political ambitions. Hearst certainly did. He served as representative for the 11th District of New York for two terms (19031907), leaving the House to run for Governor of New York. But he lost that race. He also made unsuccessful bids to be the Mayor of New York (1905 and 1909) and the Democratic nominee for President (1904)  hence William Also-Randolph Hearst.

The more Hearst played politics, the worse his business did. In the 1920s, he invested heavily in real estate in California, New York City and Mexico, as well as in art. These decisions proved disastrous in the aftermath of the 1929 crash. In 1937, the Hearst Corporation underwent a court-mandated reorganization, and Hearst lost control of the company. He cut an increasingly bizarre figure in his later life, much of which was spent in his grandiose castle at Saint Simeon or the Beverly House in Beverly Hills. The 1941 film Citizen Kane immortalized his rise and fall  though the Hearst Corporation outlived its founder.

Hearst author Mark Twain never said: History doesnt repeat itself, but it does rhyme. What he wrote was: History never repeats itself, but the Kaleidoscopic combinations of the pictured present often seem to be constructed out of the broken fragments of antique legends. Judging by its response to the public relations that has recently engulfed it, Facebook could use Twains kaleidoscope.

Citizen Kane  and for that matter, Hearsts life  offers a story of a genius whose success and power ultimately divorces him from the real world. Citizen Zuck should watch it. Though he wont like it.A shocking video of mob beating in northern Afghanistan has provided a window into the brutal 'justice' women in the country can face.

Footage of the incident, which reportedly took place in December in Takhar Province, only recently emerged on social media.

It shows a woman clad in a blue burqa kneeling as she is shouted at and insulted by a crowd of men that included family members.

As she kneels, she receives heavy blows to her head, back, arms, and shoulders by multiple stick-wielding men.

The woman is silent throughout the beating, as shouts of "Allah Akbar" can be heard from the crowd. At one point a man kicks her in the back, causing the woman to fall to the ground. When she gets back on her knees, the beating continues.

Witnesses have claimed that the 22-year-old woman was being punished at the order of local clerics, who had decided she was guilty of having an extramarital affair while her husband was away in Iran.

Sonatollah Teymour, the spokesman of Takhars governor, told RFE/RLs Radio Free Afghanistan that relatives had found the woman alone with a 17-year-old boy.

"A young man had entered the woman's house and he had been there for three hours," Teymour said. "The relatives found out and discovered the woman and the boy alone."

'Mob Justice'

Teymour said the woman was a relative of a local warlord who was present during the beating. The womans father-in-law and other male relatives took part in the beating, he added. The unidentified woman, he said, survived the attack and now lives with her husband in the village of Chahab.

Teymour said authorities have ordered those involved in the punishment to be arrested and brought to justice.

Bilal Siddiqi, spokesman for Afghanistan's Independent Human Rights Commission, has called on the government to find those involved in the beating as soon as possible.

Were concerned and we hope that the government will take steps to strengthen the rule of law and prevent mob justice, Siddiqi told RFE/RLs Radio Free Afghanistan.

The woman's ordeal is not uncommon in Afghanistan. In recent years there have been several reports of women facing public punishment for alleged moral crimes.

The most prominent was the violent death of 27-year-old Farkhunda Malikzada, who was beaten to death by a mob in Kabul after being falsely accused of burning a copy of the Koran.

Her death in March 2015 prompted a national outcry and an outpouring of anger in the country.A top U.S. commander says he has seen improvement in Afghan forces' capabilities in the fight against Taliban extremists in Helmand Province since the American military returned to the troubled region nine months ago.

But Marine Brigadier General Roger Turner told a Pentagon news briefing on February 1 that Taliban fighters still control about half of the province and the U.S.-backed Afghan troops remain in a tough fight throughout the countrys southern region.

Turner returned to the United States about 10 days ago after completing his stint atop the nine-month rotating leadership command for the coalitions Task Force Southwest.

Brigadier General Benjamin Watson has replaced Turner as commander of the task force, which will soon have bolstered numbers as the U.S. military builds up its force under a directive from President Donald Trump.

U.S. and NATO forces formally concluded their combat mission at the end of 2014, shifting to a training role.

After the pullback, Taliban fighters seized a sizable amount of territory, especially in Helmand, with local officials estimating that the extremists controlled some 85 percent of the poppy-growing province early last year.

In response, U.S. officials announced that 300 Marines would be deploying to help train and advise security forces in Helmand -- the first Marine deployment to the province since the end of active combat operations.

In the first few months after their April 2017 arrival, Turner told the news briefing, the U.S. Marines were able to assist local Afghan National Defense Security Forces (ANDSF) to retake some Taliban-held districts and improve security in others and help reduce the ANDSF casualty rate by 40 percent, bolstering their confidence in the process.

Turner added that roads around key cities have become safer and a civilian airport reopened in the provincial capital of Lashkar Gah, leading to a greater sense of security for residents.

During the briefing, Turner cited gains made in the administrative center of Nawa as an example of success in the Task Force South region.

Afghans forces -- including the National Army's 215th Corps -- successfully took back Nawa after a bloody eight-week battle.

"We knew that the Taliban didn't really have good control of Nawa, because the population there really kind of rejects their presence, he said.

So we knew that, and our partners knew that.... They seized the Nawa district in July," Turner said. "It was the first time they took back terrain in a Taliban stronghold."

He cited the emergence of a generation of younger commanders who have trained and fought with coalition forces for improved efficiency of Afghan units.

Turner added that while the Marines have performed in combat roles in Helmand, his forces generally remain in the background while Afghan troops conduct the brunt of the fighting.

"I'm not going to expose our forces to risk if I don't need to," he said.

Turner said his successor will have even more forces to work with during his nine-month term, with an additional 100 troops to join the task force, allowing it to focus on advise-and-assist missions with local forces.

The U.S. military has also sent a squadron of A-10 Thunderbolt aircraft to the fight around Helmand Province, providing more close-air support and to target the Taliban drug trade.



Trump in August unveiled his new strategy for the South Asia region, under which Washington has deployed 3,000 more troops to Afghanistan to train, advise, and assist local security forces,

The comments on battlefield gains come at the same time that the Taliban and other extremists have stepped up their campaigns of violence.

In recent weeks, Kabul has been hit by several deadly assaults, including a massive suicide car bombing in a crowded central area on January 27 that killed more than 100 people and was claimed by the Taliban.

With reporting by AP, Stars & Stripes, and Military.comSome schools, particularly a few in Canada will require this. So for the most part I would say it is not necessarily a common requirement most schools are focused on achieving specific degree requirements prior to applying. I would say just make sure you're reviewing the requirements for target programs before applying to confirm you are eligible and if you have any questions reach out to admissions with any grey areas._________________avabelieve wrote:

Because a surfeit of undergraduate students has sent class sizes soaring, the university administration has announced that it will hire more faculty members for the next school year.



A) Because a surfeit of undergraduate students has sent class sizes soaring,

B ) Because of soaring class sizes, which is due to a surfeit of undergraduate students, => "which is" is S-V agreement error

C) Because class sizes have been sent soaring, which resulted from a surfeit of undergraduate students, => "which" is wrong replaced



"Due to" here has two usages. First, "due to" must modify a noun, in this case, "due to" modify "the university" => wrong. Second usage, "due to" mean "caused by". This usage is also wrong in this case. Because is more preference

D) Due to soaring class sizes from a surfeit of undergraduate students,

E) Due to a surfeit of undergraduate students, with the result that class sizes have been sent soaring,



I went for D. OA is A. Any thoughts?

BECAUSE OF vs. DUE TO

traffic jam

due to an overturned truck

I was late to the meeting

because of the traffic

"Due to" modify a nounExample: From helicopter, I saw a six mile"Because of" modify an ENTIRE CLAUSEExample:_________________iStock/Thinkstock(WASHINGTON) -- The contents of the controversial Republican memo alleging abuses of government surveillance powers at the FBI and Justice Department have been hotly debated, and now the American public is now be able to read them in detail.



The document, authored by the Republican staff of the House Intelligence Committee, was released Friday after President Donald Trump declassified it and approved its release without redactions by that committee. The memo was made public despite "grave concerns" expressed by the FBI.



So why is the memo so controversial and what is in it? Here is the latest ABC News reporting on the document capturing the attention of Washington.



What is the classified GOP memo?



The GOP memo is a classified document drafted by the staff of House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes - a loyal Trump ally. According to some Republicans, it shows "shocking" misconduct by the FBI. Fox News host Sean Hannity, who, at the time, had not seen the memo, said it "makes Watergate look like stealing a Snickers bar from a drug store." The top Democrat on the committee, Rep. Adam Schiff - who had seen the underlying classified intelligence - described the memo as a "profoundly misleading set of talking points drafted by Republican staff attacking the FBI and its handling of the [Russia] investigation."



What's in it?



The full text of the memo was released on Friday.



The memo had been kept in a classified setting, and only recently been made available to all House members. The underlying intelligence that the memo draws from had only been reviewed by a select few members of the House and Senate prior to its release.



The memo alleged that the FBI inappropriately relied on information obtained from a former British spy - working on a project funded in part by the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton's campaign - to obtain a surveillance warrant in October 2016 on former Trump campaign official Carter Page, who had been suspected of being a Russian agent. It argues that the Justice Department, in its warrant application at the time, failed to inform an intelligence court judge that it was based in part on the Democratically-funded research. And, the memo references the actions of Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who later supported a renewal of the surveillance warrant request regarding Page after Donald Trump took office.



It's also important to remember that all Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrants are approved by a judge in special FISA courts.



Democrats who viewed the memo before its release or the underlying intelligence said Republicans cherry-picked information to support their conclusions. Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, who viewed the underlying intelligence the memo draws from, told Politico that Republicans are connecting dots that dont connect.



What was the debate over blocking its release?



On January 24 Assistant Attorney General Stephen E. Boyd sent a letter to Nunes' office, saying it would be "extraordinarily reckless" to release the memo without giving the Justice Department and the FBI a chance to review it first. Since then, FBI director Chris Wray has viewed at least part of the document during a meeting with Nunes on Sunday, according to sources. In a statement Wednesday, the FBI expressed "grave concerns about material omissions of fact that fundamentally impact the memo's accuracy."



Over those objections, the Republican majority on the House Intelligence Committee voted to release the memo. The White House said Thursday that Trump was inclined to formally support that decision.



Meanwhile, the FBI had been lobbying the administration to keep it under wraps. In a statement Wednesday, the FBI expressed "grave concerns about material omissions of fact that fundamentally impact the memo's accuracy."



Democrats put together a 10-page memo that they say refutes the Republican allegations by citing information Democrats say was selectively left out. Sources who have viewed the document, which has been made available to the full House but not made public, say it paints a fuller picture of the surveillance application and underlying intelligence that formed the basis of the request, including new information about why the FBI wanted to surveil Page. But committee Republicans have so far blocked Democrats' request to release their document simultaneously with the GOP memo.



Wednesday night, Schiff complained to Nunes that Republicans had made "material" changes to their memo after the committee voted to release it and send it to the White House. He argued that because the memo the White House was reviewing was not the one voted on, the president could not review it or authorize its release. A Nunes spokesman claimed the changes were minor including grammatical edits and some requested by the FBI and Democrats  and said Democrats were making a strange attempt to thwart publication.



How does this memo tie into other investigations?



The contents of this memo could be examined by the Justice Department's Inspector General. In January the DOJ's IG announced it is investigating a litany of matters related to Justice Department and the FBI ahead of the 2016 election, including underlying investigative decisions in the Hillary Clinton email probe; former FBI director James Comeys July 5, 2016, announcement saying no charges would be filed against Clinton; allegations that FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe should have recused himself from certain cases including the Clinton email probe; and allegations that DOJ and FBI employees leaked information.

Copyright  2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.Islamabad, Feb 3 (IBNS): At least 11 Pakistani national are feared to have died in a boat sinking incident of the Libyan coast on Thursday, officials said on Saturday.

" Eleven Pakistanis feared dead in boat sinking incident off the coast of Libya. Pak Embassy in Tripoli actively following up. Names and details of the deceased will follow as soon as Foreign Office gets them from Tripoli," Pakistan Foreign Office (FO) Spokesperson Dr Mohammad Faisal tweeted.

Eleven Pakistanis feared dead in boat sinking incident off the coast of Libya. Pak Embassy in Tripoli actively following up. Names and details of the deceased will follow as soon as Foreign Office gets them from Tripoli.  Dr Mohammad Faisal (@DrMFaisal) February 2, 2018

At least 90 people are feared to have been killed in the boat sinking incident in the Mediterranean Sea.

The boat reportedly capsized off the coast of Zuwara.

An estimated 90-100 migrants are reported to have been on board a boat, when it capsized off the coast of Libya on Thursday evening, said International Organization for Migration (IOM).

According to IOM Libyas Olivia Headon, 10 bodies are reported to have washed up on Libyan shores  one Libyan woman and reportedly some Pakistani nationals.

Two survivors are reported to have swam to shore, while another was rescued by a fishing boat, Headon said.

IOM is working to get more details of the tragedy and to see how best to assist survivors, she continued.

In 2017, the 3,138 Pakistani migrants arriving by sea to Italy from Libya were 13th in the overall list of migrant arrivals (119,369).

This year though, they already are the third highest nationality so far, with an estimated 240 reaching Italy in January.

In comparison, only nine Pakistanis arrived in Italy by sea in January 2017.

According to IOMs Missing Migrants project (MMP), there were no confirmed deaths of Pakistani or Libyan nationals in the Mediterranean in 2017.

In 2016, MMP recorded that 8 Pakistani nationals went missing in the Eastern Mediterranean in a shipwreck on 14 March 2016 near Kos, Greece.

This latest tragedy comes as IOM, the UN Migration Agency, reports that 6,624 migrants and refugees had entered Europe by sea through 28 January.

This compares with 5,983 coming ashore during a similar period in 2017. Italy accounts for approximately 64 per cent of the total, with the remainder split between Spain (19 per cent) and Greece (16 per cent).

Representative Image: Wikimedia CommonsWebsite is one of the most essential components for a business or we can say it is online identity of a business. A website is your identity as well as a way to communicate to your audience or customers across the world. If you want to attract more customers or want to set up your business online then make sure you have a well-designed website. Website acts as backbone of a business/brand online so the businesses who want to beat their competitors or want a successful online presence make sure they have well-designed website.

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Website and web application are important for all kind and size of business who wants to grow online. If you want to take your business to the next level then it is really important to provide great user experience. And it is only possible with great website and great web applications. Website will interact to your audience and let them aware of your business, brand and services you provide.

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Hamid Bahrami, a former political prisoner from Iran, outlines policies pursued by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in this regard. Below is this outline, excerpted from his article for Al Arabiya:

 Increase the number of special patrols across the country so that they are seen 24/7 in major cities. According to my sources inside the IRGC, the paramilitary force has established specific headquarters for each city with a large population.

 In order to reinstate the atmosphere of intimidation, both the Intelligence Ministry (MOIS) and the IRGC have tortured a number of arrested protesters to death.

 In response to nationwide demonstrations, the regimes Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei ordered the authorities to increase the military budget by tapping into the countrys currency-reserves. Furthermore, President Rouhani has already increased the military budget by 90 percent in his governments budget for the coming Persian year.

 Increase pressure on political prisoners, human rights defenders and womens rights activists.

 Deceiving people with empty promises and propounding failed theories by one of the leaders of the deadwood Green Movement, who suddenly is free to express his opinion after seven years of house arrest.

During the protests, according to Bahrami, reformists and hard-liners united their factions to rescue the regime. This union has long existed in their efforts to crush the opposition in the country  including the infamous 1988 Massacre of political prisoners.

However, many believe that even with their efforts, they will be unable to turn favor toward the regime. The worsening of Irans economic crisis, and the regimes failure to address it, will result in anti-regime demonstrations continuing beyond the Persia New Year, says Bahrami.

He cites five factors that brought people to streets:

 Economic Stagnation and youth unemployment

 Deteriorating standard of living

 Lack of civil liberties

 Disastrous environmental policy

 Dissatisfaction over involvement in foreign wars

Bahrami says that despite repression, reports from Iran continue to show growing resistance against the regime. Radio Free Europe detailed sporadic demonstrations across the country on January 30th. Anti-regime graffiti decorates walls, and attacks on offices belonging to the IRGCs Basij-force in small cities are carried out by Iranian activists.

Women are challenging the compulsory dress-code laws  removing their headscarf in public and waving it during the protests. The Girl of Enghelab Street, nicknamed after the name of the road where the first such protest took place, is the name these brave women have given name to their movement.

Irans state-run website, Jahan News, blamed female members of Irans opposition group, the MEK/PMOI, for organizing the womens protests, citing the IRGCs Deputy for Political Affairs, Gen Rasoul Sanaei-Rad, who said,

The leaders and those inciting the protests were from the Hypocrites (the regimes label for the MEK/PMOI). They had come from other cities so as not to be identified. Those who were detained were from  the MEK/PMOI . He added, Eighty percent of those arrested were under 30 years of age. There were several women among them, who are middle-aged. In the 1980s, those who were leading MEK protests were mostly women. And now, the main chain of provocation and those who started the protests were women.neakutne (!!!) CT vysetrenie dostaneme na Slovensku do 7 dni;

100% pripadov rakoviny sa zacne liecit do 21 dni;

67% planovanych operacii sa uskutocni do 3 mesiacov (v roku 2015 to bolo 27%, v Cechach stihnu do troch mesiacov urobit tretinu planovanych operacii);In the Trump Era, Consumer Protection Agency Changes Course

One Year of Trump: What Weve Lost and What Weve Learned

The year leading up to his inauguration in 2017, as the Republican presidential nominee, Donald Trump espoused senseless, baseless and ultimately empty assertions about the state of Black Americans and our communities.

What the hell do you have to lose? he screamed in front of a predominantly White crowd in a small, predominantly White suburb of Lansing, Michigan.

After Trump was inaugurated, the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) found it prudent to answer his question. In March, the CBC Executive Committee, led by our Chairman Cedric L. Richmond (D-La.), presented Trump with a 130-page policy document entitled, We Have A Lot To Lose: Solutions to Advance Black Families in the 21st Century.

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The document, which was compiled by the entire 49-member Caucus, outlined policy solutions down to the bill text for issues facing our communities. Voting rights, criminal justice reform, economic justice, education, health care, immigration  these were just some of the topics we presented to continue our progress.

Unfortunately, these are the issues that Trump and his administration have chosen to ignore. The President, who has not commented on the document since we presented it to him, obviously has had other ideas, almost as if he wanted to answer his own question in his first year, to show us what we can lose.

The truth is that in this first year, weve lost a lot.

Almost immediately after being elected, Trump established the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity and appointed a known vote suppressor to lead it. The commission was designed to intimidate voters and Trumpbecause of political and legal pressurerecently decided to dissolve it into the Department of Homeland Security.

Throughout the past year, Trump has stacked the federal courts with judges with nothing short of scandalous records when it comes to voting rights. Among his nominee group was Thomas Farr, who helped lawmakers draft and defend a 2013 law that the Fourth Circuit Court of North Carolina ruled targeted African American voters with almost surgical precision.

On the criminal justice front, Trump has used the Department of Justice to embrace mass incarceration and shy away from transparent policing. One example of this is an FBI report published last August entitled, Black Identity Extremists Likely Motivated to Target Law Enforcement Officers. One problem with the report is that the term Black Identity Extremists is an invented group that does not exist. There are no Black people organized to kill law enforcement officers. When I asked Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and FBI Director Christopher Wray about the origins of this report, none of them could tell me what the report was even based on or how the term was created.

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Economically, Trump has gone after our consumer protections. Congress is working to repeal Dodd-Frank, a landmark piece of legislation designed to protect consumers from the wreck of the 2009 recession. Trumps favoring of big banks will ultimately leave consumers in the same spot they were during the recession, or worse. The education of our children is also under attack. In 2014, for the first time ever, the majority of public school students in the United States were non-White. Secretary DeVos has been less than helpful to these institutions, ignoring grave disparities in how students of color are disciplined compared to White students, and supporting a budget that would further attack services that public schools provide.

Trump has also gone after our healthcare by actively sabotaging the Affordable Care Act, continually issuing statements citing death spirals and other doomsday prophesies in addition to cutting funding for advertisements and allowing health insurance companies to sell short-term plans with inadequate coverage. Trump and other Republican leaders have already openly discussed cuts to the social safety net, meaning Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, as justification for their deficit-exploding tax plan.

Trump has spent a considerable amount of time attacking Black immigrants and their countries with both his racist words and policies. In addition to referring to Haiti and African countries as shitholes, hes attacked recipients of the Diversity Visa Program, rescinded the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program and scheduled the elimination of Temporary Protective Status for many countries like Haiti and El Salvador.

The entire reason we have this program is to help protect immigrants from ills in their home country, which can range from famine to civil war. To deport hundreds of thousands after opening our borders to them is unconscionable. When we look at the issue holistically and see that tens of thousands of DACA enrollees are Black and that the plurality of diversity visa recipients are also Black, it contextualizes the presidents assault on these programs.

Unfortunately, these assaults on our criminal justice system, our consumer protections, our education and our health, will continue through 2018.

What Trumps first year showed is that hard-earned progress will never be safe so long as his bigotry, hatred and racism hold power. But what we showed this year in Alabama and Virginia, to not just our community, but to our country and the rest of the world, is that even in the face of opposition, our activism will continue and will prevail. We must be organized and we will be organized. This year, Trump has answered his own question about what Black Americans have to lose. But its an answer we dont plan to accept.

Congresswoman Karen Bass represents Californias 37th Congressional District. She is the 2nd Vice Chair of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) and she co-chairs the CBCs Africa Taskforce. She is also Ranking Member on the House Subcommittee on Africa. Follow her on Twitter at @RepKarenBass.A father of three sexual abuse victims tried to attack the former Olympic and Michigan State University doctor found guilty of the sex crimes.

The incident took place Friday in a courtroom in Michigan during the sentencing hearing for Larry Nassar.

The father was identified as Randall Margraves. Two of his daughters, Lauren and Madison Margraves, had just given their their victim impact statements with their parents by their side. The women said that they and another sister were abused by Nassar under the guise of medical treatment.

After their statements, the father looked at Nassar, shook his head and addressed the court. He called Nassar a profane name. Judge Janice K. Cunningham told the man not to use profanity.

Margraves then asked if Cunningham would give him five minutes alone with Nassar in a locked room. When she said she could not, he asked for one minute, and added that he was a distraught father.

He then ran toward Nassar, who was sitting nearby. Courtroom police stopped Margraves before he reached Nassar. They held Margraves on the ground and put him in handcuffs.

As police walked Margraves out of court, Michigan Assistant Attorney General Angela Povilaitis advised families in the courtroom to use your words, not violence.

"This is letting him have this power over us," Povilaitis said. "We cannot behave like this. I understand this is a remarkable situation. But you cannot do this.

Margraves responded, You havent lived through it, lady.

Later Friday, Margraves returned to the courtroom, still in handcuffs. He apologized to the judge for losing control. The judge said there was no way she would punish Margraves for contempt of court.

Cunningham told Margraves it was in her power to order a jail sentence, fine him thousands of dollars, or both. But, she said, I dont want to do that.

She told Margraves, I understand. Well, actually, I dont. Im a parent. I cant say that I understand. I dont know what it would be like to stand there as a father and know that three of your girls were injured physically and emotionally by someone sitting in a courtroom. I cant fathom that.

Cunningham also urged Margraves and others in the courtroom to respect the rule of law.

The incident took place during the third and final sentencing hearing for Nassar. The charges in this case center on his work at Twistars, a well-known gymnastics club in Michigan.

Following a similar hearing that ended last week, Nassar was sentenced to 40 to 175 years in jail. More than 150 women and girls gave impact statements during sentencing.

Among them were U.S. Olympic gymnasts, including 2012 gold medalists Aly Raisman, McKayla Maroney and Jordyn Wieber.

Late last year, Nassar was sentenced to 60 years in jail for possession of child pornography.

Nassar, 54, worked with USA Gymnastics for more than 20 years and traveled to four Olympic Games as the team doctor. He was also a longtime doctor at Michigan State University. Both MSU and USA Gymnastics have faced strong criticism for what some call enabling Nassars abuse for years.

More than 250 women and girls have said Nassar abused them.

I'm Ashley Thompson.

The Associated Press reported this story. Ashley Thompson adapted it for Learning English. Hai Do was the editor.

_______________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

guise - n. one of several or many different ways in which something is seen, experienced, or produced

impact - v. to have a strong and often bad effect on (something or someone):

profane - adj. having or showing disrespect for religious things

distraught - adj. very upset : so upset that you are not able to think clearly or behave normally

handcuffs - n. a set of two metal rings that are joined together and locked around a person's wrists

remarkable - adj. unusual or surprising

contempt of court - n. speech or behavior that does not show proper respect to a court or judge

fathom - v. to understand the reason for (something)Every summer for the past 15 years, Cambodian-American adoptees and their families have come from around the country to gather in the state of Colorado.

The families take part in a special camp in the Rocky Mountains. It is called the Cambodian Heritage Camp. It is meant for people adopted from Cambodia as children as well as their adoptive parents.

Kunthia Porter and her sister Devin were adopted in 1999 by the Porter family of Spokane, Washington. Kunthia describes herself, her sister and other campers as Khmericans. They are people born in Cambodia but raised in America. They are shaped by their adoptive parents desire to have them know and understand both cultures.

Now 25 years old, Kunthia says she wishes she had stayed more in touch with the culture of her home country.

Even though our parents really wanted us to stay connected with our culture, we soon learned English within a month and kind of left our culture behind and tried to get absorbed in the American culture. But as we grew up, we both kind of regretted that, she said.

Each year, the Cambodian Heritage Camp has a different theme, such as the Mekong River. The camps classes are taught by Cambodian-American volunteers. The classes include subjects such as the Khmer language, history, dance, music and food.

Sar Titborey is a Cambodian-American volunteer. Titborey said identity is very important. The most important word that we have been using for the past 15 years, even after the kids passed grade 12, is identity.

Titborey added, We want to make sure we do not forget our roots, so whatever we teach, we stress that.

Connections continue as the years go by

The U.S.-Cambodia adoption program has been suspended since 2001. That means there are no longer young people who are the right age for the camp.

But when the organizers announced last summer that there would be no camp sessions in 2018, parents were unhappy.

The families and counselors had already built a close group on social media. And the group was planning a reunion and a project trip for volunteers to Cambodia.

Kimsua Chay, who first volunteered as a camp counselor in 2004, said, Nobody wanted camp to end. He added that the camp is a way of giving back to our country, where our parents were born.

He is now a United Airlines pilot based in Los Angeles. He serves as counselor coordinator. He is working on a program for the 2018 camp reunion.

Sharon Blender is one of the camps executive directors. She said the Cambodian-American counselors also learn about their heritage at the camp including rituals and traditions.

There are about 320,000 people in the Cambodian community in the United States. Those numbers come from the Center for American Progress. That is small compared to other Asian-American groups. Most are in California, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Washington and Texas.

The State Department says 2,355 Cambodian children have been adopted by American families. Many know little about their culture, and live in places far away from immigrant communities.

The families try to learn about their childrens heritage and Cambodias recent history. This includes the conflict of the Vietnam War and the Cambodian Khmer Rouge genocide in which between 1.7 and 2.5 million people died.

The Heritage Camps for Adoptive Families organizes the Cambodian camp. It also holds camps for 10 other adoptee groups including Chinese, Korean, Thai and Vietnamese.

Attendees say the camp is a valuable resource that families would not have otherwise.

Kimberley Lanegran is an associate professor of political science at Coe College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. She adopted two children, one of whom is from Cambodia.

She has attended the camp for many years. Its nice to be with people whoknow some of the same experiences that Ive gone through myself, she said.

Lanegran said of her Cambodian-born daughter, We cant make her like us and she is not like us. But she adds, We just help her know that she is American and she is our daughter, but she was born in Cambodia.

Im Mario Ritter.

Mony Say reported this story for VOA News. Mario Ritter adapted it for VOA Learning English. Ashley Thompson was the editor.

________________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

adopt v. to legally become the parent of a child who is not your own

absorb v. to become part of a larger group

heritage n. the things that make up the history and traditions of a group

ritual n. part of a formal ceremony that is done the same way every time

perspective n. a way of looking at or thinking about something

We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments section, and visit our Facebook page.The Syrian city of Aleppos main square is now filled with activity. There are people of all ages: young men dancing, children playing, others buying ice cream, popcorn, or peanuts. A large sign there said in English, I love Aleppo.

But nearly four years of warfare has destroyed much of the city. The square stood near the front line dividing the government-held western half of Aleppo from the rebel-held eastern half.

Thirteen months after government forces captured the east there have been some improvements in Aleppo. The guns are silent and people have returned to the streets.

Water and electricity are improving. But the city has just begun to recover from destruction and a civilian flight so great that it is hard for citizens to believe the city could ever rebuild.

Aleppos eastern half remains in ruins. Much of the wreckage has been cleaned from its streets, but the many damaged buildings have not been rebuilt.

Though some citizens are back, hundreds of thousands still have not returned to their homes in the east. This is because their homes were destroyed or because they fear reprisals from opposition supporters.

After the victory by the forces of President Bashar al-Assad, there are few signs of agreement in Syrias largest city.

No one speaks of how part of the city fought against Assads government. Residents express only pro-Assad opinions to reporters. They say the rebels were Islamic militants supported by foreign powers. Strongly anti-Assad residents have probably not returned or stay quiet. Most want to fix the destroyed city.

I feel very sad, I cry. Sometimes I cry in the morning because this was a very good neighborhood, said Adnan Sabbagh who lives in the Sukkari area. It was once held by rebels.

Sabbaghs six-story building continues to stand, but it is badly damaged. The top three floors have no walls.

The 47-year-old construction worker fled to live in the coastal town of Jableh five years ago when the rebels captured Aleppos east.

All three of his daughters are married to soldiers in the army. So, he feared the fighters would not let him remain in the city.

In the fall of last year, he returned home and fixed up his apartment on the second floor where he now lives with his wife and youngest son.

He uses generators set up in the streets because there is no electricity in Sukkari  the government is still working to rebuild it. But there is running water, although it is only available every other day on both sides of the city.

Before the war, Aleppo had a population of 2.3 million people and was Syrias largest city and its business center. It also had its own culture in Syria.

Aleppans are proud of their Syrian Arabic accent and of their famous food. The citys history is more than a thousand years old, and tourists used to visit its historic places. However, the most violent battles of Syrias war have taken place in the city.

In 2016, government forces backed by Russian airstrikes surrounded the city hitting it with bombs for months.

The rebels surrendered in December of 2016. Many fled to other places. Eastern Aleppo was once home to over 1 million people. Now, it is empty and destroyed.

Life returning to the city

Since that time, some people have returned. The top United Nations official in Syria, Ali Al-Zatari, said estimates are difficult to make. But, the U.N says about 200,000 people now live in the east.

Most of the factories in Aleppos 15 industrial districts are closed, many of them damaged from the bombs dropped by Assads forces.

In western Aleppo, there is less damage. People show a feeling of freedom from life under warfare. Electricity comes on several hours a day and soon will be available all day.

Sand blockades that had been set up on many streets have been removed.

Im el-Nour, a 51-year-old woman who drives a taxi, says she is the only female cab driver in the city. She says she has seen an increase in work. She can drive in the east, where conservative women call her for rides to avoid riding with a male driver.

She also works playing music at weddings or at women-only parties.

El-Nour is divorced. Her son died while fighting in Assads army. Now, between two jobs, she makes more than $100 a month. That is a little more than a civil servant earns.

Besides increasing business, there are other signs that life is returning to Aleppo.

In the main square, Abdullatif Maslawi, a 21-year-old student, performed a traditional dance with a group of his friends.

Aleppo was wounded and now it is being cured, he said.

Im Susan Shand and Im Pete Musto.

Susan Shand adapted this story for VOA Learning English from an Associated Press story. Mario Ritter was the editor.

_________________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

Square  n. an open area in a village, city, etc., where two or more streets meet

Reprisal  n. something that is done to hurt or punish someone who has hurt you or done something bad to you

Generator  n. a machine for converting mechanical energy into electricity

Tourist  n. a person who travels to a place for pleasure

District  n. an area or section of a country, city, or town

Divorce  v. the ending of a marriage by a legal processNorth America will have six more weeks of winter, says Punxsutawney Phil, the most famous groundhog in the United States.

Phils keepers reported his weather prediction Friday morning on the U.S. observance of Groundhog Day.

Every year, on February 2, a groundhog leaves his home, a hole in the ground in the small community of Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. On a sunny morning, his body will create a shadow on nearby objects. Tradition says that if the animal sees his shadow, there will be six more weeks of winter weather. But if skies are cloudy, and no dark shape appears, Americans can expect spring to arrive early.

An unusual tradition

Groundhog Day is one of the more unusual American traditions. Every year, thousands of people from across the U.S. travel to Punxsutawney. On the night of February 1, they go to a hill called Gobblers Knob." There, they wait until sunrise, when Phil leaves his home to look for his shadow.

Groundhog Day is said to come from a European tradition called Candlemas. February 2 was the middle of winter, and in Europe, clergymen would give candles to people at religious services. When lit, the candles brightened up the community in the dead of winter.

Later, in Germany, the tradition changed, and people instead began looking for signs of increased sunlight and changes in the weather. If an animal saw its shadow on Candlemas Day, this meant six more weeks of winter, or the Second Winter.

The tradition came to North America when German immigrants arrived in what is now the eastern state of Pennsylvania. They chose the groundhog, a large rodent and member of the marmot family, as the animal to continue the tradition.

The first official Groundhog Day at Gobblers Knob was held in 1887. The event has continued there ever since.

Part of American culture

Groundhog Day has become part of American culture. Other states now celebrate their own Groundhog Day, with their own groundhog. In North Carolina, his name is Sir Walter Wally. In West Virginia, people turn to French Creek Freddie. Georgia has General Beauregard Lee.

New York City also marks the day with Chuck the groundhog. In 2009, Chuck famously bit the hand of the citys mayor at the time, Michael Bloomberg, when he came out of his home.

Washington, D.C., has a small tradition involving a stuffed groundhog. Some people use the animal to make predictions about the political climate of the country.

Aaron DeNu told The Washington Post newspaper that every year his groundhog predicts six more weeks of political gridlockand so far, hes always been right.

Groundhog Day has also been popular in American media. In the 1993 film Groundhog Day, a reporter visits Punxsutawney for the big event, but becomes stuck in time. He then has to repeat the same day, over and over again, until he becomes a better person.

Can animals predict the weather?

Although Americans hear Phils weather prediction every February 2, it is not clear how correct the groundhog is.

The Stormfax website researched all the predications since 1887 and found that he has seen his shadow 104 times (79 percent). Yet the animal has been right only 39 percent of the time.

However, his record does not ruin the excitement of people who travel to see him.

Doug Sacrison traveled over 4,000 kilometers from Washington State this year to attend his first Groundhog Day in Punxsutawney. Sacrison said that he finally has lived a lifelong dream.

I think Groundhog Day may be my single favorite part of America, he said. Its all just for fun and theres something magical about getting excited about something that silly. I think it was the coldest temperature I had ever stood in, but the fun of it all kept me warm and smiling well after Phil made his prediction.

"I think the next six weeks wont be so bad after all.

Im Phil Dierking.

Phil Dirking reported this story using multiple media. George Grow was the editor.

Would you believe an animals prediction for the weather? We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section or on our Facebook page.

________________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

candle - n. wax that has been formed into a stick or another shape and has a string in the middle that can be burned

gridlock - n. a situation in which no progress can be made

silly - adj. having or showing a lack of thought, understanding, or good judgment : foolish or stupid

shadow - n. a dark shape that appears on a surface when someone or something moves between the surface and a source of light

stuffed - adj. to be filled with another, usually soft, material American Consumer News, LLC dba MarketBeat 2010-2021. All rights reserved.

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Fundamental company data provided by Zacks Investment Research.The following companies are subsidiares of The Travelers Companies: 10762962 Canada Inc., 350 Market Street LLC, 8527512 Canada Inc., Aetna Life and Casualty Co, American Equity Insurance Company, American Equity Specialty Insurance Company, Aprilgrange Limited, Arch Street North LLC, Auto Hartford Investments LLC, Bayhill Restaurant II Associates, Camperdown Corporation, Constitution State Services LLC, Discover Property & Casualty Insurance Company, Discover Specialty Insurance Company, F&G UK Underwriters Limited, Farmington Casualty Company, Fidelity and Guaranty Insurance Company, Fidelity and Guaranty Insurance Underwriters Inc., First Floridian Auto and Home Insurance Company, Gulf Underwriters Insurance Company, IHP Capital Partners Fund VIII L.P., Northbrook Holdings Inc., Northfield Insurance Company, Northland Casualty Company, Northland Insurance Company, Phoenix UK Investments LLC, SPC Insurance Agency Inc., Select Insurance Company, Simply Business Holdings Inc., Simply Business Inc., St. Paul Fire and Marine Insurance Company, St. Paul Guardian Insurance Company, St. Paul Mercury Insurance Company, St. Paul Protective Insurance Company, St. Paul Surplus Lines Insurance Company, Standard Fire Properties LLC, Standard Fire UK Investments LLC, TCI Global Services Inc., TPC Investments Inc., TPC U.K. Investments LLC, The Automobile Insurance Company of Hartford Connecticut, The Charter Oak Fire Insurance Company, The Dominion of Canada General Insurance Company, The Family Business Institute LLC, The Phoenix Insurance Company, The St. Paul Companies Inc., The Standard Fire Insurance Company, The Travelers Casualty Company, The Travelers Home and Marine Insurance Company, The Travelers Indemnity Company, The Travelers Indemnity Company of America, The Travelers Indemnity Company of Connecticut, The Travelers Lloyds Insurance Company, TravCo Insurance Company, Travelers (Bermuda) Limited, Travelers Brazil Acquisition LLC, Travelers Brazil Holding LLC, Travelers Casualty Company of Connecticut, Travelers Casualty Insurance Company of America, Travelers Casualty UK Investments LLC, Travelers Casualty and Surety Company, Travelers Casualty and Surety Company of America, Travelers Casualty and Surety Company of Europe Limited, Travelers Commercial Casualty Company, Travelers Commercial Insurance Company, Travelers Constitution State Insurance Company, Travelers Distribution Alliance Inc., Travelers Excess and Surplus Lines Company, Travelers Global Inc., Travelers Indemnity U.K. Investments LLC, Travelers Insurance Company Limited, Travelers Insurance Company of Canada, Travelers Insurance Designated Activity Company, Travelers Insurance Group Holdings Inc., Travelers Lloyds of Texas Insurance Company, Travelers London Limited, Travelers MGA Inc., Travelers Management Limited, Travelers Marine LLC, Travelers Participacoes em Seguros Brasil S.A., Travelers Personal Insurance Company, Travelers Personal Security Insurance Company, Travelers Property Casualty Company of America, Travelers Property Casualty Corp., Travelers Property Casualty Insurance Company, Travelers Seguros Brasil S.A., Travelers Syndicate Management Limited, Travelers Texas MGA Inc., Travelers Underwriting Agency Limited, Ultramar Travel Management, United States Fidelity and Guaranty Company, Xbridge Limited, Zensurance Brokers Inc., and Zensurance Inc..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.

Read MoreThe following companies are subsidiares of The Procter & Gamble: "Procter & Gamble Services" LLC, "Procter & Gamble" LLC, Agile Pursuits, Agile Pursuits Franchising, Arbora, Arbora & Ausonia, Arborinvest, Billie, Braun (Shanghai) Co., Braun GmbH, Braun-Gillette Immobilien GmbH & Co. KG, Celtic Insurance Company, Compania Procter & Gamble Mexico, Compania Quimica S.A., Corporativo Procter & Gamble, Cosmetic Products Pty. Ltd., Detergent Products B.V., Detergent Products SARL, Detergenti S.A., Eurocos Cosmetic GmbH, FPG Oleochemicals Sdn. Bhd., Fameccanica Data S.p.A., Fameccanica Industria e Comercio Do Brasil LTDA., Fameccanica Machinery (Shanghai) Co., Fater S.p.A., Fountain Square Music Publishing Co., Gillette (China) Ltd., Gillette (Shanghai) Ltd., Gillette Aesop Ltd., Gillette Australia Pty. Ltd., Gillette Canada Holdings, Gillette Commercial Operations North America, Gillette Diversified Operations Pvt. Ltd., Gillette Egypt S.A.E., Gillette Group UK Ltd, Gillette Gruppe Deutschland GmbH & Co. oHG, Gillette Holding Company LLC, Gillette Holding GmbH, Gillette India Limited, Gillette Industries Ltd., Gillette International B.V., Gillette Latin America Holding B.V., Gillette Management LLC, Gillette Nova Scotia Company, Gillette Pakistan Limited, Gillette Poland International Sp. z.o.o., Gillette Poland S.A., Gillette U.K. Limited, Gillette del Uruguay, Giorgio Beverly Hills Inc., Hyginett KFT, Industries Marocaines Modernes SA, LLC "Procter & Gamble Novomoskovsk", LLL "Procter & Gamble Distributorskaya Compania", Laboratorios Vicks, Liberty Street Music Publishing Company, Limited Liability Company 'Procter & Gamble Trading Ukraine', Limited Liability Company with foreign investments Procter & and Gamble Ukraine, MDVIP, MERCK KGAA NPV, Marcvenca Inversiones, Modern Industries Company - Dammam, Modern Products Company - Jeddah, New Chapter, New Chapter Canada Inc., Olay LLC, Oral-B Laboratories, P&G Distribution Morocco SAS, P&G Hair Care Holding, P&G Industrial Peru S.R.L., P&G Innovation Godo Kaisha, P&G Israel M.D.O. Ltd., P&G K.K., P&G Northeast Asia Pte. Ltd., P&G Prestige Godo Kaisha, P&G Prestige Service GmbH, P&G South African Trading (Pty.) Ltd., PGT Health Care (Zhejiang) Limited, PGT Healthcare LLP, PPI ZAO, PT Procter & Gamble Home Products Indonesia, PT Procter & Gamble Operations Indonesia, Phase II Holdings Corporation, Procter & Gamble (Chengdu) Ltd., Procter & Gamble (China) Ltd., Procter & Gamble (China) Sales Co. Ltd., Procter & Gamble (East Africa) Limited, Procter & Gamble (Egypt) Manufacturing Company, Procter & Gamble (Enterprise Fund) Limited, Procter & Gamble (Guangzhou) Consumer Products Co. Ltd., Procter & Gamble (Guangzhou) Enterprise Management Service Company Limited, Procter & Gamble (Guangzhou) Ltd., Procter & Gamble (Health & Beauty Care) Limited, Procter & Gamble (Jiangsu) Ltd. 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(Ltd.), Procter & Gamble Sports and Social Club Ltd., Procter & Gamble Sverige AB, Procter & Gamble Switzerland SARL, Procter & Gamble Taiwan Limited, Procter & Gamble Taiwan Sales Company Limited, Procter & Gamble Technical Centres Limited, Procter & Gamble Technology (Beijing) Co., Procter & Gamble Trading (Thailand) Limited, Procter & Gamble Tuketim Mallari Sanayii A.S., Procter & Gamble UK, Procter & Gamble UK Group Holdings Ltd, Procter & Gamble UK Parent Company Ltd., Procter & Gamble Universal Holding B.V., Procter & Gamble Verwaltungs GmbH, Procter & Gamble Vietnam, Procter & Gamble d.o.o. za trgovinu, Procter & Gamble de Venezuela S.C.A., Procter & Gamble de Venezuela S.R.L., Procter & Gamble do Brasil S/A, Procter & Gamble do Brazil, Procter & Gamble do Nordeste S/A, Procter & Gamble-Rakona s.r.o., Progam Realty & Development Corporation, Redmond Products, Richardson-Vicks Real Estate Inc., Richardson-Vicks do Brasil Quimica e Farmaceutica Ltda, Riverfront Music Publishing Co., Rosemount LLC, SPD Development Company Limited, SPD Swiss Precision Diagnostics GmbH, Scannon S.A.S., Series Acquisition B.V., Shulton, Surfac S.R.L., Sycamore Productions, TAOS - FL, TAOS Retail, Tambrands Inc., Temple Trees Impex & Investment Private Limited, The Art of Shaving - FL, The Dover Wipes Company, The Gillette Company, The Gillette Company LLC, The Gillette co., The Procter & Gamble Distributing LLC, The Procter & Gamble GBS Company, The Procter & Gamble Global Finance Company, The Procter & Gamble Manufacturing Company, The Procter & Gamble Paper Products Company, The Procter & Gamble U.S. Business Services Company, This is L., US CD LLC, Vidal Sassoon (Shanghai) Academy, Vidal Sassoon Co., WEBA Betriebsrenten-Verwaltungsgesellschaft mbH, Walker & Company Brands, and iMFLUX Inc..A family dispute is playing out in Napa Superior Court between two daughters of Ed Keith, a Napa landlord, vintner and businessman, over what happened to their fathers $92 million estate, including some $38 million earmarked for a foundation intended to benefit disadvantaged youth.

In 2016, a decade after Keith died, Lisa Keith filed suit to compel her sister, Celeste K. White, to provide a full accounting of millions of dollars that White controlled as co-trustee of the Ed Keith estate.

In court documents, Lisa Keith questions the propriety of a variety of financial decisions made by Celeste White, including $15 million invested in a for-profit real estate company, the purchase of a $2.4 million condo in Santa Barbara, the acquisition of a Land Rover for a Chiles Valley winery and the construction of a stable for their polo ponies.

After more than a year of back and forth court filings, court records for the case now total more than 2,000 pages.

Lisa Keith, who lives in Woodside, is one of Ed Keiths five children from two marriages. Her sister, Celeste White, lives in Napa with her husband, Dr. Robert White, a surgeon who was named the executor of Ed Keiths estate.

Keiths multi-million-dollar estate

Ed Keith was a self-made businessman. In addition to owning more than 500 apartment units in Napa, he once owned the former Parkway Plaza/Mervyns property in downtown Napa, Lincoln Square on Lincoln Avenue, the Migliavacca Mansion on Fourth Street, Brenden Theaters in Vacaville and Modesto, and Catacula Lake Winery in Chiles Valley, among other holdings.

The 1,025-acre winery property was acquired by Keith in the 1960s and operated as the Bar 49 summer camp for girls and boys until 1977, according to White and the winery website.

As an apartment landlord, Keith sometimes found himself at odds with both tenants and the city of Napa over property upkeep and code violations. In 2000, the city sued Keith as a public nuisance. A group of tenants also sued Keith over conditions, resulting in a $2 million settlement. Keith eventually sold off his apartments.

The allegations

In court documents Lisa Keith alleges that the Whites made questionable decisions regarding the money from their fathers estate.

The suit questions whether Ed Keiths estate was properly divided between the nonprofit foundation and the Keith children.

She asserts that her sister failed to fully fund her fathers foundation in a timely manner, mixed the estates charitable assets with taxable assets, failed to provide an accounting of the trust and used trust money for personal benefit.

Lisa Keith believes that an estimated $1.8 million in trustee fees paid to Celeste White should be refunded to the trust.

Whites actions were improper and violated her duty to avoid conflicts of interest, the suit contends.

A sisters defense

In court papers, Celeste Whites attorneys said White vigorously disputes her sisters contentions and denies any wrongdoing.

According to Whites court filings, her sisters allegations simply are not true.

According to Celeste White, at a 2010 meeting, the five siblings signed off on documents that represented the final accounting of their fathers trust.

Celeste White is deeply saddened that her sister has elected to pursue litigation relating to the estate of their father, Bill Coyne, her personal attorney who practices in St. Helena, wrote in an email.

This lawsuit is Lisa Keiths attempt to get more money beyond the millions of dollars she has already received from her fathers estate, Coyne said.

Celeste and Robert White have faithfully exercised their duties in accordance with the wishes expressed by Mr. Keith, wrote Coyne. (Celeste) White is confident the court will rule in her favor.

Back and forth in court

A recent ruling in Napa County Superior Court dealt a blow to Lisa Keiths case. At the end of 2017, Judge Rodney Stone ruled that she had no standing to ask for an accounting of foundation funds because she is not a director or beneficiary of the foundation.

However, because Lisa Keith is a beneficiary of the trust, she continues to pursue litigation and ask for an accounting of Ed Keiths trust funds, said Dominic Campisi, a San Francisco attorney representing her.

The case has drawn the attention of the state Attorney Generals office. Deputy Attorney General Christopher Lamerdin has asked for copies of all future court filings to be sent to his office.

The Attorney Generals office would not comment on this case. However, according to the California Attorney Generals Guide for Charities, the Attorney General protects charitable gifts and the public beneficiaries interests in charitable trusts. The Attorney General may also audit the trust and hold the trustee personally liable for any breaches of a fiduciary duty that lead to the misuse or loss of charitable assets.

The Attorney Generals interest validates his clients case, said Campisi. When the Attorney General decides to get involved that indicates this isnt some grudge match involving the kids, said Campisi. A foundation worth $38 millionis not some small thing.

Coyne said that the Attorney Generals interest in this case is just standard course.

Campisi just wants to draw in as many parties as possible, said Coyne. He wants to exaggerate the case so that it seems bigger than it really is, he said. Thats Mr. Campisis litigation style.

Ed Keiths many millions

Upon Ed Keiths death, a number of early distributions dictated by Keiths trust were made, including $1 million to each of his five children, $2 million to his 12 grandchildren and $10 million to the Catacula Lake Winery. This whittled his estate down to $76 million.

According to Keiths trust, half of that  $38 million  was to be placed in the Edward A. Keith Foundation, which was created to provide financial and other assistance to disadvantaged youth or children otherwise in need.

The other $38 million was to be divided equally among Keiths five children. After mortgages and other debts were paid, plus some $20 million in estate taxes, a total of $9.2 million was left to be split among the five siblings.

Questions arise

Several years ago, Lisa Keith began to investigate what happened to her fathers foundation. According to court documents, she found several facts that led her to become concerned.

From 2011 to 2014, Celeste White reportedly paid herself and her husband more than $300,000 annually from the foundation, according to court documents.

In addition, $15 million from the foundation was invested in Veritas Refuge LLC, a for-profit real estate investment company managed by Celeste White, according to records. Of that $15 million, $2.4 million was used to buy a condo in Santa Barbara.

How could this be a prudent investment for a charitable foundation? Campisi asked.

Celeste Whites attorneys defended her administration. The estates holdings were in total disarray and had been severely mismanaged in the years leading up to Keiths death.

Celeste White has spent hundreds of hours of work and incalculable amounts of energy and stress  administering such a complicated and large trust, they wrote in court filings.

Whites attorneys said administration fees charged to operate the foundation were not out of the ordinary.

In 2008, White reportedly used foundation funds to build an 8,000-square-foot building on their estate property in Napa County including a stable for their string of polo ponies, garage for horse trailer and stable house.

Lisa Keith believes the foundation was shortchanged to support Celeste and her husbands lifestyle, according to court documents.

Celeste Whites attorneys have an explanation.

The Land Rover was bought because it is a four-wheel vehicle that could be used to drive the trusts winery property, Catacula Lake Winery, located at 4105 Chiles Pope Valley Road.

Such a vehicle had to be sufficiently upscale to use for winery business, such as giving tours to prospective purchasers and commuting to various trust properties around Northern and Central California, attorneys wrote.

The winery was sold in 2014 and is now called the Napa Chiles Valley Winery. Its owned by Qinghai Huzhu Barley Wine Co., Ltd. in Haidong in China.

The profits from Veritas Refuge LLC, real estate investment company, were funneled back into the foundation, the family maintains.

Removed from the foundation

Lisa Keith claims that after her fathers death Celeste White had Lisa Keith and her other siblings removed as directors of the foundation  leaving just Celeste White and her husband Robert in charge of the foundation. Lisa Keith also claims the foundation then dropped any requirement that it benefit disadvantaged youth or children in need.

Whites attorneys said Ed Keith removed Lisa Keiths name as a director of the Foundation before he died.

Lisa Keith had a poor relationship with her father, claim Whites attorneys.

Lisa Keith is deeply dissatisfied with decisions her father made during his lifetime, including making Celeste co-trustee of the trust and removing (Lisa) Keith, but not Celeste, from the board of the Foundation, they contend.

Before his death, Mr. Keith established the purpose of the foundation to be broader, and help anyone in need, and the directors have been true to that, said Coyne.

Who got Keiths money?

According to court documents, the Edward Keith Foundation, later known as the Bar 49 Foundation and Valley Rock Foundation, distributed a total of $38 million.

Some local charities received money, including the Napa Valley Opera House, Napa Emergency Womens Shelter (now NEWS), St. Johns Lutheran Church, Queen of the Valley Foundation, Nimbus Arts, Ag for Youth, Grace Church of Napa Valley, the Salvation Army and the Soda Canyon Fire Department.

Westmont College, a Christian liberal arts college in Montecito near Santa Barbara and Celeste Whites alma mater, received more than $1.3 million. The National Christian Foundation of Alpharetta, Georgia, received $5 million.

Lisa Keith believes that if her father was alive, he would not have chosen to support some of those charities, said Campisi.

Ed thought he was going to spend his money on assisting people and programs for troubled and disadvantaged youth, he said.

The Ed Keith legacy

At the time of Keiths death, Robert White described the family as very close.

They hope to continue the good work he has done in the valley with conservation and Boys & Girls Club activities, and focus on his dream of improving the lives of young people here, said Robert White.

As of 2017, Celeste White was the only sibling that still used a Napa address. Darlene Keith lived in San Francisco, David Keith in Sutter Creek, Richard Keith in Petaluma and Lisa Keith in Woodside.

Darlene Keith and David Keith could not be immediately reached to comment on this story. Robert White declined to comment on the litigation.

Reached by phone at his home in Sonoma County, Richard Keith described the case as a sad situation.

Id like to see all the truth come out, he said. Unfortunately, I dont know if thats going to work or not.

Hes not sure what happened with the trust and foundation. However, What I cant believe is that my father would ever put one person, alone, in charge of his trust or foundation, Richard Keith said.

And I know hed like to see the money going towards children like the Boys and Girls Club rather than a host of other charitable groups that have nothing to do with helping underprivileged children, he said.

Plus, he didnt want anyone to get paid for working on the foundation board, Richard Keith said.

If there is one thing the family can agree on its that Ed Keith would not have wanted a fight over his estate.

Hed be horrified, said Robert White.

Hed be upset, said Richard Keith.

A status conference is set for March 28.

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Squibb & Sons Limited, EWI Corporation, EngMab Sarl, F-star Alpha, FermaVir Pharmaceuticals L.L.C., FermaVir Research L.L.C., Flexus Biosciences, Flexus Biosciences Inc., Forbius, Galecto Biotech, GenPharm International L.L.C., Gloucester Pharmaceuticals LLC, Grove Insurance Company Ltd., Heyden Farmaceutica Portuguesa Limitada, IFM Therapeutics, Impact Biomedicines Inc., Inhibitex, Inhibitex L.L.C., Innate Tumor Immunity Inc., JuMP Holdings LLC, Juno Therapeutics GmbH, Juno Therapeutics Inc., Kosan Biosciences, Kosan Biosciences Incorporated, Linson Investments Limited, Mead Johnson (Manufacturing) Jamaica Limited, Mead Johnson Jamaica Ltd., Medarex, Morris Avenue Investment II LLC, Morris Avenue Investment LLC, MyoKardia, O.o.o. Bristol-Myers Squibb, Oy Bristol-Myers Squibb (Finland) AB, Padlock Therapeutics, Padlock Therapeutics Inc., Pharmion LLC, Princeton Pharmaceutical Products Inc., Receptos LLC, Receptos Services LLC, RedoxTherapies Inc., Route 22 Real Estate Holding Corporation, SPV A Holdings ULC, Seamair Insurance DAC, Signal Pharmaceuticals LLC, Sino-American Shanghai Squibb Pharmaceuticals Limited, Societe Francaise de Complements Alimentaires(S.O.F.C.A.), Squibb Middle East S.A., Summit West Celgene LLC, Swords Laboratories, VentiRx Pharmaceuticals Inc., Westwood-Intrafin SA, Westwood-Squibb Pharmaceuticals Inc., X-Body Inc., ZymoGenetics, ZymoGenetics Inc., ZymoGenetics LLC, ZymoGenetics Paymaster LLC, iPierian, and iPierian Inc..ConocoPhillips engages in the exploration, production, transportation and marketing of crude oil, bitumen, natural gas, natural gas liquids, and liquefied natural gas on a worldwide basis. It operates through the following geographical segments: Alaska; Lower 48; Canada; Europe, Middle East and North Africa; Asia Pacific; and Other International. The Alaska segment primarily explores for produces, transports and markets crude oil, natural gas and natural gas liquids. The Lower 48 segment consists of operations in the U.S. and the Gulf of Mexico. The Canada segment is comprised of oil sands development in the Athabasca Region of northeastern Alberta and a liquids-rich unconventional play in western Canada. The Europe, Middle East and North Africa segment consists of operations and exploration activities in Norway, the United Kingdom and Libya. The Asia Pacific segment has explorations and product operations in China, Indonesia, Malaysia and Australia. The Other International segment handles exploration activities in Columbia and Argentina. The company was founded in 1875 and is headquartered in Houston, TX.

Read MoreThe following companies are subsidiares of Sysco: 2234829 Alberta ULC, 2234842 Alberta ULC, A. M. Briggs Inc., A.M. Briggs, Almacen Fiscal Frionet Caldera S.A., Almacen Fiscal Frionet Limon S.A., Appert's Foodservice, Arnotts (Fruit) Limited, Asian Foods, Bahamas Food Holdings Limited, Bahamas Food Services Limited, Brake Bros, Brake Bros Foodservice Ireland Limited, Brake Bros. Foodservice Limited, Brake Bros. Holding I Limited, Brake Bros. Ltd., Brakes Foodservice NI Limited, Buchy Food Service, Buckhead Beef Co., Buckhead Meat & Seafood of Houston Inc., Buckhead Meat Company, Buckhead Meat Midwest Inc., Buckhead Meat of Dallas Inc., Buckhead Meat of Denver Inc., Buckhead Meat of San Antonio LP, Buzztable Inc., CAKE Corporation, Central Seafood Co., Christys Wine & Spirits Limited, Clafra Aktiebolag, Colorado Boxed Beef Co - Specialty meat-cutting division, Corporacion Frionet Sociedad Anonima, Crossgar Foodservice, Crossgar Foodservice Limited, Crown I Enterprises Inc., Cucina Acquisitions (UK) Limited, Cucina Finance (UK) Limited, Cucina French Holdings Limited, Cucina Fresh Finance Limited, Cucina Fresh Investments Limited, Cucina Lux Investments Limited, Curleys Quality Foods Limited (Third Party), Davigel Belgilux S.A., Davigel Espana S.A., Desert Meats & Provisions, Distagro, Doerle Food Service, Doughtie's Foods Inc., Dust Bowl City LLC, Eko Fagel Fisk o mittemellan AB, Enclave Insurance Company, Enclave Parkway Association Inc., Enclave Properties LLC, European Imports, European Imports Inc., Figg Inc., Freedman Meats, Freedman Meats Inc., Freedman-KB Inc., Fresh Direct (UK) Limited, Fresh Direct Group Limited, Fresh Direct Limited, Fresh Holdings Limited, FreshPoint, FreshPoint Arizona Inc., FreshPoint Atlanta Inc., FreshPoint California Inc., FreshPoint Central California Inc., FreshPoint Central Florida Inc., FreshPoint Connecticut LLC, FreshPoint Dallas Inc., FreshPoint Denver Inc., FreshPoint Hawaii LLC, FreshPoint Inc., FreshPoint Las Vegas Inc., FreshPoint North Carolina Inc., FreshPoint North Florida Inc., FreshPoint Oklahoma City LLC, FreshPoint Pompano Real Estate LLC, FreshPoint Puerto Rico LLC, FreshPoint San Francisco Inc., FreshPoint South Florida Inc., FreshPoint South Texas Inc., FreshPoint Southern California Inc., FreshPoint Tomato LLC, FreshPoint Vancouver Ltd., Freshfayre Limited, Fruktservice i Helsingborg AB, GHS Classic Drinks Limited, Gilchrist & Soames Inc., Gilchrist & Soames UK Limited, Guest Packaging LLC, Guest Supply, Guest Supply Asia Limited, Guest Supply Singapore Pte. Ltd., International Food Group, Isakssons Frukt & Gront AB, J & M Wholesale Meats, J. Kings Food Service Professionals, J. Kings Food Service Professionals Inc., Kent Frozen Foods, Les Ateliers Du Gout, Liquid Assets Limited, M&J Seafood Holdings Limited, M&J Seafood Limited, Manchester Mills LLC, Mayca Autoservicio S.A., Mayca Distribuidores S.A., Menigo Foodservice AB, Mitshim Etatu Supply LP, Newport Meat Company, Newport Meat Northern California Inc., Newport Meat Pacific Northwest Inc., Newport Meat Southern California Inc., Newport Meat of Nevada Inc., North Star Holding Corporation, North Star Seafood, North Star Seafood Acquisition Corporation, North Star Seafood LLC, PFS de Mexico S.A. de C.V., Palisades Ranch Inc., Pallas Foods, Pallas Foods Farm Fresh Unlimited Company, Pallas Foods Unlimited Company, Pauleys Produce Limited, Promotora del Servicios S.A. de C.V., Restaurangakdemien AB, Restaurant of Tomorrow Inc., Rohan Viandes Elaboration SAS, SMS Bermuda Holdings, SMS GPC International Limited, SMS GPC International Resources Limited, SMS Global Holdings S.a.r.l., SMS International Resources Ireland Unlimited Company, SMS Lux Holdings LLC, SOTF LLC, SYY Netherlands C.V., SYY Panama S. de R.L., Serca Foodservice, Servicestyckarna I Johannes AB, Servicios Ameriserve S.A. de C.V., Shenzhen Guest Supply Trading Co. Limited, Societe Civile Immobiliere (SCI) Bianchi Montegut, Societe Civile Immobiliere (SCI) De Boiseau, Societe Civile Immobiliere (SCI) De Garcelles, Societe Civile Immobiliere (SCI) J.D. Lanjouan, Societe Civile Immobiliere (SCI) Le Dauphin, Specialty Meat Holdings LLC, Stockflag Limited, Stockholms Fiskauktion AB, Supplies on the Fly, Sysco Albany LLC, Sysco Asian Foods Inc., Sysco Atlanta LLC, Sysco Autoservicio S.A., Sysco Baltimore LLC, Sysco Baraboo LLC, Sysco Bermuda Partners L.P., Sysco Boston LLC, Sysco Canada Holdings S.a.r.l., Sysco Canada Inc., Sysco Central Alabama LLC, Sysco Central California Inc., Sysco Central Florida Inc., Sysco Central Illinois Inc., Sysco Central Pennsylvania LLC, Sysco Charlotte LLC, Sysco Chicago Inc., Sysco Cincinnati LLC, Sysco Cleveland Inc., Sysco Columbia LLC, Sysco Connecticut LLC, Sysco Corporation, Sysco Corporation Director's Deferred Compensation Plan Trust, Sysco Corporation Employee's 401(k) Plan Trust, Sysco Corporation Executive Deferred Compensation Plan Trust, Sysco Corporation Good Government Committee Inc., Sysco Corporation Retirement Trust, Sysco Corporation Supplemental Executive Retirement Trust, Sysco Corporation Supplemental Unemployment Benefits Plan Trust, Sysco Detroit LLC, Sysco Disaster Relief Foundation Inc., Sysco EI VI S. s.r.l., Sysco EU II S.a.r.l., Sysco EU III S.a.r.l., Sysco EU IV Capital Unlimited Company, Sysco EU IV S. s.r.l.., Sysco EU V S. s.r.l., Sysco Eastern Maryland LLC, Sysco Eastern Wisconsin LLC, Sysco Foundation Inc., Sysco France Holding SAS, Sysco France SAS, Sysco George Town II LLC, Sysco George Town Limited S. s.r.l.., Sysco Global Finance LLC, Sysco Global Finance LLP, Sysco Global Holdings B.V., Sysco Global Resources LLC, Sysco Global Services LLC, Sysco Grand Cayman Company, Sysco Grand Cayman II Company, Sysco Grand Cayman III Company, Sysco Grand Rapids LLC, Sysco Guernsey Limited, Sysco Guest Supply Canada Inc., Sysco Guest Supply Europe Goods Wholesalers LLC, Sysco Guest Supply Europe Limited, Sysco Guest Supply LLC, Sysco Gulf Coast LLC, Sysco Hampton Roads Inc., Sysco Hawaii Inc., Sysco Holdings II LLC, Sysco Holdings LLC, Sysco Indianapolis LLC, Sysco International Food Group Inc., Sysco International Inc., Sysco Iowa Inc., Sysco Jackson LLC, Sysco Jacksonville Inc., Sysco Kansas City Inc., Sysco Knoxville LLC, Sysco Labs Europe Limited, Sysco Labs Pvt. Ltd., Sysco Leasing LLC, Sysco Lincoln Inc., Sysco Lincoln Transportation Company Inc., Sysco Long Island LLC, Sysco Los Angeles Inc., Sysco Louisville Inc., Sysco Memphis LLC, Sysco Merchandising and Supply Chain Services Canada Inc., Sysco Merchandising and Supply Chain Services Inc., Sysco Metro New York LLC, Sysco Minnesota Inc., Sysco Montana Inc., Sysco Nashville LLC, Sysco Netherlands Partners LLC, Sysco North Central Florida Inc., Sysco North Dakota Inc., Sysco Northern New England Inc., Sysco Philadelphia LLC, Sysco Pittsburgh LLC, Sysco Portland Inc., Sysco Raleigh LLC, Sysco Resources Services LLC, Sysco Riverside Inc., Sysco Sacramento Inc., Sysco San Diego Inc., Sysco San Francisco Inc., Sysco Seattle Inc., Sysco South Florida Inc., Sysco Southeast Florida LLC, Sysco Spain Holdings SLU, Sysco Spokane Inc., Sysco St. Louis LLC, Sysco Syracuse LLC, Sysco Technologies Cayman Ltd., Sysco Technologies LLC, Sysco UK Holdings Limited, Sysco UK Limited, Sysco UK Partners LLP, Sysco USA I Inc., Sysco USA II LLC, Sysco USA III LLC, Sysco Ventura Inc., Sysco Ventures Inc., Sysco Virginia LLC, Sysco West Coast Florida Inc., Sysco Western Minnesota Inc., The SYGMA Network Inc., Upsys, Victua SAS, Walker Foods Inc., Waugh Foods, and Wild Harvest Limited.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 Coding GmbH, Allen France SAS, Alpine Automation Limited, Alpine Engineered Products, Alpine Holdings Inc., Alpine Systems Corporation, Anaerobicos S.r.l., AppliChem GmbH, AppliChem Inc., Arylux Hungary Elektromechanikus Alkatreszgyarto Kft, Avery Berkel France, Avery India Limited, Avery Malaysia Sdn Bhd, Avery Weigh Tronix, Avery Weigh-Tronix (Suzhou) Weighing Technology Co. Ltd., Avery Weigh-Tronix Finance Limited, Avery Weigh-Tronix Holdings Limited, Avery Weigh-Tronix International Limited, Avery Weigh-Tronix LLC, Avery Weigh-Tronix Limited, Avery Weigh-Tronix Properties Limited, Azon Limited, B.C. Immo, Beijing Miller Electric Manufacturing Co. Ltd., Berkel (Ireland) Limited, Berrington UK, Brapenta Eletronica Ltda., Brooks Instrument, Brooks Instrument (Shanghai) Co. Ltd, Brooks Instrument B.V., Brooks Instrument GmbH, Brooks Instrument KFT, Brooks Instrument Korea Ltd., Buell Industries Inc., CAPMAX Logistica S.A. de C.V., CCI Realty Company, CFC Europe GmbH, CS (Australia) Pty Limited, CS (Finance) Europe S.a.r.l., CS Mexico Holding Company S DE RL DE CV, CSMTS LLC, Calvia Spolka z Ograniczona Odpowiedzialnosci, Capital Ventures (Australasia) S.a r.l, Capmax Logistica S.A. de C.V., Celeste Industries Corporation, Cetram Pty Limited, Coeur, Coeur (Shanghai) Medical Appliance Trading Co. Ltd, Coeur Asia Limited, Coeur Holding Company, Coeur Inc., Compagnie Hobart, Compagnie de Materiel et d'Equipements Techniques-Comet, Constructions Isothermiques Bontami C.I.B., Crane Carrier Company, Densit Asia Pacific Sdn Bhd, 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., Dorbyl U.K. (Holdings) Limited, Duo Fast de Espana S.A.U., Duo-Fast Korea Co. Ltd., Duo-Fast LLC, E.C.S. d.o.o., ECS Cable Protection Sp. Zoo, ELRO (Holding) AG, ELRO Grosskuchen GmbH, ELRO-WERKE AG, Elga Skandinavian AS, Elro Group, Eltex-Elektrostatik-Gesellschaft mit beschrankter Haftung, Envases Multipac S.A. de C.V., Eurotec Srl, FEG Investments L.L.C., Fasver, Filtertek, Filtertek De Mexico Holding Inc., Filtertek De Mexico S.A. de C.V., GC Financement SA, Gamko B.V., Gun Hwa Platech (Taicang) Co. Ltd., HOBART Gesellschaft mit beschrankter Haftung, Hartness International, Hobart (Japan) K.K., Hobart Andina S.A.S., Hobart Brothers International Chile Limitada, Hobart Brothers LLC, Hobart Dayton Mexicana S. de R.L. de C.V., Hobart Food Equipment Co. Ltd., Hobart Foster Belgium, Hobart International (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., 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 (China) Investment Company Limited, ITW (Deutschland) GmbH, ITW (EU) Holdings Ltd., ITW (European) Finance Co. Ltd., ITW (European) Finance II Co. Ltd., ITW (Ningbo) Components & Fastenings Systems Co. Ltd., ITW AEP LLC, ITW AOC LLC, ITW Aircraft Investments Inc., ITW Airport Ground Equipment (Beijing) Co. Ltd., ITW Alpha Sarl, ITW Ampang Industries Philippines Inc., ITW Appliance Components EOOD, ITW Appliance Components LLC, 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, 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 Colombia S.A.S., ITW Construction Products (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., ITW Construction Products (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., 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 Contamination Control (Wujiang) Co. Ltd., ITW Contamination Control B.V., ITW Covid Security Group Inc., ITW DS Investments Inc., ITW DelFast do Brasil Ltda., ITW Delta Sarl, ITW Denmark ApS, ITW Dynatec, ITW Dynatec Adhesive Equipment (Suzhou) Co. Ltd., ITW Dynatec GmbH, ITW Dynatec Kabushiki Kaisha, ITW EF&C France SAS, ITW EF&C Selb GmbH, ITW Electronic Business Asia Co. Limited, ITW Electronic Components/Products (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., ITW Electronics (Suzhou) Co. Ltd., ITW Epsilon Sarl, ITW Espana S.A., ITW FEG Hong Kong Limited, ITW FEG do Brasil Industria e Comercio Ltda., ITW Fastener Products GmbH, ITW Finance Designated Activity Company, ITW Finance Europe S.A., 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 II Inc., ITW Global Investments LLC, ITW Global Tire Repair Europe GmbH, ITW Global Tire Repair Inc., ITW Global Tire Repair Japan K.K., ITW Graphics (Thailand) Ltd., ITW Graphics Asia Limited, ITW Graphics Italy S.R.L. in liquidazione, 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 LP, ITW Holdings UK, ITW Holdings V Limited, ITW Holdings VI Limited, ITW Holdings VII Limited, ITW Holdings VIII Limited, ITW Hungary Finance Beta Kft, ITW ILC Holdings I Inc., ITW IPG Investments LLC, ITW Imaden Industria e Comercio Ltda., ITW India Private Limited, ITW International Holdings LLC, ITW International Intellectual Property LLC, ITW Invest Holding GmbH, ITW Ireland Holdings Unlimited Company, ITW Ireland Unlimited Company, ITW Italy Finance Srl, ITW Italy Holding Srl, ITW Japan Ltd., ITW Korea LLC, ITW LLC & Co. KG, ITW Limited, ITW Lombard Holdings Inc., ITW Lys Fusion S.r.l., ITW M FILMS II LLC, ITW MH LLC, ITW Marking & Coding (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., ITW Medical Group de Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., 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 Beta B.V., ITW Netherlands Finance Alpha BV, ITW New Universal LLC, ITW New Zealand, ITW Novadan Sp. Z.o.o., ITW PPF Brasil Adesivos Ltda., ITW Participations S.a r.l., ITW Pension Funds Trustee Company, ITW Performance Plastic (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., ITW Performance Polymers & Fluids Japan Co. Ltd., ITW Performance Polymers & Fluids Korea Limited, ITW Performance Polymers & Fluids OOO, ITW Performance Polymers (Wujiang) Co. Ltd., ITW Performance Polymers ApS, ITW Performance Polymers and Fluids Group FZE, ITW Peru S.A.C., ITW Philippines Holdings LLC, 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 Spraytec, 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 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 Servicios Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., ITW Welding Singapore Pte. Ltd., ITW de France, ITW do Brasil Industrial e Comercial Ltda., ITW haubold Paslode GmbH, Ideal Molding Technologies LLC, Illinois Tool Works (Chile) Limitada, Illinois Tool Works (ITW) Nederland B.V., Illinois Tool Works Norway AS, 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 (Shanghai) Ltd., Instron (Thailand) Limited, Instron Brasil Equipamentos Cientificos Ltda., Instron Foreign Sales Corp. Limited, Instron France S.A.S., Instron GmbH, Instron Holdings Limited, Instron International Limited, Instron Japan Company Ltd., Instron Korea LLC, International Leasing Company LLC, International Truss Systems Proprietary Limited, Isolenge - ITW Sistemas de Isolamento Termico Ltda., KCPL Mauritius Holdings, Kester, Kester Components (M) Sdn. Bhd., Kleinmann GmbH, Krafft Argentina S.A., Krafft S.L., Lock Inspection Systemes France Sarl, Loma Systems (Canada) Inc., Loma Systems BV, Loma Systems sro, Lombard Pressings Limited, Lumex Inc., Luvex - Industria De Equipamentos De Protecao Ltda., Lys Fusion Poland Sp. z.o.o., M&C Specialties (Shenzhen) Co. Ltd., M&C Specialties Co., MAGNAFLUX GmbH, MEHB Holdings Limited, MGHG Property LLC, Magna Industrial Co. Limited, Manufacturing Avancee S.A., Meritex Technology (Suzhou) Co. Ltd., Meurer Verpackungssysteme GmbH, Miller Electric Mfg. LLC, Miller Insurance Ltd., NDT Holding LLC, NOVADAN APS, Norden Olje AB, North Star Imaging Europe, North Star Imaging Inc., Nova Chimica S.r.l., Odesign Inc., 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., Penta Dnepr LLC, Penta Sever OOO, Penta Volga OOO, 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., Ramset Fasteners (Hong Kong) Ltd., Rapid Cook LLC, Refrigeration France, S.E.E. Sistemas Industria E Comercio Ltda., ST Mexico Holdings LLC, Salter India Limited, Sealant Systems International Inc., Sentinel Asia Yuhan Hoesa, Shanghai ITW Plastic & Metal Co. Ltd, Simco (Nederland) B.V., Simco Japan Inc., 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 Tape Group B.V., Stokvis Tapes (Hong Kong) Co. Limited, Stokvis Tapes (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Stokvis Tapes (Shenzhen) Co. Ltd., Stokvis Tapes (Taiwan) Co. Ltd., Stokvis Tapes (Tianjin) Co. Ltd., Stokvis Tapes BVBA, Stokvis Tapes Benelux B.V., Stokvis Tapes Deutschland GmbH, Stokvis Tapes France, 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 Sverige AB, Stolvis Holdings II S.A.R.L., Tarutin Kester Co. Ltd., 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 (Kunshan) Co. Ltd., Tien Tai Electrode (Qingdao) Co. Ltd., Tien Tai Electrode Co. Ltd., Tregaskiss Welding Products, US Finance Gamma LLC, Unichemicals Industria e Comercio Ltda., VR-Leasing Sarita GmbH & Co. Immobilien KG, VS European Holdco BV, Valeron Strength Films B.V.B.A., Veneta Decalcogomme S.r.l., Versachem Chile S.A., Vesta, Vesta (Guangzhou) Catering Equipment Co. Ltd, Vesta Global Limited, Viltronics Soltec, Vitronics Soltec B.V., W Packaging Technology (China) Co. Ltd., Wachs Canada Ltd., Wachs Subsea LLC, Weigh-Tronix Canada ULC, Weigh-Tronix UK Limited, Wilsonart International Holdings LLC, Wujiang Advanced Cleaning Co. Ltd., Wynn Oil (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd., Wynn's Automotive France, Wynn's Belgium BVBA, Wynn's Italia Srl, Wynn's Mekuba India Pvt Ltd, ZF TRW (Engineered Fasteners and Components), and Zip-Pak International B.V..JPMorgan Chase & Co. is a financial holding company. It provides financial and investment banking services. The firm offers a range of investment banking products and services in all capital markets, including advising on corporate strategy and structure, capital raising in equity and debt markets, risk management, market making in cash securities and derivative instruments, and brokerage and research. It operates through the following segments: Consumer and Community Banking, Corporate and Investment Bank, Commercial Banking, and Asset and Wealth Management. The Consumer and Community Banking segment serves consumers and businesses through personal service at bank branches and through automated teller machine, online, mobile, and telephone banking. The Corporate and Investment Bank segment offers a suite of investment banking, market-making, prime brokerage, and treasury and securities products and services to a global client base of corporations, investors, financial institutions, government and municipal entities. The Commercial Banking segment delivers services to U.S. and its multinational clients, including corporations, municipalities, financial institutions, and non profit

Read MoreConagra Brands, Inc. engages in the manufacture and sale of processed and packaged foods. It operates through the following segments: Grocery and Snacks; Refrigerated and Frozen; International; and Foodservice. The Grocery and Snacks segment includes branded, shelf stable food products sold in various retail channels in the United States. The Refrigerated and Frozen segment comprises branded, temperature controlled food products sold in various retail channels in the United States. The International segment consists branded food products, in various temperature states, sold in various retail and foodservice channels outside of the United States. The Foodservice segment focuses in the branded and customized food products, including meals, entrees, sauces, and a variety of custom-manufactured culinary products packaged for sale to restaurants and other foodservice establishments in the United States. The company was founded by Alva Kinney and Frank Little in 1919 and is headquartered in Chicago, IL.

Read MoreVarian Medical Systems, Inc. designs, manufactures, sells, and services medical devices and software products for treating cancer and other medical conditions worldwide. It operates through Oncology Systems and Proton Solutions segments. The Oncology Systems segment offers hardware and software products for treating cancer with radiotherapy, fixed field intensity-modulated radiation therapy, image-guided radiation therapy, volumetric modulated arc therapy, stereotactic radiosurgery, stereotactic body radiotherapy, artificial intelligence based adaptive radiotherapy, and brachytherapy, as well as quality assurance equipment. Its products include linear accelerators, brachytherapy afterloaders, treatment accessories, and quality assurance software; and information management, treatment planning, image processing, clinical knowledge exchange, patient care management, decision-making support, and practice management software. This segment serves university research and community hospitals, private and governmental institutions, healthcare agencies, physicians' offices, medical oncology practices, radiotherapy centers, and cancer care clinics. The Proton Solutions segment designs, develops, manufactures, sells, and services products and systems for delivering proton therapy for the treatment of cancer. The company has a strategic agreement with McKesson Corp. to supply treatment delivery systems and planning, services, and radiotherapy information system solutions to its U.S. Oncology Network and Vantage Oncology affiliated sites of care; and a strategic partnership with Siemens AG to represent Siemens diagnostic imaging products to radiation oncology clinics in the United States and other select markets. Varian Medical Systems, Inc. was formerly known as Varian Associates, Inc. and changed its name to Varian Medical Systems, Inc. in April 1999. The company was founded in 1948 and is headquartered in Palo Alto, California.

Read MoreWhen Jerry Brown was unveiling his final state budget last month, a reporter asked him about the legacy of his record-long governorship.

Can you tell me the legacy of Goodwin Knight? Or Gov. (Frank) Merriam. Or (George) Deukmejian? Brown replied with a characteristic smirk. Governors dont have legacies. Thats my No. 1 proposition.

Well, yes they do, and during his second gubernatorial incarnation, Brown has often invoked the accomplishments of his father, Pat Brown. It has been a marked contrast to his first stint as governor four decades ago, when, as sons are wont to do, he was trying to project his own identity.

In fact, one could infer that Jerry Browns entire second governorship has been, at least partly, an effort to bury the Governor Moonbeam image he acquired the first time around and compare favorably with the father he now embraces.

That inference was bolstered by Browns final State of the State address in January, one devoted largely to recounting what he and the Legislature have done over the last seven years and only minimally to any agenda for his final year.A few years ago a startup called Turing Robotic Industries unveiled an unusual smartphone called the Turing Phone. It places an emphasis on privacy and security, has a boxy design with geometric patterns on the back, and it was one of the first modern smartphones to lack a headphone jack.

It also doesnt have a USB port, because thats somehow supposed to make the phone safer or something.

Anyway, the Turing Phone shipped in small quantities, the company made some outrageous plans for its future devices, and eventually unveiled a second model. But this week news came out of Finland that Turing had filed bankruptcy in that country.

So is this the end of Turing Robotic Industries? Nope at least not yet.

In a Facebook post, the company notes that the bankruptcy filing was initiated to temporarily suspend our manufacturing intentions in Salo [Finland], however it doesnt mean that TRI is bankrupt.

That said, a bankruptcy filing does imply that the company is unable to pay the 1.9 million Euros it ows its creditors, at least in the affected region. So things dont necessarily look good for Turing, which is based in the United States, but which had planned to move its manufacturing to Finland.

At this point its unclear if or when youll ever be able to get your hands on that second-gen phone, the Turing Appassionato but its specs are also looking more and more dated every day. When it was announced, the phone was a $1099 handset with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 processor which is already a generation behind the Snapdragon 835 chip that powered most high-end phones in 2017. Qualcomms Snapdragon 845 chip should hit the streets this year.

The rest of the spec sheet doesnt actually look too bad, so if Turing does manage to stay afloat and if the company does figure out how to bring the phone to market with a newer chip, the rest of the design might not need much tweaking: the Appassionato was expected to feature a 5.5 inch, 2560 x 1440 pixel display, dual rear cameras, 8GB of RAM, 128GB of storage, and a 3,000 mAh battery.

Oh, and this model actually has a USB Type-C port and headphone jack, as well as a microSD card slot. I guess those arent so bad for security after all.

The phone is also expected to ship with Android rather than Sailfish OS, which would make it more like well, most other smartphones on the market, albeit an expensive one. You know, if it ever actually ships.

via Tweakers.net and NotebookCheck

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We use cookies and other technologies to customize your experience, perform analytics and deliver personalized advertising on our sites, apps and newsletters and across the Internet based on your interests. By clicking I agree below, you consent to the use by us and our third-party partners of cookies and data gathered from your use of our platforms. See our Privacy Policy and Third Party Partners to learn more about the use of data and your rights. You also agree to our Terms of Service.Liquid Telecom plans to upgrade its data centre facilities and expand its physical fibre footprint in South Africa and other markets where it operates, chief business development officer Willem Marais told MyBroadband.

We have over 16,000 kilometres of linear network route in South Africa and a total of over 50,000km across all 15 markets we serve, said Marais.

While Liquid Telecom will expand its fibre network in the country, it does not plan on making a fibre-to-the-home push this year.

Our focus in South Africa has been national and metro fibre, and fibre to the business, said Marais.

Marais said Liquid Telecom has strong FTTH deployments in many markets, and the reason they havent invested in FTTH in South Africa is due to the challenge of rolling out national and metro networks.

He said this also ensures they do not duplicate the effort of other organisations, as this allows Liquid Telecom to play to its strengths.

We partner with FTTH providers to connect our clients, said Marais.

Liquid Telecom is involved in the retail arena in South Africa, however, after acquiring Neotel. This includes over 120,000 retail subscribers on its old CDMA network.

We are considering other media to connect those customers, said Marais.

Data centre expansion

Liquid Telecom, under its subsidiary Africa Data Centres, recently launched its newly-expanded data centres in Johannesburg and Cape Town.

It upgraded the total floor space of its Johannesburg data centre from 1,800 to 3,000 square metres, and its Cape Town data centre from 500 to 1,800 square metres.

The Johannesburg data centre has a total power capacity of 7MW, while the Cape Town facility offers 5.5MW of power.

Liquid Telecom will continue to upgrade these facilities in terms of floorspace and power over the course of 2018, with the aim of increasing the capacity of the data centres five-fold over the next five years.

Liquid Telecom will take on its local mission for 2018 without its current South Africa CEO Kyle Whitehill, who is leaving the company to return to the UK in March.Armenia opposition MP Armen Charchyan diagnosed with pneumonia, is in critical condition

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Opposition "Armenia" bloc issues statement on PM's statement on "vivid celebration" on Sep. 21I recently read a statistic that there are more African Americans in New York City who are aborted than are born. If this is only half true, then the quote from Sean Carney, national director of 40 days for Life, is right when he says, "Genocide of all genocides."

And despite the fact that a new poll shows that 63 percent of Americans favor restricting abortions after 20 weeks, we see the recent vote of 46 U.S. Senators who voted to prohibit the ban on those late term abortions at the point that the unborn feel pain. (Where does the idea of representative government apply here?)

Only seven countries in the world allow abortion after 20 weeks. The United States is one of them.

40 Days for Life, was started to combat the spirit of death in this country. The movement is building. Fifty thousand faithful came together recently in San Francisco. This year 354 cities and 25 countries will participate.

Through peaceful prayers and quiet witness, 13,998 lives have been spared from abortion, 170 abortion workers had conversions and quit their jobs, 94 abortion centers have closed their doors forever. (Lest you think there are no clinics to serve pregnant women, there are many Pregnancy Centers who help women and families who do not offer abortion as a solution. Locally, there are Alpha Pregnancy Clinic and Birthright.)The authors of "A found dream" Armenian cartoon, Gagik and Hovhannes Dilakians seem to look like the the old man from their cartoon. In 1976, when the cartoon was created, Gagik Dilakian was 24 years old, and his brother was 26. And today, 42 years later, the brothers are in Armenia with new programs and goals. 

In an interview to Armenian News - NEWS.am the brothers told about how the cartoon was created, why the brothers left for the United States, where they lived, what Dilakians did over the decades.

A 98-year-old man said that "A Found Dream" is a cartoon from his childhood

Gagik Dilakian: We both were working at a film studio, where only a few films could be shot and filmmakers should wait for their turn. It was Hovik's turn but we did not have a scenario. One evening we sat down and began to think about what to do. So "A Found dream" was created.

Hovhaness Dilakian: We are often asked how you got the idea. But there is nothing concrete to say. Indeed, the cartoon came, opening the doors before us till now. We are amazed when people say: three generations grew up in this cartoon.A 98-year-old man even told us that "A Found Dream" is a cartoon from his childhood. Another man said that his son is alive thanks to us, we were surprised. It turned out that the boy eats only when watches our cartoon.

Gagik Dilakian: And by the way, people often tell us that their children do not sleep until watching our cartoon.

Brothers in the years of creating "A found dream" cartoon

"A found dream" does not have Soviet plot, we were afraid they it would be rejected

Gagik Dilakian: During the Soviet period, it was very difficult to advance similar plots, there was censorship, "A found dream" did not have Soviet plot, there were no pioneers, animals, witches, and we were afraid that it would not pass, but only slight changes were made.

Hovhannes Dilakian: There were many obstacles, but we overcame them. This cartoon should have been created and it was created.

Perhaps, leaving for the US became our found dream



Hovhaness Dilakian: One of the ideas of our cartoon was just freedom. In my life, my wife appeared and became the girl from the cartoon, who took me - the old man -on the other side of the picture. It was bad during Soviet period. Yes, we lived well, our life was interesting, but there were so many prohibitions, restrictions. And we wanted something bigger, we wated to change someting, therefore I have moved to the US, then I took my brother, my sister, my mother ...

Gagik Dilakian: Since childhood we have dreamed of moving to the US, and our dream came true.

Hovhaness Dilakian: Perhaps, leaving for the US became our found dream. And I was lucky, everything happened very quickly: the manager helped me, I have been an illustrator for many years , then Gago came and "ruined" everyting (he laughs). We realized that we can not do this together.



Gagik Dilakian: This sphere was gradually dying, it gave way to photo art. So I saved you (he laughs). So we, after my departure to the US, also began to work together. I have gone thare 10 years after Hovik's departure.

We have done everything together since childhood, we are perceived as twins

Hovhannes Dilakian: We do not have appropriate education, we learned everything ourselves. In the process of work you learn everything: drawing, sculpting, sawing. We have done everything since childhood, we are perceived as twins.

Hovhaness Dilakian: We are not only brothers, but also friends. If I draw something separately, then Gago must If I separately draw something, then Gago surely must give his approval. I can say the same about my brother. And he creates sculptures, takes photos.

It is wrong to find a dream and to live in it

Gagik Dilakian: We do not have one dream. And we have found the most important things: we live where we want, we have families, children, grandsons. Nevertheless, we are slightly not satisfied, there is a wish to create all the time, we want to have new dreams in order to find them.

Hovhaness Dilakian: It is wrong to find a dream and to live in it. We want more dreams, roads, goals, in order to keep going forward. It is wrong to sit and wait for ranks, medals.

Now, when we visit Armenia more often,we would like to continue to keep in touch. There is good energy, good youth here, and we are in contact only with young people because they more open, revolutionary, but not in political sense, in a word, young people are ready to some changes, new beginning.The European Court of Human Rights made another judgement against Armenia.

ECHR ruled that Armenia has to pay over 19 thousand euros to Yevgenya Fidanyan since there has been a violation of Article 6  1 of the Convention and Article 1 of Protocol No. 1 to the Convention.

Fidanyan filed a lawsuit after she was dismissed form the State Revenue Committee back in 2009. Armenia's Adminitsrative Court granted the applicants three claims and ordered the Service to reinstate her to her previous position and to pay her average monthly salary starting from 23 February 2009 until her reinstatement. The woman was paid 1,197,748 AMD, but starting 2010 no further actions were taken in relation to the enforcement of the judgment.

The government will have to pay the plaintiff 14,165 euros as a compensation for in respect of pecuniary damage, 3,600 for non-pecuniary damage, and 1300 in respect of costs and expenses.Im a Calistoga resident who does her best to conserve the water at our house. I even proposed (to) the city at the time we remodeled our house about 10 years ago to install a grey water system. At that time, I was told it was not legal and if I did so, I could be fined. Sigh.

The current city proposal to raise our water rates (both the rate of the water unit and the waste water fee) is just astronomical and unfair for residents.

I understand that the infrastructure is in dear need of an upgrade. Im ready to pay my share of it. Yet, it has to be reasonable, fair and sustainable. In my mind, it is the duty of a city to provide drinkable water to its residents at a fair price. We are not talking millesime Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon. We are talking about a basic commodity.

Paul Knoblichs projection about our residential water bill being, by the end of the proposed 5-year increase period, as much as his property taxes made me attend the Jan. 9 City Council meeting.

Im urging the city to come back with a revised draft that follows three ideas: The users shall be the payers  water conservation incentive  improvement of the quality of our water.Home | News | General | Presidency replies national newspaper, says president Buhari is not guilty of any crime in Benue crises

- Nigeria's presidency has reacted to an article alleging that President Buhari is a murderer

- The presidency frowned at the frequent expressions of hate speech published by some newspapers

- Going further, the presidency said President Buhari, by the Constitution, had the primary duty of protecting life and property of all citizens irrespective of their geo-political backgrounds

The presidency has condemned an opinion article published by The Sun newspaper associating President Muhammadu Buhari with the killings in Benue and calling him a murderer.

Malam Garba Shehu, the senior special assistant to the president on media and publicity, made the condemnation when he addressed State House correspondents in Abuja on Friday, February 2.

He also frowned at the frequent expressions of hate speech published by some newspapers in form of news stories and especially in columns.

Shehu said: We want to state emphatically that a segment of the Nigerian media is sinking deeper and deeper into the mesh of hate speech in spite of repeated appeals by recognised and reputable media bodies, the government and concerned Nigerians.

Unfortunately, self-regulation which is the norm in civilized societies has taken flight from many of our newsrooms.

READ ALSO: Buhari ignored federal character in security chiefs appointments - Obasanjo

For instance, a recent column published in a national newspaper (The Sun newspaper), said President Muhammadu Buhari was the first to endorse the Benue massacre on New Year Day.

The same columnist described the Minister of Defence, Mansur Muhammad Dan-Ali as a dyed-in-the-wool Fulani irredentist who places trade over and above human life.

The diatribe went further to invite citizens of the country to arm themselves and fight each other.

In addition, one of the newspapers Saturday headlines proclaimed: Expect More Blood in Benue

Apart from the basic tone of respect expected from an individual who is supposedly intelligent and educated enough to know better since they have been granted space to write in a national newspaper, there is the risk of inciting the public to actions that will have gory consequences for the entire nation for generations to come.

Those beating the gongs of war and fanning the embers of discord must remember what prevailed in Rwanda before the genocide of the early `90s, during which hundreds of thousands of lives were lost as a result of consistent hate speech spewing from that countrys media.

The presidential aide, however, stated that President Buhari, by the Constitution, had the primary duty of protecting life and property of all citizens irrespective of their geo-political backgrounds, adding that is what he has been doing in Benue and across the country.

Shehu stated that calling the president a murderer was not only grossly disrespectful but unfair.

He said: Calling him a murderer is not only grossly disrespectful but unfair, especially when the President has written a letter to the Senate detailing his efforts to quell the crisis in Benue State.

He further noted that the Minister of Interior and the Deputy Inspector General of Police in charge of operations were also dispatched for an on the spot assessment of the situation in the aftermath of the unfortunate incident.

Meanwhile, NAIJ.com had reported that former governor of Edo state, Adams Oshiomhole joined other politicians to react to the controversial letter by former President Olusegun Obasanjo asking President Muhammadu Buhari not to run for second term in office.

PAY ATTENTION: Read the news on Nigerias #1 new app

Oshiomhole said the former president is not one of the adviser of the president and is in no position to dish our advice.

The former governor made this statement on Friday while speaking with State House correspondents shortly after a closed doors meeting the president.

Who is Nigeria's greatest president ever? - on NAIJ.com TV.

[embedded content]

Source: Naija.ng

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Loading...Home | News | General | FG intervenes for Nigerians on death row in Saudi Arabia

- The federal government is taking necessary steps to engage Saudi Arabian authorities over the fate of Nigerians on death row

- The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama disclosed that the suspects were in prison for alleged drug trafficking in Saudi Arabia

- The report indicated that out of 25 suspects in prison 15 are on death row, while 3 have been executed

Federal Government said it would continue to engage Saudi Arabian authorities in negotiations over the fate of Nigerians on death row for alleged drug trafficking in that country.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr Geoffrey Onyeama, made this known while fielding questions from newsmen in Abuja on Friday.

READ ALSO: Benue crisis: Bafarawa tells FG, Benue state to stop blame game

The ministers reaction followed report that there were no fewer than 25 Nigerian drug suspects held in several prisons in Saudi Arabia.

The report indicated that 15 of the suspects were on death row, while three had been executed, leading to a call on Federal Government to intervene.

Onyeama, however, said necessary steps were being taken by Federal Government to engage Saudi Arabian authorities on the matter.

He explained that: regarding Nigerians on death row abroad, we have made very strong intercession over the issue with government of those countries to review the cases and not to execute them.

However, you know that there is a limit because these are sovereign countries which have their rules and laws.

But as far as the Saudi Arabia is concerned, we have been intervening at government level with authorities of that country.

The minister added that government was working with some Non Governmental Organisations on the matter.

In a previous report by NAIJ.com, the federal government pleaded with the government of Indonesia to commute the death penalty passed on Nigerians in the countrys prison, to life imprisonment.

PAY ATTENTION: Read the news on Nigerias #1 news app

Foreign affairs minister, Geoffrey Onyeama, made the plea in a joint communique issued at the end of bilateral meeting between the minister and Mrs Retno Marsudi, his counterpart from Indonesia.

He said: On consular issues, Nigeria recognises the drug emergency situation in Indonesia and pleaded for commuting death penalty to life imprisonment.

Ex-prisoner turns advocate for release of former inmates on NAIJ.com TV.

[embedded content]

Source: Naija.ng

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Loading...Home | News | General | No Panic Buying of Petrol, Please!!!

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has assured motorists and other petroleum products consumers in Abuja and its environs not to engage in panic buying.

fuel-pump

NNPC wishes to state that the corporation and other relevant government agencies are in consultation with the leadership of the Petroleum Tanker Drivers (PTD), a move that has led to the unions reconsideration of its threat to stop dispatches at some depot earlier today.

The members of the PTD had threatened to prevent loadings from the depot over portions of Mokwa-Jebba Road which they had considered were in bad state.

Relevant government agencies have stepped in with a view to addressing the concerns of members of the union.

NNPC seizes this opportunity to further warn marketers not to hoard products as law enforcement agencies, working with industry regulators, have been detailed to take appropriate measures against any defaulter.

The corporation assures that there are enough petroleum products to guarantee relief to petroleum products consumers.

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Loading...Home | News | General | Kwara Central Senatorial Poll: Fresh trouble for Saraki as PDP candidate alleges fraud

Asks court to okay trial of agent, INEC staff

By Ikechukwu Nnochiri

It is fresh trouble for the Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki, as the Federal High Court in Abuja has assumed jurisdiction over a suit alleging that result of the 2015 Kwara Central Senatorial District election was manipulated.

President of the Nigerian 8th Senate, Dr. Bukola Saraki

A Chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Mr. Abdurahman Abdulrazaq, is in the suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/92/2018, seeking an order of mandamus compelling the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to prosecute one Ladi Hassan, who was Sarakis agent during the collation of the results of the 2015 election.

Equally indicted and penciled down for prosecution by the plaintiff in the suit that has INEC as the sole defendant, was the collating/returning officer for the Kwara Central Senatorial poll, Mrs. Mulkah Ahmed.

The suit was filed few days after the Code of Conduct Tribunal in Abuja, fixed Febraury 6 for Saraki to open his defence to the falsification charge the Federal Government preferred against him.

Meantime, in the instant suit, Abdulrazaq who was the Senatorial candidate of the PDP in Kwara Central, told the court that Saraki was declared the winner of the election on March 28, 2015, when the results were only collated by Ahmed and Hassan (Sarakis agent) at the district level on March 29, 2015.

The plaintiff attached to his suit, two sets of exhibits.

While Exhibit 1, showing that summaries of results from wards and local government areas that make up the senatorial district were finally compiled on March 29, 2015, as the date on each of these forms read the same collation date.

The second document marked Exhibit 2, was identified as INEC FORM EC 8E(1) being the Declaration of Results of Election compiled by Dr. (Mrs.) Mulkah A. Ahmed (the returning officer) and Ladi Hassan, agent to Dr. Bukola Saraki.

The plaintiff alleged before the court that only Sarakis agent and the collation officer signed the form.

Besides, the plaintiff, in a supporting affidavit that was deposed to by his aide, Adebayo Oloyin, averred in part, That it is common sense that collation date will always precede declaration date as the collation dictates declaration of results.

The deponent maintained that the offence committed by the persons indicted in the alleged electoral fraud, cost his boss the merit of a petition he filed at the Election Petition Tribunal to challenge Sarakis election.

Saraki had after winning the Kwara Central election, also contested and won the position of the Senate President.

Meanwhile, Acting Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, Justice Adbul Abdu-Kafarati had yet to assign Abdulrazaqs suit to any Judge for hearing.

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Loading...Home | News | General | Private Sector Partnership for Oil&Gas Pipelines

The Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNC), Dr. Maikanti Baru, has urged the new Board of one of its downstream subsidiary companies, the Nigerian Pipeline Storage Company (NPSC), to partner with the private sector to build more pipelines parallel to the corporations existing ones.

Oil Pipe

Dr. Baru who gave this charge while inaugurating the new Board of the company at the NNPC Towers, Wednesday, in Abuja, said such partnership would enhance NPSCs profitability.

He said: Your work also is to look at refurbishing these pipelines and storage along a Public Private Partnership (PPP) arrangement by getting willing private companies to invest in these pipelines. NNPC Management is very much disposed to supporting your efforts in this regard, the GMD stated.

Dr. Baru further urged the company to double its pipeline network in the next 10 years, stressing that such a target was absolutely necessary.

The GMD described pipelines as arteries of the nations Oil and Gas Industry, adding that part of the reform process embarked upon by the corporation under his watch was to birth an NPSC that has a clear focus which sees pipeline storage and distribution as real business.

I have a passion for this company and I believe this firm will be a leader in that segment of our operations. That is why we focused our energy on refurbishing, repairing and re-streaming of our storage facilities and pipelines over the last few months, Dr. Baru noted.

He charged them to also integrate, through their pipelines resources, the various butanisation depots which are used as reception points for Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG).

We have a lot of LPG that is being exported. This could be utilized domestically in line with our vision of providing alternative energy sources for domestic and industrial use nationwide, he stressed.

Dr. Baru tasked the NPSC management to engage the various host state governments towards the restoration of the Products Right of Way (PRoW) to ensure the safety of the citizens and products.

He added that most of the state governments were ever-willing to support the corporation in preventing infringements on its PRoW.

He expressed NNPC Managements readiness to engage security agencies against any act of economic sabotage towards the pipelines.

Responding, the Chairman of the NPSC Board and Chief Operating Officer, Corporate Services, NNPC, Mr. Isa Inuwa, pledged the readiness of the Board to support the NPSC Management towards achieving its set targets.

It is our vision to transit NPSC to a market-phasing, competitive and profit-making organization. We are committed as a Board to deliver on this mandate, Inuwa stated.

Also speaking, the Managing Director of the company, Engr. Luke Anele thanked the NNPC Management, saying that although the task before his team was huge, it would nonetheless leave up to expectations.

Aside Mr. Isa Inuwa, who is the Chairman, the new Board also has Engr. Henry Ikem-Obi, Engr. Luke Anele, Mr. Umar Ajiya, Mr. Ahmadu Sambo, Mr. Abdullahi Gunda, Mr. Ahmed Danladi, Mrs. Betty A. Ugonna as members and Mr. Victor Omoluabi as Secretary.

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Loading...Home | News | General | Options for young parents  Francis Ewherido

The euphoria of courtship, wedding and early married life gets so much that some young couples forget a potential landmine, waiting for them barely a year into marriage, all things being equal: parenthood. Many young couples engage in unbridled sex and why not? They have the marital license, youthful energy and their passion is still fresh, but barring any hitches, the result of unbridled sex is pregnancy. Nine months down the line a baby will come and that is when it will occur to some of them that they need to figure out how to care for the baby and also earn a living.

Parentas

I often drum it into the heads of my marriage course participants that marriage is about planning, planning and planning. Without planning, things can really get chaotic. Unfortunately, it does not take time before chaos sets in. If an 8am-to-5pm working class couple gives birth to a baby without a plan to care for the baby at the early stages, it can easily snowball into a big problem. After the maternity leave of the wife what happens?

That is why it is very important for young people, who are going into marriage, to take into consideration the upbringing of their children, especially in the early stages of the childrens development. This is because the standard of care for children is highest at birth and reduces as they grow older. In addition, the first 10 years of a childs life are the most important. If you lay a solid foundation, it will withstand any kind of superstructure that is built on it later, but lay a defective foundation for your children, either by commission or omission, and you have serious parenting to do sometimes for the rest of your life, with attendant heartaches and regrets. So what options do young parents have?

One, some couples decide that the woman should be a full-time housewife and give the children maximum attention. While the children need a good dose of attention, I am not apostle of this thinking. Every young adult should engage in some form of economic activity. I will be very sad to see my daughters, whom I have invested so much in and with all their enormous potentials, rot away at home as full-time housewives. Such families can also run into financial problems if the husband loses his job or his capacity to earn a living.

Two, some couples decide that the business-inclined spouse should leave paid employment for self employment. This gives him/her the flexibility of time to care for the children. Fortunately, with advancement in technology, many parents can now work from home and earn very good income. For me, this is a win/win. Also, some young women also take some time off to fire all their children within a short period and spend some more years parenting them at the early stages before getting back to work. During this period, they learn new skills, hone their existing skills or acquire more certificates.

Three, some couples are lucky to have a retired mother coming around to live with them. This is another wonderful arrangement, especially if it is the wifes mother. The Obamas did it while in the White House. The home actually belongs to the wife and she and her mother would have been used to each other over time. Such a mother must, however, know her boundaries. Mothers-in-law have been known to break their childrens marriages. If your mother (-in-law) is bossy or nosy, she is bad news; do not allow her live under the same roof with you; keep her at bay.

Four, some couples bring in their younger siblings to live with them and help out with the children. This is also okay, provided their lives are not sacrificed on the altar of your childrens upbringing. Your younger siblings are like your older children; treat them as such. But they must inculcate the right values in your children. Some of the terrible cases of paedophilia have been committed by relatives. Not every relative can live with you; use your filter.

Five, some couples are lucky to get good and experienced nannies and caregivers, who help out in taking care of the children, especially when they are at work. Wonderful, but parents must always remember that, while the school, church, nannies and caregivers help out in molding the children, parenting must never be outsourced or relinquished.

Six, some young parents opt for creches. Sometimes, as early as 6am, you see young parents packaging children, some barely three months, for the creche. While I do not blame the parents, because that is what circumstances have thrust on them, my heart bleeds. I will never get used to the sight. Thoroughly investigate a creche before you take your toddler there. Ensure the standard of care and level of hygiene are high. It should not also be overcrowded and understaffed.

I have deliberately left out house-helps because I do not consider them an option. To start with, there is really no word in English like house-help. It is a Nigerian creation, but the meaning, as the name connotes, is somebody who helps out in the house in cleaning, doing dishes and washing, etc., in the house. A house-helps responsibility does not include parenting your children. Many of them in Nigeria are also children anyway and cannot give what they do not have. This brings me to another issue, which is child labour.

It is wrong to employ somebody less than 18 years as house-help. That is child labour. If you are bringing somebody under 18 to help out in the house, as your own children at that age will also do, do for them what you will also do for your children at that age: education, acquisition of skills, parenting and mentoring. But to put another childs future on hold for your own childrens is inhuman. Theirs God o! Some times when things go wrong in families, especially with the children, accusing fingers are pointed at witches, wizards and other evil forces; it might just be the past catching up with those concerned. You never know where the arrows come from.

Anyway, whatever formula you apply, the upbringing of your children is supreme and should guide the choices you make.

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Loading...Home | News | General | 2019: North working to have someone younger than BuhariYerima, Arewa leader

By Charles Kumolu&Ben Agande

AMID ongoing debate on President Muhammadu Buharis suspected re-election bid, President of Arewa Youth Consultative Forum, AYCF, Alhaji Shettima Yerima has cautioned against voting for anyone between the age of 70 and 80 years, lamenting that Buharis perceived failure is being considered as the failure of the north.

President Buhari while addressing the nation on 1st Oct 2017

Specifically, Yerima said northern youths would consult with their southern counterparts to come up with a candidate, who is younger than Buhari.

In an exclusive chat with Saturday Vanguard, he said the North is disappointed at the Presidents performance, adding that the leader Nigeria deserves in 2019 should be a detribalised Nigerian. He said:  Even before former President Olusegun Obasanjo wrote that letter, we knew that the hope of Nigerians had been dashed. Government policies have not shown any sign of bringing the country out of the woods. Rather than going forward, we are retrogressing with the government blaming everybody except itself.

 It is obvious that the last three years is nothing to write home about. The expectations of Nigerians have not been met. It is clear that we do not see any positive thing coming up that will be better than what we had in the past. As northerners, we feel disappointed because his failure will be seen as the failure of the north.

I had said it a long time ago that President Muhammadu Buhari has done his best. He is a man who actually means well for this country but with the type of people he has around him, there is no proper coordination. It is clear that at the end of the day, we might not get any good result.

We will also not make the same mistake of voting people in the age bracket of 70 and 80 years. Our target is to seek the opinion of Nigerians to build capacity by consulting our southern counterparts to ensure that we come up with a candidate that is younger than Buhari. With the support of the youths, I am sure that at the end of the day, we will realise the Nigeria of our dream.

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Loading...Two years ago, I spent a weekend at Chateau lHospitalet, one of the nine estates owned by Gerard Bertrand, located in the Languedoc in the south of France. I recall Gerards passion as he shared his belief in lart de vivre (the art of living). And recently, I was inspired again when he visited the U.S. to host a series of master classes to espouse how biodynamics magnify the expression of terroir in a grand vintage.

Gerard Bertrand started making wine with his father 43 years ago in the south of France. By 2002, Gerard began to change his view after reading Rudolf Steiner, the father of biodynamics. Having used homeopathy in his personal life, he connected with the principles of biodynamics and began converting his vineyards.

He started with four hectares planted with the oldest Merlot vines. He farmed two hectares biodynamically and two hectares conventionally. He noticed a significant difference and proceeded to convert 40 hectares, then 100 hectares and today has converted all 1,200 acres to biodynamics. Dedicated to the practices of biodynamics, Gerards recent visit to the U.S. was to try to explain the influence of biodynamics in wine.Home | News | General | Atikulated: The new political buzzword

A group of young professionals recently converged in Abuja with a sole mission: to mobilize support for the candidacy of Atiku Abubakar as the nations President in 2019. The emergence of the movement invariably birthed a new word, Atikulated in the countrys political lexicon. So, what does it mean to be Atikulated?

By Dirisu Yakubu

As the 2019 general elections inch closer by the day, those expected to play key part are already making known their intentions, albeit in proxy through individuals and groups. Apparently playing the waiting game in expectations of the release of the official timetable by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), these political actors have managed to seize the moment nevertheless, reminding the electorate the mileage of their candidacies in the next general election.

Atiku-Abubakar

He is yet to declare interest in the race to oust President Muhammadu Buhari out of Aso Rock but it is common knowledge that former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar is one of the aspirants currently working behind the scene, perfecting strategies to swell the rank of his support base ahead of the 2019 elections.

Having rejoined the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) a few weeks ago, not a few agree that the desire to contest the highest political office informed Atikus decision to ditch the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in the last quarter of 2017.

Shortly after resigning his membership of the APC, various groups spread across the land began to pledge their support and solidarity to Atiku, arguing that his success story as a businessman, not to mention his vast leadership experience, makes him the right candidate to square up against Buhari or whoever the APC may throw up in 2019.

A fortnight ago, a youth movement, IamAtikulated 2019 emerged in Abuja with the sole objective of drumming support For the candidacy of Atiku Abubakar as President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria come 2019.

To this group of young employed youths, the term, Atikulated connotes sundry layers of meanings. According to the national coordinator of the movement, Ike Bishop Okoronkwo, the term is synonymous with excellence, honesty, capacity, the chosen one, unifier, bridge builder among others.

Thus while introducing themselves, members revealed the depth of their belief in the former Vice President by prefixing their names with the new political buzzword.

My name is Atikulated Ike Bishop Okoronkwo, he said as another gave his as Atikulated Gbenga Akanji. Decked in T-shirts bearing the inscription, IamAtikulated 2019, their shared surname of Atikulated brought to the fore the rising influence of a man they see as a mentor, a man they are not afraid of handing their future and that of their fatherland to, in 2019.

In choosing to be Atikulated, the movement said they see in the Waziri, A detribalized leader and a uniting figure, a bridge builder who bridges gap between tribes; he relates equitably with Nigerians in business and in politics without greed or sentiment. In choosing to be Atikulated, the youths argued that Atikus Multi- billion naira investment in education, media and shipping with which he has empowered small and middle income earners makes him a man with sufficient knowledge of how to fix an economy riddled with perennial challenge of unemployment.

At IamAtikulated 2019, we are campaigning for transformation of Nigerias economy and employment of youths. And having looked at the profiles of those currently aspiring to contest for President on the platform of PDP in 2019, we have identified Alhaji Atiku as the only one with the character and content, political will and capacity required to bring the needed transformation that Nigerians are yearning for, Okoronkwo stated on behalf of the movement, a remark not lost on those aware of the role Atiku has been playing in getting the youths creatively engaged in the past few years.

Perhaps, the biggest takeaway by journalists who witnessed the birth of the movement was the ease with which the new buzzword fits into everything of good account. For instance, when the coordinator for Imo State addressed the group and suggested strategies to recruit new members, he got a standing ovation even as Okoronkwo thanked him for his Atikulated submission.

It is early in the day to suggest that the support of these Atikulated folks will likely tip the scales in favour of an Atikus candidacy but suffice to state here that the erstwhile number two citizen has done his homework pretty well by getting a good number of employed youths to buy in into his message of political salvation.

What, in the opinion of his supporters got them Atikulated is that the Waziri Adamawa possessed the Mental and political bandwidth required for the task of salvaging the nation from the clutches of poor governance.

In the past one week, Atiku has been in the news for reasons not unconnected with his age-long ambition of governing the worlds biggest black nation. Unlike other Presidential hopefuls, Atiku has seized the opportunity offered by the funeral arrangement of Second Republic Vice President, Dr. Alex Ekwueme to preach national unity, urging the Nigerian government to immortalize the late national icon.

By this singular act, Atiku has demonstrated his readiness to campaign for votes anywhere, aware that his utterances of today would to a large extent , determine his level of acceptability amongst Nigerians in the months ahead.

As he transverses the length and breadth of the country Atikulating more Nigerians, Okoronkwo says his honed geo-political instincts easily make him a good product sellable to all and sundry.

On Thursday, a former Minister and chieftain of the PDP told Vanguard in confidence that for the opposition to stand a chance of forming a government at the centre in 2019; credible candidate that has both substance and influence should be fielded to test his popularity against whoever the ruling party will field. When asked who amongst the current crop of aspirants fits the bill, he said: Our party has zoned the Presidency to the North and that is a good omen, if you ask me. Atiku Abubakar to me, is mile ahead of others that have so far indicated interest to contest the office of the President and Commander-in-Chief, even as he prayed the party to put its Best foot forward come 2019.

He added: In the North, Atiku has provided and he is still providing job opportunities for the people. He is doing same in the South. He is an advocate of restructuring, a word those in the ruling party do not want to hear about until recently. Let me say for the sake of emphasis that Atiku is the right man to fly our ticket if we are desirous of winning the Presidential elections.

The task before Atikulated Nigerians is certainly a difficult one but they argued that the man they are ready to swim or sink with is preparing a Nigeria of opportunity for all and special privileges for none. Musical as that sounds to the ears of all and sundry, it is left to be seen how the Waziri Adamawa will convince the PDP, a party he helped form in 1998 to hand him the sole ticket ahead of others.

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Loading...A former Governor of Anambra State, Dr. Chukwuemeka Ezeife has taken a swipe at the spokesman of Northern Elders Forum, Ango Abdullahi over his claims that killings in the middle belt is a plot against the North.

Ango Abdullahi had on Friday described the herdsmen killings as a political driven agenda to split the North.

Ezeife in response accused Abdullahi of deceiving Nigerians, describing his statement as lies.

The former governor urged the Fulanis to stop attacks which was not in their interest and take measures in restoring their tarnished image.

It is unfortunate that people took politics as lies, which must be upheld, otherwise what does Ango Abdullahi mean that killing people is a conspiracy by the south to split the north. Im sure he knows what he is doing. In Ghana, the president, after giving order on what to do with the herdsmen, added that this is not in Nigeria.

During my interview in AIT, I appealed to Miyetti Allah and these other people who control the security, by telling them to retract and find a way to play down the statement they issued, where they declared war on Nigeria.

There is nothing new from what Ango has said. Is it not obvious that somebody is trying to deceive the people? Im sympathetic because, what the Fulani is doing to themselves is not good, and they are making themselves very unpopular; uniting the rest of the country against themselves, that is not what they should be doing at all.

There is still time for them to make amend; it is not in the interest of the Fulani, it is not in the interest of any part of Nigeria. We can be together and achieve monumental growth that will make us a super power, but not with this kind of lies Ango is brandishing. Ango has a very good idea, when he said that the North was ready to disintegrate from Nigeria, he also pointed out that the only way out was to go back to agreed system before the 1966 coup, Ezeife told Sun.Human Trafficking Symposium emboldens students to take a stand

University of Floridas second annual Human Trafficking Symposium on Tuesday, Jan. 30, brought together nonprofits, experts and survivors of human trafficking to shed light on the complexity of the issue, while also giving students and attendees a message of hope. The symposium was hosted by the Gators Against Human Trafficking and Bob Graham Center Student Fellows, and co-sponsored by the UF Chapter of the National Organization for Women.

The event kicked off with Savannah Parvu, a survivor of human trafficking and advocate, who shared her harrowing personal experience that started when she was five years old.

You dont tell what happens at home, Parvu said. Her parents warned her to never reveal the harsh realities that went on at home, such as her parents drug abuse, which ultimately led to her own mother forcing her into prostitution for years.

According to Lisa Rowe, vice president of Selah Freedom, an anti-human trafficking organization dedicated to educating the community and helping survivors, Parvus story is not uncommon. In fact, Rowe added that 1 in 3 girls and 1 in 5 boys are sexually assaulted, all of which are underreported crimes.

This is the cause thats worth everything law can offer, said Frank Williams, assistant U.S. Attorney. On the panel, he shared that his prosecution of more than 18 Gainesville human traffickers were made possible through a victim-centered approach that focuses on stabilizing victims and offering support. Williams then went on to inspire the audience of nearly 80 by emphasizing that his message was hopeful and encouraging.

Every time we take one of these traffickers off the street, every victim that we help, we will change the world, Williams said. He added that most common misconception is that we cant make a difference. Through awareness and stopping the promotion of abuse, he said in fact, we can change the culture that allows this trafficking market to grow.

Richard Tovar, President of Fight Injustice and Global Human Trafficking (FIGHT), continued the call to action by telling the audience that changing culture means making situations uncomfortable if it doesnt seem right. Adding that when we stop the normalization of degradation of people bodies, for example, in pornography, we help fight the cycle of trafficking.

CEO of the Trafficking in America Task Force, Jerome Elam, also went on to rally the audience to push legislators to support harsher penalties for traffickers and long-term aftercare for survivors.

Speakers at the event also included Alison Ungaro, founder of the Gainesville nonprofit organization, Created; Nicole Ferranti, investigator for the Florida Department of Children and Families; and Anorine Ledet, a special agent for Homeland Securitys Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agency.

Williams left the audience with a call to action: step forward when something seems off. Thats what I learned about this cause  its going to take a team effort.

To watch an archive of the event, visit http://www.bobgrahamcenter.ufl.edu/content/second-annual-human-trafficking-symposium.Home | News | General | UN raises concerns at continued suspension of 3 TV stations in Kenya

The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said it was concerned that three television stations remained suspended for the third day on Friday in Kenya.

The suspension came after the Kenyan Governments accused them of complicity for airing footage of opposition leader Raila Odingas inauguration ceremony.

The UN human rights wing said it understood that the continued suspension was in spite of an interim order by a Kenyan High Court, instructing the Government to allow the television stations to resume transmission.

We call on the Government to respect and implement the judicial decision. We are also concerned at the Governments attempts to interfere with the rights to freedom of expression.

This is by reportedly warning that participation in the inauguration ceremony would lead to revocation of licences. Media organisations that disregarded this advice were shut down.

The UN agency urged the Government and the opposition in Kenya to work towards resolving the current situation through dialogue.

It added that the resolution should be with full respect for the rule of law and the rights to freedom of expression, association, assembly and political participation. (NAN)

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Loading...Home | News | General | Tragedy: Nigerian stabs 2 others to death in S/Africa-Union

The Nigerian Community in South Africa has confirmed that two members were killed a Nigerian early on Saturday.

Mr Emeka Ezinteje, Secretary of the Nigerian Union, South Africa.

Mr Emeka Ezinteje, Secretary of the Nigerian Union in South Africa, told newsmen on the telephone from Johannesburg, South Africa, that the incident was due to a business dispute.

 We have received a report that at 3.00am on Saturday, Mr Ekweghiariri Chidi Isacc, 34, a native of Ehime in Isiala Mbano Local Government of Imo and Mr Nzechukwu Alabuche, 35, from Azia in Anambra were stabbed to death by one Sunday from Awgbu in Anambra.

 The incident occurred at Rossetinville, South of Johannesburg.

 We understand that there was a business dispute between them, that made the assailant to stab the victims to death, he said.

He said that the union had reported the incident to the Nigerian mission and the South African police.

 The assailant is on the run while the police have commenced investigation into the incident.

 The union condemns the killing of any Nigerian and will partner with releva

nt government agencies to ensure that justice is done in the case, Ezinteje said.

The secretary said that the police had taken the bodies to the hospital for autopsy.

NAN

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Loading...Home | News | General | Amid tight schedule, Professor Yemi Osinbajo attends wedding of his aide in Kano, holds secret meeting with Emir Sanusi (photos)

Less than 24 hours after representing President Muhammadu Buhari at the burial ceremony of Chief Alex Ekwueme in Anambra state on Friday, February 2, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo travelled to Kano on Saturday for the wedding ceremony of one of his aides.

Osinbajo attended the wedding Fathia of his aide, Hafis Ibrahim Kawu, leading some government functionaries to the event.

The vice president was received by the governor of Kano state, Abdullahi Ganduje, some of his aides and members of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Two serving senators, Kabiru Gaya and Barau Jibrin, and all the House of Representatives members from Kano were present during the vice presidents visit.

Osinbajo received in Kano. Credit: Novo Isioro

Osinbajo also used the opportunity to visit the emir of Kano, Alhaji Muhammadu Sanusi 11 in the latters palace where he held a 30-minute closed-door meeting with the monarch.

Premium Times says sources hint that the meeting may be connected with the happenings in the country and the political rift between Senator Rabi'u Kwankwaso and Governor Ganduje.

Professor Yemi Osinbajo with Ganduje. Credit: Novo Isioro

We learnt that Osinbajo also inspected a bridge project under construction by the Ganduje administration at Katsina road.

He later left Kano at about 3pm for Lagos for another meeting according to his media aide Laolu Akande.

We earlier reported that Vice President Yemi Osinbajo recently lamented the sorry state of the nations prisons, stating that the facilities have turned inmates to animals.

Osinbajo reportedly explained that the rot in the Nigerian prisons was so terrible that anyone who spent time there would come out as an animal.

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Loading...More and more private junior high schools in the Tokyo metropolitan area and the Kansai western Japan region are introducing English in their general entrance examinations.

Parents are showing great interest in the subject, reflecting progress in globalization and an expected change in the question format for university entrance examinations' English test.

With the start of the entrance exam season, private junior high schools hope to highlight their efforts to beef up English studies through such moves, while aiming to fence in children who are competent in the English language.

According to data compiled by an operator of junior high school mock entrance exams, 101 private junior high schools in Tokyo and the three neighboring prefectures of Saitama, Chiba and Kanagawa have included or will include English in their entrance exams for the 2018 academic year, which starts in April.

Meanwhile, the total number of schools in the western Japan prefectures of Osaka, Kyoto, Hyogo, Shiga, Nara and Wakayama that have adopted or will adopt English for their exams stood at 28, up sharply from six schools four years ago, according to Hamagakuen, a major cram school.Home | News | General | 50 hospitalised in South Africa after eating cow bitten by snake in South Africa

- 50 people have been hositalised in South Africa after eating a cow killed by a snake

- The patients are said to have experienced diarrhoea, vomiting, headaches and stomach cramps

- The country has urged people to stop consuming meat from dead animals

Over 50 people were rushed to various hospitals in South Africa after eating meat from a cow that had reportedly died from a snake bite.

The incident happened at Mpoza village outside Tsolo in the Eastern Cape Province.

The provinces department of health spokesperson, Sizwe Kupelo, said the patients confirmed they had eaten the meat from the carcass of an animal that had died after being bitten by a snake.

He said the patients experienced diarrhoea, vomiting, headaches and stomach cramps, according to a report by News24.com.

READ ALSO: Nigerian stabs 2 others to death in South Africa - Union

Among those who were ill were 16 children, eight of whom had been transferred to the Nelson Mandela Academic Hospitals paediatric ward, while the others were treated at Mthatha Regional Hospital.

Kupelo said four elderly patients were also transferred to Nelson Mandela Academic Hospital for further treatment.

Kupelo said the department was urging communities to stop consuming meat from dead animals as it was dangerous to do so.

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Meanwhile, NAIJ.com had reported that the Nigerian community in South Africa has confirmed that two of its members were killed by a early on Saturday, February 3 by of them.

Emeka Ezinteje, the secretary of the Nigerian Union in South Africa, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on the telephone from Johannesburg, South Africa, that the incident happened as a result of a business dispute.

We have received a report that at 3.00am on Saturday, Ekweghiariri Chidi Isacc, 34, a native of Ehime in Isiala Mbano local government of Imo and Nzechukwu Alabuche, 35, from Azia in Anambra were stabbed to death by one Sunday from Awgbu in Anambra.

The incident occurred at Rossetinville, South of Johannesburg.

Nigerian couples proving love does exist in this world - on NAIJ.com TV:

[embedded content]

Source: Naija.ng

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Loading...Home | News | General | Miyetti Allah suggests solution, urges FG to deploy military to border towns between Nasarawa and Benue

- Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders has called on the Federal Government to deploy troops to border towns between Nasarawa and Benue

- The association said this will help curtail the incessant attacks on the area

- It also argued that the measure would bring the situation under control

The Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN), Nasarawa state chapter, have called for the deployment of military to border towns between Nasarawa and Benue, to curtail the incessant attacks on the area.

MACBANs state chairman, Mohammed Hussaini, who made the call in an interview with newsmen on Saturday, February 3, said measure would bring the situation under control.

He attributed the spill over of the attacks and killings in border towns to the anti open grazing law being enforced by the Benue government.

READ ALSO: Nigerians are just experimenting with us - APC lawmaker Jimoh speaks on 2019

Since this thing started, we have been under attacks by armed militia groups, in which lots of our people were killed, some are still missing.

A lot of cows belonging to our members were killed and many other rustled in some of these attacks.

The lives of our members are also being threatened in all the border towns; so the federal government should come to our aid by deploying the military to the affected areas, he said.

Hussaini said the security agencies should investigate and arrest the criminal elements responsible for the attacks and bring them to justice.

He noted that there were criminal elements in every tribe, and cautioned against the quick generalization tribes when a crime was committed.

A criminal is a criminal whether he or she is Igbo, Hausa, Eggon or Fulani, but why generalize the Fulanis when some of them commit any crime? he asked.

He blamed the media for its antagonistic reports on Fulanis, saying  these are some of the factors that fuel crisis.

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The chairman commended the Nasarawa state government and heads of security agencies in the state for the proactive steps they took in handling security matters.

Meanwhile, NAIJ.com had reported that former Sokoto governor Attahiru Bafarawa advised both the Benue and federal governments to evolve a political solution to end the violence instead of trading blames.

What is required to end the crisis is a workable solution that would be acceptable to all sides; trying to establish who is right or wrong is not what matters now, Bafarawa said on Friday, February 2, in Makurdi, when he paid a condolence visit to Governor Samuel Ortom.

He opined that a military approach to tackling the crisis would not solve the problem. A military approach will not solve the problem; the solution to it is political. We need to involve the traditional institution.

This problem is not only a Benue problem, it is a national problem and we all need to come together to solve it.

Nigerian herdsmen vs Nigerian farmers - on NAIJ.com TV:

[embedded content]

Source: Naija.ng

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Loading...Home | World | Africa | Mugabe appointed CIO boss evited from farm

New police commissioner-general Godwin Matanga has ordered Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) boss Ephrain Nhamo, who illegally occupied businessman Chris Takura Tande's Carig Crag estate, to vacate the land immediately in what has been hailed as a sign of the new president's drift towards upholding the rule of law.

Tande  the managing director of the re-licensed Time Bank  whooped with joy this week when Matanga ordered the officer commanding Mashonaland East police to escort the sheriff to evict the CIO deputy director from the farm  whose lawful owner is Watermount Estates Pvt Ltd.

The farm is bonded to Tande's Time Bank. Watermount is an affiliate company of the commercial bank.

In a January 17 letter to Tande's lawyers Nyamayaro Makanza and Bakasa law firm, Matanga told the banker that he can return to his farm in eastern Zimbabwe - grabbed from him in 2005.

"Be advised that I have directed officer commanding police Mashonaland East Province to avail police officers who will escort the sheriff to execute court order HC2100 on behalf of your client," the acting police chief said in the letter.

The police chief was acting in accordance with the latest Writ of Ejectment issued on January 13 last year against Nhamo, and other senior CIO officers all claiming occupation through him.

The CIO bosses were booted out of the farm on Wednesday. Tande and his family, and many of their workers, were evicted at gunpoint from their farm in the east of the country in 2005 by the CIO bosses loyal to former president Robert Mugabe. Mugabe, 93, was forced to resign in November last year after 37 years in power after a military intervention, in which he was succeeded by his former ally Emmerson Mnangagwa.

The seizure of Tande's farm in 2005 came just after his commercial bank, Time, was placed under curatorship in 2004 and subsequently its licence was cancelled in 2006. The Administrative Court first reinstated the licence in 2009 but its return was stonewalled by authorities.

Following discussions between the new Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor John Mangudya and Time Bank to address the contentious issues, a resolution has been reached, paving way for re-opening of the bank.

Tande told the Daily News yesterday that Time Bank shall be resuming banking operations in the next six months subject to prior inspections by the RBZ to ensure that the indigenous bank has put in place the necessary capital and banking and IT systems and structures.

Tande said he was thrilled that his 13-year war against his despoliation of his assets was coming to an end and the new administration was calling to order those who engineered the invasion of his property, that he personally bought.

Tande recalled how in 2006 the CIO bosses arrived at his farm brandishing offer letters that had been "allocated" by minister of State for Security Didymus Mutasa, who was also responsible for land reform and resettlement.

He contested the seizure of his private property several times in the courts and won several court judgments which were never enforced.

Despite court orders, the sheriff's attempt to evict the CIO bosses were met with stiff resistance and violence. The sheriff then tried to enlist the services of the police to escort them to enforce the High Court orders, but former police chief Augustine Chihuri refused to cooperate.

Several letters were written to the police by the sheriff requested for escort but they were snubbed.

After the fall of Chihuri, the sheriff Macduff Madega on December 15 wrote to officer commanding Mashonaland East requesting for police escort to peacefully execute its mandate as stated in the court order and Writ of Execution. The letter was copied to the officer-in-charge of Juru Growth Point and the Police General Headquarters.

Tande's lawyers stepped up pressure on police in a December 18 letter highlighting that the sheriff tried to evict and faced resistance from the CIO occupants and the sheriff made a formal report at Juru Police Station under RRB number 3340671.

"Such behaviour is unlawful and a clear case of obstruction of justice and contempt of court," Tande's lawyers said in the letter to Matanga. "You will note that the court order also specifically provides that the ZRP shall assist the sheriff in the eviction of the occupants in the eviction. In terms of this Constitution of Zimbabwe, no one is above the law and everyone has a duty to uphold the law and abide by court orders."

On January 17, Matanga then ordered that the CIO bosses be evicted.

Perrance Shiri, the former airforce boss who is the new land and agriculture minister, has called for "unquestionable sanity on the farms."

"All those who were illegally settled or who just settled themselves on resettlement land should vacate immediately," Shiri said in a meeting with provincial ministers in Harare.

"Only those people with documentation of land occupancy and or those who were allocated land legitimately should remain on the farms and concentrate on production unhindered."

Zimbabwe, once a net exporter of grain to southern Africa, has suffered food shortages over the last 17 years as its farming sector has been hit by drought and disruptions linked to the land seizures.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: Africa

Loading...Home | World | Africa | Govt to refurbish Hwange National Airport

GOVERNMENT is planning to refurbish the underutilised Hwange National Park Airport into an international facility with some investors already showing interest in the project, a Cabinet Minister has said.

Speaking after a familiarisation tour of the facility, Transport and Infrastructure Development Minister Dr Joram Gumbo said the airport refurbishment is one of the many projects identified as part of the 100 day programme.

Dr Gumbo said some unnamed investors were willing to partner Government on the project as plans are at an advanced stage to introduce domestic flights connecting local tourist resorts.

The Minister was making his first tour of the airport which is located a few kilometres away from Hwange National Park, making it the gateway to the Big Five game reserve.

"The 100 days we were given by His Excellence is the reason why I am here. We have projects that we have to complete as part of this target and because Matabeleland North is an important province to our country because of its wild life and tourism, it is critical that we refurbish this facility," he said.

The airport started operating in 1971 and has a 4,6 km long and 30 metres wide runway with a capacity to handle medium and some big aircraft such as the Airbus A320 and Boeing 737.

The airport has not been handling any scheduled flights for some years since Air Zimbabwe stopped flights there due to lack of traffic.

Hwange National Park Airport already has an air traffic control, fire and rescue services as well as the runway which is regarded as one of the longest in the country.

The familiarisation tour identified the runway, ramp, terminal building and navigation system as some of the areas that need refurbishment to promote tourism.

Dr Gumbo said Government had noted recommendations from some tour operators that some tourists want to fly directly to the national park.

"There is a hotel and a lot of lodges nearby hence it will not be a problem bringing people here. We have tourists who want to fly directly to Hwange National Park hence it is important to refurbish this facility. The idea is to inspect, refurbish and make sure it's usable," he said.

The Minister highlighted that as part of the 100 day-targets, Air Zimbabwe will be recapitalised with some small aircrafts already being sourced.

He said Government has an open skies policy to allow many players for ease of doing business.

"We are trying to make sure we recapitalise Air Zimbabwe with smaller planes that can be used to fly locally to all resorts such as Hwange, Kariba, Victoria Falls and Mutare. As far as Air Zimbabwe is concerned, I am going to be working hard with management. There are about five or six small aircrafts that have been sourced and we can then be asking Air Zimbabwe to fly to Kariba, Victoria Falls and Hwange," said the Minister.

Dr Gumbo said he will be engaging his Tourism and Hospitality Industry counterpart to start a marketing campaigns for the airport.

From Hwange, the Minister and his delegation flew to Kariba Airport on a similar assignment.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: Africa

Loading...I want Get Out so bad

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this

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rooting for get out but I also don't have real passion for this year's movies

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Their podcast talking about the Oscar nominations ruined Phantom Thread for me, so thanks.



Anyway, out of the nominees I've seen, I rank them:



CMBYN

Lady Bird/Get Out (I can never decide which one I like more)

The Shape of Water

50 feet of crap

Three Billboards



I think Phantom Thread will be near the top once I finally see it, maybe Dunkirk as well. Don't know if I'll even bother watching Darkest Hour but I suppose I should.

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The Shape of Water

Get Out

The Post

Lady Bird

Three Billboards

Darkest Hour

I, Tonya

Dunkirk



I still need to see Phantom Thread but I don't think it will win best picture anyway and there is zero buzz for Dunkirk.



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Lmao did you just swap out CMBYN for I, Tonya?

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Either Phantom Thread or The Post

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I think Margot's acting was technically good but I still never actually bought her as Tonya. She was just miscast.

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Phantom Thread >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

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"but watch fish sucking win...."





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this is the first year i can think of where i hate literally all of the acting frontrunners. i love sam rockwell but his win is going to make me the angriest. i don't know how you see willem dafoe in the florida project and pick sam rockwell over that. UGH. and allison janney, who i also normally love, is actively bad in i, tonya.

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Sony Picture Classic (Call Me By Your Name) has allegedly given up on Timothee Chalamet winning Best Actor



I mean, what took them so long? It's been Oldman's from the start. Also, I'm probably the only one on ONTD that think it's DDL being robbed this year not Chalamet.





As for your question, my favorites from the 9 nominated was Phantom Thread and Lady Bird, neither of which I think has a shot at winning Best Picture, so at this point I'm rooting for anything that isn't Three Billboards.



Edited at 2018-02-03 05:05 am (UTC)

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Ive seen both. In any other year I would give it to DDL but Timothee was just better. His performance lingers with you for months afterwards. That being said if they give it to DDL I wouldnt be mad at it. Like I said his performances are always flawless.

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Oooh now I want to see Phantom Thread even more, because for me Timothee was outstanding

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i watched both and imo DDL is better. Chalamet's performance is really good, don't get me wrong, but the popular opinion is helped by the fact that CMBYN had a degree of hype, press and media attention in general that Phantom Thread never did. and while Chalamet's performance was def strong overall, it always make me lol that people consider the last scene - in which he's looking sad & crying for a few minutes over melancholic music - the pinnacle of acting, lmao

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By the time I seen CMBYN it had been so hyped that I thought it was disappointing tbh

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you're def not alone re: DDL, ita!

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A potential Gary Oldman backlash was allegedly tampered by the actor's team.



OFC RME



Also Get Out and The Shape of Water are my top two for Best Picture.



Edited at 2018-02-03 05:05 am (UTC)

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I really want to know he did. They didn't go into it after that line. Did they just tell the press to stop?

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I'm interested in this bc Oldman tells everyone he doesn't even have a publicist. who's pulling the strings for him?

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'Phantom Thread' was the best movie this year for me, so it deserves every single award the Academy has to offer. Unfortunately, I think old crusty males don't have taste and will ride the '3 Billboards' wave.



Also, I finally watched 'CMBYN'! I liked it but cannot say how much. It's a very Guadagnino kind of movie, on par with 'I am Love' and 'The Big Splash'. Chalamet was fantastic, as much as he started getting on my nerves this awards season, I couldn't take my eyes off of him. Hammer, on the other hand, was a huuuuge miscast, I'd say he's the main reason why this movie didn't rise to my joy of 'Phantom Thread'. Not only did he look completely out of place (as much as Chalamet was trying his best, there was no chemistry between the two of them because the thought of someone like Hammer falling for someone like Chalamet was ridiculous, hell, I was more interested in the 5-min relationship between Elio and Marzia), his line delivery and mannerisms were just horrendous. He threw me off with his very first line (which was something like "Hello, I'm Oliver, nice to meet you"), that's how bad he was. He couldn't even pretend to be smart. Or laugh genuinely. Very "I'm from Hollywood and I memorized and practiced these lines in from of the mirror" kind of performance, and that was especially noticeable with everyone else acting really naturally.



Oh, and that final monologue - why do so many people find it so special? let alone award-wordy? I was expecting something more gut-wrenching. For me, Sufjan's final song did the trick.

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mte exactly about hammer. i don't understand some of the outrage re: him not getting nominated. that role could have been played by any attractive white dude out there and the age difference was made worse considering he does not at all look like he's 24. i felt no sense of warmth or any real sense of character from oliver, and while i understand it's from elio's pov, the movie and hammer should have done a better job at least showing why exactly elio was so infatuated w/ him aside from that fact that he's good looking.

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lol ia, any outrage at his "snub" is a joke, not only was he a weak link, he actively made the entire movie's quality drop with his mere presence in it. i think that's how guadagnino thought as well - that as long as he casts someone attractive, he's golden. but oliver has to have some charisma in order to charm everyone around him (and since the movie is from elio's pov - us, viewers, as well). he should be more than a handsome dude, he should be someone elio looks up to, someone he both wants and wants to be like. but whenever characters were talking about liking him, or finding him smart, etc, it was just such a fantasy, i couldn't believe any of them. that's why i mentioned marzia, she had such little screen time, yet i saw her personality and cared about her wellbeing, more than i ever did with oliver who remained a cardboard cut-out.

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i will liiiiive if get out wins, but i feel like its almost impossible. lady bird would be cool too, just for my girl saoirse.



we all know 3bb or darkest hour is gonna take that shit though.

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we all know 3bb or darkest hour is gonna take that shit though.



??????????? Darkest Hour is definitely not winning.

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im sure itll be 3bb, which still sucks. i just dont trust the academy to not be dumbasses.

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Shape of Water has a much better chance of winning than Darkest Hour. They may give best actor to Oldman, but that movie isn't close to Best Picture.

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I don't think it'll win BP but I saw Phantom Thread today and I LOVED it. I'm pulling for Get Out, though. I'll be fine as long as 3BB doesn't win.



Edited at 2018-02-03 05:15 am (UTC)

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i'm working my way through all the movies nominated in the big categories and am currently watching the last best picture nom (darkest hour). oh wait, i have phantom thread too.



i've just been watching screeners for all of them because i can't be bothered paying for movies i don't really have much interest in, so it's been really easy to not pay attention to a lot of them (dunkirk, the post, darkest hour, mostly).



Edited at 2018-02-03 05:19 am (UTC)

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LinkONTD members who frequent the Bollywood tag will be aware of the months-long drama unfolding in India over the movie, Padmavat/i directed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali, which has resulted in, some of which have banned the movie. Karni Sena, the militant Rajput organization which had been spearheading the protests because of the supposed defamation of Rani Padmini (who is an imaginary character),. From the movie it is clear that its politics of representation is an extremely regressive one- Rajputs, an extremely oppressive dominant caste which is a mainstay in right-wing Hindu politics, are glorified in every second dialogue, while Khilji is portrayed through an Islamophobic and biphobic/homophobic perspective.. Moreover some feminists (including actress Swara Bhasker) have argued that the ending glorifies Jauhar, a practice in which Rajput women voluntarily or more often unvoluntarily commit suicide by self-immolation when their husbands were defeated in battle.(For more details about what is wrong with the movie, see this excellent post by). Clearly all of this has satisfied the organization which has promised that it will help release the movie in the states in which it has been banned. It wants all Rajputs to see their glory represented on screen.Earlier in January 2016, activists from this organization assaulted the director and vandalized the sets of the movie. The organization had also issued death threats to Deepika Padukone and Bhansali recently. Source for the news. Text by OP.I'm going with my students as a field trip. So excited

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you are a good teacher

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bless 

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This is so sweet! love it

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Good for them! How sweet!



The school's director of curriculum and instruction, Wade King, came up with the idea of incorporating the upcoming Marvel blockbuster with the school curriculum. This will include the students using the BP comic books to learn about imperial history and African art, along with using the content during maths, science and gym lessons (Wakanda is a highly advanced country with genius scientists as well as superheroes who can fight).





That's probably what I would do if I taught social studies or something, bc If i'm going to be paid like shit I might as well incorporate it with something I like.

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mte. I wanted to be a teacher when I was ages 6-10. Then computers caught my attention and that went out the window.

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Plus it probably keeps the kids more engaged with what they are learning than just reading history books.

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Same, I'm just a sub at the moment but I could teach regularly I would absolutely incorporate pop nerd imagery into academia--my favorite high school English teacher showed us The Matrix to better understand Allegory of the Cave.

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My college history teacher did the same! It really was a great tool to understanding Allegory of the Cave and sticks with me to this day.

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the cutest <3

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Aww, this is so wonderful!!! :')

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I saw this all over my timeline yesterday, so cute. So happy for them!

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This is a cute and wholesome post. And it better remain as such.

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Mte, I was ready to post "keep your bitter tongues behind y'all crooked, yellowed teeth".

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omg

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mfte..the usual suspects bet not even try it 

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I would take a gander at the LSA thread on this topic to see how something like this can turn negative real quick.

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This is so cute. Im so hyped for this movie, I might cry

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Such cuties! And that curriculum sounds really fun and engaging.

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That was so cute lol

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Oh, that is so lovely 

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I am all about pure content like this lol

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Me too. We need more positive uplifting stories on here. Its just sad that a lot of the times when its celebrities, I feel like at least 60% is disingenuous and they do it publicity. I know its a shitty thing to think but

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No I get you, that's why I take shit like kids dancing at getting to see Black Panther and the like and enjoy it when I can because we don't get a lot of that lol

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Same :)

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me too. more dance parties tbh.

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me too.

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Ikr, stuff like this genuinely makes me happy

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This is awesome!



Its nice to see koc also have a superhero to look up to. The media is so inundated with white superheros everywhere. Im hoping the success of films like Black Panther and shows like Black Lighting encourage more studios to mak superhero themes with all POC. Its needed.

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This is why representation is so important.

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And sinc hollywood always influence others, i really hope this makes big waves in japan so after being invested in anime for damn near 22 years, I can finally have fantasy or even regular slice of life stories with more black ppl in it.



I know it seems like im reaching but hollywood sadly sets the standard for everywhere else.

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Link24 years ago, @AliceInChains turned an unfortunate situation into a surprising chart-topping gem with 'Jar of Flies': https://t.co/T39ShwEuOH  Loudwire (@Loudwire) January 25, 2018

We are so pleased to announce our upcoming headline shows in Europe this summer. Tickets on sale Monday at 10AM CET. Visit https://t.co/80C44RKja0 for a full list of tour dates. pic.twitter.com/HnHfxKnTba  Alice in Chains (@AliceInChains) January 26, 2018

In 1993, Alice in Chains was touring, having 5 radio singles, and co-headlining Lollapalooza. But when they got home, they found out they had been evicted, were low on cash, and had no place to stay. They moved into Seattle's London Bridge Studios and ended up making an album.-Layne Staley said they never planned to make an album from the music they made, but the studio heard it and loved it-Jerry Cantrell hadn't written any songs and only had one jangly chorus, which turned into No Excuses-Nutshell turned into the biggest fan fave and it wasn't even released commercially!-The album title came from an experiment Cantrell did as a kid with 2 jars of flies. He overfed one jar and underfed the other. The underfed flies survived and these findings had a huge impact on Jerry.In more recent news, the band just announced they will be touring Europe this summer. They are already touring Canada/U.S. this spring.I WANT ALL OF THEM

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this is the only good thing

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Senior dogs <3 I live for Old Friends Senior Dog Sanctuary on IG.



My mom volunteers with a senior dog program and fosters them. They're so sweet and deserve all of the happiness in the world. I know everyone wants a pup or younger dog + sometimes it can be costly with a senior dog depending on health issues but if you have the means and want to help them you definitely should!

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Yesssss theyre also on facebook. I love their commentary. Its so wholesome. Im planning a road trip. You can sign up to visit (they limit the number of people allowed each day and only have certain visiting hours so the dogs dont get stressed out by too many people).

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I deleted my FB a while ago which was when I first started follow them - so I was glad when they finally made an IG page or else I had to rely on Tumblr. I legit lose sleep when there's an update that one dog is sick/not doing well and so glad when they're ok again. I'd love to visit one day but it's super far away unless I visit my mom on the way to FL. I bought a Leo t-shirt a few months ago.

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those FB comments are the only ones you can read and feel better afterwards lol

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I love my dog. We got her when she was a puppy and she means the world to me, but if I ever adopt again, I'm getting an older pup. I want to make a difference in a senior dog's life.

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I went to the pet store because they have adoptable cats and dogs that on saturday (and i needed cat food) and there were two very sweet adults. One was a very cute beagle girl who flopped over onto her back and demanded belly rubs. Very sweet and very into people. The other was some kind of mutt (idk what) and had a cute gray face. He was 10 and named Shakespeare! 10/10 for both, would pet again.



If youre in miami, check out the pet smart on 136th St and S. Dixie Hwy



Edited at 2018-02-03 09:04 pm (UTC)

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I loooooove love love love love love love this idea. Amazing.



There are so many wonderful, adoptable dogs in every shelter out there who need homes! A lot of them are potty trained and super loving, but their people died or left them when they moved. There's nothing wrong with them!!



We adopted a 4ish year old dog two years ago and it was the best decision I have made next to getting married. No need to adopt a puppy.

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im already crying thanks

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This is a really great thing -- people lose their shit over puppies because they're cute but old dogs need love too!



If I ever won the lottery/became disgustingly rich I would totally have an animal sanctuary, just to take care of all the animals without homes.



I would love to have a dog, but we live in a small apt with a fussy Ragdoll and we're about to move continents so it's not the best time. :(

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Aww. The best part of super bowl Sunday is the puppy and kitten bowls.

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http://longislandbulldogrescue.org If youre in New York or nearby, one of the dogs in the bowl is a bulldog from Long Island Bulldog Rescue

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awe... my heart.

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aw yay! god bless who ever came up w this, the puppy bowl, and the kitten bowl. #RealMVPs

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lol yea I couldn't care less about the superbowl but I'll be spending tomorrow watching the kitten and then puppy bowl.

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mte bc lbr that's all that really matters on Superbowl Sunday.

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MTE, I don't give a shit about the actual Superbowl, I'm just interested in the animal shows.

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Pet post? This is our babe we adopted at the beginning of November. We named her Rey. Pet post? This is our babe we adopted at the beginning of November. We named her Rey.

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Awww, what a cutie! Does she like the snow?

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To an extent. She's got really short hair being a pitbull-mix so if she has her boots and jacket on, she is all ready to go. If she doesn't, she'd rather be inside under some blankets. lol

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Aww how precious! 

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her jacket 

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PS my cat is on my lap right now

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Dont tell her i made a dog post

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I looked into the trap, Ray I told her, peddlestools :(

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my parents got a puppy (from the pound they always adopt) and that dog is terrified of me. I have only been over to their place a handful of times since they got her and she is just timid as hell. IDK what to do because I can't be over there all the time for her to feel comfortable with me :(

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Aw, baby. My last dog was like this as a puppy. She hid under the piano bench whenever ANYONE visited. Once she grew up a little she got much braver, though, and remembered people (especially if they had played with her in the past).

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Bring her a yummy treat she only gets when you visit. Once she figures out the connection, you'll be one of her favorite people.

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aww :(( i second a yummy treat, if your parents dont mind. even if it's like twice she'll be like "woah this person always gives me good things" lol

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Leave stuff that smells like you so she recognizes you? I read that helps.

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I'm looking for older cats because spending your last few years in a pound is just such a sad idea to me.

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Cats live a long time, too! If you adopt a cat who's 8-10, you may very well have 7-9 years with them. That's more than I've gotten with several of my dogs.

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Oh I know! That's why it's so sad to think that they might spend half of their lives in a pound.

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I've seen people come to the shelter I volunteer at make that same comment and then go right off and adopt a kitten. But still plenty of people come out and adopt older cats. Or older cats with medical conditions, those people are my heros.

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LinkA tourist takes pictures of a lava lake inside the crater of the Masaya Volcano in Nicaragua

Centuries ago, a native Central American people terrified of a witch believed to live deep in the earth used to sacrifice children and young women to Nicaragua's Masaya volcano.

Today, the crater southwest of the capital Managua is an international tourist magnet, where photo-snapping visitors scramble among sulfurous fumes to get views of its bubbling lavaa rare sight.

The only volcanoes in the world to boast lakes of incandescent magma are Masaya, Hawaii's Kilauea and Nyiragongo in the Democratic Republic of Congo, explained a Nicaraguan geographer and environmentalist, Jaime Incer.

"It's something extraordinary, unique in the world," said Noheli Pravia, a French visitor filming and photographing the scene which has happened every 20 to 25 years since 1902.

The red-hot liquid performs an agitated ballet for the spectators, with a cloud of white smoke filling the active crater, whose name is Santiago.

Masaya volcano is located in the most populated part of Nicaragua's Pacific coastal stretch and is inside a nature reserve of some 50 square kilometers (20 square miles) where vast fields of petrified lava contrast with the white flowers of frangipanis.

The 400-meter (1,300-foot) high volcano formed 5,000 years ago, and its activity has intensified in the past six months.

"This is the first time I've seen something like thisit's really impressive," said Mijaela Cuba, an Austrian nurse, speaking above the waves of lava.

Hundreds of tourists arrive daily to observe the lava flow which formed six months ago near the surface of the crater of the small Masaya volcano, one of the most active in Nicaragua

Toxic gases

She was one of 4,000 tourists whom the Nicaraguan government has given permission to edge up close to the crater's edge in the past two weeks. Each visit is limited to just a few minutes because of the risk from the toxic gases.

The only signs of life in the walls of the crater, that go down hundreds of meters, are green parrots and bats.

Masaya has erupted twice in recorded history: in 1670 and 1772, scaring the Spanish conquistadors.

Each tourist's visit to the volcano is limited to just a few minutes because of the risk from toxic gases

"It is a maw of fire that never ceases to burn," the first governor of the region, Pedrarias Davila, wrote to the king of Spain in 1525.

One monk, Francisco de Bobadilla, even considered it to be the gate to hell and erected a big cross on the edge of the crater.

The pre-Columbian people who inhabited the area believed that a subterranean witch they called Chalchihuehe lived inside, and they sacrificed young innocent lives to try to appease her.

According to Incer, the risk now is that, if the lava keeps rising higher inside the volcano each time it appears, a new eruption could occur within the next 150 years on the scale of the one in 1772when it reached as far 30 kilometers away, where today stands Nicaragua's international airport.

Explore further Volcano in Nicaragua spews gas and lava

 2016 AFPNews

Azure Active Directory Gets Policy, Printing and User Perks

Microsoft recently announced a few Azure Active Directory (AD) improvements, both for end users and IT pros.

IT pros can now test the effects of conditional access policies on individual Azure AD end users, Microsoft announced late last month. A "What If" tool, available at the preview stage, can be used to check those effects on a single user at a time. Microsoft built the tool so that IT pros can "see how CA [conditional access] policies will impact a user under various sign-in conditions." The conditions that can be set in the tool include the cloud app used, IP address, device platform, client app and sign-in risk.

The What If tool will show which conditional access policies applied and which didn't for a particular end user, along with an explanation. It'll show if "classic" policies are in place, and allows IT pros to disable those policies. The tool saves IT pros the time of having to log in as a particular user to run such tests, according to Microsoft's documentation. There's no bulk checking, so it seems more like a troubleshooting tool, at least in its current preview stage.

Azure AD and Printing

Microsoft has now made the bold declaration that it's possible to print from an Azure AD-joined Windows 10 device, according to a Feb. 1 announcement. The printing happens using a Windows Server 2016 Hybrid Cloud Print role feature, described as "just released" in the announcement although it was documented back in October. The Hybrid Cloud Print role is designed to permit printing in bring-your-own-device types of scenarios. It's used in conjunction with Azure AD and the Microsoft Intune mobile device management (MDM) solution.

"Up until now, there has never been a good way to print to a corporate printer from an Azure AD joined device," explained Alex Simons, director of program management for the Microsoft Identity Division, in the announcement.

Hybrid Cloud Print also supports AD domain-joined devices because it's "built on top of the Windows Print Server role," Simons explained, so existing scripts and tools will work with it. It uses two new Internet Information Services endpoints, namely the Printer Discovery Service and the Windows Print Service, and it has six new MDM policies.

Easier App Launching

Late last month, Microsoft described faster ways for end users to sign into Azure AD-managed applications. Microsoft has turned the My Apps portal for launching applications into a "waffle" icon browser extension, which is available from the top bar of browsers, including Chrome, Firefox and Microsoft Edge. The new waffle icon will appear automatically for users of "an older version of the extension."

The waffle extension also shows the user's available Azure AD-managed apps. It's a quicker way to access them than going back to the My Apps portal.

Microsoft also explained late last month that its Intune Managed Browser now has My Apps functionality included for Android and iOS devices. My Apps will now show as the home page when the Intune Managed Browser gets launched. The Intune Managed Browser is designed to work with Intune policies and permits organizations to use single sign-on with My Apps. It's also used to limit URL access by end users, among other capabilities, as described in this document.Royal Dutch Shell plc operates as an energy and petrochemical company worldwide. The company operates through Integrated Gas, Upstream, Oil Products, Chemicals segments. It explores for and extracts crude oil, natural gas, and natural gas liquids; markets and transports oil and gas; produces gas-to-liquids fuels and other products; and operates upstream and midstream infrastructure necessary to deliver gas to market. The company also markets and trades natural gas, liquefied natural gas (LNG), crude oil, electricity, carbon-emission rights; and markets and sells LNG as a fuel for heavy-duty vehicles and marine vessels. In addition, it trades in and refines crude oil and other feed stocks, such as gasoline, diesel, heating oil, aviation fuel, marine fuel, biofuel, lubricants, bitumen, and sulphur; produces and sells petrochemicals for industrial use; and manages oil sands activities. Further, the company produces base chemicals comprising ethylene, propylene, and aromatics, as well as intermediate chemicals, such as styrene monomer, propylene oxide, solvents, detergent alcohols, ethylene oxide, and ethylene glycol. Royal Dutch Shell plc was founded in 1907 and is headquartered in The Hague, the Netherlands.

Read MoreFormer FBI Director James Comey sharply criticized Republicans, and by extension President Donald Trump, shortly after the House Intelligence Committee released the controversial memo that supposedly shows bias at the FBI and the Justice Department. It seems Comey, agrees with Slates Jeremy Stahl that the memo is a complete flop and offers virtually no new information.

In a tweet, Comey point-blank asks: Thats it? The partisan wrangling that preceded the release of the dishonest and misleading memo caused significant damage but doesnt actually show any kind of malfeasance, the former FBI chief suggested. The debate over the document that has engulfed Washington for weeks wrecked the House intel committee, destroyed trust with Intelligence Community, damaged relationship with FISA court, and inexcusably exposed classified investigation of an American citizen, Comey wrote. For what? DOJ & FBI must keep doing their jobs.

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Thats it? Dishonest and misleading memo wrecked the House intel committee, destroyed trust with Intelligence Community, damaged relationship with FISA court, and inexcusably exposed classified investigation of an American citizen. For what? DOJ & FBI must keep doing their jobs.  James Comey (@Comey) February 2, 2018

The normally quiet Comey who usually likes to comment on the news in roundabout ways has been unusually direct recently. On Thursday evening, the former FBI director also took to Twitter to say that everyone should appreciate the FBI speaking up. Ultimately though, Comey, whose firing led to the appointment of Robert Mueller as special counsel, sounded an optimistic tone: Take heart: American history shows that, in the long run, weasels and liars never hold the field, so long as good people stand up. Not a lot of schools or streets named for Joe McCarthy.

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All should appreciate the FBI speaking up. I wish more of our leaders would. But take heart: American history shows that, in the long run, weasels and liars never hold the field, so long as good people stand up. Not a lot of schools or streets named for Joe McCarthy.  James Comey (@Comey) February 1, 2018

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The FBI and Justice Department had staunchly opposed the release of the memo and there were reports that the White House was worried FBI Director Christopher Wray would resign with the release of the memo. But later reports claimed Wray had no intention of quitting.

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BREAKING: FBI Director Chris Wray has no intention of quitting if controversial House Intel memo is released despite his objections, @PeteWilliamsNBC reports  NBC Politics (@NBCPolitics) February 1, 2018

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Some are urging the FBI director to reconsider. Steve Vladeck, a law professor at the University of Texas, writes on NBC News website that Wray has no option but to resign now. Vladeck explains:

AdvertisementThe heavily hyped classified memo produced by House Intelligence Committee chairman Devin Nunes to discredit the Russia investigation was released on Friday.

The document makes bold declarations about its own significance and asserts to find damning proof of an orchestrated campaign within the Department of Justice and Federal Bureau of Investigation to smear Donald Trump, both during his candidacy in 2016 and now during his presidency.

The substance of the memo itself, though, offers virtually no new information. Its reckless assertions of a widespread conspiracy at the top echelons of the Justice Department to bring down the Trump campaign and President Trump are completely unsubstantiated.

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Basically, there is nothing novel or particularly substantive about this shiny political weapon.

The memo starts off claiming to update the Intelligence Committee on significant facts relating to the Committees ongoing investigation into the [DOJ and FBI] and their use of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) during the 2016 presidential election cycle.

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That investigation, it should be remembered, was initially meant to be about Russian interference in the presidential election and what role Trumps campaign might have played in it.

The memo continued:

Our findings, which are detailed below, 1) raise concerns with the legitimacy and legality of certain DOJ and FBI interactions with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC), and 2) represent a troubling breakdown of legal processes established to protect the American people from abuses related to the FISA process.

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The accusations have to do with the signing of multiple FISA warrant applications for former Trump foreign policy advisor Carter Page from October 2016 through the summer of last year. The people responsible for signing the various applications are singled out in the memo, seemingly to taint them by connection:

Then-Director James Comey signed three FISA applications in question on behalf of the FBI, and Deputy Director Andrew McCabe signed one. Sally Yates, then-Acting DAG Dana Boente, and DAG Rod Rosenstein each signed one or more FISA applications on behalf of DOJ.

What did these five nefarious law enforcement officialstwo of whom remain in the presidents administration, most of whom are Republicans, and four of whom have come under fire from the presidentdo? They signed off on documents that failed to emphasize that the Steele dossierunder which the initial warrant partially reliedwas funded in part by the Democratic National Committee.

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While the FISA application relied on Steeles past record of credible reporting on other unrelated matters, it ignored or concealed his anti-Trump financial and ideological motivations, the memo states. Furthermore, Deputy Director McCabe testified before the Committee in December 2017 that no surveillance warrant would have been sought from the FISC without the Steele dossier information.

This last piece of testimony from McCabe, whose retirement was announced earlier this week and who has been a chief target of the president, appears to be new and might be one of the few meaningful pieces of information. Without knowing how much of the Steele Dossier has been independently verified and without the context of McCabes actual quote, though, its very difficult to know what this might mean and if its being represented accurately. For its part, Trumps own FBI has said that the memo contains material omissions of fact that fundamentally impact the memos accuracy and requested it not be released.

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The Memo goes on:

In the case of Carter Page, the government had at least four independent opportunities before the FISC to accurately provide an accounting of the relevant facts. However, our findings indicate that, as described below, material and relevant information was omitted.

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Again, the strong implication is that there was an orchestrated attempt by the DOJ and FBI to intentionally mislead a FISC in order to attack the president of the United States for political reasons.

What is the actual substance of those charges?

Neither the initial application in October 2016, nor any of the renewals, disclose or reference the role of the DNC, Clinton campaign, or any party/campaign in funding Steeles efforts, even though the political origins of the Steele dossier were then known to senior DOJ and FBI officials.

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This accusation is not new either. It was reported earlier this week and is only damning if the FBI didnt have other evidence in their initial FISA warrant application on which to base its surveillance. Its been reported that they did have such information, but that information remains classifiedpresumably because its not politically useful to the president and his allies. Its also worth noting that FISA renewals of 90 daysof which the memo itself acknowledges there were threerequire that federal law enforcement officials demonstrate to a federal judge that the surveillance had gathered new foreign intelligence information.

How else did this plot against Making America Great go down?

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The Carter Page FISA application also cited extensively a September 23, 2016, Yahoo News article by Michael Isikoff, which focuses on Pages July 2016 trip to Moscow. This article does not corroborate the Steele dossier because it is derived from information leaked by Steele himself to Yahoo News. The Page FISA application incorrectly assesses that Steele did not directly provide information to Yahoo News.

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This seems like one of the most potentially potent arguments in the Memo. If the FBI relied upon a Yahoo News report to back up the Steele Dossier and that Yahoo News report was based on the dossier, then that indeed would be negligent at best. Again, though, there was reportedly other evidencenot included in this Memothat the DOJ presented to get its initial surveillance warrant. Additionally, CNN has reported that Page had been the subject of investigation after an attempted recruitment by Russian agentsand a previous FISA warrantin 2014. Ultimately, the Memo doesnt show how the Yahoo News article was presented in the FISA application. And its also possible that the FBI did get this wrong, but without any ulterior motives to harm the president. Again, we dont know, because the Memo does not show the context.

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Finally, the Memo resurfaces two additional talking points that have floated around right-wing media in recent months. First, it points out that Obama associate attorney general Bruce Ohr had met with Steele and says he was politically biased. Second, it notes the already reported anti-Trump text messages of FBI agent Peter Strzok, who was removed from Muellers investigation once his texts were discovered.

Its worth remembering that the House Intelligence Committeeunder the direction of Nunesvoted on a party line vote to release this Memo and withhold a Democratic response. Even members of the GOP are beginning to acknowledge the partisanship at work in this entire episode.

Former Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain, for one, saw the Memos release for what it was: A dangerous partisan ploy to discredit the investigation into Russias attack on our election.

If Trump uses this Memo against the people currently investigating him and his campaigns possible role in that attackparticularly if he uses it to justify a firing of Special Counsel Robert Mueller or Rosenstein, who oversees Muellers probeit would also be an outright assault on the rule of law in this country.On its face, the so-called Nunes memo regarding government surveillance of Trump campaign aide Carter Page in 2016 does little to undermine the case against President Trump and his confederates. It does not contradict the indictments against Paul Manafort or Rick Gates nor explain the plea agreements of Michael Flynn and George Papadopoulos, nor extinguish questions about the extent to which Russia interfered in the electioneither in collusion with the Trump campaign or not.

What the Nunes memo does do is escalate the conflict underway between Trump and his partisans and the leaders of the American intelligence and law enforcement communities. This conflict began before Trumps inauguration but now burns hotter than ever as Special Counsel Robert Muellers investigation inches closer to the president himself. In ordering the release of the Nunes memo, Trump has signaled his willingness to betray the national security community in favor of his own interest. Whether the facts in the memo are true or not, or whether they burn intelligence sources and methods, matters little in comparison to Trumps egregious calculus of personal interest.

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The memo was drafted for Nunes by Kashyap Patel, a congressional staffer and former Justice Department national security lawyer. Patels great claim to fame before this episode was being scolded in 2016 by a federal judge in Texas for showing up late and without a suit in a counterterrorism case. In his memo to Republican members of the House intelligence committee, Patel essentially asserts that the FBIs application for a secret surveillance warrant against Page was deeply flawed and itself corrupted by politics.

Patel attacks the secret surveillance warrant on three basic fronts. First, and most significantly, Patel argues that the FBIs secret surveillance application omitted material and relevant information regarding the credibility of the infamous dossier prepared by former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele. Second, Patel writes that this highly controversial Steele dossier formed an essential part of the Carter Page FISA application. The implication is that there might not have been any counterintelligence investigation into Trump (and therefore no Mueller inquiry today) had it not been for this fake and politically contrived dossier. However, its worth noting that the Nunes/Patel memo undermines this point by stating in its last paragraph that the investigation of Trumps campaign began before the Steele dossier was prepared, based on information from Papadopoulos and other sources. Third, Patel notes a number of potential conflicts of interest for senior Justice Department officials or lower level investigators and argues these biases tainted the secret surveillance application and should have been disclosed to the court in the warrant application.

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Without the full case file, which remains classified, its hard to judge the truth of the Nunes/Patel memo. On Friday afternoon, Democratic members of Congress who had seen the full file issued statements denouncing the Nunes/Patel memo. However, Republicans voted Friday night to block the release of a Democratic staff memo that would have provided more context about this matter. So here we are, with a deeply flawed staff memo attacking the integrity, credibility, and processes of the FBI, Justice Department, and intelligence agencies in an investigation touching the most senior officials in the country.

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That is, of course, the whole point of this exercise. The accuracy of Patels assertions will probably never be tested in a court of law; if impeachment hearings ever occur, this memo will likely be nothing more than a footnote. However, the memo serves its purpose by airing bad facts about the FBI and getting those assertions lots of attention. The sole purpose of the Patel/Nunes memo is to make the FBI, Justice Department, and intelligence community look bad. It does so by publishing unverified facts about secret surveillance processesvia an official-looking document that carries the imprimatur of a lined-through TOP SECRET headersuggesting that the FBIs work is not to be trusted. Whether the allegations therein are true or false is irrelevant. Merely publishing this document scores points for the White House by impugning the credibility of the FBI in advance of a potential political showdown involving Trumps own culpability. Attacking the FBI cant (and wont) stop the Mueller investigationbut it gives ammunition to Trumps allies to attack Mueller and his FBI colleagues work.

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The dysfunctional process used to release the memo illustrates the toxic relationship that now exists between the White House and its own leadership at the Justice Department and intelligence community. In his cover letter transmitting the memo back to Congress for release, White House Counsel Donald McGahn first asserts executive prerogative over classified information, effectively telling Congress that only the White House has the legal power to release classified information to the public. This is an uncontroversial point, but also a self-serving one for a White House facing so much congressional investigative activity; its easy to see why the Trump White House would want to ensure it maintained sole authority over what classified information could be released.

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McGahn then describes the standards and process used by the White House to release the Nunes/Patel memo. He writes that the White House review process  included input from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Department of Justice. However, in the next sentence, McGahn writes, Consistent with this review  the President has determined that declassification of the Memorandum is appropriate. The concurrence of the intelligence community and Justice Department are conspicuously absent from this paragraph, which makes sense given the FBIs official statement criticizing grave concerns about material omissions of fact that fundamentally impact the memos accuracy. Trump directly overruled FBI Director Christopher Wray and Director of National Intelligence Daniel Coats to release the Nunes/Patel memo.

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Disagreements over policy between senior officialsor between senior officials and the presidentare nothing new. However, it is rare when a presidents self interest collides so directly with the considered judgment of his own hand-picked Cabinet officials or law enforcement agency heads. In this case, Wray and Coats know far more about this matter than what appeared in the Nunes/Patel memo. Based on what they know about this investigationand the broad portfolio of American intelligence and law enforcement activitythey recommended that Trump block the release of this memo. And yet, Trump overruled them, allowing the Nunes/Patel memo to go forward and attack the FBI, undermining the investigation that moves ever closer to Trump.

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Where this leads, no one knows. The Nunes/Patel memo raises enough questions that it will likely generate calls for the release of more classified material from the Russia files, or pressure to leak such material from Congress. If more information comes out, it may damage Trump, but its far more likely to damage ongoing investigations, or even compromise ongoing intelligence activities. Trump signaled today that he didnt care; between the integrity of government investigations and his own political interests, hell choose the latter. If hes willing to overrule his senior intelligence and law enforcement leaders over something so inconsequential and fake as the Nunes/Patel memo, its frightening to think what he would choose in an actual crisis, when we really need him to put America first.When Randall Margraves asked to speak in a Michigan courtroom Friday, he was obviously angry. Two of his three daughters who were sexually abused by former USA Gymnastics national team doctor Larry Nassar had just finished delivering their victim impact statements during the sentencing hearing Friday. Margraves third daughter had spoken the day before.

You son of a bitch, Margraves quickly said to Nassar, who has already been sentenced to up to 175 years in prison. At which point Judge Janice Cunningham asked him to abstain from using profanity.

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Margraves then had another request. I would ask you as part of the sentencing to grant me five minutes in a locked room with this demon, he said to the judge. When Cunningham demurred, Margraves dropped his time request: Would you give me one minute? The judge told him he knew that I cant do that as some in the courtroom appear to laugh nervously at the request. Thats when Margraves seemingly decided to take matters into his own hands and lunged toward Nassar, who was seated wearing an orange jumpsuit.

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WATCH: The father of victims of ex-USA Gymnastic doctor Larry Nassar lunges at Nassar in court after saying to judge, I would ask you to as part of the sentencing to grant me 5 minutes in a locked room with this demon. https://t.co/KltZISbi1m pic.twitter.com/Am0N4gZzsT  CBS News (@CBSNews) February 2, 2018

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Officers managed to tackle Margraves just as he was about to reach Nassar. One minute! Margraves repeatedly yelled out as he was handcuffed. What if this happened to you guys? he said to the police officers who dragged him out of the courtroom.

Although Margraves was held in direct contempt of court, Cunningham said he will not be fined nor arrested. There is no way this court is going to issue any type of punishment due to the circumstances of this case, Cunningham said. The judge did issue a warning: I cannot tolerate or condone vigilantism or any other type of action that basically comes down to an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.

Margraves ultimately apologized to the court for his actions. I lost control. I apologize a hundred times, he said. Im definitely calmed down. Im embarrassed. Im not here to upstage my daughters. Im here to help them heal.

The outburst underscored the pain Nassars abuse has caused his victims parents, notes Reuters. Several parents have openly spoken about how guilty they feel about essentially delivering their children to a sexual predator. More than 250 women have filed police reports saying Nassar sexually abused them.Minneapolis was named by Charles Hoag, its first schoolmaster. He proposed combining Mni, a rough translation from Dakota for water, and polis, which is Greek for city. He may have considered pitching Hoagburg, but thought better of it.

The faces on the clock in Minneapolis City Hall  the big, green-roofed tower downtown  are bigger than the faces on the Great Clock in London, where Big Ben tolls the hours. No one believes us, but its true.

Until the 1930s, Minneapolis was known as the Flour Capital of the World (or, more informally, Mill City). There are still remnants and ruins of flour-milling plants along the Mississippi River downtown today.

We were also a candy capital: Mars, the company behind the Milky Way, was founded in Minneapolis in 1920. The light fluffy white confection in a Three Musketeers was once called Minneapolis Nougat.

In Prohibition days, St. Paul was a favored hangout by gangsters, thanks to politicians and police chiefs who accepted some long green to look the other way. Dillinger, Capone, Alvin Creepy Karpis  they all cooled off in St. Paul. It kept crime low, since they had to promise to do their business elsewhere. (Like Minneapolis.)

If you flew into town, you trod the same ground as Dean Martin, Burt Lancaster and Jacqueline Bisset. The 1970 movie Airport was filmed at MSP, back when there was only one terminal, which was named for homeboy Charles Lindbergh. (Locals still use the old names for Terminal 1 and Terminal 2, the latter of which was named after Hubert H. Humphrey, a Minnesota senator and the 38th vice president.)

Minneapolis first skyscraper, the Foshay Tower, was once the tallest building between Chicago and the Pacific Ocean. Its now dwarfed by other skyscrapers, but you can still see its name in lights at night. (Incidentally, the man responsible for the eponymous building, Wilbur Foshay, was convicted of fraud in 1932. FDR commuted his sentence; Truman gave him a full pardon.)

Hennepin Avenue, a street known for its theaters, restaurants and bars, was, unlikely enough, named after Father Louis Hennepin, a Franciscan missionary and early explorer. Not sure what hed think of his street these days.

In the Commons, the park outside the U.S. Bank Stadium, theres a block of stone that reads 1947. Its not accompanied by any explanation. But insiders know the site was once occupied by the Star Tribune building and that 1947 was one of the years the oft-redesigned building was redesigned.

Minneapolis and St. Paul, like any siblings, have had feuds over the years. The Minnesota Twins, for example, were so named to avoid irritating either city. St. Paul thinks Minneapolis is glitz-addled and boastful; Minneapolis thinks St. Paul is stodgy and unnavigable. The biggest brouhaha was in 1890, when the census riled up the locals; each city accused the other of padding the numbers. Most of the hard feelings about that have subsided, but you never know. Best you dont bring it up.The following companies are subsidiares of Ingersoll Rand: 211 E. Russell Road LLC, Air-Relief, Belliss & Morcom Brasil, Belliss and Morcom, Boardwalk Enterprises, Charm Merger Sub Inc., CompAir, CompAir (Hankook) Korea Co. Ltd., CompAir Acquisition (No. 2) Ltd., CompAir Acquisition Ltd., CompAir BroomWade Ltd., CompAir Canada, CompAir Finance Ltd., CompAir GmbH, CompAir Holdings Limited, CompAir Holman Ltd, CompAir International Trading (Shanghai) Co Ltd, CompAir Korea Ltd, CompAir South Africa (SA) (Pty) Ltd., CompAir UK Ltd, CompAir USA, Consolidated Distribution Holdings Ltd., DV Systems Inc., Emco Wheaton, Emco Wheaton GmbH Branch, Emco Wheaton Gmbh, Emco Wheaton UK, Emco Wheaton USA Inc, Enza Air Propriety Limited (South Africa), GD Aria Holdings #2 Limited, GD Aria Holdings Limited, GD Aria Investments Limited, GD First UK Ltd, GD German Holdings GmbH, GD German Holdings I Gmbh, GD German Holdings II GmbH, GD German Investments GmbH, GD Global Holdings, GD Global Holdings II, GD Global Holdings UK II Ltd., GD Global Ventures I B.V., GD Global Ventures II B.V., GD Global Ventures III B.V., GD Industrial Products Malaysia SDN. BHD., GD Investment KY, GD UK Finance Ltd., Gardner Denver (Thailand) Co. 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Branch, Gardner Denver International, Gardner Denver International Ltd., Gardner Denver Intl Ltd Middle East Regional Rep Office, Gardner Denver Investments, Gardner Denver Italy Holdings S.r.L., Gardner Denver Japan, Gardner Denver Kirchhain Real Estate GmbH & Co KG, Gardner Denver Korea, Gardner Denver Korea Ltd, Gardner Denver Ltd, Gardner Denver Ltd South Africa, Gardner Denver Ltd., Gardner Denver Ltd. Branch (Ireland), Gardner Denver Machinery (Shanghai) Co, Gardner Denver Machinery (Shanghai) Co., Gardner Denver Nash Brasil Industria E Comercio De Bombas Ltda, Gardner Denver Nash Deutschland GmbH, Gardner Denver Nash LLC, Gardner Denver Nash Machinery Ltd, Gardner Denver Nash Machinery Ltd., Gardner Denver Nederland BV, Gardner Denver Nederland Investments B.V., Gardner Denver Oberdorfer Pumps, Gardner Denver Oy, Gardner Denver Petroleum Pumps, Gardner Denver Polska Sp z.o.o., Gardner Denver Pte Ltd., Gardner Denver S.r.l., Gardner Denver Schopfheim GmbH, Gardner Denver Schopfheim Real Estate GmbH & Co KG, Gardner Denver Schweiz AG, Gardner Denver Slovakia, Gardner Denver SudAmerica S.r.l., Gardner Denver Sweden AB, Gardner Denver Taiwan Ltd., Gardner Denver Thomas, Gardner Denver Thomas GmbH, Gardner Denver Thomas Pneumatic Systems (Wuxi) Co., Gardner Denver Thomas Real Estate GmbH & Co KG, Gardner Denver UK, Gardner Denver Water Jetting Systems, Garo Dott. Ing. Roberto Gabbioneta S.r.l., Hamworthy Belliss & Morcom, ILMVAC (UK) Ltd., ILS Innovative Labor Systeme, ILS Inovative Laborsysteme GmbH, Indonesia Foreign Trade Representative Office, LeROI, LeRoi International Inc, MP Pumps Inc., Mako Compressors, Nash, Nash Elmo, Oina VV, Oina VV Aktiebolag, Robuschi, Rotary Compression Technologies, Runtech Systems, Runtech Systems (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Runtech Systems Inc., Runtech Systems OY, Shanghai CompAir Compressors Co Ltd, Shanghai Compressors & Blowers Ltd., Syltone, TCM Investments, TIWR Real Estate GmbH & Co. KG, TODO AB, Tamrotor Marine Compressors AS, Thomas Industries, Thomas Industries Inc., Tri-Continent Scientific, Welch Vacuum Equipment (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Zinsser Analytic, Zinsser Analytik GmbH, and Zinsser NA.Wall Street analysts have given iShares MSCI Indonesia ETF a "N/A" rating, but there may be better buying opportunities in the stock market. Some of MarketBeat's past winning trading ideas have resulted in 5-15% weekly gains. MarketBeat just released five new stock ideas, but iShares MSCI Indonesia ETF wasn't one of them. MarketBeat thinks these five companies may be even better buys.

View MarketBeat's top stock picks here.Berkshire Hathaway Inc., through its subsidiaries, engages in the insurance, freight rail transportation, and utility businesses worldwide. It provides property, casualty, life, accident, and health insurance and reinsurance; and operates railroad systems in North America. The company also generates, transmits, stores, and distributes electricity from natural gas, coal, wind, solar, hydro, nuclear, and geothermal sources; operates natural gas distribution and storage facilities, interstate pipelines, liquefied natural gas facilities, and compressor and meter stations; and holds interest in coal mining assets. In addition, the company manufactures boxed chocolates and other confectionery products; specialty chemicals, metal cutting tools, and components for aerospace and power generation applications; and flooring, insulation, roofing and engineered, building and engineered components, paints and coatings, and bricks and masonry products, as well as offers manufactured and site-built home construction, and related lending and financial services; and recreational vehicles, apparel products, jewelry, and custom picture framing products, and alkaline batteries. Further, it manufactures castings, forgings, fasteners/fastener systems, and aerostructures; and seamless pipes, fittings, downhole casing and tubing, and various mill forms. Additionally, the company distributes televisions and information; franchises and services quick service restaurants; distributes electronic components; and offers logistics services, grocery and foodservice distribution services, and professional aviation training and shared aircraft ownership programs. It also retails automobiles; furniture, bedding, and accessories; household appliances, electronics, and computers; jewelry, watches, crystal, china, stemware, flatware, gifts, and collectibles; kitchenware; and motorcycle apparel and equipment. The company was incorporated in 1998 and is headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska.

Read MoreThe following companies are subsidiares of HCA Healthcare: 2490 Church LLC, 360 Community Alliance LLC, 4600 Waters Avenue Professional Building Condominium Association Inc., 52 Alderley Road LLP, AC Med LLC, ACH Inc., ADC Surgicenter LLC, AOGN LLC, AOSC Sports Medicine Inc., AR Holding 1 LLC, AR Holding 10 LLC, AR Holding 11 LLC, AR Holding 12 LLC, AR Holding 13 LLC, AR Holding 14 LLC, AR Holding 15 LLC, AR Holding 16 LLC, AR Holding 17 LLC, AR Holding 18 LLC, AR Holding 19 LLC, AR Holding 2 LLC, AR Holding 20 LLC, AR Holding 21 LLC, AR Holding 22 LLC, AR Holding 23 LLC, AR Holding 24 LLC, AR Holding 25 LLC, AR Holding 26 LLC, AR Holding 27 LLC, AR Holding 28 LLC, AR Holding 29 LLC, AR Holding 30 LLC, AR Holding 31 LLC, AR Holding 4 LLC, AR Holding 5 LLC, AR Holding 6 LLC, AR Holding 7 LLC, AR Holding 8 LLC, AR Holding 9 LLC, ASD Shared Services LLC, Acadiana Care Center Inc., Acadiana Practice Management Inc., Acadiana Regional Pharmacy Inc., Access 2 Health Care Physicians LLC, Access Health Care Physicians LLC, Access Management Co. 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Pinellas LLC, Green Oaks Hospital Subsidiary L.P., Greenview Hospital Inc., Greenview PrimeCare LLC, Greenview Specialty Associates LLC, Gulf Coast Division Inc., Gulf Coast Electrophysiology Associates PLLC, Gulf Coast Inpatient Specialists LLC, Gulf Coast Medical Center Primary Care LLC, Gulf Coast Medical Ventures Inc., Gulf Coast Multispecialty Services LLC, Gulf Coast Physician Administrators Inc., Gulf Coast Provider Network Inc., Gwinnett Community Hospital Inc., Gynecology Specialists of Utah LLC, H2U Wellness Centers - Del Sol Medical Center PLLC, H2U Wellness Centers - Las Palmas Medical Center PLLC, H2U Wellness Centers - Medical City Dallas PLLC, H2U Wellness Centers - St. Davids Medical Center PLLC, H2U Wellness Centers LLC, H2U Wellness Centers  Clear Lake Regional Medical Center PLLC, H2U Wellness Centers  Conroe ISD PLLC, H2U Wellness Centers  Conroe Regional Medical Center PLLC, H2U Wellness Centers  Corpus Christi PLLC, H2U Wellness Centers  El Paso PLLC, H2U Wellness Centers  PISD PLLC, H2U Wellness Centers  San Benito CISD PLLC, HBP Lone Star Inc., HCA - IT&S Field Operations Inc., HCA - IT&S Inventory Management Inc., HCA - IT&S PBS Field Operations Inc., HCA - IT&S TN Field Operations Inc., HCA - Information Technology & Services Inc., HCA - Raleigh Community Hospital Inc., HCA - Viera ALF LLC, HCA - WHS Progressive LLC, HCA - WHS Services LLC, HCA ASD Financial Operations LLC, HCA ASD Sales Services LLC, HCA American Finance LLC, HCA Carenow Limited, HCA Central Group Inc., HCA Central/West Texas Physicians Management LLC, HCA Chattanooga Market Inc., HCA Development Company Inc., HCA Eastern Group Inc., HCA Global Capital LLP, HCA Gulf Coast GME PLLC, HCA Health Services of California Inc., HCA Health Services of Florida Inc., HCA Health Services of Georgia Inc., HCA Health Services of Louisiana Inc., HCA Health Services of Miami Inc., HCA Health Services of Midwest Inc., HCA Health Services of New Hampshire Inc., HCA Health Services of Tennessee Inc., HCA Health Services of Texas Inc., HCA Health Services of Virginia Inc., HCA Health Services of West Virginia Inc., HCA Healthcare Mission Fund LLC, HCA Healthcare UK Limited, HCA Holdco LLC, HCA Human Resources LLC, HCA Imaging Services of North Florida Inc., HCA Inc., HCA International Holdings Limited, HCA International Limited, HCA LewisGale Regional Cancer Centers Clinical Co-Management Company LLC, HCA Long Term Health Services of Miami Inc., HCA Luxembourg 1 Sarl, HCA Luxembourg 2 Sarl, HCA Luxembourg Equities Sarl, HCA Luxembourg Finance Limited, HCA Luxembourg Investments Sarl, HCA Management Services L.P., HCA Medical City Limited, HCA Medical Services Inc., HCA Midwest Comprehensive Care Inc., HCA Outpatient Clinic Services of Miami Inc., HCA Outpatient Imaging Services Group Inc., HCA Patient Safety Organization LLC, HCA Pearland GP Inc., HCA Physician Services Inc., HCA Plano Imaging Inc., HCA Property GP LLC, HCA Psychiatric Company, HCA Purchasing Limited, HCA Realty Inc., HCA Richmond Cardiac Clinical Co-Management Company LLC, HCA SF LLC, HCA SFB 1 LLC, HCA Sarasota Orthopedic and Spine Clinical Co-Management Company LLC, HCA Squared LLC, HCA Staffing Limited, HCA Swiss Capital 1 LLP, HCA Swiss Capital 2 LLP, HCA Switzerland Finance GmbH, HCA Switzerland Holding GmbH, HCA Switzerland Limited, HCA UK Capital Limited, HCA UK Holdings Limited, HCA UK Investments Limited, HCA UK Limited, HCA UK Services Limited, HCA Wesley Rehabilitation Hospital Inc., HCA Western Group Inc., HCA-Access Healthcare Holdings LLC, HCA-Access Healthcare Partner Inc., HCA-California Urgent Care Holdings LLC, HCA-EMS Holdings LLC, HCA-EmCare Holdings LLC, HCA-Georgia Urgent Care Holdings LLC, HCA-HBPS Holdings LLC, HCA-HealthONE LLC, HCA-Solis Holdings Inc., HCA-Solis Mammography Service Holdings of Continental LLC, HCA-Solis Mammography Service Holdings of Gulf Coast LLC, HCA-Solis Mammography Service Holdings of North Texas LLC, HCA-Solis Mammography Service Holdings of TriStar LLC, HCA-Solis Mammography Services LLC, HCA-Solis Master LLC, HCA-Urgent Care Holdings LLC, HCAPS Anesthesia Manager LLC, HCAPS Conroe Affiliation Inc., HCOL Inc., HD&S Corp. Successor Inc., HDH Thoracic Surgeons LLC, HHBY Holdings LLC, HHNC LLC, HICCH-SCL LLC, HM Acquisition LLC, HM OMCOS LLC, HMMG 1226 LLC, HPG Energy L.P., HPG Enterprises LLC, HPG GP LLC, HPG Solutions LLC, HSS Holdco LLC, HSS Systems LLC, HSS Virginia L.P., HTI Gulf Coast Inc., HTI Health Services of North Carolina Inc., HTI Hospital Holdings Inc., HTI MOB LLC, HTI MSO LLC, HTI Memorial Hospital Corporation, HTI Physician Services of Utah Inc., HWCA PLLC, Hamilton Memorial Hospital Inc., Hamsard 3160 Limited, Harley Street Clinic @ The Groves LLP, Hathor Chelsea Ltd., Healdsburg General Hospital Inc., Health Care Indemnity Inc., Health Insight Capital LLC, Health International Billing Partners Limited, Health Midwest Medical Group Inc., Health Midwest Office Facilities Corporation, Health Midwest Ventures Group Inc., Health Partners of Kansas Inc., Health Service Partners Inc., Health Services (Delaware) Inc., Health Services Merger Inc., Health to You LLC, HealthCoast Physician Group LLC, HealthONE Aurora Investment LLC, HealthONE Care Partners LLC, HealthONE CareNow Urgent Care LLC, HealthONE Clear Creek LLC, HealthONE Clinic Services - Bariatric Medicine LLC, HealthONE Clinic Services - Behavioral Health LLC, HealthONE Clinic Services - Cancer Care LLC, HealthONE Clinic Services - Cancer Specialties LLC, HealthONE Clinic Services - Cardiovascular LLC, HealthONE Clinic Services - Medical Specialties LLC, HealthONE Clinic Services - Neurosciences LLC, HealthONE Clinic Services - Obstetrics and Gynecology LLC, HealthONE Clinic Services - Occupational Medicine LLC, HealthONE Clinic Services - Oncology Hematology LLC, HealthONE Clinic Services - Orthopedic Specialists LLC, HealthONE Clinic Services - Otolaryngology Specialists LLC, HealthONE Clinic Services - Pediatric Cardiovascular Surgery LLC, HealthONE Clinic Services - Pediatric Specialties LLC, HealthONE Clinic Services - Primary Care LLC, HealthONE Clinic Services - Spine Specialists LLC, HealthONE Clinic Services - Spine Surgeons LLC, HealthONE Clinic Services - Surgery Neurological LLC, HealthONE Clinic Services - Surgical Specialties LLC, HealthONE Clinic Services - Transplant Services LLC, HealthONE Clinic Services - Womens Services LLC, HealthONE Clinic Services - Youth Rehabilitation LLC, HealthONE Clinic Services LLC, HealthONE High Street Primary Care Center LLC, HealthONE IRL Pathology Services LLC, HealthONE Institutes for Clinical Research LLC, HealthONE Lowry LLC, HealthONE Radiation Therapy at Red Rocks LLC, HealthONE Radiation Therapy at Thornton LLC, HealthONE Ridge View Endoscopy Center LLC, HealthONE Surgicare of Ridge View LLC, HealthONE Urologic LLC, HealthONE at Breckenridge LLC, HealthONE of Denver Inc., HealthOne Heart Care LLC, HealthOne Lincoln Investment LLC, HealthOne Westside Investment LLC, HealthTrust Europe Company Limited, HealthTrust Europe LLP, HealthTrust Locums Inc., HealthTrust Workforce Solutions LLC, Healthcare Oklahoma Inc., Healthcare Purchasing Alliance LLC, Healthcare Sales National Management Services Group LLC, Healthcare Technology Assessment Corporation, Healthco LLC, Healthnet of Kentucky LLC, Healthserv Acquisition LLC, Healthtrust Inc. - The Hospital Company, Healthtrust MOB Tennessee LLC, Healthtrust Purchasing Group L.P., Healthtrust Utah Management Services Inc., Healthy State Inc., Heart Specialist of North Texas PLLC, Heart of America ASC LLC, Heart of America Surgicenter LLC, Heartcare of Texas Ltd., Hearthstone Home Health Inc., Heartland Womens Group at Wesley LLC, Heathrow Imaging LLC, Heathrow Internal Medicine LLC, Hendersonville Hospital Corporation, Hendersonville Hospitalist Services Inc., Hendersonville OB/GYN LLC, Hendersonville ODC LLC, Hendersonville Primary Care LLC, Henrico Doctors Hospital - Forest Campus Property LLC, Henrico Doctors Neurology Associates LLC, Henrico Doctors OB GYN Specialists LLC, Henrico Surgical Specialists LLC, Heritage Family Care LLC, Heritage Hospital Inc., Heritage Medical Care LLC, Hermitage Primary Care LLC, Hidalgo County Family Practitioners PLLC, Hidden Lakes Health Center PLLC, Highlands Regional Medical Center, Hip & Joint Specialists of North Texas PLLC, Homecare North Inc., Hometrust Management Services Inc., Horizon Orthopedics LLC, Horizon Surgical LLC, Hospital Corp. LLC, Hospital Corporation of America, Hospital Corporation of Lake Worth, Hospital Corporation of Tennessee, Hospital Corporation of Utah, Hospital Development Properties Inc., Hospital Partners Merger LLC, Hospital Realty Corporation, Hospital-Based CRNA Services Inc., Hospitalists at Centennial Medical Center LLC, Hospitalists at Fairview Park LLC, Hospitalists at Greenview Regional Hospital LLC, Hospitalists at Horizon Medical Center LLC, Hospitalists at Parkridge LLC, Hospitalists at StoneCrest LLC, Hospitalists at Wesley Medical Center LLC, Hospitalists of the Wabash Valley LLC, Houston - PPH LLC, Houston CareNow Urgent Care PLLC, Houston Healthcare Holdings Inc., Houston NW Manager LLC, Houston Northwest Concessions L.L.C., Houston Northwest Operating Company L.L.C., Houston Northwest Surgical Partners Inc., Houston Obstetrics and Gynecology for Women PLLC, Houston Pediatric Specialty Group PLLC, Houston Urologic Surgicenter LLC, Houston Womans Hospital Partner LLC, ICU Associates of West Houston PLLC, IMX Holdings LLC, IRL Pathology Services MidAmerica LLC, Idaho Behavioral Health Services LLC, Idaho Physician Services Inc., Illinois Psychiatric Hospital Company Inc., Imaging Realty LLC, Imaging Services of Appomattox LLC, Imaging Services of Jacksonville LLC, Imaging Services of Louisiana LLC, Imaging Services of Louisiana Manager LLC, Imaging Services of Orlando LLC, Imaging Services of Richmond LLC, Imaging Services of Roanoke LLC, Imaging Services of West Boynton LLC, InVivoLink Inc., Independence Neurosurgery Services LLC, Independence Regional Medical Group LLC, Independence Surgicare Inc., Indian Path Hospital Inc., Indianapolis Hospital Partner LLC, Institute for Womens Health and Body LLC, Institute of Advanced ENT Surgery LLC, Integrated Regional Lab LLC, Integrated Regional Laboratories LLP, Integrated Regional Laboratories Pathology Services LLC, Intensive Care Consortium Inc., Internal Medicine Associates of Huntsville PLLC, Internal Medicine Associates of Southern Hills LLC, Internal Medicine of Blacksburg LLC, Internal Medicine of Pasadena PLLC, Internist Associates of Houston PLLC, Isleworth Partners Inc., J. M. Garcia M.D. PLLC, JCSH LLC, JDGC Management LLC, JFK Internal Medicine Faculty Practice LLC, JFK Medical Center Limited Partnership, JPM AA Housing LLC, Jackson County Medical Group LLC, Jackson County Pulmonary Medical Group LLC, Jacksonville CareNow Urgent Care LLC, Jacksonville Multispecialty Services LLC, Jacksonville Surgery Center Ltd., James River Internists LLC, John Randolph Family Practice LLC, John Randolph OB/GYN LLC, John Randolph Surgeons LLC, Johnson County Neurology LLC, Johnson County Surgery Center L.P., Johnson County Surgicenter L.L.C., Jordan Family Health L.L.C., Jupiter EFL Imaging Center LLC, KC Pain ASC LLC, KC Surgicare LLC, KPH-Consolidation Inc., Kansas CareNow Urgent Care LLC, Kansas City Cardiac Arrhythmia Research LLC, Kansas City Gastroenterology & Hepatology Physicians Group LLC, Kansas City Neurology Associates LLC, Kansas City Pulmonology Practice LLC, Kansas City Surgery Center Properties LLC, Kansas City Vascular & General Surgery Group LLC, Kansas City Womens Clinic Group LLC, Kansas Healthserv LLC, Kansas Pulmonary and Sleep Specialists LLC, Kansas Trauma and Critical Care Specialists LLC, Kathy L. Summers M.D. PLLC, Kendall Healthcare Group Ltd., Kendall Regional Medical Center LLC, Kendall Regional Urgent Care LLC, Kennedale Primary Care PLLC, Kingwood Multi-Specialty Group PLLC, Kingwood Surgery Center LLC, Kingwood Surgicenter LLC, Kissimmee Surgicare Ltd., Kyle Primary Care PLLC, L E Corporation, LAD Imaging LLC, LGMC Ambulatory Surgery Center LLC, LOC @ The Christie LLP, LOC @ The London Bridge Hospital LLP, LOC Partnership LLP, LPN TeleBehavioral Health PLLC, Lafayette OB Hospitalists LLC, Lafayette Urogynecology & Urology Center LLC, Lake City Imaging LLC, Lake City Regional Medical Group LLC, Lake Forest Family Health PLLC, Lakeside Radiology LLC, Lakeside Womens Services LLC, Lakeview Cardiology Specialists LLC, Lakeview Hospital Physician Services LLC, Lakeview Internal Medicine LLC, Lakeview Medical Center LLC, Lakeview Regional Medical Center Inpatient Services LLC, Lakeview Regional Physician Group LLC, Lakeview Urology & General Surgery LLC, Lakewood Surgicare Inc., Laredo Medco LLC, Largo Medical Center Inc., Largo Physician Group LLC, Las Colinas Primary Care PLLC, Las Colinas Surgery Center Ltd., Las Encinas Hospital, Las Palmas Del Sol Cardiology PLLC, Las Palmas Del Sol Internal Medicine PLLC, Las Palmas Del Sol Urgent Care PLLC, Las Vegas ASC LLC, Las Vegas Surgicare Inc., Las Vegas Surgicare Ltd. a Nevada Limited Partnership, Lawnwood Cardiovascular Surgery LLC, Lawnwood Healthcare Specialists LLC, Lawnwood Medical Center Inc., Layton Family Practice LLC, Leaders in Oncology Care Limited, Leadership Healthcare Holdings II L.P. L.L.P., Leadership Healthcare Holdings L.P. L.L.P., Lees Summit Family Care LLC, Leslie Cohan M.D. PLLC, Lewis-Gale Hospital Incorporated, Lewis-Gale Medical Center LLC, Lewis-Gale Physicians LLC, Lewisville Primary Care PLLC, Lewisville Surgicare LLC, Lincoln Surgery Center LLC, Live Oak Immediate Care Center LLC, London Oncology Clinic LLP, London Pathology Limited, London Radiography & Radiotherapy Services Limited, Lone Peak Hospital Inc., Lone Star Intensivists at Gulf Coast PLLC, Lonestar Provider Network, Longview Regional Physician Hospital Organization Inc., Lorain County Surgery Center Ltd., Los Gatos Surgical Center a California Limited Partnership, Los Robles Regional Medical Center, Los Robles Regional Medical Center MOB LLC, Los Robles SurgiCenter LLC, Loudoun Surgery Center LLC, Louisiana Psychiatric Company Inc., Loveland Surgicenter LLC, Low Country Health Services Inc. of the Southeast, Lowry Surgicenter LLC, M. Jamshidi D.O. PLLC, MCA Investment Company, MCA-CTMC Holdings LLC, MEC Endoscopy LLC, MFA G.P. LLC, MFM Fact PLLC, MGH Medical Inc., MH Anesthesiology Physicians LLC, MH Angel Medical Center LLLP, MH Asheville Specialty Hospital LLC, MH Blue Ridge Medical Center LLLP, MH Eckerd Living Center LLLP, MH Highlands-Cashiers Medical Center LLLP, MH Hospital Holdings Inc., MH Hospital Manager LLC, MH Master Holdings LLLP, MH Master LLC, MH McDowell Imaging LLLP, MH Mission Hospital LLLP, MH Mission Hospital McDowell LLLP, MH Mission Imaging LLLP, MH Physician Services LLC, MH Transylvania Imaging LLLP, MH Transylvania Regional Hospital LLLP, MHS Partnership Holdings JSC Inc., MHS Partnership Holdings SDS Inc., MHS SC Partner L.L.C., MHS Surgery Centers L.P., MMC Sleep Lab Management LLC, MOSC Sports Medicine Inc., MOVCO Inc., MP Management LLC, MRT&C Inc., MSL Acquisition LLC, MVH Professional Services LLC, Macon Healthcare LLC, Macon Northside Health Group LLC, Macon Northside Hospital LLC, Macon Psychiatric Hospitalists LLC, Madison Behavioral Health LLC, Mainland Family Medicine PLLC, Mainland Multi-Specialty Group PLLC, Mainland Primary Care Physicians PLLC, Management Services Holdings Inc., Manatee Surgicare Ltd., Marietta Outpatient Medical Building Inc., Marietta Outpatient Surgery Ltd., Marietta Surgical Center Inc., Marion Community Hospital Inc., Mark Gottesman M.D. PLLC, Martin Fletcher & Associates L.P., Martin Fletcher Associates Holdings Inc., Mary Alice Cowan M.D. PLLC, Maternal Fetal Medicine Specialists of Corpus Christi PLLC, Maternal Fetal Services of Utah LLC, Maury County Behavioral Health LLC, Mayhill Cancer Center LLC, McAllen Comprehensive Upper Extremity Center PLLC, McKinney Surgeons PLLC, Mechanicsville Imaging LLC, Mecklenburg Surgical Land Development Ltd., Med City Dallas Outpatient Surgery Center L.P., Med Corp. Inc., Med Group - Southern Hills Hospitalists LLC, Med-Center Hosp./Houston Inc., Med-Point of New Hampshire Inc., Medi Flight of Oklahoma LLC, MediCredit Inc., MediPurchase Inc., MediStone Healthcare Ventures Inc., MediVision Inc., MediVision of Mecklenburg County Inc., MediVision of Tampa Inc., Medical Arts Hospital of Texarkana Inc., Medical Associates of Ocala LLC, Medical Care America Colorado LLC, Medical Care America LLC, Medical Care Financial Services Corp., Medical Care Real Estate Finance Inc., Medical Care Surgery Center Inc., Medical Center - West Inc., Medical Center Imaging Inc., Medical Center Surgery Associates L.P., Medical Center of Baton Rouge Inc., Medical Center of Plano Partner LLC, Medical Center of Port St. Lucie Inc., Medical Center of Santa Rosa Inc., Medical Center of Southwest Florida LLC, Medical Centers of Oklahoma LLC, Medical City Dallas Hospital Inc., Medical City Dallas Partner LLC, Medical City Dallas Primary Care PLLC, Medical City Frisco, Medical City OB-GYN PLLC, Medical City Pediatrics PLLC, Medical City Specialty Surgicenter of Dallas LLC, Medical City Surgery Center of Alliance LLC, Medical City Surgery Center of Frisco LLC, Medical City Surgery Center of Lewisville LLC, Medical City Transplant PLLC, Medical Corporation of America, Medical Group - Dickson Inc., Medical Group - Southern Hills of Brentwood LLC, Medical Group - Southern Hills of Nolensville LLC, Medical Group - StoneCrest FP Inc., Medical Group - StoneCrest Inc., Medical Group - Stonecrest Pulmonology LLC, Medical Group - Summit Inc., Medical Imaging Inc., Medical Imaging of Colorado LLC, Medical Office Buildings of Kansas LLC, Medical Oncology Associates LLC, Medical Partners of North Florida LLC, Medical Plaza Ambulatory Surgery Center Associates L.P., Medical Specialties Inc., Memorial Family Practice Associates LLC, Memorial Health Primary Care at St. Johns Bluff LLC, Memorial Healthcare Group Inc., Memorial Neurosurgery Group LLC, Memorial Satilla Specialists LLC, Memorial University Medical Center, Menorah Medical Group LLC, Menorah Urgent Care LLC, Mercy ASC LLC, Metairie Primary Care Associates LLC, Methodist Ambulatory Surgery Center of Boerne LLC, Methodist Ambulatory Surgery Center of Landmark LLC, Methodist Cardiology Physicians, Methodist CareNow Physician Associates, Methodist CareNow Urgent Care PLLC, Methodist Healthcare System of San Antonio Ltd. L.L.P., Methodist Inpatient Management Group, Methodist Medical Center ASC L.P., Methodist Physician Alliance, Methodist Physician Practice Services LLC, Methodist Physician Practices PLLC, Metroplex Surgicenters Inc., Metropolitan Multispecialty Physicians Group Inc., Miami Beach EFL Imaging Center LLC, Miami Beach Healthcare Group Ltd., Miami Dade Surgical Specialists LLC, Miami Lakes Surgery Center Ltd., Miami-Dade Cardiology Consultants LLC, Michael Mann M.D. PLLC, Mid-America Surgery Center LLC, Mid-America Surgery Institute LLC, Mid-Cities Surgi-Center Inc., Mid-Continent Health Services Inc., MidAmerica Division Inc., MidAmerica Oncology LLC, Middle Georgia Hospital LLC, Middle Georgia Urgent Care Services LLC, Middle Tennessee Neurology LLC, Midtown Diagnostics LLC, Midwest Cardiology Specialists LLC, Midwest Cardiovascular & Thoracic Surgery LLC, Midwest Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgeons of Kansas LLC, Midwest Division - ACH LLC, Midwest Division - CMC LLC, Midwest Division - LRHC LLC, Midwest Division - LSH LLC, Midwest Division - MCI LLC, Midwest Division - MMC LLC, Midwest Division - OPRMC LLC, Midwest Division - RBH LLC, Midwest Division - RMC LLC, Midwest Division Spine Care LLC, Midwest Doctors Group LLC, Midwest Heart & Vascular Specialists LLC, Midwest Holdings Inc., Midwest Infectious Disease Specialists LLC, Midwest Medicine Associates LLC, Midwest Metropolitan Physicians Group LLC, Midwest Oncology Associates LLC, Midwest Trauma Services LLC, Midwest Womens Healthcare Specialists LLC, Mikrod Services Inc., Mill Creek Outpatient Services LLC, Millenium Health Care of Oklahoma Inc., Mission Bay Memorial Hospital Inc., Mission Community Anesthesiology Specialists LLC, Mission Employer Solutions LLC, Mission Health, Mission Health Partners Inc., Missouri Healthcare System L.P., Mobile Corps. Inc., Mobile Heartbeat, Mobile Heartbeat LLC, Montgomery Cancer Center LLC, Montgomery Hospitalists LLC, Montgomery Regional Hospital Inc., Montgomery Surgery Associates LLC, Mountain Division - CVH LLC, Mountain Division Inc., Mountain View Hospital Inc., Mountain View MRI Associates Ltd., Mountain West Surgery Center LLC, MountainStar Behavioral Health LLC, MountainStar Brigham General Surgery LLC, MountainStar Canyon Surgical Clinic LLC, MountainStar Cardiology Ogden Regional LLC, MountainStar Cardiology St. Marks LLC, MountainStar Intensivist Services LLC, MountainStar Medical Group - Cache Valley LLC, MountainStar Medical Group - Ogden Regional Medical Center LLC, MountainStar Medical Group - St. Marks Hospital LLC, MountainStar Medical Group Neurosurgery-St. Marks LLC, MountainStar Medical Group Timpanogos Primary Care LLC, MountainStar Medical Group Timpanogos Specialty Care LLC, MountainStar Specialty Services LLC, MountainStar Urgent Care LLC, MountainView GME Primary Care LLC, Mountainstar Brigham OBGYN LLC, Mountainstar Cardiovascular Services LLC, Mountainstar Ogden Pediatrics LLC, Movement Disorders of North Texas PLLC, Mt. Ogden Utah Surgical Center LLC, NPAS Inc., NPAS Solutions LLC, NT Urgent Care PLLC, NTGP LLC, NTMC Management Company, NTMC Venture Inc., NTX Pathology Program PLLC, Nashville Psychiatric Company Inc., Nashville Shared Services General Partnership, Nashville Surgicenter LLC, Natchez Medical Associates LLC, Natchez Surgery Center LLC, National Association of Senior Friends, National Contact Center Management Group LLC, National Patient Account Services Inc., National Transfer Center Management Services LLC, Navarro Memorial Hospital Inc., NeighborMD Management LLC, Network MS of Florida Inc., Network Management Services Inc., Neuro Affiliates Company, Neuro-Hospitalist of Clear Lake PLLC, NeuroHospitalist of McAllen PLLC, Neurological Eye Specialists of North Texas PLLC, Neurological Specialists PLLC, Neurological Specialists of McKinney PLLC, Neurology Associates of Hendersonville LLC, Neurology Associates of Kansas LLC, Neurosurgery Atlanta LLC, Neurosurgery of Kingwood PLLC, Neurosurgical Associates of North Texas PLLC, Neurosurgical Specialists of El Paso PLLC, Neurosurgical Specialists of North Texas PLLC, Nevada Surgery Center of Southern Hills L.P., Nevada Surgicare of Southern Hills LLC, Nevada Urgent Care Holdings Inc., New Iberia Healthcare LLC, New Iberia Holdings Inc., New Port Richey Hospital Inc., New Port Richey Surgery Center Ltd., New Rose Holding Company Inc., Niceville Family Practice LLC, North Augusta Imaging Management LLC, North Augusta Imaging Services LLC, North Augusta Rehab Health Center LLC, North Austin Plastic Surgery Associates PLLC, North Austin Surgery Center L.P., North Brandon Imaging LLC, North Central Florida Health System Inc., North Central Methodist ASC L.P., North Charleston Diagnostic Imaging Center LLC, North Florida Cancer Center Lake City LLC, North Florida Cancer Center Live Oak LLC, North Florida Cancer Center Tallahassee LLC, North Florida Division I Inc., North Florida Division Practice Inc., North Florida GI Center GP Inc., North Florida GI Center Ltd., North Florida Immediate Care Center Inc., North Florida Neurosurgery LLC, North Florida Outpatient Imaging Center Ltd., North Florida Physician Services Inc., North Florida Physicians LLC, North Florida Radiation Oncology LLC, North Florida Regional Company Care LLC, North Florida Regional Freestanding Surgery Center L.P., North Florida Regional Investments Inc., North Florida Regional Medical Center Inc., North Florida Regional Psychiatry LLC, North Florida Regional Trauma LLC, North Florida Rehab Investments LLC, North Florida Surgical Associates LLC, North Georgia Primary Care Group LLC, North Hills Cardiac Catheterization Center L.P., North Hills Catheterization Lab LLC, North Hills Orthopaedic Surgeons PLLC, North Hills Surgicare L.P., North Houston - TRMC LLC, North Miami Beach Surgery Center Limited Partnership, North Miami Beach Surgical Center LLC, North Palm Beach County Surgery Center LLC, North River Physician Network LLC, North Shore Specialists of Texas PLLC, North Suburban Spine Center L.P., North Tampa Imaging LLC, North Texas - MCA LLC, North Texas Cardiology PLLC, North Texas Craniofacial Fellowship Program PLLC, North Texas Division Inc., North Texas General L.P., North Texas Geriatrics PLLC, North Texas Heart Surgery Center PLLC, North Texas Internal Medicine Specialists PLLC, North Texas Medical Center Inc., North Texas Neuro Stroke OP PLLC, North Texas Pulmonary Critical Care PLLC, North Texas Sports and Orthopedics Center PLLC, North Texas Stroke Center PLLC, North Texas of Hope PLLC, North Transfer Center LLC, Northeast Florida Cancer Services LLC, Northeast Methodist Surgicare Ltd., Northeast PHO Inc., Northern Utah Healthcare Corporation, Northern Utah Healthcare Imaging Holdco LLC, Northern Utah Imaging LLC, Northern Virginia CareNow Urgent Care LLC, Northern Virginia Community Hospital LLC, Northern Virginia Hospital Corporation, Northern Virginia Surgicenter LLC, Northlake Medical Center LLC, Northlake Physician Practice Network Inc., Northlake Surgical Center L.P., Northlake Surgicare Inc., Northside MRI Inc., Northwest Fla. Home Health Agency Inc., Northwest Florida Healthcare Systems Inc., Northwest Florida Multispecialty Physicians LLC, Northwest Florida Primary Care LLC, Northwest Medical Center Inc., Notami (Opelousas) Inc., Notami Hospitals LLC, Notami Hospitals of Florida Inc., Notami Hospitals of Louisiana Inc., Notami Hospitals of Missouri Inc., Notami LLC, Notco LLC, Nuclear Diagnosis Inc., OB Hospitalists of Womans Hospital PLLC, OB/GYN of Brownsville PLLC, OB/Gyn Associates of Denton PLLC, OBS Diagnostic and Treatment Centre LLP, ODP Holdings LLC, ODP Manager LLC, ODP Properties LLC, OHH Imaging Services LLC, OPRMC-HBP LLC, Oak Hill Acquisition Inc., Oak Hill Family Care LLC, Oak Hill Hospitalists LLC, Oakwood Surgery Center Ltd. LLP, Ocala Health Company Care LLC, Ocala Health Imaging Services LLC, Ocala Health Primary Care LLC, Ocala Health Surgical Group LLC, Ocala Health Trauma LLC, Ocala Regional Outpatient Services Inc., Ocala Stereotactic Radiosurgery LLC, Ocala Stereotactic Radiosurgery Partner LLC, Occupational Health Services of PRH LLC, Occupational and Family Medicine of South Texas, Ogden Imaging LLC, Ogden Internal Medicine & Urology LLC, Ogden Regional Health Plan Inc., Ogden Regional Medical Center Professional Billing LLC, Ogden Senior Center LLC, Ogden Tomotherapy LLC, Ogden Tomotherapy Manager LLC, Okaloosa Hospital Inc., Okeechobee Hospital Inc., Oklahoma Holding Company LLC, Oklahoma Outpatient Surgery Limited Partnership, Oklahoma Physicians - Medical Specialties LLC, Oklahoma Physicians - Obstetrics and Gynecology LLC, Oklahoma Physicians - Primary Care LLC, Oklahoma Physicians - Surgical Specialties LLC, Oklahoma Surgicare Inc., Old Fort Village LLC, On-Site Primary Care PLLC, Oncology Services of Corpus Christi LLC, Oncology Services of Corpus Christi Manager LLC, OneSourceMed Inc., Online Pathology Services Limited, Orange County Healthcare LLC, Orange Park Hospitalists LLC, Orange Park Medical Center Inc., Orlando CareNow Urgent Care LLC, Orlando Outpatient Surgical Center Inc., Orlando Outpatient Surgical Center Ltd., Orlando Surgicare Ltd., Orthopaedic Specialty Associates L.P., Orthopaedic Sports Specialty Associates Inc., Orthopedic Hospital Ltd., Orthopedics Specialists LLC, Osceola Neurological Associates LLC, Osceola Physician Network LLC, Osceola Regional Hospital Inc., Osceola Regional Hospitalists LLC, Osceola Surgical Associates LLC, Outpatient Cardiovascular Center of Central Florida LLC, Outpatient GP LLC, Outpatient Services - LAD LLC, Outpatient Services Holdings Inc., Outpatient Surgical Services Ltd., Outpatient Womens and Childrens Surgery Center Ltd., Overland Park Cardiovascular Inc., Overland Park Medical Specialists LLC, Overland Park Orthopedics LLC, Overland Park Surgical Specialties LLC, Oviedo Medical Center LLC, Ozarks Medical Services Inc., P&L Associates, P/SL Hyperbaric Partnership, PET CT LLP, PMM Inc., POH Holdings LLC, PSG Delegated Services LLC, PTS Solutions LLC, Pacific Partners Management Services Inc., Palm Beach EFL Imaging Center LLC, Palm Beach General Surgery LLC, Palm Beach Healthcare System Inc., Palm Beach Hospitalists Program LLC, Palmer Medical Center LLC, Palms West Gastroenterology LLC, Palms West Hospital Limited Partnership, Palms West Surgery Center Ltd., Paragon Physicians Hospital Organization of South Texas Inc., Paragon SDS Inc., Paragon Surgery Centers of Texas Inc., Paragon WSC Inc., Paragon of Texas Health Properties Inc., Parallon Business Solutions LLC, Parallon Enterprises LLC, Parallon Health Information Solutions LLC, Parallon Holdings LLC, Parallon Payroll Solutions LLC, Parallon Physician Services LLC, Parallon Revenue Cycle Services Inc., Park Central Surgical Center Ltd., Park Ridge Surgery Center LLC, Park South Imaging Center Ltd., Park View Insurance Company, Parkersburg SJ Holdings Inc., Parkland Hospitalists Program LLC, Parkland Oncology LLC, Parkland Physician Services Inc., Parkridge East Specialty Associates LLC, Parkridge Hospitalists Inc., Parkridge Medical Associates LLC, Parkridge Medical Center Inc., Parkridge Professionals Inc., Parkside Surgery Center Inc., Parkway Cardiac Center Ltd., Parkway Hospital Inc., Parkway Surgery Services Ltd., Parthenon Insurance Company Limited, Pasadena Bayshore Hospital Inc., PatientKeeper, PatientKeeper Inc., Patients First Neurology LLC, Pavilion 2 Condominium Property LLC, Pavilion 2 Medical Office Building Condominium Association Inc., Pavilion Surgicenter LLC, Peach State Anesthesia Partners LLC, Pearland Institute for Womens Health PLLC, Pearland Partner LLC, Pediatric Anesthesia Consultants of San Antonio PLLC, Pediatric Cardiac Intensivists of North Texas PLLC, Pediatric Critical Care of Clear Lake PLLC, Pediatric Hospitalists of Conroe PLLC, Pediatric Intensivist Group LLC, Pediatric Intensivists of El Paso PLLC, Pediatric Intensivists of North Texas PLLC, Pediatric Specialists of Clear Lake PLLC, Pediatric Specialty Clinic LLC, Pediatric Surgicare Inc., Pediatrics of Greater Houston PLLC, Pensacola Primary Care Inc., Physician Associates of Corporate Woods LLC, Physicians Ambulatory Surgery Center LLC, Physicians West Surgicenter LLC, Pinellas Medical LLC, Pinnacle Physician Network LLC, Pioneer Medical LLC, Plains Healthcare System Inc., Plano Ambulatory Surgery Associates L.P., Plano Heart Institute L.P., Plano Heart Management LLC, Plano Surgery Center - GP LLC, Plano Surgery Center Real Estate LLC, Plano Surgicenter Real Estate Manager LLC, Plano Urology PLLC, Plantation General Hospital L.P., Plaza Medical Specialists PLLC, Plaza Primary Care PLLC, Plaza Transplant Center PLLC, Podiatry of Clear Lake PLLC, Poinciana Medical Center Inc., Port St. Lucie Surgery Center Ltd., Portland Primary Care LLC, Portsmouth Regional Ambulatory Surgery Center LLC, Portsmouth Surgicenter LLC, Preferred Hospitals Inc., Preferred Works WC LLC, Premier ASC LLC, Premier Medical Management Ltd., Primary Care Medical Associates Inc., Primary Care Plano PLLC, Primary Care Services of Orlando LLC, Primary Care South PLLC, Primary Care West PLLC, Primary Care of West End LLC, Primary Health Asset Holdings Ltd., Primary Health Group Inc., Primary Health Inc., Primary Health Network of South Texas, Primary Health Physicians PLLC, Primary Medical Management Inc., Proaxis Therapy HealthOne LLC, Provident Professional Building Condominium Association Inc., Psychiatry Services of Osceola LLC, Pulaski Community Hospital Inc., Pulaski Urology LLC, Pulmonary Renal Intensivist Group LLC, Putnam Community Medical Center of North Florida LLC, Putnam Hospital Inc., Putnam Radiation Oncology LLC, Putnam Radiation Oncology Manager LLC, Putnam Surgical Group LLC, Quantum/Bellaire Imaging Ltd., Quick Care Centers LLC, Quivira Internal Medicine Inc., RCH LLC, RMC - Pulmonary LLC, RMC Transplant Physicians LLC, RMCA Professionals Mgmt LLC, ROi CPS LLC, Radford Family Medicine LLC, Radiation Oncology Center of Thornton LLC, Radiation Oncology Manager LLC, Raleigh Community Medical Office Building Ltd., Rapides After Hours Clinic L.L.C., Rapides Healthcare System L.L.C., Rapides Regional Physician Group LLC, Rapides Regional Physician Group Primary Care LLC, Rapides Regional Physician Group Specialty Care LLC, Rapides Surgery Center LLC, Raulerson GYN LLC, Raulerson Gastroenterology LLC, Raulerson Primary Care LLC, Raymore Medical Group LLC, Red Rock Holdco LLC, Red Rock at Smoke Ranch LLC, Red Rocks Surgery Center LLC, Redmond Anesthesia Services LLC, Redmond Hospital Services LLC, Redmond Neurosurgery LLC, Redmond Park Health Services Inc., Redmond Park Hospital LLC, Redmond Physician Practice Company, Redmond Specialty Services LLC, Regional Hospital Healthcare Partners LLC, Research Cardiology Associates LLC, Research Family Physicians LLC, Research Internal Medicine LLC, Research Neurology Associates LLC, Research Neuroscience Institute LLC, Resource Optimization & Innovation L.L.C., Reston Hospital Center LLC, Reston Hospitalists LLC, Reston Surgery Center L.P., Retreat Cardiology LLC, Retreat Hospital LLC, Retreat Internal Medicine LLC, Retreat Surgical Associates LLC, Rhodes Limited-Liability Company, Richmond Imaging Employer Corp., Richmond Multi-Specialty LLC, Richmond Pediatric Surgeons LLC, Ridgeline Surgicenter LLC, Rim Building Partners L.P., Rio Grande Healthcare MSO Inc., Rio Grande NP Inc., Rio Grande Regional Hospital Inc., Rio Grande Valley Cardiology PLLC, Rio Grande Valley CareNow Urgent Care PLLC, Rio Grande Valley Urology PLLC, Riverside CyberKnife Manager LLC, Riverside Healthcare System L.P., Riverside Holdings Inc., Riverside Hospital Inc., Riverside Imaging LLC, Riverwalk ASC LLC, Roanoke Imaging LLC, Roanoke Neurosurgery LLC, Roanoke Surgery Center L.P., Roanoke Valley Gynecology LLC, Robotic Radiosurgery LLP, Rocky Mountain Pediatric Hematology Oncology LLC, Rocky Mountain Surgery Center LLC, Rome Imaging Center Limited Partnership, Roodlane Medical Limited, Rose Ambulatory Surgery Center L.P., Rose Health Partners LLC, Rose Medical Plaza Ltd., Rose POB Inc., Rosewood Medical Center Inc., Rosewood Professional Building Ltd., Round Rock Hospital Inc., Round Rock Trauma Surgeons PLLC, Royal Oaks Surgery Center L.P., S.A. Medical Center Inc., SAPN LLC, SCRI Global Services Limited, SCRI Holdings LLC, SCRI Scientifics LLC, SJMC LLC, SSHR Holdco LLC, SSJ St. Petersburg Holdings Inc., STPN Manager LLC, SWMC Inc., Sahara Outpatient Surgery Center Ltd., Salem Hospitalists LLC, Salem Surgery Center Limited Partnership, Salt Lake City Surgicare Inc., Samaritan LLC, San Antonio Division Inc., San Antonio Regional Hospital Inc., San Antonio Surgicenter LLC, San Bernardino Imaging LLC, San Joaquin Surgical Center Inc., San Jose Healthcare System LP, San Jose Hospital L.P., San Jose LLC, San Jose Medical Center LLC, San Jose Pathology Outreach LLC, San Marcos ASC LLC, San Marcos Surgicenter LLC, Sante Fe Family Practitioners PLLC, Sarah Cannon Development Innovations LLC, Sarah Cannon Research Institute LLC, Sarah Cannon Research Institute UK Limited, Sarasota Doctors Hospital Inc., Savannah Behavioral Health Associates LLC, Savannah Health Network LLC, Savannah Health Services LLC, Savannah Inpatient Services LLC, Savannah Multispecialty Associates LLC, Savannah Pediatric Care LLC, Savannah Primary Care Associates LLC, Sebring Health Services LLC, Selma Medical Center Hospital Inc., Senior Health Associates LLC, Short Pump Imaging LLC, Silicon Valley Health Holdings LLC, Silicon Valley Surgery Center L.P., Silicon Valley Surgicenter LLC, Sky Ridge Spine Manager LLC, Sky Ridge Surgery Center L.P., Skyline Medical Group LLC, Skyline Neuroscience Associates LLC, Skyline Rehab Associates LLC, Skyline Specialty Associates LLC, Smith Laboratories Inc., Solis Mammography at Bayshore Medical Center LLC, Solis Mammography at Clear Lake Regional Medical Center LLC, Solis Mammography at Conroe Regional Medical Center LLC, Solis Mammography at Denton Regional Medical Center LLC, Solis Mammography at HCA Houston Tomball LLC, Solis Mammography at Kingwood Medical Center LLC, Solis Mammography at Las Colinas Medical Center LLC, Solis Mammography at Medical Center Alliance LLC, Solis Mammography at Medical Center Arlington LLC, Solis Mammography at Medical Center of Lewisville LLC, Solis Mammography at Medical Center of McKinney LLC, Solis Mammography at Medical Center of Plano LLC, Solis Mammography at Medical City Dallas LLC, Solis Mammography at Pearland Medical Center LLC, Solis Mammography at Rose Medical Center LLC, Solis Mammography at Skyline Medical Center LLC, Solis Mammography at StoneCrest Medical Center LLC, Solis Mammography at West Houston Medical Center LLC, Solis Mammography at Womans Hospital of Texas LLC, Solis Mammography of Cedar Hill LLC, Solis Mammography of CyFair LLC, Solis Mammography of Dallas LLC, Solis Mammography of Flower Mound LLC, Solis Mammography of Frisco LLC, Solis Mammography of Garland LLC, Solis Mammography of Grand Prairie LLC, Solis Mammography of Houston NW LLC, Solis Mammography of Katy LLC, Solis Mammography of Louetta/249 LLC, Solis Mammography of Mainland LLC, Solis Mammography of Mansfield LLC, Solis Mammography of Mesquite LLC, Solis Mammography of Montgomery LLC, Solis Mammography of North Cypress LLC, Solis Mammography of North Loop LLC, Solis Mammography of Sugar Land LLC, Solis Mammography of West Plano LLC, Solis Mammography of Womans Place LLC, South Atlantic Division Inc., South Austin Surgery Center Ltd., South Austin Surgical Management LLC, South Austin Surgicenter LLC, South Brandon Imaging LLC, South Florida Division Practice Inc., South Texas Surgicare Inc., South Transfer Center LLC, South Valley Hospital L.P., Southeast Georgia Health Services LLC, Southern Hills Medical Center LLC, Southern Hills Neurology Consultants LLC, Southern Kentucky Medicine Associates LLC, Southern Kentucky Surgicenter LLC, Southern Texas Physicians Network, Southpoint LLC, Southtown Womens Clinic LLC, Southwest Florida Health System Inc., Southwest Florida Regional Medical Center Inc., Southwest Medical Center Family Practice LLC, Southwest Medical Center Multi-Specialty Group LLC, Southwest Medical Center Surgical Group LLC, Southwest Medpro Ltd., Southwest Surgical Clinic Inc., Southwest Virginia Orthopedics and Spine LLC, Spalding Rehabilitation L.L.C., Specialists in Obstetrics and Gynecology PLLC, Specialty Associates of West Houston PLLC, Specialty Physicians of Northern Virginia LLC, Specialty Surgicare of Las Vegas LP, Spotsylvania Condominium Property LLC, Spotsylvania Medical Center Inc., Spotsylvania Multi-Specialty Group LLC, Spotsylvania Regional Surgery Center LLC, Spring Branch Family Practitioners PLLC, Spring Branch Medical Center Inc., Spring Hill Hospital Inc., Spring Hill Imaging LLC, Spring Hill Physicians LLC, Springview KY LLC, Spruce Pine Healthcare LLC, St. Davids Austin Area ASC LLC, St. Davids Cardiology PLLC, St. Davids CareNow Urgent Care PLLC, St. Davids Healthcare Partnership L.P. LLP, St. Davids Heart & Vascular PLLC, St. Davids Neurology PLLC, St. Davids OB Hospitalist PLLC, St. Davids Ortho Neuro and Rehab PLLC, St. Davids Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation PLLC, St. Davids Quality Alliance LLC, St. Davids Specialized Womens Services PLLC, St. Davids Trauma Surgeons PLLC, St. Lucie Hospitalists LLC, St. Lucie Medical Center Hyperbarics LLC, St. Lucie Medical Center Walk-In Clinic LLC, St. Lucie Medical Specialists LLC, St. Lucie West Primary Care LLC, St. Marks Ambulatory Surgery Associates L.P., St. Marks Gynecology Oncology Care LLC, St. Marks Investments Inc., St. Marks Physician Billing LLC, St. Marks Professional Services LLC, St. Marks South Jordan Family Practice LLC, St. Martins Healthcare Limited, St. Martins Ltd., St. Martins Medical Services Limited, St. Petersburg General Surgery LLC, Stafford Imaging LLC, Statland Medical Group LLC, Steamboat Springs Surgicenter LLC, Sterling Primary Care Associates LLC, Stiles Road Imaging LLC, StoneCrest Surgery Center LLC, StoneSprings Medical Office Building Property LLC, StoneSprings Surgicenter LLC, Stonecrest Medical Group - Family Practice of Murfreesboro LLC, Stonecrest Medical Group - SC Murfreesboro Family Practice LLC, Stones River Hospital LLC, Suburban Medical Center at Hoffman Estates Inc., Sugar Land Surgery Center Anesthesia LLC, Sugar Land Surgery Center Ltd., Sullins Surgical Center Inc., Summit Convenient Care at Lebanon LLC, Summit General Partner Inc., Summit Heart LLC, Summit Outpatient Diagnostic Center LLC, Summit Research Solutions LLC, Summit Surgery Center L.P., Summit Surgical Associates LLC, Summit Walk-in Clinic LLC, Sun Bay Medical Office Building Inc., Sun City Hospital Inc., Sun City Imaging LLC, Sun Towers/Vista Hills Holding Co., Sun-Med LLC, Sunrise Flamingo Holdings LLC, Sunrise Flamingo Surgery Center Limited Partnership, Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center LLC, Sunrise Mountainview Hospital Inc., Sunrise Mountainview Multi-Specialty Clinics LLC, Sunrise Outpatient Services Inc., Sunrise Physician Services LLC, Sunrise Trauma Services LLC, Surgery Associates of NTX PLLC, Surgery Center of Atlantis LLC, Surgery Center of Aventura Ltd., Surgery Center of Bay Area Houston LLC, Surgery Center of Greenview L.P., Surgery Center of Independence L.P., Surgery Center of Overland Park L.P., Surgery Center of Port Charlotte Ltd., Surgery Center of Rome L.P., Surgery Center of the Rockies LLC, Surgical Associates of Southwest Virginia LLC, Surgical Care Medical Group LLC, Surgical Center of Irving Inc., Surgical Facility of West Houston L.P., Surgical Park Center Ltd., Surgical Specialists of Clear Lake PLLC, Surgical Specialists of Conroe PLLC, Surgical Specialists of Corpus Christi PLLC, Surgicare America - Winter Park Inc., Surgicare Merger Company of Louisiana, Surgicare Outpatient Center of Baton Rouge Inc., Surgicare Outpatient Center of Jackson Inc., Surgicare of ADC LLC, Surgicare of AGI LLC, Surgicare of Alpine LLC, Surgicare of Altamonte Springs Inc., Surgicare of Anchorage LLC, Surgicare of Arapahoe LLC, Surgicare of Arlington LLC, Surgicare of Ashburn LLC, Surgicare of Augusta Inc., Surgicare of Aurora Endoscopy LLC, Surgicare of Aventura LLC, Surgicare of Bay Area Endoscopy LLC, Surgicare of Bay Area LLC, Surgicare of Bayonet Point Inc., Surgicare of Bayside LLC, Surgicare of Bountiful LLC, Surgicare of Brandon Inc., Surgicare of Brentwood LLC, Surgicare of Brighton LLC, Surgicare of Brooksville LLC, Surgicare of Brownsville LLC, Surgicare of Buckhead LLC, Surgicare of CAREOS LLC, Surgicare of Central Florida Inc., Surgicare of Central Park Surgery Center LLC, Surgicare of Central San Antonio Inc., Surgicare of Chattanooga LLC, Surgicare of Chippenham LLC, Surgicare of Citrus LLC, Surgicare of Clarksville LLC, Surgicare of Corpus Christi LLC, Surgicare of Countryside Inc., Surgicare of Dallas Specialty LLC, Surgicare of Denton Inc., Surgicare of Denver Clinic LLC, Surgicare of Denver LLC, Surgicare of Denver Mid-Town Inc., Surgicare of Dickson LLC, Surgicare of Eastside LLC, Surgicare of Evans Inc., Surgicare of Fairfax Inc., Surgicare of Florida Inc., Surgicare of Flower Mound Inc., Surgicare of Focus Hand LLC, Surgicare of Fort Worth Co-GP LLC, Surgicare of Fort Worth Inc., Surgicare of Ft. Pierce Inc., Surgicare of Good Samaritan LLC, Surgicare of Gramercy Inc., Surgicare of Greenview Inc., Surgicare of Hanover Inc., Surgicare of Houston Kingwood LLC, Surgicare of Houston LLC, Surgicare of Houston Womens Inc., Surgicare of Indianapolis Inc., Surgicare of Kansas City LLC, Surgicare of Kingwood LLC, Surgicare of Kissimmee Inc., Surgicare of Lakeview Inc., Surgicare of Las Vegas Inc., Surgicare of Laurel Grove LLC, Surgicare of Lorain County Inc., Surgicare of Los Gatos Inc., Surgicare of Los Robles LLC, Surgicare of Loveland LLC, Surgicare of Madison Inc., Surgicare of Manatee Inc., Surgicare of McKinney Inc., Surgicare of Medical City Dallas LLC, Surgicare of Memorial Endoscopy LLC, Surgicare of Merritt Island Inc., Surgicare of Miami Lakes LLC, Surgicare of Mountain West LLC, Surgicare of Mt. Ogden LLC, Surgicare of Nashville LLC, Surgicare of Natchez LLC, Surgicare of Newport Richey Inc., Surgicare of North Austin LLC, Surgicare of North San Antonio Inc., Surgicare of Northeast San Antonio Inc., Surgicare of Orange Park II LLC, Surgicare of Orange Park Inc., Surgicare of Orange Park Ltd., Surgicare of Orlando Inc., Surgicare of Overland Park LLC, Surgicare of Palms West LLC, Surgicare of Park Ridge LLC, Surgicare of Pasadena Inc., Surgicare of Pavilion LLC, Surgicare of Physicians West El Paso LLC, Surgicare of Pinellas Inc., Surgicare of Plano Inc., Surgicare of Plantation Inc., Surgicare of Port Charlotte LLC, Surgicare of Port St. Lucie Inc., Surgicare of Portsmouth LLC, Surgicare of Premier Orthopaedic LLC, Surgicare of Reston Inc., Surgicare of Ridgeline LLC, Surgicare of Riverside LLC, Surgicare of Riverwalk LLC, Surgicare of Roanoke LLC, Surgicare of Rome Inc., Surgicare of Rose LLC, Surgicare of Round Rock Inc., Surgicare of Royal Oaks LLC, Surgicare of Silicon Valley LLC, Surgicare of Sky Ridge LLC, Surgicare of Sky Ridge Womens Center LLC, Surgicare of South Austin Inc., Surgicare of Southeast Denver Inc., Surgicare of Southern Hills Inc., Surgicare of Southern Kentucky LLC, Surgicare of Southwest Houston LLC, Surgicare of Spotsylvania LLC, Surgicare of St. Andrews Inc., Surgicare of St. Andrews Ltd., Surgicare of St. Davids Austin LLC, Surgicare of Steamboat Springs LLC, Surgicare of StoneCrest LLC, Surgicare of StoneSprings LLC, Surgicare of Stuart Inc., Surgicare of Sugar Land Inc., Surgicare of Swedish LLC, Surgicare of Tallahassee Inc., Surgicare of Terre Haute LLC, Surgicare of Thornton LLC, Surgicare of Travis Center Inc., Surgicare of Tulsa Inc., Surgicare of Utah LLC, Surgicare of Wasatch Front LLC, Surgicare of West Hills Inc., Surgicare of Westlake Inc., Surgicare of Wichita Inc., Surgicare of Wichita LLC, Surgicare of Willis LLC, Surgicare of Wilson County LLC, Surgicare of Winchester LLC, Surgicenter of East Jefferson Inc., Surgicenter of Johnson County Ltd. a Kansas limited partnership, Surgicenter of Kansas City L.L.C., Surgico LLC, Swedish MOB Acquisition Inc., Swedish MOB I Ltd., Swedish MOB II Inc., Swedish MOB III Inc., Swedish MOB IV Inc., Swedish MOB LLC, Swedish Medpro Inc., TBHI Outpatient Services LLC, TCMC Madison-Portland Inc., THN Physicians Association Inc., TUHC Anesthesiology Group LLC, TUHC Hospitalist Group LLC, TUHC Physician Group LLC, TUHC Primary Care and Pediatrics Group LLC, TUHC Radiology Group LLC, Tallahassee Community Network Inc., Tallahassee Medical Center Inc., Tallahassee Orthopaedic Surgery Partners Ltd., Tampa Bay Health System Inc., Tampa Surgi-Centre Inc., Tarrant County Surgery Center L.P., Tchefuncte Cardiology Associates - Lakeview LLC, Teays Valley Health Services LLC, Telehealth Physician Services LLC, Tennessee Healthcare Management Inc., Tennessee Valley Outpatient Diagnostic Center LLC, Terre Haute Hospital GP Inc., Terre Haute Hospital Holdings Inc., Terre Haute MOB L.P., Terre Haute Obstetrics and Gynecology LLC, Terre Haute Regional Hospital L.P., Texas CareNow Physician Associates, Texas HSS LLC, Texas Institute of Medicine and Surgery, Texas Psychiatric Company Inc., The Austin Diagnostic Clinic PLLC, The Cancer Care Center of North Florida LLC, The Cardiovascular Partnership for Quality LLC, The Charter Cypress Behavioral Health System L.L.C., The Christie Clinic LLP, The Glynne Medical Practice Limited, The Harley Street Cancer Clinic Limited, The London Breast Institute UK Ltd, The Medical Group of Kansas City LLC, The Neurohealth Sciences Center LLC, The Physicians Clinic Limited, The Prostate Centre Limited, The Rankin Foundation, The Regional Health System of Acadiana LLC, The Wasatch Endoscopy Center Ltd., The West Texas Division of Columbia Inc., Timpanogos Pain Specialists LLC, Timpanogos Regional Medical Services Inc., Total Imaging - Hudson LLC, Total Imaging - North St. Petersburg LLC, Total Imaging - Parsons LLC, Town Plaza Family Practice LLC, Travel Medicine and Infections LLC, Travis Surgery Center L.P., Tri Cities Health Services Corp., Tri-City Multi-Specialty LLC, Tri-County Community Hospital Inc., Tri-County Surgical Specialists LLC, TriStar Bone Marrow Transplant LLC, TriStar Cardiovascular Surgery LLC, TriStar Family Care LLC, TriStar Gynecology Oncology LLC, TriStar Health System Inc., TriStar Joint Replacement Institute LLC, TriStar Maury Behavioral Healthcare LLC, TriStar Medical Group - Centennial Primary Care LLC, TriStar Medical Group - Legacy Health LLC, TriStar Medical Network LLC, TriStar OB/GYN LLC, TriStar Orthopedics LLC, TriStar Physicians LLC, TriStar Radiation Oncology LLC, Trident Ambulatory Surgery Center L.P., Trident Behavioral Health Services LLC, Trident Eye Surgery Center L.P., Trident Medical Center LLC, Trident Medical Services Inc., Trident Neonatology Services LLC, Tulane Clinic LLC, Tulane Professionals Management L.L.C., Tuscan Imaging Center at Las Colinas LLC, U.S. Collections Inc., Ultra Imaging Management Services LLC, Ultra Imaging of Tampa LLC, University Healthcare Specialists LLC, University Healthcare System L.C., University Hospital Ltd., Uptown Primary Care Associates LLC, Urgent Care Enterprise LLC, Urgent Care Extra - Ann & Simmons LLC, Urgent Care Extra - Cactus & Southern Highlands LLC, Urgent Care Extra - Charleston & Decatur LLC, Urgent Care Extra - Charleston/Sloan LLC, Urgent Care Extra - Craig & Clayton LLC, Urgent Care Extra - Craig & Decatur LLC, Urgent Care Extra - Durango & Cheyenne LLC, Urgent Care Extra - Durango & Flamingo LLC, Urgent Care Extra - Eastern & Horizon Ridge LLC, Urgent Care Extra - Rainbow/Mardon LLC, Urgent Care Extra - Warm Springs & Green Valley LLC, Urgent Care Extra Silverado & Maryland LLC, Urgent Care Extra-Tropicana & Jones LLC, Urgent Care Nevada LLC, Urological Specialists of Arlington PLLC, Urology Associates (London) Limited, Urology Center of North Georgia LLC, Urology Services of El Paso PLLC, Urology Specialists Devonshire LLP, Urology Specialists London LLP, Urology Specialists of Kingwood PLLC, Urology Specialists of Richmond LLC, Urology Surgery Center of Colorado LLC, Utah CareNow Urgent Care LLC, Utah Imaging GP LLC, Utah Medco LLC, Utah Surgery Center L.P., VH Holdco Inc., VH Holdings Inc., VHSC Plantation LLC, VIP Inc., Valify, Valify Inc., Value Health Holdings Inc., Value Health Management Inc., Vascular and Endovascular Specialists LLC, Venture Ambulatory Surgery Center LLC, Venture Medical Management LLC, Village Oaks Medical Center Inc., Virginia Care Partners ACO LLC, Virginia Gynecologic Oncology LLC, Virginia Hematology & Oncology Associates Inc., Virginia Hospitalists Inc., Virginia Psychiatric Company Inc., Virginia Quality Care Partners LLC, Vision Consulting Group LLC, Vision Holdings LLC, W & C Hospital Inc., WCP Properties LLC, WHG Medical LLC, WHMC Inc., WJHC LLC, Walterboro Community Hospital Inc., Warren County Ambulance Service LLC, Wasatch Front Surgery Center LLC, Washington Holdco LLC, Waterway Primary Care LLC, Weatherford Health Services LLC, Weatherford Mammography JV LLC, Weatherford Regional Medical Center, Welbeck Street Diagnostic Centre LLP, Wellington Diagnostic Services LLP, Wesley Cath Lab LLC, Wesley Manager LLC, Wesley Medical Center LLC, Wesley Physician Services LLC, Wesley Physicians - Anesthesiologist LLC, Wesley Physicians - Cardiovascular LLC, Wesley Physicians - Medical Specialties LLC, Wesley Physicians - Obstetrics and Gynecology LLC, Wesley Physicians - Primary Care LLC, Wesley Select Network LLC, Wesley Urgent Care LLC, West Boynton Beach Open Imaging Center LLC, West Creek Ambulatory Surgery Center LLC, West Creek Medical Center Inc., West Florida - MHT LLC, West Florida - PPH LLC, West Florida Behavioral Health Inc., West Florida Cardiology Network LLC, West Florida Cardiology Physicians LLC, West Florida CareNow Urgent Care LLC, West Florida Division Inc., West Florida Gulf Coast Primary Care LLC, West Florida HealthWorks LLC, West Florida Imaging Services LLC, West Florida Internal Medicine LLC, West Florida PET Services LLC, West Florida Physician Network LLC, West Florida Professional Billing LLC, West Florida Regional Medical Center Inc., West Florida Specialty Physicians LLC, West Florida Trauma Network LLC, West Florida Urgent Care Network LLC, West Hills Hospital, West Hills Surgical Center Ltd., West Houston ASC Inc., West Houston Healthcare Group Ltd., West Houston Internal Specialists PLLC, West Houston LLC, West Houston Medical PLLC, West Houston Outpatient Medical Facility Inc., West Houston Surgicare Inc., West Jacksonville Medical Center Inc., West Jordan Hospital Corporation, West LPN Fort Worth Oncology PLLC, West LPN Inc., West Los Angeles Physicians Hospital Inc., West McKinney Imaging Services LLC, West Paces Services Inc., West Park Surgery Center L.P., West Valley Imaging LLC, West Valley Medical Center Inc., West Valley Medical Group LLC, West Valley Medical Group Specialty Services LLC, West Valley Therapy Services LLC, Westbury Hospital Inc., Western Plains Capital Inc., Westlake Surgicare L.P., Westminster Community Hospital, Westside Surgery Center Ltd., Wichita CareNow Urgent Care LLC, Wildwood Medical Center Inc., Willis Surgicenter LLC, Wilson County Outpatient Surgery Center L.P., Womans Health Group PLLC, Womans Hospital Merger LLC, Womans Hospital of Texas Incorporated, Women Practitioners of Houston PLLC, Women Specialists of Bayshore PLLC, Women Specialists of Clear Lake PLLC, Women Specialists of Mainland PLLC, Womens & Childrens Center LLC, Womens & Childrens Pediatric Hematology/Oncology Center LLC, Womens & Childrens Pulmonology Clinic LLC, Womens Center at Brookside LLC, Womens Health Center of Central Florida LLC, Womens Health Center of SWVA LLC, Womens Hospital Indianapolis GP Inc., Womens Hospital Indianapolis L.P., Womens Link Specialty Obstetrical Referral Clinic PLLC, Womens Multi-Specialty Group LLC, Womens Surgical Specialists of Texas PLLC, Womens and Childrens Professional Management L.L.C., Womens and Childrens Specialists LLC, hInsight-Airstrip Holdings LLC, hInsight-BMA Holdings LLC, hInsight-Customer Care Holdings LLC, hInsight-Digital Reasoning Holdings LLC, hInsight-Healthbox Holdings LLC, hInsight-I2 Holdings LLC, hInsight-InVivoLink Holdings LLC, hInsight-LS Holdings LLC, hInsight-Loyale Healthcare Holdings LLC, hInsight-Mobile Heartbeat Holdings LLC, hInsight-NX LLC, hInsight-PWS I Holdings LLC, hInsight-Procured Holdings LLC, and hInsight-VAI Holdings LLC.Oasis Petroleum Inc., an independent exploration and production company, focuses on the acquisition and development of onshore unconventional oil and natural gas resources in the United States. It operates through Exploration and Production(E&P), and Midstream segments. The E&P segment engages in the acquisition and development of oil and gas properties. The Midstream segment offers midstream services, such as natural gas gathering, compression, processing and, gas lift supply; crude oil gathering, terminaling, and transportation; produced and flowback water gathering, and disposal; and water distribution. As of December 31, 2020, the company had 401,766 net leasehold acres in the Williston Basin; and 24,396 net leasehold acres in the Permian Basin, as well as approximately 152.2 million barrels of oil equivalent of estimated net proved reserves. The company sells its crude oil and natural gas to refiners, marketers, and other purchasers that have access to pipeline and rail facilities. Oasis Petroleum Inc. was founded in 2007 and is headquartered in Houston, Texas.

Read MoreThe following companies are subsidiares of UnitedHealth Group: 1031387 B.C. Unlimited Liability Company, 1070715 B.C. Unlimited Liability Company, 1st Avenue Pharmacy Inc., 310 Canyon Medical, 310 Canyon Medical LLC, 4C MSO LLC, 4C Medical Group PLC, 5995 Minnetonka LLC, ABCO International Holdings LLC, ACN Group IPA of New York, ACN Group IPA of New York Inc., ACN Group of California, ACN Group of California Inc., AHJV, AHJV MSO, AHN Accontable Care Organization LLC, AHN Central Services LLC, AHN Target Holdings LLC, AMIL International, AMIL International S.a.r.l., APS  Assistencia Personalizada a Saude Ltda., ARC Infusion, ASC Holdings of New Jersey LLC, ASC Network LLC, ASI Global, ASI Global LLC, Access Administrators Inc., Access HealthSource Administrators Inc., Access HealthSource Inc., Access I.V., Administradora Clinica La Colina S.A.S., Administradora Country S.A., Administradora Medica Centromed S.A., Advanced Care, Advanced Care Pharmacy, Advanced Pharma Inc., Advanced Surgery Center of Clifton LLC, Advanced Surgical Hospital LLC, Advantage Care Network Inc., Advocate Condell Ambulatory Surgery Center LLC, Advocate Sherman Ambulatory Surgery Center LLC, Advocate Southwest Ambulatory Surgery Center LLC, Advocate-SCA Partners LLC, Alere Health, Alere Health Improvement Company, Alere Healthcare of Illinois, Alere Wellbeing, Alere Wellology, Alere of New York, Aliansalud Entidad Promotora de Salud S.A., All Savers Insurance Company, All Savers Life Insurance Company of California, Alliance Surgical Center LLC, Aloha Surgical Center LLC, Ambient Healthcare, Ambient Healthcare Inc., Ambient Healthcare of Central Florida, Ambient Healthcare of Georgia, Ambient Healthcare of Northeast Florida, Ambient Healthcare of S. Florida, Ambient Healthcare of West Florida, Ambient Holdings, Ambient Holdings Inc., Ambient Nursing Services, AmeriChoice, AmeriChoice Corporation, AmeriChoice Health Services, AmeriChoice of Connecticut, AmeriChoice of New Jersey, AmeriChoice of New Jersey Inc., American Health Network of Indiana Care Organization LLC, American Health Network of Indiana II LLC, American Health Network of Indiana LLC, American Health Network of Ohio Care Organization LLC, American Health Network of Ohio II LLC, American Health Network of Ohio LLC, Amico Saude Ltda., Amil, Amil Assistencia Medica Internacional S.A., Amil Lifesciences Participacoes Ltda., Antelope Valley Surgery Center L.P., Analisis Clinicos ML S.A.C., Apothecary Holdings Inc., Apothecary Shop of Phoenix Inc., AppleCare Medical Management, AppleCare Medical Management LLC, Aquitania Chilean Holding SpA, Arise Physician Group, Arizona Physicians IPA, Arizona Physicians IPA Inc., AssuranceRx, AssuranceRx LLC, Athens ASC Holdings LLC, Audax Health Solutions, Audax Health Solutions LLC, Austin Center for Outpatient Surgery L.P., Avella Patient Access Program Inc., Avella Specialty Pharmacy, Avella of Austin Inc., Avella of Columbus Inc., Avella of Deer Valley Inc., Avella of Denver Inc., Avella of Gilbert Inc., Avella of Las Vegas II Inc., Avella of Orlando Inc., Avella of Phoenix III Inc., Avella of Sacramento Inc., Avella of Scottsdale Inc., Avella of St. Louis Inc., Avella of Tampa LLC, Avella of Tucson II Inc., Avella of Tucson Inc., Aveta Arizona, Aveta Health Solutions Inc., Aveta Inc., Aveta Kansas City, Aveta Tennessee, AxelaCare Health Solutions, AxelaCare Intermediate Holdings, AxelaCare Intermediate Holdings LLC, AxelaCare LLC, B.R.A.S.S. Partnership in Commendam, Banmedica Colombia SpA, Banmedica Internacional SpA, Banmedica S.A., Beach Surgical Holdings III LLC, Behavioral Healthcare Options, Behavioral Healthcare Options Inc., Belleville Surgical Center Ltd. an Illinois Limited Partnership, Benefit Administration for the Self Employed L.L.C., Benefitter Insurance Solutions Inc., Birmingham Outpatient Surgical Center LLC, Blackstone Valley Surgicare GP LLC, Blue Ridge GP LLC, Bordeaux (Barbados) Holdings I SRL, Bordeaux (Barbados) Holdings II SRL, Bordeaux (Barbados) Holdings III SRL, Bordeaux Holding SpA, Bordeaux International Holdings Inc., Bordeaux UK Holdings I Limited, Bordeaux UK Holdings II Limited, Bordeaux UK Holdings III Limited, Bosque Medical Center Ltda., Brandon Ambulatory Surgery Center LC, BriovaRx, BriovaRx, BriovaRx Infusion Services, BriovaRx Infusion Services 102 LLC, BriovaRx Infusion Services 200 Inc., BriovaRx Infusion Services 204 Inc., BriovaRx Infusion Services 209 Inc., BriovaRx Infusion Services 305 LLC, BriovaRx Infusion Services 402 LLC, BriovaRx Infusion Services Inc., BriovaRx Specialty LLC, BriovaRx of California, BriovaRx of California Inc., BriovaRx of Florida, BriovaRx of Florida Inc., BriovaRx of Georgia, BriovaRx of Georgia LLC, BriovaRx of Hawaii, BriovaRx of Indiana, BriovaRx of Louisiana, BriovaRx of Louisiana L.L.C., BriovaRx of Maine, BriovaRx of Maine Inc., BriovaRx of Massachusetts, BriovaRx of Massachusetts LLC, BriovaRx of Nevada, BriovaRx of New York, BriovaRx of New York Inc., BriovaRx of Texas, BriovaRx of Texas Inc., CDC Holdings Colombia S.A.S., CLISA  Clinica de Santo Antonio S.A., CMO  Centro Medico de Oftalmologia S/S Ltda., CMS  Central de Manipulacao e Servicos Farmaceuticos S.A., CNIC Health Solutions Inc., COI Participacoes S.A., COI  Clinicas Oncologicas Integradas S.A., Cabin Enterprises LLC, Cabin Holdings LLC, California MedTrans Network IPA LLC, California MedTrans Network MSO LLC, California Medical Group Insurance Company Risk Retention Group, Camp Hill-SCA Centers LLC, Capital City Medical Group L.L.C., Cardio Management, Cardio Management Inc., Care Improvement Plus Group Management, Care Improvement Plus Group Management LLC, Care Improvement Plus South Central Insurance Company, Care Improvement Plus Wisconsin Insurance Company, Care Improvement Plus of Texas Insurance Company, Casa de Saude Santa Therezinha Ltda., Casa de Saude Santa Therezinha S.A., Castle Rock SurgiCenter LLC, Catalyst360, Catalyst360 LLC, Catamaran Finance (Ireland) Unlimited Company, Catamaran Health Solutions, Catamaran Holdings I, Catamaran IPA III, Catamaran Mail, Catamaran PBM of Illinois II, Catamaran PBM of Puerto Rico, Catamaran PD of Pennsylvania, Catamaran PD of Puerto Rico, Catamaran Rebate Management, Catamaran S.a.r.l., Catamaran Senior Services, Catamaran of Pennsylvania, Cedar Park Surgery Center LLC, Cemed Care - Empressa de Atendimento Clinico Geral Ltda., Cemed Care  Empresa de Atendimento Clinico Geral Ltda., Central Indiana Care Organization LLC, Central Ohio Care Organization LLC, Central de Compras SpA, CentriHealth Corporation, CentriHealth UK Limited, CentrifyHealth LLC, Centro Medico Hospitalar Pitangueiras Ltda., Centro Medico Odontologico Americano S.A.C., Centro Medico PJ Ltda., Centro de Entrenamiento en Reanimacion y Prevencion Limitada (CERP), Centro de Servicios Compartidos Banmedica S.A., Centromed Quilpue S.A., Centros Medicos y Dentales Multimed Ltda., Centurion Casualty Company, Channel Islands Surgicenter L.P., Channel Islands Surgicenter Properties LLC, Charleston Surgery Properties LLC, Charlotte-SC LLC, Childrens Surgery Center LLC, ChinaGate (Hong Kong) Limited, ChinaGate Company Limited, Citrus Regional Surgery Center L.P., Clinica Oftalmologica Danilo de Castro Sociedade Simples, Clinical Partners of Colorado Springs LLC, Clinica Alameda S.A., Clinica Bio Bio S.A., Clinica Ciudad del Mar S.A., Clinica Davila y Servicios Medicos S.A., Clinica Medico Cirurgica de Santa Tecla S.A., Clinica San Borja (La Esperanza del Peru S.A.), Clinica San Felipe S.A., Clinica Santa Maria S.A., Clinica Sanchez Ferrer S.A., Clinica Vespucio S.A., Clinica del Country S.A., Coachella Valley Physicians of PrimeCare, Coachella Valley Physicians of PrimeCare Inc., Coalition For Advanced Pharmacy Services, Coalition for Advanced Pharmacy Services Inc., Coastal Physicians Management Inc., Collaborative Care Holdings, Collaborative Care Holdings LLC, Collaborative Care Services, Collaborative Care Services Inc., Collaborative Care Solutions, Collaborative Realty, Collaborative Realty LLC, Colmedica Medicina Prepagada, Colonial Outpatient Surgery Center LLC, Colorado Innovative Physician Solutions Inc., Colorado Springs Surgery Center Ltd., Comfort Care Transportation, Comfort Care Transportation LLC, Commonwealth Administrators, Connecticut Surgery Center Limited Partnership, Connecticut Surgery Properties LLC, Connecticut Surgical Center LLC, Connextions, Connextions HCI, Constructora e Inmobiliaria Magapoq S.A., Consumer Wellness Solutions Inc., Country Scan Ltda., Crescent Drug Corp., Cypress Care, Cypress Care Inc., DBP Services of New York IPA, DBP Services of New York IPA Inc., DTC Surgery Center LLC, DWIC of Tampa Bay, DWIC of Tampa Bay Inc., DaVita Magan Management Inc., Danbury Surgical Center L.P., Day-Op Surgery Consulting Company, Day-Op Surgery Consulting Company LLC, Definity Health, Dental Benefit Providers, Dental Benefit Providers Inc., Dental Benefit Providers of California, Dental Benefit Providers of California Inc., Dental Benefit Providers of Illinois, Dental Benefit Providers of Illinois Inc., Derry Surgical Center LLC, Diagnostico Ecotomografico Centromed Ltda., Diasnostico por Imagenes Centromed Ltda., Dilab Medicina Nuclear Ltda., Diplomat Pharmacy, Distance Learning Network, Distance Learning Network Inc., Doctor + S.A.C., Dry Creek Surgery Center LLC, Dublin Surgery Center LLC, Duncan Printing Services, Duncan Printing Services LLC, E Street Endoscopy LLC, ELG FZE, EP Campus I, EP Campus I LLC, East Brunswick Surgery Center LLC, Electronic Network Systems, Electronic Network Systems Inc., Elual Participacoes S.A., Empire Physician Management Company, Empire Physician Management Company LLC, Employers Health Choice PPO Inc., Empremedica S. A., Endoscopy Center Affiliates Inc., Enterprise Life Insurance Company, Equian, Equian LLC, Equian Parent Corp., Esho  Empresa de Servicos Hospitalares S.A., Etho  Empresa de Tecnologia Hospitalar Ltda., Evercare Collaborative Solutions, Evercare Collaborative Solutions Inc., Everett MSO Inc., Excellion Servicos Biomedicos Ltda., Excellion Servicos Biomedicos S.A., Excelsior Insurance Brokerage Inc., Executive Health Resources, Executive Health Resources Inc., Executive Surgery Center LLC, Eye Clinic Oftalmologia Clinico Cirurgica e Diagnostico Ltda., FMG Holdings, FMG Holdings LLC, FOR HEALTH OF ARIZONA, Family Health Care Services, Family Home Hospice, Family Home Hospice Inc., First Rx Specialty & Mail Services, Florida MedTrans Network LLC, Florida MedTrans Network MSO LLC, For Health, For Health Inc., For Health of Arizona Inc., Fortified Provider Network Inc., Fortify Technologies Asia LLC, Fortify Technologies LLC, Foundation Financial Services Inc., Franklin Surgical Center LLC, Freedom Life Insurance Company of America, Freeway Surgicenter of Houston LLC, Frontier MEDEX Limited, Frontier Medex Tanzania Limited, FrontierMEDEX, FrontierMEDEX (RMS), FrontierMEDEX (RMS) Inc., FrontierMEDEX Government Services, FrontierMEDEX Government Services LLC, FrontierMEDEX Inc., FrontierMEDEX Kenya Limited, FrontierMEDEX US, FrontierMEDEX US Inc., Fundacion Banmedica, GRANTS PASS SURGERY CENTER LLC, Gadsden Surgery Center LLC, Gadsden Surgery Center Ltd., Gainesville Surgery Center L.P., Gainesville Surgery Properties LLC, Genoa, Genoa Healthcare Inc., Genoa Healthcare LLC, Genoa QoL Wholesale LLC, Genoa Technology (Canada) Inc., Genoa Technology Inc., Genoa Telepsychiatry Inc., Genoa of Arkansas LLC, Glenwood Surgical Center L.P., Glenwood-SC Inc., Golden Outlook, Golden Outlook Inc., Golden Rule Financial Corporation, Golden Rule Insurance Company, Golden Triangle Surgicenter L.P., Grapevine Finance LLC, Greater Hartford ASC LLC, Grove Place Surgery Center L.L.C., Guardian Health Systems Limited Partnership, H&W Indemnity (SPC), H&W Indemnity (SPC) Ltd., H.I. Investments Holding Company LLC, HCP ACO California LLC, HCP ACO Nevada LLC, HCentive Technology India Private Limited, HMI NewCo LLC, Harken Health Insurance Company, Hayes-Strub LLC, Health Business Systems, Health Care-ONE Insurance Agency Inc., Health Inventures Employment Solutions LLC, Health Inventures LLC, Health Net Insurance of New York, Health Net Services (Bermuda) Ltd., Health Plan of Nevada, Health Plan of Nevada Inc., Health Technology Analysts Pty Limited, HealthAllies, HealthAllies Inc., HealthCare Partners ASC-LB LLC, HealthCare Partners Management Services California LLC, HealthCare Partners RE LLC, HealthFirst IPA Inc., HealthMarkets Group Inc., HealthMarkets Inc., HealthMarkets Insurance Agency Inc., HealthMarkets LLC, HealthMarkets NewCo Inc., HealthMarkets Services Inc., HealthSCOPE Holdings Inc., HealthScope Benefits Inc., Healthcare Partners Plan of Nevada Inc., Healthcare Solutions Inc., Heartland Heart and Vascular LLC, Help S.A., Help Service S.A., Highlands Ranch Healthcare, Highlands Ranch Healthcare LLC, Home Care I.V. of Bend, Home Infusion With Heart, Home Medical S.A., Hospice Inspiris Holdings, Hospice Inspiris Holdings Inc., Hospitais Associados de Pernambuco Ltda., Hospital Alvorada de Taguatinga Ltda., Hospital Ana Costa S.A., Hospital Maternidade Promater Ltda., Hospital Samaritano de Sao Paulo Ltda., Hospital Santa Helena S.A., Hospital de Clinicas de Jacarepagua Ltda., Humedica, Humedica Inc., Hygeia Corporation, Hygeia Corporation (Canada), Hygeia Corporation (DE), Hygeia Corporation (Ontario), INOV8 Surgical at Memorial City LLC, INSPIRIS of New York IPA, INSPIRIS of New York Management, INSPIRIS of New York Management Inc., INSPIRIS of Texas Physician Group, IRX Financing I LLC, Illinois Independent Care Network, Imed Star  Servicos de Desempenho Organizacional Ltda., Impel Consulting Experts, Impel Consulting Experts L.L.C., Impel Management Services L.L.C., Indian River Surgery Center Ltd., Indian River Surgery Properties LLC, Indiana Care Organization LLC, Infusource, Ingram & Associates, Ingram & Associates LLC, Inmobiliaria Apoquindo 3001 S.A., Inmobiliaria Apoquindo 3600 Ltda., Inmobiliaria Apoquindo S.A., Inmobiliaria Clinica Santa Maria S.A., Inmobiliaria Vinamed Ltda., Inmobiliaria e Inversiones Alameda S.A., Inspiris, Inspiris Inc., Inspiris Services Company, Inspiris of Tennessee, Instituto do Radium de Cammpinas Ltda, International Psychological Services Pty Limited, Inversiones Clinicas Santa Maria S.A., Isapre Banmedica S.A., Isapre Vida Tres S.A., Johnston Surgicare L.P., Joliet Surgery Center Limited Partnership, LHI, Laboratorio ROE S.A., Laboratorios Medicos Amed Quilpue S.A., LifePrint Health, LifePrint Health Inc., LifeStyles Marketing Group Inc., LifeWell Ltd. Co., Lifeprint Accountable Care Organization, Lifeprint Accountable Care Organization LLC, Lifeprint East, Lifeprint East Inc., Logistics Health Inc., Lotten-Eyes Oftalmologia Clinica e Cirurgica Ltda., Louisville S.C. Ltd., Louisville-SC Properties Inc., Loyola Ambulatory Surgery Center at Oakbrook Inc., Lusiadas - Parcerias Cascais S.A., Lusiadas A.C.E., Lusiadas S.A., Lusiadas SGPS S.A., MAMSI Insurance Resources, MAMSI Life and Health Insurance Company, MD Ops, MD Ops Inc., MD-Individual Practice Association, MD-Individual Practice Association Inc., ME AHS UC LLC, MEDEX Insurance Services, MEDEX Insurance Services Inc., MGH/SCA LLC, MHC Real Estate Holdings, MHC Real Estate Holdings LLC, MIAMI SURGERY CENTER LLC, MSLA Management LLC, MXMD Centros De Cancer, Mamoeco  Mamografia e Ecografia Centro de Diagnostico, Managed Physical Network, Managed Physical Network Inc., March Holdings, March Holdings Inc., March Vision Care, March Vision Care Inc., Marin Surgery Holdings Inc., Maryland Ambulatory Centers, Maryland-SCA Centers LLC, Massachusetts Assurance Company Ltd. PIC, Massachusetts Avenue Surgery Center LLC, Mat-Rx Development, Mat-Rx Fort Worth GP, MedExpress Development, MedExpress Development LLC, MedExpress Urgent Care Alabama LLC, MedExpress Urgent Care Inc. - Ohio, MedExpress Urgent Care Maine Inc., MedExpress Urgent Care New Hampshire Inc., MedExpress Urgent Care of Boynton Beach, MedExpress Urgent Care of Boynton Beach LLC, MedSynergies, MedSynergies LLC, MedSynergies North Texas, Medalliance Net Ltda, Medalliance Net Ltda., Medica Health Plans of Florida, Medica Health Plans of Florida Inc., Medica HealthCare Plans, Medica HealthCare Plans Inc., Medical Clinic of North Texas PLLC, Medical Hilfe S.A., Medical Preparatory School of Allied Health, Medical Support Los Angeles Inc., Medical Surgical Centers of America Inc., Medical Transportation Services, Medical Transportation Services LLC, Medication Management Systems Inc., Melbourne Surgery Center LLC, Memorial City Holdings LLC, Memorial City Partners LLC, Memphis-SC LLC, Memphis-SP LLC, Mesquite Liberty LLC, Metro I Stone Management, Metropolitan Medical Partners LLC, Metropolitan Medical Transportation IPA LLC, Mid Atlantic Medical Services, Mid-West National Life Insurance Company of Tennessee, Midwest Center for Day Surgery LLC, Mile High SurgiCenter LLC, Mississippi Surgery Holdings LLC, Mississippi Surgical Center Limited Partnership, Mobile Medical Professionals, Modern Medical Inc., Monarch Management Services, Monarch Management Services Inc., Montgomery Surgery Center Limited Partnership, Mountain View Medical Group LLC, Mt. Pleasant Surgery Center L.P., Multiangio Ltda., Muskogee Surgical Investors LLC, Mustang Razorback Holdings, Mustang Razorback Holdings Inc., My Wellness Solutions LLC, NAMM Holdings, NAMM Holdings Inc., NSC Fayetteville LLC, NSC Greensboro LLC, NSC Lancaster LLC, NSC Seattle Inc., NSC Upland LLC, Nashville-SCA Surgery Centers Inc., National Foundation Life Insurance Company, National MedTrans LLC, National Pacific Dental, National Pacific Dental Inc., National Surgery Centers LLC, Neighborhood Health Partnership, Neighborhood Health Partnership Inc., Netwerkes, Netwerkes LLC, Nevada Medical Services LLC, Nevada Pacific Dental, New Orleans Regional Physician Hospital Organization L.L.C., New West Physicians Inc., Newton Holdings LLC, North American Medical Management - Illinois, North American Medical Management California, North American Medical Management California Inc., North Puget Sound Center for Sleep Disorders LLC, North Puget Sound Oncology Equipment Leasing Company LLC, Northern Nevada Health Network, Northern Nevada Health Network Inc., Northern Rockies Surgicenter Inc., Northwest Surgicare LLC, Northwest Surgicare Ltd., Nutritional/Parenteral Home Care, Nutritional/Parenteral Home Care of Huntsville, OC Cardiology Practice Partners LLC, OSB  Tecnologia e Servicos de Suporte Ltda., Omesa S.A., OmniClaim LLC, Oncocare S.A.C., OneNet PPO, OneNet PPO LLC, Optimum Choice, Optimum Choice Inc., Optum, Optum Bank, Optum Bank Inc., Optum Biometrics, Optum Biometrics Inc., Optum Care Inc., Optum Care Services Company, Optum Clinical Services, Optum Clinics Holdings, Optum Clinics Holdings Inc., Optum Clinics Intermediate Holdings, Optum Clinics Intermediate Holdings Inc., Optum Digital Health Holdings LLC, Optum Finance (Ireland) Unlimited Company, Optum Global Finance (Ireland) Unlimited Company, Optum Global Solutions (India) Private Limited, Optum Global Solutions (Philippines), Optum Global Solutions (Philippines) Inc., Optum Global Solutions International B.V., Optum Government Solutions, Optum Government Solutions Inc., Optum Growth Partners LLC, Optum Health & Technology (Australia) Pty Ltd, Optum Health & Technology (Hong Kong) Limited, Optum Health & Technology (India) Private Limited, Optum Health & Technology (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., Optum Health & Technology (UK) Limited, Optum Health & Technology (US), Optum Health & Technology (US) LLC, Optum Health & Technology FZ-LLC, Optum Health & Technology Holdings (US), Optum Health & Technology Holdings (US) Inc., Optum Health & Technology Servicos do Brasil Ltda., Optum Health Services (Canada) Ltd., Optum Health Solutions (Australia) Pty Ltd, Optum Health Solutions (UK) Limited, Optum Health and Technology FZ-LLC, Optum Healthcare of Illinois, Optum Healthcare of Illinois Inc., Optum Hospice Pharmacy Services, Optum Hospice Pharmacy Services LLC, Optum Inc., Optum Infusion Services 100 Inc., Optum Infusion Services 101 Inc., Optum Infusion Services 103 LLC, Optum Infusion Services 201 Inc., Optum Infusion Services 202 Inc., Optum Infusion Services 203 Inc., Optum Infusion Services 205 Inc., Optum Infusion Services 206 Inc., Optum Infusion Services 207 Inc., Optum Infusion Services 208 Inc., Optum Infusion Services 301 LP, Optum Infusion Services 302 LLC, Optum Infusion Services 308 LLC, Optum Infusion Services 401 LLC, Optum Infusion Services 403 LLC, Optum Infusion Services 404 LLC, Optum Infusion Services 501 Inc., Optum Insurance of Ohio, Optum Insurance of Ohio Inc., Optum Labs, Optum Labs Dimensions, Optum Labs Dimensions Inc., Optum Labs Inc., Optum Labs International (UK) Ltd., Optum Life Sciences (Canada) Inc., Optum Management Consulting (Shanghai) Co., Optum Management Consulting (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Optum Networks of New Jersey Inc., Optum Nevada Accountable Care Organization LLC, Optum Operations (Ireland) Unlimited Company, Optum Palliative and Hospice Care, Optum Palliative and Hospice Care Inc., Optum Palliative and Hospice Care of Pennsylvania, Optum Palliative and Hospice Care of Pennsylvania Inc., Optum Palliative and Hospice Care of Texas, Optum Palliative and Hospice Care of Texas Inc., Optum Perks LLC, Optum Pharmacy 701 LLC, Optum Pharmacy 702 LLC, Optum Pharmacy 703 LLC, Optum Pharmacy 705 LLC, Optum Public Sector Solutions, Optum Public Sector Solutions Inc., Optum Rocket, Optum Rocket Inc., Optum Senior Services LLC, Optum Services, Optum Services (Ireland) Limited, Optum Services (Puerto Rico) LLC, Optum Services Inc., Optum Solutions UK Holdings Limited, Optum Solutions do Brasil  Tecnologia e Servicos de Suporte Ltda., Optum Technology, Optum Technology LLC, Optum UK Solutions Group Limited, Optum Women's and Children's Health, Optum Women's and Children's Health LLC, Optum of New York Inc., Optum360, Optum360 LLC, Optum360 Services, Optum360 Services Inc., Optum360 Solutions LLC, OptumCare ACO Florida LLC, OptumCare ACO Holdings LLC, OptumCare ACO New Mexico LLC, OptumCare Clinical Trials LLC, OptumCare Colorado ASC LLC, OptumCare Colorado LLC, OptumCare Colorado Springs LLC, OptumCare Endoscopy Center New Mexico LLC, OptumCare Florida CI LLC, OptumCare Florida LLC, OptumCare Health Plan of California Inc., OptumCare Holdings Colorado LLC, OptumCare Holdings LLC, OptumCare Holdings New Mexico LLC, OptumCare Management LLC, OptumCare New Mexico LLC, OptumCare New York IPA Inc., OptumCare South Florida LLC, OptumHealth Care Solutions, OptumHealth Care Solutions LLC, OptumHealth Financial Services, OptumHealth Financial Services Inc., OptumHealth Holdings, OptumHealth Holdings LLC, OptumHealth International B.V., OptumInsight, OptumInsight Holdings, OptumInsight Holdings LLC, OptumInsight Inc., OptumInsight India Private Limited, OptumInsight Life Sciences, OptumInsight Life Sciences Inc., OptumRx, OptumRx Administrative Services, OptumRx Administrative Services LLC, OptumRx Discount Card Services, OptumRx Discount Card Services LLC, OptumRx Group Holdings, OptumRx Group Holdings Inc., OptumRx Health Solutions LLC, OptumRx Holdings, OptumRx Holdings I LLC, OptumRx Holdings LLC, OptumRx Home Delivery of Illinois, OptumRx Home Delivery of Ohio, OptumRx Home Delivery of Ohio LLC, OptumRx IPA III Inc., OptumRx Inc., OptumRx NY IPA, OptumRx NY IPA Inc., OptumRx PBM of Illinois, OptumRx PBM of Illinois Inc., OptumRx PBM of Maryland, OptumRx PBM of Maryland LLC, OptumRx PBM of Pennsylvania, OptumRx PBM of Pennsylvania LLC, OptumRx PBM of Puerto Rico LLC, OptumRx PBM of Wisconsin, OptumRx PBM of Wisconsin LLC, OptumRx PD of Maryland, OptumRx PD of Pennsylvania LLC, OptumRx Pharmacy, OptumRx Pharmacy Inc., OptumRx Pharmacy of Nevada, OptumRx Pharmacy of Nevada Inc., OptumRx of Pennsylvania LLC, OptumServe Technology Services Inc., Orlando Center for Outpatient Surgery L.P., OrthoNet Holdings, OrthoNet Holdings Inc., OrthoNet LLC, OrthoNet New York IPA, OrthoNet New York IPA Inc., OrthoNet Services, OrthoNet Services Inc., OrthoNet West, OrthoNet West Inc., OrthoNet of the Mid-Atlantic, OrthoNet of the South, OrthoNet of the South Inc., Ovations, Ovations Inc., Oxford Benefit Management, Oxford Benefit Management Inc., Oxford Health Insurance, Oxford Health Insurance Inc., Oxford Health Plans (CT), Oxford Health Plans (CT) Inc., Oxford Health Plans (NJ), Oxford Health Plans (NJ) Inc., Oxford Health Plans (NY), Oxford Health Plans (NY) Inc., Oxford Health Plans LLC, P2 Lower Acquisition, P2P Link LLC, PCCCV, PCCCV Inc., PCN DE Corp., PHC Subsidiary Holdings, PHC Subsidiary Holdings LLC, PHYS Holding Corp., PHYSICIANS DAY SURGERY CENTER LLC, PMI Acquisition, PMI Acquisition LLC, PMSI, PMSI Holdco II, PMSI Holdings, PMSI Holdings LLC, PMSI LLC, PMSI Settlement Solutions, PMSI Settlement Solutions LLC, POMCO Inc., POMCO Network Inc., PPH Holdings LLC, PacifiCare Health Systems, PacifiCare Life Assurance Company, PacifiCare Life and Health Insurance Company, PacifiCare of Arizona, PacifiCare of Arizona Inc., PacifiCare of Colorado, PacifiCare of Colorado Inc., PacifiCare of Nevada, PacifiCare of Nevada Inc., Pacific Casualty Company Inc., Pacifico S.A. Entidad Prestadora de Salud, Paoli Ambulatory Surgery Center, Paoli Surgery Center L.P., Parkway Surgery Center LLC, Pasteur Plaza Surgery Center GP Inc., PatientsLikeMe, PatientsLikeMe LLC, Patrimonio Autonomo Nueva Clinica - PANC., Payment Resolution Services, Payment Resolution Services LLC, Peoples Health, Peoples Health Inc., Pharmaceutical Care Network, Pharmacy Review Services, Pharmacy Software Holdco Inc., PhyServe Holdings, Physician Alliance of the Rockies LLC, Physician Care Partners, Physicians Health Choice of Texas, Physicians Health Choice of Texas LLC, Physicians Health Plan of Maryland, Physicians Health Plan of Maryland Inc., Physicians Plaza Holdings LLC, Plano de Saude Ana Costa Ltda., Plus One Health Management Puerto Rico, Plus One Health Management Puerto Rico Inc., Plus One Holdings, Plus One Holdings Inc., Polar II Fundo de Investimento em Participacoes, Polar II Fundo de Investimento em Participacoes Multiestrategia, Polo Holdco, Polo Holdco LLC, Pomerado Outpatient Surgical Center Inc., Pomerado Outpatient Surgical Center L.P., Precision Dialing Services Inc., Preferred Care Partners, Preferred Care Partners Holding, Preferred Care Partners Holding Corp., Preferred Care Partners Inc., Preferred Care Partners Medical Group, Preferred Care Partners Medical Group Inc., Premier Choice ACO, Premier Choice ACO Inc., Premier Surgery Center of Louisville L.P., Prime Health, Prime Health Inc., PrimeCare Medical Network, PrimeCare Medical Network Inc., PrimeCare of Citrus Valley, PrimeCare of Citrus Valley Inc., PrimeCare of Corona, PrimeCare of Corona Inc., PrimeCare of Hemet Valley, PrimeCare of Hemet Valley Inc., PrimeCare of Inland Valley, PrimeCare of Inland Valley Inc., PrimeCare of Moreno Valley, PrimeCare of Moreno Valley Inc., PrimeCare of Redlands, PrimeCare of Redlands Inc., PrimeCare of Riverside, PrimeCare of Riverside Inc., PrimeCare of San Bernardino, PrimeCare of San Bernardino Inc., PrimeCare of Sun City, PrimeCare of Sun City Inc., PrimeCare of Temecula, PrimeCare of Temecula Inc., ProHEALTH Fitness of Lake Success, ProHEALTH Fitness of Lake Success LLC, ProHEALTH Medical Management LLC, ProHealth Medical Management, ProHealth Physicians, ProHealth Physicians ACO, ProHealth Physicians ACO LLC, ProHealth Physicians Inc., ProHealth Proton Center Management, ProHealth Proton Center Management LLC, Procura Management, Procura Management Inc., Progressive Enterprises Holdings, Progressive Enterprises Holdings Inc., Progressive Medical, Progressive Medical LLC, Progressive Solutions, Promotora Country S.A., Pronetics Health Care Group, Pronounced Health Solutions Inc., Prosemedic S.A.C., Prospero Management Services LLC, Pueblo-SCA Surgery Center LLC, Pulse Platform LLC, QoL Acquisition Holdings Corp., Quality Software Services, QuarterMaster Newco LLC, R&H Family Fitness Unlimited LLC, Rally Health, Rally Health Inc., Real Appeal Inc., Recaudacion y Cobranzas Honodav Ltda., Redlands Ambulatory Surgery Center, Redlands-SCA Surgery Centers Inc., Reliant MSO LLC, Research Surgical Center LLC, River Valley ASC LLC, Riverside Electronic Healthcare Resources Inc., Riverside Medical Management, Riverside Medical Management LLC, Riverside Surgical Center of Meadowlands LLC, Riverside Surgical Center of Newark LLC, Rocky Mountain Health Maintenance Organization Incorporated, Rocky Mountain HealthCare Options Inc., SC Affiliates LLC, SCA Alaska Surgery Center inc., SCA Athens LLC, SCA Austin Holdings LLC, SCA BOSC Holdings LLC, SCA California Surgical Holdings LLC, SCA Capital LLC, SCA Cedar Park Holdings LLC, SCA Clifton LLC, SCA Danbury Surgical Center LLC, SCA Development LLC, SCA EHSC Holdings LLC, SCA EWASC Holdings LLC, SCA Hays Holdings LLC, SCA Heartland Holdings LLC, SCA HoldCo Inc., SCA Holding Company Inc., SCA Holdings Inc., SCA IEC Holdings LLC, SCA Indiana Holdings LLC, SCA Nashville ASC LLC, SCA Pacific Holdings Inc., SCA Pennsylvania Holdings LLC, SCA Premier Surgery Center of Louisville LLC, SCA ROCS Holdings LLC, SCA Rockledge JV LLC, SCA SSC Holdings LLC, SCA SSSC Holdings LLC, SCA Sage Medical LLC, SCA Sage Medical MSO LLC, SCA Southwestern PA LLC, SCA Specialists of Florida LLC, SCA Stonegate Holdings LLC, SCA Surgery Center of Cullman LLC, SCA Surgery Holdings LLC, SCA Surgery Partners LLC, SCA Surgicare of Laguna Hills LLC, SCA Teammate Support Network, SCA eCode Solutions Private Limited, SCA of Clarksville Inc., SCA-Albuquerque Surgery Properties Inc., SCA-Alliance LLC, SCA-Anne Arundel LLC, SCA-Applecare Partners LLC, SCA-Bethesda LLC, SCA-Blue Ridge LLC, SCA-Bonita Springs LLC, SCA-Brandon LLC, SCA-Castle Rock LLC, SCA-Central Florida LLC, SCA-Charleston LLC, SCA-Chatham LLC, SCA-Chevy Chase LLC, SCA-Citrus Inc., SCA-Colorado Springs LLC, SCA-Connecticut Partners LLC, SCA-DRY CREEK LLC, SCA-Davenport LLC, SCA-Denver LLC, SCA-Denver Physicians Holdings LLC, SCA-Derry LLC, SCA-Doral LLC, SCA-Downey LLC, SCA-Dublin LLC, SCA-Encinitas Inc., SCA-Eugene Inc., SCA-First Coast LLC, SCA-Florence LLC, SCA-Fort Collins Inc., SCA-Fort Walton Inc., SCA-Franklin LLC, SCA-Frederick LLC, SCA-Freeway Holdings LLC, SCA-Ft. Myers LLC, SCA-GRANTS PASS LLC, SCA-Gainesville LLC, SCA-Gladiolus LLC, SCA-Grove Place LLC, SCA-Hagerstown LLC, SCA-Hamden LLC, SCA-Hilton Head LLC, SCA-Honolulu LLC, SCA-Houston Executive LLC, SCA-IT Holdings LLC, SCA-Illinois LLC, SCA-JPM Holdings LLC, SCA-Kissing Camels Holdings LLC, SCA-MC VBP Inc., SCA-Main Street LLC, SCA-Marina del Rey LLC, SCA-Mecklenburg Development Corp., SCA-Memorial City LLC, SCA-Merritt LLC, SCA-Midlands LLC, SCA-Midway Management LLC, SCA-Mobile LLC, SCA-Mokena LLC, SCA-Mokena Properties LLC, SCA-Morris County LLC, SCA-Mt. Pleasant LLC, SCA-ND VBP Inc., SCA-Naperville LLC, SCA-Naples LLC, SCA-New Jersey LLC, SCA-Newport Beach LLC, SCA-Northeast Georgia Health LLC, SCA-PORTLAND LLC, SCA-Palm Beach LLC, SCA-Palm Beach MSO Holdings LLC, SCA-Paoli LLC, SCA-Phoenix LLC, SCA-Pocono LLC, SCA-Practice Partners Holdings LLC, SCA-River Valley LLC, SCA-Riverside LLC, SCA-Riverside Partners LLC, SCA-Rockville LLC, SCA-Sacred Heart Holdings LLC, SCA-San Diego Inc., SCA-San Luis Obispo LLC, SCA-Sand Lake LLC, SCA-Santa Rosa Inc., SCA-Shelby Development Corp., SCA-Somerset LLC, SCA-South Jersey LLC, SCA-Sparta LLC, SCA-Spartanburg Holdings LLC, SCA-St. Louis LLC, SCA-St. Lucie LLC, SCA-SurgiCare LLC, SCA-Swiftpath LLC, SCA-VERTA LLC, SCA-Wake Forest LLC, SCA-Western Connecticut LLC, SCA-Westover Hills LLC, SCA-Wilmington LLC, SCA-Wilson LLC, SCA-Winchester LLC, SCA-Winter Park Inc., SCA-Woodlands Holdings LLC, SCAI Holdings LLC, SCP Specialty Infusion, SCP Specialty Infusion LLC, SHC Atlanta LLC, SHC Austin Inc., SHC Hawthorn Inc., SHC Melbourne Inc., SPINETRACK 20/20 Inc., SRPS LLC, SXC Comet, Sacred Heart ASC LLC, Saden S.A., Salem Surgery Center LLC, Salveo Specialty Pharmacy, Salveo Specialty Pharmacy Inc., Sand Lake SurgiCenter LLC, Santa Cruz Endoscopy Center LLC, Santa Helena Assistencia Medica S.A., Santos Administracao e Participacoes S.A., Savvysherpa Administrative Services LLC, Savvysherpa Asia Inc., Savvysherpa LLC, Scanner Centromed S.A., ScripNet, ScriptSwitch Limited, Seisa Servicos Integrados de Saude Ltda., Senate Street Surgery Center LLC, Senior Benefits L.L.C., Senior Care Partners, Serquinox Holdings LLC, Serquinox LLC, Servicios Integrados de Salud Ltda., Servicios Medicos Amed Quilpue S.A., Servicios Medicos Bio Bio Limitada, Servicios Medicos Ciudad del Mar Ltda., Servicios Medicos Santa Maria Limitada, Servicios Medicos Vespucio Ltda., Servicios de Entrenamiento en Competencias Clinicas Ltda., SharedClarity LLC, Shelby Surgery Properties Inc., Sierra Health Services, Sierra Health Services Inc, Sierra Health Services Inc., Sierra Health and Life Insurance Company, Sierra Health and Life Insurance Company Inc., Sierra Health-Care Options, Sierra Health-Care Options Inc., Sierra Home Medical Products, Sierra Home Medical Products Inc., Sierra Nevada Administrators, Sierra Nevada Administrators Inc., Sirona Infusion, Sistema de Administracion Hospitalaria S.A.C., Small Business Insurance Advisors Inc., Sobam  Centro Medico Hospitalar S.A., Sociedad Editorial para la Ciencia Limitada., Sociedad de Inversiones Santa Maria S.A., Somerset Outpatient Surgery L.L.C., Southwest Medical Associates, Southwest Medical Associates Inc., Southwest Michigan Health Network Inc., Southwest Surgery Center LLC, Southwest Surgical Center of Bakersfield L.P., Space Coast Surgical Center Ltd., Specialists in Urology Surgery Center LLC, Specialized Pharmaceuticals Inc., Specialty Benefits, Specialty Benefits LLC, Spectera, Spectera Inc., Spectera of New York IPA, Spectera 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Centers-West Holdings LLC, Surgical Care Affiliates, Surgical Care Affiliates LLC, Surgical Care Affiliates Political Action Committee, Surgical Care Partners of Melbourne LLC, Surgical Center of South Jersey Limited Partnership, Surgical Center of Tuscaloosa Holdings LLC, Surgical Health LLC, Surgical Health of Orlando LLC, Surgical Hospital Holdings of Oklahoma LLC, Surgicare LLC, Surgicare of Belleville LLC, Surgicare of Jackson LLC, Surgicare of Joliet Inc., Surgicare of La Veta Inc., Surgicare of Minneapolis LLC, Surgicare of Mobile LLC, Surgicare of Oceanside Inc., Surgicare of Owensboro LLC, Surgicare of Salem LLC, Surgicenters of Southern California Inc., Symphonix Health Holdings, Symphonix Health Holdings LLC, Symphonix Health Insurance, Symphonix Health Insurance Inc., THE SURGICAL CENTER OF THE TREASURE COAST L.L.C., TeamMD Holdings Inc., TeamMD Iowa Inc., TeamMD Physicians of Texas Inc., TeamUP Insurance Services Inc., Tecnologias de Informacion en Salud S.A., The Advisory Board (Chile) SpA, The Chesapeake Life Insurance Company, The Lewin Group, The Lewin Group Inc., The Magan Medical Group, The Outpatient Surgery Center of Hilton Head LLC, The Polyclinic MSO LLC, Thomas Johnson Surgery Center LLC, Thousand Oaks Endoscopy Center LLC, Three Rivers Holdings, Three Rivers Holdings Inc., Three Rivers Surgical Care L.P., Tmesys, Tmesys LLC, Topimagem Diagnostico por Imagem Ltda., Touchpoint Health Plan, Trails Edge Surgery Center LLC, Travel Express Incorporated, TriMed LLC, Trinity Infusion, Trio Motion LLC, Tucson Arizona Surgical Center LLC, U.S. Behavioral Health Plan, U.S. Behavioral Health Plan California, UHC Finance (Ireland) Unlimited Company, UHC Global Health Services BC Ltd., UHC International Services, UHC International Services Inc., UHC of California, UHCG Holdings (Ireland) Limited, UHCG Services (Ireland) Limited, UHCG  FZE, UHG Brasil Participacoes S.A., UHIC Holdings, UHIC Holdings Inc., UICI Funding Corp. 2, UMR, UMR Inc., USHEALTH Academy Inc., USHEALTH Administrators LLC, USHEALTH Advisors L.L.C., USHEALTH Career Agency Inc., USHEALTH Funding Inc., USHEALTH Group Inc., USMD Administrative Services, USMD Administrative Services L.L.C., USMD Affiliated Services, USMD CT (Mo), USMD Cancer Treatment Centers, USMD Cancer Treatment Centers GP, USMD Diagnostic Services, USMD Holdings, USMD Holdings Inc., USMD Inc., USMD PPM, USMD PPM LLC, USMD of Arlington GP, Ultima Rx, Unidad Medica Diagnostico S.A., Unimerica Insurance Company, Unimerica Life Insurance Company of New York, Unison Administrative Services, Unison Health Plan of Delaware, Unison Health Plan of Delaware Inc., United Behavioral Health, United Behavioral Health of New York I.P.A., United Behavioral Health of New York I.P.A. Inc., United Group Reinsurance Inc., United Health Foundation, United HealthCare, United HealthCare Services Inc., United Management Services Inc., United Resource Networks IPA of New York, United Resource Networks IPA of New York Inc., UnitedHealth Advisors, UnitedHealth Advisors LLC, UnitedHealth Group Finance Inc., UnitedHealth Group Global Healthcare Services Limited, UnitedHealth Group Global Services, UnitedHealth Group Incorporated, UnitedHealth Group Information Services Private Limited, UnitedHealth Group International Finance (Ireland) Unlimited Company, UnitedHealth Group International GP, UnitedHealth Group International L.P., UnitedHealth International, UnitedHealth International Inc., UnitedHealth Military & Veterans Services, UnitedHealth Military & Veterans Services LLC, UnitedHealth UK Limited, UnitedHealthcare, UnitedHealthcare Benefits Plan of California, UnitedHealthcare Benefits of Texas, UnitedHealthcare Benefits of Texas Inc., UnitedHealthcare Children's Foundation Inc., UnitedHealthcare Community Plan, UnitedHealthcare Community Plan Inc., UnitedHealthcare Community Plan of California, UnitedHealthcare Community Plan of California Inc., UnitedHealthcare Community Plan of Georgia, UnitedHealthcare Community Plan of Georgia Inc., UnitedHealthcare Community Plan of Ohio, UnitedHealthcare Community Plan of Ohio Inc., UnitedHealthcare Community Plan of Texas, UnitedHealthcare Community Plan of Texas L.L.C., UnitedHealthcare Consulting & Assistance Service (Beijing) Co., UnitedHealthcare Consulting & Assistance Service (Beijing) Co. Ltd., UnitedHealthcare Europe S.a r.l., UnitedHealthcare Europe S.a.r.l., UnitedHealthcare Global Canada Limited, UnitedHealthcare Global Medical (UK) Limited, UnitedHealthcare Inc., UnitedHealthcare India Private Limited, UnitedHealthcare Insurance Company, UnitedHealthcare Insurance Company of Illinois, UnitedHealthcare Insurance Company of New York, UnitedHealthcare Insurance Company of the River Valley, UnitedHealthcare Insurance Designated Activity Company, UnitedHealthcare Integrated Services, UnitedHealthcare Integrated Services Inc., UnitedHealthcare International Asia, UnitedHealthcare International Asia LLC, UnitedHealthcare International I B.V., UnitedHealthcare International I S.a.r.l., UnitedHealthcare International II B.V., UnitedHealthcare International II S.a r.l., UnitedHealthcare International II S.a.r.l., UnitedHealthcare International III B.V., UnitedHealthcare International III S.a r.l., UnitedHealthcare International III S.a.r.l., UnitedHealthcare International IV S.a r.l., UnitedHealthcare International IV S.a.r.l., UnitedHealthcare International V S.a.r.l., UnitedHealthcare International VI S.a r.l., UnitedHealthcare International VII S.a r.l., UnitedHealthcare International VIII S.a r.l., UnitedHealthcare International X S.a r.l., UnitedHealthcare Life Insurance Company, UnitedHealthcare Plan of the River Valley, UnitedHealthcare Plan of the River Valley Inc., UnitedHealthcare Service LLC, UnitedHealthcare Services Company of the River Valley, UnitedHealthcare Specialty Benefits, UnitedHealthcare Specialty Benefits LLC, UnitedHealthcare of Alabama, UnitedHealthcare of Alabama Inc., UnitedHealthcare of Arizona, UnitedHealthcare of Arizona Inc., UnitedHealthcare of Arkansas, UnitedHealthcare of Arkansas Inc., UnitedHealthcare of Colorado, UnitedHealthcare of Colorado Inc., UnitedHealthcare of Florida, UnitedHealthcare of Florida Inc., UnitedHealthcare of Georgia, UnitedHealthcare of Georgia Inc., UnitedHealthcare of Illinois, UnitedHealthcare of Illinois Inc., UnitedHealthcare of Kentucky, UnitedHealthcare of Kentucky Ltd., UnitedHealthcare of Louisiana, UnitedHealthcare of Louisiana Inc., UnitedHealthcare of Mississippi, UnitedHealthcare of Mississippi Inc., UnitedHealthcare of New England, UnitedHealthcare of New England Inc., UnitedHealthcare of New Mexico, UnitedHealthcare of New Mexico Inc., UnitedHealthcare of New York, UnitedHealthcare of New York Inc., UnitedHealthcare of North Carolina, UnitedHealthcare of North Carolina Inc., UnitedHealthcare of Ohio, UnitedHealthcare of Ohio Inc., UnitedHealthcare of Oklahoma, UnitedHealthcare of Oklahoma Inc., UnitedHealthcare of Oregon, UnitedHealthcare of Oregon Inc., UnitedHealthcare of Pennsylvania, UnitedHealthcare of Pennsylvania Inc., UnitedHealthcare of South Carolina Inc., UnitedHealthcare of Texas, UnitedHealthcare of Texas Inc., UnitedHealthcare of Utah, UnitedHealthcare of Utah Inc., UnitedHealthcare of Washington, UnitedHealthcare of Washington Inc., UnitedHealthcare of Wisconsin, UnitedHealthcare of Wisconsin Inc., UnitedHealthcare of the Mid-Atlantic, UnitedHealthcare of the Mid-Atlantic Inc., UnitedHealthcare of the Midlands, UnitedHealthcare of the Midlands Inc., UnitedHealthcare of the Midwest, UnitedHealthcare of the Midwest Inc., UpFront Insurance Agency LLC, Upland Holdings LLC, Upland Outpatient Surgical Center L.P., Urgent Care Holdings, Urgent Care Holdings Inc., Urgent Care MSO, Urgent Care MSO LLC, Urology Associates of North Texas, Urology Associates of North Texas P.L.L.C., VERTA MANAGEMENT SERVICES LLC, Valley Hospital L.L.C., Valley Physicians Network, Valley Physicians Network Inc., Vida Tres Internacional S.A., Vidaintegra S.A., Vivify Health Canada Inc., Vivify Health Inc., WESTMED Practice Partners LLC, Wauwatosa Outpatient Surgery Center LLC, Wauwatosa Surgery Center Limited Partnership, Wayland Square Surgicare Acquisition L.P., Wayland Square Surgicare GP Inc., WebInsure Benefits LLC, WellMed Medical Management, WellMed Medical Management Inc., WellMed Medical Management of Florida, WellMed Medical Management of Florida Inc., WellMed Networks  DFW, West Coast Endoscopy Holdings LLC, Western Connecticut Orthopedic Surgical Center LLC, WillowB Labs LLC, Wilmington ASC LLC, Winchester Endoscopy LLC, Winter Park LLC, XLHealth Corporation, XLHealth Corporation India Private Limited, Your Health Options Insurance Services, Your Health Options Insurance Services Inc., Your Partner in Health Services, divvyDOSE, eCode Solutions LLC, gethealthinsurance.com Agency Inc., hCentive Inc., inPharmative, inPharmative Inc., and ppoONE.This site focuses on Republican politicians and conservatives that rip off their constituency. We have the Tea Party, fundamentalist churches, the corruption of ALEC and other special interests groups. But the site also supports progressive Democrats and the local Democratic Socialist of America. We must have ideas on how to replace regressive and corrupt politicians with something better. For comments steveotto2001@yahoo.com or ottozero2001@yahoo.com.Have you ever heard of the shot heard round the world that began the American Revolution? Well recently in my own life there was such a shot fired. While it didnt necessarily begin a war, it definitely left an impact on my life. While my years in the outdoors are far from over, they willWith prices of imported cars in Vietnam soaring due to supply shortage caused by new import regulations, dealerships of locally-assembled vehicles are grabbing the golden opportunity to offer price cuts to attract buyers.

Thaco Truong Hai has cut the prices of different models of its Kia product line, including Kia Morning, Kia Cerato, Optima and Rondo, by VND5  50 million (US$220-$2,200) from February.

The Kia Rondo model receives the biggest price cut of VND50 million, now selling at VND749 million ($33,000), while the respective price reductions for Kia Cerato and Kia Optima are up to VND14 million ($620) and VND30 million ($1,300).

A Kia Optima now fetches only VND789 million ($34,750) compared to the previous rate of VND819 million ($36,000).

These vehicles are all assembled in Vietnam.

A Thaco Truong Hai assembled car. Photo: Tuoi Tre

Vietnamese automakers are benefiting from the governments Decree 116, taking effect from this year, which applies stricter regulations on car imports. As a consequence, carmakers and importers in Vietnam have been lamenting that they cannot import new stock to meet the current demand.

Many car sellers have thus taken advantage of the supply shortage to hike prices for the available stock, boosting prices well above what they would be with the tariff.

The move has left local consumers disappointed, while creating great opportunities for Vietnamese automakers to lure buyers by slashing their prices. It was also good timing for carmakers as this time of the year is the typical Lunar New Year holiday buy-up.

A Mercedes-Benz is seen at a showroom in Ho Chi Minh City. Photo: Tuoi Tre

Toyota Vietnam, which has its imported products hit by the new regulations, has also cut prices for units assembled in Vietnam by 3-10 percent, or VND25-58 million per car, to embrace the chance.

Similarly, Mitsubishi Vietnam is selling the locally assembled 5+2 crossover Mitsubishi Outlander at some VND200 million ($8,800) cheaper than the completely-built unit imported from Japan.

Dealerships have also provided a VND114 million ($55,000) price cut for the Isuzu mu-X assembled in Vietnam.

Some Mazda models, including Mazda3, Mazda2 and Mazda6, are also available with prices slashed by VND10-40 million ($440-$1,700) each.

Employees work at a car assembling factory in Vietnam. Photo: Tuoi Tre

Representatives of car importers such as Ford and Honda lament that Decree 116 has made it extremely difficult to import new products to Vietnam.

The fiat requires all models of imported vehicles to obtain a Vehicle Type Approval certification issued by authorities in the exporting country. The problem is that most countries that sell cars to Vietnam dont use such a document and it will take time for exporters to enact measures to meet those requirements.

The decree has effectively closed the door for car importers to bring new stock into Vietnam until changes are made. For instance, Ho Chi Minh City seaports received no car shipment in January, with the new regulations to blame.

Data from the Vietnam Customs also shows that only 80 cars, including a mere six vehicles with nine or less seats, were imported to the Southeast Asian country in the first half of January.

To put this into perspective, the country imported 7,000 units worth $153 million in January 2017.Ambassador Cuong met with Shigeki Takizaki, director general of the Southeast and Southwest Asian Affairs Department under Japans Ministry of Foreign Affairs, on Friday to discuss issues concerning the girls murder.

Linh was nine years old when she was found dead on March 26, 2017 near a drainage ditch in a field in Abiko, a city in Japans Chiba Prefecture, according to The Japan Times.

Police later identified local resident Yasumasa Shibuya, 46, as the prime suspect in Linhs death after discovering her DNA and hair in his car.

The man was indicted in May 2017, but his refusal to confess to the allegations has caused pretrial investigation to last until today.

At Fridays meeting, Ambassador Cuong informed the Japanese foreign ministry representative of ongoing collection of signatures by Linhs family at home and abroad to appeal to the Chiba court to hand down the death penalty to suspect.

The case, Cuong noted, has attracted widespread public attention in Vietnam and overseas.

A photo of Vietnamese girl Le Thi Nhat Linh before her death in April 2017. Courtesy of Linhs family

The Vietnamese ambassador therefore urged that Japans law enforcement soon wrap up investigation into Linhs death and collect enough evidence to bring the suspect to a public trial and hand down an appropriate sentence pursuant to Japanese laws should he be found guilty.

In reply, Takizaki expressed his sympathy to Linhs family and informed the ambassador that relevant agencies were making urgent preparations to bring the case to court in the nearest possible time.

Takizaki further elaborated on the judicial independence stipulated by Japans Constitution, and expressed his hope for an early trial and that the culprit would receive the punishment he deserved.

Linhs family has the Embassy on their side

The same day, Ambassador Cuong paid a visit to Linhs family in Chiba and stressed that the Vietnamese Embassy would continue to work to protect the legitimate interests of the family.

He said embassy officials had kept regular contact with Japanese law enforcement so that they could be constantly updated on developments surrounding the case and to ensure protection of Vietnamese citizens in Japan.

According to the Chiba prefecture court, the date for the trial will be decided after the conclusion of investigations and dossier preparations, which is scheduled on March 5.

Under Japans law, evidence collection can last for about eight months if the suspect confesses to his crime and 12 months if they refuses to do so.

Le Anh Hao, father of Le Thi Nhat Linh, carries a sign on a street in Japan calling for signatures to pressure the court into handing down the death penalty for the culprit in his daughters murder in this photo posted by his wife on Facebook.

Linhs father Le Anh Hao expressed his hope for an early and fair trial so that similar crimes would be prevented in the future.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the President of the House of Councilors have also extended their sympathies to Linhs family over her death on earlier occasions.

Japanese Ambassador to Vietnam Kunio Umeda visited Linhs family at their hometown in the northern province of Hung Yen last year and offered his prayers to the ill-fated girl over her grave.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!A facility that turned Chinese chemicals into perfume and sold them under the disguise of popular luxury brands has been cracked down in Ho Chi Minh City, police said Friday.

The raid was carried out into the facility in an alley in Binh Tan District on Tuesday, with officers eventually confiscating 8,800 bottles of counterfeit perfume, according to the police.

The establishment owner, 36-year-old Le Thi Tu Anh, has been taken into custody for further investigation.

The fake fragrance was to be sold under famous brands such as Chanel, Tommy Hilfiger, Versace, and Gucci.

A machine used for making counterfeit perfume is seen at the facility in Ho Chi Minh City. Photo: Tuoi Tre

Police also seized other items including 19,000 labels and packing materials of popular perfume brands, five large containers of alcohol, two containers of fragrance, and several machines used for packaging and sealing perfume bottles.

Anh confessed to the police that the fake perfume was made from chemicals bought from China, which are later filled in bottles placed with labels of famous perfume brands.

The facility owner admitted that she also rented another house in the same alley to store ingredients and materials used for counterfeiting perfume.

Packaging materials, alcohol containers, and other tools were seized by the authorities. Photo: Tuoi Tre.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!EXCLUSIVE: Nine has officially confirmed the end for Logie-winning drama House Husbands after 5 seasons.

The Playmaker Media series starring Gary Sweet, Firass Dirani, Rhys Muldoon and Julia Morris, last aired in April 2017, although production concluded in mid-2016.

Nine had explored the possibility of a spin-off around Gary Sweets Lewis Crabb but opted not to proceed, concluding with 58 episodes. But it also pointed towards the challenges of producing Drama under current funding models.

House Husbands had a great run over five seasons, and it certainly could continue with the numbers it was getting, Nine Network Program Director Hamish Turner told TV Tonight.

However, there is no question the 65 episode cap on the Producer Offset is a major financial hurdle for all long-running dramas. Hopefully that restriction will change.

It follows recent confirmation that another Nine / Playmaker drama, Love Child, would also not be returning.

Love Child was still performing strongly for us through to season 4, and it continues to be extremely popular on 9Now. We love the show, but were also satisfied that the storylines have come to a natural conclusion after a great run, Turner said.

Industry concerns around funding increases after 65 episodes persist, as shows lose a rebate and effectively cost 20% more. Other shows ending around 65 episodes include Sea Patrol, Rush and Dance Academy, while Offspring -which had initially ended under the same cap- managed a return in 2017.

Matthew Deaner, CEO of Screen Producers Australia, said, The 65-hour cap is an arbitrary and perverse disincentive for success. A sustainable industry relies on long-running productions that provide certainty in employment, skills development and investment. Market conditions have changed since the cap was introduced. To grow a sustainable television industry, this cap should be removed.

A recent government inquiry into the Australian film and television industry recommended removing the 65 hour cap on television series accessing the offset.1630:Close Mining shares helped the Footsie to close well off its lows of the session after the price if iron ore surged, registering its largest one day gain since 2009, alongside rises in the copper and crude oil futures. Over the weekend, the Chinese government upped its targets for the rate of growth in money supply and the public spending deficit in 2016 in a bid to prop up economic growth. Shares in financials and Randgold led the retreat on the top flight index. FTSE 100 down 17.03 points to 6,812.40.

1616: Shares in Rio Tinto are higher by 5.70% to 2,251.50p, while those in Brazilian iron-ore producer Vale are rallying by 8.11% in New York trading and those in US producer Cliffs Natural Resources are up by another 20.41% to $3.48 in US trading.

1450: Morgan Stanley downgrades Randgold from overweight to equalweight and Fresnillo from equalweight to underweight. The broker has also lowered its target price on the former from 5,380p to 3,990p but upped that on the latter from 600p to 700p. "Both stocks look fully valued and imply metal prices that are far above spot leaving their risk-rewards skewed to the downside," Morgan Stanley analyst Dan Shaw writes.

1449: According to CNBC there are no talks ongoing between British American Tobacco and Reynolds.

1346: Front month Brent crude futures are up by 0.82% to $39.04 per barrel on the ICE.

1330: Three-month copper futures on the LME are up by 1.6% to $4,989.25 per metric tonne.

1140: Spot 62% Fe (cfr Tianjin) iron ore futures appear to be melting up, with some traders quoting them at $60 per metric tonne, up from $49.6 per tonne on Friday. Futures reportedly hit US$62.5/t on the Dalian Commodity Exchange on Monday on the back of talk of further stimulus at the Chinese National People's Congress.

1017: Moodys has downgraded its rating on StanChart's long-term debt to Aa3 from Aa2. AngloAmerican has joined Glencore at the bottom of the pile following negative comments out of analysts at UBS. Homebuilders on the other hand are bouncing back after the losses incurred at the end of last week.

0915: JustEast's shares are lower on news that the food delivery company's boss and finance chief offloaded the lion's share of their direct stock holdings last Friday. Cannacord its out with a note raising its target price on the shares from 595p to 625p.

0839: The top flight index is seeing slight losses at the start of trading following an initial sprint into the green on the back of higher crude oil futures. Select financials are doing best, led by a surge in Old Mutual's share price after weekend reports of a possible break-up. The likes of Glencore on the other hand is coming under pressure, as is Randgold. Out on the second tier index which is faring better, Tullow Oil and Ophir Energy are pacing gains while Just East and Mitie are weighing on the gauge. Front month crude oil futures are up by 1.1% to $39.14 per barrel on the ICE. Cable is off by 0.48% to 1.4155. Figuring prominently in the newspaper headlines on Monday morning is the resignation of BCC chief John Longworth. Chinese FX reserves for February have printed slightly above analysts' estimates. FTSE 100 down 37.16 points to 6,162.27.Living rent-free in capital

It takes a lot of nerve to claim that diplomatic immunity lets you live rent-free in a pleasant luxury flat overlooking Ottawas Glebe neighbourhood. And Friday the Ontario Superior Court told US embassy employee Betsy Zouroudis to pay up or get out. She had rented the top floor of a townhouse in the Glebe last year. But then she refused to pay and in a letter from her lawyer argued she had diplomatic immunity from the landlord and tenant board. Justice Rohan Bansie delivered the bad news. He told Zouroudis that paying rent is a commercial activity not covered by diplomatic immunity. Zouroudis lawyer had argued the only way to make her subject to the rent payments was for the US to waive her diplomatic status.Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA engages in the traditional banking businesses of retail banking, asset management, private banking, and wholesale banking. It operates through the following segments: Spain, the United States, Mexico, Turkey, South America, and Rest of Eurasia. The Spain segment includes mainly the banking and insurance business that the group carries out in Spain. The United States segment consists of the financial business activity of BBVA USA in the country and the activity of the branch of BBVA SA in New York. The Mexico segment refers to banking and insurance businesses in this country as well as the activity of its branch in Houston. The Turkey segment reports the activity of Garanti BBVA group that is mainly carried out in this country and, to a lesser extent, in Romania and the Netherlands. The South America segment comprises of operations in n Argentina, Colombia, Peru, Uruguay, and Venezuela. The Rest of Eurasia segment includes the banking business activity carried out by the group in Europe and Asia, excluding Spain. The company was founded in 1857 and is headquartered in Madrid, Spain.

Read MoreFirst game at Dacotah Bank Stadium draws 5,867 fans as Northern wins

Northern State University had a capacity crowd Saturday at it's first home game at the Dacotah Bank Stadium.A monumental mandala explodes high and wide, spanning two-stories of 516 ARTS in a plumed swirl of color.

Guest artist Curiot Tlalpazotl spent a week and a half creating Unity for the opening of the gallerys The U.S.-Mexico Border: Place, Imagination and Possibility. The exhibit is currently open.

Organizers invited the muralist to create the work across its 25-foot high entrance wall. The results show mythological creatures centered by a multi-faced deity. Multicolored embryos orbit it in kaleidoscopic circles. Its Mexico-meets-India in Albuquerque.

The composition is the chakras, Tlalpazotl said as he squatted on a blue lift, brushes dangling from his hands. The artist was born in Mexico but grew up in Costa Mesa, Calif. Its the energy levels we all contain.

Its like unity in all cultures, he continued. Its my version of the Mexican deities. It has many faces; it comes from my adventures in India.

The artist spent two months painting murals in India before coming to New Mexico.

Up north, a lot of the sculptures have multiple arms and faces, he said. The gold details come from the Buddhist temples. It represents where we all come from; the center piece is pure energy.

Based in Mexico for the past 10 years, Tlalpazotl (his real name is Favio Martinez) has painted murals in Germany, France, Spain, Tunisia, Australia, Brazil, Switzerland, Sweden, Canada, Mexico and the U.S. He traces his bright colors and organic imagery to the folklore and handcrafts of Mexican culture.

The mural gathers his trademark eye-popping flora, fauna and figures with delicate metallic gold embellishment on the borders. He worked on the piece free-hand, without sketches, templates or photo projections.

Ive just been kind of improvising, he said. I used to make sketches, but it kind of got boring.

Up north, a lot of the sculptures have multiple arms and faces, he said. The gold details come from the Buddhist temples. It represents where we all come from; the center piece is pure energy.

516 ARTS director Suzanne Sbarge allowed the artist to create what he wanted without seeing a sketch. The mural marks the first time the gallery has allowed an artist such freedom.

We didnt know what he was going to do, she said. He made it up on the wall. We had confidence in his work. Hes done projects all over the globe that are mind-bogglingly beautiful. We just watched it unfold.

We welcome suggestions for the daily Bright Spot. Send to newsroom@abqjournal.com.SANTA FE  A bill seeking to reimpose New Mexicos food tax but only on unhealthy items  and excluding flour tortillas  was derailed Friday in a Senate committee after running into broad opposition.

Representatives of the New Mexico Chile Association, the states Roman Catholic church and other advocacy groups were among those who spoke against the measure, with some saying it could hurt low-income families. Not one outside group or individual testified in support.

Fred Nathan, the executive director of the Santa Fe-based nonprofit Think New Mexico, which proposed and lobbied for the 2004 repeal of New Mexicos food tax, said the bill would be an Orwellian mess for grocery stores to administer.

The tax would not be limited to unhealthy foods, he said, claiming nuts would be among the items subject to gross receipts tax under the proposed bill.

However, Sen. Cliff Pirtle, R-Roswell, the measures sponsor, said the legislation would address high rates of obesity, among other health issues.

When we think of food, I dont think many of us think of things  that are high-caloried and high in sugar, Pirtle said during Fridays hearing of the Senate Corporations and Transportation Committee.

The panel ultimately voted to table the legislation, Senate Bill 129, on a 4-2 vote. Its unlikely to resurface during the 30-day session that ends Feb. 15.

Sen. Clemente Meme Sanchez, D-Grants, the panels chairman, expressed opposition to the idea behind the bill.

I just have a problem with telling people what to do  Im a little bit of a Libertarian when it comes to that, Sanchez said.

The measure debated Friday would rely on federal food guidelines for pregnant women and young children to determine which items should be taxed. It would also add flour tortillas and meat, poultry and fish to the list of non-taxable food items.

In addition, the bill would compel a state agency to request a first-of-its-kind federal waiver in order to limit the use of food stamp benefits to those same designated food items. As of December 2017, there were about 460,000 New Mexicans who get such benefits under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

A legislative analysis of the bill estimated it would generate more than $80 million in revenue for the state general fund in the coming fiscal year.Deputies arrested a man after they say he fought three firefighters as they tried to battle a blaze in Pajarito Mesa Thursday night.

According to a criminal complaint filed in Metropolitan Court, 31-year-old Ruben Cuellar is charged with aggravated battery upon a health care worker.

Deputies say firefighters were fighting a fire at Cuellars neighbors house in Pajarito Mesa around 6 p.m. when he kept trying to intervene and approach the blaze.

Both firefighters and deputies told Cuellar to stand back several times as they were rescuing two people from inside the home.

He would not listen and would pace back and forth toward the residence, a deputy wrote in the complaint.

Cuellar became aggressive and fought with three firefighterspunching one in the nose, pushing another and dislocating a third firefighters shoulderbefore being arrested.

A judge ordered Cuellar to be released on his own recognizance Friday until his next court hearing.

Bernalillo County Spokesman Larry Gallegos said two of the firefighters were taken to a hospital with minor injuries, to get checked out, and were later released.

Gallegos said two people pulled from the burning home were also hospitalized with light smoke inhalation.

He said he has only seen the public fight with firefighters a handful of times in his nine years working with Bernalillo County.

Were there to help, Gallegos said. Were trying to put the fire out, anytime youre engaging them youre taking them away from the work theyre trying to do.

Gallegos said a scene is usually cleared by law enforcement before fire trucks arrive and neighbors, as well as family members, need to stand aside and let firefighters do their job.

He said the fire, which started around 6 p.m. engulfed a stucco home and torched some nearby grassland before being contained just after 11 p.m.

While there were three Bernalillo County Fire Department crews on scene, a lack of water in the area resulted in water tankers from Kirtland, Bosque Farms and Peralta fire crews to be called in to help.

Gallegos said the cause of the fire is still under investigation.The setbacks suffered by IS in the Syrian and Iraqi fronts are pushing thousands of foreign fighters to return to their home-countries where they pose a serious risk to stability and security.

Morocco is one of the countries with a significant number of foreign fighters in the Middle East whose return puts authorities on high alert.

A report by the security and intelligence consultancy AICS estimates the number of foreign fighters who may return to Morocco at 900 individuals.

The report notes that Morocco is one of the largest foreign fighter emitting countries with the number of individuals joining terrorist groups in Syria and Iraq estimated at 1800.

This number is not far from the estimates of Moroccos interior ministry, which puts the number of Moroccan foreign fighters in Syria and Iraq at 1699, including 929 fighting for IS, of whom 596 died in the battleground.

While acknowledging the role of Moroccos religious model in averting mass radicalization, the report warns of the dangers posed by battle hardened extremists on Moroccos security and stability.

This zero tolerance policy on returning terrorists has prevented many foreign fighters from coming back to Morocco. So far about 230 foreign fighters returned to the Kingdom most of them in jail.

In January 2015, the anti-terrorism law of 2003 was amended in order to criminalize joining groups outside Morocco.Police are looking for a missing La Cueva student who they believe may have hopped a train to Santa Fe with another student Friday morning, according to a spokesman.

Officer Daren DeAguero said 17-year-old Justina Stevens was dropped off at school at 7 a.m. but didnt go to any of her classes.

He said La Cueva officials believe she may have taken the New Mexico Rail Runner Express with 18-year-old Colton Fergeson, another student.

DeAguero said Stevens has been diagnosed with ADHD and PTSD in addition to having the mental capacity of a 10-year-old.

Stevens is described as 5 feet 4 inches tall, 156 pounds, with brown eyes and red hair.

He said Stevens was last seen wearing a black leather jacket, white long sleeve shirt, black and white pants. She usually has a black and gray backpack.Many New Mexicans assume that a teacher, principal or doctor is legally required to report all suspected child abuse to police.

But New Mexico law requires reporting only abuse suffered at the hands of a childs parent or guardian.

That allowed Santa Fe Public Schools to avoid civil penalties in 2014 for not reporting to police a teacher who administrators believed had molested some children. The teacher went on to work at another New Mexico school district, where he is alleged by several other students to have molested them. A criminal case against that teacher, Gary Gregor, is pending.

A bill put before legislators Thursday would change the states mandatory reporting law to include all child abuse  no matter who the perpetrator is.

Pushing for the bill is Nallely Hernandez, a former student in one of Gregors fourth-grade classes. Now 20, Hernandez has settled a civil lawsuit against Gregor regarding abuse.

She has written to Gov. Susana Martinez asking for her support, and she is speaking out in support of the bill, along with state Attorney General Hector Balderas, with hope that it will close what they call a loophole.

It would be a shame if (legislators) did nothing about it, Hernandez said of closing the loophole. If they truly want to help, this is their chance to do it.

Senate Bill 87 was filed by Sen. Howie Morales, D-Silver City, but the bill wasnt added to the session agenda by Martinez until Thursday, about half way through this years short, budget-focused 30-day session.

Balderas, a Democrat, said he hopes the bill works its way through the Legislature to address the underreporting of child abuse.

The current law says everyone  especially doctors, police, judges, nurses, teachers, school officials, social workers and clergy  is required report all types of abuse by parents/guardians to police of the states Children, Youth and Families Department or to police. Failure to do so is a misdemeanor crime.

The proposed new law would keep those provisions but add required reporting of all types of abuse inflicted or caused by any person. Failure to report would continue to be a misdemeanor crime.

Gregor, 61, has been the subject of civil suits (plural) alleging Santa Fe Public Schools knew he was threat but gave him a neutral reference, which helped lead to his subsequent hiring in Espanola. Gregor now faces criminal counts for allegedly abusing girls in both school districts. He has pleaded not guilty.

The Espanola school district has already paid out millions of dollars to settle two suits over Gregor.SANTA FE  The United World College system, whose only U.S. campus is located outside Las Vegas, N.M., recently received a $100 million pledge from its most prominent donor.

Philanthropist Shelby Davis donation, which will be distributed over 20 years, will go toward 100 annual scholarships for students to attend one of UWCs 17 campuses around the world.

Davis, a billionaire investor and major supporter of the UWC who lives in Jackson Hole, Wyo., has several ties to New Mexico. His son Andrew Davis has a home in Santa Fe.

Former UWC-USA president Phil Geier invited Davis to visit the Montezuma campus back in the 90s. Since then, he has since donated millions to the school over the years, including financing restoration of the campus historic Montezuma Castle, built as a 19th century luxury hotel.

Since 2016, his Davis New Mexico Scholarship has provided full tuition to about 20 first-generation college students each year, for attendance at a group of colleges around the country. The investment firm he founded, Davis Selected Advisers, once had a Santa Fe office before moving to Tucson more than 20 years ago.

The UWC schools offer a two-year international baccalaureate program. For the Montezuma campus  about five miles east of Las Vegas  Davis pledge means scholarships for six students annually. For the 2018-2019 academic year, these students will be chosen by committees in Barbados, Bulgaria, Haiti, Nicaragua, Paraguay and the Philippines.

Though these will be partial scholarships, UWC-USA President Victoria Mora said the institution will be able to cover most of the remaining balance for its recipients. This will supplement our efforts to (support) students who are least capable of paying for this type of education, she said.

The annual cost for UWC-USA students with tuition and room and board is around $38,000, she said.

According to Mora, the institution chooses specific countries from which it will recruit students prior to the beginning of the academic year. She said that for the 2019-2020 academic year, when a new set of students will be awarded the scholarship money, UWC-USA will be able to pursue students from countries never before represented at the institution.

In the Thursday announcement, Davis noted that UWC is designed to provide young people an educational opportunity independent of their socio-economic means.

We need to equip a new generation to work towards a better world, he said.Zoey Perea was smiling from ear to ear Friday afternoon after learning that she will return to kindergarten at San Antonito Elementary School on Monday.

Zoey, 6, was kept out of school for more than a month by her parents, Tenesha and Bryan Perea, who were concerned because the school, they said, declined to follow the directives of Zoeys doctor regarding the care of the childs diabetes.

APS spokeswoman Monica Armenta declined to comment on the situation, citing federal privacy laws and district privacy policies.

About a year ago, Zoey was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes, also called juvenile diabetes. Zoey has to have her blood sugar checked 12-15 times a day and has to get 6-8 daily injections of insulin, said Tenesha.

Managing her disease means that Zoey must bring to school her blood sugar meter, insulin pen, sterile alcohol wipes, cotton balls, snacks with fast-acting sugar, and an emergency glucagon pen to be administered if her blood sugar becomes dangerously low, which could cause her to have a seizure or go into a coma, explained her mom.

She keeps these life-saving supplies in what the family calls Zoeys go-pack, essentially a small lunch box, which, according to her doctors orders, must accompany Zoey at all times.

Tenesha said that while Zoey is in school the go-pack stays with the school nurse or remains in the classroom under the control of the teacher. Where Tenesha and Bryan got crosswise with the school was when administrators refused to designate a staff member or employee to carry the go-pack outside for Zoey during recess.

The only reason I was given by the principal was that she didnt feel a teacher or staff person should be responsible for Zoeys pack, but, of course, they are responsible for her while shes at school, so it just didnt make sense, said Tenesha.

Diabetes is a disease you cant see, and it makes it hard for people to understand that Type 1 diabetics must have their supplies at all times. It would be unsafe for Zoey to not have immediate access to her medical supplies on the playground in the case of an emergency.

Tenesha said that she and her husband had been going back and forth with the school over this issue since the beginning of the school year and finally felt they had no choice but to remove their daughter from the school.

On Friday, however, during a meeting at the Albuquerque Public Schools district headquarters attended by San Antonito administrators, an assistant APS superintendent and other APS officials, an agreement was reached to accommodate Zoey during recess.

Sharon Guerra, director of APS nursing services, without mentioning the names of any children, told the Journal that she will be at San Antonito on Monday to evaluate how best to accommodate children with special medical needs.

As long as they follow Zoeys doctors orders and the verbal agreement they gave us to ensure Zoeys safety at school at all times and in accordance with the Americans With Disabilities Act, then we shouldnt have any further issues with the school district, said Tenesha.

And Zoey can continue smiling from ear to ear.Following President Trumps first State of the Union I was left shaking my head at some journalists analysis of what was said. Especially troublesome from my crime-and-justice perch were reporters conclusions tying Trumps mention of deadly MS-13 gang activity to all undocumented immigrants in the United States.

The Huffington Posts coverage of the issue was tagged with the label Hate Speech and included this line about the presidents comments: His comparison between MS-13 and the millions of undocumented immigrants in America  including hundreds of thousands of young people known as Dreamers  prompted swift rebuke from Democrats. HuffPo added a supporting quote from the junior senator from California, Democrat Kamala Harris.

MS-13 is an example of some of the worst of criminal gang behavior, she said. To equate that with Dreamers and DACA was completely irresponsible, and it was scapegoating, and it was fearmongering, and it was wrong.

Fact check: Not once did the president equate all Dreamers with gang members. Dont let the media put untrue thoughts in your head. The closest Trump came was when he said, Many of these gang members took advantage of glaring loopholes in our laws to enter the country as unaccompanied alien minors. In other words, some MS-13 members gamed our system to gain entry in the United States.

In all the breathlessly critical immigration-centric coverage there was no mention of something President Trump did say about his immigration proposals and the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.

The first pillar of our framework generously offers a path to citizenship for 1.8 million illegal immigrants who were brought here by their parents at a young age, Trump said. That covers almost three times more people than the previous administration.

Ignoring that, one reporter zeroed in on the presidents apparent audacity in daring to even mention the Salvadoran-led MS-13 gang.

One of the things he said  is that he wants to have the country set aside differences, ABCs Chief White House correspondent Cecelia Vega said in solemn tones. And (then he) went on to talk about undocumented immigrants as MS-13 gang members, demonizing them.

Gee, if you cant demonize a murderous gang what can you safely demonize? By ABCs line of thinking one is not allowed to criticize an immigrant who commits violent crimes against Americans, even MS-13 members, for fear of being labeled a racist against all Hispanics.

But Sen. Marco Rubio, a one-time Trump presidential challenger, said that to refrain from targeting MS-13 would be like saying that you cant criticize the mafia because theyre Italian-American. This isnt racist. It is a fact.

MSNBC host Chris Matthews seemed to chide the president for having invited the parents of MS-13 victims to the speech. The idea of being a parent, losing a kid, a child, and then having to go sit there before the American people in agony, I dont know, Matthews said shaking his head in disapproval. Maybe there was some educational purpose in it, but I think it could have been done differently.

Matthews failed to mention that the parents of slain New York teenagers Nisa Mickens, 15, and Kayla Cuevas, 16, were not forced to attend. Rather, these parents volunteered to come to help the nation put a face to the pain caused by MS-13.

This type of media coverage and other reports focusing on the origins of MS-13 or those suggesting that Americas support for the Salvadoran civil war in the 1980s somehow created the gang and caused it to flourish here completely missed the larger point. MS-13 is currently operating in at least 40 U.S. states and the District of Columbia. It is one of the most brutal, bloodthirsty gangs to ever roam American soil and it recruits new members  both male and female  in U.S. schools with predominately immigrant populations.

The gangs core motto, according to the Department of Justice, is Mata, viola, controla, translated as, Kill, rape, control. As Department of Justice official Robert Hur put it, They seek to live up to this motto through truly shocking acts of violence designed to instill fear: vicious machete attacks, execution-style gunshots, gang rape and human trafficking. The FBI reports that MS-13 has also left its mark via home invasions, kidnapping, carjacking and robbery.

Yet to speak of MS-13 is racist? To mention these marauding criminals while discussing Americas safety is to paint all young immigrants with the gang brush? I am offended by this line of thinking. And you should be, too.

As Sen. Rubio also said after the State of the Union speech, MS-13 does not go into Beverly Hills. MS-13 is in communities where other immigrants are living, and that is who they prey on, and that is who they harm.

Why the self-proclaimed protectors of racial integrity cant see that restricting conversation about gangs and their victims is counterproductive Ill never understand. If we cant talk about it, we cant fix it. Partisan parsing of words seems so senseless when people are being victimized and murdered in their own communities. When does concern over that, and finding ways to stop it, trump political posturing?

www.DianeDimond.com; e-mail to Diane@DianeDimond.com.WASHINGTON  It was an assertion of hard-won personal sovereignty: Frederick Douglass, born on a Maryland plantation 200 years ago this month, never knew on what February day because history-deprivation was inflicted to confirm slaves as non-persons. So, later in life, Douglass picked the 14th, the middle of the month, as his birthday. This February, remember him, the first African-American to attain historic stature.

In an inspired choice to write a short biography of this fierce defender of individualism, Washingtons libertarian Cato Institute commissioned the Goldwater Institutes Timothy Sandefur, who says that Douglass was, in a sense, born when he was 16. After six months of being whipped once a week with sticks and rawhide thongs  arbitrary punishment was used to stunt a slaves dangerous sense of personhood  Douglass fought his tormentor. Sent to Baltimore, where he was put to work building ships  some of them slave transports  he soon fled north to freedom, and to fame as an anti-slavery orator and author.

Abolitionists such as William Lloyd Garrison said there should be no union with slaveholders, preferring disunion to association with slave states. They said what the Supreme Court would say in its execrable 1857 Dred Scott decision  that the Constitution was a pro-slavery document. Douglass, however, knew that Abraham Lincoln knew better.

Here comes my friend Douglass, exclaimed Lincoln at the March 4, 1865, reception following his second inauguration.

After Appomattox, Douglass, who had attended the 1848 Seneca Falls Convention on behalf of womens suffrage, said: Slavery is not abolished until the black man has the ballot. If so, slavery ended not with the 13th Amendment of 1865 but with the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Douglass opposed radical Republicans proposals to confiscate plantations and distribute the land to former slaves. Sandefur surmises that Douglass was too well versed in the history and theory of freedom not to know the importance of property rights. Douglass, says Sandefur, was not a conservative but a legatee of the classical liberalism of the American founding. His individualism was based on the virtue of self-reliance. He was not, Sandefur says, likely to be attracted to any doctrine that subordinated individual rights  whether free speech or property rights  to the interests of the collective.

Although Douglass entered the post-Civil War era asking only that blacks at last be left to fend for themselves, he knew that it is not fair play to start the Negro out in life, from nothing and with nothing. A 20th-century Southerner agreed. In 1965, President Lyndon Johnson said: You do not take a person who, for years, has been hobbled by chains and liberate him, bring him to the starting line of a race and then say, you are free to compete with all the others, and still justly believe that you have been completely fair. As Martin Luther King knew: In 1965, he met Alabama sharecroppers who, having been paid all their lives in plantation scrip, had never seen U.S. currency. Peonage had followed slavery in sharecropper society.

By the time of Douglass 1895 death, the nation was saturated with sinister sentimentality about the nobility of the Souths Lost Cause: The war had really been about constitutional niceties  states rights  not slavery. This, Sandefur says, was ludicrous.

Nevertheless, in the South, monuments to Confederate soldiers were erected and Confederate symbols were added to states flags. As an academic, Woodrow Wilson paid loving tribute to the virtues of the leaders of the secession, to the purity of their purposes. As president, he relished making The Birth of a Nation, a celebration of the Ku Klux Klan, the first movie shown in the White House.

Douglass died 30 years before 25,000 hooded Klansmen marched down Pennsylvania Avenue. That same year, Thurgood Marshall graduated from Baltimores Frederick Douglass High School, en route to winning Brown v. Board of Education. Douglass, not Wilson, won the American future.Carlsbad is world-renowned for a spectacular hole in the ground. But if lawmakers and the governor dont act quickly, it will be known for a very different kind of hole.

One nowhere near as nice to look at.

By all accounts, the Carlsbad brine well is a ticking time bomb that could result in serious damage to two state highways, an irrigation canal that feeds nearby farmland, an aquifer, a mobile home park and a church. Brine wells hold saltwater for oil and gas operations, and leave behind underground caverns. Two have already collapsed in remote areas.

A group tasked with coming up with a plan to address the problem, the Carlsbad Brine Well Remediation Advisory Authority, has figured out a multi-bill solution that targets $35 million from funding sources earmarked for such specific remediations. Yet a legislative panel and two of Gov. Susana Martinezs Cabinet secretaries are amazingly arguing it wouldnt be appropriate to use money from sources such as the oil and gas reclamation fund, state road fund, water trust fund and underground storage tank cleanup fund.

How is targeting state funds that are set aside for the specific mission of addressing these problems not appropriate?

Cabinet secretaries for the state Environment Department and the Department of Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources are urging senators to find other sources of money for the project. The Senate Conservation Committee voted 6-1 to reject the legislation, although some lawmakers did appear sympathetic to the situation.

What will they say when the well collapses and makes a Florida sinkhole look like a ditch?

The authority, meanwhile, is warning that without funding from the Legislature this year, the state may as well gear up for the estimated $750 million in direct damage that is likely to result from the collapse. It estimates the total impact of a collapse will be in the neighborhood of $1 billion.

Quibbling over whether funding for the fix should come from special state funds, severance tax money or another source is fine, so long as lawmakers and Gov. Susana Martinez recognize the dire situation and come up with a way to pay for the project before the legislative session ends Feb. 15.

Would the Legislature rather provide the $35 million now, or have to deal with the hundreds of millions of dollars in damage and potential loss of life that could result if this brine well collapses?

Those directly at risk are banking on an elaborate monitoring system the Oil Conservation Division has installed at the site. It is supposed to detect signs of a cave-in so that people in danger can be warned to evacuate before its too late. Talk about living on the edge.

But there is nothing to protect the aquifer from contamination or prevent two unusable highways. The impact goes far beyond those living in the vicinity.

In a perfect world, the oil and gas company that created the problem would shell out the cash to fix it. But that company is bankrupt, according to John Heaton, a former state lawmaker and chairman of the authority. He says that while Carlsbad and Eddy County are pitching in money to address the problem, the state is really the only entity that can provide the necessary funding.

And remember, its the state that allowed the well in the first place.

Going forward, the Legislature and state agencies that oversee oil and gas drilling should make sure current laws and regulations are sufficient to protect communities by requiring adequate bonding so that there are resources available to remediate these disasters. The NM Oil and Gas Association is supporting the bills that cobble together the funding, and it should support future measures to ensure not only that there is sufficient remediation funding, but also that such funding is used only as intended.

For now, however, the Legislature and governor need to focus on preventing the catastrophe thats about to happen. Because time, gravity and the brine well likely wont put things on hold until the next legislative session in Santa Fe.

This editorial first appeared in the Albuquerque Journal. It was written by members of the editorial board and is unsigned as it represents the opinion of the newspaper rather than the writers.Copyright  2018 Albuquerque Journal

Did Jeremiah Valencia  the 13-year-old Nambe boy who allegedly was tortured and beaten to death by his mothers boyfriend  fall through the cracks of the states education system?

It might appear so because he was no longer enrolled in school.

According to the West Las Vegas School District, Jeremiah and his younger sister were enrolled in that district in the fall of 2016 and were withdrawn by their mother in February 2017.

Santa Fe Public Schools says the mother, 35-year-old Tracy Ann Pena, who is also charged in the boys death, began the paperwork to enroll her children at Capshaw Middle School in Santa Fe in March 2017.

That date syncs with the time Pena and her boyfriend, Thomas Ferguson, reportedly moved from Las Vegas to a home in Nambe, according to their neighbors in Nambe and Fergusons probation documents. Nambe is in the Pojoaque Valley school district, but it doesnt appear Jeremiah or his sister were ever enrolled there.

And because the paperwork to enroll the children in Santa Fe was never completed, the two children were not enrolled there, either.

So they fell off everyones radar.

Had the children been enrolled in school, the district would have been responsible for investigating their whereabouts if they never showed up for class.

At Santa Fe Public Schools, for example, the districts policy is for school staff to make at least five attempts at making contact  phone calls, registered letters, or visits to the home  with the students parents or guardians. Records of contacts are kept on a software program called PowerSchool.

District spokesman Jeff Gephart said children who were enrolled in the school district the previous school year but dont show up on the 40-day count the next fall are reported to the Public Education Department as no shows. The students names go into a PED database accessible by other school districts.

What happens more often than not is we then receive a transfer request from the (other) district and that lets us know the student is moving to another school district, he said.

PED spokeswoman Lida Alikhani said PED uses the data provided by school districts only to identify districts that may benefit from a truancy or drop-out prevention program, to report the drop-out rates to the federal government, and to adjust enrollment numbers that determine district funding through the State Equalization Guarantee formula.

She said school districts or charter schools are responsible for reporting truant students during the school year to probation services offices of the judicial districts where the students reside.

But Jeremiah wasnt truant. He was transferring to another school district.

Christopher Gutierrez, superintendent at West Las Vegas Schools, said the district had no cause for alarm because it was told by the mother that her children were being transferred to Santa Fe.

But since they didnt end up enrolled in Santa Fe Public Schools, the Santa Fe district didnt have Penas children officially on their books this school year.

The two children had previously transferred from Santa Fe to Las Vegas.

Jeremiah was a Santa Fe student from 2009 to the spring semester of 2016, last attending Carlos Gilbert Elementary School but not enrolling in Santa Fe for subsequent seventh grade classes, according to the school district.

So whose fault was it that Jeremiah fell through the cracks?

SFPS Superintendent Veronica Garcia isnt pointing any fingers, but she does think its high time something is done to seal the cracks in the system intended to protect the states children.

This is the third time in recent years something like this has happened, she said, mentioning the cases of Omaree Varela in 2013 and Victoria Martens in 2016, two prior cases in Albuquerque of children falling through the cracks with brutal and fatal results.

Garcia, formerly secretary of the Public Education Department and executive director of Voices for Children, has a few ideas about what can be done.

We need to work in a collaborative effort to look at where holes are in the system, she said. It seems to me that we need a statewide collaborative effort with PED, the local school districts, the Department of Health, CYFD, and law enforcement and take a hard look at how we can make a more coordinated effort so theres a stronger safety net.

Garcia noted that it seems no one noticed Jeremiah was no longer attending school. She suggested a hotline for what she called educational neglect, where friends, family or neighbors could call in to report a child who is not attending school so the matter could be investigated.

Complicating matters, though, is the number of home-schooled students.

When you have a student that goes from being enrolled into home schooling, can a student at that point disappear off the state reporting? she asked.

Garcia said changes could be made by the Legislature to expand resources, but then theres the question of where the money comes from.

And, of course, the root causes of what leads to neglect need also be addressed.

This is a complex societal issue that I dont think is owned by any one sector, she said. We all own it. We all need to be responsible for our children.The University of New Mexico track & field team opened the New Mexico Classic with a number of solid marks on Friday as the Lobos hosted another talented field of athletes and teams at the Albuquerque Convention Center.

Sophomore Shannon Fritz cleared a personal-record 5 feet, 7  inches in the high jump for fifth place.

The women also earned a strong performance from Emily Martin, who placed fourth in the 3,000-meter run with a time of 10 minutes, 6.01 seconds. New Mexico State freshmen Jess Dominguez posted the top time for the Aggies as she finished in eighth with a new personal best (10:22.10). Julia Yescas also competed in the race, clocking in at 11:01.89 for 16th place.

On the mens side, Linton Taylor led a trio of Lobos in the mens 3,000, placing second overall in 8:30.69. Jared Garcia took fourth with a personal-record time of 8:34.83, with Jacob Simonsen finished 10th in 8:50.44.

The Lobos and Aggies return to action today for the second day of the New Mexico Classic. The meet resumes at 10 a.m. with the womens shot put, with action on track starting at 10:15 a.m.LAS CRUCES  In March of 2014, a group of Syndicato de Nuevo Mexico gang members orchestrated a deadly assault on an alleged fellow gang member at a state-run prison on the outskirts of Las Cruces, acting on orders from leaders being held hundreds of miles away at a separate prison in Santa Fe County.

Almost four years later, the slaying of 34-year-old Javier Molina is playing a central role in the federal racketeering trial of four purported SNM members: Anthony Ray Baca, an alleged SNM leader; Daniel Sanchez; Carlos Herrera; and Rudy Perez.

The four defendants have been charged with committing various acts of violent crime, including murder and assault, to aid SNM, which federal prosecutors allege operates as an organized criminal enterprise in prisons throughout New Mexico.

New details of Molinas death, including prison surveillance video that captured parts of the deadly attack, were presented Friday as the trial entered its fifth day in U.S. District Court in Las Cruces.

According to convicted murderer and longtime SNM member Javier Rubio, who testified Friday on behalf of the prosecution, paperwork came down on Molina in the summer of 2013 ordering his murder after he allegedly gave statements to law enforcement. Molina is alleged to have been an SNM member.

Snitching, or otherwise speaking with law enforcement about SNM activities, Rubio said, was strictly forbidden and punishable by death  one of several rules enforced by Baca, who allegedly rose to prominence in the gang to become a high-ranking leader.

Court records say the paperwork ordering the hit on Molina had come from SNM members being held at the Penitentary of New Mexico in Santa Fe County. Members were often moved back and forth between PNM and the Southern New Mexico Correctional Facility, near Las Cruces, and were able to communicate through a variety of means, including kites, or letters.

At that time, Rubio, Molina and the four defendants were being housed in adjacent pods at SNMCF. Jerry Armenta, Jerry Montoya, Timothy Martinez and Mario Rodriguez  all SNM members  also were being housed in the same pods.

But when Molinas death was ordered, Rubio said he didnt want anything to do with it.

I was done with SNM, he testified, adding that he is in process of renouncing his affiliation to SNM because he didnt agree with the gangs changing politics or the leadership from defendant Baca, whom he described as self-serving.

Rubio later admitted that he talked with defendant Herrera about the order, and said Herrera ultimately called for Molinas murder after the hit had been verified.

According to court records, the paperwork supporting the murder was then passed from Herrera to other SNM members at SNMCF.

Defendant Sanchez allegedly confirmed the order and decided who would carry out the murder, while defendant Perez allegedly provided the murder weapon: a piece of metal taken from his walker that was fashioned into an ice pick, or shank.

The murder was then carried out on March 7, 2014, in the Blue Pod at SNMCF.

Surveillance cameras in the pod captured the moments before and after the assault, which took place inside Molinas upper-level cell. The footage was shown to the jury on Friday morning.

In the video, Molina can be seen walking in and out of his cell, where he had been cooking Suboxone, according to an investigator who testified on Friday. Then, at one point, Molina enters his cell with Martinez and Rodriguez.

While there is no video from the inside of the cell, the investigator, Sgt. Antonio Palomares of New Mexico State Police, said Martinez and Rodriguez had followed Molina into his cell and choked him until he lost consciousness.

Then, Armenta and Montoya can be seen entering the cell, where they began to stab Molina. Martinez and Rodriguez then walk out of the cell, followed by Molina, who can be seen with blood on his shirt.

Armenta and Montoya exit the cell next and pursue Molina down the stairs, continuing their attack on him. Molina was stabbed more than 40 times in his chest and upper body. He died as a result of wounds to his heart and lungs, according to Sun-News archives.

At some point, Rodriguez picked up the shank, walked to the showers and allegedly disposed of the weapon.

Armenta, Montoya, Rodriguez and Martinez have since entered into plea bargains with federal prosecutors and have pleaded to guilty to charges related to Molinas death and other crimes associated with SNM activities in exchange for their testimony against the four defendants.

The defendants were were among dozens of known SNM members and associates who were indicted by a federal grand jury in December 2015 and April 2016 following the completion of an investigation into SNM activities called Operation Atonement.

This is the first trial in the case. It has been scheduled to last up to four weeks.



2018 the Las Cruces Sun-News (Las Cruces, N.M.)

Visit the Las Cruces Sun-News (Las Cruces, N.M.) at www.lcsun-news.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

_____People tour Auschwitz on the 73rd anniversary of the liberation of the camp, on January 27, 2018. Photo: SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

On Thursday Polands Senate passed a controversial bill that, if signed into law by President Andrzej Duda, will make it illegal to publicly accuse Poland or the Polish people of collaborating with Nazi Germany in the Holocaust. The bill imposes three years imprisonment as a punishment for describing the Nazi extermination camps established in Poland as Polish death camps, which most Poles consider an offensive slander, or otherwise claiming Polish complicity in these or other crimes against peace and humanity.

Historians of the Holocaust agree that calling Auschwitz, Sobibor, and Treblinka Polish mischaracterizes them, as Poland was not responsible for establishing the camps, but inaccuracy is not generally considered a sufficient reason in a free society to throw people in jail for several years. The bill supposedly exempts academic research and artistic expression, but will surely have a chilling effect on any honest discussion of history in both these fields.

The passage of the law, which Duda has 21 days to decide whether to sign, was met with outrage from political leaders in Israel, who denounced it as Holocaust denial. Washington also voiced displeasure with the law, with State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert saying the U.S. was concerned about the repercussions this draft legislation, if enacted, could have on Polands strategic interests and relationships.

It might have been worthwhile for President Donald Trump to mention these concerns on his visit to Warsaw last summer, when the legislation was already being discussed, or to express concern over the Polish governments ongoing assault on democratic norms in general  but alas, he did not.

Polands relationship with the Holocaust is complicated: Unlike other countries occupied by the Third Reich, Poland did not establish a collaborationist government in Warsaw, but rather was subject to direct and brutal control by Germany. At least 2.5 million non-Jewish Polish civilians and soldiers were killed by the Nazis and another 1.5 million were deported, according to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum  along with 3 million Polish Jews, or 90 percent of what had once been the largest Jewish community in Europe. Nazi racial theories considered the Poles an inferior race and the Nazi plan for the colonization of Eastern Europe called for the removal of 80 percent of the Polish population and the enslavement of those who remained.

Of course, anti-Semitism was not some foreign ideology imported to Poland by the Nazis in 1939. Many individual Poles participated in pogroms, assisted in turning Jews over to the Nazi authorities, and profited from blackmail and the plunder of Jewish property, while some Polish agencies were used in the management of ghettos and concentration camps. On the other hand, thousands of Poles are recognized by Yad Vashem, Israels official Holocaust memorial, as righteous among nations for their efforts to resist the Nazi occupation and rescue Jews from the Holocaust.

Because the country suffered tremendously under the Nazi occupation, Polish nationalists like the ruling Law and Justice Party have in recent years latched onto the idea that Poles should not be blamed in any way for the atrocities committed there by the Third Reich and insist that outlawing such blame is necessary to preserve the countrys reputation. Leveraging this historical revisionism as an expression of patriotism has proven popular as nationalist sentiment in Poland has surged, sweeping the Law and Justice Party into power in 2015.

A call to stop apologizing to the Jews for the Holocaust has become a rallying cry for a new generation of right-wing populists across Europe. In Polands case, that argument comes by way of saying there was never anything to apologize for at all. The Law and Justice Party is not officially anti-Semitic  Duda, whose wife is of Jewish heritage, lauded the contributions of Jews to Polands culture on a state visit to Israel last year  but many of its members and supporters periodically express anti-Semitic views and the nationalist ideology it espouses is in many ways inextricable from anti-Semitism. The tens of thousands of young right-wing nationalists and overt neo-fascists who marched on Warsaw last November calling for a purely white and Catholic Poland were described as a beautiful sight by the interior minister. Polish Jews have been worried about what the partys rise means for them since its victory in 2015, and the new Holocaust law will only exacerbate those fears.

Right-wing nationalist parties like Polands Law and Justice typically skirt accusations of anti-Semitism by voicing strong support for Israel, though this proves nothing, as Israel has always enjoyed the support of a certain kind of anti-Semite who figures that if the Jews are all over there, they wont be here. Furthermore, insofar as this support reflects the turning of European nationalist ire against Muslims instead of Jews, thats hardly a compliment to Israel.

Lest anyone doubt that old-fashioned Jew-hating is alive and well in Poland, Israels denunciation of the Holocaust law sparked a burst of anti-Semitic backlash this week, with the director of one state-run TV station, for example, claiming on air that the death camps should be described as Jewish, as Jews in the camps operated the crematoria that disposed of their fellow prisoners (under duress, of course). Rafal Pankowski, a Warsaw-based political scientist who monitors anti-Semitism as head of the Never Again association, told the Washington Post: Anti-Semitism is not a new phenomenon here, but were seeing an explosion of that sentiment in popular media.

Beyond the specific connotations of Holocaust revisionism, the Polish governments obsession with denying any Polish complicity in that crime is indicative of another theme common to the new wave of right-wing nationalists around the world: a compulsive desire to sanitize the past. In Europe, this means denying or downplaying collaboration with the Third Reich (or in Germany itself, casting off a sense of national responsibility for it). But this is by no means unique to Europe.

In Israel, it means banning Palestinians from marking the foundation of Israel as the Nakba (catastrophe), while in India, it means censoring books, films, and art and rewriting school textbooks to reflect Hindu-nationalist myths. Indeed, we see the same impulse among right-wingers in the U.S. today, in their efforts to rehabilitate the Confederacy, downplay the horrors of slavery, and deny the present reality of racial injustice that is its legacy.

As George Orwell wrote in his Notes on Nationalism in 1945: The nationalist not only does not disapprove of atrocities committed by his own side, but he has a remarkable capacity for not even hearing about them. More than seven decades later, this observation rings as true as ever.Copyright  2018 Albuquerque Journal

SANTA FE  A House committee on Saturday narrowly rejected a proposal that would have required parental notification before a minor could get an abortion in New Mexico.

The panel also blocked a measure that sought to reinstate the death penalty in some circumstances  a priority of Republican Gov. Susana Martinez.

Both bills fell on 3-2 votes, with Democrats opposed to the legislation voting to table the proposals.

The action came in an emotional, four-hour hearing before the House Consumer and Public Affairs Committee.

Dozens of people on both sides of the abortion debate turned out to testify.

Supporters of the parental notification law raised the possibility that girls abused by adult men would be pressured to get an abortion without a parents knowledge. And they said middle school-age children, in particular, arent equipped to make serious medical decisions.

Opponents, in turn, said teenagers may turn to unsafe abortion options if theyre forced to tell a parent, especially if they dont have a safe family situation. And the state shouldnt legislate family communication, they said.

Let us give the best care, said Dr. Sandra Penn, a physician for more than 30 years. The Legislature is not the best place to make individual medical decisions.

Republicans blasted Democrats for rejecting the bills, suggesting they couldnt get a fair hearing in what one called the killing committee for House legislation.

Regardless of how anyone feels about abortion, New Mexico should prioritize our childrens safety and the need for more, not less, parental involvement, said Rep. Ricky Little, a Chaparral Republican and co-sponsor of the legislation.

House Bill 56 would require notifying a parent or guardian at least 48 hours before an abortion is performed on a minor. There would be exceptions if the physician believed the pregnancy was a result of rape or incest. The doctor would also have to notify the state Children, Youth and Families Department of the potential abuse or neglect.

A minor could also file a petition in court to waive the notification requirement.

Opponents described the exceptions as impractical and time-consuming.

There is a mountain of evidence that the so-called judicial bypass option in this bill has been shown to be inefficient, daunting and emotionally damaging, said Erin Armstrong, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico and the daughter of Rep. Deborah Armstrong, D-Albuquerque.

The bill was co-sponsored by Little and Republicans Reps. Rod Montoya of Farmington and David Gallegos of Eunice.

This is a human rights bill, Montoya said. These girls deserve to be protected, and not protecting them  not protecting them  is a dereliction of duty.

The committee also rejected a proposal to reinstate the death penalty. House Bill 155 was co-sponsored by Republican Reps. Monica Youngblood of Albuquerque and Greg Nibert of Roswell.

The measure would have allowed the death penalty for adults who kill children, law enforcement officers or corrections workers.

The committee voted 3-2 to table both bills  a procedure that keeps them from advancing further, unless committee members reconsider.

Voting to table in both cases were Democrats Eliseo Alcon of Milan, Deborah Armstrong of Albuquerque and Patricia Roybal Caballero of Albuquerque.

Against the tabling motions were Republican Reps. Youngblood and Bob Wooley of Roswell.MILAN  An Italian gunman with extreme right-wing sympathies shot and wounded six African immigrants Saturday in a two-hour drive-by shooting spree, authorities said, terrorizing a small Italian city where a Nigerian man had been arrested days earlier in a teenagers gruesome killing.

Police photos showed the shooting suspect with a neo-Nazi tattoo prominently on his forehead as he sat in custody and an Italian flag tied around his neck as he was arrested in the central Italian city of Macerata,. Authorities identified him as Luca Traini, a 28-year-old Italian with no previous record.

Traini had run for town council on the anti-migrant Northern Leagues list in a local election last year in Corridonia, the party confirmed, but its mayoral candidate lost the race. The news agency ANSA quoted friends of his as saying that Traini had previously been affiliated with Italian extremist parties like the neo-fascist Forza Nuova and CasaPound.

The shooting spree came days after the slaying of 18-year-old Pamela Mastropietro and amid a heated electoral campaign in Italy where anti-foreigner sentiment has become a key theme. Italy has struggled with the arrival of hundreds of thousands of migrants in the last few years coming across the Mediterranean Sea in smugglers boats.

After the attack, Premier Paolo Gentiloni warned in Rome that the state will be particularly severe against whoever thinks of feeding the spiral of violence.

In Macerata, Interior Minister Marco Minniti said the gunman had been motivated by racial hatred, and had a background of right-wing extremism with clear references to fascism and Nazism.

What happened appears to be a completely random armed retaliation raid, Minniti said, adding that evidence indicated that while the gunman had planned the attack, he had acted alone. In a democracy, it is not permitted for individuals to seek justice alone, even if in this case, there is nothing that recalls a notion of justice.

Authorities said the six wounded  five men and one woman  appeared to be random targets in various parts of the city of 43,000 in Italys central Marche region. Italian news reports indicated that the gunmans trajectory included the area where the Italian murder victim was found and where the prime suspect in her slaying lived.

The identities and nationalities of the shooting victims remained unknown. Hospital officials said late Saturday that one had been treated and released, while the others had either undergone surgery or were facing operations for their injuries. One of them remained in intensive care.

As the violent attack unfolded, police told residents to stay inside and ordered a halt to public transport to limit the casualties. Such violent shootings are rare in Italy, and usually associated with the southern Italian mafia.

A video posted by the il Resto di Carlino newspaper showed the suspect with an Italian flag draped over his shoulders being arrested by armed Carabinieri officers in the city center, near where he apparently fled his car on foot. Italian news reports said a registered gun was found inside the car and the suspect did a fascist salute as he was arrested, but no salute was visible in the video.

The tattoo on Trainis forehead was that of the Wolfangel, an ancient runic symbol that according to the Anti-Defamation League was appropriated by Nazi Germany and later adopted by neo-Nazis in Europe and the United States.

Macerata Mayor Romano Carancini confirmed that all six victims were black Africans.

They were all of color, this is obviously a grave fact. As was grave what happened to Pamela. The closeness of the two events makes you imagine there could be a connection, Carancini said.

Mastropietros dismembered remains were found Wednesday in two suitcases two days after she walked away from a drug rehab community. A judge on Saturday confirmed the arrest of the main suspect, identified as 29-year-old Innocent Oseghale.

Italy is heading into a general election on March 4 and the head of the rebranded League party, Matteo Salvini, had capitalized on the teens killing in campaign appearances even before the shooting Saturday.

Salvini is pledging to deport 150,000 migrants in his first year in office if his party wins control of parliament and he is named premier. That has drawn sharp rebukes that Salvini is using the migrant crisis to foment xenophobia for political gain.

Salvinis League, which dropped northern from its name in a bid for a national following, has joined a center-right coalition with Silvio Berlusconis Forza Italia and Giorgia Melonis much smaller Brothers of Italy. They are running against Matteo Renzis much-splintered center-left Democratic Party and the populist 5-Star Movement.

Salvini told reporters Saturday at a campaign stop in Bologna that he would bring security to Italy.

Whoever shoots is a delinquent, no matter the skin color. It is clear that out-of-control immigration  brings social conflict, he said.

Senate president Pietro Grasso of the small liberal party Free and Equal chastised Salvini for using the tragedies to gain votes.

Whoever, like Salvini, exploits news events and tragedies for electoral purposes is among those responsible for the spiral of hatred and violence that we must stop as soon as possible, Grasso said.Would you like to receive breaking news notifications from The Post and Courier?

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Please enable notifications in your browser and reload the page.The future of the Savannah River Site is "very bright," according to U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry, who toured the Site on Thursday and Friday.

That future, Perry said, includes new and different missions at SRS. He said he's been working with U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., to introduce just that.

"We talked about expanding the mission, if you will," Perry said. "Sen. Graham and I are talking about a number of ways in which to do that."

Graham said "the president chose wisely" when he nominated the former Texas governor to the U.S. Department of Energy helm.

"He's not a status-quo guy," Graham said of Perry. "I want to do with energy what we did with taxes."

On Friday, during a Perry-hosted SRS employee town hall at the Savannah River National Laboratory, the energy secretary said SRS has always been nationally vital.

"Being able to be on site, to really be able to understand  that's powerful stuff," Perry said.

Keeping SRS healthy, though, he continued, requires some forward-looking considerations  not just Cold War nostalgia.

Perry said there are a number of projects "coming up." He mentioned the ash basin project first, a long-term task that aims to clean up and consolidate decades of coal ash and contaminated soil into a synthetically capped, environmentally remediated mound. The DOE estimates 400,000 cubic yards of ash will be consolidated by project end.

Perry's plutonium pit perspective

Perry also said President Donald Trump is "committed" to the "modernization of our nuclear fleet."

That modernization requires plutonium pits. Plutonium pits, often referred to as nuclear weapon triggers or cores, haven't been produced since 2011. The National Nuclear Security Administration  a semiautonomous agency in charge of nuclear nonproliferation and the upkeep of the nation's nuclear arsenal  wants to change that.

Aiken City Council supports prospective nuclear weapons mission at SRS During a regularly scheduled Aiken City Council meeting Jan. 8, the Council approved a resolution "supporting and encouraging" the DOE and NNS

The grapefruit-sized pits were exclusively produced at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. Prior to that, pits were produced at the now-disgraced Rocky Flats Plant outside of Denver.

The National Nuclear Security Administration, in leaked documents, has stated interest in moving pit production to SRS. Doing so would cost billions  a maximum of $5.4 billion  and would take at least seven years. Reworking Los Alamos for ramped-up and future pit production would cost upward of $7.5 billion, according to the NNSA.

The cities of Aiken, North Augusta and New Ellenton have all sponsored local pit production. Aiken County has, too. As have the Savannah River Site Community Reuse Organization and the South Carolina Governor's Nuclear Advisory Council.

Perry said discussion about relocating pit production is healthy. So is the widespread support.

"I know there's conversations about it occurring here," Perry said. "Those are good conversations."

At conservative estimate, pit production at SRS would bring 800 perpetual jobs. If nuclear deterrents are needed, so are pits.

Halfway through his speech, Perry said Trump personally charged him with updating American nuclear armaments.

"He said, 'I want to make sure we have the most modern, up-to-date nuclear program in the world,'" Perry said. "And it will be because of people like you that that occurs."

The energy secretary said the "potential growth" at SRS and the national lab is "substantial." He said he has worked with U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., and Graham to figure out what projects best suit the South Carolina nuclear anchor: "What are the things they do and do well?" Perry said, describing his SRS-centric thought process.

SRS, SRNL maturation

SRNL growth could be spurred by a potential spent nuclear fuel repatriation project the DOE has given the environmental go-ahead. That mission would require at least $50 million and four years of facilities and technology upgrades at the Site. An SRS spokesperson has previously said that sort of investment means more jobs.

Last year, the DOE issued a statement that said in-limbo plans to bring 900 kilograms of highly enriched uranium across the Atlantic Ocean, past Charleston and into SRS for processing would have little effect on the resources in and around the mission.

The nuclear material was sent to Germany for research and education purposes under the Atoms for Peace program.

S.C. governor's nuclear advisors support SRS pit production, German fuel repatriation The South Carolina governor's nuclear advisory team has formalized its support for both bringing plutonium pit production to the Savannah Rive

Once the 900 kilograms of highly enriched uranium, all of which is embedded in graphite spheres, reaches SRS, the material needs to be processed. DOE documents specifically mention H-Canyon, a hardened nuclear separations plant at SRS, as the best destination.

"German fuel reprocessing," Perry said, "there's some really interesting things we could do together."

S.C. Gov. Henry McMaster's nuclear advisory council supports the spent nuclear fuel take-back. The NNSA has expressed interest because it falls under its nonproliferation directive.

SRS has "potential" beyond cleanup and environmental management missions given the workforce's intellect, Perry said. SRS is an ongoing cleanup site that DOE Environmental Management is actively involved with.U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., believes the in-progress Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility would not be repurposed if plutonium pit production was relocated to the Savannah River Site.

"I am confident it would be complementary," Wilson said in an interview following a speech given by U.S. Secretary of Energy Rick Perry. "One is not to replace the other."

Wilson said he will continue to "promote" MOX  a cost-bloated, federally frictional Savannah River Site project that was approved more than a decade ago  because it's the right thing to do.

"It's what's right for the American people," Wilson said.

Once MOX is complete, the facility would be used to turn weapons-grade plutonium into commercial reactor fuel. That process has been popular in some European countries for half a century.

"We've had a MOX facility in France for 60 years," Wilson said. "Certainly we can do as well as our friends in France."

NNSA analysis of alternatives The National Nuclear Security Administration studied locations for possible plutonium pit production and issued this document in November 2017.

National Nuclear Security Administration documents from 2017 state MOX could be "refurbished" and used for plutonium pit production: a direct conflict with Wilson's perspective.

Plutonium pits are vital to nuclear weapon detonation. No pits have been produced since 2011.

The NNSA wants 80 pits to be produced yearly by 2030, according to the same NNSA documents. Perry confirmed that figure Friday.

Hitting 80 pits-per-year requires a new production location  at SRS, for example  or fixing New Mexico's Los Alamos National Laboratory, where pits have historically been made.

Local governments  Aiken, North Augusta and New Ellenton  formally announced support for SRS pit production this year. Other community and advisory agencies have, as well. Aiken's resolution of support explicitly states pit production will not replace MOX.

The same goes for the Savannah River Site Community Reuse Organization's resolution.

Wilson said MOX is more than two-thirds complete. That figure has been corroborated by SRS experts and MOX personnel in the past. Other completion figures have been floated: 30 percent, for example.

"There has been so much misinformation provided," Wilson said of non-70 numbers, which he has described as frustrating.

Updated performance baseline for MOX The U.S. Department of Energy Office of Project Management Oversight and Assessments issued this MOX progress report in 2016.

A 2016 study conducted by the U.S. Department of Energy lists MOX completion around 2048. Contractors consulted for that same study expected completion by 2029.

When Wilson visited Aiken County last month, he said he wanted "to finish MOX."

Wilson said he was grateful that Perry had the chance to explore SRS as a whole on Thursday and Friday. The congressman also said he is sure Perry knows MOX is "indeed almost 70 percent completed."

U.S. Rep. Rick Allen, R-Ga., who accompanied Wilson to Perry's Friday speech, hinted that regulations have strangled MOX. He then referenced President Donald Trump's deregulation agenda.

"He said, the other night, 'The biggest problem we have in this country is it takes us longer to do things, and by the time we get it planned and built, the technology is already out of date,'" Allen said.

"I'm pretty excited about how we're going to be able to move this thing quickly," he added, referencing Perry.While the government is planning to take out cryptocurrencies, taxmen are planning to levy taxes on the benefits collected from them. A few lakh tax notices have been sent to individuals who have invested in bitcoins. The Income Tax Department is working to obtain due taxes on these investments, said CBDT Chairman Sushil Chandra.

The head of Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) told PTI that the Department came to know of cases where Bitcoin investors did not pay advance tax on gains from their investment, or did not mention these investments in their previous tax returns. These cases number in a few lakhs, the CBDT boss said.

"We have issued notices (to investors) and they (many of them) have agreed to pay taxes. We will definitely take taxes as far as the money is concerned which is invested (in bitcoins trade) and is unexplained," Chandra said.

The I-T Department had conducted survey operations at bitcoin exchanges across India in December last year under provisions of Income Tax Act. These surveys were to ascertain the identity of traders and investors involved, transactions made between them, the bank accounts used for this, among others.

The decision to exact taxes on Bicoin investments comes at the heels of the Budget speech by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley where he said bitcoins and all other cryptocurrencies are illegal. The Minister said that the all measures will be taken to eliminate use of cryptocurrencies used in illegal as well as payment practices.

"The government does not consider crypto-currencies legal tender or coin and will take all measures to eliminate use of these crypto-assets in financing illegitimate activities or as part of the payment system," he said.

Jaitley, however, did agree to explore the blockchain technology to give a leg-up to digital economy, an ambitious project of the Modi government. Distributed ledger system or blockchain technology allows organisation of any chain of records or transactions without the need of intermediaries, he said in his Budget speech.

The government in December cautioned investors to be wary of virtual currencies like bitcoin, saying they are like Ponzi schemes with no legal tender and protection.

Meanwhile, experts advised government to regulate cryptocurrencies instead of banning them. "While there could be several risks associated with crypto currencies, the fundamentals of the underlying blockchain technology or distributed ledger system is strong. Blockchain technology will find many good use-cases not only in private businesses but also in governance," Anshuman Verma, CEO of M1L and The Invention Factory was quoted by PTI.The Sochi summit that took place at the end of January was designed to underline the successful achievements of Russias involvement in Syria and to consolidate the partnership among Russia, Turkey and Iran. However, the summit revealed the limitations of Russia's Syria policy instead of Moscows growing influence across the Middle East.

The Russian propaganda machine painted a rosy picture by emphasizing that more than 1,500 Syrians participated in the summit to rebuild their country. However, these efforts couldnt conceal that the Syrian Kurds, outraged by Turkeys Afrin operation, boycotted the meeting.

Not only was the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) absent from Sochi, but also absent was its main rival, the Kurdish National Council  a pro-Massoud Barzani alliance recognized by Turkey. Hamid Darwish, a historic figure of the Syrian Kurds, also declined to go to Sochi because of Turkeys military operation. More interestingly, Abdel Basset Sieda, the former chairman of the Syrian National Council that Turkey formed and supported, not only refused to go to Sochi but also resigned from the Turkey-backed Syrian group.

In sum, there was no real Syrian Kurdish representation in Sochi. The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which control a sizable swath of Syrian territory, were not in Sochi either.

There have been disagreements among the participants of the summit as well. For example, 83 delegates from the Syrian opposition unexpectedly refused to sit down for talks under the official Syrian flag. They kept 1,511 other participants waiting for several hours on Jan. 30 and finally boarded the plane and flew back to Turkey.

The opening ceremony has been untypically chaotic for a meeting organized by Russia. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrovs speech was interrupted several times by members of the audience shouting slogans.

Thus, the Sochi meeting was crippled from the very beginning because of Turkeys military operation in Afrin and the alienation of the Kurds.

The Sochi meeting was crippled from the very beginning because of Turkeys military operation in Afrin and the alienation of the Kurds.

Nonetheless, Russia pushed forward  at the end of deliberations, a communique that the Russian media titled Syrian Congress in Sochi brings war-torn country closer to constitutional reform was adopted.

Russian President Vladimir Putin had a telephone conversation with the president of the Republic of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.  The leaders stressed the importance of implementing the reached agreements aimed at the effective promotion of the Syrian political settlement process on the basis of UN Security Council Resolution 2254. Putin and Erdogan also discussed Russia-Turkey coordination to ensure stable operation of de-escalation zones in Syria and interaction in the Astana format, reported Sputnik news.

UN Security Council Resolution 2254, which envisaged a Syrian-led and Syrian-owned political transition in order to end the conflict in Syria, was to be realized in 18 months, but is long overdue.

Indeed, the last part of the Sochi communique was a display of this helplessness.

We agreed to form a constitutional committee comprising the Government of the Syrian Arab Republic delegation along with a wide-represented opposition delegation for the drafting of a constitutional reform as a contribution to the political settlement under the UN auspices in accordance with Security Council Resolution 2254.  We appeal to the United Nations secretary-general to assign the Special Envoy for Syria for the assistance of the Constitutional Committee work in Geneva, the communique said.

Having decided on forming a constitutional committee comprising the regime in Damascus and an undefined but widely represented opposition delegation is only going back to square one: Geneva.

Paradoxically, the Sochi summit also revealed the impotence of Russia as the main arbiter of the Syrian conflict. The Turco-Russian alliance that led the Astana process did not complement Geneva but in a way was aimed to replace it.

With a Russia that has become a formidable rival to the United States in the Syrian theater, with a Turkey outraged by Washingtons support for the adversarial Syrian Kurdish Peoples Protection Units (YPG), and with Iran seen as a hostile element by the Donald Trump administration, Geneva is becoming increasingly irrelevant to resolving the Syrian conflict.

Sochi, by the last paragraphs of its communique, passes the ball to Geneva and implicitly declares the limitations of Russia in Syria.

Indeed, Turkey was quick to endorse the outcome of Sochi and link it to Geneva.

Turkey has acted in a constructive manner about the Russian Federations Syrian National Dialogue Congress initiative from the beginning," read a Turkish Foreign Ministry statement. "The most important outcome of the congress was the call for the establishment of a Constitutional Committee and the selection of a pool of 150 candidates for this committee. The Turkish delegation, which was given the mandate to represent opposition groups that didnt attend the congress, submitted a list of 50 candidates in consultation with the opposition. The establishment process of the Constitutional Committee will be closely monitored by Turkey as the guarantor of the opposition.

Thanks to its control over the Syrian opposition, Turkey definitely will have leverage in shaping the future steps of the resolution process. However, its military operation in Afrin and its ever-widening chasm with Washington are making Ankara more reliant on Moscow. The latest standoff in Idlib revealed this. The Idlib rift also implies how difficult it would be for Moscow to reconcile the differences among its partners in Syria.

If Turkeys Afrin operation drags on with high civilian casualties that can't be concealed from the attention of the international public for long, the endorsement of Ankara could turn out to be a liability rather than an asset for those actors in the Syrian theater.

Moreover, if Turkey doesn't or can't deliver the Syrian opposition in Idlib to its detractors, freewheeling in Afrin could be jeopardized.

We continue to monitor the developments in northern Syria, which are a matter of grave concern, said Maria Zakharova, spokeswoman of the Russian Foreign Ministry, in an apparent change of tone that might be an indication of Russias position shift.

Putin is getting ready for March elections, and Erdogan could call for early elections this coming summer. The partnership between the two men and the seemingly converging interests of the two countries constitute a strong connection to the domestic political calculations of both strongmen.

They may not survive the year 2018.

In the Levant, no shifting alliances and partnerships should be surprising. Everything is possible. Nothing is impossible.Idlib province was designated one of four de-escalation zones during negotiations last year aimed at ending the Syrian civil war. But two contradictory developments are taking place there.

For a deconfliction zone, it's quite conflicted.

In one development, opposition groups that Turkey actively supports are fighting to keep the Syrian army from moving inward, from north of Hama and south of Aleppo. In the other development, as part of a plan to lower tensions by deploying military observers, Turkey is trying to position itself as a barrier between the Syrian army and opposition groups. In other words, Ankara is provoking fights but also trying to lower tensions.

There's a lot of confusion. If Turkey is coordinating with Russia, why is the Syrian army trying to keep Turkey from deploying troops? Isnt there an accord between Damascus and Moscow? Or is Turkey choosing to interpret the deconfliction zone plans according to its own interests?

While the focus was on the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) Afrin operation, Turkey made a second move, at Idlib. The whole thing would have gone virtually unnoticed by the rest of the world had Turkey's military column not been attacked.

First, on Jan. 24, a six-vehicle TSK reconnaissance team checked out Tel al-Ais, southwest of Aleppo. On the night of Jan. 29, a 100-vehicle convoy that included 15 transporters loaded with tanks entered Idlib and then moved toward Tel al-Ais.

The Turkish column had entered Idlib after reaching an agreement with the dominant Islamist coalition, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS). But the forces had to halt between Al Tawam and Kafr Kermin when they detected shelling ahead on their route. According to the Syrian Human Rights Observatory, the Syrian army and other pro-regime forces based at Hazir shelled the Kammari area with artillery and rockets to prevent the Turkish column from advancing. Two Turkish jets entered Syrian airspace to protect the Turkish column but left without any engagements.

The Turkish column pulled back to Kafr Kermin to spend the night. It resumed its movement about 10 hours later but was attacked with an explosive-packed vehicle at the entrance of Atarib. The TSK said a civilian was killed and a soldier and a civilian technician were wounded. The TSK blames the attack on the Kurdistan Workers Party, which Turkey considers a terrorist group.

Sheikh Abdullah al-Muhaysini, a Saudi-born leader of the jihadist movement in Syria, accused his own wing, saying, A Turkish convoy enters the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham-controlled area as a result of an agreement. Then [HTS] attacks that convoy with a bomb-laden vehicle. Such a despicable action can only be carried out by those bereft of religion and ethics.

This attack coincided with Russia's Syrian National Dialogue Congress in Sochi on Jan. 29-30. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called Russian President Vladimir Putin and they agreed to intensify efforts to set up observation posts in Idlib.

On Jan. 31, there were unconfirmed reports of the Turkish military convoy moving again. The Syrian army does not appear to be guided by the Putin-Erdogan accord, as it continued to pound the positions of opposition forces. As of Feb. 1, the Syrian army had reached to within 16 kilometers (10 miles) of its primary target at Serakib and 30 kilometers (18 miles) of the besieged Shiite towns of Fua and Kefraya.

An agreement reached during peace negotiations last year in Astana, Kazakhstan, divides Idlib into three areas: The first one, east of the railroad, will be cleared of armed groups and put under Russian supervision as a demilitarized zone. Civilian administration here will be by local councils. West of the railroad will be under Turkish observation. The area between a major highway and Turkish border will also be under Turkish control. Groups supported by Turkey will settle in the third area until a political settlement is reached. The midsection between the railroad and the highway is called the second area. Al-Qaeda-linked HTS  which is not participating in the cease-fire  will be confined to this part.

Since Dec. 26, the Syrian army has effectively gained control of the first area by entering at least 120 settlements along the Aleppo-Damascus international highway. (There is, however, a part where the Islamic State is reorganizing.) Opposition forces say this is a crude violation of the Astana agreement.

Armed groups apart from HTS initiated an operation Jan. 11 to recover some of the area lost to the Syrian army. There was a crescendo of accusations that Turkey was playing a double game when it became known that the opposition groups were using armored vehicles supplied by Turkey about five months ago. Many groups that participated in Turkeys Afrin operation, some of which are affiliated with al-Qaeda and the Taliban, also took part in this new offensive.

Turkey's support of this operation could be interpreted as Ankara forcing Damascus to heed the Astana process, as well as Ankaras intention to keep playing the double game with these groups. If Afrin falls, it will give these groups considerably more room to maneuver. This is the way many people read Turkeys intention of deploying at Tel al-Ais.

Tel al-Ais is part of another de-escalation zone, east of the Damascus-Aleppo highway. If reports are accurate, Turkey would be violating the Astana agreement.

Tel al-Ais is about 1 kilometer from Hazir, where the Syrian army and its allies had made a forward base toward Serakib and Fua-Kefraya. Tel al-Ais is an important area of the Damascus-Aleppo M5 international highway. The critical question now is, if Turkish troops are deployed at Tel al-Ais, will the Syrian army give up its objectives of reaching Fua and Kefraya and clearing the highway of hostile elements? The desire of the Iranian troops accompanying the Syrian army to break the sieges of Fua and Kefraya make it unlikely they would stop.

The Syrian regime wants to open the Aleppo highway and has been trying to capture Tel al-Ais for the past two years. The highway, which reaches Aleppo via Dara, Damascus, Homs and Hama, is still beyond the army's control at Han Seyhun, Maarat al-Numan and Serakib. This broken line also marks the boundaries of the third area allotted to Turkey. The highway was cut at the rural terrain of Hama, but that was recently cleared. The highway is also threatened by armed groups around Harasta in the rural periphery of Damascus.

Sources close to the Syrian regime fear the road will now be dominated by the Turkish army.If you have been holding out for Hulus Live TV option to become available in Android TV app form, you can stop waiting. As it is not likely to be arriving anytime soon, if ever. For those who have been waiting its now time to move on and start using one of the alternatives such as DIRECTV NOW, PlayStation Vue, Sling TV and/or YouTube TV.

Hulus SVP of Experience, Ben Smith, held a company AMA this week on Reddit and it was here that Smith confirmed Android TV support is not in the pipeline, after being pressed on the topic by some redditors. While Smith did make it clear that Hulu is constantly evaluating the situation, Smith started the response with we dont have current plans to support Android TV. Essentially confirming not only Android TV support should not be expected soon, but it is highly unlikely Hulu is even actively working on support at the moment. Interestingly, Smith did provide two reasons as to why support for Android TV is not currently on the agenda. The first reason was due to the apparent lack of users on the Android TV platform. Smith did qualify this statement by specifically referencing the number of Hulu viewers on Android TV, although it is unclear what, if any difference, exists between the two. For example, whether Smith is referring to the current number of active Hulu users on the platform, or what it sees as the potential number of users available through the platform. For reference, the Google Play Store listing for the Android TV-optimized Hulu app currently shows it has been installed somewhere between 500,000 and 1,000,000 times. So regardless of anything else, there are Hulu users on Android TV.

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The second reason Smith gave for the lack of Hulu support is technical complexity of supporting the platform. After some redditors suggested that it was mind boggling how Hulu does not support Android TV and that the reasoning given doesnt pass the smell test Smith offered a slightly greater level of insight into the complexity issue by stating the problem was the device matrix that we have to support for continuous integration testing. A device matrix is something app developers often reference when trying to limit the likelihood of bugs and issues being present due to differences between device hardware. For example, Android mobile is likely to require a much greater device matrix compared to iOS simply due to the hundreds (more accurately, thousands) of different models compared to the small selection of iOS handsets. The age-old fragmentation problem. Therefore, based on the comments made by Smith it seems Hulu is not too impressed with what it sees as a fragmented Android TV hardware market. Which is somewhat ironic considering most Android TV users consider the platform to be in dire need of more hardware options. In either case, and taken on face value, and while Smith suggests it is a combination of the two, it could be argued that the latter reason (perceived variation of hardware) is likely to be the true (or at least, leading) cause of why Hulus Live TV is not likely to be coming to Android TV. As taking away the hardware fragmentation issue for a moment, there would be little reason for Hulu to not release a dedicated Live TV app for Android TV. While the user count might be low, it is still a count and one that is likely to grow if the options were available. So there would be reasons to release the app if there were no hardware limitations or issues involved.

What is abundantly clear, however, if app developers take a stance such as where they view the Android TV hardware market as too much effort to service, the platform is unlikely to grow at the rate it should. Platforms like Android TV require apps to be invested in, as without them there is no platform. So while it might be understandable that Hulu is not keen on the work involved, and even something which may lead to a lesser experience on some (non-tested) devices, these are things that can be remedied after the fact. Android TV users have already grown accustomed to these situations and will be willing to accommodate if they were to see app developers actively supporting the platform. YouTube TV is a example. Not only did Google beta test the app in a limited number of locations at first, but has released it on a limited Android TV device basis as well. For instance, it is no secret that Xiaomis Mi Box is suffering with compatibility issues with YouTube TV and while it is not great for Mi Box owners, it is not something which stops owners of an NVIDIA SHIELD, the Nexus Player, or one of the many TV sets powered by Android TV, from experiencing YouTubes live TV service. That commitment to support is what would solve both of Hulus issues with the platform, as developers who support the platform are likely to see support from the platform in return.With Googles Home Max now officially released, Google has taken to its official blog to provide further insight into what went into making the smart speakers via an interview with Googler Frances Kwee. As an acoustics engineer, Kwee was responsible for designing the sound system inside of Google Home Max. Thats obviously a role of vital importance when the subject at hand is a high-end A.I.-assisted speaker. Her job was to ensure that the speaker performed in combination to create a high-quality output at high volume while minimizing distortion and other anomalies. That meant designing, testing, and redesigning every aspect, from speaker grills to software.

According to Kwee, Max was primarily designed in a specialized sound lab  an anechoic chamber  at the Googleplex but the sound wasnt necessarily optimized for that environment. Although the environment was used to fine-tune the overall quality of sound output, that kind of environment is not conducive to understanding how well the speakers would work in the real world. One of Kwees main goals was to create a speaker system that would adapt itself to its surroundings and position within a room while taking acoustics of a given room into account as well. Since there really isnt any way to accomplish testing for every scenario, Kwee and her team used software to emulate different environments and then took things even further through machine learning. They effectively taught Home Max by example to recognize its surroundings through its microphones and to adjust its sound output accordingly, in search of the optimal sound. However, as alluded to above, Kwees task was a challenge before the company even hit that point in development. To begin with, the acoustics engineer needed to determine the right speaker technologies to use and then the right covers and grills for those speakers. Kwee says that to accomplish the perfect sound, a 3D printer was used to generate on-the-fly prototypes of the speakers buckets and grills  resulting in hundreds of prototypes before a final design was achieved.

However, Kwee also took the opportunity to discuss what drives her in her work and to offer some advice to aspiring women in technical fields. The primary question she finds herself stepping back to ask, according to Kwee, is how a family can benefit from the product she is designing. Even more importantly, she continues, is how a family  which may include members who are intimidated by technology  can best be served by what she is working on. That forward-thinking and inclusive mentality, Kwee reveals, is something that was inspired by her own mother, who immigrated from Indonesia to Canada after high school and obtained a chemical engineering degree in 1975. As for the advice, Kwee says that women need to make a choice to work on the truly hard projects. Those projects present the biggest challenge and represent the greatest risk, but are entirely rewarding.The U.S. carrier editions of Samsungs Galaxy S8 Active may be getting Android 8.0 (Oreo) sooner than expected following a new sighting of the devices on the Wi-Fi Alliance website. More specifically, the new listings show a Samsung Galaxy S8 Active for Sprint, T-Mobile, and AT&T  which are sold under the model numbers SM-G892U and SMG892A, respectively. Both newly certified devices hit the site as of January 2 and, among other Wi-Fi radio-related information, show the new operating system to be Android, version:8.0.

Unfortunately, theres nothing there to provide any details about exactly when the hyper-ruggedized variation of Samsungs Galaxy S8 will be getting that update. Reports had previously speculated that it would still be several months before Android Oreo hits the Galaxy S8 Active. Moreover, the carriers in question could still need to perform their perfunctory software alterations. So, as is often the case with these kinds of reports, it bears repeating that theres no guarantee that this certification will lead to that update arriving any faster than expected. However, it is worth pointing out that after months of beta testing, the other members of the Samsung Galaxy S8 family  namely the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8 Plus  are expected to receive an update before the end of this month. Thats expected to include the companys Android overlay, Samsung Experience 9.0, which is, of course, built on top of Android Oreo.

With that said, while the Galaxy S8 Active has been left out of the tests so far, it is worth noting that the internal specifications and software environment is effectively identical to those other devices. For those who may not recall, the primary difference between the devices is that the Galaxy S8 Active was designed for durability. Aside from IP68 certification for dust and waterproofing  in addition to military-grade salt, humidity, vibration, radiation, and thermal shock resistance  it effectively is a Galaxy S8. So, it may be reasonable to suspect that this new certification means that it will receive the same update at the same time. Bearing that in mind, and as already mentioned, all of that is speculative until either the updates start rolling out or Samsung makes an official announcement.According to its CEO, Marcelo Claure, Sprint has promised to offer nationwide 5G coverage in the first half of 2019. During its earnings call with investors, Claure was quoted as saying this development will put Sprint at the forefront of technology innovation and that it will be what differentiates the organization in the coming years. The timeline Claure provided will exceed that of T-Mobile which plans to start 5G deployment by 2019 with completion sometime in 2020. Claure also noted that since since Sprint owns 160MHz of the 2.5GHz spectrum, that it would be able to offer 5G nationwide. This is in stark contrast to the hotspots carriers such as AT&T and Verizon would be able to provide. This, he claimed, would allow Sprint to offer 5G data without sacrificing any of their current mid-band solutions.

Sprint plans to achieve its 5G via a myriad of ways. First, it plans to add antennas to cell towers that currently support MIMO transmissions and upgrade them to 5G NR standard via a software upgrade. Currently, over half of Sprints towers contain 2.5GHz capabilities with plans to increase the number most if not all by the end of the year. Sprint also plans to increase its macro tower count by 20%, add 40,000 small outdoor cell stations, 15,000 small strand stations, and up to 1-million Sprint Magic Boxes. Lastly, Sprint is already in talks with Qualcomm to provide chipsets to Korean handset manufacturers to supply 5G compatible devices.

Currently, Sprint arguably offers the best pricing for unlimited data for any of the major carriers. The pricing, however, may be short lived. Per Claure, Sprint does not intend to offer unlimited 5G plans at the same price as their current 4G plans. He noted that while he does not expect to see competitors raise their prices, Sprint does plan to raise its prices to more coincide with said competition due to the fiber like speeds it will offer. Also noted was that the price increases will be modest and their current 4G plans will remain intact for now. For those considering switching to Sprints unlimited plan, now might be a good time to consider the switch.The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has arrested a GST commissioner from Kanpur over charges of taking bribes. Apart from the commissioner, the investigative agency nabbed three superintendents of the GST department and five others.

Sansar Chand, a 1986-batch Indian Revenue Service officer, and his superintendents - Aman Shah, Rajeev Singh Chandel, Ajay Srivastava - were arrested when they were collecting Rs 1.5 lakh as bribe on Friday night, a IANS report said. Apart from them, CBI also arrested an office staffer Saurabh Pandey, along with a middle man and three private individuals. The accused were arrested during late-night operation in Kanpur and Delhi.

The arrested commissioner was reportedly used to take bribes from businessmen on a weekly and monthly basis for protection against action from department. The middle man Awasthi used to extort companies for money, which was paid to the accused in monthly or quarterly.

The money was used to be channeled through hawala channel to Delhi through on Aman Jain. At times, the payments used to be in the form of gifts.

The man who allegedly gave the bribe has also been taken into custody, a source said. The sources said his wife is also named in the FIR but has not been arrested.The Procurement Plan of the Ministry of Defence of the Republic of Croatia for the current year was presented and the 2017 Plan was reviewed on 31 January 2018. Croatia's defense ministry on Friday, February 2, 2018, signed procurement contracts worth 37.8 million euro with 26 local companies to provide various equipment and services, including weapons and weapons servicing, clothing, footwear, and insurance services for the members of Croatian armed forces.



For 2018, one of the most important project of Croatian Ministry of Defense is the upgrade of M-84 main battle tanks. (Picture source Wikipedia)

Presenting the Procurement Plan of the Ministry of Defence in 2018, the Head of the Ministry's Public Procurement Sector, Colonel Ivica Devcic underlined that the procurement procedures were focused on upgrading the living and working conditions for the members of the Croatian Armed Forces, equipping and the proper maintenance of material assets used by the Croatian Armed Forces, and stated that the 2017 Plan was realized almost completely (99 %), and the few remaining projects were deferred until the current year.

The past year saw as many as 1,243 procurement procedures and 1,588 contracts signed, among which the overhaul of the Mi-171Sh helicopters, the procurement of remotely controlled weapon stations and of the anti-armour missile system for the Patria vehicles; facilities were built and standard training kits for all members of the Croatian Armed Forces, and the expedition camp as a new capability to be employed in support to the civilians and state institutions.

The most important projects in the year 2018 for the Croatian Air Force entail the multi-purpose combat aircraft and a hangar and workshop for the maintenance of the Fire Fighter Squadron; for the Croatian Navy the procurement of ship engines and a prototype inshore patrol vessel, and for the Croatian Army the upgrade of M-84 main battle tanks, the machine gun and VHS D2/K2 assault rifle and the engineer working machines and equipment.Well, we are now back on the Senna topic and this time we want to focus on the million-dollar machine.You can probably count the real-world spottings of the Senna using no more than the fingers on one hand and we're here to deliver the freshest stunt of the kind.To be more precise, the 722-P15, which is the development car for the 800 hp beast, has recently been spotted performing testing in South Africa.It's not uncommon for carmakers to continue testing even after a machine has been officially introduced (keep in mind that customers deliveries have yet to kick off), so this spotting shouldn't come as a surprise.The velocity monster was spotted doing its thing on the Kyalami Circuit, which used to host the South African Grand Prix back in the day, so the environment for the speedy play was perfect. And while McLaren wasn't particularly successful on the said track, it did enjoy a few wins over the years - pixel tip to Zero2Turbo for the piece of footage showcasing the Macca's adventureSpeaking of the track, we're expecting the Senna to be engaged in the race for the Nurburgring production car lap record. Sure, the Green Hell is closed for now, which means the Porsche 911 GT2 RS remains the holder of the said title (the Neunelfer has managed to deliver a lap time of 6:47 ). But the infamous German track is set to start receiving guests in March, so we shouldn't have all that much waiting to do.Its been some time since Nissan made the announcement that the light-duty Titan would add an entry-level engine option in the form of a V6. The automaker reaffirmed the news once again, but just like the last time, the public relations department has its lips shut on the time of arrival.Three weeks after suspending production operations at a massive copper mine in Armenias northern Lori province, an Armenian mining company said on Friday that it has decided to lay off hundreds of workers.

The company, Vallex Group, sent many of its 1,215 employees working at the Teghut deposit on indefinite leave on January 12. It attributed the move to planned prophylactic repairs of the mines waste disposal facilities.

In its latest statement to the press, Vallex said it will fire most of the workers due to what it expects to be a prolonged stoppage of mining and ore processing at Teghut. The company claimed that the stoppage is necessary for the realization of its plans to significantly increase its output.

It said it needs to hire Armenian and foreign consultants for scientific research to be conducted for that purpose. That will take some time, the statement added without elaborating.

The Armenian government did not immediately react to the announcement. Nor had government officials in Yerevan commented on the recent suspension of mining at Teghut.

The Teghut mine is one of the largest employers in the unemployment-stricken region. The mass layoffs will therefore deal a major socioeconomic blow to the local population.

Vallex said almost all employees of the mine will receive notices about the impending termination of their contracts. It promised to provide some of those workers with jobs at other enterprises owned by the mining giant. They include a copper smelter in the nearby town of Alaverdi and metal mines in Nagorno-Karabakh.

The Liechtenstein-registered company resorted to the layoffs despite reporting a 32 percent surge in its combined operating revenue, which totaled $358 million last year thanks to increased international prices of copper and other non-ferrous metals. The Teghut mine generated over 42 percent of that revenue.

The Teghut operator already announced in August plans to increase copper ore extraction at Teghut. These plans met with strong resistance from some residents of two villages close to the mining site. They said that higher pollution levels have had negative effects on their fruit orchards.

In recent months, environment protection groups have repeatedly reported toxic leaks from Teghuts waste disposal dump contaminating a nearby river. The company has denied those reports.Azerbaijan Tourism Association (AZTA) and the Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI) have signed a Memorandum of Cooperation.

The memorandum was signed during the international tourism fair SATTE 2018 held in Delhi, Azertag reported.

Addressing the signing ceremony, chairman of AZTA Nahid Baghirov said that this collaboration will boost mutual tourism exchange, as well will contribute to the development of economic relations between the two countries.

Our association include hotels, travel agencies and airline companies. Azerbaijans national air carrier - AZAL is also one of our members. Furthermore, about 242 tourism companies and 110 hotels are our active members. Therefore, I hope our cooperation will be successful, Baghirov added.

During the signing ceremony, Razeen Hasan was elected as a representative of the AZTA in India. The participants also decided to hold the next meeting of the heads of tourism associations of Azerbaijan and India in Baku this May.

The Travel Agents Association Of India (TAAI) was established in 1951 by a group of twelve leading travel agents, who aimed to create an Association to regulate the travel industry in India along organized lines and in accordance with sound business principles. The Association has more than 2500 members.

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Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAzBy Trend

Azerbaijan's Pardon Issues Commission has held its another meeting.

The commission's member Almammad Nuriyev told Trend Feb. 2 that pardon appeals were considered and discussions were held at the meeting.

About one hundred appeals were considered at the meeting of the commission held on Jan. 30.

In total, the commission received about 1,000 appeals.

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Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAzWestward the Course of Empire Takes its Way

by Arnold Woods

February 2018

More on the Twin Peaks Tunnel centennial on the Outside Lands San Francisco podcast, and an OpenSFHistory photo gallery.

February 3, 2018 marks the 100th anniversary of the official opening of the Twin Peaks Tunnel. The first streetcar through the tunnel was a landmark event in the decentralization of the City of San Francisco. Prior thereto, the citys population was concentrated in the downtown area and there was little development in the vast sand dunes areas of the Outside Lands as the western half of San Francisco was affectionately known then. The tunnel would spur development and make the city what it is today. The process of getting there, however, was far from easy.

San Francisco is divided fairly evenly in half by a set of mountains, Lone Mountain, Mount Sutro, Twin Peaks, and Mount Davidson. At the turn of the twentieth century, most San Francisco homes, jobs, and stores lay to the east of these mountains, from downtown to Hayes Valley to the Mission District. Around and north of Golden Gate Park, streetcar and train lines were built to get people to the park, Cliff House, and Ocean Beach. So there were small patches of development in the Inner Richmond and Inner Sunset Districts but Mount Sutro, Twin Peaks and Mount Davidson prevented effective public transportation from reaching the western slopes, the vast majority of the Sunset District and open land around Lake Merced.

On May 27, 1909, the semi-annual banquet of the Merchants Association was held in the ballroom of the St. Francis Hotel. The theme of the banquet was Our Civic Center and the Need of Street Railroad Development. Various merchants spoke about the need for rail improvements in the city and centralizing the various rail lines under one management. During hay merchant A.W. Scott, Jr.s speech, he noted that too many people who worked in San Francisco were forced to live in other communities. Scott noted, [t]ake the splendid home district out beyond the Twin Peaks. That is a most desirable locality, but at present people cannot get there without a loss of much time and at great inconvenience. Scott proposed a subway to the area beyond Twin Peaks which Merchants Association members estimated would cost $1,500,000. Scott wanted United Railroads, which had a number of street car franchises in the city, to construct the subway, but suggested that the City should build it if United Railroads would not.

Another factor in the push for a Twin Peaks tunnel was a California Supreme Court ruling that Adolph Sutros will was invalid as being too uncertain to be a legally binding document. The effect of this ruling was that Sutros vast real estate holdings in the Outside Lands would be sold off, including many areas beyond Twin Peaks which could be subdivided for homes. This would lead to greater interest in creating a way for people to travel quickly from the areas in the southwest part of the city to the downtown area.

1909 also marked when planning for the 1915 Panama Pacific International Exposition began in earnest after years of raising money. One of the key questions was a site for the PPIE. Various areas in the Sunset District were being discussed because of the availability of the land. There was hope expressed that a Twin Peaks tunnel could be constructed before the PPIE to make transportation to a Sunset District site easy. A lack of such transportation would be a factor in the eventual choice of the Marina District area for the PPIE.

One of the key divisive issues of the era was the issue of whether San Francisco should have a municipal railway in competition to the private railway companies. The city had three times in six years put such bonds on the ballot for the creation of a municipal railway. Undeterred by yet another defeat for a municipal railway in June 1909, the citys Public Utilities Committee issued a report that suggested San Francisco take over United Railway franchises as they expired and expand the existing lines to areas in the Sunset District through a tunnel under Twin Peaks. The report stated that the tunnel could be financed by assessments on the lands that would benefit from it.

A fourth bond measure for a municipal railway system on Geary Boulevard was placed on the ballot for December 30, 1909. The Merchants Association issued a bulletin in opposition to the measure stating, [i]f the city wishes to build and operate street railroads now, let it build them where they are needed to furnish transportation to those of its citizens that have none, and where private capital will not build. The bulletin went on to state that funds should be used instead for the much needed Twin Peaks tunnel. Despite the opposition and three former bond ballot defeats, the bonds for the Geary municipal railway passed by an overwhelming 70%.

1910 ushered in a wave of agitation for a tunnel to the Sunset District. The Mission Promotion Association, a business group, held a meeting on January 11, 1910 and voted unanimously in favor of three related projects: a bond issue for the city to purchase land held by the Spring Valley Water Company, which included land by Lake Merced where the PPIE could be held, and for a Twin Peaks tunnel so people could get to the fair.

San Franciscos Irish mayor, Patrick Henry McCarthy, also voiced his support for the project and endorsed the suggestion for an assessment district to finance it. A report done by L.V. Riddle of the Parkside Company, estimated that a tunnel could be bored from 18th and Douglas Streets to the Almshouse tract for $1,500,000. Riddle stated that it would only take a year and a half to complete because the character of the rock was easy for the work and that a streetcar line through Twin Peaks would be of inestimable value if the PPIE was located in the vicinity of Lake Merced per one proposal.

Meanwhile, various neighborhood improvement clubs took up the effort. On March 21, 1910, a meeting was held with representatives of the Eureka Valley, Upper Market Street, Mission Heights and Church Street, Market and Church Street, Parkside, and Ingleside Improvement Clubs and the Mission Promotion Association. Speakers noted that there were 5,000 acres of land that would be quickly settled if a tunnel through Twin Peaks was constructed. A former Los Angeles city engineer stated that property in districts opened up by tunnels in the Los Angeles area increased in value by 50% within a year. Riddle showed up to suggest that if the city didnt build the tunnel, that private capital be raised for it. The representatives at the meeting resolved to hold a convention for further discussion of the issue. At a meeting on March 25, 1910, the convention date was set for April 18, 1910 to be held at the New Era Hall on Market Street.

At this point, realtors began to try to capitalize on the outcry for a Twin Peaks Tunnel. Classified ads began appearing offering lots in the Sunset District which would triple in value once the tunnel was built and the PPIE came to Lake Merced. In 1911, ads for Parkside lots would promise a direct connection with Twin Peaks Tunnel years before that would become a reality. The Residential Development Company of San Francisco would purchase a large portion of the San Miguel rancho in 1911 with the idea that these lands would become much more attractive with the advent of a tunnel.

As the convention date approached, the citys neighborhood improvement clubs and civic associationsrepresenting all areas of the citymet and elected delegates to the convention and discussed the positions they would take on the Twin Peaks Tunnel issue. Overall, about 60 organizations would be represented at the convention. The Glen Park Improvement Club announced their opposition to the tunnel ahead of the convention. Most other Improvement Clubs were in favor of the project.

At the convention on April 18, 1910, more than 600 people representing the various improvement clubs and civic organizations attended. There were a number of speakers who spoke to the viability and cost of a tunnel under Twin Peaks. Three methods of financing were discussed: an assessment taxed on the districts that would benefit from the tunnel; private capital; or city-wide municipal bonds. Mayor McCarthy strongly endorsed the project and promised that he would do everything in his power to have the city get it done. The convention formed a permanent organization to be called the Twin Peaks Tunnel and Improvement Convention (TPTIC) which would seek quick construction of a tunnel.

The TPTIC quickly got to work appointing a chairman, Dr. Hartland Law, and a secretary, C.F. Adams. An office was established at Secretary Adams office in the Mills Building. Six committees were organized, Ways and Means, Advisory, Publicity, Finance, Judiciary, and Membership. Another convention was set for August 19, 1910.

Surveys and reports prepared by engineers and land experts for the next convention estimated that the tunnel would cost slightly more than two million dollars, but would increase city revenue by $300,000 per year. Real estate experts stated that there was 4,000 acres of land that would be purchased in the Outside Lands if a tunnel was built.

The August 19, 1910 convention primarily discussed the various means of raising funds for the tunnel. The assessment district plan was stated to be not viable as, until the tunnel was built, there would be insufficient households and businesses in the Outside Lands to be assessed, though it is possible that improvement clubs in the assessment districts did not want their lands to shoulder the burden of the cost. The private capital plan was similarly shot down because it was believed that no private company would finance the tunnel for a franchise that would expire after a number of years. That left the municipal bond plan as the only viable option in the Conventions estimation and it was adopted by resolution. The convention noted that the tunnel would benefit every San Franciscan, so it was appropriate that everyone share the burden. The resolution set forth that the TPTIC would petition the Board of Supervisors to provide a bond issue in the amount of $2,500,000 for the tunnel. The San Francisco Real Estate Board adopted a similar resolution soon thereafter.

The petition was quickly presented to the Board of Supervisors who, on August 29, 1910, referred it to their Streets Committee, at that time consisting of Supervisors Robert Loughery, Cornelius Deasy, and John McLaughlin. However Loughery, wanted the tunnel issue delayed until San Francisco completed a deal to purchase the holdings of the Spring Valley Water Company, which were largely located around the Lake Merced area. Loughery reasoned that if the city were to build the tunnel, it should reap the benefits of already owning the water companys land assets to the west of the proposed tunnel. The deal would not get finalized until June 1914.

Although the TPTIC wanted bonds issued for construction of the tunnel, the Board of Supervisors instead leaned toward the assessment district method for financing. One potential issuethe legality of such an assessment districtcame to the forefront in 1911. San Francisco had attempted to impose an assessment district for the construction of the Stockton Street tunnel, but the ordinance was overturned by the California Supreme Court as being unauthorized by the citys charter. This problem was solved when the California legislature amended the charter law on February 7, 1911 to allow cities to create special assessment districts for municipal works, specifically including tunnel projects.

On September 18, 1911, the Board of Supervisors enacted a new ordinance, pursuant to the amended charter law, creating a special assessment district for the construction of the Stockton tunnel. Creation of a Twin Peaks tunnel assessment district was postponed until there was legal determination on the validity of the Stockton tunnel assessment district. A friendly lawsuit was started to get the validity of the ordinance before the California Supreme Court as soon as possible. The Court would approve the new assessment ordinance in early 1912.

1912 saw a new mayor for San Francisco, James Sunny Jim Rolph, and a city government that really begin to carry the load for a Twin Peaks tunnel project. They hired a Chicago traffic expert, Bion J. Arnold, to study San Francisco traffic issues, including the Twin Peaks tunnel, and make recommendations. Even before a tunnel report was received, the Board of Supervisors passed an ordinance on March 18, 1912 declaring it to be the citys intent to build the Twin Peaks and three other tunnels.

Arnold filed his report with the Board of Supervisors tunnel committee on May 3, 1912. His report recommended, without qualifications, that the tunnel be constructed. He further suggested some slight alterations to the tunnels path so as to connect more easily with a Market Street subway tunnel that was being talked about. Despite the TPTICs opposition to Arnolds proposed tunnel route and in favor of a shorter tunnel, the tunnel committee passed the report to the full Board of Supervisors with a recommendation in favor of it. The Board quickly adopted a resolution asking the City Engineer Michael OShaughnessy to prepare plans for possible construction of the tunnel.

On July 22, 1912, the Board of Supervisors unanimously adopted another resolution declaring the Twin Peaks tunnel to be a public necessity and convenience. A second resolution was also passed asking the Board of Public Works to provide cost estimates and data on the Arnold plan.

With the Board approval of the tunnel plan idea, local realtors kicked their marketing for Sunset real estate into high gear. Large advertisements noting that the tunnel would be happening were placed in newspapers. Thus, even before the Twin Peaks tunnel project plans were drawn up and the project officially approved, the interest in the Outside Lands was so strong that development was already beginning to the west of Twin Peaks. Forest Hill, Parkside, Ingleside Terraces, and St. Francis Wood were all experiencing growth.

On October 7, 1912, Arnold submitted complete plans for the Twin Peaks tunnel (and Market Street subway) to the Board of Supervisors. The plans indicated that public transportation from Sloat and Junipero Serra Boulevard to downtown would take 20 minutes. The eastern portal of his plan was set at Valencia and Market, but property owners and improvement clubs advocated for the eastern portal to be at Eureka for a shorter tunnel and smaller cost. The Board asked City Engineer OShaughnessy to prepare cost estimates for both locations of the eastern portal. City engineers also began testing for the tunnel, drilling to the depth of the tunnel to determine what kind of earth construction would face.

In December 1912, the Board of Supervisors put a number of city charter amendments up for a vote of residents. Included among these were Charter Amendments 18-21 which authorized the city to widen streets, build tunnels, create special assessments districts, issue bonds, and incur indebtedness for such projects. Though not specifically stated by the Amendments, these amendments essentially sought public approval for the Twin Peaks tunnel and several other transportation projects. San Francisco residents approved all four of these charter amendments at an election on December 10, 1912.

The end of 1912 also saw the beginning of San Franciscos municipal railway. Three years after voter approval for bonds for a Geary Boulevard municipal railway, streetcar service began on December 28, 1912 for Munis A-Line and B-Line that started on Market Street and went out Geary Boulevard to the Richmond District. Naturally, this increased interest for municipal streetcar service to more areas in the city. Muni began expanding tracks and lines over the next several years, including a Church Street line that would open in 1917 and would take service closest to the planned Twin Peaks tunnel.

San Francisco authorized the City Engineer to prepare detailed plans for the Twin Peaks tunnel in Resolution 10,020, signed by Mayor Rolph on March 7, 1913. Pursuant to the resolution, City Engineer OShaughnessy filed a comprehensive report on July 28, 1913 regarding the tunnel, including construction plans and specifications, cost estimates, maps and lists of parcels within the tunnel assessment district, and a list of properties and easements to be obtained for construction. OShaughnessys cost estimate was nearly $4,000,000. The proposed tunnel was to be more than two miles long with a station inside the tunnel.

After OShaughnessys Twin Peaks tunnel report was released, property owners within the Twin Peaks Assessment District had a limited amount of time to protest assessments. Out of 13,187 parcels within the district, only 218 property owners filed protests. 190 of the protests claimed that they would receive no material benefit from the tunnel. The other 28 protested that their land would be condemned for the tunnel. The protestors represented about $90,000 of the $3,900,000 expected to be raised by the assessments.

One vocal opponent of the tunnel plan was Carl Larsen, owner of a large amount of land on the west side of Twin Peaks. Larsen proposed a shorter, less expensive tunnel route where the western portal would be near the proposed Laguna Honda station. He stated the costs of construction could be reduced by 30% under his plan. OShaughnessy said Larsens plan would require a 4% grade, which would prevent rapid transit through the tunnel, whereas the 2% grade in his plan would accommodate rapid transit. Arnolds 1912 report had stated that a 3% grade was the maximum for rapid transit.

Larsen would take his objection to his assessment to court arguing that no such assessment could be made upon private property. Upon losing at the trial court level in May 1915, he appealed to the California Supreme Court. That courts decision would not be completed until 1920, well after the tunnel itself was completed. The Court ruled in favor of San Francisco, finding that there was no evidence that Larsens land did not benefit from the tunnel and therefore the supervisors decision to assess his lands could not be declared invalid.

After the protests were heard, some protestors had their assessments reduced. The Board of Supervisors then adopted the OShaughnessy plan, rejecting Larsens shorter tunnel alternative, on October 20, 1913. Mayor Rolph signed the resolution which also levied assessments on November 6, 1913.

Interest in the Twin Peaks Tunnel was so great by this point that the October 1913 California Land Show exhibition in San Francisco, which included 22 California counties, featured an immense relief map of the Twin Peaks Tunnel district and had a tunnel day.

In March 1914, the assessors office sent out the first installment tax notices to landowners in the Twin Peaks tunnel assessment districts. The notices gave owners until April 13, 1914 to make their assessment payments. By the end of the month, five big real estate developers that held large amounts of land west of the proposed tunnel agreed to pay their assessments, amounting to $924,000, thereby assuring the tunnel project could go forward. The settlement of purchase issues for the Spring Valley Water Company holdings a few months later would guarantee another $1,200,000 for the project.

The next step in the process was for the city engineers office to prepare a booklet with the specifications for project bids. After review of the specifications by the Board of Public Works, the Board of Supervisors, on a unanimous vote, approved Ordinance 2779 on June 8, 1914, which ordered construction of the Twin Peaks Tunnel and authorized a contract for construction to be entered into. The Twin Peaks tunnel job was then put up for bid by the end of June 1914. The notice gave a deadline of August 19, 1914 for companies to submit bids. However, not one single bid was received by the deadline, apparently because of a concern that the money on hand from assessments was not enough to assure contractors of prompt payments.

San Francisco gave a new deadline of September 16, 1914 and declared that it would meet with contractors to try to reassure them. That deadline was extended to September 30, 1914 so that eastern contractors would have sufficient time to submit bids. Worried that there would still be no bids received, San Francisco increased the time for the project from 600 to 1000 days and reduced the amount of the bond required. The large development companies with land in the Outside Lands discussed forming their own construction company to build the tunnel. When the deadline passed, there was only one bidder for the project, Hans Pedersen, a Seattle contractor.

San Francisco liked Pedersens bid and was prepared to accept it. The bid was not made out on the form required by the Board of Supervisors though and it was feared this would invalidate a contract. So the city reopened the bidding with a new deadline of October 28, 1914 so that Pedersen could properly submit his bid. This time, however, three other contractors submitted bids as well. The lowest bid came from Robert C. Storrie & Co. The bids were referred to the City Engineers office for review. OShaughnessy recommended the Storrie & Co. bid.

Finally on Monday, November 2, 1914, San Francisco signed a contract with Storrie & Co. for the construction of the Twin Peaks Tunnel. The contract amount was $3,372,000 and the company immediately began bringing equipment to sites on both ends of the tunnel. The groundbreaking ceremony was set for Saturday, December 5, 1914.

Before the appointed day for the groundbreaking, confusion reigned. The Twin Peaks Property Owners Association (TPPOA) and city officials had a heated disagreement over the ceremony. The TPPOA claimed that OShaughnessy had agreed to speak at the ceremony and that the Mayor and Supervisors would be on hand. OShaughnessy refused to speak and said they would not be ready for a groundbreaking for another two weeks. City officials backed OShaughnessy and refused to participate, resulting in a cancellation of the ceremony. Although the groundbreaking ceremony was to be rescheduled, there does not appear to be any record of it happening.

Storrie & Co. began excavation for the Twin Peaks Tunnel on December 11, 1914. Work proceeded at three sites: the eastern portal near Market and Castro, the western portal near what would become West Portal Avenue and Ulloa, and at the Forest Hill Station at Laguna Honda. By June 1915, the contractor declared the work to be 25% completed and that the boring work was digging 30 feet per day.

On July 2, 1915, Inspector Ernest Dunden of the Board of Public Works was inspecting the transformer stations at the west portal when he slipped and fell onto live wires. Although workers tried to pull him from the wires, the strong current hurled them back. Dunden became the first casualty of the construction. Several others were killed in the delayed explosion of a dynamite cap in February 1917.

While construction was progressing, the city was considering how to best effect rail service through the tunnel. United Railroads owned rail franchises on Market Street east of the tunnel and on Sloat Boulevard west of the tunnel. San Francisco was desirous of having its nascent municipal railroad provide service through the tunnel. This presented a potential quagmire of having passengers get off one rail service to get on another to go through the tunnel unless the City and United Railroads could come to some kind of agreement.

On December 8, 1915, OShaughnessy presented several options on resolving these conflicts to the Board of Supervisors Public Utilities Committee. One proposal had been for the city to construct its own rail line on Market Street next to the United Railroads tracks. Since United Railroads was vigorously opposed to this, OShaughnessy suggested that the city could lease the United Railroads tracks on Market Street, an exchange of transfers with United Railroads, or to extend planned Church Street tracks. OShaughnessy also advised that the city purchase the Sloat Boulevard and other rail lines west of the tunnel from United Railroads.

Issues between United Railroads and the city continued to escalate in 1916. No doubt threatened by the competition from Muni, United Railroads refused to permit the city to cross over United Railroads tracks on Market for the Muni Church Street line and threatened litigation if the city constructed its own tracks on Market Street.

Unable to strike a deal with United Railroads, in May 1916 the city directed OShaughnessy to draw up plans to extend Muni from Market Street, through the tunnel, and out to the ocean on Taraval Street and directed the Board of Works to complete the Church Street line extension on Market Street. In June 1916, the city began the construction of Muni tracks paralleling the United Railroads on part of Market Street. As threatened, United Railroads immediately went to federal court and obtained a temporary restraining order. This stopped the double track construction on Market Street until a hearing could be held and decision reached by the federal judge. San Francisco did continue with track construction from its Church Street line to the eastern portal of the tunnel.

Although the tunnel construction was continuing on schedule, it was not going fast enough for the Residential Development Company which had purchased a large part of the San Miguel tract back in 1911. Unable to make all of its assessment payments, it finally sold of 49 acres of land by the west portal of the tunnel to Fernando Nelson, the noted Richmond District developer for $300,000 in June 1916. Nelson would go on to develop much of the West Portal area.

Curiosity was peaked in August 1916, when workers found a petrified redwood tree trunk 90 feet below the surface of the ground in sand and clay formations. Debate ranged as to whether redwood trees once graced the Twin Peaks area or whether the fossilized piece was once driftwood that came ashore in a much earlier time. It is unclear if scientists ever reached a conclusion.

The hearing on United Railroads lawsuit against San Francisco occurred in August 1916 and the two sides submitted legal briefs thereafter. On January 18, 1917, Judge William Hunt ruled in favor of San Francisco, holding that United Railroads exclusive franchise rights to Market Street streetcar service did not extend to competition from the city itself. United Railroads immediately appealed, but would eventually lose their case in the United States Supreme Court in April 1919.

Nearly eight years after the idea of a tunnel under Twin Peaks was first being discussed, it became a reality. Holed through! was the shout on Thursday, April 5, 1917, a traditional drillers cry when a tunnel is connected. The alignment of the tunnels from the two portals was off by a mere eighth of an inch where they met, an engineering marvel.

A driller named Sam Campbell was the first man to squeeze through the initial narrow opening. Four supervisors, Edward Nolan, Joseph Lahaney, Cornelius Deasy, and Charles Nelson came down to the tunnel and rode muck cars drawn by cable to the opening. When they had traveled as far as the muck car would go, they got out and raced to see who could get through the opening first. Lahaney won the race, but his suit was muddied in the process.

On June 15, 1917, a delegation from City Hall in a small fleet of automobiles drove over Twin Peaks on the new Market Street extension called Portola Drive. From there, they entered the western portal of the Twin Peaks Tunnel and drove through the bore to the eastern portal. It would be the first and last time that automobiles made the trek through the tunnel.

A celebration of the completion of the tunnel occurred on July 14, 1917 at the eastern portal. Thousands came for the ceremony that included speeches by current and former city officials, including Mayor Rolph, who accepted the tunnel on behalf of the city. Westward the course of empire takes its way, declared Rolph. OShaughnessy took a few taps to get the ceremonial first spike for the tracks to be built through the tunnel started before Rolph finished it. After the ceremonies, people were permitted to walk the length of the tunnel. The tunnel had been completed four months ahead of schedule.

With the tunnel work completed, there still remained the issue of track construction through the tunnel, which began almost immediately, and how the tunnel tracks would connect with streetcar tracks on either side of the tunnel. Discussions with United Railroads included a universal transfer system and United Railroads leasing the tracks through the tunnel. Plans to double-track Market Street with new Muni tracks next to the existing United Railroads tracks met a lot of public opposition, but work proceeded forwarded anyway.

With negotiations for some compromise with United Railroads stalled, Mayor Rolph on September 27, 1917, signed a resolution authorizing construction of new Muni tracks from the west portal of the tunnel to Taraval and 20th Avenue. Track construction from the western portal to Sloat and Junipero Serra Boulevards was completed by mid-December 1917. Previously approved track construction on Market Street from Church to the tunnel, which connected with existing streetcar lines on Market between Van Ness and Church, was also completed by then. The city ran the first Muni streetcar through the tunnel on December 31, 1917 to test the new tracks.

For travel west of the tunnel, negotiations were on-going with United Railroads, which wanted the right to send its streetcars through the tunnel in exchange for Muni using its tracks on Sloat. OShaughnessy offered two other alternatives to the Board of Supervisorsbus service until new Muni tracks could be built out to the beach or the purchase of United Railroads lines, the latter of which the city engineer favored. Negotiations with United Railroads would drag through much of 1918.

The grand opening of the tunnel was supposed to occur in January 1918, but a crossing to be installed at Castro and 17th Streets was delayed in its shipment from Pennsylvania by blizzards. The grand opening of Muni service through the Twin Peaks tunnel finally arrived on Sunday, February 3, 1918. Crowds gathered on the Van Ness side of City Hall to watch the first streetcar take off at 2:30 p.m. Inside the car were Mayor Rolph, acting as the motorman, most of the Supervisors, the City Engineer OShaughnessy, some family members and guests, and President Reardon of the Board of Public Works, acting as the conductor. The public was invited to ride other streetcars, provided they paid the 5 cent fare of course.

When the streetcar filled with city officials reached the eastern portal near Castro and Market Streets, hundreds of cheering people lined the tracks. The streetcar made its first stop inside the tunnel at the Eureka station near the eastern portal. After stopping at the Forest Hill station in the middle of the tunnel, the streetcar emerged at the western portal where a huge throng of people awaited. The streetcar continued on to Sloat and Junipero Serra Boulevards where a ceremony occurred. After some brief speeches where Mayor Rolph asked the crowd for patience while the city continued to work out issues of getting tracks to go all the way to the ferry building on Market Street, the city officials got back on the streetcar and made the return trip to City Hall.

The opening of Muni service through the Twin Peaks tunnel proved irresistible to sightseers. On Sunday, February 10, 1918, over 21,000 people rode the streetcars out through the tunnel. In the first month of operation, over 238,000 fares were purchased. This proved to be a boon to the developers of the residential parks beyond the tunnel.

Although not completed in time for the opening of the tunnel, the citys work at double-tracking Market Street in order to provide streetcar service from the tunnel all the way to the ferry building was finished in May 1918. A planned celebration of the opening of the Market Street service on June 1, 1918 was cancelled due to the death of Mayor Rolphs father. However, OShaughnessy and other city officials nonetheless led a fleet of streetcars in ceremonial trip down Market Street that day. The streetcars caused numerous traffic issues and the lead car, with OShaughnessy in it, was involved in an accident with a PG&E work wagon. Regular service on Market Street to the ferry building started June 2, 1918.

However, for the bulk of 1918, Muni streetcar service stopped just west of the Twin Peaks tunnel while the city negotiated with United Railroads for use of their tracks in the Sunset district. The city provided bus service as a temporary means of getting passengers to their destination from the end of the Muni line, but residents were unhappy with that service. Agreement was finally reached in December 1918 whereby Muni could use the existing Taraval and Ocean Avenue streetcar lines in return for payment of $100,000 to United Railroads. The $100,000 could also be deducted from the purchase price if the city decided to buy the United Railroads lines west of the tunnel.

The effect of the Twin Peaks tunnel was exactly as planned. In the 1910 census, San Francisco had a population of 416,912 people of which a quarter lived in the Outside Lands and southern districts. By the 1920 census, the citys population had increased to 506,676 people. More than 60% of that increase was attributable to new residents in the Outside Lands and southern districts. The population made another huge increase to 634,394 people by the time of the 1930 census. While it is difficult to track how much of this increase was a result of new residents to the west of Twin Peaks, city assessments showed huge increases for these areas between 1912 and 1928.

Muni continued in competition with United Railroads, which became the Market Street Railway in 1921. Muni finally purchased the Market Street Railway and merged the systems in 1944. By this time, Muni had three routes operating through the Twin Peaks tunnel, the K Ingleside, the M Ocean View, and the L Taraval. With the construction of a BART and Muni Metro subway under Market Street in the late 60s and early 70s, an underground connection was created between the subway and Twin Peaks tunnel. The underground Eureka Station was abandoned at this time in favor of a new underground Castro station.

Today, 100 years after the opening of the Twin Peaks tunnel, thousands of people continue to commute through it every day. Even with the proliferation of the automobile and more and better roads throughout the city since the tunnel opened, it remains an easier and more cost effective method for many to reach jobs, stores, and events located in the eastern part of San Francisco. The tunnel, an engineering marvel in 1918, has stood the test of time ever since.

Full list of sources for this article.

Contribute your own stories about western neighborhoods places!By Trend

Azerbaijans President Ilham Aliyev and First Vice President Mehriban Aliyeva take care of every representative of the Azerbaijani youth, said Yusuf Mammadaliyev, Assistant to the First Vice President, Head of the Department for Youth Policy and Sport Issues at the Azerbaijani Presidential Administration.

Mammadaliyev was addressing a ceremony presenting the Presidential Awards to persons, who have distinguished themselves in culture, education and public activity, as well as awarding a number of young people on the occasion of February 2  the Youth Day.

Mammadaliyev noted that motivation is very important in the process of expanding the potential of youth, its further improvement.

"The awards presented today to the most talented and hardworking youth of different spheres, will tell the society about their successes, and will strengthen their faith in themselves. These awards are the beginning, not the end of their successes. Each representative of youth in the republic should know that their talent and abilities, the activities carried out are assessed and never go unheeded, "Yusuf Mammadaliyev said.

He further stressed that President Ilham Aliyev and First Vice President Mehriban Aliyeva take care of every representative of the youth, closely follow their activities.

"Thanks to the youth policy pursued by the country's leadership, based on the strategy of turning "black gold" into human capital, the youth's activity in the scientific, cultural and public spheres is encouraged. I think that our youth should be more active, play an important role in all spheres of the country's development," Mammadaliyev said.

Thanks to the successful youth policy pursued today by the head of state, the Azerbaijani youth is modern, tolerant, educated, skilled and innovative, he added.

"Undoubtedly, the whole world should know about this success. Every youth representative should take care of the cultural and historical values of our country, and, being a worthy citizen, serve the homeland. At a time when we celebrate the 100th anniversary of the creation of the first republic in the Muslim East, we must try to ensure that future generations too are proud of the values, material and spiritual achievements created in our time. Azerbaijan is going through a period of the strongest, dynamic development in its history. Our youth should feel the challenges of this time, and everyone, becoming a hero of our time, should create and build up for the sake of the future," Mammadaliyev said.

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Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAzBy Trend

The EU and Kazakhstan jointly support the implementation of the EU-Central Asia Strategy, reads a joint press statement issued on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Kazakhstan and the European Union.

The sides noted that over the past 25 years Kazakhstan and the European Union have built up a solid framework of relations, with the signature of the Enhanced Partnership and Cooperation Agreement between the Republic of Kazakhstan and the European Union (EPCA) in December 2015.

"The agreement, which entered into provisional application in May 2016, marks a qualitatively new phase of bilateral relations and significantly expands the legal framework of cooperation in numerous areas for the benefit of our citizens. Kazakhstan is the first Central Asian country signing such an Agreement with the EU," reads the statement.

"The Agreement is meant to be a driving force in the intensification of relations between Kazakhstan and Europe for the long run. It provides for a new level in the quality of our trade, economic and investment cooperation, as well as a broadening of our political and human rights dialogues."

The EU and Kazakhstan further stressed support to the implementation of the EU-Central Asia Strategy, in which a special emphasis has been given to the human capital development, education, environment protection, rational use of water resources, efficient transport and logistics infrastructures in the region, and combating challenges and threats.

Both sides expressed their readiness to continue to consistently improve all forms of partnership and cooperation.

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Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAzLowville, N.Y.-based Lewis County General Hospital is holding a community engagement meeting to seek input on a grant application it'll use to modernize its ASC, Watertown Daily Times reports.

Here's what you should know:

1. Hospital administration plans to apply for a statewide grant to build a new health and wellness center, modernize its ASC and intensive care unit and relocate its Adult Day Health Care Center.

2. The community meeting will be held to gather input on how to "further develop the grant proposal."

3. Hospital CEO Gerald Cayer said, "The purpose [of the grant] is to strengthen and protect continued access to healthcare in the community, increase access for local surgical care and enhance patient care."Bitcoin is not widely accepted at brick-and-mortar businesses, but a small number of healthcare clinics across the nation have started accepting the cryptocurrency, according to STAT.

One of those clinics is My Doctor Medical Group in San Francisco. The physician practice has accepted bitcoin since 2013, but only about 2 percent of patients use it to pay. Although only a small portion of the practice's patients have used bitcoin as a form of payment, My Doctor Medical Group has seen more interest than many other physician practices.

Central Urgent Medical Care in Los Angeles has allowed patients to pay with bitcoin for years, but the practice has never had a patient ask to pay with the cryptocurrency, according to STAT.

In New York City, a private dental practice run by Liliya Etkina, DDS, has accepted bitcoin for five years. "I think somebody inquired once, but no patients have used it yet," Dr. Etkina told STAT.

Although few patients have shown interest in using bitcoin to pay for medical care, Paul Abramson, MD, founder of My Doctor Medical Group, thinks the forms of payment patients prefer could change over time, creating greater demand for bitcoin payments.

"My grandfather and great-grandfather were surgeons, and they took chickens as payment," Dr. Abramson told STAT. "This isn't really much different."

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Intermountain acquires $20M stake in R1 RCMStephen K. Klasko, MD, president and CEO of Philadelphia-based Thomas Jefferson University and Jefferson Health, can trace his career path far from the realm of healthcare  his first professional title was radio DJ "Little Stevie Kent."

The leader of the 14-hospital system said he'd still be a Philadelphia radio DJ if he hadn't gotten fired. "So I applied to medical school and the admissions director was really excited to admit 'Little Stevie Kent,'" Dr. Klasko said. "What's gotten me from a radio DJ to being a university and health system president is taking a no limits approach."

This no limits approach is how in five years, Dr. Klasko took Jefferson Health from a three-hospital, $1.8 billion system to a 14-hospital, $5 billion system, with Jefferson University Hospital snagging the No. 16 spot on U.S. News & World Report's Best Hospitals list for 2017-18.

For Dr. Klasko, an avid Star Trek fan, this approach also extends to addressing healthcare transformation in the form of a science fiction book. We CAN Fix Healthcare, which Dr. Klasko published in 2016 with Gregory P. Shea, PhD, and Michael Hoad, takes insights from interviews with over 100 healthcare experts to imagine how healthcare might look in 2026.

The story is told as a first-hand account from Dr. Klasko, who was present at "the event" in 2016, which changed the future of healthcare, and gave way to 12 principles that disrupted healthcare forever. The book describes "the event" as a conference where invited healthcare leaders are surrounded by a mysterious vapor that allows them to engage in a "blame-free" dialogue, rather than exchanging accusations.

In this way, the book aims to address the healthcare system as a whole through this dialogue, arguing everyone must play a role in transforming the system, from the pharmaceutical industry and physicians to insurers and patients. The book offers multiple perspectives on medical issues  some of the most insightful coming from an alien monk who advises different healthcare players.

"Only when patients have incentives to be a part of the solution will healthcare be more efficient and effective," the monk says. "If you only let the market dictate functionality, it won't do what patients need for an optimistic future, unless patients have a real voice, which they do not."

Each stop in the journey includes an overview of how the industry changed since "the event" and the specific dialogues that led to those changes, providing readers an outline for transformation. Here are a few key takeaways.

1. It's time to challenge the "See one, do one, teach one" philosophy of graduate medical education and use technology to regularly assess physician competency throughout their careers.

2. Medical schools must oust their obsession with rigid multiple-choice tests and fragmented educational periods for physicians. Instead, medical education should be reformed to foster a new breed of physicians who are creative, passionate and flexible, rather than competitive and autonomous.

3. Every healthcare player  physicians, pharmaceutical executives, insurers and patients alike  must recognize their share of the blame for the healthcare system's failure to coordinate patient care. Perhaps most importantly, to improve care coordination, healthcare leaders must work together to see patients as people. This gives patients the power to control their own health.

Beyond these earthly insights, Dr. Klasko lets his inner science fiction fan loose in the book's footnotes, which pair healthcare phenomena with sci-fi words. For example, "Darth" is slang for physicians who go into administration, or "move to the dark side."

And in a nod to DJ Little Stevie Kent, We CAN Fix Healthcare concludes with the "Healthcare Mix for the 'Morrow of Medicine" playlist. The music mix connects classic songs to healthcare themes. Smokey Robinson & the Miracles' "Who's Gonna Take the Blame" illustrates how stakeholders frequently blame each other for issues in healthcare transformation and Led Zeppelin's "Communication Breakdown" highlights how hospital readmissions occur due to a lack of communication between physicians and patients.

The health system leader plans to continue the discussion in a forthcoming book about the future of healthcare called Bless This Mess, available March 1. When he retires, Dr. Klasko said he plans to open "Stevie's Vinyl Emporium and Implantable Health Chips" on Philadelphia's South Street.



Read Dr. Klasko's thoughts about the Amazon, JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Berkshire Hathaway venture here.North Texas Medical Center in Gainesville is pursuing negotiations with a new management company following King of Prussia, Pa.-based Universal Health Services' decision to cancel its management agreement with NTMC May 1.

North Texas Medical Center, which is owned by the Gainesville Hospital District, approved a partnership agreement with UHS in December 2016. The agreement called for UHS to first take over operations of the distressed hospital and then lease the five buildings on North Texas Medical Center's campus.

In late January, Gainesville Hospital District board members said UHS would not move forward with the lease deal and would terminate the management agreement May 1.

The NTMC board of directors met Wednesday to discuss potential partners for the hospital, and they decided to pursue a two-year agreement with Plano, Texas-based Community Hospital Corp. NTMC will have the option of ending the contract with CHC after one year, according to KXII-TV.

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Tenet exits Philadelphia with $170M sale of 2 hospitalsA significant amount of Americans between ages 50 and 64 have been hospitalized for the flu this season, reports Business Insider.

Infants usually develop more severe flu cases than adults since their immune systems have not been exposed to prior strains. However, "baby boomers have higher rates [of hospitalization] than their grandchildren right now," CDC flu director Dan Jernigan, MD, MPH, told reporters Friday, according to Business Insider.

Scientists believe this year's flu, dominated by the H3N2 strain, has had an outsized effect on baby boomers due to a process called "imprinting." When a person is first exposed to a flu virus, whether through a vaccine or catching the illness, the immune system teaches itself how to defend against the virus type.

Baby boomers, born before the H3N2 strain even existed, were likely imprinted with an H2 flu strain, not H3, Matthew Miller, PhD, who studies the flu at McMaster University in Canada, told Business Insider. Therefore, their bodies may not know how to fend off the H3N2 strain as well as younger people imprinted with this virus type.

The U.S. has experienced elevated flu levels for nine consecutive weeks as of Jan. 20, with flu activity hitting the highest level since 2009's flu pandemic.

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CDC to reduce global outbreak prevention efforts by 80%: 4 things to knowThe first glimpses of Vivegam that we caught were the on-set images of Thala Ajith. He looked stylish and sophisticated. We saw how he transformed himself for this film, physically, by stunning us with his six packs and inspiring all his fans, and unanimously, all his co-stars. The first look took social media by storm and gave a strong essence of an international film.



Completely shot in Bulgaria and its neighboring European countries, the film promises to be an entirely international premise. Director Siva strategically revealed many images from of Thala Ajith, one by one, on his Twitter page making sure that the fans are teased to the maximum level. Then came the teaser in which we saw a stylized AK. The cinematography, editing, and the locales were all ultra-modern and gave us a lot to expect. Anirudh Ravichander has been an important reason for the reach and the standard of this film to go one league higher. His music has been outstanding, and its paradigm has been thoroughly westernized.



The script seems to touch upon terrorism with some sequences involving military weapons and tanks, cyber-crime with space satellites, and it is widely discussed that it also includes the significance of time. Siva has taken a lot of effort in research to develop a storyline which would also showcase the mass side of Ajith, while also trying to deliver a classy script.



In the recently released trailer, we got a better view of the masterclass in Vetri's visuals and Ruben's cuts and every character's new avatar, making every element in this story, an important contributor to its pre-release success and rise in the expectation meter. With the film's release just two days away, will Ajith and team elevate Tamil cinema to international standards? We'll know soon.Last Sunday, Michael McMahon was shot and badly wounded in a paramilitary punishment attack

Michael McMahon at home where he was shot by masked men on February 2nd 2018 (Photo by Belfast Telegraph)

Last Sunday, Michael McMahon was shot and badly wounded in a paramilitary punishment attack.

Today, we carry an interview with Michael who talks graphically about the pain and fear created by this outrage.

Dried traces of blood are still visible in the hallway of the house where the attack took place, and Michaels father, who was targeted in a sectarian attack in the 1990s, was locked away in an adjoining room. Michael and his father dont know the reason for the attack, and they are among only a handful of people to speak out about such behaviour.

In most other places, such an attack would be in the headlines for days.

Sadly, however, we seem to have become so inured to such suffering.

It is unusual for people to remember the name or face of such a victim, and when the incident was discussed on the Nolan radio programme, some listeners had no sympathy for the grotesque sequence of events which engulfed this family.

There is almost something medieval about such barbaric treatment, and the victims and their families need counselling and help to cope, rather than cold cynicism.

If, as a society, we hand over, or give the impression of handing over, to these savage groups, we are much the poorer for it.

The only source of justice is the legal process to counter the lawless thugs who blight our society.

Paramilitary groups try to give the impression that they are standing up for the rights of the wider community, but this is bogus nonsense.

In fact, they are continually trying to carve up and maintain lucrative territory for themselves, and to keep their members brutally occupied.

Instead of appearing to condone such behaviour, people would be better contacting the police and helping to put these savages behind bars.

A sense of civic rage, which is conspicuously absent, would not go amiss either.In a recent household survey, food came out in front of sun, sea and sand as the single-most important consideration when booking a holiday. The survey, conducted in my house, reveals that if you go to any destination in the Mediterranean basin, the weather will be reliable, hot and sunny. Not the same can be said of the food, however. Food quality differs so much from Nice to Nicosia and from Malaga to Mugla, that it is the deal-breaker before you book.

A first-time visit to Malta last week has altered my map of the Mediterranean irreversibly thanks to a number of unexpected food experiences. With good fortune, the trip coincided with the Baroque Festival of Valletta, the first of a series of major events to mark the tiny and elegant city's elevation to 2018 European Capital of Culture.

This meant that I was transported back 400 years to the celestial sounds of theorbos, crumhorns and sackbuts and the choirs of angels played in some of the most ornate churches on the planet. And in between these concerts the time was productively spent visiting vineyards, restaurants, bistros and cafes.

There is a sense that Malta is developing a sense of confidence reflecting our own recent transformation in Northern Ireland. Whereas, until very recently, we only respected produce that came in by boat and did not consider anything grown or bred here to be particularly good quality, now we are experts on terroir, proud of our food's provenance and evangelistic about our local food stories.

We make a big deal of our beef, pork and lamb, fresh fish and seafood and the green stuff. Maltese chefs are entering this new epoch, food growers are becoming closer to the food experience and some truly exceptional restaurants have opened.

Add to this a small series of vineyards producing notably good and occasionally fantastic wines too small in volume to be exported, then you have the perfect pretexts to catch those new direct services from Belfast (Jet2 and Ryanair have launched new flights from here) and explore them for yourself.

Wines from the San Niklaw vineyard, owned by Malta's only paediatric surgeon John Cauchi - he did his exams in Belfast - are now being lauded by top critics. The great news is that while a limited few bottles are available in some restaurants on the island, the estate arranges wine dinners to suit various group sizes.

Four of us, including our guide Vince DeBono (look him up), star broadcaster Sean Rafferty and Great British Menu judge Matthew Fort booked just such an evening.

Food prepared by local restaurant Rock Salt chef Tor Holmedal and owner Steve De Domenco included three or four dishes of foie gras with apple textures (very Nordic), scallop with pear, dill dust and pea puree, lobster tail with cauliflower and duck breast with truffles and fried casaba and salsify, all beautifully composed, exciting and well-matched.

While the food itself was outstanding my eye was off the ball throughout and focused almost entirely on the wines. For anyone who, like me, had never sampled Maltese wine, the experience was revelatory. Two headliners are the Despatch made from sangiovese grapes, which is dark, smooth and has almost claret-like perfectly balanced tannins.

The Neptunus is from vermentino grapes and has the minerality of the now famous Hungarian fry furmint from Mad. It is crisp, aromatic and staggeringly good. Wine paired dinners range from 50 to 100.

The other must-visit destination restaurant is Townhouse No 3 in Rabat, a small town nestling up close to the heritage 16th-century town of Mdina. The idea is to take a walk around the maze-like, ancient settlement with its convent, baroque churches and elegant little squares and then hurry along to neighbouring Rabat.

Townhouse No 3 is, according to Matthew Fort, deserving of Michelin star status. An unselfconscious little restaurant run by chef patron Malcolm Bartolo, all the food is locally sourced, unusual in Malta. Starters of cured swordfish carpaccio are sparkling and effervescent in the mouth; braised beef rib ravioli with mushroom puree and wild thyme are divine, the pasta flexible and supple. A stuffed collar of pork with fruity Maltese sausage is deep, tender and earthy. It is all sublime and unforgettable.

Our last meal in Malta is a triumph. And we've eaten well in other restaurants, notably Hammett's Macina (go for the lamb rump with couscous), Restaurant Risette in Casa Ellul (hazelnut mille-feuille), Panorama Restaurant in the British Hotel (raviolacci with prawn and scallop) and Noni (rabbit confit).

More Maltese capers in the next week or two.

The bill

Swordfish.......................................13.50

Ravioli.............................................12.75

Pork................................................21.50

Panna cotta.....................................7.00

Total................................................54.75The UK increase is faster than predicted by Cancer Research UK.

Pancreatic cancer - the UK's fifth biggest cancer killer - is on the rise in Northern Ireland, it has emerged.

New statistics published by Pancreatic Cancer Action show that in 2015 the disease was 41% more common here than in 2010.

This is significantly higher than the UK average, which has seen incidence rates rise by 17% in the same five-year period.

In Northern Ireland 273 people were diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2015 and, due to the low survival rate of just 5%, only 14 of them are likely to survive until 2020.

The UK increase is faster than predicted by Cancer Research UK.

It has estimated that more people will die from the pancreatic form of the disease than from the breast form by 2030.

This will mean that pancreatic cancer will overtake breast cancer as the fourth biggest cancer killer.

An ageing and growing population will lead to an increase in cancer cases but, for most cancer types, this will be offset by decreases in death rates due to improvements in early detection and/or treatment.

This is not the case for pancreatic cancer, however, which has one of the lowest survival rates, with fewer than 5% of patients surviving five or more years after diagnosis.

Eight out of 10 people formally diagnosed with pancreatic cancer will have it detected too late for surgery, which is the only potential for a cure, and most will die within a year.

Pancreatic cancer is the only common cancer to be increasing in both incidence and mortality rates.

Ali Stunt, CEO and founder of Pancreatic Cancer Action, a charity that exists to save lives through early diagnosis, has called for urgent action to tackle late diagnosis of the disease.

"More and more people are being diagnosed and dying from pancreatic cancer year on year - and it is a trend that, if not tackled head on, will lead to more people receiving a late diagnosis," she said.

"It is time for the spotlight to be put on the disease which, due to chronic lack of awareness and funding, has a survival rate in the single digits, with little or no improvement in nearly 50 years.

"At Pancreatic Cancer Action, we are committed to improving early diagnosis."A leading cleric has been criticised for "insulting" former President Mary McAleese by attempting to block her from speaking at a conference in the Vatican.

Irish Children's Minister Katherine Zappone was among those to criticise Church officials yesterday after Dublin-born Cardinal Kevin Farrell withheld his approval for Dr McAleese to speak as part of a major conference on women's rights in the Vatican.

Dr McAleese has now written to Pope Francis over Cardinal Farrell's attempt to bar her from the 'Voice of Faith' conference.

In a statement yesterday, she said she would not make any further comment on the matter, as she was waiting to see if the Pope would respond to her letter.

Former Tanaiste Joan Burton criticised Cardinal Farrell for withholding his approval for Dr McAleese and two other speakers to address the '2018 Voices of Faith' conference.

"It is an incredible insult to a former President of Ireland who is internationally acknowledged as a champion of women and of LGBT people," Ms Burton told the Irish Independent.

The former Irish Labour party leader expressed anger at the "incredible insult to Ms McAleese. She was joined in her criticism of the Vatican by Ms Zappone, who warned: "Discrimination in all its forms is to be condemned."

It emerged on Thursday that Cardinal Farrell, who is overseeing the World Meeting of Families in Ireland, had objected to Dr McAleese's involvement in the conference after organisers sent him the list of proposed speakers. The cardinal also objected to two other speakers.The parents of a 15-year-old girl who died in an alleged death-driving case say they feel they will "never get justice" after a retrial over their only daughter's death collapsed.

Speaking for the first time since the loss of their precious daughter Charly-Jean Thompson nearly five years ago, Mark and Nicola Thompson said they feel "let down by the justice system".

Charly-Jean, a Cookstown High School student, died four days after a two-vehicle collision near Cookstown in 2013.

Last week, a retrial of Lee Walter Hegarty, who was driving the car that Charly-Jean and her boyfriend Ryan McCracken were passengers in, ended when the jury at Dungannon Crown Court was unable to reach a verdict.

The first trial last May returned the same result.

His voice breaking, Charly-Jean's grieving father Mark (49) recalled how he had rushed to Craigavon Area Hospital after the accident and was confronted by the sight of paramedics frantically trying to save his girl.

The aspiring hairdresser was declared brain dead a few days later, and her organs were donated to seven people.

"The trials have been really traumatic, really stressful for our family," Mark told the Belfast Telegraph. "We are mentally exhausted at the end of it, and feel physically deflated. We had still thought that we might get justice - we had waited more than four years in limbo for it.

"The second trial started the day before what would have been Charly-Jean's 21st birthday.

"The only hope we have now is that someone will come forward with new information."

On the night of the crash, former chef Nicola (43) was in London, while steel worker Mark was waiting for his daughter to return home.

"I got a phone call from the police to say Charly had been in an RTC (road traffic accident) and I had to get to Craigavon Hospital straightaway," Mark recalled. "I didn't realise how serious it was.

"I went into the hospital room and Charly was lying there and the emergency services, doctors and nurses were working on her.

"I knew one of the ambulance drivers, and he said to me, 'Your wee girl is very, very sick but she's in a good place'.

"Charly had internal bleeding due to wearing a seatbelt and they took her away to operate on her. We didn't realise at that stage that there was brain damage."

Mark says it was only when he saw his daughter two hours later that the extent of her injuries became apparent.

"She was lying there with machines and tubes coming out of her, and I realised it wasn't looking good," he continued.

"My wife Nicola got the first flight home and they sent Charly to the Royal. The doctors told us she was seriously ill, but we didn't realise she was going to die."

Charly-Jean was on a ventilator, and her family witnessed distressing scenes as they kept a four-day bedside vigil.

"They told us she was brain dead," Mark continued. "The brain stem had been pushed onto her brain and there was swelling. Her wee eyes got bigger and bigger and her tongue swelled up. We watched that for four days."

Nicola added: "No parent should have to watch their child's brain swell up to the point that her face is unrecognisable."

In line with her wishes, Charly-Jean's organs were donated to people across the UK.

"Her heart went to a five-year-old boy, a young woman in her 30s received a kidney and her pancreas, and another young woman received her other kidney," Nicola continued.

"A woman in her 40s received her liver, and her eyes gave sight to three people who we have kept in touch with.

"Maybe in time the knowledge that she helped so many others will bring me some comfort, now that the dark cloud of a very traumatic court case and retrial is over.

"Charly-Jean's bedroom is exactly how she left it, and will remain the heart of our home."

Mr Hegarty, of Molesworth Road, Cookstown, was accused of causing Charly-Jean's death by careless driving as well as causing grievous bodily harm to her boyfriend, Mr McCracken.

Charly-Jean was a rear seat passenger in a BMW driven by Mr Hegarty when it collided with a Toyota Helix at Drum Road before striking a telegraph pole.

Mr McCracken, who was 17 at the time, was a front seat passenger in the BMW, and had to be cut free from the wreckage. It had been claimed Mr Hegarty was travelling on Cookstown's Kildress Road, and did not stop at the junction with Drum Road. A collision occurred with the 4x4 coming from the other direction.

The driver of the 4x4, who was also injured, described having no time to brake. The impact sent his vehicle over the roof of Mr Hegarty's car.

The court heard a police officer carried out an inspection of the area the following day, and observed the 'Give Way' sign at the junction between the two roads to be facing away from the direction it should have been.

Efforts to obtain fingerprints from the sign were unsuccessful. The defence argued the sign facing the wrong direction by a malicious action was a major factor.

The jury in the retrial could not reach a verdict, and the PPS is not seeking a third trial.

"We feel we will never get justice for Charly-Jean," Mark continued. "The whole court process has been traumatic.

"When the judge read out the note saying the jury couldn't come to a decision we got up and walked out before they came back in.

"We were completely gutted - it was awful, and we feel so let down by the system."Mary Lou McDonald at a republican commemoration event in Castlewellan for bomber Peter McNulty

Sinn Fein president-elect Mary Lou McDonald has been told to spend her time dealing with "dark and sinister elements" in her party rather than attending IRA commemoration events.

Ms McDonald is facing criticism from unionists and Fine Gael for attending a wreath-laying ceremony in Castlewellan, Co Down, last weekend.

The event commemorated Peter McNulty, an IRA member who died when a bomb he was planting at a police station exploded prematurely.

Fine Gael Louth TD Peter Fitzpatrick said Ms McDonald should have boycotted the event if she was determined to lead a modern party committed to peace.

He added that he would prefer to see the Sinn Fein president-elect making greater efforts to assist families of those killed by the IRA.

"Dark and sinister elements within the Sinn Fein movement know only too well what happened down countless dark alleyways or quiet rural fields when innocent lives were callously ended," he said.

"Who primed explosives and who pulled triggers?

"Only Sinn Fein can provide answers or continue a cover-up.

"As opposed to venerating those who maimed and brought horror to this island, perhaps Ms McDonald could help bring closure for families across Ireland."

McNulty, a farmer from Castlewellan, died in 1972 when he was planting a device at a gate outside a police station.

He had previously been involved in IRA campaigns around the border in the 1950s and 1960s.

Mr Fitzpatrick said families in the region had suffered loss and tragedy at the hands of the IRA.

"In my own constituency in Louth, a father and farmer, Tom Oliver, was tortured and murdered by the IRA in 1991. His family are still seeking the truth," he said.

"Outgoing Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams has not provided any solace to the Oliver family.

"Perhaps Ms McDonald will step out of Gerry's shadow and Sinn Fein's past and remember the true victims and help them find answers.

"Celebrating terrorist bombers belongs in the past, or so we would have hoped.

"Perhaps not, perhaps Mary Lou is happy to walk in the footsteps of her outgoing leader. A puppet or a leader - early indications suggest the former."

Sinn Fein failed to respond to a request for comment on the matter yesterday.

Ms McDonald had tweeted from the commemoration event last week to say she was "remembering the past" and "looking forward to the future".The Secretary of State took time out from the Stormont talks yesterday to see some deal-making in action.

Karen Bradley visited the award-winning St George's Market in Belfast to speak to traders at the famous venue.

The NIO said that she wanted to learn about the vital role it has been playing in Belfast life for more than 100 years.

Clodagh Cassin, markets development manager for Belfast City Council, welcomed Mrs Bradley to the market and led her on a tour of the stalls.

The visit was the latest carried out by the Secretary of State following her appointment to the role at the start of last month.Justice officials are facing calls to shelve prisoner release schemes after it emerged that four inmates - two of them murderers - have absconded in the past fortnight.

All four of the men failed to return to jail over two weeks last month.

While the information was posted on the Department of Justice website, police did not issue any media appeals, claiming to do so would be "counter-productive".

The PSNI added: "There are a range of options which can be deployed in a missing person investigation."

UUP MLA Doug Beattie, the party's justice spokesman, said: "This is no longer good enough. We need to stop the process until we come up with an effective way of dealing with this."

The two killers have now been "unlawfully at large" from Maghaberry Prison since January 19. Both have broken temporary release conditions in the past.

Samuel McKinley (56) was convicted of murder, resisting police, taking a motor vehicle without authority and theft from a house.

It is the fourth time he has failed to return from a temporary release scheme.

He was first jailed in 1996 after stabbing his friend Robin Stoddart to death during a drinking session in southern England.

He received additional sentences for breaching release conditions.

The second murderer on the run is Thomas Lawrence McCabe (53).

Wesley Brennan (31) has been missing from Magilligan Prison since January 12 after being out on home leave.

He was remanded in custody last year in a case involving online fraud over GAA All-Ireland tickets. Other charges include breach of a community based order, fraud, theft and driving while disqualified.

The fourth prisoner, Sean Tate (41), has been unlawfully at large from Magilligan since January 27.

He had been released on compassionate temporary release.

His charges include aggravated vehicle taking, aggravated burglary and stealing, breach of custody probation order, robbery and possessing an offensive weapon in a public place.

Mr Beattie said the public needed greater clarity from the police and the department.

"You have to ask why these men have been let out if some of them have absconded before," he said.

"The conditions for being let out temporarily need to be strict.

"Moreover, if you flout those rules the privilege should never be afforded to you again.

"There is criticism to be handed out here."

Regarding the lack of a PSNI media appeal, he added: "It's easy to criticise. There could be reasons they haven't been made public, but the police need to explain why, so people have a better understanding of it.

"People deserve to know why we have dangerous criminals at large in our society who should be in custody.

"I think the police need to tell us why they're not letting the public know."

In 2015 then Justice Minister David Ford called for a review of temporary release schemes.

At the time McKinley was again on the run.

Mr Beattie added: "If David Ford made that call in 2015 and we're sitting here in 2018 with the same issue, we have serious problems.

"There needs to be somebody who says 'stop', and takes this absolutely seriously. People won't do this until a prisoner absconding kills or injures somebody, or does some criminal damage."A Northern Ireland MP has joined other politicians to oppose the illegal wildlife trade.

A charity event was held in the Houses of Parliament to celebrate China's ivory ban, which comes into force this month.

It is believed around 55 African elephants are being killed for their tusks every day - more than are being born.

Speaking after the event hosted by the WWF and the Chinese Embassy, South Belfast DUP MP Emma Little Pengelly said she was delighted to show her support for ending the trade in ivory.

"A world without African elephants is unthinkable, and governments across the world need to do everything they can to ensure it never happens," she said.

In light of China's ruling, the UK Government is also proposing a ban on the trade.

Mrs Pengelly added: "I know my constituents in South Belfast care deeply about this issue, and tens of thousands of people responded to the UK Government's recent consultation on banning the ivory trade."

It is hoped the Chinese ban will reduce opportunities to buy and sell illegal ivory, therefore reducing demand.

Legislators in Hong Kong - which is thought to be home for the world's largest ivory market - have also voted to ban the ivory trade, hoping the practice can be phased out by 2021.South Belfast MLA Christopher Stalford has accused Sinn Fein of hypocrisy over its criticism of funding in the arts sector.

The DUP representative claimed that the republican party had overseen cuts of millions when it held the Stormont culture portfolio.

He was speaking after Sinn Fein MLA Mairtin O Muilleoir waded into the funding row that erupted after Arts Council chairman John Edmund criticised the sector's reliance on Government handouts.

The former Finance Minister said he wanted to meet Mr Edmund - who was appointed to his post by the DUP - as he found his remarks about the arts' dependency on public money "disturbing".

But the DUP MLA said: "There are real pressures on public finances and on all areas of government expenditure.

"Rather than issuing 'bright-side of the road' Press statements, Sinn Fein should have an honest conversation about the funding of our arts sector."

Mr Edmund has been at the centre of controversy since he made a speech in which he said that the sector should be run more like a business.

Eight of the 11 members of the Arts Council board issued a statement distancing themselves from his remarks. Yesterday the Belfast Telegraph revealed that the board passed two votes of no confidence in Mr Edmund last year, and staged walkouts from board meetings.

Arts practitioners who fear forecasted cuts of 8% to their already stretched budgets also joined the criticism.

As the row continued, Mr Stalford claimed that when Sinn Fein's Caral Ni Chuilin was Culture Minister, she oversaw cuts totalling almost 8.5m.

"During the course of her five-year tenure, that represents on average nearly 1.7m of cuts each year," he said.

"When a DUP minister came into post in 2016-2017, funding for the Arts increased by 317,000."

He said Mr O'Muilleoir had the opportunity as Finance Minister to direct extra funds to the arts, but "walked away".

"Sinn Fein's attitude to the arts was abysmal. Their focus was on pet cultural projects, as opposed to investing in an already thriving sector," he said.

He challenged the party to "get around the Executive table to discuss these matters with other parties and attempt to find a solution".

"It's time for Sinn Fein to get real and face up to the facts of what is happening in departments and the pressures that exist due to their failure to get back into the Executive," he said.

"It offers nothing to the arts sector for Mairtin O'Muilleoir to put on his own theatrical performances of manufactured outrage about funding."The son of one of the 12 people murdered in the Enniskillen bomb has claimed the UK Government will be "dancing on the graves of innocent victims" if it grants a general amnesty.

Samuel Gault was killed in the IRA atrocity in 1987. No one has ever been brought to justice.

His son Stephen, who was standing beside him at the town's cenotaph on Remembrance Sunday when the bomb exploded, opposes all forms of amnesty.

"I am totally against any form of it, but the reality is that terrorists have already received amnesty in the form of royal pardons and on the run letters (OTRs)," he said.

"I personally believe that if a soldier murdered someone unlawfully then they should face the full rigour of the justice system, but so should the terrorists - there has to be a level playing field."

Mr Gault, who was only 18 when his father was killed, said the move would be regarded as another betrayal.

"The British Government has failed victims over and over again," he said.

"Betrayal is nothing new, but any amnesty, even if it comes about as a result of a statute of limitations, would be the same as dancing on the graves of innocent victims."

Mr Gault believes the majority of victims who he has campaigned for share his opinion.

His comments follow speculation that the Government is considering a de facto amnesty for all of those involved in Troubles-related killings.

Speaking on BBC NI's The View on Thursday night, Denis Bradley - one of the authors of a 2009 report on dealing with legacy cases - said he believed a statute of limitations could be agreed in Westminster despite the fact that it might be seen as a breach of international law.

"The British Government will probably face that down," he said.

"The political parties here will jump up and down, but I think behind the scenes they will be very relieved, and I think that will go for particularly Sinn Fein and the DUP."

Mr Bradley acknowledged that victims would be left feeling "betrayed" over the denial of justice.

Victims' campaigner Willie Frazer slammed the speculation, and argued that amnesties would never be palatable to the majority of victims and survivors he represents in south Armagh.

"I am sickened to again hear proposals suggesting amnesty style deals for those accused of Troubles-related crimes," he said.

"The victims we represent have made it clear - no matter how it's spun, dressed up or sold - amnesty will never be acceptable to the majority of truly innocent victims."

Mr Frazer warned that the "deeply worrying" scenario could jeopardise any quest for truth, as it would result in former terrorists giving "questionable information" in exchange for amnesty.

"The victims will not be misled and the fight for truth, justice and closure continues," he added.A yellow weather warning for snow and ice for Northern Ireland has been extended until Wednesday.

The weather warning will impact much of the region.

The Met Office has said snow showers are likely to be frequent with hail and thunder also possible.

Storms will gradually fade overnight Tuesday into Wednesday.

The warning is in place from Monday 8pm until 9am on Wednesday.In the wake of the burglary, the family have received a huge outpouring of support as Christina's grand-daughter shared images of the jewellery online for people to be mindful if they see them for sale

A 78-year-old woman has told of her heartbreak after callous thugs raided her home and stole jewellery of immense sentimental value - while she recovered from an operation.

Christina McCartney was in the Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast this week having an operation when her home was targeted.

Her house in Limavady was ransacked in the burglary but what has compounded her hurt more is that precious gold jewellery - some of which she has had for more than 50 years - was taken.

She told the Belfast Telegraph she is heartbroken at the thought of someone having her items which include a necklace her late husband William gave her when they got engaged in 1957, her engagement ring, her mother's wedding ring and a ring from her late daughter.

The brave woman, who has returned to her house, said she is glad she wasn't there when it happened.

She said: "I was in total shock, I didn't think it would ever happen to me. Most of the items are all sentimental, my engagement ring, a necklace my husband bought me the day I got engaged in 1957.

"It means a lot to me. My daughter gave me a ring just before she died, it's gone too. All my jewellery is gone."

Christina branded those responsible as "despicable".

She said: "It's that they came into my house and used some kind of crowbar on my front door and broke it all. I have to get a new front door. I think they are despicable. It's awful and just terrible."

Christina says she has a feeling those responsible may have been watching and knew she wasn't home.

"I think they are just scum of the earth especially doing that to vulnerable people."

Christina said despite the ordeal she feels safe in her house now and is surrounded by good neighbours.

She added: "It is heartbreaking. It's a good job it happened when I wasn't here because you never know what may have happened."

She described the mess her house was left in after the incident.

"They took out every drawer and cupboard and ransacked it and left it lying there. They didn't do any big damage but opened all the drawers."

The elderly woman admitted she was still in shock adding that "it's something that's hard to get over".

Having lived there for almost 40 years she has never experienced anything like this before.

"My husband and I lived here from after we were married and never had any trouble, we were married in December 1957."

Christina says she is devastated that someone out there has her belongings.

"They were looking for gold and money - stuff they knew they could get rid of. The thought that someone else is going to be running about with my stuff."

In the wake of the burglary, the family have received a huge outpouring of support as Christina's grand-daughter shared images of the jewellery online for people to be mindful if they see them for sale.

Her son Gordon said: "She's very annoyed that someone was in the house, more annoyed that somebody took jewellery.

"But she's a hearty soul, she's 78 but she's clued up."

Mr McCartney said the response from the public has been "overwhelming" and thanked those who had offered support.

He said: "I told my mum thankfully no-one has been hurt, the house isn't wrecked, it's just the loss of the stuff and that someone has been in your house."

He added: "I just hope they are proud of themselves for what they've done."

Police are investigating and Detective Sergeant McColgan said: "Anyone who noticed any unusual activity in the area or anyone who has any information is asked to contact dete ctives at Limavady on 101."A 26-year-old woman arrested on suspicion of possession with intent to supply Class B controlled drugs has been released on bail.

The woman was arrested after a planned search of a house in the Carrickfergus area on Friday by officers from the Paramilitary Crime Task Force.

A quantity of suspected cannabis resin, along with a sum of cash and drugs paraphernalia was seized during this search.

The woman was released on bail pending further police enquiries.

The Police Service of Northern Ireland, HM Revenue & Customs and the National Crime Agency established the Paramilitary Crime Task Force to tackle criminality linked to paramilitarism as part of the Executives action plan on tackling paramilitary activity, criminality and organised crime.Health chiefs have set up a team to implement the findings of the Hyponatraemia Inquiry.

Department of Health permanent secretary Richard Pengelly said that they would draw up an action plan to deliver the 96 recommendations in the report.

In a series of meetings yesterday senior departmental officials met chief executives and chairs of organisations across the Health and Social Care system.

Mr Pengelly said: "This has been a devastating week for the families affected by the events considered by the inquiry.

"In addition, everyone involved in health and social care will have been affected and will have cause to reflect on the findings.

This is true for all staff, at every level."

The inquiry, headed by Sir John O'Hara QC, found that the deaths of four children could have been avoided, and doctors covered up failures in care.

Mr Pengelly said that a key priority for the team would be laying the foundations for an incoming minister to establish a legal duty of candour for healthcare professionals.

He also said that health trusts would address issues relating to individuals named in the report.

"Contact has already been made with the independent National Clinical Assessment Service and the General Medical Council (GMC) and agreement has been reached on the approach in relation to the concerns raised by the inquiry regarding doctors' actions," he said.

"The General Medical Council, which regulates all doctors in the UK, requires any doctor who is criticised in an inquiry to inform the GMC.

"We expect full compliance with this requirement. A way forward is also being discussed with the Nursing and Midwifery Council.

"Everyone who attended today's meetings is in no doubt that public confidence has been damaged.

"Some reassurance can be provided from the inquiry report's observation that 'lessons have been learnt' and that 'the health service environment has most definitely been transformed since the period under review'.

"However, whilst true, this should not be a cause for complacency as there remains much to do."

Mr Pengelly also said that resources would be made available to Sir John to further explore the issue of a whistleblower's complaint.

Meanwhile, former Stormont Health Minister Jim Wells said: "I would suggest that we go further and make it an offence, not only a duty of candour, but to make it an offence to be proved to be deliberately withholding information, as clearly happened in this case.

"People had information which could have given answers and would have given the families some comfort, and that information was deliberately withheld."Loo is one of 18 rehomed unwanted terrapins at the centre (Sea Life Manchester/PA)

Flushed away pet terrapins are damaging pond life and waterfowl, according to bosses at a sea life centre.

Sea Life Manchester say UK aquariums are at capacity and terrapin owners are taking to putting the reptiles down the toilet to avoid being caught illegally releasing them into the wild.

It adds that recent EU invasive alien species regulations now prohibit aquariums from taking in pet terrapins or moving terrapin stock to other aquariums.

As a result, it says, public ponds, canals and lakes are home to large numbers of the terrapins that have survived the journey through Britains sewerage plants.

The centres lead curator Alan Kwan said: People wrongly assume that terrapins are going to be easy to care for. What they dont realise is they grow from a hand-sized 3cm in length to 30cm, the size of a large dinner plate, and live between 30 and 50 years.

Global warming and the resulting rise in temperatures across British waterways is leading to abandoned terrapins breeding and growing in population.

Native to Florida, this alien predatory reptile is having a damaging effect on British pondlife and waterfowl with fish, frog, frogspawn and ducklings falling prey.

Sea Life Manchester, based at the Trafford Centre, want people to think twice before buying a terrapin as a family pet.

The centre has named one of its 18 rehomed unwanted pet terrapins as Loo to highlight the problem.Dozens of firefighters are battling flames that engulfed a car workshop at a west London industrial estate.

Ten fire engines and 72 firefighters and officers are at the scene of the fire on the Kirby Estate, Trout Road, in West Drayton, the London Fire Brigade (LFB) said.

Crews are working hard at the scene of a fire at a car workshop in #WestDrayton. Ten fire engines remain at the scene https://t.co/aIbojTjQHm pic.twitter.com/9eRyB6hdrO  London Fire Brigade (@LondonFire) February 3, 2018

Three-quarters of the 20-by-55 metre single-storey unit was alight, the LFB said.

The brigade was called at 11.36am and crews from Hillingdon, Hayes, Heathrow, Southall, Feltham and other surrounding fire stations are present.

It received 36 calls reporting the fire, the cause of which is not yet known.

Station manager Shaun Coltress said: The fire has been contained to the unit of origin but firefighters are likely to remain at the scene for some time.A toilet in a bathroom and a t-shirt from the Museum of London

The Museum of London is getting ready to open an exhibition all about the Whitechapel fatberg, and while intriguing, youd imagine such a project might be difficult to sell in the gift shop.

Fear not, the museum has got it all covered with this fantastic T-shirt, which it says is: A fun callback to retro B-movie posters from the 1960s.

Its got something of the Scooby-Doo about it, has it not?

Expand Close A fatberg t-shirt from the Museum of London / Facebook

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But the fatberg is no human in a costume, its a very real monster, a sewer blockage that, when discovered, weighed 130 tonnes and was over 250 metres long.

The exhibition offers the chance to see the last remaining piece of the fatberg, the vast majority of which has been converted into biodiesel, while drawing attention to the pressures fat and modern rubbish are putting on Londons historic infrastructures, according to the museum.

The exhibition, free to visit, opens on February 9 and is due to close on July 1. The people at the Museum of London are pretty excited about it if this trailer is anything to go by.

Who knew such a disgusting mass of fat could make such a cool T-shirt?Mr Trump tweeted from Florida that the memo puts him in the clear (Carolyn Kaster/AP)

Donald Trump has claimed complete vindication from a congressional memo alleging the FBI abused its surveillance powers during the investigation into his campaigns possible Russia ties.

But the memo also includes revelations that might complicate efforts by the President and his allies to undermine special counsel Robert Muellers inquiry.

The four-page document contends the FBI, when it applied for a surveillance warrant on a one-time Trump campaign associate, relied excessively on an ex-British spy whose opposition research was funded by Democrats.

At the same time, the memo confirms the investigation into potential Trump links to Russia actually began several months earlier, and was triggered by information involving a different campaign aide.

Christopher Steele, the former spy who compiled the allegations, acknowledged having strong anti-Trump sentiments. But he also was a longtime FBI source with a credible track record, according to the memo from the House Intelligence Committee chairman, Representative Devin Nunes, and his staff.

The warrant authorising the FBI to monitor the communications of former campaign adviser Carter Page was not a one-time request, but was approved by a judge on four occasions, the memo says, and even signed off by the second-ranking official at the Justice Department, Rod Rosenstein, whom Mr Trump appointed as deputy attorney general.

Mr Trump however tweeted from Florida, where he was spending the weekend, that the memo puts him in the clear.

He said: This memo totally vindicates Trump in probe. But the Russian Witch Hunt goes on and on. Their [sic] was no Collusion and there was no Obstruction (the word now used because, after one year of looking endlessly and finding NOTHING, collusion is dead). This is an American disgrace!

The underlying materials that served as the basis for the warrant application were not made public in the memo. As a result, the document only further intensified a partisan battle over how to interpret the actions of the FBI and Justice Department during the early stages of the counterintelligence investigation Mr Mueller later inherited.

Some Republicans are citing the memo, released over the objections of the FBI and Justice Department, in their arguments the Mueller investigation is politically tainted.

The memos central allegation is that agents and prosecutors, in applying in October 2016 to monitor Mr Pages communications, failed to tell a judge the opposition research that provided grounds for the FBIs suspicion had been partially funded by Hillary Clintons presidential campaign and the Democratic National Committee.

Mr Page had stopped advising the campaign sometime around the end of that summer.

Republicans say a judge should have known political actors were involved in allegations that led the Justice Department to believe Mr Page might be an agent of a foreign power  an accusation has consistently and strenuously denied.

Mr Steeles research, according to the memo, formed an essential part of the warrant application. But its unclear how much or what information he collected made it into the application, or how much has been corroborated. His opposition research effort was initially funded by the conservative Washington Free Beacon.

The FBI this week expressed grave concerns about the memo and called it inaccurate and incomplete. Democrats said it was a set of cherry-picked claims aimed at smearing law enforcement and releasing the memo would damage law enforcement and intelligence work.

Beyond that, the memo confirms the FBIs counterintelligence investigation into the Trump campaign began in July 2016, months before the surveillance warrant was sought, and was triggered by information concerning campaign aide George Papadopoulos. He pleaded guilty last year to lying to the FBI and is cooperating with Mr Muellers investigation.

The timing makes clear that other Trump associates beyond Mr Page, who was part of the election effort for only a short period and was not in Mr Trumps inner circle, had generated law enforcement scrutiny.

The memo also omits Mr Page had been on the FBIs radar a few years earlier as part of a separate counterintelligence investigation into Russian influence.

The memo focuses on Mr Page, but Democrats on the House committee said this ignores the inconvenient fact that the investigation did not begin with, or arise from Christopher Steele or the dossier, and that the investigation would persist on the basis of wholly independent evidence had Christopher Steele never entered the picture.

Other details in the memo could also challenge Republican claims of bias. The warrant requested was renewed on three additional occasions, meaning judges approved it four times. One of the Justice Department officials who signed off on it was Mr Rosenstein, a Trump appointee.

The memo had been classified because it deals with warrants obtained from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. The White House declassified and sent it to Mr Nunes for immediate release.

That disclosure involves details about surveillance of Americans, national security information the government regards as among its most highly classified.

Mr Rosenstein and FBI Director Christopher Wray had personally lobbied against the memos disclosure, arguing it could set a dangerous precedent.

The memos release also comes amid an effort by Trump and congressional Republicans to discredit Muellers investigation. His probe focuses not only on whether the Trump campaign coordinated with Russia but also on whether the president sought to obstruct justice.Russian president Vladimir Putin attended commemorations on Friday marking the 75th anniversary of the Nazi surrender that ended the battle of Stalingrad, lauding the Red Armys victory as a shining example of Russias perseverance amid adversity.

Mr Putin on Friday visited Volgograd, the current name of the city in southern Russia that stretches along the western bank of the Volga River.

The city was renamed in 1961 as part of the Soviet Unions rejection of former dictator Joseph Stalins personality cult. But the name Stalingrad remains inextricably linked to the historic battle that perhaps turned the tide of Second World War more than any other.

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The five months of fighting in Stalingrad between August 1942 and February 1943 is regarded as the bloodiest battle in history. The death toll for soldiers and civilians is estimated to have been an astonishing two million.

Most of the city was reduced to rubble before Nazi forces surrendered on February 2 1943.

Such degree of resistance, self-sacrifice and spiritual power were invincible, incomprehensible and terrifying for the enemy, Mr Putin said.

#Volgograd: 75th anniversary of victory in the Battle of Stalingrad https://t.co/Qk8YCxvuD8 pic.twitter.com/oyaylMeMCd  President of Russia (@KremlinRussia_E) February 2, 2018

Mr Putin hailed the Stalingrad victory as a reflection of the courage of our soldiers and the talent of their commanders.

The defenders of Stalingrad  have left us a great heritage: love for the Motherland, the readiness to defend its interests and independence and to show resistance while facing any trials, he said.This is the first weekend of February, and I am glad to see the back of January. It has been a month of saying 'goodbye' to people who have enriched my life and are sorely missed.

Shortly after dawn on New Year's Day, my wife and I set off to drive from Belfast to Cork for the funeral of a much-loved friend.

We had met her and her husband, who was also greatly-treasured by us, nearly 40 years ago when staying at Renvyle House Hotel in Connemara. We were two young couples with growing families and, in the words of the song, "Those were the days my friend, we thought they'd never end".

She was a beautiful person and a talented artist, and when her husband died some years ago, we continued to stay in touch regularly.

Her funeral on January 2 at the little Anglican church in Carrigaline, near Cork, was immensely sad, and our hearts went out to her family, as we shared their grief. Now she has gone, but the memories linger on, and her lovely autumn painting of blackberries, which she gave us many years ago, has long had a special place in our home. It is now even more precious to us.

In the following weeks we attended the funerals in Belfast of three other people whom we had liked and respected.

Then, not long ago, a much-loved neighbour passed on. He was a saintly man, yet down to earth with a great sense of fun.

Though we mourn his passing deeply, we also give thanks for the blessings of having such good neighbours for so long, and our hearts also go out to all his family.

Though it was such a hard month, we found the Christian funerals comforting, with the assurance of life beyond death.

Friendship is a great theme of the Bible, and one of the deepest friendships was that between Lazarus and Jesus Christ, which led to the shortest sentence in the Bible: "Jesus wept."

This showed how Christ understood human grief, even though He literally had the power to overcome death itself.

Friendship is also part of the fabric of life in so many different dimensions. Think, for example, of the strong personal friendship between the statesmen Prime Minister Winston Churchill and President Franklin D Roosevelt, which helped to cement further the special relationship between the UK and the USA, and which saved the world from Hitler's savage tyranny.

(Incidentally, you should make an effort to see Gary Oldman's spellbinding portrayal of Churchill in the film Darkest Hour, if you haven't done so already).

This past month also set me thinking even more deeply about friendship in general, and my firm belief that it is something which we should never take for granted.

I have long been impressed by Dr Samuel Johnson's observation that "It behoves a man to keep his friendships in good repair", and during December and January I have made a point of seeing a number of old friends, some of whom I had not met for far too long.

It was an enriching experience, but it required organisation and commitment from all of us. How many times do you say to someone "We must have coffee or lunch or dinner", and then both of you never get round to it? Sometimes you find, to your deep regret, that it is too late to do so.

Some people put much store by 'networking'. This is a term I dislike, because it does not necessarily mean friendship. Networking is a system of staying in touch with people, but often only out of mutual self-interest.

If you doubt this, think of the people whom you once thought were friends through working together, but who now look over your shoulder at a social gathering and seek out somebody who is more important to them now than you are.

Sadly, that's human nature, and these are the kind of people who think that you don't notice, but you do.

I always bear in mind the quote that "You can tell much from a man who stays in touch with his friends who can't do him any favours".

So, as we move through winter towards the promise of spring, wrap the warmth of friendships around you. Cherish your friends, and thank God that you still have them.Myanmar on Friday rejected reports of a massacre and at least five mass graves in the countrys troubled Rakhine state, where the military has been accused of committing atrocities against ethnic Rohingya Muslims, saying an investigation had found no evidence to support the claims.



In a report published on Thursday, the Associated Press (AP) said it had confirmed the existence of more than five previously unreported mass graves in Buthidaung townships Gu Dar Pyin village, in Rakhine state, through interviews of survivors in refugee camps in Bangladesh, including one who provided time-stamped cellphone videos.



The report uncovered what AP called systematic slaughter of Rohingya Muslim civilians by the military, with help from Buddhist neighbors, with evidence suggesting many more graves hold many more people in the area.



On Friday, Zaw Htay, director-general of the office of Myanmars de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi, told RFAs Myanmar Service that the Rakhine State government had been ordered to look into the claims and, after forming an investigation commission, found no evidence to support them.



The commission  consisting of the Buthidaung township administrator, a police officer, a legal officer, a doctor and an immigration officer  went to Buthidaung and arrived at Gu Dar Pyin village at 1 p.m. today, he said.



They went to the five places AP mentioned and they found nothing. Village heads and villagers said there had been no incident like AP reported in their village. We [government officials] have asked them to conduct further searches around Gu Dar Pyin.



Zaw Htay said the investigation commission had found no evidence that soldiers planned an Aug. 27 attack on the village and tried to hide what they had done, as AP reported, citing survivors who said troops had used shovels to dig pits and acid to burn away faces and hands so that bodies could not be recognized.



Instead, he said, it discovered a police file detailing an incident on Aug. 28 in which rebels from the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) came to the village, killed some people, and set houses on fire.



Security guards went to the area and fought with ARSA members. Nineteen ARSA members were killed and buried  Police filed the case as an anti-terrorist action, he said.



Fridays response followed a pattern of Myanmar government officials repeatedly rejecting evidence and strongly denying allegations of atrocities against the Rohingyas in Rakhine state, and routinely blaming ARSA rebels for much of the violence.



Call for evidence



Zaw Htay said that the AP had based its report on information and mobile phone videos it obtained from more than two dozen Rohingya refugees who fled Rakhine state into neighboring Bangladesh, and said Myanmars government had no way of checking the veracity of their claims without investigators viewing the videos to determine whether they were really taken in Gu Dar Pyin or not.



Many photos have come out claiming to have been taken in Rakhine, but were no  AP also showed a video of a fire in a village, and village heads said it was not Gu Dar Pyin, he said.



We dont want to deny the cases by closing our eyes to the claims, but we need primary evidence [if they want to accuse us]. If we receive evidence, we will investigate on the ground. If we find the claims are true, we will take action according to law against the perpetrators.



The Myanmar government's Information Committee, part of Aung San Suu Kyis office, also denied the AP report in a statement on its Facebook page Friday.



However, Reuters news agency spoke with two Rohingya residents it said were still in the village who disputed the government's statement and said that there were mass graves there. They said senior military officers visited the area on Friday, took photographs and held a meeting with the villagers.



They confirmed the existence of mass graves and said that after the meeting a large group of military men stayed behind and the villagers are scared.



Independent investigation



Addressing calls from the U.S. State Department and the United Nations to allow an independent investigation into the claims, Zaw Htay said Myanmars government plans to allow trusted and fair media into the area, adding that only those groups that are not biased will be given access.



On Thursday, Kuwait's Ambassador to the U.N. Security Council Mansour al-Otaibi said Myanmars government told him February was not the right time for a visit by the top U.N. body to send a team to investigate the Rohingya refugee crisis in Rakhine state, although authorities were not opposed to such a visit, which could take place in March or April.



Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh recently turned over a list of almost 4,400 Rohingya killed in Rakhine state since October 2016 to U.N. envoy Yanghee Lee, who told reporters Thursday that violence against the Muslim minority bore the hallmarks of a genocide.



The data was collected by Rohingya leaders going door to door in refugee camps in southeastern Bangladesh, according to people who took part in the effort and who shared the list with BenarNews.



Some 775,000 fled into Bangladesh as a result of disproportionate military crackdowns carried out after Rohingya insurgent attacks in October 2016 and August 2017.

This report was produced by Radio Free Asia (RFA), a sister entity of BenarNews.Bangladeshi militants were behind a bomb-blast last month at a Buddhist pilgrimage site in northeastern Bihar state while Tibets spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, was visiting the area, in a plot to avenge violence against Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar, Indian police said Friday.

Two suspected members of Neo-JMB, a faction of Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), were arrested by the West Bengal polices Special Task Force on Thursday and confessed to their involvement in the low-intensity explosion in Bodh Gaya on Jan. 19, task force chief Muralidhar Sharma said. No casualties were reported.

The blast occurred near the Kalachakra grounds just minutes after the Tibetan spiritual guru completed a workshop there. Police said they could not confirm whether the bombs were intended to target the Dalai Lama, 82.

We had recently detained some people from West Bengal and Assam whose interrogation led to the arrests of these two men. They have confessed they belong to Neo-JMB and that they were involved in the Bodh Gaya attack. They said the attack was meant to retaliate against atrocities committed against Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar, Sharma told BenarNews.

The police recovered 50 kilograms [110.2 pounds] of ammonium nitrate, some other chemicals, electronic devices, gloves and some objectionable literature, he added.

Neo-JMB is the group that authorities in Bangladesh blamed for a terrorist siege that killed 29 people, including 20 hostages and five gunmen, at an upscale cafe in Dhaka in July 2016. The extremist group Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack.

Bangladesh shelters about 1 million Rohingya refugees, including 688,000 who fled from Myanmars Rakhine state since late August 2017, amid a brutal crackdown by the military and police. It followed attacks on security outposts carried out by Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army insurgents.

Nearly 4,400 Rohingya were killed in atrocities allegedly committed by the Myanmar security forces and Buddhist militias, according to a partial list compiled by Rohingya refugee leaders in southeastern Bangladesh and obtained by BenarNews.

On Thursday, Yangee Lee, the U.N.s special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, told reporters the violence against the Rohingya minority bore the hallmarks of a genocide.

More bombs found

The two suspects arrested this week in West Bengal were identified as Indian nationals Mohammad Paigambar Sheikh, 24, and Jamirul Sheikh, 31, both residents of the state, police said.

Sharma said the two accused men had planted eight bombs near the Kalachakra grounds where foreign Buddhist pilgrims were camping to celebrate the month-long Kalachakra festival, but only one went off.

A day after the explosion, officials with the National Investigation Agency (NIA), Indias top counter-terror unit, recovered and defused two unexploded bombs from the site. The NIA, which is investigating the Bodh Gaya attack, will interrogate the suspects, an official told BenarNews on condition of anonymity.

Paigambar, who was trained in 2012 by Bangladeshi handlers, was in touch with JMB chief Salauddin Salehin, Sharma said.

He said raids were continuing across West Bengal to arrest more suspected members of the Bangladeshi terror outfit who were believed to have crossed into India following the attack at the Holey Artisan Bakery cafe in Dhaka on July 1, 2016.

Neo-JMB is the party that nurtures Islamic States ideology and is responsible for recent atrocities, Monirul Islam, the chief of Bangladeshs counter-terrorism and transnational unit, told BenarNews last year.

Since the 2016 siege, Bangladeshi forces have killed dozens of suspected militants in anti-terror raids, Islam said, adding that some Neo-JMB leaders had fled to India.

Bangladeshi militant groups were taking advantage of cultural and linguistic similarities in Indian states including West Bengal, according to Nirmal Dutta, a former Indian intelligence official.

Ever since the Bangladeshi government began cracking down on terror following the Dhaka attack, Bangladeshi terrorists have taken refuge in West Bengal, where they are actively recruiting Indians to carry out clandestine operations, Dutta told BenarNews.Rohingya walk up a hill showing visible signs of soil erosion, at the Balukhali refugee camp in Coxs Bazar, Bangladesh, Jan. 27, 2018.

At least 100,000 Rohingya huddling in squalid refugee camps in southeastern Bangladesh could be in grave danger from landslides and floods, the U.N.s refugee agency warned Friday as it ramped up efforts to blunt expected impacts of coming monsoonal rains.

UNHCR issued the warning a day after U.N. special rapporteur Yangee Lee raised serious concerns about the possible devastation faced by about 600,000 refugees sheltering in low-lying land interspersed with rolling hills in the settlement camps.

The findings of an initial risk analysis, mapping the worlds largest refugee settlement area in Kutapalong and Balukhali, which shelters more than 569,000 refugees, indicate that at least 100,000 refugees could be in grave danger from landslides and floods, UNHCR spokesman Andrej Mahecic said in a statement.

The sheer volume of refugee arrivals since late August 2017  relief agencies estimate that 688,000 Rohingya crossed over from Myanmar  has added strain to the local environment because more trees are being cut down to make space for the newcomers, according to experts.

Trees and roots used to keep the soil compact, Faisal, a local environmentalist, told BenarNews. As there are no more trees, rain will now fall straight on the surface, erode soil and cause landslide and flooding.

Heavy rains usually hit Bangladesh from mid-April to October, authorities said.

Mahecic said UNHCR had worked with experts at Dhaka University and other agencies, including the Asian Disaster Preparedness Center, to carry out the assessment. It concludes that up to one-third of the settlement areas could be flooded.

More than 85,000 refugees could lose their shelters made up of bamboo poles and tarpaulins, and another 23,000 refugees living on steep slopes within the site could be at risk of landslides, Mahecic said.

Environmentalists say Bangladesh is prone to flooding because it is on the Ganges Delta, one of the worlds largest river distributaries that takes heavy runoff from the melting snows of the Himalayas.

The sprawling refugee settlements in Coxs Bazar district that were covered by dense forest have been stripped of vegetation, according to Faisal, an environmental consultant working for an NGO at the camps, who said he agreed with UNHCRs assessment.

When refugees arrived in large numbers last year, he said, many even dug out the roots of trees and used them for fuel.

Faisal, who uses only one name, said the camps were so congested that a collapse of a small hill would affect at least three layers of camps.

During the first weeks after late August, when Rohingya refugees arrived from Myanmar in Bangladesh, there was little time to plan the location or construction of dwellings, according to the UNHCR.

Last month, the agency distributed stronger load-bearing bamboo poles as part of construction kits to help the refugees build more robust structures.

A refugee camp in Ukhia, Bangladesh shows some of the shelters that U.N. officials say could be devastated by mudslides and heavy rains during the upcoming monsoon, Nov. 13, 2017. [AP]

Refugees express worries

Abdus Sadiq, a 25-year-old refugee living at one of the settlements, said he worried that his shelter could not handle the monsoon rains.

We do not know how many of the rooms would survive, he told BenarNews. But it is better to die in natural calamities than die in the hands of the Myanmar military and the Moghs (vigilante Buddhists).

Around 1 million Rohingya refugees are sheltering in southeastern Bangladesh, including the nearly 700,000 who fled their homes in Myanmar since late August 2017 amid a brutal military crackdown. It followed attacks on government security posts by Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) insurgents.

Refugees have accused Myanmar soldiers, backed by their vigilante neighbors they derisively call Moghs, of committing killings, rapes, and arson in their villages.

Lee, the U.N. rapporteur who visited Bangladesh and interviewed Rohingya refugees earlier this month, told reporters in Seoul on Thursday that Dhakas failure to prepare the refugee camps for the monsoon season would result in a disaster within a disaster for the Rohingya.

On Nov. 12, 1970, one of the deadliest tropical cyclones recorded in history pummeled Bangladesh  then known as East Pakistan  killing about 500,000 people, according to official figures, mostly as a result of a storm surge that flooded the low-lying islands of the Ganges Delta.

A day of rain could trigger landslides and flood lowlands decimating shelters, and could lead to casualties, Lee said.If you are a member of the armed forces serving on either active duty or full-time National Guard duty, you should apply through the VA Pre-discharge claim program before leaving service.

The best way to file for Veteran Readiness and Employment services is to apply online at va.gov/careers-employment . To submit a paper application, download and complete a VA Form 28-1900, "Disabled Veterans Application for Vocational Rehabilitation" and mail it to your local regional office . You may also go to your local regional office and turn in your application for processing.

Visit the VA Compensation website for more information about compensation benefits.

You can also go to your local regional office and turn in your application for processing.

To submit a paper application, download and complete VA Form 21-526EZ, "Application for Disability Compensation and Related Compensation Benefits" and mail the application to: U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Claims Intake Center PO Box 4444 Janesville, WI 53547-4444 Or, you can fax it to: (844) 531-7818 (inside the U.S.) (248) 524-4260 (outside the U.S.)

The best way to file for disability compensation is to apply online at www.va.gov/disability .

Visit the VA Dependency and Indemnity Compensation (VA DIC) page for more information on compensation benefits for survivors and dependents.

You can apply for this benefit in any of these ways:

If youre a surviving parent , fill out an Application for Dependency and Indemnity Compensation by Parent(s) (VA Form 21P-535). Download VA Form 21P-535 (PDF)

If youre the surviving spouse or child of a Veteran , fill out an Application for DIC, Death Pension, and/or Accrued Benefits (VA Form 21P-534EZ). Download VA Form 21P-534EZ (PDF)

If youre the surviving spouse or child of a service member who died while on active duty , your military casualty assistance officer will help you to complete an Application for DIC, Death Pension, and/or Accrued Benefits by a Surviving Spouse or Child (VA Form 21P-534a). The officer will help you mail the form to the correct VA regional office. Download VA Form 21P-534a (PDF)

Visit the www.va.gov/pension/eligibility for more information about Pension benefits.

To submit a paper application Pension benefits, download and complete VA Form 21P-527EZ, "Application for Pension" and mail it to the Pension Management Center that serves your state.

You can apply for pension benefits online at www.va.gov/pension .

Visit the www.va.gov/pension/survivors-pension for information about benefits for survivors.

You can work with a trained professional called an accredited representative to get help applying for VA survivors pension benefits. Get help filing your claim

With the help of a trained professional

Bring your application to a VA regional office near you. Find a VA regional office near you

Mail it to the pension management center (PMC) for your state. Find your PMC

VA education and training benefitsFinance Minister Arun Jaitley has announced two new initiatives under the Ayushman Bharat Program in the Union Budget 2018.

The last full Budget of the present government played big on its flagship healthcare coverage, which was later dubbed as ModiCare. This is what the Healthcare sector wants to say about the Union Budget 2018-

The Union Budget 2018 has taken a huge step in making healthcare affordable and accessible by launching the worlds largest healthcare scheme. It is indeed heartening that 40 per cent of Indias population will be covered under an insurance scheme. The payor problem demanded urgent attention and the government has paid heed. If the Flagship National Health Protection Scheme to cover 10 Cr poor and vulnerable families with upto 5 Lakhs per family per year for secondary and tertiary care hospitalisation is properly implemented and monitored we would have taken an important step in creating a Swasth Bharat. Effectively this initiative which amounts to $800 billion dollars tops even the US Medicaid programme which amounts to $550 billion.

- Suneeta Reddy, MD, Apollo Hospitals

My heartiest congratulations to this government for investing in creating a Swasth Bharat by launching the Ayushman Bharat programme. Such ambitious out of the box thinking was a burning need of the hour and the government has not disappointed. The initiative to cover 10 crore families with 5 lakh per family/per year WITH INSURANCE COVER FOR SECONDARY AND TERTIARY HEALTHCARE will be a game changer.

- Dr. Prathap Reddy, Chairman, Apollo Hospitals

The governments focus on rural development and agriculture is a welcome step. The long overdue emphasis on our rural economy and agriculture will stimulate demand. The announcement of the Aayushman Bharat program for healthcare is a game changer and the coverage of ten crore people under the National health protection scheme is commendable. This will give an impetus to healthcare benefits for people in the most deserving sections of society.

Overall, while the budget appears to be a progressive one, it was disappointing to note that the reduction in corporate tax was offered only to companies with a turnover under of Rs. 250 crores.

- Satish Reddy, Chairman, Dr. Reddys Laboratories

We applaud the announcements made by the Government in the Union Budget 2018 which has indeed addressed a lot of issues that will help the economy to prosper. It aims in creating the largest healthcare blanket for the biggest democracy of the world. The Government's initiative of setting up 1.5 lakh health facilities across the country will help bring healthcare closer to homes of the people, and will enable them to receive medical help within the golden hour hence improving the chances of survival.

Granting 50 crore beneficiaries and 10 crore families, 5 lakh rupees per year cover secondary and tertiary hospital expenses is a breakthrough move and the world's largest government-funded healthcare program . This will allow the poor to access world class healthcare facilities which was not affordable or available earlier. Also, the announcement of setting up one medical college for every three parliamentary constituencies is great as this will help in training the emergency medical technicians which will, in turn revolutionize the quality of care of the emergency medical response services in the country."

- Mr. Naresh Jain, CEO, Ziqitza Healthcare Ltd

"The government has reiterated its commitment to Universal Healthcare and has announced flagship schemes to provide better healthcare to people at bottom of the pyramid  National Health Policy and Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana. These schemes will expand the reach of basic healthcare facilities in the country. While access to basic healthcare is an important determinant of Universal Healthcare, another critical factor is quality of healthcare. The latter requires access to advance healthcare technology for best health management of patients. The government should have looked at incentivising import of advance medical devices into the country by bringing down the customs duty.

There is also a need to undo the un-nuanced price control imposed by NPPA as the move is leading to unintended consequences on the healthcare ecosystem without any significant reduction in the cost of patient. The current price control regime has also lead to a drastic fall in foreign direct investment in healthcare sector from $417 million in April-September 2017 against $173 million in the same period in 2016, a reduction of 59 per cent.

Under the current ecosystem where more than 70 per cent of medical devices have to be imported from abroad, a balance approach to reduce cost to patient is trade margin rationalization for distributors, gradation in pricing thereby allowing a higher price bracket for superior medical devices, and lower customs duty. These measures will reduce the cost to patient without dis-incentivizing technical innovation by medical device manufacturers."

- Mr. Pavan Choudary, Chairman & DG, Medical Technology Association of India (MTaI)

It is really encouraging to see that the government has laid strong emphasis on Healthcare by announcing the World's Largest Health Protection Plan. We are confident that progressively, similar importance will be given to Home Healthcare which is fast becoming an important element in the health Management value chain"

- Mr. Rajiv Mathur, Founder, Critical care Unified (CCU)

Budget 2018 has definitely added significant impetus to the healthcare sector with emphasis on the elderly and underprivileged. The biggest declaration by the Hon'ble Finance Minister was the health protection scheme where 10 Cr poor families - for secondary and tertiary treatment - will get 5 lakhs per family. This announcement could be the first steps towards Universal Healthcare in India. The Finance Minister announced that 24 new government medical colleges will be set-up and this could be a big incentive for medical education in the country. The allocation of Rs. 1200 Cr towards health & wellness centres and Rs 600 Cr towards nutrition for patients suffering from Tuberculosis are positive steps.

We were pleased to hear in the Budget that the Government has allowed Senior Citizens to claims benefits of Rs 50,000 as part of medical insurance - earlier this was Rs 30,000. However, the governments discontinuing of Rs 15,000 per annum for medical benefits to salaried employees - as per todays Budget announcement, is unfortunate.

We welcome an increase in the cess from 3% to 4% as tax revenues - slated to be around 11,000 Cr, is welcomed and we are looking forward to seeing how the government intends to utilize and distribute the revenues collected from this cess increase.

- Mr Mustafa Daginawalla, CFO, Saifee Hospital

"Overall, this has been a pro-people and a pro-poor budget. For the first time, Universal Health Care has got the impetus it needs. I am quite happy with the government's plan to introduce 24 new medical colleges. That is the only way to address the glaring lack of talent in the industry. The 1.5 lakh centres which will provide free essential drugs and diagnosis is a welcome move and a step towards boosting the Governments National Health Policy. The flagship national healthcare protection scheme which will cover 10 crore, underprivileged families, is a highly commendable initiative. Through the budget, the government has definitely shown its interest in making healthcare more accessible and affordable through the Ayushman Bharat programme.

Another highlight of the budget has been the focus on fighting the ever-growing hazards of pollution from crop burning, promotion of gas connection in houses using wood fire for cooking, among others. By not just talking about healthcare, but its indicators as well, the government is definitely on the right track towards improving the sector across the country.

We truly hope that going forward, the government also has plans for utilisation management, financial monitoring, audit mechanisms and accountability".

- Ms. Ameera Shah, Promoter and Managing Director, Metropolis Healthcare Ltd.

The life sciences (LS) sector today is at crossroads; on one hand there is increasing lifestyle diseases and a fast-improving awareness about health, and on the other hand we have a sector facing intense competition, pricing and regulatory pressure both in the domestic and international market.

Life sciences had great expectations from the Budget not only from the fiscal incentives perspective, but also from a regulatory angle, given how crucial the sector is not only from a healthcare standpoint but from an economic and social development perspective. Further, the sector was bullish given the governments vision of making India one of the top-three pharmaceutical markets by 2020.

The proposed National Health Protection Scheme (NHPS), the worlds largest government-funded, universal healthcare programme is a tremendous revolution which will drive greater investment in hospital infrastructure in tier-2 and tier-3 cities and also lead to evolution of existing business models to address health needs of people covered under this scheme. Higher healthcare consumption will be positive for life sciences industry and is likely to boost demand; this may however require companies to invest in increasing the depth of their distribution networks. The abolition of Education cess of 3% along with introduction of Social Welfare Surcharge @10% on custom duties would have a negative impact on this industry.

The private sector has been asked to partner the Government by adopting centres under the Rashtriya Swastha Bima Yojna and also contribute in the NHPS by offering free essential drugs and services.

While the move to provide nutritional support to tuberculosis patients; 24 new medical colleges are welcome, the Budget has not specifically addressed imminent challenges directly affecting the life sciences sector. In order to stay competitive in the overseas market and given the uncertain global climate, it was expected that specific impetus or incentives would be given to research and development to promote innovation in the form of weighted deduction; capital linked subsidy schemes to upgrade MSME units; incentives for bulk drugs, patents, clinical trials etc. These demands remained largely unaddressed, giving no specific reason to cheer for the sector as a whole in 201819.

- Santosh Dalvi, Partner and Head-Indirect Tax - West India, KPMG in India

The budget addressed a few aspects at a very high level, the creation special hybrid vehicles which would optimize taxation for foreign investors is very welcome news. All other aspects was addressed at a very high level, including the mention of a new regulatory body under SEBI. Unless there is more clarity provided very soon, the situation will not be optimal for both start-ups and investors. For example, GST norms have to be relaxed, in terms of reduced rates for start-ups, as well as the ability to file on an annual basis, there was no mention of this. There was no mention of not implementing angel taxes, no mention of giving the angel investors vehicles towards reduced taxes or no taxes if they could roll over gains to other start-ups. Most countries allow this as it keeps a perpetual line of early stage funding open to start-ups.

It also appears as if more regulatory bodies are being set up like the body under SEBI, hopefully this does introduce more processes which may not bode well for start-ups, and funds. It is good to note that there is a focus on technology, especially AI/ML, details unfortunately were also missing, Would there be special government funds focusing on AI/ML which VC funds could leverage, would there be a focus around skills development for the next generation to take advantage off. Once again, clarity would be most welcome, and that too in a timely manner.

In conclusion, the next level of details need to be articulated soon with a focus on helping start-ups attract investments, optimize their cash flow and scale. This is very critical for the future if we want start-ups to be the back bone of our new economy.

- Dr. Srikanth Sundararajan, Partner, Ventureast

"The Union Budget 2018 has taken a step towards making health care more accessible with it's flagship National Health Protection Scheme initiative which provides upto Rs 5 lakh per family per year, for hospitalization. However, the devil is in the detail as the million dollar question that prevails is - will these benefits be cascaded to the common man? On the business front, unfortunately, there has been no special mention of health-tech startups in general. Private healthcare sector should have been provided subsidy and exemption from GST to facilitate the greater spread of business and enable government's push to make healthcare accessible to all. Furthermore, on one hand, the government is talking about going digital, however, it has not supplemented the act by connecting it the digital drive with certain sectors such as healthcare and education which serve to be the backbone for the upliftment of well being of the society as a whole."

- Ravi Virmani, CEO & Founder, Credihealth

Healthcare Industry: "Fueled by the 1200 Cr allocation for healthcare, what is exciting is the 1.5 lakh new healthcare centers that are going to be initiated. For a country that presents the highest number of patients in area of Breast Cancer and Head and Neck (Oral) Cancer cases in the world, these centers needs to be equipped with primary Onco scanning and treatment options. An early detection and treatment option would reduce healthcare cost burden on the Indian exchequer by several thousand crores in terms of disability adjusted life years (DALY)".

Biotechnology Industry: "Biotech industry expectations for dedicated research funds in the area of Biosimilars development and Regulatory Ecosystem remains unattended. India definitely requires financial focus to ramp up this area and craft out its position in the world healthcare scene".

- Debayan Ghosh, Founder & President of Epygen Biotech Pvt Ltd

A mere 11.5 per cent increase in budgetary allocations for health from Rs. 47,353 crore from previous year to Rs. 52,800 crores is disappointing and discouraging especially with the announcement of schemes that require large sums of money. The budgetary allocations are clearly mismatched with the stated policies goals despite the political commitment to increase investments in health (National Health Policy 2017), family planning, and achieve better health outcomes (SDG Goals). The continuing trend in lower budgetary allocations for health reinforce the fact that, while there is the intention and attempt to improve the health status in the country, the financial commitment continues to be missing for translating these goals into action.

The allocation for family welfare schemes under central sector schemes/projects, which is meant for procurement and distribution of contraceptives have increased only marginally by 2 per cent (Rs. 770 crore) over the budget (Rs. 755 crore) last year. This will be insufficient not only to meet the future demand but will also fall short of the current demand for contraceptives and for improving the much needed quality of services.

The Ayushman Bharat initiative and the National Health Protection Scheme announced by the Finance Minister is a welcome move for the countrys healthcare development as they intend to significantly reduce the cost of healthcare borne by the households on medicines, diagnostics and hospitalisation. While both these schemes are conceptualised with good intentions, the government has to match up with a strong regulatory framework and clear financial outlays and implementation plans.

While universal access to health care services remains a distant dream with the current allocation strategies of the government, resource prioritisation is the key to effectively utilise the available budgets for primary health care. To quote an example, prioritising critical elements of reproductive health care for instance can reduce large expenses incurred on incentives and compensation. Rather, these amounts can be used more productively to improve the quality of care and strengthen health service delivery.

- Poonam Muttreja, Executive Director, Population Foundation of India

Healthcare sector has been a clear priority in budget 2018. There has been a good balance on short term respite from out of pocket health costs & building capacity in the long term.

The Ayushman Bharath the scheme to provide health cover to 50 crore Indians of Rs 5 lakhs is simply audacious in scale and reach and could be a game changer. Healthcare needs to be universally accessible and also start from preventive care. This should be taken care of with the proposed 1.5 lakh health & wellness centres.

The idea to increase the number of doctors is good with the 24 district hospitals being upgraded, however strengthening of the other post graduate programmes like the DNB course would also need to be done simultaneously. Health can be one of the key job creators. More focus from the Skill India initiative with these announcements should see this sector contribute in this area too.

We hope that other announcements like the Pradhan Mantri Research Fellowship & the Research allocation would also spur healthcare research. With 1200 crores to the National Health Policy , we look forward to a continued impetus to the National Programme for Control of Blindness which is one of the most successful Public  Private healthcare programmes.

It would be interesting to see how these would be funded, the finance minister indicated a widening of the tax base and an additional 1% cess, we only hope that the 3.5% fiscal deficit does not force a rethink on these allocations later. Also it would be good to expand the ease of doing business to ease of working with insurance & schemes and simplifying the process for health care providers.

- Dr. Kaushik Murali, Paediatric Ophthalmologist & President, Sankara Eye Hospital

The proposed union budget for 2018 seems promising. Im elated to learn about the ample attention that has been given to the healthcare sector. Healthcare, agriculture, and education are fundamental tenets of the country, concentrating on the development of these three sectors is the need of the hour; and the budget would definitely augment the growth and development of the said sectors.

The allocation for the health insurance sector seems propitious. Statistics reveal that an alarming 7% of the population is pushed below the poverty line due to the direct consequence of an unseen medical emergency; Even with these alarming numbers, a mere 20% of the population is covered, either, by public or private insurance. Healthcare is one of the key factors responsible for throwing people into abject poverty and putting them in dire financial conditions. It is critical and the country needs to act up on working towards the betterment of this particular arena. The National Health protection scheme, covering 10 crore families and providing Rs 5 lakh cover per family per year for the medical treatment, is a commendable effort to tackle this mammoth issue.

All of us, in the healthcare startup circle, were vying for the governments attention towards digital healthcare as it is the only way to make world-class healthcare accessible to the masses. The rationale behind this is, 72% of the primary health care issues can be solved online without physical presence of the patient; whereas secondary and tertiary healthcare require the patient to visit the facility. Even post-op activities, like follow-ups, can be undertaken online ruling out the need to travel far and wide to for a routine visit. DocsApp serves over 2000 people every day, 40% of these people hail from villages and towns falling below tier 3 cities; this highlights the need for enhancement and development of digital solutions.

Digital healthcare solutions help to minimize infrastructure costs, theyre the most effective way to ensure delivery of world-class healthcare in the underserved parts of the country. The boost given to telecom infrastructure and the move to establish wi-fi centers is a clear indicator of the shift from offline to online facilities. Every service, from healthcare to education, will be easily accessible to the people of the country. DocsApp is keen to work with government to make universal health care available to the masses in the near future.

- Satish Kannan, CEO & Co-founder DocsApp

Todays budget has definitely boosted the spirits of the healthcare sector. The announcement around the National Health Protection Scheme, which will provide Rs. 5 lakhs medical reimbursement for the poor will be beneficial to nearly 50 crore people. The lack of clarity in processes was also witnessed with the Ayushman Bharat program as the tertiary healthcare sector was not touched upon. The government also took a massive stride in making medical education more accessible, by setting up 24 government colleges and hospitals. The effort would see more traction by joining hands with the private sector to implement colleges that can provide aspiring doctors with quality learning. We hope that in the coming months, this ambiguity is resolved to make quality healthcare available to the masses, in a clear and structured way.

- BS Ajaikumar, Chairman & CEO, HealthCare Global Enterprises Ltd

"The Budget is very much in line with the expectations of FICCI. It will drive consumption in a big way, thus helping growth in other related sectors.

Additionally, the attention to the MSMEs through better access to finance or lowering of the corporate tax rate would also help spur both employment and growth in this vital segment of the economy.

FICCI also believes that the stress on jobs in the Budget will help generate meaningful employment going ahead.

Another path-breaking announcement in the budget relates to the new National Health Protection Scheme under which an annual health insurance cover of Rs 5 lakh will be provided to nearly one third of the households.

This is the world's largest government funded healthcare programme and would lead to a clear increase in demand for quality healthcare facilities and services and to match this rise in demand, several measures have also been announced to improve supply of quality health services in the country.

However, given the performance on the disinvestment front this year, there were hopes that the government would be more ambitious in terms of setting the target for the next year - the Rs 80,000 crore target for disinvestment receipts in FY19 is a bit conservative in FICCI's view.

The continuation of STT even while re-introducing LTCG will put some additional burden on the market participants. This, however, should not impact markets in the long-term. With the markets giving a compounded return of 15-16% over the last 20 years, a tax impacting 1.5% return should not affect the domestic investor appetite for equity investment.

Finally, while consolidation process for the public-sector insurance companies has been indicated, FICCI hopes that a similar plan for the banking sector as was widely anticipated ahead of the budget will also be announced soon."

- Mr. Rashesh Shah, President, Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI)

Healthcare is a big winner in this budget with an emphasis on reaching the unreached. It is encouraging to see that the Government has announced the largest government-funded healthcare program insurance scheme of up to Rs 5 Lakh per year for secondary and tertiary care hospitalization. This scheme will also create new jobs in the healthcare sector and will result in opening of healthcare centers in small districts, towns and villages. This scheme will further empower the poor and under privileged to avail medical services.

- Dr Somesh Mittal CEO, Vikram Hospital

The budget rightly provides a focus on Agriculture, Healthcare & Education. The big move towards the path of Universal Healthcare Coverage under the flagship National Health Protection scheme which will bring 50cr citizens with Rs 5 lac/family for secondary and tertiary care hospitalisation is transformational for the country. The question to answer is how will the scheme be funded and executed given the fact that health is also a state subject. This move coupled with the announcement of 24 additional govt medical colleges and hospitals gives healthcare the centre stage in this budget. In addition the increase in tax exemption for senior citizens on health insurance premium and medical expenditure is a good move. This was also the opportune time for the FM to give infrastructure status to the healthcare sector and provide the much needed acceleration to capacity creation in the sector.

The reduction in corporate tax for SME businesses with revenues up to Rs 250cr is a step in the right direction to push the agenda of their growth and the Rs 10k cr outlay for the telecom infrastructure under Govt projects including the support for establishment of indigenous 5G centres with IIT Chennai is an excellent move.

Overall a budget thats high on promise and execution will hold the key.

- Vishal Bali, Co-Founder & Chairman, Medwell Ventures

There are two announcements which will impact the healthcare delivery industry. The Suraksha Bima Yojana enhanced limit of 5 lakh rupees per family is yet to be launched, so the details and capital allocation will only be known when it is launched. However, the intent is quite positive, as almost 40% of underprivileged population would be able to access the secondary and tertiary care healthcare, and this would increase the market size for healthcare providers radically. The second scheme is for 1.5 lakh healthcare centres, where the budgetary provisions are only 1200 crores. However, it may be a good beginning for creating healthcare accessibility to the rural poor.

The investment in hospitals is a subject matter of viability, so it is yet a bit premature to assess the investment potential of the schemes announced. However, if the prepositions are commercially viable, these would be opening a vast market for the investments to flow in.

- Ms. Zahabiya Khorakiwala, MD, Wockhardt Hospitals group

The thrust on healthcare in this years union budget was indeed a long awaited one. The National Health Protection Scheme proposed by the government will help in bridging the accessibility gap significantly. It will reduce the healthcare cost burden and help all stratas of society to avail cashless facilities. Also, the move to set up new Government Medical Colleges and Hospitals will bridge the lack of trained clinical specialist especially in the rural areas. Further, the tax rate relief on entities with turnover of upto Rs 250 crs will also positively impact the sector. It will allow the midsized healthcare players to invest and thereby improve the health care availability in the country.

- Mr. Sabesan, CFO, Dr Agarwal Group Of Eye Hospitals

It is a very welcome step by the government of India to provide subsidized healthcare for the poor in the country. It is a splendid step towards building a new India. The only challenge here from an infrastructure perspective is to build the essential point of care network to deliver these benefits to the patients. It is a grand move by the government towards strengthening Aarogya Bharat.

- Dr. Sujit Chatterjee, CEO, Dr L H Hiranandani Hospital

"The Union Budget 2018 has addressed many of the concerns of rural India and that of the MSME sector. We applaud Finance Minister, Mr. Arun Jaitley, for introducing measures to alleviate some of the pain points they suffer. The outlay for healthcare and education is a much needed boost to create a more healthy and skilled & educated India.

On the civil aviation front, Finance Minister unveiled plans to increase the number of airports in the country by 5 times in this year from a current total of 124. India is the third largest and the fastest growing domestic aviation market in the world with respect to the number of domestic tickets sold, and this plan will greatly aid in growing the number of trips to one billion a year. It further mentioned 56 new airports and 31 new helipads will be connected under the UDAN scheme. The massive expansion, as envisaged, will have a multiplier effect on employment opportunities in the aviation sector. It will also have a commensurate effect on training requirements which are of a critical nature. Pilots, airport staff, baggage handlers, among others will have to be given proper training to minimise untoward incidents, potential accidents and be on the ready to deal with emergencies such as that of Indigo Airlines in the recent past. The mismanagement and rude behaviour by the crew members highlights the need to improve the standard of training the professionals in the industry.

In a major step, the Budget announced the largest government-funded health insurance scheme to be implemented anywhere in the world. The sheer size and coverage of the scheme committed will require investment to train and skill additional resources and address shortage of qualified medical professionals. India lacks trained experts, and the corresponding measure to increase the number of medical colleges will provide a boost. However, this needs to also be backed by improvements in training. Technology can help bridge the gap here, with cloud and virtual reality based training modules, there are now more efficient pathways for these front of line critical care providers to be on top of their game."

- Mr. Sridhar Krishna, Chairman & MD of Sankhya InfoTech

This is a comparatively much better budget for healthcare delivery system of the country. The initiative on the Universal Health Care is commendable. This will surely be one of the worlds largest healthcare program that proposes to cover 10 crore vulnerable families, with approximately 50 crore beneficiaries. The scheme for creation of 1.5 lakh Health and Wellness centres, which are intended to provide free essential drugs and diagnostic services, will definitely make healthcare much more accessible to the people. However, no allocation has been made in the Budget for Private Public Partnership or even engaging private healthcare organisations in healthcare delivery by the government.

- Dr. Prem Nair, Medical Director, Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences, Kochi, Kerala

The Union budget has set a positive tone overall and affirms the governments continued commitment to push reforms and investments. The government seeks to bring greater focus on the rural and agricultural segments through positive initiatives and has proposed some far reaching reforms with a view to boost economic growth. The proposed National Health Protection Scheme is a timely move to not only make health insurance accessible but also offer wider coverage to manage critical illness. These initiatives would usher in a new era for the under penetrated general insurance industry. In addition, the increased limit for exemption under Section 80D for health insurance premium to Rs. 50,000/- and raising the limit on critical illness up to Rs.1 lakh (both for senior citizens) is a welcome move. However, introduction of tax on long term capital gain may be a dampener for the stock markets. Overall, we hope that this budget will aid in consolidating the reforms and steering the economy in the right direction.

- MS Sreedhar, MD and CEO, Royal Sundaram General Insurance Company Limited

This years Union Budget has been a peoples budget with a focus to uphold Modis Make in India campaign. Schemes such as the launch of National Health Protection Scheme and bringing 24 new medical colleges pan India are some useful highlights being implemented by the Government. Through the introduction of these massive health programs, the Government is giving a clear signal that it is concerned about the healthcare and social security of the masses and they believe that medical healthcare is one of the backbone of the economy. This step is a productive move towards the path of universal healthcare for the poor and weaker section of our society.

- Mr. Ganesh Sabat, CEO, SMT (Sahajanand Medical Technologies Pvt. Ltd)

"We feel that this year's budget is aimed at touching the lives of the rural folk and bridge the gap between the rural and urban population. We feel that utilizing 1.5 lakh healthcare centres across the country will bring the health benefits to almost all the households. We also welcome the government's move to provide free essential drugs and diagnosis as it will reduce the burden on people seeking treatments for life threatening diseases. It will also help in promote Universal Health Coverage for all under the National Health Policy. The launch of National Health Protection Scheme with an enhanced Rs 5 lakh medical insurance and over 10 crore families is going to be a game changer in the healthcare industry. We also welcome the government's new initiative to allocate 600 crores to support tuberculosis patients. Overall, we feel that the budget is going to enhance productivity, better access to healthcare facilities for rural and urban population and generate more jobs in the sector especially for women. We also feel that the budget should have covered the areas of palliative care, chronic and critical illnesses."

- Mr. V Thiyagarajan, MD, India Home Health Care.

"The announcement in the healthcare space is clearly path breaking considering the sheer size and the impact it will have on the committed amount per family. With 1 Lac gram panchayats connected via optic fibre and an additional 5 crore rural population to be connected with 5 lacs wi-fi spots will usher India firmly in the next generation of healthcare regime . We welcome the move by the Finance minister as it will give further impetus to companies such as ours to penetrate in the areas where the poor is deprived of medical facilities."

- Mr. Amit Munjal, CEO and Founder of Doctor Insta

"For the first time has the budget been defined by its focus on healthcare. National Health Protection scheme, Termed as the largest health programme in the world and leading to Universal Health coverage, this is very welcome move given the need to focus on so far poor health statistics for majority of population

The coverage of 5 lac INR per family is a huge jump from 30k rupees coverage under RSBY. It is not yet clear on many fronts:

There needs to be more information on the outlay projected for this and if it would involve insurance participation Typically implementation of any health policy at such a large scale takes time and in this case we need to understand the milestones for the same. Setting up of 1.5 lac health and wellness centers by the government is a very big responsibility and undertaking . I would have preferred to see mention of public private partnership model. Additionally an outlay of 1200 crores for this initiate seems very low.

- Mr. Varun Gera, Founder, HealthAssure, member of the CII Health Insurance Standard Committee

"The FY19 budget presented by government is an inclusive budget focused on structural reforms in areas of health, education, agriculture and infrastructure. Along with ease of doing business, providing for ease of living is a visionary step .

The FM has taken a long term view by focusing on health with the far-reaching National Health Protection Scheme; pegged to be the largest of its kind in the world. With our belief That a country of a billion people cant be helpless, this program will give the poor access to healthcare, which were not affordable or available earlier. Starting of new medical colleges will add impetus to much needed coverage in most parts of the country. Off course, the devil is in the detail and execution will be key.

The govts focus on education with special impetus on science and technology is a notable strategy. With R&D and excellence centres being revitalised, innovation will get a boost. Use of technology in implementation of focus areas is a welcome step in achieving scale at a faster rate.

For the Medical Devices sector, the government proposal to reduce the customs duty on inputs and raw materials on certain select components such as cochlear implants is too little to actually give impetus . This budget did not meet the expectations and aspirations of a budding medical devices sector in India. With more 75% of medical devices currently being imported, mainly due to lack of a thriving local manufacturing ecosystem, the sector needs centerstage focus.

We welcome the greater push for digitization, platforms, use of technology and increased transparency in administration. Additionally, the global economy led revival in exports will truly allow Indias growth to become multi-dimensional."

- Vishnu Bhatt, Chairman, Blue Neem Medical Devices Pvt LtdFrom Greg Swank, 12-4-2 You are about to read a list of 45 goals that found their way down the halls of our great Capitol back in 1963. As...The mathematical (and other) thoughts of a (now retired) math teacher,A class-action lawsuit on behalf of former Indian hospital patients has named the Brandon Indian Hospital as one of the 29 segregated hospitals targeted.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 3/2/2018 (1317 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

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A class-action lawsuit on behalf of former "Indian hospital" patients has named the "Brandon Indian Hospital" as one of the 29 segregated hospitals targeted.

This hospital is more commonly known as the Brandon Sanatorium, which served Indigenous tuberculosis patients from 1947 to 1958.

At the time of its closure, patients were shipped out to the Ninette Sanatorium and the Brandon location was restructured as the Assiniboine Hospital.

According to a CBC News story, the $1.1-billion class-action lawsuit cites allegations of widespread mistreatment and abuse among so-called "Indian hospitals," where patients were forcibly detained.

Brandon woman Alice Marina Young spent approximately eight years at the Brandon Sanatorium in the 1950s, during which she said that she was shut off from her family and society at large.

She escaped on at least one occasion, only to be captured by a police officer and returned to the hospital.

Now an 83-year-old resident of the Valleyview Long Term Care Home in Brandon, her time at the Brandon Sanatorium remains cemented in her mind.

During a conversation with The Brandon Sun in September, she asked on several occasions whether she was at the Brandon Sanatorium.

Daughter Sharon Dixon said this week that although her mother has never said anything about being mistreated, she believes that the class-action lawsuit is worthwhile.

University of Winnipeg historian Mary Jane McCallum has been studying Manitobas racially segregated tuberculosis treatment facilities with postdoctoral fellow Scott de Groot for the past few years, collecting the oral histories of those involved.

While certain cases of abuse might not have been overt, McCallum said she has found a parallel between how the Brandon Sanatorium operated and how the residential school system was structured.

Located at the corner of 10th Street and Queens Avenue, the Brandon Sanatorium had a "social orientation" program that helped assimilate patients into white communities.

SUBMITTED The 250-bed Brandon Sanatorium is pictured at some point during its 1947-59 run.

McCallum and de Groot conducted and processed six substantial interviews with patients of Manitoba sanatoriums.

"All of the interviewees spoke about their experiences of being removed from their families and the hardships they faced  both short and long-term  as a result," McCallum wrote. "These consequences included a loss of language  which resulted in difficulties adjusting back to family and community life after their return from the hospitals."

These past patients also complained about the extreme isolation they faced at sanatoriums, as well as the length of time they were made to remain in the health-care facilities.

Manitoba Lung Association CEO Neil Johnston said that what he has heard from past patients of these sanatoriums has been "certainly very troubling and tragic and something that were concerned about."

The Manitoba Lung Association was founded in 1975 as a division of the Sanatorium Board of Manitoba to tackle community health programs and education services.

The Sanatorium Board of Manitobas only activity at present is its operation of the Manitoba Lung Association, and Johnston said that theyve long since divested of medical records that individual sanatoriums would have kept.

Uncertain as to the local implications of the national class-action lawsuit, Johnston said that theyre currently trying to figure out things themselves.

"Because were basically starting from scratch ourselves, from a record perspective, we have to be careful and make sure we get the information we need to take any kind of steps," he said.

Although the Ninette Sanatorium is not listed in this class-action lawsuit, Winnipeg-based Indigenous advocate Gerald McIvor is working on developing a wider-reaching class-action lawsuit, which he said on Friday would be national in scope and field in federal court.

This class-action lawsuit would centre on "a serious breach of human rights and Canadas fiduciary responsibility toward First Nations people," he said.

Unlike the Brandon Sanatorium, the Ninette Sanatorium was not dedicated exclusively to Indigenous people.

The class-action lawsuit that cites the "Brandon Indian Hospital" (Brandon Sanatorium) was filed in Toronto last week by Koskie Minsky LLP and Masuch Albert LLP of Alberta.

 tclarke@brandonsun.com

 Twitter: @TylerClarkeMBBy Darragh Bermingham

The Government must acknowledge the potential of Cork as Irelands second city with investment to substantially strengthen our metropolitan profile, Cork Chamber President Bill O'Connell has said.

Mr O'Connell was speaking at Cork Chamber's annual dinner in City Hall last night. He has called for a commitment from Government to invest in Corks public transport needs including a rapid transit system and a high-speed rail connecting Cork and Dublin while emphasising that the Limerick to Cork motorway and events centre must be built.

A second city of scale, a true compliment to Dublin, with critical mass of talent, innovation, infrastructure, diversity and culture will ensure the continued success of the Irish economy," he said.

Cork will be the fastest growing region in the country for the next two decades. We are ready for this challenge. Government must be ready to allocate investment accordingly and acknowledge the potential of Irelands second city to substantially strengthen Irelands metropolitan profile.

At the dinner, Boston Scientific was named Cork Company of the Year as it celebrates 21 years in Cork next month.

Accepting the award on behalf of Boston Scientific, Sean Gayer, VP Operations, said the award was down to the 890 staff in Cork.

This is a fantastic recognition for the entire Boston Scientific team at Model Farm Road. It is an honour to be considered in the same light as previous finalists, who have inspired business excellence in our community, said Mr Gayer.

The awards, run in association with Vodafone Ireland, involve a thorough four-month judging process with an experienced mix of business professionals from across the business community.

The Cork Emerging Company of the Year 2018 was awarded to EviView, providers of analytic software for pharmaceutical manufacturers, while Cork SME Company of the Year 2018 was won by Spearline, providing the worlds only automated monitoring platform which allows enterprise clients to benchmark, monitor and troubleshoot their global telecoms footprint.

Cork Large Company of the Year 2018 went to Teamwork.com, who are leading the way for SaaS in Ireland, providing a suite of operations to help run the businesses of their 20,000 customers across 183 international companies.

Bill OConnell, President Cork Chamber, noted the high standard of entrants and how becoming a finalist in these awards is an achievement in itself given the rigour of the judging process.

Cork Company of the Year Awards provide a wonderful platform for businesses in Cork to reflect on their success and the deserving winners will now join the 20- year network of previous respected winners, he added.By Geoff Percival

Ryanair is expected to report net profits of 98m to 114m and a lower-than-anticipated decline in yields when it reports third-quarter earnings on Monday.

Consensus among analysts is for net income, for the three months to the end of December, to be around 101m and for post-tax profit for the year to the end of March to amount to around 1.43bn.

If both those figures hold true, they would represent year-on-year growth levels of 6.3% and 8.3%. However, Davy expects Ryanair to report third-quarter earnings of 97.8m, only around 3m higher than a year earlier.

Goodbody is anticipating earnings for the quarter to be up to 114m; a 21% year-on-year increase. Goodbody also said the expected decline in yields for the quarter shouldnt be as bad as expected. On the back of its rostering problems and aggressive discounting drive, it expects Ryanairs third-quarter yields to be down 1.3% on the same period last year.

This outrun will be considerably better than Ryanairs guidance given in October, which implied second-half yields would be down by 4% to 10%, to hit its guidance of a 4% to 6% decline for the year, said Goodbody analysts Mark Simpson and Nuala McMahon.

Ryanair shares are up over 10% in the past year. They fell 1.7% yesterday. This was despite the airline saying passenger figures for January rose 6% to 9.3 million with load factor edging up one percentage point to 91%. It attributed the growth to low fares and an improved customer experience.Here's one that will firmly divide readers.

Cork's former prison island is offering the opportunity for movie lovers to travel to the island after dark for a screening of The Conjuring.

Spike Island Cinema Club returns with the horror movie screening on Saturday, March 3 in the prison auditorium.

The evening starts with a ferry journey across Cork Harbour at 5pm, following in the footsteps of the thousands of convicts.

On arrival, guides take guests past abandoned homes and villages to the fortress before walking through the imposing entrance tunnel.

The movie will be screened in the prison auditorium, a room that once held up to 100 child prisoners at a time.

When the film ends and darkness falls, there will be a torchlight tour of the abandoned prison and punishment block.

Then its back to the ferry and on to Cobh.

Think you're brave enough?

Tickets for the event are 19 and are available here.New counter-terrorism proposals have been approved covering passenger information on flights to and from Ireland.

It is proposed, a Passenger Information Unit be established, to collect, process and transfer data in Ireland and other EU member states.A Russian pilot who ejected from his fighter jet after it was shot down in Syria has been killed by militants after he landed on the ground and resisted capture by an al Qaida-linked group, Syrian monitors and a Syrian militant said.

Moscow did not confirm the downing of its plane or the killing of a pilot in Syria.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the Russian pilot was dead but had no further details.

A Syrian militant in the area told The Associated Press that the Russian pilot was shot and killed when he resisted capture by opening fire from his pistol on the militants who tried to seize him alive.

According to the Observatory, the plane was downed on Saturday afternoon in the rebel-held Idlib province, near the rebel-held town of Saraqeb, which Syrian troops have been trying to take under the cover of Russian air strikes.

Russia is a key ally of President Bashar Assad, and has been waging a military campaign on behalf of his forces since 2015.

Since then, Syrian government forces have captured wide parts of the country and in recent weeks have been marching in the rebel-held north-western province of Idlib. The province is also a base for al Qaida's branch in Syria and other Islamic groups.

The opposition's Aleppo Media Centre said the plane was a Russian-made SU25 but did not say whether it was Russian.

Earlier in the day, the Observatory and the media arm of al Qaida-linked militants reported intense air strikes on the rebel-held stronghold.

The Observatory reported more than 35 air strikes on Saraqeb since late Friday, adding that many of its residents are fleeing.

The Ibaa News Agency, of the al Qaida-linked Levant Liberation Committee, said Russian and Syrian warplanes and helicopter gunships have been pounding Saraqeb and Tel Mardeekh in Idlib since the early hours of Saturday.

Syria's state news agency, SANA, said Syrian troops captured the village of Maasaran as well as the Tel Tokan hill, cutting links between Saraqeb and the rebel-stronghold of Maarest al-Numan to the south.

In recent weeks, Syrian government forces and their allies pushed into Idlib, an opposition stronghold, inching closer to a key road that connects Syria's two largest cities, Damascus and Aleppo.

The UN says more than 270,000 have been displaced in Idlib because of the government onslaught since December 15.

The violence in Idlib came as fighting raged between Turkish troops and Turkey-backed opposition gunmen with Syrian Kurdish fighters in the northern Syrian enclave of Afrin.

The Turkish military said two of its soldiers were killed in Syria and a third was killed on the Turkish side of the border in an attack by Syrian Kurdish militiamen.

The military said Saturday's deaths were related to Turkey's operation against the Syrian Kurdish-held enclave of Afrin, codenamed Olive Branch. One of the soldiers was killed when a Turkish tank was hit in Afrin.

A total of eight Turkish soldiers and at least 24 allied Syrian opposition fighters have died so far in Ankara's offensive, which started on January 20.

The Turkish operation aims to clear Afrin of the US-backed Syrian Kurdish militia, known as the People's Protection Units or YPG, which Turkey considers to be a terrorist group and an extension of the Kurdish insurgency within its borders.The discriminatory experiences faced by two young cadets at ADFA shows the defence force still has a long way to go in reaching equality among its members.

While there is clearly a recognition among the top brass of the need for change and that the world around them is shifting, the cultural change needed within will take many years.

The two, who bravely share their story in today's Sunday Canberra Times, encountered unacceptable treatment by their superiors and their peers.

That both Sarah Bowley and Joel Wilson were so badly treated that they were eventually forced to leave the academy shows some intolerance and rigidity still remains within the Defence Force.A central Queensland girl who considers autism her superpower is using her bond with chickens to spread love across the community.

The 11-year-old Bundaberg girl, Summer Farrelly, designed the program Chickens to Love a year ago after realising how her pet chickens made her feel valued, loved and never judged her.

Summer's venture has gained recognition from Bundaberg Regional Council after she was awarded the 2018 Australia Day Young Citizen of the Year award.

Summer Farrelly used a crowd-funding page to raise the money she needed for her chicken caravan.

And now an extension of Summer's program will allow chickens to be transported in a caravan to schools, aged care facilities and to those who are house-bound.A world-first trial has received federal funding and within a matter of months, Queensland researchers hope to start investigating the symptom relief medicinal cannabis can provide to cancer patients receiving palliative care.

The trial will test several combinations of medicinal cannabinoids, natural products of the cannabis plant, to see which symptoms can be targeted and which variety of cannabinoids provides the most effective relief for just more than 200 terminally ill south-east Queensland patients.

The Mater Research Institute and University of Queensland are leading a world-first medicinal cannabis trial, set to begin later this year.

Mater Research Institute and University of Queensland researcher Professor Janet Hardy, who is leading the trial, said the four-year funding came from the Medical Research Future Fund, which is designed to support clinical trials for rare diseases and unmet medical needs.

"This is the first trial with a holistic patient approach, trying to address all of the symptoms to see if we can reduce the burden," Professor Hardy said.February 7, 2009  Black Saturday in Victoria - caught us all off guard. It ravaged whole towns and wiped out human and animal lives in a blink.

Everyone seemed to know someone affected by this tragedy. My husband and I were alerted that immediate family of close friends had perished in the fires.

Flowers bloom in the aftermath of the Black Saturday fires, providing a glimpse of life ahead. Credit:James Davies JGD

Wine bottles built into their mud brick home had melted like molten lava. No sign of life remained ... only silence.

I remember stopping at traffic lights on the day and looking into the eyes of a stranger in the next car. The person shook his head sadly. No words were needed but a strong bond of humanity joined us in that moment.Two points should be made about this sort of thinking, both stemming from the US experience in Vietnam.

For some years the prevailing wisdom has been that progress against the Taliban on the battlefield would see them opt for the negotiating table. Retired US commander James Stavridis, noting that "this is also a 17-year war for them", suggested that fatigue may yet lead the Taliban to diplomacy.

General Joseph Votel, the head of US Central Command, made this remark about Afghanistan just weeks before the recent spate of attacks in Kabul that have killed more than 130 people. As Washington's military commitment enters its 17th year, with some estimates suggesting that the Taliban control or have influence in almost half the country, the endlessness of fighting seems the only certainty to be had.

The first is that in order for talks to be a realistic prospect, a venue is required in which the status of all parties is made clear and accepted by the key participants. When the Taliban opened a negotiating office in Qatar in 2013, their insistence on portraying themselves as a government-in-exile guaranteed immediate rejection by then Afghan president Hamid Karzai. The Qatar option has resurfaced spasmodically since, but it is still unclear how it could be made palatable to any of those seeking what Richard Nixon once called "peace with honour".

The second point is that fatigue is experienced very differently by a foreign force waging war far from home in pursuit of a political outcome and by an indigenous militant movement  whatever its moral character  fighting to survive on its own soil.

Into this impasse comes the now-famous unpredictability of US President Donald Trump. Having long argued that American lives and money were wasted in Afghanistan and that the US should withdraw, as president, Trump has raised the troop commitment by a few thousand to about 14,000  still only a fraction of the 130,000 troops in the country at the peak of engagement in 2011.

US Defence Secretary James Mattis made it clear in September that the aim was still to drive the Taliban to talks, but Mr Trump's New Year's Day tweet lashing out at Pakistan for its shielding of Afghan insurgents  which some officials in Kabul have linked to the latest violence  was followed on Monday by the President's declaration that "we don't want to talk with the Taliban  there may be a time, but it's going to be a long time".

Yet with the Afghan government paralysed by disputes between President Ashraf Ghani and key provincial and national leaders, and Pakistan defiant in the face of Mr Trump's criticisms as it builds ties with China, the political climate for diplomacy seems unlikely to improve with any delay. Crucially, any talks would also require a US administration that knows what it wants to say.With our unhappy nation still convulsed by Australia Day differences I continue my campaign of suggesting better days (better than offensive, insensitive, 26 January) on which our bosoms could be pumped up to a pneumatic psi of Aussie pride.

Meanwhile, how disappointing the refusal of the prime minister and especially of the believe-in-nothing leader of the Opposition to give leadership on this. If I still bothered asking "What is the Australian Labor Party for?" I would be asking it again now, given Bill Shorten's refusal to give the nation a slightly enlightened, slightly Aborigine-respecting alternative on Australia Day matters.

Michael Boustead cooking up some snags during the Australia Day Capital Concert. Credit:Dion Georgopoulos

But back to my quest for better Australia Days. Today's dead-serious suggested day for a new Australia Day is 1 August. Something wondrous was first achieved by an Australian on 1 August 1978. Do you know what it was?

More mischievously (but still in the same spirit of using for Australia Day one of the zillions of famous days in our history) I suggest 10 February. On 10 February a group of Australians (no, not the Bee Gees, for it was 10 February 1879) achieved something together. Do you know who they were and what they did?High-profile conservative activist Lyle Shelton, a key figure in the campaign against legalising same-sex marriage, will make a pitch for federal Parliament.

Mr Shelton announced on Saturday morning he would step down after five years as managing director of the Australian Christian Lobby to contest the next election.

Lyle Shelton, who will step down as managing director of the Australian Christian Lobby, with Senator Cory Bernardi. Credit:Andrew Meares

He did not say which party he would represent but Fairfax Media understands he will stand for the Senate in Queensland as part of Cory Bernardi's fledgling party.

Sources said he would announce on Sunday his allegiance to the Australian Conservatives at a community meeting in Toowoomba.I get  no, really  that in order to placate the hard-liners in his own party, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has to hide his progressive light under a bushel somewhat. And we all know he says things that would make the Malcolm Turnbull of just five years ago blush to think they could come out his mouth. But even I was gobsmacked this week to hear him say, effectively, that the Australian flag will remain as it is for decades to come, if not forever, his specific words being: "So, I think  I think the Australian flag will be flying over Parliament House long after all of us have shuffled off the stage of history."

This, from a founding director of Ausflag  upon whose board I sit  who was a director there for six years, 'til 1994? And yes, I know he later joined the Australian National Flag Association, which takes the exact opposite view, and says we should keep the flag of another nation on our flag forever, but still.

Malcolm Turnbull expects the flag to fly over Parliament House for a long time. Credit:AAP Image/Dan Peled

It would be elucidating to know how one who once put a huge wad of money up to sponsor a hundred of Australia's leading artists in a competition to come up with the design of a new flag, has so radically altered his view.

The strength of John Howard as a prime minister it seemed to me, was that he stuck to his convictions  win, lose or draw, popular or unpopular  and though he might alter his views on evidence, he never did a U-turn for expedience. Who can say the same of Malcolm Turnbull?Beyond the main military and geopolitical consequences of the war, the United States' intervention had its own lasting impact. The roots of that impact can be seen in president Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points speech, delivered 100 years ago last month. Although delivered to Congress, the January 8 speech was not a State of the Union message. Wilson, a Democrat in his second term, had revived those annual speeches, which had been abandoned by Thomas Jefferson, but he gave them in December. The points, intended as a blueprint for postwar peace, ranged from specific demands to grand principles - perhaps none grander than Point 14, which called for "a general association of nations" that would guarantee "political independence and territorial integrity to great and small states alike". The first attempt at such a thing was the League of Nations, established two years later. The League crumbled after failing to prevent World War II, but from its ashes grew the United Nations. That Wilson - the president of a nation more than 4800 kilometres from the closest battlefront, a nation directly involved in the war for less than a year at that point - presumed to dictate conditions for peace at all was remarkable, and it presaged the outsize role the US would soon take on.

"The question of what place America should play on the global stage - that was something Woodrow Wilson really introduced and thrust into the national consciousness," said Chad Williams, a historian and associate professor of African-American studies at Brandeis University. "Should it be 'America first', or does the United States have a larger moral role to play on the global stage as far as promoting ideals of democracy and intervening when those ideals are being challenged?" Revolutions and Civil Wars The words "Russian Revolution" bring to mind 1917, when Lenin and his Bolsheviks toppled the Tsar, paving the way for the Russian Empire to become the Soviet Union. Lenin addresses a crowd at Red Square in Moscow, November 7, 1918. Credit:RUSSIAN STATE ARCHIVE OF SOCIAL AND POLITICAL HISTORY But it was in 1918 that the Bolsheviks forced other political parties out of the Constituent Assembly and enacted a constitution, creating the world's first formally socialist nation. And it was in 1918 that the Romanovs - the deposed Tsar Nicholas II, his wife and their five children - were executed with clubs, guns and bayonets in the basement of the house where they were being held.

Many Russian territories sought to break away. Finland, which had declared its independence in December 1917, descended into a civil war along the same lines as Russia's: socialists versus non-socialists. (The non-socialists won in May.) Tsar Nicholas II and his family were executed in 1918. Elsewhere, Poland declared its independence from the collapsing German Empire and promptly went to war with the new West Ukrainian People's Republic. Czechoslovakia broke away from Austria-Hungary. Austria and Hungary split three days later. And in November, Germany began a revolution that would last well into 1919. Together, World War I and the myriad revolutions, civil wars and treaties it spawned helped set the boundaries of modern Europe. The Spanish Flu

In January 1918, a plague came to Haskell County, Kansas. By the end of the year, it would engulf the world. The virus may not have originated in Kansas, but that was where the first cases were recorded. From the rural homes of the Great Plains, it spread to Camp Funston and other Army bases, and from there to the civilian masses. In this October 1918 photo, St Louis Red Cross Motor Corps personnel wear masks as they hold stretchers next to ambulances in preparation for victims of the Spanish flu epidemic. Credit:US Library of Congress via NYT By 1919, the disease had killed 50 million to 100 million people worldwide, a toll matched only once in recorded history. The Black Death killed 75 million to 200 million - but it took four years to do so, while the Spanish flu took little more than one. Beyond the staggering human suffering, a "very progressive" reaction took shape, said David Blanke, a cultural historian at Texas A&M University. Into a frightened populace stepped doctors and nurses, who cared for the sick and vaccinated the healthy. At a time of crisis, Americans put their faith in them, which reinforced the Progressive Era push for public health legislation.

Yet a century later, the world remains deeply vulnerable to another pandemic - perhaps even more so, given the pathways modern transportation has created for people and viruses to leap from continent to continent. And Michael Osterholm and Mark Olshaker, the authors of Deadliest Enemy: Our War Against Killer Germs, wrote in a New York Times op-ed this month that our medical systems are wholly unprepared. Citizenship and Suffrage Away from the trenches and sickbeds, one of the year's biggest themes was citizenship, and who qualified for its privileges and protections, Blanke said. In Britain, most women over 30 gained the right to vote. In the United States, the 19th Amendment cleared the House of Representatives (although the Senate narrowly rejected it), and Wilson threw the support of the White House behind women's suffrage. "We have made partners of the women in this war," Wilson told Congress in September. "Shall we admit them only to a partnership of suffering and sacrifice and toil, and not to a partnership of privilege and right?"

African-Americans, too, demanded the rights their nation was evangelising overseas. "You have an expectation on the part of many disadvantaged, marginalised groups in the country that the war is going to bring about fundamental change in the nation's democracy," Williams said. But those demands provoked a fierce backlash. The second iteration of the Ku Klux Klan, founded in 1915, picked up steam. White vigilantes lynched Hazel and Mary Turner, a black couple in Lowndes County, Georgia, in May. Turner was pregnant. In December, a white mob hanged four black people - two young men and two pregnant women - from a bridge over the Chickasawhay River in Mississippi. Citizens also saw their rights curtailed with the Sedition Act of 1918, an extension of the Espionage Act of 1917. Among other things, it forbade Americans during wartime to obstruct military recruitment or to "utter, print, write or publish any disloyal, profane, scurrilous or abusive language" about the US armed forces, Constitution or form of government. "The attack on peace advocates, the suppression of freedom of speech, the emergence of a wartime surveillance state, the beginnings of our modern intelligence apparatus," Williams said. "People suspected of dissent being investigated, imprisoned - I think we see the legacies of that even today."Latest News Westpac CEO on how stretched housing affordability is endangering Aussie property prices "It's at the worst level it's been for some time," CEO tells parliamentary committee

Are mortgage brokers a weak link in the fight against financial crime? With the AUSTRAC risk level now at 'high', here's what brokers need to know about safeguarding themselves and their customers

Many industry figures have embraced CBA's recently unveiled changes to broker accreditation, but some question the bank's decision not to work with new entrants and how that might affect the future of the industry



After a fractious year between brokers and the CBA, the major bank did not go about ingratiating itself with the third party channel before the summer break.



Instead it announced on 14 December that it would be freezing accreditation for the remainder of 2017 to implement new benchmarks designed to lift standards, emphasise education and ensure the bank is working with high-quality brokers in the new year.



Starting in early 2018, the bank said mortgage brokers wishing to write CBA loans would need to hold at least a Diploma of Finance and Mortgage Broking Management; be a current member of either the MFAA or the FBAA; and be a direct credit representative or an employee of an approved aggregator/head group or an Australian credit licence holder.



But the point that raised the most contention and debate among industry members was the CBAs firm stance on only doing business with brokers who have at least two years experience writing residential loans.







While many industry figures said they were supportive of CBAs attempt to lift standards and consumer outcomes, they disagreed with the banks decision not to work with new entrants, saying it could prove damaging to the banks business and the future of the industry.



Where does this leave new brokers?



The mortgage broking industry has been steadily growing over the last couple of years, with hundreds of new brokers joining the sector every six months.



According to the MFAAs latest Industry Intelligence Service report, for 1 October 2016 to 31 March 2017, the broker population reached 16,009 brokers during this period, 500 more than in the previous six months.



Broking is not an easy job and attrition rates are high. Of all those who joined the industry during those six months, 10.2% left, a trend thats expected to continue.

From our perspective, weve already read the tea leaves and we want to move this from an industry to a profession, and to do that we need to improve education levels - Clive Kirkpatrick, Vow

Barring new entrants from accessing the largest lender in the country could prove to be another hurdle for those who already face steep challenges. It will likely force brokers to establish their skills elsewhere and take their loans elsewhere, leaving them with no need for CBA in the future, says FBAA executive director Peter White.



If you do not invest in those as they are growing, you stand a very strong chance of them being users of your competitors and never using your offerings. So if you turn your back on young-to-industry brokers and they learn and use other marketproviders, then why would CBA think they would come to them in the future once they are industry adults? White says.



Not everyone sees CBAs accreditation changes as being that significant, however. Most lenders have similar criteria in place, and the MFAA and the FBAA also have their own education standards.







Brokers who have less than two years of loan-writing experience must obtain their mortgage broking diploma within the first 12 months of becoming an MFAA member. FBAA members are required to have their Cert IV, but White says the vast majority have also received the diploma or have pursued higher education degrees of their own volition.



White is of the opinion that effective learning and education should not be foisted upon people. Undertake learnings because you want to and you believe it will be beneficial to you in your business or personal knowledge. Do it in your own time and pace, and in line with what is legally required by law, he says.



Where CBA has upped the ante compared to other lenders, however, is in making it mandatory to have a diploma, and specifying the amount of experience required.



Sam Boer, CBAs general manager of third party banking, explained in an earlier interview with Australian Broker that the two-year rule has always been part of CBAs accreditation policy; its just that now the bank has decided to take a firmer position on it.



Two years has actually always been the policy, but what we noticed was that there were a lot of different mentoring standards being applied, and we felt that this really needed to be improved upon, he said.

You wouldnt expect to see too many exceptions to that rule, but what were seeing in recent

times is that basically every accreditation has been an exception.



CBA said brokers would also be put under additional questioning during the accreditation process, with more scrutiny on the individual, the company they work for, the head group theyre partnered with, the quality of their business, and how they have been operating.



[This is] so we really understand who the person is that were dealing with and that they are in fact qualified to be able to operate and represent not only our brand but the industry to ensure these new standards, Boer said.



Rebecca Barbe, broker and owner of Finance Solutions Queensland, says she doesnt take issue with CBAs accreditation changes because they underscore the importance of getting sufficient on-the-job training.



There are more people who enter this industry and think its an easy way to make money, and its not. If you have that mindset, thats when things like compliance arent important to you, and compliance is such a huge part of this industry.



Its not so much getting a formal education that matters but gaining experience working with clients, writing loans and reading financials, something new brokers should do by working as loan writers and getting a mentor early on, Barbe says.



Overall, she doesnt see CBAs move itself as having a major impact on new brokers. It will only pose challenges for them if the other majors and some of the second-tier lenders follow suit.



You cant become a broker without the big four on your panel, so it depends on what the others do. Time will tell.



Lifting the bar



Mark Vilo, head of bank intermediaries at Suncorp, says its understandable that the largest Qldlender in the country is tightening its policies around the accreditation process, and he generally doesnt consider the changes to be hugely significant.



Its more about the message behind it: its a flag to the market that education standards need to be raised across the board to ensure brokers and other industry players are suitably educated and are in an environment of constant learning, Vilo says.



It will impact the industry and it will create dialogue and it will create some action, he says. In terms of consumer outcomes, having a better-educated individual thats been in the industry longer can help, but it doesnt automatically translate to a better broker.



You cant become a broker without the big four on your panel, so it depends on what the [other lenders] do. Time will tell - Rebecca Barbe, Finance Solutions Qldlender



Clive Kirkpatrick, general manager of Vow Financial, echoes these sentiments. He says the YBR group is broadly in agreement with what the CBA has put forward.



From our perspective, weve already read the tea leaves and we want to move this from an industry to a profession, and to do that we need to improve education levels, he says.



Its not so much the level of qualification thats an issue, he adds, but the ongoing and continuous education needed to help people improve. He says its about encouraging people who are better educated and can understand financials, who are good at building relationships with customers and can deliver better advice, to join the industry.



CBA cant go at it alone. I would have thought it would have been better that the Combined Industry Forum (CIF) made this statement and the agreement and the action to move forward with education. But Im glad that the CBA has put a line in the sand, Kirkpatrick says.



So far, it does seem that the CBA is going at it alone. The CIF actually made little mention of brokers expected education standards or requirements. It instead provided recommendations around educational content at conferences and professional development days and looked at whether there were any conflicts of interest if lenders and aggregators provided financial support for education and training.



Both Kirkpatrick and Vilo do question, however, whether barring new entrants from writing loans with the bank could impact the CBAs business and the sustainability of the profession.



As brokers get older and start retiring from the industry, its important for the future of the profession that companies foster the growth and education of new entrants, Kirkpatrick says.



I just completely disagree with having a freeze on bringing new people into the industry. I just think its the wrong thing to do. CBA has taken a unilateral stance on that at the moment, he says.



With new brokers diverted away from CBA, it could actually benefit the other majors and non-majors.

Suncorp will continue to support and educate new-to-market brokers, something Vilo says they often remember later when their careers have kicked off.



The challenge will be, for lenders like the CBA, ensuring that they get some currency from brokers who have been in the market for two years and have never done business with them, he says.



He also says Suncorp is satisfied with its current accreditation criteria. Between now and the foreseeable future, weve got no plans to say to any broker that you need to have a minimum of two years of experience to be able to do business with us  not at all.



Two sides to every opinion



Most people seem to be split on the changes and what their outcome will be.



On the one hand, the more time and energy thats invested in helping people understand a banks products, processes and policies, the better the broker will be at advising a customer, Kirkpatrick points out.



In the longer term, if CBA holds firm on that particular [two-year rule], then it would be detrimental to their business, he says.



But on the other hand, brokers shouldnt be resistant or offended by CBAs attempts to raise the bar.



We all owe it to our customers to provide better quality, so if [brokers have] got an issue around providing better-quality advice and delivering better-quality submissions to a bank, then thats probably not a profession they want to be in for the long term.



This article appeared in the January 2018 issue of Australian Broker magazine.The alleged $3 billion loan fraud resulted in the third set of heavy penalties that the banking regulator has handed down so far this year. Photo: Visual China

Chinas top banking regulator handed out another big fine of 52.5 million (about $8.4 million) this year to industry players linked to a loan fraud case, as it tightens up scrutiny over institutions business practices to fend off risks.

Nineteen banks in the northwest province of Shaanxi and central province Henan were fined for their misconduct in a 19 billion yuan pledged loan fraud, the China Banking Regulatory Commission said on Friday.

Those fined included branches of large state lenders  the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and the Postal Savings Bank of China  as well as smaller rural credit cooperatives. They granted loans to people who illegally used poor-purity gold as pledges, the banking regulator said. The case was uncovered and investigated in 2016.

One hundred and four executives and employees of the banks were punished with demotions or fines, according to the CBRC.

The case reflected the banks lack of internal controls and lax management of loan issuance and collateral, the commission said. The banks had failed to conduct adequate due diligence before the loan issuance, properly assess the value of the collateral and manage the risks, the CBRC said.

The banks pursued business expansion blindly without knowing their customers. They violated business rules and failed to set up internal risk controls and audit mechanisms, said the CBRC.

Thirty-five people have been arrested for the alleged loan fraud, the regulator said. Most of the suspects are linked to Henan-based gold miner Boyuan Mining Co., including company Chairman Zhao Faping. Caixin learned that some bank employees have also been handed over to judiciary departments for criminal investigations.

Chinas top financial regulators have stepped up their crackdown on market wrongdoings since last year amid the central governments broader efforts to rein in financial risks.

It is the third heavy penalty handed down by the banking regulator so far this year. Last week, the Postal Savings Bank and 11 other lenders were fined a combined 295 million yuan for illegal trading of 7.9 billion yuan of bank bills.

Earlier last month, Shanghai Pudong Development Bank was fined $72 million for falsifying loan deals and hiding non-performing assets.

In all of 2017, the CBRC imposed fines totaling 2.9 billion yuan on 1,877 banking institutions, according to official figures. The biggest penalty  722 million yuan (more than $100 million)  was slapped on China Guangfa Bank for fabricating guarantee documents.

It also punished 1,547 industry employees  including banning 270 from the industry for years or up to a lifetime  and issued a flurry of regulations to try to wring out risks.

Guo Shuqing, the head of the banking regulator, has repeatedly warned lenders to root out fraud and other malpractice. In a statement in early January, the CBRC vowed to intensify its crackdown on lender misconduct this year, with a focus on interbank deals and shadow banking, warning that the country still faces complicated and grave potential financial risks.

Contact reporter Han Wei (weihan@Caixin.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.

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You are our people. You Care. We Care2.About Me Scott Because prophetic scriptures are found throughout the bible, it is obvious that a comprehensive, systematic approach would be useful, if not necessary, for the understanding of prophecy. Past prophecies have been fulfilled in a literal manner, as confirmed by the dating of these writings and historical records of confirmation. These past prophecies also serve as a model of how to interpret future prophecies. A literal view of prophecy clearly indicates a certain sequence of events will occur within a single generation, concluding with the Tribulation and Second Advent and these events will be obvious. The prophetic signs appear to be present in this generation and we believe these signs are revealed in the news from around the world. View my complete profileFirst responders, community remember 9/11 two decades later

Pueblo commemorated the 20th anniversary of 9/11 with a ceremony held at the Historic Arkansas Riverwalk of Pueblo.Email Whatsapp Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment

I discovered one of the most extraordinary stories I've ever encountered. Before I share it with you, I need to set the context. The Polish Senate passed a bill Thursday making it illegal to claim Poland was complicit in Nazi atrocities committed on Polish soil during World War II. Violations would be punishable by up to three years in prison. The bill awaits a presidential signature to become law; Polish President Andrzej Duda has indicated that he intends to sign it.

There is no question that the Holocaust camps in Poland were operated by the Nazis, not the Poles. It is also true that the Polish people were horrifically victimized by Nazi Germany: at least 1.5 million were deported to Germany for forced labor; hundreds of thousands were imprisoned in concentration camps; at least 1.9 million were killed during the war.

But the new bill criminalizes any claim that the Polish people were in any way complicit in crimes against the Jewish people. What is the verdict of history? How is the question related to the astounding story I'll tell shortly?

Poland, the Allies, and the Holocaust

Yad Vashem, Israel's official memorial to Holocaust victims, recognizes thousands of Polish people as "Righteous Among the Nations," non-Jews who "took great risks to save Jews during the Holocaust."

Tragically, there were others who were not righteous. As Jonathan Tobin notes, "Anti-Semitism was endemic in pre-Holocaust Poland. Many, if not most Poles were largely indifferent to the fate of their Jewish compatriots."

In addition, historian Jan Gross records the massacre of hundreds of Jews by their Polish neighbors in 1941. In 1946, forty-two Jews were killed by police and townspeople in Kielce, Poland.

These atrocities seem to contradict the government's claim that the Polish people were in no way complicit in persecuting the Jews. My focus, however, is primarily on those in Poland and around the world who were aware of the Holocaust but did not do all they could to stop it.

In this, the Poles were by no means alone. As an occupied nation, there was far less they could do to end the death camps. However, Allied officials were in a very different position.

The Nazis' plan to exterminate the Jews was smuggled out of Poland by the Bund, a Jewish political organization, and reached England in the spring of 1942. Details of the report also reached the Allies from Vatican sources and from informants in Switzerland and the Polish underground.

Jan Karski, an emissary of the Polish underground, met personally with President Franklin Roosevelt and British Foreign Minister Anthony Eden. The American government confirmed the reports to Jewish leaders in November 1942 and publicized them immediately thereafter.

Historians will continue debating whether the Allies should have done more to stop the atrocities at Auschwitz and other death camps. But as the event I'll describe next makes clear, when we are aware of evil in the world, we must do all we can to stop it.

The twentieth train to Auschwitz

In preparation for this Daily Article, I visited the Dallas Holocaust Museum yesterday. It was an unforgettable experience.

One section of the museum tells an incredible story I had never heard before. I was so moved by the exhibit that I purchased Marion Schreiber's The Twentieth Train in the museum's bookstore. Here's a short version of the story she tells so masterfully.

The date was April 19, 1943. A train departed from Mechelen transit camp in Belgium bound for the death camp at Auschwitz. It was the twentieth such train to make the journey and was transporting more than 1,600 Jews to their deaths.

Three men were determined to stop it and free as many prisoners as they could. Their leader was a young Jewish doctor named Youra Livchitz. Brilliant and charismatic, Youra was also a writer and actor. Fluent in Latin, Greek, German, and French, his future was unlimited. He was joined by two non-Jewish friends, Robert Maistriau and Jean Franklemon.

The three were armed only with a lantern, a pistol, and two sets of pliers. They covered the lantern in red tissue paper to simulate a stop light and set it on the train track. When the train came to a halt, Youra fired his pistol to draw the attention of the Nazi soldiers. Robert and Jean jumped onto railway cars and used their pliers to pry open the doors.

Inspired by their actions, some of the Jewish prisoners sprang into action as well, making their way out of the cars and leaping to the ground. In all, 231 Jews fled the train that night. Twenty-three died in the attempt, while the others escaped into the countryside. Not one of them was betrayed back to the Nazis by the Belgian people.

Youra Livchitz was not so fortunate. He escaped the Nazis that night and continued his efforts on behalf of his fellow Jews, but he was eventually betrayed by a traitor and arrested. He escaped prison but was betrayed again and executed. Jean Franklemon and Robert Maistriau survived the war, dying in 1977 and 2008, respectively.

"The finest of all human struggles"

The Dallas Holocaust Museum displays a quotation by Albert Einstein: "The world is too dangerous to live in-not because of the people who do evil, but because of the people who sit and let it happen."

Scripture is clear: "Whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin" (James 4:17). What evil is God calling you to prevent? What "right thing" is he calling you to do?

I'll close with a statement by Youra Livchitz displayed prominently at the museum: "The finest of all human struggles is against what we are and for what we should become."

Let's renew that struggle today.

Originally posted at the Denison Forum.'Boruto: Naruto Next Generations' Episode 43 news: Team 7 to be involved in a gang war with Byakuya

For the past few episodes, the titular character of "Boruto: Naruto Next Generations" has been complaining about the lack of action in the previous missions of Team 7. In episode 43, however, he may finally get what he wished for as Boruto, Sarada, and Mitsuki are about to face a group of noble gangsters known as the Byakuya Gang.

In the previous episode of "Boruto: Naruto Next Generations," Team 7 solved a bank robbery crisis involving a man who was recently fired by his employer. The bank robber even threatened to blow himself up and everyone inside the bank, but thanks to Boruto's persuasion, the man calmed down and decided to stop his plan. Interestingly, this incident is actually a precursor to episode 43, as the Byakuya Gang brainwashed the bank robber to incite fear in the bank.

"Boruto: Naruto Next Generations" episode 43 will finally introduce the gang responsible for all the recent crimes in the Leaf village. According to the episode synopsis, the Byakuya Gang appears to have the same motivation as the legendary thief Robin Hood. The group steals money from the rich people of Konoha in order to share it with the poor. However, Boruto things that something is off with Byakuya's Gang's intentions, and Naruto's son will consult his friend, Shikadai, regarding the background of the so-called noble thieves.

Even though the Byakuya Gang is seemingly helping the poor people, Byakuya and the rest of Team 7 are determined to stop the operations of the group. However, the teaser for "Boruto: Naruto Next Generations" episode 43 shows that the gangster members are no pushovers as they have mastered a handful of ninja techniques to use against their enemies. Nevertheless, this will be an opportunity for Naruto to show his capabilities in handling serious matters inside Konoha, although it is uncertain if he is skilled enough to be involved in a ninja gangster war.

"Boruto: Naruto Next Generations" episode 43 will air in Japan next Wednesday, Feb. 7.Ruined Albanian churches could be tourist magnet if repaired

Many old Albanian Orthodox churches and the art they contain lie in ruins due to decades of neglect but they could attract tourists if they are repaired, according to experts.

The government and the Orthodox church itself have started restoring some of the structures that date from the Byzantine period or later in the south of the country.

The churches are often in picturesque locations and their fortunes reflect the twists of Albanian politics over the last century.

Albania became a functioning state after World War One after domination under the Ottoman Empire. It became communist after World War Two but embraced democracy in 1990 and aspires to join the European Union.

The post-Byzantine Saint Athanasius church in Leshnice is one example. Its frescoes have stared at the stars since last May when the roof caved in and its southern wall fell down.

The church has plastic sheets over its walls for protection while debris with parts of frescoes is piled to one side.

Jorgo Sheka said it was taken care as a cultural shrine under late dictator Enver Hoxha, who was a hardline Stalinist, but has been neglected since then.

'No one else lifted a finger but Hoxha cared for it,' he said, criticising the leaders who followed Hoxha for neglect.

Hoxha banned religion in the 1960s and destroyed many churches and mosques but he kept some for their art. More than 60 percent of Albanians are nominally Muslim and the rest are Christians.

The Leshnice church is decorated with figures of saints in golden halos and biblical scenes in dark blue and red. Saint Athanasius dates to 1797 but frescoes underneath suggested it was older.

Its fame and location in a village helped the Church at Labova of the Cross get a facelift. Its cross of solid gold weighing 0.8 kilos and carved wood from the cross Christ died on was a gift of Emperor Justinian I, two scholars said.

The cross went missing in 1989 and has not been found.'Superman' gets two TV prequels titled 'Krypton' and 'Metropolis'

The "Superman" universe is getting a lot of attention this year with two television titles in the works, "Krypton" and "Metropolis."

On Tuesday, Jan. 30, DC Comics revealed another live action TV series set in the "Superman" storyline, "Metropolis." The show will focus on a young Lois Lane and a young Lex Luthor as they explore supernatural secrets and science. The events depicted in the series are before the arrival of Clark Kent, so there will likely be no Superman in the series.

DC has noted that fans may see a similarity between the coming "Metropolis" and the recent "Gotham" TV series set in the "Batman" storyline before Batman, though DC assures fans it will be very different from "Gotham" and the city of Metropolis alone is a whole different environment from the city of Gotham. Metropolis is set in a more peaceful bustling metro, while Gotham is a dark city littered with criminals.

"Metropolis" will not be available on regular TV channels or streaming services like Netflix, however. DC announced "Metropolis" will be DC exclusive, and only aired on DC's upcoming digital service. Other titles from DC such as "Young Justice: Outsiders" and "Harley Quinn" have also been announced to be exclusive to the said service.

This is the second prequel to the "Superman" story currently coming to TV screens, as "Krypton" was announced in December to air on TV network Syfy. "Krypton," however, is set in the previous generations of Kent and his acquaintances, before they were even born. The story of the show will revolve around the Kryptonian war before the decimation of Planet Krypton. The protagonist of the series is none other than Superman's grandfather.

The WB's "Smallville" TV series, which aired from 2002 to 2011, was also a "Superman" prequel. The show documented the teenage life of a maturing Kent and his encounters with Luthor, during which they were close friends.

"Metropolis" is set for release in 2019, while "Krypton" will be premiering on Syfy on March 21 this year.Authorities on Friday conducted a raid at an alleged chop shop on the 400 block of Our Road in San Jacinto County, located off U.S. 59 northeast of Cleveland.

The raid, which took place just before daybreak, was conducted by the Montgomery County Auto Theft Task Force, San Jacinto County Sheriff's Office Hot Spot Team and the Liberty County Pct. 6 Constable's Office.

Officers, dressed in tactical gear and carrying high-powered rifles, breached the camping trailers, house and outbuildings on the Our Road property, while helicopter air support flew overhead and an ambulance stood by in the event of an injury.

Five people with confirmed gang ties to the Aryan Brotherhood are in custody and facing multiple felony charges, said Bryan Carlisle, spokesperson for the Montgomery County Task Force.

The suspects have been identified as Matthew Follis, 38, Alexandria Holloway, 26, Shain Whitmire, 38, Everitt McAdams, 34, and Shasta Cole, 33, all of Shepherd.

Follis and Holloway each are charged with nine counts of Theft of Vehicle and two additional counts for Possession of Controlled Substance and Felon in Possession of a Firearm.

Whitmire is charged with two counts of Vehicle Theft while McAdams and Cole each face one count of Possession of a Controlled Substance.

At least eight stolen vehicles were recovered at the scene and another, a gray Volkswagen, was found at a property one street over at 50 Little John St., Shepherd, said Sgt. Larry Allen of the constable's office. Investigators also found three firearms and numerous amounts of narcotics including marijuana, methamphetamine, heroin and oxycotin.

"The Volkswagen was reported stolen last night from Campbell Street in Cleveland and the suspect in that case is Shain Whitmire, one of the suspects arrested Friday at the chop shop," Allen said.A family of bald eagles seems to be thriving as they make their home in a nest just a bird's-eye view from the busy shops and restaurants of Hughes Landing in The Woodlands Township.

When one of the eagles leaves the nest, which is high in a pine tree overlooking Lake Front Circle, and virtually in the shadow of a massive Hughes Landing parking garage, it puts on quite a show as it spreads its impressive wings and majestically soars above the roadway below.

A longtime observer of the raptors, retiree Randy Scott of The Woodlands is a regular visitor to the site. Scott has turned into a sort of a guardian of the birds and has been keeping an eye on the eagles for years, including the time they spent in a different nest in The Woodlands.

"At least 14 years, it may be 16 because the first I saw these eagles it was on East Shore before it was developed," Scott said of his keeping watch on the birds.

EAGLES PUT ON IMPRESSIVE DISPLAY AS THEY FLY ABOUT

Standing in a nearby parking lot watching the eagles soar aloft Thursday morning, Feb. 1, Scott noted how one adult appeared to be flying off in search of food for the couple's two young birds, while the other eagle remained nearby, apparently to protect their babies, possibly from hawks, which are known to prey on young eagles. Scott and others believe the two young birds have hatched about a month ago.

As for protecting the eagle family from the disturbances generated by humans, Scott has started the Facebook page "Save The Woodlands Eagles." The page has etiquette tips for how to watch the eagles, while not disrupting their peace and quiet.

"The idea here is to protect the eagles, not to have people running around getting all excited," Scott said.

Only a handful of Woodlands residents knew the eagles had found a home and built a nest in the township until word spread a few years ago. There are also additional eagle families in The Woodlands Township.

Donna Anderson, a biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, said there are four nests in the township.

"They're all pretty well established on private land and we don't disclose their locations," Anderson said. In all, the service is monitoring about 35 nests in the Houston area, with the agency getting reports weekly of new nests, she noted.

Scott said he was aware of additional nests in The Woodlands, but would not reveal their exact locations.

'PROTECTION ZONE' KEEPS PEOPLE AT A DISTANCE

As for the eagles living near Hughes Landing, a fence put up to establish a "protection zone" keeps onlookers from getting too close.

The fence, which is several feet high, stretches across an area that encloses about 4 acres, according to the environmental manager for The Woodlands Development Co., Fred LeBlanc. Of course people can still see the raptors from the adjacent street.

"The birds have been very tolerant of people throughout their whole history," LeBlanc said, adding the development company has been coordinating protection of the birds with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service since the birds first showed up in the area, which he said was in 1999.

On week day mornings, a few people-some of them photographers equipped with especially long lenses-gather in the parking lot of the adjacent Loft Church in the hopes of getting a glimpse of the bald eagles. Casual observers also come by. On one morning, a mother pointed out the nest to her young son as both watched in apparent awe of the birds.

A regular visitor to the site is professional photographer Isabelle Lataste, who moved to the Houston area from France a few years ago. Having shot a series of stunning photos of the birds, Lataste admits to being awestruck by the creatures.

"I'm an eagle-holic," Lataste confessed.

"I spend all my day here to take pictures and video of them," she added. "I call them Martha and George Washington [the adult birds] because it was Martha Washington who decided the bald eagle would be the emblem in America."

But Lataste said she stays away from the site on weekends because of the number of people who gather in the church parking lot and walk along the adjoining sidewalk to take a look at the birds.

"Weekends you have a lot of people and it's too noisy," she said.

BALD EAGLES BACK FROM NEAR EXTINCTION

The bald eagle, which was chosen 1782 as the emblem of the United States, was once in danger of becoming extinct, with pesticide contamination in fish, the birds' preferred meal, being blamed for decimating its population.

After the number of eagles had dwindled to less than 500 nesting pairs in 1963, the raptor was placed on the he endangered species list. That protection resulted in what Fish and Wildlife Service officials describe on its website as a "remarkable recovery."

With its population rebounding, the eagle was taken off the list in 2007, but still has special federal protections under Migratory Bird Treaty Act and the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act.

Anderson said The Woodlands Township and the region, with its lakes and pine forests, provides an ideal habitat for the eagle population to continue its recovery.

"Locally its seems to be a very robust population, at least for the Houston area," Anderson said.

Meanwhile, although photographers and others are thrilled by the daily show put on by the eagle family, bird lovers remain saddened by the death of a bald eagle found injured in the Village of Panther Creek in October, 2017. The Courier of Montgomery County reported that the bird was taken to an animal rescue hospital in Conroe, but had to be euthanized because veterinarians felt its injuries were too severe for it to recover. Though eagles typically feed on fish, they sometimes eat roadkill, leading to the belief that eagle was hit by a car.

Scott speculated that bird may have been the previous mate of the male eagle near the Hughes Landing site.

"You can't identify them, but during the normal nesting time in November the birds were not seen here at the nest," Scott said. "So it's my speculation that the male went and a found a mate."A Houston chemical container company and two of its principals face felony environmental charges after using a hidden storm drain to dump benzene and other highly toxic liquids into waterways near homes and schools over a period of at least months, injuring their employees in the process, prosecutors said Friday.

The indictments by a Harris County grand jury are rare. Though unpermitted hazardous materials facilities have been allowed to flourish in the city's unzoned sprawl, catching chemical waste dumpers  or merely getting an inventory of all the haz-mat sites around town  has proven difficult for the Houston Fire Department.

Prosecutors said they want this case to institute a new era of accountability for environmental crimes, relying on new lines of communication with the community to ferret out wrongdoers.

"If you're operating without a license and handling hazardous waste, discharging hazardous waste, disposing of it, we're going after you," said Alex Forrest, chief of the environmental crimes division of the Harris County District Attorney's Office.

RELATED VIDEO:

At Wright Containers, named in the indictments Thursday, the injured employees turned into whistleblowers, Forrest said.

They complained that the chemicals burned through their gloves and irritated their eyes. The company refused to pay for their medical care, they told investigators. Police officers searching the site with a warrant smelled strong chemical odors and felt more nauseous the closer they got to the drain, he said.

"Some of the chemicals would burn the skin off your bones," he said.

Owner Ronald F. Wright, 50, and general manager Gregory B. Hance, 41, each face two counts of intentional water pollution and one count of improper disposal and storage of hazardous materials. If convicted, they could face up to 10 years in prison and fines of up to $250,000 per violation. The company is also named as a defendant.

No one answered the phone at the business on Friday afternoon and an attorney for the men did not immediately return messages.

They turned themselves into authorities Friday and were released without bail, Forrest said. He did not know why, but said neither man has a criminal record, neither was deemed a flight risk and a court barred them from handling chemicals while the case is pending.

READ MORE: A Chronicle investigation in 2016 found problems with chemical storage

Wright Containers, in the 6600 block of Lindbergh Street in southeast Houston, is a few blocks away from Seguin Elementary School and hundreds of homes. Two other schools are nearby.

It deals in hefty industrial-strength containers, made of thick plastic, holding up to 330 gallons of liquid and encased in metal cages mounted on pallets. Workers stacked the chemical "totes" around the property's central storm drain to block it from public view, Forrest said.

The company offered recycled totes to industrial customers.

"Wright Containers will pick up your dirty and empty" totes, the company's website says, adding that Wright's relatively small size allows it to undercut the competition. Forrest said there was no evidence that companies sending totes to Wright Containers knew how the waste was being disposed.

"When you are receiving dirty totes for free ... and if you're not paying fees associated with properly collecting and disposing of hazardous waste ... then obviously when you're refurbishing that tote you're going to sell it at a much cheaper price," he said.

The website indicated the company uses "a proprietary chemical treatment" to recondition used totes. But Forrest said the company had its employees cut the containers into pieces to be thrown away, then re-outfitted the metal cages with other totes.

The company opened in 2017 and had plans for a second location in Sulphur, Louisiana.

It has customers from Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma and other states.

A whistleblower provided video of chemicals being dumped into the drain, which ultimately leads to Sims Bayou and then Galveston Bay, Forrest said.

"We depend on our law-enforcement agencies, concerned citizens and whistleblowers to develop and communicate the intelligence and information we need to shut down these hazardous operations," he said. "The community truly is our eyes and ears, and we want the public to know we are here."

A 2016 investigation by the Houston Chronicle found that the fire department had no idea where most hazardous chemicals are, that less than a quarter of hazardous materials facilities with permits had been inspected, and little effort was being made to find ones skirting the rules.

Chemical facilities are sprinkled across neighborhoods and aren't always obvious. A fire at a chemical warehouse in Spring Branch in 2016 triggered evacuations of schools and homes, and caught neighbors and the fire department off guard. Updating the city database of hazmat facilities has been slow.

READ MORE: A year later Houston is still in dark on chemical stockpiles

The extent of any environmental damage at Wright Containers was unclear Friday. State and local environmental officials couldn't immediately be reached for comment about any cleanup efforts.

The dumped chemicals included benzene, ethylbenzene, butylbenzene, dichloromethane, ethylbenzene and toluene, among others. Some are carcinogenic and highly flammable. It was impossible for investigators to estimate how much had been dumped into the drain over several months, Forrest said.

Wright Containers did not have the required permits for handling hazardous waste, he said. An online Texas Commission on Environmental Quality database of regulated companies shows nothing under the company's name.

District Attorney Kim Ogg said the indictments come as the result of a joint investigation with the Houston Police Department's Environmental Crimes Unit.

"Polluters who intentionally poison our environment with toxic and corrosive substances, who disregard the health of our people, and who cut corners on the handling of hazardous waste to make an extra buck are on notice," Ogg said. "We will prosecute aggressively and resolutely when the evidence justifies it."

To contact HPD's Environmental Investigations Unit, to report acts of pollution to air, water or land, call 713-525-2728.A 14-year-old Houston boy was stabbed blocks from his middle school earlier this week, police said Friday.

The teenager was at Halbert Park, in the 200 block of E. 23rd St. in the Greater Heights, when an unknown assailant stabbed him in the chest around 5:20 p.m. Wednesday.

The boy, reeling from the confrontation, ran to Hamilton Middle School where staff members called 911, according to Houston ISD.

The boy had just left the school after class hours.

Houston ISD police initially responded to the call, but the person responsible had already fled the scene by the time officers arrived. Paramedics took the boy to Ben Taub Hospital in critical condition. Houston Police Department spokesperson John Cannon said the boy is expected to survive.

Detectives with HPD's Major Assault Unit had not yet spoken with the victim as of Friday afternoon.

RAID: Authorities bust alleged Aryan Brotherhood chop shop in San Jacinto County

Cannon said the park is known to be a place where several students hang out. A Houston ISD spokesperson said the district's police department has increased patrol in the area as detectives with HPD work the case.

Anyone with information is urged to contact Houston Crime Stoppers at 713-222-TIPS (8477).

Jay R. Jordan is a breaking news reporter at Chron.com. Follow him on Twitter at @JayRJordan.Express Entry-linked PNPs off to a strong start in 2018 Five provincial Express Entry streams active in January Stephen Smith Noah Turner Aa Accessibility Font Style Serif

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January was a busy month for Canadas Provincial Nominee Programs, notably those aligned with the federal Express Entry system.

The two Express Entry draws conducted by the Government of Canada in January were complemented by the opening of five Express Entry-linked Provincial Nominee Program (PNP) streams over the course of the month.

Express Entry candidates with a provincial nomination get an additional 600 points toward their Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) score, putting an invitation to apply for Canadian permanent residence well within reach.

Ontario

One of the most active Express Entry-aligned PNP streams in January was the Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program (OINP)s Human Capital Priorities Stream, which held two invitation rounds in one week. The Human Capital Priorities Stream allows the OINP to search the Express Entry pool for candidates in the Federal Skilled Worker Class and Canadian Experience Class with a CRS score of at least 400 points, among other eligibility criteria.

Ontario issued a total of 720 Notifications of Interest in the two Human Capital Priorities invitation rounds in January, a detail that the OINP now discloses along with the CRS score range for each individual round and the date range when its search of the Express Entry pool took place. The inclusion of these details is a new development for the OINP, which is taking steps to improve transparency in accordance with the new Ontario Immigration Act.

Ontarios two other Express Entry-aligned streams, the Express Entry French-Speaking Skilled Worker Stream and the Express Entry Skilled Trades Stream, also opened in January but the OINP has yet to provide an update regarding NOIs issued through these streams. Like the Human Capital Priorities Stream, the OINP uses these streams to search the Express Entry pool for candidates who meet their eligibility criteria and are deemed capable of quickly settling into Ontarios labour market and communities.

To find out if you are eligible to enter the Express Entry pool, fill out a FREE assessment form today.

British Columbia

The British Columbia Provincial Nominee Program (BC PNP) conducted four draws in January, issuing invitations to apply for provincial nomination to candidates in its Express Entry, Skills Immigration and Entrepreneur streams. Two of the draws were conducted exclusively through the BC PNPs Tech Pilot initiative, which supports the provinces technology sector in its efforts to recruit talent.

Invitations to apply for a provincial nomination were issued to an undisclosed number of candidates in BCs Express Entry Skilled Worker and International Graduate categories.

In order to be considered under BC PNP Express Entry categories, most candidates must have an indeterminate, full-time job offer from an employer in the province who is willing to support them through the application process. The only exception to this rule are candidates in the Express Entry International Post-Graduate category.

Manitoba

On January 11, the province of Manitoba issued 155 Letters of Advice to Apply through the Manitoba Provincial Nominee Program (MPNP)s new Express Entry pathway. This was the first time that Manitoba has made use of the pathway, which it unveiled as part of a sweeping overhaul of the MPNP in November 2017.

To be considered under this immigration pathway, candidates must have a valid profile in both Manitobas Expression of Interest (EOI) pool and the federal Express Entry pool. They also need at least six months of recent experience in an occupation on Manitobas new In-Demand Occupation list, high so-called human capital values, and the confirmed support of a close friend or relative who has been a resident of Manitoba for at least one year.

For more information on eligibility requirements, click here.

Saskatchewan

The day before the Manitoba draw, Saskatchewan opened its first-come, first-served International Skilled Worker  Express Entry sub-category to 400 applications. This Saskatchewan Immigrant Nominee Program (SINP) sub-category does not require a job offer or a connection to Saskatchewan. Instead, it enables the SINP to nominate individuals in the Express Entry pool with in-demand work experience and the qualities deemed necessary for settling successfully in Saskatchewan.

For more information on the minimum eligibility requirements, please consult this page.

New Brunswick

The Maritime province of New Brunswick on Canadas East Coast briefly opened its Express Entry Labour Market Stream to skilled workers with work experience in Information Technology-related fields, among others, who had attended one of the New Brunswick Provincial Nominee Program (NBPNP)s international information sessions.

This stream is linked to the federal Express Entry system and interested applicants are required to submit an Expression Of Interest (EOI) to the NBPNP.

The opening closed to the targeted applicants the next day, but remains open to EOIs from individuals currently working in New Brunswick or individuals with a job offer from a company in New Brunswick. The NBPNP will also continue to accept EOIs from candidates whose first language is French and who have experience in one of the following 10 priority occupations:

NOC 2173: Software engineers and designers

NOC 2171: Information systems analysts and consultants

NOC 2281: Computer network technician

NOC 2172: Database analysts and data administrators

NOC 2174: Computer programmers and interactive media developers

NOC 6322: Cooks

NOC 0631: Restaurant and food service managers

NOC 1311: Accounting technicians and bookkeepers

NOC 0311: Managers in health care

NOC 6211: Retail sales supervisors

Prince Edward Island

Last but not least, New Brunswicks maritime neighbour Prince Edward Island introduced a number of significant changes to its provincial nominee program, the PEI PNP, including its Express Entry category.

Applicants to all PEI PNP streams and categories must now follow a three-step process that begins with the submission of an EOI. Submitting an EOI is not an application, but rather a way of indicating that you would like to be considered for PEI PNP Express Entry.

EOIs under the Express Entry category and others in the PEI PNP are also now ranked according to a new points grid that awards candidates points based on age, language proficiency, education, work experience, employment and adaptability up to a maximum of 100 points.

There are two pathways to permanent residency through the PEI Express Entry Category, depending on if an applicant has a job offer in PEI or not. While the points grid is essentially the same for candidates in both pathways, work experience and employment are weighted differently.

To find out if you are eligible to enter the Express Entry pool, fill out a FREE assessment form today.

 2018 CICNews All Rights ReservedThe publication yesterday by the House Intelligence Committee, under the leadership of chairman Devin Nunes, of a four-page summary memo regarding FBI surveillance of a Trump campaign advisor in 2016 is the long-awaited opening act of an extended drama about the Obama administrations abuse of powerwhich, when all is revealed, might yet outdo that of the Nixon administration.

Obama concealed his sharp-edged, Chicago-style machine politics under the rhetorical cover of progressivism. He was protected by a press corps that first enlisted in his administration and then fought to stop Donald Trump. But now that Obama is out of office, his ability to intimidate is much diminished. This past week, a 2005 picture of a beaming Obama next to a bright-eyed Louis Farrakhan surfaced, after having been held back for more than a decade at the behest of a member of the Congressional Black Caucus. Senator Robert Menendez of New Jersey, who had been tried for corruption by Obamas Justice Department after he refused to toe the party line about the peace-loving mullahs of Iran, has now seen the charges against him dropped. Z Street, a hawkish nonprofit supporter of Benjamin Netanyahus government in Israel, had been tied up with IRS matters since 2009; it has just been released from its legal chains. Democrats are holding to the line that the prophet of hope and change ran a pure administration, virtually free of scandal. But the memo is probably just the beginning; were likely to see many more revelations come out.

Obama isnt directly mentioned in the memo. But hes nonetheless implicated through his appointees apparent efforts to clear Hillary Clinton in her State Department email scandal while undermining her opponent, Trump, through the veneer of legality provided by FISA (the Foreign Intelligence Security Act) warrants, justified solely by the so-called Steele Dossier. The dossier was paid for by Clintons campaign and the Democratic National Committee; it was created by former MI6 agent Christopher Steele, who despised Trump, and the research firm Fusion GPS. The FISA Court, supervised by Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, was never told about the unverified dossiers origins.

As for matters of Russian collusion: Fusion GPS was tied to Vladimir Putins associates in the Kremlin, who wanted to undermine the Magnitsky Act, a U.S. law that sanctions Russian officials believed to be connected with the murder of anti-Kremlin lawyer Sergei Magnitsky. The journalists at CNN made much of Donald Trump Jr.s 20-minute meeting with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya at Trump Tower in 2016, while ignoring her meeting, before and after that one, with Fusions cofounder, former Wall Street Journal reporter Glen Simpson, who was working to overturn the Magnitsky Act. Simpson slimed Hermitage Capitals Willian Browder, who had helped pass the Magnitsky legislation and authored the important book Red Notice.

Wonder of wonders, the liberal press, long opposed to prior restraint when it comes to publishing material on American intelligence, is howling about the release of the Intelligence Committee memo. Theyre suddenly concerned, were supposed to believe, about damage to national security and the institutional well-being of the FBI. Democrats and their media allies, notes Roger Simon, have pushed themselves into a corner. They cant decide whether the best approach is to insist that the memo is a nothing-burger or a mortal danger to the country.

So far, not one Democrat has broken ranks. They will surely find procedural problems with the House memo. They will continue to wage their fight, a la Hollywood congressman Adam Schiff, on behalf of the resistance. But a resistance is not an opposition. The numerous landmines Obama and Clinton left behind them, intending to waylay the initially awkward Trump administration, are starting to detonateon Democrats.

The vulgar Trump isnt constrained by convention. He wont go soft on politicians who saw no problem in issuing FISA warrants in the midst of a presidential campaign and then keeping them operational into his first term in office. As the information comes out, the Democrats FISA subterfuge will be seen by much of the country as a soft coup attempt. Theres no other way to put it.

Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty ImagesTexas Monthly is hiring an ombudsman.

The magazines move comes in response to a CJR story, published on January 26, that reported on an apparent deal made by Texas Monthly Editor in Chief Tim Taliaferro with Bumble, the female-centric dating app. Bumbles founder, Whitney Wolfe Herd, appears on the newsstand cover of the magazines February issue.

Texas Monthly staffers reached out to CJR with concerns that the cover spot had been decided on a promise that Bumble would spend up to $30,000 boosting the story using paid social media promotion. Taliaferro, whose arrival at Texas Monthly in the fall of 2016 was marred by his suggestion (and subsequent denial after CJR reporting) that the storied magazine known for sharp political reporting would be focusing more on lifestyle coverage, denied that there had been any formal deal or agreement, and insisted that no journalistic ethics had been violated. But emails sent by Taliaferro to Bumble and obtained by CJR, detailed in our prior story, suggest there was prior discussion about the cover, including paid social media promotion.

ICYMI: The story BuzzFeed, The New York Times and more didnt want to publish

On Friday, Texas Monthly Chairman and CEO Paul Hobby said in a statement that the magazine had hired Pulitzer Prize-winning editor Rich Oppel, formerly of the Austin American-Statesman, as ombudsman to the magazineand acknowledged that Taliaferros emails with Bumble representatives were problematic, but denied any deal with Bumble.

Taliaferros communications with Bumble publicists may have incorrectly appeared to be a blurred line between the editorial and business sides of the magazine, Hobby writes in the statement. When it comes to Texas Monthlys journalism, even the appearance of impropriety can be damaging and is not acceptable. Taliaferro has acknowledged his misstep and regret to our staff, who care deeply about upholding the highest standards of journalism.

Sign up for CJR 's daily email

Oppel will review the magazines processes and organizational structure and make recommendations to the publication, according to the statement.

Read the statement in full here.

ICYMI: I spent 45 minutes on the phone with Megyn Kelly asking her to not run that show

Has America ever needed a media watchdog more than now? Help us by joining CJR today

Alexandria Neason was CJRs staff writer and Senior Delacorte Fellow. Recently, she became an editor and producer at WNYCs Radiolab.Renting out a spare room of your apartment or house (or the entire place) will now qualify you for a 20 percent deduction on business income.

The Honeymoon Cottage Source: airbnb.com

If you've been following tax news at all, you've probably heard about the new 20 percent break for "pass-through" businesses. Perhaps you've wondered: How can I get in? Starting a business, however  yes, even if it's just a "side hustle"  can seem like a time-consuming and complicated endeavor. But there's a relatively painless way: Rent out a spare room of your house or apartment. Landlords of all stripes could be eligible for this deduction.

We've had a huge surge in the number of Airbnb hosts who've become LLCs. Miguel Centeno Partner at Shared Economy CPA

"If you have the housing, you're taking advantage of assets you already have to get into a business," said Mark Luscombe, principal federal tax analyst at Wolters Kluwer Tax & Accounting. Pass-through entities are businesses that don't pay the corporate income tax. Instead, the profits are passed through to the business owner, who reports that income on their individual returns. People are already realizing this opportunity, said Miguel Centeno of Shared Economy CPA, a firm that specializes in taxpayers who are independent contractors. "Our doors are getting knocked down here," Centeno said. "We've had a huge surge in the number of Airbnb hosts who've become LLCs." (An LLC, or limited liability company, is a business structure in which the owner is taxed at his or her individual income rate yet is also covered by a corporation's limited liability). However, you don't need to incorporate to qualify for the pass-through deduction  although Centeno said it provides some additional benefits. "If someone slips and falls, the worst scenario is they're going after your home," he said. "The LLC is a veil between the business and your asset." To qualify all you need to do is report all of your rental business income and expenses on either Schedule C or Schedule E of your tax forms (watch out for guidance from the IRS on which one). The IRS is also expected to issue a new pass-through form sometime this year.

Taking advantage of the pass-through deduction by becoming a landlord might be especially enticing to those expecting a higher tax bill, thanks to the new curtailments on state, local and property taxes ($10,000) as well as mortgage interest ($750,000 for homes purchased after Dec. 15, 2017). "Having an Airbnb can help you maintain some of those deductions by transferring them to the business side," Luscombe said  because businesses aren't subject to the caps. Airbnb hosts also make more money, on average, than users of other platforms, according to technology finance company Earnest.

And now it might get even better. "This pass-through change is revolutionary," said Stephen Fishman, author of "Tax Guide for Short-Term Rentals." Here are some tips from experts on managing your rental business.

1) Track your expenses

Hero Images | Getty Images

You should separate your rental-business finances from your personal ones, Fishman said. "It's really good to have a bank account for all the business expenses," he said. Fishman also recommends using special landlord software  such as Quicken or the free app Hurdlr  to help you manage all of your rental business transactions. "If you buy something, you can just use the record keeping function to categorize it online," he said. "So when you do your taxes, it's all right there." If you're using Airbnb, you can access a transaction history, for information on your earnings. You can export this report into a spreadsheet for even clearer reporting.

2) Know what is deductible

Getty Images

The list of expenses you can deduct for being a rental landlord is long. Some of the more straightforward ones include any fees Airbnb charges you, home or landlord insurance, marketing for your property and gifts for guests such as wine or flowers. Other deductions are more complicated. If you're a renter, for example, you can't deduct depreciation of the property (where you write off the value an asset has lost over time). You can, however, deduct your rent  or a portion of it. Let's say your apartment's rent is $2,000 a month. If you rent out the entire place for 2 weeks, you can deduct $1,000. If you rent out only a room, you'll have to do a square-footage equation. As mentioned, you can also deduct a portion of your property taxes and mortgage interest, also by using an equation to figure out how much of your property was used for the business. This chart from Fishman's book shows an example of such a breakdown.

3) Get the right insurance

You should check with your home insurance provider about any additional precautions you might need for being a landlord. In some cases, a special endorsement is needed. Hosts might also want to look into landlord insurance. Airbnb offers a "Host Guarantee," for up to $1,000,000 in damages (well, certain damages).

4) Rules and considerations

Hill Street Studios | Blend Images | Getty ImagesThe Federal Reserve said Friday it is restricting Wells Fargo's size in response to "widespread consumer abuses."

As a result, Wells Fargo plans to replace three directors by April and a fourth by the end of the year. The Fed is prohibiting the bank from growing any larger than its total assets as of the end of 2017 until "sufficient improvements" are made.

Shares of the bank briefly fell 6 percent in after-hours trading.

"We cannot tolerate pervasive and persistent misconduct at any bank and the consumers harmed by Wells Fargo expect that robust and comprehensive reforms will be put in place to make certain that the abuses do not occur again," Fed Chair Janet Yellen said in a statement.

"The enforcement action we are taking today will ensure that Wells Fargo will not expand until it is able to do so safely and with the protections needed to manage all of its risks and protect its customers," she said.

Yellen completes her term at the Fed this week and begins at the Brookings Institution Monday.

The Fed did not note any new abuses by the bank in its statement. And neither release mentioned specific names of board members who would be removed.

Wells Fargo said in a release that within 60 days it will provide details to the Fed about a plan for enhancing the board's governance oversight and the company's compliance and operational risk management.

"We take this order seriously and are focused on addressing all of the Federal Reserve's concerns," Wells Fargo President and CEO Timothy Sloan said in a separate statement. He noted the order is unrelated to the bank's financial condition, which remains "strong."

Sloan took over as CEO in the fall of 2016 as the bank has tried to recover from a consumer sales scandal. One of those changes was an August announcement for a board shakeup.

It was discovered in 2016 that Wells Fargo workers had opened about 2 million consumer deposit and credit card accounts without customers' authorization since 2011. The bank paid $185 million in penalties. In 2017, the bank also reached a preliminary class-action settlement of $142 million over concerns about retail sales practices and unauthorized accounts from 2002.If you're a foodie, you know how hard it is to stay frugal. And while dining out is often a treat for your taste buds  not so much for your wallet. However, a few times a year (usually in the dead of winter or the dog days of summer), cities and towns across America offer consumers the opportunity to dine out for less, during what is often dubbed "Restaurant Week." The promotion typically offers patrons at participating eateries a three-course, prix fixe menu ranging from $22 to $44, depending on locale. In New York, for example, it's three courses at $29 for lunch and $42 for dinner. But don't get distracted by all those divine looking dishes at seemingly deep discounts. Restaurant Week is sometimes criticized for limited menu options, sub-par entrees and skimpy service. With Restaurant Week underway in cities like New York City, Chicago and Savannah, Georgia  and quickly approaching in other locations  it can be hard to figure out which participating businesses are actually offering a good deal. Here's how to approach Restaurant Week, so you get the most for your money. Compare the Restaurant Week menu to the general menu The first step to hacking Restaurant Week? Doing your homework. Instead of following wherever your taste buds take you, spend some time looking at menus online. Do a side-by-side comparison of the Restaurant Week prix fixe with what the eatery typically offers, food writer Sarah Zorn tells CNBC Make It. "Ideally, the menu should be almost exactly the same," says Zorn, author of "Brooklyn Chef's Table: Extraordinary Recipes From Coney Island to Brooklyn Heights."

"To me, the red flag goes off when I see dishes offered during Restaurant Week that are entirely unreflective of the restaurant and what they're about, and the quality that they would otherwise hold themselves to," she explains. Consider the entrees offered As you're digging into all those prix fixe menus, look at the entrees and consider whether you could make the dishes yourself. If the ingredients are difficult to track down or the recipe is hard to replicate, then that restaurant's promotion might be worth it. "In my restaurant, it's duck confit. It takes three days to make. You're not making that at home," says Nicholas Calias, the executive chef at Brasserie JO in Boston, which participates in Dine Out Boston in March. "That's something you're going to go out for."

As a chef, Calias, who has 26 Restaurant Weeks under his belt, also cautions against salads. Not just for their ease, but because it's a dish that's often over-priced. "I'll look at the whole plate and say, 'Ok, this plate costs six bucks, that I just paid $42,'" he says. "You'll order a Caesar salad and they'll say $26. Well okay, I know chicken costs $1.39 a pound, and I know that romaine only costs you about 45 cents to put on the plate." But, Calias says, it's important to remember that dining out isn't all about how much it cost to make the meal. "That salad may have cost me $14, but how the overall experience of dining was is what makes it worthwhile," he adds. Zorn agrees. Even with simple dishes, you still want to make sure the restaurant is bringing something to the table (no pun intended). Keep an eye on how the chef is "presenting, re-imagining, plating," adds Zorn. "Don't just give me a green salad. Don't just give me a bowl of soup. Don't just give me a plank of salmon with spinach on the side. I want to see their interpretation." Spot the duds Restaurant Week is often just as beneficial to the eatery as it is for the consumer. It's an opportunity for the business to bring in new customers, with the prospect of diners being impressed enough to come back in the future. So steer clear of spots that have a bad attitude and service to match. "The sense around Restaurant Week in the past [has been] that the people who take advantage are just in it to kind of scam the restaurants a bit," Zorn says. "They just want a cheap meal, and they don't have any intention of coming back. "And I think it's really unfortunate, when you feel that from the restaurants." Zorn says that type of attitude can be reflected in the eatery's Restaurant Week menu  "easy, assembly-line" dishes like casseroles, stroganoffs, soups, salads and sometimes stews can be a red flag. And check out the sweets. "It's more glaringly obvious on dessert menus. When you see a slice of cheesecakeor a creme brulee  these kind of wishy-washy desserts that really don't say anything about a restaurant," Zorn says. "You see them during Valentine's Day too, the heart-shaped chocolate cake. Cheesy, assembly line desserts, those are always a really easy tell." Pick a pricier place Restaurant Week is the perfect opportunity to try out that new eatery you usually can't afford. Go for the most expensive place you can, advises Calias. That's because in most cities, the prix fixe menus are all priced the same, no matter whether the restaurant is usually budget-friendly or pricey.

If a regular meal at a restaurant costs less than during Restaurant Week, "Well, those are the ones you're going to tend to stay away from, because you can go at any time. So you always want to look at the more higher-end restaurants," says Calias. Now is the time to save up and go to as many different eateries as you can. The chef says his friends in the culinary world will often make six to eight reservations during Restaurant Week and dine at a different place every night. "That not only opens up your mind to different food," says Calias, "it also opens up the restaurants to different guests." Don't miss: NFL players' surprising new performance hackgoing veganThe U.S. Navys nuclear fast-attack submarine, the USS Newport News (R), secures itself next to its sister Los Angeles-class submarine USS Boise (L) at Norfolk Naval Station in Norfolk, Va. Getty Images

A Trump administration Nuclear Posture Review released Friday shows a greater willingness to use nuclear weapons first and calls for development of new nuclear weapons and capabilities to counter rivals such as Russia and China. The NPR document released by the Pentagon also said the U.S. will develop for deployment a "low-yield" nuclear warhead for submarine-launched ballistic missiles "that is able to penetrate adversary defenses." It also said the U.S. will "strengthen the integration of nuclear and non-nuclear military planning." "This is a pretty sharp departure from current policy or even pre-Obama policies," said Lisbeth Gronlund, senior scientist and co-director of the Global Security Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists. "President Trump is embarking on a reckless path  one that will reduce U.S. security both now and in the longer term." Gronlund added that her biggest concern with the new policy is "an emphasis on integrating nuclear and conventional forces to facilitate nuclear warfighting. This new policy deliberately blurs the line between nuclear and conventional forces and eliminates a clear firewall."

'Cost-effective' nuclear triad

The Defense Department's document concludes that the nation's nuclear triad  land, sea and air-based capabilities  remains "the most cost-effective and strategically sound means of ensuring nuclear deterrence." The nuclear triad has been a centerpiece of the nation's strategic defense since the 1960s but U.S. defense officials have complained it relies in part on an aging stockpile of weapons and delivery systems at a time when Russia and China are modernizing their own nuclear forces. According to the document, the U.S. nuclear forces have suffered as a result of "consistent underfunding" and it argues that the nation must make "significant and sustained investments" over the coming decade to deter rival superpowers. "U.S. nuclear weapon modernization will cost about 6.4 percent of the current Department of Defense budget at its peak," said Michaela Dodge, a policy analyst specializing in nuclear weapons policy at Heritage Foundation's Center for National Defense, a conservative Washington-based think tank. "The value that the United States is getting out of its nuclear deterrent way surpasses it."

James Mattis, U.S. secretary of defense, and General Joseph Dunford, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, at a news conference on the North Korea situation outside of the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Sept. 3, 2017. Chris Kleponis | Bloomberg | Getty Images

In his note introducing the strategy document, Defense Secretary James Mattis wrote, "This review comes at a critical moment in our nation's history, for America confronts an international security situation that is more complex and demanding than any since the end of the Cold War. In this environment, it is not possible to delay modernization of our nuclear forces if we are to preserve a credible nuclear deterrent."

Modernizing forces

The review also indicated that the modernization of the nuclear triad and the associated command and control system must remain a priority for the Pentagon. It also affirmed specific replacement programs initiated by the Obama administration, including new nuclear ballistic missile submarines, strategic bombers, nuclear air-launched cruise missiles and intercontinental ballistic missiles. Specifically, the Navy is funding development of the Columbia-class nuclear missile submarine, which replaces the Trident missile-armed Ohio-class submarine program. Construction of the first Columbia-class boat by prime contractor General Dynamics is set for 2021 and the program is expected to cost nearly $270 billion over its life cycle, based on government estimates. On the missile side, nuclear upgrades planned include replacing the military's current 400 silo-based Minuteman III missiles. The review also calls for updating hundreds of ICBM launch facilities. Replacement is expected to begin in 2029, according to the Pentagon. For the nation's nuclear-capable bomber force, including the aging B-52 Stratofortress and B-2 stealth bombers, there are plans underway to replace them with Northrop Grumman's B-21 long-range strike bomber. The Pentagon expects the first B-21 Raider bomber beginning in mid-2020s, with a projected cost of $550 million per plane. The F-35 stealth fighter  one of the military's biggest and most expensive acquisition programs  also received attention in the document with the Pentagon noting that "the United States is incorporating nuclear capability onto the forward-deployable, nuclear-capable F-35 as a replacement" specifically for the current generation of aging dual-capable aircraft. Lockheed Martin is the prime contractor on the F-35 program, which could be valued at more than $1 trillion over the 55-year life cycle of the program. "Modernizing our dual-capable fighter bombers with next-generation F-35 fighter aircraft will maintain the strength of NATO's deterrence posture and maintain our ability to forward deploy nuclear weapons, should the security situation demand it," the review said.

Deterring Russia

Among the other investments planned is the so-called "low-yield" nuclear warhead that could be launched underwater. This warhead with less explosive force is in response to Russia, which developed underwater drones that are capable of carrying low-yield warheads. "The only purpose of this adding another delivery type is to enable ... a more surgical, low-yield strike," said Gronlund, a physicist by training. "We're sort of primed to engage in this kind of nuclear warfighting. This brings us closer to the edge. We still need some kind of spark though." Also, Gronlund said that the new nuclear warhead isn't needed because the U.S. already has bombs and air-launched cruise missiles with a low-yield capability. She also said the Trump policy is counter to the "very long glide path" of the U.S. reducing its emphasis on nuclear weapons use. But the NPR argues that the "low-yield" warhead for the U.S. Trident missile would be "a comparatively low-cost and near-term modification to an existing capability that will help counter any mistaken perception of an exploitable 'gap' in U.S. regional deterrence capabilities." The document also calls for the U.S. to develop "a modern nuclear-armed sea-launched cruise missile." It said the "low-yield" option on the Trident missile and the sea-launched cruise missile would "provide additional diversity in platforms, range, and survivability, and a valuable hedge against future nuclear 'break-out' scenarios." "Unfortunately, this NPR does not argue for maintaining 'strategic stability' nor does it explain whether, how and why the call for new U.S. nuclear capabilities will reduce the threat of nuclear conflict," said Thomas Countryman, former acting undersecretary of State for arms control and the chairman of the Arms Control Association, a nonpartisan disarmament group based in Washington. But others maintain that the new nuclear weapons strategy makes sense and argue that there's a need to strengthen nuclear deterrence capabilities, including through smaller "low-yield" bombs. "It realistically assesses international conditions and addresses impacts of these developments for nuclear forces, including strengthening deterrence by reintroducing low-yield nuclear weapon options to the U.S. nuclear weapon arsenal," said Dodge, the Heritage analyst. Dodge also said the document "highlights negative security trends since the end of the Cold War, particularly the mistaken belief that Russia's trajectory of development will be benign."

China's growing arsenalA man opened fire on passersby in the central Italian city of Macerata on Saturday, injuring several African migrants, police said, in an attack that appeared to be racially motivated.

The shootings happened just days after the dismembered body of an 18-year-old Italian woman was discovered hidden in two suitcases near Macerata. A 29-year-old Nigerian migrant has been arrested in connection with her death.

Local media reported that at least six migrants including one woman were shot by a man driving around the city, located about 200 km (125 miles) east of Rome, and firing from his car window.

"Shots fired in Macerata. People injured. Police operation under way. Stay out of the way and avoid open places," the police said on Twitter. Shortly afterwards, police said one man had been arrested.

State television Rai said the suspect was a white Italian man who came from Macerata.

The website of newspaper Corriere della Sera said a man fired from a car window at two young African migrants shortly after 11 a.m. (1000 GMT) Saturday, wounding one of them. A short while later two other migrants, including a woman, were shot.

It was not immediately clear how serious their injuries were.

Right-wing politicians campaigning ahead of national elections on March 4 leapt on the gruesome death of the teenager Pamela Mastropietro to promote their anti-migrant message.

A preliminary postmortem on the teenager could not immediately identify her cause of death. The Nigerian suspect, who was denied asylum last year but has remained in Italy, has refused to talk to police.

"What was this worm still doing in Italy?" Matteo Salvini, head of the far-right League, wrote on Facebook, accusing the centre-left government of responsibility for Mastropietro's death for allowing migrants to stay in the country.

"The left has blood on its hands," he wrote.

Magistrates say witnesses saw the Nigerian suspect carrying the suitcases that were later found to contain the teenager's body. They also found blood-stained clothes and knives in his possession.Crack open a cold one, student debt holders. Natural Light, better known as "Natty Light," the cheap beer of choice for college students across the country, wants to help grads pay off their student loans.

The beer brand will be giving away $1,000,000 to help 25 lucky drinkers pay off their student debt. In order to compete for one of these prizes, participants must submit a short video showcasing a green tab from a can of Natty Light and share what made their college experience special.

It's a smart way for the brand to market their product. It is also a sign of how serious the student debt crisis has become.

Typically, the brand would run an expensive ad during the Super Bowl but this year, their pared-down spot will run in just 10 markets. The commercial shows students sliding through a soapy college dorm hall while Paula Cole's melancholy 1997 hit, "I Don't Want To Wait" plays in the background before revealing the giveaway. "Keep your epic college stories," the ad says. "Not your epic college debts?"

The commercial's tagline? "College debt sucks."

"We took a look at 10 of the most Natty-centric cities where our beer is loved and there are thousands of students, and took on the mission to protect their epic college memories," says Chelsea Phillips, Vice President of Value Brands at Anheuser-Busch, which owns Natural LIght.Counting of votes for 3 city corporations in K'taka under way

CEO Dr. Raju held a meeting with the representatives of recognised political partiesSelf-driving cars and trucks are everywhere, it seems. Especially in the news.

We were inundated this week with media reports about huge progress on the autonomous vehicle front.

The press reported that Google  I mean Waymo  ordered thousands of minivans to build a fleet of autonomous vehicles that will ferry members of Waymos early rider program. The company  Alphabets self-driving car startup that used to be part of Google  is already ferrying passengers around a small neighborhood in Phoenix  and with no drivers in the cars. Self-driving cars are also carrying passengers in Boston, Pittsburgh and elsewhere.

Even Apple reportedly expanded its experimental fleet from three to 27 vehicles.

Meanwhile, the Canadian company Suncor Energy said it plans to eliminate around 400 heavy-equipment operator positions over the next six years and introduce a fleet of self-driving trucks for oil sand mining. The trucks can mine 24 hours a day, except for when theyre adding fuel.

Will all this autonomous-vehicle news happening in a single week, surely self-driving cars are just around the corner, right?

Not so fast.

What will slow down autonomous Ubers

A Silicon Valley startup claims to be the worlds first real-world application of autonomous driving. If the claim is true, it beat Waymo, Tesla, Apple, the global car industry and all the other Silicon Valley startups.

The startup is called Udelv. This week it delivered groceries to two customers of a local store called Draegers Market. The delivery van drove autonomously from the store to the customers houses, although (as required by California law) a safety driver sat in the drivers seat during the delivery.

I talked to Udelv CEO Daniel Laury, and he told me the delivery was a huge milestone. Draegers Market deliveries go online to the public next week, according to Laury.

The milestone Laury refers to is commercialization.

Hes saying that Udelv is the first company to actually use autonomous vehicles for a service thats paid for by a customer (in this case, the grocery store).

Udelvs model shows how autonomous deliveries could work on a massive scale.

Its custom, proprietary electric vehicles are basically robotic lockers. Each van has 18 lockers that can carry a collective weight of 700 pounds. When the van gets within a few minutes of a customers house, that customer receives an alert via the companys free app (currently available on iOS, with the Android version coming soon, according to Laury).

Once the van arrives, customers use the app to unlock the compartment that holds their groceries.

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The Udelv fleet is monitored by a control room of humans, who can take over in unique situations and drive the vans by remote control if necessary.

Udelv monetizes with a simple model. It charges companies to make deliveries. Its goal is to cut the cost of deliveries in half, according to Laury.

Udelv also plans to expand beyond Silicon Valley and seek out autonomous-vehicle-friendly states to set up shop in.

Another interesting autonomous-delivery company emerged into partial sunlight this week. A secretive Silicon Valley startup called Nuro unveiled its electric self-driving vehicles, and theyre pretty extreme looking.

Nuro Nuros self-driving, custom delivery vans enhance safety by being much lighter, narrower and slower than an average passenger car.

Nuro vehicles are about as long from front to back as an SUV, but theyre skinny and light. Nuro vans are about 3.5 feet wide, and weigh about 1,500 pounds  a fraction of what an average car weighs.

Nuro cars can carry about 250 pounds total, and they can carry a variety of things, from groceries to dry cleaning to Amazon packages.

The company, which plans to be in operation no later than this year, is currently in talks with several retailers, according to press reports.

Why delivery beats taxis

The best measure of progress toward our self-driving automotive future may be the California DMVs annual disengagement report.

The state of California allows autonomous car and truck testing, but requires safety drivers  a human driver who can quickly take over the driving if the autonomous systems fail.

Disengagement is when a human takes over. The DMVs disengagement report year over year shows progress in the ability of self-driving cars to drive without intervention. For example, the report reveals that Waymo now averages around one engagement for every 5,555 miles driven  an improvement over 2016.

However, if Waymos vehicles were on the same test routes and carrying passengers without a safety driver, there would be an accident or problem every 5,555 miles  which isnt acceptable.

In other words, that rate of disengagement tells us that self-driving cars are significantly more dangerous right now than cars driven by people.

In circumstances where Waymo and others are actually carrying passengers without drivers, the routes are limited to tiny neighborhoods with clear street patterns that have been heavily mapped and tested by Waymo.

Meanwhile, self-driving delivery vans are already ready for prime time, and for four reasons:

Delivery vans can take the time to cope with road scenarios that confuse A.I. They can drive slowly, stop, take time to process the scene, even call for human help. Passengers wouldnt tolerate these stops and slowdowns. They dont put passengers at risk because there are no passengers. They also reduce risk for people outside the vehicles  pedestrians, bicyclists and other motorists. The reasons are that delivery vans can be slower, smaller and lighter. Nuro vehicles weigh a fraction of the weight of an average car, and theyre way skinnier. These facts reduce both the likelihood of accident (say, striking a bicyclist passing in the cars lane) and the impact should an accident occur. They can operate at optimal times. While passenger vehicles might have maximum demand during rush hours, delivery vehicles can choose the best times for delivery.

The fact is were at least a decade away from fully autonomous passenger cars that can go anywhere regular cars can go. But self-driving delivery vans are already serving customers.

That should serve as a wake-up call to enterprises that make deliveries.

The time to investigate this new technology is now. The opportunities for small, slow delivery vehicles are huge and coming fast.Heterosexuals to be given the right to form civil partnerships

Loughtons Bill received an unopposed second reading  The Times

Partners who took fight to court  Daily Mail

Gove and Johnson pushing back against proposals for a new Customs Union

Heterosexual couples will be given the right to enter civil partnerships after the Government ushered in the biggest shake up of marriage laws since the 1800s. In a move that was derided as introducing marriage-lite, the Home Office said it would review the operation of civil partnerships  which are currently only available to homosexual couples  so the difference in treatment in the current system is resolved. The reform is the most controversial of a series of changes that will mean couples are no longer given a marriage certificate on the day of their wedding and will not sign an official register on the day. A single electronic register will replace the current system of registers being held in churches.  Daily Telegraph

Boris Johnson, Michael Gove and Liam Fox will this week warn against joining a Customs Union with the EU after Brexit in a potentially explosive Cabinet confrontation. The three eurosceptic Cabinet ministers will say that Britain must be able to strike free trade deals after it leaves the European Union as the issue is debated for the first time by senior members of the Government. Philip Hammond, the Chancellor, Amber Rudd, the Home Secretary, and Greg Clark, the Business Secretary, have argued for a new Customs Union to limit the loss of trade with Europe, reduce the need for new customs procedures and avoid a hard border in Ireland.  Daily Telegraph

Robbins to promote plan to end the stalemate  The Times

as Fox insists we must be free to agree our own trade deals

Resist the Customs Union  The Sun Says

EUs threat to eradicate Britains fishing fleets  Daily Express

Britain will not benefit from Brexit if it stays in the EU customs union, Liam Fox warned yesterday. The International Development Secretary exposed a Cabinet rift by ruling out future membership of the union with Brussels. Dr Fox said Britain would never be free to strike its own trade deals if it remained shackled to the EU. However, Chancellor Philip Hammond and Business Secretary Greg Clark are pushing to stay in a customs union for goods.  Daily Mail

>Today:

>Yesterday:

We will defeat the real life McMafias pledges Wallace

The McMafia drama reflects the reality of international crime today. As Security Minister I see cases involving young girls trafficked across continents for sex, corrupt officials, murders and smooth middle men laundering money on their crime bosss behalfI am determined to ruthlessly focus on the threat using everything we have at our disposal. We will prosecute the Kingpins and the environment they inhabit using a full spectrum of effects. As part of that process, this week our law enforcement community received new powers under the Criminal Finances Act.  Ben Wallace, The Sun

Conservatives face wipe out in the London local elections

Dithering plotters adding to instability  The Times

Senior Conservatives are warning that the party faces a near-wipeout in London during local elections this May as tension rises over the role of Boris Johnson in the campaign. Theresa May has been told that she will face renewed attempts to drive her out of Downing Street if the party performs poorlyThe Conservatives run ten London borough councils and some in the party believe that they could lose control of every one.  The Times

>Yesterday: Local Government: Council by-election results from yesterday

100 million of Government backed loans offered to Carillion contractors

Contractors affected by the collapse of outsourcing giant Carillion will be able to apply for government-backed loans from High Street lenders. Thousands of Carillion suppliers were left unpaid after the construction giant collapsed in January. Ministers say the state-owned British Business Bank will guarantee 100m of lending to those firms, which should make it easier for them to borrow. This is in addition to funds created by Lloyds Banking Group, HSBC and RBS. Business Secretary Greg Clark said: We want to signal very clearly to small and medium sized businesses who were owed money by Carillion that they will be supported to continue trading.  BBC

Boles and Truss clash over Labours proposed land grab

Bogus foreign students have been rooted out

Two senior Tories clashed in public on Friday, over a Labour plan to seize land from fat cat landbankers. Former Tory housing minister Nick Boles signalled hed back a radical plan by Jeremy Corbyn to force landowners to sell plots for a fraction of their market value to build council houses. But in a Twitter spat the Chief Secretary to the Treasury Liz Truss branded the idea deeply sinister. Mr Boles responded: No its not and told her to read beyond the headline. Under existing laws the state must pay market value prices for land compulsorily purchased for housebuilding.  The Sun

A crackdown on bogus colleges has stopped overseas students driving up immigration figures, Theresa May has said. Speaking during a trade trip to China, the Prime Minister attempted to end the row about including student numbers in regular migration data. Theresa May said Home Office efforts to stop migrants posing as students while really looking for work had largely been rooted out so their movements dont have a long term impact on the numbers. Her remarks follow a bitter row between ministers about the inclusion of student numbers.  Daily Express

May praised for side stepping human rights on China visit

Halfon calls for the rights of excluded pupils to be protected

Theresa May returned to Britain yesterday to lavish praise from the Chinese regime for sidestepping human rights issues despite the mudslinging of the western media. An editorial in the Global Times, a state-backed Communist newspaper, said the pragmatic prime minister had refused to appease the British media to secure warm relations. Some western media outlets keep pestering May to criticise Beijing in an attempt to showcase that the UK has withstood pressure from China and the West has consolidated its commanding position over the country in politics, the paper wrote. For the prime minister, the losses outweigh the gains if she appeases the British media at the cost of the visits friendly atmosphere.  The Times

Excluded kids should be protected by a new bill of rights to give greater scrutinise of the schools decision to kick them out, a top Tory has said. The number of children excluded from schools for poor behaviour has soared to around 35 a day. A probe by the boss of the influential Commons Education committee Robert Halfon has found a lack of protection for pupils and their parents where schools have wrongly expelled them. He told the Schools Week magazine: There should be clear rules.Im not against the headteacher having an important say, but at the moment the parent has no proper rights. I want a clear appeal system that works.  The Sun

Rees-Mogg mobbed in Bristol

Wilson was his neighbour in Smith Square  The Times

as Parris goes on the attack too

Jacob Rees-Mogg, the Conservative MP, was jostled and punches were thrown at a fractious speaking event hosted by the University of Western England in Bristol. The MP for North East Somerset, who has been tipped for the Tory leadership, had just started speaking to the universitys Politics and International Relations Society when activists appeared at the back of the lecture theatre and started shouting anti-Conservative slogans. Mr Rees-Mogg, 48, was called a Nazi, a fascist and a racist, according to one witness. He walked towards his detractors to calm them but other members of the audience got involved and there was a scuffle.  The Times

Wrong-footed, his good manners depart and snarls break through the politesse. His cloak of courtesy slipping so easily on and off his shoulders, Rees-Mogg deserves the writer Robert Harriss appraisal, a barmaids idea of a gentleman. Barmaids deserve better, though. They see through men more easily than the eager young Tory boys of the ConservativeHome website. Its revealing, too, about the Brexit ultras: so blinded by zealotry as to think it even remotely likely that senior civil servants would cook the figures; so blinded by zealotry as not even to check with the alleged source of the story  but instead to take a flyer with the facts and the proprieties in the cause of some supposed greater good: Brexit.  Matthew Parris, The Times

The Treasury has always opposed Brexit  Leader, Daily Telegraph

>Yesterday: ToryDiary: Is the Brexit forecast a conspiracy? Apply Hammonds Razor.

Davidson decided to marry after only three dates

Government to ban export of live animals after Brexit

Ruth Davidson decided she was going to marry her fiancee after just three dates. The Scottish Conservative leader proposed to partner Jen Wilson in 2016, but their wedding was postponed after a car ran over their dogs paw. Vets bills wiped out their savings, and Ms Davidson has declined to make the rescheduled date public to ensure privacy. In an interview with fashion magazine Vogue, the MSP said Jen kept her grounded and was very, very funny, and really laid-back She recalled rushing home to see Jen shortly after a referendum debate in 2014  despite those around her wanting to stay for after-show drinks.  The Herald

Exporters will finally be banned from selling live animals for slaughter when Britain is free from Brussels under plans being drawn up by ministers. Thousands of animals are shipped from Britain to be slaughtered in sub-standard abattoirs in Europe every year. Livestock also endure cruel conditions during long journeys across the continent. Membership of the EU makes it powerless for ministers to ban the trade. But Environment Secretary Michael Gove is already working on plans to bring in a new law to ban the export of live animals for slaughter after we leave the EU. Government sources said it is something we want to get moving on and said plans will be published by the autumn.  The Sun

Labour is still failing to act on anti-semitism

Interview with Claire Kober  The Times

Corbyn defends intervention in Haringey  The Guardian

Publish your tax return, Corbyn tells May

Labour Party figures are angry that disciplinary action has not been taken against members in a branch that was allegedly beset by incidents of antisemitism with troubling regularity. An investigation was conducted into the Liverpool Riverside constituency party after a series of complaints about uncomradely behaviour, endemic behavioural problems within meetings and incidents of antisemitism, according to its final reportThe revelation comes as Claire Kober, the Labour leader of Haringey council, announced her intention to step down at the May elections, claiming that there was widespread anti-Jewish behaviour in her local party.  The Times

Jeremy Corbyn has challenged Theresa May to publish her full tax return after he released his own document showing he paid almost 50,000 in tax on his earnings in 2016-17. The Labour leader received total income of 136,762, which includes his salary as an MP, pay for his role as leader of the opposition and pensions. The 68-year-old had no outside earnings during the year and paid a total of 48,079.80 in tax. John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, received total income of 87,353 and paid 24,099.20 in tax. This included his salary plus a small amount of interest from savings in a credit union.  The Guardian

Blue plaque proposed for Enoch Powell

Zimbabwe invites exiled white farmers to return

A row has erupted over plans to commemorate the life and work of Enoch Powell with a blue plaque in Wolverhampton where he served as a Conservative MP. The citys Civic and Historical Society has received an application to honour the politician who caused outrage when he delivered his Rivers of Blood speech 50 years ago. The move has already triggered threats that any plaque would be ripped down or vandalised. A panel of six members of the society will rule whether to commemorate the politician this year, the 20th anniversary of his death. Powell was 85 when he died in February 1998.  Daily Telegraph

White farmers in Zimbabwe have been thrown a lifeline by the countrys new government, offering hope to those who live in fear of losing their livelihoods and raising the prospect of a new era in the shattered country. The countrys new agriculture minister, Perence Shiri, told the white farmers, many of whom struggled under the recently deposed Robert Mugabe, that they would be offered 99-year leases over their land.  The Times

Democrats warn Trump not to fire special counsel investigating

Oborne: Tories must unite behind May

Senior Democrats have warned President Donald Trump not to use a controversial memo as a pretext to fire the special counsel investigating alleged Russian involvement in the US election. They warned that such action could trigger a constitutional crisis not seen since the Nixon era. The memo, written by Republicans, accuses the FBI of abusing its powers. President Trump approved the declassification of the memo and said it revealed a disgraceful story. It accuses the FBI and the justice department of using an unsubstantiated and Democratic-funded report to obtain the warrant that gave permission to spy on an aide to Mr Trump.  BBC

The fact is that, for all her faults, Theresa May commands more public respect than any of her Cabinet colleagues. I can only see one way that the Tories can pull back from the brinkLast night, there was evidence that the Tory high command is seeing sense. I am told that Boris Johnson, despite a track record for defying Mrs Mays leadership, has honourably decided to postpone a speech he was due to make next week on the UKs withdrawal from the EU. Rudd and Hammond should follow suit and show solidarity with the Prime Minister. By doing so, they would help reunite the Conservative Party and stop power being handed on a plate to Jeremy Corbyn.  Peter Oborne, Daily Mail

Forsyth: Time for the PM to show leadership

Moore: We need to leave the European Court of Human Rights too

In January last year she gave the Lancaster House speech, setting out that Britain would leave the European Single Market. In September she gave the Florence speech, setting out the UK wanted a transition period  and would pay for it. In December she shook on the stage one deal with the EU. In all three of these, there were decisions and compromises made that members of the Cabinet  including senior ones  did not like. But, ultimately, they accepted that Mrs May was Prime Minister and had to lead. I suspect the same dynamic would play out again if she gave a speech setting out the details of the economic relationship she wanted after Brexit. After all, no one wants to be the person responsible for bringing down the Government and splitting the party.  James Forsyth, The Sun

Mrs May said yet again yesterday that Britain, post-Brexit, must regain control of our money, our laws and our borders. She is right. But if we ask ourselves why we do not have control of our laws and borders, our membership of the European Union is only part of the answer. The other big bit is the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in StrasbourgOne example is the ECHRs famous ruling that Britain must allow prisoners to have the vote. Another is the way the court has crept beyond the borders of its member states to tell us what we must do anywhere in the world. When we were fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, our ability to act in life-and-death situations was constantly compromised by Strasbourg legal interference and the prospect of being sued to the crack of doom. These difficulties now inhibit all our military operations. Charles Moore, Daily Telegraph

News in BriefHenry Newman is Director of Open Europe.

The UK seems to be approaching (another) stalemate in the Brexit negotiations. With a depressing sense of continual deja vu, we seem to be having the same arguments again and again and again  over the economic cost of leaving the EU; whether to leave the Customs Union or not, and if the UK should start from a position of being more like Canada or more like Norway.

The fundamental question of where the UK wants to end up after Brexit remains essentially unanswered by the Government. For months, the Cabinet subcommittee tasked with making these crucial decisions has dodged it and deferred the choice. Officials tell me that these meetings end with a summary of the points made by participants, rather than clear action points with which to instruct Whitehall.

Meanwhile tensions in SW1 have reached frantic levels. In the absence of a clear central vision for the future, ministers are starting to freelance  sending pointed tweets, giving loose remarks or sanctioning briefings which aggrandise themselves and attack their colleagues. Comments are over-interpreted, so Philip Hammonds remark that we will end up with modest changes is seen to evince a plot to reverse Brexit. Had Penny Mordaunt said the same, it might have been dismissed as a having-cake-and-eating-it wish to keep trading terms with Europe unchanged.

The Prime Minister is by nature cautious. That trait has, arguably, served her well. But a decision is now desperately overdue. The longer we defer, the more Brussels shapes the narrative. London is forced onto the back foot and negotiations slowdown. Months ago, senior officials told me it was becoming impossible to make proper progress in preparations for leaving without answering this fundamental question.

Outside of central London, things are actually rather different. The 2017 Q4 growth rate  despite the uncertainty of whether sufficient progress would be achieved  reached 0.5 per cent, just a little lower than Frances 0.6 per cent (which is described as healthy and part of a boom across the Eurozone by the Financial Times). Other key indicators such as the unemployment rate remain at record lows. Even more significantly, repeated polling suggests that broadly Britain hasnt changed its mind about the referendum.

Yet the worry of Conservative MPs is that the comment of a Cabinet insider, reported by James Forsyth, rings all too true: it looks worse from the inside than the outside. Most parliamentarians have a clear view about whether the Prime Minister should jump towards Canada or Norway. But Ive heard from many Conservative MPs (on both sides of the question) who simply now crave a decision. The respected former minister in the Department for Exiting the EU, George Bridges, summed up the choice during this weeks Lords debate as: what is the country we wish to build once we have left the European Union?. He argued that this prior question of whether we value more parliamentary sovereignty and control or market access and trade, must be answered before we can argue about the sort of agreement desired with the EU. Hes right: hence the impasse.

Yet yesterday morning, Theresa May rejected that this choice even existed. If thats the case why did Whitehall officials ask each department, months ago, to plan for both scenarios? Its time to grasp the nettle and level with the public, the party, and her Cabinet. Until she does how can she, to quote Lord Bridges again, possibly negotiate clear and precise heads of terms for the future relationship with the EU?

What should the Prime Minister say?

First of all, she should be honest that Brexit will come with costs. The silly line that no one voted to get poorer misses the point  Brexit was not fundamentally an economic decision. So, despite economic analysis from the Treasury or wherever else in Whitehall, the Prime Minister must treat this as a political choice. Be direct and clear. Say that leaving the Customs Union and Single Market will mean short-term disruption and costs to our economy, but explain your plan to deal with that. Even if you accept the economic impact in the recent leaked analysis (which showed a potential hit to the economy far beyond that which Open Europe modelled before the referendum), the Government has the potential to pull policy leavers which could more than compensate, many of which have nothing to do with the EU.

Second, be bold. If youre going to go through all this disruption of Brexit, whats the point if essentially you end up trying to recreate the whole shebang on worse terms, without a vote or a seat at the table, from the outside? My view is that the solution is to accept the logic of the Prime Ministers (now defunct?) favourite maxim. If Brexit means Brexit, it means leaving the Single Market and Customs Union, and it means controlling your own regulations without asking Brussels first. So it means starting from the premise of a trade deal, although hopefully ending far closer to the EU than Canada. This has been the Prime Ministers broad position since Lancaster House. Its often suggested that the Remain wing of the Cabinet wouldnt wear such a choice. I doubt it. Resigning would risk a contest where another leader, perhaps one prepared simply to walk away from the negotiations, could triumph.

Third, she needs to calm things down, to remind people that despite endless speculation that the negotiations were doomed, we reached sufficient progress. That was a significant personal achievement, with Jean-Claude Juncker and his team fudging certain issues and softening the timetable. Neither side got exactly what they wanted, even if the UK probably had to move further. Meanwhile, our economy remains strong and growing.

But above all, the most important thing is to decide. In politics, its too often true that there are only bad choices between difficult alternatives. This is even truer about Brexit. The longer the decision is deferred, the more the rumours swirl, the weaker Britain looks in the negotiations, and the more the countdown clock ticks away. As we squabble and dither, somewhere, over in Brussels, up on the thirteenth floor of the Berlaymont Building, there are surely a few wry smiles.Every 20 or 30 years, the Conservative Party stages a leadership contest which affords huge enjoyment to those who love political theatre.

Tory MPs who in normal times suffer from a painful sense of personal insignificance feel their spirits rise during these spectacles, for at long last they know their votes matter, and can hope the victor will recognise their hitherto disregarded abilities.

Ambitions which have lain prudently suppressed for decades burst out into the open as the sudden death tradition of British and especially of Conservative politics reasserts itself.

Over the last century, such exceptional contests have occurred in 1922, 1940, 1963, 1990 and 2016, so we should not be due another one for quite some time.

But the restlessness which precedes an eruption is now perceptible: the feeling that however dangerous it may be to overthrow the leader in favour of some untried replacement, not to act would be still more dangerous.

And it is possible that whatever happens in the near future may come to be seen as a powerful aftershock from the 2016 contest, rather than a new event.

It is the personal element in these fights which rivets the spectators attention. We witness the downfall of a leader who seemed impregnable, and the rise of someone else who seemed out of the question.

Yet it would be an error to regard these as purely personal battles. For as Jacob Rees-Mogg remarked a few days ago, The leader is important, but the party is more important.

Such leadership contests are in essence about bringing the Conservative Party into closer alignment with what the British people want. They are part of the instinct for survival which has enabled the party to outlive and often outperform its competitors ever since its foundation by Sir Robert Peel in the 1830s.

Over that period, only two Conservative leaders, Lord Salisbury in 1902 and Stanley Baldwin in 1937, have left of their own volition.

Let us work backward from 2016. In that year, the EU referendum was held, David Cameron lost, and therefore he had to go, as he himself recognised, with his usual quick-wittedness, by breakfast the morning after.

The nation demanded someone who would implement Brexit, which by definition could not be Cameron, for he had insisted Brexit would be a disaster. Boris Johnson, who had helped swing the referendum against Cameron by insisting Brexit would be fine, was to general astonishment knocked out of the race, because his ally, Michael Gove, declared him unfit to be Prime Minister.

Theresa May came through as the unity candidate, who had been a tepid Remainer, but was now, she declared, a convinced Brexiteer. She is in trouble because fewer and fewer Brexiteers believe this to be true, and because she called a general election at which she failed to liberate herself from the stern, unbending Brexiteers.

Who will replace her? That is for the party to decide, while striving to interpret what the British people want. In my opinion, what the people want is a Brexit conducted with brio, which is what Johnson offers. But we shall see.

By 1990, Margaret Thatcher had exhausted the patience even of such titans as Sir Geoffrey Howe and Nigel Lawson, who had been among her staunchest supporters. On the poll tax, and on Europe, many of her Cabinet colleagues and her backbenchers now thought she was leading them to perdition, so out she went.

She was succeeded by John Major, who had the merit of not being Michael Heseltine, who had raised the standard of rebellion against her. Tory leadership contests are highly unpredictable, and the front runner has not won since 1955, when Anthony Eden, loyal crown prince since 1942, succeeded Winston Churchill.

In 1963, Lord Home succeeded Harold Macmillan, after bizarre scenes at the Tory Party Conference in Blackpool. At the start of that week, Home did not even appear to be a contender.

The press believed Rab Butler would win, but he lacked the killer instinct, and Macmillan was determined not to have him. Of the other contenders, Lord Hailsham ruled himself out by engaging in vulgar stunts, while Reginald Maudling gave a dull speech which prevented him from building up any kind of momentum.

Homes conference speech began with the words, I am prepared to offer a prize to any newspaperman this morning who can find a clue in my speech that this is Lord Homes bid to take over the leadership of the Conservative Party.

He backed his way skilfully into the limelight. It was his natural game, and as a man of unimpeachable integrity, he cleared the air after the Profumo scandal. But Home had great difficulty dealing with the Labour leader, Harold Wilson, and failed by four seats to win the 1964 election, so did not become an example of the Conservatives regaining the initiative.

In 1940, Winston Churchill took over from Neville Chamberlain, for the country needed a fighter, and a man capable of bringing the Labour Party into government, rather than an appeaser, and a man who since the 1920s had viewed Labour with scorn.

But since the Conservative Party at this point distrusted Churchill, and was for the most part loyal to Chamberlain, this astonishing episode cannot be taken as proof of Tory perceptiveness.

In 1922, Bonar Law had temporarily resigned the leadership of the Conservative Party owing to ill-health, and Austen Chamberlain (older brother of Neville) had taken over, and wished to persuade the party to fight another general election under the dangerously autocratic and corrupt leadership of the great Liberal war leader David Lloyd George.

In October 1922, Chamberlain called a meeting of all Conservative MPs at the Carlton Club, to get them to support his plan of fighting another general election under Lloyd Georges leadership. Law proceeded to warn, with what Robin Harris describes as low-key brutality, that the needs of the party, not the coalition with the Liberals, must come first: The party elects a leader, and that leader chooses the policy, and if the party does not like it, they have to get another leader.

Chamberlain pushed the question of whether the Conservatives should continue to support Lloyd George to a vote, and lost by 187 to 88.

So Law succeeded Lloyd George as Prime Minister, and was himself succeeded (after falling mortally ill) by Baldwin, who dominated politics until 1937.

Laws words at the Carlton Club endure to this day, and should be heeded by May: The party elects a leader, and that leader chooses the policy, and if the party does not like it, they have to get another leader.There is nothing new about attempts to deny free speech to Conservative politicians visiting universities. It was something Sir Keith Joseph and others regularly faced in the 1970s. One difference that applies now is the dismay that such attacks are condoned by elements of the Labour Party leadership. I am told the attack on Jacob Rees-Mogg in Bristol was not lighthearted high spirits but a thoroughly unpleasant instance of intimidation  albeit that there were no injuries.

The event was hosted by the Politics and International Relations Society, although the Universitys Conservative Society assisted with the arrangements. William Bates, the Vice-President of the University of West England Conservative Society, stresses that the problem was caused by a small number from outside the university.

He told me:

Jacob made genuine attempts to engage in conversation with the protestors. But in response they decided to shout Nazi Scum at the top of their voices. I was hit on the arm by a protester who wanted to stop me from filming their disruption of the event, and as such I contacted the police as I believed there was a possibility of this escalating. Fortunately, after an unpleasant disruption from a handful of non-students for about 20 minutes, they were escorted out by university security, and the event continued. While I understand that there were a few minor physical altercations, nobody was hurt as far as I am aware. We intend to hold a full schedule of events this term, and will not be intimidated by the events of yesterday evening.

Students of all political parties and of all political views were enjoying the chance to engage with such an exciting speaker, and the audience of 300 people fortunately had the chance to speak to him after the violent protesters had been removed by security.

Bates has also provided some photographs  reproduced here  which emphasise his message.

There has been some criticism of the university authorities. The organisers had requested security arrangements be put in place to maintain order. The presence of TV cameras should have given the university a clue that the meeting would be high profile. Of course hindsight is an advantage but the security staff from the university that dealt with the disorder could have prevented it occuring in the first place had they intervened earlier.

Colleges, of all places, should be where open enquiry and debate flourish. The University of West England has allowed itself to suffer needless reputational damage by failing to make upholding free speech a proper priority  although it did give a strong statement that it was absolutely appalled by the attack.

The rest of us also have an interest in the matter. Universities are granted taxpayer funding of 3.7 billion a year from the Higher Education Funding Council. It is reasonable to expect that proper safeguards are made to allow full discussion at such institutions to take place in a safe and orderly manner.

Finally, there is a responsibility to the Conservative Party. Every encouragement must be given to having a thriving network of university Conservative associations. Conservative MPs should make every effort to accept invitations to speak. I hope that Rees-Mogg will undertake many more such engagements. That is the best response to the enemies of freedom.Offshore Outpost Expeditions today announced that company has expanded its adventure yachting offerings with a new week-long Alaska itinerary on the 160-foot Pacific Provider for summer 2018.

Starting May 27, 2018, the ship departs alternating weeks from Whittier or Cordova every Sunday through mid-September.

Weekly itineraries include kayaking to remote shorelines alongside rafts of otters, watching humpback whales and orcas, and seeing glaciers from a tender or hiking up to them onshore.

Throughout the week, guests enjoy an exceptional dining experience. There are opportunities to fish for salmon, rockfish, and lingcod, as well as gathering fresh prawns to be prepared nightly onboard by Chef Dave Long, who specializes in incorporating local ingredients into each of his dishes, the company said.

Guests also enjoy a nightcap served over glacial ice hauled from the water and pulled onboard.

Alaska is simply an incredible destination that always delivers on expectations. Its a place that can really connect you with nature and make you realize how grand the world is. Sharing the Last Frontier with only eleven other travelers...thats an experience of a lifetime, said Chief Expedition Officer Dave Mullen.

Prices for the inaugural season start at $7,500 per person, exclusive of airfare and gratuity.Scenic announced its flagship, Scenic Eclipse launching this August, will be joined by a sister, the Scenic Eclipse II.

"Scenic Eclipse II will further strengthen Scenics position as the leading innovator in the cruise industry, setting an unparalleled benchmark in design, luxury and technology," the company said.

The ship will be built at Uljanik in Croatia.

Launching in 2020, the Scenic Eclipse II will embark on her maiden voyage from Athens to Lisbon, before the debut sailing season, which will include the Europe and Russian Arctic.

The company also said the ship will head to the Northwest Passage, Southern Greenland and other exotic expedition locations,

Scenic Founder and Chairman, Glen Moroney, commented on how the expansion of Scenics ocean cruise fleet was a natural progression for the company and one about which he was very excited.

Since we first announced our foray into ocean cruising, we have had unprecedented interest in Scenic Eclipse from guests keen to experience our unique blend of 6-star luxury meets expedition cruising, Mr. Moroney said. The debut of Scenic Eclipse II will not only allow us to expand our offering and pioneer new destinations, such as the Russian Arctic, it will also allow us to continue our passion for innovation in design and innovation in handcrafted itineraries, which we are confident will appeal to a wide variety of guests. Itineraries for the ships debut season will be released in April 2018.

The ship will feature 114 suites, nine restaurants, and eight lounges and bars.After more than a year of running her own hairdressing business, Imogene Wilson, owner of Alchemy, The Salon, said she is looking forward to what the future holds for her studio.

Wilson moved the salon to a larger space at 1851 Post Road on Friday on the second floor of the building that once housed her familys restaurant, Wilsons BBQ, on the first floor. The space now houses Tequila Revolucion, which opened in December.

Ive built a really good business name for myself, Wilson said. People know Alchemy. They know Imogene, and so I want to just make sure it lives up to what it has been so far.

The Fairfield native started the business in August 2016 in My Salon Suites at 427 Stillson Road, bringing several years of experience in the beauty industry with her.

After receiving her masters degree in marketing and family business in 2008, Wilson said she spent three years in Florida getting her license in hair dressing and working before returning to her hometown. She also worked for a few years at a larger hair salon in town for another three years before setting out on her own.

According to Wilson, her path to starting her business as hairstylist was a turn from what she had envisioned while in school.

It just started feeling like it was losing its touch to me, Wilson said. I never knew I wanted to be a hairdresser, but I like it because I get to make people feel good about themselves every day and I was losing that in a big salon.

While she had an interest in working within the beauty industry, Wilson said she had intended to use her degree to branch into the marketing side of her field, but she fell in love with the impact she was making on her clients.

I felt like my clients would leave my chair happy, she said. When you have good hair, you feel like you can do anything and like you can conquer the world.

Alchemy received support from Fairfields Department of Economic Development, a $5,000 grant through the Micro-Enterprise Assistance Program that Wilson said was used to purchase equipment and cover tenant fit-up and marketing costs associated the business.

Wilson works out of the salon alongside fellow stylist and friend Kristina Ivezaj.

As her business steps into a new chapter, Wilson said she wants to take time to bask in its latest development while looking toward some possible additions to her business.

Its been such a whirlwind, she said. Everything has happened so fast that I kind of want to catch my breath really quick. I do want to start a product line as well at some point. I dont know how soon thats going to be, but I really need to hire two more stylists. I want to have good people working for me. Hopefully, people who stay forever.Member retention is essential to the success of any credit union. Spending a lot of time, money and effort in getting a member only then to lose them is like throwing money away. Your members are an investment, and while some churn or turn-over is inevitable, it pays, literally, to take care of the ones that you have and nurture them. In turn, they can become not only a member but a marketing tool, spreading the word about your credit union, generating leads, referring new members and providing first-hand testimonials. One of the biggest mistakes any company, not just credit unions, can make is to rest on their laurels, and assume once theyve got the customer, and sold them the product or service, the relationship is over.There is still a tremendous value to be realized in maintaining that mutually beneficial and on-going relationship.

Credit unions are an excellent example of customer retention in action. By providing remarkable member services, and personalized financial solutions, credit unions are known for their high retention rates and member loyalty. The most successful ones understand the value of member retention and that its a crucial part of the formula for success. By calculating and assessing your member retention rate, you can tell not only how successful you are at acquiring new members, but also how good you are at satisfying the existing ones. The member retention rate can be calculated by:Bush, Harris offer comfort, hope at Flight 93 ceremony

A memorial was held Saturday at the Flight 93 National Memorial to mark the 20th anniversary of 9/11.For over quarter of a century, Pakistans undeclared war on India has centred on two pillars. The first is export of terror. The second is nuclear sabre-rattling. The strategic calculus of the Pakistanis is simple.

The terrorists are pushed into India without any fear of a similar pushback from India. This is so because unlike Pakistan, India doesnt use terrorists as an instrument of state policy. Indias capacity to hit back using its conventional superiority has been severely constrained by the second pillar of Pakistani policy  nuclear weapons.

Defensive mode

As a result, India has been pushed into a defensive mode. Instead of striking at the terror facilities inside Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, India has been forced to beef up its defences to prevent infiltration of terrorists. Pakistan, on the other hand, has been able to make do with a much smaller number of troops along the LoC, secure in the belief that there will neither be any terrorists coming from the Indian side, nor will India dare to launch a major punitive expedition because of the nuclear threat hanging over its head. At worst, the Indian Army could launch a retaliatory tactical level shallow raid across the LoC, something that has been done on a few occasions in the past 25 years when the provocation by Pakistan crossed the limits of tolerance.

The Pakistani calculus, which worked well for them in the past, could now, however, be in danger of being upended by India. In recent months, two developments suggest that the twin pillars of Pakistani policy might be starting to come under a lot of pressure. The first development was the declared cross-LoC raid carried out by the Indian Army in retaliation for an ambush of an Indian patrol party. While such retaliatory raids had been carried out in the past, they were never declared. But ever since the "Surgical Strikes" in September 2016, India now openly declares these raids. This complicates matters for the Pakistan army which is confronted with a dilemma on how to respond to these declared raids.

As long as India kept quiet about these raids, the Pakistan army could pretend nothing happened. But once these are declared, the Pakistanis can either deny they happened, or else will have to respond. Both options entail risks. Denying means giving India a virtual licence to keep doing these raids; responding, however, means going up the escalation ladder, which is a dangerous proposition especially if India decides it will control escalation dominance. More than deciding whether to deny or respond, what would be rattling the Pakistanis is whether or not such raids are going to become the new normal for the Indian side.

At a time when the Pakistan army is already stretched because of its security commitments on the troubled western front where the Pakistani Taliban are down but not out, and also the involvement of troops in internal security duties against terrorist cells, the last thing the Pakistan army needs is a hot eastern front. India has been steadily ratcheting up the pressure by retaliating very strongly to ceasefire violations by the Pakistanis, something that has inflicted a lot of pain and raised the costs for the Pakistanis.

Cross-border raids

If now India also starts making cross-border raids a normal feature of its policy of punishing Pakistan, then the latter will have to plug the gaps in its deployments by pulling out troops from internal security duties and from the western front, which in turn will create gaps there and create space for the Pakistani Taliban to re-establish themselves in areas from which the Pakistani troops pull out.

Relations with Pakistan have been going south since the 26/11 attacks in Mumbai. Despite that, India let go of the opportunity offered by the wave of terrorist violence that hit Pakistan from 2007. By heating up Pakistan's eastern front, India could have easily caught Islamabad in a pincer. But the spike in Pakistan-sponsored terrorist violence in J&K since 2016 has all but broken the wall of Indias patience.

The second development is that India is now no longer ready to be cowed down by Pakistan's nuclear sabre-rattling. Army chief Gen Bipin Rawat has made it clear that if given a task by the government, India will call Pakistan's nuclear bluff and cross the border (presumably he means something more than a mere foray across the LoC). This statement has rattled the Pakistanis who reacted somewhat hysterically. A senior military official is quoted as saying the Army chiefs statement was unwarranted and irrational.

Irrational game

That Pakistan has played the "irrational" game for so long by threatening a nuclear attack was something that clearly escaped this unnamed official. Since rationality is a subjective thing, irrationality is a game two can play. This became clear when even the Pakistani foreign minister, who along with other politicians has often bandied the nuclear threat at India, called Gen Rawats statement very irresponsible.

While the Pakistanis have dared India to try Pakistans resolve, they know that if what Gen Rawat said is now Indian policy, then it signals the end of deterrence as conceived by them. In the words of the Pakistan military spokesman, the only thing that had stopped India for so long was Pakistan's "credible nuclear deterrence". But if India no longer considers Pakistani nuclear threats credible, then what happens to Pakistan's deterrence doctrine?

The fact that India has already injected some ambiguity in its "no first use" posture with senior officials claiming in interviews and in their books that India would not allow Pakistan to strike first with nuclear weapons (which effectively means pre-empting Pakistans use of nuclear weapons), certainly complicates Pakistans strategic calculus which has been built on bleeding India through proxy warfare from behind the safety of its nuclear shield.

It is possible that India is merely playing mind games with the Pakistanis. Even if this is the case, given that cross-LoC raids have been declared, coupled with the Modi governments ability and capacity for taking risks, means that the Pakistanis will have to go back to the drawing board and re-think their strategic calculus. Not doing so could prove extremely expensive and dangerous for them.

(Courtesy of Mail Today)

Also read: Why 63 million women and girls are 'missing' from Indias populationAmerican Electric Power Co., Inc. engages in the business of generation, transmission and distribution of electricity. It operates through the following segments: Vertically Integrated Utilities, Transmission & Distribution Utilities, AEP Transmission Holdco and Generation & Marketing. The Vertically Integrated Utilities segment engages in the generation, transmission and distribution of electricity for sale to retail and wholesale customers through assets owned and operated by its subsidiaries. The Transmission & Distribution Utilities segment engages in the business of transmission and distribution of electricity for sale to retail and wholesale customers through assets owned and operated by its subsidiaries. The AEP Transmission Holdco segment engages in the development, construction and operation of transmission facilities through investments in its wholly-owned transmission subsidiaries and joint ventures. The Generation & Marketing segment engages in non-regulated generation and marketing, risk management and retail activities. The company was founded on December 20, 1906 and is headquartered in Columbus, OH.

Read MoreCenovus Energy Inc., together with its subsidiaries, develops, produces, and markets crude oil, natural gas liquids, and natural gas in Canada, the United States and the Asia Pacific region. The company operates through Oil Sands, Conventional, and Refining and Marketing segments. The Oil Sands segment develops and produces bitumen in northeast Alberta. Its bitumen assets include Foster Creek, Christina Lake, and Narrows Lake, as well as other projects in the early stages of development. The Conventional segment holds assets primarily located in Elmworth-Wapiti, Kaybob-Edson, and Clearwater operating areas of British Columbia and Alberta, as well as various interests in natural gas processing facilities. The Refining and Marketing segment transports and sells crude oil, natural gas, and NGLs. This segment owns a 50% ownership in Wood River and Borger refineries located in the United States; and owns and operates a crude-by-rail terminal in Alberta. Cenovus Energy Inc. was founded in 2009 and is headquartered in Calgary, Canada.

Read MoreDeutsche Telekom AG, together with its subsidiaries, provides integrated telecommunication services. The company operates through five segments: Germany, United States, Europe, Systems Solutions, and Group Development. It offers fixed-network services, including voice and data communication services based on fixed-network and broadband technology; and sells terminal equipment and other hardware products, as well as services to resellers. The company also provides mobile voice and data services to consumers and business customers; sells mobile devices and other hardware products; and sells mobile services to resellers and to companies that purchases and markets network services to third parties, such as mobile virtual network operators. In addition, it offers internet services; internet-based TV products and services; and information and communication technology systems for multinational corporations and public sector institutions with an infrastructure of data centers and networks under the T-Systems brand, as well as call center services. The company has 242 million mobile customers and 22 million broadband customers, as well as 27 million fixed-network lines. Deutsche Telekom AG has a collaboration with VMware, Inc. on cloud-based open and intelligent virtual RAN platform to bring agility to radio access networks for existing LTE and future 5G networks; and partnership with Microsoft to deliver high-performance cloud computing experiences. The company was founded in 1995 and is headquartered in Bonn, Germany.

Read MoreKoninklijke Philips N.V. is the Netherlands-based health technology company. The Company's segments include Personal Health businesses, Diagnosis & Treatment businesses, Connected Care & Health Informatics businesses, HealthTech Other and Legacy Items. The Personal Health businesses segment is engaged in the health continuum, delivering integrated, connected solutions that support healthier lifestyles and those living with chronic disease. The Diagnosis & Treatment businesses segment delivers precision medicine and treatment, and therapy. The Connected Care & Health Informatics businesses segment provides consumers, care givers and clinicians with digital solutions that facilitate care by enabling precision medicine and population health management. The HealthTech Other segment comprises such items, as innovation, emerging businesses, royalties, among others. The Legacy Items segment consists mainly of separation costs, legacy legal items, legacy pension costs, among others.

Read MoreBank of America Corp. is a bank and financial holding company, which engages in the provision of banking and nonbank financial services. It operates through the following segments: Consumer Banking, Global Wealth and Investment Management, Global Banking, Global Markets, and All Other. The Consumer Banking segment offers credit, banking, and investment products and services to consumers and small businesses. The Global Wealth and Investment Management provides client experience through a network of financial advisors focused on to meet their needs through a full set of investment management, brokerage, banking, and retirement products. The Global Banking segment deals with lending-related products and services, integrated working capital management and treasury solutions to clients, and underwriting and advisory services. The Global Markets segment includes sales and trading services, as well as research, to institutional clients across fixed-income, credit, currency, commodity, and equity businesses. The All Other segment consists of asset and liability management activities, equity investments, non-core mortgage loans and servicing activities, the net impact of periodic revisions

Read MoreThe following companies are subsidiares of Crane: "CPI-Kiev" LLC, ARDAC Inc., AeroHose, Alfa Laval - The Industrial Flow Group, Armature d.o.o., Automatic Products (UK) Ltd., Automatic Products international - Assets, B. Rhodes & Son Ltd., Barksdale GmbH, Barksdale Inc., CA-MC Acquisition UK Ltd., CR Holdings C.V., CashCode Co - Assets, Coin Controls International Ltd., Coin Holdings Ltd., Coin Industries Ltd., Coin Overseas Holdings Ltd., Coin Pension Trustees Ltd., Conlux Matsumoto Co. Ltd., Consolidated Lumber Co, Corva Corp, Crane (Asia Pacific) Pte. Ltd., Crane Aerospace Inc., Crane Australia Pty. Ltd., Crane Canada Co., Crane Composites Inc., Crane Composites Ltd., Crane Controls Inc., Crane Currency, Crane Electronics Corporation, Crane Electronics Inc., Crane Environmental Inc., Crane European Financing LLC, Crane Fengqiu Zhejiang Pump Co. Ltd., Crane Fluid & Gas Systems (Suzhou) Co. Ltd., Crane Global Holdings S.L., Crane GmbH, Crane Holdings (Germany) GmbH, Crane International Capital S.a.r.l., Crane International Holdings Inc., Crane International Trading (Beijing) Co. Ltd., Crane Ireland Ventures Designated Activity Company, Crane Ltd., Crane Merchandising Systems Inc., Crane Merchandising Systems Ltd., Crane Merger Co. LLC, Crane Middle East & Africa FZE, Crane Ningjin Valve Co. Ltd., Crane North America Funding LLC, Crane Nuclear Inc., Crane Overseas LLC, Crane Payment Innovations GmbH, Crane Payment Innovations Inc., Crane Payment Innovations International Ltd., Crane Payment Innovations Ltd., Crane Payment Innovations Pty Ltd., Crane Payment Innovations Sarl, Crane Payment Innovations Srl, Crane Pension Trustee Company (UK) Limited, Crane Process Flow Technologies (India) Pvt. Ltd., Crane Process Flow Technologies GmbH, Crane Process Flow Technologies Ltd., Crane Process Flow Technologies S.P.R.L., Crane Process Flow Technologies S.r.l., Crane Pumps and Systems Inc., Crane Resistoflex GmbH, Crane SC Holdings Ltd., Crane Stockham Valve. Ltd., Crane Yongxiang (Ningbo) Valve Company Ltd., Croning Livarna d.o.o., Cummis-Allison Corp, Delta Fluid Products, Delta Fluid Products Ltd., Dixie Narco, Donald Brown (Brownall) Ltd., ELDEC Corporation, ELDEC Electronics Ltd., ELDEC France S.A.R.L, Edlon - PSI division, Environmental Products USA, Etex Group - Business, Flow Technology Inc., Friedrich Krombach GmbH Armaturenwerke, General Technology Corp., Hattersley Newman Hender - Assets, Hattersly Newman Hender Ltd., Hydro-Aire Inc., Inta-Lok Ltd., Interpoint S.A.R.L., Interpoint U.K. Limited, Kessel (Thailand) Pte. Ltd., Kontron America - Mobile Rugged Business, Laminated Profiles - Assets, Lasco Composites, Liberty Technologies, MCC Holdings Inc., MEI Australia LLC, MEI Auto Payment System (Shanghai) Ltd., MEI Conlux, MEI Conlux Holdings (Japan) Inc., MEI Conlux Holdings (US) Inc., MEI Payment Systems Hong Kong Ltd., MEI Queretaro S. de R.L. de CV, MEI de Mexico LLC, MOVATS - Nuclear Valve Division, Merrimac Industries, Merrimac Industries Inc., Mondais Holdings B.V., Money Controls, Money Controls Argentina SA, Money Controls Holdings Ltd., Multi-Mix Microtechnology SRL, NABIC Valve Safety Products Ltd., Nippon Conlux Co. Ltd., Noble Composites, Noble Composites Inc., Number One Supply, Owens Corning - FRP Panel Business, P.L. Porter, P.T. Crane Indonesia, Pegler Hattersly Ltd., Resistoflex, Sequentia Holdings, Signal Technology, Sperryn & Company Ltd., Stentorfield, Streamware, Telequip, Terminal Manufacturing Co., The Dow Chemical - Plastic-Lined Piping Products division, The Krombach Group, Triangle Valve Co. Ltd., Unidynamics / Phoenix Inc., Ventech Controls, Viking Johnson Ltd., W.T. Armatur GmbH, Wade Couplings Ltd., Wask Ltd., Westlock Controls, Xomox, Xomox Chihuahua S.A. de C.V., Xomox Corporation, Xomox Corporation de Venezuela C.A., Xomox France S.A.S., Xomox Hungary Kft., Xomox International GmbH & Co. OHG, Xomox Japan Ltd., Xomox Korea Ltd., Xomox Sanmar Ltd., and Yilme Holdings B.V..TCF Financial Corporation operates as the financial holding company for TCF National Bank that provides various financial products and services in the United States and Canada. It operates through Consumer Banking, Commercial Banking, and Enterprise Services segments. The company offers checking, savings, and money market accounts; certificates of deposit; individual retirement accounts; debit and credit cards; and check cashing and remittance services. It also provides investment management and custodial services, trust services, financial and estate planning, and retirement planning and employee benefit programs; residential, consumer, and small business lending products; and consumer real estate secured lending, consumer loans, loans secured by personal property, and unsecured personal loans. In addition, the company offers loans and lines of credit, deposits, cash management, capital market products, international trade finance, letters of credit, foreign exchange management services, and loan syndication services. Further, it provides commercial and industrial, commercial real estate banking, and lease financing; and treasury services comprising investment and borrowing portfolios, as well as manages capital, debt, and market risks. As of December 31, 2020, the company operated 478 branches, including 373 traditional branches, 102 supermarket branches, and three campus branches located in Michigan, Illinois, Minnesota, Colorado, Ohio, Wisconsin, Arizona, and South Dakota; and 1,062 ATMs. TCF Financial Corporation was incorporated in 1987 and is headquartered in Detroit, Michigan.

Read MoreCelanese Corp. engages in the provision of technology and specialty materials businesses. It operates through the following segments: Engineered Materials, Acetate Tow, Acetyl Chain and Other Activities .The Engineered Materials segment includes the engineered materials business, food ingredients business and certain strategic affiliates. The Acetate Tow segment serves consumer-driven applications and is a global producer and supplier of acetate tow and acetate flake used in filter products applications. The Acetyl Chain segment includes the integrated chain of intermediate chemistry, emulsion polymers and ethylene vinyl acetate (""EVA"") polymers businesses, based on similar products, production processes, classes of customers and selling and distribution practices as well as economic similarities over a normal business cycle. The Other Activities segment consists of corporate center costs, including administrative activities such as finance, information technology and human resource functions, interest income and expense associated with financing activities. The company was founded by Camille Dreyfus and Henri Dreyfus in 1918 and is headquartered in Irving, TX.

Read MoreThe following companies are subsidiares of Thermo Fisher Scientific: 236 Perinton Parkway LLC, 27 Forge Parkway LLC, ABR--Affinity BioReagents, ACI Holdings Inc., ARG Services LLC, ASPEX Corporation, Abgene Inc., Abgene Limited, Acoustic Cytometry Systems Inc., AcroMetrix LLC, Acros Organics B.V.B.A., Advanced Biotechnologies Limited, Advanced Scientifics (ASI), Advanced Scientifics Inc., Advanced Scientifics International Inc., Affymetrix Biotech Participacoes Ltda., Affymetrix Biotech Shanghai Ltd, Affymetrix Inc, Affymetrix Japan K.K., Affymetrix Pte Ltd, Affymetrix UK Ltd, Afora S.A.U., Ahura Scientific, Alchematrix Inc., Alchematrix LLC, Alfa Aesar, Alfa Aesar (China) Chemical Co. Ltd., Alfa Aesar (Hong Kong) Limited, Allergon AB, Alphine Mountain Limited, Ambion Inc., Apogent Denmark ApS, Apogent Finance Company, Apogent Holding Company, Apogent Technologies Inc., Apogent Transition Corp., Apogent U.K. Limited, App-Tek International Pty Ltd, Applied Biosystems B.V., Applied Biosystems Finance B.V., Applied Biosystems International Inc., Applied Biosystems LLC, Applied Biosystems Taiwan LLC, Applied Biosystems Trading (Shanghai) Company Ltd., Applied Biosystems de Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Applied Scientific Corporation, Avances Cientificos de Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Avocado Research Chemicals Limited, B.R.A.H.M.S. Biotech GmbH, B.R.A.H.M.S. GmbH, B.R.A.H.M.S. UK Ltd, BAC BV, BAC IP BV, Barnstead Thermolyne LLC, Beijing Phadia Diagnostics Co Ltd, Bender MedSystems GmbH, BioTrove Corporation, BioTrove International Inc., Bioanalysis Labsystems S.A., Biochemical Sciences LLC, Biolab, BmT GmbH Laborprodukte, Bonsai Tecnologies - Sistemas para Biotecnologia e Industria Unipessoal Lda, Brammer Bio, Bumi-Sans Sendirian Berhad, CAC Limited, CB Diagnostics AB, CB Diagnostics Holding AB, CEPH International Corporation, CHK Holdings Inc., CRS Robotics, CTPS LLC, Capitol Scientific Products Inc., Capitol Vial Inc., Cellomics Inc., CellzDirect Inc., Cenduit GmbH, Cenduit LLC, Cezanne S.A.S., Chase Scientific Glass Inc., Chromacol Limited, Clintrak, Clintrak Clinical Labeling Services LLC, Clintrak Pharmaceutical Services LLC, Cohesive Technologies (UK) Limited, Cohesive Technologies Inc., Columbia Diagnostics Inc., Compendia Bioscience Inc., Comtest Limited, Consolidated Technologies Inc., Consultores Fisher Scientific Chile Ltd, Core Informatics, Core Informatics LLC, Core Informatics UK Ltd., D-finitive Technologies Inc., DCG Systems B.V., DCG Systems C.V., DCG Systems G.K., DCG Systems GmbH, DCG Systems Korea Ltd., DCG Systems LLC, DPI Newco LLC, DSM Pharmaceutical Products Inc., Dharmacon, Diagnostix Ltd., Dionex (China) Analytical Ltd, Dionex (Switzerland) AG, Dionex (UK) Limited, Dionex Austria GmbH, Dionex Benelux B.V., Dionex Brasil Instrumentos Cientificos Ltda, Dionex Canada Ltd., Dionex China Limited, Dionex Corporation, Dionex Denmark A/S, Dionex Holding GmbH, Dionex I LLC, Dionex Pty Ltd., Dionex S.A., Dionex S.p.A., Dionex Singapore Pte Ltd., Dionex Softron GmbH, Dionex Sweden AB, Distribution Solutions International Inc., Doe & Ingalls Investors Inc., Doe & Ingalls Limited, Doe & Ingalls Management LLC, Doe & Ingalls Properties II LLC, Doe & Ingalls Properties LLC, Doe & Ingalls of California Operating LLC, Doe & Ingalls of Florida Operating LLC, Doe & Ingalls of Maryland Operating LLC, Doe & Ingalls of Massachusetts Operating LLC, Doe & Ingalls of North Carolina Operating LLC, Doublecape Holding Limited, Doublecape Limited, Drakeside Real Estate Holding Company LLC, Duke Scientific Corporation, Dynal Biotech Beijing Limited, EGS Gauging Ltd., EGS Gauging Technical Services Company, EP Scientific Products LLC, Ecochem N.V., EnviroEquip Pty Ltd, Epsom Glass Industries Limited, Equibio Limited, Erie Electroverre S.A., Erie Finance Limited, Erie LP Holding LLC, Erie Scientific Company of Puerto Rico, Erie Scientific Hungary Kft, Erie Scientific LLC, Erie U.K. Limited, Erie UK 1 Limited, Erie UK 2 Limited, Erie UK Holding Company, Erie UK Senior Holding Limited, European Laboratory Holdings Limited, Eutech Instruments Europe B.V., Eutech Instruments Pte Ltd., Eutech Instruments Sdn Bhd, Ever Ready Thermometer Co. Inc., FEI Asia Pacific Co. Ltd., FEI Australia Pty Ltd, FEI CPD B.V., FEI Company, FEI Company Japan Ltd., FEI Company of USA (S.E.A.) Pte Ltd., FEI Czech Republic s.r.o., FEI Deutschland GmbH, FEI EFA Inc., FEI EFA International Pte. Ltd., FEI Electron Optics B.V., FEI Electron Optics International B.V., FEI Europe B.V., FEI France SAS, FEI Global Holdings C.V., FEI Hong Kong Company Limited, FEI Houston Inc., FEI Italia Srl, FEI Korea Ltd., FEI Melbourne Pty Ltd., FEI Microscopy Solutions Ltd, FEI Munich GmbH, FEI Norway Holding AS, FEI SAS, FEI Saudi Arabia LLC, FEI Servicos de Nanotecnologia Ltda., FEI Technologies Inc., FEI Technology de Mexico S.A. de C.V., FEI Trading (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., FEI Trondheim AS, FEI UK Ltd., FHP LLC, FRC Holding Inc. V, FS (Barbados) Capital Holdings Ltd., FS Casa Rocas Holdings LLC, FS Mexicana Holdings LLC, FSI Receivables Company LLC, FSII Sweden Holdings AB, FSII Sweden Holdings I AB, FSIR Holdings (UK) Limited, FSIR Holdings (US) Inc., FSUK Holdings Limited, FSWH Company LLC, FSWH II C.V., FSWH International Holdings LLC, Fermentas China Co. Ltd, Fermentas Inc., Fermentas International, Fermentas Sweden AB, Fermentas UK Limited, Fiberlite Centrifuge LLC, Finesse Scientific Equipment (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Finesse Solutions AG, Finesse Solutions Inc., Finnzymes Oy, Fisher Alder S. de R.L. de C.V., Fisher Asia Manufacturing Ventures Inc., Fisher Bermuda Holdings Limited, Fisher BioImage ApS, Fisher BioPharma Services (India) Private Limited, Fisher BioSciences Japan G.K., Fisher BioServices Inc., Fisher Bioblock Holding II SNC, Fisher CLP Holding Limited Partnership, Fisher Canada Holding ULC 1, Fisher Canada Holding ULC 2, Fisher Canada Holding ULC 3, Fisher Canada Limited Partnership, Fisher Chimica BVBA, Fisher Clinical Logistics LLC, Fisher Clinical Services (Beijing) Co. Ltd., Fisher Clinical Services (Bristol) LLC, Fisher Clinical Services (Colombia) LLC, Fisher Clinical Services (Korea) Co. Ltd, Fisher Clinical Services (Mexico) LLC, Fisher Clinical Services (Peru) LLC, Fisher Clinical Services (Suzhou) Co. Ltd., Fisher Clinical Services Colombia S.A.S., Fisher Clinical Services GmbH, Fisher Clinical Services Inc., Fisher Clinical Services Japan K.K., Fisher Clinical Services Latin America S.R.L., Fisher Clinical Services Limited Liability Company, Fisher Clinical Services Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Fisher Clinical Services Peru S.R.L, Fisher Clinical Services Pte Ltd., Fisher Clinical Services U.K. Limited, Fisher Emergo B.V., Fisher Germany Holdings GmbH, Fisher Hamilton China Inc., Fisher Hamilton Mexico LLC, Fisher Holdings ApS, Fisher Internet Minority Holdings L.L.C., Fisher Laboratory Products Manufacturing (Shanghai) Co. Ltd, Fisher Luxembourg Danish Holdings SARL, Fisher Manufacturing (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, Fisher Maybridge Holdings Limited, Fisher Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Fisher Scientific (Austria) GmbH, Fisher Scientific (Hong Kong) Limited, Fisher Scientific (M) Sdn Bhd, Fisher Scientific (SEA) Pte. Ltd., Fisher Scientific A/S, Fisher Scientific AG, Fisher Scientific Australia Pty Limited, Fisher Scientific Biotech Line ApS, Fisher Scientific Brazil Inc., Fisher Scientific Central America Inc., Fisher Scientific Chile Inc., Fisher Scientific Colombia Inc., Fisher Scientific Company, Fisher Scientific Company L.L.C., Fisher Scientific Costa Rica Sociedad de Responsabilidad Limitada, Fisher Scientific Europe Holdings B.V., Fisher Scientific GTF AB, Fisher Scientific Germany Beteiligungs GmbH, Fisher Scientific GmbH, Fisher Scientific Holding Company LLC, Fisher Scientific Holding HK Limited, Fisher Scientific Holding U.K. Limited, Fisher Scientific Holdings (M) Sdn Bhd, Fisher Scientific Holdings (S) Pte Ltd, Fisher Scientific International LLC, Fisher Scientific Investments (Cayman) Ltd., Fisher Scientific Ireland Investments Unlimited, Fisher Scientific Ireland Limited, Fisher Scientific Japan Ltd., Fisher Scientific Jersey Island Limited, Fisher Scientific Korea Ltd, Fisher Scientific Latin America Inc., Fisher Scientific Luxembourg S.a.r.l., Fisher Scientific Mexicana S. de R.L. de C.V., Fisher Scientific Mexico Inc., Fisher Scientific Middle East and Africa Inc., Fisher Scientific Norway AS, Fisher Scientific Operating Company, Fisher Scientific Oxoid Holdings Ltd., Fisher Scientific Oy, Fisher Scientific Pte. Ltd., Fisher Scientific S.A.S., Fisher Scientific S.L., Fisher Scientific SPRL, Fisher Scientific The Hague I B.V., Fisher Scientific The Hague II B.V., Fisher Scientific The Hague III B.V., Fisher Scientific The Hague IV B.V., Fisher Scientific The Hague V B.V., Fisher Scientific U.K. Limited, Fisher Scientific UK Holding Company 2, Fisher Scientific UK Holding Company Limited, Fisher Scientific Unipessoal Lda., Fisher Scientific Venezuela Inc., Fisher Scientific Worldwide (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Fisher Scientific Worldwide Holdings I C.V., Fisher Scientific Worldwide Inc., Fisher Scientific de Mexico S.A., Fisher Scientific of the Netherlands B.V., Fisher Scientific spol. S.r.o, Fisher Servicios Clinicos (Chile) LLC, Fisher Servicios Clinicos Chile Ltda, Fisher WWD Holding L.L.C., Fisher Worldwide Distribution SPV, Fisher Worldwide Gene Distribution SPV, Flux Instruments, Fuji Partnership, G & M Procter Limited, G V Instruments Limited, GV Instruments Canada Ltd., GV Instruments Inc, Gatan Inc, General Scientific Company Sdn Bhd (M), Genomed molekularbiologische und diagnostische Produkte GmbH, Gerhard Menzel B.V. & Co. KG, Gold Cattle Standard Testing Labs Inc., Golden West Indemnity Company Limited, Goring Kerr Detection Limited, Greenville Service Company Inc., HENO GmbH i.L., Hangar 215 Inc., Helmet Securities Limited, Henogen, HighChem, HyClone International Trade (Tianjin) Co. Ltd, Hybaid Limited, I.Q. (BIO) Limited, IDnostics AG, ILS Laboratories Scandinavia AB, Inel Inc., Inel SAS, InnaPhase Inc., InnaPhase Limited, IntegenX, Intrinsic BioProbes Inc., Intrinsic Bioprobes Inc., Invitrogen (Shanghai) Investment Co. Ltd., Invitrogen Argentina SA, Invitrogen BioServices India Private Limited, Invitrogen Europe Limited, Invitrogen Finance Corp., Invitrogen Holdings LLC, Invitrogen Holdings Ltd., Invitrogen Hong Kong Limited, Invitrogen IP Holdings Inc., Invitrogen Trading (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Ion Torrent Systems Inc., Ionalytics Corporation, JSC Thermo Fisher Scientific, Jouan LLC, Jouan Limited, Jouan SA, Kendro Containment & Services Limited, Kendro Laboratory Products Ltd, Kettlebrook Insurance Co. ltd., Keystone Scientific, KonTEM GmbH, Kyle Jordan Investments LLC, LIFE TECHNOLOGIES CORPORATION, LTC Tech South Africa PTY Ltd., La-Pha-Pack GmbH, Lab Vision (UK) Limited, Lab Vision Corporation, Lab-Chrom-Pack LLC, Lab-Line Instruments Inc., Labomex MBP S. de R. L. De C.V., Laboratoire Service International - L.S.I, Laboratory Management Systems Inc., Laboratory Specialties Proprietary Ltd., LambTrack Limited, Laser Analytical Systems Inc., Liberty Lane Investment LLC, Liberty Lane Real Estate Holding Company LLC, Life Sciences International (Poland) SP z O.O, Life Sciences International Holdings BV, Life Sciences International LLC, Life Sciences International Limited, Life Technologies AS, Life Technologies Australia PTY Ltd., Life Technologies BPD AB, Life Technologies BPD UK Limited, Life Technologies Brasil Comercio e Industria de Produtos para Biotecnologia Ltda, Life Technologies Chile SpA, Life Technologies Clinical Services Lab Inc., Life Technologies Co. Ltd., Life Technologies Czech Republic s.r.o., Life Technologies DaAn Diagnostic (Guangzhou) Co. Ltd., Life Technologies Europe B.V., Life Technologies Finance Ltd., Life Technologies Finland Oy, Life Technologies GmbH, Life Technologies Holdings PTE Ltd., Life Technologies Inc., Life Technologies International B.V., Life Technologies Japan Ltd., Life Technologies Korea LLC, Life Technologies Limited, Life Technologies Magyarorszag Kft, Life Technologies New Zealand Ltd., Life Technologies Norway Investments US LLC, Life Technologies Polska Sp z.o.o., Life Technologies SA, Life Technologies SAS, Life Technologies s.r.o, Linkage Biosciences Inc., Linkage Biosciences S.a.r.l., Loftus Furnace Company, Lomb Scientific, Lomb Scientific (Aust) Pty Limited, MTI-GlobalStem, Marketbase International Limited, Matrix MicroScience Inc., Matrix MicroScience Ltd., Matrix Technologies Corporation Limited, Matrix Technologies LLC, Maybridge Chemical Company Limited, Maybridge Chemical Holdings Limited, Maybridge Limited, Medical Analysis Systems Inc., Medical Analysis Systems International Inc., Medical Diagnostics Systems Inc., Metavac LLC, Microgenics Corporation, Microgenics Diagnostics Pty Limited, Microgenics GmbH, Microm International GmbH, Microm Laborgerate S.L.U, Molecular BioProducts Inc., Molecular Probes Inc., Molecular Transfer Inc., NAPCO Inc., NERL Diagnostics LLC, NOVODIRECT GmbH Labor- und Industrie- Megerate, Nalge (Europe) Limited, Nalge Nunc International (Monterrey) LLC, Nalge Nunc International Corporation, Nanjing WeiKangLe Trading Industrial Co Ltd, NanoDrop Technologies LLC, National Scientific Company, Navaho Acquisition Corp., Neomarkers Inc., New FS Holdings Inc., NewcoGen PE LLC, Nihon Dynal K.K., Niton Asia Limited, NovaWave Technologies Inc., Nunc A/S, ONIX Systems Inc., OXOID CZ s.r.o., Odyssey Holdings Corporation, Odyssey Luxembourg Holdings S.a r.l., Odyssey Luxembourg IP Holdings 1 S.a r.l., Odyssey Luxembourg IP Holdings 2 S.a r.l., Odyssey Venture Corporation, Omega Data Systems, One Lambda Inc, Onix Holdings Limited, Orme Scientific Limited, Owl Separation Systems LLC, Oxoid (ELY) Limited, Oxoid 2000 Limited, Oxoid AS, Oxoid Australia Pty. Limited, Oxoid Company, Oxoid Deutschland GmbH, Oxoid Holding SAS, Oxoid Holdings Limited, Oxoid Inc., Oxoid International Limited, Oxoid Investments GmbH, Oxoid Limited, Oxoid N.V., Oxoid New Zealand Limited, Oxoid Pension Trustees Limited, Oxoid Senior Holdings Limited, Oxoid UKH LLC, PAX - DSI Acquisition LLC, PE AG, Pacific Rim Far East Industries LLC, Pacific Rim Investment LLC, Panomics L.L.C., Panomics S.R.L., Patheon, Patheon API Inc., Patheon API Manufacturing Inc., Patheon API Services Inc., Patheon Austria GmbH & Co KG, Patheon B.V., Patheon Banner U.S. Holdings Inc., Patheon Biologics (NJ) LLC, Patheon Biologics Australia Pty Ltd, Patheon Biologics B.V., Patheon Biologics LLC, Patheon Calculus Merger LLC, Patheon Cooperatief U.A., Patheon Development Services Inc., Patheon Finance LLC, Patheon France SAS, Patheon Holdings B.V., Patheon Holdings I B.V., Patheon Holdings II B.V., Patheon Holdings SAS, Patheon I B.V., Patheon I Holding GmbH, Patheon Inc., Patheon International AG, Patheon Italia S.p.A., Patheon KK, Patheon Life Science Products International GmbH, Patheon Manufacturing Services LLC, Patheon Pharmaceuticals Inc., Patheon Pharmaceuticals Services Inc., Patheon Puerto Rico Acquisitions Corporation, Patheon Puerto Rico Inc., Patheon Regensburg GmbH, Patheon Softgels B.V., Patheon Softgels Inc., Patheon U.S. Holdings Inc., Patheon U.S. Holdings LLC, Patheon UK Limited, Patheon UK Pension Trustees Limited, Pelican Acquisition Corporation, Perbio Science (Canada) Company, Perbio Science AB, Perbio Science BVBA, Perbio Science France SAS, Perbio Science Inc., Perbio Science International Netherlands B.V., Perbio Science Invest AB, Perbio Science Nederland B.V., Perbio Science Projekt AB, Perbio Science Sweden Holdings AB, Perbio Science Switzerland SA, Perbio Science UK Limited, Phadia AB, Phadia Diagnosticos Ltda, Phadia GmbH, Phadia Holding AB, Phadia International Holdings C.V., Phadia Korea Co. Ltd, Phadia Luxembourg Holdings S.a.r.l., Phadia Malta Holdings Limited, Phadia Oy, Phadia Real Property AB, Phadia Sweden AB, Phadia Taiwan Inc., Phadia US Inc., Phadia s.r.o., Pharmacaps Mexicana SA de CV, Phenom-World B.V., Phenom-World Holding B.V, Phenom-World Innovations B.V., Phinotex, Pierce Biotechnology Inc., Pierce Milwaukee Holding Corp., Pierce Milwaukee Inc., Polychromix, Power Sweden Holdings I AB, Power Sweden Holdings II AB, Power Sweden Holdings III Aktiebolag, Princeton Gamma-Tech Instruments LLC, Princeton Security Technologies, Prionics AG, Prionics Asia Ltd., Prionics Deutschland GmbH, Prionics France SAS, Prionics Italia S.r.l., Prionics Lelystad B.V., Prionics USA Inc., Priority Air Express LLC, Priority Air Express Pte. Ltd., Priority Air Express UK Limited, Priority Air Holdings Corp, Priority Solutions International, Promedica Pty Limited, Proxeon, Proxeon Biosystems ApS, Qiagen, REP GBP I-B Blocker Inc., Raymond A Lamb Limited, Remel Europe Limited, Remel Inc., Richard-Allan Scientific Company, Robbins Scientific LLC, Robocon Labor- und Industrieroboter Gesellschaft m.b.H, Rupprecht and Patashnick, Rupprecht and Patashnick (R&P), Russell pH Limited, S.C.I. du 10 rue Dugay Trouin, SCI Inno 92, STC Bio Manufacturing Inc., Samco Scientific (Monterrey) LLC, Samco Scientific LLC, Saroph Sweden AB, Schantz Road LLC, Seradyn Inc., Shanghai Life Technologies Biotechnology Co. Limited, Shanghai Thermo Fisher (C-I) Trading Co. Ltd, Shanghai Thermo Fisher (S) Trading Co. Ltd, Southern Trials (Pty) Ltd., Specialty (SMI) Inc., Spectra-Physics AB, Spectra-Physics Holdings Limited, Spectra-Physics Holdings USA LLC, Spectronex, Staten Island Cogeneration Corporation, Sterilin Limited, Stokes Bio Ltd., Sweden DIA (Sweden) AB, SwissAnalytic Group GmbH, Systems Manufacturing Corporation, TFLP LLC, TFS Breda B.V., TFS LLC, TFS Singapore HK Limited, TFSL Financing GP LLC, TFSL Senior GP Holdings 2 LLC, TK Partnership, TKA Wasseraufbereitungssysteme, TMOI Inc., TPI Real Estate Holdings LLC, TSP Holdings I LLC, TWX LLC, Technology Design Solutions Pty Ltd, Thermedics Detection de Argentina S.R.L, Thermo Allen Coding Limited, Thermo Asset Management Services Inc., Thermo BioAnalysis LLC, Thermo BioAnalysis Limited, Thermo BioSciences Holdings LLC, Thermo CIDTEC, Thermo CRS Holdings Ltd., Thermo CRS Ltd., Thermo Cambridge Limited, Thermo Cayman Holdings Ltd., Thermo Corporation, Thermo DMA Inc., Thermo Detection de Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Thermo Dutch Holdings Limited Partnership, Thermo EGS Gauging LLC, Thermo Eberline Holdings I LLC, Thermo Eberline Holdings II LLC, Thermo Eberline LLC, Thermo Electron (Calgary) Limited, Thermo Electron (Chile) S.p.A., Thermo Electron (Karlsruhe) GmbH, Thermo Electron (Management Services) Limited, Thermo Electron (Proprietary) Limited, Thermo Electron A/S, Thermo Electron Australia Pty Limited, Thermo Electron Export Inc., Thermo Electron Holdings SAS, Thermo Electron Industries, Thermo Electron LED GmbH, Thermo Electron LED S.A.S., Thermo Electron Limited, Thermo Electron Manufacturing Limited, Thermo Electron Metallurgical Services Inc., Thermo Electron North America LLC, Thermo Electron Pension Trust GmbH, Thermo Electron Puerto Rico Inc., Thermo Electron SAS, Thermo Electron Scientific Instruments LLC, Thermo Electron Sweden AB, Thermo Electron Sweden Forvaltning AB, Thermo Electron Weighing & Inspection Limited, Thermo Elemental Limited, Thermo Environmental Instruments LLC, Thermo Fast U.K. Limited, Thermo Finland Holdings LLC, Thermo Finland Holdings MT1 B.V., Thermo Finland Holdings MT2 B.V., Thermo Finnigan LLC, Thermo Finnigan Limited, Thermo Fisher (CN) Luxembourg Holding S.a.r.l., Thermo Fisher (CN) Luxembourg S.a.r.l., Thermo Fisher (CN) Malta Holdings Limited, Thermo Fisher (CN-I) Luxembourg LLC, Thermo Fisher (CN-II) Luxembourg LLC, Thermo Fisher (Cayman) Holdings I Ltd., Thermo Fisher (Cayman) Holdings II Ltd., Thermo Fisher (Finland Holdings 2) LLC, Thermo Fisher (Finland Holdings) Limited Partnership, Thermo Fisher (Gibraltar) II Limited, Thermo Fisher (Gibraltar) Limited, Thermo Fisher (Heysham) Limited, Thermo Fisher (Kandel) GmbH, Thermo Fisher CHK Holding LLC, Thermo Fisher China Business Trust, Thermo Fisher China Business Trust II, Thermo Fisher Costa Rica Sociedad de Responsabilidad Limitada, Thermo Fisher Cyprus Holdings LLC, Thermo Fisher Detection Mexico LLC, Thermo Fisher Diagnostics (Ireland) Limited, Thermo Fisher Diagnostics AB, Thermo Fisher Diagnostics AG, Thermo Fisher Diagnostics AS, Thermo Fisher Diagnostics Aps, Thermo Fisher Diagnostics Austria GmbH, Thermo Fisher Diagnostics B.V., Thermo Fisher Diagnostics GmbH, Thermo Fisher Diagnostics K.K., Thermo Fisher Diagnostics Limited, Thermo Fisher Diagnostics NV, Thermo Fisher Diagnostics S.L.U., Thermo Fisher Diagnostics S.p.A. , Thermo Fisher Diagnostics SAS, Thermo Fisher Diagnostics Sociedade Unipessoal Lda, Thermo Fisher Eurobonds Ltd., Thermo Fisher Financial Services Inc., Thermo Fisher GP LLC, Thermo Fisher German Holdings LLC, Thermo Fisher Germany B.V., Thermo Fisher India Divestco Private Limited, Thermo Fisher India Holding B.V., Thermo Fisher Insurance Holdings Inc., Thermo Fisher Insurance Holdings LLC, Thermo Fisher Investments (Cayman) Ltd., Thermo Fisher Israel Ltd., Thermo Fisher Production et Services SAS, Thermo Fisher Project Cyprus LLC, Thermo Fisher Re Ltd., Thermo Fisher Scientific (Asheville) LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific (Australia) C.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific (Barbados) Holdings Ltd., Thermo Fisher Scientific (Breda) Holding BV, Thermo Fisher Scientific (Bremen) GmbH, Thermo Fisher Scientific (CN) Limited Partnership, Thermo Fisher Scientific (China) Co. Ltd., Thermo Fisher Scientific (China) Holding Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific (China-HK) Holding Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific (DE) Holding S.a.r.l., Thermo Fisher Scientific (Ecublens) SARL, Thermo Fisher Scientific (Finance I) B.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific (Finance I) S.a.r.l., Thermo Fisher Scientific (Finance II) S.a.r.l., Thermo Fisher Scientific (Finance III) LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific (Finance III) S.a.r.l., Thermo Fisher Scientific (Fuji) LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific (Guangzhou) Co. Ltd, Thermo Fisher Scientific (Holding II) B.V. & Co. KG, Thermo Fisher Scientific (Hong Kong) Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific (IVGN) B.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific (IVGN) Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific (Johannesburg) (Proprietary) Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific (Mexico City) LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific (Milwaukee) LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific (Mississauga) Inc., Thermo Fisher Scientific (Monterrey) S. De R.L. De C.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific (NK) LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific (PN) Austria Holding GmbH, Thermo Fisher Scientific (PN) UK LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific (PN) UK Limited Partnership, Thermo Fisher Scientific (PN-I) SRL, Thermo Fisher Scientific (PN-II) SRL, Thermo Fisher Scientific (PN1) UK Ltd, Thermo Fisher Scientific (Panama) B.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific (Panama) Dutch LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific (Praha) s.r.o., Thermo Fisher Scientific (Real Estate 1) GmbH & Co. KG, Thermo Fisher Scientific (Real Estate 1) S.a.r.l., Thermo Fisher Scientific (Schweiz) AG, Thermo Fisher Scientific (Shanghai) Instruments Co. Ltd., Thermo Fisher Scientific (Shanghai) Management Co. Ltd., Thermo Fisher Scientific (Suzhou) Instruments Co. Ltd, Thermo Fisher Scientific (Thailand) Co. Ltd., Thermo Fisher Scientific AL-1 LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific AU C.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific AU II Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific AU LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific AU Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific Africa Proprietary Ltd, Thermo Fisher Scientific Aquasensors LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific Australia Pty Ltd, Thermo Fisher Scientific B.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific B.V.B.A., Thermo Fisher Scientific BHK (I) Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific BHK (II) Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific Baltics UAB, Thermo Fisher Scientific Beteiligungsverwaltungs GmbH, Thermo Fisher Scientific Biosciences Corp., Thermo Fisher Scientific Brahms LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific Brasil Instrumentos de Processo Ltda., Thermo Fisher Scientific Brasil Servicos de Logistica Ltda, Thermo Fisher Scientific C.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific Cayman Investments LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific Chemicals Inc., Thermo Fisher Scientific China (C-I) LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific China (S) LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific China Holdings I B.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific China Holdings II B.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific China Holdings III B.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific China Holdings IV B.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific Chromatography Holdings Aps, Thermo Fisher Scientific Chromatography Holdings S.a r.l., Thermo Fisher Scientific Cyprus I C.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific Cyprus I Ltd, Thermo Fisher Scientific Cyprus II C.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific Cyprus II Ltd, Thermo Fisher Scientific Cyprus III C.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific Cyprus III Ltd, Thermo Fisher Scientific Cyprus IV C.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific Cyprus V C.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific Denmark Senior Holdings ApS, Thermo Fisher Scientific Erie 1 Financing (Barbados) SRL, Thermo Fisher Scientific Erie Financing (Barbados) SRL, Thermo Fisher Scientific Erie Financing S.a r.l, Thermo Fisher Scientific Europe GmbH, Thermo Fisher Scientific FLC B.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific FLC Finance C.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific FLC II B.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific FLC LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific FSIR Financing (Barbados) SRL, Thermo Fisher Scientific FSIR Financing S.a.r.l, Thermo Fisher Scientific FSUKHCO Financing (Barbados) SRL, Thermo Fisher Scientific Falcon Senior Holdings Inc., Thermo Fisher Scientific Finance Company BV, Thermo Fisher Scientific GENEART GmbH, Thermo Fisher Scientific Germany BV & Co. KG, Thermo Fisher Scientific GmbH, Thermo Fisher Scientific HR Services Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific Holdings (Cayman) I, Thermo Fisher Scientific Holdings (Cayman) II , Thermo Fisher Scientific Holdings Europe Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific IT Services GmbH, Thermo Fisher Scientific India Holding LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific India Pvt Ltd, Thermo Fisher Scientific Investments (Luxembourg) S.a.r.l., Thermo Fisher Scientific Investments (Malta) Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific Investments (Sweden) LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific Investments (Sweden) S.a.r.l., Thermo Fisher Scientific Investments Malta (Sweden Financing) Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific Invitrogen Financing (Barbados) SRL, Thermo Fisher Scientific Japan Holdings I B.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific Japan Holdings II B.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific Japan Holdings III B.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific K.K., Thermo Fisher Scientific Korea Ltd., Thermo Fisher Scientific LSI Financing (Barbados) SRL, Thermo Fisher Scientific Life CV GP Holdings II LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific Life CV GP Holdings LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Enterprises C.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Enterprises GP LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Financing (Barbados) SRL, Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Financing (Cayman), Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Financing C.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Financing Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Holdings I C.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Holdings II C.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Holdings III C.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Holdings Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific Life International GP Holdings LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific Life International Holdings I C.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific Life International Holdings II C.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Investments C.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Investments GP LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Investments I S.a.r.l., Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Investments II S.a r.l., Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Investments III S.a.r.l., Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Investments IV S.a.r.l, Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Investments Malta Holding I LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Investments Malta Holding II LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Investments Malta I Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Investments Malta II Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Investments US Financing I LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Investments US Financing II LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific Life NL Holdings GP LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Netherlands Holding C.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Senior GP Holdings II LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Senior GP Holdings LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Senior Holdings C.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Senior Holdings II C.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Senior Holdings Inc., Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Switzerland Holdings GP LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Tech Korea Holdings LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Technologies Enterprise Holding Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Technologies Investment I LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Technologies Investment II LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Technologies Investment UK I Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Technologies Investment UK II Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Technologies Investments Holding LP, Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Technologies Israel Investment I Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Technologies Israel Investment II Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Technologies Luxembourg Holding LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific Luxembourg Enterprise Holdings S.a r.l., Thermo Fisher Scientific Luxembourg German Holdings S.a.r.l., Thermo Fisher Scientific Luxembourg Life Technologies UK Holding S.a r.l, Thermo Fisher Scientific Luxembourg Sweden Holdings I S.a r.l, Thermo Fisher Scientific Luxembourg Sweden Holdings II S.a r.l., Thermo Fisher Scientific Luxembourg Venture Holdings I S.a.r.l., Thermo Fisher Scientific Luxembourg Venture Holdings II S.a.r.l., Thermo Fisher Scientific Malaysia Sdn. Bhd., Thermo Fisher Scientific Malta Holdings LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific Messtechnik GmbH, Thermo Fisher Scientific Mexico City S. de R.L. de C.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific Middle East Holdings Inc., Thermo Fisher Scientific Milano Srl, Thermo Fisher Scientific NHK Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific New Zealand Holdings, Thermo Fisher Scientific New Zealand Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific Norway Holdings AS, Thermo Fisher Scientific Norway US Investments LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific Odyssey Financing (Barbados) SRL, Thermo Fisher Scientific Odyssey Holdings Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific Operating Company LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific Oy, Thermo Fisher Scientific PN2 C.V, Thermo Fisher Scientific PN2 LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific PRB LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific PRB Malta Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific PRB S.a.r.l., Thermo Fisher Scientific Panama I Cayman Ltd, Thermo Fisher Scientific Peru S.R.L., Thermo Fisher Scientific Pte. Ltd., Thermo Fisher Scientific Re Ltd., Thermo Fisher Scientific SL, Thermo Fisher Scientific Senior Financing LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific Senior Holdings Australia LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific South Africa Proprietary Ltd, Thermo Fisher Scientific SpA, Thermo Fisher Scientific Spectra LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific Spectra Malta Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific Spectra S.a.r.l., Thermo Fisher Scientific Spectra-Physics Holdings Luxembourg I S.a r.l., Thermo Fisher Scientific Spectra-Physics Holdings Luxembourg II S.a r.l., Thermo Fisher Scientific Spectra-Physics Investments Malta Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific Switzerland Holdings C.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific TR Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific Taiwan Co. Ltd., Thermo Fisher Scientific Vermogensverwaltungs GmbH, Thermo Fisher Scientific West Palm Holdings LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific Wissenschaftliche Gerate GmbH, Thermo Fisher Scientific Worldwide Investments (Cayman), Thermo Fisher Scientific eCommerce Solutions LLC , Thermo Fisher Senior Canada Holdings LLC, Thermo Foundation Inc., Thermo Gamma-Metrics Holdings Pty Ltd., Thermo Gamma-Metrics LLC, Thermo Gamma-Metrics Pty Ltd, Thermo Holding European Operations LLC, Thermo Hypersil Ltd, Thermo Hypersil-Keystone LLC, Thermo Informatics Asia Pacific Pty Ltd., Thermo Instrument Controls de Mexico S.A. de C.V., Thermo Kevex X-Ray LLC, Thermo Keytek LLC, Thermo LabSystems Inc., Thermo LabSystems S.A., Thermo Life Science International Trading (Tianjin) Co. Ltd., Thermo Life Sciences AB, Thermo Luxembourg Holding S.a.r.l., Thermo Luxembourg S.a.r.l., Thermo MF Physics LLC, Thermo Measurement Ltd, Thermo Measuretech Canada Inc., Thermo Neslab LLC, Thermo Nicolet Limited, Thermo Onix Limited, Thermo Optek (Australia) Pty Ltd., Thermo Optek Limited, Thermo Optek S.A., Thermo Orion Inc., Thermo Portable Holdings LLC, Thermo Power Corporation, Thermo Process Instruments GP LLC, Thermo Process Instruments L.P., Thermo Projects Limited, Thermo Quest S.A., Thermo Radiometrie Limited, Thermo Ramsey Italia S.r.l., Thermo Ramsey LLC, Thermo Ramsey S.A., Thermo Re Ltd., Thermo Scientific Microbiology Pte Ltd., Thermo Scientific Microbiology Sdn Bhd, Thermo Scientific Portable Analytical Instruments Inc., Thermo Scientific Services Inc., Thermo Securities Corporation, Thermo Sentron Canada Inc., Thermo Sentron Limited, Thermo Shandon Inc., Thermo Shandon Limited, Thermo Suomi Holding B.V., Thermo TLH (UK) Limited, Thermo TLH L.P., Thermo Trace Pty Ltd., Thermo-Fisher Biochemical Product (Beijing) Co. Ltd., ThermoLase LLC, ThermoSpectra Limited, Trek Diagnostic Systems LLC, Trek Diagnostic Systems Ltd., Trek Holding Company II Ltd., Trek Holding Company Ltd., Trex Medical Corporation, USB Corporation, Union Lab Supplies Limited, United Diagnostics Inc., VG Systems Limited, Westover Scientific Inc., ZAO PE Biosystems, eBioscience GmbH, eBioscience Ltd, eBioscience SAS, and picoSpin LLC.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.The following companies are subsidiares of Cummins: Anvl, Apollo FC Holdings Ltd., Atlantis Acquisitionco Canada Corporation, Atlantis Holdco UK Limited, Brammo, CIFC Worldwide Partner C.V., CMI Africa Holdings BV, CMI CGT Holdings LLC, CMI Canada Financing Ltd., CMI Canada LP, CMI Foreign Holdings B.V., CMI Global Equity Holdings B.V., CMI Global Equity Holdings C.V., CMI Global Holdings B.V., CMI Global Partner 2 C.V., CMI Global Partners B.V., CMI Group Holdings B.V., CMI Group Holdings Cooperatief U.A., CMI International Finance Partner 1 LLC, CMI International Finance Partner 2 LLC, CMI International Finance Partner 3 LLC, CMI International Finance Partner 4 LLC, CMI International Finance Partner 5 LLC, CMI Mexico LLC, CMI Netherlands Holdings B.V., CMI PGI Holdings LLC, CMI PGI International Holdings LLC, CMI Turkish Holdings B.V., CMI UK Finance LP, CMI UK Financing LP, Cherry Island Renewable Energy LLC, Consolidated Diesel Company, Consolidated Diesel Inc., Consolidated Diesel of North Carolina Inc., Cummins (China) Investment Co. Ltd., Cummins (Xiangyang) Machining Co. Ltd., Cummins Africa Middle East (Pty) Ltd., Cummins Afrique de l'Ouest, Cummins Americas Inc., Cummins Angola Lda., Cummins Argentina-Servicios Mineros S.A., Cummins Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd., Cummins Aust Technologies Pty. Ltd., Cummins BLR LLC, Cummins Battery Systems North America LLC, Cummins Belgium N.V., Cummins Botswana (Pty.) Ltd., Cummins Brasil Ltda., Cummins Burkina Faso SARL, Cummins CDC Holding Inc., Cummins CV Member LLC, Cummins Canada ULC, Cummins Caribbean LLC, Cummins Center of Excellence Singapore Pte. Ltd., Cummins Centroamerica Holding S.de R.L., Cummins Child Development Center Inc., Cummins Colombia S.A.S., Cummins Comercializadora S. de R.L. de C.V., Cummins Corporation, Cummins Cote d'Ivoire SARL, Cummins Czech Republic s.r.o., Cummins Deutschland GmbH, Cummins Diesel International Ltd., Cummins Distribution Holdco Inc., Cummins EMEA Holdings Limited, Cummins East Asia Research & Development Co. Ltd., Cummins Eastern Marine Inc., Cummins Electrified Power Europe Ltd., Cummins Electrified Power NA Inc., Cummins Emission Solutions (China) Co. Ltd., Cummins Emission Solutions Inc., Cummins Empresas Filantropicas, Cummins Energetica Ltda., Cummins Engine (Beijing) Co. Ltd., Cummins Engine (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Cummins Engine (Shanghai) Trading & Services Co. Ltd., Cummins Engine Holding Company Inc., Cummins Engine IP Inc., Cummins Engine Malaysia Sdn. Bhd., Cummins Engine Venture Corporation, Cummins Enterprise LLC, Cummins Filtration (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Cummins Filtration GmbH, Cummins Filtration IP Inc., Cummins Filtration Inc., Cummins Filtration International Corp., Cummins Filtration Ltd., Cummins Filtration SARL, Cummins Filtration Trading (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Cummins Filtros Ltda., Cummins Franchise Holdco LLC, Cummins Fuel Systems (Wuhan) Co. Ltd., Cummins Generator Technologies (China) Co. Ltd., Cummins Generator Technologies Americas Inc., Cummins Generator Technologies Germany GmbH, Cummins Generator Technologies India Private Ltd., Cummins Generator Technologies Italy SRL, Cummins Generator Technologies Limited, Cummins Generator Technologies Romania S.A., Cummins Generator Technologies Singapore Pte Ltd., Cummins Ghana Limited, Cummins Ghana Mining Limited, Cummins Global Financing LP, Cummins Global Technologies LLP, Cummins Grupo Comercial Y. de Servicios S. de R.L. de C.V., Cummins Grupo Industrial S. de R.L. de C.V., Cummins Holland B.V., Cummins Hong Kong Ltd., Cummins India Ltd., Cummins Intellectual Property Inc., Cummins International Finance LLC, Cummins International Holdings Cooperatief U.A., Cummins International Holdings LLC, Cummins Italia S.P.A., Cummins Japan Ltd., Cummins Korea Co. Ltd., Cummins LLC Member Inc., Cummins Ltd., Cummins Maroc SARL, Cummins Middle East FZE, Cummins Mining Services S. de R.L. de C.V., Cummins Mobility Services Inc., Cummins Mongolia Investment LLC, Cummins Mozambique Ltda., Cummins NV, Cummins Namibia Engine Sales and Service PTY LTD, Cummins Natural Gas Engines Inc., Cummins New Zealand Limited, Cummins Nigeria Ltd., Cummins Norte de Colombia S.A.S., Cummins North Africa Regional Office SARL, Cummins Norway AS, Cummins PGI Holdings Ltd., Cummins Power Generation (China) Co. Ltd., Cummins Power Generation (S) Pte. Ltd., Cummins Power Generation (U.K.) Limited, Cummins Power Generation Deutschland GmbH, Cummins Power Generation Inc., Cummins Power Generation Limited, Cummins PowerGen IP Inc., Cummins Research and Technology India Private Ltd., Cummins Romania Srl, Cummins S. de R.L. de C.V., Cummins Sales and Service Korea Co. Ltd., Cummins Sales and Service Philippines Inc., Cummins Sales and Service Private Limited, Cummins Sales and Service Sdn. Bhd., Cummins Sales and Service Singapore Pte. Ltd., Cummins Sinai ve Otomotiv Urunleri Sanayi ve Ticaret Limited Sirketi, Cummins South Africa (Pty.) Ltd., Cummins South Pacific Pty. Limited, Cummins Southern Plains LLC, Cummins Spain S.L., Cummins Sweden AB, Cummins Technologies India, Cummins Trade Receivables LLC, Cummins Turbo Technologies Limited, Cummins Turkey Motor Guc Sistemleri Sats Servis Limited Sirketi, Cummins U.K. Holdings Ltd., Cummins U.K. Pension Plan Trustee Ltd., Cummins UK Global Holdings Ltd., Cummins UK Holdings LLC, Cummins Vendas e Servicos de Motores e Geradores Ltda., Cummins Venture Corporation, Cummins West Africa Limited, Cummins West Balkans d.o.o. Nova Pasova, Cummins XBorder Operations (Pty) Ltd, Cummins Zambia Ltd., Cummins Zimbabwe Pvt. Ltd., Distribuidora Cummins Centroamerica Costa Rica S.de R.L., Distribuidora Cummins Centroamerica El Salvador S.de R.L., Distribuidora Cummins Centroamerica Guatemala Ltda., Distribuidora Cummins Centroamerica Honduras S.de R.L., Distribuidora Cummins S.A., Distribuidora Cummins Sucursal Paraguay SRL, Distribuidora Cummins de Panama S. de R.L., Dynamo Insurance Company Inc., Efficient Drivetrains, Efficient Drivetrains (Beijing) New Power Technology Co. Ltd., Efficient Drivetrains (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Hilite International, Hydrogenics, Hydrogenics Corporation, Hydrogenics Europe N.V., Hydrogenics GmbH, Hydrogenics Holding GmbH, Hydrogenics USA Inc., Markon Engineering Company Ltd., Nelson Burgess Ltd., Nelson Industries, Newage Engineers GmbH, Newage Ltd. (U.K.), Newage Machine Tools Ltd., OOO Cummins, Petbow Limited, Power Group International (Overseas Holdings) B.V., Power Group International (Overseas Holdings) Ltd., Power Group International Ltd., Quickstart Energy Projects SpA, Shanghai Cummins Trade Co. Ltd., TOO Cummins, Taiwan Cummins Sales & Services Co. Ltd., Worldwide Partner CV Member LLC, Wuxi Cummins Turbo Technologies Co. Ltd., Wuxi New Energy Automotive Technologies Co. Ltd., and ZED Connect Inc..The following companies are subsidiares of Vodafone Group: 360 Connect S.A., [email protected] 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..FactSet Research Systems Inc. (the ""Company"" or ""FactSet"") is a global provider of integrated financial information, analytical applications and services for the investment and corporate communities. Since inception, global financial professionals have utilized the Company's content and multi-asset class solutions across each stage of the investment process. FactSet's goal is to provide a seamless user experience spanning idea generation, research, portfolio construction, trade execution, performance measurement, risk management, reporting, and portfolio analysis, in which the Company serves the front, middle, and back offices to drive productivity and improved performance. FactSet's flexible, open data and technology solutions can be implemented both across the investment portfolio lifecycle or as standalone components serving different workflows in the organization. FactSet is focused on growing the business throughout each of its three segments, the Americas, EMEA (formerly known as Europe), and Asia Pacific. The Company primarily delivers insight and information through the workflow solutions of Research, Analytics and Trading, Content and Technology Solutions (""CTS"") and Wealt

Read MoreThe following companies are subsidiares of Exxon Mobil: AKG Marketing Company Limited, Aera Energy LLC, Al-Jubail Petrochemical Company, Ampolex (Cepu) Pte Ltd, Ancon Insurance Company Inc., Barnett Gathering LLC, Barzan Gas Company Limited, Caspian Pipeline Consortium, Celtic Exploration Ltd., Coral FLNG S.A., Cross Timbers Energy LLC, Ellora Energy Inc., Esmeroon Oil Transporta Imperial Oil Limited, Esso (Thailand) Public Company Limited, Esso Australia Resources Pty Ltd, Esso Deutschland GmbH, Esso Erdgas Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbH, Esso Exploration Angola (Block 15) Limited, Esso Exploration Angola (Block 17) Limited, Esso Exploration and Production Angola (Overseas) Limited, Esso Exploration and Production Chad Inc., Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Limited, Esso Exploration and Production Nigeria (Deepwater) Limited, Esso Exploration and Production Nigeria (Offshore East) Limited, Esso Exploration and Production Nigeria Limited, Esso Exploration and Production UK Limited, Esso Global Investments Ltd., Esso Italiana S.r.l., Esso Nederland B.V., Esso Norge AS, Esso Petroleum Company Limited, Esso Raffinage, Esso Societe Anonyme Francaise, Exxo Holdings Inc., Exxon Azerbaijan Limited, Exxon Chemical Arabia Inc., Exxon International Finance Company, Exxon Luxembourg Holdings LLC, Exxon Mobile Bay Limited Partnership, Exxon Neftegas Limited, Exxon Overseas Corporation, Exxon Overseas Investment Corporation, ExxonMobil (China) Investment Co. Ltd., ExxonMobil (Taicang) Petroleum Co. Ltd., ExxonMobil Abu Dhabi Offshore Petroleum Company Limited, ExxonMobil Alaska Production Inc., ExxonMobil Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd., ExxonMobil Australia Pty Ltd, ExxonMobil B Resources Company, ExxonMobil Capital Finance Company, ExxonMobil Capital Netherlands B.V., ExxonMobil Central Europe Holding GmbH, ExxonMobil Cepu Limited, ExxonMobil Chemical France, ExxonMobil Chemical Gulf Coast Investments LLC, ExxonMobil Chemical Holland B.V., ExxonMobil Chemical Services (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., ExxonMobil China Petroleum & Petrochemical Company Limited, ExxonMobil Development Africa B.V., ExxonMobil Development Company, ExxonMobil Egypt (S.A.E.), ExxonMobil Exploracao Brasil Ltda., ExxonMobil Exploration and Production Malaysia Inc., ExxonMobil Exploration and Production Norway AS, ExxonMobil Exploration and Production Romania Limited, ExxonMobil Exploration and Production Tanzania Limited, ExxonMobil Finance Company Limited, ExxonMobil Financial Investment Company Limited, ExxonMobil France Holding SAS, ExxonMobil Gas Marketing Europe Limited, ExxonMobil General Finance Company, ExxonMobil Global Services Company, ExxonMobil Golden Pass Surety LLC, ExxonMobil Holding Company Holland LLC, ExxonMobil Holding Norway AS, ExxonMobil Hong Kong Limited, ExxonMobil International Services SARL, ExxonMobil Iraq Limited, ExxonMobil Italiana Gas S.r.l., ExxonMobil Kazakhstan Inc., ExxonMobil Kazakhstan Ventures Inc., ExxonMobil LNG Services B.V., ExxonMobil Lubricants Trading Company, ExxonMobil Oil Corporation, ExxonMobil PNG Limited, ExxonMobil Petroleum & Chemical BVBA, ExxonMobil Petroleum & Chemical Holdings Inc., ExxonMobil Pipeline Company, ExxonMobil Production Deutschland GmbH, ExxonMobil Production Norway Inc., ExxonMobil Qatargas (II) Limited, ExxonMobil Qatargas Inc., ExxonMobil Ras Laffan (III) Limited, ExxonMobil Rasgas Inc., ExxonMobil Research and Engineering Company, ExxonMobil Russia Kara Sea Holdings B.V., ExxonMobil Sales and Supply LLC, ExxonMobil Technology Finance Company, ExxonMobil Ventures Finance Company, ExxonMobil Ventures Funding Ltd., Fujian Refining & Petrochemical Co. Ltd., Golden Pass LNG Terminal Investments LLC, Golden Pass LNG Terminal LLC, Gulf Coast Growth Ventures LLC, Imperial Oil Limited, Imperial Oil Resources Limited, Imperial Oil Resources N.W.T. Limited, Imperial Oil/Petroliere Imperiale, Infineum Italia s.r.I., Infineum Singapore Pte. Ltd., InterOil Corporation, Jurong Aromatics Corporation Pte Ltd, MPM Lubricants, Marine Well Containment Company LLC, Mobil Australia Resources Company Pty Limited, Mobil California Exploration & Producing Asset Company, Mobil Caspian Pipeline Company, Mobil Chemical Products International Inc., Mobil Corporation, Mobil Equatorial Guinea Inc., Mobil Erdgas Verwaltungsgesellschaft mbH, Mobil Exploration & Producing Australia Pty Ltd, Mobil International Petroleum Corporation, Mobil Oil Australia Pty Ltd, Mobil Oil Exploration & Producing Southeast Inc., Mobil Oil New Zealand Limited, Mobil Producing Nigeria Unlimited, Mobil Producing Texas & New Mexico Inc., Mobil SerLimited, Mobil Venezolana De Petroleos Inc., Mobil Yanbu Petrochemical Company Inc., Mobil Yanbu Refining Company Inc., Mountain Gathering LLC, Mozambique Rovuma Venture S.p.A., Palmetto Transoceanic LLC, Papua New Guinea Liquefied Natural Gas Global Company LDC, Permian Express Partners LLC, Phillips Exploration LLC, Qatar Liquefied Gas Company Limited, Ras Laffan Liquefied Natural Gas Company Limited, Ras Laffan Liquefied Natural Gas Company Limited (II), SPI Limited, Saudi Aramco Mobil Refinery Company Ltd., Saudi Yanbu Petrochemical Co., SeaRiver Maritime Inc., South Hook LNG Terminal Company Limited, Tengizchevroil LLP, Terminale GNL Adriatico S.r.l, Trend Gathering & Treating LLC, Wolverine Pipe Line Company, XH LLC, XTO Delaware Basin LLC, XTO Energy Canada, XTO Energy Inc., and XTO Holdings LLC.The following companies are subsidiares of Anthem: 1-800 Contacts, AIM Specialty Health, AMERIGROUP Community Care of New Mexico Inc., AMERIGROUP Corporation, AMERIGROUP Maryland Inc., AMERIGROUP New Jersey Inc., AMERIGROUP Ohio Inc., AMERIGROUP Tennessee Inc., AMERIGROUP Texas Inc., AMERIGROUP Washington Inc., AMGP Georgia Managed Care Company Inc., ATH Holding Company LLC, America's 1st Choice of South Carolina Inc., America's Health Management Services Inc., American Imaging Management Inc., Americas 1st Choice, Amerigroup, Amerigroup Delaware Inc., Amerigroup District of Columbia Inc., Amerigroup Health Plan of Louisiana Inc., Amerigroup IPA of New York LLC, Amerigroup Insurance Company, Amerigroup Iowa Inc., Amerigroup Kansas Inc., Amerigroup Mississippi Inc., Amerigroup Oklahoma Inc., Amerigroup Partnership Plan LLC, Amerigroup Pennsylvania Inc., Anthem Blue Cross Life and Health Insurance Company, Anthem Financial Inc., Anthem Health Plans Inc., Anthem Health Plans of Kentucky Inc., Anthem Health Plans of Maine Inc., Anthem Health Plans of New Hampshire Inc., Anthem Health Plans of Virginia Inc., Anthem Holding Corp., Anthem Innovation Israel Ltd., Anthem Insurance Companies Inc., Anthem Kentucky Managed Care Plan Inc., Anthem Life & Disability Insurance Company, Anthem Life Insurance Company, Anthem Partnership Holding Company LLC, Anthem Services Company LLC, Anthem Southeast Inc., Anthem UM Services Inc., Anthem Workers' Compensation LLC, Applied Pathways LLC, Arcus Enterprises Inc., Aspire Health Inc., Aspire Healthcare Corp, Associated Group Inc., Beacon Health Options, Blue Cross Blue Shield Healthcare Plan of Georgia Inc., Blue Cross Blue Shield of Wisconsin, Blue Cross of California, Blue Cross of California Partnership Plan Inc., CareMarket Inc., CareMore Health Plan, CareMore Health Plan of Arizona Inc., CareMore Health Plan of Nevada, CareMore Health Plan of Texas Inc., CareMore Health System, CareMore LLC, Cerulean Companies Inc., Claim Management Services Inc., Community Care Health Plan of Louisiana Inc., Community Care Health Plan of Nevada Inc., Community Insurance Company, Compcare Health Services Insurance Corporation, Crossroads Acquisition Corp., DBG Holdings Inc., DeCare Analytics LLC, DeCare Dental Health International LLC, DeCare Dental Insurance Ireland Ltd., DeCare Dental LLC, DeCare Dental Networks LLC, DeCare Operations Ireland Limited, Delivery Network LLC, Designated Agent Company Inc., EHC Benefits Agency Inc., EasyScripts Cutler Bay LLC, EasyScripts Hialeah LLC, EasyScripts LLC, EasyScripts Westchester LLC, Empire HealthChoice Assurance Inc., Empire HealthChoice HMO Inc., Federal Government Solutions LLC, Freedom Health Inc., Global TPA LLC, Golden West Health Plan Inc., Greater Georgia Life Insurance Company, HEP AP Holdings Inc., HMO Colorado Inc., HMO Missouri Inc., Health Core Inc., Health Management Corporation, Health Ventures Partner L.L.C., HealthKeepers Inc., HealthLink HMO Inc., HealthLink Inc., HealthLink Insurance Company, HealthPlus HP LLC, HealthSun Health Plans, HealthSun Health Plans Inc., HealthSun Holdings LLC, HealthSun Management LLC, HealthSun Physicians Network I LLC, HealthSun Physicians Network LLC, Healthy Alliance Life Insurance Company, Highland Acquisition Holdings LLC, Highland Holdco Inc., Highland Intermediate Holdings LLC, Highland Investor Holdings LLC, Imaging Management Holdings LLC, IngenioRx Inc., Legato Health Technologies LLP, Legato Health Technologies Philippines Inc., Legato Holdings I Inc., Legato Holdings II LLC, Living Complete Technologies Inc., Matthew Thornton Health Plan Inc., Memphis Supportive Care Partnership LLC, Meridian Resource Company LLC, Missouri Care Incorporated, NGS Federal LLC, Nash Holding Company LLC, National Government Services Inc., New England Research Institutes Inc., Optimum Healthcare Inc., Park Square Holdings Inc., Park Square I Inc., Park Square II Inc., Pasteur Medical Bird Road LLC, Pasteur Medical Center LLC, Pasteur Medical Cutler Bay LLC, Pasteur Medical Group LLC, Pasteur Medical Hialeah Gardens LLC, Pasteur Medical Holdings LLC, Pasteur Medical Kendall LLC, Pasteur Medical Management LLC, Pasteur Medical Miami Gardens LLC, Pasteur Medical North Miami Beach LLC, Pasteur Medical Partners LLC, Resolution Health Inc, Resolution Health Inc., RightCHOICE Managed Care Inc., Rocky Mountain Hospital and Medical Service Inc., SellCore Inc., Simply Healthcare Holdings, Simply Healthcare Plans Inc., Southeast Services Inc., State Sponsored DM Services Inc., The Anthem Companies Inc., The Anthem Companies of California Inc., TrustSolutions LLC, UNICARE Health Plan of West Virginia Inc., UNICARE Illinois Services Inc., UNICARE National Services Inc., UniCare Life & Health Insurance Company, UniCare Specialty Services Inc., Valus Inc., WPMI LLC, WellCare of Nebraska Inc., WellPoint Acquisition LLC, WellPoint California Services Inc., WellPoint Dental Services Inc., WellPoint Health Solutions Inc., WellPoint Holding Corp., WellPoint Information Technology Services Inc., WellPoint Insurance Services Inc., WellPoint Military Care Corporation, Wellmax Health Medical Centers LLC, Wellmax Health Physicians Network LLC, and Wisconsin Collaborative Insurance Company.Infineon Technologies AG designs, develops, manufactures, and markets semiconductors and related system solutions worldwide. Its Automotive segment offers automotive microcontrollers; 3D ToF, magnetic, and pressure sensors; discrete power semiconductors; IGBT modules; industrial microcontrollers; power and radar sensor integrated circuits (ICs); transceivers; silicon carbide diodes, MOSEFTs, and modules; and voltage regulators for use in assistance and safety systems, comfort electronics, infotainment, powertrain, and security products. The company's Industrial Power Control segment provides bare dies, discrete IGBTs, driver ICs, SIC diodes, and IGBT modules and stacks for home appliances, industrial drives, industrial power supplies, industrial robotics, industrial vehicles, and traction, as well as for energy generation, storage, and transmission. Its Power & Sensor Systems segment offers gas sensors, MEMS microphones, and pressure sensors chips; discrete low-voltage, mid-voltage, and high-voltage power MOSFETs; control ICs; customized chips; GaN power switches; GPS low-noise amplifiers; low-voltage and high-voltage driver ICs; radar sensor ICs; RF antenna switches and power transistors; transient voltage suppressor diodes; and USB controllers for use in audio amplifiers, automotive electronics, BLDC motors, cellular communications infrastructure, electric vehicle charging stations, human machine interaction, high-reliability components, Internet of Things, LED and conventional lighting systems, mobile devices, and power management applications. The company's Connected Secure Systems segment provides connectivity solutions, embedded security controllers, microcontrollers, and security controllers for authentication, automotive, consumer electronics, government identification document, Internet of Things, mobile communication, payment system, ticketing, access control, and trusted computing applications. Infineon Technologies AG is headquartered in Munich, Germany.

Read MoreRandgold Resources Limited is engaged in gold mining, exploration and related activities. The Company's activities are focused on West and Central Africa. The Company operates through the gold mining segment. The Company operates various mines, such as Morila, Loulo, Gounkoto, Tongon and Kibali. The Company is exploring in African countries, such as Mali, Senegal, Cote d'Ivoire and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The Company also holds an interest in the Massawa project. The Company holds Morila Limited, which holds interests in the Morila mine in Mali. As of December 31, 2016, Morila mine has produced 122,370 ounces (oz) of gold. The Company holds a controlling interest in the Loulo mine, located in Mali, through Societe des Mines de Loulo SA (Loulo). The Loulo mine is mining from over two underground mines. As of December 31, 2016, Loulo mine has produced 350,604 oz of gold. It has a controlling interest in the Gounkoto mine through Societe des Mines de Gounkoto SA.

Read MoreThe following companies are subsidiares of DaVita: Aberdeen Dialysis LLC, Accountable Kidney Care LLC, Adair Dialysis LLC, American Fork Dialysis LLC, American Medical Insurance Inc., Animas Dialysis LLC, Arcadia Gardens Dialysis LLC, Ashdow Dialysis LLC, Atlantic Dialysis LLC, Austin Dialysis Centers L.P., Barnell Dialysis LLC, Barrons Dialysis LLC, Barton Dialysis LLC, Bastrop Dialysis LLC, Beachside Dialysis LLC, Beck Dialysis LLC, Bellevue Dialysis LLC, Bemity Dialysis LLC, Beverly Hills Dialysis Partnership, Birch Dialysis LLC, Bladon Dialysis LLC, Bliss Dialysis LLC, Bohama Dialysis LLC, Bowan Dialysis LLC, Braddock Dialysis LLC, Bridges Dialysis LLC, Brimfield Dialysis LLC, Brook Dialysis LLC, Brownsville Kidney Center Ltd., Brownwood Dialysis LLC, Bruno Dialysis LLC, Buckhorn Dialysis LLC, Buford Dialysis LLC, Bullards Dialysis LLC, Bullock Dialysis LLC, Calante Dialysis LLC, Campton Dialysis LLC, Canyon Springs Dialysis LLC, Capes Dialysis LLC, Capital Dialysis Partnership, Capron Dialysis LLC, Carlton Dialysis LLC, Carroll County Dialysis Facility Inc., Carroll County Dialysis Facility Limited Partnership, Cascades Dialysis LLC, Caverns Dialysis LLC, Cedar Dialysis LLC, Centennial LV LLC, Central Carolina Dialysis Centers LLC, Central Georgia Dialysis LLC, Central Iowa Dialysis Partners LLC, Central Kentucky Dialysis Centers LLC, Channel Dialysis LLC, Cheraw Dialysis LLC, Chicago Heights Dialysis LLC, Chipeta Dialysis LLC, Churchill Dialysis LLC, Cinco Rios Dialysis LLC, Clark Dialysis LLC, Clayton Dialysis LLC, Cleburne Dialysis LLC, Clinica Central do Bonfim S.A., Clinton Township Dialysis LLC, Clyfee Dialysis LLC, Columbus-RNA-DaVita LLC, Conconully Dialysis LLC, Continental Dialysis Center Inc., Couer Dialysis LLC, Court Dialysis LLC, Cowell Dialysis LLC, Cowesett Dialysis LLC, Crossings Dialysis LLC, Crystals Dialysis LLC, Cuivre Dialysis LLC, Culbert Dialysis LLC, DC Healthcare International Inc., DNP Management Company LLC, DPS CKD LLC, DV Care Netherlands B.V., DV Care Netherlands C.V., DVA Healthcare - Southwest Ohio LLC, DVA Healthcare Renal Care Inc., DVA Healthcare of Maryland LLC, DVA Healthcare of Massachusetts Inc., DVA Healthcare of New London LLC, DVA Healthcare of Norwich LLC, DVA Healthcare of Pennsylvania LLC, DVA Healthcare of Tuscaloosa LLC, DVA Holdings Pte. Ltd., DVA Laboratory Services Inc., DVA Renal Healthcare Inc., DVA of New York Inc., DaVita - Riverside II LLC, DaVita - Riverside LLC, DaVita - West LLC, DaVita APAC Holding B.V., DaVita Brasil Participacoes e Servicos de Nefrologia Ltda., DaVita Care (Saudi Arabia), DaVita Dakota Dialysis Center LLC, DaVita Deutschland AG, DaVita Deutschland Beteiligungs GmbH & Co. KG, DaVita El Paso East L.P., DaVita Germany GmbH, DaVita HK Holdings Limited, DaVita HealthCare Brasil Servicos Medicos Ltda., DaVita International Limited, DaVita Nefromed Servicos de Nefrologia Ltda., DaVita Nephron Care Servicos de Nefrologia Ltda., DaVita Rien Servicos de Nefrologia Ltda., DaVita S.A.S., DaVita Servicos de Nefrologia Asa Sul Ltda., DaVita Servicos de Nefrologia Distrito Federal Ltda., DaVita Servicos de Nefrologia Guarulhos Ltda., DaVita Servicos de Nefrologia Jardim das Imbuias Ltda., DaVita Servicos de Nefrologia Taubate Ltda., DaVita Servicos de Nefrologia de Araraquara Ltda., DaVita Sp. z o.o., DaVita Sud-Niedersachsen GmbH, DaVita Transrim Servicos de Nefrologia Ltda., DaVita UTR Servicos de Nefrologia Ltda., DaVita VillageHealth Inc., DaVita of New York Inc., Dallas-Fort Worth Nephrology L.P., Damon Dialysis LLC, Dialysis Holdings Inc., Dialysis of Des Moines LLC, Dialysis of Northern Illinois LLC, Dierks Dialysis LLC, Dolores Dialysis LLC, Dome Dialysis LLC, Doves Dialysis LLC, Downriver Centers Inc., EURODIAL - Centro de Nefrologia e Dialise de Leiria S.A., East End Dialysis Center Inc., East Ft. Lauderdale LLC, Ebrea Dialysis LLC, Edisto Dialysis LLC, Eldrist Dialysis LLC, Elgin Dialysis LLC, Elk Grove Dialysis Center LLC, Empire State DC Inc., Etowah Dialysis LLC, Ettleton Dialysis LLC, Eufaula Dialysis LLC, Falcon LLC, Family Health Care of Central Florida, Fanthorp Dialysis LLC, Federal Way Assurance Inc., Fields Dialysis LLC, Five Star Dialysis LLC, Fjords Dialysis LLC, Flagler Dialysis LLC, Flamingo Park Kidney Center Inc., Forester Dialysis LLC, Freehold Artificial Kidney Center L.L.C., Fremont Dialysis LLC, Frontier Dialysis LLC, Fullerton Dialysis Center LLC, GDC International LLC, Gambro Healthcare, Ganois Dialysis LLC, Garner Dialysis LLC, Garrett Dialysis LLC, Gaviota Dialysis LLC, Gebhard Dialysis LLC, Genesis KC Development LLC, GiveLife Dialysis LLC, Glassland Dialysis LLC, Glosser Dialysis LLC, Goliad Dialysis LLC, Grand Home Dialysis LLC, Greater Las Vegas Dialysis LLC, Greater Los Angeles Dialysis Centers LLC, Green Country Dialysis LLC, Green Desert Dialysis LLC, Griffin Dialysis LLC, Groten Dialysis LLC, Harmony Dialysis LLC, Hart Dialysis LLC, Hawn Dialysis LLC, Healthcare Partners, Helmer Dialysis LLC, Hennepin Dialysis LLC, Hewett Dialysis LLC, Hilgards Dialysis LLC, Hochatown Dialysis LLC, Home Kidney Care LLC, Honeyman Dialysis LLC, Houston Kidney Center/Total Renal Care Integrated Service Network Limited Partnership, Hummer Dialysis LLC, Hunter Dialysis LLC, Huntington Artificial Kidney Center Ltd., Hyde Dialysis LLC, IDC -International Dialysis Centers Lda, ISD Bartlett LLC, ISD Corpus Christi LLC, ISD I Holding Company Inc., ISD II Holding Company Inc., ISD Las Vegas LLC, ISD Lees Summit LLC, ISD Renal Inc., ISD Schaumburg LLC, ISD Spring Valley LLC, ISD Summit Renal Care LLC, Iroquois Dialysis LLC, Jacinto Dialysis LLC, Jenness Dialysis LLC, Kamiah Dialysis LLC, Kanika Dialysis LLC, Kavett Dialysis LLC, Kenai Dialysis LLC, Kershaw Dialysis LLC, Kidney Home Center LLC, Kimball Dialysis LLC, Kingston Dialysis LLC, Kinnick Dialysis LLC, Kinter Dialysis LLC, Kiowa Dialysis LLC, Knickerbocker Dialysis Inc., Lakeshore Dialysis LLC, Landing Dialysis LLC, Landor Dialysis LLC, Lassen Dialysis LLC, Leasburg Dialysis LLC, Leawood Dialysis LLC, Lees Dialysis LLC, Legare Development LLC, Liberty RC Inc., Lifeline Pensacola LLC, Lifeline Vascular Center-Albany LLC, Lincoln Park Dialysis Services Inc., Livingston Dialysis LLC, Llano Dialysis LLC, Lofield Dialysis LLC, Logoley Dialysis LLC, Lone Dialysis LLC, Long Beach Dialysis Center LLC, Lord Baltimore Dialysis LLC, Lory Dialysis LLC, Lourdes Dialysis LLC, Lyndale Dialysis LLC, MVZ DaVita Alzey GmbH, MVZ DaVita Aurich GmbH, MVZ DaVita Bad Aibling GmbH, MVZ DaVita Bad Duben GmbH, MVZ DaVita Cardio Centrum Dusseldorf GmbH, MVZ DaVita Dillenburg GmbH, MVZ DaVita Dinkelsbuhl GmbH, MVZ DaVita Dormagen GmbH, MVZ DaVita Duisburg GmbH, MVZ DaVita Elsterland GmbH, MVZ DaVita Emden GmbH, MVZ DaVita Falkensee GmbH, MVZ DaVita Geilenkirchen GmbH, MVZ DaVita Gera GmbH, MVZ DaVita Iserlohn GmbH, MVZ DaVita Monchengladbach GmbH, MVZ DaVita Neuss GmbH, MVZ DaVita Niederrhein GmbH, MVZ DaVita Nierenzentrum Aachen Alsdorf GmbH, MVZ DaVita Nierenzentrum Berlin-Britz GmbH, MVZ DaVita Nierenzentrum Hamm-Ahlen GmbH, MVZ DaVita Prenzlau-Pasewalk GmbH, MVZ DaVita Rhein-Ahr GmbH, MVZ DaVita Rhein-Ruhr GmbH, MVZ DaVita Schwalm-Eder GmbH, MVZ DaVita Viersen GmbH, Madigan Dialysis LLC, Magney Dialysis LLC, Magoffin Dialysis LLC, Makonee Dialysis LLC, Marlton Dialysis Center LLC, Marseille Dialysis LLC, Mason-Dixon Dialysis Facilities Inc., Mazonia Dialysis LLC, Mellen Dialysis LLC, Melnea Dialysis LLC, Memorial Dialysis Center L.P., Meridian Dialysis LLC, Mermet Dialysis LLC, Milltown Dialysis LLC, Minam Dialysis LLC, Minneopa Dialysis LLC, Mountain West Dialysis Services LLC, Mulgee Dialysis LLC, Nansen Dialysis LLC, Natomas Dialysis LLC, Nauvue Dialysis LLC, Navarro Dialysis LLC, Nephrology Medical Associates of Georgia LLC, Nephrology Practice Solutions LLC, New Bay Dialysis LLC, Nicona Dialysis LLC, Norbert Dialysis LLC, Norte Dialysis LLC, North Austin Dialysis LLC, Northwest Physicians Network, Oasis Dialysis LLC, Ohio River Dialysis LLC, Okanogan Dialysis LLC, Olive Dialysis LLC, Ordust Dialysis LLC, Owyhee Dialysis LLC, Palo Dialysis LLC, Palomar Dialysis LLC, Panther Dialysis LLC, Parkside Dialysis LLC, Pattison Dialysis LLC, Patuk Dialysis LLC, Pearl Dialysis LLC, Pendster Dialysis LLC, Percha Dialysis LLC, Pershing Dialysis LLC, Pfeiffer Dialysis LLC, Philadelphia-Camden Integrated Kidney Care LLC, Physicians Choice Dialysis LLC, Physicians Choice Dialysis Of Alabama LLC, Physicians Dialysis Acquisitions Inc., Physicians Dialysis Ventures LLC, Physicians Dialysis of Lancaster LLC, Physicians Management LLC, Pible Dialysis LLC, Pinson Dialysis LLC, Pittsburgh Dialysis Partners LLC, Piute Dialysis LLC, Plaine Dialysis LLC, Platte Dialysis LLC, Pluribus Dialise - Benfica S.A., Pluribus Dialise - Cascais S.A., Pluribus Dialise S.A., Prairie Dialysis LLC, Prineville Dialysis LLC, Purity Dialysis, RMS Lifeline Inc., RNA - DaVita Dialysis LLC, RV Academy LLC, Ramsey Dialysis LLC, Rayburn Dialysis LLC, Red Willow Dialysis LLC, Redcliff Dialysis LLC, Refuge Dialysis LLC, Renal Center of Beaumont LLC, Renal Center of Fort Dodge LLC, Renal Center of Lewisville LLC, Renal Center of Morristown LLC, Renal Center of Newton LLC, Renal Center of Port Arthur LLC, Renal Center of Tyler L.P.L.L.L.P., Renal Center of West Beaumont LLC, Renal Center of the Hills LLC, Renal Life Link Inc., Renal Treatment Centers - California Inc., Renal Treatment Centers - Illinois Inc., Renal Treatment Centers - Mid-Atlantic Inc., Renal Treatment Centers - Northeast Inc., Renal Treatment Centers - Southeast LP, Renal Treatment Centers - West Inc., Renal Treatment Centers Inc., Renal Ventures Management LLC, RenalServ LLC, Riddle Dialysis LLC, River Valley Dialysis LLC, Rocky Mountain Dialysis Services LLC, Rollins Dialysis LLC, Roose Dialysis LLC, Rophets Dialysis LLC, Roushe Dialysis LLC, Routt Dialysis LLC, Royale Dialysis LLC, Rusk Dialysis LLC, Rutland Dialysis LLC, SAKDC-DaVita Dialysis Partners L.P., Saddleback Dialysis LLC, Sahara Dialysis LLC, San Marcos Dialysis LLC, Santiam Dialysis LLC, Sapelo Dialysis LLC, Saunders Dialysis LLC, Seabay Dialysis LLC, Secour Dialysis LLC, Sensiba Dialysis LLC, Shadow Dialysis LLC, Shayano Dialysis LLC, Shelling Dialysis LLC, Sherman Dialysis LLC, Shetek Dialysis LLC, Shining Star Dialysis Inc., Siena Dialysis Center LLC, Simeon Dialysis LLC, Skagit Dialysis LLC, Soledad Dialysis Center LLC, Somerville Dialysis Center LLC, South Central Florida Dialysis Partners LLC, South Fork Dialysis LLC, Southern Hills Dialysis Center LLC, Southlake Dialysis LLC, Southwest Atlanta Dialysis Centers LLC, Sprague Dialysis LLC, Springpond Dialysis LLC, Star Dialysis LLC, Stevenson Dialysis LLC, Stewart Dialysis LLC, Stines Dialysis LLC, Storrie Dialysis LLC, Sugarloaf Dialysis LLC, Sun City Dialysis Center L.L.C., Sunapee Dialysis LLC, Sunset Dialysis LLC, TRC - Indiana LLC, TRC El Paso Limited Partnership, TRC West Inc., TRC of New York Inc., TRC-Georgetown Regional Dialysis LLC, Talimena Dialysis LLC, Terre Dialysis LLC, The Woodlands Dialysis Center LP, Tortugas Dialysis LLC, Total Renal Care Inc., Total Renal Care Texas Limited Partnership, Total Renal Care of North Carolina LLC, Total Renal Laboratories Inc., Total Renal Research Inc., Toulouse Dialysis LLC, Transmountain Dialysis L.P., Tross Dialysis LLC, Tugman Dialysis LLC, Tunnel Dialysis LLC, Turlock Dialysis Center LLC, Tustin Dialysis Center LLC, Twain Dialysis LLC, Tyler Dialysis LLC, USC-DaVita Dialysis Center LLC, Unicoi Dialysis LLC, University Dialysis Center LLC, Upper Valley Dialysis L.P., Valley Springs Dialysis LLC, Victory Dialysis LLC, VillageHealth DM LLC, Villanueva Dialysis LLC, Vively Health LLC, Vogel Dialysis LLC, Volo Dialysis LLC, Waddell Dialysis LLC, Wakoni Dialysis LLC, Walker Dialysis LLC, Walton Dialysis LLC, Watkins Dialysis LLC, Weldon Dialysis LLC, West Elk Grove Dialysis LLC, West Sacramento Dialysis LLC, Weston Dialysis Center LLC, Whitney Dialysis LLC, Willowbrook Dialysis Center L.P., Winds Dialysis LLC, Wood Dialysis LLC, Woodford Dialysis LLC, Wyandotte Central Dialysis LLC, Yards Dialysis LLC, Ybor City Dialysis LLC, Yucaipa Dialysis LLC, and Zephyrhills Dialysis Center LLC.The following companies are subsidiares of Brinker International: BI INTERNATIONAL SERVICES LLC, BI MEXICO HOLDING CORPORATION, BIPC GLOBAL PAYROLL COMPANY LLC, BIPC INVESTMENTS LLC, BIPC MANAGEMENT LLC, BRINKER AIRPORTS LLC, BRINKER ALABAMA INC., BRINKER ARKANSAS INC., BRINKER ASIA INC., BRINKER BRAZIL LLC, BRINKER CANADIAN HOLDING CO. ULC, BRINKER CANADIAN RESTAURANT CO. ULC, BRINKER CB LP, BRINKER CB MANAGEMENT LLC, BRINKER FHC B.V., BRINKER FLORIDA INC., BRINKER FREEHOLD INC., BRINKER GEORGIA INC., BRINKER INTERNATIONAL PAYROLL COMPANY L.P., BRINKER LOUISIANA INC., BRINKER MICHIGAN INC., BRINKER MISSISSIPPI INC., BRINKER MISSOURI INC., BRINKER NEVADA INC., BRINKER NEW JERSEY INC., BRINKER NORTH CAROLINA INC., BRINKER OF BALTIMORE COUNTY INC., BRINKER OF CARROLL COUNTY INC., BRINKER OF CECIL COUNTY INC., BRINKER OKLAHOMA INC., BRINKER OPCO LLC, BRINKER PENN TRUST, BRINKER PROPCO FLORIDA INC., BRINKER PROPERTY CORPORATION, BRINKER PURCHASING INC., BRINKER RESTAURANT CORPORATION, BRINKER RHODE ISLAND INC., BRINKER SERVICES CORPORATION, BRINKER SOUTH CAROLINA INC., BRINKER TEXAS INC., BRINKER VIRGINIA INC., CHILIS BEVERAGE COMPANY INC., CHILIS INC. a Delaware corporation, CHILIS INC. a Tennessee corporation, CHILIS INTERNATIONAL BASES B.V., CHILIS OF BEL AIR INC., CHILIS OF KANSAS INC., CHILIS OF MARYLAND INC., CHILIS OF WEST VIRGINIA INC., Grady's Inc., MAGGIANO'S OF ANNAPOLIS INC., MAGGIANO'S OF HOWARD COUNTY INC., MAGGIANO'S OF KANSAS INC., MAGGIANOS BEVERAGE COMPANY, MAGGIANOS HOLDING CORPORATION, MAGGIANOS INC., MAGGIANOS OF TYSONS INC., MAGGIANOS PROPERTY CORPORATION, MAGGIANOS TEXAS INC., PEPPER DINING HOLDING CORP., PEPPER DINING Inc., and PEPPER DINING VERMONT INC..The Toronto-Dominion Bank, together with its subsidiaries, provides various personal and commercial banking products and services in Canada and the United States. It operates through three segments: Canadian Retail, U.S. Retail, and Wholesale Banking. The company offers personal deposits, such as chequing, savings, and investment products; financing, investment, cash management, international trade, and day-to-day banking services to businesses; and financing options to customers at point of sale for automotive and recreational vehicle purchases through auto dealer network. It also provides credit cards; real estate secured lending; auto finance; consumer lending; point-of-sale payment solutions for large and small businesses; wealth and asset management products, private banking, investment advisory, and trust services to retail and institutional clients; and property and casualty insurance, as well as life and health insurance products. The company also provides capital markets, and corporate and investment banking services, including underwriting and distribution of new debt and equity issues; advice on strategic acquisitions and divestitures; and trading, funding, and investment services to companies, governments, and institutions. It offers its products and services under the TD Bank and America's Most Convenient Bank brand names. The company operates through a network of 1,085 branches, 3,440 automated teller machines, and 1,223 stores, as well as offers telephone, digital, and mobile banking services. The Toronto-Dominion Bank was founded in 1855 and is headquartered in Toronto, Canada.

Read MoreThe following companies are subsidiares of Lithia Motors: 797 Valley Street LLC, Albany CJD Fiat, Baierl Auto Group, Baierl Auto Parts LLC, Baierl Automotive Corporation, Baierl Chevrolet Inc., Baierl Holding LLC, Broadway Ford, Buhler Ford Inc, Cadillac of Portland Lloyd Center LLC, Camp Automotive Inc., Carbone Auto Body LLC, Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram Fiat of Morgantown, Cranberry Automotive Inc., Crater Lake Ford Lincoln, Crater Lake Mazda, DCH (Oxnard) Inc., DCH Auto Group, DCH Bloomfield LLC, DCH CA LLC, DCH Calabasas-A LLC, DCH California Investments LLC, DCH California Motors Inc., DCH DMS NJ LLC, DCH Del Norte Inc., DCH Essex Inc., DCH Financial NJ LLC, DCH Freehold - V LLC, DCH Freehold LLC, DCH Holdings LLC, DCH Investments Inc. (New Jersey), DCH Investments Inc. (New York), DCH Korean Imports LLC, DCH Mamaroneck LLC, DCH Mission Valley LLC, DCH Monmouth LLC, DCH Montclair LLC, DCH Motors LLC, DCH NY Motors LLC, DCH Nanuet LLC, DCH North America Inc., DCH Oxnard 1521 Imports Inc., DCH Riverside-S Inc., DCH Simi Valley Inc., DCH Support Services LLC, DCH TL Holdings LLC, DCH TL NY Holdings LLC, DCH Temecula Imports LLC, DCH Temecula Motors LLC, DCH Thousand Oaks-F Inc., DCH Torrance Imports Inc., Dah Chong Hong CA Trading LLC, Dah Chong Hong Trading Corporation, Daron Motors LLC, Day Auto Group, Downtown LA, Driveway Motors LLC, Elizabeth Collision LLC, Florida SS LLC, Ford Lincoln of Morgantown, Freehold Nissan LLC, Fuse Auto Sales LLC, Hamilton Honda, Hazleton Honda, Hutchins Eugene Nissan Inc., Hutchins Imported Motors Inc., Jaguar Landrover Mission Viejo, LA Motors Holding LLC, LAD Advertising Inc., LAD Carson-N LLC, LAD Mission Viejo-JLR Inc., LAD Mobu Inc., LAD-AU LLC, LAD-MB LLC, LAD-N LLC, LAD-P LLC, LAD-T LLC, LAD-V LLC, LBMP LLC, LFKF LLC, LGPAC Inc., LLL Sales Co LLC, LMBB LLC, LMBP LLC, LMOP LLC, LSTAR LLC, Lithia AcDM Inc., Lithia Aircraft Inc., Lithia Anchorage-C LLC, Lithia Anchorage-H LLC, Lithia Armory Garage LLC, Lithia Auction & Recon LLC, Lithia Auto Services Inc., Lithia Automotive Inc., Lithia BA Holding Inc., Lithia BNM Inc. (nonoperating), Lithia Baierl-S LLC, Lithia Bryan Texas Inc., Lithia Buffalo-A LLC, Lithia CCTF Inc., Lithia CDH Inc., Lithia CIMR Inc., Lithia CJDO Inc., Lithia CJDSA Inc., Lithia CJDSF Inc., Lithia CM Inc., Lithia CO Inc., Lithia CSA Inc., Lithia Community Development Company Inc., Lithia Crater Lake-F Inc., Lithia Crater Lake-M Inc., Lithia DE Inc., Lithia DM Inc., Lithia DMID Inc., Lithia Des Moines-VW LLC, Lithia Dodge of Tri-Cities Inc., Lithia Eatontown-F LLC, Lithia FLCC LLC, Lithia FMF Inc., Lithia Financial Corporation (previously Lithia Leasing Inc. and Lithia Credit Inc.), Lithia Florida Holding Inc., Lithia Ford of Boise Inc., Lithia Fresno Inc., Lithia HDM Inc., Lithia HGF Inc., Lithia HMID Inc., Lithia HPI Inc. (nonoperating), Lithia Hamilton-H LLC, Lithia Hazleton-H LLC, Lithia Idaho Falls-F Inc., Lithia Imports of Anchorage Inc., Lithia JEF Inc., Lithia Klamath Inc., Lithia Klamath-T Inc., Lithia LBGGF Inc., Lithia LHGF Inc., Lithia LSGF Inc., Lithia MBDM Inc., Lithia MMF Inc., Lithia MTLM Inc., Lithia McMurray-C LLC, Lithia Medford HON Inc., Lithia Middletown-L LLC, Lithia Monroeville-A LLC, Lithia Monroeville-C LLC, Lithia Monroeville-F LLC, Lithia Monroeville-V LLC, Lithia Moon-S LLC, Lithia Moon-V LLC, Lithia Morgantown-CJD LLC, Lithia Morgantown-F LLC, Lithia Morgantown-S LLC, Lithia Motors Support Services Inc., Lithia NA Inc., Lithia NC Inc., Lithia ND Acquisition Corp. #1, Lithia ND Acquisition Corp. #3, Lithia ND Acquisition Corp. #4, Lithia NDM Inc., Lithia NF Inc., Lithia NSA Inc., Lithia Northeast Real Estate LLC, Lithia Orchard Park-H LLC, Lithia Paramus-M LLC, Lithia Pittsburgh-S LLC, Lithia Ramsey-B LLC, Lithia Ramsey-L LLC, Lithia Ramsey-M LLC, Lithia Ramsey-T LLC, Lithia Real Estate Inc., Lithia Reno Sub-HYUN Inc., Lithia Reno-CJ LLC, Lithia Reno-VW LLC, Lithia Rose-FT Inc., Lithia SOC Inc., Lithia SSP LLC, Lithia Salmir Inc., Lithia Sea P Inc., Lithia Seaside Inc., Lithia Spokane-B LLC, Lithia Spokane-S LLC, Lithia TA Inc., Lithia TO Inc., Lithia TR Inc., Lithia Uniontown-C LLC, Lithia VAuDM Inc., Lithia VF Inc., Lithia Wexford-H LLC, Lithia of Abilene Inc., Lithia of Anchorage Inc., Lithia of Bend #1 LLC, Lithia of Bend #2 LLC, Lithia of Bennington - 1 LLC, Lithia of Bennington - 2 LLC, Lithia of Bennington - 3 LLC, Lithia of Bennington - 4 LLC, Lithia of Billings II LLC, Lithia of Billings Inc., Lithia of Casper LLC, Lithia of Clear Lake LLC, Lithia of Concord I Inc., Lithia of Concord II Inc., Lithia of Corpus Christi Inc., Lithia of Des Moines Inc., Lithia of Eureka Inc., Lithia of Fairbanks Inc., Lithia of Great Falls Inc., Lithia of Helena Inc., Lithia of Honolulu-A Inc., Lithia of Honolulu-BGMCC LLC, Lithia of Honolulu-F LLC, Lithia of Honolulu-V LLC, Lithia of Killeen LLC, Lithia of Lodi Inc., Lithia of Maui-H LLC, Lithia of Missoula II LLC, Lithia of Missoula III Inc., Lithia of Missoula Inc., Lithia of Pocatello Inc., Lithia of Portland I LLC, Lithia of Portland LLC, Lithia of Robstown LLC, Lithia of Roseburg Inc., Lithia of Santa Rosa Inc., Lithia of Seattle Inc., Lithia of South Central AK Inc., Lithia of Spokane II Inc., Lithia of Spokane Inc., Lithia of Stockton Inc., Lithia of Stockton-V Inc., Lithia of TF Inc., Lithia of Troy LLC, Lithia of Utica - 1 LLC, Lithia of Utica - 2 LLC, Lithia of Utica - 3 LLC, Lithia of Utica - 4 LLC, Lithia of Walnut Creek Inc., Lithia of Wasilla LLC, Lithia of Yorkville - 1 LLC, Lithia of Yorkville - 2 LLC, Lithia of Yorkville - 3 LLC, Lithia of Yorkville - 4 LLC, Lithia of Yorkville - 5 LLC, Medford Insurance LLC, Milford DCH Inc., Northland Ford Inc., PA Real Estate LLC, PA Support Services LLC, Paramus Collision LLC, Paramus World Motors LLC, Personalized Marketing LLC, Prestige Auto Group, RFA Holdings LLC, Ray Laks Acura, Ray Laks Honda, Sacramento-L Inc., Salem-B LLC, Salem-H LLC, Salem-V LLC, Sharlene Realty LLC, Shift Portland LLC, Southern Cascades Finance Corporation, Subaru of Morgantown, Tampa-H LLC, Tustin Motors Inc., Wesley Chapel-H LLC, Wesley Chapel-T LLC, Zelienople Real Estate I L.P., and Zelienople Real Estate L.L.C..ZPG Plc owns and operates home-related digital platforms in the United Kingdom. It operates through Property and Comparison segments. The company operates platforms under the Zoopla, uSwitch, PrimeLocation, money.co.uk, hometrack, and The Property Software Group brands, which helps consumers to research the market. It also offers property advertising, display advertising, and data services to estate agents, lettings agents, and new homes developers; and switching services. The company was formerly known as Zoopla Property Group Plc and changed its name to ZPG Plc in February 2017. ZPG Plc was founded in 2007 and is headquartered in London, the United Kingdom.

Read MoreFifteen months ahead of the crucial 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the cheer is slowly but steadily returning to the Opposition camp, spurred by the near victory in the Gujarat Assembly elections and a clean sweep over the saffron party in the Rajasthan bypolls. There are still miles to go, egos to shed and seats to share but a beginning has been made with senior leaders like NCP chief Sharad Pawar, CPI general secretary D. Raja, Congressman Sushilkumar Shinde and Omar Abdullah of the National Conference joining hands at a 'Save the Constitution' rally in Mumbai and deliberating on strategy in a rare show of Opposition unity. The hurdles for the opposition are manytowering over them is PM Modi whose popularity is unmatched as ever, vouched by every opinion poll. Getting West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee to toe the line of a combined opposition is no mean task and so is getting a heterogenous mix of parties to accept the leadership of a single leader like Congress president Rahul Gandhi. The scion of the Gandhi family is a different leader altogether after the Gujarat polls but his poll winning abilities are yet to be proved beyond doubt. What could finally melt the differences is the question of survivalmost small parties know that a Modi win in 2019 will make him invincible and them irrelevant beyond recovery. Sanjay Basak analyses the patterns emerging on the national scene and finds out if the BJP-led NDA may have to face the might of a combined opposition or a clutter of parties with no unity in sight.

Congress president, Rahul Gandhi, charged up by the convincing by-poll victories in Rajasthan and a stellar performance in Prime Minister, Narendra Modi's home turf-Gujarat might have spoken too early when he tweeted: "4 years gone...Thankfully, only 1 more year to go."

To defeat BJP's Goliath, Narendra Modi, the Congress president will need a powerful army of allies. On a one on one popularity contest, Modi towers over Rahul Gandhi with a whopping 30% lead. A recent survey conducted by an English magazine claimed that Modi received 53 percent of the people's backing as the next prime minister while his closest competition, Rahul Gandhi lagged far behind at a distant 22 percent. Yet to Rahul Gandhi's credit, he has worked himself up from the bottom of the pyramid of popularity (four percent) and made giant strides to come up to 22 percent and hold a number two position.

Rahul Gandhi in his newly energised avatar, is in on the hunt. He's looking for allies outside UPA to build up a grand invincible formation. But the hurdles are many. The first is mercurial Queen of Hearts  Trinamul Congress' Mamata Banerjee. A primary antagonist, she has so far refused to be led by Congress, particularly Rahul Gandhi.

She dealt the first blow to talks of Opposition unity by skipping Sonia Gandhi's Opposition unity meet held recently. West Bengal has 42 Lok Sabha seats and despite BJP's relentless efforts to make inroads into her territory, "Didi" as Ms Banerjee is popularly called, continues to reign supreme. In the recently held by-poll elections in Uluberia Lok Sabha berth, she not only retained the seat, she wrested Noapara Assembly from the CPI(M).

Before Ms Banerjee, the first blood was drawn by JD(U)'s Nitish Kumar. The efforts at Opposition unity, which were at the nascent stages during the Presidential polls last year, was dealt a body blow when Nitish Kumar walked out of the Bihar Grand Alliance with RJD and Congress and crossed over to the BJP led NDA. With Nitish Kumar gone, the TMC members began a chorus saying  Mamata Banerjee is the only credible face to lead the Opposition.

The other major hurdle propped up when the CPI(M) Central Committee rejected the party general secretary, Sitaram Yechury's draft resolution to tie up with Congress for 2019. Stitching together a coalition of the Opposition parties is the only way to stop the Modi chariot, the Yechury camp argued. But the majority led by former CPI(M) boss, Prakash Karat refused to see the writing on the wall. A final call on the draft will be taken at the Party Congress in April in Hyderabad. The CPI(M) Party Congress will be held after the elections in three North-East states. The CPM-ruled Tripura is going to polls on February 18, while Nagaland and Meghalaya will vote on February 27. The adopted draft resolution, pushed by the Karat camp stated that there would not be any electoral alliance or electoral front with the Congress during the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Left Front will go it alone against the BJP. Karat has been accused by senior leaders of being the "architect of CPI(M)'s downslide", but he is in no mood to let Yechury have his way.

The third horseman in this opposition apocalypse is the Maratha strongman  Sharad Pawar. The NCP chief, Pawar called an Opposition meet to send a signal and demonstrate to everyone that he, not the Congress was the leading force. That ambition received a jolt when no representative of the Trinamool Congress, DMK, SP and BSP made it to the meet. The Congress representatives, Ghulam Nabi Azad and Anand Sharma who attended Pawar's attempt at a show of strength used the opportunity to suggest another Opposition meet, this time headed by the UPA chairperson, Sonia Gandhi.

Mrs Gandhi held the meet on budget day, and the leaders who attended included NCP supremo Sharad Pawar and Praful Patel, National Conference chief Farooq Abdullah, TMC's Derek O'Brien, CPI national secretary D Raja, SP's Ramgopal Yadav and Naresh Agrawal, besides CPM's Mohammed Salim and T K Rangarajan. JD(S) leader Kupendra Reddy, breakaway JD(U) leader Sharad Yadav, RLD's Ajit Singh, RJD's Misa Bharati and Jaiprakash Narayan Yadav, JMM's Sanjiv Kumar, AIUDF's Badruddin Ajmal, Kerala Congress's Joy Abrahim, IUML's PK Kunhalikutty and RPS's NK Premchandran were also present at the meet. The meeting was an effort to galvanise support of all 17 opposition parties, many of whom had come together during the presidential and vice presidential polls against the ruling party.

At this juncture, the Samajwadi Party led by Akhilesh Yadav and RJD are the only major outfits which are willing to be led by Rahul Gandhi. But then, neither Akhilesh nor RJD chief, Lalu Prasad Yadav's son, Tejaswi Yadav has any national ambition. Congress is clearly playing a mother-son card to bring in the allies, banking on Sonia Gandhi's personal equation with Opposition leaders like Mamata Banerjee, Sharad Pawar among others to swell up her army.

The Modi led BJP, which seemed to be on the backfoot, following the party's poor performance in Gujarat and the devastating blow in Rajasthan, is also at work. Modi has already met the DMK chief, Karunanidhi and unlike Atal Behari Vajpayee, the Prime Minister is willing to tap any outfit which can be dragged to the saffron side of the fence, as he did to Nitish Kumar. For if the BJP knows one thing, it is this - despite Modi's popularity, a grand alliance of the Opposition could be a tough opponent to beat.23-year-old man Delhi photographer, Ankit was stabbed to death by the family of his Muslim girlfriend in Delhi on Thursday night. (Photo: Twitter | @Fatima_Arya)

New Delhi: A 23-year-old man, who was working as a photographer, was stabbed to death by the family of his Muslim girlfriend in Delhi on Thursday night in full public view. The woman's mother, father and uncle have been arrested, according to an NDTV report.

The man, Ankit, had been dating the 20-year-old woman for the past three years, against the wishes of her family, according to the police.

Around 9 pm on Thursday night, Ankit was on his way home from work when he was attacked by his girlfriend's parents, uncle and brother in West Delhis Khyala area. At a crossing not far from Ankit's home, they allegedly beat him before slashing him with a sharp weapon.

Ankit's mother reportedly ran out of her home on being alerted by people, and saw her son being stabbed.

The woman's underage brother, who had also attacked him, is missing.

According to a report in The Indian Express, DCP (West) Vijay Singh said three of the accused from the family have been apprehended. The fourth accused is a minor and is yet to be traced. The police have shifted the body of the deceased to a local hospital where his postmortem is underway.

The woman is a second year student in a correspondence course. She had become close to Ankit when they were neighbours a few years ago. She continued the relationship even after her family moved away, said the police.

"During the investigation, we found that they caught and stabbed Ankit in the neck. The woman's family was against their relationship as they belonged to different communities and had warned Ankit against associating with her," the senior police official said.

The police have registered a case of murder at Khyala Police station and the questioning of the accused is underway.Bhopal: Congress MLA Hemant Katare, a loyalist of partys heavyweight and Guna MP Jyotiraditya Scindia, has been booked for rape and illegal confinement of a girl following a complaint by the alleged victim.

The development comes in the wake of the seizure of the mobile phone of the legislator on late Thursday night.

The alleged victim, who is currently in judicial custody for allegedly trying to blackmail the legislator, lodged the complaint at the womens police station.

The legislators phone, that was seized, established his link with the alleged victim, a police officer said on condition of anonymity.

I have been raped many times by the MLA. I have also been raped in a running car in Bhopal, the girl alleged, also accusing a woman police officer of framing her in a false case.

This development is a culmination of an issue that surfaced earlier when the alleged victim, a journalism student, was seen in a video accusing the Congress leader of sexually exploiting her.Srinagar: Three Army jawans died and another was injured after they were swept by an avalanche at Machil sector along the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmirs Kupwara district on Friday.

The police and Army sources said a forward post of the Armys 21 Rajput at Sona Pindi Gali was hit by an avalanche at around 4:30 pm. Four soldiers were swept.

One soldier was found dead beneath moulds of snow by the rescuers whereas two others succumbed while being taken to the Armys 92-Base Hospital in Srinagars Badami Bagh Cantonment area. The deceased have been identified as havaldar Kamlesh Kumar, Naik Balbeer and sepoy Rajinder.

The condition of the injured soldier Sepoy Bipin is stated to be stable.

The incident occurred two days after the Jammu and Kashmir authorities had on the basis of a report received from the Snow and Avalanche Study Establishment issued a medium danger avalanche warning of level-3 for higher reaches of Baramulla district and low danger warning of level-2 in Kupwara, Bandipore, Shopian and Kargil districts of the State.

On January 18, a Swedish skier identified as Daniel was killed while another was rescued after an avalanche struck Kashmirs primer ski resort of Gulmarg, 54-km west of Srinagar.Sources said the Attorney-General gave his oral nod, paving the way for the investigating agency to file the appeal after over 12 years. (Photo: MoD | File)

New Delhi: The Central Bureau of Investigation moved the Supreme Court after 12 years, challenging the Delhi High Court order quashing the charges against the Hinduja brothers in the Rs 64-crore Bofors payoff case.

The Delhi High Court had in May 2005 quashed all charges against Hinduja brothers  Srichand, Gopichand and Prakash-chand  and the Bofors company and criticised the CBI for its handling of the case saying it had cost the exchequer Rs 250 crore.

During the last hearing before a bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A.M. Khanwilkar and D.Y. Chandrachud in the appeal filed by advocate Ajay Agrawal, the CBI did not express its stand whether it would also file an appeal or not.

In the meanwhile, Attorney General K.K. Venugopal gave an opinion that it was not desirable for the CBI to file an appeal after 12 years as the court might not entertain it on the ground of delay.

CBI officials showed him additional documents to convince him of the need to file an appeal. Sources said the Attorney-General gave his oral nod, paving the way for the investigating agency to file the appeal after over 12 years.

CBI: Hershman wants to testify in Bofors case

The petition relies on a media interview given by Mr Michael Hershman, president of the US-based private detective firm, Fairfax.

The CBI said he had given new information which must be probed and the case re-opened.

The CBI said the Delhi High Court had rejected the agencys evidence relying on some Swedish documents. The High Court was wrong in rejecting these documents; these documents are in the public domain and must be accepted, the CBI said.

According to the CBI, Mr Hershman, the first secret investigator into the Bofors papers, had revealed the truth for the first time in a TV interview and exposed the role of the late former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi and then Congress-led government.

Mr Hershman hinted that powerful politicians India risked being identified in the scam case. He alleged that the Congress government had sabotaged his investigation.

Mr Hershman, had said that Rajiv Gandhi was furious when he found a Swiss bank account uncovered. Mr Hershman has expressed willingness to testify and help Indian agencies, the CBI said in its appeal.

Mr Agarwal said he was compelled to file the petition against the High Court judgement as the CBI had failed to approach the apex court with a Special Leave Petition (SLP) against the High Court verdict.

Mr Agarwal said that the CBI was in possession of sufficient material to sustain the case in the apex court. There was ample evidence with the CBI that kickbacks had been given to different persons out of the Bofors gun deal. He said the court had erroneously rejected the photocopies of the documents of the foreign country duly attested when the same had evidentiary value in Indian courts.

The petitioner said the quashing of the charges in the Bofors case had given rise to corruption in other defence deals. Several questions of public importance were involved in this SLP, he said.The circular says, No lunch and dinner party orders allowed and such services and orders are banned. Lunch services are also not permitted. The cafeteria authorities should provide the list of vegetarian items for a committee review.

Hyderabad: After instructing students to use separate plates for non-vegetarian food in the hostel mess of IIT-Bombay, the institute has now banned non-veg food in the cafeteria too.

The circular released by the institute authorities tells students and mess authorities that non-veg is strictly banned and such items should also not be served in the cafeteria.

The institute took the decision after many vegetarian students in the institute raised objections.

The circular reads, Some people raised objections over serving of non-veg food, including egg items.

Apart from the non-veg food ban, the institute also instructed students not to indulge in unwanted parties and other gatherings in the cafeteria space in the late evenings.

The circular says, No lunch and dinner party orders allowed for other departments and such services and orders are banned. Lunch services are also not permitted. The cafeteria authorities should provide the list of vegetarian items to a committee for a review, and no cooking is allowed in the cafeteria.

Ram Kumar (name changed on request), a student of IIT-Bombay, said, The cafeteria in civil engineering department is quite famous. A lot of students hang out here, mostly from the South and the North East who eat non-veg food every day. Earlier, non-veg dishes like chicken roll, chicken burger, omelette and others were served, but after few students raised issues with non-veg food, omelette was banned in the cafeteria. Now, they have banned non-veg food completely.

We are planning to complain to the dean of students affairs against the decision of the authorities. By imposing such restrictions, the administration is disrespecting others food habits.

Talking on the condition of anonymity, another student told this newspaper, Banning non-veg food, separation of tables and plates in some hostel messes and extra charge for non-veg food is bad. Things are getting worse on the campus by each passing day. Students need to speak up now.

Authorities in IIT-Bombay and IIT-Hyderabad were contacted for comments but they did not respond.23-year-old photographer, Ankit Saxena, was killed by the family of his Muslim girlfriend on Thursday evening. (Photo: Facebook| Ankit Saxena)

New Delhi: More police have been deployed in west Delhi's Khyala area in order to avoid any untoward incident or communal clashes, where 23-year-old photographer, Ankit Saxena, was killed by the family of his Muslim girlfriend.

Ankit was attacked on a street near his home on Thursday night and his throat was slashed, the police said.

The mother, father and uncle of Ankit's girlfriend Shehzadi have been arrested. Police have also detained her underage brother, who too was allegedly involved in the murder.

Ankit was dating 20-year-old Shehzadi, a second-year college student, for the past three years. The police said her family was opposed to the relationship because Ankit was a Hindu.

At around 9 pm on Thursday, he was attacked and stabbed with a knife. The road was full of blood where he collapsed.

Also Read: 23-yr-old Delhi photographer killed by girlfriend's kin in full public view

Ankit's mother reportedly ran out of her home when she was told that he had been attacked and saw her son lay bleeding on a busy road.

Ankit's mothers pleas for help went unanswered for nearly 20 minutes. She said she saw Shehzadi's family attacking her son.

Saxenas mother, Kamlesh, said she did not expect the bystanders to fight for her son, but she refused to forgive the apathy of the onlookers even after her sons throat was slashed.

There were dozens of people watching my son get beaten up, but none of them dared to save him. My son was a body builder himself, but he was helpless when the killers caught and killed him. The sight of the womans father wielding a big kukri knife must have scared others, a Hindustan Times report quoted Kamlesh as saying.

My husband and I kept begging people to arrange a vehicle to rush my son to a hospital, but no one helped. E-rickshaw and auto drivers would stop, take a look and leave, Kamlesh said.

Blood was spilling out of my sons neck and mouth and I tried to stop it with my hands... He died in my lap, she said. When an e-rickshaw driver finally agreed to help, my husband and I loaded my son onto the vehicle, she said. By the time they arrived at the Guru Gobind Singh Hospital nearby, Saxena had already died.

Police said the as the victims family tried to stop their son, Ankit's murder, they were beaten up by the womans family.

Vijay Kumar, DCP (west), said the police got to know of the crime after Saxenas body was brought to the hospital.

"During the investigation, we found that they caught and stabbed Ankit in the neck. The woman's family was against their relationship as they belonged to different communities and had warned Ankit against associating with her," the senior police officer said.

Meanwhile, talking to the media, Shehzadi said they planned to get married soon. "I was going to meet him and then someone told me he had been stabbed with a knife. We were going to marry. He called me and told me he wanted to marry me, so we were meeting," she said.

Shehzadi and Ankit began dating when they were neighbours a few years ago. They continued the relationship even after her family moved away.

According to an investigator in the case, the trigger for Ankit's murder was an allegedly an argument between Shehzadi and her parents the previous night. She had angrily walked out of her home after telling her parents that she would marry Saxena. Her parents feared she would elope with Saxena and were looking out for him. When they finally found him outside his home on Thursday evening, they beat him up before finally killing him, the investigator said.

Ankit's mother contradicted the polices version that her son was in a relationship with Shehzadi, but said she did not believe that the trigger for the murder was the fact that they belonged to different communities.

The womans family would look at all neighbourhood youths with suspicion. Three years ago, her parents suspected another youth, Azhar, of eyeing her and thrashed him at his home, she said.It was the DMK Government headed by M Karunanidhi that passed a resolution in the Tamil Nadu Assembly in 2006 seeking to announce Tamil as official language of the Madras High Court.

CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu government on Friday asserted that it will walk the extra mile in exerting pressure on the Union government in accepting Tamil as the official language of the Madras High Court after the Centre reiterated in Parliament that the Supreme Court had rejected the proposal in 2012.

In reply to a written question by rebel AIADMK MP Sasikala Pushpa in Rajya Sabha, minister of state for law and justice P. P. Chaudhary said the Chief Justice of India in his latter dated 16 October 2012 had decided not to accept the proposal.

The full court of the Supreme Court had adopted similar resolutions earlier on May, 7, 1997, and October 15, 1999. In view of the full court decision of the Supreme Court, no further action has been taken in the matter, Chaudhary said.

He was replying to a question raised by Sasikala Pushpa on whether the government was aware of the fact that a resolution was passed in the Legislative Assembly of Tamil Nadu way back in 2006 urging the Central Government to get Presidential Assent to make Tamil as official language in Madras High Court.

Responding to the reply by Chaudhary, Tamil development minister MaFoi K Pandiarajan said the Tamil Nadu government has decided to adopt two-pronged strategy to ensure that Tamil is made official language of the high court here.

Apart from exerting pressure on the Union Government on the issue, Pandiarajan said he would talk to Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami on the need for all states that are fighting for the cause to come together and ratchet pressure.

The Supreme Court had rejected the proposal, but the Tamil Nadu Government has given a detailed response. We hope that we will get a positive response when the case comes up may be next month, Pandiarajan said.

The truth is that not many states are demanding that their language be made officiating language of the high courts. I think Tamil Nadu should talks to states like West Bengal that are fighting for the case and come up with an action plan to achieve the demand, he said.

It was the DMK Government headed by M Karunanidhi that passed a resolution in the Tamil Nadu Assembly in 2006 seeking to announce Tamil as official language of the Madras High Court.THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: CPM state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan on Saturday warned party leaders and cadres against interfering in the functioning of the government. Addressing the delegate session at the AKG Hall here, the party state secretary said there were reports that party leaders were interfering with official matters like transfers and postings. They should refrain from such activities as it would bring a bad name to the party and the government.

Kodiyeri said the leadership had also come across instances of undue intervention in the functioning of police department. The party workers should not put undue pressure on the police force which is already being targeted by RSS in the district. He said the police would be able to provide only legal protection to the workers as is in the case of citizens. Hence party workers need not put pressure on the police to get special privilege from the police and keep off from any action which weakened the force.

The state secretarys statement comes close on the heels of party local-level leaders accusing the police of failing to counter attacks on their cadre by RSS in many parts of the district. The report presented by district secretary Anavoor Nagappan described the defeat in Nemom as a black spot in states democratic polity. The party felt that there was no point in blaming the UDF support for the victory of BJP. There were clear organisational weaknesses and major drawbacks in the functioning of partys election machinery which led to the embarrassing defeat. As many as 405 delegates are attending the conference which will conclude on Feb. 5.The examination of the crime scene and dead bodies indicated that the death was caused by firearms. Bijarani received one gunshot in the head while his wife three bullets  one on head and two on abdomen. (Photo: File/Representational)

Karachi: A senior minister in Pakistans Sindh province, whose bullet-riddled body was found in his house along with that of his wife, first killed her and then used the same weapon to commit suicide, police said Saturday.

Mir Hazar Khan Bijarani, 71, and his former lawmaker wife, Fariha Razzaq were found lying in a pool of blood in the bedroom in their posh Defence Housing Authority residence here Friday. According to police, both were shot dead at close range.

An initial post-mortem report suggests Bijarani killed his wife before committing suicide, the deputy inspector general police, South Zone Karachi said in a statement.

On the basis of available crime scene or circumstantial evidence and initial post-mortem report, it appears that Mir Hazar Khan Bijarani killed his wife and then committed suicide with the same weapon, the statement said.

The examination of the crime scene and dead bodies indicated that the death was caused by firearms, the DIG said, adding that Bijarani received one gunshot in the head while his wife three bullets  one on head and two on abdomen.

According to initial forensic/ballistic report of Forensic Science Laboratory, all the empty bullet casings collected from the crime scene has been fired from the same weapon, the statement added.

During the initial investigations, police secured the crime scene and photographed properly, also the DVR of CCTV cameras installed at the house has been seized, the DIG said.

Relevant evidence  blood samples, bullet empties, fingerprints  were as also collected from the scene.

While police are yet to ascertain the reason behind the deaths, they had interviewed six individuals  including two police guards and four domestic servants  in which it was revealed that the couple was having altercations over the past few days.

The house was locked from inside and the door was forcibly opened by Bijaranis son and servants, the statement said.HIGHLAND, Utah  On the seventh day after Elder Von G. Keetch's death, President Russell M. Nelson and dozens of other LDS leaders joined hundreds of family, friends and colleagues to bid farewell to a General Authority Seventy who marked major events in his life by noting the number of the day in his life when they happened.

On Day 21,135  Jan. 26  he died unexpectedly at age 57 of complications from cancer and a respiratory infection.

President Nelson calculated that he first met the Keetch family on Day 6,931, when he performed open-heart surgery on Elder Keetchs grandfather.

"How we loved him," President Nelson said of Elder Keetch, who helped organize the broadcast of the announcement 17 days ago that President Nelson had become the new president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. "How we trusted in him. How we depended on him in key assignments. Words cannot express our confidence in him and our loving admiration and gratitude for him."

Elder Keetchs children shared the numbers of the important days they spent with their father and how what they learned from him has strengthened them while they grieve.

Church leaders honored his example as a professional, a family man and a church leader.

Cause of Zion

President Nelson read what he said was the first funeral letter from the First Presidency to a mourning family that he has signed as church president. The First Presidency expressed appreciation for Elder Keetch's service to the church, his expertise in First Amendment rights and constitutional law and his example as a husband, father and friend.

Elder Keetch had served for two decades as chief outside legal counsel for the church at the Salt Lake law firm of Kirton McConkie before his call to the Seventy in 2015, when he also assumed duties as the executive director of LDS Public Affairs. He had clerked for two U.S. Supreme Court justices.

"In the last quarter century, no one  no one  has had a greater impact on the cause of Zion in the courts or in the courts of public opinion than has our beloved friend, Elder Von G. Keetch," said Elder Lance B. Wickman, the church's legal counsel and an emeritus General Authority Seventy.

The Keetch family filled the entire center section of the chapel, but when President Nelson asked all general authorities and auxiliary leaders and spouses to stand, they surrounded the family, filling the stand and nearly filling both side sections in the chapel. They included four apostles  Elders David A. Bednar, Quentin L. Cook, D. Todd Christofferson and Neil L. Andersen  the entire presidency of the Seventy, the Presiding Bishopric, members of the church auxiliary presidencies and other leaders.

President Nelson smiled and joked, "This is the first session of the next general conference."

Richard Elliott, principal organist of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, played the hymns.

In the middle of the funeral, the extended Keetch family stood, turned to those sitting in the overflow gymnasium behind the chapel, and sang, "Families Can Be Together Forever." The funeral was broadcast to a second meetinghouse that served as an additional overflow.

Holy nest

President Nelson said he visited the Keetch home on Sunday with his wife, Sister Wendy Nelson.

"We felt like we were in the temple, the spirit of peace and love was so very strong," President Nelson said. "On each temple are the words, 'Holiness to the Lord.' In the Keetch home, I felt it was a holy nest to the Lord. A holy nest where sons gave a priesthood blessing to their angel mother. A holy nest where a grieving father gave a priesthood blessing to his eternal wife, the grieving mother of Von Keetch. A holy nest from which a grieving missionary son manifested his love and devotion to the Lord by his desire to complete his call to serve."

Five of Elder Keetch's children spoke, and the youngest read a message from the sixth child, Elder Cameron Keetch, who is serving as a Mormon missionary in the South Africa Cape Town Mission.

"It pains me not to be at the funeral," Cameron wrote, "but I know he wouldn't want me anywhere else."

The oldest, Steffani, said her father loved to count days. He would have known for example, that Day 15,153 was the Sept. 11, 2001, when he and Elder Wickman were eyewitnesses in Washington, D.C., as an airliner plowed into the Pentagon. Elder Wickman said driving cross-country back to Salt Lake afterward ripened their friendship into a brotherhood.

Elder Wickman expressed regret over his final meeting with Elder Keetch, whom he considered a brother, the day before he died.

"I'd give anything to have last Thursday back," he said. "One more opportunity to tell him that I love him. But the Spirit whispers, 'he already knows that.' My dear brother, farewell for a season. And may God be with you 'till we meet again."

Important days

Elder Keetch's brother Gregory remembered him as a loving man with time for everyone. He often was able to make work trips or church assignments double as family time, taking children with him. He also knew where he was going. When asked for advice, he would always say, "Let's work backward," looking ahead with the end in mind.

His children remembered the number of the days when he rescued them, when they first played in a rainstorm with him or when he showed them his love for music  Barry Manilow and Elton John  and musicals like "The Lion King."

Day 16,872 was to be Alyson's wedding day, but instead her father held her as she sobbed in the hospital with a life-threatening condition.

"He taught me that we don't always get to understand the why," she said. "He taught me to walk by faith and to trust the Lord and his plan. He taught me to face the why and then let go, trusting humbly in the promise the Lord."

On Day 20,478, Tyler said his father  "my personal hero and best friend"  sealed him to his wife Megan in the Salt Lake Temple. He expressed gratitude for the Mormon belief in the priesthood power of sealing, which binds families together in the afterlife, too.

"Husbands and wives can be sealed," he said. "Mothers and daughters, fathers and sons can be together for eternity. Those memories and that promise brings me peace and joy in the times I need it most."

It was Steffani who noted that he died on Day 21,135.

"Although we miss him like crazy, we know the days don't end there," she said. "On Day 1,264,321,179, we will be together to make more memories with him as a forever family."SOUTH JORDAN  Four people were arrested and multiple search warrants were served in several states Friday as agents from the Drug Enforcement Administration attempted to dismantle a counterfeit pill operation based in Utah.

Brian Besser, assistant special agent in charge of the DEA in Utah, said Friday's arrests marked the culmination of a yearlong investigation into a counterfeit tableting operation suspected of producing fake oxycodone and Xanax pills. The group had been operating in the Greater Salt Lake Valley and other undisclosed states for "quite some time," he said.

The group is also suspected of cultivating high-grade marijuana, according to Besser.

The DEA served search warrants in the Daybreak area of South Jordan, in West Jordan and out of state on Friday, he said. South Jordan police, West Jordan police, Homeland Security agents, the Internal Revenue Service and U.S. marshals assisted. Two arrests were made in Utah and two out of state.

In addition, cash, some drugs and firearms were seized, Besser said.

He called it a "signficant" operation, similar to the 2016 bust of Aaron Shamo in Cottonwood Heights, which at the time was considered one of the largest pill pressing operations in the nation. Whether Friday's bust will end up being as big won't be known until agents can retrace the organization's steps.

"We seized hundreds of thousands of pills that night (in 2016), but that wasn't necessarily indicative of how he manufactured over a period of 12 to 15 months. And that's the same thing we're trying to do now. The investigators are actively trying to find out how many pills were they responsible for. Where were the pills going? What is the magnitude of the operation? Who are the associates? Where were the proceeds going? Who's involved in other states?" Besser said.

But like the Shamo operation, he said the group is suspected of making fake pain pills laced with Fentanyl, which is typical for most pill pressing operations today.

"They're manufacturing these things to make them look like authentic pharmaceutical grade tablets. They even go to measures to color them the right color, stamp them to look like they're oxycodone 30 mg tablets, when, in fact, they're actually made with garbage binders and Fentanyl," he said.

Names of those arrested Friday weren't immediately released. Besser said more arrests were possible.

In South Jordan, he said the home that was searched was a primary resident of the suspect, and not a stash house.

"That's the part that concerns DEA, these individuals who are perpetrating these types of crimes on a neighborhood could be right next door," he said.

Besser expected federal charges to be screened in the coming weeks and more information to be released.SALT LAKE CITY  Legislation to fix gaps in Utah domestic violence law that were exposed when a man shot and killed his ex-girlfriend and her son in a Sandy neighborhood last year is easily moving through the state Legislature.

Minority Assistant Whip Angela Romero, D-Salt Lake City, said the bills are "about letting women know, and other victims of domestic violence not just women, that if someone is hurting them they have somewhere to go and that they will be protected because we never want what happened in Sandy to happen again."

Jeremy Patterson opened fire on a car full of children after school last June, killing Memorez Rackley, 39, and her 6-year-old son Jase. Her 11-year-old son Myles and the 8-year-old daughter of a woman who tried to help the Rackley family were shot and injured.

Patterson, 32, then took his own life on the side of the street near the mother and child he had just murdered.

The House Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Committee endorsed two bills Friday to strengthen laws on protective orders, stalking injunctions and pretrial release of alleged perpetrators.

SB27, sponsored by Sen. Todd Weiler, R-Woods Cross, expands the ability to obtain a protective order to those who have or had a relationship with a suspect but never lived together and narrows the definition of a family member. Other revisions include requiring police to provide victims with easy-to-understand written information about resources, such as shelters, and seeking a stalking injunction.

Rackley couldnt have obtained a protective order despite a previous stalking report because she and Patterson had never married or lived together. She would have been eligible to get a stalking injunction, but that court order doesnt lead to an arrest on the first violation.

"It is our responsibility to take care of our children, to take care of our women, our mothers, our daughters, our sisters, our grandmothers. Women are sacred," community advocate Cassandra Begay told the committee.

HB165 provides clear guidelines for prosecutors and law enforcement regarding the pretrial process. It also offers additional protections to survivors of domestic violence to limit the interaction of the aggressor with the victim and his or her family.

Domestic abuse survivors need protection and support while awaiting a trial, Romero said. Many are in danger of being abused and intimidated from testifying or pursuing charges, she said.

The bipartisan legislation is the result of months of negotiation among lawmakers, prosecutors, police, community advocates and domestic violence survivors.

"Like potholes, protective orders and domestic violence is not Republican or Democratic. It's just something that we all have to deal with in this life," Weiler said.

The two bills now move to the full House. The Senate passed SB27 last week.SALT LAKE CITY  Daggett County Commissioner Jack Lytle looked at a map of a proposed reorganization of Interior Department agencies by regions and not on state lines and was stricken.

"That was scary," he told the Interior's Associate Deputy Secretary James Cason during a Friday panel discussion in Salt Lake City hosted by Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah and his House Committee on Natural Resources.

The meeting at the Governor's Office of Economic Development put multiple rural county commissioners from several Western states in the same room with Cason, as well as Utah's Lt. Gov. Spencer Cox and James Ogsbury, executive director of the Western Governors Association.

In theory, everyone likes the idea of a more locally driven, reorganized Interior Department that eliminates duplication and paperwork, has individual agencies working together  not as silos  and merges broad functions like environmental reviews or compliance.

"When I look at the structure of some of our federal agencies, it really is the best the 1940s can buy. It's time," Cox said, acknowledging the need for an overhaul.

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke has proposed a massive reorganization of the department  the largest in the agency's history  impacting its 2,400 offices across the nation.

He is particularly set on relocating the headquarters of the Bureau of Land Management, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and the Bureau of Reclamation to the West  something Cason said could happen in fiscal year 2019.

"Our land is out here and we are managing it from 3,000 miles away," Cason said.

During this fiscal year, Zinke has already turned a "fanciful" nod to upending the agency's structure by breaking all its smaller parts into 13 distinct regions delineated by major watersheds with unique flora and fauna.

"We've basically been organized in bureau stovepipes," Cason said, unveiling a map that would section off part of Utah into the Great Basin region and another part in the Colorado River region.

Nevada, noted a Nevada Farm Bureau representative, would be in three regions.

Cason said the idea is to merge the functions of these bureaus into regions and get decision-making closer to the ground where it impacts people and livelihoods.

"What we are trying to do is to create common boundaries that delineate specific geographic areas and get all of our employees to work together," Cason said.

"You can't get timely decisions, so the decisions go all the way up to the secretary level, instead of down at the field (level). People can't play nicely together in the sandbox."

Bishop said he organized the discussion because there has clearly been some consternation over the proposal by state and county leaders  and in D.C.  about the ramifications such a reorganization might bring.

Ogsbury, head of the Western Governors Association, said regional boundaries might create confusion over a state's sovereign role, and no reorganization can constitutionally diminish their role at the planning table.

Cason said the perimeters of the watershed boundaries were actually delineated by county boundaries to remain cognizant of local autonomy.

Local commissioners worried, however, that being swallowed up into a larger region might diminish the significance of their input.

"We already see it on so many levels," Carbon County Commissioner Jae Potter said during a break at the forum.

"We get overlooked."SALT LAKE CITY  A resolution encouraging efforts underway to explore another Olympic bid for Salt Lake City was unanimously endorsed by a Senate committee Friday.

"This is a refresher," Senate President Wayne Niederhauser, R-Sandy, told members of the Senate Economic Development and Workforce Services Committee about his resolution, SCR9.

Lawmakers have previously made it clear Salt Lake City, the host of the 2002 Winter Games, is "ready, willing and able" to host another Olympics. Now, though, a bid may be imminent.

The Olympic Exploratory Committee, made up of elected officials, business leaders and athletes, is set to make a recommendation on bidding for the 2026 and 2030 Winter Games at a meeting scheduled for next Wednesday.

Niederhauser, a co-chairman of the Olympic group, told the Senate committee a bid for the earlier Olympics isn't likely unless "theres no other city that could step up to the plate for 2026. They may be reaching out to Salt Lake."

That's because Los Angeles has already been named to host the 2028 Summer Games and has locked up domestic sponsorships, making a 2026 or even a 2030 bid by any U.S. city financially difficult.

The preliminary financial analysis by the Olympic group has shown that "even with that challenge we have a lot of buffer and can make these Games work probably better than anyone else in the world can," Niederhauser said.

He told the Senate committee the U.S. Olympic Committee will decide by March 31 whether to advance an American city for 2026. Not mentioned Friday were the other U.S. cities also considering bidding, Denver and the Reno-Tahoe area.

Senate Minority Whip Karen Mayne, D-West Valley City, was enthusiastic about her support for the resolution.

"I am way for this. I've seen the fruits in my area," she said, citing the Utah Olympic Oval speedskating facility in Kearns and other benefits from 2002. "It's a boon for us. It brought vitality to our neck of the woods."

Mayne said she believe Salt Lake City is prepared to make another Olympics "happen easily."6 Movies Which Don't Deserve To Be In The 200 Crore Club in Bollywood

Ever since Aamir Khan's Ghajini broke the 100 Crore barrier in 2008, the criteria for a film becoming a hit at the box-office automatically translates to whether it has collected 100 Crores at the box-office or not. A decade later, in 2018, a number of films have achieved the feat since then and some of them have even crossed the 200 Crore and 300 Crore barrier. Baahubali 2 (the Hindi version) broke all the records in 2017 when it collected more than 500 Crore at the box-office.

No prizes for guessing that almost all of these films have been delivered by the Khans and every new release of theirs is expected to earn in record numbers. Still, if we look closely at these films, some of them don't deserve to be in the coveted 200 Crore club. They reached that barrier only because of the star power and the hype surrounding them. They are not necessarily bad, but they are not that good either, here are 6 films which don't deserve to be in the 200 Crore club:

Dhoom 3: The Vijay Krishna Acharya directorial at the time of its release, became the most successful Bollywood film of all time despite being lambasted by the critics and the fans of Hollywood films. The film ripped off scenes from a number of popular Hollywood films but it still didn't affect its box-office performance. It ended up earning 280 Crores which is a tad too much.

Prem Ratan Dhan Payo: The Salman Khan starrer had the highest opening weekend thanks to Diwali Holidays but the film received poor reviews from critics as well as the audiences. The major plot holes, bad CGI along with hammy acting from supporting characters didn't affect the film's box-office though. It earned 207 Crores domestically.

Happy New Year: The SRK starrer ensemble film still holds the record for the highest opening day for any Bollywood film. The film received mixed to negative reviews and only worked because of its star-power as its story and acting don't make it a 200 Crore candidate.

Kick: The Salman Khan starrer was criticised for copying scenes from popular Hollywood films as well as for Nawazuddin Siddiqui's over the top acting. The film earned 233 Crores in its entire run and it seems like Salman's star power managed to bring a number of people to the theatres.

Krrish 3: The Hrithik Roshan starrer seemed like a mixture of all the Hollywood superhero, sci-fi and action films and while the film received negative reviews from the critics, it laughed its way to the bank by raking in 240 Crores in India.

Golmaal Again: The Rohit Shetty directorial is the most surprising member of this club as nobody expected it to gross 200 Crores but this is exactly what the film did and even the cast & crew members of the film were surprised. Ajay Devgn also famously claimed that they (Golmaal team) still don't know why Golmaal works. The film earned 205.7 Crores in India.Flipkart has launched two new power banks under its private label Billion. First one is a 10000mAh RapidCharge power banks, Billion PB130 and Billion PB129, priced at Rs 799 whereas the 15000mAh HiEnergy Billion carrying model numbers PB131 and Billion PB131 power banks are priced at Rs 999. Both are compatible with all smartphones, tablets, laptops and feature multiple USB ports for charging. The 10,000 mAh power bank comes in Black and Copper colour variants whereas the 15,000 mAh power bank can be purchased in Rose Gold and Black colour models and both of them come with a one-year warranty.

The company says that the power banks equip battery packs, which retain maximum charge while idle with loss of less than three to four percent in a month. They sport a battery-level indicator, come with an LED torch and are rated to last for up to 500 charge/discharge cycles. Both power banks come with USB ports which support charging devices at 5V / 2.1A power output. The 10000mAh RapidCharge features three USB ports, while the 15000mAh HiEnergy Billion power bank comes with two USB ports.

"Our range of power banks has been built with Indians' needs at the core of its design - right from the colours, where research with customers showed Indians prefer rose gold and copper colours over the usual white and grey, to the multiple fast-charging ports, were delivering all of these thoughtfully designed features at a very compelling price point. Hrishikesh Thite, Category Head of Billion, said in a press statement. As per the company, the power banks feature built-in short-circuit, temperature and over-voltage protection. They also boast of 7-way safety features.

Xiaomi has also recently launched its new "Made in India" Mi Power Bank 2i. The company launched them in November last year which offer 10000mAh and 20000mAh capacities and are priced starting at Rs 799.Donegal credit unions affiliated to the Irish League of Credit Unions (ILCU) held a special meeting with Sinn Fein TD for Donegal, Pearse Doherty this evening.

ILCU President Charles Murphy and ILCU Vice-President Gerry Thompson joined Letterkenny Credit Unions, and ILCU Board Director, Jim Toner at the meeting. Together with local credit union representatives, they highlighted to Mr Doherty, the partys Spokesperson on Finance, the potential for credit unions to play an enhanced role in local communities in Donegal.

At the meeting, credit union delegates also outlined the scale of the credit union movement in Donegal. Local credit unions have 430 million in assets. Membership in the area has hit 106,000. These members have savings of 355 million with their credit unions and are benefitting from 140 million in fair and affordable loans.

Another key point of discussion was the credit union proposal to provide funding for social housing. These comprehensive proposals were put together in response to a Government request in November 2014, and outlined in detail how surplus credit union funds could be used for social housing. Credit unions stand ready to deliver on this, but there has not been the necessary action from Government to date.

Speaking following the meeting, Pearse Doherty said: Credit unions are a much-loved, highly respected and utilised institution in Donegal, as they are across the island of Ireland. The meeting tonight has been very productive and I was presented with a clear outline of the even greater role that credit unions can play locally, should they be enabled by regulations to broaden the scope and range of their services.

"For my part, I will continue as I have done, to ensure that the credit union movement is supported in its service expansion, for instance the upcoming roll-out of a centralised, residential mortgage solution. This support is crucial in ensuring credit unions can play an even greater role as significant alternatives to the banks. I am working with the ILCU to put forward concrete legislative proposals that will benefit the movement and its members.

ILCU President Charles Murphy, also commented: Tonights meeting presented a great opportunity to outline to Pearse Doherty TD the much more credit unions can do both nationally, and locally in his own constituency of Donegal. The potential for credit unions to grow and provide an even greater depth of services locally however requires enhanced support by government policy and appropriate regulation at national level. It was reassuring to hear that Mr Doherty was very supportive of this position. This meeting also provided me with an opportunity, on behalf of local credit unions and the ILCU, to thank Mr Doherty for his continued work on behalf of the credit union movement.

Micro-loans

Another topic of discussion at the meeting was credit union micro-loans for social welfare recipients. 113 credit unions across Ireland are now in a position to offer the loan. There are almost 6,000 live loans via this scheme. In Donegal, a number of credit unions are in a position to offer the loan, including B&S Credit Union, Ballyshannon & Killybegs Credit Union, Letterkenny Credit Union, Sheephaven Credit Union and Swilly Mulroy Credit Union.

The event is one in a series of meetings which the ILCU is holding with TDs and Cabinet Ministers to call for greater Government action on commitments outlined in the Programme for Government and the Confidence and Supply Arrangement. These include a commitment to develop a strategy for the growth and development of the credit union sector, amongst others.A further decline in Corncrake numbers in Donegal and nationally revealed by the the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) is causing concern.

The population of these highly threatened birds has declined for the third year in a row and is now down to 140 pairs from a peak of 230 in 2014. Donegal is described as one of the "key strongholds" in Corncrake numbers, but the numbers of Corncrakes recorded in the county has fallen in line with the national figures.

BirdWatch Ireland, in a statementsay they are concerned about the recent figures issued by the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) which reveal that there was a further decline in Corncrake numbers recorded during the 2017 breeding season.

"Given that this is the third year in a row in which the population has declined, both nationally and in Donegal, one of the key strongholds, there is definitely cause for concern," BirdWatch Ireland have stated.

Several factors can influence the number of Corncrakes recorded in a given year, such as a cold, wet spring leading to birds not calling as frequently, said Dr Anita Donaghy of BirdWatch Ireland. In this respect, it is important to examine the longer term trend. Given that this is the third year in a row in which the population has declined, both nationally and in Donegal, one of the key strongholds, there is definitely cause for concern.



Corncrakes arrive in Ireland in mid April, having spent the winter in Africa. They make their distinctive rasping call from the cover of long grass, during hours of darkness in May and June. Once common all over rural Ireland, Corncrakes are now confined to mainly to the coastal areas of Donegal, Mayo and Galway. The Government has implemented the conservation measures for Corncrakes in these areas in recent years, for example through the Corncrake Grant Scheme run by NPWS and the Department of Agricultures Green Low Carbon Agri-environment Scheme (GLAS).



However, the downward population trend revealed by the NPWS figures shows that more targeted measures may be needed, particularly the creation of new areas of early-growing plant cover to provide vital shelter for Corncrakes when they arrive in mid April, before grass in meadows has grown tall enough to shelter them.



These figures are clearly show that the Irish Government needs to maintain and increase its efforts to save this, one of Irelands most loved yet most endangered farmland birds, concluded Dr. Donaghy.With the announcement of a substantial remediation settlement having been paid by an unnamed apparel brand to around 150 unsafe factories in Bangladesh, many media outlets are rejoicing at the opening of a new chapter for garment workers.

Unfortunately, this cheery tone disregards the recent Oxfam study which shows over half of Indian textile workers are earning below the minimum wage and also uncovered the statistics that the CEOs of some textile firms will make more in 17 days than those working in garment factories will earn in a lifetime.

Given the full picture, it would seem a little naive to be championing the reformed garment sector of South Asia just yet.By Jason Bittel

Scientists can identify individual humpback whales by the shape and coloring of their flukes, giant river otters by the white markings under their chins and spotted eagle rays by their freckles.

Would you like to know the best way to ID a particular manatee? Look at its scars.

Manatees can live more than 40 years in the wild, and by the time they reach adulthood, most have acquired a slash or twoor a dozenfrom uncomfortably close encounters with propeller blades and ship's hulls.

Imagine that: Evolving over the course of 60 million years, ditching your hind legs in the process, and then being reduced to a target scored with human-inflicted wounds, thanks to another species deciding that speedboats are fun.

Atlantis

While horrifying to look at, the distinctive pattern of boat-strike scars that a manatee has on its body does help scientists estimate population sizes and keep tabs on the animals' habitats. By counting the number of scars, for instance, researchers can determine whether a manatee has lived in areas with heavy boat traffic.



Only 6,500 or so manatees remain in Florida, and the species is officially considered threatened under the Endangered Species Act. (Manatees were considered endangered until March of 2017, when the U.S. Fish And Wildlife Service declared that the population had recovered enough to be bumped up a notch. Not everyone agrees with this decision, however.)

When an emaciated manatee showed up in the Bahamas community of Spanish Wells last September, scientists immediately set to work trying to save it. Around two dozen manatees have made their way over to the islands from the mainland over the course of the past few decades, but this one was a startling sight.

"He looked like roadkill that just happened to still be living," said Ted Turner, vice president of Dolphin Cay Operations at the Atlantis resort on nearby Paradise Island. "I've never seen an animal this emaciated that survived."

There's no sure way of knowing how the animal wound up in the Bahamas, but Turner and his colleagues suspect Hurricane Irma had something to do with it, since the storm had blown through the Caribbean just 10 days prior to the manatee's arrival.

Manatees are known for their chubby figures, but this onenicknamed Manny-Twas skin and bones. The animals eat a limited variety of vegetation that grows along the coasts and inlets of Florida, and those plants don't grow out in the open ocean. After traveling more than 200 miles at sea, Manny-T was near death.

Because Atlantis is equipped to care for marine mammals, Turner and his crew were perfectly suited to step in and help. They immediately brought Manny-T, estimated to be eight or nine years old, back to Atlantis to begin treatment. Using the scars all over his body as clues, Turner and his team were able to compare notes with other researchers and determine that he originally hailed from Tampa Bay, Floridasome 400 nautical miles away.

If healthy, an animal of his length and age would weigh somewhere in the neighborhood of 840 pounds. But the animal before them was a ghost of his former self, weighing just 365. Manny-T couldn't even bring himself to eat the food the scientists offered him.

Blood tests revealed that the manatee was hypoglycemic and on the verge of metabolic collapse, said Mike Walsh, a professor of veterinary medicine at the University of Florida who helped in Manny-T's recovery. Believe it or not, Walsh said that before the manatee could resume eating, he first needed to poop.

During his time at sea, the manatee likely ate whatever he came acrosshis bowels were compacted with hard, woody material. So the crew set to work administering coconut oil enemas several times a day. At the same time, they pumped glucose and other nutrients into the manatee's stomach through a feeding tube.

Fortunately for Manny-T, the regimen worked. In just a few days, he was able to start eating again. Soon Turner and his crew were feeding him 144 heads of romaine lettuce, 24 heads of kale and 4 bags of spinach every day. Over Christmas, Manny-T even ate the resort island out of kale entirely.

After a few months of recovery at Atlantis, Manny-T was back to his bulbous, 840-pound self. Turner and his crew released him into the waters of the Bahamas on Jan. 9. Thanks to satellite telemetry and a monitoring device looped around the manatee's tail, scientists are now tracing Manny-T's explorations of his new habitat. He's been checking out the coastline at a rate of about 8.5 miles a day.

What's more, photos taken by locals reveal that Manny-T may even have a girlfriendan older female named Gina who has been plying these waters since 2014. "He's had about the best reintroduction into the wild I could imagine for an animal," said Turner.

Of course, Manny-T and his kind still face many threats, from boats to toxic algae blooms to cold snaps. The day I spoke with Walsh, he was on his way to recover a dead manatee that couldn't survive Florida's recent winter temperature plunge. Around 10 to 15 manatees die from cold each year, said Walsh. But some years are worse than others. In 2010, for instance, as many as 250 to 300 manatees may have perished from the cold.

This is one reason why saving a single animal like Manny-T is important. Conservation is a numbers game, after all. "You can't predict when that's going to happen again," Walsh said, referring to the 2010 cold, "and that's why there was some concern about delisting the species last year." Manatees can respond to some challenges, he added, but too many setbacks for too many years in a row can upend the balancing act.

Fortunately, the story of Manny-T is far from over. Now that he's healthy and seems to be staying put in the Bahamas, he will continue to provide invaluable data about how these animals are able to adapt to new habitats.

"Good care for animals is similar to good care for us. It's a time-consuming and expensive relationship," said Walsh. "But the payoff for what we're going to learn from Manny-T is going to be amazing."

Reposted with permission from our media associate onEarth.Manx food and drink producers voted Britain's favourite

A Manx drinks company has been named Britain's favourite drinks producer my a country lifestyle magazine.

LandLove named Apple Orphanage winners in the drinks category, while Noa Bakehouse was named Britain's favourite food producer.

Filbey's Bistro was also nominated, and finished as the runner up the Britain's favourite place to eat category.

25,000 readers casts votes across 10 categories in the fourth annual awards held by the magazine.E-cig trial leads to improved behaviour at prison

A trial of electronic cigarettes at the Isle of Man Prison led to improved behaviour and more prisoners seeking stop smoking support.

The Prison and Probation Service and Public Health Directorate ran a six-month trial last year, allowing prisoners to use e-cigs devices instead of traditional nicotine replacement patches, which had previously been supplied.

The prison at Jurby, which was the first in Europe to ban smoking in 2008, saw a 58% drop in behaviour warnings and a 42% fall in offender adjudications.

It's also estimated that the trial showed the prison could save around 8,500 in the cost of nicotine replacement therapy annually.

After smoking was banned, prisoners devised ways to smoke tea bags, banana skins and other items mixed with nicotine soaked from patches.

The prison plans to continue to allow the use of e-cigs for the foreseeable future, but more will be done to monitor the possession of the devices.Patients with an inherited form of colon cancer harbor two bacterial species that collaborate to encourage development of the disease, and the same species have been found in people who develop a sporadic form of colon cancer, a study led by a Johns Hopkins Bloomberg~Kimmel Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy research team finds. A second study in mice published concurrently by the same researchers shows a possible mechanism behind how one of these species spurs a specific type of immune response, promoting--instead of inhibiting--the formation of malignant tumors. Together, these findings could lead to new ways to more effectively screen for and ultimately prevent colon cancer, a disease that kills more than 50,000 people each year in the U.S. and is on the rise among younger adults age 20 to 50.

The complementary findings were published online Feb. 1 in Cell Host & Microbe and in the Feb. 2 issue of Science.

The Science findings describe a process in which these bacteria invade the protective mucus layer of the colon and collude to create a microenvironment--complete with nutrients and everything the bacteria need to survive--that induces chronic inflammation and subsequent DNA damage that supports tumor formation. These findings suggest a change in the standard of care for people who carry both types of bacteria. "More frequent colon cancer screening than the currently recommended once every 10 years should be considered," says Drew Pardoll, M.D., Ph.D., director of the Bloomberg~Kimmel Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy. Ultimately, once better understood, administering drugs or vaccines to prevent colonization of the bacteria in the colon, and potentially even probiotics to chase the bugs from the colon, are preventive measures that could be explored to interrupt the cancer-promoting process.

These new findings by Cynthia Sears, M.D., professor of medicine, and a researcher at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center's Bloomberg~Kimmel Institute, are built upon her earlier research showing that particular strains of bacteria can invade the colon mucus in at least half of patients who get colon cancer but who have no inherited predisposition for the disease. Unlike most bacteria, which do not make it past the colon's protective mucus layer, these communities of bacteria that invade the mucus form a sticky biofilm right next to the colon epithelial cells that line the colon, where colon cancer usually originates. There, Sears and colleagues propose, these bacterial communities may eventually help the epithelial cells to become cancerous.

About 5 percent of colon cancers are caused by a hereditary syndrome called familial adenomatous polyposis (FAP), in which an inherited mutation launches a series of genetic changes that develop over time and eventually prompt the epithelial cells to turn malignant. However, Sears says, it was unclear whether ETBF or other bacteria played a role in the progression to colon cancer in FAP patients.

To investigate the relationship between the bacteria-caused biofilms and cancer formation, she and her colleagues examined colon tissue removed from six FAP patients. Tests showed patchy sections of biofilms distributed along the colon's length in about 70 percent of the patients. The researchers used gene probes to identify the particular bacterial species and found that the biofilms consisted mainly of two types, Bacteroides fragilis and Escherichia coli, a surprising finding since the colon contains at least 500 different types of bacteria. Tests on 25 additional colon samples from FAP patients showed that the B. fragilis strain was a subtype, called ETBF, which makes a toxin that triggers certain oncogenic, or cancer-promoting, pathways in colon epithelial cells and causes colon inflammation. The E. coli strain produced a substance called colibactin (synthesized by a set of genes in the bacterial genome called the PKS island), which causes DNA mutations. "It is the combination of these effects, requiring coexistence of these two bacteria, that creates the 'perfect storm' to drive colon cancer development," says Sears. Both types of bacterium are found to commonly colonize young children worldwide, potentially contributing to the rise in colon cancer rates among younger people.

"FAP is a devastating disease that ultimately results in surgical removal of the colon, and our findings could point us to new and less invasive ways to prevent colon cancer from developing," says Sears. She says these same approaches could be applied to the more common sporadic types of colon cancer, which occur without a familial predisposition. Currently, colonoscopy to monitor for the formation of precancerous tumors, called polyps, is the standard of care. If further research shows that biofilms develop before polyps appear, Sears says, adding biofilm evaluation or stool identification of particular bacteria to care could also provide an opportunity for earlier, nonsurgical intervention that could bump the bacteria from the colon.

Using a mouse model of colon cancer, the researchers found that animals whose colons were colonized with just one of these species developed few or no tumors. However, when their colons were colonized with both species simultaneously, they developed many tumors, suggesting a synergy between the two types of bacteria.

An earlier, 2009 study, published by the Sears laboratory in Nature Medicine, suggested a unique type of immune response--producing an inflammatory protein called IL-17--was key to ETBF-induced tumor formation. Pardoll and Sears say it is important to note that this type of immune response is distinct from, and in fact antagonistic to, the types of antitumor immune responses induced by therapeutic immunotherapy drugs.

In order to prove the importance of IL-17 in the cancer-promoting effects of the bacterial combination, they used a mouse model in which the IL-17 gene was genetically deleted so it could not make IL-17, and colonized the mice with both ETBF and PKS+E. coli. Unlike animals that readily made IL-17, the genetically altered mice didn't form colon tumors, confirming the importance of this protein in bacterial-driven colon cancer. However, in addition to IL-17, the studies showed that ETBF digested the mucus layer, enabling the PKS+ E. coli to adhere in larger numbers to the colon mucosa where together the bacteria induced increased DNA damage, a step preceding the gene mutations that underlie colon tumor formation.

The complementary findings in Cell Host & Microbe demonstrate how ETBF's toxin prompts colon cancer to develop. Using a different mouse model of colon cancer, the researchers colonized the animals' colons with ETBF and then performed a series of tests to monitor the resulting cellular and molecular changes.

Their results revealed that ETBF's toxin spurs a cascade of events that promote colon inflammation that feeds back to act on the colon epithelial cells. First, the toxin triggers colon immune cells to produce IL-17. This inflammatory molecule then acts directly on the colon epithelial cells to trigger activation of a protein complex involved in promoting further inflammation, known as NFkappaB. NFkappaB in turn induces the colon epithelial cells to produce several signaling molecules that recruit more immune cells, called myeloid cells, to the colon. These immune cells are involved in the inflammatory response and are known to support tumor growth. This process culminates in tumors forming in the colon. Additional experiments showed that a protein known as STAT3, which was previously shown to play a role in regulating cancer and inflammatory genes, is also necessary for tumor formation.

Together, Sears says, the two new studies suggest a variety of strategies that researchers could test to prevent or even combat colon cancer. For example, it may be possible to prevent this disease by keeping the colon from becoming colonized by these two problematic bacteria, or by devising drugs or vaccines that target their toxins. Researchers might eventually be able to halt the malignant cascade by targeting one or several of the different molecular players that increase inflammation in the colon. The researchers are also working to better understand why the immune system permits the ongoing inflammation.

###

In addition to Sears and Pardoll, other researchers who participated in the Science study include Christine M. Dejea, Payam Gathi, John M. Craig, Abby L. Geis, XinQun Wu, Christina E. DeStefano Shields, Elizabeth M. Hechenbleikner, David L. Huso, Robert A. Anders, Francis M. Giardiello, Elizabeth C. Wick, Hao Wang, Shaoguang Wu, and Franck Housseau, all of Johns Hopkins, and Annemarie Boleij and Rahwa Taddese, of Radboud University Medical Center.

The Science Research was supported by the Bloomberg Philanthropies, and by National Institutes of Health grants R01 CA151393, K08 DK087856, 5T32CA126607-05, P30 DK089502, P30 CA006973 and P50 CA62924, Bristol-Myers Squibb Co.-International Immuno-Oncology Network Resource Model 300-2344, the Alexander and Margaret Stewart Trust, the American Society of Colon and Rectal Surgeons, the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research NWO 825.11.03 and 016.166.089, and the Institute Merieux.The Cell Host and Microbe research was supported by the Bloomberg Philanthropies and National Institutes of Health grants R01DK080817, R01CA151325, R01GM111682, P30DK089502, P30CA006973, P50CA062924 and K08 DK087856.

COI: Pardoll discloses consultant relationships with Aduro Biotech, Amgen, AstraZeneca, Bayer, Compugen, DNAtrix, Five Prime, GlaxoSmithKline, ImmuneXcite, Jounce Therapeutics, NexImmune, Pfizer, Rock Springs Capital, Sanofi, Tizona, Janssen, Merck, Astellas, FlX Bio, Ervaxx and DNAX. Pardoll receives research support from Bristol-Myers Squibb, Compugen, Ervaxx and Potenza, and is a scientific advisory board member for Immunomic Therapeutics. He shares intellectual property with Aduro Biotech, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Compugen, and Immunomic Therapeutics. All other authors declare no competing interests. Sears, Pardoll, Dejea and Wick are inventors on patent application PCT/US2014/ 055123, submitted by The Johns Hopkins University, that covers use of biofilm formation to define risk for colon cancer. The terms of these arrangements are being managed by The Johns Hopkins University in accordance with its conflict of interest policies.New research has shed light on the reasons driving doctors out of General Practice in the UK.

New research has shed light on the reasons driving doctors out of General Practice, following earlier findings that around two out of every five GPs in the South West are planning to leave direct patient care in the next five years.

The research, led by Professor John Campbell of the University of Exeter Medical School and funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), aimed to identify factors influencing GPs' decisions about whether or not to remain in direct patient care, and what might help to retain them in the role.

Professor Campbell, who is a practising GP, said: "Our new research is a significant study of what is driving the exodus of GPs from direct patient care. Policy makers need to take this onboard and address these issues to retain GPs and encourage medical students to take up a career in general practice. Despite recent government plans to address the problem, numbers are continuing to fall. If we do not act now, many areas will face a severe shortfall in the number of GPs providing care for patients their area."

Researchers interviewed 41 GPs for the study, and identified three main themes underpinning the GPs' thinking and rationale.

Three reasons emerged: a sense that general practice based primary care was under-valued within the healthcare system; concerns regarding professional risk encountered in delivering care in an increasingly complex health environment; and finally, considerations about leaving or remaining in direct patient care and the options and choices that GPs felt were available to them.

It comes following a largescale survey led by Professor Campbell, which showed that two in every five GPs in the South West intended to quit within the next five years.

The research adds to the picture of a crisis developing around the national GP workforce in the last five years. The number of unfilled GP posts quadrupled between 2012 and 2014, while the numbers of GPs fell substantially. The national situation has prompted political action, with the Government announcing measures to train 5,000 new GPs in 2015, and to increase the proportion of medical students who choose general practice as a career. Despite this, government data showed that over 1000 GPs left full time practice between 2016 and 2017.

Professor Campbell said: "We now need sustained, strategic, and stable planning of health services - not a series of short-term 'fixes' which only destabilise clinical care further. Innovation is essential, but needs to be based on firm evidence."

###

The article 'Why do GPs leave direct patient care and what might help to retain them? A qualitative study of GPs in South West England' was published in BMJ Open.Swiss academic Tariq Ramadan has been ordered to remain in custody in France and informed that he is subject to a full investigation into rape accusations, a judicial sourcehas said.

Two complaints have been filed against Ramadan, a well-known figure in the Middle East. He is the grandson of the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood movement in Egypt, Hassan al-Banna. He is also a professor of Islamic studies at the University of Oxford.

These complaints prompted a preliminary judicial inquiry by Paris justice officials. Ramadan denies the allegations and has filed a complaint for slander against one of his accusers.

+ Who is Tariq Ramadan?

Fridays announcement, widely reported on news agencies,turned that preliminary inquiry into a full, open-ended investigation in which French magistrates stated goal is to establish whether Ramadan should stand trial.

In France, the launch of a full investigation implies that initial findings justify further pursuit in the view of the investigating magistrates but does not mean the matter is sure to go to trial.

Ramadan, 55, was arrested and taken into custody earlier this week.

The professor took a leave of absence from Oxford last November after the two women filed complaints in France alleging rape, in 2009 and 2012 respectively.

Born in Geneva in 1962 and the younger brother of controversial imam Hani Ramadan, Tariq Ramadan studied Islamic Studies and French literature at the University of Geneva. He acquired Swiss citizenship at age 22.Ramadan has written numerous books on Islam and the integration of Muslims in Europe.













SDA-ATS/Reuters/AFP/ilj





Switzerland has announced it is stepping up its contribution to the Global Partnership for Education (GPE), an international fund dedicated to improving education in developing countries.

Speaking to the Swiss News Agency, ATS, on the sidelines of a GPE meeting in Dakar, Thomas Gass of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation said that Switzerland would contribute CHF33.2 million ($35.6 million) to the scheme between 2018 and 2020.

This marks an increase of CHF3.2 million for the coming year, and brings the total Swiss input to CHF40 million over a period of four years. This represents an increase of some 50% on its previous contributions.

The Dakar conference, sponsored by France and Senegal, takes place in the framework of the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals, one of which aims to promote inclusive and quality life-long learning.

However, Gass added, the cost of improving education should not be shouldered solely by international funding mechanisms. Countries from the South should pledge to raise, by up to 20%, the proportion of their national budgets spent on education, he said.

He also called for more professional training courses for youth, to boost their employability and skills upon leaving school.

To this end, Switzerland also contributes about CHF200,000 annually to another Dakar-based program, for the improvement of education systems in International Organisation of La Francophonie countries.

+ How Switzerlands apprenticeship tradition is part of its success













SDA-ATS/dos





Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday sought to reassure France's Emmanuel Macron over the operation of the Turkish army inside Syria, telling the French leader it was aimed against "terror elements" and that Ankara had no eye on Syrian territory.

Turkey on January 20 launched the Olive Branch operation against Syrian Kurdish Peoples Protection Units (YPG) militia which Ankara sees as a terror group and a threat to Turkey.

Macron had incensed Turkish officials by saying in a newspaper interview last week that France would have a real problem with the campaign if it turned out to be an invasion operation.

Turkeys Western allies do not classify the YPG as a terror group and have worked closely with its fighters in the battle against Islamic State (IS) jihadists.

But in telephone talks, Erdogan told Macron that Turkey had no eye on the territory of another country, the state-run Anadolu news agency reported.

He added that the operation was aimed at purging the area of Afrin in northern Syria of terror elements such as the YPG.

Erdogan has sought to build a strong relationship with Macron despite rocky ties with the EU, visiting Paris in January for talks.

But after Macrons remarks last week, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu responded that France had no right to give us lessons on a cross-border offensive, pointing to Frances own colonial history.Carmen Condor, hangs a portrait of her brother Amaro Condor, victim of repression amid the ruling of Alberto Fujimori, before a hearing convened by the judges of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in San Jose, Costa Rica, February 2, 2018. Photo: Reuters.





SAN JOSE: The families of victims of human rights abuses under former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori testified on Friday at an international human rights tribunal, asking the court to annul the controversial pardon of the former leader late last year.





Fujimori, who served as president during the 1990s, was less than halfway into a 25-year prison term stemming from convictions on human rights abuses when current President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski issued the pardon to the ailing 79-year-old.





While groups such as Amnesty International harshly criticized the pardon, about 65 percent of Peruvians support it, according to a recent poll.





The pardon was issued on Christmas Eve, and met by thousands of enraged protesters who took to the streets to criticize what many viewed as a miscarriage of justice.





Shortly after he announced his decision, Kuczynski, who was also facing his own possible removal from office by Perus Congress, described it as a humanitarian pardon.





Critics who accompanied victims families before the Costa Rica-based Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) on Friday described it very differently.





The pardon was contrary to law and a measure of impunity that must be revoked, said Viviana Krsticevic, head of the Center for Justice and International Law (CEJIL).





Krsticevic argued that Kuczynskis reasoning behind the pardon, details of which were publicly revealed for the first time on Friday, was full of inconsistencies and contradictions.





Lawyers representing the Peruvian government denied the pardon was the result of a political pact between Kuczynski and the Fujimori family, which continues to maintain considerable political influence in the Congress.





Speculation should be kept outside the court, said lawyer Adrian Simons.





In late January, Reuters reported that three months before he granted Fujimori the pardon, Kuczynski met the former leaders son, lawmaker Kenji Fujimori, to discuss his release.





At the meeting, Kenji Fujimori offered Kuczynski political support in Congress in return for the pardon.





Simons added that any disagreement over the pardon should be resolved by Perus justice system and he alleged that the IACHR was being used as a shortcut.





If the courts resolution, expected in the next few weeks, revokes the pardon, Perus government is obligated to accept it.





We hope Fujimori goes back to prison to serve his sentence, said Carmen Amaro, sister of Armando Amaro, who was killed in a 1992 massacre during Fujimoris rule that was cited in his conviction.





This isnt hatred or revenge, she said. Its justice.A Russian pilot was killed in Syria on Saturday after parachuting into rebel-held territory when his plane was shot down, the Defence Ministry said.

A Russian Su-25 aircraft crashed during a flight over the Idlib de-escalation zone. The pilot had enough time to announce he had ejected into the zone, under the control of al-Nusra Front fighters, the the ministry said, quoted by Russian press agencies.

The pilot was killed in fighting against terrorists.

It added that according to preliminary reports, the plane was shot down by a portable anti-aircraft missile system.

The region where the plane crashed is controlled by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, a jihadist outfit dominated by Al-Qaedas former Syrian affiliate.

Forces supporting president Bashar al-Assads regime, backed by Russia, launched an offensive at the end of December to recapture the southeastern province of Idlib, the last enclave completely out of Damascuss control.

Opposition groups have in the past shot down Syrian planes, but rarely those of the Russian army.

In August 2016, five Russian soldiers were killed after their helicopter was shot down by rebel groups in Idlib.

In November 2015, Turkey shot down a Russian military aircraft, which caused a diplomatic crisis between Moscow and Ankara.A Russian pilot was killed Saturday after his warplane was downed over Syria's northwest province of Idlib and he clashed with Islamists on the ground, Russia's defence ministry and a monitor said.

The pilot was killed as he fought Islamist rebels who had shot down his plane and were taking him captive, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights chief Rami Abdel Rahman.

According to the British-based monitor, the Sukhoi 25 was shot down over the town of Maasran in Idlib and the pilot came down in a parachute.

He then clashed with rebels and was killed.

Abdel Rahman could not immediately clarify which hardline factions were involved, but said the jihadist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) is active in the area.

Russia also confirmed the pilots death, but there was no immediate claim of responsibility from rebel factions in Syria.

A Russian Su-25 aircraft crashed during a flight over the Idlib de-escalation zone. The pilot had enough time to announce he had ejected into the zone, the defence ministry said.

It said the area was under the control of Al-Nusra Front fighters, the former Syrian branch of Al-Qaeda that makes up the bulk of the HTC.

The pilot was killed in fighting against terrorists, it said, quoted by Russian agencies.

 Dozens of strikes 

Troops loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad launched a fierce offensive on Idlib in late December, with backing by Russian warplanes.

There have been dozens of Russian air strikes in the area over the past 24 hours. This plane was also carrying out raids there, said Abdel Rahman.

Opposition factions have shot Syrian regime planes in the past, but downing Russian warplanes is much rarer.

In August 2016, a Russian military helicopter was shot down over Syria and all five people on board were killed.

Moscow began conducting air strikes in Syria in September 2015.

Two months later, Turkey shot down a Russian warplane, leading to the worst crisis in ties between the two countries since the end of the Cold War.

Russias intervention has swung the nearly seven-year conflict firmly in the favour of Moscows long-time ally Assad.

Russia has been looking to still the fighting that has left some 340,000 people dead since 2011 with a major diplomatic push since the start of last year.

It agreed with fellow regime backer Iran and rebel supporter Turkey to set up four de-escalation zones around Syria, including in Idlib on the border with Turkey.US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson warned Mexico on Friday to be wary that Russia does not interfere when it elects its next president in July.

Russian agents have been accused of using online propaganda and computer hacking to undermine democratic processes in the United States and several European countries.

The Kremlin dismisses such allegations, but a probe into whether US President Donald Trumps 2016 campaign colluded with Russia has triggered a bitter political crisis in the US.

Reports this week suggested Washington fears that Mexico will also see such interference in July, when voters will choose a successor to President Enrique Pena Nieto.

Asked about this at a news conference with Mexicos Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray, Tillerson said: All I can say to you is that we know that Russia has fingerprints in a number of countries around the world.

We hear this from our European counterparts as well. My advice, to Mexico, would be pay attention. Pay attention to whats happening, he said.

At a speech Wednesday to mark the start of a five-nation tour, Tillerson warned that Russia and China are seeking to expand their influence in Latin America and urged the region to stand by the values of the democratic hemisphere.Donald Trump and his Republican allies unleashed a controversial memo accusing the FBI of bias and abuse of power Friday, intensifying a high-stakes fight between the White House and prosecutors investigating the president's campaign team.

Trump defied his own FBI director and the Justice Department to declassify the four-page Republican document, which implies malfeasance and partisanship at the very top of American law enforcement.

I think its a disgrace. Whats going on in this country, I think its a disgrace, a visibly tense Trump said as he announced his decision to release the memo. A lot of people should be ashamed of themselves and much worse than that.

Democrats and some Republicans have cried foul over the document, dismissing its release as little more than a stunt, and another thinly veiled effort to undermine the investigation into the Trump campaigns ties with Russia.

They claim the document  drafted by Devin Nunes, a Trump transition official, Congressman and House Intelligence Committee chairman  has glaring holes. The FBI itself said it had grave concerns over its accuracy.

The memo claims that Democrat-funded research prompted the FBI to spy on a former Trump campaign aide, Carter Page.

In a subsequent statement, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said the document raises serious concerns about the integrity of decisions made at the highest levels of the Department of Justice and the FBI.

Trumps son Don Jr tweeted that it should be game over for the Russia investigation.

Trumps one-year-old presidency has been dominated by allegations that multiple aides, including Don Jr and his son-in-law Jared Kushner, may have coordinated with the Kremlin to defeat Democrat Hillary Clinton.

Special counsel Robert Mueller has already indicted two officials including Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, and two more campaign officials have admitted lying to investigators  including onetime national security advisor Michael Flynn.

The 71-year-old president has decried the allegations as fake news and a Democratic plot. Mueller is soon expected to ask him to testify under oath about what he knows.

 Talk is cheap 

The memos release sent shockwaves across Washington, calling into question the future of Trumps hand-picked FBI Director Christopher Wray.

But he shrugged off attacks on the FBIs independence and pledged to defend his agents in an internal letter sent to staff on Friday and obtained by AFP.

Talk is cheap; the work you do is what will endure, Wray wrote.

Let me be clear: I stand fully committed to our mission I stand with you.

The FBI had previously issued an extraordinary public warning against the memos release, saying it contained material omissions of fact that fundamentally impact the memos accuracy.

But perhaps the biggest question hung over deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein.

Rosenstein oversees the Russia investigation and has the power to fire special counsel Mueller, because his boss, Attorney General Jeff Sessions, recused himself.

He was the only law enforcement official named in the memo who has not already been fired by Trump or moved from their post.

Trump, when asked if he has confidence in Rosenstein, told journalists in the Oval Office: You figure that one out.

But the president faced intense pushback from Democrats in Congress, who warned that any attempt to fire Rosenstein or Mueller would be seen as obstruction.

We write to inform you that we would consider such an unwarranted action as an attempt to obstruct justice in the Russia investigation, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, House Minority Nancy Pelosi and eight other key Democrats said in a statement.

Firing Rod Rosenstein, DOJ Leadership, or Bob Mueller could result in a constitutional crisis of the kind not seen since the Saturday Night Massacre, they said, referring to disgraced president Richard Nixons orders to fire justice officials during the Watergate scandal.

Several senior Republican senators also weighed in to show their displeasure.

Our nations elected officials, including the president, must stop looking at this investigation through the warped lens of politics and manufacturing partisan sideshows, said Senator John McCain.

 Thats it? 

As he prepared to declassify the document, Trump took a swipe at the FBI and Justice Department.

The top Leadership and Investigators of the FBI and the Justice Department have politicized the sacred investigative process in favor of Democrats and against Republicans, he tweeted.

The president called the alleged bias something which would have been unthinkable just a short time ago, adding: Rank & File are great people!

The explosive Republican memo was based on the highly classified, much larger record of the application to obtain a so-called FISA national security warrant in 2016 to surveil Page.

Democrats have sought approval for the release of their own counter-memo that argues Nunes simplified and cherry-picks facts to distort what happened. But Republicans have not agreed to that.

Paul Ryan, the top Republican in the House of Representatives, supported the memos release as an act of transparency while also calling Friday for the Democrat memo to be approved for release.

Former FBI head James Comey, who was fired by Trump last year after refusing to pledge loyalty to the president, tweeted after the memos release: Thats it?

Dishonest and misleading memo wrecked the House intel committee, destroyed trust with Intelligence Community, damaged relationship with FISA court, and inexcusably exposed classified investigation of an American citizen, he wrote.

For what? DOJ & FBI must keep doing their jobs.From: American Evaluation Association (AEA) For Immediate Release: Dateline: Washington , DC Saturday, February 3, 2018

Hi my name is Jayne Corso and I am the social media manager for AEA. Today, I wanted to dive into the type of content that should be shared across social media channels. Social media content should be split 20/80: 20 percent brand promotions and strong calls to action, and 80 percent should be dedicated to content that really interests your audience and engages them in conversations. So how can you master this equation? I have put together a few tips and tools to help you out!

Rad Resource: Google Alerts

Google Alerts are a great way to follow key terms, people, or organizations thats are making headlines. You can get emails when new results for a topic show up in Google Search. For example, you can get information about news, products, or mentions of your keywords. You can set up your google alerts here:

Hot Tip: Repurpose Your Content

If your organization produces a publication, this can be a great resource for social media. Repurpose articles or blog posts by sharing this content on your social media channels. You can even look back at past issues and start a discussion around an archived topic.

Hot Tips: Share Topics, Not Actions

We often want to use social media to promote our webinars, tools, or services. Although social media is a great outlet for these messages, your audience will not be interested in your content if you keep asking them to make a purchase. Try another approachpresent your promotional content as topics instead of actions. Create a conversation around the topic of your webinar or ask your audience how they overcome challenges. These types of online conversations can lead to more overall engagement.

Do you have questions, concerns, kudos, or content to extend this aea365 contribution? Please add them in the comments section for this post on the

About AEA The American Evaluation Association is an international professional association and the largest in its field. Evaluation involves assessing the strengths and weaknesses of programs, policies, personnel, products and organizations to improve their effectiveness. AEAs mission is to improve evaluation practices and methods worldwide, to increase evaluation use, promote evaluation as a profession and support the contribution of evaluation to the generation of theory and knowledge about effective human action. For more information about AEA, visit www.eval.org. Hi my name is Jayne Corso and I am the social media manager for AEA. Today, I wanted to dive into the type of content that should be shared across social media channels. Social media content should be split 20/80: 20 percent brand promotions and strong calls to action, and 80 percent should be dedicated to content that really interests your audience and engages them in conversations. So how can you master this equation? I have put together a few tips and tools to help you out!Google Alerts are a great way to follow key terms, people, or organizations thats are making headlines. You can get emails when new results for a topic show up in Google Search. For example, you can get information about news, products, or mentions of your keywords. You can set up your google alerts here: https://www.google.com/alerts# If your organization produces a publication, this can be a great resource for social media. Repurpose articles or blog posts by sharing this content on your social media channels. You can even look back at past issues and start a discussion around an archived topic.We often want to use social media to promote our webinars, tools, or services. Although social media is a great outlet for these messages, your audience will not be interested in your content if you keep asking them to make a purchase. Try another approachpresent your promotional content as topics instead of actions. Create a conversation around the topic of your webinar or ask your audience how they overcome challenges. These types of online conversations can lead to more overall engagement.Do you have questions, concerns, kudos, or content to extend this aea365 contribution? Please add them in the comments section for this post on the aea365 webpage so that we may enrich our community of practice. Would you like to submit an aea365 Tip? Please send a note of interest to aea365@eval.org . aea365 is sponsored by the American Evaluation Association and provides a Tip-a-Day by and for evaluators.

SHAFTER  By one account, Milton Faver in the 1840s was headed for the gold fields of California, but took a detour and ended up in the Big Bend.

Another story had him fleeing Missouri after killing a man there in a duel. Still another historical piece described Faver as apparently a New Yorker with tuberculosis whose doctors advised him to go west to die.

In the almost 130 years since his death, the first great American cattle baron west of the Pecos remains largely a mystery.

Visitors to this frontier described him as an Englishman, a Frenchman and even a fugitive from justice who had taken refuge in the wilds of the Big Bend to avoid recognition and detection, wrote Leavitt Corning Jr., in Baronial Forts of the Big Bend.

Moreover, they credited him with fluency in four languages  French and German, in addition to English and Spanish  and in descriptive accounts representing his style of living as baronial. He also dressed as an aristocrat, wearing fine clothing tailored for him in Chihuahua in the latest European styles, he added, but even this fanciful description seems suspect.

While colorful and contradictory stories about Faver abound, few hard facts are known. Even the date and place of his birth are unclear.

Most accounts have him turning up in the state of Chihuahua, Mexico, sometime in the 1830s. He married a Mexican woman, and eventually became a freighter on the Chihuahua trail, hauling goods to Santa Fe, and perhaps San Antonio. He later sent his son Juan there for schooling.

In Presidio del Norte, now known as Ojinaga, Mexico, Faver was a successful farmer and merchant, trading with Indians, Mexicans and travelers from the north.

But around 1857, he made the bold move that won him frontier immortality.

Leaving the safety of the border, he moved about 25 miles north into the heart of hostile Indian country and staked a claim to a fertile site once occupied by a Spanish mission.

In a sea of grass below the Chinati Mountains, he eventually took control of three free-running springs long used by native people.

He brought in Mexican cattle and later sheep and goats, built thick-walled adobe forts, stone walls and corrals, planted orchards and crops, and made his F brand known far and wide.

He persevered, despite repeated deadly attacks and cattle thefts by Apaches and bandits, and eventually amassed vast herds of long-horned cattle that roamed on tens of thousands of acres of open range.

In one Indian raid on the La Morita site, Favers brother in-law Carmen Ramirez was killed, and several others were kidnapped or slain.

In another attack, an Indian brave was caught crawling through a hole dug beneath a forts adobe wall. Efforts to pull him back to safety by those outside the wall were futile, for a reason explained later.

One of my men, a big stout Mexican, ran him through with a sword and pinned him to the ground,  Faver was quoted as saying.

And for three decades, Faver, known as Don Meliton, was the unchallenged ruler of his vast, isolated domain. His chosen tongue was Spanish and his word was law.

I am monarch of all I survey. My rights there are none to dispute, he is reported as saying, and no one contradicted him.

An untimely death

Viewed from a high ridge west of Cibolo Springs, where Apache scouts likely once prowled, the modern structures built on the ruins of Favers old fort are the picture of tranquility. Shetland ponies stroll the grounds, wild ducks bob on the ponds and in the quiet mornings, elk come to graze the alfalfa.

From another high peak nearby, one can look south, past the haze of Presidio and Ojinaga, deep into Mexico.

John Poindexter, 73, a Houston industrialist with an appreciation for the regions past, created the Cibolo Creek Ranch in the early 1990s, and owns about 30,000 surrounding acres.

The historical record of the property was important to me, said Poindexter, who believes the area has been occupied by humans, off and on, for thousands of years. Indian mounds and pictographs support the theory.

For those in the know, the ranch also serves as sort of a memorial to its enigmatic founder.

A portrait of Milton Faver presides over the dining room, and on the walls are other large oils that vividly depict imagined scenes from 19th century ranch life.

The most engaging is a painting of Favers funeral in 1889, as his casket is being carried from the fort to the hilltop burial site.

The procession is led by priests, accompanied by a throng of mourners including his widow and son. They are joined by Mexican ranch peons, mounted cavalry and vaqueros, and important regional citizens.

He was an extraordinary pioneer, the first to settle in the interior north of the Rio Grande, and not in the vicinity of Fort Davis. He struck out on his own and it was at colossal risk, said Poindexter.

Poindexter said he relied on old photographs as well as contemporary 19th century descriptions and modern archaeological findings to rebuild the fort as authentically as possible, down to the use of locally-made adobe bricks, and the reconstruction of the two round, ported gun towers.

Since it opened in 1994, the resort, a half hour south of Marfa, has been a getaway for bird hunters and for well-heeled tourists with a taste for privacy and the romance of the Old West.

The resort decor runs to old wagon wheels, thick adobe walls, heavy wooden doors, Saltillo tile and colonial Mexican furnishings.

Scattered around the grounds are bronze sculptures, including an enormous buffalo, an armed Chiricahua Apache warrior and a mountain lion.

Guests can also linger in a museum that contains numerous artifacts including 19th century firearms, old cowboy gear and even a small replica cannon.

About a year ago, the ranch made national headlines after Supreme Court Justice Anton Scalia died here, apparently of a heart attack.

The sudden death triggered fantastic online conspiracy theories and intense press coverage.

Since then, some guests ask to see Scalias room while others pointedly request they not to be booked there when making their reservation.

Tour guide Aaron Aguilar avoids the subject: I get a lot of questions about Scalia, but I dont go there. I think that its private.

A nation unto himself

At the height of his prominence in the early 1880s, Faver owned thousands of head of longhorn cattle, supplying beef for soldiers at Fort Davis. He had more than 80 employees, most of them Mexican, who lived and worked at his three ranch settlements, and were dependent on their patron for safety and sustenance.

To visitors, he was a gracious host, if distrustful of Americans, who dispensed peach brandy made in a large copper still.

And although he never owned more than a few thousand acres of land, Faver had no serious rivals as a cattleman in the wide open Big Bend, where marauding Apaches remained a menace until Chief Victorio was finally defeated in 1880.

He was almost a nation unto himself. He had a fort and had it manned by soldiers that he either hired or drafted. His business at that time was freighting by ox teams from San Antonio to Chihuahua, Mexico, read an article published in the Alpine Avalanche in 1931.

The article went on to describe some of Favers peculiar behaviors.

He was as eccentric as he was mysterious A few years before his death, it was necessary for him to take a trip to San Antonio. The railroad by this time had been built from San Antonio to El Paso, but he refused to ride it, and with his escort, he made the trip on horseback, the article stated.

He did not trust the banks and never deposited any money in them. Mexican legends have it that he made a great deal of money and that it was buried around the fort, it continued.

A confluence of events, including the end of the Apache menace, the arrival of the transcontinental railroad and the fencing of the open range quickly brought an end to Favers frontier world.

Other cattlemen came to the Big Bend with blooded cattle and money, and began buying up the rangeland that Faver had long used without expense. Others just took his cattle, according to an account in the Southwestern Historical Quarterly written by Robert Utley in 1966.

Rustling and mavericking of Milton Favers cattle became so widespread and so chronic that the old pioneer, by then a patriarchal figure with a flowing white beard, was driven in desperation to close out his business, Utley wrote.

But the arrangement to have someone else operate his ranch proved unprofitable for both parties, and in 1889, Faver disposed of most of the rest of his herd. He died two days before Christmas that year.

His death marked the end of an era. For more than three decades he had personified the open range livestock industry of the Big Bend. At the time of his death in 1889, forces had already taken shape that soon destroyed the open range and the Texas Longhorn of the Big Bend, the article concluded.

jmaccormack@express-news.netAn attempt by the European Union to increase their beef trade offer to 99,000 tonnes from South American countries has been branded "completely unacceptable".

The Latin American trade bloc Mercosur, which includes Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay, is currently in talks with a trade agreement with the EU.

But UK farmers have blasted the talks, who say that the South American countries do not come close to matching the food safety, animal welfare or environmental standards which farmers comply with in the UK and across Europe.

They fear that the big increase in the amount offered by the EU from Mercosur countries with lower welfare standards could put their their livelihoods at stake.

Ulster Farmers Union (UFU) president, Barclay Bell, says that an attempt by the EU to increase their offer on beef to 99,000t in the EU-Mercosur trade talks is "completely unacceptable".

'Conceded far too much'

He said such an agreement would have a "devastating impact" on European beef production and warned that the UK beef industry is also at threat.

The EU Commission has already conceded far too much to the South American bloc, Mr Bell explained.

There seems to be no regard for the impact on food safety standards or the economic impact on European farms. These countries have no interest in adopting European traceability standards.

They do not comply with EU animal welfare standards and Brazil in particular has not dealt appropriately with a huge food fraud incident involving rotten meat.

'Unsustainable'

Mr Bell said the South American countries use "unsustainable" environmental practices in their food production.

Giving the EU's drive for a greener world, the union says it is "incredible" how it is going ahead with the trade proposals.

He said the whole situation "reeks of desperation". Clearly the EU Commission is under pressure to do business no matter what the cost is, Mr Bell added.

The trade deal may benefit other EU industries but the UFU has said these gains should not be at the expense of an industry that is the backbone of rural communities.

Beef production has a crucial role to play economically, environmentally, and socially in the UK and right across Europe. Accepting imports from countries that do not comply with equivalent food production standards is nothing short of irresponsible, the UFU president said.

The UFU has warned the EU-Mercosur negotiations must not set a trend that is considered acceptable by the UK government for any future trade deals.Next Story : Asian Paints Royal Glitz Is All About Luxury

Day 1 of Lakme Fashion Week put forth haute trends for the upcoming Spring/Summer season and also brought some of the biggest names in Bollywood on to the runway. However, glamour, glitz and high fashion were some of the things that people witnessed at the biggest fashion extravaganza of the country. There were various taboos that were broken to broaden the gamut of fashion. A prominent trend that we spotted was the rise of inclusivity. This season of LFW got off to a rocking start on January 31 by celebrating inclusivity in fashion. As a precursor to the main event, LFW partnered with Godrej Culture Labs earlier this year to present stunning installations featuring ensembles of six young designers as part of celebrating January 2018 as queer month. These installations designed by Anaam by Sumiran Kabir Sharam, The Pot Plant by Resham Karamchandani and Sanya Suri, Bobo Calcutta by Ayushman Mitra, Kaleekal by Alan Alexander, Two Point Two by Anvita Sharma and Asit Barik, and Kristy De Cunha symbolised a revolution that the young minds want in fashion by breaking free of the norms of gender and sexuality.Two of the young designers who were part of the installation  Bobo Calcutta by Ayushman Mitra and Two Point Two by Anvita Sharma and Asit Barik, are in fact also part of the Gen Next designers who made their debuts on Day 1 of the ongoing season of LFW. Having made gender fluid clothing the peg of their main collection as well, label Two Point Two identifies as an agender brand that creates clothes based on individual characteristics, free from all connotations of gender. They designer duo displayed a line of oversized and anti-fit silhouettes that were aimed at uniting elements conventionally considered either feminine or masculine, and thus creating and celebrating a third identity. Bobo Calcuttas approach, on the other hand, relies on loud and unapologetic displays of sexuality  putting the spotlight on the fundamental right to love as one sees fit. In psychedelic colour palettes and graphic imagery, designer Ayushman Mitra picked up elements from his own paintings, including genderless human forms in lip locks, to create clothing that serves more than just its basic purpose. Mitra considers his garments fine art  uniting the functionality of fashion with the capacity of art to challenge social norms and incite conversation.To further the cause of queer fashion, transgender model Anjali Lama walked the ramp in the opening show. Tall, svelte and chic, Lama looked like any other model at the fashion gala. Nothing in her appearance or demeanour gave away any hints of the extraordinary struggles that she has been through to reach where she is today. She kept reappearing in one show after the other, giving hope to millions of transgender individuals like her, who have been ridiculed and shunned by the society. It wasnt the first time that Lama walked the ramp at one of the most prestigious fashion extravaganza of the country. She debuted at LFW, last year January and created headlines around the globe and has appeared on the cover of numerous fashion glossies.Another show that remained etched in most minds was that of Half Full | Curve, a label by sisters Rixi and Tinka Bhatia. The designers' collection promoted body positivity inspired by the beauty of nature. They emphasised the fact that people are beautiful in all shapes and sizes. They used a mix of fabrics splashed with floral patterns in thread, sequins, beadwork and applique on plus size and elderly women  the oldest model being the 81 year old Asha Chopra. Challenging the notion that plus size fashion is always anti-fit, oversized, and built to hide the so-called problem areas, Half Full |Curves collection featured figure-hugging silhouettes, cascading drapes, deep-V plunge necklines and bustiers on models of all sizes, driving home the point that fashion can be comfortable, chic and inclusive, all at the same time.The fact that such different and thought-provoking shows are being well-accepted bodes well for the fashion industry and the country in general. We caught up with Lama who told us about her extraordinary journey--one that saw her metamorphose from an undernourished farm boy in rural Nepal to a stunning muse for topnotch designers of the country.Born as Nabin Waiba in the remote farming village of Nuwakot, Nepal, Anjali Lama never had it easy. The fifth of seven siblings, she was raised a boy and had four older brothers, but found it easier to relate to and bond with her two sisters. Often bullied at school for being girl-like, a confused Lama constantly battled inner doubts and humiliation to stay focused on the career choice that felt most natural to her: modelling. It took a lot of grit to survive the rejections and still keep trying out for assignments. But Lama kept going and after she had a sex reassignment surgery, the 33-year-old made history by becoming the first transgender person to walk the ramp at Lakme Fashion Week (LFW) in January 2017.My village was located far from the city, and had neither electricity nor schools. The people there lacked education and ambition. With seven children to feed, my father had a very tough time. My brothers tried to pitch in with farm work, but I always took an interest in household chores. People taunted me for spending time with the womenfolk and behaving like a girl. In school too, I befriended the girls more easily and hung out more often with them. I was bullied for this. I was depressed, but did not give up studying. It took me four hours on foot every day to get to school and back, but I carried on because education seemed like the only way out.Barbed criticism from my relatives, neighbours, brothers and friends made me wonder why I was so different from other boys. I was confused and worried as I didnt know what had happened to me. I tried hard to be a boy, but would give up after a few hours as I couldnt keep up with it. After class 10, most kids in my village went to Kathmandu for further studies and worked to support themselves. I did that too, but life was harsher in the city. I found it difficult to get a job and when I finally got one as a waiter, I was fired after a few days when a customer complained that I behaved like a girl. I didnt have money to pay the rent or my fees. I knew that life was hard because I was different from the rest.Since there wasnt anyone in my village who was remotely like me, I didnt know transgender individuals existed. In 2005, I chanced upon a programme called Sangharsh on TV, which focused on the lives of transgender people in Nepal. I had mixed feelings after seeing it; I was a little scared thinking about my fate, but also happy to find there were others like me out there. I was just 18 when I reached out to Blue Diamond Society, an LGBT community in Nepal. They cleared all my doubts, counselled me and made me aware of who I was. I gave up all my attempts to be like a boy and started dressing like a girl.Yes, my friends and relatives severed ties with me. My brothers told me not to return home. I stayed on in Kathmandu and from 2005 to 2016, I worked for the Blue Diamond Society.At the society, people would often tell me I looked like a model; I am 5 ft 9 inches, and I have a pretty face. So, in 2007, I took part in a beauty contest. Though I didnt win, I learnt a little bit about modelling and it fuelled my interest. My first break came in 2009, when a magazine called Voice Of Women put me on their cover. But days went by after that and nothing happened. I joined a modelling agency and worked on myself under experts there. I went to many auditions, but was never selected. When Id ask the casting agents why, theyd say its because Im a transgender. But I still kept going to auditions. The tougher things got, the stronger my resolve to prove a point. In 2011, I got an opportunity to walk the ramp for a local designer. This was noticed by a blogger from the UK, who presented my story to the world and called me the first transgender model from Nepal. Soon, I got more assignments and created a name for myself in Nepal.Nepal Fashion Week is the biggest fashion event in my country. I auditioned for three consecutive years, but couldntcrack it even though I had appeared on three magazine covers. I knew why they rejected me. Thats when I thought ofgoing abroad to do something.Before coming to India in 2016, I wrote to the organisers of LFW and asked them if a transgendered Nepalese person could participate in the auditions. They asked me to come down, and once I got to India, I realised that the competition was very tough. I was sure I wouldnt get through. Surprisingly, I made it to the second round, but not beyond that. I came back in July for another audition. This time, I didnt even make it to the second round, and was very disappointed. As luck would have it, a friend of mine had to come to Mumbai for a year on a project. I moved in with him and worked at becoming a better model. I found my audition videos and those of the selected models on YouTube. I compared both and figured that I needed work on many aspects, like hair and makeup, walk and styling. Then I looked up makeup tutorials and styling tips online. The third time around, my hard work paid off and I was selected.It created a furore in Nepal. I became a national hero there overnight. No model before me had even auditioned for LFW. Wishes started pouring in and people praised my perseverance and courage. It was a win for my entire community. I was approached by Inega, the modelling agency, and I joined them. Ive since walked for industry stalwarts such as Abu Jani and Sandeep Khosla, Manish Malhotra and Gaurav Gupta.My story has been widely covered by national and international media. I got numerous messages from writers in Italy, France and Germany. I had not imagined my win would attract global attention. My achievements will give others like me the courage to pursue their dreams. I can now counsel and share tips with them.The path to your dreams will always be fraught with difficulties, but you have to march on. My mother always said nothing is easy in this world. You wont get what you want the first time you try. You will be rejected, but you have to gather your courage and move ahead. Do not give up on yourself or your dreams.Padmaavat has been directed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali and has Deepika Padukone, Ranveer Singh and Shahid Kapoor in the lead roles. The film revolves around the courage of Rani Padmavati and her ways. Padmaavat was caught off guard when during the making of the film, Sanjay Leela Bhansali was attacked for making a film that would harm the sentiments of the Rajputs. As time went by, the fire was fanned by rumors and hearsay as the films release was halted because of strong protests against it. A fringe group called the Shri Rajput Karni Sena wanted the film to be banned across India. However, the makers of Padmaavat were supported by the Supreme Court as after a few cuts in the film, it was given a clean chit with the right to release it all across India. But, the protests seemed to continue and cinema halls were lined with police officers for safely.But, it now seems that the long drawn battle of Padmaavat has finally come to an end. The Karni Sena has officially decided to stop its protest against the film stating that the accept that Padmaavat glorifies the valor of the Rajputs.Shri Rashtriya Rajput Karni Senas Mumbai leader Yogendra Singh Katar said, a few members watched the movie in Mumbai on Friday, and found that that the movie glorifies the valor and sacrifice of Rajput and every Rajput will feel proud after watching the film. There is no such objectionable scene between Delhi Sultanate ruler Alauddin Khilji and Queen Padmini of Mewar which hurts the sentiments of Rajputs. The Karni Sena takes back their protest and will help the administration to release the film in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat as well as across all cinema houses in India. Like they say, better late than never. We are glad that the film can now continue its successful run at the box-office without any glitches.



Guwahati: In a major development ahead of the Global Investors Summit, which begins tomorrow, Assam government on Friday had signed an MoU with National Building Construction Corporation (India) Limited for setting up a Twin Tower Trade Centre in Guwahati with a project cost of Rs 1950 crore in self-financing mode.





The MoU was signed in a programme held at Assam Administrative Staff College.





This iconic project will be implemented at Basistha Crossing near NH-37 in the capital city of Assam with a completion period of sixty months.





The construction work of the Twin Tower will commence from July 2018 using green technologies and would reflect rich natural heritage and culture of Assam.





Speaking on the occasion, Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, Hardeep Singh Puri said that, this building is not just an impressive structure but it embodies the spirit of progress, the aspirations of the youth and a world class design and July 2018 as the commencement day fits in beautifully with Prime Minister Narendra Modis concept of new India.





Today we are two and a half trillion dollar economy and fifty percent of it is the external sector. This economy is going to be six trillion dollar by the year 2025 and we should therefore be thinking along the lines of Prime Ministers vision of Swacchata, Housing for all and Smart Cities to reap maximum dividend. This building is going to be not only a symbol of the greatness of Assam but also a visible manifestation of PMs Act East Policy, Hardeep Singh Puri said.





Puri also stressed on the need for improved connectivity for Assam and the North East for becoming a nodal point for connectivity with the South East Asia and for prosperity of the region.





He also put thrust on ease of doing business for drawing clients for procuring space in the Twin Tower and informed that with urbanization taking new form, it is always helpful to be able to have the inter-state economic entities in the same place.





The Union Minister also urged NBCC to maintain the project guidelines and assured to extend all support from the Government of India.





Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal in his speech said that the state government in its aim of creating an ecosystem through which state would prosper decided to build the Twin Tower Trade Centre to develop an international environment for business.





Thanking NBCC for taking up the Himalayan responsibility to build the Tower, he hoped to get support from all quarters.





The modern tower with in-house arrangement will give a new boost to the business in the state, Sonowal asserted.





He also mentioned that the state government is organizing the global investors summit to boost employment generation and doubling farmers income.





Minister of Industry & Commerce Chandra Mohan Patowary, MP Kamakhya Prasad Tasa, Chief Secretary VK Pipersenia, Additional Chief Secretary Ravi Capoor, CMD NBCC Dr. Anup Kumar Mittal and other officials of state and central governments were present in the MoU signing ceremony.



Dividend stocks can be a powerful tool to boost your investment returns, provided you pick stocks that don't just offer high yields, but also steady and growing payouts that can support those yields even as the market climbs.

This long bull market may have made it tougher for income investors to find such "safe" high-yield stocks, but it's not impossible. There are several stocks with yields above 3% worth considering in today's market that could fetch you solid returns in the long run. My top picks among them are Brookfield Renewable Partners (NYSE:BEP), Enterprise Products Partners (NYSE:EPD), and Welltower Inc. (NYSE:WELL).

Brookfield Renewable Partners: Dividend yield 5.6%

Brookfield Renewable Partners is a renewable-energy company, as you might've guessed from its name. But it isn't just your average player in the space. It's one of the world's largest publicly traded pure-play clean energy companies, with 820 generating facilities and a capacity of 16,000 megawatts across the globe.

What sets Brookfield apart is that hydroelectric power plants comprise 80% of its generating capacity, putting it among the leading companies in hydropower -- an arena where competition isn't as intense as in other clean energy spaces such as solar.

Brookfield's revenues and cash flows are also highly predictable as it sells 90% of generated power under long-term contracts. Thanks to this stability in cash flows, the company has been able to grow its dividends at a compound average rate of 6.2% since 2012.

Can it continue to reward shareholders as richly? Yes, based on management's stated goals to grow dividends by 5% to 9% annually and generate 12% to 15% annualized returns for shareholders in the long run. The best part: The company is focused on organic growth, with nearly 7,000 megawatts of capacity under development -- half of it wind energy, a high-potential, low-cost source that complements its hydropower business. Trading now at a price-to-cash flow of 11.8 times, there's little reason to believe Brookfield Renewable won't reward you richly in the long run.

Enterprise Products Partners: Dividend yield 6%

This midstream oil and gas company just delivered another set of solid quarterly numbers, with its volumes, operating income, and distributable cash flow hitting record highs as the company brought new projects online and ramped up capacity. Last month, Enterprise bumped up its dividend by 4%, marking its 54th consecutive quarter of payout increases. A low-single-digit percentage increase may not excite you, but Enterprise is intently focused on growth right now, which should eventually make way for greater dividends.

Enterprise made a tough call last year when it decided to taper the growth rate of its distribution (the term limited partnerships use instead of "dividends"). It was a smart move, and as my colleague, Matt DiLallo remarked at the time, one which "only further solidifies its position as a top option for risk-averse income seekers."

How so? Because Enterprise has a strong pipeline of projects, and by retaining cash, it can self-fund the bulk of its capital requirements without taking on debt or diluting its shareholders. That should help the company build a rock-solid balance sheet and a strong, sustainable distribution-coverage ratio in the long run.

Enterprise may not offer high distribution growth today, but its payouts are likely to grow nonetheless as management's prudent strategy unlocks greater value for shareholders. Meanwhile, you can enjoy the stock's hefty dividend yield, which currently stands at 6%.

Welltower: Dividend yield 5.85%

If there's one trend you can't afford to ignore, it's an aging population that's set to send healthcare spending skyward. Investing in fundamentally strong, dividend-paying healthcare stocks, therefore, would be a smart move for an income investor. Enter Welltower -- a real estate investment trust that has a hugely diversified portfolio and is a leader in the healthcare REIT marketplace.

Welltower's portfolio is leveraged to nearly every aspect of healthcare, including senior housing (70%), post-acute care (13%), and outpatient medical solutions (17%). The company's business model runs something like this: It buys healthcare properties, then leases them out to established healthcare providers to jointly operate and develop. As of the third quarter, Welltower held 1,334 healthcare properties.

A diverse portfolio in a defensive industry with greater reliance on private sources of revenue has helped Welltower expand its funds from operations almost sixfold since 2011, and to grow dividends consistently, without which the stock's total returns over the past decade wouldn't be half as good as they are right now.

If the U.S. Census Bureau's estimate that the 85-plus age group's population will double in 20 years is on target, dividend investors can expect solid returns from Welltower for years to come.Anheuser-Busch InBev (NYSE:BUD) has been one of the most active acquirers in the last four years. Data from CB Insights found the company has undertaken more than 40 acquisitions and investments just since 2013.

In many ways, investors should not be surprised about AB InBev's acquisition spree. After all, its history is predicated on a series of mergers. In 2004, Brazilian brewer AmBev and Belgian Interbrew combined to become the No. 1 beermaker. Four years later, the combined company paid $52 billion to buy U.S. megabrewer Anheuser-Busch.

Since then, the company has used its size and formidable assets to become a prodigious acquirer of companies, ranging from large purchases like the 2016 acquisition of SAB Miller to various private, smaller craft breweries like Goose Island, Wicked Weed, and Devil's Backbone. During the Super Bowl, however, the company wants you to focus on another liquid (water) and how the company serves those in need. Here's why.

Millennials are hurting megabrew sales

The U.S. beer industry has suffered as the result of demographic headwinds that greatly affect a company that holds approximately a 46% share of the United States beer market. There's a distinct trend of millennials shifting away from alcohol, and the ones who do imbibe alcohol are increasingly drinking wine and liquor. When it comes to beer, folks are increasingly choose craft breweries over mass-produced beers.

This has affected AB InBev's key Budweiser brands. According to Beer Marketer Insights, Budweiser recently fell out of the top three beers in the United States in total sales, falling 4.6% on a year-on-year basis, dropping below Miller Light. Although Bud Light continues to hold on to its No. 1 spot, sales fell 4.4% from last year. (Coors Light is No. 2.) The rare bright spot was the company's low-cal Michelob Ultra, which increased shipments by 21% during the year.

The company's remedy for organic declines in its core mass-market brands appears to be to own as much of the market volume as it can legally, both in the United States and abroad. In addition to beer, AB InBev is looking to expand to new markets by adding hard ciders and even non-alcoholic beverages to its mix.

A Budweiser Super Bowl ad featuring...water



During the Super Bowl, the company is running spots to focus on another beverage: water. The first commercial highlights its actions during Hurricane Harvey, turning a local brewery into a water canning facility to help those affected by the storm. The second ad is from the company's Stella Artois brand, and features actor Matt Damon to bring awareness to the need for clean water in developing nations.

While AB InBev's new CEO, Michel Doukeris, said that the company is not trying to manage perceptions that it's the personification of "Big Beer" -- a large conglomerate buying every craft brewer it can out of fear of competition -- it's apparent the company is looking for positive press, as it has recently faced blowback from craft brewers. Most notably, Boston Beer founder Jim Koch took to The New York Times to argue that AB InBev's acquisition spree was increasing prices for both ingredients and for the product itself and leading to job losses in the sector.

Koch pleaded for effective antitrust regulation to protect smaller craft brewers. But look for AB InBev to continue to buy up smaller brewers to offset losses in its key mass-produced brands. The company may promote its water efforts during the Super Bowl, but it's increasingly likely the beer you're drinking is enriching AB InBev investors.With the yellow stuff climbing more than 12% last year, gold investors, in general, had reason to rejoice. Usually, the movements in gold-oriented companies' stocks are highly correlated. There are always outliers, though -- gold stocks that far exceed (or lag) the price of gold. And in 2017 it was no different.

Shareholders of several companies -- royalty and streaming companies like Franco-Nevada Corp. (TSX:FNV), and gold miners like Kinross Gold (NYSE:KGC), Gold Fields Limited (NYSE:GFI), B2Gold (NYSEMKT:BTG), and IAMGOLD (NYSE:IAG) -- had portfolios that ended 2017 a little more lustrous than when the year began.

Breaking records and beating expectations

The strong performance of B2G's stock in 2017 can be traced back to the beginning of the year, when the company reported its fiscal 2016 earnings. For one thing, the company reported record annual consolidated gold production of 550,423 ounces. Breaking more records, it reported an all-time-high consolidated gold revenue of $683.3 million on record sales of 548,281 ounces; furthermore, there was a record $412 million in operating cash flow for the year.

Later in the year, unexpected good news about the Fekola mine in Mali reinvigorated investors' enthusiasm. Commencing commercial gold production one month ahead of schedule, the Fekola mine exceeded management's expectations for the amount of gold produced. Whereas the original forecast for fiscal 2017 gold production at Fekola was for 45,000 ounces to 55,000 ounces, management announced, in December, the expectation that production would be between 100,000 ounces and 110,000 ounces.

No shovels required

Franco-Nevada keeps the lights on by providing up-front payments to gold-mining companies; in exchange, it receives the rights to purchase the mined metal at present prices, or to receive a percentage of mineral production from a mine. This leaves Franco-Nevada less susceptible than gold miners to the significant capital costs of sustaining operations at a mine.

The company had no blockbuster announcements during the year that helped to drive shares higher. To the delight of shareholders, however, 2017 marked the 10th consecutive year in which Franco-Nevada has increased its dividend. This distinguishes the company from its peers, since many gold-oriented companies offer either nominal dividends or none at all.

During the year, the company also mitigated risk by further diversifying its portfolio. Although gold accounts for about 70% of its revenue, Franco-Nevada is making increasing investments in oil and gas assets. Spending about $300 million in fiscal 2017, the company acquired three royalties related to oil and gas.

Out of Africa

Located in South Africa, Gold Fields Limited operates eight mines in Peru, Ghana, Australia, and South Africa. The company suffered several blows in the first quarter: There were two deaths and several falls of ground (the unexpected and uncontrolled release of debris and rock) at the South Deep mine. The company, consequently, faced restricted access to high-grade areas and haulage infrastructure. But, reporting earnings for the first half of the year, Gold Fields indicated that operations were back on track. Management, moreover, affirmed fiscal 2017 gold production guidance of 315,000 ounces.

During the H1 2017 earnings report, management affirmed other aspects of the company's fiscal 2017 guidance: attributable equivalent gold production of 2.1 million ounces to 2.15 million ounces, and all-in sustaining costs (AISC) between $1,010 per gold ounce and $1,030 per gold ounce.

Investors were also encouraged through the second half of the year as Wall Street took kindly to the stock, which received upgrades from analysts at Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank.

Looking for the yellow stuff in the Great White North

Highlights for IAMGOLD in 2017 included the development of projects in the company's pipeline. In June, management announced the results of a prefeasibility study for its Cote Gold project in northern Ontario. According to the study, the project has proven and probable gold reserves of 5.9 million ounces, and is estimated to achieve annual gold production of 320,000 ounces over a mine life of 17 years. Further supporting the optimism around the project, Cote Gold is forecast to have AISC of $689 per gold ounce and an after-tax internal rate of return of 14%.

Addressing other organic growth prospects, IAMGOLD provided a reserve and resource update for the Rosebel mine. Whereas the mine had 2 million ounces of attributable reserves at the end of 2016, it has 3.5 million ounces -- an 80% increase -- as of the end of the third quarter.

Learning more about Mauritania

Beating analysts' earnings expectations, Kinross Gold delighted investors in May -- shares climbed 27% in the month -- when it released first-quarter earnings. But the most notable news from the company in 2017 was about its organic-growth projects. In September, Kinross announced its decision to proceed with the Phase Two expansion of its Tasiast mine in Mauritania. Combined with the Phase One expansion, the Phase Two expansion is expected to result in average annual gold production of 812,000 ounces, at AISC of $655 per ounce. Phase One and Phase Two are expected to begin production in Q2 2018 and Q3 2020, respectively.

In addition to the Tasiast, Kinross announced its intent to pursue development of the Round Mountain Phase W project in Nevada. Among other things, Phase W includes construction of a new heap leach pad and the relocation of some existing infrastructure. The project is expected to add gold production of 1.5 million ounces over the life of the mine, and has an estimated internal rate of return of 13%.

Gold investors: take care

Soaring more than 30% through 2017, these five companies -- B2G, Franco-Nevada, Gold Fields, IAMGOLD, and Kinross Gold -- all exceeded the 12% rise in the price of gold in 2017. Besides the increased price of the yellow stuff, a number of other factors benefited their stocks. But even though these stocks gleamed brighter than their peers, investors must exercise extreme caution before considering any positions, since investing in gold is fraught with risk.The tax reform bill that became law last December made extensive changes to the tax code, a few of which will even take effect for the 2017 tax year. Of the many deductions and credits that were boosted, two in particular stand out -- albeit for different reasons.

No. 1: The medical expense deduction

Early drafts of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act proposed repealing the medical expense deduction entirely, but in the end, Congress not only kept this tax break, but enhanced it. However, the change only applies to 2017 and 2018, so you'll need to move fast to claim your share.

Unlike most tax deductions, the medical expense deduction is reduced by a percentage of your adjusted gross income (AGI) for the year. Here's how that works: First, you calculate your AGI by following the instructions on the first page of Form 1040, then you take a given percentage of that number and subtract it from your total medical expenses for the year. Whatever's left over is the amount you can claim for the medical expense deduction.

Tax reform boosted this deduction by reducing the AGI percentage you subtract to 7.5% from 10% (again, this is for 2017 and 2018 only). In other words, you can claim medical expenses in excess of 7.5% of your AGI. That will allow many taxpayers to claim larger deductions for their medical expenses.

For example, say your AGI for 2017 was $80,000 and you had $10,000 in medical expenses. Using the old AGI limit of 10%, you would subtract 10% of $80,000, or $8,000, from your $10,000 in medical expenses to get a result of $2,000 -- and that would be all you could claim as a medical expense deduction.

With the new AGI limit, you'll subtract only 7.5% of your AGI, which in this example is $6,000. That means you'd be able to claim $4,000 in medical expenses instead of $2,000, thereby doubling your medical expense deduction for the year.

Note that the medical expense deduction is an itemized deduction, meaning that you have to turn down the standard deduction to claim it. Because the standard deduction has nearly doubled beginning in 2018, most taxpayers won't want to itemize beginning with the current tax year -- which is all the more reason to grab the medical expense deduction for the 2017 tax year if you can save enough money through itemized deductions to make it worthwhile.

No. 2: The child tax credit

Tax credits are even better than tax deductions. A tax credit directly reduces your tax bill, while a deduction is subtracted from your taxable income, which means your actual savings only amount to a fraction of the deduction. That's why the dramatic increase in the child tax credit could make an equally dramatic improvement in your tax bill starting with your 2018 return.

Until now, the child tax credit was limited to $1,000 per qualifying child under the age of 17. The credit was refundable for taxpayers who had earned at least $3,000 in income for the year, which means it could not only wipe out your tax bill, but get you a refund for whatever credit amount may be left over. Finally, the credit was phased out for high-income taxpayers -- in 2017, the phaseout begins at $75,000 of modified AGI (MAGI) for single filers and $110,000 for joint filers (MAGI is simply your AGI with certain deductions added back in; for most taxpayers, it will be identical to AGI).

The phaseout reduced your credit by $50 for each $1,000 in MAGI over the threshold amount. For example, if you were a single filer and your MAGI for the year was $115,000, you would reduce your credit by $50 times 40, or $2,000.

Starting with the 2018 tax year, the credit will double from $1,000 per child to $2,000 per child. The refundable portion of the credit will now be limited to $1,400, meaning that it can't be used to generate more than a $1,400 refund (any excess credit will simply be lost). The earned income requirement to make this credit refundable will be reduced to $2,500, and the modified AGI threshold to claim the full credit will increase to $200,000 for single filers and $400,000 for joint filers.

All of these changes are set to expire at the end of 2025 unless Congress chooses to renew them.

Finally, there's a new family tax credit for taxpayers with dependents aged 17 and older. The non-child dependents credit is $500 for any dependent too old to qualify for the child tax credit. This credit is nonrefundable, so it can't be used to create or increase a refund. Much like the changes to the child tax credit, this credit will expire at the end of 2025 unless it's renewed.

These two tax breaks aren't the only improvements that tax reform introduced, but they're definitely among the most important. The fact that the medical expense deduction improvement is retroactive nicely counterbalances the fact that few taxpayers will want to itemize deductions starting in 2018. And the child tax credit and non-child dependents credit will provide a helpful tax break for nearly every taxpayer with dependents -- so if you qualify for that set of credits, you'll definitely want to grab them starting with your 2018 return.



Guwahati: At least 13 security personnel of Indo Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) force deployed in security for Nagaland assembly polls were injured in a road mishap in the poll bound state on Friday.





According to the reports, the incident took place at Chenmoho area in Mon district, while a truck carrying the security personnel overturned.





13 ITBP personnel were injured in the mishap and three among them were seriously injured.





The injured security personnel were immediately rushed to nearest hospital.





The assembly polls in Nagaland will be held on February 27.



Relying solely upon agri-environment schemes for post-Brexit agricultural policy will be insufficient to sustain a profitable farming sector and the environmental management it supports, the Tenant Farmers Association has warned.

According to TFA chief executive George Dunn, limiting public money to support environmental management, while relying on the market to deliver a return for the other farming outputs, is too simplistic.

Currently, the marketplace does not deliver sustainable prices to enable farm businesses to be profitable over the long term, said Mr Dunn. This market failure must be addressed in any future government policy.

See also: What Goves environmental ambitions mean for farmers

Mr Dunn points to a recent RSPB report, which set out the 2013-2016 financial accounts for its farming enterprises on two tenancies in Haweswater in the Lake District National Park.

Trial management

Haweswater accounts 2013-2016 Total sales 55,272 Total costs 217,403 Farming loss -162,131 BPS payment 105,439 HLS payments 173,501 Rent -21,000 Net profit 95,808

These two farms, which are owned by United Utilities, are involved in a trial designed to produce high-quality livestock, while also safeguarding water quality and enhancing wildlife.

Run as one unit, they cover an area of 3,000ha, of which 750ha is managed land and the rest is common land with grazing rights.

The enterprise has 1,150 breeding ewes, plus followers, and a small number of cattle and ponies.

All the land is in some form of higher level stewardship (HLS), which makes up the bulk of the income.

Losses

According to the RSPB report, the farming operations are making a significant loss, in part due to the high labour costs associated with moving and gathering sheep.

Even with the Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) money added back in, the farms made a loss.

And the substantial HLS payments, of 173,501, failed to cover the loss in isolation, after allowing for rent.

Without continued support payments through HLS and BPS, it would be very difficult to continue farming under the current model, concludes the RSPB report.

Sustainability

The TFA is adamant that farming needs to be profitable for it to be sustainable.

The RSPB evidence shows that simply removing the BPS, while retaining agri-environment schemes, will not be enough to achieve this, said Mr Dunn.

While green schemes should form part of post-Brexit policy for food, farming and the countryside, they cannot stand alone without significant government action to deal with inefficiencies within the supply chain and a reluctance to allow the true cost of food to be reflected in retail prices.

Mr Dunn agrees that farmers need to take responsibility for their own productivity. But there will be no incentive to do so if the benefits accrue to the rest of the supply chain.My Christmas reading this year was The Last Wolf by Robert Winder. Its a fascinating book where the author seeks to define Englishness by reference to key moments in our nations history.

Interestingly, rather than going for events such as the Battle of Hastings in 1066, or Waterloo in 1815, he concentrates on 1290, when the last wolf in England was hunted down and killed in the Forest of Dean.

See also: Politicians need to champion, not chastise, farmers

The hero, to be ranked alongside Wellington, Nelson and Churchill, was a Shropshire knight called Peter Corbett who had been commissioned by King Edward 1 in 1281 to rid his kingdom of wolves. With the task complete by 1290, from that point, Mr Winder argues, England became a great productive and trading nation based largely on wool.

Guy Smith comes from a mixed family farm on the north-east Essex coast comes from a mixed family farm on the north-east Essex coast

With no predatory wolves, our green and pleasant land became an ovine paradise that coloured not just the economy and the landscape, but also the culture  for instance, Mr Winder points out, it allowed the invention of cricket, a game first played by shepherds on well-grazed pastures.

Robert Winders history is very pertinent to today, when some fundamental questions are being asked about what our countryside is for and what role the farmer should play within it. Indeed, there are some arguing strongly that now is the time to undo eight hundred years of history by bringing back predators such as wolf and lynx.

One can only wonder what the reaction of Peter Corbett might be to the arguments of the rewilders that his work should be reversed on the grounds that these predators serve some sort of useful purpose. You can almost hear the clanking of armour as he turns in his grave.

The vision of the rewilders is not of a productive farmscape, but a move to some sort of semi-wild theme park to be enjoyed by the urban masses, while we downsize our agriculture, thereby importing more of our food from elsewhere. And the irony here is that these increased imports could come from places where wild habitat is being destroyed.

The concern is that the rewilding ethos, as a political sentiment, is increasingly finding root in government circles where agricultural policy is in danger of becoming subsumed by an environmental policy.

The palace of Westminster is no longer occupied by kings such as Edward 1, who wanted to enrich his domain to be as agriculturally productive as possible. As farmers what we desperately need now is a return to some wise rule that recognises that the production of food from our own resources, grown to high standards, is a public good.

Of course, in our increasingly crowded island, our countryside will always have to multi-task, partly as a factory floor for farming, partly as a habitat for wildlife and partly as a recreation area for the masses.

The question is, where should the balance lie? In many instances these three different functions can co-exist quite happily. But elsewhere there are incompatibilities. The reintroduction of top predators into sheep country would be one such example.

So Ill leave you with a toast to Peter Corbett and Edward 1; wolf slayers, sheep protectors, fathers of all things quintessentially English. Where are our knight protectors today?Is this how the Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 will look like? News oi-Abhinaya Prabhu Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 concept renders look amazing with an eye-catching design.

As of now, there is no concrete information on when the Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 might be unveiled by the company. We have been coming across several rumors and speculations regarding the smartphone for quite some time but these remain unconfirmed till date. Lately, it was tipped that the device will arrive with a full-screen design and 18:9 aspect ratio display. Also, we saw the device get the Wi-Fi Alliance certification suggesting that its launch is not too far away.

Now, a YouTube channel dubbed Science and Knowledge that is well known for the concept videos of upcoming smartphones has come up with a video for the Redmi Note 5. This fan-made video is based on the rumors and leaks those have been making the rounds on the internet so long. The video shows that the Redmi Note 5 will have slim bezels at the sides, top and bottom. Also, it there appears to be a dual camera setup at the rear as claimed by the leaks those have surfaced online so far.

Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 Unboxing and First Impressions

Talking about the Xiaomi Redmi Note 5, the smartphone appears to have smaller bezels at the front as we saw on the newly launched Redmi 5 and 5 Plus smartphones. While the design at the front looks stunning, the rear panel appears to be similar to that of the bestselling Redmi Note 4 except for the presence of dual cameras those are stacked vertically.

From the video, it looks like the Redmi Note 5 will arrive with a great overall design. If this design appears to be real, then the smartphone will definitely leave no stone unturned in the budget smartphone market segment.

Going by the existing reports, the Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 is believed to arrive in two variants - one with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 630 SoC and the other with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 636 SoC. However, it looks like this will not happen in reality as Xiaomi has not followed the practice of launching the same Redmi device with various chipsets in the past. Usually, it is the storage and RAM configurations those will be the same.

Going by the rumors, the Redmi Note 5 will boast of a 5.99-inch FHD+ display with 2160 x 1080 pixel resolution and 18:9 aspect ratio. The camera at the rear is said to comprise of a 16MP primary lens and a 5MP secondary lens. The device is likely to run MIUI 9 out of the box and get the power from a 4100mAh battery.

Best Mobiles in India



Guwahati: Two hardcore militants belonging to banned outfit United Liberation Front of Asom - Independent (ULFA-I) were killed in a gun battle with security forces in Arunachal Pradesh on Thursday morning.





Based on intelligence input about presence of a militant group at Shankapani area near Mao gate in Changlang district, the troops of Assam Rifles had launched operation at the remote area and an encounter took place at the area.





While the troops reached the remote area, the militants had started fire upon security personnel and retaliated by the security forces also, Kohima based Defence PRO Colonel Chiranjeet Konwer said.





During the gun fight two militants killed on spot and security personnel had recovered pistol, ammunition, incriminating documents in possession from them.





A top official of Assam Rifles said that, three other members of the group had managed to escape from the area and security forces launched massive operation at the area.



Trump accuses FBI, Justice Dept. of bias in favor of Dems in Russia probe

Iran Press TV

Fri Feb 2, 2018 04:12PM

US President Donald Trump has accused the top officials with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Justice Department of siding with Democrats in their investigations on the alleged Washington-Moscow links in the 2016 presidential elections.

Trump leveled the accusation in a tweet early on Friday, as he prepares to approve the release of a memo alleging the top US law enforcement agency's abuse of power during the probe into possible Trump campaign collusion with a Russian effort to sway the presidential race last year.

"The top Leadership and Investigators of the FBI and the Justice Department have politicized the sacred investigative process in favor of Democrats and against Republicans," the US president tweeted.

Trump described the alleged bias "something which would have been unthinkable just a short time ago."

Based on highly classified information, the four-page memo, written by Congressman Devin Nunes, a Republican from California and the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, suggests that the Justice Department and the FBI abused their power in running surveillance on a member of Trump's election campaign in 2016.

The FBI earlier this week expressed "grave concerns about material omissions of fact" in the Republican-drafted memo, which was seen as having the potential to prompt high-level resignations in US law enforcement agencies if released.

There has been speculation that incumbent FBI Director Christopher Wray, who was appointed by Trump after the dismissal of predecessor James Comey, might resign if he allows release of the memo.

Media reports say Nunes may release the memo as early as Saturday.

Democratic lawmakers say the memo selectively uses highly classified materials in a misleading effort to discredit Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who is leading the Justice Department's investigation into alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and Russians.

Republicans say it provides evidence that the Justice Department actively sought to undermine Trump and help the election campaign of former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

US intelligence agencies claim Russia-linked hackers provided WikiLeaks with damaging information -- in the form of thousands of hacked emails -- about Clinton to skew the 2016 presidential election in favor of Trump.

Trump has repeatedly denied allegations that his campaign colluded with Russians and has condemned the investigations. Russian President Vladimir Putin has also denied the allegations.

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Heads of 3 Russian intelligence agencies met with CIA director in US: Report

Iran Press TV

Fri Feb 2, 2018 02:28AM

The heads of three Russian intelligence agencies traveled to the United States to meet with CIA Director Mike Pompeo, amid a series of political rifts between the two sides over US President Donald Trump's alleged collusion with Russian officials and Washington's renewal of sanctions against Moscow.

The Russian embassy in the US confirmed Tuesday that Sergei Naryshkin, head of Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service (FIS), was in the US to discuss the fight on terrorism with Pompeo.

It has now been revealed in a report by The Washington Post that accompanying Naryshkin during the trip were two other chiefs -- Alexander Bortnikov, director of the Federal Security Service (FSB), and Colonel General Igor Korobov, chief of the Russian General Staff's Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU).

According to the Post, Bortnikov also met with the CIA chief but it was not clear which American officials Korobov had met with.

A senior US intelligence official in Moscow also headed back to Washington to partake in the meetings, an unnamed US government source familiar with the matter told the paper.

The encounters raised concern among some US politicians, who interpreted them as signs of the Trump administration's willingness to work with Moscow despite concerns at home about the government of Russian President Vladimir Putin's alleged interference in the 2016 US presidential election.

While the meetings between Russian and American spymasters are not unheard of, current and former US officials told the Post that this particular trip by so many heads of Russian intelligence agencies was unprecedented.

Pompeo defends meeting

After facing heavy criticism from Democrats, specially Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer who said "there was something untoward" in the meetings, Pompeo said Thursday that the meetings were nothing out of the ordinary.

"While Russia remains an adversary, we would put American lives at greater risk if we ignored opportunities to work with the Russian services in the fight against terrorism," Pompeo said.

"We cover very difficult subjects in which American and Russian interests do not align," he added.

Schumer had specifically asked for more details about Naryshkin, who is on Washington's sanctions list, and that whether the trip had anything to do with the Trump administration's refusal this week to impose new sanctions against Russia.

The Trump White House had until Monday to implement a sanctions bill against Moscow but instead informed lawmakers that the legislation, which was passed last year, was already "serving as a deterrent."

The trip also came days before Washington released a list of 114 Russian politicians and 96 "oligarchs" close to the Kremlin upon a request by Congress. Bortnikov is among the sanctioned senior Russian officials.

US media did not rule out a possible connection between the meeting and Washington's decision to shelve the sanctions bill for the near future.

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U.S. Republicans Release Controversial Memo On FBI Surveillance With Trump's OK

RFE/RL February 02, 2018

Republicans on the U.S. House Intelligence Committee released a controversial memorandum that accuses the FBI and the Justice Department of being biased against President Donald Trump just moments after he declassified it.

The four-page memorandum released on February 2 alleges that the FBI and the Justice Department inappropriately applied for permission to conduct surveillance of a Trump campaign aide, Carter Page, who had extensive Russian contacts. .

The document says its findings "raise concerns with the legitimacy and legality" of the actions of the FBI and Justice Department (DOJ) and "represent a troubling breakdown of legal processes."

Shortly after the release of the memo, top Democrats in Congress warned that Trump could trigger a "constitutional crisis" if he uses the contents of the memo as a pretext to fire Justice Department Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who is investigating the alleged meddling of Moscow in the 2016 presidential campaign and alleged collusion between associates of Trump and Russia.

The Democrats also said they would release their own memo next week.

"What's happening in our country is a disgrace," Trump said on February 2, announcing that he had declassified the memo.

"A lot of people should be ashamed," Trump added, in an apparent attack on senior FBI and DOJ officials.

White House sources said that, despite a warning from Trump-appointed FBI Director Christopher Wray, whose future is now uncertain, Trump authorized the memo's release "in full" with no redactions.

The memorandum was written by Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee, led by Representative Devin Nunes, a close ally of Trump who has become a critic of the FBI and Justice Department as they have been investigating alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

The memo alleges that the FBI relied on a dossier paid for by Trump's political rivals -- the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and the Hillary Clinton campaign -- in applying for permission to monitor Page.

It also states that the author of the dossier, former British Intelligence agent Christopher Steele, told a Justice Department official that he was "desperate" to prevent Trump's election.

The document also claims FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, who recently resigned, told the committee that the FBI would not have sought authorization to monitor Page without information from the dossier.

'Material Omissions'

The FBI on January 31 took the unusual step of publicly opposing the release of the memo, saying it demonstrated "material omissions of fact that fundamentally impact the memo's accuracy."

Democrats say the memo is a selectively edited set of Republican talking points aimed at distracting attention from the committee's own investigation into Russian interference with the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

Shortly after the release of the memo, the Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee said in a statement that they hope to release their own memo on February 5.

"This is designed to impugn the credibility of the FBI, to undermine the investigation, to give the president additional fodder to attack the investigation. And it's a tremendous disservice to the American people," Representative Adam Schiff, the senior Democrat on the Committee, said on February 2.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, House Minority leader Nancy Pelosi, and eight other key Democrats also issued a statement addressed to Trump after the release of the memo.

"We write to inform you that we would consider such an unwarranted action as an attempt to obstruct justice in the Russia investigation.

"Firing [Deputy Attorney General] Rod Rosenstein, DOJ Leadership, or [special counsel] Bob Mueller could result in a constitutional crisis of the kind not seen since the Saturday Night Massacre," they said, referring to President Richard Nixon's orders to fire justice officials during the Watergate scandal in the early 1970s.

Earlier the same day, Trump posted on Twitter: "The top Leadership and Investigators of the FBI and the Justice Department have politicized the sacred investigative process in favor of Democrats and against Republicans - something which would have been unthinkable just a short time ago. Rank & File are great people!"

But a senior Republican lawmaker, Senator John McCain, also admonished Republicans for attacking the FBI and the Department of Justice amid the Russia probe, saying such attacks only help strengthen Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"Our nation's elected officials, including the president, must stop looking at this investigation through the warped lens of politics and manufacturing partisan sideshows. If we continue to undermine our own rule of law, we are doing Putin's job for him," McCain said in a statement.

With reporting by AP, The Hill, and Reuters

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/trum-approves-release -controversial-fdbi-memop/29015227.html

Copyright (c) 2018. 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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Russian Court Extends Detention Of Norwegian Spying Suspect

RFE/RL February 02, 2018

A Russian court has extended the detention of a Norwegian man suspected of spying after he allegedly received classified documents from a Russian man who is also under arrest.

The Lefortovo District Court in Moscow on February 2 ordered that Frode Berg should remain in jail until May 5.

Berg, 62, was allegedly caught receiving classified material about the Russian Navy that he is accused of planning to hand over to Norwegian and U.S. intelligence agencies.

He has denied the charges.

"We still do not know if Berg fell into a trap, or if, without knowing it, actually became involved in a real intelligence operation," Ilya Novikov, Berg's lawyer in Moscow, was quoted by the Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten as saying.

Norwegian media have reported that Berg is a former border inspector and that the Norwegian Foreign Ministry has been working to provide him with assistance.

Some reports have suggested his arrest could be linked to what they said was his opposition to the construction of a fence along a small part of Norway's short border with Russia.

Norway built the 200-meter fence in 2016 after thousands of asylum seekers, many of them from Syria, crossed from Russia into Norway at the border post.

The reports come eight days after a Moscow court convicted an Estonian businessman of espionage and sentenced him to 12 years in prison.

Russia has imprisoned several people from neighboring countries including Estonia, Lithuania, and Ukraine on espionage charges, with tension rising over Moscow's seizure of Crimea in 2014 and involvement in a war against Kyiv's forces in eastern Ukraine.

Kremlin critics say Russia uses spy claims as a tool in geopolitcal competition.

Russian courts usually hold espionage trials behind closed doors, citing what they say is the need to protect classified information and state secrets.

With reporting by Dagens Naeringsliv, AP, and TASS

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-frode -berg-spying-detentio n-extends/29015047.html

Copyright (c) 2018. 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 Lashes Out At FBI Amid Debate Over Controversial Memo

RFE/RL February 02, 2018

U.S. President Donald Trump has lashed out at the FBI amid a controversy over a memo that has heightened tension in Washington during investigations into alleged Russian meddling in the election that put him in office.

In a tweet on February 2, Trump charged that senior officials and investigators of the FBI and Justice Department "have politicized the sacred investigative process in favor of Democrats and against Republicans."

His tweet followed reports citing unnamed officials as saying the White House plans to authorize the release of a memo regarding the FBI and the ongoing government probe into the alleged meddling and whether associates of Trump colluded with Russia.

The memo was written by Republican members of the Intelligence Committee in the House of Representatives, one of three congressional panels conducting investigations in addition to the Justice Department probe.

The document reportedly questions how the FBI has conducted its criminal probe of Trump associates during the 2016 election campaign. One section in particular deals with the justification for the extension of a court-ordered wiretap of Carter Page, a former foreign policy adviser to the Trump campaign.

Democratic lawmakers have said the memo cherry-picks facts and omits important context. The FBI director, meanwhile, has taken the unusual step of publicly calling for it not to be released, saying it could be misleading and could compromise intelligence sources and methods.

In a statement, the FBI said it has "grave concerns about material omissions of fact that fundamentally impact the memo's accuracy."

The reports cited officials as saying that Trump, who has the authority to prevent the memo from being made public, was "OK" with its release.

The memo has been the source of intense debate in Washington.

Citing four unnamed sources familiar with the memo, the Reuters news agency reported that the document contends that the FBI and Justice Department failed to tell a U.S. judge that some of the information used to justify the extension of a warrant for the surveillance on Page included portions of the so-called Steele Dossier, a report on Trump-Russia contacts that was opposition research paid for by Democrats.

However, Reuters cited its sources as saying, the request to extend surveillance on Page -- which began before Trump took office -- also relied on other highly classified information and that U.S. agencies had confirmed excerpts from the dossier included in the request.

The Steele dossier claims that Page, an oil industry consultant and former investment banker, met with representatives of Russian state oil giant Rosneft -- which is headed by Igor Sechin, an influential ally of President Vladimir Putin -- during his stint as a campaign adviser. Page also traveled to Russia during the 2016 campaign but says it was a personal visit only.

In January 2017, U.S. intelligence agencies said they had determined that Putin ordered a concerted hacking-and-propaganda campaign aimed at influencing the 2016 election, with goals including undermining faith in the U.S. electoral process, denigrating Democratic Party candidate Hillary Clinton, and improving Trump's chances of winning.

In addition to the congressional probes, U.S. Justice Department Special Counsel Robert Mueller is investigating the alleged meddling and whether there was collusion between associates of Trump and Russia.

Trump denies there was any collusion and Putin denies that Russia interfered in the election, despite what U.S. officials say is substantial evidence.

With reporting by AP, Reuters, and CNN

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/trump-fbi-russia- election-collusion/29014656.html

Copyright (c) 2018. 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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Congress Releases Republican Memo Alleging FBI Abuse of Power

Sputnik News

20:34 02.02.2018(updated 21:14 02.02.2018)

The long-awaited memo compiled by the US House Intelligence Committee (HIC) that alleges surveillance abuses undertaken by the FBI and Justice Department (DOJ) against campaign officials of US president Donald Trump was finally released to the public Friday afternoon.

The four-page memo focuses on the FBI's investigation of Carter Page, a banker and strategic consultant who served as an adviser to Trump during his presidential campaign. In October 2016, the FBI received a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrant to investigate alleged ties between Page and Russian actors from the United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (US FISC).

The memo alleges that the FBI misled the FISC to retrieve the warrant in five ways. Firstly, the warrant was based on a memo compiled by Christopher Steele, a former MI-6 agent who conducted opposition research against Trump in 2016. However, the request failed to mention that Steele had conducted this research while on the payroll of Trump's political opponents Hillary Clinton and the Democratic National Committee (DNC).

Secondly, the warrant request also relied on an article published on Yahoo News that was used to corroborate Steele's claims  but that very Yahoo article was based on information leaked by Steele himself by his own admission. This was not mentioned in the filing.

Thirdly, Steele allegedly told DOJ Associate Deputy Attorney General Bruce Ohr in September 2016 that he "was desperate that Donald Trump not get elected and was passionate about him not being president." Steele's animus towards Trump was also omitted from the filing.

Fourthly, the contents of the Steele dossier were (and still are) mostly uncorroborated when it was used as the basis for the filing of the FISA warrant. While the FBI admitted this in the filing, banking instead on Steele's proven record as an intelligence agent, they hid Steele's personal and financial baggage that made him a less-than-credible source.

Fifthly, the filing mentions a connection between Page and another Trump adviser, George Papadopolous. However, the FBI has no evidence of that connection, other than both men serving as foreign policy advisers to candidate Trump. Papadopolous pleaded guilty in October 2017 to making false statements to the FBI related to meetings he had with Russian Foreign Ministry officials on the campaign trail.

HIC Chair Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA), who compiled the memo, said that it demonstrates "serious violations of the public trust" undertaken by the FBI and DOJ. He added that he hoped the document would trigger reforms to the US' judicial system.

The FBI defended themselves from allegations of misconduct. FBI Agents Association President Thomas O'Connor issued a statement of his own where he claimed that FBI agents were dedicated to upholding the law and the American constitution. "The American people should know that they continue to be well-served by the world's preeminent law enforcement agency," O'Connor wrote.

The existence of the memo became public knowledge in mid-January when Nunes and other Republicans called for the memo to be declassified. Conservative media soon joined them, as did many private individuals who called for Congress to #ReleasetheMemo.

 Sputnik

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Republican Memo Accuses Top Law Officers of Abusing Power

By Peter Heinlein, Steve Herman February 02, 2018

The House Intelligence Committee has released a bitterly disputed memo outlining allegations by Republicans that FBI investigators abused their powers in their probe of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

The memo was made public Friday, shortly after President Donald Trump approved declassification of the memo, which was written by the committee's chairman, Republican Rep. Devin Nunes.

A significant part of the memo focuses on Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrants that permitted FBI surveillance of former Trump campaign foreign policy adviser Carter Page, a businessman with interests in Russia. There had been concerns about Page's alleged contacts with Russian intelligence agents.

The memo asserts that a dossier compiled by former British spy Christopher Steele was an "essential part" of the FISA application on Page, and that the FBI did not mention the Steele dossier had been funded by the Hillary Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee, or that Steele had previously made anti-Trump statements.

Support of memo

Speaking to reporters at the White House Friday, Trump described the contents of the memo as "terrible." During a photo opportunity with North Korean defectors, Trump said, "I think it's a disgrace what's going on in this country. ... A lot of people should be ashamed of themselves, and much worse than that."

When asked by a reporter whether release of the memo makes it more likely that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein would be fired, Trump replied, "You figure that one out."

Rosenstein supervises the Russia probe and named special counsel Robert Mueller to lead the investigation.

Release of the memo intensifies the battle between Trump and his Republican allies in Congress on one side, and Democrats and top FBI officials on the other about whether the probe into Russian interference in the presidential election was affected by political bias on the part of investigators.

Nunes issued a statement Friday expressing hope that the actions of Intelligence Committee Republicans would "shine a light" on what he called "this alarming series of events."

"The committee has discovered serious violations of the public trust, and the American people have a right to know when officials in crucial institutions are abusing their authority for political purposes," Nunes said. "Our intelligence and law enforcement agencies exist to defend the American people, not to be exploited to target one group on behalf of another."

House Speaker Paul Ryan released a statement saying the "concern outlined" in the memo is a "legitimate one." He said he supported both the release of Nunes' memo as well as the Democrats' minority memo.

"It is critical that we focus on specific actions and specific actors and not use this memo to impugn the integrity of the justice system and FBI, which continue to serve the American people with honor," Ryan said.

White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders issued a statement late Friday defending the president's decision to declassify the memo, which she said "raises serious concerns about the integrity of decisions made at the highest levels of the Department of Justice and the FBI to use the Government's most intrusive surveillance tools against American citizens.

Sanders said the decision had been made after consultation with Trump's national security team  including law enforcement officials and members of the intelligence community.

Critical of memo

The minority Democratic members of the committee issued a lengthy statement lambasting Nunes' decision to release the memo, saying it contains "misleading allegations against the Department of Justice and Federal Bureau of Investigation [and] is a shameful effort to discredit these institutions, undermine the Special Counsel's ongoing investigation, and undercut congressional probes."

The Democratic statement accused Republicans of setting a "terrible precedent" by releasing classified information that will do long-term damage to the intelligence community for the purpose of protecting Trump against expected charges in the Russia probe.

"The sole purpose of the Republican document is to circle the wagons around the White House and insulate the President," the Democratic statement said. "Most destructive of all may be the announcement by Chairman Nunes that he has placed the FBI and DOJ under investigation, impugning and impairing the work of the dedicated professionals trying to keep our country safe."

Rep. Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, issued a separate statement questioning what he calls "serious mischaracterizations" in the Republican memo.

"The Majority suggests that the FBI failed to alert the court as to Mr. Steele's potential political motivations or the political motivations of those who hired him, but this is not accurate," Schiff wrote. "The GOP memo also claims that a Yahoo News article was used to corroborate Steele, but this is not at all why the article was referenced."

Intelligence community reaction

Attorney General Jeff Sessions released a statement on the memo Friday, saying he has "great confidence in the men and women of this Department [of Justice]. But no department is perfect. Accordingly, I will forward to appropriate DOJ components all information I receive from Congress regarding this."

The president of the FBI Agents Association Thomas O'Connor issued a statement Friday defending the rank-and-file officers and their commitment to their work.

"The American people should know that they continue to be well-served by the world's preeminent law enforcement agency," the statement said. "FBI Special Agents have not, and will not, allow partisan politics to distract us from our solemn commitment to our mission."

George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley said he sees the FBI's concern as being more political than substantive.

"Notably, the objections by the FBI have been to the memo being "inaccurate" by "omission," he said. "That does not sound like a concern over classification. It sounds like a concern over public embarrassment or criticism."

"It is a curious thing to see Democrats expressing outrage at the notion that the committee would ever question the classification of material by the FBI," he added. "Agencies have long been notorious for over-classification of information and the use of classification authority to shield officials from public exposure or criticism."

David B. Cohen, political science professor at the University of Akron, said he sees release of the Nunes memo as part of a Republican campaign to discredit the Russia probe being carried out by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who is also a former FBI Director.

"Trump seems to be laying the groundwork for further firings of high-level DOJ personnel including Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and Special Counsel Robert Mueller, as well as the pardoning of key witnesses and family members, Cohen told VOA.

"By utilizing a sustained strategy of publicly criticizing and discrediting the upper ranks and career civil servants of the FBI and DOJ, Trump is attempting to inoculate his base and others that are sympathetic to his plight for when he fires Rosenstein, Mueller and others," Cohen said.

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Guwahati : Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has allocated an amount of Rs 47,994 crore for development of North Eastern region in the Union Budget 2018-19.





Presenting the last full budget of the present BJP-led NDA government, Arun Jaitley has allocated Rs 47,994.88 crore for entire North Eastern region development across all ministries by including Rs 1,014.09 crore for aviation infrastructure in the region.





The budget allocated Rs 6,210 crore to the Ministry of Roads Transport and Highways, Rs 4177.95 crore to the Department of Health and Family Welfare, Rs 4610.89 to the Department of Agriculture, Cooperation and Farmers' Welfare, Rs 1274.00 crore to the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region.





The Union Finance Minister has allocated Rs 1,014.09 crore for civil aviation infrastructure in the region to revive of 50 airports and viability gap funding for improving aviation infrastructure in the area under the flagship regional connectivity scheme.





In the Union Budget for the next fiscal, the finance ministry has allocated Rs 528 crore to enhance the North East Industrial & Investment Promotion Policy (NEIIPP), but the allocation amount is reduced compared to this fiscal.





In 2017-18, the finance ministry had allocated Rs 783 crore.





On the other hand, the finance ministry also reduced allocation to the Bodo Territorial Area Districts (BTAD) and Dima Hasao Autonomous Council in Assam in the Union Budget 2018-19.





In previous budget, Rs 50 crore was allocated to BTAD and Rs 30 to Dima Hasao Autonomous Council, but this time fund allocation has reduced to Rs 20 crore each to BTAD and Dima Hasao Autonomous Council.





On the other hand, Rs 40 crore allocated to another sixth schedule district council Karbi Anglong Autonomous Council (KAAC).





Meanwhile, the Federation of Industry & Commerce of North Eastern Region (FINER) said that, most outstanding feature of the Union Budget is to vigorously support the Farm Sector, which would alleviate the suffering of farmers feeding the country of 130 billion.





Cluster approach in farm sector and 100 percent deduction to companies registered as farm producer companies will encourage much needed entrepreneurship spirit in agriculture sector. Big boost to Health, Education, Infrastructure, capex for Railway and affordable housing inclining more to rural economy augurs well for an inclusive development of the country. Though market seems to have digested undesired fiscal deficit blow and reintroduction of long term capital Gain Tax (done away with in 2004), Governments move regarding reduction of corporate tax is half hearted and increased cess from 3% to 4% will not be welcomed by tax payers.Whereas senior citizens and salaried class will have a sigh of meager relief, self employed business fraternity will be disappointed for not getting a fair treatment. Though the Budget contains good measures for MSME sector, Finance Ministers announcement that as MSMEs are extremely important for the economy of the country, he would soon come out with measures to help deal with NPAs of SMEs will go a long way in addressing MSMEs concerns, FINER said.





Though there is no announcement regarding centres Industrial Policy for North East region (on line of NEIIPP) and measures for Tea sector in the budget.



Trump Approves Full Release of Classified Republican Memo Despite Objections

By Peter Heinlein, Steve Herman February 02, 2018

U.S. President Donald Trump has approved publication of a Republican memo that argues that top law enforcement officials abused their investigative authority for partisan ends during and after the 2016 presidential campaign. Shortly after the House released the memo.

A White House official confirmed to VOA that a message had been sent to the House Intelligence Committee that the president has no objection to declassification of the memo, which was written by the committee's chairman, Republican Rep. Devin Nunes.

Speaking to reporters at the White House Friday, Trump said what he had read in the memo was "terrible." During a photo opportunity with North Korean defectors, Trump said, "I think it's a disgrace what's going on in this country... A lot of people should be ashamed of themselves, and much worse than that."

The president authorized the release of the document despite the strong objections of top officials at the Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

When asked by a reporter whether release of the memo makes it more likely that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein would be fired, Trump replied, "You figure that one out."

Release of the memo intensifies the battle between Trump and his Republican allies in Congress on one side, and Democrats and top FBI officials on the other about whether the probe into Russian interference in the presidential election was affected by political bias on the part of investigators.

Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee have prepared their own memo, countering the Republican claims. The top Democrat on the intelligence committee, California Congressman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), told "CBS This Morning" that any move by Trump to make the document public would constitute an attack on the integrity of law enforcement agencies.

"It's clear from the president that this is exactly the purpose behind this cherry-picking of information that Nunes wants to release," Schiff said. "This is designed to impugn the credibility of the FBI, to undermine the investigation."

Trump earlier fired off two tweets about the memo. The first charged that leaders of the FBI and the Justice Department had politicized "the sacred investigative process in favor of Democrats and against Republicans."

The second suggests that top law enforcement officials took part in an effort to hide a move by the campaign of Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton to produce misleading information to persuade a judge to approve spying on the Trump campaign.

George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley says he sees the FBI's concern as being more political than substantive.

"Notably, the objections by the FBI have been to the memo being "inaccurate" by "omission." That does not sound like a concern over classification. It sounds like a concern over public embarrassment or criticism," Turley told VOA.

"It is a curious thing to see Democrats expressing outrage at the notion that the Committee would ever question the classification of material by the FBI. Agencies have long been notorious for over-classification of information and the use of classification authority to shield officials from public exposure or criticism," Turley said.

Former CIA Director James Woolsey, who advised the Trump campaign, said it is important that the classification system works in a "straightforward fashion". But he told CNN the president has total discretion in releasing information.

"This whole classification system reports ultimately to one individual, the president," Woolsey said. "So it's entirely clear that it's his right under the process to say "I have decided this will not harm the United States and it should be released, or I have decided this would harm the United States so I do not wanted it released. That's his call," he told CNN.

David B. Cohen, political science professor at the University of Akron, said he sees release of the Nunes memo as part of a Republican campaign to discredit the Russia probe being carried out by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who is also a former FBI Director.

"Trump seems to be laying the groundwork for further firings of high-level DOJ personnel including Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and Special Counsel Robert Mueller, as well as the pardoning of key witnesses and family members, Cohen told VOA.

"By utilizing a sustained strategy of publicly criticizing and discrediting the upper ranks and career civil servants of the FBI and DOJ, Trump is attempting to inoculate his base and others that are sympathetic to his plight for when he fires Rosenstein, Mueller, and others," Cohen said.

Intelligence Committee chairman Nunes called the FBI's objections to release of the memo "spurious."

"The FBI is intimately familiar with 'material omissions' with respect to their presentations to both Congress and the courts, and they are welcome to make public, to the greatest extent possible, all the information they have on these abuses," Nunes said in a statement.

Trump, while attacking top FBI and Justice Department officials, tried to differentiate between leadership and the rank and file employees of the investigative agencies. In on his his tweets Friday, Trump wrote "Rank and file great people."

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FBI Director in Spotlight Amid Furor Over Nunes Memo

By VOA News February 02, 2018

Christopher Wray, director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, is one of the central figures in the furor over the release of the so-called "Nunes memo."

Wray took over as FBI director after U.S. President Donald Trump abruptly fired James Comey on May 9, 2017. Two days after the firing, Trump told NBC News that he was thinking of, in his words, "this Russia thing" when he made the decision regarding Comey.

Trump nominated Wray for the job four weeks later.

Born in New York City in 1966, Wray attended prestigious private schools and earned his bachelor's and law degrees at Yale University, where he served as executive editor of the Yale Law Journal.

Wray began his career with a federal judge clerkship in 1992, before going to work for an Atlanta-based private law firm. Five years after finishing his law degree, he took a government service position as assistant U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Georgia.

He joined the U.S. Department of Justice in 2001 and by 2003 took charge of the department's criminal division, overseeing issues such as securities fraud, public corruption, and piracy of intellectual property. Among those he prosecuted for corruption were energy giant Enron and lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

Wray was among a group of top prosecutors who threatened to resign in 2004 over the extension of illegal wiretaps conducted by the George W. Bush administration.

He returned to private practice a year later. At the end of his tenure with the Department of Justice, he was given the agency's highest award for leadership and public service.

While working as a litigation partner with the law firm King & Spalding from 2005 to 2017, Wray represented New Jersey Governor Chris Christie in 2014. The governor's administration was accused of illegally closing off the entrances to a bridge leading to Manhattan as part of a political revenge plot. While Christie escaped charges, several of his former aides were sentenced to prison terms.

Wray was tapped last year to succeed James Comey as head of the FBI. During his confirmation hearing before the U.S. Senate, Wray testified he would not bend to White House influence. He said he would resign if asked to do something immoral.

When asked for his reaction to Trump's statement that the Russia investigation amount to a "witch hunt," he stated that he did not agree.

The Senate confirmed Wray by a vote of 92 to 5. And when he was sworn into office in August of 2017, Trump did not attend the ceremony.

Now, with the president signing off on the release of the Nunes memo, Wray is in the spotlight. The Washington Post reports he warned the White House privately not to release the memo, which has raised concern about the exposure of sensitive security information, as well as what the FBI said were serious concerns about the memo's accuracy.

In an uncharacteristically confrontational statement, the FBI said Wednesday it was given "a limited opportunity to review this memo" one day before the House Intelligence Committee voted along party lines to release it. The statement continued, "We have grave concerns about material omissions of fact that fundamentally impact the memo's accuracy."

President Trump has been criticizing the agency for months, saying the FBI's reputation is "in tatters" without directly criticizing Wray. It remains to be seen how fallout over the Nunes memo could affect the FBI director, less than a year into his job.

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387th AEG develops Cargo City to maintain operations

By Tech. Sgt. Louis Vega Jr., 386th Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs / Published February 02, 2018

KUWAIT (AFNS) -- Construction is currently underway to provide a work environment for U.S. coalition forces to continue aerial port operations in Kuwait City. The aerial port is a strategic logistics point to deliver passengers and cargo throughout the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility and its future was put in jeopardy due to a construction project timeline issue.

"If we didn't fix this problem, we risked losing 'the U.S. Central Command Gateway,'" said Col. Douglas Edwards, 387th Air Expeditionary Group commander. "There wasn't a course of action we could have taken to relocate temporarily anywhere else in the AOR."

The Abdullah Al-Mubarak Air Base, which is part of the Kuwait International Airport complex, serves as the headquarters for two Kuwait Air Force Bases and U.S. coalition forces. In May 2017, all three organizations were given exactly one year to move and make room for an airport expansion project of a new commercial terminal.

"This is the busiest aerial port of debarkation in CENTCOM," Edwards said. "When you compare it to all the other aerial ports in the world, we are the biggest."

The original plan to construct a new West Mubarak Air Base for military operations at the international airport required a change of plans as construction of the new airport terminal quickly advanced. Planners came up with an alternate solution that involved the construction of a temporary cargo facility called Cargo City.

"We have come together and built a partnership with key stakeholders to build Cargo City," said Edwards. "There are regular meetings with at least 50 people in the room from different parts of the Kuwait government and we discuss how we are going to make Cargo City happen."

Cargo City is the name of an undeveloped location adjacent to a vacant runway at the airport where both the Kuwait Air Force and U.S. military coalition will temporarily relocate before May until the new West Al-Mubarak Air Base is complete. Once complete, the total cantonment space at Cargo City will be 150,000 square meters with the U.S. using approximately 33,000 square meters of that.

"Typically what we try to do is tailor the space and infrastructure based on the mission," said Capt. Kiet Chung, 387th Expeditionary Support Squadron Civil Engineer project engineer. "For this project we are tailoring the mission to the infrastructure."

Chung is responsible for planning the entire temporary site and coordinating with more than 20 groups to solidify requirements. He also gave input into the design and was instrumental in procuring all the materials needed for the facility. Chung noted that a project like this would typically take a year to complete stateside.

The commitment of a network of entities in the U.S. and Kuwait to work together to make Cargo City a reality has sparked other opportunities for future collaborative efforts. The partnership and level of coordination has raised questions and stimulated a change of concept of how the host nation and the U.S. would like the new cargo facility to look.

Edwards expressed that the construction and the relocation process will not affect the mission in any way. The goal is to be able to continually operate without stopping the flow of cargo and passengers to the AOR.

"I am extremely proud of what this team has accomplished in six months. They came together from various skill sets and backgrounds and figured it out," said Edwards.

Once the final move to the new West Mubarak Air Base is complete, Cargo City will become the permanent cargo holding area for the Kuwaiti airport, which was the original intent of the area.



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Air Force announces next steps in light attack experimentation

Secretary of the Air Force Public Affairs / Published February 02, 2018

WASHINGTON (AFNS) -- Following the Light Attack Experiment conducted in August 2017, the Air Force announced its intention to continue experimenting with two non-developmental aircraft, the Textron Aviation AT-6 Wolverine and the Sierra Nevada/Embraer A-29 Super Tucano, from May to July 2018 at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Arizona.

"Rather than do a combat demonstration, we have decided to work closely with industry to experiment with maintenance, data networking and sensors with the two most promising light attack aircraft  the AT-6 Wolverine and the A-29 Super Tucano," said Secretary of the Air Force Heather Wilson. "This will let us gather the data needed for a rapid procurement."

Further experimentation will examine logistics and maintenance requirements, weapons and sensor issues, training syllabus validity, networking and future interoperability with partner forces. The Air Force will also experiment with rapidly building and operating an exportable, affordable network to enable aircraft to communicate with joint and multi-national forces, as well as command-and-control nodes.

"This effort to find a lower-cost and exportable aircraft for permissive environments is directly in line with the National Defense Strategy," said Chief of Staff of the Air Force Gen. David Goldfein. "A light attack aircraft would not only provide relief to our 4th and 5th generation aircraft, but also bolster our interoperability, so we can more effectively employ airpower as an international team."

The light attack effort supports our nation's defense strategy to counter violent extremism on a global scale, alongside allies and partners. A light attack capability could sustain competence in irregular warfare, maximize capability from financial investment, and harness existing, innovative technologies. A light attack aircraft option not only offers additional value and flexibility, but also accelerates modernization of current and potential partner forces who do not require advanced fighter aircraft.

Five international partners observed the first phase of the Light Attack Experiment, and the Air Force plans to invite additional international partners to observe this second phase of experimentation.

The Air Force expects to have the information it needs to potentially buy light attack aircraft in a future competition, without conducting a combat demonstration, based on data collected during the first round of the experiment and future data anticipated to be collected in the next phase of experimentation.

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Military Strikes Continue Against ISIS Terrorists in Syria, Iraq

From a Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve News Release

SOUTHWEST ASIA, Feb. 2, 2018  U.S. and coalition military forces continued to attack the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria between Jan. 25 and Feb. 1, conducting 41 strikes consisting of 78 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

On Feb. 1 near Abu Kamal in Syria, coalition military forces conducted five strikes consisting of seven engagements against ISIS targets, destroying three ISIS-held buildings, two tactical vehicles, a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device, an artillery piece, a weapons cache and damaging two ISIS-held buildings.

On Jan. 31 near Abu Kamal in Syria, coalition military forces conducted seven strikes consisting of eight engagements against ISIS targets, destroying an artillery piece, a construction vehicle, a fighting position, a mortar tube, a staging facility and a headquarters.

On Jan. 31 Near Shadaddi, Syria, a strike destroyed an ISIS fighting position.

On Jan. 30 near Abu Kamal in Syria, coalition military forces conducted seven strikes consisting of 18 engagements against ISIS targets, destroying two ISIS supply routes, three ISIS headquarters, a staging facility, an ISIS motorcycle and an artillery piece.

On Jan. 29 near Abu Kamal in Syria, coalition military forces conducted three strikes consisting of seven engagements against ISIS targets, destroying an ISIS construction vehicle, two ISIS-held buildings and a mortar.

On Jan. 28 near Abu Kamal in Syria, coalition military forces conducted nine strikes consisting of 20 engagements against ISIS targets, destroying three ISIS-held buildings, an unmanned aerial vehicle, three weapons caches, a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device, an ISIS van and seven pieces of ISIS construction equipment.

On Jan. 27 near Abu Kamal in Syria, coalition military forces conducted five strikes consisting of 10 engagements against ISIS targets, destroying four fighting positions, an ISIS-held building and six construction vehicles.

On Jan. 26 near Abu Kamal in Syria, coalition military forces conducted five strikes consisting of eight engagements against ISIS targets, destroying a construction vehicle, a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device, two fighting positions and two ISIS headquarters.

On Jan. 25 near Abu Kamal in Syria, coalition military forces conducted a strike consisting of two engagements against ISIS targets, destroying an ISIS staging area and a fighting position.

Strikes in Iraq

There were no reported strikes conducted in Iraq on Feb. 1, Jan. 31, Jan. 30, Jan. 29, Jan. 28 and Jan. 26, 2018.

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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Coalition Operations Continue to Remove ISIS Leaders

From a Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve News Release

SOUTHWEST ASIA, Feb. 2, 2018  Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve and its partners continue to remove Islamic State of Iraq and Syria leaders from the battlefield and prevent the terrorist group's ability to regroup and resume its capacity to threaten citizens of all nations, CJTF-OIR officials reported today.

Coalition airstrikes killed one senior ISIS leader in Syria in November 2017, and another in December 2017, as well as killing four senior ISIS leaders in January 2018. The removal of these key terrorists disrupts ISIS's leadership and information dissemination activities, reducing the terrorist group's ability to plan and conduct terrorist attacks both within Syria and Iraq, and abroad.

-- Shaykh Abu Anas al-Furati, an ISIS senior military commander, and two ISIS members were killed by a coalition airstrike on Nov. 27, 2017, near Hajin, Syria. Furati was responsible for coordinating ISIS attacks within Syria. His death further impairs ISIS command-and-control capabilities and reduces its ability to conduct terrorist activities in the region.

-- Abd al-Rahman Filipini, an ISIS military leader, was killed by a coalition airstrike on Dec. 13, 2017, near Hajin, Syria. An additional ISIS member was also killed during the strike.

-- Abd al-Rahman al Tamimi, an ISIS military leader, killed Jan. 2, 2018, near Hajin, Syria.

-- Haytham al-Jazairi, ISIS immigration and logistics committee member, was killed Jan. 6, 2018, near Kharaij, Syria.

-- Hassan al-Jazzari, ISIS immigration and logistics committee leader, was killed Jan. 6, 2018, near Abu Hammam, Syria.

-- Aysh al-Dagestani, an ISIS brigade commander, was killed Jan. 12, 2018, near Kashmah, Syria.

The coalition and its partners continue to exert pressure on ISIS senior leaders and associates across multiple networks in order to degrade, disrupt, and dismantle ISIS structures and remove the terrorists throughout Iraq and Syria.

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Omani, U.S. Troops Conduct Combined Arms Maneuver

By Army Sgt. David Nye U.S. Army Central

THUMRAIT, Oman, Feb. 2, 2018  Surrounded by clear blue skies and bright orange sand, Omani and U.S. forces conducted a simulated assault here against dozens of enemy fighters, Jan. 31, in the culminating event of Inferno Creek 18, a three-week training exercise conducted by the U.S. and Omani armies.

The joint exercise allowed multiple elements of the militaries to practice working together with the countries each contributing scouts, mortars, infantry, engineers, and other elements that worked hand in hand to complete their task: an assault on a simulated enemy compound followed by a hasty defense against an armored enemy counterattack.

The success of the training mission relied on seeds planted three weeks earlier, when leaders met to work through the military decision-making process, or MDMP, according to Army Lt. Col. Jonathan M. Genge, the U.S. task force commander for the exercise.

"It's been great since day one, the Omanis coming in right on time, every day, for MDMP, energetic, ready to tackle the task of the day," he said. "They've come in with their experiences [and] we've learned from that as well. They took the lead in a lot of things with MDMP as well as [course of action] development, the wargaming."

New Challenges, Experiences

For the grunts on the ground, working with the Omanis presented new challenges but allowed for great experiences.

"I feel pretty excited about it, because I'm working with someone from an entirely different country," said Army Pfc. Tyiamarte J. Linley Jr., a mortarman with Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 1st Battalion, 35th Armored Regiment. "New language, new culture, new everything, and it's just fascinating, just learning more about a different country, a different person, completely."

The first elements hitting the objective were the scouts. Omani vehicles dropped off U.S. forces near their planned observation posts and most of the Americans dismounted to go on foot the last few hundred meters to observe the battlefield. A few of the Americans went with the Omani vehicles, which acted as mobile weapon platforms during the fight.

"At first, before the maneuver force gets to the objective, we will be observing the objective area, identifying key personnel, key weapon systems, any obstacles that could hinder their movement up to the objective," said Army Cpl. Jacob Kehler, the sniper team noncommissioned officer for the exercise. "Once they get up to 100 meters or so, right before their assault on the objective, we'll transition up north to where we're expecting an enemy armored reconnaissance unit."

As the maneuver force, made up primarily of Omani and U.S. infantry and engineers, made its way up, the scouts and infantry automatic weapons teams laid down a base of fire. With multiple teams from two armies fighting at once, coordination was a challenge.

"It really tests our preparedness and our rehearsals," Kehler said, "to be able to coordinate between different units, us being scouts and the infantry and the added personnel of the Omanis. So the coordination between all units really has to be on point, it really tests how well you can conduct everything going on, how proficient you are at communication between the units."

An engineer team with personnel from each force breached the wire protecting the target compound with Bangalore torpedoes, explosive tubes made for clearing obstacles, before the U.S. and Omani infantry squads poured through the gap created by the detonation. Finally, an Omani rocket-propelled grenade team destroyed a simulated T-72 tank that was attempting to take back the compound.

Developing Combined Force Skills

While the exercise was complex, junior leaders emphasized to their soldiers the importance of learning to work with other forces.

"We were up in Iraq for a couple weeks back in November," Kehler said. "And, when we were up there, there were British forces, Danish forces and then French forces. So Americans aren't the only people in these combat zones right now. So being able to communicate even between those is very key to not having any fratricide, being able to work smoothly, and contributing to the combined effort is very important."

Genge, the task force commander, agreed and praised the value of the exercise for reinforcing and building partnerships. He also expressed a hope that, while 2018 was the largest iteration of the annual exercise yet, it would grow even larger.

"Inferno Creek 2018 is an opportunity for the U.S. and our partner, the Omanis, to bridge a gap and build a relationship here in the Middle East and to develop ourselves at the company and tactical level and now make our way from the lower levels, the individual, all the way up to the battalion and, looking to the future, maybe make our way up to the brigade level and higher with not only just the maneuver but maybe a command post exercise," Genge said.

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Joint Chiefs Chairman Begins Visit to Indo-Pacific Region

By Jim Garamone DoD News, Defense Media Activity

JOINT BASE PEARL HARBOR-HICKAM, Hawaii, Feb. 2, 2018  The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff arrived here yesterday, beginning another trip to the Indo-Pacific region to meet with allies and U.S. service members.

Marine Corps Gen. Joe Dunford is meeting with Navy Adm. Harry Harris Jr., the commander of U.S. Pacific Command, before moving on to Sydney for a counterpart visit with Air Chief Marshal Mark Binskin in Australia.

Dunford checks in regularly with America's Pacific-region allies. The region is one he visits most frequently. His visit comes on the heels of Defense Secretary James N. Mattis' visit to Indonesia and Vietnam.

Situation in the Pacific Region

The two chiefs of defense will discuss the situation in the Pacific. The situation with North Korea, relations with China and efforts to counter terrorism in the region will be among the issues discussed.

Australia is one of the United States' closest allies, and Dunford and Binskin will look for ways to make it even closer.

Following the visit to Sydney, Dunford will move to Darwin, the capital city of Australia's Northern Territory and home to the U.S. Marine Rotational Force. Marines and supporting air elements have been based in the tropical city since 2012. Dunford will meet with U.S. service members before moving on to Thailand.

In Bangkok, the chairman will hold counterpart talks with Thai Army Gen. Tarnchaiyan Srisuwan. He will also meet with Defense Minister Prawit Wongsuwan and Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha. As a young Marine officer, Dunford participated in the first Cobra Gold exercise held in Thailand in 1981.

On his way back to Washington, Dunford will stop in Guam and meet with service members and their families based there.

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Exercise Justified Accord 2018 plan takes shape in Uganda

By Capt. Jason Welch February 2, 2018

Sitting on the coast of Lake Victoria, Jinja is home to the source of the River Nile, the longest river in the world. It's also home to the planning and preparation for a multinational peacekeeping exercise.

Military planners from the United States, Uganda, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom converged here Jan. 29 to Feb. 2 to continue the planning and preparation for the second annual U.S. Army Africa-led exercise Justified Accord 2018, scheduled to take place in June.

JA18 is a command post exercise that brings the military partners of East Africa, along with participants from the United States, United Kingdom, and the Netherlands, together to exercise peacekeeping operations that would be accomplished by a headquarters staff.

This is the second Justified Accord exercise and will be hosted by the Uganda Peoples' Defence Force (UPDF). The scenario planned for the command post exercise reflects ongoing peacekeeping operations being conducted in Africa.

Uganda has been a troop contributing country to multiple operations in the region to counter violent extremist organizations.

"The UPDF is a very reliable partner in the fight against terrorism," said Brig. Gen. J.A. Bakasumba, commandant of the Peacekeeping Support Operations Singo.

"We have the political will and there is the capability and experience of our forces," said Bakasumba.

Exercise participants will use AMISOM and East Africa Standby Force doctrine and procedures to execute their staff tasks, further enhancing their ability to work together during joint and combined operations.

There are both governmental institutions and non-governmental organizations that are participating in and contributing to the exercise including the International Committee of the Red Cross, Center of Excellence for Stability Police Operations and the United Nations Mine Action Service.

"There is a challenge in bringing all these organizations together, but there's also a benefit. Working with them helps us to ensure we are in compliance with the different authorities and mandates of these organizations," said Capt. Dimitri Facaros, U.S. Army Africa legal officer.

Planners worked together to develop the scenario that would challenge participants to tackle real world problem sets and consider how AMISOM military forces would work together to provide security and stability to the region.

"The UPDF are very willing and capable partners in exercise planning. They have set the bar fairly high for the Accord Series exercises," said Lt. Col. Casey Moes, U.S. Army Africa Justified Accord officer in charge.

Participants at the main planning event included officers from the militaries of Uganda, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the United States. The planning team also reflected the multinational and multi-organizational nature of the current peacekeeping operations with representatives from the International Committee of the Red Cross and United Nations Mine Action Service.

Justified Accord planning efforts are led by USARAF and the UPDF, but the team also included both civilian and military personnel from the U.S. Air Force and Navy.

There is one more major planning event prior to the execution of the command post exercise where planners will complete the final preparations and establish the last details to shape the exercise in June.

"Throughout the week we've really come together as a team with our partners and UPDF hosts," said Moes.

"I'm confident that together we'll complete all our preparations in time for the exercise and I look forward to working alongside the UPDF in the future."

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Cobra Gold 18: Royal Thai and US forces construct school building with Indonesian military

US Marine Corps News

By Sgt. Matthew Bragg | III Marine Expeditionary Force | February 2, 2018

The Royal Thai, United States, and Indonesian Armed Forces gathered during a pillar raising ceremony for an Exercise Cobra Gold 2018 construction project of a school building at Banthungsohongsa School in Chachoengsao, Kingdom of Thailand, Jan. 31, 2018.

The main pillar of the building, blessed by Buddhist monks, distinguished guests, and villagers, was set into place. The ceremony is a tradition that honors the spirits residing in the area and is said to increase the longevity of the building.

"I feel honored and glad (we are receiving) this construction, which will benefit Thai students," said Banthungsohongsa School Principal Wanching Koolhakool, who is a native of Singburi, Thailand. "It's going to be a place for learning activities for the kindergarten grade, and will be able to support more than 40 students."

Working with their Royal Thai and U.S. counterparts, the Indonesian Army has a heavy hand at engineering civic assistance project site four.

"Our purpose here is to help the people of Thailand," said Capt. Ridwan Hananto, who is with the Indonesia Army engineers, and is a native of Karanganyar, Central Java, Indonesia. "Indonesia and the U.S. have joined together in this training for many years. This building we are building together will give the locals an advantage since it is a school building, and it will help them improve their education."

After the ceremony, the Royal Thai and U.S. forces halted construction temporarily to donate school supplies consisting of notebooks, reading materials, backpacks, and desks to the Banthungsohongsa School students.

U.S. Army Sgt. Rodney Manibusan, an engineer with 797th Engineering Company, 411th Engineering Battalion, said the supplies are meant to provide better learning opportunities for the children.

"What we're doing is investing in the future of the children of the local community," said Manibusan, who is a native of Dededo, Guam. "It's not about us; we're just paving the way for these kids."

While the school building was blessed, Royal Thai and U.S. service members also visited Ban Na Isan Village where numerous elephant stampedes have taken place. The villagers said the stampedes are a direct result of a drought in the area, and a lack of food causes the elephants to storm through the village and eat crops.

The village made headlines last year when an elephant stampede killed a local man who was carrying fruit from the forest back to his home.

"We have 312 families and around 1,000 people in our village," said Arporn Maimongkol, who is the sheriff of Sanam Chai Khet, the local district. "We try to stop them, but they keep adapting and finding new ways to get to our crops."

The Thai people have lived in harmony with elephants for thousands of years, and Maimongkhol said the villagers understand they need to protect the village and the elephants.

"If we can surround the village with fences and plant more food for the elephants, then it will be successful and balanced between humans and elephants so that we could live together," she said.

Maimongkol said the village has constructed a dam in an effort to keep the elephants away. The dam closes off their main access way, and during the rainy season the area fills up with water. But Maimongkol said the elephants are now trying to climb up onto the roads, which is damaging them.

"It is a continuous trial and error for us," she said. "We can't continue watching for elephants all the time, so the best step forward for us is elephant fences to prevent them from stampeding and keep them in the wild."

Maimongkol and Arun Sopaporn, Ban Na Isan Village chief, spoke with U.S. Army Maj. Robert Vandertuin, the head of combined joint civil military operations task force who is leading humanitarian civic assistance projects during this year's Cobra Gold, explaining they lack the budget in order to build the fences.

"For us to construct the dam and elephant ditches, we used a lot of our budget, and the elephants still destroyed it," Maimongkol explained. "The best way to stop the elephants now is to build elephant fences, then we'll be successful in taking care of the villagers."

Royal Thai and U.S. forces expressed concerns. Both nations pitched in and donated several bags of rice and potatoes to help replace some of the village's damaged crops from the elephant stampedes.

Cobra Gold 18 is an annual exercise conducted in the Kingdom of Thailand and runs from Feb. 13-23 with up to 29 nations participating.

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United Nations (United States) (AFP) - North Korea is flouting sanctions by exporting coal, iron, steel and other banned commodities, earning nearly $200 million in revenue last year, a UN report said Friday.





A UN panel of experts also found evidence of military cooperation by North Korea to develop Syria's chemical weapons programs and to provide Myanmar with ballistic missiles.





North Korea "continued to export almost all the commodities prohibited in the resolutions, generating nearly $200 million in revenue between January and September 2017," said the report by the experts seen by AFP.





Coal shipments were delivered to China, Malaysia, South Korea, Russia and Vietnam by ships using "a combination of multiple evasion techniques, routes and deceptive tactics," said the report.





The Security Council last year adopted a series of resolutions to tighten and expand exports bans aimed at cutting off revenue to North Korea's military programs.





The United States led the push for tough economic sanctions after North Korea's sixth nuclear test and a series of ballistic missile launches that raised fears that the US mainland could soon be within reach.





Seven ships have been barred from ports worldwide for violating UN sanctions with coal and petroleum transfers, but the experts said much more must be done to confront "these rampant illicit activities."





The panel found that North Korea "is already flouting the most recent resolutions by exploiting global oil supply chains, complicit foreign nationals, offshore company registries, and the international banking system."





- Arming Syria, Myanmar -





Syria and Myanmar are continuing cooperation with North Korea's KOMID corporation, the country's main arms exporter, which is on a UN sanctions blacklist, the report said.





The panel uncovered more than 40 previously unreported shipments from North Korea between 2012 and 2017 to front companies for Syria's Scientific Studies Research Council, also known as CERS, a key institute for Syria's chemical program.





The investigations reveal "substantial new evidence" concerning Pyongyang's military cooperation with Damascus, including at least three visits by North Korean technicians to Syria in 2016.





A visit by a North Korean technical delegation in August 2016 involved the "transfer of special resistance valves and thermometers known for use in chemical weapons programs," said the report.





A member-state that was not named told the panel that North Korean "technicians continue to operate at chemical weapons and missile facilities at Barzei, Adra and Hama" in Syria, said the report.





Syria however told the panel that there were no North Korean technicians in its territory and that the only experts it was hosting from the country were involved in sports.





A member-state, which was not named, also notified the panel that Myanmar had received "ballistic missile systems from (North Korea) in addition to a range of conventional weapons, including multiple rocket launches and surface-to air missiles".





North Korean diplomats, in particular trade representatives, continue to provide logistical support for arms sales and help organize exchanges for military technicians, it said.





While sanctions have been significantly broadened, this "expansion of the regime is yet to be matched by the requisite political will" to implement the measures, the experts said.



Houthi: Saudi, UAE serve US, Israeli interests

Iran Press TV

Fri Feb 2, 2018 07:22PM

Leader of Yemen's Ansarullah movement Abdul-Malik al-Houthi has reiterated that Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which are engaged in the war on Yemen, are serving the interests of the United States and Israel.

Houthi said in a speech on Friday that the latest incidents in the southern port city of Aden were indicative of how the regime in Riyadh and the government of the UAE behaved in favor of Tel Aviv and Washington.

On January 28, separatists backed by the UAE launched an assault in Aden, taking control of a number of sites and military camps run by forces loyal to Yemen's former President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi following intense clashes. They swiftly seized the presidential palace in the southern port city.

The UAE has played a key role in the Saudi campaign against Yemen, which was launched in March 2015 with the aim of reinstalling Hadi's government and crushing the Houthi movement, which currently runs state affairs.

Prior to the offensive, Hadi had resigned and fled to Riyadh. The Saudi regime and its allies later managed to seize Aden.

Given its economic importance, Aden's control would lend considerable leverage to any side exercising ultimate control over the port.

Houthi said unrest in Aden did not benefit freedom-loving Yemenis. He emphasized that Saudi-led aggressors sought to use Yemenis to push their agendas. "Our choice is to counter the aggression," he said.

Houthi also reiterated his support for the Palestinian cause and the Palestinians, saying the Saudi aggression aimed to liquidate the cause.

At least 13,600 people have been killed since the onset of Saudi Arabia's campaign. Much of the country's infrastructure, including hospitals, schools and factories, has been reduced to rubble due to the war.

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Afghan forces detect Daesh hideout in Kabul

Iran Press TV

Fri Feb 2, 2018 05:43PM

Afghan forces have discovered a hideout of the Daesh Takfiri terrorists in a poor neighborhood of Kabul, thwarting major acts of terror planned in the capital.

An intelligence official said the security forces uncovered the Daesh sanctuary in the poor western neighborhood of Qala-e-Wahid this week, adding that it was packed with explosives, weapons and suicide vests.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the Afghan troops were led to the house by a militant who was captured during Monday's Daesh attack on the Marshal Fahim military academy in Kabul that left 11 soldiers dead.

The intelligence official noted that the Takfiri terrorists were planning to carry out three more large assaults in Kabul, without elaborating.

The occupants, the neighbors said, were three men and a woman, all of them young.

Zikarullah, 15, who lives in a mud and straw house directly opposite the Daesh hideout, said they had moved in about a month ago, noting that the woman always wore the full-face veil burqa.

Another neighbor, Samsor, 16, said the woman carried the explosives and weapons under her burqa.

"The police told us this after they arrested them and they told us they were from Nangarhar," Samsor added.

Many parts of Afghanistan remain plagued by militancy despite the presence of thousands of foreign troops.

The United States and its allies invaded Afghanistan on October 7, 2001 as part of Washington's so-called war on terror. The offensive removed the Taliban from power, but insecurity continues to rise across Afghanistan.

Daesh, which has become notorious for its brutality worldwide, began establishing a notable presence in Afghanistan almost a year after making sweeping land grabs in Iraq and Syria in 2014.

It has mostly been populating the eastern province of Nangarhar, from where it has carried out high-profile attacks against major population centers in the Central Asian country.

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Afghan president vows revenge over deadly Kabul attacks

Iran Press TV

Fri Feb 2, 2018 03:02PM

President Ashraf Ghani has vowed to take revenge for a spate of deadly attacks in Afghanistan after senior authorities in Kabul pointed a finger of blame at neighboring Pakistan over the bloodshed.

"People will not forget. Even if it takes a hundred years, the Afghans will take their revenge," Ghani said in a televised address to the nation after Friday prayers.

Afghans "demand" peace and want "practical actions (from Pakistan)", the president added.

Ghani noted that at least eleven people have been detained over the attacks. He gave no further details about the detainees.

Ghani also stressed that officials would submit a new security plan for Kabul on Sunday to prevent any further attacks.

The Kabul government is under growing public pressure to improve security in the Afghan capital after three major attacks in the past two weeks demonstrated the ability of militants to strike at the heart of the violence-wracked country.

Since January 20, militants have stormed a luxury hotel, bombed a crowded street and raided a military compound in Kabul, killing more than 130 people. A British charity in the eastern city of Jalalabad was also attacked. Officials said at least five people were killed.

The remarks came a day after Afghan officials said they had given neighboring Pakistan evidence showing that the militants who carried out a recent series of deadly attacks were trained on Pakistani soil.

Afghan Interior Minister Wais Barmak and Masooom Stanekzai, head of the NDS intelligence service, told a press briefing in Kabul on Thursday that they had presented confessions by captured militants and other proof at a meeting a day earlier in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad.

Afghan officials said Pakistan had agreed to take "practical steps" to act on the information.

The Pakistani embassy in Kabul however said the information was "being examined for its authenticity".

Pakistan and Afghanistan regularly accuse each other of sheltering their enemy insurgents. The two sides also accuse each other of not doing enough to stop militants engaging in cross-border raids.

Kabul, along with Washington, has long accused Islamabad of providing safe havens to leaders of the Taliban.

Pakistan denies the charges, stressing it has eradicated safe havens in the tribal region along the border with Afghanistan.

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US deploys troops to occupied territories for joint war games with Israel

Iran Press TV

Fri Feb 2, 2018 06:52AM

The US has deployed military forces to the Israeli-occupied territories ahead of a joint war game with Tel Aviv as the regime ramps up its threats of a new war against Lebanon.

Israeli media outlets announced the arrival of the American troops on Thursday in preparation for the so-called Juniper Cobra biennial military drills, which will start next week.

The last edition of the drills enlisted more than 3,000 forces from the two sides.

The sources said the maneuvers simulate engagement with the countries lying to the north and south of the occupied territories, including Lebanon.

Israel and Lebanon are technically at war since 1967 when the regime occupied the country's Shebaa Farms.

Israel staged two wholesale wars against Lebanon in 2000 and 2006 to defeat the country's resistance movement of Hezbollah, which is Lebanon's de facto military power.

Tel Aviv fell short of the ambition in both cases in the face of strong resistance by Hezbollah, backed by the national army, and instead saw its myth of invincibility being dealt a serious blow.

On Wednesday, the Israeli minister for military affairs, Avigdor Lieberman, renewed the threat of a new war against Lebanon, saying Beirut would "pay the full price" for its ties with Tehran in a future military offensive.

Lieberman also warned companies not to engage in oil and gas exploration activities with Lebanon.

Hezbollah responded by saying the group would "decisively confront any assault on our oil and gas rights."

Prime Minister Sa'ad al-Hariri and other Lebanese statesmen also reacted, with Hariri saying Lieberman's remarks were one of several "threatening messages" from Israel over the previous days.

Hariri had on January 25 called Israel the greatest threat to Lebanon's stability amid similar indications that the regime could be contemplating new military offensive against his nation.

"The only threat I see is Israel taking some kind of action against Lebanon, out of a miscalculation," Hariri told an audience at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. "And this is the real threat, I believe. I think the other issues are challenges, yes ... But when Israel decides to launch a war against Lebanon, this is something that is unexplainable," he added.

Lieberman suggested that a war with Lebanon would also likely involve Syria.

"Israel's northern front extends to Syria; it is not just Lebanon. I am not sure that the Syrian government can resist Hezbollah's attempts to drag them into a war with Israel," he said.

Hezbollah and Syria enjoy years-long experience of counter-terrorism cooperation. Hezbollah has been successfully lending battleground support to Syria during the latter's operations against Takfiri militants.

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Tillerson Urges Latin America To Beware Of Russia, China

RFE/RL February 02, 2018

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson warned countries of the Western Hemisphere to beware of "alarming" actions by Russia and China in their region, urging them to work with the United States instead.

"Latin America doesn't need new imperial powers that seek only to benefit their own people," Tillerson said in speech in Texas on February 1 before arriving in Mexico to begin a tour of regional countries.

Tillerson said that "strong institutions and governments that are accountable to their people also secure their sovereignty against potential predatory actors that are now showing up in our hemisphere."

He said that Russia's "growing presence in the region is alarming."

Tillerson added that Moscow "continues to sell arms and military equipment to unfriendly regimes who do not share or respect democratic values."

But he had the harshest words for China, which is now the largest trading partner of Chile, Argentina, Brazil, and Peru. But, he said, Chinese offers "always come at a price."

While the trade has brought benefits, he said, the "unfair trading practices used by many Chinese have also harmed these countries' manufacturing sectors, generating unemployment and lowering wages for workers."

"China -- as it does in emerging markets throughout the world -- offers the appearance of an attractive path to development. But in reality, this often involves trading short-term gains for long-term dependency.

"Our region must be diligent to guard against faraway powers who do not reflect the fundamental values shared in this region," he said.

Specifically, he said that Chinese business projects almost always demand the use of imported Chinese labor, large loans, and unsustainable debt "and ignore human and property rights."

After his Texas speech, Tillerson made the short trip to Mexico, where he was scheduled to meet with top officials to discuss security, immigration, and the fight against drug trafficking.

He will also visit Peru, Argentina, Colombia, and Jamaica on the tour.

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-china-latin-america -united-states-tillerson/29013835.html

Copyright (c) 2018. 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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Pentagon Chief Accuses Russia of Attempts to Undermine NATO's Capabilities

Sputnik News

13:35 02.02.2018(updated 15:25 02.02.2018)

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - Russia is trying to undermine NATO's cohesion and capabilities, Pentagon chief James Mattis said during a meeting with UK Secretary of State for Defence Gavin Williamson.

"We face intensifying threats from 'state-based aggression,' from rogue nations like DPRK and Iran to revisionist powers as different as China and Russia We value the U.K.'s diplomatic, moral and military leadership on the European and global stages, particularly as Russia seeks to undermine and weaken NATO's cohesion and capabilities," Mattis told his UK counterpart.

The next meeting of NATO defense ministers is scheduled for February 14-15 at NATO headquarters in Brussels.

Moscow has repeatedly dismissed such claims, with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov noting that NATO uses the pretext of alleged Russian aggression to deploy more equipment and battalions next to Russian borders.

The United States, particularly as part of NATO, has been boosting its military presence in Europe since 2014, using the Ukrainian crisis as a pretext for the deployment of additional hardware near Russia's borders. Moscow called the actions provocative and warned that they could lead to regional and global destabilization.

The US National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for fiscal year 2018 stipulates the allocation of $4.6 billion for the European Deterrence Initiative (EDI) to reassure NATO allies and enhance the US deterrent in Europe as well as improve the resilience of the Baltic nations against alleged Russian aggression.

 Sputnik

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US New Strategy in Afghanistan May Lead to More Casualties  Joint Staff Chief

Sputnik News

12:24 02.02.2018(updated 12:26 02.02.2018)

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The new US strategy in Afghanistan that implies sending more troops to the crisis-torn state could result in the growth of casualties within the ranks of US servicemen, US Joint Staff Director Lt. Gen. Kenneth McKenzie said.

In January, US media reported that within the framework of the new US strategy in Afghanistan announced by US President Donald Trump in 2017, Washington would send additional unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and about 1,000 new combat advisers to the war-ravaged state in order to prepare for the expected escalation in spring.

"Americans are at risk and unfortunately, there're probably going to be continued American casualties in this campaign," McKenzie told reporters on Thursday, as quoted by the Fox News media outlet, speaking about the Pentagon's decision to send more US servicemen to the front lines in Afghanistan in order to advise local troops under the US' "new approach."

The US official added that the deployment of troops should differ from previous attempts to expand military presence in the region and that the difference was that "it is the Afghans who are doing the fighting."

U.S. soldiers patrol the perimeter of a weapons cache four miles of the US military base in Bagram, Afghanistan (File)

Afghanistan has been in a state of instability for years, particularly due to the activities of terrorist groups responsible for numerous attacks against both civilian and military targets.

The United States launched an anti-terrorist military operation in Afghanistan in 2001, with the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) contingent later deployed in the country after the UN Security Council authorized the move.

NATO withdrew its military contingent from Afghanistan in 2014, replacing it with a non-military Resolute Support mission. Its objective is to train, advise and assist the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces in preserving peace and stability in the country.

In August 2017, Trump announced a new Afghanistan strategy, in which he pledged to continue US support for the Afghan government and military. Trump also said the mandate of US troops to target terrorists in Afghanistan would be expanded and approved sending an additional 4,000 troops to the country.

 Sputnik

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Norwegian Party Leader Grills F-35 as Nation's 'Biggest Investment Blunder'

Sputnik News

11:05 02.02.2018

The problem-ridden US fighter-jet, projected to become the backbone of the Norwegian defense, as well as the nation's costliest defense purchase, is being met with increasing criticism in the Nordic country, as complications keep piling up.

Reds leader Bjrnar Moxnes expressed his indignation over billions of kroner splurged on a plane, which has "a thousand errors" and cannot be used half the time.

"This could be Norway's biggest investment blunder. If the aircraft ever comes into service, its operation costs will dramatically weaken the rest of the armed forces. And if they don't, to which there is ample evidence, it will be even worse," Moxnes told the ABC Nyheter news outlet.

Moxnes referred to the recent report by Pentagon's testing office director Robert Behler, which claimed that the availability of the F-35s for missions when needed, a key metric, remained "around 50 percent," a condition that has existed with no significant improvement since October 2014, despite an increasing number of aircraft. Additionally, the aircraft, which is about to become the costliest weapon in the US history, as well as the most expensive defense procurement in Norway, was found to have about 1,000 unresolved errors.

"When it comes to the aircraft being available for operations only half of the time, this is not very reassuring. If these planes are standing on the ground half of the time, it's a solid failure," Bjrnar Moxnes argued.

The Reds leader pointed out that the estimated lifetime costs associated with the project amounted to 270 billion ($35 billion), which amounts to a quarter of Norway's overall state expenditure for a whole year.

Moxnes also referred to retired US Air Force four-star general Michael Hostage, who argued that the F-35 was designed as an attack plane and was not intended to defend airspace, which is its chief projected mission in Norway.

"I understand that the US needs it. But the fact that Norway is to put all the eggs in one basket, and this basket is called F-35, is incomprehensible," Moxnes argued.

Moxnes concluded that the cost of the combat aircraft will leave a heavy toll on the Norwegian defense.

"Investments in the F-35 will be like a lead weight," Moxnes argued.

In the capacity of a standing contributor to the international Joint Strike Fighter project that ultimately resulted in the F-35, Norway decided to acquire 52 new F-35 fighter jets to the tune of NOK 81 billion (close to $10 billion). The first three F-35s arrived in November 2017 and were hailed with pomp. Later, however, it transpired that the aircraft will be stationed in plastic tents due to absence of hangars. Additionally, a dramatic lack of air defense was uncovered.

Founded in 2007, the Reds made their first ever appearance in Norwegian parliament in 2017.

 Sputnik

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'Roaming Freely': Afghanistan Provides Proof Daesh, Taliban Trained in Pakistan

Sputnik News

09:18 02.02.2018(updated 12:13 02.02.2018)

About 200 people have been killed by Daesh and Taliban militants in Afghanistan in January, in what was harshly condemned by Islamabad which has repeatedly denied sheltering terrorists.

Afghan Interior Minister Wais Ahmed Barmak has claimed that Kabul had provided Islamabad with "undeniable" proof that Daesh and Taliban militants responsible for a spate of deadly attacks in Afghanistan in January were trained on Pakistani soil, according to AP.

Barmak said that the militants had ostensibly been trained at Islamic seminaries located in the Pakistani town of Chaman near the Afghan-Pakistani border.

He also cited confessions by captured militants as saying that Pakistan allegedly allows Taliban leaders to "roam freely" on its territory.

Barmak's remarks were made during a news conference in Islamabad also attended by senior Pakistani and Afghan military and intelligence officials, including Afghanistan's spy chief, Masoom Stanekzai who urged Pakistani authorities to do more in order to rein in the Taliban.

"The Taliban, with these actions, cannot call themselves a political organization. They are a terrorist organization. We expect action, not just talk," he pointed out.

Earlier, Islamabad condemned January's terrorist attacks in Afghanistan which claimed the lives of about 200 people.

The US, in turn, moved to stop its security-related financial aid to Islamabad in early January, citing alleged Pakistani support for the Afghan Taliban and allied militias.

Islamabad has more than once rejected allegations about its sheltering Daesh and Taliban terrorists. Noting that the country had been fighting against terrorism mostly with the use of its own funds, the Pakistani government earlier signaled readiness to do its best "to secure the lives of our citizens and broader stability in the region."

 Sputnik

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Afghanistan, US Companies Working on Afghan Coal Deal

By William Gallo February 02, 2018

Afghanistan's government is in advanced stages of negotiations with several U.S. companies interested in becoming involved with the country's coal industry, a first step toward wider American investment in Afghanistan's potentially lucrative industrial mining sector.

The negotiations - confirmed to VOA by a senior Afghan diplomat and the owners of two consulting firms that specialize in the extractive industries, all of whom are involved in the talks - are in line with a push by President Donald Trump for greater U.S. economic involvement in Afghanistan, where the United States is entering its 17th year of war.

Trump has complained the U.S. is not profiting from the conflict, leaving China to take the lead in exploring the country's natural resources.

Specifically, Trump has had his eye on Afghanistan's vast supply of untapped mineral deposits, which the U.S. Geological Survey estimated in 2010 were worth as much as $1 trillion.

Though coal is not among the country's most valuable natural resources, U.S. companies involved in such a deal would be well-placed to take advantage of future opportunities involving copper, gold, lithium and rare earth elements.

For the Afghan government, which is almost completely reliant on foreign aid, the agreement would provide both a measure of self-sufficiency and a better chance of long-term U.S. commitment.

"This is a way to bind the two countries long-term," said the Afghan diplomat helping negotiate the deal, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to publicly disclose the agreement.

As envisioned, the Afghan government would invite companies to bring mining expertise, equipment, logistics and security to Afghanistan to help extract coal and fuel what would be the country's only large-scale, coal-fired power plant, hopefully within one to two years.

Seventy percent of Afghans do not have access to reliable electricity, and the country is largely dependent on often-interrupted supplies of imported power from neighboring countries.

That shortage makes domestically fueled power plants a possible game-changer, said Mohsin Amin, an Afghan energy policy analyst. "There is a huge market in almost all the provinces for electricity," he said. "Boosting the power sector would be very, very beneficial for Afghanistan."

Obstacles

Mining in Afghanistan faces formidable challenges. The country lacks much of the basic infrastructure needed to extract, process, and deliver minerals to global markets. It is also one of the world's most dangerous and corrupt nations.

Starting with a coal mining deal is an attempt to conquer those obstacles. Since coal must be extracted in large quantities, it is more difficult for militants to loot than other more valuable resources, such as gold. It is also less vulnerable to claims by Taliban insurgents that the Afghan government is colluding with foreign invaders to plunder the country's natural wealth.

"We are cautious about this argument," said the Afghan official. "That's why we have chosen coal to begin with. If you win the confidence of the people when it comes to coal, then you can move on to other resources."

Coal has long been mined in Afghanistan, especially in the north and west of the country. Three to four million tons of coal, valued at $300 million to $400 million, are already extracted each year, according to a 2017 estimate by the U.S. Institute for Peace. By comparison, U.S. coal production in 2016 was about 700 million tons.

But the bulk of Afghanistan's mining is off the books and illegal - overseen by warlords, politicians, or other politically connected individuals. As a result, very few taxes from the mining sector go to the cash-strapped Afghan government.

"Afghanistan is not short of people digging stuff out of the ground," said Stephen Carter with Global Witness, a watchdog group that monitors natural resources exploitation. "The problem is that when the extraction does happen it doesn't benefit the government."

Global Witness says it is not necessarily against a proposed coal mining deal. But it would oppose any major new contracts, especially those involving more valuable resources, until Kabul establishes a structure that would provide greater transparency in the mining sector.

Since 2009, the U.S. has poured nearly $500 million into efforts to clean up the regulatory structure around Afghanistan's extractive industries, according to a 2016 report by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR). But that effort has seen "limited progress," said the report, citing concerns about incompetence and widespread corruption in the country's mining ministry.

"The question is really around the transparency of the production, who the partners are, and who is benefiting," said Carter. "The stakes are very high for the Afghan people, because these are resources that you can only dig out of the ground once, and which are desperately needed for development."

Security concerns

Afghanistan's mining sector is also held back by conflict. Since many deposits are in Taliban-held areas, some companies have paid off insurgents for protection, according to Global Witness. Mining is the biggest source of revenue for the Taliban, after narcotics.

However, unlike Afghanistan's other natural resources, companies can more easily extract coal from areas not held by the Taliban, since coal deposits are scattered throughout the country.

But coal mines are still vulnerable. Last month, insurgents torched two coal trucks and took the drivers hostage in the north-central province of Samangan. It is reportedly the third time in a month the coal mine had been attacked.

The Taliban in 2016 offered protection to a large, Chinese-backed copper mine (such projects improve the economy and are in the "interest of Islam," they said).

But it's not certain whether the armed group would apply the same standards to an operation linked to the U.S., a country it's been at war with since 2001. It's also not clear how groups like Islamic State would respond.

Security for the operation would likely be Afghan-led, but would probably also include foreign contractors, according to one Afghan official.

Kabul says it has reached a preliminary agreement with at least some of the companies that would provide logistics and security for the project. U.S. coal companies are among those involved in the talks.

But according to two officials involved in the negotiations, the deal hasn't been finalized and is moving slowly, in large part because of delays in the confirmation of Afghanistan's recently appointed mining minister, Nargis Nehan, who is still in an acting role.

Afghanistan is also in the process of a slow-moving review of its mineral law, and has frozen nearly all contracts and bids with Western companies.

A boost for US coal?

But why would U.S. coal companies want to do business in a war zone?

"The number one thing they'd get out of something like this is survival," says Andy Roberts, a consultant who focuses on emerging coal markets at Wood Mackenzie.

Since the U.S. coal market is in a prolonged slump and fresh domestic demand is unlikely, Roberts says many companies are looking to the developing world for growth opportunities.

In Afghanistan, those opportunities include not only coal, but also more valuable resources, such as lithium or rare earths.

"It at least opens the door a crack toward capturing value in other commodities," he says. "They'll have in-country expertise having done this. They'll know people. They'll know the workforce. They'll understand the problems better and be better positioned."

Additionally, much of the equipment used in coal surface mines - such as trucks, bulldozers, and pipes - could be used at any surface mine, he says, making it easier if the companies eventually wanted to focus on other deposits.

"I see it as an important, West Virginia-led initiative," said one person involved in the negotiations. "Instead of trying to recreate coal mining jobs in West Virginia, why not export your technical expertise to other markets?"

The Trump factor

But any U.S. effort to extract Afghanistan's natural resources is politically tricky, not least of all because of Trump.

For years Trump has lamented that other countries profit from Afghanistan's natural resources, while the U.S. spends billions fighting to secure it.

"China is taking out all the minerals. And here we are fighting...and we get nothing out of it," Trump said in an interview in December 2015.

(It's an overstatement to say China is taking "all" the minerals" - though Beijing in 2007 signed a $3 billion deal to lease Afghanistan's Mes Aynak copper mine, the project has been stalled over contract disagreements, instability, and the possible impact on a 5,000-year-old Buddhist archaeological site that lies directly above the copper deposit.)

As recently as August, Trump reportedly complained that U.S. officials haven't acted quickly enough to help American businesses acquire rights to Afghan minerals.

Many critics are uncomfortable with explicitly linking decisions about U.S. military intervention to the exploitation of natural resources.

Kabul, too, is sensitive to those concerns, according to Afghan officials. But the government may have more pressing worries. Amid a resurgence in Taliban attacks, Afghanistan's President Ashraf Ghani recently told "60 Minutes" that the Afghan Army wouldn't last six months without U.S. support.

Though Trump's new "conditions-based" strategy essentially commits the U.S. to Afghanistan indefinitely, many in Kabul are mindful that Trump for years slammed the U.S. war there as a "complete waste."

Given that dynamic, it will be imperative for both sides to make clear that U.S. companies have not gotten preferential treatment, warns Carter with Global Witness.

"I can see why some people might take the view that America deserves some gratitude for what they've invested in Afghanistan," Carter says. "But mining concessions are not the proper currency for expressing that gratitude."

One official involved in the talks acknowledges it will be "very, very difficult" to combat those perceptions. "I think that's a really legitimate concern, and I don't know what the answer is," said the official.

The official stressed it will be important for U.S. companies to partner with local Afghans, and secure buy-in from the local community. "Otherwise, you could end up in a situation where the local population rises up and physically threatens the mining operation."

However, if the project can successfully navigate the risks of corruption and conflict, backers say there are few foreign investment opportunities that could provide Afghans with as many practical, long-term benefits.

"The Afghan people will get electricity from it. The Afghan government will get revenue and jobs from it. And U.S. companies will...also profit, of course," says the Afghan official. "It's a win-win situation."

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US to Impose Arms Restrictions Against South Sudan

By Ayen Bior February 02, 2018

The U.S. State Department announced Friday it would immediately enact restrictions on arms transfers to South Sudan.

Paul Sutphin, the State Department's senior adviser on Sudan and South Sudan, said the decision will "restrict the flow of lethal material into South Sudan for all parties" and is part of a series of steps "to impose consequences on those who use violence to advance a political agenda."

The restriction is enacted through the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), a set of U.S. laws that regulate the export and import of defense related articles and services.

"This is an action we can take with our law for people who require licenses from the United States to sell arms and material," said Sutphin.

Companies and entities seeking a license to export defense materials to South Sudan will be denied under the new restrictions. This includes "American manufacturers or a company that uses American parts that are controlled under the ITAR," said Sutphin.

U.S. law requires companies, entities or manufacturers seeking to export controlled products to register with the Directorate of Defense Trade Controls, an office in the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs at the Department of State.

The law also requires an approval of an export license for all exports of a U.S.-controlled defense article or service, according to a State Department official.

The U.S. arms restriction is limited to U.S. jurisdiction, and will not directly affect weapons flows from neighboring countries.

The U.N. secretary-general's special adviser for the prevention of genocide, Adama Dieng, told VOA's South Sudan in Focus this week that weapons are flowing into South Sudan through neighboring countries, including Kenya and Uganda.

The State Department hopes the U.S. trade restriction will encourage others, including the African Union and the regional bloc IGAD, to take similar measures.

"We need to impose consequences to those parties including the government, including the main armed opposition groups who have violated their commitment to stop fighting multiple times since they signed it," said Sutphin.

United States officials under then-President Barack Obama and current President Donald Trump have argued that a United Nations led arms embargo could stem the flow of weapons into South Sudan. U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley told the U.N. Security Council last week an arms embargo could "slow the violence, slow the flow of arms and ammunition," to South Sudan.

A U.S.-led resolution to impose additional sanctions and an arms embargo on South Sudan failed at the U.N. Security Council in December 2016.

The move was backed by seven of the 15 Security Council members, including Britain and France, but received eight abstentions, including one from Russia, whose top U.N. ambassador argued an embargo would not stabilize the country.

The U.S. arms restriction comes ahead of the second phase of the IGAD-led High Level Revitalization Forum, a peace initiative that is intended to revive the 2015 peace deal.

Sutphin, who will be at the talks in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, says he hopes the arms restriction will send a clear message to the warring parties, who have repeatedly violated cease-fire agreements since conflict erupted in December 2013.

"Issue No. 1 has to be taking the cessation of hostilities and really making it work," said Sutphin. "Stopping the suffering and violence that have wracked South Sudan and have injured and killed so many people there.



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Round 2 of South Sudan Peace Talks Set to Open Monday

By Gift Friday February 02, 2018

South Sudan's warring parties are preparing for a second round of talks next week, aimed at revitalizing a 2015 peace deal between the government and rebel forces. The initiative, known as the High-Level Revitalization Forum, takes place February 5-16 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

The talks are expected to cover security and governance structures for South Sudan, the world's newest country.

Ahead of the discussions, an umbrella group of more than 20 civil society activists is calling on all parties to order their forces to adhere to a Cessation of Hostilities agreement signed in December in the first phase of the initiative.

The South Sudan Civil Society Forum wants those involved to release all political prisoners, prisoners of war, and child soldiers and issue directives to field commanders to "cease all hostilities and refrain from any unauthorized movement of forces."

Rajab Mohandis, executive director of the South Sudanese Network for Democracy and Elections, or SSuNDE, said South Sudanese were disappointed to see the agreement being violated by the warring parties just days after it was signed. But he said progress has been made in recent days.

"We have been monitoring the implementation of the cessation of hostilities closer, " he told VOA's South Sudan in Focus program. "In the past one week, the country has been largely silent and that is positive and the citizens should remain hopeful."

Mohandis said civil society activists are urging the parties to do more to ensure that their forces strictly abide by the terms of the agreement and hold to account individuals who violate the cease-fire. The activists are also calling on the government to retract recent comments declaring that non-governmental organizations need not report violations.

"When there is fighting in any part of this country, we don't take permission from them to run away from the violence," said Mohandis. "We also do not need permission to speak on these issues as long as we have credible information."

South Sudan Cabinet Affairs Minister Marti Elia Lomuro recently warned NGOs against reporting cease-fire violations. Mohandis countered that NGOs should not be restricted because they are contributing to efforts to restore peace. He said civil society activists are helping the voiceless who cannot come to the table in Addis Ababa.

The activists say the High Level Revitalization Forum risks joining the long list of failed peace processes in South Sudan's history if the parties simply replicate past models, most of which focused on power sharing.

Mohandis said the South Sudan Civil Society Forum developed principles to ensure that decisions about governance and security arrangements will serve the interests of the nation's people.

"Decision making processes and institutions should be representative of the South Sudanese public," he added. "There should be integrity and good faith by the parties. This process should be geared toward nation-building and national identity that will unify the people of South Sudan."

Mohandis said as the warring parties return to the negotiating table in Addis, South Sudanese must take ownership of the political process and ensure that all efforts contribute to lasting peace.

"To the mediators, we want to remind them that the people of South Sudan do not want to continue in war again; the ordinary citizens, who are bearing the cost of this violence," he said. "And so the role of the mediators should be to help the parties to the conflict reach an agreement."

The forum is being organized by regional trade bloc IGAD, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development.

South Sudan's civil war has displaced some 4 million people and created a humanitarian crisis. The internal conflict began in 2013 as a power struggle between President Salva Kiir and his deputy, former first vice president Riek Machar. The war has driven 2 million people from the country and left more than a million others a step away from famine, according to the United Nations.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has warned countries of the IGAD bloc against taking sides in South Sudan's internal affairs.

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US targets Lebanese resistance movement with new sanctions

Iran Press TV

Fri Feb 2, 2018 06:36PM

The administration of US President Donald Trump has imposed a new round of sanctions on Lebanese Resistance Movement Hezbollah, targeting local and global businesses that cooperate with the group's financial arm.

The White House said in a statement on Friday that the sanctions, including trade bans and asset freezes, targeted six individuals and seven businesses in Lebanon, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Ghana.

"The administration is determined to expose and disrupt Hezbollah's networks, including those across the Middle East and West Africa, used to fund their illicit operations," Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said. "We will be relentless in identifying, exposing, and dismantling Hezbollah's financial support networks globally."

Speaking on condition of anonymity, senior Trump administration officials said the sanctions were part of an aggressive move against Hezbollah to try to limit what they called the influence of Iran.

The officials noted that the latest measure is to be the first in a "wave" of sanctions targeting the Lebanese resistance movement in the months ahead after a policy review by the US president.

In 2015, the White House approved a bill that imposed sanctions against banks that do business with Hezbollah and those individuals that support the movement's activities.

Washington claims that the resistance movement condones terrorism despite the fact that Hezbollah has been involved in a fierce fight against Daesh terrorists in Syria.

Hezbollah was founded in the 1980s following the Israeli invasion and occupation of southern Lebanon. The movement waged a long resistance campaign against Zionist forces and pushed them out of southern Lebanon in May 2000. Since then, the group has grown into a powerful military force. Israel also suffered a humiliating defeat from Hezbollah in the 2006 war.

Hezbollah has also supported the Syrian army in its fight against foreign-sponsored terrorists, who have been wreaking havoc in the Arab country since March 2011.

Since its inception in 1985, the Islamic resistance movement has been a thorn in the side of Israel and its foreign backers, including the United States.

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More Than 30 Pardoned Tajiks Believed To Have Rejoined IS

RFE/RL's Tajik Service February 02, 2018

More than 30 alleged militants who were pardoned by Tajik authorities after returning home from Iraq and Syria have gone back to the region to rejoin the extremist group Islamic State (IS), police say.

Qudratullo Nazarzoda, the regional police chief of the northern province of Sughd, told reporters on February 2 that 34 people from Soghd who had returned to Tajikistan after joining IS in the Middle East have gone back to Iraq and Syria.

"We helped 72 people to return home to Sughd. Out of the 72 former fighters, 34 have gone back to those countries," Nazarzoda said. "Others resumed normal, civilian life."

Nazarzoda said that Sughd authorities pardoned all but one of those who voluntarily left Iraq and Syria. He said that the authorities are investigating one man they believe sought to recruit fighters for IS upon his return.

Tajikistan amended its criminal laws in 2015 to allow authorities to pardon citizens who voluntarily return home and express regret that they joined militant groups abroad.

Dozens have been pardoned under the amnesty, which authorities say only applies to those who have not taken part in violence.

The Tajik Interior Ministry says that at least 1,100 Tajik nationals have gone to Iraq and Syria. Some 300 of them have been killed in fighting there while about 100 have returned home since 2015, it says.

More than half of those who returned to Tajikistan have been pardoned, while others were convicted of being mercenaries.

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/tajikistan-pardoned-rejoined -islamic-state/29014622.html

Copyright (c) 2018. 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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Treasury Targets Hizballah Financial Network in Africa and the Middle East

February 2, 2018

WASHINGTON  Today, the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) targeted the business operations of Hizballah by designating six individuals and seven entities pursuant to Executive Order (E.O.) 13224, which targets terrorists and those providing support to terrorists or acts of terrorism. Specifically, OFAC designated Lebanon-based Jihad Muhammad Qansu, Ali Muhammad Qansu, Issam Ahmad Saad, and Nabil Mahmoud Assaf, and Iraq-based Abdul Latif Saad and Muhammad Badr-Al-Din for acting for or on behalf of Hizballah member and financier Adham Tabaja or his company, Al-Inmaa Engineering and Contracting. Additionally, OFAC designated Sierra Leone-based Blue Lagoon Group LTD and Kanso Fishing Agency Limited, Ghana-based Star Trade Ghana Limited, Liberia-based Dolphin Trading Company Limited (DTC), Sky Trade Company, and Golden Fish Liberia LTD., and Lebanon-based Golden Fish S.A.L. (Offshore) for being owned or controlled by Ali Muhammad Qansu. As a result of today's designations, all property and interests in property of these persons subject to U.S. jurisdiction are blocked, and U.S. persons are generally prohibited from engaging in transactions with them.

"Hizballah is a terrorist organization responsible for the death of hundreds of Americans. It is also Iran's primary proxy used to undermine legitimate Arab governments across the Middle East. The Administration is determined to expose and disrupt Hizballah's networks, including those across the Middle East and West Africa, used to fund their illicit operations," said Secretary of the Treasury Steven T. Mnuchin. "The Treasury Department will continue to sever Hizballah from the international financial system, and we will be relentless in identifying, exposing, and dismantling Hizballah's financial support networks globally."

Each of the six individuals and seven entities designated today are subject to secondary sanctions pursuant to the Hizballah Financial Sanctions Regulations, which implements the Hizballah International Financing Prevention Act of 2015. Pursuant to this authority, OFAC can prohibit or impose strict conditions on the opening or maintaining in the United States of a correspondent account or a payable-through account by a foreign financial institution that knowingly facilitates a significant transaction for Hizballah, or a person acting on behalf of or at the direction of, or owned or controlled by, Hizballah.

Today's actions target the network of Adham Tabaja and Al-Inmaa Engineering and Contracting which OFAC designated as Specially Designated Global Terrorists (SDGTs) pursuant to E.O.13224 in June 2015. Tabaja maintained direct ties to senior Hizballah officials and Hizballah's operational component, the Islamic Jihad. Al-Inmaa Engineering and Contracting has been one of the largest and most successful real estate businesses in Lebanon since the late 1990s and has provided both financial support and organizational infrastructure to Hizballah.

Hizballah was designated by the Department of State as a Foreign Terrorist Organization in October 1997 and as an SDGT pursuant to E.O. 13224 in October 2001. It was listed in January 1995 in the Annex to E.O. 12947, which targets terrorists who threaten to disrupt the Middle East peace process, and also designated in August 2012 pursuant to E.O. 13582, which targets the Government of Syria and its supporters.

Jihad Muhammad Qansu

Jihad Muhammad Qansu (Jihad Qansu) was designated for acting for or on behalf of Al-Inmaa Engineering and Contracting (Al-Inmaa).

Jihad Qansu is a financial manager of Al-Inmaa, who works on behalf of the company by directing payments and receipt of funds. In this role, he has worked with OFAC-designated Muhammad Al-Mukhtar Kallas on Al-Inmaa operations. OFAC designated Kallas on October 20, 2016 for providing financial services to or in support of Adham Tabaja through his work for Al-Inmaa.

Jihad Qansu is also a business associate of Adham Tabaja, who assists him in accounting matters, including resolving bank account issues.

Ali Muhammad Qansu

Ali Muhammad Qansu (Ali Qansu) was designated for acting for or on behalf of Adham Tabaja.

Ali Qansu has a longstanding and established business relationship with Adham Tabaja, including maintaining millions of dollars in bonds for him. Ali Qansu also maintains relationships with Hizballah members and affiliates, including OFAC-designated Muhammad Al-Mukhtar Kallas.

Blue Lagoon Group LTD., Kanso Fishing Agency Limited, Star Trade Ghana Limited, Golden Fish S.A.L. (Offshore), Golden Fish Liberia LTD., Dolphin Trading Company Limited (DTC), and Sky Trade Company

All seven entities are designated for being owned or controlled by Ali Qansu.

Ali Qansu wholly owns Blue Lagoon Group LTD. and Kanso Fishing Agency Limited, both of which are based in Sierra Leone. He is the managing director of Ghana-based Star Trade Ghana Limited. In this capacity, he has managed bank accounts for Star Trade Ghana, and transacted with a Ghanaian-based bank on behalf of the company. Additionally, he coordinated over a million dollars in fish sales with Sierra Leone- and Ghana-based fishing companies, including sales of Star Trade Ghana.

Ali Qansu is the chief executive officer and authorized representative of Dolphin Trading Company Limited (DTC) and Liberia-based Sky Trade Company. He is also the general director of Dolphin Trading Company Limited (DTC) and a member of its board of directors

Ali Qansu is also the majority owner of Lebanon-based Golden Fish S.A.L. (Offshore) and Liberia-based Golden Fish Liberia LTD, which is engaged in various fishing activities, poultry and pig farming, food processing, car rental and sales, hotel-related activities, import and export of various goods, and multiple other business activities.

Issam Ahmad Saad

Issam Ahmad Saad was designated for acting for or on behalf of Al-Inmaa.

Issam Ahmad Saad is a managing partner and minority shareholder in Al-Inmaa, alongside majority shareholder and Al-Inmaa Director, Adham Tabaja.

He is also an authorized director of Global Cleaners S.A.R.L., which OFAC designated on October 20, 2016.

Nabil Mahmoud Assaf

Nabil Mahmoud Assaf (Assaf) was designated for acting for or on behalf of Al-Inmaa.

Assaf is the manager of purchasing and a minority shareholder in Al-Inmaa, who has communicated with and updated Adham Tabaja.

Abdul Latif Saad

Abdul Latif Saad (Saad) was designated for acting for or on behalf of Al-Inmaa.

Saad is the manager of Al-Inmaa's Baghdad, Iraq branch, and coordinates with Al-Inmaa Group for Tourism Works-subordinate companies, including Car Care Center, and Global Cleaners S.A.R.L. OFAC designated Al-Inmaa Group for Tourism Works and Car Care Center on June 10, 2015 for being owned or controlled by Adham Tabaja, and for providing material support to Hizballah, respectively. OFAC designated Global Cleaners S.A.R.L on October 20, 2016 for being owned or controlled by Adham Tabaja.

Muhammad Badr-Al-Din

Muhammad Badr-Al-Din (Badr-Al-Din) was designated for acting for or on behalf of Al-Inmaa.

Badr-Al-Din is a manager of Al-Inmaa's Basra, Iraq branch, and in this capacity has worked with Nabil Mahmoud Assaf and Hizballah money launderer Mohamad Noureddine, whom OFAC designated on January 28, 2016 for providing financial services to Hizballah.

Identifying information on the individuals and entities designated today.

####

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US Imposes Sanctions that Aim to Cripple Hezbollah Militant Group

By VOA News February 02, 2018

The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump imposed sanctions on seven businesses and six people Friday that aim to disrupt the Lebanon-based Hezbollah militant group.

The Treasury Department said the sanctions are "the first wave" of penalties designed to weaken Hezbollah financier Adham Tabaja, who has been designated by the U.S. as a global terrorist, by targeting companies based in Lebanon, Ghana, Liberia and Sierra Leone. It said the companies support Tabaja by developing "conduits" of funding for Hezbollah.

The Treasury Department sanctioned five Lebanese and one Iraqi, most of whom were associated with Al-Inmaa Engineering and Contracting, a company headquartered in the Lebanese capital of Beirut.

The agency said in a statement Hezbollah is a terrorist group that is "responsible for the death of hundreds of Americans" and is a key proxy Iran uses to weaken Arab countries in the Middle East. Administration officials estimate Iran sends about $700 million annually to the militant group.

"The Treasury Department will continue to sever Hezbollah from the international financial system, and we will be relentless in identifying, exposing, and dismantling Hezbollah's financial support networks globally," Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in the statement.

Hezbollah was formed by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard in 1982 in response to Israel's invasion of Beirut and has since become an influential member of Lebanon's coalition government.

The Trump administration has slapped sanctions on Hezbollah before and officials said more are forthcoming after a U.S. investigation concluded there were "dozens" of other financial networks linked to the militant group.

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Poland Negotiated Better Deal for Patriot Missile System, Defense Minister Says

Sputnik News

03:19 02.02.2018

The Polish National Defense Ministry has secured an unspecified cost reduction in Patriot missile defense systems from the United States.

A top Polish defense official previously blasted the $10.5 billion price tag for 208 Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) missiles, 16 launchers, a few radars and other associated software systems as "unacceptable" in December.

Newly minted Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak took to Twitter on Wednesday to announce some "good news about the Wisla program" for enhanced missile defense.

"We obtained a lower price and accelerated delivery time. The reduction of costs does not limit the assumed combat capabilities of the system. We are on track to sign a contract with the end of the first quarter of 2018," Blaszczak tweeted.

On January 9, Antoni Macierewicz was dismissed from his role as national defense minister. Blaszczak, formerly the Polish interior minister, was slotted into Macierewicz's place as part of a cabinet reshuffle initiated by Poland's new prime minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, a Sputnik correspondent reported.

Warsaw is seeking eight Patriot missile batteries in total on a budget of 30 billion zlotys, or roughly $9 billion. The Defense Security Cooperation Agency first notified Congress that the sale of two such Patriot batteries would tally 37 billion zlotys, already about $1.5 billion above budget.

"The price is indeed unacceptable for us even in view of the significant financial assets that we allocated for technical modernization of the Polish Armed Forces," Bartosz Kownacki, secretary of state within the Polish Ministry National Defense, told Defense News on December 5. "We simply cannot afford to spend that much money on the procurement of two batteries and PAC-3 missiles for such an amount of money," the official said.

As Defense News reports, Poland was unsatisfied with Raytheon's shelf-ready PAC-3 missile system and has sought a command-and-control system that the US Army hasn't event finished developing yet with Northrop Grumman called the "Integrated Battle Command System." Warsaw has also been firm in asking for certain technology information to help develop Poland's domestic defense industrial base.

 Sputnik

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'China in talks to help build base in Afghanistan'

Iran Press TV

Fri Feb 2, 2018 07:00AM

China has been in talks with neighboring Afghanistan to help build a military base there, amid concerns about militants slipping into Chinese territory from the war-torn country, Afghan officials say.

The military camp is to be constructed in northeast Afghanistan's remote and mountainous Wakhan Corridor, where witnesses have reported seeing Chinese and Afghan soldiers carrying out joint patrols, AFP reported on Friday.

The report cited the Afghan Defense Ministry's deputy spokesman Mohammad Radmanesh as saying that officials from Beijing and Kabul had discussed the plan during talks in December last year in the Chinese capital but added that details were still being worked out.

"We are going to build it (the base) but the Chinese government has committed to helping the division financially, providing equipment, and training the Afghan soldiers," Radmanesh said.

In response to inquiries about the reported plan, a senior Chinese Embassy official in Kabul would only state that Beijing was involved in "capacity-building" in Afghanistan.

The freezing, barren panhandle of land bordering China's Xinjiang region is so separated from the rest of Afghanistan, the report said, "that many inhabitants are unaware of the Afghan conflict, scraping out harsh but peaceful lives" and retaining "strong links" with their neighbors in Xinjiang.

China's involvement in constructing the Afghan military base comes as Chinese President Xi Jinping seeks to expand Beijing's regional economic and geopolitical clout.

China is investing in the building of infrastructure in South Asia and may be seeking to provide security for its trade interests by engaging in the measures in flashpoint Afghanistan.

Reports have already said that the Daesh terrorist group, which has lost territory in the Middle East, is expanding its foothold in Afghanistan. That could pose a security threat to China's economic interests.

The NATO's US-led Resolute Support military mission in Afghanistan declined to comment on the report about the base in Wakhan Corridor.

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China Reportedly Negotiating Creation of Military Base With Afghanistan

Sputnik News

14:58 02.02.2018(updated 18:10 02.02.2018)

The military base will be reportedly constructed in Afghanistan's northeastern province of Badakhshan that borders China's Xinjiang  a restive region with a Muslim Uighur minority that Beijing views as a potential source of instability.

The Chinese and Afghan officials are discussing the construction of a base in Wakhan Corridor, a remote mountainous strip that is isolated from the rest of Afghanistan, according to Afghan Defense Ministry deputy spokesman Mohammad Radmanesh.

"We are going to build it (the base) but the Chinese government has committed to help the division financially, provide equipment and train the Afghan soldiers," he said.

However, a Chinese embassy official in Kabul was scarce on providing details on the project, saying only that Beijing was engaged in "capacity-building" in Afghanistan.

According to Fergana News Agency that talked to Afghanistan's Defense Ministry Representative Dawlat Vazari, the preliminary agreement to build the base was reached during the visit of an Afghan delegation headed by Defense Minister Tariq Shah Bahrami to China in December 2017. During the visit, the sides have discussed the cooperation in the anti-terror fight in the bordering regions.

Chinese authorities are scrutinizing the activities of exiled Uyghur members of the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM), a Muslim group that has committed dozens of terrorist acts in China.

"The Chinese side fears that the Chinese Uighurs, who are fighting along with terrorists [in the Middle East], can cross into China through Afghanistan and become a headache for the Chinese authorities," an unnamed source said to Fergana News Agency.

China's engagement in the base construction comes amid Beijing's major push for boosting ties with its war-ravaged neighbor. China has mediated rows between Afghanistan and Pakistan and offered to make Kabul a part of the $60 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor it wants to build with Islamabad.

 Sputnik

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Pentagon Reportedly 'Slow-Walking' North Korean Military Plans to White House

Sputnik News

22:20 02.02.2018(updated 22:21 02.02.2018)

The New York Times has reported that the Department of Defense (DoD) has been slow to release their detailed war plans with the White House as they fear US President Donald Trump may actually use them.

On Friday, the Times reported that the DoD has been "worried that the White House is moving too hastily toward military action on the Korean Peninsula that could escalate catastrophically" and that "giving the president too many options could increase the odds that he will act."

The Times' anonymous source claimed that Defense Secretary James Mattis and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) Gen. Joseph Dunford, Jr. are both heavily opposed to the use of force on the Korean Peninsula, as military action could have cataclysmic consequences.

Instead they want to opt for diplomacy to deescalate the stand-off that has worn on since April 2017. This puts them in opposition to National Security Adviser H R McMaster and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson who have floated the idea of a strategic military strike against North Korean nuclear sites in the case that diplomacy breaks down.

All top officials favor diplomacy as the first solution, but McMaster has stressed that this was the same tactic used by previous administrations  one that he blames for allowing the current crisis to form.

Trump made statements during his State of the Union speech on Tuesday that suggested that he was amenable to such thinking. "North Korea's reckless pursuit of nuclear missiles could very soon threaten our homeland," he said. "We are waging a campaign of maximum pressure to prevent that from happening. Past experience has taught us that complacency and concessions only invite aggression and provocation. I will not repeat the mistakes of past administrations that got us into this dangerous position."

Mattis and Dunford, meanwhile, have reportedly warned on many occasions that there were few or no military options that would not engulf the Korean Peninsula in war.

Pentagon and JCS press secretaries have denied the reports that the Pentagon was delaying the transfer of information to the White House. DoD press secretary Dana W White said that Mattis "regularly provides the president with a deep arsenal of military options" and the Times' reports were "false."

General Dunford's press secretary, Col. Patrick S. Ryder, concurred. "While the details of [Dunford's] conversations with the secretary of defense and the president are privileged communication, I can assure you that General Dunford regularly provides his best military advice in a timely and responsive manner to both senior leaders, to include military options for a wide range of national security challenges," he said. "Suggestions to the contrary are inaccurate."

The schism in the administration over these war plans has continued to widen, including debate over whether a "bloody nose" limited strike against North Korea is even possible.

White House reports from earlier in January claimed that Trump was considering a "bloody nose" strike against Pyongyang's nuclear sites. When asked about this possibility, Tillerson told reporters that "we have to recognize that the threat is growing and that if North Korea does not choose the pathway of engagement, discussion, negotiation then they themselves will trigger an option."

Victor Cha, a Korea scholar who advised former President George W Bush on North Korea, said that he was to be nominated for the ambassadorship to South Korea  until he began to stress his opposition to a "bloody nose strike" to the Pentagon, the United States Pacific Command, the State Department and the National Security Council.

In a Washington Post editorial, Cha claimed that his opposition to a strategic strike as ineffective cost him his nomination. He instead pushed for a continued military buildup around the Korean Peninsula and stronger ties with Japan and South Korea.

 Sputnik

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India to Build Tunnel Under 14000 Ft High Sela Pass Near Chinese Border

Sputnik News

16:22 02.02.2018(updated 16:30 02.02.2018)

Tawang is claimed by India as part of Arunachal Pradesh as well as by China as part Tibet. The relations between the two neighbors have become increasingly strained since China had strongly objected to the Tawang visits of Tibetan leader in exile the Dalai Lama and the US ambassador to India.

New Delhi (Sputnik)  In a bid to ensure all-weather connectivity between the mainland and the hinterlands bordering China, the Indian government has announced the construction of a tunnel at the majestic Sela Pass that sits at 14000 feet above sea level. Primarily, the idea is to cut down the time taken by troops to travel to Tawang  a potential military flashpoint for its disputed status.

"The tunnels would cut down at least an hour of travel time between the Army's 4 Corps headquarters at Tezpur and Tawang. Moreover, the tunnels would ensure that NH 13 and especially the 171-km stretch between Bomdila and Tawang, remains accessible in all weather conditions," a statement issued by the Border Roads Organization (BRO) reads.

India's Minister of Finance Arun Jaitley confirmed the plan during the presentation of the annual budget in Parliament on Thursday.

"To secure India's defenses, we are developing connectivity infrastructure in border areas. Rohtang tunnel has been completed to provide all-weather connectivity to the Ladakh region. The contract for construction of Zozila Pass tunnel of more than 14 kilometers is progressing well. I now propose to take up construction of the tunnel under Sela Pass," Arun Jaitley said.

The Border Roads Organisation (BRO) had announced the tunnel construction project at Sela in July 2017, sharing details of two tunnels. The length of one tunnel will be 475 meters while the other 1.79 km will bypass Sela and several hairpin bends.

The current roads connecting Tawang with the mainland remain blocked during the long snowy winters. Troops currently depend on helicopters for transportation of personnel and supplies. Evacuation of casualties is also done by helicopters.

At the same time, India also plans to expand its railways to the region. Officials have been carrying out final location survey for the proposed Misamari (Bhalukpong)-Tenga-Tawang strategic rail line since March last year.

China had cautioned India to adopt a restrained attitude on infrastructure development in regions where consensus has not been reached between the countries.

"We hope India adopts a cautious and restrained attitude on the issue before the final settlement of the border issue with China to jointly control disputes, safeguard peace and tranquillity in the border areas," the Chinese Foreign Ministry had told news agency IANS in May 2017.

The two countries accuse each other of occupying each other's territory along the 3,500 kilometers-long disputed border that traverses through the Indian states of Jammu and Kashmir, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh.

 Sputnik

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India Moves to Counter Growing Chinese Presence in Indian Ocean Region

By Anjana Pasricha February 02, 2018

India has signed a pact to build naval infrastructure in the Indian Ocean archipelago of Seychelles to counter growing Chinese influence in the region. The Indian foreign minister has also made an unusual visit to Nepal where Communist parties friendly with China are due to take power.

Analysts said the two moves in the past week underline India's concerns about looming Chinese presence both in the Indian Ocean and in its immediate neighborhood.

Under the agreement concluded last week with Seychelles, India would build an airstrip and a jetty for its navy on Assumption Island. The base will help firm up its presence in the Indian Ocean and extend the reach of India's navy by allowing it to rotate its ships and aircraft through the islands.

"Relations with countries in the Indian Ocean Region and nurturing a climate of peace and stability are important cornerstones of India's foreign policy," Indian foreign secretary, Subramaniam Jaishankar said after sealing the pact, which was renegotiated on the basis of an earlier deal signed in 2015.

India's quest for strategic bases overseas comes amid intensified worries about being encircled by an increasingly assertive China.

Beijing formally opened its first overseas military base in Djibouti in East Africa last August. A greater concern, say analysts, is that Chinese assets are beginning to ring India in countries such as Bangladesh, Myanmar, Maldives and Sri Lanka that have signed on to Beijing's ambitious Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

"What we have got in our midst is a constriction of the Indian strategic maneuver space within our own geographical area," says Director of National Maritime Foundation in New Delhi, Pradeep Chauhan. "As China begins to develop bases in the Indian Ocean, there is a higher risk of this competition turning into areas of conflict."

Although some of the projects under the BRI have recently been cancelled or are being renegotiated due to fears of tough financial terms, it has not allayed concerns in India, which worries that a region that needs billions of dollars in infrastructure investment will not be able to resist the lure of Chinese investments.

"The real problem is of money and resources which all these countries want. There are aspirations which have gone up. Everybody wants to modernize and why not? And the Chinese are willing to offer money to them," points out Sukh Deo Muni, a South Asia expert at the Indian Institute of Defense Studies and Analyses. And the worry is that the economic presence leads to a strategic presence "because they are using infrastructure projects for strategic purposes."

India's insecurities about Beijing's looming presence in the Indian Ocean and in its neighborhood stem from China's assertive behavior in the South China Sea, where it has conflicts with several countries such as Vietnam, Japan and Philippines. These concerns intensified after Beijing refused to accept the results of an international tribunal in 2016 over territorial claims in the South China Sea. "That undermines the entire fabric of international law," says Chauhan.

The growing economies of Asia have made the Indian Ocean a hugely strategic region for countries like India and China with a bulk of their trade and crude oil imports traveling over these waters.

India's concerns about Beijing's growing political clout in neighboring Nepal also prompted Indian foreign minister Sushma Swaraj to visit Kathmandu days before an alliance of Communist parties is set to takes power. The alliance, backed by China, won a landslide victory in elections held in December.

Swaraj's visit on Thursday and Friday is seen as New Delhi's outreach to Nepali leader Khadga Pradad Oli who is expected to head the new government.

"It [Swaraj's visit] speaks, it reflects a nervousness. That should have been done after he assumes the prime ministership," said Muni, pointing out that the visit would usually take place after the new government takes power.

Relations between the two countries had hit a low point during Oli's previous stint as Nepal's prime minister in 2015. Accusing New Delhi of imposing an economic blockade on the country, he had built friendly ties with China in a bid to reduce the landlocked country's dependence on India.

China has pledged about $8 billion in investments in Nepal and has promised rail links between the two countries. In the run up to the election, Oli also promised to revisit the previous government's decision to scrap a $2. 5 billion dollar contract with China for a hydroelectricity project.

While India has also reached out to help small, neighboring countries like Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh develop infrastructure projects such as dams and roads, it is unable to match Chinese resources and is often accused of moving too slowly to implement the projects.

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Humanitarian diplomacy 'getting nowhere' in Syria warns UN special adviser

1 February 2018  Civilians in Syria's besieged areas have not seen a single convoy of humanitarian aid arrive for a full two months, a senior United Nations adviser said on Thursday, lamenting that diplomatic efforts appear "totally impotent," and that hundreds of lives are being lost as a result.

Briefing reporters in Geneva after a meeting of a UN-supported humanitarian task force, Jan Egeland, Special Adviser to the UN Special Envoy, said the most recent aid convoy arrived on the 28th November 2017, in the town of al-Nashibiya, and consisted of aid for only 7,200 people.

Many civilians fleeing conflict areas took refuge in the area of Idlib, where fighting has since flared up, leaving them with little choice but to move on again.

Mr. Egeland said that the history of the war in Syria is that of millions of people fleeing for their lives every single year for the past five years, and that the situation is "screaming for a ceasefire."

"This is a war when armed men are specializing in the suffering of civilian populations and those that are the sponsors, are not able to end it."

He added that an end to the fighting was essential, and that this would require cooperation from Russia, Iran and Turkey.

Asked if the recent meeting of Syrian parties in the Russian city of Sochi could help the humanitarian situation, Mr. Egeland said he hopes that the meetings will result in progress, adding that it hasn't so far, but "this is very early days."

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Trump prepared for military action in Syria to deter chemical attacks: Officials

Iran Press TV

Fri Feb 2, 2018 02:10AM

Senior US officials have claimed President Donald Trump is prepared to launch a military action if necessary against the Syrian government which they say is possibly developing new types of chemical weapons.

The officials on Thursday said the government of Syrian Bashar al-Assad saved a part of chemical weapons stockpile despite a US-Russian deal under which Damascus had agreed to hand over all such weapons for destruction.

The government surrendered its stockpiles of chemical weapons in 2014 to a joint mission led by the UN and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), which oversaw the destruction of the weaponry. The deal was negotiated by Russia and the United States.

The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, told reporters in Washington, DC, that Syrian armed forces "evolved" their chemical weapons and made continued occasional use of them in smaller amounts since April 2017. But they declined to provide specific details.

More than 80 people died in the April 4, 2017 sarin gas attack on Khan Shaykhun in Idlib Province. Following the incident, the US military launched a missile strike on a Syrian air base.

The United States and the militants operating in the area blamed the Syrian government for the deadly incident. Syria and Russia, however, rejected the claims, suggesting that a militant weapon may have detonated on the ground.

"We reserve the right to use military force to prevent or deter the use of chemical weapons," one official said.

A second official said if the international community does not act quickly to rein in Syria's chemical weapons, they could spread beyond its borders and possibly even "to US shores."

"It will spread if we don't do something," the official warned.

In June last year, the fact-finding team from the OPCW published the results of its probe of the April 4 incident, confirming that the chemical substance in the Khan Shaykhun incident had been the nerve gas sarin.

In response, Moscow described the OPCW report as "very biased," arguing that the report failed to address the question of who was responsible for the gas incident and how the chemical had been used.

Last week, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Russia bears some responsibility for failing to enforce the chemical weapons ban on Syria, and claimed that the Syrian government used chemical weapons against militants in recent operations.

Russia has denied any complicity, and the Syrian government has said it has not carried out any of the attacks, saying such accusations are merely meant to hinder efforts to find a peaceful solution to the conflict in the Arab state.

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Pentagon Chief: US Has No Evidence Damascus Used Sarin Gas in Chemical Attacks

Sputnik News

19:00 02.02.2018(updated 19:08 02.02.2018)

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - US Secretary of Defense James Mattis says investigators are looking into reports that the Syrian government used sarin gas in recent chemical attacks, but there is no evidence of the gas usage so far, US media reported on Friday.

"We do not have evidence," Mattis told reporters according to Politico.

Mattis added it appears chlorine was used in the attacks, but "we are even more concerned about the possibility of sarin use."

The US defense chief stressed that it would be a mistake for the Syrian government to launch any more chemical attacks on civilians.

On Thursday, the State Department said the United States was working with its partners on the ground in Syrian to investigate the reports of recent chemical weapons use in East Ghouta, Syria.

Media reports earlier this week suggested that the Trump administration believes Damascus is developing new chemical weapons.

The Pentagon's statement comes amid the disputes around the report presented by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) and by the OPCW-United Nations Joint Investigative Mechanism (JIM). The analysis calls Syrian President Bashar Assad is responsible for the use of sarin in the Khan Sheikhoun incident, while the Daesh terrorist organization is responsible for the use of sulfur mustard in Umm Hawsh.

Syrian authorities have been repeatedly accused of using chemical weapons against civilians in the conflict that began in 2011, but Damascus has denied the allegations.

 Sputnik

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Pentagon Chief: No Evidence of Recent Sarin Gas Use by Syria

By Carla Babb February 02, 2018

The U.S. has no evidence that the Syrian government recently has used deadly sarin nerve gas on its citizens but is looking into reports of its alleged use from people on the ground, U.S. Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis said Friday.

"We're looking for evidence of it since clearly we are dealing with the [Bashar al-]Assad regime that has used denial and deceit to hide their outlawed actions," Mattis told reporters at the Pentagon.

Syria has denied using illegal chemicals.

Mattis said the Syrian government has weaponized and used chlorine gas in the Syrian civil war, and that the U.S. is "even more concerned about the possibility of sarin use." The colorless toxin can cause respiratory failure, leading to death.

The United States is suspicious, Mattis said, because in addition to the reporting on the ground, the Assad government has been caught using chemical weapons against the Syrian people before.

Last April, the U.S. military fired a barrage of missiles into Syria's Shayrat Airfield in retaliation for a chemical weapons attack that killed about 100 civilians.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said at the time the U.S. had "very high confidence" that the chemical agent used in that deadly attack was sarin nerve gas.

"They'd be ill-advised to go back to violating the chemical convention," Mattis said Friday, referring to the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on their Destruction.

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Two killed as volley of rockets strike Turkish border towns

Iran Press TV

Fri Feb 2, 2018 05:36PM

At least two people have been killed and several other injured after a barrage of rockets from Syria's Kurdish-controlled northwestern region of Afrin struck two Turkish border towns, officials say.

The Hatay governor's office said in a statement that at least six rockets targeted the town of Reyhanli in Hatay province on Friday.

The attack wounded at least 18 people, two of whom later died in hospital, it added. The assault also damaged a home, a workplace and a road close to the marketplace.

Meanwhile, Governor Mehmet Tekinarslan said that at least three more rockets struck the town of Kilis, northeast of Reyhanli, where at least three people were wounded.

Several rockets have hit the Turkish border towns of Kilis and Reyhanli in recent days as Ankara presses ahead with its operation against US-backed Kurdish militants in the war-torn Arab country.

Friday's deaths have raised to six the death toll in a salvo of rocket attacks on the two towns since January 20. The victims include a teenage girl and two Syrian refugees.

In recent days, Turkey has arrested more than 300 people for social media posts criticizing its military offensive against US-backed Kurdish militants in Syria's northwestern region of Afrin.

The Interior Ministry said on Monday that a total of 311 people, including politicians, journalists and activists, had been detained for "spreading terrorist propaganda" on social media over the last 10 days.

Turkey launched the so-called Operation Olive Branch in Afrin five days ago in a bid to eliminate the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG), which Ankara views as a terror organization and the Syrian branch of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

The YPG forms the backbone of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a US-backed anti-Damascus militant group.

The Turkish military said in a statement on Tuesday that at least 260 members of the YPG and the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group had been killed in the Afrin operation. The SDF has also claimed to kill dozens of Turkish forces and allied Free Syrian Army members.

Operation Olive Branch in the Afrin region is Turkey's second major military intervention in Syria during an unprecedented foreign-backed militancy that broke out in 2011.

In August 2016, Turkey began a unilateral military intervention in northern Syria, code-named Operation Euphrates Shield, sending tanks and warplanes across the border. Ankara claimed that its military campaign was aimed at pushing Daesh from Turkey's border with Syria and stopping the advance of Kurdish forces, who were themselves fighting Daesh.

Turkey ended its campaign in northern Syria in March 2017, but at the time did not rule out the possibility of yet another act of military offensive inside the Arab country.

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Turkey's Envoy to Doha Refutes Reports of Plans to Deploy New Troops in Qatar

Sputnik News

18:50 02.02.2018

ANKARA (Sputnik) - Turkey's ambassador to Doha Fikret Ozer refuted the claims on Friday about Ankara's alleged plans to deploy additional military forces in Qatar.

On Thursday, some Turkish media outlets reported that Ozer said at a press conference about Ankara's plans to deploy the country's navy and air force to already stationed land forces to Turkey's base in Qatar. An agreement on establishing a military base in Qatar was signed between the two states in 2014.

"The statement I made two days ago  in answer to a question  was misinterpreted My statement was cited as if Turkey planned to establish additional bases in Qatar I was referring to the 2014 agreement, but this was understood as if it were something new," Ozer told the Anadolu news agency.

The ambassador stressed that the press conference was devoted to Turkey's operation in Syrian Afrin, and not to the military cooperation between Ankara and Doha. He specified that the question he answered was about the fact that the issue of military deployment should be agreed between the two states, according to the news agency.

In June 2017, a group of Turkish servicemen arrived at a base in southern Doha in line with the 2014 agreement. Turkey offered an increased support to Doha amid a diplomatic crisis between some Arab states the same month, when Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates broke off diplomatic relations with Qatar, accusing the country of interfering in their internal affairs and supporting terrorism.

 Sputnik

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US to Equip F-35 Fighters with Nuke Capabilities - Nuclear Posture Review

Sputnik News

22:03 02.02.2018(updated 23:10 02.02.2018)

US President Donald Trump's Nuclear Posture Review, formally released Friday afternoon, calls for strapping nuclear weapons onto stealthy F-35 jets, among other policy updates.

"Modernizing our dual-capable fighter bombers with next-generation F-35 fighter aircraft will maintain the strength of NATO's deterrence posture and maintain our ability to forward deploy nuclear weapons, should the security situation demand it," the report, compiled by the Office of the Secretary Defense, states.

The document clarifies that Washington "would only consider the employment of nuclear weapons in extreme circumstances to defend the vital interests of the United States, its allies and partners." Nevertheless, those extreme circumstances could include non-nuclear strategic attacks against the US or its interests, according to the report. Earlier this week, the Pentagon walked back reports that a devastating cyberattack could be countered by a nuclear strike under the new policy.

The F-35 has a long history of technical difficulties and exceeding budgets. The F-35 does not currently have the capability to fire nuclear weapons, but commanders involved with the F-35 Program Office have estimated the capability will be there between 2020 and 2022. US Air Force Brig. Gen. Scott Pleus has said it would "definitely be possible" to accelerate the timeline for deploying nukes on the aircraft should the need arise.

Specifically, the F-35 will take on the F-15E's responsibility for carrying B-61 gravity bombs, the posture review states. "The current non-strategic nuclear force consists exclusively of a relatively small number of B61 gravity bombs carried by F-15E and allied dual capable aircraft (DCA)," the report states, referring to the reliance on F-15 to perform "fighter" and "bomber" missions.

"The United States is incorporating nuclear capability onto the forward-deployable, nuclear-capable F-35 as a replacement for the current aging DCA," the NPR says, adding that "in conjunction with the ongoing life extension program for the B-61 bomb, it will be a key contributor to continued regional deterrence stability and the assurance of allies."

On Russia

In introducing the Nuclear Posture Review, Defense Secretary James Mattis wrote that Moscow is advancing its own nuclear capabilities. But "even more troubling has been Russia's adoption of military strategies and capabilities that rely on nuclear escalation for their success. These developments, coupled with Russia's seizure of Crimea and nuclear threats against our allies, mark Moscow's decided return to Great Power competition."

However, the United States "seeks stable relations" with Russia and China, not enmity, he added.

The nuclear posture review, first commissioned by President Donald Trump shortly after entering office in 2017, states that Russia is "developing at least two new intercontinental range systems, a hypersonic glide vehicle, and a new intercontinental, nuclear-armed, nuclear-powered, undersea autonomous torpedo."

On testing nuclear weapons

The Trump administration has put the option on the table to continue with nuclear weapons testing if this becomes necessary. "The United States will not resume nuclear explosive testing unless necessary to ensure the safety and effectiveness of the US nuclear arsenal, and calls on all states possessing nuclear weapons to declare or maintain a moratorium on nuclear testing," the document said.

 Sputnik

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Japan Inspects its 32 Cryptocurrency Exchanges Business oi-Olga

On Friday, Japan's financial regulatory body, Financial Services Agency (FSA) announced that it will be inspecting 32 cryptocurrency exchanges operating in its country. 16 of the agencies are functioning without a license.

The 16 exchanges approved by the FSA last year were Money Partners, Quoine, Bitflyer, Bit Bank, SBI Virtual Currencies, GMO Coin, Bittrade, Btcbox, Bitpoint, Fisco Virtual Currency, Zaif, Tokyo Bitcoin Exchange, Bit Arg Exchange Tokyo, FTT Corporation, Xtheta Corporation and Bitocean.

The ones that do not have a license are however classified as "deemed virtual currency exchange traders". Coincheck is one such agency that had reported the loss of NEM cryptocurrency worth $530 million last week.

One of Japan's Biggest Cryptocurrency Exchange Hacked

The other 15 include Minnano Bitcoin, Payward Japan, Lemuria Bitcoin Exchange (Bitcrements), Campfire Corporation, Tokyo Gateway, Lastroots Corporation, Debit, Eternal Link, FSHO Corporation, Kirin Corporation, Bit Station, Blue Dream Japan, Mr. Exchange, Bmex Corporation, and Bitexpress Corporation.

The Japanese government had not revealed the names of these 16 unlicensed exchanges before Friday.

Japanese Crypto-Exchange Hacking Explained

For investment related articles, business news and mutual fund advise Allow Notifications

Story first published: Saturday, February 3, 2018, 16:49 [IST]Capt. Kevin Caneco is a member of the 20th Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear and Explosives Command at Aberdeen Proving Ground; the opinions here are his alone and do not represent those of the U.S. Army of Department of Defense.GREENWICH  With the field for the governors race growing ever larger, Greenwich resident Guy Smith got a chance to make his case for the office to potential supporters Thursday night.

The Democratic businessman and former Clinton adviser pressed the flesh and talked issues at Blackstones Steakhouse.

Were very encouraged and very energized by the reaction weve been getting from everybody, said Smith, who announced his candidacy last month. Ive been in churches and muni halls and candidate forums all over the state. Ive taken some pretty strong positions like not raising taxes and on tolls.

Gov. Dannel Malloy, who is not seeking re-election, has called for the return of tolls, in electronic form, to state highways to raise money for transportation infrastructure. Many Democrats in the Legislature have expressed openness to the idea, Republican leaders were flatly opposed.

Smith backs a different plan. He said a deal could be struck with a major credit card company like MasterCard that would provide an account to everyone in the state with a license on file or who files a state tax return. Money would be deducted electronically  without booths  as people used state roads, and then they would get the money back as a tax credit on state returns.

Tolls annoy people, Smith said. Im not going to run a government that annoys people.

Smith, 68, said he is against any tax increases.

We collect enough tax money, Smith said. Weve got to find a way to use it more efficiently and effectively.

That goes for the gas tax too, he said. Because the gas tax is so high here, trucking companies tell their drivers not to buy gas in Connecticut, he said, adding the Legislature should lower the gas tax instead.

The companies will tell their drivers, You must stop in Connecticut and buy gas, and those drivers are going to fill up those 18-wheelers with 100 gallons of gas and while the tank is being filled theyre going to buy something at the store and pay sales tax, Smith said. The people of Connecticut are going to benefit without having another tax.

He decried the poor relations between the governor and both parties in the General Assembly, citing last years budget impasse that dragged on for months.

Thats no way to run a government in 2018, he said.

Several candidates with Greenwich ties are part of the early race for governor.

In addition to Smith, Ned Lamont, who defeated former U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman in a 2006 Democratic primary, is seeking the partys nomination, as is town native and current Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin. Additionally, town resident Dita Bhargava is exploring a run for governor as a Democrat but has not made an official announcement.

Smith is a former executive at Diageo North America, a branch of the global liquor company based in Norwalk, and also worked as a director for AmeriCares, the disaster-relief and medical nonprofit organization based in Stamford. He worked in the White House as an adviser to President Bill Clinton and served as a special adviser to Hillary Clinton on her presidential run in 2016.

The fundraiser was put together by Greenwich resident and criminal defense attorney Phil Russell, who has known Smith for years, through the group Greenwich Friends of Guy Smith. Russell said he was eager to help Smiths candidacy by introducing him to potential new supporters.

Guy is an exciting and refreshing change, Russell said. Unlike a lot of the other people who are putting their names in the hat now, Guys had a lifetime in crisis management and dealing with political leaders and dealing with Washington. Hes very, very good at it. Hes respected by corporate leaders. Hes respected by other governors. Hes respected by people throughout this milieu who he is going to need if he is governor.

kborsuk@greenwichtime.comOld Greenwich

Residents have spoken, and additional minor revisions will be made on the proposal for a traffic circle on Sound Beach Avenue.

Town Deputy Commissioner of Public Works James Michel did not specify what those revisions would be but said they would be based on comments from residents. He also stressed the importance of the project.

DPW feels this project is necessary to improve aging infrastructure, improve traffic safety and emergency accessibility to Old Greenwich and reduce confusion, Michel said Friday. At the same time, we understand the residents of Greenwich love the look and feel of their town. And we are going to make the improvements in a way that is fitting to the neighborhood and maintains the character of the area.

The project is centered around replacing the Sound Beach Avenue Bridge over Cider Mill Brook. While residents support that, their concerns center around other parts of the plan, including changing in the traffic circle in front of Perrot Memorial Library to be a more traditional roundabout, while retaining the traffic island, and raising the roads elevation to deal with flooding concerns.

More than 150 people attended a public meeting on the project Jan. 25, and at a public hearing about the 2018-19 budget on Jan. 29, several people spoke out against it. Residents said the work would not only fail to address traffic congestion and accident problems in the traffic circle, it would actually make them worse.

Rita Baker, a town resident, said the changes would permanently scar the neighborhood, a view that was echoed by several others.

But Michel said not all the feedback had been negative.

I have received numerous compliments related to the meeting, the presentation and a number of people supporting the improvements, he said. Many residents have sent emails stating they feel the project is very important and is a much-needed project for safety, emergency access and to reduce confusion at this location.

The project will be paid for by the state but must first receive town approval through the 2018-19 municipal budget.

Byram

The new municipal pool is slated to open in May, and the community now has a chance to help help.

The project is the result of a public private partnership between the town and the Junior League of Greenwich, which has now opened its fundraising campaign to the public.

This is going to be an incredible complex that will be a resource to every Greenwich resident, Junior League President Debra McLaughlin said. The public campaign will be unveiled in the coming weeks, with a banner above Greenwich Avenue.

Town residents will get notices in the mail on how to make a donation. More information is also available at the leagues website at www.jlgreenwich.org, including how to buy a personalized brick for the main walkway into the new pool pavilion.

The new pool completely replaces the old one. After years of complaints of leaks, long lines and inaccessibility, the new pool will have a capacity for 300 people and be fully handicapped accessible. The area, which is part of a revitalization of Byram Park, will include a main pool, a kiddie pool, a splash pad, changing areas, restrooms and a cafe and picnic area.

The grand opening of the new Greenwich Pool coincides with the centennial anniversary of Bryam Park, Junior League communications chair Martha Agarwal said. For 100 years, Greenwich residents have enjoyed this special property right on Long Island Sound. Nearly 30,000 visits are made each summer to this park, truly making it a place where our community gathers.

Construction is budgeted at $6.8 million. The league, which helped pay for architecture and engineering work as well as the design of the pool, has committed to a $2.5 million capital campaign in the partnership.

McLaughlin said earlier fundraising was incredibly successful, with support from individuals, foundations and corporations. The public phase will include the use of crowdfunding through goodcircle.org with a heavy presence on social media.

Downtown

With cold and snow and winter mess hanging around, spring cant come soon enough. And Greenwich youth will soon have the chance to get outside again with registration set to open for town skate park clinics.

Registration opens Monday for the popular clinics at the skate park in Roger Sherman Baldwin Park. They will be held on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons starting the week of April 17.

The clinics will last for four weeks and kids ages 6 to 12 can sign up for either day. The classes run from 4:15 to 5:15 p.m. Each kid must have their own skateboard and full pads.

The cost is $95. According to Frank Gabriele, recreation supervisor for the town, trained staff at the skate park will teach the classes. Participants will be divided by age and ability into smaller groups and taught tricks appropriate to their individual skill level.

The skate park was renovated last year and is now made all of cement, a better surface for skating. It also has room for bikers and scooters as well as skateboarders but only at designated times.

The cement surface has been well-received, Gabriele said. The number of skaters doubled after the park reopened in September.

The old parks wood ramps and asphalt just werent good, he said. When you fall on asphalt, its like falling on sandpaper. Also the kids skateboards dont roll as well on the asphalt, and when they transition from the ramp to the asphalt just isnt smooth.

More information is online at www.greenwich.org under the Parks and Recreation section or by calling 203-496-9876. The skate park will reopen in the spring. Annual memberships are available to residents and can be purchased at Town Hall in the Parks and Recreation Office.

Byram

Forget the Winter Olympics, the real competition will be in Greenwich when the towns skating competition takes place Feb. 25.

The competition, which includes a number of categories and age ranges, is open to qualified skaters in good standing with the U.S. Figure Skating Association as it is a sanctioned event. Windy Hill Skating Club and the town sponsor the event.

According to the town, the competition is designed to encourage young skaters and to provide an opportunity for skaters to compete, to highlight the basics of good skating and establish standards of performances, but most of all, to have an enjoyable day of skating where children may demonstrate the progress they have made during the year.

The event will take place at the Dorothy Hamill Skating Rink in Byram.

The closing date for entries was Jan. 19.LG Mobile is allegedly set on pulling out of the Chinese smartphone market, reports in local publications state.

The news comes following the release of LG's 2017 financial results last week. Record-breaking revenue of LG Electronics as a whole may sound good, but the mobile division in particular posted a $192M operating loss for Q4, with 'strong competition from Chinese brands' specifically quoted in the press release.

Chinese brands have proven too tough of a competition in their home market, apparently - LG was estimated to have sold just 160,000 units in the country in the entire year 2016 out of an estimated 480 million total shipments. The G6 and V30 smartphones haven't been officially launched in China either. Indeed, it's a bit odd to be greeted by the G5 in the mobile section of the LG China website. Might as well just pull the plug then.

Source (in Chinese) | ViaThese are the best offers from our affiliate partners. We may get a commission from qualifying sales.



Haiti - FLASH : The Sweet Micky Group will participate in the National Carnival of PAP





Contrary to the decisions of the city of Gonaives https://www.icihaiti.com/en/news-23381-icihaiti-flash-carnival-the-group-sweet-micky-in-turmoil.html and of Jacmel https://www.icihaiti.com/en/news-23417-icihaiti-flash-sweet-micky-banned-from-participation-in-jacmel-carnival-parade.html to exclude the participation of the "Sweet Micky" Group from their carnival parade, the 2018 National Carnival Committee of Port-au-Prince has just confirmed the official list of 20 Musical Groups who will take part in the parade on February 11-12 and 13, 2018 in the streets of Port-au-Prince, in which appears the "Sweet Micky" Group.



Official list of 20 Groups in alphabetical order :



Barikad Crew, Big O, Boukman Eksperyans, Brothers Posse, Djakout #1, Enposib, Eya Eya, Kai, Kanpech, King Posse, Kreyol La, Z-Zino, Maestro, Mass Konpa, RAM, Rev, Rockfam, Sweet Micky, T-Vice and Zikos.



Official list of 25 Walking Bands :



620 Ans Band, An Gran Jan, Beseba, Bizou Bizou Band, Blood Band, Chouchou Band, Diagolo, Family Rara, Fashion Matte, Grappe Plaisir One The Moove, Jaguar's Band, Louloup Party Cool, New-York New-York, No Limit Rara Fanm, Original Bel Bebet, Original Cash Band, Raram, Relax Band, Rosa Band, Silibo, Soul Rasta#1, Tabou 4X4 Band, Vice Band, Vodoula and Rara Fanm.



See also :

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-23451-haiti-flash-d-9-more-information-on-the-national-carnival-2018.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-23445-haiti-news-zapping.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-23400-haiti-carnival-national-2018-pre-carnival-activities-list-of-dj-s-sunday-28.html

https://www.icihaiti.com/en/news-23381-icihaiti-flash-carnival-the-group-sweet-micky-in-turmoil.html



HL/ HaitiLibre

















Published on 2018/02/03 | Source

"Nine Days", at this point, seems to be focused on violence as a means of information procurement and that will most definitely make this film intense. The main characters are not defined as on either side of the good/evil line and I'm hoping that that means there is a twist. One hids information about a missle and the other tries to unconver it. Moral lines are blurred and we'll have to see who stands where when it comes out.

-Your, Lisa

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Release date in Korea : 2018Published on 2018/02/03 | Source

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MoreSt. Jude Thaddeus School went into a lockdown Friday due to an individual involved in a custody issue, a letter to parents posted on the school's Facebook page says.

The lockdown happened at 2:25 p.m.

The individual was escorted off campus and subsequently detained, the letter says. No unauthorized individuals were at any point inside the school.

The school administration decided as a precaution and with the support of police to dismiss students early while the individual was detained, the letter says.

The individual was not identified in the letter or by police. No other information was provided.Remember canned goods on Souper Sunday

Jennica Tapia and the Rev. Kathryn Cameron.

Related Stories

Remember your canned goods at worship services this weekend for the Souper Bowl of Caring.

In photo, Jennica Tapia, with the Rev. Kathryn Cameron, shows a snack box that First Presbyterian Church will donate to the Interfaith Assistance Ministry to feed the needy. Mark White, a real estate broker and appraiser, donated 100 snack boxes to the church for this years Souper Bowl of Caring, which wraps up on Sunday. In the weeks leading up the Super Bowl, congregations, youth groups and other organizations around the country collect canned soup and cash donations for local organizations that feed the needy. In 2017, 6,542 groups across the country participated, including many congregations and groups in Henderson County.

White runs the volunteer group Feeding by Grace, which cooks hot dogs, pizza and chicken on Seventh Avenue every Thursday night. He also cooks at sites in Asheville and Forest City. Im always looking for a deal on something, White said of the snack boxes, which contain chips, tuna, cookies and other treats. They retail for $4.75 apiece. We found 7,000 that they sold us for a dollar apiece because theyre not uniform. He resold enough to break even and is giving the rest away. Feeding by Grace gives out the snack boxes when its too rainy or cold to cook out.Which restaurant is offering '90s throwback prices?

Related Stories

Haus Heidelberg German Restaurant is marking its 24th anniversary a 90s Throwback Weekend featuring a retro menu from the first year they opened. The special menu offered Feb. 2-4 will include not only the dishes they served at the time but also the same prices at which they were first offered.

Its become one of the biggest yearly events we hos, said owner and chef Helge Gresser. Our first Throwback Weekend was held on our 20th anniversary, and it was a huge hit. Our customers love to come in and get their favorite dishes for such a discounted rate. Its our way of thanking the community for supporting us for so long.The trial of Patrick Hutch, accused of murdering David Byrne at the Regency Hotel almost two years ago, is set to continue on Monday after the Special Criminal Court ruled that the process of identifying him using photographic evidence is admissible in the case.

Mr Hutch's defence team had made submissions to the three-judge court that the identification process involving two detective gardai was "sullied and tainted".

The photograph being used by the prosecution to identify Mr Hutch as being at the scene was taken by a press photographer on the day of the shooting on February 5, 2016.

Fleeing

It is the prosecution's case that a figure dressed as a woman and seen fleeing the scene with a gun is Mr Hutch (25), from Champions Avenue, Dublin 1.

Mr Hutch is pleading not guilty to the murder of Mr Byrne (33).

He also denies possessing three AK47 assault rifles in connection with the shooting.

His defence team questioned whether or not one of the detectives, Fergal O'Flaherty, looked at the photograph and named Mr Hutch in the presence of the second detective, Jonathan Brady, and if that could therefore have influenced Det Gda Brady's opinion on who the suspect was.

In the ruling on the matter yesterday, Mr Justice Tony Hunt explained how the photograph that was to be examined by the two detectives was on a monitor in a room in Ballymun Garda Station, and that both Det Gda O'Flaherty and Det Gda Brady were invited to look at it.

He said the three-judge panel was satisfied that both detectives had identified the person on the screen as Mr Hutch, but had done so separately from each other and there was "no basis of contami- nation by nomination".

He also said they were satisfied that Det Gda O'Flaherty had left the room without naming Mr Hutch but having confirmed that he knew who one of the people on the screen was, and that Det Gda Brady then identified Mr Hutch separately.

Mr Justice Hunt said in his conclusion that confusion could have been avoided by the making of a more comprehensive account of the identification process as it was made.

Fabricated

He also said the judges do not accept that Garda Michael Ryan, who showed the detectives the photograph, fabricated his account of events or augmented it from media reports.

"We are satisfied Gda Ryan has an accurate recollection of the viewing, and have no doubt he accurately described that the two were separated," the judge said.

The ruling on the admissibility of the identification process means the murder trial will recommence on Monday afternoon.

Mr Hutch sat quietly in the court as he listened to Mr Justice Hunt's hour-long ruling.

Dressed in a light grey suit and an open-neck white shirt, he drank occasionally from a bottle of water.

Mr Byrne's family was also present in the courtroom.Ciprian Ungureanu has been charged with dangerous driving

A driver who ran a red light and crashed into a car carrying a couple and three young children has been put off the road for two years.

Ciprian Ungureanu (32) also had his young son in his car at the time of the incident.

The victims suffered some injuries, but surgery was not required, the court heard.

Judge David McHugh sentenced Ungureanu to four months in prison suspended for 12 months.

He also banned him from driving for two years.

The defendant, of Eagle Court, Main Street, Clonee, admitted before Blanchardstown District Court to dangerous driving at North Road, Finglas, on December 3, 2016.

Gda Gary Moore said the injured party was turning right on North Road when the defendant, who was heading outbound, drove through a red light and hit the passenger side of his Ford Focus.

Upset

Gda Moore said the victim, his partner and three young children were in the vehicle.

They were taken to hospital for treatment for their injuries, which were not life threatening.

Gda Moore said the defendant's young son was in the back of his car, and he was taken to Temple Street Children's Hospital for his injuries.

The garda said Ungureanu was extremely upset when he spoke to him in the hospital.

Ungureanu's defence solic- itor said his client was insured and co-operated fully with gardai.

He said the incident was an "inadvertent" act, rather than a deliberate one.

The court heard that Ungureanu had most recently worked as a driver, and a driving ban would impact on his ability to find work.Sergeant Michael Ahern said that gardai were on mobile patrol at Rathfarnham Road when they stopped Raferty. (stock photo)

A young man who got into a drunken row with his girlfriend ended up spending Christmas Day in a cell in a garda station.

Daniel Markiewicz (23) struck his head on the cell wall and smeared his blood all over it.

Judge David McHugh ordered Markiewicz to donate 100 to Blanchards-town Hospice and struck out the charge.

The defendant, of Anfield Lawn, Dublin 15, admitted before Blanchardstown District Court to threatening and abusive behaviour and criminal damage.

Fighting

Sgt Maria Callaghan said gardai received a call about a man and a woman fighting at Diswellstown Road.

Officers separated the two, and Markiewicz, who was very drunk, became verbally abusive.

The defendant was taken to Blanchardstown Garda Station where he purposely struck his head on a cell wall, smearing his blood over it.

Defence solicitor John O'Doherty said Markiewicz, who works in a bakery, had been spending Christmas Day with his then girlfriend and her family.

The pair got into an argument at home and ran out and continued the row on the street.Bayarsalkhan Davaatseren allegedly stabbed partner four times in the chest following an argument

A knife-wielding man stabbed his partner so hard in an attack at their Dublin home that the force of the blow broke her breastbone, it has been alleged.

The woman's lung was punctured by another wound and her chest filled with blood, leaving her in need of emergency surgery, a court was told.

Bayarsalkhan Davaatseren (44) allegedly stabbed his partner four times in an attack at their apartment before leaving the scene.

When emergency services arrived, they found the woman lying on the ground and her two children locked in a bedroom.

Dublin District Court heard that Mr Davaatseren handed himself in to gardai the next day and told them he had "done something bad to my wife" but could not remember what happened because he had been drinking.

Threatening

He was remanded in custody after making no bail application.

Mr Davaatseren, of Joe Sartini Court apartments, Dominick Street, is charged with assault causing harm to his partner, producing a knife as a weapon and threatening to kill her or cause her serious harm.

The offences are alleged to have happened last Monday.

Det Gda Timothy O'Sullivan told the court that Dublin Fire Brigade was called to the scene following a report that a woman had been stabbed.

When gardai arrived, they saw her lying on the ground on Dominick Street, being tended to by an ambulance crew.

She had a number of stab wounds to her body and told gardai that her husband had stabbed her in their apartment.

Her lung collapsed and her chest was filling with blood and she was taken to the Mater University Hospital, where she underwent emergency surgery, Det Gda O'Sullivan said.

There were two superficial wounds to her left arm and left side, around the rib area.

The third wound, a 4cm-long injury to her left flank, was deep and had caused her lung to collapse.

The fourth injury was to her chest, between her breasts.

"The force that was applied was enough to fracture her sternum," Det Gda O'Sullivan said.

He told the court that he gained entry to the apartment along with members of the Armed Response Unit and found two small children, along with an independent witness, locked in a bedroom.

The suspect was not in the apartment at the time, the officer said.

The following morning, at 8.20am, Mr Davaatseren presented himself at the Bridewell Garda Station and spoke to Gda Sinead Murphy, who asked why he was there.

"He said that he had done something bad to his wife," the officer said.

Gda Murphy immediately cautioned him, and again the accused said he had done something bad to his wife, the court heard.

Mr Davaatseren was arrested, and in interview he expressed remorse and regret and said he had no recollection of what transpired "due to alcohol consumption".

Argument

The garda said that while the accused referred to the alleged victim as his wife, they were not married.

He told gardai that when his partner returned home that night, an argument started and his mind "had gone blank" after that.

Judge O'Shea said that although the DPP had not yet given directions, he was refusing jurisdiction in the case.

He placed a "medical alert" on the accused's file at the request of his solicitor.

The judge remanded the defendant in custody to appear before Cloverhill District Court next Tuesday.

The accused remained silent throughout the court proceedings and was assisted by an interpreter.A Dublin jockey who punched a taxi driver in the face and tried to gouge his eyes out is to be given community service in lieu of a jail sentence.

Christopher Timmons (29) pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to assault causing harm at Morehampton Road, Donnybrook, on the night of July 24, 2016.

Timmons, of The Pines, Castleknock, Dublin, wrote a letter to the court saying he was "horrified" by his own actions, especially as both his grandfathers had worked as taxi drivers. Timmons said he no longer drinks alcohol.

He took the sum of 3,950 to court to cover the financial losses suffered by the taxi driver as a result of the assault.

At the sentence hearing yesterday, Judge Karen O'Connor ordered that a report be prepared to see if Timmons was suitable for community service.

Violent

She said that pending the outcome of the report, due in April, she would sentence Timmons to 200 hours of community service in lieu of 18 months in prison.

Judge O'Connor said that although Timmons had displayed violent and aggressive behaviour, she felt he would be more useful to society carrying out service rather than in custody.

The court heard that Timmons had hailed a cab on the night and there was "some confusion" over the fare in respect of another person who was already in the taxi.

The taxi driver told gardai that Timmons became very aggressive, slammed the passenger door, punched the roof of the car and kicked the side door.

The driver then got out of the taxi and asked Timmons what he thought he was doing, before walking back towards his car.

Timmons then grabbed him from behind, punched him in the face and tried to "gouge his eye out" with his fingers.

Timmons then left the scene and walked towards Morehampton Road.

A victim impact report prepared by the injured taxi driver said he suffered a financial loss of 3,941 and had since changed his job and had become a bus driver.

The court heard that Timmons had one previous minor conviction. He had completed a third-level degree, works as a jockey and is now addressing his alcohol issues.

Judge O'Connor said testimonials on behalf of Timmons suggested that this was "out-of-character" behaviour.

She said Timmons was clearly a talented jockey with an impressive employment record, who had shown remorse and co-operated with gardai.

The matter will return to court for finalisation on April 13.Events planned in Tri-State to mark Sept. 11

A number of events are set to remember those lost and those who responded during the Sept. 11 terror attacks in 2001.The horror of it all seems blunted by the ease with which over 2,000 women signed up with the Karni Sena to commit jauhar (suicide by immolation) if the film Padmavaat was released. They were defending the honour of a mythical queen and their community. The valiant men of the Karni Sena chose the infinitely easier route of vandalising public property, terrorising school children and blocking roads. As it turns out, no one committed jauhar, the film was released and the goons folded their tents and vanished secure in the belief that indulgent state governments would do nothing much to them to bring them to justice.

This in a way is representative of the right-wing and its attitude to women. Women must make sacrifices to uphold the honour of a patriarchal order; please note that the Karni Sena men did not speak of giving up their lives to uphold Rani Padmavatis honour. A real womens movement would challenge notions of male domination in a family. In the right-wing, women are seen as symbols of the ideal woman, the homemaker whose primary task is raising children and taking care of the larger family unit. These women, who form organisations such as the Rashtra Sevika Samiti (the womens arm of the RSS) are mobilised when it becomes necessary . While they play a supplementary role to the men, they enjoy certain privileges on account of their position. The women in the Shiv Sena, for example, have been known to mete out justice to shopkeepers they think are cheats, resist the police when the latter are doing their duty, even beat up neighbourhood bullies with impunity.

Yet when it comes to leadership roles and decision-making, women are left out of the picture. Whatever these women undertake even by way of social work is seen as something done at the behest of men. The women feel empowered by the fact that they get the legitimacy to break the rules, exert their influence, broker peace in family disputes, tell women who are being abused to adjust and justify various regressive practices on account of the fact that they are subsidiaries of powerful right-wing organisations.

The pernicious propaganda about love jihad seeks to convey that the threat to Hindus is through the sly co-option of women by Muslims or even Christians. The Hindu right-wing seeks to portray the Hindu nation here in terms of the predatory Muslim and the pure Hindu woman who needs male protection in the form of violence against the predator.

When it comes to actual political or economic power for women, we see that the right-wing groups are not particularly vocal, and in fact, they are against any larger role for women outside of the home. If we go back to the origins of the Rashtra Sevika Samiti, its founder Laxmibai Kelkar approached RSS founder KB Hedgewar to see if women could join his organisation. Needless to say, he turned her away. It was 11 years after the RSS was founded the womens wing took shape. Even then, it had to stick to the dictum enunciated by MS Golwakar that disparity is an indivisible part of nature. In no way were the women to be considered on a par with men. Women were always seen in relation to their association with men; they could be mothers, sisters, daughters or wives. At all stages of life, they had to heed the voice of their male relatives. It is not for nothing that the RSS calls itself the sangh parivar.

Indeed, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat is on record to say that under the social contract a woman should take care of the household and the mans needs in return for which he will protect and provide for her. Thats not too far from the vision of the organisations founding fathers. In fact, Bhagwat says it is all right for a man to disown a woman who fails to keep her side of the contract.

The women who signed up for jauhar dont even seem to realise that they are nothing more than pawns in a larger game of imposing what is seen as good Hindu values on society. They dont seem to question why men who breathe fire and brimstone over the perceived insult to a mythical queen are quiet, even complicit, in dowry harassment, female foeticide and rape. They feel comfortable imposing dress codes and conduct on women, circumventing their freedom of choice. This is not just the tyranny of patriarchy, it is the duplicity of patriarchy.

@lalitapanickerIn a world where the pious reign and given what they do, I would rather be a blasphemer, says Anton Dhar, metal musician from Bangladesh.

In Pakistan, inspired by leftist poet Habib Jalib, Hassan Amin sings, Pakistan ka matllab kya, main nahin janta main nahin manta (What is the meaning of Pakistan; I dont know, I dont believe).

Genocide Shrines from Sri Lanka begins their song, ShivaTandavaViolence with a clip from the speech by Robert Oppenheimer, the father of the atomic bomb, after it was first tested.

If youve never heard of them, thats because theyre subversive, underground and / or faceless. Which is why documentary filmmaker Roy Dipankar has sought them out for his new film, Extreme Nation, on the subculture of radical, underground heavy metal in the Indian subcontinent.

All these musicians have seen war or some form of conflict and that informs how they feel and express themselves, Dipankar says. These are not musicians likely to be invited to festivals, wooed by sponsors or offered mainstream venues.

The film explores not just their lives as rockers, but their relationship with a shared violent past, and a tense present of geopolitical strife and evolving power conflicts in a volatile subcontinent.

Anton Dhar (above) of Bangladesh, Hassan Amin from Pakistan and Genocide Shrines from Sri Lanka are among the featured musicians.

Dipankar has spent four years researching for and shooting Extreme Nation, having raised part of the funds, over Rs 5 lakh, via crowdfunding website Wishberry.

Its a very different project from his first documentary, Nafir, about Sufi music. Metal music has fascinated me since I was a student in late-1990s Mumbai, he says. I used to attend Death Fest, trade audio cassettes with other fans across cities and even countries, get word-of-mouth news about events.

The trigger for the film, he says, was attending the Trendslaughter festival in Bengaluru in 2013. By this point, I was tired of the corruption of metal music in India, the dilution of the intent of rock music by the mid-2000s. It was going mainstream and losing its identity, he says. At Trendslaughter, I realised there were still a lot of genuine metal musicians in the subcontinent, and I felt it was important to make this film now as the politics of the subcontinent is allowing less and less to be said.

Chaturanga, who is part of Genocide Shrines, says band members never put their faces on promotional material, fearing threats over their views, which include an opposition to organised religion in a deeply religious country, and region.

Our music comes from the fact that we have been subjected, and have witnessed first-hand, immense levels of corruption starting from politically influenced religious acts to the more average evangelism spread by the selected elite, Chaturanga says.

Whats interesting about the bands is that they also share ethnic connections that separate them from the rest of the world, says Sandesh Shenoy, who heads Indian extreme metal record label Cyclopean Eye Productions and features in the documentary.

There are references to Ram and Ravan, mysticism, and influences of Carnatic and Hindustani music here, he says. This documentary could put the story of this music in front of a world that barely knows about it. Even bands from Hong Kong and Malaysia are recognised in Europe, the US and Canada, but bands from the subcontinent still arent.Devraj Singh, the kingpin of the gang that abducted a girl from a village in Madhya Pradeshs Panna district last week by posing as policemen with a Dial 100 response van, was arrested after a brief encounter and chase in Panna forests as his pistol malfunctioned.

Singh, who carries a cash reward of Rs 25,000, and three policemen were injured in the encounter and chase that began around 2.30 am on Friday night lasted till Saturday morning.

On January 27, Singh, and four accomplices kidnapped a girl from her home in a remote village in Panna, posing as policemen. They used a Dial 100 van and police uniform that they stole earlier from policemen  whom they stripped  in charge of the van.

While the four others were arrested and the girl rescued on Wednesday from Tikamgarh where they had brought her after taking her to several places in the state and Delhi, Singh had been absconding.

Panna superintendent of police, Riyaz Iqbal said on studying Singhs crimes, they realised he worked in a pattern. He generally returned to his native area after some time of the crime for collecting money. So we were waiting for his return.

On Friday midnight, our informer gave us a tip about his location. Technical support from cyber cell also helped us locate him in Pannas Matri Kuthar jungle area under Devendranagar police station limits, he said.

Iqbal said he formed a police team, which was sent into the forest area. We surrounded Devraj, but he fired using his country-made pistol. Two rounds were fired from his side while nine to ten were fired by us. When Singh wanted to fire the third round, his pistol got stuck and he started to run. A police team started chasing him. Devraj fell into an old well-type structure from where we finally caught him, he said.

The SP said Devrajs leg was injured while three police personnel, including town inspector Arvind Singh Danghi, constable Neeraj and constable Rahul (cyber cell) suffered injuries while chasing him.

All the injured, including Singh, were admitted in a hospital.

Police have seized the country-made pistol and some bullets from Singh. Singh had been banished from the district for his criminal activities.

Panna police said they would verify some accomplices claim that Devraj abducted the girl because of a love affair.Bollywood actor Sooraj Pancholi has been charged with abetment to suicide by a Mumbai sessions court in the case of actor Jiah Khans 2013 suicide. Finally, the trial is set to start on February 14 this year. Jiahs mother Rabbiya Khan, the complainant in the case, says that shes ready to fight the battle and is waiting for the truth to come out.

Im partially happy, Rabbiya tells us in a telephone conversation. At least, the momentum has begun and we can now actually fight the case. Ive given all the findings to the Supreme Court and they made the sessions court the fact-finder. It was a good thing that we could persuade the judge to look into the matter. I will fight for the truth till my last breath, adds Rabbiya, who is in London and will fly back to India before the trial begins.

In June 2013, Bollywood actor Jiah Khan was found hanging in her apartment in Juhu, Mumbai.

Jiah, whose filmography includes Nishabd (2007), Ghajini (2008), and Housefull (2010), committed suicide  so far, the case is being treated as suicide  in her flat in Juhu, Mumbai, in 2013. A six-page suicide note was found in the apartment; in it, Jiah spoke of being in a very unhappy relationship with Sooraj.

Let me tell you, my daughter was far braver than I can ever be, says Rabbiya. She left her comfortable life in London, to follow her passion and this is what happened to her. It has been very painful for me and my family in the past so many years.

Rabbiya says that she will only be able to decide her plan of action once she is back. Ill come back to India and then see what needs to be done next. The only thing which keeps me going is the truth, says the emotional mother. Justice is a very big word for me. All I want to know is who did this to my daughter. As a mother, its my right to know and I will keep fighting for this till I dont get an answer.

Follow @htshowbiz for moreFilm distributors and multiplex owners in Rajasthan will not be showing Padmaavat as Shri Rajput Karni Sena patron Lokendra Singh Kalvi continues to oppose the Sanjay Leela Bhansali film although a splinter Karni Sena group withdrew its protest.

Kalvi on Saturday said that Karni Senas opposition to Padmaavat will continue and those claiming otherwise are not real Karni Sena.

Also Read | Rajput pride, moustachioed men and legacy: What drives the Karni Sena protests against Padmaavat

There is some duplicity going on in the name of Karni Sena and eight such bodies have sprouted over the years. There are people giving statements on behalf of Karni Sena, but there is only one Karni Sena and our stand is clear that Padmaavat should not have been released, he said.

He was reacting to the news that Karni Sena has decided to take back its protest and accepted that the movie glorifies the valour of the Rajputs. On Saturday, Shri Rashtriya Rajput Karni Senas Mumbai leader Yogendra Singh Katar had said that on the directions of organisations national President Sukhdev Singh Gogamadi, a few members watched the movie in Mumbai on Friday and found that the movie glorifies the valour and sacrifice of Rajput and every Rajput will feel proud after watching the film.

Meanwhile, Shri Rashtriya Rajput Karni Sena president Sukhdev Singh Gogamedi has said the letter that has been circulating on social media claiming that Karni Sena has called off protests and has been carried by the media in name of Senas Mumbai leader Yogendra Singh Katar is fake. We are investigating how the fake letter was circulated, he said at a press conference in Jaipur.

Film distributors in Rajasthan have reacted cautiously. The reactions that we have got from Karni Sena leaders are not the known faces. The release of the movie in Rajasthan will depend on the stance of Kalviji, Rajasthans leading film distributor, Raj Bansal said, adding that the uncertainty would continue.

Another distributor, Sanjay Chatar expressed similar sentiments.

However, a multiplex owner, who did not wish to be named, said that there was hope that the matter could be resolved soon, paving the way for the release of the film in the coming days.

The protests started in January last year when Bhansali was assaulted on the sets of the film in Jaipur, as members of the fringe group claimed that the film has a romantic sequence between the characters of the 13th century Mewar queen Padmini and Delhi Sultanate ruler Alauddin Khilji, played by Deepika Padukone and Ranveer Singh.

Despite the filmmakers denial, protests continued in many states across India and came to a head around the time of the films release.

The Mumbai-based Karni Senas Katar had also said in a letter that there was no objectionable scene between Khilji and Padmini that could hurt the sentiments of Rajputs, and declared that his outfit was withdrawing their protest. He also said that it will help the administration to release Padmaavat in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and other places in India where the movie was not screened.

The Karni Sena had been demanding a ban on Padmaavat on the grounds that it distorted historical facts and projected queen Padmini in poor light. Last month, Supreme Court also lifted the ban on the movie imposed by several states and directed them to ensure its release.

The film was released after several modifications, including in its title, on January 25 amid protest from various groups, including Karni Sena. However, it was not released in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat.

Follow @htshowbiz for moreSuperstar Shah Rukh Khan praised filmmaker Sanjay Leela Bhansalis magnum opus Padmaavat and said that actor Ranveer Singh is now Delhi Sultan Alauddin Khilji for him. Shah Rukh on Friday treated his fans to a question and answer session, where Ranveer wrote to the Chennai Express star: Shah Rukh Khan, Hi bhai! Anxious for you to see Padmaavat.

Shah Rukh, 52, who is currently busy shooting for Aanand L Rais upcoming film Zero, replied: So sorry did not realise it was you, because now you are Khilji for me. Bahut acchhi picture hai bhai (It is a very good film)..I saw it and loved it.

So sorry didnt realise it was u, cos now u r Khilji for me. Bahut acchhi picture hai bhai..I saw it and loved it. https://t.co/9coSNSAmNq  Shah Rukh Khan (@iamsrk) February 2, 2018

Ranveer, speaking about getting into character as Khilji, said in an interview to Reuters, The process of creating the character of Khilji was collaborative with Mr Bhansali, and very exploratory. We were exploring the character as we went along. We kept building layer upon layer as we went along. There was an extreme moment that I had where somebody that I work with made a mistake. This was off-camera on a shooting day. My instinct was to harm that person. This was towards the end of the shoot. I realised that the instinct was not me  it was an Alauddin Khilji instinct. Then I realised that this character has really gone deep into my skin.

The film is based on 16th century poet Malik Muhammad Jayasis poem, Padmavat. It also stars Deepika Padukone and Shahid Kapoor.I try and go every year to the Street Food Festival organised on the grounds of Delhis Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium by the National Association of Street Vendors. I go for three reasons. The first, and most important, is that the National Association of Street Vendors does great work in standing up for the rights of roadside food vendors, who are the most abused and exploited people in the entire food business. I feel that all of us, who have some involvement in the food business, should do whatever we can to support the vendors, most of whom struggle to feed their families while being shaken down by policemen, municipal authorities and nearly everyone else in a position of authority.

Secondly, anyone who writes about food must pay attention to the food of the Indian street. The kind of chaat that appeals to the middle class constitutes only a tiny part of Indias street food scene. The street food vendors exist not to please you, me and the other readers of Brunch, but to provide daily sustenance to all Indians; to those who cant go home for lunch, often work too late to eat dinner at home and cant even afford dhabas. They eat on the streets not because it is fun but because they have no choice.

And finally, I go every year simply because I have a great time. The food is always interesting, some of it is quite terrific and the National Association of Street Vendors turns the grounds of the stadium into a mela with stand-up comics and live music.

Here are some of the trends I noticed this year.

Bread Rules: There was a time when street food vendors liked to make their own wheat dough for dishes: the puris for golgappas, samosas, kachoris etc. That now seems to be changing.

The battered deep-fried sandwiches shone in their golden glory

More and more of the street food guys are using commercial, pre-packaged, store-bought white bread as their primary staple. I reckon the trend towards bread in street food started in Mumbai where the Goan pao first made it to Mohammed Ali Road and began turning up in keema-pao and various other dishes. It was then adopted by the Gujaratis of the Cotton Exchange for pao bhaji and most recently, became the basis of the Marathi hamburger, the Vada Pao.

But whats popular this year is not pao, which can be difficult to source but sliced bread of the sort that vendors in Mumbai only ever used before for the Bombay Sandwich. Presumably, this is because commercial bread is easy to find all over India.

At stall after stall, run by vendors from all over India, bread turned up again and again. It was the centre of many omelet stalls. Usually they put the bread on the tava as the omelet was cooking so that the egg wrapped itself around the bread. There were endless deep-fried battered sandwiches, too. The bread pakora had, as we shall see, spawned a whole family of knock-offs.

Potato+Bread: If there is one thing I loathe it is the starch-on-starch sandwich. So you wont find me enjoying the Mumbai vada pao or even the Gujarati dabeli, which, in my view, is a disgrace to one of Indias great cuisines.

Clearly, I am in a minority of one in a country where even American fast food chains are forced to serve aloo tikki burgers. And judging by the stalls at the Festival, bread and potato have become like an old happily married couple.

One of the ironies of the Indian street food scene is that while the South has given us the three most popular

pan-Indian fast food items  dosas, idlis and vadas  there is no real chaat tradition in much of South India

I am an equal opportunity loather so I also loathe the bread pakoras so beloved of Delhi canteens. But like some mutating virus, the bread pakora has turned into a whole series of deep-fried sandwiches. The general principle at many stalls was that no matter what the sandwich contained, it had to be battered and deep-fried.

I hung around some of the stalls to see what was the most popular sandwich. The clear winner was a white bread sandwich with a masala dosa-type potato filling, battered and then deep fried till the edges were crisp.

I would rather have the masala dosa myself but I guess this sandwich is easier to make and more filling.

Amul: All Gujaratis are pleased when our cuisine finds popularity all over India but I am a little ambivalent about the triumph of Amul, arguably the greatest brand to come out of Gujarat.

At counter after counter, Amul products occupied pride of place. At some stalls, they charged extra if the dish was made with Amul butter. At some, the vendors kept a plastic carton of Amul cream by their side and added it to premium products. There was also an inexplicable (to me, at least) obsession with grated Amul cheese. It ended up as a garnish on dish after dish.

The toppings for Pizza Omelet include everything from tomatoes to peppers and cheese

Some of this may have to do with the Indianisation of pizza. An omelet stall was offering Pizza Omelet. Intrigued by this unusual combination, I asked the vendor to make me one. (It was his top-priced, highly-premium speciality.) He put the egg mixture in the pan, rolled it around a slice of bread and then as the omelet was nearly ready, added pizza-toppings: sliced tomatoes, peppers and grated cheese. Dekho. Yeh pizza bangaya! he told me proudly. Well, okay!

Omelet with bread inside

Manchurian: I am continually shocked by the ability of Manchurian to penetrate the heartland. Stalls from all over the country were serving some version of Manchurian. A vendor from Hyderabad offered Ponna Tea. And then, almost as an afterthought, he had pasted a piece of paper with a new specialty on the menu: Hyd. Spl. VEG MANCHURIAN. A Karnataka stall offered Manglore bhajji, Ragi Roti with chatni, Gobhi Manchurian.

A vendor from Hyderabad offered Ponna Tea, and almost as an afterthought pasted a piece of paper with a new specialty  the veg Manchurian

Since when did Gobhi Manchurian become so popular on the Mangalore streets? I tried making conversation with some of the stall holders to find out when Manchurian became an integral part of the Indian street food scene. I waited for them to tell me that there was new demand for this previously unknown dish. In fact, they looked at me as though I was mad. Did I not know what Manchurian was? One or two guys even offered to explain to me exactly what it was. So, I gave up.

Chicken: There were fewer non-vegetarian stall overall this year. I dont know why this should be so but the folks at the National Association of Street Vendors told me that in Delhi, some vendors had been harassed by officials for selling non-vegetarian food. (You dont need to be a genius to work out to which community many of those who sell kebabs, biryanis and the like belong.)

Of the stalls that did sell non-vegetarian dishes, chicken was the clear favourite. There seemed to be two reasons for this. The first, according to vendors, was that people prefer to eat chicken when they eat out. The second, they said, was that chicken was easier to procure nowadays while meat supplies from butchers had become erratic. Make what you will of that.

North-South: It is one of the ironies of the Indian street food scene that while the South has given us the three most popular pan-Indian fast food items  dosas, idlis and vadas  there is no real chaat tradition in much of South India.

One consequence of this is that the street food vendors of say, Kerala bring their curries and biryanis to the street food festival providing an authentic taste of Kerala without recourse to Amul butter, grated cheese or Modern bread.

But the Southern vendors are nearly always at a dis-advantage because their food requires authentic ingredients and sliced bread and cream are not enough. At a Hyderabad chilli pakora stall, the guy who ran it complained to me that though he had scoured Delhi looking for flavourful chillis he simply had not been able to find them.

Kushi Muhammad, who has sold biryani in Calicut for 15 years was downcast by his failure to find the right rice in Delhi. He had brought his masalas with him, he said. But he had assumed that he would get the smaller grained Kerala rice in the nations capital. When he couldnt find any, he was reduced to making his biryani with normal rice (and chicken). I thought it tasted fine but he kept apologising for the inauthenticity.

Kushi Muhammads biryani

And Finally: Anyone who believes that food trends dont trickle down should see what street vendors are making. These guys never bothered with cheese, pizza, Manchurian, cream, different qualities of butter etc. till a decade ago.

There is much to admire in their ingenuity. But personally, I was saddened to see that regional variations are being slowly eroded. With each passing year, all street food vendors (especially in North and Western India) make food that is more and more alike.

I dont blame them. It is a business, after all. But I do mourn the passing of the old regional variations and specialities.

From HT Brunch, February 4, 2018

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Connect with us on facebook.com/hindustantimesbrunchWells Fargo & Co said that new regulatory restrictions imposed on it by the US Federal Reserve sent its shares down sharply in after-hours trading on Friday, as it continues to reel from a sales scandal that erupted in 2016.

Wells Fargo & Co, Americas third-largest bank, is not allowed to grow beyond the $1.95 trillion in assets it had at the end of last year until it sufficiently improves its governance and controls, the Fed said in a statement.

Wells Fargo estimated that the cap will cut its annual profit by $300 million to $400 million this year, as it reduces some parts of its balance sheet, like corporate deposits and trading assets, in order to continue growing core businesses. That represents 1.5% to 1.9% of the profit Wells generated in 2017.

The bank will also replace three board members by April and a fourth board member by the end of the year, the Fed said, without naming who they should be.

Wells Fargo shares fell 6.1% to $60.10 in after-hours trading.

The Feds consent order will have a manageable impact on profits and should not affect the banks plans to return capital to shareholders this year, Chief Executive Officer Tim Sloan said during a conference call with analysts on Friday evening.

We are in a very competitive business whether we have a consent order or not, said Sloan. Our marching orders to our team are, go out and serve your customers, fulfill our vision, take deposits, make loans. We are open for business.

While Sloan said he takes the matter seriously, he also characterized it as the latest step in a risk-management and corporate governance overhaul that Wells Fargo began some time ago, when it realized it had a serious problem with sales practices.

The bank reached a $190 million settlement with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and a Los Angeles prosecutor in September 2016 over employees opening phony accounts in customers names without their permission to artificially hit internal targets. The tally of fake accounts has since risen to as many as 3.5 million.

Regulators have rarely intervened directly in a banks operations in the past, and it is unprecedented for the Fed to order a bank to stop growing altogether, officials said.

But Wells Fargos aggressive business strategy prioritized growth over effective risk management, leading to serious compliance breakdowns, the central bank said.

Wells Fargos balance sheet expanded steadily from the end of 2013 to 2016, but growth slowed dramatically last year as it battled to address the issues raised by the scandal.

The bank must submit a plan to the Fed within 60 days detailing how it has enhanced oversight from its board of directors and improved compliance and risk management functions, and how it plans to improve further. Once the Fed approves those plans, Wells will hire third-party consultants to review them and monitor its progress until the regulator is satisfied.

The San Francisco Fed and top regulatory officials in Washington will lead the review, the central bank said.

We cannot tolerate pervasive and persistent misconduct at any bank, said Chair Janet Yellen in a statement on her final day as leader of the central bank.

Since the 2016 settlement, Wells has taken steps to enhance oversight at the board level, centralize risk-management functions and install new executives to oversee key businesses and control functions. Its board chair, Betsy Duke, is a former Fed governor, and it recently hired Sarah Dahlgren, a former New York Fed official, as its head of regulatory relations.Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Saturday said he will expand his cabinet before the budget session of the state assembly, likely to begin in the second week of March.

I think the time has come when I should have a full-fledged council of ministers. Even I cant be handling the charge of around 40 different departments for long. The cabinet expansion would be done before the budget session so that my new ministers take full command in the session, he said.

He also did not rule out reshuffling of the departments of present ministers. I will keep only a few portfolios with me. Reshuffling is likely when I have to distribute most of the charges among the new and old ministers.

ON SURESH KUMAR

The CM said retired IAS officer Suresh Kumar, whose appointment as his chief principal secretary was quashed by the Punjab and Haryana high court will be back on his earlier post.

Why on some other post or adviser? He will be made my chief principal secretary. As long as I am the chief minister, Suresh will be part of the government. We are taking legal recourse and are going to challenge the decision of the high court before a double bench, he said in reply to a question.

Also Read: No problem in welcoming Justin Trudeau: Amarinder Singh

NO ISSUES WITH SIDHU

Ruling out any differences with local bodies minister Navjot Singh Sidhu, who has publicly expressed his displeasure over not being consulted on selection of Amritsars mayor, Amarinder said Sidhu was not supposed to be consulted on the issue.

Selection of mayor is the prerogative of the party. A committee comprising PPCC chief, state affairs in-charge Asha Kumari, me and general secretaries selected the mayor. It was not a government matter but was a party affair, he said.

He added that he had no issues with Sidhu, who came to his residence for lunch on Saturday afternoon.

NO VIOLATION OF RULES IN MOHALI LAND DEAL

Amarinder asserted that there was no violation of rules or conflict of interest in his Mohali land deal.

He accused opposition leaders of unnecessarily creating a controversy in this regard to promote their vested political interests.

Is the CM not allowed to purchase land? They are trying to befool the people with baseless allegations of conflict of interest, he said.

Capt also claimed that he had paid higher than the DC rate to purchase the land, located in Siswan in Mohali, since the owner was not very keen to sell the plot. Against the DC rate of Rs 30 lakh, I actually paid double the amount  at about Rs 60 lakh per acre.

Asserting that his land had nothing to do with the Punjab Land Preservation Act (PLPA), the CM said he planned to construct a small farmhouse there since he did not have a house in Chandigarh, besides planting 32 varieties of fruit trees.

He also clarified that he had no intention of using the two khasras of forest land, covered by the Act. These will be left as they are, without even fencing of any sort, he said while adding that the remaining part of the land had been denotified way back in 2011 by the previous government.

The CM said he already owned 15 acres in Majri village, which he had purchased about 25 years ago. That piece of land was subject to restrictions under PLPA and continued to remain so, he added.It is said of the Bharatiya Janata Party in Rajasthan that chief minister Vasundhara Raje is its biggest asset, yet its biggest liability.

The partys mandarins in Delhi have always been worried about Rajasthan, and are uncomfortable about her. Their worries have now increased significantly after last weeks by-polls in Rajasthan. The BJP lost both Lok Sabha seats, Ajmer and Alwar, to the Indian National Congress. It also lost the assembly constituency of Mandalgarh to its main national rival, which is resurgent after a close contest in Gujarat in which it improved both its vote share and seat share.

Rajasthan was one of the states the BJP won in the 2013 assembly elections and how. The party won 163 seats in the 200-member assembly, defeating the party in power, the Congress (the two parties have swapped power in the state every five years since the 1993 election). The win helped build momentum for the BJPs march to power in the national elections five months later. In those Lok Sabha polls, the BJP won all parliamentary seats in Rajasthan  25 out of a maximum of 25. Across the four states of Rajasthan, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, and Madhya Pradesh, the BJP won 149 Lok Sabha seats out of a possible 160. In all, the party won 282 seats and if it wants to maintain or increase that number in 2019, it cannot afford to lose anything in these four states (although both popular wisdom and the law of averages suggest that it will be difficult to win 149 seats out of 160 twice in a row).

Too much cant be read into by-polls; nor should results of assembly elections be seen as an indicator of outcomes in parliamentary polls. Still, its hard to ignore a clear anti-incumbency verdict such as the one some of Rajasthans voters sent out last week. The verdict could have a bearing on the future of individuals  Raje and the Congress Sachin Pilot, who led the two parties campaigns in the state  and of their parties. And it could also have a bearing on issues, strategies, and candidate choices of the two parties in state elections later this year (and the national elections next year).

First, the individuals: whichever way one looks at the result, this is a win for Pilot and a loss for Raje. The chief minister has a sometimes-uneasy but largely cordial relationship with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Some important leaders of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the ideological parent of the BJP, do not like her, though. Still, she was, and remains the partys strongest leader in the state  and did lead it to a win in 2014.

One theory has it that the BJP suffered a defeat because of Rajes imperious style of governance and angry Rajputs who wanted to teach the party a lesson (the Rajputs believed the BJP had not done enough to ban Padmavaat, a movie which they believed showed one of their historical/mythical figures, Rani Padmini of Chittor, in poor light). Another has it that it was a mixture of anti-incumbency and some smart candidate choices by the Congress. The agrarian crisis, the most important factor behind the BJPs poor showing in Gujarat, doesnt seem to have played a part, although, much like in Gujarat, farmers in Rajasthan, and in Madhya Pradesh, which too goes to the polls later this year, are unhappy. The party has already reacted to this, with the government, announcing in the Union budget on February 1, that it would ensure a minimum 50% return for farmers, over cost, when it sets the Minimum Support Prices at which it buys some of their key produce.

It is unlikely the BJP will try to look beyond Raje, and risk the possibility that she may break the party, but both the central and the state leadership of the party will look at the by-poll verdict as a sort of wake-up call.

On the other side, the victory further may have made Pilot, if only temporarily, the biggest Congress leader in the state, marginally ahead of Ashok Gehlot and Jitendra Singh. All three have chief ministerial aspirations which the Congress central leadership will have to manage.

Coming as it does after Gujarat, the results of the Rajasthan by-polls are a good indication that the Congress has learnt a thing or two from the BJP on managing caste equations and picking the right candidates. Much like in Gujarat, the party did not play the communal card here, although it could have chosen to do so in Alwar, the epicentre of attacks on Muslim cattle traders by self-styled cow vigilantes or gau rakshaks. It didnt have to do so, also because it was confident that there was no way the Muslims were going to vote for the BJP.

With a maximum of eight or nine months before the assembly elections in the state, both Raje and the BJPs leadership in Delhi find themselves in a position they will not like. Raje has to win back voters even as she fights off claimants for her chair within the party. She has a strong following within the party, a significant electoral base and is especially popular with women, but it will not be easy for her to repeat her 2013 performance. The BJP, meanwhile, is looking at the prospect of what could possibly be another close election. If the Congress manages to retain Karnataka (which is well within the realm of the possible) and do as well in Rajasthan as it did in Gujarat, it could go into 2019 feeling confident. No one could have predicted that at the beginning of 2017. Democracy is well in India.

letters@hindustantimes.comChief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat on Saturday praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the pro-farmer and pro-poor union budget, urging the states farmers to make the most of the schemes the Centre has unveiled for the first time to boost the farm sector.

The entire union budget is a pro farmer and pro-poor That is evident from a sizeable budgetary allocation that has been earmarked to boost the farm sector, Rawat said.

I therefore appeal to the states farmers to make the most of the schemes announced by the Centre to boost the farm sector.

The CM was speaking at a function organised for farmers to send a congratulatory message to the prime minister for his pro-farmer concerns.

This is for the first time huge budgetary allocations have been made for the farm sector, for which its architects deserve all praise, he said referring to Modi, finance minister Arun Jaitley and agriculture minister Radha Mohan Singh.

A sizeable number of farmers from Dehradun and elsewhere from the state attended the function organised by the state government.

Rawat revealed that the Central government had made a budgetary allocation of 6,000 crore for Uttarakhand for agriculture and allied sectors.

Out of that amount, a budget of 145 crore has been allocated for setting up a chain of cold storage to boost the food processing industry, he said.

That means local farmers would have to produce an additional quantity of 55,000 metric tonnes of fruits and vegetables so that enough raw material is available for the food processing industry.

Rawat said the Centre has increased 9,338 crore for the farm development plan for the state for the fiscal 2018-19.

It is a massive increase from 4,385 crore that was allocated for the same plan for the last fiscal, he said, adding the same goes for the traditional system of farming.

For that sector the Centre has allocated 1,326 crore, which is almost double the budget of 748 crore that was allocated for the last fiscal.

Similarly, the Centre had approved a budgetary allocation of 1,509 crore for promotion of organic farming in the state for the next three years. The number of the farm machinery banks allocated for the state too had been increased from 300 to 370.

Similarly, an amount of 2,600 crore has been allocated for cooperative committees, Rawat said and suggested that farmers directly market their farm produce, which would boost their income.

Similarly, the Centre has allocated separate funds so that all three crore power and diesel driven tube wells in the state could be run by solar energy.The Congress has criticised the BJP government for directing officials to attend a lecture by Swami Hari Chaitanyapuri here on Friday, dubbing the move as illegal and asking chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat to seek an explanation from the officer who issued the order.

The government issuing an order asking officials to attend functions of swamis or spiritual gurus is illegal, said state Congress president Pritam Singh. That means it will continue directing officials to attend functions of all such preachers who will visit the state.

The matter is serious if the official issued the order with the chief ministers permission, Singh said. The issue doesnt become less serious if the official issued the order on his own, he added. In that case, the chief minister should immediately take cognizance of such an order and seek an explanation from the official.

The letter signed by the CMs additional chief secretary Om Prakash, a copy of which is available with HT, was issued on February 1. When contacted, he chose not to comment on the letter.

Addressed to officials from the chief secretary to additional secretaries to departmental heads, the letter asked them to gather at a function to listen to Swami Chaitanyapuri. It stated that the function would be chaired by the chief minister.

The letter mentioned that the spiritual guru had recently represented India at an universal peace conference held recently in Seoul, the capital of South Korea. Chief secretary Utpal Kumar Singh, secretary (energy) Radhika Jha and secretary (information) Pankaj Pandey were among the officials who attended the function.

Chief minister Rawat said the lecture delivered by the spiritual guru at Seoul on Indias cultural and spiritual traditions enhanced the countrys prestige.

Forcing officials to attend such functions is also unethical, said Congress leader Surendra Kumar. The move was also anti-development as officials were forced to attend Swami Chaitanyapuris lecture at a time when they are busy preparing the states budget that would set the direction of the states development.

Kumar, however, said there could be no bar on the officials if they wished to attend such lectures and functions as private individuals.

The chief ministers office dubbed the Congress allegations as nitpicking. Their (Congress) allegations are laughable. Officials were invited to attend the lecture delivered by the spiritual guru, so they could get some international perspective on issues, said the chief ministers media coordinator Darshan Singh Rawat.

Like by us, he was also felicitated by several state governments because the lecture he delivered on the theme of Indias spiritual traditions in Seoul enhanced its prestige worldwide, he said.Four men have been arrested for allegedly kidnapping and murdering an 18-year-old man from central Delhi last month, police said.

Suspects Devvrat Rana (21), Gulshan (22), Sachin (22) and Gobinder Singh (22) allegedly abducted and beat up Shahzeb, an 18-year-old man living in the Jama Masjid neighbourhood, after suspecting him to be a thief.

Police said the four men had gone to Kamla Market in central Delhi on January 30 night when someone pickpocketed Ranas mobile and Rs 40,000 cash. On suspicion, he caught Shahzeb from whom his mobile phone was allegedly recovered. But the cash was missing.

In rage, the four men beat him up and took him in a car towards Mukhmelpur village in northwest Delhi. On the way, they called Shahzebs friend and asked him to pay Rs. 40,000 to secure his release.

They also called Shahzebs mother but both said they had no money. The four men then pushed Shahzeb out of the car and fled from the spot. Shahzeb died during treatment at Dr. Baba Saheb Ambedkar Hospital in Rohini.

One of his relatives, Mohammad Anas, informed police that he had seen four persons beating Shahzeb and calling him a mobile thief. The relative also said he had seen Shahzeb being taken in a car.

Additional deputy commissioner of police (central) Anto Alphonse said that a case of murder and kidnapping was registered at the Kamla Market police station.

CCTV footage of nearby areas was obtained. Four persons were seen dragging Shahzeb into a car. His mobile phone was analysed and we found out he was taken to Mukhmelpur village, near Alipur. The photos of suspects were shown to the local persons of both these places, said Alphonso.

Police finally got a lead from a source and nabbed Rana on February 2. At his instance, Gulshan and Sachin were arrested from Delhi and Gobinder Singh was arrested from Chandigarh. The car used in the crime and the mobile phone of the victim has been recovered, police said.

Rana works as a driver with a businessman. Gulshan is a helper with a tanker of the Delhi Jal Board. Sachin runs a dairy. Gobinder Singh is a taxi driver, police said.Its only when the going gets tough, your patience, your strength, and your willpower is tested. Its during testing circumstances you get to know what you are made of. And this is certainly the case with cancer patients and their families. With approximately 10 lakh new cases detected every year in India, cancer, certainly pushes the individual and their family, to the limit. Therefore, on World Cancer Day, people who have survived cancer and their family members recall how they resiliently battled and beat the disease.

Those who survived

You got to keep going, with a smile

Usha Agarwal, a 73-year-old housewife, was diagnosed with chest and uterine cancer in 2015. Usha had two back-to-back operations for the treatment, and she refused chemotherapy. After the surgery, cancer had subsided. However, the joy was short-lived as after one and a half years, cancer came back. This time, the doctors said that there was no chance, and said that Ive got only three months to live. When he said that my children started crying, and that broke my heart. I took a deep breath and said You are not God, I will not go right now, she said in a determined voice. After that, she started chemotherapy. Now, the cancer is gone, but she still is under medication. My message to people on World Cancer Day is that if there is a beginning then, there is an end, we all have to go someday. The only thing you can do is do justice to your life and live to the fullest. Keep yourself occupied, says Usha. Over the past few years, this young at heart braveheart has learnt to play the sitar.

Family is everything

Abhijit Dasgupta, 63, was diagnosed with rectal cancer in 1997. The disease put him and his family in a tight spot. My kids were young, and my wife and I were determined to secure a happy future for our family, says Abhijit. The determination to secure a stable future for his family meant Abhijit did not give up hope. We met a few doctors who didnt give us hope but we still kept going, we kept trying to find someone who wanted to try as much as we did. The treatment was not easy, and I knew that I would never be same, recalls Abhijit. On World Cancer Day, his message to everyone is that family is everything, without their unconditional love and support, nothing is impossible. My family gave me the determination to continue. Those moments of laughter and making light of the situation helped me the most, says Abhijit.

Those who are battling it

Getting the right doctor is imperative

Vinita Thukral, a 38-year-old Hindi school teacher, got to know that she had uterine cancer in August, last year. Initially, she thought everything is lost. However, she says that she was lucky as the doctors treating her were kind and made sure that she never felt as if there was no chance. Getting the right kind of doctor is imperative for recovery. A good doctor can raise your spirits as they can become your source of strength, says Vinita. After getting diagnosed, she got operated, and now her chemotherapy is coming to an end. Her message on World Cancer Day is that one should never stop smiling, no matter how painful it gets. Its easier for you to deal with the pain when you are smiling. Also, your family members suffer along with you. A smile makes it easier for them to support you, says Vinita.

Self motivation is the best motivation

Rajkumari Gupta, a 66-year-old housewife, was diagnosed with breast cancer in November, last year. When she first got to know that she has breast cancer,her world was knocked upside down. I was blank, I thought why would it happen to someone who eats right, who does yoga.... why of all the people, me?, recalls Rajkumari. However, she didnt let the initial shock affect her willpower. With the support of her wonderful children, she sailed through her operation, and now is regularly going for her chemotherapy. You cant let cancer stop you from doing the things you do daily. You have to continue with your routine as its normal, says Rajkumari. Her message on World Cancer Day, Self-motivation is the best motivation. Theres no other way around it, states Rajkumari.

You have to persevere through

Fashion designer Rina Dhaka was stunned to find that she had cancer. She was diagnosed on November 8, 2016. For someone who had no history of illness, it was a shock that I cannot explain. It was surreal, and the irony was that my tendency to overwork drove me to cancer, says Rina. Initially, she battled thoughts of self-pity and anxiety, but she overcame those feelings through chanting regularly. I try to chant, I even refuse suggestions to take a sleeping pill by the doctor, says Rina. And today on World Cancer Day, heres what she has to say: I am grateful to my husband, my sister and my surgeon. One has to be resilient. Chant and pray for yourself and your loved ones,.

How cancer takes a toll on the entire family

You have to be the pillar of strength on which your loved ones rely on

Abha Changmai, a 24-year-old, who works for an MNC, was in for a rude shock when her mother, Padumi Dutta Changmai, was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2015. When we got to know that our mother has cancer, it hit us like a hurricane. And on top of it all, the doctors were quite casual about it, which made the situation worse, says Abha. The doctors gave her mother a two-year timeline. We were emotionally challenged. My brother and I went through depression, but weve battled through it, says Abha. Her message on World Cancer Day: You need to have the right attitude. And you need to remember that you are a source of strength for your loved one, you have to be strong for them to be able to rely on you, says Abha.

You have to be there for them in totality

When 55-year-old Vanita Sharma got to know that her husband Rajivv has stage 4 pancreatic cancer, it was like an earthquake that turned their lives upside down. Rajivv was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer on October 14, last year. And on his 60th birthday, he started his chemotherapy. Your existence comes to halt, the way you define life, changes, says Vanita, adding and when this happens then the only thing you can do is be there for your loved. Her message today is that, Never underestimate the power of a prayer. Also, you need your family and friends to rally around you, she says.

Spreading joy for a cause

Workers making wigs for cancer patients, who have lost hair due to their treatment. (Jasjeet Plaha/Hindustan Times)

Major Gulshan Ravi Kaushik started his venture Marchers International Pvt Ltd, a hair transplantation clinic that specialises in hair replacements for cancer patients 26 years ago. The 62-year-old retired Major says, We started this because there was a need for specialised hair replacements for cancer patients in the market. We realised that when patients lose their hair because of chemotherapy, they also tend to lose their confidence. And we thought that if by providing hair wigs to the patients, we could help them regain their confidence, then why not? Each wig is customised as per the patient. The process involves taking the mould of the head and using it as a thin filament. The hair comes from the famous temple of Tirupati Balaji temple in Andhra Pradesh, where a lot of devotees go to donate their hair.

Expert Opinion

Cancer is the most curable chronic disease, when detected early. On World Cancer Day, let us be aware about it and join hands to eradicate this disease.

- Dr. Leena Dadhwal, consultant, surgical oncology, RGCIRC, Niti Bagh

Having cancer is not the end of the road, rather a beginning to embrace the pain it takes to fight back. On World Cancer Day, lets pledge to quit smoking, drinking and go for early and timely screenings for effective management of the disease.

-Dr. Professor P.K Julka, Sr. director Max Daycare Centre, Lajpat NagarA perfect blend of different cultures, tradition, music and art was on show on the second day of the 32nd Surajkund International Crafts Mela in Faridabad. There was palpable excitement among visitors at the chaupal, as they were enthralled by live musical performances by well known Indian and international artistes.

The annual event is not just a colourful extravaganza but also a cultural melting pot of sorts, as it draws people from all across the globe. The event brings people from diverse cultures at one place and encourages a free flow of thoughts and ideas.

The convergence of people from diverse cultural and social backgrounds adds to the colour and ambience of the Surajkund fair and puts it on par with other events of its kind. The artistes feed off the electrifying ambience at the chaupal and give the event a dash of musical flair.

I am so much in love with this country. It feels like home. This is my first time at the Surajkund fair and the ambience is simply fantastic. The sheer diversity of cultures and faiths that the visitors here represent speaks volumes of this events popularity and global appeal, Begamy, a visitor from Kyrgyzstan, said.

Nestah Churwujekwu from South Africa echoed the refrain, saying she had been to India earlier and found the people here to be very helpful and culturally aware.

Lamps from Turkey, white honey and jungle walnut from Kyrgyzstan, wooden craftwork and tribal artifacts from South Africa, wall hangings and cutlery from Uzbekistan and the best of crochet, ceramic and pottery are among the top draws at the fair this year.

The 17-day-long fair was kicked off on Friday by Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar and Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath. Uttar Pradesh is the theme state at the fair this year and the entire venue has been decked up to showcase the culture of the state.

Read I Surajkund crafts mela begins on Friday, Uttar Pradesh is the theme state for the first time

In one part of the fair ground, Varanasi Ghat has been replicated to showcase Indian rituals and make visitors understand how rivers sustain lives and livelihood and are connected to the society.

Visitors were spotted soaking in the ambience, breaking into an impromptu jig and pose for selfies alongside replicas of famous sculptures from the theme state, Danteshwari gate, Maharashtra gate, Mukteshwar gate, Sikkim gate and Rajasthani Haveli among others.

I liked the international area. Apna Ghar of Haryana in the domestic craft area is simply amazing. It has almost brought a rural Haryana setting to life, Govind Kumar, a visitor from Delhi, said.

Colourful bangles, decorative pieces, big earrings and ethnic jewellery from various states are big draws among women this time.

The food court, which features 36 stalls, is also a hit with visitors. The traditional delicacies of Haryana and Uttar Pradesh reminded me of my girlhood days. I am here with my grandson and experience was fascinating, Kalpana Saini, a resident of Sector 50, Gurgaon, said.

This year the duration of the fair has been increased from 15 days to 17 days considering the growing global popularity of the event, the organisers said.

More than 325 artistes from 28 countries will regale visitors with their performances at the fair this year. As many as 1,071 huts have been erected for artisans setting up shop at the fair ground this year. The venue, spread over 42.5 acres, has been divided into six zones.

Participants from Kazakhstan, New Zealand, Afghanistan, Syria, South Africa, Egypt, Tanzania, Kenya, Lebanon, Srilanka, Maldives, Nepal, Cambodia, Uzbekistan and Russia will showcase their musical talents at the fair that will conclude on February 18.

The mela, the inaugural edition of which was hosted in 1987, is jointly organised by Surajkund Mela Authority and Haryana Tourism in collaboration with the Union Ministries of Tourism, Textiles, Culture, External Affairs and the state government.

Pointers:

Mela being held from February 2 to 18

Visiting times are from 10:30 am to 8:30 pm

Mela ground is spread over 42.5 acres with 1071 huts divided in six zones

Venue has stalls with cuisines of Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Haryana, Punjab, South Indian, Chinese, Mughlai, and Lebanese.

How to reach Surajkund?

 Surajkund is 40 kms from Indira Gandhi international airport, New Delhi. The venue is 30 kms drive from South Delhi

Special to and fro bus services are available to Surajkund from ISBT Delhi, Shivaji Stadium, Gurgaon and Faridabad.

The nearest metro station is Badarpur on violet line

Entry tickets are available at major bus stands, railway stations, and online onThe Union minister of state for housing and urban Affairs, Hardeep Singh Puri, on Saturday gave an assurance that Gurgaon would be considered for inclusion in the Smart City Mission and an apex body would be constituted for this purpose.

Puri gave the assurance while responding to the specific request made by the chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar to include Gurgaon in the Smart City Mission for which Central technical assistance is required whereas financial implications would be looked after by the state government.

Khattar made the request while speaking at a review meeting of various flagship missions of the Union ministry of housing and urban affairs held under the chairmanship of Puri on Saturday in Chandigarh. These flagship missions include AMRUT, Smart City Mission, Swachh Bharat Mission and Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana.

While lauding the steps taken by Haryana under various Central flagship missions for urban development, Puri asked the Chief Minister to conduct credit rating of cities in Haryana. Khattar said it was being done along with credit rating of villages.

In addition, the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG), had in April 2017, also floated a Request For Proposal (RFP) on its official website www.mcg.gov.in for soliciting consultant services to help Gurgaon in its bid to earn the Smart City tag.

Read I Gurgaon a step closer to attaining the Smart City tag

The Smart Cities mission is an ambitious programme launched by the Centre in a bid to develop cities in a manner as to make them citizen-friendly and sustainable.

A city declared Smart City is allotted 100 crore annually by the Centre over a period of five years.

In May, 2016, Gurgaon had missed the list of smart cities while neighbouring Faridabad had been selected.

Several reasons including frequent power outages, shortage of water supply, traffic crisis, poor public transport, inadequate drainage and waste disposal system are blamed for the city not making the Smart City shortlist.

Principal secretary, Urban Local Bodies Department, Anand Mohan Sharan, said that streetlights in 80 cities were being replaced with LED lights. The work of replacing street lights with LED lights has started in Gurgaon and this task would be finalised in other cities as well by February 15, 2018, he said.Bharatiya Janata Partys Kairana MP Hukum Singh, who had started his political career with the Congress in 1974, died at a Noida hospital on Saturday night after a prolonged illness. He was 79.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union home minister Rajnath Singh, UP governor Ram Naik, West Bengal governor Keshnri Nath Tripathi, Rajasthan governor Kalyan Singh, UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath and state minister Suresh Rana expressed deep shock at the passing away of the veteran leader.

He served the people of UP with great diligence and worked for the welfare of farmers, the PM said in his tweet.

Before joining politics, he was an ex-army captain, who had served in the India-Pakistan war, UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath said while recalling the late leaders contribution.

Adityanath called him a leader who would always be remembered for his knowledge of Parliamentary rules and procedure.

In his death, the party has lost a committed leader and the people have lost a man who always raised peoples issues, Adityanath said.

Before being elected MP from Kairana in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, Singh had been a seven-term MLA from west UP during the course of which he served as minister both in Congress and BJP governments. In the run up to the 2017 UP polls, Hukum Singh had stirred up a hornets nest with his claim in June 2016 that 346 Hindu families had been forced to migrate from western UP due to threat from criminals and the poor law and order situation.

The BJP quickly made it into a poll issue and party also mentioned it in its UP manifesto.

During Muzaffarnagar riots of 2013, a case was registered against him for allegedly attending a mahapanchayat and making an inflammatory speech. He strongly denied the allegation and claimed that he tried to cool tempers instead of inciting people.Supreme Court Judge Justice Kurian Joseph on Saturday urged Chief Justices of high courts to take immediate steps to ensure that every district in a state has at least one family court, to help easy access to justice and speedy disposal of matrimonial disputes.

He was delivering the inaugural address at the fourth regional conference on Sensitisation of Family Court Matters organised here for the states of Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Karnataka, Kerala, Puducherry, Tamil Nadu and Telangana.

Justice Joseph also said that judges in family courts should possess a sixth sense to find the epicentre of family disputes and take appropriate action.

Family court judges should possess a sixth sense, to find out the epicentre of matrimonial disputes. They are like homoeopathy doctors, who unlike allopathy doctors, prescribe treatment based on the constitution and special features of the patients, he added.

The primary objective of family courts is not to decide disputes, but to promote conciliation and secure speedy settlement, the judge said.

In her address, Chief Justice of Madras high court Justice Indira Banerjee said preservation of family as an institution is important for the country and added that family court judges must take their work very seriously.

She called upon family court judges to never give up on the scope for settlement, as it would happen at any stage of the case.

But you must also understand that in cases where there are no scope for settlement, mere procrastination of cases would only increase the agony of the parties, she added.

Justice Banerjee also stressed that matters of maintenance and custody of child be dealt with expeditiously and with sensitivity.

Acting Chief Justice of Jharkhand, Justice Dhirubhai Naranbhai Patel and Tamil Nadu Advocate-General Vijay Narayan also spoke.A former student of fine arts at MS University, who was at the centre of an obscenity row in 2007, allegedly set the head office of the varsity on fire as he was apparently angry over delay in conferring degree on him, the police said on Saturday.

According to inspector Haresh Vora at Sayajigunj Police Station, Chandra Mohan, who was a student of the universitys Fine Arts department 11 years ago, has been arrested.

Jigar Inamdar, a member of the Syndicate, a top decision-making body of the MSU, received minor injuries when he tried to remove files during the fire last evening, police said.

Mohan, a native of Warangal district in Telangana, wanted to meet vice-chancellor Parimal Vyas to know the reason for delay in getting his degree. He completed his post-graduation in May 2007.

He said despite writing several letters to the university authorities in this regard, there had been no response from them.

According to the police, Mohan had come with a bottle of petrol and after a heated argument with Jaikumar Nair, the PA to Vyas, over meeting the VC, he emptied the bottle on a sofa in the office and set it on fire.

Two rooms, including the VCs office, were gutted in the blaze. Some files and documents were also destroyed, they said, adding the vice chancellor was not in his office at the time of the incident.

Police said Mohan has confessed to his crime.

Mohan was at the centre of a controversy in 2007 for his art works as the final year student. He had allegedly painted Hindu gods and goddesses in obscene postures, which invited the ire of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad.

The paintings, displayed at an exhibition organised in the premises of the 69-year-old university, had triggered a row and led to a debate on freedom of expression of artistes.

It is a very sad incident. I was in Gandhinagar yesterday (on Friday) and this student should have waited for one day to meet me, the vice-chancellor said.

Police commissioner Manoj Shashidhar said Mohan will be produced in a court, where police will seek his remand.The Manesar land release case was referred for a probe to the CBI by the BJP government in Haryana in 2015. It is one of the four land related matters pertaining to the tenure of the previous Congress government which was referred by the BJP government to the central agency for investigation. Hitender Rao dissects the controversial land matter.

What is the controversy regarding Manesar land?

The previous Congress government headed by chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda was involved in the process to acquire about 912 acres in Gurgaon district for creating residential and recreational utilities in Industrial Model Township (IMT), Manesar. The acquisition process was stopped in 2007 by the state government after a number of private real estate developers stepped in to buy the under-acquisition land from farmers under duress.

How much land was bought by the real estate developers?

It is alleged that after the acquisition process under the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 started, a number of real estate developers colluded with the officials to buy 400 acres from land owners at throwaway prices by creating panic that if the land owners did not sell their land it will be acquired by the state government for a measly sum. Acting in haste and under duress, the farmers sold the land at throw away rates of around Rs 20-25 lakh per acre, totalling to about Rs 100 crore, while the market value at that time was above Rs 4 crore per acre, totalling to about Rs 1,600 crore, says the CBI.

Why the land was set free from the acquisition process?

The land, it is alleged, was released to favour the real estate developers who had bought chunks from farmers in of Manesar, Naurangpur and Lakhnoula villages of Gurgaon district. Once the land was free from the acquisition process, the builders applied for licences to develop real estate projects on the said land. Had it not been released from the acquisition process, the real estate developers would not have been able to use the chunk for building projects.

What was the role of the Supreme Court in the matter ?

A special leave petition (SLP) was filed in the Supreme Court in 2015 challenging the December 15, 2014, order of the Punjab and Haryana high court. The petitioners, mainly farmers, challenged the high court orders on the ground that it had failed to consider the actions of the state government as the withdrawal of notifications for acquisition were an abuse and misuse of provisions of the land acquisition Act. They also contended that it was an act to give undue benefit to builders under the garb of release of land. The state government during a hearing told the Supreme Court that it had no reservations on any kind of investigation, including a CBI probe, into the matter. The Supreme Court after concluding the arguments in the SLP had reserved the order on April 12, 2017.A splinter group of the Karni Sena on Saturday suspended its national vice president for announcing withdrawal of an agitiaion against Sanjay Leela Bhansalis magnus opus Padmaavat, indicating deep divisions among the Rajput community over the controversial film.

There are at least eight groups which claim to be the real Karni Sena and at least two of them are spearheading violent protests against the Deepika Padukone film which they allege distorts history and portrays queen Padmini in poor light.

On Friday, the Shri Rashtriya Rajput Karni Senas Maharashtra unit said it was withdrawing the protests after some members of the outfit saw the film and found nothing objectionable in it.

The outfits national president Sukhdev Singh Gogamedi told reporters that whoever went to watch the film yesterday did so in their personal capacity and that the agitation will continue.

We will continue to oppose the film and appeal to everyone not to give credence to rumours, he said.

Rashtriya Karni Sena expels members who saw #Padmaavat in Mumbai, says protest against the film is on @htTweets pic.twitter.com/sdHaycQBFt  Rakesh Goswami (@rakeshgoswamiHT) February 3, 2018

Gogamedi was part of Lokendra Singh Kalvis Shri Rajput Karni Sena, which is spearheading the protests against Sanjay Leela Bhansalis film, but later formed his own Karni Sena.

The film, released on January 25, has not been screened in Rajasthan.

The Maharashtra unit had claimed that its member watched the movie on instruction from Gogamedi.

The movie glorifies the valour and sacrifice of Rajput and every Rajput will feel proud after watching the film, the outfits Mumbai leader Yogendra Singh Katar said in a statement before he was suspended.

Padmini is considered by Rajputs as a symbol of the communitys tradition of putting honour above everything else. She is said to have committed jauhar, the medieval practice in which female royals walked into funeral fires to embrace death over the dishonour of being taken captive, after Allauddin Khilji, the Delhi emperor, captures Mewars capital Chittorgarh.

A disclaimer at the beginning of the movie says Padmaavat is based on a fictional character portrayed in a 16th-century poem by a Sufi poet.

Kalvi also reiterated that they will continue to oppose the film and said eight bodies have sprouted in name the Karni Sena in recent years creating confusion over which group represented Rajputs.

There are people giving statements on behalf of Karni Sena, but there is only one Karni Sena and our stand is clear that Padmaavat should not have been released, he said.

Gogamedi also hinted at a reconciliation with the Bharatiya Janata Party after its loss in the recent Rajasthan by-polls.

The organisations opposition to BJP was till the recent bye-election, Gogamedi said, who barely a week ago had slammed the Central government for not banning the movie.

On Saturday, the Karni Sena leaders tone and tenor towards the ruling party saw a marked shift. The BJPs door is still open for all the organisations of us Rajputs, Gogamedi said. He added that that BJP was their home.

If the party fulfills all our demands, then all the (Rajput) organisations can come together and meet (to decide) to return home ... but not now, said the Karni Sena leader.By 9 am on January 26, Kasganj was set for a confrontation. The Hindu boys had arrived in Prabhu Park riding motorbikes and carrying tricolour and saffron flags to take out a Republic Day rally. The Muslim boys had finished decorating Baddunagar Chowk for a Republic Day celebration: rangoli, chairs, balloons, and a flagpole holding up the tricolour.

This is the first time I joined the Republic Day rally from its origin. I was very excited, said Mayank Maheshwari, a 19-year-old college student at the Vishwa Hindu Parishads office.

We had put so much effort into organising the event this year. Everyone was here  old people, young people, children, said a young resident of Baddunagar who identified himself as doctor Asif.

At 9.45 am, the Hindu rally nearly 150 boys on nearly 70 motorbikes  rode out from the park. Seconds after, mobile phones in Baddunagar started buzzing with updates of the rallys movement.

By 10.15 am, the town had turned into a battleground. The motorcycle procession charged into the narrow lane through Baddunagar, the Hindu boys demanded a passage, the Muslim boys stood their ground, the Hindu boys demanded the Muslim boys chant Vande Mataram or leave India, the Muslim boys scoffed at the swagger, and as both sides later said in their accounts, there was tu-tu-main-main( verbal confrontation) and haatha-pai(physical fights).

Then things turned more violent. Overpowered by the Muslim boys, the Hindu boys left behind their bikes and ran away. They returned for revenge in 45 minutes, this time armed with lathis and firearms, to another Muslim-majority neighbourhood called Tehseel Road.

The two sides faced off again, someone in the crowd opened fire, and a bullet hit a 22-year-old man called Chandan Gupta. By the afternoon of January 26, he was declared dead at the government hospital. Over the next two days, several Muslims homes and shops were set on fire in retaliation.

A week into the first incident on January 26, Kasganj remains on edge. Some shops have opened, but the market is deserted. Policemen roam the streets in packs, and everyone claims that everything is normal until you ask them what they really think. There is only thing that unites the town: the belief that January 26 was just waiting to happen. Hindu-Muslim tensions had been building up in Kasganj, where their relationship largely remains normal, since the change of political regime in Uttar Pradesh in March. Long called a bellwether constituency, Kasganj, seat number 100 in the UP assembly, has voted for the winning party since 1974.

In March 2017, the BJP candidate from Kasganj defeated his Samajwadi rival by 52,030 votes, shifting the power dynamic between the towns Hindus and Muslims. The last time Kasganj voted for the BJP was in 1991. The last communal riot in Kasganj was recorded in 1992.

Rapid Action Force (RAF) and Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC) personnel stand guard in Kasganj. (PTI File Photo)

Yogis win first caused fear among the Muslims, said Vinay Raj, a local businessman who leads the towns chapter of the VHP. Then, after some time, things returned to normal, but the feeling of frustration among them hasnt left. They felt as if their votes lost their power, he added.

This feeling, Raj said, was heightened in the Muslim-dominated areas of Kasganj. When they are among us, they are fine, but when they are among their own, they are different, said Raj. It is to remind Muslims of their place in Kasganj that the Hindu boys wanted to take their Republic Day rally through Baddunagar.

Since the last elections, the Hindu community has been acting with aggression and impunity, said Farooq Bhaddan, a community leader and an established businessman. The sentiment echoed through Baddunagar, where the rangoli was fading, the balloons had turned to shreds, and a piece of saffron cloth hung from an electrical wire crisscrossing the chowk. If the intention was to celebrate Republic Day, why were people carrying saffron flags in that rally? asked Asif.

The tensions had been rising since January 23, said Vinay Raj. Three days before Republic Day, an incident at the towns historic Chamunda temple had set the Hindu-Muslim scene up for a climax. Situated in a Muslim-majority area, the temples premises are used by the local residents to park their vehicles.

The movement of Muslims through the temple property upsets the towns Hindus and recurs as an election issue. One of the promises the BJPs candidate had made in his 2017 manifesto was to build a gate across the walls. On the morning of January 23, the local administration had tried to initiate the process by putting up barricades. The areas Muslims had responded with protests and the Hindus with counter-protests.

We have been demanding a gate for years, said Vinay Raj. They only demand a gate before elections, said Farooq Bhaddan.

And last but not the least, there was the matter of slogans. What is wrong with demanding that they say Vande Mataram if they wish to live in India? Its all about taking pride in your nation, said Mayank Maheshwari, who was one of young men who took part in the rally on January 26..

I have no problem with saying Vande Mataram, said Yusuf, but of my own free will. I can say it a hundred times. But try to force me to say it, and you will fail.The Uttar Pradesh police on Saturday arrested another accused over the killing of Abhishek Gupta, aka Chandan, during clashes in Kasganj on Republic Day.

Kasganj superintendent of police, Piyush Srivastav, said special operations group (SOG) arrested Rahat Qureshi and booked him for murder, continuing its crackdown against the January 26 incident.

Twenty three-year-old Chandan, who was part of a tiranga yatra, was shot dead when bikers holding the tricolour and saffron flags wanted right of the way through an area earmarked for a ceremony in the predominantly Muslim neighbourhood, triggering communal violence. At least three shops, two buses and a car were also torched in the clashes.

Police have so far arrested 17 people out of the 20 named as accused in the FIR lodged on the basis of a complaint filed by Chandans father Sushil Gupta.

Among those arrested are Saleem Javed, the prime accused. Saleems brothers Waseem and Naseem, who are also named in the FIR, are absconding even as the police are carrying out raids to find the accused.

Meanwhile, life in Kasganj is returning to normal amid strong presence of security personnel. No untoward incident has been reported in the past four days. Markets, schools and offices are again buzzing with activities.

There has been no reduction in the deployment of security personnel in the area. We are keeping close watch on every development in the town to maintain the law and order, the SP said.Three people were arrested on Saturday over the assault on two Kashmiri students in Haryanas Mahendargarh district, hours after Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti took serious exception to the incident and demanded a probe.

The two students of Central University of Haryana (CUH), Aftab Ahmed, 23, and Amjad Ali, 22, both pursuing MSc, were thrashed by a group near Masani Chowk area on Friday when they were returning to the campus after offering prayers at a nearby mosque.

Police said the altercation between Kashmiri students and the accused started after a motorcycle collision, following which they called in more men who thrashed the two students.

Mahendragarh SP Kamaldeep Goyal said on the basis of CCTV footage, police identified six persons involved in the incident. While three were arrested, efforts were on to nab the others, Goyal said. The interrogation of those arrested is going on. We are trying to find out why the accused attacked the students, the SP added. The police swung into action after Mufti urged the Haryana government to take stringent action against the perpetrators and demanded a probe into the incident.

Speaking to the media, the students said the attack by a group of 15-20 people was unprovoked. My friend and I were coming back from Mahendergarh town after offering Friday namaz when we noticed some men following us. We did not take it seriously, since we had been living here for almost two years. But suddenly, when we reached the chowk, and stopped our bike, the men started thrashing us mercilessly, said Aftab.

My friend somehow managed to escape, but the group of men continued to attack me. We kept asking them what has happened and what did we do but they kept beating us, said Aftab, adding that the nearby shopkeepers did not come to their rescue. Instead of helping us, it seemed even shopkeepers soon became part of the mob and joined them in thrashing us, Ahmed alleged.

After reaching the university, they informed the faculty about the incident, who lodged a complaint with the police. A case against unknown men under Sections 323 (voluntary causing hurt) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code was registered.

Oppn stages walkout in J-K assembly

The Jammu and Kashmir assembly also witnessed noisy scenes over the incident, with opposition members staging a walkout during zero hour, accusing the government of failing to check such incidents.

First to raise the issue were National Conference (NC)?MLA Mubarak Gul and Peoples Democratic Front MLA Mohammed Hakeem Yaseen. Criticising the attack, they said Kashmiri youth studying in other parts of the country were not safe.

NC legislator from Pahalgam Altaf Ahmed Kaloo said Jammu and Kashmir residents were hated outside the state and the government must ensure their security. In a bid to pacify the Opposition, minister for parliamentary affairs AR Veeri said the home secretary had spoken to the Haryana DGP.

CPM legislator MY Tarigami demanded that the House should pass a resolution for the safety of J&K students and businessmen in other parts of the country. The resolution should be sent to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he added.A chicken prized for its delicacy has become a bone of contention for two BJP-ruled states with both Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh staking claims to call the Indian breed black winged chicken, Kadaknath, its own.

Kadaknath is much in demand not only because of its taste, but also due to its low cholesterol and high protein content. Not surprisingly, it sells at around Rs 500 per kg, which is around five times the price of normal broiler chicken. In MPs Jhabua these birds are marketed by Gramin Vikas Trust (the NGO which runs the cooperatives breeding the bird) in various places in Gujarat, Maharashtra and even south India.

Madhya Pradesh had filed an application with the Geographical Indication (GI) registry office in Chennai in 2012 (Application No 378) saying that Kadaknath originated from Jhabua district. But recently, when news broke that even Chhattisgarh government had also applied for GI tag for the same bird, following success of its breeding project in Dantewada, the Jhabua district administration became alert fearing that it might lose the race for getting the GI tag for Kadaknath to Chhattisgarh.

Jhabua collector Ashish Saxena wrote to the Madhya Pradesh animal husbandry department principal secretary Ajit Kesari on February 2 (HT has a copy of the letter) informing him about the move by the Chhattigarh government and asked the department to take necessary action so that Jhabua gets the GI tag.

Dantewada collector Saurabh Kumar said, Madhya Pradesh applied for the GI tag in 2012, but they have still not got it. We have applied for GI tag in 2017 for the Kadaknath bird which we are producing in Dantewada. There are various formats of GI, and we have applied it under the breed preservation and conservation section.

We are not disputing that it originated from Jhabua, but now we are producing around 2.5 lakh Kadaknath brids a year which is much more than what Madhya Pradesh is producing. If Madhya Pradesh gets the GI tag then we wont be able to call our bird Kadaknath and the women in our self-help groups will lose a lot commercially. So we too have applied.

People in the Madhya Pradesh animal husbandry department familiar with the developments said that the has redoubled its efforts and it is possible that the state gets the prized tag very soon.

It is a complicated process and before getting the GI tag we have to answer a lot of queries. One particular problematic query was to get the chickens blood tested. Such testing cannot be done in India, and we had to send blood samples abroad, said an official of animal husbandry department in Jhabua.

Principal secretary animal husbandry Kesari said the government is very serious that the state wins the GI battle over Kadaknath. We have not received any official intimation from Chennai regarding the claim made by Chhattisgarh. And even if Chhattigarh makes the claim it will have to prove that Kadaknath is from that region which wont be easy.

Experts in the field say that if both Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh get the GI tag then the uniqueness of the product will get diminished and so will its price in the long run. (With inputs from Ritesh Mishra)The Congress on Saturday accused the Modi government of lacking the determination to properly implement rural employment guarantee scheme.

Congress communications in-charge Randeep Singh Surjewala told reporters here that rural wages were going down for the last four years and allocations have been delayed.

The Modi government, under a conspiracy, wants to end the MGNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Gurantee Act) scheme which guarantees 100 days of unskilled manual work to all rural households in India.

He claimed that the guaranteed 100 days of employment had been effectively reduced to 35 days.

Work cannot be done only on the basis of allocation. For getting the work done, will is required. The Modi government has failed on both the fronts, he said.

On the proposed Rashtra Raksha Yagya in Delhi, Surjewala said that instead of taking any concrete steps on national security, Modiji is taking help of yagna.

Hitting out at the Bharatiya Janata Party for a cow protection yagna in Karnataka, he said cows had died in sheds in BJP-ruled states.

The BJP takes one stand in Meghalaya while it takes another stand in north India. The BJPs leadership in Karnataka is tainted. They now want to take help of such rituals to save themselves from the peoples anger, Surjewala said.In a setback to poll boycott call, the BJP on Saturday decided to forge an alliance with newly floated Nationalist Democratic Peoples Party (NDPP) dumping its 15-year-old ally Naga Peoples Front (NPF) that rules the state. The Congress, too, appointed observers for the state polls slated for February 27.

On January 29, 11 major political parties, including the Congress and the BJP, had signed a declaration to boycott the Nagaland polls till the final agreement is reached over the states political issue.

However, the declaration fizzled out within a day with BJP backing out and a few tribal bodies such as Angami Public Organisaiton (APO) and Eastern Nagaland Public Organisation (ENPO) deciding not to impose the boycott in their respective regions.

Days after BJPs state in charge Kiren Rijiju said the boycott was not a solution to the decades-old insurgency problem, the party announced the alliance with NDPP led by former chief minister Neiphiu Rio.

A decision to this effect was taken in New Delhi on Friday at a meeting between BJP president Amit Shah and Rio in the presence of BJPs Nagaland president Visasolie Lhoungu, the partys state media cell convener, K James Vizo said in Kohima.

Vizo said the NDPP would contest 40 of the 60 seats in the state assembly, while the BJP would field candidates in the remaining 20 seats. The BJP also released the names of its 20 candidates.

The BJP leaders of Nagaland are, however, unhappy with the alliance. They have written to party chief Amit Shah, expressing their resentment against the saffron partys move. The letter was sent to Shah last night, soon after the agreement between the two parties was signed in Delhi.

We are confident of achieving a resounding success across the state, much better than the NDPP... In this context, it is very likely that if the seat-sharing agreement is taken up officially, it will have a highly negative impact on the current status of the party in Nagaland, the letter reads.

Meanwhile, the Congress on Saturday appointed a team of observers for the upcoming elections in Nagaland. The team will be headed by former Arunachal Pradesh chief minister Nabam Tuki. Former national minority commission member Captain Praveen Davar, Lok Sabha MP from Assam Gaurav Gogoi and former Assam minister Pradyut Bordoloi are the other observers.

The appointment of the team of observers is a clear indication that the Congress is willing to contest the assembly elections though no such announcement has been made. The move came after the BJP announced that it will fight the upcoming polls.

The process of filing nominations started on February 1 but till Friday no candidate has filed nomination.

(With agency inputs)Dawa Sherpa, a 1992-batch Indian Police Service officer chosen to head Gorakhpur zone as additional director general of police, was a BJP leader and an aspirant for the Darjeeling Lok Sabha seat during his four-year absence from the police force, some police officials, who refused to be named, alleged.

Sherpa was posted to Gorakhpur in the latest reshuffle of IPS officers. The decision sparked a controversy with the opposition calling the move a reward for his services to the BJP.

Sherpa is expected to assume charge on Monday. The officer could not be reached for his comment despite repeated attempts.

Officials said Sherpa was absent from service from 2008 to 2012 before he was regularised once again in 2013. He reportedly had applied for voluntary retirement in October 2008 when he was commandant, 2nd Battallion Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC) in Sitapur, they said. He proceeded on a long leave and was later deemed gair hazir (absent) in police parlance.

In his case, the home department could not process his plea for voluntary retirement as he hadnt completed 20 years in service to avail himself of VRS, the police officials said.

While absent from UP, Sherpa emerged on the political landscape in Darjeeling, his hometown, where he was vocal in Gorkhaland politics, officials said.

He formally joined the BJP and was appointed secretary of the partys state unit, officials said, adding he was in contention for the party ticket for the Darjeeling Lok Sabha seat in 2009. Eventually, veteran leader Jaswant Singh won the seat.

For the next three years, Sherpa remained active in Gorkhaland politics and became convener of the Akhil Bharatiya Gorkha League. He returned to UP in 2012. His services were regularised and he was given a promotion in 2013 as deputy inspector general (DIG).

Before being chosen to head the Gorakhpur police zone, he was additional director general of police crime branch in the CID division, which had probed a case against the chief minister.

Former Uttar Pradesh police chief Vikram Singh, in whose tenure Sherpa became absent, said he had no moral right to remain in service.

It has to be investigated how he made it back to the service, throwing all service rules to the wind, he said.The charge sheet filed by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in January in the terror funding case that names Lashkar-e-Taiba chief Hafiz Mohammed Saeed and Hizbul Mujahideen chief Syed Salahuddin also points to links between them and the top leadership of several Kasmiri separatist groups that are part of the All Party Hurriyat Conference, Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Yasin Malik, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, Asiya Andrabi and Shabbir Shah.

However, the charge sheet doesnt charge the Hurriyat leaders despite highlighting their role in conspiracies to attack Indian security forces in the Valley and in instigating young people there to resort to violence.

Excerpts from the charge sheet, which has been seen by Hindustan Times, are explicit about their role. For instance, it lists a DVD which contains around four conversations of Hafiz Saeed with Hurriyat hawk Syed Ali Shah Geelani, and one conservation each with Dukhtaran-e-Millat chief Asiya Andrabi, Shabbir Shah and Masarat Alam. In most of these conversations, a person named Iftikhar Hyder Rana also figures but the charge sheet did not shed any light on his identity.

The charge sheet claims that Geelani, Yasin Malik and Mirwaiz Umar Farooq together form the Joint Resistance Leadership, which espouses the cause of secession of Jammu and Kashmir from India.

It mentions that a May 14, 2017 WhatsApp message of Mirwaiz recovered from the phone of Hurriyat spokesperson Ayaz Akbar Khandey, who has been formally charged in the case, reads: Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Mohammad Yasin Malik on Sunday in a joint statement asked all political and militant organisation to follow freedom struggle with vision and wisdom.

According to the charge sheet, the NIAs investigation further revealed that protests and demonstrations in the Valley happened as per the elaborate calendar of protests authored by joint resistance leadership.

These calendars had detailed instructions on picketing, blockage of routes, suspension of public transport, and exhorting people to play azaadi taranans (songs). One such calendar of August, 2016 was recovered from the house of Altaf Ahmed Shah Fantoosh (Geelanis son-in-law) and was singed by Geelani.

Fantooshs lawyer Rajat Kumar declined to comment.

Most damningly, the charge sheet claims that through money launderer Zahoor Watali, who has been charged in the case, Hurriyat leaders received money from Hafiz Saeed, Pakistans ISI, and also directly from the Pakistan high commission.

But despite all this, the agency formally charged only seven second rung separatists along with Hafiz Saeed and Syed Salauddin.

Our probe with regard to all other aspects not touched in the first charge sheet is continuing, said a senior NIA official who spoke on the condition of anonymity, hinting that these leaders could perhaps be charged in a supplementary charge sheet.

Geelani and Yasin Malik could not be reached for comments. Shabbir Shah is in jail in connection with a case lodged by the Enforcement Directorate.

We have been saying from day one that the NIA investigation is a farce. It is a pressure tactic. The agency is being used by the government to create an opinion against us. If the NIA has any evidence against us they should present it. We have always maintained that the struggle is totally indigenous and the protests spontaneous, said Mirwaiz Umar Farooq.

The NIA is yet to question the top separatist leadership, though two sons of Geelani have been questioned by the NIA many times.

Interestingly, the charge sheet also mentions a chat between Fantoosh and Rona Wilson in which Fantoosh hailed Afzal Guru as icon of Kashmiri freedom struggle. Wilsons occupation and identity has not been specified by the NIA. But Wilson, who is secretary, public relations of Committee for Release of Political Prisoners, the outfit headed by SAR Geelani. Geelani was once an accused in the Parliament attack case along with Afzal Guru but was acquitted by the Supreme Court.

I had no such chat. This is all rubbish, said Wilson, who has often been portrayed a sympathizers of Maoists as well. Wilson doesnt agree to that portrayal and says his fight is for unfairly arrested political prisoners.

According to the charge sheet, between 1990 and 2016, about 14,000 civilians and 5043 security personnel have been killed in Jammu and Kashmir where terrorism is organised, funded and orchestrated by intelligence agencies of Pakistan. In 1993, All Party Hurriyat Conference was formed as conglomerate of 26 political, social, and religious organizations to give a political mask to secessionist activities.

The alliance has been consistently promoted and supported by Pakistan to fulfil its evil designs and to establish claim over Jammu and Kashmir, says the charge sheet.From contentions over Charles Darwins theory of evolution by Indian politicians to US President Donald Trumps directions that words such as science-based should not be used in official documents, Nobel laureates on Friday said choosing between fact versus fake is a serious problem for science and beyond.

Science is under attack from fake news and religious viewpoints which is confusing society. Lot of lies are being spread not just about science but also history, said Serge Haroche, who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2012.

It is difficult to fight against it since these are people who do not believe in scientific rules and principles that govern science. Its absurd that scientists still have to face this problem in the 21st century, he said.

At the second edition of the Nobel Prize India Series 2018, Harouche expressed concern about a rising number of people not accepting Darwins theory of evolution that has explained many facts about the natural world.

Goa CM Manohar Parrikar addresses the delegates during the inauguration of the Nobel Prize Series India 2018 at Kala Academy in Panaji. (HT Photo)

In India, a controversy arose in January with Union minister Satyapal Singh saying Darwins theory is scientifically wrong, and should be removed from the curriculum. Following this, Indian scientists drafted an online petition, which attracted thousands of signatures, asking Singh to retract his statement.

In December, the Trump administration told The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia, to avoid seven words  science-based, evidence-based, foetus, vulnerable, entitlement, diversity and transgender  in budget documents.

Nobel laureate Christiane Nusslein-Volhard during the inauguration of the Nobel Prize Series India 2018 at Kala Academy in Panaji. (HT Photo)

Tomas Lindahl, who won the Nobel in chemistry in 2015, said policy makers should be careful about making statements, and that schools must train students to recognise what they read is true or untrue so long as they aware of scientific opinions.

A lot of people were and continue to be against Darwins theory in the 19th century. If Darwinism is not accepted, the value of science is challenged. But in the end, science wins because it is based on facts, and builds knowledge from proof and demonstration, said Haroche.

Harouche cited the example of Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei whose scientific discovery in the 17th century that the Earth and planets revolved around the sun  and not the other way around as believed by the Roman Catholic Church  was eventually proved right. In 1992, Pope John Paul II apologised for persecuting Galileo.

As we grow older, we are entitled to our opinions, but not entitled to facts. Society has contradictory beliefs, and to find a middle ground is not easy, said Lindahl. Therefore the role of teachers in the internet age is very important because they must convey facts that are robust even if they dont believe in it, he said.The Rajasthan police detained a 40-year-old government schoolteacher on Saturday on the charges of assaulting his 82-year-old bedridden mother after a video surfaced on social media on Friday.

In the video, Jogendra Chaudhary of Shahjahanpur, about 100 km from Alwar, is seen pushing and beating his mother Bhram Kaur Devi who died last month. Police said the video was recorded in the summer but had surfaced on the social media now. Police registered a case against the teacher on Friday evening at Shahjahanpur police station on its own.

Chaudhary had gone missing shortly after the video became public.

Chaudhary was detained from an ashram in Neemrana in Sikar district and brought to Shahjahanpur for investigation, Deputy Superintendent of Police (Behror) Janesh Tanwar said.

The officer said earlier Chaudharys location was traced to Jhunjhunu where police teams were sent but he was later found in Neemrana.

He added that the case against Chaudhary has been lodged under sections 323 (punishment for voluntarily causing hurt), 341 (punishment for wrongful restraint), 352 (punishment for assault or criminal force otherwise than on grave provocation) and 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

Tanwar said Chaudharys mother had a paralytic attack and was bedridden for a few years. Police are also probing if Chaudhary was involved in his mothers death.

He had been taking care of his mother all these years, but on that particular day Chaudhary said something snapped inside him and he admitted to assaulting his mother in a fit of rage and despair, said Surendra Malik, Station House Officer (SHO) of Shahjanpur.

The video was recorded by the teachers nephew, the police said. They are also probing who made the video public.

Chaudharys wife is also a government teacher. He has two brothers  one is in the Army and one in Rajasthan police.BJP parliamentarian Subramanian Swamy moved in the Rajya Sabha on Friday a private members bill for a countrywide ban on cow slaughter, but withdrew it after the government assured that steps have been taken to protect the animal.

During a two-hour discussion on the cow protection bill, the Upper House witnessed heated exchanges when Opposition members objected to railway minister Piyush Goyals remarks that an important issue was being made fun of.

Goyal stood up and spoke after Samajwadi Party member Javed Ali Khan said the cow should be declared the national animal immediately, with provisions that government will be responsible for rearing and nourishing the animal. Also, he said India must end its diplomatic ties with meat-trading nations.

Intervening in the debate, agriculture minister Radha Mohan Singh said the government has been working on schemes related to cow welfare over the past three-and-a-half years.

We have been taking steps for the protection and promotion of the cow. I want to assure Swamy that we are working in the same direction. With these words I request you to withdraw the bill, the minister said.

Swamy withdrew the bill and hoped that the government would put a voluntary cess to ensure cows are looked after they cease to give milk. He said gaushalas, or cow shelters, should be set up and scientifically run. An authority to ensure stabilisation of the population of Indian breed of cows should be set up.

So the only thing remaining is the law  I would like to give the government one more chance so that I dont have to come back again with another bill. Therefore, permit me to withdraw the bill, Swamy said.

During the debate, Congress member Rajeev Shukla asked Swamy why doesnt the BJP discuss the matter of cow slaughter with Goa CM Manohar Parrikar?Parrikar had recently backed beef traders and warned cow vigilante groups.Police arrested last week two young Kashmiri men who had travelled to Pakistan on valid visa allegedly for weapons training at camps run by the Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorist group, underscoring the movement of militants through routes they would avoid.

According to police, Abdul Majeed Bhat from Kreeri and Mohammad Ashraf Mir Nilla of Pattan, both places in northern Kashmirs Baramulla district, were taken into custody at the Wagah-Attari border post in Punjab when they returned from Pakistan.

They were on our radar for the past five months. We had information from since they entered Pakistan and joined militant training, Baramulla senior superintendent of police Imtiaz Hussain said on Saturday.

The duo allegedly confessed to undergoing arms training in Pakistan during questioning.

They revealed they had undergone terrorist training in Pakistan along with large number of Pakistani boys and most of them from Balochistan, some as young as 10, a police statement said.

Taking the train to Pakistan is not a new strategy for militants, but often avoided as the risk of detection is extremely high.

This is not the first time  Two militants who had undergone training in similar circumstances have been killed in the past, Hussain said.

Most militants prefer the treacherous mountain trails to travel to and from Pakistan. However, it has become equally dangerous to walk the off-roads as the Indian military has intensified border patrol and security in the past several years.

As cross-border movement has become difficult, most of the active Kashmiri militants have been trained in the jungles of the state. Young Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani, whose killing in the summer of 2016 triggered unprecedented unrest in the Kashmir Valley, was not trained in Pakistan, neither did his predecessors.

In the past couple of years, police unearthed several modules that lure young boys to Pakistan to get trained and join militancy, Hussain said.

Suspected militants Azharuddin alias Qazi from Kupwara and Sajad Ahmad alias Babar from Sopore, had allegedly gone to Pakistan on valid visa for arms training. They were killed on February 4 last year in Sopore.

Another suspected militant, Abdul Rashid Bhat, who had travelled to Pakistan on a visa, was arrested last July.

Police said a youth named Suhaib Farooq Akhoon of Baramulla went to Pakistan last August and was trained at a Lashkar camp. He is said to be active in the Valley now.

The authorities asked parents to report to police any prolonged absence of their children.The Jammu and Kashmir assembly witnessed noisy scenes on Saturday over the alleged assault on two Kashmiri students in Haryana, with several opposition members staging a walkout during the zero hour, accusing the government of failing to check such incidents.

The state government assured the house that the matter has been taken up with Haryana and three persons have been arrested in the case.

The opposition members also questioned why the government had called an all-party meeting to discuss upcoming panchayat elections, when it has already taken all decisions in this regard.

After the house assembled, BJP state president Sat Sharma drew the attention of the house to the death of three army personnel in an avalanche in Gurez sector of Bandipora district in north Kashmir and the force rescuing a civilian patient despite adverse weather condition on Friday.

The opposition should also acknowledge and praise the sacrifice and the rescue effort of the army... They only consider it their duty to criticise the forces, he said amid thumping of desks by the BJP legislators.

Deputy speaker Nazir Ahmad Gurezi, during the question hour, said the Indian Air Force and the army were doing a great service to the nation which is praiseworthy.

Parliamentary affairs minister AR Veeri intervened to make a statement before the start of the question hour, assuring the house that the government was serious on both the issues raised by the opposition.

As far as Haryana incident is concerned, an FIR has already been lodged by (Haryana police). Two students were attacked by some miscreants, resulting in minor injuries to one of them.

On the directions of chief minister Mehbooba Mufti, principal secretary (home) talked to his counterpart. Besides the state DGP SP Vaid contacted the DGP of Haryana. So far three persons have been arrested in connection with the assault, he said.

After National Conference MLA Ali Mohammad Sagar questioned the logic behind holding an all-party meeting over panchayat elections when everything has been decided, Veeri said, we are serious about the meeting which is being chaired by the chief minister herself.

It is the decision of the cabinet and the outcome of the all-party meet will be discussed at the cabinet and its decision will be final, he said.

The question hour passed off peacefully barring a walkout by BJP legislator Choudhary Sukhnadan over non-satisfactory answer to his question related to farmers.

However, the zero hour saw opposition members vociferously raising the incidents of attacks on Kashmiri students in others states.

Congress MLA GM Saroori claimed that a youth from Kishtwar was killed outside the state and demanded a statement from the government.

NC MLA Altaf Kaloo also read out a purported SMS from a student in which he alleged that they were attacked outside the state. NC members and several Congress legislators later staged a walk out to protest against what they called the governments failure to stop such attacks.

While leaving the house, Kaloo pointed towards ruling PDP legislators and said, You too are Kashmiris.

PDP MLA Mohammad Ashraf Mir said I am Kashmiri first, then Indian.

Later talking to reporters, Sagar said the attack on students outside the state is leading to alienation which is very dangerous.

An impression goes especially in the Valley that we are not safe and secure which is a wrong signal, he said and demanded stern action against the fringe elements involved in such attacks .

He said that such persons cannot be friends of the country and are enemies of the nation.

Everyone is free to go anywhere in any college or university and if he is restricted in the name of religion, region or state, that is not a good thing, the MLA said.An engineering graduate killed a woman and her cousin at their residence in Bulandshahr district after the woman spurned his marriage proposal, a senior police official said on Saturday.

Ankit, a resident of Dhakoli village, also burnt the bodies of Sheelu, 23, and her cousin Shivani at their home in neighbouring Bahpur village on Thursday, senior superintendent of police Muniraj G said.

According to the SSP, Ankit visited Sheelus residence on Thursday and proposed her for marriage, but she rejected the proposal. Ankit then strangled her to death. Since Shivani witnessed the incident, he also killed her with a motorcycle clutch wire.

Ankit then took out petrol from his motorbike and set the bodies on fire, official added. The police worked out the case in less than 24 hours, he said.

The senior superintendent of police said the officials put the mobile phones of Ankit and a few other suspects on surveillance. The investigation revealed that Ankit was at Sheelus residence on the day the killings happened.

Ankit later admitted to have killed the sisters, the official added.A young and educated Kanjarbhat couple in rural Maharashtra chose to marry in a court 21 years ago and defy the communitys traditional and strict wedding customs  an audacious act that made them and their families social outcasts.

Krishna Indrekar and Aruna Indrekar, nee Tamaiche, and their son continue be pariahs for the Kanjarbhats, a de-notified tribe or vimukta jati, although the 51-year-old mans family accepted them last year.

The Indrekars did the unthinkable when they chose not to follow marital customs, including a virginity test for brides, laid down by the caste panchayat. They ignored the familys plan for a traditional wedding and signed up with a marriage registrar.

The couple refused to follow the regressive practices and moved out of the community. But their families suffered a backlash. The humiliation and social ostracism stopped after they paid a fine and performed dev dharm rituals.

According to customary rules, the families have to pay khushi, or a fee, to the panchayat after the wedding ceremony. The couple is then sent to a lodge and the bride is called khota maal, or defective, if she doesnt bleed when they intimate.

The woman has to undergo an agnipariksha, or a fire test, in which she is asked to carry a hot axe. She is considered pure if her hands dont burn during the trial. If she fails, which happens most often, the family has to pay a penalty to the panchayat.

Girls in the community are not allowed to study. By the time they are 14 years old parents are already looking for a suitable match, and get her married even before she is 18. Parents are always worried that if a girl goes to college, she will find someone and if she isnt virgin, the community will not accept her, said Aruna, who is 48.

Aruna, who is from a village in Radhanagari taluka, 50km from Kolhapur city, believes she has been lucky because her family lived away from the community and stood by her decision to support Krishna.

Young Kanjarbhats are now questioning these customs. There was outrage when around 60 youngsters from the community, which has an estimated population of around 25,000 in Maharashtra, started a social media campaign called StopVtest.

The community has a concept of bandpeti, or settled marriage, for couples who got physically intimate before their wedding. The girl is then accepted only after a certain fine is paid.

Inter-caste marriages are not allowed. If a girl married someone outside the community, she is excommunicated. But when a man wants to marry a woman from another community, she is accepted after a raft of rituals.

For her part, Aruna takes pride in the fact that she and her four siblings challenged the norms by opting for higher education almost three decades before the campaign against virginity test started.

Even then, her grandmother chaperoned her to school. I wasnt aware of the virginity test till I turned 11. Then I mentally prepared myself for these customs. But I didnt know that my husband had different plans for our life, Aruna said.

Krishna and his family are living in Mumbai since 2003, the year he got transferred to the city. He is a director of accounts at charity commissioners office, the regulatory authority of charitable trusts.

Our community has always followed rudhi parampara (regressive practices), which is a well-known fact by the judiciary, executive and legislature. A 17-year-old bride failed the virginity test recently. She was thrashed. No one takes action against the caste panchayat, Krishna said.

Under Section IV of the Maharashtra Protection of People form Social Boycott (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2016, boycotting a person from the community is an offence.

Society boycotted us, but we have always wished good for our community, which is why the seed sown by us is growing today, Krishna said.

The Indrekars are role models for the young people challenging the deep-seated customs. When people face problems from the panchayat, they approach Krishna uncle, said Akshay Tamaichekar, a postgraduate student in Mumbai University.Former Congress parliamentarian from Barmer Harish Choudhary said work on the multi-crore proposed oil refinery project is yet to start more than three weeks after the Prime Minister laid the foundation stone on January 16.

Choudhary visited the site on Saturday, a day after former Congress chief minister Ashok Gehlot tweeted that saying that even weeks after the project work commencement ceremony, there was no activity visible on the ground.

Interacting with media persons, Choudhary, also Congress national secretary, said Union petroleum minister Dharmendra Pradhan in the presence of MP Modi, announced that the work on the 500 crore project would be started from the next day but until now there is no activity visible on the ground.

Choudhary alleged that just like state chief minister Vasundhara Raje, PM Modi, too, has betrayed the people of Rajasthan in the name of the refinery.

Even after three weeks of refinery project work commencement ceremony, work has not been started, he said.

He further alleged that PM Modi too had made tall claims, saying that his government does not believe in laying foundation stones while claiming that the project work would be completed by 2022.

He alleged that Modi has behaved in the same manner as that of Raje, saying that that earlier Raje had betrayed the people of the state by intentionally delaying the project for four years and now Modi has misled the people.

On September 22, 2013, during the UPA regime, the then Congress president Sonia Gandhi laid the foundation stone of oil refinery at Pachpadra in Barmer.

After coming to power, the Vasundhara Raje government placed the project under review, saying that the terms of the memorandum of understanding were being renegotiated as it was not in favour of the state.

In April 2017, the state government inked a fresh MoU with the Hindustan Petroleum Company Limited, claiming that the government saved  40,000 crore and inked a deal in favour of the states interest.A day after a letter announcing withdrawing protests against Padmaavat circulated on social media, the groups national president on Saturday said the protest will continue and expelled members who saw the film in Mumbai.

Shri Rashtriya Rajput Karni Sena national vice-president Yogendra Singh Katar who signed the letter, could not be contacted as the mobile phone number mentioned in letter was switched off on Saturday.

Addressing a news conference in Jaipur, Shri Rashtriya Rajput Karni Sena national president Sukhdev Singh Gogamedi, said he was investigating about the letter and an emergency meeting of the body had been called on February 6, to discuss the issue.

Whoever went to watch the film (from the association) yesterday did so in their personal capacity and we will continue to oppose the film and appeal to everyone not to give credence to rumours, Gogamedi said in a release.

On Friday, a letter on the official letterhead of Shri Rashtriya Rajput Karni Sena claiming that some members of the group had seen the film in Mumbai on instruction from Gogamedi and found nothing objectionable.

The movie glorifies the valour and sacrifice of Rajput and every Rajput will feel proud after watching the film, the letter signed by Katar, said.

Following which, Shri Rajput Karni Sena leader Lokendra Singh Kalvi called a press conference in Jaipur to say that the group will continue to oppose the film. He even questioned the authenticity of Shri Rashtriya Rajput Karni Sena, without naming it.

There is some duplicity going on in the name of Karni Sena and eight such bodies have sprouted over the years, he said.

There are people giving statements on behalf of Karni Sena, but there is only one Karni Sena and our stand is clear that Padmaavat should not have been released.

Shri Rashtriya Rajput Karni Sena and Shri Rajput Karni Sena have been demanding a ban on Bhansalis period drama film starring Ranvir Singh and Deepika Padukone, claiming that the film distorted history of Mewar.

Rajasthan had banned the release of the film following Rajputs protest but Supreme Court lifted the ban.

The film released in theatres across India on January 25 amid tight security and protest from different groups, including Karni Sena.

Cinema owners and film distributors in Rajasthan, however, decided not the exhibit the film on their own.Chief minister Vasundhara Raje, who also holds the finance portfolio, will on February 12 present her governments last budget before Rajasthan goes to polls later this year.

Analysts said the budget is expected to be pro-poor and focus on rural growth in the wake of setback in by-elections as the government seeks to address farm distress, unemployment and boost economic growth.

Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry, Rajasthan state council chief Atul Sharma said the thrust will be on agriculture and allied areas to boost rural income and the other major focus will be schemes meant for poor.

We may see new rural schemes such as irrigation projects to boost farm income, he said.

Also on the menu may be increasing spending on infrastructure projects for the benefit of urban residents. As for urban areas, the government could focus on infrastructure but these schemes take long time to materialize.

The states fiscal deficit that was 3.62% of GSDP (gross state domestic product) in the last financial year was estimated to drop to 3% in the current financial year and the latest numbers will be revealed in the forthcoming budget.

Analysts, however, are not optimistic about the projected fall in fiscal deficit.

Apart from UDAY scheme, the implementation of the seventh pay commission recommendations will take a toll on the fiscal deficit, an industrialist, who did not wish to be named, said.

The government will be looking to boost the expenditure and fiscal deficit will not be a constraint as this is the last budget before the elections, the industrialist said.

Confederation of Indian Industry vice chairman Anil Saboo said the state budget will follow in the footsteps of the Union Budget and measures will be taken for poor.

As for the revenue generation, borrowing is not a solution as it is unsustainable and will lead to fiscal deficit shooting up. The government should promote tourism sector, which is a cash industry, and micro, small and medium industry that will increase the tax collections, he said.

The problem now is that many government schemes are not reaching the beneficiaries on the ground. It could be due to poor implementation by bureaucracy or lack of monitoring.

A day after chief minister Vasundhara Raje held a meeting of a core group to discuss the by-elections rout, a meeting of ministers in-charge was called by the state BJP chief Ashok Parnami and organization secretary Chandrashekhar at the state party headquarters on Saturday.

Political analysts said the government is expected to go for course correction in the budget. Small traders and businessmen who have traditionally formed the core support base of the BJP, too may get some sops to ease pain caused to them, some of them said.Three Army soldiers hailing from Rajasthan died in an avalanche at Machil sector in Kupwara district of Jammu and Kashmir on Friday.

The 21 Rajput Regiment jawans  Balveer Singh, 33, resident of Anjari village in Bharatpur district, Kamlesh Singh, resident of Mahar Gujar Was village in Jhunjhunu district and Rajendra Singh, resident of Maithana village in Alwar district  were deployed at an outposts in the Machil sector when they were martyred in the avalanche at around 4.30pm.

Army sources said their mortal remains will be brought to Jaipur by an aircraft from Srinagar on Saturday. The bodies were then sent to the native places of the soldiers by road.

Balveer Singh had jointed the army in 2001. He had visited his house last time in October and resumed the duty on November 14. He survives by his wife Guddi Devi and two sons, Gaurav (9) and Mohit (5). His younger brother Mukesh Singh is also in the army and the youngest brother Balram Singh is a farmer.

Balveer Singhs father Devkaran Singh said that he was proud of his son who sacrificed his life for the nation. So far, we have not informed his wife and mother, he said.

Mohan Shyam, a resident of Anjari village, said that the villagers were waiting for the mortal remains of the martyr. He (Balveer Singh) was very well behaved and interested in playing games. Village cant forget his sacrifice, he said. Remembering the martyr, retired captain Pratap Singh said that not just the villagers or the district people, but the entire state is proud of Balveer Singhs sacrifice for the country.Angry residents went on rampage and clashed with police at Chingrighata crossing on Eastern Metropolitan Bypass, one of the busiest points of Kolkata, on Saturday morning after a bus reportedly jumped a traffic signal and killed two youths.

According to reports, the two victims, Sanjay Bonu and Biswajit Bhuiya, were college students. The bus driver who fled the spot after the accident was arrested a few hours later.

We have nabbed the driver of the killer bus and initiated proceedings against him, said Amit P Javalgi, deputy commissioner of Bidhannagar Police. His driving license has been cancelled.

Furious locals alleged that there was a lack of traffic control at the accident-prone site and pelted stones on policemen who came to control them.

Despite a cane charge, the agitated mob set ablaze four buses, vandalised a police vehicle and attacked a fire engine that came to douse the fire in the buses.

A distraught mother of Bhuiya told a TV channel that he had left home around 10:30 am to buy some items for a friend was getting married. The police are responsible for his death. They never control traffic properly at this point, she said. Her husband runs a cycle repairing shop.

The road, which connects the IT sector of Salt Lake with the city, was closed to traffic for hours. Till 2pm, police failed to disperse the crowd who were throwing bottles at them. The cops then resorted to bursting tear gas shells.

The accident comes close on the heels of a number of road mishaps in Bengal. On January 29, a bus plunged into a canal in Murshidabad district, killing at least 44 people. On January 17, eight people were killed in Kharagpur in East Midnapore district when a bus fell into a canal.

The Beliaghata traffic guard stands only a few feet away from the accident site. Locals alleged policemen had promised to maintain proper vigil in the area to avoid accidents.

Local Trinamool Congress MLA Sujit Basu, who reached the spot, said senior police officers will speak to the locals to address their grievances.

I have spoken to the locals. They want a subway to cross the busy road, he said, adding that the government will also try to help the families of the two students who died.

The situation returned to normal around 2:30 pm and a flank of the EM Bypass was opened to traffic.The West Bengal government has challenged the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) report that shows the state on top in human trafficking cases in 2016.

Our director general of police Surajit Kar Purakayastha wrote to NCRB director Ish Kumar on December 19 last year and sought a corrigendum in this regard, chief minister Mamata Banerjee told the state assembly on Friday. She even placed the DGPs letter before the house.

Read: 60% rape victims in Chandigarh are minors, says NCRB report

NCRB did not check with us before publishing the figures. The number of cases filed in Bengal in connection with human trafficking in 2016 was only 948 but NCRB says it is 3579. This is politically motivated. We have demanded a correction in the report and a corrigendum, said Banerjee.

In December 2017, the NCRB came out with its annual crime report for 2016. It said 8,132 cases involving human trafficking were reported in India with 3579 or 44 per cent of these cases recorded in Bengal alone. Rajasthan came second with 1,422 cases, the report said.

Read: NCRB data reinforces Delhis rape capital tag, city tops in crimes against women

Opposition parties in Bengal used these figures to sharpen their attack on the Trinamool government.

Claiming that law and order situation in Bengal has improved ever since Trinamool came to power, Banerjee told the assembly that her government has taken many initiatives. As many as 108 new police stations had been set up across the state. This has reduced crime, she said.Demanding death sentence for the killer of Kasganj youth Chandan Gupta, groups of youngsters took out flag marches in Lucknow and other parts of Uttar Pradesh on Friday.

Holding the national flag, resident doctors of King George Medical University (KGMU) and other professional students, associated with Youth in Action, took out a march from the gates of the varsity to Shaheed Smarak Gate in Lucknow.

Similar marches were carried out in Varanasi, Mau and Allahabad.

They demanded death sentence for Saleem Javed, the prime accused in the murder case of Abhishek Gupta alias Chandan Gupta, who was killed in firing during clashes between two groups at Kasganj near Agra on Republic Day.

The agitating youths said that since Chandan died on Republic day, he should be given the status of a martyr.

We want early execution of Saleem Javed, the killer of Chandan, said Dr Bhupendra Singh, senior resident doctor of KGMU.

He also demanded financial help for Chandans family and said the government should take stern measures to check the occurrences of such incidents in future.

In Mau district, the marchers were cane charged, in violation of the law, Singh said.

A few youths also blamed the lethargic approach of the police in the whole issue and blamed political parties for doing politics on the whole issue.

District administration denied giving permission for the march. Strict action would be initiated against the protestors, said Kaushal Raj Sharma, Lucknow district magistrate.A day after Andhra Pradesh chief minister Chandrababu Naidu threatened to reconsider ties with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), he called Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray on Saturday.

The phone call between the two leaders assumes significance as Thackerays party is a key constituent of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and has already announced it will contest the 2019 elections independently, without an alliance with the BJP.

The conversation between the two leaders has managed to raise eyebrows in the political circles. The BJPs biggest ally in the south, the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) headed by Naidu, is disappointed over the Union Budget.

It is nothing new; leaders keep talking to each other. The call lasted 10 minutes and they discussed the political scenario in India , said a senior Sena leader.The Bombay high court recently struck down a Mumbai sessions court order allowing the police to take tissues or blood sample of a minor for conducting DNA fingerprinting, which the police aimed to use as evidence in a case of abetment to suicide.

The mother of the minor and her alleged paramour face the charge of abetting the suicide of her husband. According to police, the woman had an extramarital affair with the other accused because of which she harassed her husband and eventually compelled him to kill himself.

The police believe that the minor son was born out of the extramarital affair and therefore the investigation officer of the case had applied to the trial court for permission to conduct DNA fingerprinting to ascertain the paternity of the child. Accordingly, the additional sessions judge on July 27, 2017 granted permission to the investigation officer to conduct the forensic examination.

The woman had approached the high court challenging the July 2017 order. Her lawyer, advocate VJ Bhanushali, submitted that the order was contrary to the law laid down by the Supreme Court that no person can be compelled to undergo such forensic tests and the order to subject the minor to DNA fingerprinting was a violation of his fundamental rights.

Justice Revati Mohite-Dere accepted the contentions and struck down the order. The petitioners minor son could not have been directed to undergo a DNA test, said justice Mohite-Dere while quashing the sessions court order.

The judge said the application filed by the investigating officer seeking permission to subject the minor to DNA fingerprinting was clearly misconceived and as such ought not to have been entertained by the learned judge.A day after her arrest for allegedly procuring call data records (CDR) through illegal means, Rajani Pandit, regarded as Indias first woman private detective, was remanded in police custody till Wednesday.

The 65-year-old is the seventh person to be arrested in the call data racket.

Unit 1 of the Thane crime branch on Saturday raided Pandits house at Shivaji Park in Dadar and seized her laptops, more than 1,000 compact discs (CDs) containing videos, a diary and call data records.

She allegedly procured CDR and sold them to others for a higher price. Pandits diary contained the details of her clients, said an officer from the Thane crime branch. Her social networking accounts are also under scanner.

Pandits name cropped up after four detectives were arrested a week ago. They were identified as Makesh Pandiyan, 42; Prashant Palekar, 49; Jigar Makawana, 35; and Samresh Jha alias Pratik Mohpal, 32  all from Kalwa. They would allegedly sell call data records of clients for Rs25,000 to Rs50,000. They had been running the racket for more than five years, said another officer.

The other two arrested private detectives were identified as Santosh Pandagle and Prashant Sonawane.

A police official from the Thane commissionerate said, Pandits advocate told the court that the sections are bailable and police custody was not required. We argued her custody will help us nab absconding accused.Anyone who can guess what this vegetable is will get a prize, said Thomas Zacharias, chef at The Bombay Canteen, holding up a few firm, tiny, oblong green leaves.

He was met with blank stares from the 35-member audience at his demo session, Exploring Hidden India, organised as part of the Hindustan Times Kala Ghoda Arts Festivals food section, powered by Bertolli.

This audience  ranging from homemakers to college students  had moments earlier correctly identified broccoli, zucchini and asparagus.

The vegetable in the spotlight now was moras, a salty succulent typically found among mangroves.

In Gujarati cuisine, it is often used in place of salt during fasts. I stumbled upon it at a Grant Road market and we use it as a garnish on a corn salad at our restaurant, Zacharias said. There are many such local vegetables available in city markets that we dont know about.

To drive home the point, he went on to highlight the flavour profiles and possible uses of a number of local, seasonal Indian vegetables, including green garlic, green jowar or ponkh, and mogri or rat tail radish.

In the 60-minute workshop, the chef also whipped up dishes with the same veggies. He made arbi tuk starring colocasia and topped with rat tail radish; hara chana hummus with pickled tendli. The pickled tendli actually tastes like gherkin. The idea isnt to be a hipster or cool about exotic local produce but to actually appreciate and use seasonal and local ingredients in daily meals, he said.

This is the first time Ive ever attended a live cooking workshop, said Nandita Bose, 43, a management consultant from Thane. I was particularly interested in this one because it focused on easily accessible ingredients instead of highlighting obscure vegetables from, say, Canada or New Zealand.

The recipes were innovative yet simple, added Shruti Pandey, 26, who works in R&D for cosmetics.

I follow chef Zacharias on Instagram for his informative posts on lesser-known Indian vegetables. Im so happy to have attended this workshop. I didnt know half the vegetables he showed us.In a first, the Maharashtra government launched a mobile application on World Wetland Day (February 2) to monitor the destruction of wetlands across the state.

To start with, the app will be used only by government officials. This is an in-house application developed by our department and will be functional within the next seven days, said Satish Gavai, additional chief secretary, state environment department. The government, however, plans to release the app to the public in the future, after some modifications.

Go on a flamingo safari in Thane Officials from the state mangrove cell said 54 people went on four boat rides  two on Thursday and two on Friday - at the newly opened boating facility at Thane creek flamingo sanctuary. The boat rides for this weekend are completely booked, said N Vasudevan, additional principal chief conservator of forest, state mangrove cell. From next week, we expect to conduct only one boat ride per day. This is based on the tides forecast. The boat cannot ferry visitors when the tide level is below 3.4m. The cost: 1 seat on the large boat called Flamingo is Rs300 on weekdays and Rs400 on weekends. Groups of six can hire the seven-seater speedboat called Kaustubh for Rs5,000. The sanctuary website will be launched within the next 10 days. As of now, Mumbaiites can book their boat rides by calling 9987673737.

Officials from the state environment department and Ahmedabad-based Space Application Centre (SAC), which is under the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), have identified around 32,000 wetlands across Maharashtra  a drop from the 44,714 estimated in the national wetland atlas developed by the Union environment ministry in 2011. Government officials will use the app to monitor these wetlands, to prevent their further destruction.

We have taken data from SAC and mapped it on the map of the state. As per the new data, the state has 32,000 wetland sites. Officials from each district have been given login ids to use the app, and they have to visit the wetland sites in their jurisdiction using the app regularly and monitor them, said Gavai. Officials will also have to submit reports on the status of each of their sites, and flag those sites that need to be restored.

Officers deputed to monitor such matters in every district will be trained to use the app. Over the next three months, we will make modifications to the app to include data on floral and faunal species at wetland sites as well, Gavai said. Botany colleges from each of these districts will assist the local administration in creating a consolidated list of the species found in the wetlands.

Why wetlands must be monitored Between January 2012 and January 2018, there have been 652 cases of wetland destruction in Maharashtra, mostly to acquire land for infrastructure developmental and for residential purposes, as per a report by Mumbai-based NGO Vanashakti. Around 60% of these cases were reported from the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, Palghar and Thane. In 2014, the Bombay High Court (HC) banned reclamation and construction on wetlands after the NGO filed a petition to protect them. Wetlands are a safe haven for not only aquatic life but also migratory birds and other species. It is crucial to protect these wetlands.

Gavai said that once the species list is finalised and information on each of the wetlands is ready, the department will release the app to the public.

Experts said the app would be useful in protecting the wetlands from further destruction. No other state has introduced such a technology to track wetlands. Some of these spots are in remote places and cannot be accessed by foot. Satellite images from the app can be used to keep a close watch on these sites, reduce their destruction, and restore them wherever they are damaged, said Arvind Untawale, executive secretary, Mangrove Society of India. The app will be of particular importance for the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, which sees the maximum cases of wetland destruction.

Officials from the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) said a checklist of species of birds would be of great help. Based on the data, we can then identify the more important bird areas in the state and suggest Ramsar sites [a wetland site designated of international importance] for better protection, said a senior BNHS official, who did not wish to be named.Indians do not holiday abroad as much as other travellers do, reveals a study conducted by a Sydney-based aviation think tank Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation (CAPA), in collaboration with online travel company Expedia. The study is titled The Inflection Point on Indian Outbound Travel report.

For instance, almost every Indian who travelled to Bahrain from India went there for work. In the case of Saudi Arabia, Indians either travelled to the Middle Eastern country either for employment or for pilgrimage. As far as the United States (US) was concerned, the traffic was driven by business, with only 18 percent Indians who went there, going for leisure.

The total global outbound departures in 2016 were estimated to be 1.2 billion, but Indias share was just 1.3 percent, though it is home to nearly a fifth of the worlds population.

The Ministry of Tourism says that 21.9 million Indian departures were recorded in 2016, out of which 5.8 million departures were made by Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) who travelled back to their country of residence after visiting India.

The most popular leisure destinations for Indians are Dubai, Thailand, France, Singapore and Malaysia, which account for over 50% of Indian leisure arrivals overseas.

There will be large numbers of first time travellers entering the international holiday market every year. To cater to such a diverse market, there is a need for the airline industry, tourism boards and travel companies to invest much more in the travel industry, said Binit Somaia, director, South Asia, CAPA.

Simon Fiquet, general manager, Southeast Asia and India, Expedia said, By 2025, we expect 13.9 million leisure departures.The eastern region in Mumbai witnessed a 3% rise in first information reports (FIRs) to 7,419 in 2017 from 7,218 in 2016, while murder and attempt to murder cases fell, according to the police data.



The region  which includes Ghatkopar, Pant Nagar, Parksite, Mulund, Bhandup, Shivaji Nagar, Chembur and Tilak Nagar  is one of the most densely populated areas in Mumbai, and houses a large number of migrants.

The area registered the most attempt to murder bids and stood second in assault cases.

The police in this region registered 26 murder cases in 2017 against 34 in 2016. The region also saw 65 attempt to murder cases in 2017 against 76 the previous year. However, assault cases marginally jumped to 1,140 in 2017 from 1,097 in 2016.

Police said more than 50% of murder, attempt to murder and assault cases occurred in Shivaji Nagar, Govandi, Mankhurd, Ghatkopar (West) and other slum pockets. A police officer blamed migrant population for serious crimes in the region.

Experts differed.

I disagree that crime is because of migrant population in the area. Mumbai is not the only place where people are migrating to. It is happening everywhere. People are migrating because they want to have a better life. Police cannot just blame them for crimes. The real cause for crimes is less fear of law, says Milind Mhaske of NGO Praja Foundation, who lives in Mulund.

Mhaske, who lives in Mulund, said, If the crime rate is not going down then the trend must be investigated seriously. Rule of law is important. If people are still getting away after committing crime then the crime growth will always be the same and wont come down. Police have to discourage people from breaking law. The conviction rate, pendency, and the time taken to deliver justice to the complainant, still lots have to be done in these fields. Even though, the conviction rate is now slightly started coming up in recent years, police still need to do more on measures they can take to improve the conviction, then only there will be fear of law and criminals would be deterred.

Additional commissioner of police (East) region Lakhmi Gautam said, The rate of growth of crime in the region is marginal and more cases also reflect more registration of cases by police. We have been ensuring that offences are registered as they are, rather than minimising them and registering NCs. Not allowing burking of complaints and not allowing minimising crime at any cost is our priority area.

Gautam added, We have been succeeded in keeping the crime under control by ensuring prompt respond to situations, immediate action on the offenders and taking multiple preventive actions on the anti-social elements having potential to break law.

Chain snatching, pickpocketing, rape and molestation case dipped in 2017.After a Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMT) bus caught fire on Thursday evening, a team of researchers from Ashok Leyland, the second largest commercial vehicle manufacturer, has landed in the city to examine it.

The bus was going towards Karave from Nerul station when it caught fire at sector 28. While no one was injured, the thirty passengers who were on board had a narrow escape.

The NMMT invited the researchers team as they have not been able to ascertain the cause of the fire.

The fire broke out after one of the tyres exploded. As soon as it was extinguished, our engineers checked the bus, but could not find the root cause. The diesel tank of the bus was intact. There was also no sign of an electric short circuit. Even the batteries did not explode, said Shirish Aardwad, general manager of NMMT.

We had purchased that bus from Ashok Leyland. Therefore, their team has come to examine it and find out what happened, he said.s

The NMMT buses play a very crucial role in terms of transportation in Navi Mumbai. At several parts of the city, these buses are the only mode public transportation.

Presently, the transport authority is running 477 buses, including 82 air-conditioned buses, in a total of 68 routes across the city. On an average they generate revenue of Rs38 lakh every day.

This is not for the first time that an NMMT bus caught fire with passengers on board. An air-conditioned bus owned by them caught fire in Chembur in 2016. All passengers were evacuated in the nick of time.

Activists from the city demand that the transport authority take this incident seriously, to ensure that no commuters have to pay with their lives while travelling in their buses.

Young people can jump out of a bus when it catches fire. But that is not the case with senior citizens, children and the differently abled people. In case of any delay in the evacuation, they may fall victim to such fires, said Dasharath Patil, 38, an activist from Sanpada.

The affluent section of the residents normally travels in their own vehicles. Only the middle-class and lower middle-class opt for public transport. The NMMT should not play with fire by risking these peoples lives. They should conduct a comprehensive study of all their buses to ensure that they are fit and fire safe, he said.

NMMT runs a total of 150 buses on compressed natural gas (CNG). Such buses need to be more fire safe than the ones that run on diesel. They should also conduct regular workshops to upgrade the skills of the officials, said Shriram Ghate, 41, another activist from Belapur.

We have installed fire extinguishers inside all our buses. Even the bus that caught fire also had one. But the fire spread so fast, it because difficult to douse. We also keep conducting training programmes from time to time to enhance the fire-fighting skills of our officials.

We are now waiting for the researchers teams report on the bunt bus. Once we understand the reason behind that accident, we will be able take requisite measures, if necessary, for the other buses, he said.

Box

NMMT to buy 30 non-AC buses

The Navi Mumbai Municipal Transport (NMMT) has decided to purchase 30 non-AC buses soon. They have set aside a budget of Rs10 crores for them.

It has been observed that some of the routes in Navi Mumbai are in need of more buses. Therefore, thinking about the convenience of the residents, we have decided to buy 30 non-AC buses, said Shirish Aradwad, general manager of NMMT.

He said, Another initiative in this financial year will be introduction of the ladies special buses. Ten such ladies special buses will be introduced on selected routes by February.

The state government has allocated a fund of Rs2.50 crore for purchasing ten buses for carrying only women in the city. The transport authority is now working on this project.

NMMT also claims to have repaired the old buses which had broken seats, leaked roofs and cracked doors. Over 100 such buses have been repaired this year and hence the commuters do not have to face troubles while travelling these buses, another senior official said.Can you be accused of stealing your own car? In Chandigarh you most certainly can - as the citys traffic police have proved. They recently booked a Fatehgarh Sahib resident for driving away his own car, which was impounded at a post to check drunken driving.

Vehicles stolen by owners July 4: Sangrur resident Harjinder Singh was booked for the theft of his Alto car that was impounded for wrong parking and taken to traffic police lines. The accused had even roughed up Home Guards volunteer Vijay Shankar before driving away. April 17: 45-year-old Mullanpur resident Jagdeep Singh was booked for theft of his scooter that was impounded at a naka on the Sector 23-26 dividing road. Penalised for drunk driving, he used his spare key to steal the vehicle.

In a complaint filed by a constable posted with the traffic wing of Chandigarh Police, Jasmohinder Singh has accused Baljot Singh of Fatehgarh Sahib of stealing his own Honda City (CH03H-0788). It was impounded by the traffic police at the naka on the dividing road between Sectors 35 and 36 on Wednesday night.

Baljot was found to be drunk when he was stopped at the naka while driving the car with three other men, and his vehicle was impounded. A policeman jotted down the mens mobile phone numbers, and proceeded to take the car to the police lines in Sector 29.

However, the car developed a snag at Attawa Chowk. Unable to restart it, he locked the car and returned to the naka to get a recovery van to tow the vehicle to the police lines.

However, before his return, the accused opened the car with a duplicate key and drove away.

A case under Sections 379 (theft) and 120 B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) was registered against Baljot Singh and his unidentified friends, who allegedly helped him steal the car.

The registration number of the vehicle was traced to an address in Sector 22 Chandigarh, but police found Baljot Singh had bought the car two years ago from the person on whose name the vehicle had been registered.

Police are looking for the accused, whose mobile phones are at present switched off.The Mohali unit of Special Task Force (STF) on Friday recovered gold worth Rs 21 lakh, 116gm opium, 1 lakh in cash and property documents from a drug dealers personal locker in a State Bank of India (SBI) branch in Ambala.

The accused, Sweety, 35, is currently lodged in an Ambala jail from where the STF brought her on production warrant and searched her locker.

Superintendent of police (SP) Rajender Sohal said they had arrested one Gurpreet Singh on December 6 after recovering some narcotic substances from his possession. During interrogation, he revealed he worked as a courier for Sweety and her husband Baldev Singh, who is lodged in Patiala jail.

Since Sweety was lodged in the Ambala jail, we sought her custody on production warrant from a local court, he added.

We took permission to open her personal locker at the SBI branch at SA Jain College in Ambala. When we opened the locker in the presence of bank manager Tarsem Singh, we recovered over Rs 1 lakh in cash, 116gm opium and 707.47gm gold, the SP said, adding that the cash seemed to be drug money, while the gold appeared to have been purchased using drug money.

Investigating officer sub-inspector Ram Darshan said Sweety supplied drugs in the tricity, Ambala and Punjab region. Most of her family members, including her husband, are facing trial in drug smuggling cases in Punjab and Chandigarh.

The police said using the drug money made over the past many years, Sweety had managed to buy several commercial properties in Ambala and adjoining areas. All the properties were plots, which were in the name of Sweety and her husband.

The registration documents pertaining to 12 properties recovered from the locker are being verified, Sohal said.

Modus operandi

Darshan said, Baldev was lodged in Patiala jail after he was arrested with 3kg opium on December 23, 2016. Baldev met another drug supplier Manoj Kumar alias Mamu in the jail, and they became thick friends. The duo decided to operate their drug dealing business from behind bars, following which Baldev roped in his wife Sweety.

After receiving instructions from Baldev, Sweety would go to Delhi and buy drugs from Nigerians, who were in contact with Manoj. They would return to Chandigarh and hand over the drugs to Gurpreet to deliver the drugs and collect money from customers, he said, adding that their drug trade was unearthed with the arrest of Gurpreet on December 6.

Sweety is facing trial in four Narcotics Drugs Psychotropic Substance (NDPS) Act cases in Ambala, and one each in Nabha and Mohali, Darshan said, adding that police stations across Punjab will be contacted to seek more information of cases against Sweety.

Manoj is booked in eight NDPS cases, and is currently lodged in Rupnagar jail, Darshan said.Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Saturday made it clear that he would welcome Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau if he comes to Punjab.

Trudeau is coming on a visit to India in February and is scheduled to visit the Golden Temple in Amritsar.

Trudeau is a great leader and enjoys a lot of respect. I dont have any problem with him. Though we have not received any official communication about his visit from government of India, if he comes to Punjab I would welcome him, said Amarinder while talking to a select group of mediapersons at his official residence here.

However, the CM reiterated his earlier stand that he wont welcome people like Canadas defence minister Harjit Singh Sajjan who are backing pro-Khalistani agenda in Canada and Punjab.

I wont meet people like Sajjan who are supporting the elements who want to destroy the hard-earned peace in Punjab. But there are good MPs of Indian origin in Canada too. I dont have any problem in meeting them, he added.Following the debacle of Kaatru Veliyidai, ace filmmaker Mani Ratnam is busy giving final touches to his upcoming yet untitled bilingual multi-starrer, which was confirmed to star Fahadh Faasil, Vijay Sethupathi, Simbu, Jyothika, Aishwarya Rajesh and Aditi Rao Hydari in the lead. The industry grapevine is that Fahadh has opted out of the project and the Roja director is busy finalising his replacement. While the exact reason for Fahadhs exit is yet unknown, sources close to Ratnam have hinted that he chose to take the decision due to his prior commitments.

Apparently, the delay in the commencement of the project clashed with Fahadhs dates for another project. It seems he was left with no option other than opting out. Ratnam, who is set to commence filming from the last week of February or early March, is in talks with a few actors. This would have been Fahadhs second Tamil outing. He was recently seen playing the antagonist in Sivakarthikeyans Velaikkaran, in which his role was very well received. In Tamil, Fahadh also has Vijay Sethupathi starrer Super Deluxe, being directed by Thiyagarajan Kumararaja.

To be bankrolled by Madras Talkies, double Oscar-winning A.R Rahman has been roped in compose music. Lensman Santosh Sivan, whose last southern outing was Mahesh Babus Spyder, will crank the camera and itll be his sixth collaboration with Ratnam. Industry sources have confirmed that the film will be an action-thriller and will be a welcome departure from the filmmakers usual style of films.

ott:10:ht-entertainment_listing-desktopIn Lucknow, they march in silk saris and pagdis. In Chandigarh, they dance the gidda. Guwahatis gay walk is silent. In Nagpur, they wear kurtas, pajamas  and masks.

The LGBTQI movement is moving to smaller cities and towns, and taking on interesting new avatars. Signs in regional languages, literature carefully translated to avoid shock or offence, meetings held at chaurahas  the effort is to include the community rather than rebel against the mainstream.

When I attended the march in Delhi last year, I was shocked by the differences, says Mao Debojit Gogoi, 20, a student from Guwahati, laughing. Delhis was loud, there were outrageous costumes and so much make-up. Guwahatis was quiet and calm, like a smoothly flowing river.

In the metros  Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Bengaluru  the pride marches are between 8 and 18 years old, and have grown bigger and louder in that time. Giant flags, rainbow-coloured wigs, selfies with tongues sticking out and costumes that range from unisex rainbow drapes to unicorn hats.

Big city marches are almost aspirational  they look like marches anywhere in the developed world; people straight, gay and from across the sexual-identity spectrum participate; its a big bash open to anyone who is, or wants to seem, liberal / enlightened / woke.

In Mumbai, 14,000 participated in the 2017 march. Bhopal, Lucknow and Panaji hosted their first LGBTQ pride marches in 2017. Chandigarh hosted its fifth, Guwahati its fourth and Nagpur its third. Each of these drew between 50 and 300 people.

As with the costumes, the marches have names that invoke a sense of regional identity and pride. The Lucknow pride parade is called the Awadh Gaurav Yatra; Nagpurs is called the Orange City Pride March; Chandigarhs, the Garvotsav. The costumes, signs and language are all part of an effort to remind onlookers  were one of you.

Activists from Mumbai and Kolkata have been helping organise the marches, and theyre having to do things very differently here.

In the smaller cities and towns, there is a conscious effort to move away from the Western image of the cause. We realised that we needed to portray this as a desi movement if it was to gain momentum or acceptance, says Pallav Patankar, a gender and sexuality consultant from Mumbai. In these areas, the emphasis is on reminding onlookers that it is the bias against homosexuality that is a Western import; that our myths and epics, our history, embraced the sexuality spectrum long ago.

Reaching out

In smaller cities, the movement has found that it benefits from being associated with other social groups and initiatives  via assorted NGOs, political outfits and educational institutions. Thats how we get an audience to begin building a crowd, says Dhananjay Chauhan Mangalmukhi, director of the Chandigarh gay-rights NGO Saksham Trust.

The headquarters of the gay rights movement in Nagpur, a dimly lit room next to a chai-kachori stall, has posters of the goddess Laxmi and BR Ambedkar on the walls.

An evening meeting of the LGBTQ community at the headquarters of the NGO Sarathi Trust in Nagpur. (Satyabrata Tripathy / HT Photo)

In Chandigarh, Saksham Trust tied up with Panjab University ahead of last years march. On the banners, in large print, was mention of collaborations with the Canadian embassy, and Rotaract Club of Chandigarh. We are contributing to the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan too, helping clean up the streets. Its helped us get a good image, says Mangalmukhi.

The difference such alliances make is huge, in terms of numbers, reach and the acceptance that the community is aiming for. In Chandigarh, for instance, only about 100 people participated in the first pride march, in 2013. After we started working with the community, students  especially migrant students from other states  started to join our marches, says Mangalmukhi.

Last year, some of the rainbow flags used in the march bore the university logo on the banner, and there were over 500 participants in all. For this years march on March 18, were getting support from the Canadian embassy and Chandigarh Municipal Corporation along with Panjab University, Mangalmukhi says.

One step forward

As with most kinds of marginalisation, coming out of the closet is even tougher for women. There are no lesbians among the members of Nagpurs Sarathi Trust.

Most either never come out of the closet, or move to one of the metros, says Sarathi founder Anand Chandrani, 40.

Chandigarh incorporates the dhol and gidda folk dance.

At the one-room NGO office, gay and bisexual men meet over chai and kachoris every evening. We discuss our problems and relationships, counsel each other, play carrom, says Chandrani.

While the community has gone public, via its marches, the individual members are not. Which is why they march in masks. Even before hosting our first march, in 2016, we had to be sure that the city was ready, says Nikunj Joshi, project manager at Sarathi Trust.

We held sensitisation workshops at colleges and at police stations. We held public seminars. We still wear masks at all our marches because it isnt easy to come out in a conservative town.

As the marches and the marchers become part of the landscape, the movement is going beyond the message of were here, and beginning to focus on exploring and inviting others to explore aspects of their identity and subculture.

So the second Lucknow pride march, on February 11, has worked with Mumbais Humsafar Trust to organise plays, readings of queer literature and poetry. We have also started hosting film festivals, flash mobs, and counselling sessions for the community through the year, says Darvesh Singh Yadvendra of the Faridabad-based NGO Pahal Foundation.

Lucknow hosted its first pride march in 2017, called the Awadh Gaurav Yatra. Last Sunday, the community organised an awareness drive at a city square, offering free hugs in rainbow-tinged selfie corners as a way of reaching out. (Subhankar Chakraborty / HT Photo)

A second coming

It can all feel a bit like taking two steps forward and one step back.

Take Guwahati. It hosted its first pride march in 2014. But we realised the city was not ready for it, says Bitopi Dutta, founder of the NGO Xukia. First, the police shooed us away, saying we didnt need permission for such a march because Assam has no LGBTQ people. We had to pull down our Facebook page after a backlash from locals. We hosted a pride walk anyway and about 50 people participated. The media didnt cover it at all.

Guwahati didnt have another march until 2016. But meanwhile, the gay community began to coalesce; they now had a place to go, at least metaphorically.

After the first pride walk, people started talking to us. They didnt know there was a gay community in the city. Now NGOs were telling them it was okay to be different, says gay rights activist Milin Sutra. We started meeting in small groups, hosting seminars in colleges, and even an LGBTQ film festival.

Last year, 200 people walked in the pride march. There were people from Shillong and Tezpur too, says Dutta. This years Pride Parade - Guwahati is on February 9. Police permission was not a problem.

Youngsters in Guwahati march with signs in Assamese that say Love is a revolution.

When I attended the march in Delhi last year, I was shocked by the differences. Delhis was loud, and there were outrageous costumes and so much makeup. Guwahatis was quiet and calm, like a smoothly flowing river, says Mao Debojit Gogoi, 20, a student from Guwahati.

The challenges smaller cities face when gearing up for movements can become severe, says Vivek Anand, CEO of the Mumbai-based NGO Humsafar Trust. You get mocked, face problems booking venues to host events. They can use support from big cities who have been doing this longer, and we ensure they get it.

This kind of assistance is seeing still more cities added to the pride calendar.

Amravati and Yavatmal in Maharashtra, Bardhaman, Hugli and Howrah in West Bengal, Bareilly in Uttar Pradesh and Shillong in Meghalaya are set to host their first-ever marches either this year or the next, says Anish Ray Chaudhari, an LGBTQ activist from Kolkata.

We help open communication channels with local authorities like the police, municipality, colleges and universities. We also help translate literature on gender laws and health awareness into local languages.

We are a huge network of sexual minorities now, adds Anand of Humsafar. The voices are getting louder.Archaeologists in Egypt say they have discovered a 4,400-year-old tomb near the pyramids outside Cairo.

Egypts Antiquities ministry announced the discovery Saturday and said the tomb likely belonged to a high-ranking female official known as Hetpet during the 5th Dynasty of ancient Egypt. The tomb includes wall paintings depicting Hetpet observing different hunting and fishing scenes.

A guide from the ministry of Antiquities inspects a discovery from Egypts antiquities authorities at the Giza plateau. (REUTERS)

Mostafa Al-Waziri, leader of the archaeological mission, says the scenes depict a monkey  at the time commonly kept as domestic animals  reaping fruit and another dancing before an orchestra.

He believes Hetpet, who is thought to be close to ancient Egyptian royals, had another tomb in Gizas western necropolis, which is home to the tombs of top officials of Egypts Old Kingdom.

Al-Waziri says excavation work is underway for the other tomb.During the severe winter in Canada, venturing out is an adventure for many. But for one startup in the Greater Toronto Area, the extreme weather is an opportunity. With adverse weather here, our business model works well. We have four months when other businesses slow down, ours will peak, said Gurmeet Singh, the co-founder of the new company apniroots.com, launched in Toronto in the summer of 2017.

Besides online ordering and delivery of Indian groceries covering a large swath of the GTA and the province of Ontario, apniroots.com also sends products via post to customers outside the delivery region.

Their website lists Desi staples like rice, atta, dals, pickles, or ready-to-eat South Indian meals like masala dosas, as well as pao bhaji and lassi.

New Delhi-born Gurmeet Singh, better known as Gary, saw various factors dictating the need for filling the evident vacuum in this space: Convenient delivery of groceries ordered online.

Gurmeet Singh, apniroots co-founder, saw a business opportunity after noticing that Indian stores selling groceries were overpopulated and owners often didnt seem to care about service. (Image courtesy: apniroots.com)

The resident of the Toronto suburb of Brampton noticed that Indian stores selling groceries were overpopulated and owners often didnt seem to care about service. Also, mainstream chains like WalMart, Metro or NoFrills have seen increasing shelving of Indian groceries, a pointer to the growing demand, as the Indo-Canadian population in the country nears 1.8 million, of which two-thirds live in Ontario.

But they are not able to service very niche items and we have an edge on this, Singh said.

New immigrants from India are also often used to the experience of online ordering in metropolitan India, which wasnt really available in Canada. Were filling the gap, he said. In addition, many of these newcomers often dont possess vehicles or have valid licenses, making the task to lugging a 10 pound bag of basmati rice home onerous. Thats one reason the early advertising campaign for apniroots has included displays in transit in Toronto and the GTA.

Gurpreet Singh, apniroots co-founder, at the online outlets warehouse in a suburb of Toronto. (Image courtesy: apniroots.com)

With Amazon acquiring Whole Foods and Instacart arriving in Canada, Singh believes this space will expand in the near future, and there will be many more Indo-Canadians among the early adopters.

Apniroots is part of a trend and the first end-to-end platform of its kind in Canada with an extensive inventory, though smaller outlets, often extensions of brick-and-mortar stores, have also brought the online shopping experience to groceries in Canada, emulating what is already established in neighbouring US.

Singh said their product range was in the thousands and they had acquired hundreds of thousands of customers, though he would not give details as the startup looks for funding to expand.

The range available with apniroots is stored in a warehouse in Brampton and obtained from importers specialising in Desi items. But grocery shopping may be the starting point for them since Singh said they were in the process of launching jewelry, clothing, items for pujas, among other new offering, on the platform.

Singh estimated that groceries accounted for nearly 60% of the household budget of an Indo-Canadian family. The market potential is there. This was an experiment and we have learnt a lot. Now we know where we are going, Singh said.

For now, apniroots and its cousins offer Indo-Canadians another option for their next purchase of besan or even Maggi noodles.A 43-year-old Chinese national who lived in the US has pleaded guilty to taking part in a counterfeiting operation out of China that involved selling fake iPhones and iPads to customers in the country.

Jianhua Jeff Li, pleaded guilty before US District Court Judge Kevin McNulty of New Jersey to one count of conspiracy to traffic in counterfeit goods and labels and to smuggle goods into the US, and one count of trafficking in counterfeit goods, the US Department of Justice said in a statement late on Friday.

Li also received payments worth over $1.1 million in sales proceeds from US accounts into his bank accounts.

The case has been ongoing since 2015, when Li was charged and taken into custody.

From July 2009-February 2014, the Chinese national, working through his company Dream Digitals, conspired with Andreina Becerra, Roberto Volpe, Rosario LaMarca and others to smuggle and traffic into the US from China more than 40,000 electronic devices and accessories.

The smuggled devices included Apple iPads and iPhones, along with labels and packaging bearing counterfeit Apple trademarks, according to the documents filed in this case.

He shipped devices separately from the labels bearing counterfeit trademarks for later assembly to avoid detection by US Customs and Border Protection officials, the documents filed in the case added.

The counterfeit devices were then shipped to conspirators all over the country.

Li will be sentenced on May 30 while LaMarca, another member of the conspiracy, was the first to be sentenced in July 2017, receiving a prison term of 37 months.

Both Becerra and Volpe, Lis other conspirators, are still awaiting sentence.Nearly 30,000 students and teachers of the Kalinga Institute of Social Science will join the Commonwealth Big Lunches initiative launched by Prime Minister Theresa May on Saturday ahead of the Commonwealth Heads of Government (CHOGM) meeting in April.

Mays initiative builds on the Eden Projects annual Big Lunch, which was launched in 2009 as a way to connect people with their communities over a shared meal. It has since seen millions of people get involved, including for the Queens Diamond Jubilee.

The lunches initiative to be held between March 12 (Commonwealth Day) and April 22 in 52 countries has been created by educational charity the Eden Project in partnership with the UK Government to encourage people to celebrate Commonwealth links through food.

The UK will host CHOGM in London and Windsor on April 16-20. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to attend the event, at which India is expected to be tasked with a greater role in the group.

May said: The Commonwealth is a diverse and vibrant network and its strength lies in the people-to-people links. The Eden Project brings together millions of people as part of their annual Big Lunch so we are delighted to partner with them on Commonwealth Big Lunches.

Launching in March, Commonwealth Big Lunches will be an opportunity for people across the Commonwealth to come together and, over a shared meal, discover and celebrate their connections, experiences and stories.

Patricia Scotland, Commonwealth secretary-general, said: Commonwealth Big Lunches remind us of the range and diversity of our connections and counterparts in countries and communities far away, and bring us together with those who live alongside us locally. They offer wonderful opportunities for people of all ages to bring our great Commonwealth family alive in new ways as we work towards a common future.Ashwin Daudia, described as a controlling husband who strangled his wife Kiran, put her body in a suitcase and dragged it near their house to dispose it off, was on Friday jailed for life in a widely followed case in the east Midlands city of Leicester.

The incident on January 16 last year was preceded by tense relations between the two, who were married in 1998 and divorced in 2014. Their house was sold to Kirans sister so that she continued to stay there with their two sons without Ashwin.

The Leicester Crown Court was told that both lived in the same house after divorce, but the sale had been completed on January 16 and Ashwin was to move out. They had an altercation when Kiran returned from work and saw Ashwin sleeping, and woke him up.

It was during this altercation that she reportedly told him to go to India to die, which further enraged Ashwin, who said he lost control and strangled her. He was said to have later gone about his normal life, until the body was recovered and the police caught up with him.

Judge Timothy Spencer said Ashwins conduct represented selfishness and violence on a wicked scale, described him as arrogant, bullying and bent on maintaining control as opposed to his academically gifted, outgoing, fashionable and westernised wife.

Judge Timothy Spencer described Kiran as a bright and vibrant woman who had much to offer. (Image courtesy: Leicestershire Police)

Sentencing him, the judge said: Youve deprived this world of a bright and vibrant woman, who had much to offer, who lived for her childrenYou were less bright, but your cover-up in this case reveals youre not without wit or, for that matter, cunning.

You were conservative, content to go to work and then to drink in the pub or at home. You regarded yourself as the dominant figure in the marriageYou clung to the view you were the dominant force of the family and were entitled to control events.

Detective sergeant Mark Wesley, who was part of the investigation team, said: The evidence against Daudia was overwhelming, with CCTV work and forensic examinations helping us to build a strong case against him.

Through his own selfish, cowardly actions, Daudia has ripped this family apart, leaving two doting sons without a mother and other family members distraught and struggling to get over the pain and heartache he has caused.

In a statement, Kirans family said: Kiran was full of life, with a vibrant personality, a loving, caring mother and a very thoughtful daughter, sister and aunt. Her friendly and charismatic nature meant she had many friends. She was simply beautiful and loved having photographs taken. She was the backbone of the family, very kind, generous and angelic.

We as a family cannot even begin to describe the loss and emptiness in our heart. Her perpetual smile will be missed everyday of our lives by everyone who knew her. Kiran had lots of dreams and aspirations which were untimely taken away by this demonic act. Life without her will never be the same.A man suspected of selling armor-piercing bullets to the Las Vegas gunman who killed 58 people at a music festival was charged on Friday with conspiracy to manufacture and sell such ammunition without a license.

Douglas Haig, 55, of Mesa, Arizona, became the first person arrested and charged in connection with the October 1 massacre, which ranks as the deadliest mass shooting in modern US history.

The gunman, Stephen Paddock, who strafed a crowd of concert-goers from his high-rise suite at the Mandalay Bay hotel, killed himself before police stormed his room.

No clear motive for the massacre has ever been determined.

According to the criminal complaint against Haig, filed in US District Court in Phoenix, he met with Paddock on more than one occasion, including once at Haigs home the month before the shooting to sell ammunition to Paddock, the US attorneys office in Las Vegas said in a statement.

It said Haig previously ran an internet business, called Specialized Military Ammunition, selling armor-piercing bullets  some consisting of high-explosive and incendiary rounds  throughout the United States, but lacked a license to manufacture such ammunition.

Haig is charged with a single count of conspiracy to manufacture and sell armor-piercing ammunition, which carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine, according to the statement.

Prosecutors said Haigs fingerprints were found on some of the unfired high-caliber rounds at the crime scene and that armor-piercing casings recovered from Paddocks hotel room bore tool marks matching the reloading equipment they said Haig used to assemble ammunition cartridges.

Haig made an initial court appearance before a federal magistrate in Phoenix and was freed under conditional release pending a February 15 status conference set for the case, prosecutors said.

In addition to the 58 people killed by Paddock in the Las Vegas massacre, nearly 500 people were injured, some by gunfire, others trampled or otherwise hurt while running for cover.

Police said Paddock had equipped 12 of the weapons found in his room with bump-stock devices that enable semi-automatic rifles to be fired as if they are fully automatic machine guns.A man opened fire on passersby in the central Italian city of Macerata on Saturday, injuring at least six African migrants in an attack that might be racially motivated, local media reported.

The mayor of Macerata, located about 200 km (125 miles) east of Rome, appealed to locals to remain indoors.

Stay at home until further notice. There is an armed man in a car who is shooting in the city, Mayor Romano Carancini said in a statement posted on local Facebook sites.

Italian city officials confirmed that a suspect has been apprehended.

The shootings happened just days after the body of an 18-year-old Italian woman was discovered cut up and hidden in two suitcases. A Nigerian migrant has been arrested in connection with the death.

The website of newspaper Corriere della Sera said a man fired from a car window at two young African migrants shortly after 11 am (1000 GMT) on Saturday, injuring one of them. A short while later another migrant and an African woman were shot.

It was not clear how serious were their injuries.Corrupt foreign politicians and criminals who launder an estimated 90 billion every year through the United Kingdom will need to explain their wealth under a new law called Unexplained Wealth Order (UWO) that came into force this week, or face seizure.

Property in London and other major cities in the United Kingdom is said to be the major destination of corrupt cash. The British news media mention Russian oligarchs in this regard, but the measure applies to individuals from all countries.

Transparency International UK has identified 4.4 billion worth of property in the UK that may be the target of UWOs. Five properties it suspects had been bought using corrupt wealth includes two by former Pakistan prime minister Nawaz Sharif in London.

Provided under the Criminal Finance Act, the UWO allows authorities to freeze and recover property if individuals are unable to explain how they acquired assets in excess of 50,000. Previously, British authorities had few powers to act unless the individuals had a conviction in the country of origin.

Ben Wallace, security minister, told The Times on Saturday that he wanted the full force of the government to bear down on criminals and corrupt politicians using Britain as a playground and haven: When we get to you we will come for you, for your assets and we will make the environment that you live in difficult.

If they are an MP in a country where they dont receive a big salary but suddenly they have a nice Knightsbridge townhouse worth millions and they cant prove how they paid for it, we will seize that asset, we will dispose of it and we will use the proceeds to fund our law enforcement, he added.

Rachel Davies Teka of anti-corruption Transparency International UK, said: The introduction of UWOs is a significant moment in the fight against dirty money flowing into the UK. They will allow law enforcement to much more easily investigate assets that are highly likely to have been bought using corrupt money, often stolen from populations in some of the poorest parts of the world.

From Russia to Nigeria to the Middle East it is no secret that corrupt officials have channelled ill-gotten funds into the UK via the property market.At a meeting with Shigeki Takizaki, Director General of the Southeast and Southwest Asian Affairs Department under Japans Ministry of Foreign Affairs, on February 2, Cuong said Linhs family is collecting signatures at home and abroad to appeal to the Chiba prefecture court to hand down the highest penalty to the culprit.



In reply, Takizaki once again expressed his deep sympathy to Linhs family and informed the ambassador that during a reception for Japanese State Minister for Foreign Affairs Kazuyuki Nakane on January 30, Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh also asked the Japanese side to promptly bring the case to court.



The Japanese Foreign Ministry then had a working session with the Ministry of Justice on the issue. According to the Justice Ministry, Japans law enforcement agencies are urgently preparing procedures in order for the trial to take place soon in line with Japanese law.



Takizaki also further explained the judicial independence in Japans Constitution, noting his hope for an early trial and that the culprit will receive deserved punishment.



The same day, Ambassador Cuong visited Linhs family in Chiba Prefecture and affirmed that the Vietnamese Embassy will continue to work to protect legitimate interests of the family.



He said the embassys officials have kept regular contact with Japanese law enforcement agencies to receive updated information about the case and ensure citizen protection.



According to the Chiba prefecture court, the date for the trial will be decided after the investigation process and dossier preparations conclude, scheduled on March 5.



Under Japans law, the evidence collection process will last about eight months if the suspect admits his crime and about 12 months if he denies.



Le Anh Hao, Linhs father, expressed his hope for an early and fair trial to contribute to preventing similar crimes in the future.



Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the President of the House of Councillors have also extended their deep sympathies publicly to Linhs family over her death.



Japanese Ambassador to Vietnam Kunio Umeda visited Linhs family in their home province of Hung Yen.



On March 24, 2017, Linh, a third-year grader at the elementary school in Matsudo, went missing after she left home in Matsudo to go to school as usual.



Two days later, she was found dead without clothes at a site near a drainage ditch which is about 10-12km from the school.



The police believed Linh was kidnapped right after leaving home at 8 am on March 24.



Besides an injury on her head and garrote marks on her necks, Linh also had an injury on her wrist and scratches on her body.



Japan arrested Shibuya Yasumasa, 46, a suspect in the murder, on April 14. Chiba police made the arrest after his DNA test matched the DNA sample found on Linhs belongings.

Prosecutors of Japans Chiba prefecture on May 26 decided to prosecute Yasumasa Shibuya.

VietnamplusIt appears Atlanta rapper Dae Dae, whoas best known for his hit song aWhat U Mean,a was arrested Thursday in Greene County, Georgia on stolen gun and drug charges.

According to multiple reports, including ATL's Fox 5 & AJC, Dae Dae, whose real name is Marquavis Goolsby, was a passenger in a vehicle that was pulled over on I-20 for going 92 mph in a 70 mph zone. During the traffic stop, authorities found some weed & guns in the vehicle, the latter of which was stolen.

aWhile the vehicle was pulling over, the deputy observed the front seat passenger crawl into the back seat,a Capt. Lee Stancill said. aAfter the vehicle stopped, the deputy made contact with the occupants of the vehicle and immediately smelled the odor of marijuana coming from inside the car.a

The gun, which authorities later found was stolen, was also spotted in plain view in the passenger floorboard of the vehicle. However, Dae Dae claimed he didnat know the gun was stolen. Following a search of the vehicle, another gun was then found under the passenger seat, but that was stolen. aThat gun was not reported stolen that we know of at this time,a Stancill said. aThe case is still under investigation.a

Police say that Dae Dae tried disposing his weed in the backseat of the squad car while on the way to the police station. Having been caught, he was charged with crossing the guardlines with contraband authorities said, to go along with his drug & weapon charge.

As previously mentioned, Dae Dae was the passenger in the vehicle and the driver, Dontavious McCray, was also arrested and charged of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.

Weall keep you posted on further details moving forward. In the meantime, check out Dae Dae's mugshot (below).Black History Month is upon us, and the honorary holiday initially started as a one-week celebration. Originally, African-Americans wished to celebrate Frederick Douglas birthday, which took place in the month of February. Douglas is a black hero, who escaped slavery to become a leader in the abolitionist movement. His legend reached such a fanatical status that African-Americans celebrated his birthday for decades. It wasnt until Carter G. Woodson, a reputable historian, created Negro History Week that the honorary occurrence started to gain national traction. Churches were the biggest supporters of the annual observance, handing out pamphlets and spreading awareness through African-American communities nationwide. Soon, schools all across America followed suit and began to observe "Negro History Week" as it was known.

African-American scholars at Kent State University are credited with expanding the week-long history lesson. In 1970, Kent State hosted the first Black History Month. Less than a decade later, Gerald Ford publicly recognized the celebration, and it has been a national occurrence ever since. Many times, when people discuss Black History Month they talk about the brave men who stood up to Jim Crow. Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, Huey Newton, and Muhammad Ali are the first names that come to mind. In hip-hop culture, its no different. When Black excellence is mentioned in rap, names like Jay-Z, Tupac, Chuck D, Ice Cube, Nas, and KRS One are the first to be mentioned. With respect to each of those mens careers its a damn shame no one ever talks about the ladies.

They say that women and men arent equal; women are much smarter. and they have an emotional depth that surpasses the shallow well of masculine simplicity. Perhaps that is why some of the best artists of all time have been women. Sure, the male greats such as Jay-Z, Tupac, Nas, and Andre 3000 have created music that captures emotions vividly. Still, nothing resonates with the soul more than Lauryn Hill, and no rapper will ever produce visuals more stunning than Missy Elliott. In fact, Lauryn Hill put hip-hop on her back in the '90s, and scored several firsts for the genre. Without our goddesses, hip-hop wouldnt be where it is today, and they should be respected just as much, if not more, than the men in this game.

Lyricists such as MC Lyte, Salt-N-Peppa, Roxanne Shante, Da Brat, Queen Latifah and Left Eye deserve your respect. Roxanne Shante, for example, showed hip-hop that women could battle too. She was a member of the legendary Juice Crew, who was responsible for bringing the world Marley Marl, Big Daddy Kane, and Biz Markie. Her quick thinking made her one of the most famous rappers in the 80s, all because she wasnt scared to brawl with the boys. She cleverly remixed U.T.F.O.s Roxanne, Roxanne, posing as the fictional woman that curved the group in their hit song. Her record, "Roxannes Revenge was more successful than the original, and the 14-year old established herself as a lead artist. The fact that Shante was able to flip a song where men made disparaging comments about a woman who wasnt impressed by their advances and turn it into a moment where the woman ruled supreme, is both heroic and historic.

Lets not forget about Eve, Rah Digga, Remy Ma, Da Brat, Gangsta Boo and Monie Love as well. All of those women's names get lost in the 90s and early 00s, but why? Gangsta Boo had some of the hardest bars out of all the men in Three 6 Mafia. Rah Digga has out-rhymed her Flipmode Squad captain Busta Rhymes on numerous occasions (which is not an easy task). At least J. Cole gives her due props on Villuminati. Eves debut album peaked at number one on Billboard, something that many of raps greats didnt accomplish with their first projects.

Trina, Lil Kim, and Foxy Brown invented all of the sexual paradigms that female rappers follow to this day. Nicki Minaj and Cardi Bs fashion statements are heavily inspired by the sexy hip-hop fashionistas of the 90s. That isnt a statement meant to throw shade either. When rappers like Kendrick or Cole are compared to Pac or Nas, people nod their heads in agreeance. Why is it that when a female rapper is compared to a legend, people decide its suddenly disrespectful? Nicki and Cardi are allowed to have inspirations too.

Lauryn Hill, Left Eye, Missy Elliot, and Lil Kim get the most public praise and respect, but there are a plethora of ladies that helped elevate rap music into the worldwide phenomenon it is now. Black women are an essential part of hip-hop culture, and their names should be honoured with the same prestigious respect bestowed upon the males. This Black History Month, give the mothers of our children and the bearers of life a spot on your playlists. Because listening to braggadocios men rhyme about their overinflated masculinity seems mundane when appreciating the art of the divine feminine.

Let us know some of your favourite tracks by the many goddesses of hip-hop.Back in 2014, at the start of his 20th anniversary celebration for his classic debut album Illmatic, Nas collaborated with the National Symphony Orchestra for a legendary performance at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. and now nearly 4 years later were finally able to see that performance for ourselves thanks to its airing on PBS Friday night.

"This was the first time me as a classical orchestra conductor was going to branch out into the realm of doing hip-hop music and rap music. And the idea of finally tackling this genre was something I was really looking forward to do," National Symphony Orchestra Principal Pops Conductor Steven Reineke said in a statement.

The concert film, which also acts like a documentary, follows Nas' Queensbridge upbringing and career, the impact of Illmatic as well as the rehearsals and preparations to bring the album to the Kennedy Center stage.

"Its crazy, you know, I wrote this in the projects in New York City. Here we are in the capital of America, Washington, DC, and, you know, a bunch of white people with strings and all that, playing this album, and they feeling it," Nas said of the collaboration in the trailer.

Directed by Jason Goldwatch, check out the near hour-long performance & special (below). If the video stops working, go to PBS' website right here to catch it.

[Via]The New York City Employees' Retirement System (NYCERS) comptroller recently announced a new initiative to divest public funds entirely from fossil fuels by 2020. It's a bold idea. But unfortunately, it's also an ineffective and wildly costly one that the members of the city's pension fund and taxpayers will be left to pick up the tab for.

It's one thing to turn your back on the financial returns from a booming domestic oil and gas industry that has taken the United States from a major net importer to a nearly independent export powerhouse in less than a decade. It's quite another to do so when the retirees whose money you're gambling with don't support it - and, in many cases, don't know it's happening.

Public pension holders in New York and California overwhelmingly oppose the practice of pension fund managers prioritizing social and political causes over financial returns, according to a survey released recently by the Spectrem Group. In fact, two-thirds of NYCERS members want fund managers to focus on ensuring pensions are fully funded rather than on supporting political causes.

Nearly 90 percent of public pension participants nationwide share concerns about the amount of time fund managers are spending on political and social advocacy, the Spectrem survey said.

If a recent Wall Street Journal editorial is any indication, they are right to be concerned. The editorial raised serious questions about the level of influence environmental activists are bringing to bear within state governments.

While public-private partnerships are often used to make government more efficient, the lack of transparency around who is paying to set public energy and environmental policies in the deals outlined by the Journal is disturbing.

The apparent collusion between government and anti-fossil fuel activists would be bad enough if it were benefiting these pension funds financially, but that isn't the case.

The NYCERS pension system currently only has enough money to meet 62 percent of its obligations to retirees. Despite a shortfall of as much as $142 billion, according to the Manhattan Institute, Spectrem's research shows that 80 percent of New Yorkers mistakenly believe their pensions are fully funded.

The missing billions don't reflect a market-wide crash either. The stock market is booming. Instead, the losses are largely due to money managers investing for social impact rather than returns, according to a second study from the American Council for Capital Formation.

The study finds that 12 percent of NYCERS assets were invested in a "Developed Environmental Activist" asset class that underperformed by more than 600 points annually over the last three years.

"NYCERS has not only consistently under-performed the market since 2011, it has also on average underperformed its own benchmark since first being established in 2008," the report said. "Despite this consistent under-performance, annual fees paid to money managers have grown from $62 million in 2006 to $155 million today."

If we were talking about a private fund or charity, investment decisions based on political leanings might be acceptable, but public employee pensions are guaranteed by the state, making taxpayers legally obligated to pick up the tab. Research by the American Council for Capital Formation shows that New York City's yearly contribution to public pensions has increased from $1.4 billion in 2002 to $9.3 billion in 2017, peaking at a near-record 17 percent of city tax revenues and double the 8.5 percent average rate in the early 2000s.

New Yorkers will soon be paying more annually to prop up a poorly invested pension system.

The message is clear: Public pension members want managers to focus on maximizing the return on investments instead of pursuing political agendas. That means making reasonable investments in fossil fuels - a major economic sector and a long-term driver of prosperity that employs more than 1.1 million Americans.

Managers of the California Public Employees' Retirement System recently called on that state's policymakers to stop forcing them to divest from exactly those sorts of profitable conventional fossil- energy projects and warned of the dangers of legislating financial decisions.

It's time for cities and states to heed that warning and put the wishes of their retirees over activists.

Dan K. Eberhart is CEO of Canary Oilfield Services of Denver and an energy consultant.Ask The Doctor: Mu Is A COVID 'Variant of Interest', Its Virulence Is Yet To Be DeterminedNote: This post has been updated since first published to include comment from Amazon.

As Amazon scouts for its second headquarters and continues to expand its workforce beyond a half a million people, the country's second-largest employer must continue to find ways to become more efficient. And it may have a new high-tech way to do so: bracelets that track every move its warehouse workers make.

The tech giant was awarded two patents for a wristband system that tracks workers' hand movements in real-time, GeekWire first reported Tuesday. The technology in the wristbands "could emit ultrasonic sound pulses or radio transmissions" to let a receiving system know where the workers' hands are in relation to the inventory bins. The idea is that such a system could help employees find the correct bin faster and with fewer errors.

Amazon has not confirmed whether the patent applications, which were filed in 2016, will become a reality. A company spokeswoman emailed a statement to Inc.:

The speculation about this patent is misguided. Every day at companies around the world, employees use handheld scanners to check inventory and fulfill orders. This idea, if implemented in the future, would improve the process for our fulfillment associates. By moving equipment to associates' wrists, we could free up their hands from scanners and their eyes from computer screens...Like most companies, we have performance expectations for every Amazon employee and we measure actual performance against those expectations, and they are not designed to track employees or limit their abilities to take breaks.

But tracking every step employees take raises obvious privacy concerns. Just because a company can increase productivity by surveilling employees on the job, should it? The laws around tracking devices are not that clear. There's no federal privacy law to keep businesses from tracking their employees with GPS. In 2015, a woman sued her former employer Intermex Wire Transfers, claiming that she had been fired for disabling a GPS app on her company-issued phone after she found out that her location was being tracked 24/7.More than 70 large businesses, including Starbucks, Walmart, and Bank of America, have pledged in recent weeks to offer bonuses and boost wages for thousands of workers across the country from savings anticipated from the recently passed Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. And increasingly, fast-growing businesses across the country are following suit.

While private companies naturally grab fewer headlines than their giant counterparts, an informal look at Inc.'s top 5000 fastest growing, private U.S. companies shows a smattering of businesses offering either higher wages or one-time bonuses. They're also reinvesting in their companies to help spur future growth.

"With a bright future and more profitable growth, naturally we are hopeful that these tax changes will become permanent," says Greg DePace, president of Emkay, a fleet management company based in Ithaca, Illinois, that provided $1,000 bonuses to its full-time employees and $500 bonuses to part-time employees (a total of 150 staffers). "If so, we will be able to share even more of the tax cut benefits with [them]," he adds.

The administration's signature tax reform, which President Trump repeatedly touted in his State of the Union address on Tuesday evening, reduces the corporate tax rate to 21 percent from 35 percent, which has an obvious and immediate impact on the bottom lines of big companies.

The majority of small businesses will also see a benefit from the new law. However, instead of a corporate tax rate cut, they can now deduct up to 20 percent of their business income until 2025, when the provision sunsets. Unlike C corporations, most small businesses, which are pass-through entities like LLCs and S corporations, are taxed according to the owner's personal rate.

Breckenridge Landscape LLC, a landscaper based in New Berlin, Wisconsin, anticipates saving around $75,000 this year, or 15 percent of its annual revenue. In addition to investing in a larger office space and equipment, the company, which landed atop the Inc. 5000 list at No. 1895 in 2017, plans to boost pay for its 35 workers by around $3 an hour. "We are bullish on the new tax reforms," says Breckenridge president Eric Weishaar, though he acknowledges that the retained revenue number could depend on seasonal factors.

Similarly, Jayson Rapaport, co-founder of the Austin-based Birds Barbershop, says he may raise wages down the road, however he wants to see how the new tax law will shake out first. "I would jump at the chance to pass some of the benefit onto my employees.... The reality is that I still don't know what that means for me," explains Rapaport. The barbershop and arcade, which generated $6.8 million in 2016 revenue, landed on the Inc. 5000 at No. 4746 last year.

Birds Barbershop is among the dozens of small businesses that are considering restructuring as full-blown C corporations in order to access the lower corporate tax rate of 21 percent. "We may consider a reorganization if it works out better for us," says Rapaport, noting that there are potential drawbacks to the move--such as the possibility of being taxed twice. "Since most small businesses fall into my category [pass-throughs], I would imagine many are feeling the same way," he adds.

And some entrepreneurs, like Renato Agrella of Seattle, are choosing to simply retain any gains received from the tax law. Agrella, the co-founder of a brand strategy consulting firm 2A Consulting, notes that he doesn't anticipate saving enough to impact worker compensation. "Right now, we don't necessarily see a bigger increase on the margins that we're going to be making, that's the truth," he says. He adds that, as a consultancy, any retained revenue will likely be funneled back into making the company more profitable.

Even for giant companies, the benefits to employees may be limited. After all, one-time bonuses only really matter once. Plus, at some companies the news of a windfall came on the heels of layoffs. When AT&T announced that it would be offering $1,000 bonuses to more than 200,000 employees, it also quietly laid off thousands that same month. Similarly, soon after Walmart said it would raise the minimum wage to $11 for all associates, it announced layoffs and shuttered 10 percent of all Sam's Club stores.Nigel Farage said Ireland had been humiliated by Europe

Ireland has been humiliated by the EU, Nigel Farage said.

The former Ukip leader called for a eurosceptic mobilisation to win votes off pro-EU politicians in the next European elections and said there was a democratic deficit in the national debate.

During his Dublin visit he recalled the austerity of the post-2008 European bailout of the Irish state and urged citizens to rebel against Brussels.

The MEP said: What on earth is going on in the politics of this country?

How much more humiliated can the Irish nation be than for years being run by the Troika?

Nigel Farage: Ireland seen in Brussels as aservilea to EU. pic.twitter.com/CD48fbcYCP  michael mchugh (@mmchugh02) February 3, 2018

Irelands spending plans were scrutinised by representatives of the European Commission, European Central Bank and IMF, known as the Troika, and strict spending cuts imposed.

Mr Farage added: The indignity, a few years back, of your budget being seen by the German government before it was put to the Dail.

EU funding has helped Ireland overhaul its infrastructure and benefited its agriculture enormously.

Mr Farage said the country was not even a net beneficiary of EU funding any more.

He told a sizeable conference of supporters: You are paying into the European budget and your Taoiseach said in Strasbourg the other week he is happy for Ireland to pay even more into the European budget.

Are you pleased about that?

Leo Varadkar said he was open to contributing more for things which advance the European ideal such as structural funds for Central and Eastern Europe to help them unlock economic potential.

Mr Farage said: The perception of the media across Europe is that Ireland is very pro-European, very servile to the demands of Brussels.

I dont think Ireland is a pro-EU country, I think the political, media and big businesses in Dublin, they are the ones.

He suggested it was Irish civil servants lining their pockets in Brussels who supported the EU.

To cheers he added: They love it. They love it.

The crowd almost filled a hall at the RDS conference centre and gave Mr Farage a standing ovation.

He railed against the depiction of Brexiteers as xenophobes and bigots.

He said: They go for the man and not for the ball.

Mr Farage said the European project was not going to work and the euro was unsuited to Ireland.

He added: And yet I get told that Ireland is a very proud EU country, Michael OLeary (Ryanair chief executive) told me so, it must be right.

The euro has been bad for Ireland but a total catastrophe for countries like Greece.

He said there was an East/West split, with eurosceptic countries like Hungary leading the way.

The EU will not work, it has not worked, it is increasingly unloved by the people of Europe, he said.Q I live alone on my farm in the west of Ireland and as I get older I am becoming more nervous about the risk of intruders.

Many farms have had machinery stolen during the night in my locality and I am fearful that I may be a target.

I have been advised to put up CCTV cameras to deter burglars and also that I must comply with some rules for this footage to be useful.

Can you please advise?

Theresa Murphy replies:

There are a number of measures that you can employ to reduce the risk of being a target for this type of crime and CCTV is a well tried and tested method.

CCTV usage must comply with data protection legislation.

CCTV infringes the privacy of the people captured in the images so there must be a genuine reason for installing a CCTV system.

Installing CCTV on your farm

If you are considering installing such a system, a sign stating that CCTV is in operation must be displayed in a prominent position.

CCTV systems have the capacity to recognise faces. They may also be capable of recording both images and sounds. Unless CCTV systems are used with proper care and consideration, they can give rise to concern that an individual's 'private space' is being unreasonably invaded.

Recognisable images captured by CCTV systems are "personal data".

They are subject to the provisions of the Data Protection Acts. If you are the person in control of the CCTV system or the images that it produces then you are considered a 'data controller'.

The data controller should be able to justify why they are collecting or using personal data.

A system used to control the perimeter of a building for security purposes will usually be easy to justify.

So for example, on your farm, a CCTV system which shows your farm yard and sheds would likely be easy to justify.

The use of CCTV systems in other circumstances, for example, to constantly monitor employees, customers or neighbours or passers-by can be more difficult to justify and could involve a breach of the Data Protection legislation.

If a data controller is satisfied that it can justify installing a CCTV system, it must consider what it will be used for and if these uses are reasonable.

Security of a premises or other property is probably the most common use of a CCTV system. CCTV will typically be used to capture images of intruders or potential theft.

These type of uses are likely to meet the test of proportionality. If the CCTV monitoring is for health and safety reasons, a data controller would need to demonstrate that monitoring is proportionate in addressing health and safety issues that had arisen prior to the installation of the system.

Recording of a public space, even partially, or when recording is directed outwards from the private home, may not be regarded as a 'personal or household' activity for the purposes of the Data Protection legislation.

A neighbour may object to images of her/his property being recorded and could take a civil legal action if their right to privacy is infringed by the placement of a CCTV camera which records their property.

CCTV in the workplace

If your farm is a workplace as a result of having even a part time employee, there are additional factors to consider before installing CCTV.

Employers may use CCTV to monitor the workplace for various reasons.

If CCTV is installed in a workplace, the employer should use signage to inform employees its presence and explain the purpose for which they are installed.

Under the Data Protection Acts, if your employer informed you that the CCTV cameras were installed to prevent theft from the workplace, the CCTV footage cannot be used for another purpose such as recording the entry and exit of employees from the workplace.

Covert CCTV

The use of recording mechanisms to obtain data without an individual's knowledge is generally unlawful.

Covert surveillance is normally only permitted on a case by case basis where the data is kept for the purposes of preventing, detecting or investigating offences, or apprehending or prosecuting offenders.

You should inform the gardai before engaging in this.

If the surveillance is intended to prevent burglaries or farm machinery theft, unconcealed cameras may be considered to be a more appropriate measure, and less invasive of individual privacy.

As best practice, it is recommended that a written CCTV policy should be in place and should include the following information;

the identity of the data controller;

the purposes for which data are processed;

any third parties to whom the data may be supplied.

How to make an access request

Retention period for CCTV

Security arrangements for CCTV

Notification of CCTV usage can usually be achieved by placing easily read and well-lit signs in prominent positions. A sign at all entrances will normally suffice.

Use of CCTV BY Gardai

There is a distinction between a request by the gardai to view CCTV footage and to download copies of CCTV footage.

In general, a request to simply view footage on the premises of a data controller would not raise any specific concerns from a data protection perspective.

However a written request should be made if a member of the gardai is to be allowed to download some of the CCTV images. It should state that the images are being requested for the purposes of the investigation of a crime.

Any person whose image is recorded on a CCTV system has a right to seek and be supplied with a copy of their own personal data from the footage.

To exercise that right, a person must make an application in writing. The data controller may charge up to 6.35 for responding to such a request and must respond within 40 days.

This article is intended as a general guide only. You should seek individual legal advice in relation to your circumstances.

Theresa Murphy is a barrister based in Galway.Q: I have been driving a jeep for many years both for my personal use and also for towing a cattle trailer to and from the mart, and also around the farm. I have heard recently of farmers being stopped by gardai while towing trailers as they did not hold the correct licence. I am worried that I will potentially have to face into another driving test and whether or not my insurance will cover me in the case of an accident if I do not have the correct licence.

A. This question has come up many times recently as it seems the number of drivers being stopped while towing trailers without the correct licence is increasing.

The majority of drivers in Ireland who have passed a driving test or hold a 'full driving licence' have a B license.

This type of licence allows the driver to tow a trailer (a) where the MAM (maximum authorised mass) of the trailer is not greater than 750kg or (b) where the MAM of the trailer exceeds 750kg (0.75 tonne), the combined MAM of the towing vehicle and the trailer is not greater than 3,500kg (3.5 tonnes).

The MAM is the weight of a trailer including the maximum load it can carry in accordance with the manufacturer's design specifications.

To establish the MAM of your trailer, you should check the manufacturer's statutory plate affixed to it. If there is no plate affixed to the trailer and the authorised distributor for the trailer cannot give you this information, you should get a suitably qualified individual to rate the trailer for you and affix a plate to it.

Bearing in mind that a typical Isuzu Trooper weighs almost two tonnes - by adding even a small cattle trailer, most farmer drivers will find themselves exceeding the maximum authorised mass allowed on the B license while towing.

The Road Safety Authority (RSA) has stated that as a general rule, a category B licence would not entitle the holder to tow a horsebox or a livestock trailer because the DGCW/MAM would exceed 3,500kg.

Getting a BE licence

For many farmers, towing a livestock trailer is essential to their job. If this is the case then you will need a category BE licence. In order to get a BE licence you must first get a BE learner permit.

Once you have your BE learner permit, the RSA recommends that you get tuition in towing a trailer from a qualified Approved Driving Instructor.

Once you hold a BE learner permit, you are entitled to drive a car, van or 4x4 with a MAM not exceeding 3,500kg and you can draw a trailer, provided the laden weight of the trailer being towed does not exceed the manufacturer's specified towing capacity for your towing vehicle.

The heaviest trailer that can be towed with a BE learner permit is one with a MAM not more than 3,500kg.

Therefore, the MAM of the towing vehicle and trailer must not exceed 7,000kg. BE learner permit holders must be accompanied by a qualified driver who holds a full BE, C1E, CE, D1E or DE licence for at least two years. In order to get a full category BE licence you will need to pass a practical driving test.

If you have never passed a theory test, you will need to pass one before you can apply for your BE learner permit. This will effect many drivers who got their driving licence before 2001.

Towing another vehicle

If you need to tow another vehicle with your vehicle using a rope or strap - for example, a broken down vehicle - you should only do so to the nearest convenient safe place of repair, and the driver of the towing vehicle must be the holder of a BE driving licence.

Theresa Murphy is a barrister based in Ardrahan, Co. Galway

Compliance doesn't guarantee cover

Complying with the licence requirements and being fully insured are not necessarily the same thing.

The policy on trailers varies significantly between insurance companies. You should check whether your policy definitely covers you to tow a trailer because some policies do not actually cover this even where you hold the correct licence.

FBD say that they encourage all farmers to comply with the new regulation to ensure they hold the appropriate licence to tow a trailer in connection with their farm business.

Anything which enhances safety and reduces the risk of catastrophic incidents is supported by FBD.

FBD have also stated that "when we issue a policy of insurance which provides Third Party Liability, we are obliged to pay claims to any injured third party arising in connection with the use of the insured vehicle. this obligation rests with insurers regardless of the driver's adherence to RTA (road traffic act) provisions whether they be in connection with the testing of vehicles or licence category of a driver, wearing of a seatbelt and so on".

This effectively means that even if you are breaking the law in not holding the correct licence for the trailer you are towing, under their policy, third parties will still be insured.

In addition, FBD state that insurers can, under contract, "seek to recover the costs of such claims from drivers who are in breach of contract conditions, however, this issue rarely arises with our farming customers."

Licence

The obligation to pay claims does not apply in the same way in relation to damage to the insured person's vehicles, so you may have difficulty in making a claim to cover damage to your own vehicle, even where you hold a comprehensive insurance policy, if you have an accident while driving without the correct licence.

Insurance companies vary in their terms and conditions and what is covered under their policies.

All farmers and drivers generally who tow trailers, should clarify the position with their insurers to prevent a situation where they are driving without a valid policy of insurance.

This is a very serious road traffic offence carrying very severe penalties.Irish women are carrying out a quarter of the work on Irish farms without it being acknowledged, a conference on diversification run by WWFI, West Women in Farming Ireland, has heard.

Dr Maura Farrell (pictured) of NUI, Galway, said women are often keeping farms sustainable but are not making their voices heard. She said it is often women taking in an off-farm wage, which is pumped directly into the farm, and without this many Irish farms could not survive.

"As far as agriculture is concerned, there is a huge lack of recognition of women in the sector. Even though they contribute a huge amount of the work units to agriculture, there is still a lack of recognition," she said.

A study carried out in 2013 by the National Rural Network found that the 70,000 female farmers were responsible for in the region of 35,000 work units.

"This equates to about 22pc of the work on Irish farms being carried out by women but that is not being fully acknowledged. In some ways, women have a lot to blame themselves for as well.

"They really need to come forward and suggest they are doing that work. You know, 'helping out' on the farm is not helping out - it's contributing a huge amount of the work to that farm and they need to put themselves forward and suggest that they are doing that," she added.

Expand Close Maura Farrell / Facebook

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She said a study of off-farm employment found women, in particular, were sustaining farms with such income.

"A lot of that money was pumped straight back into the farm. So really the off-farm employment was sustaining the farm income, the farm household and the farm family, and without it that farm was in trouble and a lot of farms in this country are in trouble without that additional income from females in particular," she said.

She added it is also women who drive forward with the diversification and innovation of farms while facing significant challenges on everything from finance and education to childcare.

"If women are given those kind of additional supports, we have an unbelievable innovative women's group in Ireland at the moment. It's a movement within itself - it's not just great for agriculture, it's good for rural areas, and the spin-off industries from every one of those enterprises and innovative diversifications is fantastic for rural Ireland," she added.CEO Julie Sinnamon is one of two people on 150,000-200,000

The number of high fliers earning over 100,000 at Enterprise Ireland (EI) last year almost doubled to 49 - thanks to pay restoration from the Lansdowne Road Agreement.

That is according to new figures provided by Enterprise Ireland in response to a Freedom of Information request.

Two employees, including CEO Julia Sinnamon, earn between 150,000 and 200,000.

The figures show that 33 permanent employees now earn between 100,000 and 150,000.

The EI FOI unit explained: "In 2017 the salaries of 18 existing staff increased and exceeded 100,000 as a result of approved pay restoration in line with the Public Services Stability Agreement 2013-2018 - the Lansdowne Road Agreement."

The agreement for pay restoration will mean an increase in workers across State agencies earning over 100,000.

The unit said that 14 overseas, locally hired contract staff earned salaries equivalent to between 100,000 and 150,000 at the end of December 2017.

This number is compared to 10 in 2016.

The unit said the staff on salaries between 100,000 and 150,000 are based in the following countries: Ireland, the UK, Belgium, United States, United Arab Emirates, Russia, Japan, Hong Kong and China.

Last year, EI helped to create 19,332 jobs with 65pc of client employment outside Dubin.

The agency's net jobs created totalled 10,309 with 209,338 jobs in EI-supported countries at the end of the year.

The bill for the operation of EI's 32-strong global network of offices totalled 22.9m in 2016 and this was made up of capital and operating costs.

EI's office in London in 2016 - with Brexit looming - was the costliest to operate, at 2.7m.

The costs for the New York City EI office were the second highest at 2.64m where 10 personnel are employed. In 2016, there four EI offices each cost in excess of 1m to operate.

They were: Shanghai (1.4m); Dusseldorf (1.3m); Dubai (1.3m); and Mountain View in California at 1.1m.

In total, EI employed 147 staff overseas in 2016 and the largest number is located in London at 14.

Along with the 1.3m spend in the Dubai office in 2016, where seven are employed, EI spend an additional 482,123 on its Riyadh office in Saudi Arabia where three are employed.

The operation of the IDA's overseas network in 2016 cost 15.9m.Eir chief executive Richard Moat has said "it's difficult to see" how the company might be persuaded to re-engage with the crisis-struck National Broadband Plan.

New accounts also revealed that Eir spent 12m preparing the sale of a near 65pc stake in the business to NJJ and Iliad, firms linked to French billionaire Xavier Niel. NJJ is Mr Niel's investment vehicle, and will own 32.9pc of Eir.

Stock market-listed telecoms firm Iliad was founded by Mr Niel and he owns 52pc of the firm. Iliad will hold the remaining stake being sold in Eir in a 650m deal.

The results come after Eir dramatically pulled out of the race this week to secure the State contract to roll out a 1bn-plus rural broadband network.

Mr Moat said the process have become "onerous" and would cost Eir too much.

"You can never say never," Mr Moat said when asked by the Irish Independent if the group could become part of the process again.

An Enet-SSE consortium is the only remaining contender for the National Broadband Plan contract.

"Under present circumstances, it's difficult to see how that would make sense for us," said Mr Moat.

"There were a number of very onerous aspects of the proposed contract that we couldn't live with," he said.

"For example, the need to establish a completely duplicate wholesale division would cost tens of millions and wouldn't make sense.

"The overarching investment environment for fibre given the potential changes to regulated wholesale rate is not looking that attractive for us.

"Put those things together and it's very difficult to make a positive business case." Mr Moat said that some factors that framed its decision to exit the NBP are "unique" to Eir because it is designated as the country's universal service provider for fixed-line by regulator Comreg.

"To a certain extent, it was going to be more challenging for us to make a positive case, but nevertheless, we've taken this decision and we intend to stick by it."

Eir has been working on rolling out its own rural fibre-to-the-home broadband project, having already passed 170,000 homes and businesses. It aims to pass 300,000 by the end of this year.

Mr Moat said Eir was "not abandoning" rural Ireland.

The chief executive was speaking yesterday as Eir unveiled second-quarter results. Its revenue slipped 2pc to 322m, while pre-exceptional earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) were up 4pc at 125m.

Reported EBITDA was jut 1pc higher, at 122m when 3m in storm-related repair costs were taken into account.

In relation to M&A fees, Eir chief financial officer Huib Costermans agreed they were "high", but insisted they reflected the complexity of the deal.

Mr Costermans said the costs included significant legal, pensions and tax advice and other "strategic project-related costs" .An air service between Dublin and Beijing could start this June

A long-awaited air service between Dublin and Beijing could start this June.

China's Hainan Airlines has applied for permission to its civil aviation authority to operate flights between the cities starting in summer.

The twice weekly service is slated to operate from Beijing to Edinburgh and then Dublin on one day, and Beijing to Dublin and then Edinburgh on another day.

However, aviation sources have previously said that a direct Beijing-Dublin service might materialise reasonably quickly if passenger traffic between the cities justifies it.

Hainan Airlines, which is part of the HNA conglomerate that also controls Dublin-based aircraft lessor Avolon, has made the application to operate the route to the Civil Aviation Administration of China.

The launch of the flights will be a significant feather in the cap of the DAA, which operates Dublin Airport, as well as the IDA, Tourism Ireland and other agencies. They've all heavily lobbied Chinese authorities to introduce a service.

"Dublin Airport is always in talks with a number of airlines about potential new routes, but we do not comment on whether or not we are in discussions with a specific airline," said a DAA spokesman.

Last year, Hainan also applied for permission to operate flights between Dublin and Shenzhen via Brussels. Shenzhen is located just 27km from downtown Hong Kong.

Cathay Pacific is launching flights between Dublin and Hong Kong in June.

That would almost certainly mean that Hainan will not actually operate the Shenzhen-Brussels-Dublin route, at least in the near term.Forsa has warned Ryanair that pay deals must be negotiated through the union

Ryanair is attempting to retain its existing employee representative committee (ERC) structure for interacting with pilots, in a move that is "incompatible with trade union recognition", trade union Forsa has claimed.

Forsa, formerly Impact, said that it has decided against balloting its pilot members at Ryanair on a "company-imposed" pay offer after those members "unanimously" said it would be unacceptable to put the proposal to a vote in its current form.

Despite agreeing to recognise trade unions, Ryanair has been pushing through pay increases for pilots at a number of bases.

Forsa warned Ryanair last month that pay deals must be negotiated through the union.

Yesterday, the union said that the pay deal being put by Ryanair to pilots "was not negotiated with Forsa, as is normal when a union is recognised for collective bargaining".

It added: "Instead, it is a non-negotiated management package that predates the company's announcement that it would deal with the union." Forsa said the current pay proposal from management "explicitly freezes" any further pay discussions with the union, "which undermines the company's offer to recognise Forsa for collective bargaining in the airline".

"Management's view that acceptance of the package rules out future pay negotiations was underlined in subsequent correspondence," said the union.

It added that Ryanair's subsequent correspondence "confirms management's intention" to retain the ERC system, where the airline negotiates pay and conditions on a base-by-base basis, "which is incompatible with trade union recognition".

Ryanair was unavailable for comment at the time last night.A member of the Pensions Authority has raised the prospect of the State pension being scrapped when a new national scheme is rolled out.

In a new report, Fionnuala Ryan said the Government could phase out or abolish the 238-a-week contributory pension when a scheme in which workers are automatically enrolled is set up.

But the report on the feasibility of the new scheme, co-written with DCU professor Liam A Gallagher, warns that a high contribution of 15pc of wages would be necessary to make up for the loss. Otherwise, people would be left without a decent retirement pot. The contribution could be split between workers, their employer and the Government.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has promised the first members of the new national scheme that is designed for workers with no pension bar the State one will be enrolled in 2021.

Although workers will automatically become members, they can opt out. The Government has not made a decision on the value of the contribution that will be made, or the financial incentives it may offer.

"A potential option for the Irish Government is to wind down or remove the State contributory (or old-age) pension as the auto-enrolment scheme gets rolled out," said the report.

"If the Irish Government was thinking of phasing out the State contributory (or old-age) pension and using the auto-enrolment scheme as the sole source of pension income, then a contribution rate of nearly 15pc would be required to achieve the target of 65pc of average earnings at retirement." Average earnings stand at 36,792.

However, the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection insisted it did not plan to get rid of the pension.

"The Government has previously confirmed its position that the State pension is, and will remain, the bedrock of the Irish pension system," it said in a statement.

"The department wishes to make it clear a winding down or removal of the State pension (contributory) has not and is not being considered.

"The reference to such an option, in an unofficial research paper, should not be misconstrued in any way as an indicator of a public policy direction," it added.

A spokesman at the Pensions Authority said the views expressed in the report were those of the authors, and not necessarily those of the authority.

The report, published in an academic journal, said the credit crisis had highlighted the vulnerability of the current pension and old-age benefit system in Ireland.KBC Bank has admitted that 33 properties were lost due to the tracker scandal. This is the highest number of any bank.

The bank is before the Oireachtas Finance Committee on Tuesday and is set to tell it that six family homes were lost along with 27 buy-to-let investment properties.

Bank bosses have warned the number of properties lost over the denial of a tracker rate is set to rise, in a questionnaire prepared for the committee.

"As we progress through the remaining cases for redress and compensation we expect this number will increase," the document states.

The Belgian-owned bank, which is headed up here by Wim Verbraeken, will disclose that almost 3,000 customers have been affected by the tracker issue, the Irish Independent has learned.

The loss of 33 properties for KBC Bank customers is twice the number at far-bigger rivals Bank of Ireland and AIB.

Some 15 homeowners have suffered the loss of their house due to AIB denying them a tracker rate, while Bank of Ireland said this week that 14 properties were taken off customers, with eight of these owner-occupier properties.

Permanent TSB has said in the past that 31 customers lost properties, with less than half owner-occupier properties.

The Central Bank said recently that 37 owner occupiers lost homes due to the tracker overcharging scam, with 79 buy-to-let properties lost.

In details given to the Oireachtas Committee ahead of its appearance, KBC also reveals that just 501 of the affected customers have received refunds and compensation, as well as being put back on the lower tracker rate. This represents just 16pc of its tracker customers who were affected.

This means that KBC is one of the slowest of the 15 lenders that are probing the tracker overcharging issue.

TDs have heavily criticised the bank in the past for the slow pace of its remediation process, and its failure to provide them with details of customers who were affected.

Fianna Fail's Michael McGrath complained that KBC had "completely stonewalled" the committee when it last appeared before it. He accused it of taking the same approach with the Central Bank.

At the end of last year it emerged that the Central Bank is taking enforcement action against KBC over its tracker mortgage failings.

Law changes in 2013 doubled the maximum monetary penalty the regulator can impose on a financial firm for rule breaches, from 5m to 10m, or 10pc of turnover, and for individuals from 500,000 to 1m.

However, sources said that any potential rule violations are likely to have occurred before the thresholds were raised.

The bank also discloses that 571 tracker cases were settled before the Central Bank called for an industry-wide tracker review at the end of 2015.

Average refund amounts are 42,000 for being overcharged interest, with another 21,000 paid on average to the 500 customers who have had cases redressed so far.

The bank is set to reveal that 56 customers are in dispute with it as it is denying they have a case for tracker redress.

Some 14 tracker files are missing, the bank has told TDs and senators on the committee.

The questionnaire reveals that no internal investigation is being held to work out why so many customers lost trackers.

In total, some 34,000 mortgage holders lost trackers across 15 lenders, in what is set to cost the lenders 1bn.The Irish woman who 'formally wed' the ghost of a 300-year-old pirate has hit out at her critics, saying their religious beliefs are as valid as 'her marriage'.

Drogheda native Amanda Teague (45) hit the headlines around the world after reports of her unorthodox wedding to long-dead pirate Jack Teague spread.

Amanda, who used to work as a Jack Sparrow impersonator, said she has been inundated with messages from people around the world, with a lot of negative critique.

A video of her recent interview with TV3's Ireland AM has been viewed on Facebook more than 500k times.

"A lot of these people who are calling me crazy and a lot of these people who find it so hard to grasp will go and get their tarot cards read or they'll go to a medium to try and get a message from a loved one, so I don't understand why they see it such a big difference to get a message from someone who has been dead 300 years and someone who is dead two or three years," she told Independent.ie.

"To me it's the same thing. You either believe that you can communicate with the dead or you can't.

Expand Close Aye, Aye, captain: Amanda Teague (left), a Jack Sparrow impersonator, had almost given up the ghost when she met her love interest, a 300-year-old Haitian pirate ghost / Facebook

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Whatsapp Aye, Aye, captain: Amanda Teague (left), a Jack Sparrow impersonator, had almost given up the ghost when she met her love interest, a 300-year-old Haitian pirate ghost

"Even people who don't believe in such things as spirits, these people believe in God. What's the difference?

"God is an invisible energy. I mean, there's no more proof that God exists than [my husband] John Robert Teague exists. I think it's a little bit hypocritical, shall we say."

Amanda claims that she knew the Haitian pirate, who had been killed on the open seas during the 18th Century, in a previous life.

"You get up, you get the kids organised, you do whatever work you got to do, so it's really not a lot different," she said.

"The only difference is that my husband doesn't have a physical body.

"I'm quite an independent person anyway, so having a man I'd have to nag to do jobs is not something that would appeal to me anyway. I'd rather just get it done my way."

The couple got married on a boat on international waters so the marriage would be considered legal. A medium was on hand to interpret Jack's vows. That medium has since begun a relationship with one of Jack Teague's spirit friends, according to Amanda.

The relationship came to public light after her book 'A Life You Will Remember' was published. Amanda, who in 2015 spent 6k to transform herself into Disney character Jack Sparrow, is now working on two new books.

The first to be released will be a collection of stories that Amanda claims are true stories of spirits, while the next book details how she is still spiritually connected to a recently deceased pet, with all funds raised by the latter going to various charities.

In recent years, 'posthumous marriages' have taken place in France America, Germany, South Africa and America.IRISH rugby legend Brian O'Driscoll and his great friend 13-year-old Michaela Morley appeared on the Late Late Show last night to tell the story behind their now-famous photograph.

O'Driscoll first met the young Mayo girl, who was six at the time, when he arrived into her ward at Temple Street Hospital, fresh from winning the European Cup with Leinster in 2011.

Photographers captured a magical image of Michaela celebrating in delight with O'Driscoll as he held the cup, throwing her arms in the air in pure delight.

But viewers of the Late Late Show last night learned the real reason why she was so happy all those years ago.

Michaela explained: "There's actually a story that Brian knows about. He came in with the cup and he had a little ball with him, and he gave me the ball and I had to throw it in. So I threw it in and I got it in and the reason I was like that (throws her hands in the air) is because I got it in, not because I knew him," she laughs.

"What? This is an outrage," Brian said laughing. "Tell him the truth," he protested.

Expand Close O'Driscoll with Michaela Morley in 2011 Photo: Shane O'Neill/Fennell Photography / Facebook

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Michaela chipped in: "I don't know an awful lot about rugby, let me tell you that much."

Ever since the pair met, there has been a special bond between the pair, Brian said.

"We just hit if off didn't we?" Brian said, turning to Michaela.

"It's hard not to feel the energy and I think you feel better about yourself being in her presence."

"We've seen each other quite a bit over the course of the past seven years in different capacities in the hospital. We try and coincide with hospital visits where she might be getting treatment or getting a check-up, so we see enough of one other, don't we."

He joked: "I'll pull it back, I've shown too much keeness here."

Commenting on their original photo together, he said: "The sense is that it just brings a smile to people's faces."

When the pair first met, Michaela, who has polycystic kidneys, had been travelling from Mayo to Dublin three times a week for kidney dialysis. She told host Ryan Tubridy last night how a kidney transplant has since given her more freedom, since she no longer needs dialysis.

O'Driscoll has been involved with Temple Street for more than 10 years, and has previously explained how he jumps at the chance to visit again.

Last month the pair met up once again at the opening of the new Renal and Neurology Outpatient Units in Temple Street Hospital, Dublin.

Michaela and O'Driscoll highlighted the difference organ donation makes to people's lives. For more information on organ donor cards, see here.BRITISH Conservative MP Jacob Rees-Mogg was caught in the middle of a scuffle when masked protesters disrupted a University event he was attending in Bristol.

Mr Rees Mogg was at the University of England in Bristol to give a talk organised by the student Politics and International Relations Society when the fight broke out between a small group of protesters and event attendees. Tipped to be his partys next leader, the MP is well known for his controversial right-wing views.

Video footage posted on social media from the event showed the Conservative MP attempting to break up the scuffle that resulted after a small group of protesters gathered at the back of the room, hurling abuse at the MP during his speech. The masked protesters shouted: bigot and fascist, another replied that he was not worth arguing with. Rees-Mogg then walked to the back of the room to speak with the protesters and a scuffle broke out with the politician stuck in the middle.

Mr Rees-Mogg recounted the event afterwards saying They shouted at me, but they weren't going to hit me. he said."They weren't physically threatening. A little bit of shouting doesn't do anybody any harm... I take a very relaxed view of it.

The Tory MP said he stepped in as he "didn't want people to be hit", adding: "No one seemed likely to hit me but I am a weed."

"There were three hundred people here who wanted to engage in a serious debate and discussion, there were four or five people who wanted to shout - but they only wanted to shout," he told the BBC.

Chloe Kaye (19), who was attending the event, told Independent.ie It took around 10 minutes for security to come and take them away. Crowds around Rees-Mogg were screaming and getting violent towards each other, she said. Remarks were being thrown and the crowds around him started pushing and lunging at each other, with Rees-Mogg trying to break up the fighting. Rees-Mogg remained remarkably calm.

Later, the University said it believed the small group of protesters broke into the lecture theatre through the back doors before police and security were called.

Somerset police have said: We were called to the University of the West of Englands Frenchay campus at about 6.30pm today following a report of a public order incident.

No arrests were made and an investigation is under way to see if any criminal offences were committed.A backlog in cybercrime cases, including online child abuse, still dates back to 2016 despite inroads made by gardai in recent months.

A judge last year criticised a delay in dealing with a case involving a seizure containing sexually explicit images of children as unhealthy after he heard that the Garda search had been carried out in 2009.

Gardai said the unit had been swamped by a huge growth in the internet crime area, including complaints about child abuse in recent years without the matching increase in resources necessary to deal with the overload.

By the end of March, it is expected the backlog will have been reduced to cases dating from 2016 and 2017.

This is due to additional resources allocated to the Garda National cybercrime bureau.

Earlier this week, the father of one of the victims of paedophile Matthew Horan, who sexually exploited girls as young as nine online, praised gardai for the difficult work they faced during the investigation.

"To the guards that spoke to me over the last two years I want to say thank you for all you have done, as to catch people like Matthew Horan, all this material has to be looked at. This is an incredible thing to have to do and go home to a normal life. Respect to all of you for your dedication," he said in a statement.

Gardai are planning to open two regional cybercrime units in the south east and southern regions this year and these, officers say, should further reduce the delays.

Since 2014, the backlog has been halved and the establishment late last year of a dedicated cybercrime investigation unit has been a key factor in speeding up the inquiries.

Senior officers anticipate that the backlog will have been totally eliminated, apart from normal waiting time, by the second half of next year.

Cases are assessed and prioritised based on a variety of criteria ranging from the type of crime involved, to the age of the victim, contact offence, sex offenders or organised crime links, or where cases are time critical.

"As cases are prioritised on an ongoing basis, the current year cases may take priority over previous year cases", one officer said. The role of the unit is to investigate cybercrime, take part in international liaison with other law enforcement agencies and forensically examine all seized computer devices.

Det Supt Michael Gubbins said the Garda and its partners in Europol were actively targeting crimes such as online fraud and the public should be aware the proceeds from those activities funded organised crime.

He pointed out that 79pc of people shopping online did not experience any problems and card fraud in this country had fallen to 16.6m gross in the first six months of last year.At least 800 charities are being contacted and told money donated to them through an Irish website may be missing amid a worldwide hunt for any of the 3.8m allegedly misappropriated from a collapsed Dublin technology company.

High profile businessman Peter Conlon, a former EY Entrepreneur of the Year finalist, who set up the collapsed company, is understood to be in custody in Switzerland.

The missing funds were uncovered and Irish authorities alerted after the Revenue appointed liquidator Myles Kirby, of Dublin firm Kirby Healy, to recover approximately 400,000 in unpaid taxes from Pembroke Dynamic Internet Services on January 22.

Irish charities ranging in scale from Trocaire and Concern to parish-level GAA clubs and local animal shelters, along with hundreds of international good-causes, were signed up to use the Ammado fund-raising website before the spectacular events of the past week. The liquidator has now begun contacting charities that used the service.

"It would appear that at least 800 charities may be affected by the liquidation of the company, which is connected to the Ammado Foundation," according to a letter sent on behalf of liquidator, seen by the Irish Independent, that has been received by managers at hundreds of charities in Ireland and overseas. "The liquidator has established that there is likely to be a shortfall to the charities and is examining the records to ascertain what amounts, if any, are due to the individual charities. Given the number of charities and transactions involved, that exercise is likely to take some time."

On Tuesday, as the picture within the business emerged, the High Court granted a freezing order preventing Peter Conlon or anyone linked to him moving or selling his assets anywhere in the world.

It's understood that, armed with that freezing order, the liquidator is now also on the trail of any assets that might be linked to the missing millions and potentially recovered either for the charities or for the business.

It was alleged in court on Tuesday that "misappropriation (of charity funds) happened under the direction and control" of Mr Conlon.

Since the liquidator's dramatic rush to the court, three state agencies, the Charities Regulator, the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement, and gardai are now all involved in overlapping probes into the collapsed firm.

But the scale of the latest crisis to grip the charities sector raises serious questions about regulatory oversight of companies and charities.

Despite being responsible for its own money and millions on behalf of charities, Pembroke Dynamic had no financial controller.

Authorities in Switzerland appear to have acted much earlier than those here, in response to intelligence from Swiss-based charities.

The Ammado website was disabled yesterday.

However, according to the latest Companies Office filings a company called Ammado Technologies Ltd, where Peter Conlon is listed as a director, continues to trade as normal despite the by-now well-aired concerns.

The Irish Independent has also now learned that Peter Conlon attempted as late as December 6 last year to find new financial backers, circulating a prospectus that claimed Ammado Technologies had no debts and owned valuable intellectual property, despite the main related trading business being on the brink of collapse by that point.

Pembroke Dynamic previously traded as Ammado Internet Services.

In his affidavit which was opened to the court last Tuesday, Mr Kirby said the platform took in 5.8m in donations between March 2016 and September 2017. It took in another 396,000 from December 12, 2017 to January 12, 2018.

Rossa Fanning, SC for the liquidator, said in the past week Mr Kirby had discovered there was a 3.8m deficit in funds that ought to have been remitted to the charities.

The court heard there is currently just 357,000 in the company's bank account.

In his affidavit, Mr Kirby says he believes Mr Conlon has "demonstrated his intention to dispose of assets and put them beyond my reach".A 24-year-old man has been cleared of carrying out a homophobic graffiti attack at one of Dublins best known gay bars.

Eoin Berkeley from Hamptonwood Way, Finglas, Dublin 11, pleaded not guilty to causing criminal damage with chalk graffiti on the facade and panels at the George Bar in the city-centre in the early hours of May 20 last year. The offence at district court level can carry a sentence of up to one year.

His trial at Cloverhill District Court heard claims Berkeley, who has been getting psychiatric and psychological treatment, was wearing a raccoon onesie outfit when he was arrested shortly after the graffiti attack.

Despite allegedly admitting the crime to gardai, he was granted a dismissal following a number of technical arguments made by defence solicitor Tony Collier. The lawyer contended that the case had to be thrown out due to gaps in evidence such as the lack of CCTV evidence as well as the absence of a Garda witness who authorised an interview when Berkeley allegedly owned up.

Berkeley has 23 previous convictions including weapons offences, possessing knives and a realistic imitation firearm.

Garda Lorcan Murphy of Pearse Street told the court what was written in chalk on the front of the George Bar. A swastika symbol was also drawn on the front of the bar in chalk.

After watching CCTV footage from the bar gardai had arrested Berkeley in the vicinity.

Garda Murphy said Berkeley was detained at Pearse Street Garda station under Section Four of the Criminal Justice Act and during interview he made full admissions that it was him on the CCTV and it was him that wrote these words and images on the front of the George pub.

An invoice for the clean-up work was furnished to the court. The bars general manager Darragh Flynn was called to give evidence and said he saw a swastika as well as the homophobic comments on the front of the bar after it had closed.

He said he watched the CCTV footage of the incident which showed a person in a onesie.

Defence solicitor Tony Collier argued that this witness was not the manager listed on the charge sheet as being the injured party. Judge Blake was told that the named person no longer worked there but Mr Flynn had the same rank.

Berkeley smiled throughout the hearing but did not address the court. He had been in prison on remand since July when his bail was revoked.

Garda Brian OCarroll told the court he saw a group of males at about 7.40am at the corner of George Street and Dame Street. Berkeley stood out like a sore thumb and was wearing a raccoon onesie, he said.

Garda OCarroll had already seen CCTV footage of the incident with a person in very distinctive clothes, the court heard.

He told Judge Victor Blake that Berkeley told him he had done the graffiti but the accused claimed it was not an offence because it was written in chalk. Garda OCarroll said that following the arrest he was also present during the interview at Pearse Street station when Berkeley made the admissions.

The fourth prosecution witness Garda Stephen Ryan said he saw the graffiti with a Nazi symbol and a number of homophobic slurs. He said the manager had told him it had happened after the George Bar had closed and no one had permission to deface the bar.

Mr Collier pointed out to the judge that the Garda sergeant who authorised the detention for questioning of his client at Pearse St station had not come to court to give evidence. He argued that the admissions were inadmissible.

He said it left him unable to cross-examine a witness and he also pointed out that the CCTV evidence referred to was not played during the hearing.

He argued that on the charge sheet there was a different representative of the bar named as being the injured party while another employee of the bar was called to give evidence.

Overall, given the various gaps in the case it was not a sequential chain of evidence to leave the court in a position to safely convict, the solicitor submitted.

Garda Murphy explained that the sergeant who allowed the detention could not attend the hearing. The manager named on the charge sheet as the injured party no longer worked there, he said.

Dismissing the case, Judge Victor Blake said the arguments made by the defence solicitor were true and correct.

However, Berkeley was found guilty of using threatening, words or behaviour likely to cause a breach of the peace during a separate incident outside a bar at Eustace Street in Dublin 2 on June 29 last year.

Berkeleys bail had been revoked last July after he broke a court order banning him from the D2 area. Judge Blake imposed a two and a half month sentence which was back-dated to the date when he went into custody meaning his time has already been served.

Garda Paul Carroll said during that public order incident there was a strong smell of alcohol from Berkeley who had a laceration to his left cheek which had been stitched up. Garda Carroll said Berkeley stated he was a member of the INLA and that he would slit his own throat.

He had 23 prior criminal convictions and his most recent sentence was handed down by the district court in December 2016 when he was jailed for five months and three months over two offences for possessing knives and other articles. Public order, failing to appear in court and criminal damage charges were taken into consideration.

In 2015 he was given a nine-month sentence for possession of a realistic imitation firearm. Two years previously, he was fined 550 and given suspended sentences of three and four months for breach of the peace, assault and obstructing a garda.

Mr Collier asked the court to note that his client had been in care for a large part of his life and he had been seeing a psychiatrist over recent years.

The solicitor said Berkeley continued to engage with a psychologist and a psychiatrist while he was in custody and he has come a long way. He said that when bail was revoked last year Berkeley had been basically catatonic at the time.

Free legal aid was also granted earlier after the defence explained that Mr Berkeley's access to funds was limited and he had been on a disability benefit.University College Dublin and inset, one of the images circulated before the exam

A second-year class in University College Dublin is being forced to resit an exam after their lecturer said the original test had been "compromised".

Medical and physiology students in UCD did not receive the results for the module 'Cell-Cell Communication' and were instead told by email that they have to retake the exam in February.

It has emerged that images of a very similar - yet not identical - exam had been shared among students before the test.

The University Observer reports that during a meeting between the class representatives and school faculty in January, it was mentioned that 230 students of the approximate 300 that took the module received an A-grade.

A third-year medicine student who resat the exam for Cell-Cell communication last year told the Observer: "This year, someone in the year below me asked my friend for the notes she had for Cell-Cell and since my friend knew I had the questions and answers from sitting the repeat she asked me for them. I gave them to her to pass on and I told her to encourage them to pass them to everyone in their year and they did."

The school has a strict policy whereby past papers for multiple choice exams are not released.

As the exam at Christmas was very similar to the images shared of the previous exam, the results were "rendered invalid."

Independent.ie contacted the University and the lecturer a number of times this week for comment

Meanwhile, the lecturer told the University Observer: "Students taking this module are explicitly informed that the School does not release past MCQ papers."Ian Bailey has protested his innocence for 20 years, but could face trial in France in his absence. Picture: Courtpix

In 2003, Ian Bailey's libel action against eight Irish and British newspapers over their coverage of the Sophie Toscan du Plantier murder in west Cork caused a legal sensation.

Now, 15 years later, the impending French trial of the British-born freelance journalist over the death of the mother of one is set to make Franco-Irish judicial history.

The case - arguably Ireland's highest profile unsolved murder - has been the focus of three books, a film-in-the-making and an eagerly awaited Amazon podcast series.

Modelled on the smash-hit sensation, 'Serial', the 13-part Amazon show, entitled 'West Cork' will be online via Audible Original from Thursday.

The series goes online exactly one week after a French court rejected Mr Bailey's attempt to block any Paris-based homicide trial.

The three-judge Chambre d'Instruction ruled there were "sufficient grounds" for Mr Bailey (60) to face prosecution over the death at the age of 39 of Ms du Plantier on December 23, 1996.

Mr Bailey and his legal team must now decide whether to challenge the ruling to France's highest appeal court, the Cour de Cessation.

Defence legal counsel Dominique Tricaud confirmed he will consult closely with his client over any appeal.

Mr Bailey's Irish solicitor, Frank Buttimer, said it what was happening in France was "farcical". "It will effectively be a show trial, if it ever happens," he said.

"The evidence on which I believe it (the prosecution) intends to rely is no more than the evidence rejected 20 years ago by the late Mr (Eamon) Barnes, Ireland's Director of Public Prosecutions," Mr Buttimer said.

The French film executive was found battered to death near her isolated holiday home at Toormore outside Schull two days before Christmas after apparently trying to flee from an intruder. Despite one of the biggest Garda murder investigations in history and two cold case reviews over the past 22 years, no one has ever been charged with her murder.

For two decades, Sophie's elderly parents, Georges and Marguerite Bouniol, travelled each year to west Cork to appeal for public help to identify her killer.

Mr Bailey was arrested twice by gardai for questioning but was released without charge on both occasions.

The journalist has vehemently protested his innocence and claimed that "sinister attempts" were made to frame him.

In 2003 Mr Bailey sued a number of Irish and British newspapers over their coverage of the case - and he later sued the State for wrongful arrest.

French authorities launched an investigation under Paris-based magistrate Patrick Gachon 10 years ago when the Irish authorities confirmed there was no prospect of a prosecution.

If a Paris trial proceeds, Mr Bailey will be tried in absentia having successfully contested a 2012 extradition bid.

The French are confident the majority of Irish witnesses interviewed as part of the original Garda probe will travel to Paris for the planned trial.

Under France's Napoleonic Code, Mr Bailey can be tried in his absence.

French law allows for sworn witness statements to be used even if the witness is not present or even deceased.

Mr Bailey previously said that being wrongly associated with the crime has been "like a torture" for the past two decades.

The investigation by magistrate Gachon and latterly magistrate Nathalie Turquey included re-interviewing all the original Garda witnesses, exhuming Sophie's body and conducting a battery of new forensic tests.

Mr Bailey has repeatedly vowed to fight "tooth and nail" against a second extradition warrant.

"I believe this will all only end with my death. Or the second alternative is if the French convict me of murder in my absence at a Paris trial," he warned.

Sophie's son, Pierre-Louis Bauday Vignaud, vowed his family will never cease their campaign for justice.

"It (the prosecution) is very good news - it is news that we have waited more than 20 years for."Sinn Fein president-elect Mary Lou McDonald has been told to spend her time dealing with "dark and sinister elements" in her party rather than attending commemoration events linked to the IRA.

Ms McDonald is facing criticism from Unionists and Fine Gael for attending a wreath-laying ceremony in Castlewellan, Co Down last weekend. The event commemorated Peter McNulty, an IRA member who died when a device he was planting at a police station exploded.

Fine Gael Louth TD Peter Fitzpatrick said Ms McDonald should have boycotted the event if she was determined to lead a modern party committed to peace.

Mr Fitzpatrick said he would prefer to see the Sinn Fein president-elect making greater efforts to help families of those who were killed by the IRA.

"Dark and sinister elements within the Sinn Fein movement know only too well what happened down countless dark alleyways or quiet rural fields when innocent lives were callously ended," he said.

"Who primed explosives and who pulled triggers? Only Sinn Fein can provide answers or continue a cover up.

"As opposed to venerating those who maimed and brought horror to this island, perhaps Ms McDonald could help bring closure for families across Ireland."

McNulty, a farmer from Castlewellan, died in 1972 when he was planting an explosive at a gate outside a police station.

He had previously been involved in IRA campaigns around the Border in the 1950s and 1960s.

Mr Fitzpatrick said families in the region had suffered loss and tragedy at the hands of the IRA.

"In my own constituency in Louth, father and farmer Tom Oliver was tortured and murdered by the IRA in 1991," Mr Fitzpatrick said. "His family are still seeking the truth.

"Outgoing Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams has not provided any solace to the Oliver family.

"Perhaps Ms McDonald will step out of Gerry's shadow and Sinn Fein's past and remember the true victims and help them find answers.

"Celebrating terrorist bombers belongs in the past or so we would have hoped. Perhaps not, perhaps Mary Lou is happy to walk in the footsteps of her outgoing leader.

"A puppet or a leader - early indications suggest the former."

Sinn Fein failed to respond to a request for comment on the matter yesterday.

Ms McDonald had tweeted from the event last week to say she was "remembering the past" and "looking forward to the future".A SINN Fein councillor has been suspended and TD Dessie Ellis is to be censured by party chiefs due to a dispute in Dublin North-West.

The action was taken by the party's Ard Comhairle today after it discussed what was described as "ongoing issues" in the constituency.

A Sinn Fein statement this evening said the issues have been examined by party bosses and a number of recommendations have been made.

Sinn Fein National Chairperson Declan Kearney said: "Following a complaint from a fellow councillor, Councillor Noeleen Reilly has been suspended from the party for six months."

He added: With regard to complaints by Councillor Noeleen Reilly about comments in the media by Dessie Ellis, TD, he will be censured by the party."

The statement did not give any details about Mr Ellis's comments.

Sinn Fein's constitution allows both Ms Reilly and Mr Ellis to appeal the recommendations.

The party also released a statement on behalf of Mr Ellis where he said: I accept the decision of the Ard Chomhairle, and I apologise for the comments I made in the media about Councillor Reilly.

"I now want to move on to represent the people of Dublin North-West and to build the party locally.

Independent.ie has made attempts to contact Ms Reilly for comment.

The Irish Independent recently reported that Mr Ellis and Ms Reilly were involved in a long-running dispute in the constituency that had been referred to senior party bosses.

Sinn Fein has been struggling to deal with a series of internal disputes around the country in recent months amid allegations of bullying within the party.

The party has been stuck by a series of resignations from its ranks of councillors.

Incoming leader Mary Lou McDonald has previously insisted such cases are "localised incidents" and the party has repeatedly denied there is a culture of bullying in the organisation.

Ms McDonald is set to replace Gerry Adams as Sinn Fein president at a special Ard Fheis next Saturday.Leo Varadkar set resolving the abortion question as a key priority when elected Taoiseach on June 14 last.

The issue has periodically convulsed the nation over 35 years, so this is a big prize which could be a career-defining moment.

But just six days after he outlined his referendum plans, the obstacles are piling up. The doubts, which can be fatal to a referendum campaign, are already abundantly clear.

Here are the Taoiseach's eight hurdles to be cleared in successfully repealing the Eighth.

1. Unity: Leo Varadkar will not have the active support of key lieutenants. He may well be left campaigning virtually alone alongside Health Minister Simon Harris and a handful of Dublin-based TDs.

Being unable to rely upon your own base is a poor start. The Taoiseach will hope his internal party opponents will play a low-key game.

2. Opposition support: Since referendums were introduced in 1937, the experience is that they are rarely carried without the Opposition parties' support.

Only a minority of Fianna Fail TDs appear ready to back Mr Varadkar's approach. Fianna Fail referendum opponents, operating below the radar, have a record of packing a campaign punch.

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3. Opinion polls bringing good news for now, must be treated with extreme caution. While good at predicting elections, they are unreliable for referendums. The topic is complex and people delay deciding until very late on.

In 2013, surveys had predicted a win in a referendum to abolish the Seanad. But it was defeated. In 2012, a referendum on children's rights had a modest win despite predictions of a landslide.

4. A big campaign is needed to win - almost as big as a general election. That is often hard to achieve as it depends a lot on local politicians mustering their own troops.

It's a big demand as there is every danger the same busy people will be called upon to campaign in a general election sooner rather than later. Very many politicians want this one to go away and will try their best to hide in plain sight. That may not enthuse voters to turn out.

5. Turnout is more usually the deciding factor in referendums. When the EU Treaty of Nice was rejected in June 2001 turnout was barely over one-third of voters. In a re-run in October 2002, turnout was up to 50pc and it was carried by a margin of 25 percentage points.

There are many examples of how low turnout loses the day. Good turnout requires a big campaign effort which may be lacking this time.

6. Dublin is central to winning - but it is not everything. The last time the nation voted on abortion, in March 2002, all 11 Dublin constituencies rejected efforts to tighten the rules.

A majority in the capital will likely back Mr Varadkar on this one and that will be a big help. But a big turnout in rural areas could offset a narrow win or low turnout in the capital.

7. Suspicion pervades the modern day electorate. Even when faced with straight-forward propositions, voters are likely to ask: "But what's the trick here?"

A great example was Enda Kenny's referendum to abolish the Seanad in October 2013. It was pitched as getting rid of politicians and saving money, at a time of huge disillusionment with politicians and deep recession. But it was narrowly defeated in part because it was feared to be a Fine Gael "power grab".

8. Doubt is by the far the biggest enemy to the Taoiseach landing this referendum successfully. Opponents only have to sow an element of suspicion when an issue laden with detailed complex arguments is put on the agenda.

Doubt, indecision, inertia and decisions by default are all near neighbours.

Watch opponents of repealing the Eighth work on the 12-week provision in the parallel legislation to sow doubts.

Doubt depresses turnout and in turn urges people in doubt to "leave it out".Nigel Farage, ex-leader of Britain's UK Independence Party (UKIP), speaks at Trinity College in Dublin

Ireland has been "humiliated" by the EU, Nigel Farage said.

The former Ukip leader called for a eurosceptic mobilisation to win votes off pro-EU politicians in the next European elections and said there was a democratic deficit in the national debate.

During his Dublin visit he recalled the austerity of the post-2008 European bailout of the Irish state and urged citizens to rebel against Brussels.

The MEP said: "What on earth is going on in the politics of this country?

"How much more humiliated can the Irish nation be than for years being run by the Troika?"

Ireland's spending plans were scrutinised by representatives of the European Commission, European Central Bank and IMF, known as the Troika, and strict spending cuts imposed.

Mr Farage added: "The indignity, a few years back, of your budget being seen by the German government before it was put to the Dail."

EU funding has helped Ireland overhaul its infrastructure and benefited its agriculture enormously.

Mr Farage said the country was not even a net beneficiary of EU funding any more.

He told a sizeable conference of supporters: "You are paying into the European budget and your Taoiseach said in Strasbourg the other week he is happy for Ireland to pay even more into the European budget.

"Are you pleased about that?"

Leo Varadkar said he was "open" to contributing more for things which advance the "European ideal" such as structural funds for Central and Eastern Europe to help them unlock economic potential.

Mr Farage said: "The perception of the media across Europe is that Ireland is very pro-European, very servile to the demands of Brussels.

"I don't think Ireland is a pro-EU country, I think the political, media and big businesses in Dublin, they are the ones."

He suggested it was Irish civil servants lining their pockets in Brussels who supported the EU.

To cheers he added: "They love it. They love it."

The crowd almost filled a hall at the RDS conference centre and gave Mr Farage a standing ovation.

He railed against the depiction of Brexiteers as xenophobes and bigots.

He said: "They go for the man and not for the ball."

Mr Farage said the European project was not going to work and the euro was unsuited to Ireland.

He added: "And yet I get told that Ireland is a very proud EU country, Michael O'Leary (Ryanair chief executive) told me so, it must be right.

"The euro has been bad for Ireland but a total catastrophe for countries like Greece."

He said there was an East/West split, with eurosceptic countries like Hungary leading the way.

"The EU will not work, it has not worked, it is increasingly unloved by the people of Europe," he said.An Irish butcher is hoping to make a fast buck out of Buckfast.

Simon Dowey is adding the tonic wine to a new range of meaty pasties that could do for an Irish town what deep fried Mars Bars have done for Glasgow.

But Simon, from Lurgan, Co Armagh, says his deli delicacies are more tasteful altogether than the much-mocked Scottish calorie-laden gut-buster.

And he insists that the new Buckfast pasties won't get anyone pie-eyed.

Already the pasties, which sell at 3 (3.40) each or two for a fiver, are proving to be a recipe for success, with hungry customers gobbling them up in record quick time.

Simon only put them on sale on Thursday and the response has been remarkable, with the sale of the pasties surpassing all his expectations. "We are working flat-out to produce more, but it takes nearly three days to make them," he explained.

The award-winning butcher is loath to talk turkey about everything that goes into his Buckfast pasties.

Quite simply, Simon said: "We have a number of secret ingredients. We don't want people copying us."

But he is happy to chew the fat about how lean steak pieces are marinated in the strong tonic wine before being slowly cooked with handmade puff pastry and a rich onion gravy.

Only small amounts of Buckfast are used in the pasties, similar to the ratio of wine in a beef and red wine sauce, says Simon, who added: "It's seasoned rather than overpowering. You won't get drunk but the Buckfast does give the pasty a distinctive taste, a nice sweet flavour not unlike red wine, I suppose."

The idea for the Buckfast pasties was a slow-burner.

He added: "After the Christmas rush we always start to think about new things, new flavours to offer our customers. One suggestion was that we should put a Lurgan twist to the Cornish pasty - and Buckfast came to mind."

The tonic wine, originally produced by Benedictine monks at Buckfast Abbey in Devon in England, may be a holy spirit of sorts, but it has always had a somewhat unpalatable reputation as a drink that goes down well - some would say too well - in Lurgan.

But a monk-like vow of silence usually greets queries about Lurgan's thirst for 'Buckie'.

It has been reported that the wine accounts for a quarter of all alcoholic drink sold in the town, where it gives milk a run for its money.

Simon says he doesn't know why the drink is such a local favourite. He added: "We are aware that there are a lot of people in Lurgan who enjoy Buckfast."

But the folk who thirst for the 15% tipple aren't necessarily the customers that he is targeting for his unusual new pasties.

"A lot of people's tastes become different as they grow older," he said, adding that he had over 3,000 products in what he calls his "repertoire" in his family's High Street shop that has been trading since 1936.

Taking a butchers at what Simon has to offer shows that one of his mouth-watering - or maybe eye-watering - specials is a chocolate sausage with chilli and beef.

He is now looking for a name for the Buckfast pasties.

He explained: "We toyed with 'Lurgan champagne', but we are open to suggestions." Sales of Buckfast are on the rise, and not just in Lurgan.

That's partly due to the introduction of new 25cl cans and Buckfast's attempts to rebrand the tonic wine as a cocktail and culinary ingredient under the guidance of Michelin-starred TV chef Martin Blunos.

The high-caffeine drink had been made at Buckfast for almost a century, but is now produced under a licence granted by the abbey, and the manufacturers are trying to offload its notoriety for fuelling drunken violence.

However, Simon insists his pasties are unlikely to cause any beefs in Lurgan.A 100 device could be a solution for Irish parents to protect their children online, its makers say.

Safety for children online has become an urgent issue in Ireland. Two weeks ago a 26-year-old paedophile was convicted for sexually exploiting girls as young as nine.

Anonymous instant messaging service Kik Interactive was one of the services that Dublin man Matthew Horan (26) had been using to coerce young girls to send him sexually graphic pictures and videos of themselves.

Experts warn parents are not aware of what their children can be exposed to online. Our proposed digital age of consent at 13 years-old is too young, others say.

Jason Sheehy, Director of iKydz says he believes the debate around whether smartphones should be banned for children under 16 is a knee-jerk reaction to a wider problem.

Instead of banning smartphones, Ireland should be looking at ways to protect children while they're online, and limit their access.

Sheehy's device iKydz is a parental control which allows even the most computer illiterate parents to set the controls for their children's technology usage in the home, Sheehy says. It will shut off different devices in the house at differing prearranged times, and it can block any apps like Kik.

It can curtail the risk of addiction, Sheehy adds.

If you look at China, there are staggering problems in China with addiction. There are 24 million registered technology addicts in China, and there are something like 400 addiction clinics for digital media in China.

The solution is a lot simpler than banning the phone.

Like it or not, kids are exposed to technology 24/7 these days. The mobile device is only one device. Even if you ban it from schools, when they go home theyre still on the device and the playstation. Some kids will probably sleep with the phone, they probably have it on them 10 hours a day.

My son who is 16, his school banned phones in secondary school last year. It had very little impact, because the fact of the matter is the kids will hide the phone, but they still bring it to school.

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According to its own research, iKydz has found that 93 per cent of Irish parents have no type of monitoring on their childrens devices and three quarters of them have never spoken to their children about the issues they might face online.

The iKydz device is an appliance that plugs into the back of the internet router at home, and is operable through an app on the parents phones.

It allows a parent manage the access a child has. It can shut them off at midnight. It helps them manage all the social media apps, like Yellow and Kick, and it still allows the kids be on the internet but not access those when theyre studying. It blocks all the adult stuff or nasty stuff, and it does it on a device by device basis, so if youve a range of kids from five to 16, what is appropriate for one might not be appropriate for others.

It gives parents the opportunity to monitor where their child has been on the internet and how long theyve been on it, even if theyve deleted the browsing history.

TD Jim Daly has launched the implementation of iKydz Pro units into 35 schools in West Cork as a pilot.

Mr Sheehy added: Theres an educational aspect to this as well and it comes back to government. The analogy we use all the time is that 10 years ago road safety was a big problem in our country. Now, the first thing a child does now in the car is he or she puts on their safety belt. The government went about a very smart campaign and said we need to address this issue, and its the exact same with the mobile phones.On Friday night I headed for Bellingham Castle where a special Black-tie Gala Ball was being held as a fundraiser for the completion of building work to St. Peters National School in Dromiskin. The school recently added two new classrooms and the evening was organised by the parents committee to help defray costs.

I wasn't too long in the door when I met up with secretary of the committee Laureen O'Connor from Dromiskin with husband Alan who told me they had 190 coming to the event and were really looking forward to the occasion. Laureen also tried to tell me she had all her work done and was going to sit back and enjoy the occasion, couldn't see that happening myself though.

She told me not to forget to give a mention to chairperson Karen Dolan and treasurer Ita Costello and all the rest of the committee members who had worked so hard to make the night such a success.

After this I got talking to committee member Miriam Boyle from Dromiskin who was with husband Kevin and she told me this was their first fundraiser and were looking forward to making sure it was a huge success for the school.

Not too long later I then got talking to James and Denise Blaney from Dromiskin who said their kids are at the school so they couldn't wait to help out for such good cause.

Meanwhile down in the bar I got a word with Michael Carter and Claire Durnin from Dundalk who told me they were looking forward to a lovely occasion and for such a good cause too.

Also at the bar were Brian and Elaine Corr (Brian is a member of The Real Corrs) who were having a laugh with David and Fina Hearty all from Dromiskin who assured me that this was the calm before the storm and the night was going to take on epic proportions.

After this I then headed over for a chat with Pat and Marie Hamilton from Blackrock. Pat recently retired from the school and said the event is an excellent concept, should be a great fundraiser by the parents committee who have been very supportive of the school down throughout the years.

Making my way through the crowds I then got talking to Robert and Amanda Kinahan who were with Kenneth and Michelle Farrell all from Dromiskin who also have kids at the school and said it was bound to be a fun night out for all.

Looking as sharp as ever were Catherine and Caoimhin O'Callaghan from Avenue Road who were with Deirdre and Dermot McKeever from Priorland Road, Peter and Elish Keegan from Dublin, Pat and Margaret O'Callaghan from Knockbridge who were there with Roisin and Tommy Campbell from Dromiskin specially to lend their support to the night, but I think when that group got together it was going to turn into a major night of celebration.

After this I headed back upstairs and met up with my old mates Tony and Ursula Shevlin from Barrack Street who told me they were there with Laureen and Alan and tried to play it down saying it was going to be a quiet affair.

Not too long later I then got taking to Catherine and Michael Campbell from Green Road who were looking very well and assured me it was going to be the first of many successful nights.

A couple of who certainly had their work cut out on the night was chairperson Karen and husband Tony Dolan who said he wasn't getting off too lightly because he was the projectionist later on.

I then caught up with Eilish Keegan and Deirdre McKeever who told me they are actually Caoimhin's sisters, now that explains lot!

Making my way through the crowds I then got talking Isobel and John Temple from Dromiskin who were there with Jacinta and Martin Dolan who had driven 2 hours from Tyrone specially to be there, 'so it better be a good night'!

After this I got talking to Susan and Sean Byrne from Dromiskin who told me their daughter Lily is at the school and that's a good enough reason to be at the black-tie fundraiser.

Not too far away I met Brendan and Bernie Reidy from Milltown who said that Oisin and Donnacha are both at St. Peter's and they were going to try their best to make it a real night to remember.

Finally, before I departed I met up with Brian and Brenda Mullen from Avenue Road, Vanessa and Kevin Halpenny, Caroline and Paul Cowling all from Dromena Road who were definitely gong to make up for lost time and were set to party the night away.Dundalk artist Leanne Mullen became the second Irish contestant to qualify for the semi finals of the Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Year 2018 competition when the judges selected her portrait of model Daphne Selfe as their favourite in heat two.

Leanne joined eight other artists who had been selected from over 1,000 entrants from all over Ireland and Britain to take part in the popular series which will see the winner being awarded a STG10,000 commission to paint actress Kim Cattrall, with the finished portrait hanging in the permanent collection at The Walker Art Gallery in Kim's native city of Liverpool,

'It was a great experience,' says Leanne, who was encouragedby her son Doire to enter the competition which is presented by Frank Skinner and Joan Bakewell.

'I had to go to London for the filming last Spring and Doire came with me and we had a really nice couple of days,' she says.

To be selected for the competition, the artists had to submit a self-portrait and the judges, British art historian, curator and arts broadcaster Kate Bryan, head of contemporary art at the Fine Art Society, Kathleen Soriano, director of exhibitions at the Royal Academy, and portrait painter Tai-Shan Schierenberg,

They were particularly taken by Leanne's work, especially her capture of her glasses.

The artists have four hours to paint a celebrity sitter and Leanne says that model Daphne Selfe was a joy to paint.

'She is such a lovely woman and the perfect model as she didn't move once,' she says of the 89-year-old who has been called 'the world's oldest super model'.

The use of iPads and mobile phones by artists in this year's series has been something of a talking point, and Leanne says that while she did take a few reference photos at the start of the sitting, she painted Daphne from life.

'I did my portrait from first hand, by looking at her, as it's nice establish a connection and to have communication with the sitter.'

Her traditional approach to tackling the painting made a big impression on the judges with Independent Curator and judge, Kathleen Soriano commenting 'Leanne really shone through. She's got this experience and quality to her work. She understands painting and sculpture.'

While Leanne says that she would have liked to have had more time to work on the portrait, she is delighted to have been the artist from the heat selected to make it through to the semi-final.

And it wasn't just the judges who were impressed by Leanne's portrait, as Daphne picked it out as the one she liked best, joking that she had captured her earrings.

Leanne revealed that she has kept in touch with Daphne by email since the programme was recorded and also travelled to meet her in Belfast during the summer, when she did some drawings of her, which she presented to her.

'It was a great experience taking part in the competition,' she said. 'It was a lovely, busy, busy day, and I was trying to do a million things at once , focusing on painting the lovely Daphne, at the same time as being surrounded by cameras, microphones , the presenters, the judges and the people around you.'

This was a far cry from working in her studio beside her Gyles' Quay home but Leanne proved that she was up to the challenge, producing a painting which captured Daphne's strength and elegance.

The competition is held at The Wallace Collection, a national museum situated in a historic London townhouse.

'The venue is actually much smaller than it appears on television so the people are quite close to you but it was a great experience,' she recalled. ' The whole team were fantastic, the camera crew, the judges and presenters were really polite so it didn't feel like you were being tested.'

While Leanne can't reveal how she got on in the semi-final, which will be broadcast in March , she said she was delighted to meet Hetty Lawlor, the 17 year old schoolgirl from Mayo, who was the winner of the first heat.

'It was really nice to meet Hetty and her parents and it was lovely to see so many Irish people entering the competition and doing so well.'

Leanne studied at the National College of Art and Design in Dublin and later did a Masters in sculpture and from the University of Ulster.

While she has worked in sculpture for all of her career, she turned to painting about six years ago, bringing her love of drawing and expertise of three dimensional work to her portraiture - something which was commented upon by the judges.

Leanne has exhibited locally in The Basement Gallery and nationally. She was shortlisted for the 2016 Hennessy Portrait Prize and her work 'Someone's Mother' was highly commended. Many of her works are held in public and private collection, including Dublin Airport and Louth County Council.

Alongside her own artistic practice, Leanne also teaches at St Vincent;s Secondary School and thanks principal Deirdre Matthews for her support.Members of Dundalk Red Cross Youth honoured and recognised those who have shown exceptional achievement over the past year.

The organisation held its annual youth awards day, which allowed youngsters who had done exemplary work to be celebrated in a public event. It also provided an opportunity for members to show of the skills that they had learned during the year to their parents in the audience at St Vincent's School hall, where the event was held.

The theme of the event was raising awareness of mental health and anti-bullying. The youths created two songs on mental health, as well as a sketch on the subject. A number also relayed their personal experiences. A number of members also carried out the group's principles in sign language.

It is a very active youth group, meetin every Friday in the Red Cross Hall in Jocelyn street. The classes consist of first aid and youth activities. The main award to be presented on the night was 'Cadet of the Year', which was won by Chloe Cumiskey, who also won the Outstanding Achievement Awards.

Runner-up up for the Outstanding Achievement Award was Aaron Taylor. Chloe and Aaron were also part of the winning team at the National Cadet First Aid competition's held last November. The First Aider of the Year was won by Amy Maguire with Cian Carroll taking the runner-up prize.

Attendance awards were presented to Kelly Noone and May Karr Sherry, Niamh mc Geown, Michael Tuite, Robyn Gorham and Cian Carroll. An award was also presented to Pat Sheridan for his continued support in helping the youth group and all the hard work he does for the Dundalk branch.

The Dundalk Red Cross Youth would like to thank everyone involved in making the day a great success. Carol Cumiskey, the Youth Officer of the Dundalk branch wanted to thank her great team of leaders in supporting the event in the weeks before it and the day of the awards day. She also thanked St Vincent's school, principal Deirdre Matthews for allowing them to use the hall in the school, and Woodies in Dundalk for sponsoring the balloons.It's time to 'Dream Big Dundalk' as the St. Patrick's Day Parade is less than two months away.

'Dream Big Dundalk' is this year's theme for the Dundalk parade and is kindly 'on loan' from Dundalk Credit Union - who are the main sponsors of the 2018 event!

Organisers have promised there is going to be 'lots to do and see this year' with a new route which includes the old parade route meeting point of Philip Street then taking in the town from Bridge Street right up to Dublin Street. The parade will start at the now traditional time of 1pm on Saturday 17th March.

The ever-popular Pelican Promotions Family Fun Zone at the Market Square returns again with music, food stalls and kids fun rides. 6 wristbands will be on sale in the run up to St. Patrick's Day and on the day offering unlimited use of the amusements.

The St. Patrick's Day Parade Committee have been meeting since November and are thrilled to welcome Dundalk Credit Union on Market Street as the main sponsor.

David Minto, Committee Chairman said 'We're excited Dundalk Credit Union is leading our team of sponsors. The Credit Union is a community effort which plays a huge role in Dundalk life - we've been inspired to take on its 'Dream Big Dundalk' motto for this years St. Patrick's Day Parade.'

Majella Toner Downey, Business Development Executive at Dundalk Credit Union is equally thrilled to be involved in Dundalk's March 17th celebrations. 'Dundalk Credit Union are absolutely delighted to share our Dream Big Dundalk message in the St. Patrick's Day events - we are delighted to have taken on the main sponsor role this year and look forward to a fantastic family day out!'

Additional sponsors this year are Dundalk Chamber, Longwalk Shopping Centre, Pelican Promotions, and Dundalk Municipal District Council/Louth County Council.

Closing date for parade applications is Friday 9th March.Dundalk born Pearse Lyons, founder and president of Alltech, the global feed and nutrition giant, is in recovery following complications from a heart procedure.

Dr. Lyons, who was listed fifth on the recent Sunday Independent Rich List of Irish billionaires is, according to an Alltech spokesman 'recovering after undergoing a heart procedure.'

The Irish-born biochemist who founded the company in 1980, remains hospitalized, according to the company.

Born and raised in Dundalk, Dr Lyons graduated with a first class honours degree in Biochemistry.

While at college, he worked in Harp Lager in Dundalk and later graduated with a Master of Science in Brewing Science, from the British School of Malting and Brewing (now the School of Biochemistry), University of Birmingham in 1968. He received a PhD in Biochemistry in 1971.

Dr Lyons' work led him to Kentucky in 1976, where in 1980 he founded scientific research company Alltech with the aim of improving the health and performance of people, animals and plants.

Having secured a key position in the market, Dr. Lyons has seen the company he set up go from strength to strength.

The Lyon's family total wealth, according to the Sunday Independent Rich List is estimated to be 3.5 billion.

The Dundalk native hasn't just built up a hugely successful global firm, but in the last few years also used his expertise to launch the Pearse Lyons Distillery in Dublin.

Having bought the old St. James' Church in the Liberties a few years ago, he launched the unique whiskey distillery in late 2017, which is being run by his wife Deirdre, a native of the city.

Dr. Lyons' wife and their adult children are also involved with Alltech.

In a statement, the family have asked for privacy while Dr. Lyons recovers.A historian who has pleaded guilty to murdering a mum of three in her own home told gardai he was paid to carry out the brutal crime.

The murderer admitted his role in the murder after gardai received a tip from a woman in Australia, telling them that he had confessed to her.

Anthony Lambe (34) from Annadrumman, Castleblayney, Co Monaghan appeared at the Central Criminal Court this morning (Tuesday, 30th) where he pleaded guilty to the murder of Irene White (43) in the kitchen of Ice House, Demesne Road, Dundalk, Co Louth on April 6, 2005.

When arraigned, Lambe replied, guilty judge before a hearing that finished when Justice Patrick McCarthy sentenced him to life imprisonment.

The deceased womans daughter Jennifer McBride told the court that the death of her loving and gentle mother had caused tremendous pain, sorrow and devastation.

Detective Inspector Patrick Marry told Sean Gillane SC for the prosecution that Irene White, a respected member of her community, had three children aged 17, six and five when she was murdered. She had separated from her husband and lived with her children at Ice House, a large home in Dundalk adjoining a park.

On the morning of April 6, 2005 she dropped her children to school as usual, spoke to one of the teachers and returned home. Irenes mother, Maureen McBride, lived in a mobile home to the rear of the property and her routine was to call into her daughter for a chat in the morning or early afternoon.

At 12.30pm Ms McBride arrived and noticed that the back door was open. Inside, she found Irene on the kitchen floor surrounded by a pool of blood and with her head against the dishwasher.

When gardai arrived they saw bloody footprints around the body, leading to the front door and over a wall into the adjacent park. They also noted that there was no evidence of forced entry, Irene was wearing orange rubber gloves and the radio was on in the kitchen.

Nothing appeared to have been stolen. State Pathologist Professor Marie Cassidy found 34 stab wounds to Irenes front, back and arms. She believed that Irene was attacked from behind but turned around to face her attacker.

Some of the wounds were inflicted while she was on the ground and she died from injuries to her lungs and heart. Her attacker had also cut her throat but that wound would not have caused her death.

The garda investigation ran into the sand and was taken over by the Serious Crime Review team in 2011.

In July 2012 a television programme calling for fresh information led to an anonymous call to gardai from a woman in Australia.

She said Lambe had told her that he murdered Irene White. In 2016 gardai identified the woman and two of them traveled to Australia to interview her.

Gardai then spoke to Lambes former girlfriend who told them that she could remember April 6, 2005 because she flew with Lambe to England and recalled that he was jittery and nervous.

She put this down to the fact it was his first time flying. Gardai arrested Lambe on January 20, 2017.

He confessed from the outset, telling gardai that an individual had asked him to kill Ms White on behalf of someone else.

At the time Lambe was in a very bad place, drinking and taking drugs and in debt.

The person who approached him gave him details of the layout of Ice House and Irenes movements. He remembered stabbing Irene and cutting her throat before making his escape over the wall.

He also told gardai that he said a prayer over her body. He later telephoned the person who had asked him to do it and received a relatively small sum of money.

In the year that followed his drink and drug abuse went out of control and he had regular nightmares.

Det Inspector Marry said Lambe showed genuine remorse, saying he was sorry and breaking down on several occasions.

He said Lambe came from a very well respected, decent family who had been distressed on learning what he had done.

He also agreed with defence counsel Jonathan Kilfeather that Lambe was sexually abused for three years as a child and that this played heavily on his mind.

In 2011, six years after Irenes murder, Lambe began studying for an arts degree and later attained a Masters in Education.

When he was arrested he was studying for a PhD in history and had a strong interest in archaeology.

Det Inspector Marry said he believed Lambe was under pressure at the time of the murder and added: That is as much as I can say at this stage.

He agreed with counsel that Lambe took part in charity work and thought he could balance the books in some way but later realised he couldnt.

Taking the stand, Jennifer McBride said that morning she went to school as normal, not knowing this would be her last goodbye to my mam.

Their home had been filled with peace, tranquility, love and laughter but that was to be short lived. She was called out of class and told her mother had passed away. She felt shock, numbness. I was completely heartbroken.

She described her mothers murder as frenzied, uncontrolled and an act of sheer brutality.

Following her mothers death she went to live with her grandmother and was separated from her two siblings. Then tragedy struck again when Maureen died six months after Irene from a broken heart having never recovered from finding Irenes body. Jennifer was again left isolated and homeless.

She remembered her mother as a spiritual person who is often described by her many friends as the life and soul of the party.

She remembered the many good times with her mother and felt guilt and sorrow that her younger siblings were robbed of those moments and their mothers unconditional love.

A statement by Irenes sister Anne Delcassian was read out by Mr Gillane. She said that her sisters death was brutal and horrible and that the killer had no thought for Irene or her family. She asked why he had done it, what was his motive.

Speaking outside court Irenes husband Alan White said he was in shock when he heard that someone had been hired to kill his wife but added:We got the result we needed.Louth Rose Aoife Heffron is set to travel to Chernobyl as a volunteer at the Vesnova Children's Mental Asylum in Belarus.

The Dundalk woman will travel with The Rose of Tralee International Festival & Chernobyl Children International to volunteer alongside a number of her fellow Roses, Escorts and the 2017 Rose of Tralee, Jennifer Byrne.

Preparing herself for the emotional challenges ahead, Aoife told the Argus that she is 'looking forward to giving time to the children, to play and give hugs.' ?

'I was really inspired by Megan Ferguson (Louth Rose 2016) when she spoke about her time in Chernobyl. She said that the children there simply wanted hugs, and I thought then, even before I was named Louth Rose, that is definitely one thing that I can do to help.'

As part of her volunteer experience, Aoife is also aiming to raise 1,500 towards the vital work of the charity there, and the urgent supplies needed by the children. 'I have set a goal to raise at least 1,500, that will go directly to the CCI and will be used for much needed medical supplies for the children still being affected by the Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster 32 years later.'

Aoife hosted a major fundraising event at Russell's Gim Emporium on Friday night last, and is hoping that people will continue to support the cause by donating directly to the charity through the 'everydayhero' fund page she has set up.

'I will also be accepting donations of items such as nappies, sudo cream, blankets, toys, clothes, baby wipes etc. These are essential everyday items that can be in short supply.'

Aoife added that anyone who wants to donate goods can send her a private message to arrange collection or drop off.' 'The CCI and myself would be so grateful for anything you can spare, every little will help me reach my goal and aid the CCI in continuing their fantastic work in caring for these wonderful children.'

Aoife added that she is enjoying a 'busy year' in her role representing the county.

Anyone who would like to donate to the work of the Chernobyl charity can do so directly through the linkhttps://give.everydayhero.com/ie/louth-rose-s-volunteer-visit-to-vesnova-orphanage-belarus-wiThe third annual meeting of the Heads of the educational centres of the European Marist Education Network will be held at St Mary's College in Dundalk from 31 January to 2 February 2018, the first two annual meetings having been held in Paris.

The theme of the meeting is Building the Network together: the next step.

As the theme implies, the aims are to strengthen further the links between the centres and, specifically, to agree the common projects for the Network for the coming year.

But it will also be an opportunity for the delegates to visit the wonderful St Mary's College building which was opened in May 2016, and to learn about how the staff use the excellent facilities to enhance learning.

Dundalk Town Council will host a Civic Reception for the delegates in the County Museum on Wednesday evening where they will be welcomed by Chairperson Cllr. John McGahon.

The reception will conclude with traditional Irish music and song performed by staff of the College.

Thursday will see the delegates welcomed to the College by Principal Mr. Alan Craven and entertained on arrival by the students.

The Conference will formally be opened by Fr. Martin McAnaney, the European Provincial Superior. Following Fr. Martin's address the key work of the conference will begin. Day one will conclude with the delegates attending a Mass celebrated at St. Brigid's Shrine,

on St. Brigid's Feast Day, where they will be presented with St. Brigid's crosses Craven and entertained on arrival by the students.

The conference will formally be opened by Fr. Martin McAnaney, the European Provincial Superior.

Following Fr. Martin's address the key work of the conference will begin.

Day one will conclude with the delegates attending a Mass celebrated at St. Brigid's Shrine, on St. Brigid's Feast Day, where they will be presented with St. Brigid's crosses made by the students.The Joint Oireachtas Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement has been told that there is no truth to the rumour that the body of missing British soldier Robert Nairac was destroyed in a meat processing plant.

During a debate on 'The Disappeared', Mr. Geoff Knupfer said that committee had not received any information on his case at all.

'Captain Nairac was abducted and killed in May 1977. At the time he was a serving soldier. He was abducted from the Three Steps Inn in Dromintee, taken to Ravensdale and was killed.'

Referring to the 'strong rumour that his body had been destroyed in a meat processing plant in the area. We are assured by people who would know that this is actually not the case and the rumour was spread to distract attention, shall we say, at the time,'

Fine Gael Senator Frank Feighan said: 'The victim was a British soldier, but he was a Catholic and he deserves a funeral. He deserves that respect.'There was great sadness and grief as the death of DkIT student Ross Hanlon, who had gone missing during a trip to Vienna, was confirmed last weekend.

DkIT President Dr. Michael Mulvey, President of Dundalk Institute of Technology issued a statement following the news of the tragic death. 'We are deeply saddened by the news of the death of our student, Ross Hanlon. On behalf of the entire Institute, I would like to extend my deepest sympathies to his family and friends at this time. Our thoughts and prayers are with them. Ross will be missed by all at the Institute and will be remembered as a popular, outgoing and dedicated student.'

He added: 'Ross' passing is felt by all on campus, in particular his classmates. We are here to help our students and connect them with resources and support services on campus.' The president added that DkIT's confidential counselling service is open to all students and can be availed by visiting the Counselling Centre located on the first floor of the Faulkner Building, by calling +353 (0)42 9370247 or by contacting counsellor@dkit.ie.

'The Institute's Chaplaincy and Students Union are also on hand to provide pastoral support."

The Business Studies student was last seen in the Austrian city at around 2am on January 19th. He was on a city break with friends following the completion of college exams. Students and staff at Dundalk Institute of Technology held a vigil last week as fears grew for the missing Athboy native.

A Go Fund Me page was also set up by Ross' friends, with an acknowledgement to all who donated. 'Thank you to everyone for the support and raising the funds for our search for Ross. The funds raised will go to the Hanlon family. The support and kind messages shows how much Ross was loved by everyone and how much it meant to try get him home. Our deepest condolences are with family Paul, Craig, Cian and the Hanlon family, girlfriend Kelly and her family and his friends. Thankfully now we get to bring our Rossi home and give him the best send off he truly deserves. There won't be a day where anyone doesn't think about you Ross and we know you will be up there looking down and taking care of us. We love you Ross, Rest In Peace brother. You're a Superstar.'A candlelight vigil in memory of Detective Garda Adrian Donohoe at Lordship Credit Union on Friday night.

Five years on from the murder of Adrian Donohoe, there remains a huge sense of loss and grief; and investigators have vowed to never cease in their efforts to bring those responsible to justice.

Chief Superintendent Christy Mangan has also appealed directly to people who are protecting the culprits to come forward with information.

Detective Garda Donohoe was shot dead during an armed robbery at Lordship Credit Union in Bellurgan on 25 January, 2013.

On the fifth anniversary, gardai said the suspects are known to them, and have urged family and friends, who are shielding these people, 'to do the right thing'.

'Your mind will never have peace until you tell the truth about what happened to Adrian,' Chief Supt. Mangan continued

'The suspects are known to us. Some are in the country, some have left the country.

'They have sought protection in other jurisdictions, but that doesn't prevent us from following them to the ends of the earth, and we certainly will.'

No charges have yet been brought in relation to the murder, but Chief Supt. Mangan said progress has been made in the investigation.

'I am not in a position to go into the finer details of the progress we have made, it would certainly compromise other lines we have generated.

'Suffice to say that the public, in particular, have provided us with very good information as regards what happened that day.'

Chief Supt. Mangan appealed for more assistance.

'It is important that people who have information, which they may think is not too important, or they may actually think we know it, make contact with us.

'It's never too late to help, and such information may assist in getting the truth of who murdered Adrian.

'I suppose, in any murder investigation people are afraid. It generates a sense of fear within communities.

'I think Adrian's murder certainly strikes a chord with people.

'He was a man, with family, supporting the community, and his life was literally taken from him that night when he was out protecting people.

'The reality, why we're here, is that I'm appealing to people that I know have information. I am certain they have information.'

Chief Supt. Mangan stressed the guards will never cease investigating in order to solve Adrian's murder.

'We owe that to Adrian's family, friends and the local community, and as a society we must constantly strive for justice.'

Anyone with information is urged to contact Dundalk garda station on 042-9388470, or the garda confidential line 1800 666 111.Education can be formal. Education can be restrictive. Education can be mere box ticking. But not in Glencree, not at Fighting Words.

'We don't do discipline,' declares Mark Davidson, director of this exercise in imaginative schooling where the students are more likely to be found sitting on cushions than on seats at desks. So, if you don't do discipline, Mark, what do you do?

He explains that the reason why Fighting Words exists is to promote creative writing by young people, no holds barred. The inspiration comes from one of the country's most successful ever novelists - the esteemed Roddy Doyle.

The author of 'The Van' and inventor of 'The Giggler Treatment' is not actually here today, though he has been known to show up.

Instead, this morning's work is being carried out under the command of Mark and his team of adult volunteers, all four of them.

They are ready to receive the boys and girls from fifth class at the Educate Together primary in Greystones, all 24 of them, plus three teachers.

There is no way the bus driver is going to risk venturing down the narrow lane which leads to Fighting Words HQ. So the last 100 metres of the journey is completed on foot, allowing the children breathe deeply of the invigorating air of the Wicklow Mountains.

The first thing that Mark does when everyone has arrived is to separate the teachers - Caoimhe, Caitriona and Cian - from the children.

The teachers are ushered into a sitting room with a glowing fire and left to discuss curriculum and protocols, or whatever boring things it is that teachers talk about in private.

Meanwhile, the children are first encouraged by volunteer Eoin O'Shea to fill Glencree valley with a rowdy, raucous roar, to release the energy pent up during the bus ride.

Then they are brought into the Fighting Words classroom, where Mark Davidson awaits, ready to set them a task as they sprawl on their cushions. While discipline may not be to the fore, there is certainly a structure to the freedom that the youngsters are being offered.

As the director explains to this bunch of 11 year olds, they are here to write a book, or several books, as many books as they can dream up in a morning's work. He puts his phone on loudspeaker to establish a line of communication with a publisher called Mister McConky.

We never get to see this most irritable and dismissive of men but he surely knows how to lay down a challenge. When he declares down the crackly phone line that the young people of today have no imagination, the young people from Educate Together in Greystones know they have to prove him wrong. So they respond with a will when Mark asks them for the general ingredients of any work of fiction - character, setting, plot and so on.

The main character which emerges during the brainstorming is a firefighter sheep called Bill, whose principal ambition is to drive a Lamborghini (get the pun?) fire engine. He is pitted against an evil Giant Frozen Strawberry.

To further stimulate the imagination, the budding writers are fed instant pictures drawn on the spur of the moment by volunteer Margaret Joyce, introduced by Mark as the world's best illustrator. She responds to the mirth of the moment, with its blaze busting sheep and murderous fruit, by declaring 'the more way out the better'.

Certainly, today's group are not inclined to focus on everyday life as it is lived in Greystones.

Jess lamb, the volunteer manning the lap-top in the corner of the room, taps out a rough draft of an opening chapter, which is promptly printed off. Now it is time to toss the cushions into a pile in corner and begin work in more formal style, in teams around tables.

Each team is gently prompted by one of the mentoring adults but the creative is always favoured over the merely correct.

'We don't correct spellings.'

These fifth class products of the new millennium may have been brought up with computers from an early age but here they are chewing on their pencils and writing on good, old-fashioned paper. Some decide to dispense with the services offered by Margaret and instead produce their own illustrations.

For one feverish hour, the classroom is a swirling cauldron of creativity, both intense and good humoured, all remarkably focused on their assignment, though never reduced to silence.

The eye-popping views of the Sugar Loaf visible from the window are completely ignored.

Volunteer Eoin calls down the time - 'You have ten minute to finish the work of your lives!' They respond as though those lives depended on it.

At the end of their allotted hour, they are welcomed by publisher McConky whose disembodied voice declares that he never doubted their abilities and he is pleased to accept their work.

Along the way, in this whirlpool of literature and humour, they must learn to respect the ideas of others. Elements of fantasy are involved as the story goes off in bewildering directions, usually with a happy ending.

The Giant Strawberry may expect to wind up as jam while Bill heads into the sunset aboard his high speed tender.

'You would be surprised at how studious they all get,' observes volunteer Jess, a horse racing journalist when not encouraging children to use their imaginations. To round off the session, Eoin calls up a few of the newly fledged authors to read from newly minted works as their teachers file in to listen.

Some of the stories have strayed far from the original starting point to deal with super heroes or, in one case, a gorilla.

'The imagination in this room is lifting the roof off,' declares Mark as he prepares to send the visitors back home.

As they depart, the pupils are asked to put pen to paper one last time and offer their reaction to the Fighting Words experience.

'The best school trip ever and a great location' is the response of one.

Afterwards, the director and his crew review their morning's work, sure that there is always room for improvement.

'Once they realise that they don't have to spell right, they can usually take off,' says Mark.

The organisation has been prompting young people to write with confidence for fun and for personal satisfaction since 2009. That was when Roddy Doyle the novelist and his friend Sean Love of Amnesty International fame first discerned the need for such an organisation. They drew in part on the trail blazed by a group called 826 Valentia in California, but they put an Irish spin on the approach, setting up headquarters beside Croke Park.

The Fighting Words gospel has since spread, with regular meetings of a writing club for teenagers in Dun Laoghaire, for instance.

Summer camps have been run covering not only fiction writing but also tackling subjects such as film making, play writing and puppetry.

However, it is the two hour workshops for school groups which are the bread and butter of the organisation. They first started in Dublin city eight years ago but Glencree has proven to be a very popular venue since it was added more recently with backing from the Irish Youth Foundation in 2016.

Mark calculates that 103 schools - from Gorey to Tallaght - took part over the past 12 months, with demand far exceeding supply.

A native of Bray, son of Matthew and Patricia Davidson, he first came to Fighting Words in 2013, having recently completed his master's degree in cognitive science from UCD after first graduating in philosophy and French at TCD.

The qualification entailed a great deal of psychology and research into artificial science, opening up the prospect of an academic life.

Such a career did not appeal and Fighting Words offered an alternative which came naturally to someone brought up in a house filled with books.

'I have never been a classroom teacher but this work gives you the good parts of being a teacher,' he comments.

The job came up thanks to the admirable Glencree Society which has been in existence since 1962 when a local farmer left his land to a trust.

The brief of the trust was to use the property to welcome young people into the countryside.

Mark was one of thousands of scouts who have camped here over the years and now the creative writing brings another strand of youth work into the hills.

He can call on members from a panel of 44 volunteers to assist with workshops, achieving enviable pupil-teacher ratios. Once or twice a year, Roddy Doyle is likely to call by though the great man does not seek the limelight.

'He is very quiet and he sits down at the back. He is very personable and unassuming.Nuala and Declan McLoughlin of Bochelli's in Greystones presented Wicklow Homeless Five Loaves with a cheque for 13,822.

The cheque was accepted by Annette Devanne, Tommy Gordon and Nora Hayden of Five Loaves.

The McLoughlin family raised the money in the community over Christmas, along with hosting a festive dinner for 100 people.

This was the second year they opened the doors of their Greystones restaurant on Christmas Day.

An appeal was put out before Christmas for clothing and other vital supplies and they were inundated with donations.

'It was a truly lovely gesture and greatly appreciated by everyone at WH Five Loaves and our Ark Housing Project,' said a Five Loaves spokesperson. Clients of Tiglin and other members of the community were also invited to the dinner.

Declan said that they had plenty of help and many volunteers looking after their guests on the day. Musician Austin Prior and DJ Paul Kelly entertained the diners and there was a wealth of dancing talent on the floor for the afternoon.

Manos bus service was on-hand with transport, as were a number of private individuals.

Declan said that donations of goods were made in abundance, with one chemist sending in bags of toiletries. Gloves, scarves, jeans and more were also donated.

Declan said that the entire community had come together to make Christmas day so special. He hopes that this will become an annual tradition in the town.Larry Parsons passed away peacefully in the exceptional care of St James's Hospital on December 21, after a relatively short illness.

Born in Dublin in 1943 to parents Jack and Mary Parsons, the family moved to Whaley Abbey, Ballinaclash, during the big snow of 1947 and farmed there until 1985. Larry attended school in Ballinaclash and Rathdrum and went on to study in the Salesian Agricultural College in Pallaskenry, Co Limerick.

On retiring from dairy farming, he took up a position as an agricultural rep with Cork firm Preference Products, followed by a similar position with Co-Operative Animal Health in Tullow.

In January 2001, he began working as an Assistant Caretaker in Avondale Community College - a job he loved and was totally dedicated to up and until his illness.

In 1961, Larry was one of the founder members of Rathdrum Rifle and Pistol Club along with Fr Peter Canning, David Cullen, John McGrath and others. A loft in Whaley Abbey was put at the club's disposal and used as an indoor range until the club's present premises in The Brewery was built and ready for occupation in February 1966. The club continued to use Whaley Abbey as an outdoor range until 1985.

Larry's love of shooting didn't end there as he was a member of the FCA and was a serving member of C Company 21st Battalion that, on two occasions, won the All-Army Rifle Shooting Competition - an achievement that he was extremely proud of.

Larry's other love was rugby. As a young man he played his rugby with Wicklow Rugby Club as there was no club in Rathdrum at that time. On his retirement from playing, he joined the Rathdrum club and was a key member of the team that built the club to what it is today. He served proudly as President from 1995 to 1998 and again from 2000 to 2002.

Never a man to seek the limelight, he did, however, enjoy doing the Rathdrum rugby match report every Sunday night on East Coast Radio with Michael Sargent. In 2009, in recognition of his life-long commitment and dedication to the club, the committee bestowed on him an honorary Life Membership.

Larry was described by many at his funeral as a 'true gentleman and an inspiration' but, above all else, Larry was an outstanding and dedicated family man. Family was everything to Larry and Larry was everything to his family.

As a husband, dad and granddad, Larry was solid, decent and strong; a thoughtful man you could depend on. His dry, comic timing was priceless and all those close to him saw his heart of gold. His passing is felt so deeply, but his spirit lives on through lessons he taught and memories still shared.

Larry was laid to rest in Rathdrum Cemetery alongside his parents. He is survived by his loving wife Irene, children Adrienne, Brian, Miriam, Clare, Elaine, Conor and Pauline, his eleven grandchildren and his sister Pauline.

Ar dheis De go raibh a anam.The community of Tinahely was saddened to learn of the death of Pauline Cleary, Millhouse, recently.

Pauline, who was just months shy of her 80th birthday, passed away peacefully at home, surrounded by her loving family on January 18.

A native of Westmeath, Pauline (nee Ward) was one of five children and is predeceased by siblings Eugene and Sheila.

A teacher by profession, Pauline taught in the secondary school in Hacketstown as a young woman, and later at Colaiste Bhride, Carnew, where she gave classes in shorthand, typing, computers and Irish.

A patient and kind woman, Pauline enjoyed teaching very much and was saddened when she had to retire sooner than envisaged for health reasons.

It was some 53 years ago when Pauline met Joe Cleary in Tinahely, the man who would become her husband in 1966.

The couple tied the knot in Rathmines and started married life in a rented house in Knockananna. After three years, they moved into their newly built home in Tinahely where they raised four children - Roisin, Sarah, Deirdre and Robert.

Pauline took to motherhood like a duck to water and was the heart of the family. She was also overjoyed to become a grandmother in more recent years to Leah, Katie and Jack.

Pauline was a friendly and outgoing woman who loved company and she was full of life. She enjoyed nothing more than socialising and catching up with friends.

It was with great sadness that her family and friends said their final farewells at Pauline's funeral at St Kevin's Church, Killaveney. She was laid to rest in the adjoining cemetery.

Pauline is survived by her husband Joe, children Roisin, Sarah, Deirdre and Robert, grandchildren Leah, Katie and Jack, brothers Noel and Sean, extended family, neighbours and friends. May she rest in peace.Minister for Health Simon Harris confirmed at the weekend that there is funding in place for a GP out-of-hours service for north Wicklow.

The news has been 'cautiously welcomed' by another Wicklow TD due to a 2016 announcement that the service would be set up which came to nothing.

'I have secured funding for an out-of-hours GP service for north Wicklow,' said Minister Harris in a statement on Saturday. 'Such a service already exists in other parts of the county but is badly needed in north Wicklow.'

The funding is included in the 2018 National Service Plan.

The service is intended to cover night time hours from Monday to Friday and 24-hour cover at weekends and public holidays. The service will include initial triage and GP consultation at centres or home visits as appropriate, in accordance with HIQA standards for Safer Better Healthcare.

The procurement process to identify a service provider has now commenced, with public advertisement (including eTenders) expected this month and, subject to successful selection of a suitable service provider, the service is scheduled to be operational by the end of June.

It is expected that approximately 9,000 patients per month will avail of the service.

'I have no doubt that this will make a very positive difference for the delivery of health services in our locality.

'I want to thank all the GPs in the community and the many groups in the locality who have been pursuing this for many years,' said Minister Harris.

Deputy John Brady, whose Sinn Fein party had organised a protest demanding an out-of-hours service at Minister Harris's office next Saturday, gave the news a 'cautious welcome'.

'In 2016, we had announcements that the funding was secured for the service and that it would be in place in early 2017. Unfortunately that funding was pulled without explanation,' said Deputy Brady. 'So, I cautiously welcome the latest announcement, and will keep the pressure on until the service is operational.'

He and party colleagues Cllrs Michael O'Connor and Nicola Lawless had held a number of public meetings and delivered a petition to Minister Harris.Wicklow's Mountain Rescue Teams brought a man to safety from Bray Head on Sunday in one of two call-outs over the weekend.

On Sunday, January 28, the National Ambulance Service alerted both the Dublin Wicklow Mountain Rescue Team and the Glen of Imaal Mountain Rescue Team after a man fell from height while descending from the summit of Bray Head at around 2.39 p.m.

He was assisted at the scene by team members before being packed into a stretcher and evacuated to a waiting ambulance. The incident was stood down at 3.47 p.m.

At 3.19 p.m. the previous day the two teams were tasked by the gardai to help a hill walker with a suspected lower leg injury in Glendalough.

A mountain rescue team member happened to be out walking in the area when she came across a man descending from the Miner's Village who appeared to be in difficulty. She assessed the man's injury and called for additional back-up.

Rescue personnel from both teams walked to the site and placed the walker's leg in a splint before he was stretchered down to the Miner's Village.

There, he was assessed by a mountain rescue doctor before being transported to hospital for further care by a friend. The operation was stood down at 4.55 p.m.

This brings to seven the number of times both teams have been called out already this year.Emotions ran high at Colaiste Raithin last Monday evening at a public meeting to discuss the fact that the school body cannot enter their new building.

'We are sick of sitting in cold classrooms, getting chest infections, mould on the walls, everything,' said fifth year student Hannah Nic Aogain, one of a student population of 270.

'Let's cut the rubbish, let's cut legalities, and let's get in there,' Principal Gearoid O Ciarain told parents, teachers and students.

The school is finished, the equipment is in the classrooms, but due to the collapse of British construction giant Carillion, the keys have not been handed over.

Meanwhile, the school has hired new teachers, taken on more students and new subjects including home economics. The home-ec teacher is currently teaching the curriculum without a kitchen.

Neighbouring Ravenswell Primary School is more than 95 per cent complete. Last week, sub-contracted construction firm Sammon left the site.

Meanwhile, the school has hired new teachers, taken on more students and introduced new subjects while governments and international finance companies attempt to get to grips with a contract worth hundreds of millions of euro.

'On behalf of all the children involved, this is not acceptable,' said fifth year student Alannah Ni Dhonnochu. 'We still have voices and we should be heard by the Dail, by our politicians, everyone.

'This school is crumbling around us and it's not fair on us. It's not fair that we're left in this situation, and we will not stand for it anymore.'

Carilion, the Dutch group DIF and the Irish government formed a public-private partnership to build and manage five schools, including two in Bray, and a further education institution.

Ravenswell primary school, neighbouring Colaiste Rathin on the new site, is more than 95 per cent complete.

Teachers, parents and students at Colaiste Raithin said that their existing school is unsafe and inadequate. They have been campaigning for a new premises for 23 years. The current school building was only ever meant to be temporary.

Deputy Stephen Donnelly told those gathered in the school hall that lawyers are now examining the contracts to try to find measures to deal with these circumstances. He said that if that isn't in place, there will have to be a contingency plan.

Deputy John Brady also spoke to the crowd, as did representatives of Ministers Andrew Doyle and Simon Harris - Liz Dillon and Irene Winters.

Chairperson of the parents committee Aileen O'Reilly chaired the meeting.

A science teacher told the meeting that there are certain chemicals she can't use, as there isn't proper ventilation in the current building. Students Hannah and Alannah said that there are science experiments they can't do towards their Leaving until they get access to the new building.

The fear among those at the meeting this week is that the new schools will be dragged into a liquidation process based in the UK, and that they will get lost in a mire of legalities.

They are calling on the government to introduce emergency legislation to allow them to get into their school buildings.

The Carillion issue was due to be discussed in the Dail yesterday evening, after this newspaper went to print. Deputies invited local people to come to the public gallery.

Deputy John Brady said that he had tried to get the matter on the agenda for a full debate but that it wasn't possible. This was to be discussed during 'topical issues'.Principal of Colaiste Raithin Gearoid O Ciarain sympathised with those who find themselves out of work due to the liquidation.

'I convey the sympathy of this meeting to the thousands of men and women let go and made redundant by the collapse of Carillion,' he said. 'There is nothing more demeaning than doing an honest week's work and not getting an honest week's pay.'

He said that the blame does not lie with the civil servants or the NDFA. 'This is a very complex multi-billion situation and my real fear is that we are going to get locked up in some legal quagmire which will go on for months. It is very possible to see this thing finishing up in the high court in London in God knows what year.

'There is nothing more than a complete school, bells, whistles, everything, there ready to go, while our children play out there in the mud,' he said. 'While our home economics teachers have no kitchen in which to do the home economics syllabus, while our PE teacher has no place in which to play any games except the hall we're in, while our technology teacher has a set of screwdrivers and very little else.

'That's not good enough while there's a state of the art building waiting up on the hill'

Deputy John Brady said that news of a voluntary liquidation came as a shock to some, while others would say this has been coming for a long time.

'DIF are now the sole and lead agency for the development of the six schools,' he said.

He said that initially announcements were made that there would be no time implications after Carillion went bust.

'Last week events took a very sour turn when the contractors walked off the site,' he said.

'The problem is now with certification, with a number of certs to be signed off on. DIF issued a statement saying they are 100 per cent wed to this project and want to see it through. Of 100 million due to them, only about four million has been paid to them.'

He said that the NDFA and minister will meet the school principals this Friday. 'The department needs to take a front and centre role,' he said.

'What the lawyers are trying to do at the moment is say, what are the guarantees, what are the back-ups,' said Deputy Stephen Donnelly. 'In an ideal world the construction costs and risk would already be underwritten and if a partner goes into liquidation you can activate a clause in the contract and everything just continues on, subcontractors come back on site and everything gets certified. That's what's "meant" to happen in these things. So this really is a legal issue.' He said that the pressure the audience could bring as parents, staff, friends and students of the school is important.

'Can this be resolved in a short number of weeks or is it potentially monts? What we have to avoid is the contract ending up in part of the liquidation of Carillion.'Wicklow Uplands Council carried out a detailed study of the whole uplands.

Wicklow Uplands Council are one of 12 Irish groups selected under the new European Innovations Partnership (EIP) initiative.

Operated by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, the initiative includes the provision of up to 1 million in funding nationwide.

Wicklow Uplands Council have been notified that their project 'Sustainable Uplands Agriculture-environment Scheme (SUAS)' has successfully made it through to the competitive two-stage application process.

The announcement follows several years of extensive study of upland vegetation management, the decline in farming activities and the impact it was having on these environmentally significant habitats.

The SUAS pilot project aims to use innovative means to address these issues.

Brian Dunne, Coordinator for Wicklow Uplands Council, said: 'SUAS was originally proposed by Wicklow Uplands Council in 2013 as a recommendation of its 'Study to Identify the Best Management of Upland Habitats in County Wicklow.

'That study was completed following extensive research and collaboration with local farmers and upland stakeholder organisations'

'We are very excited that this project has now been officially selected and recognise that this will be a challenging but very rewarding opportunity, not just for those directly involved with the SUAS project but also for the wider upland community.'

Minister of State, Andrew Doyle TD, has also welcomed the news, which he feels will benefit local landowners and tourists.

'These projects offer great potential to help us to build on the success of the agri-food sector in recent years, and to address some of the remaining challenges with a fresh and innovative approach, 'I look forward to seeing the continued benefits of the project in the Wicklow Uplands. SUAS benefits the entire community in the Wicklow Mountains, from our local communities and land owners to the thousands of visitors who visit Wicklow to enjoy our unique landscape and ecosystem,' said Deputy Doyle.

Regular updates on the Wicklow Uplands project are available at www.wicklowuplands.ie.In January 1973 a ground-breaking musical score that is today recognised as one of the seminal compositions in the history of Irish folk rock was premiered in the town of Fermoy.

Penned by local man Brian O'Reilly, 'The Children of Lir', regarded as Ireland's first folk opera, was an immediate success with Polydor Records signing Brian and his bother Paud's band, Loudest Whisper, up to make an album of the music.

Released in 1975 on a limited run of just 500 copies, the album has become one of the most sought after LP's in Ireland and ranks among the top 100 rarest albums in the world.

Still going strong after more than five decades together, Loudest Whisper regularly perform the 'Children of Lir', with Sunbeam Records contacting Brian in 2005 regarding a re-issue of the 1975 album on vinyl.

'The Children of Lir' was re-mastered at the famous Abbey Road studios in London and a limited edition of the album on 180g virgin vinyl was issued in 2006.

Needless to say this edition was also a sell out.

Over the years the popularity of the opera has never waned, with Loudest Whisper staging regular performances of it in addition to maintaining their reputation as one of the country most exciting live acts.

In fact the prestigious Record Collector magazine described Loudest Whisper as "a band that has consistently produced fine and passionate music over the years and captured the imagination of collector's world wide."

Brian has said that Loudest Whisper like to bring new and innovative ideas for the work itself and the production each time they bring to the live stage, while at the same time remaining true to the original score.

This was no more apparent than last year when they premiered 'The Children of Lir Celtic Concert' for three magical performances at the National Opera House in Wexford.

Described by Brian O'Reilly as "one of the more creative and magical home-grown presentations that Ireland has seen in a long while" it saw Loudest Whisper joined on stage by an 80-strong choir, a string quartet, four ballerinas and a narrator.

Cork audiences will get the chance to enjoy the spectacle when it comes to the Cork Opera House on Friday, May 18 & Saturday, May 19, with a special lunchtime school matinee show on the Friday.

Brian said the subtle tapestry of instrumentation and the human voice has brought a new dimension to an ancient story, with the lonely wail of the swans represented by the uileann pipes and the plaintive sound capturing the very essence of the pain at the heart of Celtic migration.

"Yet overall, the tone of the music is celebratory and positive as good triumphs over evil and light defeats the darkness," said Brian.

"The concert is a unique mystical Celtic experience, the music is hauntingly lyrical and spiritual, yet in idiom it is contemporary and vital in a recognisable Celtic style," he added.

Tickets for 'The Children of Lir Celtic Concert at the Cork Opera House are available from the venue on 021 427 0022 priced at 27 (evening) and 12 (matinee). Early booking is advised as all three performances are expected to sell-out well in advance.The first day of February is St. Brigit's Day, a celebration of Ireland's second patron Saint.

According to tradition, Saint Brigit blinded herself in one eye so as to make her unmarriageable and as a result this allowed her to devote herself completely to God.

It is believed that she founded a monastery in Kildare in the 5th Century and to this day she is still honoured on February 1 in many parts of the country.

Her Feast Day has a number of traditions itself. In some places certain types of work were not permitted on the day. For example, in West Cork any practice involving the turning of wheels was generally avoided in that dressmakers refused to spin, and men walked long distances rather than use their bicycles. In almost every household also, the neighbours were invited over with those gathered often feasting on bairin braic and ale. Of course the most widespread Irish custom connected with St. Brigit is the making of the St. Brigit's Cross, used, as custom would have it, to honour the saint and to obtain her protection.

While on the subject of protection - although this time in relation to natural heritage - February 2 is International World Wetlands Day. The Ramsar website (Ramsar being an Iranian town in which the International Convention on Wetlands was adpoted on Feburary 2nd, 1971 clearly conveys the importance of wetlands when it states: "Wetlands are vital for human survival. They are among the world's most productive environments; cradles of biological diversity that provide the water and productivity upon which countless species of plants and animals depend for survival".

In addition, it is known that wetlands act positively for flood control and offer climate change mitigation.

On the subject of Natural Heritage, details of Tree Week 2018 - themed 'Just Plant' - have recently been announced. The week takes place from March 4 - 11 and is organised by the Tree Council of Ireland, supported by Coillte.

Communities, schools and members of the Tree Council throughout Ireland are invited to organise one or more events for the week. As well as tree planting ceremonies, the range of events can include forest and woodland walks, nature trails, workshops, woodturning displays, listening to the trees and what lives in the trees. Talks, tree climbing, broadcasts, launches, poetry readings, exhibitions and dramas, and other similar ideas and events are all welcome.

Cork County Council, thanks to the support of the Tree Council of Ireland, will have a number of native trees to give out to local schools, community groups and organisations on a first come first served basis, which can be planted during local Tree Week Events (email cork.heritage@corkcoco.ie for more details).

All proposed Tree Week events can be registered on the Tree Council's website, www.treecouncil.ie. To ensure maximum exposure and promotion it is advised that event details are submitted by 20th February 2018.

It is hoped that Tree Week 2018 will see a number of the county's schools busy planting. Educating the youth as to the importance of our trees, our nature and our biodiversity as a whole has significant benefits and a wonderful new website aimed at bringing biodiversity into the heart of the classroom has just been launched. The website, which is approved by the Heritage Council's Heritage in Schools Programme, is www.biodiversityinschools.com and it is packed full of free biodiversity resources that both schools and local community groups will be interested in. Further information on biodiversity is available at the National Biodiversity Data Centre website www.biodiversityireland.ie where copies of the All-Ireland Pollinator Plan can be downloaded.

For those with an interest in exhibitions depicting the fascinating history and heritage of County Cork there are a few worthwhile exhibitions currently on display. In the Cork County Library HQ there is an exhibition entitled Road Bowling in Ireland - a display exploring the tradition of road bowling in Ireland, and specifically Cork with particular reference to Mick Barry and the many attempts to loft the Chetwynd Viaduct.

In St. Peters Church on North Main Street, Cork City, Passage West Maritime Museum and Festival Group together with the Cork Harbour Heritage Alliance (CHHA) have wonderful exhibitions in place on early ship building in Passage West as well as the US Navy in Cork Harbour. This latter exhibition by the CHHA featured in the Foyer of Cork County Council HQ for the month of October 2017 and was tremendously well received and the exhibition on ship building in Passage West is most fascinating for anyone with an interest in maritime heritage. All welcome.

Next week's article will take a look at a number of heritage events taking place during the month of February and lastly, community groups are reminded that there is still time to apply for the Heritage Council's Community Grant Scheme (open until February 9th 2018) and the Cork County Council Municipal District Grant Scheme (open until February 16th 2018).Past and present Banteer Macra members convened to reminisce and celebrate their 50th anniversary at a gala banquet hosted in the Killarney Heights Hotel last Saturday night.

National president James Healy from Donoughmore headed the guest list and joining the celebrations were Macra friends from across North Cork and Kerry.

Through an array of scrap books and pictorial content, the event provided an opportunity to look back at the club's achievements and acknowledge the contribution made by many past members over five decades.

Current Banteer Macra chairman, Aidan Murphy, explained how Macra was founded in 1944, when Steven Cullinane and a group of other vocation teachers set up a young farmers' organisation in Ireland which they called 'Macra na Feirme'.

"The majority of young farmers at the time had only primary level education and Macra was formed in the hope that it would be a springboard to revolutionalise Irish agriculture, which it did", he said.

A Cork county executive was established in 1948 to co-ordinate the work of all the clubs in Cork. By the early 1950s there were over 60 clubs in the county and it was recognised that one executive could not serve the whole county, thus the formation of regions based on the ancient baronies.

"By the mid-1960s Macra had strengthened further and there were 85 active clubs within Cork, and Banteer club was formed. Macra had a huge profile, it was one of the most active organisations in the county drawing great support from all sides of agriculture," said Aidan.

Banteer continues to hold a strong position within Macra, the success of members in competitions has been the backbone of the flourishing club and over the years the club provided great leaders to the Avondhu Region and the Cork County Executive.

"Banteer Macra has had great success in uniting young people from rural and urban backgrounds through an active programme of events. The organisation owes its strength to its varied and comprehensive schedule through education, competitions, recreation, social and charity involvement," said Aidan.

"Our continued success is a reflection of both the enjoyment and satisfaction derived from participating across a diverse programme of activity."

Over the years, Banteer has laid claim on The Co. Efficiency Finals, Club of the Year, Macra Capers winners to Miss Macra titles won by Catherine Buckley and Brid Cooney in addition to an assortment of many other honours.The Kilshanning ladies social will take place on Saturday, February 10 at the Hibernian Hotel in Mallow.

The victory social promises to be a night to remember as the Junior County Champions along with the U12, U14 and U16 North Cork champions will be lauded on the night. However, tickets for this victory night must be pre-booked as no tickets will be available on the night. Please contact any club officer to secure a ticket.

Meanwhile, the club will hold their Registration night on Thursday 1st March from 7.30pm to 8.30pm. It's important to note that only fully paid registered members are permitted to participate and play.The biggest attendance at a function in the Charleville Park Hotel since its inception in 2008 were at the popular venue when 535 people sat down to a slap-up breakfast in aid of St. Joseph Foundation, Charleville and hosted by proprietors Pat and Una McDonagh on last Monday morning.

They listened to keynote speaker the founder of Kerry Group plc Denis Brosnan, accompanied by his wife Joan, who related his association with Charleville and the former Golden Vale Food Products Ltd.

This, he noted, coincided with the foundation, development and growth of what was, initially, the Charleville and District Mentally Handicapped Children's Association, the name of which was later changed to St. Joseph's Foundation.

Mr Brosnan recalled his first meeting with the late D. B. O'Loughlin, the then manager of Golden Vale, when he was a representative for a Scottish Company. Mr. O'Loughlin persuaded the graduate of UCC to join the Charleville dairy company in 1969.

He set up the milk powder factory before going to manage the London office of Golden Vale. The untimely death of Mr. O'Loughlin in 1971 and the delay in naming a successor to him by the board members of Golden Vale prompted Brosnan's departure from the North Cork company to start up a factory, heralding the advent of Kerry Group plc. in Listowel.

Mr Brosnan also referred to the Kerry Group takeover of Golden Vale plc in 2001, when he was instrumental in negotiating making the Charleville dairy concern part of the Kerry Group.

Denis Brosnan said he arrived in Charleville around the same time as Doctor Martin O'Donnell, who assembled a number of like-minded people to start the Charleville & District Mentally Handicapped Children's Association in the town and which, like Kerry Group, has grown and expanded to what both are today.

"Like myself, Doctor O'Donnell was a man who liked to make things happen for our respective organisations, he for St. Joseph's and myself for Kerry Group," said Mr Brosnan.

At the conclusion of his address he was presented with an enlarged photograph of himself with his horses in their stables by Eamon McCarthy, chairman St. Joseph's Foundation.

Earlier, host Pat McDonagh welcomed everybody to the function and paid tribute to his wife, Una, and his team at the Charleville Park Hotel led by manager Declan O'Grady.

The current CEO of St. Joseph's Foundation, Noreen Ryan, thanked Denis Brosnan for speaking at the breakfast, hosts Pat and Una Una McDonagh of the Charleville Park Hotel, MC Eamon Stack and all who attended the event for their support of St. Joseph's Foundation, and the event organiser, Michael O'Dwyer of Limerick.An elderly North Cork farmer was killed when he collided with a van after driving for over three kilometres on the wrong side of the main Cork-Dublin motorway between Watergrasshill and Rathcormac, an inquest has heard.

Tom Joe O'Riordan (84) from Ballyarra, Castlelyons had entered the M8 southbound lane just south of Rathcormac and driven up to the toll plaza at Watergrasshill when he decided to do a u-turn and drive back against the traffic on the southbound carriageway on December 30, 2016.

Toll plaza manager Sean O'Donnell told the inquest at the North Cork Coroner's Court in Mallow that Mr O'Riordan came up to within 50 metres of the toll barrier at around 11.30am when he indicated right and, in a controlled fashion, completed a u-turn and drove back up the southbound carriageway.

Mr O'Donnell told how he rang Fermoy Garda Station to alert them and Sgt Edward Geary, who investigated the fatal collision, said that gardai received a number of similar phone calls as motorists rang in to report that Mr O'Riordan was driving on his incorrect side.

Van driver Conor McCarthy told how he was bringing a load of Evening Echo newspapers from The Irish Times print works at City West to Cork and was just overtaking an oil tanker south of Rathcormac when he saw Mr O'Riordan's Isuzu Trooper jeep approaching him.

"I was about level with the rear wheels of the oil tanker when I saw a jeep coming towards me - I didn't have time to react and the jeep crashed into me," said Mr McCarthy, who ended up with his foot trapped between the pedals and suffered a broken wrist, broken leg, dislocated hip and fractured pelvis.

Mr McCarthy had to be cut by firefighters from his Mercedes Sprinter van, which continued for some 300 metres after the impact, and he was rushed by ambulance to Cork University Hospital, where he remained for over a month before being discharged.

The inquest heard evidence from Dr Margaret McLoughlin, who was travelling in the northbound carriageway when she saw the collision and she attended to Mr O'Riordan, who had suffered serious injuries and while he had a faint pulse it soon faded and she pronounced him dead at 11.35am.

The inquest heard from PSV Inspector Garda Kevin Connolly, who said the impact was an off-set, head on collision where the drivers' side of both the jeep and van collided before glancing off each other, and the cause of the collision was due to Mr O'Riordan's driving on the wrong carriageway.

Forensic Crash Investigator Garda Raymond Sweeney said a slight right hand bend would have made it difficult for Mr McCarthy to tell that Mr O'Riordan's jeep was not on its right carriageway and it was only when he could see it straight on that he would have known it was in his carriageway.

The inquest heard from a statement from Consultant Neurologist Dr Peter Kenirons that Mr O'Riordan came to him in 2011 complaining of slight memory loss so he prescribed Aricept to deal mild cognitive impairment, but he failed to keep a follow-up appointment some six months later.

Mr O'Riordan's GP, Dr Joe Keane, said in a statement that Mr O'Riordan had been on Aricept to deal with early dementia but his mental health had not deteriorated since he went on the medication and there was no obvious deterioration when he saw him just two weeks before his death.

Consultant Neuropathologist Dr Niamh Bermingham found evidence at post-mortem of an Alzheimer type pathology but this did not mean that he was suffering from the disease as it would require a clinical assessment of him while still alive to confirm such a diagnosis, the inquest heard.

The inquest also heard testimony from Mr O'Riordan's widow, Moira and his son, Martin that he was his normal self on the day in question and did not seem confused, and he had a usual routine of calling to his two sons to help them at their farms.

Witness Patrick Beecher of Rathcormac Tyres said Mr O'Riordan didn't seem any different when he left him at 11.20am but that he must have continued through Rathcormac village and ended up on the motorway rather than taking an earlier turn-off to bring him home by local roads.

Mr O'Riordan's other son, William, said he missed his father calling that day, but he was seen at his farmyard and he confirmed his father wouldn't have been used to driving on the motorway as he always travelled by local roads between their farms and his home.

Assistant State Pathologist Dr Margaret Bolster said Mr O'Riordan died from traumatic brain injury with haemorrhage and diffuse axonal injury associated with multiple fractures of long bones, ribs and pelvis but would not have suffered as he would have become unconscious immediately.

The jury returned a narrative verdict that Mr O'Riordan died as a result of a road traffic collision while driving against the oncoming traffic at Curraghprevin, Rathcormac before extending their sympathies to his family on their loss and wishing Mr McCarthy a speedy recovery.

Coroner for North Cork Dr Michael Kennedy noted the verdict and also extended him sympathy to Mr O'Riordan's family on their loss before echoing the jury's good wishes to Mr McCarthy and similar sentiments were expressed by Insp Aileen Magner on behalf of An Garda Siochana.Pictured at the AIB Agriculture Seminar at Corrin Event Centre, Fermoy were: Eoin Lowry, business editor, Irish Farmers Journal; John ODoherty, head of AIB Cork County; Jim Woulfe, CEO Dairygold; Michael Creed TD, Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine; Joe Healy, President IFA; Denis OCallaghan, AIB head of retail banking and Tadhg Buckley, AIB agri advisor. Photo by Sean Jefferies

"This year will be a defining one for Irish agriculture."

That was the message from IFA president Joe Healy to the more than 400 farmers and industry stakeholders who attended a recent seminar organised by the AIB at the Corrin Marts Events Centre in Fermoy.

The issues of Brexit, CAP reform, trade deals and climate change were high on the agenda at the meeting, which was also addressed by Agriculture Minister Michael Creed, Dairygold CEO Jim Woulfe and AIB agri advisor Tadgh Buckley.

Mr Healy said each of the of the four issues individually had the potential to influence the sustainability and structural make-up of the industry and that "collective, holistic thinking and swift action" was needed at all levels of the food-chain to ensure the needs of Irish farmers were met.

"Nowhere is this more required than in meeting our climate change targets," said Mr Healy, who pointed out that Irish farmers were among the most carbon efficient dairy and beef producers in Europe.

"We have done a lot to meet the climate change targets with initiatives such as the SMART farming initiative but we can do more," he said. He went on to warn of the dangers of a Mercusor deal replacing carbon-efficient production with beef from South America, pointing out that "producing a kilo of beef in Brazil leaves four times the carbon footprint of a kilo of beef produced in Ireland".

Minister Creed suggested CAP had delivered affordable food to consumers, but post 2020, there will likely be a greater focus on the sustainability agenda and a strong environmental focus.

He said there was no upside to Brexit, and that Ireland would like the transitional arrangement to last as "long as possible" and that it would be "preferable" to maintain the status quo. However, Minister Creed did challenge the sustainability of focusing too much on the UK market.

"Geographic location is an obvious and important reason why we are so dependent on the UK market, but is 40% of Irish agri-food exports to a single market not excessive? Is it not prudent to diversify to other markets, despite our continued trade with the UK market?"

Commenting on the same issue, Mr Woulfe said that with 18% of Ireland's milk pool going into one product (cheddar) in one market, Brexit would have a "significant negative impact" on the Irish dairy industry.

Outlining recent dairy market trends and sentiment shifts, Mr Woulfe said a that a milk price correction was due - suggesting an annual price of 30c/litre at current commodity prices.

However, he said there were a number of factors that could influence this, Chinese import demand, global supply response to a declined milk price exchange rate volatility and Brexit being among these.

Tadhg Buckley said that while the Irish agri sector was in a strong position and delivering for the Irish economy, it was essential that "we all position ourselves for the future to mitigate the challenges ahead".

He encouraged farmers to control the controllable inside the farm gate and to identify the break-even price for their farms.

"It's only when you know where you stand that you can implement corrective strategies where necessary," he said.

The seminar concluded with a farm safety plea to all present to be on their guard as the sector faces into one of its busiest periods of the year.

"We can talk about the risk of Brexit, CAP reform and other issues, but they all pale in significance if one of us or our family members experience a serious farm accident or farm fatality," said Minister Creed.

"Too many of us know someone or a farm family that have experienced a serious farm accident or fatality. It has to stop," he added.The Cork East Labour TD Sean Sherlock has welcomed comments by An Taoiseach Leo Varadkar that the proposed M20 Cork - Limerick motorway will follow the route originally suggested back in 2011.

Over recent weeks it had been suggested that an alternative route through the Galtees, using a portion of the existing Cork-Dublin motorway, was being considered as a more financially viable alternative to the corridor running west of the existing N20.

However, Mr Varadkar has poured cold water in this speculation saying that any variation to the route originally proposed could set the project back by months or even years.

He confirmed that the review of the Government's capital spending plan, details of which are due to be announced in the near future, would outline the 80km route as it had been initially proposed.

"The intention is to follow the route plan which has been intended for a very long time, the direct route between Cork and Limerick, because that provides the bypass for Buttevant and Charleville and other towns along the way," he said.

Welcoming the Taoiseach's comments, Deputy Sherlock said he had spoken to the Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) chief executive Michael Nolan, who had told him there was no proposal put forward to route the motorway through the Galtees.

"That was a suggestion made locally, but there was no real substance to it as confirmed to me by Michael Nolan. I welcome the Taoiseach's comments because we need to keep the original route to free up Mallow, Buttevant and Charleville," said Deputy Sherlock.

"To give credit where it is due, there has been widespread cross party support for this project and the Taoiseach realises that to have balanced regional development access to the south-west seaboard is essential. This will be the final piece of that jigsaw."

While Deputy Sherlock said the Mallow Relief Road should be kept on the agenda, he said he would imagine the Government would prioritise the Cork-Limerick motorway.

Meanwhile, the Mallow Development Partnership (MDP) has written to Finance Minister Pascal Donohue and his counterpart in Transport Shane Ross reiterating the importance of funding being allocated for the commencement of route selection and design works for the Mallow Relief Road.

"These letters emphasise the case for the relief road, which has already been made in the 2015 Indecon Report and again in the 2017 Jacobs Feasibility Report undertaken by Cork County Council," said MDP chair Noel O'Connor.

He said that while both the MDP and Mallow Chamber welcomed progression on the M20, "it was likely that a project of such scale would take significant time and require access to large amounts of funding."

"In the meantime, there is a strong economic case for advancing the Mallow N72/N73 Northern Relief Road as an interim scheme that would address specific constraints in the Mallow area, while remaining complementary to a future motorway," said Mr O'Connor.

"The case for the Relief Road has received the overwhelming support of Cork County Council, local TD's and public representatives, business people and residents of Mallow and the wider region," he added.Hollywood has come to Clogherhead! The first Oskars night will see a team of 65 actors play the main roles for the major RNLI fundraising event in March.

A period of intense training will follow and this will include all extras.

While the short movies are amateur productions, they are being shot by experienced camera crew under a professional director and the final product will be of high quality.

The Night at the Oskars (March 3) in the TLT is set have all the glitz, glamour and razzmatazz of Hollywood as the punters alight onto the red carpet! A panel of judges will vote on the winners across a range of categories, best actor, best actress, etcetera.

Given the large number of friends and family, they expect lively audience participation on the night! The movies are: The Field, The Hangover, The Snapper, Forrest Gump, Bridesmaids, Shawshank Redemption and Fr. Ted.Louth Rose Aoife Heffron is set to travel to Chernobyl as a volunteer at the Vesnova Children's Mental Asylum in Belarus.

The Dundalk woman will travel with The Rose of Tralee International Festival & Chernobyl Children International to volunteer alongside a number of her fellow Roses, Escorts and the 2017 Rose of Tralee, Jennifer Byrne.

Preparing herself for the emotional challenges ahead, Aoife said that she is 'looking forward to giving time to the children, to play and give hugs.' ?

'I was really inspired by Megan Ferguson (Louth Rose 2016) when she spoke about her time in Chernobyl. She said that the children there simply wanted hugs, and I thought then, even before I was named Louth Rose, that is definitely one thing that I can do to help.'

As part of her volunteer experience, Aoife is also aiming to raise 1,500 towards the vital work of the charity there, and the urgent supplies needed by the children. 'I have set a goal to raise at least 1,500, that will go directly to the CCI and will be used for much needed medical supplies for the children still being affected by the Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster 32 years later.'

Aoife hosted a major fundraising event at Russell's Gim Emporium on Friday night last, and is hoping that people will continue to support the cause by donating directly to the charity through the 'everydayhero' fund page she has set up.

'I will also be accepting donations of items such as nappies, sudo cream, blankets, toys, clothes, baby wipes etc. These are essential everyday items that can be in short supply.'

Aoife added that anyone who wants to donate goods can send her a private message to arrange collection or drop off.' 'The CCI and myself would be so grateful for anything you can spare, every little will help me reach my goal and aid the CCI in continuing their fantastic work in caring for these wonderful children.'

Aoife added that she is enjoying a 'busy year' in her role representing the county.

Anyone who would like to donate to the work of the Chernobyl charity can do so directly through the linkhttps://give.everydayhero.com/ie/louth-rose-s-volunteer-visit-to-vesnova-orphanage-belarus-wiIn January, 1958, Drogheda Soroptimists were Chartered as part of this international women's organisation, pledged to involve themselves in creating strong, peaceful communities worldwide.

On Saturday, 20th January, 2018, the current President of SIDrogheda, Carmel Schmidt, hosted a lunch party in the Conyngham Arms in Slane to celebrate their Diamond Anniversary. Drogheda members, the National President, many past presidents of the Drogheda club and their guests celebrated in the hotel where their inauguration took place in 1958.

Over 60 years, the Soroptimist contribution to the community in Drogheda included from their early years, the upgrading of facilities in St. Joseph's home for 'elderly ladies', the inspiration for, and inclusion of the wider community in St. Ita's Special School to, more recently their work for the White Ribbon Campaign, especially with St. Oliver's Community College and fundraising for Rehab, Green Ribbon, Boomerang, the Women's Refuge, Cystic Fibrosis and Childline.

The Soroptimist focus on education has been illustrated across Ireland over the last 35 years by their Public Speaking Competition, to improve the confidence and communication skills of girls. In the more recent past they also focus on and support STEM education, to encourage more girls into employment within the technical sphere.

On the international front, Soroptimists in Drogheda have made their contribution to important works across the globe, to promote women as entrepreneurs, to encourage education in communities and fight on all fronts against the prevalence of human trafficking. They have made strategic partnerships - with the Department of Justice and with APT to promote these ideals. Using the Soroptimist voice at the United Nations ECOSOC, they advocate for the recognition and value of women internationally.

They say about Soroptimists that they are 'one of the best kept secrets', but if you would like to be part of the action - follow them on Facebook, or on the web soroptimist-int-int.com.Negotiations have taken place between the North Dublin Motorcross club (MX Club Ltd), local residents and Meath County Council to regulate the use of lands at Gormanston for the sport.

The motocross club have been using the area for decades, but the matter came to a head in 2005 when Meath CC took the club to court, the matter ending with a High Court decision, accepting that the club could use the lands.

However, led by Director of Services Dara McGowan, who has been praised for his handling of the situation, all parties have been discussing the best route into the future, with an agreement hopefully to be signed in the coming months. That would grant the club a 35-year lease on the lands.

He told a meeting of the Laytown/Bettystown council area in Duleek that he had met both residents and the club and issues such as insurance, traffic on the laneway to the site, toilets, bikes on the beach, noise, etc, were all raised and he has worked to try and alleviate the concerns of all parties.

He admitted that the residents didn't want the club there, but the High Court ruling was pretty exact in that they were entitled to be there.

'The club say they can meet the concerns of the residents and that's good,' he stated.

While it was accepted that about 100 vehicles attend some six meetings a year, the majority go in at the same time and leave at the same time, meaning not much congestion.

In terms of waste oil from machines, mats are used to keep the grass areas clean and with the future being electric bikes, it is likely there will be less and less petrol bikes over the next decade and no noise!

It is also accepted that bikers using the beach to ride are not involved with the club and how the council deal with them is regarded as a different issue.

'We want to regulate the issue and intend giving the club a 35-year lease, but we'll work with the residents and club on it,' he stated.

Cllr Tom Kelly said any agreement was 'a long time coming' and he welcomed consultations between all parties.

'By getting a lease, it will be great to see the club provide more facilities for people up there.'

Mr McGowan said that the club had done a lot of work on the track area and they could now maintain it with better fencing.There has, to put it mildly, been a decidedly mixed reception to the news that, for the first time in over 70 years, pubs in Ireland will once again be allowed sell alcohol on Good Friday.

While the news has been received with considerable delight by most publicans, atheists and many drinkers, it has been met with horror by religious groups and, very understandably, by those trying to deal with Ireland's lethal love affair with the bottle.

What the debate over Good Friday does is highlight two very different issues in modern Irish society.

For many members of what is an increasingly secular nation that is now far less in thrall to and bound by the edicts of the Catholic Church, the Good Friday alcohol ban seemed like an arcane throwback to the days when the Church wielded unparalleled power over the lives of every community in Ireland.

As such, they would likely argue, it needed to be removed as do other remnants of our old Catholic-oriented society, like the Angelus on RTE.

There was also the impact on tourism with many visitors to our fair isle shocked, and not a little disappointed, to find they couldn't immediately enjoy one of Ireland's famous pubs when they arrived in the country for an Easter break.

To be fair the second point is of little real importance and there will be few Irish who didn't secretly enjoy the bemused and disbelieving reaction from a foreign visitor when they were told every bar in the country was, supposedly, shut for the day.

The argument against the religious connotations of the ban has merit but so too do the forceful arguments of the many groups trying to wean Ireland off its appalling dependency on the bottle.

Binge drinking and alcoholism are an epidemic in Ireland and they have been the ruination of the lives of many.

Whether it is through drink-fuelled domestic abuse or the rampant violence we see and hear of on our streets every single night, there can be no doubt that drink is a major problem for the Irish.

The characature of the Irish drunk - one most people despise but which we peddle internationally to draw in tourists - is sadly very real and one that it will take a long time to shed.

Reopening the pubs on Good Friday is unlikely to be an apocalyptic event and, despite claims to the contrary, every pub in Ireland probably won't be packed to the rafters with roaring drunks when Good Friday rolls around. Those who doubt that claim should look at the small numbers who have attended dog tracks and other venues where alcohol has been on sale on Good Friday in recent years.

In all likelihood, this year at least, people will probably treat a Good Friday pint in the pub as one of novelty and nothing more. How many people actually remember when pubs used to close for two hours on a Sunday?

Ironically, in recent years, Good Friday actually became one of the worst example of Ireland's chronic alcoholism with thousands of people using it as an excuse to host a party and drink copious amounts well into the small hours.

Maybe the publicans are correct and opening the pubs will reduce binge drinking, for one day a year at least.

One feels the vintners' argument is based far more on the health of their bank accounts rather than the health of the public but maybe they will be proved right eventually. Only time will tell.Residents living on Knockanure Lane in Bunclody are at their wits end as giant potholes on the laneway is causing significant damage to their cars. The laneway provides access to some thirteen houses and at the moment, the road surface is what Cllr John O'Rourke describes as being 'worse than what you'd see in Downtown Calcutta'.

While the residents have been in contact with Wexford County Council regarding the issue several times in recent years, they have constantly been told that Knockanure Lane is a private laneway and is outside of the council's remit. However, at the time of being built, five of the newer houses on the laneway were charged a levy of 1,000 to carry out improvements to roads facilitating the development.

'We paid those levies of 1,000 and we pay property tax and road tax,' said resident Grace Kenny. 'And still we're being told by the council that it's not their problem. It's not even about the money as such, it's about the principle. We've paid a levy for the maintenance of the roads and yet we're in a situation that we're dreading going out in the laneway at all it's that bad. I really feel for my father. He's awaiting a hip replacement and everyone one of these bumps must be agony for him. There's no way of avoiding these potholes.'

Residents had previously chipped in to try and deal with the problem by filling in the potholes with chippings, however, Grace says that despite their best efforts, when the bad weather comes in all that work is undone and they are back to square one. She says that the only option remaining is to completely resurface the road once and for all.

Apart from the damage being caused to residents cars, Grace having recently just spent 800 to fix her own, major concerns have been expressed about how dangerous it would be if an ambulance needed to get up to the houses. A total of 27 cars use the laneway regularly, along with the postman who rates it one of the worst laneways in the district.

Cllr John O'Rourke said that the situation was disgraceful and called on the council to carry out resurfacing works on the laneway immediately.

'It's a disgrace,' he blasted. 'I travelled up and down the lane visiting the residents there twice and the following day I had to book my jeep in to have the tracking done on it. It was pulling to the left after travelling up and down the road. The case scenario is that if this is a private laneway as these people have been told, then why were they charged 1,000 for use of the carriageway and upkeep?'

'These people are paying their property tax like everyone else and they need to see a return for what they are paying. I understand that the property tax was increased to pump into job creation, but people need to see some return for their money and it should be spent on these roadways and other important infrastructure.'Students from Meanscoil Gharman travelling to the All Ireland finals of Scleip in Dublin to take part in five categories of the competition they won in Cork at the end of 2017

A group of 24 students from Meanscoil Gharman will make their way to the capital this week to take part in the All-Ireland Finals of 'Scleip'. A national music competition for meanscoil students, it gives them the opportunity to showcase their talents through the medium of Irish, something which is becoming increasingly popular among secondary school students with the recording of the Ceol albums in association with Eoghan McDermott of 2FM.

The Enniscorthy students have already proven their credentials in the competition, having won five categories in Cork towards the end of 2017. Last year's competition saw the school claim a major victory, emerging overall winners of the Junior Group category. This year, they have their eyes firmly set on more silverware having reached the finals in the Junior Group, Senior Group, Choir, Junior Dance and Junior Solo categories.

Last year's winners 'Cailini Binne' return in an attempt to retain their title along with 'Na Buacs' a new trio of 5th and 6th year boys. 1st and 2nd year girls will take part in the national finals for the 1st time with their dance group 'An Saol Deireanach' and Molli Tresson a member of Cailini Binne will take to the stage solo to perform her rendition of 'Take my Hand' by Picture This as Gaeilge.

'Blaisin' a group consisting of MSG choir members will be led by 5th year students two of whom are no strangers to winning Irish competitions. Jade Buttle and Nora Ni Mhorain managed to win prestigious song-writing competition 'Beo' 2017 in November in the INEC in Killarney, winning 2,000 and a chance to qualify to appear on 'Ceol 2018'.

The students are great evidence of the musical talent that exists within the school community and they look forward to flying the flag for Enniscorthy as they head for Dublin tomorrow (Wednesday).Students from the Ceol Draiochta Music Show dazzled at their annual show which saw a total of 50 youngsters perform.

The audience at the Waterside house hotel in Donabate enjoyed both piano and vocal performances.

Established in 2004, Ceol Draiochta Music School is run by Kim Fallen Bailey.

Teachers are Yvonne Gonzalez, Laura Shields and Ellen O'Rourke who provide tuition in piano, vocal studies, musicianship and junior/leaving cert grinds.

Kim also teaches with the Royal Irish Academy of Music and the Teaching and Learning Network and is currently working on introducing music to children aged 2-6years through the Montessori Mozart programme.

High Achievers awards 2017 were presented to Amelia O'Donnell, Aoibhinn O'Donoghue, Peter Oliver, Tiarnan Healy, Audrey Sherlock and Hazel Farley.

These are awarded to students who attain 100% in their music exams in the Royal Irish Academy of Music in Dublin.

With over 40,000 students nationally who sit these exams there are only 1% of these students who receive these awards so it is a really amazing achievement!

Many of the students who performed at the concert were Junior and Leaving Cert students who are practicing their performance skills for their practical exams in April.

One student James Butler composed his very own piece 'Run and Hide and its premier performance was at the concert.

Vocal performances came from Mychaela Shevlin, Farren Milne, Alannah Dunne and sisters Cliodhna and Saorise Fullam to name a few.

The students range in age from the youngest aged just 6 to the eldest aged 21.

One student Emma Jane Power recently performed for the head of Music of the Department of Education at a concert in October where she was presented with an award for receiving the highest result in Ireland in her Junior Certificate Music examination.

On the night, a beautiful baby grand Kawai piano was provided by Adrian Thornton at Thornton Pianos. There was also a fabulous piano themed cake made by Jessie Diem O'Connell which was part of our raffle.

The students are currently working hard for their upcoming examinations in the Royal Irish Academy of Music and of course the practical examinations as part of the Junior and Leaving cert programmes too!The case of a living donor in Lusk has raised an issue around Government supports for living donors which currently extend only to people working outside the home.

Louise O'Reilly TD (SF) raised the issue in the Dail recently where the Sinn Fein spokesperson on health, called for the scheme to be extended to people who do not work outside the home.

Deputy O'Reilly said: 'For some time now, I have been raising the issue of the lack of cover for living organ donors who do not work outside the home.'

She explained that she was made aware of the problem by a Lusk woman who donated a kidney to a sibling.

Deputy O'Reilly said: 'I raised this issue, which was raised to me by Nicola from Lusk, who recently donated a kidney to her sibling and who could not benefit fully from the scheme.

The Sinn Fein TD told the Dail: 'I met Nicola when I was out canvassing and we had a chat. Although she is very unassuming about it, Nicola is quite an amazing person. She donated a kidney to one of her siblings so she is a living donor. It is such a wonderful thing to do.'

Deputy O'Reilly added: 'Nicola does not work outside the home. She works incredibly hard looking after her children but she is not in formal paid employment. Therefore, she cannot benefit from this scheme, which reimburses the loss of earnings incurred by salaried or waged donors.

'She incurred significant expenses. People who work in the home do work even if it might not be in the formal economy. She was not able to do that work, but it still had to be done and her children still had to be cared for. As such, she incurred additional expenses while recuperating after doing what was a marvellous thing, yet she is not covered by the scheme. I genuinely believe that this is an oversight.'

Minister of State, Catherine Byrne responded to the Sinn Fein TD and while she said: 'Perhaps this has been overlooked, and we should re-examine it', she could give no guarantee that the rules would changed.

The Minister of State explained that the scheme reimbursed lost income and covered some expenses and while those expenses extended to those working in the home, the reimbursement of income did not. She explained the background to that decision was a European one that insisted that organ donation not be financially incentivised.

Deputy O'Reilly told the Fingal Independent: 'The Minister's response was disappointing and indeed it is worrying that when I raised what I believe is an anomaly which impacts on people who are working outside the formal economy in the home, the Minister tried to imply that to include these people would somehow constitute a financial inducement to become a living donor.' She said that failure to correct the 'anomaly' was 'not good enough'.A Fingal senator has insisted the Government lay out a time-line for the delivery of a new school building for St Molaga's Senior National School in Balbriggan where half the school's population is housed in 17-year-old 'temporary' accommodation.

Fianna Fail Seanad Spokesperson on Justice, Children and Youth Affairs, Senator Lorraine Clifford-Lee has said the Department of Justice must provide a definitive time-line for building works which urgently need to be carried out at St Molaga's Senior National School, Balbriggan.

The Donabate-based senator raised the matter directly with the Minister for Education, Richard Bruton during debate in Seanad Eireann, last week and this was the second time the senator addressed the issue in the Seanad.

Speaking in the Seanad, Senator Clifford-Lee said: 'As it stands, there are 463 pupils in St Molaga's but this number is steadily increasing as more and more young families move to Balbriggan.

'The current situation is not just a capacity issue; suitable accommodation is needed to ensure that the great work of teachers in the school can continue in a safe and comfortable teaching and learning environment.'

Senator Clifford Lee added: 'In order for staff and management to cope with this growth, progress must be made on upgrading the school building.

'Despite being on the major school building list for 2019-2021, St Molaga's have had to apply for additional prefab accommodation in an effort to deal with demand and due to the inaction in relation to the required extension.

'I am concerned however, that over half of St Molaga's pupils are already being educated in unsuitable prefab classrooms. In the long-term, these are wholly unsatisfactory conditions for learning.'

The Fingal senator said: 'I understand that the Department have been in touch with the school's principal, Pauline Costello and have agreed to meet with management on February 7.'

she added: 'This essential building work at St Molaga's cannot be pushed any further down the line and the Minister needs to allocate a design team to this project so that a definitive time-line for construction can be established.

'This is a top priority in the town of Balbriggan and surrounding areas.'

Senator Clifford Lee concluded: 'The Minister has confirmed to me today that a project brief is nearing completion. It is critical to acknowledge the major growth in our area and this essential project will go some way towards acknowledging the subsequent demand on our schools.'

The school has 16 prefabs on site and is ordering more to cope with its growing population. The situation has become critical for the school which alongside lobbying politicians to raise the issue like Senator Clifford Lee and Senator James Reilly, has mounted a concerted campaign on social media to focus attention on the issue.A war of words over the Government's record in delivering social housing in Fingal has broken out between two of the county's TDs.

In the light of a 6% rise in those on the county's social housing waiting list over the last 12 months, Deputy Darragh O'Brien (FF) has accused the Government of 'showboating' in its response to the housing crisis.

The latest social housing waiting list figures indicate that the number of people currently in need of a home in the Fingal area increased from 6,858 in 2016 to 7,271.

In light of the figures, Deputy O'Brien accused Fine Gael of having a 'deep-seated ideological opposition to the delivery of public housing'.

He added: 'Since 2011, just 6,000 new social houses have been built across the entire country and so it is of little surprise that the number of people waiting over seven years for social housing has risen by over 7%. It is absolutely apparent that the Minister and his Department must urgently re-assess its policy in order to increase the supply of social and affordable housing.'

But Deputy Alan Farrell (FG) has defended the Government's record in the delivery of social housing and the work of Fingal County Council in particular, in delivering on its social housing targets.

Deputy Farrell said: 'In fact, had Deputy O'Brien paid attention to the work of Fingal County Council under the Rebuilding Ireland programme launched by Fine Gael in Government, he would be aware that our local authority has actually surpassed its target of bringing 1,376 social housing units on-stream over the last three years by 63%, and actually delivering 2,241 social housing units in that time-frame.

'It is somewhat ironic that Deputy O'Brien would claim that Fine Gael have an ideological opposition to the delivery of social housing. This statement could not be further from the truth, and is reflective of political opportunism focused on getting headlines rather than delivering for the public.

'However, what it true is that during its time in Government, Fianna Fail washed its hands of the state's responsibility to actively work on the provision of social housing. Fianna Fail instead farmed the need to provide social housing out to private developers, and ensured that they had no active involvement in providing social housing for communities in Fingal, or indeed, the entire country.'

Deputy Farrell added: 'To claim that the current Government is showboating is nothing more than a cynical and disingenuous approach to politics by Fianna Fail. The Government is taking action to address homelessness, our social housing lists, the rental market, and to assist first-time buyers.

'By advising and informing the public of the new schemes which are being launched, and the new supports being made available to assist them in their housing needs we, in Fine Gael, are merely working to make sure that every person who can avail of such measures have the opportunities to do so.'

The local Fine Gael TD concluded: 'On an issue as important as tackling homelessness and the provision of social housing, cynically attacking for political gain is not only doing a disservice to my constituents, but to all of those across the country who need help to find housing which meets their needs.'For the second time, a Minister of State with the responsibility for the Office of Public Works and Flooding has visited the Burrow in Portrane to see first-hand the devastating damage the sea has wrought on this location in recent years as locals saw chunks of the coastline disappear into the ocean.

Last year, Minister Sean Canney visited the area and now his successor, Minister Kevin 'Boxer' Moran has seen the sea-ravaged coastline for himself.

Minister Moran visited The Burrow at the invitation of Deputy Brendan Ryan, TD and the minister listened to the views of locals living close to the beach who are anxious that immediate measures be taken to halt coastal erosion in the area, while a long-term solution to the issue is worked out. It was good to welcome Boxer Moran to Portrane today and without doubt he is a man with a great knowledge of flood problems and erosion issues.

'The message from all residents at the meeting to Minister Moran was that they need an interim solution straight away to protect their homes and businesses whilst a long term solution is being devised at County Council level.

'The message was delivered loud and clear and action must take place. I do appreciate the Minister and Council Officials attending and briefing residents openly but we need action now.'

Raymond Brett of the Liaison Group explained the concerns of the residents particularly around the issue of erosion and emphasised the urgent need for coherent national policies and initiatives to assist the Council and other agencies to deal with coastal erosion.

Back in November, Minister Moran addressed the coastal crisis at The Burrow in the Dail under questioning from Deputy Clare Daly TD.

Mayor of Fingal Cllr Mary McCamley said: "Fingal's coastline is hugely important to its residents as well as those who visit from other areas."Local Enterprise Office Fingal has confirmed that Kevin Kelleher from Ostoform in Malahide and Alan Hickey from WeBringg in Castleknock have both clinched places in the national final of Irelands Best Young Entrepreneur (IBYE) competition in Dublin this March. Here Alan Hickey (left) is pictured with Minister Pat Breen

Two Fingal entrepreneurs have reached the National Final of Ireland's Best Young Entrepreneur Competition (IBYE).

Fingal's Local Enterprise Office has confirmed that Kevin Kelleher from Ostoform in Malahide and Alan Hickey from WeBringg in Castleknock have both clinched places in the national final of Ireland's Best Young Entrepreneur (IBYE) competition in Dublin this March.

The two entrepreneurs are competing in the 'Best Business Idea' and 'Best Start-Up Business' categories respectively, and are two of the three young entrepreneurs who will represent the Dublin region on March 4.

The local entrepreneurs now have the opportunity, along with 22 other national finalists, to become Ireland's Best Young Entrepreneur and share in a 100,000 winners' investment fund.

Attending the awards ceremony, Mayor of Fingal Cllr. Mary McCamley spoke of her delight with the Fingal success: 'Having seen at close hand during the Fingal finals, the high calibre of businesses that our Fingal winners had to overcome to take their place at the regional finals, I am delighted to see that their hard work and dedication has been rewarded tonight. I would like to wish the three winners the very best of luck as they go forward to represent Dublin at the national finals in March. I have no doubt that their entrepreneurial capabilities will shine bright on a national stage.'

Oisin Geoghegan, the Head of Enterprise with Local Enterprise Office Fingal, congratulated the local entrepreneurs, saying: 'Our search to find and support Ireland's best young entrepreneurs, which started last September, has turned up some incredible business talent. Our local entrepreneurs are the business leaders of the future and the entrants in the competition have all shown innovation and drive. After a very successful boot-camp, County Final and now Regional Final, the county will be proudly represented in the ultimate stage of the competition by two local entrepreneurs - the IBYE National Final in March.'

The Chief Executive of Fingal County Council, Paul Reid, welcomed the success of the two Fingal entrepreneurs, saying: 'I would like to congratulate the two Fingal entrepreneurs on their success at the IBYE Dublin regional finals. Fingal County Council is very keen to ensure that we have a strong enterprise culture that offers the perfect environment where Start-Ups can thrive and provide a sustainable stream of new employment opportunities in the county. In addition, I am delighted that in Fingal we have a very entrepreneurial young population that is continually looking for ways to develop business ideas.'One of the things that is quite striking about the Hope & Dream 10 is that everyone taking part has their own reason for doing it. Some people have lost loved ones. Some have survived their own brush with cancer. While we all know of the great work the Hope Centre does for people from all over the South East, we don't always get to hear the story of service users themselves.

One person who availed of the many services that the Hope Centre offer is Emmet Cleary from Ballymitty. At the age of just 29, 14 months after they were married, he lost his beloved wife Niamh to cancer and was left to raise their four year old son by himself.

Teenage sweethearts, Emmet and Niamh met in school before romance blossomed.

'We would've known each other from school,' Emmet recalled. 'Then I remember she rang me on my 18th birthday to wish me a happy birthday and that was it. We were together from then on.'

Full of life, Emmet and Niamh enjoyed some wonderful years together and were blessed with a son, Josh, in May of 2012. The pair were elated and were just settling into parenthood, when disaster struck. When Josh was just 14 months old, Niamh was diagnosed with breast cancer.

'She was very into childcare and looking after children,' Emmet said of his wife. 'But the fact that she had her own child now...she really took to it and everything was about being a mother. When the diagnosis came, it was at a stage in his life when he really needed his mammy. Well...he still needs his mammy now, but it was at a time when he was changing from being a baby into a toddler.'

At such a young age, the couple had a long and difficult road ahead of them. Niamh immediately required an operation and then would undergo extensive treatment for a year.

'Niamh took it all in her stride,' Emmet says proudly. 'She just took the attitude that she was doing this for her child and our family. It was something she accepted and she just said "let's do this". She would always say "I'm not the first and I won't be the last".'

After a long hard year, Niamh received the last of her treatment and for a time at least, some normality was restored.

'From the moment she finished her last treatment, her focus was on getting better,' said Emmet. 'She was focusing on building herself up and getting stronger and the important things like spending time with Josh. We were planning to go on holidays and getting back to living life. We saw it that the ordeal was over and that we had parked that part of our lives.'

It was around this time that Emmet popped the question, asking Niamh to marry him on Christmas day - the festive period being one of her favourite times of year. Thankfully, Niamh said yes and the couple busily set about planning a fairytale wedding, eventually tying the knot in May of the following year.

Six weeks before the wedding, Niamh went for a check up and was given the all clear.

'She went to see the oncologist and she was feeling good,' he said. 'She was out walking and exercising and we were really getting our life back on track. The oncologist said that they were happy with her progress and to go off and get married. She was even to send them on a picture of her in her dress. As far as we were concerned cancer was no longer part of our lives.'

Unfortunately, the newly-weds didn't have long to settle into married life before circumstances took another devastating turn.

'The morning after the wedding, Niamh woke up with an excruciating pain in her shoulder,' Emmet recalled. 'We put it down to holding up her wedding dress the day before and thought no more of it. We went down to Killarney for the weekend then, just the two of us, and for the whole time we were there Niamh was vomiting and was in agonising pain. We got back to Wexford and all she could do was go to bed. Two weeks later she was re-diagnosed and we were told the cancer was back.'

'As a husband, I was completely shocked. I thought this had all been dealt with. Then I thought with the advances in medicine and that kind of thing, that we could do it and she could beat it again. She told me that she didn't have the same strength and energy to do it all again and I just asked her to do it for Josh.'

While Niamh's initial treatment had been in Waterford, the scale of the cancer the second time around required her to attend St Vincent's Hospital in Dublin regularly for treatment.

'From mid August that year, she kept deteriorating,' said Emmet. 'It really took its toll on her. Christmas week we had to get a garda escort to St Vincent's because she had such bad pains in her head. I was travelling up and down and at the same time trying to sort out Christmas and Santa stuff for Josh at home. She really took bad that Christmas week and it turned out that the cancer had spread to her brain. She started radium treatment Christmas week.'

Despite fighting extremely hard to be home for Christmas that year, Niamh was forced back into hospital and it was the start of a tragic decline.

'I remember Christmas Day she woke up and felt a bit better,' he said. 'She gave Josh a big kiss and a hug and wished him a Happy Christmas, but after that she deteriorated rapidly and she passed away the following September.'

Through his beloved wife's final weeks, Emmet was by her side and had given up work to care for her completely.

'I was caring for her full time just up until she died,' he said. 'She lost her voice and everything, but I knew exactly what she wanted and when she wanted it. About a month before she passed away, Niamh started to have seizures at home and that's when I realised I could no longer care for her and I had to step back and allow the professionals to do their job. That was when I first contacted the Hope Centre and they were able to advise me what exactly I should be doing. I also wanted to know how best to protect Josh. They put me in contact with a counsellor, but he was only four and he didn't really understand what was going on. He had only really seen his mammy sick. He never really saw the bubbly, lovely person that I knew Niamh as.'

While most people associate the Hope Centre with helping people who are in the midst of battling cancer, as well as their families, Emmet says that, in actual fact, it was only really when Niamh passed away that he really used the centre.

'I remember after Niamh passed away, they invited me up to the centre for a cup of tea,' he recalled. 'That was a massive step for me. I had plenty of people around me who were doing all they could to help, but it was great just to have someone to listen who understood. The more I spoke of my journey, of our journey, the more I realised all that I did for her and I started to feel proud of myself.'

Having that outlet at such a difficult time was a massive benefit to Emmet and he would encourage anybody else who finds themselves in a similar situation to reach out to the Hope Centre and just see what they can do. Since Niamh's passing, Emmet has been a staunch supporter of the centre and has even undertaken fundraising himself to help out.

'I'm involved with Wexford Motor Club myself and last year we raised 1,900 with the Rally for Hope. Niamh was very interested in rallying too and she always wanted to do a rally with me driving and her navigating. I always promised her that when she got better, we'd do it. Two years ago, when she was in her hospital bed on the verge of closing her eyes, I went and did the rally for her. She made me promise to do it for her.'

In terms of the future, there's still a difficult road ahead for Emmet, as well as young Josh, but he says it's his son that really spurs him on.

'Josh is good at the moment, he's what keeps me going,' he said. 'It's so tough on your own. It's very hard to be a mammy and a daddy, but when the reward comes - that little hug when you're putting him to bed and he says "I love you" - that's what really keeps you going. I have great support from my family and friends, but at the end of the day, I'm the one who's getting him up in the morning and putting him to bed at night and who has to answer the difficult questions.'

A truly inspiring man, Emmet is hopeful of maybe one day becoming a counsellor himself and helping people who are going through similar ordeals to his own.

'Well, not a whole lot of people at 29 years of age are widowed after 14 months of marriage with a four year old child,' he says. 'But I'm probably not the first and I probably won't be the last. I'd just hope that maybe my story can inspire someone else. I'm proud of my story. I'm proud of my wife. I do like to talk about her every day and I talk to her every day.'Emmet recommends that anyone who is struggling to pick up the phone.'I suppose the main point I'd like to get across is that I didn't really use the Hope Centre at all until after Niamh passed away,' he said. 'It's not just for people who are going through cancer. After Niamh's passing I was still welcome. Having somebody to listen who understood was a great starting point.'

You can contact the Hope Cancer Support Centre on 053-9238555 or by dropping into the centre at 22 Upper Wafer Street.Aine Brennan and Rebecca Finn at the Give a Guna for Gambia pop-up shop in the Market House

More than 20,000 has been raised so far by Gorey Community School students for their trip to Gambia.

The Gambia Youth Project runs every two years and 25 students accompanied by five adults will head to Gambia in Africa on Tuesday, February 20 for eight days.

The fourth and fifth year students will visit seven schools and an orphanage which receives ongoing support from fundraising efforts in the Gorey area.

Over the past few months, the students have raised thousands of Euro to take with them on the trip and to pass on to the projects in Africa.

'We pay the teachers' salaries and pay for the food programme,' said teacher Mary Redmond. 'We give a bowl of rice to the children which helps encourage them to come to school.'

Mary said it is a great opportunity for the students to travel and to also experience a developing country and what they can do to help.

'The money goes a long way in Gambia,' said Mary. 'Teachers out there only get paid 80 per month so even if a student raises 100, it still helps.'

One of the projects Gorey Community School has supported over the years has come a long way.

'Ten years ago this particular building wasn't even a school,' said Mary. 'But now it is a two storey building and will soon have a woodwork room and some IT facilities.'

Mary said this year the late Chris Martin's father will attend the trip and has organised funds for the construction of woodwork room. His son Chris, a past Gorey Community School student who went on the trip in 2014, loved woodwork as a subject. Chris passed away in 2015 after he took ill at his home.

Mary said on the last morning of their trip they will visit the orphanage and give them money and medical supplies.The people of Gorey have consumed more than 400,000Mb since Virgin Media turned on their free public WiFi on the Main Street.

The large amount is equivalent to sending over 140,000 emails, viewing 1 million webpages, streaming 70,000 minutes of music and watching over 6,000 minutes of HD quality videos.

The public WiFi was launched on December 15 and is available at Market House, Gorey on the Main Street between North Parade and John Street.

CEO of Gorey Chamber Diarmuid Devereux said 'this has been a huge boost for consumers and businesses on the Main Street in Gorey and has shown the appetite for free Public Wifi in Gorey is huge'.

'We are also delighted to have Virgin Media expand its services into Gorey,' added Mr Devereux. 'It means residents will have more competition and access to Ireland's fastest broadband provider.'

Vice President of Commercial at Virgin Media Paul Farrell said 'towns across Ireland including Gorey are currently benefiting from our ongoing network expansion programme which involves connecting local communities to Ireland's fastest broadband provider'.

'As part of this continued expansion of our network, we are delivering free Public WiFi to many towns across the country,' said Mr Farrell.Lucinda Kelly, from Hill Street, in Wexford, was one of the 400 people called back for a second colonoscopy when it became apparent that mistakes had been made in the way a doctor at Wexford General Hospital had been carrying out the invasive procedures.

While she was given the all-clear, the mother-of-five has nagging doubts about the follow-up procedure and whether she may get a call further down the line.

'It's not a pleasant procedure and there's always something in the back of my head saying "oh my God, am I clear... should I go again". I keep telling myself that if there's nothing wrong after three years I should be all right, but what happens shakes your confidence (in the medical establishment) and you never know.

'It should never have happened... a member of staff complained about what was happening and no notice was taken. It was all to do with the pecking order. It's disgraceful that people's lives should be put at risk because no one was listened to,' said Lucinda.

'The problem is that if people see something not being done properly and no action is taken, and no one is listening, they may stop reporting things. They will say it's not worthwhile if no one is listening to me,' she told this newspaper.

'If a person sees a wrong-doing at work they should be listened to. These people are human, they still make mistakes. But it is a disgrace that things like this should happen. With all our technology and training, it's a disgrace that these screw-ups are still being made.'

'I'm a mother of five, with seven grandchildren, and all the other people who were tested would have had their own families. Imagine how they feel because a mistake like this was made.'Students from Gorey Community School and Colaiste An Atha in Kilmuckridge enjoyed an upbeat and musical day as they participated in an energetic glee workshop.

The workshop was presented by The Young Americans who are a group of talented and exceptional individuals from the United States, ranging from 18 to 24-years old.

The cast of 45 have been credited with creating the popular 'Glee' and 'Choir-Show' concepts. They have performed for Presidents, head of states, performed on national and international television, and have won awards.

Principal for Gorey Community School Michael Finn praised the wonderful enthusiasm of the talented students and 'hopes this won't be the last time the school has the opportunity to work with this dynamic group'.

Music teacher Orla Kirwan from Colaiste An Atha said she 'was delighted with the success of the event and was thrilled to see so many students come out of their comfort zones and get an opportunity to shine'.Movies@Gorey on the Courtown Road have an array of screenings in February for the viewer who is looking for something a bit different.

The Royal Opera present Tosca (Live) on Wednesday, February 7, at 7.15 p.m. Jonathan Kent's production for The Royal Opera captures the dangerous political turbulence of Rome in 1800. Giacomo Puccini's dramatic work was a hit with audiences on its 1900 premier and it remains one of the most performed of all opera. Tickets are 17.50 for an adult and 10 for a child.

Director Christopher Luscombe returns to the Royal Shakespeare Company to tackle Shakespeare's greatest comedy, Twelfth Night (Live). It will take place on Wednesday, February 14, at 7 p.m. Tickets are 17.50 for an adult and 10 for a child.

For OperAfternoon Season, La Traviata from Sydney Harbour will take place on Saturday, February 17, at 3 p.m. Tickets are 10.

Caravaggio - The Shape of Darkness screening will take place on Wednesday, February 21, at 8.30 p.m., and Saturday, February 24, at 3 p.m. It is a journey through life, works and struggles of Michelangelo Merisi from Caravaggio. Tickets are 12.50 for an adult and 10 for a child.

Tennessee Williams' 20th century masterpiece 'Cat on a Hot Tin Roof' (Captured Live) will take place on Thursday, February 22, at 7 p.m. National Theatre Live present actors Sienna Miller, alongside Jack O'Connell and Colm Meaney who played a strictly limited season in London's West End in 2017. Tickets are 17.50 for an adult and 10 for a child.

Conducted by Joseph Pons and directed by Stephen Lawless, Romeo et Juliette is an opera in a prologue and five acts. It is sung in French Charles Gounod's adaption of Shakespeare's timeless tragedy and returns to the stage of the Gran eatre del Liceu after an absence of over three decades. The action is moved to the context of the American Civil War. It will take place on Tuesday, February 27, at 7 p.m. Tickets are 17.50 for an adult and 10 for a child.

The Royal Ballet present The Winter's Tale (Live) on Wednesday, February 28, at 7.15 p.m. Christopher Wheeldon created his adaption of Shakespeare's late great romance in 2014. The Winter's Tale received ecstatic praise, acclaimed by critics and audiences alike for its intelligent, distinctive, powerful story. Tickets are 17.50 for an adult and 10 for a child.A 50-year school reunion is just one of the many highlights which will take place during Camolin's new summer festival.

Camolin Parish Homecoming, organised by a small committee of locals, will take place from Friday, July 6, until Sunday, July 8.

During the three-day festival, there will be the unveiling of a wall plaque to commemorate Michael Joseph O'Loughlin, 'Hero of Sea Disaster'. Michael, who was a native of Camolin, was chief wireless operator of the British steamer the SS Ventris, which sank in the Atlantic off the Virginia coast, and he remained at his post to the very end.

Many other events include a 1798 bus tour, medieval fair, photographic exhibition and much more, which will be finalised closer to the time.

The event will be for people within the parish and surrounding areas who can once again mingle and meet with those they rarely see, and for those who have lost touch with the community as they now may reside in different countries.

The festival is the brainchild of parish priest Fr Joe Kavanagh. For some time previous, he had the idea floating around in his mind.

A committee consisting of Fr Kavanagh, John Doyle of Clonhenritt and John Kavanagh of Ballyshaun was hastily assembled and following a series of meetings over the winter months a draft schedule of events was prepared and agreed upon.

The events will only be possible with the cooperation of the various organisations and people of the parish.

Updates will be posted on the Camolin notes in the Gorey Guardian. 'Our local community is encouraged to spread the word,' said committee member John. Any queries or information, contact Fr Kavanagh at 087 2324549.Young Lixnaw musicians Sarah Murphy, Trina B Kennedy and Mikey Fealy who will be taking part in the villages Feile Feabhra

It is set to be a lively weekend for the Ceolann building in Lixnaw next week as the local Comhaltas branch will host its 28th annual Feile Feabhra on Saturday 3rd and Sunday 4th February.

Like all the Comhaltas branches, their main aim is to teach and pass on the traditions of trad music, song, dance and our Irish Language.

On Saturday, all Ireland winner, Matt Dean, will run a music workshop from 11am to 1 and from 1.30-3pm a sean nos dance workshop will be held with All-Ireland winner Ranog Ni Ghriofa Townsend.

Saturday will also include a concert at 8pm showcasing the work of the teachers and students. Sunday is set to hold music competitions from 2pm covering all instruments, Irish and English singing and comhra gaeilge.

It is set to be a wonderful weekend for all age groups. Full details can be seen on www.kerrycomhaltas.ie and from branch secretary on (087)6979334.The Sunrise Tractor Run takes place on February 11 to raise money for the Reask and Valentia Wards at University Hospital Kerry. But this is an event with a personal story attached as Dromid native John Sheehan knows what it's like to travel through the tunnel of depression and tell his story at the other end.

In September 2017, John felt he could no longer cope with balancing the excesses of farm work and his day job as a care assistant. John's mental health started to deteriorate to a point where he tried to take his own life. A 'dangerous combination' is how John describes work-related stress and not devoting enough time to personal recreation and exercise.

Thankfully, he came through his ordeal and is now embracing life to its fullest after spending two-weeks in the Reask Ward at UHK. The Sunrise Tractor Run is John's way of saying thank you and to show his appreciation for the professional, kind and compassionate way staff looked after him and helped him find his feet again.

"I felt my time there really helped change my attitude. I also saw first-hand how mental health services are underfunded; something as vital as this should not be without proper support," said John.

"The staff and nurses were just amazing and they don't get enough help. It was such a calming place and I don't mind saying that my interpretation of such a ward, prior to going there, was wide of the mark. I'm feeling great at the moment and I'm back working a few days a week. It's all down to the care and help I got at Reask Ward and the support I've received since leaving there."

At the time, Dublin was suggested as a place where John could receive treatment but this was declined on the basis that he wanted to be close to his family and because the services in Kerry are just as good.

"We're living in Kerry and we should use the services in Kerry. We have services here that are every bit as good as Galway, Cork or Dublin, but they need support," he added.

John said that while great strides have been made in recent years in the way people now talk about mental health, he still thinks there's a reticence on the part of many to discuss it. John has now cut back on his working responsibilities and has taken up walking with his wife.

He's now calling on all his farming friends to come together and support the tractor run which starts bright and early at Foilmore Community Centre at 6.45am on February 11, taking in Teernihilta, Killenleigh and New Chapel before finishing again at the community centre where refreshments will be served.

"Too much stress is bad and exercise is a great way of helping the mind. Too many people are bottling it up and they shouldn't. Talking helps and it's important to know that. I probably shocked a lot of people doing what I did and I think this, in its own way, has struck a chord with people.

"A friend who came to visit me in hospital is bringing seven tractors on the day. People are good and it's only when your back is to the wall that you find out how good they are. Mental health is the same as any other ailment in need of looking after. Talking is important."

John also praised staff at the South Kerry Mental Health Service who he said have been 'relentless' in their efforts to assist him in the post stages of his recovery. "When you come out of hospital it's just as important to receive help and I couldn't thank them enough at South Kerry Mental Health Service; they're always in touch with me and asking how I am which is an amazing service that often goes unmentioned."

For more details on the tractor run contact John on 087 22 98 378.Local fitness trainer Michelle Greaney - who runs the Optimal Fitness centre in Blennerville - is organising another run for charity.

Michelle, who previously organised a New Year's Eve run in aid of the Kerry Cork Health Link Bus, is to run another run in aid of the charity in mid February.

The Tralee 10 Miler/5K Road Race, which like the NYE event will be hosted by the Rose Hotel, will take place on Sunday, February 18.

The route of the 10 miler will take runners from the Rose Hotel to Blennerville and on to Curragraigue before looping back to Blennerville via Healys Cross and Kearney's road.

From the there runners will head to the lock gates and around the back of Lohercannon and then return to the Rose Hotel along the canal road.

Those taking part in the 5K run will go from the Rose Hotel along the Dan Spring Road and the canal and loop back to the Rose Hotel alongh the Canal Road from Blennerville.

"The Tralee 10 miler will bring together the ideal combination of club athletes and recreational runners over a relatively flat fast course taking in the outskirts of Tralee," said Michelle.

"This will be a platform for personal bests and huge high fives at the finish line," she said.

"Many thanks again to the Rose Hotel for hosting the event. This was a huge hit with the athletes at the NYE event. As with my previous race, my chosen charity is the Kerry-Cork Health Link Bus," said Michelle.

Number collection takes place at the Rose Hotel from 6pm and 8pm and on the morning of the race from 8.30am to 9.30am.

The 10 miler starts at 10am with runners on the 5k route setting off at 10.15am. Entry to the 10 miler costs 30 and the 5K entry fee is 10 (both with a minimal transaction fee of under 1) and places can be booked at https://register.primoevents.com/ps/event/Tralee10Miler2018.

"I am delighted to announce that there will be a team of pacers on the day guys so you can be rest assured that with this highly proficient and very popular team, you will get that elusive PB that you are looking for whilst being motivated you every step of the way," said Michelle.

In the 10 miler event there will be substantial cash prizes and trophies for the top three male and female finishers; masters category trophies for male and female +40, +50 and +60; trophies for the fastest male and female team of three and bespoke medal s and a tech finishers t-shirt for all participants.

For the 5K there will be bespoke medals for all finishers; trophies for the first five male and female; trophies for the 1st Junior (16-19) male and female in 5k and the first U16 male and female

Both events will be chip timed events on an accurately measured course.

No road closures are in place but motorists are asked to be mindful that runners will be out on the route that day between 10am and 12pm.

The twin races have been sponsored and supported by various local businesses including the HR Suite; The Station House; Quirkes Gala in Caheranne; Kellihers Toyota; Lee Strand; Gallys Bar and Restaurant; Cremur Heating; Cliffords Cash and Carry; The Rose Hotel; TLI Group; Tralee Printing and 24/7 Cabs in Tralee.

All money raised by the event will go directly to the Kerry Cork Health Link Bus.

The free service runs five days a week and brings service users from all over Kerry and Cork to Cork University Hospital for radiotherapy treatment. It is completely free and open to anyone.

The service is run by the Kerry Cancer Support Group who are also in the process of setting up an information and support room for new service users.

They also provide and education and information programme for secondary schools and community groups across Kerry.

The group receive no financial support from the Government or the HSE and all its funding comes from donations, sponsorship and fundraising events like the upcoming race in Tralee.

For more information on the service, or to make a donation, you can contact them at 066-7195560.The cargo vessel BBC Kwiatkowski moored at Fenit Harbour. Five men were arrested in Fenit after the crew found them stowed away on the boat as it travelled to Kerry from Spain. Photo Domnick Walsh

Five men who were found stowed away on a cargo vessel in Fenit on Friday have now officially applied for asylum in Ireland.

The five Albanian nationals - all aged in their 20s - were arrested by Gardai in the harbour on Friday afternoon and briefly detained for questioning at Tralee Garda Station.

Crew of the cargo ship BBC Kwiatkowski - an Antiguan registered vessel owned by the German ship leasing company BBC Chartering - found the five men stowed away in the hold of the vessel as it travelled to Ireland from Spain to collect a Liebherr made crane.

The captain of the vessel made contact with gardai ahead of the ship's arrival in Fenit and a number of gardai were waiting at the port to detain the men immediately after the ship docked at 12.15pm on Friday afternoon.

It is thought the men managed to sneak aboard the 122-metre vessel while it was docked in Bilbao the previous weekend.

After questioning at Tralee Garda Station, the five men were released into the custody of the Department of Justice's Immigration and International Protection Service which deals with all asylum requests.

The five men - who are now being housed in an asylum seekers' accommodation centre in Dublin - have requested political asylum in Ireland and their applications are now being processed ahead of a decision whether or not to deport them.

Under current international refugee legislation, should the men eventually be deported from Ireland, they would most likely be returned to northern Spain and not to their native Albania.

Albania - a small Balkan nation which is considered relatively prosperous by western European standards - is not part of the EU, although the formerly Communist state has been an accession candidate country since 2014 and it is on the current agenda for future EU enlargement.A devastating outbreak of bovine tuberculosis (TB) in Iveragh was the subject of two emergency notices of motion at an area meeting in Killorglin in recent days as councillors called on council staff to write to the Department of Agriculture to get to grips with the disease.

The strain, thought to have originated from badgers, has wiped out hundreds of cattle since mid-2016, and around 40 farms remain on lockdown. According to the Department of Agriculture, almost 370 animals on Iveragh had to be removed for slaughter in 2017 alone.

A motion proposed by Councillor Norma Moriarty - seconded jointly by Councillors Johnny Healy-Rae and Dan McCarthy - called on KCC to ask the Department to provide all necessary resources to local veterinary officers. They also called for Iveragh to be included as a pilot area for a badger-vaccination programme announced by Minister Creed recently.

"We do want to emphasise again that 90 per cent of the herd back there are free [of TB] and we don't want to affect business of the farmers and the mart-life," Councillor Moriarty said.

"However, the Department are starved of resources, and we're looking for every effort to be made to allow the community do what it needs to do, that is cull badgers."

Cllr Healy-Rae said, "I'm fully aware that the council has no role to play in this, but we're asking you to write the Department, for a few simple things.

"If your animal tests positive with TBit's three or four days normally before he'd [the compensation valuator] comes. And, when that's agreed upon, it can take up to a fortnight, or three weeks, or four weeks  before your animals are removed. The difficulty with that is your 60 days [for the next round of tests] doesn't begin until the animals are removed.

"Then, they judge the animal's value as it stands in front of you. As far as I know, if she's eight months in-calfit's not taken into account. To build up a herd of 40 or 50 cows, that's a five-year job. We need to get help for these people to get back on their feet, or there won't be farms in the future. In south Kerry, it's very simple: it's farming, fishing, or tourism."

Kenmare Co-op Mart Chairperson Cllr Dan McCarthy said the issue was very close to his heart, and sympathised with the affected farmers.

"We have no system to deal with farmers and the mental stress of seeing their animals put onto a lorry to be taken away," he said.

"We've only one man employed [locally] to follow the badger. You can imagine with the terrain in south Kerryit's like trying to find a needle in a haystack."

A motion proposed by Cllr Michael Cahill, seconded by Cllr John Francis Flynn, called for the Department to clarify the source of the outbreak, and to provide every assistance possible to farmers and farm families. Farmers met with officials from the IFA and the Department in Cahersiveen in recent weeks to discuss plans to manage the outbreak.

The Department told In relation to resources for the outbreak, a spokesperson said: "The Department reviews resource deployment on an on-going basis across all its activities and is confident that it has the necessary resources to carry out all control elements (including badger investigations and controls) necessary to address the increased levels of TB now encountered in the south Kerry area."Kerry Fine Gael Junior Minister Brendan Griffin says he is totally opposed to allowing unrestricted abortion up to 12 weeks - but he does support repealing the Eighth Amendment.

His stance puts the Castlemaine based Junior Minister for Sport and Tourism at odds with Taoiseach Leo Varadkar but in line with the views of Tanaiste Simon Coveney.

While the Cabinet is united on the need for some changes to Ireland's abortion laws, a number of senior and junior Fine Gael ministers, including Mr Griffin, have expressed serious reservations about backing the full recommendations of the Oireachtas Committee on the Eighth Amendment.

"The Eighth Amendment restricts the ability to deal with cases of rape, incest and fatal foetal abnormalities and it needs to be changed, but we need to see what it will be replaced with," said Minister Griffin.

"The Eighth has to go but, in my view, replacing it with consent for abortions up to 12 weeks is too far and it's not right," he said.

"I have to go on my own experiences. I can remember seeing the first scan of my son when he was at 11 weeks. I could see him sucking his thumb. To me he was a child," said Minister Griffin.

Minister Griffin also said special legislation would be needed to address fatal foetal abnormalities, as in many cases they are not diagnosed until after 12 weeks.

On Monday the cabinet cleared the way for a referendum on the Eighth Amendment, with the vote likely to take place in late May.

Based on the advice of the Attorney General the referendum is expected to ask if voters wish to repeal the amendment and replace it with a short clause that will give the Oireachtas the power to legislate on abortion.Property owners in Kerry are making an average of 4,000 a year by renting out their properties on AirBnB.

The global short-term letting website published its first Irish Insights Report last week, which showed that the company had 22,800 active listings across Ireland, while Kerry hosts earn an average of 4,000 a year.

AirBnB said that the south west region is one of the highest earning areas for hosts in Ireland. According to the website there are currently over 300 rooms and houses in Kerry listed for rent on the site. In the summer months the number of units available in Kerry is expected to more than double.

Over 209,000 people rented AirBnB properties in Kerry and Cork last year with most properties in the region used for at least 40 nights in the 12 months to the end of November 2017.

The website estimated that AirBnB visitors pumped a 72 million into the economy of the south west with 15 million going directly to the owners of the properties.

The average guest is reported to have spent about 111 per day while on holidays.

Airbnb said this means a valuable proportion of visitor spending is boosting local businesses and spreads the benefits of tourism beyond hotel districts.

In all 85 per cent of guests said they chose Airbnb because they wanted to "live like a local", and 80 per cent said they chose a listing on Airbnb because of the specific amenities it offered. Roughly a fifth of the visitors to the south west region were from Ireland.

"There were 3,900 listings in operation over the period, with guests travelling for Cork's arts and culture as well as its growing food scene. The filming of Star Wars at sites in Kerry was also a draw for guests in the area," said AirBnB's analysts.The group of students, who hail from the US, Australia, South Africa, South Korea and China.

It's an imposing site - towering above the River Slaney, flanking one of the main arteries into Wexford town - yet most locals don't even realise the importance of the Norman site known as Fitzstephen Fort, nestled high on the hill in the Irish National Heritage Park.

Now, almost 850 years on from the first landing of the Normans, 25 international students taking part in an Irish Archaeological Field School (IAFS) dig at the site are hoping to uncover the long hidden history of Fitzstephen Fort, the place where Norman invader Robert Fitzstephen established a fortress, having taken the town of Wexford in 1169.

A strategic location, it had the benefit of being on high ground, as well as affording its well-trained and equipped archers a clear view, in both directions, of the river, where any would-be attackers might come from.

Over the years, a handful of archaeological digs have taken place at the site but, until now, all have been short-lived due to lack of funding and, surprisingly, a lack of interest. While the Irish National Heritage Park charts the history of Ireland up to the Norman invasion, the rest of the story is yet to be told.

In 1984 Isabelle Bennett spent two months at the site and made cuttings - marker points - on the site that could be further examined in the future. She subsequently directed archaeologist Claire Cotter towards the site in 1986. Claire's excavation of the site was facilitated more as a necessity rather than a project of interest, because an archaeological site study had to be carried out ahead of the building of the new N11 road.

Outdoor park manager Chris Hayes explained that, for whatever reason, the story of the Norman invasion had not been dealt with, perhaps due to the painful connotations it had for the centuries that followed. He said: 'In the past, there were vague nods towards this site, with the replica motte-and-bailey on it. It always struck me that while the rest of the park features replicas, we had the real thing up here - a historical site - and we weren't telling its story.'

The aim is to tell the rest of that story, warts and all, but this, he said, could not be done without the field school, its students and their mentors Richard Reid and Dr Denis Shine, who hails from Kilmuckridge.

Denis, who is one of the directors of the IAFS, explained that he had initially approached the park about stay-over projects but momentum grew behind the idea, as students jumped at the opportunity to experience a real dig, and it has developed into the current UCLA-accredited, four-week dig programme is taking place, with further schools to come.

'I'm from Wexford and it always intrigued me that no one seemed to care about this site.

'It's not just historically significant in Wexford but it's significant for the whole country.

'It's the site of the first Norman fort in Ireland and one of the first Norman stone castles,' said Denis.

The IAFS will spend four months on the site this year, with different groups of students, hoping to uncover some of the site's turbulent history.

Denis said: 'Summer will be the big one. So far we've only dug down to where Claire got to and we've nearly cleared that so in the next few weeks we'll be going deeper than any of the previous excavations. So far, we haven't found anything dated after the 13th century.'

But the site on the hill is just the beginning of the story, Chris points out, explaining that, outside the fort, lay a medieval town, a 'new town' - the lost town of Carrig - that was built by the Normans and which, much later, gave its name to the nearby Newtown Road.

'We know that there was about 111 houses outside this fort and the reason we know that is because the Normans kept tax records and were good at administration.

'It survived for about 130 years before going to ruin, so our project is entitled 'Digging the Lost Town of Carrig'. The long-term aim of having the field schools here is to reconstruct part of the town's streetscape on the hill.'

The 25 students on this dig hail from the US, Australia, South Africa, South Korea and China, and in the middle of a very icy January they were feeling the cold.

'We drink somewhere between 30 and 35 litres of tea per day - that's what keeps us all going! They've found some Wexford gems like The Sky and the Ground and rissoles and things,' joked Denis, adding that while some of the students had come from considerably warmer climates, they all seemed to be enjoying the experience. He said one student from Queenstown, Australia, was constantly seen wandering around in a T-shirt, while an American girl had become the site's temperature gauge, the cold being measured by the number of layers she wore!

Denis pointed out that most of the students' archaeological training so far had come from books and so the opportunity to get out in the field was enticing. He also commended the 'homestay' aspect of the course, saying that it gave the students a chance to experience life in Wexford while also raising interest in the project with the local families they were staying with.

Even Denis himself has seen the interest of some locals piquing.

'I haven't been in Wexford for 20 years but since this started I've had friends ringing me up, asking to meet up and go out to see the dig site.'

For those who do take a wander up the hill, students are on hand each day to explain what's going on. There will also be fully-guided tours of the site by either Denis or Richard, explaining the significance of it.

Finds so far include pottery - both local and some that came from France carrying wine; animal bones; evidence of burning wood; and a number of masonry structures on the site itself.

But the real unearthing will happen when the team pulls back the plastic placed by Claire Cotter and delve deeper into the earth.

Denis said: 'On a dig like this, there'll be a couple of thousand finds, all of which will be washed, dried, bagged and registered.'

Next year, 2019, marks the 850th anniversary of the Norman landing and it is hoped that there will be a big launch for that event next year. So far, the response and results from this dig have been extremely positive.

Denis remarked: 'We're uncovering a different narrative to what we usually hear. The vast majority of people fade into history without a mark. In time, this site will tell us what society and life was like 850 years ago.

'This project and dig was meant to be us dipping a toe in the water; we've ended up putting in a foot.'World Wetlands Day is celebrated every year on 2 February so this year it falls on Friday of this week. The event is an initiative of the Standing Committee of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands.

The Ramsar Convention is an intergovernmental treaty for the conservation and wise use of wetlands. The convention is named after the city of Ramsar in Iran on the shores of the Caspian Sea, where it was signed on 2 February 1971. World Wetlands Day is the annual commemoration to mark the date of the adoption of the convention.

Since it was adopted on 2 February 1971 forty-seven years ago, 169 countries have become contracting parties to the convention, designating 2,293 Ramsar sites covering an area of some 225 million hectares of wetlands.

The Convention entered into force in Ireland on 15 March 1985 and Ireland currently has 45 Ramsar sites covering 66,994ha. The biggest Ramsar site in Ireland is Lough Corrib, Co Galway, with an area of 17,728ha. The last site to be designated was Lough Derravaragh, Co Westmeath, a raised cutaway bog, in 1996. Full details about all 45 sites shown on the map above may be accessed online at www.ramsar.org/wetland/ireland.

Each year, World Wetlands Day has a specific theme. This year, the theme is "Wetlands for a Sustainable Urban Future". About half of the world's population lives in cities. That number is expected to grow to 66% by the year 2050 as people move to cities in search of jobs and a vibrant social life.

As cities, towns and urban areas expanded and demand for building land increased, the tendency in the past was to encroach on wetlands as they were often seen as good-for-nothing wasteland to be filled in and built upon.

Modern thinking sees value in having urban wetlands. They soak up and store heavy rainfall. They act as giant sponges, absorbing water and reducing flooding. They filter water that seeps into aquifers helping to replenish water supplies. They improve urban air quality.

They support biodiversity. They promote human well-being by providing green spaces for recreation and interaction with nature thereby reducing stress and improving health. Wetlands provide opportunities for fishing, bird watching, nature study and eco-tourism. They enable some people to earn a living.

The bottom line is that World Wetlands Day 2018 urges us to see value in wetlands, to cherish them and to use them wisely and sustainably for the common good.At the presentation of the cheque for 1,144.20 to the MRI Now campaign. From left: Cardiac nurse Mary Sinnott, Gloria Carty, director of nursing Margaret Curran and John Quinn

Wexford General Hospital's MRI Now campaign received a welcome boost when the Co Wexford Cardiac Rehabilitation Support Group decided to donate its remaining funds of 1,144.20 to the high-profile campaign.

The Co Wexford Cardiac Rehabilitation Support Group, which disbanded late last year, was set up in January 2005 and made up of former cardiac rehabilitation patients from around the county. Its role was to provide education and support to cardiac patients from a forum of representatives from past cardiac rehab patients and cardiac rehab health care providers, as well as monitoring and responding to the cardiac health needs of past cardiac patients and the wider community.

The support group promoted heart health, including establishing a website which provided information on heart disease and links to the Irish Heart Foundation and other useful sites. It provided education updates in different community centres on cardiovascular disease, risk factors and their modifications. Exercise was promoted by organising and leading walks in various localities to encourage physical activity. It organised local walks every year on World Heart Day.

Chairman of the Friends of Wexford General Hosiptal group, Ciaran Sheridan said they were very grateful to the group.A Bronze Age sword used in the Battle of New Ross 220 years ago in the 1798 rebellion is one of the main Irish exhibits at Ottawa's museum in Canada.

The sword - which was most likely found during drainage works in the Barrowside town - resides in the Royal Ontario Museum in Canada.

Transport Infrastructure Ireland archaeologist James Eogan said: 'It is one of the most significant historical archaeological objects associated with New Ross - in terms of the town's prehistoric period. The blade is incredibly well preserved. New Ross is very well-known for its medieval period, but not for its prehistory.'

Mr Eogan - who is over the New Ross Bypass archaeological dig - said the town's ancient history needs to be unearthed and brought to the fore.

He said the ancient blade was prised from the hands of a dead rebel fighter in 1798.

The unnamed warrior had gone to war not with an iron pike like so many of his compatriots, but something much older. He died clasping a weapon not seen on a battlefield for over 2,500 years - a Late Bronze Age sword.

In the summer of 1798 when the county experienced the infamous uprising against British rule in which all manner of weapons were used to defend the county's citizens. Lead by the United Irish Men, a largely peasant army swept through the county, capturing first the towns of Enniscorthy and Wexford. Next they marched on the riverside port of New Ross, where they met with stubborn resistance.

On the morning of June 5 the rebel army charged the town's defences. Armed mainly with pikes they were met with musket, grape-shot and cannon fire, which caused devastation amongst their ranks, Wexford archaeologist Cormac Moriarty recounted in a story in the Irish archaeology website.

'The fighting raged for most of the day and was extremely bloody, with estimates suggesting that close to 3,000 men were killed. By evening the rebels were in full retreat, and the streets of New Ross lay littered with their dead. In the following days, as the bodies of the fallen were collected, an unusual weapon was retrieved from one of the rebel casualties, a Late Bronze Age sword.'

This fine, leaf-shaped blade was in remarkably good condition for a c. 2,500 year old artefact. The only modification the rebel fighter had made to the sword, to make it battle worthy again, was to add a crude leather handle, which was attached with iron rivets.

Over 400 similar Late Bronze Age swords are known from Ireland, the vast majority having being recovered from watery contexts such as rivers, lakes or bogs.

The original find place of the New Ross sword remains unknown, as does the name and burial place of its last owner, the Wexford rebel.Sixty-nine woman from County Wexford travelled to Britain for abortions in 2016, Health Minister Simon Harris revealed during the recent Dail debate on the report of the joint committee on the Eighth Amendment.

'In 2016, 3,265 Irish women travelled to the UK alone and we know that Irish women travel to other countries like the Netherlands too,' said the Minister.

'Over 1,200 of the women who went to the UK were aged between 30 and 39 and over 1,500 were aged between 20 and 29. 255 were aged 40 or over. Ten were girls under the age of 16.

'230 were teenagers. Over half of the women who travelled were married, in a civil partnership, or in a relationship. 85 per cent of the women were between three and 12 weeks pregnant.'

Mr Harris said it is estimated that at least 170,000 Irish women had travelled to other countries for abortions since 1980.

Mr Harris said we need to acknowledge all those who made deeply difficult decisions to travel for abortions.

'Real women like the 36 from County Carlow who travelled to the UK for an abortion in 2016, or the 38 from Mayo, the 69 women from Tipperary, the 85 from Wicklow, the 241 from Cork or the 1,175 women from Dublin.

'Women from every county in the Republic of Ireland travelled to the UK in 2016. I think we need to acknowledge them all... these are not faceless women. They are our friends and neighbours, sisters, cousins, mothers, aunts, wives. Each woman is dealing with her own personal situation and making what is a deeply difficult decision.'The CEO of Wexford County Council has outlined the need for 'a lot of work' to be carried out in New Ross as it enters a new phase in its history with the opening of the New Ross Bypass early next year.

Tom Enright visited the town recently and was impressed with the new shops opening and the Kennedy Boutique Hotel.

Mr Enright sees tourism as key to the town's future, adding that more bed capacity is vital.

'It's great to see the Kennedy Boutique Hotel opening and it's also great to see the Docks Hotel coming back. It's one of the things that was missing in the centre of the town.'

He said the council is working to improve John Street and North Street and is in the process of acquiring the High Hill site.

'A lot of work is being done and I think there is a lot of work to do. We have to be a very attractive town that encourages people to come off the bypass. I can understand some people's fears (about the bypass opening) but I am old enough to remember the Naas Bypass. There was a lot of opposition to it in the mid-80s and the town has thrived since, as has Gorey where the bypass has probably helped it.'

He welcomed the demolition works at Albatros, saying the local authority will be promoting the 60 acre site for economic development as all of the asbestos has been cleared from the site and the structures are coming down.

Mr Enright said: 'There has been a lot of marketing and promotion (of New Ross) and town development projects to improve the offering New Ross has. It has a lot of potential as a tourist town. There are plans to expand the Dunbrody centre and move it closer to the town centre.'

He said bringing the tourists visiting the Famine ship into the town centre is key to the town's future.

'We want to create an interactive link from the quayfront up to the centre of New Ross. We are looking at a walkway for the High Hill, old Royal Hotel site that will bring people up from the town centre to St Mary's Church so they can experience the whole Norman history of the town. Eamonn Hore has been very good at accessing funds through Ireland's Ancient East and there is new signage promotiing the whole Norman history of the town.'

He said the council has invested heavily in the quayfront in recent years.

Two of the district's busiest tourist attractions, Hook Lighthouse and the Dunbrody Visitor Centre require major investment, he said.

'Over the past ten to 12 years there has been very little capital investment from Failte Ireland across the country. If you look at Glendalough in Wicklow, they get huge visitor numbers, as does Kilkenny Castle and the Viking Triangle in Waterford. Many tourist products in County Wexford and in the New Ross district require investment. A 5m to 7m project is planned for the lighthouse and we need to put that level of investment into our tourist destinations if we are to be a tourist county and if we are to capitalise on the growing tourist numbers coming into our country. It's what the public and tourists expect now.'

He paid tribute to the Dunbrody Visitor Centre and Hook Lighthuse for their foresight in developing their respective plans, adding that the planned Rosslare to Waterford Greenway would further increase visitior numbers to not only New Ross, but towns and villages along the route.The Irish Cancer Society says the review raises serious questions about how incidents are reported, why staff concerns weren't acted on promptly, and how long the clinician would have continued to perform colonoscopies without the intervention of two surgeons at other hospitals.

The society has expressed its confidence in the BowelScreen service, but in light of the serious incident at Wexford General Hospital and the handling of staff concerns, it has called for immediate action from the Minister for Health, to implement the report's recommendations.

This should begin with the formal process for expressing concerns, based on the National Clinical Assessment Service in the UK.

Donal Buggy, head of services and advocacy at the Irish Cancer Society, said the incident has turned the lives of many families and individuals upside down, and we have to remember the significant distress it has caused.

'Prof Steele's review unfortunately raises more questions than it answers. What is clear from the report is that a staff member at Wexford General Hospital raised concerns about the performance of Clinician Y on five separate occasions over the course of nine months. It took a further year before a recall of patients under Clinician Y was approved.'

Mr Buggy commended the professionalism of that particular employee for continually highlighting their concerns around the performance of Clinician Y.

'Their persistence in pursuing this issue is a testament to their determination to see action taken where they believe patient safety is being compromised, and to the courage of their convictions.

'Unfortunately, the report raises serious questions for local and national governance structures about why staff concerns did not prompt an urgent response.'

Mr Buggy said it is evident, in light of Prof. Steele's report that mechanisms for raising concerns need to be strengthened, so that staff who have legitimate clinical concerns are listened to, and their concerns are followed up in a timely manner with appropriate action.

'Had the concerns of the HSE employee been addressed early in this case, it is likely that the poor performance could have been identified and acted on promptly, improving outcomes for those undergoing colonoscopy procedures.'

'We ask all parties mentioned in the report, including Wexford General Hospital and BowelScreen, to give clear assurances to the families who have been affected by the recall as to why they were not informed of the employee's concerns, and why these were not raised in the Safety Incident Management Report published last year,' said Mr Buggy.

'There are clear learnings for both BowelScreen and our endoscopy services outlined in the report. We want to assure people that BowelScreen has taken steps to ensure an incident like this doesn't happen again and the Irish Cancer Society has full faith in a service that saves lives.

'In its first round completed in 2015, BowelScreen detected 517 cancers, almost 3 in 4 of which were at an early stage, making it a truly transformative programme.'

'While it will offer little solace to people affected by missed diagnoses, the opportunity has to be taken now to prevent incidents like this happening again. It is evident from this report that more oversight, reporting and quality assurance guidelines are needed to prevent another such incident.'Pictured at the launch of When Is A Child Too Sick For School are Susanne Barrett, Elma Sutton, Anne Marie Purcell, Pat Purcell, Niamh Foskin, Ann Maria Irish, Alan Dwyer, Mary Whelan, Bernie Fitzgerald and Gerry Moran

A leaflet outlining the circumstances in which New Ross children should be kept home from school is being distributed to homes this week.

An initiative of the Home School Community Liaison Programme (HSCL) - which runs in New Ross across the two primary schools Bunscoil Ris and Bunscoil Nic Amhlaidh along with the secondary schools Kennedy College and Colaiste Abbain, Adamstown - the leaflet is relevant to parents of both primary and secondary level students.

The HSCL programme includes a Local Education Committee made up of HSCL teachers, parents and community representatives that meets regularly to work on specific projects that will have a positive impact on children's learning and life in the community.

This year the Local Education Committee looked at the issue of school attendance and in particular the number of schooldays missed by children due to illness.

Following a lively discussion it was decided to draw up a helpful guide for parents around how sick a child needs to be before staying home from school. This was considered in terms of the importance of regular school attendance to ensure that children reach their full potential in school.

A committee spokesperson said: 'The input of parents on the local committee was particularly helpful to this project as parents are the ones primarily responsible for getting their children out to school each day. The parents were able to highlight the difficulties and concerns that they can have at times if their child is not feeling well.

'Together we researched the information that we needed, looking at previous similar publications (HSE) and checking websites - undertheweather.ie - to ensure our leaflet would be relevant, accurate and up-to-date.'

Parents used New Ross Library for research purposes and the committee consulted with principals in the four schools for their contribution to the project.

'Throughout the project we kept a keen eye on ensuring that the language and layout of the leaflet would be user-friendly and accessible for parents. We also included practical tips for encouraging attendance and some useful websites and resources for parents.'

The leaflet which was designed and printed by Design Nut (a Glenmore-based company) and was launched in the four schools on Monday.

The Home School Community Liaison Teachers would like to extend a big thanks to all the members of their Local Education Committee for their commitment and contributions.The lack of adequate car parking at the new BAM-owned Courthouse in Wygram is a 'recipe for disaster' and 'a threat to public safety', according to the President of the Wexford Solicitors Bar Association Martin Lawlor.

'It's not adequate and there will be a serious incident there some day', Mr. Lawlor warned as the newest court building in Ireland and the largest outside of Dublin, built under a Public Private Partnership arrangement , opened for criminal, civil and family law sittings.

Parking within the grounds of the new court complex is reserved for staff, judges and state solicitors and the only public parking is either on-street or in a 50-space temporary County Council car park on a plot of land in Belvedere Road known as the 'Christmas Tree' site where a permanent car park is to be developed alongside six planned social houses. There is no reserved parking for members of An Garda Siochana or barristers or solicitors.

Mr. Lawlor said the impact of a large amount of traffic descending on the area for a starting time of 10.30 am where people don't realise there is no public parking available is a 'recipe for disaster and more importantly a threat to public safety'.

Based on figures from Ardcavan where the Court Service rented premises for the past decade, he said over 100 cars are usually present during the busiest period from 10 am to 1 pm and on a Wexford Circuit Court day, when a jury panel is required to attend, there can be as many as an extra 100 cars,

'If both the District Court and the Circuit Court are sitting, this could mean an influx of 200 to 250 cars in the Belvedere Road area. That's when the fun will start, when you'll have cars parking on the green area and in front of drive-ways. It will be mayhem'.

There are 10 to 15 District Court legal practitioners in Wexford and up to 20 barristers can also be in attendance when the Circuit Court is in session, This is on top of up to 30 Garda witnesses at a District Court sitting and an average of 15 gardai at a Circuit Court session.

'The volume of paper required to run cases nowadays is voluminous and it is simply not practical to have two or three boxes of files being carted from a distance away, in Hill Street, for example, especially in wet weather', said the association president.

Plaintiffs, defendants and witnesses are also required to attend with 15 to 20 cases typically listed on a Civil Court day and an average of 20 cases for courts dealing with financial matters.

Months before construction work on the building was completed, the Wexford Solicitors Bar Association wrote to Wexford County Council Chief Executive Tom Enright expressing concern in advance about the parking situation and pointing out that the proposed 50-space car park at Belvedere Road would be completely inadequate. A few months ago, Mr. Lawlor received a telephone call from the local authority, outlining the plan for the 'car park' on the Christmas Tree site. He said one of the difficulties is that BAM was simply asked to build a courthouse and staff facilities, not car parking. BAM retains ownership and management of the building which is used by the Court Service for an annual fee.

Residents in streets around the courthouse strongly objected to the development during the planning process, arguing that it was out of scale for the area and would change the whole dynamic of the locality.. One of their concerns was the increase in traffic that the court building would bring.

The Office of Public Works was granted planning permission for the 10 million project on the old Municipal Buildings site in 2010.Vintners across Co Wexford have given their reaction to the change in law that will allow pubs to sell alcohol on Good Friday for the first time in 90 years.

The Intoxicating Liquor Bill 2017 passed all stages in the Dail with all-party support and it will now be enacted for the first time on Good Friday 2018 which falls on March 30. Chief Executive of the Vintners' Federation of Ireland (VFI) Padraig Cribben welcomed the overturning of the 'archaic law', while Donall O'Keeffe, Chief Executive of the LVA said removing the ban was 'common sense'.

Local VFI member and Co Wexford Vintners Tourism Officer Johnny Gaynor of Gaynor's Bar in Wygram welcomed the move.

'It's the start of the main bank holiday of the year but you couldn't get a drink on the Friday night,' said Mr Gaynor, adding that it was possible to be served alcohol almost everywhere except a pub on Good Friday, including the ferry which, he pointed out, you could drink on until you got to Tuskar and then no more would be served.

'From a tourism point of view it was necessary. We've been a laughing stock for years over this.'

Mr Gaynor added that publicans still had the option not to open on Good Friday and he expected that a lot of pubs, particularly those in rural areas, would not open until the evening. He also believed that the pubs being open on Good Friday would put an end to huge queues at supermarket checkouts on Holy Thursday.

'Supermarkets can't really cut their prices any more than they have. It means you'll have less uncontrolled drinking and less of the issues that go along with that.'

The lifting of the Good Friday ban means that there is only one day left in the year on which pubs cannot open - Christmas Day - and while many believe it will be the next ban to be lifted, Mr Gaynor does not believe this will happen.

'I don't think the VFI would even ask to be allowed open on Christmas Day. But the Good Friday ban should have been lifted years ago.'

Wexford VFI Chairman Michael Wallace, of Tir Na nOg in Wellingtonbridge, was considerably less enthused by the matter, saying that it wasn't an issue he had given much thought to.

'For us, it was generally a day for cleaning and painting but we may revert to Christmas Day for that now. Our holidays are cut in half,' he joked, adding that the ban had been the law, the same as a law in any other country. He said that while it was not a burning issue in his mind, he would be open for his customers on Good Friday.

'I don't think it will make too much difference to country pubs' annual turnovers but we'll wait and see if we become millionaires quicker!'

Mr Wallace did not see similar changes in the pipeline for Christmas Day: 'I couldn't see it happening for Christmas Day. I certainly wouldn't open and I reckon most publicans wouldn't. Christmas Day is a time to be with family.'

Ferns publican Tom Dunbar, who is a member of the Management Committee of the National Executive Council of the VFI, felt that the general reaction from publicans to the change was 50-50.

'It was the VFI's position that it was the loss of a day's trading at the start of one of the busiest weekends of the year and one that you couldn't get back. There are different opinions on it - some publicans liked having the day off while others, those in towns and cities for example, were pushing to open.'

He remarked that it was a different country now and this was the natural progression of things. He added that Good Friday was a different type of day now as most people were working and almost everything else was open.

As regards his own reaction to the change, Mr Dunbar was one of those publicans that was neither for nor against it.

'I think the older publicans were happy enough without it. I've lived my whole life without it and if it hadn't happened I wouldn't have seen it as a crisis. But the VFI has been pushing for it for a long time.'

He said that he had not really thought about his plans for Good Friday 2018 yet: 'I haven't decided whether I'll open or not yet. I probably will open at some stage in the day. If my mother was alive, it'd be a different story!'

He was also quick to dispel any suggestion that Christmas Day opening might be next: 'There's no demand for it. I've spent a lifetime in the business and sat at numerous meetings over the years and I've never once heard it mentioned.'It took more than 18 months from the time concerns were first raised about the performance of a doctor carrying out invasive procedures at Wexford General Hospital until the clinician actually stopped carrying out screening colonoscopies.

The warnings amounted to a 'missed opportunity', with a newly-published external review saying there was no doubt the doctor was 'under-performing'.

Worries about the performance of the doctor carrying out the tests were raised five times by another member of staff, however, no immediate action was taken.

Following a recall of more than 400 people it was found that 13 patients were wrongly given the all-clear following the routine colonoscopies.

A separate review last year revealed the 13 patients, taking part in the national bowel screening programme for people aged 60 to 69. Two of the 13 have since died.

The external report, published last week, found a HSE member of staff first raised concerns about the doctor in March-April of 2013.

More than a year later, in September 2014, a patient who had undergone a screening colonoscopy at the hospital in April 2013 was found to have cancer. BowelScreen was told of this in October 2014.

A second case emerged in late October 2014 and BowelScreen was also notified, with the first phase of the recall of patients beginning in January, 2015.

The external review of how the HSE managed the serious incident of 13 probable missed cancers at the hospital found that there were missed early opportunities in responding to a staff member's concerns over the standards of an individual clinician's work there.

The 24-page review published by the HSE was conducted by Professor Robert J C Steele, senior research professor prevention, early detection and treatment of colorectal cancer, at the University of Dundee.

Prof Steele says the original review was carried out in a timely and efficient manner and to the highest possible standards.

In the review, Professor Steele says that in March-April 2013, soon after Wexford General Hospital began doing screening colonoscopies, a HSE employee expressed concern to the clinician, referred to as Clinician Y, about the individual's work.

In May 2013, the staff member expressed those concerns to BowelScreen by telephone 'and was reassured that the concerns would be communicated to the Clinical Lead' at Wexford.

A conversation took place between the Clinical Lead at BowelScreen and the Clinical Lead at Wexford.

In June 2013, when the HSE employee saw no improvement in the work of Clinician Y, the staff member communicated concerns verbally to the Clinical Lead at Wexford.

The Clinical Lead spoke to other staff, who did not raise concerns.

In March 2014, the Clinical Lead at Wexford asked the HSE employee to document the concerns about Clinician Y.

In November 2014, it was agreed between Clinician Y, Wexford Hospital and BowelScreen, that the clinician would stop carrying out screening colonoscopies, pending case reviews.

Clinician Y ceased all colonoscopies on February 16, 2015, by mutual agreement with the hospital.

The report says the clinician participated and cooperated with everyone working on the management of the incident.

Clinician Y went on leave in 2015, and has subsequently undergone retraining in colonoscopy but has not returned to work.

Prof Steele said that, while recognising the significant effect of the incident for patients and families affected, the bowel screening team has learned a great deal to the benefit of the bowel screening programme in Ireland.

Wexford General is a colonoscopy provider unit, as part of the BowelScreen programme nationally.

The HSE has said that in response to this finding, BowelScreen has implemented a new policy to manage safety incidents in a standardised and appropriate manner.

BowelScreen began in October 2012 and offers free screening to men and women aged 60-69, on a two-year cycle.

To date, more than 488,600 people nationwide have been invited for screening.Almost 1,000 people will be visiting Wexford at the weekend, hoping for some winning tricks to make contracts.

Bridge players from all over Ireland will be in the town to attend the 46th staging of the Wexford Bridge Congress at the Clayton Whites Hotel.

Michael Coffey, chairman of the organising committee, secretary Maurice Brosnan, treasurer Martina Flynn and the committee, made up of members of the clubs which play in the Wexford Bridge Centre, have been hard at work for the past few months ensuring that everything is ready for one the most popular and successful Bridge Congresses on the Irish bridge calendar.

Over the three days of competition, bridge players will compete for almost 6,000 in prize money spread over a number of events.

Guest of honour for the weekend will be Jim O'Sullivan, from Donegal, the current president of the Contract Bridge Association of Ireland.

Grainne Tuohy, the South East Region President who hails from Waterford will also be in attendance. The congress will be officially opened at 7.15 p.m. on Friday evening (February 2), in Clayton Whites, by Mr O'Sullivan.

All competitions over the weekend take place in the hotel's McClure Suite. The focus of competition on Friday night will be on the mixed pairs, inter 'B' pairs, novice pairs and open pairs, all starting at 7.30 p.m.

The highlight on Saturday will be the Congress Pairs and Intermediate Pairs where some of the top local players will be striving over two four-hour sessions to keep some of the valuable prizes on offer from the hands of the visitors.

Open pairs will be held on Saturday afternoon and again on Saturday night in Whites.

All competitions on Saturday afternoon start at 1.30 p.m. while the evening session is at 7 p.m. Prizes for the mixed pairs, congress pairs and intermediate pairs will be presented after the close of competition on Saturday night.

Proceedings will start on Sunday with the congress teams of four starting at 11 a.m. The open pairs will begin at 1.30 p.m. while the final session of open pairs will commence at 7 p.m. on Sunday evening.

Almost 1,000 bridge players are expected to be in action over the weekend and the presence of so many visitors to the town will surely be a boost to the local retail and hospitality business.

Entries for all the major competitions to Michael Coffey at 053 9158853, Maurice Brosnan at 086 3388249 or by email to wexfordbridgecongress@gmail.com.There is a lot happening in Tubbercurry Drama in the coming season. With their 75 year celebration, the Phoenix Players present an excellent new Sam Shepard play with a brilliant cast. There are also lots of events to complement the 75 year celebration.

The Western Drama Festival committee is busy preparing for the 2018 Three Act Drama Festival. It is running from March 2nd-10th in St Brigid's Hall Theatre at 8 pm nightly.

Eileen Davey, PRO of the committee, said there is so much to look forward to during the festival. She added: "We welcome you all to our Launch which will take place on Sunday night, February 18th just after the performance of the wonderful Drawer Boy, presented by the Beeznees Theatre Company. "Famous for an excellent night out this Beeznees play has a terrific cast.

"To complement the occasion the Western Drama Festival committee will host a wine reception just after the play and introduce our 2018 Programme of plays and events to celebrate our 75 year anniversary. "It promises to be a lovely evening in St Brigid's Hall," Eileen added.

Eileen said: "Already there is a brilliant buzz and air of expectation for the coming drama season, the festival is a huge hit and receives fantastic support from the people and businesses in South Sligo and environs for Drama events."

Tickets can be purchased through the Hawk's Well Theatre on 071 9161518. A season ticket costs 60 and this includes a complimentary programme. Complementing the Western Drama Festival celebration of 75 years is a special exhibition 'Celebrating Creativity in our Community' which will be held in partnership with Tubbercurry Community Library- Sligo Library Service from March 6th to 10th. Artists interested in submitting work reflecting life in the community should contact Anne Marie Hegarty on 086 8066662 or Eileen Davey on 087 9791942. All art forms are acceptable i.e. Painting, sketching, sculpture, photography etc.The Shelly River Chorus started serious preparation in recent weeks for the first ever World Mixed Barbershop Chorus Contest in Munich at Easter.

Having competed, for the first time, in a Mixed Barbershop Chorus Contest in Cork in October, the Shelly River Chorus, made up of members of the two Sligo Barbershop Choruses, Tone Cold Sober and No Half Measures, were delighted to discover that their score and performance qualified them to represent Ireland in the first ever World Mixed Chorus at the Munich Barbershop Musikfest.

Twenty-three members are registered for the event in Munich and they started work this week in their new rehearsal venue at the Embassy Rooms, made available to them by Kevin Quinn.

This will be an expensive trip so any sponsorship is welcome. Casual wear, such as tshirts and sweatshirts could feature logos of Sligo businesses that would like to advertise their support for the Shelly River Chorus will be ambassadors for Sligo.

Meanwhile, the Women's Barbershop Chorus need you. Have you got the voice of an angel, but just haven't had the courage yet to unlock it? No Half Measures, the Women's Barbershop Chorus, are recruiting new members for 2018. Rehearsals take place Tuesdays from 8-10pm in the Southern Hotel.

The group sing modern, pop and swing music, all abilities are welcome. Contact Mairin on 087-2526192.The Director of the Yeats Society says she wants to open the doors of the association and make it more accessible to everyone.

Former Senator, Susan O'Keeffe, founder and Chair of Yeats Day, and founder and Chair of Yeats2015, wants to see the Yeats Society grow significantly in the next three years.

Addressing a gathering at last week's SPC meeting, O'Keeffe said that the society is aiming to welcome more people in the coming years.

"There is a next stage that the Yeats Society is going to embark on, we want to encourage people to think about Sligo as being the place to stand where Yeats stood. There are so many places in Sligo where you can go and stand where W.B Yeats stood, and see what he saw and have that experience," she told the meeting.

"Private funding has been raised from a variety of sponsors, mostly individuals who have put in some money for a three year turnaround plan. That would allow the Yeats Society to have some security for three years, that allows me to work there as Director on a full-time basis to try to increase the amount of work that we do. We'll be hoping to look at grants from various organisations that have already given grants to the Yeats Society over the years and we will look to do further fundraising. In other words, we hope to make the best of what was there, to professionalise it and to do more."

Next year, the Yeats International Summer School will be celebrating its 60th year. With that being a significant milestone, Susan says it is crucial that the success of the event is built on.

"We want to throw open the doors of the Yeats Society, to make it a more welcoming place as a cultural institution and specifically to celebrate and support local artists and writers. We'll be building on the traditions that are there, celebrating the Summer School - next year is the 60th year.

"We reckon, it is the longest running summer school, certainly in Ireland possibly in the world. Sixty years is a significant milestone so we'll be building on that, ensuring that the academic ethos of the summer school remains, we'll be sharing ideas with those people who have been involved with the summer school over a long period of time and making sure next year that we are celebrating something that Sligo is proud of."

The Yeats Society will host a number of events throughout the year to mark occasions such as World Poetry Day, Easter, St. Patrick's Day, Culture Night and much more.

As for the Yeats Memorial Building, it will undergo a small transformation by way of cleaning, tidying and organising, but nothing drastic.

The Yeats building, and the Yeats Summer School draw visitors from across the world throughout each year.

And this year, already, Susan says she has seen a huge variety of nationalities visiting, despite the fact that January is usually a quieter month.

"We have visitors from all over the world. Last week we had visitors from Israel, Canada, Italy, America and this is January, it's usually quite quiet. I had four Americans yesterday and I asked why are they here and they said they had come specifically to hear about Yeats. It's up to us to make our best offering when people arrive."

As part of the society's attempts to grow even further, there are plans to construct a 'Wall of Poetry'.

"We have a cornerstone project that we are introducing the idea of today. We would like to build a 'Great Poetry Wall of Sligo'. As far as our knowledge goes, there isn't a poetry wall in the world. This would be a stand-out destination itself that would celebrate poetry. That's a project that we hope to bring more about to you at a later stage. We believe that it can be a public space, a public celebration of poetry and a public celebration of inspiration.

"Our gallery will continue to support local and emerging artists."

Councillor Marie Casserly suggested a 'Poetry Bench' similar to the ones in Warsaw that play the music of composer Chopin.

"In Warsaw they have music playing benches where they play Chopin, when you sit down and press a button, I wonder could we apply for funding for a bench where you could sit down and hear some Yeats poetry."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.The Bishop of Elphin has called on people not to vote for politicians whose first act will be to take away the right to life.

In a pastoral message delivered last week-end, the Bishop said there could be an election at any time and he urged people to "take note of what politicians are saying and, having regard to the common good, don't be voting for politicians whose first act will be to take away the right to life."

He also stated: "So talk to your politicians, or write to them, and make clear to them that you want them to defend the right to life of the unborn. I'm not suggesting that you attack them, but make sure that they know you are there and that they know what you believe."

He also addressed what he said were his concerns about some elements of the Catholic Church's teaching on the right to life being presented inaccurately.

He said: "By virtue of their common humanity a mother and her unborn baby have an equal right to life. The Catholic Church has never taught that the life of a child in the womb should be preferred to that of a mother. Where a seriously ill pregnant woman needs medical treatment which may, as a secondary effect, put the life of her baby at risk, the Church has always taught that such treatments are ethically permissible provided every effort has been made to save the life of both the mother and her baby.

"Abortion, by contrast, is the direct and intentional destruction of an unborn baby and is gravely immoral in all circumstances. It is not a medical treatment.

"When, sadly, a baby dies naturally in the womb before birth, there is no question of the mother being obliged to proceed with the pregnancy. There is now only one "patient", the mother. The mother becomes the sole focus of any medical care that is required. Along with the father, the mother is entitled to the best pastoral care that we can offer, as they grieve the loss of their child."

Bishop Doran also spoke about how the prevalence of murder in our country contributed to the cheapening of life in our society and made many people feel vulnerable.

"We may at times be able to explain why these things happen, but I have never heard anyone suggest that it is okay to take a human life.

"Against this background, I find myself asking why anyone would suggest that abortion, which is the deliberate destruction of an innocent human life is acceptable, or why it should be permitted by law. Why, indeed, would a human rights organisation like Amnesty International be so active in promoting so-called abortion rights?

"We need to be honest enough to recognise that, when an abortion takes place, it is not always just the woman who is responsible for it. Men who pressure women into having an abortion, or who simply leave a woman alone to face the challenges of pregnancy are equally responsible.

"Likewise those who encourage abortion, who legislate for it and who freely participate in providing abortion are personally responsible, not just for the life of the child who dies, but also for the culture of death which, through their actions, gains a foothold in society.

"People sometimes say to me: 'I would never choose abortion myself, but I respect the right of another person to make that choice'. What they seem to forget is that there is another person involved; a vulnerable person who has no choice and who depends entirely on others for protection."

He went on to claim: "The very same arguments which are used to justify abortion are also used to justify the killing of the sick and the elderly. "This is already happening in other member states of the EU on a regular basis. I am convinced that if we concede any ground on abortion, your parents, your grandparents, or perhaps even you yourself will face exactly the same logic of death in the space of a very few years. This is the final frontier. If we cross it, there will be no easy way back."

The Bishop has also urged people to talk to their neighbours on the issue and to pray.

"I believe that it would help greatly if people who believe in the right to life of the unborn would just talk to their neighbours and friends over a cup of tea or a pint, as they would about sport or politics.

"It is not about debating or being confrontational. At the most basic level, it is just about letting other people see that they are not alone and that it is perfectly reasonable to believe in the right to life.

"If you want to do that effectively, it will be helpful to be able to give an account of what you believe (as St. Paul says). You can prepare yourself by reading the submission that the Bishops made to the Citizen's Assembly, which is quite comprehensive.

"If you are uncertain about how to vote or what to do, I encourage you to pray daily for the gift of Wisdom, and to allow God's Spirit to be your guide in responding to this question which is being raised in our society.

He also urged people to not "hide your light. Wear a badge or put a sticker on your car.

"This is not a time to be faint-hearted."The construction of Sligo's Eastern Garavogue Bridge remains on target after Transport Minister Shane Ross allocated 300,000 to the project this week.

The money will allow further land acquisition in the area according to the Council's Director of Services, Tom Kilfeather.

He told The Sligo Champion that the bridge was on course for construction towards the end of 2021.

The Minister has included the bridge in the country's Capital Plan projects for 2018 while he has also confirmed news of funding for the Western Distributor Road in the sum of 800,000 this year.

IDA Ireland is already backing this project to the tune of 5 million and Mr Kilfeather said construction should start this summer though it may not be as early as July.

"We will be engaging with the Department with regard to the timing of the start. It might be put back by a month but no more than that," he said.

The Minister has announced 10.5 million in total for Sligo's regional and local roads this year.Elizabeth Fahy spoke about how much her sister Megans life was changed for the better after receiving a kidney

A young woman received a rapturous applause after speaking about the vital importance of kidney donation at a recent meeting in the Sligo Park Hotel.

Elizabeth Fahy from Tonaphubble opened the meeting organised by the Sligo branch of the Irish Kidney Association and Diabetes Ireland and informed the audience how being a donor changes peoples' lives forever.

Elizabeth was speaking about her older sister Megan whose life was vastly improved after receiving a kidney. The young woman highlighted the importance of donation, saying how it had impacted greatly on her sister's life and also that of her family in such a positive way. Elizabeth added that it is important people are aware about Organ Donation and the need for people to learn as much as possible so as to be able to make informed decision. When Elizabeth finished her speech she received a well deserved round of applause from all there.

The three main speakers were Professor Cathy McHugh (Diabetologist) Dr James Lineen (Nephrologist) Sligo University Hospital and Mike Kelly co-ordinator of Counselling Services Irish Kidney Association. The informative night covered intensively information on Renal and Diabetes studies and treatments. Abbott Ireland were also present and Abina O Flynn Territory Manager Abbott Diabetes Care was present to demonstrate the latest in testers developed by Abbotts.

Both Association's with the help support of Sligo University Hospital Management Staff will be running at least one more of a similar type meeting this year.The job of State Solicitor was a tough one and becoming more difficult because the public was watching and were demanding high standards and rightly so, stated Judge Kevin Kilrane at Sligo District Court last Thursday.

He made the remarks during tributes to retiring State Solicitor for County Sligo, Mr Hugh Sheridan who appeared before him for the last time in that role.

Judge Kilrane said Mr Sheridan correctly saw his role as looking after the prosecution, presenting a case on behalf of the people as he had stated.

"He was a tough prosecutor but nonetheless fair and he was prepared to let go at the last minute when the facts were against him," he said.

The Judge stressed that if a case was dismissed due to lack of evidence then so be it but if was done so as a result of an incorrect approach or mistake then accountability was the order of the day and Mr Sheridan comes out with flying colours in that regard.

"That was his role, to present all the available evidence in an untarnished and untainted manner and standards must be raised at all times.

"We are very lucky here to have an excellent Bar in defence and that calls for an excellent prosecutor and we had that with Mr Sheridan and indeed with the Gardai."

The Judge said he was very surprised when Mr Sheridan told him he was retiring as he had been very much an active solicitor with a sharp mind.

He reminded Mr Sheridan that they went back quite a long time to the days when Mr Sheridan was beginning his career and had spent some time with George Maloney and Co in County Cavan with whom the Judge had dealings when he himself was a solicitor.

The tributes to Mr Sheridan were led by Mr Gerard McGovern, solicitor on behalf of the local Solicitors' Association who said it was a very special but also a sad day as they bid farewell to Mr Sheridan who had been an excellent State Solicitor.

The regard with which he was held was evidenced by the number of solicitors present in court, many of whom don't normally appear there on a regular basis. Mr McGovern described Mr Sheridan as ultra efficient and this made life easy for solicitors and the court.

"He carried out his work in an exemplary and common sense fashion and when you dealt with him his word was his bond," said Mr McGovern who also referred to Mr Sheridan's sense of humour which kept many a conversation jovial.

While a native of Dublin, Mr Sheridan, was, at this stage in his life an adopted Sligoman, having arrived here in the 1980s where he began working with Mullaney's Solicitors before eventually establishing his own successful firm which specialised in litigation. said Mr McGovern.

Mr Sheridan was on many of the insurance companies panel of solicitors and was a pleasure to deal with. He also built up a very good defensive practice.

Mr McGovern went on to wish Mr Sheridan good health and happiness in his retirement.

"I'm sure he'll do some work in his retirement," said Mr McGovern who added that Mr Sheridan was also a noted "Fianna Fail man."

"He can say he did the State some service," concluded Mr McGovern.

Ms Treena Heever, Courts Service Sligo Office manager joined in the tributes saying Mr Sheridan was always a pleasure to deal with. The office and Mr Sheridan had worked together efficiently and effectively and Mr Sheridan would be a great loss.

Mr Pat O' Sullivan BL, on behalf of the Midland Bar, wished Mr Sheridan well and said he would have more time now for boating on the River Shannon.

Inspector Donal Sweeney said he had worked with Mr Sheridan on some serious cases and while they may have had their differences from time to time it was always very professional with the interest of getting the perfect file to the DPP upper most in their minds.

Mr Sheridan thanked everyone for their kind remarks. He said he had made up his mind a couple of months ago about "hanging up his boots."

He thanks his wife Anne and their daughter Julie for their support over the years and also to Orla his secretary of many years who was being retained by the new State Solicitor Elisia McHugh who was taking up the position this Thursday.

Mr Sheridan recalled all the judges he appeared before including James P. Gilvarry, Oliver McGuinness, Denis McLoughlin and Conal Gibbons at District Court level and Anthony Kennedy and Keenan Johnson at the Circuit Court.

Mr Sheridan recounted how he set up his own practice in 1989 and was appointed as State Solicitor in 1998.

"I was very happy in my job and I received very good co-operation from all the various stakeholders," he said.

People he had represented before and had then appeared as defendants he had to prosecute didn't mind because he did his job fairly, he said.

"It's been a great 20 years. I'm not going to disappear. I think I'll be thumping the counter in the Garda Station from time to time," he said.A mother-of-six with an "appalling record" is to be assessed for Community Service in a bid to avoid prison for repeatedly driving without insurance.

Margaret Philomena Ward (30) of Parklands Crescent Estate, Tubbercurry, also known as Phylis Ward, appeared before Tubbercurry District Court last Wednesday to plead guilty to six road traffic offences in January 2017.

Ward pleaded guilty to driving without road tax on 25th January 2017 on the Ballymote Road, Tubbercurry. She also pleaded guilty to driving without insurance or a driver's licence a week later on January 31st 2017.

Inspector Paraic Burke told Judge Deirdre Gearty that when stopped on the first occasion, Gardai noticed Ward's car tax had expired in April 2016.

On the second occasion she was stopped, Ward had no tax displayed and couldn't produce any driver's licence or insurance documents. She was asked to provide these at her nearest Garda station within ten days but failed to do so.

The court heard Ward was convicted in June of last year at Sligo District Court of having no insurance and disqualified for four years. She had also been given the benefit of the Probation Act in July 2016 for having no road tax.

Ward was given a three year suspended prison sentence for theft at Galway District Court in 2016 and has a number of other convictions for Road Traffic offences dating back to 2012.

Defence solicitor Mr Mark Mullaney told Judge Gearty that Ward had a licence issued on 2nd February 2017 which post-dated the offences.

"You haven't learned your lesson," said Judge Gearty, agreeing with Mr Mullaney that Ward had "an appalling record."

She ordered a Probation Report be carried out into whether Ward should be considered for Community Service in lieu of a prison sentence.

Mr Mullaney said his client was a 30-year-old mother of six children whose husband didn't drive because he had been disqualified for a lengthy period.

He said her driving on those two occasions had been done out of "desperation" and two of her children and Ward herself had medical issues.

"She felt she needed to take the car," he said.

Judge Gearty convicted and fined Ward 950 for the offences on 25th of January and disqualified her from driving for six years. She ordered a Probation Report to assess her suitability for 80 hours Community Service in lieu of a two month prison sentence.

She similarly fined Ward another 500 for the offences on 31st January 2017 and banned her from driving for six years. All other matters were taken into consideration.

She made a similar order for a Probation Report into whether Ward should serve 80hrs Community Service in lieu of a prison sentence, to run concurrently.

Ward was remanded on continuing bail to March 28th for service of the Probation Report.

Judge Gearty agreed to postpone the start of Ward's disqualification until February 28th 2018.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.



Charlie Kavanagh with Mary Rose Devereux, Mick Nolan and Peter Shearer at Charlies talk in aid of the Wicklow Syria Appeal in Wicklow Sailing Club

Members of the sailing fraternity and Wicklow community enjoyed an evening with veteran sailor Charlie Kavanagh as he regaled them with tales of his sailing trip around Ireland.

The event, hosted by Wicklow Sailing Club, was a fundraiser for the Wicklow Syria Appeal (WSA) and the late Dermot Costello, who founded WSA, was at the forefront of many people's minds on the night.

Introducing the evening, Mick Nolan paid tribute to Dermot's generous spirit. He also outlined the origin of the WSA - from hosting Syrian athletes during the Special Olympics Games of 2003 to the brutal Syrian civil war and the present efforts to bring a Syrian family, who are currently living in a temporary shack in Lebanon, to settle in Wicklow.

A minute's silence in Dermot's memory was observed.

Charlie's presentation captivated the audience from the start. His story was littered with quirky details, beautiful sights and memorable events, from being unable to receive the King of Tory, to a glass sculpture on Inishturk and a welcoming party of dolphins in Donegal. At each stage of the trip, Charlie was joined by different crew, which no doubt added to the delight of the journey.

The presentation was accompanied by a rich abundance of images of the Irish countryside and coastline.

The night attracted a full house and raised over 1,000. For further information or to assist Wicklow Syria Appeal, visit www.wicklowsyriaappeal.com or follow them on Facebook.Empty water shelves in Aldi on the Boghall Road in Bray on Monday evening

Up to 65,000 people are being warned not to drink the water from their taps without boiling it first following a mechanical failure at the Vartry Water Treatment Plant.

Irish Water announced on Monday that a boil water notice was being put in place as a precautionary measure following the mechanical failure of the chlorine booster at the plant.

Areas affected in north Wicklow include Ashford, Newcastle (including Newcastle Hospital), Newtownmountkennedy, Kilcoole, Kilquade, Kilpedder, Kilmacanogue (including Glenview Hotel/Kilmurray Cottages), Greystones, Cookstown Road, Fassaroe/Berryfield Lane, Kilcroney, Delgany and Bray. A number of rural areas between Callowhill and Cronroe are also affected, namely Killiskey, Nuns Cross, Coynes Cross, Prospect, Mount John, Timmore Lane and Dunran.

Areas are affected in Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown include Corke Abbey, Woodbrook Glen, Old Connaught Avenue, Thornhill Road, Ballyman Road, Ferndale Road (from its junction with Old Connaught Avenue to Allies River Road), the Dublin Road (from the junction of Old Connaught Avenue to Allies River Road) and all areas off these roads.

The decision to issue the boil water notice was taken by Irish Water and Wicklow County Council following advice from the HSE.

In a statement, Irish Water said that it will liaise with the HSE with a view to having the boil water notice removed as soon as possible. It is carrying out chlorine dosing on the supply and has put in place a water sampling programme to test the chlorine levels in the impacted areas.

In the meantime, customers in the affected areas are advised to boil water before use until further notice.

While the water can be used for bathing or flushing toilets, it must be boiled for drinking, brushing teeth, preparing foods which are not cooked prior to eating, making ice or preparing infant feeds.

Irish Water has warned that domestic water filters will not render water safe to drink. It advises householders to bring water to a vigorous, rolling boil then allow to cool before covering and storing in a refrigerator or cold place.

'Irish Water apologises for the inconvenience caused by the imposition of the boil water notice,' it said in its statement. 'We will continue to work closely with Wicklow County Council, Dun Laoghaire Rathdown and Dublin City Council, who run the plant on behalf of Irish Water, and the HSE to monitor the supply and lift the notice as quickly as possible.'

Irish Water was recently granted planning permission to upgrade the Vartry Water Treatment Plant. The contract to construct the upgraded plant is due be awarded at the end of 2018 and construction will take two years to complete.Bus Eireann has come in for criticism for failing to properly inform passengers when certain services have been delayed or changed, leaving customers high and dry.

Robin Heather of Wicklow town has shared his frustrations after encountering difficulties while trying to get the 133 bus from the terminus at the back of Wicklow Gaol to Dublin.

Robin arrived at the terminus at 3.50 p.m. in order to catch a 133 bus to Dawson Street at 4 p.m. on January 6.

'There was no bus at the stop and the electronic board said the next bus wasn't due for another 69 minutes. I waited in the car and shortly after 4 p.m., a 133 bus arrived. However, the driver advised me that he was not going to Dublin, that there was nobody available to drive the 4 p.m. service, and the next bus was indeed as the electronic board stated at 5 p.m. He then drove off and within a few seconds, the electronic board displayed a message 'No Real time information available' and then re-booted to advise that the next bus 133 Dublin was now at 6 p.m.

'Having booked my ticket through the Bus Eireann website, it clearly states that the passenger must present the e-mail at the stop listed to obtain a valid ticket from the driver. So, as I had booked a day return leaving Wicklow at 4 p.m. and returning from Kildare Street at 10 p.m., my e-mail booking was therefore useless.'

Robin was fortunate enough to be able to get a lift from someone to Greystones Dart Station to catch a dart at 4.30 p.m. so he could make his 6 p.m. appointment in Dublin.

However, when attempting to make the bus journey home to Wicklow, he encountered further difficulties.

'I walked to the bus stop in Kildare Street to catch the 133 back to Wicklow, which is scheduled for 10.06 p.m. I was at the stop at 10 p.m. and the electronic sign stated there was a bus due in six minutes, so I decided to wait and try my luck with the unused e-mail and explain to the driver my predicament.

'As I was waiting at the stop, watching the electronic board count down the minutes, a person at an adjacent stop advised me that I had missed the 133 as it had passed the stop just before I got there.

'I looked again at the electronic information board which now had the next bus at 58 minutes and then it switched off with the message 'no Real time information available.' Given my experience in Wicklow earlier, I decided that it would be safer to get a DART to Greystones and arrange a lift from there.'

After contacting Bus Eireann customer services, Robin was advised to email on his receipt and DART tickets for a refund. However, Bus Eireann weren't in a position to pay the costs of the two round trips from Wicklow town to Greystones by car.

'Wicklow town needs a reliable bus and train commuter service to Dublin,' said Mr Heather. 'Irish Rail really only have trains at peak times with one service around lunchtime daily, and with huge gaps in their timetable one has to rely on the 133.

'On that Saturday there were queues at most stops out of Wicklow as we drove to Greystones, mostly people going to the Leinster rugby match at 6 p.m. in the RDS.

'As there are no information boards at the interim stops, they would have been left high and dry.'

In reply, Bus Eireann said that the 4 p.m. service to Dublin on January 6 was operated by a private contractor.

A spokesperson said: 'These sub-contracted vehicles are currently not fitted with the Bus Eireann Automatic Vehicle Location (AVL) GPS system and the real time passenger information (RTPI) for this trip was not displayed on the RTPI sign, as a result. We apologise for any inconvenience this may have caused to customers.'

Bus Eireann also said records show that both the 5 p.m. service from Wicklow town and the 9.40 p.m. from Dublin Airport operated on time.People on a partially submerged dinghy boat in the Mediterranean Sea last week. Migration has become a key issue in the Italian elections. Photo: AP

Up to 90 migrants are believed to have drowned off the coast of Libya after their boat capsized, the UN's migration agency has said.

Many of the victims are believed to be Pakistani.

"At least 90 migrants are reported to have drowned when a boat capsized off the coast of Libya this morning," the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) said in a statement.

It added that "10 bodies are reported to have washed up on Libyan shores", near the town of Zuwara.

Two survivors were reported to have made it ashore, while another was rescued by a fishing boat.

There has been a recent increase in the number of Pakistanis trying to make the boat crossing from Libya towards Italy.

Last year, more than 3,100 Pakistanis reached Italy by sea, which made Pakistan the 13th-largest nationality among migrants.

This year, however, Pakistan is already the third-most-numerous nationality, after around 240 migrants made the crossing in January.

Humanitarian organisations say that they are unclear as to why the number of Pakistani migrants has increased by so many.

"We are trying to figure it out," Olivia Headon, of the IOM, said.

"It's quite a jump in numbers, but it is unclear whether it will be a trend that will continue throughout the rest of the year," she added.

Trafficking networks are quick to identify new markets, routes and nationalities in a highly fluid situation.

"Smugglers sell migrants the idea of Europe as a kind of paradise, they are very good salesmen.

"Migrants may know the risks of the sea crossing, but they think it will be worth it," said Ms Headon.

Last year some 119,000 migrants and refugees managed to reach Italy.

Most of them arrived after they had been rescued at sea by European navies and coastguards.

Others were rescued by vessels that are operated by humanitarian non-governmental organisations.

The year before, some 181,000 made it to Italy.

Migration has become a key issue in Italy's election campaign, with voters due to go to the polls on March 4.

Major parties, including Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia and the right-wing League - formerly the Northern League - have said that Italy can no longer accept such high numbers of migrants.

They have made calls for hundreds of thousands of migrants who are already in the country to be repatriated.

"In the last few years Italy repatriated 15,000 migrants.

"It would be my aim to triple that number," said Matteo Salvini, the head of the League party.

If countries in Africa and elsewhere refused to take back the migrants, then excise duties would be imposed on their exports to Italy, Mr Salvini has said.

"Either they collaborate on migration or we hit them with excise duties," he told 'La Stampa' in an interview yesterday.

Last month he said that if he was elected prime minister, he would aim to expel half a million migrants who are currently living in Italy.

The League is in an uneasy alliance with Mr Berlusconi's party and a hard-right party, Brothers of Italy, and together they are predicted to win around 35pc of the vote - the largest share of any political bloc.

In order to form a government they would then have to forge a coalition with another party.

This could possibly be the centre-left Democratic Party of former prime minister Matteo Renzi. ( Daily Telegraph London)Angus Lambkin has been working with the United Nations since 2012

Angus Lambkin has seen some harrowing sights.

His role with the Irish Aid Rapid Response Corps recently took him to the heart of Iraq, where he was one of the first people to respond in towns and cities that had just been bombed to oblivion.

"You are looking at totally destroyed buildings, you are looking at people in the process of fleeing, and you are looking at people hiding in their homes who havent drank water or eaten for weeks," he says.

Mosul, where Isis were ousted from six months ago, was one of the worst hit cities the 36-year-old witnessed.

Only now have residents started to return to their homes.

Angus spent his time there treating people after buildings collapsed on them, assessing booby traps and coordinating with military troops to ensure the safety of those trying to help others in need.

"The destruction of Mosul was huge," he says.

"One day it would be controlled by Isis and the next it would be controlled by Iraqi forces. There was a ring around the city and every day, this ring would get smaller, but what that meant the front line was always shifting.

"Just because Isis weren't in control doesn't meant there weren't members trying to blow up areas.

"We did a lot of work on people who were injured by explosions, or who had buildings collapse on them - that was probably the worst."

His most recent stint with the Response Corps was in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where he is due to return to this month.

"You're not necessarily seeing the nicest parts of the world but every day there is something new.

"It suits my mentality, wanting to do something very simulating and equally, the way I describe it, there is risk involved but part of the expertise is managing the risk."

Originally from Belfast, Angus has worked with the United Nations in a variety of roles since 2012.

Why does he do it?

"The problem with the world is the problems are political and the solutions are political," he explains.

"People are willing to go and do their best to address the problems that happen in the less fortunate areas. But the more money we spend outside the country, the less we think we have to deal with problems on the door step and that's both in terms of migration and security threat. People need to be there, helping people on the ground."

"What we do isn't just about saving lives, it is an essential part of the global system."The FBI secured a warrant to wiretap an official on Donald Trump's presidential campaign by repeatedly concealing from a special court that they were relying on information paid for by Democrats, according to an explosive declassified memo.

It suggested the bureau and department of justice relied heavily on a dossier provided by Christopher Steele, the former British intelligence officer, without revealing to the court that he had ultimately been funded by the Democratic National Committee and the Clinton campaign.

The three-and-a-half page memo was written by Republicans on the House intelligence committee based on what they have learnt in an investigation. It was released after being declassified by Mr Trump.

Devin Nunes, the Republican chairman of the committee, said it showed "serious violations of the public trust" by intelligence and law enforcement agencies. According to the memo on October 21, 2016, a warrant was sought and obtained for electronic surveillance of Carter Page, a volunteer adviser to the Trump campaign who had travelled to Russia. The warrant was sought under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). Such warrants have to be renewed in a secret court every 90 days.

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Each time there has to be a "probable cause" shown, and submissions to the court are classified. The memo said the integrity of the process, and public trust in it, was "necessarily dependent on the government's production to the court of all material and relevant facts".

But it said: "In the case of Carter Page, the government had at least four independent opportunities before the FISA court" but "material and relevant information was omitted".

It said the dossier provided by Mr Steele had formed an "essential part" of the warrant application. But Mr Steele, a longtime FBI source, "had been paid over $160,000 (128,000) by the Democratic National Committee and the Clinton campaign".

Payments were via Perkins Coie, the law firm, and Fusion GPS, the opposition research firm, "to obtain derogatory information on Donald Trump's ties to Russia", the memo said.

It said neither the original application, nor any of the 90-day renewals, disclosed the role of the DNC or Clinton campaign "even though the origins of the Steele dossier were then known to senior justice department and FBI officials".

The memo said: "The application does not mention Steele was ultimately working on behalf of - and paid by - the DNC and Clinton campaign."

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In its application to the FISA court, the FBI had also cited extensively from a Yahoo News article dated September 23, 2016, about Mr Page's trip to Moscow.

The memo said: "This article does not corroborate the Steele dossier because it is derived from information leaked by Steele himself to Yahoo News. Steele has admitted in British court filings that he met with Yahoo News - and several other outlets."

The memo said Mr Steele was "suspended and then terminated" as an FBI source for "the most serious of violations" - unauthorised disclosure of his relationship with the FBI to the media.

This demonstrated Mr Steele had "become a less than reliable source for the FBI" but the department of justice had still maintained contact with him.

Earlier yesterday Mr Trump tweeted: "The top Leadership and Investigators of the FBI and the Justice Department have politicised the sacred investigative process".

Democrats on the House intelligence committee called the release of the memo a "shameful effort to discredit" the FBI, the justice department and the ongoing investigation by Robert Mueller, the special counsel, into Russian alleged meddling in the 2016 election.

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Christopher Wray, the FBI director, was said to have "raised hell" ahead the release of the memo, amid speculation he might quit.A North Dakota woman who earlier admitted killing a pregnant neighbour to get her baby did it by cutting the baby from the mothers womb as she faded in and out of consciousness, prosecutors said.

Brooke Crews, 38, was sentenced to life in prison without parole in a hearing that for the first time detailed the August death of Savanna Greywind, 22, of Fargo.

Ashton Matheny, the babys father, said learning how his baby was born and his girlfriend died tore me apart. Ms Greywinds mother, Norberta Lafontaine-Greywind, fought back tears, but said she was satisfied with the sentence  the toughest Crews could have received.

Prosecutors said the two women argued, and Ms Greywind was pushed and briefly knocked out before Crews began cutting her. Ms Greywind eventually bled to death, they said.

East Central District Judge Frank Racek cited the predatory and cruel nature of the crime in handing down the maximum sentence.

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Crews, wearing orange prison clothing and cuffed at the wrists, cried as she read a statement of apology. She said she wished she could take the familys pain.

There is no excuse. There is no rationalisation. There is nothing, she said. Later, she showed no emotion as the judge passed sentence.

Crewss boyfriend, William Hoehn, faces a May trial in the case. He has pleaded not guilty. Prosecutors had cited his pending trial in withholding public details of Ms Greywinds death earlier.

Prosecutors asked for a sentence of life in prison with no parole. Defence lawyer Steven Mottinger had asked for less, pointing out Crews admitted guilt without any promise of leniency.

Acceptance of responsibility is important, Mr Mottinger said in court. It has to mean something.

Ms Greywind was eight months pregnant when she disappeared in August, sparking extensive searches. Kayakers found her body wrapped in plastic in a river. The baby was found alive in the apartment Crews shared with Hoehn.

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Norberta LaFontaine-Greywind, one of four family members to give statements during sentencing, said that what Crews did was beyond evil, and said she was suffering horrific nightmares. Her husband, Joe Greywind, said the family is trying to heal, but we find it nearly impossible.

Fargo Police Chief Dave Todd earlier called Ms Greywinds death a cruel and vicious act of depravity.

Crews initially claimed that Ms Greywind gave up her newborn daughter, but she later admitted taking advantage of the woman to get the child, according to court documents.

Hoehn told police he came home on August 19 to find Crews cleaning up blood in their bathroom. Hoehn said Crews presented him with an infant girl and said: This is our baby. This is our family. Hoehn told police he took garbage bags containing bloody shoes and his bloody towels and disposed them away from the apartment complex.

A bill in Congress aimed at protecting Native American women and girls from violence, abduction and human trafficking is named for Ms Greywind. Savannas Act, introduced by Democratic Senator Heidi Heitkamp would improve tribal access to certain federal crime information databases and create standardised protocols for responding to cases of missing and murdered Native Americans.

It also would require an annual report that would include statistics on missing and murdered Native American women.

You would never wish this suffering on anybody, on anybodys family, on anybodys sister or daughter or mother, said Gloria Allred, attorney for the Greywind family. But the only good that will come out of it  is more attention to change on this issue for other Native American women in the future.President Donald Trump and his supporters are using a congressional memo alleging FBI surveillance abuse to raise questions about the origins of a federal investigation into his campaigns ties to Russia.

But the four-page document includes revelations that might complicate the effort to undermine special counsel Robert Muellers ongoing probe.

The document contends that the FBI relied excessively on an ex-British spy whose opposition research was funded by Democrats when it applied for a surveillance warrant on a Trump campaign associate.

Yet it also says the investigation into potential Trump ties to Russia actually began several months earlier  triggered, it says, by information involving a separate campaign aide.

The spy who compiled the allegations admitted to having strong anti-Trump sentiments, but he was not a random find for the bureau.

Rather, he was a longtime FBI source with a credible track record, says the memo from the House intelligence committees Republican chairman, Representative Devin Nunes, and his staff.

The warrant authorising the FBI to monitor the communications of campaign adviser Carter Page was approved by a judge on four occasions, according to the memo, and signed off on by Mr Trumps hand-picked deputy attorney general, Rod Rosenstein.

Without the underlying materials being made public, the memo only further intensified a partisan battle over how to interpret the actions of the FBI and Justice Department during the early stages of the counterintelligence investigation Mr Mueller later inherited.

Having decided to cherry-pick, Mr Nunes team picked a bunch of the wrong cherries for its own narrative, Matthew Waxman, a Columbia University professor and former Bush administration official, wrote in an email.

The memo, released over the objections of the FBI and Justice Department, could well give Mr Trump and Republicans new grounds to challenge Mr Muellers investigation as politically tainted.

Even before its declassification on Friday, Mr Trump had been telling confidants he believed the document would validate his concerns that the FBI and Justice Department conspired against him.

The central allegation is that agents and prosecutors, in applying in October 2016 to monitor the communications of Mr Page, concealed from a judge that a former spy whose findings had provided grounds for suspicion had been funded by Hillary Clintons campaign and the Democratic National Committee.

That omission is important, Republicans say, because a judge should have known that political actors were involved in allegations that led the Justice Department to believe Mr Page might be an agent of a foreign power  something he has consistently and strenuously denied.

Research from former spy Christopher Steele, according to the memo, formed an essential part of the application to receive the warrant, though it is unclear how much or what information he collected was included in the application, or how much has been corroborated.

Mr Steeles opposition research effort was initially funded by the conservative Washington Free Beacon.

It was later picked up by the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee through a Washington law firm.

The FBI this week expressed grave concerns about the memo and called it inaccurate and incomplete.

Democrats called it a set of cherry-picked claims aimed at smearing law enforcement and said its release will do long-term damage to the law enforcement and intelligence communities.

For one thing, Democrats say, it is misleading to say a judge was not told of the potential political motivations of the people paying for Mr Steeles research.

Beyond that, though, the memo confirms the FBIs counterintelligence investigation into the Trump campaign began in July 2016  months before the surveillance warrant was even sought  and was triggered by information concerning a different campaign aide, George Papadopoulos.

Papadopoulos pleaded guilty last year to lying to the FBI and is cooperating with Muellers investigation.

The timing makes clear that other Trump associates beyond Mr Page, who was part of the election effort for only a short period and was not in the presidents inner orbit, had generated law enforcement scrutiny.

The memo also omits that Mr Page had been on the FBIs radar just a few years earlier as part of a separate counterintelligence investigation into Russian influence.

Though the memo focuses on Page, intelligence committee Democrats wrote in a response, this ignores the inconvenient fact that the investigation did not begin with, or arise from Christopher Steele or the dossier, and that the investigation would persist on the basis of wholly independent evidence had Christopher Steele never entered the picture.

Other details in the memo could also challenge Republican claims of bias.

The warrant requested in October 2016 was subsequently renewed on three additional occasions, meaning that judges approved it four times.

And one of the Justice Department officials who approved it was Mr Rosenstein, an appointee of Mr Trump.

Mr Trump, who lambasted the FBI and Justice Department on Twitter, was asked later in the day if he was more likely to fire Mr Rosenstein and if he still had confidence in him.

The president simply said: You figure that one out.

Though the document had been classified, since it deals with warrants obtained from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, the White House declassified it in Friday and sent it to Mr Nunes for immediate release.

The disclosure of the document is extraordinary since it involves details about surveillance of Americans, national security information the government regards as among its most highly classified.

Its release is likely to further escalate an intra-government conflict that has divided the White House and Mr Trumps hand-picked law enforcement leaders.

Mr Rosenstein and FBI Director Christopher Wray had personally lobbied against the memos disclosure, arguing it could set a dangerous precedent.

The memos release also comes amid an ongoing effort by Trump and congressional Republicans to discredit Mr Muellers investigation, which focuses not only on whether the Trump campaign coordinated with Russia but also on whether the president sought to obstruct justice.New York, Feb 3 (IBNS): Increases in human life expectancy have slowed dramatically across the world since 1950, according to a study from researchers at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Although a ceiling effect is expected as average lifespan approaches its biological limit, the study found that the trend towards slower gainsand even declinesin lifespan is worst among low-lifespan countries.

This is not about us hitting the ceiling; the slowdown has been sharpest in countries that have the most life expectancy to gain, says David Bishai, PhD, professor in the Bloomberg Schools Department of Population, Family and Reproductive Health.

The finding, reported in BMC Public Health on January 17, does not have a clear explanation, although it shows that progress in health technology since 1950 has not been enough to keep longevity increasing at its historic rates in populations.

Its a rebuke to the idea that you can fix global health just by inventing more stuff, Bishai says, adding New health technology has been essential to making strides in life expectancy, of course, but our predecessors in the 1950s were making faster progress with the basics of soap, sanitation and public health.

Bishai and Carolina Cardona, a PhD student at the Bloomberg School, examined life expectancy data for 139 countries and for each one calculated the decadal life expectancy gainthe gain from a given year to a decade laterduring the period 1950-2009. The analysis revealed that for the total sample, the mean decadal gain started at an impressive 9.7 years during the 1950s but fell more or less steadily to just 1.9 years during the 2000s. The study did not break down data by country or region.

Cardona and Bishai stratified the countries in the sample by their life expectancies, and found that the highest lifespan countries, with life expectancies at birth of at least 71 years, declined from a mean decadal gain of 4.8 years in the 1950s to 2.4 years in 2000-2010. That result was unsurprising, given that life expectancies in these countries are approaching the maximum lifespan of 71-83 years.

However, the researchers found an even steeper decline in countries in the lowest stratum of lifespan, with life expectancies under 51 years. For countries in this category the mean decadal change in life expectancy dropped continuously from a promising gain of 7.4 years in the 1950s to a worrisome loss of 6.8 years in the 2000s. In other words, the low-lifespan countries on average went from experiencing big gains to sharp declines in life expectancy.

Bishai notes that the HIV/AIDS pandemic, which generally hit hardest in low-lifespan countries, is a factor in this trend but doesnt fully explain it. The slowdown in life expectancy gains started before AIDS hit in the 1980s and 90s and occurred even in regions that did not have big problems with this disease, he says.

Another potential factor relates to changes during 1950-2009 in the methods used to calculate life expectancy, but again Bishai thinks that cant be the whole answer. The slowdown trend persisted through the 1970s and 2000s when demographers started using more modern methods, he says.

He suspects that an important driver of the overall trend is a widespread failure of governance. Nowadays, the countries with persistently low life expectancy are countries that generally are fragile statessome are not even trying to increase their life expectancy, Bishai says.

That in turn suggests that global public health efforts need to be about more than providing health technologies. We need also to promote political will and social consensus for public health measures in the countries that need it most. If the national government is underperforming, public health can act on political will in districts and villages. he says, We used to be good at this and if we can get it back then I think we can again see the kinds of improvements we were seeing in the 1950s.

The slowing pace of life expectancy gains since 1950 was written by Carolina Cardona and David Bishai.

Support for the research was provided by the UKs Department for International Development.



New York, Feb 3 (IBNS): Turtles brains have evolved slowly, but constantly, over the last 210 million years to reach a variety in form and complexity which rivals that of other animal groups, according to new research.

The study, led by the University of Birmingham, also discovered that the first turtles with a fully formed shell were very likely to be living on land and not in water or in an environment where they burrowed underground.

Turtles are one of the oldest vertebrate groups still alive today. Their origins date back nearly 250 million years, yet they have changed very little since then. Almost all fossil turtles looked very similar to modern turtles today and this probably enabled turtles to survive several mass extinctions.

An international team of scientists from the UK, Brazil and Germany used modern computer analysis to look at what happened to the turtle brain over this long period of evolution.

The teams research, published in the journal Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, focussed on the fossils of the oldest turtle with a fully formed shell: Proganochelys quenstedti, found in the Triassic sediments (ca. 210 million years) of Germany. Using computed tomography scanning of two fossil skulls, the researchers generated digital models of the brain of Proganochelys and compared them to brain models of modern turtles.

Dr Stephan Lautenschlager, lead author from the University of Birminghams School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences, said: Our results demonstrate that Proganochelys, the oldest turtle with a real shell, had a very simple brain structure. Vision and hearing were probably not very good, while the sense of smell was moderately developed.

Results of this study further showed that the turtle brain increased in size and complexity over the course of evolution to modern turtles. Modern turtles show a wide variety of brain shapes and sizes, which reflects their sensory capabilities and their life styles.

Co-author Dr Ingmar Werneburg from the Senckenberg and University Tubingen, Germany, added: Over a period of 200 million years the brain of turtles became more complex, allowing them to adapt to different habits and living conditions. This is very important as we see similar diversifications in other animal groups such as mammals and birds.

The teams results further helped to clarify some mysteries of turtle origins. Different competing hypotheses exist as to whether turtles originated in an aquatic, terrestrial or even fossorial (digging underground) environment.

Gabriel Ferreira from the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil, who also co-authored the study, explained: By comparing the digital brain reconstruction of Proganochelys with those of modern turtles we can show that the first turtles with a fully formed shell were very likely living on land and not in the water or in an fossorial environment. It was only later that they explored those different habitats.

Image: Wikimedia CommonsNew Delhi, Feb 3 (IBNS): Congress supremo Rahul Gandhi has attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his Union Budget and said the stock market has given a "no confidence motion" against it.

Gandhi made the remark after the Sensex dropped by over 800 points on Friday.

Gandhi also used the hashtag #BasEkAurSaal.

It signified that only one more year is left for the end of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his government's tenure.

Lok Sabha election is scheduled to be held next year.

"

In Parliamentary language, the Sensex just placed a solid 800 point No Confidence Motion against Modi's budget. #BasEkAurSaal  Office of RG (@OfficeOfRG) February 2, 2018

In Parliamentary language, the Sensex just placed a solid 800 point No Confidence Motion against Modi's budget. #BasEkAurSaal," Gandhi tweeted.

On Thursday, Gandhi had attacked Modi and alleged that the BJP-led government did not give jobs to people of the nation and kept making promises to youth and farmers.

"4 years gone; still promising FARMERS a fair price. 4 years gone; FANCY SCHEMES, with NO matching budgets. 4 years gone; no JOBS for our YOUTH. Thankfully, only 1 more year to go. #Budget2018 ," Gandhi tweeted.

4 years gone; still promising FARMERS a fair price.

4 years gone; FANCY SCHEMES, with NO matching budgets.

4 years gone; no JOBS for our YOUTH.

Thankfully, only 1 more year to go.#Budget2018  Office of RG (@OfficeOfRG) February 1, 2018

Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley presented the budget on Thursday.

A day after the Union Budget, the Indian benchmark indices plunged to fresh lows, posting its fifth-most steep fall in the past ten years on Friday.

Sharp selloff in financials stocks midcaps and smallcaps largely led to the decline, media reported.

BSE Sensex was down 839.91 points at 35066.75, and NSE Nifty was down 256.30 points at 10760.60 on Friday.

Top gainers included Tech Mahindra, HCL Tech, TCS, HUL, Wipro and ITC while BHEL, Bajaj Finance, Tata Power, Bajaj Auto, UltraTechCement, Bharti Airtel, Maruti Suzuki and Axis Bank were some of the key stocks that declined.

New Delhi, Feb 3 (IBNS): Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Assam on Saturday to inaugurate the Advantage Assam  Global Investors Summit in Guwahati.

Modi said he is looking forward to attend the summit.

Looking forward to joining the @AdvantageAssam Summit in Guwahati tomorrow. I congratulate the Assam Government for organising this Summit, which will showcase Assam's investment potential, particularly in manufacturing and services to economies in South and South East Asia.  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) February 2, 2018



Modi tweeted: " Looking forward to joining the @AdvantageAssam Summit in Guwahati tomorrow. I congratulate the Assam Government for organising this Summit, which will showcase Assam's investment potential, particularly in manufacturing and services to economies in South and South East Asia."

The @AdvantageAssam Summit will focus on vital sectors including power, agriculture and food processing, IT, transportation, petrochemicals, pharmaceuticals, textiles & handicrafts and tourism. Such a summit will contribute towards fulfilling the aspirations of Assam's youth.  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) February 2, 2018

He said: "The @AdvantageAssam Summit will focus on vital sectors including power, agriculture and food processing, IT, transportation, petrochemicals, pharmaceuticals, textiles & handicrafts and tourism. Such a summit will contribute towards fulfilling the aspirations of Assam's youth."

PM Modi will formally inaugurate the two-day long investment promotion event at Sarusajai stadium in Guwahati at around 11 am on Feb 3.

The summit has been organised on Feb 3-4 at a total expenditure of Rs 32 crore.

Over 2,000 domestic and international industry leaders and corporate figures, including Ratan Tata, Mukesh Ambani, Dilip Sanghvi, Anand Burman and Harshavardhan Neotia, are participating in the summit.

Amar Abrol from Air Asia India, Welspun Groups Balakrishan Goenka, Subhash Chandra of Essel Group, Emamis Sushil Goenka, Rashesh Shah of Edelweiss and Sanjiv Puri from ITC, Naresh Trehan from Medanta -The Medicity, filmmaker Subhash Ghai, Dr. Subhash Chandra, Chairman, Essel Group and ZEE have also registered for the event.

On the other hand, Dasho Tshering Tobgay, Prime Minister of Bhutan, Lyonpo Damcho Dorji, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Lyonpo Lekey Dorji, Minister of Economic Affairs of Bhutan, Amir Hossain Amu, Minister of Industries, Bangladesh, Syed Muazzem Ali, High Commissioner of Bangladesh to India, Dr. Thong Khon, Minister of Tourism, Cambodia, Ounethoang Khaophanh, Vice Minister of Information Culture and Tourism, Government of Laos, Dr. Than Myint, Minister of Commerce, Myanmar, Ambassadors, High Commissioners and Business Delegations from 12 other countries like USA, Vietnam, UAE, Netherland, Nepal, Korea, Japan, Israel, Indonesia, Germany, Czech Republic, Canada will also be part ofthe mega event.

Several union ministers, including Nitin Gadkari, Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways, Suresh Prabhu, Union Minister for Commerce and Industries, Ravi Shankar Prasad, Union Minister for Electronics and Information Technology, Law and Justice, Smriti Zubin Irani, Union Minister for Textiles & Information and Broadcasting, Dharmendra Pradhan, Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas and Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, Jitendra Singh, Minister of State (Independent Charge) for the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region, Kiren Rijiju, Minister of State for the Ministry of Home are expected to take part in the proceedings.

Tight security has been arranged in Guwahati ahead of the summit. Over 2,000 security personnel have been engaged for the entire summit and 19 Superintendent of Police (SP) are supervising the security.

Assam Police has specially trained 200 commandos for the mega event. Helicopters, drones also being engaged for security purpose.

Guwahati City Police Commissioner Hiren Nath said that, Assam police has provided adequate security for the first ever mega business summit.

Meanwhile, Assam government said that it is interested in business ventures or technology enabled industries that have negligible carbon footprint.

According to the Assam government, a 160 square km industrial corridor has been approved by the state cabinet to facilitate easy land purchases by business persons to establish firms without land conversion issues.

Mahendragarh, Feb 3 (IBNS): Two Kashmiri students were allegedly beaten and thrashed by a mob in Haryana's Mahendragarh on Friday evening, media reports said.

After offering Friday prayers, the two students went to a market where they had encountered a group of 15 people.



The students said they were being beaten with sticks, bricks and helmets without meting out any reason.

Both the students study Geography at Central University of Haryana in Mahendragarh.

"After offering prayers when we went to the market some people surrounded us. It seems they were following us. The moment we stopped our bike at Masani chowk, they came from behind and started beating us mercilessly" the students told NDTV.

The police have arrested three accused people and identified three others.

Jammu and Kashmir Director General of Police Shesh Paul Vaid told NDTV: "Haryana Police has taken cognizance... One of our officers is in touch with the boys as well."

Urging the authorities of Haryana to act tough, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti tweeted: "Shocked & disturbed to hear reports of Kashmiri students being assaulted in Mahendargarh, Haryana. I urge the authorities to investigate & take strict action." She even tagged Haryana CM Manohar Lal Khattar in the tweet.

Shocked & disturbed to hear reports of Kashmiri students being assaulted in Mahendargarh, Haryana. I urge the authorities to investigate & take strict action. @mlkhattar  Mehbooba Mufti (@MehboobaMufti) February 2, 2018

Later she even thanked Khattar for taking actions against the accused.

Thank you for your prompt action @mlkhattar ji. https://t.co/VCvptoBp9K  Mehbooba Mufti (@MehboobaMufti) February 3, 2018

Former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah tweeted: "This is terrible & goes against the spirit of what @PMOIndia @narendramodi ji said from the ramparts of the Red Fort. I hope the authorities in Haryana act quickly against this violence."Srinagar, Feb 3 (IBNS): At least five persons including three Para-military troopers were injured after militants hurled a grenade on a patrol party in Tral town of South Kashmirs Pulwama district.

Sources said that the CRPF patrolling party was targeted at Batgund Tral.

The wounded troopers and civilians have been shifted to a hospital.

A police official said that two troopers and two civilians suffered minor injuries.

The area was cordoned off till reports last came in.



(Reporting by Saleem Qadri)Kolkata, Feb 3 (IBNS): Tension flared up in eastern Kolkata's Chingrighata area after a speeding bus mowed down two local youths on Saturday morning, reports said.

According to reports, after violating traffic signal, a Sector V bound bus ran over two first year students of a city college near Chingrighata crossing at around 11:15 am.

After being rescued, the youths were rushed to a local hospital where they were declared brought dead.

A police official told IBNS that the deceased have been identified as Biswajit Bhunia and Sanjay Bani who were residents of nearby Shantinagar area.

Following the incident, local people vandalized several vehicles, including police vans, and torched at least five public buses and one goods carrier.

When police reached the scene, angry mob charged at them too.

They threw bricks and stones at the police who had to resort to lathicharge to disperse the mob.

A senior official of Bidhannagar Police Commissionerate told IBNS that a heavy police force along with Rapid Action Force (RAF) have been deployed to bring the situation under control.

Till the last update came in, senior police officials and local MLA, Sujit Bose, had reached the scene; security personnel were seen throwing tear gas shells to lift the road blockade.

Meanwhile, due to the incident, traffic movement on one of Kolkata's busiest roads, the EM Bypass were disrupted and a major traffic congestion has been reported from adjacent areas.

"We are trying to take the situation under control and to clear the traffic as soon as possible," a local police official told IBNS.

(Reporting by Deepayan Sinha)New Delhi, Feb 3 (IBNS): Three people have been arrested for their involvement in the death of Ankit Saxena, who was allegedly killed by the family members of his Muslim girl friend, according to media reports on Saturdat.

Saxena, a 23 year old photographer, who was reportedly dating the 20-year old college student, had his throat slashed by the attackers, reports said.

According to reports, Saxena was attacked on Thursday night near his home by the girl's family.

The police have arrested the parents and an uncle of the girl and detained a minor allegedly involved in the incident, media reported.

It has been alleged that the girl's family was opposed to their relation as Saxena was a Hindu.

NDTV reported that at around 9 pm on Thursday, he was attacked and beaten and then was slashed with a knife. Ankit's mother reportedly ran out of her home when she was told that he had been attacked and told the police that she saw her son being beaten and stabbed by his girlfriend's family.

Police have stepped up security in the area to avoid any further conflict in the area.Patna, Feb 3 (TheBiharPost/IBNS): Former Bihar chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi has put the BJP in fresh trouble by staking claims over 50 seats for assembly elections.



The next assembly election strangely is due in 2020.

We will be able to take important decision only if we contest elections on at least 50 seats, Manjhi, who heads the Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM), told a function in Patna on Saturday.

He added there would be two deputy chief ministers, one from the Dalit and the other from the Muslim community, if his government comes to power in the state.

He accused the ruling Nitish Kumar government of ignoring the interests of the minority community people in the state.

Like him, Rashtriya Lok Samata party (RLSP) which is led by union minister Upendra Kushwaha too has demanded 10 seats to contest the next Lok Sabha elections.

Last time the RLSP had won three LS seats out of four it had contested. Bihar has a total of 40 LS seats.

(thebiharpost.com, Image: Wikimedia Commons)Srinagar, Feb 3 (IBNS): Two Pakistan-trained LeT terrorists from Jammu and Kashmir were arrested soon after they returned to India via the Wagah-Attari border crossing in Punjab with valid passports and visas.

Baramulla Police,Army and CRPF have arrested two militants who had gone to Pakistan on valid Pakistani visa to obtain arms training there for undertaking terrorist activities in the Valley. They had obtained their Passports specifically for the said purpose, an official spokesman of the state police said on Saturday.

These militants of Lashkar-e-Toiba were nabbed immediately after returning via Wagah-Attari border before they could formally join the terrorist ranks here in Kashmir.

A police officer said, identifying them as Abdul Majeed Bhat and Mohammad Ashraf Mir, both are residents of Baramulla district.

According to police, the duo, on questioning revealed that they had undergone terrorist training in Pakistan along with large number of Pakistani boys and most of them were from Balochistan and as young as 10 years old.

The said terrorist camps are located near Burma Town, Islamabad ,Pakistan and being run by one terrorist commander operating under code name Hanzala Adanan and Omar .Other terrorists imparting training to young boys are operating with code names Osama,Naveed and Hataf. The arrested militants have been given Pakistani visas by Pakistan

High Commission in New Delhi, the spokesman said.

Police spokesman further said that for past couple of years police have unearthed several such modules who lure young boys to Pakistan to get trained and join militancy.

Several of these youth have been arrested and some of them were killed in gunfights, said the police.

"On February 4, 2017, two militants namely Azharuddin and Sajad Ahmad got killed in an gunfight in Amargarh, Sopore... both had gone to Pakistan on valid visas to obtain terror training, subsequently joined militancy here and got killed," the police official said.

"Suhaib Farooq Akhoon of Baramulla also visited Pakistan in August last year, acquired terrorist training in LeT terrorist camp, subsequently went underground and joined militant ranks and is currently active," the official said.

"One more militant, Abdul Rashid Bhat of Sopore was also arrested on July 17 last year by Baramulla police after he had also gone underground after obtaining training in Pakistan under similar circumstances," the police officer said.



(Reporting by Saleem Iqbal Qadri)Guwahati, Feb 3 (IBNS) : BJP has ended up its 15-year tie with the ruling Naga Peoples Front (NPF) in Nagaland and picked up new ally National Democratic Political Party (NDPP) for the upcoming assembly polls in the state.

Union Minister of State for Home, Kiren Rijiju, who is also BJP's poll in-charge for Nagaland, on Saturday said that BJP and newly formed regional political party NDPP will jointly contest in the assembly polls.

During a press conference held in Guwahati, Rijiju said that seat sharing between BJP and NDPP has already finalized and BJP will contest in 20 seats while NDPP in 40.

Rijiju told media: We tried to have an alliance with NPF, but we couldnt come into conclusion with the proper seat sharing arrangement. That is why we couldnt have any pre-poll alliance with NPF."

"So we have formally intern our alliance with the NDPP and we are very hopeful our alliance BJP and NDPP will secured absolute majority in the coming election we will form the next government," he added.

Rijiju further said that Nagaland is a very sensitive state and the Centre gives special attention and care to the Naga issues.

We understand and appreciate the sentiments being put forward by the Core Committee of Nagaland Tribal Hoho and Civil Organisations (CCNTCHOC), we have appealed all one not to boycott election and we are very greatful that major civil society groups have openly come out in support of election, Rijiju added.

BJP is a partner in the NPF led Democratic Alliance coalition government in Nagaland.

Former Nagaland CM and Lok Sabha MP Neiphiu Rio had recently resigned from NPF and joined the NDPP.

Days ago, 11 political parties including Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Congress, NPF, NDPP, Nagaland Congress, AAPN, NDPP, NCP, JD (U), NPP had declared boycott the assembly polls in the state in view of growing demand from the civil society groups, naga outfit NSCN (IM) and Naga National Political Groups (NNPGs) to defer the assembly polls, which is schedule on February 27 next.

The political parties had taken decision for boycott the election after NSCN (IM) and the Naga National Political Groups (NNPGs) asked the politicians of Nagaland not to file nomination.

But in recent development, apart from BJP, ruling NPF, Congress and NDPP have decided to contest in the poll.

On the other hand, no nomination was filed in the past 72 hours in Nagaland after the Election Commissioner had issued election notification in the state on Jan 31 last.

(Reporting by Hemanta Kumar Nath)Slight favourite Sell A Bit N (Jordan Stratton, $5.80) was wide early and sharp late Friday night (February 2), winning Yonkers Raceways $40,000 Filly and Mare Open Handicap Pace.

In play from post position No. 5, Sell A Bit N was four-deep at the outset, remaining out there into the first turn. She made the lead around All About Madi (George Brennan) before a :27.4 opening quarter-mile.

A pokey :30.1 second quarter (58-second intermission) would serve Sell A Bit N well in the chilly air. That, and a very weak, first-up effort by Sally Fletcher N (Greg Merton) going toward the 1:26.2 three-quarters.

It was pacesetter versus pocket-sitter for the marbles, with Sell A Bit N owning a length and a half lead into the lane. All About Madi edged out, took her shot, was somewhat difficult to straighten and missed by three-quarters of a length in 1:55.4. Annabeth (Brent Holland) was a rallying third, with Juxta Cowgirl (Dan Dube) and Mach It A Par (Jason Bartlett) settling for the minors.

For Sell A Bit N, an eight-year-old Down Under daughter of Julius Caesar owned by Von Knoblauch Stables and trained by Peter Tritton, the win was her first in three seasonal starts. The exacta (two wagering choices) paid $21.40, with the triple returning $162.50.

(With files from Yonkers Raceway)Assam boat accident: Police arrest six persons, detain three others | India reports 28,591 COVID cases, 338 deaths in last 24 hours | Nitish Kumar won't attend Chautala's rally in Haryana | MoS for External Affairs Meenakshi Lekhi to visit Portugal, Spain | UP Polls 2022: Priyanka Gandhi Vadra taking zone wise organisational meeting at Congress state officeNew York, Feb 3 (JEN): Stressing the importance of quality education for the future of young people and children, senior United Nations officials, including the head of its education agency and the UN youth envoy, called for cooperation to strengthen education and learning programmes in all corners of the world.

No single country or agency can tackle the challenges of demographics, persisting conflicts, unequal access of girls and women to education, radicalization by groups with vested interests or environment degradation, Audrey Azoulay, the Director-General of the UN Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), said in a Tweet (in French), referring to her participation at the Global Partnership for Education Financing Conference.

Partnership is the only way to make this possible, she added.

Convened by the Presidents of France and Senegal, in Dakar, the Conference seeks to raise funds to support education efforts in both humanitarian and non-humanitarian contexts. It is also the first time that a donor and a developing country are co-hosting the event.

Also speaking at the Conference, Jayathma Wickramanayake, the UN Secretary-Generals Envoy on Youth, highlighted the importance of empowering young people with the skills they would need to adapt in a fast changing work.

In a world of rapidly advancing digital technologies and artificial intelligence that will impact the outlook of the future of work, we have to rethink our approaches on skills development, said Ms. Wickramanayake.

Beyond traditional classroom interventions, investing in non-formal and informal learning is essential to developing skills that fit the world of tomorrow, she added.

With over half the global population under the age of 25, the world cannot afford to not invest in education, expressed Ms. Wickramanayake and urged leaders and policy makers to redouble their efforts to ensure that every young person can enjoy their universal right to education.

Photo: UNICEF/UNI203065/DickoNew York, Feb 3 (JEN): Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Friday made clear that the United Nations will not tolerate sexual harassment anytime, anywhere, within its ranks and laid out a five-point plan to ensure equality across the Organization, which he said was critical to tackle on the challenge of such behavior.

I reaffirm my total commitment to the UNs zero tolerance policy on sexual harassment, Guterres told the press at the Organizations Headquarters in New York.

Noting that like sexual abuse and sexual violence, sexual harassment is rooted in the historic power imbalances between men and women, the UN chief said he is well aware of the male-dominated culture that permeates governments, the private sector, international organizations and even areas of civil society.

This creates obstacles to upholding zero tolerance policies on sexual harassment, including here at the United Nations. I am determined to remove [those obstacles], he said.

Because equal rights and representation are so important in this regard, he launched a gender parity strategy at the UN, and for the first time in its history, the same number of women occupy senior management positions as men at the UN Secretariat; In fact, 23 women to 21 men.

This is a start, he stressed, urging equality at all levels and outlining some concrete steps to address sexual harassment, including taking every allegation seriously, past and present, and making sure all staff affected know what to do and where to go for help.

He said a new helpline for staff within the Secretariat who seek confidential advice will be operational by mid-February.

Guterres has also established a Task Force of leaders from across the UN system to step up efforts to tackle harassment and boost support for victims, including mandatory staff training on this issue.

He has also strengthened the protection of whistleblowers and reminded staff of their duty to call out sexual harassment and to support those affected.

A survey among Secretariat staff will be conducted soon to obtain better information on prevalence and reporting rates.

In this effort and beyond, my message is simple: we will not tolerate sexual harassment anytime, anywhere, he said. And we will continue to change the dynamic and put greater power into the hands of women to prevent and end sexual harassment and all abuse of power in the UN.

Russia-sponsored talks on Syria

The Secretary-General also addressed the topic of the Syrian political process and the Russia-sponsored Congress of the Syrian National Dialogue in Sochi, to which Mr. Guterres dispatched his Special Envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura.

The UN chief highlighted three key points from the final Sochi statement.

First, it embraced a vision of Syria for all Syrians  as reflected by the 12 living intra-Syrian principles put forward by de Mistura in Geneva late last year.

Second, the Congress affirmed that a Constitutional Committee should be formed under UN auspices in accordance with Security Council resolution 2254 (2015).

He said that there is an understanding that such a Committee should at the very least comprise the Government, opposition representatives in the intra-Syrian talks in Geneva, Syrian experts, civil society, independents, tribal leaders and women. It would also include adequate representation of Syrias ethnic and religious components.

Third, the Congress made it clear that a final agreement on the mandate, terms of reference, powers, rules of procedure, and selection criteria for the composition of the Constitutional Committee is to be reached in the UN-led talks in Geneva.

My Special Envoy will now draw on this Sochi outcome to meet our shared goal: full implementation of Security Council Resolution 2254 and the Geneva Communique, Guterres said.

Turning to the humanitarian situation in Syria, he noted that over the last two months, not a single convoy of life-saving relief has reached a besieged area  no medical supplies and no food.

He appealed for humanitarian access, strict respect for international humanitarian law and, in particular, the protection of civilians.

I call on the Government and opposition delegations and all States with influence to cooperate with my Special Envoy, he said, stressing that the UN-led process must move ahead in Geneva, credibly and seriously because we dont have a moment to lose.

UN Photo/Mark GartenNew York, Feb 3 (JEN): United Nations peacekeepers come from diverse cultures and speak different languages, but share a common purpose: the protection of vulnerable communities and the provision of support to countries struggling to move from conflict to peace.

Bangladesh is one of the largest contributors to UN peacekeeping operations. The South Asian nation first deployed uniformed personnel to serve with the Organization in 1988 when they were deployed to help monitor the armistice between Iran and Iraq. Over the past three decades, the contributions of these brave men and women in the countries in which they serve have been immense.

As of December 2017, there were 7,246 Bangladeshi troops and police personnel in 10 missions around the world. Bangladeshi peacekeepers work in various roles  some provide protection, others heal and design roads  but all serve under the blue flag to support the governments and peoples of the countries in which they serve.

In Haiti, an all-female Bangladeshi Formed Police Unit served with the UN mission, known as MINUSTAH, from 2015 until October 2017, when the mission completed its work. Pictured, the contingent at its departure ceremony. The 160-strong contingent focused on reconstruction efforts after the deadly earthquake in 2010.

UN peacekeepers from Bangladesh work in some of the worlds hotspots, including the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), and the Darfur region of Sudan. Above, peacekeepers on patrol in Bunia, Ituri Province, DRC. At least 132 Bangladeshi peacekeepers have made the ultimate sacrifice in the service of peace.

In the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Bangladeshi troops regularly patrol villages to ensure security. Above, a patrol commander from the Bangladeshi battalion meets with the chief of ADA village, in the Ituri Province of eastern DRC, during a routine security patrol. Bangladesh is currently the second-largest troop-contributing country to UN peacekeeping.

Members of the Bangladeshi contingents play different roles in UN peacekeeping missions around the world. Pictured, a UN peacekeeper from Bangladesh provides free medical consultations to residents of a community in the Central African Republic.

In 2017, Bangladesh sent two female combat pilots to the UN mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO)  Flight Lieutenant Nayma Haque and Flight Lieutenant Tamanna-E-Lutfi.

Bangladeshi engineers serving with the UN mission in South Sudan are leading efforts to improve a 78-kilometre stretch of road between Gumbo and Mangalla, on the artery between Juba and Bor. The road connects local communities, allowing them to more easily bring goods to the market.

Photo: MONUSCO/ForceImage: Websitegrab from The Guardian

Las Vegas, Feb 3 (IBNS): The man who sold bullets to Las Vegas shooter Stephen Paddock has been charged with selling ammunition without a licence, reports said.

Identified as Douglas Haig, local police said that his fingerprints were found on some of the unused bullets at the hotel room from where Paddock shot dead at least 58 people last October.

Earlier, Haig told reporters that he had nothing to do with the attack.

According to the dealer, Paddock bought 720 rounds of ammunition from him.

The Las Vegas shooting has been deemed the deadliest mass shooting in modern US history.

Haig, who is presently out on bail, is set for a preliminary hearing in Phoenix on Feb 15.

If found guilty, he can fail jail-term up to five years.

Image: Websitegrab from The GuardianEdmonton, Feb 3 (IBNS): Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has recently interacted with several people in the hall of Edmonton's MacEwan University but all questions were not at all pleasant for the PM, media reports said.

Trudeau had faced several tough questions from his countrymen and was interrupted numerous times in the course of the interaction.

A former soldier, who had lost a leg in Afghanistan, vented out his anger against the federal government's changes in pensions of the disabled people.

"I was prepared to be killed in action. What I wasnt prepared for, Mr. Prime Minister, is Canada turning its back on me" Brock Blaszczyk said.

Trudeau, keeping his cool, said the soldier's frustration and anger are justifiable.

Defending his government, Trudeau said the shift has changed from lump payments to long term benefits.

"We have significantly invested in services, rehabilitation support, investments in training and support for caregivers and families" Trudeau was quoted by Toronto Star.

"Why are we still fighting against certain veterans groups in court? Because they are asking for more than we are able to give right now, the PM added.

A woman, for instance, complained against the distinct treatment against the indigenous people. She said the indigenous people are facing racism.

The woman said: "Racism is alive and real right now in Canada. It is happening to Tina Fontaines family. It is happening to Colten Boushies family."

"What are you going to do for our communities because I dont see you doing a lot, and that kind of hurts my heart" she added.

Trudeau said the status quo is unacceptable.

Amid the tough and bitter questions, Trudeau was seen never losing cool but trying to answer all queries and questions put by the crowd.

The country will go to poll in 2019 where Trudeau is expected to face a challenge from New Democratic Party (NDP) chief Jagmeet Singh, who is the first non-White candidate of Sikh origin vying for the top post.Montreal, Feb 3 (IBNS): Quebec waitress, who was fired for allegedly not showing courteous behaviour, has been awarded $30,000 by Quebec's labour tribunal, media reports said.

Caroline Daunais was fired by Coco Frutti restuarant, where she was working, in April 2016.

Caroline had appealed to the tribunal alleging that the company had fired her for asking to clear the back payment.

The owner told the tribunal that Caroline was also fired for showing disrespecting to one of her colleagues and also rubbished the claims of back payments.

The restuarant owner even said all employees had problems with Caroline.

The judgement, overlooking the restuarant's allegations, stated all back payments had eventually been cleared.

Tribunal judge Christian Drolet told CTV News: "There is no reason to conclude that a comparable job was available or that she unreasonably withheld an offer of employment that she should reasonably have accepted.""Prevent Unauthorized Transactions in your demat / trading account Update your Mobile Number/ email Id with your stock broker / Depository Participant. Receive information of your transactions directly from Exchanges on your mobile / email at the end of day and alerts on your registered mobile for all debits and other important transactions in your demat account directly from NSDL/ CDSL on the same day." - Issued in the interest of investors." | "KYC is one time exercise while dealing in securities markets - once KYC is done through a SEBI registered intermediary (broker, DP, Mutual Fund etc.), you need not undergo the same process again when you approach another intermediary." | "No need to issue cheques by investors while subscribing to IPO. Just write the bank account number and sign in the application form to authorise your bank to make payment in case of allotment. No worries for refund as the money remains in investor's account."

www.indiainfoline.com is part of the IIFL Group, a leading financial services player and a diversified NBFC. The site provides comprehensive and real time information on Indian corporates, sectors, financial markets and economy. On the site we feature industry and political leaders, entrepreneurs, and trend setters. The research, personal finance and market tutorial sections are widely followed by students, academia, corporates and investors among others.Since the dawn of civilisation, humans have found something to complain about. But to be fair, some causes have been distinctly more worthy than others. From the quality of food in the college canteen to the fall of Communist Russia, the power of protest has always yielded results. However, there are some who took their right to protest to an ugly extreme. Here are some examples of things that should never have happened, no matter the cause.

1. When a Russian man nailed his testicles to Red Square in protest

Imgur

Back in 2013, performance artist Pyotr Pavlensky staged a protest about the 'apathy, political indifference and fatalism of Russian society' and in a painful act of protest he nailed his scrotum to cobblestones at Red Square. Pavlensky had a history of self-harming art, including sewing his lips together to protest against the jail sentences given to members of Pussy Riot and wrapping himself in barbed wire outside a Russian government building.

2. When Asylum-seekers 'sewed lips' at detention camp

At an Australian immigration detention centre in Papua New Guinea's Manus Island, asylum-seekers took part in protests where many swallowed razor blades, washing powder and sewed their lips in protest against detention.

Australia sends asylum-seekers who try to enter the country by boat to offshore detention centres on Papua New Guinea and Nauru in the Pacific with no prospect of being settled on the mainland, reports Al Jazeera.

3. Body Found Hanging In Jaipur Fort With Anti-Padmavati Slogans

Amid the protests over Sanjay Leela Bhansali's recently released Padmavati, a body was found hanging in Jaipur's Nahargarh fort with threat slogans written on nearby rocks. The slogans on one of the stones read Padmavati ka virodh (Opposing Padmavati), while another said Hum putle nahi jalate, latkate hain (we dont burn effigies, we kill).

4. Indian Villagers Stand In Water For Two Weeks

A bunch of farmers sat in knee-deep water for 10 days in a Madhya Pradesh village to protest against plans to increase a dam's level. The exterme form of protest caused many to developed skin and fungal infections.

The Jal Satyagraha was a movement by 30-odd farmers of Gogalgaon and neighbouring villages, located around 300km from Bhopal, to protest against the flooding of villages due to the governments decision to fill up the Omkareshwar dam up to 191 meters from 189 meters. The protesting farmers demanded that the district administration must compensate them with adequate money or alternate land at a safer place.

5. When Protestors in Thailand Splashed Their Own Blood On Government Building

Reuters

Protesters in Thailand set up tents solely for the purpose of collecting blood donations which they could stockpile for the purpose of splashing on various government sites. Organizations, like the Red Cross, expressed their concerns in light of possible health concerns due to mixing piles of donated blood to throw on things. The people wanted to make the point that the government was inefficient and without direction and so they took the gory step to make their voices heard.

6. Indian famers resort to eating their own faeces to get the governments attention

Indiatimes

Farmers of the drought-hit southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu (TN) resorted to consuming their own excreta after trying unsuccessfully for months to grab the Indian governments attention towards their plight. They had earlier resorted to some bizarre forms of protest, including holding the skulls of fellow farmers who had killed themselves out of desperation.

7. UK Man Shoves Nut With His Nose

twitter/David Sims

A man protesting against student debt completed the bizarre stunt of rolling a monkey nut seven miles to Downing Street using only his nose. Crawling on his hands and knees, Mark McGowannudged the nut over a kerb and up the steps to the famous black door of Number 10.

8. Manipuri Women Naked Protest

Nearly 14 years ago, on July 15, 12 naked middle-aged women carrying a white banner with Indian Army Rape Us painted red on it turned into icons of one the most extreme protests the country ever witnessed. It in the aftermath of the brutal rape, torture, mutilation and murder of 32-year-old Thangjam Manorama by the 17th Assam Rifles, the oldest paramilitary force of India.

9. Tibetans Set Themselves On Fire

Picture for representation

Self-immolations by Tibetans protesting Chinese domination has taken place on multiple occasions. Since last year there have been 148 confirmed and two disputed cases of self-immolations reported in Tibet. The Dalai Lama said he cannot be negative about the spate of self-immolations by Tibetans in China because it would hurt their families. The exiled spiritual leader says it was best for him to remain neutral on a "very, very delicate political issue".

10. Farmers spray milk, manure in Brussels

AFP

Farmers drove hundreds of tractors and a lone cow to the heart of the European Union bureaucracy, pelting police with bottles and chickens and dumping milk and manure onto the streets of Brussels in a protest against collapsing milk prices.

11. Artist Hangs Herself On Fish Hooks

REUTERS

To protest shark finning, or removing a sharks fin (used in delicacies like fin soup) and discarding the now-handicapped shark into the water to die, British performance artist Alice Newstead decided to pierce her skin with fishing hooks and hang by the hooks in a busy shopping area.The Bombay High Court on Thursday said it had not found any violation on part of the state in allowing actor Sanjay Dutt to walk out of jail eight months before the completion of his five-year sentence in the 1993 serial bomb blasts case.

A bench of Justices S C Dharamadhikari and Bharati Dangre observed that the state government had succeeded in backing its claims of impartiality in the case with valid documents from the Home department.

The court, thus, disposed of a Public Interest Litigation challenging the remission of Dutts sentence, and the frequent parole and furlough leaves granted to him while he was serving his sentence in the Yerwada prison in Pune.

reuters

The bench said,

We found nothing contrary in the records submitted by the state Home department and the explanation offered by the state. No violations or abuse of discretionary powers were detected."

However, the court added that the state must devise a scheme to ensure that all applications made by convicts for parole and furlough henceforth are decided upon expeditiously and in a transparent manner.

The bench added,

The public or the inmates themselves must not get the impression that the authorities grant favours in allowing parole and furlough."

bccl

The PIL claimed that while there were several other inmates who displayed exemplary conduct, yet Dutt was the only one whom the prison authorities favoured.

The state government, however, denied the charge.

On a previous hearing, it had submitted a chart of the number of days, the dates that Dutt remained out of jail on parole and furlough, and the reasons for having granted him such leave, to show that it had followed due procedure.

The bench too noted that none of the inmates from the Yerwada prison had made any allegations or complaints alleging that their rights were breached and that undue favours were granted to Dutt.

reuters

It cautioned that PILs must not target an individual. A Public Interest litigation must not become a public(ity) interest litigation, the bench said.

The allegations made in the PIL have not been substantiated. Thus, this matter deserves to be closed, the high court said.

Dutt was convicted for illegal possession and destruction of an AK-56 rifle in 1993 serial blasts case.

reuters

He spent a little over a year and four months in jail as an undertrial and about two-and-a-half years as a convict between June 2013 and February 2016. During the period, he remained out of jail for over five months on parole and furlough.

On February 25, 2016, he walked out of the jail, eight months and 16 days before completion of his five-year sentence, since the state remitted his sentence based on exemplary conduct displayed during his time in the jail.Amid the rising popularity and continued confusion over its legal status, social media giant Facebook has banned ads that promote initial coin offerings (ICOs), cryptocurrency like Bitcoin and binary options trading from its platforms, including Instagram, Audience Network and Messenger.

The new policy prohibits ads that promote financial products and services that are frequently associated with misleading or deceptive promotional practices, Facebook said in a statement.

Reuters

"We want people to continue to discover and learn about new products and services through Facebook ads without fear of scams or deception.

"That said, there are many companies who are advertising binary options, ICOs and cryptocurrencies that are not currently operating in good faith," said Rob Leathern, Product Management Director at Facebook.

ALSO READ: People Trying To Earn Quick Money Through Bitcoin Duped Of Rs 42 Lakh By Techie In Pune

The enforcement will begin to ramp up across Facebook platforms.

LinkedIn/Representational Image

"We will revisit this policy and how we enforce it as our signals improve," Leathern added. The social media platform is asking it over two billion-strong community to report content that violates its advertising policies.

"People can report any ad on Facebook by clicking on the upper right-hand corner of the ad," Facebook said.Three soldiers were killed and another injured after an avalanche in the Machil sector in north Kashmir's Kupwara district on February 2. The avalanche hit an army post near the Line of Control, defence ministry sources told news agency IANS.

Rescue operations were launched immediately, and all four taken to the next nearest post on foot, but three of them - Havaldar Kamlesh Singh, 39, Naik Balveer, 33 and Sepoy Rajinder, 25 - succumbed to their injuries. All three were from Rajasthan.

afp/representational image

Defence Ministry sources said the incident took place in Machil sector around 11.20 a.m. when four soldiers of a patrol came under the snow.

afp/representational image

Rescue operations were launched immediately, and all four extricated and taken to the next nearest post on foot, but three of them - Havaldar Kamlesh Singh, 39, Naik Balveer, 33 and Sepoy Rajinder, 25 - succumbed to their injuries.

All three hailed from Rajasthan.

The LoC divides Jammu and Kashmir between India and Pakistan.The controversy around period drama film Padmaavat does not seem to die down. First, the protests took media by the storm, and now a U-Turn act will do the same. Read more

Here's more top news of the day:





1) 3 Soldiers Killed After Avalanche Hits Army Camp In Jammu And Kashmir's Kupwara

afp/representational image

Three soldiers were killed and another injured after an avalanche in the Machil sector in north Kashmir's Kupwara district on February 2. The avalanche hit an army post near the Line of Control, defence ministry sources told news agency IANS. Read more

2) UP Government Goes Full Throttle, 15 Encounters In 48 Hours As CM Yogi Tightens Law And Order

bccl/representational image

As many as 24 wanted criminals were arrested and one gangster killed in 15 police encounters reported from 10 districts of the state in the past 48 hours on Friday evening. Read more





3) Hospital Negligence At Peak In Telangana, Rats Nibble On Dead Baby's Face

representational image

The healthcare system of this country is in shambles. Rats and other vermins nibbled the face of a dead baby kept in a morgue temporarily in Telangana. Read more

4) US Air Force Chief Flies India's LCA 'Tejas' Aircraft In Jodhpur

Twitter / Indian Air Force

Chief of Staff of US Air Force, General David L Goldfein, reached India on Thursday. He flew India's indigenous light combat aircraft, the Tejas. He took off from the Jodhpur Air Force Station. Read more

5) Government Has Closed 50 Lakh Zero-Balance Jan Dhan Accounts So Far. Here's Why

reuters/representational image

The government told Parliament on Friday that 49.50 lakh Jan Dhan accounts have been closed till December 20, 2017. At least 50% of the accounts being in Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and Rajasthan. Read moreIndonesia is working hard to make the country 'moral'. Just a few days ago, reports surfaced that the country may outlaw sex outside marriage.

In a more recent report, Indonesia is about to publish a medical guide where it has listed homosexuality as a mental disorder, the Health Ministry said on Friday.

According to the guide, lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transsexuals community are at risk of mental disorders owing to their sexual orientation, the Ministry's Director of Prevention and Control for Mental Problems told Efe news.

The guide is based on two reports -- one drafted in 2016 by the Indonesian Psychiatrists Association (PDSKJI) and the other by the Health Ministry last year.

The PDSKJI report said "gays and bisexuals were at risk of emotional problems such as depression owing to identity crises while transsexuals are susceptible to mental diseases".

It also recommended certain rights for the LGBT group such as access to treatment and medical awareness.

The Ministry document stated that "homosexuality was against the ethos of the country".

The Indonesian Parliament is currently discussing an amendment to the penal code to criminalize homosexuality in the country.

Homosexuality is legal in Indonesia, except in the Aceh province, in Sumatra island, where the Islamic Sharia law is in force.An annual census of monarch butterflies overwintering along Californias coast reveals that populations in western North America are at their lowest point in five years, despite recovery efforts. Volunteers with the Xerces Societys Western Monarch Thanksgiving Count visited more sites this past year than have ever been counted since the survey began in 1997, yet they tallied fewer than 200,000 monarchs.This years numbers indicate a continuing decline in the monarch population, noted Sarina Jepsen, the Xerces Societys endangered species program director. Two decades ago, more than 1.2 million monarchs were recorded from far fewer coastal sites, and just last year nearly 300,000 monarchs were observed at almost the same number of sites. Population estimates at individual sites also suggest that the western monarch population has continued to shrink. Of the 15 sites which have been monitored annually for more than two decades, 11 had lower counts than last year.Counts at some of the states largest sites were dramatically lower, said Emma Pelton, conservation biologist with the Xerces Society. Pismo Beach State Park was down by 38%, a private site in Big Sur was down by 50%, and the Monarch Butterfly Sanctuary in Pacific Grove was down 57%, from 17,100 to just 7,350 butterflies. The few sites in which monarch numbers remained stable or increased compared to 2016, include Natural Bridges State Park, Moran Lake, and Lighthouse Field State Park, all in Santa Cruz County.Time To Worry About A Market Correction? Taurus Trading LLC - Sat Sep 11, 3:00PM CDT Is S&P 500 starting a bigger sell off or just a pull back buy?

Pope: Aim to counter fundamentalist violence with schooling AP - Sat Sep 11, 2:51PM CDT VATICAN CITY (AP)  Unchecked poverty and ignorance help fundamentalist violence to take hold easily, Pope Francis said as he urged fellow religious leaders and others to counter the phenomenon by promoting... $SPX : 4,458.58 (-0.77%) $DOWI : 34,607.72 (-0.78%) $IUXX : 15,440.75 (-0.77%)

Divided over talks with Spain, Catalonia's separatists rally AP - Sat Sep 11, 2:11PM CDT BARCELONA, Spain (AP)  Catalan separatists held their first major mass gathering since the start of the pandemic on Saturday, trying to offer a display of unity despite the divisions in their ranks... $SPX : 4,458.58 (-0.77%) $DOWI : 34,607.72 (-0.78%) $IUXX : 15,440.75 (-0.77%)

Merkel calls migrant push at EU's border 'unacceptable' AP - Sat Sep 11, 10:41AM CDT WARSAW, Poland (AP)  German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Saturday that she found it unacceptable that refugees were being used to apply pressure to Poland and other European Union members on the border... $SPX : 4,458.58 (-0.77%) $DOWI : 34,607.72 (-0.78%) $IUXX : 15,440.75 (-0.77%)

Serbs protest against lithium mining, other eco problems AP - Sat Sep 11, 10:15AM CDT BELGRADE, Serbia (AP)  Several thousand people protested in Serbia on Saturday demanding a ban on planned lithium mining in the Balkan country as well as a resolution to scores of other environmental... $SPX : 4,458.58 (-0.77%) $DOWI : 34,607.72 (-0.78%) $IUXX : 15,440.75 (-0.77%)

Polish medical workers march for better pay, conditions AP - Sat Sep 11, 9:55AM CDT WARSAW, Poland (AP)  Large numbers of doctors, nurses and other medical workers marched in Warsaw on Saturday to demand higher wages and an improvement in working conditions made more difficult by the... $SPX : 4,458.58 (-0.77%) $DOWI : 34,607.72 (-0.78%) $IUXX : 15,440.75 (-0.77%)

Grains recover on USDA reports, cattle freefall Sidwell Strategies - Fri Sep 10, 6:12PM CDT Market slippage reassess risk levelsAirbnb is a platform for individuals to rent out their primary residences as lodgings for travelers. Renters typically seek accommodations with a homey feel that hotels cannot provide, while most hosts want to rent out their homes to supplement their income. The majority of its revenue comes from service fees from bookings charged to both guests and hosts.

Airbnb raised $3.5 billion in its initial public offering on Dec. 10 at a fully diluted valuation of around $47.3 billion, debuting on the Nasdaq under the ticker ABNB and pricing its IPO at $68 a share. The company reported revenues of $1.34 billion last quarter, down nearly 19% from the same period a year ago. Nonetheless, it disclosed $219 million in net income despite primarily turning net losses in the past.

The Sharing Economy

The sharing economy is a commercial or economic model often referred to as a peer-to-peer economy. This model allows buyers and sellers to conduct their business more easily by sharing human and physical resources. This includes the collaborative consumption of goods and services of shared ownership and value.

Companies in the sharing economy don't provide individuals directly with goods and services, but make their money by connecting buyers and sellers. This model has the potential for continued revenue growth. Both eBay and Craigslist have taken advantage of the peer-to-peer business model for more than a decade. Newer companies like Uber, Lyft, and Airbnb have modeled their companies to meet a variety of consumer demands.

Read on to learn more about how Airbnb has exploited this business model to become the behemoth it is, and about how the company makes money.

Key Takeaways The sharing economy is a commercial or economic model often referred to as a peer-to-peer economy.

Airbnb connects travelers seeking affordable lodgings with hosts who offer their properties as short-term rentals.

Renters are charged a nonrefundable service fee of under 14.2% based on the listing.

Hosts are also charged a fee of no more than 3% for every completed booking.

Airbnb: A Brief History

The idea for Airbnb evolved after its founders, Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia, put an air mattress in the living room of their San Francisco apartment, turning it into a makeshift bed and breakfast. The pair rented the space out to travelers as a way to offset the high cost of rent. In 2008, the two, along with Nathan Blecharczyk, developed a website for short-term rentals that would eventually become Airbnb.

The company went through a few major leadership changes in 2018. Airbnb announced the hiring of Dave Stephenson as its chief financial officer (CFO) after Laurence Tosi left the company in 2018. Airbnb also appointed its first chief operating officer (COO), Belinda Johnson.

The company began to raise capital in 2009. Several years later, it expanded into the international market, opening offices in the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Spain, Russia, and Brazil. The company also offers other services including:

Airbnb Experiences: Renters can take part in activities like cooking classes, tours, and adventures.  

Renters can take part in activities like cooking classes, tours, and adventures.  Airbnb Collections: Renters can use this section to find properties that can be used for special trips or other occasions. These listings include full homes, private rooms with either private or ensuite bathrooms.  

Renters can use this section to find properties that can be used for special trips or other occasions. These listings include full homes, private rooms with either private or ensuite bathrooms.  Airbnb Plus: This section features homes that are highly rated and come with standard amenities.  

As a conduit between hosts and travelers, Airbnb provides an established marketplace platform where both hosts and travelers can safely exchange goods and services. In a peer-to-peer model such as Airbnb, an in-depth review system adds value to prospective hosts and guests looking to accommodate their lodging needs. In online marketplaces, participants trust reviews, allowing individuals to safely choose quality products rather than purchasing lemons.

How Airbnb Makes Money

Airbnb has more than seven million listings in more than 200 countries. The site has more than 150 million users, with an average of six renters checking into an Airbnb-listed property every second.

The primary source of Airbnbs revenue comes from service fees from bookings charged to both guests and hosts. Depending on the size of the reservation, guests are required to pay a nonrefundable service fee based on the type of listingusually under 14.2%. A more expensive reservation results in lower service fees for guests because families or groups with larger reservations can save money for other travel expenses.

Hosts are also charged a 3% fee with every completed booking to cover the processing of guest payments. This fee may be higher for Airbnb Plus listings. When a reservation is booked, guests pay the service feeunless the host cancels or retracts the listing. If the reservation is altered, Airbnb adjusts service fees to accommodate users.

Taxes

Users are also subject to a value-added tax (VAT)a tax assessed on the final sale of goods and servicesin the European Union (EU), Switzerland, Norway, Iceland, and South Africa in addition to Airbnb's service fees. Guests in the EU are also subject to taxes based on the rate found in the guests home country.

Guests are also subject to exchange rates if they pay for bookings in a different currency. Rates are determined by Airbnb. Hosts are also subject to a value-added tax which is deducted from income earned from booking reservations.

Airbnb IPO?

Airbnb has filed its prospectus to go public, on Nov. 16, 2020 and debuted on the Nasdaq under the ticker ABNB on Dec. 10 that same year. The company priced its initial public offering at $68 a share, up from its original plan of $44 to $50 per share, giving it a valuation of $47.3 billion on a fully diluted basis. Airbnb raised #3.5 in its IPO, up from the $2.5 billion expected.

Airbnb saw its bookings plummet and revenue tumble in 2020 as the coronavirus pandemic shut down global travel. In May, the company cut a quarter of its staff as reservations were down 70% from the prior year. However, Airbnb bounced back over the summer and reported that bookings were down only 30% in June compared with the same month in 2019. The surge in demand was driven largely by travelers seeking nearby vacation rentals to escape cities and take advantage of work-from-home policies.

Airbnb debuted on the Nasdaq on Dec. 10.

Airbnb priced its IPO at $68 per share, giving it a valuation of $47.3 billion on a fully diluted basis.

Challenges to Airbnb

Lawmakers and the hotel industry have been concerned that long-term rental units are being converted into de facto hotelsthus driving prices in the rental market and increasing competition for hotels. The $1.1 trillion hotel industry has an annual budget of $5.6 million dedicated to lobbying. In 2016, the American Hotel and Lodging Association presented a multipronged, national campaign approach at the local, state, and federal level, according to the New York Times, and effectively declared war on Airbnb.

The Bottom Line

The sharing economy continues to experience rapid expansion, thanks to more accessible transportation and lodging. Companies like Airbnb have taken advantage of technological innovations to create platforms that connect individuals to exchange everyday needs. Even though it doesn't directly offer goods or services to individuals, its platform connects individuals who want to transact business with each other. Due to a large number of bookings, Airbnbs revenue continues to grow while only charging a minimal service fee.What Is a Clean Bill of Lading?

A clean bill of lading is a document that declares there was no damage to or loss of goods during shipment. The clean bill of lading is issued by the product carrier after thoroughly inspecting all packages for any damage, missing quantities, or deviations in quality.

The clean bill of lading is a type of ocean bill of lading, which is a contract for shipment between a shipper, carrier, and a receiver for goods shipped overseas by water.

A bill of lading is a legal document between a shipper and carrier detailing the type, quantity, and destination of the goods being carried. The bill of lading also serves as a receipt of shipment when the goods are delivered at the predetermined destination.

Understanding Clean Bills of Lading

A clean bill of lading is one type of bill of lading signed by the carrier and the shipper. It guarantees the goods received and placed on the vessel are in good condition with no apparent damage or defect. The clean bill of lading also guarantees the quantity of goods are as ordered before the goods are actually shipped.

The carrier inspects the quantity of goods in the shipment, the packaging, and any other details pertaining to the freight before issuing the clean bill of lading. If there are any anomalies in the shipment, the carrier issues a claused or foul bill of lading to accompany the freight. Any and all damages, defects, and/or changes in quantity are outlined in the claused or foul bill.

A carrier will issue a claused or foul bill of lading if there are quantities missing from the shipment or there is some damage to the cargo.

Since the receiver has no other way to verify the shipment before it arrives, the clean bill of lading is the only way to ensure the goods are delivered as per the original agreement with the shipper.

Claused Bills of Lading

Importers can refuse a shipment of goods if there is no accompanying clean bill of lading, or if a claused bill of lading comes with the shipment. That's because the entity that receives the goodsthe importerpays the shipper for a certain quantity of goods in a specific condition. If there are goods missing and/or they are damaged, this will cause a loss to the importer. This party can refuse acceptance. They may also refuse it because they will not receive funds for the shipment if a bank has issued a letter of credit.

This means a clean bill of lading must often be issued to fulfill the requirements set forth in letters of credit. Many purchasers rely on letters of credit to pay for imports and banks may refuse to supply the funds if a claused bill of lading is presented. A claused or foul bill is issued when the received product is damaged or does not meet specifications.What Is a Ground Lease?

A ground lease is an agreement in which a tenant is permitted to develop a piece of property during the lease period, after which the land and all improvements are turned over to the property owner.

How a Ground Lease Works

A ground lease indicates that improvements will be owned by the property owner unless an exception is created and stipulates that all relevant taxes incurred during the lease period will be paid by the tenant. Because a ground lease allows the landlord to assume all improvements once the lease term expires, the landlord may sell the property at a higher rate. Ground leases are also often called land leases, as landlords lease out the land only.

Although they are used primarily in the commercial space, ground leases differ greatly from other types of commercial leases like those found in shopping complexes and office buildings. These other leases typically don't assign the lessee to take on responsibility for the unit. Instead, these tenants are charged rent in order to operate their businesses. A ground lease involves leasing land for a long-term periodtypically for 50 to 99 yearsto a tenant who constructs a building on the property.

A 99-year lease is generally the longest possible lease term for a piece of real estate property. It used to be the longest possible under common law. However, 99-year leases continue to be common but are no longer the longest possible under the law.

The ground lease defines who owns the land, and who owns the building, and improvements on the property. Many landlords use ground leases as a way to retain ownership of their property for planning reasons, to avoid any capital gains, and to generate income and revenue. Tenants generally assume responsibility for any and all expenses. This includes construction, repairs, renovations, improvements, taxes, insurance, and any financing costs associated with the property.

Tenants generally assume responsibility for all financial aspects in a ground lease including rent, taxes, construction, insurance, and financing.

Example of a Ground Lease

Ground leases are often used by franchises and big box stores, as well as other commercial entities. The corporate headquarters will normally purchase the land, and allow the tenant/developer to construct and use the facility. There's a good chance that a McDonald's, Starbucks, or Dunkin Donuts near you are bound by a ground lease.

In July 2016, New York-based investment firm AllianceBernstein purchased a 99-year ground lease from BLDG Management for New York City's George Washington Hotel in a deal worth $100.4 million. BLDG originally purchased the hotel when it was in foreclosure in 1994. Although the building was used by the Manhattan-based School of Visual Arts as a student dormitory, BLDG filed plans in April 2016 to restore the property to a hotel with a restaurant, bar, and ground-level stores. The property currently operates as the Freehand Hotel, a boutique hotel, in New York City's Flatiron District.

Some of the fundamentals of any ground lease should include:

Terms of the lease

Rights of both the landlord and tenant

Conditions on financing

Use provisions

Fees

Title insurance

Default

Subordinated vs. Unsubordinated Ground Leases

Ground lease tenants often finance improvements by taking on debt. In a subordinated ground lease, the landlord agrees to a lower priority of claims on the property in case the tenant defaults on the loan for improvements. In other words, a subordinated ground lease-landlord essentially allows for the property deed to act as collateral in the case of tenant default on any improvement-related loan. For this type of ground lease, the landlord may negotiate higher rent payments in return for the risk taken on in case of tenant default. This may also benefit the landlord because constructing a building on his land increases the value of his property.

In contrast, an unsubordinated ground lease lets the landlord retain the top priority of claims on the property in case the tenant defaults on the loan for improvements. Because the lender may not take ownership of the land if the loan goes unpaid, loan professionals may be hesitant to extend a mortgage for improvements. Although the landlord retains ownership of the property, they typically have to charge the tenant a lower amount of rent.

Advantages and Disadvantages of a Ground Lease

A ground lease can benefit both the tenant and the landlord.

Tenant Benefits

The ground lease lets a tenant build on property in a prime location they could not themselves purchase. For this reason, large chain stores such as Whole Foods and Starbucks often utilize ground leases in their corporate expansion plans.

A ground lease also does not require the tenant to have a down payment for securing the land, as purchasing the property would require. Therefore, less equity is involved in acquiring a ground lease, which frees up cash for other purposes and improves the yield on utilizing the land.

Any rents paid on a ground lease may be deductible for state and federal income taxes, meaning a reduction in the tenant's overall tax burden.

Landlord Benefits

The landowner gains a steady stream of income from the tenant while retaining ownership of the property. A ground lease typically contains an escalation clause that guarantees increases in rent and eviction rights that provide protection in case of default on rent or other expenses.

There are also tax savings to a landlord who uses ground leases. If they sell a property to a tenant outright, they will realize a gain on the sale. By executing this type of lease, they avoid having to report any gains. But there may be some tax implications on the rent they receive.

Depending on the provisions put into the ground lease, a landlord may also be able to retain some control over the property including its use and how it is developed. This means the landlord can approve or deny any changes to the land.

Tenant Disadvantages

Because landlords may require approval before any changes are made, the tenant may encounter roadblocks in the use or development of the property. As a result, there may be more restrictions and less flexibility for the tenant.

Costs associated with the ground lease process may be higher than if the tenant were to purchase a property outright. Rents, taxes, improvements, permitting, as well as any wait times for landlord approval, can all be costly.

Landlord Disadvantages

Landlords who don't put in the proper provisions and clauses in their leases stand to lose control to tenants whose properties undergo development. This is why it's always important for both parties to have their leases reviewed before signing.

Depending on where the property is located, using a ground lease may have higher tax implications for a landlord. Although they may not realize a gain from a sale, rent is considered income. So rent is taxed at the ordinary rate, which may increase the tax burden.By Gordon Deegan

The number of Enterprise Ireland employees earning more than 100,000 doubled last year to 49, after ratification of the Lansdowne Road public pay agreement.

The figures were provided by Enterprise Ireland in response to a Freedom of Information request.

They show that 33 permanent employees now earn 100,000 to 150,000. That represents a major jump on the numbers in that bracket in 2016.

Two employees, including chief executive Julie Sinnamon, earn 150,000 to 200,000, the figures show.

In 2017 the salaries of 18 existing staff increased and exceeded 100,000 as a result of approved pay restoration in line with the Public Services Stability Agreement 2013-2018  the Lansdowne Road Agreement, said Enterprise Ireland.

The Lansdowne Road Agreement pay restoration will mean an increase in workers in state agencies earning over 100,000.

Enterprise Ireland said the number of overseas staff being paid more than 100,000 increased from 10 to 14 last year.

Last year, Enterprise Ireland client companies created 19,332 jobs with 65% of employment located outside Dublin. Net new jobs totalled 10,309, bringing to 209,338 the number of employees in companies supported by the agency.

The figures also showed that Enterprise Ireland spent almost 23m, in 2016, on operating its global network of 32 offices. The running of its London office was the costliest, with capital and operating costs amounting to 2.7m.Vodafone and Liberty Global are looking to redraw their European spheres of interest, with the mobile carrier saying it wants to buy competing assets in the region as cable pioneer John Malone retrenches.

Vodafone didnt disclose the specific markets but said the talks concern continental Europe, ruling out the UK where both companies are headquartered.

The companies operations overlap in Ireland, Germany, Czech Republic, Hungary, and Romania.

Germany is by far the biggest continental market where they are both major broadband providers, and Vodafone is the second-biggest mobile operator there after Deutsche Telekom.

The talks could have implications for Deutsche Telekom, which has also been expanding through acquisitions. Liberty Global in December agreed to sell its Austrian business to Deutsche Telekom for 1.9bn.

John Malones Liberty Global is best known in the Republic and the North as the owner of cable and broadband and mobile phone provider Virgin Media, as well as the cluster of TV stations under the TV3 name, which are to be rebranded as Virgin Media Television.

Liberty Global and Vodafone jointly run their operations in the Netherlands.

Discussions are at an early stage and there is no certainty they will lead to a deal, Vodafone said in a statement. Vodafone said the companies arent talking about an outright combination.

Liberty Global shares jumped as much as 6.8% on news the companies were in talks about asset swaps. Vodafone rose as much as 4.4%. A deal would follow other investments by chief executive Vittorio Colao in fixed networks, to offer customers more services as data use surges.

Mr Colao said last March that the company would consider expanding its alliance with Mr Malone once their Dutch venture, started in late 2016, was proven a success.

The companies have held off-and-on discussions for years, though both sides have played down chances of a full merger. It would almost be a surprise if we heard there werent talks, said Kester Mann, an analyst at CCS Insight.

One obstacle to a broader deal has been valuation. In the past year, Vodafone has gained 14% in London trade, giving it a market value of 58.6bn (70bn), while Liberty Globals US-traded stock is up 6.1%, with a value of 24.5bn.

Bloomberg, Irish ExaminerBy Eamon Quinn

The chances of an election this year have increased significantly, a leading analyst has said, after new exchequer figures showed tax revenues from income tax and Vat sales over Christmas had flowed into the exchequer.

If the Government wants to have an election, it is certainly a good time to have one as now all the economic numbers show the economy becoming hotter, said Alan McQuaid, chief economist at Merrion Capital. The first exchequer figures of the year showed overall tax revenues had climbed to just over 5bn in January, an increase of almost 5% from January 2017.

The puzzling underperformance of income tax revenues for much of last year was transformed in the first month of 2018 into the most robust growth performer, to bring in 1.75bn, or 6.6% more than in January 2017, the Department of Finance said.

The income tax performance will likely ease the jitters of some officials who had worried over the strange under-performance of the tax source in early 2017, at a time when receipts ought to have been booming as the number of jobs increased amid the economic recovery.

Vat brings in more revenue in January than any single month because it accounts for the key Christmas spending months of November and December. It again performed this year  with revenues from the tax source rising 5.7% from a year earlier, to over 2.44bn in the month.

The Vat figures will likely ease some observers fears that the slump in the value of sterling against the euro following Britains vote to leave the EU would drive consumers to cross-border shopping and online for their Christmas purchases.

The Department of Finance last year repeatedly said there was no evidence the surge in the euro had led to any significant rise in cross-border shopping. The department described the growth in Januarys Vat receipts as strong. But one Brexit-related effect showed up in motor tax revenues, which raised 87m in January, down by 9m from a year earlier.

At 478m, the third richest source of tax revenues in the month, excise duties, were up in January by a marginal 2.3%, the department said.

With the bulk of corporation tax receipts collected in the later months of the year, Januarys take from the profits tax told little at this early stage about their likely performance. Corporation tax receipts last year soared as the exchequer tapped the huge rise in profits reported by the multinationals based in Ireland, including Apple and Microsoft.

Last month, Finance Department officials said there were some concentration issues with corporation tax because 40%  equivalent to around 3.28bn of the 8.2bn the exchequer took in from the tax last year  was paid by only 10 companies.

The international tax affairs of multinationals have again been thrust into the unwelcome international spotlight, with European governments and US president Donald Trump questioning Irelands tax regime.

The explosion in Irelands corporation tax receipts from 2015 has coincided with moves by multinationals to shore up their global tax arrangements, involving transfers of huge amounts of intellectual property rights into their Irish-based firms.

At a panel in Davos last month, Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe faced a barrage of criticism over the States tax set-up.Vodafone has moved to quash media speculation of a major takeover, saying it is in early-stage discussions regarding the acquisition of just some of Liberty Global's European assets.

The announcement comes after rumours that Vodafone was considering a full-blown merger with the firm - a point it clarified on Friday.

"Vodafone confirms that it is in early-stage discussions with Liberty Global regarding the potential acquisition of certain overlapping continental European assets owned by Liberty Global," Vodafone said in a statement.

"There is no certainty that any transaction will be agreed, nor as to the terms, timing or form of any transaction.

"Vodafone is not in discussion with Liberty Global regarding a combination of both companies."

The news comes nearly two years after the two firms sealed a deal to merge operations in a joint venture that would bring together Vodafone's mobile operation with Liberty Global's Ziggo broadband network.

Liberty Global is controlled by US cable tycoon John Malone, although it is focused on Europe.

Vodafone was one of the biggest risers on the FTSE 100 on Friday, up 2.38% or 5.1p at 219.5p.

But the company said earlier this week that its existing joint venture with Liberty Global had been weighing on top-line growth.

The telecoms company on Thursday reported a 3.6% fall in third-quarter revenues to 11.8bn for the three months to December 31, after a drop in its European and Africa, Middle East & Asia Pacific (AMAP) divisions, which fell 2.8% and 5.6% respectively.

The decline was pinned on the "negative impact from the deconsolidation of Vodafone Netherlands" following the creation of its joint venture VodafoneZiggo, as well as foreign exchange rate movements.

Stripped of those impacts, organic service revenues grew 1.1% to 10.2bn but still marked a slowdown from 1.3% growth in the previous quarter.

Growth in its European business also slowed due to the "drag" from regulation and UK handset financing, Vodafone said.

But it added that quarterly trading was in line with expectations and reiterated forecasts for a 10% jump in full-year underlying earnings to between 14.75bn and 14.95bn, on an organic basis.

- PAUpdate 10pm: The Dublin Region Homeless Executive says the man found dead on a street in Dublin today had not been in contact with homeless services since 2011.

They have offered their condolences to his friends and family and say they won't be commenting further at this time.

The body of the man in his 50s was found at Ryders Row in Dublin 1 this morning.

It is the first death of a rough sleeper in 2018.

Anthony Flynn from Inner City Helping Homeless says more need to be done.

He said: "There is a concern for safety, we need extra beds, we need extra facilities, we need wrap-around support services for individuals who are rough sleeping."

The scene at Ryders Row where a body of a man was found off Parnell Street in Dublin's north inner city. Photo Gareth Chaney Collins.

Update 6.05pm Inner City Helping Homeless says the government has questions to answer about why people are still dying on our streets.

It is after the body of a homeless man in his 50s was found in Dublin 1 this morning.

He is the first reported death of a rough sleeper in 2018 after a number of deaths in 2017.

Anthony Flynn from Inner City Helping homeless says the trend cannot be allowed to continue this year.

He said: "The big question asked is: was this individual offered a bed over the last number of nights from the Dublin region homeless executive or has he been accessing any other type of services through the homeless system?

"The bigger question is: was there beds empty in the system last night and if there was why were they empty and why are people not accessing them?"

Earlier: Homeless man found dead on the streets of Dublin

Gardai have confirmed that a man's body has been found near Parnell Street in Dublin this morning.

It is understood that the man was sleeping rough and it is the first death of a homeless person in Ireland this year.

Gardai have preserved the scene, which is just yards away from one of the capital's busiest streets, for a forensic examination.

Ryder's Row in Dublin. Pic via Google Maps.

Inner City Helping Homeless have responded to the tragic death, saying: "As temperatures fell below freezing last night it's a tragedy to know someone died alone in a sleeping bag on the streets of the city.

"The man was found in a sleeping bag on Ryder's Row near Parnell Street. This death once again highlights the question of why someone would rather sleep on the streets than in emergency accommodation provided by the DRHE.

"Trust in the hostel system is still a huge issue as many feel safer on the streets than they do in State-provided accommodation. When that is the case there are serious questions to be asked. It cannot be socially acceptable to go into another year of people dying on our streets."

ICHH CEO Anthony Flynn said it shows the harsh reality of homelessness.

He said: "Last night's weather conditions were extremely cold and no person should be in a position where they have to sleep rough.

"The question needs to be asked how many beds were left empty and why this person felt the need to sleep rough. The system is continuously failing."

- Digital DeskA leading Catholic cleric has said his office was not consulted over a decision to deny former president of Ireland Mary McAleese access to a conference in the Vatican.

The Voices of Faith group said the former head of state was one of two names not approved after a list of attendees was sent to a senior cleric in the Holy See.

Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin said he first heard that Mrs McAleese had been excluded when she told him in person.

"Neither Archbishop Martin nor his offices were consulted by the Vatican in relation to this matter," a spokeswoman for the Archdiocese said.

"Archbishop Martin has consistently noted that World Meeting of Families, due to take place in Dublin later this year, will be an inclusive event, open to all families and family members."

Voices of Faith's Why Women Matter conference, in its fifth year, is the only event linked to International Women's Day (IWD) ever held at the Vatican.

A spokeswoman for the group said they still had no explanation about why Mrs McAleese was not cleared to take part.

Chantal Goetz, executive director of Voices of Faith, said: "It was disappointing to realise, on IWD of all days, these women who have accomplished so much in their communities could be turned away from respectfully sharing their stories and experiences as Catholics.

"This event allows us to not only celebrate the wonderful work Catholic women are doing across the globe, but also create discussion and dialogue on the current power and leadership structures of our Church today."

It is understood Mrs McAleese has written to the Pope on the issue.

It is not unusual for a senior Vatican official to vet a list of attendees and speakers for conferences.

Voices of Faith was set up to empower and advocate for Catholic women to be involved in decision-making in the church.

It sent a list of names of speakers and attendees for its March 8 conference and a list was sent back with two names not included - Mrs McAleese and Ssenfuka Juanita Warry, who runs a non-profit organisation in Uganda, where to be identified as gay or lesbian can be life-threatening.

Voices of Faith have decided to move the conference from the Casina Pio in the Holy See to the Jesuit Curia in Rome, outside the Vatican.

Mrs McAleese was originally asked to take part in a panel discussion but has since been asked to be the keynote speaker.

A spokeswoman for Voices of Faith said it was in correspondence with Cardinal Kevin Farrell over Vatican approvals for attendees but that it did not receive an explanation for the two women not being on the returned list.

The women's group states that it believes a key solution to many problems facing the Catholic Church lies in diversity of thought, expertise and education at the leadership level.

It says women and lay people could bring these skills if they were more welcomed.

The Vatican press office, the Catholic Communications office in Ireland and Cardinal Farrell, the Prefect of the Vatican Dicastery for Laity, the Family and Life, did not respond to request for comment.

- PAMass-goers are being advised not to receive Communion hosts on the tongue to help reduce the spread of flu.

They are also being encouraged to nod or bow instead of shaking hands in the "exchange of peace".Update 3.15pm: Ireland has been "humiliated" by the EU, Nigel Farage said.

The former Ukip leader called for a eurosceptic mobilisation to win votes off pro-EU politicians in the next European elections and said there was a democratic deficit in the national debate.

During his Dublin visit he recalled the austerity of the post-2008 European bailout of the Irish state and urged citizens to rebel against Brussels.

The MEP said: "What on earth is going on in the politics of this country?

"How much more humiliated can the Irish nation be than for years being run by the Troika?"

Ireland's spending plans were scrutinised by representatives of the European Commission, European Central Bank and IMF, known as the Troika, and strict spending cuts imposed.

Mr Farage added: "The indignity, a few years back, of your budget being seen by the German government before it was put to the Dail."

EU funding has helped Ireland overhaul its infrastructure and benefited its agriculture enormously.

Mr Farage said the country was not even a net beneficiary of EU funding any more.

He told a sizeable conference of supporters: "You are paying into the European budget and your Taoiseach said in Strasbourg the other week he is happy for Ireland to pay even more into the European budget.

"Are you pleased about that?"

Leo Varadkar said he was "open" to contributing more for things which advance the "European ideal" such as structural funds for Central and Eastern Europe to help them unlock economic potential.

Mr Farage said: "The perception of the media across Europe is that Ireland is very pro-European, very servile to the demands of Brussels.

"I don't think Ireland is a pro-EU country, I think the political, media and big businesses in Dublin, they are the ones."

He suggested it was Irish civil servants lining their pockets in Brussels who supported the EU.

To cheers he added: "They love it. They love it."

The crowd almost filled a hall at the RDS conference centre and gave Mr Farage a standing ovation.

He railed against the depiction of Brexiteers as xenophobes and bigots.

He said: "They go for the man and not for the ball."

Mr Farage said the European project was not going to work and the euro was unsuited to Ireland.

He added: "And yet I get told that Ireland is a very proud EU country, Michael O'Leary (Ryanair chief executive) told me so, it must be right.

"The euro has been bad for Ireland but a total catastrophe for countries like Greece."

He said there was an East/West split, with eurosceptic countries like Hungary leading the way.

"The EU will not work, it has not worked, it is increasingly unloved by the people of Europe," he said.

Update 12.30pm: Pro-EU group rebuts Farage's view that Ireland should leave union

Speaking in response to Nigel Farage's comments on Ireland leaving the EU, executive director of European Movement (EM) Ireland Noelle O Connell said: Since Ireland joined the EU, we have gone from a stagnant economy, heavily reliant on the UK, with a GDP per capita of just 60% of the EU average, to having the second highest GDP per capita (Eurostat 2017).

"In contrast to what is being said, it is the EU Single Market of over 500 million consumers that is Irelands largest export market, not the UK market.

"EU membership also allows Ireland to trade worldwide through 759 treaties and international agreements negotiated by the EU. This is something that the UK stands to lose as a result of Brexit."

She added that apart from economics, our EU membership allows us all to travel, study, work, live and trade freely in the union's 27 other countries.

"While we respect the decision of the UK electorate, lets not forget that an overwhelming majority of Irish people want to remain in the EU. A Red C poll conducted in May 2017 showed that 88% of Irish people think that we should remain in the EU and 87% believe that on balance, Ireland has benefited from EU membership," she added.

Earlier:

Nigel Farage has denied that membership of the EU had "too much to do" with Ireland's prosperity in recent decades, and suggested we should follow the UK out of the EU.

He said our low corporate tax rate, labour skills and language skills (ie that we are English-speaking) had more to do with Ireland's success than EU membership.

Speaking to Marian Finucane on RTE radio today, he said: "What Brexit was about was whether (the UK) wants to be a self-governing nation, or part of a bigger political union", adding it was debatable whether the EU was good for jobs or growth.

He said there needed to be a free trade arrangement between Ireland and the UK after Brexit.

Speaking on the future of Europe at Trinity Colleges historical society yesterday, Mr Farage said he got involved in politics to fight against the EU but that he is now considered a reincarnation of Adolf Hitler. He will also speak at a Irexit conference today in Dublin, debating if Ireland should leave the EU.

In this morning's radio interview, he insisted what Ireland had lost in fisheries alone by signing up to EU policies "far outweighs" what Ireland had gained in subsidies from the EU.

Mr Farage also said Leo Varadkar reminded him of a young Tony Blair, in being personable and articulate.Time for St Brigid to be as big as St Patrick  after all neither of their lineages stands up to real scrutiny, so no grounds for nit picking there, writes Darina Allen.

But if what we can gleam from folklore and much repeated hearsay is to be believed Brigid was a feisty, spirited entrepreneur and quite the role model for modern women. She is purported to be the patron saint of the dairy.

St Brigids Day is still celebrated in virtually every school in Ireland; many of our local national schools also teach the children how to make the Crois Bride or St Brigids cross.

Last Thursday, the beginning of spring, childrens nimble fingers wove green rushes into the little Brigids cross while they listened to the colourful story of Irelands female patron saint. Brigid, we are told, was born in 451 in Faughart, near Dundalk, Co Louth. Her father, Dubhthach, was a pagan chieftain of Leinster and her mother, Broicsech, was a Christian. It was thought that Brigids mother was born in Portugal but was kidnapped by Irish pirates and brought to Ireland to work as a slave, just like St Patrick. The story goes that she converted a pagan chief in his last hours by explaining the story of Christianity as she wove a little cross from the reeds strewn on the bedroom floor (as was the custom then).

The childrens St Brigids crosses are stuffed into school bags and proudly brought home to bless the house and/or cow byre because this gentle saint was said to have loved her cows who gave a prodigious amount of milk which she distributed to the poor.

So this week, we will choose recipes made from milk, a magical ingredient with infinite possibilities found in everyones fridge. Milk can be transformed into numerous products.

Every country has its own traditions and Ireland was forever famous for the quality and variety of its ban bia (or white meats, as dairy products are known in Gaelic)  not surprising because in our climate we can grow rich nourishing grass pastures like virtually nowhere else in the world.

Buttermilk Pots with Primroses

These buttermilk creams are also delicious with roast peaches, apricots, nectarines, or rhubarb in season.

Serves 6

2 sheets of gelatine (use 3 sheets of gelatine if you plan to unmould each one)

350ml organic buttermilk

60g caster sugar

1/2 vanilla pod

250ml cream

Primroses

Fresh mint leaves

Equipment

6 x 110ml glasses or white china pots

Soak the sheets of gelatine in cold water.

In a heavy bottomed saucepan, bring 100ml of the buttermilk to the boil with the sugar and a vanilla pod.

Drain the softened gelatine sheets and discard the water.

Remove the saucepan from the heat, add the gelatine to the buttermilk and stir until dissolved. Leave to cool and whisk in the remaining buttermilk and cream.

Scrape the seeds from the vanilla pod and add to the cream. Mix well. Pour into six small pots or moulds. Cover and refrigerate until set.

To serve: Sprinkle each little pot with primroses and a few fresh mint leaves. Alternatively, unmould into a deep soup plate and garnish as above.

From Darinas new book Grow Cook Nourish

These buttermilk creams are also delicious with roast peaches, apricots, nectarines, or rhubarb in season.

Chicken Poached in Milk

Cooking milk in milk produces the most delicious curdy liquid. There is honestly no point in attempting this recipe if you cannot find a really good free-range chicken. The lactic acid in milk has a tenderising and moistening effect on meat. This recipe is of Italian origin where they also cook pork, veal and lamb in milk on occasions.

Serves 10-12

1.8kg (4lb) chicken (free-range and organic if possible)

a dash of extra virgin olive oil

sea salt and freshly groundpepper

600ml (20fl oz/1 pint) milkapproximately

thinly sliced peel from 1 lemon, unwaxed

1 teaspoon of slightly crushed coriander seeds or a small handful of fresh sage leaves

4 cloves garlic, cut in half

sprig of marjoram

Season the chicken generously with sea salt and freshly cracked pepper. Heat a few tablespoons of olive oil in a casserole, large enough to fit the bird. Brown well on all sides, remove to a plate and pour off all the oil and fat. Add the lemon peel, coriander seeds and garlic. Return the chicken to the saucepan, add the milk, it should come about half way up the meat. Add a sprig of marjoram or sage and bring to the boil and simmer for 1-2 hours with the pan partially covered  after about an hour the milk will have formed a golden skin. Scrape all this and what has stuck to the sides back into the milk, continue to cook uncovered.

The liquid should simmer very gently all the time. The whole objectof this exercise is to allow the milk to reduce and form delicious, palecoffee-coloured curds and a golden crust while the meat cooks. When the chicken is cooked slice the meat and carefully spoon the precious curds over the top.

Cooking milk in milk produces the most delicious curdy liquid. There is honestly no point in attempting this recipe if you cannot find a really good free-range chicken. The lactic acid in milk has a tenderising and moistening effect on meat. This recipe is of Italian origin where they also cook pork, veal and lamb in milk on occasions.

Old-Fashioned Milk Rice Pudding

Serves 68

A creamy rice pudding is one of the greatest treats on a cold winters day. You need to use short-grain rice, which plumps up as it cooks. This is definitely a forgotten pudding and its unbelievable the reaction we get to it every time we make it at the Cookery School. Its always the absolute favourite pudding at my evening courses.

100g (312oz) pearl rice (short-grain rice)

40g (1 1/2oz) sugar

small knob of butter

850ml (1 1/2 pints) milk

Equipment

1 x 1. 2 litre (2 pint) capacity pie dish

Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas Mark 4.

Put the rice, sugar and butter into a pie dish. Bring the milk to the boil and pour over. Bake for 11 hours approximately (usually the latter but keep checking). The skin should be golden, the rice underneath should be cooked through and have absorbed the milk, but the rice pudding should still be soft and creamy. Calculate the time it so that its ready for pudding. If it has to wait in the oven for ages it will be dry and dull and youll wonder why you bothered.

A creamy rice pudding is one of the greatest treats on a cold winters day. You need to use short-grain rice, which plumps up as it cooks. This is definitely a forgotten pudding and its unbelievable the reaction we get to it every time we make it at the Cookery School. Its always the absolute favourite pudding at my evening courses.

Melktert (Milk Tart)

Serves 12

Alicia Wilkinson from the famous Silwood Cooking School in Capetown generously shared this recipe with us.

For the crust

125g (4 1/2oz) butter

2 tablespoons sugar

1 egg

185g (6 1/2oz) flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence

For the filling

35g (1 1/2oz) flour

3 tablespoons cornflour

2 tablespoons custard powder

1.2 litres (2 pints) milk

150g (5oz) white granulated sugar

2 eggs, separated

1 vanilla bean, split in half

2 teaspoons butter

1 teaspoon baking powder

2 teaspoons caster sugar

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Equipment

28cm (11 inch) fluted tart tin

baking beans

To make the crust:

Beat the butter and sugar together until light and creamy.

Add the egg, flour, baking powder and vanilla and mix until combined.

Press the pastry into the tart tin and chill for 45 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas Mark 4.

Lay a sheet of greaseproof paper inside the pastry case so that the edges come over the rim and fill with the baking beans.

Bake the pastry case for 15 minutes or until the sides begin to colour.

Remove the baking beans and greaseproof paper and continue cooking the pastry case for 5 minutes to dry out the base.

To make the filling:

Mix together the flour, cornflour and custard powder, adding a little of the milk to form a smooth paste.

Place the remaining milk in a saucepan with the sugar, egg yolks, vanilla bean and the cornflour paste. Bring to a boil, stirring continuously, and simmer for three minutes.

Remove from the heat, stir in the butter and baking powder and set aside. Whisk the egg whites until they form soft peaks. Fold the whites into the custard mixture, then spoon into the pastry case, discarding the vanilla bean.

In a small bowl, stir together the caster sugar and cinnamon then sprinkle the mixture over the custard filling.

Place the tart in the refrigerator to set.

Alicia Wilkinson from the famous Silwood Cooking School in Capetown generously shared this recipe with us.

Where to buy raw milk: In Cork Glenilen sell raw milk at Mahon Point Farmers Market; the Aherne family sell raw milk at Mahon and Midleton Farmers Market; Batt Sheehan in Fermoy, phone 087 2323771; Liz and Kevin ODonovan in Dunmanway, 087 3507060; Magpie Dairies in Balinhassig, 086 30378781. For suppliers in other counties see rawmilkireland.com.

Home Butchery, Charcuterie and Sausage Making Demonstration: Philip Dennhardt is our resident master butcher at the Ballymaloe Cookery School and on Friday, February 23, from 2.30pm to 5.30pm , Philip will teach the skills needed to butcher a side of pork from nose to tail, learn the technique involved in dry curing and how to make different types of sausage and salami. This course is ideal for those who would like to explore ways to add value to their meat products with a view to developing an artisan food business; cookingisfun.ie

Artisan Chocolate: I popped into the Koko Chocolate Shop in Kinsale recently and was mightily impressed by the handmade artisan chocolates. Id come in search of a little pottery shop that sold beautiful ceramics, instead in the same premises I found Frank Keane who had responded to the challenge of the demise of the Celtic Tiger by starting to make beautiful chocolates with beautiful ingredients and that coupled with skill is the secret. Depending on time Frank also does bespoke commissions for parties and special occasions. I loved many of the flavoured dark chocolate spoons with a fat brazil nut. Phone 087 6110209.That Greta Gerwig, writer and director of Lady Bird, is a confident young woman making movies about confident young women feels especially meaningful right now, writes Christine Smallwood.

Greta Gerwig once peed her pants during a math test. She was in seventh grade, it was a new school, the test was a placement exam and she didnt know the rules. Was she allowed to get up? Was it ok to raise her hand?

While she agonised, the girl next to her noticed the puddle forming. Gerwig has forgotten this child Samaritans name, but she will never forget what the girl did. She took off her sweatshirt and whispered to Gerwig to tie it around her waist and go to the nurses office. Gerwig  terrified, humiliated  did as instructed.

The next year, when Mrs Jensen, her teacher, asked the class for submissions to a school literary journal, Gerwig wrote a story about a girl who pees her pants in class. Mrs Jensen loved it so much that she hung it on the board.

This, Gerwig explained to me recently, was the first inkling she had that she was a Writer-with-a-capital-W.

We were having breakfast at Cafe Cluny in the West Village to discuss her new film, Lady Bird, which she directed from a script she wrote. I asked her why she submitted the pee story to the literary journal. Wasnt she afraid that the other kids would find out what had happened?

I knew in it there was a story that was funny and sweet, she said, gesturing over her eggs as if she were conducting them.

Thats Gerwig: one of the few women in America so un-self-conscious, so well adjusted, that she was able, as an eighth grader, to look back on a recent episode of classroom incontinence and turn it into something funny and sweet.

What she fixates on, telling the story now, is the girl who helped her. In Gerwigs hands, the story is notprimarily about shame, and it is decidedly not about adolescent cruelty.

Its a generous, goofy story about a pratfall, and a meta-story about making a certain kind of art out of life  an art steeped in female reciprocity and resilience.

At 5ft 9in, Gerwig is at once imposing and effortlessly glamorous, though she has the habit of slouching. She had started the morning in a dress by the designer Ulla Johnson, but felt as if she was trying too hard and changed into a plain T-shirt and a pair of black silk karate pants embroidered with ferns.

I could feel my body physically relax when I saw Jordan Peele and Greta Gerwig were nominated for Best Director.  Jenny Jaffe (@jennyjaffe) January 23, 2018

The overall effect was that of a slightly disheveled graduate student. Around her wrists were three strands of beads. She later explained that they were good-luck charms from Jacqueline Knowlton, the lead makeup artist on Lady Bird, and that she had been wearing them for more than a year. Im a sucker for anyone who tells me, Its a magical stone, and its going to keep you safe.

Gerwig has acted in 25 films and co-written five, but Lady Bird, her first solo directorial project, is the most unadulterated distillation of her sensibility to date.

The title character is a high-school senior, played with winning naturalness by Saoirse Ronan, who lives in Sacramento and attends an all-girls Catholic school. She was born Christine, but demands to be called by the name she has given herself  as if she were a pop star, or being constantly confirmed in the faith. The films working title was Mothers and Daughters, and Gerwig is especially attentive to Lady Birds tempestuous relationship with her mother, Marion, brilliantly played by Laurie Metcalf.

Their fights hit every note and tempo: nagging, bickering, quarrelsome, sniping, passive-aggression, shouting, screaming, wailing, whispered rage.

Lady Bird is a delicious and daring weirdo. She shows up to audition for the school musical with a prepared belter. She runs a long-shot campaign for class president every autumn, just because she can. Her hair is stringy and dyed.

She is sexy without being conventionally pretty, and when she decides she likes a boy, she writes his name in marker on her bedroom wall and pursues him boldly.

Saying that she puts herself out there is an understatement. She throws herself over every cliff. (At one point, she throws herself out of a moving car.) Shes the girl  Im stealing this from Ronan, who told me that she admires the character  whom you didnt even know you wanted to be. That all this buoyant confidence feels so effervescently radical is a testament to the humour and intelligence of Gerwigs script.

That it is so rare is an indictment of our woman-hating culture, which makes a depiction of a smart teenage girl who likes herself and chases her desires seem like news.

Gerwig couldnt have played Lady Bird; shes 34. But its notable that she didnt choose to write a character she could have played. Perhaps she didnt want to confuse the issue.

A female body onscreen has a way of obscuring, or distracting from, the intelligence offscreen. She is already well established as an actor  the critic Richard Brody has called her the most important new actor to emerge in the last 10 years of American independent film. What shines through in Gerwigs performances is a quality of radiant openness.

Jay Duplass, the filmmaker and actor who directed Gerwig in the 2008 movie Baghead, described her to me as a spazzy genius who has the courage to let herself unfold in front of other people. Think of her toddling down the steps behind the Times Square TKTS booth in Mistress America, issuing a cornball greeting to her soon-to-be-stepsister standing below:

Welcome to the Great White Way! And the frozen smile on her face, as she continues her grand descent, trying awkwardly, antically, to hold on to the magic of making an entrance.

Her smile is of the huge, gum-baring variety. She talks with her whole body. She was a live wire in Mary Bronsteins Yeast and enchanting in Whit Stillmans Damsels in Distress and a little out of place in Pablo Larrains Jackie, where all she did was stand around.

She needs to be moving  galloping down the street or shoving somebody through a door or doing a shuffle-ball-change.

The writer, artist and filmmaker Miranda July, when I asked her about Gerwigs physicality, told me, She looks very strong, and she can either spin that into something thats grounded and familiar and funny or into something thats really quite beautiful and dancerly.

She can sing and tap too. Ive heard her compared to Diane Keaton, which Im sure shed like  for a while as a teenager she tried to dress like Annie Hall  but I think of her as a taller Irene Dunne.

Except that instead of being in movies about love affairs, she is in movies  and making movies  about women self-actualizing and paying their bills.

After breakfast, while we were power-walking through the West Village, I mentioned that I had seen that she was doing a voice part in Wes Andersons forthcoming animated movie, Isle of Dogs. She remarked that Andersons previous animated film, Fantastic Mr Fox, isnt really about animals.

Its not? I said, which prompted the beginnings of an earnest analysis, until I cut her off to explain that I had been kidding. Ohhhhh, she said. I dont understand sarcasm. I take it seriously! Her Ts are shiny and bright, like the ringing of a bell.

W hen Gerwig went to raise the money for Lady Bird, she noticed something interesting. Most of the potential funders she met with were men, of course  thats not the interesting thing. Its men, for the most part, who have the power and money to finance films.

What I typically found, she said, was that if they had daughters or had been raised with sisters, they understood what it was, and if they didnt, they kind of couldnt believe that women actually fought like that, which was an interesting window into why some stories cant get told. People dont understand that theyre even a story to tell.

Greta Gerwig poses for a portrait at the BAFTA Los Angeles Tea Party.

Gerwig has long beeninterested in how women fight. Frances Ha (2013), the film she made with her partner, Noah Baumbach, begins with two best friends sparring gleefully in Washington Square Park.

Over the course of the film, they fall out in the usual way  very slowly and then all at once  but by the end are back in each others lives, casually, at arms length.

In Mistress America (2015), which Gerwig and Baumbach also made together, a major act of betrayal leads to the severing of a bond between two women. In Lady Bird the fights between mother and daughter are constant  at once background noise and main event.

Every situation is pretext for a confrontation: underdone eggs, a pile of rumpled clothes, a hand reaching too quickly for the radio. The question on the surface might be What did you do? but the feeling underneath is Who are you and why dont you know how to love me?

The visual style of Lady Bird is intentionally unshowy  most shots are framed and still, so that attention is focused on the actors and the dialogue. Language is what matters.

There was no improvisation on the set, and the movie matches the shooting script probably 95%. The writer and director Lena Dunham told me that what she often admires about Gerwigs dialogue is the contrast between erudition and naturalism  In one breath shell be referencing a super obscure book and also utilising the awkward parlance of our times.

Lady Bird does that, too. Gerwig expects her audience to be well read enough to get whats funny about a nun referencing Kierkegaards love story (Kierkegaard broke off his engagement) but also to laugh when Lady Bird tells her friend that theyre done with the learning portion of high school.

The rhythm is very quick, and much of the humour lies in the way that characters respond to or undercut one another. My favourite joke of the movie is when Lady Bird, after passing her drivers test, profusely thanks the guy from the D.M.V. Its not a thanking situation, he says. You either pass or you dont.

The plot is structured according to the rituals of senior year  homecoming, prom  which Gerwig has said she imagined unfolding in a series of placed scenes like Stations of the Cross.

Emotional drama presents itself in the form of Lady Birds two boyfriends, Danny and Kyle, and a rough patch with her best friend, Julie, but the big narrative question is where Lady Bird will go to college.

She longs to go to a private East Coast (ie outrageously expensive) college; her family expects her to stay in state. As it is, theyre barely keeping it together, moneywise. Marion works double shifts as a psychiatric nurse, and Lady Birds father, played by Tracy Letts, has lost his job.

They live in a shabby, cramped house that is literally on the wrong side of the railroad tracks. (Marion and Lady Birds favourite Sunday-afternoon activity is dropping in at real estate open houses and admiring what they cannot have.)

But those East Coast schools carry complex symbolic weight for Lady Bird: They mean possibility, and glamour, and leaving home, and something like self-worth. The movie doesnt totally endorse her fantasy, but it is a little unsettling, in this moment, to witness a narrative triumph that hinges on a teenagers assumption of a lifetime of student debt.

Gerwig wrote Lady Bird partly as a response to films about boys growing up. At the New York Film Festival, she asked the crowd:

What is Boyhood, but for a girl? What is The 400 Blows, but for a girl? What is personhood for young women? In most films, girls exist to be looked at. Sometimes they help a male protagonist come to a realisation about himself. Sometimes they die.

Gerwig makes Lady Bird the one who looks: at boys but also houses, magazines, books, clothes and at the city of Sacramento. She also takes the wind out of a particular kind of male self-seriousness around cultural objects.

Toward the end of the movie, a very drunk Lady Bird is in her dorm room with a boy  the kind of boy who would invite you to see The 400 Blows on a first date  who is flipping through her CD case.

He scoffs that her taste in music sucks: All she has are greatest-hitsalbums. But theyre the greatest, she says. They immediately start making out.

As in Boyhood, Lady Bird is remarkable for what doesnt happen. No one dies. No one overdoses. Conflicts are reconciled.

The film is ostensibly about a young girls ambition, but the mood is one of poignant loss. There is a certain vividness in worlds that are coming to an end, Gerwig wrote in the production notes.

It is something beautiful that you never appreciated and ends just as you come to understand it.

Her characters are always preternaturally nostalgic, able to look back on recent hurts with the bittersweet regard that it takes more rancorous humans a lifetime to achieve. She loves Mike Leigh and Eric Rohmer, but the movie moment that will always stay with her is the end of Annie Hall:

When they leave each other, and he says its just nice knowing her, and youre like, ugh! Thats life! There are no jerks or bullies in Lady Bird, no one whointentionally manipulates or abuses, no one who hates or is hateable, no one who holds a grudge.

"All the characters are doing their best  its just nice to know them. You cant accuse Gerwig of a lack of seriousness; her conversation is peppered with references to George Eliot, Elena Ferrante, Maggie Nelson, Simone Weil, Milton and Kierkegaard. But the way she distributes sympathy has an undeniably magical effect. The result is delightful and a little bit romantic  delightful, perhaps, because it is romantic, showing life as it should be, or could be.

I have a deep need to take care of my characters, she said to me at breakfast.

Its not that I dont want to go down the dark avenues  I want to hold their hands down the dark avenues. I want to walk with them while they go there and give them the dignity of representing it honestly, andfinding the thing that is grace-filled. Early reviews of Lady Bird referred to the film as autobiographical.

The word irks Gerwig. I was doing interviews inToronto, she said to me, and people would say, Well, its autobiographical, and Id think: Do you know my autobiography? How do you know that this is autobiographical? Thats a leap!

Director Greta Gerwig on the set of "Lady Bird."

Autobiographical can carry a whiff of dismissal, a suggestion that the achievement was somehow easier to pull off because it involved less creative effort.

There are, to be sure, parallels to reality: Gerwig is from Sacramento and went to an all-girls Catholic school before attending a college in New York, Barnard, on scholarships and loans. But she wasnt like Lady Bird as a high-school student. She followed the rules.

Still, only a person who liked high school could have written this movie. And Gerwig liked high school. There were the usual

cliques and hierarchies, but because it was a Catholic school, the focus was on being a good citizen of the community and using your talents for a higher purpose. She refers to the nuns who taught her as really groovy.

She admits to some teenage anger and says that her fights with her mother were epic, but for me, epic fighting never spelled lack of love.

Her eyes widened. Some of my friends have been, like, You can really scare the [expletive] out of me, and Im like, Oh, no, thats just me being close!  These are my parents, Gerwig said, holding out her phone.

We were in a greenroom at Lincoln Center, during the New York Film Festival. Previously I had seen Gerwig dressed down in casual settings, carrying a backpack: drinking coffee on a park bench, being shushed at Film Forum for talking during a movie.

Now she was in busy professional mode: Proenza Schouler dress, eyeliner, flanked by publicists. On the phone, her parents were squinting in sunshine, from what looked to be a very nicevacation in San Diego.

Gerwig is close to her parents. (They appeared as Francess parents in Frances Ha.) Her mother is a retired OB/GYN nurse and her father works in small-business loans for a credit union. I always felt like they were both artists without being artists, she said.

At the holidays, the house overflowed with guests. Her father plays a ton of instruments. Her mother has a closet in the hallway where she keeps presents, wrapped, for all different ages  just in case someone comes over and its her birthday.

As a child, Gerwig had a tendency to become obsessive  first about ballet, which she had to quit (her hips lacked turnout, and her knees couldnt take it), and then about fencing, which her mother urged her toput aside, lest she become a mono-person.

In high school she got into theatre, and in college she continued acting and writing plays. One play she wrote featured a seduction scene in which someone breaks a jar of mayonnaise onstage.

Another one, which involved a daughter murdering her mother, was written in two weeks time, after a group lost the rights to perform Misery.

She always liked movies, but it wasnt until she started renting DVDs from the indie video store Kims while a student at Barnard that she thought of film as an art made by directors. Beau Travail was the movie that helped her truly understand cinema.

She didnt realise until she saw Claire Deniss name in the credits that it had been directed by a woman. She remembers thinking: Thats a job you can have?

After she was rejected from M.F.A. programmes in playwriting, she beganacting in very-low-budget, independent mumblecore films, including LOL, Hannah Takes the Stairs and Nights and Weekends, which she directed with Joe Swanberg.

In 2010 she broke through to the mainstream, when she appeared in Noah Baumbachs Greenberg. After Greenberg, she and Baumbach, who had been married to Jennifer Jason Leigh, became a couple, and together they wrote two films that Gerwig starred in: Frances Ha and Mistress America, which feature some unmistakable Gerwigian traits.

Their protagonists are semi-delusional female dreamers, surrounded by rich people and anxious about money, with hearts pure enough to put them in a Dostoyevsky novel.

But film is a directors medium, and occasionally Gerwigs work on these projects was dismissed by journalists and people in the industry. Something that used to really hurt me is, people would say, Did you help write the script? And Id say: I co-wrote it. I didnt help to write it,  she said.

It used to make my blood rise. Gerwig calls her last 10 years of working in film my version of my 10,000 hours. When she finished the writing of Lady Bird in 2015, she knew she had to direct it herself. I thought, Yes, there is more to learn, but you are not going to keep learning it by not doing it. You will only now learn the next part if you go ahead and do it.

Acting in films under two female directors, Rebecca Miller and Mia Hansen-Love, helped shift something in her. She recalls a conversation with Hansen-Love, who had been in two films directed by her partner, Olivier Assayas.

She had worked at Cahiers du Cinema, Gerwig says. She said that the other young male writers there treated her dismissively because they thought of her as Oliviers girlfriend, who got there because she was his girlfriend, and how they changed when she had her first movie at Cannes, when she was in her 20s.

"All of a sudden they looked at her like theyd never seen her before. I hung onto that story. All those little pieces I put in my pocket. I think I needed these little signs.

Several years ago, Gerwig was at Miranda Julys house. It was early in their friendship (and before Gerwigs turn as a punk photographer in 20th Century Women, which was directed by Mike Mills, Julys husband).

On her way out, July offered her a pair of shoes: Rachel Comey loafers that didnt quite suit July. Not long after, Rebecca Miller, who was directing her in the romantic comedy Maggies Plan, handed over a pair of sturdy English shoes that you can see women wearing who were on their way to work in the 30s.

The meaning wasnt lost on Gerwig. I thought, If I wrote this into a movie, people would think it was too obvious of a symbol, she says. I was literally given shoes by two female directors. And it felt like, if youre looking for a sign, there you go! The shoes acquired talismanic powers. She wore them to the Lady Bird set whenever she needed an extra boost.

Movie sets have not historically been comfortable environments for women. When we meet less than a month has passed since the publication of the articles in The New York Times and The New Yorker claiming sexual abuse of women by the Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein.

That Gerwig is a confident young woman making movies about confident young women feels especially meaningful right now.

It is not merely Gerwigs being a woman that feels relevant but her directorial style.

She extends the same protective impulse to her cast that she does to her characters, saying that the job of a director is to hold the perimeter of a bubble of magic safety so that actors can play.

I spoke with several actors from Lady Bird, as well as with Sam Levy, the cinematographer, and heard again and again how cared-for, and safe, they felt on Gerwigs set.

She ran rehearsals at her apartment and conscripted the cast into awkward dance parties (a trick cribbed from Mills). She encouraged the actors to have secrets from her  things they knew about their characters that she didnt.

I trusted her completely, says Metcalf, who adds that she relied on Gerwig to help her understand the character of Marion. On the page it could just be like a nonstop aggression. But she taught me what the character was covering up. I wanted Marion to secretly be the main character,Gerwig told me. I kindof wanted her to take over the movie.

The history of mothers on film is one littered with angels and witches. Marion is neither. Shes tender and loving but doesnt know how to express it; she is often impatient, can be nasty and aggressive and doesnt support Lady Bird in the way she wants to be supported. (We might call this good mothering, in that she is helping Lady Bird to separate from home.)

She doesnt exactly take over the movie  the film ends on a shot of Lady Bird, alone, on a New York street, with Marion left behind  but she does centre it.

There is one scene in particular that is a kind of anchor. It shows Marion at her sewing machine, fixing a dress that Lady Bird will wear to a fancy Thanksgiving dinner at her boyfriends grandmothers mansion.

Marion would prefer that Lady Bird spend Thanksgiving at home, but shes helping her anyway, first by shopping with her at the thrift store, and now by mending the dress.

Saoirse Ronan and Greta Gerwig at the 75th Golden Globe Awards

The shot is framed squarely, in dim lighting, with Metcalf looking drab and dour in the centre. It is very brief, a few seconds long, and silent, except for the wild thrum of the needle.

Its Gerwigs homage to Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles, Chantal Akermans classic 1975 drama of a three-day unravelling, consisting mostly of shots of a woman doing repeated household chores.

Gerwig told the audience at the New York Film Festival that she was moved by a remark that Akerman once made about the importance of seeing images of housework on film.

We value watching a woman get raped more than we value her making dinner, Gerwig said, incredulity and disgust mixing in her voice.

If there are Lady Birds in the world, it is only because there are Marions  mothers, and fore mothers  who brought them up. Lady Bird will put on the dress and wear it out and think nothing of it. But we saw the care Marion took, late at night and all alone, to alter, ever so slightly, what was possible.

Lady Bird is released on February 16.Spies, corrupt business deals, and sex scandals. Exiled billionaire whistleblower Guo Wengui lifts the lid on China's elite. But is he telling the truth? Lauren Hilgers reports

On a recent Saturday afternoon, an exiled Chinese billionaire named Guo Wengui was holding forth in his New York apartment, sipping tea while an assistant lingered quietly just outside the door, slipping in occasionally to keep Guos glass cup perfectly full.

The tycoons Twitter account had been suspended again  it was the fifth or sixth time, by Guos count  and he blamed the Communist Party of China.

Its not normal! he said, about this cycle of blocking and reinstating. But it doesnt matter. I dont need anyone.

Guos New York apartment is a 9,000 sq ft residence along Central Park that he bought for $67.5m in 2015.

Guo likes to say that, as a Buddhist, he wants for nothing. If it were down to his own needs alone, he would have kept his profile low. But he has a higher purpose. He is going to save China.

Guo pitches himself as a former insider, a man who knows the secrets of a government that tightly controls the flow of information.

A man who, in 2017, did the unthinkable  tearing open the veil of secrecy that has long surrounded Chinas political elite, lobbing accusations about corruption, extramarital affairs and murder plots over Facebook and Twitter.

His YouTube videos and tweets have drawn in farmers and shopkeepers, democracy activists, writers and businesspeople. In China, people have been arrested for chatting about Guo online and distributing T-shirts with one of his slogans printed on the front (This is only the beginning!).

In New York, Guo has split a community of dissidents and democracy activists down the middle. Some support him. Others believe that Guo is a government spy.

When Guo left China in 2014, he fled in anticipation of corruption charges. A former business partner had been detained just days before, and his political patron would be detained a few days afterward.

In 2015, articles about corruption in Guos business dealings  stories that he claims are largely fabrications  started appearing in the media. He was accused of defrauding business partners and colluding with corrupt officials.

To hear Guo tell it, his political and business opponents used a national corruption campaign as a cover for a personal vendetta.

Whatever prompted Guo to take action, his campaign came during an important year for Chinas president, Xi Jinping. In October, the Communist Party of China (CPC) convened its 19th National Congress, a twice-a-decade event that sets the contours of political power for the next five years.

The country is in the throes of a far-reaching anti-corruption campaign, and Xi has overseen a crackdown on dissidents and human rights activists while increasing investment in censorship and surveillance.

He believes his own efforts to change China will have global consequences.

Like in an American movie, he told me with unflinching self-confidence. In the last minutes, we will save the world.

Guo has become a thorn in Chinas side at the precise moment the country is working to expand its influence, and its censorship programme overseas. At home, Chinas government has been manipulating online conversations for over a decade.

They create all kinds of confusion, said Ha Jin, the National Book Award-winning American novelist born in Chinas Liaoning Province, and a vocal supporter of Guo.

You dont know what information you have and whether its right. You dont know who are the informers, who are the agents.

Domestically, China blocks access to most social media sites. Recently, however, the government has started spending hundreds of thousands quarterly to place advertising on Facebook, promoting a vision of a idyllic, harmonious country.

In addition, Chinas government employs an army of commenters widely known as the 50-cent party; their activities are aimed at distracting the public and redirecting attention from sensitive issues.

In early 2017, Guo issued his first salvos against Chinas ruling elite via traditional channels. He contacted a handful of Chinese-language media outlets based in the US.

He gave interviews to the Long Island-based publication Mingjing News and to Voice of America  a live event that was cut short by producers, leading to speculation that Voice of America had caved in to Chinese government pressure.

He called The New York Times and spoke with reporters at The Wall Street Journal. It was not long, however, before the billionaire turned to direct appeals through social media.

The accusations he made were explosive  he attacked Wang Qishan, Xi Jinpings corruption czar, and Meng Jianzhu, the secretary of the Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission, another prominent player in Xis anti-corruption campaign. He talked about Wangs mistresses, his business interests and conflicts within the party.

To those who believe Guos claims, they expose a depth of corruption that would surprise even the most jaded opponent of the CPC.

The corruption is on such a scale, Ha Jin said. Who could imagine that the czar of anti-corruption would himself be corrupt? It is extraordinary.

Retaliation came quickly. A barrage of counteraccusations began pouring out against Guo, most published in the pages of the state-run Chinese media. Warrants for his arrest were issued on charges of corruption, bribery, and even rape.

China asked Interpol to issue a red notice calling for Guos arrest and extradition. He was running out of money, it was reported.

In September, Guo recorded a video during which he received what he said was a phone call from his fifth brother: Two of Guos former employees had been detained, and their family members were threatening suicide.

Guo quickly resumed posting videos and encouraging his followers. His accusations continued to accumulate throughout 2017, and he recently started his own YouTube channel (and has yet to divorce his wife).

Wang Qishan, Guo has claimed, is hiding the money he secretly earned in the Hainan-based conglomerate HNA Group, a company with an estimated $35bn worth of investments in the US. (HNA Group denies any ties to Wang and is suing Guo.)

He accused Wang of carrying on an affair with the actress Fan Bingbing. (Fan is reportedly suing Guo for defamation.) He told stories of petty arguments among officials and claimed that Chinese officials sabotaged Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, which disappeared in 2014 en route to Beijing, in order to cover up an organ-harvesting scheme. Most of Guos accusations have proved nearly impossible to verify.

This guy is just covered in question marks, said Minxin Pei, a professor at Claremont McKenna who specialises in Chinese governance.

The questions that cover Guo have posed a problem for both the US government and the Western journalists who, in trying to write about him, have found themselves buffeted by the currents of propaganda, misinformation and the tight-lipped code of the CPC elite.

His claims have also divided a group of exiled dissidents and democracy activists  people who might seem like Guos natural allies.

Pei, the professor, warns not to take any of Guos accusations at face value. The reaction from the CPC has been so extreme, however, that Pei believes Guo must know something.

He must mean something to the government, he said. They must be really bothered by this billionaire.

In May, Chinese officials visited Guo on visas that did not allow them to conduct official business, causing a confrontation with the FBI. A few weeks later, according to The Washington Times, Chinas calls for Guos extradition led to a White House showdown, during which Jeff Sessions threatened to resign if Guo was sent back to China.

The details of Guos life may be impossible to verify, but the broad strokes confirm a picture of a man whose fortunes have risen and fallen with the political climate in China.

To hear Guo tell it, he was born in Jilin Province, in a mining town where his parents were sent during the Cultural Revolution. Guo emphasises this history: He came from hardship. He pulled himself up.

The story continues into Guos pre-teenage years, when he moved back to his hometown in Shandong Province. He met his wife and married her when he was only 15, she 14.

They moved to Heilongjiang, where they started a small manufacturing operation, taking advantage of the early days of Chinas economic rise, and then to Henan. Guo got his start in real estate in a city called Zhengzhou, where he founded the Zhengzhou Yuda Property Company and built the tallest building the city had seen so far, the Yuda International Trade Center. According to Guo, he was only 25 when he made this first deal.

The string of businesses and properties that Guo developed provide some of the confirmable scaffolding of his life. No one disputes that Guo went on to start both the Beijing Morgan Investment Company and Beijing Zenith Holdings.

Morgan Investment was responsible for building a cluster of office towers called the Pangu Plaza, the tallest of which has a wavy top that loosely resembles a dragon, or perhaps a precarious cone of soft-serve ice cream.

Guo is agrees with the Chinese media that, in buying the property for Pangu Plaza, he clashed with the deputy mayor of Beijing. The dispute ended when Guo turned in a lengthy sex tape capturing the deputy mayor in bed with his mistress.

There are other details in Guos biography, however, that vary from one source to the next. Guo says that he never took government loans; Caixin, a Beijing-based publication, quoted sources close to the matter in a 2015 article claiming that Guo took out 28 loans totalling 588m yuan, or about 89m.

Guo, according to Caixin, eventually defaulted. At some point in this story  the timeline varies  Guo became friends with the vice minister of Chinas Ministry of State Security, Ma Jian.

The older master of spycraft and the young businessman struck up a friendship that would become a cornerstone in Guos claims of insider knowledge, and also possibly the reason for the businessmans downfall in China.

Following the construction of Pangu Plaza in Beijing, Guos life story becomes increasingly hard to parse. He started a securities business with a man named Li You.

After a falling-out, Li was detained by the authorities. Guos company accused Li and his company of insider trading. According to the 2015 article in Caixin, Li then penned a letter to the authorities accusing Guo of wrongdoing.

As this dispute was going on, Chinas anti-corruption operation was building a case against Ma Jian. In Guos telling, Ma had long been rumoured to be collecting intelligence on Chinas leaders.

As the anti-corruption campaign gained speed and officials like Wang Qishan gained power, Mas well of intelligence started to look like a threat. It was Guos relationship with Ma, the tycoon maintains, that made officials nervous. Ma was detained by the authorities in January 2015, shortly after Guo fled the country.

Soon after Mas detention, accounts began appearing in Chinas state-run media claiming that Ma had six Beijing villas, six mistresses, and at least two illegitimate sons.

In a 2015 article that ran in the party-run newspaper The China Daily, the writer added another detail: The investigation also found that Ma had acted as an umbrella for the business ventures of Guo Wengui, a tycoon from Henan Province.

In the mix of spies, corrupt business dealings, mistresses, and sex scandals, Guo has one more unbelievable story to tell about his past.

It is one reason, he says, that he was mentally prepared to confront the leaders of the Communist Party. It happened nearly 29 years ago, in the aftermath of the crackdown on Tiananmen Square.

According to Guo, he had donated money to the students protesting in the square, and so a group of local police officers came to find him at his home. An overzealous officer fired off a shot at Guos wife  at which point Guos younger brother jumped in front of the bullet, suffering a fatal wound.

That was when I started my plan, he said. If your brother had been killed in front of your eyes, would you just forget it?

Never mind the fact that it would take 28 years for him to take any public stand against the party that caused his brothers death. Never mind that the leadership changed.

Im not saying everyone in the Communist Party is bad, he said. The system is bad. So what I need to oppose is the system.

On an unusually warm Saturday afternoon in Flushing, Queens, a group of around 30 of Guos supporters met for a barbecue in Kissena Park. They laid out a spread of vegetables and skewers of shrimp and squid.

Some children toddled through the crowd, chewing on hot dogs and rolling around an unopened can of Coke. The adults fussed with a loudspeaker and a banner that featured the name that Guo goes by in English, Miles Kwok. Miles Kwok, NY loves U, it said, a heart standing in for the word loves. Democracy, Justice, Liberty for China. Someone else had carried in a life-size cutout of the billionaire.

In December, Guos brother was sentenced to three years and six months in prison for destroying accounting records. The lawsuits filed against Guo for defamation are piling up, and Guo claims to be amassing a war chest of $150m to cover his legal expenses.

In September, a new set of claims against Guo were made in a 49-page document circulated by a former business rival. For Ha Jin, Guos significance runs deeper than his soap-opera tales of scandal and corruption.

The grand propaganda scheme is to suppress and control all the voices, Jin said. Now everybody knows that you can create your own voice. You can have your own show. That fact alone is historical.

In the future, Jin predicts, there will be more rebels like Guo. There is something very primitive about this, realising that this is a man, a regular citizen who can confront state power.

At the barbecue, a supporter named Ye Rong tucked one of his children under his arm and acknowledged that Guos past life is riddled with holes. There was always the possibility that Guo used to be a thug, but Ye didnt think it mattered.

The rules of the conflict had been set by the Communist Party. You need all kinds of people to oppose the Chinese government, Ye said.

We need intellectuals; we also need thugs. Guo, of course, has his own opinions about his legacy. He warned of dark times for Americans and for the world, if he doesnt succeed in his mission to change China.

I am trying to help, he told me. I am not joking with you. He continued: I will change China within the next three years. If I dont change it, I wont be able to survive.

Lauren Hilgers is a writer whose book Patriot Number One will be published in March. Adapted from an article that originally appeared in The New York Times Magazine.

 2018 The New York TimesWe are going after him in the commission.

A senior figure in Garda management claims that is what he was told by a colleague in the days before the OHiggins commission began hearings in May, writes Michael Clifford.

The him is Sergeant Maurice McCabe, whose complaints of malpractice were inquired into at OHiggins behind closed doors.

The claim was made bythe civilian head of humanresources in the force, John Barrett, who gave evidence to the Charleton Tribunal yesterday.

The claim is denied by the man Mr Barrett alleges uttered it, the civilian former chief administrative officer in the force, Cyril Dunne.

Judge Peter Charleton will have to determine who hebelieves, and if that is Mr Barrett, it points towards a strategy to go after Sgt McCabe by unjustified means.

Mr Barretts evidence was dramatic and delivered as the days hearings was nearly at an end.

The judge questioned him at some length about the claim, and it emerged that Mr Barrett says he told a chief super about the statement a few weeks after itoccurred, in May 2015.

That may well mean another witness will have to be called, just as the finish line for this module was in sight.

Last year, Mr Barrett clashed with then commissioner Noirin OSullivan at the Oireachtas Public Accounts Committee (PAC).

He claimed to have briefed her extensively on financial irregularities at the Garda training college in Templemore in 2014. She claimed they had a casual conversation over a cup of tea. He had contemporaneous notes about a two-hour briefing. The PAC members were highly complementary about his evidence.

He had extensive paperwork at the PAC, but so far he has nothing to back up his dramatic claim at the Charleton Tribunal. He is likely to be tested on it today (Fri) by counsel for the rest of the Garda management. Mr Barrett is represented separately at the tribunal at his own request.

His evidence took thespotlight away from former justice minister Frances Fitzgerald, who earlier completed five and a half hours in the witness box.

Ms Fitzgerald must, on one level, wonder at how she has been dragged into this inquiry as to whether or not there was an attempt to smear Sgt McCabe over his complaints of malpractice.

Yet it was the slow response from her department to produce emails generated at the time of OHiggins which hauled her to the castle. Late last year, the Government came close to collapse over the release and content of the emails Ms Fitzgerald received whenan aggressive strategy was adopted against Sgt McCabe at the private hearings of the OHiggins commission in 2015.

Her failure to even inquire as to why such a course was being adopted, allied to the drip, drip release of the emails last autumn in response to parliamentary questions ended her ministerial career.

It also prompted her and officials in the department to belatedly make statements for the tribunal.

So was she vindicated, as she claimed she would be? There was certainly no smoking gun, although there was the faintest current of cordite from some of herresponses.

For instance, while sheinsisted at the height of the controversy last year that she had no recollection ofreceiving emails, she told the tribunal she made a conscious decision not to intervene. She didnt reallyexplain how she could remember making a conscious decision about an email she couldnt recall.

She also told Sgt McCabes counsel, Paul McGarry, that prior to taking up the justice portfolio in May 2014 she hadnt heard any rumours about Sgt McCabe in relation to allegations of child abuse.

Those false and malicious rumours were floating about in the gardai, media and politics at a time when the whole thing was a hot political potato. Yet Ms Fitzgerald was safely insulated from all that.

She also related how she had questioned Ms OSullivan about what had gone on at OHiggins in May 2016, after the publication of a story in the Irish Examiner. The report highlighted that Ms OSullivan, as had at the commission the previous year, appeared to adopt a diametrically opposed attitude towards Sgt McCabe in private than she had done in public.

I did put the direct question [to her], Ms Fitzgerald told the tribunal. Was one thing being said in public and another in private, and what she said to me was that she made it clear she had not questioned his integrity and had never accused him of malice and she wanted to treat all witnesses equally.

There is absolutely noevidence that Ms Fitzgerald ever engaged in or advocated or was totally aware of any attempts to use unjustified means to discredit Sgt McCabe. To that extent, she has been vindicated, as she would put it.

Asked by her own counsel would she act the same way if the circumstances wererepeated, she gave the nod.

It was the correct approach for me as Minister for Justice to take about a commission of investigation, politically and every other way, she said.

However, there is no escaping the conclusion that she displayed a staggering incuriosity when informed of the aggressive strategytowards Sgt McCabe at OHiggins. She had, in the previous months, been involved in ensuring that that turbulent sergeant was no longer targeted for harassment in his workplace. She had met him and taken on board his concerns about both malpractice and how he was being targeted.

Then, when informed that he may be under attack on another front, she didnt as much as inquire from anofficial what exactly was going on.

Not just that, but when the matter became public a year later she made no connection between the story in the public domain and what she had been informed about at the outset of OHiggins.

That incuriosity, allied to the political heat that built up in the face of continued denials by the department to the persistent questioning of Labour TD Alan Kelly last year, cost her her cabinet seat.

Vindicated, sure, but Ms Fitzgerald is highly unlikely to be reinstated.Nine members of a television crew have pleaded not guilty to creating a false public alarm and other counts after one of their devices prompted a fake-bomb alert at one of New York's three major airports.

They entered their pleas during their initial court appearance on Friday.Speaking about women who have been raped, Bishop Alphonsus Cullinan said an abortion is not the answer to suicidal ideation.

The bishop also said that contraception is morally wrong and without doubt has promoted promiscuity in Ireland, and that, for women to be respected by men, they should not be totally available to [them] at all times.

The bishop said a previous Oireachtas committee had heard from the best psychologists in Ireland who claimed that a solution for a lady, a mother with suicidal ideation, the solution is not an abortion, it in fact can increase her changes of mental distress, in rape cases.

However, senator Catherine Noone, who chaired the Oireachtas committee, said: There is no doubt in my mind that what he is saying is utterly untrue.

She said the possibility that an abortion would increase the detrimental impact on a womens mental health had been raised at the committee but was dismissed categorically by experts in the field.

We would categorically say the opposite,, said Ms Noone. The evidence that we heard would suggest that there is no link there, it does not increase the chances of suicidal ideation.

Senator Catherine Noone

Speaking on WLR FM radio, the bishop said the issue of abortion was a very emotional topic but ultimately it was the domination of the strong over the weak and someone must stand up for the rights of the unborn.

If we start making decisions about who should live and who should not live then we are opening up something, like where do we stop? he said.

Are we going to intentionally take a human life?

The central thing is is a medic going to intentionally take a human life?

I think studies show that in actual fact a pregnant mother has very strong maternal instincts.

Asked if this was the case for women who had become pregnant through rape he said: I dont have the figures here now but I would be glad to get them.

The bishop added that contraception is very much a related issue, and said: I could ask the question does it make human life better, does it really?

What way are women looked on by men?

There are women discovering the beauty of their fertility and to be fully respected by the man and not to be totally available to him at all times.

Separately, Social Protection Minister Regina Doherty has said that while her view differed from that of Tanaiste Simon Coveney, who this week said he could not support unrestricted access to abortion up to the 12th week of pregnancy, that does not make Mr Coveneys opinion wrong.

Whats important for me is that the Cabinet was unanimous in our decision that, regardless of your views and where you are on the spectrum, we can do nothing without a repeal of the Eighth so we were unanimous in putting that question to the people, said Ms Doherty.The safety checks are being held as a result of a review ordered by Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy after the Grenfell Tower fire in London last June, which killed 71 people.

Fire authorities around Ireland were asked to identify all buildings over six storeys or 18m in height which were fitted with external cladding or rain-screen systems.

They were also asked to determine if they needed to use their powers under the Fire Services Act 1981 to require a fire-safety assessment to be carried out on buildings on which such material had been used.

Mr Murphy had originally confined the review to residential blocks in Dublin, but later expanded it to all high-rise buildings in the country.

In reply to a question from Labour TD Brendan Ryan, the minister said 842 medium- and high-rise buildings had been identified by local authorities.

Mr Murphy said 291 buildings had some type of external cladding.

Following a preliminary assessment, the owners of 231 properties were asked to carry out detailed fire-safety audits.

They will examine the potential for a fire, involving the cladding system, to spread rapidly within the building or to other premises, and consider if immediate actions are necessary to improve the safety of the property.

Mr Murphy said that the information collected by local authorities about tall buildings would be used as part of the basis for prioritising pre-incident planning in each fire station area.

The minister said fire crews in each fire station would visit the highest-risk premises, such as hospitals, nursing homes, industrial plants, and shopping centres to familiarise themselves with the overall layout of a building and any specific risks and fire-safety features associated with the property.

Asked by Mr Ryan about staying in place or evacuating in the event of a high-rise fire, Mr Murphy said: In most buildings and circumstances, the safest approach, and the default option, is for all occupants of the building to evacuate in the event of fire or alarm.

However, he said special provisions covered buildings such as hospitals and nursing homes, where moving patients or residents might not be feasible or advisable.

Generally, where residents receive warning of a fire in the building, outside their own flat, they should evacuate the building, said Mr Murphy.

He said residents of buildings that contain flats should be informed by the property management company of the strategy and arrangements for evacuating them.The Voices of Faith group said the former head of state was one of two names not approved after a list of attendees was sent to a senior cleric in the Holy See.

It is reported that Ms McAleese was blocked from speaking at an international conference on womens rights by Dublin-born Cardinal Kevin Farrell.

Dr Martin said he first heard a decision had been made to exclude the former president from the Voices of the Faith conference from Ms McAleese herself.

Neither Archbishop Martin nor his offices were consulted by the Vatican in relation to this matter, a statement from the Archdiocese of Dublin read.

Archbishop Martin has consistently noted that World Meeting of Families, due to take place in Dublin later this year will be an inclusive event, open to all families and family members, it added.

The Why Women Matter conference, in its fifth year, is the only event linked to International Womens Day (IWD) ever held at the Vatican.

A spokeswoman for the group said they still had no explanation why Ms McAleese was not cleared to take part. It is understood Ms McAleese has written to the Pope on the issue.

Voices of Faith sent a list of names of speakers and attendees for its March 8 conference and two names were excluded in a list sent back  Ms McAleese and Ssenfuka Juanita Warry, who runs a non-profit organisation in Uganda, where being identified as gay or lesbian can be life-threatening.

It is not unusual for a senior Vatican official to vet a list of attendees and speakers for conferences.

Voices of Faith has decided to move the conference from the Casina Pio in the Holy See to the Jesuit Curia in Rome, outside the Vatican. Ms McAleese was initially asked to take part in a panel discussion but has since been asked to be the keynote speaker at the conference entitled Why Women Matter.

The Vatican press office, the Catholic Communications office in Ireland, and Cardinal Farrell, the Prefect of the Vatican Dicastery for Laity, the Family and Life, did not respond to requests for comment.Two civilian gardai who analysed statistics have made protected disclosures alleging a number of homicides, or unlawful killings, were not investigated as actual homicides.

The disclosures were made to the Oireachtas Committee on Justice.

The emergence of the new whistleblower complaints comes after the Central Statistics Office held off publishing garda crime figures last year. The CSO will only resume this later this year.

The Irish Examiner has learnt that the whole issue around how the force has categorised killings or homicides will be raised by Mr Flanagan when he next week meets the Policing Authority, which is also looking into the matter.

The minister will also meet gardai on the matter, according to a parliamentary written answer given to Sinn Fein justice spokesman Donnchadh O Laoghaire.

Gardai are continuing a review of homicide figures dating back to 2003, amid suggestions some were not classified properly.

Labours Alan Kelly has pressed for the matter to be investigated properly.

Mr Kelly told RTE yesterday: Unfortunately there have been deaths in this country which have not been classified correctly and where people have died of something akin to homicide and it has been classified as a road traffic death, misadventure, assault, or a number of other things, and it is quite astonishing.

It is absolutely astonishing and incredible that this has happened.

Mr Kelly claimed the two garda whistleblowers had made attempts last year to get the serious issues addressed in the force, but were stopped and even blocked.

The garda press office yesterday refused to answer whether whisteblowers had sought a meeting with the acting commissioner over the statistic concerns. It said gardai were prohibited from commenting on protected disclosures and the issue would be discussed at a public meeting with the policing authority, scheduled for February 22.

The Policing Authority this week said it is still unhappy with assurances given by gardai over classifying some 41 homicides between 2013 and 2015.

Mr Flanagan yesterday said that he was extremely concerned about the reports.

The minister said that he has not received any protected disclosures or allegations that unlawful killings were not investigated.

The minister said garda management are adamant that all unlawful killings are investigated. But he has also asked gardai for formal assurances.The eurosceptic MEP said Sinn Fein is no longer a eurosceptic party and Ireland is now one of the only countries in the union without an anti-EU platform.

Speaking on the future of Europe at Trinity Colleges historical society, Mr Farage said he got involved in politics to fight against the EU but that he is now considered a reincarnation of Adolf Hitler. He will also speak at a Irexit conference today in Dublin, debating if Ireland should leave the EU.

Students were told that 2016 marked the creation of a new political order following the Brexit vote and the election of US president Donald Trump.

Flanked by security, Mr Farage told a packed room there is a massive debate going on about the future of Europe.

British prime minister Theresa May was the first to face criticism from the former Ukip leader.

We [Britain] have one very big problem with Brexit and she is called Theresa May who I think is the worst prime minister I have ever seen in my lifetime, he said.

Britains EU exit will still go ahead, he predicted, but will damage Ireland.

Im also beginning to think it will be on the terms that Ireland wont like, said Mr Farage. The one country that gets the most affected by Brexit, is the Republic of Ireland.

The EU wants to punish Britain for leaving, students were told.

Full house for Nigel Farage speech to TCD where he Qs whether #Brexit and Donald Trump are just a blip #iestaff pic.twitter.com/ghzcAA7jEu  Juno McEnroe (@Junomaco) February 2, 2018

A deal resulting in tariffs and damage to Irelands beef trade would be bad news for Ireland, he said.

Mr Farage said Mr Varadkar is a charming man, a good operator, and akin to an Irish [Tony] Blair.

However, Mr Farage, who has been an MEP for South England since 1999, questioned the Taoiseachs priorities.

It seems to me that, in these negotiations, he is taking the Brussels side of this against Britain and not the one that is in the most interests of this country, he said.

He called on Ireland and Britain to jointly seek a special deal from the EU in the event of no new trade deal. This would protect trade and the border, he said.

He called for Mr Varadkar to argue for this at EU level, and said a referendum on Ireland staying in the EU will come here at some point.

Asked if Brexit would go ahead in early 2019, as planned, Mr Farage responded that if a final deal is rejected at Westminster, the issue will be fought again.

Mr Farage has recently called for a second Brexit referendum. He also said he would come to Ireland campaign for Irexit if asked and that Sinn Fein has done a U-turn and is no longer an anti-EU party.A member of the public found the consultants report, which contained the names and dates of birth of at least 18 patients and the units they were treated in at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda.

The man, who made the discovery, on a street near the hospital, handed the documents in to local radio station LMFM. The station returned the documents to the HSE.

Sheila OConnor, spokeswoman for patient advocacy group Patient Focus, said the apparent data breach in relation to patients attending Our Lady of Lourdes was the third such incident since 2015.

In September 2015, files containing patient data were found near a bin outside the hospital, prompting an investigation by both the HSE and the Data Protection Commissioner. The files contained clinical information about patients.

At the time, the hospital said it had facilities in place for the safe disposal of sensitive and confidential information.

In 2016, a document containing information relating to 13 patients was found in the vicinity of the hospital grounds. The hospital said at the time that it was committed to learning from this issue.

Ms OConnor said there was no point in the hospital having policies and procedures in place to protect patient data unless they were implemented.

Policies and procedures are all very well but they need to be acted on. If I was one of those patients, Id be contacting a solicitor, she said.

A spokesperson for the Data Protection Commissioner said: I can confirm that a breach notification has been made to the Data Protection Commissioner by the HSE and the office is liaising with them on the matter.

The RCSI hospital group, which handles communications on behalf of the Drogheda hospital, failed to respond to Irish Examiner requests for a comment.News No Mass Graves Found During Official Inspection of Gutar Pyin, Government Says

Rohingya refugees walk at Jamtoli camp in Coxs Bazar, Bangladesh, on Jan. 22. / Reuters

YANGON  No mass graves were found in Gutar Pyin village of Buthidaung Township in northern Rakhine State during an inspection of the area on Friday by officials and Muslim community leaders, the governments Information Committee said.

On Feb. 1, The Associated Press published an article stating that mass graves had been found in Gutar Pyin. The report was based on video footage provided by Rohingya refugees now living in a refugee camp in Bangladesh. The AP said it had interviewed at least two dozen refugees.

The following day, the Union government ordered the Rakhine State government to investigate the claims. It immediately established a 17-member team comprising border police officers, township administrative officials, a deputy superintendent of Buthidaung Hospital, immigration officials, township police and legal officials, fire service department members and five community leaders.

While it stopped short of issuing a blanket denial of the existence of mass graves, the Information Committee said in a statement that the team had inspected locations identified in the AP report but found nothing. The community leaders and local residents said there had been no mass killings, but reported that heavy clashes had erupted between government security forces and the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) militants in Gutar Pyin on Aug. 28.

Military offensives in the area have driven out at least 650,000 Rohingya since late last year in an operation the United Nations has described as a textbook example of ethnic cleansing. The Bangladesh and Myanmar governments agreed in January to start voluntary refugee repatriation but that has been delayed until Friday.

According to the governments statement, 19 ARSA militants were killed in fighting after about 500 militants attacked security officials with firearms, knives, slingshots, and darts. Officials buried the bodies of the dead militants systematically and opened a criminal case under counter-terrorism Article 50 (i) at Nyaung Chaung police station. The statement did not elaborate on whether security forces buried the ARSA casualties in the Gutar Pyin graveyard or in other locations.

The press released stated that the government was not necessarily denying the allegations and would investigate further if reliable new information comes to light. If any rights violations were found to have occurred, action would be taken against the perpetrators in line with existing laws, it said.

However, Rakhine State government secretary U Tin Maung Swe insisted that Muslim community leaders say there was no mass killing in Gutar Pyin village as has been reported by media outlets. Its all based on groundless information.

The state secretary accused the AP of deliberately publishing a report based on hearsay and rumors in order to pressure Myanmar into allowing an international fact-finding mission in northern Rakhines Maungdaw district.

He said seven Muslim men from Gutar Pyin village assisted government officials in Fridays inspection.

No journalists from independent media were invited to join Fridays trip, though employees of state-owned newspapers and a member of the Press Council participated.

At least one local resident said he had heard stories similar to those reported by AP, however. Muslim civil servant U Tun Thar (name changed to protect his safety), who lives in Buthidaung Township, said Gutar Pyin village is located a 15-minute drive from the downtown area. Approximately 3,000 people lived there before government security forces launched clearance operations against ARSA after it ambushed police border outposts in Maungdaw district in late 2017.

Locals described Gutar Pyin as a tract comprising three villages  Muslim, Daingnet and Arakanese  but said the vast majority of the population had been Muslim. However, the Muslim part of the village had since been reduced to ashes while the two Arakanese villages remain intact following the security forces operations, he said.

According to U Thun Thar, one-third of Gutar Pyins former Muslim population has been sheltering in neighboring villages or with relatives in Buthidaung Region, while the rest fled to Bangladesh by boat. He said he had also heard about several burial sites having been found in Gutar Pyin village recently but Muslim residents had not been able to produce the actual bodies as they were not allowed to enter the area, which is restricted. Residents speculate that around 400 Muslims were butchered at Gutar Pyin.

No one [among the Muslim population] dares to visit the burned villages; only the Rakhine residents, because only the two Rakhine villages are left, he said.

Rakhine government secretary U Tin Maung Swe acknowledged that the village was previously dominated by Muslims, adding that some are currently still living in the village. Asked about claims of arson, he said some parts of Gutar Pyin village were set alight by ARSA militants. He declined to provide specific information about the remaining Muslim homes in Gutar Pyin.Saturday, February 3rd, 2018 (7:20 am) - Score 5,639

The prospect of mobile giant Vodafone gaining access to Virgin Medias growing HFC cable and fibre optic (FTTP) broadband network in the UK has once again been raised. Voda has confirmed that it is in early stage discussions with Liberty Global regarding a potential acquisition.

In a statement Vodafone said that its discussions were focused upon the acquisition of certain overlapping continental European assets owned by Liberty Global and that they are not in discussion with Liberty Global regarding a combination of both companies. Liberty Global is the parent company of Virgin Media.

As weve said a few times before, such a deal would seem to make sense in the UK. Vodafone is strong in Mobile but their penetration into the fixed line market, especially in the United Kingdom, is still largely dependent upon Openreachs (BT) existing FTTC / ADSL infrastructure.

The recent deal with Cityfibre to potentially rollout a 1Gbps capable Fibre-to-the-Home (FTTH/P) broadband network for up to 5 million UK premises by 2025 (here), starting in Milton Keynes (here), may give Vodafone an alternative but it will take a long time to grow scale and scale is what any serious challenger really needs.

On the flip side Virgin Media is spending 3bn to extend their ultrafast cable (HFC DOCSIS / FTTP) broadband and TV network to 60-65% of UK premises by 2019, although their Mobile (4G MVNO) platform is still dependent upon arch rival EE (BT). Meanwhile Vodafone has already shelved their UK based Pay TV (IPTV) plans but that wouldnt be a problem if they got close to Virgin Media.

Vodafone Statement Vodafone Group plc (Vodafone) notes the recent press speculation regarding a potential transaction with Liberty Global plc (Liberty Global). Vodafone confirms that it is in early stage discussions with Liberty Global regarding the potential acquisition of certain overlapping continental European assets owned by Liberty Global. There is no certainty that any transaction will be agreed, nor as to the terms, timing or form of any transaction. Vodafone is not in discussion with Liberty Global regarding a combination of both companies.

Talks over the possibility of a mega merger or partial asset swap were first confirmed in June 2015 (here), although such a large deal would have created many complicated financial (Vodafones tax situation is tedious) and regulatory problems. In the end no agreement could be reached but both sides left the door open to future discussions (here). Last year the rumours started up again after various reports claimed that secret talks were on-going.

As Vodafones CEO, Vittorio Colao, said during early 2017, It is still an attractive combination. The deal is not on the table. But  its an interesting project. If Europe wants the creation of real alternatives to incumbents [like BT, then] Vodafone and Liberty are the only two guys in town.

However a related article in the FT (paywall) suggests that the new talks are focused on Libertys cable assets in Germany, as well as its holdings across Eastern Europe (i.e. not the UK). Lest we forget that Vodafone and Liberty Global only recently agreed to merge their businesses in the Netherlands via a 50:50 joint venture. Testing the waters, perhaps.

Liberty Global also recently agreed to sell its Austrian unit to Deutsche Telekom for 1.9bn. Meanwhile the uncertainty around Brexit in the UK could be giving Vodafone and Liberty Global additional pause for thought, perhaps encouraging them to look at more predictable markets first.Microsoft's Edge last month posted its first ever double-digit browser share, while Google's Chrome slid for the third month straight.

Mozilla's Firefox once again held steady, keeping its head above water.

According to data published Sunday by California-based metrics company Net Applications, Edge's October share climbed by 1.4 percentage points, ending the month at 10.2%, the first time Microsoft's browser broke through that psychologically important barrier. The gain was the largest ever for Edge in a single month, almost double that of the previous record set in December 2019.

The increase was so large that it immediately raised suspicions that it was a miscount by Net Applications rather than a reflection of reality. Bolstering that was an even greater boost to the share of Microsoft's Internet Explorer (IE), the obsolete browser the Redmond, Wash. company has started to strip of some of its support. IE's share for October  5.6%  was 1.7 points higher than the month prior, a jump so out of character as to be unbelievable.

Edge's gain was understandable, at least. Microsoft relaunched that 2015 browser earlier this year when it recast Edge with the Google-dominated Chromium technology, the same that powers Chrome. Not only did Microsoft make Edge a Chrome copy, but it also expanded support to versions of Windows other than 10, as well as macOS and, more recently, Linux.

Since January, Edge has slowly been adding share; 3.2 points since the Chromium-based Edge went final in the Stable channel. In the past 12 months, Edge has gained 4.1 percentage points, for an average of a third of a point per month.

At that pace, Edge should sit at almost 11% by year's end and at 15% by December 2021. Of course, that assumes Edge can maintain growth, which in turn requires one or more rivals continues to give up share.

The most likely loser? Chrome, mostly because of its titanic share but also because Edge is, well, Chrome wearing a different outfit.

Microsoft's launch of Windows 10 20H2  the H2 signifying the year's second feature upgrade  last month may assist Edge as it continues to climb: 20H2 includes Chromium Edge. That should accelerate the replacement of original Edge, the version introduced in mid-2015 that ran only on Windows 10, with the sounder Chromium browser.

Chrome down for third consecutive month

Chrome dumped seven-tenths of a percentage point in October, falling back to 69.3%. The decline was the third in as many months, an unusual run that's occurred only four times in the browser's 15 years. (The last time it happened before this was in September-December 2019.)

Whenever Chrome suffers losses in two or more straight months, it's tempting to wonder whether the browser has peaked. Computerworld has tentatively pegged more than a couple such milestones before but been proven wrong each time. The browser could easily bounce back as it has before.

Computerworld's latest forecast  as always, based on Chrome's 12-month average  stayed with growth, albeit pared significantly from 30 days ago. Chrome should return to 70% by March 2021 and reach 71% by September 2022. (The latter was three months later than last month's forecast, showing how present declines quickly impact future gains.)

Edge remains Chrome's most dangerous competitor, primarily  and this is Google's own doing to some degree  because the former is the latter, what with both relying on Chromium. But Microsoft has cards to play here that Google cannot match; Microsoft will leverage its enterprise management reputation and expertise in an attempt to wean commercial customers from Google's browser.

Microsoft's strategy, then, would be the opposite of Google's. The latter pushed Chrome to consumers until its share reached tipping point, and employees demanded the right to run the same browser they'd become familiar with at home. Microsoft would instead hope to win over business users in the expectation that they might want to run the same browser on home PCs, tablets or even phones.

Firefox: Not dead yet!

Firefox didn't move its share needle last month; it stayed at the same 7.2% mark it earned in September. That meant Firefox didn't gain any ground. It also meant it didn't lose any, probably its most important goal for now and the foreseeable future.

Mozilla's browser also stuck to the bad news forecast of last month, although Computerworld's current prediction puts it under 6% in August 2021, two months later than last month's estimate. At its 12-month rate of decline, Firefox will dip below 5% in May 2022.

Elsewhere in Net Applications' numbers, Apple's Safari slumped by two-tenths of a percentage point in October, sliding to 3.4%. Opera Software's Opera fell by a slightly-larger three-tenths of a point to end the month at an all-time low of seven-tenths of a point.

Net Applications calculates share by detecting the agent strings of the browsers used to reach the websites of Net Applications' clients. The company counts visitor sessions to measure browser activity.

Or it used to.

At the same time it published October's share numbers, Net Applications announced that it's pulling the plug on the data source. "October 2020 is the last month of data," the firm said. "Why? An upcoming change in browsers will break our device detection technology and will cause inaccuracies for a long period of time."

The change Net Applications cited would remove much of the agent string information used not only to compile analytics such as browser and operating system share, but also by advertisers and/or scammers to "fingerprint" individuals so that they can be more thoroughly tracked as they conduct their online lives.

Computerworld has not yet decided whether to continue the "Top web browsers" series, and if so, which alternate data source might be used.

Stay tuned.







"Enough is enough the governor added. The Governor was addressing wananchi in Mutha trading centre.



"I speak without fear. We shall deal firmly with this problem of insecurity and Somali invasions, she added.



"They invade us and our farms killing and destroying property. Yet we do not take our cattle to their lands. Why do they then invade and attack us? Do they think we cannot defend ourselves? she asked.



The Governor said that invasion of the county by herders and charcoal harvesters were impoverishing the people.







Kitui Governor Charity Ngilu has asked security agencies to end the invasion by Somali pastoralists into resident's farms in Mutha ward, Kitui South sub-county Ngilu said police have been slow to rebuff the armed herders.She said she might ask the residents to defend themselves."The constitution of Kenya grants citizens the right to protection of life and property and such could not be compromised,' Ngilu said.She urged the police to flush out the herders who have invaded Kitui County with their livestock destroying farm crops."Residents will thus have no option but be forced to take arms and protect their lives and property," said the apparently enraged NgiluAlum Shares Advice on Achieving Breakthrough Career Success

Feb. 2, 2018

Jaynanne Calaway-Habeck 99 spoke to Illinois Wesleyan University students about achieving breakthrough career success.

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. Vice President of People Ops at Panera Bread and former triple major at Illinois Wesleyan University Jaynanne Calaway-Habeck 99, said the key to achieving success in the workplace can be found within a liberal arts education.

Habeck returned to her alma mater on Tuesday, Jan. 16 for the Hart Career Center Kickoff Event, to give students what she called non-traditional advice on how to achieve breakthrough career success.

A triple major in economics, finance and international relations, Habeck spent her junior year studying labor economics at Oxford University through the Illinois Wesleyan Pembroke Program. After changing her original plan to attend law school after graduation, Habeck earned a masters degree in human resources and industrial relations from the University of Illinois.

When I think back to my liberal arts education at Illinois Wesleyan, my masters degree program that was interdisciplinary, and then going into consulting, those three things were all foundations that gave me a very broad perspective going into a business, which probably helped me now that Ive been in one company, and one industry, for the past 15 years, Habeck said.

But Habeck never thought she would end up working in the restaurant industry.

Planning is important, but also being open to the opportunities that come your way and keeping your eyes wide open to them is really important, Habeck said. I don't think the restaurant industry would have even been on my radar, but its fun, its gritty, its real  people have to eat.

Having held multiple positions in Panera including manager, director, and vice president of human resources, Habeck advised students that success in the workplace is not only achieved by showing people how much you know, but it is also about showing people how much you care.

The number one mistake that new people make, is that they think they need to prove to us we made the right decision in hiring them, Habeck said. The number one thing they can do is sit back and listen and learn, and get to know people, so that people see that they have the best intentions. That is what opens the door to have influence and real conversation.

It turns out that being real and forming real relationships with people was Habecks most important piece of advice for students for achieving success in any field.

Jaynanne Calaway-Habeck 99

No matter who you are, no matter what youre doing, be real. Be yourself. Let people see who you really are, and that will grease the wheels for everything else, Habeck said.

In addition to being genuine, Habeck encouraged students to take initiative and ask questions, because in order to add value to any business, they must first understand the business of the business.

No one cares about your career as much as you do, Habeck said. Take initiative. Dont wait for someone else to develop you. Ask people. You will be thrilled. They are going to want to help you, just ask.

As someone who continues to take initiative to add value to Panera, Habeck said she has also found a way to maintain a healthy work-life balance amidst her busy schedule and 2,000 daily emails. She said it is very easy to let the urgent and unimportant take over on a daily basis, but knowing what is important will help you weed through the noise of the urgent but unimportant. For Habeck, the important is her faith and family, what she said are the two guiding forces in her life.

Always remember why you do what you do, because if you lose sight of that, you probably lost sight of yourself, Habeck said.

As a mother of two and an active member in her church community, Habeck has found that work-life balance. As an executive at Panera, she continues to challenge herself to find ways to add value to Panera, a quality Habeck says she owes to her liberal arts education.

That liberal arts education, a strategic graduate program, and then going into consulting have helped me in the past 15 years to be able to constantly ask questions and challenge the steps going forward.

By Vi Kakares '20A Dorchester County Sheriff's deputy shows off one of the two nasal Narcan doses he carries in the glove box of his patrol vehicle for opioid overdoses. Sheriff L.C. Knight calls it "a miracle drug" and recently equipped all agency officers with it.



She says, "I long to see them, but I fear returning home. I feel safer at the camp.



"I need bigger opportunities to explore. If Kenya offers me that (and it has so far) Id be glad to stay on as long as it takes, she says.



Omot Oman, 23, is an Ethiopian refugee who has lived at the Dadaab refugee complex since 2004. He was nine years when his family moved to Kenya following clan clashes in Ethiopia.



He attended primary and secondary school in Dadaab, Garissa County. According to him, schools within the camp are understaffed and lack essential learning equipment and materials.



Omot says, "One book is shared by more than five learners. Most teachers are volunteers. Some of them are not trained to teach, which affects the quality of their teaching.



"There is also no electricity in the camp. Students can therefore only read during daytime. When I joined high school, at night, I read using a candle for four years, he reflects.



The UNHCR, he says, gives them a monthly voucher for buying food, in a system known as "Bamba Chakula.



He explains, "Every family is issued with a SIM card that acts as a bank account. UNHCR sends Sh1, 400 per person for buying food to the line, but the money is too little considering that most refugees do not have other sources of income.



"Other times the money gets to us late, which forces families to borrow or starve, Omot says.



The escalation of terror activities by Al Shabaab has also tilted the balance of life in the Dadaab complex, according to him.



He says, "The fighters target the camp for attacks or radicalisation of those living here. It has never been so scary living here. You never know what might happen tomorrow.



These setbacks, however, have not deterred the youngster from following his heart.



"I am an interpreter with UNHCR, which earns me some allowance. Its a job I love. I also compose poems whenever I am free, he says.



While he sees Kenya as generally peaceful, he lives in dread of unrest.



"I was in Kenya during the 2007/2008 ethnic violence. I was disturbed that my host country was descending into war just like my own country. Peace in Kenya means I can continue living here without worrying about my security.



Jean Claude is a Congolese asylum seeker based at Kakuma Refugee camp in Turkana County. Jeans parents sent him to Kenya in 2009 due to political mayhem in his home town, Lubumbashi Province in the Democratic Republic of Congo. He was 15.



"Some of my relatives wanted me to join the rebels fighting in our region. My mother was opposed to it though, fearing I might die in war, so she sent me here through a friend. I havent been in touch with my family since, he narrates.



Most of his age mates who remained in Congo, he says, were forcefully recruited to guerrilla warfare. While Jean is glad this spared him from taking part in armed conflict, he finds fault in his familys decision to send him here.



"My family dumped me in Kenya. I didnt know anyone here. How I was going to fare here was entirely upon me, he recollects.



"My initial days in Kenya were a nightmare. I didnt know Kiswahili or English. I only spoke French and Kilingala. The little Congolese version of Kiswahili that I knew didnt help me either.



Jean was moved from a refugee centre in Kangemi where he had stayed for a month and taken to Kakuma.



"It was very hostile at the camp. I worked as a barber for one year and as a boda boda rider for two years to make ends meet. I could not proceed with my education beyond Form One, he says.



Luckily for him, FilmAid (a non-profit humanitarian organisation that uses film to educate and entertain refugees around the world) offered him a scholarship to study journalism and film-making in 2016.



"I have participated in the production of two documentaries so far, Lovers no Boundaries and Shape Up for FilmAid. I have also been part of a music video project with Wyre, says Jean, who describes himself as a top-notch videographer and can now speak and write fluent English and Kiswahili.



"I am forgetting French and Kilingala since I hardly ever use them anymore. I am more Kenyan than Congolese, and finally, after a long time, I am happy to be here, he says.



The one thing he would like to see change at the camp is ease of movement.



"You cannot just leave the camp. When you want to, you must obtain a permit and give a valid reason explaining why and where you wish to go. The permit takes a week to process. As a young person craving freedom, I feel inhibited to a great extent, he says.



Of the instability that tends to besiege the country during the election period, he remarks,



"What happened in my country taught me that anyones status can change anytime. People who are peacefully living in their country should therefore value this stability.



Jean intends to move beyond acting to become a film director and establish his own media production company, "to make enough money to change my life and the lives of others like me.



"I have a Kenyan girlfriend who I hope to settle down with someday. Ultimately, I want to trace my family back in DRC, he says.



Abdi Halane, 29, has been a refugee in Kenya for the last 19 years. The chaos that engulfed Somalia in the 1990s forced Halane and her family to flee Mogadishu in 1999. They came to Kenya through Ethiopia.



"There were bombings all over the city. Getting essential commodities was difficult, which made life very harsh. I was 10 when my family decided to leave Somalia.



Ethiopia would not be a peaceful host to the thousands of families fleeing the country since it was also going through political turmoil at the time.



"We had to seek refugee elsewhere, and Kenya was an easy choice for us. Along the way, we had to contend with starvation, lack of clean water, and lack of medical services. I survived measles and fever to get to Nairobi, she recalls.



She and other refugees were hosted at various mosques in Nairobi before UNHCR ferried them to Kakuma Refugee camp. Halane says that at some point during the journey here, she was separated from some of her relatives, who she has never seen since. In 2005, she was married off. She was only 14 years. In 2007, her husband died in a road accident. At the time, she had two girls, now 13 and 10 years.



"Living without a male figure in the camp is difficult. I have been mocked and humiliated just because I dont have a husband, she says.



Furthermore, raising two girls with good morals in a camp setting where sexual immorality thrives has been a daunting task, she says.



"As a mother, I cant afford to fail my daughters, whatever the situation is. Thats what motherhood is about: remaining steadfast for your children.



Refugees registered by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) are entitled to free medical care and education for their children. But as Halane explains, the provisions are not always enough.



"If you need specialised medical care such as surgery, for instance, you must pay from your own pocket. Such services are only available outside the camp. Besides, most refugees dont have medical insurance, she laments.



To supplement the provisions given by UNHCR, Halane runs a photo studio within the camp.



"I mainly take portrait photos for individuals and families. Sometimes NGOs that operate in the camp invite me to take photos and film their events. The little money I get is what keeps me going, she says, adding that photography also helps her to keep boredom at bay since her daughters are in boarding school.



She is also a community mobiliser with Windle International Kenya, an NGO that promotes and coordinates education and training programmes for refugees and needy Kenyans.



"We teach various refugee groups about the importance of education and encourage them to abandon rites such as female circumcision and early marriage for girls, which are practised widely in my Somali community, Halane says.



Does she dream of ever returning to Somalia?



"Going back to ones country is the dream of every refugee. So, yes. But only when the situation there is calm, she says.



Lilian Ochans family fled the Gambella Massacre in Ethiopia in 2003 and settled in South Sudan. For the last 15 years, her family have been refugees in Kenya and South Sudan.



The 2010 independence referendum in Sudan, however, made matters worse for refugees. As native tribes in the southern part of the country were gearing for independence, refugees, were isolated and accused of various crimes.



Ochan says,



"Some Sudanese communities, who didnt want us in their country accused us of scheming to occupy their land. It was a fearful period.



These events and the fear of a bloody secession pushed the refugees out of South Sudan to Kenya.



"My then 12-year-old sister and I travelled from Juba to Nairobi by ourselves, leaving our parents behind. We later joined one of our aunts at Dadaab, she says.



Life in the camp, she recalls, was a struggle for survival.



"My aunt was in a boarding school away from the camp. We were, therefore, on our own most of the time, she narrates,



As a 14-year-old who knew very little at the time, Ochan was compelled to play the role of mother to her younger sister.



""As teenagers, it was not safe for us to be on our own at the camp without a guardian. Thankfully, with the support of the UNHCR, we joined a boarding school in Juja, in the outskirts of Nairobi city.



But school life presented other challenges.



"We could hardly interact in English. We only spoke Amharic. We were also teased for being older than the rest of the students. I felt so humiliated, I wanted to quit. The only thing that kept me there was that life in the camp was not any better.



When the government of Kenya issued a notice to close down the Dadaab Complex in 2017, UNHCR relocated Ochan and other non-Somali refugees to Kalobeyei Settlement in Turkana County.



"The move was very disruptive. We had to start life afresh. We have since settled down in the new camp though, she says.



Police in Kenya, she says, are their main threat.



"The alien ID card issued by the government of Kenya bears all the features of an ordinary Kenyan ID. The only difference is that it identifies you as a refugee, she says.



The police, she says, extort money from them, insisting that the alien card is only valid within the camp. This is not all, some banks, she regrets, do not allow refugees to operate accounts, which is inconveniencing.



"I therefore have to carry cash, which is risky. Alternatively, I have to operate mobile money, which encourages wastage especially since I love to buy new clothes and accessories, she smiles, and adds,



In 2016, Ochan decided to try her hand at modelling. But this too was not easy.



"One modelling agency dismissed me just because I was a refugee. They argued that I could not be relied on to commit to the job. This really broke my heart, she narrates.



She was encouraged a bit though, when she was crowned Miss World Refugee at Kakuma in 2017.



"I have accepted my status as a refugee. I have refused to allow the tag of refugee to define who I want to become. I want to pursue runaway and commercial modelling, and use my story to inspire other women, she says in a determined tone.



It is a crisis



Statistics from the United Nation High Commission for Refugee (UNHCR) show that 6.4 per cent of Kenyas population (488, 415 people) was composed of refugees as of January 2018.



Fifty-eight per cent of refugees in Kenya (or 283, 281 people) are from Somalia.



While the government has initiated a voluntary repatriation programme, specifically by shutting down the Dadaab complex, most of them choose to remain In Kenya.



The fragile political, economic and security situation in their countries deters them from returning. Youths who were born to refugee families and raised in the country consider Kenya their country, and opt to stay put to establish their lives from here.



According to UNHCR, there are over 22.5 million refugees and 10 million stateless people in the world. South Sudan, Syria and Afghanistan contribute 55 per cent of the worlds total refugee population.



"In his hands, I suffered physical violence, rape and unlawful detention, but I vowed never to become his wife, she narrates.For a poor, lonely girl in a foreign land, she says, there was little she could do to rescue herself from this abuse. When the opportunity to escape presented itself, Akuot crossed over to Kenya in 2015 and was admitted as an immigrant at Kakuma Refugee Camp."This has become my home since, she simply says."I am a young woman with dreams, but so many hindrances stand in my way. I wish to become a womens advocate, to fight for the rights of other women, she says.Owing to the turbulence that characterised her teenage phase, Akuot did not have the opportunity to learn beyond Form Six (Kenyas equivalent of Form Four)."I won a scholarship to study a degree in public relations, but as a refugee, I could not directly enrol at the university, having not studied in Kenya. I was, therefore, asked to study for a diploma first, she says, adding that she is unable to raise the money required.Akuot is currently volunteering with Danish Refugee Council (DRC) in their women empowerment programme in the camp."This engagement has given me the necessary vitality to fight for the rights of women in communities where womens opinions do not matter.She emphasises, "If a man has the right to education, opportunities and the right to make critical decisions touching on his personal life, so does a women. Akuot has not been in touch with her family for 10 years.Reddit Email 129 Shares

Middle East Monitor |  

Violent clashes broke out Thursday in Al-Mahrah governorate between Saudi Arabias forces and unidentified armed smugglers, Aden Tomorrow reported.

Sixteen armed smugglers entered the governorate in four vehicles when an encounter with Saudi forces led to exchange of gun fire. There was no clear indication on casualties, but one male resident was shot dead on the Mahayfif coast.

The smugglers operating near the border of Oman reportedly travelled from Marib governorate and entered Al-Mahrah through the Rumah district in order to transfer weapons and drugs.

Saudi Arabia has since levied a prominent presence in Al-Mahrah to monitor the border.

This incident is symptomatic of a much broader problem in Yemen, which is that some of those in positions of power have vested interests in the booming war economy. This means that they have little incentive to end the war. The fact that more than a dozen armed smugglers from Jawf and Marib were able to pass through many checkpoints into the heart of Mahrah suggests that they have people on the inside, Dr Elisabeth Kendall, senior research fellow in Arabic & Islamic Studies at the University of Oxford, told MEMO.

UN: Saudi strikes kill 136 civilians in Yemen

This is certainly the word on the ground. The problem, as ever, is trying to work out who in regional government is just talking the talk and making the right noises to the international community, and who is genuinely trying to clamp down on the flourishing criminal trade in weapons and drugs.

In Mahrah, I have personally witnessed the effects of a massive increase in smuggling activity. For example, new hotels and new shop fronts have sprung up in and around Al-Ghaydah. These are likely vehicles for money laundering; certainly, locals cant afford to use them and can only watch and wonder. Mahrahs economy looks on the surface to be booming but the lives of regular citizens are either unchanged or deteriorating, Kendall continued.

Earlier this week, United Arab Emirates-backed separatist forces handed back two military bases to the internationally recognised President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadis government. Hadis administration called the conflict uptick in Aden a failed coup levied by the so-called Southern Transitional Council as they attempted to take over the interim Yemeni capital of Aden.

The Southern Transitional Council seeks to secede from northern Yemen. Late last year, the STC passed a resolution to form a local headquarters in Al-Mahrah governorate in eastern Yemen bordering Oman.

UN: More civilians killed in Yemens absurd, futile war

With conflict dynamics shifting in southern Yemen, Saudi Arabias projects in Al-Mahrah governorate is becoming tense. In November 2017, the Saudi-led coalition had an altercation with Al-Mahrah governorate security forces when it prevented Saudi forces from taking control of the towns airport in Al-Ghaydah.

Al-Mahrahs security committee and elders were forced to mediate the tensions between forces. Saudi forces continue to operate in Al-Mahrah but are required to report on activities to local officials.

The Saudi-led coalition was invited to enter the Yemen civil war by President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi in March 2015. Its main goals were to neutralise threats posed by the Houthi group emanating from northern Yemen and support President Hadis government.

A clear split can be seen between the UAEs foreign policy in the Yemen civil war, although Saudi Arabias has remained silent over the UAEs change in political focus since 2017.

Al-Mahrah governorate, which borders Oman, has remained out of sight of the civil war in Yemen which began in late 2014 when the Iranian backed Houthi group took over swathes of territory. Oman has not intervened in the conflict but has offered to mediate between the parties.

This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Via Middle East Monitor



Bonus video added by Informed Comment:

Al Jazeera English: ?? Is Yemen on the path to inevitable partition? | Inside StoryReddit Email 548 Shares

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) |  

The confident pronouncements by pundits and politicians that the Nunes memo is a dud, dead on arrival, neglect to consider the main tactic of the Republican right wing for some time now. It is a conspiracy theory, and conspiracy theories carried Trump to the White House and many Republicans into Congress or state legislatures.

Nunes cherry-picked intelligence reports to arrive at a narrative whereby the Obama FBI bamboozled FISA judges into letting them spy on Carter Page, a Trump campaign official with strong ties to Moscow. The FBI succeeded by carefully concealing from the judges a key fact: that their whole investigation was provoked by the Steele Dossier, opposition research conducted initially at the behest of Republican rivals of Trump and then taken over by the Clinton campaign.

Nunes aims at implicitly tainting the Steele dossier itself (gathered by an ex-MI6 operative with extensive Moscow contacts) and also the whole FBI investigation to which it gave rise, including the efforts of Special Counsel Robert Mueller.

One of Nuness key charges is that the Justice Department did not tell the FISA judges that the impetus behind the investigation came from documents generated by political forces (i.e. by the Clinton campaigns quest for oppo research). This charge is untrue, according to what Justice Department sources told the Washington Post.

But these flawsthat the Nunes memo commits many sins of omission and makes false chargesdo not in and of itself make it a dud.

It is intended to create a national conspiracy theory. Nunes and Trump know that Rupert Murdochs lying Fox Cable News will be happy to become The Nunes Memo Network 24/7. They know that Sinclair radio stations (which have virtually taken over radio news nationally) will play it up big time. They know that NewsMax and Breitbart and other right wing webzines will beat this drum continually. They know that YouTube celebrities with millions of followers such as Alex Jones will spread the word of the perfidy of the FBI, or the Kenyan FBI as they likely will call it.

They already have 36% of voters and just need to create doubts in or support for Trump in 15% of voters who are independents, and they keep winning politically.

That Nunes and Trump are aiming for a viral conspiracy theory is the reason for which they rushed to release this Republican memo from the House Intelligence Committee (an oxymoron if there ever was one) while delaying the Democratic minority response. For both documents to come out on the same day would have interfered with messages and created doubts about the cleanness of the narrative. As it is, the Nunes document now has a week in which it reigns supreme and can be established as a canon

Trumpism rides on conspiracy theories. Breitbart and Wikileaks turned Hillary Clinton and her campaign manager John Podesta into participants in the satanist ritual of spirit cooking. The TrumpNazis also alleged that Hillary Clinton is a pedophile and engaged in trafficking children via a pizzeria in Washington, DC.

These conspiracy theories about Clinton were ignored by the journalistic establishment, and rightly so, but it is possible that they played a key role in Trumps election victory. They served to depress voting for Clinton among less educated working class voters, ordinarily a crucial Democratic Party demographic.

Although the internet is great at shooting down fallacious arguments, its corrective effect can only work if people dont stovepipe. But they do. Conservatives and liberals dont read each other any more, creating an echo chamber in which rumor and innuendo fly without check or hindrance. The irony of Trumps fake news meme is that he deploys it to sideline responsible, fact-checking journalism in favor of his conspiracy theories. NBC news is fake news, he says. Alex Jones is the soul of upstanding journalism.

The failure of most analysts to reckon with this new information architecture, which allows conspiracy theories to flourish and become consequential, makes them overconfident about being able to destroy memes through fact-checking. Research shows that people with idees fixes dont change their minds just because they are presented with factual information that challenges them. In fact, they dig in. Thus, by the time the minority Democratic report comes out, many Republicans will be so wedded to the Nunes narrative that it will be very difficult to dislodge their certainty.

-

Bonus video:

VICE News: How The Nunes Memo Is A Danger To Democracy (HBO)Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - February 2, 2018) - TNR Gold Corp. (TSXV: TNR) ("TNR" or the "Company") is pleased to report that we have successfully finished a transitional year whereby the Company continues to work toward building a green energy metals royalty Company. To this end, the board agreed to abolish the position of Deputy Chairman after due consideration as it was considered unnecessary in the context of achieving the Company's current objectives. John Wisbey, a director of the Company who has held the role of Deputy Chairman since its inception on May 25, 2017, subsequently announced his resignation as a director.

"The Board thanks Mr. Wisbey for his support and assistance during the Company's significant transitional year," commented Kirill Klip, Executive Chairman of TNR. "Now our turn-around at TNR is completed and we are looking forward to achieving our strategic goals and increasing value for all shareholders."

During our 2017 transitional year, we strengthened the TNR team of dedicated professionals who cover all aspects of our operations, and we have improved our controls and operational systems. Our portfolio of assets represents participation in several projects in lithium, copper and gold. Our partners include global industry leaders including McEwen Mining Inc. and Jiangxi Ganfeng Lithium International Co. Ltd.

Our priority for 2018 is to repay our long-term debt with a focus on establishing access to strategic sources of capital in order to advance our business plan. We plan to achieve our strategic goals by optimizing our portfolio of assets, strengthening our capital structure and extending our shareholder base.

Los Azules Copper Project Royalty Update

As stated in the Company news release of November 2, 2017, McEwen Mining announced that the technical report supporting the preliminary economic assessment ("PEA") disclosure in its news release dated September 7, 2017 was published. McEwen Mining stated, "The PEA, dated September 1, 2017, is entitled 'NI 43-101 Technical Report  Preliminary Economic Assessment Update for the Los Azules Project, Argentina,' and was prepared by independent 'Qualified Persons' (as that term is defined in NI 43-101) at Hatch Ltd." The technical report, which includes the results of PEA, is available on the McEwen Mining website and under the profile of McEwen Mining on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.

The Company holds a 0.36% royalty on the net smelter return ("NSR") of the entire Los Azules copper project in Argentina. TNR summarized the PEA results in a news release issued on October 10, 2017.

Strategic Stake in International Lithium Corp. Update

TNR holds a significant shareholding in International Lithium Corp. ("ILC"), a green energy metals company that was created through the spinout of TNR's energy metals portfolio in 2011. After the recent ILC financing, the post-closing ownership in ILC by TNR, before conversion of warrants and debentures, is 8,692,390 shares, equivalent to approximately 8.86% of the outstanding common shares of ILC. Should the convertible debenture and warrants held by TNR be exercised, its holdings would be 14,042,390 shares, equivalent to approximately 13.74% of the issued common shares. ILC holds interests in lithium projects in Argentina, Ireland and Canada.

ILC has announced that it has activated its JV operations on three continents of Argentina, Canada and Ireland. JV partners of ILC include Ganfeng Lithium (China) and Pioneer Resources (Australia).

TNR retains a 1.8% NSR royalty on the Mariana lithium property in Argentina. ILC has a right to repurchase 1.0% of the NSR. On exercise of the repurchase right, TNR would receive $900,000. The project is being advanced in a joint venture between ILC and Ganfeng Lithium Co. Ltd., a leading lithium product manufacturer seeking to secure its raw materials supply.

Shotgun Gold project Update

TNR provides significant exposure to gold through its 90% holding in the Shotgun gold porphyry project in Alaska. The project is located in South-Western Alaska near the Donlin Gold project. Alaska's attractiveness is rising according to the investment index of the Fraser institute's "Annual Survey of Mining Companies".

TNR published a resource estimate on the Shotgun in 2013. TNR reported an inferred resource of 20,734,313 tonnes at 1.06 grams per tonne ("g/t") gold for a total of 705,960 ounces gold ("Au") using a 0.5 g/t Au cut-off grade (news release issued on April 22, 2013 and technical report titled, "Technical Report on the Shotgun Gold Project", dated May 27, 2013 and filed on SEDAR).

The Companys strategy with Shogun is to attract a joint venture partner with one of the gold major mining companies. The Company is actively introducing the project to interested parties.

ABOUT TNR GOLD CORP.

TNR Gold Corp. is working to become an energy metals royalty company. Over the past twenty-two years, TNR, through its lead generator business model, has been successful in generating high quality exploration projects around the globe. With the Company's expertise, resources and industry network, it identified the potential of the Los Azules copper project in Argentina and now holds a 0.36% NSR royalty on the prospect.

TNR is also a major shareholder of International Lithium Corp. ("ILC"). After the recent financing the post-closing ownership in ILC by TNR, before conversion of warrants and debentures, is 8,379,890 shares, equivalent to approximately 8.86% of the outstanding common shares of the Company. Should the convertible debenture and warrants held by TNR be exercised, its holdings would be 13,729,890 shares, equivalent to approximately 13.74% of the issued common shares. ILC holds interests in lithium projects in Argentina, Ireland and Canada.

TNR retains a 1.8% NSR royalty on the Mariana Lithium property in Argentina. ILC maintains a right to repurchase 1.0% of the NSR royalty on the Mariana Lithium property of which 0.9% relates to the Company's NSR interest. The Company would receive $900,000 on execution of the repurchase. The project is currently being advanced in a joint venture between ILC and Ganfeng Lithium International Co. Ltd.

At its core, TNR provides significant exposure to gold, copper and lithium through its holdings in Alaska (the Shotgun gold porphyry project) and Argentina, and is committed to continued generation of in-demand projects, while diversifying its markets and building shareholder value.168 Shares Share

Early this month, it was reported that President Donald Trump, having grown frustrated from discussions regarding a bipartisan deal on immigration, asked why proposals continued to provide special protections for immigrants from the countries of El Salvador and Haiti, and the continent of Africa. He reportedly exclaimed, Why are we having all these people from sh*thole countries come here? The statement has been largely denounced both at home and abroad, and the United Nations human rights spokesman condemned the use of vulgar language, and the disparagement of people from entire countries and continents.

Immigrants have served a vital and necessary part of the American workforce since the countrys foundation. This is seemingly most evident in health care. It is estimated that approximately 16 percent of the health care workforce is foreign-born, with more than one in four physicians and one in five registered nurses having been born outside of the United States. Among African-American health care providers, many foreign-born individuals originate from the Caribbean and Africa. Immigrant health care providers serve a vital function within the American health care system, often delivering care in high-need areas throughout the United States which would otherwise be left with dramatic shortages.

Yet, although immigrants from the Caribbean and Africa do make up a notable share of health care providers in this country, it is important to note the contribution that immigrants from other low-resource countries contribute to the United States. For decades, immigrants from income-disparate countries throughout Asia (especially India, Vietnam, Pakistan, and the Philippines) have contributed heavily to the number of health care providers within the United States. Even still, this does not speak to the significant contributions of all American immigrants, who at the time of their migration were often times considered to hail from undesirable places  or peoples  of origin. Waves of migrants from Jewish communities, Ireland, Japan, Italy, or China have, at significant points in American history, been the subjects of derogatory hate speech not unlike that used against Haitians last week; and yet countless innovations within health care and the life sciences have been made possible thanks to these immigrants, and the strong values that they have passed on to their children and grandchildren. Though they may come to America poor, with few resources, and with restricted opportunities, time-and-again our society has been improved by the lasting contributions of immigrants and their descendants.

The statements of the president constitute a racist and ignorant worldview that is as harmful to the fundamental spirit of our country, as it is myopic to the invaluable contributions that countless black and brown immigrants working for the health care industry in our country currently provide, and that other undesirable immigrants have provided throughout American history. At this time, it is paramount that health care providers stand in solidarity to condemn this hatred and thoughtlessness, and stay true to the values that make the United States the land of opportunity it has so often represented. Now, more than ever, it is important that we value the spirit of  and stand behind  the tired, the poor, and the huddled masses yearning to be free.

Raymond Jean is a surgery resident.

Image credit: Shutterstock.com



Kataragama, a Major Pilgrimage Town in Sri LankaKataragama is a sacred place of pilgrimage for the Hindu, Buddhist, Muslim and indigenous Vedda communities of Sri Lanka.The city is the gathering place for one of Sri Lanka's oldest traditions, the Kataragama-Pada Yatra foot pilgrimage.This foot pilgrimage stretches from Jaffna in the North of Sri Lanka, all the way to Kataragama along the Southeastern Coast.The Kataragama temple is believed to date back to about 580 BC.The origin of the Yatra pilgrimage is shrouded in myth.Several versions reflect the belief that it began with the God Kataragama Deviyo, when He landed somewhere on the shores of Sri Lanka and walked to Kataragama.Over the centuries this multi-religion, 45-day pilgrimage to Kataragama has become a Sri Lankan institution.Villages on the pilgrimage route participate by providing refreshments, meals, hospitality and accommodation to the pilgrims, whom they regard as the god's messengers.For centuries, pilgrims from South India and beyond felt they have been 'called' to walk to Kataragama.Today, over 10,000 people participate in the pilgrimage and related celebrations in Kataragama annually.Kataragama Temple is a large multi-religion complex.Beside the old Buddhist temple and stupa, there are a few Hindu shrines and an Islamic Mosque, all within the large grounds located by the river.The river is a bustling place.We saw men washing a big elephant with huge tusks, families bathing and women doing laundry.After its wash, the elephant lay down in the river, enjoying the cool water and occasionally splashing itself with water it scooped up with its trunk.Grandmothers soaped up the hair of their grandchildren, and then soaped their own long hair, splashing around in the water like joyful kids.Before entering the temple shrines, people bought fruit offerings from one of the many fruit stalls which lined both sides of the path to the temple.A family who had a big tray of fruit stopped before me and offered me a piece of fruit.Please eat! Please take!, they pleaded with me.I picked up a pineapple piece and shared it with Jules.They asked me to take more, but all I wanted to take was their picture, to remember their sweet faces and kindness.Inside the temple, we were blessed by the priests and a clay dot was placed on our third eye.Then we drank some holy water from a bronze pot with a long spout, that was poured into the palms of our hands.In spite of the differences in caste, religion and creed, many Sri Lankans show great reverence for God Kataragama.They believe that God Kataragama has extraordinary power to assist those who appeal to him with faith and devotion.Kataragama Deviyo is native to Sri Lanka, and long-celebrated as a God.In paintings and sculptures, the God Kataragama is depicted with six heads, and He often rides a peacock.Since ancient times, there is an inseparable connection between Kataragama Deviyo and His domain.According to some legends God Kataragama originally lived in Mount Kailash in the HImalayas and had a divine consort by the name of Thevani, before moving to Kataragama in Sri Lanka.It is believed that God Kataragama still resides in the area.The spiritual residence of Kataragama Deviyo is believed to be in a nearby mountain, or in the jungles of south eastern Sri Lanka, where He spends His time in meditation.The area known as Kebiliththa, located in the Yala National Park, is one that devotees visit, after practicing strict rituals such as fasting, vegetarianism and abstinence, to get the blessings of the God.That night, after visiting Kataragama Temple, we arranged for a stay in a Glamping tent, inside Yala National Park.I prayed to God Kataragama to come to help me gain greater understanding on my own spiritual path.Many Buddhists in Sri Lanka believe that Kataragama Deviyo is a guardian deity of Buddhism, and that Kataragama was sanctified by Lord Buddha.Kataragama is one of the 16 places of pilgrimage that most Buddhists visit in Sri Lanka.According to the chronicles of Sri Lankan history, a Bodhi sapling from the tree under which Gautama Buddha attained enlightenment in India was brought here and planted in the 3rd century BC.As I walked around the sandy ground, I felt compelled to take home three leaves that had fallen from the Bodhi tree.With excitement in my heart, we went to spend the night Glamping in a tent in the jungle.It was a lovely tent, with strong air conditioning, a king size bed, a spacious shower and a toilet.We were the only guests, and we sat listening to the sounds of the jungle while eating home cooked Sri Lankan food.That night I had lots and lots of dreams.Some were significant to me, but the most memorable one was a dream I had of swimming in a very stormy sea.I remember seeing a wonderful and strong woman wearing a bikini, swimming next to me.The next thing I recall was being lifted up by a huge wave, hundreds of feet tall.As I surfed down the wave I had the feeling of falling down into an abyss, a dark canyon of the unknown.I could not see anything below me, as it was all shrouded like a dark cloud.I do remember NOT feeling any fear, just a calm trust, and somehow I felt reassured, as I fell down the wave into the unknown....When I woke up in the morning from all the dreams I had had, I only remembered the one with the huge wave.As I read a little about the area we were going to next, I learned that in 2004 a huge tsunami had hit the area.The 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake occurred on December 26th, with the epicentre off the west coast of Sumatra, Indonesia.On January 3, 2005 a Tsunami wave created by the major earthquake hit the shores of Sri Lanka.The Tsunami wave resulted in much damage to the island, and about 5,000 people had passed on.Suddenly I felt that my dream the night before, was about being in the sea when the Tsunami hit.Perhaps my consciousness had blended with those who had experienced passing on, from the wave....but who can tell...To be honest, I was a little bit disappointed that my consciousness did not blend with that of Kataragama Deviyo that night, but instead it had merged with those who passed on.I understood why it happened.My vibrations were lowered by a conversation I had with a very distressed woman, who refuses to let go of her lifelong pains and many grievances.In my morning meditation, I turned my heart and eyes ONLY to the Eternal, for I trust that those who passed on in the Tsunami, had reincarnated into greater cycles of the Eternal Life, progressing along their ultimate path towards greater understanding, Enlightenment and God Realization.With honor,TaliJenny Condie writes:

As someone nationally recognised as a pain in the a for speaking out to an authoritarian party leader, it will be no surprise that I have thoughts about the latest waka jumping bill. In my view, the bill is a threat to our democracy, and should be opposed. We should be making it easier for new parties to enter Parliament, not harder.

TOP and Gareth Morgan is a good example of why this law would be so bad. One can well imagine if Gareth was a party leader in Parliament, hes be using this law to kick out MPs from his caucus who dare to disagree with him. We know this, as this is what he did with his candidates!

The stated aim of the legislation is to preserve the integrity and proportionality of Parliament, by ensuring MPs who leave their party cannot continue in Parliament. However, over the years many MPs have left their party as a form of whistleblowing, because they believe the party is drifting away from its own stated goals and values. This, too, is a matter of integrity.

A good argument.

As someone who has spoken out about a party behaving in a way that is contrary to its stated values and been sacked for it, I naturally believe protecting the ability of individual MPs to act as whistleblowers is important.

When the party leader can expel you from Parliament, you wont dare to speak out.

She also quotes Sue Bradford:

How dishonourable of the Greens to support the waka-jumping bill; if Rod & Jeanette hadnt been able to leave the Alliance, Greens would never have entered Parliament in 1999 & the whole journey may have been stillborn. Its sad to see history forgotten.

The Green Party is voting for a law that would have prevented them from leaving the Alliance. Jim Anderton could have had them expelled from Parliament under this law once they announced they would contest the 1999 election as The Greens.

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Senator Frank Feighan has welcomed a 200,000 funding allocation towards the planning and design of a new Hartley Bridge in Carrick-on-Shannon to replace the existing bridge, which is in very poor condition.

Leitrim County Council has committed to replacing Hartley Bridge over the next three years and I welcome the allocation of 200,000 by the Department of Transport towards the planning and design of a new bridge.



It is very evident that the existing bridge has serious structural problems, as confirmed by surveys, and there has been a long-standing campaign by the local community for it to be replaced.



This funding essentially gives the green light to ensuring that the local community will have a new bridge in the not-too-distant future.



Hartley Bridge is a vital connector between Leitrim and Roscommon but is in a bad state of repair and is currently subject to a 3 tonne weight limit.



Structural tests were carried out on the bridge in early 2017 and Leitrim County Council made an application to the Department of Transport for funding for a replacement bridge.A Latvian national who appeared before last weeks sitting of Carrick-on-Shannon District Court was convicted of a number of motoring offences, sentenced to four months in prison, fined a total of 300 and disqualified from driving for five years.

Prior to sentencing Judge Kevin P. Kilrane said, These are very serious offences for two reasons - the previous record and the manner in which the defendant has decided to run the case.

Sgt McHale gave evidence against Aigars Zalais, 32 Inver Gael, Carrick-on-Shannon who denied the offences.

Sgt McHale stated at 1.30pm on January 16, 2017 while on mobile patrol he observed a vehicle which did not have an insurance disc displayed in the window.

Sgt McHale continued his evidence saying he followed the defendant into the Inver Gael housing estate. The driver got out of the car, ignored Sgt McHale and walked past him and then walked in to his own home.

Sgt McHale said he spoke to a woman at the door of the property who gave him identification to ascertain the identity of the driver.

Under cross-examination from defending solicitor Pauline Brady, Sgt McHale refuted the suggestion that the defendant was not driving.

Sgt McHale replied, He was driving on a public road on the N4 and he drove into Inver Gael.

Continuing the cross-examination, Ms Brady asked how he observed that the car was missing a disc while the car was moving.

Sgt McHale replied that experience within An Garda Siochana has trained him to detect such matters.

Sgt McHale also insisted he had no previous dealings with the defendant saying, I was only stationed here a week. There was no other reason to stop him.

He added, The only thing he did say was you didnt stop me.

Under cross-examination the defendant, Mr Zalais was asked if he remembered the events of the date in question, to which he replied, Yes.

Through an interpreter Mr Zalais told the court, I have to tell my side of the story.

My kids are educated at home, my wife was busy with the children. She asked me to bring the electricity bill from the car. When I closed the (car) door I was going back to the house and I saw the Garda car. The officer stepped out of the car, circled around my car, then asked me where is the insurance disc. I said that it is my car but we are planning to change the windscreen.

Mr Zalais continued, He asked me my name and address and I said Im not giving to you. He asked me for my drivers licence and I said I didnt have one. I had recently had a case for having no drivers licence.

The defendant said he was told by Sgt McHale if no drivers licence was produced he would tow the car away.

Mr Zalais said he then informed Sgt McHale that he would get his wife to explain matters to him.

When asked by Judge Kilrane how far he lived from the main road he replied that he was 300 metres from the N4.

When it was put to him by Insp Denis Harrington that his evidence was at odds with that of Sgt McHale, the defendant replied, Yes, because we all see the way we want to see.

Insp Harrington then asked, Are you saying Sgt McHale is lying? In reply Mr Zalais said, I didnt say that.

Insp Harrington then asked, In direct evidence you said my car was parked. Why did you say my?

In reply the defendant said, Because we are a family.

When asked why he refused to give his name and address to Sgt McHale, Mr Zalais replied, I didnt see the reason and I didnt think it was necessary.

Insp Harrington replied, You knew you were in trouble, thats why you didnt co-operate?

Mr Zalais retorted, I dont have any problems with the Gardai, they have problems with me.

In direct evidence the defendants wife, Dina, who claimed ownership of the vehicle, said There was a huge crack across the windscreen. I had it booked to get it changed, the disc was in the visor.

A neighbour of the defendant also gave evidence in which he stated the car in question was not moved all day.

Having heard the evidence Judge Kilrane remarked, The Sergeant gave evidence which is absolutely rock solid. The defendant mentions Gardai in general were causing him hassle. I am satisfied that is without foundation.

In effect, the defendant is saying the Sergeant fabricated the story because Gardai were giving him trouble.

Judge Kilrane also referred to the evidence of the defendant who said he lived 300 metres from the main road saying, That is significant.

The Garda followed him, saw the defendant alight from the car. He couldnt possibly have seen the car from the main road.

Judge Kilrane also noted that he found difficulty in the argument put forward by the defence that the defendant was simply retrieving an ESB bill from the car while he said he found the argument put forward by the defendants wife that the car was left unlocked in the estate less than convincing.

Judge Kilrane imposed a conviction in relation to the charges of no driving licence, no insurance and failing to give his details to gardai.

The 40-year-old father of four was sentenced to four months in prison and disqualified from driving for four months in relation to having no insurance and fined 100 for having no drivers licence. He was fined 200 and disqualified from driving for five years for failing to give his details to Sgt McHale.

Recognisances in the event of an appeal were fixed at 100 own bond, 1,500 independent surety of which 500 must be cash.It always puzzles me why people living in small quarters, apartments, have these kind of dogs. I dont know why they do it, it must be to provide some sort of status - my dog is bigger than your dog, said Judge Kevin P. Kilrane prior to instructing

Elizabeth OReilly, 31 Riverside Apartments, Ballinamore to return to Court with 648 in compensation.

Ms OReilly appeared before last weeks sitting of Carrick-on-Shannon District Court charged with being the owner of an uncontrolled dog at Canal Road, Ballinamore on March 25, 2017.

Giving summary evidence Insp Denis Harrington told the court a report was received by Gardai in relation to a dog being attacked the previous night along the canal in Ballinamore.

Giving evidence Gda Jimmy Stenson said the attack caused Extensive damage to a terrier dog.

He added that the Ms OReillys dog, an Akita, is on the dangerous dogs list and was not wearing a muzzle or leashed.

The court heard Ms OReilly contacted the owners of the injured animal who said they wouldnt press matters further if the dog was put down and the vet bills paid.

Addressing the court the injured party said, My dog was a small Jack Russell. The other was like a small calf. The vet said at least he got the right part, if he got the head he was a goner.

Offering an apology, Ms OReilly said, I do really apologise about what happened. It was late at night.

Judge Kilrane adjourned matters until January 24 to have the entire amount paid. If it is, I may deal with it without a conviction.I consider this type of thing very serious and very nasty. But for the work of Gardai he would not have been found. People who do this, do they deserve a licence? He gets a little credit for the plea of guilty but not much because he was cornered, said Judge Kilrane prior to imposing a conviction.

Gary Nicholson, Sheegora, Boyle, Co. Roscommon appeared before last weeks siting of Carrick-on-Shannon District Court charged with failing to remain at the scene of an accident at Lough Key Viewing Bay, Boyle on January 23, 2017.

Insp Denis Harrington gave summary evidence saying at 9pm on the date in question the injured party was sitting in his vehicle at Lough Key Viewing Bay when another car entered the carpark, struck his car and then drove off.

Following enquiries, the defendant was located and made full admissions saying he panicked and drove off.

Defending solicitor Laura Spellman said the defendant had paid the sum of 1,000 to the injured party through the Gardai. She noted he works as a diagnostics technician adding, I ask that he be left with his licence. I am asking for a chance on his behalf.

Imposing a conviction and a 500 fine Judge Kilrane addressed the defendant saying, You sped off because you thought you would get away with it.Leitrim County Councillors have expressed concern over the length of time it is taking to approve funding under the current LEADER programme.

Changes put in place following the end of the previous LEADER programme have complicated the application process say councillors and, when you add in the number of stages now involved in processing each application, it is unsurprising that it is taking much longer to get approval this time round.

At the recent Council meeting, Cllr Sinead Guckian asked for clarity on the current position in regard to applications, processing and the expected timeframe for completion for LEADER in Leitrim.

Acting Chief Executive of Leitrim County Council, Joseph Gilhooly, acknowledged that, since the current LEADER programme opened last year, a significant amount of applications have been made through targeted call-outs.

This has meant a lot of the work - spread out over the entire length of the previous programme - is being condensed into shorter periods.

Describing the time scales as cumbersome, Mr Gilhooly assured councillors the process will be helped going forward, by a relaxation of the application rules.

While last year people had to apply for different funding streams under LEADER during strict time frames, this has been relaxed to allow an open call for applications.

We are still working through the outcome of these targeted calls (from last year), admitted Mr Gilhooly.

But, with changes in legislation this has been changed from targeted calls to a single call now. So going forward (LEADER) will progress on a much more fluid basis.

Unlike the previous LEADER programme applicants to date have had to pass an 'expression of interest' stage and, in some instances, involved the completion of a procurement process - an additional burden smaller community groups found difficult to finance.

Even when these steps are completed projects still have to go to a valuation committee who assess whether the project is viable if it goes forward for approval.

Cllr Sinead Guckian said the costs of applying are quite substantial adding: It is also very hard to keep your community enthusiastic about projects when it is taking so long and there is so little progress so far.

My understanding is that we are also way oversubscribed for this funding and I find that very worrying.

Cllr Sean McDermott also expressed concern over the length of time it is taking to allocate funds.

I know we are also working with a lot less money under the current LEADER but I think it is very important that, particularly in rural parts of Leitrim, we see projects happen as soon as possible, he said.

Mr Gilhooly accepted two of the funding measures opened for applications last year are well over-subscribed.

We are trying to keep as many projects alive as we can, he stressed.A call was made for Leitrim County Council to discuss with various funding agencies the possibility of securing funding for accommodation in the Mohill area to cater for the large numbers now using the new rowing facility on Lough Rinn.

The matter was raised at the January meeting of Carrick-on-Shannon Municipal District by Cllr Enda Stenson who said they must encourage further accommodation in the area to supplement the popular new facility.

Cllr Stenson tabled a motion asking what development are expected to be put in place regarding parking and a starting/finishing hut.

He suggested the local authority would discuss with the Mayo Sligo Leitrim Education and Training Board developing a hostel on part of the old vocational school.

He said a number of groups would avail of the rowing facility but they need a place to stay. Cllr Stenson said such a move would also bring much-needed work to the area.

Cllr Stenson told the meeting that accommodation in the area at the moment is nearly non-existent and said rowing clubs, particularly from Northern Ireland, as well as schools and universities love to come down to train and compete in Mohill.

Cllr Sean McGowan supported the proposal and described Lough Rinn as Second to none, a fabulous facility and agreed that more and more clubs were looking to use it. He agreed that the old vocational school would be ideal and suggested Mayo Sligo Leitrim ETB might provide funding for it.

Cllr Seadhna Logan also fully supported his colleague and suggested the HSE were willing to listen to proposals regards its former facility, Ashbrook House.

Cllr Stenson said the HSE would be willing to hand it over to a group for a nominal fee if a group had a proper and viable plan was in place. It is a fabulous facility with wonderful car parking. Cllr Logan agreed.

Cllr McGowan agreed but said the cost of turning that building into a hostel would be huge but certainly Mohill could do with it.

However, Cllr Des Guckian said it was not up to Leitrim County Council or the ETB to be go providing a hostel or be involved in that kind of thing.

There's plenty of accommodation facilities in and around Lough Rinn itself and two villages that are there, some of which are not even partly occupied.

Cllr Stenson replied that he still believes there should be a hostel in and around Mohill.

I know you like to be negative about anything that we do propose, but I still believe there should be a hostel that should be available to groups coming to Mohill. I think it would be invaluable, Cllr Stenson said.

Shane Tiernan, Acting Director of Service, suggested members of the Municipal District that are on the ETB should bring it up with them and it was agreed to do so.ALMOST 90 mothers and newborn babies tested positive for the MRSA superbug at University Maternity Hospital Limerick over a six-year period.

Exclusive figures received by this newspaper show that, between 2011 and September 2017, the penicillin-resistant bacteria was present in 44 newborns and 45 mothers at the Ennis Road hospital.

The data, received under the Freedom of Information Act, shows that the highest number of detections was in 2016, with 14 babies and 12 mothers testing positive for MRSA.

The lowest rate of detections in a whole year were in 2011 and in 2015, with nine cases each. In 2011, MRSA was found in four babies and five mothers, while there were six mothers and three neonatal cases in 2015.

In 2012, there were 12 cases of MRSA detected at UMHL; nine babies and three mothers. This increased by one detection in 2013, with seven babies and six mothers with the superbug.

There was a further increase in 2014 with 15 cases; six babies and nine mothers. Up until September 2017, four mothers and one baby had MRSA.

The figures show that there were known positive patients, or MRSA carriers, prior to their admission to UMHL. There were two in 2011 and two in 2016.

The UL Hospitals Group stated: Note that detection of MRSA while these patients were inpatients does not mean that these patients newly-acquired MRSA in the hospital. Many of these patients may have been carriers of MRSA for some time prior to detection. While this cannot be said of the neonates, many of them had mothers who were positive and who may have been the source of the acquisition.

According to the data, the ages of mothers ranged from 19 to 45 since 2011. The documents state that there were eight women, aged 38 to 45; 18 in the 33 to 37 bracket; 14 mothers aged 27 to 32; and five women who were aged 19 to 26. The figures also show that, of the 44 newborns, 17 of whom were female and 27 were male.

MRSA is a penicillin-resistant germ, belonging to the staphylococcus aureus bacteria group. People can carry the bug without any ill effects, but in the event of an infection, it can cause a person to become ill.

Unacceptable delay in releasing MRSA data

The UL Hospitals Group has admitted that there was an unacceptable delay in a request for public information after it took more than six months to release data on MRSA detections at University Maternity Hospital Limerick.

On June 1 last, under the Freedom of Information Act, the Limerick Leader requested an annual breakdown of the superbug detections at UMHL between 2011 and June 2017, and the age and gender profile of each detection.

This information was not received until December 15. The Leader contacted the UL Hospitals Group seeking an explanation for the delay in releasing this information and a spokesperson responded on January 18.

The spokesperson said that the June 1 request was not forwarded to the FOI decision maker until July 10. The issuing of a formal acknowledgement was subsequently overlooked which she described as a rare occurrence.

The UL Hospitals Group apologised for this.

The spokesperson said that after the request was sent to a relevant department within the UL Hospitals Group, information had to be sourced and collated by relevant scientific personnel.

The UL Hospitals Group provides data on bloodstream infections for a range of bacteria, including MRSA, to the Health Protection Surveillance Centre, the spokesperson said.

This process is carried out every three months as part of a European surveillance system of antimicrobial resistance. The spokesperson added that, separately, MRSA cases are reported to the HSEs Business Intelligence Unit on a monthly basis as part of their key performance indicators.

The spokesperson said: Whilst it is acknowledged that there was an unacceptable delay in sending the information, a combination of staffing deficits, compounded by annual leave during July and August, and the complexity of data required also contributed to the length of time which it subsequently took to release the data finally in December. In addition, some consultation was required by the decision maker with departments within UHL, and with other hospitals in Ireland, on the release of this information through FOI.

After a FOI request is received, it is then sent to a decision maker, who is responsible for overseeing the request until its release. The spokesperson said that the UL Hospitals Group processes a large number of requests annually.BOYS and girls in a County Limerick school donned their jerseys to hit a fundraising target for GOAL.

The aid agency honoured Caherelly National School, one of a number of select schools from around the country to be presented with the 2017 GOAL Humanitarian School Award.

The primary and post-primary schools received the award from GOAL as a result of their participation in development education and fundraising activities organised by GOAL last year.

GOAL established the GOAL Humanitarian School Award in 2016 to inspire humanitarianism in primary and secondary schools across the country, explained GOALs development education co-ordinator, Louise Merrigan.

We did so with the objective of recognising the efforts of students and teachers to learn more about the realities of some of the worlds poorest and most vulnerable people, and to take action for a better world, she added. All schools received a special certificate and its name added to GOALs Humanitarian schools roll of honour on its website.

Principal of Caherelly National School, Fionnuala Allen, said the school was delighted to receive the award.

Our students really benefited from an educational visit from GOAL and were inspired to further investigate global citizenship and childrens human rights as a result, said Ms Allen.

They thoroughly enjoyed raising money for those less fortunate by taking part in GOAL Jersey Day, knowing the difference that the money would make after our educational visit from GOAL brought the topic to life. This award recognises the important work we do in the school to promote global citizenship. Primary and secondary schools interested in a development education visit from GOAL should contact schools@goal.ieA FORMER Limerick city councillor, who resigned from the Labour Party more than 10 years ago, has officially returned to politics after being elected to the Social Democrats national executive council.

Corbally native Kieran Walsh served in Limerick City Council following the 2004 election, but resigned from the Labour Party following an internal rift in 2007.

Mr Walsh was elected to the Social Democrats national executive council during the partys second annual national conference in Dun Laoghaire over the weekend.

He was selected on the eighth count of the election following a vote of more than 180 delegates.

The 35-year-old returned to Limerick last year after spending a number of years in the United Kingdom, and later made a political comeback when he joined the Social Democrats.

I returned from Wales last year, and was very attracted by the ideals and approach that this new party was taking. Ireland is crying out for radical, evidence based left wing politics. I am delighted to have been elected to its governing body  my experience of local politics certainly helped, he told the Limerick Leader.

He said that he felt the party, which marks its third year in July, was the party of the future following a weekend of discussions on Universal Basic Income, rent control and the Repeal campaign.

We have our sights set on winning eight to 10 Dail seats, including here in Limerick. I am more than convinced that Sarah Jane Hennelly can win a seat here, Limerick has its fair share of stale politicians and we intend to remove them.

Sarah Jane Hennelly, who gave her final address as chairperson of the party at the conference last Friday, outlined her hopes for the Limerick branch.

Im really looking forward to handing over to Kieran and the new team. Kieran is a huge asset to have in our party and I know he will he make a valuable contribution to national politics. I want to be able to spend more time in Limerick, knocking on doors, explaining our policies to the public, she said.A NEW digital media centre on Cecil Street is to offer opportunities to people across Limerick.

Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy cut the ribbon to open the new 2.25m Engine centre in the former Dominican Biblical Institute this week.

The complex has been refitted to provide individuals and companies with facilities, with its layout encouraging cross-collaboration, creativity and innovation.

Troy Studios is providing a boot-camp course at the centre, while high-tech company WP Engine, which is ramping up its footprint locally, has its offices in the complex.

And Film in Limerick also use the building, which provides a one-stop shop for employment, training and skills across all sectors, with a focus on regeneration areas.

Carmel Kirby, social development director at the council, revealed a film training course will start at the centre.

Regeneration area residents are being targeted for this training and our medium to long term view is that 200 full time jobs will be generated from the 250 training places allocated here for regeneration residents, she said.

Im really excited about the opportunities being created here, in particular to address the inter-generational long-term unemployment issue in regeneration, and look forward to continuing with our success in creating employment pathways, Ms Kirby added.

Michelle Brassil, Troy Studios, said it was a superb facility, adding: You couldnt do better.

Eamonn Murphy, who chairs Innovate Limerick, which runs Engine, described the opening as one of the proudest occasions of my life.

This offers employment, but more important it offers sustainability. Its the first time in my experience where an open network has been created within a closed network environment. And it has worked. Its a miracle, an exemplar for north Dublin and other deprived areas not alone in Ireland but also Europe, he said.

Minister Eoghan Murphy concluded: If you think about the collaboration which is going to happen between the Engine, Troy studios, NBC and Nightflyers, this is Ireland at the centre of the world.IF this world had more Julie Normoyles, it would be a better place.

The words of metropolitan mayor, Cllr Sean Lynch, who held a special reception in honour of the Ballybrown disability activist at City Hall this week.

Julie, who is a client of the Daughters of Charity, at its base in the Tait business centre, Pery Square, has campaigned for the rights of those with physical disabilities for a long period of time, with a particular focus on road safety. While working in the service at one of its centres in John Street, Julie secured a pedestrian crossing outside to help her co-workers there be more independent and use the road safely.

Now, she has turned her attention to the dangerous Catherine St-Glentworth Street junction, urging the local authority to invest money in putting a pedestrian crossing there.

Her campaign has been backed by Cllr Lynch, who described Julie as a true champion.

I am just honoured to host this reception for Julie, who is not afraid to stand up for the rights of those less well off, the mayor added.STUDENTS, teachers, parents and friends of Ardscoil Mhuire in Corbally, Limerick are to hold their own version of the popular television series The Kube as part of a fundraising bid to raise 250,000 for a new school development.

A prize fund of 1,000 is up for grabs at the fundraiser, taking place on Friday, February 9, in Thomond Park.

Construction plans have been drawn up for the new development project at Ardscoil Mhuire, which is due to begin in late 2018, according to principle of the school Brid Herbert.

The new development aims to cater for the needs of a rapidly growing school as the schools current enrolment currently stands at more than 500 students.

I look forward to overseeing this project, which will ensure that our students continue to receive a high quality education in an up to date and state of the art facility, Ms Herbert said.

We anticipate a full house in Thomond Park. The venue can hold up to 600 people and many members of our school community have expressed an interest in attending.

Ardscoil Mhuire is very grateful to everyone involved for their assistance and hard work. I would like to thank our sponsors, participants, parents and students for all their support. A special mention must be given to KBC who have very generously agreed to be the title sponsor of our event.

Tickets are available from the school on 061- 349014 and are 20 per adult and 15 for post primary students.LIMERICK city migrant rights organisation Doras Luimni has condemned the Governments restrictive and unsatisfactory employment permit scheme for asylum seekers who wish to work in Ireland.

Next week, the Supreme Court will declare the asylum seekers ban from employment to be unconstitutional, after it made this statement in May 2017.

In response to a court order to remedy the ban, the Government established the employment permit scheme for asylum seekers.

Asylum seekers can apply for this scheme if they can secure a starting salary of 30,000 and be able to contribute to fees 500 to 1,000.

There are more than 400 asylum seekers living in Limerick and Knockalisheen in Clare.

However, Doras Luimni director Leonie Kerins has said that this new measure is not an effective right to work for asylum seekers and will have little, if any, impact on people subsisting in Direct Provision with a weekly income of over 20.

Disappointed with the measure, she said that Minister for Justice Charlie Flanagan has simply announced his intention to further delay the implementation of work rights for asylum seekers, despite the clear requirement for action.

Ireland has been criticised internationally for long delays in decision making, leaving those seeking protection to survive in emergency accommodation with limited rights for several years. While progress has recently been made to address the delays and human rights violations in theory, we continue to await real action and progress.

Ms Kerins added: Restrictive policies will only further compound the damage caused to individuals seeking protection in Ireland, making their long-term integrate into our communities difficult.A JUDGE has dismissed a legal action relating to school yard fall almost a decade ago which resulted in a young girl breaking her wrist.

The girl, now aged 19, sued St Josephs Primary School, Knockane, Newcastle West following an incident on February 19, 2008.

Judge Gerald Keys was told the girl fell while playing in the school yard at lunchtime and it was the plantiffs case that she had tripped on a broken and uneven surface.

It was alleged the school was negligent as it had failed to take adequate measures to inspect the school yard to ensure it was reasonably safe and not in a dangerous condition. Following the fall, the then nine-year-old was assisted by teachers at the school who administered first aid.

She later attended the Mid Western Regional Hospital. An x-ray confirmed she had sustained a fracture of the left distal radius and her arm was placed in a plaster paris cast for a number of weeks.

A teacher who was on yard duty when the incident happened said she had walked the yard before the children were allowed out and that she had not noticed any problems with the surface.

Earlier the school principal stated that she examined the school yard every morning.

Dismissing the claim, Judge Keys noted the legal action was not initiated until after the plaintiff had left the school.

He commented that accidents do happen and children do fall and that such incidents are just part of growing up.

Having heard the evidence the judge said he was satisfied the school had a system in place at the time and that any defect relating to the surface would have been noted.

The judge added that there no photographs of the area where the girl had fallen produced as evidence.

He said the plantiff, who was represented by Emmett OBrien BL, had not reached the necessary standard to prove her case and that it would be very unjust to find against the school.

Noting her age at the time the legal action was initiated, Judge Keys stressed he was not criticising the plaintiff in any way.Emergency services in Limerick had a busy night as they attended the scene of three fires within an hour, close to midnight on Friday night.

A total of five units were dispatched to respond to the three separate incidents.

Two units from Limerick City were alerted to a house fire at Mount Pleasant Avenue, at 11.36 pm on Friday night.

The fire was tackled before it possibly spread, and the units returned to the Mulgrave Street base at 12.01 midnight.

The Fire Service was also alerted to another house fire within the hour.

Two units from Limerick City responded to a fire at Drumroe, Rhebogue at 12.08 midnight before returning to the base on Mulgrave Street at 12.32.

Separately, another unit from Limerick City attended the scene of a car fire at Clonlong.

Emergency services were immediately dispatched to the scene after they were alerted to the incident at 12.23 last night.

The fire was brought under control quickly and the fire service returned to base at 12.49.

It is understood that no serious injuries were sustained as a result of the three incidents.Introduction

(Image credit: Markku Ulander/AFP/Getty)

Owls have enjoyed the spotlight around game day ever since wordsmiths, including late-night comedian Stephen Colbert, began using the phrase "Superb Owl" as a way to get around saying the trademarked term "Super Bowl."

These wordsmiths were onto something. Owls are beloved by many, even more so now that the "Harry Potter" series has popularized them, perhaps too much, as the flying mail carriers of the magical world.

Here are 10 superb facts  and one bonus round  about owls. (Pictured above, the Eurasian eagle owl Bubo bubo)

Owls can swim

(Image credit: Steve Spitzer | YouTube.com)

Great horned owls can swim the crawl stroke with their powerful wings.

For an owl, "if you go after something in the water, and you accidentally get too wet, then sometimes it's easier to swim to shore than it is to fly with wet feathers," Julia Ponder, the executive director of the Raptor Center at the University of Minnesota, told Live Science previously.

Once the bird reaches shore, the animal typically fluffs out its feathers to dry. That's exactly what happened at Lake Michigan in 2014, when Steve Spitzer, a birder and photographer, saw two peregrine falcons chase a great horned owl into the water.

Not all are night owls

(Image credit: Shutterstock)

Owls are famous for their nocturnal lifestyles, but not all owls are night owls.

Some owls are diurnal, meaning that they hunt during the day. This includes the great gray owl (Strix nebulosa, pictured here), northern hawk owl (Surnia ulula) and northern pygmy owl (Glaucidium gnoma), Marc Devokaitis, a public information specialist at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology in Ithaca, New York, told Live Science previously.

Perhaps these birds are daytime hunters because their preferred prey, such as songbirds or small mammals, are also diurnal. Moreover, owls are close relatives with hawks, which are diurnal birds. But it's unclear whether the common ancestor of owls and hawks was diurnal, like the hawk, or nocturnal, like most owls, Devokaitis said.

Owls have Impressive necks

(Image credit: Susan Cocking/Miami Herald/MCT/Getty)

Owls have 14 neck vertebrae, which is twice the number that humans have. This unique anatomy helps owls  such as the barred owl (Strix varia), pictured here  turn their heads 270 degrees.

Owls can pull off this feat because their vertebrae have holes that are about 10 times the size of the animals' blood-carrying arteries. With so much wiggle room, the arteries can easily pass through the vertebral holes when the owl turns its head, Live Science previously reported.

This ability is key to the bird's survival: Owls cannot easily move their eyes, so they need to pivot their necks to look around.

The largest owl is extinct

(Image credit: Copyright D. Finnin/AMNH)

The largest owl on record is Cuba's extinct giant owl (Ornimegalonyx), modeled here at the American Museum of Natural History's "Cuba!" exhibition.

Experts aren't sure whether the 3.6-foot-tall (1.1 meters) owl could fly, but its powerful, long legs indicate that it was a gold-medal runner. If it could fly or glide, it would have been one of the largest flighted birds the world has ever known.

Researchers have found (Ornimegalonyx) remains in Cuban caves, usually surrounded by the remnants of the bird's prey, including sloths and now-extinct rodents known as hutias.

Owls are helping Mideast peace

(Image credit: Shutterstock)

Barn owls (Tyto alba) are bringing peace to the Middle East, or at least they're getting scientists and farmers on both sides to talk and cooperate with one another.

These birds of prey are star rat and vole catchers, prompting farmers in Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian territories to put up owl nesting boxes.

A pair of owls can eat up to 6,000 rodents a year, which means that farmers don't need to use as many toxic pesticides to protect their crops, Live Science previously reported. The collaboration is still expanding, and a pilot program between Israel and Cyprus is already in the works.

Some owls have fake eyes

(Image credit: Michael Durham/Minden Pictures/Newscom)

The northern pygmy owl has bright yellow eyes on its face  and black-colored feathers on the back of its head that look like creepy, watching eyes.

These "eye" spots may "slow down or deter predators coming at them from behind," McGowan told Live Science. "Predators don't like to attack if their prey is looking at them, and eye spots can slow them down."

Remember, the northern pygmy owl is active during the daytime, so predators will get an eyeful of its eyes no matter which way they approach this little owl.

Owls aren't waterproof

(Image credit: Shutterstock)

It's rare to see an owl hunting in the rain.

"They have given up the oil found in many feathers, which protects other birds form rain, for soft, silent feathers more valuable for stealthy hunting," wrote Leigh Salvez in "The Hidden Lives of Owls" (Sasquatch Books, 2016).

Simply put, "the fluffy body feathers of owls soak up a lot of water," McGowan told Live Science.

Owls recycle nests

(Image credit: Shutterstock)

Owls are moochers when it comes to nests. They don't build their own, but rather use nests or tree cavities left behind by other birds, such as pileated woodpeckers or northern flickers, Salvez wrote.

Some great horned owls (Bubo virginianus) even live in holes made by gilded flickers and gila woodpeckers in the giant saguaro cactus, Live Science previously reported.

Likewise, the burrowing owl (Athene cunicularia) doesn't dig its own burrows, with the exception of a subspecies found in Florida, Salvez wrote. In the American West, these long-legged owls live in abandoned prairie dog or badger holes, she noted.

Owls have opposable toes

(Image credit: All Canada Photos/Alamy)

Owls have zygodactyl talons, which means they have TWO "opposable thumbs," of sorts.

For owls, two talons point forward, and two point back. "The 'moveable' toe actually is more about extending to the side than going forward or back," McGowan told Live Science. "It makes a complete circle of claws when catching prey."

Snowy owls fly great distances

(Image credit: Shutterstock)

Snowy owls (Bubo scandiacus) usually live in the Arctic, but every so often, these magnificent birds fly south  a journey that's known as an irruption.

One of the largest irruptions of the past century occurred during the winter of 2013-2014, with reports of snowy owls as far south as Florida and Bermuda, according to Project SNOWStorm, which studies and tracks snowy owls. One such owl the project tracked is named Baltimore, who is the star of a video posted to YouTube.

Another snowy owl even flew nearly 3,000 miles (4,800 kilometers) to Hawaii, where it landed at Honolulu International Airport on Thanksgiving Day, 2011, Salvez wrote. But fearing the owl would collide with an airplane, federal officials killed it.

"It's the first ever in Hawaii, and they shot it!" Denver Holt, director of the Owl Research Institute in Charlo, Montana, told The New York Times.Royal woman

(Image credit: Egypt Antiquities Ministry)

A tomb dating back over 4,300 years that held a woman named Hetpet has been discovered in a cemetery on the Giza Plateau in Egypt. She was a senior official in the royal palace, archaeologists say. [Read more about the ancient Egyptian discovery]

Tomb paintings

(Image credit: Egypt Antiquities Ministry)

The tomb contains well preserved wall paintings, including this image showing fish and other goods being presented to Hetpet, who is shown seated at the far left.

Baby monkey?

(Image credit: Egypt Antiquities Ministry)

This painting from Hetpet's tomb shows a monkey reaping fruit. There appears to be a baby monkey holding onto its back.

Dancing monkey?

(Image credit: Egypt Antiquities Ministry)

An orchestra is seen playing in this painting. A variety of wind and string instruments are used by the different musicians. Archaeologists say that there is a monkey (not seen) dancing in front of this orchestra.

Slaughtering a cow

(Image credit: Egypt Antiquities Ministry)

In this painting from Hetpet's tomb, three men appear to be in the process of slaughtering a cow. One of the cow's legs is about to be cut off.

Coralling cattle

(Image credit: Egypt Antiquities Ministry)

In this tomb scene, men can be seen herding or corralling cattle and people are carrying a variety of goods.

Offerings for Hetpet

(Image credit: Egypt Antiquities Ministry)

Three men are seen carrying what appear to be birds. They may be offerings for Hetpet. The tomb was discovered recently by an Egyptian archaeological mission led by Mostafa Waziri, Secretary-General of the ministry's Supreme Council of Antiquities.The tomb contains well preserved wall paintings, including this image showing fish and other goods being presented to Hetpet, who is shown seated at the far left.

The tomb of a woman named Hetpet, who became a senior official in the royal palace, has been discovered in a cemetery on the Giza Plateau, archaeologists from Egypt's antiquities ministry announced today (Feb 3).

The tomb dates back over 4,300 years, to a time after the Giza Pyramids had been constructed. While Giza is most famous for its pyramids, the site also contains large cemeteries that archaeologists have been uncovering gradually for nearly two centuries. These tombs often hold the burials of elite members of ancient Egyptian society.

"The tomb has very distinguished wall paintings, in a very good conservation condition, depicting 'Hetpet' standing in different hunting and fishing scenes or sitting before a large offering table receiving offerings from her children," Egypt's antiquities ministry said in a statement. [See Images of the Giza Tomb and Paintings Inside]

"Scenes of reaping fruits, melting metals and the fabrication of leather and papyri boats as well as musical and dancing performances are also shown on walls," the ministry said. The paintings also show two monkeys: In one scene, the monkey is gathering fruits and the other it is dancing in front of an orchestra, according to the ministry.

Archaeologists discovered the tomb of a royal official named Hetpet on the Giza Plateau. The tomb dates back more than 4,300 years. (Image credit: Egypt Antiquities Ministry)

The tomb also contains a shrine with a purification basin and places where incense and offerings could be held. One area inside the shrine may have held a statue of Hetpet, which is now missing, the archaeologists suspect. The archaeologists didn't find a mummy inside the tomb, but it's possible the mummy and statue were robbed in ancient times, something that commonly occurred in ancient Egypt.

An Egyptian team led by Mostafa Waziri, Secretary-General of the ministry's Supreme Council of Antiquities, discovered the tomb. Before the announcement today, antiquities minister Khaled El-Enany told media that about a dozen Egyptian archaeological missions are conducting work throughout the country and more discoveries from these missions are expected in 2018. Additionally, there are also missions led by foreign archaeologists taking place throughout Egypt.

Original article on Live Science.Lets face it, the iPhone X is a huge problem! Its obvious! People are saying it, so it must be true. The only question is how to fix the problem. Luckily, internet talky people are here to tell Apple how. Thank God. Finally someone is giving Apple some free advice.

Writing for Fortune, Mohanbir Sawhney has the goods.

Heres Where Apple Went Wrong With the iPhone X. (Tip o the antlers to mylestaylor.)

Oh, good, were finally going to get to the bottom of this. OK, sit down everyone. Shh. Quiet. OK, go ahead Mohanbir.

Apple, which reportedly plans to cut its production target in half for the iPhone X because of slower-than-expected sales

OK, just gonna go ahead and stop you there. Lets just talk about this report because the math behind it is kinda bonkers.

Nikkei reported that Apple was cutting its iPhone X orders for the first calendar quarter in half, from 40 million phones to 20 million. Sure, that makes uh, no sense at all.

As Ryan Jones points out, Apple sold about 50 million iPhones in the first quarter of 2017 and again in 2016. Does it seem logical that the company thought it would sell 40 million $1,000 iPhones this year in the same quarter? Not so much. They dont always get forecasts exactly right, obviously, but theyre a bit better than overestimating by 100 percent. Thats more how the Macalope handles his finances.

The report that Sawhney links to for support says:

The cut was prompted by slower-than-expected sales in the holiday shopping season in Europe, the United States and China, Nikkei reported.

Well, let us just go to Kantar Worldpanel.

iPhone X boosts Apple OS share in key markets.

The flagship iPhone X made it into the top three best-selling devices in the month of December across Europe, Urban China, Japan, Australia and the United States.

Something here aint right, thats for sure. To be fair, Kantar is a research group while Nikkeis report relies on unnamed sources.

Sometimes fair means pointing out one side carries more weight. You could also just ask Tim Cook.

iPhone X was the best selling smartphone in the world in the December quarter, according to Canalys, and it has been our top-selling phone every week since it launched.

Sounds awful.

Sawhney is barreling ahead with how Apple might fix this imaginary problem that seems to actually be the opposite of whats presented.

If it cuts the price of the iPhone X to spur sales, it risks compromising its profits and premium image. If it sticks to the $1,000 price point, it risks disappointing sales for its flagship phone.

Since were still on this disappointing sales thing, lets also take a look at this report from AppLovin.

Despite initial uncertainty about the sales performance of the iPhone X, we see substantial numbers of consumers willing to shell out $1,000+ for a smartphone. Impressions on the iPhone X are steadily climbing into the new year as supply of the device becomes abundant, and theyre set to exceed the iPhone 8 in the next couple of months.

This is a real he said / she said situation where one side has actual numbers and the other side might be people who have a vested interest in seeing the companys stock tank.

So what can Apple do? One option is to adopt the car dealer strategy,

Mmm, yes, that certainly sounds like Apple and offering incentives through Best Buy as Sawhney suggests certainly wont compromise Apples premium image at all. Nope. Maybe they should just walk into the Mall of America and shoot iPhone Xs out of a t-shirt cannon. Thatll really drive units.

But price is not the only problem for the iPhone X

Certainly not. So many problems.

The iPhone X also has an annoying design glitch: a notch

Again, the Macalope is not a notch fan, either, but most iPhone X owners will tell you that you simply dont notice it after a while.

Instead of perpetuating the bifurcated market, Apple needs to upgrade the features of its iPhone 8 and 8 Plus.

If you take the Nikkei report and those from Kantar and AppLovin and Apple itself at equal value (which is kind of a crazy thing to do), the very most we can say is that theres conflicting evidence. That is clearly enough for pundits to weigh in on how to fix this problem that is dragging down the company that reported a record quarter this week. But the Macalope thinks the iPhone X is doing just fine.by Wendy Davis @wendyndavis, February 2, 2018

An influential privacy group is asking a federal appellate court to vacate Facebook's recent settlement of a lawsuit alleging that it scanned users' messages.

The Electronic Privacy Information Center says in new court papers that the class-action settlement is inadequate for several reasons, including that it doesn't prohibit Facebook from performing the scans.

The settlement, approved by U.S. District Court Judge Phyllis Hamilton in the Northern District of California, resolved a 2013 lawsuit brought by Arkansas resident Matthew Campbell and Oregon resident Michael Hurley. They alleged that Facebook violated the federal wiretap law by intercepting users' messages to each other and scanning them. The company reportedly did so to determine whether people were sending their friends links to outside sites.

Details about the scans emerged in 2012, when security researcher Ashkan Soltani reported that Facebook counts in-message links as "likes." Facebook said at the time that no private information is exposed, but confirmed that the like-counter "reflects the number of times people have clicked those buttons and also the number of times people have shared that page's link on Facebook."

advertisement advertisement

Facebook has since changed that practice. The settlement agreement notes that Facebook revised its prior practice, but doesn't prevent the company from changing it back again.

The deal requires Facebook to pay up to almost $4 million to the class-action attorneys who brought the case, and $5,000 each to the two Facebook users who served as plaintiffs, but no monetary awards to the company's other users. Instead, users who want to pursue claims for monetary damages may bring new lawsuits.

The settlement also obligates Facebook to add the following sentence to its help site: We use tools to identify and store links shared in messages, including a count of the number of times links are shared.

Last month, the Center for Class Action Fairness, founded by activist Ted Frank, asked the 9th Circuit to vacate the deal on the grounds that it doesn't benefit users. EPIC is supporting that request.

"The settlement does not prevent Facebook from resuming the practices that provided the basis for this lawsuit," EPIC argues in papers submitted Thursday to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.

The privacy group also says the new sentence Facebook added to its help page doesn't adequately inform users about the company's practices. "Mere notice is especially inadequate here, given the degree of uncertainty, lack of transparency, and lack of information that Facebook users possess," the group writes.

EPIC also notes that the settlement doesn't require Facebook to take steps to make sure users will view the new sentence. "Facebook will merely post disclaimers buried in its Help Center and Data Policy without providing any notice to current Facebook users," the group writes.Earlier in the week, Wix said it was easier to reach audiences online compared to using broadcast TV .

Reversing its earlier proclamation that the Internet company was bypassing this year's Super Bowl ad extravaganza, Wix decided to run a spot during Sunday's game.

However, NBC made it an offer it couldn't refuse, says Wix.com CMO Omer Shai. A friend of his, Mark Zamuner at TwoNil, a media-buying agency, got in touch with him at about 6 a.m. local time in Tel Aviv about this unexpected opening.

The rest happened fast, says Shai. "This isnt a change in strategy as much as its taking advantage of a business opportunity.

"We had key components that came together," with a product that is "always camera ready." Wix had a previous relationship with the influencers and "importantly, a talented in-house team, who are able to execute moves like this," says Shai. "We made the decision and delivered an ad in 10 hours."On a regular school morning in the chaotic aftermath of the first assembly bell, a classmate threw her arm around my shoulder. A fairly innocent move that we would come to regret over the next forty minutes. That was the day we realised that our actions, though straightforward, can come to reflect on a rather pervasive perception that the Indian society quite often unknowingly brags of.

Oh, of course, our blasphemous mistake lay in our sexes that contradicted each other and also the 'co-ed' lettering plastered on the compound. To quote our HOD, in our culture boy-girl no touching, girl-girl no touching, boy-boy no touching. High school, for obvious reasons, did not feature in my most liberating years. Is it astonishing that you, as you read this, relate to my little tale of unfortunate shaming? It is probably more alarming that in the 21st century, there exists an entire sub-continent of 1.31 billion (or a rather large part of that figure anyway) that wants to pretend like sex is a conjured up myth. We are so focused on sweeping sexuality under the rugs of cultural maintenance that we don't realise how ignorant that very claim may be.

 Bhansali Productions

How Did We Get Here?

There are some very pertinent questions to be asked at the moment. How did we get here? Has India always been this prudish when it comes to sexuality? The answer to the latter is common knowledge. This is but the same country that authored the first text intended to teach the world how to love physically, the same county where inscriptions on centuries-old brick walls of prayer halls can put naughty ol' America to shame.

From being the sexually liberated free folk to playing Chinese whisper about the act, what really changed that a twenty-second glimpse of Sunny Leone during family TV time can turn even the butler into fifty shades of beetroot? When did we come to be so ashamed of sex that even public welfare advertisements for safe sex have to be modulated to not fall under family viewing time?

 Balaji Motion Pictures

The usual counter-argument is the unoriginal statement, but sex within wedlock is the only accepted norm in a civilization, everything else is an uncultured ball of debauchery; and quite alarmingly you will hear this not from your 50-year-old balding neighbour but from a 25-year-old keyboard warrior who still hands out his underwear onto his mother's washing load. His sense of entitlement is possibly threatening but his sense of morality is straight up poisonous.

Grown-ups queuing to legitimise their hormonal extravaganza with some garlands do not make the act any holier than it already is. Unfortunately, a halo does not shine upon the couples' genitals to bless them for their puritan virtues. But what really made this subcontinent so reluctant to acknowledge anything that is even remotely attached to sexuality is fascinating.

The Past

This is no mystery that the country itself has been through a number of cultural upheavals. Since the 'Kama Sutra' and the Khajurao inscriptions, a mixed whirlpool of cultures and beliefs has swept through the subcontinent bringing in their own set of ideals. The more conservative and devastating blow to the cause have been the British who arrived with their Church and its strong disapproval for anything to do with open sexuality. The liberated Indians were shockingly close to their idea of an uncivilized society. The disapproval of a self-proclaimed tribe of reformers was motivation enough for us to disassociate from our own culture and habits.

Not only were we now reserved about sex, the general attitude began to shadow Victorian morals associated with general misogyny, deep-rooted homophobia, and conservative values. Soon after, the country that once celebrated menstruation and the coming-of-age of a woman began to regard the same as an impurity that had to be locked away in seclusion. Today, we stand at a strayed dirt road full of sexual frustrations and a lack of real knowledge; far from what the land of Kama Sutra intended to be.

 Trimark Pictures

With this notion begins the dilemma for those at the mercy of stick yielding, law-breaking culture preservationists; shouldn't the damnation of westernization in reality mean bringing back shameless fornication?

So What Really Happened?

The British influence on Indian society was magnanimously regressive in this particular aspect. We may have gotten trains and telegrams but just like the Kohinoor, a liberated and free society is a far gone reality. The morals of the church believed in covering up the skin, for a lack of clothing denoted an equal lack of dignity and guaranteed promiscuity.

For the tropical beings that we still are, our issues with clothing had less to do with our morals but more with the seething temperatures that we were local to. Women went about their daily lives, sometimes bare-chested, often with the saree draped over their bare shoulders. Unlike today, no one batted an eye-lid or swooped in for a grope. This for future references is a solid banner of Indian culture and what it stood for.

 Thinkstock Photos

There lies a lesser-known story about how Indians arrived at the junction that steadily branched away from their ancestral habits. Jnanadanandini Debi, the wife of Satyendranath Tagore, the elder brother of Rabindranath Tagore was once denied entry to an English club due to her sartorial choice of wearing a saree bare-chested. The rather humiliating rejection led to the adoption of the 'Blouse' the tip of an iceberg set to haunt an emerging democracy.

The Tagore family aggressively moulded themselves with the colonial dictions of appropriate dressing as did multiple other families of such lofty social standing. It did not take long before the culture of covering the torso descended from being Victorian-inspired fashion to a societal necessity. The female body hence began to assimilate with the idea of sexual objectification; any visible inch of skin an incitement of thinning morals.

Sex, obviously by this time, had come to represent a scandalous activity that no one wanted to associate with publicly. The whole difference in our attitudes came from this disassociation with our own values as a result of descending pop culture from the high society into the masses. While the British reformed a majority of the patriarchal vices plaguing Indian society, they were better still conservative and misogynistic in comparison to the folk that lived and breathed the Kama Sutra.

 Thinkstock Photos

Why men and women in this subcontinent come to treat sex differently in this day and age is actually a result of this closet prudishness, borrowed from a centuries-old culture that has long left this planet. Our own society that we abandoned is a shining beacon of progress that needs to be reclaimed, simply because we are generously lagging behind in acknowledging our own bodies and what it's supposed to do.

Can you imagine reading the Kama Sutra on a bus ride or even in your living room? Unwelcome glares would be the least of your worries. The villainy that surrounds sex needs to be unwrapped and tossed out for good. The people that came to our country governed us and created laws, had zero tolerance for explicit sexuality and homosexuality in the 18th century, but they moved ahead in time. In fact, they went back to being the unfiltered hooligans of the Indian subcontinent that they so despised. But, they called it progress.

We're possibly retromaniacs, still holding on to the values of another culture, claiming it to be our own, progressing backward into the wrong era, one generation at a time.I welcome todays statement from His All Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, who, with gravity, responsibility and reflecting the role of the Church, called for composure and self-restraint so that we can deal with this critical and sensitive issue peacefully and with prudence.



This evening I had a long conversation with the UN Secretary Generals Personal Envoy, Matthew Nimetz, who returned from Skopje. I clearly and sternly stressed that it is not within his competence to talk about what Athens policy is, much less to describe it incorrectly.



Based on the briefing I received regarding the talks Mr. Nimetz had in Skopje, I made it absolutely clear that the negotiations can take place only on the basis of what was agreed upon in Davos. After all, any negotiation in good faith takes place on the basis of convergences that have already been achieved.BREMERTON, Wash., Jan. 30, 2018 -- Navy midwifes bring new life into the world. Occasionally, they also save lives.

Navy Lt. Cmdr. Erika Schilling, a military nurse midwife at Naval Hospital Bremerton here, recently used her medical skills to pull back a man from the brink of death on a local area ferry trip.

Schilling was traveling on the Washington State Ferry Kingston-Edmunds route when she overheard another passenger frantically comment that immediate medical attention was needed. A man had slumped over and appeared to be not breathing.

Taking Command

Schilling took command of the situation and provided emergency cardiopulmonary resuscitation for 14 minutes to save the man's life.

Washington State Ferries awarded Schilling with the Life Ring Award certificate in recognition of her life saving efforts on Dec. 2, 2017.

The Life Ring Award is traditionally presented to Washington State Ferry employees, but Washington State Department of Transportation and Washington State Ferries leadership determined that Schilling also deserved such recognition. The award was established to recognize individuals who respond to life-and-death emergencies and perform rescues.

"We are honored to present this in recognition of her heroic, lifesaving effort. In this case, it was very phenomenal," said Doug Stough, Washington State Ferry interim port captain.

Experienced Nurse

Schilling credits her Navy training -- including 21 years of combined Navy Nurse Corps and hospital corpsman experience with Fleet Marine Force qualification experience -- for her immediate response to the emergency.

"I just happened to be there and heard that help was needed. I heard her on the phone saying, 'This is an emergency.' My ears went up," said Schilling, who had just spent that fateful day at the Heritage Museum in Everett with her two sons, Kevin, 7, and Conner, 5, before boarding the ferry for the return trip home.

The man's heart had stopped. Schilling maneuvered him from seat to floor, instructed another passenger to alert the ferry's crew, who showed quickly at the scene with an Automated External Defibrillator.

Schilling then started performing CPR, aided for part of that time by another person with Basic Life Support (CPR and AED) skills.

'I Was Sweating Afterwards'

"We did two minutes on, two minutes off. It was tiring. I was sweating afterwards. My arms and upper body felt like I'd been through one of the hardest workouts I'd ever done," Schilling said.

MD Solutions International also presented Schilling with their Outstanding Responder (to) Sudden Cardiac Arrest certificate, in recognition for her awareness, courage and compassion in response to a victim of cardiac arrest.

"I respond to emergencies. It's what I do. I was able to be the first responder there," Schilling said.

Once the ferry docked at Kingston, an emergency medical team came aboard to transport the man to Harrison Medical Center here. Yet, despite handing her patient off, Schilling determined that her efforts were not over. The stricken man and his wife were from Spokane and not familiar with the area. Schilling took it upon herself to lead the wife from the ferry to the hospital.

"All that way there, all during the 45-minute drive, it was stressful. Did I do enough? Was he going to make it," Schilling said.

The man did survive and is currently recovering at his home in Spokane. Schilling said she spoke to him recently to see how he was doing.The new details not only shed light on what may have triggered the incident, but may also help to explain how five other...Defense Department officials from Secretary Jim Mattis on down keep telling Congress how bad Continuing Resolutions (CRs) are for the troops, but the House and Senate just keep passing them.

The much overused cliche for this perennial process that substitutes for passing a budget -- overused by Democrats and Republicans alike, as well as the White House Office of Management and Budget -- is "kicking the can down the road."

Mattis made the case for the DoD yet again Thursday when he went to the Congressional Republican retreat at the Greenbrier resort in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, just before President Donald Trump gave a pep talk summing up his State of the Union Address.

Mattis, joined by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, met with the Republicans in a closed session that was partly focused on getting something done on the budget before the latest CR runs out Feb. 8, which would mean another government shutdown.

Rep. Mac Thornberry, R-Texas, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, came out of the closed session to state that Mattis and Tillerson were "very clear and direct about the imperative of getting a budget agreement in place so that we can end the series of CRs."

He called on Democrats not to "hold the military hostage to another agenda," such as immigration reform.

"This budget dysfunction has a human cost. That's wrong," Thornberry said, but "we're just going to have to see what the situation is" as the Feb. 8 deadline approaches.

At a Pentagon briefing later Thursday, Dana White, the chief Pentagon spokesperson, said the DoD is gearing up to release the Nuclear Posture Review (NPR) mapping out how the department will need billions more to shore up the nuclear triad of bombers, land-based missiles, and missile submarines.

"The NPR relies on stable, predictable budgets and, one week from today, the CR expires," White said. "So I trust that Congress will do their job and pass a budget and write the check."

White's trust was apparently misplaced.

House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wisconsin, emerged from huddles at the Greenbrier later Thursday to announce that his team was making progress with the Democrats on finally reaching agreement on a fiscal 2018 budget -- but, as usual, they needed more time.

So "even if we get everything figured out by Tuesday, we still will have to have a [CR], if only for the fact that we have to give the appropriators time to write an omnibus appropriations bill," he said.

Should another CR be enacted, it would be the fifth since Congress failed to reach a budget deal by the required date for the fiscal 2018 budget at the start of the fiscal year -- Oct. 1.

Depending on who's doing the counting, Congress has notched budget deal failures and had to rely on CRs at one point or another in either the last nine or 10 years.

By Thornberry's count, the entire government has been operating on CRs for a total of three full years over the last nine.

Earlier this week, Air Force Gen. Paul Selva, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, offered his thoughts on how strange the annual budget slog has become.

At a breakfast with defense reporters Tuesday, Selva said the DoD is now in the process of coming up with a proposed budget for fiscal 2019 while still stuck without a budget for fiscal 2018 and operating at 2017 spending levels because of the CRs.

"There ought to be more than just a little irony in your mind of the fact we're trying to deliver a proposed budget on time to the Hill when we don't know what we're actually going to get for '18," he said.

"This is called gambling," Selva said. "Most of us don't do it with our own money."

The budget fiasco even came in for comment at the Pentagon unveiling ceremony Friday for former Defense Secretary Ashton Carter's official portrait.

Mattis, who presided at the ceremony, got a good laugh out of at Carter's dig at Congress.

In his remarks, Carter said that he had to pay for the portrait, since Congress in 2016 passed a bill eliminating government funding for official portraits.

"I paid for the portrait myself," he said. He didn't say how much he paid, but noted that Congress passed a law making him pay for it and "that didn't leave time for other matters, like passing a timely defense budget."

-- Richard Sisk can be reached at Richard.Sisk@Military.com.A 2008 agreement between Miami-Dade county and Jeffrey Loria (and his partners) saw the county fund most of the $515 million government-owned Marlins stadium in Little Havana. In exchange, the county was promised the right to 5 percent of any profits Loria & co. earned if they sold the team within 10 years. Yet Lorias lawyers have released documents telling the county not to expect any money at all from last years $1.2 billion sale of the Marlins, Douglas Hanks of the Miami Herald writes. The reasoning from Lorias camp is that his accountants claim the sale amounted to a net loss of $141MM. The breakdown they offer begins with a $625MM agreed-to underlying value of the franchise, $280MM in debt, circa $300MM in taxes tied to the sale and a write-off of the $30MM fee paid to financial advisors. Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez says that the city may sue to collect the taxpayers fair share of that $1.2 billion. My message is that this community really allowed you to make a lot of money, he said on Friday. He should do the right thing. He made profits, and he made big profits. He should share that with the people who allowed him to do that.

Here are a few other tidbits from around the leagues Eastern teamsThanks in part to the signing of catcher Alex Avila to a two-year, $8.25MM deal this week, the Diamondbacks are on track to run a franchise-record payroll in 2018 (upward of $120MM), as Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic notes. They may not be done adding, either, as general manager Mike Hazen informed Piecoro that the Diamondbacks still have financial flexibility and are seeking another outfielder. Were still very much involved in both, Hazen said of free agency and the trade market. We have enough balls in the air, we could be a couple of yesses away from something getting done in any direction. Were not close on anything just yet. With A.J. Pollock being the only natural center fielder on the D-backs 40-man roster, they could pick up someone capable of handling that spot, Piecoro reports.



More from the NL:Dedicated to the Restoration of Progressive DemocracyUN concerned about heavy fighting in Myanmar's Kachin state

Reuters, Geneva :

Conflict between Myanmar's army and guerrillas of the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) in northern Myanmar has escalated since Jan. 19, including in Sumprabum, Waingmaw and Tanai townships, a U.N. humanitarian report said on Friday.

"The United Nations and its humanitarian partners are concerned about the safety of civilians in these areas," it said. "The Tanai area has seen heavy fighting since 25 January 2018. There have been reports of a number of civilians killed or injured." The KIA is one of Myanmar's most powerful militias and has clashed regularly with the Myanmar military since 2011, when a 17-year-old ceasefire broke down. It is part of the predominantly ethnic Chinese Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) which clashed with Myanmar's military in 2015, in fighting that spilled over the Chinese border and displaced tens of thousands.

The U.N. report said aid agencies were reporting about 1,800 people, mainly laborers, had been evacuated from the Tanai area as a result of the latest fighting, but other civilians were still in the areas of conflict and unable to leave. U.N. staff had not been granted access to the area and could not independently verify the information, it said. In Sumprabum township more than 700 people were sheltering in the forest after being displaced on Jan. 22. They included villagers and about 500 people from an internal displacement camp who fled after mortar bombs landed near the camp.

Tanai and Sumprabum are located on the two major roads running north from Myitkyina, the capital of Kachin state, the northernmost part of Myanmar, between China and India.

On three occasions since mid-December, most recently on Jan. 27, mortar bombs also landed close to a displacement camp in Waingmaw township, just cross the Irrawaddy river from Myitkyina, the report said.

Myanmar is already under international scrutiny for its handling of the Rohingya crisis on the Bangladesh border. The U.N. human rights investigator for Myanmar, Yanghee Lee, was barred in December from visiting the Rohingya areas and also Kachin and Shan states.

She told Reuters at the time that the civilian government had no authority in Kachin state, since anything connected to security issues was controlled by military commanders.

She called on the international community to put more pressure on military commanders, and on China, to ensure that human rights were respected in the conflict.



Annual cultural prog of JUSC held

City Desk :

The annual prize-giving ceremony and cultural programme of Jahangirnagar University School and College (JUSC) was held recently on the campus.

JU Vice-Chancellor Professor Farzana Islam addressed the function as the chief guest.

Stressing on the academic studies, she urged students to develop human qualities.

Presided over by Principal of JUSC Abdul Jalil Bhuyan, JU Pro VC (academic) Professor Md Abul Hossain, Pro VC (administration) Professor Md Amir Hussain and Treasurer Professor Sheikh Md Monjurul Huq also addressed the function as special guests.

Farzana Islam distributed prizes among the students who stood first, second and third place in each classes and winners of cultural events.



Wozniacki races into St Petersburg quarter-finals

Agency :

World number one Caroline Wozniacki, fresh off her Australian Open victory, dropped just one game in a dominant performance to beat Russian youngster Anastasia Potapova at the St Petersburg Ladies' Trophy on Thursday.

The 27-year-old Dane picked up a 6-0 6-1 victory to set-up a quarter-final clash with another young Russian Daria Kasatkina, who defeated France's Alize Cornet on Wednesday.

Potapova fired 17 winners to Wozniacki's 16 but was undone be her unforced errors, hitting 31 during the match.

Wozniacki created 21 chances to break her 16-year-old opponent's serve and converted seven times to seal the win in an hour and seven minutes.Guinea: Coup makers must not be ...Tuolumne County Supervisors and department head's governance workshop at Rush Creek Lodge in the Groveland area View Photos

View Video

Yosemite, CA  In a cozy environment, sitting on couches in a circle and a burning fire nearby, the Tuolumne County Supervisors and department heads discussed their findings today from the past three day governance skills workshop at the Rush Creek Lodge on Highway 120 near Yosemite National Park.

It is an annual event, a board retreat, where the supervisors hear detailed updates over a series of days from department heads and put forward goals for the new year.

Very good and focused while still covering a lot of subjects, was the overview from Board Chair and District 4 Supervisor John Gray.

With the help of a facilitator, the group whittled down a long list of issues and came up with the top five strategic priorities to address over the next 18 months. Those include: increased staffing (Click here for video of the discussion regarding staffing), upgraded technology, improving facilities/infrastructure, planning and additional financing/funding. When asked by Clarke Broadcasting whether the latter could include a tax hike, Gray noted, I dont think anything is ever off the table. If we dont have the staffing available we cant provide the service to the peopleWere not going to be able to supply every staff request but were going to have to supply the key ones that will allow us to be more efficient. I cant say that we are going to ask for a tax increase, thats a very difficult thing to do and kind of a last resort. (Click here for video of the group discussing top strategic priorities)

Gray adds that grants, along with maximizing staff and determining technology needs, can help with costs, and were some of the next steps discussed to implement these strategies. One key element noted was the fostering of economic development in the county. Gray points to the Rush Creek Lodge as an example of the way government can facilitate economic growth as in April of 2014 the county, through a $3 million state Community Development Block Grant (CDBG), was able to loan the money to the developer at just 3 percent interest over 20 years. Other targets are jobs and affordable housing. Regarding those, County Community Resources Agency Director David Gonzalves reports that things are looking up, Weve had single family dwelling permits go up. Our building permits are up, 15 to 20 percent, and thats repairs, remodeling, new homes and commercial buildings. All of those things are indicators that there are people investing and theyre confident in the economy. He continues to detail, The planning department, we are seeing people come in to do projects, which is the precursor to construction, and those are up.

Gonzalves adds that staff is buried in paperwork and they have to figure out how to do it bigger, better, faster. He sums up the retreat as a chance for the board to set a vision and direction for staff to better serve the public, stating, Hopefully the public will see that we are an important, invaluable tool and what were doing so they will want to participate more and give us a chance to talk more while holding us accountable.

County staff will compile a recap of the three day workshop and present the results at Tuesdays upcoming board of supervisors meeting.Swiss President due today

UNB, Dhaka :

A red carpet is set to be rolled out as the President of the Swiss Confederation Alain Berset arrives here on a four-day official visit on Sunday, the first official visit by any Swiss president to Bangladesh.

President Abdul Hamid will receive his Swiss counterpart as he is scheduled

to arrive at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport at 1:15pm on Sunday, an official told UNB.

Cabinet members, including Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali and State Minister for Foreign Affairs M Shahriar Alam, are also expected to remain present.

A smartly turned out contingent comprising members of Bangladesh Army, Air Force and Bangladesh Navy will give guard of honour to the Swiss President. He will be welcomed with a 21-gun salute.

Two tiny tots will present bouquets to President Berset.

After the warm reception at the airport, the Swiss President will be taken to Sonargaon Hotel in a ceremonial motorcade where he will be staying during the visit.

President Berset will visit Rohingya camps in Cox's Bazar district on Tuesday and listen to stories of tortures from Rohingyas.

Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali will meet the Swiss President at Sonargaon Hotel at 6pm on Sunday.

On Monday, President Berset will visit Savar National Mausoleum to pay homage to Liberation War martyrs.

He will also visit Bangabandhu Museum at Dhanmondi to pay respect to Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

The Swiss President will have official talks with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at her office on Monday afternoon.

President Abdul Hamid will host dinner in honour of his Swiss counterpart at Bangabhaban in the evening.City health inspectors spotted mold on food and surfaces at at least three San Antonio restaurants this week, according to reports, as well as rodent droppings in a River Walk bistro.

Among those spots cited by inspectors was the El Tropicano Hotel at the River Walk. The hotel, which was the lowest-scoring establishment of the week, had "mold-like growth" on food and shelves in the walk-in cooler, as well as exposed rodent traps and a "vast amount" of food debris on floors underneath kitchen equipment.

A total of 30 restaurants landed on this week's list of dirtiest restaurants in the San Antonio area, according to reports.

READ ALSO: Worst San Antonio restaurant reports from 2017

At Zinc, the upscale River Walk wine bar and bistro, an inspector found rodent droppings in the storage room and standing mop water that should have been drained.

Meanwhile, an inspector found a raw piece of animal meat on a spatula in a drawer and dried lettuce on a ladle stored inside another drawer at Copper Kitchen inside the Southwest School of Art. At Common Wealth Coffee in Stone Oak, an inspector observed expired pumpkin and blueberry pastry mixes in a cooler.

Nao, a Pearl restaurant named one of the Top 100 restaurants in San Antonio, is also on this week's list.

SEE LAST WEEK'S VIOLATIONS: San Antonio restaurant inspections: Jan. 26, 2018

To make the Express-News' list of dirtiest restaurants, an establishment must earn a score of 89 or below  or anything less than an "A"  during a random city health inspection.

The San Antonio Express-News examines hundreds of restaurant inspections each week conducted by the San Antonio Food and Environmental Health Services division to bring you the eateries with scores of 89 or below.

Restaurants are graded on a 100-point system, where "100" is a perfect score, and demerits are based upon the number of violations found during a regular food establishment inspection. There are three categories of demerits and each are assigned a demerit score of 3, 2 or 1 points, according to the health division.

Scores and demerits listed are only representative of the state of the restaurant at the time of inspection and establishments are surveyed at random.

See the other restaurants that landed on this week's list of dirtiest restaurants in the slideshow above.

erobinson@mysa.com | Twitter: @eeelizzzabethTowns along Texas' Coastal Bend are still inching back to their former glories five months after a catastrophic hurricane struck the area.

Hurricane Harvey swept through Port Aransas and Rockport in August 2017 before moving up the coast toward Houston, where it dumped more than 51 inches of rain on the city. Dozens of homes, restaurants, hotels and other tourist destinations in the beach towns were damaged some could make repairs while others had to start from the ground up after the hurricane wiped everything away.

As the towns continue to rebuild, Rockport Mayor Charles Wax said in a Jan. 24 update that 225 families are still living in hotels funded by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

RELATED: San Antonio students get national nod for restoring photos damaged in Hurricane Harvey

He told PBS he asked the federal and state government for $5 million over a three-year time period to help with the city's decline in sales tax and property tax revenues.

"I think I'm being heard, but I don't have a check in hand," Wax told PBS.

Tourists from all over the country who frequently visit Rockport told PBS they hope people return to the community.

Volunteers with the Coastal Bend Disaster Recovery Group, a state recognized nonprofit organization, are working through 800 cases, Wax said. CBDRG volunteers help rebuild homes and address "unmet disaster related needs of individuals in the community," according to the organization's website.

RELATED: San Antonio police donate 'hot cop' calendar proceeds to schools hit by Hurricane Harvey

He said more than 2.5 million cubic yards of debris have been picked up across the city. Additionally, more than 100,000 cubic yards of mulch have been removed from Rockport.

In Port Aransas, more than $892,000 has been raised through the New Day Port A Fund, according to its website. Of the funds raised, $700,000 has been distributed to those in need.

As families are slowly making their way back home, dozens of businesses and restaurants in both cities have reopened and are asking for business.

Click through the slideshow to see 40 businesses and restaurants that are among the many that have reopened in Port Aransas and Rockport.

Kelsey Bradshaw is a digital reporter for mySA.com. Read more of her stories here.| kbradshaw@express-news.net | Twitter: @kbrad5We have yet another example of deficient governance and faddishness masquerading for good investment practices at CalPERS. Chief Investment Officer Ted Eliopoulos told Top1000Funds that CalPERS is thinking of investing in venture capital. Well explain long form why this is a lousy idea. From the story:

With more than $170 billion in equity exposure, the California Public Employees Retirement System is the biggest institutional sharemarket investor in the US. But chief investment officer Ted Eliopoulos says CalPERS is missing out on opportunities because private companies are waiting longer for their initial public offerings. What we see as an opening in the marketplace is how long private companies are staying private now, Eliopoulos said in an interview at CalPERS semi-annual retreat meeting on January 16 in Petaluma, California. We think there is an opportunity for CalPERS to invest in private companies, perhaps at later stages of the venture cycle, Eliopoulos said in the interview. Companies that have gone through their first, second, third, fourth venture round but arent ready yetto go public, thats an opportunity.

Help me. This is so wrong-headed I dont know where to begin.

Companies staying private longer is bad for investors. Eliopoulos described the motivation as more companies staying private. But that doesnt mean this behavior creates an investment opportunity. In fact, it prevents the monetization that investors need to realize returns. It might be different if these VC backed companies were growing up to throw off tons of free cash flow, but as far as we can tell, that is seldom if ever the case. As we wrote regarding Uber, a prime example of this behavior:

Kalanick had maintained he wanted Uber to stay private as long as possible. That may be a fad with some unicorns, but its not the way for a shareholder to maximize his net worth, so its a preference that raises questions about the founders ulterior motives. Needless to say, that desire put him at odds with his investors.

The reason late stage VC investments historically were attractive was that certain marquee investors would help validate the venture shortly before a planned IPO. The limited time between the investment and the IPO (and the investors reputation helping assure the IPO would be priced at a healthy premium to the last pre-IPO round) meant the odds of a quick profit were high.

With more companies staying private longer, these conditions arent operative.

As a result, late stage VC investors are often the dumbest of dumb money. Look at Uber. It did an investment round at an over $60 billion valuation with the Saudis, who are seen as pretty clueless. The round after that, the famed $68 or $69 billion valuation, depending on who reported it, was to the ultimate chumps, high net worth individuals. The financial disclosure for that fundraising was so inadequate that both JP Morgan and Deutsche Bank, hardly paragons of virtue, refused to present it to their clients even though this risked their standing in the management group for an Uber IPO.

Needless to say, JP Morgan and Deutsche are now looking like geniuses in keeping their high net worth investors well away from Uber, now that the latest round of funding from SoftBank has come in at a ~30% discount from the funding round they sat out. And insiders selling heavily into SoftBanks bid is hardly a good sign.

Unicorn companies are universally engaging in what comes awfully close to valuation fraud. Readers might contend that I am giving a distorted picture in focusing on Uber, since it has managed to be an outlier in both how much money it raised as well as its level of management turmoil and deserved bad press. However, the need of other unicorns to preserve the illusion that they are increasing in value at an attractive rate has produced greatly exaggerated across the entire universe of unicorns where researchers could get the data about their fundraising terms.

This is critically important since CalPERS would almost certainly have bought into these bogus valuations, since investors who should know better, such as mutual funds, are reporting the same cooked-up numbers. Key sections from a 2017 post, which I am quoting at length:

Weve written regularly about how private equity firms are widely acknowledged to lie about their portfolio company valuations. But their go-go cousins in venture capital tell much bigger whoppers, and with much more visible companies. A recent paper by Will Gornall of the Sauder School of Business and Ilya A. Strebulaev of Stanford Business School, with the understated title Squaring Venture Capital Valuations with Reality, deflates the myth of the widely-touted tech unicorn. Gornall and Strebulaev obtained the needed valuation and financial structure information on 116 unicorns out of a universe of 200. So this is a sample big enough to make reasonable inferences, particularly given how dramatic the findings are. From the abstract: Using data from legal filings, we show that the average highly-valued venture capital-backed company reports a valuation 49% above its fair value, with common shares overvalued by 59%. In our sample of unicorns  companies with reported valuation above $1 billion  almost one half (53 out of 116) lose their unicorn status when their valuation is recalculated and 13 companies are overvalued by more than 100%. Another deadly finding is peculiarly relegated to the detailed exposition: All unicorns are overvalued: The average (median) post-money value of the unicorns in the sample is $3.5 billion ($1.6 billion), while the corresponding average (median) fair value implied by the model is only $2.7 billion ($1.1 billion). This results in a 48% (36%) overvaluation for the average (median) unicorn. Common shares even more overvalued, with the average (median) overvaluation of 55% (37%). How can there be such a yawning chasm between venture capitalist hype and proper valuation? By virtue of the financiers love for complexity, plus the fact that these companies have been private for so long, they dont have equity in the way the business press or lay investors think of it, as in common stock and maybe some preferred stock. They have oodles of classes of equity with all kinds of idiosyncratic rights. From the paper: VC-backed companies typically create a new class of equity every 12 to 24 months when they raise money. The average unicorn in our sample has eight classes, with different classes owned by the founders, employees, VC funds, mutual funds, sovereign wealth funds, and strategic investors Deciphering the financial structure of these companies is difficult for two reasons. First, the shares they issue are profoundly different from the debt, common stock, and preferred equity securities that are commonly traded in financial markets. Instead, investors in these companies are given convertible preferred shares that have both downside protection (via seniority) and upside potential (via an option to convert into common shares). Second, shares issued to investors differ substantially not just between companies but between the different financing rounds of a single company, with different share classes generally having different cash flow and control rights. Determining cash flow rights in downside scenarios is critical to much of corporate finance, and the different classes of shares issued by VC-backed companies generally have dramatically different payoffs in downside scenarios. Specifically, each class has a different guaranteed return, and those returns are ordered into a seniority ranking, with common shares (typically held by founders and employees, either as shares or stock options) being junior to preferred shares and with preferred shares that were issued early frequently junior to preferred shares issued more recently. The way the VCs mislead the press and the general public is how that they assign a valuation after each round of fund-raising assuming all classes of equity have the same value. And the paper confirms that just as in private equity, where everyone knows valuations are often sus but no one challenges them because the path of better bonuses and PR lies with playing along, so to VC investors who presumably do know better report these bogus figures to their limited partners: Conversations with several large LPs indicate that VC funds follow the same practice and mark their holdings up to the most recent round. Even within the VC industry, many people treat post-money valuations as the fair value of the company. And there are even more cute tricks VCs can and do play. For instance, companies can show rising valuations if they give enough goodies, meaning preferential treatment, to the latest round of funding, when a proper post money valuation would show that round lowered the common shareholder computation. Lets stop for a second. It isnt just business reporters, who are typically captured and dont have enough in the way of finance chops to challenge Silicon Valley Masters of the Universe, even if they think they are on to something. Investors like Fidelity and T.Rowe Price that are investing in some of these companies on behalf of retail mutual funds have been passively accepting these bogus valuation methods. Any fiduciaries, now that this practice has been outed, need to demand proper valuations or they will be violating their fiduciary duty by relying on egregiously incorrect valuations and being unable to make prudent decisions. And on top of that, some heads need to roll.

Public pension funds have generally avoided venture capital because they cant deploy enough funds to make a difference even if they did well. Eliopoulos may fantasize that he can put enough money to work by focusing on later-stage, presumably bigger companies. But the law of large numbers alone works against CalPERS: large investment is never going to have the upside of a successful early-stage investment. Moreover, CalPERS own experts, like Harvard professor Josh Lerner, have shown that venture funds are even more skewed than those of private equity. The outperformance of the very top funds (top 10 percentile) is high, while median returns arent worth the bother. And here we observe the same fallacy weve seen before: that talking yourself into the proposition that you can pick the winners is yet another version of the thinking you can be the Warren Buffett of institutional investing. Most public pension funds reject that idea in all other asset classes and stick to indexing, yet perversely are seduced into behaving differently in the highest fee investment strategies.

The article does point out that CalPERS track record in VC isnt encouraging (CalPERS is running off a legacy portfolio):

Venture funds make up just $1 billion of the systems private equity portfolio. They have also performed poorly. On a five-year annualised basis, ending June 30, 2017, they have returned 4.7 per cent, compared with the private equity portfolios overall 11.5 per cent for the same time period, CalPERS statistics show.

And as the point above, about unicorn overvaluation demonstrates, CalPERS looks to be preparing to invest in way that guarantees that its role will be to prop up phony valuations. Elioupoulos appears to have missed the fact that his preferred strategy would have him heavily, if not entirely, exposed to companies where the average overvaluation is 49%. This strategy would seem to be putting a target on the back of CalPERS board for litigation over breaches of fiduciary duty.

Some board members have bad incentives to promote investing in venture capital companies. The Treasurer and Controller are both elected officials. That means among other things, they need to raise money every four years to campaign for re-election or to seek another office.

CalPERS has reasonably good systems in place to prevent board members from lobbying to have CalPERS put money in particular pet funds. However, both the Treasurer and Controller, who carry more clout than other board members, have incentives for CalPERS to invest in venture capital whether or not it is good for beneficiaries. Right now, they are not perceived to have much of a connection to Silicon Valley. Having CalPERS invest in venture capital would be certain to get them invited to panels and other events which would give them face time with big-ticket donors.

Eliopoulos has slapped the board in the face. The board is finding out about this scheme in the press, as opposed to in a briefing. The top1000Fundsarticle mentions that it interviewed Eilopoulos at a board offsite meeting in which the board had a panel on innovation at which three investors spoke. What it does not mention is that the panel was a complete waste of the boards time and bore no relationship whatsoever to informing them about how to invest. The three panelists gave war stories about what great guys they were, the sort of fare that would at most be suitable for MBA recruiting.

There was an ad hoc effort to pitch the attractiveness of VC to CalPERS in response to a line of questioning by Eliopoulos after the presentations, but it was the sort of superficial boosterism you can readily find in the trade press. And the only gap in the market that a panelist identified, the lack of early-stage funding, was implicitly rejected by Eliopoulos in his interview.

The lack of relevance is obvious when at the end, board president Priya Mathur asks asking about e-waste (at 1:26:15), a topic the speakers clearly arent prepared to address (notice the very long silence). No other board member poses a query.

Similarly, theres not a single item in recent closed session agenda items related to venture capital, even assuming that a policy change of this sort could be permissibly relegated to private discussion under the states open meeting law, Bagely-Keene. So it looks as if the board is finding out about possible major strategy changes after the press. That should be completely unacceptable in any well-run organization.

However, since good governance seems to be an afterthought at CalPERS, it should not be surprising to have Elioupoulos demonstrate that board oversight is an empty letter.Finally, Facial Recognition for Cows Is Here Gizmodo (Dr. Kevin)

Udderly ridiculous or bold mooove? Irish company rolls out cow facial recognition RT (Kevin W)

After 70 Countries, Why I Moved to Portugal Never Ending Footsteps (resilc). A lovely idea. Ive been to Lisbon twice and spent a little time in some other Portuguese cities, and thought it was a great country. But you need an EU visa :-(

An Ancient Virus May Be Responsible for Human Consciousness LiveScience (David L). No wonder its so confused.

Capes spring water wasted Cape Times. Gavin P:

A friend of mine has been working for years to prevent/solve the Cape Town water catastrophe. There is a solution, and corrupt and incompetent govt has been getting in the way for over a decade. This article is from 2013, and seems to have been entirely overlooked by the msm

Oklahoma is seeing hundreds of earthquakes every year  and a new study found a scarily direct link to fracking Business Insider (David L). Not the first study to do that

A new type of solar cell is coming to market Economist (David L)

How to Be a Responsible Music Fan in the Age of Streaming Pitchfork (Randy K)

China?

A bit late to post on the Pope-China controversy. From David R: Talk about a country that knows how to manage the gate to its market. Anyways, two different views of this particular trade negotiation. I put the WSJ one first as having the more positive spin.

Venezuela Skirts U.S. Sanctions With Chinese Oil-For-Cash Loans OilPrice (resilc)

How Kenyans are coping with a TV shutdown BBC

Brexit?

Russians in Britain told to reveal their riches The Times

No one seemed likely to hit me but I am a weed: Tory MP Jacob Rees-Mogg tells of moment he split up fight when protesters calling him a nazi,fascist and racist stormed his speech to students in Bristol Daily Mail. Includes a video clip.

Scottish Limited Partnerships and the Odebrecht scandal Herald Scotland. Richard Smith has a mini-rant and look at the dashing photo!

Syraqistan

Imperial Collapse Watch

Retreat, America The Week

Big Brother is Watching You Watch

Europes new data protection rules export privacy standards worldwide Politico. Hooray! Now if they can succeed in doing that with monopoly policy too

Trump Transition

FING SITH LORD, HORRIFIC LEAKERS, AND BERSERKAZOID CRAZINESS: THE MOOCH RECALLS HIS BRIEF SHINING FORTNIGHT AT THE CENTER OF AMERICAN POLITICS Vanity Fair. Lambert: I confess I find myself liking this guy the more I read about him. I realize that this is within the context of an incredibly odious and duplicitous administration, but he strikes me as being far more transparent than any of the other figures out there. I especially love his characterizations of Bannon and Priebus. Rich Globalists Love Trump LobeLog (resilc)

Nunes Memo

Tom Cotton Doesnt Oppose Immigration for Economic Reasons New York Magazine

Floridas ban on felons voting ruled unconstitutional by judge Reuters (EM). Hooray!

Fake News

A film critic was suspended for allegedly buying fake Twitter followers. Justified or overreaction? Washington Post. Bill B: Deception isnt the sole domain of corporate outlets. 

Feds QE Unwind Accelerates Sharply Wolf Street (EM)

Dow Plunges More Than 650 Points in Worst Week in Two Years Wall Street Journal (EM). Dow 26,000, we hardly knew ye.

Despite bad day for the Dow, Yellen sees long-term growth as she leaves the Federal Reserve PBS. Kevin C points out Yellen very rarely does interviews like this.

Wells Fargo Hit With Unusual Ban on Growth in Yellens Final Act Bloomberg

Opioids. Note we have had to make this a topic

Class Warfare

Antidote du jour (Tracie H):

A bonus video antidote (Gavin P):

And a second bonus antidote because its that kind of day (AFXH). I dunno, but the cat seems to be on board with this. I leash-trained a couple of cats and they seemed to enjoy the considerable attention they got when I took them out, so maybe this feline like being a YouTube star:By Ashley Jardina, an assistant professor of political science at Duke University. Originally published at Talk Poverty; cross posted from Alternet

Last Spring, in a highly publicized meeting with members of the Congressional Black Caucus, President Donald Trump received some startling news. One of the members mentioned to Trump that pushing forward with welfare reform would be hurtful to her constituents, not all of whom are black.

Really? Trump replied. Then what are they?

Statistically, they were probably white. But given the United States history with the word welfare, its not all that surprising that Trump was confused.

Despite the fact that white Americans benefit more from government assistance than people of color, means-tested aid is primarily associated with black people and other people of colorparticularly when the term welfare is used. For many Americans, the word welfare conjures up a host of disparaging stereotypes so strongly linked to stigmatized beliefs about racial groups thatalong with crimeit is arguably one of the most racialized terms in the country.

Martin Gilens, a professor of political science at Princeton University, has studied the relationship between whites racial attitudes and their opinion on welfare extensively. In one study, he finds that white peoples racial attitudes are the single most important influence on their views on welfare. In other words, white people who are more prejudiced toward black people are also significantly more opposed to welfare. Numerous studies in the social sciences have substantiated this claim.

That has tremendous consequences for the types of policies that are proposed and passed. Public support for programs associated with the term welfare are generally weaker than support for other programs, like unemployment insurance, primarily because welfare is so strongly linked to the negative attitudes white people possess about black people. However, the public is willing to support redistributive benefits generally when they are not called welfare. For example, in 2014, 58 percent of white people thought that we are spending too much on welfare, whereas only 16 percent reported that we are spending too much on the poor.

Source: Authors analysis of 2014 General Social Survey data.

These same racial attitudes also structure the way policies are designed. They inform which groups we think are deserving of assistance, and which are not. Nicholas Winter, for instance, notes that part of why Social Security is so relatively popular compared to welfare is because of how both policies are racialized. Social Security, he argues, has been framed as a policy that is both universalthat is, it benefits all groupsand as one that has been contrasted with welfare as an earned reward for hard work (stereotypes associated with white people), rather than a handout for the lazy and dependent (stereotypes associated with black people).

In contrast, negative beliefs about the beneficiaries of programs we think of as welfare have arguably lead to a system of surveillance and sanctions. After Reagan popularized the disparaging stereotype of the welfare queen in the 1980s, Bill Clinton passed welfare reform policies that restricted access to benefits to satisfy racist attitudes. In addition to placing significant and often unfair burdens on the individuals seeking assistance, these restrictionslike required drug-testing of program applicants, restrictions on where benefits can be spent, and specifications on what types of work count toward required hoursrelied on stereotypes and reinforced the belief that beneficiaries of these programs are undeserving. According to work by Joe Soss and Sanford F. Schram, more people believed that welfare benefits lead to dependency in 2003 than in 1989.

The media have played a significant role in establishing the link between poverty, welfare, and race in the public mind. According to Gilens, these trends were forged in the 1960s, when race riots drew the nations attention to the black urban poor. In just three yearsfrom 1964 to 1967the percentage of poverty news stories that featured images of black people grew from 27 percent to 72 percent. These trends have persisted in the present day.

But both Gilens and Winters work suggests that the media can also help promote anti-poverty legislation by avoiding racialized terms, like welfare, to talk about public assistance. But if they keep leaning specifically on the term welfareas they have during Speaker Ryans recent push to cut anti-poverty programs by referring to them as welfare reformthen otherwise popular policies may be dragged down with the words racialized history.Tributes were paid to the wonderful volunteers of Clonmel Red Cross when the branch took possession of a spanking new ambulance on Friday.

Minister Paul Kehoe launched the vehicle outside the Town Hall and also present was former minister and current national chairman of the Red Cross, Pat Carey.

The majority of the 90,000 funding came from the state but branch secretary Darren Ryan pointed out that 18,000 had been collected locally and he paid tribute to the people of Clonmel and surrounding areas for their generosity.

We parked the ambulance in the town centre, outside the Town Hall, so the people of Clonmel could see where all their donations went. This money came from so many different collections over so many years and this beautiful new ambulance is the fruit of all that effort, Mr Ryan, also a member of the Red Cross national executive, said.

Members of Clonmel Red Cross gave 2,500 hours of voluntary service to the Clonmel area over the past year and Minister Kehoe congratulated them on this effort.

And Area Director, John Ryan, said he would provide plenty of work for the branch members to do in their new ambulance over the coming years.

Minister Kehoe added - This is a day of celebration for Clonmel and I wish the branch the very best in the future with this state-of-the-art vehicle.Clonmel looks set to get 25 new jobs with the news of a new arrival at the town's Showgrounds Shopping Centre.

The shopping centre has announced that it will soon welcome a new, 8,500 square foot Dealz store - creating up to 25 jobs.

However the new store is not what shopper might expect from a Dealz store, which already has a branch in the town centre, as this shop will also carry the discount clothing range Pep&Co - the first outside Dublin.

It is hoped the new store will be open in the Showgrounds Shopping Centre by Easter. Recruitment has not yet started.

This new store will take up what is now four separate empty units in the shopping centre, beside the current Iceland food store.

Pep&Co in the UK offer jeans from 4. Pep&Co say "it's our mission to help families in every community spend less on their clothing.

"We have a selection of styles, sizes, colours and fits to suit the whole family, and we even have stylish touches you need to PEP up your home."

PEP&CO is backed by the large South African retail group, Pepkor. The group was established in 1965 and now employs over 32,000 people in 3,800 stores across Europe, Africa, and Australasia.Mobilise international help for Rohingyas in grave danger

UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, on Friday warned that more than one million Rohingya refugees now living in Cox's Bazar's makeshift camps would be in grave danger because of potentially adverse weather conditions during the upcoming monsoon season in Bangladesh. Irregular and extreme weather conditions in the country became evident last year. The refugees also had to endure rains and winter, and understandably, with the onset of the monsoon the situation is likely to get worse. However, two very pertinent questions in this regard are - is the government appropriately equipping itself to tackle the potential environmental setbacks? And how it will protect the refugees if an environmental disaster strikes?

In fact, not by the UNHCR, we expected the forecasting to have been realised by the government and accordingly convey the potential environmental threats to the international community and the UN. On one hand Myanmar is intentionally delaying with the correct form of repatriation process while on the other - the international community have not been able to exert much effective diplomatic pressure and sanctions on Myanmar. On top of it, given 2018 being the election year, the crisis will take a new turn. We fear the country will have to bear an added pressure to cope with a series of crisis, and undoubtedly it doesn't have a coping strategy in this connection.

Apart from political, economic and health factors seasonal adverse climatic conditions, including cyclones, landslides and floods, might dangerously envelope tens of thousands of Rohingya refugees staying at the highly congested settlements in Cox's Bazar district into serious risk. Moreover, given last year's unanticipated eruption of flash-floods in the south of the country, large parts of Cox's Bazar and Teknaf may go under flood water. As a result, more than 85,000 refugees could lose their shelters. Another 23,000 refugees living on steep slopes within the site could be at risk of landslides. Additionally, key services in the settlement, installed by humanitarian agencies, working with the Government of Bangladesh, are also at risk of being washed away. The installations include latrines, washrooms, tube wells, and health centres. That's not all; access to roads into the settlements could be blocked making it hard to provide emergency aid. There is also a high risk for public health situation, especially of outbreak of communicable diseases.

So our appeal to the international community is to hasten help to save the Rohingya refugees because it is beyond our capacity to cope with the crisis no matter how much we try.

(Natural News) As you might have guessed, President Donald J. Trump  the subject of one the biggest political hit jobs in the history of the republic  was none too happy about the findings of the House Intelligence Committee contained in the so-called FISA memo released on Friday.

I think its terrible, Trump said, as quoted by The Associated Press. You want to know the truth. I think its a disgrace. Whats going on in this country, I think its a disgrace.

As reported by NewsTarget, the memo reveals serial abuses of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court by upper echelon officials in the FBI and Justice Department to prevent [Trump] from becoming president, and to undermine him after he defeated Hillary Clinton in November 2016.

The four-page memo goes on, noting that Clinton, several U.S. media outlets, top-ranking figures within DOJ and FBI including some that are still serving, and others conspired to create a bogus dossier full of false and salacious charges that purportedly came from Russian sources, and then pretend it was a legitimate intelligence document in order to secure a top-secret surveillance warrant so the Obama regime could spy on the Trump campaign. (Related: FISA memo released  bombshell report reveals MASSIVE Deep State conspiracy to keep Donald Trump out of the White House)

These same people knew that the dossier  which was paid for by the Clinton campaign through a third-party law firm (because ol Hill is so cloak-and-dagger)  was just a political document, not real intelligence.

So yes, it certainly is a disgrace all of this happened.

But it goes much deeper than that. Its also criminal. At least it has been so far for Carter Page, the principal Trump campaign official put under surveillance by political appointees and others within the DOJ and FBI. And former national security advisor Michael Flynn, indicted and convicted of lying to the FBI. And others caught up in this web of deceit.

There is no other choice for the president: He must fire Robert Mueller, whos appointment was also based on this same bogus information, and he must pardon Flynn and Page since they were ensnared in a political, not intelligence, operation.

J.D. Heyes is editor of The National Sentinel and a senior writer for Natural News and News Target.

Sources include:

NewsTarget.com(Natural News) The just-released FISA memo did more than simply detail Obama administration abuses of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court by politicized, ranking members of the FBI and Justice Department. It also named names.

The memo noted that on Oct. 21, 2016 the DOJ and FBI sought and received a FISA probable cause order authorizing electronic surveillance on Team Trump campaign official Carter Page. The officials relied on the bogus, unsubstantiated Trump dossier in large part to secure the warrant, but also, the memo says, officials relied on media reports from over the summer making allegations of Trump-Russia collusion, none of which have ever been proven.

As CBS News reported:

The FBI and DOJ obtained three FISA warrants targeting Page and three FISA renewals, according to the memo. Then-FBI Director James Comey signed three FISA applications in question on behalf of the FBI, and Deputy Director Andrew McCabe signed one, according to the memo. The memo says then-Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates, then-Acting Deputy Attorney General Dana Boente, and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein each signed one or more FISA applications on behalf of the DOJ.

Theres more. The memo clearly states that the dossier was a political document  opposition research commissioned by Fusion GPS and paid for by the Hillary Clinton campaign and that everyone involved in approving the FISA court applications knew the document was political research, not hard-and-fast intelligence gathered by legitimate U.S. spies.

So Comey, Rosenstein, Yates, McCabe, and others were clearly in on the conspiracy to frame President Donald J. Trump and his campaign with a bogus Russia collusion story.

Former FBI Director Comey, we know, has tried to implicate the president in obstruction of justice during testimony before Congress.

Rosenstein, who remains in his position and was put in charge of this hoax after Attorney General Jeff Sessions foolishly recused himself from it, was the Deep State operative who appointed special counsel Robert Mueller  to investigate a hoax!

Yates, you may recall, was the Justice Department official who refused to defend Trumps first travel ban.

McCabe, who until Monday was still in his post as the FBIs deputy director, was the gatekeeper in all of this. And enabler.

The president clearly has reason to be upset. Whatever his next moves are, he will be justified in making them.

J.D. Heyes is editor of The National Sentinel and a senior writer for Natural News and News Target.

Sources include:

CBSNews.com(Natural News) The presence or absence of oxygen can determine whether or not a planet can support life. Its a strategy that many alien life hunters continue to use until this day. It holds true for our very own planet. However, a recent study has put forth the bold suggestion of looking for two other gases when seeking out signs of life. These gases, reports Space.com, are methane and carbon dioxide.

We need to look for fairly abundant methane and carbon dioxide on a world that has liquid water at its surface, and find an absence of carbon monoxide, David Catling, co-author of the study, told Newswise.com. Our study shows that this combination would be a compelling sign of life. Whats exciting is that our suggestion is doable, and may lead to the historic discovery of an extraterrestrial biosphere in the not-too-distant future.

The idea behind this came from no other place than the Earth. Specifically, the Earth billions of years ago when its atmosphere was composed of various kinds of gases. Estimates put the build-up of atmospheric oxygen at 2.5 billion years, and its eventual peak at 600 million years ago. Included in the mixture of gases would be carbon dioxide and methane which, when detected without carbon monoxide, may signal the existence of life. This is because carbon monoxide is eaten by microbes, so an abundance of this gas would be indicative of a planet without biology.

A great amount of carbon dioxide and methane would be different, however. Carbon dioxide holds oxygen, while methane has hydrogen. As such, carbon dioxide is carbons most oxidized state while methane is the least. Having these two together is unusual and difficult to produce without life. Although methane can be generated via non-biological processes, the researchers explained that having elevated levels of atmospheric methane would be a near-impossibility without biological organisms.

Life that makes methane uses a simple metabolism, is ubiquitous, and has been around through much of Earths history, explained corresponding author Joshua Krissansen-Totton. Its an easy thing to do so its potentially more common than oxygen-producing life. This is definitely something we should be looking for as new telescopes come online. (Related: The search for Earth II: Three new French telescopes are searching the stars for another planet like ours.)

And Krissansen-Totton has a very good point. The James Webb Space Telescope  already being touted as a key tool in discovering alien life  is unable to detect oxygen due to being tuned for infrared. This makes it excel at observing ancient galaxies and stars, but renders the telescope incapable of catching oxygen. The same cant be said for other gases.

Speaking to ScientificAmerican.com, Nikole Lewis, project scientist at the Space Telescope Science Institute, stated that the telescope could spot atmospheric carbon dioxide, methane, and carbon monoxide on planets surrounding red dwarf stars. Webb can achieve the required precision to detect the molecules in the atmospheres of planets like those in the TRAPPIST-1 system, said Lewis.

On this, Catling noted that it would still be difficult to determine whether the methane was the result of biological processes or major natural events like volcanic eruptions. Though he added that the telescope could still be useful in the long run, particularly when the work of him and colleagues were taken into consideration. Webb probably has to get lucky to find life, but you never know, so this is potentially exciting for astrobiology. We want to make more people aware that theres more to looking for life than looking for oxygen, he remarked.

Want to read up on more news stories about space? Check out Cosmic.news.

Sources include:

Space.com

Newswise.com

ScientificAmerican.com(Natural News) A 38-year-old Chicago man who recently confessed to sexually molesting three underage girls between the ages of six and eight appears to be trying to capitalize on liberalisms acceptance of the gender spectrum.

Joseph Roman is reportedly claiming that he self-identifies as a nine-year-old trapped in a grown mans body, which using liberal logic means hes simply a misunderstood trans-age individual whos being unfairly persecuted and discriminated against simply for being different.

Romans multiple acts of sexual assault against young girls arent, in fact, crimes, based on liberalisms ever-evolving tenets of tolerance. Theyre just unique expressions of the vast gender spectrum  representing just another beautiful shade of color in the rainbow of sexual identities.

This is the conclusion one would have to come to, of course, in order to be consistent in LGBTQ+ ideology. Whos to say that Roman is a criminal when all hes doing is being himself? We mustnt judge him or discriminate for embracing his sexual identity as a pre-pubescent child, the left-wing narrative seems to claim.

When Roman was caught molesting an eight-year-old girl while her family wasnt present, he wasnt committing a heinous act of pedophilia (according to liberal ideology). He was simply expressing himself, and doing what comes naturally to him, right?

Or how about when he took advantage of another young girl who was staying with him while her hard-working mother worked the night shift? This was simply kids being kids, seeing as how Roman self-identifies as a child.

Leftists must be stopped from normalizing pedophilia perversion

If this all sounds nuts to you, or is making your stomach churn: thats the point. None of these scenarios are actually happening in the case of Joseph Roman. But they very well could in the not-too-distant future, if gender spectrum madness takes its progressive course into trans-ageism and other bizarre realms.

The good news about Roman is that the courts are still regarding him as a pedophile, as hes now being charged with a Class X felony  the most serious felony on the books besides first degree murder. But will it always be this way?

As you may recall, a 52-year-old Canadian man decided back in 2016 that he was going to change his gender identity to become a six-year-old girl  complete with a childs dress and a pacifier.

Formerly known as Paul, he suddenly became a she, adopting the new name of Stefonknee Wolscht as his new monicker. And the family this deranged individual lives with reportedly accepted it all, referring to their new daughter as a little girl who plays with their other actual children.

In a more sane world, Paul (or whatever hes calling himself these days) would have been immediately shipped off to a mental institution for deprogramming and serious medical intervention. But in this brave new world of gender fluidity, this dress-wearing lunatic is being embraced (at least by some) as just another normal person.

If you cant see the slippery slope with all of this, then youre just not paying attention. If Paul or Stefonknee or whatever can simply decide to be a little girl and receive acceptance, then whats to stop this same unhinged individual from demanding acceptance of whatever form of sexual perversion might go along with it?

It seems as though its only a matter of time before such madness is pushed as normal, which is why the gender fluidity hoax needs to be nipped in the bud now. The truth that must be reiterated is this: There are only two genders, both of which are biologically defined, and age is a fixed thing that cant be changed merely to suit ones liberal fantasies. Find more news on the insanity of the gender spectrum at Gender.news.

Sources for this article include:

Breitbart.com

Twisted.newsJewish organizations led an anti-Immigration and Custom Enforcement rally in San Francisco Friday where they urged all workers to know their rights. Initially intended to show support for Dreamers, it shifted its focus after reports of ICE audits this week.

"Anybody would be panicked. Anything like this is an uncomfortable situation no matter where you come from or who you are," Denise Solid, SEIU United Service Workers West said. "So we need to know that workers have rights protections and we want to make sure that the law is respected."

The crowd also talked about new state protections that went into effect on Jan. 1, including rules that only requires employees to cooperate with ICE if agents have a warrant.In 1983, Mike Wentz and his wife had a daughter, Amanda. So, they bought a $1,000 certificate of deposit for her. Mr. Wentz remembered making the decision.

I have a new baby, so let me make an investment, he recalled.

Fast forward to 2009, when Mike surprised his daughter with the CD and quickly found himself quite surprised.

She calls me the next day, and she says, Dad, I went to the bank. They dont know anything about it, he said.

Mike said he logged eight years fighting Wells Fargo when he finally called NBC Bay Area Responds for help.

I had actually tried  I hate to say this  with another local station, and they turned me down, he said.

We stepped up. Mike showed us a CD that should have renewed every 30 months.

It says right on here, with automatic renewal provision, he read from the paper certificate.

Mike stopped getting statements in the 80s, but figured as long as he kept his checking account open and held the certificate he was set.

Wrong.

Wells Fargo says the certificate is just a receipt. Also, it only keeps records seven years.

So, Mike gets nothing for a CD issued 34 years ago.

I wanted to go public, Mike insisted. I wanted to create some noise about this.

His complaint was very detailed, to a T, said Lindsey Boyd from our NBC Bay Area Responds team.

Boyd contacted Wells Fargo headquarters, while Mike kept applying pressure at the branch -- where he said workers offered the most sympathy.

It wasnt long before the bank paid the CD in full, plus interest. It was a grand total of more than $5,000.

He said it took him about eight years until he came to us, Boyd said. Once we got involved, they solved it in three weeks.

Wells Fargo declined to discuss details, citing privacy. However, a spokesperson indicated Mike's auto-renewing CD had somehow gone dormant.

To make sure a CD does not become dormant, be sure to keep your contact information up to date with the bank, she wrote. Respond to communications from the bank in a timely manner.

Mike insists he had, and accused Wells Fargo of changing its story over the years.

At one point they tried to tell me the CD never even existed, he said.

Mike isnt alone. Each year, hundreds of people file formal federal complaints about CDs.

The trend is upward. 832 people complained to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency in 2017. That was more than double the number filed in 2015.

We have received some similar questions from consumers, said Kimberly Palmer, a Nerdwallet finance writer. Palmer said federal law only requires banks to keep records five years. So, the burden is on you to keep a paper trail.

If your account statements suddenly stop, Palmer said you need to take action.

Immediately, you want to call your bank right away if you havent heard from them or if youre not sure of the standing of your CD, she said.

Money from dormant bank accounts is supposed to be transferred to the states unclaimed property division. Mike says that did not happen with his missing CD. Wells Fargo didnt have records of that either. Yet another reason to keep your bank records yourself.

Mike Wentz is keeping his Wells Fargo account open, despite the drama. However, he does fear some bad actors in banking are pinching good savers.

If it were me, and I worked for a bank, I would be looking into my systems to figure out why this is going on, he said.Oak Grove School District is shutting down Del Roble, Glider and Miner Elementary Schools due to problems with state funding and low enrollment.

Many parents are demanding answers, specifically those who moved to the area so their children could attend one of the schools now being shut down.

Shaun Tanner and his wife moved to the Del Roble neighborhood so their three kids could attend the school.

We dont want these schools closed, said parent Shaun Tanner. They dont need to be closed.

Despite growing anger among parents whose children attend these schools, Oak Grove School Districts says come fall, Del Roble, Glider and Miner elementary schools will still close.

According to the school districts, the closures come due to a decline in enrollment, fiscal challenges, and increasing costs.

If that were true, we would see empty houses, we would see empty apartments, we would see fewer children in the area and that is definitively false, said Tanner.

Its unclear where many of these students will go to school next year, but the school board says theyll have an answer for parents no later than March.Nearly three weeks after being seriously injured by a suspected drunk driver, California Highway Patrol Officer Martin Lendway was released from the hospital Friday.

Accompanied by a cheerful crowd of CHP officers, Lendway left John Muir Hospital in Walnut Creek.

"Super happy to be able to go home," Lendway said.

Lendway had pulled over to help motorists who had gotten into a fender bender on Highway 4 in Concord when investigators say the DUI driver slammed into them leaving Lendway pinned under a truck with broken legs.

"The rehab guys at the hospital were amazing," he said. "Theyre getting me on a path to getting back to work."

Lendways fellow officers surprised him by getting his boots, which had to be cut off during the accident by emergency workers, re-built and polished.

"We are ecstatic Martins getting out of the hospital today," CHP Officer Nathan Johnson said. "Hes in good spirits. Im glad to see him smiling."

Lendway is happy to be out of the hospital and realizes that the accident could have ended far differently. On Christmas Eve, CHP Officer Andrew Camilleri was hit and killed by another DUI driver. He urges people not to drive drunk.

"It might be me, it might be some child," Lendway said. "Be mindful of what you do. If you have any alcohol at all choose another way to drive to get a ride home."Pacific Gas and Electric has sent out a letter to dozens of its non-profit community partners warning them that a potentially unlimited North Bay wildfire liability could imperil funding unless the legislature eases that legal burden.

I think they are just preparing us, letting us know that hey, this is what might happen  we might have to pull some of the funding, says Letitia Hanke, owner of a North Bay roofing company who runs a PG&E funded non-profit to prepare Santa Rosa and Rohnert Park high school students for construction jobs.

The letter, sent on Jan. 24, cites a massive potential legal liability  which some put in the billions of dollars  that could trigger a cut in donations and grant funding.

This type of unlimited liability may affect our charitable giving and other non-profit community activities, wrote PG&E external affairs vice president Travis Kiyota.

His letter says the utility is urging lawmakers to protect the states utilities from total fire liability, for all of their sakes.

It is vital to us, to our communities and to the non-profits we serve, that we continue to have the resources to support their critical efforts, Kiyota wrote.

State Sen. Jerry Hill (D-San Mateo), a frequent critic of the utility, says the letter is a thinly veiled effort to get worthy causes to lobby lawmakers into letting PG&E off the hook for fire damage  even if it is to blame.

Thats not right, Hill said after reading the letter. He says the utility has stepped up lobbying following the North Bay firestorms and is now calling on groups it has funded to help out.

Thats where they are being used: Theyre credible organizations, they have good will. PG&E is trying to buy that credibility and goodwill because they dont have it on their own.

At Rancho Cotate High School in Rohnert Park, Emily Vallejo hopes Hankes program will help her start an interior design business.

If it wasnt available for other people, that would be pretty sad, she said outside the classroom. Becausemost people dont really have the opportunity right now.

Letter or no letter, Hanke said she still supports PG&E because it provided the seed money for her NextGen Trades Academy program three years ago.

When I went to them about this program  it is kind of out of blue, no one was really doing it, she said. They are like, Yeah, this is what we need to do. So I will be there for them, just like they were for me.

PG&E would not answer questions, simply saying the letter speaks for itself.Fans of Emperor Joshua Norton, San Franciscos self-proclaimed "Emperor of the United States and Protector of Mexico," will mark his 200th birthday this Sunday  kicking-off a month of exhibitions, lectures and a general nostalgia for the citys most famous eccentric.

Nortons three-decades in San Francisco are burned into the pages of city history, even now inspiring bar and restaurant names, walking tours and a general fascination with Nortons many forward-thinking proclamations.

Joe Rosato Jr.

"Some of them very prophetic such as a building a bridge across the bay or starting a league of nations for world peace," said Joseph Amster, an Emperor Norton impersonator who leads walking tours in San Francisco, "putting up a Christmas Tree at Union Square every year. Things like that."

Nortons gravestone in the Woodlawn Cemetery in Colma lists Nortons birth year as 1819, but research by Norton-ites, which includes the discovery of his circumcision record in his native England, pin the date closer to February 4th, 1818. The evidence also includes a ships list from 1820 listing him as two years old, and a notice in the Feb. 4, 1865 Daily Alta California newspaper congratulating Norton on "commencing his 48th year."

Joe Rosato Jr.

"So all those things seem like a pretty good case," said John Lumea, founder of the Emperors Bridge Campaign, a non-profit group devoted to advancing knowledge of Norton.

The celebrations of Nortons bicentennial include a display of artifacts in the San Francisco Public Librarys History Center. Included in the exhibit is an 1851 bond with Nortons own signature along with original caricatures of Norton from the period. Theres also a playbill from a 1957 ballet based on Nortons life.

Joe Rosato Jr.

"You know people are in love with the story of Emperor Norton," said city archivist Susan Goldstein. "He really caught the public imagination at the time and way back when, there were caricatures of him and depictions of him and it continues to this day."

The Society of California Pioneers is displaying whats believed to be the only portrait Norton ever posed for. The California Historical Society has its own display and an upcoming lecture by Lumea at the Mechanics Institute quickly ran out of tickets. All this for a strange man who liked to don himself in a military uniform and pontificate on the issues of the day.

"Well this is a city that celebrates diversity, it celebrates reinvention," Amster said, "the idea that somebody can come here and reinvent themselves and become a totally new person."

Norton was born in England and moved with his family to South Africa. Hes believed to have arrived in San Francisco in 1849 and amassed a fortune through real estate and commodities markets, eschewing the gold fields. But an attempt to corner the rice market proved his undoing, wiping out his finances and forcing him to declare bankruptcy. He remerged in 1859 assuming the position of emperor, which seems to have gone over just fine with the populace of the time.

"Hed eat for free in restaurants, he had the best seats in the theater, people would actually rise when he made his entrance, Amster said. He rode transit for free, even printed his own money."

After Norton collapsed and died across the street from St. Marys Church in California and Dupont (now Grant) Streets on Jan. 8, 1880, thousands attended his funeral. His possessions were taken over by city historians but burned in the 1906 Earthquake and Fire. Thus the celebrations of his 200th will focus more on his spirit than his ephemera.

"In the 1860s and 70s, hes calling for African-Americans to be able to ride streetcars, to attend public schools," Lumea said of Nortons proclamations. "For the Chinese to have their testimony heard in court. For Native-Americans not to have their land stolen."

In a city that celebrates its characters, Norton is the patron saint of eccentrics. Even 200 years after his birth, his life still strikes a chord in the city of San Francisco, which incidentally one of his proclamations opined to not call "Frisco."

"We want people to remember Emperor Norton," Goldstein said, "and think about who he was."

Find a list of Emperor Norton bicentennial events here.Ploy to money laundering?

Kazi Zahidul Hasan :

Bangladesh's overall import rose sharply by over 27 per cent during July-November period of this fiscal even though in a sluggish investment climate is there raising eyebrows from knowledgeable quarter.

They voiced concern of an unabated money laundering in an election year under the cover of rising trade misinvoicing.

A Bangladesh Bnak (BB) official told The New Nation yesterday that import is increasing at an unusual rate since the beginning of current fiscal year when entrepenours imported huge industrial raw materials and capital machiney even opening letter of credits (LC's) under shady accounts of business firms.

"No doubt the import has picked up. But the concern grows as it does not reflect in the investment front. If the soraing imports channeled perperly through investment why so many people are unemployed?

he questioned. It needs to be investigated what is behind the abnormal import rise."

Opening of LCs for import of capital machineary and industrial raw materials rose by 34.57 per cent and 15.12 per cent respectively during the July-December period of the current fiscal, according to a BB figure.

When asked, former finance adviser to a caretaker government Dr AB Mirza Azizul Islam said the increase in import means increased investment in the country. If the investment increases, the economy is dynamic. But the investment is not visible in that way. Therefore, it should be examined whether the money is being laundered through under import invoicing.

"Trade-based money laundering is particularly active in Bangladesh given the large size of underground economy. Risk of illicit financial flow remains high in an election year as evident in previous election years," he added.

Dr AB Mirza Azizul Islam, however, highlighted the constrains of the regulatory bodies to curb the illicit financial flow saying they are yet to devise methods to pinpoint the destination of black money or how the funds are laundered.

"Overall investment remains subdued for the last few years taking a heat from energy crisis, infrastructure bottleneck and political uncertainty.

In this context, a sharp rise in the import has raised concerns of money laundering though trade channels," said economist Dr Zahid Hussain.

He also said import soared when the local currency is losing ground against the greenback, making import costlier. The regulators should keep a vigil on import due to unabated concerns of money laundering.

According to some estimates, trade misinvoicing accounts for 80 percent of illicit outflows of money from Bangladesh.

Terming the current pattern of import 'nefarious,' economist Dr Ahsan H Mansur said, "It is rising at a time when investment demands are not buoyant given the current political uncertainty. As investment is not picking, it creates huge black money on the economy. Dishonest businessmen may be laundering the money taking advantage in a wobbly regulatory regime ahead of the next election.

"High import is being used as a 'mask' to generate and transmit of illicit financial flows, particularly if the customs and other enforcement agencies are not alert to prevent the crime," he added.

In cases of suspicion, Dr Ahsan Mansur said regulators must check with the customs authority of the country of origin as to the accuracy of information provided in the import declaration. The unit value and deviation of unit value from arms-length world prices must be calculated. Any significant deviation should be investigated to detect money laundering.

Another Bay Area resident has died days after being diagnosed with the flu.

Juliette Cody, the wife of San Mateo resident, Charlie Cody, shared the story of her husband in hopes that people will take the deadly flu season seriously.

You can ask anybody who knew him, he was the star, just a big star, said Cody about her late husband.

On Christmas day, Charlie, 54, began coughing but decided to drive to Benicia to spend the holiday with his family, but symptoms quickly got worse.

Just three days after getting sick, Charlie was rushed to the emergency room at San Mateo County Medical Center and died that same night.

Cody is one of 127 deadly California flu cases this year.

Hospitals like John Muir in Concord are seeing about 400 patients a day since the flu struck the Bay Area.

In the last week, at least six people have died from the flu in the Bay Area.A student was detained by San Francisco Police Friday after bringing a gun to a San Francisco High School.



Per SFPD, a caller reported a student with a firearm at The Academy - San Francisco @McAteer - which is located at 555 Portola Drive in San Francisco. A member of the staff had seen the student carrying the weapon, police said.

The call came in at 12:25 p.m. The student left the campus but was located by police and subsequently detained. San Francisco police confirmed he was carrying a firearm.

The school was placed on lockdown while police searched for the student.

The Academy - San Francisco @McAteer - is located on the same campus as the San Francisco Academy of Arts.



The lockdown has since been lifted.

On Thursday, a 12-year-old girl was booked on suspicion of negligent discharge of a firearm after a shooting at a Los Angeles Middle School left four students injured, authorities said.

Editor's note: An earlier version of this story incorrectly reported the name of the school as the San Francisco Academy of Arts.

The U.S. Coast Guard has canceled its search at a debris field 6 miles off of Point Ano Nuevo in San Mateo County after not finding anything among the fiberglass and life jackets in the water.

Officials found no reports of missing vessels or persons since the area was searched.

On Friday, the USCG searched a debris field after finding fiberglass and five life jackets in the water.

After locating the hull section of the vessel floating in the water, they confirmed it was a vessel and not an aircraft.

#BREAKING - #USCG is searching water after report of debris near Point Ano Nuevo. Crews found fiberglass and lifejackets in the water. No reports of overdue vessels yet. Anyone with info please call Sector SF at 510-399-3547  USCGPacificSouthwest (@USCGPacificSW) February 3, 2018

No missing persons have been reported and there are no missing vessels out of the Pillar Point Harbor.

Sacramento and Monterey assisted USCG in search by aircraft and water but they have put the search on pause to see if any reports come in before doing any more searching.

They encourage anyone with information to call Sector San Francisco at 510-399-3547.Police have confirmed that one person was killed in a double shooting in Dorchester, Massachusetts Saturday afternoon.

Boston police said that two people were shot at 3 Trull St. just before 2 p.m.

Family members told NBC Boston that their loved one, a 20-year-old, died as a result of the shooting.

According to police, the victim was found suffering multiple gunshot wounds outside of the Trull Street property.

The victim was transported to an area hospital where he was later pronounced deceased.

The severity of injuries to the second victim is not known at this time.

The identities of the victims have not been released by police.

The Boston Police Department have not identified a suspect at this time and are saying that no one is currently in custody.

Anyone with information regarding the incident is advised to contact the Boston Police Homicide Unit at (617) 343-4470.

Two people were killed and eight men were wounded in shootings across Chicago since Friday evening.

The most recent fatal shooting happened early Saturday in the West Pullman neighborhood on the Far South Side. A 53-year-old man was found shot in the abdomen at 12:04 a.m. on a sidewalk in the 100 block of East 119th Place, according to Chicago Police. He was taken to Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, where he was pronounced dead.

The Cook County Medical Examiners Office has not released details about his death.

Earlier Friday night, a 56-year-old woman was shot to death in an apparent domestic shooting in the South Side Gresham neighborhood. Beatrice Jones suffered a gunshot wound to the chest at 9:51 p.m. in the 8600 block of South Carpenter, according to police and the medical examiners office. Jones was taken to University of Chicago Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead. She lived in the same block as the shooting.

A person of interest was taken into custody, police said. The shooting appeared to be domestic-related.

The weekends latest shooting happened Saturday afternoon in the West Garfield Park neighborhood on the West Side. About 12:57 p.m., an 18-year-old man was in the 4100 block of West Washington when someone walked up and fired multiple shots, police said. He was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital in critical condition.

About half an hour before that, two men were wounded in a South Deering neighborhood shooting on the Far South Side. They were shot about 12:20 a.m. in the 10000 block of South Bensley, police said. One man, 24, was shot in the left buttock and was listed in critical condition. The other man, 25 years old, was shot in the right leg. They were both taken to Christ Medical Center.

A man was shot nearly two hours before that in the South Shore neighborhood on the South Side. The 25-year-old man was arguing with another male when he was shot in the chest at 10:28 a.m. in the 7700 block of South Yates, police said. He was taken to Northwestern University Hospital in serious condition. A suspect was in custody in connection with the shooting and charges were pending Saturday afternoon.

More than eight hours earlier, another man was shot in the Rogers Park neighborhood on the North Side. The 28-year-old was standing in the vestibule of a building at 2:03 a.m. in the 1500 block of West Jonquil when someone in a black car fired shots, striking him in the left foot, police said. He was taken to St. Francis Hospital in Evanston, where his condition stabilized.

Just under an hour earlier, a 20-year-old man was shot on the West Side. The man was sitting in a parked vehicle at 1:09 a.m. Saturday in the 3200 block of West Roosevelt when another male walked up and shot him in the right foot, police said. He showed up at Rush University Medical Center, where his condition stabilized.

Just over an hour earlier, a man was wounded in a drive-by shooting in the South Side McKinley Park neighborhood. The 20-year-old was walking about 10:45 p.m. Friday in the 3200 block of South Ashland when someone in a passing vehicle fired shots, striking him in the leg, police said. He was taken to Stroger Hospital, where his condition stabilized.

The first shooting of the weekend happened Friday evening in the West Rogers Park neighborhood on the North Side. A 24-year-old man was walking to a vehicle at 6:17 p.m. in the 6600 block of North Damen when someone approached and shot him in the buttocks, police said. He was taken to St. Francis Hospital in Evanston, where his condition stabilized.

Last weekend, two men were killed and 17 other people were wounded in shootings across the city.A 56-year-old woman was killed and five men were wounded in shootings across Chicago since Friday evening.

The woman was shot to death Friday night in an apparent domestic shooting in the South Side Gresham neighborhood. Beatrice Jones suffered a gunshot wound to the chest at 9:51 p.m. in the 8600 block of South Carpenter, according to Chicago Police and the Cook County Medical Examiners Office. Jones was taken to University of Chicago Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead. She lived in the same block as the shooting.

A person of interest was taken into custody, police said. The shooting appeared to be domestic-related.

The weekends latest shooting happened early Saturday in the Rogers Park neighborhood on the North Side. A 28-year-old man was standing in the vestibule of a building at 2:03 a.m. in the 1500 block of West Jonquil when someone in a black sedan fired shots, striking him in the left foot, police said. He was taken to St. Francis Hospital in Evanston, where his condition stabilized.

Just under an hour earlier, a 20-year-old man was shot on the West Side. The man was sitting in a parked vehicle at 1:09 a.m. Saturday in the 3200 block of West Roosevelt when another male walked up and shot him in the right foot, police said. He showed up at Rush University Medical Center, where his condition stabilized.

Shortly after midnight Saturday, a 53-year-old man was wounded in a West Pullman neighborhood shooting on the Far South Side. The man was found shot in the abdomen on a sidewalk in the 100 block of East 119th Place, police said. He was taken to Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn in serious condition.

Just over an hour earlier, a man was wounded in a drive-by shooting in the South Side McKinley Park neighborhood. The 20-year-old was walking about 10:45 p.m. Friday in the 3200 block of South Ashland when someone in a passing vehicle fired shots, striking him in the leg, police said. He was taken to Stroger Hospital, where his condition stabilized.

The first shooting of the weekend happened Friday evening in the West Rogers Park neighborhood on the North Side. A 24-year-old man was walking to a vehicle at 6:17 p.m. in the 6600 block of North Damen when someone approached and shot him in the buttocks, police said. He was taken to St. Francis Hospital in Evanston, where his condition stabilized.

No one has been arrested in connection with any of the weekends nonfatal shootings.

Last weekend, two men were killed and 17 other people were wounded in shootings across the city.Stonington High School officials and town police are investigating incidents of sexting at the high school, according to an email the principal sent to parents and guardians on Thursday night.

"Sexting is sending, receiving, or forwarding sexually explicit messages, photographs or images, primarily between mobile phones," according to Principal According to that email,

Friese told NBC Connecticut that a student brought the situation, that involves a small number of students, to the schools attention on Monday.

Stonington police said they were also made aware of the situation on Monday and began their investigation.

"I think this was a wake-up call, definitely, because now anything you put out there, it can be used against you," Kate Reagan, a sophomore at Stonington High School, said.

Reagan and classmates, Maggie Spadaro and Molly Banks, are unnerved by the incidents.

"I didnt see any of the photos but Ive definitely heard a few names that I know, people that I know very well, some of my good friends are on it. But a lot of them also are fake, Spadaro said.

Stonington Police Captain Todd Olson confirmed while some photos are real, others are photoshopped with student names put on "inappropriate content."

Most of it has been shared through Snapchat, Olson said. With the information he currently has, the students involved are underage. Police are looking into whether they need to press charges.

"So far, parents and students, everybody involved has been very cooperative," Olson said.

These teens said whats happening is a reminder of the dangers of social media.

"They can so easily put your name on a picture and that could be on your record," Banks said.

Friese said the students emotional well-being is the schools priority. He would not comment on any disciplinary measures.

It did catch us off guard. But theyre kids and we will work with them to make sure they learn and make the right decisions in the future, Friese said.

There has been teachings in the school on situations like this and there will continue to be more education on it, Friese said, adding that Stonington is not the only high school thats encountered something of this nature.

Here is the full email from Principal Mark Friese:

Dear Parents and Guardians,

This email is to inform you that we are currently investigating recently discovered incidents of sexting at Stonington High School. Sexting is sending, receiving, or forwarding sexually explicit messages, photographs or images, primarily between mobile phones. This is an active investigation that we are conducting with the assistance of Stonington Police Department. At this time, the families of the small number of students involved have been contacted. As you can imagine, the sensitivity of this type of investigation is most important as we are dealing with adolescents. The safety and emotional well being of our students is our top priority. With that said, we as a community need to exercise discretion and not make this the topic of online discussion groups that could be more damaging to our kids. I encourage all parents and guardians to have a discussion with your children about the ramifications of these behaviors. We have in the past and will continue to have frank and open discussions with our students to protect them and to minimize this type of electronic activity. If you have any concern about your child, do not hesitate to contact their school counselor or administration.Thousands of guns stolen from communities including Cheshire, Bloomfield and Glastonbury, are turning up at crime scenes throughout the state and country.

Earl Wilson vividly remembers the afternoon his 10-year -old daughter, Ariana, was shot. The 11 shots fired at the Wilson familys home in Hartford were intended for a relative who lived somewhere else, but a 9mm bullet struck the young girls head. It was fired from a handgun reported stolen months earlier from an unlocked car in Glastonbury.

The weapon used in the Wilson shooting is one of nearly 1,000 guns the NBC Connecticut Troubleshooters identified as stolen from Connecticut gun owners over the last seven years, according to local police records. The true total number of missing and stolen guns statewide is likely to be much higher because most police departments we contacted for records have yet to provide them.

Other stolen guns include a semi-automatic pistol that was stolen from a car in a Cheshire driveway and recovered after a robbery at a West Hartford shopping mall. Two handguns, out of 14 reported missing from a Bloomfield home, were recovered at two separate crime scenes in Hartford. The other 12 guns are still missing. A pistol left in the bed of a Glastonbury residents pickup truck turned up four years later at a Hartford homicide.

Connecticut is not the only state where guns that had been stolen were later used to commit violent crimes. The Troubleshooters partnered with NBC Television stations across the country and the Trace, a journalism non-profit organization, with a goal to match stolen guns to crimes. Together, we used serial numbers to identify more than 23,000 stolen guns from coast to coast. The vast majority of them were connected with crimes, including more than 1,500 that were used during acts of violence such as carjackings, armed robberies, and murders.

Kevin OKeefe, the chief of Operational Intelligence for the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, said stolen firearms are in demand on the black market. He said that is partially a side effect of strict gun laws in states like Connecticut that are aimed at keeping weapons out of the wrong hands, and he said this is making legally-owned guns more valuable to thieves.

Where laws make it more difficult to possess firearms or register firearms with local authorities, we see guns sometimes going for double and triple in price, OKeefe said.

However, in Connecticut, criminals are unlikely to face punishment for stealing a gun. In fact, over the last five years, charges for stealing a firearm were dropped more than 70 percent of the time, according to the report, Case Statistics for Firearms-Related Offenses, which the state Office of Legislative Research released in January.

NBC Connecticut

When asked about the low conviction rate, the states attorneys office explained prosecutors often agree not to pursue the stolen gun charge when plea bargaining.

Scott Wilson, president of the Connecticut Citizens Defense League, a gun rights organization, said tougher enforcement of the existing law, which carries a minimum two-year sentence, could help deter thieves.

I do believe there are certain violent criminals who would maybe start calculating as to whether or not stealing a firearm, or walking around with a stolen firearm, is worth their time, Wilson said.

Nationally, the number of thefts is rising year after year. More than two million guns were stolen between 2005 and 2016, according to data from the National Crime Information Center (NCIC), including more than 230,000 stolen in 2016.

Connecticut is one of 11 states with mandatory reporting laws requiring gun owners to report that a firearm is missing or stolen within 72 hours of becoming aware that it is gone. Law enforcement officer nationwide enter information about guns reported missing or stolen, including the make, model and serial number to a database managed by the NCIC. When a firearm is recovered, police are able to check it against the records in the hopes of finding a match.

Ariana Wilson survived her wounds after three days in a medically induced coma. Her favorite seat in their home is still the same sofa where she was when she was shot. Her father, Earl, hopes his familys close call will serve as a reminder to gun owners to keep their firearms secured.

Make sure that you are responsible for that at all costs, he said.Airbnb has proven to be a good alternative for travelers across the world. But one Denton woman has a warning: be careful before you book. When it comes to certain listings, she says the company has a lot of explaining to do.

This year was Kelley Long's turn to plan this year's family summer vacation.

"We were going to New York City. We were going to see the Rangers play the Yankees."

Her first step was booking a place for her family of seven to stay.

"After looking at hotels and stuff, it was going to be $300 a day for one couple," Long explained.

It wasn't quite in the family's budget, so they turned to Airbnb and came across an impressive listing.

"It's heart of the city, 15 minutes away from the Yankee stadium, 10 minutes from Times Square. Perfect location," said Long.

The listing was $449 a night.

"Way cheaper, nicer, better location and we get to stay together. It's a big happy family," she said.

Long said she wanted to know more about the home, so she googled the address and came across a listing on Zillow.

She said she found the same address and photos online, but the property was for sale for $2.1 million.

"Something told me that you can't be on Airbnb and be for sale. That doesn't make sense," she said.

Long said she reached out to the property owner listed on Airbnb to check things out and quickly got this response:

"Don't worry! That was only a test on the market. Your booking is not in danger."

After being reassured, Long paid the $500 deposit. But she still had a bad feeling about it.

"I contacted Airbnb and said, 'This listing is for sale. I don't think this is accurate.'"

Airbnb's response: "After an investigation, we confirmed that the listing you reported is a good listing."

But Long said she still had doubts.

"I just couldn't understand how something so beautiful was going for $500 a night, while other listings were about $1,200 a night," she said.

"My mom told me to contact the listing agent. I emailed her and within three minutes I got a response that this is 100 percent a scam."

The realtor for the property told NBC 5 that at least three consumers from different parts of the country have lost money on that fake listing.

The realtor said they've reported it to Airbnb a number of times but the company "was less than helpful."

Long said she called Airbnb to inform them of this scam. She said she did get her money back, but the company never addressed the problem.

"They didn't take the listing down, so people were still booking on it," she said.

This isn't the only fake listing Long said she found on Airbnb.

She discovered a three bedroom, three bathroom condo in New York's Financial District. She thought it was gorgeous, but a Google search lead her to the real listing: a three bedroom, three bathroom condo, with the same pictures, on the market for $3.4 million.

Long said she flagged this listing on the site, thinking Airbnb would take them down. But when the NBC 5 Responds team checked, the listing was still there.

"It makes me wonder what type of background checks are they doing on their owners," Long said.

The NBC 5 Responds team had the same questions, so we reached out to Airbnb.

A spokesperson told us, "Fake or misrepresented listings have no place in our community, and our team is constantly working to strengthen our defenses and stay ahead of bad actors. Our original handling of this incident fell below the high standards we set for ourselves, and we'll be reviewing what happened with our agent."

Airbnb said the user and listing have been removed from its platform for violating our community standards. The company has also removed other listings and users that Long reported for violating its community standards.

"We have removed the listing in New York flagged by this user. This bad actor did not receive any payments or complete any reservations." -Airbnb



As for background checks, Airbnb said it screens all hosts and guests and also runs background checks looking for prior felony convictions, sex offender registrations, and significant misdemeanors.

But Long believes more needs to be done to prevent fake listing from appearing on Airbnb again.

"If somebody can just put it on their site, what if we were to show up?" she said. "If i hadn't done my research, what would have happened."

When using lodging services like Airbnb, here are Samantha Chatman's Solutions:

Never pay anyone outside of the site. Only send your payment through Airbnb.

Try googling the address of the home you plan on staying in.

Look for reviews. Long said the home she booked didn't have any reviews on the site.

If you ever notice a suspicious listing, Airbnb wants you to flag it on the site and call them directly at 1-855-424-7262.A man suspected in the slayings of an aunt and niece whose bodies were found in a Chula Vista home Friday is dead, police confirmed.

David Bell, 38, was sought by investigators throughout the morning after the Chula Vista Police Department (CVPD) identified him as a person of interest in the deadly shootings of two women in a home Apricot Court. The victims were identified by police as Bell's girlfriend, Aura Mancilla, 39, and her aunt, Patricia Garcia, 55.

Investigators released Bell's photo early Friday and said has was driving a white Mazda 3 with paper plates from Oklahoma. He was considered armed and dangerous and notices were sent to law enforcement departments in San Diego, Riverside, Orange, and Los Angeles counties.

Chula Vista Police Department

The CVPD said the Los Angeles County Sheriffs Office (LASO) reached out around 8:30 a.m. to report Bell's body and Mazda had been found in Norwalk, California, in Los Angeles County, about 115 miles north of the scene of the double-homicide.

Bell's car was parked at the Metro Green Line's Norwalk Station Park & Ride located near Interstate 105. He was in the driver's seat and had died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

NBC 4 Los Angeles

CVPD Lt. Eric Thunberg said Bell had called 911 just after 3 a.m. to report he had shot and killed his girlfriend and her aunt at the home in Chula Vista. He only gave his first name to 911 dispatchers and refused to provide further details. During the time between the murders and his suicide, Bell also contacted family members, Thunberg said.

Two females were found dead in a home in Chula Vista early Friday. Police are investigating the case as a double homicide. Gaby Rodriguez reports.

The women were killed in Mancilla's home on Apricot Court at around 3 a.m. Friday. Neighbors called the police to report sounds of gunfire coming from the residence.

Thunberg said that when officers arrived, the garage door of the home was open. Police went inside and, in separate upstairs bedrooms, discovered Mancilla and Garcia had each been shot to death. Thunberg said it didnt appear as if anyone had forced their way into the home.

Neighbor Jessica Brown described the horrifying moments when her daughters, ages 8 and 6, woke up in the middle of the night to the commotion.

"I dont know if they heard the gunshots but I know they heard the police sirens and they were very scared," Brown told NBC 7. "Its just a terrifying experience to wake up to; you dont expect it in a family-friendly neighborhood. My kids play outside. When it hits close to home, its very shocking."

Two women were found dead in a Chula Vista home early Friday #nbc7 on Apricot Street pic.twitter.com/vdNPqJtx2P  WendyFry (@WendyFry_) February 2, 2018

The motive behind the killings is unknown. Thunberg said that between November 2016 and November 2017, police officers were called to Mancilla's home three times for domestic violence incidents. No charges were filed in any of the incidents.

Mancilla leaves behind a young daughter. The child was not home at the time of the killings, police said.

A GoFundMe page has been set up by friends and family of Mancilla asking for help with funeral costs and unexpected financial burden.

Thunberg said Garcia had been living with her niece in Chula Vista while her home was being built in Mexico, where she planned to soon retire.

The investigation is ongoing.

LASO officials are handling the investigation into Bell's suicide in Norwalk; CVPD detectives are also collecting evidence at that scene while helming the investigation at the scene of the double-homicide in Chula Vista.New CJ takes oath

President Abdul Hamid swears in Syed Mahmud Hossain as the 22nd Chief Justice of Supreme Court at Bangabhaban on Saturday. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina , among others was present at the oath-taking ceremony.

Staff Reporter :

Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain took oath as the 22nd Chief Justice of the country on Saturday evening.

President Md Abdul Hamid administered the oath around 7.00 am at Bangabhaban in presence of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

Justice Mahmud Hossain succeeds Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha who resigned his post last November.

Senior members of the Cabinet, Judges and lawyers of the both divisions of the Supreme Court, civil and military officials were also present on the occasion.

The Cabinet Secretary Mohammad Shafiul Alam conducted the ceremony.

The President on Friday appointed Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain, the second senior most judge of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court, as the new Chief Justice (CJ) of the country.

The then senior most Judge of the Supreme Court Appellate Division, Justice Md Abdul Wahhab Miah resigned Friday immediately after the government announcement that President Abdul Hamid has appointed the second senior most Judge of the Appellate Division Syed Mahmud Hossain as Chief Justice at noon superceding him.

He was performing the duty of the Chief Justice in absence

of a regular Chief Justice.

The post of the Chief Justice fell vacant after Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha resigned.

Born on December 31 in 1954 in the district of Comilla, Justice Mahmud obtained BSc, LLB and completed six-month long "Commonwealth Young Lawyers Course" from the School of Oriental African Studies and the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, both parts of London University.

He was enrolled as an advocate of the District Court and the High Court Division of Bangladesh Supreme Court in the year of 1981 and 1983 respectively. Mahmud Hossain also acted as Deputy Attorney General from December, 1999 till elevation to the Bench.

He was elevated as an additional judge of the High Court Division on February 22 in 2001 and was appointed permanent judge on February 22 in 2003. Later he was moved to the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh on February 23 in 2011.

In 2012, Mahmud visited courts of Canada and USA under the Judicial Strengthening (JUST) Project supported by UNDP to share experience and exchange views with judges of those countries for improving justice delivery system.

As per birth date, Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain will be in the post till December 30 in 2021.An Oklahoma man convicted of murder in the shooting deaths of a woman and her 4-year-old daughter in Long Beach was sentenced Friday to two life-without-parole prison terms.

At the start of the sentencing hearing, Brandon Ivan Colbert Jr., 23, rose and tried to walk out of the court as witness-impact statements were about to be delivered. Three bailiffs pounced on him and wrestled him to the floor.

Deputy District Attorney Cynthia Barnes asked Superior Court Judge Jesse I. Rodriguez in court papers to sentence Colbert to two consecutive life terms without the possibility of parole for the Aug. 6, 2016, killings of Carina Mancera, 26, and her daughter, Jennabel Anaya. Barnes cited "the nature of the crimes and total lack of remorse shown by the defendant" and the number of people killed to justify her request.

Colbert faced an additional life term for the attempted murder of the girl's father Luis Anaya, along with 75 years to life for personally discharging a firearm.

The prosecutor wrote in her sentencing memorandum that the attack was "without any provocation."

A Long Beach jury found Colbert guilty a week ago of two counts of first-degree murder and one count of attempted murder.

Jurors also found true the special circumstance allegations of murder while lying in wait and multiple murders, along with allegations that he personally discharged a firearm.

Prosecutors opted not to seek the death penalty against Colbert.

Authorities said he hid behind a sign and opened fire on the family with a shotgun.

Mancera and her daughter were gunned down near Ninth Street and Locust Avenue about 10:20 p.m. Aug. 6, 2016, as the family was returning home from grocery shopping. The gunman also fired at Anaya, but missed, according to police.

Long Beach police Chief Robert Luna said Colbert had been in custody since about three weeks after the killings, when he was arrested by Los Angeles police on suspicion of driving a stolen vehicle and a DNA swab was obtained from him. He was arrested in November 2016 in connection with the killings after DNA evidence linked him to the crime, police said.

The surviving victim told investigators that a man walked up to his longtime girlfriend and their daughter and suddenly -- without provocation -- opened fire, then ran off. He said he did not recognize the man, nor did anyone else in the neighborhood.

Colbert acted as his own attorney during the trial.A fraternity party is drumming up a lot of controversy at the University of Southern California Friday, with some saying the "Black Friday" theme is racially insensitive, while others feel the whole thing is being overblown.

The Delta Tau Delta house on USC's fraternity row was under investigation by the university following a controversial party that was held at the house last Friday.

Guests took pictures at the party showing graffiti and banners bearing the words "for the culture," "Black Friday," and "Jemimah."

USC alum Latiera Zachery is among those offended by the images - especially "Jemimah."

"I just feel like the remarks are racially insensitive," Zachary said. "When I think of Jemimah I think of the pancake mix which typically represents an African American woman with a head wrap and white dress...which typically makes me think of slavery."

A member of the fraternity told NBC4 that the original theme was going to be "Blackout Friday" but the fraternity's executive board turned down that name because they thought it was a reference to alcohol - as in "blackout drunk."

The fraternity changed the name to "Black Friday." The treasurer for the fraternity told USC's student newspaper the Daily Trojan that the fraternity places great value on diversity and they didn't mean to offend anyone.

USC student Megan Wood said people of many different races attended and wore black to the party, and there were no disturbances.

"I thought it was a black out theme, like I know they had black lights inside the house. So I don't think it was mean to be racially insensitive at all," she said.

But the vice president of student affairs says he's disheartened by the images, and ignorance is not an excuse.

Ainsley Carry issued a statement saying in part: "...even if the organizers did not start out meaning to offend, the result is offensive..... Bigotry will not go unchallenged within this community."

Some students speculate one of the banners could be referring to a rap group called Migos, which uses the term "for the culture." The university is looking into it.What to Know A photo has circulated on social media that appears to show two Alpha Phi sorority members with a racist caption.

After the photo surfaced, students called on the university to respond on social media.

The university and the GW Panhellenic Association released statements condemning the post.

Three members of a George Washington University sorority will be kicked out of the chapter after a picture showing a racist message circulated on social media.

The photo appears to show two Alpha Phi sorority members. One is holding up a banana peel and the caption reads: [Name]: Im 1/16 black.'

The sorority said the picture was posted by one of its members and contained two other members.

The chapter posted an apology on its Facebook page Friday morning.

"We recognize that there are issues within our organization relating to our privilege and lack of diversity, and we are committed to listening to the voices of those who have been harmed by the actions of those individuals and by our actions as a chapter," the statement read.

The sorority says the members in question are in the process of having their memberships terminated.

The GW Hatchet first reported the photo after students took to social media to call on university leaders to respond.

Imani Ross, a senator for the school's Student Association, tweeted the photo in question Wednesday night and noted the start of Black History Month.

The school responded to her tweet, saying it would "look into it."

"University administrators have begun the process of investigating and handling the matter," Ross told News4.

She said students in the multicultural community held a meeting Thursday night to "discuss further actions regarding issues related to diversity and inclusion."

"This incident is deeply troubling, especially after Alpha Phi recently attended a diversity training on campus this past month, Ross said.

George Washington University Provost Forrest Maltzman said since the report, there has been an active dialogue with the national headquarters of Alpha Phi and students on campus who have been affected.



"There was an entirely inappropriate posting on social media last night. Whatever the circumstance, or true intention of those involved, the image was disturbing, hurtful and not reflective of who I know we are as a community," Maltzman said in a statement.

"Unfortunately, racially charged incidents including bananas and Black students continue to arise at college campuses across the country," the GW Black Student Union said in an Instagram post.

"I wasn't surprised at all, I mean, it happens a lot. It's happened all across the country so it didn't surprise me at all. It's hurtful, but not surprising," Frederick Ryle, the president of the GW Black Student Union, told News4 on Friday.

Ryle said he was satisfied with the university's response.

"There's a bunch of different feelings, but at the end of the day, it's bringing us together to make our community stronger, so, I'm here for it," Ryle said.

Other students said they supported the sorority's move to terminate the membership of the students involved, but more needs to be done.

"The university needs to be taking care of this, not just the students of color or, like, black organization leaders. This isn't really our job. We're just here to get an education. This is really their job, so we're just pushing them to be able to address it," sophomore Simone Hunter-Hobson said.

New4 has reached out to Alpha Phi International for comment but has not yet heard back.

What to Know The Bahamian national purchased a boat in South Florida.

The man's ultimate destination was the Bahama's capital city of Nassau.

He was rescued off the coast of West Palm Beach, more than 200 miles away from his destination.

Samuel Leroy Moss, a Bahamian national eager to bring home a new boat he purchased, was stranded at sea for about two weeks before the U.S. Coast Guard rescued him off the coast of West Palm Beach  hundreds of miles away from his original destination.

Moss purchased the small boat in South Florida and on Jan. 13 transported it to Bimini, which is the Bahama's westernmost district located about 50 miles from Miami.

He left the following day for his home of Nassau, which is about 140 miles from Bimini.

Moss shared his excitement with his Facebook friends by posting an image of the boat and then later by conducting a Facebook Live titled "Time To Bring It Home." However, Moss' plans went adrift.

The U.S. Coast Guard said it rescued Moss, whose boat was sinking, on Monday about 10 miles east of West Palm Beach. A good Samaritan notified authorities after seeing Moss' boat taking on water.

West Palm Beach is more than 200 miles away from Nassau.What to Know Six people were hospitalized after a 15-year-old girl allegedly threw bleach during a fight at a high school in Queens

The six victims suffered minor injuries; one of them was a school staff member and another was a boy who got bleach in his eyes

Police arrested the 15-year-old and charged her with reckless endangerment

Six people were taken to a hospital after a bleach attack at a high school in Queens Friday morning, police said.

A teen girl threw the bleach during a fight with another girl at Benjamin N. Cardozo High School in Bayside around 11:30 a.m., according to police.

The 15-year-old attacker poured bleach on a 14-year-old girl who had poured pickle juice on her, police said.

Four other people were also hit by bleach, according to police.

One of the bystanders is a staff member at the high school, according to Teamsters Local 237, a union that represents New York City employees.

The union said another one of the victims was believed to be a boy who got bleach in his eyes.

The two girls and four bystanders were taken to Long Island Jewish Medical Center with minor injuries, fire officials said.

The 15-year-old suspect was arrested and charged with reckless endangerment after being treated at the hospital. She also got a juvenile report and was returned to her parents.

News 4 has reached out to the Department of Education for comment.

Top Tri-State News PhotosA massive fire in Newark spread to three homes early Saturday, displaying a dozen families and injuring three members of the fire division, officials said.

The blaze broke out on Fleming Avenue at 2 a.m. and forced a packed bar next door to clear out all of its customers, according to officials.

Dennis Morgado, who works at the Don Costa bar, said he helped get his customers outside to safety.

"I had a full bar and I had to get everybody out -- quickly," Morgado told NBC 4 New York.

The fire was contained three hours later but not before spreading to the three homes, officials said.

Three members of the Newark Fire Division were injured, all with shoulder injuries and one injuring his hip in a fall. They were taken to University Hospital for treatment. A resident also suffered a panic attack.

The cause is under investigation but use of a space heater may have been responsible.

The American Red Cross is assisting the 26 adults and three children displaced.A New York City man firebombed his regular Manhattan bar earlier this week when the owner wouldnt let him in, according to authorities.

Luis Saquicili was arrested on arson charges after federal and NYPD officials said he chucked a Molotov cocktail into the bar in East Harlem on Wednesday night..

Authorities said that Saquicili had been going to the bar for a year, and that he threw the explosive into the bar when the owner told him he was too drunk to come in.

No one was injured.

Attorney information for the man wasnt immediately available.Three people were arrested Saturday when a group of demonstrators who believe San Diegos Chicano Park discriminates against non-Latinos was met with a large crowd of counter-protesters in Barrio Logan.

The rally, dubbed the Patriot Picnic, started at the San Diego Convention Center Saturday morning. Patriot Picnic organizer, Roger Ogden, described the gathering as a demonstration against the Chicano Park's "discrimination" and "radical political theme."

A group of demonstrators is on its way to #ChicanoPark #SanDiego pic.twitter.com/I0MKtmD2fA  Ramon Galindo (@RamonGalindoNBC) February 3, 2018

The group of about a couple-dozen demonstrators then marched through Barrio Logan to Chicano Park, located underneath Coronado Bay Bridge on Logan Avenue, where they were met by hundreds of park supporters. In all, about 700 people were present, SDPD said.

A huge, peaceful crowd is in #ChicanoPark to meet incoming protesters #SanDiego pic.twitter.com/k4VFBfLQtA  Ramon Galindo (@RamonGalindoNBC) February 3, 2018

A group of demonstrators is on its way to #ChicanoPark #SanDiego pic.twitter.com/I0MKtmD2fA  Ramon Galindo (@RamonGalindoNBC) February 3, 2018

Three people were arrested during the demonstrations, one for possession of a billy club and one for resisting arrest. A third person was arrested for punching a police officer in the face, SDPD said.

#ChicanoPark Update: We have made three arrests so far. An @SanDiegoPD Officer was punched in the face. We have arrested the person responsible. As a reminder violence, vandalism, or other criminal acts will not be tolerated. Unlawful behavior will result in your arrest  San Diego Police Department (@SanDiegoPD) February 3, 2018

Barricades were put in place to separate groups, SDPD said. About two blocks of Logan Avenue, between Cesar E. Chavez Parkway and Evans Street, was shut down during the demonstrations.

#ChicanoPark Update: Crowds are estimated at 700 people. Barricades are put in place to keep the peace and protect First Amendment rights. Leaping over the barricades will lead to an arrest.  San Diego Police Department (@SanDiegoPD) February 3, 2018

The first Patriot Picnic rally was held in September 2017. Counter-demonstrators believe the picnics have racial undertones, a claim that Ogden denies.

Chicano Park in its current form dates back to the 1970s, when San Diego residents occupied Chicano Park in a successful effort to prevent the construction of a California Highway Patrol substation on the land where the City of San Diego had promised to build a park for the community. The park has served as a symbol to the predominantly Mexican-American community that makes up Barrio Logan since.

The park was designated a National Historic Landmark in January 2017 because it depicts a broad range of Americas rich, complex history, according to the U.S. Department of Interior.



Ogden believes that the park's depiction of the Chicano Civil Rights Movement, through painted murals and flags, is part of what makes the park discriminatory to other groups.

This is a developing story and details may change as information becomes available.What to Know Explorer owners have reported an odor and getting sick while driving.

Ford is offering free repairs for 1.3 million Explorers, model years 2011 through 2017.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said it is looking at the exhaust manifold as the possible source of the odor.

Ford has agreed to buy back an Explorer a Maryland couple says was making them sick.

Mark and Valentina Shedrick of Laurel said Ford is paying off their loan, which had a balance of $37,000, and the $4,900 in rental car fees the couple racked up for three months after refusing to drive their SUV.

A toxicologist tested the Shedricks car for carbon monoxide and found elevated levels.

News4 alerted Ford about the results and within days the manufacturer sent engineers to inspect their SUV.

In a statement, Ford continues to say its vehicles are safe and its "investigation and extensive testing has not found carbon monoxide levels that exceed what people are exposed to every day."

The National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration is investigating more than 3,000 about carbon monoxide leaks in 2011 through 2017 Explorers.

After News4s reporting last year, Ford said it would offer free repairs for 1.3 million Explorers.Maine police are investigating the death of a teenage girl whose body was found in a snowbank Saturday morning in Orono.

Police told WCSH-TV that a passerby found the 16-year-old girl's body while walking along Colburn Drive.

Authorities said the teen's family has been notified. Her identity has not been released.

According to Orono Police Chief Josh Ewing, no foul play is suspected at this time.

Maine State Police are investigating the cause of the teen's death.Remain united to face upcoming danger

Anisul Islam Noor :

Amidst heightened tension before the verdict on Zia Orphanage graft case, BNP Chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia on Saturday outlined the party's plan of action at the party's national executive committee at a meeting at a local hotel in case the court sentenced her to jail in the run up to national election. She laid out six points to join the polls.

She urged the party leaders to face bad days together and said the Awami League risked the bigger danger as the people are with BNP and the administration and armed forces are watching every move of the government.

Whatever the ruling party now feel; one thing is sure the nation is at the bottom of frustration and people want a free, fair election. They will not tolerate deception of any kind any more.

Khaleda Zia also called on her party men to remain united even during her absence and to face the situation peacefully. Less than a week before a trial court is set to deliver its verdict on February 8, the former prime minister decried massive arrest of her party men ahead of the verdict widely believe to be convicting her in the case. Party leaders denounced the case as politically motivated one to knock her out of election race and give a fatal blow to the party's election preparation.

Around 450 party leaders, including standing committee members, executive committee members, vice-chairmen, chairperson's advisers and presidents and secretaries of the party's various front organizations attended the meeting. Many remained absent to avert arrest.

Khaleda Zia said there is no rule of law in the country; it is one party rule in which

the society is breaking apart. The situation is so desperate that the Chief Justice has to leave the country for a verdict that goes against the government. Quoting a Supreme Court observation, she alleged the lower courts "are under the grip of the government. They cannot function freely and independently."

She said statements of the ruling party leaders and workers make clear the court verdict would go against her. But she is not afraid; the people will resist injustice, she said. The BNP chairperson asked the party men to remain united.

She said, "They [(ruling Bangladesh Awami League (AL)] want to keep the BNP out of the elections," and the cases have been lined up accordingly. BNP leaders and workers vowed to protect her saying, "we will not let you go to jail."

She warned the party men to resist repression and torture and remain united in the face of attempts to split the party again. She said "there will be no space in the party for those who will betray and put their feet in two boats.

She said no one would be able to intimidate her and separate her from the party.

Her son was subjected to inhuman torture and still recovering. Even so, she is not

be afraid of intimidation, she said.

She said people want to get rid of misrule of government, repression and imprisonments; change will come when this government will falter away. She said BNP wants change through democratic way. There is no other way but a credible election to bring about this change.

Reiterating her demand for holding the next election under a " non-party neutral poll-time" government, the former prime minister said, "environment must be ensured so that all political parties can take part in the election and every one can turn up at the polling stations to vote. Troops must be deployed to maintain law and order. Only then a fair poll is possible," she said.

She further demanded no EVM should be used in the polls and parliament must be dissolved before the polls. She said people want to see democracy, freedom of press, and peace effectively functioning in the country. There should be no crossfire; no forced disappearance and specter of fear in public life.

"Let's see how far they (AL) can go. Allah will pull the stings in due time," said Khaleda.

Calling upon her political rival AL to shun hatred, vengeance, killing and violence, Khaleda said, "Give elections through which the people will freely vote their representatives; whoever they want in power."

The former prime called for building national consensus to take the country forward. She said, "We don't believe in vendetta. We will also forgive those who are torturing us today and will take them on board.

Officials at a Roman Catholic college in Massachusetts are weighing whether to do away with the school's mascot, the Crusader.

The board of trustees at Holy Cross in Worcester is meeting Saturday to decide on the possible change. Rev. Philip Boroughs, Holy Cross' president, had convened a working group of students, alumni, faculty and staff to this past fall to discuss the appropriateness of the medieval knight as the college's moniker and mascot.

The student newspaper announced Friday it'll ditch "The Crusader" name and become "The Spire." The staff said the change had nothing to do with sharing the name with a Klu Klux Klan publication, but because of the "violence and massacres" of the medieval Crusades.

The new name pays homage to distinctive twin spires on the college's main building.Two Massachusetts women are facing multiple charges in connection with the assault of a 5-year-old girl in what East Bridgewater police are calling a religious ritual.

Rachel Hilaire, 40, and Peggy LaBossiere, 51, were held on $50,000 bail Monday after pleading not guilty during their arraignments in Brockton Superior Court. Both were charged with mayhem, assault and battery on a child with injury, indecent assault and battery on a child under 14, threat to commit crime-murder, and assault and battery with dangerous weapon (large stick).

In mid-January, authorities said East Bridgewater police were contacted by Randolph police to perform a welfare check on a Randolph woman and her two young children who had been staying in East Bridgewater. When officers arrived to the home on West Union Street, they found a 5-year-old girl with burns on her face.

Following an investigation, the girl's mother told police that Hilaire and LaBossiere told her that she thought the child had an evil spirit inside her and they used a voodoo ritual to help get rid of it.

The girl's mother said the women performed a procedure where cloths were put over her face. When the child was taken to the hospital, she allegedly still had rope ties to her waist and entangled in her hair.

Police said the chemicals the women used on the girl's face burned her so badly that the burns will probably not heal.

According to police, Hilaire and LaBossiere also threatened the girl's 8-year-old brother by saying they would cut his head off. He told investigators that he witnessed the women burning things over his sister, tying her up and putting water and another unknown substance on the girl's eyes.

Hilaire and LaBossiere taken into custody Jan. 26. Their dangerousness hearing on Thursday has been continued until next Wednesday. It's unclear if they have attorneys.

Both children are currently in the custody of the Department of Children and Families.Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Kilmartin's office says a grand jury has found a deadly shooting by police on a busy Providence highway "lawful and legally justified."

Kilmartin's office on Friday released the findings of the Providence County grand jury in the Nov. 9 shooting.

The incident began with a high-speed chase prompted by the theft of a state police cruiser and ended with nine officers from Providence and state police shooting more than 40 rounds into a pickup truck after it rammed a car.

The truck's 32-year-old driver, Joseph Santos, was killed. He was not the man who stole the cruiser.

A passenger was seriously injured.

Civil liberties advocates have raised questions about whether police followed proper procedures for high-speed chases and use of force.In general, the term "medical futility" applies when, based on data and professional experience, no further treatments, procedures or tests will provide benefit and may, in fact, be more burdensome and create undue suffering for the patient and the patient's family.

As expected, discussing futility at end of life is complex and emotionally draining for patients, families, and clinicians. Because it is often used imprecisely, the term "futile" -- and newer terms including "potentially inappropriate" -- can cause confusion and result in disagreements about end-of-life care. A University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing (Penn Nursing) perspective article cautions that care must be taken by clinicians to guard against the misuse of language when guiding patients and families on death and dying.

"The reconceptualization of futility language requires further clarification and analysis of how newer terms impact the patients and families who rely on their clinicians for expert care and compassion at end of life," wrote author Connie M. Ulrich, PhD, RN, FAAN, the Lillian S. Brunner Chair in Medical and Surgical Nursing and Professor of Nursing. The article, "End-of-Life Futility Conversations - When Language Matters" has been published in the journal Perspectives in Biology and Medicine.

"How clinicians use words to give meaning to the dying process for those who are seriously ill can be a salve that is long remembered amidst the initial disbelief and grief suffered by so many," wrote Ulrich.

Source: https://www.nursing.upenn.edu/live/news/1009-language-matters-in-end-of-life-conversationsTucked away inside cell membranes, a molecular butcher does the bidding of healthy cells but also of disease agents. It has been operating out of clear view, but researchers just shined a mighty spotlight on it.

The butcher is a common enzyme called presenilin, which chops lengthy protein building blocks down to useable shorter lengths. It resides in membrane spaces that evade ready experimental detection, but in a new study, researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology and Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) have illuminated presenilin using a neutron beam produced by the world's most powerful research nuclear reactor.

"One third of our genome goes to work to encode intramembrane proteins," said Raquel Lieberman, an associate professor in Georgia Tech's School of Chemistry and Biochemistry. "Some of them are huge and do super complex biochemistry."

The enzyme presenilin in particular is an intramembrane protease. There are four classes of these, and they are needed, among other things, for: Alerting to and defending against infectors, and cell differentiation and development.

If the latter two go wrong, that can lead to cancer.

Grainy neutron mugshot

Now, the researchers have gotten a figurative mugshot of one intramembrane protein, the presenilin. Technically speaking, the researchers worked with a presenilin cousin found in microbes -- M. marisnigri intramembrane aspartyl protease or MmIAP -- but here we will use presenilin and MmIAP interchangeably for simplicity's sake.

The measurement was low-resolution but revealed enough to establish that the protein structure is more simply put together than previously believed, and that surprised the scientists.

"Our sample shows that this is a monomer all by itself," Lieberman said. "We were expecting a dimer or a trimer." That means it was made up of one long strand, mostly coiled up like a spring, instead of doubled-up or tripled-up curly strands.

Presenilin (MmIAP) is armed with two chemical knives, aspartates, that reliably make cuts on peptides, the subunits that make up proteins. And a second new study by the same researchers illuminated how the cleaving works.

Anybody's peptide butcher

Presenilin can trim peptides into building blocks helpful to its own cells, or whittle bad peptide chunks that end up in amyloid-beta plaque, a suspect in Alzheimer's disease. Or presenilin can aid and abate hepatitis C viruses by carving components it needs to reproduce.

Understanding how presenilin works could one day prove useful to medical research. "If you could find a way to interfere with it selectively, you could stop the spread of hepatitis C in the body," Lieberman said.

The researchers, led by Lieberman and neutron scattering scientist Volker Urban from ORNL, published the revelations of the neutron scattering on February 2, 2018, in Biophysical Journal. The new insights into presenilin functioning is to officially publish in March in the Journal of Biological Chemistry, but is currently available online without embargo. First authors were Swe-Htet Naing of Georgia Tech and Ryan Oliver of Oak Ridge.

Research was funded by the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, and the U.S. Department of Energy.

Herding hydrophobic hiders

The scientists reached for the big gun when they went to the High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR) to make presenilin (MmIAP) come out of hiding.

HFIR's neutron beams were cooled to minus 253 degrees Celsius (minus 424 degrees Fahrenheit) to slow the neutrons down, so they could probe molecular features of the biological samples.

Presenilin and other intramembrane proteins warrant such proverbial desperate measures. They live in a lipid environment and hate water about the way cats do, and that's a problem for researchers studying them.

"When you have proteins that are not soluble in water, you're in trouble," Lieberman said. "The usual techniques to analyze them become very, very difficult, if not impossible. And when you chemically bootstrap these proteins to be able use these water-soluble methods, you have really poor chances of seeing the protein's actual structure that performs its function."

Form follows function

Images derived from water-based analytical methods in Lieberman's lab have not completely jibed with presenilin's function. For one, the enzyme's cutting surfaces have been too far apart. The neutron beam's revelations made more sense to the researchers.

"Our shape was tighter, and made more sense with presenilin's function in its natural setting in the membrane," Lieberman said.

The presenilin (MmIAP) samples examined at the HFIR were suspended in a solution friendly to the hydrophobic protein. Ironically, presenilin and other intramembrane proteases often hydrolyze peptides, in other words, they add water to them.

"These proteases are confined to the lipid cell membrane where there is no water. Since water is required for hydrolysis, it has to come from outside the membrane," Lieberman said. "How that happens is yet another mystery that needs uncovering."

Robust, reliable choppers

The precision and consistency, with which the presenilin homologue MmIAP cleaved peptides, impressed the researchers.

"When we used a model synthetic peptide, it cleaved only at very specific positions on the peptide," Lieberman said. "When we switched to a real biological peptide, it also cleaved very exactly."

The researchers put the presenilin through various mutations, which had little to no effect on its cleaving abilities. That could mean that its baseline functioning is nearly immune to genetic interference.

On a chilling note, when cutting amyloid-beta precursor peptides, the researchers observed the microbial presenilin cousin, MmIAP, always making the chop in a way notorious for amyloid's association with Alzheimer's disease.

"We never saw the cut that made what is typically viewed as the 'good' amyloid, A-beta-40," Lieberman said. "We only saw cuts that led to the 'bad' amyloid, A-beta-42."

More research would be needed to explain why that happened; if the same is true for presenilin in human cell membranes, and also if some regulator prevents the creation or accumulation of so much bad amyloid in healthy cells.GamesRadar+ is supported by its audience. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Learn more12,000 opposition men killed in last 9 years

Staff Reporter :

BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir on Saturday said, according to the newspaper reports and information we have, more than 12,850 opposition leaders and activists were killed in last nine years due to their political identification.

He said this while disclosing the organisation's report at the meeting of national executive committee held at La Meridian Hotel in the city yesterday.

The BNP secretary general said, Ilias Ali, Chowdhury Alam and many other leaders and activists were abducted. The report prepared by various national and international organizations has highlighted the alarming picture of human rights situation in Bangladesh.

"We are continuing fight against this monstrous government," Mirza Fakhrul said, adding Awami League from the fear of defeat has become madness and involved in political killing and destruction. The time has come to oust the party from power through a mass wake up.

He said, at present the biggest challenge before us is to protect the country's independence and sovereignty, and restore democracy.

"The current one-party rule of the tyrannical fascist government will have to face the dire consequences," the BNP secretary general said.

He said the government will have to be forced to arrange a free and fair parliamentary elections under a non-partisan neutral government.

He said, Begum Khaleda Zia will fight for the people to protect the country's independence, sovereignty and democracy. "She wants to establish a happy and prosperous democratic Bangladesh as dreamt by late President Ziaur Rahman.

"In the greater welfare of the country and the nation, we are also involved in the same spirit. Victory is in our door if we can keep ourselves remain united," the BNP secretary general said.

He said, "When Khaleda Zia is sued, we cannot sit quietly. We have to stand up, protest. We have to fight for the greater interest of the people."If only the Rude Mechs theater ensemble was around during school days of yore. Oh, the time saved, ulcers spared and teeth ungnashed, as students tried reading Great Novels such as The Brothers Karamazov, Fyodor Dostoevskys masterpiece concerning patricide as it explored morality, free will and the existence of a supreme deity.

Had we all simply watched a performance of Field Guide, the Rude Mechs theater piece inspired by Dostoevskys 1880 tome, fate wouldve undoubtedly exchanged our collective anxiety over trudging through 1,000 pages of dark, verbal thicket for 80 minutes of theatrical clarity and genuinely imaginative physical expression.

Field Guide, which opened in its world premiere Thursday at Yale Repertory Theatre and continues through Feb. 17, is simultaneously faithful to its source material while seeming to approach it irreverently. Its easy to imagine Dostoevsky rolling in his grave as the Rude Mechs include stand-up comedy, a dancing monk and a bounce house among its centerpieces in Field Guide.

Yet the Rude Mechs, a 22-year-young collective based in Austin, Texas, do tell the story of Fyodor (Lowell Bartholomee), the pater familias, and his legit sons  Ivan (Thomas Graves), Alyosha (Mari Akita), and Dmitri (Lana Lesley)  as well as Smerdyakov (Robert S. Fisher), his illegitimate son and Grushenka (Hannah Kenah, who also plays Katya and Grigory), a hard-luck fellow who, bereft of his own children, has helped raise Fyodors sons as his own.

Fyodor, as we see him in Field Guide, is essentially the same oafish character as in Dostoevskys novel, only painted in (much) fewer, equally broad strokes. His insouciance is made plain by his ribbing of the sons about their parentage, and his indifference to the certainty of which of his two wives bore them. No wonder all three bear a grudge and have reason to send him to the afterlife so ol Pops can learn sooner rather than later whether or not God awaits with open arms on The Other Side.

Speaking of bears, before long a very kindly brown bear gets into the act. This gentle creature follows Kenah, who opens Field Guide with a somewhat existential stand-up routine, with his own curious turn behind the microphone. While Kenah seems to have tailored her act for the Stoics, this unnamed bear (voiced by an uncredited, somewhat high-pitched, brow-beaten actor) bares his soul, which has been ravaged to flinders by father issues. As outrageously funny as this shtick is, steeped in incongruity, the scene evolves into the most emphatically human moment of Field Guide.

Akita provides another sublime (extended) moment toward the latter portion of the play as she renders Alyoshas unspoken character in dance. Accompanied by Graham Reynolds original music, this contemplative turn exemplifies Rude Mechs signature style of graceful, nonverbal expression. As beautiful as Akitas dance is, scenic designer Eric Dyers set pieces perform their own dance as they transition seamlessly from innocuous furnishings into a hot tub (the Rude Mechs fidelity to their antique source material doesnt include its unity of time). Its Ernie Kovacs, Mummenschanz and Aardman Animation rolled in one.

Under Shawn Sides fanciful direction, with Kenah responsible for the text, the cast renders Field Guide in uniform poker face. The actors deliver their words dryly, yet duly energized to suggest that, Russian clouds of gray be damned, they are happy to be here. It proves wise that the actors understate their lines and allow Kenahs text and Sarah Woodhams costumes (which merge period precision with cartoon simplicity), supply the hyperbole.

Not too long ago, audiences watched Elevator Repair Service perform Arguendo, a play adapted verbatim from a 1991 Supreme Court cases transcript, in the same Chapel Street theater space. Consider Rude Mechs the surreal, funhouse inversion of this operating procedure. This collective offers a very different, deliriously imaginative rendition of its chosen source material. Indeed, Field Guide should be required viewing for all college world literature classes presently mandating that students read The Brothers Karamazov. Enrollment will flourish.Samsung could be bringing some competition into the ASIC crytocurrency miner market as it is looking to produce its own ASICs. The company is also looking to align its fabrication development with TSMC and hopes to complete the 4nm process by end of 2020.

Working For Notebookcheck Are you a techie who knows how to write? Then join our Team! English native speakers welcome! News Writer - Details here



Samsung Foundry is looking to expand into the Application-Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) manufacturing business. The South Korean giant is looking to make its semiconductor business even more lucrative, especially, now that it has toppled Intel to become the world's largest chip seller.

At the company's Q4 earnings call, Lee Sang-hyun, VP Foundry Marketing, said, "Recently, the number of semiconductor consignment production orders by digital currency related semiconductor companies is rising. We expect to take second place in the foundry market this year after Taiwans TSMC. A company spokesperson confirmed that Samsung Foundry will soon start making hardware for crytocurrency mining. However, he did not mention any details except for the fact that the company is looking to supply hardware to a virtual mining company based in China.

The company expects to take second place in the foundry business this year after Taiwan's TSMC. It hopes to complete the 7nm fabrication process by end of 2018 and will look towards 5nm and 6nm next year. By 2020, the company aims to complete the 4nm process in line with TSMC's plans.

Samsung foraying to ASICs manufacture can give some competition to established players such as Bitmain and Canaan Creative, both of which are TSMC partners. It will also, hopefully, bring the inflated prices and scarce availability of GPUs under control as ASICs consume less power for similar hash rates compared to GPUs.Whats not to like? Scores of companies, including some of the countrys biggest employers, are handing out bonuses, announcing with a flourish that they are sharing the windfall from corporate tax cuts with their workers.

A look at the fine print, though, shows that some of the largess is not nearly as large as company news releases suggest.

Consider retailers like Walmart, Lowes and Home Depot. Theyve tied the size of bonuses to tenure, so that only employees who have been with the company for 20 years or more will receive the $1,000 maximum that was highlighted in their announcements. Few employees meet that requirement.

The median tenure for retail workers, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, is three years. At Walmart and Home Depot, that work history results in a $250 bonus, and at Lowes, $200. And nearly a quarter of American wage and salary workers have logged less than a year with their current employer. For them, bonuses at these big retailers will range from $150 to $200.Amazon and Walmart are battling to dominate the grocery market, fueling a price war that could rearrange where America shops for food.

To get a firsthand glimpse of this competition, we have periodically been testing Amazons effect on grocery prices since the online retailer bought Whole Foods last summer.

Heading into Super Bowl weekend, we thought we would compare the price of ingredients for Steak n Bacon Cheddar meatballs.Jon Huntsman Sr., the son of a music teacher in the heart of the Idaho potato country who rose to become a billionaire industrialist and philanthropist in Utah and the father of that states governor, died on Friday at his home in Salt Lake City. He was 80.

Gary Chapman, a spokesman for the Huntsman Corporation, the specialty chemical company where Mr. Huntsman was executive chairman, confirmed the death but declined to give the cause. He had been ill for an extended period of time.

In early 1970s, Mr. Huntsman built a packaging company that created many of the first plastic plates, bowls and fast-food containers, including the plastic clamshell that held McDonalds Big Mac. After selling the company, he went on to found the Huntsman Corporation, an $8 billion multinational operation that produces chemicals used in everything from clothing to automobiles.

He also served in the Nixon administration and in 1988 ran unsuccessfully for governor in Utah.

But he became known as much for his philanthropy as for his business and political ambitions. In 1992, after both of his parents died of cancer and he, too, battled the disease, he created the Huntsman Cancer Institute at the University of Utah with a $10 million grant, and in the years since, he and his family donated more than $1.4 billion to cancer research.For years, Wells Fargo was the toast of the United States banking industry. It was showered with awards and praise for appearing to perfect the art of cross selling, in which it found creative new ways to peddle financial products to its existing customers. The banks savvy management of risk allowed it to avoid the worst of the financial crisis.

While others retrenched, Wells Fargo substantially expanded, snapping up ailing North Carolina lender Wachovia, in late 2008. That acquisition was engineered in part by federal regulators, who viewed Wells as one of the countrys strongest, best-run institutions.

That reputation has crumbled recently, though. Wells Fargo was found by regulators to have systematically created fake customer accounts and misled customers and government officials.

It is unclear what impact the Feds penalties will have on Wells Fargos future. The bank had nearly $2 trillion in assets at the end of 2017. Going forward, the Fed will not let Wells Fargos average balance sheet expand beyond that size, according to a senior Fed official. Because large banks assets tend to expand as the economy grows, the Fed believes that this limitation will be a significant constraint on the banks ability to grow.

One of Wells Fargos primary regulators, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, slapped significant restrictions on the bank last year, when it gave it a failing score on a key community lending metric. The low grade meant that Wells Fargo would need to clear extra hurdles to open new branches or otherwise expand its retail banking business.

Wells Fargos board has already undergone a makeover in the wake of the scandal, although half of its current board  eight members  were there at the time the scandal erupted. Wells Fargo on Friday night declined to say which four directors would be stepping down as part of the agreement with the Fed.

Wells Fargos current board chairwoman, Elizabeth A. Duke, took on the position last month, replacing Stephen W. Sanger, a 13-year board member who retired after a year filled with scandals. Two other longtime directors departed at the end of last year.The statement, from Dr. Jeffrey Shuren, director of the F.D.A.s center for devices and radiological health, also said, Even with frequent daily use by the vast majority of adults, we have not seen an increase in events like brain tumors.

The Federal Communications Commission sets exposure limits for radio-frequency energy from cellphones, but relies on the F.D.A. and other health agencies for scientific advice on determining the limits, the statement said.

For people who worry about the risk, health officials offer common-sense advice: Spend less time on cellphones, use a headset or speaker mode so that the phone is not pressed up against the head and avoid trying to make calls if the signal is weak.

Dr. Bucher noted that the radiation emitted increases when users are in spots where the signal is poor or sporadic and the cellphone has to work harder to connect.

In December, California issued advice to consumers about how to lower their exposure, including texting instead of talking, keeping the phone away from the head and body while streaming, downloading or sending large files; carrying the phone in a backpack, briefcase or purse, not a pocket, bra or belt holster; and not sleeping with the phone close to your head.

The two studies, involving 3,000 animals, are the most comprehensive assessments of health effects and exposure to radio-frequency radiation in rats and mice to date, according to a statement from the toxicology program, part of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.

The studies extend partial findings released in May 2016, which found small increases in the incidence of tumors in the brains and hearts of male rats, but not female ones.Govt partly at fault for state owned banks' soured credit: Muhith

bdnews24.com :

Finance Minister AMA Muhith says: the government is to blame for the rising loan defaults at state banks.

"Classified loans are very high," the minister said at Sonali Bank's Annual Conference on Saturday.

"The government is partly at fault. We often put pressure on the six (state) banks. As Sonali Bank is the largest bank, it faces the most pressure."

During a question-answer session in parliament last month, Muhith said

banks had failed to recoup Tk 656 billion from top borrowers in the past 10 years. Classified loans amounted to Tk 725 billion, he had added.

The Awami League was in power for nine of the 10 years Muhith discussed. Bad loans are roughly twice the cost of the Padma Bridge.

"We will try to put less pressure on you," Muhith said at the event at Dhaka's Diploma Engineers Institution on Saturday. "In the future we will use less of our influence when bank officials analyse a project and are unwilling to provide loans."

"It is your main duty to know your customers and scrutinise any proposal to the best of your ability. Future success depends on project planning."

Finance Ministry officials said the top 20 defaulters are responsible for a significant amount of these outstanding loans.

About 49 percent of Janata Bank's default is in the hands of 20 customers, while the top 20 loan defaulters are responsible for 51 percent of Rupali Bank's defaults and 32.4 percent of Sonali Bank's defaults.

Bangladesh Bank Governor Fazle Kabir has also issued a recent warning for banks against long-term large loans to companies and lowered the advance-to-deposit ratio or ADR.As Black Lives Matter was growing into a social movement, the killing of Eric Garner by the police on Staten Island and the harsh treatment of teenage inmates at the Rikers Island jail complex pushed New York activists into a national spotlight.

One of them was Glenn E. Martin, an ex-convict who was sought out for his firsthand knowledge of the dangers and hope found behind bars. In interviews and in speeches, he recounted being stabbed by fellow inmates as a teenager at Rikers and earning a college degree as an adult in an upstate prison while serving a sentence for armed robbery.

In 2014, Mr. Martin had started a nonprofit advocacy group, JustLeadershipUSA, and over the next few years, he became a vocal proponent of closing Rikers, where pervasive abuse by guards and persistent violence among inmates were drawing new attention to the need to reform the citys jail system. In 2016, Mr. Martin received standing ovations as he accepted the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award in Washington.

As his reputation as a fund-raiser and advocate grew, so, too, did talk that he was using his professional prominence to pursue sexual relationships with women who were drawn to the criminal justice reform movement  and in some instances engaging in sexual misconduct.A security guard at the National September 11 Memorial and Museum and a Florida man face firearms trafficking charges after selling more than 25 guns  including a MAC-10 machine pistol  to an undercover officer, the authorities said on Friday.

The security guard, Maquan Moore, 29, of Manhattan, allegedly conspired with Morris Wilson, 32, of Orlando, to sell the guns. Prosecutors say Mr. Moore sold several guns to an undercover officer in Lower Manhattan, and that Mr. Wilson brought some of the weapons to New York from Florida.

Each faces multiple counts related to the movement, transportation and receipt of firearms. If convicted of all counts, Mr. Moore would face a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison; Mr. Wilson would face 15 years.

Lawyers for the two men could not immediately be reached on Friday.

The men are responsible for illegally introducing into Manhattan scores of illegal firearms  including assault-style weapons capable of inflicting mass casualties  and knowingly doing so in the neighborhood of a nearby school, Geoffrey S. Berman, the United States attorney for the Southern District of New York, said in a statement on Friday. Their alleged disregard for public safety could have had catastrophic consequences. The danger of selling unlicensed firearms cannot be overstated.Dr. Arnold Gold, a pediatric neurologist whose belief in the importance of an empathetic bedside manner led him and his wife to create a foundation to inspire young doctors to practice compassionate patient care, died on Jan. 23 in Manhattan. He was 92.

His wife, Sandra Gold, confirmed his death.

Youre only half a physician if youre just good at your craft, Dr. Gold said in an interview in 2016 for the Arnold P. Gold Foundation. Unless its coupled with patient-centered care and humanism, its suboptimal care.

Dr. Gold, who treated patients and taught for more than 50 years at the Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, part of Columbia University Medical Center, had a cheerful but authoritative demeanor. On rounds, he wanted to know about the life of the patient, not just his vital signs. He talked face to face with his young patients, often sitting on the floor and playing with them.

He enjoyed kids and he dealt with them in a wondrous way, Dr. David Mandelbaum, a former student of Dr. Golds at Columbia who is a professor of neurology and pediatrics at the Brown University Alpert Medical School, said in a telephone interview. He always sensed what a kid was able to do, not what he couldnt do.His philosophy could be reduced to two axioms:

First, autocracies are vulnerable to being undermined because dictators are never as strong as they tell you they are, he said in Mr. Arrows film, and people are never as weak as they think they are.

Second, while limited violence against dictatorial governments may sometimes be inevitable, violence provokes more violence, a strategy that gives dictators an advantage.

While Gandhis death in 1948 galvanized a young Dr. Sharp to begin preaching nonviolence, he was no pacifist. He admired Gandhi less for his ethical commitment to the cause than for his rejection of passive submission and his tactical success with nonviolent alternatives.

Characterized variously as the Machiavelli of Nonviolence and the Clausewitz of Nonviolent Warfare, Mr. Sharp argued that nonviolent resistance draws its strength from basic human nature.

It doesnt build on the capacity of people to love each other and turn the other cheek, he told The Boston Globe in 1983, but on peoples capacity to be stubborn and cussed, and were all good at that.

Dr. Sharp worked out of his East Boston townhouse (where he cultivated rare orchids); it had doubled as his institutions cramped headquarters since funding began withering in 2004. The tipping point was a fallout with his chief benefactor, Peter Ackerman, a Wall Street investor, who began another organization to promote nonviolence.Louis Zorich, a busy actor who appeared on Broadway with stars like Laurence Olivier and Dustin Hoffman, on television in the comedy Mad About You and in numerous projects with his wife, the Oscar-winning actress Olympia Dukakis, died on Tuesday at his home in Manhattan. He was 93.

His son Peter confirmed his death.

In a career of some 60 years, Mr. Zorich played scores of roles, mostly of the character-actor variety. He was the father to Paul Reisers character on NBCs Mad About You from 1993 to 1999 and the grandfather on Brooklyn Bridge, a well-regarded CBS series that ran for two seasons earlier in the 1990s.

But he also occasionally tackled the big roles. The year before Brooklyn Bridge made its debut in 1991, he played King Lear in a production at the Whole Theater in Montclair, N.J., of which he and Ms. Dukakis were founding members. In 2004 he portrayed the title character in an Off Broadway version of Aeschylus Agamemnon by the Aquila Theater Company, opposite Ms. Dukakiss Clytemnestra.

Mr. Zorich continued to work into his 90s, so there is some irony in the fact that his final film appearance was in No Pay, Nudity (2016), a bittersweet comic drama by Lee Wilkof about the troubles older actors have finding work.Many of the worst effects of the tax bill President Trump signed in December could take years to emerge. But the damage to the federal tax credit program that finances nearly all affordable housing built in America is already painfully evident. Unless Congress rescues this crucial program, a quarter million fewer affordable units will be built over the next 10 years, deepening an already serious crisis.

The federal low-income housing tax credit, created in 1986, allows companies to reduce their tax liabilities by investing in housing for some of the nations neediest families and individuals, many of them seniors, veterans and people with disabilities. The program has produced roughly three million rental units since its inception, but has fallen far short of the growing demand for affordable housing.

For example, a 2017 report from Harvards Joint Center for Housing Studies shows that about 11 million families  or about a quarter of all renters in the United States  spend more than half of their incomes on housing. These families often have to choose between making rent and paying for essentials like food, child care and health care, and many are just one financial emergency away from eviction.

The pressure on low-income renters has worsened for other reasons as well. In recent years, higher-income people who once would have bought homes have turned to renting, driving up housing costs for poor and working-class families. The declining value of low-income housing tax credits will make all of this worse. It started last year, when President Trump and congressional Republicans made clear that they intended to dramatically lower the corporate tax rate, giving companies less reason to worry about tax liabilities.Gertrude Stein once said of her hometown of Oakland, Calif., There is no there there. That about says it for Devin Nuness notorious memo, too.

By this I do not mean that Nunes, the California Republican and chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, has uncovered no potential wrongdoing in his three-and-a-half-page memo, which was declassified Friday over vehement objections from senior F.B.I. and Justice Department officials. More about the possible wrongdoing in a moment.

The important questions, however, are:

First, did the F.B.I. have solid reasons to suspect that people in Donald Trumps campaign had unusual, dangerous and possibly criminal ties to Moscow?

Second, did this suspicion warrant surveillance and investigation by the F.B.I.?

The answers are yes and yes, and nothing in the Nunes memo changes that  except to provide the president with a misleading pretext to fire deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein and discredit Robert Muellers probe.One of the greatest honors of my life was walking across the stage at the F.B.I. Academy and receiving my special agent badge from the director at the time, Robert Mueller. After 21 weeks of intensive training, my class swore an oath and became federal agents entrusted with the solemn duty of protecting Americans and upholding the Constitution.

After more than a decade of service, which included investigating terrorism, working to rescue kidnapping victims overseas and being special assistant to the director, I am reluctantly turning in my badge and leaving an organization I love. Why? So I can join the growing chorus of people who believe that the relentless attacks on the bureau undermine not just Americas premier law enforcement agency but also the nations security. My resignation is painful, but the alternative of remaining quiet while the bureau is tarnished for political gain is impossible.

A small number of my current and retired colleagues have said that we should simply keep our heads down until the storm passes. I say this with the greatest respect: They are wrong. If those who know the agency best remain silent, it will be defined by those with partisan agendas.

F.B.I. agents are dogged people who do not care about the direction of political winds. But to succeed in their work, they need public backing. Scorched-earth attacks from politicians with partisan goals now threaten that support, raising corrosive doubts about the integrity of the F.B.I. that could last for generations.An autobiographical meditation on identity and presence, Mashuq Mushtaq Deens solo show, Draw the Circle, is the story of a suburban girl named Shireen and a Brooklyn man named Deen. They are the same person. And yet they are not.

In a series of monologues, sometimes gentle and sometimes harrowing, family members, lovers and others tell us about Shireens growing unhappiness  the disorientation, the hospitalizations, the suicide attempts  and gradual recovery, which culminates in her becoming Deen through a gender transition. Neither Shireen nor Deen ever appears as a character.

Draw the Circle, which runs in repertory at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater with Dael Orlandersmiths Until the Flood, opens with a picture of a smiling girl in a red sweater, an image that fades as Mr. Deen, wearing jeans and a rumpled T-shirt, enters, stepping into the first of a number of lit squares.

A few days before Thanksgiving, Deens girlfriend, Molly, is heading to Connecticut with Deen to see his parents, Indian immigrants who struggle to accept them. We havent seen them in two years, Molly explains. Its like Ive got to prove myself all over again. Yes, Im white. No, Im not Muslim. Yes, Im a girl. Deen has even more to prove.A group of ex-cons in a therapy session introduce themselves, outlining the crimes that landed them in prison.

A bearded guy, Thomas, says he fondled his step-granddaughter for a year and a half before he was stopped. Chris, a fresh-faced 22-year-old, says his girlfriend turned out to be 14. And Chad, a handsome man with haunted eyes, a soft drawl and an aw-shucks charm, says he used to be a teacher. He would rather not go into details, but he molested one of his students.

On Thursday night, as the actors played this scene in America Is Hard to See, a smart and troubling new piece of documentary theater, the room was so pin-drop quiet that you could hear the electric hum of the lights. By then, we had already warmed to some of these characters, already seen them as regular people.3rd day of Boi Mela

Morning thin, evening crowded with visitors: Book selling to get momentum in  days

Rayhanul Islam :

Although the Boi Mela premises was empty on Saturday morning, it filled with the visitors, especially youths, in the evening. But the selling of books is yet get momentum as per the sellers demand.

Despite having "Shishu Prahor" (Children hours) on the second consecutive day yesterday, a huge gathering of children was absent in the first phase of the day due to the dense fog and cold weather, sellers at different stalls in the mela compound said.

The shopkeepers of the "Shishu Chattor" along with other side of the fair were seen to pass two hours from 11:00am to 1:00pm slothful time as rush of people during the period was less compared to Friday.

Rasel Mirza, executive director of the World of Children's Book Publication said, "Today (Saturday) the number of visitors is less than Friday. Hopefully, this situation will change and selling of book will grow within 3 to 4 days.

On the other hand, the selling of book was very well at Bangla Academy book stall at Shishu Chattor

Contd

premises, said the co-Programme Officer of Bangla Academy, M. R. Khan.

Meanwhile, around 3.00pm, when the book fair was opened for all at the second phase the crowd of people have been seen at both parts of the fair-Bangla Academy and Suhrawardy Udyan respectively.

Visitors came to the fair with friends, relatives and beloved ones. They were roaming around the fair looking for a fresh desired book. Among them, almost all the visitors were seen to visit Onno Prakashon, Prathoma Prakashon, Kakoli Prakashon and Anonnya Prakashon. Almost all the visitors were seen to go out of the fair with empty handed.

Pradip Simantho, manager of Ittadey Publication, told The New Nation that the selling of books is increasing day to day.



The children's story books are being sold more than the other books, he added.

Among the highest selling books, a number of novels by fictionist Humayan Ahmed have been sold more than other books, said Alauddin Tipu of Onno Prakashani Publication.

Rakibul Hasan, a student of Dhaka University, said, "I have been visiting the fair everyday and looking for fresh books. After weeks, whenever all the books will be available in the fair then I will buy."

Despite the stern instruction by Book Fair authority to complete the work of stall construction before fair inauguration, several stalls have remained at incomplete shape at Bangla Academy and Shurawardy Udyan respectively.

Member secretary of the fair Jalal Ahmed has already said that if someone cannot finish the stall construction work completely within the third day of book fair, the fair authority will cancel their stall allotment.

A total of 120 fresh book arrived at different stalls on the third day yesterday at the Amar Ekushy Boi Mela while on Friday this number was 54.

In the evening, a discussion was held at Bangla Academy's main stage of Amar Ekushy Grantha Mela over the renowned academician and Muslim philosopher Khan Bahadur Ahsan Ullah's biography.

Writer Shafiul Alam, Sarder Abdul Mannan and Mohammad Monirul Islam were the discussants while Kazi Rafiqul Alam was in the chair.

The discussants said that all the components of Bengali nationality were mixed with the life style of Khan Bahadur Ahsan Ullah. He had worked to advance the people of Bengali Muslims who were lagging behind in terms of education.

Later, artistes Fatema-Tuj-Johora, Sujit Mustafa, AKM Shaheed Kabir Palash rendered music in the evening.



Even in a good year, its a C-plus, B-minus match, and even the high-test stuff for old people is a joke.

DR. LUTHER V. RHODES III, chief epidemiologist of the Lehigh Valley Hospital in Pennsylvania, on frustration with the flu shots flaws.For months, Carter Page, the former Trump campaign adviser who was under government surveillance as part of the Russia investigation, has been shunned by Republicans and dismissed by the White House, which portrayed his campaign stint as inconsequential.

But now Mr. Page is the linchpin in a conservative effort to discredit the F.B.I. and the special counsel inquiry. He is at the center of a divisive memo written by Republican committee staff members that was released on Friday and accuses law enforcement officials of abuses in obtaining a warrant to surveil Mr. Page in 2016.

The memo falls short of the case that some Republicans promised  that the document would show bias against Mr. Trump by investigators in opening the Russia inquiry and possibly undercut the investigation by the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III.

But for the past year, Mr. Page himself has been pitching that narrative to journalists, politicians, investigators and almost anyone who will listen. Though Mr. Trumps allies have repeatedly sought to dismiss him as a bit character in the 2016 campaign, Mr. Pages role could now be political fodder in the presidents efforts to discredit Mr. Muellers inquiry.WASHINGTON  K. T. McFarland, who was a deputy national security adviser in the Trump administration and then was picked to serve as ambassador to Singapore, withdrew her ambassadorial nomination on Friday after it had stalled in the Senate.

Ms. McFarlands nomination had become embroiled in the controversy over the Trump campaigns contacts with Russian officials, with some senators left wondering if she had answered questions deceptively when asked if she knew of discussions between Michael T. Flynn, the former national security adviser, and a Russian ambassador.

Unfortunately, some Democrats chose to play politics rather than move forward with a qualified nominee for a critically important post, President Trump said in a statement released Friday by the White House. I wish K. T. the best as she uses her considerable wisdom and skill as a commentator to explain to the American people how to make American foreign policy great again.

Senate Republicans could have approved her nomination unilaterally, but the fact that it was never brought to a vote suggested that she had made even some of them uneasy.WASHINGTON  The release of the memo mattered less than #releasethememo.

After weeks of buildup, the three-and-a-half-page document about alleged F.B.I. abuses during the 2016 presidential campaign made public on Friday was broadly greeted with criticism, including by some Republicans. They said it cherry-picked information, made false assertions and was overly focused on an obscure, low-level Trump campaign adviser, Carter Page.

It didnt live up to the hype.

But the campaign, captured in the hashtag #releasethememo, which was trending on Twitter for days, may have a far more significant impact than the memos contents. It was a choreographed effort by House Republicans and top White House officials to push a highly contentious theme  that the F.B.I. and the Justice Department abused their powers to spy on the Trump campaign, and relied on dodgy information from a former British spy paid by Democratic operatives.

What began as an ember more than two weeks ago was fanned into a blaze by conservative media titans, presidential tweets and Republican lawmakers urging people to use social media to pressure Congress to make the memos contents public. I invite everybody to use the hashtag #releasethememo, Representative Raul Labrador, the Idaho Republican, said on Fox News during the campaigns infancy, adding that Americans would be shocked when the memo was released.

By Friday, it was obvious that the memo had become part of a proxy fight for the larger battle that the White House is now waging to discredit the Russia investigation led by Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel. By promoting the idea that the Mueller inquiry was born from a corrupt and partisan process, his entire investigation can be tarred as a biased inquisition.And when Mr. Percoco swiped out of the building  at 12:20 p.m.  the governor was also seemingly on the move. At 12:40 p.m., Mr. Cuomo had a Manhattan fund-raiser, an event that Mr. Percoco, as campaign manager, would likely have had a hand in planning.

Two days later, on May 15, Mr. Percoco arrived early again, and stayed till 2:13 p.m. Mr. Cuomo had a 1 p.m. meeting nearby. Two weeks later, Mr. Percoco was back at the office again, staying for an hour and a half during the afternoon while the governor had a 1 p.m. meeting.

Such synchronicities were not uncommon. Of the nearly two dozen days that Mr. Percocos card was shown to have swiped into 633 Third Avenue from May 5 to July 14, Mr. Cuomo had meetings in the same office almost every day, though his schedules do not indicate how long they lasted, and do not show Mr. Percoco in attendance.

Mr. Percoco returned to Mr. Cuomos staff on Dec. 8, 2014, according to state payroll records. In the week before that, however, he had apparently been a regular presence on the 39th floor again, with records showing he was in the building for three consecutive days, for hours at a time. And on each of those days, the governor had a series of meetings in his office.

Testimony from his former colleagues bears out that Mr. Percoco was often at the Third Avenue office. I might see him for two or three days in the office and then not see him for a long time, and then he might be there again, said Linda Lacewell, the governors chief of staff, who testified last week.

Circumstantial evidence suggested that Mr. Percoco conducted business while at the Manhattan office; prosecutors presented evidence that from May 1 to Dec. 7, 2014, 837 calls, made over 68 days, were placed from the telephone on the desk that Mr. Percoco used at 633 Third Avenue.

Federal investigators have accused Mr. Percoco of receiving more than $300,000 in bribes in return for official actions on behalf of developers and a power company during his time working for the governor. Mr. Cuomo, a Democrat seeking a third term in the fall, has not been accused of any wrongdoing.WASHINGTON  President Trumps calls this week for more vocational schools have received a lukewarm reception from the higher education community, including from the educators who teach in the programs he is championing.

The president first raised expanding vocational education in his State of the Union address on Tuesday  the only nod to education policy in the speech  as a work force development strategy. On Thursday, Mr. Trump expounded on the proposal, asserting that efforts to teach students trades had diminished since he attended an elite military boarding school, where he said he had a classmate who wasnt the greatest student but was able to fix a car engine blindfolded.

He had a different kind of a talent, and we should have vocational schools, Mr. Trump said during a speech at a Republican congressional retreat in West Virginia. You learn mechanical, you learn bricklaying and carpentry and all of these things. We dont have that very much anymore. And I think the word vocational is a much better word than in many cases, a community college. A lot of people dont know what a community college means or represents.

Policy experts and organizations that advocate the trade programs  which for more than a decade have been recognized as career and technical education, or C.T.E.  took issue with the presidents antiquated characterization of a sector of higher education that has expanded beyond laborers who are not cut out for academia.MEXICO CITY  Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson on Friday took on the daunting task of resetting relations with Latin America, a region where President Trumps anti-immigrant invective and his disdain for trade ties are rattling allies of the United States.

Nowhere have the insults been felt more keenly than in Mexico, where Mr. Tillerson began a tour of the region by assuring his hosts that he was committed to preserving the North American Free Trade Agreement signed by Mexico, the United States and Canada.

I cannot emphasize enough the importance of our economic relationships, Mr. Tillerson said after meeting with the Mexican and Canadian foreign ministers, acknowledging that almost three million American jobs depend on trade with neighboring countries.

Like much of what Mr. Tillerson said on Friday, the statement seemed to contradict his boss. Mr. Trump has called Nafta the worst trade deal ever made and has repeatedly threatened to pull the United States out of the accord, which took effect in 1994.New witness statements have re-energized the investigation into the drowning of Natalie Wood, the child star turned Hollywood icon who disappeared off a yacht over Thanksgiving weekend in 1981.

Ms. Wood went missing late on Nov. 28 from the yacht Splendour. On board were her television star husband, Robert Wagner, the actor Christopher Walken and the boats captain.

The men spent hours searching for her before alerting the Coast Guard. Her body was found, shoeless and wearing only a nightgown and red parka, in a rocky cove near Santa Catalina Island off the coast of Los Angeles on Nov. 29. She was 43.This was something that was online for less than 24 hours, and it has dominated my life for three months. Theres this online spreadsheet of men in media. What theyre accused of doing, who they work for. Its unverified, anonymous  It does raise these questions  Smearing someone  I actively tried to avoid this. Im a very private person. How do they get their reputation back? I did not want this kind of attention to be on me. I did not want to be a person who was sitting down with The New York Times. Are you a little nervous right now? Yeah! I created a Google spreadsheet called Shitty Media Men that could be shared and anonymously edited. The idea was that women could use it to name somebody who had behaved badly towards them, whether through sexual assault, or rape, or harassment. I shared it with some women colleagues and friends in my industry whom I knew had stories. And then from there, they sent it to people they knew had stories, and they sent it to people they knew had stories. And by the time I was forced to take it down, which is about 12 hours after I created it, there were more than 70 men named, and 14 had their names highlighted in red to denote that there were more than one woman who were accusing that particular person of violent physical assault. Some of the incidents that were described there gave me nightmares. Some of them were really very violent. When I was watching the spreadsheet fill up, it became clear to me that a problem I had already understood as widespread was, in fact, much, much broader. I didnt really know what to do. I was overwhelmed. I was terrified. What was your biggest fear about your name becoming known? There is a long history of violence against women, and its particularly acute for women who speak out against misogyny and sexism. There are things like, I used to, like a lot of New Yorkers, just walk around with headphones in all the time. And I cant do that anymore because I have to be more aware of my surroundings and who might see me or be following me. If you are accepting this as just the way things are, then youre sort of accepting that youre going to be treated badly, and your colleagues are going to be treated badly. And, you know, women youve never met are going to be treated badly. And I didnt want to accept that anymore. So I decided to make a first attempt at trying something else. Listen, I made the decision to create this spreadsheet, so its flaws are my fault. But there was this obstacle because the conventional reporting avenues for women who have experienced sexual harassment, or assault, or rape are really not good ones. The document that I made was designed to be private, but it very quickly went viral. I want to emphasize, though, that I dont even know who saw it, or who had it, added to it. Those women are anonymous to me as well. But at the same time, I could see that what was going on on this spreadsheet was also this act of real solidarity and community among the women who work in this industry to attempt to keep one another safe. So much of the conversation after the spreadsheet was made public was about the methodology of the spreadsheet and sort of the tactics that anonymous women were using to try and keep each other safe. People were more worried about a hypothetical man whose reputation might be damaged than real women who were really raped. Its not a hypothetical man, right? There were men who were named on this who had to suffer repercussions in their real life. Some companies decided to conduct investigations. Not all, but some of them did result in men leaving their jobs or being fired because they were found to have committed wrongdoing. I think its their responsibility that they acted that way. Harassment, assault, rape. These things dont happen like the weather. You know, they dont happen by accident. They happen because people make a choice to do that to someone else. There are a lot of conversations to be had about sex. Were not done talking about sex. Hey hey, ho ho, sexual violence has got to go. Theres #MeToo in 2017, 2018. In 2014, there was #YesAllWomen. And in 1991, there was I believe Anita. I thought he respected my work and that he trusted my judgment. So it can feel like weve been defeated, right? Because if anybody had listened to us the first time we wouldnt have to say it again. But I think that every time we get a little louder, and we get a little closer to making the changes that actually need to be made. What I think is next is a lot of hard work for us all.Early in her career, Jewelle Bickford, now a partner at Evercore Wealth Management, worked at a global bank in New York with a male colleague who was on his best behavior during the first half of the day, she said, but during and after lunch, his work ethic devolved. When he came back, you would walk by his office, and he would have his head down, Ms. Bickford said. And you knew he had had quite a few drinks.

At the end of the year, when bonuses were announced, a friend of Ms. Bickfords who worked in human resources told her how much that male colleague had received. It was many multiples of what I made, Ms. Bickford said. He stayed there. I left.

It was a Monday in late January, and Ms. Bickford was at a table with four other women in a semiprivate room at Kikis, a Greek restaurant in the Chinatown neighborhood in Manhattan. They included Gayl Johnson, a director of administration in New York Citys Department of Sanitation; Alix Keller, the director of product technology at Hello Alfred, a home concierge service; Melissa Robbins, a Philadelphia-based political strategist; and Kimberly Webster, formerly a lawyer at a New York firm.SCBA will cooperate with new CJ

Staff Reporter :

The leaders of the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) on Saturday said that they would co-operate with the newly appointed Chief Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain in the interest of the independence of judiciary.

They made this hope in a press briefing held on Saturday evening at the bar auditorium after a meeting of the executive members of the organization.

They took decision to cooperate with the newly appointed Chief Justice. But they are not happy at the step to supercede the seniority.

Bar President Advocate Zainul Abedin, Secretary Barrister A M Mahbub Uddin Khokan, Senior-Vice-President Md Ozi Ullah, Vice-President Umme Kulsum Rekha and other leaders were present at that time.

Advocate Zainul Abedin said, "People of the country were anxious when the post of the Chief Justice was lying vacant for several months. Finally the President has appointed a new Chief Justice, however, violating the seniority."

"But we hope that the new Chief Justice will try to remove the wounds of the judiciary and he will also try to bring back people's confidence in the judiciary."Mr. Trump doesnt have to look far to figure out what has to be done. His Commission on Combating Drug Addiction and the Opioid Crisis released a detailed report in November on this very issue. One recommendation was for the government to increase access to substance abuse treatment. The administration could do so by demanding that health insurance companies cover such care. Federal law already requires insurers to cover addiction treatment and other mental health services, but many do not include those services in their networks of doctors and hospitals, according to a recent report. The commission said the administration and Congress should give the Department of Labor the authority to penalize insurance companies that do not adequately cover addiction treatment. The president should also ask Congress to dedicate more money for treatment. But thats unlikely since the White House is reportedly considering slashing the budget of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, which coordinates the federal governments activities in this area.

The commission also called on the government and insurers to encourage greater use of opioid alternatives like physical therapy and nonaddictive painkillers. Some doctors and hospitals have been moving in this direction. But experts say many health care providers are still prescribing opioids when they ought to be using alternative treatments. Thats because government programs and private insurers do not cover these alternative services and drugs. Other areas the government ought to focus on include cracking down on drug trafficking and the delivery of potent opioids, like fentanyl, through the postal system.

But will Mr. Trump pursue any of these ideas? His record gives little cause for optimism. One indication of how seriously the White House has taken this issue was its appointment last month of a 24-year-old campaign volunteer with no experience in drug policy as the deputy chief of staff of the drug policy office. Outrage followed, and his tenure was cut mercifully short.

Fixing Infrastructure

Most Americans agree that the United States needs to substantially increase investments in transportation, energy, water and other public works. The American Society of Civil Engineers estimates that the country needs to increase infrastructure spending by $2 trillion to be globally competitive. In his State of the Union speech, Mr. Trump said he wanted to increase investment by $1.5 trillion. But leaked copies of the administrations infrastructure proposal show that it will include only $200 billion in federal spending. And White House officials have said that this money could come from cutting existing infrastructure spending on things like public transit and Amtrak.The warrant was issued and then renewed three separate times. Each time, as is standard in seeking a FISA warrant, a judge reviewed extensive information before issuing it. The fact that the warrant was renewed three times indicates that the F.B.I. obtained useful intelligence each time  a judge wouldnt have approved a renewal if the prior warrant came up empty. That suggests that once the warrants were issued, they revealed important evidence.

In addition, the timeline set forth in the memo indicates that the FISA warrants were submitted by both the Obama and Trump administrations. The initial surveillance began before Mr. Rosenstein was deputy attorney general, and by the time he was at the Justice Department, he approved renewal applications that were based on the intelligence gathered from the earlier surveillance  not the dossier.

On the issue of bias, whenever the Justice Department seeks a warrant, they must present extensive evidence to a judge, who decides whether to issue the warrant based on that evidence. After the fact, defendants can challenge warrants by arguing that the government recklessly excluded information that would have caused the judge not to sign the warrant.

Courts have repeatedly held that even when the government omitted the criminal history of the informant or the fact that the informant was paid, it didnt matter unless the omitted information would have caused the judge not to sign the warrant.

The Nunes memo claims to show that the warrant was obtained unlawfully, but there is no way of knowing that without examining the extensive evidence submitted in conjunction with the warrant, which the memo does not do. Given that Mr. Steele was a former intelligence officer, not a flipper with an extensive criminal history, it will be hard to show that a judge would have believed he was lying if the source of his funding was included in the application.

Given how little substance there is to the Nunes memo, the Republicans made a misstep by pushing through its release in a partisan manner. The specter of an unreleased memo was more menacing than the thin allegations revealed in the memo itself, which are hotly disputed by congressional Democrats.

Although at least one Republican maintains that the memo shows that Mr. Rosenstein, Mr. Comey and others committed treason, the memo itself does not allege that the F.B.I. or Department of Justice knowingly used false information or even that the information they used was false. Because the allegations in the memo are legally irrelevant, I would be surprised if the memo was more than a short-lived publicity stunt.

This is not the result Mr. Nunes expected when his staff wrote the memo, but that could be its lasting impact.The memo does state in passing that Mr. Steeles evidence was an essential part of the application. But we cant make heads or tails of it without knowing what else was in the affidavit. Whether the memo is revealing a significant error or none at all depends on the big picture that the memo keeps secret. But we have no way to evaluate that, and critics are claiming its wrong.

Second, the memo offers scant detail on what the government told the court about Mr. Steele. We get only glimpses. The court knew Mr. Steele had been hired to do his research by a named U.S. person, the memo reports. On the other hand, judges were not specifically told about the role of the Democratic National Committee and the Clinton campaign in ultimately funding the investigation.

Without more details, however, its hard to know what to make of this. The court might have received a balanced and accurate picture of Mr. Steeles credibility that did not specifically name the Democratic National Committee or Hillary Clinton. Without knowing all the facts of what the government told the court, we cant tell if the government did anything wrong.

Third, the memo ignores the fact that judges usually expect informants to be biased without being told of it. Judges routinely uphold warrants in criminal cases that fail to disclose bias in informants far worse than Mr. Steeles. An informant might be the targets wife, who the government fails to point out is engaged in a bitter divorce battle with him. An informant might be a known criminal facing fresh charges, who the affidavit fails to disclose was promised a break if he shares information about others.

Judges expect this. As a result, courts say, its not necessarily a problem to omit it from the warrant affidavit. As one appellate court has written, only a very naive judge would expect a source to drop in off the street with such detailed evidence and not have an ulterior motive. And who is more likely to lie: Criminals promised leniency or a former British intelligence agent hired for his expertise?

Finally, the memo questions the governments evidence based on what we know today rather than what the government knew then. For example, it claims that the application relied on a Yahoo News article since traced to Mr. Steele without explaining the Steele connection.The captives clung to African identities in the face of a system that was intended to erase them. They became a force to be reckoned with in plantation life by remaining united and showing that they would use violence to protect themselves. In one particularly vivid instance, they pounced on an overseer who tried to whip an African woman, lashing him instead, bringing such predations to an end.

After Emancipation, the Clotilda Africans wanted more than anything to return home. But once they realized that they would probably live out their days in the United States, they took the brave step of petitioning Meaher for land, arguing that he owed them compensation for the free labor they had provided during bondage. Not surprisingly, Meaher refused. But the fact that the Africans pursued redress at all is remarkable, given that black men and women in the 19th century could be killed for even talking back to whites.

Denied passage home, the Clotilda captives recreated Africa adjacent to the delta, scrimping and saving to buy property in the community they proudly named African Town. This refuge  from both white and black Americans  made it easier for them to embrace the West African culture and African languages that families continued to speak into 20th century.

As they related the story of their captivity to their children, the Africans would no doubt have pointed to the charred hull of the Clotilda; it remained visible at low tide for several decades until the parts of the ship exposed to weather rotted away.

If the newly discovered wreck is indeed Americas last slave ship, artifacts from the site could well open a window onto horrors the captives suffered during the crossing. But even in the absence of new information, the intense emotion that has welled up around this story underscores the extent to which the United States is still haunted by its original sin.The topic of slavery features prominently in each Februarys reflections on African-American history. But when it comes to this darkest time in our countrys past, experts are still discovering horrors that have not yet made their way into history books.

One shocking fact thats recently come to light: Major medical schools used slave corpses, acquired through an underground market in dead bodies, for education and research.

Yes, there was a robust body-snatching industry in which cadavers  mostly the bodies of black people, many of whom had been enslaved when they were alive  were used at Harvard, the Universities of Maryland, Pennsylvania and Virginia, and other institutions.

It is time to acknowledge this dark truth behind our understanding of human anatomy and modern medicine.Imagine that this is your daily life: While on your way to work or on an errand, every 100 meters you pass a police blockhouse. Video cameras on street corners and lamp posts recognize your face and track your movements. At multiple checkpoints, police officers scan your ID card, your irises and the contents of your phone. At the supermarket or the bank, you are scanned again, your bags are X-rayed and an officer runs a wand over your body  at least if you are from the wrong ethnic group. Members of the main group are usually waved through.

You have had to complete a survey about your ethnicity, your religious practices and your cultural level; about whether you have a passport, relatives or acquaintances abroad, and whether you know anyone who has ever been arrested or is a member of what the state calls a special population.

This personal information, along with your biometric data, resides in a database tied to your ID number. The system crunches all of this into a composite score that ranks you as safe, normal or unsafe.Based on those categories, you may or may not be allowed to visit a museum, pass through certain neighborhoods, go to the mall, check into a hotel, rent an apartment, apply for a job or buy a train ticket. Or you may be detained to undergo re-education, like many thousands of other people.

A science-fiction dystopia? No. This is life in northwestern China today if you are Uighur.

China may no longer be the bleak land of Mao suits, self-criticism sessions and loudspeakers blaring communist slogans. It boasts gleaming bullet trains, luxury malls and cellphone-facilitated consumer life. But when it comes to indigenous Uighurs in the vast western region of Xinjiang, the Chinese Communist Party (C.C.P.) has updated its old totalitarian methods with cutting-edge technology.On Dec. 27, Vida Movahed stood bareheaded on a utility box on one of Tehrans busiest thoroughfares, waving her white head scarf on a stick. Within days, images of the 31-year-old, who was detained and then released a few weeks later, had become an iconic symbol.

In the weeks since Ms. Movaheds peaceful protest of the compulsory hijab, long one of the most visible symbols of the Islamic Republic, dozens of women, and even some men, throughout Iran have followed her lead. So far, at least 29 women in cities throughout the country have been arrested.

These bold acts of defiance against the hijab are unprecedented in the nearly 40-year history of the Islamic Republic, but a movement that may have helped inspire them has been going on for years. It began on the social media account of a Brooklyn-based Iranian journalist named Masih Alinejad. In 2014, Ms. Alinejad started a Facebook page called My Stealthy Freedom, urging women to post images of themselves without the hijab in public places. Last year, she launched White Wednesdays, inviting women to wear white scarves on Wednesdays in protest of the compulsory hijab law. (Ms. Movahed carried out her protest on a Wednesday and held a white scarf, though her actual allegiance to Ms. Alinejads campaign is unknown).

Ms. Alinejad, who worked as a journalist in Iran before emigrating to England in 2009, says her campaign came about by chance. She posted a photo of herself driving her car in Iran without hijab and invited others to share hidden photos of themselves on her Facebook page. The overwhelming response  the page now has more than a million followers  prompted her to focus more on the issue. I was a political reporter, but the women in Iran forced me to care about the issue of personal freedoms, she told me.The Rev. James Martin is a Roman Catholic rock star. His books, including one on Jesus Christ and another on the saints, have sold hundreds of thousands of copies. The director Martin Scorsese has twice hired him to consult on movies with religious themes. Television producers love him: Back when Stephen Colbert had his Comedy Central show, Father Martin popped up frequently as its official chaplain.

So the reaction when he agreed to speak this month to a group of parishes in central New Jersey was unalloyed elation, right?

Wrong. Within days of the announcement, parish officials were in a state better described as dread.

Check out the websites and Twitter accounts of far-right Catholic groups and youll see why. To them Father Martin is sick, wicked, a filthy liar, the smoke of Satan and a heretic on a fast track to eternal damnation. They obsessively stalk him and passionately exhort churchgoers to protest his public appearances or prevent them from happening altogether.

And they succeed. After the New Jersey parish in which his remarks were supposed to be delivered was inundated with angry phone calls, the event was moved off church grounds. Father Martin will give his spectacularly uncontroversial talk  Jesus Christ: Fully Human, Fully Divine  at a secular conference center in a nearby town.Plenty of people regularly ate sandwiches as kids. But few, if any, have spun that experience into culinary gold like Mason Hereford, whose restaurant Turkey and the Wolf in New Orleans was lauded by Bon Appetit as Americas best new restaurant in 2017.

I sure enough ate my share, said Mr. Hereford, 31, who grew up Charlottesville, Va., before moving to New Orleans in 2008 and working his way from line cook to chef de cuisine at Coquette, a respected contemporary Southern bistro. But it wasnt until I came to this city of po boys that I began to consider the creative potential of a sandwich.

Sandwiches are the stars at this 40-seat, no-reservation restaurant with street-front patio seating for 25 more, a former barbecue joint and a wings shop in the Irish Channel neighborhood. Inside, cinder block walls are painted sea-foam green and decor runs to thrift store whimsy. Patrons order at the counter and eat at sundry chrome dinettes off mismatched dishes (including plastic Disney plates), seasoning their food with kitschy vintage salt and pepper shakers.Today, weve constructed vast and expensive government bureaucracies to draw these lines. Kentucky, for instance, has outlined a number of exemptions to its new requirements that able-bodied Medicaid beneficiaries must work and pay small premiums. Former foster care youths and pregnant women dont have to pay insurance premiums. The evicted and the homeless wont be locked out from coverage if they miss their payments. People who are medically frail with serious ailments can postpone their work requirements with a doctors note.

Such exemptions sketch new definitions of who is truly able. And they erect more elaborate barriers to assistance as another way of winnowing out the unworthy. Eighteenth-century English overseers tried establishing rules (nobody who tipples in the alehouse will get poor relief). Requirements today that the poor take drug tests or pay $1 monthly premiums effectively do the same: If you cant figure out who is or isnt deserving, Ms. Ottaway wrote in an email, then you can make rules about behavior that will force the poor to reveal themselves as worthy or not.

By narrowing aid, proposals like Kentuckys  and Indianas Medicaid work requirement, approved Friday  reverse the more recent history in which Medicaid has steadily expanded access. The program began in 1965 with Elizabethan notions intact. It initially served the elderly poor, the blind and the disabled, as well as pregnant women. Over time it came to cover more parents and children. Eligibility was extended to poor women with breast or cervical cancer. In the 1990s, some states began offering coverage on a broader basis  simply according to income.

In 2010, the Affordable Care Act sought to make that policy experiment universal. It required all states to expand coverage to everyone earning below or just above the poverty line. (The Supreme Court later made the change optional, so now 32 states and the District of Columbia have chosen to expand.) Millions of nondisabled adults have joined the program in recent years, driving down the rate of Americans without health insurance and increasing Medicaids ranks.

Its a clear sequence from 1965 to 2010, where able-bodiedness, worthy poor is being written out of the statute, said Leonardo Cuello, the health policy director at the National Health Law Program, a legal advocacy group that is bringing a lawsuit against the Kentucky Medicaid proposal. And that comes to its full completion in 2010, where able-bodiedness is explicitly irrelevant.

For Medicaid advocates like Mr. Cuello, the recent focus on the able-bodied feels like an anachronism.

To others who use the term, it captures how Americans of both parties feel about poverty today. In one 2016 survey by the American Enterprise Institute and The Los Angeles Times, 87 percent of people said its better to require people to seek work or participate in a training program if they are physically able to do so (9 percent countered that its better to give the poor benefits without asking for any effort in return).Little hope to retrieve $66m more

Special Correspondent :

Today is the second anniversary of Bangladesh Bank's Reserve heist.

Unidentified hackers stole $81 million from Bangladesh Bank's account at the New York Fed on February 4, 2016, using fraudulent orders on the SWIFT payments system.

The money was sent to accounts at Manila-based Rizal Commercial Banking Corp and then disappeared into the casino industry in the Philippines. RCBC was fined a record one billion pesos ($20 million) by the country's central bank in 2016 for its failure to prevent the movement of the stolen money through it.

Bangladesh Bank (BB) has been able to retrieve only about $15 million out of the total stolen fund despite repeated assurance from the Philippine government and an international probe involving the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

But there is a little hope in recovering $66 million more from Philippines as the process plunged into the country's lengthy legal systems along with RCBC's denial to compensate BB for funneling the fund through it.

BB Governor Dr Fazle Kabir however expressed his hope to get back the fund from Philippines saying legal process is underway to settle the issue.

"We will soon receive $1.2 million more from the Philippines as part of the process to retrieve the money stolen from bank's foreign reserve account," Governor Dr Fazle Kabir told reporters while announcing the new monetary policy at the bank's headquarters in Dhaka on Monday.

He said Bangladesh has so far recovered $14.54 million of the $81 million stolen money. The process to retrieve $50 million more is still going through the court proceedings in the Philippines.

"The process of recovering $1.2 million from the Philippines is now at the final stage while significant progress was made in retrieving another $6 million," said Kabir.

A team of officials of Bangladesh Bank and the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) now in Manila to complete the formalities to get back the portion ($1.2 million of the money.

"We previously discussed the matter of recovering the money with the Philippine government several times. We were assured that the money will be returned but they are lingering on it. That is why we are thinking about legal action against RCBC," a senior BB official told The New Nation yesterday.

He added, "We will file a civil suit along with the Fed and SWIFT to recover the money."NEW ORLEANS  Regine Chassagne was standing barefoot in her rambling New Orleans home on a recent weekday, showing members of the Preservation Hall Jazz Band how to play the horn parts for her latest musical project.

It was a galloping Carnival anthem played in the Haitian style and sung largely in Haitian Creole, a language the jazz players did not understand. Ms. Chassagne, a Canadian-born daughter of Haitian exiles, described their parts with swooping hand gestures. At one point, she told them to play like fireworks  poof!

The jazzmen, masters of translating emotion into sound, nodded along, unfazed.

Ms. Chassagne, 41, is a founder of the rock group Arcade Fire, a French speaker of mixed racial heritage who grew up in Montreal playing the piano to old Louis Armstrong recordings. More recently, she has become a prominent advocate for the Haitian people and for a Haitian culture that has had an outsize, if not always recognizable, influence on New Orleans, where she and her husband, Win Butler, have lived for about three years.

For this years Carnival season, the period of revelry before Lent, Ms. Chassagne and Mr. Butler, the Arcade Fire frontman, will highlight their adopted citys Haitian connections with the kind of primer its residents readily understand: a raucous procession by the couples Haitian-themed Mardi Gras troupe, the Krewe du Kanaval. Founded in collaboration with the New Orleans jazz hub Preservation Hall and rounded out by local and Haitian musicians, the krewe plans to parade through the streets of the French Quarter and Treme on Tuesday, a week before Mardi Gras, and put on a free street party.WASHINGTON  Federal investigators say they have found huge gaps in the regulation of assisted living facilities, a shortfall that they say has potentially jeopardized the care of hundreds of thousands of people served by the booming industry.

The federal government lacks even basic information about the quality of assisted living services provided to low-income people on Medicaid, the Government Accountability Office, a nonpartisan investigative arm of Congress, says in a report to be issued on Sunday.

Billions of dollars in government spending is flowing to the industry even as it operates under a patchwork of vague standards and limited supervision by federal and state authorities. States reported spending more than $10 billion a year in federal and state funds for assisted living services for more than 330,000 Medicaid beneficiaries, an average of more than $30,000 a person, the Government Accountability Office found in a survey of states.

States are supposed to keep track of cases involving the abuse, neglect, exploitation or unexplained death of Medicaid beneficiaries in assisted living facilities. But, the report said, more than half of the states were unable to provide information on the number or nature of such cases.Matt Walter, president of the Republican State Leadership Committee, the partys national hub for legislative campaigns, said Republicans were on the defensive in all but a few states. Citing Democratic turnout in recent special elections, Mr. Walter said Republicans should use the next nine months to sound the alarm bells for their voters.

What we have seen in the special elections is a significant spike in the interest, engagement, spending and energy by the liberal Democrats and progressive movement, Mr. Walter said, adding: The spending is real. The organizational prowess is real. And the energy is real.

That energy was on raucous display last weekend in the Bucks County borough of Newtown, where well over 100 Democrats packed into a red-brick tavern to cheer Steve Santarsiero, a Democrat seeking a State Senate seat left open by a Republicans unexpected retirement. Before a lively breakfast crowd, Mr. Santarsiero needled Mr. Trump and hailed his fellow Democrats running for the legislatures multiplying number of open seats.

Applauding from the front was Helen Tai, an official in nearby Solebury who is running in a May special election for the State House prompted by a Republicans resignation. Democrats nearly swept local elections in four counties outside Philadelphia last November; Ms. Tai said the combination of Republican retirements and liberal enthusiasm had transformed the fight for the legislature.

I wish it was a presidential year, she said. People want to vote. They cant wait to vote.

Adding to Republicans unease are several unresolved lawsuits that could unravel carefully drawn maps in states like North Carolina and Texas. The United States Supreme Court is expected to consider a number of cases involving gerrymandered maps this year, and Jessica Post, executive director of the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, said the group is considering new litigation against state legislative districts in the Pennsylvania courts, which voided a Republican-drawn congressional map last month.

Ms. Post said special elections over the last year had revealed early indicators of the wave.

In many of the biggest purple states, however, Democrats must overcome huge Republican majorities and forbidding legislative maps. In Pennsylvania, Republicans hold 120 seats in the 203-seat State House, and 34 of 50 in the State Senate.KABUL, Afghanistan  The Afghan war takes about five dozen lives a day.

Sometimes, the bodies have just one bullet hole. Other times, after intense explosions, there is no body left at all. In between, families receive pieces of flesh and bones in a sealed coffin  something to help them find closure.

Every once in a while, the dead turn up alive.

Last Monday, on the edges of a crowded Kabul cemetery, friends dug a grave for Ahmad Tameem, 22, a police officer, as about 200 mourners took cover from the snow under a tent. Officer Tameems relatives shouldered his sealed coffin up a winding, muddy lane for a brief final audience with his mother, then lowered him to rest near his fathers grave.

At home, loved ones prepared for the rituals of moving on. Someone opened the door of a cage to set Officer Tameems two pet parrots free. Large, grainy pictures of him were printed with Martyr Ahmad Tameem in red ink. Notices for a memorial service were sent out.

Mohammed Qaseem, Officer Tameems cousin, was buying groceries for a meal after the memorial service when he received a call.KATHMANDU, Nepal  Mount Everest is the tallest mountain in the world, but precisely how tall is it?

Its not such a simple question.

In the past, geologists have disagreed about what to include in their calculations: Should the summits snowcap be included? Or should surveyors drill down to the peaks rock base?

What about the recent earthquakes in Nepal, which geologists believe shrunk the mountain by about three centimeters, or a little more than an inch? Or the fact that wind speed affects how much snow covers the summit at any given time?

Then there is the challenge of geography: Reaching the summit of Everest is only possible a few weeks each year, and measuring the mountains height from sea level has presented difficulties in the past. (Landlocked Nepal is a long way from the nearest shore.)ISLAMABAD, Pakistan  At least 11 soldiers, including an army captain, were killed and 13 others were injured Saturday when a suicide bomber detonated his explosives at a highly guarded army base in northern Pakistan, officials said.

The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, one of the deadliest against the military in recent years. The powerful explosion, which rocked the surrounding area, occurred in the Kabal region of Swat, a picturesque valley in the northern part of the country.

This was the first major terrorist attack in Swat, once a Taliban stronghold, in the past five years, local residents said. The Pakistani military wrested the region from the Taliban in 2009 and has maintained a heavy presence.

The suicide bomber struck Saturday evening while the soldiers were playing volleyball after duty. Officials said they imposed a curfew, cordoned off most local roads and searched for accomplices in the aftermath.The rampage came days after the brutal killing of an 18-year-old woman, Pamela Mastropietro, in Macerata, a crime that shook the city of 42,000 people east of Rome.

Ms. Mastropietros body was found in pieces in two suitcases on Wednesday, and the police arrested a Nigerian man, Innocent Oseghale, the next day. He stands accused of killing her and dismembering her corpse. The arrest quickly became a focal point for anti-migrant sentiments.

On Saturday, officials told reporters there was no indication that Mr. Traini and Ms. Mastropietro had known each other. But Mr. Minniti, the interior minister, said Saturdays shooting strongly recalls a raid of retaliation  a random, armed retaliation.

Maceratas mayor, Romano Carancini, said the connection may not have been direct, but could be ascribable to the campaign of racial hatred that began after Pamelas death.

Nothing so serious had ever happened in Macerata, at least not in living memory, Mr. Carancini said in a telephone interview about Ms. Mastropietros killing. Pamelas death upset and struck a chord in the city, he said, adding that the racial hatred that followed filled people with fear.

Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni told reporters after the shooting that the government would deal severely with anyone trying to stoke racist actions. Hatred and violence wont be able to divide us, he said.Whats changing is the view of American soft power, she added. With Jerusalem and the State of the Union, there is a view that America is no longer doing the right thing and no longer for the right reasons. Its self-interest is explicit, as if it doesnt care, so those who gave Americans the benefit of the doubt no longer do so, and it does damage.

Marc Otte, the former European Union special representative for the Middle East peace process and a senior fellow at the Egmont Institute, Belgiums Royal Institute for International Relations, said that cutting American aid reduces, not enhances, American influence.

But the broader question is whether America is reliable, Mr. Otte said. These are long-term commitments, and what does this mean for the U.N. system, for refugees, for Syria and Yemen if U.N. agencies are constrained.

It creates resentment among other donor countries, too, he said.

As a government, America gives less as a percentage of its gross national income than other countries  only 0.17 percent, well below the 0.3 percent average for developed countries. But because the economy is so large, Americans still provide more foreign aid in total than any other country, and aid cuts do cause disruptions.

Even before the United Nations vote in December against the American decision on Jerusalem, Mr. Trump said he wanted to cut the Obama administrations spending on foreign aid, about $42.4 billion, to $27.3 billion, and fold the United States Agency for International Development into the State Department.

And he warned that he would withhold billions from countries that voted against him. Let them vote against us, he said. Well save a lot. We dont care.Behind the scenes, Egypts top generals have grown steadily closer to their Israeli counterparts since the signing of the Camp David accords 40 years ago, in 1978. Egyptian security forces have helped Israel enforce restrictions on the flow of goods in and out of the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian territory bordering Egypt controlled by the militant group Hamas. And Egyptian and Israeli intelligence agencies have long shared information about militants on both sides of the border.

Israeli officials were concerned in 2012 when Egypt, after its Arab Spring revolt, elected a leader of the Muslim Brotherhood to the presidency. The new president, Mohamed Morsi, pledged to respect the Camp David agreements. But the Israelis worried about the Muslim Brotherhoods ideological kinship with Hamas and its historic hostility to the Jewish state itself.

A year later, Mr. Sisi, then the defense minister, ousted Mr. Morsi in a military takeover. Israel welcomed the change in government and urged Washington to accept it. That solidified the partnership between the generals on both sides of the border.

The North Sinai, a loosely governed region of mountainous desert between the Suez Canal and the Israeli border, became a refuge for Islamist militants in the decade before Mr. Sisi took power. The main jihadist organization, Ansar Beit al Maqdis  the Partisans of Jerusalem  had concentrated on attacking Israel, but after Mr. Sisis takeover it began leading a wave of deadly assaults against Egyptian security forces.

A few weeks after Mr. Sisi took power, in August 2013, two mysterious explosions killed five suspected militants in a district of the North Sinai not far from the Israeli border. The Associated Press reported that unnamed Egyptian officials had said Israeli drones fired missiles that killed the militants, possibly because of Egyptian warnings of a planned cross-border attack on an Israeli airport. (Israel had closed the airport the previous day.)

Mr. Sisis spokesman, Col. Ahmed Ali, denied it. There is no truth in form or in substance to the existence of any Israeli attacks inside Egyptian territory, he said in a statement at the time, promising an investigation. The claims of coordination between the Egyptian and Israeli sides in this matter are totally lacking in truth and go against sense and logic.MOSCOW  A Russian fighter jet was shot down in a rebel-controlled area of Idlib Province in northern Syria on Saturday, Russias Defense Ministry said, adding that the pilot survived the initial attack by parachuting from the plane but was killed by members of a militia on the ground.

The downing of the jet occurred in one of the countrys so-called de-escalation zones established last year by Russia, Iran and Turkey, in an attempt to lessen the bloodshed in Syrias long civil war.

The Russian Su-25 warplane was patrolling the Idlib area when it was struck by a missile, launched from an area controlled by rebels, the ministry said in a statement. The pilot has yet to be identified.

The rebel-held area where the plane was shot down, in the northwest of Idlib Province, is controlled by several different rebel factions, including the Free Syria Army, Islamist groups and Tahrir al-Sham, an Al Qaeda-affiliated alliance.The Undead Archives

I have finally salvaged my pre-Blogger TDR archives and added them into Blogger. They are almost totally in the form of one giant post for each month. And the formatting strayed from the originals. Sorry. But historians everywhere can rejoice that this treasure trove of my thoughts is restored to the world.2 college students run over in Kolkata, mob torches buses, pelt stones

India

oi-Deepika

By Deepika

Two college students mowed down by a bus reportedly jumped signal at Chingrighata crossing on the Eastern Metropolitan Bypass (EM Bypass), an arterial road of Kolkata on Saturday.

The accident occurred at 11 am at the busy Chingrighata crossing. The local people alleged that the bus jumped a traffic signal and hit the two men - Biswajit Bhuiyan and Sanjay Banik, both first-year college students - who live in a locality close to the accident site, PTI reported. The bus driver then fled the spot, reports said.

Soon after the incident, clashes erupted between locals and police in the area.

Agitated mob started pelting stones on cars and at the police that had rushed to the spot.

The police resorted to lathicharge to take a control of the situation.

At least three hours after the incident, with the situation spinning out of control, the police started a "push back" of the angry crowds into the Shantinagar 'bustee' adjacent to the bypass. But as stone pelting continued, police fired teargas shells. Several police personnel were reportedly injured in the brick-batting from rooftops and from the roads, reports NDTV.

Despite caning the agitated mob, the cops were left helpless as protesters set afire four buses, vandalised a police vehicle and attacked a fire engine that came to douse the fire in the buses.

Local Trinamool Congress MLA Sujit Basu, who reached the spot, said senior police officers will speak to the locals to address their grievances.

OneIndia News

For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications

Story first published: Saturday, February 3, 2018, 17:57 [IST]2 Kashmiri students assaulted in Haryana after Friday prayers, J&K CM demands probe

India

oi-Oneindia

By Oneindia

Chandigarh, Feb 3: The assault on two Kashmiri students studying in Haryana on Friday has rattled the nation, once again. In the past, several instances were reported when natives of Jammu and Kashmir, especially students, faced violence and discrimination in different parts of the country.

The latest episode of attack on the two Kashmiri students, studying Geography at the Central University of Haryana in Mahendragarh, about 100 km from New Delhi, reaffirms the threat faced by people of the strife-torn state in India itself.

According to reports the duo was allegedly attacked by a group of at least 15 people after they finished their Friday prayers at a mosque and went to visit a market place in Mahendragarh.

During the attack, miscreants used bricks, stones and helmets to assault the students. The attack was said to have lasted for at least 10 minutes.

"My friend and I had gone to the mosque to offer namaz yesterday. After we came out of the mosque, we noticed some people following us. Just as we were leaving on my motorbike, a group of 15-20 people started to beat us," Aftab, one of the Kashmiri students, was quoted as saying by ANI.

Me&my friend had gone to the mosque to offer namaz y'day,after we came out of the mosque,we noticed some ppl following us.Just as we were leaving on my motorbike,a group of 15-20 people started to beat us: Aftab, Kashmiri student at Central University of #Haryana in Mahenderhgarh pic.twitter.com/1D2N95aJad  ANI (@ANI) February 3, 2018

When the students asked why they were being attacked, the mob did not respond and continued beating them mercilessly which caused severe injuries to them. In fact, several people silently watched the attack and did not come to help the victims.

"No one came forward to help us. Soon after, the police arrived at the spot. We went to the hospital for checkup and returned to the university campus. We told faculty about the incident and lodged a complaint with the university too," added Aftab.

"The Haryana Police has taken cognizance... One of our officers is in touch with the boys as well," said a senior J&K police officer. J&K Director General of Police Shesh Paul Vaid told NDTV that he is in touch with the top cop in Haryana over the case.

Meanwhile, J&K chief minister Mehbooba Mufti has asked her Haryana counterpart, ML Khattar, to ensure strict action.

"Shocked and disturbed to hear reports of Kashmiri students being assaulted in Mahendragarh, Haryana. I urge the authorities to investigate and take strict action," she tweeted, tagging the Haryana CM.

Shocked & disturbed to hear reports of Kashmiri students being assaulted in Mahendargarh, Haryana. I urge the authorities to investigate & take strict action. @mlkhattar  Mehbooba Mufti (@MehboobaMufti) February 2, 2018

Former J&K CM Omar Abdullah tagged Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a tweet and said that the incident goes against the spirit of his outreach for Kashmiris.

"This is terrible & goes against the spirit of what @PMOIndia @narendramodi ji said from the ramparts of the Red Fort. I hope the authorities in Haryana act quickly against this violence."

This is terrible & goes against the spirit of what @PMOIndia @narendramodi ji said from the ramparts of the Red Fort. I hope the authorities in Haryana act quickly against this violence. https://t.co/5vBU2CxHMD  Omar Abdullah (@OmarAbdullah) February 2, 2018

Earlier, Union home minister Rajnath Singh had asked all state governments to ensure safety of Kashmiris.

OneIndia News

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Story first published: Saturday, February 3, 2018, 10:45 [IST]CBI arrests GST commissioner Kanpur, 8 others in alleged bribery case

India

oi-Vicky

By Vicky

The Central Bureau of Investigation has arrested an Indian Revenue Service officer who was the Commission GST, Kanpur and either others. The arrests were made in connection with an alleged bribery scam.

CB sources said that the arrests were made after they received complaints of bribery. It was alleged that the officer Sansar Chand, some superintendents, his personal staff along with some private persons allegedly took bribe from individuals and businessmen. A case has been registered and further investigations are on.

Sources say that they had received several complaints from both individuals and businessmen about bribes being allegedly sought. We worked on these complaints and then proceeded with the case before making the arrests, the source also added.

CBI sources also said that the officer had recently taken a bribe of Rs 1.5 lakh from a local businessman. It is alleged that he along with his two superintendents and of his office personnel along with other individuals were involved in taking bribe from businessmen.

It may be recalled that a senior officer of the Commercial Taxes Department was arrested by the Andhra Pradesh Anti-Corruption Bureau two days back. He was arrested for possessing assets disproportionate to his known source of income.

OneIndia NewsIs Shatrughan Sinhas triple talaq jibe against BJP derogatory towards Muslim women?

India

oi-Oneindia

By Oneindia

New Delhi, Feb 3: It is understandable that actor-turned-politician Shatrughan Sinha is mighty miffed with his own party--the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). He has his own reasons for his unhappiness towards his party, some of which are genuine ones and the nation too shares the same grouses against the ruling party at the Centre.

But how fair is it for the Bihar Member of Parliament (MP) to mock the BJP with the triple talaq jibe?

After the BJP lost all the three seats in the recent bypolls in Rajasthan, the veteran leader and former minister decided to once again attack his party. This time, Sinha used the "triple talaq" jibe to attack the BJP on Friday. He said Rajasthan had become the first state to give the BJP "triple talaq".

"Breaking news with record breaking disastrous results for ruling party--Rajasthan becomes first state to give BJP Triple Talaq. Ajmer: Talaq, Alwar: Talaq, Mandalgarh: Talaq. Our opponents winning the elections with record margins, giving our party a jolt," Sinha said in his latest tweet on Friday.

In another tweet, the BJP MP from Patna Sahib in Bihar warned the party over its defeat in Rajasthan. "Better late than never, otherwise the disastrous results could or would be soon reformed as Tata-Bye-Bye results. Wake up BJP. Jai Hind."

Breaking news with record breaking disastrous results for ruling party - Rajasthan becomes first state to give BJP Triple Talaq. Ajmer: Talaq,Alwar : Talaq ,Mandalgarh: Talaq. Our opponents winning the elections with record margins, giving our party a jolt. 1>2  Shatrughan Sinha (@ShatruganSinha) February 2, 2018

Better late than never, otherwise the disastrous results could or would be soon reformed as Tata-Bye-Bye results. Wake up BJP. Jai Hind.@>2,  Shatrughan Sinha (@ShatruganSinha) February 2, 2018

The entire triple talaq issue is a sensitive one. On August 22 last year, the Supreme Court banned the instant triple talaq (the practice under which a Muslim man can divorce his wife by simply uttering the word "talaq" three times) calling it unconstitutional.

The triple talaq bill will be once again tabled in the Rajya Sabha during the ongoing Budget Session of Parliament. In the Winter Session of Parliament, the triple talaq bill got stuck in the Rajya Sabha after opposition parties demanded that it should be first sent to a select committee for review.

The bill got passed in the Lok Sabha without much protest as the ruling BJP enjoys a majority in the Lower House of Parliament. Now, the bill has to be passed by the Upper House of Parliament, Rajya Sabha, to become a law.

The passage of the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill will make the practice of triple talaq criminal.

While a majority of Muslim women want a ban on triple talaq which has ruined the lives of several women and families, various Muslim groups and religious heads opposed an end to triple talaq citing interference with their religion. The political parties, including the Congress, are opposing the bill as it criminalises triple talaq.

However, the BJP is determined to pass the triple talaq bill in Parliament, no matter what comes on its way. In fact, the BJP under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been steadfastly supporting the cause of Muslim women to end the cruel practice of triple talaq.

The critics of BJP say that the saffron party which is known to be a party of the Hindus is using the issue of triple talaq to attack the Muslim community, especially its men, in the name of women empowerment.

Since the whole debate has a strong religious tone to it and is a matter of women's rights, Sinha's use of triple talaq jibe against the BJP sounds anti-women and anti-Muslim.

With the latest jibe, the actor-politician indirectly endorsed the "medieval" practice of men unilaterally divorcing their wives without following any proper rule.

In the same tweet, the parliamentarian seemed to be making fun of the controversial topic which has the potential of further relegating the Muslim community to the background under the current BJP regime.

On Monday, when the results of Rajasthan bypolls were declared, the Congress won both the parliamentary seats--Alwar and Ajmer--and the assembly seat in Mandalgarh.

For the last several months, Sinha has been openly criticising the BJP over various issues. In fact, unconfirmed reports say the party wants to suspend him. However, the party is not taking any action against the actor-politician fearing backlash from voters as Sinha is a popular leader.

He and former finance minister Yashwant Sinha have been causing a lot of embarrassment to the BJP because of their frequent criticism against the party and its top leadership, including PM Modi. It is said that both of them are raising a revolt against the BJP as they have been denied any post in the Modi cabinet.

The former finance minister on Tuesday launched a political action group--Rashtra Manch. The actor-turned-politician too joined the group. The Rashtra Manch has leaders from various parties and is said to be a "united front" against the Modi government at the Centre.

OneIndia News

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Story first published: Saturday, February 3, 2018, 9:10 [IST]Karni Sena withdraws protest against Padmaavat: What led to the U-turn?

India

oi-Oneindia

By Oneindia

Mumbai, Feb 3: Strange, isn't it? After staging violent protests and threatening to kill and harm some of Bollywood's biggest names, the Shri Rajput Karni Sena has finally decided to withdraw its protest against the controversial film, Padmaavat, on Friday.

Now, what led to the change of heart? The 'ruthless' Hindu right-wing group, which exclusively works for Rajputs and headquartered in Rajasthan, announced that the film glorifies the valour of the community and thus ended the protest against it.

In fact, protests against the film, which started during the making of Padmaavat last year, were triggered by the fact that the Bollywood period drama allegedly hurt the sentiments of the Rajput community and Hindus in general by depicting Rajputs (especially women) in bad light.

All the protests against the film which hit several states, mostly ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), started by the Shri Rajput Karni Sena and other Hindu right-wing groups without even watching the film, which was earlier named as Padmavati.

In spite of ban imposed on the film by several states, Padmaavat finally managed to get released on January 25 after the Supreme Court intervened. However, the Shri Rajput Karni Sena continued with its protest asking for a pan-India ban on the film, because of which Padmaavat has not been released in a few states till now.

Informing about the withdrawal of protest against Padmaavat, Yogendra Singh Katar, Mumbai leader of the Shri Rajput Karni Sena, told that on the directions of organisation's national president Sukhdev Singh Gogamadi, a few members watched the movie in Mumbai on Friday.

He added that they found that the movie glorifies the valour and sacrifice of Rajput and every Rajput will be feeling proud after watching the film.

"There is no such objectionable scene between Delhi Sultanate ruler Alauddin Khilji and Queen Padmini of Mewar which hurts the sentiments of Rajputs, he said in a letter, declaring that the Shri Rajput Karni Sena takes back their protest and will help the administration to release the film in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat as well as across all cinema houses in India," stated a report by IANS.

Well, all's well that ends well.

OneIndia News

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Story first published: Saturday, February 3, 2018, 6:50 [IST]LeT militants held in Kashmir got visas from Pakistan High Commission in Delhi

India

oi-PTI

Security forces have arrested two Pakistan-trained Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) militants in north Kashmir's Baramulla district, police said on Saturday.

The militants, who had gone to Pakistan on valid Pakistani visa to obtain arms training to undertake terrorist activities in the Valley, were arrested during a joint operation by the police, army and the CRPF, a police spokesman said.

He said the militants had obtained their passports specifically for the said purpose.

"These militants of Lashkar-e-Taiba were nabbed immediately after returning via the Wagah-Attari border before they could formally join the militant ranks here in Kashmir," he said, identifying the arrested as Abdul Majeed Bhat, resident of Kreeri, and Mohammad Ashraf Mir, from Pattan.

On questioning, the duo revealed "they underwent training in Pakistan along with a large number of Pakistani boys, most of whom were from Balochistan and as young as 10," the spokesperson said.

"The said terrorist training camps are located near Burma Town, in Islamabad, and being run by a terrorist commander operating under code names Hanzala, Adanan and Omar. Other terrorists imparting training to young boys are operating with code names Osama, Naveed and Hataf," he said.

The arrested militants were given Pakistani visas by the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi, the spokesperson said.

"It's pertinent to mention that in the past couple of years, police have unearthed several such modules that lure young boys to Pakistan to get trained and join militancy. In the past, several such boys have been arrested, while some of them were killed in encounters," he added.

A case was registered and an investigation underway, the official said.

"Parents are requested to keep watch on their wards. Their prolonged absence from home should be immediately reported to police so that lives of these boys can be saved," he added.

PTI

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Story first published: Saturday, February 3, 2018, 20:11 [IST]Protection money: How Hurriyat played the role of an underworld in Kashmir

India

oi-Vicky

By Vicky

It would not be entirely wrong to call the Hurriyat Conference as the underworld of Kashmir. The Hurriyat which finds a place in the chargesheet filed by the National Investigation Agency relied on protection money practise to raise funds to foment both terror and unrest in the Kashmir Valley, the chargesheet states.

Money was collected by the Rukuns of the Hurriyat. The Rukuns are the core team of the Hurriyat which went about threatening businessmen and apple growers in the Valley for funds. The chargesheet filed by the NIA states that they would collect anything between Rs 5 and 10 lakh and if anyone failed to cough up the amount, they would be threatened with dire consequences.

The Hurriyat divided itself into various wings. Planners, strategists, stone pelters, fund raisers and logistic managers. The NIA explains that this helped the Hurriyat plan and also stage the violence in the Valley.

In the 12,000 plus page chargesheet, the NIA states that these wings of the Hurriyat would plan and strategise on how to keep the Valley on the boil. While the Rukuns would collect protection money, there would be planners who would with the approval of Pakistan instigate students and the youth to indulge in violence.

Another interesting modus operandi that came to light during the probe was the roping in of students. The Hurriyat would meet thousands of students and recommend to them that they should complete their education in Pakistan. The target was primarily on those who wanted to pursue engineering, medicine and technocrats.

The Hurriyat would then recommend to the Pakistan High Commission the names of these students. Based on the recommendations over the past few years thousands of students have been given visas in Pakistan to study.

The NIA learnt that this was a nexus between the ISI, Hurriyat and the high commission officials. The ISI would insist that thousands of students are sent to Pakistan to study.

The NIA says that this was done so that the students develop affection towards Pakistan. Such persons especially the educated class would then be used to brainwash the youth in Kashmir into believing that their future lies in Pakistan.

OneIndia News

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Story first published: Saturday, February 3, 2018, 7:46 [IST]There is more to come: Karni Sena chief denies withdrawal of Padmaavat protests

India

oi-Deepika

By Deepika

Shree Rajput Karni Sena chief Lokendra Singh Kalvi on Saturday dismissed reports that his outfit has withdrawn protests against Padmaavat.

"There are many fake Karni Senas emerging in India. At present there are eight such entities operating in the country with vested interests," Kalvi told news agency IANS.

He also said that his group has made the BJP pay - via its loss in the Rajasthan bypolls - for not respecting the sentiments of the protesting Rajputs.

He also cautioned about the fake Kari Sena groups, that has been on the rise and making false statements.The clarification came a day after news reports said the Mumbai branch of 'Shree Rashtriya Rajput Karni Sena' had withdrawn their protest against the film.

Kalvi heads Shree Rajput Karni Sena and Gogamedi is the chief of the other group with similar name - Shree Rashtriya Rajput Karni Sena.

The Mumbai branch of Gogamedi's group had issued a letter to the production house behind the film, stating their protest is withdrawn after its members found that the movie glorified Rajputs.

The letter, signed by Mumbai leader Yogendra Singh, stated that the group's members watched the film and decided to withdraw the protest unconditionally.

However, Gogamedi said today no such direction was issued to the Mumbai branch.

"I have issued no such direction and our protest is continuing. I have expelled all of them whose names and signatures are on the letter," he told reporters here.

"The letter is being circulated on social media and misleading the public. The letter is not authentic," he said.

The protest against the film - based on the saga of the historic battle of 13th century between Maharaja Ratan Singh and his army of Mewar and Sultan Alauddin Khilji of Delhi - is spearheaded by Shree Rajput Karni Sena chief patron Kalvi.

The other group has also protested against the film over similar grounds, that the movie allegedly distorted history.

Kalvi said his group is still opposed to the film and the "janta curfew" it has imposed at movie theatres will continue. "There were two issues: one related with faith and the other with history. The filmmaker has made changes to the film to respect the faith of the Rajput community but distortion of historic facts is still there in the film," he told reporters at a separate press conference. He said the protest has not been withdrawn.

However, Kalvi clarified the group will not oppose the special screening of the film at a theatre in Jodhpur, where a high court judge is scheduled to watch it on Monday in connection with a case against director Sanjay Leela Bhansali.

All the protests against the film which hit several states, mostly ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), started by the Shri Rajput Karni Sena and other Hindu right-wing groups without even watching the film, which was earlier named as Padmavati.

In spite of ban imposed on the film by several states, Padmaavat finally managed to get released on January 25 after the Supreme Court intervened. However, the Shri Rajput Karni Sena continued with its protest asking for a pan-India ban on the film, because of which Padmaavat has not been released in a few states till now.

OneIndia NewsUnrest in Kashmir: How Pakistan High Commission planned it in Delhi

India

oi-Vicky

By Vicky

The National Investigation Agency said in its chargesheet that the role of the Pakistan high commission in fuelling the unrest is complicit. The 12,000 plus page chargesheet filed by the National Investigation Agency, details the role played by the High Commission.

What is most ironic is that a lot of the planning took place in New Delhi where the Pakistan High Commission is based. Through 2016-17, the High Commission organised several functions.

For each of these functions, the Hurriyat leaders were invited the NIA says. It was during these functions that the Hurriyat was given directions on how to go about the unrest. Apart from details on how to go about the unrest, funds too were passed on, the NIA says.

Details of these meetings came to light following the seizure of documents from one Ghulam Mohammad Bhat, a close aide of Zahoor Watali. The NIA names Watali as the primary mover of money. A businessman from Kashmir, Watali was involved in cross-border trade and also played the middleman to receive funds were channelised through Saudi Arabia.

There were also several instances when the Hurriyat leaders got the funds directly from the Pakistan High Commission. An NIA officer part of the probe said that there was gross misuse of office by the High Commission officials.

It may be recalled an official in the Commission, Mebhoob Akthar was declared persona non grata after he caught receiving sensitive documents pertaining to national security. The official was expelled to Pakistan, but the NIA chargesheet does not name him as he enjoyed diplomatic immunity.

OneIndia News

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Story first published: Saturday, February 3, 2018, 11:02 [IST]Richwood, TX (77531)

Today

Cloudy with periods of rain. High 86F. Winds ENE at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 80%. Rainfall around a quarter of an inch..

Tonight

Rain. Potential for heavy rainfall. Low 76F. Winds SE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 90%. Rainfall near a half an inch.Biden says another terror attack likely in 24-36 hours, vows to keep up airstrikes against ISIS

PM Modi likely to visit US later this month

US Air Force chief flies 'Made in India's Tejas aircraft in Jodhpur

India

oi-Deepika

By Deepika

The Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force, General David L Goldfein, on Saturday flew a sortie in the indigenous Light Combat Aircraft Tejas at the IAF station in Jodhpur, Rajasthan.

The US General, who was accompanied by General Terrence O'Shaughnessy, Commander of the US Pacific Air Force is on an official visit to India.

Goldfein, who arrived on Friday, was accompanied by Air Vice Marshal A P Singh as co-pilot during the sortie, defence officials said.

"General David L Goldfein, Chief of Staff of the US Air Force, is on an official visit to India. He flew a sortie in #MadeinIndia LCA Tejas aircraft at AF Stn Jodhpur today," the IAF said on Twitter.

With this, Goldfein also became the first foreign military chief to fly Tejas aircraft.

Earlier, General Goldfein had stressed on the "strong relationship" between the two air forces.

"We look forward to deepening the relationship between our two air forces," he said in his posts on Twitter and Facebook.

OneIndia News

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Story first published: Saturday, February 3, 2018, 20:48 [IST]Nothing left of the Left: Jokes that broke the internet today

Will BJP be the lone political party to contest Nagaland Assembly elections?

India

oi-Oneindia

By Oneindia

Kohima, Feb 3: The political stalemate in poll-bound Nagaland is baffling. While all the major political parties have boycotted the upcoming Nagaland Assembly elections, it seems only the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is going to contest the polls.

The elections for the 60-member state Assembly are slated on February 27. In January, the Election Commission (EC) announced poll dates for three Northeastern states--Nagaland, Meghalaya and Tripura.

While Nagaland and Meghalaya elections are scheduled on February 27, voting will take place in Tripura on February 18.

On Monday, all 11 political parties in the hill state decided to boycott the polls. The BJP was also part of the election boycott brigade. However, later the state unit of the saffron party decided to take part in the polls following instructions from the party's "high command" in Delhi.

The decision to boycott the elections is based on the popular sentiment that the Centre should first resolve the seven-decade long Naga political problem before conducting elections for the 13th state legislative assembly.

Thus, all political parties have not fielded any candidates till now for the elections. No candidate filed papers on Friday, the third day of filing of nominations for the February 27 Nagaland Assembly election, officials said.

The filing of nominations in the north-eastern started following the issuance of the poll notification by the Election Commission (EC) on January 31.

The Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of Nagaland, Abhijit Sinha, said no candidate had filed nominations for the election so far. The last date of filing of nominations is February 7.

The media cell convener of the BJP's Nagaland unit, K James Vizo, on Thursday said that after a thorough deliberation, "it was agreed upon that the BJP would contest the election as scheduled for the cause of a solution in the state."

The BJP, an ally of the ruling Naga People's Front (NPF), is yet to finalise its candidates, while both the parties have not come to any conclusion on seat-sharing for the election to the 60-member state Assembly.

Vizo said the party leaders were holding discussions with the national leaders to finalise the candidates, while talks were also going on with the NPF over seat-sharing.

Rajya Sabha member and NPF secretary general KG Kenye said the party had entrusted its president, Shurhozelie Liezietsu, and Chief Minister TR Zeliang with the task of finalising the candidates and taking a decision on seat- sharing with the BJP.

Except for the BJP, no political party in Nagaland, including the NPF and opposition Congress, has made any official statement on contesting the polls. But they have said they will file nominations if any party does so first.

"The NPF, as a party, has solemnly pledged its allegiance to the principle of socialism, secularism and democracy. However, our commitment towards a solution to the Naga political issue shall continue as in the past," a party statement said.

Nagaland Congress secretary Moa Imchen told PTI that the first list of the party's candidates was approved by the All India Congress Committee (AICC), but the party would stand firm on its commitment that unless the other parties filed nominations, it would not do so.

Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party's (NDPP) working president Nuzota Swuro said, "We are mentally and physically prepared to contest the election, but everything depends on the filing of nominations by the other political parties."

JD(U) Nagaland convener Senchumo NSN Lotha said the party was preparing to contest from at least 10 seats, if the polls were held.

The Core Committee of Nagaland Tribal Hoho and Civil Organisation (CCNTHCO) has asked the presidents and office- bearers of all the apex tribal bodies and civil society organisations to attend a meeting in Kohima on Saturday to chart the future course of action.

A joint declaration was signed by all the political parties in the state on Monday not to contest the polls, in solidarity with the call of the Naga tribal organisations and civil society.

But the BJP backed out the next day, stating that the final call on the issue would be taken by its central leaders.

In the recent times, especially after assurances from central leaders, including Centre's interlocutor in the Naga peace talks RN Ravi, there has been a renewed hope for lasting peace in the state.

However, after the election date was announced recently, all their hopes were dashed to the ground. The people of the state feel that once again they are being cheated as the peace process got postponed in the wake of elections.

The powerful tribal bodies and civil society organisations have been demanding signing of the Naga peace deal before the elections. With the latest declaration of boycott of elections, political uncertainty prevails in Nagaland.

Nagaland Assembly Party 2013 Current Standing NPF 38 45 Election Date : Feb 27 2018

Counting : Mar 03 2018 IND 08 08 CONG 08 00 NCP 04 01 BJP 01 04 JDU 01 01 OTHERS 00 00 Total 60 59 (1 Vacant)

OneIndia NewsItaly: 4 injured in drive-by shooting in Macerata city

International

oi-Chennabasaveshwar

By Chennabasaveshwar

At least four people have been injured in a drive-by shooting in Italy on Saturday morning. A man and a passenger drove around the town of Macerata, opening fire at various places including near the train station as police gave chase.

The mayor of the town tweeted advice to residents to 'stay at home' while the suspects were at large.

Italian news reports said that the car contained two people. Macerata's mayor has urged citizens to stay indoors Saturday while the suspects remain at-large. The ANSA news agency reported four victims have been wounded while Sky TG24 put the number of wounded at two.

(With agency inputs)

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Story first published: Saturday, February 3, 2018, 18:09 [IST]BMC issues new guidelines: Cops at entrance of sealed buildings, marshals to ensure masks in Mumbai

Tanker with 22 Indian sailors goes missing off Africa, hijack feared

International

oi-Deepika

By Deepika

A tanker vessel with 22 Indians, has been lost at sea for over 48 hours off the coast of the West African country, Benin.

It is suspected the vessel MT Marine Express, carrying 13,500 tonnes of gasoline, may have been hijacked for ransom or attacked by pirates for the gas.

The vessel, MT Marine Express, is the second ship to have gone missing in as many months in this region.

We regret that contact has been lost with the AE-managed MT Marine Express while at Cotonou, Benin. Last contact was at 03:30 UTC, Feb 1. Authorities have been alerted and are responding. Our top priority is the safety of the crew, whose families have been contacted. Updates TBA.  Anglo-Eastern (@angloeasterngrp) February 2, 2018

The cargo is valued at Rs 52 crore, according to a report in Mid-day.

The last anyone heard from MT Marine Express was at 6.30 pm on January 31, when it was anchored at Cotonou, Benin. The next day, at 2.36 am, satellite tracking showed the ship missing from anchorage in the Gulf of Guinea, reports Mid-day.

India has sought the help of the navies of Nigeria and Benin to find the ship. "They are conducting search operations now," he said. Without getting in touch with the crew, the official said it was not possible to make a guess on what happened to the vessel.

The directorate general of shipping (DGS) and the Ministry of Shipping have also contacted their counterparts in Nigeria and Benin to help locate the missing vessel.

OneIndia News

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Story first published: Saturday, February 3, 2018, 16:35 [IST]Would you like to know how many people have read this article? Or how reputable the author is? Simply sign up for a Advocate premium membership and you'll automatically see this data on every article. Plus a lot more, too.

President Trump in his State of the Union address to his Congressional audience Jan. 30 was very clear: the United States is bitterly and implacably hostile toward North Korea. His message was unmistakable and chilling as the U.S. increases its military forces in the Pacific.

What's known as fifth-generation (5G) wireless technology will be very publicly launched at the South Korea Winter Olympics. International scientists and physicians have warned that 5G must be stopped due to the public-health danger. Acute and dramatic health problems can result from radiofrequency radiation exposure in general, and 5G has not been safety tested. If unusual health problems occur at the Olympics, will they be falsely attributed to an attack by North Korea, rather than telecom-industry recklessness? The United States stands ready to act against North Korea with the slightest provocation without heed to facts. The world is in grave danger. This is the background.

The dangerous experiment

One of the first large-scale experiments of 5G will be held at the Winter Olympics in South Korea in February 2018. Visitors, athletes, and nearby residents at PyeongChang will at ground zero -- test subjects for new 5th-generation wireless technologies.

Scientists and medical professionals have repeatedly warned about 5G hazards.

At a NIH/NIEHS co-sponsored conference in 2017, researchers showed how the very short millimeter waves of 5G frequencies are deeply absorbed by the skin's sweat ducts.[1] Military and police use 5G frequencies for "active denial" systems, which cause excruciating burning sensations. Researchers also warned about the nerve receptors in our skin for cardiac and other critical bodily functions. Heart-function disruption, for example, could occur from exposure to 5G frequencies. Researcher Paul Ben Ishai said that authorities and manufacturers are not interested in this information.

The frequencies in use at PyeongChang will be the 600-900MHz, 3.3-4.2GHz, 4.4-4.9GHz, 5.1-5.9GHz, 28GHz, and 39GHz spectrum bands [2]

Working with Intel, Ericsson, and other partners, Korea Telecom has installed new base stations (cell towers) and developed new 5G-enabling tablets and mobile handsets for the Olympics. With the 5G system, base stations will aim microwave beams directly at individual users. [3]

5G radiation, beam forming and phased arrays

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In recent comments about US immigration policy, President Trump indicated a strong preference for Norwegians over immigrants from various countries closer to the equator. "We should have more people from Norway," he declared, not from "shitholes" like Haiti, El Salvador and African nations. Not lost on observers is the fact that Norway is 99% white while those other countries are heavily populated by people of color. Also not lost is Trump's documented history of racist actions and comments. [1]

But why would any Norwegian want to immigrate to the United States? In 2016 a mere 362 Norwegians immigrated here, from a country of 5,232,930. [2] And that should come as no surprise: By almost any measure, Norwegians enjoy a higher quality of life right at home than they would here in the US. Consider these international rankings:

Prosperity. Norway is the most prosperous nation on earth while the US ranks only 18th. [3] In quality of life Norway exceeds all other 38 OECD countries while the US ranks ninth. [4]

Happiness. According to the World Happiness Index, Norwegians are the #1 happiest people in the world while Americans rank only #14. [5] This should come as no surprise, as Norway is also best in the world in human development. [6]

Democracy. Norway is also the #1 most democratic country in the world, while the US comes in at #21. [7] In fact the Economist Intelligence Unit now ranks the United States as a "flawed democracy." This is due in part to perceived corruption, with the US ranking only 18th in the world on that score (compared to Norway at #5).

Gender equality. Norway is a particularly good place for women and families. It ranks number 1 in the world on the health of mothers and children index, [8] and number 2 in gender equality (vs. the US at #49). [9] The country is led by a female prime minister and half the cabinet is comprised of women.

Income inequality. Income inequality correlates highly was a host of social ills including obesity, drug use, infant mortality, reduced life expectancy, teenage pregnancy, social immobility, mental illness, high rate of incarceration, etc. [10] Not surprisingly, the US, which has the highest degree of income inequality in the developed world, [11] suffers from all these ills. Norway, meanwhile, has the lowest degree of income inequality and the highest degree of corresponding benefits.

Press freedom. Norway has the most press freedom of any country in the world; the US ranks only 43rd. Even such African 'shitholes' as Burkina Faso, South Africa, Ghana, and Namibia have more freedom of the press than we do! [12]

Freedom. What about freedom more generally, including political rights and civil liberties? Aren't we at least the "land of freedom"? That's what our politicians and mythmakers keep telling us. Unfortunately, Freedom House's 2018 rankings put the US at only 53rd out of 210 countries, a status surpassed by most Caribbean island nations and even several former Soviet republics, among others. [13] Who's number 1? Norway, of course!

Given such facts, it's hard to imagine why many Norwegians would want to emigrate to the United States, even if Mr. Trump opened the gates wide to them. Thus, instead of encouraging Norwegians to come here, what he should do is promote changes here at home that would make the US more like Norway! Things like affordable universal healthcare, free public education, more progressive tax policy, and better worker compensation. Or more gender equality. If women had more political power we might well have better healthcare, public education, tax policy and worker compensation. And if we did, we would no longer have the worst income inequality in the developed world and all the ills that come with it. If we enacted some controls on corporate money in politics, we would have less corruption and more democracy. If we had stronger environmental protections, we would have a healthier citizenry. If we had a peace-oriented foreign policy, we would engender less violence at home and abroad and have a happier, more peaceful citizenry.

Unfortunately, based on past performance, it's unlikely that Donald Trump cares about any of these things or will do anything about them. His comment about wanting "more people from Norway" was likely inspired by the simple fact Norway is one of the whitest countries in the world. For a racist like Donald Trump, that may be all that really matters. And with Congress being controlled by Trump supporters and enablers, it's hard to see anything changing anytime soon.

Author bio : Tom Huckin is an emeritus professor of Writing and Rhetoric Studies at the University of Utah and a community activist in Salt Lake City. He specializes in the study of contemporary US propaganda and has authored numerous scholarly papers and book chapters on the subject. He can be reached at tomhuckin@comcast.net.





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Protester at 2018 Philadelphia Women's March

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I can't really blame President Trump for systematically ridding himself of as many Justice Department employees as needed in order to extricate himself from the "Russia investigation." After all, it's the natural thing to do. Whether the firings help or not remains to be seen. What does seem obvious, given the boss's reluctance, even now, to sanction Putin and his cronies, is that Mr. Trump is the Russian premier's "man," some would say "lackey," cultivated for many years with laundered Russian mob money and other favors.

Unlike his son-in-law, however, it seems that Boss Trump actually admires his benefactor, just as he does other dictators from the Philippines, Turkey, and the Ukraine. The real question is when will Mr. Putin decide that Mr. Trump is no longer a valuable asset, cash in his chips and leave his mutilated victim and his presidency by the side of the road? My guess is that the little Russian tsar will wait until Trump, Nunes, Ryan and the rest of the mindless GOP termites add the destruction of the FBI and the Justice Department to the growing list of federal agencies and democratic institutions they have already helped their real master to so severely undermine.

No wonder so many law and order arch conservatives like Corker, Flake and even Trey Gowdy are abandoning ship before the rancid odor of the GOP gradually becomes immune to the cheap perfume of token middle class tax cuts, race baiting, and anti immigration slurs which smell so sweet to its base. And, sooner or later even the Lindsey Grahams and John McCains, legitimate patriots, will finally realize that the gravest threats to democracy cannot be averted by simply increasing our military strength.Would you like to know how many people have read this article? Or how reputable the author is? Simply sign up for a Advocate premium membership and you'll automatically see this data on every article. Plus a lot more, too.

From Paul Craig Roberts Website



Nuclear

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The government of the United States is clearly in demonic hands. We are overflowing with proof. Take today (2-2-18) for example. A report from the House Intelligence Committee was released that is proof that the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Department of Justice (sic), and the Democratic National Committee are engaged in a conspiracy against American democracy and the President of the United States with the full support of the presstitute media.

As if that is not enough, also released today is the Pentagon's new Nuclear Posture Review. A nuclear posture review specifies a country's attitude toward nuclear weapons and their use. In past posture reviews, nuclear weapons were regarded as unusable except in retaliation for a nuclear attack. The assumption was that no one would use them. There was always the possibility that false warnings of incoming ICBMs would result in the nuclear button being pushed, thus setting off Armageddon. There were many false warnings during the Cold War. President Ronald Reagan was very concerned about a false warning resulting in mass death and destruction. This is why his principal goal was to end the Cold War, which he succeeded in doing. It did not take successor governments long to resurrect the Cold War.

The new US nuclear posture is a reckless, irresponsible, and destabilizing departure from the previous attitude toward nuclear weapons. The use of even a small part of the existing arsenal of the United States would be sufficient to destroy life on earth. Yet, the posture review calls for more weapons, speaks of nuclear weapons as "usable," and justifies their use in First Strikes even against countries that do not have nuclear weapons.

This is an insane escalation. It tells every country that the US government believes in the first use of nuclear weapons against any and every country. Nuclear powers such as Russia and China must see this to be a massive increase in the threat level from the United States. Those responsible for this document should be committed to insane aslyums, not left in policy positions where they can put it into action.

President Trump is being blamed for the aggressive US nuclear posture announced today. However, the document is a neoconservative product. Trump, perhaps, could have prevented the document's release, but under pressure as he is by the accusation that he conspired with Putin to steal the US presidential election from Hillary, Trump cannot afford to antagonize the neoconized Pentagon.

The neoconservatives are a small group of conspirators. Most are Zionist Jews allied with Israel. Some are dual-citizens. They created an ideology of American world hegemony, specifying that the chief goal of US foreign policy is to prevent the rise of any other power that could serve as a constraint on US unilateralism. As neoconservatives control US foreign policy, this explains US hostility toward Russia and China and also the neoconservatives' use of the US military to remove governments in the Middle East regarded by Israel as obstacles to Israeli expansion. For two decades the US has been fighting wars for Israel in the Middle East. This fact proves the power and influence of the insane neoconservatives. It is certain that people as insane as the neoconservatives would launch a nuclear attack on Russia and China. The Russian and Chinese governments seem to be completely unaware of the threat that the neoconservatives pose to them. I have never experienced in my interviews with Russians and Chinese any awareness of the neoconservative ideology. Possibly, it is too insane for them to grasp.

Ideologues such as the neoconservatives are not fact-based. They are chasing their dream of world hegemony. Russia and China are in the way of this hegemony. Having learned the limits of US conventional military power -- after 16 years the US "superpower" has been unable to defeat a few thousand lightly armed Taliban in Afghanistan -- the neoconservatives know that conventional invasions of Russia or China would lead to the total defeat of US forces. Therefore, the neoconservatives have elevated nuclear weapons to a First Strike, usable, arsenal that in the neoconservative dream of world hegemony can be used to destroy Russia and China.

Ideologues who divorce themselves from the facts create a virtual world for themselves. Their belief in their ideology blinds them to the risks for themselves and others that they impose on the world.

It is clear enough that without the utterly corrupt Obama Department of Justice (sic) and FBI, the utterly corrupt Clinton-controlled Democratic National Committee, and the utterly corrupt American and European presstitute media working to destroy Trump's presidency by framing him up as "a Russian agent," President Trump, understanding that the Pentagon's posture review would worsen, not normalize, relations with Russia, would have deep-sixed the demonic document that threatens all life on earth.

Thanks to the American liberal/progressive/left, the entirely of the world is faced with a far more likely nuclear demise than ever threatened us during the Cold War with the Soviet Union.

By its collaboration with the military/security complex and the corrupt Hillary DNC, the liberal/progressive/left has forever discredited itself. It is now seen by every thinking person worldwide as an insane propaganda ministry for the neoconservatives' plan to use nuclear weapons to eliminate constraints on US unilateralism. The liberal/progressive/left has endorsed "hegemony or death."

They will get death. For all of us.Would you like to know how many people have read this article? Or how reputable the author is? Simply sign up for a Advocate premium membership and you'll automatically see this data on every article. Plus a lot more, too.

From Alternet

Recent signals from the Court suggest extreme politics may step on voting rights.

The U.S. Supreme Court, dominated by a Republican-appointed majority, is poised to issue a series of voting rights rulings this spring that will set the stage for elections for years to come.



The majority of these cases involve gerrymandering -- a process in which legislatures, in states with one-party rule, draw electoral districts to lock down their power after the once-a-decade U.S. Census. They do that by aggressively segregating reliable voters, typically "packing" their base into easily won seats; while "cracking" their opponent's voters into multiple districts. Such mapmaking can give its author's party a starting-line advantage of 6 percent or more with likely voter turnout.

There are two kinds of gerrymandering cases before the Supreme Court. Both date to maps drawn in 2011. The first concerns race-based cracking and packing, which is illegal, but has been used by the GOP in Texas (where a case that's been litigated for years will finally be heard) and in North Carolina (where the Court last year ruled against the GOP; but that was before Justice Neil Gorsuch was seated). The second category concerns excessive partisanship, which lower federal and state courts have found goes beyond politics-as-usual and is unconstitutional.

Voting rights advocates hope those federal and state rulings would give the Supreme Court some comfort in reining in excessive partisan gerrymanders. But recent signs suggest the opposite may be in the works. Predicting what the Court will do is dicey. But the worrisome signs are coming from a series of gerrymandering-based appeals that have landed on the Court's door since December. The Court has added new cases and issued orders in others -- recent moves that make advocates of more open elections nervous.



Those gerrymander butterflies come after an early January Supreme Court hearing in a case about the GOP's overly aggressive voter purges in Ohio, which investigative reporters at Reuters showed were aimed at undermining the state's urban-centered Democratic turnout. In that case, too, the Court's swing justices appeared to ignore the purge's partisan motives.



Taken together, the signals--as seen in orders in gerrymandering cases and comments from the bench during the Ohio voter purge case--suggest the Supreme Court could soon issue what could be anti-democratic rulings affecting the 2018 election, the 2020 election and the drawing of political maps for the 2020 decade.





In 2000, the Supreme Court stopped a presidential recount in Florida. It ignored one section of the U.S. Constitution saying elections are to be state-run and instead held that differing recount protocols in different Florida counties meant that the presidential candidates were not being treated equally under the law (another constitutional guarantee). Besides appointing George W. Bush president, that rationale and intervention astonished the legal profession and the public.



In recent days, the Court is suggesting it may again assert itself in a big case where the issues involve state elections and a state constitution -- in other words, where there's no federal role or law. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court recently concluded that the U.S. House districts drawn by Republican legislators in 2011 were unconstitutional under its state Constitution. Pennsylvania Republicans appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, leading Justice Samuel Alito to order both sides to prepare legal briefs.



As Mark Stern wrote in an analysis for Slate, "Because the Pennsylvania Supreme Court decision involved only state law, Alito should've denied the request outright. Instead, he has ordered voting rights advocates to respond, raising the real possibility that a majority of the justices will vote to halt the ruling. If they do, the intervention will mark an extraordinary expansion of the court's power to prevent states from protecting their residents' voting rights."



Stern explained further:

"To understand why the U.S. Supreme Court's intrusion would be so radical here, it's important to remember a key feature of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court's holding. The court did not rule that the state's gerrymander infringes upon any provision of the U.S. Constitution. Instead, the court held that partisan redistricting runs afoul of the Pennsylvania Constitution, which guarantees 'free and equal' elections as well as an unusually robust right to free expression and association. These protections go beyond the rights of free speech and suffrage contained in the U.S. Constitution... "And yet, here we are: Alito indicated that he takes this appeal seriously by ordering a response, suggesting that five justices may vote to freeze the Pennsylvania Supreme Court's ruling... Alito should have dismissed it immediately. His willingness to entertain this appeal instead bodes poorly for both democracy and federalism. The U.S. Supreme Court has no business forcing Pennsylvania voters to languish under a gerrymander that can't pass muster under Pennsylvania law."

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See original here

As President Trump continues his crackdown on immigrant communities, a growing number of people are taking sanctuary in churches across the country to avoid deportation. A new report called "Sanctuary in the Age of Trump" says more people are now taking sanctuary than at any time in the United States since the 1980s. We end today's show in Colorado, speaking to another immigrant rights leader, Sandra Lopez, who has taken sanctuary at the parsonage of the Two Rivers Unitarian Universalist church in Carbondale, Colorado. She is now facing deportation to Mexico after living in Colorado for 17 years. She's a mother of three U.S.-born children: Alex, Edwin and Areli.

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now! I'm Amy Goodman. As President Trump continues his crackdown on immigrant communities, a growing number of immigrants are taking sanctuary in churches across the country to avoid deportation. A new report called "Sanctuary in the Age of Trump" says more people are now taking sanctuary than at any time in the United States since the '80s.

We end today's show in Colorado, where we hear from another immigrant rights leader who has taken sanctuary: Sandra Lopez, now facing deportation to Mexico after living in Colorado for 17 years, mother of three U.S. citizen children -- Alex, Edwin and Areli. This is Sandra Lopez speaking to supporters who marched to the Two Rivers Unitarian Universalist Church in Carbondale, Colorado, as part of their Women's March just a week ago.

SANDRA LOPEZ: [translated] We are all defenders of human rights. And I think that human dignity is not based on one legal paper. I have lost the fear of lifting up my voice. Why? Because I'm a human being. I have feelings, just like you. I love my children, just like you.

AMY GOODMAN: Well, a few weeks ago, I visited Sandra Lopez at the parsonage of the Two Rivers Unitarian Universalist Church in Carbondale, Colorado. I began by asking her why she came to the United States 17 years ago.

SANDRA LOPEZ: [translated] Well, I came to the United States with my husband. We had many dreams. Of course, I was running from a corrupt government, a lot of poverty and violence. We came with many dreams. We are poor, honest, hard-working people, and we have dreams, dreams of getting ahead. But, unfortunately, being a migrant in this country holds a very high price, and we are unjustly persecuted, oftentimes unjustly just because we don't have a legal document, legal papers, here in the United States.

AMY GOODMAN: How old were you when you came to the United States?

SANDRA LOPEZ: [translated] I was about 24 years old, and it was very dangerous. I tried to cross the border with my husband. The person who was going to take us across was totally drunk, and it was obvious. I told my husband, "How are we going to cross with this man? He's falling down, he's so drunk. It's very dangerous. We might be going along the road with him and suffer a bad accident and die." And so, of course, I refused. I absolutely refused. We were a large group, about 13 of us. We started talking, analyzing the situation. And we refused. We agreed not to cross the border with him. And I told him, I told this coyote, "Please, leave us in the desert. I would rather be sleeping in the desert than risking my life with you. If you are going to take me across, come in a sound state of mind."

Well, we then slept all night in the desert. We went about a day and a half with no water. We were hungry. We saw scorpions going by near where we were. We even saw a snake. And we didn't sleep all night, out of fear. But then the coyote came back in a good state of mind, and we were able to cross.

AMY GOODMAN: And so, how did you end up here in Carbondale?

SANDRA LOPEZ: [translated] Now, living in Carbondale, I'm living with a lot of fear, a lot of fear because I'm under the shadow of fear. I'm being persecuted because I don't have papers. What they don't understand is that my best legal papers are being a mother. I don't need a legal document to be a mother, to be able to defend my love for my children. I give everything for them. I give my life for them, everything for my children, my family. And any sacrifice that I might make for them -- anything -- it's going to be worthwhile, because, for me, the material things don't make sense. Money doesn't make sense. For me, what makes sense is my role, giving myself over to them as in my role as a mother. It is such a beautiful career to be a mother, to be a father. And now I'm facing the threat of separation, and that has really hurt my feelings, wounded my heart.

AMY GOODMAN: Tell me about your children. How old are they? What are their names? Where are they living now?

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From The Guardian

Global warming is an immediate battle with enormous consequences. We dare not wait for Washington to return to sanity -- nor do we have to



See the Bigger Picture, Act on Climate Change

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The most telling item in Donald Trump's State of the Union address may have been what wasn't there: any mention of climate change, the greatest problem the world faces. And just as telling was the fact that official Washington seemed barely to notice.

Understandably preoccupied with his vile attacks on immigrants (or cheering his ability to actually stay with one task for one hour), press, pundits, and other politicians treated the omission as not even worthy of note. The Democratic response from Representative Joe Kennedy didn't touch on global warming, either, though it did avoid Trump's oddly intimate ode to "beautiful clean coal."

This means many things, but for climate campaigners one of them should be patently clear: if we're going to make progress on climate change it's not going to come through Washington DC -- not any time soon. Even if Democrats manage to take back the House and Senate in the midterm elections, they wouldn't be able to get meaningful legislation past Trump -- and there's nothing much to suggest they'd try very hard.

Winning those elections is crucial in other ways -- it will help the effort to play defense on issues including the environment -- but since global warming is an immediate battle with enormous consequences, we dare not wait for Washington to return to sanity. And happily, we don't have to. The strategy that's been evolving for US climate action -- and for action in many other parts of the planet -- bypasses the central governments as much as possible. That's because the oil industry is strongest in national capitals -- that's where its money is most toxically powerful. But if frontal attack is therefore hard, its flanks are wide open. Consider what happened in mid-January, for instance, when New York City declared war on the oil industry, pledging to divest its $200bn pension funds of fossil fuel stocks and announcing that it would sue the five biggest energy majors for the damage they knowingly inflicted by not 'fessing up to their knowledge of climate change.

New York City is not as big as the federal government, but it's big enough: it's got lawyers aplenty, and the resources to do real damage. And it won't be alone. We've just launched a huge Fossil Free US campaign, designed to make sure there are a thousand New Yorks working on a thousand fronts.

It has three main components...

The first -- joining in work pioneered by groups like the Sierra Club -- is to persuade towns, cities, counties, and states to pledge to make the transition to 100% renewable energy. This is now easy and affordable enough that it doesn't scare politicians -- cities from San Diego to Atlanta have joined in, and they will help maintain the momentum towards clean energy that the Trump administration is trying so hard to blunt.

Job two is to block new fossil fuel infrastructure. In some places, that will be by law: Portland, Oregon, recently passed a bill banning new pipes and such, over the strenuous objections of the industry. In other places it will take bodies -- tens of thousands have already pledged to journey to the upper midwest if and when TransCanada decides to build out the Keystone XL pipeline that Trump has permitted.Would you like to know how many people have read this article? Or how reputable the author is? Simply sign up for a Advocate premium membership and you'll automatically see this data on every article. Plus a lot more, too.

From Counterpunch



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Although the genocide of the Rohingya minority in Myanmar has gathered greater media attention in recent months, there is no indication that the international community is prepared to act in any meaningful way, thus leaving hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees stranded in border camps between Myanmar and Bangladesh.

While top United Nations officials are now using the term "genocide" to describe the massive abuses experienced by the Rohingya minority at the hands of the Myanmar army, security forces and Buddhist militias, no plan of action to stem the genocide has been put in place.

In less than six months, beginning August 2017, an estimated 655,000 Rohingya refugees fled or were pushed out across the border between Myanmar and Bangladesh. Most of the 'clearance operations' -- a term used by the Myanmar military to describe the ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya -- took place in Rakhine state.

In a recent report, Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) relayed the harrowing death toll of Rohingya during the first month of the genocidal campaign.

At least 9,000 Rohingya were killed between August 25 and September 24, according to MSF. This number includes 730 children under the age of five.

Eric Schwartz of Refugee International described these events in an interview with American National Public Radio (NPR) as "one of the greatest crimes in recent memory -- massive abuses, forced relocations of hundreds of thousands of people in a matter of weeks."

Coupled with numerous reports of gang rape, outright murder, and mass burning of villages, Rohingya are left defenseless in the face of unspeakable atrocities.

Worse still, a recent agreement between Myanmar and Bangladesh has been reached to repatriate many of these refugees, with absolutely no guarantees for their safety.

With no safeguards in place, and with the Rohingya having been stripped of their legal status as citizens or legal aliens in Myanmar, going back is as risky an endeavor as is fleeing.

The plan to repatriate Rohingya refugees without any protection, or the guaranteeing of their basic rights is part of a larger campaign to whitewash the crimes of the Myanmar government and to, once more, defer the protracted crisis of the Rohingya.

Although the cruelty experienced by the Rohingya goes back decades, a new ethnic cleansing campaign began in 2012, when 100,000 Rohingya were forced out of their villages and towns to live in prison-like makeshift refugee camps.

In 2013, more than 140,000 were also displaced, a trend that continued until last August, when the bouts of ethnic cleansing culminated into all-out genocide involving all security branches of the government, and defended by Myanmar officials, including Aung San Suu Kyi.

The latter was celebrated for decades by western media and government as a democracy icon and human rights heroine.

However, as soon as Suu Kyi was freed from her house arrest and became the leader of Myanmar in 2015, she served as an apologist for her former military foes. Not only did she refuse to condemn the violence against the Rohingya, she even refuses to use the term "Rohingya" in reference to the historically persecuted minority.

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Are you ready for nuclear attack warning sirens in your community? I live in Hawaii and the State of Hawaii decided two months ago in December 2107 to begin monthly nuclear attack warning siren drills, similar to the monthly tsunami warning sirens that are tested each month.

You know what happened -- an employee of the State of Hawaii Emergency Management Department pushed the wrong button and the siren went off -- and no one alerted the public for nearly 49 minutes that this was a drill. Cell phone alerts to everyone in the 808 area code flashed "Nuclear attack warning-take cover" and residents and tourists alike went into crisis mode.

Three days prior to the mistaken warning siren, 20 of us attempted to call to the attention of the state government that the sirens are being used for political advancement of a hysteria for war with North Korea. We do not believe the North Korean government is going to attack the United States and that the nuclear sirens and "duck and cover" drills are purposeful and dangerous fear mongering.

The sirens heighten the anxiety and stress of impending conflict and devastation, make citizens afraid and, in their fear, accept whatever the government feeds them on how great threats to our nation are.

Successive administrations have lied our country into wars -- from Vietnam to Iraq. We do not agree for the need for war with North Korea and refuse to accept the attempted US intimidation of North Korea which could lead to war. The sirens normalize the potential for war.

Certainly, If the U.S. initiates military action against North Korea, militarized Hawaii with its four major military bases on Oahu -- the headquarters of the U.S. military Pacific Command that covers half the world, the Army's 25th Infantry Division at Schofield Barracks, Marine Expeditionary Force at Kaneohe, Hickam Air Force Base and Pearl Harbor Navy Base, the huge NSA underground listening station near Wahaiwa, the massive practice bombing area called Pohakuloa, on the Big Island and the Pacific Missile Range on Kauai would be a retaliatory target for North Korea and any other nation threatened by the United States.

Therefore, it is in Hawaii's survival interest that we demand that the U.S. government resolve issues with North Korea in a nonviolent manner.

The national government in Washington, DC does not feel the need to have nuclear warning sirens, so why should Hawaii? One would think the politicians who make the decisions for war and the Pentagon would be bigger targets than Hawaii.



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We held our protest outside the State Capitol and got media coverage, but the siren program continued -- until the false alert siren went off. However, after the mistaken alert fiasco, the governor has suspended the siren warnings.

As this was going on in Hawaii, I joined a 16-woman delegation from five countries who participated in a Civil Society Roundtable held in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada sponsored by the government of Canada and in a public forum on security and stability on the Korean peninsula in conjunction with the meeting of the Foreign Ministers of 20 countries of the US-led Korean command.

Some of our delegates had long collective experience engaging with North Koreans through citizen diplomacy and humanitarian initiatives and others had expertise on militarism, nuclear disarmament, economic sanctions and the human cost of the unresolved Korean War.

Instead of approving of the warmongering of the Trump administration, our delegations' recommendations to the meeting of Foreign Ministers appealed for sanity in dealing with the North Korean government:

--Immediately engage all relevant parties in dialogue, without preconditions, to work toward achieving a nuclear-free Korean peninsula;

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From Alternet

The president isn't as popular as he claims.



Donald Trump

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Donald Trump, never lacking in self-esteem, bragged in 2016: "I know words -- I have the best words."

Well, sometimes he does put together a coherent sentence, using some very fine words that convey great promise, such as this one: "I'm going to fight for every person in this country who believes government should serve the people -- not the donors and special interests." And if those words are too highbrow for you, Trump made the same promise with some punchier words, declaring he would "drain the swamp" to rid Washington of those creepy, crawly corporate lobbyists.

Excellent words! But words only matter if the speaker actually means them, backing their rhetorical promise with action. As we've seen though, far from draining the swamp, this president proceeded immediately to convert the White House itself into a fetid cesspool of self-serving corporate executives, lobbyists, and banksters.

His transition team was almost exclusively made up of those swamp critters. His $100-million, glitzy inaugural celebration was bankrolled by Big Oil, Big Coal, Big Pharma and other Bigs that attached their legislative and regulatory demands to the checks they donated. Most of his cabinet members, agency heads and top aides came straight out of Wall Street and corporate suites, turning Trump's government into a gold-plated sump pump that's routinely funneling trillions of our dollars and thousands of special favors to the moneyed elite.

Asked why he appointed only multimillionaire Wall Street hucksters to design and administer his economic policy, he offered this scramble of words that inadvertently revealed his true, plutocratic soul: "I love all people, rich or poor. But in these positions, I just don't want a poor person."

Really? Not even one official who understands poverty from firsthand experience, rather than from the bias of right-wing ideologues? And what about those hard-hit middle-class workers Trump always talks about? Nope. He's not appointed even one to a top policy position. So, forget Trump's words. If the poor and middle class aren't in his government, they're neither in his heart nor in his policies.

It's odd that Washington Republicans are so publicly high-fiving each other and loudly crowing about their strictly partisan passage last December of the Trump-McConnell-Ryan tax law. Odd, because the people outside of Washington hate that law.

Yes, hate. With a dismal public approval rating of only 30 percent, the GOP's trillion dollar Christmas present to multinational corporations and multimillionaires has been tagged by a top surveyor of public opinion as Congress' second-most disliked domestic bill in the past quarter-century. Second only to the Trump-McConnell-Ryan trio's attempts last year to take away the health care coverage of 23 million Americans -- a mingy move that only 23 percent of the public supported.

Why do these doofuses keep trying to shove such wildly unpopular measures down people's throats? Because, as the Daily Beast columnist Michael Tomasky succinctly explained, "They are serving their mega-rich donors and the most extreme elements of their base." In today's rigged, convoluted political system, the special interests of the narrow minority trumps the will of the great majority.

That is where America's fast-expanding, socially destructive inequality comes from. The tax giveaway to the corporations, for example, guts our public treasury, so the Republican Congress, White House, and army of corporate lobbyists are now demanding cuts in the Social Security, Medicare, and other essential programs the majority of us need.

To pretend that they give a damn, the plutocratic powers are presently pulling a trickle-down PR trick on us. The GOP's bill drastically reduced their taxes and increases many of ours, so to dodge public fury, they're making a show of awarding a tiny portion of their bonanza to workers -- not as pay raises, but as one-time "bonus" payments. Bank of America, for example, is doling out about $130 million in worker bonuses, while keeping $2.6 billion it will get next year alone from Trump's tax bill.

If the corporate-GOP syndicate wonders why they're so despised, there it is.Would you like to know how many people have read this article? Or how reputable the author is? Simply sign up for a Advocate premium membership and you'll automatically see this data on every article. Plus a lot more, too.



Che

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It really is a shame, and it is tiring, but it is actually nothing new: there is now total disarray amongst those countless 'progressive' and 'semi-left' Western intellectuals, publications, movements and political parties.

Cowardice, bloated egos, lack of discipline and intellectual pettiness are often to blame, but that is not all.

It is now absolutely clear that the Western left lost patently and shamelessly. It has almost no power, it has no courage to fight or to take risks, and it counts on no real political following in Europe, North America, Australia or New Zealand. 'The masses', those proverbial 'oppressed masses', have lately been electing and voting in various semi-fascist populists, unapologetic right-wing demagogues, and mainstream pro-business brutes.

Entire Marxist 'theoretical certainties' have been collapsing in front of our eyes. Or at least they have been in the West.

*

To a great extent, what is now happening is absolutely natural. The European left betrayed as early as in the 1980's, by becoming too soft, too undisciplined, too cautious and too self-centered. It put pragmatism above the ideals. It rapidly adopted the lexicon of the liberal ideological establishment, complete with Western perceptions of human rights, democratic principles and political correctness. It ceased to be revolutionary; it essentially stopped all revolutionary activities, and it abandoned the core element of any true left-wing identity -- internationalism.

Without at least some basic internationalist principles, the left is now essentially reduced to some sort of local trade union level: "Let us fight for better labor conditions and health care at home, and to hell with all that neo-colonialist plunder of the world which is expected to pay for almost all of our benefits. As long as we eat well and have long vacations, why should we rebel, why should we fight?"

The Western left has also failed to honestly address global history and especially the role which both Europe and North America have been playing in it. Many so-called 'progressive' Western thinkers have essentially adopted the imperialist rhetoric and revanchist interpretation of various key historic events, hence becoming 'anti-Communist' themselves.

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House of Mica: Hopi reps tell UN to wake up! On December 10, 1992, Thomas Banyacya, Kykotsmovi Hopi Nation (Arizona), addressed the United Nations General Assembly. In his speech, he explained to diplomats the significance of a petroglyph at Prophecy Rock (Hopiland). Wednesday, April 1, 2020On December 10, 1992, Thomas Banyacya, Kykotsmovi Hopi Nation (Arizona), addressed the United Nations General Assembly. In his speech, he explained to diplomats the significance of a petroglyph at Prophecy Rock (Hopiland).

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Hopi History: Hi-tech Clan Warfare in the Americas Concluding article in a five-part series involving Hopi history from the perspective of Bear Clan elder Oswald "White Bear" Fredericks, who was the main consultant for Frank Waters Book of the Hopi. The writer visited Mesa Verde with White Bear in 1978 and 1979.

Series: (12 Articles, 22962 views) Sunday, December 8, 2019Concluding article in a five-part series involving Hopi history from the perspective of Bear Clan elder Oswald "White Bear" Fredericks, who was the main consultant for Frank Waters Book of the Hopi. The writer visited Mesa Verde with White Bear in 1978 and 1979. Kasskara: Sunken Land of the Hopi Ancestors (12 Articles, 22962 views)

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'A Skeleton Key To The Gemstone File' Turned 40 A "viral" document before personal computers existed, 'A Skeleton Key to the Gemstone File' summarises and highlights the letters of Bruce Porter Roberts and redefines the definition of "Mafia." It paints for us a truer picture that reveals how deeply the roots of organized crime intertwine every aspect of US politics and culture. Saturday, February 3, 2018A "viral" document before personal computers existed, 'A Skeleton Key to the Gemstone File' summarises and highlights the letters of Bruce Porter Roberts and redefines the definition of "Mafia." It paints for us a truer picture that reveals how deeply the roots of organized crime intertwine every aspect of US politics and culture.

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Bluebeard's Closet--a Halloween poem This is a short Halloween poem from a departed spirit.

Series: (2 Articles, 4621 views) Tuesday, November 1, 2016This is a short Halloween poem from a departed spirit. Poetry (2 Articles, 4621 views)

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The Streets of Taiwan...a poem I wrote this one summer when I was visiting Taiwan. I had lived there previously so I was already familiar with the island. One question that looms throughout the piece is the relationship between China and Taiwan. China claims it as a territory. Taiwan considers itself independent (with help from the US).

Series: (2 Articles, 4621 views) Saturday, October 29, 2016I wrote this one summer when I was visiting Taiwan. I had lived there previously so I was already familiar with the island. One question that looms throughout the piece is the relationship between China and Taiwan. China claims it as a territory. Taiwan considers itself independent (with help from the US). Poetry (2 Articles, 4621 views)

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Like other unreasoning creatures...a cartoon In this cartoon Maj. Ralph Hamilton celebrates spring mating rituals!

Series: (17 Articles, 20956 views) Monday, October 24, 2016In this cartoon Maj. Ralph Hamilton celebrates spring mating rituals! Primitive Man (17 Articles, 20956 views)

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'Evolution in Practice'--a cartoon Ralph drew this cartoon with India ink on a handwritten letter in the 1990s. The letter subsequently got wet and smudged, so I had to do a little inexpert graphic repair. The original caption, "Evolution in Practice", was smeared beyond recognition.

Series: (17 Articles, 20956 views) Friday, October 14, 2016Ralph drew this cartoon with India ink on a handwritten letter in the 1990s. The letter subsequently got wet and smudged, so I had to do a little inexpert graphic repair. The original caption, "Evolution in Practice", was smeared beyond recognition. Primitive Man (17 Articles, 20956 views)

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Be All You Can Be (a cartoon) One of Ralph's cartoons served as cover art for a book whose title was that cartoon's caption: Be All You Can Be was the US Army's recruiting slogan for about twenty years (80s-90s). Considering that he was a major when he drew it, his irreverent attitude towards the military may seem a little surprising. Yet there are many military service members who don't appreciate their lives being casually squandered, not to protect the

Series: (17 Articles, 20956 views) Sunday, October 9, 2016One of Ralph's cartoons served as cover art for a book whose title was that cartoon's caption: Be All You Can Be was the US Army's recruiting slogan for about twenty years (80s-90s). Considering that he was a major when he drew it, his irreverent attitude towards the military may seem a little surprising. Yet there are many military service members who don't appreciate their lives being casually squandered, not to protect the Primitive Man (17 Articles, 20956 views)

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The Priestly Class (Two Cartoons) In "The Lowest Animal," Twain says: "Man is the Religious Animal. He is the only Religious Animal. He is the only animal that has the True Religion -- several of them. He is the only animal that loves his neighbor as himself, and cuts his throat if his theology isn't straight. He has made a graveyard of the globe in trying his honest best to smooth his brother's path to happiness and heaven.

Series: (17 Articles, 20956 views) Friday, September 30, 2016In "The Lowest Animal," Twain says: "Man is the Religious Animal. He is the only Religious Animal. He is the only animal that has the True Religion -- several of them. He is the only animal that loves his neighbor as himself, and cuts his throat if his theology isn't straight. He has made a graveyard of the globe in trying his honest best to smooth his brother's path to happiness and heaven. Primitive Man (17 Articles, 20956 views)

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'The Pimps': A cartoon inspired by Dick Gregory Ralph drew this after we talked about my hearing Dick Gregory speak at Compton College in winter of 1981. He'd said, " "These manipulatin' pimps don't give a damn about none of ya'all!" Gregory was referring to a presumed tiny group of oligarchs who seemed to be rather running amok. Ralph made an acronym of PIMPS, and he had cartoon.

Series: (17 Articles, 20956 views) Saturday, September 24, 2016Ralph drew this after we talked about my hearing Dick Gregory speak at Compton College in winter of 1981. He'd said, " "These manipulatin' pimps don't give a damn about none of ya'all!" Gregory was referring to a presumed tiny group of oligarchs who seemed to be rather running amok. Ralph made an acronym of PIMPS, and he had cartoon. Primitive Man (17 Articles, 20956 views)

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Many of our valiant police... This week's "primitive man" cartoons is a drawing he created to protest the harebrained cannabis policies in 1980s California. I thought it appropriate since we've evolved so little in terms of modernizing drug policy. Lately we've been told Cannabis will remain Schedule 1 according to DEA. Also, they're adding kratom (mitrogyna speciosa) a benevolent herb, to Schedule 1. Delegitimizing nature is symptom of severe human defect

Series: (17 Articles, 20956 views) Saturday, September 10, 2016This week's "primitive man" cartoons is a drawing he created to protest the harebrained cannabis policies in 1980s California. I thought it appropriate since we've evolved so little in terms of modernizing drug policy. Lately we've been told Cannabis will remain Schedule 1 according to DEA. Also, they're adding kratom (mitrogyna speciosa) a benevolent herb, to Schedule 1. Delegitimizing nature is symptom of severe human defect Primitive Man (17 Articles, 20956 views)

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Early man's inquisitive nature... Part of the series "Primitive Man" by Maj. Ralph E. Hamilton (1918-1999)

Series: (17 Articles, 20956 views) Friday, September 2, 2016Part of the series "Primitive Man" by Maj. Ralph E. Hamilton (1918-1999) Primitive Man (17 Articles, 20956 views)

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Sign of the times! Hawaii delegate Chelsea Lyons Kent tells OEN why she flipped off the DNC, part of Hawaiian delegation Chelsea Lyons Kent--the delegate from Hawaii who flipped off the Hawaiian delegation on national television after it failed to vote the people's will--explains her thinking. Monday, August 15, 2016Chelsea Lyons Kent--the delegate from Hawaii who flipped off the Hawaiian delegation on national television after it failed to vote the people's will--explains her thinking.

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Early man discovering fire... "Early man "discovering" fire..." Part of the "Primitive Man" series by Maj. Ralph E. Hamilton (1918-1999).

Series: (17 Articles, 20956 views) Wednesday, August 10, 2016"Early man "discovering" fire..." Part of the "Primitive Man" series by Maj. Ralph E. Hamilton (1918-1999). Primitive Man (17 Articles, 20956 views)

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Just throw it in the river, kids! "Just throw it in the river, kids!" Part of the "Primitive Man" series by Maj. Ralph E. Hamilton (1918-1999).

Series: (17 Articles, 20956 views) Tuesday, August 9, 2016"Just throw it in the river, kids!" Part of the "Primitive Man" series by Maj. Ralph E. Hamilton (1918-1999). Primitive Man (17 Articles, 20956 views)

Page 1 of 2 First Last Back Next 2 View AllCongress Switchboard: 202-224-3121

"Rob Kall's book, Bottom-Up: Tapping the Power of the Connection Revolution has really caused me to relook and reframe many of my thoughts on where our connectedness using social media tools like LinkedIn is headed, and not just for career trajectory but for life. If you are looking for a new perspective on our sometimes zany digital world we live in, this book will keep you reading and may ultimately revise but for sure challenge your current paradigm."



Wayne Breitbarth, author of The Power Formula for Linkedin Success: Kick-Start Your Business, Brand, and Job SearchCongress Switchboard: 202-224-3121

"There's no dispute that we now live in a hyper-connected, globalized world--but plenty of argument over the type of globalization that's best for our collective future. In this timely work, Rob Kall makes a persuasive case for 'trickle-up' globalization from below and that the truest, best, and most long-lasting fundamental change always comes from the bottom up. Read this bookthen act on it!"



Rory O'Connor, award-winning filmmaker and author of Friends, Followers, and the Future: How Social Media are Changing Politics, Threatening Big Brands, and Killing Traditional MediaQuicklink Not Found

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To see if the progressive content was renamed or re-published, please click here.Would you like to know how many people have read this article? Or how reputable the author is? Simply sign up for a Advocate premium membership and you'll automatically see this data on every article. Plus a lot more, too.



G. Gordon Liddy quote

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[Previously published in the Sleuth Journal]

In 1975 an extraordinary document surfaced called "A Skeleton Key to the Gemstone File." Distributed hand-to-hand long before the advent of computer-based social media, the 22-page typed copy I received in 1976 had been reproduced so many times that several words and letters were unclear or missing. Evidently a fervent underground effort had been underway to get this information out. So I've kept a copy of the Skeleton Key around for the last four decades taking notes on developments, and recent history, so far, has increased my confidence in the document's veracity.

The Skeleton Key's genesis involves a conspiracy-themed radio talk show host named Mae Brussell ne'e Magnin, who lived in Carmel Valley, California in the early 1970s and was related to the founder of San Francisco's fashionable and prosperous I. Magnin department store chain. A local news director had introduced Brussell to Stephanie Caruana, then a contributing editor at Playgirl magazine. Although some question the Key's authorship, it is generally attributed to Caruana who told me she wrote it. She said it was the Patty Hearst kidnapping that resulted in her meeting Brussell.

"I was just ranting with curiosity about Patty Hearst because she was living around a mile from me in Berkeley when the kidnap happened, and this whole massive publicity campaign got underway. I was saying, 'What is going on here? This doesn't seem like a normal case.' It was so overblown,'" Caruana said. "The mass media get on a story and everybody covers the same story day after day, but if you really know what's going on, you may suspect that there is something else going on underneath, something they're not paying any attention to."

On February 4, 1974, a group of "revolutionaries" using the contrived appellation, "Symbionese Liberation Army" (SLA), abducted Patty Hearst-- the 19-year-old granddaughter of newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst--who was attending the public university in Berkeley, California. The Skeleton Key refers to the SLA episode this way: "February 1974: Mafia Hearst's daughter, Patty, "kidnapped" by Lipset's SLA in a fake terrorist action." Hal Lipset was a San Francisco private investigator whose name also appears in the Skeleton Key connected to the Watergate debacle.

The SLA began in 1971 as a loose-knit group of mostly middle and upper-class white radicals who embraced a melange of philosophies endorsing selective violence and crime to initiate social change. While a few members were in prison, they met Donald "Cinque" DeFreeze during meetings of the "Black Cultural Association." After DeFreeze conveniently escaped from prison in 1972, he contacted SLA members in Oakland and eventually assumed leadership of the group, which engaged in kidnappings, bank robberies, assassinations--and feeding the poor, all in an apparent effort to foment revolution.

After abducting Patty Hearst, the SLA demanded that large amounts of food be donated to poor people in exchange for the heiress's release. Patty's father, Randolph Hearst, president of the San Francisco Examiner, agreed to pay an initial $2 million in ransom, and food was distributed at several sites. According to The Realist publisher Paul Krassner, when the governor, Ronald Reagan, saw one of the long lines of people waiting for food, he groused, "I hope they get botulism." Due to lack of adequate organization the food giveaway was a disaster, so the SLA refused to release Hearst.

Caruana had given Krassner a copy of the Skeleton Key in 1975, the same year he began reporting on the upcoming Hearst trial for the Berkeley Barb. In his 2014 book, Patty Hearst and the Twinkie Murders: A Tale of Two Trials, Krassner outlines a case to support a bold claim. "Donald "Cinque" DeFreeze," he says, "was a double agent."

Brussell too believed that a clandestine arm of the US government either created or manipulated the SLA as a tool of espionage designed to distort the message of idealism. The root of the neologism "Symbionese," the Greek "symbiosis," means "a living together" as in peace, harmony, and balance--among the subversive ideas and ideals that the operation apparently tried to undermine. Krassner, once a member of Ken Kesey's Merry Pranksters and the first living inductee of the Counterculture Hall of Fame, had published Brussell's early articles on the Watergate antagonists. "She really did scoop everybody," Caruana said. "I believe she got that information from Roberts' Gemstone papers because he certainly had the goods on those people. He knew all about them."

The public generally assumed Hearst was being held against her will, so it was especially dramatic when on April 3, 1974, she announced that she had joined the SLA to fight for the oppressed and had adopted the "revolutionary" name, Tania." After a security camera filmed her helping the SLA rob a San Francisco bank on April 15, the public assumed she was being coerced or brainwashed. Subsequently, the group fled south to Los Angeles where members sequestered themselves in a south-central community until a suspicious neighbor tipped off the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD).

Militarization of the police was relatively new then, and I recall seeing on television the impressive public demonstration by the LAPD's Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) unit of its new and very expensive military-grade equipment. So, not unexpectedly, on May 17, 1974, live cameras allowed the country to watch the house burn down with SLA members inside--presaging later events such as the destruction of the MOVE complex in Philadelphia and the "Branch Davidian" compound in Waco, Texas. When officials began investigating, everyone wondered if Patty Hearst was inside. She wasn't. Six had perished, but the rest had escaped. Patty Hearst was caught on September 18, 1975 and went to trial in January of 1976. She served two years for "bank robbery" and "use of a dangerous weapon" before President Jimmy Carter commuted her sentence and President Bill Clinton later pardoned her.

In December of 1974 Playgirl magazine ran an article that Caruana and Brussell had co-authored called, "Is Howard Hughes Dead and Buried Off An Island In Greece ?" It involved the disappearance of Texas multi-millionaire Howard Hughes and Greek billionaire Aristotle Onassis, but after examining the file folder of notes Brussell had provided, Caruana told her she had found little evidence to justify an article accusing either man of misdeeds. At that point, Caruana said, Brussell reluctantly produced a file containing several hundred handwritten notes, letters, articles and news clippings of a man named Bruce Porter Roberts along with specific instructions on when and how to read them. Brussell stressed that it was easy to get "lost" in the material and imposed specific conditions on its reading. Caruana, cloistered in a bedroom at Brussell's house, read into the early morning, increasingly absorbed in a sordid tale of political intrigue, thievery, and murder. Caruana wrote the Playgirl article based on the revelations contained in those pages.



Playgirl issue that ran the article by Brussel and Caruana

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Donald Trump

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If there is one thing that that stands out about Bucks County Courier Times columnist JD Mullane'spolitical writing it is that he never lets facts get in the way of his opinions and Trumpian political fictions. His recent column "For millennials, a primer on a roaring economy" offers a perfect example.



Mullane in his column immediately celebrates that jobless claims have dropped to their lowest since 1973, which the Department of Labor pointed out in an Oct. 19 press release. Sure, this should be celebrated. However, he conveniently forgot to add the context that this is part of a larger post-recession trend that are a result of President Barack Obama's democratic economic policies. In fact, Fortune Magazine reported in 2016 that "Unemployment Claims Fall to Lowest Since 1973." So the most current numbers -- 222,000 -- are 19,000 less than Obama's previous record breaking numbers. And one must ask whether Trump should get any credit for numbers that are a result of Obama's policies.

Mullane then extols that the tax cuts "will put a grand or two or three back into the paychecks of working stiffs everywhere."

Well, not exactly.

A Jan. 29 Reuters/Ipsos poll notes that just 2 percent of adults in the country reported receiving a raise, bonus or other additional benefits due to the Republican tax law enacted a month ago by President Donald Trump. Furthermore, Walmart, for example, announced bonuses of up to $1,000 for associates, though the maximum amount is reserved for employees with at least 20 yearsworking with the company. Oh, and just days later the company quietly announced thousands of layoffs.

Mullane then says "it gets better."

Really?

He cites an article in USA Todaythat states: "More than three dozen of the biggest American companies have shared their tax-cut windfalls with employees, mostly through one-time bonuses, but also with hourly wage increases and bigger 401(k) matches following the new tax law passed in December."

What Mullane conveniently leaves out is that the article reports that the bonuses "are quite small compared with the total compensation -- wages, salaries and benefits -- of $10.3 trillion paid by U.S. companies last year."

Nick Sargen, chief economist at Fort Washington Investment Advisors, a money-management firm in Cincinnati, told USA Todaythe bonuses are "a drop in the bucket" and that "companies are doing it mainly as a PR gesture. It looks good that they are sharing a portion, however small, of the corporate tax cuts." The article also points out that "a bonus will do little to close the wage gap between workers and CEOs," as "CEOs earned 347 times what the average worker did in 2016."

Mullane then exclaims "yowza" to the fact that "Chrysler is giving its workers bonuses of $5,500 each." From reading this you would think that these bonuses of $5,500 are a result of the Trump tax cuts for the 1 percent.

They're not.

Chrysler gave bonuses of $5,000 last year, so a $500 increase this year. And never mind the bonuses were a result of the company's debt cutting business plan laid out four years ago, not the tax cuts, something he conveniently omitted.

Mullane then goes on to what has become his typical patronizing and snide style, "explaining" to millenials what a "Help Wanted" sign is in an impotent attempt at humor, while misogynistically and childishly attacking Nancy Pelosi for using botox.

Mullane's "alternative facts" for the the economy under our "alt-right " president might provide more Kool Aid for his Tea Party readers, but millennials shouldn't drink it.Would you like to know how many people have read this article? Or how reputable the author is? Simply sign up for a Advocate premium membership and you'll automatically see this data on every article. Plus a lot more, too.

From Mike Malloy Website



Groundhog Day

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Six more weeks of Trump. And 10 months to the midterms, which may be the most important US off-year election in history.

The memo has landed. Is this the beginning, Truthseekers, of the end of Trump, or the beginning of the end of the Mueller investigation?

It's stunning to see the Trump surrogates out in force today, trying to blame the Clinton campaign for colluding with the Russians (!) and reinforce the fake news that this Nunes memo somehow proves the FBI leadership is plotting to remove Trump. Leadership, mind you, Trump himself selected.

Trump is truly the Teflon Don. He's conned or otherwise coerced the GOP heavy hitters to dive headfirst into his cesspool of lies. Paul Ryan will not be remembered kindly in the history books, and the entire current crop of crooked congressmen will be branded as complicit in this scandal.

They have made their bed with this reality TV star, real estate con artist, and sexual abuser, and there is no coming back from that. They are siding with the grifter over the career public servants in our criminal Justice system.

People who often risk their lives to protect Americans from terrorism, drug trafficking, human sex trade, child pornographers, and other federal crimes. Like criminal money laundering, tax fraud, obstruction of justice, racketeering, perjury, and conspiracy with a foreign enemy.

The GOP is siding with the lying conman, fake university operator turned reality TV Star, over the FBI, solely to protect this criminal from prosecution for his crimes! WTF, did they all wake up one day and decide they wanted to destroy the GOP and their political careers?

And what a gift to Putin this whole scandal has been. The chaos and division is greater than he could've ever hoped for. Remember, the Ruskies thought Hillary would win. Hell, so did Trump! This is just a gift that keeps on giving, kinda like those Russian nesting dolls. There's always just one more black mark to add to the American global brand.

The stock market reacted to the memo with a massive dip, so Wall Street wasn't convinced that Dear Leader could safely avoid criminal prosecution.Global Green Data Center Market (Server, Networking, Power, Cooling, Management, and Green Solutions) is expected to reach USD +98.15 billion by 2022

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Global Green Data Center Market The market was estimated at USD +28.70 billion in 2016. The market is expected to reach USD +98.15 billion by 2022, at a projected CAGR of +22.73% during 2017-2022 Green Data Center market by solutions: server, networking, power, cooling, management software, and green solutions; by services being offered: system integration, monitoring services, and professional; by industry verticals: Banking & Financial Services and Insurance (BFSI), telecom and IT, healthcare Both these methods are aimed towards cooperating precise and particular data pertaining the market dynamics, historical events, and the current market picture. Moreover, the report also includes a SWOT analysis that determines the strengths, weaknesses, prospects, and threats impacting the segments of the overall market.Get an exclusive sample of this report @:The research report tries to understand the pioneering tactics taken by vendors in the global market to offer product differentiation through Porters five forces analysis. It also points out ways in which these companies can reinforce their stand in the market and increase their revenues in the coming years. Ongoing industrial advancements and the persistent penetration of Internet in the remote corners of the world are also responsible for the noteworthy growth of the Global Green Data Center Market.The telecommunication segment is currently leading the global market, tailed by military and defense segment. The industrial sector is also adding to the overall development of this market. The growing technological advancement in the field of imaging systems, material study and process control in the industrial sector is steering the Green Data Center market across the globe.Some of the major factors driving the growth of Global Green Data Center Market are the increasing mobile data traffic, high demand for bandwidth intensive applications, growing need for high-speed data connectivity and great potential in the usage of millimeter wave technology in consumer electronics application. Environmental concerns and limited range, on the other hand, are some of the factors restraining the growth of the Global Market. The inconsistent licensing approach is one of the major challenge to the growth of this market.Ask for a Special Discount on this Report@:North America alleged the major market share in Green Data Center and is expected to continue its dominion throughout the forecast period. Growing demand for 5G technologies, increasing advancements in the field of satellite communication systems, radar, scanning and imaging systems are driving the growth of the Global Market in this region. Other regions are also expected to follow the upward trend and further fuel the growth of the Global Market.The reports conclusion reveals the overall scope of the Global Green Data Center Market in terms of feasibility of investments in the various segments of the market, along with a descriptive passage that outlines the feasibility of new projects that might succeed in the market in the near future.Table of Content:Chapter 1 Green Data Center Market OverviewChapter 2 Global Economic Impact on IndustryChapter 3 Global Market Competition by ManufacturersChapter 4 Global Production, Revenue (Value) by RegionChapter 5 Global Supply (Production), Consumption, Export, Import by RegionsChapter 6 Global Production, Revenue (Value), Price Trend by TypeChapter 7 Global Market Analysis by ApplicationChapter 8 Manufacturing Cost AnalysisChapter 9 Industrial Chain, Sourcing Strategy and Downstream BuyersChapter 10 Marketing Strategy Analysis, Distributors/TradersChapter 11 Market Effect Factors AnalysisAbout Research N Reports:Research N Reports is a new age market research firm where we focus on providing information that can be effectively applied. Today being a consumer driven market, companies require information to deal with the complex and dynamic world of choices. Where relying on a sound board firm for your decisions becomes crucial. Research N Reports specializes in industry analysis, market forecasts and as a result getting quality reports covering all verticals, whether be it gaining perspective on current market conditions or being ahead in the cut throat Global competition. Since we excel at business research to help businesses grow, we also offer consulting as an extended arm to our services which only helps us gain more insight into current trends and problems. Consequently we keep evolving as an all-rounder provider of viable information under one roof.Sunny Denis10916, Gold Point Dr, Houston, TX, Pin - 77064,(Sales Manager),+1-8886316977,sales@researchnreports.com ,Global Phloroglucinol Market- Share, Dominated By Trends, Growth Drivers, Market Dynamics, Business Strategies with Future Prospects 2026

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A new research report by Acumen Research and Consulting titled "Phloroglucinol Market" successfully exhibits the complete scenario of the global and an individual analysis of the various regional segments.This research study on the Global Phloroglucinol Market offers detailed and insightful information on major regional markets and related sub-markets. The information is gathered via both, but not limited to, extensive secondary research and primary research. The major secondary data sources referred for collecting information include industry journals, white papers, databases, company reports, and up-to-date press releases among others. The study also comprises factors driving and inhibiting the development of phloroglucinol market. The key opportunity areas and trends prevalent in this market are also been compiled in this study. The current size of this market and its predicted market size by the end of forecast period have been highlighted through this study.Download Table of Content@The report has been studied in terms of key market segments and sub-segments. The information on currently leading market segments and sub-segments and the reasons for this growth have been emphasized in the scope of this study. An extensive analysis of phloroglucinol market has been encapsulated on the basis of estimations of key market segments in the forecast horizon. In addition, the technological developments that took place in the market and those predicted to take place in coming years have also been outlined through this study.The projections presented in this study on phloroglucinol market have been made by analyzing market's future potential and prevalent trends. The market's growth in various geographies has been studied in detail under this report. The top regions in this market and the reasons for the growth in that particular region have been outlined in the report. Further, the report presents competitive landscape of the phloroglucinol market, covering information on the market share/positioning analysis of leading players in the market. Under this section, the prime strategies of key players, their strengths and weaknesses, and contributions in market growth are discussed. These players are also evaluated on the basis of attributes such as revenue, gross, product overview, and contact information.Report CoverageMarket Phloroglucinol MarketAnalysis Period 2015  2026Historic Data 2015  2016Base Year 2017Forecast Data 2018  2026Market Stratification Type, Application, GeographyRegional Scope North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Latin America, Middle East and Africa (MEA)Report Coverage Market Trends, Drivers, Restraints, Porter's Five Forces Analysis, Competitive Analysis, Player Profiling, Value Chain AnalysisOur expert team will assist and customize the report so that it best fit your exact requirement, Click Here@The major market segments of global phloroglucinol market are as below:Market By Type1,3,5-Benzenetriol1,2,4-Benzenetriol1,2,3-BenzenetriolMarket By End-Use IndustryTestsPrintingPharmaceuticalsOthersMarket By GeographyNorth Americao USo Canadao MexicoEuropeo UKo Germanyo Franceo Rest of EuropeAsia-Pacifico Chinao Japano Indiao Australiao Rest of Asia-PacificLatin Americao Brazilo Rest of Latin AmericaMiddle East and Africa (MEA)o South Africao Saudi Arabiao Rest of MEAMarket PlayersBeijing Wisdom Chemicals Co. Ltd., Taixing Yinxin Chemical Co. Ltd, Sunny Industry Private Limited, Clent Chemical Co. Ltd, Shouguang Fukang Pharmacy Limited Company, Sunlong Biotech Co. Ltd., V & V Pharma Industries, Sanify Healthcare Pvt. Ltd., Vee Excel Drugs and Pharmaceuticals Pvt Ltd., and Trio Lifescience Pvt Ltd. are some of the key companies engaged in manufacturing phloroglucinol.Inquiry Before Buying@Buy this premium research report@Would like to place an order or any question, please feel free to contact at sales@acumenresearchandconsulting.comAbout UsAcumen Research and Consulting (ARC) is a global provider of market intelligence and consulting services to information technology, investment, telecommunication, manufacturing, and consumer technology markets. ARC helps investment communities, IT professionals, and business executives to make fact based decisions on technology purchases and develop firm growth strategies to sustain market competition. With the team size of 100+ Analysts and collective industry experience of more than 200 years, Acumen Research and Consulting assures to deliver a combination of industry knowledge along with global and country level expertise.Contact -Frank WilsonSales Manager | Acumen Research and ConsultingEmail: frank@acumenresearchandconsulting.comPh - USA +1 716-2400-831Asia-Pacific +912065600384Website:Advocacy Software Market is expected to reach USD 773.561 million by 2023 from USD 445.759 million in 2018, at a CAGR of 9.62%

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The Global Advocacy Software Market Research Report 2018 has been undergoing a transitional phase over the recent past. The continual advancements in technologies and the swift increase in infrastructural development projects have influenced the demand for market research report 2018 substantially over the past few years. The swift rise in urbanization and the significant increase in the disposable income of people are likely to maintain the demand pace of market research report 2018 in the near future. The augmenting interest of investors, government funding, and the rising trend of automation are also projected to reflect positively on this market in the years to come.Promising Top Key Players are: The Soft Edge, CQ-Roll Call, Capitol Impact, Blackbaud, Phone2Action, RAP Index, Votility, Salsa, Queue Technologies, Customer Advocacy, Annex Cloud, PostBeyond, SocialChorus, InfluitiveThe research study examines the Global Advocacy Software market research report 2018 on the basis of a number of criteria, such as the product type, application, and its geographical presence. The whole supply chain of this market has been explained with statistical details with a special emphasis on various upstream and downstream components. The current trends pertaining to the demand, supply, and sales of market research report 2018, together with the recent developments have been given here to provide an exhaustive picture of this market.GET SAMPLE COPY OF THIS REPORT @In this research report, the prominent trends, driving factors, restraints, opportunities, and challenges have been taken into consideration in order to identify the markets future. It also discusses the production cost structure of Global Advocacy Software market research report 2018. As per the research study, raw material and equipment are two major components of the market research report 2018 manufacturing process. Here, researchers have studied the costs of raw materials and equipment with a special mention to their suppliers. Furthermore, the labor and other operational costs experienced in the production of market research report 2018 have also been discussed at length in this market report.The report presents an estimation of the overall market size in terms of value (US$) and in volume (kilo tons) and talks about the key segments and the geographical subdivisions of the Global Advocacy Software market research report 2018 in details. It presents in-depth information on the development trends and the policies and regulations, concerning market research report 2018, implemented in each of the geographical segments. The predominant applications of the market research report 2018 have also been talked about at length in this research report.FOR MORE DETAILS ENQUIRE @Further, the research study analyzes the regulatory framework of the Global Advocacy Software market research report 2018, offering stakeholders a better understanding of the various policies, rules and regulations, and future projects, which are expected to influence numerous proceedings in this market. It also collects in-depth information gained through extensive primary and secondary research methods, which has been assessed with the help of several effective analytical tools. Based on the data attained from such systematic research, the research report presents near-accurate estimates for the market players as well as the readers. Readers will also gain significantly from the references and case studies given in the research study.The research report also presents a thorough assessment of the competitive landscape of the Global Advocacy Software market research report 2018 by reviewing the company profiles of the leading players functioning in this market. The market hierarchy has also been identified in this study by analyzing the current developments and future prospects of these players.Table of Content:Global Advocacy Software Market Research Report 2018-20231 Industry Overview2 Global Advocacy Software Competition Analysis by Players3 Company (Top Players) Profiles and Key Data4 Global Advocacy Software Market Size Application (2012-2018)5 United States Advocacy Software Development Status and Outlook6 EU Advocacy Software Development Status and Outlook7 Japan Advocacy Software Development Status and Outlook8 China Advocacy Software Development Status and Outlook9 India Advocacy Software Development Status and Outlook10 Southeast Asia Advocacy Software Development Status and Outlook11 Market Forecast by Regions and Application (2018-2023)12 Advocacy Software Market Dynamics13 Market Effect Factors Analysis14 Methodology and Data Source15 Research Finding /ConclusionAbout Research N Reports:Research N Reports is a new age market research firm where we focus on providing information that can be effectively applied. Today being a consumer driven market, companies require information to deal with the complex and dynamic world of choices. Where relying on a sound board firm for your decisions becomes crucial. Research N Reports specializes in industry analysis, market forecasts and as a result getting quality reports covering all verticals, whether be it gaining perspective on current market conditions or being ahead in the cut throat Global competition. Since we excel at business research to help businesses grow, we also offer consulting as an extended arm to our services which only helps us gain more insight into current trends and problems. Consequently we keep evolving as an all-rounder provider of viable information under one roof.Sunny Denis(Sales Manager),+1-8886316977sales@researchnreports.comBiotechnology Separation Systems Sales Market 2018: Overview, Supplier, Revenue and Cost Analysis with Key Companys Profiles-Forecast to 2023

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The report Biotechnology Separation Systems Sales Market includes a detailed overview of the competitive scenario and regulatory framework of the Global Market. This will provide readers with a clear understanding of the state of drivers, threats, major opportunities, and the major principles, guidelines, plans, and policies impacting the market. The report provides both, qualitative and quantitative research of the Global Market.Top Key Players: GE Healthcare (UK), Becton, Dickinson and Company (US), 3M Purification, Inc. (US), Merck KGaA (Germany), AB Sciex (US), Alfa Laval AB (Sweden), PerkinElmer, Inc. (US), Affymetrix, Inc. (US), Agilent Technologies, Inc. (US), Sartorius Stedim Biotech SA (France), Alfa Wassermann Inc. (US), Atoll GmbH (Germany), Beckman Coulter, Inc. (US), Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc. (US), Flottweg SE (Germany), Fluidigm Corporation (US), Groupe Novasep (France), Hitachi Koki Co., Ltd. (Japan), Illumina, Inc. (US), Pall Corporation (US), ProMetic Life Sciences, Inc. (Canada), Repligen Corporation (US), SEPMAG Technologies (Spain), Shimadzu Scientific Instruments (US), Spectrum Laboratories, Inc. (US), Sysmex Partec GmbH (Germany), Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc. (US)CHECK SAMPLE COPY:Biotechnology Separation Systems Sales Market Report by Material, Application, and Geography. Global Forecast to 2023 is a professional and comprehensive research report on the world's major regional market conditions, focusing on the main regions (North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific) and the main countries (United States, Germany, United Kingdom, Japan, South Korea and China).This report defines the qualifications, presentations, and categorizations of the Biotechnology Separation Systems Sales market and describes the industrial chain structure in detail. Recent policies and expansions are investigated in depth to help enrich this report. A thorough cost structure is inspected and prices are layered by labors, raw material providers and others. An understanding of demand supply chain is also stated in detail.FOR ENQUIRY:The next segment of the report Biotechnology Separation Systems Sales Market provides a framework for the technical data and manufacturing data. Further adding to the analysis, the study also details the capacity, revenue, production, and growth of the major regional markets. The study provides an in-depth summary of the various types of modelling techniques, stating their cost of production and growth prospects.The report also estimates the regulatory landscapes which affect various resolutions in the Biotechnology Separation Systems Sales market. It also provides a thorough information about the tactics, rules, guidelines and procedures with respect to this market. After assembling all data, this report forms an outstanding report depository which can help gain supreme knowledge with respect to the market. With help of this reports, clients can apprehend the market strategies and make right judgments.Finally, the Biotechnology Separation Systems Sales Market report ends with a detailed SWOT analysis of the market, investment feasibility and returns, and development trends and forecasts. As with every report on this Industry is the holy grail of information which serious knowledge seekers can benefit from the given market. The report which is the result of the ultimate dedication of pedigree professionals has a wealth of information which can benefit anyone, of their commercial or academic interest.TABLE OF CONTENT:Global Biotechnology Separation Systems Sales Market Research Report 2018-2023Chapter 1 Biotechnology Separation Systems Sales Market OverviewChapter 2 Global Economic ImpactChapter 3 Competition by ManufacturerChapter 4 Production, Revenue (Value) by Region (2012-2017)Chapter 5 Supply (Production), Consumption, Export, Import by Regions (2012-2017)Chapter 6 Production, Revenue (Value), Price Trend by TypeChapter 7 Analysis by ApplicationChapter 8 Manufacturing Cost AnalysisChapter 9 Industrial Chain, Sourcing Strategy and Downstream BuyersChapter 10 Marketing Strategy Analysis, Distributors/TradersChapter 11 Market Effect Factors AnalysisChapter 12 Market Forecast (2018-2023)Chapter 13 AppendixAbout QYReports:We at, QYReports , a leading market research report publisher accommodate more than 4,000 celebrated clients worldwide putting them at advantage in todays competitive world with our understanding of research. Our list of customers include prestigious Chinese companies, multinational companies, SME's and private equity firms whom we have helped grow and sustain with our fact-based research. Our business study covers a market size of over 30 industries offering unfailing insights into analysis to reimagine your business. We specialize in forecasts needed for investing in a new project, to revolutionize your business, to become more customer centric and improve the quality of output.Contact:QYReportsJones John(Sales Manager)+91-9764607607sales@qyreports.comBaby Drinks Market to witness major growth in coming years

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Infant formula, infant juices, and infant electrolyte contain vitamins and supplements for the advancement of the infant. In spite of the fact that doctors prescribe breastfeeding to newborn children, baby formula can be utilized as an option because of the comparative supplement substance. The market is driven by increment in the quantity of ladys experts. In addition, changes in way of life, ascend in working class populace, and development in extra per capita disposable incomes in the rising economies, for example, China, India, and Indonesia among others, have moved the market development. Notwithstanding, concerns identified with sustenance wellbeing and decrease in worldwide birth rate are required to hamper the market development.China is the most lucrative locale for infant drinks producers. The rollback of the one tyke arrangement by the Chinese government has prompted increment in newborn child populace, which would support the utilization of infant drinks. Huge size, high obtaining power, and expanded utilization of infant drinks are relied upon to support the market development in China. Child drinks includes infant juice and newborn child recipe. All infant drinks in light of natural product squeezes that are intended for the utilization by youngsters under three years are incorporated under child juices.Request For Free Sample Of The Report @Baby juice has low entrance rate in this area as it isn't accessible all around. Customers fundamentally lean toward newborn child equation because of ascend in the quantity of working ladies and changes in way of life. Additionally, infant formula is thought to be the sole wellspring of nourishment for babies. High nourishment content in child drinks combined with the inclination of specialists for infant drinks is expected to support the development of this market in the significant nations of Asia Pacific including Japan, India, China and Australia among others over the forecast period. Dynamic advancements by child drinks makers, wellbeing and health patterns and developing assortments of items are the real drivers adding to the extension of the infant savors advertise Asia Pacific. In view of various sorts of infant drinks, newborn child equation is expected to witness generous development during the forecast period, as it is the best substitute for bosom bolstering and customers are more intrigued to have fast suppers because of their bustling way of life.The global baby drinks market can be segmented on the basis of type and region. On the basis of type, the global diabetic food market can be segmented into Bottled Baby Drinks, Canned Baby Drinks, Baby Cereals, Others. On the basis of region, the global baby drinks market can be segmented into North America, Europe, Middle East & Africa, Asia-Pacific, and Latin America.Obtain Report Details @Some of the key players in the global baby drinks market include Heinz and Hain Celestial Group, Nestle S.A., Mead Johnson Nutrition Company, LLC., Abbott Laboratories, Beingmate Group Co. Ltd., Danone, Campbell Soup Company, HiPP GmbH & Co., D. Signstore and Arla Foods among others.About Us-Xpodence Research have the most extensive collection of market research reports of many categories. Xpodence Research provides the best market research solution for every industry by publishing the best possible results of great market research firms worldwide. For every particular problem, theres a particular solution, so according to the customer needs, we provide the best possible results to them from different market research organization, whether its a Custom Research or Syndicated Research reports because the product that wins is the one that bridges customers to the future, not the one that requires a giant leap.Every organization, whether it is related to Pharmaceuticals, Technology, Eatables, Consumable Goods and many more demands a market research results so that they can take important decisions for more productivity and better output in this swift world. Xpodence Research gives the best possible outcome, perfect forecast, analysis and insights of market research in the form of report which is beneficial for various organisations and also to the manufacturing companies in taking the best decisions for quality production.Contact Us-Xpodence ResearchUSA Office244 , Madison AvenueNew York City, NY - 10016United StatesUK Office109 ,Straford Street,LeedsWest Yorkshrie LS11 6JGUnited KingdomToll Free +1- 844-445-2861Email-sales@xpodenceresearch.comMRI Guided Neurosurgical Ablation Market : Forthcoming Innovations in the Global Market

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MRI guided neurosurgical removal utilizes MRI guided high power laser test for the removal of mind tumor cells. The gadget is intended for the treatment of mind tumors. The test utilized as a part of the framework slaughters the objective growth cell leaving its neighbor cells unharmed. The patient experience a surgery, a little blur opening is made of the breadth of a pencil penetrated through skull. X-ray in the technique is utilized to manage the test till the objective cell. The method includes outflow of very engaged warm vitality to coagulate and execute the objective disease cells. The MRI guided method happens progressively with the goal that the system just focuses on the disease cell and leave the encompassing tissue unharmed. This is procedure is utilized for tissue that are difficult to achieve area in cerebrum. MRI guided neurosurgical removal is normally performed in insula, thalamus and basal ganglia of the cerebrum. The system is more valuable and the patient is recuperated in a few days yet less days when contrasted with the open surgery technique. MRI guided Neurosurgical removal gadget is utilized as a part of many cerebrum related scatters, for example, radiation corruption and radiation safe tumor because of prior radiation treatment, gial tumor, glioblastoma multiforme, metastatic mind malignancy and mesial fleeting projection epilepsy and so forth.Request For Free Sample Of The Report @The worldwide MRI guided neurological ablation market is relied upon to be powered by the progression in the worldwide picture guided surgery advancements. The drivers of the market are the expanding instances of cerebrum tumors, developing maturing populace, family history of any disease and the evolving way of life. According to the Globocan report of 2012, the rate of mind tumor and sensory system disease is 1.9% universally. The expanding government activities to analyze and treat beginning time malignancies is likewise anticipated that would fuel worldwide MRI guided neurological removal showcase. The absence of mindfulness, less experienced experts, absence of repayment and high cost of MRI gadget because of high cost of fluid helium that utilized as a coolant in MRI gadget is relied upon to obstruct the development of the market.Obtain Report Details @The global MRI guided neurosurgical ablation market is segmented on the basis of type, end user and geography. By type, the global MRI guided neurosurgical ablation market can be segmented into Fixation Ring, Probe, Fixation & Transport and MRI Scanner. On the basis of end user, the global MRI guided neurosurgical ablation market can be segmented into Diagnostic Imaging Centers, Hospitals and Others. On the basis of geography, the global MRI guided neurosurgical ablation market can be segmented into North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia Pacific and Middle East & Africa. Some of the major companies in the global MRI guided neurosurgical ablation market are MRI Interventions, Monteris Medical Inc. and Medtronic, Tesla, Novartis and Ranbaxy among others.About Us-Xpodence Research have the most extensive collection of market research reports of many categories. Xpodence Research provides the best market research solution for every industry by publishing the best possible results of great market research firms worldwide. For every particular problem, theres a particular solution, so according to the customer needs, we provide the best possible results to them from different market research organization, whether its a Custom Research or Syndicated Research reports because the product that wins is the one that bridges customers to the future, not the one that requires a giant leap.Every organization, whether it is related to Pharmaceuticals, Technology, Eatables, Consumable Goods and many more demands a market research results so that they can take important decisions for more productivity and better output in this swift world. Xpodence Research gives the best possible outcome, perfect forecast, analysis and insights of market research in the form of report which is beneficial for various organisations and also to the manufacturing companies in taking the best decisions for quality production.Contact Us-Xpodence ResearchUSA Office244 , Madison AvenueNew York City, NY - 10016United StatesUK Office109 ,Straford Street,LeedsWest Yorkshrie LS11 6JGUnited KingdomToll Free +1- 844-445-2861Email-sales@xpodenceresearch.comIntraoperative Imaging Market - Technical Innovations & Future Market Trends

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Intraoperative imaging refers to an operating room configuration that helps surgeons to image the patient through a scanner while the patient is undergoing surgery, chiefly brain surgery. These image guided surgeries utilize cameras or electromagnetic fields in order to capture and relay the patient's anatomy as well as the surgeon's precise movements in conjunction with the patient, to computer monitors present in the operating room. This type of surgery enables surgeons to perform safer and less invasive procedures.The global intraoperative imaging market can be classified based on product, application, end user, and region. On the basis of product, the global intraoperative imaging market is segmented into mobile c-arms, intraoperative computed tomography, intraoperative MRI, and intraoperative ultrasound. Based upon application, the global market is segmented into neurosurgery, orthopedic & trauma surgery, spine surgery, cardiovascular surgery and other applications. Depending on end user, it is divided into hospitals, ambulatory surgical centers (ASCs), and clinics among others.Request For Free Sample Of The Report @The intraoperative imaging market is expected to register high growth during the future period, Factors such as increased prevalence of chronic diseases, such as neurological, cardiac, and orthopedic disorders, is anticipated to fuel market growth. As per Alzheimer's Association, over 5.4 million people in the U.S. suffered with Alzheimers disease in 2016 and it is estimated that the number of patients would reach around 16 million by 2050. Also, as per the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons, over 581,000 total knee replacements are performed annually in the U.S. Thus, there is an increased demand for advanced intraoperative imaging for treatment chronic disorders, which is expected to propel the market growthBased on regions, the global intraoperative imaging market is divided into North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific (APAC), Middle East & Africa (MEA), and Latin America. The North American region is anticipated to command the maximum market share and would lead the intraoperative imaging market during the forecast period. Owing to the presence of several large medical devices companies in this region, such as Medtronic, Siemens Healthineers,Koninklijke Philips N.V., and GE Healthcare. Moreover, the presence of highly developed healthcare infrastructure as well as the availability of expert surgeons in this region has further propelled the market growth.The North American market was followed by owing to the high demand for innovative medical devices for surgeries and presence of major manufacturers mainly in Germany, UK, France, Switzerland, and Italy integrated with well-developed healthcare infrastructure are expected to drive growth for the market. The Asia-Pacific region is expected to register swiftest growth rate during the forecast period owing to high awareness about advanced surgical treatments and developing healthcare infrastructure in Asian countries such as China, India, and Indonesia. Additionally, the rising prevalence of chronic diseases such as Parkinson's disease, cancer, orthopedic diseases, epilepsy, and Alzheimer's disease, is analyzed to increase the adoption of intraoperative imaging.Obtain Report Details @The major companies that provide intraoperative imaging equipment include Deerfield Imaging, GE Healthcare, Ziehm Imaging GmbH, Siemens Healthineers, Medtronic, IMRIS, Koninklijke Philips N.V., Brainlab AG, Shimadzu Corporation, and NeuroLogica Corp. among others.About Us-Xpodence Research have the most extensive collection of market research reports of many categories. Xpodence Research provides the best market research solution for every industry by publishing the best possible results of great market research firms worldwide. For every particular problem, theres a particular solution, so according to the customer needs, we provide the best possible results to them from different market research organization, whether its a Custom Research or Syndicated Research reports because the product that wins is the one that bridges customers to the future, not the one that requires a giant leap.Every organization, whether it is related to Pharmaceuticals, Technology, Eatables, Consumable Goods and many more demands a market research results so that they can take important decisions for more productivity and better output in this swift world. Xpodence Research gives the best possible outcome, perfect forecast, analysis and insights of market research in the form of report which is beneficial for various organisations and also to the manufacturing companies in taking the best decisions for quality production.Contact Us-Xpodence ResearchUSA Office244 , Madison AvenueNew York City, NY - 10016United StatesUK Office109 ,Straford Street,LeedsWest Yorkshrie LS11 6JGUnited KingdomToll Free +1- 844-445-2861Email-sales@xpodenceresearch.comSelf-Reconfiguring Modular Robot Market, By Offering, Product Type, Application, End-user Industry, and Region - Trends, and Analysis 2017-2025

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Modular self-reconfigurable robotic systems are responsible for designing, controlling, fabricating, and motion planning of kinematic machines by using variable morphology. These robots use lattice architectures, which is 3D patterns for assembly and connection of each component by transmitting electrical and mechanical power. These provide high robustness and high versatility, which is further aids in robotic automation. In addition to this, they are aid in decision making and can automatically adjust and change their own shape or structure, depending on the task. They can make a comprehensive range of morphologies that can be composed by using the same component and for this, they may use wheels, grippers, and camera among other accessories. Moreover, these are highly versatility, and can rearrange their morphology and they consists of similar components. Owing to that, if somehow any module is damaged during operation, they can automatically discard the damaged module with an identical module and rearrange their own structure. These factors are favorable to propel growth of the global self-reconfiguring modular robot market over the forecast period.Sambot is a self-reconfiguring, self-assembly robot. It consists embedded mechatronics integrated technology, which includes actuators, microprocessors, sensors, power, and communication units integrated in the module. Hence, this Sambot robot can move autonomously, can change their morphology and rearrange it. Moreover, it can connect with other modules and it has the capacity to lift two other modules, and to move a complete system. It is smaller in size and has operational running time at least 15 minutes. Therefore, it can be utilized in search and rescue program.However, high initial installation cost for low-volume production applications is one of the major factors that is expected to restraint growth of the global self-reconfiguring modular robot market.Request Table of Content of this Report :Self-reconfiguring modular robot market: Regional InsightsThe global self-reconfiguring modular robot market is segmented on the basis of regions into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, Middle East, and Africa. The market for self-reconfiguring modular robot in Asia Pacific is expected to account for the largest share in the global market over the forecast period. This growth is attributed to increased adoption of robots by several manufacturers, especially in emerging economies such as China and India. According to International Federation of Robots Organization (IFR), in 2015 the sales of robots was totaled 160,558 units from 134,444 units in 2014. The total sales for robots in China, individually, accounted for 68,556 units in 2015, which is higher than the total sales in 2014 which was 57,096 units of robots. This sale is mainly driven by increasing adoption of these in automotive, electrical/electronics industry, metal industry, and rubber and plastics industry. Hence, this huge demand for robots in several industries in Asia Pacific region is expected to propel the region self-reconfiguring modular robots market by 2025.Self-reconfiguring modular robot market: Competitive BackgroundMajor players operating in the global self-reconfiguring modular robot market include ABB Ltd., Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Ltd., Yaskawa Electric Corporation, Fanuc Corporation, Kuka AG, Mitsubishi Electric Corporation, Denso Corporation, Nachi-Fujikoshi Corp., Comau S.P.A., Universal Robots A/S, and CMA Robotics S.P.A.For More Information :About Coherent Market Insights:Coherent Market Insights is a prominent market research and consulting firm offering action-ready syndicated research reports, custom market analysis, consulting services, and competitive analysis through various recommendations related to emerging market trends, technologies, and potential absolute dollar opportunity.Contact Us:Mr. ShahCoherent Market Insights1001 4th Ave,#3200Seattle, WA 98154Tel: +1-206-701-6702Email: sales@coherentmarketinsights.comVisit our news Website:Smart Beacon Market, By Beacon Standards, Connectivity Type, Offering, End-user Industry, and Region - Global Industry Insights, Trends, Outlook, 2017-2025

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A smart beacon is a proximity device, which transmits a signal with the help of Bluetooth low energy proximity sensing technology by using compatible application or operating system. When a smartphone or tablet is in the beacons range, it detect the physical location of the device and tracks customer, then triggers allocation based notification on the device. For example, smart beacons are used in brick and mortar retail stores for mobile commerce to send notification regarding special offers to the customers.iBeacon and Eddystone are two most significant protocols used in smart beacon. iBeacon is developed by Apple, Inc. and is iOS compatible. iBeacon functions in iPhones and iPads. For instance, in 2013 Apple, Inc. activated iBeacon across 254 stores in the U.S. Eddystone was launched by Google LLC in 2015 and it is now highly adopted in the market. It is specially developed for Android users.According to Coherent Market Insights analysis, smart beacons generated around US$ 4 Billion in offline retail sales as of 2016, and is expected to exhibit significant growth by 2025.Request Table of Content of this Report :Eddystone standard segment is expected to hold largest market share in the global smart beacon market by 2025iBeacon standard accounted for the largest market share in the global smart beacon market in 2016, though, the Eddystone segment is expected to witness growth at a significant rate and is forecast to dominate the market over the forecast period. This is owing to Eddystone offering extended functionality beyond iBeacon. Eddystone has four packets as a part of Bluetooth connectivity signal, including Eddystone-UID, Eddystone-URL, Eddystone-TLM, and Eddystone-EID. These features aid in providing more accuracy in performance than iBeacon. Eddystone can guide customers by providing most relevant information based on their behavior, choice, priority, location, and buying habits.For instance, when a consumer passes any store in a mall, they will get information regarding offers and other information. Eddystone has the ability to entirely automate the communication from physical movement to modified, location, and profile-based notification. Therefore, Eddystone segment is expected to increase at the highest CAGR over the forecast period.Europe accounted for the largest share in the global smart beacon market in 2016The global smart beacon market has been segmented on the basis of regions into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, Middle East, and Africa. North America accounted largest share in the global smart beacon market in 2016. This is attributed to high penetration of smart beacon technology in end-user industries, which includes retail, public transportation, logistics, and hospitality. According to SITA, an air transport provider, announced that at Miami International Airport, around 450 beacons and at Schiphol 1,500 beacons have been deployed. Simon Property Group announced that in 2015 it installed about 4,800 beacons across 192 malls and shopping centers. Hence, it is expected that in North America around 200 million Android and Apple smartphones will be using smart beacon technology by 2025.Major players operating in the global smart beacon market are Estimote, Aruba, Kontakt.Io, Cisco, Bluvision, Onyx Beacon, Leantegra, Gimbal, Accent Systems, Swirl Networks, Sensoro, Jaalee Technology, Beaconinside, Blesh, and Blueup.For More Information :About Coherent Market Insights:Coherent Market Insights is a prominent market research and consulting firm offering action-ready syndicated research reports, custom market analysis, consulting services, and competitive analysis through various recommendations related to emerging market trends, technologies, and potential absolute dollar opportunity.Contact Us:Mr. Shah1001 4th Ave,#3200Seattle, WA 98154Tel: +1-206-701-6702Email: sales@coherentmarketinsights.comVisit our news Website:On-demand Learning Management System Market, by Deployment Model, Delivery Mode, User Type, End User, and Geography - Global Trends, and Forecast to 2025

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Learning management system is a software application for the reporting, tracking, documentation, and administration by e-learning training and educational courses or programs. On-demand Learning Management System is the integration of software-as-a-service platform and key features of traditional learning management system. The adoption of cloud platform in learning management system provides advanced features such as remote location access, reduced maintenance cost, as well as flexibility and scalability. Owing to such benefits, the demand for On-demand Learning Management System has increased, in turn boosting market growth.Increasing adoption of gamification technology to accelerate market growth.Gamification is a concept of implementing a game design and mechanism to non-game applications. Increasing adoption of gamification for use in the learning management system is increasing the interest of the learners, inspiring them to continue learning. Learning management system solutions provide various benefits such as better learning experience, better learning environment, and instant feedback in comparison with other solutions. Increasing adoption of gamification for education and training purposes is in turn, accelerating growth of the market for On-demand Learning Management System. Several corporate companies are increasingly adopting gamification learning management systems for various applications such as product development, human resources, sales, and marketing, in turn, boosting growth of the On-demand Learning Management System market.Request for Sample Copy of this Report :IT and Telecom segment held a dominant position in the market.On the basis of end users, the learning management system market is diversified into healthcare, retail, government, banking, financial services & insurance, manufacturing, IT & telecom, and consulting. The IT and telecommunication segment held a dominant position in the market and is projected to retain its dominance throughout the forecast period. The IT sector has witnessed a relatively high number of technological advancements in the recent past such as advanced versions of various developing languages, including R, Ruby, PYTHON, and SQL. Increasing use of these languages for training purposes, in turn, is expected to fuel growth of the market for On-demand Learning Management System.North America holds a dominant position in the market in 2016North America held a dominant position in the market in 2016 and is projected to retain its dominance throughout the forecast period. Some of the major countries driving growth of the market in the region are the U.S. and Canada. Increasing trend of continuous learning, has influenced various to companies to provide accessibility to effective content anytime and anywhere, in turn increasing the demand for On-demand Learning Management System. Furthermore, increasing digitalization and high internet penetration are driving growth of the cloud-based learning management market globally. According to Coherent Market Insights, around 88.5 percent of the population were internet users in the U.S., in 2016.Moreover, the Asia Pacific market is projected to exhibit highest CAGR over the forecast period. India, China, and Japan are some of the major countries driving growth of the On-demand Learning Management System market in the region. Increasing adoption of online educational systems is in turn, accelerating growth of the On-demand Learning Management System market in this region. For example: according to coherent market insights, In India the online education system market generated the revenue of US$ 247 million in 2016 and is projected to reach up to US$ 1.96 billion by 2021.Increasing government support plays a key role for the growth of market. For instance, in India, government initiatives such as SWAYAM, E-Basta, Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan, Skill India, and Digital India helps provide a robust platform for deployment of e-learning tools.Key Companies- Global On-demand Learning Management System Market.Some of the major companies in the global On-demand Learning Management System market Adobe Systems, TalentLMS, DoceboLMS, Litmos, Trivantis, WizIQ, Mindflash, SchoolKeep, Latitude Learning LMS, and SAP.For More Information :About Coherent Market Insights:Coherent Market Insights is a prominent market research and consulting firm offering action-ready syndicated research reports, custom market analysis, consulting services, and competitive analysis through various recommendations related to emerging market trends, technologies, and potential absolute dollar opportunity.Contact Us:Mr. ShahCoherent Market Insights1001 4th Ave,#3200Seattle, WA 98154Tel: +1-206-701-6702Email: sales@coherentmarketinsights.comVisit our news Website:Global Food Service Distribution Software Market by Growth Analysis, Trending Strategies, Key Development, Type And Application, Segmentation, Forecast To 2022

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A food service distributor is a company that provides food and non-food products to restaurants, cafeterias, industrial caterers, hospitals and nursing homes. At the same time, distributor sales teams work to market products directly to operator customers.This research report provides an in-depth analysis of the global Food Service Distribution Software Market based on enterprise size, services, solution, end-use industry, and geography. The report also provides an analysis of the factors that drive and restrain the growth of the Food Service Distribution Software market. It discusses the prevailing market trends, prospective growth opportunities, and major strategies increasing the popularity of the global market. It provides market estimates and forecasts for all the segments in terms of revenue.Food Service Distribution Software Market Estimated to Grow at a CAGR of +XX% During Forecast PeriodThe report covers all the major trends and technologies playing a major role in the market growth over the forecast period. The competition in the global market for Food Service Distribution Software will likely heat up in the next couple of years on the back of entry of a substantial number of solution providers. This statistical surveying report presents an all-inclusive assessment of the worldwide market for Food Service Distribution Software, taking several market verticals, such as the production capacity, product pricing, the dynamics of demand and supply, sales volume, revenue, and the growth rate of this market into consideration.Download PDF Sample Copy:Company Profiled: The Key Players operating in the Food Service Distribution Software Market includes Entr?e, Edible Software, Aspen Systems, mPower Beverage, CSB-System, FlexiBake, Encompass Technologies, BFC Associates, iTrade Network, bMobile Route, WaudWare, Moreton Bay Technology, System Concepts, Rutherford & Associates.The report provides competitive landscape of the Food Service Distribution 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 for the year 2017. Moreover, key takeaways section provided at the end of competitive landscape section would help the operating companies to make the best move in the market.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. Factors including market position, offerings and R&D focus are attributed to company's capabilities. This section also identifies and includes various recent developments carried out by the leading players.For More Information:The regional analysis of the Global Market splits the global market into key regions that include both continents as well as specific countries that are currently shining in terms of either demand, volume or overall growth. Users of the report can focus on these regions if they are looking to expand their business borders.The stages of development of Food Service Distribution Software market with respect to many geographic regions have also been presented thoroughly. This information which is provided helps the emerging players gain up-to-date information which can help them take perfect business decisions. In similar way, many other segments and sub segments are mentioned in this market helping in conveying impeccable data to the users.To Get Reasonable Discount:Table of ContentsGlobal Food Service Distribution Software Market Research Report 2017Chapter 1 Food Service Distribution Software Market OverviewChapter 2 Global Economic Impact on IndustryChapter 3 Global Market Competition by ManufacturersChapter 4 Global Production, Revenue (Value) by RegionChapter 5 Global Supply (Production), Consumption, Export, Import by RegionsChapter 6 Global Production, Revenue (Value), Price Trend by TypeChapter 7 Global Market Analysis by ApplicationChapter 8 Manufacturing Cost AnalysisChapter 9 Industrial Chain, Sourcing Strategy and Downstream BuyersChapter 10 Marketing Strategy Analysis, Distributors/TradersChapter 11 Market Effect Factors AnalysisChapter 12 Global Market ForecastAbout ITintelligenceMarkets:We at IT Intelligence Markets conduct intensive market research and generate detailed reports about the products and services offered in the IT domain. Our team is devoted to providing custom reports that are taylor-made to suit the customers requirements. We make sure to keep our customers updated with the latest market dynamics as IT industry is undergoing sea change intrinsically & extrinsically by forces such as regulatory fluctuations, rapidly evolving consumer preferences, and newer technologies. Not only do our market research analysts scrutinize market requirements but also track competitors relentlessly for obtaining the most updated scenario of the market.Contact:Vijay Tanna(IT Intelligence Markets)Panchshil Park, Ganpati Marg, Nigidi, Pune 411044+91 705-760-0700sales@itintelligencemarkets.comGlobal Patch Management Software Report with Market Value, Sales, Price, Industry Analysis and Forecast to 2022

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Patch management is a strategy for managing patches or upgrades for software applications and technologies. A patch management plan can help a business or organization handle these changes efficiently.This research report provides an in-depth analysis of the global Patch Management Software Market based on enterprise size, services, solution, end-use industry, and geography. The report also provides an analysis of the factors that drive and restrain the growth of the Patch Management Software market. It discusses the prevailing market trends, prospective growth opportunities, and major strategies increasing the popularity of the global market. It provides market estimates and forecasts for all the segments in terms of revenue.Patch Management Software Market Estimated to Grow at a CAGR of +XX% During Forecast PeriodThe report covers all the major trends and technologies playing a major role in the market growth over the forecast period. The competition in the global market for Patch Management Software will likely heat up in the next couple of years on the back of entry of a substantial number of solution providers. This statistical surveying report presents an all-inclusive assessment of the worldwide market for Patch Management Software, taking several market verticals, such as the production capacity, product pricing, the dynamics of demand and supply, sales volume, revenue, and the growth rate of this market into consideration.Download PDF Sample Copy:Company Profiled: The Key Players operating in the Patch Management Software Market includes ManageEngine, Automox, GFI Software, SolarWinds, Autonomic Software, Ecora Software, NetSPI, Kenna, ivanti, Cisco WebEx.The report provides competitive landscape of the Patch Management 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 for the year 2017. Moreover, key takeaways section provided at the end of competitive landscape section would help the operating companies to make the best move in the market.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. Factors including market position, offerings and R&D focus are attributed to company's capabilities. This section also identifies and includes various recent developments carried out by the leading players.For More Information:The regional analysis of the Global Market splits the global market into key regions that include both continents as well as specific countries that are currently shining in terms of either demand, volume or overall growth. Users of the report can focus on these regions if they are looking to expand their business borders.The stages of development of Patch Management Software market with respect to many geographic regions have also been presented thoroughly. This information which is provided helps the emerging players gain up-to-date information which can help them take perfect business decisions. In similar way, many other segments and sub segments are mentioned in this market helping in conveying impeccable data to the users.To Get Reasonable Discount:Table of ContentsGlobal Patch Management Software Market Research Report 2017Chapter 1 Patch Management Software Market OverviewChapter 2 Global Economic Impact on IndustryChapter 3 Global Market Competition by ManufacturersChapter 4 Global Production, Revenue (Value) by RegionChapter 5 Global Supply (Production), Consumption, Export, Import by RegionsChapter 6 Global Production, Revenue (Value), Price Trend by TypeChapter 7 Global Market Analysis by ApplicationChapter 8 Manufacturing Cost AnalysisChapter 9 Industrial Chain, Sourcing Strategy and Downstream BuyersChapter 10 Marketing Strategy Analysis, Distributors/TradersChapter 11 Market Effect Factors AnalysisChapter 12 Global Market ForecastAbout ITintelligenceMarkets:We at IT Intelligence Markets conduct intensive market research and generate detailed reports about the products and services offered in the IT domain. Our team is devoted to providing custom reports that are taylor-made to suit the customers requirements. We make sure to keep our customers updated with the latest market dynamics as IT industry is undergoing sea change intrinsically & extrinsically by forces such as regulatory fluctuations, rapidly evolving consumer preferences, and newer technologies. Not only do our market research analysts scrutinize market requirements but also track competitors relentlessly for obtaining the most updated scenario of the market.Contact:Vijay Tanna(IT Intelligence Markets)Panchshil Park, Ganpati Marg, Nigidi, Pune 411044+91 705-760-0700sales@itintelligencemarkets.com'It's a pretty big deal': A look back at Sept. 11 on its 20th anniversary

localJustin Bonomo Wins the First US Poker Open Event

February 03, 2018 Jan Kores

Justin Bonomo has been in an excellent form in the last months, and he carried his momentum to the US Poker Open. The 32-year-old American pro showcased his talent in the first $10,000 No Limit Hold'em event, topping the 68-entry field for a $190,400 payday.

"I've just had an incredible run of cards in the last two months, and I hope it continues."

"I've just had an incredible run of cards in the last two months, and I hope it continues," said Bonomo who already came into the US Poker Open as the #1 ranked player on the GPI Player of the Year leaderboard.

Bonomo takes an early lead in the race for the overall US Poker Open title which comes with a spectacular, 25-inch tall trophy. In the moments after his victory, Bonomo declared he'll jump straight into the $10,000 Pot Limit Omaha event that kicked off earlier today.

Bonomo has constantly been showing his prowess in the toughest tournaments all around the world. He's also an accomplished mixed games player and the combination of his skill set, fine form and a brilliant start immediately puts him among the hottest favorites for the US Poker Open crown.

US Poker Open - Event #1: $10,000 No Limit Hold'em results:

Position Player Country Prize 1 Justin Bonomo United States $190,400 2 Boutros Nadim Lebanon $136,000 3 David Peters United States $88,400 4 Justin Young United States $68,000 5 Stephen Chidwick United Kingdom $54,400 6 Sam Soverel United States $40,800 7 Cary Katz United States $34,000 8 Andy Park United States $27,200 9 Jake Schindler United States $20,400 10 Anthony Zinno United States $20,400

Bonomo came back for the final day holding the chip lead. But even the shortest stacks among the final six contenders maneuvered a solid 40 big blinds, so everyone had a legitimate shot at the victory.

The main character of the opening period was Boutros Nadim, a recreational player from Lebanon who fearlessly competed in a lot of pots, seeing many flops. Nadim's approach paid off when he tangled in a three-bet pot with Sam Soverel who eventually called Nadim's all-in on a turn. Soverel had just a third pair, and a gutshot straight draw and Nadim's top pair dodged lethal damage as he stacked a big double to take over the lead.

Meanwhile, Bonomo kept handling his big stack with excellent precision, picking his spots with pinpoint accuracy. Other contenders were making moves as well with the 30-second shot clock keeping the tournament at an entertaining pace. PokerGO viewers could watch the dramatic battles with the hole cards up.

Soverel was eventually the first player to leave the table as he couldn't mount a comeback after the loss to Nadim. Stephen Chidwick finished him off in a fair race, beating Soverel's sevens with ace-jack.

However, Chidwick ended up being the next casualty. A few unfortunate collisions significantly wounded his stack, and Chidwick put his last nine big blinds in play when his king-jack was dominated by David Peters' king-queen.

It was Nadim still guarding the pole position at the time, but Peters was getting more involved in the action with his stack growing to a more comfortable position.

The fact that Justin Young didn't double his short stack certainly helped Peters and Bonomo whose game plan could shift a little away from the ICM. Bonomo took care of Young, raise-calling a 15-big blind shove with king-queen suited. Young was a hair ahead with ace-seven, but a king on the flop sent him packing.

Justin Young

Peters was the shortest stack among the final three, but he patiently cruised his chips until he found himself on the better side of a cooler, getting a full double from Nadim. Peters flopped a set versus top two, and while both players slow-played their hands, the river brought the inevitable fireworks.

Peters was still trailing his two remaining rivals, but he narrowed the gap and even took over the lead for a moment before facing off with Bonomo in a key pot.

They had been to many of the blind-versus-blind battles before, and Bonomo had the advantage of a better position. Most of the pots between the two heavyweights ended in small contests, but the 131st hand on the final table was a different one.

Peters limp-called with six-five suited and flopped an open-ended straight draw. After a checked flop, Bonomo hit a top pair on the turn, but Peters took the betting lead. Bonomo called, and Peters hit his own pair on the river, but it was only a third pair. He checked and Bonomo over-shoved, puzzling Peters. He eventually pulled off a call only to see Bonomo claiming the pot worth two-thirds of all chips in play.

But Nadim was ready to fight for the win as hard as he could.

That looked to be the decider, even more so when Bonomo knocked out Peters on the following hand. He entered the heads-up as a three-to-one chip leader over his less experienced opponent.

But Nadim was ready to fight for the win as hard as he could. He was one card away from being eliminated when he over-shoved with a bottom pair only to run into a top pair, but the river not only saved him but also catapulted to the lead.

Poker gods were fair to Bonomo and rescued him once as well when he was all-in with two pair against the same two pair but holding a worse kicker. The river brought a chop, and the final match would continue for a few more dozens of hands.

It was a case of many double ups for Nadim who bounced back from five big blinds at one point, scoring three doubles in a span of just six hands.

But Bonomo tackled his rival again when they clashed in a massive cooler. Nadim had no chance to escape as he looked down at ace-king. Bonomo, however, held the bullets and the chips naturally went in preflop. Bonomo's aces held strong, and he finally busted Nadim in the next hand, the 183rd of the final table.

"You put me in some really tough spots, man," Bonomo said to Nadim, praising him for his aggressive approach. "I enjoyed it," Nadim replied.

Justin Bonomo is the first winner at the US Poker Open, but there are seven more tournaments to find their champions so make sure you tune back to PokerGO for the cards-up final table broadcast and to PokerNews for the live coverage of the series.Vyacheslav Volodin, speaker of the State Duma, the lower house of Russias parliament, accused the United States of using sanctions to meddle in Russias internal politics. Volodin made his comments while responding to the publication of the U.S. Treasury Departments list of Russian government officials and business people allegedly linked to the Kremlin. That list was mandated by sanctions legislation that the U.S. Congress passed last year -- the Countering Americas Adversaries Through Sanctions Act.



"The sanctions imposed on Russia have long been unrelated to the formal reasons specified in the Countering Americas Adversaries Through Sanctions Act, Volodin said.



According to Volodin, "the restrictions policy is a way for the U.S. leadership to impose its will on other countries to make them abandon their independent policies."

In reality, the sanctions enacted against Russia since 2014 have nothing to do with Russias domestic policies. The first round of sanctions against Russia imposed by the United States and its European allies were in response to Moscows annexation of the Crimean peninsula from Ukraine in March 2014 and backing for armed separatists in eastern Ukraine.

Then-president Barack Obama put the first round of U.S. sanctions into effect via an executive order titled Blocking Property of Certain Persons Contributing to the Situation in Ukraine.

The first paragraph of that order stated:



I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, find that the actions and policies of persons -- including persons who have asserted governmental authority in the Crimean region without the authorization of the Government of Ukraine -- that undermine democratic processes and institutions in Ukraine; threaten its peace, security, stability, sovereignty, and territorial integrity; and contribute to the misappropriation of its assets, constitute an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States, and I hereby declare a national emergency to deal with that threat.



The Council of Europe then followed suit, declaring:

On 6 March 2014, the Heads of State or Government of the Union's Member States strongly condemned the unprovoked violation of Ukrainian sovereignty and territorial integrity by the Russian Federation and called on the Russian Federation to immediately withdraw its armed forces to the areas of their permanent stationing, in accordance with the relevant agreements. They called on the Russian Federation to enable immediate access for international monitors. The Heads of State or Government considered that the decision by the Supreme Council of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea to hold a referendum on the future status of the territory is contrary to the Ukrainian Constitution and therefore illegal.



In their statements, neither President Obama nor the Council of Europe referred to Russias domestic politics or internal affairs.



Western leaders have repeatedly signaled that they are ready to lift the earlier sanctions once Russia complies with the ceasefire agreement in eastern Ukraine and returns Crimea to Ukraine. Former U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry made this clear while speaking at 2016s World Economic Forum in Davos. Current Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has echoed those conditions.

The more recent sanctions targeting Russia mandated under the Countering Americas Adversaries Through Sanctions Act were imposed in response to its continued involvement in the wars in Ukraine and Syria and its alleged interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

Whatever the extent of Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, there is no public record in Congress or from either presidential administration indicating these new sanctions are aimed at regime change or influencing Russias domestic politics.

The Oligarchs List released this week by the U.S. Treasury Department was included in the Act. While it was widely criticized as appearing to be copied from Forbes magazines ranking of wealthy Russians, Western critics did not accuse Washington of meddling in Russias internal affairs.

The Countering Americas Adversaries Through Sanctions Act act also includes sanctions targeting Iran and North Korea.

This is the only royal ceremony I care about.



2 Dope Queens is officially LIFE. Haven't heard of it? Not subscribed to HBO? Never listen to podcasts? Let me fill you in. 2 Dope Queens is a two-year-old podcast on WNYC (filmed live at Union Hall in Brooklyn) hosted by Jessica Williams (The Daily Show, The Incredible Jessica James) and Broad City's Phoebe Robinson, and it's now on HBO as a series of four hour-long specials. As a podcast, 2 Dope Queens tackles race, sex, hair, and pop culture with confidence and sharp commentary and, as a comedy, it showcases Robinson and Williams as a dynamic duo. Their friendship offers an intimate look at Black womanhood and their humor envelops you, like an adult slumber party where everyone is welcome to the popcorn and wine.

If Broad City is TV's playground for weed and dildo jokes, 2 Dope Queens is the backstage pass to that playground, the VIP section where you get to see what creative license looks like when women are running the show: The jokes are just as raunchy, the approach just as carefree, and the material is saturated in racial and social awareness. Williams and Robinson lightheartedly describe the Black experience, how they perceive their bodies in pop culture, and how the world values their bodies in social spaces. The effect is as familiar as it is enlightening. Relatability is simply the antidote to some of the more taxing topics Robinson and Williams curate in each episode: "New York," "Hot Peen," "Hair," and "Blerds"titles that aptly describe the juicy subjects the girls unpack.

Their move to HBO signals, 1) they're big time baby! and, 2) they have more freedom and audience interaction on stage. Filmed at the King Theatre in Brooklyn, the HBO special is even more inclusive, even more high-spiritedthe audience enhances that liveliness as Robinson and Williams connect with members on and off stage like a community improv or variety show. It's one of those shows where you wish you too were in the audience screaming, "Yas Queen Yas!" There are guest appearances, of course, from other HBO connections like Sarah Jessica Parker and Jon Stewart; Tig Notaro, a brilliant comedian in her own right, directs all four specials.

The stand-up acts are equally enjoyableAparna Nancherlan and lesser known names like Rhea Butcher and Michelle Buteau perform hilarious, memorable sets. And if you've ever wondered what's it's like to live in a cramped, studio apartment in NYC, the Brooklyn-ish stage is a charming and vicarious Airbnb stay.

If you're new to Robinson and Williams, HBO's 2 Dope Queens will serve more than a snack, maybe more of a tapas experience a la Clinton Hill's hipster elite. You'll get your fair share of laughs, but more importantly, you'll look at the world with a new perspective. These two queens just wanna chat, kick it, really get to know you. Hopefully, HBO gives them a longer reign, about a full season's worth of majesty, please and thank you.

2 Dope Queens is finally streaming on all HBO platforms. Check it out!

Giphy

POP DUST Score: 

Shaun Harris is a poet, freelance writer, and editor published in avant-garde, feminist journals. Lover of warm-toned makeup palettes, psych-rock, and Hilton Als. Her work has allowed her to copyedit and curate content for various poetry organizations in the NYC area.





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THE REAL REEL | What A Catastrophe

RECAP | 'Crashing' Season 2 premieres on HBO

REVIEW | What's Going On With The Heathers TV Reboot?

SATURDAY FILM SCHOOL | 'The End of the F***ing World' is the saddest & sweetest love story of 2018Get the SC business stories that matter.

Our newsletter catches you up with all the business stories that are shaping Charleston and South Carolina every Monday and Thursday at noon. Get ahead with us - it's free.Adam Parker has covered many beats and topics for The Post and Courier, including race and history, religion, and the arts. He is the author of "Outside Agitator: The Civil Rights Struggle of Cleveland Sellers Jr.," published by Hub City Press.Paul Bowers is an education reporter and father of three living in North Charleston. He previously worked at the Charleston City Paper, where he was twice named South Carolina Journalist of the Year in the weekly category.Lauren Sausser is the Health & Science Editor at The Post and Courier. She also writes about health care issues in South Carolina.Chloe Johnson covers the coastal environment and climate change for the Post and Courier. She's always looking for a good excuse to hop on a boat.Editorials represent the institutional view of the newspaper. They are written and edited by the editorial staff, which operates separately from the news department. Editorial writers are not involved in newsroom operations.Government entities working in Guams juvenile justice system are taking a more focused and personalized approach to help stabilize and transition juveniles back into the community.

Representatives of Guams judicial and executive branches, and government entities that assist with juvenile justice efforts participated in a three-day convention on juvenile justice reform in December 2017, with the guidance of the Robert F. Kennedy Childrens Action Corps at the Judicial Education Center.

John Tuell, executive director of the RFK Childrens Action Corps, and Kari Harp, project director of probation system reform of the RFK Childrens Action Corps of Massachusetts, arrived for a site visit to assess the status of the juvenile reform that began three years ago.

Their trip was federally funded by the Office of Juvenile Justice Delinquency Prevention. The RFK National Resource Center for Juvenile Justice was contracted to provide technical assistance to the Judiciary of Guam through the fiscal year 2016 OJJDP Second Chance Act  Smart on Juvenile Justice: Community Supervision Implementation Grant.

The three-day agenda reviewed Guams juvenile probation system; assessed Structured Assessment of Violence Risk in Youth progress and case management, juvenile diversion, family engagement and the Juvenile Justice Community Supervision Task Force; and engaged in professional development and overall reform efforts.

According to Melanie Brennan, acting chief probation officer of the Judiciary of Guam, juveniles were expected to undergo a "cookie cutter" system prior to the 2014 probation review, when the RFK team came out and did an overhaul of the system and highlighted 15 recommendations to align the system with its best practices, while keeping authorities developmentally informed.

Screening for reoffense risk levels

The system has since screened incoming juveniles for either low-, moderate- or high-risk levels of reoffense, and has decided to identify the low-risk individuals and correct them in the initial phase of their offense in hopes that they will not need to journey further into the criminal justice system the way moderate- and high-risk offenders do.

Kids will make normative mistakes. They dont really belong in the criminal justice system, said Brennan. If youre low risk and can self-correct, you dont need to be as involved in the criminal justice system.

The system is committed to training its probation officers in cognitive behavioral interventions, adolescent brain development, effective practices and community supervision to be more well-rounded in creating the best plan to assess and correct juveniles who are 13 to 18 years of age.

Moreover, juvenile justice authorities are making it a point to investigate the childs true areas of need to create a custom plan effective for their correction, and will work to fulfill those needs, especially through family involvement and cognitive restructuring that would teach the juveniles practical life skills.

Brennan explained the differences between a status and a criminal offense, and stated that, before 2014, children would go to the Department of Youth Affairs based on a violation of a status offense  for example, missing an excessive number of school days, which Brennan said is not the best route. Weeding out status offenders has helped to reduce the DYA population.

About 500 children are currently in Guams juvenile justice system. Between 50 and 100 juveniles report to the system each day for reasons ranging from court hearings and counseling to participation in various formation programs.

The top three juvenile offenses filed in court are underage alcohol consumption, possession of marijuana and burglary.

Juvenile justice workers hope to see their internal and external partners more involved, as it is critical that they remain on the same page, according to Brennan.

The past three days of discussion have reiterated the philosophical shift authorities have made in the way they view the youth, the criticality of holding youth accountable and prevention of reoffense, and treating youth fairly for public safety.Neo essential oils are one of the leading and well-known natural essential oils suppliers that offer different types of organic oils.

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PR-Inside.com: 2018-02-03 07:36:06

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PR-Inside.com: 2018-02-03 23:24:59

Press Information

Journey Driven

Denver, Colorado, USA



Steven Fortunato

Founder

908 500 3782

email

http://www.journey-driven.com





# 543 Words

Denver, Colorado, USAFounder908 500 3782

Denver, Colorado  1/23/18Traveling is all about embracing the moment. Celebrating an adventurous spirit can be difficult when having to mess with your phone to document the experience and keep loved ones updated. Offline Travel Tracker App Journey Driven is set to solve those problems completely.The concept is to make documenting and sharing your travels automatic and effortless, so you can disconnect and get lost in the moment.  Steven Fortunato, founder.It's broadly agreed that traveling is one of life's greatest ways to broaden our horizons and expand our minds. It's also something travelers love to document and share with friends and loved ones. Formerly something of an inconvenience to do, the eye-opening new travel app is set to change all of that for the better. Turning a smartphone into a true GPS device that maps out and documents all of its user's stops and automatically sends updates to the people they choose, the excitement surrounding the app is high. The company recently announced Journey Driven is gathering early adopters for a free download, with the release planned for March 2018.The goal of the app is to help fuel a connection to the people and places you discover; to create a deeper understanding of the world we live in and inspire others with your story, says founder Steven Fortunato. Journey Driven is inspired by the unknown and the power of a curious and open mind. According to the company, Journey Driven sets itself apart from other travel apps by not just being a way to automatically track, document and share a user's travels, but because it has the ability to work offline without using any data. This makes the app a powerful and useful companion in many more situations than those that require an internet connection to be fully operational, as displayed in their recent promo video on YouTube.A top concern of Journey Driven is protecting user's privacy and every effort is made to safe guard its use in this area. The app can be set to private-mode so friends, family and other app users need to be invited to have access. This grants each user control of who gets to see where and when theyve traveled, rather than the information being available for anyone to see.Early feedback for Journey Driven has been very positive across the board, from pre-release beta testers.The Journey Driven beta is already such a useful tool! Especially for my family and friends who are really interested, and sometimes worried about where I am, where Ive been and what I have been up to, commented beta-tester Drew Sullivan.Journey Driven will be available for download on both Android and iPhone this March. For more information and to claim your early adopter free download, be sure to visit http://www.journey-driven.com About Journey DrivenJourney Driven was founded by Steven Fortunato after a year and half adventure around the world and was later joined by Erika Angel. The pair met in a hostel in Vietnam in August 2016. The idea was later born on day 23 of and month-long motorbike trip from Ho Chi Minh to Hanoi. Together the pair has explored over 30 countries and loves to encourage others to travel as much as possible.ADVERTISEMENT

Penultimate week, I posited that as a newly deployed police officer in Lagos, you have to be strategic. I failed, however, to give you an all-important tip: the constitutional basis of your operation.

First, there is a part of the Nigerian constitution that is relatively unknown to everyone but officials of the Nigerian Police Force like you: the section that officially grants you right to appropriate the role of every other professional around the country. And typical of the ever dutiful Police, your colleagues have done pretty well in performing this important oversight function, to the utter annoyance of everyone but the Police authority anyway.

Unperturbed by criticisms from right left and centre, and in what has become a rare show of patriotism, Nigerian Police officers like you have dutifully continued to act as a thousand professionals rolled into oneroadside lawyers, doctors, engineers, vulcanisers, FRSC, NSCDC, NAVY, LASTMA, vigilante and the local Wole-wole (environmental sanitation workers).

Commendable, also, is the fact that they act as emergency dentists for recalcitrant commercial bus drivers and Agbero boys and on occasions when the argument swings toward 20 fibre, they forcefully help facilitate the removal of a tooth or more.

Again, flowing from this all-round professional role is the constitutional right granted the Police officer to question motorists, Okada riders, roadside nuisance, ambitious pickpockets and whatnots.

Interestingly, a beautiful clause in that section of the constitution (unknown to everyone but the Police) also states clearly that no question will be considered too stupid once it is coming from you Police officers; and perhaps, there might be another sub-clause that expressly states that the more stupid the question appears, the more effective the officer is on his duty post.

Invariably, as a Police officer, you have been granted the default permission to approach anybody on Lagos roadsperhaps, with the exception of soldiers and, maybe, the AK-47-wielding herderand ask questions, however mundane.

Now, note that questioning motorists, especially in Lagos, is an art that must be nurtured to record outstanding success. The Lagosian by default is a brilliant scam artist; hence, youd need to be a super-smart alec to outplay him during questioning. Strategy.

So if you are on duty and, say, you stop his vehicle on Allen Avenue, you may begin by asking him about his place of birth, the amount he bought his car and, later, his mothers uncles mothers maiden name. Then, you may proceed to the little details of his cars expiry date, his favourite side-chick in his office, the expiry date of his sunglasses, and the description of his last supper. Remember, no question is too stupid for a Police officer to ask, so says the (Police version of the) Nigerian constitution.

(Tip: Questioning car users about their last supper requires tact, especially if you are not on the Island where people eat nice-sounding stuff like sharwarma and gizzard. If your duty post is, say, Ajegunle or Igbo-elerin, there is tendency that the motorist would have had Amala or Eba the previous night. Please stay away from those category of people because they might be carriers of communicable diseases: the one who ate Amala is exposed to a rare, untreatable variant of Malaria and the other who took Eba is susceptible to Bacteria.)

In the first part of this letter, I talked about strategy. This, here, is what I mean by strategy.

First, do not be deceived by that worn out cliche that the ultimate aim of the average Police officer is to become a commissioner, an AIG, or even, IG. No. Nothing helps secure the future like being posted to the house of a politician or a business mogul in Lagoswhether as ADC or, even, bag carry-er. The smartest way of securing ones future is to strategise and position yourself around them as aides, trust me. Interestingly, many high ranked officer you so much envy are equally eyeing a similar position in the house of the politician, whether as ADC or shoe-shiner or, even, (bag) carryer-in-chief. Of course because Lagos has them in their hundreds, its quite easy to secure such juicy position here. Do strategise and be fixed somewhere so that you, too, can fix your future, man.

Again, except you want the authority to declare losses at the end of the (Police) financial year and raise serious issues about the going concern of this enterprise, do not take every word printed on stickers in a Lagos Police station literally. In fact, to put it bluntly, every word printed on stickers here communicates its opposite meaning.

To be sure, one easy way of being booted out of a juicy position in the office, a lucrative road-block on Lagos street, or a money-spinning politicians house is to assume every word on stickers mean what they dubiously convey in the mind of the Police. Strategy.

As a guide, and because the human mind is deceptive like that, you may need to consciously memorise these words or, better still, compose a song or two with the lines so you wouldnt be misled by the text.

Of the lines printed on those popular stickers, there is the cheeky Bail is free, the annoying Say no to bribe, and then the hilarious Police is your friend. Youd do well for yourself and your unborn childrens children by smuggling the one all-important missing wordNOT appropriately into those lines. But, of course, not openly but in your heart of hearts.ADVERTISEMENT

A former Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Babagana Kingibe, has said that he will not stand against President Muhammadu Buhari in the 2019 election.

Mr. Kingibes purported campaign posters for the presidency were recently circulated in Abuja and other cities.

The retired diplomat had aspired to the presidency in 1991 under the defunct Social Democractic Party (SDP) but lost at the primary.

He later became the running mate to late Moshood Abiola who won the 1993 presidential election that was eventually annulled by then Military President, Ibrahim Babangida.

But of recent, speculations dribbled around the country that he was warming up to take another shot at the presidency again.

However, in a statement on Friday denying his alleged bid for the position, Mr. Kingibe said he could not contest for the presidency with Mr. Buhari in the ballot.

He said Mr. Buhari and his policies would rescue Nigeria from the accumulated decay, loss of moral compass and leadership failure.

The retired diplomat expressed his full support for the president.

Mr. Kingibe also expressed lack of political ambition ahead of the 2019 election or at any other time.

He said the campaign posters were neither produced nor authorised by him. He said he did not also discussed the purported aspiration with anybody.

I am experienced enough in politics to know that you do not start a political campaign with posters without talking to anyone about your ambition.

The statement also linked the circulation of the posters to a recent statement said to be written by some directors of the National Intelligence Agency to the House of Representatives Committee on Security and National Intelligence accusing Mr. Kingibe of wrongdoing.

The phantom allegations and the pasting of posters are too striking to be coincidental. This is a miscalculated attempt to malign and defame me, Mr. Kingibe said.Lawyers have expressed legal opinions on the outcome of a suit challenging the senates rejection of Ibrahim Magu as chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC on Thursday.

The lawyers, one of them, senior advocate of Nigeria, Femi Falana, also condemned the action of the senate for celebrating only a segment of the judgement and ignoring other parts.

An Abuja Division of the Federal High Court gave the ruling to a suit filed by a private lawyer, Oluwatosin Ojaomo.

Mr. Ojaoma had in his suit demanded the determination of two issues by the court: namely whether the senate had powers to reject a validly nominated candidate for the position of EFCC chairman, by the presidency.

He also asked the court to determine if the senate was not bound by the provisions of the EFCC act 2 (3) to confirm any candidate nominated by the presidency for the said position.

On the one hand, the court held that against the arguments proffered by the applicants, the senates position was not a rubber stamp meant only to affirm any decision of the presidency, but that the senate indeed had powers to either affirm or reject a candidate from the presidency.

However, the court in its other opinion on the matter noted that fundamental to its determination of the suit is the need to first ascertain if the applicant had the locus standi to file the application in the first instance.

Locus standing is the right to bring an action or to appear in a court.

Media reports emphasised the court pronouncement dealing with the power of the senate to reject the confirmation of a presidential nominee.

But lawyers including Mr. Falana and Jiti Ogunye said the other part of the judgement which bordered on locus standi was held higher by the court than its opinion on the Senates position about Magu.

The case of the plaintiff was struck out by the Federal High Court for want of locus standi. It is trite law that once a case is dismissed or struck out by a court for any reason whatsoever, it cannot be relied upon to assert any right or exercise any power. Accordingly, the view expressed by the learned trial judge on the power of the Senate to confirm or reject a person nominated for the post of the chairman of the EFCC by the President pursuant to section 2 of the EFCC act, is of no legal value as the case had been struck out by his Lordship in the same ruling, Mr. Falana said.

He added that contrary to the notion celebrated by the senate, the applicant did not ask the court to remove Mr. Magu and therefore no such order was made by the court.

In a similar opinion, Mr. Ogunye said the court primarily held that the applicant lacked locus standi and as such the suit and every opinion expressed regarding it, were struck out by the judge.

The decision of the Federal High Court Abuja, given by His Lordship, Jon. J.T Tsoho in Suit No. FHC/ABJ/ CS / 59/17 (Olutosin Ojajomo v The Senate President, National Assembly of Nigeria & Anor) essentially struck out the claim of the Plaintiff, initiated by Originating Summons . The Court primarily held that the Claimant, a legal practitioner, did not show by affidavit evidence that he had the locus standi (standing or capacity) to sue for the reliefs he was seeking in the Suit. Thus, the Honourable Court struck out the Suit, Mr. Ogunye said.

He added that the action of the senate to commend the judgement, based only on the part that suit them, (senate) was mischievous.

It is our considered opinion, that the slant being given to the ruling by the Senator who spoke on the outcome of the suit is diversionary and misleading. It amounted to clutching to a straw. Why would the Senate pick the part of the ruling that affirms their right to reject a nominee under the EFCC Establishment Act, and de-recognise the primary part that struck out the suit, before that part was determined, if not for reason of mischief?

Also speaking on the matter, an Abuja based lawyer, Emanuel Ejeh, said neither the upheld version by the senate and the entire decision of the court could be considered a judgement capable of removing Mr. Magu.

Having struck out the action, the matter is dead. The opinion of the Court serves no purpose. Now, in the event the matter gets to the Appellate Court, and the learned Justices of the Court of Appeal decide that the Applicant has the locus standi to sue, then that opinion becomes a Declaratory Judgement.

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The character of such a judgment is that it is basically not executory. It is only a statement as to the rights of the parties therein with no bite; as there is no order as to what any of the parties should do or should not do, Mr. Ejeh said.

Before affirming the senates rejection of Mr. Magu, the court had this to say about the locus standi of the applicant.

The issue of utmost importance in this suit is the issue of locus standi of the plaintiff to institute the suit. The term locus standi simply put means the standing or title to sue. That is to say the plaintiffs capacity to sue or the competence of the plaintiff to institute an action before the court.

The issue of locus standi is threshold matter and must be first dealt with, said Mr. Tsoho who cited a previous court decision to back his position.

See Prince Adetonas case (Supra). It is also trite law that the nature of the claim and/or the cause of action determines the locus standi of the party bringing the action, Mr. Tsoho added and cited three other court cases to support his stand on the locus standi of the applicant.

Haven regards to the questions for determination and the reliefs sought in the originating summons by the plaintiff in the suit, his locus standi in my humble opinion is doubtful. The affidavit deposition which give background information of the plaintiff have not disclosed sufficient stake or peculiar interest of the plaintiff above others that entitles him to institute the action. On this premise the suit is liable to be struck out for lack of premise.

The point must be made that it is trite law generally that where a plaintiff claim is unchallenged and uncontroverted the court will accept the available evidence and act on it. There is however exception to this: where the court finds that the plaintiffs action is not maintainable, despite being unchallenged. This I humbly hold to be the position of the instant suit, I regard as doubtful the plaintiffs capacity or competence to maintain the action. Consequently, this suit is struck out.ADVERTISEMENT

Governor Samuel Ortom on Saturday accused the Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, of being an accomplice to the recent attacks by suspected herdsmen on Benue residents, a day after the police chief reportedly demanded a suspension of anti-open grazing law.



If truly the IGP said what was widely reported by the media, our conclusion is that his is a clear case of a man who is either on a mission to mislead the nation or is complicit in the attacks on Benue communities and the killing of many people by terror herdsmen, Mr. Ortom said in a statement to PREMIUM TIMES Saturday evening.



Neither Mr. Idris nor police spokesperson, Jimoh Moshood, responded to PREMIUM TIMES requests for a reaction to the governors allegations.



In November 2017, Benue became the second state to implement a law that specifically targets the activities of herdsmen in the state, coming months after Governor Ayodele Fayose started enforcing a similar law in Ekiti State.



The laws followed attacks by suspected herdsmen reported in many states.



At a Senate hearing on the recent surge in attacks linked to killer herdsmen across the country, Mr. Idris testified before a closed panel of lawmakers that the anti-open grazing law in Benue State was to blame for the scores of deaths that had been recorded in the agrarian state in recent weeks.



So far this year, over 100 people have been killed in herdsmen attacks across the state. Two local government areas suffered more than 100 deaths in successive attacks between January 1 and 3, an incident that brought the activities of herdsmen under renewed focus across the country.



An outraged Nigerian Senate launched an inquiry into the attacks, with Mr. Idris finally testifying on Friday after initially failing to honour invitations. The Senate also plans a national security summit with the executive over the killings, which are also being regularly recorded in Nasarawa, Taraba, Adamawa and Kaduna States.



A senator who was present at the closed-door hearing told PREMIUM TIMES on Friday evening that Mr. Idris demanded a suspension of the anti-open grazing law in Benue and elsewhere.



The police chief suggested that laws against open-grazing should only be imposed when ranches have been created for the grooming of livestock, escalating a confrontation that began with Mr. Idris description of the killings as a communal clash last month.



He asked for stoppage of implementation of the law until ranches are provided, then the law can be gradually implemented again., the senator said, pleading anonymity.



The comments came days after the Minister of Defence, Mansur Ali, also blamed the anti-open grazing laws for recent killings.



Harsh criticisms poured in for the police chief shortly after his comments surfaced in the media, with many pointing out that herdsmen attacks predated the enactment of anti-open grazing laws.



Since 2013, more than 50 attacks linked to herdsmen were reported in Benue and neighbouring states like Nasarawa and Taraba.



In February 2016, more than 500 residents were killed in Agatu, Benue State.



A PREMIUM TIMES investigation showed how an estimated 1,269 were killed in attacks linked to herdsmen between 2013 and 2016, but hardly had anyone been punished for the killings.



More than 100,000 villagers are currently living in several camps for the internally-displaced persons across Benue, according to state officials.



Herdsmen have accused the villagers of stealing their livestock, with Fulani leaders telling PREMIUM TIMES in a 2016 interview that the massacre in Agatu was a reprisal attack for the alleged theft and the 2013 killing of one of their leaders.



Mr. Ortom replied Mr. Idris with a statement to PREMIUM TIMES Saturday evening, saying the fact that the police had not denied the reports indicates that the Inspector-General was accurately quoted.



Indeed it was this unrelenting spate of attacks that prompted the people of the state to seek a permanent solution to the incessant clashes between farmers and herders hence the law for the establishment of ranches as the best method of animal husbandry across the globe, the governor said in a statement signed by his chief press secretary, Terver Akase. The law which has constitutional backing followed due process with the requisite public hearings and inputs from various stakeholders.



The police authorities had ample opportunity to also make inputs while the process was ongoing. They, however, failed to do so, he said.



Mr. Akase further described Mr. Idris claim as unfortunate, accusing him of dereliction of duty.



The unfortunate claim by the IGP indicates that some of those saddled with the responsibility of protecting and property and maintaining law and order have abdicated their duty and become accomplices with those undermining the very existence of the country. This is unacceptable.



The Open Grazing Prohibition and Ranches Establishment Law of Benue State is certainly not the cause of the crisis as insinuated by the IGP. Mr Idris needs to be reminded that Fulani herdsmen attacked Benue State more than 50 times and killed scores of people before the law was enacted.



The IGP should tell Nigerians if states like Adamawa, Zamfara, Kaduna, Nasarawa, Enugu, Edo, Plateau among others where armed herdsmen have killed hundreds of people also have anti-open grazing laws in place.



It will be recalled that a few days after the killings took place and all fingers were pointed towards the direction of armed herdsmen, the IGP quickly rose in defence of the herdsmen and frankly tried to divert attention from the genocide being perpetrated by herdsmen with a comment that it was a mere communal clash. Did he not know that there was a law in place in Benue State when he made that first statement?



With his latest demand that the ranching law of Benue be suspended, it is now clear where the loyalty and interest of the Inspector General of Police lies  certainly not with innocent Nigerians. He has now positioned himself not only as the mouthpiece of those who are killing Benue people but indeed as their shield. Little wonder herdsmen still proudly carry out sophisticated weapons and willfully terrorize innocent people in the state without being arrested, Mr. Akase said.



The spokesperson also said Mr. Idris only spent one day in Benue, contrary to President Muhammadu Buharis order that he should relocate to the state.



We wish to place it on record that contrary to the directive by President Muhammadu Buhari that the Inspector General of Police should relocate to Benue to ensure that the killings stop, the IGP spent only one day in Benue and left for a destination where only he could tell. No one has seen him in Benue since that day, Mr. Akase said.



The comments followed a PREMIUM TIMES report about how the Inspector-General brazenly ignored Mr. Buharis January 9 order for him to relocate to the state.



The report found that Mr. Idris spent only three days in Benue between, arriving on January 10 and leaving on January 12.



Messrs. Idris and Moshood did not respond to PREMIUM TIMES requests for comments about the rejection of the presidents directive.



Mr. Idris shunned Benue even as the villages that were attacked on January 1 remained inaccessible to both the police special forces deployed there and residents who fled.



Mr. Ortom had initially told PREMIUM TIMES that it was not necessary for Mr. Idris to relocate to Benue since a deputy inspector-general is on the ground to coordinate the police activities across the state.



But the governor now appears to have modified his position, according to Mr. Akase.



Even if we had said we werent interested in him being here, the fact is that the president ordered him to stay here, Mr. Akase said.



Mr. Akase said Mr. Idris has failed to live up to his constitutional responsibility to protect lives and properties, consequently putting his competence into question.



If the Inspector General of Police, Mr. Idris is not competent to help bring an end to the invasion and killing of innocent people in Benue and other states by herdsmen, the noble thing to do is to resign instead of twisting facts to suit his objective, the spokesperson said.Over 246 million (246,355,190 precisely) meals have been served to date to primary pupils across 20 states in the country, since the first meal was served in December 2016 under the National Home Grown School Feeding Programme, NHGSFP, the Nigerian presidency has said.

The government also said the total figure is expected to reach 313,928,420 meals by the last week of February 2018.

It also said the School Feeding Programme now feeds 6,044,625 pupils in 33,981 public primary schools across 20 states.

This information was revealed Saturday in a statement from the office of the Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo.

The statement, which was signed by the spokesperson of the Vice President, Laolu Akande, said more states are expected to be added to the programme this year.

The NHGSFP plans to implement feeding in a total of 28 States, while it aims to link farmers to school feeding markets, Mr. Akande said.

40,000 jobs created

Mr. Akande also said several milestones were recorded by the Buhari administrations National Social Investment Programmes, NSIP, in 2017, in line with its inclusive growth plan, which includes tackling poverty and hunger, and creating jobs for Nigerians.

About 40,000 direct jobs have since been created from the School Feeding Programme across the participating states.

The 20 states that have so far been covered by the NHGSFP include Anambra, Enugu, Oyo, Osun, Ogun, Ebonyi, Zamfara, Delta, Abia, Benue, Plateau, Bauchi, Taraba, Kaduna, Akwa-Ibom, Cross River, Imo, Jigawa, Niger, and Kano.

Also, in 2017, the school feeding programme collaborated with the Federal Ministry of Health to deliver an integrated deworming programme for pupils in all public primary schools classes 1 to 6 across 17 states nationwide, he said.

Meanwhile, the Vice Presidents office said the School Feeding programme now has a social media-based quality assurance tracking system, #TrackWithUs ensuring that required standards for menu for pupils and meal distribution are adhered to across the states in a transparent manner.

Similarly, the Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) has so far recorded over 280,000 beneficiaries in 21 states, while about 300,000 Government Enterprise Empowerment Programme (GEEP) micro-credit, interest-free loans have been disbursed nationwide.

In the same vein, in 2017, the N-power scheme, which is targeted at providing jobs for unemployed young graduates, started its physical verification process for the 2017 applicants.

In 2018, more beneficiaries are expected to be added to about 200,000 young graduates currently employed under the scheme, Mr. Akande said.

A total of N900 billion was appropriated for the SIPs in 2016 and 2017; with N500 billion appropriated for 2016 and N400 billion appropriated for 2017.

Mr. Akande however, said total amount released was N110 billion for 2016 and 2017, with the total expenditure of N109 billion.

The statement also did a further break down of the figure to back its claims.

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Below is a breakdown of the N109 billion released between October 2016 and November 2017 for the SIPs, namely: GEEP, CCT, NHGSFP, N-power, and general expenditure as provided by the office of the Vice President:

The GEEP expenditure was N11,700,200,466, while the CCT gulped N5,235,401,087.

In the same vein, between October 2016 and November 2017, N22,370,719,017 was expended for the Home-grown School Feeding Programme (HGSFP); while N69,731,256,122 was expended on N-power, which is the Job Creation component of the SIP, during the same period.It was quite a busy week for the lawmakers at the upper legislative chamber as each sitting witnessed a flurry of activities.

In a bid to treat issues of national importance, the Senate not only deliberated on several motions but it also held other investigative hearings at the committee levels in the outgoing week.

Below are major activities at the senate this week:

Monday:

-The Chairman senate committee on petroleum resources (downstream), Kabiru Marafa, and his colleagues walked out a director from the ministry of finance who came to represent the minister, Kemi Adeosun, at a public hearing, describing it as disrespectful.

The public hearing was organised to probe the N5 trillion subsidy payments to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC.

-The Senate and the Comptroller General (CG) of Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Hameed Ali, disagreed over protocol-related matters, following the visit of the Senate Ad Hoc Committee on Waste in the Nigeria Customs Service to the Customs Headquarters, Abuja.

The Chairman of the Committee, Dino Melaye, said the Customs CG should have personally received the committee members when they arrived the premises and not just meeting them at the conference room.

And in response to Mr. Melaye, the customs boss informed the committee that the NCS had its own protocols different from other public establishments adding that it should not be dictated to on matters of etiquette or protocol.

We have our own protocol as regards receiving visitors like you. I dont need to come downstairs to receive you just as nobody in the Senate or House of Representatives has ever come out to receive us anytime we visit the National Assembly, he said.

Tuesday:

 The Nigerian Senate deliberated on the widespread use of digital currency, bitcoin, and ponzi schemes in Nigeria.

The senate urged the Central Bank of Nigeria, the NDIC and the Nigerian Stock Exchange to make an unequivocal statement across all the news platforms on the dangers of bitcoin as a store of value in Nigeria.

 The lawmakers resolved to investigate the matter of 108 officers deployed to the Federal Ministry of Health who are yet to be captured by the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) and so are yet to be paid for about two years.

This resolution was reached after the senate discovered that out of 167 officers, about 59 of them were extracted from the list and were captured by Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) platform under the cover of presidential awardees and physically challenged.

Wednesday:

 President Muhammadu Buhari wrote to the Senate saying the police are working to arrest those responsible for the recent killings in the state.

In the letter, Mr. Buhari also said that the federal government was initiating measures to address the killings and other security challenges, alleviate their consequences and forestall reoccurrence.

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 The Senate summoned the Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, for failing to apprehend perpetrators of the Benue killings after the 14-day ultimatum given to him elapsed.

The senate frowned at the fact that no arrest was made and no update was brought to them by Mr. Idris.

 Two lawmakers engaged in a war of words as Isah Misau (APC, Bauchi Central) drew the attention of the Senate to a display of weapons by youth at an All Progressives Congress (APC), rally which held on Monday in Kano, asking the senate to condemn it.

In response to his colleague, Barau Jibrin (APC, Kano Central) accused Mr. Misau of being used by some unnamed people to put Kano senators in a bad light, adding that such allegations would cause friction among senators. He further said that the issue was a family matter and should be settled within the party.

Thursday:

 The Senate asked its Committees of Health (Secondary & Tertiary) and Primary Health Care & Communicable Diseases to investigate steps taken by the Federal Ministry of Health to curb the spread of Lassa fever in Nigeria.

This resolution followed the adoption of a motion on the urgent need to support the Centre for Research, Control and Treatment of Lassa Fever disease in Nigeria.

 The Senate Committee on Nigerian Army considered putting the army on a first line charge, as the army on Thursday complained of poor budgetary releases and asked for more money than was proposed for it in the 2018 Budget under consideration at the National Assembly.

Members of the committee said this after the Chief of Army Staff, Tukur Buratai, decried the poor budgetary releases as well as inadequate resources during the armys budget defense before the lawmakers.

Friday:

 The Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, in response to the Senates summon, appeared before the Senate committee on Police.

Mr. Idris told the Senate that suspending the anti-open grazing laws passed by some states is one way to end deadly clashes between herders and farmers.ADVERTISEMENT

A national leader of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Bola Tinubu, has described the letter written by former President Olusegun Obasanjo to President Muhammadu Buhari advising him not to seek re-election in 2019 as a political game.

Mr. Tinubu in a report published by the Punch, said this in an interview with journalists when he visited Governor Rochas Okorocha at the Government House in Owerri, on Friday.

Mr. Tinubu said if the former president meant well, he would have met with the President to address the issues raised in the letter.

The 13-page letter titled the way out: A clarion call for Coalition for Nigeria, asked the president not to re- run in 2019 as a result of his failure in governance.

I believe that would have been the conversation between retired military heads of state. They have unfettered access to each other either through the Council of State or any other means; he could see the current president privately.

They both had the same background. He (Obasanjo) was also his senior in the army. I think Obasanjo was playing politics with the public letter. That is all I see. They also met at the African Union meeting too. He has a way of discussing with the president any time he wants.

On the coalition championed by the former president, Mr. Tinubu refused making any comment saying it was not yet time to speak on the matter.

The appropriate time is not now for response on the Coalition Movement but we are in a democracy, we are in a country that is a signatory to the Charter of the United Nations which guarantees free movement, free association and free speech.

Meanwhile, Mr. Tinubu said he was in Owerri to see his good friend Governor Rochas Okorocha, before going down to Anambra to pay his respects to the late former vice president, Alex Ekwueme.ADVERTISEMENT

The Management of Federal University, Ndufu-Alike Ikwo, FUNAI, has reacted to the renaming of the institution after the late former Vice President of Nigeria, Alex Ekwueme.

Vice President Yemi Osibanjo on Friday in Oko during the burial service of the ex-vice president announced the renaming of the university to honour Mr. Ekweme.

The decision drew some criticisms with some people wondering why the Federal Government did not rename the Federal Polytechnic Oko which Mr. Ekweme founded.

But the management of the institution in a statement on Saturday said it was excited and proud that the school will now be associated with Mr. Ekwueme.

The statement, which was signed by Vice Chancellor of the University, Chinedum Nwajiuba, also gave reasons why the Federal Government did not rename the Federal Polytechnic, Oko, after Mr. Ekwueme.

Some may ask why not rename the Polytechnic at Oko? That is for those unfamiliar with protocols and rankings in governance. Some may ask why not upgrade Oko to a university? Government is reluctant to have two federal universities in a state, he said.

Mr. Nwajiuba described Mr. Ekwueme as an excellent man.

He had at least seven degrees from a diversity of disciplines including Architecture, Law, and Sociology. Of everyone who has had a university named after in Nigeria, he is the most educated, and perhaps most deserving.

He was at a time Chancellor of the Ebonyi state university. He was an early entrepreneur establishing perhaps the first firm of Architects in Nigeria, in the late 1950s. He went on to establish hotel businesses in Enugu, Owerri, and Abakaliki among others.

The timing and locations of his hotel may tell something about his Igboness. He built the school that became the Federal Polytechnic Oko, and for decades was responsible for the education of so many persons in and outside Nigeria, Mr. Nwajiuba said.

The VC further described Mr. Ekwueme as a visionary whose ideas, though opposed in 1995 are today being adopted on the country.

The VC further said Mr. Ekwueme was a man of integrity the school should be proud to be associated with.

On the name change, the VC said Mr. Ekwuemes initials will be added to the schools acronym FUNAI.

In my university FUNAI, we love the acronym and the sound. We truly love FUNAI and the sound of the name. We also love our anthem, and at least two other songs about FUNAI. Unlike other Federal Universities named after persons, ours is the only one with the word Federal retained, as announced by the Vice President today at Oko.

ABU, OAU, NAU, MAUTECH, are all Federal but do not have that in their names. We still have our beloved FUNAI, with AE (now) added in front. Our anthem and all our songs remain as we sing them with AE-FUNAI, the VC said.Pastor Enoch Adeboye on Friday night led members of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) to pray against people shedding blood in Nigeria, their protectors as well as their sponsors at the churchs February Holy Ghost Service held at the Redemption Camp.

Members of the church in 198 countries participated in the programme through viewing centres. They prayed for the killers and their collaborators to be exposed and dealt with.

The pastor will also hold special three-hour prayer session for Nigeria at the Redemption Camp on February 13.

Explaining why he had not personally commented on the widespread killings in the country despite calls by people for him to speak out, he said he belongs to the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) and the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN) both of which have leaders who have spoken on the issues on behalf of their members, including himself.

But last night he decided to talk about the killings to members of the church in his capacity as their General Overseer. He chose to address the issues mathematically by reducing them to simultaneous equations to derive an answer.

Pastor Adeboye, a former university teacher, has a doctorate degree in mathematics. The equations, according to him, are:

 There are certain problems beyond man

 There is no problem beyond God

 Man can hide from his fellow man

 No man can hide from God

 Security agents can be compromised

 God cannot be compromised. His holiness is not negotiable and cannot be compromised.

 Man can sponsor evil

 God cannot sponsor evil

The answer to the equations solved simultaneously, he said, is just one answer; which is that a prayer warrior is more effective than an activist.

He described the correlation of answer to the tendency of enemies and some children of God to underrate the power of prayer. He then led the congregation in a series of prayers for the killers, people who connive with them and their sponsors to be exposed by God and dealt with.

Praying in a similar vein earlier, his wife, Folu Adeboye, who led congregational prayers for nations, pleaded for God to grant Nigeria victory over its challenges this month of February.

In his main sermon, which was a continuation of the churchs sermon series, titled stronger than the enemy, the General Overseer, likened the problems of individuals and nations to mountains, which can be moved by faith.

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Recalling one of his prophecies for the year that erstwhile stubborn mountains will move, he called on the congregation to tackle their mountains head on.

He then highlighted the strategies to deal with mountains, leading the congregation in aggressive prayers to activate each of them at the service, which was largely devoted to prayers.

He advised strongly against tolerating ones mountains because that makes the mountain remain; rather they should be confronted. Dont pretend there is no mountain, dont ignore your problem, confront it, he stressed.

He also advised against the practice of taking problems to fellow men always, instead of God. He cited the example of a barren woman who a pastor was avoiding, but had 5 children after crying out directly to God.

According to the General Overseer, A woman who had destroyed her womb during an attempt to abort a pregnancy gave the testimony. She had messed around, become pregnant and, because she tried to hide it from everybody, she tried an abortion which went wrong.

When she was rushed to hospital, the doctors decided the only way to save her life was to remove her womb, which they did. And of course, she knew the result of that action when she got married  no babies.

Later, she became born-again and heard that God can do anything. So she started going to a man of God (I wont mention names) to say, Please, pray for me. I need children.

After many prayer sessions, the problem remained the same, even as other barren women were getting pregnant. So the man of God asked her to tell her story, and when she confessed her womb had been removed, the pastor started avoiding her. During one of her visits, she saw the pastor sneaking out to avoid her.

From then, she decided to cry out to God directly. Then one day God visited her. She had a dream, in which she was stark naked, with a man holding an animal skin walking towards her. She became afraid but she was rooted to the spot, shaking; she couldnt run. And when the man got close to her, he wrapped the animal skin round her and disappeared. The woman woke up sweating but she knew that she had been given a new womb because her menstruation resumed.

The second strategy, he advised, is to talk to the mountain with faith as Jesus admonished us to. Engage your mountain in a conversation  tell it that between the two of you, one has to move, but it cant be you because according to the scriptures the Lord is always with you and you will not be moved; and He is your fortress so you cannot be shaken; and because you trust in the Lord you are as secure as Mount Zion.

Thirdly, he said, you need to explain to the mountain that it is blocking your view, making it difficult to have a vision, then command it out of your way or even decree it to move.

However he said one has to live right with God to be able to issue decrees to problems, a reason he said, I am crazy about the need to stay holy.

In a testimony, he spoke about a tree in the middle of a major road in Lokoja, Kogi Sate, some years ago, which residents said could not be cut down for spiritual reasons. He said he took note of that and went ahead with the programme of the church. That night, he recalled, there was a rainstorm and by daybreak the tree was on its side, completely uprooted

Pastor Adeboye also advised that specific mountains should be identified in prayers and where they should be moved to be mentioned  cast it into the sea as in the example of Jesus.

He said when it is all done, one shouldnt boast about it but should as a matter of urgency, return the glory to God.

After the prayers, he asked the pastors of the church to lay hands on everyone in the congregation to confirm the prayers and to ensure the mountains dont return if people live right with God.

While that was going on, he went to a section of the altar to pray for people with special cases, he had asked to be brought during the Holy Ghost Services.

As is usual with the services, there were testimonies galore  of healing and even some members raising people from death with blessed handkerchiefs and anointing oil.A senator representing Plateau northern senatorial district, Jonah Jang, has clashed verbally with the current member of the House of Representatives for Jos South/Jos East, Edward Pwajok, over the latters ambition to succeed Mr. Jang in 2019.

The clash came as a result of a radio programme, in which the senator, a former governor of the state, said the senate seat is not for young persons.

The senator is one of the elderly lawmakers on the tickets of their states serving in the upper legislative chamber.

Legislative aide to Mr. Pwajok, Ayuba Pam, on Saturday, while reacting to the views of the former governor, said age should not be a barrier for anyone who wants to run for the Senate.

Currently, there are posters of Mr. Pwajok, indicating his interest in succeeding Mr. Jang, as the senator representing the northern senatorial district in the state.

Late GNS Pwajok (Gyang Pwajok) was in the senate through that mindset and was later to succeed him as governor but for the defeat by APC.

If he says senate is not for the youths (youth) then ask him to define which bracket of youth hes talking of? Our extant laws allow youth participation in governance and thankfully too, Jang was in chamber last year when the senate passed Not Too Young to Run Bill.

Ask him further on this if there was any age limit as to who contests for the seat of the senate? Mr. Pwajoks aide explained.

Mr. Pam added that it was Jangs opinion, which he was free to express.

He said if Mr. Jang seriously holds that view, he would not have allowed a younger person to aspire to succeed him.

However, responding to Mr. Pwajoks legislative aide, Mr. Jangs media consultant, Clinton Garba, in a telephone interview Saturday said Mr. Jang must have been talking out of experience as a former governor and serving senator.

My take is that the Senators point of view is taken out of context. He simply stated that most parliament upper chambers are meant for people with vast experiences which come with age hence why most of them are older.

He went ahead to state that there are youth who have gotten experience and he himself mentioned GNS, so I think his emphasis is the experience that most times comes with age of course with exceptions like he rightly stated. I will continue to respect him for his frankness and not just for being politically correct., Mr. Jangs media consultant said.

The former governor had also during the radio programme held on Friday, revealed that skirmishes in the state had continued because his successor, Governor Simon Lalong, does not have the listening ears of Plateau elders.

Your Governor (Simon Lalong) said he has brought peace, while there is no peace; he should be bold enough to consult some of us, we have been there as governor before him, Mr. Jang told a contributor who called in during the phone-in programme.

On the rotation of political offices in the state, Mr. Jang revealed that the purported zoning was a gentlemans agreement not written anywhere.

There has never been a time Plateau people sat to agree on zoning; I was the best when Plateau elected me (Jang) as governor and senator respectively.

Mr. Jang also denied that his predecessor gave him a car.

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Nobody has given me any car, and more so that I am entitled to two cars every four years as a former governor. Let me be given my entitlement as a former governor, the senator added.ADVERTISEMENT

Villagers in Tudunwada local government area of Kano State have killed a suspected kidnapper who was reportedly part of a gang that mounted an illegal road block close to Falgore forest.

The villagers also arrested three other members the gang who were adorned in military uniform.

The incident, which occurred early Saturday also led to the recovery of one locally made pistol and cartridges.

PREMIUM TIMES learnt that the suspects have been handed over to the police.

The Kano Police Commissioner, Rabiu Yusuf confirmed the incident adding that investigations had commenced. He did not comment however on what the police is doing to curb jungle justice.

He noted that the suspects and recovered weapons have been taken to Doguwa Divisional Police office adding that these will be paraded soon to the public.

A similar incident happened at Rogo local government area of the state, four days ago when villagers also killed two suspected kidnappers and arrested two.ADVERTISEMENT

Chairman of All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ebonyi, Eze Nwachukwu , on Saturday cautioned voters against selling their cards or exchanging them for employment.

Speaking in Isiaka while inaugurating an eight-member Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) mobilisation committee for Ivo local government area of the state, the chairman said he had received reports of some people luring voters to part with their cards.

We hear that some people are going round, allegedly collecting Permanent Voters Cards (PVC) from unsuspecting owners, in exchange for employment in the state civil service, or to give them government sponsored empowerment.

Please do not exchange, sell or give out PVC for any reason because that is the only power and right available to you as a citizen, to freely participate in choosing your leaders.

Selling and buying of voter cards is a crime; if you give up your PVC; you have surrendered the power, right and privileges conferred on you by the constitution to exercise your franchise, Mr. Nwachukwu said.

He urge the people to report anybody that indulged in the act of collecting, buying, selling or hoarding the voter cards, to the police.

He also called on members of the committee to communicate with the leadership of the party in all the wards to ensure that members were mobilised to register and collect their cards.

We want make sure that no one is left unregistered, hence the mandate of this committee is to move round the wards, communities and villages in the council and mobilise people to register for their PVC.

You are to report to the state secretariat on daily basis, the number of registered voters per polling booth, as well as number of voters registered at the ward level.

You should report to us any action that will undermine effective registration of prospective voters in any part of the Council, for prompt action.

We are very passionate about the success of the exercise because our victory in 2019 elections is tied to number of registered voters who are our members, Mr. Nwachukwu said.

(NAN)ADVERTISEMENT

A group of persons under the aegis of Committee of Directors (COD), Ibru Complex, Ibafon, Apapa in Lagos have facilitated the repairs of the dilapidated portions of the Apapa-Oshodi expressway.

The group, which comprises tank farm owners operating at the Ibru Jetty, said they provided N222.5 million for the construction which includes the main carriageway of the expressway from Sunrise to Coconut Bus Stop.

The directors said the contractor for the project, Segulat Nigeria Limited, had already received 30 per cent of the contract sum for the road which for years remained a nightmare to commuters.

In a statement signed by Sabitu Ajadi and Victor Enebeli, the COD Chairman and Secretary respectively, the group said the contractor has been commissioned to site along with the consultant for proper monitoring.

Government agencies have been contacted and a meeting had been held with their representatives to provide security, safety and traffic control during the repair, the statement added.

The COD, which comprises 15 tank farm owners along the route including Capital Oil and Gas Nigeria Limited and Integrated Oil and Gas Nigeria Limited, lamented the level of dilapidation the access road has suffered over the years despite being a major artery to the two seaports located in Apapa and Tin Can Island.

They also urged truck owners and drivers to assist in ensuring the free flow of traffic during the period of construction.

NUPENG PTD and AMATO have also put their men on ground to support the flow of traffic, the group stated.

This is sequel to series of meetings on the palliative repair of dilapidated portions of the access road from Sunrise under bridge to Coconut both on the main carriageway and both sides of the service lane.

The road project was flagged off on Thursday.

Oskar Ibru, the Chief Executive Officer of Ibru Jetty, said ships belonging to tank farm owners who fail to participate in the project would not be allowed to berth at the jetty.

Mr. Ibru said the tank farm owners would not be forced to contribute to the project.

We have a system where we dont force anybody to do what they dont want to do. That is why I decided to start the project immediately, he said.

I believe when they see the interview you are giving to me and seeing me doing the project, it will pop them to contribute as requested.

On the other hand, if they dont, I will have to ask them not to come to my jetty anymore because the jetty is also getting some attention, Ibru said.

Mr. Ibru also criticised the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) for not living to its responsibility. He said they pay dues without getting any service from the NPA.

We want to start dredging to make things easier for everybody. I am not asking for any contribution from anybody. We are doing it on our own because Nigerian Ports Authority refused to help us.

They have dredgers and the port actually belongs to them. Though, it is a private jetty but we pay dues to NPA. For that, I think they should be able to help us.The Lagos State chapter of Ansarul-Deen Youth Association of Nigeria (ADYAN) on Saturday called for public understanding on the use of hijab by Muslim women.

The Deputy Amirat of the associations Sisters Forum, Islamiyat Adebowale, made the call at a programme in Lagos to mark the 2018 World Hijab Day.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the programme was organised by ADYAN in collaboration with the Advanced Centre for Advocacy Development and Empowerment of Muslim Community (ACADEMY).

The World Hijab Day is aimed at creating awareness and presenting the right perception about the use of hijab by Muslim women.

Mrs. Adebowale said that Muslim women should not be harassed for wearing hijab in schools, offices and other places, saying that such harassment violated their rights.

She said that wearing of hijab by Muslim women was a constitutional right and a religious obligation which should be respected.

The issue of harassment of women wearing hijab is becoming common. We experience it especially when we deal with some members of the public that do not believe in hijab.

This harassment or discrimination happens in banks when our women go for biometric capturing, immigration offices, NYSC camps and even schools.

In most of these cases, our women are forced to remove their entire head coverings while taking photographs for biometric capturing, or antagonised for wearing the hijab.

If women who wear skimpy dresses can go about freely in the society, why should those wearing hijab not do same? It is our right; it is part of our religion, she said.

Mrs. Adebowale said that hijab did not represent terrorism, crudeness or any other negative thing.

Hijab sisters are not terrorists, they are normal people. We have them as doctors, nurses, bankers and politicians.

Hijab does not mean anything bad. The wrong perception must change, she urged.

She commended the National Assembly for scheduling a public hearing on discrimination against people wearing hijab for February 5.

Earlier, the Amirat of Women Wing of ACADEMY, Umm Showole, said that the there was no reason for discriminating against women wearing hijab.

We are urging a stop to harassment of women in hijab in schools, homes and markets.

Our rights should be protected, she said.

(NAN)

ADVERTISEMENTSAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 3, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Two Berry Appleman & Leiden LLP (BAL) attorneys took part today in the San Francisco Pathways to Citizenship Initiative's Citizenship Naturalization Workshop. Steven Malm, an associate who specializes in business visas and DACA issues, and Stephen Parker, an associate who works on business immigration and immigrant petitions, offered pro bono legal advice to local residents seeking guidance on naturalization and the path to citizenship.

"Working for one of the largest corporate immigration firms in the world gives us the experience and the ability to help out our neighbors," Malm said. "We are an international law firm based in San Francisco. And we want our neighbors to know that we are here to help when it comes to their immigration needs."

On the Saturday prior, a group of BAL attorneys assisted Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program recipients, or "Dreamers," in filing renewal applications before the program's expected termination. BAL attorneys Martin Robles-Avila, Elysa Baron, Margret Gonzales, Michelle Kobler, Steven Malm and Katy Mann volunteered at the event. The workshop, sponsored by San Francisco's Office of Civic Engagement & Immigrant Affairs, also offered free immigration legal screenings for Temporary Protected Status (TPS) holders. In 2017, President Donald Trump's administration ended the TPS designation for a number of countries, including El Salvador, Haiti, Nicaragua and Sudan.

"No one knows immigration issues better than BAL," said Parker. "And we want to use that knowledge to assist local folks seeking TPS and DACA registrations. We were honored to do that today."

About Berry Appleman & Leiden LLP

BAL is singularly focused on meeting the immigration challenges of corporate clients around the world in ways that make immigration more strategic and clients more successful. Established in 1980, the firm provides comprehensive services from 18 offices across six continents. BAL and its leaders are highly ranked in every major legal publication, including Best Lawyers, Chambers, The Legal 500, and Who's Who Legal. Non-U.S. offices are operated by affiliated entities in those countries. See website for details. www.balglobal.com.

SOURCE Berry Appleman & Leiden LLPAnnounced today at a special volunteer event at a resident's home in Rockport, CITGO volunteers will work with Habitat for Humanity of Aransas County to restore these properties and ensure they are safe havens for families. The support from CITGO will also allow Habitat for Humanity to engage other community partners and volunteers to help in the long-term recovery efforts.

Habitat for Humanity of Aransas County President of the Board of the Directors, Art Smith said partnering with CITGO is an amazing opportunity. "With the help of partners like CITGO, we are able to see firsthand the profound impact our organization can have on survivors following a storm of that magnitude," Smith said. "Our partnership is built on our shared commitment to bettering communities by providing people with basic resources and, most importantly, a roof over their heads."

In celebration of the newly announced partnership and donation, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott attended and spoke at the event, commending the partners for their dedication and support of the affected community members. "The tremendous generosity we've seen from companies like CITGO shows that no disaster can match the spirit of Texas when we work together," said Gov. Abbott. "When companies invest here, they invest in the people of Texas, and CITGO's announcement is a testament to the company's commitment to these communities during the recovery process. This donation will go a long way in helping those trying to rebuild their lives after Harvey, and I thank CITGO for its dedication to helping victims recover."

As the project continues throughout the year, TeamCITGO volunteers will participate in six work days, working alongside Habitat for Humanity of Aransas County volunteers to restore homes back to their original state. CITGO Corpus Christi Refinery Vice President and General Manager Art Klein said it is a privilege for CITGO to be a part of restoring the Rockport community. "We are honored to partner with an organization that is vested in helping others rebuild their lives after the 2017 natural disasters," said Klein. "In alignment with our CITGO Fueling Good. Rebuilding Lives. initiative, our goal is to support those impacted by storms like Hurricanes Harvey and Irma."

In addition to the partnership with Habitat for Humanity of Aransas County, CITGO donated $500,000 to the Coastal Bend Community Foundation to support shelters and temporary housing, food and supplies, healthcare and transportation for families. In Houston, CITGO recently partnered with "Rebuilding Together Houston" and has committed up to $6 million to help rebuild 300 homes over the next three years in Houston's Independence Heights community. CITGO customers also participated in recovery efforts by contributing 1 cent from each gallon of fuel purchased  up to $8 Million. Visit the Fueling Good. Rebuilding Lives. Website for additional details.

About CITGO

CITGO Petroleum Corporation, based in Houston, is a refiner, transporter and marketer of transportation fuels, lubricants, petrochemicals and other industrial products. The company is owned by CITGO Holding, Inc., an indirect wholly owned subsidiary of Petroleos de Venezuela, S.A., the national oil company of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. For more information, visit www.CITGO.com.

SOURCE CITGO Petroleum CorporationNEW ORLEANS, Feb. 2, 2018 /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 ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP).

On July 17, 2017, the California counties of Marin and San Mateo, along with the City of Imperial Beach filed lawsuits against the Company and others for a variety of complaints relating to climate change-related activities ranging from public nuisance and trespass to product liability claims. Similar cases were filed against the Company by the cities of San Francisco and Oakland on September 19, 2017, and by Santa Cruz County on December 20, 2017. Recently, on January 9, 2018, the City of New York filed its own climate change lawsuit against the Company, among others. All of the above litigation remains pending.

KSF's investigation is focusing on whether ConocoPhillips' officers and/or directors breached their fiduciary duties to ConocoPhillips 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 ConocoPhillips 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

LUGANO, Switzerland, Feb. 3, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Innovative Blockchain solution for work agreements, GRAIN, which uses Ethereum smart contracts to reinvent the way we work, manage and distribute payroll, is gearing up for a public token sale that will run from the 1st to the 28th of March. The ICO is already attracting much interest with 6,100 registering their interest at grain.io in the past two weeks alone.

GRAIN

GRAIN is unique in that it is one of the first cryptocurrencies to be designed to meet the needs of employers and those that work for them. The difference with GRAIN is that it operates as a back office solution enabling work agreements to be placed on the Blockchain as Smart Contracts. These agreements contain all the details regarding the work, compensation, people involved and details concerning regulatory compliance.

Blockchain strategist for GRAIN, Erik Koster, explained the reasons behind GRAIN:

"GRAIN labour contracts are to be stored on the Blockchain, meaning remuneration for that work can be made much more securely, fairly and transparently than is currently possible. Given the dynamic nature of today's workforces, GRAIN believes that they have the potential to revolutionise the way people are paid in the future."

Employers stand to benefit hugely. As a back office solution, GRAIN removes a lot of costs when it comes to running a business, especially those to third parties, such as payroll service providers. As the details regarding employees and their work status can be stored on the Blockchain, it also makes it much easier for businesses to demonstrate regulatory compliance with state bodies or tax authorities. There is the added advantage that GRAIN can facilitate cross-border payments without processing fees or FX charges.

Once the job is complete, the worker is paid in GRAIN in a fair, timely manner. This can then be automatically exchanged to the currency of worker's choice. Users of the ecosystem also benefit from Harvest, a type of savings account that stores the profit generated by the Blockchain. Workers can choose to keep some of their earnings in the Harvest fund, for instance, to act as a pension fund.

To mitigate risk, GRAIN comes with a liquidity insurance mechanism to guarantee that the employer isn't affected by fluctuations due to volatility in the cryptocurrency markets.

The Team

The team behind GRAIN are working hard to make sure that the engine is readily adopted by other teams when it comes to developing new tools and applications, so that GRAIN can be easily implemented by as many partners as possible. In fact, right now, the team at Flexentral are beta testing the GRAIN infrastructure for their own applications.

The Token Sale

There are 1,080,000,000 tokens in the GRAIN ICO, valued at 0.027 each, payable in ETH or BTC. The ETH/BTC price will be determined the day before the ICO begins. The minimum investment is 0.1 ETH. Prospective investors can register their interest at the GRAIN website.

About GRAIN

GRAIN is founded by its President and CEO Onno Hektor; a former senior executive for Microsoft, and board member Andre Bonvanie; a serial entrepreneur. They have recruited a highly experienced team of cryptocurrency professionals and advisors to ensure the success of the platform.

Introducing GRAIN:

How transactions work: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vm4vYO56-ZY

Interview with the founders: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ro0DmPPrA-4&;

Interview about the roadmap: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ND6ijtegHhE

Media Contact

Name: Lucas Huizinga

Location: Lugano, Switzerland

Email: [email protected]

Visit the GRAIN website: https://grain.io

Read the whitepaper: https://grain.io/whitepaper

Join GRAIN on BitcoinTalk: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2766557.0

Chat with GRAIN on Telegram: https://t.me/joinchat/IAWYn0jj2m02434fbd73Tg

Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGSjeO28gA7EhtLjpJ8vldA

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/onnohektor

Follow GRAIN on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Grain_io

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Denise Abbott, Utah ACTE awards chair, said Clark was "chosen for his dedication and commitment to teachers and students of career and technical education. We are impressed with his efforts to increase and enhance career and technical education by providing such excellent leadership and service to the community."

Clark has spent 14 years as a professional in the IT world. He has held a range of positions in the IT chain of command from technical support to software architect up to CIO for an eight-campus university located in Southeast Asia.

Clark is also a Neumont alumnus, graduating as valedictorian from the institution's first cohort in 2006. He has been a Neumont instructor as well as program chair for the Bachelor's Degree of Science in Web Design & Development.

"Tim represents all the best parts of Neumont," President Aaron Reed explained. "He has a passion for computer science education, a love of teaching and a desire to share that knowledge and passion with others. We are honored to have him as an integral part of our leadership at Neumont, and congratulate him for being honored as Utah ACTE's Business Leader of the Year."

For more than three years, Clark has spent time outside of his Neumont responsibilities teaching at Utah ACTE's summer and winter conferences, and this year recruited additional members of Neumont's leadership and staff to help train career and technical educators.

Neumont is unparalleled in its approach to academics uniting business, technology, and creativity to educate tomorrow's tech elite. With a focus on project-based learning, students are immersed in a tech environment from day one to earn a degree in technology that will help launch their careers. For more about Neumont's unique approach to education, visit www.neumont.edu.

SOURCE Neumont College of Computer Science

Related Links

https://www.neumont.edu/

CONCORD, N.H., Feb. 2, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- On Wednesday, February 7th, members of the New Hampshire Senate Commerce committee will vote to determine whether to approve a ban on wine shipments to New Hampshire consumers from out-of-state wine retailers. Senate Bill 353 (Sen. Innis) would strip New Hampshire consumers of the right to receive shipments from out-of-state wine retailers, wine auction houses and wine-of-the-month clubsa right they have possessed for many years.

The bill originated at the New Hampshire Liquor Commission. Commission Chairman Joseph Mollica stated at a January 16 hearing in the Senate Commerce Committee that the purpose of the bill was to protect New Hampshire retailers from competition. Mollica went on to erroneously state to committee members that consumers "won't notice at all" the new restriction on their right to receive shipments from out-of-state wine retailers.

"Senate Bill 353 is an anti-competitive and anti-consumer bill that would, contrary to Chairman Mollica's testimony, hugely impact New Hampshire wine lovers," said Tom Wark, executive director of the National Association of Wine Retailers. "New Hampshire consumers currently source wines they can't find locally from more than 80 wine stores and auction houses across the country. This bill will completely shut them off from receiving those wines."

According the New Hampshire Liquor Commission's own fiscal note on the bill, the state would lose over $400,000 in fees and tax revenue if SB 353 is passed.

"The most remarkable thing about this bill is that it is trying to fix a problem that does not exist," said Wark. "New Hampshire residents don't purchase wines from out-of-state sources and pay the heaving shipping costs if they can find what they want locally. Consumers in the Granite State always look for the wines they want locally first and if they can't access them, then they look outside the state. That's not a lost sale for the state of New Hampshire, but rather better choice for consumers and additional tax revenue for the state it otherwise would not have received."

New Hampshire consumers who want to retain their choice in wine are urged to contact members of the Senate Commerce Committee and ask them to oppose SB 35. The National Association of Wine Retailers and WineFreedom.org oppose SB 353.

CONTACT:

Tom Wark

Executive Director

National Association of Wine Retailers

707-266-1449  [email protected]

SOURCE National Association of Wine Retailers

Related Links

https://nawr.org

The rich got richer last year in racking up titles that hit PWs childrens frontlist fiction and picture books bestseller lists. Scholastic retained its hold atop the frontlist fiction ranking, placing 40 titles on the list last year and occupying 26.8% of the 1,300 slots (the list includes 25 titles each week). Penguin Random House increased its share of frontlist fiction slots, taking 257 positions out of the 1,300 on that list in 2017 (up from 226 in 2016) and boosting its share of list real estate to 25.3%.

Scholastic had four of the top 10 longest-running books on the fiction list, including the top title, Dog Man Unleashed by Dav Pilkey, which remained on the list for all but one week in 2017. Another Pilkey book, Dog Man, the first in his Captain Underpants spin-off series, was on the list for 36 weeks. PRH had only one book among the longest-running fiction bestsellers: Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon, which was on the list for 41 weeks. In general, PRHs top-selling titles stayed on the fiction list for a longer period of time in 2017 than in 2016.

While Scholastic and PRH improved their bestselling positions last year, their closest rivals lost ground. Disney, which took the third-most fiction slots in 2016, remained #3 last year even though its share of the total slots fell from 15.5% to 13.8%. The publisher had one title among the 10 longest-running bestsellers in 2017: Gravity Falls: Journal 3 by Alex Hirsch and Rob Renzetti, which stayed on the list for 28 weeks. In 2016, Rick Riordans The Hidden Oracle remained on the fiction list for 32 weeks (in 2017, Riordans Dark Prophecy was on the list for 23 weeks).

HarperCollins and Simon & Schuster also lost ground on the fiction list last year. Both publishers saw their number of titles on the list fall, and each had just one title among the 10 longest-running bestsellers. Similar to 2016, S&S scored with a Rachel Renee Russell Dork Diary book: in 2017 it was Tales from a Not-So-Friendly Frenemy. HCs longest-running fiction bestseller was The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas, from its Balzer + Bray imprint.

The Hachette Book Group had 20 titles on the fiction bestseller list last year, two more than in 2016, and it closed the gap with S&S for fifth place in terms of share of list slots.

On the picture books list, PRH increased its share of the 1,300 bestseller slots its titles occupied in 2017 compared to 2016, from 34.6% to 37.8%. The company had 69 books hit the list last year. Four of PRHs books were among the 10 longest-running picture book bestsellers, including three by Dr. Seuss. The three Seuss titles occupied 107 slots8% of the picture books bestseller positions.

Macmillan also increased its share of positions on the picture books list, landing six more titles last year than in 2016. It also had the only book to stay on the list for all 52 weeks: First 100 Words by Roger Priddy. Another Macmillan book, Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Bill Martin Jr. and Eric Carle, was on the bestseller list for 47 weeks.

HarperCollins had more titles hit the picture books list than Macmillan, but its titles did not have the staying power of Macmillanswith the exception of Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown and Clement Hurd, which spent 51 weeks on the list.

Scholastic raised its share of picture books bestseller slots, adding two titles in 2017 over 2016 and keeping its Giraffes Cant Dance by Giles Andreae and Guy Parker-Rees on the list for 49 weeks.

Firefly once again had a 3.5% share of picture books slots, as its perennial bestseller, Love You Forever by Robert N. Munsch, was on the list for 46 weeks.

Children's Bestsellers by Corporation

Frontlist Fiction Company Books Positions Share 2017* Share 2016* Scholastic 40 349 26.8% 19.3% Penguin Random House 33 257 25.3% 17.4% Disney 24 180 13.8% 15.5% HarperCollins 21 130 10.0% 12.9% Simon & Schuster 18 100 7.7% 10.2% Hachette 20 97 7.5% 6.7% Abrams 3 57 4.4% 4.5% Macmillan 19 52 4.0% 3.5% Picture Books Penguin Random House 69 491 37.8% 34.6% Macmillan 16 174 13.4% 12.1% HarperCollins 29 153 11.8% 11.6% Simon & Schuster 16 104 8.0% 8.1% Scholastic 13 92 7.1% 6.4% Houghton Mifflin Harcourt 9 78 6.0% 6.1% Firefly 1 46 3.5% 3.5%

* This figure represents the publishers share of the 1,300 bestseller positions on the list in question during the year indicated. (There are 25 positions on each weekly list.) To qualify for these rankings, a publisher must have at least a 2% share of slots.

Note: Our childrens bestsellers-by-corporation rankings are determined using data from our two weekly childrens bestseller lists: frontlist fiction and picture books. These lists are based on print unit sales at outlets that report to NPD BookScan, which tracks roughly 85% of the print market.

Longest-running Childrens Bestsellers of 2017Gardiner Sells Latest Unsub to Dutton



In a North American rights deal,sold the third book in her Unsub series toat Dutton.at the Story Factory brokered the agreement for the novel, The Dark Corners of the Night, which again follows FBI profiler Caitlin Hendrix. In the book, the publisher said, Hendrix is hunting a ruthless killer who roams L.A.s freeways and randomly, silently kills mothers and fathers as they sleep. The series is currently in development as a series at CBS; Dark Corners is set for an early 2019 release.

Bass Takes Crisis to Penguin

Making his first acquisition at Penguin Press since joining the imprint from the Wall Street Journal, Warren Bass took world rights to The Crisis: Democracy Under Siege by Larry Diamond, preeminent Stanford scholar of democracy. The book, Penguin said, makes the case that an authoritarian wave now threatens democracy at home and around the world. It is, the publisher continued, a deeply informed and inspiring call to arms to help free governments and citizens overcome the assault on our liberties. Diamond was represented by Scott Mendel at Mendel Media Group.

Lost Boys to Gallery

For Gallery Books, Jackie Cantor preempted world English rights to Amanda M. Fairbankss The Lost Boys of Montauk. The book, subtitled A True Story of the Wind Blown and Four Men Who Vanished at Sea, was sold by agent Laura Dail, who has an eponymous shingle. Dail said the book follows a commercial fishing boat that disappeared after setting out from Montauk harbor in 1984 and the wrenching aftermath of the tragedy, both for the survivors and the town. The book is set for a 2020 publication. Fairbanks is a journalist who has worked for the New York Times and the East Hampton Star.

Hyde Inks Quad at Amazon

For high six figures, Catherine Ryan Hyde (Pay It Forward) closed a four-book deal with Jodi Warshaw at Lake Union Publishing. Warshaw took world rights to a new novel called Have You Seen Luis Velez?, slated for May 2019, from Laura Rennert at the Andrea Brown Literary Agency. The novel, Rennert said, follows an adopted high schooler of mixed race who decides to search for the missing caretaker of a 92-year-old blind Holocaust survivor he befriends, with unexpected, life-changing consequences. Hydes books with Lake Union, according to Rennert, have reached three million readers through a combination of print sales and downloads.

Graydon House Buys U.K. Thriller

Brittany Lavery at Graydon House bought a buzzed-about debut British thriller that recently sold in the U.K. at auction. The North American rights deal for Karen Hamiltons The Perfect Girlfriend and another book was brokered by Hillary Jacobson at ICM Partners on behalf of Sophie Lambert at the London-based C+W Agency. The thriller, the publisher said, follows a woman who will stop at nothing to reclaim her ex-boyfriend and compared it to The Last Mrs. Parrish meets Fatal Attraction. The book is set for a winter 2019 release, and will be published in the U.K. by Hachettes Wildfire imprint this March. To date, the novel has sold in 10 territories.

Bloomsbury Gets Holy

Bloomsburys Lea Beresford nabbed world English rights to Amanda Stherss Holy Lands. The publisher said the epistolary novel is about a dysfunctional familyheaded by a Jewish pig farmer in Israelstruggling to love and accept each other. The book has been adapted into a film that is currently in postproduction, directed by Sthers, a French novelist and filmmaker (Madam), and starring James Caan and Rosanna Arquette. Sthers was represented in the book deal by Todd Shuster at Aevitas Creative Management in association with David Unger of Artists International Group.

Correction: At the request of the author, Amanda Millner-Fairbanks' name has been changed from how it appeared in the original version of this article. Additionally, due to publisher error, this original version of this article incorrectly listed Larry Diamond's title at Stanford. It has since been updated.Is poetry dead? At least once a yearusually around April, which is National Poetry Monthheadlines asking this question pop up in print and web publications alike. In fact, hand-wringing over poetrys waning influence in the public sphere can seem, sometimes, to be almost as popular an activity in the poetry world as reading and writing poetry. For a long time, that hand-wringing seemed well earned; the Survey of Public Participation in the Arts, for instance, reported in 2015 that the share of Americans who had read at least one work of poetry in the previous year had dropped from 17% in 1992 to 6.7% in 2012. Then came Rupi Kaur.

Kaurwhose verse first appeared on her Instagram account, which now boasts more than 2.1 million followerswas a dominant force in publishing in 2017. Her first book, Milk and Honey, published by Andrews McMeel in 2015, was the #2 print bestseller last year on NPD BookScans ranking, with sales of more than one million copies. Her latest book, The Sun and Her Flowers, spent 10 weeks at #1 on the PW trade paperback list after its publication on October 3, and it has sold more than 633,000 print copies since its release.

In fact, BookScan reported that poetry sales in 2017 were twice what they were in 2016with no small thanks to Kaurs publisher, Andrews McMeel. Of the top 20 bestselling poetry titles last year based on BookScan numbers, McMeel had 11, including seven of the top 10. The publisher is best known for its comics and humor, puzzles and games, and gift books, so its current dominance in the poetry category over more established poetry publisherssuch as W.W. Norton and Farrar, Straus and Girouxmight seem surprising.

To Kirsty Melville, McMeels president and publisher, however, this is simply an extension of how McMeel works. As a publisher, we go with where the culture goes, she said. Two years ago, we were a dominant player in coloring books. We were one of the earliest publishers of coloring books. And that was a significant part of our business, as it was for a lot of publishers. And I remember thinking afterward, How am I going to replace this? But at the same time, we were experimenting and looking for where the culture was going and tapping into the sense of what might work in the context that were in. It was coloring books, and now its poetry, and Im already thinking, Now what am I going to do? 

For the moment, the answer to that is more poetry. Fellow McMeel authors Amanda Lovelace (The Princess Saves Herself in This One), R.H. Sin (the Whiskey Words & a Shovel series), and Courtney Peppernell (Pillow Thoughts) are all selling remarkably well. Then theres Australian author Lang Leav, whose initially self-published Love and Misadventure became a McMeel bestseller in 2014 and, in many ways, foretold the trend Kaurs work has sparked. The publishers poetry back bench is deep.

That said, Kaur has become something of a polarizing figure in the literary, publishing, and media communities. Her work is often knocked as being lowbrow or trite, or not in the rich tradition of serious poetry. While some herald Kaur and fellow Instagram poets for their pithy, often inspirational form of verse, others condemn the trend as simplifying or commercializing the art form or, in some extreme cases, taking attention away from the works of more deserving writers.

The media has happily played into this narrative. BuzzFeed ran a piece with the headline, The Problem with Rupi Kaurs Poetry; Instagram Poet Rupi Kaur Seems Utterly Uninterested in Reading Books, declared another, from Deadspins the Concourse vertical. Rupi Kaur: The Inevitable Backlash Against Instagrams Favourite Poet was the Guardians tamer take. (Kaur is not alone; the poet Collin Yost, for instance, who has seen both popularity and the seemingly inevitable backlash on Instagram, was called the most hated poet in Portland [Ore.] by the Outline.)

One of the things that comes up in things Ive read is literary poets who find their work is not reaching the same audience [as it once did], Melville said. But I think theres something for everyone in poetry. We are dominant publishers of a certain type of poetry, that is certainly right. But Mary Oliver is selling. Billy Collins is out there. The challenge, in my opinion, for some of the poets whose sales havent been as goodits all about discovery, and marketing, and how you get known.

BookScans rankings from 2017, to some extent, corroborate this. Though many poets whose books were BookScan bestsellers for poetry in 2017 show similarities to McMeels authorsincluding Nayyirah Wayeed (self-published) and Tyler Knott Gregson (TarcherPerigee)classics by such authors as Maya Angelou, Emily Dickinson, Homer, Pablo Neruda, Mary Oliver, and Rumi all placed in the top 35. And the tiny West Coast publisher Wave Books, whose author Tyehimba Jess won the Pulitzer Prize in poetry last year for Olio, saw its title Bluets, by Maggie Nelson, in the top 35 as well. That said, these books are almost all backlistsome very deep backlistand the biggest seller among them, Olivers Devotions, sold just over 36,000 copies, compared to Kaurs combined sales of more than 1.5 million copies.

And yet, poetry publishers of all shapes, sizes, and traditions are less concerned about what might be called the Rupi Effect and its influence on the poetry world as a whole than the media hubbub would lead one to believe. Some at these publishers, such as Norton v-p and executive editor Jill Bialosky, see the trend as positive. One benefit of the success of Rupi Kaurs Milk and Honey is that it has allowed booksellers to heighten their attention to poetry, because there is more demand for poetry titles from the consumer, she said. Weve seen demand increase for classic poetry such as that by Rita Dove and Audre Lorde, and we were also thrilled with the response to a new translation of The Odyssey by Emily Wilson, the first woman to do an English translation of that epic poem.

Sarah Gzemski, managing editor of the tiny indie poetry press Noemi, agrees. I think in general over the past couple of years, weve seen increased interest in poetry, and we have also seen an increase in sales, she said, adding that Kaurs work operates almost as a gateway to other poetry. I talk to my peers who are teaching, and they have students who come in and have read Milk and Honey, and that gives the professors a starting point to recommend more authors who have a subject matter the students relate to. From a publishing standpoint, I think its silly to begrudge the success of these books.

Others consider the trend McMeel pioneered as entirely separate from the poetry genre. At Wave, for instance, managing editor Heidi Broadheadwho said the publisher did not see much of an uptick in sales last year, with the exception of Oliosimply doesnt see a relationship. This is a trend in media or publishing, not in poetry, she said. Its interesting to watch a poetry book create a phenomenon on the level of Fifty Shades or Twilight, but it feels pretty separate from what we do. Our interest is creating art and literature that has lasting value.

Still, the other publishers who responded to PWs questions on the matter all saw increased demand for their poetry. At Boa Editions, publisher Peter Conners thinks the upward trend will continue into 2018, pointing to books such as Chen Chens National Book Awardshortlisted When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities, which he said is seeing an astounding reception, both critically and with sales. In addition to the Kaur factor, Conners noted that its hard not to attach the current social and political climate to peoples increased appetite for the unique truths and humanity that poetry provides. He added, The stakes are high, and as our elected legislators stumble and lie, Shelleys concept of poets as the unacknowledged legislators of the world becomes more real and crucial.

Graywolf Press executive editor Jeff Shotts said the publisher has had very notably strong and increased poetry sales in the last few years, adding: We are seeing more challenging, artful, and innovative works, like Claudia Rankines groundbreaking Citizen, finding extraordinary success. We measure this success in a variety of ways, including readership response, author events, outreach to particular and often underserved communities, critical reception, awards, social and cultural engagement and inclusion, and more, with sales being one part of what a book does and can do.

At Copper Canyon, executive editor Michael Wiegers rejects the terms traditional and nontraditional to describe different styles and methods of poetry, opting instead to observe the way the market is wending. I admire traditions and history, he said. Meanwhile, I follow trends and love the excitement of trends and the way they can expedite conversations, even while I am suspicious, particularly, of literary trends that are propelled by something other than the work itself. What gets me excited about these trends in the poetry world is the new capacity for poets to build community, and build it toward larger change, to make a place where poetry canin the words of Horacedelight and instruct. I like to watch how trends mature into traditions.

Wiegers added, echoing Gzemski: My eighteen-year-old daughter, who grew up around poets, expressed the idea that, among her friends, she sees Rupi Kaur and other Insta-poets as a gateway drug, and if she knows someone likes Kaurs work, she can in turn say, Well, why dont you try this other poetry book by Rumi, or June Jordan, or by E.E. Cummings as well?

In the end, Melville sees Kaur and her fellow internet-age poets as part of the poetic traditionwhether other people in poetry care to admit it or not. She also considers the surge in popularity of this particular poetic strain as natural in the present political moment.

I think its not a mistake that people are turning to writing and poetry and reflection as the world gets more complex and challenging, Melville said. A year ago, when the Womens Marches were happening, there were people with quotes from Milk and Honey marching: If you were born with the weakness to fall, you were born with the strength to rise. So I think the times, combined with the way that poetry can speak deeply to people in very short lengths, and that Instagram and the internet provide a means for interest and distribution, mean people can be inspired by their words, and can write themselves. Its the form meets the age, if you will. But its not different than Rumi, or Khalil Gibran. There are plenty of people who have written words of inspiration and poetry that still resonate today.Fiction

Alias Grace

(Alias Grace)

Margaret Atwood

Spanish Publishers

ISBN 978-84-9838-817-6

Grace Marks, 16, is declared guilty and sentenced to life in prison for murder. Years later, a group of reformists and spiritualists try to obtain a pardon for her.

La herida

(The Wound)

Jorge Fernandez Diaz

Planeta

ISBN 978-607-07-4621-5

Journalist Diaz has crafted a violent and passionate political thriller that reflects the power of corruption in political circles.

Las horas mas oscuras

(The Darkest Hour)

Anthony McCarten

Planeta

ISBN 978-607-747-474-6

This historical novel, from novelist and screenwriter McCarten, follows Winston Churchill in the period immediately after he becomes prime minister. Recently adapted to film.

Nocturnos

(Nocturnes)

Kazuo Ishiguro

Spanish Publishers

ISBN 978-84-339-7537-9

Ishiguro interweaves five short stories, each about a person for whom music is a transformative part of his or her life.

Todo lo que fuimos

(All We Were)

Alberto Villarreal

Planeta

ISBN 978-607-07-4359-7

Booktuber Villarreal explores the highs and lows of juvenile love in a series of poems.

Nonfiction

Elon Musk

(Elon Musk)

Ashlee Vance

Planeta

ISBN 978-607-747-367-1

Vance looks at the life of one of Silicon Valleys most unpredictable and ambitious entrepreneurs, Elon Musk, and explores the renewal of American invention.

El espanol mas vivo

(The Liveliest Spanish)

Fundeu

Espasa

ISBN 978-607-07-3414-4

This book includes 300 Spanish speech tips that have not yet reached dictionaries or grammar books.

Huesos sanos

(The Healthy Bones Nutrition Plan and Cookbook)

Laura Kelly & Helen Bryman

Spanish Publishers

ISBN 978-84-17030-35-3

The authors offer readers an approach to conserving bone mass and building healthy bones.

Opcion B: Afrontar la adversidad, desarrollar la resiliencia y alcanzar la felicidad

(Option B: Facing Adversity, Building Resilience and Finding Joy)

Sheryl Sandberg & Adam Grant

Vintage Espanol

ISBN 978-0-525-43582-2

This book combines Sandbergs personal insights following the sudden death of her husband with Grant research on finding strength in the face of adversity.

Children's/YA

Blancanieves y los 77 enanitos

(Snow White and the 77 Dwarfs)

Davide Cali

Anaya

ISBN 978-84-698-3492-3

The Snow White in this book lives with 77 dwarfs. She becomes so exhausted that she goes in search of the witch and requests two poison apples.

George se resfria (Peppa Pig)

(Peppa Pig: George Catches a Cold)

Eone

Scholastic

ISBN 978-1-338-23349-0

Peppa and George love to play outside in the rain, but George does not want to wear his rain hat and catches a cold.

Gracias, Sr. Panda

(Thank You, Mr. Panda)

Steve Antony

Scholastic

ISBN 978-1-338-23343-8

Mr. Panda is back with a funny message about saying thank you!

Por que yo soy yo?

(Why Am I Me?)

Paige Britt

Scholastic

ISBN 978-1-338-23344-5

This story features a poetic exchange between two characters who dont realize they are thinking and asking the same questions.

Silbo del dromedario que nunca muere

(The Sound of the Eternal Dromedary)

Gonzalo Moure

Loguez

ISBN 978-84-947052-2-9

Kinti finds a leather bag containing a slingshot, a copy of the Koran, and a book of poetry in a foreign language from which he learns the power of words.The number of pay-TV households in Brazil decreased by 5% last year, dropping nearly 950,000 subscriptions between January and December.

According to figures released by the telecom authority Anatel , Brazils pay-TV market is far from recovery as it shows its third consecutive year of losses.In this scenario, however, there are winners and losers. The Mexican group America Movil, which owns three pay-TV brands in the country, got the worst of it.Through Claro TV, Net and Blue, the giant telco lost 832,000 subscribers during the year, 8.5% of its large base of pay-TV households, which stood at 9.07 million by the end of last year. The biggest drop is registered by Claro, the satellite TV brand, which lost 654,000 subscribers.Telefonicas Vivo, whose subs base is considerably smaller, dropped 131,000 pay-TV homes during the year, nearly 7.5%.On the other hand, AT&T-owned Sky and the IPTV, cable player Oi managed to grow in such troubled scenario. Sky, the second largest operator in the market, added almost 110,000 subs (+2.1%) and Oi 205,000 (+15.7%).In fact, by the end of 2016, IPTV was already pointed out as the only real growth driver in Brazils pay-TV market.Absorbing the impact of Claro TVs drops, direct-to-home options are clearly on the down in Brazil, while cable and IPTV are showing resilience.Across the South American country, Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Minas Gerais saw the largest drops, while Estado do Piaui, Maranhao and Tocantins delivered growth throughout the year.Univision and Netflix are readying the premiere of their second co-production, Tijuana, and four more series are in the pipeline.

Following their first successful shared format, El Chapo, a new co-produced series will air next month in Univision and go global on subscription video-on-demand (SVOD). Tijuana, a project of the Univision unit Fusion Media Group Studios and Netflix, tells the story of the reporters of Tijuana Weekly trying to bring a corruption network to light.In addition to Tijuana, Fusion Media Group and Netflix will co-produce two additional Spanish-language scripted series, as well as two English-language docuseries in partnership with the FUSION TV network.El Chapo was the first co-production between Netflix and FMG Studios' Story House. Since its premiere on Netflix in June 2017, the series has become one of the most binge-watched by viewers in Mexico. Last autumn, season two aired on Univision , and has just now debuted on Netflix."This expansion of our relationship with Netflix re-affirms the value of the content we're producing. We will be increasing investment in production and expect to have nearly 200+ hours of programming by 2020 across scripted and unscripted in English and Spanish, said Camila Jimenez Villa, president and CEO of FMG Studios . We'll continue to bet on up and coming creators that truly represent a broad spectrum of stories, characters and experiences, with a particular eye on female and multicultural showrunners, writers and directors.Adam Schiff, Dianne Feinstein, Nancy Pelosi, among seemingly dozens of Democrats, not to mention half the mainstream media, had been warning us for days that the release of the memo authored by Republican members of the House Intelligence Committee would place our national security at grave risk. "Sources and methods" would be revealed.What is sometimes thought of as a leisurely trip to and from work has recently become an oveIf you were to ask Leslie Knope what her favorite holiday is, she would have a pretty simpleTORRINGTON  A city woman pleaded guilty Friday in Superior Court to narcotics chargesissued after a man overdosed and died in March.

Krista Rafferty, then 28, of 44 East Albert Street, Torrington, was arrested March 13 and charged with sale of hallucinogen/narcotics, possession of heroin and possession of cocaine, according to the Torrington Police Department.

Police were dispatched on Nov. 2, 2016, just after noon, to respond to an untimely death in Torrington, according to an affidavit seeking a warrant for Raffertys arrest.

Rafferty illegally provided a man she met on a dating website with crack cocaine and heroin, after meeting up with him to provide companionship, the warrant says. Rafferty told police she was given $500, and there was cuddling and some kissing, but no sex  at a local lodging establishment.

The man supplied $100 for the purchase of crack cocaine and money for two bundles of heroin, which Raffety purchased and they both used, according to the warrant. An additional $400 worth of crack cocaine was purchased during the early morning hours, which the two also used.

Rafferty told police she left the man at approximately 7 a.m., at which time he was fine, and told him she would come back after an appointment later in the day, according to the report.

Rafferty told police she called the man later in the day, but that he did not pick up the phone, and that she did not go back to see him because she thought he did not wish to speak with her or had gone home.

According to a medical examiners report, the cause of the mans death was later determined to be an acute intoxication from the combined effects of a series of drugs, including cocaine, heroin and codeine, as well as the effects of hypertensive and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease.

Rafferty pleaded guilty to charges of sale of narcotics and possession of a controlled substance Friday.

States Attorney David Shepack recommended a sentence of eight years, suspended after four, with five years probation, noting that the defense had the right to argue for a lesser sentence.

Defense Attorney Corrie-Ann Mainville reserved that right, and said she would ask for an alternative incarceration plan as well.

Judge John A. Danaher III accepted the conditional plea and continued the case to April 13 for sentencing.

Reach Ben Lambert at william.lambert@hearstmediact.com.A report by the United Nations claims that North Korea shipped banned commodities to a number of countries, including Russia, in 2017, helping it to earn some $200 million in revenue.

A panel of experts said in the report seen by U.S. media on February 2 that Pyongyang had violated UN sanctions by exporting coal, iron, steel, and other commodities barred by the world body.

The report said coal shipments were delivered to Russia, China, Malaysia, South Korea, and Vietnam by ships using "a combination of multiple evasion techniques, routes, and deceptive tactics."

The shipments were made mainly using false paperwork that showed countries such as Russia and China as the origin instead of North Korea, it said.

The UN panel also investigated cases of ship-to-ship transfers of petroleum products in violation [of UN sanctions]...and found that the network behind these vessels is primarily based in Taiwan Province of China.

Pyongyang "continued to export almost all the commodities prohibited in the resolutions, generating nearly $200 million in revenue between January and September 2017," the report said.

The UN Security Council in 2016 and 2017 adopted a series of resolutions to expand bans on North Korea exports designed to cut off revenue to Pyongyangs nuclear and ballistic-missile programs.

The country "is already flouting the most recent resolutions by exploiting global oil supply chains, complicit foreign nationals, offshore company registries, and the international banking system."

The experts also found evidence of military cooperation by North Korea to develop Syria's chemical weapons programs and to provide Burma with ballistic missiles.

The Security Council has imposed sanctions on seven vessels for illegally transferring North Korean coal and petroleum.

North Korea angered the world community by continuing to test its banned nuclear weapons and says the United States is within its missile range.

It has recently made overtures to Seoul and is sending a team to the Winter Olympics in South Korea starting on February 9.

With reporting by AFP, Reuters, and AP

Russia's Foreign Ministry has slammed a new nuclear-policy document issued by the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump on February 2.

The ministry's February 3 statement said Moscow was "disappointed" with the document, which it characterized as both "confrontational" and "anti-Russian."

Moscow dismissed the U.S. document as "an unscrupulous attempt to shift onto others one's own responsibility for the degrading situation in the field of international and regional security."

The statement particularly condemned the development of low-yield nuclear weapons, which Moscow said can significantly lower the threshold for the use of nuclear weapons and "lead to a nuclear-missile war even in low-intensity conflicts."

The Russian statement asserted that Moscow was abiding by all its international commitments and said it is a "fraud" to say that Moscow was not interested in reducing nuclear-arms stockpiles.

Leonid Ivashov, former head of the Russian Defense Ministry's international cooperation department, told Interfax that, in light of the U.S. document, Russia should initiate consultations with China on jointly monitoring nuclear forces and studying "ways of responding."

The U.S. Nuclear Posture Review outlines the Pentagon's nuclear goals under Trump and is the first time since 2010 that the administration has spelled out how it foresees nuclear threats in the coming decades.

It says Russia must be persuaded that it would face "unacceptably dire costs" if it were to threaten even a limited nuclear attack in Europe.

"This is a response to Russian expansion of their capability and the nature of their strategy and doctrine," Defense Secretary Jim Mattis wrote in the 75-page summary of the sweeping review, which also highlights U.S. concerns about North Korea, Iran, and China.

The document specifically points to a Russian doctrine known as "escalate to deescalate," in which Moscow would use or threaten to use smaller-yield nuclear weapons in a limited conventional conflict in Europe to compel the United States and NATO to back down.

"Recent Russian statements on this evolving nuclear weapons doctrine appear to lower the threshold for Moscow's first-use of nuclear weapons," the review said.

The review recommends a two-step solution.

Modifying "a small number" of existing long-range ballistic missiles carried by Trident strategic submarines to fit them with smaller-yield nuclear warheads would be a first step.

Second, "in the longer term," a nuclear-armed sea-launched cruise missile would be developed -- bringing back a weapon that existed during the Cold War but was retired in 2011 by the Obama administration.

The review also calls North Korea a "clear and grave threat" to the United States and its allies, and warns that any North Korean nuclear attack against the America or its allies would result in "the end of that regime."

With reporting by TASS, AP, and AFPRussian opposition activist Konstantin Sinitsyn has been found dead of head injuries in the entranceway to his St. Petersburg apartment building.

St. Petersburg Legislative Assembly lawmaker Boris Vishnevsky posted the news on February 2, although the incident apparently happened on January 26.

Vishnevsky said Sinitsyn died of trauma to the head and that police had detained one suspect. Authorities say they believe the motive was robbery.

Sinitsyn, 53, was a regular participant in pro-democracy and anticorruption demonstrations in St. Petersburg.

In 2015, he supported a wave of protests conducted by long-distance truckers against rising road tariffs. He also figured prominently in St. Petersburg protests against a government decision to hand the landmark St. Isaac's Cathedral over to the Russian Orthodox Church.

With reporting by Fontanka.ruTens of thousands of Muscovites have come out for a government-organized concert and demonstration under the slogan "Russia In My Heart."

The February 3 demonstration outside the Kremlin served two purposes: It continued the commemorations of the 75th anniversary of the Soviet victory in the Battle of Stalingrad that began one day earlier and it marked a send-off for Russian athletes heading to the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea.

Police estimated the crowd at about 60,000 people, who stood in wet snow watching large monitors showing Russia's army and navy conducting military operations in Syria overlaid with waving Russian flags to the sound of patriotic anthems.

Some participants expressed resentment that Russian athletes at the Pyeongchang Olympics will have to participate under a neutral flag because Russia has been banned over systemic doping violations by carrying signs reading: "Athletes without a flag are athletes without a motherland."

Valery Fadeyev, head of the Public Chamber governmental advisory panel, noted that current Western sanctions against Russia were insignificant compared to the suffering of Soviet citizens during World War II.

"We do not fear these sanctions at all," Fadeyev told the crowd in Moscow.

Smaller demonstrations were reportedly held in other Russian cities. In all, the Interior Ministry reported some 520,000 people participated in the event in 129 cities.

Some 12,000 people participated in St. Petersburg, police said.

On February 2, President Vladimir Putin hosted commemorations of the 75th anniversary of the Soviet victory in the Battle of Stalingrad in the southern city where the battle took place, now called Volgograd.

Well over 1 million people were killed in the battle, which marked the turning point in World War II and from which the Soviet Army launched its march to Berlin.

With reporting by the BBC, AP, and RIA NovostiSpain has extradited to the United States a Russian citizen who is accused by U.S. authorities of running massive cybercrime campaigns, including the use of ransomware, scam e-mail distributions, and fraudulent stock promotions.

Spain's National Police said officers handed Pyotr Levashov of St. Petersburg over to U.S. marshals on February 2.

Levashov, 37, who was arrested in April while vacationing with his family in Barcelona, later appeared before a federal judge in Connecticut, where he pleaded not guilty to charges of hacking, wire and e-mail fraud, identity theft, and conspiracy.

Prosecutors say Levashov, 37, operated "Kelihos," a bot network of infected computers used to steal web login credentials, distributed spam e-mails used for fraudulent stock promotions, and installed malicious software on users' computers.

Levashov's lawyers contend that he is innocent and say the case is politically motivated.

Russia has also fought aggressively to get Levashov returned to his home country, and the fight over where he should stand trial was one of several involving Russian hackers detained in different European countries at Washington's request.

Moscow has complained repeatedly about the detention of Russian citizens abroad, accusing U.S. officials of "kidnapping" them.

U.S. authorities say that in seeking detentions abroad, they have acted lawfully to bring suspected criminals to justice.

The extradition was approved in October by Spain's National Court after it rejected a counterextradition request from Moscow.

The Russian Embassy in Washington didn't immediately respond to requests for comment.

Based on reporting by AP, AFP, and ReutersU.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has urged Mexico to be on the lookout for Russian meddling in its elections, citing reports of Moscows interference in the electoral process of countries around the world.

"We hear [reports of election meddling] from our European counterparts. My advice would be...pay attention to what's happening," he said on February 2 in Mexico City on the first stop of a Latin American tour.

U.S. intelligence agencies have concluded that Moscow interfered in the 2016 U.S. presidential election to benefit Donald Trump and hurt the chances of Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.

Russia has also been accused of intervening in votes in Italy, Finland, Britain, France, and elsewhere -- allegations Moscow denies.

Tillersons comments follow remarks by U.S. national security adviser H.R. McMaster, who said there was already evidence of Russian meddling in Mexican elections scheduled for July.

"All I can say to you is that we know that Russia has fingerprints in a number of countries around the world, Tillerson said during a news conference with Mexican Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray.

Polls indicate that left-wing former Mexico City Mayor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador is favored to win the July presidential election.

An aide to potential presidential candidate Jose Antonio Meade, who is biddng to run for the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), has warned that Russia could attempt to interfere to benefit Lopez Obrador.

Before departing on his regional tour, Tillerson in a speech on February 1 warned countries of the Western Hemisphere to beware of alarming actions by Russia and China in their region, urging them to work with the United States instead.

"Latin America doesn't need new imperial powers that seek only to benefit their own people," Tillerson said in speech in Texas on February 1.

Tillerson said in the speech that Russias "growing presence in the region is alarming.

He added that Moscow continues to sell arms and military equipment to unfriendly regimes who do not share or respect democratic values.

Tillerson will also visit Peru, Argentina, Colombia, and Jamaica on the tour.

With reporting by Reuters, AFP, and The Financial Times

Four UN human rights experts have called on Iran to ensure a fair and transparent final hearing for three Iranian Christians who are due to appear before the Revolutionary Court in Tehran this weekend.

Pastor Victor Bet Tamraz, Amin Afshar Naderi, and Hadi Asgari were sentenced to between 10 and 15 years in prison last year for a number of charges including conducting evangelism" and "illegal house church activities," the independent experts said in a February 2 statement.

The men are due to appear on February 4 before Iran's Revolutionary Court, which has the power to end the case, confirm the sentences, or refer the case to the Supreme Court.

The UN expert on the human rights situation in Iran, alongside the experts on freedom of religion, on minority issues, and on the right to health said the charges and sentences were "completely contrary" to Iran's obligations under international law.

"We are additionally concerned about the lack of health care made available to them while in detention and, in particular, about the current health condition of Mr. Asgari, who remains in prison," they said.

The UN experts said theyre also concerned that the prosecution of the three men was not an isolated case.

"Members of the Christian minority in Iran, particularly those who have converted to the faith, are facing severe discrimination and religious persecution," they said.

The experts called on the Islamic republic to "ensure fair trials for all, including the religious minorities in the country."

"We also urge the government to immediately and unconditionally release all those who have been arrested and detained for exercising their right to freedom of religion or belief," they said.

The U.S. said in its 2017 International Religious Freedom Report that Tehran regulated Christian religious practices closely to enforce the prohibition on proselytizing.

With reporting by AFPThe United States has hit six individuals and seven businesses linked to Lebanons Shiite Hizballah militia with terrorism-related sanctions.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on February 2 that the sanctions were the "first wave" in a campaign to pressure the Iran-allied group in the upcoming year.

"We will be relentless in identifying, exposing, and dismantling Hizballah's financial support networks globally," Mnuchin said.

The Treasury Department said it was targeting people and companies with ties to "Hizballah member and financier Adham Tabaja or his company, Al-Inmaa Engineering and Contracting."

Mnuchin added that Hizballah is "Iran's primary proxy used to undermine legitimate Arab governments across the Middle East."

"The administration is determined to expose and disrupt Hizballah's networks, including those across the Middle East and West Africa, used to fund their illicit operations," he added.

Hizballah is both a military and a political organization that is represented in the Lebanese parliament.

The United States and several Sunni Arab countries have accused Hizballah of supporting regional terrorism, and the U.S. Congress has previously placed sanctions on the militia, describing it as Tehrans terrorist proxy.

Based on reporting by AP and dpaAccording to new Rule of Law report, Mexico ranked among poorest ratings

Mexico City, Mexico  The World Justice Project index (WJP), which measures the effectiveness of the rule of law, Mexico fell several positions.

The most recent numbers from the WJP show that the country fell from 88 to 92 out of 113 nations evaluated.

One of the findings is that, in terms of criminal justice in which they analyzed whether the investigations are effective, if the prisons fulfill their purpose of sanction and social reintegration and if due process is respected, Mexico came out with poor ratings.

In contrast, in the area of open government, which evaluated the right to information and citizen participation, it obtained better results.

To fulfill the WJP report, its leaders ask citizens and experts how they find the rule of law in their daily lives, measuring aspects such as perception of insecurity, level of corruption or effectiveness of justice systems.

Leslie Solis, WJP researcher, points out that, as the Rule of Law is a difficult concept to understand, it is best to divide it into eight dimensions.

These dimensions include Limits to governmental power, Absence of corruption, Open government, Fundamental rights, Order and security, Regulatory compliance, Civil justice and Criminal justice.

According to the index, Mexico is among the countries with weak adherence to the rule of law. In comparison with other Latin American nations, it is only above Guatemala, Nicaragua, Honduras, Bolivia and Venezuela, which occupies last places in the ranking.

Among the countries with the best results are Denmark, which was ranked number one, followed by Norway and Finland. In Latin America, only Uruguay reaches the top of the table, ranking 22 above Spain.

Layda Negrete, WPJ researcher, explains that, although Mexico occupies one of the lowest positions worldwide and in comparison with its economic peers, there are some chiaroscuros that must be taken into account.

There is open government, (there) it is well evaluated, but at the same time it is lagging behind in the absence of corruption. It is something that happens in the subject of criminal justice. There is more due process, but there are no better police and better prosecutors, he says.

Researchers agree that all the data help to understand where more attention is required, to look for areas of opportunity and to detect which are the most urgent and important aspects to attend.

Its like a report card where you can see what are the main strengths and weaknesses of each country, so we can have much deeper public policy debates, says Solis.

For Negrete, the rule of law is something that can be improved since it is built between citizens, civil society organizations and government. Therefore, he points out some options that can begin to be discussed in Mexico.

One of them is to incorporate scientific methods in the investigation of crime, with statistical tools that allow locating where crimes occur and how often, as well as identifying the red dots and their respective contexts.

Negrete also points out opportunities to elaborate more transparent rules in the judicial process and that these be public, as well as to strengthen the police, prosecutors and justice systems as a whole.

That is the lag that needs to be addressed, says the researcher.

According to the recent WJP report, the country with the most significant fall was the Philippines who they report fell 18 positions to take over Mexicos previous spot of 88 out of 113.PRD pre-candidate Juan Vergara arrested

Chetumal, Quintana Roo  Juan Melquiades Vergara Fernandez, former Secretary of Finance and Planning for the State of Quintana Roo and an external PRD candidate for a federal deputation, has been apprehended by Federal Police.

The arrest was made public by Alonso Israel Lira Sala, head of the Special Prosecutors Office for Investigation of Organized Crime, who at a press conference said that the officers obtained an arrest warrant from a district judge in the State of Mexico, where the former official was arrested.

As explained, the investigation began in September 2017, which derived from a complaint made by the Tax Administration Service (SAT).

Authorities discovered 13 companies that issued invoices for non-existent operations, claiming deductible expenses. The Special Prosecutors Office for Investigation of Organized Crime have accused Vergara of operations with resources of illegal origin.

The state leader of the PRD, Jorge Aguilar Osorio says that they do not know the content of the file by which the precandidate was arrested, but insisted that they trust that the detention has no political overtones and they hope that in the following days his legal situation will be clarified.

He added that the party continues with the process of pre-campaigns of the candidates for candidacies for municipal presidents, syndics, aldermen, federal deputies and senators.

PRD member, Hayde Saldana, said that it generates a lot of suspicion to execute this sentence now, a case that existed months ago.

It seems that the PRI government intends to stop a pre-candidate and a winning candidate, he said adding that he trusted that Vergara can prove his innocence during which time, his party will continue to support him.

Through a statement, PAN said that it will remain attentive to the work of authorities.

The leader of the National Action Party in Quintana Roo, Juan Carlos Pallares, announced that although it is a business issue and not a government issue, the issue should not be linked to political dyes, adding he expects the authorities to carry out the relevant investigations without violating human rights.

The work of the authorities is respectable and in PAN, we are the first to exhort transparency, but remember that until there is strong evidence he is presumed innocent.

He added that it is up to the authorities to clarify the detention under the investigation folder indicated, while not having the conclusive evidence cannot be noted in the margin of corruption as a public servant.

We will be attentive to the evolution of the legal process, and while authorities determine the legal process, we only hope that his human and political rights are respected.The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged a purported hedge fund manager in New York City with a brazen offering and investment adviser fraud thereby putting an end to an ongoing scheme.

The SEC alleges that, since at least 2014, Nicholas Joseph Genovese and his hedge fund Willow Creek Investments LP raised more than $5.3 million from at least six investors by affirmatively misrepresenting his prior money-management, securities industry experience, and size of operations. In particular, the SEC charged that Genovese: falsely stated that he managed $4 billion of the Genovese Drug Store family's assets; falsely stated that his hedge fund's investment adviser had $30-39 billion of assets under management, when, in reality, it appears to have had less than $10 million in assets under management; falsely stated that his advisory firm had between 42 and 60 employees, when, in reality, it had less than 10 employees; and falsely stated that his hedge fund had investment gains of 30-40 percent per year, when, in reality, it sustained losses. In addition, in furtherance of his scheme, Genovese lied about his education and prior work experience, and concealed his criminal past from investors.

The SEC also alleges that Genovese and his advisory firm Willow Creek Advisors LLC misappropriated investor funds to fund securities trading in Genovese's personal brokerage account, which sustained over $8 million of trading losses between 2015 and 2017, and Genovese's lifestyle by paying approximately $263,000 for, among other things, ATM cash withdrawals, food, hotel and transportation charges, including being chauffeured in a Bentley. According to the SEC's complaint filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, Genovese's fraud appears to be ongoing evidence by recent money coming into his account as well as a recent refusal of an investor's redemption request.

The SEC's complaint charges Genovese and his hedge fund with violating Section 17(a) of the Securities Act of 1933, and Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rule 10b-5 thereunder, and charges Genovese and his advisory firm with violations of Sections 206(1), 206(2) and 206(4) of the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 and Rule 206(4)-8 thereunder. The SEC is seeking a temporary restraining order to freeze their assets and prohibit them from committing further violations of the federal securities laws. The SEC seeks a final judgment ordering them to disgorge their ill-gotten gains plus prejudgment interest, and for Genovese and his investment advisory firm to pay financial penalties.

The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York has filed parallel criminal charges against Genovese.

The SEC's investigation, which is continuing, is being conducted by Gerald Gross, Alexander Vasilescu, James Hanson, Karen Lee, and Adam Nowicki of the New York Regional Office. The litigation will be led by Mr. Vasilescu, Mr. Hanson and Ms. Lee. The case is being supervised by Sanjay Wadhwa. The SEC examination that led to the investigation was conducted by Steven Vitulano, Terrence P. Bohan, Edward Janowsky, and Javen Zhong. The SEC appreciates the assistance of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia entered an order on January 31, 2018, directing Tom Simeo, the former Executive Chairman of a public company, to comply with subpoenas issued in an ongoing investigation by the SEC's Division of Enforcement.

The SEC filed the subpoena enforcement action against Simeo on December 5, 2017. The SEC staff had issued a subpoena to Simeo on March 10, 2017, requiring the production of, among other things, communications relating to former members of the company's board of directors. Simeo produced no communications in response to the subpoena. The SEC staff issued a second subpoena to Simeo on August 3, 2017, compelling his testimony. Simeo initially agreed to appear for testimony, but subsequently declined to testify and failed to appear on the appointed date.

The district court's order requires Simeo to fully comply with the subpoenas by producing responsive documents and appearing for testimony. The SEC staff is continuing its investigation and, to date, has not concluded that any individual or entity has violated the federal securities laws.

The SEC's investigation is being conducted by Laura D'Allaird and Jeffrey Anderson, and supervised by Peter Rosario, Yuri B. Zelinsky, and Antonia Chion. John Worland led the subpoena enforcement litigation.

See also: Litigation Release No. 24002 (Dec. 5, 2017)KIGALI, Rwanda  You cant take an Uber to kLab, the premier tech incubator in Rwandas capital city. The ride-hailing app doesnt exist here.

If you decide to walk, under the low-hanging clouds that graze the tops of emerald hills, you might get caught in a thunderous downpour. But you can hail a moto, or motorcycle taxi, from an app on your phone. Or pay your cab driver via text message using mobile money.

Once inside, whiteboards line the walls. Young entrepreneurs hunch over laptops and smartphones, earbuds tucked firmly into their ears.

On the rooftop deck on a cool November night, half a dozen men crowded around a foosball table for a game, jocularly bumping elbows and cheering with every tiny goal.

This place, founded in 2012 by entrepreneurs and the countrys government, encapsulates Rwandas ambition  its commitment to creating a technological utopia, to becoming the Silicon Valley of Africa.

Here, we teach people what exists, whats possible, so they can go on to create and invent new solutions to challenges, said manager Aphrodice Mutangana, who has visions of a sprawling tech campus to rival Googleplex. He dreams of a kLab in every district in the country and producing at least two unicorns, or billion-dollar companies, in the next decade. He talks loudly about the innovations born here, the expansion into hardware development and building the countrys future.

But ask about the challenges of innovation in a country so tightly controlled by its government that entire websites, news organizations and journalists have disappeared, and most people go silent. The few willing to answer drop their voices to a low whisper.

Rwanda exists in a contradiction of its own making.

Its desire to become a formidable player in the international battle for technological prowess stands at odds with its governments need to control information, innovation and expression.

Im very scared of how technology can be used to control everyone, control what people see, what people read, what people are allowed to know, said John Williams Ntwali, a journalist and vocal critic of the Rwandan government. Here, there is no other way. We are all scared of this, but we dont have another option other than to use the technology and accept it. Right now, there is no way to escape that.

Known for its lush verdant hills, treks through gorilla territory and an unthinkably brutal genocide that left more than 800,000 people dead during the spring of 1994, Rwanda has transformed itself into one of East Africas leading technology hubs.

Buses, outfitted with computers and a generator, travel through the countryside to help teach people living in rural areas the basics of computer literacy.

Schools offering technology courses have seen a surge in interest. Coding classes are packed to the gills.

In Kigali, the capital, people work at restaurants and cafes with laptops and smartphones.

Technology has changed everything for us, said Regis Nisengwe, 30, an environmental and natural resources consultant who does much of his work from the Kigali library, where a computer lab stacked with desktops offers an alternative to a co-working space. Before there was a total information blackout. Now, we can just Google things.

MTN, a South African telecommunications company that operates throughout the continent, was the first to take a risk on the scarred country.

The telecom company set up shop in 1998, four years after the infamous genocide began. Two years later, the Rwandan government had a 20-year plan for a total turnaround  from a tiny, landlocked and natural-resource poor country into a tech hub.

It gave the country hope, and the ability to create a clear vision of what it wanted to achieve, said Pierre Kayitana, 31, the director of operations for RwandaOnline, a company that in partnership with the government has digitized public services. The only opportunity was for Rwanda to place itself strategically as the center of platforms and services that would serve the rest of the continent.

By 2010, the country had laid miles of fiber optic cables throughout Kigali and into parts of the countryside where even paved roads do not exist.

Eight years later, technology has become ubiquitous.

Even the word geek in Rwanda has been morphed from its origins as a taunt, a put-down, to mean somebody who is smart, cool and talented.

Being a geek, a nerd, thats cool, said Yannick Mfuranzima, 22, a radio DJ and local Internet celebrity. Its much more cool to be a geek than to say you are a DJ. But I think I am both.

At kLab, interest has grown steadily each year. In late 2017, the incubator reported 1,700 members, each of which is given access to its facilities, networking events, mentorship and training programs.

Across town, painted portraits adorn the walls of the Kigali Impact Hub, whose locations in Berkeley, Oakland and San Francisco boast the same mission of supporting socially minded startups.

The challenges are the same everywhere, Mutangana said. And through technology, through coding, we can all speak the same language.

Or at least as long as what youre saying is government-approved, critics said.

The Rwandan government has a history of censoring websites, media organizations and individuals, including journalists. A branch of government is specifically designated to launch cyberattacks both within and outside the country for the sake of national security.

That has likely kept some of the biggest players away from the country, despite its tech-friendly policies and sweeping infrastructure.

If American corporations opened up data centers or started offering local services, said Eva Galperin, the director of cybersecurity for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, they would then be subject to the governments whims as well.

If you are not comfortable fulfilling government requests because of human rights issues in a country, you should not put servers or employees there, she said of Facebook, Twitter, Uber and other tech juggernauts. You should stay the hell out of the country ... so you dont necessarily have any kind of obligation to fulfill its legal requests.

Jean Philbert Nsengimana, Rwandas minister of technology, declined several requests for comment.

Galperin said that the recent net neutrality rollback in the United States carries distant echoes in Rwandas problems.

Its a matter of who controls the Internet: With new U.S. regulations, Galperin and others fear that companies like AT&T, Comcast or Verizon could block, slow down or charge extra for websites owned by competitors. They could stop their customers from viewing content they dont like or dont want seen.

Air Quality Tracker Check levels down to the neighborhood Ratings for the Bay Area and California, updated every 10 minutes

They would, in many ways, have power that mimics those of Internet providers half a world away.

American telecom companies have disputed these scenarios.

But Ntwali, an activist and journalist, said hes seen firsthand what this kind of corporate oversight can sow. Ntwali, who has worked for various Rwandan media companies and as an independent journalist, has been targeted for his views, his reporting and his refusal to shut up and leave the country for good.

We live in this illusion that Rwanda is the best country to facilitate business, to build technology, Ntwali said. But we locals see the reality and know thats not the case. Investors cant be comfortable registering their business here.

In 2014, Rwanda placed an indefinite block on the BBC following the airing of a controversial documentary called Rwandas Untold Story.

The documentary suggested Kagame may have been involved in shooting down the plane of his predecessor, whose crash triggered the mass killings, and that many more of the 800,000 Rwandans who died in the 1994 massacres were ethnic Hutus, rather than ethnic Tutsis, the target of the genocidal violence.

Rwandas government accused the news organization of genocide denial  a grave offense that carries a 25-year prison penalty in the country.

Its the same charge Ntwali said has been leveraged against him on several occasions.

Ntwali, who has at turns worked for various Rwandan news outlets and run his own, said that since 2013, he has struggled to continue his work amid near constant cyberattacks, arrests and threats against him.

Hes been forced to flee the country four times, seen his website and articles hacked on seven occasions and has lost track of the number of times hes been arrested. Though he does not know for sure who has executed the numerous cyberattacks against him, when his website was blocked nationwide, he said, he knew exactly who to blame.

While Rwandas government may identify what content it wants blocked, it falls to Internet service providers there  MTN, Tigo and Airtel  to do its bidding.

MTN, which had 64 percent of the market share last year, did not respond to a request for comment.

When (the government) cant get a website taken down, they prevent it from being seen inside the country, Ntwali said. When they did that to my website, I couldnt see it anywhere. I thought it was gone. But when I called the host they said, Your website is OK. Its just not viewable inside Rwanda.

His story, Ntwali said, should be a cautionary tale of what can happen when technology and industry grow unchecked while speech, expression and the media are tightly controlled.

Its not like the world is divided up into the West and the rest, Galperin said. We like to think, Well, we have civil liberties here, not like in those other places. But the reality is its not so clearly divided. Authoritarian governments love stealing U.S. ideas and branding them as their own, so when the FBI says they need a golden key in order to decrypt all end-to-end communication, or when we send a signal that maybe dismantling Internet freedoms is a good idea, that makes a big difference not just here but in the rest of the world, too.

Marissa Lang is a former San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. She traveled to Rwanda with assistance from the International Womens Foundation, a nonprofit that aims to support the work of female journalists. Email: business@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @Marissa_Jae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.Noemi Bruzak/Associated Press

BUDAPEST, Hungary  A statue of Hungarian-born U.S. Rep. Tom Lantos, the only Holocaust survivor ever to serve in the U.S. Congress, was unveiled Thursday in Budapest as those attending praised the man known for his advocacy of democracy and human rights around the world.

A California Democrat who represented San Mateo County and part of San Francisco, Lantos remained in office from 1981 until his death in 2008.It looks like you are using a browser that is not fully supported. Please note that there might be constraints on site display and usability. For the best experience we suggest that you download the newest version of a supported browser:To continue, please log in, or sign up for a new account.

We offer one free story view per month. If you register for an account, you will get two additional story views. After those three total views, we ask that you support us with a subscription.

A subscription to our digital content is so much more than just access to our valuable content. It means youre helping to support a local community institution that has, from its very start, supported the betterment of our society. Thank you very much!The universe is filled with galaxies, and often a large galaxy like our own will have several smaller ones orbiting it. Astronomers looked at one particular group of galaxies and noticed their circling was a bit too orderly for current models to explain.

Most scientists' understanding of our universe includes a substance called dark matter, which accounts for 80 percent of the matter in the universe. Dark matter was first hypothesized in order to account for the rotation of galaxies, which didn't seem to have enough conventional matter to keep them from flying apart like a smoothie in a lidless blender. Dark matter provides the extra stuff needed to keep galaxies together and was likely involved in galaxy formation. Dark matter appears to be cobwebbed across the universe. Scientist suspect that dwarf galaxies form along these dark matter threads and converge where they meet, merging into larger galaxies.

Under this framework, satellite galaxies should be distributed randomly around their host, following elongated orbits in arbitrary directions. This assumption was challenged when scientists found that satellites of our own Milky Way and the Andromeda galaxy, our closest major neighbor, don't follow this prediction. The small companion galaxies appear to rotate in sync with each other, following fairly circular paths in a disk-shaped plane around their host galaxy. [Gallery: 65 All-Time Great Galaxy Hits]

Astronomical observations of the satellite galaxies around Centaurus A challenge current cosmological models. (Image credit: Christian Wolf & SkyMapper Team/Australian National University)

"These two distributions could not be more different," Stacy McGaugh, an expert in cosmologic modeling at Case Western Reserve University in Ohio, told Space.com.

Now scientists have found a third example of a highly ordered satellite system. In 2015, group of astronomers found that most of the dwarf galaxies orbiting the large galaxyCentaurus A did so in a plane perpendicular to the galaxy's disk. After hearing of this, a team of astronomers led by the University of Basel looked at the individual satellite galaxies circling Centaurus A, which is the richest assembly of galaxies within 30 million light-years of the Milky Way, according to the study. By tracking the positions and velocities of the satellites, the team discovered that 14 of the 16 companions orbit Centaurus A in the same direction. The latest findings were detailed Feb. 1 in the journal Science.

"A statistical outlier will happen once or twice," the University of Basel's Oliver Muller, lead author on the new work, told Space.com. "So we would expect that we find stuff by pure chance such as this. But if we find three of those systems close to each other, and every galaxy group has a .1 percent chance to exist [in such a well-ordered state]  then what is the probability of that?"

McGaugh, who was not involved with the study, agrees that the observation is a cause for concern for the current model. "It's not just a quibble," he said. "It's the third of three, [and] we haven't seen one that behaves right."

When it comes to satellite galaxies, "you can drop them in from afar or spin them out," McGaugh said. One way to produce these organized systems in the current model is to assume that the dwarf galaxies all formed elsewhere in space and fell into orbit around the host galaxy at the same time. This is, however, unlikely, McGaugh said.

Alternatively, they might have formed more recently, from interactions between nearby galaxies tugging on each other like the moon tugs on the Earth, raising the ocean to create tides. If this were the case, material might swirl off a galaxy, coalesce into a dwarf galaxy and begin to orbit its host. These tidal dwarf galaxies would naturally orbit in the plane of interaction between the two larger galaxies, and would likely circle in the same direction, Muller said.

Unfortunately, such a scenario is highly unlikely in the prevailing model, McGaugh said. It is likely under a competing model of the universe, but this rival has other drawbacks. "Sometimes, the best current answer is, 'We don't know,'" McGaugh said.

Muller hopes the observations from Centaurus A broaden the conversation about proposals like this one. "It would be really cool to see all the different explanations of such structures, how they can be formed," he said.

Follow Harrison @harrisontasoff. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.NASA is opening a new anti-harassment campaign for employees weeks after a congressional committee asked U.S. science agencies to investigate their harassment policies.

Acting NASA Administrator Robert Lightfoot announced the new measures in a video message on YouTube yesterday (Feb. 1). Lightfoot's message comes after the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology requested that the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) investigate anti-harassment practices at science-based federal agencies.

On Jan. 18, the GAO issued a letter, signed by Chairman Lamar Smith and Ranking Member Eddie Johnson, asking several agencies (including NASA) to report how many cases of harassment there were at each agency, what anti-harassment policies exist and how grant recipients learn about anti-harassment policies, among other requests.

While Lightfoot did not specifically respond to the letter, he said in the video that in past years, some individuals said they could not speak up about harassment. He pledged that at NASA, harassment will not be tolerated.

"It's not consistent with our values, our employee engagement and our high-performance culture. It's wrong, and it's simply not acceptable," Lightfoot said.

Lightfoot urged anyone who is experiencing harassment in connection with NASA to report it to a manager or a representative from the anti-harassment office. He added that complaints would be kept anonymous, investigations would be thorough and those found to have committed harassment would be subject to "immediate" and "prompt" action.

Lightfoot reminded all employees to review NASA's anti-harassment policies and procedures at https://odeo.hq.nasa.gov/policy.html, and added that the agency will do a comprehensive anti-harassment campaign in 2018. The campaign includes the following:

A requirement for all new civil servants to do anti-harassment training as a part of the process of joining NASA. Current employees will need to complete the training by the end of this year.

A partnership with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which will include the opportunity for NASA senior managers to learn about current developments in anti-harassment.

An anti-harassment forum.

Urging the heads of each NASA center and mission directorate to support the campaign. Lightfoot himself will also receive reports about what agency members are seeing.

In October, The New York Times published an article containing allegations that prominent Hollywood film producer Harvey Weinstein had committed sexual harassment and sexual assault. Following the report, victims of harassment worldwide united and shared their stories under the social media hashtag #MeToo.

Since then, many dozens of high-profile figures in Hollywood, the media and other industries have been accused of harassment. One example was Academy Award winning-actor Kevin Spacey, who was first publicly accused of harassment by "Star Trek: Discovery" star Anthony Rapp.

The GAO letter also cited at least one scientist who has received NASA funding: former University of California, Berkeley astronomer Geoffrey Marcy, who resigned from his position following accusations of harassment in 2015. BuzzFeed reported that Marcy had almost $900,000 in active federal grants from NASA at the time.

Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.Paris, Jan 30,2018 (SPS) - The General Assembly of the Association of Friends of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic in France (AARSD) expressed on Sunday its willingness to continue its cooperation with the Sahrawi refugee camps and to undertake new initiatives in favor of respect for human rights in the occupied territories of Western Sahara.

The Annual General Meeting held in Gonfreville l'Orcher (North of France) from Friday to Sunday was attended by a Saharawi delegation headed by the representative of the Frente POLISARIO in France, Ubbi Buchraya and the member of the Saharawi Parliament, Chabba Seini, invited by AARASD .

In the document that closed the work of the GA, the association stressed that it follows "closely" the application of the ruling of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), and the opinion of Advocate General Wathelet on the invalidity of the fisheries agreement Morocco- European Union.

In the same regard, the members of the GA said they hoped that "very quickly" there would be "significant" progress in the resumption of negotiations between Morocco and the POLISARIO under the auspices of the United Nations.

The AARASD General Assembly, which brought together some 60 members and several representatives of local committees and friendly associations, was held in this commune at the invitation of Mayor Alban Bruneau, said the statement and in the presence of Deputy Jean-Paul Lecoq and many local officials and the chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National People's Congress of Algeria (APN), Abdelhamid Si Afif, among others. SPS

125/090/TRASTAMFORD  Tears flowed from Carla Esquivels eyes as she recounted her story of migrating to America from Guatemala 15 years ago. A translator helped interpret her words, but the drops falling down her face spoke a universal language.

Lida Romirez, who came to America from Ecuador 14 years ago, followed suit. These two women come from different countries, but are bound by an equal appreciation for their current home of Stamford, and an unrelenting desire for their children to receive a quality education.

For Esquivel and her two daughters  Auri and Danna, who attend Springdale School  that isnt possible without parent facilitators. Theyre part-time employees with Stamford Public Schools (SPS) who assist parents, many of whom are poor English speakers, with navigating school policies and curricula.

Parent facilitators, who work 20 hours a week and currently make $17.65 an hour, have attended the last three regular Board of Education meetings to ask for higher pay and additional hours. Their wishes could be granted under the current proposed budget, though discussions have not been finalized.

None of the facilitators could either be reached or denied requests for comment for this story, but they have vocalized their concerns during those public meetings.

Romirezs son Russell attends Stamford Charter School for Excellence, where there are no parent facilitators. She recognizes that if there were, her sons education would improve, which is why she has shown her support for SPS facilitators.

Having a parent facilitator would permit me to get information I need about my sons education immediately, Romirez said through a translator.

Both women, along with a dozen other parents, have attended BOE meetings to show their support for the facilitators over the last three months.

Parent facilitator Noemi Berkoff, along with other facilitators and supporters including parents, teachers and principals, again addressed the BOE at the most recent regular meeting last month.

We have many job responsibilities, and they have increased tremendously over the years, Berkoff told the board. The vast majority of [minority] families need assistance with interpretation and translation.

More than 11,000 of the 16,100 students enrolled in the Stamford Public Schools were minority students last academic year, according to data from the state Department of Education.

Their other responsibilities include assisting parent-teacher conferences, which Berkoff said totaled over 33 hours alone; assisting social workers with crises; and exploring scholarships with students applying to college.

Bridges

Berkoff urged that while many facilitators are bilingual for the purpose of assisting English-learning families, they assist everyone.

She said in the 14 years parent facilitators have been with the schools, they received a raise just once, of $1 an hour. That was six years ago.

We give families the tools to be active members of the community, she said.

Esquivel said Springdale recently went nearly five months without a parent facilitator and her two daughters academics suffered.

Coming to America enabled her to find a better job to support her family here as well as in Guatemala, where her three siblings count on her to help fund their educations.

Now, her main priority is the education of her own children. She didnt anticipate staying, but after having two daughters, she realized that their best chance at a bright future was in America.

The future of my daughters is here, and they have a better chance at opportunities that I didnt have, Esquivel said through tears.

The parent facilitators are pivotal to that success, but she fears that if they do not get the raise and hours they are seeking, many will have to find new work.

They are a bridge between parents, students and teachers, Esquivel said.

Seeking consistency

At a special budget BOE meeting last week, the board and superintendent of schools Earl Kim discussed the facilitators. Kim has proposed increasing their hourly wage another dollar and their hours from 20 to 24 a week.

They are bilingual and help 40 percent of our parent population, Kim said. That is a significant impact.

BOE member Jackie Heftman suggested giving them a $1.50 raise.

If we looked at our parent facilitators and how long theyve been with us, wed find that the vast majority of them have been with us more than four or five years, she said.

BOE member Betsy Allyn said there is a large difference between the level of responsibility for the facilitators in each school, so is hesitant to increase their hours from 20 to 24 until an updated job description is released.

Mike Meyer, executive director of student support and special programs, addressed this in a phone interview on Friday, stating that the goal is to make facilitators responsibilities consistent across the school district.

The immediate need is to do whats right for the facilitators, but over a longer period we need to revamp their job description and possibly even make it more of a full-time job, Meyer said.

A public hearing for the school districts proposed 2018-19 operating budget is scheduled for Tuesday at 7 p.m. in the Westover Magnet School auditorium.

tclark@stamfordadvocate.com; 203-964-2265; @TravClark2STAMFORD  Mayor David Martins request to reappoint one of his cabinet members, put off once by the Board of Representatives, may face another snag.

Some on the board say one of their members, city Rep. Gloria DePina, should not take part in Mondays vote to rename Operations Director Ernie Orgera because her son works under him.

Board members said a vote by DePina, a Democrat from District 5 who supports Orgera, could be a factor in the decision, already contentious because of Orgeras role in a number of controversies during his long tenure in Operations.

It looks like its going to be close, said city Rep. Nina Sherwood, a Democrat from District 8 and critic of Orgera. They probably are going to need Gloria DePinas vote.

DePina said during a meeting of the boards Appointments Committee last week that there is no conflict of interest involving her son, Dwight DePina, a custodian who works at the South End Community Center earning an annual salary of $47,682.

Gloria DePinas position on the matter is backed by the city attorney.

It is not a conflict of interest in violation of the Ethics Code for a member of the Board of Representatives to vote on the appointment of the director of Operations based on the fact that a family member is employed within the Operations department, Director of Legal Affairs Kathryn Emmett wrote in an email, citing a 2014 Board of Ethics advisory opinion involving another city representative in a similar case.

Sherwood said the opinion is very disappointing.

I dont know why we have a code of ethics if this isnt a conflict, Sherwood said.

She pointed out that city Rep. Mary Fedeli, R-17, recuses herself from votes and discussions involving Orgera because her brother, Frank Fedeli, works in Operations.

How can people trust in the integrity of their government when  they cant say for sure, I know my representative isnt conflicted, Sherwood said. Our municipal government doesnt demand it. People will hear this and say, Yep, par for the course.

Appearance of conflict

City Rep. Megan Cottrell, a Democrat from District 4 and another Orgera critic, said the conflict seems clear, citing a request to the Board of Finance that Orgera signed in September.

The request was for $286,000 to upgrade six seasonal custodians to full-time employees, the result of a settlement with UAW Local 2377, according to the document. Dwight DePina was one of the custodians who was upgraded.

So even if Mr. Orgera does not directly hire or upgrade the status of Gloria DePinas son, he is involved in a decision about his financial well-being, Cottrell said. It doesnt look proper. It erodes public trust in local government.

Discussion about the reappointment began last month, when representatives overwhelmingly approved Martins requests to rename his other three cabinet members, but voted 30-6, with one abstention, to hold off on Orgera.

The board sent it back to the Appointments Committee, which recommended last week in a 3-2 vote, with two abstentions, that Orgera keep his post. But the two-hour discussion had the 73-year-old Orgera, seeking his third stint as director, on the hot seat.

Email exchanges

Representatives grilled him, as they did when they first took up his reappointment in December, about his role in a 2005 incident in which city employees exchanged sexist emails. Orgera was ordered to undergo sexual-harassment training.

City Rep. Raven Matherne, D-19, asked Orgera whether the culture in his department has improved.

I believe the cultural issues weve had are gone. Weve dealt with them, Orgera said. Ive heard nothing about these issues in the last three or four years.

Representatives asked again about his role in an email exchange between 2007 and 2010 that disparaged minorities and Latinos.

City Rep. Anabel Figueroa, D-8, defended Orgera, saying he did not originate the emails  he only passed them on.

I knew they were not coming from Mr. Orgera, Figueroa said. As a minority person, I want to make clear that it was not an offense to the minority community. I dont want that to affect his appointment.

City Rep. Robert Roqueta, D-4, objected.

I also am of Latin-American heritage. Just because one person of a minority feels a certain way doesnt mean that person represents all people in a minority, Roqueta said. I would like to read the email out loud  if its so benign  I dont think anybody here would be opposed to hearing it.

Some representatives said that should not be allowed, but committee Chairwoman Annie Summerville ruled Roqueta could read the email, titled Proud to Be White.

When he finished, Roqueta said Orgera did not write the email but he was proud enough to send it on. He then walked out of the room.

Scrap flap

Representatives continued questioning Orgera, asking again about a 2010 scandal involving the unauthorized sale of city metals. Operations employees took cash from scrap dealers and Orgera has said he used some of it for morale-boosting parties for employees.

Martin said the matter has been settled.

There were multiple investigations  they all concluded there was no corruption that they could detect, the mayor said, and the states attorney found that employees could not be held accountable because of a common belief that it was an acceptable behavior at the time.

Orgera put policies in place that stopped the practice, said Martin, who praised Orgera as hardworking, knowledgeable, dedicated, fair-minded, respectful and completely honest in all of the dealings I have had with him. Orgera is moving us forward on many issues, the mayor said.

Representatives continued their questions, asking Orgera again about the Christmas 2011 fire on Shippan Avenue that killed five. The family sued Orgera, the city and another official after the burned house was destroyed before it could be investigated further. The city paid a total of $8 million to settle the lawsuits.

Were there any repercussions in your department to find any sort of fault? asked city Rep. Dennis Mahoney, R-20.

No, Orgera replied.

DePina told the committee that problems have been corrected, and Orgeras department delivers services despite the loss of about 80 employees over the years.

We cant continue to talk about what happened in the past, DePina said.

Mahoney took an opposite view, setting the scene for what many say will be a close vote when the Board of Representatives meets 8 p.m. Monday.

Are we setting the bar too low for director of Operations? Mahoney asked. Is this an acceptable level of performance that would merit re-upping him?

acarella@stamfordadvocate.comSTAMFORD  Louise McMinn, a computer technology teacher at Scofield Magnet Middle School, has utilized Donors Choose for nine projects, but was sold on it after the first one a decade ago.

Shes not alone. Dozens of teachers throughout the Stamford school district have turned to Donors Choose, a website that helps teachers raise money to fund classroom projects. The nonprofit celebrated 1 million funded projects last month.

Some 15,000 of those projects have been funded in Connecticut, nearly half of them by out-of-state donors.

McMinn hosts an after school STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) program Thursday afternoons. McMinn said that since Scofield does not have the funds for such programs, she doesnt mind hosting it herself.

Theres not a lot of opportunities for students to learn these [STEM] skills outside of class, she said.

The students use computer programming and robotics equipment made possible by McMinns Donors Choose projects. She often doesnt need to advertise a project that much; the students show so much excitement at the prospect of new equipment in the classroom that they ask their parents to donate to the cause.

On top of that, companies can also match donations for projects. This often moves the funding process along at a fast rate.

Its a way to get supplies that school curriculum doesnt supply, McMinn said. Stamford is fairly good about it, but theres always extra things that you want to do. The kids always want to do robotics.

Erin Durocher, a fifth-grade reading teacher at Springdale School, focuses on books for her Donors Choose projects. The school supplies essential books, but Durocher and her students value those outside of the standard curriculum.

She has also used the site to raise funds for more Chromebooks and flexible seating in the classroom. The school provides six per classroom, but with 20 students she sought more. With the Chromebooks, she has the students utilize Google Classroom, which she said helps her differentiate assignments and the students can easily collaborate on projects together through the site.

It keeps them engaged and prepares them for the future, Durocher said. Technology is the future. Its how education is progressing.

As for flexible seating, she said that it helps students focus in the classroom if they are comfortable at their seat.

They appreciate that teachers give them choices to sit, she said. It builds trust, which improves the classroom.

Davenport Ridge School second-grade teacher Erica Bolla has also used Donors Choose for flexible seating, and a new book shelf and books.

When I first started, my library was falling apart, Bolla said. Second-graders are never going to choose books that look like theyre falling apart.

Bolla said that her whole classroom dynamic changed after she got her projects funded, including a writing center with new writing utensils and supplies.

The whole purpose is that kids can be creative and they were so excited when they found out we were getting funded, she said. Its like getting a present...I highly suggest everybody uses Donors Choose, especially nowadays when theres only so much money going around.

For those interested in donating to Stamford Public Schools projects, visit donorschoose.org, and search for Stamford, CT in the search bar. There are nearly 60 projects waiting to be funded now.

tclark@stamfordadvocate.com; 203-964-2265; @TravClark2T he Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have spent the last four days in Sweden and Norway and it looks like they've had a blast.

Kate and William began their tour on Monday night when they travelled to Stockholm ahead of their four-day tour.

While in Scandinavia they tested out their ice hockey skills, attended a number of fancy events and even donned wooley hats to visit Holmenkollen Ski Jump.

Amongst their commitments in Stockholm, Kate and William had lunch with King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia of Sweden, as well as Crown Princess Victoria and husband Prince Daniel.

They also met with the Norwegian Royals in Oslo, where the Duke and Duchess dined with Crown Prince Haakon and Crown Princess Mette-Marit.

The Duchess of Cambridge's Scandinavian tour wardrobe 1 /14 The Duchess of Cambridge's Scandinavian tour wardrobe Day Four Kate stepped out on their final day in Norway sporting a military-inspired coat by Dolce & Gabbana Getty Images Day Three The Duchess was escorted into dinner in Oslo by King Harald wearing an Alexander McQueen gown Getty Images Day Three Kate accessorises her look with furry accessories as she visits the Princess Ingrid Alexandra Sculpture Park Chris Jackson/Getty Images Day Three Kate reveals a coordinating blue dress by maternity brand Seraphine AFP/Getty Images Day Three Kate arrives in Norway wearing a Catherine Walker coat Chris Jackson/Getty Images Day Two The Duchess was glowing in a blue velvet dress, once again by Erdem PA Day Two The Duke and Duchess attend a reception at the Fotografiska Galleries in Stockholm with Crown Princess Victoria and Prince Daniel PA Day Two The Duchess also debuted a Alexander McQueen coat PA Day Two Kate stepped out wearing another Catherine Walker coat on her second day in Sweden Getty Images Day One For the evening, Kate donned an eye-catching Erdem gown Getty Images Day One Kate wraps up warm in a matching Catherine Walker coat Getty Images Day One The 36-year-old debuts a new Mulberry bag Getty Images Day One The Duchess arrives at ArkDes wearing a Catherine Walker shift dress Getty Images Day One Kate attends a bandy hockey game in a Burberry coat Getty Images

Kate looked to be having a fantastic time throughout the short trip, with smiles and laughs at every event. The 36-year-old also donned some spectacular maternity styles during the tour - she is pregnant with the couple's third child due in April.T oday marks 100 years since women got the vote in the UK. Interestingly however, the battle for the vote began nearly 85 years before that.

When the Great Reform Act was passed in 1832, voters were defined as male persons' - the first time it had explicitly been spelled out that women were not allowed to vote. Later that year, a petition on women's suffrage was presented to parliament and is considered today one of the roots of the women's suffrage movement.

No progress was made however until after the First World War, a time when women had demonstrated they were just as capable as men at working in traditional male jobs for four years.

On 6th February 1918, women were finally given the vote, albeit only a restricted segment of women in society - those over 30, who had certain property rights.

30 vintage photos of Suffragettes in London - in pictures 1 /30 30 vintage photos of Suffragettes in London - in pictures 21st June 1908: One of the seven processions to the 'Monster Meeting' in Hyde Park, led by suffragettes, holding a banner referring to Prime Minister Herbert Asquith Getty Images Circa 1911: British suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst (1858 - 1928) Getty Images 16th November 1912: Suffragettes in Finchley after they have walked from Edinburgh to London to deliver a petition to the prime minister Getty Images 23rd November 1907: The Women's Freedom League demonstrate against 'Man-Made Laws', UK Getty Images English suffragette Estelle Sylvia Pankhurst (1882 - 1960) stands on a platform to paint the front of the Women's Social Defence League premises in Bow Road, East London, 11th October 1912 Getty Images 25th April 1906: Tess Billington carries a banner enscribed with the suffragette slogan 'Votes For Women' during a demonstration in the Ladies Gallery in the House of Commons, London Getty Images Mrs Baines addresses a mass rally of suffragettes at Trafalgar Square, London Getty Images Circa 1900: Male and female members of the women's suffrage movement on a protest march through London Getty Images 1908: British suffragette Lady Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence, (1868 - 1954), addressing a crowd from the base of Nelson's column in Trafalgar Square, London Getty Images 21st December 1908: The English suffragettes Emmeline Pankhurst (1858 - 1928), and her daughter Christabel Harriette (1880 - 1958), founders of the Women's Social and Political Union in 1903, after leaving Bow Street in London, where they were imprisoned Getty Images Mrs Emmeline Pankhurst, founder of the Women's Social and Political Union and a major force in the Suffragette movement, being arrested as she tried to present a petition at Buckingham Palace PA Archive/PA Images Circa 1910: A crowd in Hyde Park at a suffragette meeting Getty Images 13th June 1908: Suffragettes who are students at Royal Holloway College march to the Albert Hall for a protest meeting Getty Images Circa 1910: A suffragette procession through London Getty Images 19th June 1911: Emmeline Pankhurst (front left) leads a suffragette parade through London, with the protesters all dressed in white. Accompanying them is a mounted policeman Getty Images 19th June 1911: A Suffragette demonstration taking place in Cockspur Street, near Trafalgar Square, London Getty Images 1913: The first women suffragettes arrested in London Getty Images 14th June 1913: Crowds watch the cortege of English suffragette Emily Davison, killed by King's horse at the Derby, passing Eros at Piccadilly Circus Getty Images 1st May 1913: The start of the suffragettes Summer Festival at the Empress Rooms in Kensington Getty Images 14th June 1913: A memorial procession for the suffragette, Emily Davison, passing through Shaftesbury Avenue, London Getty Images Suffragettes, wearing black armbands, in the funeral procession of English suffragette Emily Davison (1872 - 1913) Getty Images Suffragettes help the cause by carrying umbrellas with the slogan 'No Vote, no Tax' in London's Hyde Park Getty Images Mrs Emmeline Pankhurst (second right) with her daughter Christabel (r) and other suffragette leaders at a meeting at Clements Inn PA Archive/PA Images Suffragette Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence's release from Holloway Prison PA Archive/PA Images Suffragette Miss Pankhurst addressing the crowd in Trafalgar Square, London, during a rally PA Archive/PA Images Emmeline Pankhurst leaving jail in 1912 after she was held on a conspiracy charge PA Archive/PA Images Suffragettes at a mass meeting in the Royal Albert Hall PA Archive/PA Images A Suffragette being arrested by police officers PA Archive/PA Images A protest meeting by the WSPU outside the Queen's Hall in central London PA Archive/PA Images Suffragette Sylvia Pankhurst in a Polling Booth in 1910 PA Archive/PA Images

Want to know more about what led to this historic date? See the definitive timeline to how women in the UK got the vote below...

1832: Women excluded from the electorate and the first suffrage petition began

In 1832 the Great Reform Act excluded women from voting by defining voters as male persons.

That same year the first petition on womens suffrage was presented to parliament.

Getty Images

1867: Parliament debates womens vote

Over 30 years after the first womens suffrage petition was presented to parliament, parliament held their first debate on women's right to vote which was led by John Stuart Mill.

1884: Campaign leads to little success

Women campaigned to be included in the Third Reform Act but did not succeed.

Getty Images

1889: The Womens Franchise League is formed

This league was formed with the goal of gaining the support of married women as well as single and widowed women.

1897: National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies is formed

Millicent Garrett Fawcett formed the NUWSS to band all the peaceful womens suffrage campaign groups together under one banner.

1903: The Women's Social and Political Union is founded

Perhaps the most famous of the womens suffrage groups, the WSPU was founded by Emmeline Pankhurst in Manchester.

Getty Images

1905: Suffragettes take the streets

Suffragette militancy begins; various crimes were committed to draw attention to their cause.

1908: Hunger strikes begin

Marion Wallace Dunlop begins hunger strikes as a WSPU strategy to draw attention. The following year forcible feeding begins.

1910-1912: Conciliation Bills considered

Parliament considers a number of bills which would give some women the vote  none pass.

Getty Images

1913: Emily Wilding Davison steps in front of a horse

Suffragette Emily Wilding Davison, who had been arrested nine times and force-fed 49 times, steps out in front of a horse at the Derby possibly to attach a WSPU banner to its bridle. She is hit and dies four days later, thousands of women attend her funeral.

1914-1918: World War I

On August 4 1914, Britain declares war on Germany. During the subsequent war years, an estimated two million women replace men in traditionally male jobs.

1918: The Representation of the People Act is passed

On February 6, 1918 the Representation of the People Act is passed giving the vote to women aged over 30 who meet property qualifications.

On December 14, women vote in a general election for the first time, with 8.5million women then eligible.

Getty Images

Post 1918

After 1918, women were still trying to gain equality; at the same time some were given the right to vote, all men aged over 21 were given the right regardless of property qualifications.K ill Bill actress Uma Thurman has described how Harvey Weinstein tried to force himself on top of her in London hotel and expose himself in explosive allegations against the disgraced producer.

The US star claimed the media mogul assaulted her following the release of Weinstein-funded Pulp Fiction in a London hotel room.

In an interview with the New York Times, the actress, who had previously hinted that she had stories to tell about Weinstein, recalled a second incident in which it is alleged he threatened to derail her career.

Her allegations came as British police investigating Weinstein confirmed they are now looking at two further allegations of sexual assault.

Ms Thurman previously said she was too angry to speak about the allegations in Hollywood / PA

The article includes comments from Weinstein through a spokesman admitting he had propositioned Thurman but denied threatening her career.

Thurman described how Weinstein tried to push her down and shove himself on top of her whilst attempting to expose himself.

"He did all kinds of unpleasant things," she said. "But he didn't actually put his back into it and force me. You're like an animal wriggling away, like a lizard.

"I was doing anything I could to get the train back on the track. My track. Not his track."

Allegations: Uma Thurman worked with Weinstein in Pulp Fiction / Buena Vista International Inc

She said that, following the assault, Weinstein sent her a vulgar bunch of yellow roses with a note saying she had great instincts.

Thurman said that, before the assault, there had been an incident in a hotel room in Paris when the pair had been discussing a script.

She said Weinstein had stripped down to a bathrobe and led her into a steam room, before she said: This is ridiculous, what are you doing?

And he was getting very flustered and mad and he jumped up and ran out, the actress said.

Weinstein: Scores of women have accused the producer of sexual harassment or assault / Getty Images

Following the alleged assault, Thurman claimed she was left shaken after she attempted to confront him and he allegedly threatened her career.

The actress said she eventually told Pulp Ficttion Director Quentin Tarantino about the alleged assault. Tarantino then confronted him, she said, which led to an apology from Weinstein.

Weinstein's spokesman is quoted in the article as saying: "Mr. Weinstein acknowledges making a pass at Ms. Thurman in England after misreading her signals in Paris. He immediately apologised."

"However, her claims about being physically assaulted are untrue. And this is the first time we have heard those details.

"There was no physical contact during Mr Weinstein's awkward pass and Mr Weinstein is saddened and puzzled as to why Ms Thurman, someone he considers a colleague and a friend, waited 25 years to make these allegations public, noting that he and Ms Thurman have shared a very close and mutually beneficial working relationship where they have made several very successful film projects together.

"This is the first time we are hearing that she considered Mr Weinstein an enemy and the pictures of their history tell a completely different story."

Scores of women, including well-known actresses, have accused Weinstein of sexual assault or harassment.

Actress Salma Hayek has claimed that Harvey Weinstein repeatedly sexually harassed her

The 65-year-old has "unequivocally denied" all allegations of non-consensual sex through a representative.

On Friday Bafta officially terminated Weinstein over a slew of allegations against him. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which votes for the Oscars, also voted to strip Weinstein of his lifetime membership.

On Saturday Scotland Yard confirmed it had received two further allegations of sexual assault against the Hollywood mogul.

A woman alleged he had assaulted her in Westminster in 2011 while a separate alleged incident took place outside the UK.

Reported to police in November but only now made public, it brings bring the total number of women who have reported Weinstein to British police to nine.A n Oxford University professor has been charged with two counts of rape, reports say.

The BBC reports that a French judge has placed Islamic studies scholar under criminal investigation.

The 55-year-old was reportedly questioned by police in Paris earlier this week and has now been remanded in custody.

Mr Ramadan took a leave of absence from Oxford when the claims initially surfaced in November.

The first of his accusers claims he assaulted her in a Paris hotel in 2012.

His second accuser, who claims he raped her in 2009, has remained anonymous.

Reports say four Swiss women have also accused the scholar of making sexual advances while they were students in Geneva.D onald Trump has launched a Twitter tirade following the publication of a controversial Republican memo said to accuse the FBI of abusing its powers.

The President of the United States told his 47 million followers his approval ratings had "jumped to 49 per cent" and, referring to himself in the third person, said the memo "totally vindicates 'Trump'".

He wrote: "Rasmussen just announced that my approval rating jumped to 49%, a far better number than I had in winning the Election, and higher than certain 'sacred cows'.

"Other Trump polls are way up also. So why does the media refuse to write this? Oh well, someday!

"This memo totally vindicates Trump in probe. But the Russian Witch Hunt goes on and on.

"[There] was no Collusion and there was no Obstruction (the word now used because, after one year of looking endlessly and finding NOTHING, collusion is dead). This is an American disgrace!"

The memo accuses the US agency of abusing government surveillance powers in its investigation into Russian election interference.

Scrutiny: The FBI headquarters / Getty Images

It says an FBI official acknowledged to lawmakers that a dossier compiled by former British intelligence agent Christopher Steele was an "essential part" of an application for surveillance of Trump campaign aide Carter Page.

The memo said that the agency did not mention that information used to justify surveillance on Page was from the Dossier and thus part-funded by rival Democratic Party and Hillary Clinton.

The FBI says it has "grave concerns" about the document's accuracy. The US justice department, as well as Democrats and some Republicans, had voiced opposition to the memo being released.

The US Attorney General, Jeff Sessions said in a statement that the memo reflected an issue of great importance for the country and said: I have great confidence in the men and women of this Department. But no Department is perfect.

"Accordingly, I will forward to appropriate DOJ components all information I receive from Congress regarding this. I am determined that we will fully and fairly ascertain the truth.J eremy Corbyn is set to defend the intervention which resulted in the leader of Haringey council's stepping down.

The Labour leader is expected to outline his plans to bring "municipal socialism" to the UK in a speech to party councillors on Sunday, according to The Guardian.

The speech follows Haringey council leader Clare Kober's announcement that she will step down in May, citing "sexism" and "bullying" from Corbyn supporters.

At the event in Nottingham, Mr Corbyn is expected to say: It has been a unique situation, which is why the NEC unanimously asked the council leadership to put their plans on hold and take part in a mediation process  to bring everyone together.

Haringey council leader Claire Kober quits with blast at Corbynista 'bullying'

Because when we bring people together and listen to everyones voices, we make better decisions.

"Democracy creates better outcomes for communities  Regeneration must put local people first, not property speculators.

"Thats why Labour is committed to giving residents the right to a ballot across the country so that when were in government we can deliver real regeneration for the many, not the few.

"With amazing creativity in the toughest of times, we are seeing the first shoots of the renaissance of local government for the many, not the few - the rebirth of municipal socialism."

After almost a decade in charge, Claire Kober revealed she will step down at the local elections in May after her ruling Labour group was ripped apart by activists belonging to the Corbynite group Momentum.

The centrist politician said she was disillusioned by the brutal campaign to scupper a flagship housing scheme which was personally opposed by her party leader.

She confirmed that she will leave a final decision on the stalled project, called the Haringey Development Vehicle, to the next council leader  meaning it will almost certainly be killed off.A student caught up in the centre of the scuffle at a speech by Jacob Rees-Mogg has come forward to claim that the violence broke out after she was hit in the face by a Tory supporter.

Footage emerged on Friday night showing what appeared to be protesters wearing hoodies and balaclavas storming a university politics event where Rees-Mogg was speaking.

A tussle broke out between the protesters and members of the audience, before the Tory MP stepped in to try and calm the situation down.

The protesters who interrupted the debate have since been condemned by MPs from across the political spectrum over the "violent" confrontation.

Tory MP Jacob Rees-Mogg was caught in the middle of a scuffle / PA

But one of the students involved in the scuffle at Bristols University of West England (UWE), Andeea Dumitrache, has now claimed on Twitter that she was among the group and that the violence started when she was punched.

Sharing a video of the event, she wrote on Twitter: The member of the audience in the white shirt started getting violent towards the people being disruptive.

I was standing in front of him when he punched me. No student was violent here. He was clearly a supporter but it didn't look like it was someone from Mogg's team.

He was seated in the middle of the room and he was taken by campus security for interview.

According to one witness Mr Rees-Mogg was "pushed and shoved" in the tussle broke and police have confirmed they are now probing the incident.

Scuffle: The fight broke out between a protester and an audience member / PA

Mr Rees-Mogg said he chose to engage with the protesters when they gate-crashed the event because he "knew they weren't going to hit me".

"There were three hundred people here who wanted to engage in a serious debate and discussion, there were four or five people who wanted to shout - but they only wanted to shout," he told the BBC.

"They weren't physically threatening. A little bit of shouting doesn't do anybody any harm... I take a very relaxed view of it."

A string of Labour MPs have denounced the violence.

Universities Minister Sam Gyimah branded the protesters' behaviour "thuggish" and shadow education secretary Angela Rayner said she "utterly" condemned the "behaviour of those tonight who tried to attack (Mr Rees-Mogg) whilst he was due to speak at an event he was invited to".

Brendan Cox, whose wife Jo, Labour MP for Batley and Spen, was murdered by a right-wing extremist in 2016, said the incident was "absolutely disgraceful", adding: "Those who try & deny elected representatives the chance to speak attack democracy itself."

UWE Bristol said it was "absolutely appalled" by the group's actions.

The MP said he did not feel in danger, adding: "If I felt threatened I wouldn't have gone up to talk to them.  They disagree with me, they disapprove of everything I stand for, but they are good, honest British citizens. They weren't going to hit me."

He told the Daily Telegraph the protesters shouted "no platform for Tory scum and other insults", although he chose to engage with the group "to stop anyone being hit because the whole thing would have degenerated".

UWE Bristol said it was believed a small group of protesters, who were not students at the university and did not have tickets to the event, broke into the lecture theatre through the back doors, before police and security were called.

Mr Rees-Mogg went ahead with his speech and was escorted back to his car after the event finished, a university spokesman said.

"We support the democratic right of free speech and peaceful protest. However, we strongly condemn the actions of protesters who disrupted normal debate and behaved in this way," the university said.

Avon and Somerset Police appealed for anyone to come forward with mobile phone footage to help the inquiry.

The force said in a statement: "We were called to the University of the West of England's Frenchay campus at about 6.30pm today following a report of a public order incident.L eading Tory Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg has stepped up his attack on the Treasury, accusing officials of "fiddling the figures" in order to try to keep Britain in the EU customs union.

As senior ministers prepare to discuss Britain's future relationship with the EU, Mr Rees-Mogg, the chairman of the influential pro-Brexit European Research Group of Tory MPs, said any deal which kept the UK in a common customs area with the EU would be unacceptable.

He claimed Treasury economic modelling suggesting Britain would be worse off in any arrangement outside the customs union was "clearly politically influenced".

His intervention came after Theresa May, on the final day of her official visit to China, appeared to leave the door open to some sort of customs agreement with the EU - even though ministers have said Britain will leave the existing customs union.

Chancellor Philip Hammond / Bloomberg via Getty Images

However, Mr Rees-Mogg made clear any such arrangement would be unacceptable to Conservative Brexiteers as it would prevent the UK from striking free trade deals with other countries.

"We need to be free to do deals with the rest of the world. We must be out of the protectionist common external tariff which mainly protects inefficient EU industries at the cost to British consumers," he told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme.

He also repeated his controversial claim made in the House of Commons that he had heard the head of a pro-EU think tank saying Treasury officials had deliberately created an economic model to show that all options other than remaining in the customs union were "bad".

On Friday, Brexit minister Steve Baker apologised to MPs for saying Mr Rees-Mogg's account of the remarks by Charles Grant, the head of the Centre for European Reform, was "essentially correct", after an audio recording of the meeting where he had been speaking emerged.

However, Mr Rees-Mogg made clear that he stood by his original claim.

"Mr Grant said the Treasury is determined to keep us in the customs union. He also said on another occasion that the Treasury is 'newly emboldened'," he said.

"He is getting private briefings from the Treasury against Government policy. This is very serious. It is not for officials to invent policy.

"This is saying that they are determining policy, that they have an aim to lead policy against what the politicians may decide."

He said that since the decision to call the EU referendum in 2016, it was clear that the Treasury's economic forecasting had become politicised.

"With all forecasts, the assumptions you make at the beginning determine the outcomes that you get," he said.

"If you look at the forecasts the Treasury made before the referendum, they were a humiliation. They were clearly politically influenced.

"With the referendum and with the EU, the Treasury has gone back to making forecasts. It was politically advantageous for them in the past. It is the same for them now.

"So yes, I do think they are fiddling the figures."

Mr Grant rejected Mr Rees-Mogg's account of his comments, although he acknowledged that many in the Treasury did regard staying in the customs union as the "less damaging option" for the economy.

"Mr Baker, a very honourable man, has apologised to me and to the House of Commons for saying things that weren't quite right. I am surprised that Mr Rees-Mogg hasn't apologised," he told Today.

"The Treasury cares about economics so it is naturally pushing for the sorts of Brexit that minimise the economic damage."

A Treasury spokesman told the BBC: "The prime minister and the chancellor have said repeatedly that we will be leaving the single market and the customs union.

"Any suggestion to the contrary is simply false."P iers Morgan has hit out at the BBC for broadcasting a "homophobic" cartoon which portrayed him with his face rubbed in Donald Trump's backside.

Mr Morgan wrote of the cartoon which appeared on the BBC's Mash Report: "Amusing though this image may be to many people, can you imagine the BBC broadcasting it if the President was Hillary Clinton or the interviewer was a woman?

"The BBC thinks this is OK to broadcast. But if it depicted high profile women, there would be outrage. Why the double standard?

"If Trump tweeted an image like this depicting Hillary Clinton & a female interviewer, all those currently celebrating/retweeting it would erupt with outraged cries of 'Sexist!' 'Misogynist!' 'Homophobic!' - led by the BBC.

"Liberal hypocrisy in all its unedifying glory!"

The cartoon has received a mixed response since the tirade the Good Morning Britain presenter, who was granted the first international broadcast interview with the US president last week.

The Trump/Morgan interview divided audiences, with some congratulating him on forcing an apology from the president for retweeting Britain First, while others mocked Mr Morgan's apparent deferential treatment.

Piers Morgan interviews Donald Trump

Comedian Rufus Hound fired back: "Bless you for trying. Classic tabloid move. False equivalency.

"There is no equivalent to this. You, a millionaire, middle-aged white man spent twenty minutes fluffing a foolish, racist billionaire on international television.

"We are laughing at you. Specifically at you."

Meanwhile feminist author and journalist Jennifer Wright wrote: "I hate agreeing with Piers Morgan, and I think he is a revolting toady, but...posting pictures of men engaging in sexual acts with other men to demean them seems dated and unfortunate.

"There are ways to convey this point without the 'ha ha gay' overtones at work here."

A BBC spokesman told the Standard: "The BBC has a rich heritage of satire and The Mash Report takes a satirical and surreal look at the weeks big stories.H eavy snowfall has led to travel disruption as freezing weather grips the UK.

Police forces across the country have warned of treacherous conditions on the roads on Tuesday after temperatures plummeted overnight.

Wintry conditions are expected to grip much of the country by Tuesday evening, having already swept across Kent and Essex on Monday, the Met Office said.

A yellow "severe" weather warning for snow and ice is in place for much of Scotland, Northern Ireland, Northern England, the West Midlands and Wales from 6pm on Monday until 3pm on Tuesday.

Between 1cm and 3cm of snow is possible in some parts of the UK, with up to 5cm predicted in areas above 200 metres. A cold front could work its way south east bring the possibility of snow across the whole country.

This live blog is currently paused, but check back soon for more weather updates.A lone gunman has opened fire on African migrants in drive-by shootings in a central Italian city, wounding at least six people before being arrested, police said.

Six people were wounded, one seriously, in shootings in the central Italian city of Macerata shortly after 11am, the mayor has confirmed.

The suspect was identified as Luca Traini, a 28-year-old Italian with no previous record.

His motive was not immediately clear, but officials pointed to a recent gruesome killing of a young Italian woman in Macerata, allegedly at the hands of a Nigerian immigrant.

A picture showing a man identified by Italian police as Luca Traini / AP

"Shots fired in Macerata. People injured. Police operation under way. Stay out of the way and avoid open places," the police said on Twitter.

Police said all those wounded were foreigners and they later confirmed the arrest of the unidentified suspect about two hours after the shooting erupted.

Paramedics treat an injured person that was shot from a passing vehicle in Macerata / EPA

They published a photo of the suspect, a white Italian man aged 28 with an Italian flag draped over his shoulders, being taken away by armed officers.

Romano Carancini told Sky TG24 that the victims were five men and one woman.

A motive for the shootings was not immediately clear, but it comes just days after the dismembered body of an Italian teenager was found in the city. The main suspect is a Nigerian immigrant.

Mr Carancini confirmed that all of the victims in Saturday's shootings were black, and said that "the closeness of these two events makes you imagine that there is a connection".

Video posted by the newspaper il Resto di Carlino showed what appeared to be a body on the ground on a shopping street.

The shooting spree came days after the murder of 18-year-old Pamela Mastropietro and amid a heated electoral campaign in Italy where anti-foreigner sentiment has become a key theme.

The head of the anti-migrant Northern League, Matteo Salvini, has capitalised on the killing in campaign appearances, and is pledging to deport 150,000 migrants in his first year in office if his party wins control of parliament and he is named premier.

The teen's remains were found on Wednesday in two suitcases, two days after she walked away from a drug rehab community.

The news agency ANSA said two of the people injured in Saturday's shootings were black, and that witnesses reported that the car was seen in the area where the woman's body was found and also near where the suspect lived.

Police had warned people to stay inside while the shootings were ongoing. Authorities ordered public transport halted and that students be kept inside schools, which are open on Saturdays.

Mr Salvini's League, which dropped the "northern" from its name in a bid for a national following, has joined a centre-right coalition with Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia and Giorgia Meloni's much smaller Brothers of Italy.

They are running against Matteo Renzi's much-splintered Democratic Party and the populist 5-Star Movement.

Italians vote in the general election on March 4.T he man who acknowledged selling hundreds of rounds of tracer bullets to the gunman responsible for the Las Vegas massacre has been charged.

Douglas Haig, 55, stands accused on a count of conspiracy to make and sell armour-piercing ammunition without a license.

Haig, of the Phoenix suburb of Mesa, Arizona, became the first person arrested and charged in connection with the October 1 massacre, which ended when the perpetrator, Stephen Paddock, killed himself.

But he told a news conference at the office of his attorney that none of the surplus military ammunition he sold Paddock in September was ever fired during the killing spree, which ranks as the deadliest mass shooting in modern US history.

Nearly 500 people were injured.

Killer: Stephen Paddock opened fire on a country music festival concert

Haig said he had no idea of any criminal intent by Paddock. The ammunition dealer said Paddock told him, when asked, that he planned to use the tracer bullets to "put on a light show either with, or for, his friends" in the desert.

Paddock pummelled a crowd of outdoor concert-goers with rapid-fire gunshots from his high-rise suite at the Mandalay Bay hotel before police stormed his room to find the 64-year-old retiree dead.

No motive for the massacre has ever been established.

'Well groomed and polite': Las Vegas gunman Stephen Paddock / AP

Haig said he was certain the gunman never used any of the 720 rounds of magnesium-packed tracer bullets Paddock had purchased from him.

"You would have seen red streaks coming from the window. And there weren't red steaks coming from the window," he said.

His lawyer, Marc Victor, suggested the casualty toll would have been lower had the tracer rounds been used, because victims would have seen the trajectory of gunfire in the dark and been able to take cover more easily.

"It's probably a bad thing that the ammunition Doug sold was not used," Mr Victor said.

Haig also said there was nothing suspicious about Paddock's behaviour when he visited Haig's home to make the purchase.

"He was very well dressed, very well groomed, very polite, very respectful - told me what he wanted, I gathered it up, put it in a box, told him what he owed me. He paid me, put it in his car and drove away," Haig recounted.

Mr Victor called it "a routine transaction to purchase a routine type of ammunition that is available in many different retail outlets throughout the sate of Arizona." Victor said the two men had no further contact.

Victor said Haig got into the ammunition re-sale business in 1991 as a hobby, and has always been a "law-abiding citizen."A Russian plane has been shot down in the rebel held area of northern Syria, a rebel group has reported.

The pilot is believed to have ejected himself before the crash and was captured by Syrian rebels, who said he was badly injured.

The warplane was brought down over Khan al-Subl town near the city of Saraqeb, an area that has been it hard by airstrikes.

The major motorway in the area has been under fierce air attack and there have been attempts to advance on the ground by the Syrian army and Iranian-backed militias.

Syrian rebels claimed they captured the pilot / AFP/Getty Images

Two rebel sources said the pilot was badly injured after escaping the crash by parachute. A third rebel source said he was killed.J ames McAvoy is mourning the death of his mother after she passed away last month.

Liz Johnstone, 59, died in the Glasgow council estate flat the actor grew up in after battling ill health for years.

Her death in the Drumchapel area of the city is being treated by Scotland Yard as "non-suspicious".

The Atonement actor, 38, remained close to his mother, a psychiatric nurse, until her death - despite having cut ties with his father.

Daniel Leal-Olivas/AFP/Getty Images

He did not speak to his dad James McAvoy Senior, a roofer, from age seven when his parents split.

A local source told the Daily Record: "Liz had health troubles and faced up to them as well as possible but it meant she really kept herself to herself. James became estranged from his dad but he was supportive of his mother.

"She had no desire to change her life on the back of his fame. She wished to stay in Drumchapel and that's what she did."

In 2008, James Snr told the Daily Mail that the Shameless star "took it hard" when he split from his mother.

He told the newspaper: "I think James still had hopes of me and his mum sorting things out.Back-to-back hurricanes that wreaked havoc in Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands in 2017 and a false ballistic missile attack warning that traumatized Hawai'i have these "ignored abroad" territories and two states looking at separation from the United States. Although independence can be a costly endeavor, the Trump administration's lack of empathy and support for Puerto Rico, forty percent of which is still lacking electrical power four months after Hurricane Maria destroyed much of the island commonwealth's infrastructure, the Puerto Rican independence movement is receiving a fresh look from many Puertorriquenos.

Although the two main Puerto Rican political parties, the Republican-linked New Progressive Party (PNP) and the Democratic-affiliated Popular Democratic Party (PDP) favoring continued ties to the United States, the Puerto Rican Independence Party (PIP), which favors full independence for Puerto Rico, is in the position of telling the other parties, including the PDP, that favor a form of autonomous free association with the United States, that "we told you so" about Washington's lack of concern about Puerto Rico. In fact, Puerto Rico has always served the colonialist and imperialist designs of the United States. Although the PIP has fought a long and protracted battle against the US Federal Bureau of Investigation, a campaign that began under FBI director J. Edgar Hoover, the party received 9 percent of the vote in 2016 from a high of 11 percent in 2000. Based on the post-storm incompetence and initial pro-Trump sycophancy of PNP Governor Ricardo Rossello, who affiliates himself with the GOP, the Puerto Rico independence party, which has the support of Cuba, former Panamanian President Martin Torrijos, and Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro is looking to increase its share of the vote this year.

The PDP's party plank, which has evolved from supporting continued colonial commonwealth status for Puerto Rico, now calls for the United Nations General Assembly to take up Puerto Rico's cause as a territory of the United States deserving of greater autonomy and political rights.

Puerto Ricans, who are subjected to a US-imposed financial control authority, were dealt a severe blow to their relative autonomy in 2016 when the US Supreme Court rejected their separate status from the United States. Although Puerto Ricans in the territory cannot vote in US presidential elections, US Associate Justice Elena Kagan, writing for the Supreme Court's majority, concluded: "Because the ultimate source of Puerto Rico's prosecutorial power is the federal government . . . the Commonwealth [of Puerto Rico] and the United States are not separate sovereigns."

The United States has historically abused the people of Puerto Rico and their leaders. In the 1930s, the head of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party, Pedro Albizu Campos, known as El Maestro to his followers, was routinely subjected to harassment and surveillance by US law enforcement and security agents. Albizu complained to the League of Nations but it came to no avail. In 1950, Albizu was arrested in a crackdown on Puerto Rican nationalist activities on the island and he was subsequently subjected to radiation burns and poisoning while in prison. Albizu suffered a stroke in prison in 1956. In 1964, he was pardoned but died shortly after his actual release from prison in 1965. El Maestro is still considered a hero by Puertorriquenos.

On March 31, 1917, the US purchased the Virgin Islands from then-owner Denmark, for $25 million. Every March 31st is celebrated as "Transfer Day" on the islands. However, the initial lack of emergency response by the Trump administration following Hurricane Maria, has Virgin Islanders, like Puerto Ricans, wondering if going it alone would not be a better option. Like their fellow citizens in Puerto Rico, Virgin Islanders are disenfranchised. Neither can vote in US presidential elections. However, as seen with Trump, a US president's malignant decisions and intentions can have a fateful impact on both US Caribbean territories.

As with many colonial vestiges, local Virgin Islands politicians, including present-Governor Kenneth Mapp, are in the pockets of wealthy hotel and condominium real estate developers who have invested heavily in St. Croix, St. Thomas, St. John, and smaller islands. However, demands for independence, especially after Hurricane Maria, are growing. Islanders figure that if independent neighbors like Antigua and Barbuda and St. Kitts-Nevis can manage on their own, then the US Virgin Islands, perhaps combined with the British Virgin Islands, can do the same.

Aspirant nations like the Virgin Islands, bifurcated by the colonial arrogance of the United States and Britain, should be united and independent nations. Another American territory, American Samoa in the South Pacific, is separated by colonial contrivance from its neighbor to the west, the independent nation of Samoa. American Samoans suffer more disenfranchisement than Puerto Ricans and Virgin Islanders in that the Samoans are not automatically granted US citizenship upon birth in the territory. The splitting of Samoa into an independent nation and an American colony is as artificial as the creation of East and West Germany, North and South Vietnam, and North and South Korea. Washington protested when Western Samoa changed its name to "Samoa" in 1997. The American authorities believed that the government in Apia was staking a territorial claim to American Samoa. Perish the thought that Samoans would not want to reject the colonial names assigned to their islands by old white men living half a world away!

American Samoa has another problem. Some 26 percent of American Samoans are Mormon, a religion that promotes the concept of a "white man's burden" over non-white races and peoples. This same concept was used by Mormon missionaries in Hawai'i, many of whom supported the Hawaiian League, a group of white American settlers who conspired with the US Navy to overthrow the Kingdom of Hawai'i in 1893 and move for immediate American annexation of the islands as a US territory.

Although Hawai'i became a state in 1960, the legacy of colonialism and US military occupation continues to plague Hawai'i. The recent false "incoming" ballistic missile attack on Hawai'i was airily dismissed by Trump's Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders as purely a "state exercise." Considering that the Hawai'i Emergency Management Agency and the US Department of Homeland Security's Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) are extremely closely linked, there is wide belief in Hawaii that the missile alert was much more than a "state" issue. From the December 7, 1941 attack by Japan on Pearl Harbor to the recent missile false alert, there is a belief among many Hawai'ians, particularly native Hawai'ians, that they have been and continue to be used as political pawns by Washington.

The Hawai'ian independence restoration movement is plagued by factionalism, some of it likely financed by US intelligence operations. There is a split between the monarchy restoration movement and those who favor a republican independent government. There is also a right-wing libertarian independence movement that has no connection to Native Hawai'ian independence movements, is run by white mainlanders (Haoles), and is devoted to establishing Hawai'i as an international tax-free financial center. Attempts to classify Native Hawai'ians as a US "Indian tribe" is also fraught with hidden agendas, including the establishing of casinos on "sovereign" Native Hawai'ian lands by business interests from the mainland and foreign nations.

The Trumps administration disregard for Native Americans in favoring the opening of pristine Arctic wildlife preserves in Alaska to oil drilling and pipeline construction has resulted in a resurgence in secession demands by many of Alaskas Inupiaq people. The chief representative of the Inupiaq, the Inupiat Community of the Arctic Slope, constantly presses legislators in Juneau and Washington for the protection in indigenous rights. The Inupiaq have also found an international voice through the Inuit Circumpolar Conference (ICC), which brings them together with other Inuit peoples from Canada, Greenland, and Siberia. Arrayed against the Inupiaq and other Inuit peoples are well-funded oil and gas industry lobbyists eager to exploit the energy resources and mining deposits in a rapidly-melting region north of the Arctic Circle. The unspoiled revered lands of the Inupiaq are in the crosshairs of the Trump administration and its backers in Big Oil, Big Gas, and Big Mining.

Two US Pacific territories, Guam and the nearby Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas, like Hawai'i, feel exposed to threatened North Korean intercontinental ballistic missile attacks. These threats manifested themselves after Trump began hurling juvenile insults at the North Korean leader, Kim Jong Un. If it were not for a heavy US military presence in the region, Guam, or Guahan as it is called by the native Chamorro population, and the Northern Marianas would not be targets for North Korea. Anger by the people of Guam and the Northern Marianas is not directed at North Korea but at Trump for needlessly making repeated military threats against North Korea, action that has placed Guam and the Marianas in a North Korean bullseye.

Although Guamanians are born as US citizens, a proposed plebiscite on the political future of the island is stalled over the question of who may vote. Chamorros, like Native Hawai'ians, American Samoans, Virgin Islanders, and Puerto Ricans, resent non-native mostly white residents, most of whom are Republicans who support people like Trump and Texas Senator Ted Cruz, from having a say in Guam's independence or increased autonomy options. The Republicans and their stooges, including Trump-supporting Guam Republican Governor Eddie Calvo, strongly oppose independence or increased sovereignty with a free association status, like that of the Northern Marianas, for Guam. Calvo, who wants Guam to become a US state, fed into Trump's noise machine when he told Fox News, "As far as I'm concerned, as an American citizen, I want a president that said that if any nation such as North Korea attacks Guam, attacks Honolulu, attacks the West Coast, that they will be met with Hell and fury."

Calvo's inflammatory rhetoric, while well-received in whites-only pool halls, country clubs, and bar rooms across the hinterlands of the American mainland, was considered dangerous by most Guamanians. Even some erstwhile Guamanian supporters of Calvo believe that continued territorial or free association status for Guam would still make it a target for a North Korean missile attack. Independence, with the phasing out of the US military presence, would make Guam as much a target as Tuvalu or Kiribati. In other words, Guam would no longer be a pawn caught between nuclear-armed powers.

Ideally, Guahan and the Northern Marianas, part of the same island chain  the Marianas  should be a united and independent nation, with its capital in Hagatna (formerly Agana) and freedom to pursue its own future, including establishing diplomatic and economic relationships with fellow Asia-Pacific nations like China, Japan, and Korea. The Marianas were divided first by Spain and Germany, followed by the United States and Japan. US Customs and Immigration Enforcement (ICE) has thrown up artificial and fascistic barriers to inter-island travel and trade between the peoples of Guahan, Saipan, Tinian, and Rota. It's clearly beyond time for America's "Ignored Abroad"  from St. Croix and Moloka'i to Tutuila and Tinian  to achieve post-colonial status as independent nations free of dictates from Washington and the boorish intentions of resident non-natives from patently foreign places like New York, Florida, Texas, and California.Ever since 1948, the US Governments foreign policies have been consistently focused upon breaking up the Soviet Union and turning its Warsaw Pact allies against the Soviet Union; and, then, once that would be (and was) accomplished, turning any remaining allies of Russia against Russia; and, then, once that will have been accomplished, conquering Russia. Since at least 2006, US defense' policy has been that nuclear war will be an acceptable way to conquer Russia if lesser measures fail to do the job. (Since 2006, the concept that a nuclear war between the US and Russia would result in mutually assured destruction, or MAD  a war that both parties to it would lose  has been rejected at the highest levels of the US Government, but continues unchanged as being the policy at the highest levels of Russias Government, which are terrified of the US Governments attempts to develop anti-ballistic missiles and other systems that would eliminate Russias defenses  i.e., ability to retaliate  against a US nuclear first-strike attack  terrified at the US Governments preparations to win a nuclear war.)

When the Republican US Presidential candidate Mitt Romney said on 26 March 2012 that, "Russia, this is, without question, our number one geopolitical foe, he was actually stating publicly something that US President Barack Obama secretly agreed with and had been working since day-one of his Presidency to implement  and his State Department had secretly already been drawing up plans since 2011 to overthrow the Moscow-friendly leaders of two nations: Syrias Bashar al-Assad and Ukraines Viktor Yanukovych. But Obama (who was the most gifted liar in US Presidential history, and really understood how to use truths to demolish even lies that his own policies were secretly based upon  simultaneously criticising bad polices while secretly implementing them) responded to Romneys statement of March 26th, by saying on 22 October 2012, Gov. Romney, Im glad that you recognize that al-Qaida is a threat, because a few months ago when you were asked whats the biggest geopolitical threat facing America, you said Russia, not al-Qaida. You said Russia  the 1980s, theyre now calling to ask for their foreign policy back because, you know, the Cold War's been over for 20 years. And Romney replied, ROMNEY: Excuse me. Its a geopolitical foe [now he pretended he hadnt said that Russia is our number one geopolitical foe; he knew that what he had said months earlier would lose him votes, and that Obama was now taking advantage of this], and I said in the same  in the same paragraph I said, and Iran is the greatest national security threat we face. [What he had actually said there when the interviewer challenged him on his anti-Russia remark was Of course, the greatest threat that the world faces is a nuclear Iran. A nuclear North Korea is already troubling enough. He diverted the issue from number one to nuclear, so as to mislead viewers as to what the issue here was. He recognized right away that he had let slip a belief that was highly controversial to express in 2012.] Russia does continue to battle us in the U.N. time and time again. I have clear eyes on this. I'm not going to wear rose-colored glasses when it comes to Russia, or Mr. Putin. And I'm certainly not going to say to him, I'll give you more flexibility after the election. After the election, he'll get more backbone.

Little did Romney, or the US public  or Vladimir Putin  know that Obamas own anti-Russia campaign would become publicly unleashed only after Obamas re-election.

Whereas Democrats lie, when they are not outright deceived, to say that Obama was a progressive; Republicans lie, when they are not outright deceived, to say that Obama wasnt a conservative. Republicans want a consistently fascist leader, and cant be satisfied by anything less. Republicans tend to be uncompromising, demanding to conquer the enemy; Democratic Party voters prefer bipartisan solutions  negotiation, instead of confrontation; win-win games, instead of win-lose games; good-faith deals, instead of bad-faith conquests; and so this is how Democratic Party politicians need to present themselves not only to Republican Party voters, but also to their own Democratic Party voters. Republican Party politicians, by contrast, dont need to appear bipartisan in order to retain the support of Republican voters. This is an authentic strategic difference between the two Parties: it stems from the difference  however slight  that exists between conservatism and liberalism. (Each of those two ideologies is both neoliberal and neoconservative  free-market and imperialistic. Progressivism is neither, but Obama and Trump are both. Billionaires want both, and wont financially back any Presidential candidate who isnt both.)

In the same TV interview on 26 March 2012 when Romney uttered his charge that Russia is Americas top enemy, he went on to explain: It is always Russia, typically with China alongside. And  and so in terms of a geopolitical foe, a nation thats on the Security Council, that has the heft of the Security Council and is, of course, a  a massive nuclear power, Russia is the  the geopolitical foe and  and the  and theyre  the idea that our president is  is planning on doing something with them that hes not willing to tell the American people before the election is something I find very, very alarming. Romney actually knew that secret negotiations are going on all the time between nations leaders. He was simply trying to appeal to the many voters who dont know this basic fact. But he wasnt nearly as gifted a liar as Obama was; so, he lost to Obama.

Romney not only damned Russias Government, but he damned Chinas Government, and he damned Irans Government. Thats the neoconservative trifecta; and the current Republican US President is carrying it out. In order to conquer Russia without a first-strike nuclear blitz attack, the only way would be to eliminate, first, both Chinas Government and Irans Government, because those are the most powerful Governments remaining still as allies of Russia. And Republicans (such as Romney) even blame Russia for having inherited the Soviet Unions nuclear defense against Americas growing nuclear MADness, which MADness had started with Reagans Star Wars ABM (also called BMD or ballistic-missile defense) dreams.

Romney was there regretting that the US cant remove and replace the international arrangements that the great American progressive President FDR had instituted at the U.N. with its inclusion of the Soviet Union on the U.N. Security Council. Republicans now damn Russia for having inherited that U.N. seat, too. They want to un-do all of FDRs great progressive legacy; theyre not satisfied merely to have worked with the post-Reagan Democratic Party (todays Democratic Party) and so eliminated almost all of it (Glass-Steagall and almost all of the rest). They want war, global conquest. Whereas Democrats on the national level, as exemplified by Obama, want to conquer Russia gradually, Republicans on the national level dont have the patience, but rush toward World War III: brinksmanship. The Democratic Partys voters are satisfied merely with continued liberal hypocrisy, such as Obama and the Clintons exemplified  its a Party that needs to be replaced, because it leaves the country with no progressive alternative, much like the hypocritical Whigs were replaced in 1860. (But, if some assassins bullet then quickly ends that new progressive Party, too, such as happened in 1865, the only progressive alternative remaining will, as a consequence, be outright revolution  if World War III doesnt come before then.)

The turn away from FDR was gradual between 1945 and 1948, but the future American direction was made clear in 1948 when the US CIA became established finally upon the dual basis of hating Russians and of becoming financially addicted to the international narcotics trade so as to have enough money (in addition to the on-the-books type, from the US Treasury) to expand into and take over Americas Deep State and thus the country, on behalf of Americas international corporations, such that even the assassination of US President John F. Kennedy is now very reasonably attributed by many well-informed Americans to JFKs growing turn away from the CIAs obsession to destroy Russia. Already, the CIA had brought over into the United States many key German Nazis (a very bad sign that post-FDR America was going to have a rotten core), and the CIA helped other Nazis to become safely established in Argentina and other countries. JFK had become increasingly disillusioned with the US Deep State that he found himself surrounded by, and he was expecting to implement its ouster from power in his second term, which never came.

Then, on the night of 24 February 1990, US President George H.W. Bush secretly established the US policy for the US and its allied governments to adhere to for the future (after the Soviet Union and its Warsaw Pact and its communism all ended peacefully in 1991), for Americas equivalent of the Soviets Warsaw Pact military alliance  NATO  to continue on afterward, against the now lone nation of Russia, and to take into NATO the formerly Russia-allied nations, so as to create the way, by thus expanding Americas military empire, to surround Russia and finally take over ultimately Russia itself. His successors in the US White House have all adhered to this secret policy of surround-and-capture. Obama entered office intending to eliminate Russias ally in Syria, Bashar al-Assad; and, even more importantly, Obama started planning in 2011 to eliminate Russias neutralist next door to Russia in Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovych  thus setting up the basis of lies on which Obamas sanctions against Russia, and NATOs massing of troops onto and near Russias borders, are justified.

US President Donald Trump continues this policy, against both Syrians and Ukrainians, with the aim of completing what Obama had only started (but had amplified from his predecessors). First, here, will be discussed Ukraine; then, Syria:

On January 18th, the AP headlined Ukraine passes bill to get occupied regions back from Russia, and reported that the Minsk peace accords that Angela Merkel, Francois Hollande, and Vladimir Putin had worked out (contrary to Obamas intentions), and that had been accepted and signed by both the Ukrainian Government and Russia, as well as by the separatist far-eastern region Donbass, in order to establish a peaceful method for re-integrating into Ukraine the separatist formerly Ukrainian region in Ukraines far east, called Donbass, were now officially being reneged-upon and rejected by the Ukrainian Government; and Ukraine also now is committing itself to conquering the Crimean region in the former Ukraines far south, which had voted over 90% to rejoin and become again a part of Russia, and Russia did reintegrate Crimea, as the residents there overwhelmingly wanted. Ukraines Government has thus now established, as its official policy, that only war and conquest of its former far-eastern portion, and also of its far-southern portion (now again a part of Russia), is acceptable. Ukraine had never complied with the Minsk accords requirement for Ukraine to accept the far-eastern region (Donbass) peaceably back into Ukraine. However, the US Government and its allies blamed only Russia and not the Ukrainian Government (which is vastly more to blame) for the failure of the Minsk accords to be implemented, and Obamas economic sanctions against Russia were constantly being renewed upon that fallacious, clearly counter-factual, anti-Russian, basis. Most of the Minsk accords were simply ignored by Ukraine. For example, here are the final two paragrahs, and they were totally ignored and violated constantly by Ukraine:

 Pullout of all foreign armed formations, military equipment, and also mercenaries from the territory of Ukraine under OSCE supervision. Disarmament of all illegal groups.

 Constitutional reform in Ukraine, with the new Constitution to come into effect by the end of 2015, the key element of which is decentralisation (taking into account peculiarities of particular districts of Donetsk and Luhansk Oblasts, agreed with representatives of these districts), and also approval of permanent legislation on special status of particular districts of Donetsk and Luhansk Oblasts in accordance with the measures spelt out in the footnotes, by the end of 2015.

What caused Ukraine to opt for war against Russia, and to turn away from the Minsk accords, is that US President Trump had decided to sell to Ukraine even weapons that Obama had thought would be too likely to bring about a US-Russia war too quickly; Trump is apparently even more eager for a US-Russia war than Obama was. So, now, the fascist regime that Obama had installed in his 2014 coup in Ukraine will be given even greater sway than it had under Obama. They will go back to doing as they had been doing during the first months after Obama had installed this regime: killing the residents in the areas of Ukraine that had voted over 90% (in Donbass) for the man whom Obama had overthrown, and over 75% (in Crimea) for him. Unless those voters can be either killed or forced to emigrate into Russia, the fascist regime that Obama had installed on Russias doorstep would be voted out of power in the next general election. Evidently, Trump is at least as dedicated to continuance of that fascist regime as was his predecessor, who had installed it.

Regarding Syria, the Trump regime is likewise continuing the Obama regimes policies. Obama supported Al Qaeda* (called in Syria Jabhat al-Nusra) against Syrias Government, and so does Trump. Even the leading neoconservative propaganda-sheet, the Washington Post, once goofed and included the scandalous reality that the big hang-up between the US and Russia that was preventing a cease-fire and blocking a stop in the bombing in Syria by both the US and Russia, was: Russia was said to have rejected a US proposal to leave Jabhat al-Nusra off-limits to bombing as part of a cease-fire. Russia insisted upon continuing the bombing of both ISIS-controlled and Al Qaeda-controlled areas, even during the general cease-fire, but America would allow only continuation of the bombing against ISIS-controlled areas. Without Al Qaeda (Nusra), the US invasion of Syria would have had no boots-on-the-ground leadership for the many other jihadist groups that the Sauds had recruited worldwide and financed to fight there. Protecting Syrias Al Qaeda was crucial to Americas entire war-effort in Syria. And Trump  who had campaigned against radical Islamic terrorism  is continuing Obamas policy there, too: supporting radical Islamic terrorism, against Syrias Government.

Brett McGurk, who ran Obamas Syria-policy, is likewise running Trumps Syria-policy; and he hasnt had to change the policy at all: it relies upon Al Qaeda in the Arab-majority areas, and upon Kurds in the Kurdish-majority areas. As that WP article, which was dated 19 February 2016, noted The US team, headed by senior White House adviser Robert Malley and State Department envoy Brett McGurk, were negotiating with the Russians about the conditions for a cease-fire in Syria while Obama was in power. (They were the people working to protect Al Qaeda in Syria.) And McGurk still is, and hasnt changed. (As for Malley  co-authoring there at the neoconservative-neoliberal The Atlantic magazine  hes with the US and NATO billionaires-funded neoconservative International Crisis Group, which pontificates about being kind and humanitarian in wars, so as to be able to sell more of them to liberals around the world. But McGurk has been the real operator, no such mere front man for the war-industry.)

Obama himself would probably be surprised at the extent to which Trump is adhering to Obamas foreign-policy thrust of placing hostility against Russia and Russias allies, above hostility against jihadists and jihadists allies. On 10 November 2016, just two days after Trumps election as President, Obama did a sudden about-face, seemingly in order to avoid the embarrassment of having his successor publicly condemn him for having been depending so heavily upon the hated Al Qaeda: the WP bannered Obama directs Pentagon to target al-Qaeda affiliate in Syria and reported that, President Obama has ordered the Pentagon to find and kill the leaders of an al-Qaeda-linked group in Syria that the administration had largely ignored until now and that has been at the vanguard of the fight against the Syrian government. (The clause at the vanguard of the fight against the Syrian government was yet another rare peep in that neocon newspaper, which enabled a perceptive reader to get a glimpse of the broader reality, that America was in Syria not in order to defeat jihadists, but in order to defeat Syrias Government.) Nominally, Obama on 9 September 2016 had finally allowed his Secretary of State John Kerry to sign with Russias Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov a cease-fire agreement that accepted Russias demand that both ISIS and Al Qaeda in Syria continue to be bombed; but, on September 17th, just five days later, Obamas Air Force bombed Syrian Government troops in the key city of Deir Zor and thus enabled ISIS to take control of that city, which bombing by the US violated and thus ended that same agreement, and finally ended Russias trust in anything it might sign with the US Government. Russia promptly set up its own peace-negotiations for ending the Syrian war, and excluded the US Government from it; the process involved instead Russia, Iran, and Turkey, and it made more progress, in much shorter time, than the US-backed peace-process under U.N. auspices ever did; so, when Obama gave that order, on November 10th, finally to start bombing Al Qaeda in Syria, he probably was trying to accommodate the fundamental change-of-policy on Syria, that Trump had campaigned and won on. Perhaps only later did Obama come to recognize that Trumps promises didnt mean anything more than Obamas own promises did.

McGurk likewise has continued Obamas use of Syrias Kurds to break off a chunk of Syria, and he is infuriating Turkeys Government on the hot issue of formation of a Kurdistan, just like McGurks comments backing the Kurds against Syria were when the US puppet-leader happened to be Obama. Under Obama, a Turkish newspaper reported on 7 February 2016, that Turkeys leader Tayyip Erdogan directed severe criticism at the visit to the town by Brett McGurk, US President Barack Obama's special envoy for the anti-Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL*) coalition, and this was because of Americas support for the Kurds against Syria. Then, the pro-US-regime Arab newspaper in English, Al Monitor, headlined, now during the Trump era, on 1 August 2017, "Turkey in Uproar Over McGurk and opened, Turkeys scapegoating of US special envoy Brett McGurk over the military partnership between the United States and the Syrian Kurds grew crazier today, with one pro-government newspaper labeling him a murderer.

On January 22nd, the geostrategic blogger who posts his anonymous reports at his Moon of Alabama site, pointed out that the Trump Administration tells contradictory lies to different people, and that it thus assures not only defeat, but embarrassment, to the US:

US allied Turkish forces invade Syria to kill and "cleanse" US allied Syrian YPG/PKK Kurds in Afrin. The Trump administration immediately steps in to assure the respective allies of its continued support:

 Today the Deputy Secretary General of NATO, the US diplomat Rose Gottemoeller, visited Ankara to tell the Turkish allies that everything is fine. The US will stand with them.

 Today Commander of US Central Command General Votel and US Diplomat Brett McGurk visited Kobane to tell their Syrian YPG/PKK allies that everything is fine. The US will stand with them.

On January 18th, McGurk had already reaffirmed to the Kurds in Iraq, that the US backs them against Iraqs Government. Its all being done so as to increase US weapons-sales to Americas allies: to the aristocracies that are vassals to the imperial one, Americas. When the US President Dwight Eisenhower warned in his 17 January 1960 Farewell Address that the military-industrial complex might take over the country, he said it because he knew that it had largely already done so; but, by now, that take-over is long-since a fait accompli.

Not only has this policy destroyed Ukraine, and destroyed Syria, and, before that, destroyed Libya, and destroyed Iraq, and destroyed Afghanistan, etc.; but, the US leaves to Russias formerly allied or friendly nations the enormous burdens of repairing the vast harms that the US regime had caused.

For example: At a Defense Department press conference, now under President Trump, on 19 May 2017, the Special Envoy Brett McGurk said, as he had been saying all along under his former boss, Obama, We will never work with the Assad regime; and, the reconstruction costs of Syria are  are so high in the multiple, multiple billions of dollars and "the reality in Syria is that so long as  until there's a credible political horizon, the international community is not going to come to the aid, particularly the areas under the control of the regime. In other words: the war that the US and Sauds had led and armed and financed against Syria would receive no reconstruction money from the perpetrators unless the given area of Syria where such reconstruction is being done has broken away from Syrias Government. There is no change, here, too. Even regarding Americas backing the Kurds to grab parts of Syria where they predominate, McGurk-Trump is the same as was McGurk-Obama  and McGurk is infuriating Turkeys Government on the hot issue of Kurdistan, just like McGurks comments backing the Kurds against Syria, and against Iraq, were when the US puppet-leader happened to be Obama.

The reconstruction costs for Syria alone are estimated at upwards of $250 billion.

Trumps domestic US policies are even more conservative than Obamas were, but in the field of foreign policies  at least ones that fall under the rubric of national security  Trump is continuing Obamas policies: the neoconservatism continues unchanged, as if US national security policies are unaffected by whom the resident in the US White House happens to be. But isnt that the way it is in any regime? Only the deceit is less skillful now.

* Terrorist organization, banned in Russia by court order.During the nine month battle for Mosul in 2016-17 ISIL (Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant) used an unexpectedly large number (over 600) of suicide car bombs (SBVIEDs. Or Suicide Vehicle Borne Improvised Explosive Devices). The large scale car bomb operations actually began at the end of 2015 as Iraqi forces began encircling Mosul and massing forces for the October combined assault on the city. At that point 80-90 percent of ISIL suicide bomb operations were for military, not terror, operations. It soon became apparent that this increased and more elaborate use of suicide car bombs was also using new and rapidly evolving tactics. This was confirmed during the months of fighting around Mosul when electronic surveillance, captured documents and interrogations of captured ISIL men and refugees who had witnessed the massive suicide car bomb effort. ISIL found that the suicide car bomb attacks were potentially very effective in urban areas that provided lots of hiding places for the bomb equipped (with up to a ton of explosives) vehicles could be hidden and streets could be blocked with rubble using roadside bombs or barricades so the advancing troops would use routes near where the suicide car bombs were waiting. At the same time suicide car building workshops were larger and less mobile that similar operations for smaller weapons ammo, meaning they were easier to find.

During the main battle (October 2016-July 2017) the ISIL 11,000 or so defenders were outnumbered 10-1 and 90 percent of the ISIL force died during those nine months as did about 1,400 of the attackers (in addition to over 7,000 wounded). About 6,000 civilians were killed, many of them when used as human shields by ISIL or victims of the many bombs set off by the defenders without regard for nearby civilians. ISIL hoped the mass use of suicide car bombs would make a big difference and perhaps even cause enough casualties among the attackers to stall or stop the offensive. Like the Japanese use of Kamikaze suicide aircraft attacks late in World War II, it was a surprising and spectacular effort, but in both cases these tactics failed.

During the Mosul campaign most of the suicide car bombs were used in the relatively open areas of eastern Mosul, the area on the east bank of Tigris River. This phase of the battle lasted for three months and ISIL averaged about 2o suicide car bomb attacks a week during the first two months. Because of the large number of surveillance and attack aircraft used to support the Mosul operation most of the suicide car bomb operations moved to more open areas around Mosul and continued to be a factor until west Mosul and entire city was declared completely captured in mid-2017.

ISIL, and its Iraqi predecessor (several Islamic terror groups mainly working with the Iraqi branch of al Qaeda) used several thousand car bombs, not all of them driven by a suicide bomber, from 2004 to the present. What characterized the large number encountered in the early stages of the Mosul battle was the fact that about a fifth were fitted with armor and several dozen had a second man operating a machine-gun in an armored turret to help clear the way to a well defended target. Often there were coordinated attacks when up to a dozen suicide car bombs would be deployed according to a battle plan, often with the help of commercial UAVs scouting the route and directing the driver to avoid blocked streets (often by bomb craters put there deliberately by Iraqi forces) and get them to Iraqi forces. By the end of 2016 the suicide car bomb workshops that continued to build these vehicles were searched for and hit with air or artillery attacks.

The large scale use of suicide car bombs was not totally unexpected. Islamic terrorists in general had come to use multiple car bombs for attacks, typically as distractions for the defender and then to breach the main entrance to the target (a well-guarded base or compound) that enabled Islamic terrorists on foot, including many equipped with explosive vests as well as assault rifles, to get into the base/compound/building to do maximum damage. What made Mosul unique was that ISIL built numerous workshops to convert all sorts of vehicles (cars, SUVs, vans, trucks and captured military transports like hummers, already armored hummers and tracked vehicles like APCs or even bulldozers). The strict security in ISIL controlled Mosul was partly to prevent the attackers from knowing much about the suicide car bomb stockpile and the extent of the workshops that were stocked with a lot of additional vehicles and explosives so that production could be quickly increased. The coalition, especially the Americans with their extensive fleet of surveillance aircraft (UAVs and manned aircraft carrying all sorts of sensors), knew something was up and when it became apparent exactly what, all that data was used to attack known and suspected workshops and tweak the search criteria to concentrate on workshops or suicide car bomb storage sites (near where ISIL expected they would be needed). ISIL adapted and when it was all over some surviving workshops were found. But most had been detected and destroyed in the course of the fighting.

During the last six months of the Mosul campaign suicide car bomb use was often successfully anticipated and countered with airstrikes or even ambushes on the ground. ISIL commanders were not surprised how quickly the American intelligence analysts detected changes in tactics and quickly used smart bombs and missiles to destroy the threat. Still, ISIL continued to capture videos of the suicide car bomb attacks, often using their cheap camera equipped quad-copters to get aerial views of the final moments of vehicle movement and then the large explosion. Some vehicles were fitted with additional quantities of fuel oil to create a lot of smoke and cover other ISIL forces advancing on foot or in vehicles. The videos were used to encourage the defenders as well as to show potential recruits around the world that the defense of Mosul was photogenic.

The coalition was less eager to distribute videos of the countermeasures, because that would enable ISIL to better adapt. Once the Mosul battle was over more details (and videos) of coalition tactics did appear. Basically it was a matter of finding and destroying the car bomb before it could be used. In some cases ISIL used elaborate camouflage and other forms of deception to make the vehicle appear harmless. Any technique rarely worked more than once. Many of the Iraqi troops on the ground had years of experience and put frequent (often daily) intelligence updates to use right away. Given that these suicide vehicle bombs and an average of about a ton of explosives on board they created a larger explosion than the biggest smart bomb (the 2,000 pound/909 kg bomb) which contained, at most, half a ton of explosives. From a distance you could nearly always tell the difference between a suicide car bomb and smart bomb going off. The coalition deliberately used lots of smaller missiles and smart bombs to limit the damage and injuries to nearby civilians. ISIL had different priorities.TICKERS: LIO; LOMLF

Source: Clive Maund for Streetwise Reports (2/3/18)

Technical analyst Clive Maund charts a company developing a gold mine on Fiji.



Lion One Metals Limited (LIO:TSX.V) has been working for years to develop a significant gold mine on Fiji, and is expected to bring it into production next year. Technically the stock is a buy in this area because it has reacted back over the past 18 months to the strong support at the upper boundary of a giant Head-and-Shoulders bottom that it earlier broke out of to embark on a major uptrend.

Key Fundamental points relating to the company and the project are as follows:

The company is in possession of a fully permitted high grade underground gold project advancing to production in Fiji at Tuvatu.

Tuvatu previously owned by Australian listed Emperor Gold (Emperor also operated Vatukoula gold mine in Fiji)

Vatukoula gold mine produced 7m oz. gold since 1930s; Fiji is seasoned and pro-mining jurisdiction

Tuvatu taken through feasibility 1997-2000; over $20 million spent in 1999 dollars; Ivanhoe was biggest shareholder of Emperor

Gold prices dropped under $300, Emperor taken over by DRD (Ivanhoe had moved onto Mongolian assets by then)

DRD divested Fiji assets in 2006, acquired by Red Lion (Walter Berukoff)

Red Lion sold Vatukoula gold mine in 2008, kept Tuvatu, took public with Lion One in 2011

Wally Berukoff: founder of Miramar, Northern Orion, La Manchacornerstone asset bases still valuable and productive

Emperor feasibility included over 1km underground workings & 100,000 meters drilling

Lion One updated database and previous technical studies

Obtained 21-year surface rights from landowners and native land trust

Obtained 10-year renewable mining lease over 400 hectares surround Tuvatu resource

Secured surrounding district scale land positionthe Navilawa Caldera

A 6x4 km caldera rivaling scale of most major volcanic occurrences in SW Pacific hosting likes of Porgera, Lihir, Vatukoula, Gosowong, etc.

Current Status:Now we will look at the charts. We start with a long-term 17-year chart which shows that the company has been around for a long time working towards its long-term goal of getting this gold mine up and running. The stock broke out of a base pattern and took off strongly higher early in 2016, at a time when the entire sector rose sharply from extremely depressed levels.

Now we will proceed to look at the base pattern and subsequent action on the 5-year chart. This chart shows the fine large Head-and-Shoulders bottom that formed in the stock to advantage. Once the price broke out of this base early in 2016 it took off strongly higher as the entire sector recovered sharply, but after peaking in August of that year, it went into a stubborn downtrend that has persisted to this day, which means it has been going on for 18 months nowa long time, and we are at a good point for this downtrend to end, because the price has arrived back at a zone of strong support centered on the upper boundary of the Head-and-Shoulders bottom, which it dipped into late last year, before rallying back across its downtrend channel again.

The 2-year chart shows the downtrend in its entirety in more detail. On this chart we can see that a rather feeble countertrend rally back across the downtrend has been in force since late September. It looks like it is going to make another step down on this chart, and has already started to, but because of the important support not far below in the C$0.40C$0.50 zone, there is a fair chance that it wont drop to new lows, especially as volume has been building up in recent months, which is viewed as bullish, and the AccumDistrib line is starting to look healthy, being not far off making new highs. There are two alternative potential developments here that would be buyers should look out forone is a breakout from the downtrend on good volume, which will be a buy signal, the other is another dip into the support in the vicinity of the September lows at about C$0.45, which will also be a buy signal with the possibility of placing a close stop to limit loss if it breaks lower again. In this case we will be looking for bullish volume action.

The 6-month chart shows recent action in more detail, and on it we can see that the stock has gotten very close to making a bullish moving average crossover. Thus it is clear that if Lion finds support soon and turns up, we could quickly see a cross of the moving averages, leading to a breakout from the downtrend best seen on the 2-year chart, which is expected to trigger a new bullmarket in the stock.

Conclusion: after its 18-month long reactionary downtrend back to strong support, Lion One is basically in buying territory, with the remaining challenge being to buy at the best price possible, which would be if its reacts back to the C$0.45 area near-term, or with the assurance provided by its breaking out of its downtrend, which would involve paying a slightly higher price. We will keep it under observation with these scenarios in mind. There are 101 million shares in issue, which is acceptable given how long the company has been around, and the stock trades rather thinly on the U.S. OTC market.

Lion One Metals website.

Finally, one advantage that the company has over many mining companies is that it is easier to get mining analysts to go there, rather than to say, Fairbanks or Norilsk in Russia. It is not known why the company is named Lion One, since, to the writer's knowledge there are no lions roaming free on Fiji and never have been.

Lion One Metals Ltd, LIO.V, LOMLF on OTC, trading at C$0.54, $0.43 at 12.00 pm EST on 2nd January 18.

Clive Maund has been president of www.clivemaund.com, a successful resource sector website, since its inception in 2003. He has 30 years' experience in technical analysis and has worked for banks, commodity brokers and stockbrokers in the City of London. He holds a Diploma in Technical Analysis from the UK Society of Technical Analysts.

Want to read more Gold Report articles like this? Sign up for our free e-newsletter, and you'll learn when new articles have been published. To see a list of recent articles and interviews with industry analysts and commentators, visit our Streetwise Interviews page.

Disclosure:

1) Clive Maund: I, or members of my immediate household or family, own shares of the following companies mentioned in this article: None. I personally am, or members of my immediate household or family are, paid by the following companies mentioned in this article: None. My company has a financial relationship with the following companies mentioned in this article: None. CliveMaund.com disclosures below. I determined which companies would be included in this article based on my research and understanding of the sector.

2) The following companies mentioned in this article are billboard sponsors of Streetwise Reports: Lion One Metals. Streetwise Reports does not accept stock in exchange for its services. Click here for important disclosures about sponsor fees. As of the date of this article, an affiliate of Streetwise Reports has a consulting relationship with Lion One Metals.

3) Statements and opinions expressed are the opinions of the author and not of Streetwise Reports or its officers. The author is wholly responsible for the validity of the statements. The author was not paid by Streetwise Reports for this article. Streetwise Reports was not paid by the author to publish or syndicate this article. The information provided above is for informational purposes only and is not a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Streetwise Reports requires contributing authors to disclose any shareholdings in, or economic relationships with, companies that they write about. Streetwise Reports relies upon the authors to accurately provide this information and Streetwise Reports has no means of verifying its accuracy.

4) This article does not constitute investment advice. Each reader is encouraged to consult with his or her individual financial professional and any action a reader takes as a result of information presented here is his or her own responsibility. By opening this page, each reader accepts and agrees to Streetwise Reports' terms of use and full legal disclaimer. This article is not a solicitation for investment. Streetwise Reports does not render general or specific investment advice and the information on Streetwise Reports should not be considered a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Streetwise Reports does not endorse or recommend the business, products, services or securities of any company mentioned on Streetwise Reports.

5) From time to time, Streetwise Reports LLC and its directors, officers, employees or members of their families, as well as persons interviewed for articles and interviews on the site, may have a long or short position in securities mentioned. Directors, officers, employees or members of their immediate families are prohibited from making purchases and/or sales of those securities in the open market or otherwise from the time of the interview or the decision to write an article, until one week after the publication of the interview or article. As of the date of this article, officers and/or employees of Streetwise Reports LLC (including members of their household) own securities of Lion One Metals, a company mentioned in this article.

Charts provided by the author.

CliveMaund.com Disclosure:

The above represents the opinion and analysis of Mr Maund, based on data available to him, at the time of writing. Mr. Maund's opinions are his own, and are not a recommendation or an offer to buy or sell securities. Mr. Maund is an independent analyst who receives no compensation of any kind from any groups, individuals or corporations mentioned in his reports. As trading and investing in any financial markets may involve serious risk of loss, Mr. Maund recommends that you consult with a qualified investment advisor, one licensed by appropriate regulatory agencies in your legal jurisdiction and do your own due diligence and research when making any kind of a transaction with financial ramifications. Although a qualified and experienced stock market analyst, Clive Maund is not a Registered Securities Advisor. Therefore Mr. Maund's opinions on the market and stocks can only be construed as a solicitation to buy and sell securities when they are subject to the prior approval and endorsement of a Registered Securities Advisor operating in accordance with the appropriate regulations in your area of jurisdiction. Mr. Maund does not own securities of Lion One.The Supreme Court on Saturday ordered the attorney general to submit the audit report pertaining to stents for cardiac patients in the country within a week.

A three-member bench, headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Saqib Nisar, resumed the hearing of the suo motu case pertaining to unregistered stents in the country.

A coronary stent is a tube-shaped device placed in the coronary arteries that supply blood to the heart, to keep the arteries open in the treatment of coronary heart disease.

The apex court also ordered Pakistani scientist Dr Samar Mubarakmand to submit a written reply within a week over the issuance of Rs350 million in 2004 to him for the production of coronary stents.

Dr Mubarakmand, who was summoned by the apex court in the last hearing, informed the court that a project worth Rs37 million was started while he was the chairman of The National Engineering and Scientific Commission (NESC).

Under the project, 10,000 stents were to be manufactured locally, out of which 400 were manufactured and sent to Germany for testing.

On being asked by the court where the stents are now, Mubarakmand said out of the Rs350 million, the machine used for manufacturing stents alone cost Rs30 million. The rest were spent on salaries of experts and other expenses, he said.

After that I retired and handed over the project to NUST [National University of Sciences and Technology], the scientist told the court.

The chief justice also said that the court will summon all manufacturers from which the stents are imported.

Dr Murtaza in the last hearing said that Pakistan will be producing its own cardiac stents by June 2018.Pakistan and Afghanistan instead of blame game should engage in concrete cooperation, said Foreign Secretary Tehmina Janjua addressing the Afghanistan-Pakistan Action Plan for Solidarity (APAPS) in Kabul on Saturday.

Janjua condemned the Kabul terrorist attacks and offered Pakistans assistance for a joint investigation.

The government of Afghanistan was urged to take action against anti-Pakistan terrorists. Pakistan also emphasised the need for strengthening border management on the Afghan side.

A top-level delegation of Pakistans civil and military leadership, led by Foreign Secretary Tehmina Janjua, reached Afghanistan earlier today to attend the Pakistan-Afghanistan Joint Working Group meeting.

Foreign Office spokesperson Dr Mohammad Faisal on Friday confirmed the meeting and said Pakistan had proposed five joint working groups, focusing on ensuring a comprehensive engagement for countering terrorism, intelligence sharing, military, economy, trade and transit interaction, refugee repatriation and connectivity.

Reiterating Pakistan's stance that there is no military solution to the Afghan problem, he said only an Afghan-led and owned peace process will ensure peace in the country.

The FO spokesperson also reaffirmed that Pakistan will continue to support efforts for peace in Afghanistan, but the Afghan government needs to reach a settlement with different Afghan groups.

A high-level Afghan delegation visited Pakistan earlier this week to discuss important issues of mutual interest. The delegation, comprising the Afghan interior minister and the chief of National Directorate of Security, met with Prime Minister Shahid Khan Abbasi.

Shedding light on the meeting, Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif had stressed the need to resolve Pak-Afghan issues bilaterally and said Pakistan stands with its Afghan brothers in this hour of grief," referring to the recent spate of bomb-and-gun attacks in Kabul over the past month which have claimed nearly 200 lives.

Pakistans Ambassador to the United States, Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry on Friday reiterated that Pakistan does not want any violence or terrorism in Afghanistan and that it has suffered from the instability across the border.

In an interview, Aizaz said it was disappointing that Kabul blamed Pakistan for the ensuing violence, adding that Pakistan will benefit the most  apart from the people of Afghanistan  if peace returns to Afghanistan.

Ambassador Aizaz said that Pakistan would like to have good relations with the United States and the two countries have worked together for seven decades.

He added that Pakistan believes in a relationship based on mutual respect and trust.Click the image above to watch the video

In todays weather forecast we are expecting fine spells and a few showers. Also southeasterlies developing in the afternoon.

Its a one-clothing layer day today with a high of 24 and an overnight low of 15 degrees. Humidity is 80 per cent.

High tide is at 9.50am and low tide at 4pm. Sea temperature is a warm 22 degrees, and theres a sea swell of 1.8m. Sunset is at 8.23pm.

If youre going fishing today the best fish bite time is between 6am and 9am, and between 7.30pm and 10.30pm.

This day in NZ history in 1868 a killer storm swept the country. A cyclone swept south across the country from Saturday February 1. By the time it moved away on Tuesday 4th, more than 40 people had died.

On this day in 1931 Hawkes Bay was struck by an earthquake. When the deadly earthquake, measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale, struck at 10.47am, many buildings in central Napier and Hastings collapsed immediately.

This day in world history in 1690 the first paper money in America was issued in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. In 1783 Spain recognized the United States independence. In 1920 the Allies demanded that 890 German military leaders stand trial for war crimes. In 1954 millions greeted Queen Elizabeth in Sydney on her first royal trip to Australia. In 1966 the Soviet Luna 9 achieved a soft landing on the moon.

Today is the birthday of German composer and pianist Felix Mendelssohn. Born in 1809 he once said The essence of the beautiful is unity in variety.

To check out whats on today please go to our Whats on page. Have a great day!US Taxpayers Warming To Tax Reforms: Poll

Mike Godfrey, Tax-News.com, Washington

02 February 2018

New poll results from the independent Monmouth University Polling Institute show that support for the new tax plan has increased significantly since December 2017, with attitudes towards President Trump also improving as a result.

"Opinion is currently divided on the landmark tax reform plan  44 percent approve and 44 percent disapprove," said Monmouth on January 31. "But this marks a significant increase in public support from December, when just 26 percent approved of the bill and 47 percent disapproved."

Perhaps more importantly, fewer Americans (36 percent) believe that their own federal taxes will go up under the plan than felt the same when the bill was in its final legislative stages last month (50 percent). Still, the number who believe that their taxes will go up (36 percent) outnumber those who believe that their taxes will go down (24 percent) or stay the same (32 percent) under the new system.

The poll also found that a majority (55 percent) of Americans say that Trump has been at least somewhat successful at getting Congress to pass his legislative agenda, while 41 percent say he has not been successful. This marks a reversal from December - before the tax reform bill was approved - when only 42 percent said Trump had been successful with Congress and 53 percent said he had not been successful.

"While there is still some way to go to really win over the public, it looks like the needle has moved in the Republicans' direction since passage of the tax bill," said Patrick Murray, Director of Monmouth University Polling Institute.This month, British history was made as Paris Lees became the first transgender woman to feature in British Vogue fashion magazine. The February edition is the third by Edward Enninful, British Vogues first black and male editor, who vowed his aim to celebrate diversity when appointed editor in April, last year.

Writer and campaigner, Lees will also be named in British Vogues 100 most influential women; she has expressed that she hopes her inclusion will offer inspiration to others. When I was growing up, you rarely saw trans people in the media and only then as objects of pity, ridicule, or disgust, Lees said well here I am being celebrated as a woman, in vogue. She describes that society is in the midst of a global movement where trans people are asking to be treated with the same respect as everyone else in society

This movement is reflected by trans women becoming increasingly prominent in the fashion world. Further recent successes of transgender people in fashion and beauty include Orange Is the New Black star, Laverne Cox, who became Cosmopolitan magazines first transgender cover star for their recent February edition. Cox has expressed her gratitude for trans models for changing beauty standards.

Yet there is still some doubt cast on the authenticity of the motive of fashion brands in their inclusion of trans models. Model and social activist Munroe Bergdorf, who was set to be the first trans woman to lead a UK campaign for LOreal Paris, is sceptical that the fashion industry genuinely recognises the value that trans models can add to the industry. She claims that the industry casts to fill a trans quota and treats trans models as trends or tokens.

It is clear that the fashion industry has taken steps in becoming more inclusive in recent years, yet it still has strides to go in truly embracing and appreciating transgender models. It is vital to change the landscape of the fashion industry to celebrating diversity, rather than just fetishizing it.

To end with the telling words of Bergdorf, the trans community is so incredibly diverse and beautiful, I want the world to see us how we see each other.In its long history, Cambridge has been home to countless LGBTQ+ figures. In researching for this article, I discovered that Cambridge University has an extremely rich history of LGBTQ+ alumni and staff, however, this article unfortunately can only explore a few of them.

John Maynard Keynes (1883-1946) is famously the economist who revolutionised economic thought and policy in the mid-20th century, emphasising the importance of government intervention in the economy for stability and growth. He studied mathematics at Kings College, Cambridge and was encouraged to become an economist, despite his early attraction to philosophy. Keynes was bisexual, and he openly dated men and was part of the Bloomsbury Group, noted for its liberal attitudes towards sexuality. Keynes interests were not limited to the economy, as he was also a keen campaigner for reform of the law on homosexuality and against discrimination towards women in the workplace.

Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951) is famous for being a philosopher of logic and language. Whilst studying aeronautics, he became engulfed in books exploring mathematics and philosophy, leading him to Trinity College, Cambridge. He had studied logic with such intensity that both Wittgenstein and his teacher, Russell, concluded that he had nothing left to study after just a year! After that, Wittgenstein wove in and out of academia, working also in the army, as a teacher in a village and as a hospital porter. He had romantic relationships with both men and women throughout his life. Having enjoyed such varied experiences, his last words were, Tell them Ive had a wonderful life. Growing up through the Second World War,

Pat Arrowsmith (born 1930) became very aware of the miseries of war, and often thought about how it could be prevented. Her rebelliousness at school led her to be expelled at age 14, and this sense of rebelliousness would continue throughout her life. She studied history at Newnham College, Cambridge. She later co-founded the Campaign for Nuclear Disarment and would serve eleven prison sentences because of her political activities. Arrowsmith was a lesbian icon, being the first person to come out in Whos Who in 1977. She admitted that she only married a man in order to receive her inheritance, and her marriage was quickly annulled, whilst her inheritance was donated to political causes.

Kwame Anthony Appiah (born 1954) was born in London but raised in Ghana. Having studied philosophy at Clare College, Cambridge, he has gone on to become an renowned academic with interests in a diverse range of topics, including the philosophy of language and mind, race, cosmopolitanism, political and economic development, the work of African and African-American intellectuals and religion. He currently lives with his husband in the United States.

Sarah Brown studied at Trinity Hall and is a Liberal Democrat politician, who was the only openly transgender elected British politician for a number of years. She has campaigned for equal marriage rights for gay and lesbian couples, openly discussing how such laws have affected her and her wife. Brown has used the hashtag #transdocfail on Twitter in order to highlight the poor treatment of transgender patients by the NHS.

Lord Smith of Finsbury (born 1951) served as a Labour MP for many years, becoming the first openly gay British MP in 1984, when he announced during a rally, Good afternoon, Im Chris Smith, Im the Labour MP for Islington South and Finsbury and Im gay. As the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport under Blair, Lord Smith has successfully secured a tax rebate which allowed many museums to give free admissions. After 20 years of serving as an MP, Lord Smith stepped down and later became a life peer. In 2015, he returned to Pembroke College where he had studied English to become its Master.If Andrew Mitchell is one of the standard bearers of liberal conservatism, then liberal conservatism is in very deep trouble indeed.

This is not due to Mitchells policies or ideas- they are often moderate and, while dealing more in the abstract than the real, are extremely appealing- Government should engage with the left behind; it should seek to restate the case for free markets and liberal societies. Instead, they are due to his seeming inability to articulate solutions beyond the abstract.

A central part of Mitchells address was the need for the advocates of free markets and liberal societies to make the case for their ideas, instead of assuming that people will see the merits of their ideas (or at least the problems of their opponents). Talking about the position of Capitalism in the UK, he argued that a Corbyn led government would lead to a massive hike in income tax; a massive hike in borrowing, a massive hike in debt after eighteen months of ushering in the New Jerusalem we would revert to an old fashioned Sterling crisis, and the eternal verities about government, politics and economics will be reasserted. In this, he echoes the current line of attack from the government- justified criticism of Corbyns economic model.

By way of remedy, he argues for the Conservative party and Government to renew itself and make the case once again for free markets. For liberal economies that conservative governments around the world champion, with such remarkable effect over the last fifty years. At the moment, we are on the back foot on this. We, as a party, need to reassert the importance of those eternal truths which bind us together- bind us together as a party, and bind us to the public. This is good rhetoric, and it is correct- the liberal economic consensus that emerged after the Second World War produced the fastest growth in living standards in history, and their advocates do not stress that enough. But rhetoric is not policy. The case for capitalism will not be made with rhetoric, but with concerted political action aimed at addressing peoples concerns- helping those left behind.

Sitting down with TCS after his address, he remains unclear on how to address these concerns. Asked how to make the case for capitalism in concrete terms, and on appealing to voters in those communities which feel abandoned by the government and economic system, he passes the buck and fails to offer a concrete solution. You offer a community in Fife [as an example of a community which feels left behind]- they look first and foremost to the Scottish government. They must look to the Scottish government many of the decisions that they want to be made will be made by the Scottish government- this is technically true; in Wales, Northern Ireland, and Scotland, devolution has created a role for the devolved administrations in economic policy, but it sidesteps the need to make the same statements in those communities. The case for capitalism does not stop at Gretna Green or the Severn, and nor does the interest of the Conservative Party.

For English communities, Mitchell offers a roadmap- there are a range of things we can do to speak to communities of the dispossessed- communities that feel that theyve missed out. It is our duty to make Brexit a success for them, because these communities fear that their jobs may be taken by uncontrolled migration, and that they lose out from globalisation, which means that their wages are undercut. People feel left out by globalisation. They are being paid less. These are problems, not solutions.

Does he have a solution? In a way, yes. We need to demonstrate that Conservative economic management will grow the economy. We have more people in work than we have ever had before, unemployment is lower than at any time since I was at Cambridge, forty years ago. We are running an economy which does deliver, and which Labour would damage by policies which I do not think would work. Again, Mitchell falls back on abstraction- saying we need to demonstrate that Conservative economic management will grow the economy without offering ways to do that is like a hiker pointing at a map and saying I need to get there, then refusing to plan a route; it is a good aim, but is nothing but prattle without saying how to do so.

They recognise that Theresa May is doing something to curb the abuses [of capitalism], and that is something she has spoken about in terms of boardroom pay, proper reflection on boards of the whole community of interests in a business. These are important ways of asserting the values that we hold, and the successes which capitalism can deliver. To listen to Mitchell, the case for an entire economic system- an entire way of structuring society- can be made by putting the office janitor on the company board. The sheer lack of policy would be comic if the implications were not so serious.

Theres a verse in Frank Turners song 1933- be suspicious of simple answers/ that shits for fascists and maybe teenagers/ you cant fix the world with only a hammer. It is clear that Mitchell (rightfully) shares that distaste for simple answers. The problem is, he seems unable to articulate a remedy in anything beyond abstract theorising and broad brush statements.

This may be the instinct of a lifetime politician, congenitally unable to give a straight answer, or it may be indicative of a deeper absence of concrete policy. Regardless, one thing is clear- there is a culture war going on, and so long as the advocates of liberal societies and free markets fall into Mitchells trap of offering pleasing abstraction in the face of simple answers, they will be on the losing side.

And well be all the poorer for it.It is estimated that over 35,000 people were victims of human rights violations, political and sexual violence during the dictatorship (1973-1990). | Read MoreEDMONTON, Feb. 2, 2018 /CNW/ - Investing in public transit infrastructure is crucial to economic growth, reducing air pollution and creating inclusive communities where everyone has access to public services and job opportunities.

Today, the Honourable Amarjeet Sohi, Minister of Infrastructure and Communities, along with Brian Mason, Alberta Minister of Transportation, and Edmonton Mayor Don Iveson had the opportunity to preview the light rail vehicles (LRVs) that will run along the future Valley Line Southeast LRT.

The City of Edmonton's P3 partner, TransEd Partners, is providing 26 new LRVs to service the future Valley Line Southeast, which is scheduled to be completed in 2020. The vehicles, which are being built in Canada by Bombardier Transportation, can accommodate up to 275 passengers, with two-by-two seating separated by spacious aisles. They feature low floors and an entirely step-free interior, ensuring accessibility for passengers with reduced mobility and contributing to a smoother, more comfortable ride.

Once in service, the new LRVs will provide exceptional rider experience and contribute to a premium, sustainable transit service for communities ranging from Edmonton's southeast all the way to its downtown core.

Quotes

"The Government of Canada is proud to support public transportation projectslike the development of the Valley Line Southeastthat support middle-class job creation and promote economic growth. Getting people where they need to go safely, efficiently and comfortably is fundamental to improving community connections and I'm very pleased to see how this new light rail line will benefit transit users in Edmonton."

The Honourable Amarjeet Sohi, Minister of Infrastructure and Communities

"The Government of Alberta is proud to have contributed $600 million to the Southeast Valley Line and roughly $2.8-billion to the LRT systems in both Edmonton and Calgary. That funding supports an affordable, accessible and environmentally sustainable transportation option for Albertans and connects residents to essential services, education and jobs."

Brian Mason, Alberta Minister of Transportation

"As we get closer to a million people, Transit Oriented Development has become a critical means to build up more dense, vibrant core neighbourhoods in Edmonton. The Valley Line LRT's new urban-style approach directly encourages this kind of smart growth, and we're delighted to see the redevelopment of Bonnie Doon Shopping Centre as yet another project on the future line that shares our vision."

His Worship Don Iveson, Mayor of Edmonton

Quick facts

The purchase of the LRVs is part of the larger Edmonton LRT Valley Line Stage One project. This project also includes approximately 13 km of light rail transit line from the City of Edmonton's southeast to downtown Edmonton , as well as 12 stops, three bridges, two tunnels, two new transit stations, and one new park and ride. A new operations and maintenance facility will also be constructed.

southeast to downtown , as well as 12 stops, three bridges, two tunnels, two new transit stations, and one new park and ride. A new operations and maintenance facility will also be constructed. The governments of Canada is contributing up to $400 million to this project, with approximately $250 million coming from P3 Canada and $150 million from the New Building Canada Fund. The Government of Alberta is providing $600 million and the City of Edmonton is providing $958 million .

is contributing up to to this project, with approximately coming from P3 and from the New Building Canada Fund. The Government of Alberta is providing and the is providing . The Government of Canada will invest more than $180 billion over 12 years in public transit projects, green infrastructure, social infrastructure, trade and transportation routes, and Canada's rural and northern communities.

will invest more than over 12 years in public transit projects, green infrastructure, social infrastructure, trade and transportation routes, and rural and northern communities. $28.7 billion of this funding will support public transit projects, including $5 billion that will be available for investment through the Canada Infrastructure Bank.

Associated links

Government of Canada's $180-billion+ Investing in Canada plan: http://www.infrastructure.gc.ca/plan/about-invest-apropos-eng.html

*New*  Investing in Canada plan project map: http://www.infrastructure.gc.ca/gmap-gcarte/index-eng.html

Federal infrastructure investments in Alberta: http://www.infrastructure.gc.ca/map-carte/ab-eng.html

Smart Cities Challenge: http://www.infrastructure.gc.ca/plan/cities-villes-eng.html

Valley Line Southeast project information: https://www.edmonton.ca/projects_plans/transit/valley-line-southeast.aspx

Twitter: @INFC_eng

Web: Infrastructure Canada

SOURCE Infrastructure Canada

CONTACT: Brook Simpson, Press Secretary, Office of the Minister of Infrastructure and Communities, 613-219-0149, Brook.Simpson@canada.ca; John Archer, Press Secretary, Alberta Transportation, 587-985-4252, john.archer@gov.ab.ca; Quinn Nicholson, Valley Line SE Communications Lead, LRT Delivery, City of Edmonton, 780.200.3153, quinn.nicholson@edmonton.ca; Infrastructure Canada, 613-960-9251, Toll free: 1-877-250-7154, Email: infc.media.infc@canada.ca

RELATED LINKShttp://www.infrastructure.gc.ca/A baby left overnight in a car in New Mexico has died, and Navajo Nation Police have launched an investigation. (Google Maps / Flickr / ShackTrackin)

2-Month-Old Baby Dies After Being Left in Car Overnight in New Mexico

A 2-month-old baby was found dead on Navajo tribal land in western New Mexico after being accidentally left in a car overnight in freezing temperatures.

According to the Navajo Times, Navajo Nation Police are investigating the incident.

The parents had called emergency services in Gallup at around 6 a.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 31. after noticing their infant was not in its crib.

The parents names have not been released, the paper wrote, but it is known they live on Crestview Road, west of Gallup, New Mexico, on tribal territory.

Authorities say the parents told emergency dispatch that they had forgotten to bring their child inside after returning home.

The infant was left in a baby restraint seat in the back of the car as overnight temperatures dropped to freezing.

The parents were unsure whether the child was still alive as they transported their baby to the Gallup Indian Medical Center, according to the Navajo Times. En route on U.S. History Highway 66, they met up with firefighters and emergency crews, who examined the baby and pronounced it dead.

At that point, the paper reported, the Navajo Nation Police launched their investigation into the infants death.

According to Associated Press, the cause of the death of the baby has not yet been determined. It was reported he body was sent to the state Office of the Medical Investigator in Albuquerque.

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Timelapse Video Captures Ocean of Clouds Over Vancouver, British ColumbiaThe intersection at Caringbah, south Sydney, near the location of the fatal collision on Nov. 8, 2016. (Screenshot via Google Maps)

Boyfriend in Australia Planned Wedding Proposal Before Girlfriend Killed by Truck

The boyfriend of a woman who was killed while crossing the road has revealed that he was planning a surprise wedding proposal before she was fatally struck by a truck.

Aaron Roberts told a Sydney court of his devastation on Thursday, Feb. 1, at a sentencing hearing for the truck driver, who pleaded guilty to causing the death of Danielle McGrath on a pedestrian crossing in a Sydney suburb in November 2016.

The truck driver, 60-year-old David William Edward Grice, skipped a red light to make a right-hand turn at about 7:30 a.m. on Nov. 8. 2016. Thats when he hit McGrath, who was crossing the road with a green walk sign, the Sydney Morning Herald reported. She was reported dead at the scene.

Roberts told the court that he was one of the first people to arrive at the scene to find his girlfriends body under a sheet and her belongings and handbag strewn across the road, according to the newspaper.

He said that he placed the engagement ring, which he had secretly arranged for a jeweler to make, on his girlfriends finger at her funeral two weeks after the collision.

Ive lost the brightest part of my day, my best friend, and my future wife, he said in an emotional victim impact statement. Ive lost my soul mate. The loss of Danielle has left me devastated, with a massive hole in my heart I will now carry for the rest of my life.

According to the Herald, Grice, a truck driver for more than 20 years, said he first realised he hit someone when he heard a noise at the side of the truck.

He admitted that he did not turn his head to look at the crossing when he turned the fully loaded, 47-tonne truck around the corner.

Grice said in a letter to the McGrath family he read in court that his heart is crushed.

I am devastated that my judgment has done so much damage to so many people and lives he said, according to the news outlet.

The court heard that Grice had had his licence revoked before for speeding, and was twice fined for using his mobile phone while driving a truck.

Danielle McGraths partner says they had the perfect life & reveals he was secretly planning to propose when she was struck and killed in #Caringbah. @9NewsSyd pic.twitter.com/7KKHXwpEJh  Kelly Fedor (@KellyFedor) February 1, 2018

McGraths father, Bill McGrath, said his daughter was so badly injured in the collision that she had to be identified by dental records, the Herald reported.

Every day since, my wife cries herself to sleep and wakes up the same. She sleeps with a piece of Danielles clothing under her head for comfort, he said.

He added, To say Danielle will be remembered forever is an understatement. She is truly one of a kind.

A memorial seat has been dedicated to McGrath at the location where her boyfriend planned to propose to her, according to the news outlet.

Ms McGrath, described as a "beautiful young girl with a heart of gold", died at the scene. https://t.co/68aIKHeR5G  The Leader (@theleadernews) February 2, 2018

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Corvette ChaseThe background photo shows the jungle in Guatemala, near the Yaxha Ruins, and the inset map shows the approximate location of the find. (Google Maps/Flickr/Christopher William Adach)

Breakthrough Discovery Reveals Mayan Megalopolis Below Guatemalan Jungle

Advanced aerial mapping technology has led to what National Geographic is calling a major breakthrough in Mayan archeologythe discovery of tens of thousands of previously undetected houses, palaces, elevated highways, and other man-made featureshidden by a thick jungle canopy in Guatemala, eluding the human eye for centuries.

Researchers hail the find as highly significant because it suggests that millions more people likely lived there than was previously believed. Moreover, the complexity of the discovered structures is strong evidence that the region boasted a more advanced civilization, closer to sophisticated cultures like ancient Greece or China.

A novel technique was used in the research, involving bouncing laser beams off the ground, making it possible to detect what lies underneath dense jungle foliage.

The LiDAR [Light Detection And Ranging] images make it clear that this entire region was a settlement system whose scale and population density had been grossly underestimated, said Thomas Garrison, an archaeologist and National Geographic explorer, as reported by National Geographic.

The discovery was made in the Paten region of Guatemala, and includes such complex structures as industrial-sized agricultural fields and irrigation canals.

The report estimates that a vast population of 10 million might have lived within the Maya Lowlands, which would justify such an extensive food production infrastructure.

That is two to three times more [inhabitants] than people were saying there were, said Marcello A. Canuto, a professor of anthropology at Tulane University, according to a report by the Guardian.

The Lost Maya City https://t.co/u68fi6Sgh1  Savas (@ihavetwitan) February 2, 2018

The research showed that the ancient Mayans modified their environment much more extensively than previously believed. There was even evidence of swamp drainage to maximally exploit nearby land.

Their agriculture is much more intensive and therefore sustainable than we thought, and they were cultivating every inch of the land, said Francisco Estrada-Belli, a research assistant professor at Tulane University, the Guardian noted.

Another conclusion that impresses researchers is the evidence of a highly organized workforce to build the defense and agricultural systems.

Theres state involvement here, because we see large canals being dug that are redirecting natural water flows, said Garrison.

Scientists discover ancient Mayan city hidden under Guatemalan jungle  The Guardian https://t.co/lHzsHeyZLY  Science share news (@Sciencesharenew) February 3, 2018

The mapping covered an area of 810 square miles (2,100 square kilometers) and detected about 60,000 individual structures, including four major ceremonial centers with plazas and pyramids.

Continued reliance on ground-based research would have likely meant that many of the finds would have continued to elude archeogists.

Garrison said that without the support of aerial technology, he might have missed a road that was directly underfoot.

I found it, but if I had not had the Lidar and known that thats what it was, I would have walked right over it, because of how dense the jungle is, Garrison told.

The foliage is said to have served a dual purposeto hide and to protect.

The jungle, which has hindered us in our discovery efforts for so long, has actually worked as this great preservative tool of the impact the culture had across the landscape, said Garrison.

The discovery was announced on Thursday, Feb. 1, by an alliance of U.S., European, and Guatemalan archaeologists affiliated with Guatemalas Mayan Heritage and Nature Foundation.

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Timelapse Video Captures Ocean of Clouds Over Vancouver, British ColumbiaCDC: Corruption, Deceit and Cover-Up

With the global vaccine market now at over a trillion dollars, vaccine safety should be of utmost concern to the Centers for Disease Control ( CDC ). But instead, rather than testing and monitoring the health effects of vaccines and patient injuries truthfully to the American public and making critical and necessary corrections in the program, the CDC has become a mouthpiece for industry and has protected the all vaccines for all children policy despite peer-reviewed science to the contrary.

According to a UPI Investigative article written in the early 2000s, the CDC owned at least 28 vaccine patents. They are also in charge of vaccine promotion (getting the public to take vaccines) and vaccine safety. The CDC, like other large bureaucratic agencies, also has a revolving door to industry that comes with inherent conflicts of interests. Common sense should have told us that this system was doomed to fail.

The documents below, some of which obtained by the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) show a pattern of deceit perpetrated by the CDC on the American public and world stage for over 25 years. The World Mercury Project believes that the vaccine safety should be taken from the CDC.

Increasing Awareness and Uptake of Influenza Immunization As pharmaceutical companies bombard American consumers with ubiquitous billboards, drugstore enticements and radio announcements to get your flu shot now, the CDC has advised the industry to hike demand through the use of a recipe  of scare-mongering messaging. CDC recommends creating concern, anxiety and worry among the American public. This is a CDC presentation by Glen Nowak, Acting Director of Media Relations, discussing the recipe given at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine. View/Download PDF

Something is Rotten, But Not Just In Denmark Remarks of Rep. Dave Weldon, M.D. (R-FL) It is a pleasure to be here with you today. I am pleased to see that the Autism community is more united today than they have ever been. I have said repeatedly that the Autism Community is the 900-pound gorilla that has not had its voice heard adequately on Capitol Hill. That is largely due to the endless demands on your time, effort, emotions, and money in caring for the unique needs of your children. There is little left to engage the public at large and the Congress in particular. I see that changing. Certainly, last weeks Institute of Medicine report has had one positive effect, it has united and reinvigorated you and the parents of autistic and vaccine injured children across this nation. View/Download PDF

Dr. Brian Hookers Official Statement Regarding Vaccine Whistleblower William Thompson Brian S. Hooker, Ph.D., P.E. | Science Adviser, Focus For Health Dr. William Thompson, senior scientist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) contacted me during 2013 and 2014 and shared many issues regarding fraud and malfeasance in the CDC, specifically regarding the link between neurodevelopmental disorders and childhood vaccines. Dr. Thompson and I spoke on the phone more than 40 times over a 10 month period and he shared thousands of pages of CDC documents with me. Eventually, Dr. Thompson turned this information over to Congress via Rep. Bill Posey of Florida. View/Download PDF

CDC & FDA Committee Members Have Financial Conflict of Interest with Vaccine Pharmaceuticals A House Government Reform Committee staff report published this week criticized the FDA and the CDC for routinely allowing scientists with conflicts of interest to serve on two influential advisory committees that make recommendations on vaccine policy. View/Download PDF

OSC Calls for Further Review of Whistleblower Disclosures on Zika Testing Today, the U.S. Office of Special Counsel (OSC) reported to the White House and Congress on an investigation by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) into the whistleblower disclosures of Dr. Robert Lanciotti, a CDC microbiologist. Dr. Lanciotti is the chief of the CDCs Diagnostics and Reference Laboratory within the agencys Arbovirus Diseases Branch. View/Download PDF

CDC Spider Letter August 29, 2016

Dear Ms. Villar:

We are a group of scientists at CDC that are very concerned about the current state of ethics at our agency. It appears that our mission is being influenced and shaped by outside parties and rogue interests. It seems that our mission and Congressional intent for our agency is being circumvented by some of our leaders. View/Download PDF

CDC: Off Center A review of how an agency tasked with fighting and preventing disease has spent hundreds of millions of tax dollars for failed prevention efforts, international junkets, and lavish facilities, but cannot demonstrate it is controlling disease. View/Download PDF

By the World Mercury Project Team. Visit worldmercuryproject.org for more information.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.Fourth-graders at Longstreth Elementary School pledge allegiance to the flag March 24, 2004, in Warminster, Pa. (William Thomas Cain/Getty Images)

Gym Teacher Placed on Leave for Making Student Stand for Pledge of Allegiance

A physical education teacher at a Colorado middle school has been placed on paid administrative leave after she allegedly made a student to stand and join the class in reciting the Pledge of Allegiance.

Karen Smith, a teacher at Angevine Middle School in Lafayette Colorado was placed on leave for an undisclosed reason, the Boulder Valley School District told Fox News.

The Lafayette Police Department confirmed to CBS4 that they are investigating a possible assault on a student who refused to join the recitation.

Whether anything happened, which rose to the level of assault, verbal or physical, is not yet clear.

Two parents told CBS4 that they were disappointed with the way the incident had been blown out of proportion. Another parent told CBS4 that her daughter called Smith strict but had never had a problem with her.

The Boulder Valley School Districts policy allows students to choose to stand or sit during the Pledge of Allegiance, Fox reports.

The Boulder Valley School Districts policy allows students to choose to stand or sit during the Pledge of Allegiance, Fox reports.

From NTD.tv

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Corvette ChaseLady Gaga greets fans as she arrives for the 60th Grammy Awards in New York on Jan. 28, 2018. (Angela Weiss/AFP/Getty Images)

Lady Gaga Forced to Cancel 10 Shows Due to Fibromyalgia

Pop music diva Lady Gaga has been forced to cancel the final ten shows of her world tour, based on doctors advice.

Lady Gaga, (born Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta,) suffers from fibromyalgia, a nerve disorder which causes severe pain and fatigue.

The 31-year-old performer first revealed her condition in September 2017, when she had to be hospitalized and canceled her scheduled appearance at Brazils Rock in Rio festival, The Guardian reports.

She had to postpone some European shows but was able to resume touring in November and January.

Lady Gaga had been touring behind her Joanne, her fifth album.

Lady Gaga turned to social media to apologize to her fans for canceling the shows.

She posted on Twitter, Im so devastated I dont know how to describe it. All I know is that if I dont do this I am not standing by the words or meaning of my music.

My medical team is supporting the decision for me to recover at home. Were canceling the last 10 shows of my Joanne World Tour. I love the show more than anything and I love you but this is beyond my control.

She promised to return to the regions where she had to cancel, including Rio.

A statement on Facebook said,

Unfortunately, Lady Gaga is suffering from severe pain that has materially impacted her ability to perform live. As a result, Live Nation and Lady Gaga are announcing the cancellation of the final 10 dates of the European leg of her Joanne World Tour.

Last night, with strong support from her medical team, Lady Gaga made the tough decision to immediately come off the road. She is extremely sorry and deeply saddened that she cannot perform for her European fans, who have waited so patiently.

She is in the care of expert medical professionals who are working closely with her so she can continue to perform for her fans for years to come.

Ticket Holders may obtain a refund beginning Tuesday, Feb. 6 at point of purchase.



She had been scheduled to perform in London, Manchester, Zurich, Koln, Stockholm, Copenhagen, Paris, Berlin, and Rio.

From NTD.tv

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Boiling water turns to snowLandlord Caught Entering Apartment Without Permission, Drinking Tenants Alcohol

A California couple caught their landlord on camera entering their apartment without permission when they were out, drinking their alcohol, and allowing his dog to urinate on the carpet.

According to a KTVU report, in August 2017, Paul Arihara and Leina Sarafina moved into a one-bedroom ground floor unit in a house in Half Moon Bay, California. The couple told reporters that soon after they noticed something strange was going on.

The couple said they could smell urine on the carpet and the alcohol seemed to be disappearing from the bottles.

Half Moon Bay landlord caught entering tenants apartment, drinking alcoholhttps://t.co/M2dtuoF7qw  FOX 11 Los Angeles (@FOXLA) February 3, 2018

We lost a lot of sleep. There was a lot of anxiety and stress and it affected both of us in our relationship, at work, everything. It really did, said Arihara, according to KTVU. He said he began to suspect his girlfriend was a closet alcoholic.

When youre seeing bottles go down this low, when someones saying, Oh its not our dogs doing it. Well, Im not the one doing it, he said.

In desperation, the two put up security cameras around their home. When they reviewed the recordings, they were in shock. The video shows their landlord, Abel Cabral, entering their place, drinking their alcohol straight from the bottle, and rifling through their belongings.

In the footage Cabrals dog, Bourbon can also be seen walking around the apartment.

Frankly I think its kind of a perversion on the part of the landlord, said Joe Tobener, the couples attorney. Coming in and drinking the alcohol with his bare mouth isnt necessarily about alcoholism its more about a perversion. Going into their bedroom, reading their things, entering their cabinets. Theres something more here than just alcoholism.

The couple told reporters that after viewing the footage they became concerned for their safety. They reportedly notified the San Mateo County Sheriffs Department, but the authorities did not take any action.

Cabral has reportedly admitted to KTVU reporters that he entered the apartment and drank the alcohol. In explaining his actions he said that he was going through a bad time in his life.

The couple also said that they have since moved out and plan to sue their former landlord.

Civilly the landlords liable for wrongful eviction, trespass, constructive eviction, and breach of the covenant of quiet enjoyment, the couples legal representative said.

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Meet Ronnie, the First Abandoned Pup of 2018Missing Group Survives by Eating Grubs in Australian Outback

Cut off by floodwaters in a remote corner of Australias notoriously dangerous Outback, a group of five survived thanks to their bush skills.

The group, which included an 8-year-old child, had to abandon their vehicle, eating witchetty grubs and drinking from rock pools to stay alive, according to local media reports.

Setting out on a 660-kilometer (410 miles) journey across the remote Outback in Australias vast and sparsely populated Western region, they were caught in floodwaters on Jan. 3o.

When they failed to arrive at their destination village of Tjuntjuntjara, police were alerted, and with the area still inaccessible by road, an air search of the vast territory was eventually launched.

An airplane eventually found the group, 10 km from their Hyundai Excel., on Feb 3.

They were then picked up and taken home by helicopter.

Police described the group as being in relatively good health, saying they had found and eaten witchetty grubs for survival, according to ABC.

They might not have survived if they had not been skilled bushmen, according to local community leader, Moray Ralph.

We can just imagine where the car would have been stranded and that would have turned into a lake by now, Ralph, who is Paupiyala Tjarutja Aboriginal Corporation chief executive, told ABC.

#BREAKING: Police find five people who were missing in remote part of Western Australiahttps://t.co/TMARQ5sLu3 pic.twitter.com/q4T3JrJvis  ABC News (@abcnews) February 3, 2018

The entire Paupiyala Tjarutja community gathered at the airport to welcome them home, he said.

There is a great deal of relief throughout the community, lots of people were clearly happy that they have come back, he said.

The group appears to have been caught out by a change in the weather.

The sun was shining when these people left, the road was dry for about 260 kilometres, said Ralph.

It may take another week for floodwaters to subside. In the meantime, supplies are being airlifted in.

About 3.5 tonnes of supplies are being airlifted to the remote Aboriginal community of Tjunjuntjarra, about 550km east of Kalgoorlie-Boulder. About 200 residents have been cut off by floodwaters for the past two weeks. @ABCGoldfieldsWA @abcperth @abcdrivewa @ABCemergency pic.twitter.com/v5p58MWILX  Jarrod Lucas (@jarrodl17) February 3, 2018

The adults in the group were named by police as Rex Mitchell, Janice Stevens, Shonna Jamieson, and Bruce Stevens.

The group had been traveling from Kalgoorlie in the south of Western Australia, a region with a population of 2.5 million spread across 1.6 million square milesnearly four times the size of Texas.

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Wranglers Wrestle With Alligator to Remove Eggs From NestA box of the Fentanyl-based drug Subsys, made by Insys Therapeutics Inc, appears in an undated photograph provided by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Alabama. (U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Alabama/via Reuters)

New York Accuses Insys of Deceptively Marketing Opioid

Insys Therapeutics Incs legal woes deepened on Thursday as New Yorks attorney general filed a lawsuit seeking at least $75 million from the company, which he said deceptively promoted a fentanyl-based cancer pain medicine for unsafe uses.

New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman alleged that the Chandler, Arizona-based drugmaker recklessly marketed its product Subsys for wider uses than the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved and bribed doctors to prescribe it.

At a time when the opioid epidemic was ravaging New York, Insys Therapeutics allegedly marketed a drug illegally by blatantly disregarding the grave risks of addiction and death that opioids pose, Schneiderman said in a statement.

Insys said it sought to address the challenge related to the misuse and abuse of opioids that has led to addiction and unnecessary deaths around the country.

We intend to continue working collaboratively and constructively with all relevant authorities to resolve our outstanding governmental investigations, the company said in a statement late Thursday.

Opioids were involved in over 42,000 overdose deaths nationwide in 2016, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. President Donald Trump in October declared the problem a national public health emergency.

Insys has found itself at the center of several lawsuits and investigations focused on Subsys, an under-the-tongue spray intended for cancer patients that contains fentanyl, a synthetic opioid.

Federal prosecutors in Boston have accused seven former executives and managers at Insys including billionaire founder John Kapoor of participating in a scheme to bribe doctors to prescribe Subsys and to defraud insurers.

Prosecutors said that beginning in 2012, Kapoor, former Insys Chief Executive Michael Babich and others schemed to bribe medical practitioners by paying them to participate in sham speaker program events.

Kapoor, Babich and their co-defendants have pleaded not guilty and are scheduled to face trial in January 2019.

Insys has said it is in settlement talks with the U.S. Justice Department and has estimated the minimum amount it may have to pay is $150 million.

The company has said that it has taken steps to prevent past mistakes from happening again and has stressed that Subsys made up 0.02 percent of opioid prescriptions in 2016.

Insys previously agreed to pay $9.45 million to resolve investigations by attorneys general in Oregon, New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Illinois. It also faces lawsuits by attorneys general in North Carolina, Arizona, New Jersey and New Mexico.

By Nate Raymond

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How Doctors in China Turn into MurderersNY Teacher Allegedly Stepped on Black Students During Slavery Lesson

A New York middle school teacher is under scrutiny for performing an unusual demonstration involving black students during a lesson on slavery.

The New York Daily News reported that social studies teacher, Patricia Cummings, who is white, singled out black students and got them to lie on the floor during the lesson. She then allegedly stepped on the back of at least one student to show what it felt like to be slave.

Students at Middle School 118 in the Bronx told the paper that Cummings repeated this stunt in multiple seventh-grade classes earlier this year.

It was a lesson about slavery and the Triangle Trade, said one of Cummingss students.

The boy said Cummings picked three black students to lay on the floor in from the class.

When one girl said she was fine, Cummings stepped on her back, recounted the student.

She put her foot on her back and said How does it feel?' the student said.  See how it feels to be a slave? 

Students told Daily News that the lesson was conducted after a showing of a video depicting slaves being beaten, tortured and thrown over the side of a ship.

Another student said: She was measuring the length and width [of the students lying on the floor] to show how little space slaves had in the ship. It was strange.

Cummings, who has worked in education since 2016, was reportedly removed from her duties after the incident but returned to class on Feb. 1. The Education Department told the paper that Cummings was reassigned to work away from children later in the day.

While the investigation has not been completed, these are deeply disturbing allegations, and the alleged behavior has no place in our schools or in society, said spokeswoman for the Education Department, Toya Holness.

Cummings and the school principal declined to comment to the paper.

The student population at the middle school is 81 percent black and Hispanic and 3 percent white.

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45-Year-Old Woman Unexpectedly Gives Birth After Not Realizing She Was PregnantPASCAGOULA, Miss. -- Main Street in Pascagoula is filled with multi-colored beads as the 10th annual Krewe of Little Rascals parade rolled through the city.

Kids adorned in Mardi Gras themed hats, shoes, colors, you name it filled the main street area to have a celebration of their own.

The parade kicked off with sounds of the Pascagoula High School Marching Band, followed by cute kids either asleep or those interested in participating threw beads, candy, and other goodies at eager onlookers awaiting their arrival.

Although the weather was overcast and a cool 50 degrees, it did not hinder the fun, laughs, and smiles the children and their parents displayed.

This year's parade marshal was Robert Rumsfelt, Pascagoula Gautier School District Administrator of the year and principle of the Jackson County Exceptional School.

The queen was Destiney Beltran, student at Martin Bluff Elementary School -- the king was Jonathan Shelby, student at Lake Elementary.

After the parade ended, the Krewe of Zippity was awarded "Best Krewe."

Parade coordinator Rebecca Davis said the turnout for Saturday's parade is the biggest it has ever been and expects next year to be even bigger as new ideas will be implemented.

"Today was such fun, I really enjoy doing this," Davis said. "I had so many parents come up to me and tell me how much fun this was and how they were willing to pitch in next year to make this parade bigger and better."

Davis said numerous parents volunteered to make the event bigger and said that before next year's parade, a block party will be held before the parade for the children.

Pascagoula Mayor Dane Maxwell praised the efforts of Davis and the community for putting together a parade everyone can enjoy.

"It's great to see so many children and families out enjoying the Little Rascals parade today," Maxwell said. "This is one more reason why Pascagoula is a great place to raise a family and be a part of this community."

The Jackson County Carnival Association parade is set for next Saturday at 1 p.m. in Pascagoula.Michael Horowitz, Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Justice, is sworn-in during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing titled 'Oversight of the Foreign Agents Registration Act and Attempts to Influence U.S. Elections' in the Hart Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill, July 26, 2017 in Washington, DC. Horowtiz's investigations promise to help restore to the FBI its apolitical status. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

OPINION: The FBI Under Siege?

High morale depends on an effective house cleaning of the bureau's management

FBI agents are very smarta characteristic not fully appreciated by politicians, journalists, and many a wrongdoer, from brilliant financiers to Mafia dons, whose underestimation of their adversaries resulted in long prison sentences. And FBI agents have tough skins; their feelings are not easily hurt.

President Trump launched a media and Twitter assault on FBI executives in mid-December, following the disclosure of the now infamous Strzok-Page text exchanges. Predictably, self-serving journalists and politicians have loudly worriedjust as they did when President Trump fired the former bureau director James Comey last yearabout the morale of the Bureaus special agents.

Forgotten for the moment, apparently, are the pre-election accusations by pundits of an FBI cabal in New York, represented by that offices former chief, James Kallstrom, supposedly plotting to enthrone candidate Trump as president.

A parade of FBI Upper Management, active and retired, has taken its cue and assured the world that the morale of the agent population has not suffered another gut punch, or, in the words of Trump, been reduced to tatters. And politicians and commentators have expressed hitherto unrevealed concerns for the feelings of the nations toughest law enforcers.

But these denizens of the FBIs executive suite are the wrong people to ask. The special agents themselves are certainly dismayed to find themselves occupying a place at the center of the current political maelstrom. I have served under four directors, and I can state with some assurance that defending the Bureaus integrity and political independence is of paramount importance to the agent population.

Though they may be dismayed at being questioned by acquaintances about the Bureaus tarnished reputation, the agents understand who is under attack. And they know that it is not the rank-and-file.

FBI Director Christopher Wrays removal of Andrew McCabe from the No. 2 position on Jan. 29 sent a clear message of his commitment to clean house.

To fully understand what is happening inside the FBI, one should be aware of a few key characteristics of this unique institution.

There are two distinct cultures within the The Bu, as it is affectionately called by those who work there. There is the Agent Culture, consisting of field agents, street agents, and case agents: These are the men and women who risk their lives, investigate cases, and protect you. Then there is the Management Culture, made up of those who long ago exchanged the street for the desk, and whose greatest risk is making decisions that might impair or even derail their ascension to the next level of the Bus hierarchy.

Most agents have no interest in moving up that ladder. They aspire instead to bigger, more complex, and increasingly challenging cases in the field that offer higher profile targets and expanding responsibility. Agents with less street sense, minimal rapport-building skills, and those who are perhaps concerned for their own physical safetywell, these folks go into Management. Are there good managers? Of coursebut they are the exceptions, not the rule.

There is a deeply rooted distrust between these two cultures, with street agents generally believing the mission of upper-level managers is to impede their work. So when the White House condemns the purportedly political decision-making on the 7th Floor of FBIHQthe executive suitethe rank and file are hardly likely to see themselves as being in the crosshairs.

On the contrary, the buzz from onboard and retired agentsfield agentsreveals a profound concern that their cherished institution has been dragged from its premier position as the objective and neutral arm of justice and turned into a partisan enforcer of political ends.

They see the shift as beginning early July 2016, with the now infamous Clinton Server news conference, in which then-Director Comey announced that no reasonable prosecutor would press charges with regard to the voluminous classified emails found in then-Secretary of State Hillary Clintons unofficial, unsecured, and unclassified home computer network.

Everyone knows, now, after ceaseless repetition, that the Bu only investigates: It does not decide whether to prosecute. That decision is left to the Department of Justice.

The perception of politicization has been strengthened by recent revelations that an FBI executive, Peter Strzok, had editedchangedthe directors characterization of Secretary Clintons acts from grossly negligent (i.e. criminal) to extremely careless.

Curiously, the media has downplayed Strzoks prominence in the management hierarchy, generally referring to him simply as a special agent, essentially an errand boy. He was in factat least until recentlya deputy assistant director, a boss, a decision-maker. Therefore, his activities take on an ominous significance.

Re-drafting directorial pronouncements. Drafting emails characterizing the President of the United States as an idiot. Actively engaging in conversations with now-former Deputy Director Andrew McCabe and now former FBI Counsel Lisa Page, in which they were arguably attempting to influence the outcome of the presidential election. Hoovers legacy has been betrayed.

Yet the Bureaus reopening of the Clinton Foundation investigation may signal a sea change, a return to the tradition of Public Corruption investigations unfettered by political influence and unintimidated by the prominence of those under examination.

DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz appears to have already initiated the requisite house cleaning. FBI Director Wray and Special Counsel (and former bureau Director) Mueller, are likewise committed to seeking truth, wherever it may lie.

Wrays removal of McCabe from the Number 2 position earlier this week sent a clear message of his commitment to clean house. A concerted effort can indeed restore the FBI to its historic prominence as the global model for objective, impartial, and ultra-competent law enforcementthe sine qua non of a democratic republic. This, and only this, will guarantee that high level of morale characteristic of FBI personnel.

Marc Ruskin, a 27-year FBI veteran, is author of The Pretender: My Life Undercover for the FBI, published by Thomas Dunne Books, an imprint of St. Martins Press. He served on the legislative staff of U.S. Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan and as an assistant district attorney in Brooklyn, New York.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.UBC is just one of many universities across North America grappling with how to take into account all sides in the fractious debate over free speech on campus. (Jared Gnam/For The Epoch Times)

Protecting Free Speech on Campus Easier Said Than Done: UBC Prof

Balance between freedom of speech and the need to ensure people feel safe is being skewed, says Paul Russell

Amid the ongoing wave of controversy over free speech on Canadian campuses, the University of British Columbia is expected to release its official policy on freedom of expression sometime next month.

But one noted philosophy professor says the updated policy will have a difficult time pleasing both the left and rightwho are completely polarized on the issueand may not even protect freedom of expression.

Like many North American campuses these days, UBC wanted a stronger policy in order to provide boundaries and address conflicts related to discrimination and freedom of expression.

Last November, a working group released the first draft of the statement. Feedback from students was mixed, and criticism was aimed especially at this sentence: One persons freedom of expression cannot be allowed to trample the freedom and well-being of others.

Critics say the statement is unclear on what speech tramples others rights and what doesnt, and such a provision would lead to endless future debates and could jeopardize ones ability to speak freely on controversial topics.

Similar criticism is rife at universities across North America, where the progressive left or social justice advocates have shut down speech they deem harmful or oppressive to marginalized groups.

Universities have always been the bastions of free speech ethics, but its now a place where people feel there are forces that are threatening that or less sympathetic to it or distorting it, says UBC philosophy professor Paul Russell.

Russell, who describes himself as a left-leaning liberal, says the balance between freedom of speech and the need to make people feel safe is being skewed, with more of an emphasis put on restricting free speech than protecting it.

He fears UBCs new statement will be nothing but lip service to the value of freedom of expression and could be used to police the flow of discussion on campus and even stop itwhich he says would hurt the very idea of what universities and free democratic societies should be about.

Russell says he has seen a growing trend on campuses, especially in the humanities department, where a far left agenda is being pushed hard.

It is almost as if they have some kind of ideological bug and they want to preach to others and theyre not really interested in a conversation, which is always in two directions, he says.

A high-profile case late last year saw Lindsay Shepherd, a teaching assistant at Wilfred Laurier University, accused of being transphobic for presenting in class a video clip of University of Toronto professor Jordan Peterson taking part in a debate on the topic of transgender pronouns. Shepherds intent was to encourage debate among her students for the purposes of an academic discussion and critical thinking.

She was subsequently called on the carpet by university faculty who accused her of creating a toxic and unsafe learning environment. She nearly lost her position but was later exonerated after she took her case to the media and a private investigation by the university found she had done nothing wrong. The story made international headlines.

Russell says he found it appalling that this could happen in Canada, and found it equally distressing that a lot of academics just didnt seem to get what the problem was.

I think the very fact that a substantial section of the university community did not see that as a problem and tried to justify the type of treatment that [Shepherd] was given shows there really is an issue of freedom of speech and coercion at university campuses that certainly has to be discussed and thought about, he says.

Dogmatism and rigidity

Analyzing what has caused the polarizing views of the left and right over the last several years, Russell believes social media has played a key role.

When you are in an echo chamber it encourages dogmatism and rigidity so that you stop even thinking whether you have the whole truth, or maybe I dont have it all right and maybe I can learn something from other people, he says.

As for Shepherd, she says the lack of empathy to understand where the other person is coming from also hurts the ability to foster critical thinking and debate on campus.

I think its important to be curious about how other people think and their thought processes, and I think weve lost some of that where people are quick to shut down talks when they dont like what others think instead of engaging in civil discourse, she says.

If hate speech is really being used then thats when the law steps in, but far-left activists use it pre-emptively to shut down those whose message they dont approve of.

Shepherd said she feels the general public understands the value of free speech and the importance of debate, noting she has received hundreds of letters of support. But she fears academic institutions are becoming less focused on intellectual inquiry and critical thinking and more focused on the student experience.

She added she doesnt think the far left will be more open to debate any time soon and expects more controversies will arise on campuses, regardless of universities issuing new statements on free speech.

Its a respectable mission to want marginalized groups to have respect in society and to be able to participate in university. Everyone should agree with that, but then it kind of gets hijacked by the fringe radical activists who are very quick to consider anything to be oppression.

UBC sociology professor Neil Guppy, senior adviser on academic freedom and lead author of the draft policy, said as a community UBC is trying to encourage debate and wants to hear from people with controversial ideas but also wants to do so in a respectful manner.

Its a sense of yes, freedom of expression is very important, but there are social rules that govern all communities and all speech that occurs, and trying to find that balance is an extremely difficult thing to do, Guppy said.

He added that the UBC statement on academic freedom written in 1976 talks about wanting to ensure even abhorrent views can be expressed and debated, and its the universitys goal to include something similar in the new document, but in a way that doesnt invite discrimination.

As a community we are trying to say that we want people to debate, we want people to bring forth controversial ideas, we want people to be innovative and creative in a way that they think, he said.

But at the same time that we have that robust exchange of ideas and expressions, we want to make sure that people are disagreeing but not disrespecting others.

Jared Gnam is a freelance reporter based in Vancouver. He broke into the world of journalism covering the Stanley Cup Riot in 2011.The Indian state of Jharkhand, where a principal burned 13 students with a candle on Jan. 31, 2018. (Screenshot via Google Maps)

School Principal Fired After Forcing Students to Burn Themselves

The principal of a school in India was fired after children came home with burns on their hands. The incident occurred on Jan. 31 at a private school in the state of Jharkhand.

Sushanti Hembrom wanted to scare 9-year-old students into confessing to a theft by telling them to hold their hands over a candle flame. But the tactic backfired and some students burned themselves, BBC reported.

Hembrom only started asking students to hold their hands over the flame when she couldnt find the stolen money by other means. Hembrom first made students remove their shoes and socks, and checked their bags before resorting to the more extreme method, Gulf News reported.

Eventually, the principal lighted a candle on the desk and asked us to put our hands above the lighted candle to prove our innocence; 13 students suffered burn injuries in the process, said Raushan Kumar Das, one of the burned students, via Gulf News.

Besides the students who burned themselves by simply doing as they were told, at least one students hand was forcibly held over the flame by Hembrom, according to BBC.

Parents protested in front of the school to demand action against Hembrom.

Hembrom has since admitted wrongdoing and apologized to parents.

I committed the mistake but my intention was to catch the culprit who had stolen the money and not to punish the students and injure them, Hembrom said, via Gulf News.

Although corporal punishment is banned in Indian schools, it continues to be practiced in various forms, according to BBC. In the past few years, incidents of Indian schools forcing students to strip as punishment, or as a way to search for stolen money have also been reported.

From NTD.tv

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High School Students Surprise Sweetest Janitor With New Work Boots for ChristmasErica Shryock, 19 (L) and Charles Elliot, 18 (R) face 5 years in prison for letting their infant get severely bitten by rats. (Columbia County Sheriff)

Teen Parents Let Rats Chew Their Newborn Babys Face Over 100 Times

Two teenage Arkansas parents whose 2-week-old daughter was bitten by rats nearly 100 times, face jail time for allowing drastic injury to come to their baby.

Erica Shryock, 19, and Charles Elliott, 18, faced Judge Hamilton Singleton on Thursday, Feb. 1, in a court in Arkansas, and initially faced two felony charges, 20 years in prison and up to $21,000 in fines, according to Arkansas Online. But by pleading guilty to a lesser charge of permitting the abuse of a minor, the felony charge of first-degree endangering the welfare of a minor was dropped.

The young pair now faces 5 years in prison for letting their 15-day-old girl suffer so many injuries from rodents that she had to undergo extensive reconstruction surgery on her skull.

The pair will be eligible for parole after 304 days, defense attorney Joseph Churchwell said. Since the time they have already spent in lockup counts towards their sentence, they could be out within 30 days.

Its as good as we were going to get, Churchwell said after the court hearing.

Shryock and Elliott were living in a house with a known rodent problem and on May 14, 2017, awoke to find their baby covered in blood and with dozens of rat bites on her arms, hands, face, and fingers.

Investigators later found the infants cot filled with blood.

There were bloody rat footprints throughout the rundown property and a blanket that was soaked in blood.

Both teen parents admitted using crystal meth and K2 in the days before the rat attack.

Dr. Karen Farst at Arkansas Childrens Hospital in Little Rock told investigators that the parents were either absent or incapacitated to not have responded because the rat feeding would have gone on for several hours and the baby would have likely been screaming in distress.

Shrykcok and Elliott were abused kids themselves and grew up in the foster care system.

Both dropped out of school when they were in grade nine.

Neither of these kids had a chance, Churchwell said. They were homeless teenagers who aged out of the foster system.

They should have never been allowed to leave the hospital with the baby when she was born, Churchwell said. This is DHS [Department of Human Services] fault. Why did they wait until this babys face was chewed on by rats?

The baby girl, who was born prematurely and underweight, has now been adopted.

Elliott has two other children in state custody.

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Toddler With Rare Heart Condition Gets to Go Home After 402 Days in the HospitalTrump Describes Politically Motivated Probes as an American Disgrace

President Donald Trump on Feb. 3 responded to evidence contained in a House Intelligence Committee memo that shows top FBI and Department of Justice (DOJ) officials knowingly used unverified information to obtain a FISA warrant to spy on a Trump campaign volunteer.

The memo, which was released to the public on Feb. 2, comes after nearly a year of research by the House Intelligence Committee headed by Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.).

It details the origins of the FISA surveillance warrant that was used to spy on Trump campaign volunteer Carter Page. The FISA warrant could also have been used, through a practice called unmasking, to expand the number of people spied on to include other members of Trumps team.

FISA warrants are considered sensitive in nature, since they involve potential 4th amendment issues, and to obtain such a warrant it has to be established an American is knowingly working with a foreign government.

However, as the memo reveals, in the case of Page, information known to be unverified was used to obtain the FISA warrant. Furthermore, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court was then left in the dark about the fact that the claims were unverified and also about what their source was.

The source of the claims was Christopher Steele, a former British spy hired by Fusion GPS, through the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee (DNC) to produce opposition research on Trump.

After the initial FISA application, the FBI and DOJ filed three extensions for the FISA warrant. A FISA warrant is granted for a 90-day period, during which all communications of the person(s) involved are monitored. This means that Page, and by extension other members of the Trump team, had been under surveillance for up to almost a year.

In response to the memo, President Trump wrote on Twitter that this totally vindicates him. He has consitently said that there was no collussion with Russia, and instead, that communications of the Trump tower had been monitored by the Obama administration.

Despite a year of investigations, no evidence of collussion has been found. Instead it has been revealed that the false allegations were driven by the so-called Trump dossier produced by Fusion GPS and paid for by the Clinton Campaian and DNC.

Last year already it was revealed that top Obama officials, including National Security Adviser Susan Rice and U.S. Ambassador to the UN Samantha Power, each made dozens, if not hundreds of unmasking requests for the identities of members connected to the Trump team during and after the elections.

But the Russian Witch Hunt goes on and on. Their was no Collusion and there was no Obstruction (the word now used because, after one year of looking endlessly and finding NOTHING, collusion is dead), President Trump wrote on Twitter.

This is an American disgrace!

This memo totally vindicates Trump in probe. But the Russian Witch Hunt goes on and on. Their was no Collusion and there was no Obstruction (the word now used because, after one year of looking endlessly and finding NOTHING, collusion is dead). This is an American disgrace!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 3, 2018

Aside from the House Intelligence Committee memo, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) is seeking to declassify a memo his committee produced as it relates to the criminal referal that was made for Steele for lying to the committee and the FBI.

The Department of Justice Inspector General is also working seperately on a report investigating bias among the ranks of the FBI and the DOJ.

Other probes are expected to come as a result of the evidence laid out in the memo.

Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) said in response to the memo that it showed clear and convincing evidence of treason.

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President Trumps First State of the Union AddressGene J. Puskar / Associated Press

A few weeks after airing plans to close stores in Waterbury and Manchester as part of a bankruptcy reorganization, Toys R Us has given the outlets a reprieve.

As reported by WFSB, a tandem Toys R Us and Babies R Us store in Waterbury will remain open, as well as a Babies R Us store in Manchester. The company is pushing ahead with plans to shutter stores in Newington and North Haven as part of a wave of closures nationally that was originally to have numbered more than 180 in all.EDWARDSVILLE  Todd Smith has been shot twice.

The first happened in Delaware in the summer of 1997, when he was shot in the leg by a would-be robber. Eleven years later, he was the only shooting victim to survive a rampage at Kirkwood City Hall by a disgruntled resident named Charles Cookie Thornton. Six people died in that tragedy, including Kirkwood Mayor Mike Swoboda; Smith was hospitalized with a wound to his right hand.

Smith had been covering the meeting that night as a reporter for the Suburban Journals. Twelve months later, the newspaper laid him off, along with several other Journal employees.

It was tough after taking a bullet, he said during a recent interview.

Tragedy struck again in 2001 when a friend was killed in a gay bashing incident in Kansas City.

Smith has used all three incidents as material in a soon-to-be released book called Murder, Romance, and Two Shootings.

Its something of a fictionalized memoir that encompasses the three tragic episodes as well as his 2009 marriage to David Kaplan.

Smith and Kaplan have since moved to Edwardsville where they are raising a 2-year-old son.

To anyone who is familiar with the Kirkwood events, its a very strong parallel, Kaplan says. But its not true crime.

An irony about the Kirkwood shooting is that Smith had recently begun performing some of the duties associated with his new position as online editor, though the Journals had not made an official announcement of the switch.

While Smith was able to get a hold of information about the police investigation, his account in the book relies heavily on his memory of events. I dont have all the details, he said. I saw some people get shot, but I didnt see it all.

After the Kirkwood shooting, Smith underwent two reconstructive surgeries. For a while, he used his left hand to write with. It works OK now, he says, though if I was typing away and doing a lot of work, eventually its going to give out.

Smith says hes not sure whether Thornton actually targeted him on the evening of the shooting the way he seems to have targeted the police officers, the mayor and the other city officials. Smith may simply have been at the wrong place at the wrong time.

Still the aftermath of the shootings has not been entirely terrible. A little more than a year after he was laid off from the Suburban Journals, Smith was interviewed for a New York Times article headlined At Papers, New Levels of Job Insecurity. And Kaplan says the Kirkwood tragedy actually cemented their relationship; Smith proposed when he visited him in the hospital.

And had the shootings not happened, he likely wouldnt have written a book like Murder, Romance, and Two Shootings.

So has there been a silver lining to it all?

I dont know if I ever looked at it like that because of the mental anguish and the physical recovery from two shootings, Smith says. Its like Yeah, it might be, but thats a horrible way to end up with a book. I wouldnt recommend that to anyone.

The book will be available March 5. It will be available at Afterwords Books, in Edwardsville, and through Amazon. Its also likely to be available at Books-A-Million and other retailers in the area as well, he says.The following companies are subsidiares of CVS Health: @Credentials Inc., ACS ACQCO CORP., ADMINCO Inc., AE Fourteen Incorporated, AHP Holdings Inc., AMC - Tennessee LLC, APS Acquisition LLC, ASCO HealthCare LLC, ASI Wings LLC, AUSHC Holdings Inc., Accendo Insurance Company, Accordant Health Services L.L.C., Active Health Management Inc., Administrative Enterprises Inc., AdvancePCS SpecialtyRx LLC, AdvanceRx.com L.L.C., Advanced Care Scripts Inc., Aetna, Aetna (Beijing) Enterprise Management Services Co. Ltd., Aetna (Shanghai) Enterprise Services Co. 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The firm engages in the provision of geothermal and recovered energy power business. It operates through the following segments: Electricity, Product and Energy Storage. The Electricity segment focuses in the sale of electricity from the company's power plants pursuant to PPAs. The Product segment involves in the manufacture, including design and development, of turbines and power units for the supply of electrical energy and in the associated construction of power plants utilizing the power units manufactured by the company to supply energy from geothermal fields and other alternative energy sources. The Energy Storage segment consists of battery energy storage systems as a service and management of curtailable customer loads under contracts with U.S. retail energy providers and directly with large commercial and industrial customers. The company was founded in 1965 and is headquartered in Reno, NV.

Read MoreCanadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, a diversified financial institution, provides various financial products and services to personal, business, public sector, and institutional clients in Canada, the United States, and internationally. The company operates through four strategic business units: Canadian Personal and Business Banking; Canadian Commercial Banking and Wealth Management; U.S. Commercial Banking and Wealth Management; and Capital Markets. The company offers chequing, savings, and business accounts; mortgages; loans, lines of credit, student lines of credit, and business and agriculture loans; investment and insurance services; and credit cards, as well as overdraft protection services. It also provides day-to-day banking, borrowing and credit, investing and wealth, specialty, and international services; correspondent banking and online foreign exchange services; and cash management services. The company serves its customers through its banking centers, as well as direct, mobile, and remote channels. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce was founded in 1867 and is headquartered in Toronto, Canada.

Read MoreWall Street analysts have given Thomas Cook Group a "N/A" rating, but there may be better buying opportunities in the stock market. Some of MarketBeat's past winning trading ideas have resulted in 5-15% weekly gains. MarketBeat just released five new stock ideas, but Thomas Cook Group wasn't one of them. MarketBeat thinks these five companies may be even better buys.

View MarketBeat's top stock picks here.Valeant Pharmaceuticals International, Inc. operates as a multinational, specialty pharmaceutical, and medical device company that develops, manufactures, and markets a range of pharmaceuticals, over-the-counter (OTC) products, and medical devices. The company operates through three segments: Bausch + Lomb/International, Branded Rx, and U.S. Diversified Products. The Bausch + Lomb/International segment provides pharmaceutical products, OTC products, and medical device products, primarily consist of Bausch + Lomb products, with a focus on the vision care, surgical, consumer, and ophthalmology Rx products in the United States; and pharmaceutical products, generic pharmaceutical products, OTC products, medical device products, and Bausch + Lomb products in Canada, Europe, Asia, Australia and New Zealand, Latin America, Africa, and the Middle East. The Branded Rx segment sells gastrointestinal and dermatological products in the United States. The U.S. Diversified Products segment offers pharmaceutical products, OTC products, and medical device products in the areas of neurology and certain other therapeutic classes, including aesthetics. The company was founded in 1983 and is headquartered in Laval, Canada.

Read MoreWashingtonA comprehensive study of exposure to the radiation emitted by mobile phones found an increased risk of a rare tumour in some rodents, although the scientist in charge cautioned against drawing conclusions about the impact on humans.

Male rats developed heart tumours when exposed to high levels of a type of radiation used by the wireless telephone industry, according to the draft studies released Friday. Female rats and mice didnt get the same tumours, the studies showed. Results were posted online.

The 10-year, $25 million (U.S.) toxicological studies are the most comprehensive assessments to date of health effects and exposure to radio frequency radiation in rats and mice, according to the online notice from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, a unit of the National Institutes of Health, the U.S. medical research agency. The toxicology program is headquartered at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.

Read more:

Cellphone, cancer link still unclear after largest-ever study

The findings shouldnt be extrapolated to humans because the rats were exposed to higher levels of radiation than people take in, even with heavy mobile phone use, said John Bucher, a senior scientist with the National Toxicology Program. The rats received radiation over their entire bodies for nine hours a day for two years.

I havent changed the way I use a cellphone, Bucher said on a call with reporters.

However, in an emailed release, Bucher said the tumours observed in the studies are similar to tumours previously reported in some studies of frequent cellphone users. Asked if that points toward hazard for humans, he said phone providers are moving more and more toward lower power exposures to humans as new generations of mobile service come become available.

Some studies have found limited evidence of an increased risk of cancer from mobile phone use, according to the online notice from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.

And two years on, the heart tumours were the only positive finding that weve been really able to have confidence in, Bucher told reporters. The reports dont go much further than what we have reported earlier.

CTIA, the trade association for wireless carriers including AT&T Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc., said it follows expert guidance on health effects.

International and U.S. organizations and health experts have maintained their long-standing conclusion that the scientific evidence shows no known health risk due to the RF energy emitted by cellphones, said Justin Cole, a spokesperson for the trade group.

The National Toxicology Programs studies are to undergo peer review at a March meeting.

The study found an increased risk of cardiac schwannoma, a tumour type that typically originates from cells found in neurons. Its so unusual in the heart that doctors often write up their findings for medical journals when the tumours are found in cardiac tissue.

An unusual pattern of cardiomyopathy, a sign of an enlarged and damaged heart, was seen in both male and female rats, the study found.

Separately, the Federal Communications Commission in 2013 asked for comments on whether U.S. standards need to be updated to protect people from mobile-phone radiation, and it hasnt acted. The agency last reviewed standards in 1996, when fewer such phones were in use. Its guidelines set maximum radiation exposure levels based on the amount of heat emitted by mobile phones.

The reports, along with earlier research show that current limits for mobile phone radiation, remain acceptable for protecting the public health, Jeffrey Shuren, director of the FDAs Center for Devices and Radiological Health, said in an emailed statement.

We have not found sufficient evidence that there are adverse health effects in humans caused by exposures at or under the current radio frequency energy exposure limits, Shuren said.Is it time for Canadas theatre instructors to go back to school?

Actor training is under the spotlight, as an instructor at George Brown Theatre School, and the founder and director of the Randolph Academy have left their posts following allegations of inappropriate conduct toward students. Meanwhile, the crisis at Soulpepper Theatre, which runs its own training program and shares a building with George Brown, is raising related questions about power, authority and responsibility in the Canadian performing arts.

What counts as best practice in Canadian theatre training? Alisa Palmer, an artistic director at the National Theatre School in Montreal  the countrys flagship theatre academy  points to agency and independence as a core ingredient of its approach to actor training. The NTS supports young artists-in-training to be in charge of themselves so they can identify and contribute to a safe working environment, and by this I mean an environment where it is safe to tackle challenging material, to dig deep and aim high, and to take creative risks, says Palmer.

We put the question to five other professionals in the field: What needs to happen to improve actor training in Canada?

1. Jennifer Wigmore: Teach the teachers

Many acting teachers have little or no formal training as teachers. They tend to be actors who have cobbled together a pedagogy based on their own professional practice and their memories of theatre school. They can be terrifically dynamic and creative, but they can also bring with them toxic behaviours that can make the classroom a dangerous environment, especially for vulnerable first-year students.

Teaching students to take risks and step outside their learned comfort zones makes the teacher/student power-imbalance ripe for misunderstanding and abuse. Teachers may not be current with their language, their use of touch, nor understand their gender bias or privilege.

Institutions bear the responsibility to ensure teachers are trained in current best practices in acting training; otherwise the cycle of harassment will continue.

Jennifer Wigmore is an artist and educator who has taught in multiple institutions and is working with the groups Got Your Back and Actors Equity to address systemic problems in Canadian actor training.

2. Christine Brubaker: Lower the pressure

My experience in conservatory training is that there is little agency for the actor, very little encouragement to think or respond critically about the process they are engaging with  in fact, it is often openly discouraged: We have little time and this is how the profession works. And the stakes are high for the students to step in line. Its often highly competitive to get in and to stay in. For most schools, continuing through the program you either have to be invited back for subsequent years, or you need to audition to continue to the next level.

How do you navigate the minefield of challenging the structure and retaining favour all at once? Weve seen how these power dynamics play out in the professional world. Schools need to be shaping the profession and not the profession shaping the creative learning process.

Christine Brubaker is an actor and director, and assistant professor in the School of Creative and Performing Arts at the University of Calgary.

3. Michael Greyeyes: Out with the old

Actor training in Canada, and certainly in my department at York, has changed significantly over the past five years. The change occurred because we, the professors who create and deliver the curriculum, have reshaped it in our own images, our own histories. Theatre and training for it is a tradition-bound institution, despite our reverence for innovators and innovative productions. But as younger faculty reimagine pedagogy to reflect our own artistic practice and processes, Ive seen a marked shift away from canonical/traditional bodies of knowledge.

If the crisis of abuse that is overtaking our theatre is any indication, old systems deserve to be abandoned. That means tired thinking (and practice) must be abandoned if we are hoping to attract students and prepare them for a future not built on old fault lines.

Actor and educator Michael Greyeyes is an associate professor of theatre at York University.

4. Marcia Johnson: Careful what you say

Comments on physical appearance (usually weight) have to stop. Teachers have been known to talk about creating a brand and being castable as a pretext for making negative comments. The focus should stay on the work. There is no predicting how a person can change as they get older or to predict what will happen in the industry. I know of a male teacher who kept telling female students to wear dresses and high heels. Some students complained that his request had nothing to do with professional expectations but his own preference, especially since he made no comments to male students about their clothing.

Actor and writer Marcia Johnson has taught an introduction to playwriting course at Sheridan College.

5. Kathryn Shaw: Encourage students to speak out

Theatrical training institutions need to ensure they create a safe learning environment free from bullying and harassment. To that end, Studio 58/Langara College is the first theatre school to adopt the Canadian Actors Equity Associations Not in Our Space! campaign. A statement is read out loud at the beginning of every rehearsal period with the guest director, designers and students present emphasizing that any form of bullying or harassment is not acceptable at Studio 58. This statement is also read out in classes, and Not in Our Space! material is posted on our call board. We encourage everyone to speak out if they experience or witness unacceptable behaviour. Our hope is by instituting this policy during their training our students will carry forth this standard into the profession as the next generation of Canadas theatrical practitioners.

Kathryn Shaw is artistic director of Studio 58/Langara College in Vancouver.Kit Kat Italian Bar & Grill

Address: 297 King St. W. (at John St.), 416-977-4461, kitkattoronto.com http://www.kitkattoronto.com/

Chef: Carl Dahl

Hours: Monday to Thursday, 11:30 a.m. to 11:30 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 4 p.m. to 12:30 a.m.; Sunday, 4 to 10 p.m.

Reservations: Yes

Wheelchair access: No

Price: Dinner for two with wine, tax and tip: $110

There are many possible reasons why Kit Kat Italian Bar & Grill is nearly empty at lunch.

The food is not one of them.

Kit Kat has been in the news lately as its owner protests the King St. streetcar pilot project. The transit project limits car traffic on the downtown street.

Al Carbone is a pioneer on King St.s Restaurant Row that caters to the theatre crowd, TIFF film goers and tourists. He opened his quirky restaurant (the back end of a fake cow juts from the facade) in 1989, growing to three seatings a night.

Now Carbone is saying the streetcar project, launched last November, is killing his business through traffic confusion and a lack of parking.

When the Star visited Kit Kat for lunch this week, there were about eight customers in a restaurant that seats 65. The day before, Carbone later said, there were just 11 customers.

In the past, wed have a full house, the bar would be busy and people would be waiting in line if they didnt have a reservation, he said.

Carbone, 64, lays the blame squarely on the streetcar project. He shoots down competing theories as quickly as a Western gunslinger.

Cold weather keeping diners at home? We were busy every winter.

Fewer customers at the Princess of Wales and Royal Alexandra theatres? Thats false. They buy their tickets six months in advance. Theyre so frustrated driving and parking here, they dont have time for dinner.

A drop in tourism? Were surrounded by six hotels. We have good relationships with them; they send customers.

I suspect Carbone himself stands in the way of his success. His middle finger ice sculpture, now removed, was a sore spot. (People dont have a sense of humour any more.) As a longtime vocal defender of Restaurant Row (he fought condo encroachment in 2012 and lost), Carbone buttonholes lunch customers with a Kit Kat vs. King St. pilot postcard urging them to email City Hall in support.

Ive lost 50 per cent of my business. Its not supposed to be like this, says Carbone, gesturing to the unfilled seats.

At night, Kit Kat is a busy, convivial spot with much charm.

It starts with the courtly greeting from John Carbone, Als brother, who takes our coats (shockingly rare in wintery Toronto). He leads us past the sizeable ailanthus tree growing through the floor of the open galley kitchen and up through the skylight ceiling. Touching it, he says, will bring good luck.

Tables in the back dining room are so close, you could eat off your neighbours plate. The vibe is attractively shabby, with chalk graffiti scrawled on the exposed bricks and red-checked cloths on the tables. It reminds me, pleasantly, of the Roman trattoria La Carbonara. Its also noisy until the majority of diners leave for an 8 p.m. performance at nearby Roy Thomson Hall one night this week. Suddenly, I hear the senior customer at the next table talk about his upcoming cardiologist appointment.

As for the food, its a good example of its genre. Kit Kats rose pasta sauces and cheesy garlic bread are out of step with our new Italian restaurants, where artisanal and seasonal are guiding principles.

Yes, the butter here comes in packets (not house churned) but it does the trick in the bread basket of Riviera Bakery baguettes. And Kit Kats 10 or so wines by the glass are well-priced, $8.50 getting you a house pour of Montepulciano dAbruzzo with the right amount of roughness.

There is decent chicken parmesan ($17.95) at lunch. Penne with spicy Italian sausage ($19.95) is large enough for two. The pasta is dried, not housemade like the current vogue, but high-end imported San Marzano tomatoes go into the sauce.

There are misses, too, such as wilting salad greens ($8.95) in honey-sweet balsamic vinaigrette. The server doesnt ask why its barely touched, part of the brisk (and sometimes brusque) service. Seafood pasta ($27.95) drowns in sauce with a modicum of scallops, shrimp and mussels.

All desserts come from Dufflet except two made in house. These are the ones to order ($8.50 each). Creme brulee is properly textured while tiramisu gets a welcome twist as an espresso-soaked lady finger sandwich filled with boozy mascarpone.

They are meals Carbone says he may no longer be able to serve. Since November, hes been closing the restaurant earlier, eating into Kit Kats reputation as a late-night hangout. Now, hes thinking about shutting down for lunch.

Sometimes, we have more staff than customers and that hurts.

With the TTC reporting an increase in King St. streetcar riders, Carbone should try to win over transit users.

Hes planning an ice sculpture of an index finger pointing to Kit Kats front door. Thats certainly a more appealing digit.

Clarification  February 9, 2018: A photo caption was edited from a previous version to make clear the photo showed a former chef at KitKat restaurant.

Amy Patakis restaurant reviews are published Fridays online and Wednesdays in print. Read more at thestar.com. Reach her at apataki@thestar.ca or on Twitter @amypataki.As Kim Hennick and Mary Sist describe what theyve been through with their house, their story begins to sound like a movie script.

Part horror, part drama, part comedy, their adventure began back in 2007 when the couple bought an A-frame-roof, cottage-style house in Etobicoke.

They took what they thought was every precaution before purchasing the four-bedroom, $448,000 home. They bought title insurance, hired a lawyer and a housing inspector and were five years away from paying off the mortgage.

It was renovated, it was beautiful, says Hennick, 48, the director of branch development for The Printing House. It was a big, entertaining house and that was the whole thing for us, were very social people.

Hennick and Sist can talk, and occasionally laugh, about their ordeal now that it seems to be over with the construction of their new, custom, modular home they moved into a few months ago.

Kim Hennick and Mary Sist, with cat Sam, in the kitchen of their new home constructed from six, custom, modular pieces that were trucked in then crane-lifted into place to complete the house in eight hours.







They describe how it all began, a few years after living in the home they first bought.

We started getting little leaks, explains Hennick. Then little electrical wonky things started happening here and there.

Finally, after drywall under their stairs began to bubble in 2014, they discovered water on the cement footing below. They went to the City of Toronto to pull the permits from the previous owners renovation and were shocked to learn the permits had never been closed.

We should have never been able to buy the house! says Hennick.

Since the housing inspector had included a paragraph in their report noting it was a renovation and permits should be pulled to guarantee everything was done properly, the couples title insurance was null and void.

Hennick and Sist hired tradespeople to investigate further  and more problems arose.

The basement, which had been dug out and expanded during the previous renovation, didnt have the proper footings to match the original. The master bedroom at the front of the house was full of mould. The electrical work needed replacing and some of their plumbing was installed backwards.

Bleeding money, they had to make some big decisions. And fast.

We were lucky that we could go to the bank and say OK, heres the situation, were going to do something,  says Sist, 55, the senior manager of training and development at Mr. Lube Canada.

Ultimately, they decided to say goodbye to their house.

We paid $450,000 to knock it down and start fresh. All because the inspector put in that one paragraph, adds Hennick. We loved that house! We didnt want to tear it down. It was perfect for us.

They decided to install a modular home, instead, which came with an easier-to-swallow six-to-eight-week timeline compared to the minimum six months for a rebuild.

We had this giant demolition party, says Hennick of their July, 2016 move-out and teardown. We were throwing hammers at the wall! We had some fun along the way. It wasnt all horrible.

During the demolition, the foundation which Hennick and Sist had just spent $50,000 to fix, was irreparably damaged. They were forced to lay a whole new foundation, a months-long delay.

Their two-storey modern home  which they affectionately call their Lego home  was sourced from iModular Homes in Aylmer, Ont., and arrived in six pieces on three flatbeds from Indiana.

Six men put together the three-bedroom house over just eight hours and gave the students at the school across the street a total shock in the process.

The kids go in from recess, and they come out and theres a house there! laughs Hennick.

The entire 1,750-square-foot modular house  with almost everything already in it  cost $385,000.

The plumbing and electrical had to be installed afterwards, and they hired a separate contractor to finish the basement, increasing their total space to 2,850 square feet.

The silver lining to the disastrous experience is that the couple loves their new home more than the last. Its 100 per cent better! says Hennick.

As well as entertaining, the couple love to travel and highlighted some of their favourite destinations while decorating.

They used custom wall decor from The Printing House to transform their basement into an Irish pub, complete with pool table and big-screen TV. A piazza mural in their dining room brings back memories of Italy. On their back deck, they can relive apres-ski while hot-tubbing against a mural backdrop of the Rockies. They also incorporated 3-D printing into their homes decor.

Upstairs, their master-bedroom sanctuary features a barn door sourced from a local farm outside of Aylmer which was built in the 1830s. A large walk-in closet, ensuite bathroom and sitting area take up the entire floor with a chimney-free fireplace they scored at Costco for $250 adding to the cosy, tranquil feel of the space.

When guests come to stay with the couple, they have their own private retreat in the basement, with two additional bedrooms and a bathroom.

I like cooking, so I love this compared to the other place, says Sist, leaning against the 10-foot Corian kitchen island with sit-up bar across from her five-burner gas stove.

We can be the hub again. We can bring people together! adds Hennick.

THE NUMBERS BAR:

$1.3M: Approximate current market value of their new home

600: Kilometres their house travelled to Etobicoke

9: Months they lived with neighbours

108: Bottles of red wine consumed during their time with neighbours

10: Number of years warranty on their Lego house

$3,300: Fee charged by City of Toronto to cover the wires during house delivery

4: Times Sist contacted the Ombudsman of Ontario over their ordealMONTREALFormer NDP leader Thomas Mulcair will be joining the political science department at Universite de Montreal later this year.

The university announced Friday the longtime federal and Quebec politician will be joining the department as a visiting professor starting this summer and will retire from politics at the end of the current parliamentary session.

In December, the party confirmed that Mulcair was expected to resign as MP for Outremont in the new year and leave politics after the spring session.

Mulcair, a former Quebec Liberal cabinet minister, won the Montreal riding in a 2007 byelection and has held the once-Liberal stronghold ever since.

He became NDP leader in 2012 following the sudden death of Jack Layton, whod led the party to official Opposition status for the first time in its history.

Six months after the party finished a distant third in the 2015 federal election, Mulcair became the first federal leader to be rejected by his own party members in a leadership review.

Jagmeet Singh took over as NDP leader last fall.

The time has come for me to turn the page on 40 wonderful years of political engagement, Mulcair said in a statement. When the Universite de Montreal offered me the opportunity to share my experience with its students, I did not hesitate for long.

Mulcair will mainly teach students enrolled in a new master of environment and sustainable development program, which he said would allow him to bring together his passion for environment and public affairs.

In an interview with Montreals La Presse, Mulcair said he has but one regret about his time in federal politics.

My only regret is that we did not manage to form a government, he said.

For 150 years, people have had to alternate between the Liberals and the Conservatives. I think we were able to offer better, but it will be up to my successors to form an NDP government.

Read more about:MONTREALStephen Harper and some of his top aides knew about sexual assault allegations against former Conservative MP Rick Dykstra while allowing him to run for the party in 2015.

The former prime minister made the stunning public admission late Friday evening, just as Macleans magazine published email exchanges between Harpers inner circle discussing Dykstras candidacy.

Harper said when he learned of allegations against Dykstra in 2015, he understood that police had investigated and had closed the file against the then-Conservative MP for St. Catharines. Given that understanding, Harper said he couldnt justify removing Dykstra as a candidate.

Recently, much more information has come to light, including information to the effect that the original (police) investigation may not have been complete. In my view, it is essential that criminal allegations, including this one, be fully investigated and prosecuted if warranted, Harper wrote in a statement posted to Twitter.

I have never hesitated to remove candidates or caucus members. My standard has been that either there are facts that justify such removal or allegations that trigger investigation  Any allegation of this nature must be taken seriously, forwarded to the police, investigated and prosecuted.

Dykstra resigned as president of the Ontario Progressive Conservatives last week, hours before Macleans published a report detailing an alleged assault against a young Conservative staffer in 2014.

According to that report, a young female staffer accused Dykstra of forcing her to perform oral sex on him at his apartment after a night of drinking at a post-budget party in 2014. The woman filed a report with Ottawa police and informed the Conservative whips office about the incident, but later requested the police close the file.

Dykstra was not charged, and the allegations have not been tested in court. Dykstra has denied the allegations.

Despite knowing about the allegations, the Conservative party allowed Dykstra to stand as their candidate in St. Catharines in the 2015 election. He lost, and went on to become president of the provincial Progressive Conservatives, who are currently embroiled in scandal after the departure of leader Patrick Brown amidst his own sexual misconduct allegations.

Email exchanges published by Macleans, which have not been independently verified by the Star, suggest a number of Harpers inner circle were at least aware of the nature of the allegations.

In September 2015, the Conservative campaign was embarrassed by GTA candidate Jerry Bance being caught on video urinating into a cup and dumping it down a clients sink while working as a repairman.

An email from longtime Harper confidant and chief of staff Ray Novak asked other key Conservative campaign officials  Giorno, Jenni Byrne, and Lynn Corbett  if there was any reason not to recommend Harper drop Bance from the campaign.

Were all sitting with the knowledge that one of MPs is a , wrote Byrne, using a word Macleans refused to publish as Dykstra has not been charged with a crime.

As much as this is disgusting and embarrassing  Jerry is not the biggest candidate concern we have.

In a separate statement Friday night, Novak said the campaign asked the partys lawyer to investigate the issue, but few facts were available. He said any suggestion the campaign took the allegations lightly is misleading and false.

This was an extremely difficult decision and ultimately turned on whether a closed investigation without charges was sufficient grounds for firing, Novak wrote in a statement on Twitter.

Certainly, with the benefit of hindsight and additional information, Rick Dykstra should have been fired as a candidate  To this day I have hoped, particularly in light of recent media reports, that the alleged victim presses charges so this matter can be fully investigated and prosecuted by the police and the courts.

In an email to the Star, the Conservatives 2015 campaign director, Guy Giorno said the candidate should have been removed.

Others have stated that a decision was made and on what basis. They are capable of speaking for themselves, he said.

I can only speak for myself. The candidate should have been dropped. I regret that my lack of recollection led me to speculate about what occurred when the emails indicate that my position and recommended course of action were clear.

Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer, who was not involved in the larger 2015 campaign and has denied any knowledge about the allegations against Dykstra, ordered an independent investigation into the incident on Wednesday.

Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer indicated the Conservative party plans to have an independent third-party inquiry into Rick Dykstra's continued candidacy during the last federal election, wrote Byrne in a statement. I look forward to participating in the process.

Read more about:A secret recording of Councillor Justin Di Cianos twin brother, who acted as his campaign manager, offering to repay $300 in cash to a friend if he donated the maximum amount in 2014, has drawn the interest of the Ontario Provincial Police.

An OPP spokesperson said they are currently conducting a review to ascertain if there is evidence to justify the commencement of an investigation based on allegations that fall within the scope of the Criminal Code and Municipal Elections Act. A decision as to whether a criminal investigation will be conducted has not yet been made, they said.

The recording, obtained by and first reported by CBCs John Lancaster, appears to be audio of Di Cianos twin brother, Julien Di Ciano, trying to solicit the donation.

I need you to give me, ah, you and Magda, to give Justin a cheque for the campaign, for his political campaign, and Im going to cut it back to you in cash, the caller says.

If you give $750 to the campaign, the city cuts you a cheque for $450 and Im going to give you $300 in cash so youre not out any cash. OK? You did it last time. You and your girlfriend both did it the last election.

In the background, a woman can be heard making a separate call: Im calling from the Justin Di Ciano campaign.

The CBC reported Di Ciano was speaking to family friend Brandon Sobel and that Di Ciano was referencing his girlfriend Magda Chelminska. The Star does not have a copy of the recording and has not been able to independently verify it.

In an emailed statement, Julien Di Ciano said he has no recollection of the call. He did not deny it is him on the recording.

The person on the other end of the line cant be heard in the recording. Julien Di Ciano said: I can only assume it to be my friend from grade school, Mr. Sobel.

I never provided Mr. Sobel with any benefit to donate to my brothers campaign, Di Ciano told the Star. I have checked my financial records and there is absolutely nothing to suggest any irregularities.

A follow-up question to Julien Di Ciano about whether he denies that he offered to repay Sobel went unanswered by deadline Friday.

In an email, Di Ciano did question if the recording could have been altered.

Both Sobel and Chelminska gave Justin Di Cianos campaign $750, the maximum donation allowed under provincial rules, according to financial statements filed with the city. According to the citys website, those donations were both accepted on June 1, 2015, after the official campaign period had ended and during an extension Justin Di Ciano had requested. Both also gave the maximum to Di Ciano during the 2010 campaign.

Neither Sobel or Chelminska could be reached for comment.

In an emailed statement, Justin Di Ciano called the CBC story factually incorrect. He did not respond to questions about whether anyone from his campaign offered to repay donors or whether that money was provided.

The Star asked the brothers if they had been contacted by the OPP. Both said they have only been contacted by the CBC and the Star about the recording.

Municipal election rules set out how much any individual can donate to any campaign as well as the maximum a candidate can contribute to their own campaign.

The city offers rebates to campaign donors, calculated through several specific formulas. For a donation of $750, the eligible rebate is $450.

After winning his Ward 5 (Etobicoke Lakeshore) seat with 54 per cent of the vote, Justin Di Ciano requested to extend his campaign beyond the Dec. 31 deadline because he was running a financial deficit.

Initial campaign filings show Di Ciano was in the red by $31,342 as of June 2015. The same filings show Di Ciano and his wife had themselves put up more than $28,000 toward the campaign.

Di Ciano filed a supplementary financial statement in September 2015 with 65 individual donors listed. Of those, 43, or 66 per cent, donated the maximum $750.

Through the campaign extension, Di Ciano managed to recoup much of his own contributions and reduce his deficit to just $4,500.

To me it sounds completely unethical, Toronto municipal lawyer John Mascarin said of the call. He said its unclear if it crosses the line into illegal behaviour.

He pointed to the section of the Criminal Code that says anyone who solicits, recommends or negotiates in any manner with respect to an appointment to or resignation from an office, in expectation of a direct or indirect reward, advantage or benefit is guilty of an offence under the code.The declarations of love are unrelenting, often lewd  but, above all, unwanted.

More than 200 times a constituent has publicly professed his love on Facebook for Toronto Councillor Michelle Holland.

You are a beautiful woman, Miss Michelle Holland, I love you, the constituent posted to his Facebook page on Jan. 20. I give thee pleasure, love, lust, sex, love, teach me please, love you Michelle, angel goddess.

This unsolicited attention has been accompanied by a stream of mailed cards and notes full of similar inappropriate comments and gifts from what appears to be the same constituent for more than a year, Holland told the Star.

This clearly would make anyone feel uncomfortable, she said.

Last month, the Star sent a survey to all female city councillors and Toronto District School Board and Toronto Catholic District School Board trustees asking if they have experienced sexual harassment, or were made to feel uncomfortable, on the job.

Eight of the 14 women on council, including Holland, six of the 12 female public school board trustees and one of the eight female Catholic school board trustees responded to the survey.

These female elected officials shared their experiences with the Star in the weeks leading up to the resignations of Ontario Progressive Conservative leader Patrick Brown, Nova Scotia PC leader Jamie Baillie and federal cabinet minister Kent Hehr. All three politicians faced allegations of sexual misconduct.

While none of the women alleged sexual harassment by male elected officials currently in office, the majority have experienced inappropriate behaviour by constituents, and expressed concern about the lack of gender diversity and ongoing gender discrimination in municipal politics.

The experiences of Holland and others point to a deeper cultural challenge of gender inequality, said University of Guelph political science professor Leah Levac, whose research includes female participation in local politics.

(Constituents) are going out of their way to threaten or make uncomfortable, through sexual innuendo and threats of violence, women who have offered to serve the public in elected office, she said. Its a shocking display of power and dominance, which I find really troubling.

Holland doesnt know if she has met the constituent who sends the cards and letters, but she believes he lives in her Scarborough Southwest ward.

Michelle, please, let me touch you again like in the (Scarborough Town Centre) last week, oh my lovely feeling, he posted to Facebook on Dec. 30.

On Feb. 1, during a council meeting, he posted, Michelle, you are being watched, followed by angels, my revenge and included a link to the live stream video of the meeting.

He has also posted comments about her body, his desire to have sex with her, and his frustration when his feelings arent reciprocated.

Did you enjoy my torture, falling tears, I love you Michelle, life partner, he wrote on Jan. 12. I only want you Michelle, please you promised.

The constituent told the Star in a Facebook message that he writes about Holland in this way because she is a beautiful woman and love is insanity. He denies sexually harassing her.

I support what the councillor does for women in business. Im a very nice person. I am not a (#MeToo), he said.

Holland increased her home security and reported the constituent to Toronto police, who, she said, indicated no charges could be laid in the context of what has occurred to date, but they will continue to monitor the situation.

Toronto police declined to comment on what would need to happen for charges to be laid.

Investigators would have to look at all the facts of the case, determine if the threshold for a charge is reached and what is the appropriate way to proceed, Toronto police spokesperson Mark Pugash said.

Sexual harassment (for example, lewd comments made about a person) is not technically a criminal offence, but criminal harassment is, said Toronto defence lawyer Daniel Brown.

It could very well meet the definition of criminal harassment, Brown said of Hollands experience, which is repeated and unwanted contact with a person after theyve expressed or indicated they have no desire to have communication and contact.

If Holland fears for her safety, but a criminal charge is not laid, she could seek the protection of a restraining order, Brown said.

When Councillor Mary-Margaret McMahon discovered a website with the bold-faced headline Spank mob boss Mary-Margaret McMahon and a corresponding game, she said she wasnt completely surprised.

It was horrific, but I thought it was only to serve the purpose of electioneering and slamming the incumbent, although I dont think you need to stoop to those levels to win an election, McMahon said.

The website first came to her attention during the 2014 election when she was running for a second term as councillor of the Beaches East-York ward, against the websites creator James Sears, editor of the publication Your Ward News.

Sears wrote in an email to the Star that its a bit of a stretch to call the website generally sexist or misogynistic because the spanking game features just her.

I openly admit to being sexist, Sears said. Sexism is a normal state of mind for a heterosexual male. Men and women are not equal.

The website remains up, and McMahon said her strategy has been to ignore it.

More than one constituent has made Councillor Sarah Doucette (Parkdale-High Park) feel uncomfortable, standing too close to her at events or making jokes that were not quite appropriate, she said.

I feel that if I was a man, they wouldnt be doing that.

Doucette makes an effort not to be alone with these constituents, bringing a staff member with her to a meeting or event, she said. She has asked a constituent to stop making inappropriate comments and he did.

Councillors who believe a member of the public has acted in a harassing or discriminatory manner towards them while theyre working, can report their concerns through the City of Torontos anti-harassment policy, according to the city, which would then investigate.

However, the city has limited power when it comes to addressing concerns councillors have about constituents, said integrity commissioner Valerie Jepson. Neither councillors, nor constituents are considered city employees and therefore arent under the control of the city. The nature of a councillors role also poses challenges.

If a member of the public were harassing an employee, the city could maybe do something like move the employee to another office, but with a councillor, you cant move them to another ward, Jepson said.

Jepsons office deals with complaints between councillors, but if a councillor did come to her about experiencing sexual harassment by a constituent, she said shed try to act as a resource to help that councillor think about strategies to deal with this type of behaviour.

Toronto City Council has 44 councillors, 32 per cent of whom are women. Three women sit on the 13-member executive committee. Of the seven standing committee chairs, two are women, a recent improvement, said Doucette, who was first elected in 2010 when there wasnt a single female chair of a committee.

We need to have females in those senior positions. That changes the attitudes of everyone and shows women are doing their job, theyre good at what theyre doing and should be respected, Doucette said.

Two councillors, including Ana Bailao, said theyve experienced and witnessed gender discrimination during their time in office.

Theres a discrepancy. Women councillors have to work a lot harder and be a lot stronger and more assertive than a lot of male councillors, said Bailao, who has never personally experienced sexual harassment.

It is how the media perceives and talks about female and male councillors. Sometimes we say the exact same thing and the male councillor gets (coverage), and the female councillor doesnt get a peep.

Trustee Jennifer Arp said she has experienced sexual harassment by someone working in the Toronto District School Board, which made her feel uncomfortable and unsafe. She sought help through official channels and is satisfied with the professional way the situation was resolved.

I am still struggling to deal with my own experiences and trauma surrounding that (incident), Arp said. I think it has made me stronger and highlights the importance of women talking about sexual harassment and making it bigger than a fringe issue because its not a fringe issue.

For women everywhere, this is a reality.

If a trustee has a concern about a staff member, the director of education is notified and guides the trustee on how to address the issue, said TDSB spokesperson Ryan Bird.

One female trustee said she was repeatedly called a pig in person and on social media by former trustee Sam Sotiropoulos during the 2010 to 2014 term. She did not want to be named in fear shed be targeted once again by Sotiropoulos.

At trustee meetings, hed make barking and oinking noises when she and other female trustees spoke and hed try to intimidate her to the point she never wanted to be alone with him, the trustee said. While he had no support from his colleagues, he also wasnt formally reprimanded and his behaviour became normalized, she said. Sotiropoulos wasnt re-elected in 2014.

Sotiropoulos told the Star these allegations are complete fabrications and he never made barking or oinking sounds during any meetings. Remarks made on social media or in person referring to female trustees as pigs were intended as a metaphor (for being stubborn) and nothing more. If they are insecure about their personal appearance, I have nothing do with that.

The TDSB has since appointed its first integrity commissioner who now handles complaints between trustees, Bird confirmed.

Unlike city councillors, trustees dont have their own offices or staff. For female trustees, this situation makes them feel vulnerable when they meet with parents in their ward, oftentimes one-on-one, said trustee Marit Stiles.

Absolutely Ive had situations where I feel extremely vulnerable and intimidated by men, Stiles said, pointing to two different occasions when she met with parents and felt threatened  once in a nearly empty cafe where she thought nobody else would see if something happened and on another occasion at a school.

Men have sat across from me and looked me in the eye very aggressively and made nasty comments that were personal. Their anger was directed at me.

Im not easily cowed, but there are times when a man is using his physical size to intimidate me. I know it in my gut.

TDSB trustees experiencing inappropriate behaviour from constituents are encouraged to contact police, said Bird. As to trustees having their own offices, The chair is aware of this concern and believes its a legitimate one. She has been working to find possible solutions, he said.

Another TDSB trustee said a male city councillor has on more than one occasion dismissed her attempts to meet to talk about issues in their shared ward, but maintains close relationships with other male elected officials.

There are many old boys clubs in city politics, the trustee said. She asked not to be named for fear it would make her work environment worse and impact her candidacy in the upcoming election.

As a Catholic school board trustee, Maria Rizzo said a few weeks back an anonymous caller left her a voice message calling her a c---. In December, she was walking into a public meeting when a male constituent standing nearby told her she should burn in hell.

Staying silent is a course taken by many women in politics who think if they dont do anything, it will go away. But it doesnt, Rizzo said.

The Toronto Catholic District School Board said if a trustee has a complaint against a constituent, the school administrator will investigate under the respectful workplace guidelines.

Councillor Frances Nunziata said theres more respect for women compared to when she was elected as Yorks only female councillor in 1988, before amalgamation. Two years into her first term, during a committee meeting, a councillor put his hand up her skirt, Nunziata said.

The councillor later apologized for the incident, but then claimed it had been an accident, the Star reported in 1990.

Men had all the authority and women didnt, Nunziata said. A lot of the councillors were totally against me because I was a woman and I was causing problems for them.

She said constituents do still make comments about her appearance, but she tells them to stop  Why the hell would you make that comment to me? Thats disgusting, she will say.

Now that women are coming forward with stories of sexual harassment, its changing the culture, Nunziata said. Men now are opening their eyes and are more aware then they were before. Everything is changing.

Its time for women and men to work together as allies to make safer and better environments, Arp said. Its about making sure everyone has the opportunity to choose whatever career they want and not have to worry about how they will be treated.

Samantha Beattie can be reached at samanthabeattie@thestar.ca.

Correction  February 5, 2018: This article was edited from a previous version that misspelled Toronto District School Board trustee Marit Stiles given name.

Read more about:The trial of a Toronto police officer charged for refusing to help stop a young man from taking his own life has been quashed, after an Ontario Superior Court judge found his failure to act did not amount to criminal breach of trust.

The decision reverses a lower courts ruling last year that found there was enough evidence that a jury could believe Const. Kyle Upjohn breached the public trust and avoided his duty to preserve a life  indeed, drove the other way  and that a trial should proceed.

Upjohn was sitting in his marked police vehicle on the afternoon of Feb. 2, 2016 when approached by a concerned citizen alerting him to a young man attempting to hang himself in the park.

Instead of helping, Upjohn falsely claimed he was on another call, told the man to dial 911, then drove away, according to a Jan. 25 decision by Justice Maureen Forestell.

Soon after, 19-year-old Alexandre Boucher was found dead.

Ontarios police watchdog, the Special Investigations Unit (SIU), charged Upjohn with criminal negligence causing death and failing to provide the necessities of life, but the charges were later withdrawn by the Crown.

The officer was instead charged with breach of trust in connection to Bouchers death  a charge laid when an official is accused of breaching the standard of responsibility and conduct demanded by his office.

After a preliminary inquiry last year, Justice Sheila Ray ruled Upjohn should go to trial on the charge, finding there was enough evidence on which a jury could find that the officer took steps to avoid performing his duty of preserving life and he drove the other way.

The evidence, if believed, is capable of the inference that this deliberate refusal to respond was in order to avoid dealing with all the potential consequences of having to investigate the situation, Ray ruled.

Upjohn appealed the decision on the grounds that the breach of trust charge did not apply, as there must be evidence that he had a corrupt or dishonest ulterior purpose for avoiding the call. His lawyer, Gary Clewley, said Upjohns conduct was negligence that did not rise above police misconduct under Ontarios Police Services Act.

Clewley argued there was no evidence that Upjohn intended to use his position as an officer for a dishonest, corrupt or oppressive purpose, as required by the law.

Forestell agreed, saying that while Upjohns intention may have been to put his own comfort or needs before the good of the public, as the Crown had argued, this was not enough evidence to prove a breach of trust.

Daniel Rechtshaffen, a Toronto criminal lawyer who was not connected to the case, believed Upjohn did get some benefit from running away from his obligation to preserve life. Calling Forestell a very fair judge, he said he could have seen the ruling go the other way, allowing the jury to decide the issue.

I think it was the right decision, thats for sure, Clewley told the Star on Friday, calling Forestells ruling compelling.

Upjohn is still facing three counts of professional misconduct in connection with the death, including neglect of duty and acting in a disorderly manner.

According to tribunal documents detailing the allegations against him, Upjohn refused to provide assistance to a concern citizen attempting to enlist the officers help in stopping the young mans suicide.

You refused to provide assistance. You told the citizen that you were on call and that he should call 911. This advice was inconsiderate, disingenuous, and not in keeping with the Toronto Police Service customer service strategy, says the notice of hearing, a tribunal document outlining the misconduct allegations.

The allegations have not been tested at the tribunal.

As of May 2016, Upjohn was suspended from the Toronto Police Service.

Asked for his employment status Friday, spokesperson Meaghan Gray said the service is considering what implications there may be from this latest court decision.

The officer still has internal matters to be considered, she said.

Wendy Gillis can be reached at wgillis@thestar.caA Superior Court jury has found Shakeil Wheatle guilty of first-degree murder, based largely on the co-operation of a star witness who risked his life to help police solve the killing of an innocent man.

It was the third time Wheatle has stood trial for the July 19, 2012, killing of Daniel Davis, 27, shot eight times by three men behind an elementary school in Flemington Park, near Lawrence Ave. W. and Allen Rd.

We are pleased that justice was finally served in this case, said Crown attorney Phil Tsui, who prosecuted the case with Elizabeth Jackson.

In 2016, a jury failed to reach a verdict and a mistrial was declared. Last November, there was another mistrial, hours after the jury began to deliberate. The Crown had mistakenly sent an audio recording into the jury room that contained evidence about other crimes not introduced during the trial.

Wheatle is still scheduled to stand trial for the murder of Marvin Engelbrecht, who was fatally shot a few months after, and up the street from where, Davis was killed.

The Crowns theory in the case was that the senseless shooting of Davis was connected to a long-standing feud between denizens of the area on Jane St., south of Wilson, known as South Side, and people living in Lawrence Heights. Thats where Davis was shot as he chilled late at night with friends. He was unarmed and had no criminal record.

But the killing of Davis sickened even a lifelong drug dealer from South Side. He agreed to act as a police agent and wore a hidden recording device to capture conversations with young men from his neighbourhood whom he believed responsible. The agent cannot be identified due to a publication ban imposed due to concerns about his safety.

One of the agents targets was an old friend, Jerome Germz Bent, who admitted to the wire-wearing agent that he was one of the gunmen. Police also seized a firearm at Bents residence that testing revealed was one of two .38 specials used to kill Davis. Bent, who was Wheatles co-accused, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the Davis homicide. He also incriminated himself in another fatal shooting, leading him to plead guilty to first-degree murder of Delano Coombs, 27, on May 10, 2012.

During Bents three-hour recorded conversation with the police agent on April 3, 2013, in the jail cells of a courthouse, he also appears to refer to Deegs, Wheatles street name, as one of his two accomplices. A third shooter has never been identified.

Bent refused to testify at Wheatles trials. A judges ruling from an earlier trial refused to allow the Crown to present to the jury portions of Bents statement that incriminated Wheatle.

However, jurors at the just-completed trial heard portions of the recording where Bent described the Davis killing in detail. Bents ex-girlfriend testified and also put Wheatle at the crime scene.

Central to the Crowns case against Wheatle was the contents of another hidden audio recording that captured a 90-minute conversation he had with the agent in a hotel room where the two drank cognac after completing a drug deal.

In the course of their conversation, Wheatle told the agent that he, Bent, and a third man were the ones who shot Davis. Wheatle chillingly told the agent how he assured Davis he was family when he attempted to run away.

Wheatle also described shooting the victim as he lay on the ground.

Three eight special, just boom, boom, boom. Just giving it to the man, he said in the recording played to jurors.

Wheatle didnt deny his confession when he testified this past week. But he maintained that he lied about his involvement to be cool and intimidating.

Defence lawyer Paul Aubin told the jury his clients incriminating statements were stitched together from gossip and news accounts.

The jury deliberated for about nine hours before returning with a guilty verdict.

A first-degree murder conviction carries an automatic life sentence with no parole eligibility for 25 years.The Toronto police officer who was caught with cocaine in his wallet after he forgot it in court has been demoted, and will be subjected to random drug tests for the next year.

Const. Kirk Blake was not present Friday as his sentence was read out at the Toronto police disciplinary tribunal by hearing officer, Insp. Richard Hegedus, who stressed the seriousness of the misconduct by the longtime officer.

Blake, a former drug squad and guns and gangs unit officer, pleaded guilty to professional misconduct after he brought a small amount of cocaine in his wallet into a Scarborough courthouse in September 2016.

The drug only came to be discovered because Blake, who had been at the courthouse as part of his work duties, accidentally left his wallet behind. A fellow officer looked through it to find identification and came upon a clear plastic baggie containing cocaine.

Toronto police Professional Standards initiated an investigation and charged Blake with possession of cocaine. He pleaded guilty in court and was granted an absolute discharge.

Hegedus said the fact that Blake pleaded guilty to the criminal and tribunal charges demonstrates that he has recognized the seriousness of his misconduct. The hearing officer also gave Blake credit for willingly submitting himself to twice-weekly drug testing after the discovery of the drug in his wallet.

Those actions were voluntary and speak to his acceptance of responsibility and prospect for rehabilitation, Hegedus said.

Blake will be demoted from first-class constable to second-class for one year. He will also continue to be monitored for drug use, including random drug tests.

Hegedus warned that a positive test, or a refusal to provide a sample, would result in a prosecution for insubordination under Ontarios Police Services Act and Toronto police would seek his dismissal.

At a hearing late last year, Blakes lawyer Gary Clewley explained that Blake had developed post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after a traumatic and near-fatal guns and gangs operation in 2013. Zoltan Hyacinth, 23, had attempted to shoot at officers during a high-risk confrontation at a Burger King drive-through, but accidentally shot himself.

Hegedus reviewed some of Blakes medical reports from his treatment for PTSD. He said the personal circumstances do not provide an excuse for Blakes misconduct, but provide some context and have been factored into my decision.

According to an agreed statement of facts read out at an October hearing, Blake was initially suspended by Toronto police but had since been reinstated in an administrative role.

Wendy Gillis can be reached at wgillis@thestar.caAndrew Curnews 11-year legal fight to prove he was wrongfully convicted of gun possession and other crimes moves into a Toronto courtroom Monday, where the flamboyant, Rolls-Royce-driving multimillionaire hopes to finally clear his name.

He might not get that chance, however, if a judge agrees to the defendants request to halt the potentially sensational case featuring allegations of police corruption, planted evidence and a trial tainted by fraud and dishonesty.

Curnew is suing Toronto criminal lawyer Arun Maini for the way he represented him in the 2000s, when Curnew was a legal aid client, before he was a philanthropic, venture capitalist with a chain of dental clinics, a four-acre Bridle Path estate and rich, powerful and famous friends.

A self-described serial entrepreneur, who has a post-prison MBA, Curnew is perhaps best known for throwing extravagant parties, such as the engagement bash  with a ferris wheel, a tiger and a human sushi tray  that he hosted for his good friend Jeremy Bieber, father of pop sensation Justin Bieber. Besides the Biebers, neighbours Conrad Black and Barbara Amiel were among the eclectic mix of partygoers.

Curnew, 38, had humble beginnings.

Born to teenage parents, he was raised in subsidized housing complexes in Regent Park and Jamestown, before the family moved to a modest Etobicoke bungalow when Curnew was 16.

The complicated legal dispute heading to court Monday began when Curnew was 21 and police charged him with dangerous driving and gun possession.

At the time, he was operating a store on Lakeshore Blvd. W. selling T-shirts and other clothing products licensed by the Hells Angels organization. Curnew maintains that the arrest in 2002 and subsequent arrests on other charges were part of a co-ordinated police effort to pressure him into becoming an informant.

Maini, the lawyer he retained to fight the charges, did not subscribe to Curnews theory, and did little to advance it in court, leading to his wrongful conviction of 13 gun, drug and domestic assault charges in 2005, according to Curnews statement of claim filed two years later.

The statement of claim cites 21 examples in which Maini was allegedly negligent while defending Curnew.

The allegations state Maini failed to adequately prepare for trial, breached his clients instructions and failed to call witnesses whose evidence would have helped exonerate Curnew.

He is seeking $3 million in damages and is representing himself. Curnew declined to comment about this case.

Maini, represented by lawyer Keith Geurts, acting on behalf of liability insurer LawPro, has spent 11 years fighting the action. The statement of defence, filed in 2007, claims the suit is frivolous, vexatious or otherwise an abuse of process and should be dismissed.

Maini says he did not act negligently and, at all material times, exercised reasonable care and skill in fulfilling his obligations to the Plaintiff.

Had Curnew followed his advice and accepted a plea, his sentence would have been far more lenient, the statement of defence says.

During the 2005 trial, Maini says, Curnew sought to pressure him to provide evidence and raise defences that were either contrary to his interests, or that the defendant believed to be false.

The statement of defence notes that Curnew, while represented by Maini, was acquitted of the first set of charges laid in 2002. Curnew also wrote a letter to legal aid in 2003 explaining how pleased he was with his Mainis representation, according to the statement of defence. Curnew suggests, in his factum filed in support of the lawsuit, that the judge acquitted him in spite of Mainis representation.

Last week, Geurts served a motion on the eve of the trial seeking to dismiss the action as an abuse of process based on the estoppel doctrine that discourages relitigation of cases.

The matter is currently before the courts, and I am not in a position to comment on it, Geurts wrote in an email to the Star. I can assure you however, that we will be vigorously defending any allegations brought against my client by Mr. Curnew.

Geurts said he would not comment on specific allegations in the case.

In response to the dismissal motion, Curnew is asking that the trial be allowed to proceed, arguing that the issues in this action go well beyond the scope of the issues dealt with in the 2005 criminal conviction, according to his factum.

As well, Curnew argues there is fresh evidence that conclusively impeaches the 2005 decision.

It was previously unavailable to him or to the Court of Appeal, which upheld the 2005 convictions in 2010, his factum states.

The new evidence is a sworn-videotaped statement of a man who admits he was working with Toronto police as an agent at the time of Curnews arrest.

The pair met in a jailhouse holding cell. At the time, Curnew was unaware he was a civilian informant, but came to learn that later, his court filings say.

At the trial leading to his 2005 convictions, Curnew had vainly attempted to demonstrate that the man he believed was a police agent had planted the firearms in his bedroom. Curnew claims in court filings that the judges scathing rejection of his defence was inevitable, as his own lawyer had not only refused to advance this defence, but actively distanced himself from Curnews evidence.

Enter Greg Lafontaine, a prominent Toronto criminal lawyer. In late 2005, he received a call from Curnew, who was serving his sentence in Joyceville Penitentiary.

Lafontaine told the Star in an interview that on that day he listened while, over the course of the next hour, Curnew discussed his case  and the role he believed the agent played in his conviction. At the time, Curnew didnt have a dime.

It turned out Lafontaine had cross-examined the same man, who was indeed a police agent who had testified against his client at a murder trial. Lafontaine was surprised to hear that at Curnews trial there was an issue about whether the person was even a police agent. The agents identity was protected by a publication ban in Lafontaines case.

About five years ago, Curnew approached Lafontaine at a downtown restaurant and introduced himself.

I was completely blown away, Lafontaine told the Star. Since being released from prison, he had done so incredibly well. Better than most of us could imagine in our wildest dreams.

The two have become close friends and Lafontaine has helped Curnew prepare the case for trial, including handling the questioning of the police agent in a videotaped examination.

In the video statement, the police agent admits planting two guns in Curnews bedroom behind a dresser. After Curnew was charged with possessing the guns, the police agent attempted to get in touch with Maini on several occasions to tell Maini that he had put the guns in Curnews bedroom, the factum says.

A transcript of Lafontaines interview with the former agent has been filed in court.

On Thursday, Curnew cross-examined Maini on his affidavit supporting the motion to dismiss the case.

According to a transcript filed in court Friday, Maini told Curnew, It was not so much I didnt support your theory he was a police agent. What I didnt support was ... that advancing that theory was going to be the best way to defend your case.

At the time, the police agent theory was speculation, Maini said.

Watching to see how things unfold in court will be Conrad Black, the former media baron who spent nearly 42 months in a U.S. prison on fraud and obstruction of justice charges. Black has gotten to know Curnew, whom he calls a cordial, convivial person.

He bats away any comparison of their incarcerations, noting Curnew, locked up on and off for nine years, did hard pen time and nearly lost an eye in a jailhouse attack.

Its an admirable thing hes doing, Black says of Curnews lawsuit. I have no doubt he was treated unjustly, whether this is the route to overturn it Im certainly not qualified to say that. I wish him well.

Documents filed in support of the lawsuit suggest Curnews rise to riches was rapid.

After his release from prison, Curnew co-owned an exotic car dealership, which is where he met his future wife, Dr. Rita Kilislian. According to a sworn affidavit filed in court, Kilislian and her family immigrated to Canada with nothing.

My husband and I share similarities in overcoming adversity, she states. She became a dentist and by 27 was an endodontist, a specialist who diagnoses tooth pain and performs root canals and other procedures.

At the outset of their marriage, Curnew was forthright with me ... that he had been convicted of allegations of this matter, Kilislian said in her affidavit.

At all times, he has maintained his innocence.

Together they own a number of dental practices which have a combined enterprise value of $25 million, and commercial properties, according to the affidavit.

The couple, who have a young daughter, own the complete Andy Warhol Electric Chair series attributed to Warhols protest of capital punishment recognizing wrongful convictions.

In 2010, Curnew built Peterboroughs first advanced centre for microsurgical endodontics and dental continuing education.

Philanthropy and social responsibility remain at the core of all business initiatives that Andy and I engage in, Kilisian wrote in her affidavit.

Read more about:A 46-year-old man, who was wanted by police for the death of Hoden Said, has been found deceased in the Town of Shelburne, Peel police said on Friday.

At around 7:20 p.m. on Jan. 27, investigators received a call from the homeowner of a basement apartment in the Kennedy Rd. and Rutherford Rd. in Brampton, Peel police said.

Hoden Said, 30, was found suffering from obvious trauma and was pronounced dead at the scene. Witnesses reported a disturbance within the residence at approximately 2:30 p.m. that day, a news release by homicide investigators stated.

A man was seen leaving the area on foot.

On Thursday, Peel police issued a Canada-wide warrant for Nicholas Anthony Young who was wanted for the second-degree murder of Said. On Friday night, investigators said they had located Young deceased in the Town of Shelburne. Police said his death is not suspicious.

Saids death is the Peel regions fourth homicide this year.

Investigators are asking anyone with information on the incident to call police at 905 4532121 ext. 3205. or Peel Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.

Read more about:Four months after a former history professor at the University of Torontos Massey College resigned in disgrace after making a racist comment to a Black student, the college has officially nixed the controversial title at the centre of the incident.

The colleges governing board Thursday unanimously approved replacing the title Master with Principal for the head of the college.

Massey College follows in the footsteps of institutions such as Harvard, Princeton and York University in shedding the title of Master.

Hugh Segal, the leader of the college who will assume the title of Principal, praised the work of a college task force struck to rethink the title.

Principal, he said does not imply an authoritarian approach, but suggests there is one member of the community that is principally responsible as a leader.

Members of the community were polled on the title change: 74 per cent agreed, while 19 per cent were opposed.

Holocaust scholar and then-senior fellow at Massey, Michael Marrus, in September said You know this is your master, eh? Do you feel the lash? to a Black graduate student, when Segal, who then held the title of Master, asked to join them for lunch.

The remark was widely perceived as a reference to slavery and sparked swift and scathing backlash from members of the Massey College community.

Marrus resigned from his position at the college and apologized in October. The college suspended the use of the title Master and promised anti-racism training, in response to a petition by members of the community.

In October, one of the colleges junior fellows who reported the incident, Andrew Kaufman, said the complaints served as an indictment of the atmosphere where this statement can be comfortably uttered.

Segal said Friday in an interview with the Star that he doesnt believe Massey college is a racist place, nor is it tolerant of racism.

But having said that, that does not mean we should be complacent about always having to look at what changes are necessary so that real embrace of diversity is improved over time, he said.

Segal said the governing board of Massey College is looking at a draft code of conduct which would apply to all members of the college, not just junior fellows, as a previous code did. The college is also committed to providing anti-racism training during its orientation.

I think were heading in the right direction, Segal said. The commitment of the college is to try to do more.Mona Piper was Torontos longest-serving crossing guard, and loyally protected kids crossing near the corner of Millwood Rd. and Cleveland St. in Leaside for 43 years.

Piper died Wednesday aged 88, spending more than 40 years of her life helping children cross the road on their way to Maurice Cody Junior Public School. She was born Oct. 9, 1929 on Guernsey Island, in the English Channel.

Pipers daughter Ann told the Star that working as a crossing guard was her mothers raison detre.

When I asked her why she didnt retire long ago, she told me that the children keep her young and give her a reason to get out of bed in the morning, Ann said.

Josh Matlow (Ward 22, St. Pauls), posted on Facebook Wednesday about Pipers death. On behalf of our community, we are so deeply grateful to Mona and will continue to celebrate her legacy together, Matlow wrote.

Speaking to the Star Friday, the councilor said that while the lives of celebrities or politicians are often celebrated, he couldnt think of anyone that had more meaning to the community.

She protected our kids for 43 years, Matlow said. She had a very close relationship to so many of our kids, and then those kids became parents themselves and she looked after their kids.

She was very special to us.

Matlow also confirmed that a piece of land that was purchased from a local church a year ago is slated to have a playground developed on it, which will be named for Piper.

Mona knew about that . . . . She knew that everyone intends to celebrate her, too, Matlow said.

Former CBC News anchor Muhammad Lila tweeted about Pipers passing, writing she mustve helped tens of thousands of kids. Some heroes wear masks; others carry stop signs.

Piper was an advocate for childrens safety. In a letter to the editor that ran in the Star in 2011, she responded to an editorial cartoon depicting drivers on cellphones. Michael De Adders cartoon accurately portrays just one of many dangers crossing guards face daily in school zones: drivers on cellphones when in transit, Piper wrote. Thousands of Toronto school children rely on these dedicated individuals to safely cross them . . . . Our question to the council: How valuable are your children? Ours are more valuable than money.

A memorial for Piper will be held at St. Cuthberts Church, on Saturday Feb. 10 at 11 a.m.

Correction  February 5, 2018: This article was edited from a previous version that misspelled the name of St. Cuthberts Church.Toronto police have asked the National Centre for Missing Persons and Unidentified Remains for help as they expand their investigation into accused serial killer Bruce McArthur.

They are also in the process of connecting with the Ontario Provincial Polices serial predator crime investigations unit about the case, police spokesperson Meaghan Gray told the Star on Friday.

McArthur, a 66-year-old landscaper, faces five charges of first-degree murder in the disappearance of Andrew Kinsman, Selim Esen, Majeed Kayhan, Soroush Mahmudi and Dean Lisowick.

Police, who revealed earlier this week that they had discovered human remains buried in planters at a Leaside home, have expanded their search to at least 30 properties connected to McArthurs landscaping business. They believe more remains will be uncovered.

The charges followed months of growing concerns in Torontos Gay Village about the number of men with ties to the community who had gone missing in recent years and fears that their disappearances were not being treated seriously.

Now, Toronto police will be working with the national missing persons centre and the Ontario serial predator unit as part of an expanded investigation. Toronto police have also reached out to at least one other jurisdiction to look at possible ties with McArthur.

Waterloo Region police were asked whether there were possible connections between McArthur and David MacDermott, a Kitchener man who disappeared in 2002. But Waterloo police told the Star on Friday that there was no link.

While Hamilton police said they are not assisting Toronto police with the investigation, spokesperson Const. Lorraine Edwards confirmed they are currently reviewing all our missing persons files.

South of the border, FBI spokesperson Kelsey Pietranton said she was unable to confirm or deny the existence of an investigation.

For police, missing people are some of the most difficult cases, said Carole Bird, a retired RCMP officer, who led the development of Canadas National Centre for Missing Persons and Unidentified Remains and was at its helm until she retired in 2015.

Under Birds leadership, the centre pushed for a national database for police to provide more comprehensive information about missing persons cases.

This meant an investigating police service could ask the centre to match a missing person case with unidentified remains or look for links with other cases across the country, Bird explained.

Your case is dependent on what kind of information you have and how much you can narrow it down, she said.

In most cases people reported missing will return home safely in a few days, Bird said.

In Toronto, 4,000-7,000 people go missing every year, said Gray, the Toronto police spokesperson.

Sixty-four per cent of these people are typically found within 48 hours, 90 per cent within a month and 97 per cent are found within a year.

The intensity of a Toronto police investigation into a missing person depends on the circumstances surrounding their disappearance as well as their age. At minimum, searches include the home and immediate area, canvessing the neighbours and interviews with those who last saw the missing person.

In more serious cases police may ask for assistance from other units including police dogs, mounted police, or the marine unit while a webpage is created with information about the missing person.

Mark Mendelson, a former Toronto police homicide detective and now a private investigator, said the 24-hour rule for initiating a missing persons search is not true, and police will immediately address higher risk cases, like missing children or elderly people with dementia.

Each one has to be dealt with on its own merits and its own severity at the time. Theyre all different, he said.

Investigators rely on cell phone data information, credit and debit cards, ATMs, restaurant Wi-Fi and other digital footprints to help them trace whereabouts of missing people, he said.

But too often police arent able to get the information they need to determine the person is safe or that they need to extend the search, Bird said.

In many past cases, police have been told to return with a search warrant when they are looking for information, she said.

That can create challenges in a missing persons investigation, she said.

If you dont know if a criminal offence has happened, you could not come back with a search warrant, she said.

A new Missing Persons Act is currently before the Ontario legislature that, if passed, would give police greater powers to obtain the information they need where there isnt a criminal investigation.

In Toronto, where the police service announced in December it would review how it handles missing persons cases, a dedicated missing persons unit could also make a difference.

A missing person case where theres no clear evidence a crime has taken place can sometimes get overshadowed, Bird said.

Its not all up to police, she added.

The public has a role to play in helping law enforcement find people or determining that something has happened, Bird said. Its very important that if people have seen something, they say something.

Karen Cole, the sister of Andrew Kinsman, has advice to the families whose loved ones are missing.

Keep it public. And hope and keep searching. We never gave up hope, and we searched and searched and searched.For many Ontarians, Saskatchewan is  if they think of it at all  that stretch to drive through or fly over. Territorially linear. Historically insular. Billiard-table flat.

Not a jurisdiction to envy much, really.

Until, that is, the last week or so.

Ontario Progressive Conservatives are likely looking west to Saskatchewan and wishing they could run a leadership transition half so well.

In Ontario, former PC leader Patrick Brown morphed from premier-in-waiting to a political pariah over sexual misconduct allegations faster than it usually took him to down a Red Bull.

The ensuing gong show has lured blustering Doug Ford into the fray, and the weeks between now and the Ontario election in June promise shambolic politics in a party once synonymous with sure-handed competence.

Gosh, I cringe at watching whats going on in your part of the world, Prof. Greg Poelzer, a professor at the University of Saskatchewan, told the Star.

Cringe-worthy doesnt even describe it. Its almost gut-wrenching to watch.

Out west, for its part, the governing Saskatchewan Party managed last weekend to choose a new premier to succeed outgoing leader Brad Wall with a five-ballot vote so decorous the rest of the country hardly noticed and is likely hard-pressed to remember the new chaps name.

Its Scott Moe.

Not that it mattered a great deal, perhaps, which of those battling to succeed Wall won the leadership, said Ken Rasmussen, a public policy professor at the University of Regina.

It was made abundantly clear by all the candidates that they were all going to be mini-Brad, he said in an interview.

Its Brad Wall-lite, none of them ever dared say they were going to break with any of his policies, including the policy of austerity and budget cuts.

Wall, much like Brown in Ontario (who first held elected office at 22), had political ambitions early, announcing to university roommates at age 18 that he intended to be premier.

Unlike Brown, Wall was able to leave on his own timetable, under his own terms, having enjoyed a decade-long run in which, for much of it, he was the most popular provincial leader in Canada.

Remember the questions we used to ask? he said in announcing his resignation in August 2017.

Could Saskatchewans population top  and stay above  one million? Could young people find a future at home? Could the province become a job creator?

We dont ask those questions anymore, he said.

Poelzer said hed give Wall a grade of A or an A- for his decade in power.

A few controversies in recent years tarnished him a bit, Poelzer said, and he created an unnecessarily hostile relationship with Prime Minister Justin Trudeaus federal Liberal government.

I anticipate well have a better one with the new premier, he said.

But for all that, Saskatchewan got to enjoy a premier that was a once-in-a-generation politician. Unbelievably charismatic and he commanded a presence on the national stage far greater than the 3 per cent of Canadas population that Saskatchewan constitutes.

Above all, Poelzer said, Wall transformed a provincial inferiority complex as a perpetual have-not province that felt like the poor cousin of Alberta.

Thats changed. We think of ourselves as a have province. We think of ourselves as a player in Confederation.

Whether the boom decade in Saskatchewan was due to anything Wall did by way of police, or just the booming market for the provinces oil and potash resources, remains, however, a subject for debate.

He claims credit for it, said Rasmussen. But it was all due to international markets and nothing to do with anything that he had control over.

And the bump in provincial population to almost 1.2 million is not necessary permanent, Rasmussen said.

Over the last decade, Saskatchewan was getting its fair share of immigrants, he said. But people dont stay here unless theres jobs. Its not a destination where people say, Wow, what a great opportunity to live in Saskatchewan!

Its more like, Well, there are jobs there, Ill go there. As soon as that evaporates, they leave for another part of Canada.

Wall, Rasmussen agreed, was able to leave while still quite popular in the province. But his austerity budget last year and some mean-spirited decisions had begun to dim the glow.

Without French, there wasnt much prospect that Wall harboured serious federal ambitions, Rasmussen said. And hes a pretty regional guy. Frankly, I dont think his act would travel.

Still, theres no question that, in an era of fairly drab and fleeting personalities as provincial leaders, Wall had personality and staying power.

At federal-provincial gatherings, he was a happy-to-talk, Green Rider-lovin rock n roll buff from Swift Current disinclined to hide his light under a bushel.

When Ontario was struggling through recession and the deep dive in the auto sector, Wall showed up at job fairs recruiting workers to the west. Hed do the same in Calgary, after the election of an NDP government in Alberta, to ask oil companies to relocate.

It was partly his trademark, the plucky underdog kind of a thing, Rasmussen said. He liked to tweak the nose of the bigger provinces, let them know were not just a flyover province, you better take us seriously, that kind of thing.

To be sure, Wall didnt shy from a political scrap, even if, in his later years, he seemed to pick fights merely to amuse himself  some gratuitous (such as a banning of Alberta licence plates at Saskatchewan job sites); some uncharitable (as in his inhospitality to Syrian refugees).

After reaching the premiers office in Regina in 2007, Wall frequently called himself the luckiest guy in Canada. In announcing his resignation, he said he always figured the 10-year mark as premier would be the right time to leave.

And so he has, his aims safely handed on to a like-minded and dutiful successor.

In Ontario, boggling Tory minds must marvel at the smooth western wonder of it all.The Liberal government faces an uphill battle to win re-election this spring despite disarray among rival Progressive Conservatives over a damaging sexual misconduct scandal, says Premier Kathleen Wynne.

I dont think theres anyone under any illusion that weve got this in the bag, Wynne said after a 30-minute campaign-style speech to supporters at her partys annual meeting Saturday.

In a nod to polls that show her personal popularity low and the Liberals neck-and-neck with the Conservatives, Wynne reminded Liberal activists from across the province that she lost her first election in 1994 by just 72 votes.

Stay out to knock on just one more door, or five more or maybe 20 more, she exhorted more than 1,000 cheering supporters in a Toronto hotel ballroom that was two-thirds full.

The election readiness convention, which wraps up Sunday, takes place as the Conservatives  whose leader Patrick Brown and president Rick Dykstra have quit over sexual allegations they deny  scrap over a new leader in an abbreviated race that will culminate March 10.

Wynne hinted the Liberal campaign will focus more on voters and pocketbook issues than the opposition Conservatives and New Democrats.

Its not who were fighting against; its who were fighting for, she said several times in the speech, citing measures her government has taken to help Ontarians.

They include a higher minimum wage, the new OHIP+ pharmacare plan for people up to age 25, and free tuition in place for more than 200,000 college and university students of modest means.

Theres a lot at stake on June 7, Wynne said.

We are changing lives for the better, today, right now, she added, making a case for her activist style that saw the minimum wage surge by $2.40 an hour to $14 in January, with another $1 increase slated for next year.

There is a place for government  a need for government  to be involved in tackling these big issues that people simply cant solve alone.

The New Democrats said Wynnes decision to bump up the minimum wage and improve pharmacare just months before the election smacks of pure political opportunism.

We dont just sit and wait until four months out from an election in desperation and all of a sudden discover there are people who work full-time and go to food banks, NDP campaign director Michael Balagus told reporters, referring to a line in Wynnes speech about low-income families unable to make ends meet.

When these people (Liberal volunteers) get out on those doorsteps that Kathleen Wynne is sending them to, theyre going to have a different greeting  People are going to say, Why is my grandmother stacked up in the hallway of a hospital? Why cant she get into a long-term care home?

Conservative MPP Lisa MacLeod (Nepean-Carleton) said in a statement that Wynne for too long has been turning her back on hard-working people in the province.

Without mentioning the Conservatives and some of their business supporters by name, Wynne mocked them for saying the minimum wage has gone up too far, too fast.

Make no mistake. When they say not now, we know what theyre really saying  not now means not never.

Business groups have raised concerns the rapid rise in the minimum wage has made it hard for employers to adjust, putting tens of thousands of jobs in jeopardy.

Brown promised in his partys election platform that the $14 minimum wage would stay, but raising it to $15 would take place over the next few years in 25-cent increments.

Wynne warned party activists to gird for tougher shots from critics as the election approaches.

Some do it in the newspapers. Some do it on Twitter. Some do it from behind a podium in their mothers basement, the premier added to laughs from the crowd, in a shot of her own at PC leadership candidate Doug Ford, the former Toronto city councillor and brother of late Toronto mayor Rob Ford.

Ford, who ran unsuccessfully for mayor against John Tory in 2014, announced his bid for Browns job last week at his mothers Etobicoke home.

In a reference to the spate of sexual misconduct allegations in the media worldwide, Wynne said her party has a very strict vetting process for candidates.

To my knowledge, no, she replied when asked if any Liberal candidates have incidents in their past that could emerge in the weeks leading to the election.

Should any allegations come forward, Wynne said the party would take action.

Im heartbroken that in 2018, we as a society are still confronted by this vile and unacceptable behaviour that is dominating our headlines right now.

Read more about:Premier Kathleen Wynne fired up her troops Saturday at the Ontario Liberal annual general meeting  the last party gathering before the spring election  by urging them not to focus on their uncertain opponent, but on the principles theyre fighting for.

In an impassioned speech containing more than two dozen instances of the word fighting, Wynne took a clear shot at the opposing Progressive Conservatives, who find themselves in turmoil after the sudden resignation of their former leader Patrick Brown in the wake of sexual misconduct allegations.

Brown vehemently denies the allegations  which were made in a CTV News report and havent been independently verified by The Canadian Press  but his departure has led to party infighting and a rushed leadership contest to be decided March 10.

Read more:

Ontario Liberals rally in Toronto as scandal-plagued Tories scramble to find new leader

Thunder Bay town hall quizzes premier on school funding, auto insurance

Opinion | Chantal Hebert: The web of politics is a tangled one

Wynne told supporters it doesnt matter who the Tories pick, the Liberal governments goals remain the same.

There are always going to be people who see things differently, she said. People who criticize our plan. Some do it in the newspapers. Some do it on Twitter. Some do it behind a podium in their mothers basement.

The last reference was a dig at PC leadership candidate and former Toronto city councillor Doug Ford, who announced he would seek the Tories top job at a press conference held in his mothers basement earlier this week.

Its not about who were fighting against, Wynne said. Its about who were fighting for.

Wynne wasted no time in addressing the tide of sexual misconduct allegations rocking Canadian politics in the opening minutes of her speech.

She did not specifically mention Browns resignation, but alluded to the larger controversy.

Im heartbroken that in 2018, we as a society are still confronted by this vile and unacceptable behaviour that is dominating our headlines right now, Wynne said. You already know that as a party, we have introduced a new code of conduct on harassment. We want to lead the way in establishing safe workplaces.

Wynne also touted some of the partys policy achievements  raising the minimum wage, expanding drug coverage for people under the age of 25 and free post-secondary tuition for students from low-income families.

She emphasized the contrast between her party, the PCs and the New Democrats, while also touching on key themes of fairness and opportunity that she has stressed for months.

We are fighting for you, we will keep fighting for you, she said. We will never stop fighting for you.

Wynne mentioned the difficult road to re-election ahead by referencing her own past electoral record. Down in the polls for over a year and with approval ratings that hover in the mid-teens, she asked party volunteers to work hard.

I lost my first election in 1994 by 72 votes, Wynne said. Just a few more hours of canvassing or getting out the vote could have changed that result. And because every single vote counts, that means every single visit on every single doorstep counts.

Liberal campaign co-chair Deb Matthews acknowledged that the weekend event was, in part, about further honing the partys strategy and organization. That includes planning for whomever the PCs pick as leader.

Obviously, well need to be ready for any eventuality, she said of the PC leadership race. They need to figure out their party. Weve got our party figured out. We know what were doing.

Wynne said the party is not troubled by the loss of any advance plans they had to attack former PC leader Patrick Brown.

What happened to Patrick Brown, what is happening to the (PCs) right now, is their focus, she said. Our focus is on our plan.

Wynne opened the convention Friday night by participating in a candidate spotlight and taking questions from party members.

Ontarios general election is June 7.

Read more about:HONOLULUA woman accused of deliberately driving off a Hawaii cliff and killing her identical twin sister was acquitted of murder Thursday.

Second Circuit Judge Peter Cahill found Alexandria Duval not guilty after a trial that started Monday. Duval opted to have a judge instead of a jury decide the case.

Authorities described the 2016 crash as a hair-pulling fight over the steering wheel. The sisters were seen arguing on the narrow, winding Hana Highway on the island of Maui before their SUV plunged 60 metres over a cliff.

The crash was a tragic accident, Alexandria Duvals defence attorney, Birney Bervar said in his opening statement.

Authorities said Alexandria was behind the wheel of a Ford Explorer when witnesses saw the sisters arguing on the perilously narrow, twisting route along a scenic stretch of coastline.

Read more:

Sister charged in twins mysterious death

A witness cleaning a family gravesite on the highway shoulder told police he heard a woman screaming in the vehicle and that the passenger was pulling the drivers hair and the steering wheel.

Anastasia Duval was in the passenger seat and was killed, and her sister Alexandria Duval was arrested. A judge later ordered Alexandria Duval released after finding no probable cause for a murder charge. She travelled to upstate New York and was arrested months later in Albany after a grand jury indicted her.

Witnesses testified seeing the women arguing on the narrow highway. Duval did not testify.

Im disappointed, Maui County Prosecuting Attorney J.D. Kim said after the verdict. The facts clearly show it was at least reckless behaviour.

Duval left the courtroom without commenting, The Maui News reported.

Its been an extremely emotional ordeal for her, Bervar told the newspaper. You cant imagine losing your twin sister in that kind of catastrophic, tragic accident, then being charged with causing the death of your sister, which she didnt. Shes extremely relieved.

Duval is going to take some time to figure out what to do next, Bervar told The Associated Press.

The sisters, born Alison and Ann Dadow in the Utica, New York, area, operated popular yoga studios in Florida before they changed their names. They moved to Hawaii in 2015 from Utah.ROMEA gunman apparently targeting African immigrants from his car went on a drive-by shooting rampage in the central Italian city of Macerata on Saturday, wounding at least six people, one seriously, before he was arrested, officials said.

Local news media identified the suspect as Luca Traini, 28. All of those shot were Black; Traini is white.

A reporter for the ANSA news agency who witnessed the arrest said Traini had the Italian flag draped on his shoulders when he got out of a black Alfa Romeo near the citys war dead memorial, climbed the stairs of the monument and raised his arm in a fascist salute. Military police officers then arrested him.

The only element that links the persons who were injured is the colour of their skin, Interior Minister Marco Minniti said during a news conference Saturday night, calling the shootings an evident display of racial hatred.

Around midday Saturday, the suspect drove through the streets of Macerata, firing from the Alfa Romeo, officials said. The mayor called on residents to remain indoors, and the citys transportation system came to a halt.

One victim, who was not identified, told Rai News24 from his hospital bed that he feared being killed as the attacker fired. He lifted a sheet to show his leg, wrapped in bandages.

The shootings rattled a nation where such episodes are rare. According to a 2007 study, about 12.9 per cent of Italian households have guns.

The rampage came days after the brutal killing of an 18-year-old woman, Pamela Mastropietro, in Macerata, a crime that shook the city of 42,000 people east of Rome.

Mastropietros body was found in pieces in two suitcases Wednesday, and police arrested a Nigerian man, Innocent Oseghale, the next day. He stands accused of killing her and dismembering her corpse. The arrest quickly became a focal point for anti-migrant sentiments.

On Saturday, officials told reporters there was no indication that Traini and Mastropietro had known each other. But Minniti, the interior minister, said Saturdays shooting strongly recalls a raid of retaliation  a random, armed retaliation.

Maceratas mayor, Romano Carancini, said the connection may not have been direct, but could be ascribable to the campaign of racial hatred that began after Pamelas death.

Nothing so serious had ever happened in Macerata, at least not in living memory, Carancini said in a telephone interview about Mastropietros killing. Pamelas death upset and struck a chord in the city, he said, adding that the racial hatred that followed filled people with fear.

Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni told reporters after the shooting that the government would deal severely with anyone trying to stoke racist actions. Hatred and violence wont be able to divide us, he said.

There are just over 5 million foreigners residing legally in Italy, about 8.3 per cent of the population of 60 million. Of these, 3.7 million are from outside the European Union.

Immigration is a hotly contested issue in Italy with national elections a little more than a month away. Far-right leaders have tried to capitalize on national unease about the unregulated waves of migrants who have made the perilous crossing of the Mediterranean in recent years.

Matteo Salvini, leader of the League political party, which has historically run on an anti-immigrant platform, said on Twitter after Mastropietros killing that the suspect was not running from war; he brought war to Italy.

The left has blood on its hands. Expulsions, expulsions, controls and more expulsions, he wrote.

Italian media reports said the suspect in the shootings Saturday had been a League candidate in municipal elections last year in the nearby town of Corridonia. He was not elected.WASHINGTONEven before hed read the memo, President Donald Trump seized on what it could mean.

The president first learned of the House Intelligence Committee document last month from some Republican allies in Congress and he watched it take hold in the conservative media, including on some of his favourite Fox News programs, according to seven White House officials and outside advisers.

The classified memo sent to the Oval Office by the committees majority Republicans asserted that the FBI and Justice Department abused their surveillance powers to monitor the communications of a one-time Trump campaign associate. Trump told confidants in recent days that he believed the memo would validate his concerns that the deep state  an alleged shadowy network of powerful entrenched federal and military interests  had conspired to undermine the legitimacy of his presidency, according to one outside adviser.

That adviser and the others werent authorized to publicly discuss private conversation and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Trumps decision to authorize the memos public disclosure was extraordinary, yet part of a recent pattern. Like few of his predecessors, Trump has delivered repeated broadsides against intelligence and law enforcement agencies, working in tandem with some conservatives to lay the groundwork to either dismiss or discredit special counsel Robert Mueller, who is leading the Russia investigation.

This memo totally vindicates Trump in probe, the president tweeted Saturday from Florida, where he was spending the weekend. But the Russian Witch Hunt goes on and on. Their (sic) was no Collusion and there was no Obstruction (the word now used because, after one year of looking endlessly and finding NOTHING, collusion is dead). This is an American disgrace!

Trump had dismissed forceful pleas from the FBI director, Christopher Wray, and the second-ranking Justice Department official, Rod Rosenstein, to keep the memo under wraps. They said the four-page document was inaccurate and lacked critical context, and they made their views known in a remarkable public statement objecting to its release. Democrats said the memo, which disclosed material about one of the most tightly held national security processes, selectively used Republican talking points in an effort to smear law enforcement.

Trump, however, was undeterred.

Early last week, aides briefed him on the never-before-used-process that the House would use to release the classified memo. Lawyers at the White House and Capitol Hill worried about making dangerous missteps.

Read more:

Trump claims Republican FBI memo totally vindicates him in Russia investigation

Analysis | Daniel Dale: This GOP memo is nonsense

Read the controversial GOP memo at the centre of Trumps bitter fight with the FBI

Trump told allies he believed the memo would reinforce his belief that accusations of collusion between his 2016 campaign and Russian officials were false and part of the conspiracy to discredit his victory. And the president signalled that he would approve the memos public disclosure if the House committee voted to pursue that course.

Several aides cautioned that the memo did not contain convincing evidence of a conspiracy, while others urged him to black out sections on intelligence-gathering methods, according to a White House official. Other advisers, inside and outside the West Wing, questioned why his administration had allowed the memo to become the dominant talking point during the week when he gave his first State of the Union address, overshadowing the well-received address.

But those worries, as well as fears that the disclosure could lead to retaliatory leaks from the Justice Department, did not hold sway in the Oval Office. Trump made clear to aides he was intent on seeing the memo released as soon as possible.

White House officials with concerns resigned themselves to the memos release. Trump put his chief of staff, John Kelly, in charge of making that happen, and Kelly called Justice Department officials multiple times to upbraid them for criticizing the likely disclosure.

Trumps counsel, meanwhile, took issue with the House process. Don McGahn believed that if the president only allowed the memo to go out, rather than declassify it, that would set a dangerous precedent and curtail executive powers, according to a White House official.

A final decision to authorize the release, without any part blacked out, came Thursday, a day before the document was sent back to the House for publication. While many in Congress, including House Speaker Paul Ryan, denied that the release undermined the FBI or Muellers investigation, Trump seemed to acknowledge that the memo was explicitly political.

The top Leadership and Investigators of the FBI and the Justice Department have politicized the sacred investigative process in favour of Democrats and against Republicans - something which would have been unthinkable just a short time ago, the president tweeted on Friday.

Trump has complained bitterly about Rosenstein, who is overseeing Muellers inquiry after Attorney General Jeff Sessions stepped aside. Rosenstein appointed Mueller as special counsel after Trump fired James Comey as FBI director last May.

Trump would not say on Friday whether the memo made him more likely or not to fire Rosenstein.

You figure that one out, Trump told reporters.

Later, two White House officials said Trump was not considering parting ways with Rosenstein, at least for the moment. But the memos release and Trumps penchant for keeping Justice Department officials on their toes were just the latest signs that the president intends to keep the agency on a short leash.

Trump first asked Comey for loyalty before firing him. He repeatedly berated Sessions, publicly and privately, after the attorney generals decision to withdraw from the Russia investigation, and railed about what he perceived as insufficient loyalty while urging the Justice Department to reopen its investigation into Hillary Clintons emails. He reportedly asked the FBIs No. 2 leader, Andrew McCabe, which presidential candidate McCabe voted for in 2016 and targeted the deputy director for attack in the weeks before McCabe announced a sudden departure from the bureau.

Trump also has taken his cues from conservative media and latched onto to a number of stories  including anti-Trump text messages by FBI agents  to distract from the Russia investigation and call into question the integrity of Muellers work.

Sessions, eager to return to Trumps good graces, seemed to tacitly agree with his boss criticisms of the Justice Department. I have great confidence in the men and women of this department. But no department is perfect, Sessions said.

Read more about:WASHINGTONThis is earth-shaking. Its worse than Watergate, said Iowa Rep. Steve King.

This makes Watergate like stealing a Snickers bar from a drug store, said Fox News host Sean Hannity.

This is a scandal that will make Watergate look like a little spat in the kindergarten sandpit, said former White House aide Sebastian Gorka.

The three men were talking about a then-secret memo, written by aides to Devin Nunes, chair of the House of Representatives intelligence committee, that alleges the FBI and Justice Department committed wrongdoing during their investigation of the Trump campaigns links to Russia.

The memo was released on Friday. And it proved  the Watergate Three were being laughably ridiculous.

The four-page memo not only fails to reveal a titanic scandal. It reveals no scandal at all. And that is even if you take it at face value  even though the FBI says it contains material omissions of fact that fundamentally impact the memos accuracy.

The most astonishing thing about the memo is not some shocking new fact. (The memo contains none.) Its that a partisan document, written by pro-Trump Republicans and declassified by Trump himself, actually ends up weakening Trumps case that the probe is tainted.

James Comey, director of the FBI during the period depicted in the memo, is not a disinterested observer here. But his assessment was right on the mark: Thats it?

Heres what the memo alleges.

When the FBI went to a special intelligence court seeking a warrant to conduct surveillance of Carter Page, a former Trump campaign adviser, an essential part of its application was uncorroborated information from the famous dossier produced by Christopher Steele, a former top British spy dealing with Russia-related matters.

Steele, the memo continues, loathed Trump and wanted him defeated, and he was being paid for his work by the Democratic Party. The FBI did not inform the intelligence court of the political origins of the dossier. FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe admitted to the committee that no warrant would have been sought without information from the dossier.

There are numerous reasons for suspicion of the memos claims.

Page, according to news reports, had been a subject of FBI interest for at least three years before the dossier came out; a 2015 court case included intercepted 2013 exchanges in which Russian spies discussed efforts to recruit Page. It is unclear that the initial warrant application relied exclusively on the dossier  again, the FBI says the memo omits critical facts  let alone that applications for renewing the surveillance did so.

Further, Democrats on the House intelligence committee said Friday that McCabe never said what the memo claims he said. Nunes has a history of partisan distortion.

Read more:

Everything you need to know about that GOP memo Trump just declassified

Read the controversial GOP memo at the centre of Trumps bitter fight with the FBI

Analysis | Donald Trump is in an extraordinary showdown with his own FBI

But even if the memo is believed in its entirety, it is nothing close to a bombshell.

Steele was already known to be opposed to a Trump victory (on account of what he saw as Trump being compromised by Russia). The dossier was already known to have been funded by Democrats. Judges, of course, found the applications sufficiently convincing to grant warrants.

It is possible that the FBI should have disclosed that Democratic money was paying Steele. But, as explained by University of Southern California law professor Orin Kerr, there is a long history of judges in warrant cases not caring that informants may have had a bias.

In the world of actual law, there needs to be a good reason for the judge to think, once informed of the claim of bias, that the informant was just totally making it up, he wrote. What matters is whether, based on the totality of the circumstances, the information came from a credible source.

The memo itself notes that Steele had a past record of credible reporting on other unrelated matters.

In fact, it is the credibility of Trumps allies that takes the biggest hit from the memo.

Near the end, the memo says in passing that the FBI investigation was triggered by information from George Papadopoulos, the former Trump adviser who has pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his communications with Russia.

Trump allies say the whole probe is poisoned because it started with a biased dossier. Nunes confirmed that this is not what happened.

The memo episode has dominated U.S. political media for much of an otherwise eventful week in American news. The blanket coverage is another testament to the oft-irrational power of the secret.

Had Nunes simply declared that he had evidence that the FBI asked for a warrant based on information from Steele, and that he had evidence Steele was no fan of Trump, he would have received little coverage. Only because the information was put in a classified memo, a memo framed as shocking by professional spinners, did it acquire mythical status.

It may, of course, end up being important despite its emptiness. Even as experts scoffed, Republicans continued to use it as a pretext for their attacks on special counsel Robert Muellers probe.

On Friday, Trump said a lot of people should be ashamed. Asked if he still has confidence in Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, he said, You figure that one out.

Firing Rosenstein would clear the way for him to fire Mueller.

Read more about:Mine shaft, Jan. 31

Disgusting! Working stiffs support Canada and its bloated governments while profitable corporations contribute nothing  so much for Prime Minister Justin Trudeaus fairness for the middle class.

We know that much of the Canada Pension Plan assets  the hard-earned contributions of Canadians  are invested abroad, presumably in search for higher yields in higher-risk ventures.

So the CPP Investment Board helps to create jobs in foreign lands with no concern about the long-term consequences to contributions or the need to expand a stable workforce at home to support pension benefit payouts.

Its surprising that pension plans are gambling abroad. Pension plans that are investing abroad are not only depriving the Canadian government of tax revenue, they are eroding their foundation.

Labour unions have dropped the ball, here. Perhaps its time for unions to insist that their members pensions be invested only in Canada, so as to bolster domestic employment, membership, contributions from members and possibly to create more equitable taxation  and some relief for working stiffs.

Stella Kargiannakis, TorontoThis article is part of the Stars trust initiative, where, every week, we take readers behind the scenes of our journalism. This week, we present highlights of the Stars recent Ask Me Anything on Reddit.

One of the primary goals of the Toronto Stars trust project, launched last May, is to be more transparent about how we do our journalism.

Hence the decision to hold an Ask Me Anything (AMA) on Reddit, an online news aggregation and rating website where users can post content and discuss a wide array of topics.

Over a two-hour period last Tuesday, a group of Star reporters and editors responded to more than 60 questions from readers.

What follows is a sampling of the questions and answers from the AMA. Some have been shortened for space, but you can read the full text on reddit.com.

What is the top municipal story in Toronto that nobodys talking about?  Zombie_John_Strachan

Columnist Edward Keenan: The thing about this question is that if I thought a story was the top one in the city, Id be talking about it  and I assume the same goes for most editors and reporters. So finding the pressing issue everyones ignoring is hard, since we wouldnt ignore it if we knew about it and thought it was very important. That said, I think that the dire lack of affordable housing in the city, and the desperate inability of Toronto Community Housing to fill the gap for the poorest in the city, remains an under-discussed story. It does get talked about, but its a crisis.

How does Daniel Dale stay sane going from covering Ford to covering Trump?  Knowitall99

Washington Bureau Chief Daniel Dale: Its actually so much fun. Obviously exhausting and often ridiculous, but what more can you ask for as a journalist? The stories are both important and entertaining, youre able to hold powerful people accountable, readership is super high, and youre not putting yourself at physical risk the way journalists are in a war zone or disaster zone ... So there are moments when I just want to nap, but I mostly love it.

Im very curious as to how you go about correcting an error that has already been published, and how often you see mistakes and how theyre handled.  RJJouranls

Public Editor Kathy English: Once we verify an error we correct on the platform the mistake was published on as promptly as is possible. The goal of a correction is to provide the correct information and make clear a mistake occurred. We logged about 1,100 corrections in print and online in 2017. Most of the mistakes are from online platforms.

What was it like last week at the Star when the Patrick Brown story broke so late in the evening? Are people woken up, called back from home, etc.?  LesterBePiercin

Queens Park Reporter Kris Rushowy: Our Queens Park bureau chief, Robert Benzie, was at home with his kids when he got a call about Browns 9:45 p.m. press conference, and raced over to the Legislature. He was up well into the night filing updates. Reporters dont get a lot of wake-up calls, but when there is big news on our beats, we work  late nights, early mornings, holidays, you name it.

Do you have any strategic initiatives to avoid enabling loud-mouthed, extreme, populist election candidates by covering their shenanigans? Weve seen this issue a lot with the Fords and Trumps of the world.  sunlightjunkieRiverdale

City Hall Reporter Jennifer Pagliaro: This is tough. Look at the Ford example. In 2010, Ford was a councillor known for politically incorrect statements on the council floor who few believed could ever be mayor. Our bureau chief, David Rider, was one of the first mainstream media reporters to start paying attention to his campaign and realize he had a base of support that could make him a contender. To me, thats something our readers should know about  Turns out, he knew before many that Ford could win and he was right.

The Star seems to be working with the CBC more and more, especially for investigative projects. What are the benefits of working together? Do you think these partnerships will happen more frequently?  Soshane

Investigative Reporter Diana Zlomislic: In the past few years, weve actually been joining forces with more news media outlets across the world for big investigations like the Panama Papers. Reporter Robert Cribb and editor Lynn McAuley created our investigative co-production team as a way to share resources on big stories. This is the future, we think: news organizations working together more on large projects.

Just wanted to ask, directed broadly at all of you, if you think theres a real future for young people looking to get into journalism? Im in my final year of J-school now and Im pretty disillusioned.  friendsfromgr8

Reporter Fatima Syed: I totally get the disillusionment but dont let it overcome you! There are multiple opportunities in the industry right now for a young journalist, ranging from freelancing to stints at places like the Star. There are risks in everything but keep hustling. Pitch stories everywhere, apply to places like the Star who accept a wide range of interns of all levels of experience every year.

Things are definitely changing with people looking towards more digital stuff. The main takeaway is just learn as many skills as you can now as a young journalist ... Its hard, and at times disheartening, but not impossible. Take it from a girl who applied three times before she got the Star internship.

Whats a story that youve published that went against your personal beliefs?  TorontoJD

Photographer Steve Russell: Wow, what a great question. I think we cover stories all the time that may go against my personal beliefs. Its strange because sometimes covering a story or watching a story develop I might change my belief!

What is the role of print media in society in 2018? How do you envision the future of the Toronto Star 10 years from now?  SheerDumbLuck

Managing Editor Irene Gentle: In terms of news organizations like the Star, print is just one of the platforms we publish on. Its legacy is really the journalistic values it has ingrained in us  things like responsible reporting, checks and balances, such as our public editor, Kathy English, our membership in the national news-media council, and our daily talk about journalistic ethics as it pertains to news we cover  Now we take those same principles and apply them to the different platforms. We look to make a difference, to produce solid investigative and accountability journalism on many platforms  That is the how I see the Star in 10 years  the platform matters less than the work that is produced.

The Stars Trust Initiative is eager to hear from readers. Do you have any questions about how we do our journalism? What are some topics youd like to see us write about? Send us a note with your thoughts to trust@thestar.ca.McEwen Mining Inc. engages in the exploration, development, production, and sale of gold and silver. It also explores for copper deposits. The company owns 100% interests in the El Gallo and Fenix projects located in Mexico; and the Black Fox Mine and Stock Mill, Grey Fox, and Froome and Tamarack properties in Canada. It also owns interests in the Fuller, Davidson-Tisdale, Buffalo Ankerite, and Paymaster exploration properties located in Canada; and a 49% interest in the San Jose mine located in Argentina. In addition, the company owns 100% interests in the Gold Bar and Tonkin properties located in Eureka County, Nevada; and interests in the Los Azules copper project located in the cordilleran region in the province of San Juan, Argentina. The company was formerly known as US Gold Corporation and changed its name to McEwen Mining Inc. in January 2012. McEwen Mining Inc. was founded in 1979 and is headquartered in Toronto, Canada.

Read MoreKinder Morgan, Inc. operates as an energy infrastructure company. The firm engages in the operation of pipelines and terminals that transport natural gas, gasoline, crude oil, carbon dioxide (CO2) and other products and stores petroleum products chemicals and handles bulk materials like ethanol, coal, petroleum coke and steel. It operates through the following segments: Natural Gas Pipelines, CO2, Terminals, Product Pipelines and Kinder Morgan Canada. The Natural Gas Pipelines segment engages in the ownership and operation of major interstate and intrastate natural gas pipeline and storage systems, natural gas and crude oil gathering systems and natural gas processing and treating facilities. The CO2 segment focuses on the production, transportation and marketing of CO2 to oil fields that use CO2 as a flooding medium for recovering crude oil from mature oil fields to increase production. The Terminals segment consists of the ownership and operation of liquids and bulk terminal facilities located throughout the U.S. and portions of Canada that trans load and store refined petroleum products, crude oil, chemicals, ethanol and bulk products, including coal, petroleum coke, fertilizer,

Read MoreReinsurance Group of America, Inc. is a holding company, which engages in the provision of traditional and non-traditional life and health reinsurance products. It operates through the following segments: U.S. and Latin America; Canada; Europe, Middle East, and Africa; Asia Pacific; and Corporate and Other. The U.S. and Latin America segment markets individual and group life and health reinsurance to domestic clients for a variety of products through yearly renewable term agreements, coinsurance, and modified coinsurance. The Canada segment offers individual life reinsurance, and to a lesser extent creditor, group life and health, critical illness and disability reinsurance, through yearly renewable term and coinsurance agreements. The Europe, Middle East, and Africa segment serves individual and group life and health products through yearly renewable term and coinsurance agreements, reinsurance of critical illness coverage that provides a benefit in the event of the diagnosis of a pre-defined critical illness and underwritten annuities. The Asia Pacific segment comprises individual and group life and health reinsurance, critical illness coverage, disability, and superannuation thr

Read MoreThe trip by Agriculture Minister Michael Creed to Turkey on live exports has been welcomed by IFA national livestock chairman Angus Woods.

He said IFA and Bord Bia visited this market last October and it was clear that there was real potential for increased export.

Based on positive discussions we had with thetThe Turkish Meat and Milk Board (ESK), it is clear Turkey has an import requirement for 500,000 head of live cattle each year. Ireland could supply up to 100,000 head of this requirement on an annual basis, he said.

Mr Woods said the Turkish authorities recognised the high quality of Irish livestock and praised the shipments they had received from Ireland.

Turkey wants to develop the trade with Ireland and it is very important that this is fully facilitated in every way, said the chairman.

Mr Woods said that they had discussed how we can increase supplies from Ireland by matching our seasonal production with the Turkish specification requirements.

They also discussed various issues around weight, age and quarantine requirements.

He said farmers were looking forward to some positive announcements on live exports from the Ministers visit to Turkey this week.

Mr Woods said the priority on live exports right now was for Minister Creed to secure full ferry access for our calf exports to EU markets over the coming weeks when the Stena ferry goes into dry dock.

He said Minister Creed was responsible for market access and had to deliver alternative full ferry access before February 20 until March 19, which is peak calf export season.

Mr Woods said that, with our increased cow numbers, the Minister needed to target an additional 100,000 head of live exports this year.Genesis is looking to separate itself from parent company Hyundai by establishing its own dealership network in the U.S. The move is seen as a way for Genesis to create its own luxury identity, something that it could struggle doing if it remains in the shadow of Hyundai . The Korean luxury brand is putting together a multi-year business roadmap that will create as many as 100 retailers all over the country, covering all of the companys important luxury markets. In the meantime, the new network will conduct its business in temporary stores or shared facilities.

The Korean luxury brand is putting together a multi-year business roadmap that will create as many as 100 retailers all over the country

If youve been following Genesis exploits, you know that this was coming. Hyundais new luxury brand cant rely on the parent company if it wants to become a force in the luxury car segment. Theres a significant difference in demographic between the two brands that could be disadvantageous for Genesis. Its why Lexus, Infiniti, and Acura have their own networks. Genesis needs to do the same if it wants to make the same impact as its rivals.

At Genesis, we believe in putting our customers first and giving them a proper ownership experience, said Erwin Raphael, General Manager of Genesis Motor America said in a statement. To ensure that happens, we need to take this next step in the separation of the Genesis brand from our parent company.

Part of the need of having its own dealership network means that Genesis can cater its consumer experience to fit its specific market. Luxury brands are more geared to offer upscale amenities to its consumers. Lincoln, for example, has a concierge service that can assist with roadside assistance. Other luxury automakers offer something similar, to go with pick-up and delivery options for vehicle services.

Part of the need of having its own dealership network means that Genesis can cater its consumer experience to fit its specific market

Genesis needs to offer something similar because its potential customers expect to get treated the same way. These retail networks will go a long way in helping the company gain the kind of luxury status it needs to compete in its segment. Its important to do it soon, too, because the Genesis brand is growing. Last year, the automaker sold 20,584 units of the G80, G80 Sport, and G90. With the arrival of other models like the G70, Genesis will need to grow out of its Hyundai bubble and become the luxury brand its meant to be.

Establishing a right-sized Genesis retailer network, as our product portfolio grows, will ensure the Genesis brand can succeed and thrive long-term within the luxury automotive market, Raphael said.

Truer words have never been spoken.

References

Read our full review on the 2018 Genesis G80.

Genesis G90

Read our full review on the 2018 Genesis G90.

Read our full review on the 2018 Genesis G70.The EUGT was dissolved in 2016, and it remains unclear whether the carmakers were aware of monkeys and humans being gassed, or at least thats what many reports claim. Be that as it may , and I must say I have strong doubts that VW, BMW , and Daimler were unaware of what happened behind closed doors  its still a sick thing to do in the name of science. And the big problem is that the carmakers will get away with it.

Then we have all the big media outlets reporting about German scientists having gassed human volunteers with toxic diesel fumes in tests funded by big car manufacturers. Commissioned by the European Research Group on Environment and Health in the Transport Sector (EUGT), these tests were backed by Volkswagen , BMW, and Daimler, the parent company of Mercedes-Benz. In the U.S., then monkeys were gassed with exhaust fumes from a VW Beetle in 2014 by the U.S.-based Lovelace Respiratory Research Institute.

Goodyear, one of the worlds most biggest tire manufacturers, is now under scrutiny for an issue that dates back to the early 2000s and is linked to more than 40 lawsuits and at least nine deaths. In short, the brand approved the G159, a tire designed in the mid-1990s for lower-speed delivery vehicles, for motorhome use. Motorhomes usually run at higher speeds than the said tire can handle, which resulted in numerous crashes and deaths. On top of that, it turns out that Goodyear managed to keep complaints and claim data sealed from auto safety regulators for all these years. Its only now, in 2018, that a proper investigation was launched. Check out Jalopniks story for the full details.

Theres something terribly wrong with the auto industry today! And reading this weeks news is enough to notice it. Assuming youre a sane person that is! While the folks over at Jalopnik uncovered how Goodyear hid evidence of a tire that caused at least nine deaths over nearly 20 years, other outlets are reporting how certain German carmakers paid scientists to gas monkeys and humans with toxic diesel fumes. Yeah, I know, it sounds like an overinflated conspiracy theory, but its all true, unfortunately.

Hurt Them Where It Matters Most

Carmakers don't get the punishment they deserve

Yes, the "Dieselgate" scandal sent some high-ranking representatives to jail and forced Volkswagen to pay some serious fines, but hey, its been only a couple of years since the German firm admitted to using software to cheat tests and the Volkswagen Group is again the worlds largest automaker by sales. So nothing really changed outside the fact that regulators are more careful when certifying diesels. And thats the biggest issue: carmakers dont get the punishment they deserve.

You know what actually prompted Volkswagen to cheat? Becoming number one! Selling as many cars as possible and beating Toyota as the worlds largest manufacturer. Its all about this race to gathering bragging rights. And as it turns out, automakers will do anything to get there. Anything! They will lie about their cars emissions, they will gas animals and human beings, and, much like Goodyear did, they will use the law to prevent you from finding out that some of their products are crap. All this is possible because the penalties arent harsh enough.

Governments should put a ban on their sales

So what if a couple of former Volkswagen executives have been sentenced to years in jail? Their lives have been destroyed, yet Volkswagen continued to sell millions of cars. So what if VW pays billions of dollars for recalls and compensation? Its not like they wont get it back by selling millions of cars every year. Not even the fact that the firm deceived its customers doesnt matter much. Faulty cars are being replaced with vehicles from the same company and as it turns out drivers still want to buy Volkswagens in massive numbers.

The way I see it, theres only one way to punish companies that do all of the above: governments should put a ban on their sales. The U.S. Government should have issues a stop-sale for al Volkswagen cars until all drivetrains were checked and all of their diesel models should have been banned. The same actions should have taken place in Europe. A stop-sale order for a couple of months would have been enough to dig a big hole in the VW Groups finances, reducing profits by around 20 percent. As a big company, you only learn valuable lessons when you lose money. Thats when you realize that things must change and that you cant lie and get away with it.

BMW and Daimler should be held responsible for gassing people in a similar way

And yes, BMW and Daimler should be held responsible for gassing people in a similar manner. Halt diesel sales until the court figures out what happened and then hit them with a massive fine. Same goes for Goodyear, which shouldnt get away with just fines and recalls. A measure that hurts the companys sales will be the most efficient. The market shouldnt tolerate thieves and liars and companies that hide behind court settlements to get away with selling faulty products. Hurt them where it matters most and they will their shit together. Its either that or bankruptcy.

Yeah, I know this is a radical idea, and Im pretty sure we wont see it put into practice anytime soon, but is it really that crazy?

References

VW, BMW, and Daimler Also Gas-Chambered Humans In Diesel Emission Study

BMW, Daimler, and VW Paid To Put Monkeys In Diesel-Emission Gas Chamber For Research

Read more Pops Rants news.photo in gallery:Prime Minister Brian Mulroney welcomes British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher to the Economic Summit at Toronto City Hall in this June 19, 1988 file photo.

FRED CHARTRAND/THE CANADIAN PRESS

BRIAN MULRONEY CONTRIBUTED TO THE GLOBE AND MAIL

PUBLISHED APRIL 9, 2013 UPDATED MARCH 26, 2017

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/mulroney-remembers-thatcher-an-iron-lady-indeed/article10912484/

In a friendship that extended over 30 years, I argued passionately with Margaret Thatcher, I fought with her, and I won and lost battles with her.

But at the same time, I loved Margaret Thatcher.

If you admired strength and vision, if you respected a political colleague who could endure the most powerful blows and never flinch, if you respected a leader who stood on principle no matter how politically painful was its defence  you had to love Margaret Thatcher.

I remember most vividly the end of her time in office. We were together at a high-level summit in Paris, in November of 1990, on the very weekend of the caucus revolt that removed her from office. I was stunned that after winning three strong majorities she could be turfed out in such a manner  and indeed, so was she. She would not have come to the meeting if she had understood how serious was the conspiracy against her.

Margaret and I had a complicated friendship. I admired her position on most issues, and we supported each other at international meetings on issues as diverse as bringing Mikhail Gorbachev into the circle of the G7, on free trade and on expanding NATO to broaden and deepen the boundaries of democratic Europe. But on one issue we clashed, repeatedly.

Mrs. Thatcher could not see the importance, the inevitability even, of the end of a system as patently cruel as apartheid. We had our most difficult conversations about it for more than five years, including an especially intense one-on-one at Mirabel Airport. The photo of the two of us makes clear how wrenching was our exchange. Margaret left office before the astonishing transformation that was Nelson Mandela's arrival on the world stage, and I avoided renewing our debates on the subject after that. She certainly wasn't for the turning, as she said, but we remained friends. I know she suspected me of being what she would call "a wet"  not sufficiently hardline by her standards.

She came to visit in her retirement years, spending one glorious weekend with my family and me at the prime minister's residence at Harrington Lake. We talked and laughed and shared memories of the grand battles we had fought and won together until well into the evening. We had other fine holidays together in South Hampton in New York and in Palm Beach in her retirement years.

Margaret was careful not to interfere in other countries' domestic politics, sensitive to how difficult such meddling would be for a fellow leader  most of the time. ... However, when she came to Ottawa in the midst of our free-trade debate, to my amusement and the horror of many colleagues, critics and reporters, she used part of her speech to the House of Commons to laud not only the free-trade agreement and but our government for having attempted it. She gave me an "aren't I wicked?" smile as she sat down.

It was only two years later though that she was attempting to maintain the same confident zeal in a tough negotiation. We were together at the then-new Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe. Margaret drove her security policy views backed by her usual intensely detailed homework. In all my public life, I only met one other leader who prepared so meticulously for important meetings  Peter Lougheed.

During the discussions, she maintained her confident, even jaunty air, but late that night before a formal dinner at Versailles she turned to me and said, "Brian, I need a friend to talk to. As I said in my diary note later, "I was overwhelmed by the sadness in her eyes and by her loneliness..." I shared with her the story of John Diefenbaker and his similarly painful defeat. We chatted about the vagaries of political life. Then Mila and I escorted her into the room.

This was a side of Margaret I had never seen, and that she did not permit the world to see, then or later. Margaret Thatcher was never going to go quietly  and she did not. Setting up a large foundation devoted to her political values, writing a two-volume memoir and offering advice to leaders in private  and sometimes with her typically razor-sharp acuity  in public.

I was pleased to have a chance to share memories with her and then share them with those gathered at the memorial for Ronald Reagan in 2004. Our last time together was over lunch at Claridge's in London. Margaret was almost as sharp in her judgments of people and events as the first time I met her 30 years earlier.

It is always tempting for one generation to regard the leaders of the generations that follow with some condescension. But I believe I am safe in saying that at a crucial chapter in her country's history, without Margaret Thatcher's resolute leadership, the United Kingdom would have suffered far more deeply.

And I am confident in saying that, at an equally crucial moment in global history  the collapse of communism and the reunification of Europe  the world was blessed to have had leaders of the stature of Margaret Thatcher, Ronald Reagan, the first George Bush and Helmut Kohl, to lead us through that fateful transition. I feel blessed to have known and worked many late nights with each of them  and most blessed of all to have had that privilege with Margaret Thatcher, an Iron Lady indeed.

Brian Mulroney was Prime Minister of Canada from 1984 to1993.Unlike in the U.S., most regular grocery stores here are kind of small and don't have huge rows of shelves dedicated just to cereal. ...The perfect combo of relaxation and adventure awaits at Panama Jack Resorts, where you are free to soak up good vibes and dive into unexpected delights. Embrace the cool breeze of the sea, innovative inclusions and a laidback yet upbeat style that can only be described as Panama Jack. Make a splash in pristine swimming pools, wine and dine at gourmet eateries and kick back and enjoy the view.



PANAMA JACK RESORTS CANCUN

Smack center in Cancuns legendary Hotel Zone, all-inclusive and family-friendly Panama Jack Resorts Cancun is a picture-perfect escape packed with unlimited fun in the sun for guests of all ages. With sun-kissed swimming pools and fun daily doings ranging from beachfront yoga to culinary classes and live music, each carefree day promises new adventures and unexpected delights.

PANAMA JACK RESORTS PLAYA DEL CARMEN

On a sundrenched beachfront in the heart of Playa del Carmen, Mexico, all-inclusive Panama Jack Resorts Gran Porto Playa del Carmen welcomes guests of all ages to recharge amid the azure seas, authentic culture and coastal charm of the Riviera Maya.

Cool and casual, this family-friendly resort is ideally located on the Caribbean Sea just steps away from the famed Fifth Avenues shops, clubs and restaurants. From action-packed activities like beach volleyball and wine tasting to oceanfront swimming pools with waiter service, discover the perfect combo of relaxation and adventure.So we are heading here on Feb 13, my mom just cut the end off of her finger, she has stitches that dissolve, but a bit worried about infection, especially washing it in the water here.

Does anyone know if water in hotel is filtered, like for showering and washing hands? Staying at the Now Larimar.

The doctor has recommended we get a typhoid vaccine and cholera vaccine. We're going to skip the cholera because insurance won't cover it and it's $300, because of the water there. So we're a little concerned about an open wound.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks!- NASA co-principal Moses Wetangula has accused some Jubilee leaders of smoking bhang

- Wetangula said he only drinks beer but never gets drunk

Ford Kenya Party leader Moses Wetang'ula has said he neither smokes bhang nor drinks whiskey like some Jubilee leaders who he did nojt mention.

Wetang'ula instead said he takes a few beers and never gets drunk to a point of making wrong decisions that undermine democracy.

Send 'NEWS' to 40227 to receive all the important breaking news as it happens

READ ALSO: Waombolezaji wamuaibisha Katibu Mkuu wa Jubilee - Raphael Tuju - nyumbani kwa kumkejeli Raila

The Bungoma senator was speaking during the burial of Human Rights Activist Ken Wafula who was buried in Soy, Likuyani Constituency on Friday, February 2.

NASA principals during a media briefing to explain why only Raila Odinga showed up for the illegal swearing in. Photo: NASA

Source: Facebook

READ ALSO: High Court orders immediate release of Miguna Miguna hours after dramatic arrest

Wetang'ula said some top Jubilee leaders have been making weird orders like the shutting down of three local television stations because they were not only drunk with power but are frequently high on bhang and hard stuff.

The National Super Alliance (Nasa) principal eulogized Wafula as a close friend, saying whenever he passed by Eldoret towards Bungoma he would link up with the fallen activist at a restuarant and take one for the road.

READ ALSO: You forgot to address me as Your Excellency - Raila tells CS Wamalwa at Yvonne's funeral service

Honestly we never did anything illegal like smoking bhang or imbibe hard stuff to make us drunk and disorderly. When it comes to weed and whiskey all of us know who in Jubilee Party has been waking up drunk and addressing the press when high on bhang, said Wetangula.

Wetangula who had been earlier in the day been castigated by COTU boss Francis Atwoli for acting cowardly by skipping the illegal swearing-in of Raila Odinga, said his absence was a tactic to counter their rivals oppression schemes.

I am not a coward and I am not too ignorant having been in parliament for over 25 years. If I would have done anything wrong, our president Raila would have told us but he even explained to the masses that he understood why together with my two other principals never made it to Uhuru Park, said Wetangula.

READ ALSO: Jubilee leaders call for stern action against Raila and his troops following controversial swearing-in

Wetangula said as Nasa they will swear in Kalonzo as the Deputy Peoples President to prove that they are solidly behind Railas swearing in.

Following the Tuesday, January 30 controversial inauguration of Raila Odinga as an alternative president of Kenya, the Interior Ministry declared his National Resistance Movement (NRM) an organized criminal group under the Prevention of Organized Crimes Act.

Story by Kiplagat, Uasin Gishu County

NASA principals talk in one accord for the first time since Raila Odinga's 'swearing in' - on TUKO TV

Source: Tuko NewsRussian-backed militants launched four attacks on positions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the anti-terrorist operation (ATO) area in Donbas over the past day.

This is reported by the ATO Headquarters press center.

In Donetsk direction, illegal armed formations used 82mm mortars, grenade launchers of different types, heavy machine guns and small arms to shell Ukrainian positions outside Avdiivka (18km north of Donetsk). The enemy also violated ceasefire in the area of Pavlopol (30 km northeast of Mariupol) and Lebedynske (16km north-east of Mariupol), using 82mm mortars and grenade launchers.

Three Ukrainian servicemen were wounded as a result of the enemy shelling. In addition, one Ukrainian soldier was killed in an unidentified explosive device blast.

olThe Ministry of Defense of Ukraine and the United States Department of Defense have started bilateral defense consultations at the strategic level.

Ukrainian Defense Minister Stepan Poltorak said this following the meeting with the U.S. Secretary of Defense on Friday, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

"We have opened defense consultations at the strategic level," Poltorak said.

He specified that the consultations were aimed at planning and preparing a number of serious measures to improve US-Ukraine relations in view of the challenges Ukraine faces now.

Ukrainian Defense Minister, General of the Ukrainian Army Stepan Poltorak is currently on a visit to Washington, where he is expected to meet with the leadership of the United States Department of Defense.

olUkrainian Defense Minister, General of the Ukrainian Army Stepan Poltorak claims he reached "full understanding" with U.S. Secretary of Defense James Mattis on the U.S. defensive weapons supplies to Ukraine.

Poltorak said this at the Embassy of Ukraine in Washington on Friday after the meeting at the Pentagon, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

"We discussed all the issues, including the decision of the United States to provide Ukraine with defensive weapons. We discussed the mechanism of the provision and reached full understanding," the Ukrainian Defense Minister said.

The minister thanked the American side for the "very timely and correct decision" on the provision of defensive weapons to Ukraine. He called this "a big signal for Ukraine and a signal for Russia that Ukraine has not been left one-on-one against the Russian aggression." This, the Ukrainian minister said, is also a call for other partners to help and cooperate with Ukraine.

"The decision [of the United States] was timely and correct, and [the weapons] will be provided in a timely and very thoughtful manner," the Ukrainian minister summed up.

olFollowing the meeting of U.S. Secretary of Defense James N. Mattis and Ukrainian Minister of Defence Stepan Poltorak at the Pentagon on Friday, the American side expressed hope that the law on national security would soon be adopted in Ukraine.

This is stated in the readout from Secretary James N. Mattis' bilateral meeting with Ukraine Minister of Defense, released on the website of the U.S. Department of Defense.

"Secretary Mattis emphasized the value of the U.S.-Ukraine security partnership. He praised Minister Poltorak for his country's sustained courage in the face of Russian aggression, and reiterated U.S. support for Ukrainian defense reform goals," the statement reads.

At the same time, it is stressed that the U.S. Defense Secretary cited the Law on National Security as an urgent priority [for Ukraine], and expressed his hope that the Presidential Administration and Ukraine's parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, take swift action and pass legislation that ensures a solid legal basis for the implementation of defense reforms in support of a secure and democratic Ukraine.

The two leaders pledged to strengthen a lasting partnership between the U.S. and Ukraine built on common security interests and shared principles.

olThree Ukrainian soldiers were wounded as a result of the attacks of Russian-terrorist troops on positions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in ATO area in Donbas in last day.

Ukrainian Defense Ministry's Spokesperson Dmytro Hutsuliak said this at a press briefing, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

Three Ukrainian soldiers were wounded in the enemy shelling of Avdiivka [18km north of Donetsk]. The soldiers were immediately delivered to a military mobile hospital and provided the necessary medical assistance, he said.

Hutsuliak added that the Russian-backed militants had continued to violate the ceasefire regime in Donbas in last day, using the weapons which were banned under the Minsk agreements.

olA frank dialogue between Polish and Ukrainian historians can help solve historical problems of Ukraine and Poland.

Polish Foreign Minister Jacek Czaputowicz stated this on the air of the Polsat News Polish news channel.

"A frank dialogue between historians is needed to clarify the complicated issues related to Volyn, the murders of Poles," Czaputowicz emphasized.

The Polish Foreign Minister said that two days ago he had met with Ukrainian Ambassador to Poland Andriy Deshchytsia, at his request, to discuss the bilateral relations.

I hope that Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine [Pavlo Rozenko] will come to Poland and hold talks with Deputy Prime Minister Piotr Glinski on unblocking the issue of exhumation [of the Poles fallen in Ukraine], Czaputowicz said.

He noted that the Polish-Ukrainian relations in the matter of history "remain unresolved".

As reported, the Polish Senate adopted a law on the Polish Institute of National Remembrance, which foresees criminal liability for denying the crimes of Ukrainian nationalists against Poles.

Changes to this bill also led to a diplomatic scandal between Poland and Israel. According to Jerusalem, this bill is bad, because it prohibits criticism of Poles who could have been involved in the murders of Jews during the Second World War.

olMattis, although emphasizing continuous U.S. support, did not give a timeline on the arrival of the anti-tank weapons.

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis on Friday said that the U.S. will pursue diplomatic channels should tensions flare up over the Trump administration's recent decision to provide lethal weapons to Ukraine.

"The bottom line is, we are engaged diplomatically in attempts to try to get Russia to live by the Minsk agreement and we will continue those efforts through our State Department who are actively engaged in that direct[most] take," Mattis told Military.com during a press briefing.

The U.S. in December approved the largest sale of lethal weapons to include American-made Javelin anti-tank missiles  something Ukraine has long pushed for  in addition to more small arms such as sniper rifles.

Critics of the move have said this could undermine peacekeeping attempts on Ukraine's eastern front, further angering the Russians who would retaliate if provoked by offensive weapons.

Mattis on Friday met with Ukraine's Minister of Defence Stepan Poltorak at the Pentagon, who nevertheless lauded the sale.

Read alsoUkraine's defense minister discloses when date of U.S. Javelin deliveries can be knownPoltorak expressed sincere gratitude toward the current U.S. administration  mentioning specifically the president and Congress  for sending a clear signal of support "and [m]aking a decision to support Ukraine with lethal equipment."

"It is a very timely and a smart decision," Poltorak said.

Mattis, although emphasizing continuous U.S. support, did not give a timeline on the arrival of the anti-tank weapons.

Poltorak and his accompanying delegation visited the Pentagon to discuss "pragmatic steps" both the U.S. and Ukrainian governments could take in strengthening the military-to-military relationship.

The defense minister further expressed he was eager to start talks on future engagement, highlighting that the instructor training program by the U.S.'s National Guard troops "appears to provide significant effectiveness as to the training of our forces."

The U.S.  led by U.S. Army-Europe and rotational U.S. Guard forces, also incorporates British, Canadian and Lithuanian trainers as part of the ongoing Joint Multinational Training Group-Ukraine  has spearheaded training in Ukraine's western front in Yavoriv since 2015.

In recent years, the U.S. has additionally pledged $750 million in non-lethal military equipment for Ukraine, including $175 million to the country's efforts in fighting pro-Russian separatists in the east. Under then-President Barack Obama, the U.S. Treasury also imposed sanctions on Russia for its invasion and annexation of Crimea in March 2014.

Becoming the first U.S. defense secretary to visit Ukraine since Robert Gates in 2007, Mattis in August visited Kiev, affirming that the pressure for Russia to adhere to the Minsk agreements was still on.

The Minsk II agreements stipulate a withdrawal of heavy weapons from the front lines, with such movements approved by the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).

The secretary on Friday told Poltorak "that the U.S. will continue to engage Russia to end its violence in eastern Ukraine, withdraw its forces and weapons and honor both the letter and the spirit of its international commitments."The aggressor continued to use mortars and infantry weapons.

Russia's hybrid military forces mounted four attacks on Ukrainian army positions in Donbas in the past 24 hours, with three Ukrainian soldiers reported as wounded in action (WIA).

Read alsoRussian proxies attack Ukraine four times in past day, no casualties reported"The main fire activity of the Russian occupation forces was recorded yesterday in the daytime. The aggressor continued to use mortars and infantry weapons," the press center of the Anti-Terrorist Operation Headquarters reported on Facebook on Saturday morning.

"In the Donetsk sector, the enemy had been shelling our positions near the town of Avdiyivka for almost three hours with a small break, using 82mm mortars, grenade launchers of various types, heavy machine guns and small arms. In the south of Donetsk region, the enemy violated the ceasefire from 82mm mortars and grenade launchers near the villages of Lebedynske and Pavlopil," reads the report.

At the same time, the second half of the day, starting at about 17:00 Kyiv time, went without violating the ceasefire, the headquarters said.

The press center also said that on February 1, a serviceman of the Armed Forces of Ukraine was killed while stepping on an unknown explosive device.Between 13:50 and 14:08, the SMM heard uncountable overlapping bursts and shots of heavy-machine-gun and small-arms fire 1-2km west.

The OSCE Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) to Ukraine has reported small-arms fire close to its monitors in the "DPR"-controlled town of Yasynuvata (16km north-east of Donetsk), about 2km east of the contact line.

"At 14:08, five SMM members were standing in between the SMM's armored vehicles when they heard the hissing sound of three bullets flying west to east over their heads and saw one of the bullets land 10-15m east of the SMM. The SMM patrol immediately left the area and returned safely to its base in Donetsk city at 14:55," the OSCE SMM said in a spot report on February 3, 2018.

Read alsoOSCE monitors report about 264 explosions in Donbas in 24 hoursIt is also reported that "between 13:00 and 13:50, the SMM recorded five undetermined explosions, 11 shots of infantry fighting vehicle (BMP-2) cannon (30mm) fire and 34 bursts and shots of heavy-machine-gun and small-arms fire, all 1-2km west. Between 13:50 and 14:08, the SMM heard uncountable overlapping bursts and shots of heavy-machine-gun and small-arms fire 1-2km west," the report says.

As UNIAN reported earlier, Russia's hybrid military forces mounted four attacks on Ukrainian army positions in Donbas in the past 24 hours, with three Ukrainian soldiers reported as wounded in action (WIA).Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin in November called on Serbia to respect his country's sovereignty and territorial integrity by taking action to stop this phenomenon.

The official from the Ukraine's Security Service, SBU, Ihor Guskov, told Ukrainian television on Friday that at least seven Serbian mercenaries were fighting in eastern Ukraine as part of a private Russian military unit, called Wagner, one of whom was now dead.

"We are well aware of eight Wagner mercenaries. One of them was killed," Guskov told journalists without specifying the name of the killed Serb or the date of his death, according to BalkanInsight.

According to him, the dead Serb was buried in Moscow and had also participated earlier in the war in Syria, in which Russia has intervened heavily on the side of the Syrian government.

"Another seven people [from Serbia] are also known to the Security Service of Ukraine," Guskov added.

Ukraine has expressed irritation before over what it sees as Serbia's failure to stop its nationals from fighting on the side of pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine.

Read alsoBalkanInsight: "Serbs flocked to help Russian 'brothers'"Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin in November called on Serbia to respect his country's sovereignty and territorial integrity by taking action to stop this phenomenon.

In an interview with BIRN on November 1, 2017, Ukraine's ambassador to Serbia, Oleksandr Aleksandrovych, said Serbia was not doing nearly enough to stop Serbs from traveling to Ukraine and fighting on the pro-Russian side in the east.

The interview heightened tensions between Kyiv and Belgrade, which has taken a neutral stance over Russia's annexation of Crimea and generally prioritizes historic ties to Moscow.

Far from apologizing to Kyiv, Serbia's Foreign Ministry accused Ukraine's ambassador of seeking to wreck its warm relations with Moscow.

As BIRN has reported, social media posts from the Ukrainian battlefields have enabled prosecutors in Serbia and Montenegro to prove the illegal military action of their nationals in Ukraine.

Among the Serbian citizens allegedly fighting in Donbas region is Dejan Beric, who recently confirmed to BIRN that he is indeed fighting on the pro-Russian side in Ukraine.

The Ukraine security service on Friday said that the SBU, apart from the fighters in the Wagner group, had informed Serbia about several hundred other Serbs who it says are also present in eastern Ukraine but not registered as participants of this particular group.

He said he had still not received any answers about this from Belgrade.In the Donetsk sector, over twenty 82mm shells blew up near the town of Avdiyivka.

Russia's hybrid military forces attacked Ukrainian army positions in Donbas four times on February 3, with two Ukrainian soldiers reported as wounded in action (WIA).

Read alsoOSCE reports small-arms fire close to SMM in Yasynuvata"No ceasefire has been recorded along the contact line as the Russian occupation forces continue to violate the Minsk agreements," the press center of the Anti-Terrorist Operation (ATO) Headquarters said in an evening update.

In the Luhansk sector, the enemy opened fire from 120mm and 82mm mortars, infantry fighting vehicles, an anti-aircraft gun and heavy machine guns on the Ukrainian fortified positions near the village of Luhanske. The militants also used grenade launchers of various types and heavy machine guns against the Ukrainian defenders near the village of Lozove. Moreover, they fired small arms on the defenders of the village of Zaitseve.

In the Donetsk sector, over twenty 82mm shells blew up near the town of Avdiyivka.The North Korean mission to the United Nations did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the U.N. report.

North Korea violated United Nations sanctions to earn nearly $200 million in 2017 from banned commodity exports, according to a confidential report by independent U.N. monitors, which also accused Pyongyang of supplying weapons to Syria and Myanmar.

The report to a U.N. Security Council sanctions committee, seen by Reuters on Friday, said North Korea had shipped coal to ports, including in Russia, China, South Korea, Malaysia and Vietnam, mainly using false paperwork that showed countries such as Russia and China as the coal origin, instead of North Korea.

The 15-member council has unanimously boosted sanctions on North Korea since 2006 in a bid to choke funding for Pyongyang's nuclear and ballistic missile programs, banning exports including coal, iron, lead, textiles and seafood, and capping imports of crude oil and refined petroleum products.

"The DPRK (North Korea) is already flouting the most recent resolutions by exploiting global oil supply chains, complicit foreign nationals, offshore company registries and the international banking system," the U.N. monitors wrote in the 213-page report.

The North Korean mission to the United Nations did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the U.N. report. Russia and China have repeatedly said they are implementing U.N. sanctions on North Korea.

Syria, Myanmar

The monitors said they had investigated ongoing ballistic missile cooperation between Syria and Myanmar, including more than 40 previously unreported North Korea shipments between 2012 and 2017 to Syria's Scientific Studies and Research Centre, which oversees the country's chemical weapons program.

The investigation has shown "further evidence of arms embargo and other violations, including through the transfer of items with utility in ballistic missile and chemical weapons programs," the U.N. monitors wrote.

They also inspected cargo from two North Korea shipments intercepted by unidentified countries en route to Syria. Both contained acid-resistant tiles that could cover an area equal to a large scale industrial project, the monitors reported.

Read alsoTrump accuses Russia of helping North Korea evade sanctions  mediaOne country, which was not identified, told the monitors the seized shipments can "be used to build bricks for the interior wall of a chemical factory."

Syria agreed to destroy its chemical weapons in 2013. However, diplomats and weapons inspectors suspect Syria may have secretly maintained or developed a new chemical weapons capability.

The Syrian mission to the United Nations did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the U.N. report.

The U.N. monitors also said one country, which they did not identify, reported it had evidence that Myanmar received ballistic missile systems from North Korea, along with conventional weapons, including multiple rocket launchers and surface-to-air missiles.

Myanmar U.N. Ambassador Hau Do Suan said the Myanmar government "has no ongoing arms relationship, whatsoever, with North Korea" and is abiding by the U.N. Security Council resolutions.

Banned exports, imports

Under a 2016 resolution, the U.N. Security Council capped coal exports and required countries to report any imports of North Korean coal to the council sanctions committee. It then banned all exports of coal by North Korea on Aug. 5.

The U.N. monitors investigated 16 coal shipments between January and Aug. 5 to ports in Russia, China, Malaysia and Vietnam. They said Malaysia reported one shipment to the council committee and the remaining 15 shipments violated sanctions.

After the coal ban was imposed on Aug. 5, the U.N. monitors investigated 23 coal shipments to ports in Russia, China, South Korea and Vietnam. The U.N. monitors said all those shipments "would constitute a violation of the resolution if confirmed."

"The DPRK combined deceptive navigation patterns, signals manipulation, transshipments as well as fraudulent documentation to obscure the origin of the coal," the monitors said.

The U.N. monitors "also investigated cases of ship-to-ship transfers of petroleum products in violation (of U.N. sanctions)... and found that the network behind these vessels is primarily based in Taiwan province of China."

The monitors said one country, which they did not name, told them North Korea had carried out such transfers off its ports of Wonsan and Nampo and in international waters between the Yellow Sea and East China Sea between October and January.

The report said several multinational oil companies, which were not named, were also being investigated for roles in the supply chain of petroleum products transferred to North Korea.It is not yet known which group shot the plane down.

A Russian Sukhoi-25 fighter jet has been shot down in a rebel-held area near Idlib in north Syria, reports say.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said the pilot ejected and was killed, but this has not yet been confirmed, according to the BBC.

Video posted on social media appeared to show the plane being hit, while other video showed burning wreckage on the ground, with a red star on a wing.

Russia has acted alongside its Syrian allies targeting rebels in the area.

Syrian government troops launched a major offensive around Idlib in late December, backed by Russian jets. The UN says some 100,000 civilians have been displaced.

The Syrian Observatory told Agence France-Presse there had been dozens of Russian air strikes in the area over the past 24 hours.

There are several reports that Russia has now fired cruise missiles into Idlib province from navy vessels in the Mediterranean.

It is not yet known which group shot the plane down. Reports say the pilot ejected and landed via parachute.

One social media video posting showed a body said to be that of the pilot but there is no independent confirmation of the airman's fate.

Hardline rebel groups including the jihadist, al-Qaeda-linked Hayat Tahrir al-Sham are active in the north-western province.

The Sukhoi-25 is a close-support ground-attack aircraft.

Russian air force losses have been rare since it began its Syria campaign in September 2015.

About 45 Russian military personnel have been confirmed dead in Syria, along with an unknown number of contractors.

As reported by Radio Liberty, the Russian Defense Ministry has confirmed that a Su-25 close-support military aircraft was shot down on February 3 and the pilot was killed.

A ministry statement said the pilot ejected from the aircraft but was killed while resisting capture by rebels fighting against the Syrian government.

The statement said preliminary evidence indicates the plane was shot down by a shoulder-launched anti-aircraft missile.

The Russia-based, independent Conflict Intelligence Team posted photographs they say showed the dead body of the pilot and a paper recommending a man named Major Roman Fillipov for a state award that was allegedly filled out by Russian air group commander Lieutenant Colonel Sergei Aksyonov.A large number of book lovers on Saturday visited the 5-day Book Fair-2018, on the second day of its start at the Expo Centre

LAHORE, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 03rd Feb, 2018 ) :A large number of book lovers on Saturday visited the 5-day Book Fair-2018, on the second day of its start at the Expo Centre. Coordinator of the Lahore International Book Fair Trust Muhammad Nazeer told APP that 270 publishers, book sellers and government departments set up their stalls in the fair which would conclude till February 6.

The Lahore International Book Fair Trust has organized this event in collaboration with Pakistan Publishers and Booksellers Association, he added.FPCCI will participate in Confederation of Asia-Pacific Chambers of Commerce and Industry (CACCI) Delegation visiting Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia from 22nd to 27th April, 2018

KARACHI,(UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 03rd Feb, 2018 ) FPCCI will participate in Confederation of Asia-Pacific Chambers of Commerce and Industry (CACCI) Delegation visiting Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia from 22nd to 27th April, 2018.

The delegation consisting of the members of National CCIs of member countries of CACCI will be led by the President of CACCI Mr. Jemal Inaishvili. CACCI is a Chamber of 27 countries of Asia and Western Pacific engaged in enhancing economic cooperation, increasing regional business interaction, economic growth, intensifying interaction amongst the business community, holding conferences, seminars and training programs in member countries. The visit to Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia are intended to give the members of delegation the opportunity to gather first-hand information on the business situation in the host countries; further build up the image of CACCI by making courtesy calls on heads of state, economic ministers, and other high-ranking government officials to seek support for CACCI; and meet the top businessmen in the host countries, particularly those from industries or sectors that the host countries wish to promote.

The program of the visit of delegation is being made with the support of Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI), Laos National Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LNCCI) and Cambodia Chamber of Commerce (CCI) respectively which are host chambers in respective countries.(@FahadShabbir)

Italian shipbuilding company Fincantieri announced Friday it had reached an agreement with France to buy 50 percent of the French shipyard STX

Rome,(UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 03rd Feb, 2018 ) :Italian shipbuilding company Fincantieri announced Friday it had reached an agreement with France to buy 50 percent of the French shipyard STX.

The move comes after a rift last year between Paris and Rome following the nationalisation of STX, despite a sales deal between the previous French government and the Italian manufacturer. A statement from the Italian company said: "Fincantieri Spa announces today that it has signed an agreement with the French State, represented by the State Investment Agency, to acquire 50 percent of STX France." Fincantieri said it will pay 59.7 million Euros ($74.4 million) to conclude the deal for the shipyard in the western port of Saint-Nazaire, which builds huge cruise liners and warships.

Under the terms of the agreement, the French state will keep a blocking minority in the company. French finance minister Bruno Le Maire said on Thursday: "Several difficulties needed to be overcome to reach this agreement between STX and Fincantieri...

and I am happy to announce to you today in Rome that the definitive agreement will be signed in the next days." STX, whose origins date to 1861, has several cruise ships on order between now and 2026 for its two main clients, MSC Cruises and Royal Caribbean.

Fincantieri, based in Trieste and with about 19,000 employees worldwide, was the only company to eventually bid for STX. France's industry minister has said that the Italian company pledges to maintain jobs and activity at Saint-Nazaire.(@ChaudhryMAli88)

A trade delegation of Rawalpindi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (RCCI) led by President Zahid Latif Khan called on Azerbaijans Minister of Culture and Tourism Abulfaz Garayev in his office at Baku

RAWALPINDI, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 03rd Feb, 2018 ) A trade delegation of Rawalpindi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (RCCI) led by President Zahid Latif Khan called on Azerbaijans Minister of Culture and Tourism Abulfaz Garayev in his office at Baku.

Ambassador Said Khan Mohmand and former Senior Vice President RCCI Rashid Waien were also present on the occasion. On this occasion, Minister Abulfaz Garayev briefed RCCI delegation on Azerbaijan's tourism potential, recent work on tourism development in our country, adopted normative legal documents and projects to be implemented in the future.

Speaking about the Decree signed by the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan on the application of visas through the "ASAN visa" system at the international airports of our country, Abulfaz Garayev said that this Decree is one of the next important steps towards the development of tourism.

In addition, the minister said that last year about 2 million tourists visited the country by 20%. The Minister said that there are all opportunities for bilateral cooperation in the field of increasing the number of tourists visiting Azerbaijan from Pakistan. Pakistani Ambassador Said Khan Mohmand expressed his gratitude to the minister for the reception and emphasized that he had an opportunity to get acquainted with the tourism opportunities of Azerbaijan during his lifetime and informed the businessmen and heads of major business organizations of Pakistan.

Thus, he expressed his desire to make a great contribution to Azerbaijan's tourism sector. RCCI chief Zahid Latif Khan, briefed the minister about the RCCI 31st International Achievement Award and Business Opportunities Conference, to be held in Baku on July 4-5, 2018.

While giving summary of RCCI activities, he said that the Chamber is one of Pakistan's largest privately owned institutions and has about 7,000 members within 25 years of activity. Every year chamber organizes more than 20 national and international exhibitions. Zahid Latif Khan emphasized that there is dire need of close cooperation between Chambers of Commerce of both countries including exchange of trade delegations.

Organizing bilateral meetings of businessmen of the two countries will be fruitful and suggested that the cooperation of the Congresses Bureau of Azerbaijan and the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Pakistan and said that this joint activity would be important for both organizations.SalamAir, Oman's first budget airline, has announced three direct flights to Multan starting February 8, 2018. Securing final clearances from Pakistani aviation authorities, Multan is SalamAir's third destination in Pakistan; the airline currently flies to Sialkot and Karachi

Muscat: , (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 03rd Feb, 2018 ) SalamAir, Oman's first budget airline, has announced three direct flights to Multan starting February 8, 2018. Securing final clearances from Pakistani aviation authorities, Multan is SalamAir's third destination in Pakistan; the airline currently flies to Sialkot and Karachi.

Captain Mohamed Ahmed, CEO of SalamAir, said: "The Pakistani community makes up about 13 per cent of the local expatriates working in Oman, it is therefore no surprise that this route has been one of the highest in demand.

We have worked very hard with the authorities to ensure that our flight timings will allow our guests to conveniently connect to other destinations including Dubai, Doha, Jeddah and Salalah via Muscat."(@rukhshanmir)

A free medical camp was arranged at Kala Khel and Aka Khel Muslim Abad of Khyber Agency in which 2445 patients were examined

BARA,(UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 03rd Feb, 2018 ) :A free medical camp was arranged at Kala Khel and Aka Khel Muslim Abad of Khyber Agency in which 2445 patients were examined. The camp was arranged jointly by Pakistan Army and FATA Health Department, said a press release issued on Saturday.

1095 patients including 185 men, 520 women and 290 children were examined in at Aka Khel Muslim Abad while 1350 patients including 380 men, 560 women and 410 children were examined in Kala Khel area. Medicines were also provided to the patients in the camp. The local people appreciated the FATA Health Department and security forces for providing facilities to the people of the area.Two Kashmiri students of the Haryana Central University were beaten up by a group of men while returning to the campus after offering congregational Friday prayers in Mahendragarh town. The victims suffered injuries in the attack and were taken to the local hospital. Me and my friend had gone to the mosque to offer Namaz yesterday (Friday)

Mahendragarh: India,(UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 03rd Feb, 2018 ) Two Kashmiri students of the Haryana Central University were beaten up by a group of men while returning to the campus after offering congregational Friday prayers in Mahendragarh town.

The victims suffered injuries in the attack and were taken to the local hospital. Me and my friend had gone to the mosque to offer Namaz yesterday (Friday). After we came out of the mosque, we noticed some people following us.

Just as we were leaving on my motorbike,a group of 15-20 people started beating us, said Aftab, a Kashmiri student at the Central University of Haryana, in Mahenderhgarh. No one came forward to help us.

Soon after the police arrived at the spot. We went to the hospital for check-up and returned to the university campus. We told faculty about the incident and lodged a complaint with the university, he added. When asked if they know why the mob attacked them or who they were, Aftab said, "We don't know who they were.

We hardly step out of the university since we are from Jammu and Kashmir, there's always that constant fear of becoming a subject of such incident. We have never seen these people or know their identity or what provoked them to attack us.

Maybe there's some political agenda behind this to disrupt the peace in the society by bringing in the Hindu-Muslim angle to it." The incident came into light after pictures of one of the victims went viral. Irked IHK Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti took to Twitter and said, Shocked and disturbed to hear reports of Kashmiri students being assaulted in Mahendargarh, Haryana. Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah tagged Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a tweet and said that the incident goes against the spirit of his outreach for Kashmiris.Security forces arrested at least seven suspects during search operation in the limit area of Tarnol police station in the wee hour of Saturday

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 03rd Feb, 2018 ) : Security forces arrested at least seven suspects during search operation in the limit area of Tarnol police station in the wee hour of Saturday. According to police sources, the door to door search operation was conducted in the Dorry area of Tarnol during which seven suspects were apprehended.

At least six kilograms of Chars and 100 grams heroin were also recovered from the possession of the suspected people. The arrested were shifted to Tarnol police station for further investigation.(@rukhshanmir)

All Parties Hurriyet Conference (APHC) has strongly condemned the brutal assault on Kashmiri students by fanatic goons at Central University Mahindragarh, Hiryana

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 03rd Feb, 2018 ) :All Parties Hurriyet Conference (APHC) has strongly condemned the brutal assault on Kashmiri students by fanatic goons at Central University Mahindragarh, Hiryana.

In a statement, the APHC spokesman said the students were seriously wounded in the attack. Majority of Kashmiri students, businessmen are reeling under an insecure environment in various states of India.

In the past, many incidents of attacks on Kashmiri students took place which forced many students to return back to Kashmir. The spokesman said it was the Primary responsibility of governments of various states of India to ensure safety and security of all the students.

The spokesman denouncing the nocturnal raids in Soibugh area of Budgam during which dozens of youth are arrested termed it the worst form of state repression. The spokesman said scores of houses were vandalized by the government forces in the name of search operation.

The spokesman said these tactics are being done aimed to a build pressure on the people to break their resolve for which they have rendered numerous sacrifices.

He said, however, the fact remains people are committed to the sacred movement and are continuously offering priceless to take the movement to its conclusion.

Meanwhile, incarcerated APHC chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq has condoled the demise of mother of daily Kashmir Times, Chief Editor Prabodh Jamwal who passed away in Jammu last night. Mirwaiz extended his heartfelt condolences to Prabodh Jamwal and Anuradha Jamwal.

On the directions of Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, a delegation comprising Ghulam Rasool, T R Dogra, K K Singh, Farhan Chaudhary, Javaid Ahmad Khan, and Muhammad Afzal visited the family of Jamwals in Jammu and condoled the demise of deceased.

Meanwhile, the spokesman has condemned the continuous house confinement of APHC chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and arrest of Mukhtar Waza lodged in police station Mattan since past three days. The spokesman said it was height of repression that even family members of Waza aren't allowed to meet him and provide necessary medicines.Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal said on Saturday that the courts authority would be established when it jails former president General (retd) Pervez Musharraf for contempt like it did with Nehal Hashmi. Speaking to the media persons here, Iqbal said general Musharraf had committed the biggest contempt of court

MULTAN,(UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 03rd Feb, 2018 ) : Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal said on Saturday that the courts authority would be established when it jails former president General (retd) Pervez Musharraf for contempt like it did with Nehal Hashmi. Speaking to the media persons here, Iqbal said general Musharraf had committed the biggest contempt of court. Before the court issued contempt notice to Tallal Chaudhry, it should first punish Musharraf for abrogating the constitution, Iqbal said, adding if the court is unable to summon Musharraf, serving contempt notices to common political workers is not going to reinforce its authority. He said that not only the PML-N but the entire legal fraternity of the country and abroad expressed their reservations on the courts decision to disqualify party president Nawaz Sharif.

Iqbal added that he doesnt think anyone from Gwadar to Karachi thinks the decision taken against Nawaz is based on the criteria of justice. Responding to a question, he said that the entire party is united over Shehbaz Sharifs nomination as the next prime minster.

Nawaz is our leader and we accept his decisions, therefore the party is completely unanimous over Shehbazs nomination. Iqbal emphasised that Pakistan had become an emerging economy in the Nawaz-led tenure, adding that the multi-billion China Pakistan Economic Corridor was merely a piece of paper till July 2013, it was Nawaz who finalized it during his visit to China.Dr Al Nuaimi being accompanied by other officials to the project site.

Nearly 55 per cent of the work has been completed on the second phase of the extension of the Emirates Road (part of the emirate's Ring Road) in Ras Al Khaimah and the project is due for completion in the second quarter of 2018, said a report.

Dr Abdullah bin Mohammed Belhaif Al Nuaimi, Minister of Infrastructure Development, on Saturday inspected the progress of work on the Dh90-million ($24.5 million) project, said the state news agency Wam.

''The RAK Ring Road, once completed, will reduce travel time for vehicles to the emirate by more than 30 per cent and will serve the emirate for the next 30 years,'' he stated.

It will give motorists from Ras Al Khaimah easy access to highways leading to Abu Dhabi, Dubai and other neighbouring emirates, he added.Chinese Ambassador to Pakistan Yao Jing has said that his country is in contact with the Afghan Taliban's Qatar office and has repeatedly requested them to participate in talks

LONDON, Feb 3 (INP) : Chinese Ambassador to Pakistan Yao Jing has said that his country is in contact with the Afghan Taliban's Qatar office and has repeatedly requested them to participate in talks. However, the ambassador, in an interview with BBC urdu service, said that China does not have influence over the Afghan Taliban. Speaking of relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan, he said that his country wishes for cordial ties between the two neighbours and it is also striving for Afghan reconciliation process. Commenting on the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), Jing said the multi-billion Dollar corridor will be expanded to other regional states, including Afghanistan, as well. He said the corridor is in its first phase, under which, work is ongoing on 21 projects, whereas another 20 are in the pipeline.

The ambassador said that around 10,000 Chinese nationals have been working on CPEC projects in Pakistan, and he has been satisfied with steps taken by Pakistan for their security. Around 60,000 Pakistanis have also been working on CPEC-related projects, according to the ambassador. Jing said law and order situation in Pakistan has significantly improved, compared to the past. The ambassador further said he is hopeful that Gwadar is close to becoming an international trade hub. To a question about Baloch resistance, the Chinese Ambassador said in his opinion they are not real Pakistanis otherwise they would have thought about Pakistani interests.(@ChaudhryMAli88)

Chinese Foreign Wang Yi said that China will welcome Pakistan and other Asian countries to participate in the high profile economic forum (BOAO)

ISLAMABAD,(UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 03rd Feb, 2018 ) : Chinese Foreign Wang Yi said that China will welcome Pakistan and other Asian countries to participate in the high profile economic forum (BOAO). BOAO forum is scheduled to meet in Chinese Hainan province on April 8-11 that provides a big opportunity to the regional countries to develop their socio-economic partnership.

It is going to take up host of topics of socio-economic interest. Addressing here a big gathering of foreign dignitaries, Wang Yi highlighted significance of BOAO and said this annual Forum for Asia is a brilliant business card in Hainan, a famous brand in the country, an interactive platform between China and Asia and other countries in the world. This spring, all parties will once gather in Boao and make a common speech and put forward the Asian proposal on the theme of "an open and innovative Asia with a prosperous and developing world." Wang Yi told the participants that 2018 is the 40th anniversary of China's reform and opening up and the 30th anniversary of the founding of Hainan Province as a special economic zone.

The development of contemporary China and Hainan are shining brightly by the reform and opening up. The reform and opening up is a magnificent and great practice not only profoundly changing China but also profoundly changing the world. Over the past 40 years, China's total economic output has increased from about 300 billion Yuan to 83 trillion yuan.

Its per capita GDP has risen from less than 400 yuan to about 60,000 yuan, contributing more than 30% to global economic growth. China has actively integrated into the world and has participated in almost all intergovernmental organizations and over 400 international multilateral treaties. In the past five years in particular, with the strong leadership of the party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping as the core, China has been speeding up its all-round deepening reforms and making breakthroughs and pushing forward in depth so as to lay a solid foundation for China's sustained, healthy and stable development in the future, he added.In front of the Chief Ministers house, a handicapped woman, also a widow is waiting for her turn in a long queue to plead her case. She lost her husband in a bombing in the year 2012. While her eldest son was employed at the Bolan Medical Complex Hospital as a replacement for his deceased father, he has not received his pay for several months now.

QUETTA, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 03rd Feb, 2018) : In front of the Chief Ministers house, a handicapped woman, also a widow is waiting for her turn in a long queue to plead her case. She lost her husband in a bombing in the year 2012.

While her eldest son was employed at the Bolan Medical Complex Hospital as a replacement for his deceased father, he has not received his pay for several months now. The handicapped widow was among thousands of people waiting to meet the CM Balochistan regarding their issues. These are just few of the many cases that are being brought up at the khulli kachehri that has been set up by Balochistans newly elected chief minister Mir Abdul Quddus Bizenjo, in what he says is an attempt, to address concerns of the people of his province.

Many unemployed doctors and veterinary doctors were also seen standing in the queue to appeal to the CM for jobs. CM Bizenjo stated that the doors of CM house will remain open until everyones pleas and complaints have been duly addressed, adding that no one will be left out. Over three thousand people were waiting in front of CM Balochistans house.

Photo: Screengrab This is the second such khulli kachehri which was held at CM house where more than three thousand people came to see CM Balochistan with their complaints and requests. CM Balochistan ensured that everyone will be catered to and all issues would be resolved.(@ChaudhryMAli88)

Denouncing several historical events for dismissing democratic governments, former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Friday said that the law of necessity and Provisional Constitutional Order (PCO) inflicted immense damages to the democratic process to take roots in the country.

KARACHI,(UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 02nd Feb, 2018) : Denouncing several historical events for dismissing democratic governments, former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Friday said that the law of necessity and Provisional Constitutional Order (PCO) inflicted immense damages to the democratic process to take roots in the country. Addressing a seminar titled The Future of Democracy in Pakistan, here Sharif said that the courts granted power to autocrats to amend the constitutions through the PCOs. Launching into another diatribe against the judiciary, he said a segment of the judiciary has always supported the dictators in the country under the law of necessity.

No democratic government could complete its tenure except the preceding one, he lamented. Recalling martial laws in the country, he said the courts validated coups on the basis of the doctrine of necessity.

The country ruled by dictators for over three decades as not a single elected representative could complete the mandated five-year term, he deplored. He alleged that the judiciary paved way for undemocratic mindsets to take control of the state, as what he said, the courts are merely powerful for politicians rather than the dictators.

He went on saying that the politicians were hanged and sent into exile but the authoritarians who breached constitutional law never earned the courts ire. Calling for tough decisions for future, the ousted premier said its the due responsibility of all individuals to play their role for prosperity of democracy.

People from all walk of lives, teachers, lawyers and media persons share equal responsibility to safeguard the democracy, he asserted. He also questioned the courts reluctance to give a verdict in the treason case against former president General (retd) Pervaiz Musharaf. Nawaz Sharif was disqualified as Prime Minister by the Supreme Court of Pakistan in its landmark July 28 verdict last year, in the Panama papers case for being dishonest under Article 62 of the constitution.

The former premier has been in Karachi first time after his ouster from the top office.Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) Saturday arrested 33 Pakistanis at Sialkot International Airport on their return from Turkey, from where they hand been deported

SIALKOT, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 03rd Feb, 2018 ) :Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) Saturday arrested 33 Pakistanis at Sialkot International Airport on their return from Turkey, from where they hand been deported. FIA officials said the deportees had reached Turkey illegally. They had been sent to jail after registering cases against them.The first-ever livestock farmers association has been registered here which would opened new avenues for livestock entrance into international export market

FAISALABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 03rd Feb, 2018 ) :The first-ever livestock farmers association has been registered here which would opened new avenues for livestock entrance into international export market.

Director Livestock Dr Muhammad Nawaz Malik said that the first farmers association had been established at Chak No.

52-JB with a name of Progressive Breeders Welfare Society and senior farmers would be its members. He said more farmers associations would also be set up at Chak No 225-RB, 217-RB, 56-JB and 198-RB and their cases had been transferred to the relevant department.(@ChaudhryMAli88)

Provincial Minister for Labor & Manpower, Raja Ishfaq Sarwar said Saturday that timely completion of development projects was the top priority of Punjab government as it would bring relief for general public

RAWALPINDI, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 03rd Feb, 2018 ) :Provincial Minister for Labor & Manpower, Raja Ishfaq Sarwar said Saturday that timely completion of development projects was the top priority of Punjab government as it would bring relief for general public.

Chairing a meeting of steering committee for development projects of NA-50 at Punjab House Islamabad, the minister directed the government departments to focus on improving infrastructure of Health and education.

He urged them to given priority to locals in project jobs so that we won't confront any shortage of staff due to transfers. Reviewing the detailed report presented by all departments, Raja Ishfaq Sarwar said that along with the maintenance and repair of roads; updated report of THQs, BHU and dispensaries to be presented to committee at the earliest.

He said that 33 schemes of water supply have been completed while work was in progress on 4 schemes which needed to be completed swiftly and further directed to highlight the points of clean drinking water in Kotli sattyian.

While sharing details of Kahuta-Punjar road, minister said that re-alignment of Kahuta-Panjaar-Azad Pattan road was under consideration due to impounding of dam water which is Karot Hydro Power Project.

It is suggested that existing road which is 59 Km may replace with 69 Km. He further added that maintenance of Chowk Pindori to Buer Road and land effectees of Karot Hydro Power project were also our key focus and a committee had been established to look into the matter.

Moreover, Raja Ishfaq Sarwar said that High ways Punjab had also been directed to repair 24 roads in NA-50 at preference basis. Commissioner Rawalpindi Nadeem Aslam Chaudary was also present on the occasion.(@ChaudhryMAli88)

Islamabad police along with Pakistan Rangers on Saturday conducted search operation in various areas of Tarnol and Secretariat police stations and arrested 28 suspects including seven drug pushers besides recovery of 6.650 kilogram hashish and 1.100 kilogram heroine from them.

ISLAMABAD,(UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 03rd Feb, 2018) : Islamabad police along with Pakistan Rangers on Saturday conducted search operation in various areas of Tarnol and Secretariat police stations and arrested 28 suspects including seven drug pushers besides recovery of 6.650 kilogram hashish and 1.100 kilogram heroine from them. According to details, officers/officials of Islamabad Police and Pak Rangers conducted search operation in various areas of Tarnol and Secretariat police stations.

Under supervision of SP (Saddar) Aamir Khan Niazi, and SP City Ahmed Iqbal, SHOs Tarnol and Secretariat joined this search operation while police commandos, lady commandos and staff of Bomb Disposal squad also participated in it.

They screened 200 houses and checked more than 180 persons, interrogated them and arrested 28 suspects including seven drug pushers namely Muhammad Zubair, Nisar Ahmed, Muhammad Adnan, Fahim, Muhammad Ishfaq and Ajab Khan.

Police also recovered 6.650kg hashish and 1.100kg heroin from their possession. SSP Islamabad Najeeb ur Rehman Bugvi has has said that the purpose of this search operation is to ensure high vigilance in the city and every effort will be made to ensure protection to the lives and property of citizens.

He has also appealed the citizens to remain vigilant and inform police in case of any suspicious activity around them. The SSP also directed to accelerate efforts to get rid from the menace of drug pushing.(@rukhshanmir)

Deputy chief of the Jamaat e Islami, Hafiz Muhammad Idrees, has said that Kashmir is the jugular vein of Pakistan and none of the Kashmiris had ever accepted it a part of India.

LAHORE, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 03rd Feb, 2018) : Deputy chief of the Jamaat e Islami, Hafiz Muhammad Idrees, has said that Kashmir is the jugular vein of Pakistan and none of the Kashmiris had ever accepted it a part of India. Addressing a seminar on Kashmir Solidarity at Al Hamra on Saturday, he said that the Kashmiris were observing Indias Independence day and Republic Day as Black day which reflected their hatred for India. The Pakistani flag was being unfurled all over Held Kashmir and the Kashmiris were burying their martyrs in the Pakistani flag to show their desire to be a part of Pakistan. He said that some countries were considering Kashmir a part of India which reflected their strong bias and inhuman mindset.

However, he said, that the Pakistani leaders were also be to be blamed for that. He said it was unfortunate that Indian embassies and foreign office were successful in projecting their false stance as truth while the Pakistani institutions were unable to project their just stance due to their apathy towards the Kashmiris.

Hafiz Muhammad Idrees was however sure that Kashmir would be free soon. He said that the late Qazi Husain Ahmed had done a great service to the Kashmir cause by declaring February five as Kashmir solidarity day.(@FahadShabbir)

Radio Pakistan will air special programmes on February 5 to express solidarity with the Kashmiri people struggling for their right of self-determination under UN resolutions.

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 03rd Feb, 2018 ) : Radio Pakistan will air special programmes on February 5 to express solidarity with the Kashmiri people struggling for their right of self-determination under UN resolutions. Messages of President and Prime Minister will be aired in programme "Subh- e Pakistan" starting at 7:10 a.m.

A special song, 'Naghma-i-Kashmir' and Interviews of President and Prime Minister of Azad Jammu Kashmir will also be part of this programme. One minute silence will be observed at 10:00 a.m. to pay homage to the martyrs of the liberation struggle of Occupied Kashmir. Special programme highlighting struggle of women for liberation of motherland from Indian clutches has been scheduled in programme "Sukhi Ghar" under the title, "Srinagar Ki Betiyan.

" Special song "Ay Jannat Arzi" and interview of Kashmiri leader Mashal Malik titled, "Jed-o-jehd-e Azadi Jammu Wa Kashmir Aur Khawateen Ka Jazba-e Hurriyet' will also be presented during this programme. Radio report on human chain in Muzaffarabad and other ceremonies to be held on this day will be broadcast at 03:30pm.

Special discussion programme, 'Jed-o-Jahd-e Azadi-e Kashmir Aur Naujawan will be aired at 04:30p.m. Song 'Dunya Ke Munsifo, interview of former diplomat Abdul Basit titled, "Masla-e Kashmir Aur Muassar Safarat Kari," and radio reports on ceremonies to be held in different cities will be put on air at 07:10 p.m. Special play on occasion of Kashmir Solidarity Day will be presented at 09:10 p.m.

and special Mushahira at 10:10 p.m.The Iraqi government has launched a $210-million project in co-ordination with World Bank in a bid to improve the quality of drinking water supply and wastewater services to around five million residents in capital Baghdad who suffer from water shortages and the outbreak of waterborne diseases due to inadequate infrastructure, rapid population growth, and the inflow of internally displaced people.

The Baghdad Water Supply and Sewerage Improvement Project, approved by the World Bank Groups Board of Executive Directors will support the Mayoralty of Baghdad and the Baghdad Water and Sewerage Authorities through improvement in utility management, and generate employment during the construction, operation and maintenance stages of implementation.

The project will help finance the construction of a service reservoir with a total capacity of 135,000 cu m, which will help the city manage its water supply better in case of climate-induced droughts.

The project will also rehabilitate existing sewerage pumping stations thus reducing the public health effects of untreated wastewater discharged into the Tigris. The project will contribute to the reduction of physical losses by replacing about 130 km of water supply distribution network and the creation of district metering areas.

According to World Bank, the project will also help reduce the incidence of water-borne diseases and improve the quality of life, health, and sanitation.

"The recently completed National Water and Land Strategy (2015-2035) indicates that Baghdad will need substantial investments in its water supply and wastewater treatment systems over the next 20 years," Saroj Kumar Jha, the regional director at World Bank Mashreq.

"Given limited availability of public funding, attracting commercial finance will be critical for implementing this ambitious strategy," he stated.

In close coordination with the International Finance Corporation, this project will focus on creating a more favorable business environment, and on supporting the preparation of feasibility studies and transactions to enable private sector participation in the water sector, added |Jha.

The residents of Baghdad deal with daily water service interruptions, especially during the hot summer months. Baghdad is one of the governorates impacted by outbreaks of waterborne diseases, said the World Bank in its report.

Leakage from sewer pipes contaminates potable water networks and groundwater aquifers, which aggravates health and environmental problems.

Contaminated water supply and improper disposal of sewage force families to spend a significant fraction of their income on medical treatment and to purchase bottled water, it added.

Mayor of Baghdad Thikra Alwash said: "Water supply and sanitation have immediate and major impacts on the quality of life of citizens."

"We are committed to improving public services for the residents of Baghdad and to alleviating the burden households face on a daily basis in getting clean and reliable water supply. We are confident that improved access to these services can significantly strengthen people's trust and confidence in the state and contribute to building social cohesion when it is most needed," he added.-TradeArabia News Service(@rukhshanmir)

Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on Saturday has arrested two notorious human trafficker accused Salamat and Saeed from Sialkot and Pasrur here.

SIALKOT, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 03rd Feb, 2018 ) : Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on Saturday has arrested two notorious human trafficker accused Salamat and Saeed from Sialkot and Pasrur here. According to the senior FIA officials, FIA has sent the accused behind the bars after registering separate cases against them. Further investigations were underway, in this regard.At least 35 persons suffered burn injuries and two lost their lives in 10 Sui Gas/LPG explosions occurred during the month of January, said District Emergency Officer, Rawalpindi Dr. Abdul Rehman

RAWALPINDI, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 03rd Feb, 2018 ) :At least 35 persons suffered burn injuries and two lost their lives in 10 Sui Gas/LPG explosions occurred during the month of January, said District Emergency Officer, Rawalpindi Dr.

Abdul Rehman. Talking to APP he said, there was need for launching an awareness campaign among the people about safety measures needed to be taken on such occasions and about the first aid to be provided to the victims.

Every year in winter, there had been reports of casualties due to incidents of gas explosions caused by gas leakage from appliances, mostly from substandard portable gas heaters. The people know little about how to detect gas leakage, what to do in case of fire and how to provide immediate medical assistance to the burn victims before shifting them to a hospital.

If there is smell of gas inside your room or shop, then don't smoke or strike a match, don't turn on a light, don't operate any electrical appliance, don't use a flashlight or lighter and leave the place immediately.

The people should turn off the main gas valve, if possible, leave the doors open, call the gas or Rescue personnel. He further informed that Rescue 1122 Rawalpindi rescued 2409 victims of emergencies during last month while responding to 2496 emergency calls.

Dr. Abdul Rehman said, the emergency calls received in Command and Control Room, Rescue-1122 here included 763 road traffic accidents, 1406 medical emergencies, 80 fire emergencies, 60 crime calls, two drowning cases and 175 other miscellaneous emergencies.

He said, out of 2409 rescued victims 303 persons were provided first aid at the spot while 1937 patients were shifted to the different hospitals after provision of emergency medical treatment by the trained paramedics of Rescue 1122 Rawalpindi.

169 bodies of those lost their lives in emergencies were also shifted to different hospitals of the town, he added. To a question he said, total 75604 phone calls were received in Rawalpindi district during January out of which 42095 were irrelevant and 24838 were distorted/blank or dropped calls with 5158 calls made to seek information.

He informed that 1003 wrong calls were also received during the period. He further said, Rescue-1122 Rawalpindi since its inception on Aug 14, 2007 has rescued 177729 emergency victims. 47366 victims were provided first aid at the spot while 123101 patients and 7133 dead bodies were shifted to hospitals.

The emergency calls to which Rescue 1122 responded included 19829 road traffic accidents, 24435 medical emergencies, 815 fire and 1693 crime incidents, 67 drowning incidents, 70 building collapses, 17 explosions and 5175 miscellaneous operations. To another question the DEO said, 80.52 remained average responded calls per day during January while average response time remained 8.31.(@rukhshanmir)

US Joint Staff Director Lt Gen Kenneth McKenzie says Washington has assured Islamabad that the United States is not planning to conduct any military operations inside Pakistan.

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 03rd Feb, 2018) : US Joint Staff Director Lt Gen Kenneth McKenzie says Washington has assured Islamabad that the United States is not planning to conduct any military operations inside Pakistan. In news briefing at Pentagon, he said that that American strategy is inherently regional and Pakistan is geographically located at a critical nexus while Islamabad is a fundamental part of the strategy.

He said we look to gain Pakistani cooperation and assistance as we pursue operations in Afghanistan but we are not planning to conduct military operations inside Pakistan. On the other hand, Pentagon chief spokesperson Dana W.

White said the strategy has created an opportunity for Pakistan to cooperate with the United States in defeating the terrorists operating in the region.Maldivian authorities Saturday announced an indefinite postponement of parliament as President Abdulla Yameen's regime resisted international pressure to comply with a landmark Supreme Court order to free political prisoners

Mal', Maldives, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 03rd Feb, 2018 ) :Maldivian authorities Saturday announced an indefinite postponement of parliament as President Abdulla Yameen's regime resisted international pressure to comply with a landmark Supreme Court order to free political prisoners.

The People's Majlis, or parliament, told local reporters in a brief message that the assembly will not have its scheduled sessions on Monday "due to security reasons". No fresh date was given for the sessions.

The move followed a shock order Thursday by the country's Supreme Court to release nine political dissidents. It also restored the seats of 12 legislators, who had been sacked for defecting from Yameen's party.

The reinstatement of the dozen legislators has given the opposition a majority in the 85-member assembly, and it can now potentially impeach Yameen as well as his cabinet. The beleaguered president announced Saturday that he sacked police chief Ahmed Saudhee, who was appointed just two days ago.

His predecessor Ahmed Areef was fired on Thursday, shortly after he said he would honour the court's decision. The main opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) said Yameen was yet to release any political prisoners.

"Although Yameen has said he will abide by the ruling, he is yet to comply with the order delivered more than 36 hours ago," Colombo-based MDP spokesman Hamid Abdul Ghafoor said on Saturday morning.

The court had said that cases against the nine dissidents, including MDP leader and former president Mohamed Nasheed, were politically motivated and asked the government to release them immediately.

In a statement issued overnight, the joint opposition, which includes Nasheed's MDP, said there were concerns the regime would ignore the ruling and that it would trigger further unrest in the nation of 340,000 Muslims.

" We are deeply fearful that the government's refusal to implement the Supreme Court order could escalate to unrest and incite violence across the country," the opposition said. Nasheed, the country's first democratically-elected president, has urged the government to respect the top court's decision.

The United Nations, Australia, Britain, Canada, India and the United States welcomed the court's decision as a move towards restoring democracy in the politically troubled Indian Ocean nation. Earlier, Nasheed had said the ruling cleared the way for him to return to the Maldives and contest elections due later this year.

"I can contest and will contest," he told AFP in the Sri Lankan capital Colombo. For its part, the Maldivian government said Friday that it had concerns about releasing those convicted for "terrorism, corruption, embezzlement, and treason".

Nasheed was barred from contesting any election in the Maldives after a controversial 2015 terrorism conviction internationally criticised as politically motivated. The Maldives' popular image as an upmarket holiday paradise has been severely damaged by a major crackdown on dissent under Yameen, who has overseen the jailing of almost all his political opponents.

The opposition said there were sporadic clashes Friday night between anti-government activists and the police in the Maldives.A million people could take to the streets in Athens on Sunday in a mass demonstration over Greek attempts to resolve a longstanding name row with Macedonia, organisers say

Athens, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 03rd Feb, 2018 ) :A million people could take to the streets in Athens on Sunday in a mass demonstration over Greek attempts to resolve a longstanding name row with Macedonia, organisers say.

Huge crowds are predicted to fill central Syntagma Square to protest a rumoured Greek government compromise to the 27-year dispute with its tiny northern neighbour. When Macedonia declared independence in 1991 from the collapsing Yugoslav federation, Athens protested, claiming the name implied a territorial claim on the prominent Greek province of Macedonia.

But Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has been considering a resolution to the name dispute, angering many in the opposition, but also among his nationalist coalition partners, the Independent Greeks.

"The square will be the meeting point of various heterogeneous groups guided by different sentiments, ranging from a profound concern about the name dispute to disaffection with government policies," Nikolaos Tzifakis, head of the political science department at Peloponnese University, told AFP.

Tsipras has already faced dozens of demonstrations while in power, but Sunday's mass protest nominally about foreign policy is expected to draw a motley crowd united by opposition to the prime minister, Tzifakis said.

Ironically, pundits expect the largest turnout since the 2015 anti-austerity referendum rally organised by Tsipras at the zenith of his popularity, rejecting cuts demanded by the country's EU-IMF creditors.

Angering many, the Greek government instead agreed to more austerity measures as the country faced being kicked out of the eurozone. "Many people are now seeing this policy change (over Macedonia) through the prism of the economic crisis and qualify it as one concession too much," Tzifakis adds.

- Opening space 'to radicals' - Organisers of the Macedonia march, headed by Greek diaspora groups, have insisted their protest is apolitical. "We are all patriots. There are no parties, no colours," said Georgia Bitakou, one of the organisers.

But another large protest on January 21 in Thessaloniki, the northern Greek capital, over the Macedonia name dispute was attended by several lawmakers from the conservative main opposition New Democracy party and neo-Nazi party Golden Dawn.

Whilst a far cry from a million-strong march on the issue over two decades ago, organisers said more than 400,000 attended the protest. Police put the figure at closer to 90,000. "Neither the government nor the opposition expected such a large number of participants.

The Athens protest will therefore be quite closely watched by the political class," said Manolis Alexakis, a political scientist at Crete University. Suspected neo-Nazis vandalised a Jewish memorial on the sidelines of the protest and an anarchist-occupied building was also burned down.

No arrests were made. Some analysts have warned that Golden Dawn, a violently xenophobic and anti-Semitic group, is exploiting the Macedonia protests to bounce back from a damaging murder trial involving one of its members.

These kinds of mass protests "open up space to radicals, especially the far-right," Alexakis added. This week, threatening letters were also sent to Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias, who is spearheading efforts to resolve the Macedonia name row.

- Break the deadlock - The dispute with Macedonia has festered for decades despite numerous UN-mediated talks to resolve the dispute. Greece considers the name "Macedonia" to be part of its own cultural heritage, as it is also the name of a historic Greek province that was the core of Alexander the Great's ancient empire.

Athens thus seeks guarantees that the use of the name by its neighbour implies no claim to parts of its own territory. Because of Greece's objections, Macedonia in 1993 joined the United Nations as the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM).

To break the deadlock, longterm UN mediator Matthew Nimetz has now proposed several alternative Names in Macedonian, including "Republika Nova Makedonija" or the "Republic of New Macedonia". Tsipras' government says it is ready to accept a composite name that will establish a clear distinction from Greek Macedonia.

A resolution of the issue is needed before Macedonia can join NATO or the EU. Greece in 2008 threatened to veto Macedonia's NATO entry. Skopje subsequently took the issue to the International Court of Justice, which said Athens had been wrong to block its land-locked neighbour's aspirations.A Moroccan court sentenced to jail a journalist for his coverage of unrest in the country's north, media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said, calling for his release

Rabat, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 03rd Feb, 2018 ) :A Moroccan court sentenced to jail a journalist for his coverage of unrest in the country's north, media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said, calling for his release.

Abdelkabir al-Horr was convicted on charges of backing "terrorism, inciting others to hold a banned protest in the northern Rif region and insulting" authorities, RSF said in its statement on Friday.

It said Horr, founder of the Rassdmaroc news website, was sentenced to four years in jail on Thursday. RSF expressed "deep concern" over the verdict and called for the journalist's "immediate release".

It quoted the journalist's lawyer as saying authorities had charged him over his coverage of a wave of protests that shook the neglected Rif region for months last year.

RSF said the so-called incriminating reports were published on a Facebook page which Horr stopped administering in 2016, before the protests erupted.

Originally sparked by the death of a fishmonger crushed in a rubbish truck as he tried to salvage a confiscated fish, the protests snowballed into a challenge to the authorities as protesters called for jobs and an end to graft.

RSF also called on Moroccan authorities to drop all charges against four other journalists on trial since January for publishing in 2016 excerpts of a parliamentary debate deemed confidential. RSF ranked Morocco 133rd out of 180 countries in its World Press Freedom Index last year.Pakistan and the United States should find common ground to work and it would be a mistake to squander a relationship that benefitted both for seven decades, Pakistan's Ambassador to the United States Aizaz Ahmed Chaudhry said in an interview to an American national radio

WASHINGTON, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 03rd Feb, 2018 ) :Pakistan and the United States should find common ground to work and it would be a mistake to squander a relationship that benefitted both for seven decades, Pakistan's Ambassador to the United States Aizaz Ahmed Chaudhry said in an interview to an American national radio.

'We would like to have good relations with the United States, there is no doubt about it,' the Ambassador told NPR (National Public Radio) aired early Saturday. 'The two countries have worked together for seven decades, and we think it would be a mistake to squander that relationship.' 'Both countries have benefited from that relationship.

And if that relationship goes down, I think both countries are going to lose,' he added. Ambassador Chaudhry said that the tweet by President Trump was a 'great disappointment' and surprised Islamabad as it came amid a conversation at the highest level that was focusing on finding common ground to work together.

He was referring to the visits by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Secretary of Defense James Mattis who visited Pakistan in October and December respectively last year. 'We were having those conversations.

The idea was, to use the words of Secretary Mattis, find that common ground where two countries have to work.' The Ambassador said the two countries should find common grounds, and not engage in a 'coercive or disrespectful' relationship, adding that Islamabad believed in a relationship based on mutual respect and mutual trust 'and I think that's where the future should lie'.

Replying to a question on Afghanistan, the Ambassador underscored Pakistan would lose, not gain, from violence in Afghanistan. 'We are the only country that will benefit the most, apart from the people of Afghanistan, if peace returns to Afghanistan,' he said and posed a question as to why would Islamabad support any element that would destabilize Afghanistan, and in turn bring instability to Pakistan.

More than 200 people were killed in a spate of deadly attacks in Afghanistan last month that were claimed by Taliban. Ambassador Chaudhry expressed disappointment over accusations by Kabul which linked them to Pakistan.

"We condemn those attacks, the innocent lives [that] have been lost. Our foreign minister was in the Afghan Embassy in Islamabad, and we commiserate with the people and government of Afghanistan.' But, he added, it was disappointing to see Kabul's only reaction, which is to blame Pakistan for anything that happens in that country, no matter what.

He said that externalizing its own problems would not help the Afghan government deal with the issue at hand. Asked about a solution to the violence in Afghanistan, the Ambassador stated that there has to be a comprehensive approach and an engagement in a genuine political dialogue between all Afghan factions.

'We don't want to be party to it. We think that it should be between Afghan government and all Afghan factions, the Taliban must be made to be part of that process,' the Ambassador said, adding that Pakistan twice tried to facilitate a reconciliation process, including a four nations moot that involved Pakistan, Afghanistan, the US and China.

During the second such attempt, the four nations came together to meet the Taliban and persuaded them that they must give up violence, but the talks stalled after a news leak about the death of their supreme leader. He noted that since then Pakistan's influence on Taliban had eroded.Syria on Saturday denied recent accusations by the United States that it had used chemical weapons on opposition forces near the capital Damascus, shrugging them off as "lies."

Damascus, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 03rd Feb, 2018 ) :Syria on Saturday denied recent accusations by the United States that it had used chemical weapons on opposition forces near the capital Damascus, shrugging them off as "lies." "The foreign ministry condemns the false claims by the United States that the Syrian government used chemical weapons in Eastern Ghouta," a foreign ministry source said, cited by Syrian state news agency SANA.

Eastern Ghouta is a rebel-controlled enclave adjacent to Damascus. On Friday, US Defence Secretary Jim Mattis told reporters his government was concerned sarin gas may have been recently used in Syria.

The Pentagon chief cited reports from NGOs and rebel groups in the battlefield who say the toxic gas has been used, although he stressed that the United States currently has no proof to support those accusations.

Syria's foreign ministry seized on his comments, saying even the US acknowledged their own statements were "not based on evidence". "Claims that the Syrian state used chlorine gas one moment and sarin gas the next prove that these are nothing more than lies," the statement said.

"These are lies based on stories from America's so-called partners on the ground." Last month, 21 people were treated for respiratory problems after rockets were fired on the rebel bastion of Eastern Ghouta outside Damascus.

Syria has staunchly denied the claims, pointing to its 2013 handover of its chemical stores as part of a deal between the United States and Russia. That agreement came after accusations that Damascus used sarin gas on Eastern Ghouta in August 2013.

But the United Nations found that Syrian government forces were responsible for chlorine attacks in Syria in 2014 and 2015, as well as sarin use in 2017. The April 2017 attack on Khan Sheikhun left scores dead and prompted the US to fire 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles at a Syrian air field.

On Thursday, senior US administration officials said Washington was not ruling out fresh military action in the wake of new suspected attacks.(@ChaudhryMAli88)

Turkey on Saturday said that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad should leave office "at some point" in the future but denied there was any kind of contact between Ankara and Damascus over ending the seven year civil war

Istanbul, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 03rd Feb, 2018 ) :Turkey on Saturday said that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad should leave office "at some point" in the future but denied there was any kind of contact between Ankara and Damascus over ending the seven year civil war.

Ankara has been a prime foe of Assad throughout the conflict but has occasionally softened its rhetoric in the last months as Turkey strengthened cooperation with the regime's main ally Russia.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's spokesperson, Ibrahim Kalin, told journalists in Istanbul that Assad was not the leader to unite Syria and had lost legitimacy. But Kalin said there needed to be a "political transition in Syria", leading to a new constitution and elections.

"It is not going to be easy but that's the ultimate goal to reach and at some point Assad will have to go," he added. "Where exactly, at what point precisely (Assad leaves), is something that will be answered as we go on, obviously," he said.

He was speaking after Russia on Tuesday hosted a peace congress on Syria, with both Russian President Vladimir Putin and Erdogan expressing "satisfaction", according to the Kremlin. Kalin, who is also regarded as Erdogan's top foreign policy advisor, also indicated that Turkey believed Russia's priority was ensuring Syria did not become a failed state, rather than concern about Assad himself.

He said the Russian position has been "not so much protecting Assad personally but protecting the state institutions, state apparatus and the Syrian army and the regime elements".

He said: "They want to make sure that the state doesn't collapse completely in Syria." - 'No contact with regime' - Turkey's position on Assad has been under ever greater scrutiny since Ankara on January 20 began a cross-border operation with Syrian allied rebel forces against Kurdish militia based in the town of Afrin.

The main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu has called for Ankara to make contact with the Damascus regime as the best way of ensuring Syria's territorial integrity.

But Kalin denied any contact with Damascus "at any level". "There is no communication, no relationship, direct (or) indirect. Nothing with the Syrian regime, at any level. I can say that categorically and very clearly," he said.

He also rejected the notion that there had been any agreement with Russia allowing the Afrin operation to go ahead in exchange for a deal over the rebel-held neighbouring region of Idlib. "There's no deal with Russia 'you give Idlib and take Afrin'...

they are two separate operations," he said. Kalin indicated that Turkey's position on Syria was less well aligned with the other major ally of the Damascus regime, Iran. "Iran supports the regime but we don't, and they want to keep Assad the person and we don't," said Kalin,.Air Arabia, the Middle East and North Africas first and largest low-cost carrier (LCC), has announced the launch of its inaugural flight to Moscows Sheremetyevo International Airport, adding a second route for travel to the Russian capital.

The debut flight landed in Sheremetyevo International Airport on Thursday (February 1) at 13:35 local time led by an Air Arabia delegation headed by the Group CEO Adel Al Ali.

The delegation was received by Sheremetyevo Airport officials who were present for the arrival of the flight.

The budget carrier will nitially operate four times a week on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays, before being upgraded to a daily service starting from March 1.

The outbound flight G9 951 departs Sharjah International Airport (SHJ) at 9.10am, arriving at Sheremetyevo International Airport (SVO) at 1.35pm (local time). The inbound flight G9 952 leaves Sheremetyevo at 2.35pm, landing in Sharjah at 8.45pm.

Lauding the Russia operations, said: "We thank the Russian authorities and Sheremetyevo International Airport for their warm welcome. Moscow is a metropolis that brims with culture, and Sheremetyevo adds a convenient gateway to enter and discover this historic city."

Through flexible and affordable travel options, and our award-winning services, we remain committed to providing our passengers with the best, and are confident that this new route will complement our existing flights to Domodedovo in making Moscow a unique and unforgettable destination, he added.

Air Arabia currently operates flights to over 140 routes across the globe from five hubs located in the Middle East and North Africa.-TradeArabia News Service

Alexxas bar, a new, modern venue inside Paris Las Vegas Hotel & Casino, announced today the launch of its food menu featuring cold and warm plates, dips, flatbreads and desserts from around the world. The new menu, curated by Executive Chef Carlos Buscaglia, will be available at Alexxas bar beginning late February 2018 (Pictured: Alexxas Ahi Tuna Tacos  Photo credit Jenna Dosch).

Alexxas menu is perfect for the Las Vegas visitor looking for delicious small plates before heading for a night out, or indulging in

late-night bites with a great vibe listening to live music while people watching  said Chef Buscaglia.

The menu features cold plates such as deviled egg toast, heirloom tomato salad, grilled Caesar endive salad, ahi tuna tacos, ceviche and calabrese salami. Guests looking for something warm can indulge in two fried chicken sliders served with pickles, spicy aioli, steamed buns, Asian slaw and green onions; two vegetarian empanadas with hen of the woods mushrooms, black beans, asadero cheese and avocado mole; a prime rib pierogi with bacon caramelized shallots, ricotta and horseradish sour cream; and more. These plates range from $10-$14 making it easy for guests to try multiple items and still have room for Sangria.

TREVI Italian Restaurant, located in The Forum Shops at Caesars Palace, will celebrate National Pizza Day with the introduction of three new pizza combinations, available beginning on Friday, Feb. 9 (Pictured: TREVI Ortolana Pizza).

Executive Chef Jose Navarro has created three new pizza combinations for the holiday, including: Calabrese, made with San Marzano tomato puree, fresh mozzarella, Andouille sausage and fresh basil, priced at $19; Ortolana, topped with San Marzano tomato puree, fresh mozzarella, grilled vegetables and fresh basil, available for $17; and Mare, made with San Marzano tomato puree, garlic-marinated shrimp, scallops, mussels, clams, calamari and fresh basil, priced at $26.

Bazaar Meat by Jose Andres at SLS Las Vegas is celebrating Truffle Festival with a limited-time truffle tasting menu. Truffle Festival is being celebrated at all Bazaar locations in Las Vegas, Los Angeles and Miami, with each location offering a curated truffle tasting menu, unique to each venue (Pictured: SLS Bazaar Meat Truffled Shabu Shabu de Toro  Photo credit: Chris Wessling).

Photo credit: Chris Wessling

The Bazaar Meat truffle tasting menu features multiple courses highlighting the distinctive flavor of the black truffles, which have been hand-selected for Chef Jose Andres and all Bazaar restaurants.

Photo credit: Chris Wessling

Craft cocktails have also been created with the black truffles to complement the aromatic delicacy. The menu and cocktails will be available in February, only, as the lifespan of a truffle is short  from the moment it is plucked from the soil, it should be enjoyed within a few weeks for optimal flavor and enjoyment.

The decadent 12-course tasting available at SLS Las Vegas includes several dishes complemented by the black truffles, including: pan con tomate, Catalan-style toasted pan de cristal with fresh tomato and shaved truffle; black truffle barquillo, made with chestnut, celery and mascarpone cheese; Vittore 1950, made with a tenderloin of Washugyu beef, black pepper, parmesan and croutons; truffled Shabu Shabu de Toro, thinly-sliced bull sirloin poached tableside in jamon and truffle broth with Honshimiji mushrooms; and more. The truffle tasting menu is priced at $150 per person.

Cocktails prepared with the black truffles include: Earth Diamond, a tribute to the Pisco Sour, made with Macchu Pisco, lime juice, egg white and honey truffle, topped with grated black truffle, priced at $16; and Truffles & Bees, a combination of Grey Goose La Poire vodka, lemon juice, truffle, honey and topped with champagne, for $16.

Guests may also request truffle shavings on any dish for an additional charge of $25 per two grams, or $50 per four grams. The full menu is available here.

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Exhale Gives Back  Enhancing and empowering our community and causes. Acting as a Charity to Charities we are devoted to making a difference in our community. We strive not only to raise funds, but to educate a broader community to the needs of the charitable organizations we serve. Exhale Gives Back partners with charities in our local community to fundraise and further the causes of drug education awareness, youth program development, veterans outreach and assistance, and medical marijuana education, research, and assistance.SYDNEY - Australia has set out an ambitious strategy to become one of the worlds top 10 weapons exporters within 10 years. Ministers say the plan will boost global peacekeeping efforts, as well as create thousands of jobs in Australia.

As part of its plan, Canberra wants to sell more of its military technology and hardware, including armored vehicles and surveillance systems. It currently sells about $1.6 billion worth of weapons each year and is ranked 20th in a global list of arms exporters, but it has ambitions to break into the top 10. There will be government grants to help companies boost sales.

Australian Minister for Defense Industry Christopher Pyne says the plan could create tens of thousands of jobs. He says it will also boost international peacekeeping efforts.

Our primary market is New Zealand, Canada, the U.K. and the United States. That is where the vast majority of our effort will be placed and has been placed. We need a strong alliance with those kinds of countries with the capabilities that we need militarily to ensure that we maintain peace in the world. I do not think anybody would question our role in places like Iraq and Syria most recently, Pyne said.

The plan has been anticipated since mid-2017 when Pyne said he wanted to sell more Australian-made weapons overseas.

At the time the charity World Vision said the policy was "exporting death and profiting from bloodshed."

Aid organizations said the move would not boost global peace efforts, a claim rejected by the Australian government.

Officials have asserted that the price of liberty is eternal vigilance.

The United States is the world's largest arms exporter, followed by Russia, China, France, Germany and the U.K., according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.SYDNEY - A provocative film that chronicles racism and brutality in the 1920s has been released in Australia. Set in the red dust of the outback, "Sweet Country" is the story of an Aboriginal herder who goes on the run after killing a white landowner in self-defense.

The film is a historical, Western-style epic that has at its heart racist aggression between white colonialists and Australias indigenous population they displaced. The movie is directed by celebrated Aboriginal filmmaker Warwick Thornton, whose first film was the highly acclaimed feature "Samson and Delilah," which was released in 2009.

Thornton says "Sweet Country" shows the brutality of Australia in the 1920s.

It is a bit of history you will not find in your everyday high school curriculum, even though it is all based on true stories. It is important for us as a country to learn more about our history so we can make better choices about our future, I guess. You know, it has got a lot of connotations today. Racism is still around today. It is just that people are not allowed to openly say what they feel, but they are still racist, Thornton said.

Director Warwick Thornton is awarded the Jury Spec FILE - Director Warwick Thornton is awarded the Jury Special Prize for 'Sweet Country' during an award ceremony at the 74th Venice Film Festival at the Venice Lido, Italy, Sept. 9, 2017, following a pre-release screening. FILE - Director Warwick Thornton is awarded the Jury Special Prize for 'Sweet Country' during an award ceremony at the 74th Venice Film Festival at the Venice Lido, Italy, Sept. 9, 2017, following a pre-release screening.

The cast includes veteran Australian actor Bryan Brown, who came to prominence in Gorillas in the Mist" and "Cocktail," alongside U.S. actor Tom Cruise.

"Sweet Country" also features the New Zealand actor Sam Neill, who starred in "The Piano" and Jurassic Park."

Hamilton Morris plays the character of Sam Kelly, the indigenous farm worker who goes on the run with his wife after killing a white landowner. Morris had no film experience before landing the role as Kelly, although he did have a role in an Australian TV series about a remote radio station. There was also a large cast of Aboriginal extras.

Many of the reviews of "Sweet Country" have been positive with the newspaper The Australian saying it was Australian filmmaking at its best.

Indigenous Australians make up about 3 percent of the population and are, by far, the most disadvantaged group in the country, suffering high rates of poverty, ill health and imprisonment.

Warwicks Sweet Country already was awarded a Special Jury Prize at the Venice Film Festival last September at an early screening.The exiled former president of the Maldives said Friday he will run again for office, hours after a surprise Supreme Court decision to free a group of political prisoners led to overnight clashes in the capital of the Indian Ocean archipelago.

President Yameen Abdul Gayoom had been set to run for re-election this year virtually unopposed, with all of his opponents either jailed or exiled.

But ex-President Mohammed Nasheed, among those whose convictions were overturned, said the court's ruling means he will be eligible to challenge Yameen, who has rolled back many democratic reforms since coming to power five years ago.

"I can contest and I will contest and hopefully we will win it again," Nasheed told The Associated Press in an interview in Sri Lanka's capital, Colombo.

Nasheed was jailed in 2016 but received asylum in Britain later that year after traveling there on medical leave from prison. He has lived in exile ever since.

FILE - Maldives President Yameen Abdul Gayoom, acc FILE - Maldives President Yameen Abdul Gayoom, accompanied by his wife Fathimath Ibrahim, arrives in Colombo, Sri Lanka, July 22, 2015. FILE - Maldives President Yameen Abdul Gayoom, accompanied by his wife Fathimath Ibrahim, arrives in Colombo, Sri Lanka, July 22, 2015.

Nasheed also called for reforms in the country's security services, telling the AP that "a small element within the military and police want to prop up the dictatorship" of Yameen.

Thursday night's court ruling ordered the release of the political dissidents, saying their guilty verdicts had been influenced by politics. It also ordered new trials for all nine. It was not immediately clear how retrials would affect the upcoming elections, but the opposition alliance declared that the ruling "effectively ends President Yameen's authoritarian rule."

Violent protests

For the second night in a row Friday, protesters who support the court's ruling scuffled with police on the streets of the Maldives capital city, Male. Several people were arrested but the confrontation ended quicker than it did the previous night, when there were three hours of violent street clashes between authorities and supporters of the Maldives opposition alliance.

Maldives Attorney General Mohamed Anil said he raised government concerns about the ruling with the court's chief justice because the imprisoned politicians were convicted of offenses including terrorism, corruption, embezzlement and treason, said a government statement issued Friday.

A Maldivian opposition protester demanding the rel A Maldivian opposition protester demanding the release of political prisoners is engulfed in tear gas fired by police during a protest in Male, Maldives, Feb. 2, 2018. A Maldivian opposition protester demanding the release of political prisoners is engulfed in tear gas fired by police during a protest in Male, Maldives, Feb. 2, 2018.

"The attorney general stated that the administration has highlighted concerns over the consequences that may be presented in the immediate implementation of the court's ruling," the statement said.

The prosecutor general is examining cases to determine how best to comply with the ruling, the statement added.

The country's opposition alliance expressed fears that the non-implementation of the court order "could escalate to unrest and incite violence across the country." It called on the United Nations, European Union and neighboring countries to impress upon the government and security services to respect the Supreme Court ruling.

"The government of Maldives immediately resorted to using undue force against demonstrators celebrating the apex court's verdict. Opposition supporters were met with tear gas, arrests and direct police violence while calling on the government to implement the ruling," the opposition said in a statement.

Global response

Atul Keshap, the U.S. ambassador to the Maldives, welcomed the Supreme Court order. "I urge the government and security services to respect this ruling, which bolsters democracy and rule of law for all Maldivians," he wrote on Twitter.

Maldivian opposition supporters scuffle with secur Maldivian opposition supporters scuffle with security forces officers during a protest demanding the release of political prisoners in Male, Maldives, Feb. 2, 2018. Maldivian opposition supporters scuffle with security forces officers during a protest demanding the release of political prisoners in Male, Maldives, Feb. 2, 2018.

Human rights group Amnesty International said the court decision should be a turning point for the nation.

The group's South Asia director, Biraj Patnaik, said the ruling must be implemented and the government's "witch-hunt against the political opposition and other critics" must end.

He said retrials of the opposition leaders must be conducted in line with international standards, and authorities must restore judicial independence.

Known for its luxury tourist resorts, the Maldives became a multiparty democracy 10 years ago after decades of autocratic rule by the current president's half-brother, strongman Maumoon Abdul Gayoom.

But the nation lost much of its democratic gains after Yameen was elected in 2013. He has maintained a tight grip on power, controlling institutions such as the judiciary, police and the bureaucracy.

The court also reinstated 12 lawmakers who had been ousted for switching allegiance to the opposition. When those lawmakers return, Yameen's Progressive Party of the Maldives will lose its majority in the 85-member Parliament.

The government has said it is trying to "vet and clarify" the court's ruling and "will work to engage, and consult with, the Supreme Court in order to comply with the ruling in line with proper procedure and the rule of law."

Nasheed in 2013 was sentenced to 13 years in prison, convicted of terrorism charges in a trial widely condemned by international rights groups.

Yameen's former deputy, Ahmed Adeeb, who had been jailed on accusations of plotting to kill the president, was also ordered released.

Adeeb was sentenced to 33 years in prison in 2016, charged with corruption, possession of illegal firearms and planning to kill Yameen by triggering an explosion on his speedboat. However, FBI investigators said they found no evidence of a bomb blast.FBI Director Christopher Wray told agency employees Friday that he stood with them after the release of a memo outlining allegations by Republican lawmakers that FBI investigators abused their powers in their probe of Russian interference in the presidential election.

"I stand by our shared determination to do our work independently and by the book," Wray said in a statement to 35,000 FBI staff.

"You've all been through a lot in the past nine months and I know it's often been unsettling, to say the least. And the past few days haven't done much to calm those waters," he said. "Talk is cheap; the work you do is what will endure."

Wray's letter made no direct reference to the memo released Friday. He also gave no indication that he planned to leave the agency.

President Donald Trump lashed out at the FBI and Justice Department on Friday after the memo was made public.

He tweeted: "The top Leadership and Investigators of the FBI and the Justice Department have politicized the sacred investigative process in favor of Democrats and against Republicans  something which would have been unthinkable just a short time ago. Rank & File are great people."

When asked by a reporter whether releasing the memo made it more likely Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein would be fired, Trump replied, "You figure that one out."

Rosenstein supervises the Russia probe and named special counsel Robert Mueller to lead the investigation.

White House officials said later that the administration expected Rosenstein to remain in his job.

"No changes are going to be made at the Department of Justice. We fully expect Rod Rosenstein to continue on as the deputy attorney general," White House spokesman Raj Shah told CNN.NICOSIA, CYPRUS - Greek Cypriots are gearing up for a presidential runoff Sunday, barely seven months after the latest failure to reunify the eastern Mediterranean island nation of Cyprus.

President Nicos Anastasiades is looking to reprise his triumph over left-leaning Stavros Malas in 2013 when the two men faced each other. Earlier polls had shown Anastasiades beating Malas convincingly in Sundays runoff, but Malas strong showing in last weekends first round of voting might make it a closer race.

Voters are skeptical about whether anyone can lead them out of the labyrinth of the decades-old division with Turkish Cypriots.

Cyprus was divided into a Greek-speaking south and a Turkish-speaking north in 1974 when Turkey invaded following a coup by supporters of union with Greece. Only Turkey recognizes a Turkish Cypriot declaration of independence and keeps more than 35,000 troops in the north.

A girl holds a peace message during a peace protes FILE - A girl holds a peace message during a peace protest at Ladras or Lokmachi crossing point that connects the Greek Cypriot south and the Turkish Cypriots breakaway north, inside the U.N buffer zone in central divided capital, Nicosia, Cyprus, July 6, 2017. FILE - A girl holds a peace message during a peace protest at Ladras or Lokmachi crossing point that connects the Greek Cypriot south and the Turkish Cypriots breakaway north, inside the U.N buffer zone in central divided capital, Nicosia, Cyprus, July 6, 2017.

Anastasiades, 71, who says it will be his last term in office if re-elected, is counting on his track record of turning the economy around after a 2013 financial crisis that saw unemployment soar and salaries slashed. He has also been trumpeting his role in steering peace talks with breakaway Turkish Cypriots further than anyone else since the 1974 split.

By contrast, the 50-year-old Malas is hoping his relative youth will strike a chord with the 550,000 eligible voters, many of whom are disillusioned by the acrimonious breakdown of the latest round of peace talks and years of economic uncertainty thats shaken the confidence of the middle class.

Anastasiades and Malas secured 35.5 and 35.2 percent of the vote, respectively, in the first round, setting up potentially a tighter than anticipated final vote.WASHINGTON/PETIONVILLE - Dozens of designers from Haiti and around the world showcased their spring-summer collections against a lush tropical background during the recent Haiti Fashion Week.

The January 28-31 event in Petionville focused on the theme Innovation and haute couture this year. Event founder Maguy Durce said her main goal was to show Haiti in a positive light, as opposed to negative images usually portrayed by the international media.

Haiti Fashion Week is a cultural event. But we want to use it to respond to President [Donald] Trump  to his negative comments [about Haiti]  because we think if he saw what was happening this week at El Rancho [hotel], he would say, 'Hey, I lied,' or, 'Hey, I was wrong,' or, 'I was misinformed,' " Durce said.

Fashion Week founder Maguy Durce. (Photo: Matiado Fashion Week founder Maguy Durce. (Photo: Matiado Vilme for VOA) Fashion Week founder Maguy Durce. (Photo: Matiado Vilme for VOA)

Trump's reported use of a vulgar term to describe Haiti and African nations angered the Haitian-American community and sparked rallies in Port-au-Prince, New York, Palm Beach and Boston to denounce racism. Haiti's ambassador to the United States said the comments about Haiti "hurt the country."

The fifth edition of Haiti Fashion Week had been scheduled for November 2017, but was rescheduled after some of the designers said their collections would not be ready in time.

Young Haitian fashion designer Maille Timothee was Young Haitian fashion designer Maille Timothee was a first-time participant in Haiti Fashion Week. (Photo: Matiado Vilme for VOA) Young Haitian fashion designer Maille Timothee was a first-time participant in Haiti Fashion Week. (Photo: Matiado Vilme for VOA)

Young fashion designer Maille Timothee, whose fashion line is called MAE, presented her designs for the first time this year. She won applause for her colorful dresses made with unconventional textiles.

I wanted to do something unconventional. Something unexpected. So I mixed different fabrics that people would not expect, and even what Im wearing is an example of that," she explained.

Model wears a design by MAE on the Haiti Fashion W Model wears a design by MAE on the Haiti Fashion Week runway at El Rancho Hotel in Petionville, Haiti. (Photo: Matiado Vilme for VOA) Model wears a design by MAE on the Haiti Fashion Week runway at El Rancho Hotel in Petionville, Haiti. (Photo: Matiado Vilme for VOA)

Timothee is the daughter of seasoned Haitian designer Immacula Pericles, who runs a highly acclaimed fashion school called Academie Verona. She also participated in Haiti Fashion Week, showcasing a collection of dresses made in the colors of the national flag and representing the natural beauty of the Caribbean country. Her collection wowed the audience.

Well, Ive been doing these designs for a long time now, so its new to some people, but weve been around a while," Pericles noted. "The theme of our fashion school is Haiti will survive - so my goal is first to incorporate sustainable materials and second to make the clothing using the same international standards the big fashion houses use so that we can sell our line anywhere in the world.

Seasoned designer Immacula Pericles also owns a fa Seasoned designer Immacula Pericles also owns a fashion school called Academie Verona. (Photo: Matiado Vilme for VOA) Seasoned designer Immacula Pericles also owns a fashion school called Academie Verona. (Photo: Matiado Vilme for VOA)

Pericles said Haiti has huge potential to excel in the fashion world.

French designer Marie-Caroline Behue flew from Paris to Port-au-Prince and went straight to work on her collection. A first-time participant in the event, she admitted to being awed by the quality and intricacy of the designs.

I knew nothing about Haiti Fashion Week and I was amazed by the level of detail in the designs," she admitted. "Ive worked in the French haute couture design houses and I can tell you the designs I saw here meet the bar - and to be honest, what really piqued my interest was the mens haute couture, because when one thinks of haute couture, they naturally think of womens fashion, but here in Haiti, I was like, 'Wow! Theyre got couture mens clothing.'

French designer does a live haute couture demonstr French designer does a live haute couture demonstration on the runway during Haiti Fashion Week. (Photo: Matiado Vilme for VOA) French designer does a live haute couture demonstration on the runway during Haiti Fashion Week. (Photo: Matiado Vilme for VOA)

Haitian-American designer Marcia Roseme, whose collection features bright colored separates matched with muted tones, traveled from New York to show her first collection at Haiti Fashion Week.

It was a great event; there were a lot of different styles that represented many markets. There was a lot of innovation, a lot of creativity and unique styles - I really like that, she told VOA.

Haitian American designer Marcie Roseme traveled f Haitian American designer Marcie Roseme traveled from New York to show her collection at Haiti Fashion Week. (Photo: Matiado Vilme for VOA) Haitian American designer Marcie Roseme traveled from New York to show her collection at Haiti Fashion Week. (Photo: Matiado Vilme for VOA)

Organizer Durce, who put in many long hours to pull off a culturally rich and diverse showcase of Haitian and international artistry, was pleased with the turnout and the positive reviews from the national and international press.

Africa Fashion TV has been here all four days, broadcasting our fashion shows live, so what were doing here in Haiti is being seen in 29 African countries and all over the world. Each time a person tweets or posts something about Fashion Week to Facebook, it raises Haiti's image to a higher level.

Durce said shes looking forward to the sixth edition of Haiti Fashion Week - to be held in 2019.

This year, Haiti Fashion Week focused on Innovatio This year, Haiti Fashion Week focused on Innovation and haute couture. (Photo: Matiado Vilme for VOA) This year, Haiti Fashion Week focused on Innovation and haute couture. (Photo: Matiado Vilme for VOA)Male rats exposed to very high levels of the kind of radiation emitted by cellphones developed tumors in the tissues around their hearts, according to a draft report by U.S. government researchers on the potential health risks of the devices.

Female rats and mice exposed in the same way did not develop tumors, according to the preliminary report from the U.S. National Toxicology Program (NTP), a part of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.

The findings add to years of research meant to help settle the debate over whether cellphone radiation is harmful.

However, NTP scientists and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) were quick to say the findings could not be extrapolated to humans and that current safety limits on cellphone radiation are protective.

The 10-year, $25 million studies  the most comprehensive assessments of health effects and exposure to radiofrequency radiation in rats and mice to date  do raise new questions about exposure to the ubiquitous devices.

John Bucher, a senior scientist with NTP, said the tumors seen in the studies are "similar to tumors previously reported in some studies of frequent cellphone users."

Dr. Otis Brawley, chief medical officer of the American Cancer Society, noted that the studies were negative for common tumors.

"These draft reports are bound to create a lot of concern, but in fact they won't change what I tell people: The evidence for an association between cellphones and cancer is weak, and so far, we have not seen a higher cancer risk in people," he said in a statement on Twitter.

Brawley said if cellphone users are concerned about this data in animals, they should wear an earpiece.

Different kind of radiation

Unlike ionizing radiation such as that from gamma rays, radon and X-rays, which can break chemical bonds in the body and are known to cause cancer, radiofrequency devices such as cellphones and microwaves emit radiofrequency energy, a form of non-ionizing radiation.

The concern with this type of radiation is that it produces energy in the form of heat, and frequent exposure against the skin could alter brain cell activity, as some studies have suggested.

In the NTP study, rats and mice were exposed to higher levels of radiation for longer periods of time than what people experience with even the highest level of cellphone use, and their entire bodies were exposed all at once, according to the draft report.

Cellphones typically emit lower levels of radiation than maximum levels allowed, the draft report said.

NTP, a part of the National Institutes of Health, will hold an external expert review of its complete findings from these rodent studies on March 26-28.

Dr. Jeffrey Shuren, head of the FDA's radiological health division, said there is not enough evidence to say cellphone use poses health risks to people.

"Even with frequent daily use by the vast majority of adults, we have not seen an increase in events like brain tumors," he said in a statement. "We believe the current safety limits for cellphones are acceptable for protecting the public

health."

Nevertheless, the findings are potentially a concern for device makers, especially the world's three biggest smartphone sellers, Apple Inc., Korea's Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. and China's Huawei Technologies.

The CTIA, the trade association representing AT&T Inc., Verizon Communications Inc., Apple Inc., Sprint Corp., DISH Network Corp. and others, said on Friday that previous studies have shown cellphone RF energy emissions have no known heath risks.

"We understand that the NTP draft reports for its mice and rat studies will be put out for comment and peer review so that their significance can be assessed," the group said.

Samsung and Apple did not immediately respond to requests for comment.A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit over whether U.S. President Donald Trump can appoint his budget director as head of a consumer protection agency founded in the wake of the financial crisis of 2007-08.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) was created in 2011 by financial reform legislation designed to prevent a recurrence of the subprime mortgage scandal that resulted in untold numbers of home foreclosures in the United States. The banking crisis had worldwide repercussions, contributing to an economic downturn that lasted until 2012.

The CFPB was created as an independent agency during the Obama administration and tasked with writing and enforcing rules for financial institutions and tracking consumer complaints.

When Obama appointee Richard Cordray stepped down as CFPB director in 2017, he expected to be succeeded by his deputy, Leandra English. But Trump appointed Mick Mulvaney, director of the Office of Management and Budget, as acting director.

A federal credit union in Manhattan sought to block Mulvaney's appointment, saying the legislation under which the bureau was created mandates that Cordray's deputy become acting director  but in a decision made public on Friday, U.S. District Judge Paul Gardephe dismissed the case, saying the Lower East Side People's Federal Credit Union lacked the legal authority to sue.

Tighter rein

As acting director, Mulvaney has said he plans to rein in the agency, whose critics said acted too aggressively against financial institutions. Under his direction, the agency dropped a lawsuit against "payday lenders" that often charge very high fees and promised to review rules the financial industry has balked at.

In one of its highest-profile cases to date, the CFPB's Office of Fair Lending and Equal Opportunity took legal action against Hudson City Savings Bank for discriminatory lending. The bank paid a $25 million settlement in 2015 for "redlining," or discouraging prospective borrowers in black and Latino communities in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania.

This week, according to The Washington Post, Mulvaney removed enforcement power from the Office of Fair Lending and Equal Opportunity, telling staffers in an email that their new focus would be on "advocacy, coordination and education." The unit was told it would now be under the office of the director.

Spokesman John Czwartacki said in a statement that the move had "enhanced [the unit's] ability to focus on its other important responsibilities."

But Vanita Gupta, head of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, told the Post that eliminating the office's enforcement powers was "yet another step" toward defanging the watchdog agency.

The changes under the Trump administration "send a troubling message about the enforcement of civil rights laws, and will harm people, especially in communities of color," Gupta said.WASHINGTON - Board members of the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) are to meet Saturday after its president, Roger Rocha, was criticized for writing a letter to U.S. President Donald Trump endorsing his administrations immigration plan.

The four pillars which you have outlined, (Border Security, DACA Legalization, Protect the Nuclear Family and Elimination of the Lottery and Repurpose Visas) are items that LULAC can support if they remain within the framework you have proposed," Rocha wrote in the letter to the president.

Dave Rodriguez, California LULAC state director and a member of the groups national board, said members are furious at Rocha's letter and are pressuring him to resign.

California LULAC is calling for the immediate resignation of our national president. The bleeding from this incident needs to stop, Rodriguez said.

The Trump administrations proposed policies contrast with the agenda of the oldest U.S. Latino civil rights organization, which has called for protecting young immigrants who arrived in the country illegally.

Rocha later rescinded his support after getting backlash from LULAC members in Texas, New Mexico and California. He said he wrote the letter at the request of the Trump administration, adding he was negotiating with administration officials about an immigration proposal.

Under the organizations bylaws, LULAC could enact an impeachment process that would begin with charges sent to the organization's treasurer.

After that, a hearing would be scheduled before the board of directors. Their next meeting is scheduled for February 16 and 17. Rocha would have the right to appear at that session with an attorney.

Saturday's board session is expected to be a telephone conference call.SYDNEY - Hundreds of tourists trapped in a remote New Zealand town for 48 hours after a strong storm damaged roads were freed Saturday after authorities cleared a highway.

About 600 tourists are now able to leave the remote town of Haast, 426 km (265 miles) northwest of Dunedin on the west coast of the South Island, a world heritage area famous for rugged scenery, after the road was cleared.

State Highway Six reopened at 11 a.m., the NZ Transport Agency told Reuters in an email.

All stranded motorists have now been able to leave, it said.

The road was hit by landslides as wild weather from former tropical Cyclone Fehi wreaked havoc across the west coast, uprooting trees, felling power lines, collapsing a bridge and blocking roads.

Emergency personnel work on a flooded road in Nels Emergency personnel work on a flooded road in Nelson, after the downgraded tropical Cyclone Fehi brought heavy rain in New Zealand, Feb. 1, 2018. Emergency personnel work on a flooded road in Nelson, after the downgraded tropical Cyclone Fehi brought heavy rain in New Zealand, Feb. 1, 2018.

A further 117 motorists stranded at Fox Glacier were also able to move on Saturday after roads were repaired, West Coast Civil Defense officials said by telephone.

The storm flooded the southern city of Dunedin and the west coast town of Buller, forcing authorities to declare a state of emergency and ask people not to travel by road.

Health authorities warned people to avoid contact with floodwaters that could be contaminated by sewage, Radio NZ said.

Weather forecaster Metservice said storm-damaged areas on the west coast of the South Island would get a reprieve Saturday with sheltered, sunny weather before more rain arrives, while heavy rains were forecast for the North Island around Auckland.RAMALLAH, WEST BANK - A young Palestinian-American is the driving force behind a nascent #MeToo movement in this patriarchal corner of the world, selling T-shirts, hoodies and denim jackets with the slogan Not Your Habibti (darling) as a retort for catcalls and writing down womens complaints from her perch in a West Bank square.

Yasmeen Mjalli wants to encourage Palestinian society to confront sexual harassment, a largely taboo subject.

What I am doing is to start a conversation that people are really afraid to have, said Mjalli as she put her merchandise on hangers in a clothing store.

The 21-year-old has faced backlash from conservatives and from some activists who say fighting Israels occupation is the priority for Palestinians.

Her parents, who grew up in a Palestinian farming town, immigrated to the United States and returned to the West Bank five years ago, werent pleased, either.

To be able to have peace with them, I have to check my feminism at the door, which is very difficult because thats really who I am, said Mjalli, who moved to the West Bank last year, after graduating from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro with a degree in art history.

FILE - An Indian woman takes calls on a government FILE - An Indian woman takes calls on a government hotline established in an effort to confront the country's treatment of women, Dec. 2, 2013. FILE - An Indian woman takes calls on a government hotline established in an effort to confront the country's treatment of women, Dec. 2, 2013.

?Starting a taboo conversation

Mjalli and other activists say that starting a conversation about sexual harassment doesnt mean copying the #MeToo movement in the United States, where victims are speaking out in growing numbers.

Cultural differences require a different approach.

Women across the Arab world have made strides toward equality, outnumbering men in many universities and joining the work force in growing numbers. Yet they struggle to break free from the constraints of patriarchy.

Traditional Arab societies assign rigid gender roles, with men as guardians of their female relatives honor, effectively a ban on male-female friendships or sex outside marriage. Women violating those rules risk being ostracized or  in extreme cases  being killed by male relatives, who count on leniency from the courts.

Trouble spots everywhere

Rules are looser among urban elites. But even in Ramallah, the most liberal West Bank town with many Western-educated Palestinians and foreigners, women watch their step.

Women risk being blamed if they complain, said Wafa Abdelrahman, who runs a closed Facebook group for female journalists.

The blame will be, for sure, you did something wrong or you gave the wrong signal, the way you dress, the way you talk, she said.

University student Nadine Moussa, 22, said women know the trouble spots.

I never ever walked in the city center of Ramallah without being harassed verbally, but I dont face that in the neighborhoods, she said, adding that her co-ed campus is relatively safe.

Legal protection lacking

Palestinian police receive few complaints about street harassment, said spokesman Loay Irzeqat. He believes some women fear unintended consequences, such as male relatives attacking accused harassers.

Police mostly deal with online harassment, with about one-third of some 2,000 electronic crimes cases in 2017 revolving around men blackmailing women for sexual or financial gain, he said. Typically, extortionists threaten to publish photos deemed compromising, such as showing a traditional woman without her headscarf.

Women lack legal protection, despite improvements such as the establishment of a police sex crimes unit, said Amal Kreishe, founder of the Palestinian Working Woman Society for Development to which Mjalli donates some of her proceeds.

Reforms of the penal code have been held up by the collapse of Palestinian parliament as a result of a decade-old split between President Mahmoud Abbas West Bank autonomy government and the militant Hamas group in Gaza. Abbas has ignored appeals to change the code by decree in the meantime.

All the talk about womens equality and rights is lip service, Kreishe said.

Still, Kreishe has witnessed gradual changes. More women seek counseling from her group, which has referred about 200 complaints to police over the past two years, compared to a few dozen in previous years.

Harassment varies

Across the Arab world, the prevalence of street harassment varies.

In Egypt, it remains widespread despite pushback from civil society and a 2014 law threatening up to five years in prison. Cairo has been described by some as the worlds most dangerous mega city for women.

In the conservative Gulf Arab region, street harassment is relatively uncommon in smaller countries where religious and tribal codes restrict interactions between unmarried men and women.

In Saudi Arabia, it has become an issue of debate, as women prepare to drive for the first time this June, following the lifting of a government ban. In recent years, several videos went viral showing Saudi women in long black robes being heckled by men. Saudi King Salman has approved legislation criminalizing sexual harassment.

Palestinian-American Yasmeen Mjalli holds one of Palestinian-American Yasmeen Mjalli holds one of her T-shirt designs with the slogan "Not Your Habibti (darling)." Palestinian-American Yasmeen Mjalli holds one of her T-shirt designs with the slogan "Not Your Habibti (darling)."

?'Typewriter events'

In the West Bank, Mjalli is pushing boundaries with what she calls typewriter events.

On a recent day, she sat behind a table in Ramallahs Clock Square, taking notes on a typewriter  chosen over a laptop as an attention-getter  as women sitting across from her shared stories about harassment. The event was also meant to generate support for passing laws protecting women, she said.

Her idea of designing clothes with a feminist message goes back to college.

At the time, she decorated her denim jacket with Not your Habibti, a take on the popular Not Your Baby slogan that reflected her Arab roots. Mjalli posted a photo of the jacket online last year for International Womens Day, stirring interest from potential buyers.

For a few months, she bought, transformed and sold second-hand jackets. In August, she launched her business, Baby-Fist, with workshops in Gaza and the West Bank making T-shirts, hoodies and jackets.

Mjalli estimates she has sold close to 500 pieces, with about 70 percent of her sales in the diaspora.

Palestinian demonstrator throws stones during clas Palestinian demonstrator throws stones during clashes with Israeli troops following protests against U.S. President Donald Trump's decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, in the West Bank city of Ramallah, Feb 2, 2018. Palestinian demonstrator throws stones during clashes with Israeli troops following protests against U.S. President Donald Trump's decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, in the West Bank city of Ramallah, Feb 2, 2018.

Skeptics expect limited impact on Palestinian society.

Nader Said, a Palestinian pollster, said public discourse is crowded with issues seen as more pressing, mainly Israels occupation of the West Bank and other lands Palestinians seek for a future state. Respondents listing top concerns in a survey ranked womens rights near the end, he said.

Abdelrahman, the activist, cheered on Mjalli.

I am open to all things that will open up this dark closet that we prefer to hide in, pretending that everything is alright, she said. Lets open it and see what comes out of it.SAN JOSE, COSTA RICA - The families of victims of human rights abuses under former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori testified Friday at an international human rights tribunal, asking the court to annul the controversial pardon of the former leader late last year.

Fujimori, who served as president during the 1990s, was less than halfway into a 25-year prison term stemming from convictions on human rights abuses when current President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski issued the pardon to the ailing 79-year-old.

Peru's former President Alberto Fujimori asks for FILE - Peru's former President Alberto Fujimori asks for forgiveness from Peruvians as he lies in hospital bed in Lima, Peru, in this still image taken from a video posted on Facebook on Dec. 26, 2017. FILE - Peru's former President Alberto Fujimori asks for forgiveness from Peruvians as he lies in hospital bed in Lima, Peru, in this still image taken from a video posted on Facebook on Dec. 26, 2017.

While groups such as Amnesty International harshly criticized the pardon, about 65 percent of Peruvians support it, according to a recent poll.

The pardon was issued on Christmas Eve and met by thousands of enraged protesters who took to the streets to criticize what many viewed as a miscarriage of justice.

Shortly after he announced his decision, Kuczynski, who was also facing his own possible removal from office by Perus Congress, described it as a humanitarian pardon.

Peru's President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski speaks duri FILE - Peru's President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski speaks during a swearing-in ceremony at the Government Palace in Lima, Peru, Jan. 9, 2018. FILE - Peru's President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski speaks during a swearing-in ceremony at the Government Palace in Lima, Peru, Jan. 9, 2018.

?Measure of impunity

Critics who accompanied victims families before the Costa Rica-based Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) Friday described it very differently.

The pardon was contrary to law and a measure of impunity that must be revoked, said Viviana Krsticevic, head of the Center for Justice and International Law (CEJIL).

Krsticevic argued that Kuczynskis reasoning behind the pardon, details of which were made public for the first time Friday, was full of inconsistencies and contradictions.

Lawyers representing the Peruvian government denied the pardon was the result of a political pact between Kuczynski and the Fujimori family, which continues to maintain considerable political influence in the Congress.

Speculation should be kept outside the court, lawyer Adrian Simons said.

Fujimori deal?

In late January, Reuters reported that three months before he granted Fujimori the pardon, Kuczynski met the former leaders son, lawmaker Kenji Fujimori, to discuss his release.

At the meeting, Kenji Fujimori offered Kuczynski political support in Congress in return for the pardon.

Simons added that any disagreement over the pardon should be resolved by Perus justice system, and he alleged that the IACHR was being used as a shortcut.

If the courts resolution, expected in the next few weeks, revokes the pardon, Perus government is obligated to accept it.

We hope Fujimori goes back to prison to serve his sentence, said Carmen Amaro, sister of Armando Amaro, who was killed in a 1992 massacre during Fujimoris rule that was cited in his conviction.

This isnt hatred or revenge, she said. Its justice.WARSAW, POLAND - Poland is seeing a resurgence of anti-Semitism over pending legislation that would impose jail terms for suggestions that the nation was complicit in the

Holocaust, local minority groups warned, as pressure mounts on the president to veto the bill.

Parliament passed the measure Thursday, drawing outrage from Israel, U.S. criticism and condemnation from a number of international organizations. President Andrzej Duda has 21 days to decide whether to sign it into law.

The bill would impose prison sentences of up to three years for mentioning the term "Polish death camps" and for suggesting "publicly and against the facts" complicity on the part of the Polish nation or state in Nazi Germany's crimes.

More than 3 million of Poland's 3.2 million Jews were killed by the Nazis, accounting for about half of the Jews killed in the Holocaust. Jews from across Europe were sent to be killed at death camps built and operated by the Germans on Polish soil, including Auschwitz, Treblinka, Belzec and Sobibor.

According to figures from the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, the Nazis also killed at least 1.9 million non-Jewish Polish civilians.

In a rare show of unity, Polish minority and ethnic groups, including Jewish, Ukrainian and Russian, urged Duda and other authorities to counteract all forms of xenophobia, intolerance and anti-Semitism, although they did not directly call on the president to veto the bill.

"Our particular concern and objection is caused by the numerous and loud manifestations of anti-Semitism that we have been witnessing this week after the [parliament] passed [the Holocaust bill]," the groups said in a statement.

Painful debate

Poland, which has gone through a painful public debate in recent years after the publication of research showing some Poles participated in the Nazi atrocities, has long sought to discourage use of the term "Polish camps" to refer to Nazi camps on its territory, arguing that the phrase implies complicity.

On Saturday, German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel said the use of the phrase "Polish death camps" was wrong.

"There is not the slightest doubt as to who was responsible for the extermination camps, operated them and murdered millions of European Jews there: namely Germans," Gabriel said in a statement.

Israeli officials said the legislation criminalizes basic historical facts. The country's Foreign Ministry said Thursday that Israel "adamantly opposes" the bill's approval as a whole.

Poland's Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki visits Poland's Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki visits the Ulma Family Museum of Poles Who Saved Jews during WWII in Markowa, Poland, Feb. 2, 2018. Poland's Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki visits the Ulma Family Museum of Poles Who Saved Jews during WWII in Markowa, Poland, Feb. 2, 2018.

The Israeli Embassy in Warsaw said late Friday that Israel did not oppose Poland's fight to assure that the phrase "Polish death camps" is never used.

"We would like to use this opportunity to repeat that Israel stands with Poland in using the proper term for the death camps  German Nazi camps," the embassy said in its statement.

The embassy also said that it had received "a wave of anti-Semitic statements" in the past week.

Poland is one of the most ethnically and religiously homogenous countries in Europe, but before World War II, Jews made up 10 percent of the population and the country also had large Ukrainian, German, Belarussian and other minorities.

Poland's ruling party, the socially conservative PiS, has reignited debate on the Holocaust as part of a campaign to fuel patriotism since sweeping into power in 2015.

The party says the bill is needed to protect Poland's reputation and ensure historians recognize that Poles as well as Jews were victims of the Nazis.

Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the chairman of the PiS and the country's de facto leader, told public radio Jedynka on Saturday that Poland rejected "anti-Semitism very radically."

"But we are also a sovereign state and we have a duty to start, because this is only the beginning, the fight against ... this great defamatory campaign against Poland, namely, insulting Poland, blaming us for someone else's actions."

Free speech

Critics of the bill have raised concerns it will curb free speech and could be used against Holocaust survivors or historians.

A U.S. congressional task force on combating anti-Semitism and a number of Jewish groups urged Duda to veto the bill.

The International Auschwitz Council, an advisory body to the office of the Polish prime minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, said Friday that the bill's imprecision raised "legitimate concerns about restricting freedom in discovering the truth about the Holocaust."

Duda has not said whether he will sign the bill, but his spokesman told the Polish state radio Trojka: "The president believes that Poland, as any other country, has the right to defend its good name ... has the right to defend the truth."

Kaczynski said that Duda should sign the law.

"We must talk to our allies in a way that would allow them to understand that we have no intention of renouncing our dignity," he said.BEIRUT - Al-Qaida-linked militants in Syria downed a Russian fighter jet on Saturday and killed its pilot after he ejected from the plane and landed on the ground in the embattled northwestern province of Idlib. The pilot resisted being captured and fired at the militants who then shot and killed him, according to one of the militants and Syrian monitors.



The Russian Defense Ministry confirmed the downing of the Su-25 and said the pilot was killed in fighting with "terrorists." A report on the ministry's Zvezda TV said preliminary information indicated the plane was shot by a portable ground-to-air missile in an area under control of al-Qaida's branch in Syria.



The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the plane was downed on Saturday afternoon near the rebel-held town of Sarqeb, which Syrian troops have been trying to take under the cover of Russian airstrikes.



Russia is a key ally of President Bashar Assad, and has been waging a military campaign on behalf of his forces since 2015. Since then, Syrian troops have captured wide parts of the country and in recent weeks have been making advances in Idlib. The province is also a base for al-Qaida's branch in Syria and other Islamic groups.



A Syrian militant in the area told The Associated Press that the Russian pilot was shot and killed when he resisted capture. The pilot opened fire from his pistol as the militants were trying to seize him, said the militant, who refused to be identified by his real name because was not authorized to speak to the media.



A video circulating on social media shows a lifeless body of a man, his face stained with blood, as bearded gunmen stand around him. One of the armed men shouts: He is Russian. The authenticity of the video could not be independently confirmed but it corresponded to events reported by the AP.



Earlier in the day, the Observatory and the media arm of al-Qaida-linked militants reported intense airstrikes in Idlib. The Observatory reported more than 35 airstrikes on Saraqeb since late Friday, adding that many of its residents are fleeing.



The Ibaa News Agency of the al-Qaida-linked Levant Liberation Committee, said Russian and Syrian warplanes and helicopter gunships have been pounding Saraqeb and the village of Tel Mardeekh in Idlib since the early hours of Saturday.



Syria's state news agency, SANA, said Syrian troops captured the village of Maasaran as well as the Tel Tokan hill, cutting links between Saraqeb and the rebel stronghold of Maarest al-Numan to the south.



Syrian government forces and their allies launched a push into Idlib six weeks ago, inching closer to a key highway that connects Syria's two largest cities, Damascus and Aleppo.



The U.N. says more than 270,000 people have been displaced in Idlib because of the government onslaught since December 15.

A soldier waves a Turkish flag as Turkish troops s A soldier waves a Turkish flag as Turkish troops secure Bursayah hill, which separates the Kurdish-held enclave of Afrin from the Turkey-controlled town of Azaz, Syria, Jan. 28, 2018. A soldier waves a Turkish flag as Turkish troops secure Bursayah hill, which separates the Kurdish-held enclave of Afrin from the Turkey-controlled town of Azaz, Syria, Jan. 28, 2018.

Turkish offensive

Meanwhile, fighting raged on Saturday between Turkish troops and allied Syrian opposition fighters, and a Syrian Kurdish militia in the northern Syrian enclave of Afrin.



The Turkish military said two of its soldiers were killed in Syria and a third was killed on the Turkish side of the border in an attack by Syrian Kurdish militiamen.



The military said Saturday's deaths were related to Turkey's operation against Syrian Kurdish-held Afrin, codenamed Olive Branch. One of the soldiers was killed when a Turkish tank was hit in Afrin.



A total of eight Turkish soldiers and at least 24 allied Syrian opposition fighters have died so far in Ankara's offensive, which started on Jan. 20.



The Turkish operation aims to clear Afrin of the U.S.-backed Syrian Kurdish militia, known as the People's Protection Units or YPG, which Turkey considers to be a terrorist group and an extension of the Kurdish insurgency within its borders.



Turkish presidential spokesman said Turkey will not tolerate the presence of a Syrian Kurdish militia anywhere along its southern border, hinting that Ankara might expand its military operation underway in the Syrian enclave of Afrin eastward.



The spokesman, Ibrahim Kalin, said Saturday that Turkey's first demand is to see the YPG move east of the Euphrates River and leave the town of Manbij, where American troops backing the Syrian Kurdish fighters are stationed.



Kalin called on the United States to disengage from the YPG and said Turkey will continue communications with our American allies to avoid any confrontation.



Turkey shares a 911-kilometer border with Syria. The YPG controls much of the territory along the border and an uninterrupted strip from Manbij to the Iraqi border.Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can download this video to view it offline.A French judge charged prominent Swiss Islamic academic scholar Tariq Ramadan with rape Friday and ordered him to remain in custody after two women claimed last year he sexually assaulted them in hotel rooms in 2009 and 2012, judicial sources said.

Ramadan, who was placed in a Paris jail Wednesday during a preliminary probe, was informed he was the target of an investigation, which magistrates said would determine whether Ramadan should stand trial.

The Swiss-born theologian, who denies the charges, took a leave of absence from teaching at Oxford University in early November, following the two complaints of rape and reports of similar charges in Switzerland.

The grandson of Egypts Muslim Brotherhood founder Hassan el-Banna, Ramadan has long been a polarizing figure. Critics claim he wielded a "double discourse, hiding political Islam behind unifying rhetoric. He was temporarily banned from the U.S. under the administration of president George W. Bush, a measure lifted under president Barack Obama.

The assault charges come amid a broader global outcry against sexual harassment, triggered by the Harvey Weinstein scandal that began in the United States. French activist and former Salafist Henda Ayari filed a police complaint last October accusing Ramadan of brutally raping her in a hotel room in 2012. Several days later, an unidentified disabled French woman came forward with a similar story.

In neighboring Switzerland, a Geneva newspaper reported four young women said they had sexual relations with Ramadan as minors when he was teaching at their school. At least three of the incidents were said to be non-consensual. Media reported another rape claim in Belgium.

Meanwhile, Oxford University graduate Aymenn Jawad al-Tamimi posted a blog that gave voice to an American Muslim friend, who recounted an unwanted sexual advance by Ramadan in 2013. The account echoed a pattern described by the two French women: an initial interaction with Ramadan on social media to discuss religious matters, then an eventual meeting in a hotel room because Ramadan said he did not wish to be seen in public.

Much of the debate surrounding Ramadan - a married father of four - has taken place in France, where an estimated five million Muslims make up Western Europes biggest Islamic community.

Lisa Bryant contributed to this story from Geneva.GENEVA - The Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights criticizes the continued suspension of three independent television stations in Kenya, despite a court ruling that the government ban be lifted.

Human Rights spokesman Rupert Colville says the U.N. office is concerned by the Kenyan governments refusal to heed the Kenyan High Courts instruction to allow the TV stations to resume transmission. He says the government should respect and implement the judicial decision.

We are also concerned at its attempts to interfere with the rights to freedom of expression and association by reportedly warning that participation in Mr. [Raila] Odingas ceremony would lead to revocation of licenses. Media organizations that disregarded this advice were shut down, Colville said.

Earlier this week, Kenyas main opposition leader, Raila Odinga, held a controversial ceremony in which he declared himself the peoples president. The government shut down the TV stations to prevent live coverage of the event.

Opposition leader Raila Odinga holds a bible aloft Opposition leader Raila Odinga holds up a bible during a mock inauguration ceremony at Uhuru Park in downtown Nairobi, Kenya, Jan. 30, 2018. Opposition leader Raila Odinga holds up a bible during a mock inauguration ceremony at Uhuru Park in downtown Nairobi, Kenya, Jan. 30, 2018.

After a disputed election marred by irregularities, Uhuru Kenyatta, was sworn in for a second term as president in November. Odinga, who refuses to accept the election results, organized the opposition mock inauguration ceremony in defiance of the government, which called it treasonous.

Colville told VOA he does not believe the shutdown of the TV stations prevented the violent rioting that had been predicted if Odingas ceremony went ahead. He said it is dangerous to make a connection between the two events.

What is true and I think very good was that the ceremony, which was held by Odingas party  passed off peacefully. And, thousands of people attended it despite the governments warnings that they should not. But, the police seemed to take great care to avoid a major confrontation during that situation, Colville said.

While Colville called this laudable, he said the continued suspension of the television stations is not and should be ended.

STATE DEPARTMENT - The United States on Friday urged Venezuela to return to its constitution and hold open and democratic elections.

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson called on Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's government to "restore the duly elected assembly, dismantle the illegitimate constituent assembly, and return to free, fair elections."

"What we would like to see happen there is a peaceful transition," said Tillerson during a joint news conference with Mexican Foreign Secretary Luis Videgaray and Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland in Mexico City.

The top U.S. diplomat's remarks came as Venezuela's ruling Socialist Party formally selected Maduro to run for re-election in the upcoming presidential election, with his leading opponents barred from standing.

The Venezuelan president has accused the United States of leading an international effort to topple his socialist administration, announced in January that he would seek a second six-year term and called for an election by April 30.

Freeland on Friday criticized Maduro's government for "systematically violating human rights" and the fundamental freedoms of its people.

Washington has said the election would lack legitimacy under the current dire economic conditions in the country, with millions of Venezuelans lacking access to basic goods and medical supplies.

An opposition member holds a poster that reads in FILE - An opposition member holds a poster that reads in Spanish "Venezuela is kidnapped by a corrupt government, criminals and murderers" during a protest outside of the city's morgue in Caracas, Jan. 20, 2018. FILE - An opposition member holds a poster that reads in Spanish "Venezuela is kidnapped by a corrupt government, criminals and murderers" during a protest outside of the city's morgue in Caracas, Jan. 20, 2018.

State Department officials have said such a vote would be "neither free nor fair" and would only deepen national tensions in Venezuela.

'Very painful'

On Friday, Mexico's Videgaray called Venezuela's current situation "very painful" and said Venezuelans must find a peaceful solution to the democratic crisis facing the country.

"Mexico is not going to support the decision that supports violence," he said.

A day earlier, Tillerson said in Texas that the United States was not seeking a regime change in Venezuela.

Instead, a senior State Department official said the U.S. would use "all its political, diplomatic and economic tools to address the situation" during Tillerson's visit to Latin America.

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is on a six- U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is on a six-day trip to Latin and South America. U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is on a six-day trip to Latin and South America.

But the official said he did not expect new sanctions against Venezuelan individuals and entities to be announced during Tillerson's trip.

Venezuela is in its fifth year of a worsening political and economic crisis.

In January, the U.S. Treasury added four current or former Venezuelan senior military officials to its sanctions list, accusing them of corruption and repression that have contributed to critical shortages of food and medicine and the erosion of human rights.

The European Union has also imposed sanctions, while the head of the Organization of American States has called for democratic reforms in Venezuela.WASHINGTON - A controversial document prepared by Republican members of Congress accuses U.S. law enforcement officials of abusing their surveillance authorities during the Russia investigation.

The 3-page secret memo, written by Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee, was released Friday after President Donald Trump authorized its declassification.

Carter Page, a foreign policy adviser to Donald Tr In this Nov. 2, 2017, photo, Carter Page, a foreign policy adviser to Donald Trump, speaks with reporters following a day of questions from the House Intelligence Committee, on Capitol Hill in Washington. In this Nov. 2, 2017, photo, Carter Page, a foreign policy adviser to Donald Trump, speaks with reporters following a day of questions from the House Intelligence Committee, on Capitol Hill in Washington.

What the memo alleges

The memos key allegation is that the U.S. Justice Department and the FBI improperly obtained a series of electronic surveillance warrants on former Trump associate Carter Page as part of the probe into Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election.

Page served as a foreign policy adviser for the Trump campaign and came under U.S. intelligence suspicion after traveling to Moscow and meeting with Russian officials.

FBI surveillance of foreign spies and other foreign targets in the United States is overseen by a secret court known as the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC). To obtain a warrant from the court, the FBI must furnish evidence that the target is a foreign power or an agent of a foreign government.

In Carters case, the memo alleges, the FBI substantially relied on information from a research dossier compiled by a former British intelligence officer for the election campaign of Trumps rival, Hillary Clinton. The bureau used the information in its initial warrant application in October 2016 after Page had left the campaign as well as three subsequent renewal applications.

A copy of the formerly top secret classified memo A copy of the formerly top secret classified memo written by House Intelligence Committee Republican staff and declassified for release by U.S. President Donald Trump is seen shortly after it was released by the committee in Washington, Feb. 2, 2018. A copy of the formerly top secret classified memo written by House Intelligence Committee Republican staff and declassified for release by U.S. President Donald Trump is seen shortly after it was released by the committee in Washington, Feb. 2, 2018.

The author of the dossier, Christopher Steele, was a longtime FBI source who was paid by the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee, via the law firm Perkins Cole and the research firm Fusion GPS, to "obtain derogatory information on Donald Trump's ties to Russia," according to the memo.

Steele is also accused of harboring an anti-Trump bias during the campaign, telling a senior Justice Department official two months before the 2016 election that he was desperate that Donald Trump not get elected and was passionate about him not being president. Trump has called the dossiers allegations about his personal and financial ties to Russia a Crooked Hillary Pile of Garbage.

But while the dossier formed an essential part of the Page surveillance applications, the memo says, FBI and DOJ officials failed to disclose that the underlying information had been funded by the Democrats even though the political origins of the Steele dossier were then known to senior DOJ and FBI officials.

The government had at least four independent opportunities before the FISC to accurately provide an accounting of the relevant facts, the Republicans wrote in the memo. However, our findings indicate that ... material and relevant information was omitted.

To support their claim that the dossier was central to obtaining the warrants, the Republicans cited December 2017 testimony by former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe that without the dossier information, no surveillance warrant would have been sought.

Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee who unsuccessfully tried to block the memos release blasted the document for serious mischaracterizations.

In a statement, Adam Schiff, the ranking Democrat on the intelligence panel, said the FBI would have been derelict in its responsibility to protect the country had it not sought a FISA [Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act] warrant.

Rep. Adam Schiff, D- Calif., ranking member of the Rep. Adam Schiff, D- Calif., ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, speaks at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, Feb. 1, 2018. Rep. Adam Schiff, D- Calif., ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, speaks at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, Feb. 1, 2018.

What the memo doesn't say

While the memo says the application relied on unsubstantiated information from the Steele dossier, it doesnt say what other pieces of evidence the FBI invoked to obtain the warrants. A FISA warrant application typically contains multiple sources of classified information to establish probable cause that the target of a proposed surveillance works for a foreign government.

Former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said a key question that is left unanswered in the memo is whether other information used in the application was enough to warrant its approval.

There is a lot of questions raised by the information that Id like to get answers to, Gonzales told VOA.

The top Leadership and Investigators of the FBI and the Justice Department have politicized the sacred investigative process in favor of Democrats and against Republicans - something which would have been unthinkable just a short time ago. Rank & File are great people!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 2, 2018

Ahead of the memos public release, Trump tweeted that the top Leadership and Investigators of the FBI and the Justice Department have politicized the sacred investigative process in favor of Democrats and against Republicans  something which would have been unthinkable just a short time ago. Rank & File are great people!"

But the memo does not directly accuse the top brass at the FBI and Justice Department of any wrongdoing, though it does say that senior officials, including former FBI Director James Comey, former Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates, and current Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, all signed off on the Page warrant applications.

Gonzales said that top officials who sign FISA warrant applications dont always get to read every fact included in them.

You're not necessarily going to know whats not included in the application and nonetheless you go ahead and sign the FISA application, he said.

Former U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales intr Former U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales introduces Republican presidential candidate Ohio Gov. John Kasich at a rally, Feb. 27, 2016, in Nashville, Tennessee. Former U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales introduces Republican presidential candidate Ohio Gov. John Kasich at a rally, Feb. 27, 2016, in Nashville, Tennessee.

Gonzales said criticism of the departments top brass can trickle down to its rank and file.

Whatever one might say about being for the rank and file at the department, the line prosecutors and line investigators, anytime you attack the leadership or the work of the department, it does hurt the morale of the rank and file, he said.

Im worried that the publics confidence in the integrity of investigations and prosecutions by the Department of Justice has been eroded, Gonzales said. I think thats a terrible place to be, quite frankly.U.S. President Donald Trumps pick to be ambassador to Singapore has withdrawn her nomination, after confirmation proceedings for her stalled in the Senate.



Trump said he was disappointed that K.T. McFarland would not be his ambassador to Singapore and blamed Democrats for impeding her nomination.



Unfortunately, some Democrats chose to play politics rather than move forward with a qualified nominee for a critically important post, he said in a statement.



McFarlands nomination faced opposition from Democrats and some Republicans over accusations she deceived the Senate in relation to the Russia investigation.



McFarland had served as deputy to Trumps former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn and testified to the Senate that she was not aware of conversations that Flynn had with Russian officials.



However, court documents later revealed that Flynn had emailed McFarland about his contacts with the Russian envoy during the 2016 presidential transition.



Flynn has pleaded guilty to lying to the Federal Bureau of Investigation about his contacts with Russia.



Reuters news agency, which said it obtained a copy of McFarlands withdrawal letter to Trump, quoted McFarland as saying, I have come to this decision reluctantly, because I believe in your mission.



"Know that I have no intention of withdrawing from the national debate and I want to help you in whatever way I can," she said.



McFarland served on Trumps presidential transition team and as a deputy to Flynn. She has also worked as a Fox News national security analyst.



I wish K.T. the best as she uses her considerable wisdom and skill as a commentator to explain to the American people how to make American foreign policy great again, Trump said.HARARE, (Reuters) - Zimbabwe should press on with transparent and fair land reform, Britain said on Friday, as Harares new leaders look to overhaul policies that evicted thousands of white farmers without compensation.

Under former president Robert Mugabe, authorities carried out often violent seizures of white-owned farms in a bid to address what they called injustices during British colonial rule.

But new President Emmerson Mnangagwa - keen to boost the economy and mend ties with countries that imposed sanctions on Zimbabwe - has said he wants to end discrimination between black and white farmers and is working to compensate those who lost their properties.

Britains Minister of State for Africa, Harriet Baldwin, said she discussed the land issue with Mnangagwa in Harare on Friday.

Obviously the UK government very much welcomes the statements that have been made about land reform by the government of Zimbabwe and we support a transparent and fair and mediated process around that, Baldwin told reporters.

Its also something which is very important as a signal to international investors and so its important and we welcome the fact that the president has made a commitment in terms of continuing with that process.

Zimbabwe sees mending relations with former colonial ruler Britain as a critical step towards re-establishing ties with the West and international financial institutions.

LEASES, TRIBUNAL

Under Mugabe, the government argued that it would only pay for buildings and equipment on farms but not the land, which it said had been expropriated from locals during the colonial era.

Mugabe, who was forced to step down after a de facto military coup in November, argued that Britain should pay compensation for the land because the farmers were its kith and kin.

When asked whether Britain would help pay the farmers, Baldwin said she welcomed the statements that the president has made on that front. She did not elaborate.

Land ownership is a highly sensitive topic in Zimbabwe. Colonialists seized some of the best agricultural land and much of it remained in the hands of white farmers after independence in 1980, while many blacks were landless.

The government has said it will issue 99-year leases to white farmers, according to a government circular.

Earlier this month a government document showed that Zimbabwe was considering establishing a special tribunal to determine the value of compensation and how to pay it to white farmers who have lost land since 2000. (Reporting by MacDonald Dzirutwe; Editing by Andrew Heavens)School districts: Interested in having your local, state, and federal funding follow children, so that kids with greater need have more money attached to them? Nows your chance.

The U.S. Department of Education is officially opening up the Weighted Student Funding Pilot in the Every Student Succeeds Act. The department can allow up to 50 districts to participate initially, and ESSA leaves open the possibility of opening that up to more districts down the line.

So whats the weighted student funding pilot? Participating districts can combine federal, state, and local dollars into a single funding stream tied to individual students. English-language learners, kids in poverty, students in special educationwho cost more to educatewould carry with them more money than other students. Some districts, including Denver, are already using this type of formula with state and local dollars.

U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos is pretty excited about the pilot.

This is a great opportunity for local district leaders to put students first, she said in a statement. Instead of relying on complex federal rules to allocate funds, local leaders can use this flexibility to match fundslocal, State or Federalto the needs of students.

DeVos and her team have been especially interested in the pilot, pretty much from the time they took office. That could be because, in theory, adopting a weighted student funding formula could make it easier for districts to operate school choice programs, since money would be tied to individual students and could therefore follow them to charter or virtual public schools. Importantly, though, districts that opt to participate in the pilot dont necessarily have to use it to further school choice. (More on the pilots potential for choice here .)

What are the deadlines for districts? The application will be available for download from the departments website on February 7, 2018. (Thats next week). Completed applications can be submitted to weightedfundingpilot@ed.gov .

Districts that are hoping to use the flexibility in the 2018-19 school year must submit their applications by March 12. Districts that are aiming to get going in the 2019-20 school year need to get their applications in by July 15.

Applications will be approved on a rolling basis. Districts can submit further questions to weightedfundingpilot@ed.gov .

Are there any resources attached to participating in the pilot? Not right now. In last years budget request, DeVos and company asked for an extra $1 billon in Title I grants for disadvantaged kids, which districts could use for public school choice. It wasnt clear if that was tied to the pilot, but policy wonks thought it was a possibility. Congress, though, nixed the request. Its possible that the department could try again with their next budget ask, for fiscal year 2019.

Want to learn more about the Every Student Succeeds Act? Heres some useful information:

Follow us on Twitter at @PoliticsK12 .While the first week of February doesnt exactly conjure up visions of family picnics and backyard barbecues, Doug Touchette isnt letting Manitobas frigid conditions stop him from daydreaming about those lazy, hazy days of summer.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 3/2/2018 (1317 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

While the first week of February doesnt exactly conjure up visions of family picnics and backyard barbecues, Doug Touchette isnt letting Manitobas frigid conditions stop him from daydreaming about those lazy, hazy days of summer.

Touchette is the brains behind BooMBaggage, a St. Adolphe-based venture that converts vintage suitcases into eye-catching, plug-and-play speaker units. (Insert your own, carrying-a-tune joke here.)

A few months ago, Touchette put the finishing touches on his latest gadget  an is-that-what-I-think-it-is-contraption hes dubbed the Boom-cooler.

Photos by PHIL HOSSACK / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Intersection - Doug Touchette poses with some of his suitcase BoomBox creations. See Dave Sandersons story. December 29, 2017

"Its a brand new Coleman cooler that Ive installed waterproof speakers to the front of, while leaving plenty of room inside for ice and 15 long-neck bottles of beer," he says, holding out his phone to show a reporter what one of the Bluetooth-compatible units looks like. "Its battery-operated so you can take it with you camping, to the beach or whatever, and only weighs about 20 pounds, when fully-loaded. I built the first version of it for myself last August and I swear, for the rest of the summer there was almost no reason for me to ever get out of my lawn chair."

Touchette, 54, grew up in a sound environment. His father, Emile Touchette, owned and operated Emile Electronics on St. Marys Road for decades. Touchette figures he was 11 or 12 when he began assisting his dad on the sales floor, and with weekend deliveries.

"During the 15 or so years I was there, VCRs and camcorders hit the market, microwave ovens became a thing, CDs replaced records... looking back, it seemed like we were having to learn something new, every other week," he says.

Upon completing the University of Manitobas commerce program in 1989, Touchette left his fathers employ to go into commercial sales, first with Inland Audio Visual, and later with Winnipeg AV. He eventually founded his own security company, a firm that constructed and installed the first PC-based, digital CCTV recorders in Manitoba, he states proudly.

'Have you ever seen that Monty Python skit where the fellow builds a castle in a swamp, then, after it sinks, builds another on top of that one, then another and another, until he finally gets one that stays up? That was kind of the way I felt, after failing the first couple times'  Doug Touchette on the trialanderror process that led to his creations

In April 2014, while he was on his laptop doing some research for an upcoming project, he tripped over a website advertising suitcase-stereo systems, fashioned by a pair of fellows in San Francisco.

A born tinkerer, the married father of three fetched an old, Samsonite suitcase that had been gathering dust in the back of a closet, as well as some worn speakers and wiring from a shelf in his garage. Grabbing his toolbox, he attempted to duplicate what hed spotted online.

Given his vast, technological background, he nailed it the first time round, right? Wrong.

"Have you ever seen that Monty Python skit where the fellow builds a castle in a swamp, then, after it sinks, builds another on top of that one, then another and another, until he finally gets one that stays up?" Touchette asks, chuckling as he replays the comedic scene over in his head. "That was kind of the way I felt, after failing the first couple times. But as soon as I figured out what I was doing right and what I was doing wrong... lets just say by my seventh or eighth suitcase, I knew I had a product that was sellable."

After shopping at a mix of garage sales, antique shops and second-hand stores for vintage luggage he could work with, Touchette officially debuted his line of products at the St. Norbert Farmers Market in August 2014. Playing songs stored on his phone (all his pieces come with a connector jack you can plug a laptop, an MP3 player, an iPod or other gadgets into it) he quickly attracted the attention of everyone from "bikers to grandmas," he says.

The problem was, any time there were gusty conditions, the reverberations emanating from his creations didnt carry well, negating sales, he continues. That and the fact his neighbouring vendor, "the perogy lady," wasnt particularly fond of rock n roll caused him to rethink his retail approach, and go hunting for a more permanent place to parade his speakers.

Talk about sound travelling: ever since the owner of City Haul at 173 Lilac St. agreed to grant Touchette the majority of his front window space to display BooMBaggage products to passersby, Touchettes devices have been scooped up by shoppers from as far away as Vancouver Island, Calgary and Chicago.

"Theres a delicatessen in Toronto that bought one, to play music in the restaurant," Touchette points out. "There was also a guy in town last year doing the lighting for a movie being shot here, who fell in love with one after seeing it at City Haul. He contacted me through my website (http://www.boombaggage.ca) saying people would go crazy for these things in Vancouver, where he lives. He bought a bunch off me, outright, and I now supply him with additional product, to sell in B.C."

Although his business moniker carries the word baggage, Touchette doesnt limit himself to valises or gripsacks, when its time to roll up his sleeves and get to work. To date, hes also inserted speaker compartments into floor radios, shoeshine boxes, shipping crates and round top trunks. Even better: hes currently fiddling around with a 1970s-era Easy-Bake Oven, noting hes especially curious to see "how that all turns out." (While the housing units he employs are obviously used, all the CSA-approved amplifier sections and power-supplies he outfits them with are new, and come with a one-year warranty against defects.)

"I also do custom orders for people who have an old piece of luggage that isnt functional any longer, but they cant bear to part with it, because of its sentimental value," he says. "They might tell me how they plan to use it, in the backyard or at the cottage, but aside from that, they leave it up to me to lay things out, and decide what type of speakers to use. They go, Youre the artist; you know what youre doing."

About that; from time to time, Touchette hears from others who see his handiwork and remark, "That seems easy to do; I think Ill just make one, myself."

Doug Speirs | Uplift A weekly review of funny, uplifting news in Winnipeg and around the globe that is delivered to your inbox each Wednesday. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement.

A piece of antique leather luggage is transformed into a funky-looking speaker, thanks to the work of Doug Touchette.

"What I tell them is when something is done well, it almost always looks simple. But trust me; there are 100 ways these things can go wrong, which I learned the hard way," he says.

Touchette, who is self-employed as a marketing consultant, still considers BooMBaggage more of a pastime than "something I can retire on," he says with a laugh.

That said, despite a successful career that has involved installing intricate audio systems in "countless" theatres and arenas, he refers to his sideline gig as the most fun thing hes ever undertaken.

"I obviously love working with sound. I also enjoy the carpentry-side-of-things and the refinishing stages. Plus, as many as I can build, I sell. How often do you luck into a hobby that helps pay the bills?"

david.sanderson@freepress.mb.caThe babies had barely breathed their first breaths before they were whisked away from their mothers and tucked into a neonatal intensive care bed for a stay that could last as long as several weeks.

This article was published 3/2/2018 (1317 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The babies had barely breathed their first breaths before they were whisked away from their mothers and tucked into a neonatal intensive care bed for a stay that could last as long as several weeks.

That was the Winnipeg standard four years ago. Any baby who had been exposed to some form of addictive opioid  be it an illegal drug like heroin or a treatment like methadone  while in utero was taken, just in case, for observation.

On a staffing level it was demanding: newborns that need to be weaned off opioids are challenging to care for, requiring someone to almost always be holding them. On a personal note it was emotionally disruptive, a barrier to a mother bonding with her new baby.

"We were wondering if there was a different way," says Lisa Merrill, manager of patient care at the Childrens Hospital neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). There is.

MIKE DEAL / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS From left: Lynda Tjaden and Lisa Merrill, are responsible for spearheading a program that helps more babies with neonatal abstinence syndrome.

Sometime in 2013, Merrill accompanied her daughter to Vancouver on a gymnastics trip. While there she asked the B.C. Womens Hospital if she could pop in for a quick visit to the Fir Square Combined Care Unit, which bills itself as "the first in Canada to care for women who use substances and their newborns exposed to substances in a single unit."

In December 2014, as a result of what she learned on that trip, Merrill helped launch a Winnipeg pilot project that has yet to end.

How prevalent is neonatal abstinence syndrome? Here's a look at some key statistics about the incidence of neonatal abstinence syndrome. click to read more How prevalent is neonatal abstinence syndrome? Neonatal abstinence syndrome, or NAS, is the name used for a number of problems a newborn can face as a result of being exposed to addictive drugs while in utero. Those drugs include heroin, codeine and oxycontin, as well as opioid treatment drugs such as methadone. In Manitoba, the bulk of the babies born with NAS are treated at Health Sciences Centre in Winnipeg. Here is a breakdown of babies born with NAS across the province since 2012. Winnipeg Regional Health Authority 2017: 19 born at St. Boniface (as of August 2017) 28 at HSC (as of June 2017) 2016: 20 born at St. Boniface, 54 at HSC 2015: 16 born at St. Boniface, 61 at HSC 2014: 16 born at St. Boniface, 61 at HSC 2013: 14 born at St. Boniface, 54 at HSC 2012: 13 born at St. Boniface, 54 at HSC Northern Health Authority 2017/2018: 1 (as of Oct. 17, 2017) 2016/2017: 3 2015/2016: 5 2014/2015: 2 2013/2014: 1 2012/2013: 1 2011/2012: 1 Southern Health 2017: 1 (as of Oct. 31, 2017) 2016: 1 2015: 2 2014: 0 2013: 1 2012: 2 Prairie Mountain Health 2017: 16 (as of Oct. 20, 2017) 2016: 29 2015: 23 2014: 18 2013: 13 2012: 15 Interlake-Eastern Regional Health Authority 2017: 1 (as of Oct. 20, 2017) 2016: 0 2015: 0 2014: 0 2013: 0 2012: 0 Close

Now, a little more than three years later, that project  which launched a shift in protocol across a number of specialties  has cut down on the number of opioid-exposed babies needing the NICU to withdraw by 40 per cent. Its also ahead of the curve. Just last month, the Canadian Paediatric Society recommended more babies stay with their mothers rather than go to the NICU for care in light of the growing number of babies born to mothers dependent on opioids.

But more importantly, says the medical director of the Addictions Foundation Manitoba, it helps cut down on the stigma surrounding those babies mothers and eases their worries at a particularly vulnerable time.

"There is a lot of fear for mothers who are pregnant and substance users," Dr. Ginette Poulin says, "when they get into that medical system, whats that going to mean for them and their baby moving forward? Will that baby be taken away from them? Will they have access to be around the baby? Are they going to be able to take care of this child?"

Imagine youve just given birth. Two hours, 10 hours, 20 hours of labour. Youre exhausted, in pain, depleted, and then theres your baby, nine some pounds of delicate tiny human that makes it worth it. She cries, her little face scrunching up, and then shes taken away because during your pregnancy you took addictive drugs or were dependent on methadone or suboxone to treat your addiction.

John Walker / TNS

It used to be an "automatic admission," Merrill says, "just in anticipation of the likelihood of them needing treatment." The mother would go to the postpartum ward to recover, while baby would go to the NICU for care. If the baby was in withdrawal, which most are, she would stay for weeks, sometimes receiving oral doses of morphine and sometimes other drugs with meals until the symptoms subsided..

But what Merrill learned in Vancouver, was that by rooming babies long-term with their mothers most wound up never needing treatment, they could safely withdraw while being skin-to-skin with mum and breast feeding.

How to tell if a baby has neonatal abstinence syndrome: The Winnipeg Regional Health Authority scores babies based on how many symptoms of neonatal abstinence syndrome they have. The higher the score, the more likely the baby will need some sort of medical help withdrawing. They use a mnemonic device  "WITHDRAWAL"  to help remember click to read more The Winnipeg Regional Health Authority scores babies based on how many symptoms of neonatal abstinence syndrome they have. The higher the score, the more likely the baby will need some sort of medical help withdrawing. They use a mnemonic device  "WITHDRAWAL"  to help remember: W - Wakefulness I - Irritability T - Tremulousness, Temperature instability, Tachypnea (abnormally rapid breathing) H - Hyperactivity, High-pitched cry, Hyperacusia (increased sensitivity to frequencies and sound volumes), Hyperreflexia (overactive or overresponsive reflexes), Hypertonia (stiff, rigid muscles) D - Diarrhea, Diaphoresis (sweating), Disorganized suck R - Rub marks, Respiratory distress, Rhinorrhea (mucus in the nasal cavity) A - Apnea, Automatic dysfunction W - Weight loss A - Apathy, Alkalosis (when body doesn't have the right balance of acids and bases), Acidosis (too much lactic acid), Appetite increased or decreased L - Lacrimation (excessive tears), Lassitude (sluggishness) Close

However, to make that change at Health Sciences Centre required a "buy in" from multiple departments, since it would impact how everyone from nurses to pediatricians to neonatologists did their jobs. Typically, a pediatrician would care for a baby recovering with mum whereas a neonatologist would look after a baby in the NICU. To make a new system work, Merrill had to make those doctors sit down with managers in the hospitals obstetrics program, its various child medicine programs, and womens health programs to make sure everyone was comfortable in shifting their admissions protocols.

"Everybody has their own," Merrill says, "but this was like a complete overlapping of every possible practice."

Instead of automatically sending newborns to the NICU, they would be moved to the postpartum ward with their mothers. Those babies who had been exposed to longer-acting opioids would spend seven days in hospital with their mothers, while those on shorter-acting opioids would usually stay for about 74 hours.

Nurses would monitor their recovery, "scoring" their symptoms on a scale of one to five to make sure the withdrawal was going smoothly. Most symptoms are relatively minor: sweating, excessive sucking, and mild tremors all rank as ones, while watery stools and marked hyperactivity are a little more severe at three.

'The more we break down those fears and those stigmas, the more we allow people to seek treatment much sooner'  Dr. Ginette Poulin

Under the new system, doctors in the NICU are informed that there is a newborn being monitored for neonatal abstinence syndrome but they only become involved if the score starts to go up. Two symptoms  sudden jerks and twitches, as well as generalized convulsions  prompt their immediate involvement.

"If their score started going up, they flag (the doctors) and its an automatic transfer," Merrill says, "so it was all of these details that kind of had to be hammered out between everyone so we could all agree."

It started in December 2014, a small test run involving women getting treatment at methadone clinics. Merrill and other practitioners met with the women to explain what they were trying to do and every single one was keen to try even though weaning a newborn from opioids is tough.

For a few women having their second or third children, it was a wonderful surprise to get the chance to keep their newborns rather than send them off immediately to intensive care.

"They were thrilled," Merrill says.

The pilot got extended and extended and extended until it was the new normal.

The extent of a babys withdrawal will depend on the drug in question  What was it? When was it last taken? How often was it taken?  as well as the newborns metabolism and "other less definable factors."

JOE BRYKSA / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Dr. Ginette Poulin, says the program will help cut down on stigma attached to these mothers.

Some babies cry excessively and continuously, others have mild tremors and feed poorly. Some show signs of nasal flaring  their nostrils widening with every breath  while others have fevers and vomit, their stool loose or watery. In more serious cases, the baby will twitch and jerk or convulse.

Health-care providers dont always know in advance if they should expect a withdrawal. While some women feel comfortable telling their provider theyre taking methadone or suboxone or have taken illegal substances while pregnant, others dont.

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"Its all about building relationships with mum in advance," Merrill says.

Even if a woman doesnt disclose until after the babys born, Dr. Poulin says HSCs emphasis on keeping the newborn with mum rather than immediately taking it to the NICU can have a big impact on the mothers parenting going forward.

"If they deliver and the babys taken away, theyre going to have questions," she says. "What am I going to do? Am I going to be able to feed the baby? What are they doing to baby while Im not there? Is there any damage or repercussions?"

Sometimes fear of being stigmatized keeps a woman from reaching out to her health-care provider until the babys birth, Poulin says, which makes it all the more important that the delivery and those early days ease rather than inflame those concerns.

"The more we break down those fears and those stigmas, the more we allow people to seek treatment much sooner," she says, "which can then lend to better outcomes for baby and mother."

jane.gerster@freepress.mb.caA year into Donald Trumps presidency, some American Christian denominations are getting reacquainted with their prophetic voice, says the president of the largest Christian ecumenical body in the United States.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 3/2/2018 (1317 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A year into Donald Trumps presidency, some American Christian denominations are getting reacquainted with their prophetic voice, says the president of the largest Christian ecumenical body in the United States.

"Our place is not to be at the emperors court, but to have a more prophetic stance on behalf of the least and the lost," says Jim Winkler of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the USA (NCC) in a telephone interview from Washington, D.C.

Headshot of Jim Winkler, president and general secretary of the National Council of Churches, Washington DC handout photo

"Its not to seek laws for our faith or particular interest group, but to speak justice for those at the bottom of society."

Winkler delivers an address on Christianity in Trumps America, Thursday at 7 p.m. at the University of Winnipegs Eckhardt-Gramatte Hall. The point of the free lecture is to help Canadians understand challenges facing American faith communities in the current political climate, says Bill Blaikie, director of the universitys Knowles-Woodworth Institute, organizer of the event.

"Theres a lot of interest within the Christian community about what goes on in the United States and the degree of support President Trump has gotten from the evangelical church," says Blaikie, former NDP MP and ordained United Church of Canada minister.

Since Trump took office, most religious organizations, including the National Council of Churches, no longer enjoy access to the White House, according to Winkler. He says the only exception would be some conservative Christian groups and individuals on the presidents evangelical executive advisory board.

"I have reached out to more conservative evangelical figures to use their influence to inform Trump, but theyre enamoured by their access," Winkler says. "Theres very much an atmosphere that if you anger the president, you lose access and opportunity for influence."

Representing about 30 million American Christians in 38 member denominations and faith communities, Winkler says the National Council of Churches has over the past year focused its efforts in speaking out for disadvantaged and disenfranchised Americans.

He says his organization mourns the harsh rhetoric from the White House against refugees, immigration and North Korea.

Ready, Pet, Go! Leesa Dahl looks at everything to do with our furry, fuzzy, feathered, fishy (and more!) pet friends. Arrives in your inbox each Monday. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement.

Jose Luis Magana / The Associated Press files Donald Trump, seen on the presidential campaign trail in 2015, has upset many U.S. faith groups with his harsh, bigoted rhetoric.

"Its really been a struggle on every front," he says.

"We opposed the tax cuts, we opposed the rights to restrict refugees and immigration, we have opposed rollbacks on environmental protection. Weve opposed the foreign policies and his stance with North Korea."

The council is organizing a rally against racism (rally2endracism.org) in Washington, set for April 4, the 50th anniversary of the assassination of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.

"The vision is to end racism," says Winkler, adding the NCC also plans to unveil a multi-year comprehensive program to address racism in church and civic life.

"Were people of biblical vision and its time to act on it."

brenda@suderman.comHey there, time traveller!

This article was published 2/2/2018 (1317 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA  A Manitoba conservation group is fuming after the federal Liberals quietly shelved a Harper-era funding program for preserving wetlands.

The federal government offered no explanation for discontinuing the National Wetland Conservation Fund, which Ducks Unlimited Canada says has helped bring back cattails and migratory birds to rural Manitoba, while cleaning Winnipegs air.

"It really caught us off-guard," said Scott Stephens, the groups Prairie operations director.

The fund matches conservation groups efforts to protect or reclaim wetlands. Stephens said that often means educating property owners about the benefits of grassland, and compensating them for preserving parts of their property instead of transforming it into cropland.

They also reclaim land, often by putting some dirt into a ditch to stop water runoff. Within weeks, rainwater accumulates in a previously drained wetland, and plant seeds that have lied dormant for decades come to life.

"All of a sudden, you have cattails growing and a whole suit of other wetland plants that just pop up again, like they were never gone. Its pretty amazing," Stephens said on the phone from the groups national headquarters in Stonewall.

Stephens said the program has helped store carbon, remove the nutrients that contribute to downstream algae, and reduce the impact of floods. Thats why he was surprised when officials told him in November the annual application period had been delayed, and was shocked Thursday when they said it had been cancelled.

The fund has helped Ducks restore nine sites in southwestern Manitoba, accounting for 358 acres of wetland and 871 acres of upland, which is surrounding grass that prevents drainage and helps animals spawn, the group said. Stephens said the federal cost-matching often helps incentivize donors.

Neepawa-area MP Robert Sopuck called the change "absolutely baffling," and he suspected it was because the program started when his Conservative party was in office.

Environment Canadas website does not tally how the fund has been used, but Sopuck said more than $25 million was expended from its September 2014 launch up to March 2017, for 198 projects.

In a press release, Sopuck noted the decision came Thursday, a day before World Wetlands Day, which commemorates a 1971 UNESCO convention.

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"From providing habitat and shelter for fish, providing nesting habitat, or providing safety for migratory birds, wetlands are one of our most precious resources," he wrote.

Environment Minister Catherine McKenna could not be immediately reached for comment. Environment Canada spokeswoman Amelie Desmarais did not explain why the program was cancelled, but said funding already granted to multi-year programs would continue.

"The National Wetland Conservation Fund will not be accepting new projects this year, but funding remains available for conserving and protecting wetlands through our other programs," she wrote.

Sopuck said hell bring up the issue in Parliament. "We will fight like hell for the Liberals to acknowledge the value of wetlands," he tweeted.

In November, Sopuck took the Liberals to task over closing the recreational fisheries conservation partnerships program, which for five years cost-matched fishing businesses spending to unclog algae-prone lakes. The government said it will look at that issue through the sweeping Lake Winnipeg basin program.

dylan.robertson@freepress.mb.caThe Manitoba NDP is blaming Premier Brian Pallister for 40 imminent high-end job buyouts at Bell MTS.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 3/2/2018 (1317 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Manitoba NDP is blaming Premier Brian Pallister for 40 imminent "high-end" job buyouts at Bell MTS.

New Democrat MLA Jim Maloway told reporters Friday morning they are just the latest job losses that followed BCE Inc.s takeover of the Manitoba telecommunications company, while Pallister led the cheerleading for the deal instead of objecting to federal regulators.

"The deal is actually working against Manitoba jobs. Another 40 jobs may be transferred to Ontario," said Maloway, using information he said came from the Telecommunications Employees Association of Manitoba (TEAM).

TEAM Local 161 executive director Bob Linsdell said Maloways figures are correct.

"In January 2016, TEAM had over 1,000 members working in MTS, and after this round of downsizing, we will be down to around 760," Linsdell said Friday. "The acquisition of MTS by Bell was announced on May 2, 2016.

These lost jobs were good quality, middle-class, highly-skilled positions. A significant number of them were in information technology."

The company said Friday its offering a voluntary incentive.

"This is a voluntary program offered to eligible employees to retire with a financial incentive that recognizes their service to the company," said Jeremy Sawatzky, senior manager of media relations for Bell MTS.

"MTS has offered similar programs in past years, as has Bell (and our competitors, too)," Sawatzky said by email.

"Communications is a competitive industry thats changing rapidly. Thats why Bell MTS is making significant investments in Manitoba  $1 billion over five years in new networks and services, significantly more than MTS would have been able to invest on its own."

However, Maloway said MTS alone would have made those same improvements.

"We could not see the need for this takeover," the MLA said, adding the premier should have intervened with federal regulators to try to keep MTS out of BCEs hands.

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"A provincial premier has a lot of power  he would have been listened to a lot more than an MLA like me," he said. "They should at least have put up a fight. They didnt even stay neutral. The premier was out cheerleading.

"The provincial government was basically cheerleading for the deal."

Growth, Enterprise and Trade Minister Blaine Pedersen rejected Maloways accusations Friday.

"Manitobans continue to see an ideological aversion to private-sector investment coming from yesterdays NDP," said Pedersen.

"We are focused on progressive, forward-thinking policies that make our province the right place for business to invest, build and grow, including a bold new economic development strategy to address todays challenges and take advantage of tomorrows opportunities."

nick.martin@freepress.mb.caManitoba's university presidents suspect future provincial funding may depend on the ability to convince Premier Brian Pallister the schools can feed the local job market.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 2/2/2018 (1317 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Manitoba's university presidents suspect future provincial funding may depend on the ability to convince Premier Brian Pallister the schools can feed the local job market.

At least, that's what the group concluded at their latest meeting, Brandon University interim president Steven Robinson recently told his school's board of governors.

Robinson reported the Pallister government appears to be moving to a value-for-money university system, in which the Tories are emphasizing universities' ability to educate students to fill Manitoba jobs. "The province is transitioning to a focus on labour-market outcomes, such as the ability for (post-secondary) institutions to feed and drive the labour market for increased employment success and economic growth," with a provincial emphasis on value for money and fiscal responsibility.

The BU governors' minutes note Robinson "expressed the importance of ensuring that labour-market outcomes are considered in future funding requests to the province for programming."

Robinson also told the governors the Pallister government is "showing a high degree of interest in completion rates for students to start and finish university in a reasonable time."

Education Minister Ian Wishart last year ordered a review of the province's colleges -- expected to be tabled soon -- and Robinson said a similar review of Manitoba's universities is possible.

Wishart said by email Friday the university presidents are on the right track, but he's not yet ready to be specific.

"The province is looking at a broader strategy to ensure post-secondary education is better aligned with labour-market needs. Some findings of the college review may be applicable to other institutions, but while we appreciate institutions being proactive in anticipation, at this point, we are not ready to release our findings," said Wishart.

Robinson told the BU governors the province could also seek a "potential rebalancing" of university budgets from administration to front-line services.

The presidents believe they know where the Pallister government wants them to go, said Gabor Csepregi of the Winnipeg-based Universite de Saint-Boniface.

"(USB) is committed to continued collaboration with the province and understands the priorities that have been put forward. As the provinces plan is developed through future exchanges, we expect that USBs unique mission of promoting French language and culture will be an integral part of its strategy," he said.

Other Manitoba schools declined to comment or didn't respond.

Robinson has nothing further to say, a BU official said this week.

"We'll take a pass," said a University of Winnipeg official.

According to BU meeting minutes, Robinson said the presidents group recently met with the Business Council of Manitoba to develop a strategy for meeting the province's priorities.

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"Both groups will continue to meet to establish labour-market outcomes and develop a PSE (post-secondary education) strategy for the province, with the hope of influencing the provinces strategy," Robinson told the board.

"We want to drive the economy, grow the economy -- we've got a need for more talent, continually," said Don Leitch, president and chief executive officer of the Business Council of Manitoba. "How do we apply sufficient resources from the province to meet everyone's needs?"

Last week, Wishart said the Tory government has made it clear universities and colleges administrative costs are to be reduced, even though universities said they have not received a directive from the Pallister government. Government, Crown corporations, and health-care systems were ordered last year to cut 15 per cent of their administration jobs.

Red River College said it has chopped 10 of its top 67 management jobs, after unnamed provincial officials told RRC it is provincial policy.

Robinson had also reported to the BU board of governors late last year the university presidents are strategizing how they can provide proof to Pallister that the premier is achieving his promise of making Manitoba the most improved province in Canada -- but none of the presidents would provide elaboration or agree to an interview.

nick.martin@freepress.mb.caBRANDON  The defence lawyer for a CFB Shilo soldier accused of sexually assaulting a fellow male soldier called the allegation patently ridiculous, suggesting Friday the complainant made up the story as a way to strike back at someone who tormented him during training.

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This article was published 3/2/2018 (1317 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

BRANDON  The defence lawyer for a CFB Shilo soldier accused of sexually assaulting a fellow male soldier called the allegation "patently ridiculous," suggesting Friday the complainant made up the story as a way to strike back at someone who tormented him during training.

The complainant, who cannot be named due to a publication ban, alleges Cpl. Reid Gobin forced his fingers into the complainants anus during an encounter in December 2014, while the two were part of a 3-month infantry-training course in Wainwright, Alta.

Counsel described the alleged attack as a "four-finger strike." The complainant said he later discovered a tear in his underwear from the assault and experienced pain for an extended period of time.

Gobin pleaded not guilty Thursday to the single charge of sexual assault at the standing court martial at CFB Shilo. (The accused and complainant are both members of the 2nd Battalion, Princess Patricias Canadian Light Infantry.)

The defence called four witnesses to the stand Friday, who all reiterated details of "low-level hazing" that occurred during the course in Alberta.

The witnesses recalled one such activity, where a group of soldiers would pick an unsuspecting platoon member and tackle him.

What happened after the tackle varied from witness to witness  with one soldier describing it as more of a "bear hug," another saying they would try to take off the soldiers shirt, pants and boots, and another stating the tackled soldier would get tied up and thrown in the shower fully clothed.

All four described it as amicable, good-natured and a morale-boosting activity.

Pte. James Seaward testified Gobin was both an aggressor and a victim in these episodes.

The complainant took part in the hazing on at least one occasion, testified Cpl. Nicholas Cazalais, but as time went on  and as he became more of a target  the complainant became more hesitant.

"Maybe he was more comfortable dishing it out more than taking it, so to speak," Cazalais said.

The prosecutor, Maj. Greg Moorehead, told the court the described hazing was "a gateway to future harassment."

"This is exactly the sort of thing that needs to change in the Canadian Armed Forces," Moorehead said. "That it may be commonplace does not make it right."

Although the details are important, Moorehead said they did not go to the heart of the matter on trial: a soldier is accused of sexual assault.

"This was not an easy allegation to make," Moorehead said. "It was embarrassing for the complainant to talk about, so much so that he didnt seek medical attention, despite persistent and fairly serious symptoms."

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Gobins lawyer, Lt.-Cmdr. Brent Walden, argued the prosecutions lack of expert evidence damaged the complainants credibility, repeating it was "patently ridiculous."

"To believe a human could prod someone with enough force to rip through cargo pants and underwear and insert four fingers into his anus up to his knuckle its impossible to prove," Walden said.

Walden also pointed to inconsistencies in the complainants testimony versus Gobins and other witnesses, arguing the complainant was making deliberate omissions and not trying to tell the truth.

"He knew (military police) wouldnt look into (the other hazing incidents), so he made up a story that was so shocking the military police would have to investigate," Walden said.

Military Judge Commander Sandra Sukstorf is expected to deliver her decision in military court Monday.

 Brandon SunHey there, time traveller!

This article was published 3/2/2018 (1317 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Opinion

It was 88 hours of irony and contrasting images.

On Friday, Jan. 19, Winnipeg architect and Free Press columnist Brent Bellamy was doing what he does best: taking a beautiful photograph and then posting it on Twitter. Bellamy has become one of the great documentarians of the city, and in particular its downtown.

The image on this day was an early evening shot of the plaza that separates the Red River College (RRC) culinary arts building from Old Market Square. Looking east through the plaza towards Main Street. Streetlights, and windows in the RRC building, glowed with a soft yellow hue. A single pedestrian strolled along a snow-covered sidewalk.

The caption on the tweet was as good as the picture: "Sometimes my city is like a painting."

Looking at the photograph, and reading Bellamys words, its hard not to love Winnipegs downtown just a little bit. The photo was a love song to his city. A city that is, at times, very hard to love.

Fast forward the aforementioned 88 hours. Its now Tuesday mid-morning, and a teenage exchange student from India  in Winnipeg for less than a month  is viciously attacked while waiting for a bus in a shelter attached to Portage Place mall. The assailant was an Alberta man with a long criminal record, who had only just been released from prison.

The story could not have been more frightening. The assailant did not know his victim, and had not interacted with him in any way. He waited methodically for the shelter to clear, before lunging at the man and punching him in the face.

Heres where the irony comes in.

About 30 minutes after the attack, Mayor Brian Bowman would hold a news conference in an empty storefront right across the street from the bus shelter, at which he announced a $90,000 investment to enhance foot patrols organized by the Downtown BIZ, West End BIZ and Exchange District BIZ. Another $13,000 was provided to the Bear Clan Patrol, which helps with community safety in the north end of the city.

Bowman had no opportunity to include a reference to the horrendous bus shelter attack  he only learned about it after his news conference  but his comments that morning could not have been more on point. "Despite the progress our city has made in reducing crime, public safety remains a concern for many residents," Bowman said at the announcement.

"Residents in our city still consider our downtown more unsafe than other parts of the city and we need to continue working to address the safety concerns many of our residents have."

Indeed. Regardless of what happened across the street an hour earlier  or across the country, for that matter  Bowman identified the key issue at work here: people who think downtown is unsafe will not visit downtown; and when people abandon the core of a city, trouble is sure to follow.

Bowman is not embellishing the truth when he says there has been progress in reducing crime and improving overall public safety downtown. Several decades of deliberate public policy have resulted in a dramatic improvement in the general conditions found downtown.

All you need to do is look at the level of activity in downtown right now, in the darkest days of winter.

Thanks largely to its new food and beverage hall, The Forks Market has become once again a must-see attraction for tourists and Winnipeggers alike. The theatre season is in full swing; the New Music Festival, with its eclectic sonic profile, is filling concert halls and smaller venues with new and eccentric sounds. The division-leading Winnipeg Jets are packing them in at Bell MTS Centre. The frozen rivers and public skating rinks are jammed with down-clad thrill-seekers who are more than happy to thumb their collective noses at the near-arctic conditions.

And thats just the stuff happening in the dead of winter. The spring, summer and fall bring a whole range of other activities that draw people downtown to play and work and live.

It would be a crime, in and of itself, if Winnipeggers were to avoid downtown because of the violent bus-shelter attack. They would miss the gritty urban beauty that Bellamy regularly documents. They would miss skating on the river, packing downtown restaurants and bars and hearing the leading edge of live music.

Lamentably, you can bet a few people who dared to venture downtown have renounced their interest in the core. Even worse is that the legions of Winnipeggers who never get any closer to downtown than Polo Park will no doubt find their anti-downtown sentiments reinforced by the recent attack.

The mayor and others are right to continue trying to make downtown safer and cleaner. But politicians should always remember that no measure of foot-patrols, closed-circuit cameras and street lighting is ever going to take the edge off downtown.

All downtowns serve as a point of confluence between ugliness and beauty, abject poverty and ostentatious wealth, violence and tranquility. It has always been thus.

Pick a great city of the world. Now make a list of all the things that you want to see when you are lucky enough to visit. For every great and beautiful and wondrous thing you get to see, you will likely have to endure some ugliness.

Toronto is a good study of all the good, bad and ugly that a downtown has to offer. Along with the fantastic restaurants and bars, museums, concert halls and wondrous examples of modern architecture, there is poverty and violence and dysfunction. Recent headlines serve as a graphic example of this reality.

Just last week, a freelance landscaper was arrested in connection with a series of grisly murders of men reported missing from Torontos downtown gay village. Police have started searching and seizing a vast array of planters the man maintained across the core of the city, some of which have contained the remains of the missing men.

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Thats the kind of headline that would be devastating for any city. And its quite likely the entire matter is breaking the hearts of a lot of people who fiercely defend Toronto. But its equally likely that a story like this will not dissuade many people from visiting or living in Torontos downtown.

In bigger cities, a certain measure of crime and dysfunction is part of the price of admission to access all the fantastic things that downtowns have to offer. And it seems in bigger and denser cities, citizens are able to make the rationalization. Less so in smaller cities like Winnipeg, where stories of violence like this tend to undermine the confidence of the entire community.

Again, lawmakers and policy architects should try to remember that sometimes, its not the safety and cleanliness of downtown that is the real problem. Sometimes, its the maturity of the people who pass through that downtown that has to be addressed.

With every new event, amenity and apartment block that gets added, we have a chance to change minds and cultivate a new maturity about what life in the core really means. The more of us who learn to love to downtown, the less ugliness will transpire.

As for this columns author, Ill be looking for every opportunity to spend time downtown in the hope that in some small way, my presence will help to create the critical human mass that  at minimum  discourages someone from authoring the next random act of violence.

dan.lett@freepress.mb.caThe old guard is firmly ensconced in Saskatchewan. On Jan. 27, MLA Scott Moe was elected the new leader of the Saskatchewan Party, with 54 per cent of the vote. After five ballots, Moe defeated his chief rival, Alanna Koch, the former deputy minister to outgoing Premier Brad Wall, who swept to power in 2007.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 3/2/2018 (1317 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Opinion

The old guard is firmly ensconced in Saskatchewan. On Jan. 27, MLA Scott Moe was elected the new leader of the Saskatchewan Party, with 54 per cent of the vote. After five ballots, Moe defeated his chief rival, Alanna Koch, the former deputy minister to outgoing Premier Brad Wall, who swept to power in 2007.

The slim margins may be an ambivalent nod to the partys lingering disappointment with Walls premature decision to step down in August with more than three years left in his mandate. As calls for renewal from the other convention candidates went unanswered, the membership decided to back the man most like Brad Wall.

Moes chosen theme song at the partys convention was Homegrown by the Zac Brown Band. It appealed to an agrarian ethos: "Weve got a fire goin, down by the riverside. Sip whiskey out the bottle, livin like well never die."

Its also oddly revealing, since Moe, 44, has a 1992 drunk-driving conviction in his past (his record also includes a second driving infraction, a traffic accident in 1997 that involved a fatality, in which alcohol was not a factor). Only in Saskatchewan would this grim backstory constitute a resume-builder. In any other province, the candidate likely wouldnt make it past the ruling political partys thorough vetting process. It may indicate Moes appeal to his SaskPartys hard-drinking rural base.

It might also signal that Wall didnt expend too much energy in the last decade grooming a successor. Im not surprised to see Saskatchewan Party members vote for a rural male over the leading female candidate, Koch. But in their defence, Koch had no ministerial experience, nor did she even hold a seat as an MLA.

Moe, who was raised on farm near Shellbrook, west of Prince Albert, earned an aggie degree from the University of Saskatchewan. In 2011, he entered provincial politics and was elected as the MLA for Rosthern-Shellbrook.

In his acceptance speech, Moe, who is also a former environment minister, challenged Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Saskatchewans rejection of the carbon tax. He cheekily pulled a page out of Pierre Trudeaus tattered playbook to quote, "Just watch me!"

The feds were quick to reply to Moes volley as Environment Minister Catherine McKenna expressed interest in working together on the file. McKenna has the unenviable task of holding non-compliant Saskatchewan accountable to strict federal emissions benchmarks. In December, Walls government crafted a lukewarm climate plan that only targets heavy emitters. Critics say it wont meet federal standards.

Moes primary task will be to stay the course. This entails broadcasting stability signals to the marketplace. For oil and gas interests, that translates into going to battle with the federal government over the nationwide carbon tax.

Theres a lot at stake for the ruling government. The economic future is rosier, thanks to projected growth in agriculture, oil and gas and potash mining. According to RBC, Saskatchewan is poised to emerge from a slowdown with predicted 2.7 per cent growth for in 2018 and 2019. The SaskParty doesnt want to risk that growth with an aggressive emissions tax.

The SaskPartys stable approach has served it well at the ballot boxes over the last decade. Wall, who is still the most popular premier in Canada, adeptly navigated the choppy waters between the unions and the private sector, but the 2017 budget contained some painful and unpopular cuts that eroded the populist governments image.

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Last Saturday night, Moe, who has also held the post of the minister of advanced education, pledged to pump $30 million into education. Since most of the provincial chattering classes vote NDP, Moes largesse is clearly aimed at winning over urban voters.

The Opposition NDP and the Liberals are scheduled to elect new leaders in March and May 2018, respectively. The leadup to the 2020 provincial election will be tense here as the NDP Opposition chips away at Moe.

The Saskatchewan Partys re-election will hinge on Moes continued opposition to the federal government. The SaskPartys rural base wont relinquish the new F-350 parked out front with four new snowmobiles in an enclosed trailer. Saskatchewanians have tasted an economic boom, and theyre not willing to relinquish it anytime soon.

Carbon taxes impinge on prosperity. And this booming, commodity-rich province wont accept any national policies that slow down its trajectory. The homegrown base is "Livin like well never die."

In their blinkered eyes, Scott Moe is the perfect man for the job.

Patricia Dawn Robertson is a Saskatchewan independent journalist.Yesterday, WSWS reporters went to speak to immigrant workers in Paris about the growing metal and auto workers strikes in Germany. The workers declared their solidarity for the strike, which is demanding significant wage increases and has also disrupted the German ruling elites attempts to form an unpopular, militaristic Grand Coalition government between the social-democrat and conservative parties.

Raja, a shop worker, said: I am telling the German workers that I support their struggle, we all face the same problems. I have friends in Germany, they say life in Germany is not like it was ten years ago. It is like for us here, the immigrants lives are very hard and dangerous. We have to fight for our salary, for our rights. Really, I am supporting them.

Workers were in a militant mood, enthusiastic about both the step forward taken by the German metal workers and the possibility of a common, European struggle for wage increases in the face of the rising wealth of the super-rich and increasing exploitation of the working class.

Thinesh said, I support the German workers. We and they, all of us can only live if we do work. For example, I am working in a restaurant. If one worker is absent, we have to do his work, also. It then takes much more time then to finish what we have to do. However, we do not get any increase in our salary.

He said that the emergence of mass workers struggles in the heart of the European economy, though it is being blacked out in the French media, had great significance. For me, this is a big event, what you are explaining. I did not see it in the media.

Tell me if you organize any demonstration in support of the German workers, he said. I will participate. Also, I will inform my co-workers.

Workers in particular supported the notion of a common political struggle of the working class against French President Macron, who aims to closely coordinate his military and austerity policies with a Grand Coalition in Berlin, should it emerge.

The German metal and auto workers are entering into struggle as anger mounts among French workers at Macrons social attacks at home. He has announced mass job cuts in auto and the public service, created conditions for the signing of contracts paid below the minimum wage in the oil industry, and called for deep cuts to pensions and health care spending by the end of his term. Macron is working closely with the trade union bureaucracy, but outside the political establishment, in the working class, there is rising opposition.

Chandran, an unemployed worker, told the WSWS: Now that you have explained it to me, my sympathy goes always to the striking workers in Germany. We are also living in a very difficult situation. Since I lost my job, every day I have to do day labor, working several different jobs. Otherwise, my children cannot eat and sleep in the apartment in winter time. The German workers have families, their struggle is legitimate.

He added that workers in France should support the German strike, so that German workers would then support them against Macron. He said, Everywhere, we are confronting the same problems. Under the Macron government, our living conditions will really get worse. I think that if we support the German workers struggle today, they will support our struggle tomorrow.

WSWS reporters also spoke to Florian, a high school student whose father works as a guard for an apartment complex in Paris.

I am in support of the German workers action, Florian said. He criticized the wealthy who are the main beneficiaries of the policies of the European Union and said there should be a broad movement of workers struggles against them: They are bloodsuckers, what they are doing is not fair. We should organize meetings, we have to get together on how to act, we should go on strike.

He stressed that there should be solidarity between workers in the two countries: The two countries, Germany and France, its the same, we are in Europe. He bitterly criticized Macron: Macron, since he became president, has not done anything for us at all. France has not changed, none of the improvements he promised us before becoming president have showed up at all.

Florian also warned that workers should place no trust in the trade unions, who have repeatedly sold out strikes and protests in France in talks with state officials and the business federations. He said, They say that they will give us everything, but in the end they do nothing. Its like they were getting together among themselves, behind our backs, the trade unions and the rest of them. And at the end of the day, we are left with nothing at all.

He also strongly opposed the militarist plans of both Macron and the Grand Coalition parties in Berlin. While Macron has called for a return to the draft and pledged to boost spending on nuclear weapons and aircraft carriers, Berlin has over the last four years launched a vast program to re-militarize its foreign policy for the first time since the defeat of the Nazi regime in World War II. Berlin and Paris intend to take the tens of billions of euros required to fund their militaristic policies out of the hides of the workers, with stepped-up social cuts.

Florian said European youth should not be drafted to go fight in NATO wars in Africa or Asia: Going to kill people in Mali, who are really struggling now because of the poverty, killing people is not what we need now.  These are wars for money.More ominous signs are emerging that the Trump administration is in the advanced stages of preparing a pre-emptive military attack on North Korea that has the potential to trigger a catastrophic war in North East Asia and the world.

A lengthy New York Times article on Thursday revealed that the Pentagon is under intense pressure from the White House to provide Trump with options for a limited military strike on North Koreaa bloody nose scenario designed to frighten the North Korean regime into giving up its nuclear arsenal.

During last year, Trump repeated his bellicose threats to rain fire and fury and totally destroy North Korea if it did not capitulate to US demands to denuclearise. Citing unnamed American officials, the New York Times reported: The national security adviser, Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, believes that for Mr Trumps warnings to North Korea to be credible, the United States must have well-developed military plans.

The article continued: But the Pentagon, they say, is worried that the White House is moving too hastily towards military action on the Korean Peninsula that could escalate catastrophically. Giving the president too many options, the officials said, could increase the odds that he will act.

Spokesmen for Defence Secretary James Mattis and Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman General Joseph Dunford both denied that the Pentagon was dragging its feet. But tactical differences within the White House over a pre-emptive US military attack on North Korea have been evident for months.

Occasionally, the debate has erupted into the open, as last October, when Trump publicly declared that US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was wasting his time trying to negotiate with Pyongyang. Given that the US president has insisted he will not allow North Korea to build nuclear missiles capable of reaching North America, the only alternative is the so-called military option.

According to the New York Times, Mattis and Dunford have argued forcefully for a diplomatic solution. They have repeatedly warned, in meetings and on video conference calls, that there are few, if any military options that would not provoke retaliation from North Korea, the article stated.

The concern is not just North Koreas limited nuclear arsenal, but its sizeable conventional forces, including thousands of rocket launchers and long-range artillery pieces capable of raining shells on the South Korean capital of Seoul, a city of 25 million. The estimated death toll runs into tens of thousandsin just the first hour.

Another warning sign is the White House decision to drop Victor Cha, a prominent academic and former Bush administration official, as its nominee for the post of US ambassador to South Korea. The Washington Post reported on Tuesday that South Korea had already signed off on Cha, but his nomination was abruptly terminated over his disagreement with a pre-emptive strike on North Korea.

The Financial Times reported that National Security Council (NSC) officials interviewing Cha asked whether he would help evacuate American non-combatants from South Korea in advance of a US military attack on North Korea. Cha, who has always adopted a hawkish stance toward North Korea, reportedly expressed reservations.

Cha wrote an opinion piece in the Washington Post on Tuesday entitled Giving North Korea a bloody nose carries a huge risk to Americans. He pointed out that on any given day, there were 230,000 Americans in South Korea and 90,000 or so in Japan, making evacuation virtually impossible under North Korean fire.

The US would not be able to protect American citizens in South Korea, let alone millions of South Koreans, Cha stated. To be clear: The president would be putting at risk an American population the size of a medium-size US cityPittsburg, say, or Cincinnation the assumption that a crazy and undeterrable dictator will be rationally cowed by a demonstration of US kinetic power.

A third warning sign came in Trumps State of the Union address this week. He not only warned that North Korea could very soon threaten our homeland, but denounced the cruel regime that oppresses its people. Very pointedly, he praised a North Korean defector, Ji Seong-ho, who was seated in the first ladys box.

Trump invited eight North Korean defectors to the White House yesterday, where he condemned previous US administrations for not acting against North Korea. We have no road left, he warned. Well see what happens. Well get through the Olympics, and maybe something good will come of the Olympics.

The Trump administration reluctantly and belatedly agreed with South Korea to suspend massive joint military exercises until after the Winter Olympics, due to begin in South Korea on February 9. Talks between the two Koreas have enabled North Korea to send a team to participate in the Olympics, and led to speculation that talks and an agreement to end the dangerous tensions might be possible.

However, Trumps decision to invite North Korean defectors to the White House is a calculated affront to the Pyongyang regime, designed to undermine the possibility of talks. It demonstrates once again that Trump has little interest in negotiations, as also shown by his determination to sabotage the nuclear deal that the Obama administration reached with Iran in 2015.

While the White House is pushing the Pentagon for more detailed war plans against North Korea, advanced preparations already have been made. These include stationing nuclear-capable B-52 and B-2 bombers at US bases in Guam within easy striking distance of North Korea. The annual Foal Eagle and Key Resolve joint exercises in South Korea will commence in March, involving hundreds of thousands of troops, backed by warships, military aircraft, in what is a dress rehearsal for war with North Korea.

Air Force General Paul Selva, vice-chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the media on Tuesday he was confident the US military could destroy most of the North Korean nuclear missile arsenal and its infrastructure. Indicating the scale of what is being contemplated, he said: Remember, missile infrastructure is not just the missiles. If youre the poor sergeant that has to be out and launch the missile, and I blow up your barracks, youre not available to go do your job. When asked, Selva did not rule out a pre-emptive attack.

What is not discussed in the American media is the Trump administrations obvious riposte to those like Cha who warn of North Korean retaliation. That would be to launch a massive US pre-emptive strike, which could include nuclear weapons, to destroy North Koreas military, industry and leadership.

Such an attack threatens to drag other nuclear-armed powers, such as Russia and China, into a global conflagration. The release of Trumps Nuclear Posture Review on Friday, outlining a far more aggressive attitude toward the use of nuclear force, as well as the development of a new range of nuclear weapons, indicates that Washington is preparing for that eventuality as well.Rikers Island, the countrys largest prison complex, housed on its own 400-acre island on the East River in New York City, has spawned its latest grim inmate death. On December 30, Joseph Foster, a 51-year-old prisoner who was serving a six-month sentence for a drug sale, was ignored while screaming for medical attention over a massive headache and numbness on the left side of his body.

After Foster begged for help for nearly an hour from inside his cell, jail supervisors finally called for an ambulance. Following five days in the hospital, Foster, who had a known history of high blood pressure and diabetes, died. Court records indicate that his lawyer had requested additional medical care for Foster at his trial in early December.

He kept screaming, I need a doctor! I need a doctor! said neighboring inmate, Carlos Renta, who contacted the Daily News because of how disturbing this event was to witness. They should have acted sooner.

In a similar case in 2012, Jason Echevarria, a 25-year-old inmate serving in a facility for the mentally ill on Rikers, ingested toxic soap while in solitary confinement. Jason pled for medical help for hours while vomiting and spitting up blood. The captain in charge gave explicit orders to officers on duty not to bother him (the captain) unless there was a dead body. The next morning, there was a chemically burned dead body. In an acknowledgement of its culpability, the city paid $3.8 million in a settlement with Echevarrias family.

These and innumerable other such incidents highlight not merely indifference, but an active, intentional neglect of the responsibility to ensure a modicum of care for the incarcerated.

Rikers massive jail system, which has a yearly budget of $860 million, a staff of 10,000, and 100,000 inmate admissions every year (over 1 percent of the NYC population), is infamous for its long history of corruption and violence towards inmates. This notoriety led to the announcement last year by Mayor Bill de Blasio of the start to a decade-long process to shut down Rikers Island, which would require substantial expansion of the rest of the New York City prison system. Last week, the NYC architecture firm, Perkins Eastman, was awarded $7.6 million to conduct a 10-month study that researches this expansion to accommodate the shutting down of the citys main jail.

The plan to close Rikers and disperse the inmates to smaller jails is predicated on the fallacy that the facility itself prompts the mistreatment. In reality, it is a purely cosmetic action, presenting a veneer of reform to confuse and divert attention from the reality of the capitalist justice system, which is designed to oppress and terrorize the working class. The plan will do nothing to alter the brutality suffered by those incarcerated, whether at Rikers or elsewhere.

Rikers is not by any means an isolated case. This point was emphasized when, earlier this month, Lieutenant Carlos Richard Martinez of the Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC), a federal prison in Brooklyn, was found guilty of repeated rape of a female inmate over the course of several months. Two of Martinezs coworkers at MDC, Lieutenant Eugenio Perez and correctional officer Armando Moronta, have also been charged with sexually abusing multiple female inmates and are awaiting trial.

In 2016, federal judge Cheryl Pollak expressed hesitance to sentence any women to MDC, describing the jail as a third world country, after the National Association of Women Judges reported on the conditions for female inmates as unconscionable. Their 2016 report stated: The absence of fresh, clean air, the complete absence of sunlight, and the absence of ANY outdoor time and activities are immediate issues which BOP [Federal Bureau of Prisons] has failed to address in any meaningful fashion.

The findings of a 2016 Huffington Post study on inmate deaths across the US speak to the bleak conditions facing inmates: in a single year, 815 deaths were documented from preventable causes, with nearly a third (31 percent) the result of suicide. The study also showed that the majority of in-custody deaths occur within a week of entering a jail.

These hellish conditions of brutality in American jails are endured most by the poorest sections of the working class, unable to afford bail and helplessly awaiting trial for a period of months, or even years.

According to the 2017 report by the Independent Commission on New York City Criminal Justice and Incarceration Reform (a group assembled by New York City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito that focuses on the closing of Rikers Island and improving the citys prison system), three-quarters of all inmates held in New York Citys jails are awaiting trial or the outcome of their trial, nearly all of them because they cannot afford bail. These individuals have been found guilty of no crime.

Though there are undetermined plans to shut down Rikers Island in the future and undertake reform in the meantime, these changes will only be cosmetic and aimed at pacifying public outcry. They will not address the social and economic conditions underlying the corruption and abuse within prisons and the prevalence of mass incarceration in a city that is the wealthiest and most expensive city in America, and contains the largest homeless population.

Social inequality is only growing more extreme, with new figures emerging each year more shocking and appalling than the last. Most recently, Oxfam released a report last week that found that the worlds richest 1 percent earned 82 percent of the global wealth generated in 2017, while the worlds poorest 50 percent, 3.7 billion people, did not see any increase in their wealth at all. Such conditions will rapidly lead to immense social explosions.

Rampant inequality and prison brutality are expressions of a capitalist system of repression, set on controlling the working class. This system offers no solution to widespread poverty or heinous prison crimes, but relies on increasing force and violence to protect the ruling elite and subdue worker opposition.

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[1 November 2016]On Friday, the all-day warning strikes in the metal and electrical industries concluded. According to the IG Metall trade union, assembly lines were shut down at 97 companies, with around 304,000 employees. Overall, more than 500,000 workers participated in the 24-hour strike that began Wednesday.

In both Bavaria and in Baden-Wurttemberg, the entire auto industry was shut down Friday. Workers went on strike at numerous shipyards and in the Airbus plants in Hamburg, Bremen and Lower Saxony. In addition, more than 56,000 employees at Volkswagen sites in Wolfsburg, Salzgitter, Braunschweig, Kassel, Emden and Hanover stopped working temporarily.

The determination of workers to fight the companies is enormous. IG Metall limited the strike votes to just under 280 selected companies, but everywhere the call for strike action reached 95 to 100 percent support. Workers are resisting years of wage-cutting and increased workloads that have brought billions to executives and shareholders. For example, the Daimler Group reported record sales and net income on February 1. Shareholders alone were promised dividends of up to 4 billion.

However, IG Metall is equally determined to reach a sell-out deal with the companies. On Friday, union leader Jorg Hofmann declared: Now its up to the employers to understand this signal and put it on a clear footing. If the employers show this willingness, the negotiations can be continued on Monday. According to a report by the Stuttgarter Nachrichten, the unions and employers have already agreed to continue negotiations on Monday to quickly conclude the pilot contract for Baden-Wurttemberg. Behind the scenes, the thread of conversation never broke down anyway, writes the newspaper.

IG Metall has called the strikes to control worker anger. Especially in view of the social attacks and rearmament plans of a future German government, the unions expect fierce resistance.

The fact that the unions fully support the right-wing agenda of another Grand Coalition government between the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and the conservative parties was expressed at the recent Trade Union Council. According to a report by Der Spiegel, various union representatives put pressure on SPD leader Martin Schulz to retain Sigmar Gabriel as foreign minister. In recent months, Gabriel has been driving Germanys return to an aggressive foreign and great power policy, demanding, among other things, that Germany must again act as a carnivore in the world arena.

IG Metall supports the militaristic and anti-working-class policy of the Grand Coalition and is doing everything it can to demobilize workers. It has systematically separated the strikes and has avoided any major joint strike action or demonstration. At the picket lines and at the countless mini rallies outside factory gates, one encounters almost exclusively union and works council officials.

In Leipzig, IG Metall moved the registration for the striking workers away from the picket lines to the fairgrounds. There, the employees of the Porsche plant were called in on Thursday and thus kept completely separated from the workers of the BMW plant who came the day after. The scenery was more reminiscent of a post office than a strike.

Dilakshan, who works at Daimler Axis Mettingen, said that workers did not participate in the pickets because they knew that they were dominated by hated union and works council officials. Workers were told that they would not have to picket to get strike money, Dilakshan said.

Luigi, a worker at the Mercedes plant in Sindelfingen, said that workers want to go on strike but are not interested in the unions empty protests. Workers know that IG Metall does not strike for six percent more wages and a 28-hour week. A filthy compromise has already been worked out. Thats just a fraud.

The ordinary workers who participated in the pickets and rallies expressed skepticism towards the unions and hostility to the Grand Coalition.

At the rally at the Bosch headquarters in Stuttgart-Feuerbach, Peter, who started as an apprentice at the plant forty years ago, said, I have seen many such negotiations. He said that IG Metall should be more aggressive, but he does not believe it will happen in the light of past experience. The role of the unions is ultimately to bring peace to factories and safeguard production.

Peter called the plans for a renewed Grand Coalition a disgrace. Even the last government restricted the entry of refugees, he said. Now they want to shut down the borders completely, while at the same time providing new reasons for the flight of millions from their homes. You can see on TV the pictures of the bombed cities. And Germany continues to provide weapons throughout the world and cause further destruction.

On the picket line at the BMW plant in Berlin, a young permanent worker declared his solidarity with the many temporary workers who, thanks to the unions, receive much lower wages and are not affected by the current wage demands. I think that the unions demands related to temporary workers are not sufficiently considered. We have so many contract workers here at BMW, whose jobs are uncertain. They are hardly represented here at the rally.

Asked about the coalition government, he said: The SPD is no longer a workers party. It has nothing to do with us anymore. Because the IG Metall leadership is organized in its majority in the SPD as well, one cannot expect it to expand the strike. The international perspective of the Sozialistische Gleichheitspartei (SGP, Socialist Equality Party) impressed him. It is only logical that we must confront international corporations as an international workforce.

Axel, who works in the BMW plant in Leipzig, spoke at length about the growing workload. They are demanding more and more, less and less people should be able to do more and more. At the same time, he said, his salary is far from sufficient to support his family, and thats why his wife also has to work.

He also attacked the reactionary policies of the Grand Coalition. We have seen in recent years that it has become bitter for quite a few people. Every fifth child in Germany is affected by poverty. Twenty or 25 percent of German employees are in the low-wage sector.

Axel said he sees a direct connection between the conditions of workers and the drive to war. The German arms industry makes huge sums of money and thus drives the international war development. Axel said the problems of the world could be solved through the expropriation of the wealth of individuals like Amazon founder Jeff Bezos (net worth 84 billion euros). Then we can leave it with the war.

Workers also spoke out against war and militarism at the large Ford plant in Cologne. The wars as in Syria, the militarism in Germany, the arms exports of the German armaments industry. Im watching this with concern, said Yussuf.

He said he is also suspicious of the unions, due to their close connection with the SPD. IG Metall says it supports the parties that support the workers. I do not think so. IG Metall supports a new Grand Coalition, he said, but these parties do not support the workers. The CDU [Christian Democratic Union] not at all and the SPD not for many years. Thats why they got a dressing-down in the last general election, and that will not be the last time, he said.

An older worker expressed his distrust of the unions and denounced their negotiations with the employers. This is all just show. The result is already established, he said.

This is just what is lost, what our fathers and grandfathers have built. The distribution of wealth and income is absolutely unfair, he said. He complained that with wages of 1200 euros, that is what temporary workers are earning, you cannot plan a future. He pinned all his hopes on the younger workers. The youth must take action against the austerity measures as a whole.First Randall Margraves asked a judge for five minutes in a locked room with this demon  referring to Dr. Larry Nassar, the doctor who assaulted his three daughters and many other women, including those on the USA Gymnastics team.

The judge said she couldnt grant his request, so Margraves asked for one minute, and he was denied again. Then he raced across the courtroom, lunging at Nassar. Police barely stopped him in time before throwing him to the ground and cuffing him.

As they restrained him, he pleaded for another chance at that son of a b-.

The dramatic moment Friday brought a flood of support for Margraves.

Also Read: Gymnastics Doctor Larry Nassar Sentenced to 40 to 175 Years in Prison

More than 30 survivors have given statements against him, and in another hearing last week, more than 15o women accused him of abuse while purporting to give them medical treatment. Among his accusers are Olympic gold medalist Aly Raisman and her fellow USA team gymnasts, Gabby Douglas and Simone Biles.

The former Michigan doctor was sentenced 40 to 175 years in prison after being accused of sexual abuse. According to the New York Times, Nassar has already been sentenced to 60 years in federal prison for child pornography convictions.

Margraves later apologized, saying he had lost control. But Eaton County Judge Janice Cunningham said there was no way she would punish him for contempt of court.

I dont know what it would be like to stand there as a father and know that three of your girls were injured physically and emotionally by somebody sitting in a courtroom. I cant imagine that, she said.

As of Friday night, a GoFundMe page had earned more than $18,000 for Margraves  though he wont need the money for a legal defense, thanks to the judges decision.

Bette Midler was among those who celebrated Margraves, writing simply: Larry Nasser should hang. Bravo to this father.

Dwayne The Rock Johnson weighed in: We all understand this fathers action. Nassars punishment will go far beyond sentencing. Behind bars, hell soon know what hell means. Hell be well taken care of.

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Related stories from TheWrap:

Father of 3 Abuse Victims Tries to Attack Larry Nassar in Courtroom (Video)

Gymnastics Doctor Larry Nassar Sentenced to 40 to 175 Years in Prison

Larry Nassar Accuser Sterling Riethman Speaks Out at Sentencing: 'You Were Meant to Get Caught' (Video)

Gymnast Aly Raisman on Whether Justice Was Served: 'No' (Video)Following an extended shouting match with an attendee at her Barnes & Noble book event, Rose McGowan announced that she has canceled her upcoming public appearances. The event was held Wednesday night in New York City to promote her new book Brave.

During the event, at which McGowan answered pre-approved questions, things heated up when an audience member asked her about comments the actress previously had made about transgender women.

I have a suggestion. Talk about what you said on RuPaul, the attendee said, according to the Independent. Trans women are dying, and you said that we, as trans women, are not like regular women. We get raped more often. We go through domestic violence more often. There was a trans woman killed here a few blocks [away]. I have been followed home , the woman said before McGowan interrupted.

The audience member went on: You do nothing for them. Trans women are in mens prisons. And what have you done for them?

At that point, the two began yelling at each other.

In a series of tweets Friday, McGowan accused the attendee  whom she described as a paid actor  of verbally assaulting her.

I am canceling upcoming public appearances because I have given enough, she wrote. I have given beauty, in return I was VERBALLY ASSAULTED for two full minutes @BNBuzz by an actor paid to verbally assault a woman who has been terrorized by your system, she tweeted. And no ONE in that room did anything.

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She continued, And everyone from my publicists, t assistants, managers and every person sitting in their chairs frozen by their weakness, a weakness called COMPLICITY. The truth is you all failed me. Again. And again. And again.

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She also asked for an apology from those who did not stop the heckler.

I would like an apology from the manager of the Union Square @BNUnionSquareNY and all security people, and the audience, who did nothing and let the paid verbal assault of an assaulted woman happen, she tweeted. Cool?

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The woman eventually was escorted out of the venue by security, but McGowan was not finished.

Dont label me, sister! McGowan shouted. Dont put your labels on me. Dont you f*cking do that. Do not put your labels on me. I dont come from your planet. Leave me alone. I do not subscribe to your rules. I do not subscribe to your language. You will not put labels on me or anybody. Step the f*ck back. What I do for the f*cking world and you should be f*cking grateful. Shut the f*ck up. Get off my back. What have you done? I know what Ive done, goddammit.

She concluded with: Trans women are women and what Ive been trying to say is that its the same. The stats are not that dissimilar. When you break it down, it is a much smaller population. Theres not a network here devoted to your f*cking death. Theres not advertisers advertising tampons with a camera lovingly going up a girls body as shes being lovingly raped and strangled. Piss off. And until you can collect that f*cking check, back up. My name is Rose McGowan, and I am obviously f*cking brave.

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'Citizen Rose' Review: Rose McGowan's E! Docuseries Is Personal & PowerfulJohn David Battaglia

A Texas man was executed Thursday for the murder of his two young daughters in 2001.

John David Battaglia was separated from his wife, Mary Jean Pearle, when he went to pick up their daughters, 9-year-old Faith and 6-year-old Liberty from a shopping center for his court-ordered visit.

Pearle went to dinner and returned a call from one of their daughters. On the other end, she heard Faith pleading with her father, who had put the call on speakerphone.

RELATED: The New Evidence Found In Natalie Wood's Death That Lead Police To Finally Name Robert Wagner A 'Person Of Interest'

"No, daddy, please don't," Pearle said she heard Faith say. "Don't do it!"

The mother yelled for her children to run, and then heard gunshots.

Battaglia took the phone and told Pearle "Merry (explicit) Christmas." More gunshots were heard and Pearle called the police.

The Christmas message was apparently a reference to an attack Battaglia made on Pearle on Christmas in 1999 that he was on probation for during the murders.

Faith was shot three times. Liberty was shot five times. Battaglia was arrested hours later outside a tattoo shop where he had just gotten two large red roses on his left arm to commemorate his daughters.

Battaglia, who put on death row in 2002, said in 2014 that his daughters were his "best friends."

RELATED: Awful New Details About The Couple Who Kidnapped Husband's Mistress To Use As Slave For Wife

'I don't feel like I killed them. I am a little bit in the blank about what happened,' he said. Prosecutor's argued that he was angry with Pearle because she told police that he was harassing her.

He took that anger out on his children.

Just moments before he died, Battaglia smiled at Pearle and said: "Well, hi, Mary Jean."

"I'll see y'all later," he said, still smiling. "Bye."

He also asked if he was still alive, and said "Oh, I feel it," when the sedative began to take effect.

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"I've seen enough of him," Pearle said before she left the execution.

RELATED: Details Revealed About Lesbian Couple's Horrific Abuse Of Their 5-Year-Old Son That Caused Two Strokes And Broken Bones

Emily Blackwood is an editor at YourTango who covers pop culture, true crime, dating, relationships and everything in between. Every Wednesday at 10:20 p.m. you can ask her any and all questions about self-love, dating, and relationships LIVE on YourTangos Facebook page. You can follow her on Instagram (@blackw00d) and Twitter (@emztweetz).

Keywords: crime

read moreThe former Victorias Secret Angel is in search of her home countrys next top model. However, at 44, Heidi Klum is still giving 20-somethings a run for their money.

In a series of bikini photos shared on her Instagram, the veteran model embraces her toned body poolside in a gorgeous ocean-front mansion. The photos are a behind-the-scenes look at the video promotion for Germanys Next Top Model.

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Klum is promoting the new season of Germanys Next Top Model, which she has been the host for the past 13 seasons since it first aired in 2006.

The mother of four looked flawless in neutral-colored two-piece swimsuits, including a white bikini which she teamed with matching strappy heels. She also posed in a black bikini featuring a bandeau top and high-waisted shorts with matching heels.

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Here is the final video promo:

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Klum also took a trip down memory lane. She shared several video clips from the model search contest that started her career 26 years ago in 1992. A fresh-faced Klum is seen talking in her native language alongside two other aspiring models, and the host. After the public votes, it is revealed 18-year-old Klum is the selected winner.

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The model captioned the video, This is how it all began for me in 1992. In one week, lets see how it will begin with one lucky girl.

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Andrea had a full-time job, so her partner, Robert, stayed home with their young son. Each day, before the other two woke up, she went around the house preparing herself for her day and them for theirs. She filled sippy cups with milk; she prepped her sons food; she chose specific toys for playtime and puts them in specific locations to be found. When she was satisfied, she would wake Robert to let him know that his shift has begun then head off to work. She would call during the day ensure that all was going according to plan. Her plan.

Andrea and Robert were  and are  real people, though those arent their names. They were anonymized as participants in a 2012 study conducted by Orlee Hauser, a sociology professor at the University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh. The point of that research? Documenting the phenomenon of Maternal Gatekeeping, the tendency of some mothers to insist on mediating fathers access to children. Though the term makes it sound like a way to understand the ways in which women keep men at a remove, its bigger than that, encompassing the idea of control and encouragement.

Andreas was most extreme case of maternal gatekeeping among the 40 couples Hauser interviewed. She micromanaged the details of her sons days with Robert from afar. Was it always supposed to end up that way? Likely not. These dynamics tend to arise organically over time despite being bad for all those involved  think of Andreas stress and Roberts powerlessness. Specifically, these dynamics tend to arise in heterosexual, white, middle-class households where both parents contribute financially. This is not to say that other sorts of families cant engender this power structure, just that the focus of study has been on caucasian middle-earners, who may, for cultural or social reasons, be more likely to fall into specific patterns.

The woman ends up doing more work, the child doesnt get access to both parents, and the father gets ripped off of forming those special bonds that come with all of that dirty diaper stuff, said Hauser.

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The concept of maternal gatekeeping has been floating around social science literature since the 1980s, and was popularized by a 1999 study by Sarah Allen and Alan Hawkins of Brigham Young University. The literature on gatekeeping suggests that moms have some influence on fathers levels of involvement with kids, but this is just one of many, many factors. The Allen and Hawkins study found that 21 percent of moms in their sample of 622 were gatekeeping to an extent that limited dads involvement with the kids. But of course its a continuum. Mildly negative gatekeeping behaviors manifest occasionally in most co-parenting situations, and extreme, toxic situations are the exception.

This would all be a lot easier to understand if mothers commitments to traditional gender roles were predictive of the extent of their gatekeeping behaviors, but thats not really the case. A 2015 study by Sarah Schoppe-Sullivan and others found that gatekeepers are not primarily driven by a belief that women should manage childcare, but rather by perfectionism when it comes to parenting.

Its this deadly combination where the mother has really, really high standards, Schoppe-Sullivan, a professor of human sciences at Ohio State University told Fatherly. She thinks shes a really good parent, but shes maybe not so sure about the dad, and the dads not so sure about himself.

This means that gatekeeping is a product of both the way mom thinks and the way dad thinks. Mom believes theres a right way and a wrong way to parent, and that her way is the right way. When dad does things his way, mom responds with attempts to control him or just do it all herself. Dad feels maybe a little miffed, but also perhaps a little relieved of all that responsibility (or deeply suspicious of his own competence). He may feel that ultimately mom knows best, or that he has little power to negotiate the situation. For whatever reason, he largely acquiesces and the patterns of behavior reinforce themselves.

This is not just about a relationship between a man and a woman and their kids. Gatekeeping is informed by a culture that still judges women harshly on their ability to be perfect caretakers, while judging fathers more so on their ability to make a living to provide for their family. It can feel easier to slip into the roles society makes for us, particularly in those terrifying first years as a parent.

But gatekeeping is worth fighting against. A growing body of evidence suggests that kids do better in just about every aspect of life when they have committed, involved fathers. Much of this research on the Father Effect shows that any loving second parent helps. Theres also some evidence that fathers may be able to offer kids special benefits, for example through exposure to rough-and-tumble play, which is more likely to come from dad than from mom.

Gatekeeping behaviors are learned, not innate. Both men and women are capable of gatekeeping, and if theres a genetic component, it would at best incline certain people to it, not cause it.

Im not going to say that there couldnt be some hardwired parts that would maybe predispose mothers in particular, say, in the first months of parenthood, to feel maybe especially protective of their infants, Schoppe-Sullivan says. But do I think the actual gatekeeping behavior is hardwired? No. And the way that men and women are socialized in societies like ours, I would give that, ultimately, greater weight.

Ongoing research around the world may help tease apart the cultural impact on gatekeeping. Liat Kulik, a professor of social work at Bar-Ilan University has studied the phenomenon as it exists in Israel. She said in an email to Fatherly that, although comparative research has not been conducted, in her view gatekeeping manifests in Israel in similar ways as in other modern societies. She pointed out that, for maternal gatekeeping to be a meaningful concept, it must exist in a society where fathers seek influence in the parenting and domestic spheres.

Theres hope for men who want to be more involved with their kids but feel shut out. Moms who gatekeep often dont know theyre doing it, and often wish they had more help with the kids. Although they gain some things by gatekeeping  such as power, control, a sense that they are a supermom who can do it all  they seem to lose more. The research shows that gatekeepers do more work, have higher levels of depression and anxiety, and have poorer romantic relationships than those that collaborate with their partner.

Sometimes fathers think that just because a mother is gatekeeping means that she wants to be, says Daniel Puhlman, a professor of family science at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. Puhlman recently authored an article establishing an empirical scale to measure gatekeeping behavior. In his previous job as a clinical family therapist, he learned of gatekeeping and its consequences to families and relationships first hand.

If he could get the dad to buy into the process of therapy and speak up about his wishes and concerns, the mom would typically listen, and respond Moms would change; they would evolve, says Puhlman. I think it credits them with the desire to have that happen.

Simply identifying the problem can go a long way, and talking about can go a lot farther. In cases where that doesnt work, family therapy is an option.

In all of Hausers interviews on the topic of maternal gatekeeping, she never heard from a father who actively resisted it. One mom, however, did. One day she realized, Boy theres so much pressure on me to do all of these things, and it would be so much easier if I just let it go, and let him be a dad. I trust this guy; I married this guy for a reason, and, at the end of the day, he really can do it just as well as I can, and who cares if the kids wearing red socks instead of yellow socks? Why dont you just get over it? And she did.

Related Articles:

The post Maternal Gatekeeping and the Totally Accidental Rise of Overbearing Mothers appeared first on Fatherly.Surgeon with his team in the operating room. (Photo: Getty Images)

On a summer day in 2017 Alison Wrenne, a mother of two, felt a sharp pain in her stomach. Wrenne was in the middle of cooking pancakes, according to local Kentucky station WKYT, but the pain was so severe that it sent her to the ground. After calling her husband to come home, she phoned a friend, who happens to be a physicians assistant. By then it had been 30 minutes, and the pain was getting worse, so her friend advised her to go to the emergency room.

Severe stomach pain can be a symptom of several life-threatening conditions, including a pulmonary embolism, ruptured ectopic pregnancy, or perforated stomach. Thankfully, in Wrennes case, it wasnt. At the ER, she got good news: She had a ruptured ovarian cyst, a fairly common phenomenon that often requires nothing but pain medicine.

It was when Wrenne returned home  and the bill arrived a few weeks later  that she learned the bad news. Her insurer, Anthem, was refusing to pay for the visit, meaning she had to cover it out of pocket. In a letter, the company explained to Wrenne that her ER trip was unnecessary, and that she should have visited a practitioner instead. She was forced to hand over $4,000 to the hospital in medical fees.

I feel like Im a reasonable person who made a decision to seek care, and to get a letter like that is really frustrating, Wrenne told WKYT of the incident. If someone else was in that level of pain, Id totally understand their wanting to seek treatment. And I think its a little bit scary to have to sit at home and weigh the costs.

Unfortunately, stories like Wrennes are only likely to increase.

Kentucky is one of six states where Anthem  one of the largest insurers in America, boasting a net worth of $48 billion  has quietly enacted its new policy on emergency room visits. The policy states that unless the situation qualifies (under Anthems rules) as a true emergency, the medical costs to an emergency room will not be covered. First introduced in Kentucky, Missouri, and Georgia, Anthems program expanded to include three more states this January  Ohio, Indiana, and New Hampshire.

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The company insists that the program is aimed at providing its members with the best care possible and keeping them from spending long hours in ER waiting rooms. But patient advocates say the move is a thinly veiled attempt to reap more profits, one thats putting patients lives in danger.

In an email to Yahoo Lifestyle, Anthem spokeswoman Joyzelle Davis broke down the programs specifics. If a consumer chooses to receive care for nonemergency ailments at the ER when a more appropriate setting is available, an Anthem medical director will review the claim information and medical records submitted by the provider using the prudent layperson standard, Davis wrote. In the event a members claim is denied, they have the right to appeal.

The prudent layperson standard, which dates back to 1994, is what has been used up until now to protect patients when they find themselves in what they believe to be an emergency room-worthy circumstance. The phrase prudent layperson was added to the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA) in the mid-90s as a tool to help clarify what constitutes an emergency medical condition. It defined one as any medical or behavioral condition of recent onset and severity  that would lead a prudent layperson, possessing an average knowledge of medicine and health, to believe that his or her condition, sickness, or injury is of such a nature that failure to obtain immediate medical care could result in placing the patients health in serious jeopardy. In Wrennes case, then, Anthem is arguing that a person with an average knowledge of health would recognize severe abdominal pain as a nonemergency and would wait to visit a practitioner.

On a press release on its website, Anthem begins by stressing that actual emergencies require care. Always call 911 or go immediately to the ER if you think its a life-threatening situation, the statement begins. But it goes on to dissuade users from going to the ER for non-emergencies, saying that primary care doctors are in the best position to have a comprehensive view of their patients health status. It lists examples of non-emergencies, as seasonal allergies, athletes foot, suture removals, and common cold symptoms.

The company has yet to produce a comprehensive list of what it considers to be an emergency and what it doesnt. Varied reports from subscribers in different states suggest there may not be one set of criteria, or one list. In New Hampshire, the company reportedly told subscribers it wouldnt cover ER visits for rashes, itching skin, removal of wound dressings or sutures, and general medical exams.

As for what it will cover? In a letter to another subscriber denied coverage in Kentucky, who ended up forking over $12,000, the company listed stroke, heart attack, and severe bleeding as examples of things that would be covered under the policy.

Anthems spokeswoman says the company is revising the policy to include exceptions. She says Anthem will not deny ER claims if the member is sent to the ER by a provider, lives more than 15 miles from an urgent care facility, or visits an ER on a weekend. The company will also cover an ER visit if a member is traveling out of state, receives an MRI or CT, or undergoes surgery. And members under 15 years old are automatically covered, regardless of the diagnosis.

Still, exceptions aside, the news doesnt sit well with the president of the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP), Paul Kivela, MD. The medical society, made up of of 31,000 ER doctors, has released scathing reviews of Anthems new policy in recent weeks, writing that it has deadly serious implications for its patients.

In an interview with Yahoo Lifestyle, Kivela calls it further proof that the insurance behemoth prioritizes profits over patients. Anthem and other insurers have had a habit of not paying doctors and putting patients in the middle, but this seems to be far more egregious than their other behaviors, he says. Denying care and scaring patients away from the ER is reprehensible. There are reasons there are laws for this.

Beyond his disappointment with Anthems greed-based decision, Kivela worries about the long-term consequences of telling people they will have to cover thousands of dollars of emergency medical fees  and says that the companys decision to deny coverage for flulike symptoms is the most troubling part. Were seeing the worst flu season in a decade, with people getting particularly bad cases that are resulting in arrhythmias and heart attacks. So to have major insurers institute this policy, it just shows how little they care for the patients and how important profits are to them.

Kivela hopes that those reading stories about Anthems decision will keep in mind that ERs are there for a reason, and not to hesitate to use one if a medical emergency arises. They are putting patients lives at risk  and for what? Kivela asks. The amount of money theyre going to save is very small, and the lives theyre going to put at risk by scaring people away is immeasurable.

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For those watching the unfolding of the Harvey Weinstein scandal last fall and the cascade of dark open secrets, there was one particular chilling and unforgettable moment. Caught on the red carpet, Uma Thurman  long held as a symbol of talent, beauty, grace, and staying power in Hollywood  showed a side rarely seen.

When Ive spoken in anger, I usually regret the way I express myself, she says in the video, through gritted teeth. So Ive been waiting to feel less angry. And when Im ready, Ill say what I have to say.

Uma Thurman and Harvey Weinstein at the Lyon Film Festival in 2013. (Photo by Bruno Vigneron/Getty Images)

It would have been just as impactful if she had offered wise words of solace or revealed her own struggle, soon to be exemplified by the #MeToo hashtag and the launch of the Times Up movement. But at that moment caught on video, Thurman was nearly speechless with rage. Thurman is now ready.

The source of that rage is finally revealed in an article, featured (curiously) in the New York Times opinion section, though it is not a ghost-written first-person account but rather an interview/feature written by columnist Maureen Dowd.

In an unsettling story, Thurman goes into some detail about her history with Weinstein. It doesnt take long for what now seems the inevitable, but no less jarring, account of Weinsteins psychological priming and eventual physical attack on Thurman to unfold.

He pushed me down, she says in the Times article. He tried to shove himself on me. He tried to expose himself. He did all kinds of unpleasant things. But he didnt actually put his back into it and force me.

Yet Thurmans story goes on to describe another level, another face to the violence that women and anyone without power in the industry so often face behind the scenes of some of our favorite cultural artifacts  the works of Hollywood icon Quentin Tarantino, in this case.

Most notably, Thurman recounts being nearly killed in a stunt while filming Kill Bill. She says she repeatedly voiced her concerns about this particular stunt to the director, Tarantino, stating that she was uncomfortable and afraid, but he vehemently insisted that she do the stunt. With video evidence (the video can be seen on the Times article page) that took her 15 years to procure, it can be clearly seen that Thurman could have been killed in a car crash shot on film.

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The steering wheel was at my belly and my legs were jammed under me, she says. I felt this searing pain and thought, Oh, my God, Im never going to walk again, she says. When I came back from the hospital in a neck brace with my knees damaged and a large massive egg on my head and a concussion, I wanted to see the car, and I was very upset. Quentin and I had an enormous fight, and I accused him of trying to kill me.

Uma Thurman and Quentin Tarantino in Cannes, France, promoting Kill Bill: Vol. 2 in 2004. (Photo: Getty Images)

In another Tarantino incident, Thurman details how the director  who once claimed the actress was his muse  also insisted on being her offscreen attacker during Kill Bill scenes in which she is both spit on and choked with a chain.

Harvey assaulted me but that didnt kill me, Thurman says. What really got me about the crash was that it was a cheap shot.  I had really always felt a connection to the greater good in my work with Quentin, and most of what I allowed to happen to me and what I participated in was kind of like a horrible mud wrestle with a very angry brother.

Reactions to Thurmans story so far have included shock and anger, particularly aimed at the revered director.

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Needless to say, Thurmans relationships with both Weinstein and Tarantino were forever changed due to these violent attacks, plus the gaslighting and continuous lack of accountability.

Thurman admits to her own misgivings about how her public persona was in conflict with what she had experienced behind the opaque curtain of the silver screen. She suspected and feared that the perception of her career with men like Weinstein and Tarantino had misled other women into believing they could have the same without experiencing the violence she and so many others have.

The complicated feeling I have about Harvey is how bad I feel about all the women that were attacked after I was, she confesses in the Times piece. I am one of the reasons that a young girl would walk into his room alone, the way I did. Quentin used Harvey as the executive producer of Kill Bill, a movie that symbolizes female empowerment. And all these lambs walked into slaughter because they were convinced nobody rises to such a position who would do something illegal to you, but they do.

Thurmans story is just more evidence that, indeed, they do.

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In the last four years, around 600,000 migrants and refugees have reached Italy from Libya. Several thousand have drowned in the Mediterranean - REUTERS

Up to 90 mostly Pakistani migrants were feared to have drowned off the coast of Libya on Friday after their boat capsized.

The vessel, owned by smugglers, was meant to have taken the migrants towards Italy but instead sank not far from the coast.

The bodies of 10 victims were reported to have washed up on the shore, eight of them Pakistani and two Libyan.

At least two people survived the shipwreck and swam to shore while a third was rescued by a passing fishing boat, officials said.

There has been a recent increase in the number of Pakistanis trying to make the crossing from Libya towards Italy.

Spanish soldiers assist 329 refugees and migrants, mostly from Eritrea and Bangladesh, in collaboration with aid workers of the Spanish NGO Proactiva Open Arms, after they left Libya trying to reach European soil aboard an overcrowded wooden boat, 45 miles north of Al-Khums, Libya, January 2018. Credit: AP

Last year, just over 3,100 Pakistanis reached Italy by sea, making them the 13th largest nationality among migrants.

This year, however, they are already the third most numerous nationality - around 240 made the crossing in January.

Humanitarian organisations believe the Pakistanis are made up of two distinct groups.

There are those who have been living and working in Libya for years, mostly in the construction sector, since the time of Gadaffi, but now find conditions so dangerous that they want to leave the country, Flavio Di Giacomo of the International Organisation for Migration, told The Telegraph.

But I think there are others who tried to get into Europe via Turkey, Greece and the Balkan route, and found the borders closed, so they are looking for another way. They can fly from Istanbul to Khartoum and then pay smugglers to take them across the desert by truck.

Olivia Headon, also from the IOM, said: It's quite a jump in numbers but it is unclear whether it will be a trend that will continue throughout the rest of the year."

Trafficking networks are quick to identify new markets, routes and nationalities in a highly fluid situation.

"Smugglers sell migrants the idea of Europe as a kind of paradise, they are very good salesmen. Migrants may know the risks of the sea crossing but they think it will be worth it," she said.

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Medical personnel give aid to a migrant upon arrival at a naval base in Tripoli late on January 31, 2018, after migrants were rescued off Libya's coast when their boat sunk. Credit: AFP

Last year 119,000 migrants and refugees managed to reach Italy, most of them after being rescued at sea by European navies and coast guards as well as vessels operated by NGOs.

The year before, 181,000 made it to Italy.

Migration has become a key issue in Italy's election campaign, with voters due to go to the polls on March 4.

Major parties, including Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia and the Right-wing League, formerly the Northern League, have said Italy can no longer accept such high numbers and have called for hundreds of thousands of migrants already in the country to be sent home.

"In the last few years Italy repatriated 15,000 migrants. It would be my aim to triple that number," Matteo Salvini, the head of the League, said on Friday.

If countries in Africa and elsewhere refused to take back migrants, then tariffs would be imposed on their exports to Italy, Mr Salvini said.

"Either they collaborate on migration or we hit them with excise duties," he told La Stampa newspaper.

Migrants arrive at a naval base in Tripoli late on January 31, 2018, after they were rescued off Libya's coast. Credit: AFP

He recently said that if elected prime minister, he would aim to expel half a million migrants currently living in Italy.

The League is in an uneasy alliance with Mr Berlusconi's party and a hard-Right party, Brothers of Italy.

Together they are predicted to win around 35 per cent of the vote - the largest share of any political bloc.

In order to form a government they would have to forge a coalition with another party, possibly the centre-Left Democratic Party of former prime minister Matteo Renzi.

For years, Libya has been the main departure point for migrants and refugees trying to reach Europe, but numbers have dropped significantly in the last six months as the Libyan coast guard, under pressure from Rome and the EU, blocked departures.

Human rights groups say migrants in Libya are kept in squalid, overcrowded camps and warehouses where they are raped, tortured and abused.

Video emerged recently of Libyan traffickers dripping burning plastic onto the bare skin of migrants in an attempt to make their families pay greater ransoms for their release.By Hamid Shalizi KABUL (Reuters) - Afghan President Ashraf Ghani left open on Saturday the possibility for talks with militants who accept peace but said the door was closed to those who cause tragedies like recent attacks in the capital, Kabul. An attack on the Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul on Jan. 20 and a suicide bombing on a crowded city street a week later have stoked public anger and stepped up pressure on Ghani's Western-backed government to improve security. The attacks, which killed more than 130 people and were claimed by the Taliban, have also raised fresh doubt about long-running efforts to initiate talks with the insurgents. The president's office said on Tuesday the militants had crossed a "red line" and peace would have to be won on the battle field. But Ghani raised the possibility of reconciliation with some militants in a speech to Islamic clerics in Kabul. "Those who are responsible for this tragedy and do not want peace, the door of peace is closed to them," Ghani said. "Those who accept peace, they will witness that the nation will embrace them. But there is a clear difference, our commitment to bringing peace does not mean we will sit quietly and won't retaliate." "We will dig them out from any hiding holes." Afghanistan's government has made such vows for years but the insurgency appears ever more resilient. Peace efforts have been made in fits and starts but without progress. U.S. President Donald Trump appeared to dash any hope for peace efforts on Monday when he condemned the Taliban for the Kabul violence and rejected the idea of talks. Trump last year ordered an increase in U.S. troops, air strikes and other assistance to Afghan forces, to force the Taliban to negotiate. But his comments on Monday suggested he saw a military victory over the Taliban, an outcome that U.S. military and diplomatic officials said could not be achieved with the resources and manpower he had authorized. U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan said in Kabul on Tuesday the U.S. strategy had not changed and the aim was still to press the Taliban militarily to convince them that they had to negotiate. The Taliban are fighting to drive out foreign troops and re-establish their form of strict Islamic law. Afghanistan has long accused neighboring Pakistan of failing to act against Taliban plotting violence from safe havens on the Pakistani side of the border. On Friday, Ghani accused Pakistan of being the "Taliban center" and said he was waiting for Pakistani action. Pakistan denies helping the Taliban and a Pakistani delegation led by Foreign Secretary Tehmina Janjua visited Kabul on Saturday with the aim of fostering cooperation. Janjua called for both sides to stop the "blame game", Pakistani media reported. The United States said last month it would cut security aid to Pakistan, complaining it was not doing enough to fight militants sheltering there. (Editing by Robert Birsel)San Francisco (AFP) - Amazon has received patents for electronic systems that could enable warehouse monitoring through electronic pulses that guide employees by location.

The patent filings, first reported this week by the news site Geekwire, come amid concerns over workplace conditions for the company, which has seen rapid growth in its warehouses or "fulfillment centers" key to its logistics.

The publicly available patent documents show how wrist-worn devices could deliver ultrasonic pulses that could direct employees to the location of bins for packages being sought.

"Ultrasonic tracking of a worker's hands may be used to monitor performance of assigned tasks," according to one of the documents.

"The ultrasonic unit is configured to be worn by a user in proximity to the user's hand and to periodically emit ultrasonic sound pulses... The management module monitors performance of an assigned task based on the identified inventory bin."

In a statement to AFP, Amazon said it files numerous patents on new technologies that may or may not be implemented.

"The speculation about this patent is misguided," the Amazon statement said.

"Every day at companies around the world, employees use handheld scanners to check inventory and fulfill orders. This idea, if implemented in the future, would improve the process for our fulfillment associates. By moving equipment to associates' wrists, we could free up their hands from scanners and their eyes from computer screens."

Any deployment of such systems would likely trigger a backlash over labor conditions and heighten fears over workplace surveillance.

In the patent document, Amazon said the system is designed to help with "time-consuming acts" to locate items in warehouses.

Amazon's growth has been fueled by technologies that help it speed shipments to enable deliveries in one or two days. It has invested heavily in automated technology and robotics.

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On Thursday, Amazon reported its quarterly profit doubled to $1.9 billion, compared with $749 million a year earlier.

In 2015, a New York Times article described Amazon's workplace culture as a "hurtful," Darwinian setting in which employees were pitted against one another to the point of tears to improve productivity.

At the time, Amazon chief executive and founder Jeff Bezos said he did not recognize what he called the depiction of "a soulless, dystopian workplace."Ousted FBI Director James Comey was so underwhelmed  and yet angered  by the Republican memo criticizing the bureaus surveillance of a member of Donald Trumps presidential campaign that Comey tweeted Friday: Thats it?

Thats it? Dishonest and misleading memo wrecked the House intel committee, destroyed trust with Intelligence Community, damaged relationship with FISA court, and inexcusably exposed classified investigation of an American citizen. For what? Comey asked.

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The four-page memo, written by staffers directed by Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), was declassified and released Friday with Trumps approval, despite objections by the FBI and the Justice Department. It claims the Justice Department and FBI inappropriately spied on campaign adviser Carter Page.

The memo contends that law enforcement officials misled the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court that approved  and renewed three times  a warrant for electronic surveillance of Page.

The memo insists the Page surveillance raises concerns because it was based in part on information from former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele, who compiled a dossier on Trumps alleged Russian connections for Fusion GPS. The company was under contract to the Democratic National Committee and the Hillary Clinton campaign to gather opposition research on Trump, though it had initially launched the project for Republican operatives who also opposed Trump.

The Nunes memo claims Steele talked to the press and didnt like Trump, and it implied his information was faulty because it was ultimately being gathered for the Democrats. The memo doesnt mention the initial right-wing clients.

The memo, however, also points out that the FBI began looking into the Trump campaign months earlier, in July, because of information linked to former Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos. In October, Papadopoulos pleaded guilty to lying to officials investigating Russian interference in the presidential election.

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Comey has taken the gloves off this week after generally calmer tweets over the last few months quoting Martin Luther King Jr., Bruce Springsteen and the Bible. On Thursday, he ripped unnamed weasels and liars, declaring that they never hold the field, so long as good people stand up.

He also on Wednesday praised the FBI for speaking up against the Nunes memo. He was referring to a statement the bureau issued saying the FBI had grave concerns about material omissions of fact that fundamentally impact the memos accuracy.

And on Monday, Comey tweeted in support of Andrew McCabe, who resigned that day as the FBIs deputy director after attacks by Trump. Comey said McCabe stood tall while small people were trying to tear down an institution we all depend on.

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This article originally appeared on HuffPost.Miami (AFP) - US marine investigators are probing an unusual die-off of minke whales along the US east coast, marking the third such population of large whales in the past two years, officials said Wednesday.

A total of 28 minke whales (Balaenoptera acutorostrata) have died since January 2017 in the Atlantic Ocean from Maine to South Carolina, said the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

The deaths, most of which were in the northeast, are more than double the normal yearly death rate of 12 for this population of large, gray whales.

Nine had evidence of entanglement with fishing gear, eight had signs of infectious disease and two had died of blunt force trauma. Other necropsies are ongoing, NOAA said.

The US agency declared an "unusual mortality event" to uncover the cause, marking the third such probe in recent years.

Humpback whales and right whales are also experiencing an ongoing unusual mortality event, and those investigations are still open.

A total of 62 humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) have died along the Atlantic coast from Maine through Florida since January 2016.

And 18 North Atlantic right whales (Eubalaena glacialis) have died since June 2017, 12 in Canada and six in the United States.

"We haven't had three independent large whale unusual mortality events coincide along the same geographic area over the same time period before," said Teri Rowles, NOAA's marine mammal health and stranding program coordinator.

"We will continue to investigate all three of these," she told reporters on a conference call.

Most of the necropsies so far on the humpback whales show blunt force trauma, suggesting ship strikes as the cause of death.

The second leading cause appears to be fishing entanglements, followed by infectious disease.

The findings so far suggest these whales, which usually avoid boats, are somehow more often coming in contact with them but researchers aren't sure why.

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"That requires a lot more factors than just looking at the bodies themselves," said Rowles.

"It is looking at where they are over time, what the drivers may be ecologically and environmentally for them to be there."

Minke whales are solitary baleen whales which grow to about 10 yards (meters) long, about the size of an orca.

The 28 deaths this past year are not considered a threat to the sustainability of the population, which numbers between 1,400-2,500 animals, NOAA said.

Minke whales are not endangered species but are protected under the Marine Mammal Protection Act.

The 45-year-old act prohibits, with certain exceptions, killing marine mammals in US waters and by US citizens on the high seas.Former FBI Director James Comey criticized House Republicans for releasing the controversial Nunes memo on Friday.

Comey, who was fired from the FBI by President Trump last May, suggested the release of the memo did more harm than offer tangible proof that the FBI was biased in its investigation of ties between the Trump campaign and Russia during the 2016 election.

Thats it? he asked, calling the memo dishonest and misleading.

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The memo, overseen by House Intelligence Committee chair, Republican Rep. Devin Nunes, focused on the FBI obtaining a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrant against Carter Page, a former Trump campaign policy adviser. The memo alleged that the FBI used the unsubstantiated Steele dossier, a document authored by Christopher Steele, a former British spy, when getting the FISA warrant.

The memo has received strong criticism from the Justice Department, the FBI, some Republicans and most congressional Democrats. The White House has said the memo raises serious concerns about the FBI and Justice Departments handling of the investigation.Falcon had been living near Orlando under a false name when he was arrested while out cycling a bike: Screengrab/YouTube/CBS Miami

A so-called "Cocaine Cowboy" who went on the run for 26 years before he was eventually captured, has pleaded guilty for his part in an infamous cartel that operated in Florida.

Gustavo Falcon was part of the "Los Muchachos" outfit in the state that trafficked $2bn (1.41bn) worth of the drug, or an estimated 75 tonnes from Colombia into Miami in the 1980s.

It opened up and ran that pipeline into the city for about a decade until the authorities smashed up its operation in 1991. Its ring leaders, including Gustavos brother Willy, were jailed for decades.

Gustavo himself slipped away from justice and fell off the radar after he went on the run amid the crackdown.

But his time as a free man came crashing down in April when police arrested him as he and his wife cycled home in Kissimmee, in central Florida, where they had been living under false names.

The authorities tracked him down to the area near Orlando after a police sketch artist identified him after comparing his driving licence photo to a historical mug shot from his cartel days.

He stood handcuffed and shackled in the dock today as he pleaded guilty in a federal courthouse in Miami to his part in the Los Muchachos drug gang, the Miami New Times reported.

I understand, Falcon, 56, replied several times as U.S. District Judge Federico Moreno returned him to custody at the end of the hearing, news channel Local 10 reported.

The Los Muchachos cartel earned its name after Falcons brother Willy and his childhood friend Sal Magluta opened up the trafficking network between Miami and Colombia in the early 1980s.

The pair earned up to millions every month by smuggling tonnes of the drug into Miami using their own powerboats, creating one of the biggest operations on the US East Coast.

Police finally closed in on the operation in 1991 and charged the pair with trafficking 75 tonnes of the drug which they said they had smuggled over the previous 13 years.

They were initially cleared of the claims in a 1996 trial  but they were re-tried in 2001 after prosecutors learned that the two traffickers had rigged the jury in the earlier case to free them.

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Willy, 62, was later given 20 years in prison in the second hearing while Magluta was sentenced to 195 years.

Prosecutors said Gustavo had worked behind the scenes in his brothers criminal enterprise, and was largely involved in totting up the balance sheet for their illicit multi-billion dollar trade.

Falcon today plead guilty to one count of conspiring to possess cocaine with intent to distribute during his years in the Los Muchachos cartel and faces up to 20 years in prison.

He was remanded to custody for sentencing on 11 April.At least 70 mammal and dinosaur tracks were discovered in an area no larger than two square meters at NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center near Washington D.C., according to a research paper published Jan. 31 in the journal Scientific Reports.

The tracks were initially discovered in April 2012 by a local track expert when he was dropping his wife off at her job in the Flight Center. According to a NASA release, expert Ray Stanford noticed a rock outcropping behind the building and went to investigate. He then discovered a 12-inch-wide dinosaur track on a slab of sandstone the size of a dining table, which was covered in around 70 additional footprints made more than 100 million years ago.

The footprints of eight different species were identified, including large, predatory dinosaurs and much smaller mammals. NASA reports that all the tracks were likely to have been made at a similar time, with evidence suggesting at a location on the edge of a wetland.

The concentration of mammal tracks on this site is orders of magnitude higher than any other site in the world, Martin Lockley, a paleontologist with the University of Colorado, Denver, and co-author on the Scientific Reports paper, said in the NASA release.

I dont think Ive ever seen a slab this size, which is a couple of square meters, where you have over 70 footprints of so many different types, he added. This is the motherlode of Cretaceous mammal tracks.By Pushkala Aripaka and Stephen Nellis

(Reuters) - Apple Inc on Thursday gave a disappointing revenue and profit forecast for the first three months of 2018 and its sales of iPhones over the holiday quarter missed Wall Street's expectations, deepening concerns that enthusiasm for the iPhone has permanently waned since its 2015 peak.

Apple forecast revenue of $60 billion to $62 billion and gross margins of between 38 percent and 38.5 percent for its fiscal first quarter ending in March. Analysts were expecting $65.7 billion in sales and a gross margin of 38.9 percent for the March quarter, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S, though some had forecast sales as low as $60 billion. The stock had declined to its lowest point since November in recent weeks.

Bright spots in the fiscal first quarter ended Dec. 30 included average selling prices for the iPhone that topped Wall Street expectations, driven by demand for newer models like the iPhone X. Apple's shares, after initially falling, ticked up about 1 percent to $169.50 in after-the-bell trading.

The company's chief financial officer, Luca Maestri, hinted at what Apple will do with its cash pile. At the end of the December quarter, Apple had about $285 billion in cash, cash equivalents and short- and long-term marketable securities.

In an interview with Reuters, Maestri said Apple plans to balance its cash and debt.

Over time, we are trying to target a capital structure that is approximately net neutral. We will have approximately the same level of cash and debt on the balance sheet, Maestri said. Were going to take that balance down from $163 billion to zero," he said, referring to Apple's current level of cash net of debt.

Maestri did not say whether the reduction in net cash would come in the form of returning capital to shareholders or capital expenditures.

The restrained revenue forecast comes after Wall Street analysts widely agreed that Apple had trimmed its expectations for the March quarter for the $999 iPhone X, the first major rework of the company's best-selling product since 2014. Analysts said the iPhone X had come into supply-and-demand balance - meaning that Apple was able to keep the phone in stock on store shelves - earlier than they had expected.

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The weak expectations for the March quarter could signal that while Apple's diehard fans are willing to pay the iPhone X's steep price, the new phone remains too expensive to tempt mainstream shoppers, especially in countries like China. Those customers may opt instead for older, cheaper iPhone models that Apple has kept in its lineup.

The holiday quarter is typically Apple's largest, accounting for more than a third of its revenue as fans line up for its newest offerings, but Wall Street often looks to the March quarter for clues about how well products launched during the holidays will carry over to mainstream buyers.

However, average selling prices for iPhones were stronger than Wall Street expected during the holiday - $796 versus expectations of $756.

It was really driven by the success of the iPhone X and also the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus, Maestri told Reuters in an interview. The new lineup has done incredibly well.

Analysts are counting on increased selling prices for iPhones as one factor that will help Apple continue to increase revenue even as unit sales flatten out.

Apple had predicted its strongest-ever holiday shopping quarter on the strength of the iPhone X and iPhone 8. The company cleared that bar, posting revenue of $88.3 billion and profit of $3.89 per share, an increase of 12.6 percent and 15.7 percent, respectively, from $78.4 billion and $3.36 per share a year earlier. The results beat/missed analyst expectations of revenue of $87.3 billion and profits of $3.86 per share.

Apple's services business, which includes Apple Music, the App Store and iCloud, grew 18 percent to $ 8.4 billion, missing analyst expectations of $8.6 billion. Maestri said the lower services revenue was because the holiday quarter was only 13 weeks rather than 14 weeks. He also said Apple's installed base of active devices reached 1.3 billion, 30 percent higher than two years ago and representing an expansion of potential customers for the services business.

The company has focused on expanding services as the smart phone market has matured, improving margins along with sales.

Apple said it expected its tax rate for the March quarter to be 15 percent following changes in U.S. tax law. The company said last month it plans to make a one-time tax payment of $38 billion on its overseas cash and has a five-year, $30 billion U.S. capital expenditure plan. Unlike many companies that took large one-time charges under the U.S. tax law, Apple had set aside cash for years ahead of time to fund the $38 billion payment.

The company did not say how much of its overseas cash it would bring back to the United States in the short term and gave no new information about its capital return program, which it typically updates each April.

(Reporting by Pushkala Aripaka in Bengaluru and Stephen Nellis in San Francisco; Editing by Bernard Orr and Leslie Adler)A LiDAR scanning system has provided archaeologists with evidence of a sprawling Mayan city that was tucked away under the jungle canopy in northern Guatemala. The scan revealed the remains of a over 60,000 different structures that have been waiting centuries for someone to stumble upon them.

In all, the project scanned an incredibly 800 square miles of jungle in what is known as the Mayan Biosphere Reserve. Researchers have long known that Mayan settlements were present in the area, but the massive scale of the cities that were once teeming with activity was hugely miscalculated.

Don't Miss: Forget the SNES Classic, this $34 box plays every NES and SNES game ever

The LiDAR images make it clear that this entire region was a settlement system whose scale and population density had been grossly underestimated, researcher Thomas Garrison of Ithaca College told National Geographic.

The scans show complex collections of structures as well as elevated highways connecting various points of interest to each other. It is, simply put, the leftovers of a massive jungle metropolis that was home to an untold number of ancient people. Needless to say, this is a pretty important discovery for archaeologists interested in Mayan culture and history, but its also helping to combat some of the mentality that Mayan settlements werent as robust as those of other cultures.

Weve had this western conceit that complex civilizations cant flourish in the tropics, that the tropics are where civilizations go to die, Marcello Canuto, an archaeologist with Tulane University, explains. But with the new LiDAR-based evidence from Central America and [Cambodias] Angkor Wat, we now have to consider that complex societies may have formed in the tropics and made their way outward from there.

Researchers believe the area was very densely populated, and some have suggested that the Mayan populous numbered over 10 million. Thats a huge increase from previous estimates that typically numbered in the lower single-digit millions, but given this new mapping data its easy to imagine.

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But as remarkable as the discovery is, its just the first phase of a larger project to map much of Guatemala. In all, over 5,000 square miles will be mapped using the LiDAR technology, and we can likely expect plenty of additional discoveries to be made as the scientists press on.

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See the original version of this article on BGR.comA large majority of Americans in both political parties think President Donald Trump should consent to an interview with special counsel Robert Mueller, according to a new poll.

The Monmouth University survey released Thursday found that 71% of Americans think Trump should agree to an interview, including 85% of Democrats, 74% of independents and 51% of Republicans. If Trump does agree to an interview, 82% of respondents think he should do it under oath, including 67% of Republicans.

Trump has said he would love to talk to Mueller, who is investigating Russian meddling in the 2016 election, as well as whether the Trump campaign or Trump himself colluded with Russia or sought to obstruct justice. But it remains to seen whether in an interview, which could be risky for Trump, will actually take place. Mueller and congressional investigators have already interviewed roughly 50 people in Trumps orbit, and Mueller has brought criminal charges against four of Trumps former aides.

Read more: Robert Mueller Might Question Trump. Heres What Could Go Wrong

The survey of 806 adults, conducted Jan. 28-30, has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.By Tommy Wilkes and Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Cryptocurrencies plunged on Friday, with bitcoin at one point sliding below $8,000 and headed for its biggest weekly loss since December 2013, amid worries about a regulatory clampdown globally.

The currencies have come off their lows but analysts said the sell-off was probably not over.

This week's slump brought the total market value of cryptocurrencies down to around $400 billion, half the high it reached in January, according to industry tracker Coinmarketcap.com. The market value of cryptocurrencies is calculated by multiplying the number of digital coins in existence by their price, although many question whether that is the right way to value them.

Bitcoin, the biggest and best-known cryptocurrency, fell as much as 15 percent on Friday to a two-month low of $7,625 on the Luxembourg-based Bitstamp exchange. It clawed back some losses and was down around 5.6 percent at $8,498 in late New York trading.

The virtual currency is down by close to 25 percent this week and almost 40 percent in 2018. It surged more than 1,000 percent though in 2017.

For some market participants, bitcoin may be down, but it is not likely to fade.

"Bitcoin has become, and will continue to be, primarily a speculative asset class," said David Moskowitz, Co-founder and Director of Indorse, the decentralized social network for professionals.

He added that the recent drops in transaction fees have made it easier to use bitcoin for payments once again. And if a payment solution can help the congestion, bitcoin may once again become an effective payment network, Moskowitz said.

The second and third largest virtual currencies, Ethereum and Ripple, also plunged more than 20 percent at the session low, Coinmarketcap.com said. Ethereum was last down 13.2 percent, at $888.22, while Ripple last traded at 83 U.S. cents, down 14.7 percent.

Retail investors have poured money into digital coins, enticed by the huge run-up in prices. Regulators say cryptocurrencies are highly speculative and dangerous investments.

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On Thursday, India vowed to eradicate the use of crypto-assets, joining China and South Korea in promising to ban parts of the nascent market where prices have boomed in recent years.

Social media website Facebook said this week it would ban cryptocurrency advertisements because many were associated with misleading or deceptive promotional practices. U.S. regulators have sent a subpoena to two of the world's biggest cryptocurrency players, Bitfinex and Tether

A massive $530 million hack of a Japanese cryptocurrency exchange last week renewed worries about the security of the industry.

Critics of virtual currencies have called the run-up in prices a speculative bubble, but supporters of cryptocurrencies say short-term price volatility is to be expected, and the blockchain technology underpinning these assets maintains its power and value.

Going back to 2011 and including the current selloff, bitcoin's price has been halved nine times on the Bitstamp exchange before recovering. The last time was from November 2014 to January 2015.

(Reporting by Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss in New York and Tommy Wilkes in London; Editing by David Gregorio and Chizu Nomiyama)White supremacists have threatened a Vermont high schools decision to raise the Black Lives Matter flag.

Montpelier High School opted to fly the flag on Thursday to mark the start of Black History Month. The school, which is made up of 350 students, including 18 black students, is the first high school in the country to showcase the Black Lives Matter flag.

The school board unanimously voted on January 17 to raise the flag in front of Montpelier High School in February with the help of the Racial Justice Alliance, a student-led organization. "The RJA believes putting up the Black Lives Matter flag is imperative for both demonstrating our school's fight for equitable education for our Black Students, and modeling a brave and appropriate challenge to the status quo impeding public institutions across the nation," said the students of RJA in a statement.

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Reports have said Montpelier Public School Superintendent Brian Ricca and High School Principal Mike McRaith received backlash from the public over the flag raising. McRaith told the Brattleboro Reformer he received calls from members of Stormfront, a forum site started by Ku Klux Klan leader Don Black.

McRaith told the publication that someone from the forum called "Mr. K" said, "Until white people start getting the same equal rights as everyone else, including protected groups like BLM and LGBTQ, we will furiously continue to protest this blatant discrimination against our civil rights." The Stormfront website is considered a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Don't miss: Can Never-Trumpers Reclaim the Hijacked Republican Party?

Ricca confirmed to Newsweek that he and McRaith did receive hateful messages before the flag raising, and these types of messages have spiked a bit since the event. Far-right news sites like Breitbart News have also criticized the school's decision.

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"Weve had some negative feedback, but there has been more support, McRaith told Newsweek.

Ricca said that despite the negative feedback, this is the beginning of continuing conversations about equity in their schools.

"Students have been telling us their experiences and they are not the same as our white students," Ricca told Newsweek. "This is a concrete way for us to continue to [have] conversations."

This article was first written by Newsweek

More from NewsweekExperts have suggested that the US President is not responsible for either the rise or the fall in the numbers of African Americans out of work: AP

Black unemployment rates in America have soared by almost one per cent after Donald Trump took credit for bringing them down to a record low.

Statistics showed the percentage of African Americans out of work hit 6.8 per cent in December  the lowest rate since the figures were first broken down by race, in 1972.

The President boasted about the figures in his State of the Union speech, suggesting it was a result of his economic policies.

And something Im very proud of, African-American unemployment stands at the lowest rate ever recorded, he said

But figures released on Friday showed the rate had risen to 7.7 per cent, according to the Bureau of Labour Statistics.

General unemployment rates in America have stayed low at 4.1 per cent for the fourth straight month, with around 200,000 jobs added in January.

The news comes days after a spat between Trump and rapper Jay Z, who condemned the Presidents attitude towards people from African countries in an interview with CNN.

He told the news channel: Its not about money at the end of the day, and it doesnt equate to happiness.

Donald Trump hit back on Twitter, saying: Somebody please inform Jay-Z [sic] that because of my policies, Black Unemployment has just been reported to be at the LOWEST RATE EVER RECORDED!

Our economy is better than it has been in many decades. Businesses are coming back to America like never before. Chrysler, as an example, is leaving Mexico and coming back to the USA. Unemployment is nearing record lows. We are on the right track!

Experts have suggested that Trump is not responsible for either the rise or the fall in the numbers of African Americans out of work, CNNMoney reported, as the number has been steadily declining from a high of 16.8 per cent in March 2010, around the time of the recession.

When Mr Trump was inaugurated in January 2017, the rate was at 7.8 per cent according to official figures. This was the lowest it had been in almost a decade, having declined significantly while Barack Obama was in charge.

Story continues

Salaries are also increasing in America. Wages grew in January from a year ago at the fastest pace in eight years, evidence that low unemployment is forcing some employers to pay more to keep or attract workers. Factories, hospitality firms and restaurants were among industries reporting pay increase.

Additional reporting by PAEighteen people have been hurt after a van drove on to a pavement and hit pedestrians in a busy area of Shanghai.

The vehicle hit people on a road next to People's Square around 9am local time, according to the Chinese government.

Police later said they believed it was accident caused by the driver smoking while transporting gas tanks.

Witnesses quoted by local media said the van was already on fire as it drove on to the pavement and ended up outside a Starbucks cafe.

Bystanders reportedly tried to break the van's windows to pull out six people who were inside.

Government officials said 18 people had been taken to hospital and that three were in a serious condition.

The incident came as Prime Minister Theresa May was in the city as part of a trip to China aimed at striking business deals.

A Starbucks spokesman said its shop was not damaged and that customers and staff were safe.Cornell University investigated a fraternity after members threw a pig roast contest based on sexual challenges. (Photo: Getty Images)

Cornell University is appalled and disgusted by an investigation that found one of its fraternities conducted a pig roast that allowed members to rack up points by having sex with women.

According to the Cornell Daily Sun, an independent student newspaper in Ithaca, N.Y., the Zeta Beta Tau fraternity ran the contest sometime in 2017 unbeknownst to the female targets, with a tie-breaking vote determined by which woman weighed the most.

After the universitys Fraternity and Sorority Review Board investigated, it put the frat on a two-year probation, imposed an external review by the national organization, mandated participation in Cornells upcoming Sexual Assault Awareness Week, and hired a live-in adviser for the probation period, among other punishments.

Paul Russell, the Interfraternity Council president, told the Daily Sun that the fraternitys actions were not normal. He added, The IFC was appalled and disgusted by the activity described in the reports.

Cornell, which did not return Yahoo Lifestyles request for comment, also found that the fraternity violated the Fraternity and Sorority Expectations of Membership, which prohibit sexually abusive behavior on the part of its members.

In 2014, Jezebel reported that Georgia Tech shut down the Phi Kappa Tau chapter after a member sent an email with the subject line Luring your rapebait, containing a set of instructions for how to  putting it mildly  seduce a woman. The school then conducted an investigation, which found a pattern of sexual violence that  suggests a deep-rooted culture within the fraternity that is obscene, indecent and endangers women.

And in 2012, Wesleyan Universitys Beta Theta Pi house was hit with a sexual assault lawsuit from a woman who claimed she was sexually assaulted at a 2010 Halloween party. She also referred to the frat as a Rape Factory. The case was settled in 2013, and one year later, the frat was suspended by the national office.

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The influence of Greek life on campuses, particularly fraternity culture, is a much-debated topic  a 2007 study found that frat members were three times more likely to commit rape, with the findings echoing two previous studies. What was particularly remarkable about our study is that we found that it was the fraternity experience that led men to be more likely to rape, study co-author John Foubert wrote on the CNN website.

He added: What we found was highly instructive. Before they got to college, fraternity men were no different from other male students. They committed the same number of incidents of sexual assaults before college. But heres the difference. Guys who joined a fraternity then committed three times as many sexual assaults as those who didnt join. It is reasonable to conclude that fraternities turn men into guys more likely to rape. Our study confirmed that fraternities provide the culture of male peer support for violence against women that permits bad attitudes to become treacherous behavior. And that should concern everyone.

On Tuesday, a Tennesse lawmaker proposed a bill to ban fraternities and sororities in an effort to curb assault and hazing. Ive thought about it for quite some time. You realize that some legislation is volatile. You realize that its not going to be popular, and you may hold off, Rep. John DeBerry Jr., a told Time. But the continuation of assaults and hazing incidents and just bad behavior  not just in Tennessee, but all over the country  at some point in time, you have to force the argument and force the discussion.

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By Laura Zuckerman (Reuters) - The number of monarchs wintering in California has dropped to a five-year low, despite more volunteers counting more sites in search of the orange-and-black insect that is arguably the most admired of North American butterflies, a report said on Friday. The latest tally of 200,000 monarchs in forested groves in California's central coast has dropped from the 1.2 million counted two decades ago, indicating the number of butterflies found west of the Rocky Mountains, or the so-called western population, continues to sharply decline, the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation said in a report. "It's certainly concerning," said Sarina Jepsen, endangered species program director for the Xerces Society. Western monarchs are born on milkweed plants in such states as Arizona, Idaho, Utah and Washington before embarking on a seasonal migration to California. The annual count in California, done at the end of autumn by dozens of volunteers and scientists, last saw a severe low in 2012, with 144,812 butterflies across 136 sites, she said. In another troubling trend, the 200,000 butterflies found in the 2017 survey stemmed from monitoring of 262 sites, which were even more sites than were tracked the previous year when 300,000 monarchs were counted, Jepsen said. Factors that may have compounded monarchs' plight in California in recent months include unseasonably warm temperatures, wildfires, smoke from wildfires and mudslides, all of which may have played roles in reports of monarchs migrating and breeding later than usual, she said. While much is known about the decades-long population decline of monarchs in the eastern and central United States, which number in the tens of millions and which winter in Mexico before winging north in a famed mass migration, scientists have only recently been able to track the western variety due to new statistical models. Scientists believe declines in both U.S. monarch populations are linked to human development that has seen the destruction of roosting trees in California and Mexico, climate change and farmers' increasing use of pesticides that kill the milkweed plants butterflies depend on for reproduction and food. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is considering adding monarchs to the federal list of endangered and threatened species. A 2017 study funded by the agency found that the western population has a 63 percent chance of extinction in 20 years and an 84 percent chance in 50 years if current trends continue. (Reporting by Laura Zuckerman in Wyoming; Editing by Himani Sarkar)PRAGUE (Reuters) - Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis said on Saturday that early elections could be a last resort if he fails to win support for a new government after his minority cabinet lost a confidence vote last month.

The billionaire businessman's anti-establishment ANO party won a parliamentary election last October but lacks a majority.

With a booming economy and rising wages, ANO appealed to voters with its pledge to fight corruption, streamline government, fix outdated roads and cut taxes.

Babis faces allegations that he fraudulently claimed European Union subsidies worth 2 million euros a decade ago and other parties decline to work with him. He denies wrongdoing and ANO refuses to nominate another candidate for prime minister.

"If we don't reach agreement (with other parties) then maybe the only solution will be early elections," he said in an interview with daily Pravo, adding it was "a last resort" he did not want. His ally President Milos Zeman also opposes the idea.

Babis said he would seek support by the end of this month and then ask parliament for a confidence vote.

He views single-party government as the best option and said he would continue talks on gaining support from the far-left Communist party and far-right, anti-EU SPD party.

His Foreign Minister Martin Stropnicky, said in an interview with Mlada Fronta Dnes, that he and other ANO members would have a problem relying on support from the SPD.

Babis would also wait for the Social Democrat party to elect new leadership at a Feb. 18 congress before holding more talks with his former ruling partners.

ANO has 78 lawmakers in the 200-seat lower chamber of parliament. Babis's minority cabinet remains in power until a new administration is formed.

Zeman has tasked Babis with forming a new government and promised to give him plenty of time after his own re-election last weekend, in a victory speech where the leaders of the Social Democrats and SPD stood behind him.

Story continues

Under the constitution, Zeman could dissolve parliament if three confidence votes fail, giving him a strong hand in talks. Given ANO's popularity, other parties oppose new elections.

Zeman, a prominent figure in Czech politics, has been criticized for his warmth towards the far-right and ties to Russia. He has called for an end to EU sanctions against Moscow.

(Reporting by Jason Hovet; Editing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg)According to new figures released by the the Anti-Defamation League, 2017 was a big year for white supremacist activity on college campuses, with a tripling of propaganda incidents  stickers, posters, and banners  since the previous year.

The ADL has been tracking trends on white supremacy on campus since January 2016; recording 346 incidents of propaganda since then. The number of incidents are increasing in frequency, it says, with 290 of those 346 taking place in 2017, and 147 of them occurring in the fall semester of 2017.

ADLs Center on Extremism, which collected the data, tells Inverse in an email statement that the appearance of the propaganda on college campuses is not indicative of the number of white supremacists on campus. All it takes is one person with a computer and a printer to target a campus with hate fliers [but] white supremacist groups make it easy to find and distribute these fliers using tools such as social media.

ADLs data shows that propaganda appeared on 216 campuses in 44 states as well as the District of Columbia, but that Texas and California were hit particularly hard in 2017, with 61 and 43 incidents respectively.

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A group called Identity Evropa, founded in March 2016, was the most active, behind 158 incidents, according to the ADL.

In an interview with HuffPost in October last year, Identity Evropas leader, Eli Mosley, explained why groups like his are targeting colleges in particular:

Young people matter, and college campuses have been where political battles have been fought since the sixties and before it. This is where political change happens. Fundamentally, its where the most anti-white institution is. Academia has become a factory for anti-white individuals, and to teach whites to hate themselves.

Despite this, Mosley added, When we go to these schools, were not going to intimidate people of color or anything like that.

The ADL did not comment on why white supremacy is having a moment now, but Brian Levin, the director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino, told Inverse shortly after Trumps election, that its because they perceive that they now have a new charismatic leader.

Story continues

Im not saying President Trump is a hardcore, intentional bigot, but he appeals to those that are, Levin said. Part of that is that they now have someone who is a celebrity brand who is embraced by the media, who will take messages and conspiracy theories that were previously segregated into the extreme world well into the mainstream.

The Center on Extremism collected their data from media reports, information from students and universities, and postings found on social media by white supremacist groups.

Photos via Anothony Crider/ Wikimedia

Photos via Anothony Crider/ Wikimedia

Written by Eileen Guo

More articles by Eileen  Twitter

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More From InverseAn Illinois deputy saved himself and others from an alleged drunk driver that nearly struck the group after they had pulled over another suspected intoxicated motorist, officials said.

Boone County Sheriffs Deputy Charles Schutz was standing on the side of the road with two other law enforcement officers and man suspected of driving while intoxicated when another car came careening past, dashcam footage released by the sheriffs office showed.

Schutz was monitoring the road as he and the others stood in the right lane and shoulder, where the suspected drunk drivers vehicle and his police car were parked with its lights flashing.

"You have to keep your head on a swivel," he told WIFR-TV. "You're looking out for everybody."

Surveillance footage shows Schutz spring into action, pushing the group of men to safety as the car flew by.

Schutz can be seen running to his vehicle to give chase after the car drove off, appearing to veer into oncoming traffic as it avoided striking the cops.

That driver was arrested for allegedly driving under the influence, authorities said.

The Boone County Sheriff Offices office shared the dashboard camera footage on its Facebook page, saying it would like to remind everyone of Scotts Law, commonly referred to as the move over law.

The law was named after Lieutenant Scott Gillen of the Chicago Fire Department, who was struck and killed in 2000 by an intoxicated driver as he prepared to leave the scene of a minor accident on the Dan Ryan Expressway.

As of January 1st, 2017, the move over Law now applies to all vehicles that display flashing emergency lights, including commercial trucks and cars; the Law is no longer limited to authorized emergency vehicles only, the Sheriffs Office wrote on Facebook. Please always remain alert and move over.

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Related Articles:President Donald Trump has engaged in regular phone calls this week with Fox News host Sean Hannity about a controversial GOP memo that is said to malign the FBI, according to reports. Hannity later issued a strong denial of the story, published by the Daily Beast Thursday.

The memo was drafted by the staff of House Intelligence Committee chairman Devin Nunes and alleges that the FBI and Justice Department failed to provide adequate information to a judge when they sought to renew a U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court warrant for former Trump foreign policy adviser Carter Page.

Trending: How the Dems Could Win the House in November

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The Intelligence Committee voted Monday to release the memo to the public, and the president has until Saturday to decide if it should be released or will remain secret due to national security concerns. Many experts have asserted that releasing the memo would jeopardize ongoing investigations. The FBI also issued a statement alleging that the memo contains factual errors and does not paint an accurate picture of the FISA application submitted for the surveillance of Page.

We have grave concerns about the material omissions of fact that fundamentally impact the memos accuracy, the FBI statement noted.

Nevertheless, the president appears to trust Hannity more than his own chief law enforcement officers. Sources informed the Daily Beast that the President speaks regularly with Hannity, who has been making inflammatory comments about the memo all week. Hannity is said to have helped persuade Trump that it is imperative that the memo be released publicly, and that he has insisted that the document will help reveal bias in the FBI against the Republican president.

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It has previously been reported that Hannity has acted as an informal adviser to Trump during his presidency, while both men have frequently traded public praise of each other.

Story continues

Still, following the latest report, Hannity shot back on Twitter, calling it "a total lie" and "fake news." The White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Most popular: Margot Robbie and Jamie Pressly Freak Twitter Out: More Celebrity Doppelgangers

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Democrats have alleged that the memo has been drafted for the sole purpose of discrediting the FBI and the Justice Department and casting doubt upon the ongoing investigation into whether the Trump campaign collaborated with the Russian government to influence the outcome of the 2016 presidential election.

Trump has consistently stated that there was no collusion between his team and the Russian government, and has also said that there was no Russian interference in the presidential election despite the conclusion of multiple law enforcement agencies.

This article was first written by Newsweek

More from NewsweekDonald Trump has approved the release of the memo - AP

A former British spy behind a dossier of lurid claims against Donald Trump admitted he was desperate to stop him becoming US president, it was alleged on Friday.

Christopher Steele told a US justice official before the 2016 election that he was passionate about stopping Mr Trump winning, according to a newly released memo.

Republicans held up the comment as proof the former MI6 agent had ideological motivations against Mr Trump that throw into question the reliability of his evidence.

The previously undisclosed conversation was contained in a classified memo written by Republican congressmen that Mr Trump approved for release on Friday.

The four-page document criticises the way the FBI and US Justice Department used Mr Steeles claims to approve a wiretap on a Trump campaign adviser.

The memo claimed the wiretap request failed to mention that Mr Steele could be politically biased and had been paid more than $160,000 by US Democrats.

Christopher Steele, the former MI6 agent who compiled a dossier on Donald Trump Credit: Victoria Jones

Democrats called the memo a shameful effort to discredit the intelligence services and undermine an investigation into Russian election meddling that has blighted Mr Trumps presidency.

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The president, who declassified the memo despite a rare public warning from the FBI, expressed fury at leading officials involved  raising fears he could fire some of them.

I think its a disgrace whats happening in our country, Mr Trump said. A lot of people should be ashamed of themselves.

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Asked if he retained confidence in Rod Rosenstein, who oversees the Russian investigation as deputy attorney general, Mr Trump responded: You figure that one out."

Mr Steele, a former MI6 agent, was thrust into the spotlight last year when a controversial dossier he compiled before the US election alleging ties between Mr Trump and Russia was published.

The claims included that Mr Trump asked prostitutes to take part in lurid sex acts while visiting Russia  something he categorically denied.

It has also emerged the research was part-funded by the Democrats.

Story continues

Mr Steeles dossier has become the centre of a fiercely partisan battle over the legitimacy of the Russian election meddling investigation being led by Robert Mueller, the special counsel.

FBI Director Christopher Wray Credit: AP

Republicans argue the investigation, which is looking into Trump campaign links with Russia, was overwhelmingly triggered by Mr Steeles research, much of which is unverified.

But Democrats point to evidence that Trump campaign figures discussed dirt on Hillary Clinton with Russian figures, meaning the inquiries are legitimate.

The memo, based on confidential information, revealed that Mr Steele had discussed Mr Trump with Bruce Ohr, then the US deputy attorney general, before the election.

Mr Steele said he was desperate that Donald Trump not get elected and was passionate about him not being president, according to an account by Mr Ohr quoted in the memo.

The memos Republican authors called this clear evidence of Mr Steeles bias and later said the former has anti-Trump financial and ideological motivations.

It concluded that officials should have mentioned these relevant facts when requesting a wiretap on Carter Page, a Trump foreign policy adviser, in October 2016  a month before the election.

Memo row | Who are the key figures?

Republicans, Democrats and intelligence figures criticised Mr Trumps decision to release the memo, which some warned would expose sources and methods for gathering confidential information.

John McCain the Republican senator for Arizona, said: The latest attacks against the FBI and Department of Justice serve no American interests  no partys, no Presidents, only Putins."

A FBI Association spokesman said: FBI Special Agents have not, and will not, allow partisan politics to distract us from our solemn commitment to our mission.

The FBI's former director, James Comey, expressed his outrage at the memo's release calling it "dishonest" and "misleading".

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Mr Comey, who was fired by Mr Trump last year, tweeted: "Thats it? Dishonest and misleading memo wrecked the House intel committee, destroyed trust with Intelligence Community, damaged relationship with FISA court, and inexcusably exposed classified investigation of an American citizen.

"For what? DOJ & FBI must keep doing their jobs."Descendants of Norwegian immigrants pose at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds by the sloop on which their ancestors came to America in 1925. (Photo: Minnesota Historical Society via Getty Images)

Around 1905, when Norway would have been considered a shithole, my great-grandmother sailed to the United States. She was 16 years old, without family and money, and found work as a house cleaner. My great-grandfather was a Norwegian sailor who jumped ship and just started living in Chicago.

Fortunately for me, the immigration laws we had then let them get green cards and earn citizenship. My mother recounts her grandparents as kind and decent, suffering humiliation and enduring hardship to provide opportunities for their children. They were frugal and bought a house. Both of their sons served in WWII; one was shot down and was a POW. Their granddaughter, my mother, was the first in their family to attend college.

Their story, an immigrant story, exemplifies the American dream.

Our immigration laws have been a bit more complicated. We have a restrictionist past, having excluded people based on race and nationality, including people from China, Japan and Italy. The country moved to rectify these exclusionary policies with the passage of the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act.

We have also had important chapters in our immigration story when we calculated merit properly: not by measuring a persons worth based on what they lacked upon their arrival, but by valuing the future contributions that arise from their hopes, grit and gratitude.

Over two decades ago, Congress passed a law that changed that calculus. In the same month that he cravenly appealed to the right by reforming welfare and signing DOMA, former President Bill Clinton also signed the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996.

IIRIRA was neither a solution to an existing problem nor a pragmatic compromise. Rather, the Republicans wanted to look tough on immigration, and the Democrats were afraid to look soft, despite knowing the law was bad policy. The law closed many doors that used to let people stay. Previously, someone who crossed the border earned a green card if they had spent seven years paying taxes, demonstrated good character and proved a citizen needed them here. For those who married citizens, they got status if they paid a $1,000 fine. IIRIRA instead elevated a border crossing into an unforgivable sin, deporting the same people who used to get green cards.

Story continues

If that law had been in place in 1905, both my great-grandparents would be illegal  one overstayed her visa, the other crossed a border without one. My great-grandparents would be placed in detention and scheduled for immediate deportation, likely without a hearing. The old immigrants did not have superior character; our laws just were not captured by right-wing talking points.

With his shithole comments earlier this month, President Donald Trump exposed the moral deficiency and logical fallacy of IIRIRAs restrictionism. But Republicans defend it with politer language  think merit, chain-migration, and self-deportation  and Democrats continue to acquiesce with spineless silence.

What the immigration hard-liners get wrong is that it is this heightened, senseless immigration enforcement, not legal or illegal immigrants, that is hurting our country.

Immigration violations often involve minor and unintentional conduct, and are intended to be forgiven. When someone breaks a criminal law, they are convicted, punished and could face a lifetime of collateral consequences arising from being a felon. But when someone violates immigration law, they appear before an immigration judge, and will sometimes be given (or restored with) a green card or asylum status.

Half of the people who get immigration hearings are granted legal status. For those with attorneys, that number is much higher: in 2017, in one courthouse that found a lawyer for every detained case, the grant rate went from 4 percent to 24 percent, and is predicted to be 77 percent when all pending cases are counted. A national study of 1.2 million cases showed that, for those outside of detention, grant rates went from 13 percent to 63 percent if the non-citizen had an attorney. The more accurate term would be pre-legal not illegal, immigrants.

The term illegal immigrant, however, serves to justify billions of dollars spent on arresting, detaining and deporting people who sound dangerous. Under former President Barack Obama, the federal government spent $18 billion each year on immigration enforcement. By contrast, the agencies targeting actual criminals  the FBI, DEA, Secret Service, and ATF  got only $14 billion.

Trump wants to spend billions more  each year  on more arrests ($1.3 billion more on new officers), more detention centers ($1.5 billion increase over the $2 billion currently spent), and more wall (starts at $21.5 billion and estimates are as high as $67 billion). There simply is no justification for this amount of wasted money.

While Trumps crackdown that has resulted in a 40 percent increase in immigration arrests, fewer than 6 percent have any criminal conviction. And among those with convictions is the Polish doctor with a green card whose misdemeanor offenses were decades old.

Across all sectors, our economy will not thrive or grow without immigrants: rural hospitals face a shortage without foreign-born doctors. Up to 50 to 70 percent of farmworkers are undocumented. Society Security will be insolvent unless more immigrants live in our country. And Trumps current immigration crackdown is proving that immigrant deportations do not create a single American job.

To the contrary, it is costing tens of thousands of Americans their livelihood: a labor shortage is choking Idahos dairy industry, lost tourism has resulted in 40,000 layoffs, and a decline in foreign students is forcing numerous colleges to cut programs and faculty. Immigration hard-liners wish to spend $400 billion to $600 billion to deport a population that is expected to contribute over $5 trillion to our economy in the next 10 years. Thats the party of fiscal responsibility?

What Trumps rhetoric, and IIRIRAs deeds, miss most with their attack on immigrants is that being American is both a noun and a verb. I first became patriotic when, as an immigration lawyer, I saw my own country through the eyes of my clients: A Yemeni Muslim shared with me how much fun he and his wife had attending their first gay pride parade. A Salvadoran teenager who was granted asylum after fleeing gangs asked how he could enlist in the U.S. military. A Mexican man and his wife raised a child as their own after the biological parents had left the child for an intended temporary period that became 15 years.

People who want to curb legal immigration based on merit fail to understand that immigrants  skilled and unskilled  contribute character, values, and economic growth that our country needs as much today as it did in 1905.

If a state stopped issuing driver licenses, there would be a sudden glut in illegal drivers. A state then could either try to arrest and jail all of them, blow up the highway for all drivers, or just start re-issuing licenses as they had in the past. These are the same choices we have in immigration. Waves of illegal immigrants did not and are not scrambling over the border. The undocumented population more than doubled when IIRIRA irrationally cut off all means for people who were already in this country a chance to get status.

We now can continue to spend billions each year to deport those who are contributing to our communities, families and taxes. Or, we can work to repeal IIRIRA and let those who are contributing continue to do so. The latter choice is not radical. To the contrary, it has been proven to work and is the common sense that our country needs.

Kari Hong, an assistant professor at Boston College Law School, teaches immigration and criminal law. She founded a clinic representing non-citizens with criminal convictions in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

This piece has been updated with additional information on the history of U.S. immigration laws.

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This article originally appeared on HuffPost.The memo released Friday by the House Intelligence Committee makes many claims about the FBI's surveillance of former Trump campaign aide Carter Pageand suggests that federal law enforcement authorities are tainted by partisanship.

"Our findings," the Republican members of the committee argue in the memo, "represent a troubling breakdown of legal processes...related to the (surveillance) process."

Here is a fact check of the memo and its claims about the FBI's warrant request under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act:

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Claim: The FBI should have told a judge about information favorable to Page when requesting a warrant, such as the Democratic National Committee's connection to the funding for the Steele Dossier.

Background

The DNC provided funding to continue the investigation run by Fusion GPS into President Donald Trump and his ties to Russia, but the investigation was originally funded by conservative outlet the Washington Free Beacon during the Republican primaries as an attempt to gain some opposition research to undermine Trump.

Fusion GPS hired Christopher Steele, a former British intelligence agent, to investigate connections between Trump and Russia, and Steele included some of the raw intelligence he gathered in the now infamous Steele Dossier that included claims about Page meeting Russian officials in Moscow. Those claims have been subsequently corroborated, and Page has admitted having those meetings.

There is no legal obligation for the FBI to provide evidence that could argue against their own warrant request. Instead several layers of Justice Department officials have to approve the request based on corroborated claims.

Assessment

However the Steele Dossier was funded, it wouldnt matter because any assertions from the dossier used in the warrant request would have to have been backed up elsewhere, according to Justice Department rules.

Story continues

Claim: Steele was suspended as an informant to the FBI for leaking to the press

Background

Steele stopped working with the FBI in October, 2016, according to testimony from Fusion GPS founder Glenn Simpson. Simpson told the Senate Judiciary Committee that Steele had stopped working with the FBI because he was concerned about leaks to the press, particularly after an October 31 story published by the New York Times claimed that the FBI had not found a link between Russia and the Trump campaign.

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I understand Chris severed his relationship with the FBI out of concern that he didnt know what was happening inside the FBI and there was a concern that the FBI was being manipulated for political ends by the Trump people and that we didnt really understand what was going on, Simpson testified.

Assessment

The memos claims could be true, that Steele was in fact rejected as an informant, but at least one person directly involved with his relationship with the FBI said that it was actually Steele who cut off ties.

Claim: Steele was the source behind the September 23, 2016 Yahoo story that talked about Pages trip to Moscow, a critical part of the evidence used for a warrant against Page.

Background

Part of the memos claims about Steele and his relationship to the FBI stem from assertions that Steele was leaking information about the investigation to the press. Steele did talk to several outlets, including a lengthy interview with Mother Jones. In court filing Fusion GPS acknowledged having spoken to several other outlets, including Yahoo. Theres no proof that Steele was the person who spoke to Yahoo, but it is likely given his discussion with other outlets.

Assessment

We dont know how critical the Yahoo article was to the warrant request, since the request itself is classified and, unlike the partisan memo, has not been released. Regardless of what was in the Yahoo article Justice Department policy would have required that officials verify the claims before including the information in a FISA warrant request.

Claim: Steele was paid $160,000 by the DNC for the dossier.

Background

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Steele was hired by Fusion GPS to continue the investigation started by the Washington Free Beacon. Fusion GPS paid Steele about $168,000 for his work, according to a report by Reuters.

Assessment

Steele wasnt hired by any political organization, and Simpson testified that the source of funding for the investigation wasnt a part of his discussion with Steele. But it is true that at least some of the money that Fusion GPS got for its investigation came from the DNC, which would have been passed along to Steele. The implication from the claim in the memo is that Steele was a DNC patsy because he was being paid by them, but that implication is never proven.

Claim: Bias from FBI agent Peter Strzok shaped the warrant application against Page.

Background

FBI agent Pete Strzok got caught trading text messages critical of Donald Trump with fellow FBI official Lisa Page (who is not related to Carter Page). Strzok had been involved with the Russia investigation, but was removed by Special Counsel Robert Mueller before news of the texts became public.

The memo claims that the investigation into Trump was triggered by information from another Trump foreign policy aid, George Papadopoulos, and that since Strzok was involved in opening the case because of that information, the entire case is tainted.

Assessment

The investigation into Page was reportedly started because of comments Papadopoulos made in a London bar. Plus, evidence presented in the application for the Page warrant would have been otherwise validated by several layers of Justice Department officialsmeaning that Strzoks alleged bias would have had to have infected several other people.

Strzoks criticisms of Trump also do not prove that he would be incapable of running an investigation, and given the other information required to obtain a warrant, would not be the deciding factor in whether Page was surveilled.

In addition, the full body of text exchanges between Strzok and his lover Page reveal that most communications were just idle office chatter, the Wall Street Journal reported.

"Texts critical of Mr. Trump represent a fraction of the roughly 7,000 messages, which stretch across 384 pages and show no evidence of a conspiracy against Mr. Trump," the newspaper reported.

Other Claims

Many of the other claims made in the memo cant be verified because they specifically address what was in the Page surveillance warrant, which remains classified. Several other claims, such as that FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe told congressional investigators that the warrant would not have been approved without the Steele dossier, also cant be validated because they refer to closed interviews whose transcripts havent been made public.

Thats the basis of the Democrats primary complaint about the memo, that it relies on classified or otherwise non-public information, cherry-picking details that cant be verified.

The House Intelligence Committee approved the release of the Republican memo, but it blocked the release of the Democrats response, which was written by people with access to the underlying warrants and testimony and reportedly would debunk some of the claims in the Republican memo.

This article was first written by Newsweek

More from NewsweekA father in Texas has been charged by authorities for selling his missing teenage daughter for sex. The girl, kept hidden in a separate location, he was later resuced when she made an escape to a McDonalds restaurant and called the authorities.

The Dallas Morning News reported that 31-year-old Steve Marks was charged with purchasing or selling a child for sex, according to jail records. His wife, Lila Miller, has also reportedly been charged for her alleged involvement.

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According to documents relating to Marks arrest, he sold his daughter to a family in Elgin, Illinois, who planned to marry her to a 17-year-old male.

He sold her "so that the child would engage in sex acts and be involved in a common-law marriage to a male subject believed to be about three years older than the child," arrest warrants alleged.

02_02_Steve_Marks

Rockwall County Jail

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The family in Illinois did not pay the full price of $17,500 they had agreed to, and Marks allegedly made plans to sell the girl to another family, in Florida.

ABC affiliate WFAA8 reported that an investigation into the childs disappearance began when the Texas Department of Protective Services reported her missing at the end of September 2017.

By January, authorities learned that Marks, who has seven children aged one to 14, was attempting to sell his daughter to the family in Florida.

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When Marks was arrested, authorities questioned his own parents, Davy and Dorothy Marks, who both said they hadnt seen the child in four months. During their interviews, Marks mother allegedly phoned her grandson, Miller Marks, at his home, where the child was being held to warn him.

Story continues

As Miller Marks was leaving the home in Mesquit,e the child was able to escape and call 911 from a nearby McDonalds, Fox News reported.

Miller, Davy and Dorothy Marks have all been charged with interference with child custody. Steven Marsk is being held at Rockwall County Jail on a million-dollar bond.

This article was first written by Newsweek

More from NewsweekPresident Donald Trump on Friday declassified a Republican-authored memo that claims to show the Justice Department and FBI inappropriately conducted surveillance on a member of the Trump presidential campaign.

FBI Director Chris Wray isnt having any of it.

In a message to employees after the memos release, he portrayed it  and the medias reaction  as little more than cheap talk, irrelevant to the far more important work the bureau does on a daily basis.

The American people read the papers, and they hear lots of talk on cable TV and social media, he wrote. But they see and experience the actual work you do  keeping communities safe and our nation secure ... and that will always matter more.

Talk is cheap. The work you do is what will endure.

Wray added: Remember: keep calm and tackle hard.

Read Wrays full letter, below:

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On Wednesday, while Trump was weighing whether to declassify the memo, the FBI issued an unusual public statement highlighting the material omissions of fact that fundamentally impact the memos accuracy.

Wray and others privately counseled the White House that releasing the memo would present a national security risk.

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This article originally appeared on HuffPost.Calais (France) (AFP) - Four migrants were fighting for their lives on Friday after being shot during a giant brawl in Calais, in what the French government called an "intolerable" escalation of violence in a port that serves as a gateway to Britain.

Twenty-two people were hospitalised with injuries after three fights across the city on Thursday that drew in hundreds of the migrants camped out in the hope of stowing away on trucks bound for England, according to officials.

Four Eritreans between 16 and 20 years old were shot in the neck, chest, abdomen and spine at a food distribution point, and remained in critical condition Friday evening. A fifth who was also shot was not facing life-threatening injuries.

Police were searching for a 37-year-old Afghan, a suspected migrant smuggler, over the attack.

"It sounds like score-settling: the person or persons responsible for the gunfire arrived at the food distribution area near the hospital where the Eritrean community was gathered and immediately opened fire," an official at the prosecutor's office in the nearby town of Boulogne-sur-Mer said.

A number of other migrants sustained stab wounds in the other melees sparked by the incident.

There were no signs of tension at the site of the attack on Friday, but, according to an official source, raids by states services "intensified", with several buses taking mainly Afghan migrants to other centres in the region.

Interior Minister Gerard Collomb, who visited the scene, said the recurring brawls had become "intolerable for the people of Calais and the migrants" and told those with dreams of Britain to stay away.

His remarks came as the UN's migration agency reported at least 90 people were feared dead off the coast of Libya after their boat capsized.

- The Calais 'wall' -

The violence in Calais comes two weeks after President Emmanuel Macron visited the city with a message of zero tolerance on migrants setting up camps like the sprawling "Jungle" which was razed in 2016.

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He later met with Prime Minister Theresa May, who agreed to pay more to stop migrants reach England's shores.

Crucially, Macron did not seek to renegotiate a controversial 2003 deal effectively pushing Britain's borders back onto French soil.

Collomb blamed the tensions in Calais on smugglers who reportedly charge as much as 2,500 euros ($3,100) to sneak migrants onto trucks crossing the Channel by ferry or through the Eurotunnel.

"These networks must be broken up," he said Friday, announcing police reinforcements for the area.

The deaths happened when shots were fired on Thursday during a standoff between Eritreans and Afghans.

"There were migrants who had no money, the smugglers got angry and fired shots," an 18-year-old Afghan migrant, who gave his name as Daniel, told AFP while waiting in near-zero temperatures for tea and bread from a charity on Friday.

Shortly afterwards, over 100 Eritreans armed with iron rods and sticks attacked a group of around 20 Afghans at another food distribution point next to an industrial estate, prosecutors said.

Police intervened to protect the Afghans, the authorities said.

Two police officers were injured during the clashes.

Collomb appealed to migrants to stay away from Calais, saying the government would not allow them to settle there.

Calling Calais "a wall which the migrants are slamming into", he said: "The message I want to get across is that if you want to go to Britain, it's not here you should come."

- Grim conditions -

The notorious Calais 'Jungle', once home to about 10,000 people, was demolished in 2016, but hundreds more migrants have since descended on the city.

Mainly young African and Afghan men, they live in camps in the woods, emerging at night to try to waylay passing trucks.

The police systematically tear down their encampments and use tear gas and batons to prevent them holding up truckers.

The grim conditions, made worse by a particularly wet winter, have led to tensions between groups of migrants from different regions that sometimes spills over into violence.

In July, 16 people were injured in a brawl, one seriously.

Francois Guennoc, spokesman for the migrant support charity L'Auberge des Migrants, called the situation a "disaster".

"There are a lot of tensions related to it being winter... and a lot of police pressure against attempts to set up camps. Then there are the smugglers, who try to ply their trade and block people who do not pay," he told AFP.By Alex Dobuzinskis (Reuters) - A Florida nurse has offered some frank advice for people whose lax hygiene is contributing to a deadly flu outbreak, including "wash your stinking hands!" In the six-minute video entitled "After Work Thoughts", which has been watched more than 6 million times since it was posted on Facebook last weekend, Katherine Lockler unloaded her frustrations after long shifts in the emergency room. "There is a cesspool of funky flu at the ER right now," said Lockler, wearing hospital scrubs and speaking to the camera from the driver's seat of her car. "Wash your stinking hands so you don't get all your babies sick!" Hospitalizations for flu have reached their highest level in the United States for nearly a decade, U.S. health officials said on Friday. The illness is widespread in 48 states and has killed more than 50 children. In the video, Lockler gives a strained smile as she offers ideas for avoiding spreading flu, and shows how to sneeze safely by placing one's face against a sleeve at a bent elbow. The so-called "Dracula Sneeze", resembling the way the fictional vampire covers his face with a cloak, is recommended by doctors to prevent the spread of airborne illnesses. Some online viewers were unimpressed by her blunt approach. "Sounds like she is in the wrong field," wrote one Facebook user, Teresa Welsh, accusing Lockler of "talking down" to her intended audience. But others praised her advice, including Facebook user Marty Saupe, who wrote: "Told as only a nurse who's worked the front lines can!" The Pensacola News Journal reported that Lockler lives in the Florida panhandle town of Milton. Lockler did not return calls seeking an interview. (Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis in Los Angeles; Editing by Daniel Wallis)Citing Sean Hannitys ardent defense of President Donald Trump, Geraldo Rivera on Thursday bragged that if the Fox News host were around during Richard Nixons time, the embattled former president wouldnt have resigned.

Nixon never would have been forced to resign if you existed in your current state back in 1972, 73, 74, Rivera said during Hannitys radio program when the two were discussing Special Counsel Robert Muellers probe into whether the Trump campaign colluded with the Russian government during the 2016 presidential campaign. Rivera later called the probe a toothless tiger.

I know, its too bad for  Its too bad for Nixon, because nobody like you existed then, Rivera added. I say that because I believe that our prime responsibility now is to unshackle the 45th president of the United States.

Listen to the full clip below, via Media Matters.

Hannity has long railed against the Russia investigation, echoing Trump by calling it a witch hunt. He has also devoted large amounts of airtime to promoting theories that undermine the FBI and the Justice Department, including the notion that text messages between two romantically involved FBI employees prove theres a deep state attempt to undermine Trump.

You cant make this up in a spy novel, Hannity said last month, calling the investigation one giant incestuous circle of corruption.

Hannity has also jumped on the bandwagon of Republicans urging Congress to release a secret memo written by House Intelligence Committee chairman Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.). The document, which the FBI and Democrats have condemned as inaccurate and reckless, reportedly accuses the DOJ and the FBI of abusing spying law while investigating the Trump campaign. Hannity on Thursday denied reports that he had personally advised Trump about the memo, though.

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This article originally appeared on HuffPost.BERLIN (Reuters) - North Korea has been using its embassy in Berlin to procure parts for its missile program, the head of Germany's BfV domestic intelligence agency told a German broadcaster. No one at the North Korean embassy in Berlin was immediately available to comment on the allegation. In a program to be aired on NDR television on Monday, BfV head Hans-Georg Maassen said: "We determined that procurement activities have been carried out from there that are, in our view, done with a view to the missile program and sometimes also for the nuclear program." He said it was often so-called dual use goods, which can be used for both civil and military purposes. Comments released by NDR ahead of the broadcast showed Maassen said German authorities prevented such activities when they found them but he added: "We can't guarantee that we can detect and prevent this in all cases." He said it was necessary to presume that parts for North Korea's launch program "were acquired via other markets or underground buyers had acquired them in Germany". North Korea has defied years of multilateral and bilateral sanctions with a weapons program aimed at developing nuclear-tipped missiles capable of hitting the United States. (Reporting by Michelle Martin; Editing by Stephen Powell)A girl aged six made history on Thursday after she became the first person in Texas to legally receive cannabis for medical purposes, more than two years after state lawmakers legalized the use of medical marijuana in specific circumstances under the Texas Compassionate Use Act.

The young girl, whose identity has not been revealed, was given the medical marijuana by a nurse in order to treat her epilepsy. According to the Texas Tribune, the girl was given a cannabis oil with low levels of the main mind-altering ingredient known as THC and high levels of a non-euphoric component called cannabidiol (CBD).

The medical marijuana was provided by Knox Medical, a company that began dispensing medicinal cannabis in December 2016. For Texans suffering from intractable epilepsy, the wait for medical cannabis is finally over, Jose Hidalgo, the founder and CEO of Knox Medical (also known as Cansortium Holdings), told the Tribune. This is a historic day for Texas.

Three dispensaries in total have been licensed to sell the specific non-psychoactive medical marijuana under the 2015 Texas Compassionate Use Act, Statesman reports. Medical marijuana is now permitted in 29 states, including New Mexico, and recreational marijuana is legal in an additional eight.Tokyo (AFP) - The US Marines have sacked the commander of its Japan-based Osprey squadron "due to loss of trust," US officials said Friday, following a series of accidents involving the hybrid aircraft in recent months.

Bryan Swenson was relieved of his duties last week "due to loss of trust and confidence in his ability to lead his command," III Marine Expeditionary Force told AFP in a statement.

Christopher Denver, executive officer for the Okinawa-based tilt rotor squadron, has been assigned as interim commanding officer, the statement said, without further details.

The sacking comes six months after US Marines were forced to mount a major search and rescue mission when an MV-22 Osprey crashed off the east coast of Australia.

Twenty-three of the crew of 26 were rescued but the search for the remaining three was eventually called off.

And in December, five crew members aboard a US Marine MV-22 Osprey were injured after what the Pentagon described as a "mishap" resulting in the plane landing in shallow water off Okinawa in southern Japan.

The MV-22 -- a hybrid helicopter-turboprop with a checkered safety record -- has two engines positioned on fixed wingtips that allow it to land and take off vertically. It can travel much faster than a helicopter.

However, residents in Okinawa -- which hosts the bulk of some 47,000 American troops in Japan under a decades-long security alliance -- have protested against the deployment of Ospreys in the country following the accidents.State of the Union speeches are notorious for being forgotten within a week. But I hope we never forget the faces of the six grieving parents who sat in the balcony as the President said the names of their slain children. Ive seen that look before: a veil of composure shattered instantly at the sound of a beloveds name. It is a kind of agony that is as visible as a gut punch.

Its almost unbearable to think about what it must be like to wake up every day after your teenage daughter is horrifically murdered by a gang like MS-13. Elizabeth Alvarado, Robert Mickens, Evelyn Rodriguez and Freddy Cuevas of Long Island, New York have been living that nightmare since 2016. Fred and Cindy Warmbier were also there as a testament to loss. Their son Otto was returned to them last year with devastating injuries and near death after being being imprisoned and tortured in North Korea.

And then there were the parents who werent there but whose pain was on display nonetheless. Crystal Champ is the mother of Hope Holets, who was adopted at birth by Ryan and Rebecca Holets, a generous couple who stood before the country holding the baby girl. The Holetses offered to adopt the girl after Ryan, an Albuquerque police officer, found Crystal homeless, addicted to opioids and eight months pregnant. Champ is now in rehab and calls the couple her guardian angels. And certainly they are. But their kindness doesnt erase the essential tragedy of a mother separated from her child by an addiction that has ravaged tens of thousands of other families across the country.

The unvarnished sadness of these families was an achingly real moment in the surreal presidency of Donald Trump. As the Long Island families wept and tried to hold themselves together, the President turned to them and said: 320 million hearts are right now breaking for you. Yes, our hearts were broken, stricken by the rawness of their grief. But then Trump seized that delicate moment to insert ugly divisive rhetoric into his address. He managed to entwine the feeling of fury and sadness that the girls deaths provoked with immigration policies that would affect all immigrants.

Story continues

It was a political master stroke. But it doesnt erase the thousands of other children whose lives have been blighted or lost to homegrown violence across the country. The grief of their parents is no less worthy of a response. Evelyn Rodriguez knows that. She has spent the time since her daughter Kaylas murder fighting against cuts in funding for after-school programs and services to keep kids off the streets and out of the kind of gang that killed her child.

On the eve of Rodriguezs trip to Washington for the Presidents address, she told the New York Times that she didnt come for anyones political gainshe came because she wanted Donald Trump to ensure that were going to get the proper funding for the resources for our kids. No word yet if the President is taking action on her plea (which shes also shared with Attorney General Jeff Sessions), or whether hes still intent on slashing education funding. His 2017 budget proposed more than $9 billion in cuts to the education budget, including a $1.1 billion reduction in after-school and summer learning programs. Congress voted to keep the afterschool funding, but its not clear whether it will survive the next budget in the wake of the massive tax cuts enacted in December.

And what of the other baby Hopes out there? There arent enough couples like the Holetses to adopt or foster the flood of children whose parents have been incapacitated by the opioid crisis. Many foster programs were already struggling; now ravaged states like Ohio are seeing as much as a 10 percent increase in kids needing care. Yet while the President declared the opioid crisis a public health emergency last year, he stopped short of designating it as a national emergency which would unlock rapid funding for strapped medical services across the country and slow an epidemic that caused more than 59,000 deaths in 2016.

The Warmbiers suffering at the hands of North Korea is uniquely cruel. Trump said the couple has born witness to the menace of that regime. That is true. But the administrations talk of a bloody nose strike against North Korea is terrifying no matter how great the urge to punish that regime. Trumps candidate for ambassador to South Korea, Victor Cha, said his name was withdrawn after he opposed the idea of conducting a preventative strike. In an oped for the Washington Post, Cha writes that a such a move could escalate the conflict rather than deter an attack on South Korea, where more than 230,000 Americans, not to mention 51 million South Koreans, live: To be clear: The President would be putting at risk an American population the size of a medium-sized U.S. city.

If an escalation like that were to happen, the Warmbiers tragedy would be multiplied by an unfathomable factor. We dont, however, have to imagine what the aching, unending grief of a parent looks like, thanks to the courage of the families on that congressional balcony. We should remember their faces as we decide how to spend our time, money and military force this year.(JAKARTA, Indonesia)  Riding a tsunami of moral conservatism and anti-gay prejudice, Indonesias Islamic political parties appear on the cusp of a major victory: outlawing all sex outside marriage.

Revisions to Indonesias criminal code being considered by Parliament would allow prison sentences of up to five years for sex between unmarried people. Those changes would also criminalize gay sex, the bugbear of Indonesias Islamic and secular political parties.

Rights groups and legal experts fear a profound setback to human rights and privacy in Indonesia, one of the worlds largest democracies, and the spread of vigilantism, already common in parts of the sprawling Muslim-majority nation of more than 250 million people. They are racing to organize opposition. An online petition launched this week has gathered more than 20,000 signatures.

Indonesia, whose constitution guarantees human rights and has ratified many human rights covenants, will be ridiculed by the world for creating a law that is potentially violating many of those rights, said Said Muhammad Isnur, head of advocacy at the Indonesian Legal Aid Institute Foundation.

While the possible criminalization of sex between unmarried consenting adults has grabbed attention, the revised criminal code, which has nearly 800 articles, also contains changes that could weaken checks and balances in Indonesias young democracy. One article potentially makes criticism of the president defamation and other articles could be used to weaken the Corruption Eradication Commission, one of Indonesias most effective public institutions.

Asrul Sani, a lawmaker from the Islamic-based United Development Party, has told reporters that a 25-member parliamentary working committee agreed on nearly all the articles in the revised code. It and another Islamic party are seeking longer prison sentences for gay sex in circumstances that involve force, public acts or pornography and that is still being argued, he said.

Story continues

Statements from different committee members indicate there isnt total agreement but a majority of parties appear to support criminalizing gay sex. Bambang Soesatyo, the speaker of Parliament and a lawmaker from the major secular party Golkar, said same-sex relationships should be criminalized because they could corrupt the morality of the nation. A few politicians outside the committee have raised concerns about the fundamental threat to privacy.

One of the obstacles in the way of the Islamic parties is President Joko Jokowi Widodos power of veto. But with provincial elections due this year and a presidential race in 2019, its unclear whether Jokowi would risk political capital on protecting a hated and misunderstood minority or being seen as soft on morality issues.

The Islamic parties are really using this issue as their marketing going into the political years, this year and next year, said Bivitri Susanti, a constitutional law expert who helped establish the Indonesian Center of Law and Policy Studies.

The only thing we can do is to push the government, the president, to stop this, she said. Because if we see how the political parties, both the secular ones and the Islamic ones discuss this, I think this draft law will be passed as it is now.

Islamic parties make up four of the 10 factions in Indonesias Parliament and due to the popular vote threshold being raised to 4 percent, are at risk of losing their seats in Parliament next year if they cant rouse their bases.

They have typically commanded far less votes than secular parties, but their concerns resonate with a broad cross-section of Indonesians. Hard-line Muslim groups considered fringe a decade ago, such as the Islamic Defenders Front, have moved into the mainstream and shook Jokowis government last year with a mass movement against the minority Christian governor of Jakarta, who was subsequently imprisoned for two years for blasphemy.

Conservative groups such as the Family Love Alliance believe Indonesia is being overwhelmed by immoral behavior such as sex between unmarried young couples, and in December nearly succeeding in convincing Indonesias Constitutional Court to outlaw gay sex and sex outside marriage.

Moderate groups, meanwhile, have struggled to muster their forces. While many speak out online, that has little impact compared with the ability of Islamic groups to summon tens of thousands for mass protests.

The Islamic parties message is perhaps at its most politically potent when aimed at Indonesias besieged LGBT minority, which for the past two years has been the target of an escalating campaign of raids, arrests, hateful rhetoric from government officials and vigilante attacks.

Police in the conservative province of Aceh, which practices Shariah law, over the weekend rounded up 12 transgender people who worked in hair salons and publicly humiliated them by forcing them into mens clothing and cutting their hair.

Susanti and other legal experts said enforcement would be a huge and impossible burden on police and encourage vigilante acts from self-appointed guardians of morality, undermining an already fragile rule of law in Indonesia.

She said people who practice religions not recognized by the state could also be criminalized because their marriages arent recognized.

The president should say no to this law, Susanti said. But looking at how Jokowi is handling issues related to Islam I think he wouldnt do that.Jerusalem (AFP) - The Israeli government is due on Sunday to discuss giving retroactive approval to a wildcat settlement in the occupied West Bank, where an Israeli rabbi was shot dead last month.

The official agenda for Sunday's weekly cabinet meeting says ministers will hear a motion to designate the 15-year-old Havat Gilad outpost as a "new community" which will have the necessary building permits and a state budget.

Rabbi Raziel Shevah was shot dead near Havat Gilad, where he lived, on January 9.

The following week, Israeli troops searching for his attackers shot dead a Palestinian suspect in the city of Jenin in the northern West Bank, about 35 kilometres (22 miles) north of Havat Gilad.

At Shevah's funeral there were calls for "revenge" during a speech by Education Minister Naftali Bennett of the far-right Jewish Home party.

Bennett responded by saying that the only revenge should be in building more settlements.

Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman, sponsor of the forthcoming cabinet motion, spoke on Wednesday of getting official recognition for Havat Gilad.

"We promised and the proposal to normalise Havat Gilad outpost as a regular community will be brought to the cabinet for approval this coming Sunday," Lieberman wrote on Twitter.

According to his cabinet motion the outpost was founded in 2002 and currently houses about 40 families.

Israeli settlements are seen as illegal under international law and major obstacles to peace as they are built on land the Palestinians see as part of their future state.

Israel however differentiates between settlements it has approved and those it has not.

Those without approval are referred to as outposts and are typically populated by hardline religious nationalists who see the entire West Bank as part of Israel.

Past attempts by Israeli authorities to dismantle Havat Gilad have led to clashes with settlers there.

Israel has several times given retroactive approval to outposts and last year work began on the first government-sanctioned settlement built in the Palestinian territories in some 25 years.

Israel faced sharp criticism from the administration of former US president Barack Obama over settlement construction, but that has not been the case with Donald Trump's White House and Israeli officials have sought to take advantage.

European nations and the UN maintain their strong opposition to settlement building.Beijing hit back at the U.S. for interfering with Chinas affairs on Friday, after a dozen American congress members nominated Hong Kongs pro-democracy movement and its most prominent student leader for this years Nobel Peace Prize.

In nominating Joshua Wong, 21, and his colleagues Nathan Law, 24, and Alex Chow, 27, who led tens of thousands in the former British colonys largest pro-democracy protest in 2014, the lawmakers wanted to recognize their peaceful efforts to bring political reform and self-determination to Hong Kong.

The protests, which the Chinese and Hong Kong governments deemed illegal, were part of a populist uprising that posed one of the greatest challenges for Communist Party rulers in Beijing in decades.

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Joshua_Wong_Nobel_Peace_Prize

Reuters

On Friday, Global Times, Chinas ruling Communist Party official newspaper, responded with an op-ed that severely condemned the ludicrous nomination.

The political agenda behind the US congressmen's nomination is too obvious and it would be a shame if the Norwegian Nobel Committee blindly followed their directive, it said. Even by Western standards, Wong and the others are too young. By nominating them for the Nobel Peace Prize, the West is adopting petsand it looks ludicrous.

In addition, Chinas Foreign Ministry sent a letter to Reuters that stated that Wong and the others involved in the protests had been punished in accordance with the law, labeling the protests they led as illegal from head to toe.

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We urge the relevant U.S. Congressmen to stop interfering in Hong Kong and Chinas internal affairs, and do more to benefit the development of Sino-U.S. ties rather than the opposite, it added.

Story continues

Wong, who faces two appeals over separate jail sentences, said he hoped the nomination would give more bargaining power to the citys democratic movement.

I believe the nomination would show the international community and [Chinese President] Xi Jinping how the young generation will persist in fighting for democracy, even if we have to face imprisonment or a permanent ban from public office, Wong said.

If Wong wins, he would be the second youngest person to receive a Nobel Prize after Pakistans Malala Yousafzai, who was 17 when she became a laureate in 2014.

Most popular: Real Estate Moguls Who Bankrolled Trump Victory Are Donating Big for His Reelection

Tens of thousands of protesters, some wielding umbrellas to shield themselves from tear gas and pepper spray, set up camp on major highways for 79 days in late 2014. But the mostly peaceful protests failed to pressure Hong Kong and Beijing authorities to grant the city full democracy.

Critics decry a series of subsequent payback incidents, including months-long jail terms for the trio and, most recently, a ban on Wongs ally, Agnes Chow, running in a legislature by-election.

Hong Kong authorities have denied political interference, saying everything was done in accordance with the law.

Chinas only Nobel Peace Prize winner, dissident intellectual Liu Xiaobo, died last July, becoming the first Nobel Laureate to die in custody since Carl von Ossietzky died under Nazi Germanys watch in 1938.

This winner of this years Nobel Peace Prize will be announced in October.

This article was first written by Newsweek

More from NewsweekOn Jan. 30, the Alabama state House of Representatives passed a bill to ban smoking in vehicles with any riders under the age of 19. If it becomes law, Alabama would be the ninth state to do so. This comes as the federal agency Housing and Urban Development is rolling out its nationwide ban on smoking in public housing, and just a few years after many states have outlawed smoking in beaches and public parks. This trend raises the question: Are we getting closer to prohibiting tobacco smoking altogether? And would that be such a bad thing?Photo credit: Chris Jackson / Getty

From Prima

It feels like a lifetime ago since Prince William and Kate Middleton met and fell in love while studying at St Andrews University. But, the Duchess of Cambridge has just reminded us of their early romance and her days studying art history.

The 36 year-old royal  currently on the last day of her official royal tour in Sweden and Norway with Prince William  was greeted by well-wishers as they arrived at Hartvig Nissen School, which features in acclaimed Norwegian TV drama Skam, in the capital city of Oslo.

Speaking with fans outside, Kate compared the freezing cold weather to her days as a student at St Andrews. But she did concede that Norway was slightly colder...

Photo credit: Samir Hussein/WireImage / Getty

She told one student (via Mirror): 'I did physics and chemistry for A level, no not physics, biology.'

When another student asked her about her school and the university she studied at, Kate replied: 'I went to a school called Marlborough College and then onto university which is where I met William, to St Andrews university in Scotland.

'Miles away, freezing cold. But I can't complain about that being here. It's much colder here.'

The Duchess  who is expecting her third child with Prince William  was keeping warm wrapped up in a burgundy Dolce & Gabbana coat.

Photo credit: Getty

The royal couple then headed off to the slopes for an event organised by Norwegian Ski Federation in Tryvann.

And the pair looked adorable in his and her bobble hats.

Last night, Kate dazzled in a blush pink Alexander McQueen gown with an empire waist that grazed the top of her growing baby bump.

Photo credit: Getty

We look forward to having the royal couple back home soon...Tens of thousands of dollars have been raised in the name of a distraught father who tried to attack paedophile former USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar, after he was jailed for sexually assaulted the man's three daughters.

Randall Margraves tried to grab Nassar while one of his daughters, Madison Margraves, was addressing the court during the latest hearing in Michigan.

Moments earlier, Mr Margraves had asked the judge to give him "five minutes in a locked room" with the ex-doctor, who he described as a "demon".

When the judge told him that was not possible, he ran at Nassar before being restrained by security staff.

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More than 700 donors had pledged around $25,000 (17,700) to Mr Margraves after a GoFundMe page was created by his co-worker, Aaron Pangborn.

The page was originally launched to cover any legal faces potentially incurred by Mr Margraves for his attempted attack on Nassar, but since he has not been charged the money is instead intended to go to help victims of sexual assault.

"I will work with [Mr Margraves] and his family to ensure the funds collected will go to a good cause to help victims of sexual abuse," Mr Pangborn wrote.

Mr Margraves' attempted attack came after dozens of young women, including his daughters, delivered impact statements to the latest of several courts to punish the former celebrated doctor, who abused young women and girls over a 20-year period.

Last month, Nassar was sentenced to 175 years in prison when he appeared before Ingham County Circuit Court Judge Rosemarie Aquilina.

The judge told Nassar he would never leave jail, adding she had effectively signed his death warrant.

Mr Margraves was detained for a possible contempt of court proceeding following the attempted attack, but later apologised to the court, saying he launched the attack because he did not know beforehand what his daughters were going to say.

Story continues

"I lost control. I apologise a hundred times," he told the court. "I'm definitely calmed down. I'm embarrassed. I'm not here to upstage my daughters. I'm here to help them heal."

The judge agreed to release him without any further punishment due to the "circumstances of [the] case".

After being praised for his actions on social media, Mr Margraves told reporters he wanted to make it clear that he was not a hero.

"My daughters are the heroes, and [so are] the victims and the survivors of this terrible atrocity," he said.

Hollywood actor Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson was one of many who commented on Mr Margraves' incident, writing on Twitter: "We all understand this father's action.

"Nassar's punishment will go far beyond sentencing.

"Behind bars, he'll soon know what hell means. He'll be well taken care of."

Nassar was accused of molesting more than 250 underage girls dating back as far as 1992, and has admitted to at least 10 of the accusations.

In July 2017 he was sentenced to 60 years after pleading guilty to child pornography charges, and on 24 January he was sentenced to 40 to 175 years for his sexual assault of minors.Saint-Louis (Senegal) (AFP) - French President Emmanuel Macron got a rousing welcome Saturday from tens of thousands as he visited the historic city of Saint-Louis, Senegal's former capital, and announced an aid package of 40 million euros for the UNESCO World Heritage site which is threatened by coastal erosion from the Atlantic Ocean.

Senegal's second city was founded in 1659 and was the capital of the west African nation until 1957. It also served as the capital of French West Africa, as it was then known, between 1895 and 1902.

Macron pledged 15 million euros ($18.6 million) to fight coastal erosion in the sleepy city, known for its beautifully coloured buildings and colonial facades.

This will top up a 24-million-euro ($29.9-million) package from the World Bank to stem the ocean's advance.

The French leader also separately pledged 25 million euros ($31 million) to preserve and renovate local landmarks, including the cathedral and colonial-era mansions.

"We have seen the coastal erosion, the fears, the walls that have fallen, the economic activities destroyed and the town slowly receding in the face of what some deny -- the effects of climate change," Macron said.

Crowds thronged the city centre to cheer Macron and his wife, who flew into the city from the capital Dakar with their host, President Macky Sall and his spouse.

- 'Africa's Venice' fading -

They sang songs of welcome and held up portraits of the two leaders and the first ladies. Some held the French tricolour and the Senegalese flag.

Macron and Sall waved to the crowd as they slowly drove into the city centre in an open-top limousine. Macron then walked around the Place Faidherbe, named after one of the most famous French colonial governors from the end of the 19th century.

"I am very touched by this warm welcome," Macron said.

Once known as "Africa's Venice", some of the finest examples of Saint-Louis' architecture are crumbling.

Story continues

About 200 families have already lost their homes, several during the height of the storms of Senegal's rainy season in September.

The neighbourhoods worst-hit are mostly inhabited by fishermen living on the "Langue de Barbarie", a thin sandbank that protrudes to the surface between the ocean and the river.

Flood defence mechanisms have worsened the problem in the area, as well as making the river water salty, and debate is open over the potentially enormous costs of re-engineering the defences.

- 'We cannot stop the sea -

Macron said the French development agency AFD would unblock 15 million euros so that a dyke could be built within a year to protect the inhabitants of the Langue de Barbarie.

World Bank president Jim Yong Kim meanwhile unveiled a $30 million (24 million euros) programme to relocate 900 families, or about 10,000 people living in the most vulnerable areas, he said, covering "people who would lose their homes in the near future."

He said although Africans had contributed little to carbon dioxide emissions, they were bearing the most devastating impact of climate change.

"They have to leave, we cannot stop the sea," Laurence Hart, the head of AFD in Senegal, told AFP.

Saint-Louis' fortunes began to decline as access to its port became difficult in the age of the steamship and the completion of the Dakar-Saint-Louis railroad in 1885 meant that up-country trade effectively circumvented its port.

After Senegal gained independence in 1960, Dakar became the capital and Saint-Louis slipped into a state of lethargy.

As its French population and military departed, many shops, offices and businesses closed. But it still draws hordes of tourists and is known for its international jazz festival which takes place in May.By Mohamed Junayd MALE (Reuters) - The Supreme Court of the Maldives on Thursday ordered the immediate release of former president Mohamed Nasheed and eight other opposition leaders, saying their trials had violated the constitution and international law - but it also ordered new trials. The country has been mired in political unrest since Nasheed, its first democratically elected leader, was ousted in 2012. He was later sentenced to 13 years in jail on terrorism charges after a trial denounced as hasty and unfair by the United Nations human rights chief. In its ruling on Thursday, the Supreme Court said it found that prosecutors and judges had been unduly influenced "to conduct politically motivated investigations" into the allegations leveled at Nasheed, former vice president Ahmed Adeeb and the other opposition leaders who had challenged President Abdulla Yameen. It ordered fresh investigations and trials to be held. It also nullified a ruling in which 12 legislators lost their parliamentary seats for defecting last July from Yameen's ruling party. Yameen lost his majority in the 85-member legislature after the defections. Ibrahim Hussain Shihab, a spokesman for the President's Office, said in a statement that the government had questions about the ruling but would comply with it. "The Administration will work to engage, and consult with, the Supreme Court in order to comply with the ruling in line with proper procedure and the rule of law." Attorney General Mohamed Anil said however that Yameen had dismissed the chief of police following the ruling after he had been unable to reach him to ensure law and order. After the ruling, hundreds of opposition supporters cheered and waved national flags outside the main opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) campaign center. Islamic prayers were also recited at the opposition rally, and people chanted: "The government is over." Maldives police said their commissioner - prior to his sacking by Yameen - and deputy commissioner had decided to enforce the ruling after seeking legal advice. "Police have started work to enforce the ruling," they said on Twitter. President Yameen's official website said the defense minister had called on the Maldivian people to put on a united front and work together to maintain peace and stability. U.S. Ambassador for Maldives Atul Keshap welcomed the Supreme Court decision. "I urge the government and security services to respect this ruling, which bolsters democracy and rule of law all Maldivians," Keshap tweeted. Nasheed, who has been in exile in the United Kingdom but wants to contest a presidential poll this year, had sought U.N. help to restore his political rights. The joint opposition in a statement welcomed the rulings and called for the immediate resignation of President Yameen. "The Supreme Court's verdict effectively ends President Yameen's authoritarian rule," it said in a statement. (Additional dreporting and writing by Shihar Aneez; Editing by Hugh Lawson and Michael Perry)By Idrees Ali WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States is concerned about the potential use of sarin gas in Syria, U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said on Friday, a day after Washington warned it was prepared to consider military action if necessary to deter chemical weapons attacks by the Syrian government. Mattis, speaking with reporters, said the Syrian government had repeatedly used chlorine as a weapon. He stressed that the United States did not have evidence of sarin gas use. "We are even more concerned about the possibility of sarin use, (but) I don't have the evidence," Mattis said. "What I am saying is that other groups on the ground - NGOs, fighters on the ground - have said that sarin has been used, so we are looking for evidence." Mattis did not provide further details on which reports on the use of sarin he was referring to. However, the Syrian Negotiations Commission (SNC), an opposition group, said chemical weapons had been used by the government of Bashar al-Assad in Ghouta. Rescue workers and medical groups working in the rebel-held enclave of Eastern Ghouta, near Damascus, have accused government forces of using chlorine gas three times over the last month, including early on Thursday. "Chemical weapons are being used in Ghouta and we have proof," SNC spokesman Yahya al-Aridi told Reuters. A deadly sarin attack on another rebel-held area in April 2017 prompted President Donald Trump to order a U.S. missile strike on the Shayrat airbase, from which the Syrian operation is said to have been launched. "We are on the record and you all have seen how we reacted to that, so they would be ill-advised to go back to violating the chemical (weapons) convention," Mattis said. France said on Friday it was "deeply concerned" that Syria's government was flouting its pledges to stop using chemical weapons and Paris was working with its partners to shed light on recent suspected toxic gas attacks. In 2013, Syria said it would give up all of its chemical weapons. In the past two years, a joint United Nations and Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) inquiry found the Syrian government used the nerve agent sarin and several times used chlorine as a weapon. U.S. officials have said the Syrian government may be also developing new types of chemical weapons. The Syrian army and government have consistently denied using chlorine or other chemical weapons during the war and has said it cooperates with international investigations. (Reporting by Idrees Ali; Additional reporting by Tom Miles in Geneva, Lisa Barrington in Beirut; editing by Yara Bayoumy and G Crosse)Mexico City (AFP) - US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson warned Mexico on Friday to be wary that Russia does not interfere when it elects its next president in July.

Russian agents have been accused of using online propaganda and computer hacking to undermine democratic processes in the United States and several European countries.

The Kremlin dismisses such allegations, but a probe into whether US President Donald Trump's 2016 campaign colluded with Russia has triggered a bitter political crisis in the US.

Reports this week suggested Washington fears that Mexico will also see such interference in July, when voters will choose a successor to President Enrique Pena Nieto.

Asked about this at a news conference with Mexico's Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray, Tillerson said: "All I can say to you is that we know that Russia has fingerprints in a number of countries around the world.

"We hear this from our European counterparts as well. My advice, to Mexico, would be pay attention. Pay attention to what's happening," he said.

At a speech Wednesday to mark the start of a five-nation tour, Tillerson warned that Russia and China are seeking to expand their influence in Latin America and urged the region to stand by the values of the "democratic hemisphere."P-23 is gone. (Photo: Courtesy National Park Service)

A mother cougar has been found dead near Malibu Canyon Road after apparently being struck by a vehicle, officials have revealed.

Unfortunately, her life came to an end prematurely due to the challenge of navigating the complex road network in this area, Jeff Sikich, biologist for the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, said in a statement.

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The nearly 6-year-old California mountain lion, dubbed P-23 by scientists tracking her, was the mother of two kittens (including P-54) born about a year ago, her third litter. Their fate is unknown, but theyre close to the age when kittens typically leave their mother to strike out on their own, said a statement by the National Park Service.

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The death this week is the latest sign of the difficult battle for survival the big cats face in the Santa Monica and Santa Ana mountains of the Los Angeles area as housing and highways increasingly encroach on their habitat and inhibit their searches for prey and mates. Los Angeles is one of only two major cities in the world, along with Mumbai, that have big cats living within the city limits.

Mountain lions are incredible animals that have adapted to live in Californias mountains, canyons and deserts. But these big cats are no match for the network of roads, highways, and sprawl that weve built with little regard for their impacts on lions or wildlife connectivity, J.P. Rose, lawyer for the Center for Biological Diversity, told Huffpost.

The National Park Service has studied about 60 mountain lions in and around the Santa Monica Mountains. About 20 adult cougars are believed to live in the Santa Ana Mountains.

P-23 is the 18th mountain lion to be killed in a road collision in the region since 2002. Wildlife and environmental activists have been advocating for the construction of a wildlife crossing over U.S. 101, which would allow for safe, freer access throughout the area by the big cats. The Liberty Canyon Wildlife Crossing would create a 200-foot-long, 165-foot-wide overpass bridging U.S. 101 west of Liberty Canyon Road in the city of Agoura Hills, but the mission has lagged due to a lack of funds. The California Department of Transportation, known as Caltrans, released an environmental assessment in September and is reviewing public comments on the project.

Story continues

The Center for Biological Diversity and other groups support use of state funds for the project. The crossing is necessary to preserve wildlife connectivity in Southern California that has been disrupted by poor land use and transportation planning, said Rose.

The center last month joined with the Sierra Club and the Mountain Lion Foundation in a lawsuit against the Altair housing development approved by the city of Temecula in the Santa Ana Mountains in Southern California. The suit argues that the 200-acre development and a multi-lane highway would impede the only passage left in the area for wildlife to move between coastal and inland mountains.

P-23 had been a favorite of mountain lion watchers ever since she was spotted by a cyclist in 2013 astride a dead deer on Mulholland Highway in Los Angeles.

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P-23s first two litters were preyed upon by mountain lions or other wildlife. Two kittens from her first litter, P-36 and P-37, were photographed in 2015 being attacked and eaten by P-27, a dominant male in the Santa Monica Mountains. The other dominant male at the time was the kittens father, P-12.

Two kittens from P-23s second litter were also killed by a mountain lion or other wildlife. But a third, surprise, survivor (P-53) was later discovered by researchers.

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P-23's kittens from her first litter, P-36 and P-37, were later attacked and eaten by an adult male mountain lion in 2015. (Photo: National Park Service)

Adult male P-27 is photographed about to attack one of P-23's kittens in 2015. (Photo: Courtesy National Park Service)

Heres a 2015 video of P-53, making the characteristic chirping sounds of a mountain lion kitten.

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P-23 was a prime example of whats known as first-order inbreeding among the cougars of the area, another problem caused by territory constraints from housing developments and highways. Such inbreeding threatens the survival of the species. P-23 was the result of a mating of P-12 and his daughter. P-23 later also mated with P-12, who was both her father and grandfather, to produce P-36 and P-37. P-23s half sibling is suspected of being the father of her latest litter.

The California Department of Fish and Wildlife will conduct a necropsy of P-23.

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Related Coverage

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Mountain Lion Captured In San Francisco Freed In California Wilds

This article originally appeared on HuffPost.United Nations (United States) (AFP) - North Korea is flouting UN sanctions by exporting coal, iron, steel and other commodities banned under UN sanctions, earning nearly $200 million in revenue last year, a UN report said Friday.

A UN panel of experts also found evidence of North Korea's ongoing military cooperation with Syria to develop its ballistic missile and chemical weapons programs, and with Myanmar.

North Korea "continued to export almost all the commodities prohibited in the resolutions, generating nearly $200 million in revenue between January and September 2017," said the report by the experts seen by AFP.

Coal shipments were delivered to China, Malaysia, South Korea, Russia and Vietnam by ship using "a combination of multiple evasion techniques, routes and deceptive tactics," said the report.

The Security Council last year adopted a series of resolutions to tighten and expand exports bans aimed at cutting off revenue to North Korea's military programs.

The United States led the push for tough economic sanctions against North Korea after its sixth nuclear test and a series of ballistic missile launches that indicated the US mainland could soon be within reach of a nuclear strike by Pyongyang.

The panel found that North Korea "is already flouting the most recent resolutions by exploiting global oil supply chains, complicit foreign nationals, offshore company registries, and the international banking system."

Seven ships have been barred from ports worldwide for violating UN sanctions with coal and petroleum transfers, but the experts said much more must be done to confront "these rampant illicit activities."

While sanctions have been significantly broadened, this "expansion of the regime is yet to be matched by the requisite political will" to implement the measures, the experts said.

North Korean diplomats, in particular trade representatives, continue to provide logistical support for arms sales and help organize exchanges for military technicians, it said.A controversial memo alleging wrongdoing by the FBI in its Russia investigation has been declassified and released to the public  intensifying a battle that has pitched the White House against both the agency and the Justice Department.

The memo, written by Republican House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, raises concerns about the FBIs securing a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrant as part of the investigation into possible ties between Donald Trumps presidential campaign and Russia. The memo claims the FBI and Justice Departments actions in obtaining the warrant against former Trump campaign advisor Carter Page represent a troubling breakdown of legal processes established to protect the American people from abuses related to the FISA process.

President Trump allowed the House Intelligence Committee to release the report to the public on Friday without redactions. The president, who tweeted that morning that the FBI had politicized the sacred investigative process, called the contents of the memo a disgrace.

While many Republicans in Congress supported the release of the memo, Democrats claimed it represents an attempt to discredit the federal investigation by using cherry-picked classified information  one which would set a dangerous precedent that would do long-term damage to the US intelligence community.

Both the Justice Department and the FBI objected to the release of the memo, with the FBI releasing a statement on Wednesday detailing "grave concerns" over its accuracy.

Congressional Democrats sent a letter to Mr Trump on Friday warning him against using the memo as a pretext to fire either Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who is overseeing the investigation, or Special Counsel Robert Mueller who is leading it.

Firing Rod Rosenstein, [Department of Justice] leadership, or Bob Mueller could result in a constitutional crisis of the kind not seen since the Saturday night massacre, the Democrats wrote, referring to Richard Nixons firing of the Watergate special prosecutor in the 1970s.

Story continues

Mr Trump declined to say whether he still had faith in faith in Mr Rosenstein when asked on Friday, saying: You figure that one out. He added that a lot of people should be ashamed of the allegations made in the memo. Seemingly trying to limit the damage from such remarks, White House officials later briefed that Mr Trump is not considering firing Mr Rosenstein.

Much of the memo concerns the process by which the FBI obtained a FISA warrant to surveil Mr Page, claiming the warrant application was informed largely by a Democrat-funded opposition research dossier compiled by former MI6 agent Christopher Steele.

The memo alleges that then-Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe told the Intelligence Committee that the surveillance warrant would not have been sought without this controversial dossier  going further to say that the Mr Steele had already disclosed his anti-Trump bias to the FBI.

Mr Page called the memo an example of brave and assiduous oversight, and said he would be updating his pending legal action against the Justice Department.

The memo also briefly mentions texts between an FBI agent and lawyer who worked on the bureaus investigation into possible Trump campaign ties to Russia. The memo claims the texts demonstrate clear bias against Mr Trump and in favour of Hillary Clinton.

However, the memo appears to fall short of the promises made by some Republicans  namely that the evidence it contained would cast doubt on the origins of the Russia investigation. Much of the information it contained involved allegations Mr Nunes and others had previously made public. Democrats also point out that Australian officials told the FBI about another Trump campaign official, George Papadopoulos, had possible knowledge about Russias activities. The memo itself states that information about Mr Papadopoulos triggered the opening of an FBI counterintelligence investigation in late July 2016.

In a statement after the release of the memo, Mr Nunes said: The Committee has discovered serious violations of the public trust, and the American people have a right to know when officials in crucial institutions are abusing their authority for political purposes. He added that he hoped the memos release would shine a light on the alarming series of events.

Republicans and Democrats have fiercely debated the release of the memo since last month, when Mr Nunes made it available to members of the House. Adam Schiff, the ranking Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, claimed the memo mischaracterises highly sensitive classified information in order to suit Republicans political aims.

Chairman Nunes decision ... to publicly release misleading allegations against the Department of Justice and Federal Bureau of Investigation is a shameful effort to discredit these institutions, undermine [special counsel Robert Muellers] ongoing investigation, and undercut congressional probes, Mr Schiff said.

The congressman claimed the FISA warrant to surveil Mr Page had been properly obtained, and was not based entirely on the Steele dossier. He added that Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee would seek a vote to release their own memo, which he claimed pointed out several other factual errors in Mr Nuness.

Democratic leaders sent a letter to House Speaker Paul Ryan earlier this week claiming Mr Nuness actions were illegitimate and dangerous, and asking him Mr Ryan to remove the chairman from his role.

But Mr Ryan said on Friday that he supported the release of the memo, claiming it showed a possible violation of civil rights. He said he would also support the release of the Democrats response document, once sensitive details had been removed.

The White House later said in a statement that the so-called Nunes memo raises serious concerns about the integrity of decisions made at the highest levels of the Department of Justice and the FBI to use the Governments most intrusive surveillance tools against American citizens.

This decision was made with input from the Presidents national security team  including law enforcement officials and members of the intelligence community, for whom the President has great respect, the White House added.

It also signalled that Mr Trump would back the release of the Democrat memo, saying the White House was ready to work with Congress to accommodate oversight requests on the second memo.

At least one Republican criticised the decision to release the memo, accusing his party of attacking the FBI and Justice Department.

Our nations elected officials, including the president, must stop looking at this investigation through the warped lens of politics and manufacturing partisan sideshows, Senator John McCain said. If we continue to undermine our own rule of law, we are doing [Russian President Valdimir] Putins job for him.

Mr Trump has not signalled what, if any, other steps he will take in response to the memo.

Congress will do whatever theyre going to do, he said on Friday. ...Lets see what happens.Trump made clear he wanted the memo released as quickly as possible: Getty

We waited. We were told it was going to be massive. Then it dropped. And, well.

One of the most hotly-anticipated political documents of recent years was finally made public and it told us an awful lot, while also telling us very little.

One thing it confirmed is that the environment surrounding Special Prosecutor Robert Muellers investigation into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russias alleged meddling in the 2016 election has become utterly politicised; whatever conclusions Mueller now reaches, people are likely to believe what they want to depending on their political persuasion.

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A second thing it underscored is that Donald Trump and the Republicans will go to any lengths and twist any situation, to undermine the investigation and distance it from the President.

Some important background: the memo was drawn up by members of the House Intelligence Committee chaired by Republican Devin Nunes, a California congressman who had been forced to recuse himself from his committees own Russia probe as House investigators looked into ethics charges.

Democrats claim the memo is politically-motivated and aimed at undermining Mueller. As Democrats sought to block its release, a campaign launched by conservative media pushed for it to be made public, something that was embraced by Trump.

Trumps own Department of Justice said releasing it would be reckless. The FBI said it had grave concerns about material omissions of fact that fundamentally impact the memos accuracy.

What then, are we left with in this highly political document of questionable accuracy?

Much of it is taken up with what the committee says are abuses by the DoJ and FBI under the Obama administration in the way it obtained a special warrant from a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) to monitor a US citizen under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).

It says that on October 21 2016, the FBI obtained a warrant to monitor Carter Page, a Trump campaign adviser. The warrant was renewed three times.

Story continues

Part of the information put before the court was provided by former British spy Christopher Steele, who had gathered opposition research on Trump as a sub-contractor for Fusion GPS, a Washington firm that was first paid by a wealthy Republican donor and later by Hillary Clintons campaign.

The memo says at no point was Steeles involvement mentioned, or that he had been paid in part by the Clinton campaign.

This may well be true. Yet, a major challenge in assessing the veracity of the memo is that we have been prevented - by the Republicans - of seeing the attendant document produced by Democrats on the committee that sought to answer the Republicans points.

Several other things are important. Firstly, because of these omissions, we dont know what other information may have been put before the FISA court, and the memo acknowledges the Steele information was only part of it.

The Washington Post wrote last year: The governments application for the surveillance order targeting Page included a lengthy declaration that laid out investigators basis for believing that Page was an agent of the Russian government.

The New York Times said that to issue a warrant, a judge must agree that there is reason to believe the target was knowingly engaging in clandestine intelligence activities for a foreign power that violate American criminal laws.

It is also crucial to bear in mind FBI has already revealed it launched its Russia probe after being tipped off by an Australian diplomat about possible Russian links to another Trump campaign adviser, George Papadopoulos. That dated to May 2016 - five months before it sought the warrant for Page. (The memo even admits it was concerns about Papadopoulos that triggered the FBI probe.)

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Page has been questioned several times by Muellers team. Last year, he told The Independent he was guilty of no crimes and had nothing to fear.

On Friday, Page said the memo was evidence of brave and assiduous overnight by congress. He is suing the DoJ.

Amid all the acronyms and the cast of frequently forgettable characters, what is the American public to make of all this? Can it trust the FBI, can it trust the DOJ, can it trust Mueller?

The right wing media has already decided it can not. Disgrace, yelled the main headline on the Drudge Report, beneath an FBI logo.

FBI Knew Dossier Funded by Clinton/DNC, Relied on It Anyway, said Breitbart News.

Fox News went with: Bombshell doc says blabbing British spys dossier paid for by Clinton, key to Trump snooping warrant.

In recent weeks, it has become clear that Mueller wants to speak with Trump. It has also been reported that for all his swagger, Trumps lawyers are worried about such a scenario. They are concerned about the Presidents ability to stick to a legally-agreed script and not to say something incriminating.

What we saw today was the latest attempt by the Republicans and Donald Trump to throw mud on the process, even before it has been concluded.

And if the most important priority is getting to the bottom of whether or not Moscow interfered in the 2016 election - and if so, how to stop it doing so in the future - then what we saw today helped nobody. Except, perhaps, the Russians.You may not want to go in if youre already wearing Old Navy. (Photo: Getty Images)

Warning: Dont go shopping at Old Navy wearing something you previously purchased from Old Navy. They may accuse you of shoplifting.

However, theres a chance this rule only applies to a certain store. And one shopper who broke this unheard of rule thinks it only applies to certain people, unfortunately.

James Conley III was paying for some hoodies he bought from the store when an employee questioned his coat. Conley wrote about his experience on Facebook, and its gone viral. Today I was racially profiled by the Old Navy store in West Des Moines, Iowa in Jordan creek, he began. I was accused that I didnt pay for my blue bubble jacket that I got for Christmas that I wore into the store.

He detailed the encounter: As I was checking out to purchase some hoodies, I was asked if I wanted to also purchase the jacket that I was wearing. First, I started laughing because I didnt believe what I was hearing. Conley called out Beau Carter, the store manager who approached him, for being very unprofessional and stereotyping him because hes a black male.

According to Conley, Carter schooled him on the Old Navy rules. He says anytime someone wears Old Navy clothing they have to always scan that customers clothing to insure that it was previously purchased. (Where do they do that at?) But Conley didnt buy it (although he did buy the jacket!) Every time I go to this store I have on my same exact winter blue jacket and have never been asked to scan my clothing and the previous non-black customers had on identical apparel as me from Old Navy but was never asked to scan their clothing.

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Not only did they embarrass Conley, but they also asked him to repay for the jacket. But Conley offered something else. Finally the District Manager Shannon (who refused to give out her last name) came out and I made her check the surveillance tape to prove that her and her fellow employees were in the wrong for racially profiling me because of the color of my skin. Once she confirmed that I was telling the truth (after watching the tape) she never came back out to apologize to me nor did the store manager Beau Carter as you can see in my videos below.

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The videos show cashiers scanning his jacket. In another video, staffers ask not to be filmed, while Conley sighs and wearing his jacket, says, Dont ever come to Old Navy, because theyll stereotype you if youre black and that he probably will never be back to the store. Literally just got stereotyped because of the color of my skin. They think I stole my jacket that I walked in with. The post has been shared almost 150,000 times.

Conley then held a news conference about the incident. He began by explaining that hed been racially profiled before but never to this extent. Whatever color your skin, you shouldnt have to deal with that while youre shopping, he said. He noted that he used to shop at this Old Navy frequently for himself, his wife, and his children, and that all of his clothing is from the store. For that to happen, it really hit home for me, Conley said. At first I was going to remain silent, he revealed, because hes not a confrontational guy. But he felt he had to speak out because it happened in the way it did in front of other customers, it was really embarrassingThats not the right thing you should do to a customerI dont wish that on anybody.

According to the Des Moines Register, the store actually closed Wednesday, the day after the incident, and reopened Thursday. Its unclear if this incident led to the temporary closure.

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In response to all this, Old Navy posted an explanation and an apology on their social media pages. We have reached out to the customer to apologize for the experience, the brand wrote. We are conducting a thorough investigation of the incident at our Jordan Creek, Des Moines, Iowa store Tuesday, January 30, and are connecting with our teams to reiterate who we are as a brand and what we stand for.

The brand told Yahoo! Lifestyle, The situation was a violation of our policies and values, and we apologize to both Mr. Conley and to those weve disappointed. All of our customers deserve to be treated with respect. As they promised on Instagram, they did take swift action. Following a thorough investigation of the incident, three employees who were involved have been terminated, the brand explained. We take this matter  and every conversation around equality  very seriously. Old Navy is committed to ensuring that our stores are an environment where everyone feels welcome.

Conley has not responded to Yahoo Lifestyles request for comment.

Unfortunately, this isnt the first time weve heard of racial profiling in retail. A former Versace employee alleges that the store he worked at required staff to use a code when a black customer entered. To add insult to injury, once Versace found out that this employee was a quarter African-American, they reportedly fired him.

A few months ago, a Banana Republic employee claimed she faced discrimination over her braided hairstyle and was told by her manager that her look was inappropriate for working on the store floor.

Were not sure how Old Navy can make it up to Conley, but its probably not by offering Conley a lifetime supply of performance fleece.

Read more from Yahoo Lifestyle:

Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter for nonstop inspiration delivered fresh to your feed, every day.Reyhanli (Turkey) (AFP) - Two people were killed and 16 were wounded in a Turkish border town Friday by rockets fired from Syria, local authorities said, as Turkey continues its offensive against a Syrian Kurdish militia.

Three rockets hit neighbourhoods of Reyhanli in southern Turkey and 68-year-old Rifat Sinirli died in hospital, the state-run news agency Anadolu reported.

Reyhanli mayor Huseyin Sanverdi said on Twitter that a man was killed by a rocket fired from Syria's Afrin region, a Kurdish enclave where the Turkish army has launched its offensive against the YPG militia deemed "terrorists" by Ankara.

Later in the afternoon, he announced a second man was killed in another attack by "treacherous terrorists."

The Hatay governor's office said 16 people were injured.

Sinirli's funeral was attended by dozens of people including Hatay governor Erdal Ata standing in front of a coffin covered with a Turkish flag.

His weeping relatives screamed: "Let the terrorists be cursed!"

Two rockets also hit the nearby border town of Kilis, one landing on a street and the other on an empty field near the state hospital, according to Anadolu.

There were no casualties in Kilis and the Turkish artillery fired in response, the agency reported.

Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said earlier that 82 rockets have hit the Turkish border provinces of Kilis and Hatay, including the town of Reyhanli, since the start of the Turkish operation on January 20.

Seven people have been killed so far in mortar fire.

Turkey says the YPG is an offshoot of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) which has waged a three-decade insurgency against the Turkish state.

But the YPG has been working closely with the United States against the Islamic State extremist group in Syria.BURQIN, West Bank (Reuters) - Israeli soldiers shot and killed a Palestinian teenager during an arrest raid in the village of Burqin in the occupied West Bank, Palestinian health officials said on Saturday. A Reuters witness said about 200 Palestinians were throwing stones at Israeli military vehicles when a gunshot was heard, adding that a wounded person was then carried to a car. Israel's military said its forces had been searching in Burqin for suspects involved in the fatal drive-by shooting of an Israeli rabbi from a nearby settlement on Jan. 9. A military spokeswoman said rioting had broken out while troops were apprehending several suspects connected with that shooting and troops responded with non-fatal "riot dispersal means" against Palestinians throwing rocks and firebombs and then with live gunfire at the main instigators. The Palestinian Health Ministry said the teenager killed on Saturday was 19 years old, while the hospital in Jenin where he was taken said he had been shot in the head. The Israeli military spokeswoman said he had climbed onto a military vehicle and had opened its door before he was shot. Israeli forces in the adjacent city of Jenin last month shot and killed a Palestinian gunman whom they had also suspected of involvement in the rabbi's shooting. Tensions in the region have risen since U.S. President Donald Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital in December. Since then at least 20 Palestinians and one Israeli have been killed. Trump's reversal of decades of U.S. policy enraged Palestinians, who want to create an independent state in East Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Israel captured those territories in the 1967 Middle East War and annexed East Jerusalem in a move not recognized internationally. It says the entire city is its eternal, indivisible capital. It pulled out of Gaza in 2005. U.S.-led peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians broke down in 2014. A bid by Trump's administration to restart negotiations has shown no real signs of progress. (Reporting by Ali Sawafta, additional reporting by Maayan Lubell in Jerusalem; editing by Alexander Smith and G Crosse)Bilal Askaryar (holding a Black Lives Matter sign) joined a protest against U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos early last year at a school in Washington. He believes that as a Muslim, he was singled out for arrest at the demonstration. (Photo: Reuters Video)

When Bilal Askaryar woke up on the morning of Feb. 10 last year, he wasnt expecting to get arrested. But it was a risk he was willing to take.

It was a cold winters day in Washington, a city still buzzing from the spirit of historic civic protests. Just a few weeks earlier, hundreds of thousands of people gathered on the National Mall to defend womens rights. Days later, activists flocked to Washington Dulles International Airport and marched through the nations capital to protest President Donald Trumps executive order that sought to ban immigration from seven Muslim-majority nations and temporarily halt refugee resettlement programs.

Askaryar is a 32-year-old communications specialist who lives in D.C. and who believes strongly in the right of Americans to participate in protests and, when necessary, in acts of civil disobedience. He participated in the Womens March and in protests against Trumps plans to restrict refugee immigration. That February morning, Askaryar briefly contemplated staying in his warm bed and skipping another, smaller protest set to take place at a local public school. But his conscience tugged at him.

I didnt want to be one of those people that opposes everything on social media or in dinner conversations among friends, but doesnt actually do anything about it, when it comes down to it, he told HuffPost. Im going to put my body on the line for those who cant.

Askaryar said that in the hours that followed his decision to attend, he came to believe that engaging in civil disobedience as a Muslim can carry with it certain hazards.

He said he ended up the only person facing legal charges for his actions that day, although he claims others at the protest were more combative with police officers at the scene. (The initial Washington Post story on the protest reported that one person was arrested, without providing a name.)

In subsequent stories on Askaryars case, media outlets honed in on his ethnicity and his place of birth  Afghanistan. That was information he doesnt think would have been spotlighted if he was a white protester.

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The U.S. Muslim community is heavily composed of immigrants and the children of immigrants from around the world. While native-born Muslims have been involved in civil rights demonstrations and other forms of political activism in the U.S. for decades, the newer wave of Muslim immigrants and their children, who hail primarily from South Asia, the Middle East and North Africa, are experiencing a political awakening. Theyre running for office, forming new activist organizations and getting involved in intersectional activism.

But in a time when anti-Muslim hate crimes are spiking and Islamophobic rhetoric flows from the highest political offices in the land, these Muslims find themselves having to defend their identity as Americans.

Askaryar considers it ironic that while participating in civil disobedience, an act he believes is the highest form of patriotism, he had to contend with being portrayed as the other.

As the story of his arrest gained traction, Askaryar said he felt a sense of panic, and then disillusionment.

Id like to believe that every American citizen has a right to make his or her voice known and to fully exercise their First Amendment rights, he said. But in this case, its not true.

Askaryar is a U.S. citizen originally from Afghanistan. (Photo: Bilal Askaryar)

Where Were You Born?

The night before Feb. 10, Askaryar heard on social media about a Black Lives Matter protest planned for Jefferson Middle School Academy in Washington. The BLM protesters and other local groups wanted to express their discontent with Trumps new education secretary, Betsy DeVos, who was visiting the school. Askaryar and other Devos critics view her policies as detrimental to public schools.

When he arrived for the demonstration, Askaryar said he and others learned that DeVos team was trying to avoid confronting members of the local teachers union, who were protesting at the buildings front entrance. The BLM protesters positioned themselves at a side entrance, to force DeVos to enter through the front.

In a video, Askaryar (wearing a black jacket and gray beanie) is seen with another protester physically blocking DeVos from using the side entrance. Holding a Black Lives Matter sign, the activist shouts Shame as the education secretary retreats back into her car.

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In the ensuing altercations with police, Askaryar said that, like him, other protesters were resisting officers instructions. Some demonstrators planted themselves in front of DeVos vehicle and refused to budge.

Yolanda C. Rondon, a lawyer with the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, was acting as a legal observer at the protest. She told HuffPost she wasnt sure if police singled out Askaryar for arrest  Im not inside the police officers mind, she said.

But she does think Askaryar could have stood out to officers because of the way he looked. The police department had previously dealt with the BLM protesters, Rondon said. And most of the members of the National Lawyers Guild who joined in the protest were white, she said.

Officers probably saw Bilal and saw that hes not part of [those groups] and thought hes just a troublemaker ... here to start some stuff, Rondon said. They probably did treat him differently because he wasnt black and he wasnt white.

Demonstrators last February wait for the arrival of DeVos at Jefferson Middle School Academy. (Photo: The Washington Post via Getty Images)

Askaryar was charged with two counts of assault on a police officer, one count of failure to obey a lawful order, and one count of unlawful assembly and disorderly conduct.

All the charges were dismissed by a D.C. Superior Court judge in November.

Askaryar said he believes the risk of being arrested goes with participating in civil disobedience. But there was one part of his encounter with the police that caused him to worry.

He said one of the first things an officer asked him while he was being arrested was, Where were you born?

Its when he heard this question that he said he started to feel scared.

Being arrested was fine. I mean, I wasnt planning on it. But there are worse things than spending a night in D.C. jail, he said. The thing that was actually scary was that the police immediately went to, Where were you born, and assuming that I wasnt a U.S. citizen.

I saw then that they think thats relevant. And I knew I was in a sensitive situation because I happen to have been born in Afghanistan, which is a Muslim-majority country which people associate with scary things.

Asked to comment on Askaryars allegations of bias, Hugh Carew, a spokesperson for Washingtons Metropolitan Police Department, told HuffPost that if anyone believes that they were treated inappropriately by an MPD officer, we urge them to file a complaint with MPD or the Office of Police Complaints so the matter can be fully investigated.

Askaryar said hes not interested in pursuing that course of action. But he also said that for him, the arrest was only the beginning of the story.

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Askaryar and a friend hold posters in front of the Washington Monument. (Photo: Courtesy Bilal Askaryar)

An American Citizen Defends His American Identity

Days after Askaryars arrest, he said he grew concerned about coverage of his case by local and national media. Along with defending himself against the charges, he found himself having to defend his American identity.

Askaryars family came to the U.S. as political refugees in the 1990s, when he was just 5 years old. Askaryar has since become an American citizen. A few weeks before his arrest, hed published an essay on NPR about his familys past, and Americas moral duty to continue to take in refugees fleeing persecution.

After his arrest, Askaryar noticed something curious. In a follow-up story on him, the Post highlighted that he came to the country as a refugee  even making it the focus of the pieces headline. The Post also contacted Askaryars father in California to ask about the familys background and his sons possible motives.

Askaryar doesnt think white, non-Muslim activists arrested during acts of civil disobedience would have their familys immigration history detailed in this way.

How many times when white protesters get arrested do people think to call their parents? Or ask their parents about their ethnic background and motivations? Askaryar said. Everything about the coverage of my participation in the non-violent civil disobedience was framed as immigrant or refugee arrested for assault. Thats not how we talk about Caucasians who get arrested on civil disobedience.

The Posts reporting was picked up on other sites, including right-wing outlets Gateway Pundit and PJ Media. The sites narrowed in on Askaryars former status as a refugee. They also highlighted his sexual orientation, based on an article he had written for The Washington Blade, a queer online magazine in D.C.

He said he began receiving online backlash from right-wing commentators, with some calling for him to be sent back to Afghanistan.

Reading headlines like Gay Refugee from Afghanistan Charged with Assault for Blocking Betsy DeVos and Afghan refugee pleads not guilty to charges following DeVos protest at D.C. school, Askaryar said he began feeling fearful about his safety and the safety of his family. He was also concerned the publicity would hurt his career prospects.

Most of all, he said he was astonished media organizations thought the fact that he had come to this country as a refugee decades ago was relevant to his protest against DeVos.

Kristine Coratti Kelly, vice president of communications and events at the Post, told HuffPost that because Askaryar and his lawyer declined to speak with the newspaper for its follow-up article, the story relied on his NPR essay to give readers a sense of who he is. His father confirmed the account, telling us, as we reported, that his sons motivation in taking part in the protest was to protect education.

Its ridiculous, Im an American citizen, Askaryar said. I was there because I believe as an American citizen that dissent is the highest form of patriotism. It doesnt matter where I was born 30-something years ago.

If I was there protesting the president of Afghanistan visiting the United States, maybe [his immigration history] would be relevant, he added. But I was there protesting the secretary of education of the United States of America.

He said the only difference he sees in the attention he received is my ethnic background.

Askaryar participates in the Women's March in 2017. (Photo: Bilal Askaryar)

When Being A Visible Muslim Draws Suspicion

In the years since the 9/11 attacks, Muslim organizations in the U.S. have documented a rise in anti-Muslim hate crimes and rhetoric. There are also more subtle ways in which presenting oneself as a Muslim in society spurs unintended consequences.

Some describe the perils of flying while Muslim  referring to the discrimination and profiling Muslims face while traveling on airplanes. Simple things, like using the word Allah or reading a book about Syria, can cause fellow passengers alarm, and sometimes result in Muslims being kicked off flights.

Muslim women describe facing verbal harassment online. Linda Sarsour, an outspoken Muslim activist and one of the leaders of last years Womens March, is often the target of such attacks.

Muslim communities have also been subjected to massive, unwarranted and targeted surveillance by law enforcement  with officers eavesdropping on conversations, infiltrating student groups, and monitoring sermons in mosques.

Such religious profiling has enflamed already tense relations between American Muslims and law enforcement, Rondon said.

I think its important to note that, similar to the black community, Muslim and Arab communities have had strenuous relationships with the police, particularly because they feel [officers] are only there to police them and not to keep them safe, she said.

Askaryar said he believes he stood out from the rest of the activists at Jefferson Middle School Academy not because of what he was doing, but because he was a Muslim man with a beard.

Askaryar has sported a beard since 2015. Although hes a devout Muslim and some Muslims choose to have beards to emulate the Prophet Muhammad, Askaryar said he didnt grow one because of his faith. Rather, it was simply something he decided to do for aesthetic reasons.

For most of his life, he said, he had been relatively passing as an American citizen. But once he had the beard, he said he began to notice a difference in the way he was labeled. People began to assume maybe this guy is a Muslim or Middle Eastern.

Blair Imani, a community activist based in Brooklyn, New York, is well acquainted with how appearances associated with being a Muslim can change other peoples perceptions.

Before Imani converted to Islam in 2015, she said she was seen by others only as a black woman during protests in which she participated. But after she began wearing a hijab, she said the heckling she received at demonstrations changed. People started to telling her to go back to where youre from  even though black Muslims have been in the United States for centuries.

As a black woman, protest and standing up against police brutality was in the canon of who I was expected to be, she said. But once I converted, theres this foreignness that the Muslim identity is given.

Mariam Durrani, an anthropologist who studies Muslim youth at Hamilton College in Clinton, New York, agreed that Muslim Americans continue to be seen as foreigners. And because of the current climate of xenophobia and anti-Muslim racism, Muslims Americans  like other minority groups  are often held to higher standards when protesting.

Muslim Americans are expected to be model citizens, which somehow means not being critical of policies or the government, she told HuffPost.

A Political Awakening In Immigrant Muslim Communities

Black and indigenous Muslim American communities have been speaking up about discrimination for decades. But as the non-native community grows, Durrani said, its youth are starting to see themselves as stakeholders in conversations the country is having about race, class, and gender.

Todays activism is intersectional, digital, and begins with the premise that [Muslims] are part of this country and invested in its future, Durrani said.

The problem is that when Muslim activists engage in protest, the story often becomes more about who is protesting, instead of what is being protested.

Thats what Imani sees when Muslim women protest while wearing the hijab.

What would make it easier is if our message resonated in a way that honors who were protesting  versus, Oh, she was wearing a scarf, she said.

Askaryar said his experiences last year havent deterred him from wanting to participate in civil disobedience in the future. But he called his arrest and the media coverage of it a wake-up call.

I used to think that I could show up at these Black Lives Matter actions and volunteer because black kids should not be doing this because theyre in a lot more danger than I am, he said. But Ive realized since that that may be true, but its also not a good time for Muslims, South Asians, Arab folks to be engaging in these things either.

As an immigrant and a Muslim, he said hes experienced discrimination. But this was the first time he really understood the double standard that Muslim activists, and other minority activists, are held to.

People brashly question, Why is this former immigrant engaging in civil disobedience? If you dont like this country go back to where you come from. That kind of obnoxious, toxic rhetoric is anti-American at its core, he said. People have been given license to increasingly question their fellow Americans that have different origins than they do. ... We are protesting not because we hate this country, but because we love this country and we want to hold it to the highest ideals that it aspires to.

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This article originally appeared on HuffPost.Phoblographer

"I wish it had never happened, and I wish I had never captured that moment.", says photojournalist David Handschuh of the fateful moment when the second airliner flew into the South Tower on 9/11. His instincts told him to keep on shooting even after that, and he continued to do so until an I-beam fell on him. He didn't think he'd get out alive, but he was one of the fortunate survivors from that day.WASHINGTON  Republicans released the Nunes memo on Friday, a document that they say reveals abuse of the governments surveillance powers and so-called deep state bias against President Trump.

The memo  named for its author Devin Nunes, the GOP chairman of the House Intelligence Committee  was criticized by the FBI as being misleading. The bureau, under director Christopher Wray, said that it had grave concerns about material omissions of fact that fundamentally impact the memos accuracy.

The memo, below, largely focuses on the way that the FBI and the Justice Department obtained surveillance warrants from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act court to monitor Carter Page, who had been a volunteer Trump campaign adviser.

The first warrant was granted on Oct. 21, 2016, and three renewals were granted. The memo claimed that an essential part of the FBIs application for the warrants was a dossier compiled by Christopher Steele, an ex-British intelligence officer, on the extent of Trump and his campaigns contacts with the Russians.

Steele was a longtime FBI source who was paid over $160,000 by the DNC and Clinton campaign, via the law firm Perkins Cole and the research firm Fusion GPS, to obtain derogatory information about Donald Trumps ties to Russia, the memo says.

It notes that Steele was suspended, then terminated as an FBI source for what the FBI defines as the most serious of violations  an unauthorized disclosure to the media of his relationship with the FBI in an Oct. 30, 2016 Mother Jones article by David Corn.

The Nunes memo, however, does not go into detail on what other factors the FBI and the DOJ used in their application to justify the issuance of a warrant. It claims that Andrew McCabe, the deputy director of the FBI who resigned earlier this week, testified to the Intelligence Committee in December that no surveillance warrant would have been sought from the FISA court without the Steele dossier information.

Story continues

While the FISA application relied on Steeles past record of credible reporting on other unrelated matters, it ignored or concealed his anti-Trump financial and ideological motivations, the memo says.

The 4-page memo goes in detail to try to lay out the case that FBI and DOJ officials held a bias against Trump. The inference is that the Russia investigation, now led by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, was tainted by the political leanings of federal agents.

In one passage, it claims that Steele, after he was terminated as a source, maintained contact with Bruce Ohr, who was then associate deputy attorney general.

Shortly after the election, the FBI began interviewing Ohr, documenting his communications with Steele. For example, in September 2016, Steele admitted to Ohr his feelings against then-candidate Trump when Steele said he was desperate that Donald Trump not get elected and was passionate about him not being president. This clear evidence of Steeles bias was recorded by Ohr at subsequently in official FBI files  but not reflected in any of the Page FISA applications. The memo also claims that Ohrs wife was employed by Fusion GPS to assist in the cultivation of opposition research on Trump. The memo says that Ohr later provided the FBI with the opposition research, but the Ohrs relationship with Steele was inexplicably concealed in the FISA application.

But the memo also points out that the impetus for the Russia investigation was not Page, but George Papadopoulos, who also was a foreign policy adviser to the Trump campaign. According to the memo, FBI agent Pete Strozk opened the investigation in July, 2016, over Papadopoulos contacts with Russian sources. In November, Papadopoulos plead guilty to lying to federal agents over his Russian contacts, and he is cooperating with Mueller and his team. Strozk was reassigned from the Mueller team for exchanging texts with his girlfriend, FBI attorney Lisa Page, about their dislike for Trump.

Democrats, led by Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), said that its release was a way to undermine law enforcement at a time when Mueller is conducting his investigation into Russian interference.

Schiff, who is the ranking member on the House Intelligence Committee, wrote a rebuttal memo but said that the Republican majority has so far refused to release it. Democrats are expected to challenge claims that the FISA warrants were granted on the basis of the Steele dossier, and that other intelligence was a factor.

A number of media outlets also raised questions of why two conservative media outlets, the Washington Examiner and Fox News, got an early look at the memo. Nunes will be interviewed by Fox News Bret Baier on Friday evening.

House Speaker Paul Ryan supported the memo, and contended that it would not have an impact on the Mueller investigation. But others saw it as an attack on the independence of law enforcement agencies.

Earlier on Friday, Sen. John McCain (R-Arizona), who is currently undergoing cancer treatment, released a statement in which he that the latest attacks on the FBI and Department of Justice serve no American interests  no partys, no presidents, only Putins. The American people deserve to know all of the facts surrounding Russias ongoing efforts to subvert our democracy, which is why Special Counsel Muellers investigation must proceed unimpeded.

Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), ranking member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, called the release of the memo reckless, and said it demonstrates an astonishing disregard for the truth.

Unlike almost every House member who voted in favor of this memos release, I have actually read the underlying documents on which the memo was based. They simply do not support its conclusions, he said.

But Trump ordered it declassified, writing in a tweet on Friday morning, The top Leadership and Investigators of the FBI and the Justice Department have politicized the sacred investigative process in favor of Democrats and against Republicans  something which would have been unthinkable just a short time ago. Rank & File are great people!

At the White House, shortly after its release, he told reporters, A lot of people should be ashamed of themselves and much worse than that. One of those named in the memo is Rod Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general, who signed off on one or more of the FISA applications. There has been speculation that Trump would attempt to fire him after the release of the memo. Asked about Rosenstein, Trump told reporters, You figure that one out.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in a statement, Congress has made inquiries concerning an issue of great importance for the country and concerns have been raised about the departments performance. I have great confidence in the men and women of this Department. But no department is perfect.

Former FBI director James Comey responded to the release on Twitter Friday saying, Thats it? Dishonest and misleading memo wrecked the House intel committee, destroyed trust with Intelligence Community, damaged relationship with FISA court, and inexcusably exposed classified investigation of an American citizen. For what? DOJ & FBI must keep doing their jobs.

Subscribe to Variety Newsletters and Email Alerts!Security officers in protective suits prevent themselves from catching SARS in Hong Kong in 2003 - Reuters

I'm an expat mother, based in Hong Kong. At the height of the Sars outbreak, I took my children to Sydney. We donned masks for the flight, and quarantined ourselves for the recommended ten days when we got there. Now, six months later, we're back. The arrivals procedure included being screened for fever by thermal imaging cameras and filling out health declaration forms. But the airport was busy, and nobody was wearing a mask. Had Hong Kong returned to normal?

Well, yes and no. People are still twitchy about Sars. A recent headline in the South China Morning Post ran: "Hospital seals off ward after flu-like outbreak. Twenty-four patients were being held in isolation at a public hospital where seven members of staff had gone down with Sars-like symptoms."

Thankfully, this was a false alarm, but there is concern that Sars will recur. People are now much more focused on hygiene than they were pre-Sars. Few ignore the government's advice on personal hygiene: wash your hands frequently, and always before meals; avoid sharing utensils at mealtimes; cover your nose and mouth when coughing or sneezing; avoid sharing towels; and contact a doctor promptly if you are feeling unwell.

Hong Kong

Concern for health and hygiene is particularly evident in schools. At the height of the outbreak, pupils had to pass daily temperature checks, and school cleaning procedures were overhauled. Eventually the government ordered all schools to close.

At the start of the new academic year, schools were reminded to maintain a hygienic environment. Government advice was that schools should clean and disinfect premises daily, maintain good ventilation, and provide adequate facilities and cleaning materials for hand-washing - prior to the outbreak soap and toilet tissue were not always to be found in the washrooms of local schools.

Parents too, have been asked to stay alert. The government recommends we continue to check our children's temperatures daily, and keep a temperature record sheet. Schools are also encouraging us to act responsibly.

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Ben Frankel, chairman of the board at Hong Kong Academy Primary School, which serves both the local and the expat communities, explained that his staff were now taking an aggressive stance: "We have a no tolerance policy regarding cold symptoms and fever. Parents are responding to this.

Passengers on Hong Kong's underground train system wear surgical masks to protect against SARS in 2003 Credit: AP Photo/Anat Givon

"Where once they might have sent their children to school with sniffles, now they don't. If a student has a fever, or is not feeling well, his or her parents are asked to seek medical advice, and keep their child at home."

Beyond education, health is now at the top of the general political agenda. Hong Kong was previously filthy. Post-Sars, the government seems determined to improve public health and environmental hygiene.

This is not just a matter of maintaining vigilance at airport and border crossings. A substantial amount of money, $HK1.3 billion ($100 million), has been earmarked for public health projects, there are plans to set up a centre for disease control and there is now official hostility towards common public health problems, such as spitting. Legislative changes have also been introduced, to strengthen the enforcement of hygiene laws.

Post-Sars, the health of Hong Kong's economy is worrying. It has been shaky for the past few years, and Sars worsened the pain. Tourism, service industries, retail and catering, were all particularly badly hit in the epidemic; many shops and restaurants closed over the summer, and hotel occupancy rates plummeted. Now property values are crashing, unemployment has risen to record levels, deflation is rampant, wages are falling, and there is talk of a tax hike to balance the books - either that, or freeing the Hong Kong dollar from its peg to the US dollar.

The government claims the worst of the downturn is over, and that we are now seeing the beginning of a recovery. In a recent address to the Federation of Hong Kong Industries, Financial Secretary Henry Tang said: "I am cautiously optimistic we have turned the corner."

There are some positive signs. Immediately post-Sars Hong Kong's GDP was forecast to grow by 1.5 per cent this year, compared to a pre-Sars forecast of three per cent. This has now been revised upward to two per cent.

Exports remain robust, and the Hang Seng Index is rallying. Numbers of visitors from Mainland China are soaring, and international visitors are starting to return - Cathay Pacific, the Hong Kong-based airline, cut its flight schedule during Sars, but it will operate a full service from late September.

Despite the good news, many businessmen remain cautious. A growth in GDP of two per cent is, after all, not spectacular. There is anxiety about what will happen if Sars recurs.

"If Sars does return," says one businessman, who did not wish to be named, "Hong Kong risks being demoted from a regional centre to a local office. This would result in significant resources being reallocated from Hong Kong to other regional centres."

A recent editorial in the South China Morning Post pointed out that although the economy feels better, there remains much to be done, and warned that the Financial Secretary "cannot afford to sit back and hope recovery can be achieved on auto-pilot".

Expats would surely agree - many have recently lost their jobs. Expat communities are always in flux - people come, people go - this summer, in Hong Kong, they have mostly gone. Quite apart from forced departures, many made the decision to leave for good, during or immediately after, the Sars outbreak.

Ben Frankel, whose school lost many pupils, thinks the main effect of Sars on the expat community was the way it focused, and accelerated, the natural cycle of coming and going: "Sars overcame all inertia. All changes were made, all at once. Individuals who had doubts about being here all left, all together. Companies which had been evaluating options on staffing, lay-offs and decentralisation all made decisions, all together, all at once."

Frankel thinks the result of this could be positive: "We've cleaned house. Now there should be greater stability. The people who are still here are here to stay."Harvey Weinstein may be out in Hollywood, but for Rose McGowan fear of the disgraced producer lives on.

The 44-year-old actress sat down with journalist Ronan Farrow at New York City's 92Y on Thursday evening for an emotional 90-minute conversation about abuse, recovery and the alleged rapist she helped expose. But despite Weinstein's fall from grace, McGowan told Farrow she still lives every day in fear.

"What are you scared of, Rose?" Farrow asked. Without missing a beat, McGowan replied, "Assassination." (The answer drew some uncertain laughs from a few audience members, a common reaction throughout the evening.)

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"You really think that you could be killed?" Farrow pressed. "Someone laughed, but I know you're not joking."

McGowan turned to address the crowd directly, leaning forward in her chair. "I don't care what you think. I know my life, and I know my reality, and I know that people like me get killed."



92Y_020118_043

Maricela Magana/ Michael Priest Photography

Later in the interview, Farrow pressed again. "You believe that Harvey Weinstein is after you in an ongoing way?"

"Yes," McGowan replied.

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"In what way?"

"Someone was just offered $100,000 to tell him what hotel room I was in."

McGowan, who publicly accused Weinstein of rape in October, has a basis for her fears. As Farrow has reported, Weinstein hired private investigatorsincluding former members of Israel's Mossad intelligence agencyto track down accusers and journalists. One investigator from Black Cube, a corporate intelligence agency run by mostly ex-Mossad, met with McGowan under the pretense of being a women's rights advocate, while secretly recording the meetings.

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Now, McGowan told Farrow, she's still being tracked by Weinstein's people. "Who else cares? Who else is going to stalk me this long?" Farrow replied that he could not comment on "ongoing" reporting.

12_14_Harvey Weinstein

Getty

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The Charmed actress has been all over New York recently, promoting her new memoir Brave and her E! documentary series Citizen Rose. It hasn't been the smoothest publicity tour.

On Wednesday, McGowan got into an altercation with a trans woman during a reading at the Barnes & Noble in Union Square. An audience member stood up and, according to Variety, demanded McGowan address controversial comments she made on RuPauls podcast in July 2017. The conversation devolved into a shouting match between the two, and the audience member was eventually escorted out by security.

McGowan discussed the encounter with Farrow on Thursday: "There was a plant last night. I had my first book reading. It was definitely a fake plant that got up and started screaming at me."

She also discussed a new statement from Weinstein, released by his attorney, in which he denied allegations of sexual assault. "As a general matter, Harvey Weinstein and his attorneys have refrained from publicly criticizing any of the women who have made allegations of sexual assault against Mr. Weinstein despite a wealth of evidence that would demonstrate the patent falsity of these claims," the statement read.

McGowan said the statement felt "violent" and "degrading" to her. "I don't know what it's like to get to face down my attacker in court, but I do know that they lie."

Near the end of the night, she addressed her recent arrest on drug possession. Police found cocaine in her wallet last January, which she claims was planted.

"I hate that handcuffs have been on me and not him," she said, referencing Weinstein, with tears in her eyes. Throughout the talk, as well as in her book and documentary series, McGowan refused to address Weinstein by name, referring to him only by pronouns or "the monster."

But the point McGowan hammered home again and again was her disinterest in whether or not the public believes her. "I don't care what people say. Please get that straight. I can't, because it will kill me."

This article was first written by Newsweek

More from NewsweekArms control groups have responded with alarm to the review, claiming that it will blur the lines between nuclear and conventional warfare: Getty

Russia has hit back at the bellicose nature of the Trump administrations proposed new nuclear policy  which advocates a more aggressive approach towards Moscow.

The US Department of Defences latest Nuclear Posture Review (NPR) argues that Washington must create a more effective nuclear deterrent, with Russia and other nations holding the misconception that the US would not use its large-scale strategic nuclear weapons in response to nuclear aggression from other countries. Therefore the Pentagon must increase the number of low-yield weapons.

Our strategy will ensure Russia understands that any use of nuclear weapons, however limited, is unacceptable, the NPR said.

Critics say the new stance will increase the chance of a miscalculation between the pair, with Russias response unlikely to dampen such thoughts. The bellicose and anti-Russian nature of this document is obvious, Russias Foreign Ministry said in a statement, adding that it was deeply disappointed.

We, of course, will have to take into account the approach enacted now in Washington and to take the needed measures to secure our own safety, the ministry said.

The review claims Russia has a stockpile of 2,000 non-strategic nuclear weapons, while the US has a few hundred active low-yield weapons deployed in Europe. US officials also argue that since the last NPR in 2010 Russia has expanded and modernised its non-strategic nuclear weapons and annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014. For the first time publicly, the review also says that Russia is developing a hypersonic, nuclear-powered undersea torpedo.

The US is not arms racing, we are responding to Russian initiative here, said Greg Weaver, deputy director of strategic capabilities at the Pentagon. The Russian Foreign Ministry denied the accusations in the report and said that Moscow was ready to work constructively with Washington over arms stockpiles.

While the previous review, in former President Barack Obamas first term, had called for a modernisation of the US nuclear capability, the more aggressive stance stands at odds with Mr Obamas administration and fits Mr Trumps peace through strength world view. The focus on Russia is also in line with the Pentagon shifting priorities from the fight against jihadists to great power competition with nations like Russia and China.

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Both the current president and the Pentagon say the new review treads the fine line between maintaining a nuclear deterrence and encouraging a push for arms control.

In a statement following the release of the review, Donald Trump said: The strategy develops capabilities aimed at making use of nuclear weapons less likely. It enhances deterrence of strategic attacks against our nation, and our allies and partners, that may not come in the form of nuclear weapons. And, importantly, it reaffirms our commitment to arms control and nuclear non-proliferation, maintains the moratorium on nuclear testing, and commits to improving efforts to prevent, detect and respond to nuclear terrorism.

The new NPR calls for a continuation of the nuclear modernisation programme ordered by Mr Obama across the triad of ground-based intercontinental ballistic missiles, submarine-launched weapons and bombs delivered by plane.

Beyond Russia, the review calls North Korea and its leader Kim Jong-un a clear and grave threat to the US and its allies, repeating the Trump administration line that a North Korean nuclear attack against the US or its allies will result in the end of that regime.

It also casts China as a potential nuclear adversary, saying the US arsenal is tailored to prevent Beijing from mistakenly concluding that it could gain advantage by using its nuclear weapons in Asia.

Arms control groups have responded with alarm to the review, claiming that it will blur the lines between nuclear and conventional warfare.

President Trump is embarking on a reckless path, one that will reduce US security, said Lisbeth Gronlund, a senior scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists.

Reuters and Associated Press contributed to this reportSaraqib (Syria) (AFP) - A Russian pilot was killed Saturday in fighting with Islamists after his warplane was downed over northwest Syria, Russia's defence ministry and a monitor said.

Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a powerful jihadist-dominated alliance, said it had shot down the plane on an affiliated media channel but made no mention of the pilot.

"We were able to bring down the Russian warplane with a shoulder-fired missile above Saraqib in Idlib this afternoon," said Mahmoud al-Turkmani, who according to the statement heads HTS's "air defence brigade."

He said the attack was in retaliation for a ferocious bombing campaign by Russian warplanes over Idlib.

HTS, which is dominated by Al-Qaeda's former affiliate, controls Idlib and has sought to fight back a ferocious Russian-backed assault by Syrian government troops.

An AFP correspondent who arrived at the crash site on Saturday saw what appeared to be the charred remains of the plane, including a wing with a red star still visible.

Firefighters arrived to put out flames that had been spewing dark smoke into the wintry Syrian sky.

The Russian defence ministry confirmed the Su-25 aircraft was shot down over Idlib province and said the pilot was killed "in fighting against terrorists."

- 'Killed fighting' -

"A Russian Su-25 aircraft crashed during a flight over the Idlib de-escalation zone. The pilot had enough time to announce he had ejected into the zone," the defence ministry said.

"The pilot was killed in fighting against terrorists," it said, quoted by Russian agencies.

It added that "according to preliminary reports, the plane was shot down by a portable anti-aircraft missile system."

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the jet was downed near the town of Saraqib in Idlib and the pilot parachuted to the ground.

He was killed clashing with rebels as they tried to take him hostage, said the Britain-based Observatory.

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"There have been dozens of Russian air strikes in the area over the past 24 hours. This plane was also carrying out raids there," said Abdel Rahman.

Syria's uprising broke out in 2011 with protests against Assad's rule but has since morphed into a complex war drawing in global powers.

Moscow began conducting air strikes in Syria in September 2015, and its intervention has swung the nearly seven-year conflict firmly in the favour of its ally in Damascus.

Opposition factions have shot Syrian regime planes in the past, but the downing of Russian aircraft is much rarer.

Turkey shot down a Russian warplane in November 2015, leading to the worst crisis in ties between the two countries since the end of the Cold War

And in August 2016, a Russian military helicopter was shot down over Syria and all five people on board were killed.

- Deadly fire on Turkish tank -

Russia has been spearheading a more than year-long diplomatic push to try to freeze fighting in coordination with fellow regime ally Iran and rebel backer Turkey.

Ankara has supported an array of rebel groups to fight Syria's government, the Islamic State jihadist group, and Kurdish militia that it has blacklisted as "terrorists."

On January 20, Turkey and allied rebel fighters began an offensive on the Syrian enclave of Afrin, held by the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG).

Seven Turkish soldiers were killed on Saturday as part of the assault, including five who died in a single attack on a tank, the Turkish army said.

The losses mark the highest toll in a single day for the Turkish army in operation "Olive Branch."

The Observatory has also counted 104 allied rebels and 102 YPG fighters killed since the offensive began, as well as 68 civilians.

Ankara has denied targeting civilians as part of its Afrin offensive.

Mourners on Saturday gathered in Afrin to commemorate victims of the operation, including female fighter Barin Kobani whose badly mutilated body appeared in a shocking video earlier this week.

The footage sparked accusations by her family and Kurdish officials that she was "defiled" by Turkish-backed rebels.

The opposition's government-in-exile said Saturday it had opened an investigation into the matter.

Thousands of people protested on Saturday in France against operation "Olive Branch," gathering in Strasbourg and Paris to condemn the assault.

They held posters that read "Defend Afrin" and "Erdogan assassin," in reference to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.Robert Beckhusen

Security,

Not enough doctors.

If Russia Went to War Against NATO It Might Lose For One Simple Reason

Between the 1941 German invasion to the Soviet victory in Berlin in 1945 and the invasion of Manchuria that August, the Red Army would suffer more than 11 million dead and 15 million wounded  a shocking toll unprecedented and unmatched in history. To wage such a war, the Soviet Union relied on a total mobilization of its society and economy.

To treat such enormous numbers of wounded, the job fell to the USSRs centralized health care system.

Military and civilian hospitals participated  the latter out of necessity, and the conflict led to important innovations in medical treatments, particularly for frostbite and thermal injuries. A similar trend occurred in the United States after the Iraq War although on a smaller scale  American EMT teams are now much more likely to have tourniquets within reach to treat bleeding from gunshot wounds, a direct lesson from soldiers experiences in Iraq.

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In 2018, Russia today is rebuilding its post-Soviet military into a force capable of fighting a large-scale war with NATO. Russias Western frontiers are seeing new mechanized divisions form up, with soldiers wearing new uniforms and carrying the latest hardware. They have new rifles, tanks, radios and advanced electronic warfare equipment which is equal to the worlds best.

However, Russia is lacking a medical backbone that can absorb the shock of a major conflict, according to an influential Russian military journal. The result will likely result in an overwhelmed medical system and excessive loss of life for Russian soldiers were they to go into battle with the West.

The Russian medical system may even have difficulty handling casualties in Ukraine, as there are few hospitals near the border, with the existing ones in Bryansk, Orel, Kursk and Belgorod, according to the paper VPK, or Military-Industrial Courier.

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All these cities will immediately find themselves in the firing zone, the paper warns, putting priority on treating the civilian population before soldiers.

Near Russias western border, the primary hospital near a future front line is in Podolsk and has 2,000 beds. At the beginning of major hostilities, Russia could quickly suffer some 100,000 casualties.

Despite the military build-up in this region, there has been no corresponding increase in military medical facilities, O.E. Watch, the monthly newsletter of the U.S. Armys Foreign Military Studies Office, stated when observing the concerns in VPK.

Secondly, the Russian health care system suffers from poor-quality (to put it mildly) care and a lack of qualified doctors, VPK noted with concern.

While Russia retains a public health care system, it is underfunded and has encountered two blows  the first being the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, followed by a recovery and then the 2014 Russian financial crisis following the fall in oil prices and imposition of Western sanctions. There is simply not enough funding, which means shortages of doctors, hospitals and equipment  adding up to long wait times.

This is pronounced in rural areas where medical care is akin to a developing country, if medical providers exist at all  some 17,500 towns and villages have zero, according to Newsweek.

Those who suffer from the paucity of care are often veterans. The article notes that Anatoly Khrulyov, a retired general of the Soviet anti-aircraft missile forces, excoriated the poor state of veterans care in Russia during a recent veterans conference.

In the Zarya settlement near Moscow, for example, where mostly military men and their families live, out of nine therapists there was only one [] Hyupenen called the situation with the medical care of veterans a complete disgrace, the newspaper stated.

In the Zvenigorod military sanatorium, the general and his wife could not even take a blood test. From hospitals, he said, patients wait untreated.

In the event of a conventional war, this same overburdened system will have to absorb tens of thousands of casualties  and suddenly.

This first appeared in WarIsBoring here.

Image: Creative Commons.

Read full articleA Russian fighter jet has been shot down in a rebel held area in north-eastern Syria's Idlib province, according to reports.

Footage posted on Twitter apparently shows rebels approaching the flaming wreckage, with a red star symbol visible on a piece of the plane.

GettyImages-515910864

Getty Images

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It is not known who shot down the plane, but jihadist group al-Qaeda-linked Hayat Tahrir al-Sham has a presence in the area.

A media account associated with the group posted footage reportedly showing the crash site.

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Analyst Charles Lister said that the first footage of the plane going down was posted by a group affiliated with the Free Syrian Army, which said its anti-aircraft guns shot down the plane.

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Russia has launched a bombing campaign against rebel groups in Syria in support of the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

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The pilot ejected before the crash and was captured, U.K.-based monitoring group the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights told the BBC.

It said the plane crashed near the town of Sareeq, in Idlib province, where government forces backed by Russian air strikes have been trying to oust rebel forces.

The Russian defense ministry has not commented on the reports.

In 2016, Turkey downed a Russian fighter plane which Ankara claimed had encroached in its airspace, causing the relations between the countries to dip to their worst point since the Cold War.

This article was first written by Newsweek

More from NewsweekThree months ago, President Trumps White House Commission on Combating Drug Addiction and the Opioid Crisis recommended specific actions the federal government should take to step up efforts to combat the devastating fentanyl, heroin and opioid crisis.

If recent trends have held, about 10,000 Americans died since the commission released its report. Thousands more overdosed and were revived by overburdened first responders. Too many babies were born dependent on opioids. Too many children were placed in foster care. Some entered treatment. Some couldnt find the help they needed.

Across America, people are waiting, hoping  and dying.

The Presidents own commission provided a roadmap to help turn the tide of this epidemic  but neither the President nor anyone in his administration seem willing to take the actions needed to make those recommendations a reality.

When President Trump announced the commission, I had some reservations about its usefulness. After all, we already had an extensive body of research and countless recommendations from advocates and experts about what we needed to do.

However, I was encouraged by the serious people from both parties  including Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker and former Congressman Patrick Kennedy  named to the commission. I was also encouraged by the positive meeting I had with commission members and senators from across the aisle at the White House in April.

When the commission released its final report on November 1, I was again cautiously optimistic. The report included a wide range of recommendations  many of which I have long fought for  including boosting treatment capacity, requiring more prescriber education and strengthening access to Medication-Assisted Treatment.

But to make these recommendations more than just words on a page requires follow-through, and critically, a substantial increase in federal resources. In the past three months, we have seen almost no action from the Administration on the commissions recommendations, and the Trump Administration has not been willing to lead in pushing for additional federal resources.

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The neglect continued in the Presidents State of the Union address, where he failed to call for a single additional dollar to address this crisis. In fact, while he gave lip service to the crisis, he did not name a single specific action his administration will take to combat substance misuse.

One of the commissions members, former Congressman Patrick Kennedy, has even called the commissions work a charade and a sham because it has not been backed up by any new federal funding.

While the Administration has failed to act, I have continued to try to secure additional federal resources to strengthen prevention, treatment, recovery and law enforcement efforts by introducing legislation, sending letters with members of both parties and speaking out in committee hearings, on the Senate floor and at every opportunity I get.

Toward that end, my fellow New Hampshire Senator Jeanne Shaheen and I are pushing Senate leadership to include an additional $25 billion to combat this crisis in the long-term funding agreement thats currently being negotiated. This funding could help implement the commissions recommendations and support opioid treatment programs throughout the nation.

But so far, despite support from our colleagues in both parties, Republican leadership has not agreed to such an increase in funding. Thats why we need the President and his administration to finally work with us to get these resources.

People are dying every day, and we know how to help stop it. The Trump Administration and members of both parties agree on much of what we need to do. Now we need to see the resources to make these recommendations a reality.

We cant afford to wait another three months for this administration to take this epidemic seriously. We need action now.WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Senator John McCain on Friday strongly criticized President Donald Trump, a fellow Republican, for attacking the FBI and the Department of Justice amid the federal government's Russia probe, saying such attacks only help strengthen Russian President Vladimir Putin. "Our nations elected officials, including the president, must stop looking at this investigation through the warped lens of politics and manufacturing partisan sideshows. If we continue to undermine our own rule of law, we are doing Putins job for him," McCain said in a statement. He was referring to the federal probe into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election and possible collusion by Trump's campaign. (Reporting by Susan Heavey; Editing by Frances Kerry)JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Sibanye-Stillwater said on Thursday that over 1,000 miners were stuck underground at its Beatrix gold mine in South Africa after a storm knocked out power, but they were not in danger. Spokesman James Wellsted said the miners were safe and receiving food and water. Power was being restored to the mine but there was not yet enough to bring the miners to the surface. The National Union of Mineworkers said 65 mineworkers had been rescued but more than 1,000 remained underground. "There is no electricity there, so they are using a generator to power the cage to take workers to the surface," NUM spokesman Livhuwani Mammburu told Reuters. "The problem is they are rescuing one mineworker at a time. It is very slow. It is worrying. Some of our members have chronic conditions and they don't have medication down there." (Reporting by Ed Stoddard; Editing by Joe Brock, William Maclean)Consumer Reports has no financial relationship with advertisers on this site.

Within the next two years, most major appliance makers will offer extensive lineups of smart appliances, part of the ever-expanding "internet of things." That's according to Christine Edwards, a market analyst with Gap Intelligence.

This year, LG announced that 100 percent of its home appliances portfolio will offer its smart ThinQ connectivity," Edwards says. "Samsung shared that its portfolio is approximately 90 percent currently connected, with plans to feature 100 percent connectivity by the year 2020.

That means you can start a load of laundry from your phone while at work, ask Google Assistant to preheat the oven, or automatically reorder dish detergent from Amazon when your dishwasher detects its running low.

While more and more appliances feature connectivity, it can be hard to tell which ones work with Alexa, Google Assistant, Nest, and the like, let alone what these integrations actually do. So before we dive into how you can use various smart appliances, you'll want to know which smart home products and platforms integrate with them.

What Will Integrate With Your Appliances

Amazon Echo/Alexa. Using one of the many Amazon Echo speakers, you can use the voice assistant Alexa to control your appliances. For example, you can ask Alexa to do things like preheat the oven or check how much time is left on the washer cycle. Amazon calls these integrations Alexa skills, and appliance manufacturers will often use that term as well.

Google Home/Google Assistant. Much as with the Amazon Echo and Alexa, you could use the Google Home smart speaker and voice assistant Google Assistant to control your appliances with voice commands.



Amazon Dash. This is a service through Amazon that uses the smarts in your appliances to automatically reorder detergents and other consumables when they detect that youre running low.



Nest. Depending on whether you own a Nest thermostat or smoke detector, your appliances could automatically turn off or adjust their settings if, say, Nest detects that youve left home via its Home/Away Assist feature that senses when you come and go.



One word of warning: Getting these smart home products to work with your appliance may test your patience.

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From my experience using voice control with smart thermostats, I can tell you many consumers will find it challenging setting up these integrations, says CR test engineer Elias Arias. The finicky syntax of verbal commands can be difficult to use, but for now, these commands work well enough to get useful results.

Since discovery and setup can be so difficult, we provide a link directly to the instructions, so you can easily enable the integrations you want. Here's what each of the major brands is serving up.

Bosch

Bosch has a robust roster of smart appliances in its Home Connect line, which works with Nest, Amazon Alexa, and Amazon Dash.

The Home Connect Nest integration works with the Nest Protect smoke detector and Nests Home/Away Assist. That means that if the Protect detects smoke or fire, the Nest app will ping you and offer to shut off your Home Connect appliances, such as the oven during an oven fire (which is exactly what you should do). And since Nest knows when you come and go via its Home/Away Assist feature, the Nest app will alert you to appliances that are still running when you leave home.

Through the Home Connect Amazon integrations, you can talk to Alexa to control Boschs Home Connect coffee maker, dryer, and dishwasher. And if you connect your dishwasher to Amazon Dash, it will automatically reorder detergent tabs when youre running low.

Frigidaire

There is only one smart Frigidaire appliance at the moment, and it is the Frigidaire Cool Connect Smart Air Conditioner. It can be controlled with your voice via both Amazon Echo and Google Home, allowing you to turn it on or off and adjust the temperature.

GE

GE offers many smart appliances as part of its WiFi Connect Appliances lineup and offers voice control for them through its GE Geneva skill, which is available for both Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant. Compatible appliances include GE WiFi Connect fridges, dishwashers, wall ovens, ranges, washers, dryers, window air conditioners, and GeoSpring water heaters.

GE WiFi Connect ovens also integrate with Nest, allowing the Nest app to shut off your oven if you leave home or if Nest Protect detects smoke. GE WiFi Connect dishwashers also integrate with Amazon Dash to reorder detergent.

Jenn-Air

The only Jenn-Air appliances that connect to other smart home systems are Jenn-Air Connected Ovens. Currently, the ovens connect to Alexa and Google Assistant for voice control, allowing you to do an array of tasks like preheat your oven, control the oven timer, and even ask for the ovens serial number. The ovens also integrate with Nest so youll receive an alert when you leave home if the oven is still on (and you can turn it off remotely). And the Nest Learning Thermostat will even turn down the heat if the oven gets above a specified temperature to keep your kitchen from getting too hot.

Kenmore

Sears sells an entire line of connected Kenmore appliances, and they all work with Amazon Alexa. The Kenmore Smart Alexa skill allows you to do things such as turn on your fridges icemaker, put your water heater in energy-save mode, pause your dryer, and much more.

The Alexa integration works with the following products: Kenmore Elite Smart Hybrid Water Softener, Kenmore Smart Electric Water Heater Module, Kenmore Elite 75043 Smart French Door Bottom-Mount Refrigerator, Kenmore Elite Smart Front-Load Washer, Kenmore Elite Smart Front-Load Dryer, and Kenmore Elite Smart Air Conditioner.

LG

LG appliances work with both Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant, but for some reason not all LG appliances work with both assistants. For example, Alexa can control LG robot vacuums, but Google Assistant cant. When asked why this is the case, an LG spokeswoman would only say that LG is committed to open partnerships and continuing to build them out.

The LG SmartThinQ Alexa skill works with select LG air conditioners, air purifiers, and robot vacuums. The LG SmartThinQ Google Home integration works with select LG refrigerators, ranges, washers, air conditioners, and air purifiers.

Samsung

Samsung has made a big push into smart home since it acquired SmartThingsa platform for connecting and controlling smart home productsback in 2014. Its appliances are no exception. They work with Alexa, Google Assistant, Nest, and of course, SmartThings.

Both Alexa and Google Assistant can be used to control Samsung refrigerators, dishwashers, washers, dryers, and robotic vacuums. Additionally, Alexa can control Samsung smart air conditioners, but neither voice assistant can currently control Samsung ovens or ranges. The companys Nest integration only works with Samsung robotic vacuumsallowing you to start or stop cleaning when you leave your homeand air conditioners.

Whirlpool

Whirlpool offers voice control integrations with Alexa and Google Assistant for its appliances, but, similarly to LG, not all compatible Whirlpool appliances work with both assistants. A Whirlpool spokeswoman told CR all compatible appliances will eventually work with both assistants and to look for updates throughout the year.

Currently, Alexa can control select Whirlpool Smart microwaves, ovens, and combination washer-dryers, while Google Assistant can control select Whirlpool Smart microwaves, ovens, and dishwashers.

In addition to the confusing voice control offerings, there are also Whirlpool integrations with Amazon Dash and Nest.

The Amazon Dash integration only works with the Whirlpool smart top-load laundry pair to reorder detergent. But the Nest integration works with Whirlpool Smart fridges, ovens, dishwashers, washers, and dryers to do things like alert you if you left the oven on and prevent laundry cycles from running during peak energy usage hours.

The Other Big Brands

If you dont see your brand of appliances above, it likely doesnt offer smart home integrations at this time. As more brands announce integrations, we'll continue to update this guide. And if you use an integration that isn't covered here, just drop us a comment below.





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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.A controversial GOP memo released by the House Intelligence Committee on Friday alleges that the FBI and Department of Justice relied heavily on research by former British Intelligence officer Christopher Steele when renewing a surveillance warrant for a Trump adviser.

The memo claims that the countrys top law enforcement officials misled a judge about the origins of the information in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) application for Carter Page, a foreign policy adviser for the Trump campaign. It also says that former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe said a FISA warrant for Page would not have been sought without the information from the Steele dossier.

The Steele dossier, also known as the Russia dossier, is very controversial because it contains salacious allegations about President Donald Trumpincluding claims that the president was cultivated by Russia for years. While some aspects of the dossier, particularly those regarding former aide Page, have been verified, many allegations remain unverifiable.

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Support for the memo has largely split along party lines. Representative Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said the information released in the GOP memo Friday was cherry picked to present a misleading picture. He also countered that the FISA warrant would have been pursued without the Steele dossier.

"[The memo] cherry picks information from Director Mccabes testimony before our committee,"Schiff told reporters Friday. "What he was describing is that the FISA application relies on all of the components in the application, each and every component, and only in that sense is it fair to say that if you take out any piece of it then the application would not be complete.

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The important things are very select parts of what Christopher Steele reported, related to Carter Page, were included within the FISA application and some of those were already subject to corroboration," he continued.

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There is reason to believe that the FBI took the Steele dossier seriously and may have tried to corroborate the allegations in the document. The head of Fusion GPS, the company that commissioned the Steele dossier, told Senate Judiciary Committee staffers in August that the FBI had independently received information from a Trump insider which led them to believe the dossier's credibility.

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According to The Washington Post, the FBI had so much respect for Steeles credentials as an intelligence agent that it had discussed hiring him to continue researching Trumps connections to Russia. The discussions were called off when information about the dossier was publicized.

According to reports, the Steele dossier was first handed to FBI Director James Comey in December 2016 by Senator John McCain, who had received the memo from a contact and passed it on for verification.

Much of the information remained unverified, but the FBI took the information in the dossier seriously enough to brief members of Congress and then-president Barack Obama. In early January 2017, then president-elect Trump received a two-page summary of the report.

Trump has repeatedly called the report the dodgy dossier and said that its allegations (a version of which was eventually published in full by Buzzfeed news) are fallacious. The GOP memo released Friday alleges that Steele had anti-Trump ideological motivations for conducting the research.

This article was first written by Newsweek

More from NewsweekBy Pushkala Aripaka and Stephen Nellis

(Reuters) - Stronger iPhone prices and hints by Apple Inc on Thursday that it could return more than half of its $285 billion in cash to shareholders eased concerns among investors, even as the world's biggest technology company gave a disappointing revenue outlook for the current quarter.

Apple also reported it sold fewer iPhones over the holiday quarter than Wall Street had expected.

But the revenue outlook for the first three months of 2018 "was not as bad as some feared," said Jun Zhang of Rosenblatt Securities Inc. Apple's comments about plans for its $163 billion in net cash helped boost shares 3.3 percent to $173.48 in after-the-bell trading.

Over time, we are trying to target a capital structure that is approximately net neutral. We will have approximately the same level of cash and debt on the balance sheet, Apple's chief financial officer, Luca Maestri, told Reuters in an interview.

Were going to take that balance down from $163 billion to zero," Maestri said, referring to Apple's current level of cash net of debt.

He did not say whether the reduction in net cash would come in the form of returning capital to shareholders, capital expenditures or acquisitions.

The cash plans are a "pleasant surprise," Brian Colello, an analyst at Morningstar Inc, said. "This goes a bit against Apples historically conservative capital structure."

Trip Miller, managing partner at Gullane Capital Partners and an Apple investor, said the move to a level balance sheet was good news. "Let's face it, this cash has been doing nothing for us over the last six years," he said.

Apple forecast revenue of $60 billion to $62 billion and gross margins of between 38 percent and 38.5 percent for its fiscal second quarter ending in March. Analysts were expecting $65.7 billion in sales and a gross margin of 38.9 percent for the March quarter, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S, though some had forecast sales as low as $60 billion.

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Thrivent Financial analyst Peter Karazeris said the low revenue forecast had been expected by many analysts and investors following a string of credible reports that Apple had cut parts orders.

"Im happy weve gotten the bad news that I was expecting guided into the stock. It was probably a little overbaked," he said. "Now we're focusing on metrics that really matter like free-cash generation and shareholder returns." Thrivent holds Apple shares.

Bright spots in the fiscal first quarter ended Dec. 30 included average selling prices for the iPhone that topped Wall Street predictions, at $796 versus expectations of $756. The strong prices offset unit sales of iPhones that missed Wall Street expectations, coming in at 77.3 million units versus estimates of 80 million.

It was really driven by the success of the iPhone X and also the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus, Maestri told Reuters of the pricing strength. The new lineup has done incredibly well."

The company posted revenue of $88.3 billion and profit of $3.89 per share, from $78.4 billion and $3.36 per share a year earlier. The results beat analyst expectations of revenue of $87.3 billion and profits of $3.86 per share.

Apple's services business, which includes Apple Music, the App Store and iCloud, grew 18 percent to $8.4 billion, missing analyst expectations of $8.6 billion. Maestri said the lower services revenue was because the holiday quarter was only 13 weeks rather than 14 weeks.

The services revenue was down slightly from $8.5 billion the quarter before.

"That's something to watch as we roll further into 2018," said Miller of Gullane Capital. "Does that continue to stagnate, or was that a one-time bump in the road?"

Maestri also said Apple's installed base of active devices reached 1.3 billion, 30 percent higher than two years ago and representing an expansion of potential customers for the services business.

Apple said it expected its tax rate for the March quarter to be 15 percent following changes in U.S. tax law. The company said last month it plans to make a one-time tax payment of $38 billion on its overseas cash and has a five-year, $30 billion U.S. capital expenditure plan.

The company did not say how much of its overseas cash it would bring back to the United States in the short term and gave no new information about its capital return program, which it typically updates each April.

(Reporting by Pushkala Aripaka in Bengaluru and Stephen Nellis in San Francisco; Editing by Leslie Adler)Rebel fighters shot down a Russian plane over Syria's northwest Idlib province - AFP

Syrian rebels shot down a Russian warplane for the first time on Saturday and Russias defence ministry said the pilot was killed as he resisted capture by jihadists.

The Su-25 was destroyed over the rebel-held northwestern province of Idlib as it provided air support to pro-Assad regime forces attacking the city of Saraqeb.

Video footage showed the Russian jet manoeuvring over Idlib and then a parachute emerging after it was hit.

The pilot had enough time to announce he had ejected into the zone, under the control of al-Nusra Front fighters," the Russian defence ministry said, referring to a jihadist group linked to al-Qaeda. "The pilot was killed in fighting against terrorists."

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) also said the pilot was killed as he resisted being taken captive. But several opposition activists claimed he was already dead by the time rebel fighters reached him and he appeared to have died during ejection.

#Breaking Jaish al-Nasr releases clearer footage of the shooting down of a Russian jet over Idlib #Syriapic.twitter.com/Qnsv7e4Gv6  Michael A. Horowitz (@michaelh992) February 3, 2018

A photograph circulated by rebel groups showed a bloodied corpse wearing a white uniform.

The pilot was not officially identified but a Russian letter reportedly found on his body recommended that a Major Roman Fillipov Nikolaevich be awarded for his role during the Syrian campaign.

Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a powerful jihadist-dominated alliance said, on an affiliated media channel it had shot down the plane but made no mention of the pilot.

"We were able to bring down the Russian warplane with a shoulder-fired missile above Saraqib in Idlib this afternoon," said Mahmoud al-Turkmani who, according to the statement, heads HTS's "air defence brigade."

The wing of a downed Sukhoi-25 fighter jet in Syria's northwest province of Idlib Credit: AFP

He said the attack was in retaliation for a ferocious bombing campaign by Russian warplanes over Idlib.

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HTS, which is dominated by Al-Qaeda's former affiliate in Syria, controls Idlib and has sought to fight back a ferocious Russian-backed assault by Syrian government troops.

Rebels have successfully shot down Syrian regime jets in the past but Saturday marked the first time that a Russian warplane was brought down by opposition ground fire.

In August 2016, a Russian military helicopter was shot down over Syria and all five people on board were killed.

Orient News, an opposition media outlet, claimed that the jet was shot down with an Igla anti-aircraft missile, a shoulder-fired weapon which can be carried by a single man.

The rebels have been known to use such weapons, known as man-portable air-defence systems (MANPADS) in the past, but it is not clear who would have supplied them.

Western countries have long been wary of supplying rebels with MANPADS for fear they would fall into jihadist hands and could one day be used against Western civilian or military aircraft.

The US State Department said it was "deeply concerned" at reports of such a weapon being used.

Spokeswoman Heather Nauert told AFP the solution is a return to United Nations-led talks in Geneva and for "Russia to live up to its commitments in that regards."

Video released online purports to show the wreckage of a Russian jet in Idlib Credit: Image grabbed from video tweeted by Michael A. Horowitz Verified account

Michael Horowitz, a senior analyst at the Le Beck geopolitical consultancy, said the shoot down was not a game changer as the Su-25 flies low in support of ground troops and is therefore vulnerable to anti-aircraft fire.

On the tactical level it could change things because the Russian are probably not going to use the Su-25 as much. But on the strategic level I dont think its going to change anything it terms of military balance even in this specific area.

The offensive will probably continue and pro-regime forces will probably be able to continue to advance on Saraqeb, he said.

Russia has been fighting in Syria since September 2015 and its intervention has decisively swung the tides of war in favour of the Assad regime.

The regime has also benefited from support by Iran and its proxy the Lebanese militant group Hizbollah.Beirut (AFP) - A Russian pilot was killed Saturday after his warplane went down over Syria's northwest province of Idlib and he clashed with Islamists on the ground, Russia's defence ministry and a monitor said.

"The pilot was killed as he fought Islamist rebels who had shot down his plane and were taking him captive," said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights chief Rami Abdel Rahman.

According to the British-based monitor, the Sukhoi 25 was shot down over the town of Maasran in Idlib and the pilot came down in a parachute.

He then clashed with rebels and was killed.

Abdel Rahman could not immediately confirm which hardline factions were involved, but said the jihadist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) is active in the area.

Russia's army also confirmed the pilot's death, but there was no immediate claim of responsibility from rebel factions in Syria.

Troops loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad launched a fierce offensive on Idlib in late December, with backing by Russian warplanes.

"There have been dozens of Russian air strikes in the area over the past 24 hours. This plane was also carrying out raids there," said Abdel Rahman.

Opposition factions have shot Syrian regime planes in the past, but downing Russian warplanes is much rarer.

In August 2016, a Russian military helicopter was shot down over Syria and all five people on board were killed.

Moscow began conducting air strikes in Syria in September 2015.

Two months later, Turkey shot down a Russian warplane, leading to the worst crisis in ties between the two countries since the end of the Cold War.Lome (AFP) - Thousands of protesters took to the streets in Togo's capital Lome on Saturday, against President Faure Gnassingbe and his government.

The protest came the day after mediators from Ghana and Guinea said that Togo will enter talks on controversial constitutional reform February 15, in a move aimed at ending a crippling political stalemate.

A rolling series of demonstrations against President Gnassingbe have been unfolding for several months, and the country has been rocked by striking teachers and health workers.

The opposition parties want to restrict presidents to a maximum of two, five-year terms of office, and introduce a two-round voting system.

Gnassingbe has been in power since 2005. He took over from his father, who ruled the country for 38 years.

While the mediators said Friday that the leaders of the 14 opposition parties had agreed to "suspend" the public protests, the leaders themselves carried on with Saturday's protest.

"It's our constitutional right to protest. If we want to protest then we will, " said opposition leader Jean-Pierre Fabre.

The marchers clogged up several main roads in the capital, chanting slogans against the regime.

Such demonstrations have become an almost weekly event since early September.

"I don't expect anything from the upcoming dialogue, because the regime in place is not sincere," said one of the marchers, Kossi Djivo.

West African leaders in November called for both sides in Togo to enter talks mediated by President Nana Akufo-Addo, from neighbouring Ghana, and Guinea's Alpha Conde.

The opposition coalition has demanded "measures for de-escalation", including the release of detained prisoners and the withdrawal of security forces.MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson warned Mexico on Friday to pay attention to Russian meddling in elections around the world, following comments from another U.S. official that there were signs of such interference in the country's presidential race.

Speaking in Mexico City, Tillerson said European counterparts had noticed that Russia had had its fingerprints on a number of elections.

"We hear this from our European counterparts," Tillerson said. "My advice would be ... pay attention to what's happening."

His comments followed remarks late last year by U.S. National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster, who said there was already evidence of Russian meddling in Mexican elections set for July.

McMaster did not give details of the alleged interference.

Tillerson made no reference to alleged Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election won by President Donald Trump. That involvement included people in Russia buying 3,000 U.S. political ads and placing 80,000 Facebook posts seen by 126 million Americans over two years, Facebook has said.

U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller is investigating the allegations of Russian meddling in the U.S. campaign, including whether there was any collusion between Trump's team and Moscow.

Russia denies that it intervened in the election.

The country led by Vladimir Putin has also been accused of intervening in votes in Italy, Finland, Britain and France, among others.

Mexico holds presidential and congressional elections on July 1 and so far the frontrunner in almost all polls is left-wing former Mexico City Mayor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.

An aide to presidential hopeful Jose Antonio Meade, hoping to run for the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), warned in January that Russia could try to benefit Lopez Obrador.

Lopez Obrador has made light of the allegation and has since taken to wearing a jacket embroidered with the name "Andres Manuelovich".

(Reporting by Anthony Esposito and Gabriel Stargardter; Writing by Christine Murray; Editing by Frank Jack Daniel and Sandra Maler)Defense Secretary James Mattis warned the Syrian government about using chemical weapons against civilians and raised the possibility of launching another round of airstrikes against the nation.

Syrian President Bashar Assad would be ill-advised to launch such attacks, Mattis told reporters Friday at the Pentagon. The Trump administration launched a salvo of 59 cruise missiles against a Syrian military airbase in April 2017 after confirming nerve gas use was used against Syrians living in the town of Khan Sheikoun.

Were on the record and you all have seen how we reacted to that, Mattis said. So they would be ill-advised to go back to violating the chemical convention.

Syria has denied continued use of chemical weapons but Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Assads forces had launched a new round of attacks in East Ghouta where civilians were reportedly suffocating and dying as a result of military strikes.

The U.S. is in the midst of investigating what was launched, Mattis said. He told reporters chlorine gas has been weaponized and used repeatedly by Syrian government. The U.S. does not yet have evidence of the deadly nerve agent sarin, despite reports from non-government and humanitarian groups, he said.

We are even more concerned about the possibility of sarin use, the likelihood of sarin use, and we are looking for the evidence, Mattis said. I dont have the evidence. What Im saying is groups on the ground, NGOs, fighters on the ground have said that sarin has been used. So we are looking for evidence.Yahoo News photo illustration; photos: Yuri Gripas/Reuters, Donald Trump via Twitter, Maxim Zmeyev/Reuters

President Trump angrily tweeted Saturday morning about the disclosures of FBI procedures contained in a Republican congressional memo that was released Friday after the White House declassified it.

This memo totally vindicates Trump in probe, the commander in chief wrote, speaking of himself in the third person.

But the Russian Witch Hunt goes on and on, he continued. Their [sic] was no Collusion and there was no Obstruction (the word now used because, after one year of looking endlessly and finding NOTHING, collusion is dead). This is an American disgrace!

Trump was addressing the memo drafted by Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., the chair of the House Intelligence Committee, purporting to show that there was insufficient evidence to put Trump foreign policy adviser Carter Page under surveillance during and after the presidential campaign. The four-page memo focused on the role of Christopher Steele, a former British spy who drafted a controversial dossier on Trumps ties to Russia.

Nunes pointedly mentioned the fact that Steeles work was funded by Democratic organizations.

(The memo also highlights reporting by Yahoo News Chief Investigative Correspondent Michael Isikoff, who was the first to report that Page was under federal investigation over a trip he had taken to Moscow two months earlier. In the new Yahoo News Skullduggery podcast, Isikoff discusses his role in the controversy.)

Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., attends a speech by President Trump at the 2018 House and Senate Republican Member Conference in White Sulphur Springs, W.Va. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

But the Nunes memo also shows, as Democrats on the committee have said, that the FBIs broader investigation into Russian election meddling in 2016 and possible collusion with the Trump campaign did not originate with the Steele dossier.

The memo appears to reference what news reports have described as a boast by another Trump adviser, George Papadopoulos, that the Trump campaign had access to Democrat Hillary Clintons emails, which had been hacked by Russian agents. Papadopoulos and former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn have both pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about their contacts with Russia and are now cooperating with the probe.

Story continues

Democrats claim that Nunes cherry-picked his claims to muddle the debate and potentially justify the firing of Justice Department officials overseeing the Russia investigation.

Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, responded to Trumps tweet by pointing to Papadopoulos.

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The investigation has long drawn Trumps ire. I think its a disgrace, Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Friday. Whats going on in this country, I think its a disgrace.

In a tweet Friday morning before the memos release, the president asserted that the top Leadership and Investigators of the FBI and the Justice Department have politicized the sacred investigative process in favor of Democrats and against Republicans.

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Throughout the 2016 campaign and even after taking office, Trump has demanded that the Justice Department pursue criminal charges against Hillary Clinton, his Democratic campaign foe, for a variety of alleged offenses.

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Watch news, TV and more on Yahoo View.

Read more from Yahoo News:President tweets the Russian Witch Hunt goes on and on

FBI director urges agents to keep calm and tackle hard

What is the Nunes memo and why is it important?

Donald Trump waves from Air Force One before departure from Joint Base Andrews in Maryland on Friday as he travels to Mar a Lago in West Palm Beach, Florida, for the weekend. Photograph: Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images

Amid swirling partisan rancor in Washington, mere days after Donald Trump appealed for unity in his State of the Union address, the president fired yet another broadside at special counsel Robert Mueller and the investigation into Russian election meddling.

In a Saturday morning tweet, Trump continued to attack the FBI, claiming a contentiously published memo as supposed proof that the Russia investigation is a witch-hunt.

This memo totally vindicates Trump in probe, the president wrote, oddly placing his own name in quotation marks. But the Russian Witch Hunt goes on and on.

Their [sic] was no collusion and there was no Obstruction (the word now used because, after one year of looking endlessly and finding NOTHING, collusion is dead). This is an American disgrace!

The memo was written by aides to Devin Nunes, chairman of the House intelligence committee and a member of the Trump transition team.

The committee is investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election but the inquiry has devolved into a fight about the separate FBI investigation, now led by special counsel Robert Mueller.

On Friday, Nunes published the memo after Donald Trump declassified it.

The memo revolves around a wiretap on Carter Page, an adviser to the Trump campaign, alleging the FBI omitted key information when it applied for the wiretap. The findings raise concerns with the legitimacy and legality of certain DoJ and FBI interactions with the court that approves surveillance requests, the memo says. It also claims a troubling breakdown of legal processes established to protect the American people from abuses.

The memo criticizes investigators who applied for the wiretap, saying they used material provided by an ex-British agent, Christopher Steele, without sufficiently disclosing their source. The memo says Steele was desperate that Trump not get elected.

Story continues

The memo also says texts between an FBI agent and FBI attorney demonstrated a clear bias against Trump and says there is no evidence of any co-operation or conspiracy between Page and another Trump aide under investigation, George Papadopoulos.

The memo casts deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein in a negative light. Rosenstein could fire Mueller. The president, said to dislike Rosenstein, could fire and replace him.

The FBI argued against the memos release. Democrats wrote a rebuttal and sided with the bureau. The president reportedly told associates he believes the memo will help discredit the special counsel.

Alan Yuhas

The four-page memo, which was cleared by Trump and published on Friday by the House intelligence committee chairman, Devin Nunes, against protests from Democrats, the Department of Justice and the FBI, claims bias against Trump within the FBI and focuses on the approval of a surveillance warrant in 2016 to monitor Carter Page, a former foreign policy adviser.



The document alleges that in order to obtain its warrant the FBI relied on material from a dossier compiled by a former British spy, Christopher Steele, detailing an alleged years-long campaign by Russia to cultivate Trump and sow discord in the US.

A key assertion in the memo is that the FBI did not include in its warrant application knowledge that the Steele dossier was partly funded by Democrats.

The FBI has struck a defiant tone. Hours after Trump declassified the memo on Friday, against the wishes of the national security community, the FBI director, Christopher Wray, sought to rally his agents.

Talk is cheap; the work you do is what will endure, Wray wrote in an internal note leaked to media sources. We speak through our work. One case at a time. One decision at a time.

Wray urged his employees to ignore the sensational headlines, writing: Remember: keep calm and tackle hard.

The message followed speculation that Wray might resign over the release of the memo, which he had warned against in a rare public rebuke.

Trump and his supporters have declared war on the FBI and justice department, as part of attempts to discredit the inquiry into possible collusion between the Trump campaign in Moscow in the 2016 election and potential obstruction of justice by the president.

The memo has been attacked regarding its inconsistencies and omissions, which critics say show a deliberate attempt to undermine special counsel Robert Mueller.

The document fails to note that the US government surveilled Page after he left the Trump campaign. The application to target Page was made on 21 October 2016, a month after the Trump campaign publicly distanced itself from its former adviser, as his ties to Russia came under public scrutiny.

Hes certainly not part of the campaign Im running, Kellyanne Conway, then Trumps campaign manager, said in September 2016.

The memo also does not note that material from the Steele dossier was a part of the basis for the application but was not solely used for its justification.

Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House intelligence committee, said the investigation would persist on the basis of wholly independent evidence had Christopher Steele never entered the picture.

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The memo confirms that the US government investigation into Russian meddling originated in an assertion to an Australian diplomat by George Papadopoulos, another foreign policy adviser to Trumps campaign, that Moscow possessed damaging information about Hillary Clinton.

Schiff and Democrats on the House intelligence committee sought to release their own memo, but Republicans on the panel voted to block them from doing so.

Critics fear Trump will use the memo as justification for firing high-ranking officials at the FBI and justice department. The president and his supporters have set their sights in particular on Rod Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general who has been tasked with oversight of Muellers investigation.

Trump was asked on Friday if he still had confidence in Rosenstein. He told reporters in the Oval Office: You figure that one out.

Later in the day, the attorney general, Jeff Sessions  who recused himself from the Russia investigation after misleading Congress about his own contacts with Russians  defended Rosenstein and the justice departments third-ranking official, Rachel Brand.

The two officials represent the kind of quality and leadership that we want in the department, Sessions said.

While most Republicans in Congress have either remained silent or lined up behind Trump regarding the release of the Nunes memo, the Arizona senator John McCain was among the few to break ranks.

The American people deserve to know all of the facts surrounding Russias ongoing efforts to subvert our democracy, which is why special counsel Muellers investigation must proceed unimpeded, he said in a statement.

Our nations elected officials, including the president, must stop looking at this investigation through the warped lens of politics and manufacturing partisan sideshows.WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump will meet with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull at the White House on Feb. 23, the White House said in a statement on Thursday. "The president and prime minister will discuss a range of shared bilateral, regional, and global priorities, including fighting terrorism, promoting economic growth, and expanding security and defense cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region," the statement said. Trump and Turnbull last met in November on the sidelines of a summit of East and Southeast Asian leaders in Manila. The meeting included Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, and the three leaders discussed trade issues and the threat posed by North Korea's nuclear program. The relationship between Trump and Turnbull got off to a rocky start. Trump spoke to Turnbull a few days after the U.S. president took office in January 2017, but Trump broke off what was supposed to be an hour-long conversation after a tense 25 minutes. The Republican president became irritated that he was expected to honor an agreement made by his Democratic predecessor, Barack Obama, to accept 1,250 refugees. In the end, Trump decided to honor the agreement. Trump and Turnbull apparently smoothed over their differences in a face-to-face meeting in New York in May, with Trump declaring they "get along great." (Reporting by Eric Beech; Editing by Eric Walsh and Peter Cooney)Washington (AFP) - US President Donald Trump welcomed six North Korean defectors to the Oval Office on Friday, a high profile and potentially provocative show of support.

The group -- whose stories Trump described as "incredible and truly inspirational" -- included a banker with knowledge of the regime's overseas operations, a former political prisoner and amputee Ji Seong-ho.

Seong-ho escaped from North Korea in 2006 and was given a place of honor just seats away from First Lady Melania Trump at Tuesday's State of the Union address.

Since coming to office Trump has made a series of bellicose remarks on North Korea and vowed to never let Pyongyang develop nuclear weapons that could hit the continental United States.

But his embrace of North Korean defectors could enrage the regime as much as any verbal barbs.

The meeting comes at a particularly sensitive time, as the Winter Olympics are about to get underway in South Korea.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un -- who Trump has dismissively dubbed "rocket man" -- has so far pressed ahead with weapons programs and shows little sign of backing down.

Trump has pushed for an oil embargo against North Korea, a measure that could significantly dent the country's military operations and the broader economy.

But, according to diplomats, that effort has run into opposition from Chinese leader Xi Jinping, who believes it could cause the country's collapse.

Trump addressed the standoff in separate calls with the leaders of Japan and South Korea on Friday.

In a call with Japan's Shinzo Abe, the White House said both leaders agreed to "intensify the international maximum pressure campaign to denuclearize North Korea."

In his call with South Korean President Moon Jae-in, Trump wished "him and the Korean people a successful Winter Olympic Games."As special counsel Robert Muellers probe into possible collusion between President Donald Trumps campaign and Russia intensifies, the question looms whether Mueller can indict a sitting president, which would be a first in U.S. history.

Many legal scholars doubt Mueller can bring criminal charges against Trump, and more importantly, there is no legal precedent for an indictment of a president. Two Justice Department legal opinions say it is not a viable option: the first came in 1973 amid revelations of ex-President Richard Nixon's alleged involvement in the Watergate scandal, and another in 2000 after the Clinton v. Jones sexual harassment lawsuit in 1997.

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Those hoping Mueller will prosecute Trump are steeped in fantasy, according to Paul Rosenzweig, a former deputy of Kenneth Starr, the independent counsel in the Whitewater real estate investments and Monica Lewinsky investigations during the Clinton administration.

If we know anything about Mueller, we think we know that he follows the rulesall of them, Rosenzweig wrote in The Atlantic on Tuesday. Mueller will not indict Trump for obstruction of justice or for any crime. Period. Full stop. End of story. Speculations to the contrary are just fantasy.

There is a big legal debate around whether indicting the president is even permissible. Andrew Wright, who was an associate counsel to former President Barack Obama, told Newsweek earlier this year that constitutional law allowing criminal charges after a president's removal has widely been interpreted as suggesting the leader of the free world "might not be amenable to prosecution and indictment while they're in office."

Don't miss: Can Never-Trumpers Reclaim the Hijacked Republican Party?

Trumps personal lawyer, John Dowd, in December argued that the president cannot obstruct justice because he is the chief law enforcement officer" under the Constitution.

Story continues

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But The New York Times last July obtained a memo from Starrs independent counsel investigation into former President Bill Clinton, considered the most thorough government-commissioned analysis rejecting the general view that presidents cannot be prosecuted while serving their terms.

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It is proper, constitutional, and legal for a federal grand jury to indict a sitting president for serious criminal acts that are not part of, and are contrary to, the presidents official duties, the Starr office memo stated. In this country, no one, even President Clinton, is above the law.

Mueller in October indicted former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and his deputy Rick Gates. Both pleaded not guilty.

This article was first written by Newsweek

More from NewsweekPresident Donald Trump has refused to rule out firing Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.

Asked in the Oval Office whether he would axe the Justice Department official, Mr Trump said with a scowl to reporters: You figure that one out.

The Presidents comment came after he approved the release of a memo alleging surveillance abuses by FBI officials investigating potential collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. The controversial document was crafted by the staff of Devin Nunes, the Republican chairman of the House Intelligence Committee.

Hours after Mr Trump spoke, a White House spokesman said there have been no discussions or considerations about firing Mr Rosenstein.

Democrats have called the four-page Nunes memo a shameful effort to discredit the FBI, the Justice Department and Special Counsel Robert Muellers probe into Russian meddling in the 2016 election.

The premise of the Nunes memo is that the FBI and DOJ corruptly sought a [Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act] warrant on a former Trump campaign foreign policy adviser, Carter Page, and deliberately misled the court as part of a systematic abuse of the FISA process, the Democrats said in a statement.

None of this is true, they added. The FBI had good reason to be concerned about Carter Page and would have been derelict in its responsibility to protect the country had it not sought a FISA warrant.

But Mr Trump has suggested the memo shows political bias at the FBI that tainted the investigation into his campaign. The President has repeatedly said there was no collusion between his campaign advisers and the Russian government.

A lot of people should be ashamed of themselves and much worse than that, Mr Trump told reporters at the White House.

The memo states that Mr Rosenstein signed off on at least one FISA application to surveil Mr Page.

The FBI and its director, Christopher Wray, raised issues over the memo, with the bureau issuing a rare public statement on Wednesday declaring it had grave concerns about the accuracy of the classified document.

Story continues

Since Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself from all matters related to the Russia investigation, Mr Rosenstein has been overseeing the Russia probe for the Justice Department.

Last May, the Deputy Attorney General appointed Robert Mueller as special counsel to head the federal investigation after Mr Trump made the controversial move to fire FBI Director James Comey, who had been running the bureaus inquiry.

Democrats from the House and Senate sent a letter to Mr Trump on Friday warning him against using the Nunes memo as a pretext to fire Mr Rosenstein or Mr Mueller.

Firing Rod Rosenstein, DOJ (Department of Justice) leadership, or Bob Mueller could result in a constitutional crisis of the kind not seen since the Saturday night massacre, the Democrats wrote, referring to President Richard Nixons firing of the Watergate scandal special prosecutor in the 1970s.

There has already been speculation for months over whether Mr Trump would fire Mr Mueller.

Also on Friday, Mr Sessions went off-script during remarks about human trafficking to praise his deputy. He declared that Mr Rosenstein - along with Rachel Brand, the current No 3 at the Justice Department  both represent the kind of quality and leadership that we want in the department.ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Three Turkish soldiers were killed and seven wounded on Thursday in separate attacks carried out by Kurdish militants targeting troops stationed in the southeastern Turkish province of Hakkari and in northern Iraq, the army said. Militants from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) attacked troops positioned in northern Iraq, killing two soldiers and wounding two, the military said. A third soldier was killed and five wounded in the Cukurca district of Hakkari when militants attacked a military base, it said. The PKK, which has waged an insurgency in Turkey's mainly Kurdish southeast since the 1980s, has camps in the Qandil mountains of northern Iraq, from which it frequently carries out attacks in nearby Hakkari. The group is viewed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union. More than 40,000 people, most of them Kurds, have been killed in the conflict. Local media later reported that another two soldiers were killed and two wounded in the Semdinli district of Hakkari, in what appeared to be a separate incident. The military said it had killed 49 militants in air strikes in northern Iraq on Monday. The strikes were carried out in six regions of northern Iraq and targeted shelters, hideouts and weapons stocks, the military said. (Reporting by Orhan Coskun, Tulay Karadeniz and Tuvan Gumrukcu; Writing by Ezgi Erkoyun; Editing by David Dolan)Turkish forces push into Syria Turkey-backed Free Syrian Army fighters are seen in al Ajami village in east al Bab, Syria, Feb. 3, 2018. (Photo: Khalil Ashawi/Reuters)

Turkey said eight of its troops were killed Saturday in Ankaras military operation against a Syrian Kurdish militia, the deadliest day in the two-week-old offensive in the enclave of Afrin, while in another part of Syria, al-Qaida-linked militants downed a Russian fighter jet, then shot and killed the pilot.

In a statement late Saturday, the Turkish military said five soldiers were killed after their tank in Syria came under attack near Afrin. The soldiers could not be saved despite all attempts, it said.

Earlier in the day, three Turkish soldiers were reported killed in the Afrin offensive  one was killed in the area of the tank attack, another in northern Syria and the third on the Turkish side of the border in what Ankara said was an attack by Syrian Kurdish militiamen.

The total death toll for Turkish troops since the operation, codenamed Olive Branch, started on Jan. 20 now stands at 13.

Turkey launched the incursion into Afrin to rout the U.S.-backed Syrian Kurdish militia, known as the Peoples Protection Units or YPG, which it considers to be a terrorist organization and an extension of Kurdish insurgents fighting within Turkey. (AP)

See more news-related photo galleries and follow us on Yahoo News Photo Twitter and Tumblr.By William James

SHANGHAI (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Theresa May left China on Friday with deals worth more than 9.3 billion pounds, at the end of a three-day trade mission where President Xi Jinping pledged to upgrade their "golden era" in relations.

Britain is trying to reinvent itself as a global trading nation after a 2016 referendum decision to leave the European Union, and China, the world's second-largest economy, is high on the list of countries that Britain wants to sign a free trade agreement with.

Speaking at a business summit in China's commercial capital Shanghai, May said Britain was keen to help bring Xi's vision for globalisation and a more open Chinese economy to life.

"Meanwhile, the UK is preparing to leave the European Union. We're seizing the opportunity to become an ever-more outward-looking Global Britain, deepening our trade relations with nations around the world - including China," she said.

Chinese investment is helping Britain develop infrastructure and create jobs, with some 50,000 British businesses importing goods from China and more than 10,000 sell their goods to China, she added.

"We've agreed on moves to bring more of the UK's internationally renowned food and drink to China, to open up the market to some of Britain's world-class financial services providers," May said.

The 9.3 billion pounds in deals will create over 2,500 jobs across the United Kingdom, the British government said.

Britain's financial services firms alone secured deals worth more than 1 billion pounds and market access, that would lead to 890 jobs, it said, without giving details.

China sees Britain as an important ally in its call for more open global markets, despite widespread concerns in the foreign business community about the difficulty of operating in China, and both countries refer to a "golden era" in relations.

Meeting in Beijing late on Thursday, Xi told May the two countries should "add new meaning into the bilateral ties so as to forge an enhanced version of the 'Golden Era'," according to state-run media.

Story continues

China has also been appreciative of Britain's enthusiasm for the China-backed Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and Xi's Belt and Road initiative to build a new Silk Road.

In a front page commentary on Friday, the overseas edition of the People's Daily said Britain had shown "intelligence and pragmatism" in supporting Belt and Road.

"It is a model for other Western nations," it said.

But Brexit has unnerved Beijing, concerned about losing an important voice supporting free trade in the European Union and what it may mean for market access to Europe for Chinese firms which have invested in Britain.

Still, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang told May on Wednesday that China's relations with Britain will remain unchanged through Brexit.

(This story refiles to add dropped word "day" in lead.)

(Writing and additional reporting by Ben Blanchard in BEIJING; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore)Nairobi (AFP) - The UN on Friday followed the United States in criticising the Kenyan government after it took three major TV channels off the air despite a court order to end the suspensions.

"We call on the government to respect and implement the judicial decision," said Rupert Colville, spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

He said he was "concerned that three TV stations remain suspended... in spite of an interim order by a Kenyan High Court".

The United States earlier issued a statement saying it was "deeply concerned by the government's action to shut down, intimidate, and restrict the media".

On Tuesday, KTN News, NTV, and Citizen TV were blocked from broadcasting the "swearing-in" of opposition leader, Raila Odinga, in a mock presidential inauguration.

The interior minister condemned the move as an effort to "overthrow" the government of President Uhuru Kenyatta, who won re-election last year in a re-run vote boycotted by Odinga.

The opposition claimed the election process was rigged and the result illegitimate.

Following a petition filed by a civil society group on Thursday, a High Court judge ordered the TV shutdown suspended while the case is heard.

US State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert also criticised Odinga's actions, saying the US was "gravely concerned by Kenyan opposition leader Raila Odinga's self-'inauguration'".

The African Union slammed Odinga for undermining the "constitutional order and the rule of law" but made no mention of government attacks on press freedom.

The "swearing-in" by Odinga has alienated him from the international community, with Western diplomats saying they were not in contact with him.

International calls for dialogue between the two sides have for months been ignored by both the government and opposition.

Two opposition figures, who took prominent roles in the "swearing-in" ceremony have also been arrested.

Miguna Miguna was seized by police in a dawn raid at his house on Friday, while TJ Kajwang was arrested on Wednesday.

Both are expected to be charged with treason and unlawful assembly.The University of Pennsylvania is removing casino mogul Steve Wynns name from a commons and a scholarship and rescinding his honorary degree following allegations of sexual harassment.

The decision comes nearly a week after The Wall Street Journals report containing multiple allegations of sexual misconduct against the casino mogul. Among the claims is a $7.5 million payout he allegedly made to a manicurist who alleged he had sex with her despite her protests. Wynn has denied the allegations. He has since stepped down from his position as finance chairman at the Republican National Committee.

Late last week, multiple credible reports emerged in the national press detailing pervasive and decades-long acts of sexual harassment and intimidation by Steve Wynn, former Penn Trustee and College alumnus, David Cohen, chair of Penns Board of Trustees and Penn President Amy Gutmann said in an emailed statement, reprinted in full by The Daily Pennsylvanian. The nature, severity, and extent of these allegations, and the patterns of abusive behavior they describe, involve acts and conduct that are inimical to the core values of our University.

Wynns name will be removed from Wynn Commons, an outdoor plaza between several college halls and an auditorium. According to The Daily Pennsylvanian, a metal rectangle has already been placed over his name on a seal outside of one of the halls. The scholarship created from Wynns donation will no longer bear his name, though it will still be awarded.

Along with the decision regarding Wynn, the Ivy League university said it would also be stripping Bill Cosby, who has been accused of multiple accounts sexual assault and misconduct, of his honorary degree. This is a reversal from their decision in 2015, when a spokesperson for Penn stated, While the allegations against Mr. Cosby are deeply troubling, it is not our practice to rescind honorary degrees.

Cosby has denied the allegations. A criminal case against him last year ended in a mistrial; a retrial is scheduled for this year.

Penns decision was made after recommendations to the Executive Committee of the Board of Trustees; it has been a century since Penn rescinded an honorary degree, according to the statement.

On Wednesday, a similar decision was made at University of Iowa. University leadership announced that school will be removing Wynns name from the Institute for Vision Research, the first time it has stripped a donors name from a building.The University of Pennsylvania said Thursday it was cutting ties with billionaire casino mogul Steve Wynn, a former university trustee, after allegations of sexual misconduct that spanned decades.

In an email to students, faculty and alumni, David L. Cohen, the trustees chair, and Amy Gutmann, the university president, condemned Wynns abusive behavior as described in the reports.

The nature, severity, and extent of these allegations, and the patterns of abusive behavior they describe, involve acts and conduct that are inimical to the core values of our University, the email said.

Cohen and Gutmann also said Penn had decided to revoke an honorary degree previously awarded to comedian Bill Cosby, who for years has faced a mountain of sexual misconduct allegations. Cosby has admitted to drugging women, but denies sexually assaulting them.

The university leaders outlined steps Penn would take to distance itself from Wynn, who graduated in 1963 and has donated millions to the school in Philadelphia:

First, we will remove the name Wynn Commons, named for Mr. Wynn, from the centrally located outdoor plaza bounded by Houston Hall, Claudia Cohen Hall, College Hall, and Irvine Auditorium. Second, Mr. Wynns name will be removed from a scholarship fund established by a donation from him. The scholarships will continue to be awarded. Third, we will revoke Mr. Wynns honorary degree.

The announcement comes five days after Wynn resigned as finance chair of the Republican National Committee following an explosive report in The Wall Street Journal on Friday, which included accusations that Wynn sexually harassed several of his casino employees over several decades.

The board of directors of Wynn Resorts formed a special committee to investigate the allegations, and casino regulators in Nevada and Massachusetts said this week they would begin investigations.

Wynn, 76, has vehemently denied the accusations, saying the idea he ever assaulted any woman was preposterous.

Story continues

It has been 100 years since Penn last revoked an honorary degree, Cohen and Gutmann noted in their email.

Our nation is currently undergoing a profound reckoning regarding the role and extent of sexual misconduct in all areas of our society, the school leaders wrote.

As a University, we have always been, and will always continue to be, looked to by our alumni and neighbors, our faculty, and most of all by our students, for moral leadership. We must not  we cannot  fail to provide it.

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This article originally appeared on HuffPost.Washington (AFP) - The United States is concerned that sarin gas may have been recently used in Syria, US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said Friday, as Washington steps up the pressure on Bashar al-Assad's regime to put an end to chemical attacks.

Mattis told reporters that chlorine gas was known to have been weaponized "repeatedly" in attacks in Syria, but added: "We are even more concerned about the possibility of sarin use, and we are looking for the evidence."

The Pentagon chief cited reports from NGOs and rebel groups in the battlefield who say the chemical weapon has been used, although he stressed that the United States currently has no evidence to support those claims.

"But we are not refuting them -- we are looking for evidence of it since clearly we are dealing with the Assad regime that has used denial and deceit to hide it," he said.

"They would be ill-advised to go back to violating the chemical convention."

Mattis's remarks come a day after senior administration officials said Washington was not ruling out fresh military action against the Syrian regime in the wake of suspected sarin and chlorine attacks.

President Donald Trump "hasn't excluded anything" in the bid to halt the program, a senior US official told AFP. "Using military force is something that is still considered."

There have been more than 260 reports of chemical attacks in Syria, some of which have been verified by UN-backed inspectors and attributed to the Assad regime.

Aside from the threat to Syrian civilians, Washington is worried that the well-documented chemical attacks -- systematically denied by Damascus and its Russian ally -- is undermining long-standing taboos on their use.

The Assad regime appears to have altered course only slightly since the United States fired 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles at a Syrian airfield in 2017, after a large chemical attack on rebel-held Khan Sheikhun.

Instead of dropping barrel bombs filled with chemical agents from helicopters, senior administration officials say that mortars and other ground-based delivery systems are now being used.

The chemical of choice has most often been industrial chlorine, which is easy to produce and legal to possess, rather than sarin, which is banned by the Chemical Weapons Convention.US President Donald Trump is set to host Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull at the White House on February 23 to "celebrate 100 years of mateship" according to a statement issued Thursday.

The pair held an infamously bad-tempered telephone call early on in Trump's presidency, when the US leader reportedly exploded and hung up after he was told about a Barack Obama-era deal to move refugees from Australia to America.

But the affair appeared to have been smoothed over after Turnbull visited Trump for a patch-up summit in New York last May.

"President Trump looks forward to further enhancing our partnership and alliance, and demonstrating our shared commitment to the democratic values that underpin peace and prosperity around the world," the statement said.

It added: "The President and Prime Minister will discuss a range of shared bilateral, regional, and global priorities, including fighting terrorism, promoting economic growth, and expanding security and defense cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region.

"The leaders will celebrate 100 years of mateship through war, peace, and prosperity, charting the course for the coming century of partnership," it continued, referencing an Australian idiom.

Despite outward bonhomie, the advent of Trump has invigorated a debate over Australia's place in the world and whether its future lies with an unpredictable United States or a closer relationship with China, its top trading partner.

Several former senior Australian diplomats have urged Canberra to rethink ties with the United States in light of China's rise.A van was on fire after hitting a crowd near Shanghai Peoples Park on February 2.

At least 18 people, including the 40-year-old driver from Jiangxi, were wounded, according to police. The South China Morning Post said at least three people were critically injured.

This footage shows bystanders watching as firefighters work to put out the blaze. Credit: Yao Jeremy via StoryfulCARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela late on Friday freed an 85-year-old activist, who is the sole survivor of a clandestine group that fought a 1950s military dictatorship, after he was detained by intelligence agents for a day. The family of lawyer Enrique Aristeguieta and the political party Justice First said he was taken from his home in Caracas in the early hours of Friday, with no explanation from authorities. Full freedom for Enrique Aristeguieta and well also achieve that for Venezuela, said hard-line opposition leader Maria Corina Machado. Aristeguieta is an outspoken opposition campaigner who regularly compares what he calls the "narco-tyranny" of socialist President Nicolas Maduro to the 1952-1958 dictatorship of Marcos Perez. Aristeguieta's Twitter feed had not yet been updated and the last message posted at about 4 a.m. Friday said he was being sought by Venezuelan intelligence agents in his home. Authorities did not respond to a request for comment earlier on Friday on the detention. Local rights group Penal Forum said Aristeguieta was one of 14 activists rounded up during the past week, among about 200 who are being detained by the Maduro government. Critics say the ruling Socialist Party persecutes dissenters while officials insist they are acting legitimately against people plotting against the government with U.S. support. (Reporting by Deisy Buitrago; Writing by Girish Gupta; Editing by Bill Trott)Watergate reporter Carl Bernstein has said that America is living through its darkest days since Senator Joseph McCarthys anti-Communist witch hunts.

In an interview with CNNs Jake Tapper Friday, Bernstein criticized Republican Devin Nunes, Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, for the release of a memo allegedly showing partisan bias in the FBI investigation into the Trump camps contact with Russia.

161109070244-carl-bernstein-super-169

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As some Republicans suggested the memo exposed a scandal at the heart of the FBI worse than Watergate, the reporter who was one of the duo who exposed the White House's involvement in the 1972 Watergate break-in, said it was Republicans who had got it wrong.

Bernstein called the memo a disingenuous partisan document.

We may well have not seen such dark days for American democracy and its institutions since the days of Joe McCarthy, Bernstein said, referring to the notorious anti-communist purges orchestrated by the Wisconsin Republican senator in the 1950s. In the case of McCarthy, it was a senator, not the president of the United States, who was a demagogic authoritarian.

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The GOP memo alleges that the request to begin surveillance of former Trump adviser Carter Page was based on material contained in the notorious dossier compiled about Trump by former British spy Christopher Steele.

The memo notes that Steele's efforts were funded in part by the Democratic Party and Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign, and that a failure to mention this when obtaining the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (Fisa) warrant is evidence of negligence or possible partisan bias.

The memo does not mention the role of a Republican mega-donor in funding the research.

Story continues

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Bernstein said that the memo is a red herring, being used by the Trump administration to derail Special Counsel Robert Muellers investigation into allegations of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.

If indeed there is exonerating evidence there, the president ought to have enough faith in our institutions, including inspectors general, the FBI, oversight committees. Right now we need to know what the Russians did, whether or not the Trump organization was involved in some way, he said.



In the whole Cold War, the Russians were not able to do what Putin has done through Donald Trump to destabilize the U.S. and its Democratic institutions."

He went on to say that he hopes the Republican Party "gets ahold of its senses."

"It was the Republican Party who was always toughest on the Russians. ... [Republicans] were the heroes of Watergate because they were open to the truth."

This article was first written by Newsweek

More from NewsweekWASHINGTON  As news broke that President Donald Trump authorized the release of a GOP memo on Friday meant to undermine the ongoing investigation into his campaigns links to Russian officials, several right-wing outlets appeared to have received excerpts in advance.

Before House Republicans published the document online, Fox News anchors began reading exclusive first excerpts, and the Washington Examiner and The Federalist teased that they had the memos contents.

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Trump and congressional Republicans defended the release as a move toward transparency in the Russia investigation, which they have repeatedly alleged is a partisan witch hunt.

Yet the fact that media outlets friendly to Trump obtained portions of the memo before its actual release further underscores the political nature of the document, and suggests its meant solely to cast doubt on the Russia investigation and propel unprecedented partisan attacks on the FBI and the Department of Justice.

In the run-up to its release, right-wing media defenders of Trump feverishly and breathlessly claimed the memo was highly damaging and provided evidence of Department of Justice and FBI bias against Trump.

Fox News host Sean Hannity, one of Trumps staunch allies, has regularly claimed that supposed wrongdoing in the investigation led by special counsel Robert Mueller is worse than Watergate.

This makes Watergate look like stealing a Snickers bar, he said earlier this week.

But in reality, the memo appears to mostly confirm already reported aspects of the investigation and omits facts that do not conform to Republicans narrative.

In authorizing the memos release, Trump went against the FBIs grave concerns about the memo. Hours before the release on Friday morning, he continued his relentless attacks on the DOJ and FBI, claiming its top leaders were biased  even though he appointed them, and many of the investigations key figures are Republicans themselves.

Later Friday, the White House suggested it would be open to releasing a counter memo from the Democratic members of the House Intelligence Committee, who opposed the GOPs memo. Because they were outnumbered on the committee, Republicans blocked them from releasing their own document, which they said laid out the inaccuracies of the GOP memo.

Story continues

Minority members of the Committee have reportedly drafted a separate memorandum. The Administration stands ready to work with Congress to accommodate oversight requests consistent with applicable standards, including the need to protect intelligence sources and methods, the White House said in a statement.

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This article originally appeared on HuffPost.A judge sentenced on Thursday the 15-year-old Wisconsin girl who along with another girl, stabbed a classmate in 2014 in tribute to the fictional internet horror meme Slender Man.

Judge Michael Bohren said that Morgan Geyser was still at risk of hurting herself or others during the sentencing in a Waukesha, Wisconsin courtroom. Geyser received a sentence of 40 years in a mental hospital.

Its been more than three years since Geyser, then 12, and her friend, Anissa Weier, lured their classmate, Payton Leutner to a wooded area near suburban Waukesha. Geyser and Weier committed an assault that saw Leutner stabbed 19 times. She survived after crawling out into the road, after being left to bleed to death.

In August, 15-year-old Weier pleaded guilty to a charge of attempted second-degree homicide as party to a crime, with use of a deadly weapon. She was sentenced in December to 25 years in a mental hospital. Weier claimed she wasnt entirely responsible for what she did, because she was mentally unwell at the time.

Geysers attorneys had argued during her trial that she suffered from psychotic spectrum disorder and schizophrenia, which could explain why she believed she was communicating with Slender Man, a fictional demonic presence made popular on sites like Creepypasta, where authors share paranormal stories and short horror microfiction.

A fictional, Slender Man horror film, capitalizing on the characters creepy viral popularity, is slated to premier this summer.

See also:

With reporting from Emily Gaudette

Written by Grace Lisa Scott

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More From InverseTips sought by police

 Anyone with information about the Jared Scroggins or Shawn Martinez cases is asked to call the police department at 509-575-6200.

Tips, including anonymous submissions, can be reported to Crime Stoppers of Yakima County at 509-248-9980 or 800-248-9980. Online tips can be submitted at www.crimestoppersyakco.org.United States Court of Appeals, Tenth Circuit. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff - Appellee, v. LORETTA GILLIARD, Defendant - Appellant. No. 17-3274 Decided: February 01, 2018

Before HARTZ, MATHESON, and PHILLIPS, Circuit Judges.

ORDER AND JUDGMENT *

Loretta Gilliard was indicted on a drug conspiracy charge after one of her alleged heroin customers overdosed and almost died. The magistrate judge ordered pretrial detention, and the district court denied a motion to revoke the detention order. We must evaluate whether pretrial detention is appropriate under the Bail Reform Act. See 18 U.S.C.  3142. Ms. Gilliard argues that (1) the district court's findings are not sufficiently detailed to comply with  3142(i); and (2) the district court erred in ordering detention without discussing whether any release conditions could satisfy concerns that she is a flight risk or a danger to the community. Exercising jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C.  1291 and 18 U.S.C.  3145(c), we affirm.

I. Background

A federal grand jury returned an indictment against Ms. Gilliard, charging her with one count of conspiracy to distribute heroin, with serious injury resulting from the use of such heroin, in violation of 18 U.S.C.  2 and 21 U.S.C.  841(a)(1), (b)(1)(c), and 846. If convicted, she faces a statutory minimum sentence of 20 years in prison. No trial date has been set.

The government alleges that Ms. Gilliard engaged in over 100 transactions involving heroin over the course of a year, two of which were controlled buys by a confidential informant. Most of the sales involved the same customer, who ultimately suffered a near-fatal overdose. After the customer identified Ms. Gilliard as the supplier, a detective located her in Texas by tracking the use of her welfare-benefits card issued by the State of Missouri. Ms. Gilliard was arrested in Texas and transferred for proceedings before the United States District Court for the District of Kansas.

A. Detention Hearing

The magistrate judge conducted a detention hearing on November 28, 2017, at which he took judicial notice of the factual information in the pretrial services report that was prepared in Texas. The report states that Ms. Gilliard is a 34-year-old woman with a history of substance abuse and mental health issues and a criminal history dating back to age 18. Her convictions include traffic offenses, stealing, forgery, selling sexual relations, felony obstruction of the legal process, and aggravated escape from a correctional facility. The report lists numerous outstanding warrants, failures to appear, and probation revocations related to these convictions. Although Ms. Gilliard objected to a few entries regarding outstanding bench warrants in municipal cases, she did not object to the remainder of the criminal history.

The detective who supervised the investigation of Ms. Gilliard testified for the government. After that testimony, Ms. Gilliard asked to be released into Majestic House, a women's transitional living home in Kansas City, Missouri. She expressed her belief that beds were available, but did not present documentation to that effect. She described the facility as a community for drug- and alcohol-free residents, with a curfew imposed for the first 90 days, 12-step meetings, and limits on visitation. To alleviate any concerns arising from her aggravated-escape conviction, she explained that back in 2007 she failed to report back to a halfway house for a few hours after her leave pass expired, though she later acknowledged the timing was closer to 20 hours. The government responded by emphasizing that Ms. Gilliard has nine failures to appearthree from the last four yearsthat demonstrate her unwillingness to comply with the conditions imposed by other courts. The government also expressed concern about placing a heroin dealer into Majestic House because its inhabitants are trying to overcome various addictions.

The magistrate judge found by a preponderance of the evidence that no condition or combination of conditions will reasonably assure Ms. Gilliard's appearance as required because she poses a serious flight risk. In addition to questioning Ms. Gilliard's character and truthfulness, the magistrate judge explained that a flight-risk assessment takes into account both the risk of physical flight and whether a defendant is reasonably amenable to supervision. He then concluded that Ms. Gilliard's drug history, failures to appear, and failures to comply with release conditions show that she is not amenable to supervision. The magistrate judge did not find by clear and convincing evidence that Ms. Gilliard presented a danger to the community, however.

The magistrate judge ordered pretrial detention. He supplemented his oral ruling with a written detention order, which included findings of fact for each factor in 18 U.S.C.  3142(g) and applied the rebuttable presumption contained in  3142(e).

B. Hearing on Motion to Revoke

Ms. Gilliard filed a motion to revoke the pretrial detention order. The district court held a motions hearing on December 21, 2017. The substance of the proceedings paralleled the initial detention hearing: the district court took judicial notice of the pretrial services report from Texas, as well as a more recent one out of Kansas; the same detective testified on the government's behalf and summarized the evidence collected against Ms. Gilliard and her criminal record; and Ms. Gilliard again requested release to Majestic House. The end result was the same, though the district court found Ms. Gilliard to be a danger to the community as well.

Applying de novo review, the district court invoked the presumption of detention under  3142(e)(3). It then emphasized that it had analyzed all of the  3142(g) factors and proceeded to address them one by one. For the first factor, the district court stated that Ms. Gilliard was charged with a very serious offense involving a controlled substance, which led to physical harm or injury to another individual. Aplt. App., Vol. I at 128-29. For the second factor, the court discussed the detective's testimony against Ms. Gilliard, which included strong evidence that she was involved in multiple drug deals over an extended time. For the third factor, the court generally referenced her bond report and her employment, criminal, and substance-abuse histories. It highlighted her stealing and forgery convictions, her possible welfare fraud, and her failures to appeardeeming the latter to be indicative of her failure to comply with release conditions. For the fourth factor, the court found Ms. Gilliard to be a safety risk because the charges involved repeated misconduct and that misconduct resulted in physical harm to a customer. It next balanced these factors against the proposed release plan, which it acknowledged might provide her with an opportunity to receive substance-abuse treatment. In the end, the district court found Ms. Gilliard to be both a flight risk and a danger to the community and denied the motion to revoke the detention order.

Ms. Gilliard now appeals.

II. Analysis

The charges against Ms. Gilliard establish a rebuttable presumption that no condition or combination of conditions will reasonably assure [her appearance] as required and the safety of the community. 18 U.S.C.  3142(e)(3)(A). Ms. Gilliard bears the burden of producing evidence to rebut the presumption. See United States v. Stricklin, 932 F.2d 1353, 1354 (10th Cir. 1991) (per curiam). Even if a defendant's burden of production is met, the presumption remains a factor for consideration by the district court in determining whether to release or detain. Id. at 1355. At the same time, the burden of persuasion regarding risk-of-flight and danger to the community always remains with the government. Id. at 1354-55.

We review the district court's ultimate pretrial detention decision de novo because it presents mixed questions of law and fact; however, we review the underlying findings of fact for clear error. United States v. Cisneros, 328 F.3d 610, 613 (10th Cir. 2003). A finding is clearly erroneous when, although there is evidence to support it, the reviewing court, on review of the entire record, is left with the definite and firm conviction that a mistake has been committed. United States v. Gilgert, 314 F.3d 506, 515 (10th Cir. 2002) (brackets and internal quotation marks omitted). We review the district court's findings with significant deference, cognizant that our role is not to re-weigh the evidence. Id. at 515-16 (internal quotation marks omitted).

We cannot find fault with the district court's determination that the government met its burden or the manner in which the court reached its decision. Ms. Gilliard characterizes the district court's application of the statutory factors as shallow, conclusory, and terse. Aplt. Mem. Br. at 18-19. But the record shows that both the magistrate judge and the district court were well-informed and considered all four relevant factors in determining whether any release conditions will reasonably assure her appearance and the safety of others and the community: (1) the nature and circumstances of the offense charged; (2) the weight of the evidence; (3) the person's history and characteristics; and (4) the nature and seriousness of the danger to any person or the community that would be posed by the person's release.  3142(g). Indeed, most of the evidence relating to these factors came straight from uncontested portions of the pretrial services reports. In addition, [t]he concern about safety is to be given a broader construction than the mere danger of physical violence, so the threat of continued drug trafficking can constitute a danger to the community. United States v. Cook, 880 F.2d 1158, 1161 (10th Cir. 1989) (per curiam).

Likewise, we are not persuaded by Ms. Gilliard's assertion that the district court did not discuss whether any conditions of release could be fashioned to satisfy its concerns that she is a flight risk and a danger to the community. As a threshold matter, Ms. Gilliard did not establish that space was even available at Majestic House. She expressed her belief that there was space at the initial detention hearingsee Aplt. App., Vol. I at 49 (We do believe that bed space would be available were the court to release Miss Gilliard to that location.)but the probation officer in Texas was unable to make contact with Majestic House to confirm that was true. Regardless, the record shows that both the magistrate judge and the district court considered and rejected Ms. Gilliard's proposal to be released to Majestic House.

Nor are we convinced that United States v. Mobley, No. 17-3234, ___ F. App'x ___, 2017 WL 6492842 (10th Cir. Dec. 19, 2017), or United States v. Gerkin, 570 F. App'x 819 (10th Cir. 2014), has any bearing on this case. In Mobley, we remanded for additional findings of fact and an explanation of the reasoning behind the district court's pretrial detention decision. But there was no rebuttable presumption of detention based on the offense committed in Mobley, and the district court's analysis as to the  3142(g) factors was woefully inadequate. And in Gerkin, the transcripts from the detention and review hearings were insufficient to allow for meaningful review: The magistrate judge did not make any oral or written findings on the dispositive question, 570 F. App'x at 822, and the district court summarily affirmed, thereby perpetuating the error. This case presents an entirely different set of circumstances.

Here, the district court considered the evidence presented in conjunction with the relevant statutory factors and the detention presumption, and it articulated its reasoning in sufficient detail to allow for meaningful appellate review. Deferring to the district court's factual findings as we must, our review of the entire record does not leave us with the definite and firm conviction that a mistake has been committed. See Gilgert, 314 F.3d at 515 (internal quotation marks omitted). Furthermore, we are satisfied that the court carefully weighed both parties' positions. We cannot reweigh the evidence on clear-error review, see id. at 515-16, and a factfinder's choice between two permissible views of the evidence cannot be clearly erroneous, see Anderson v. City of Bessemer City, 470 U.S. 564, 574 (1985).

For these reasons, we affirm.

We grant Ms. Gilliard's Unopposed Motion to Seal Volume II of Appellant's Appendix, which contains the pretrial services reports. In referencing the contents of those reports herein, we have been careful to confine our discussion to information that is also contained in the unsealed transcripts and is thus publicly available.

Entered for the Court

FOOTNOTES

. After examining the briefs and appellate record, this panel has determined unanimously that oral argument would not materially assist in the determination of this appeal. See Fed. R. App. P. 34(a)(2); 10th Cir. R. 34.1(G). The case is therefore ordered submitted without oral argument. This order and judgment is not binding precedent, except under the doctrines of law of the case, res judicata, and collateral estoppel. It may be cited, however, for its persuasive value consistent with Fed. R. App. P. 32.1 and 10th Cir. R. 32.1.

Per CuriamIf Israels complex relationship with the US Jewry wasnt troubled enough, the African refugee issue has become another cause for a fight.

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More and more American Jews from the liberal side of the political map (the majority of the American Jewry) are showing an interestand quite a lot of concernin the governments decision to expel some 40,000 Africans who have already become part of the countrys human landscape, mostly in south Tel Aviv.

African asylum seekers. Why dont Israelis care more? (Photo: AFP)

They look at the people, they look at the politicians, and they fail to understand why the Israeli government is insisting on getting rid of 40,000 peopleas if they were the Jewish peoples biggest problem. In different forums, they argue that this move contradicts Jewish values as they known them.

Jewish journalists, businesspeople, donors, social activists, community activists and others are curiously following the Africans battle, which has been gaining momentum and support from parts of the Israeli public in recent weeks.

$2 million for African refugees in Israel

Jewish media outlets in the United States have already devoted quite a few words to this issue, and articles are published on a nearly daily basis with updates, commentaries and opinions.

Americas liberal Jews, those who are affiliated with the Reform or Conservative movements, have enough reasons to be angry with Israel. Last summer, the relations reached a breaking point with the suspension of the Western Wall egalitarian area plans, and the final ramifications of that rift remain to be seen. Now, with the deportation of the refugees, or infiltrators, US Jews have found another reason to driving them away from Israel.

Joey Low. I feel very bad for the people living in south Tel Aviv

I feel very, very connected to Israel, says American businessman Joey Low. Im a very proud Jew. My dad came from Vienna, my mom came from Berlin. I grew up in a home where we had tremendous appreciation for what they had gone through, and I swore to myself that if I would ever be in a position to help people who are in a similar situation, I would do it.

Low is a millionaire who has donated more than $2 million to help African refugees living in Israel and is currently waging a pubic battle to prevent their deportation.

I obviously never knew when I was growing up that this opportunity would present itself, but when it did there was no alternative for me. I looked at these kids very much like I imagined my parents were at their age, and there was nothing I could do other than to try and help them.

Speaking in an interview on political podcast RealPolitik, both in English and in Hebrew, Low says: Ive always had a feeling ever since I was a little kid of wanting to help someone whos in a similar situation to where my parents were, and theres really almost a need on my part to do something, and I wouldnt be comfortable with myself if I didnt do it.

The sad thing I ask is why dont Israelis care more. I always assumed that Jews, Israelis, were people who were concerned about others around us. Many, many of the Israelis who are here came from Europe. How did it feel when they were rejected from the place where they were?

Part of what being a Jew means is to reach out and help those who are less fortunate than you are, and thats what being a Jew means to me. Ever since I was young I was very involved in the civil rights movement in America. I would always take positions that made me proud of who I was, and I think that a lot of who I am is the tradition of Judaism and of being a Jew and those are values that you take with you and try to give to your children.

Prime Minister Netanyahu. Its not really sensitive on his part not to think about what it does to Jews outside of Israel (Photo: Alex Kolomoisky)

And when you see something like this where (Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu and the government is doing things which are so against the traditional Jewish values of welcoming the stranger and taking in those who are in need, its very painful to watch it. And I see it really destroying much of what Im proud of and thats very hurtful.

I feel very bad for the people living in south Tel Aviv. I think they were probably just as unfortunate prior to the Africans coming, and as the Africans tell me, when they were in Darfur and came to Israel, they had never heard of Tel Aviv. They were given bus tickets to Tel Aviv, so thats where they went.

If the government would have been smarter, they would have dispersed the people around the country, they would have made a plan, they would have had some idea of what they should do with the people who are coming. But since they didnt and they allowed the problem to just continue getting worse and worse, now they blame the problem in south Tel Aviv on them. And the government should be responsible for taking care of their citizens, but you cant blame the fact that south Tel Aviv is in the condition it is because of the Africans.

A question of racism

One of Lows good friends is Prof. Irwin Cotler, Canadas former minister of justice and a human rights activist around the world, who is also in Israel right now to help the refugees. Low himself has no problem drawing a link between the Africans situation and the darkest chapter in human historythe Holocaust.

When he looks at the situation in African countries, he says, he sees a holocaust. I know many people from Darfur, he explains, and there was a massacre there. I heard stories of children who came here without their parents as unattended minors. For me its almost the same thing, what happened there and what happened in the Holocaust. I think the government is forgetting its responsibility to help people.

Low. The Israeli government doesnt really care what American Jews feel

Low visits Israel often and has donated millions to educational social causes. In the past, he was involved in Israeli PR efforts, way before the birth of the BDS as we all know it. During the second intifada, he founded the Israel At Heart organization and personally invested millions of dollars in dozens of delegations of Israeli students who visited US and European campuses, shared the Israeli story and presented a more balanced picture of the bleeding conflict of the early 2000s.

Then, when the Palestinians threatened to drag Israel to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague over the separation barrier, Low sent dozens of students on a plane to protest outside the court. But today, while the well-funded boycott organizations are increasingly infiltrating US campuses, he no longer feels a desire to defend Israel in the international arena. In light of what is happening with the African refugees, he simply cant.

Im very proud to defend Israel and I think Ive done a good job, he says, but this has gotten me so upset and disappointed and I dont know where to turn. It got me to such a point where I said, you know, this is something I have to stand up for, and if it means criticizing Israel, I just have to do it. Because I just cant in good conscience allow it to slip by without standing up for the principles that I believe in.

I think its a question of racism in the end of the day, which is very sad to see. Netanyahu is racist; (Culture Minister) Miri Regev, who called them cancer, is racist; (Interior Minister Aryeh) Deri is racist; (Education Minister Naftali (Bennett) is racist, he explains. What they are doing is one-hundred percent racist. If theyre unwilling to help these people and want to kick them out, theyre racist.

Im very disappointed with the religious parties, because religious people should know better than us that it says in the Bible we have to help the stranger because we were strangers in a foreign land ourselves, so the religious of all people should understand what it means to be the stranger. They are the ones who are at the forefront with Aryeh Deri, saying that we want them out, we dont want them marrying our daughters, we dont want them living among us and theyre not Jews. Its the most racist thing, horrible. And if God would come down, I think he would be ashamed of Aryeh Deri.

The Israeli government doesnt really care what American Jews feel, whether its about the Kotel, whether its about who is a Jew. Basically, Netanyahu says we dont need the Americans, and its a very arrogant position. I think Israel is going to find itself in a very difficult position regarding Jews around the world.

Interior Minister Aryeh Deri. If God would come down, I think he would be ashamed of him (Photo: Ohad Zwigenberg)

Younger Jews are having much more difficulty defending Israel, and thats a bad thing, because when you look at the future you need that generation of people who were brought up loving Israel, caring about Israel and feeling that Israel is treating its people with respect and dignity. If they start deporting these Africans, and BDS starts saying, Well, look at how Israel is treating blacks, I would have a very difficult time defending Israel. In fact, I couldnt. Id have to leave the debate and let somebody else do it.

As an Israeli, which Im not, I would think its both bad internally for the country, and its bad for the way its going to look when people see Africans being put on planes whether with their will or without it. I think thats going to be very destructive. But to me personally, Im also a Jew and I live in New York, and I think that Israel doing something like this is going to affect Jews all over the world. And I think its not really sensitive on Netanyahu's part not to think about what it does to Jews outside of Israel.

I have friends who come from many different walks of life, not only Jews, and I think when they see what is about to take place, I think many of them will have questions that I as a Jew used to love to answer and defend Israel, and thats going to be very difficult for me to defend."A man who does not smoke or drink will die healthy," Mishka Zaslavsky quotes a well-known Odessa proverb with a chuckle. He began his morning with a small glass of vodka, but he quit smoking 30 years ago, because of the health risk. He can climb up and down the 80 steps to his fifth-floor apartment in the Cheriomoshka neighborhood in Odessa with relative ease. Impressive, because he is 93 years old.

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It is bitterly cold outsideminus 14 degrees. A thin layer of snow covers the back yards of destitute Soviet-era homes. Zaslavsky politely refuses everyone who extends a hand to help and climbs into the high car by himself. A year ago, he adopted a new look that gives him charm and attractiveness. "I'm young," he laughs and he runs his hand through his white ponytail. "Today, young men are growing out their hair." Despite the style, he is not young, but his mind is sharp, fresh, and refuses to be despondent.

He was born in Odessa in October 1925. His mother Miriam, who was raised in a deeply religious home, summoned the mohel twice. Twice, his father, Abraham, sent the mohel back from whence he came. He refused to have his eldest son circumcised, because he had abandoned religion following the horrors of the First World War. The father's stubbornness saved his son in the Second World War.

Mishka Zaslavsky at the monument for Odessa's Jews

"I was 16 when the Nazis conquered Odessa," related Mishka. "Dad was drafted into the Red Army, and my mother, with five small children, could not escape to the east. On October 16, I saw my first Nazi soldier."

At the time, Odessa was known as an important center of Judaism and Zionism. 100,000 of the city's Jews were able to escape before October 16, 1941, when the German army and their Romanian allies captured the city. About 90,000 Jews were still in the city. Odessa was severed from Ukraine, then a part of the Soviet Union, and declared the capital of Transnistria, territory that Hitler ceded to Romania. The Einsatzkommando, a Romanian intelligence company, and local Ukranian militias succeeded in murdering more than 10,000 Jews in the first few days of the occupation.

"On October 19, a soldier came to our house and told us to get ready within 20 minutes. I remember my mother's helplessness. How are you supposed to pack for five children in 20 minutes? We went outside with my younger siblings and a few baskets. All the Jews were removed from the adjacent buildings, and we were collected together, about 3,000 people, overnight, at the school. In the morning, we were taken from there, escorted by barking dogs and murderous blows, to the city's central prison."

The prison, built of red bricks during the Tsarist era, still stands in the heart of Odessa. During a tour of the city, Mishke points to it and to the route they marched. "There was a very long line, mostly women, children, and the elderly," Mishka remembers. "It was hot. Locals watched the scene from both sides of the street. There were women who wept, but there were those who stole objects and shouted, 'You deserve it, zhids!' At the prison, 18 people were put in cells meant for one. No food or water were brought to us. I remember the women's cries of terror."

Numerous testimonies tell of women and girls who were taken from the cells to the prison roof, where they were brutally raped by Romanian soldiers.

On October 22, the Romanian HQ was blown up, apparently by a mine that was planted there by the Soviets before the German-Romanian occupation. The blast killed 66 military personnel and the city's military governor. In response, the Romanian ruler, Marshal Ion Antonescu, ordered the execution of 200 communists for every officer killed and 100 for every enlisted man. In Nazi-Romanian eyes, communists meant Jews. About 5,000 Jews were shot that same day, and thousands of them were hanged in main city streets, left there for several weeks. The hangings are etched into the memories of every survivor we met, even those who were only young children at the time.

'When I remember, I weep'

The hangings and abuse did not diminish the Romanians' fury. "The next day, October 23, they took us from the prison in a convoy for several kilometers to the munitions bunkers," Mishka remembers. "We walked very slowly. Every time we stopped, the elderly were beaten. It is hard to remember. When I remember, I weep," he says, dropping for a moment his tough facade to wipe away the tears that well up in his blue-grey eyes.

"I walked with my five-year-old brother Alik on my shoulders. Mom carried the one-year-old Hanna, and two sisters, Yava and Zhenia, walked with an aunt. The moment we reached the gate in the bunkers' fence, I felt someone yank Alik from me. I tried to hold onto him, but I was beaten and shoved. The few men and youths, together with wounded prisoners of war, were put into the farthest bunker and separated from the women and children. There were high guard towers with soldiers. The Romanians brought trucks with fuel tanks and sprayed the outside of the bunkers with gasoline."

22,000 Jews and wounded prisoners of war were put into the huge bunkers, which had been built in the Tsarist era on the edge of the city. So far as is known, all were burned alive, except for Mishka.

"The fire took hold of the roof and burned a hole through it. I began to push and climb up. I've been told that it is not nice to say that I shoved (people), but that's the reality. I shoved and everyone else shoved, too. A few more men and youths were able to get out of the bunker and climb the fence. The roar of the fire was incredible. It was terrifying. I jumped over the fence. The soldiers in the guard towers began shooting at everyone who fled. They didnt hit me. I jumped into a cornfield and crawled. I could not help but look back. What did my one-year-old sister do to deserve to die like that?"

By November 3, 1941, Odessa's remaining 40,000 Jews were gathered into the Slobodka Ghetto. After wandering around, Mishka also ended up there. Later, Jews from the ghetto were sent out to bury the burned corpses.

Mishka escaped from the ghetto, and used forged papers to survive for a long time as an employee of the city's power station.

"Every time someone suspected I was a Jew, I showed the natural identity card that was left on my body thanks to my father. That is how I survived," he says, referring to the fact he was uncircumcised.

Later, after someone informed on him, he was arrested and forced to admit his true identity. He was sent back to prison.

He escaped with the help of an Ukranian woman who brought him food when he was put to work cleaning streets outside the prison. He nicknamed her "Aunt Mora," and she hid him in her home.

On April 10, 1944, when he was 18.5, the Red Army liberated Odessa. Mishka immediately decided to enlist. "I could have stayed in Odessa, but I wanted to avenge the death of my family. We were given new uniforms and underwent training," he explains.

Just before being sent to the front, his father found him, having returned from the battles to the family home, where he found strangers living. "Dad found me. We hugged and I told him everything. We smoked a cigarette together; I was already a man, not a boy. We both cried. That was it. We had to go forward."

His father stayed in Odessa to live with an aunt, and Mishka went to the front. He helped liberate six countries and reached Berlin. He was wounded twice by bullets, once in the right leg and once in the left.

"And they say the Jews did not fight," he complains, pulling a jacket heavy with medals from the closet. "The Red Army did not always treat the Jews well, calling them traitors."

Zaslavsky with his long hair and medal-laden jacket

When he returned home, he married Ira, who passed away 28 years ago. He led a full life in Odessa working as an electrician and raised a family.

There are no other survivors known from the massacre in Odessa, except for Mishka. Detailed documentation of the mass burning can found in official Romanian documents. During the Soviet era, a neighborhood was built over the site of the bunkers. The sole commemoration of the atrocity was a small monument with general text about the killing of Soviet citizens by the Nazis.

"Shameful. It would have been better to say nothing. We argued with the authorities. We demanded to move a building and a utility pole. In the end, the area was excavated and the mass grave was found," he says, pointing to the plaza around the new monument. "The entire neighborhood is built on bones. We ultimately raised money and built a proper monument here."

Mishka's "we" is the Odessa Holocaust Survivors Organization, which was founded in 1990 by 2,500 survivors and 170 non-Jews who were recognized as Righteous Among the Nations for their efforts to save Jews during the Holocaust. Today, 340 survivors are still alive in the city, mostly children who survived in hiding, and eight Righteous non-Jews.

The survivors and rescuers jointly built a fairly unknown museum, which relates the story of the Holocaust in Odessa. The museum includes a model of the burning bunkers.

"The government gave us a very dilapidated building," says Mishka. "I was already 80, but I personally broke walls, and, as an electrician, built the museum with my comrades. I was a member of the management team for over a decade. All of us donated money for the museum to open and for free entry. Most of the survivors struggle financially, especially now given the crisis in Ukraine. But we'd sell our clothes so the museum can continue to operate. I recently resigned and passed the baton to younger survivors.

"Every year, on January 27, International Holocaust Day, we organize a ceremony in the park were the Jews were assembled before being sent on death marches. Over the past five years, since the day was declared by the UN, the Odessa Municipality has finally participated in the ceremony as well. We won't let it be forgotten. That is why we are here."

A last song in Yiddish

The museum, like many other Jewish institutions in the city, is a target for anti-Semitic vandalism. When the glass windows were broken, they were replaced with metal ones. Neo-Nazi slogans in the "Jews out" style are spray-painted near the museum regularly.

Over the generations, most Ukranian Jews took the hint and chose to leave. But many still remain, mostly elderly and childless. About 180,000 elderly Jews, many of them Holocaust survivors, live all over the former Soviet Union. Not much is left of the welfare system of the communist regime that once ruled there and the elderly live on meager pensions.

Although Holocaust survivors recognized by the Claims Committee receive financing from the German government and Swiss banks, it is not enough to live on because of the economic crisis and soaring electricity and water rates. Today, Ukraine is the poorest of the former Soviet republics, because of the civil war in the east.

A number of organizations are trying to help them, including the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, which hosted me in Odessa. Through the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee and Chabad, the fellowship currently helps about 17,000 Holocaust survivors in Ukraine, providing security, distributing food and medicines, organizing community activities, and offering individual home care for the elderly.

"I dont know if Israel or Jewish communities around the world understand how difficult the conditions are. Something must be done," says International Fellowship of Christians and Jews President Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein.

"Over the years, I have made countless visits to Ukraine and elsewhere, and I was horrified by the distress. Many Jews live in remote villages that take five hours to reach because the roads are blocked and unfit for travel. There are survivors who live on the fifth floor without an elevator. Most people in these circumstances simply dont leave their homes for years. Many survivors live in utter isolation and really depend on us and our partners for their basic needs, such as food and medicine. We raise about $25 million a year from Christians in the US who want to help Jews from one of the largest communities in the world, which is also one of the poorest in the world.

"It hurts me that Jewish communities that thrive in the US, Israel, and elsewhere donate very little to this endeavor. There are about 70,000 elderly Jews in former Soviet republics that no organization has yet reached, because there isnt enough money. This situation is shameful on the Jewish people. On International Holocaust Remembrance Day, it is important to remember other holocausts, but no less important to strive that the remaining survivors can live out the rest of their days with dignity."

Mishka is lucky in that he can still live with dignity. For our meeting, he allows himself to play the actor, like his grandfather. "Before the revolution, my grandfather was in the Jewish theater in the shtetl. He wrote and sang songs in Yiddish and Russian."

Mishka stood up and began to sing in Yiddish, "I dream of the day when Jews can be free like all people."

Jews are free in Israel. Why didnt you make aliyah?

"My homeland is here. There are good people here like Aunt Mora," he shouts. "There are good and bad people everywhere. I choose to believe in the good people. No one can remove me from here. My victory over the Nazis is my four Jewish great-grandchildren. But I won't leave here. If I go, who will protect the bones of my family?"At the age of 98, about 75 years after saving the lives of hundreds Jewish refugees in northern Italy during the German occupation, Enzo Cavaglion has been officially honored with the Jewish Rescuers Citation. The citation was presented to him last week in the country where he was born, lived all his life, fought the Nazis and saved fellow Jews.

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Cavaglion helped more than 1,000 Jewish refugees who had sought refuge after fleeing the remote Italian-occupied French Alpine village of Saint-Martin-Vesubie in the face of the German army that invaded the area following the announcement of the armistice signed between Italy and the Allies.

Enzo Cavaglion receives the citation from Alan Schneider. Proud and excited

The Jewish Rescuers Citation, which he received on January 21 from B'nai B'rith World Center-Jerusalem and the Committee to Recognize the Heroism of Jews who Rescued Fellow Jews During the Holocaust, has been presented in an effort to correct the public misconception that Jews did not rescue fellow Jews during the Holocaust.

Cavaglion, who was in his 20s at the time, was one of the 14 founding members of partisan group Italia Libera (Free Italy), led by anti-Fascist lawyer Duccio Galimberti, which was established on September 12, 1943the same day that Cuneo, Italy was occupied by the German First SS Panzer Division.

They group members ensconced themselves in the sanctuary of the Madonna del Colletto, 18 kilometers to the west of Cuneo. Enzo and his younger brother, Riccardo Cavaglion, stayed with the group until October 1943, when they had to leave to help their own families escape arrest in Cuneo.

A daring theft of identity cards from mayors office

In addition to the combat they waged against the Germans and Italian fascists, Enzo and Riccardo also helped Jews who sought refuge in villages around Cuneo, putting their own lives at risk.

Men, women, children, the elderly and disabled scaled the Maritime Alps over the international border into Italy in a harrowing ordeal, only to find the Germans already roaming the area. About 300 people were captured and sent to Auschwitz. The remaining 700 found refuge among the welcoming local peasant population. Enzo and Riccardo found hiding places for them, furnished them with the necessary documents and hid them in the mountains in order to evade the Nazis.

Enzo Cavaglion (Photo courtesy of Ghetto Fighters' House)

Holocaust Survivor Harry Burger credited Enzo and Riccardo with saving his life and his mothers life by warning them that the Nazis were hunting for them.

Survivor Alfred Feldman wrote in his memoir, One Step Ahead: A Jewish Fugitive in Hitlers Europe, that he witnessed a daring theft of identity cards by Enzo and Riccardo from the mayors office in Vignolo, Italy, that were then falsified and distributed to some of the refugees. Enzo performed all of these activities despite the additional danger he faced as a result.

Nearly 200 Jews have been honored

The citation was presented to Cavaglion in his home, and the event was followed by a ceremony at the Cuneo synagogue. Speakers included Enzos son, Dr. Alberto Cavaglion, and B'nai B'rith World Center Director Alan Schneider.

Its a privilege to award you with the Jewish Rescuers Citation, continuing our 20-year effort to correct the historical narrative that Jews did not work to rescue other Jews during the Holocaust, Schneider told Cavaglion.

Enzo said he was proud and excited to receive the citation. He had tears in his eyes as he remembered the Jews he had met and helped on the Italian side. After the war, Cavaglion remained in Italy, where he and his brother Riccardo owned a carpet store for many years.

Since its establishment in 2011, nearly 200 heroes have been honored with the Jewish Rescuers Citation for rescue activities in Germany, France, Hungary, Greece, Slovakia, Yugoslavia, Russia, Lithuania, Poland, Holland and now Italy.The Israel Air Force attacked two targets at a Hamas military complex in the southern Gaza Strip overnight Friday in response to rocket fire at Israeli communities.

During the attack, the Code Red rocket alert siren was sounded in the Eshkol Regional Council, even though there was no rocket fire at Israel at that time. The IDF is looking into the matter.

An IDF statement on the attack said the army "sees the Hamas terror organization the sole one responsible for what happens in the Gaza Strip and from it."The Israel Air Force attacked two targets at a Hamas military complex in the southern Gaza Strip overnight Friday in response to rocket fire at Israeli communities.

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During the attack, the Code Red rocket alert siren was sounded in the Eshkol Regional Council, even though there was no rocket fire at Israel at that time. The IDF is looking into the matter.

An IDF statement on the attack said the army "sees the Hamas terror organization as the sole one responsible for what happens in the Gaza Strip and from it."

File photo (Photo: EPA)

The attack came in the wake of a rocket fired at the Shaar HaNegev Regional Council on Friday evening, which fell in an open area. No one was hurt and no damage was caused.

It followed a late-night rocket fired at Israel on Thursday night as well, which led the IDF to attack a Hamas observation post in the northern Gaza Strip.

Earlier in the week, on midnight between Monday and Tuesday, a Code Red rocket alert siren was sounded in Sdot Negev and Shaar HaNegev regional councils. Residents in the area reported hearing explosions, but Israeli forces did not find any rockets inside Israel.US President Donald Trump threatened Friday to cut off aid and slap sanctions on countries that refuse to accept nationals the US tries to deport.

Trump said during a briefing with Department of Homeland Security officials at the Customs and Border Protection National Targeting Center in Virginia that he knows how to change the trend.

"If they don't take 'em back, we'll put sanctions on the countries, we'll put tariffs on the countries," Trump said. He added: "They'll take 'em back so fast your head would spin."

He's also threatened to cut off aid to the countries, which include China and Sierra Leone.Legislation to criminalize certain statements about the Holocaust in Poland could have been timed and presented better, the country's prime minister acknowledged Friday, but he insisted that the law is needed to protect the truth of Poland's wartime history.

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Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki spoke to foreign media correspondents at a museum that memorializes Christian Poles who risked their lives to help Jews during Nazi Germany's World War II occupation of Poland.

Poland and Israel have experienced a diplomatic rift over the legislation, which would outlaw publicly and falsely attributing the crimes of Nazi Germany to the Polish nation. If it is enacted, violators could be punished with up to three years in prison.





Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki (Photo: Reuters)

The United States has joined Israel in criticizing the proposed law, saying it would infringe on free expression. Israeli and Jewish groups fear it would be used to whitewash the involvement of some Poles in killing Jews during the 1939-1945 occupation.

Morawiecki, who took office as prime minister in December, has tried in recent days to address the concerns while defending the law. He said Friday that the aim is to prevent the Polish people as a whole from being blamed for what the Germans did in occupied Poland, the location of Auschwitz and other Nazi camps.

"All the atrocities and all the victims, everything that happened during World War II on Polish soil, has to be attributed to Germany," Morawiecki said. "We will never be accused of complicity in the Holocaust. This is our 'to be or not to be.'"

Morawiecki visits Ulma Family Museum of Poles Saving Jews in Markowa (Photo: EPA)

He insisted the lawwhich has been passed by parliament and awaits the president's signaturewould not impinge on freedom of speech, as feared by some.

"This law is not going to limit speech, not even one iota," Morawiecki said.

Morawiecki visits Ulma Family Museum of Poles Saving Jews in Markowa (Photo: Reuters)

He did, however, say that Poland should have better explained its intentions to the world, and acknowledged the timing was "unfortunate."

The lower house of parliament approved the legislation on January 26, the eve of International Holocaust Remembrance Day. The Senate gave its approval on Thursday. President Andrzej Duda now has three weeks to sign or veto it; he has so far indicated that he supports it.

Morawiecki toured the Ulma Family Museum of Poles Saving Jews in Markowa after first paying his respects outside the building at memorials to Poles who helped Jews and Jewish Holocaust victims.

Morawiecki visits Ulma Family Museum of Poles Saving Jews in Markowa (Photo: Reuters)

He then sat down with reporters to explain his thoughts on the law. Asked if he felt the bill had damaged Poland's image, he said he was worried it had.

Yad Vashem, Israel's Holocaust memorial, has documented 6,706 Polish "Righteous Among the Nations"gentiles who gave shelter to Jews without a profit motive. That number represents only those cases that could be documented, and historians believe there were also many cases that never came to light, including cases of helpers and Jews discovered and killed.

The German forces imposed the death penalty not only on individuals caught helping, but their entire families. Similar laws were in place elsewhere in occupied Europe, but they were imposed more ruthlessly in Poland, according to the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw.

Morawiecki visits Ulma Family Museum of Poles Saving Jews in Markowa (Photo: Reuters)

The people who risked their own lives to save Jews are universally hailed as heroes. Holocaust historians note that Poles who helped Jews had to fear not only the Germans, but Polish neighbors who might report them.

Yet historians also have accused Poland's nationalist government of trying to make it seem that such humanity was the predominant response among Poles. The historians say that ignores the Poles who denounced Jews to the Nazis or killed Jews themselves.

Morawiecki visits Ulma Family Museum of Poles Saving Jews in Markowa (Photo: Reuters)

The Markowa museum, which opened in 2016, stands near the place where German soldiers in 1944 killed Jozef Ulma, his pregnant wife Wiktoria and their six small children, as well as eight members of the Goldman, Gruenfeld and Didner families that the Ulmas were sheltering.

Mateusz Szpytma, deputy director of the museum, said it is estimated that between 700 and 1,100 Poles were murdered by the Germans for helping Jews during the war.IDF forces raided a house in Burqin, on the outskirts of Jenin, on Saturday morning in search of Ahmad Nassr Jarrar, who headed the terror cell that murdered Rabbi Raziel Shevah near Havat Gilad some three weeks ago.

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While surrounding the house, the forces called on Jarrar, who lives in Burqin, to turn himself in, using loudspeakers.

In addition to encircling the house in Burqin, the forces blocked accessways to two nearby villages, leading to clashes between Palestinians and security forces.

Israeli forces operating in Burqin

According to Palestinian sources, four people were arrested during the raid on Burqin, two of them members of the Jarrar family.

After leaving Burqin, the Israeli forces moved to the nearby Palestinian village, where they also encircled a house, but left after having questioned the residents.

Israeli forces operating in Burqin

Rabbi Raziel Shevah was murdered in early January in a drive-by shooting near the illegal outpost of Havat Gilad, where he resided.

After the murder, IDF troops spent over 12 hours in Jenin in search of Jarrar. During operations in the city, two fighters from the Border Police's counterterrorism unit Yamam were wounded in a firefight that resulted in the killing of another terrorist, Ahmad Ismail Jarrar, who it was later transpired was not the head of the terror cell.

Search for Jarrar in Burqin

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Another terrorist was arrested, and several additional suspects were detained for questioning. Initial interrogation already pointed to ideological affiliation of the cell's members to Hamas.

During the raid, Israeli security forces demolished the cell leader's home as well as an adjacent home that belonged to his uncle. A third house was reportedly demolished, while a fourth was damaged, both belonging to the extended Jarrar family.

After initially believing the cell leader was killed in the house demolition and buried under the rubble, the IDF revised its conclusions after the Palestinians did not find a body inside the building.

Over the past two weeks, Israeli security forces continued carrying out covert and overt operations to locate the terrorist, which included searching through homes and detaining people with ties to him for questioning.UNITED NATIONS - North Korea is flouting UN sanctions on oil and gas, engaging in prohibited ballistic missile cooperation with Syria and Myanmar, and illegally exporting commodities that brought in nearly $200 million in just nine months last year, according to UN experts.

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The experts said Pyongyang is still able to access the global financial system through "deceptive practices combined with critical deficiencies in the implementation of financial sanctions."

And it continues to engage in "widespread conventional arms deals and cyber operations to steal military secrets," the panel said.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un (Photo: Reuters/KCNA)

The council has imposed increasingly tougher sanctions against North Korea in response to its nuclear and ballistic missile tests. The latest resolution in December -- in response to the launch of a ballistic missile that Pyongyang says is capable of reaching anywhere on the US mainland -- sharply lowered limits on North Korea's refined oil imports and authorized the inspection and seizure of ships suspected of smuggling banned items including coal and oil to and from the country.

US Ambassador Nikki Haley said sanctions now ban well over 90 percent of North Korea's exports reported in 2016.

But the panel of experts said the expansion of UN sanctions hasn't been matched by the "political will," international coordination, and allocation of resources to implement them.

"This year could represent a critical window of opportunity before a potential miscalculation with disastrous implications for international peace and security," the experts said.

According to the report, the panel investigated North Korea's ongoing ballistic missile cooperation with Syria and Myanmar.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un (Photo: Reuters)

It also investigated illegal ship-to-ship transfers of oil "comprising a multimillion-dollar business that is driving an international network of brokers and ship charterers as well as unwitting global commodity trading companies and oil suppliers."

North Korea also continued its illegal coal exports by combining deceptive navigation patterns, trans-shipment through third countries and fraudulent documentation "to obscure the origin of the coal."

The report said North Korea exported coal to China, Malaysia, South Korea, Russia and Vietnam in 2017 in violation of sanctions.

It said "a network of foreign traders responsible for violations of the coal ban operates through numerous front companies" registered in Australia, British Virgin Islands, China, Hong Kong, Marshall Islands, Samoa, Seychelles and the United Kingdom.

The experts said North Korea also exported $125 million of iron ore to China last year in violation of sanctions.

The Security Council has slapped sanctions on seven vessels for illegally transferring coal and petroleum. The panel said stepped-up efforts are "crucial to curb these rampant illicit activities."

The experts also cited "critical deficiencies" in implementing financial sanctions.

North Korean financial institutions, including banks which have been sanctions by the council, "maintain more than 30 overseas representatives who live and move freely across borders in the Middle East and Asia, where they control bank accounts, facilitate transactions and deal in bulk cash," the report said.

The experts said North Korea is also exploiting "a key vulnerability" which has enabled the country "to easily create front companies offshore in Asian financial centers where they leverage assistance" from other nationals and use the firms to open accounts and move money worldwide.

The panel said its investigations highlight the activity of intelligence agents and other individuals acting on behalf of sanctioned North Korean entities who operate bank accounts in Europe and the Asia-Pacific "and use diplomatic passports and diplomatic-plated cars to cross land and air borders with less scrutiny."Holocaust survivor Miriam Indig, 91, was deeply disturbed with a sketch on satire show Eretz Nehederet last week.

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In a video clip recorded by her grandson, Indig was shown choking back tears in a telephone call with Communication Minister Ayoob Kara.

"I heard on television that they're making fun of Holocaust survivors and Hannah Szenes," she said.

Holocaust survivor Miriam Indig was distraught at Eretz Nehederet's sketch

"I was in the same prison as her and I know how much we suffered and here, now, they're cracking jokes about it," Indig told the communication minister. "While I'm more than 90 (years old), I'm still alive. I lived beneath the earth for months and was incarcerated. They wanted to kill us.

"But now I sit in front of the television and see that they're making fun of it and saying it didn't happen? It happened. How can they make fun of it?" a distraught Indig asked.

Indig was referring to one of the show's sketches that dealt with International Holocaust Remembrance Day and with poet Yehonatan Geffen's controversial poem, in which he compared Palestinian teen provocateur Ahed Tamimiwho accosted IDF soldiersto Anne Frank and Szenes.

'Not International Holocaust Remembrance Day'

Indig's sentiments were echoed Thursday by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who wrote in a Facebook post that, "I was pained to hear Miriam Indig, a Holocaust survivor of about 90, so distressed by the fact that Eretz Nehederet insulted both Holocaust survivors and Hannah Szenes, with whom (Indig) was incarcerated before (Szenes) was executed. Cynicism and the loss of moral compass must not have any boundaries."

No comment was received from the comedy show's producers.A packed auditorium at the Weil Center for Culture in Kfar Shmaryahu enjoyed The Magic of the Mandolin: A Journey to Spain, Italy and Hungary this week -- a unique concert of classical music arranged and performed by the duo of mandolinist Shmuel Elbaz and pianist Orit Wolf. The concert was the third in the inaugural Music and Muse series of concert lectures sponsored by Dame Shirley Porter of Herzliya and moderated by Dr. Wolf.

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For many in the audience, the evening served as an introduction to the role of the mandolin in performing an impressive repertoire of classical music. Elbaz, who is also the conductor of the Israeli Andalusian Orchestra, Ashdod, and the Netanya Kibbutz Chamber Orchestra, is one of the worlds leading mandolin artists, leading his Israeli Mandolin Quartet to win a prestigious international plectrum music competition in Spain.

The concert lecture format gave Elbaz the opportunity to explain that the mandolin is actually more like a violin than the guitar, even though it is played with a plectrum rather than a bow. Indeed, Elbazs style of playing incorporates a method of employing the plectrum that mimics the dynamics of using a bow, a technique pioneered by Elbazs mentor, a Russian musician who taught the violin as well as the mandolin.

(Photo: Yoel Levy)

A second work composed originally for violin and performed deftly by Elbaz was the Cantabile by the legendary master of the instrument, Niccolo Paganini.

The program then shifted, both geographically and in mood, to works from eastern Europe that reflected more folkloric influence: Romanian Dances by Bela Bartok, followed by Hungarian Dances by Leo Weiner. These lively works were played with great skill and passion, culminating in a rousing performance of Czardas by Vittorio Monti. This familiar and popular composition infused the evening with the vivacious spirit of gypsy music.

In response to sustained applause, Elbaz and Wolf concluded the concert with an encore, Hungarian Dance no. 2 by Johannes Brahms.

(Photo: Yoel Levy)

The only disappointment of the evening was the lack of Spanish representation that had been promised. Although the composers Albeniz, De Falla and Granados were all listed in the original program, only the Suite Espanola by Isaac Albeniz was performed -- and that only by Wolf as a piano solo.

Still, she managed to convey the flavor of the Iberian Peninsula; and it was clear that the audience would have gladly stayed if the concert were to have extended beyond 80 minutes.

Two more concerts remain in the current Music and Muse series: The Cello Soul in February, and Jazz, Samba and Bossa Nova in May.A radar-based early tsunami warning system is currently being installed in three central locations along Israel's Coastal Plainin Haifa, Ashdod and Haderadispersed so as to cover the entirety of Israel's Mediterranean coastal strip.

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By connecting into the system, Israel joins a number of southern European and Mediterranean Basin countries, including Lebanon and Turkey, to place the tsunami warning system on their territory.

Footage of the tsunami warning system's installation in Israel

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The system is interlinked with its "sister stations," ranging from Portugal in the west to Ashdod, the system's farthest southeastern pointas North African countries have yet to install it.

Tsunami warning signs are being put up in strategic locations across Israel's coast (Photo: Diana Hananashvilli/Defense Ministry)

The warning system is capable of locating suspicious seawater activity such as exceedingly high waves or irregular tides and issue a preemptive warning in time periods of up to an hour.

Within several months' time, the system will also be connected to Home Front Command's siren system, which will then be able to blare an alarm of an impending tsunami hitting Israel.

In such an eventuality, residents will be required to immediately move away from coasts and beaches, whereas people residing on the shoreline will be asked to seek higher ground or flee eastwards.

"Earthquakes similar to ones that have already hit Greece and its islands may trigger tsunami waves in our direction," a senior defense establishment official explained to Ynet.

(Photo: Diana Hananashvilli/Defense Ministry)

"Tsunami protection is also important considering the power stations situated near the waterline, such as Tel Aviv's Reading Station and Rutenberg near Ashkelon, as well as water desalinization plants that may be damaged if no early warning is received," he said.

The project is being spearheaded by the European Union, and a representative on its behalf will be dispatched to Israel to supervise and assist in the system's installation.

The official further added that the "Truah" project is simultaneously going forward full steam ahead, concerning deployment of sensors on Israel's eastern frontier, running north to south, in a region adjacent to the Great Rift Valley.

The system's 120 sensors will be able to produce an earthquake warning at extremely short notice, of several seconds up to several minutes, depending on the location of the earthquake's epicenter. The system's installation will conclude and it will be declared operational by 2019.

(Photo: Diana Hananashvilli/Defense Ministry)

Signs posted along beaches

While the system is being set up in Haifa, the city's municipality put up signs on beaches directing visitors to safe places in case of tsunami. Explanation leaflets outlining the phenomenon's attendant risks will also be disseminated.

The National Emergency Management Authority (NEMA)the agency parallel to the American Federal Emergency Management Agencysaid the Mediterranean was one of the world's most vulnerable regions when it came to tsunamis.

Some 25 percent of all documented instances of tsunamis hitting took place in the Mediterranean, the Authority added. "Every 100 years on average a significant tsunami hits the eastern Mediterranean," an official added. "Every 250 years on average a tsunami hits Israel's coast and every 700 years on average a devastating tsunami hits."

The director of the interministerial steering committee on earthquake preparedness, Amir Yahav, said that Israel received tsunami warnings from international warning hubs spread out across the Mediterranean Basin. "The last tsunami warning was received in Israel in July 2017, after an earthquake near the Greek island of Kos," he elucidated.

Dr. Beverly Goodman-Tchernov, a tsunami specialist from Haifa University's Department of Marine Geosciences, explained, "Israel, as well as some portions of the Mediterranean and especially the Middle East, has a history of tsunamis. The region has all the requisite ingredients: tectonics, earthquakes and a sea."

Dr. Goodman-Tchernov added that a minor tsunami hit Israel in 1956, but caused no damage. "If you're looking for something that did damage, you have to go back something like 800 years," she said.

Yoav Zitun, Ahiya Raved, Alexandra Lukash and Nir Cohen contributed to this report.A Russian delegation that arrived in Israel earlier this week was reportedly working to prevent an Israeli attack of Iranian missile factories in southern Lebanon and Syria, the London-based Asharq Al-Awsat reported Saturday.

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During their meeting in Moscow earlier this week , Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly updated Russian President Vladimir Putin on Israel's intentions to attack the Iranian weapon factories along with Hezbollah targets in Syria and Lebanon in light of continued arms shipments to the Shiite terror group.

After Putin and Netanyahu's meeting, a senior Russian delegation arrived in Israel for "an in-depth examination of Israeli concerns of the role Hezbollah and Iran play in Syria, particularly after Iran refused Russia's request to withdraw its men from southern Syria," the Arab newspaper reported.

Netanyahu and Putin meet in Moscow (Photo: Kobi Gideon/GPO)

Netanyahu briefed reporters after his meeting with Putin on Monday, saying Israel will not accept the presence of precision weapons on its border and "will act according to need" in Lebanon to stop it.

We are now on the cusp of a watershed moment of whether Iran will entrench itself there or if the process will be stopped. I told Putin that if it isnt stopped by itself, we will act to stop it. In practice, were already operating, he told journalists.

Netanyahu also addressed reports that Damascus had threatened to attack Israels Ben Gurion International Airport if Israel carried out another military strike in Syria.

We always take all the elements and considerations in the area into account, he said, before accusing Iran of attempting to rattle stability in the Middle East.

The element currently trying to change the status quo in Syria and Lebanon is oneIran. This is an element that is actively trying to shift the arena and turn Syria into a military colony, he asserted.

Another major topic discussed at the meeting with Putin was, Netanyahu said, the Iranian nuclear agreement. The prime minister raised before Putin Israels reservations, which in many cases are reservations I have heard from Trump. I cannot guarantee what Russias stance will be on the matter, but they understood what will happen if corrections are not inserted (into the deal).Ashdod municipality inspectors began Saturday to hand out tickets fining stores opened on Shabbat at the city's Big Fashion complex in the wake of the approval of the Supermarkets Law.

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In the past, inspectors only handed out warnings to stores, but this weekend businesses received fines after Ashdod Mayor Yehiel Lasri claimed in a Facebook post on Friday that there was an emerging solution to the crisis.

Ashdod residents protesting what they call "religious coercion in the city" were outraged by the fines.





Protesters in Ashdod last weekend (Photo: Gadi Kabalo)

"Despite the mayor's declarations on efforts to calm things down, another red line was crossed today," protest leaders said in a statement. "Instead of warnings, (inspectors) began handing out NIS 320 fines. He says one thing and does another. We consider this a violation of the balance and status quo in the city. We will not rest until the municipal bylaw is amended."

Guy Saar, one of the protest leaders, decried the fact the mayor "claims he wants to calm things down, while at the same time escalates every week. It cannot be that residents cry out in protest, and he continues as if nothing is happening. He claims he is attuned to us and is trying to find solutions, while at the same time he hands out fines."

Fine given to one of the stores working on Shabbat

Eitan Bar-Zeev, the CEO of the Big Shopping Centers Group, said his company will pay the fines given to store owners. "As we've already said and committed, 'Big' will pay the fines whenever necessary and will also cover the costs of any legal battle with the municipality," he said.

"We can only be astonished for the who-knows-what-time at the municipality's conduct. They make declarations and statements of reconciliation, while at the same time raising the bar on this insufferable religious coercion," Bar-Zeev added.

On Friday, a convoy of hundreds of vehicles left Ashdod's Tet-Vav beach in protest of the municipality's efforts to close businesses in the city on Shabbat.

At the same time, Lasri, who hasn't given any public interviews on the crisis in the city, posted on Facebook saying he will be presenting possible solutions to the Shabbat commerce problem in the near future, which he christened collectively "Living Together."

"In the past few weeks I have shown restraint. I did not allow myself to be dragged to badmouthing others and did not respond to the wild incitement campaign against me," Lasri wrote.

"I refused to take part in dividing the city and severely harming its image. The lion's share of my efforts was thus aimed at constructing a solution that is up to spec both publically and legally. Today I can say with cautious optimism that such a solution is forthcoming," the mayor continued.

Protest convoy against store closures on Shabbat in Ashdod (Photo: Ricki Cohen)

Lasri claimed he had been meeting daily with representatives of different communities. The mayor said he listened to their opinions and ideas for a solution to the crisis, and "was glad that most people, on both sides of the argument, agreed and wanted to preserve the city's uniting and inclusive character, allowing everyone to continue living together."

Despite Lasri's statements, he has never met with any of the protest's leaders. Moreover, they claim they were never even approached for such a meeting.

Heads of the city's protest, however, were less than impressed with the mayor's "Living Together" solution, calling it in a post of their own "hollow slogans."

Orit Almozlino-Rize, one of the protest's leaders, said that, "The people of Ashdod don't want to hear hollow slogans anymore. The people of Ashdod demand actions on the ground."ISTANBUL - Turkish guards at the border with Syria are indiscriminately shooting at and summarily returning asylum seekers attempting to cross into Turkey, Human Rights Watch said on Saturday.

The spokesman for Turkey's president said it was highly unlikely that Turkish soldiers would shoot at Syrian war refugees but the government would look into the report. Turkey has taken in 3.5 million Syrian war refugees since 2011.

New York-based Human Rights Watch said Syrians were now fleeing heightened violence in the northwestern province of Idlib to seek refuge near Turkey's border, which remains closed to all but critical medical cases.

"Syrians fleeing to the Turkish border seeking safety and asylum are being forced back with bullets and abuse," said Lama Fakih, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch.Former Israeli minister Rafi Eitan, who led the Mossad operation to capture Nazi criminal Adolf Eichmann , has filmed a surprising message of support for the far-right the Alternative for Germany party (AfD), which is known for its xenophobia, including anti-Semitic sentiments

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The video, which was posted by AfD's Twitter account on Friday, shows the former minister of pensioner affairs deliver a message to the "dear friends of AfD."

"Please accept our greetings from Israel, especially to your chairman Mr. Gauland," the 91-year-old former intelligence officer said.

Rafi Eitan's message to AfD

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"All of us in Israel appreciate your attitude towards Judaism. We read your (statement) on January 27, for International Holocaust Memorial Day," Eitan continued.

"I am sure that if you work wisely, strongly and most importantly realistically... that instead of Alternative for Germany, you might become an Alternative for Europe," he concluded.

AfD leader Alexander Gauland (Photo: AFP)

The anti-immigration party, which was formed in 2013, managed to enter the Bundestag last year. This was the first time a far-right party was elected to the German parliament since the Nazi party in 1930s.

The Anti-Defamation League said AfD's leaders "have made anti-Semitic statements and played down the evil of the Nazi regime."

Party leader Alexander Gauland has rejected accusations that his party members are Nazis and claimed other politicians merely use this label to undermine the party due to its popularity.

Among other statements that have caused concern, AfD's leader in Thuringia state, Bernd Hoecke, called for a "U-turn" in the way Germany remembers its Nazi past, while Gauland himself has repeatedly insisted "we have the right to be proud of the achievements of Germans soldiers in two world wars."Poland is seeing a resurgence of anti-Semitism over pending legislation that would impose jail terms for suggestions that the nation was complicit in the Holocaust, local minority groups warned, as pressure mounts on the president to veto the bill.

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Parliament passed the measure on Thursday, drawing outrage from Israel, US criticism and condemnation from a number of international organizations. President Andrzej Duda has 21 days to decide whether to sign it into law.

The bill would impose prison sentences of up to three years for mentioning the term "Polish death camps" and for suggesting "publicly and against the facts" complicity on the part of the Polish nation or state in Nazi Germany crimes.





Auschwitz prisoners, the Polish Senate (Photo: EPA)

More than three million of Poland's 3.2 million Jews were murdered by the Nazis, accounting for about half of the Jews killed in the Holocaust. Jews from across Europe were sent to be killed at death camps built and operated by the Germans on Polish soil, including Auschwitz, Treblinka, Belzec and Sobibor.

According to figures from the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, the Nazis also killed at least 1.9 million non-Jewish Polish civilians.

In a rare show of unity, Polish minority and ethnic groups, including Jewish, Ukrainian and Russian, urged Duda and other authorities to counteract all forms of xenophobia, intolerance and anti-Semitism, although they did not directly call on the president to veto the bill.

"Our particular concern and objection is caused by the numerous and loud manifestations of anti-Semitism that we have been witnessing this week after the (parliament) passed (the Holocaust bill)," the groups said in statement.





Polish PM Morawiecki at the Museum of Poles Saving Jews in World War II (Photo: Reuters)

Poland is one of the most ethnically and religiously homogenous countries in Europe, but before World War Two Jews made up 10 percent of the population and the country also had large Ukrainian, German, Belarussian and other minorities.

Poland's ruling party, the socially conservative PiS, has reignited debate on the Holocaust as part of a campaign to fuel patriotism since sweeping into power in 2015.

The party says the bill is needed to protect Poland's reputation and ensure historians recognize that Poles as well as Jews were victims of the Nazis.

Israeli officials said the legislation criminalizes basic historical facts. Critics of the bill have raised concerns it will curb free speech and could potentially be used against Holocaust survivors or historians.

PM Morawiecki (Photo: Reuters)

A US congressional task force on combating anti-Semitism and a number of Jewish groups urged Duda to veto the bill.

The International Auschwitz Council, an advisory body to the office of the Polish Prime Minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, said on Friday the bill's imprecision raised "legitimate concerns about restricting freedom in discovering the truth about the Holocaust".

Duda has not said whether he would sign the bill, but his spokesman told the Polish state radio Trojka: "The president believes that Poland, as any other country, has the right to defend its good name ... has the right to defend the truth".

Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the chairman of PiS and de facto the country's leader, told the public radio Jedynka on Saturday that Duda should sign the law,

"He should sign it ...," Kaczynski said. "We must talk to our allies in a way that would allow them to understand that we have no intention of renouncing our dignity."A young Palestinian-American is the driving force behind a nascent #MeToo movement in this patriarchal corner of the world, selling T-shirts, hoodies and denim jackets with the slogan "Not Your Habibti (darling)" as a retort for catcalls and writing down women's complaints from her perch in a West Bank square.

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Yasmeen Mjalli wants to encourage Palestinian society to confront sexual harassment, a largely taboo subject.

"What I am doing is to start a conversation that people are really afraid to have," said Mjalli as she put her merchandise on hangers in a clothing store.

Yasmeen Mjalli (Photo: AP)

The 21-year-old has faced backlash from conservatives and from some activists who say fighting Israel's occupation is the priority for Palestinians.

Her parents, who grew up in a Palestinian farming town, immigrated to the United States and returned to the West Bank five years ago, weren't pleased, either.

"To be able to have peace with them, I have to check my feminism at the door, which is very difficult because that's really who I am," said Mjalli, who moved to the West Bank last year, after graduating from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro with a degree in art history.

Mjalli and other activists say that starting a conversation about sexual harassment doesn't mean copying the #MeToo movement in the United States, where victims are speaking out in growing numbers.

Cultural differences require a different approach.

Women across the Arab world have made strides toward equality, outnumbering men in many universities and joining the work force in growing numbers. Yet they struggle to break free from the constraints of patriarchy.

Traditional Arab societies assign rigid gender roles, with men as guardians of their female relatives' "honor"effectively a ban on male-female friendships or sex outside marriage. Women violating those rules risk being ostracized orin extreme casesbeing killed by male relatives, who count on leniency from the courts.

Rules are looser among urban elites. But even in Ramallahthe most liberal West Bank town with many Western-educated Palestinians and foreignerswomen watch their step.

Women risk getting blamed if they complain, said Wafa Abdelrahman, who runs a closed Facebook group for female journalists. "The blame will be, 'for sure, you did something wrong or you gave the wrong signal, the way you dress, the way you talk'," she said.

University student Nadine Moussa, 22, said women know the trouble spots.

"I never ever walked in the city center of Ramallah without being harassed verbally, but I don't face that in the neighborhoods," she said, adding that her co-ed campus is relatively safe.

Denim jacket with the caption 'Not your Habibti' (Photo: AP)

Palestinian police receive few complaints about street harassment, said spokesman Loay Irzeqat. He believes some women fear unintended consequences, such as male relatives attacking accused harassers.

Police mostly deal with online harassment, with about one-third of some 2,000 electronic crimes cases in 2017 revolving around men blackmailing women for sexual or financial gain, he said. Typically, extortionists threaten to publish photos deemed compromising, such as showing a traditional woman without her headscarf.

Women lack legal protection, despite improvements such as the establishment of a police sex crimes unit, said Amal Kreishe, founder of the Palestinian Working Woman Society for Development to which Mjalli donates some of her proceeds.

Reforms of the penal code have been held up by the collapse of Palestinian parliament as a result of a decade-old split between President Mahmoud Abbas' West Bank autonomy government and the militant Hamas group in Gaza. Abbas has ignored appeals to change the code by decree in the meantime.

"All the talk about women's equality and rights is lip service," said Kreishe.

Still, Kreishe has witnessed gradual changes. More women seek counseling from her group, which has referred about 200 complaints to police over the past two yearscompared to a few dozen in previous years.

Across the Arab world, the prevalence of street harassment varies.

In Egypt, it remains widespread despite pushback from civil society and a 2014 law threatening up to five years in prison. Cairo has been described by some as the world's most dangerous mega city for women.

In the conservative Gulf Arab region, street harassment is relatively uncommon in smaller countries where religious and tribal codes restrict interactions between unmarried men and women.

In Saudi Arabia, it has become an issue of debate, as women prepare to drive for the first time this June, following the lifting of a government ban. In recent years, several videos went viral showing Saudi women in long black robes being heckled by men. Saudi King Salman has approved legislation criminalizing sexual harassment.

In the West Bank, Mjalli is pushing boundaries with what she calls "typewriter events."

On a recent day, she sat behind a table in Ramallah's Clock Square, taking notes on a typewriterchosen over a laptop as an attention-getteras women sitting across from her shared stories about harassment. The event was also meant to generate support for passing laws protecting women, she said.

Her idea of designing clothes with a feminist message goes back to college.

At the time, she decorated her denim jacket with "Not your Habibti," a take on the popular "Not Your Baby" slogan that reflected her Arab roots. Mjalli posted a photo of the jacket online last year for International Women's Day, stirring interest from potential buyers.

For a few months, she bought, transformed and sold second-hand jackets. In August, she launched her business, Baby-Fist, with workshops in Gaza and the West Bank making T-shirts, hoodies and jackets.

Mjalli estimates she has sold close to 500 pieces, with about 70 percent of her sales in the diaspora.

Skeptics expect limited impact on Palestinian society.

Nader Sa'id, a Palestinian pollster, said public discourse is crowded with issues seen as more pressing, mainly Israel's occupation of the West Bank and other lands Palestinians seek for a future state. Respondents listing top concerns in a survey ranked women's rights near the end, he said.

Abdelrahman, the activist, cheered on Mjalli.

"I am open to all things that will open up this dark closet that we prefer to hide in, pretending that everything is alright," she said. "Let's open it and see what comes out of it."Syrian opposition activists say rebels have shot down a warplane in the country's northwest where government forces and their allies are advancing under the cover of intense airstrikes.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says the warplane was downed on Saturday afternoon near the rebel-held town of Sarqeb, which Syrian troops have been trying to reach under the cover of Russian airstrikes.

The Observatory's chief Rami Abdurrahman says it's possible the warplane could be Russian. He added that the pilot ejected and landed alive on the ground.

The opposition's Aleppo Media Center says it was a Russian-made SU25 but did not say whether it was Russian. There was no immediate word from Moscow.Over the past two years, Israeli Air Force (IAF) planes ventured across the Israel-Egypt border and attacked target in the Sinai Peninsula more than 100 times to assist Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in his struggle against the Islamic state, the New York Times reported Saturday.

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The report is based on seven American and British officials who were involved in the region and remained anonymous.

Israel and the Egyptian army refused to comment on the report, as did the spokesman of the Egyptian Foreign Ministry.

IAF F-16 fighter jet (Photo: EPA)

Israeli aid to Egypt reportedly began after the downing of the Russian plane in the Sinai Peninsula in October 2015. The disaster led to the deaths of 224 passengers and crew members, most of them Russian citizens.

American sources quoted in the article claimed that the IAF had played a major role in assisting the Egyptian army in its struggle against the Islamic State's militiamen in Sinaia campaign that has been going on for nearly five years.

Egyptian army attacks ISIS targets in Sinai

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The attacks, which were reported to have taken place more often than once a week, were approved by al-Sisi, who had difficulty coping with the intensification of the extremist terrorist organization.

The unusual cooperation, it was said, constitutes a new stage in the charged relations between the two countries, which have become covert allies in their war against a common enemy.

ISIS militants in Sinai

In July 2016, a former senior Israeli official was quoted by US news website Bloomberg as saying that as part of the cooperation between Israel and Egypt, Israeli drones have attacked several Islamic State terror strongholds in the Sinai Peninsula in recent years.

The article, which dealt with the strengthening relations between Israel and Egypt, also quoted former deputy chief of staff Yair Golan, who said Israel has yet to experience "such a level of cooperation" with Egypt.

"It is not about love or common values," he noted. "I would not describe it like the relationship we have with the US, but I think that it's a good starting point."PESHAWAR, Pakistan - At least 11 soldiers were killed and 13 wounded on Saturday in a suicide attack near an army base in northern Pakistan, officials said, in a region that was once controlled by a local faction of the Taliban.

Attacks have decreased sharply in the picturesque Swat Valley but can cause alarm in a region where Pakistani Taliban insurgents took partial control in 2007, before being ousted two years later in a major military operation hailed as an important blow against Islamist violence.BERLIN -- Germany's foreign minister says Poland can rely on his country to condemn distortions of history such as descriptions of Nazi camps in occupied Poland as "Polish concentration camps."

A proposed new law in Poland would outlaw publicly and falsely attributing Nazi Germany's crimes in World War II to the Polish nation. The US has joined Israel in criticizing it, saying it would impact free expression.

German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel said Saturday: "This organized mass murder was carried out by our country and no one else. Individual collaborators change nothing about that."

Gabriel added: "We are convinced that only carefully appraising our own history can bring reconciliation. That includes people who had to experience the intolerable suffering of the Holocaust being able to speak unrestrictedly about this suffering."The rocket fire from Gaza and an IAF retaliation strike did not deter the thousands of visitors who came Saturday morning to the 13th annual "Red South" Festival taking place all through the month of February in honor of the blooming of the bright red Anemone flowers.

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Families were delighted at the large array of activities for children and they shrugged off the rocket threat from Gaza saying they would definitely come again. They expressed confidence that the IDF would keep everybody safe.

Shokeda Forest, the "Marketito" crafts fair, Be'eri Nature Reserve and the Dutch Market at Sde Tzvi and Kokhav Michael were some of the most popular attractions of the festival.

The unseasonably spring weather attracted an especially large number of visitors this weekend.

Red South Festival (Photo: Roi Idan)

(Photo: Roi Idan)

(Photo: Avihu Shapiro)

The north of the country as well saw large amounts of visitors to nature reserves and other local attractions. Police said that unusually heavy traffic was experienced only in the Mt Hermon area.

By 10:00 the site management was forced to ask travelers to stay away due to the large crowds visiting the snow covered mountain.

Police closed off the ascending road to private vehicles and only allowed busses to pass. Some 17,000 people visited the site over the weekend, among them 2,000 skiers.

To the delight of many and in spite of the moderate winter, ski conditions on the mountain are still in effect; although a snow maker was made available for patches that are beginning to melt.

Mt Hermon Ski Site (Photo: Hermon site)

The Hula Valley also received a large amount of visitors who enjoyed the view of a snow crested Hermon in the distance, together with the lake; and thousands of Crane birds as well.

Hula Valley cranes (Photo: EPA)

Overall, some 100,000 revelers visited National Parks and Nature Reserves over the weekend. The Banias Reserve, Caesarea, Yarkon National Park, Ashkelon Archeological Site and Masada were some of the most popular destinations.

(Photo: Moti Kimchi)

The dry weather is expected to continue throughout the week as a warm, dry front moves in from the Sahara Desert. Current temperatures are 7-8 degrees above average.Germany's foreign minister said Saturday that the Holocaust was carried out by Germany alone, backing Poland's side in a debate over their complicity in the genocide.

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"This organized mass murder was carried out by our country and no one else. Individual collaborators change nothing about that," Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel said.

German Foreign Minister Gabriel (Photo: Getty Images)

Gabriel's remark was made in the wake of a political rift between Poland and Israel over a newly approved legislation penalizing suggestions of any complicity by Poland in the Nazi Holocaust on its soil during World War II.

The United States has recently backed Israel's side in the debate, claiming the bill would impact free expression and urging Polish President Andrzej Duda to veto it.

Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki rejected this notion, saying on Thursday that Poland would never limit the freedom to debate the Holocaust and that Warsaw understood Israels emotions about the issue.

In his statement, Gabriel added that Poland can rely on his country to condemn distortions of history such as descriptions of Nazi camps in occupied Poland as "Polish concentration camps," which Poland vehemently objects to.

Visitors at the Auschwitz Death Camp on International Holocaust Remembrance Day (Photo: Reuters)

On twitter, the Foreign Minister reiterated this position, saying there can be "no doubt" as to whether or not Poland was complicit in the extermination of Jews.

"For 15 years I organized youth trips to Auschwitz and Majdanek. That these camps were Germanthere can be no doubt about that! The use of the term 'Polish death camp' is incorrect," he tweeted.

The Foreign Minister concluded his message to Poland by stressing that the people in German are "convinced that only carefully appraising our own history can bring reconciliation."

"That includes people who had to experience the intolerable suffering of the Holocaust being able to speak unrestrictedly about this suffering," he emphasized.Hundreds of people took to the streets Saturday night in Tel Aviv and Petah Tikva to protest "governmental corruption" and the "legal foot-dragging in the investigations against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu."

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Demonstrators carried signs calling for Netanyahu to resign and for corrupt politician to "go home."

Protest at Habima Squere (Photo: Motti Kimchi)

The protest, which has taken place every week for the past 63 weeks now, took place in two separate locations, with about 150 demonstrators flowing to Habima Square, where it usually takes place, and some 200 more attending a second protest in Goren Square in Petah Tikva, near the home of Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit.

The protest split into two last month after its two organizers , attorney Eldad Yaniv and former PMR caretaker Meni Naftali, after the former fumed that the latter claimed Netanyahu was not corrupt while interviewed on a popular talk show on the Keshet 12 television channel.

Demonstrators in Tel Aviv carried signs calling for Netanyahu to resign, his government a "banana republic" and for corrupt politician to "go home." Protesters in Petah Tikva came prepared with a cardboard cutout submarine in reference to the submarine affairwith which they marched around Goren Square.

(Photo: Motti Kimchi)

After commemorating Israeli novelist, poet and journalist Haim Gouri who passed away earlier this week, participants marched on Rothschild Boulevard to house number 30, the residence of gas mogul and close associate of Netanyahu Kobi Maimon, who Netanyahu's son Yair mentioned in an embarrassing recording in August as receiving 20 million shekels in revenue from gas drilling licenses from his father.

It was reveled Saturday that the security wing of the Prime Minister's Office submitted a police complaint against the driver who is suspected to be behind recording earlier this week. The driver is also accused of illegally handling classified material.BURQIN, West bank - Israeli soldiers shot and killed a Palestinian teenager during an arrest raid in the village of Burqin in the occupied West Bank, Palestinian health officials said on Saturday.

A Reuters witness said about 200 Palestinians were throwing stones at Israeli military vehicles when a shot was heard, adding that a wounded person was then carried to a car.

Israel's military, which said it was checking the report, said its forces had been searching in Burqin for suspects involved in the fatal drive-by shooting of an Israeli rabbi, Raziel Shevach, from a nearby settlement on Jan. 9.

Israeli forces in the adjacent city of Jenin last month shot and killed a Palestinian gunman whom they suspected of involvement in the rabbi's shooting.

The Palestinian Health Ministry said the teenager killed on Saturday was 19 years old, while the hospital in Jenin where he was taken said he had been shot in the head.

The Israeli military said rioting had broken out while troops were apprehending several suspects connected with the shooting of the rabbi and troops had responded with non-fatal "riot dispersal means".By TwoCircles.net Staff Reporter

Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind, one of the largest Indian Muslim organisations, helped release eight inmates of Tihar Jail, Delhi who were locked down behind bars because they could not pay the fine imposed on to them.

Jamiat deposited Rs 53,000 on behalf of eight prisoners  all non-Muslims  setting a humanitarian example at a time when the country is reeling under the communal tension.

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The function was organised in Jail No. 2 of Tihar on February 2, 2018. Ajay Kashyap, DG (Prisons) attended the event as the Chief Guest of the function. SS Parihar, DIG (P) was also present at the occasion along with few other officials.

In the program, all eight convicts were immediately released from the jail and were let out for a new beginning of their free life. DG Ajay Kashyap thanked the Jamiat and its national general secretary Maulana Mahmood Madani for the generosity shown. He also urged Jamiat to continue their support for such noble cause in the future also.

Ajay Kashyap has advised that special emphasis is given to the inmates belonging to the economic and social backward strata of the society. Kashyap said, Delhi prison is a correctional institution that aims to rehabilitate inmates with a human touch so that after releasing from jail they can again rejoin as productive members of society by providing them with useful life skills, education, and support.

During the period of incarceration, the inmates are occupied in positive and constructive activities and encouraged to participate in various activities, he added.

Kashyap also talked about the Constitution Week, which was celebrated in the last week of November 2017 by the prison department. The focus in the week was on identification of prisoners who were granted bail but could not be released due to their inability to produce sureties.

During this exercise, several poor convicts were identified who were undergoing sentence in lieu of the fine. Jail administration tried to reach out to several philanthropic organisations for help for these convicts. It was decided to join hands with some organisations so that the fine amount can be deposited to ensure the release of such convicts immediately to re-integrate in the mainstream of the society again as a productive member of society, said the press statement released by Jamiat.

On the occasion, Kashyap thanked Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind for approaching prison administrations and coming forward to cooperate on humanitarian ground. On behalf of Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind Maulana Hakeemuddin Qasim, Maulana Ghayyur Qusim, Qari Abdus Sami, Qari Naushad Adil, Maulana Yaseen Jahazi, Maulana Shafiq Qasmi Mufti Suhail Qasmi, Maulana Azeemullah Qasmi were also present in the function. The JUH delegation also gifted sets of Holy Quran to the DG.United States Court of Appeals, First Circuit. MARVIN JAVIER RUIZ-ESCOBAR, Petitioner, v. JEFFERSON B. SESSIONS, III, Respondent. No. 17-1539 Decided: February 02, 2018

Before Lynch, Circuit Judge, Souter,* Associate Justice, and Selya, Circuit Judge. Susan Kay Roses, with whom Michael P. Martel and Law Office of Michael P. Martel, Esq. were on brief, for petitioner. Emily B. Leung, Iris Gomez, and Massachusetts Law Reform Institute on brief for Massachusetts Law Reform Institute, Greater Boston Legal Services, Political Asylum/Immigration Representation Project, Catholic Social Services of Fall River, amici curiae. John F. Stanton, Trial Attorney, Office of Immigration Litigation, Civil Division, U.S. Department of Justice, with whom Chad A. Readler, Acting Assistant Attorney General, Civil Division, and Claire L. Workman, Senior Litigation Counsel, Office of Immigration Litigation, were on brief, for respondent.

Marvin Javier Ruiz-Escobar sought withholding of removal (WOR) and protection under the Convention Against Torture (CAT), claiming that he had experienced past persecution and faced a clear probability of future persecution in Honduras on account of his family membership.

He had an evidentiary hearing before an Immigration Judge (IJ). There, he presented evidence that, he alleged, established that a narcotrafficking gang called Los Cachiros had killed a number of his family members in Honduras. The IJ denied Ruiz-Escobar's request for relief, finding that he failed to establish that he had suffered -- or was likely to suffer in the future -- harm that was both (1) sufficient to constitute persecution and (2) related to his family membership. The Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) affirmed in a decision described below.

Ruiz-Escobar timely petitioned for review in this court. We also describe below the arguments in the petition. As none of the claims have merit, we deny his petition for review.

I. Background

A. Facts

Ruiz-Escobar, a native and citizen of Honduras, first entered the United States illegally in May 2013 by crossing the Hidalgo, Texas border. He was apprehended, detained by the border patrol for several weeks, and interviewed by immigration officials in June 2013. In a Record of Sworn Statement from that interview, which he signed, Ruiz-Escobar indicated that he had entered the United States to work and live in Boston, and that he had no fear of harm if he were returned to Honduras. On the basis of this information, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) removed Ruiz-Escobar to Honduras on June 18, 2013, pursuant to an expedited removal order.

In November 2013, Ruiz-Escobar again entered the United States illegally. This time, he eluded the border patrol and found his way to Massachusetts. On or about July 21, 2016, Ruiz-Escobar was taken into custody by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers after he was stopped by Massachusetts police for driving without a license. The next day, DHS notified Ruiz-Escobar of its decision to reinstate the prior removal order. In August 2016, an asylum officer interviewed Ruiz-Escobar and found that he had expressed a reasonable fear of harm upon return to Honduras.

Through counsel, Ruiz-Escobar filed an application for WOR and for protection under CAT. In support of his application, Ruiz-Escobar submitted, inter alia, affidavits from himself and his sister; death certificates of his deceased relatives; and reports detailing conditions in Honduras.

At the merits hearing on his application, Ruiz-Escobar testified that a number of his family members -- including his mother, his father, four uncles, and a cousin -- had been killed or disappeared in Honduras by a narcotrafficking group called Los Cachiros. Ruiz-Escobar said he had heard from relatives that Los Cachiros had shot and killed his father in 1994 (the year before he was born) for refusing to sell them a piece of land, which they had wanted to use as a landing strip for their cocaine-transporting planes.

Los Cachiros also purportedly held a grudge against Ruiz-Escobar's stepfather, Camilo Ruiz (Camilo), stemming from Camilo's refusal to become a bodyguard for Lucio Rivera, a Los Cachirosaffiliated narcotrafficker. Ruiz-Escobar claimed that Los Cachiros had attempted to kill Camilo in 2010 by cutting the brakes of his car. According to Ruiz-Escobar, the resulting car accident killed his mother, but Camilo survived. Camilo relocated to the United States in 2011, where he currently is located, and testified at Ruiz-Escobar's hearing.

To rebut Ruiz-Escobar's testimony that Lucio Rivera had been targeting his family members, DHS counsel Googled the name Lucio Rivera at the hearing and found a Spanish-language article from a Honduran newspaper stating that Lucio Rivera had been convicted of three murders and sentenced to 104 years in prison by a Honduran court. Ruiz-Escobar's counsel objected to the admission of the article on the basis that she had not seen it. DHS counsel responded that she would go upstairs and print it out. The IJ allowed the court interpreter to translate the article into the record.

Ruiz-Escobar also described the deaths of four of his uncles: Andres Felipe Ruiz Mayen (Andres), Jose de Jesus Ruiz Mayen (Jose), Santos Ruiz Mayen (Santos), and Hector Porfirio Sevilla Cabrera (Hector). He claimed that Andres was murdered in 1998 for refusing to sell the Ruiz family's land to Los Cachiros. According to Ruiz-Escobar, the land was eventually sold to a cattle rancher, but Los Cachiros ultimately obtained possession of the land after killing the rancher. The second uncle, Jose, died in 2005. While Ruiz-Escobar did not have personal knowledge regarding the circumstances of Jose's death, he noted that some people in [his] family thought that drug traffickers were possibly responsible for Jose's death, even though an initial report indicated that Jose had been killed by a falling tree. The third uncle, Santos, has been missing since 2011. Ruiz-Escobar speculated that Los Cachiros had kidnapped Santos to obtain information about Camilo's location and disappeared Santos to punish Camilo's family members for Camilo's escape. Finally, Ruiz-Escobar stated that his uncle Hector had been shot and killed in a rural area in 2015, and that there were no witnesses to the murder.

The final relative that Ruiz-Escobar asserted had been killed by Los Cachiros was his cousin, Glenda Mileydy Hernandez. Hernandez had allegedly attempted to break her romantic relationship with a narcotrafficker shortly before her corpse was discovered.

Ruiz-Escobar testified that his only personal experience with narcotraffickers was an incident in 2011 in which individuals whom he thought were narcotraffickers had broken into his apartment in Juticalpa. According to Ruiz-Escobar, the intruders held him at gunpoint, searched his apartment, and asked him if he knew where a certain person was, to which he answered no because he did not recognize the person's name. The intruders left the apartment without physically harming him. Ruiz-Escobar admitted that he did not know who the intruders were. Moreover, he did not report the incident to the police, and that was because he believed that the police were corrupt.

After the 2011 break-in, Ruiz-Escobar moved to a different residence in the same town. Ruiz-Escobar admitted that he lived safely in his new home for another year and a half, after which he made his first entry into the United States. However, he testified that he had seen one of the men involved in the break-in on a number of occasions after his move, and that he believed that the man had been following him. He also described a rumor, which he had heard from an aunt, that a narcotrafficker who had been paid to kill Camilo had also been paid to kill him.

Ruiz-Escobar also claimed that while he was in immigration custody after his first removal in 2013, he had seen immigration officials being abusive to detainees and physically forcing them to sign papers. He acknowledged that the immigration official who had conducted his interview had spoken Spanish and that he had understood the interviewer's questions, with the exception of some words. He also acknowledged that he had initialed and signed the Record of Sworn Statement from the interview. But he denied telling the interviewer that he had come to the United States to seek work and that he had no fear of harm if he were returned to Honduras. After his 2013 removal to Honduras, Ruiz-Escobar lived safely in Honduras until his second entry into the United States six months later.

B. IJ Decision

The IJ denied Ruiz-Escobar's application. The IJ gave significant credence to the signed Record of Sworn Statement from the 2013 interview because the document was the closest statement in time to [Ruiz-Escobar's] entry into the United States and Ruiz-Escobar told different tales at different times. Because of Ruiz-Escobar's contradictions, the IJ stated that he sharply discount[ed] [Ruiz-Escobar's] subsequent testimony and would  make an adverse credibility finding as to his motive for entering the United States. However, the IJ stated that [c]redibility  [was] not the determining factor. Rather, the IJ denied relief on the basis that Ruiz-Escobar had failed to establish that he faced persecution on account of a protected ground.

The IJ consider[ed] the death certificates proffered by Ruiz-Escobar, but found that they had somewhat limited utility inasmuch as they do not indicate causes of death. In holding that Ruiz-Escobar had not suffered past persecution in Honduras, the IJ found it telling that the purported break-in to Ruiz-Escobar's apartment by narcotraffickers in 2011 had occurred after Camilo had already left Honduras for the United States, and noted that if the intruders had been looking to harm members of the Ruiz family, they could have done so at the time of the intrusion, but did not.

In holding that Ruiz-Escobar failed to establish a likelihood of future persecution, the IJ emphasized the fact that, on Ruiz-Escobar's testimony, Los Cachiros' motive for targeting the Ruiz family was to acquire the family's land, which was ultimately sold to another farmer. The IJ also highlighted Ruiz-Escobar's failure to establish the Honduran government's unwillingness or inability to protect him from harm, given that Lucio Rivera, the narcotrafficker, had been arrested, and had been sentenced by a Honduran court to over 100 years in prison. Moreover, the IJ determined that it was possible for Ruiz-Escobar to relocate safely within Honduras because he had at various times lived free of any harassment or any danger there.

C. BIA Decision

Ruiz-Escobar appealed the IJ's decision to the BIA, arguing that (1) the IJ erred by making an adverse credibility finding based on the Record of Sworn Statement when Ruiz-Escobar disavowed that statement at his hearing; (2) the IJ violated his right to due process by admitting the Spanish-language article about Lucio Rivera without a written English translation; (3) two of the IJ's factual findings were clearly erroneous; and (4) the IJ's findings on past and future persecution were erroneous because, inter alia, the IJ gave insufficient weight to the death certificates, Ruiz-Escobar's sister's testimony and successful asylum application, and the country-conditions reports.

The BIA dismissed Ruiz-Escobar's appeal. First, the BIA declined to address Ruiz-Escobar's credibility argument because the IJ specifically stated that credibility '[was] not the determining factor in this case.' The BIA noted that the IJ denied Ruiz-Escobar's application solely on the basis of his determination that Ruiz-Escobar failed to meet his burden of proof to establish eligibility for relief from removal.

Second, the BIA found no due process violation. It was not persuaded that the IJ erred in allowing the DHS article because (1) there was insufficient proof of a translation error, (2) the article was translated during the hearing and its evidentiary significance was facially apparent; and (3) the article was submitted as rebuttal evidence.

Third, the BIA held that the IJ did not clearly err by (1) stating that there was no evidence of what had happened to the farmer who purchased the Ruiz land, and (2) finding that the police had not been notified of the crimes allegedly committed by Los Cachiros against the Ruiz family. The BIA noted that the first finding was at most harmless error, and that the second finding was supported by evidence in the record.

Finally, the BIA stated that it agreed with the IJ's denial of relief, for a number of reasons. First, the BIA noted that Ruiz-Escobar failed to show that any alleged persecution was on account of his family membership. Second, the BIA held that the threats that Ruiz-Escobar faced during the 2011 break-in did not amount to persecution. Third, the BIA stated that the IJ properly discounted the probative value of the death certificates because they lacked cause-of-death information. Fourth, the BIA found that Ruiz-Escobar's sister's asylum grant was not dispositive because each case must be assessed on the evidence presented by the applicant. Fifth, the BIA rejected Ruiz-Escobar's argument that the country-conditions reports supported his persecution claims because the BIA found those reports to be irrelevant to the nexus issue. Finally, the BIA determined that the IJ did not clearly err by finding that relocation was possible.

II. Discussion

A. Credibility Determination

As an initial matter, we reject Ruiz-Escobar's argument regarding the IJ's purported credibility finding. Here, the BIA declined to address Ruiz-Escobar's credibility argument because it found clear that the IJ had denied relief solely based on his determination that [Ruiz-Escobar] did not meet his burden of proof to establish eligibility for relief. That was a reasonable view of the record, and we have no reason to second-guess it.

B. Nexus

Where, as here, the BIA affirms an IJ's ruling while analyzing the bases offered for that ruling, we review the IJ's and BIA's opinions as a unit. Tay-Chan v. Holder, 699 F.3d 107, 111 (1st Cir. 2012) (citation omitted). We review the BIA's and IJ's findings of fact under the substantial evidence standard, pursuant to which we accept such findings so long as they are supported by reasonable, substantial and probative evidence on the record considered as a whole. Singh v. Holder, 750 F.3d 84, 86 (1st Cir. 2014) (quoting INS v. Elias-Zacarias, 502 U.S. 478, 481 (1992)). We can reject the BIA's and IJ's findings of fact only if the evidence 'points unerringly in the opposite direction,' that is, unless it compels a contrary conclusion. Segran v. Mukasey, 511 F.3d 1, 5 (1st Cir. 2007) (emphasis added) (quoting Laurent v. Ashcroft, 359 F.3d 59, 64 (1st Cir. 2004)).

To show that he is entitled to WOR, Ruiz-Escobar bears the burden of demonstrating that, more likely than not, his life or freedom will be threatened on account of his race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion if he is removed to Honduras. Hernandez-Lima v. Lynch, 836 F.3d 109, 113 (1st Cir. 2016) (quoting 8 U.S.C.  1231(b)(3)(A)). Alternatively, Ruiz-Escobar can demonstrate that he has already suffered such persecution in Honduras, thereby creating a rebuttable presumption that he will suffer the same upon removal. Id. (citing 8 C.F.R.  1208.16(b)(1)). Under either method of establishing entitlement to relief, Ruiz-Escobar must show both harm sufficient to amount to persecution and a 'nexus' between the alleged persecution and one of the statutorily protected grounds. Id.

There was substantial evidence for the BIA's and IJ's determination that Ruiz-Escobar failed to show a nexus between his alleged past persecution and likelihood of future persecution, and his family membership. Because Ruiz-Escobar's failure to meet the nexus requirement is independently fatal to his claim for WOR relief, we do not address his other arguments regarding past and future persecution.

In order for family membership to serve as the linchpin for a protected social group, it must be at the root of the persecution, so that family membership itself brings about the persecutorial conduct. Ruiz v. Mukasey, 526 F.3d 31, 38 (1st Cir. 2008) (citing Gebremichael v. INS, 10 F.3d 28, 36 (1st Cir. 1993)). Moreover, an alien's speculation or conjecture, unsupported by hard evidence is insufficient to establish nexus. Morgan v. Holder, 634 F.3d 53, 59 (1st Cir. 2011).

The evidence in the record does not compel a finding that Ruiz-Escobar established a nexus between his alleged past persecution and his family membership. In particular, Ruiz-Escobar's testimony regarding the 2011 break-in does not support his assertion that he was targeted because of his membership in the Ruiz family. Ruiz-Escobar said he had no idea who the purported narcotraffickers who broke into his apartment were, who they were looking for, or why they were looking for that individual. See Perlera-Sola v. Holder, 699 F.3d 572, 577 (1st Cir. 2012) (holding that petitioner failed to establish nexus because, although his testimony was deemed credible, he failed to identify any of the assailants and more importantly, their motives for attacking his father). Moreover, the IJ reasonably observed that, if the purported narcotraffickers wished to harm Ruiz-Escobar because of his family membership, they could have done so during the 2011 break-in.

Nor does the evidence in the record compel the finding that Ruiz-Escobar will likely face future persecution in Honduras because of his family membership. Ruiz-Escobar's own belief that he was being targeted by narcotraffickers because he was a member of the Ruiz family amounts to no more than speculation or conjecture, which cannot establish nexus absent hard evidence to support it. Morgan, 634 F.3d 59; see also Giraldo-Pabon v. Lynch, 840 F.3d 21, 25 (1st Cir. 2016) (noting that petitioner's own belief that her cousin was stabbed because of her other family members' involvement in narcotrafficking was insufficient to establish nexus). And the evidence in the record regarding the death of Ruiz-Escobar's relatives does not form the hard evidence necessary to compel the conclusion that membership in the Ruiz family was the root of the persecution, so that family membership itself br[ought] about the persecutorial conduct. Ruiz, 526 F.3d at 38.

In particular, the relevant testimony regarding Los Cachiros' motivation for killing Ruiz-Escobar's father and his uncle Andres supports only an inference that Los Cachiros sought to obtain the Ruiz family's land, not that the narcotraffickers had a continuing interest in harming the Ruiz family once they gained possession of that land. Cf. Hernandez-Lima, 836 F.3d at 115 (evidence that the petitioner's relatives faced extortion in the past supports an inference that the perpetrators sought money rather than to harm petitioners' family because of their kinship).

Ruiz-Escobar also failed to persuasively establish any Los Cachiros involvement in the deaths of his uncles Jose, Santos, and Hector, much less show that the uncles were killed by Los Cachiros because they were members of the Ruiz family. Morgan, 634 F.3d at 59. Ruiz-Escobar admitted that he had no personal knowledge of the circumstances of these uncles' deaths, and his theory of their connection to Los Cachiros was supported only by his and his relatives' uncorroborated hypotheses.

The evidence also does not compel the conclusion that Ruiz-Escobar's mother and cousin were killed because they were members of the Ruiz family. To begin, the circumstances surrounding the death of Ruiz-Escobar's mother are ambiguous. And Ruiz-Escobar's testimony regarding his cousin supported the inference that she was killed because of her attempt to end her romantic relationship with a narcotrafficker, not that she was killed because she was a member of the Ruiz family. See Marin-Portillo v. Lynch, 834 F.3d 99, 101-02 (1st Cir. 2016) (noting that threats to family members arising from personal disputes, including disputes motivated by revenge, are insufficient to establish the required nexus to family membership).

Finally, the successful asylum application of Ruiz-Escobar's sister does not compel a nexus finding. As the BIA recognized in evaluating the probative value of the asylum grant, asylum cases virtually by definition  call for individualized determinations. Morgan, 634 F.3d at 61. Here, there is a paucity of information in the record regarding the particular factual findings and legal analysis underlying Ruiz-Escobar's sister's asylum grant. Cf. Nela v. Holder, 349 F. App'x 661, 663 (2d Cir. 2009) (upholding BIA conclusion that a grant of asylum and WOR to the petitioner's brother, allegedly based on the same story as petitioner's, was not material to the petitioner's claim because the IJ order granting asylum to the brother did not state the grounds for relief).

In all events, the clear probability standard for establishing eligibility for WOR is more stringent than the showing required for asylum. Mendez-Barrera v. Holder, 602 F.3d 21, 27 (1st Cir. 2010). Nothing in the record compelled the BIA or IJ to find that Ruiz-Escobar had met this standard.

C. Due Process Claims

Ruiz-Escobar's due process claims also fail. To show a due process violation based on an alleged mistranslation, the petitioner must show that 'a more proficient or more accurate interpretation would likely have made a dispositive difference in the outcome of the proceeding.' Matias v. Sessions, 871 F.3d 65, 71 (1st Cir. 2017) (quoting Teng v. Mukasey, 516 F.3d 12, 17-18 (1st Cir. 2008)). Ruiz-Escobar claims that the IJ violated his right to due process by admitting the Spanish-language article describing Lucio Rivera's arrest as rebuttal evidence without a written English translation. But Ruiz-Escobar does not allege that the interpreter's verbal translation of the article during the hearing was erroneous. Moreover, during his testimony, Camilo confirmed that the article accurately stated that Lucio had been convicted of three murders and was sentenced to 104 years in prison. Finally, any error with respect to the admission of the article has no bearing on the IJ's and BIA's conclusion that Ruiz-Escobar failed to establish nexus, which we hold independently supports denial of relief. Ruiz-Escobar fails to show that the provision of a written translation of the article would have made a dispositive difference in the outcome of the proceeding. Matias, 871 F.3d at 71.

Ruiz-Escobar also argues that the IJ violated his right to due process by allowing a highly material and prejudicial translation error to stand. During the hearing, the interpreter translated one of Ruiz-Escobar's statements as Yes, but I ignored what the questions [in the Record of Sworn Statement] were about. Ruiz-Escobar contends that what he actually said was Yes, but I did not know what the questions [in the Record of Sworn Statement] were about. According to Ruiz-Escobar, if the IJ found that Ruiz-Escobar had known that he was signing a Record of Sworn Statement, the IJ could have found that Ruiz-Escobar should have understood the significance of that statement, whereas Ruiz-Escobar has maintained that he did not know what it was he was signing when he signed the Record of Sworn Statement. Ruiz-Escobar argues that he was prejudiced by this alleged error because the IJ relied solely on the Record of Sworn Statement to find that he was not credible regarding his motive for entering the United States.

Even if I didn't know is the more accurate translation, as Ruiz-Escobar asserts, he fails to show prejudice because the IJ expressly disclaimed any dependence on his views regarding Ruiz-Escobar's credibility in reaching his decision to deny relief.

III. Conclusion

Ruiz-Escobar's petition for review is denied.

FOOTNOTES

. At the hearing, the IJ highlighted a number of issues with the death certificates of Ruiz-Escobar's relatives, including the fact that the certificates did not state the cause of death of the decedents.

. The BIA also found no error in the IJ's conclusion that Ruiz-Escobar had not met his burden of proof for protection under the CAT. Ruiz-Escobar does not challenge this finding in his petition for review.

. Amici argue that the IJ must have either (1) implicitly discounted the credibility of Ruiz-Escobar's testimony regarding nexus or (2) failed to assess the substantiality of Ruiz-Escobar's testimony along with the evidence regarding his relatives' deaths. We disagree. For the reasons stated in section II.B, infra, there was substantial evidence for the IJ's factual findings with respect to Ruiz-Escobar's failure to show nexus, regardless of whether Ruiz-Escobar's testimony was deemed credible.

. As the IJ reasonably found, the death certificates that Ruiz-Escobar submitted failed to corroborate the alleged connection between Los Cachiros and his uncles' deaths in part because they contained no cause-of-death information.

. The only relevant details in the record include Ruiz-Escobar's sister's asylum-approval letter, which does not state the grounds for the approval, and general statements in her affidavit stating that she was granted asylum based on the fact that [her] family was persecuted in Honduras, and that because of [her] association with them, [she] was persecuted in the past in Honduras and likely would be again in the future if [she were] forced to return.

. We also find no error in the BIA's determination that the country-conditions reports submitted by Ruiz-Escobar are irrelevant to the issue of nexus.

LYNCH, Circuit Judge.Iraqi security forces have arrested Islamic States top oil chief while he was trying to cross the border into Syria, Tehran-based Fars News Agency reported on Friday, quoting military sources. As Oil Price writes in the article Iraq Arrests ISIS Oil Chief Near Syrian Border, the Iraqi forces ambushed the convoy with which the top ISIS* terroristidentified as Abdel-Ghani Zargham Abdel-Samawas traveling through the town of Masada in Iraqs northern province of Nineveh. The oil chief of the Islamic State surrendered after Iraqi security forces surrounded him, according to the military sources.

At the peak of the ISIS* grip over Iraq and Syria, the terrorists were heavily relying on oil smuggling to reap revenues. But as the coalition fighting the terrorists began to expel Islamic State militants from large areas in Iraq and Syria, their oil income also started to dwindle. Over the past two years, the U.S.-led coalition that is fighting ISIS in Iraq and Syria has managed to cut the militants oil revenues to less than US$4 million monthly from a peak of US$50 million, statistics by the coalition provided to USA TODAY in October 2017 showed.



Meanwhile, Iraq said in October that it hoped to restore production at oil fields in the Nineveh area around Mosul over the next few months, after rehabilitating the sites that Islamic State militants had set on fire to try to hamper the U.S.-backed offensive on Mosul. Iraqs oil ministry has ordered the state-held North Oil Company to draft an urgent plan for rehabilitating the oil fields in Nineveh.

The two biggest fields in NinevehQayyara and Najmawere pumping up to 30,000 bpd of sour heavy crude oil before they were seized by ISIS terrorists in the middle of 2014. In August 2016, the army recaptured the Qayyara oil-producing regions south of Mosul from forces loyal to the Islamic State, cutting access to ISIS main source of revenue in the region.

Two months later, Iraqs army and U.S.-led coalition allies launched the offensive to free Mosul from ISIS. The battle for Mosul lasted longer than expected, but in July 2017, Iraqs Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi declared victory and said that Mosul was liberated.

*ISIS is the terrorist organization banned in RussiaThe Trump administration is mulling over whether to conduct a "bloody nose" strike against North Korea, according to multiple reports, a move that experts warn could lead to a full-blown conflict. As Newsweek writes in an article "HOW WOULD TRUMP ATTACK NORTH KOREA? PRESIDENT CONSIDERING BLOODY NOSE STRIKE, REPORTS SAY", a "bloody nose" strike would essentially involve a military action that's limited enough it wouldn't spark a war but also strong enough it convinces Pyongyang to give up on its nuclear ambitions.

Trump's advisers are reportedly split on this issue. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Defense Secretary James Mattis have urged for the president to be cautious about employing a military option, but national security adviser H.R. McMaster has pushed for it to be seriously considered, CNN reported.

The debate over the issue also led the president to walk back on nominating Victor Cha for ambassador to South Korea, according to multiple reports. Cha recently wrote an op-ed for The Washington Post outlining why he opposed a "bloody nose" strike. "While our population in Japan might be protected by U.S. missile defenses, the U.S. population in South Korea, let alone millions of South Koreans, has no similar active defenses against a barrage of North Korean artillery (aside from counterfire artillery)," Cha said. "To be clear: The president would be putting at risk an American population the size of a medium-size U.S. city  Pittsburgh, say, or Cincinnati  on the assumption that a crazy and undeterrable dictator will be rationally cowed by a demonstration of U.S. kinetic power," he added.

Former Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel also warned against pursuing a "bloody nose" strike in a recent interview with Military Times, stating the U.S. should be "smarter" than that and such an attack could ultimately result in millions of deaths. "If you want to bet that if you are going to attack North Korea, however you [are] going to do that, and think that Kim Jong Un and the North Koreans are not going to retaliateits a pretty big gamble. I wouldnt want to take that gamble," Hagel said.

In November, the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff said a ground invasion would be necessary to eliminate North Korea's nuclear weapons, given there's limited intelligence on the location of its military assets. A "bloody nose" strike, in and of itself, would not denuclearize the rogue state and Cha warned it could even "exacerbate" Pyongyang's efforts to develop nuclear weapons.

North Korea is estimated to possess between 25 to 60 nuclear weapons but it does not yet have the technology necessary to successfully launch a nuclear-tipped ballistic missile at the mainland U.S. However, CIA Director Mike Pompeo recently said the isolated nation is only a "handful of months" away from reaching this goal.The Trump Administration's newly-released Nuclear Posture Review (NPR) lays out plans to modernize the US nuclear triad by integrating nuclear capability on the F-35 fighter jet, deploying low-yield warheads at sea, and developing new silo-based strategic weapons, among other initiatives, Sputnik reports.

On Friday, senior State and Defense Department officials held a press conference to rollout the NPR, a 100-page document that was the result of a January 27, 2017 directive from US President Donald Trump which called on Defense Secretary James Mattis to conduct a review to "ensure a safe, secure, and effective nuclear deterrent that protects the homeland, assures allies and above all, deters adversaries."

Trump in a statement on Friday after the rollout said that after a year of "thorough analysis and careful deliberations across our government," the administration was announcing the conclusions of its findings.

"These conclusions are grounded in a realistic assessment of the global security environment, the need to deter the use of the most destructive weapons on earth, and our nations long-standing commitment to nuclear non-proliferation," Trump said in a statement released by the White House.

Meanwhile, the United States is using the alleged Russian threat to justify a hike in military spending and nuclear buildup, Russian Ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov told reporters in a comment on the new US Nuclear Posture Review.

"The problem is that the Americans are again using the Russian scare to justify the rise in military spending and the nuclear buildup," he said Friday. "We realize this comes from their desire to inject more money into the military industry sector, we know the price tag is enormous, trillions of dollars."

Antonov told reporters that Russian specialists hope to discuss with American specialists the new US Nuclear Posture Review in the near future, Antonov told reporters.

However, the newly released 2018 US Nuclear Posture Review raises questions and does not promise practical work, Russian Ambassador to the United States noted. "We were able to get acquainted only with the publicly released part of the document, with the remarks made by [US Defense] Secretary [James] Mattis, but even these remarks raise questions," Antonov said Friday. "I think that the remarks, at least those I have seen, do not really encourage practical work."

Meanwhile, James Mattis explained in the preface that the review affirms efforts initiated under former President Barack Obama to modernize US nuclear ballistic missile submarines, strategic bombers, nuclear air-launched cruise missiles, intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), and command and control.

US Deputy Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan echoed this sentiment to reporters at a press conference unveiling the NPR. "The 2018 NPR calls for modernizing the nuclear triad and command and control system  which is necessary, affordable and long overdue," Shanahan said on Friday.

The review claims a stronger US nuclear deterrent is needed to discourage Russia, China, Iran and North Korea from either developing new weapons or expanding existing arsenals.

In the NPR's preface, Mattis said that Russian doctrine and its actions in Crimea, Ukraine and elsewhere have signaled Moscows intent to return to Great Power competition.The authorities of North Ossetia sent an application to the Ministry of Education and Science of Russia for the construction of kindergartens in Mozdok and Vladikavkaz, which will ensure the provision of places in the pre-school educational institutions for the military personnels children by the end of the year, the Minister of Education and Science of Republic, Irina Azimova said.

"In North Ossetia, there is a problem of providing the children of servicemen with places in kindergartens, and this year, we will solve it completely, TASS quotes Azimova as saying.Russian bombers carried out a special operation in that part of the Syrian district of Idlib, where the Russian Su-25 attack aircraft was shot down by terrorists today. The pilot died in a skirmish with the Jabhat al-Nusra terrorists, the Russian Ministry of Defense reported.

"The Russian Armed Forces carried out an attack with a high-precision weapon against the area from where the rocket shot down the Su-25 aircraft was launched, 30 Jabhat al-Nusra fighters were killed during the attack," the defense ministry reported.United States Court of Appeals, Third Circuit. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA; KERRY C. MARTIN, Revenue Officer, Internal Revenue Service v. JEFFREY D. SERVIN, ESQUIRE, Appellant No. 17-1371 Decided: February 01, 2018

Before: JORDAN, ROTH, Circuit Judges and STEARNS *, District Judge

OPINION**

Jeffrey D. Servin appeals from a District Court order enforcing two administrative summonses issued by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), in connection with its efforts to collect unpaid income taxes from him. Servin, who is a lawyer, argues that he is prohibited from disclosing the requested information to the IRS under Pennsylvania's attorney-client privilege and Rule 1.6 of the Pennsylvania Rules of Professional Conduct. For the reasons that follow, we will affirm.

I. BACKGROUND

The Internal Revenue Code grants the IRS broad statutory authority to compel a taxpayer to give testimony or produce documents in connection with determining tax liability. United States v. Clark, 134 S. Ct. 2361, 2364 (2014); see also 26 U.S.C.  7602(a)(2). Pursuant to that authority, the IRS issued summonses to Servin in an effort to assess his income and assets and to collect delinquent taxes. Specifically, it sought to verify the income Servin generated through his law practice. The summonses requested two categories of information: (1) Servin's current client list, including the names and addresses of each client; and (2) a list of his cases that will be settling or have settled within a specified time period, including the parties' names and addresses. In response to the summonses, Servin appeared, but refused to disclose the requested information.

The IRS filed a complaint accompanied by a supporting declaration from a revenue officer, seeking a court order to enforce the summonses. The District Court ordered Servin to respond, and also ordered him to appear and show cause why the summonses should not be enforced against him. Servin filed an answer and a memorandum of law in which he argued that, under Pennsylvania law, the attorney-client privilege and other confidentiality restrictions prevented him from producing the requested information, absent each client's informed consent.

The District Court then held a show-cause hearing and ordered Servin to comply with the summonses, but it limited the second category of requested information to include only those cases that have settled, not cases that may settle [.] (App. at 5.) The District Court reasoned that the IRS summonses, as amended, [are] not an invasion of the attorney-client privilege between Mr. Servin and his clients[,] under either Pennsylvania or federal law. (App. at 52.) Servin filed a motion for reconsideration, which was denied. He has now appealed.

II. DISCUSSION 4

The IRS need only demonstrate good faith in issuing [a] summons. Clarke, 134 S. Ct. at 2365 (citation omitted). Once it has done so, the burden shifts to the taxpayer to show any appropriate ground for quashing the summons. Id. The District Court considered the IRS's complaint and supporting affidavit and concluded that the agency had met its initial burden. It also concluded that Servin had not shown that his compliance with the summonses would violate the attorney-client privilege.

On appeal, Servin does not argue that the District Court erred when determining that the IRS met its initial burden to justify the issuance of the summonses. Instead, he argues that, because Pennsylvania's attorney-client privilege and Rule 1.6 of the Pennsylvania Rules of Professional Conduct prohibit the unconsented disclosure of a client's name and address, the District Court erred by ordering him to comply with the summonses. According to Servin, in the absence of the client's informed consent the lawyer must not reveal information relating to the representation  moreover a presumption exists against such disclosure. (Opening Br. at 5 (emphases removed) (citing Model Rules of Prof'l Conduct 1.6 cmt. [2] ).)

It is well-settled that the IRS's summons power is not absolute and is limited by the traditional privileges, including the attorney-client privilege. The burden of proving the defense falls upon the party resisting enforcement of the summons. United States v. Rockwell Int'l, 897 F.2d 1255, 1264 (3d Cir. 1990) (internal quotation marks and citation omitted). Whether the attorney-client privilege protects against disclosure of information sought by the IRS is a question governed by federal common law, not state law. Liebman, 742 F.2d at 809.

The Supreme Court ha[s] recognized the attorney-client privilege under federal law, as the oldest of the privileges for confidential communications known to the common law. United States v. Zolin, 491 U.S. 554, 562 (1989) (internal quotation marks and citation omitted). That privilege although an essential and carefully guarded aspect of the attorney-client relationship  is not boundless. It protects only against the disclosure of confidential communications. Upjohn Co., 449 U.S. at 389; In re Teleglobe Commc'ns Corp., 493 F.3d 345, 359-60 (3d Cir. 2007). We have said that, absent unusual circumstances, the attorney-client privilege does not protect against disclosing clients' identities. Liebman, 742 F.2d at 809; see also Gannet v. First Nat'l State Bank of N.J., 546 F.2d 1072, 1073 n.4 (3d Cir. 1976) (citing cases).

Servin fails to identify any unusual circumstances here that suggest protected communications would be revealed by disclosing the names and addresses of his clients and other parties. Because he has not shown that the attorney-client privilege shields the information requested by the IRS, the privilege cannot constitute grounds for quashing the summonses.

Nor has Servin shown that the Pennsylvania Rules of Professional Conduct are a basis for quashing the summonses. The rule he relies on, Rule 1.6, provides in pertinent part: A lawyer shall not reveal information relating to representation of a client unless the client gives informed consent, except for disclosures that are impliedly authorized in order to carry out the representation[.] Pa. Rules of Prof'l Conduct 1.6(a). Although Pennsylvania courts have recognized that a lawyer's duty of confidentiality to a client is quite extensive[,]  the Rules of Professional Conduct are not substantive law. In re Estate of Wood, 818 A.2d 568, 573 (Pa. Super. Ct. 2003) (citing Commonwealth v. Chmiel, 738 A.2d 406, 415 (Pa. 1999), cert. denied, 528 U.S. 1131 (2000)). Rather, those rules govern disciplinary proceedings against Pennsylvania attorneys, and, through its Supreme Court, the Commonwealth has said that the rules do not govern or affect judicial application of  the attorney-client  privilege. Id. (internal quotation marks omitted) (quoting Chmiel, 738 A.2d at 415). We take Pennsylvania at its word. Thus, Rule 1.6 does not provide a defense, and Servin has not established a basis to avoid enforcement of the summonses.

III. CONCLUSION

For the reasons stated, we will affirm the District Court's order, dated January 18, 2017.

FOOTNOTES

. Servin does not dispute that he has outstanding federal tax liabilities. That liability, and the amount owed, are not at issue in this case.

. The second summons also sought the name of the payer on each case that will be settling or has settled within the stated time-period.

. The IRS does not contest that modification. Thus, as referenced herein, enforcement of the summonses refers to the two IRS summonses, dated March 18, 2016, and September 13, 2016, as modified by the District Court's order, dated January 18, 2017, limiting the settlement category of requested information to include only cases that have settled.

. The District Court had jurisdiction pursuant to the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, 26 U.S.C.  7402(b) and 7604(a). Clarke, 134 S. Ct. at 2365 (If a taxpayer does not comply with [an IRS] summons, the IRS may bring an enforcement action in district court. (citing 26 U.S.C.  7402(b), 7604(a))). We have jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C.  1291. We reject Servin's suggestion that the case involves adjudicating state licensing regarding the practice of law, rendering jurisdiction or venue in federal court improper. (Opening Br. at 5.) While the applicability of the [attorney-client] privilege must turn on the facts of each case, determining the scope of protection in each case is a question of law over which we exercise plenary review. United States v. Liebman, 742 F.2d 807, 809 (3d Cir. 1984) (citing Upjohn Co. v. United States, 449 U.S. 383 (1981)).

. Servin argues that Pennsylvania law controls. But even if that were true  and it is not  Servin fails to cite Pennsylvania case law supporting his claim that Pennsylvania's attorney-client privilege is much more restrictive and would prevent him from disclosing his clients' names and addresses. (Opening Br. at 5 (emphases omitted).) To the contrary, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court has cited our decision in United States v. Liebman, and appears to have adopted a similar approach. See Levy v. Senate of Pennsylvania, 65 A.3d 361, 371-72 (Pa. 2013) (holding that a client's identity is generally not privileged, though the attorney-client privilege may apply in cases where divulging the client's identity would disclose either the legal advice given or the confidential communications provided).

. The comments to Rule 1.6 state that its scope is limited by substantive law:The principle of client-lawyer confidentiality is given effect by related bodies of law: the attorney-client privilege, the work product doctrine and the rule of confidentiality established in professional ethics. The attorney-client privilege and work-product doctrine apply in judicial and other proceedings in which a lawyer may be called as a witness or otherwise required to produce evidence concerning a client. The rule of client-lawyer confidentiality applies in situations other than those where evidence is sought from the lawyer through compulsion of law.Pa. Rules of Prof'l Conduct 1.6 cmt. 3. The comments to Rule 1.6 further state:A lawyer may be ordered to reveal information relating to the representation of a client by a court or by another tribunal or governmental entity claiming authority pursuant to other law to compel the disclosure. Absent informed consent of the client to do otherwise, the lawyer should assert on behalf of the client all nonfrivolous claims that the order is not authorized by other law or that the information sought is protected against disclosure by the attorney-client privilege or other applicable law.Id. cmt. 21. Although we do not minimize Servin's concern about complying with Pennsylvania's ethical rules, those rules do not, as a matter of substantive law, shield attorneys from complying with a court order. E.g., In re Estate of Wood, 818 A.2d at 573 (concluding that an attorney simply is not entitled to utilize Rule 1.6 in an effort to avoid the trial court's order).

. Servin's remaining suggestion that an alternative collection procedure would suffice, or that compliance would yield de minimus results, is without legal support. Cf. Fed. R. App. P. 28(a)(8) (stating that an appellant's argument must include the appellant's contentions and the reasons for them, with citations to the authorities  on which the appellant relies); Clarke, 134 S. Ct. at 2367 (noting that, when contesting a summons's validity, [n]aked allegations of improper purpose are not enough).

JORDAN, Circuit JudgeHCM CITY  There are plenty of opportunities for Viet Nam and South Korea to collaborate in the power sector, including renewables, a forum heard in HCM City yesterday.

Vo Tan Thanh, director of the Viet Nam Chamber of Commerce and Industrys HCM City branch, said: In the context of fossil energy sources like coal and oil and gas increasingly depleting, Viet Nam is focused on developing renewable energy sources.

It has also put in place policies to encourage investment in clean energy, he told the Korea-Viet Nam Power and Renewable Energy Forum.

Viet Nam has great potential in renewables, but investment in them remains modest, he said.

Kim Seoung Su, Korea Energy Agencys department manager, said many countries have increased production of renewable energy to reduce carbon emissions.

South Korea has implemented programmes for the development of renewable energy, he said, adding that green energy accounted for more than 7 per cent of the countrys electricity output in 2016.

The Viet Nam Energy Association (VEA) said energy demand in Viet Nam had been surging year after year.

Hydropower and thermal power remain the main options, accounting for 33.6 per cent and 59.7 per cent of the countrys total electricity output in 2015, while renewable energy accounted for 5.1 per cent.

Nguyen Van Vy, VEA deputy chairman, said Viet Nams Renewable Energy Development Strategy expects renewables (including hydropower) to account for 32 per cent of total power generation in 2030 and 43 per cent in 2050, when carbon emissions would be cut by 45 per cent.

He also spoke about incentives offered to encourage investment in renewables (wind, solar, and biomass) and renewable energy projects included in the Governments zoning plans.

The power sector will continue to upgrade electricity networks to ease the overload and adopt smart grid technologies to serve consumers better.

South Korea was one of the pioneers in developing smart grids that help cut energy losses among others.

With its technological prowess South Korea could help Viet Nam develop its electricity sector, according to the Korea Electric Power Corporation.

In recent years many Korean firms have entered Viet Nams electricity market in many forms, including by investing in power plants and producing and supplying electrical equipment.

Enhancing international co-operation for developing renewables is one of the important measures for helping Viet Nam achieve its renewable energy development targets, delegates said.

South Korean Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy Paik Ungyu said that on the same day he met his Vietnamese counterpart, Tran Tuan Anh, to discuss co-operation based on mutual benefit.

We will enhance co-operation in the energy sector, renewable energy and smart grid.

In addition, to help develop Viet Nams electricity industry, we will promote human resource training programmes and step up technology transfer.

The forum enabled businesses from the two countries to exchange information and seek closer co-operation, he said.

Viet Nam is South Koreas fourth largest trade partner while South Korea is Viet Nams largest foreign investor and second largest trade partner.  VNSHA NOI  Accelerating agricultural restructuring towards large-scale and high-tech production became critical for the sector involving 70 per cent of the countrys population but contributing just below 20 per cent of the countrys gross domestic product (GDP).

At a recent working session with the Prime Ministers economic consultants team, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Nguyen Xuan Cuong said the agricultural sector was facing growing competition and technical barriers.

Cuong said the restructuring process helped improve the production capacity significantly with many products now in surplus.

However, scattered production and low productivity were still problems that needed a resolution, Cuong said, adding Viet Nam had 8.6 million farmer households and 78 million fields.

Cuong expected the PMs team to study and propose policies to reduce the proportion of labour in agriculture, attract investments in infrastructure, especially in the irrigation system, develop markets and improve land policies.

According to Nguyen inh Cung, director of the Central Institute for Economic Management, restructuring the agricultural sector was a hard job because it was difficult to determine the dominance in the global value chain.

He, however, believed Viet Nam could be successful in the effort.

Cung said it was important to remove bottlenecks in land policies, especially land limit, to encourage investments and promote large-scale production.

Truong inh Tuyen, former Minister of Commerce (now the Ministry of Industry and Trade) said Viet Nam should develop the food and food-processing industry but be selective as many fresh products could be sold for high prices.

In addition to this, developing standards and promoting their application in production as well as enhancing quality control to improve product quality were critical to boost exports with high-added value.

Economic expert Tran Du Lich stressed the importance of enhancing the link between farmers and enterprises to develop the agricultural production chain.

The project of restructuring the agricultural sector to enhance added value and sustainable development was approved in June 2013. After four years, the per capita income of farmers rose from VN18.6 million (US$830) in 2012 to VN29.2 million in 2016, according to statistics of the agriculture ministry.

Focus on boosting exports

Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Tran Thanh Nam said trade promotion should be enhanced to boost the export of agro-forestry-fishery products to fulfil the target of $40 billion this year.

Expanding the export markets must be in line with developing the value chain and brand of major export products with significant potential, such as shrimp and fruits, Nam said.

Focus should be placed on removing technical barriers in the American and European markets, while expanding niche and new markets such as India and the Middle East.

According to the ministrys steering committee for developing markets for agricultural products, boosting the export of agro-forestry-fishery products to China had huge potential due to its high demand, especially vegetables, fruits, seafood and milk products.

The ministry considered this a good opportunity for Viet Nam to promote exports to the Chinese market. But given Chinas requirements for product quality and tightening of border trade, it would be challenging for Viet Nams export products.

The ministry predicts the demand of the European Union to increase in 2018, thanks to the economic recoveries of several member countries. Thus, the export of major products such as coffee, cashew and rubber to the EU would maintain good growth this year.

Export of seafood products to the EU was anticipated to face difficulty due to yellow card warnings over the failure to demonstrate sufficient progress in the fight against illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing practice.

The enforcement of Farm Bill on tra fish and Lacey Act on wood and wood products will pose challenges to exports to the United States this year. However, the export of cashew, coffee, rubber, vegetables and fruits to the US look promising.

In the ASEAN market, Viet Nam will promote the export of husbandry products to Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar.

Exports to Japan and China are predicted to be positive this year.

Regarding forestry products, Nguyen Quoc Tri, director of Viet Nam Administration of Forestry, said the signing of Voluntary Partnership Agreement on Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade with the EU would be accelerated to boost the export of wood products to these markets.

Deputy Minister Vu Van Tam recommended a market study and analysis to come up with specific measures to promote agricultural production and boost exports.

The agriculture ministrys statistics showed that Viet Nam earned $3.09 billion from exporting agro-forestry-fishery products in January, a rise of 25.9% over the same month last year.

Agro-forestry-fishery exports hit $33 billion in 2017, representing a rise of 13.8 per cent against the previous year.  VNSBRUSSELS  Several Vietnamese companies have introduced Viet Nams cultural features, natural landscapes and cuisine to visitors at the 60th Brussels Holiday Fair that is being held in Belgiums capital city from February 1 to February 4.

At the event, representatives from Vietnam Airlines, the national flag carrier, have provided visitors with information on its inbound and outbound flights, especially air routes from Belgium and other European nations to Viet Nam.

Vietnamese Ambassador to Belgium Vuong Thua Phong took the opportunity to promote the image of the Vietnamese land and people to Belgians and other international partners.

Nguyen Thi Dung Hanh from the Gvietnamtravels Company said that this time her company was offering tours designed to fit the requirements of each group of customers and cater to all services, from visa application to buying flight tickets.

According to her, Belgium is a promising market for Vietnamese travel agencies.

At the event, several Belgian companies have also introduced their attractive tours to Viet Nam.

Vietnam News Agencys correspondent quoted Willy Somers, a representative of Belgian Lauwers Tourism Company, as saying that his company had introduced to its customers many tours from north to south Viet Nam that could be completed in 12 days to 15 days.

He said the companys customers have booked all the tours to Viet Nam departing next month.

According to the plan, the company will conduct tours to Viet Nam throughout 2018, and this proves the Vietnamese market is interested in Belgian customers.

Viet Nam welcomed nearly 13 million international tourists in 2017, up 29.1 per cent compared with the previous year, of which 1.9 million tourists were from Europe, including more than 29,000 Belgians.

The 60th Brussels Holiday Fair is taking place from February 1 to February 4 in Brussels. This is a good opportunity for tour operators, airlines, hotels and tour operators in Belgium, as well as foreign partners to seek partners and business opportunities.  VNSHA NOI  The Viet Nam Air Traffic Management Corporation (VATM) yesterday signed a contract with the USs Mitre Corporation for technical assistance to develop air traffic flow management in Viet Nam.

VATM said that with increasing aviation activities in domestic and regional markets, it was necessary for the company to have a comprehensive air traffic flow management plan.

The project will be implemented in 16 months with funding provided by the US Trade and Development Agency.

The project aims to establish a plan for air traffic flow management by 2025 and a roadmap for international integration in air traffic management.

Founded in 1958 in Virginia, Mitre is a non-profit organisation with seven research and development centres.

Mitre developed air traffic flow management plan for the US Federal Aviation Administration.

It also helps develop air traffic flow management for India, Indonesia, South Korea, Singapore and Taiwan.  VNSNANTES  A concert titled Cham (Touch), hosted by the young musician Hoang Thu Trang, will bring French audiences a glimpse of Vietnamese music and culture. The event will be held in the cultural centre Espace Cosmopolis in the city of Nantes on February 3.

This is one of a series of art activities organised in the framework of AuxCoeurx du Viet Nam (To the Hearts of Viet Nam ) to celebrate Viet Nam Month in Nantes . The event is organised by 80 non-professional artists who are Vietnamese students, Vietnamese residents of France and French people living in Nantes , Paris , Lorient and neighbouring provinces and cities.

Aux Coeurs du Viet Nam is organised by Viet Nam Loire Atlantique Friendship Association and the Association of Vietnamese Students in Nantes . The event features more than 20 activities introducing Viet Nam , its history, people and culture. It takes place from January 31 to February 18 in Nantes .

An exhibition featuring the costumes of the 54 different ethnic groups in Viet Nam was held at the opening event on Wednesday.

The concert Cham (Touch) will bring the audience to Viet Nam  the S-shaped country in the southeast Asia with spectacular landscapes, rich culture and diverse food. Each song in the concert will include French subtitles and be accompanied by fine images, which help to give the audience the opportunity to touch and feel the quintessence of Vietnamese culture.

I combine traditional Vietnamese music with modern melodies, accompanied by images and light in order to bring the best experience to audience. There have been many difficulties as most participants are non-professionals and many in the team do not speak Vietnamese fluently but must perform in Vietnamese. We have been practising for three months to mount an hour on stage. Music will make us overcome all the geographic and language barriers and bring us close together, Trang said.

Independent: The concert is organised with the participation of nearly 80 non professionals living in France. Hoang Thu Trang (right, sitting) is the art director of the concert.  Photo courtesy of Association of Vietnamese Students in Nantes city

In this concert, Trang will debut her latest song  Ha Noi Cua Em, Ha Noi Cua Anh (Your Ha Noi, My Ha Noi).

Mai inh Lang Bien (Communal House of a Coastal Village ) song is a sweet, peaceful melody about Vietnamese heritage and the inh lang (communal house), a place of community and worship that has been preserved for years.

Cheerful, festive melodies depicting the traditional Tet of Vietnamese people with the signature items of peach blossom flower and banh chung (square sticky rice cake) will also be featured.

The beautiful and poetic images of the capital of Ha Noi with Hoan Kiem lake, the flower season, the street covered with golden leaves and small alleys are illustrated in the two songs Ha Noi 12 Mua Hoa (Ha Noi, 12 Flower Seasons) and Ha Noi Cua Em, Ha Noi Cua Anh (Your Ha Noi, My Ha Noi).

The concert also introduces the audience to the unique features of Vietnamese music such as the flute or ca tru (ceremonial singing).

Nearly 80 non-professional artists prepared for the concert. They include Musique Rendez-Vous music band, comprised of Vietnamese students in France, and NEST VIET orchestra, whose 40 members are Vietnamese mothers and their children growing up in France .

Vu Tuyet Chinh in Nantes said, As a mother of two Vietnamese French children, I find it important to teach them Vietnamese and develop the love for Viet Nam . I have spent three months with the team and my children to prepare for the event. I practise with my children, learn Vietnamese songs and will have the opportunity to perform on such a big stage to introduce Vietnamese music and culture. It is such a memorable and precious experience for me and participants.HCM CITY  Chinese artist Chen Yi is displaying his watercolour paintings depicting Vietnamese landscapes and people at the HCM City Fine Arts Museum.

The exhibition titled Hanh Van Hoa Canh (Travelling and Painting) includes 101 paintings.

Half of the works feature landscapes where the artist has travelled in Viet Nam since 2010, including Ha Long Bay, Phu Quoc Islands, Mui Ne Beach, a Nang, Ha Noi and HCM City.

The country has rivers, mountains and beaches which have been a great inspiration for my paintings, said Yi.

Vietnamese fishermen, workers and the elderly are featured in the paintings.

Yi said he hoped the exhibition would improve understanding between Vietnamese and Chinese artists and people, and introduce a beautiful Viet Nam to the Chinese people.

He is also showing paintings of China, which depict ancient villages and scenes of nature and locals in Hangzhou City, Lishui City, Naxun Town and Shaoxing City in Zhejiang Province.

Yi studied multimedia arts at the China Academy of Art, studying contemporary art concepts and forms. He has also worked in video and installation.

However, after graduation, he returned to painting, and then took a post-graduate programme in watercolour painting at the China Academy of Art.

Yi studied with famous Chinese contemporary artists An Xin and Ren Zhizhong.

He has travelled to European countries such as France, Spain, Italy and Portugal to learn more about watercolour painting.

His exhibition in HCM City is organised by the Viet Nam  China Cultural Exchange Club and the citys Fine Arts Museum to celebrate the 68th anniversary of the establishment of Viet Nam  China diplomatic relations.

At the opening ceremony yesterday in HCM City, Nguyen Van Tinh, chairman of the Viet Nam  China Cultural Exchange Club, said: The exhibition of Chinese artist Chen Yi is a meaningful people-to-people exchange which contributes to the friendship and understanding between the peoples of Viet Nam and China.

The event was held in Ha Noi last October. In HCM City, it will be open until February 8 at 97A Pho uc Chinh Street in District 1.  VNSTHAI BINH  A ceremony was held in the northern province of Thai Binh yesterday to mark the 110th birthday of Nguyen uc Canh, one of the founders and first leaders of the Communist Party of Viet Nam , who sacrificed his life for the revolution of the Party and people.

The ceremony was attended by General Secretary of the Communist Party of Viet Nam (CPV) Nguyen Phu Trong, Chairman of the CPV Central Committees Inspection Commission Tran Quoc Vuong, Secretary of the Ha Noi Party Committee Hoang Trung Hai, representatives from some central agencies and localities as well as the family of the late leader, among others.

Addressing the event, Secretary of the Thai Binh Party Committee Pham Van Sinh reviewed the revolutionary life of the late communist. Canh was born on February 2, 1908 in Diem ien Village, in todays Thai Thuy District of Thai Binh. Being enlightened by the revolutionary ideology, he joined various patriotic movements in 1925-26 when he was studying in Thanh Chung Nam Dinh High School .

Then he joined the Vietnam Youth Revolution Association, which was a turning point in his revolutionary life. In 1928, he was assigned to work as Hai Phong Party Secretary. In 1929, the working class movement had developed well and Canh had made many contributions to Tong Cong Hoi o Bac Ky (the predecessor of the Viet Nam General Confederation of Labour).

In March 1929, at House No 5D, Ham Long street of Ha Noi, the first Communist unit in Viet Nam was established with eight members including Canh. In June 1929, he was elected a provisional member of the Central Committee of the Indochina Communist Party.



In April 1931, he was captured by the French. Though he was tortured by the invaders, he did not reveal any secrets of the Party. He was sentenced to death by the French and was killed in 1932.

Sinh said that as part of efforts to inherit and promote patriotism tradition of the ancestors, Thai Binh has overcome various difficulties and challenges to gain outstanding achievements in all fields. He pledged that Thai Binh authorities will continue working hard to strengthen solidarity and to optimise the potentials and strengths of the province to build a locality of sustainable development, prosperity and civilisation.  VNSPresident Tran ai Quang visits local authorities and people in Ro Koi Commune, Sa Thay District yesterday. VNA/VNS Photo Nhan Sang

KON TUM  President Tran ai Quang extended Tet (Lunar New Year) greetings to people in Kon Tum during his working trip to the Central Highlands province yesterday.

He visited and extended Tet greetings to officers and soldiers at the Ro Koi Border Guard post under the provincial Border Guard Command in Sa Thay District.

The President hailed the post for giving advice to the local authorities on political, socio-economic development, poverty reduction, social security, and natural disaster mitigation.

He urged the post to continue implementing effectively the resolutions and directives of the Party, State and army on protecting the national border, while actively fighting criminals and reactionaries to keep political security, social order and safety in border areas.

Ro Koi Border Guard post, with 50 officers and soldiers, is responsible for managing 11.2 km of border neighbouring Ta Veng District, Ratanakiri Province of Cambodia.

The unit has actively joined hands with the provincial chapter of the Vietnam Fatherland Front, and the provincial Border Guard Command to build 28 charity houses in 2016, worth VN58 million (US$2,500).

On this occasion, President Quang also visited and extended Tet greetings to local authorities and people in Ro Koi Commune, Sa Thay District.

Ro Koi is a disadvantaged commune in the district, with poor households accounting for nearly 40 per cent of the total population.

The State leader also visited and presented Tet gifts to Vietnamese Heroic Mother ang Thi Thu; and Most Venerable Thich Quang Xa, vice chairman of the Executive Council of the Viet Nam Buddhist Sangha (VBS) and head of the provincial VBS chapter.  VNSHCM CITY  People at risk of contracting hepatitis C virus (HCV) will be able to access more convenient testing options and information through a new initiative launched on Thursday in HCM City.

The community-based HCV/HIV intervention project increases access to HCV screening, diagnosis and treatment for high-risk populations in the city.

Under the project, which will end in October, a total of 5,000 people at risk will receive HCV information, and 2,500 clients will have HCV rapid diagnostic testing, said Tran Thi Huong Lien, project coordinator.

The testing, which is available at community-led private clinics, only requires a small amount of blood from the prick of a finger.

Ninety per cent of HCV-reactive clients will receive confirmatory testing and counselling on treatment options, Lien said.

Although up to 4 per cent of the population in Viet Nam are exposed to HCV, and from 29 to more than 90 per cent of populations with higher risk, such as people who inject drugs and men who have sex with men, are exposed to HCV, only a small proportion with the disease know they are infected, according to Kimberly Green, PATHs programme director for HIV, tuberculosis, and non-communicable diseases in Viet Nam.

Only a vastly reduced proportion of those diagnosed with HCV have access to and complete entire course of treatment, she said.

This is despite the fact that HCV is curable and newer direct acting antivirals are available that can treat HCV early in the course of disease and prevent morbidity and early death due to cirrhosis, liver failure and cancer, she added.

However, with rapid point-of-care testing, and lower-cost, direct-acting antivirals that are pan-genotypic and can be used for all HCV genotypes, the opportunity to identify, treat and work towards eliminating HCV are stronger than ever before, Green said.

Similar to HIV, the HCV virus is spread through the blood or body fluids of an infected person through unprotected sex or shared needles.

The project is being implemented by the HCM City Provincial AIDS Centre in coordination with PATH, an international non-profit organisation, Gilead Sciences, and private clinics in the city. VNSHA NOI  The tourism industry in Viet Nam has developed so quickly in recent years that it doesnt have enough qualified human resources to serve such growth.

According to a forecast by the Viet Nam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT), by 2020, the tourism industry will need more than two million people directly providing tourism services, not including the labourers supplied to cruise tourism, the Nguoi Lao ong (Labourer) online newspaper reported.

At present, there are more than 1.3 million workers in the tourism industry nationwide, accounting for 2.5 per cent of the nations total labour force.

Only 42 per cent of these workers are trained in tourism, 38 per cent have moved from other sectors and 20 per cent have had no official training. This means the industry lacks skilled and experienced employees and has too many unskilled workers.

Each year, tourism schools meet only 60 per cent of the sectors demand, leading to a serious shortage of tourism human resources.

Nguyen Van My, chairman of the management board of Lua Viet Tourism Company, agreed that the tourism sector seriously lacked trained employees, especially tour guides.

Statistics from VNAT showed that in 2017, the country welcomed more than 13 million international visitors while domestic tourist arrivals stood at 73 million. However, there are only 13,000 workers who directly serve foreign tourists, he told the Thanh Nien (Young People) newspaper.

Our workers presently meet only 50 per cent of actual demand, My said.

According to My, to ensure basic human resources, local tour guides need to increase five to six times.

Deputy Dean of Duy Tan University in a Nang City, Dr Vo Thanh Hai, said that tourism industry in many localities, especially in the centre, had been developing strongly, but the number of students participating in related subjects was still limited.

Manpower for resort management was also extremely scarce, so tourism businesses were certainly in difficulty, he said.

My said that the biggest limitation on human-resources training was the big gap between academic theory input and practice.

Most Vietnamese students learn a great deal of theory at school, but have few chances of putting it into practice, My said.

Tourism businesses have to train them again because most of them lack occupational skills, he added.

According to experts, students need to be given work-based learning experiences with meaningful jobs during their placements. However, there are not many tourism companies or tour operators willing to provide them with jobs or practical experience. Vietnamese tourism students are mostly unable to undertake the tasks after graduation.

A manager at Park Hyatt Hotel, Truong Tan Loi, said it was hard to find workers who meet professional skills and foreign language skills.

Dr Hai told the newspaper that the Ministry of Education and Training had allowed experienced tourism companies to co-operate with universities in training to have more qualified students because most Vietnamese tourism students lack practical experience.

To meet the increasingly stringent requirements, more co-operation was needed between universities and enterprises to provide sufficient practical training, Loi said.

Skilled employees in hotels and tourism companies are people who are enthusiastic and have practical experiences that can be shared and communicated to students. It will help students to better understand the situations and difficulties of this industry," said Loi.

At present, many universities have co-ordinated with tourism businesses to help students access specific situations in the profession.

From the second year in study, students will spend more than two months in hotels, restaurants and tourism enterprises to learn occupational skills, said Tran Hai Nam, a manager from HCM City Technology University.

Many universities have also focused on diversity of training and improving foreign language skills for students who are future tourism workforce.  VNSUnited States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit. JOSE SANTOS MEJIA, also known as Jose Santos Zavala-Mejia, Petitioner v. JEFFERSON B. SESSIONS, III, U. S. ATTORNEY GENERAL, Respondent No. 16-60179 Decided: February 02, 2018

Before KING, DENNIS, and COSTA, Circuit Judges.

Jose Santos Mejia petitions for review of a decision of the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) denying his motion to reopen his removal proceedings so that he could apply for asylum, withholding of removal, and protection under the Convention Against Torture (CAT). For the following reasons, we dismiss the petition in part, for lack of jurisdiction, and deny the petition in part.

I

Mejia, a native and citizen of Honduras, entered the United States on August 30, 2004, without having been admitted or paroled after inspection by an immigration officer. Immigration authorities served Mejia in person with a Notice to Appear (NTA) in removal proceedings and subsequently released him. The NTA did not provide a date for Mejia's hearing. When a hearing date was later set, a notice of the hearing was not sent to Mejia. In November 2004, an immigration judge (IJ) in Texas held an in absentia hearing, found Mejia subject to removal, and ordered him removed to Honduras. The removal order stated that Mejia did not receive notice of the hearing because he failed to provide his address to the immigration court. In November 2010, immigration authorities apprehended Mejia, and he was removed to Honduras on December 28, 2010.

Mejia reentered the United States in May 2011. In June 2014, immigration authorities again apprehended Mejia, and the Department of Homeland Security reinstated his prior removal order. Mejia claims that he did not receive a copy of the reinstatement order until October 24, 2014. Also on October 24, 2014according to Mejia, before he received notice of the reinstatement of his prior removal orderMejia filed a motion to reopen his prior removal proceedings in order to apply for asylum, withholding of removal, and protection under CAT. Mejia argued that his motion to reopen should be considered timely because he did not receive notice of his removal hearing and because, according to Mejia, country conditions in Honduras had materially changed.

The IJ denied Mejia's motion. The IJ concluded that Mejia was not entitled to notice of the 2004 removal hearing because he failed to provide a valid address to the immigration court. The IJ further found that Mejia failed to show a material change in country conditions. Finally, the IJ determined that Mejia was not eligible for reopening pursuant to the immigration court's authority to reopen sua sponte. Mejia appealed to the BIA, and the BIA upheld the IJ's denial of reopening for essentially the same reasons the IJ provided. Mejia now petitions this court for review of the BIA's decision.

II

Mejia challenges the BIA's denial of his motion to reopen. Generally, a party may file one motion to reopen deportation proceedings no later than ninety days after the date on which the final administrative decision was entered in the proceedings. 8 U.S.C.  1229a(c)(7)(A), (D)(i). Here, Mejia filed his motion to reopen in 2014, approximately ten years after the immigration court issued his prior removal order. His motion to reopen therefore did not comply with the ninety-day statutory deadline.

However, there are a number of exceptions pursuant to which a motion to reopen that does not meet the statutory deadline may be granted. Three such exceptions are relevant in the instant case. First, a motion to reopen on the basis that the alien did not receive proper notice of his initial removal proceeding can be filed at any time.  1229a(b)(5)(C)(ii). Second, there is no time limit for a motion to reopen if it is made for purposes of applying for asylum or withholding of removal based on changed country conditions arising in the country of nationality, if such evidence is material and could not have been presented at the previous proceeding.  1229a(c)(7)(C)(ii). Finally, the BIA's regulations provide that, separate and apart from acting on the alien's motion, the BIA may reopen removal proceedings on its own motionor, in Latin, sua sponteat any time. Mata v. Lynch, 135 S. Ct. 2150, 2153 (2015) (quoting 8 C.F.R  1003.2(a)). Mejia contends that the BIA should have granted reopening on all three grounds.

A

Mejia argues that the BIA abused its discretion in denying his motion to reopen because, he asserts, he was improperly denied notice of the hearing in his original removal proceedings. He challenges the BIA's finding that he did not provide his address to the immigration court and the BIA's conclusion that he was therefore not entitled to notice. We conclude, however, that we lack jurisdiction to consider this claim.

This court must examine the basis of its jurisdiction, on its own motion if necessary. Green Tree Servicing, L.L.C. v. Charles, 872 F.3d 637, 639 (5th Cir. 2017) (citing Hill v. City of Seven Points, 230 F.3d 167, 169 (5th Cir. 2000)). Under this court's precedent, we lack jurisdiction to consider a collateral attack on an underlying order of removal unless the petitioner demonstrates that he has exhausted administrative remedies and that the initial removal proceedings constituted a gross miscarriage of justice. Ramirez-Molina v. Ziglar, 436 F.3d 508, 514 (5th Cir. 2006). Though this court has announced no precise standard for what constitutes a gross miscarriage of justice, we have held that there is no gross miscarriage where the petitioner failed to contest his removability in prior proceedings. Martinez v. Johnson, 740 F.3d 1040, 1042 (5th Cir. 2014) (citing Ramirez-Molina, 436 F.3d at 51415).

Mejia was removed to Honduras pursuant to his prior removal order in 2010. His claim regarding lack of notice in his prior removal proceedings, presented in his motion to reopen, is essentially a collateral attack on the prior removal order. See Ramirez-Molina, 436 F.3d at 514 (a challenge to an already-executed initial removal order on the grounds that the initial order was invalid is a collateral attack on the initial removal order). As Mejia conceded at oral argument, he did not contest his removability or otherwise challenge his removal order at any time prior to his removal to Honduras. Because he cannot show that he contested his removability in his prior removal proceedings, even after he was apprehended, Mejia cannot establish a gross miscarriage of justice. See id. Accordingly, we lack jurisdiction over Mejia's collateral challenge to the prior removal order. Id.

B

Mejia contends that the BIA abused its discretion in denying his motion to reopen because, he claims, conditions in his country of origin had materially changed. In determining whether there has been a material change in country conditions, the BIA compares the evidence of country conditions submitted with the motion to those that existed at the time of the merits hearing below.  Zhenghao Liu v. Holder, 457 F. App'x 446, 447 (5th Cir. 2012) (quoting In re S-Y-G, 24 I. & N. Dec. 247, 253 (BIA 2007)).

Here, the BIA agreed with the IJ that Mejia failed to show changed conditions in Honduras, concluding that Mejia's new evidence regarding current conditions in Honduras established only a continuation of essentially the same conditions of gang violence, crime, and extortion. In his petition for review, Mejia contends that his evidence, in fact, shows a steady increase in both gang-related violence and the Honduran government's inability or unwillingness to effectively deal with that violence.

We conclude that we lack jurisdiction over this claim as well. Under 8 U.S.C.  1231(a)(5):

If the Attorney General finds that an alien has reentered the United States illegally after having been removed  under an order of removal, the prior order of removal is reinstated from its original date and is not subject to being reopened or reviewed, the alien is not eligible and may not apply for any relief under this chapter, and the alien shall be removed under the prior order at any time after the reentry.

Section 1231(a)(5) therefore limits this court's jurisdiction to reopen or review a reinstated order of removal. Martinez v. Johnson, 740 F.3d 1040, 1042 (5th Cir. 2014).

Mejia contends that  1231(a)(5) does not apply to his motion to reopen because, according to him, he only received notice of the reinstatement order after he had filed his motion to reopen. Thus, he claims, the reinstatement order fell second to the motion and does not preclude it. Mejia also complains that the Government did not argue before the BIA that  1231(a)(5) applied to his motion, and asserts that, therefore, this court cannot consider it.

These arguments are unavailing. First,  1231(a)(5) expressly provides that a prior order of removal is reinstated from its original date and is not subject to being reopened. This language leaves no room for Mejia's argument that  1231(a)(5)'s mandate does not apply to reopening proceeding that are pending at the time of the reinstatement. Second, Mejia's objection that the Government did not raise this issue before the BIA is irrelevant, as  1231(a)(5)'s limitations are jurisdictional, Martinez, 740 F.3d at 1042, and we are required to adhere to them regardless of the parties' arguments before the BIA or before us.

While the language of  1231(a)(5) would appear to completely deprive the courts of jurisdiction to review or reopen reinstated removal orders, another statutory provision, 8 U.S.C.  1252(a)(2)(D), preserves this court's jurisdiction to review constitutional claims or questions of law raised in a petition for review. Martinez, 740 F.3d at 1042 (citing  1252(a)(2)(D)). Mejia's claim that the BIA did not properly assess his evidence of changed country conditions in Honduras pertains to a question of fact. See Zhu v. Gonzales, 493 F.3d 588, 59596 & n.31 (5th Cir. 2007) (this court lacks jurisdiction to review determinations based on assessment of facts and circumstances of a particular case, including in the context of changed conditions); see also Lemus v. Lynch, 611 F. App'x 813, 815 (5th Cir. 2015) (Whether the BIA improperly weighed or ignored evidence regarding changed-conditions in El Salvador, or whether the evidence established changed country conditions, are questions of fact, and do not raise a constitutional or legal question.); Beau-Soleil v. Holder, 548 F. App'x 161, 162 (5th Cir. 2013) ([W]hether conditions in a country have changed and the examination of those conditions present issues of fact outside of our jurisdiction.). Thus, we lack jurisdiction to consider this claim by Mejia. See  1231(a)(5);  1252(a)(2)(D); Zhu, 493 F.3d at 59596.

C

Mejia challenges the BIA's conclusion that he was not eligible for sua sponte reopening. As Mejia acknowledges, this court lacks jurisdiction to review the BIA's discretionary decision not to invoke its sua sponte authority to reopen a case because there is no legal standard against which to judge that decision. Enriquez-Alvarado v. Ashcroft, 371 F.3d 246, 250 (5th Cir. 2004). Mejia argues, however, that the BIA deprived him of due process by mischaracterizing the facts of the case and disregarding his claims. Because Mejia raises a constitutional claim, for which there is a governing legal standard, this court has jurisdiction to consider it. Cf. id. Mejia's contention that the BIA violated his due process rights is unavailing, however, as this court has held that an alien has no liberty interest in a motion to reopen and therefore cannot establish a due process violation in the context of reopening proceedings. See Altamirano-Lopez v. Gonzales, 435 F.3d 547, 55051 (5th Cir. 2006).

D

Mejia makes a number of other claims that cannot, on their own, support reopening. He asserts that the BIA ignored a statement by the IJ that his motion to reopen would be denied as a matter of discretion even assuming changed country conditions, and he challenges this statement as based on a legal error. Because, as previously explained, we lack jurisdiction to review the BIA's determination that Mejia has not established a material change in country conditions, we need not address this claim.

Next, Mejia argues that he has established his eligibility for asylum, withholding of removal, and protection under CAT. To the extent he maintains that meritorious claims of eligibility for relief independently entitle him to reopening beyond the statutory deadline, Mejia cites no authority and provides no explanation for this proposition. Any such argument is therefore forfeited. See, e.g., SEC v. Life Partners Holdings, Inc., 854 F.3d 765, 784 (5th Cir. 2017) (deeming a party's challenge forfeited for inadequate briefing).

Finally, Mejia contends that the BIA violated established motion procedure when it denied his motion to reopen because, he argues, he established prima facie eligibility for relief. However, to the extent Mejia contends that a prima facie case for relief can serve as an exception to the ninety-day filing deadline for motions to reopen, he provides no support for such a proposition.

III

For the foregoing reasons, the petition is DISMISSED in part and DENIED in part.

FOOTNOTES

. Section 1252(a)(2)(D) provides:Nothing  in any  provision of this chapter  which limits or eliminates judicial review, shall be construed as precluding review of constitutional claims or questions of law raised upon a petition for review filed with an appropriate court of appeals in accordance with this section.

JAMES L. DENNIS, Circuit Judge:HCM CITY  Bilateral relations between Viet Nam and Japan could be adversely affected if construction of the Metro Line No.1 continues to run behind schedule, according to HCM City authorities.

The chairman of the citys Peoples Committee, Nguyen Thanh Phong, said that completion of procedures needed for investment adjustment of two metro lines was important for the citys capital plan for the next several years.

Poor allocation of capital from Japan could decrease Japans likelihood to support Viet Nam in upcoming Official Development Assistance projects, he added.

The citys Peoples Committee is seeking approval from National Assembly Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan and Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc to adjust investment and increase funding for the Metro Line No.1 and No.2 projects.

To ensure uninterrupted construction this year, the city has asked the Ministry of Planning and Investment to prioritise capital disbursement and pay contractors on time.

The Metro Line No.1 project, which extends from District 1s Ben Thanh Market to District 9s Suoi Tien Theme Park, was initially approved in 2007 with a total investment of VN17.4 trillion (US$766.4 million).

After reviews by consulting agencies in 2009, the amount was later adjusted to VN47.3 trillion (US$2.08 billion).

Though the PM agreed to increase investment in 2011, with the amount reaching VN47.3 trillion, approval from the National Assembly (NA) is required to proceed with the project.

The PM has instructed agencies to assist the city on the Metro Line No.1 project, and has assigned a different agency to work with the NA on investment adjustment.

The Metro Line No 2 project, linking District 1s Ben Thanh Market and District 12s Tham Luong, has encountered a similar matter.

Its initial capital investment was expected to be VN26.1 trillion (US$1.37 billion) in 2010.

However, a German consortium, which later revised the project design, suggested increasing the total investment to VN40 trillion (US$2.1 billion).  VNSHA NOI  Enhancing rescue centres capacity is one of the most critical aspects of efforts to put an end to the bear bile farming industry in Viet Nam , experts emphasised at a forum yesterday.

Initiated by World Animal Protection (WAP), the third Asiatic Black Bear Forum: Sharing experiences of bear bile farming management and keeping bears in the wild held in Ha Noi follows two previous efforts in China to become a platform for wildlife experts, non-government organisations, state agencies and related forces to discuss bear protection policies and solutions.

Viet Nam was a hotspot of bear bile farming in the 2000s. However, over the past 13 years, thanks to cooperation between the Government and wildlife protection organisations, the number of farmed bears has decreased from more than 2000 in the period of 2006 to 2012 to about 1000 in 2017.

Despite positive signs, according to Nguyen Manh Hiep from the Viet Nam Administration of Forestry, there are several challenges, including improving living conditions at rescue centres, especially in the southern region, and encouraging bear farm owners to hand over bears to the Government.

Representatives of South Korea s National Assembly and Green Korea United Organisation (GKU) presented policies for combating the bear bile farming industry in their country. Their sterilisation programmes to ensure no new bear was born at bear farms were completed in early 2017. As of May 2017, there were only 660 sterilised bears captive at 36 farms. The progress has been made thanks to the advocacy by WAP and GKU towards the South Korea government and bear farm owners in the past 14 years.

Jung-mi Lee , South Korea s National Assembly member, stressed the importance of the cooperation of public and private sectors in addressing bear bile farming.

I think in South Korea and other countries including Viet Nam , peoples awareness of protecting animals is rising. Therefore, it is important for us to make bear farmers understand the significance of wildlife preservation beyond profits made from the bear bile trade, she said.

Le Viet Dung, deputy head of ong Nai Province Forest Rangers, raised the idea of a safari which is large enough to receive, take care of and create a semi-wild environment for rescued bears.

Because even sterilisation may be considered a violation against bears, he said.

ong Nai Province is one of the localities, including Ha Noi, Hai Phong City and Binh Phuoc Province , implementing microchipping programmes developed by WAP in farmed bear management. The number of farmed bears here dropped from 163 to 91.

Karanvir Kukreja from WAP said that innovations in the new microchipping programmes allowed experts to evaluate conditions of bears without using anesthesia. Moreover, WAP in collaboration with Education for Nature Vietnam (ENV) and Four Paws developed a detailed blueprint to put an end to bear bile farming.  VNSAs most of our readers will be well aware, the National Museum of the United States Air Force in Dayton, Ohio is close to completing the restoration of one of their most prized exhibits, Boeing B-17F Flying Fortress 41-24485 known as Memphis Belle. Almost all of the work is done now, barring the finishing touches to the paint. The restoration itself is easily one of the most comprehensive and complex that the museum has undertaken so far, and knowing how much scrutiny the finished result will be under, they have been at pains to make it as historically accurate as practical. The museum released an article a few days ago describing some of the thought processes behind the work they have accomplished, and we thought our readers would be interested to see it, along with some beautiful images taken during the most recent work on the aircraft.

Restoration on the B-17F Memphis Belle  the first U.S. Army Air Forces heavy bomber to return to the United States after completing 25 missions over Europe  continues to move forward at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force.

Since the aircraft first arrived at the museum in 2005, museum staff and volunteers have worked meticulously for countless hours to preserve the iconic bomber, which was in great need of corrosion treatment, the full outfitting of an extensive list of missing equipment, and having the proper paints and techniques applied.

One of the first challenges for restoring the aircraft was to obtain a list of missing parts, determine what could be obtained from a similar aircraft, and then try to fabricate the rest.

According to Casey Simmons, a Restoration Specialist at the museum, obtaining parts for a 1940s-era aircraft was not an easy task. For any of the parts that we needed on the airplane, if you cant get another one from another aircraft you have to completely fabricate the part, said Simmons. So that means going to the blueprints, figuring out what goes into that, how they did it and trying to re-create that process.

Some of the parts that had to be fabricated by the Restoration Division included the gun mounts; all of the flooring; new sheet metal on the right vertical stabilizer and left bomb-bay door; the wind screen and eyebrow glass in the cockpit; a fuselage longeron and rear vertical stabilizer spar.

One of the parts that Simmons helped to fabricate was the glycol heater, which went inside the left wing of the aircraft and provided heat for the cabin. No one will ever see it but we had to completely fabricate that from scratch and it is fully functional, said Simmons. But I know the work that went into it, and I know where its at, so its pretty neat.

Among the most challenging aspects of the restoration of the Memphis Belle was painting the aircraft. The painting process lasted several months with plans calling for the aircraft to look as it did after completing its 25th mission, but before it went on the war bond tour. Authentic paint for the time period was used so that the aircraft would look as close as possible to that period in time. We were looking at pictures down to the single rivets on the aircraft to try to get markings where they belong, said Simmons. You have a lot of different images from different sources, and youre trying to match colors, but the color in every photograph is just a little different depending on how the film was developed. So the hardest part is getting it exactly the way it needs to be.

Even in going to those lengths, the color on the vertical tail and control surfaces are slightly different shades of green than the rest of the aircraft and Simmons has an explanation for that too. When the aircraft first came out of the factory, it would have been pretty much one color of green, said Simmons. However, as you can see in the photographs from that time period after it completed its 25th mission, the paint began to fade and so we had to replicate that as well.

Museum Curator Jeff Duford, who led efforts to research the colors and markings on the Memphis Belle, discovered that although the paint on the tail faded over time, the paint thats on the fabric-covered control surfaces faded faster and to a greater degree than the rest of the aircraft. So the museum team worked until they got those colors right as well. We actually mixed 25 different samples to get to the right shade of green to ensure that the color is accurate, said Duford.

To a large extent, Duford credits the 1944 William Wyler film, The Memphis Belle, as the reason why so much information about the aircraft was available. Wyler volunteered to serve the country and the Army Air Forces gave him a commission as a Major and sent him over to England to film heavy bomber operations. He brought a camera crew with him and they shot hours and hours of color footage of heavy bomber operations including some scenes in combat. In the film you see aircraft dropping bombs, aircraft getting shot down, German fighters attacking them, and real flak said Duford. So Wyler and his cameramen were taking the very same risks that the bombing crewmen were, and in fact one of them was killed in a combat mission.

Wylers team shot more than 11 hours of color footage, which is now preserved in the national archives and the museum obtained a copy of it. Because of this color footage, were able to correctly mark and configure the aircraft today, said Duford. It is truly astounding because weve worked on many restorations here and by far there is more evidence about the Memphis Belle because of these out-takes than any other restoration that weve done.

In addition the museum also obtained copies of more than 5,000 original documents related to the combat history of the Memphis Belle and heavy bomber operations, which provided a wealth of information including details on each crewmember and mission.

According to Duford, all of the time and effort spent on all of the details to accurately restore the aircraft  from its structural parts to the paint thats used to color its appearance  is what this national treasure deserves.

We have symbols in the history of our country  things like the flag that flew at Iwo Jima; the battleship Arizona  these recognizable symbols of the American experience, and the Memphis Belle is truly one of those icons in our history, said Duford. And now fittingly so, the aircraft will be preserved at the Air Forces national museum for generations to come.

Although restoring the Memphis Belle has been a long and strenuous process  which will continue in the interior of the aircraft even after it has been placed on display  its also been very rewarding as well, said Simmons. When I first got here in 2007, the aircraft was in multiple pieces  just individual bare metal sections of the aircraft, said Simmons. Now it is a complete aircraft that actually looks like something, and its just the biggest transformation that you could ever imagine.

Plans call for the B-17F Memphis Belle exhibit to open to the public on Thursday, May 17, 2018, with celebratory events May 17-19, 2018. This three day event will include a WWII-era aircraft static displays, flyovers, WWII reenactors and vehicles, memorabilia and artifact displays, music from the era, related guest speakers for lectures, book signings and films, including both Memphis Belle films in the Air Force Museum Theatre.

The National Museum of the U.S. Air Force, located at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton, Ohio, is the worlds largest military aviation museum. With free admission and parking, the museum features more than 360 aerospace vehicles and missiles and thousands of artifacts amid more than 19 acres of indoor exhibit space. Each year about one million visitors from around the world come to the museum. For more information, visit www.nationalmuseum.af.mil.United States Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuit. United States of America Plaintiff - Appellee v. Kelly R. Wilson Defendant - Appellant No. 17-1790 Decided: February 02, 2018

Before LOKEN, BEAM, and KELLY, Circuit Judges.

Kelly Wilson appeals the sentence imposed following revocation of his supervised release. He argues that the district court abused its discretion when it imposed a new ten-year term of supervised release.

Wilson was convicted of transporting child pornography in 2006. He was released from custody in 2010 and began a ten-year term of supervised release. On several occasions between 2010 and 2016, the United States Probation Office submitted reports to the court alleging that Wilson had violated the terms of his supervised release in various ways, each resulting in verbal reprimands or modifications to the conditions of his supervision without revocation.

That changed in early 2017 when the probation office petitioned the court for revocation based on three violations: (1) dating a convicted felon, (2) drinking alcohol, and (3) missing a counseling session. In its summary of the third allegation, the probation office also described a report from Wilson's counselor. The counselor told the probation office that Wilson was contemplating suicide and said he would take some people out with him. The counselor later determined that the some people were several probation officers at the Cape Girardeau probation office, all of them women.

At his revocation hearing, Wilson admitted he had violated the terms of his supervised release but denied making the threats described by his counselor. Wilson's counselor testified; she confirmed the allegations in the report. Based on Wilson's admission to all three violations, the district court revoked his supervised release. The district court sentenced Wilson to nine months in prison followed by a new ten-year term of supervised release.

Wilson appeals only the term of supervised release. He alleges no procedural error, so our only task is to evaluate the substantive reasonableness of the supervised release for abuse of discretion. See United States v. Miller, 557 F.3d 919, 922 (8th Cir. 2009). A district court abuses its discretion when it (1) fails to consider a relevant factor that should have received significant weight; (2) gives significant weight to an improper or irrelevant factor; or (3) considers only the appropriate factors but in weighing those factors commits a clear error of judgment. United States v. Feemster, 572 F.3d 455, 461 (8th Cir. 2009) (en banc) (quotations omitted).

Wilson argues that the district court gave significant weight to an improper or irrelevant factor when it strayed beyond his admitted violations and considered the testimony that he made threats against the probation office staff. To the extent he argues the district court should not have considered this evidence at all, Wilson's argument conflates two distinct steps in the district court's analysis. In the first step, the district court determines whether to revoke supervised release. In that step, the analysis is of course limited to the facts that make out a violation. See United States v. Leigh, 276 F.3d 1011, 1012 (8th Cir. 2002) (Revocation  requires only enough evidence, within sound judicial discretion, to satisfy the district judge that the conduct of the [supervisee] has not met the conditions of [supervised release]. (quotation omitted)). If revocation is warranted, the district court moves to the second step. In that step, the district court must analyze the 18 U.S.C.  3553(a) factors to set the appropriate sentence. See United States v. Merrival, 521 F.3d 889, 890 (8th Cir. 2008).

In this case, Wilson admitted that he violated the terms of his supervised release. The district court revoked his supervised release based on those admissions. The district court then examined other conductwhich the probation office had alleged in its report of violationto determine Wilson's sentence. Wilson characterizes his statements as mere venting that should not have been taken seriously. The district court heard that argument, but still found Wilson's counselor to be a highly credible witness at the hearing, and determined that her testimony about the threats was an aggravating circumstance. See 18 U.S.C.  3553(a)(2)(C). In the court's own words, this was conduct it would simply not tolerate. Wilson's statements were not improper or irrelevant factors, and the district court did not abuse its discretion by considering them. And to the extent Wilson argues the district court gave this evidence too much weight, we see no clear error of judgment.

Accordingly, the judgment of the district court is affirmed.

FOOTNOTES

. The Honorable Stephen N. Limbaugh, Jr., United States District Judge for the Eastern District of Missouri.

. Wilson's maximum supervised release term was life. 18 U.S.C.  3583(k).

PER CURIAM.past daily news Sep 13 (1) Sep 09 (15) Sep 06 (12) Sep 04 (10) Sep 03 (10) Aug 31 (17) Aug 29 (14) Aug 26 (13) Aug 22 (11) Aug 21 (12) Aug 19 (21) Aug 14 (6) Aug 13 (10) Aug 10 (10) Aug 08 (9) Aug 07 (10) Aug 06 (10) Aug 05 (8) Aug 03 (8) Aug 02 (7) Aug 01 (7) Jul 31 (14) Jul 29 (1) Jul 27 (7) Jul 25 (5) Jul 24 (10) Jul 22 (11) Jul 19 (16) Jul 17 (6) Jul 16 (10) Jul 15 (13) Jul 12 (7) Jul 11 (5) Jul 10 (8) Jul 08 (8) Jul 07 (3) Jul 06 (5) Jul 05 (8) Jul 04 (11) Jul 03 (8) Jul 02 (7) Jul 01 (5) Jun 30 (8) Jun 28 (7) Jun 27 (8) Jun 26 (7) Jun 25 (8) Jun 24 (6) Jun 23 (6) Jun 22 (9) Jun 20 (5) Jun 19 (9) Jun 18 (8) Jun 15 (9) Jun 13 (13) Jun 11 (11) Jun 09 (19) Jun 06 (10) Jun 04 (10) Jun 03 (8) Jun 01 (6) May 31 (5) May 30 (5) May 29 (6) May 28 (7) May 27 (7) May 26 (6) May 25 (4) May 23 (6) May 22 (6) May 21 (4) May 20 (7) May 19 (9) May 18 (4) May 17 (6) May 16 (5) May 15 (7) May 14 (3) May 13 (3) May 12 (9) May 10 (3) May 09 (7) May 08 (4) May 07 (3) May 06 (5) May 05 (8) 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Donald Morgan Plaintiff - Appellee v. Michael Robinson, Washington County Sheriff, an individual Defendant - Appellant Washington County, Nebraska Defendant No. 17-1002 Decided: February 02, 2018

Before BENTON, SHEPHERD, and KELLY, Circuit Judges.

After Donald Morgan ran against his boss Michael Robinson, the incumbent sheriff, in a primary election, Robinson terminated Morgan's employment as a deputy with the Washington County, Nebraska Sheriff's Office for statements Morgan made during the campaign. Morgan then brought this First Amendment retaliation action under 42 U.S.C.  1983, and Robinson moved for summary judgment on the basis of qualified immunity. The district court denied Robinson's motion, and he appealed. We affirm.

I. Background

Morgan is a deputy in the Washington County, Nebraska Sheriff's Department. Robinson is the elected sheriff for that county. In July of 2013, Morgan notified Robinson of his intentions to run against Robinson in the 2014 primary election. Throughout his campaign, Morgan made public statements concerning the operations of the sheriff's department and his plans to improve them. Robinson won the election, and he terminated Morgan's employment six days later, claiming that these statements violated the department's rules of conduct. In Morgan's termination letter, Robinson cited the following statements as the reasons for the disciplinary action:

1. You continued to state that the communications system was not completed after 10 years of construction although the record reflects it was completed on time and under budget in 2006[.]

2. You stated the Fire and Rescue agencies could not communicate and stated someone would be hurt or killed if it was not fixed although the Fire Chiefs submitted a letter to the local paper saying your comments were false.

3. You continued to tell the public that morale at the Sheriff's Office was bad and that all the employees were waiting for the day after I lost to see me walk out of the office. [sic] You also stated several deputies were actively looking for employment. This was proven false when several of the Deputies were consulted and none were looking and did not know of any deputy looking for employment and I was overwhelmingly supported by the employees of the Sheriff's Office.

4. You stated the K-9 had been taken from you for retribution when in fact you demanded the K-9 be taken because it hindered your ability to do your job. [sic]

5. You stated portable radio coverage was poor and continued to state the coverage was poor even after being shown the system coverage for portable radios was 99.2% county wide.

R. at 261.

Morgan initially filed a grievance under a labor contract that applied to his position, which he lost. He then filed this suit in district court alleging claims of retaliation, deprivation of due process, and breach of the labor contract. Applying the terms of the contract, the district court compelled arbitration of the breach of contract claim. The arbitrator ruled in Morgan's favor and reinstated his employment with the sheriff's department.

After returning to district court, Robinson filed the current motion for summary judgment, claiming that he was entitled to qualified immunity on Morgan's retaliation claim. The court denied the motion, ruling that Robinson was not entitled to qualified immunity because there were genuine disputes of material fact concerning the public value of Morgan's statements and whether the statements caused disruption in the operation of the sheriff's department. Because of these factual disputes, the court denied qualified immunity, concluding a jury could find that Morgan established a violation of his constitutional rights that was clearly established at the time of the incidents in question. Robinson appeals this decision.

II. Discussion

On appeal, Robinson focuses the vast majority of his briefing on arguments related to the proper form of the qualified immunity analysis. In so doing, however, he neglects to realize that the Supreme Court has ascribed a unique test applicable to cases where a government employee alleges that his employer retaliated against the employee for exercising his First Amendment rights. In the first part of this test, we must discern whether the employee's speech is protected by the First Amendment: an inquiry that entails balancing the respective interests of the employee and the employer. See Lane v. Franks, 134 S. Ct. 2369, 2380-81 (2014). Next, because Robinson claims he is protected by qualified immunity, we apply the standard inquiry asking whether the official violated a statutory or constitutional right, and [whether] the right was clearly established at the time of the challenged conduct. Id. at 2381 (internal quotation marks omitted); see also id. at 2383 (concluding that although the speech was protected, the employee's First Amendment rights were not violated because the question was not beyond debate at the time the official took action (quoting Ashcroft v. Al-Kidd, 563 U.S. 731, 741 (2011)).

A. Standard of Review

A party is entitled to summary judgment only when there is no genuine dispute as to any material fact and the movant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law.  Div. of Emp't Sec. v. Bd. of Police Comm'rs, 864 F.3d 974, 977-78 (8th Cir. 2017) (quoting Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(a)). [I]n ruling on a motion for summary judgment, [t]he evidence of the nonmovant is to be believed, and all justifiable inferences are to be drawn in his favor.  Tolan v. Cotton, 134 S. Ct. 1861, 1863 (2014) (second alteration in original) (quoting Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 255 (1986)). Ordinarily, we lack jurisdiction to hear an immediate appeal from a district court's order denying summary judgment, because such an order is not a final decision. Div. of Emp't Sec., 864 F.3d at 978 (internal quotation marks omitted). Where the moving party claims entitlement to qualified immunity, however, an appeal may be taken because immunity is effectively lost if a case is erroneously permitted to go to trial. Id. (internal quotation marks omitted). The scope of our review is limited to issues of law, so we apply a de novo standard. Id.

B. Whether Morgan's Speech is Protected

The Supreme Court has developed two lines of cases that assess how to balance the First Amendment rights of government employees with the need of government employers to operate efficiently. Thompson v. Shock, 852 F.3d 786, 791 (8th Cir. 2017). Where, as here, a case involves overt expressive conduct, our court applies the balancing test as found in the line of cases following Pickering and Connick. The typical Pickering-Connick case involves a government employee causing workplace disruption by speaking as a citizen on a matter of public concern, followed by government action adversely affecting the employee's job. Id. (internal citation omitted).

The first question in this analysis asks whether the employee's speech was made as a citizen on a matter of public concern. Lane, 134 S. Ct. at 2378; accord Anzaldua v. Ne. Ambulance & Fire Prot. Dist., 793 F.3d 822, 833 (8th Cir. 2015). Where this question is answered in the affirmative, the court next asks whether the employer had an adequate justification for treating the employee differently from any other member of the general public. Garcetti v. Ceballos, 547 U.S. 410, 418 (2006); accord Anzaldua, 793 F.3d at 833 ([I]f the possibility of a First Amendment claim has arisen, then our second inquiry is to ask whether [the employer] has produced evidence to indicate the speech had an adverse impact on the efficiency of the [employer's] operations. (alterations in original) (internal quotation marks omitted)). Finally, if each party has met their burden, the court applies the Pickering-Connick test to balance the competing interests. Anzaldua, 793 F.3d at 835.

1. Whether the speech was made as a citizen on a matter of public concern.

Speech by citizens on matters of public concern lies at the heart of the First Amendment,  [and] [t]his remains true when speech concerns information related to or learned through public employment. Lane, 134 S. Ct. at 2377. Indeed, [t]here is considerable value  in encouraging, rather than inhibiting, speech by public employees [because] [g]overnment employees are often in the best position to know what ails the agencies for which they work.  Id. (third alteration in original) (quoting Waters v. Churchill, 511 U.S. 661, 674 (1994)). If the employee was not speaking as a citizen on a matter of public concern, he or she has no First Amendment cause of action based on his or her employer's reaction to the speech. Garcetti, 547 U.S. at 418. On the other hand, if this preliminary question is answered in the affirmative, then the possibility of a First Amendment claim arises. Id.

Whether an employee's speech addresses a matter of public concern must be determined by the content, form, and context of a given statement, as revealed by the whole record. Connick v. Myers, 461 U.S. 138, 147-48 (1983). Speech deals with matters of public concern when it can be fairly considered as relating to any matter of political, social, or other concern to the community, or when it is a subject of legitimate news interest; that is, a subject of general interest and of value and concern to the public. Snyder v. Phelps, 562 U.S. 443, 453 (2011) (internal citations omitted) (internal quotation marks omitted). By contrast, where speech primarily serves the personal interests of the speaker, it warrants no protection because it has little value to the public at large. Dun & Bradstreet, Inc. v. Greenmoss Builders, Inc., 472 U.S. 749, 762 (1985). More specifically, a statement is personal where it does nothing to inform the public about any aspect of the [government entity's] functioning or operation. City of San Diego v. Roe, 543 U.S. 77, 84 (2004).

We spend little time on this part of the test because Robinson's counsel conceded in his brief and during argument that the speech was made as a citizen on matters of public concern. For reasons that will become clear later in this opinion, we pause only long enough to verify that this is a legally sound concession. First and foremost, the First Amendment has its fullest and most urgent application to speech uttered during a campaign for political office. Burson v. Freeman, 504 U.S. 191, 196 (1992) (internal quotation marks omitted). Thus, proceeding from Connick, the context in which Morgan made these statementshis political campaignsupports the view that they pertained to matters of public concern.

Next, the content of the statements shows their import to the community as a whole. Of the statements, at least three concerned the communications and radio systems that emergency personnel used in Washington County. While one could conceivably argue that the statements expressed Morgan's personal dissatisfaction with Robinson, these comments did not involve a personal conflict, Bailey v. Dep't of Elementary & Secondary Ed., 451 F.3d 514, 520 (8th Cir. 2006), nor were they the result of an already strained relationship with Robinson, Anzaldua, 793 F.3d at 833 (internal quotation marks omitted); cf. Connick, 461 U.S. at 148 (finding statements to concern private matters where made to gather ammunition for another round of controversy with [the employee's] superiors). At most, the statements were critical of the manner in which Robinson performed his duties as county sheriff, and [s]peech that criticizes a public employer in his capacity as a public official  addresses matters of public concern. Belk v. City of Eldon, 228 F.3d 872, 878 (8th Cir. 2000). Therefore, the content of the statements supports the conclusion that they were matters of public concern.

Finally, the form of these statements demonstrates their public import. Many of these statements were made to a group of attendees during a forum held at a local high school. Other statements were made on Morgan's website, which was obviously open to the public. Still others were published in a local newspaper. None of them, however, were disseminated to a closed audience or reported as part of Morgan's official job duties. Cf. Dun & Bradstreet, 472 U.S. at 762; Garcetti, 547 U.S. at 421.

Accordingly, Morgan's statements were made as a citizen on matters of public concern.

2. Whether Robinson has shown justification for Morgan's termination.

Because Morgan's statements were on matters of public concern, the possibility of a First Amendment claim arises, and the court must turn to the question of whether Robinson had an adequate justification for treating [Morgan] differently from any other member of the general public. Garcetti, 547 U.S. at 418. No one disputes that Robinson has an interest in maintaining the efficient operation of the Washington County Sheriff's Office. See Pickering, 391 U.S. at 568. Indeed, just like their private counterparts, government employers need a significant degree of control over their employees' words and actions; without it, there would be little chance for the efficient provision of public services. Lane, 134 S. Ct. at 2377 (internal quotation marks omitted). Importantly, there is no necessity for an employer to allow events to unfold to the extent that the disruption of the office and the destruction of working relationships is manifest before taking action. Connick, 461 U.S. at 152. But a stronger showing may be necessary if the employee's speech more substantially involved matters of public concern. Id.

Our precedent has been inconsistent on the level of evidence of disruption an employer must present to satisfy its burden. See Anzaldua, 793 F.3d at 834 & n.3. For many years, the court regularly denied qualified immunity prior to applying the Pickering-Connick test where the employer failed to present sufficient evidence of actual workplace disruption. See, e.g., Burnham v. Ianni, 119 F.3d 668, 680 (8th Cir. 1997) (en banc) (The government employer must make a substantial showing that the speech is, in fact, disruptive before the speech may be punished.  [W]e have never granted any deference to a government supervisor's bald assertions of harm based on conclusory hearsay and rank speculation.); Belk, 228 F.3d at 881 (Where there is no evidence of disruption, resort to the Pickering factors is unnecessary because there are no government interests in efficiency to weigh against First Amendment interests.). More recently, however, we have relied on Connick's statement that it is not necessary for an employer to allow events to unfold to the extent that the disruption of the office and the destruction of working relationships is manifest before taking action, 461 U.S. at 152, to hold that  [e]vidence of actual disruption  is not required in all cases.  Anzaldua, 793 F.3d at 833 (alterations in original) (quoting Bailey, 451 F.3d at 521); see also Nord, 757 F.3d at 743.

But no case questions Connick's proclamation that a stronger showing [of disruption] may be necessary if the employee's speech more substantially involved matters of public concern. 461 U.S. at 152; see also Hemminghaus v. Missouri, 756 F.3d 1100, 1113 n.11 (8th Cir. 2014) (We also note the record indicates the majority of Hemminghaus's blog posts related to her personal dispute with the nanny and did not focus on child abuse as a public problem, lessening the burden on defendants.). Indeed, save for Nord, in every case in which we have noted that evidence of actual disruption is not necessary, we have gone on to find sufficient evidence of such disruption. See, e.g., Anzaldua, 793 F.3d at 834 ([A]lthough we do not require actual evidence of disruption in all cases, it exists here.); Hemminghaus, 756 F.3d at 1113 (Hemminghaus's actions are sufficient evidence of disruption. (internal quotation marks omitted)); Bailey, 451 F.3d at 521 (Although such evidence is not required, sufficient evidence of disruption exists in this case.).

Given the relative strength of Morgan's showing that the statements were made in the public interest, see Burson, 504 U.S. at 196, Robinson faces a higher burden to justify Morgan's termination, see Connick, 461 U.S. at 152. Understandably, much of Robinson's argument is devoted to factually analogizing the present case to Nord in an attempt to show that he could have reasonably believed that the speech would be at least potentially damaging to and disruptive of the discipline and harmony of and among co-workers in the sheriff's office and detrimental to the close working relationships and personal loyalties necessary for an effective and trusted local policing operation. Nord, 757 F.3d at 743. To be sure, there are similarities between this case and the facts that were before us in Nord. There, deputy sheriff Ron Nord ran against the incumbent sheriff, Lauren Wild, in an election. Id. at 737. After Nord lost, Wild terminated Nord on the basis of comments Nord made during the election, and Nord then filed suit under  1983, asserting a First Amendment retaliation claim. Id. at 738.

There are, however, critical distinctions between Nord and the present case: the campaign statements at issue there concerned the sheriff's personal affairs. Id. at 742. As we stated:

Nord had indicated to voters that Wild's health was bad and that he should not be running for office because his health was so bad. And, Wild stated that he heard [o]ne report  that my wife didn't even want me to run. Wild also stated that another report indicated that he had said [he] was going to resign as sheriff in two years and run for [a state senator's] position as senator.

Id. (first, second, and third alterations in original). As a result, we concluded that at least some of Nord's campaign speech does not merit First Amendment protection. Id. at 743. Nord is therefore consistent with Connick insofar as Nord required a lesser showing of disruption because the speech at issue was, at most, only tangentially related to public concern. Cf. Connick, 461 U.S. at 152.

Here, by contrast, Morgan's campaign statements were all matters of public concern, and Robinson has made an extremely minimal showing of actual or potential disruption. As evidence, Robinson presented the following:

1. Ron Bellamy's arbitration testimony that Morgan's statements had created uneasiness and that some employees mentioned they felt like [Morgan] was putting them in a position that they didn't want to be in. R. at 235.

2. Phil Brazleton's arbitration testimony that Morgan was terminated because of the general lack of morale that was being spread due to a difference of opinion on how business should run. R. at 245.

3. Kevin Willis's arbitration testimony that Morgan was terminated because Willis felt that Mr. Morgan undermined the  public trust and faith. R. at 248. And,

4. Shawn Thallas's arbitration testimony that Morgan was terminated because of turmoil  being uncomfortable  with everything that's been going on  there's uneasiness in all areas at all times. R. at 252.

Absent from this evidence is any concrete showing of the actual impact of Morgan's speech on the efficiency of the sheriff's office. Cf. Shockency v. Ramsey Cnty., 493 F.3d 941, 949-50 (8th Cir. 2007) (Qualified immunity cannot be based on a simple assertion by the employer  without supporting evidence of the adverse effect of the speech on workplace efficiency. (alteration in original) (internal quotation marks omitted)). For example, in Anzaldua, we found sufficient evidence of disruption where coworker declarations specifically demonstrated the employees' reactions and how the statements affected the operation of the fire department. 793 F.3d at 834-35. Likewise, in Hemminghaus, the employee herself proffered evidence of how her statements impacted her relationship with her employer. 756 F.3d at 1113. Here, by contrast, the cited statements are extremely general in nature, and none of them point to a single concrete incident of disruption. See Sexton v. Martin, 210 F.3d 905, 912 (8th Cir. 2000) (Mere allegations of disruption are insufficient to put the Pickering balance at issue.). Additionally, as noted by the district court, several of Morgan's statements were made a number of months prior to the election. When combined with Robinson's testimony that Morgan's performance has, at all relevant times, been satisfactory, Robinson's failure to produce evidence of a discrete incident of disruption due to Morgan's campaign statements is significant. Cf. Burnham, 119 F.3d at 680 (noting that plaintiff's own admissions refuted its allegations of workplace disruption).

Finally, we note in passing that intra-office comments about turmoil and difference[s] of opinion on how business should run seem likely to be made any time an employee runs against his or her employer in an election. Other employees in the office may inevitably feel torn between the incumbent and the challenging employee given their personal relationships with each other. And this is especially true in a smaller county. Accordingly, these comments provide no adequate justification for treating the employee differently from any other member of the general public. See Garcetti, 547 U.S. at 418.

Because Robinson has failed to show an adequate justification for his actions, we hold that Morgan's speech is protected by the First Amendment and there is no need to resort to the Pickering-Connick balancing test. See Lane, 134 S. Ct. at 2381.

C. Qualified Immunity

We now turn to the question of whether Morgan is entitled to qualified immunity, which requires us to determine whether Robinson's termination of Morgan violated a right secured by the First Amendment and whether that right was clearly established at the time of the termination. See id. Since we have determined that Morgan's speech was protected, his termination was an adverse employment action sufficient to violate his First Amendment rights. See Heffernan v. City of Paterson, 136 S. Ct. 1412, 1416 (2016) (The First Amendment generally prohibits government officials from dismissing or demoting an employee because of the employee's engagement in constitutionally protected political activity.). We therefore turn to the second inquiry, under which [t]he relevant question  is this: Could [Robinson] reasonably have believed, at the time he fired [Morgan], that a government employer could fire an employee on account of the employee exercising his First Amendment right to free speech during a run for political office, where that speech had no disruptive impact on office functioning? Lane, 134 S. Ct. at 2381. The answer to this question is an unequivocal no.

In Bearden v. Lemona case we ultimately decided on jurisdictional groundswe commented that [t]he right not to be terminated for [exercising one's right to free] speech has been clearly established for some time. 475 F.3d 926, 929 (8th Cir. 2007). In support of this statement, we cited to Hartman v. Moore, 547 U.S. 250, 256 (2006) ([T]he law is settled that as a general matter the First Amendment prohibits government officials from subjecting an individual to retaliatory actions  for speaking out ), and Rankin v. McPherson, 483 U.S. 378, 383 (1987) (It is clearly established that a State may not discharge an employee on a basis that infringes that employee's constitutionally protected interest in freedom of speech.).

Taken alone, Bearden may be insufficient to define the contours of a constitutional right and alert a reasonable official that a termination violates that right. See Nord, 757 F.3d at 740. This is especially true considering intervening Supreme Court precedent directing lower courts not to define clearly established law at a high level of generality. Ashcroft v. al-Kidd, 563 U.S. 731, 742 (2011). But general statements of the law may, in some circumstances, giv[e] fair and clear warning to government officials where the unlawfulness of the challenged action is readily apparent in light of pre-existing law. White v. Pauly, 137 S. Ct. 548, 552 (2017).

No one disputes that political speech  is central to the meaning and purpose of the First Amendment, Citizens United v. F.E.C., 558 U.S. 310, 329 (2010), or that the First Amendment has its fullest and most urgent application to speech uttered during a campaign for political office, Burson, 504 U.S. at 196 (internal quotation marks omitted). For this reason, the [Supreme] Court has frequently reaffirmed that speech on public issues occupies the highest rung of the h[ie]rarchy of First Amendment values, and is entitled to special protection. Connick, 461 U.S. at 145 (quoting NAACP v. Claiborne Hardware Co., 458 U.S. 886, 913 (1982)). Indeed, this is the very foundation upon which the Supreme Court decided Pickering:

What we do have before us is a case in which a teacher has made erroneous public statements upon issues then currently the subject of public attention, which are critical of his ultimate employer but which are neither shown nor can be presumed to have in any way either impeded the teacher's proper performance of his daily duties in the classroom or to have interfered with the regular operation of the schools generally. In these circumstances we conclude that the interest of the school administration in limiting teachers' opportunities to contribute to public debate is not significantly greater than its interest in limiting a similar contribution by any member of the general public.

391 U.S. at 572-73.

Therefore, public officials have been on notice since the Court decided Pickering in 1968 that they may not sanction an employee for uttering protected speech when that speech neither impacts the employee's official duties nor detracts from office efficiency. This is all the more true given the context in which Morgan spoke here: a political campaign, where the First Amendment has its fullest and most urgent application. Burson, 504 U.S. at 196. To the extent that there remains any ambiguity, we hold that a public employee cannot be terminated for making protected statements during a campaign for public office where that speech has no demonstrated impact on the efficiency of office operations. Cf. Smith v. Gilchrist, 749 F.3d 302, 313 (4th Cir. 2014) (In sum, a reasonable DA in Gilchrist's position would have known that he could not fire an ADA running for public office for speaking publicly in his capacity as a candidate on matters of public concern.).

III. Conclusion

For the above reasons, the district court correctly denied Robinson's motion for summary judgment.

FOOTNOTES

. The Honorable Joseph F. Bataillon, United States District Judge for the District of Nebraska.

. The ultimate goal of this test is to balance the employee's First Amendment rights with the employer's corresponding right to control office affairs. See Pickeringv. Bd. of Ed., 391 U.S. 563, 568 (1968). To that end, we have stated that under Pickering[-]Connick, this court's task involves an analysis of (1) the general authority and responsibilities of the employing government entity, (2) the nature and character of the specific employer-employee relationship, (3) the speech involved and (4) evidence tending to establish the speech's impact on the efficient operation of the government entity. Nord v. Walsh Cnty., 757 F.3d 734, 740 (8th Cir. 2014).

SHEPHERD, Circuit Judge.Human rights organizations and relatives of former dictator Alberto Fujimori's victims claim the pardon granted him by President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski is "arbitrary" and "illegal."

The Inter-American Human Rights Court has held a public hearing on the legality of Peru's humanitarian pardon for former president Alberto Fujimori, a dictator who was sentenced to 25 years in prison for crimes against humanity.

Victim's relatives, their legal representatives and representatives of the Peruvian State presented their arguments Friday for over four hours.

After the Inter-American Court determined state responsibility in the extrajudicial killings of the Barrios Altos and La Cantuta cases in 2001 and 2006 respectively, in 2009 the Peruvian Supreme Court of Justice sentenced Fujimori to 25 years in prison for crimes against humanity.

According to Amnesty International, which submitted an amicus curiae brief to the Inter-American Court, the orders have a binding nature. Peru is a party to the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, which states that "a party may not invoke the provisions of its internal law as justification for its failure to perform a treaty (art.27)."

Amnesty's statement is particularly relevant given that current President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski's Chief of Staff Mercedes Araoz claimed in an interview earlier this month that Peru would uphold Fujimori's "humanitarian" pardon, even if the court requests its annulment.

"The Constitution is clear on the president's faculty to grant pardons," Araoz said. "Only and exclusively the president's. We have to obey what our constitution says."

Human rights organizations and relatives of Fujimori's victims argue the pardon is "arbitrary" and "illegal."

In concluding, the plaintiffs ratified the court's competence in evaluating the pardon on the grounds that "enforcing the sentence is part of the judicial process."

They also asked the court to determine that the pardon "goes against the international obligations of the state to investigate, judge, and sanction... as the court has previously ordered" and to order Peru to "remove every obstacle to an effective reparation for the victims."

Carlos Rivera, director of the Legal Defense Institute, and Gloria Cano, director of the Pro-Human Rights Association, also presented to the court the thesis that Fujimori's pardon was not the result of humanitarian and health concerns, as the government has argued, but rather the outcome of a political pact between fujimorista legislator and son of Alberto, Kenji Fujimori, and Kuczynski in order to save the latter from impeachment.

Kuczynski announced the pardon on Dec. 24, less than a week after Fujimori and nine other fujimorista candidates abstained from voting in their own party's attempt to impeach the president in connection with the Odebrecht corruption scandal.

The political pact was recently confirmed by Reuters.

The plaintiffs also argued the pardon is "plagued by irregularities," such as its speedy nature. Rivera said absolution had been granted in "record time... as if it was dealing with a terminal patient."

Representatives of the Peruvian government insisted the pardon has "as a mission to protect the dignity, health and life of the person," claiming the "humanitaria pardon cannot be equated to an undue pardon."

However, Viviana Krsticevic, executive director of the Center for Justice and International Law, told the court other measures could have been adopted.

"In the cases of crimes against humanity, the sentence doesn't need to be condoned." Instead, Krsticevic said, alternatives could have been pursued, such as the provision of proper medical services.United States Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuit. United States of America Plaintiff - Appellee v. Noah Thomas Zenor Defendant - Appellant No. 17-1226 Decided: February 02, 2018

Before WOLLMAN, COLLOTON, and BENTON, Circuit Judges.

Noah T. Zenor pled guilty to possessing child pornography in violation of 18 U.S.C.  2252(a)(4)(B). The district court sentenced him to 120 months' imprisonment. He appeals the sentence. Having jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C.  1291, this court affirms.

Zenor argues the court procedurally erred in failing to consider the 18 U.S.C.  3553(a) factors and explain the reasons for its sentence. In reviewing a sentence for procedural error, this court reviews factual findings for clear error and application of the [G]uidelines de novo. United States v. Richart, 662 F.3d 1037, 1045 (8th Cir. 2011). Where, as here, a defendant fails to object timely to a procedural sentencing error, the error is forfeited and may only be reviewed for plain error. United States v. Hill, 552 F.3d 686, 690 (8th Cir. 2009). Under plain error review, the defendant must show: (1) an error; (2) that is plain; and (3) that affects substantial rights. Id., citing Johnson v. United States, 520 U.S. 461, 466-67 (1997). Even if the defendant shows these three conditions are met, this court may exercise  discretion to correct a forfeited error only if it seriously affects the fairness, integrity, or public reputation of judicial proceedings.  Id., quoting Johnson, 520 U.S. at 467.

The district court thoroughly considered the record including the presentence investigation report, the sentencing memoranda, the victim impact statements, medical records, and letters submitted on Zenor's behalf. The court allowed him to be heard as to the appropriate disposition and listened to his lengthy request for a downward variance due to age, short duration of offense, small size of pornography collection, and low likelihood of recidivism. The court also considered the guidelines range (135 to 168 months), and the government's request for a substantial [downward] variance to three years due to the defendant's relative youth.

The court then discussed its obligation to consider a number of factors before deciding on an appropriate sentence in every case that comes before it, and those factors are set forth in United States Code, Title 18, Section 3553(a). It said:

In this case there are substantial mitigators. Those mitigators are the defendant's age. He's 20 years old now. He was 17 when this offense began. The defendant has no criminal history at all, and the defendant has behaved well on pretrial release, including engaging in treatment, having evaluations done at the behest of his counsel. I note that there were multiple evaluations done. I assume that the attorney concluded after looking at the first one that perhaps additional self-reflection was warranted because the defendant had not been completely truthful with the evaluator. The fact that he's participated in treatment, has not engaged in any additional criminal conduct and has abided by the terms of release are all factors favorable to the defendant.

There are substantial aggravators as well that the court has to consider under the rubric of 3553(a) That includes the number of images. The number of images in this case as the prosecutor has pointed out that were counted for purposes of the guidelines were 61 images and 15 videos. That's a subset of the 1,294 images of evidentiary value and 47 videos that were discussed previously. 

In this case the court finds it probative that the defendant sought out videos. The presentence investigation report reflects that Mr. Zenor stated he would upload more pictures if another participant in the chat room would upload more child pornography videos.  Of the 16 child pornography images uploaded by Zenor, ten depicted images of children under the age of 10. So his exchange involved still pictures of children under the age of 10 for videos. That is an aggravating factor.

Additionally, the defendant admitted, as reflected in the presentence investigation report, that his collection at one time contained overor approximately a thousand images of what he considered to be child pornography.



Mr. Gaumer also discussed the fact that the offense conduct in this case also involved distribution and production. As I just discussed, the defendant sent still images to receive video images. He looked for videos, and he disseminated images revictimizing the girls who were already depicted in those videos again by sharingexcuse me, in those images again by sharing them with someone else.



The prosecutor also discussed the fact that the production in this case involved asking for older juveniles to produce child porn in the nature of images of themselves naked to be sent via the Internet back. 

The nature of the images themselves are an aggravating factor accounted for in the guidelines. This is not a case of sexting. This is not a case of images of peer teens being shared amongst peer teens.



Children as young as three or four were being raped in these images. There were children being assaulted by multiple men simultaneously in these images. All of the images that were counted for purposes of the guidelines were prepubescent minors, individuals, girls under the age of 10.

This is not a case of misidentification. The presentence investigation report reflects that the forensic examination of the defendant's cell phone indicated that these images were saved under a folder labeled Extremely Young, children younger than 10 being forced to perform oral sex on adult men. These are aggravating factors.

The court also noted that while it may not talk about each one of the sentencing considerations individually as I discuss the factors weighing upon the court in determining the appropriate sentence in this case, it considered each and every one of them whether or not they're read into the record here today. The record makes clear that the court considered the  3553(a) factors in sentencing. See United States v. Mannings, 850 F.3d 404, 410 (8th Cir. 2017). The court committed no error, let alone plain error, in sentencing Zenor based on the  3553(a) factors. Id. (A district court need not quote verbatim all of the factors listed in  3553(a). The record must make clear that the court considered the [statutory factors] in sentencing, but a district court can generally demonstrate it did so by referring to some of those factors at sentencing.) (internal citations omitted).

Zenor argues his sentence is substantively unreasonable because the Court did not adequately consider nor properly weigh a number of mitigating factors including Zenor's age, risk of recidivism, his medical condition and his treatment needs, among others. This court reviews the substantive reasonableness of a district court's sentence for abuse of discretion. United States v. Harlan, 815 F.3d 1100, 1107 (8th Cir. 2016). [I]t will be the unusual case when this court reverses a district court sentencewhether within, above, or below the applicable Guidelines rangeas substantively unreasonable. United States v. Feemster, 572 F.3d 455, 464 (8th Cir. 2009) (en banc).

The district court did not abuse its discretion in imposing a below-guidelines sentence. As evidenced above, the court thoroughly reviewed the record, considered all written and oral arguments made by the parties, and properly weighed all  3553(a) factors in determining a sentence.

* * * * * * *

The judgment is affirmed.

FOOTNOTES

. The Honorable Rebecca Goodgame Ebinger, United States District Judge for the Southern District of Iowa.

. Zenor argues that this court's application of the presumption of reasonableness standard to a below-guidelines sentence denies defendants all meaningful review of their sentence as intended by Congress and the remedial decision in Booker. This argument has no merit.

PER CURIAM.On Nov 18, 2017, at about 1:06 a.m., the Humboldt County Sheriffs Office received a missing persons report for 22-year-old Rebekah Martinez. The reporting party, Martinezs mother, told deputies she last had contact with Martinez on Nov. 12, 2017, at about 11:00 a.m. via a friends cell phone. Martinez told her mother that she was going to work on a marijuana farm and would see her in seven to eight days.

The Humboldt County Sheriffs Office attempted to contact Martinez and other persons associated with her, receiving no response. The deputy followed procedure, following up on all leads and forwarding the case to the Humboldt County Sheriffs Office Criminal Investigations Division.

On Dec. 12, 2017, a deputy sheriff contacted Martinezs mother by email to inquire whether she had heard from Martinez. Martinezs mother responded to the email confirming that Martinez had contacted her late in the afternoon on Nov. 18, 2017, and stated that she was headed home. The deputy requested Martinez to contact the investigator of the case as soon as possible.

As part of procedure, Humboldt County Sheriffs Office deputies are typically required to make direct contact with the missing person to confirm status and wellbeing, as geographical and other factors allow. A deputy was not able to make direct contact with Martinez and she was not removed from the Missing and Unidentified Persons System.

On Feb. 1, 2018, the Humboldt County Sheriffs Office received an inquiry from a local resident in response to a news article about missing persons in Humboldt County. The resident reported that one missing person listed on the California Attorney Generals missing persons website was actually on the television show, The Bachelor. The deputy who initially took Martinezs missing person report attempted to contact Martinez by phone, without answer. The deputy left a message for Martinez directing her to contact The Humboldt County Sheriffs Office as soon as possible. The deputy then reached out to Martinezs mother as to why Martinez had not contacted the Sheriffs Office as requested in December. The deputy was informed that Martinez had attempted to contact the Sheriffs Office but was not able to speak directly with a deputy. At this time, Martinezs attempts to contact the Sheriffs Office have not been confirmed. The deputy provided Martinezs mother with her direct phone number and requested Martinez call the deputy immediately.

Martinez returned the deputys call at 2:59 p.m. on Feb. 1, 2018, confirming that she was not missing and was doing well. Based on the totality of information provided regarding Martinezs wellbeing, Martinez status as a missing person was cleared over the phone and she was removed from the Missing and Unidentified Persons System.BEIRUT (AP) - The Latest on the situation in Syria (all times local):

8:40 p.m.

Turkey says eight of its soldiers were killed near the Syrian Kurdish enclave of Afrin in what has been the deadliest day so far since Ankara's operation there started.

In a statement late on Saturday, the Turkish military said five soldiers were killed after their tank in Syria came under attack near Afrin. It says the soldiers could not be saved despite all attempts.

Earlier in the day, three Turkish soldiers were reported killed in the offensive. One was killed in the area of the tank attack, another in northern Syria and the third on the Turkish side of the border in what Ankara said was an attack by Syrian Kurdish militiamen.

The total death toll for Turkish troops since the operation started on Jan. 20 now stands at 13.

The statement says a Syrian Kurdish militia and the Islamic State group carried out the attack, without providing details.

Turkey launched the incursion into Afrin to rout the U.S.-backed Syrian Kurdish militia, which it considers to be a terrorist organization and an extension of Kurdish insurgents fighting within Turkey.

___

7:35 p.m.

The Russian Defense Ministry has confirmed that a Russian Su-25 warplane crashed in Syria and that the pilot was killed in fighting on the ground.

The report on the ministry's Zvezda TV says preliminary information indicates the plane was shot down in Idlib province on Saturday by a portable ground-to-air missile.

The report says the pilot ejected before the crash, but then was killed in fighting with "terrorists." It says the area is under the control of al-Qaida's branch in Syria.

___

7:30 p.m.

A leading international rights group has accused Turkish border guards of shooting at Syrian refugees trying to cross into Turkey and turning back others after they crossed into Turkey.

Human Rights Watch also says in a report published on Saturday that it documented such cases from May until December last year. HRW also says Turkish guards shot at refugees while they were still in Syria, killing 10 people, including a child.

HRW also points to accounts of abuse by detained asylum seekers, including their forced return to Syria and withholding medical care.

Turkey's presidential spokesman says the allegations will be investigated. Ibrahim Kalin said it was "unlikely" Turkish soldiers would shoot at people and pointed to Turkey's open-door policy.

Turkey is hosting nearly 3.5 million Syrians who have fled the ongoing civil war.

___

6:20 p.m.

A Syrian monitoring group and a Syrian militant say a Russian pilot who ejected from his fighter jet after it was shot down in northwestern Syria was killed after landing alive on the ground.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the Russian pilot is dead but had no immediate further details.

A Syrian militant in the area told The Associated Press that the Russian pilot was shot and killed when he resisted capture by opening fire from his pistol on the militants who tried to capture him alive.

Moscow has not confirmed the downing of its plane or the killing of a pilot.

The militant refused to be identified by his real name because was not authorized to speak to the media.

A video circulating on social media shows a dead man with a bloodied face as bearded gunmen stood around him. One of them shouts: "He is Russian."

The authenticity of the video could not be independently confirmed but it corresponds to events reported by the AP.

___

5:45 p.m.

The Turkish military says two of its soldiers have been killed in Syria and a third was killed on the Turkish side of the border in an attack by Syrian Kurdish militiamen.

The military says Saturday's deaths were related to Turkey's operation against the Syrian Kurdish-held enclave of Afrin, codenamed Olive Branch. One of the soldiers was killed when a Turkish tank was hit in Afrin.

A total of eight Turkish soldiers and at least 24 allied Syrian opposition fighters have died so far in Ankara's offensive, which started on Jan. 20.

The Turkish operation aims to clear Afrin of the U.S.-backed Syrian Kurdish militia, known as the People's Protection Units or YPG, which Turkey considers to be a terrorist group and an extension of the Kurdish insurgency within its borders.

Ankara also says it is fighting the Islamic State group in the area.

___

4:50 p.m.

Syrian opposition activists say rebels have shot down a warplane in the country's northwest where government forces and their allies are advancing under the cover of intense airstrikes.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says the warplane was downed on Saturday afternoon near the rebel-held town of Sarqeb, which Syrian troops have been trying to reach under the cover of Russian airstrikes.

The Observatory's chief Rami Abdurrahman says it's possible the warplane could be Russian. He added that the pilot ejected and landed alive on the ground.

The opposition's Aleppo Media Center says it was a Russian-made Su-25 but did not say whether it was Russian. There was no immediate word from Moscow.

___

4:30 p.m.

Turkish presidential spokesman says Turkey will not tolerate the presence of a Syrian Kurdish militia "anywhere" along its southern border, hinting that Ankara might expand its military operation underway in the Syrian enclave of Afrin eastward.

The spokesman, Ibrahim Kalin, said on Saturday that Turkey's first demand is to see the Syrian Kurdish militia - the People's Protection Units or YPG - move east of the Euphrates River and leave the town of Manbij, where American troops backing the Syrian Kurdish fighters are stationed.

Turkey launched an incursion into Syria on Jan. 20 and is currently fighting the YPG in the northwestern enclave of Afrin. It considers the YPG a "terrorist group" and an extension of Kurdish rebels inside Turkey.

Kalin called on the United States to "disengage" from the YPG and said Turkey will continue communications with "our American allies to avoid any confrontation."

Turkey shares a 911-kilometer border with Syria. The YPG controls much of the territory along the border and an uninterrupted strip from Manbij to the Iraqi border.

___

2:20 p.m.

A Syrian monitoring group and the media arm of al-Qaida-linked militants are reporting intense airstrikes on a rebel-held stronghold in Syria's northwest.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported more than 35 airstrikes on Saraqeb since late Friday, adding that many of its residents are fleeing.

The Ibaa News Agency of the al-Qaida-linked Levant Liberation Committee, said Russian and Syrian warplanes and helicopter gunships have been pounding Saraqeb and Tel Mardeekh village in Idlib province since the early hours of Saturday.

Syrian government forces and their allies pushed into Idlib, an opposition stronghold, inching closer to a key highway that connects Syria's two largest cities, Damascus and Aleppo.

The U.N. says more than 270,000 have been displaced in Idlib because of the government onslaught since Dec. 15.

(Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)"We do like to have a green lawn, we have to shower," said Butte County resident Nathan Urness.

Last season's rainy winter ended the worst drought in California history.

And last April, the governor finally said we no longer had to conserve water.

"I can't help but notice, I'm seeing people turn their sprinklers on, that's fine - no need to kill of your landscaping, but be cognizant," said Cal Water Chico manager Pete Bonacich.

Ten months later, and just a few inches of rain this year in Butte County.

44% of the state is back to a moderate drought, with Sierra Nevada snowpack at 30% of what we'd expect for this time of year.

"It's not looking real promising. 70s this week? I hope we all start to realize, we do need to start cutting back," said Urness.

"We've got warm weather ahead, almost record setting - it sounds like a drought, feels like a drought," said Bonacich.

But as for requiring us to conserve water? That's up to the governor. And it hasn't happened yet.

"We have been asking our customers for a 10% voluntary reduction ... Our numbers are good, even though we're no in drought mode," said Bonacich.

In fact, most chico water users are still cutting back to 25% of the amount allowed before the drought began.

Some good news: the DWR says state reservoirs are still fuller than usual thanks to last year's rain.

Since residential customers in the Chico district get their water from the ground, Lake Oroville's low level won't impact supplies.

Plus, there could be a lot more rain on the horizon.

"There's time to turn it around, we've had Marches and Aprils that have been really wet, so we'll see!' said Bonacich.For the first time in China's smartphone history, the market for smartphones in the country has fallen with annual shipments down by 4% in 2017, according to data from research firm Canalys.

In addition to that, it is deemed that the sudden weakening of its sales ends the eight-year growth in the world's largest mobile phone market.

Smartphone brands like Huawei, Oppo and Vivo continue to dominate the Chinese handset market. Despite the overall slowdown of the market, Huawei even saw double-digit growth according to the report,

Between 2010 to 2015, the global smartphone market was mostly a showdown between two of the most mainstream mobiles, namely Apple and Samsung. But over the last two years, smaller Chinese Android smartphone brands have risen, offering faster entry-level phones at much more affordable prices.

While consumers in huge Chinese cities like Beijing and Shanghai see the latest iPhone and Galaxy devices as "must-have" handsets, people in rural areas couldn't afford the hefty price tags and mostly stuck to basic feature phones.

To offer these consumers a premium feel or experience at a lower cost, Oppo and Vivo - both owned by reclusive billionaire Duan Yong Ping - chose to avoid online marketing and instead opened retail stores on high streets in rural provinces.

The approach of offering an Apple-esque in-store customer experience was successful. In 2016, China saw a huge boom in consumers swapping their basic phones for premium smartphones.

According to Counterpoint Research, by August 2017, Huawei had sold almost as many smartphones as Apple. And by the end of 2016, it had already dethroned Samsung from the top spot as most commercial Android device brand in the world.

The end of an era

However, the question still remains on why the sales has declined. According to Mo Jia, research analyst at Canalys, now that consumers have traded up from basic phones to entry-level smartphones, they feel they don't need another one.

People are saying that "the phones they have now are already good enough," Jia told the news sources. "We say that it's gone from a 'change' market to a 'stop' market."

Since even entry-level smartphones have a vast array of features, the life cycles of these devices are much longer than before, now up to 26.8 months, according to Canalys.

The research firm does not see the Chinese smartphone market growing until 5G devices hit the scene in late 2019.

And while the perceived "luxury" prestige of iPhones will alert some consumers to want to trade up, Jia points out that the latest smartphones from Chinese brands are almost equivalent in specs and hardware to Apple's handsets.

"The phone makers are making much better phones. For example, if you look at the Huawei Mate 10 and the Mate 10 Pro, their specs are comparable to iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus. But the Mate 10 is at least 30% cheaper than the iPhone 8," he said.

In addition to that, Samsung's marketing disaster early last year over battery faults with the Galaxy Note 7 severely damaged its brand reputation in China.

So, when people wanted a new Android device, they were much more likely to look to Huawei, Oppo and Vivo, Jia added.

Expanding its horizons

With the Chinese market looking pretty saturated for now, overseas expansion will be critical for Huawei, Oppo and Vivo in 2018.

"Oppo and Vivo are trying to expand into more countries like Russia and Japan, and they're trying to deepen their market in South East Asia," said Jia.

"Xiaomi is doing very well in India. They are the most popular brand there and are seeking to open more stores. They are also expanding into Thailand."

Meanwhile, Huawei's focus is on "budget smartphones" - cheaper entry-level or mid-level devices.

The Chinese tech giant has not had much success lately in the US, as talks to release the Mate 10 Pro on AT&T collapsed due to government security concerns.

But Huawei is looking to continue growing in developing markets in South East Asia and Africa, while retaining and growing its existing popularity in Europe.FARGO, N.D. (AP) - The Latest on the sentencing of a North Dakota woman who admitted killing a pregnant neighbor (all times local):

2 p.m.

A North Dakota woman who admitted killing a pregnant neighbor and cutting the baby from the womb while the mother was still alive has been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Brooke Crews pleaded guilty in December to conspiracy to commit kidnapping, conspiracy to commit murder and lying to law officers in the August death of 22-year-old Savanna Greywind of Fargo. State District Judge Frank Racek sentenced Crews on Friday.

Prosecutors say Crews admitted to cutting out the baby while Greywind went in and out of consciousness.

Fargo Police Chief Dave Todd earlier called her death a "cruel and vicious act of depravity." Her disappearance sparked extensive searches before her body was found wrapped in plastic in a river.

The baby was found alive in the apartment the 38-year-old Crews shared with her 32-year-old boyfriend, William Hoehn (hayn). He's scheduled for trial in March.

___

1:50 p.m.

Prosecutors say a North Dakota woman who admitted killing a pregnant neighbor so she and her boyfriend could keep the baby also admitted to cutting out the baby while the mother was still alive.

A judge is deciding whether Brooke Crews should get a sentence other than life in prison without parole at Friday's hearing.

Crews pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit kidnapping, conspiracy to commit murder and lying to law officers in the August death of 22-year-old Savanna Greywind of Fargo.

Prosecutors say Crews cut the baby out of the mother's womb while Greywind went in and out of consciousness. They asked for a sentence of life with no parole.

The baby was found alive in the apartment the 38-year-old Crews shared with her 32-year-old boyfriend, William Hoehn (hayn).

Hoehn is scheduled for trial in March.

___

1:15 p.m.

A North Dakota judge is deciding whether a woman who admitted killing a pregnant neighbor so she and her boyfriend could keep the baby should merit a sentence other than life in prison without parole.

Brooke Crews pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit kidnapping, conspiracy to commit murder and lying to law officers in the August death of 22-year-old Savanna Greywind of Fargo.

Crews didn't have a plea deal with prosecutors, but hoped that admitting responsibility at a December hearing would work in her favor at Friday's sentencing in Fargo. She appeared in court in orange prison clothing, cuffed at the wrists.

Authorities haven't said how Greywind was killed. The baby was found alive in the apartment the 38-year-old Crews shared with her 32-year-old boyfriend, William Hoehn (hayn).

Hoehn is scheduled for trial in March.

___

12:30 a.m.

A North Dakota judge will decide whether a woman who admitted killing a pregnant neighbor so she and her boyfriend could keep the baby should merit a sentence other than life in prison without parole.

Brooke Crews pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit kidnapping and murder and lying to law officers in the August death of 22-year-old Savanna Greywind, of Fargo.

Crews did not have a plea deal with prosecutors, but hoped that admitting responsibility at a December hearing would work in her favor at sentencing Friday in Fargo.

Authorities haven't said how Greywind was killed. The baby was found alive in the apartment the 38-year-old Crews shared with her 32-year-old boyfriend, William Hoehn (hayn).

Hoehn is scheduled for trial in March.

(Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)But in a letter sent by Raggi to Italy's ministers for health and education, she said that the lack of vaccination should not mean children lose their right to state education.

Vaccines against meningitis and measles, cases of which rose almost six-fold last year, were among those made obligatory for the first time.

Rome's city council unanimously approved a motion which ruled that even non-vaccinated children had a right to state education. This directly contradicts a government decree passed in May 2017 which made several vaccinations compulsory for children starting at state schools, and states that unvaccinated children under the age of six should not be allowed to attend state education.

Children who have not received compulsory vaccinations will still be able to attend school in Rome, city mayor Virginia Raggi said on Thursday in a letter to the Italian Health Ministry.

She also pointed out that while the law requires unvaccinated children to be removed from nursery school (for ages 0-6), this is not the case for children of primary school age, whose parents have to pay a fine. This punishment, Raggi argued, implies that "infection is not the main concern".

Raggi's party, the Five Star Movement (M5S), has a majority in the city council and the party, along with the far-right Northern League, has included a plan to scrap the compulsory vaccine law altogether in its election campaign.

Health Minister Beatrice Lorenzin responded on Friday morning in a video posted to Facebook in which she said: "You can't joke with our children's lives. The vaccine decree was created to protect those children too small to be vaccinated and those suffering from diseases which mean they cannot be vaccinated."

Lorenzin added that both the Italian Council of State and Constitutional Court had overruled an earlier motion from the Veneto region which challenged the vaccine law, and said: "I do not want municipal authorities led by anti-vaxxers to bring forward positions which are very dangerous for public health."

Speaking to Repubblica, the minister further said that it should be down "the law and the scientific community" to decide on the necessity of vaccines, rather than mayors or local authorities.

A growing anti-vaccine movement across Italy is thought to be one of the causes in the recent drastic rise in measles cases, and it has become highly politicized in the run-up to the March 4th general election.

Italy was one of the countries where discredited claims of a link between the combined measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccination and autism had a significant impact on public perceptions of the safety of the jab.

The M5S has also been heavily criticized for its role in raising doubts over the efficacy of vaccinations. A law proposal put forward by the party in 2014 called for "better information and possible denial of administering vaccinations" and cited the debunked studies.A 58-year-old man found fatally shot in the head in the backyard of his Ensley home is being remembered as kind, dependable and, in many ways, indispensable to those loved and relied on him.

The body of Ricky Parker, a retired AT&T employee and the administrator at Forty-Fifth Street Baptist Church in East Lake, was discovered by a neighbor outside his Belview Heights home Friday morning.

Birmingham West Precinct police officers responded to the home in the 1000 block of 46th Street Ensley about 9 a.m., said Capt. Sean Edwards. Once on the scene, they found the victim shot behind his home.

Edwards said detectives learned neighbors reported hearing two to four shots around 7 a.m. Upon investigating, a neighbor found the victim in his backyard and called 911.A motive has not yet been confirmed. Detectives are working diligently to get answers," Edwards said.

Birmingham Municipal Court Presiding Judge Andra Sparks, who is pastor at Forty Fifth Street, was on the bench Friday when he got a text message from the church secretary. Because court was in session, he didn't immediately answer. Then he got a second text message, one that was marked urgent.

Sparks called for a recess in the proceedings, and that's when he learned the devastating news. "She said Ricky had been killed,'' Sparks said. "We were in shock."

Parker graduated from the now-closed Hayes High School, and then went to work for AT&T until his retirement several years ago. While at the utility company, Parker was heavily involved in AT&T's Pioneers Volunteer Network.

He also was a deacon at Forty-Fifth Street and, upon his retirement, went to work full-time at the church. As the administrator, he was in charge of all of the day-to-day church operations. "He made it all work,'' Sparks said. "Whatever needed to be done, Ricky did it."

Whether it was doing the weekly payroll or making sure the church vans were serviced when needed, Parker handled it all. The church recently paid off its mortgage - and celebrated with a mortgage burning in December - and Parker oversaw that process.

"Everybody at the church connected with Ricky at some point,'' Sparks said. "He was just a nice guy."

Parker never married or had children of his own, but he was a caretaker for his family and instrumental in helping to raise his two nieces and his nephew. "He made sure they didn't want for anything'' Sparks said.

Sparks has been pastor at the church for 14 years, and said Parker was also an integral part. The two were close, and not long ago took the church children on a mission trip. "I drove one van and he drove the other,'' the judge recalled. "I loved him. He was indispensable."

Sparks said Parker loved to travel and he loved to sing. "He was in every choir we had,'' he said. "He was a very big support to his mother, who is just devastated by this."

It's unclear whether Parker was killed as he was preparing to go to work Friday, but he was scheduled to be there. "He came in most days, just about every day,'' Sparks said. "He would have come in (Friday) to get payroll done."

A vigil for Parker was held Friday night at the church. "We probably had 50 to 60 people there just from a text,'' Sparks said. "I knew the church was hurting and knew we might benefit from being together."

"The church was full of grown men crying'' he said. "It's hit us hard."

Fellow church members got up and gave testimony about Parker. "That kind of release was beneficial, even for me,'' Sparks said. "I depended on Ricky a lot."

Sparks had to break the news to Parker's mother, and he accompanied the family to the Jefferson County Coroner's Office to identify Parker's body. "I didn't want her to hear it through other means,'' he said.

Though crime is nothing new to the judge, Parker's death hit him hard. "This is so much more personal,'' he said. "It's got me torn up."

Asked what he tells his congregation in times of such grief, Sparks said, "I remind them that what we say to everyone else is true for us as well, even if it's hard for us to hear,'' he said. "I remind them as I'm reminding myself that the Lord is there for us. It's a circle of encouragement."

In addition to the grief, he said, many are angered that Parker's life was cut short by an act of violence. "They know Ricky would have given anybody the shirt off his back,'' Sparks said, "but we still have to be faithful."

Sparks said he wants Parker to be remembered for the fine man that he was. "He was fully-invested in everything he did,'' he said. "There is a biological family and a church family that is completely heartbroken. He was loved."

Anyone with information on Parker's death is asked to call Birmingham homicide detectives at 205-254-1764 or Crime Stoppers at 205-254-7777.The Supreme Court of the United States won't review the case of an inmate on Alabama's Death Row.

The court announced in it's weekly order list that they denied the writ of certiorari, or request to review, the case of Jeffery Day Rieber. The court didn't issue an opinion.

Rieber, 50, was convicted of capital murder during the course of a robbery for the 1990 killing of Glenda Phillips Craig.

Craig, 25, worked at the Mobile Mart on Winchester Road in Huntsville. She was a wife and mother.

According to court records, Craig was alive when she was found shot and lying behind the store counter, but she died shortly after.

When Rieber was arrested, court records show, he told Huntsville police that he did not visit the Mobile Mart on the day of the murder and robbery; however, a customer at the store that day told police he knew Rieber from high school and saw him there.

Another man told police he had seen Rieber in the parking lot of the Mobile Mart a few days before the murder. He said Craig was uneasy about the man-- who police said was Rieber-- and said she was afraid. Later, the man came back to the store and saw Rieber patrolling the lot. The man told Craig she should call police.

Video surveillance from the store was also shown in court.

Records state the tape showed a man entering the mart at 7:55 p.m. on Oct. 9, 1990, and walking to the counter. On the video, a man shot Craig and she fell to the floor. The man then reached over the counter and took money from the register, before shooting wounded clerk again.

Rieber was convicted in 1992, and the jury recommended by a vote of seven to five that he be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. The judge overrode the jury's recommendation and sentenced Rieber to death.

In April 2017, Gov. Kay Ivey signed into law a bill that says juries have the final say on whether to impose the death penalty in capital murder cases. This law ended judicial override in Alabama, as it had been the only state to still allow a judge to overrule a jury.Authorities have released the name of a teen shot to death Friday night in what authorities say was an exchange of gunfire between two vehicles at Birmingham's McAlpine Park.

Birmingham police identified the victim as Michael Lee. He was 17.

West Precinct officers responded at 5 p.m. to a call of shots fired at the park on Avenue F in Ensley, said Sgt. Bryan Shelton. When they arrived, they didn't see anything amiss.

While they were securing the scene of the shooting, the dispatcher informed them that a white vehicle involved in the shooting was detained by Fairfield police in the 6700 block of Terrance Court in Fairfield, and that one of the occupants appeared to have been shot.

Additional officers responded to the scene and found the wounded Lee. Birmingham Fire and Rescue responded to the scene and pronounced Lee dead.

Shelton said the preliminary investigation shows the white vehicle the victim was in and another vehicle exchanged gunfire at the park, and both cars fled the scene. He said it's unclear why Lee was taken to Fairfield.

The shooting, he said, is believed to have stemmed from some kind of online dispute.

Lee is Birmingham's ninth homicide so far in 2018, and one of two that happened on Friday. Earlier in the day - about 9 a.m. - police found 58-year-old Ricky Parker dead from a gunshot wound in his back yard. No arrests have been announced in that slaying.

Anyone with information is asked to call Birmingham homicide detectives at 205-254-1764 or Crime Stoppers at 205-254-7777.The Alabama House of Representatives on Thursday changed a bill on child care center regulations to try to preserve a state licensing exemption for some church-affiliated centers.

But it turns out that the amendment, which sparked a contentious debate before it was approved, won't have any practical effect, at least according to the Alabama Department of Human Resources.

DHR spokesman Barry Spear said the agency made that determination today after a review of the bill, which passed the House Thursday afternoon.

The legislation has moved to the Senate and could change again. It would affect almost 1,000 child care centers.

The bill by Rep. Pebblin Warren, D-Tuskegee, called the Child Care Safety Act, is intended to add new regulations for centers that are exempt from state licensing because they are affiliated with a church.

There are 1,909 child care centers in the state and almost half - 933 - are exempt because they claim a church affiliation. Warren and advocates for her bill say the state needs uniform regulations and that all centers should be licensed and meet minimum DHR standards.

Warren's bill is the product of compromises with those who oppose repealing the church license exemption but aren't necessarily opposed to more regulation.

Warren and others say the worst problems are generally with centers that claim a church affiliation but are set up mainly to make money. Some church-affiliated centers choose to be licensed.

Warren's bill stops short of trying to repeal the church exemption but says certain centers cannot be exempt -- those that operate for profit, receive state or federal funds or accept children who receive child care subsidies.

That's where the amendment came in.

Rep. Allen Farley, R-McCalla, said he wanted church-affiliated centers to be able to enroll children who receive subsidies without losing their license exemption and coming under the same regulations as for-profit centers.

In December there were 31,757 children in Alabama from low-income families who received federal subsidies to pay for child care.

The House adopted Farley's amendment, striking out the language that centers that accept children who receive subsidies cannot be exempt.

But the line saying that centers that received state or federal funds could not be exempt remained in the bill. DHR's Spear said because the child care subsidies are federal funds, centers that enroll children who receive subsidies would have to be licensed if Warren's bill becomes law.

The bill now moves to the Senate and could change again. Warren had a similar bill last year that died in the Senate.

The details of the the legislation matter because there are 413 license-exempt centers that accept children who receive federal subsidies.

Those centers do receive annual health and safety inspections from DHR because of federal regulations. Since August 2017, DHR has inspected 682 facilities that accept children who receive subsidies, including the 413 license-exempt child care centers. The agency found 15,156 issues of non-compliance, according to DHR. Facilities have 90 days to correct problems.

The federal child care subsidies are provided to low-income families on a card that is swiped daily at the child care center. The record of the card swipe goes to DHR to determine the payment made to the child care center.

Aside from the issue of children that receive subsidies, Warren's bill would set new requirements for all license-exempt centers.

They would have to provide annually to DHR records of health and fire inspections and employees names and criminal background checks and proof of property, casualty and liability insurance.

The bill would give DHR the authority to inspect a license-exempt facility if it has reasonable cause to believe the center is not in compliance with the law or child safety is at risk.

Before a new license-exempt facility could open, it would have to notify DHR at least 30 days before opening and DHR would conduct an inspection.A former Madison County Sheriff's Office Investigator has been indicted on sexual abuse charges, according to the office of the Attorney General.

Roland Campos, 64, was indicted on one count of first-degree sexual abuse and one count of second-degree sexual abuse, according to the indictment.

The indictments were filed in Madison County Circuit Court Friday.

On Jan. 16, a Madison County grand jury found Campos had sexual contact by forcible compulsion with a person identified as "D.W." The grand jury also found he had sexual contact with "D.W." when the victim was older than 12 years old but less than 16 years old, according to the indictment.

Police have told AL.com the victim is a family member. Court documents allege the victim was 12 years old when he fondled her.

Campos was arrested and charged with two counts of first-degree sexual abuse Aug. 18. He resigned his position at the sheriff's office the same day.

Huntsville police Lt. Stacy Bates earlier this week told AL.com that HPD was called to investigate after the sheriff's office was notified about the child's allegations. The report was made Friday around 3 p.m., but the alleged abuse occurred months earlier, police have said.

He was a 10-year employee of the sheriff's office, where he investigated white-collar crimes, like fraud and identity theft. He reportedly resigned his position just a few hours after the abuse was reported to police.

Campos was released from the Madison County Jail on a $10,000 bond the next day.

Other members of Campos' family have been convicted of sex abuse crimes. His son, also named Roland Campos, was sentenced to two terms of life in prison without parole in 2014 for sodomizing a 5-year-old girl while he was allegedly dating the victim's mother.

Campos' brother, Russell Leland Campos, was charged with two counts of sexual abuse of a child under the age of 12 in 2011. Those charges were dropped in 2014 when the alleged victim in the case was unable to testify due to the "ongoing effects of psychological trauma."What you can expect at Great Wolf Lodge Georgia, the massive water park opening just across the Alabama line. lgore@al.com

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93,000 indoor water park opening in May

The 93,000-square foot Great Wolf Lodge indoor water park is located about an hour southwest of Atlanta and is roughly a 45-minute drive from the Auburn/Opelika area and a little more than a two-hour drive from Birmingham.

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Great Wolf Lodge Georgia, set to open May 31 in La Grange, Georgia, will offer two first-of-their-kind water slides. Families visiting the park will discover 84-degree temperatures year-round with a dozen different slides, including Rapid Racer and Triple Thunder, attractions that cant be found anywhere else in the U.S.

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Triple Thunder

Triple Thunder

Triple Thunder is a group raft ride that starts with guests plummeting down a steep drop and into a funnel, where they will experience sensations of weightlessness as the raft sloshes up and down the funnel. After exiting the funnel, the raft swooshes towards two saucers. Riders will speed along the bank of the saucer, swirl 180 degrees and exit through a narrow passageway  all in the dark. A few extra twists and turns remain before riders plunge into a catch bool at the bottom of the slide.

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Rapid Racer

Rapid Racer is a two-person tube racing slide complete with drops, chutes and curves. Riders will emerge from 180 and 360-degree banked curves before entering a section with open racing lanes where they can see and hear their competition on the other side of a low separator wall.

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Water slides

A look at Great Wolf Lodge Georgia's slides

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Other water park attractions

Fort Mackenzie

A multi-level tree house water fort that combines suspension bridges, treetop slides, swinging cargo nets and spray stations. The parks signature tipping bucket dumps one thousand gallons of water every four minutes.

Totem Towers

Two three-story body slides attached to Fort Mackenzie.

Wolf Tail:

Step into the launch pod and prepare as the floor drops out from underneath guests feet, hurling them into a nearly vertical, 20-foot free fall, followed immediately by a 360-degree, high speed loop.

Otter Run:

A family friendly body slide

Slap Tail Pond

Gigantic wave pool, complete with waves reaching up to three feet in height as they roll through every five minutes.

Chinook Cove

Water playground for children of all ages featuring basketball and floating obstacles.

Big Foot Pass

Unique water obstacle challenges kids and adults alike to balance on floating logs and lily pads and hold on to hanging nets as they try to get across the pool.

Crooked Creek

Winding lazy river.

Cub Paw Pool

Zero-depth entry childrens pool with water fountain features, kiddie slides and spray and play adventures.

Whooping Hollow:

This play pool is filled with perfectly sized water slides for young pups. Gentle slopes and tiny dips and turns make these the go to attractions for the under 52 inches set.

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Scenes from Great Wolf Lodge Georgia

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Great Wolf Lodge Georgia will feature a ropes course.

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Water slides

Water slides at Great Wolf Lodge Georgia.

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Rooms

Standard room at Great Wolf Lodge. Themed suites are available as well.

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Adventure Park

Adventure Park at Great Wolf Lodge Georgia.

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Interior of lodge

Interior at Great Wolf Lodge Georgia

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MagiQuest

MagiQuest, an interactive adventure game, will be part of the attractions at Great Wolf Lodge Georgia.

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Adult attractions

Great Wolf Lodge Georgia will debut with an exclusive, adult only oasis adjacent to the outdoor pool, complete with relaxing chaise lounge chairs and a private hot tub for parents to enjoy.

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Oliver's Mining Company lets kids pan for treasures.

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2)9_

Mini golf at Great Wolf Lodge

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Splash!

Enjoying the children's play areas at Great Wolf Lodge's indoor water park.

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Are you brave enough for Wolf Tail? Riders step into the launch pod and prepare as the floor drops out from underneath them, hurling them into a nearly vertical, 20-foot free fall, followed immediately by a 360-degree, high speed loop.

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Wave pool

Wave pool at Great Wolf Lodge Georgia.

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Lazy river

Lazy River at Great Wolf Lodge Georgia.

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Totem Towers

Totem Towers at Great Wolf Lodge Georgia.

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Outdoor fun too

Raccoon Lagoon is among the outdoor offerings in warm weather.

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Special opening offers

Standard rates start at $199.99 per night with water park admission included. As part of its grand opening celebration, Great Wolf Lodge is offering discounts of up to 30 percent off standard rates for stays through December for reservations made through Feb. 28 with promo code GRAND.A Hoover City Schools bus leaving Spain Park High School hit the back bumper of a sedan as both vehicles were leaving the school Friday afternoon.

This incident comes the same day a Hoover bus driver was fired for driving and crashing a school bus while under the influence.

"Thankfully, this was nothing serious," said Hoover City Schools spokesperson Jason Gaston.

No one was injured in the incident and both vehicles were drivable. The incident happened around 3:45 p.m. Friday.

"I believe the bus and the car were exiting together and then our bus just kind of tapped the back bumper of the sedan," Gaston said. "There is no reasonable suspicion for anything out of the ordinary."

The bus and sedan were turning on to Caldwell Mill Road from Jaguar Drive. Jaguar Drive is a private drive that circles Spain Park High School, Gaston said. He believes the bus was traveling between five and 10 miles per hour when it struck the sedan.

Gaston said students were on the bus. He also said a student was driving the sedan.

There was no damage to the bus and a little damage to the sedan, Gaston said.

The school system doesn't plan on further investigating the issue, he said.

"Federal Department of Transportation laws says, if there are no injuries, no fatalities and both vehicles are mobile, there's no mandatory anything that has to enact in that moment," Gaston said. "This is a low speed tap on the bumper."In secret, behind locked gates, our Nation's Oldest City dumped a landfill in a lake (Old City Reservoir), while emitting sewage in our rivers and salt marsh. Organized citizens exposed and defeated pollution, racism and cronyism. We elected a new Mayor. We're transforming our City -- advanced citizenship. Ask questions. Make disclosures. Demand answers. Be involved. Expect democracy. Report and expose corruption. Smile! Help enact a St. Augustine National Park and Seashore. We shall overcome!Alabama Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives backed President Trump's decision Friday to declassify a memo produced by the chair of the House Intelligence Committee that questioned FBI surveillance tactics.

The so-called Nunes' memo - named for U.S. Rep. Devin Nunes - was released following Trump's approval to declassify it.

House Republicans have maintained the memo demonstrates abuse of power regarding surveillance in the early stages of the FBI's investigation into the Trump campaign and Russia.

U.S. Reps. Robert Aderholt, Mo Brooks and Mike Rogers voiced their support for the memo's release in statements Friday.

"I read the memo two weeks ago, and felt the information was extremely important and should be seen by the American people," Aderholt, R-Haleyville, said.

Rogers, R-Saks, agreed.

"I have read the memo and find it very troubling," he said.

Brooks, R-Huntsville, put the blame on former President Barack Obama for the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrant requested by the Department of Justice and received to spy on former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page.

"The Nunes Memo clearly outlines how the Obama Administration politicized and weaponized the FBI and DOJ to the point that agency employees felt comfortable in unethically, and perhaps illegally, deceiving FISA court judges by using Democrat funded opposition research as the basis to spy on American citizens," he said.

"The abuse of legal process by partisan FBI and DOJ personnel is astonishing given the trust the American people have historically bestowed on both agencies."

Rogers said, "Our nation's sophisticated surveillance tools must never be used against Americans for political purposes."

Aderholt's statement echoed the same sentiments.

"The public should be able to have confidence that our institutions, including the FBI, are not being politicized in favor of one candidate over another. That's why we need transparency to show what the true facts are. This is not the way the system should work."A Colorado man who served more than 10 years in prison for bank robbery is heading back to prison, this time for a 20-year sentence.

Richard Allen Evans, 50, of Arvada, Colo., was sentenced this week in federal court in Montgomery, U.S. Attorney Louis Franklin Sr. announced. The sentence is the maximum for the crime, Franklin said. Evans will also be supervised for three years after his release.

Evans had pleaded guilty in October.

Evans robbed the BBVA Compass Bank near Eastdale Mall in Montgomery in June 2017, taking more than $1,900. He was arrested in Florida a day later.

Evans had robbed the same bank 10 years earlier, along with six other banks and was sentenced to 125 months. Evans was still on supervised release from those crimes when he committed the robbery last year.

Franklin said the FBI and the Montgomery Police Department investigated the case, with assistance from the Suwanee County, Fla., Sheriff's Office and the U.S. Marshals Service.In his first filing responding to the lawsuit brought by an accuser of sexual misconduct, former Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore has asked a judge to change the venue of the case.

Leigh Corfman filed her lawsuit last month in Montgomery County Circuit Court.

Moore wants the lawsuit shifted to Etowah County.

Corfman leveled perhaps the most serious charges against Moore last November, telling The Washington Post that Moore undressed her and touched her over her underwear during an encounter when she was 14 years old and Moore was in his 30s. That encounter, according to Corfman's lawsuit, occurred at Moore's house in Etowah County.

Moore has repeatedly denied the accusation.

Moore lost the election to Democrat Doug Jones by less than 2 percent of the vote.

The filing by Moore attorneys Kenneth Shinbaum and Julian McPhillips of Montgomery did not address the merits of Corfman's lawsuit. Instead, it simply argued that the case should be moved to Etowah County - where both Moore and Corfman reside.

The motion was filed Friday night.

Corfman filed a defamation lawsuit against Moore on Jan. 4 because Moore and his spokespeople "have defamed Ms. Corfman, repeatedly and in all forms of media, calling her a liar and questioning her motivation for publicly disclosing that Mr. Moore sexually abused her in 1979 when she was a 14-year-old high school freshman and he was a 32-year-old assistant district attorney."

In seeking to relocate the case from Montgomery County to Etowah County, Moore's attorney cited case law as precedence for the move as a matter of "convenience."

The motion points out that all parties to the lawsuit - including the Judge Roy Moore for Senate Committee - reside in Etowah County.

"Should this case progress to the fact-finding stage, Etowah County is the situs for witnesses and evidence on the dispositive question of whose version of the events giving rise to Corfman's accusation and Judge Moore's denial are to be believed," the Moore filing said.

"The drama should properly play out where the underlying events at issue are alleged to have occurred - Etowah County - and not where the campaign had an office, now vacated, and a post office box."

Corfman's lawsuit said that Moore described her allegations as "false and malicious" in a lawsuit the candidate filed in Montgomery County Circuit Court on Dec. 27, 2017, in an effort to prevent the certification of the election results.

Moore's filing on Friday said that "under Alabama law, statements made in the course of judicial proceedings are absolutely privileged from civil liability, no matter how false or malicious."

Montgomery County Circuit Judge Roman Ashley Shaul is presiding over the case.

Roy Moore request for venue change by pgattis7719 on ScribdThe Athens Police Department has charged a second man with capital murder in the shooting death of Darius Allen on Tuesday night.

Friday afternoon, Athens police charged 39-year-old Dewayne Lee Sloan with capital murder, Police Chief Floyd Johnson said. He was arrested and will be held in the Limestone County Jail with no bail.

Johnson said it appears the victim's wife was in a relationship with Jacobs. The victim, Allen, was upset about the relationship, and Jacobs believed Allen shot into Jacobs' home on Cannon Road, he said.

Jacobs told police the incident was reported to the sheriff's office.

"This was apparently the motive behind Allen being shot," Johnson said. "I can also say this shooting was a targeted and not a random shooting."

Allen was found dead in his utility van after it struck a utility pole in a ditch off U.S. 72 late Tuesday, police said. The crash scene was on U.S. 72 near Reynard Street.

Police said Allen suffered several gunshot wounds.

"Our investigation team has worked day and night to bring this case to this point. Along with our patrol division these arrests would not have been possible without everyone's hard work and dedication," Johnson said.

Anyone with information about the shooting should call Athens police at 256-233-8700.Women's Marches

A protester attends the Women's March in London on January 21, 2018 as part of a global day of protests, a year to the day since Donald Trump took office as US president. Hundreds of people gathered outside Downing Street in London to voice their frustration at sexual harassment, violence and discrimination against women.(DANIEL LEAL-OLIVAS/AFP/Getty Images)

During the late fall of 1846, a group of poorly-equipped, poorly-led, California-bound pioneers devoid of any particular survival skills and already short of food found themselves stranded in the deepening snows of the Sierra Nevada mountains with winter coming on fast. It would be months before rescue -- if it arrived at all -- was likely. This was the Donner Party, now infamous because they resorted to murder and cannibalism so that some of them would survive.

Although the psychological pressures that led to the cannibalism - even of children - are fascinating almost two centuries later, what interests me about this well-documented catastrophe is who died and who survived. Of the 87 original members (89 if you count two native American men who joined them late and were themselves eventually murdered and eaten), 47 members of the Donner Party survived, most of them women. More than half of the men, but less than one-third of the women, died.

There are many reasons that you could imagine that the women would survive starvation, malnutrition, and cold exposure more successfully than men. They are smaller, so they need less food. They started out with more body fat, so they had more stored energy to live on. Maybe they did less physical work. Or in the mistaken belief that they were more fragile, perhaps they received preferential treatment. Maybe, even, they were less averse to cannibalism.

I'd like to suggest something different -- that the survival difference was largely biological; that women, even little girls, are simply better designed for survival than men and boys. If true, which I hope to convince you is pretty much beyond doubt, I would like to know why and how it works.

I was thinking of the Donner party after reading a recent report of death and survival during other extremely harsh historical events.

It's well known that under normal conditions, women live longer than men virtually everywhere on earth. Less known is that women die at lower rates than men from all the leading causes of death except Alzheimer's disease. In seasonal flu outbreaks, for instance, like the one we are currently suffering, typically 40-50% more men die than women.

But females also do better during extreme hardship. The Donner party was a small-scale famine. A much larger one was the Ukraine famine of 1932-33. Caused by a combination of repeated droughts and misguided Soviet government policies, between 21/2 and 4 million Ukrainians starved to death that winter. Life expectancy in a single year fell to just over 7 - yes, I said seven -- years for Ukrainian men. It was brutal for women too, but their life expectancy was more than three years longer.

Similarly, during a severe famine in Sweden during 1773, life expectancy for men plummeted to 17 years. Life expectancy for women was two years longer. During the same winter that the Donner party was starving in the Sierra Nevada, what is commonly known as the Irish Potato famine was in full fury. Before it was over that famine and its malnutrition-related diseases would kill more than a million mostly poor Irishmen. Once again, the bigger toll was on men, whose life expectancy fell by more than 20 years. Women suffered as well, but their life expectancy "only" fell by 16 years.

Surprisingly, in all of these national famines, the difference between male and female life expectancy was mostly due to better survival of baby girls compared to baby boys. Adult women survived better than men, but the difference was considerably smaller than among babies.

Women survive disease epidemics better too. Today, we think of measles as a relatively mild disease, largely because childhood vaccinations have made it rare, but also because after many generations of exposure to it, we developed some collective resistance to its worst effects. When it strikes populations with no previous exposure though, measles can be devastating. It killed two-thirds of the native population of Cuba when they were first exposed in 1529, for instance, as well as half the population of Honduras. In 1846 a measles epidemic tore through the isolated population of Iceland, killing 80% of newborn girls. Female life expectancy fell to 19 years. But the epidemic killed almost 90% of newborn boys. Male life expectancy dropped even further -- to 17 years.

An even worse fate met a group of about 15,000 freed American slaves and their descendants when they voluntarily migrated to what is now Liberia over a twenty year period in the early 19th century.

The American Colonization Society or ACS, a strange alliance of abolitionists and slave owners, organized the migration and kept records of the migrants' fate. Although these migrants were all of African ancestry, they had no recent exposure to a whole range of tropical diseases. Upon arrival, they died at unprecedented rates. According to ACS records, only 5 percent of newborn boys survived to age 5 whereas about 71/2 percent of girls lived to that age. Overall, life expectancy of the newly arrived migrants was only an incredible 11/2 years for men, a little more than 2 years for women.

To what is this greater female hardiness due? To tell the truth, we simply don't know. Suspicion has fallen on hormones, of course. Some kind of toxic effect of testosterone, perhaps? In the first year of life, boy babies do have a spike in testosterone that then goes away again until puberty, when it roars back. Interestingly, a previous study of the royal court in Korea over a three century period found that eunuchs -- castrated men, who were the only men outside the royal family allowed to stay in the palace overnight -- lived about 20 years longer than the "intact" men in the court.

Whatever the reason, women and girls seem to be the tougher, more resilient, sex. When things get tough, men are, comparatively speaking, wimps. Whatever is responsible for that, we men would like to share a little of it. Please.

Steven Austad is Chair of the Biology Department at UAB. Before becoming a research scientist, he had various lives as an English major, a newspaper reporter, a New York City taxi driver, and a Hollywood wild animal trainer. Living now in Birmingham with his veterinarian wife, 6 dogs, 2 parrots, and a cat, his column posts every other Saturday morning on AL.com.Ghani hints at possible reconciliation with factions of Taliban in a speech in Kabul in the wake of deadly attacks.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has said his government is open to peace talks with armed groups who accept peace but said the door was closed to those who cause tragedies like recent attacks in the capital, Kabul.

Two attacks in Kabul that left scores of civilians dead were claimed by Taliban.

An attack on the Inter-Continental Hotel in Kabul on January 20 and a massive car bombing on a crowded city street a week later have stoked public anger and stepped up pressure on Ghanis Western-backed government to improve security.

The two attack killed more than 130 people. The recent attacks have raised fresh doubt about long-running efforts to initiate talks with the armed fighters.

The presidents office said on Tuesday the fighters had crossed a red line and peace would have to be won on the battlefield.

But Ghani raised the possibility of reconciliation with some factions of Taliban in a speech in Kabul.

Those who are responsible for this tragedy and do not want peace, the door of peace is closed to them, Ghani said.

Those who accept peace, they will witness that the nation will embrace them. But there is a clear difference, our commitment to bringing peace does not mean we will sit quietly and wont retaliate.

We will dig them out from any hiding holes.

Peace talks

Afghanistans government has made such vows for years, but the rebellion appears ever more resilient. Peace efforts have been made in fits and starts but without progress.

US President Donald Trump appeared to dash any hope for peace efforts on Monday when he condemned the Taliban for the Kabul violence and rejected the idea of talks.

Trump last year ordered an increase in US troops, air raids and other assistance to Afghan forces, to force the Taliban to join peace talks.

But his comments on Monday suggested he saw a military victory over the Taliban, an outcome that US military and diplomatic officials said could not be achieved with the resources and manpower he had authorised.

US Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan said in Kabul on Tuesday the US strategy had not changed and the aim was still to press the Taliban militarily to convince them that they had to negotiate.

The Taliban want foreign troops to leave Afghanistan and re-establish their form of strict Islamic law.

Afghanistan has long accused neighbouring Pakistan of failing to act against Taliban plotting violence from safe havens on the Pakistani side of the border.

On Friday, Ghani accused Pakistan of being the Taliban centre and said he was waiting for Pakistani action.

Pakistan denies helping the Taliban and a Pakistani delegation led by Foreign Secretary Tehmina Janjua visited Kabul on Saturday with the aim of fostering cooperation. Janjua called for both sides to stop the blame game, Pakistani media reported.

The United States said last month it would cut security aid to Pakistan, complaining it was not doing enough to combat fighters sheltering there.Khalid bin Mohammad al-Attiyah says siege countries have tried everything from provoking tribes and replacing leader.

Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates had intentions to invade Qatar at the beginning of a diplomatic crisis that erupted in June, according to Qatars defence minister.

In an interview with the Washington Post on Friday, Khalid bin Mohammad al-Attiyah said his Gulf neighbours have tried everything to destabilise the country, but their intentions to invade were [defused] by Qatar.

They have intentions to intervene militarily, said al-Attiyah.

When asked to confirm whether he thought such a threat still existed today, he responded: We have [defused] this intention. But at the beginning of the crisis, they had this intention.

They tried to provoke the tribes. They used mosques against us. Then they tried to get some puppets to bring in and replace our leaders.

Khalid bin Mohammad al-Attiyah on the GCC crisis: Q: You have Turkish troops in your country. Were you actually afraid that Saudi Arabia or the UAE might invade? A: I wouldnt say afraid. They have intentions to intervene militarily. Q: Saudi and UAE? A: Yes, for sure. They have this intention. But our relations with Turkey go way back before the crisis. Q: But you seriously think the UAE and Saudi Arabia have intentions to invade? Today? A: We have [defused] this intention. But at the beginning of the crisis, they had this intention. They have tried everything. They tried to provoke the tribes. They used mosques against us. Then they tried to get some puppets to bring in and replace our leaders. Source: Washington Post

Al-Attiyah, who met US Defense Secretary James Mattis last week during a visit to Washington, DC, described the beginning of the crisis by the Saudi-led bloc as an ambush that was miscalculated.

In June 2017, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Egypt and Bahrain cut off diplomatic relations with Qatar and imposed a land, sea and air blockade after accusing it of supporting terrorism and extremism.

Qatar has strongly denied the allegations.

Al-Attiyah said Qatar is the only country that has signed a memorandum of understanding with the US to counter terrorism in the region  namely in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria.

He stressed the need for open dialogue as a means to end the ongoing crisis.

Asked about Dohas relations with Saudis rival, Iran, al-Attiyah noted that Qatar maintains friendly relations with everyone.

We are responsible for the supply of [an enormous amount] of the worlds energy. We have to have a smooth flow of energy, and that means we have to eliminate having enemies, he said, referring to the countrys shared oilfield with Iran.

According to al-Attiyah, the Saudi-led bloc had planned to replace Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani with a new leader.

They put their puppet, [Sheikh Abdullah bin Ali Al Thani, a relative of a former Qatari emir], on TV, he said of the failed attempt.

They cant do anything. The Qatari people love their emir.

On January 14, Sheikh Abdullah released a video statement, saying he was a prisoner in the UAE, and that if anything happened to him, Sheikh Mohammed is responsible.

While he did not specify, Abdullah appeared to be referring to Abu Dhabis Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan.

Days later, he was hospitalised in Kuwait. Later, reports emerged he threatened suicide.OHCHR demands release of Al Jazeera reporter and issues concern over Egypts pattern of arbitrary detention.

A UN body has ruled the detention of an Al Jazeera journalist held by Egyptian authorities for more than one year as arbitrary.

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) also demanded the immediate release of Mahmoud Hussein, an Egyptian native who worked for Al Jazeera Arabic.

The 55-year old was arrested in December 2016 after travelling from Doha, where he was based, to Cairo to visit his family.

OHCHR issued its report based on a petition submitted by the Washington, DC-based Robert F Kennedy Human Rights.

Husseins arbitrary detention is far from an isolated case; the Egyptian authorities tactic of using indefinite pre-trial detention to restrain those who dare to act independently is a cornerstone of its repression of the press, civil society, and protesters, said the rights group, in a statement posted to its website.

The [OHCHR] Working Groups decision in Husseins case is an important step in holding the Egyptian government accountable for these widespread human rights violations.

Credit to Mahmoud's family and Al Jazeera for all their support. We won't stop until he is free. #JournalismIsNotACrime https://t.co/nemxfkNPms  Wade McMullen (@wademc) February 2, 2018

Hussein was accused of incitement against state institutions and broadcasting false news with the aim of spreading chaos, allegations he, his lawyers and Al Jazeera strongly deny.

Hussein, who has been held in the notorious Tora maximum-security prison and suffers from physical and severe psychological duress, has not been officially charged.

The OHCHR report said that there is no legal basis in Egyptian law for Husseins continued pre-trial detention.

Furthermore, authorities have failed to produce a single piece of evidence that could justify any of the charges informally brought against him.

Elizabeth Witchel from the Committee to Protect Journalists, told Al Jazeera that while the UN process is good, constant pressure must be kept up.

We need bilateral pressure, she said. We need pressure from intergovernmental institutions and what were seeing around the world is the use of anti-state laws that are vaguely worded and used against journalists and critics.

Witchel went on to say that the year 2017 was a historical high in terms of the imprisonments of journalists that CPJ has documented around the world.

In that sense were seeing that it is an extremely precarious time to be a journalist, particularly if you are a local one, she added.

OHCHR has asked the Egyptian government to take the steps necessary to remedy the situation of Mr Hussein without delay and bring it into conformity with the standards and principles set forth in the international norms on detention, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

OHCHRs Working Group said that the appropriate remedy would be the immediate release of Hussein and provide him and his family compensation and other reparations.

Egypts pattern of arbitrary detention

The UN body has given the Egyptian government six months starting from the publication date of its report  January 15, 2018  to provide information regarding a number of issues, including compensation and an investigation into the violation of Husseins rights.

The Egyptian authorities responded to the OHCHRs first request back in August 2017 to provide details regarding Husseins situation at the time by saying that all detainees enjoyed rights and safeguards.

The authorities also said that it respects all the ratified international treaties, and ensured that the national legal framework was in accordance with those conventions and its provisions, specifically articles 6 and 9 of the Covenant.

OHCHR expressed its concern about the pattern of arbitrary detention, torture and enforced disappearance carried out by the Ministry of Interior Homeland Security Agency.

It also noted that Egypt ranks third in the world in terms of journalists arrested, with 24 journalists held in detention. Since 2011, 10 journalists have been killed, without proper investigations being conducted.

In 2013, Al Jazeera has been accused by Egypt of supporting the Muslim Brotherhood, which was banned by the government from operating in the country and branded as a terrorist organisation.Nicosia, Cyprus  Cypriots are voting on Sunday in the second round of a tight presidential election that might determine whether peace talks to end four decades of division on the ethnically split island will resume later this year.

Incumbent President Nicos Anastasiades, a conservative who came first on January 28 with 35.5 percent, will face Stavros Malas, an independent backed by the left-wing party AKEL who finished second with 30.2 percent.

The result of the first round was welcomed by Greek Cypriots keen to revive stalled reunification efforts and bridge the divide with the islands Turkish Cypriot community.

In the lead-up to the elections, both Anastasiades and Malas openly backed a solution to the Cyprus problem based on the principles of a bizonal, bicommunal federation between the islands two communities, in contrast to other candidates who took a harder line on negotiations.

Diplomatic efforts to unify the island in the eastern Mediterranean Sea have failed repeatedly since 1974, when Turkey invaded Cypruss north in response to an Athens-backed Greek Cypriot coup seeking union with Greece.

The latest round of peace talks was led by Anastasiades and Mustafa Akinci, the Turkish Cypriot leader, but broke down in acrimony in July 2017 after two years of negotiations. Both Anastasiades and Malas have vowed to seek the resumption of negotiations, if elected.

The runoff in the internationally recognised south also comes nearly a month after Turkish Cypriots in the north voted in parliamentary elections. On Friday, a new four-party coalition government was formed in the self-styled Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, which is not recognised by the international community. It has a functioning parliament and state institutions.

In advance of Sundays poll, Al Jazeera spoke to Turkish Cypriot analysts and activists to hear their views about the vote in the south and its potential effect on the long-running Cyprus problem. The interviews have been slightly edited for brevity and clarity.

[Courtesy Ahmet Sozen]

Ahmet Sozen  professor of political science and international relations at Eastern Mediterranean University (EMU)

The result of the first round was not a big surprise given the opinion polls of the past few months. The only small surprise was the increased support for Malas.

In that regard, the second round will be between two candidates who at least publicly declared that they are ready to restart the peace talks, though Anastasiades attached a caveat to it during the election campaign: that the Treaty of Guarantee and the intervention right of the Guarantors would be abolished, and that the foreign troops in Cyprus would be completely withdrawn in day one of an agreement. [More than 30,000 Turkish troops are currently stationed in the Turkish Cypriot region]

This is, of course, a nonstarter for the Turkish and Turkish Cypriot side. Yet, whether this was a strategy to win more nationalist votes, or an unchanging position, needs to be tested after the second ballot.

Compared to Anastasiades, Malas is expected to be more flexible on the Cyprus issue and more eager to return to negotiations with the Turkish Cypriot side without delay, if elected.

On the other side of the island, in the north, a four-party coalition government mostly representing pro-solution voters has been formed.

The coalition announced that it would let the president, Akinci, to conduct the peace negotiations without the government taking a position.

This is indeed much better for Akinci than having a completely right-wing government led by the National Unity Party (UBP), which is not an eager supporter of a federal solution to the Cyprus conflict.

However, one word of caution is needed before being too hopeful for the resumption of peace talks in the near future.

For the negotiations to restart under the aegis of the UN, the two Cypriot leaders  Akinci and one of Anastasiades and Malas  need to come together and agree on a roadmap and jointly invite the UN chief to extend his mission of good offices in the peace negotiations.

This is not an easy task. However, since the start of the intercommunal negotiations in 1968, no Greek Cypriot or Turkish Cypriot leader could afford to not take part in negotiations.

Hence, I do believe that after a preparation period following the elections, the peace talks will restart.

The key here is whether the two leaders, as well as the three Guarantors  Greece, Turkey and the UK  would sincerely walk the last extra mile towards a lasting peace in Cyprus.

[Courtesy Fatma Azgin]

Fatma Azgin  columnist, TV presenter, activist

The Cyprus problem has been going on since my childhood  and its still continuing.

I grew up in old Nicosia with Greek Cypriots as neighbours. They left the Turkish quarter in 1957 due to clashes. We [Cypruss communities] survived and the early years after 1960  following the founding of the Republic of Cyprus  were good. But in 1963, there was another bicommunal war. We were divided in half, and the 1974 operation officially split Cyprus in two parts.

All my life, gone with this separation.

I am one of the founders of Conflict Resolution, a bicommunal peace group set up in 1991. We started meeting with members of the Greek Cypriot community to learn about how to achieve peace and influence people on both sides to get together.

Things improved after Cyprus gained EU membership [in 2004] and the free movement of people across the line began. We are friends, so we visit and socialise. We are very interested in learning and sharing whats happening in each community, like in the elections.

In the previous vote, Anastasiades got elected after promising a solution. But during his time in office, he couldnt conclude the negotiations successfully.

Malas stresses the importance of peace and strongly supports a solution. In the first round, he went head-to-head with Anastasiades. But Anastasiades might now gain the support of the smaller right-wing parties by making deals with them and agreeing to their demands. He is also supported by the church, which increases his chances of getting elected.

On the Turkish Cypriot side, a four-party coalition government was established on Friday following the result of the January 7 election in Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. It is comprised of two social democratic, one liberal democratic and one right-wing party. This is more promising for a Cyprus agreement compared to the previous coalition government, led by the right-wing UBP.

Our country is still divided and since 1974 all peace talks have unfortunately failed. This is our sad story, especially for Turkish Cypriots because in the north we have many social and economic problems.

[Courtesy Yucel Vural]

Yucel Vural  professor of political science and international relations at EMU

The first round of the presidential election in the Republic of Cyprus seems to facilitate a smooth return of the Greek Cypriot side to the negotiating table.

The results demonstrated that the Greek Cypriot electorate rejected the policy of uncertainty of [third-placed Nicolas] Papadopoulos and the anti-federalist, ultranationalist programme of [far-right party] ELAM.

This is also how most Turkish Cypriots read the election results.

Anastasiades and Malas sent clear messages that they will be ready to continue working to achieve a federal solution, with both not hesitating to announce publicly that they are ready to start intercommunal negotiations based on a UN framework.

But despite presenting themselves as candidates backing a federal solution, there is still a meaningful difference between the two.

Malas is supported by AKEL, a party which has the ideological capacity to understand and accept the political and institutional requirements of a federal solution in Cyprus.

Anastasiades, on the other hand, is backed by a party [right-wing Democratic Rally] which has attempted to transform its ideological and political stance on the Cyprus dispute from a conservative/ethnocentric outlook to a more inclusive and liberal perspective. Its conservative/ethnocentric past constitutes a handicap in intercommunal negotiations.

However, both candidates are aware of the fact that they should distance themselves from any action which postpones the resolution of the dispute.

In this sense, Sundays vote should be a message to the Turkish Cypriot leader and Turkey that returning to the negotiating table is the most rational reaction to the Greek Cypriot side.Police arrest man wearing Italian flag around his neck after he is believed have open fired on African migrants.

A gunman has injured six African migrants in the Italian city of Macerata in a series of drive-by shootings that appear to have been racially motivated.

The shooting took place on Saturday morning in the central Italian city. Italian state police said that at least one person was in serious condition.

A 28-year-old white Italian man, identified by police as Luca Traini, was arrested on suspicion of being involved in the shootings. A video posted on local media shows the suspect wearing an Italian flag around his neck at the time of his arrest.

Luca Traini was arrested by Italian Carabinieri after shooting six African migrants in Macerata, Italy [EPA]

Italian news agency Ansa reported Traini made a fascist salute when he was arrested.

The shootings started around 11am local time (10:00 GMT). Shots were fired at various locations in the city, including close to the train station.

Italian police told people to take shelter indoors on Twitter.

Anti-immigrant sentiment

The shootings took place days after the dismembered body of an 18-year-old Italian woman was found in two suitcases near Macerata. A Nigerian man has been arrested in connection with the womans death.

Italy will vote in a general election on March 4. Observers have warned that anti-migration rhetoric in the country has been mainstreamed.

The expectations are now for [anti-migrant sentiments] to become a big issue, Italian journalist Lorenzo Luzi told Al Jazeera from Ancona.

The timing is so close [to the general elections] that it will become political sooner rather than later.

Italian media reported that Traini ran as a candidate in local elections in Corridonia last year with the far-right Lega party.

Matteo Salvini, Legas leader, condemned Saturdays shootings. He added that out-of-control immigration leads to social conflict.

The leader of Italys Democratic Party PD, Matteo Renzi, called for calm in a Facebook post.

Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni said that hatred and violence will not be able to divide us.The Vatican is sending Maltese Bishop Charles Scicluna, the Catholic Church's most respected expert on sex crimes, to "listen to those who have expressed the desire to provide elements" regarding Barrio's case.

The Vatican and China are reportedly on the verge of signing an agreement on the appointment of bishops, a move that could pave the way for an historic restoration of diplomatic relations between them.

The Pope will lift the excommunications of the seven bishops and recognize them as the leaders of their dioceses, according to the person familiar with the situation.

The news agency Reuters and The Wall Street Journal both reported February 1 that the deal would involve two bishops recognized by the Holy See stepping aside to make way for two bishops chosen by the government-controlled Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association; the new bishops would have to recognize the authority of the pope and ask forgiveness for having accepted ordination without papal approval.

However, the Catholic Church in China is run by the state, in the form of the Catholic Patriotic Association, which does not recognize the Pope as its supreme authority, but instead, the atheist Communist Party itself. For that, he was subsequently rebuked by Greg Burke, the press office director of the Vatican.

The importance of uniting Chinese Catholics was explained by now-retired Pope Benedict XVI in his 2007 letter to Catholics in China.

In his post criticizing Vatican diplomacy on Tuesday, Zen wrote: "So, do I think that the Vatican is selling out the Catholic Church in China?"

The Vatican hit back with a strong denial and in an interview with La Stampa, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Pope's number two who is playing a crucial role in the China negotiations, said that "no personal point of view can be considered as an exclusive interpreter of what is good for Chinese Catholics".

In his Facebook post, he warned that by uniting the two churches, the Vatican would be strengthening a "schismatic church" and that there was no mutual gain when negotiating with a "totalitarian regime". New regulations that came into effect on Thursday requiring religious institutions receive government approval for teaching plans, overseas pilgrimages and other activities.

The Catholic Church may also feel under pressure from the rapid growth of Protestant Churches in China, experts said.

President Xi Jinping, he said, "has repeatedly made it very clear that the party would not loosen any control over religions, so there is no way a deal on paper can improve religious freedom for the Church". The Vatican is now one of only 20 states that recognize the government in Taipei.

In 2015, Pope Francis accepted Cardinal O'Brien's decision to renounce all "duties and privileges" associated with being a cardinal, and the Catholic Church in Scotland announced he would "be reduced to a strictly private life with no further participation in any public, religious or civil events".

While the statement did not mention the Hong Kong bishop's name, official Vatican sources said it was prompted by the issue over the ties with Beijing, Reuters reported.North Korea has been selling weapons to the governments of Syria and Myanmar, and has been exporting banned materials such as coal, iron, and steel, a United Nations report has found.

According to the report released on Friday, Pyongyang has been assisting Syrian President Bashar al-Assads government in developing its nuclear weapons programme, and has provided Myanmars army with ballistic missiles.

North Korea continued to export almost all the commodities prohibited in the resolutions, generating nearly $200m in revenue between January and September 2017, the report read, according to the AFP news agency which has seen a copy.

Coal shipments were delivered to China, Malaysia, South Korea, Russia and Vietnam by ships using a combination of multiple evasion techniques, routes and deceptive tactics, the report added.

Last year, the UN Security Council adopted a series of resolutions aimed at restricting exports, with the objective of cutting off revenue to North Koreas military programme.

The United States has pushed for tough sanctions against North Korea in response to its missile tests, and together with the UNSC vowed to prevent Pyongyang from furthering its nuclear programme.

According to the report and the UN panel of experts, seven ships have been prevented from entering ports worldwide for violating UN sanctions with coal and petroleum transfers.

They said that much more needed to be done to challenge such these rampant illicit activities.

North Korea is already flouting the most recent resolutions by exploiting global oil supply chains, complicit foreign nationals, offshore company registries, and the international banking system, the panel noted.

Countries accused of crimes against humanity

Syria and Myanmar have previously been accused of carrying out acts that amount to crimes against humanity.

The report comes as the United States is investigating reports of chlorine gas being used against civilians in Syrias besieged Eastern Ghouta.

The North Korean company cooperating with the two governments  KOMID  is on a UN sanctions blacklist, according to the report.





The panel revealed that more than 40 unreported shipments from North Korea between 2012 and 2017 went to front companies for Syrias Scientific Studies Research Council, a key institute for Syrias chemical programme.

The investigations also reveal substantial new evidence concerning Pyongyangs military cooperation with Damascus, including at least three visits by North Korean technicians to Syria in 2016, involving the transfer of special resistance valves and thermometers known for use in chemical weapons programmes.

According to a member state that remained unidentified in the report, North Korean technicians continue to operate at chemical weapons and missile facilities at Barzei, Adra and Hama.

Syria denied the presence of North Korean technicians in its territory, claiming that the only experts it was hosting from the country were involved in sport.

A member state, which also remained unnamed, notified the panel that Myanmar had received ballistic missile systems from [North Korea] in addition to a range of conventional weapons, including multiple rocket launches and surface-to-air missiles.

North Korean diplomats in trade particularly continue to provide logistical support for arms sales and help organise exchanges for military technicians.

While sanctions have been significantly widened, this expansion of the regime is yet to be matched by the requisite political will to implement the measures, the experts said.

The panel added that this year offered a critical window of opportunity before a potential miscalculation with disastrous implications for international peace and security.Sultan Alauddin Khilji depicted as arrogant, cruel, inhumane, devious with all kinds of trickery, says Ministry.

Malaysia has banned a controversial Bollywood film, citing its negative portrayal of a Muslim ruler.

The release of Padmaavat has already caused mayhem in India.

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The 14th century period drama focuses on the tale of Muslim King Alauddin Khilji, Rajput ruler Ratan Singh, and Hindu queen Padmavati.

Hindu groups in India alleged the film distorts history by depicting Rajput queen Padmini  the protagonist of the film  in a poor light.

Protesters in the South Asian country took to the streets to demand the movie was not screened there, but eventually lost their bid after the Supreme Court rejected a bid to ban the film.

In an unexpected twist, Malaysias Ministry of Home Affairs on Friday said the film would not be screened in nationwide cinemas, rejecting the way in which Alauddin Khilji was depicted.

He is portrayed as a sultan who is arrogant, cruel, inhumane, devious with all kinds of trickery, unreliable and who does not fully practise Islamic teachings, the ministry said in a statement, according to The Straits Times.

Malaysias Film Censorship Board ruled that the movie was not approved for screening.

A trailer for Padmaavat shows the Muslim sultan as a man with an aggressive expression, his face dirtied by blood and mud.

Bollywood films are popular in Malaysia. Ethnic Indians comprise 7 percent of Malaysia, a majority Muslim country of 32 million people.

The censorship board has previously banned films with religious themes, such as the 2014 biblical drama Noah, and movies with sexual content, such as Fifty Shades of Grey in 2015.Afghans deported and returned from Europe tell Al Jazeera how they are caught in the crossfire amid rising attacks.

Nasir, a 26-year-old shopkeeper from the northern Kunduz province, left as a refugee for Europe in July 2015  the year his father, a local police officer, was killed by unknown assailants.

Last month, having returned to Afghanistan after being deported from Finland, he was injured in a Taliban-claimed massacre in Kabul that killed more than 100 people.

As he recovered in a hospital bed, with fractured legs and ribs, Nasir remembered the tough decisions he had to make following his fathers death.

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In assaults across the country, the security apparatus, including local policemen, is often targeted.

Along with his mother and two brothers, the family used to spend every moment in a state of constant fear.

My mother asked us to leave. She knew after my fathers death, we were in danger, said Nasir, using a pseudonym to protect his safety.

It was a big decision to make. Leaving everything behind in Afghanistan, even my mother, was too difficult.

Shortly after his fathers death, his brother was also attacked by a group of unknown men. It was then that Nasir decided to flee Afghanistan.

But fewer than three years later, he was back on Afghan soil.

He claims immigration officials in Finland pressured him to sign some forms, which he did not fully understand, essentially authorising his deportation.

In recent months, European countries have tightened borders and asylum policies, resulting in large groups of refugees being pushed back to Afghanistan  a volatile country where civilian casualties are at record levels.

About nine months have passed since I returned from Finland to Kabul, where I work as a shopkeeper, Nasir told Al Jazeera. Only my mother and my uncles family know that I was deported. No one else, as my life is still in danger.

Recalling his brief time in Finland, Nasir said he felt unwanted but knew he was safer than in Afghanistan.

I remember once I wanted to buy something from a supermarket, and even though I had money to pay the shopkeeper, he refused to sell it to me.

That bothered me a bit, but at least my life was safe there, so I let it go.

According to Eurostat, the EUs statistical office, as of September 2017, Afghans accounted for the largest group of asylum seekers to the bloc, with 170,045 applications pending approval.

Ineligible applicants are sent back to their home country or a safe third country, which is expected to provide sufficient protection.

In 2015, 33 percent of first-instance applications by Afghan asylum seekers were rejected, according to Eurostat.

By the first three quarters of 2017, more than half of first-instance applications  or 52 percent  were rejected.

Nasir said living in Afghanistan means facing death every day.

We dont want to die. There is no protection

Hayat Hooman, a member of the persecuted Hazara minority, was sent back to Afghanistan from Sweden in 2016.

As a voluntary returnee from Europe, facilitated by the International Organization for Migration (IOM), he was promised financial assistance and reintegration resources.

But in July 2016, those incentives meant little when his friend was killed and he was wounded in an ISIL attack in Kabul on a peaceful protest by the Hazara minority that killed at least 80 people.

Hooman smiles to the camera a few minutes before ISIL attacked the peaceful Hazara protest in 2016 [Courtesy: Hayat Hooman]

I thought, if I get the money I will be able to start off something in Kabul that will help my family financially, Hooman said. I felt my family needed me back in Afghanistan. They are very poor and I had to return back to earn something for them.

But the situation in Afghanistan is getting so bad every day, that I might go back and apply for asylum again with my family.

We dont want to die. There is no protection.

Hooman pictured at the grave of his friend, who was killed by ISIL at a protest by Hazaras [Courtesy: Hayat Hooman]

Bloodshed continues

The UN documented more than 16,290 security-related incidents in the first eight months of 2017.

In June 2017, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the situation in Afghanistan was intensively volatile.

Between January 1 and June 30, 2017, UNAMA reported 5,243 civilian casualties including 1,662 deaths and 3,581 injured.

Despite the very obvious risk to citizens safety, nine European countries  Germany, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Austria, the Netherlands, Belgium and France  are deporting or have decided to deport failed Afghan asylum seekers via the Joint Way Forward agreement between the EU and Afghanistan.





The 2016 agreement facilitates the return of thousands of Afghans. In return, the bloc promised to continue its aid package to Afghanistan.

European politicians and officials regularly describe some areas of Afghanistan as safe.

But recent events have demonstrated that the security situation in Afghanistan is far from safe.

On January 21, the Taliban orchestrated a bloody siege at Kabuls Intercontinental Hotel that left at least 20 dead.

On January 24, Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) fighters killed three people at the office of Save the Children, in the eastern city of Jalalabad.

A week later, more than 100 people lost their lives and 235  including Nasir  were injured in the Taliban suicide attack in the heart of the capital.

In a November 2017 survey of Afghan returnees from Europe by REACH, which researches humanitarian issues, most respondents said they would make another attempt at returning to Europe.

Nasir is among those who are willing to take the risk again, he said, if he is able to fund the expensive journey.

I know it will be difficult to get asylum, but I cannot live in fear every second in this country, he said. How is Afghanistan safe for me? I need to know if I am not safe in Kabul, where else would I be?

Follow Shereena Qazi on Twitter: @ShereenaQaziThe downing of the aircraft has been claimed by Tahrir al-Sham, a group spearheaded by the former al-Nusra Front.

Syrian rebels have shot down a Russian warplane in north-western Idlib province on Saturday, the Russian defence ministry has confirmed.

The pilot of the aircraft, a Sukhoi 25, reportedly used his ejection seat after his plane was hit by a man-carried portable air defence missile.

He was later killed when rebels tried to capture him.

The pilot managed to report the ejection in the area controlled by the militants of Jabhat al-Nusra, but later he died fighting the terrorists, a statement by the Russian ministry of defence said.

The downing of the aircraft has been claimed by Hayet Tahrir al-Sham, commonly known as Tahrir al-Sham. The group is spearheaded by the former al-Nusra Front, which used to be al-Qaedas branch in Syria.

A video circulating on social media shows a dead body of what is purportedly the pilot of the downed plane.

Other videos show fires raging while rebels guard the planes crash site.

:      ..           25    3-2-2018  : https://t.co/Eqv8SdCLlL

 :   pic.twitter.com/nfYl8ONJmX    Hadi (@HadiAlabdallah) February 3, 2018

Shortly after Russian authorities put out this statement, warplanes conducted more air raids on the area where the plane was shot down.

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According to the ministry, at least 30 people were killed in those bombardments, press agency TASS reported.

The Russian plane was shot down above Idlib province, which is one of the so-called de-escalation zones set up in Syria last September in an effort to scale back the conflict.

However, bombardments from Syrian government forces and their Russian allies have continued.

Hospitals, markets and bakeries across Idlib province, believed to be the largest remaining rebel-held area in Syria, have been hit by government air raids.

Tens of thousands of civilians have fled the area, which is home to more than two million people, most of them internally displaced.FSA says it will investigate accusations its fighters mutilated the body of a female Kurdish fighter and filmed it.

The Free Syrian Army (FSA) has said that it will investigate allegations that its fighters mutilated the corpse of a female member of the YPG.

Barin Kobani is believed to have been a member of the all-female Kurdish Womens Protection Units (YPJ).

Videos seen by Al Jazeera appear to show FSA fighters standing over her body in a village near the Turkish border.

Kurdish news outlet Rudaw said that the video showed the womans clothes had been partially removed, and parts of her body mutilated.

Rudaw said they could not independently verify the video.

Online, the Kurdish community shared photos of Kobani and expressed their outrage over her murder.

The Free Syrian Army has been fighting alongside Turkish troops in an operation against the Syrian Kurdish armed group YPG in the Syrian enclave of Afrin.

On Friday, at least two people were reportedly killed and 19 injured in attacks on Turkish towns near the border with Syria.

Turkey said the rockets were fired from a Kurdish enclave inside Syria. There have been more than two weeks of intense fighting in the area. Turkey considers the YPG a terrorist group.Hundreds of Golden Dawn members rallied in Athens in advance of a demonstration against negotiations with Macedonia.

Athens, Greece  Greek flags flew above the crowd of hundreds of far-right demonstrators in the Greek capital as the neo-fascist Golden Dawn party rallied amid fears of violence at an upcoming protest against negotiations between Athens and Skopje over a long-standing name dispute.

Golden Dawn, which has 16 seats in the Hellenic Parliament, called the rally to remember the 1996 Imia crisis, in which three Greek military officers were killed by Turkish forces while patrolling a disputed island.

The crisis brought the two nations to the brink of war, but the main focus of Saturdays rally appeared to be the ongoing negotiations with Greeces northern neighbour, the Republic of Macedonia.

On Sunday, hundreds of thousands of people are expected to flood the streets of Athens to demonstrate against those talks.

Tomorrow there are no parties, there are only Greece and Macedonia, bellowed Golden Dawn leader Nikolaos Michaloliakos.

Its only Greece and Macedonia  to overthrow the anti-Greek government to stop their anti-Greek plans from passing.

Michaloliakos railed against the government, which is currently led by the left-wing Syriza party, for participating in negotiations. He accused Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras of national betrayal.

Greece is not only the sellout politicians  there are also people like us, the partys leader added, prompting the crowd to yell: Punks, traitors, politicians.

Golden Dawn leader Nikolaos Michaloliakos accused the government of national betrayal [Nick Paleologos/SOOC/Al Jazeera]

Anger was palpable as the crowd sang the national anthem and chanted a host of slogans. Anarchists and Bolsheviks, this land doesnt belong to you, they sang out in unison.

{articleGUID}

Blood, honour, Golden Dawn, they screamed, raising burning torches to the sky.

Ilias Kasidiaris, a Golden Dawn legislator in the Greek parliament who was convicted of hate speech last September, also addressed the demonstrators.

If we save Macedonia, we will be saved, Kasidiaris declared as his supporters screamed: Homeland, pride, Golden Dawn.

Paramilitaries

The leadup to Sundays protest has sparked concern in the Greek government. Some 1,500 buses are expected to bring demonstrators from places across the country, according to the local daily Ekathimerini.

When Greeces northern neighbour declared independence in 1991 after breaking away from the war-gripped remains of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Athens and Skopje were at odds over the use of the term Macedonia in its name.

Greece alleges irredentist claims that are indicative of a larger scheme to encroach on territory in the countrys north, while Skopje rejects its neighbours claim to hold an exclusive right to the term Macedonia.

The country was eventually admitted into the UN under the interim name the of FYROM.

The dispute has caused Skopjes delays in Macedonias accession to the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO).

Nationalists in both countries have rallied around the dispute to broaden their bases.

On January 21, an estimated 300,000 people assembled in the northern city of Thessaloniki to voice their opposition to the ongoing UN-brokered negotiations between Greece and its northern neighbour.

By the end of the day, far-right demonstrators set ablaze a building squatted by anarchists and vandalised a Holocaust monument, leaving pro-Golden Dawn graffiti tagged on it.

Demonstrators chanted blood, honour, Golden Dawn in Athens [Nick Paleologos/SOOC/Al Jazeera]

While organisers of Sundays rally have denied any affiliation to political parties, critics accuse them of pushing a nativist and far-right agenda.

If you have the Golden Dawn in your midst, and what you argue is pretty much the same as what they argue, there is a cause for concern, Seraphim Seferiades, a politics professor at the Athens-based Panteion University, told Al Jazeera.

There is no way to call a rally against these negotiations and not be on the far right.

Police were deployed in large numbers throughout Athens on Saturday night, while upwards of 1,500 anti-fascists held a counterdemonstration against the Golden Dawn rally.

Earlier on Saturday, local media outlets reported that paramilitaries groups had formed to participate in Sundays demonstration, sparking fears of potential attacks on squats that provide residence to refugees and anarchists.

On Thursday, Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias received a death threat that said there were three bullets reserved for, ostensibly in relation to his lead role in the negotiations between Greece and Macedonia.

{articleGUID}

In a statement published that same day, Keerfa, an Athens-based anti-fascist group, called for a broader movement against the surge in far-right demonstrations.

We will continue our campaign against chauvinism and nationalist hysteria to build a mass anti-war movement of united workers against the bosses and NATO in the Balkans, the statement read.

The nationalistic hysteria of recent days and the organisation of rallies is a greenhouse for the Golden Dawn neo-Nazis.

The rising tensions come on the heels of an uptick in anti-immigrant violence that saw the homes of more than 30 Pakistani migrant labourers targeted in attacks between December 25 and January 5, according to Keerfas statistics.Dr Marc Lamont Hill is an award-winning journalist and author and is the Steve Charles Professor of Media, Cities, and Solutions at Temple University. Hill is known for his work addressing the intersections of race, justice, politics and culture. His latest best-selling book is We Still Here: Pandemics, Policing, Protest and Possibility which follows on the success of Nobody: Casualties of Americas War on the Vulnerable from Flint to Ferguson. Hill has received numerous prestigious awards from the US National Association of Black Journalists, GLAAD, and the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences.Opined a trio of reporters from CNN, presumably with a straight face, The episode is the latest to come to light portraying a President whose inquiries sometimes cross a line that presidents traditionally have tried to avoid when dealing with the Justice Department, for which a measure of independence is key.

One of the faux scandals to have emerged in this crazy past week was the revelation that in December, President Trump allegedly asked his deputy attorney general, Rod Rosenstein, Are you on my team?

Obama White House speechwriter Ben Rhodes was not directly referencing these reporters when he told the New York Times, The average reporter we talk to is 27 years old They literally know nothing, but he might as well have been.

Reporters under 45 or so have no real idea what happened in the Clinton White House. Those over 45 dont really know either but, unlike their younger colleagues, they have no excuse for not knowing.

For the record, the Clinton White House ran an openly political Department of Justice (DoJ). Obamas DoJ was equally as political. It is just that Obama was a little more discreet.

The Clintons, like The Great Gatsbys Tom and Daisy Buchanan, were careless people. They smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together and let other people clean up the mess they had made.

The clean-up people rarely got the top jobs in the Clinton cabinet. Those jobs attracted too much attention. They got the number two spots or, in Webster Hubbells case at the Department of Justice, the number three spot.

Unfortunately, Hubbell had messes of his own, and no one to clean up after him. A year into his tenure as associate attorney general, the Clintons pal was forced out for sundry corruptions back at his and Hillarys law firm in Little Rock. For the Clintons, this was just as well. The ungainly Hubbell would not have been up to the major messes the Clintons would soon have to clean up.

From the moment Hillary Clinton staked out Justice as her personal fiefdom, the department had been in chaos. Nanny issues sidelined the first two attorney general candidates as well as the first would-be deputy AG.

Insisting that a woman -- any woman -- head the department, Hillary finally settled on the feckless Miami prosecutor Janet Reno. For the next eight years the Clintons would have to work around her. They did not fully trust Reno to be on their team.

Needing someone to work through, the Clintons finally found a fixer worthy of the number two position, a little-known D.C. litigator named Jamie Gorelick. With Gorelicks appointment as deputy attorney general in February 1994, Hillary had three women occupying the most powerful posts in federal law enforcement, criminal division head Jo Ann Harris being the third.

Gorelick proved to be a much more capable and subtle problem solver than the blundering Hubbell. In June 1996, Newsweeks Mark Hosenball took note of Gorelicks insider role. In a rare glimpse at the political workings of the feminized DoJ, Hosenball observed that Gorelick had set up a campaign-like war room to combat alleged smears from the Bob Dole campaign. Wrote Hosenball without a hint of disapproval, In a campaign year, Justice cant afford to be totally blind. Truer words never came out of Newsweek.

In that stormy campaign year, Justice was very nearly omniscient. A month after the Hosenball revelation, still in war room mode, Gorelick directed the FBI to take over the investigation into the destruction of TWA Flight 800 off the coast of Long Island.

Heading up Justices operation on the ground in Long Island was United States Attorney Valerie Caproni. As attorneys and officers of the court, Gorelick and Caproni knew the FBI was subordinate to the National Transportation Safety Board. The NTSB could not legally be restricted in its pursuit of information. Gorelick and Caproni simply ignored the law. The FBI seized the investigation from the NTSB. The FBI reported to Justice. The NTSB did not.

While Reno contented herself with policy issues, Gorelick ran the DoJ. The media acknowledged as much, but they missed Gorelicks crucial role in the TWA 800 investigation. In her book Deadly Departure, CNNs Christine Negroni never once mentioned her.

Only with the release of a book by the APs Pat Milton three years after the crash, In the Blink of an Eye, did Gorelicks name surface in any meaningful way. Milton identified Gorelick as the most serious player at an August 22, 1996, meeting in the attorney generals office. This meeting reversed the momentum of the investigation.

What followed in the next several weeks was the most ambitious and successful cover-up in American peacetime history. At its quiet center was Gorelick. With the help of a complicit media, she and her cronies transformed a transparent missile strike into a mechanical failure of unknown origin.

Given her role, the months after the crash had to have been emotionally harrowing. She did not know whether she would wake up one morning to find Washington Post reporters at her door eager to make her their John Mitchell or H. R. Haldeman.

Perhaps such anxiety may have inspired her to leave the DOJ in January 1997. If so, the media missed the story. In an article on her departure, the New York Times failed to explain why the hard-driving, efficient deputy was stepping down or what she intended to do next. Nor did the paper mention her role in the TWA 800 investigation.

There was nothing routine about Gorelicks next career move. In May 1997, the Clintons found a way to reward their trusted team player for her steely performance. Not one reporter even questioned why a middling bureaucrat with no financial or housing experience would be handed the vice-chairmanship of Fannie Mae, a sinecure the Washington Monthly aptly called the equivalent of winning the lottery.

One does not have to be a conspiracy theorist to suspect that Clinton had something to do with Gorelicks appointment. Gorelick would make $877,573 in that first half-year alone, more than $25 million during her six-year tenure at Fannie Mae.

Taking her place as Deputy AG was none other than Eric Holder. Holder quietly did the Clintons dirty work, but one of his last assignments blew up in everyones face. Holder was responsible for orchestrating President Clintons pardon of fugitive billionaire Marc Rich.

So deep was Holder in the muck of Pardongate that even the New York Times called it a notable blemish on his career. In its occasional nod to fairness, the Times allowed Representative Lamar Smith of Texas, then the ranking Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, to point out the obvious.

Marc Rich was a fugitive for nearly two decades, wanted by the federal government for fraud and tax evasion, said Smith. If a Republican official had engaged in this kind of activity, he would never receive Senate confirmation.

In 2009, Holder did receive confirmation as Barack Obamas attorney general. In 2013, he was asked by the press if he had any plans for retirement. Said Holder for the ages, "Im still enjoying what Im doing. Theres still work to be done. Im still the Presidents wingman. So Im there with my boy.

Ah, yes, in the Obama White House, as in Clintons, a measure of independence was key. It is just that the DoJs independence was measured by the thimbleful.Other Secrets of the FBI

During these last few days, the Federal Bureau of Investigation has been the center of attention as perhaps never before. As this is being written, a memo may be released pertaining to the FBI that may prove to be the most scandalous of all time. This article seeks not to reveal classified or formerly classified material, but to impart a better understanding of recent events relating to the FBI. Some of the topics covered are secrets in the sense that many people who should know better have fixed ideas that are wrong about the FBI. Other topics are simply not known to the general public. In both cases a better understanding of these topics will allow for a better and more-informed general discussion concerning all matters pertaining to that institution.

First, many well-known pundits, including the former Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich, and (very recently) Sebastian Gorka (@ 5:03), former deputy assistant to President Trump, have claimed that the FBI failed to place former Secretary of Defense Hillary Clinton under oath when they interviewed her, the idea being that because of this she is not subject to prosecution in the same way former National Security Advisor General Michael Flynn was. This is simply incorrect. It is a crime to make even an unsworn false statement to the FBI under 18 USC 1001, the False Statement Act. Oaths are not necessary under this act. Moreover, oaths are not administered by FBI agents. It is doubtful that they even could be. Thus, Mrs. Clinton remains liable under the False Statement Act for any false statements made to the FBI -- and not only to the FBI, inasmuch as the statute actually covers statements made to other agencies as well. For instance, Mrs. Clinton stated to the Inspector General of the State Department that she turned all her government emails over to the Department of State. Yet the FBI found she did not turn over 17,000 of them. That is not to say that there is not something bizarre at the very least regarding General Flynn's being prosecuted for violation of the False Statements Act while Mrs. Clinton is not. After all, the underlying activity of Flynn was not only legal, but it was what he should have been doing as the incoming National Security Advisor: he was in contact with a Russian ambassador in order to support U.S. policy -- Obama's policy. Whereas the underlying activity of Mrs. Clinton was 1) her felonious failure to comply with the Federal Records Act, 2) thwart Freedom of Information Act inquiries, and 3) to be at the least grossly negligent regarding the handling of classified material in her possession, also a felony under the Espionage Act. Given recent revelations, this disparity is troubling at best, and at worst -- and it probably is the latter -- is, given recent revelations, evidence of extreme bias if not corruption. (As a former law professor and dean I cannot resist adding that I completely agree with Stephen R. Morrison of UND law school that the False Statements Act "relies only on prosecutorial forbearance and discretion to prevent its abuse." (p. 111) Moreover, in order to prevent abuse, the Act's purpose should be narrowly construed (and not widely as it was with Flynn). As Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has stated, the Act really was designed to protect agencies of the United States government from becoming "victim[s] of some positive statement which has the tendency and effect of perverting normal and proper governmental activities and functions." (Brogan v. U.S., 522 U.S. 398 at 400). Such an interpretation would have protected Flynn but would still have reached Mrs. Clinton.) Time to move on to the next "secret." This one facilitated the faking of an espionage investigation. The FBI is a topsy-turvy organization. It may be hard to believe, but the shots are called by the people who would appear to be at the bottom of the organizational chart. That is, cases are assigned to regular, field office, agents: it is the case agent, not some "boss," who decides how to conduct the investigation. This involves the steps taken, the investigative techniques used, and their timing. Thus, investigations are not "driven" from the top down. Supervisors do have legitimate functions, of course. Primary among them is to assure the investigative techniques used are appropriate, lawful, and authorized. Certain techniques or even simple interviews in some circumstances require approval of officials "higher up" the organizational structure. There is nothing wrong with this: the more sensitive an investigatory technique, the more a dutiful agent would want to have the proposal reviewed. Therefore, one can say that the investigation of cases in the FBI is decentralized. The FBI is further decentralized because its local offices, called field offices, are all administered as separate units. This is where the case agent is permanently assigned and out of which investigations are conducted. All of this militates towards an apolitical, unbiased, disposition. The typical FBI field office agent cares little about his "higher ups" at FBIHQ. Such agents have dedicated their careers toward being "witnesses to the truth," and the field office agent knows that those at FBIHQ are not better agents than he is. Indeed, they typically have less experience, since they opted for management at some point in their careers while the case agent remained an active investigator. Another thing to bear in mind is that FBI agents are both competitive and attuned to their surroundings. Any attempt to interfere, in a biased or corrupt way, with an investigation at a field office would be difficult to do quietly. But if the FBI's field offices are apolitical, its headquarters is the exact opposite. Indeed, FBIHQ can be described as being nothing but political. It has been since day one. Even back in 1993 FBIHQ was described as being extremely attuned to the political winds -- although in that context it was largely legitimate -- to obtain additional funding, to respond to legitimate criticism. (There is a difference between being politically attuned versus being biased.) It is clear then, that the field office is where cases are investigated, not at FBIHQ; further, investigations are not top-driven. It is also clear that field offices are largely apolitical whereas FBIHQ is exactly the opposite by nature. This dichotomy of function has made it difficult for political bias to impose itself. To put it more strongly, this framework makes it quite difficult for any group -- or cabal -- to corrupt an FBI investigation. It therefore remains quite striking, as some have sought to deny, that the Mrs. Clinton servergate espionage investigation was conducted directly from FBIHQ and therefore outside of the aforesaid usual and normal framework. Now, from time to time, some investigations have been so conducted. It may make some sense to have an investigation conducted from FBIHQ; for instance, when an investigation stretches across several field offices (the crash of TWA Flight 800) or if it involves an occurrence outside of the United States (the U.S.S. Cole bombing in Yemen). But these two investigations -- concerning the Cole and TWA 800 -- were complex investigations. Yet there was nothing complex per se about the Clinton servergate-espionage investigation. It was such an open-shut affair that even given the massaged and extremely fake FBIHQ-run investigation there was such overwhelming evidence of guilt that Comey had to resort to the most fervid tergiversations in order to evade recommending indictment. Therefore it is not quite correct to say, "The Mrs. Clinton espionage investigation was fake because it was conducted out of FBIHQ." It is, however, not at all incorrect to say, "Because the Mrs. Clinton espionage investigation was conducted out of FBIHQ, it was easier to politicize it, to massage it, and indeed to corrupt it." The next and last topic involves the investigation of the Trump campaign and administration by a special counsel foisted upon us by that hapless Rod Rosenstein. Most people do not realize that the FBI's most important function is that of counterintelligence. It is the FBI and not some other agency which must counter -- must fight -- the professional intelligence services of other nations operating in and against the United States. Theoretically, there are two ways to go about doing this. One is to investigate every American. After all, the foreign intelligence officers need to obtain the nation's secrets or subvert its processes, and it can't do that without the help, witting or unwitting, of Americans. But that approach would be, to say the least, un-American. The other approach is to watch the foreign intelligence officers. The usual rules do not apply in the spooky world. Foreign intelligence officers need not be suspected of a crime to be investigated. Their phones can be "tapped," as it were, pursuant to orders not from a regular court, but from the FISA court. Any activities they engage in to influence anything at all would be monitored and even countered. Most Americans, one would think, understand, in some inchoate manner, that it is always possible that some foreign spook has or may try to harm America. They are not against the idea that this be looked at. This attitude is not incorrect. And indeed the Special Counsel's unpredicated investigation is maintained by this attitude. It holds on to its last shreds of legitimacy only by means of it. Yet it rests upon a perversion of the usual FBI counterintelligence mandate. We as a people do not investigate each other just on the odd chance that someone somewhere is guilty of something. That would be a witch hunt. The author is a former FBI agent, awarded the National Intelligence Medal of Achievement (NIMA).Paraphrasing Cato: The Democratic Party Must Be Destroyed

Prior to the Third Punic War against Carthage in the 2nd Century BC, Cato the Elder was said to have ended all his speeches in the Roman senate by saying, "Carthage must be destroyed." Notice, Cato did not say 'defeated' but 'destroyed.' What do you suppose motivated this distinguish statesman to take such an extreme position? It was that in the Second Punic War (218 to 201 BC), Rome came close to losing to the Carthaginians. In that war, Rome suffered a number of severe battlefield defeats at the hands of Hannibal's army, most notable being the Battle of Cannae, the worse Roman defeat in history. To Cato, Carthage, although defeated in the Second Punic War, was still a threat to the Republic of Rome. Let's move ahead in time. Today we see the depravity and anti-Americanism that is prevalent in today's Democratic Party is literally putting our constitutional republic at risk. Do you think that's an exaggeration? Let's take a look.

On social issues, the Democrats are the leading force of moral decay in America. They are the champion of such perverse things as unrestricted abortion, homosexual marriage, transgenderism, racial strife, and a God-hating form of radical secularism. They corrupt every institution in the U.S. with these 'novel' concepts from our schools to the military and everything in between. The one thing these initiatives all have in common is that they rot out the foundation of the Republic and undermine the family. When it comes to economic matters, Democratic policies suffocate growth through regulations, high taxes, and crony capitalism. In the party's view, personal self-sufficiency, independence, and holding a traditional family together are sins, while dependency on government is a virtue. Judging by their behavior, the only growth the Democrats applaud and work towards is growth in government, growth in the welfare rolls, and growth in the influx of Third-World immigrants into the country. I mmigration deserves a special comment. As is often correctly said, demographics is destiny. Look at the quantity and quality of the type of immigration that the Democrats push for. To the Democrats whose creed is 'diversity is strength,' America will be worthy only when its composition mirrors that of the United Nations. If such a suicidal attitude prevails, then the United States as we know it is gone. Do the Democrats care? If they do, it is only that the transformation isn't happening fast enough. As for the rule of law, the Democrats have no respect for it save for those instances where it might serve their purpose. And this lawless attitude is not reserved merely for Democratic politicians but extends to the would-be philosopher kings the Democrats want as judges. A man like the late Anthony Scalia who interprets the law as it is written (as is prescribed in the Constitution), is an anathema to Democrats. Judges like Scalia limit unconstitutional behavior. Democrats, on the other hand, want judges who turn the written law into loosey-goosey tools to remake the country according to their whims. When it comes to the corruption of legislating from the bench, the Democrats have been highly successful, due to an always complicit media and far too often a complacent Republican Party. In past presidential races since the 1980s, the only election results Democrats accepted as legitimate are the elections they win. To the Democrats, the presidencies of George W. Bush and Donald Trump were illegitimate. And the Democrats acted accordingly to the detriment of the country. This erodes the foundation of our electoral process which bodes ill for the nation. And what we are seeing today is an unprecedented example of Democrat lawlessness. Their operatives at high levels in the FBI, the Justice Department, and some intelligence agencies actually worked to derail the presidential campaign of Donald Trump and then continued to try to overturn the election results after he won. This is a staggering development that is now being exposed. Since the takeover of the Democrat Party by the McGovernites in the early 1970s, the Democrats have steadily drifted from the liberalism of Harry Truman and JFK to the dark leftwing darkness of Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Hillary Clinton and the rest. When in power, the Democrats are oppressors. Think of the abuses of the IRS, the EPA, and the FBI. When out of power, Democrats are energized as hateful antagonists to anyone who disagrees with them. You object to open borders, you're a racist. You criticize Hillary Clinton, you're a sexist. You think marriage should be only between man and a woman, you're a hate-filled homophobe. You believe in the God of the Bible, you're a fanatic akin to Muslim terrorists. It has even gotten to the point that if you're white, you're a closet racist... at best. The right way to view the Democrats is that they are the running dogs of the Left. And so there's no mistake of what I mean, a 'running dog' is a literal translation from Chinese to mean lackey or lapdog, an unprincipled person who helps or flatters a person more powerful, often evil. In Chinese, no idiomatic expression is more demeaning than the term 'running dogs. Given the state of the Democratic Party, wouldn't be nice if Republican candidates ended their speeches and echoed Cato by saying, "The Democratic Party must be destroyed?" Of course, it is not necessary to actually say such a thing... but the sentiment that "The Democratic Party must be destroyed" should be etched in the heart and mind of any Republican seeking office. Republicans who strive to 'work with' Democrats on an ongoing basis are on a fool's errant. They clearly do not understand the nature of their enemy they're dealing with. In closing, note that Rome won the Third Punic War and totally destroyed Carthage. So there's hope. Good gracious almighty, some might say, what would the country do without a second party? Let the Republican party split in two. Or let a new party arise like the GOP did in the 1850s. In any event, the only parties of national scope that should be tolerated are ones devoted to the Constitution and the rule of law.Sadly, Another Black History Month

I am a 69-year-old proud American who happens to be black. The American Left (Democrats, Hollywood, and fake news media) exploit Black History Month as an opportunity to further their lie that America is eternally racist and a hellhole for blacks. BHM should feature the truth that America is the greatest land of opportunity on the planet for all who choose to go for it; regardless of race, color, creed or gender. Blacks are only 12% of the U.S. population. Therefore, black millionaires and billionaires like Oprah, Samuel L. Jackson, Colin Kaepernick, and countless others confirm my point; white America made these blacks extremely wealthy. And yet, sadly, most millennial blacks believe the Left's lie that their opportunities for success are limited. They believe white cops murder black men on sight. They believe white America is obsessed with conceiving dirty tricks to keep blacks down.

It is interesting that the American Left, which includes the NAACP and Congressional Black Caucus, despises and seeks to destroy successful blacks who bear witness to the greatness of America. I am talking about blacks like the world-renowned retired neurosurgeon Dr. Ben Carson, businessman extraordinaire Herman Cain, and Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. Without lowered standards or special concessions due to their skin-color, these blacks achieved success the old fashion way. They earned it. Imagine driving down a dusty country road on a spring day in the 1950s. You see a dirty little black boy in a field picking cotton. Only in America could that black boy grow up to become one of the most powerful men in the world, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. You will never see the American Left using Justice Thomas' remarkable American story during BHM to inspire black youths. Leftists only feature blacks whom they claim achieved success despite America's rabid racism or sexism. American Left strives to convince all Americans that they are victims of either Christians, conservatives, Republicans, the rich or straight white men. Individuality and self-reliance are as repulsive to Leftists as the cross is to Dracula. The Leftist dream is for all Americans to be dependent upon and thereby controlled by big tyrannical government. Leftists want government to force their agenda items down our throats that would never be approved by voters. A glaring example of Leftists not really giving a rat's derriere about blacks is the Congressional Black Caucus' response to Trump announcing in his SOTU that black unemployment is at a record low. Wouldn't that good news be cause for applause from people who supposedly represent blacks? And yet, the CBC sat stone-faced, refusing to applaud with others in the capital hall. It was stomach turning to see Leftist operative CBC members wearing their little African cloths draped over their shoulders. These cloths are supposed to show CBC members' super commitment to black Americans. These people (CBC members) are shameless traitors to their fellow black Americans. Despite Trump reaching out and implementing policies helpful to blacks, the evil CBC is hellbent on deceiving black Americans into believing their lie that Trump is racist. One of my brothers is an outspoken black Christian conservative Republican. In his mostly black community and church, my brother boldly challenges blacks to tell him one thing Trump has said or done to prove Trump is racist. They cannot. Like Sheeple, blacks in my brother's church and community believe Trump is racist solely because Democrats, Hollywood, and fake news media have told them Trump is racist. Democrats must keep blacks believing America is a hellhole for blacks; believing their lie that Trump and all conservatives/Republicans are racist. Democrats must keep their lie alive that blacks' only hope is to continue monolith voting for Democrats. The problem is blacks' brain-dead loyalty to Democrats has reaped direr consequences. Blacks murder each other in record numbers in cities controlled by Democrats for decades. Blacks are engaged in self-genocide due to disproportionately high numbers of abortions. High numbers of fatherless household, epidemic numbers of blacks joining gangs, school dropouts, black on black crime, incarcerations, and poverty. Democrats are insidious enablers; nurturing problems in black communities by lowering cultural, moral, and intellectual standards for us in the name of compassion. After all, according to Leftists, we black folks ain't too bright. Democrats relieve blacks of any accountability or responsibility for their failure or success; claiming our fate rest solely in the hands of white America. Notice how Democrats/Leftists are always advocating lowering the bar and giving us free stuff; addicting us to government freebies. I am appalled by the Democrats' bigotry of lowered expectations regarding my fellow black Americans. As a black man I can say this. Our problem is not whitey persecuting us. Our problems are rooted in blacks allowing their loyalty to Democrats to morally bankrupt our communities. It was amazing seeing many black clergy abandoning the Bible's view of same-sex marriage because Obama was for same-sex marriage. If Leftists were honest, they would really call BHM their "America Still Sucks for Blacks Month". Every February, Leftists use BHM to guilt-trip a new generation of whites and convince blacks to continue sleeping with their enemies by voting for Democrats. Blacks like me who love their country and realize the obvious blessing of being born an American are excoriated by Leftists. Leftists call us Uncle Toms suffering from Stockholm Syndrome. But here is the truth. American is the greatest land of opportunity on the planet for all who choose to go for it. To my fellow blacks, reject the American Lefts' daily-you-are-a-victim excrement. Pursue your American dream via education, hard work, and right choices. Pure and simple. Lloyd Marcus, The Unhyphenated American Help Lloyd spread the Truth http://LloydMarcus.comThings Your Professor Didnt Tell You About Climate Change

Davos 2018 is gone, but not forgotten. This years World Economic Forum provided yet another opportunity for those who believe in apocalyptic climate change to harangue us about the evils of greenhouse gases amid warnings the world will end in 2050 or 2100 or one of these days when it gets warm enough. Most striking is the annual spectacle of the worlds wealthy and privileged disembarking from their fuel-gulping private jets and limousines or emerging from luxury hotel suites, to proclaim the world must cut back on the use of fossil fuels, or to question why the worlds common people do not feel as deeply or passionately about climate change as they do. Other than a propensity for believing everything they are told, why are these people so agitated?

If you look at climate change predictions, almost all of them are bad. Critics refer to these views collectively as climate alarmism. Alarmists believe the Earths climate is warming because greenhouse gases are being added to the atmosphere through human activities, primarily the burning of fossil fuels. They claim unless the buildup of greenhouse gases is stopped, global temperatures will begin to rise exponentially, which will have terrible consequences, such as major flora and fauna extinctions, coastal inundation caused by melting ice caps, heatwaves, drought, famine, economic collapse, war, and the potential for human extinction. The basis for many of these predictions are the reports issued by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). One of the functions of the IPCC is to model the Earths climate to predict changes in global temperature. Although the Earth is warming a bit, their models always seem to be more enthusiastic about warming than the Earth appears to be. In fact, a recent study from the UK suggests climate models factor in too much warming. In science, if a hypothesis is proposed and predictions based on that hypothesis happen as predicted, the hypothesis becomes a theory. If not, the hypothesis is rejected. Not so with global warming. When global temperatures fail to meet the IPCCs model predictions, they simply move the prediction date out into the future, all the while making it clear the global warming apocalypse is still coming. Speaking of ominous, in 2006 former vice-president and climate change activist Al Gore claimed: Unless drastic measures are taken to reduce greenhouse gases in the next ten years, the world will reach a point of no return. I doubt that point was reached a few weeks ago when I shoveled a surprise blanket of frozen climate change off my driveway. Fortunately, this and many of Gores other ominous climate predictions, have not come true. So, what do we really know? First, we know the percentage of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere is increasing. Carbon dioxide levels are approximately 45% higher now than they were 150 years ago, likely caused by the burning of fossil fuels during the twentieth century and recent industrialization in Asia. Even though the present warming trend may be linked to rising amounts of CO2, this is an unproven hypothesis, not settled science. Scientists are still arguing over surface temperature data, including the way it is collected, adjusted, and interpreted; whether CO2 is affecting global temperatures as much as believed; and if water vapor, which humans have no control over, really dominates the greenhouse effect in the Earths atmosphere. Incidentally, the news about carbon dioxide is not all bad. An international study found plant life thriving worldwide thanks to higher CO2 levels. We know the Sun has a larger effect on the Earths climate than anything else. Small changes in solar insolation due to variations in the Suns energy output or cyclical variations in the Earths orbit, known as the Milankovitch Cycles, can make a big difference in the surface temperature. Yes, greenhouse gasses, ocean currents, volcanic eruptions, and many other things can affect the climate, but the Sun is still the 800 lb. gorilla in the room. We live in an ice age. Over the last 450,000 years the normal average global temperature has been approximately 5 degrees Centigrade cooler than it is today. During that time our climate cycled between long cool periods, known as glacials, which can last 50,000-100,000 years, and shorter warm periods called interglacials, which usually last between 10,000-20,000 years. During glacial periods glaciers and continental ice sheets develop and grow. During interglacial periods, like the one we are experiencing now, the Earth warms and sea level rises as most of the ice melts. We know, due to the above-mentioned factors and other natural climate oscillations, such as the El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO), the 11-year Sunspot Cycle, the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO), the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO), and perhaps the De Vries Solar Cycle, the worlds climate continually changes. This means the present warming trend could be a natural climate oscillation unrelated to CO2 or possibly a combination of both. One of those oscillations occurred between 1940 and 1977 as the Earth went through a minor cooling trend, possibly linked to the PDO. This prompted a global cooling scare as scientists feared we were sliding into another glacial period. We are fairly certain the Earth has been warmer in the past than it is today, perhaps as recently as 950 -1250 AD during the Medieval Warm Period, or 5000-8000 years ago during the Holocene Climatic Optimum, or during the Eemian Interglacial Period around 130,000-125,000 years ago. We are also certain sea level was higher in the past than it is today. In their 2014 Climate Report the IPCC claims: Maximum global mean sea level during the last interglacial period (129,000 to 116,000 years ago) was, for several thousand years, at least 5 m higher than present. So, if the Earth was naturally warmer in the past and sea level was higher, both without extra carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, doesnt this cast doubt on the CO2 apocalypse? One item of concern is sea level, which has risen a bit over eight inches since 1880. Alarmists point out roughly ten percent of the worlds population live near the ocean at elevations of ten meters or less, and they present this information as if sea level rise is an imminent threat. The present accepted rate of sea-level rise is about the thickness of two pennies stacked one on top of the other, around 3 millimeters per year. At this rate, sea level would rise barely 9 inches by 2100, meaning New York City, average elevation 10 meters, would be flooded in a little over 3,000 years. The point is this is a slow-motion process and something we can deal with. To sum up, there are plenty of reasons to doubt human activities are the sole cause of climate change. If you are feeling anxious or guilty because of alarmist predictions, relax. The climate will continue to warm and cool and it is a good bet Mother Nature will be the one in the drivers seat. If you still want to be an eco-warrior, recycle, plant a tree, and try to be energy efficient. It is good for the planet.The legal standard for a search warrant was stated by the Supreme Court in Aguilar v. Texas , 378 U.S. 108 (164). The standard to apply when the facts necessary for probable cause are based on an informant and not the direct knowledge of the officer swearing the affidavit for probable cause is as follows:

The Nunes Memo confirms that the basis for the FISA warrants to spy on Trump associates was the Steele dossier, paid for by the DNC and Hillary Clinton. The Memo reveals that the FBI also paid for it. The persons who signed the FISA applications are James Comey, Andrew McCabe, Sally Yates, Rod Rosenstein, and Dana Boente. The Memo confirms that the political origins of the Steele Dossier, that it was bought and paid for by Hillary and the DNC, were not disclosed to the FISA court.

Although an affidavit supporting a search warrant may be based on hearsay information and need not reflect the direct personal observations of the affiant, the magistrate must be informed of some of the underlying circumstances relied on by the person providing the information and some of the underlying circumstances from which the affiant concluded that the informant, whose identity was not disclosed, was creditable or his information reliable.

This is significant because when applying for a warrant based on information from an informant, the applicant must state why the informant is reliable. In this case, the informant is Steele. In the typical case, the applicant states that the informant has provided reliable information in the past, or that the informants information has been verified and it must state how it was verified. The FISA application should have informed the Court why Steele is credible. The FISA application should have informed the Court that Steele was paid by the DNC, Hillary, and even the FBI authorized payment. The Steele Dossier has the additional problem that Steele obtained information from Russians whom he paid.

This should have been disclosed, because application relies on the information given by Russians paid by Steele, and relayed to Steele. This is double hearsay. This means the Court must be advised why the Russian agents, paid by Steele, are reliable.

Comey, McCabe, and maybe others misled the FISA Court by not disclosing all the critical facts about how the dossier was obtained. This means that there was no probable cause for the warrants, and all evidence obtained as a result of the warrant should be suppressed, which means it cannot be used in a criminal prosecution.

The disclosure of these facts explains the hysterical reaction of the Dems and Comey. Comey seems unhinged. He tweeted on Friday, after the release:

"Dishonest and misleading memo wrecked the House intel committee, destroyed trust with Intelligence Community, damaged relationship with FISA court, and inexcusably exposed classified investigation of an American citizen. For what? DOJ & FBI must keep doing their jobs."

Comey did not specifically deny any of the conclusions and facts in the Memo. He did not say what facts, if any, are dishonest. He is free to give a news conference, as he did when he gave Hillary a pass, and explain why he signed a FISA application without informing the Court that the Steele dossier was paid for by Hillary and the DNC. He can explain why he did not believe this affected the credibility of Steele.

Comey is correct that the Memo may have destroyed the relationship with the FISA Court because now the Court knows it was misled by the Obama FBI and Obama DOJ.

Comey is also correct that the Memo has wrecked the Intelligence Committee because now it is confirmed that the Democrats on the committee knew that the FISA warrants were based on the discredited Steele Dossier, but the Democrats kept lying that Trump colluded with Russia to divert attention. The only thing wrecked is whatever credibility Adam Schiff and the Dems had.

Comeys concern that the Memo disclosed the investigation of an American citizen, Carter Page, makes no sense. We knew that Page was investigated. Comey should be concerned that Page was investigated based on a FISA warrant that lacked probable cause because Comey did not fully inform the Court about Steele.

Comey is also correct that this destroyed trust with the Intelligence community. But it is because the Intelligence community, led by Comey, did not fully inform the FISA Court.

Comey ignores the obvious point that it is the conduct of Comey, McCabe, Strzok, and others in the Obama FBI and Obama DOJ that caused the lack of trust. The Memo only discloses and confirms the conduct of Comey and the others.

Comey and the Dems are blaming the messenger, the memo, instead of those who used the Steele dossier.

Comey approved an application for a FISA warrant that he knew was unverified. Comey testified before Congress in June 8 2017 that he briefed President-Elect Trump on January 6, 2017 about the Steele Dossier.

Comeys prepared text reads:

The IC leadership thought it important, for a variety of reasons, to alert the incoming President to the existence of this material, even though it was salacious and unverified.

It seems that Comey had a good reputation before he became involved in the Hillary investigation. Comey needs to come clean about the Hillary investigation and the investigation of Trump if he wants to restore his reputation. He knew the dossier was unverified yet he used it to get the FISA warrant. He knew Hillary violated the law with the unsecure email server but he gave her a pass. He represented to the Court that the dossier was credible when he knew it was unverified.

Comey needs to tell the truth about why he obtained the FISA warrant using the unverified Steele dossier, and why he gave Hillary a pass.Michael Isikoff, who currently writes for Yahoo News, published one such article completely based on the Dossier on September 23, 2016, and it was used as corroboration in the FISA warrant application. On his podcast for Yahoo News, oddly (or appropriately?) called "Skullduggery," he expressed shock that his work could ever be used for the purpose of corroboration, since he had no independent sources beyond the Dossier itself. Chuck Ross summarizes it for the Daily Caller :

Among the deceptions used in the application to the FISA Court to weaponize the NSA's surveillance capabilities against the Republican candidate for president was a fake claim that media reports corroborated the information in the Steele Dossier. Those media reports were all based on the Dossier itself, which was peddled to the media by Glenn Simpson (former Wall Street Journal reporter with many journalist friends) and his company Fusion GPS.

Should it be determined that a paid-for media item was offered as corroboration, the legal penalties for the misrepresentation to the court may or may not be more severe, but that would suggest conspiracy charges might be possibly added to other relevant charges, which usually enhances the criminal penalties. Isikoff does not want to be implicated in that.

One sidelight: the bank records of Fusion GPS are in the possession of the Nunes committee because they purportedly indicate payments to media figures made in the course of publicizing the Dossier. An extensive legal battle was required to obtain them over Fusion GPS's rsistance. But those records have not yet been revealed by the committee, so we don't yet know who in the media might have been paid off to publicize the Dossier.

So it seems a little odd that they would be citing the Yahoo! News story about the matter that they are investigating themselves based on the same material that had been separately presented to the FBI before I was ever briefed by Christopher Steele.

Its self-referential, he said of the article and its reliance on the dossier.

Isikoff acknowledged the potential problem with the DOJ and FBI citing his article to support the FISA against Page.

Obviously the information that I got from Christopher Steele was information the FBI already had, he said, noting that Steele began sharing information from his dossier in July 2016.

Isikoff was shocked, he said, because his very article was based on information that came from Christopher Steele, the former British spy who wrote the dossier. He said it was a bit beyond me that the FBI would use his article in the FISA application.

Among the deceptions used in the application to the FISA Court to weaponize the NSA's surveillance capabilities against the Republican candidate for president was a fake claim that media reports corroborated the information in the Steele Dossier. Those media reports were all based on the Dossier itself, which was peddled to the media by Glenn Simpson (former Wall Street Journal reporter with many journalist friends) and his company Fusion GPS.

Michael Isikoff, who currently writes for Yahoo News, published one such article completely based on the Dossier on September 23, 2016, and it was used as corroboration in the FISA warrant application. On his podcast for Yahoo News, oddly (or appropriately?) called "Skullduggery," he expressed shock that his work could ever be used for the purpose of corroboration, since he had no independent sources beyond the Dossier itself. Chuck Ross summarizes it for the Daily Caller:

Isikoff was shocked, he said, because his very article was based on information that came from Christopher Steele, the former British spy who wrote the dossier. He said it was a bit beyond me that the FBI would use his article in the FISA application. Obviously the information that I got from Christopher Steele was information the FBI already had, he said, noting that Steele began sharing information from his dossier in July 2016. Isikoff acknowledged the potential problem with the DOJ and FBI citing his article to support the FISA against Page. Its self-referential, he said of the article and its reliance on the dossier. My story is about the FBIs own investigation, he continued. So it seems a little odd that they would be citing the Yahoo! News story about the matter that they are investigating themselves based on the same material that had been separately presented to the FBI before I was ever briefed by Christopher Steele.

Odd, as in criminal misrepresentation to a federal judge.

One sidelight: the bank records of Fusion GPS are in the possession of the Nunes committee because they purportedly indicate payments to media figures made in the course of publicizing the Dossier. An extensive legal battle was required to obtain them over Fusion GPS's rsistance. But those records have not yet been revealed by the committee, so we don't yet know who in the media might have been paid off to publicize the Dossier.

Should it be determined that a paid-for media item was offered as corroboration, the legal penalties for the misrepresentation to the court may or may not be more severe, but that would suggest conspiracy charges might be possibly added to other relevant charges, which usually enhances the criminal penalties. Isikoff does not want to be implicated in that.Journalists and other Democrats love a leaking FBI as long as they target Republicans

The media loves it when the FBI selectively leaks and prosecutes as long as it is selectively leaking, investigating and prosecuting people and a party the media and Democrats target themselves. They certainly dont want leaks or reports relating to Hillary or Obama. Somehow, journalists and other Democrats dont think that Congress should exercise its oversight responsibility over the Justice Department on the Russian collusion and Hillary email investigations or one unjustified investigation based on a fake Democrat paid for dossier and one pretend investigation treated as a matter.

Journalists and other Democrats always say they want equal treatment under the law, but their clear support of Hillary and her staff despite their serious continued violations of the law, and their unwavering support of the political appointees at the FBI when they let Hillary skate, shows they dont really mean it. It is clear that Obama, Justice, and the IRS targeted political opponents throughout his eight years -- and the media was complicit in supporting them no matter what they did. I doubt that journalists would have as much affection and unending devotion to the FBI and leaks if the targets were Eugene Robinson, Chuck Todd and Hillary instead of Sheryl Attkisson, James Rosen and Trump. In this article, Robinson made the following statement: Comey wrote everything down. The FBI always writes everything down. I believe he should have qualified the statement by saying the FBI writes down information in 302 forms, but we have to trust the agents account since no recordings are made. And we also know that Peter Strzok texted his mistress about not turning over VERY inflammatory 302s to Congress. Here is an interesting story about another dossier. It may not be surprising that the Obama Administration had so few foreign and domestic successes and that the economy had the slowest economic recovery in seventy years given the amount of time spent targeting its political opponents. From Zerohedge: Watchdog group Judicial Watch released 42 pages of heavily redacted State Department documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), which reveal that the Obama State Department provided Senator Ben Cardin (D-MD) a "dossier of classified information on Russia" in order to undermine President Trump, according to Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. These documents show the Obama State Department under John Kerry gathered and sent its own dossier of classified information on Russia to Senator Ben Cardin, a political ally in the U.S. Senate, to undermine President Trump, said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. Judicial Watch will pursue information on who pulled this classified information, who authorized its release, and why was it evidently dumped just days before President Trumps inauguration. Thank goodness we didnt get Hillary who would have spent four to eight years enriching herself, family and friends while continually transferring the power from the people to the government in the continuance of Obamas goal to remake (destroy) America as we know it.The White House has listed a phenomenal 15 Jihadis who have been caught in acts of terrorism against the U.S., all because they were let in based on winning diversity lottery slots, or were able to take advantage of chain migration privileges.

The February 2 list of jihadis includes a senior leader in the Islamic counter-attack against personal freedom, Mousa Mohammed Abu Marzook. He is an alleged United States Hamas leader [who] received his green card through a predecessor program to the visa lottery, said the statement. Marzook was deported in 1997 for terrorist activities.

The White House uses these examples to argue against these two destructive policies, which are already unpopular based on the numbers of poorly educated, ill-adapted nationals from bad countries who have little chance of succeeding in the U.S. and who are unlikely to like it here anyway. Such immigrants are heavy consumers of social services, and as they assimilate into the underclass, eventually become Democratic voters. The whole thing pretty well amounts to importing poverty. Don't think so? Check out how many foreign translations there are from s-hole countries on a typical welfare form.

Now the White House makes a powerful argument for public safety in its list of 15 Jihadis, too. It highlights that right now, our immigration system is not based on merit, as it is in most countries, but on family connections, and the luck of the draw. Of course a lot of bad actors are going to filter in from that. Mohammed may be fine as a U.S. immigrant, but his brother, Ahmed, who gets in based on his relationship to Mohammed, spends his time on Jihadi websites. Yusuf wins the jackpot of life through the visa lottery - and then proceeds to kill the very people who handed it to him. People like this are out there.

Nobody needs them here. Just the presence of these 15 Jihadis and who knows how many other sleeper cells out there, should be enough to end those bad programs. Let everyone come here based on their own merit, with full screening from terrorist-infested countries, so the argument goes.

But even a merit-based orderly migration process may not be enough.

Aren't quite a few of these Jihadis well-educated? The 9/11 attackers all had college degrees in demanding disciplines, such as engineering. The terrorists who attacked Fort Hood and Scotland had medical degrees. Quite a few terrorists have these kinds of degrees, rather than degrees in womyn's studies, for example. (This is not to say engineers and doctors are terroristically inclined, but that most Jihadis start out in life admiring these fields, and when they can't succeed at them, turn to terroristic pursuits instead.) Such people would not be screened out by merit-based migration alone.

What's needed then, is not just ending the visa lotteries and the chain migration privileges, but to adding some kind of moral criteria to allowing who gets in here. The forms used, as Breitbart demonstrates in its report, simply asking terrorists if they are terrorists and only screening out those who say yes, does not seem to be sufficient. Seriously, you ask a sneak-attack terrorist who specializes in killing women and toddlers, if he is a terrorist and expect him to be honest?

Much better to have the would-be migrant pay to have himself investigated - how many jihadi websites does he visit, what is his place of worship, who are his associates - in a far more evasion-proof, liar-proof screening. Presumably some of that has been done, but it's obviously not enough. A better moral criteria needs to be established in screening even merit-based migrants or else the bad ones will continue to get in. The one thing that might make a difference, would be to hold the consular officers who let such terrorists in accountable. That should provide an incentive for them to err on the side of caution.

In any case, what we are seeing is 15 migrants too many. The argument is a good one for getting rid of the visa lottery system and chain migration privileges just on the problematic effects alone. What's important, though, is that the replacement of merit-based migration doesn't allow the same kinds of problems to happen. Meirt-based migration must include moral merits.Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 2)  Lawyers on Friday dismissed as propaganda the police report that a high-ranking communist leader was arrested on Thursday.

"NDF (National Democratic Front) consultant Rommel Salinas was already arrested way back May 11, 2017 and is still in detention," said a statement issued by Edre Olalia, NDF legal counsel and president of the National Union of People's Lawyers. NDF is the political arm of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) that holds talks with the government peace panel.

Olalia said the police report was false and misleading, "a cheap propaganda stunt to sow terror and confusion."

The Northern Mindanao Police earlier reported that 45-year-old Salinas, CPP secretary, was arrested in a joint police-military operation in a subdivision in Ozamis City Thursday morning.

The police said Salinas had a warrant of arrest for frustrated murder.

Olalia, however, said this warrant was served in May 2017. He said the police "tried to serve" the same warrant after Thursday's trial at the Ozamis Regional Trial Court on Salinas' illegal possession of explosives charge.

Police on Wednesday arrested NDF consultant Rafael Baylosis in Quezon City. The NDF said this was illegal, citing their Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees with the government in 1995.

READ: Police arrest NDFP consultant Rafael Baylosis

Baylosis was granted bail in August 2016, along with other consultants, to attend the peace talks in Norway. Salinas was an NDF consultant as well, but was not released for the talks.

President Rodrigo Duterte terminated peace talks in November 2017 and tagged the CPP and its armed wing, the New People's Army, as terrorists. He then ordered the mass arrest of NDF consultants.

READ: How peace talks with communist rebels failedAbout 90% of North Korean exports are banned, according to US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley. But by various means of subterfuge and chearing, North Korea is able to get around restrictions.

A panel of experts has reported to the UN that sanctions against North Korea have not done a good job in stemming the flow of exports, allowing the regime of Kim Jong-un to rake in more than $200 million last year.

CBS News:

In September, 2017, after the U.N. Security Council passed biting sanctions against North Korea in response to the country's latest nuclear test, an earlier U.N. report of the same panel said that "lax enforcement" allowed the rogue nation to earn several hundred million dollars, reports CBS News' Pamela Falk. U.S. ambassador Nikki Haley said sanctions now ban well over 90 percent of North Korea's exports reported in 2016. The panel of experts said the expansion of U.N. sanctions hasn't been matched by the "political will," international coordination, and allocation of resources to implement them. The panel was also able to obtain new tracking software from an Israeli company at a discounted price, an expert told CBS News. But, the report makes it clear that, despite U.N. efforts and intelligence agencies assistance, North Korea has used extraordinary methods to evade sanctions, Falk reports. "This year could represent a critical window of opportunity before a potential miscalculation with disastrous implications for international peace and security," the experts said. According to the report, the panel investigated North Korea's ongoing ballistic missile cooperation with Syria and Myanmar. It also investigated illegal ship-to-ship transfers of oil "comprising a multimillion-dollar business that is driving an international network of brokers and ship charterers as well as unwitting global commodity trading companies and oil suppliers." North Korea also continued its illegal coal exports by combining deceptive navigation patterns, trans-shipment through third countries and fraudulent documentation "to obscure the origin of the coal." The report said North Korea exported coal to China, Malaysia, South Korea, Russia and Vietnam in 2017 in violation of sanctions. It said "a network of foreign traders responsible for violations of the coal ban operates through numerous front companies" registered in Australia, British Virgin Islands, China, Hong Kong, Marshall Islands, Samoa, Seychelles and the United Kingdom. Many of the countries involved are unaware the origin of the prohibited goods, a panel expert told CBS News.

We had the same problen enforcing sanctions against Iran. It's just impossible to keep track of thousandes of ships and trillions of dollars of trade without at least some contraband slipping through the cracks.

It's no accident that much of the cheating involves Russia and China. The governments of those countries may pledge to abide by the sanctions. But the opportunity for massive profits on sanctioned goods is too good to pass up. The companies that help North Korea evade sanctions may not be directly connected to the governments of Russia and China. But the chances are pretty good that some government officials are skimming profits or are bribed to look the other way.

Why? North Korean belligerency against the United States serves a purpose for both countries; it keep America occupied and our attention away from places like the Ukraine and South China Sea. So keeping the Kim regime afloat is in both countries vital interest. China, especially, cannot afford the North Korean government to collapse. They already have problems with North Korean refugees escaping from Kim's hellish regime and the prospect of another famine where millions of North Koreans could flee and enter China along its 900 mile border with the North is unacceptable.

Whether countries, or private companies, are aware that they are buying North Korean goods is beside the point. The sanctions are failing and Kim is getting ever closer to building a nuclear arsenal that could threaten the US and the ballistic missiles he needs to deliver them.ICE raided 77 businesses in California in recent days. 77 businesses! Can you guess how many illegals were caught?

That's not a surprise given that ICE warned the businesses three days in advance of each raid.

Federal immigration agents raided 77 businesses in Northern California this week, demanding proof that their employees are legally allowed to work in the United States, officials said Thursday. It was believed to be the largest such localized sweep of workplaces by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency since President Trump took office. Experts were struck by the scale of the operation.

Wow, the largest sweep! The government is really getting tough on illegals! Or are they?

The businesses were served notices of inspection and given three working days to comply, and no immediate arrests were made.

You read that correctly; businesses were warned three days in advance of each raid.

A notice of inspection alerts a business owner that Homeland Security Investigations, a division of ICE, is going to audit their hiring records to determine if they are in compliance with the law, Schwab said. Employers are required to produce their companys I-9s within three days, after which an inspection is conducted.

Is it any wonder that zero illegals were caught?

The purpose of these theatrical "raids" is to give the impression of going after illegals without making a serious effort to go after them. They are just like the phony 7-11 raids which only netted a handful of illegals.

Who directs this effort? Why, the acting director of ICE, an Obama era holdover named Thomas Homan. You may ask yourself, what is an Obama era holdover doing running ICE a year into the Trump administration?

Here's your answer.

Trump himself has nominated Homan to run the agency on a full time basis because of the fine work he's doing.

We might expect Obama to conduct phony raids to pretend he is enforcing the law, but not Donald Trump. Although Trump has come out in favor of amnesty for millions of illegals he still wants to enforce the law against the rest of them.

Or does he?

Why would Trump select an Obama holdover to run the agency who conducts make-believe raids? Why would he select a holdover who supervised a policy of "reverse escorting" illegals into the country?

The more we see of Trump's immigration policies, the more they look like Jeb Bush's.

If you think otherwise, let us know in the comments section how conducting phony immigration raids is brilliant four dimensional chess.

Ed Straker is the senior writer at Newsmachete.com.The post-memo reality for America

After long anticipation, Americans will now have to let the disturbing contents of the "memo" sink in, followed by the realization that appropriate actions need to be taken. In the most cutting of ironies, the political creatures that then-candidate Donald Trump promised to expose and expel have handed the 45th President all the evidence needed to commence draining their Washington D.C. swamp. Over the last eight years, the American people had to endure one Obama-era scandal after another knowing full well that there would be no accountability, no remedy, and no justice for the crimes against the country. Hopefully, that has all changed for several reasons. First, President Trump was the main target of this outrageous overstepping of power, and second, the memo points to the out-of-control and lawless nature of the Obama administration. Before the release of the memo, members of the GOP privy to its contents stated that the scandal made Watergate look like a parking ticket; and so it does. Exposed for every American to see, thanks to the chairman of the United States House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, Devin Nunes, is the unsettling fact that the former Secretary of State and presidential candidate Hillary Clinton paid Fusion GPS for a wholly fabricated dossier.

The dossier was created to produce damaging, albeit fraudulent, political ammunition to destroy Donald Trump. That same knowingly fake dossier was used by the Obama administration to fraudulently secure a FISA warrant for what then became an illegitimate and unconstitutional surveillance of a United States citizen. The recently released memo helps tip the original nefarious deed forward causing it to crash into the next nefarious deed creating a crumbling house of cards. The culmination of this shows a pile of criminal activities that gave birth to a monumental lie that the corrupt, leftist media was all too happy to run with for over a year.

Moreover, with the same zeal, the disgraceful media elevated the falsified narrative of Russian-Trump collusion it worked to minimize the contents of the newly released memo... To bolster the lie and hide the truth. Nevertheless, the memo opens a Pandora's Box and sets in motion future investigations. The American people have witnessed President Obama repeatedly plead ignorance to the steady torrent of crimes against the nation emanating out of his administration, but those denials are now shown to be without credibility. And had it not been for the unimaginable results of the most unusual election in modern times, there would be no memo. And the nauseating heap of misdeeds of an illicit administration bent on destroying the Constitution would have been hidden away forever.The contents of the memo now show the objections by anti-Trump forces in this historic matter were certainly a case where they doth protest too much.

The 2018 Groundhog Day release of the Nunes FISA memo was preceded by partisan and establishment objections that its disclosure would somehow jeopardize  something.

J. Marsolo explains why FISA warrant procurers James Comey, Andrew McCabe, Sally Yates, Rod Rosenstein, and Dana Boente have reason to be nervous:

The Memo confirms that the political origins of the Steele Dossier, that it was bought and paid for by Hillary and the DNC, were not disclosed to the FISA court.

In other words, it seems the procurers of the FISA warrants that are the subject of the Nunes memo failed to disclose material facts on which the FISA judges could determine the credibility of the probable cause before issuing and re-issuing the warrants.

The Fourth Amendment warrant authorizes and justifies what is otherwise a trespass -- an intrusion or encroachment on the right of security -- by government officials, but solely to protect the community against specific wrongdoers. Its requirement of oath and affirmation before issuance of a warrant helps ensure the search is based in honestly and solemnly presented facts that may be discerned -- and judged -- by neutral judicial officers.

The solemn protocol of oath and affirmation before issuance of a warrant, with potential consequences of perjury for knowingly presenting false information, helps prevent an unreasonable trespass. The ex ante protocols are expressly required by the Fourth Amendment for all warrants (no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation), and are indispensable to the right of security when the awesome power of justifiably trespassing on private properties and affairs is to be exercised via warrants.

The concept of forbidding and punishing the bearing of false witness is Biblical:

Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor (Exodus 20:16), and is found in the common law on which the Fourth Amendment was built. Oath and affirmation before neutral judicial officers provide consequences of perjury when a search is sought under false pretense, and the potential consequence of a perjury conviction is, of course, disincentive to bearing false witness as a means to unjustifiably trespass by warrant.

The great English jurist Sir Matthew Hale in his History of Pleas of the Crown notes that it seems the party that made the [false or incorrect] suggestion is punishable in such case.

The encyclopedia of law American Jurisprudence 2d says of Oath and Affirmation: The administering of an oath has another purpose besides that of binding a persons conscience: it is to make the person who takes an oath or affirmation amenable to prosecution if perjured testimony is given.

In his law review article Bearing False Witness: Perjured Affidavits and the Fourth Amendment, Professor Stephen Gard writes,

Indeed, to the extent the issue has been discussed at all, scholars have concluded that the warrant requirement itself operates as an effective deterrent to  police perjury.

It is not only affirmative misrepresentations under oath and affirmation that may constitute perjury. Omissions of material facts may likewise constitute perjury.

At 49 CFR 1104.5, Affirmation or declarations under penalty of perjury in accordance with 18 U.S.C. 1621 in lieu of oath, we see that such serious omissions for oath and affirmation may constitution perjury:

(c) Knowing and willful misstatements or omissions of material facts constitute federal criminal violations punishable under 18 U.S.C. 1001. Additionally, these misstatements are punishable as perjury under 18 U.S.C. 1621.

Reckless oath and affirmation in the warrant process, versus mistake, is a danger to the security of society. For example, police see two people in the general area of a murder scene, but fail to inform the warrant-issuing magistrate that only one was covered in blood, and yet obtain warrants to search the homes of both.

Comey & Co., along with allies such as Eric Holder, have every reason to be nervous. The FBI, DOJ, and FISA warrant process seem to have been corrupted, not just by partisan politics, but potentially perjurious actors who omitted material information in the warrant-procuring process.Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 3)  Expect more protests against the "dictatorial and tyrannical" rule of President Rodrigo Duterte, groups said Saturday.

The Metro Manila group of the Movement Against Tyranny (MAT) said it is preparing for a huge protest on February 25, the anniversary of the People Power Revolution.

The MAT, composed of several activist organizations, is against the recent attacks against critics of the Duterte administration.

"Nakita namin 'yung need na ma-unite lahat ng kababayan natin lalung-lalo na sa may Maynila para ipakita 'yung pagprotesta ng mga mamamayan laban sa repressive policies," MAT Spokesperson Amira Lidasan said.

[Translation: We saw the need for Filipinos, especially those in Manila to unite in protest of the government's repressive policies.]

The MAT specifically condemned the rearrest of National Democratic Front (NDF) consultant Rafael Baylosis on Wednesday for murder charges. The NDF represents rebels in peace talks with the government.

Baylosis was allowed to join the peace talks until these were canceled. He is now facing new charges of illegal possession of explosives, a non-bailable offense. The NDF claimed the evidence was planted.

"Wala naman kinaiba itong arrest ni Rafael Baylosis sa dati nilang style na nagkakarga ng ebidensya para ma-justify ang arrest," said Neri Colmenares, Chairperson of the National Union of People's Lawyers.

[Translation: Rafael Baylosis' arrest is not different from the government's style of planting evidence to justify one's arrest.]

The MAT also hit Duterte for his supposed threat to students of the University of the Philippines (UP) who keep walking out of their classrooms in protest.

"Na-feel ko talaga at galit talaga ako dun sa mga sinasabi ni President Duterte kasi wala pang Presidente na nagsalita laban sa mga estudyante na paalisin sila," Lidasan said.

[Translation: "I was really mad at what the President said because no other President threatened to kick the students out."]

Colmenares accused the President of being "intolerant of dissent."

Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque told CNN Philippines' Newsroom Weekend on Saturday, the government is not curtailing anyone's right to freedom of speech and peaceful assembly.

He said Duterte was specifically against the walkouts only because the students would miss their classes.

READ: Palace: Duterte against students missing class, not protests

Duterte, in a speech before indigenous leaders Thursday, said he would let "smart" Lumad students who are not fortunate enough to have access to quality education take the place of students who keep walking out.

The MAT, however, doubts the President's offer to give UP students' slots to Lumad students, amid reports of increased military presence in indigenous communities.Marysville, CA (95901)

Today

Some clouds in the morning will give way to mainly sunny skies for the afternoon. High near 95F. Winds light and variable..

Tonight

Clear. Low around 60F. Winds light and variable.Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February)  An alleged finance officer of the armed communist rebels was arrested in Butuan City Friday afternoon, the military said Saturday.

Leonida Guao  also known by the aliases Lea, Ligaya, and Laya  was arrested in a joint police and military operation in Barangay Bading, Butuan City in the province of Agusan del Norte at around 3 p.m. on Friday, the Eastern Mindanao Command (EMC) said in a press release.

She is now under the custody of the CARAGA regional police.

The military described Guao as a high-ranking leader of the New People's Army (NPA), the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), which has waged a 48-year-old insurgency.

Guao "handles the group's extortion money in Mindanao," the military said.

She had a warrant of arrest for murder, issued by Branch 7 of the Bayugan Regional Trial Court, Agusan del Sur, the military said.

"This arrest is a result of the cooperation of the whole community and the different law enforcement agencies. It also proves that the terrorists cannot run away from the long arm of the law," said Lt. Gen Benjamin R. Madrigal Jr., commander of the EMC.

This is the third supposed arrest of a rebel leader this week, according to the police and military.

Police on Wednesday rearrested National Democratic Front (NDF) consultant Rafael Baylosis in Quezon City for murder charges. The NDF represents rebels in peace talks with the government.

READ: Police arrest NDFP consultant Rafael Baylosis

The NDF said the arrest was illegal, citing their Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees with the government in 1995.

Another NDF consultant, Rommel Salinas, whom police said was the CPP's secretary, was arrested on charges of frustrated murder on Thursday in Ozamis City, according to a report from the Northern Mindanao Police.

But NDF legal counsel Edre Olalia belied the police report, saying Salinas has been detained in jail since May 2017 and cannot be rearrested. He dismissed the report as a "a cheap propaganda stunt to sow terror and confusion."

READ: Lawyers belie police report on NDF consultant's arrest

Both are now facing charges of illegal possession of explosives, a non-bailable offense.

President Rodrigo Duterte terminated peace talks in November 2017 and tagged members of the CPP-NPA as terrorists. He then ordered the mass arrest of NDF consultants.In the Gujarat elections last year, the ruling BJP won less than 40 per cent of the rural constituencies.

By raising the minimum support price (MSP) to 1.5 times the input cost in agriculture and allocating Rs 14.34 lakh crores for rural livelihood creation and infrastructure in the Union Budget 2018-19, finance minister Arun Jaitley has signalled the governments recognition of the agrarian distress in the country.

Whether this will attract rural voters or not, the fact is that the Narendra Modi government appears jittery.

Its nervousness is couched both in trying to hold simultaneous elections to state Assemblies and Parliament in the name of efficiency and in projecting the Budget as pro-farmer. The former means that the government is reluctant to go into the general election in early 2019 hobbled after possible setbacks in the state elections. And the latter, of course, indicates its eroding rural support.

In the Gujarat elections last year, the ruling BJP won less than 40 per cent of the rural constituencies. On February 1, in Rajasthan, the party lost three byelections  the Alwar and Ajmer Lok Sabha seats and the Mandalgarh Assembly seat. These results may point to the mood in the adjoining states as well  Alwar abuts Haryana and Mandalgarh is next to Madhya Pradesh.

Eight states  Nagaland, Tripura, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Karnataka  will go to the polls this year. In the first three, which go to the polls this month, the budgetary signals may have little electoral impact. More worrying are the polls ahead in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh, where the BJP is incumbent, and Karnataka, which it wants to wrest from the Congress. The BJP had won 85 per cent of the parliamentary seats in these four states in 2014.

These states have also seen farmer suicides and widespread agrarian protests. High levels of debt and crop failure are the most common causes of farmer suicides. In Karnataka alone, an estimated 70 per cent of the farmer suicides were due to indebtedness. The agrarian crisis, therefore, can impact the BJPs fortunes in not only these states but nationally as well.

The Economic Survey admits that the promise of doubling farm incomes by 2022 is a distant dream. In the last four years, real agricultural revenues have stagnated and the medium term prospects are also dim. The Survey predicts that climate change may reduce farm incomes by up to a quarter.

Mr Jaitley seems to have achieved two immediate outcomes though. He has given campaign talking points to his party. The party will now get a political opening in rural areas. He may have also succeeded in dividing the broadly homogeneous farmers movement. The big farmers may stay away from agitations  assuaged by the carrot of an enhanced MSP.

Others may not gain from the promised bounty. Mr Jaitley himself has noted that 86 per cent of Indian farmers are small or marginal. Clearly, the number of those who can effectively participate in the market remains small.

The governments credibility on enhanced MSP is also not very high. The claim that the enhanced MSP which has been announced was already offered in the last rabi season seems false  it was less than even the production cost.

Calculating the cost of production remains a contentious issue. The agriculture ministry had appointed a panel to examine the calculation of MSP. It pointed out several lacunae in the process, ranging from the sampling of villages for collection of cost data, undervaluing the time of the farmer, valuing it as unskilled labour, not projecting fixed costs for the year for which the MSP is announced, to underestimating land rents. None of this has been corrected.

The other issue is of procurement. Under adverse market conditions, state agencies like Food Corporation of India and NAFED are supposed to buy the harvest to support the price. There are 24 crops, including cereals, sugarcane, cotton, pulses and oilseeds that have official MSPs, but the state procures only about six of them. In addition, small farmers are forced to make distress sales to aartiyas (local trader-cum-moneylenders) at rock bottom prices.

The procurement is also skewed. In the recent past, due to enhanced MSP year after year, the procurement of rice and wheat far exceeds the minimum buffer stocks needed. On the other hand, there are crops like pulses and oilseeds that are procured only inadequately  either due to insufficient production or inefficiency of the agencies. The budgetary provision of Rs 200 crores for the governments market-intervention-cum-price-support-scheme also seems inadequate. At best then, the enhanced MSP announcement seems like a lollypop but with no lolly on it.

The infrastructure projects announced are also unlikely to have full impact by election time. Although the target for institutional credit has been increased by 10 per cent to Rs 11 lakh crores, the fact is that only one-third of small and marginal farmers access it. They lack the ability to either buy or lease more land or invest in irrigation, farm machinery and power to increase productivity.

Those small farmers who do take loans often cannot repay them. Their vulnerability to risk factors beyond prices is also increased by climate change and rising temperatures, weak or unpredictable rainfall, falling soil fertility, pests and crop diseases.

The cattle economy, which used to be the insurance of the small and marginal farmers against failed crops, has been ruined by the government with its cattle market rules to prevent cow slaughter. It is estimated that about 70 per cent of the livestock market in India is owned by 67 per cent of small and marginal farmers, and by the landless. They are scared stiff by cow vigilantes and afraid of buying or selling cattle. Once the mainstay of the rural poor against crop failure and inured against unpredictable climatic conditions, the cattle economy has become a risky business.

It seems unlikely, therefore, that in the run-up to the state Assembly elections, or even the Lok Sabha elections ahead, the political mood in the rural areas will change drastically because of the budgetary moves. What could change it, however, is the invocation of time-tested communal frenzy on the eve of the elections.Aiyaary revolves around two officers in uniform, played by Sidharth Malhotra and Manoj Bajpayee.

Mumbai: Sidharth Malhotra and Manoj Bajpayee starrer Aiyaary was in the news for long for its clash with Padman on Republic Day release. As Deepika Padukone-Shahid Kapoor-Ranveer Singh starrer Padmaavat announced that they would like the release their movie on the same day, Neeraj Pandey shifted his Aiyaary release to 9th February. As luck had it, Sanjay Leela Bhansali approached Akshay Kumar to delay Padmans release so Padmaavat could have a solo release. Akshay obliged to his request and now, Padman, also starring Sonam Kapoor and Radhika Apte in the lead roles, would release with Aiyaary yet again.

But now maybe the film might get delayed yet again, especially since it reportedly hasnt got clearance from the CBFC. This has happened, according to Hindustan Times, because the Defence Ministry wants to review the film along with the CBFC before giving it a go-ahead.

A source in the films production department told the daily, Since Aiyaary is set against the army backdrop, the Defence Ministry wants to review the film.

HT also reports that the trailer of this movie suggests that the film showcases corruption within the system, which is why it has been, reportedly, put under screening by the ministry.

Before getting a clearance, the makers cannot go ahead with overseas distribution either, which has put them in stress. More so, this can lead to the movies delay, if the defence ministry isnt happy with the kind of content shown in the film.

Aiyaary revolves around two officers in uniform, played by Sidharth Malhotra and Manoj Bajpayee, who were once each others support and now cannot come to terms with one another. The movie also stars Anupam Kher, Naseeruddin Shah, Rakul Preet Singh, Pooja Chopra in pivotal roles.But Salman also wants to ensure that the song is in good taste, because a pole dance is often perceived to be in the erotic genre.

Jacqueline Fernandez wants to have a pole dance again. And this time it will feature in Race 3. Salman Khan watched Jackkies dance number Chandralekha from A Gentleman and was left impressed

Salman felt that the song was pretty classy in the way it was choreographed. He has suggested to the makers of Race 3 that they could incorporate something better than what she did in A Gentleman, says a trade source.

But Salman also wants to ensure that the song is in good taste, because a pole dance is often perceived to be in the erotic genre. In fact, Salman wants the movie to have all the ingredients of a family entertainer.

Buzz is that the actor has already informed the makers, producer Ramesh Taurani and director Remo DSouza that there should be

no steamy sequences in the film, no reference to drugs and that the film should have a lot more comedy in it.

Sanskriti MediaIn agriculture, despite Prime Minister Narendra Modis shrill rhetoric, there has been no major investment by the State in recent years.

Agriculture is one of those sectors where we have seen no reforms, whether in terms of export-import policies or domestic constraints.

Looking back at the year that has passed and with a hopeful prognosis of the year ahead, the Economic Survey has, under the guidance of Dr Arvind Surbamanian, grown in ease of readership, attractive presentation of facts and a distinct approach to the economy. But like past surveys, it remains shy on the problems ahead.

Taking an optimistic view of the economy, it places GDP growth for this year at 6.75 per cent, compared to 6.5 per cent predicted by the Central Statistical Office. It also posits a rather attractive figure for next year, with GDP growth at an optimistic 7-7.75 per cent. While not predicting a number for the fiscal deficit, aimed at 3.2 per cent, it doesnt fail to present the problems that lie ahead.

The main problems are well known. The money sunk into ailing banks, a slowdown in public investment, rising petroleum prices, slowdown in remittances from Indian workers abroad, and the sharp rise in stock prices and the fear of their equally rapid fall with foreign investors pulling out. Insufficient notice has been given in the Survey to the lasting effects of demonetisation or the fall in economic activity due to the implementation of GST.

Another Rs 88,139 crores capital will be put into banks  Rs 80,000 crores via recapitalisation bonds and Rs 8,139 crores in budgetary allocations. Of this, 46 per cent more capital will go into the weaker banks instead of better performing ones. This begs the question  are we really at the bottom of the NPA cycle? If not, the Centres big bank recap plan could fall flat on its face. Most of the money it gets to shore up the banks will be from the sale of PSUs, including possibly Air India. The government looks set to bring asset sales of about Rs 92,500 crores in this financial year, well above the initial Rs 72,500-crore target. A substantial amount is expected to come from the sale proceeds of the airline.

Overseas remittances from Indian workers, mainly in West Asia, has been an unsung part of our foreign exchange earnings, being larger than software exports. This is expected to fall in the next few years, and it has not been sufficiently taken into account. Together with an expected rise in petroleum prices, this would pressure on our current account deficit. The rising prices of petroleum will also put the government in a bind. Crude oil has gained 25 per cent in the past year, and the government has to do a balancing act between lowering excise and government income or raising fuel prices and angering its middle-class supporters.

Another big bonanza for the government has been the rise of the stock market to unsustainable levels. The price/equity ratio of the Sensex (an indicator of market performance) is now 26.4, compared to 21.9 for the American Dow, 19.6 for Germany and 11.0 for Singapore. Unsustainable values of this kind are bound to lead to a crash in share prices as foreign investors move out.

The Survey puts an optimistic spin on the effects of demonetisation and GSTs introduction. On GST, the Survey notes that despite more long-term challenges, the number of GST taxpayers has gone up by 50 per cent. But it doesnt take into account the fact that GST receipts fell by 14 per cent to just over `80,000 crores in December 2017. Besides, it takes an unfairly optimistic view of the effects of demonetisation. The GDP growth rate fell to 5.7 per cent in April-June 2017 before rising to 6.3 per in the next quarter, largely because of the festive season. The effect of demonetisation is far from over, and to ignore that is only to say what the current government wants its economists to project.

The fiscal deficit is also expected to cross the 3.2 per cent target since from April to November, the governments fiscal deficit was 112 per cent of its ` 5.5 trillion target for the current fiscal year 2017-18. With the fiscal deficit target being dropped, the overall position of the government gets weaker as it is an important indicator for foreign investors. But it should not be so if the deficit is needed to kickstart the economy (as Keynes had sometimes recommended).

Apart from the fiscal slowdown, the Survey presents its long-term view in five chapters devoted to the challenges of long-term economic convergence, gender inequality, climate change and agriculture, delays in the appeals and judicial process, and science and technology.

The Survey warns that climate change could affect farmers incomes by up to 20 to 25 per cent in the medium term, and suggests a dramatic improvement in irrigation, use of new technologies and better targeting of power and fertiliser subsidies to tackle the results. The main drivers of growth  manufacturing and agriculture  are both in the doldrums. In the case of manufacturing, this is because there is no government investment and the private sector has no money to invest.

In agriculture, despite Prime Minister Narendra Modis shrill rhetoric, there has been no major investment by the State in recent years. Agriculture is one of those sectors where we have seen no reforms, whether in terms of export-import policies or domestic constraints. Higher productivity and incomes will come from a shift from cereal crops to animal husbandry growing fruits and vegetables. To increase productivity, it requires massive investment in water and further investments are needed to generate full-time jobs in rural services.

The Union Budget which finance minister Arun Jaitley will present in Parliament on Thursday will indicate how closely the government follows the findings of the Economic Survey.Lalu Yadav who is serving a jail term for his role in two fodder scam cases had challenged CBI courts verdict in the Jharkhand high court.

Patna: Jharkhand High Court on Friday deferred hearing on Lalu Yadavs bail plea for two weeks. The CBI court had convicted Lalu Yadav for offences related to cheating and criminal conspiracy under different sections of the IPC and the Prevention of corruption act.

Lalu Yadav who is serving a jail term for his role in two fodder scam cases had challenged CBI courts verdict in the Jharkhand high court.

His lawyer Anant Kumar told this newspaper from Ranchi that we had applied for bail which will come up for hearing after two weeks as the High Court wants to see records of lower court verdict.

The CBI Court had sentenced Lalu Yadav to three and half years in prison on January 6 this year in a case related to fraudulent withdrawal of `89.27 Lakh from the Deoghar treasury between 1991 and 1994.

This was the second conviction of RJD Chief Lalu Yadav in the scam that had surfaced for the first time 21 years ago.

He was also found guilty in the third case related to fodder scam on January 24 and sentenced to prison for five years pertaining to illegal withdrawal of `33.61 crores from Chaibasa treasury when he was the Chief Minister of Bihar in 1992 -93.

Hearing related to his bail in the Chaibasa treasury case is also likely in another one week time, Lawyer Anant Kumar said. Political observers are of the view that Lalus trouble may not end with bail in this case as he facing trial in three other fodder scam cases. Hearing in two cases has almost ended and the court may pronounce verdict within few months.The militants had gone to Pakistan on valid visa to obtain arms training to undertake terrorist activities in the Valley.

Two Pakistan-trained Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) militants were arrested during a joint operation by the police, Army and the CRPF. (Representational Image)

Srinagar: Two Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) cadres from Jammu and Kashmir were arrested by the police soon after they returned home from Pakistan via Wagah-Attari border, an official said in Srinagar on Saturday.

The duo had gone to Pakistan on valid visa issued by the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi allegedly to undergo arms training. But before they could formally join the militant ranks, the J&K police with the help of other security forces including the Army and the CRPF arrested them from native district Baramulla in northwest of the Valley.

The police officials identified the accused as Abdul Majeed Bhat and Muhammad Ashraf Mir.

They are residents of Mughalpora,Saloora in Kreeri and Nilla, Palpora in Pattan area of Baramulla, respectively.

They travelled on Indian passports and soon after returning to India via Wagah-Attari border were arrested, said one of the officials.

The officials claimed that the duo has during interrogation admitted to obtaining Indian passports for the purpose of visiting the neighbouring country to meet the LeT leadership and get trained in the use of weapons before carrying out terror acts in Jammu and Kashmir.

They have reportedly named some local Kashmiris who allegedly helped them in getting in contact with the LeT.

They also reportedly told their interrogators that they were imparted arms training in Pakistan along with a large number of Pakistani boys, most of them belonging to Balochistan, and as young as 10.

A police spokesman was quoted by PTI as saying The said terrorist training camps are located near Burma Town, in Islamabad, and being run by a terrorist commander operating under code names Hanzala, Adanan and Omar. Other terrorists imparting training to young boys are operating with code names Osama, Naveed and Hataf.

The spokesman further said, Its pertinent to mention that in the past couple of years, police have unearthed several such modules that lure young boys to Pakistan to get trained and join militancy. In the past, several such boys have been arrested, while some of them were killed in encounters.

Meanwhile, two CRPF jawans and two shopkeepers were injured when militants tossed a hand grenade towards a foot patrol of the CRPFs 180 Battalion along Batagund-Kuchmulla road in Tral area of southern Pulwama district on Saturday. The injured were quickly shifted to Trals government-run sub-district hospital, the police said.

The witnesses said that the CRPF personnel fired their rifles in the air after the blast and then with the arrival of reinforcement from the CRPF and the J&K police launched a search operation in the area. No arrests were made.Irked Mehbooba said, 'Shocked and disturbed to hear reports of Kashmiri students being assaulted in Mahendargarh, Haryana.'

The victims were beaten up while returning to the campus after offering congregational Friday prayers in Mahendragarh town. (Photo: ANI | Twitter)

New Delhi: Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti has urged the Haryana government to take stringent action against the perpetrators for assaulting two Kashmiri students and demanded a probe into the case.

Mehbooba made the statement on Friday, hours after reports of the Kashmiri students of the Haryana Central University being assaulted surfaced.

The victims were beaten up while returning to the campus after offering congregational Friday prayers in Mahendragarh town.

Irked Mehbooba took to Twitter and said, "Shocked and disturbed to hear reports of Kashmiri students being assaulted in Mahendargarh, Haryana."

Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah tagged Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a tweet and said that the incident goes against the spirit of his outreach for Kashmiris.

"This is terrible and goes against the spirit of what @PMOIndia @narendramodi ji said from the ramparts of the Red Fort. I hope the authorities in Haryana act quickly against this violence."

The reason behind the attack is yet not known.

Mahendragarh District Commissioner, Garima Mittal said that three accused have been arrested and a few others have been identified.

Jammu and Kashmir Director General of Police Shesh Paul Vaid has been coordinating with his Haryana counterpart to ensure the safety of the Kashmiri youths.A bus reportedly jumped signal at Chingrighata crossing on the Eastern Metropolitan Bypass, killing the two youth.

Angry locals also set at least three buses on fire in anger. (Photo: ANI/Twitter)

Kolkata: Two college students mowed down by a bus reportedly jumped signal at Chingrighata crossing on the Eastern Metropolitan Bypass (EM Bypass), an arterial road of Kolkata, on Saturday.

The two victims, who died on the spot, are boys from the locality adjacent to the bypass.

Soon after the incident, clashes erupted between locals and police in the area.

Agitated mob started pelting stones on cars and at the police that had rushed to the spot.

Locals also set at least three buses on fire in anger.

The police allegedly resorted to a lathicharge to control the situation and that enraged the crowd.

The stone throwing intensified and when fire engines tried to reach the spot to put out the flames, those were pelted with stones too.

According to reports, the two dead youth Biswajit Bhuiyan and Sanjay Banik, were first year college students who were apparently crossing the road to go to a shop to buy some sweets.

The local Trinamool Congress MLA, Sujit Bose, rushed to the spot but that did not help calm the anger of the agitated mob.

The locals want a subway to cross the busy road. I have spoken to the locals to understand their problems. The government will try to help the families of the two students who died, Hindustan Times quoted Bose as saying.

Bose added that "It was an unfortunate accident but I urge people to remain calm."

Locals complained that the accident on Saturday took place due to lack of vigil by the traffic police near the site.

Traffic has come to a halt for at least two hours on the EM Bypass that connects extreme south Kolkata to the airport via Salt Lake, Rajarhat and Newtown and the IT hub of the city.

Locals also ransacked private cars and taxis. Their anger was also directed at the police. People have been forced to get off stranded transport and walk to their destinations.Dave said the death of Loya was a serious matter and unless a thorough probe was conducted the entire truth would not come out.

New Delhi: Senior advocate Dushyant Dave made a fervent plea in the Supreme Court on Friday for a probe by a special investigation team into the death of H.B. Loya, for CBI judicial officer under mysterious circumstances on December 1, 2014 in Nagpur.

Appearing for the Bombay high courts advocates association, Mr. Dave told a three judge Bench of chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A.M. Kanwilkar and D.Y. Chandrachud that such an independent probe was necessary in view of bundle of contradictions in the report of the Commissioner of Intelligence Maharashtra. He said the death of Loya was a serious matter and unless a thorough probe was conducted the entire truth would not come out.

He criticised the Maharashtra government for resisting and opposing SIT probe. Mr Mukul Rohatgi for Maharashtra along with Harish Salve informed the bench that after the publication of various media reports, a discreet inquiry was instituted to examine the circumstances in which Loya had died in December 2014. Mr. Rohatgi said according to the report, four judicial officers who accompanied Loya to the hospital after he complained of chest pain have denied any foul play in their statements.

He said that this report was submitted to the Bombay High Court chief justice on November 23, 2017.

Mr. Dave, however, alleged that the reports are contradictory and an attempt was being made to conceal the real facts and highlighted that Loya was trying the politically sensitive Sohrabuddin Sheikh encounter killing case when he was found dead under mysterious circumstances. Mr. Dave also claimed that both Mr. Salve and Mr. Rohatgi had once appeared for BJP president Amit Shah in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh case and they are not defending Maharashtra government. He also alleged that Mr. Shah had offered bribe to Loyas father and sister to prevent a probe.

Mr. Rohatgi quoting the probe report said four judicial officers had given statement as to how Judge Loya, who complained of chest pain early in the morning, was carried to one hospital in a car, placed on a stretcher and taken into the ICU. Therefore while being taken to another hospital, he died and that was why post mortem was conducted.

Justice Chandrachud referring to Mr. Daves submission that Loyas wife was not informed and she did not rush to Nagpur observed sometimes how individuals react to a calamity on the death of a person that may not have a bearing on the nature of death.

Advocate Dr. Gunarathan Satavarte, appearing for Maharashtra Administrative Tribunal bar association urged the court to order notice to Mr. Shah as he was directly involved in the death of Loya. He said a judge had given a statement about the involvement of Mr. Shah. The court however, refused to order notice to Mr. Shah and posted the matter for further hearing on February 5.The arguments in the matter remained inconclusive and the court fixed the matter for further hearing on February 5.

Judge Loya, who was hearing the Sohrabuddin Sheikh case, died of cardiac arrest in Nagpur on December 1, 2014, when he had gone to attend the wedding of a colleague's daughter. (Photo: File)

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday sternly said that it was concerned only with the death of special CBI judge BH Loya, and would not go into other aspects including BJP chief Amit Shah's discharge in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case.

The top court, which is hearing petitions seeking an independent investigation into Judge Loya's death in 2014, made it clear that the issue before it was whether further probe should be ordered into it or not.

Judge Loya, who was hearing the Sohrabuddin Sheikh case, died of cardiac arrest in Nagpur on December 1, 2014, when he had gone to attend the wedding of a colleague's daughter.

After his death, special judge MB Gosavi, who took over the trial, had discharged Amit Shah and some other accused.

When the petitions seeking an independent probe into Judge Loya's death came up for hearing before a bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra, one of the advocates said he had filed a plea in the Bombay High Court, which has now been transferred to the Supreme Court. He said he had made Amit Shah one of the respondents.

When the lawyer sought that notices should be issued on his plea, the bench said, "We will permit you to argue. There is no question of issuing notice."

"We are only concerned with the death of the judge. We are not on other cases at all. This message must go loud and clear," the bench, also comprising Justices AM Khanwilkar and DY Chandrachud, said.

When Amit Shah's name was raised, senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, representing the Maharashtra government, said, "This is the real purpose of these petitions".

Senior counsel Dushyant Dave, representing Bombay Lawyers Association, said it was a "very serious matter" and it would be proper if pleadings in the case were completed first.

Referring to a report by Commissioner of Intelligence (CID) of Maharashtra, Mr Dave said an independent probe was required as it contained "bundle of discrepencies" and "contradictions".

At the last hearing, Dave was warned by the top court against casting aspersions on Shah in the case, and on Friday he said that the same set of advocates, who had defended the BJP chief in the matter, were now appearing for the state.

Senior advocate V Giri, representing Congress leader Tehseen Poonawalla, who has also sought a probe into Judge Loya's death, raised questions about the veracity of reports filed by the state, and said the records must be placed before the court.

Mr Rohatgi countered the submissions, saying "Except for maligning the judiciary and have (media) glare, there is something more to it. We have given the entire records, please see that," Rohatgi told the bench.

To this, the bench told Dushyant Dave, "Let us have a bird's eye view of your case and let us see what the documents are."

Dave narrated the sequence of events prior to and after Judge Loya's death, and said serious questions have been raised about what had really happened since there were "overwritings" on several crucial documents.

Dave wanted to know how special judge JT Utpat, who was hearing the Sohrabuddin Sheikh case before Judge Loya took over, was transferred, and said the circumstances warranted an independent probe.

He said the CBI had not appealed against the discharge of Amit Shah, while it did move court to challenge the discharge of some police officials.

When he said a "third person" accompanied Judge Loya's body to his native place, Rohatgi referred to the statements of district judges that said two judicial officers had gone with his mortal remains.

Dushyant Dave, however, insisted that family members of Judge Loya were "kept in the dark", and claimed that statement of Judge Loya's wife was taken under pressure.

"Please call his wife, father and sister, and talk to them in chamber. If they say that they do not want any probe then we will not say anything," he said, and alleged that Judge Loya's son was also under pressure.

Terming the discharge of Amit Shah in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh case as "extraordinary", he said, in such a serious matter, an independent probe was needed, and the court should not "throw out" the petitions at the threshold.

Senior advocate Indira Jaising, appearing for one of the applicants, said the state should be asked to produce the original records, including the register of the government guest house, where Judge Loya had stayed in Nagpur, and his ECG report.

Rohatgi said he would show the original records.

The arguments in the matter remained inconclusive and the court fixed the matter for further hearing on February 5.

Judge Loya's death came under the spotlight in November last year after media reports quoting his sister fuelled suspicion about the circumstances surrounding it, and its possible link to the Sohrabuddin case.

However, Judge Loya's son Anuj had on January 14 said in Mumbai that his father had died of natural causes and that the family does not want any further investigation.

During the hearing on January 22, the top court had restrained other high courts from entertaining any petition relating to Judge Loya's death and transferred to itself the pleas pending before the Bombay High Court.A three-judge Bench of CJI described it as imaginative.

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday refused to entertain a PIL for making laws pertaining to rape, sexual harassment, stalking, voyeurism, outraging the modesty etc gender-neutral offence to punish both man and woman.

A three-judge Bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A.M. Kanwilkar and D.Y. Chandrachud dismissed at the admission stage the PIL filed by advocate Rishi Malhotra describing it as imaginative and innovative.

The CJI told the counsel these are affirmative provisions (in the IPC) for the protection of women and in their favour. We cannot agree with your argument. This appears to us like an imaginative petition. Actually these are valid classification.

Mr. Malhotra argued that crime has no gender and neither should our laws. Women commit crime for the same reasons that men do. The law does not and should not distinguish between criminals and every person who has committed an offence is liable to punishment under the Cr.P.C.

Refusing to accept the submissions, Justice Chandrachud told Mr. Malhotra that even otherwise amending legislation was the job of the Prliament. It is up to the parliament. We cannot direct the Parliament to collect data regarding it. . We are not saying a woman cannot rape a man but these come under different offence under IPC.

The CJI observed, Even if we feel the legislation should have been gender-neutral what we feel is legislature would have acted as per what was the urgency.

The petitioner challenged the constitutional validity of IPC Sections 354, 353 A, B, C and D as well as Section 375 as they discriminate men against women in the commission of the offence which directly violates of Article 14 and Article 15 of the Constitution as women too rape men.

He quoted a survey which said that 16 per cent of men had stated that they been coerced into having sex. Despite rape of men not researched as widely as rape of female.The Union health ministry and states will have to work out these aspects, sources said.

New Delhi: The much-hyped National Health Protection Scheme (NHPS), announced by finance minister Arun Jaitley and for which Rs 2,000 crore has been allocated in the Union Budget for 2018-19, has been termed by experts as old wine in a new bottle. It had been announced by the NDA government in its 2016-17 Budget also. However, highly placed sources said that with the Centre keen on keeping the focus of the budgetary exercise on the poor and farmers, the scheme was re-introduced with higher insurance coverage, which is now hiked to Rs 5 lakh per family annually from the earlier Rs 1 lakh per family.

While the scope of coverage under the updated version of the NHPS has been widened, and it will be funded under a 60:40 ratio by the Centre and states, several ends are yet to be tied up despite the scheme having been announced in the Budget. Sources in the know said certain aspects are yet to be worked out like whether serious and terminal illnesses like kidney ailments, cancer and tuberculosis will be covered under it.

Whether states will pay for premium amounts is another aspect which is to be discussed with them, sources privy to details said. Also with several states like Kerala, Andhra Prad-esh and Rajasthan already running similar schemes, whether there is any consensus between them and the Centre on implementing NHPS, they added.

Scepticism on smooth implementation of the scheme stems from the fact that while Niti Aayog and the health ministry have worked out that around Rs 11,000 crore is estimated for premium payment in the first year. Sources indicated that even if around Rs 5,000 crore is realised in the first year then additional funds will be needed in future to run the scheme. Thus indicating that taking states on board could be a challenging task.

The Union health ministry and states will have to work out these aspects, sources said.

In its current avatar, the scheme will offer an insurance coverage up to Rs 5 lakh per family annually for secondary and tertiary care hospitalisation. Cover will be provided to over 10 crore poor and vulnerable families, the finance minister had said in the Budget speech.

Sources privy to the developments told this newspaper that though the NHPS had been announced by Mr Jaitley in his Budget two years ago, the PMO was not happy with the schemes outreach.

With this being the last full Budget of the NDA government before the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the high-profile NHPS and the announcement to fix minimum support price (MSP) for crops are being considered two major sops for the poor and farmers.Rijiju, who is also the in-charge of Nagaland BJP, said that his government was prepared to hold the elections in the state.

Guwahati: Union minister of state Kiren Rijiju on Saturday said that government of India appreciate the sentiment of tribal bodies for an early solution to the Naga problem, but postponing or deferring the Assembly elections was not possible.

Mr Rijiju also announced that BJP has entered into an electoral alliance with newly-floated National Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP) led by Neiphiu Rio.

Asking the armed rebels groups to give up the idea of disrupting the elections, Mr Rijiju, who is also the in-charge of Nagaland BJP, said that his government was prepared to hold the elections in the state. We have made all necessary arrangement to hold the elections in a peaceful manner, said Mr Rijiju warning that no one should indulge in or try to disrupt the elections process.

Indicating that the Government of India was firm on holding the elections, Mr Rijiju said, We have conveyed to all armed rebel groups to refrain from indulging in any activities disrupting the ongoing elections. The ground rules should be followed strictly.

Ignoring the boycott call of military wing of NSCN (I-M), Mr Rijiju said that security forces have been asked to ensure that ground rules of the ceasefire agreement is strictly followed by all the armed groups in Nagaland.

The Union government is sensitive to the popular sentiments of the Naga people and is committed to an early solution to the issue, he said, adding that Centre attaches utmost importance to the Naga issue and has full faith in the on-going talks, saying peaceful elections in Nagaland will facilitate the talks and strengthen its commitment.

He appealed to all civil society groups to withdraw their call to boycott the election and asserted that timely holding of polls was a constitutional process and the Centre is bound by constitutional provisions.It is the extreme point of the Line of Actual Control, the border between India and China and Indias northernmost build-up area.

Srinagar: Defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday visited Daulat Beg Oldie, the worlds highest airfield, situated at a height of 16,700 feet in eastern Ladakh, to interact with the Indian troops. Temperature plummets as low as -55C in winters in the area.

A defence spokesman here said that the defence minister had earlier arrived at Thoise, a base-camp of the Indian Army along the India-China border, where she was briefed on the operational preparedness by the officers of the Army.

Later, she visited the highest post in Daulat Beg Oldie sector and Chushul along the Indo-China border in Eastern Ladakh. This was her first-ever visit to DBO (Daulat Beg Oldie) sector and to one of the highest posts in Eastern Ladakh. She was flown in an Army Aviation ALH helicopter, the spokesman said.

Lt. Gen. Devraj Anbu, the Commander of Armys Northern Command and the Corps Commander of the Ladakh Corps accompanied her during the visit.

While interacting with the troops, the Defence Minister complimented them on their steadfastness and dedication despite the harsh climate and terrain. Her visit has further boosted the morale of the troops deployed at these extremely difficult snow-covered locations in Ladakh, a statement issued by the Northern Command said.

Daulat Beg Oldie is located near the easternmost point of the Karakoram Range in the cold desert of Ladakh and just 8 km south of the Chinese border and 9 km northwest of the Aksai Chin.

It is the extreme point of the Line of Actual Control, the border between India and China and Indias northernmost build-up area.

The Indian Army maintains helipads and a gravel airstrip here. It is also one of the five officially agreed Border Personnel Meeting (BPM) points between the Indian Army and the Peoples Liberation Army of China. The place is named after Daulat Beg, a 16th-century Yarkandi nobleman who is supposed to have died at this place after descent from the Karakoram Pass, which is 17 km to the northwest on the Indo-Chinese border.The Congress has been critical of the economic policies of the Modi government.

New Delhi: Congress president Rahul Gandhi took a dig at the Narendra Modi governments Budget, saying that the stock market has given a no confidence motion against it after the benchmark BSE-Sensex tumbled 840 points to close at 35,066  its biggest single-day fall in two-and-a-half years.

In parliamentary language, the Sensex just placed a solid 800 point No Confidence Motion against Modis Budget, Mr Gandhi tweeted.

The Congress has been critical of the economic policies of the Modi government.

On Thursday, the Gandhi scion alleged that in four years, the NDA government had not provided any jobs and made several promises, including those to farmers and youth. 4 years gone; still promising farmers a fair price. 4 years gone; Fancy Schemes, with No matching budgets. 4 years gone; no JOBS for our YOUTH. Thankfully, only 1 more year to go. #Budget2018, he tweeted on Thursday.

The principal opposition party Congress has already said that the finance minister will have a lot to explain once the discussion on the Budget in Parliament next week.

In the recently concluded Assembly elections, the Congress had tried to corner the Central government on the issues of unemployment and job losses in the country.The Congress victory in the just-concluded Rajasthan Lok Sabha bypoll in Alwar is also being credited to Mr Gehlot.

New Delhi: Ahead of the crucial Assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan later this year, the Congress high command is caught in a dilemma over projecting chief ministerial candidates.

While in Rajasthan its a toss up between Sachin Pilot and Ashok Gehlot, in Madhya Pradesh Jyotiraditya Scindia and Kamal Nath camps have locked horns. Factionalism among the top leaders in both the states seems to be simmering.

While in Madhya Pradesh, three top Congress leaders  Mr Scindia, Mr Nath and Digvijay Singh  are in the race for being named the chief ministerial nominee, in Rajasthan the Gehlot camp is tacitly mounting pressure on Congress president Rahul Gandhi to make their leader the face of the party.

The Gehlot camp is projecting the Congress stellar performance in Gujarat elections last year to drive home its argument. His supporters are highlighting the achievements of Mr Gehlot who was in-charge of party affairs in the home state of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The Congress victory in the just-concluded Rajasthan Lok Sabha bypoll in Alwar is also being credited to Mr Gehlot. The Congress could win Alwar only because of Mr Gehlot, said one of his supporter.

It may be recalled that in the Rajasthan bypolls, the Congress won both Ajmer and Alwar Lok Sabha seats and trounced the BJP in the Mandalgarh Assembly constituency.

Mr Gehlot had held a road show in Alwar and campaigned actively in the constituency. In Ajmer, it was Mr Pilot, the state Congress chief, who led the charge against the BJP.

A section of Congressmen pitching for Mr Pilot and Mr Scindia as the partys chief ministerial faces in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh respectively, feel that under the new Congress president the time has come for generation next to take charge.

With Congress scoring 3-0 in Rajasthan, a section in the party feels that Mr Pilot has zipped ahead of Mr Gehlot in the race for the post of chief ministerial candidate.

The battle among the top three in Madhya Pradesh is much more severe. Reports reveal that both Mr Nath (71) and Mr Scindia (47) have submitted their winning formula to Mr Gandhi.

Mr Singh (70), though perceived to be lagging far behind the two, has not yet thrown in the towel. He is being credited for the massive win for the party in the Raghogarh civic polls in which the Congress bagged a staggering 20 of the 24 seats, decimating the BJP.

Raghogarh is Mr Singhs hometown.. He has also embarked on a 3,300-km-long Narmada Parikrama, expected to end by mid-March.

The Kamal Nath camp, meanwhile, is going full throttle to persuade the high command as, at the age of 71, this will be his last shot at the top post. Mr Nath, apparently, has the backing of Mr Singh.

The Congress president is expected to take a call and hold parleys to end factionalism in the states, particularly in Madhya Pradesh.The group slammed the governments claims of the budget being pro-farmers.

Mumbai: Swaraj India leader Yogendra Yadav has alleged that the budget is to cheat farmers. So much so that Mr Yadav formed a human chain in Mumbai to highlight farmers issues. Later, while addressing the media, he claimed that though it was being widely reported that the budget was pro-farmers, in reality it had zero value for farmers.

Swaraj India, along with farmers organisations like Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana (SSS), Lok Sangharsha and Kisan Jan Andolan organised a human chain at Tardeo over farmers issues. The group slammed the governments claims of the budget being pro-farmers. The budget has betrayed farmers and now, farmers will not tolerate this anymore, said Mr Yadav.

He said that the budgetary allocation for agriculture had not increased. Numbers show that allocation is completely unchanged. Whats more, a few heads like disaster management, market intervention budget and price stabilisation funds have been allocated less money. So, Mr Jaitley calling it an agriculture budget is a complete lie, said Mr Yadav.

Ravikant Tupkar of SSS slammed the union government for the MSP of 1.5 times the production cost. This same government has given an affidavit in the apex court saying that a price 50 per cent more than the production cost is not possible. And now they are giving the assurance of MSP which the PM had during his campaign rallies of 2014. Do they think farmers in this country are fools! he said.

In March, this country will see unprecedented farmers protests all over India. They have left us no option, said Mr Yadav.In addition to crop farming, Indias livestock economy too is under serious threat.

Mumbai: While the Union Budget has addressed the agrarian crisis engulfing the country, experts are of the view that not much has been done to tackle the root problem.

According to the economic survey by the central government, climate change in the form of unfavourable rainfall and temperature will reduce farmers income by up to 25 per cent. However, the budget speech stressed on irrigation methods while reducing the budget allocated for a climate change action plan by 71 per cent since 2015-16, according to the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE).

Sunita Narain, director general, CSE, said, This essentially finds reflection in the analysis of Indian agriculture carried out by the Economic Survey 2018, which says that Indian agriculture is at an extremely high risk because of climate change. Productivity is bound to be impacted severely. This is really a crisis which is beyond one budget, but what is significant is that the government now recognises the fact that this crisis needs to be resolved.

Experts also said that there hasnt been a significant increase in budget allocation for increasing irrigation methods as asserted in the budget speech. Milind Murugkar, an agriculture expert, said, There has been no increase of budgets in macro-irrigation. In fact, the state government has announced that farmers will be getting 50 per cent more than the cost price of their product but surprisingly, there has been no budget allocation for the same.

In addition to crop farming, Indias livestock economy too is under serious threat. Ms Narain said, Livestock ownership is much more equitable in India than ownership of land. Demonetising the livestock economy will destroy and impoverish the poorest.

According to the CSE, the government has reduced budgetary allocation for solar power -off grid/distributed and decentralised renewable power from Rs 1,120 crore in 2017-2018 to Rs 1,036.4 crore.According to sources, Mr Pawar told Mr Gandhi that the alliance should be declared as soon as possible.

Mumbai: In the wake of their party chiefs meeting in New Delhi, leaders of the Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) will meet on February 6 to initiate alliance talks. Succumbing to pressure of workers and MLAs of both parties to form an alliance at the earliest, the Congress and NCPs senior leaders from the state unit will meet in Mumbai and chart out the alliance plan.

State leaders from both parties received messages from their respective high commands in New Delhi to initiate a talk for an alliance as early as possible. According to the instructions, Congress state chief Ashok Chavan and NCP state chief Sunil Tatkare decided to meet in Mumbai on Tuesday. This development comes after NCP chief Sharad Pawar and Congress president Rahul Gandhi met in New Delhi.

According to sources, Mr Pawar told Mr Gandhi that the alliance should be declared as soon as possible. There was public demand for an alliance between Congress and NCP MLAs after the Gujarat Assembly elections results were out. Sources said Mr Pawar pointed out this to Mr Gandhi.

To defeat communal forces, workers have been strongly demanding that an alliance be built between like-minded parties. For starters, NCP and Congress will sit together. We will let you know about the details of the meeting afterwards, said Mr Nawab Malik, NCP spokesperson.

Congress and NCP were allies in the state government for 15 years and in the Centre for 10. But in 2014 Assembly elections, alliance was broken over the details of seat sharing. Now as both have decided to initiate talks, seat sharing will be the key issue before them.Bombay HC rejects anticipatory bail plea as probe is still on

Mumbai: The Bombay high court refused to give any relief to Milind Ekbote, an accused in the case related to Bhima-Koregaon violence of January 1 in Pune where a youth had died. It rejected his anticipatory bail application, because of the petitioner's alleged instigation as a result of which the common man's routine was disturbed".

The prosecution while opposing the anticipatory bail application argued that it has some statements of people who saw him two days before, near Bhima-Koregaon in Pune district where the violence had happened. The prosecution also submitted a copy of the FIR before the court. The prosecution also showed an 'objectionable' press note issued by Ekbote.

Public prosecutor Prajakta Shinde informed the court that his call data records showed he had been in contact with several other accused persons in the case. Ekbote had 17 previous cases of atrocities registered against him, the prosecution said.

A division bench of justice S.C. Dharmadhikari and Justice Bharti Dangre observed, The probe is still on. The police are still recording statements of victims and collecting evidence.

The bench said that the entire incident could have been avoided if the local leaders as well as the general public had shown some discipline.

Ekbote's lawyer Nitin Pradhan argued that Pune session's court had erred in rejecting his anticipatory bail plea last month.

Pradhan argued that JNU student Umar Khalid and Gujarat MLA Jignesh Mewani had given provocative speeches in Elgar Parishad event due to which the violence had occured.

Ekbote, however, argued he had been planning to go to Bhima-Koregaon on December 30 to appeal to the public to maintain peace.

However, the police advised me against going there and so I stopped at a hotel about 4 km away. I held a press conference there and distributed a press note which was in no way provocative, he said.Churchgate saw noise levels as high as 110 dB due to drilling activities while Cuffe Parade recorded 92.5 dB despite the noise barriers.

Mumbai: Noise levels from construction work at Metro-3 sites have reached up to 100 decibels, equivalent to that of a power lawn mower, said non-profit organisation Awaaz Foundation on Saturday.

The NGO recorded the readings over the past few days after complaints were received from residents. It also contended that drilling work was being carried out within 10 feet from residential buildings at various sites such as Mahim, Cuffe Parade and Churchgate, which had led to continuous exposure to high noise levels by residents.

When Awaaz Foundation reached the site of metro construction in Mahim (east), it learned that the noise levels there were as high as 106.1 dB. The drilling work was being done within six feet of residential buildings. When world-class infrastructure has been announced for the city, why are the authorities concerned not providing world-class facilities for the construction work as well? Continuous noise levels, that are this high, could impede the health of senior citizens, said Sumaira Abdulali, Founder of Awaaz Foundation.

Churchgate saw noise levels as high as 110 dB due to drilling activities while Cuffe Parade recorded 92.5 dB despite the noise barriers. There are metallic sheets installed in the area in the name of noise barriers.

How can they curb noise levels around high-rise residential buildings? In fact, except for Cuffe Parade, there have been no noise barriers at other sites. There are several modern technologies used in other countries like noise mufflers and silencers at construction sites, said Ms Abdulali.

Meanwhile, the MMRC refused to comment on the matter.

The high court-appointed committee had recently directed the Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation (MMRC) to come up with a solution to the increasing noise levels from the work. The petitioner, Robin Jaisinghani, had contended that at several instances, metro construction work was being carried out even beyond the high court deadline of 10 pm.The other accused, Sambhaji Bhide, may remain free, as the police does not have anything linking him to the violence.

Mumbai: The police is likely to arrest Milind Ekbote, one of the accused in the Bhima-Koregaon violence case, as the Bombay high court has rejected his anticipatory bail plea.

The other accused, Sambhaji Bhide, may remain free, as the police does not have anything linking him to the violence. No action will be taken until strong evidence against him is obtained, said a high-level source from the home department.

Minister of state for home Deepak Kesarkar told The Asian Age, The police is investigating the matter and will take the necessary steps. Republican Party of India (RPI) leader Prakash Ambedkar, however, demanded the immediate arrest of the duo.

According to sources, the police has obtained sufficient proof against Ekbote, the leader of Hindutva outfit Samasta Hindu Aghadi, to act against him. The right-wing leader was allegedly in contact with many persons in Bhima-Koregaon who were involved in the violence.

He had also visited the area before the violence erupted.Bhide, however, had not visited Bhima-Koregaon during that period or contacted persons from the locality.

Sources said that the government fears that if the police takes any action against Bhide, the leader of Shiv Pratishthan Hindustan, there might be a strong reaction from Hindutva organisations.

Meanwhile, stating that the government was not taking any action in the matter, Mr Ambedkar said he would meet chief minister Devendra Fadnavis next week. We are firm on our demand that action be taken against Bhide and Ekbote. The high court rejected Ekbotes anticipatory bail application after verifying the evidence against him. Why is the police waiting now? I have evidence against Bhide also. He was present at a meeting prior to the incident. The police should take action against both of them.

Box: The high courts denial of bail to Ekbote has put pressure on the government, according to home department sources. There is the unrest amongst the dalit community over the issue; and if police does not arrest both the accused, it will send a wrong message, they said. The RPI, Congress and NCP have been targeting government over the matter ahead of the Budget session, which will start on February 26.The Indian programme in the Budget, that would cover 10 crore families, has an allocation so far of only Rs 2,000 crore.

On February 1, 2018, the finance minister during his Budget speech declared, I am pleased to announce two major initiatives as part of Ayushman Bharat We will launch a flagship National Health Protection Scheme to cover over 10 crore poor and vulnerable families (approximately 50 crore beneficiaries) providing coverage up to Rs 5 lakh per family per year for secondary and tertiary care hospitalisation. This will be the worlds largest government funded healthcare programme. Adequate funds will be provided for smooth implementation of this programme. The whole House applauded the initiative.

However, when the Budget documents came in, there was no elucidation of how the announcement would be implemented. Even the amount that was earmarked for the project was only Rs 2,000 crore. It all did not add up. How come such an ambitious programme had been announced in the Budget without a scheme to back it up? Then, as the day wore on, in the incessant cacophony of TV analysing the Budget to death, it emerged that a scheme had to be formulated as yet though some of the babus of the government, who also masquerade as spokespersons of the ruling dispensation, attempted to spin the embarrassment by claiming that some work ostensibly had been done on it.

A reputed financial journalist, M.K. Venu, tweeted a rough back-of-the-envelope calculation of the cost of the programme. He said and I quote, Obamacare healthcare subsidies covering 26 million families was estimated to cost $42 billion in 2017. Modicare covering 100 million families allocates $300 million! Even assuming healthcare in India costs one-tenth of US, Centre will still need at least $15 billion a year!

Decoded and translated into Indian numbers it means that, Obamacare, a health insurance programme in the United States that President Donald Trump has desperately tried to repeal and has been unsuccessful so far and thank God for it for it is a good noble programme, in the year 2017 alone would roughly cost about Rs 3 lakh crore for covering 2.6 crore families. The Indian programme in the Budget, that would cover 10 crore families, has an allocation so far of only Rs 2,000 crore. Assuming that the healthcare costs in India are one-tenth of the US, the programme would still roughly cost about Rs 1 lakh crore to implement.

The national convener of the Jan Swasthya Abhiyan, Dr Abhay Shukla, was quoted in a newspaper as saying: If the allocation is meant for 50 crore people, then the premium works out to Rs 40 for each.

After brouhaha for two days that the emperor announcement of the Budget does not seem to have any clothes, source-based reports quoting some unnamed officials appeared in newspapers suggesting that the health plan would be funded in the ratio of 60:40 between the Centre and states and may be rolled out nine months down the line, on October 2. Various guesstimates by various officials have pegged the quantum of funds required to implement the scheme at a ridiculously low number. However, the fundamental point remains that if the proposed health insurance plan was to be implemented in a federal-state paradigm, then were the states consulted before the announcement? Were they taken on board? States like Rajasthan, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu run their own medical insurance schemes. Are they and other states willing to give up their own schemes for a partnership with the Centre? If a Centre-state partnership was the template of the scheme, why was there no mention of it in the Budget speech?

Herein lies the problem with this government. Usually, when something as ambitious as this is conceived, there are intense consultations within the government and with other stakeholders. Approvals are taken, if required at the level of the Union Cabinet also, funds are earmarked and then a budgetary announcement is made. A classic example being the loan waiver scheme for farmers by the UPA government in 2008 that was announced by the then finance minister in his Budget speech. The Budget provided for the Rs 60,000 odd crore that were required to implement the announcement.

This is not something unusual. This is the standard template of government functioning that is followed across the country and even the better part of the world. However, all these traditions and conventions have been consigned to oblivion by the current dispensation.

Take the case of demonetisation that was announced on November 8, 2016, by the Prime Minister  a decision that in a span of couple of hours rendered 86 per cent of the legal tender redundant, plunged the nation into economic chaos, made every individual virtually penurious for his own money. Even two and a half years later it is not known whether the Cabinet approved the decision ex-facto or gave only post-facto clearance? Whether there was any substantive consultations within the government on the three benchmarks enumerated by the Prime Minister in his grandiloquent pronouncement to the nation, namely that it would unearth black money, proscribe fake currency or contain the financing of terror outlets? It took the Reserve Bank of India many months after repeated prodding to reveal how much of the demonetised currency was deposited back in the banks.

Finally when the figures came in, they told a very amusing tale that 98.96 per cent of the scrapped currency was re-deposited in the banks by the people of India. Therein also, the RBI, rather than being up-front about the single most painful economic measure, chose to bury the data in its annual report. Even then the bank chose to caveat its response in the following verbology subject to future corrections based on verification process when completed, the estimated value of the banned notes it received was Rs 15.28 lakh crore. This compared with the Rs 15.44 lakh crore of the banned notes that were in circulation as of November 8.

The government is now trying to spread a canard that the Opposition is envious and therefore critical about the health insurance initiative. Nothing could be further from the truth. The only thing that the Opposition wants is that this jumlaisation of governance must cease forthwith. If you announce a measure, fund it properly. Walk the talk.New Delhi is unlikely to join something framed as a US-led front to contain Beijing, says former American diplomat Alyssa Ayres.

Asked about the impression in the US that New Delhi is a 'good bet' to contain Beijing, she said India is unlikely to be part of such an initiative. (photo: AP)

Washington: India and China have a cold war-like relationship in the making but New Delhi is unlikely to join something framed as a US-led front to contain Beijing, a former American diplomat has said.

Alyssa Ayres, who served in the South and Central Asia Bureau of the State Department, made the remarks last week in New York during the launch of her latest book Our Time Has Come: How India is Making Its Place in the World.

It is a cold war-like relationship in the making. India and China have had a strong commercial relationship, but that is increasingly less satisfying for India, for many of the same reasons the United States is dissatisfied with its trade relationship with China, she said.

To a question on India-China ties, Ayres, currently a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, a top American think-tank, said that for a while the commercial relationship between the two countries had relegated their strategic competition to the backseat.

I think India (is) concerned about the increasingly larger presence that China is establishing across the Indian Ocean, with a base in Djibouti, she said.

She added that India may also be concerned over Chinas deep relationship with Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and the investments it is making in the two countries.

Asked about the impression in the US that New Delhi is a good bet to contain Beijing, she said India is unlikely to be part of such an initiative.

I think India is going to be highly unlikely to be enlisted in something framed as a US-led effort to contain China. That is not what India seeks to do. It seeks to defend its own interests. It seeks to uphold the liberal world order, Ayres said.

India has been a big supporter of global norms, of freedom of navigation. But it also partners with China in many arenas. The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), India is the number two capital contributor, she noted.

The BRICS organisation went from being just an idea in a research paper to being a real institution, she said, adding India is very active with that and the five-nation grouping has created its own development bank.

India became a member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation. Its hedging its own bets as global governance reform lags on in the 20th-century institutions. And so where it has put some of its eggs in the new organisations basket, it has partnered with China on that front, Ayres said.

To another question, she said that there would be a measured response from India if there was a repeat of the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attack.

Based on what we saw with the surgical strikes of the previous year or the year before last, I would not expect a completely passive response. I would expect something measured, but much more active, she said.Ashwin, 51, had denied the murder charge, claiming he lost his temper during an argument with Kiran Daudia at their home in Leicester.

However, the jury did not accept his version of events and found him guilty of killing his 46-year-old ex-wife. (Photo: Representational | File)

London: An Indian-origin man in UK on trial for killing his ex-wife and then stuffing her body into a suitcase was sentenced on Friday to at least 18 years in jail for murder.

Ashwin Daudia, 51, had denied the murder charge, claiming he lost his temper during an argument with Kiran Daudia at their home in Leicester last January and did not attack her deliberately. The prosecution, however, claimed that Daudia, who followed the court proceedings through a Gujarati interpreter, had continued to lie about the circumstances surrounding the killing and had committed the murder after growing increasingly resentful of his ex-wife, who had joined a dating agency to meet other men.

"I was angry, I lost control," he told the Leicester Crown Court, adding that Kiran Daudia had initially assaulted him and to silence her, he put his hand over her mouth and then forcefully squeezed her neck.

However, the jury did not accept his version of events and found him guilty of killing his 46-year-old ex-wife.

He admitted in court that he had lied to his two sons, relatives and the police and told them that his ex-wife did not return home from a morning shift at the call centre she worked at and hid her body in a suitcase to prevent his younger son from seeing it. The suitcase, along with the dead body, was discovered by the local police a day after the murder.

The accused was caught on CCTV dragging his ex-wife's body in a suitcase before dumping it in an alleyway.

The couple, who had an arranged marriage in India in 1988, were divorced in 2014 but continued living separate lives under the same roof.

The factory worker husband was to move out of the family home on January 16, 2017, when the attack occurred, the Leicester Mercury reported.

The victim's sister had bought the couple's family home in Leicester to ensure that Kiran Daudia could continue living there without her ex-husband after the divorce.

Their two sons chose to "side" with their mother and had relatively little to do with their father.

During the two-week murder trial which concluded on Friday, Ashwin Daudia claimed he lost his temper when his ex-wife shouted at him because he had not packed his bags or moved out. He claimed she swore at him and told him to go and die in India.

He denied the prosecution's suggestion that he had waited for his ex-wife to return home from work to deliberately kill her.

"I didn't do it deliberately, at that time my mind wasn't working," he told the court.Wang Yi said Beijing handled Doklam standoff with 'restraint', showing 'emphasis' it places on ties with New Delhi.

The face-off between armies of the two countries at the India-Bhutan-China tri-junction in Dokalam figured in the border personnel meeting. (Photo: PTI)

Beijing: China always values the good neighbourliness and friendship with India, but it is also firm on upholding its "sovereign rights", interests and territorial integrity, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Saturday.

Beijing handled the Doklam standoff with "restraint", showing the "emphasis" it places on ties with New Delhi, he said.

Touching on China's relations with major countries and its diplomatic initiatives in 2017, Yi, in a lengthy article in the Chinese International Studies journal, dwelt about Sino-India ties, stating that Beijing's diplomatic engagement with New Delhi resulted in India withdrawing its troops and equipment from Doklam.

The journal is published by China Institute of International Studies, a think-tank attached to the Chinese Foreign Ministry.

The 73-day standoff at Doklam over which Bhutan also has counter claims began in June last year when Indian troops objected to Chinese army building a road close to India's

Chicken-Neck Corridor, a narrow corridor connecting north-eastern states.

The standoff ended on August 28 after Chinese troops agreed to stop building the road following which both the sides agreed on the "expeditious disengagement" of personnel at Doklam, according to the External Affairs Ministry.

Yi said China always values the good neighbourliness and friendship with India as "we are each other's big neighbours and ancient civilisations".

In the meantime, China is also firm in upholding its sovereign rights and interests and territorial integrity, he said.

"We handled the Indian border troops trespass into China's Dong Long (Doklam) area in our national interest, on just grounds and with restraint. Through diplomatic means, we engaged with the Indian side and it withdrew its equipment and personnel.

"This demonstrates not only the value and emphasis we put on relations with India but also our sincerity and sense of responsibility in maintaining regional peace and stability," the foreign minister said.

"We believe as we continue to engage in in-depth strategic communication and promptly dispel strategic misgivings, the strategic value of China-India cooperation will speak for itself and there will be a prospect of 'the Dragon and Elephant dancing together' and 1+1=11 effect as expected by the leaders," Yi said.

On Chinese diplomacy in general, he said China will continue to break new ground in pursuing major-country diplomacy with Chinese characteristics in the new era.

"We will take a longer and broader perspective, and be even more open-minded and resourceful in our diplomacy. We will give more consideration to the overall interests of the world and humanity, and work in a proactive manner," he said.

China will firmly uphold the existing international system with the UN at the core, and protect and expand the legitimate rights and interests of developing countries, he said.

"We will continue to act as a responsible major country to contribute to world peace, promote global development, and uphold the international order," Yi added.Ibrahim, who has an Interpol red notice against him, has been on the UK Treasury sanctions list for years with 3 recorded addresses in Pak.

India's most wanted terrorist Dawood Ibrahim has been linked to a series of properties across Britain. (Photo: File | PTI)

London: India's most wanted terrorist Dawood Ibrahim has been linked to a series of properties across Britain, according to a media report on Saturday.

The 62-year-old fugitive mafia boss, wanted in India as the mastermind of the Mumbai bomb blasts in 1993 and accused of crimes such as match-fixing and extortion, accrued a vast property portfolio across the Midlands and south-east in the UK as well as India, the United Arab Emirates, Spain, Morocco, Turkey, Cyprus and Australia, 'The Times' reported.

The newspaper matched details from a dossier prepared by Indian authorities to records held by the UK's Companies House and the Land Registry, as well as the Panama Papers to form a snapshot of the alleged property portfolio.

It is claimed his syndicate, known as D-Company, once smuggled drugs through Pakistan and across Indian borders for shipment to Europe and North America from the ports at Mumbai, as portrayed in a new BBC series 'McMafia'.

Ibrahim, believed to be hiding in Pakistan, is the inspiration behind an Indian underworld don named "Dilly Mahmood" in the eight-part television series, which highlights the misuse of Britain by globally organised crime syndicates.

"Britain features in his (Ibrahim's) criminal world as a place where he can launder money a classic 'McMafia' tactic.

He is thought to have property interests in a variety of southern English counties like Essex and Kent," Misha Glenny, who wrote the non-fiction book 'McMafia: A Journey Through the Global Criminal Underworld' and is an executive producer on the TV series, told the newspaper.

"But we can't know for certain because the government has been dragging its heels in legislating to force transparency of the beneficial owners of companies registered in our overseas territories," she noted.

In an apparent parallel with Ibrahim, Dilly Mahmood is portrayed as an ambitious gangster rising from a modest background to dominate the black market in Mumbai in the series.

Documents seen by this newspaper also allege that on Ibrahim's behalf his right-hand man, Muhammed Iqbal "Mirchi" Memon, accrued a vast property portfolio in the UK which includes hotels, mansions, tower blocks and houses in suburbs in the south-east of England.

Memon, also a suspect in the 1993 Mumbai attacks, had sought refuge in London after the blasts and attempts to extradite him to India had failed.

He was never convicted of any crimes and denied his involvement in Ibrahim's cartel. Memon, who held 11 company directorships in tiling, construction and lettings firms in Britain, died after suffering a heart attack in London in 2013.

Ibrahim, who has an Interpol red notice against him, has been on the UK Treasury sanctions list for years with three recorded addresses in Pakistan.

The gangster's place of birth is recorded as Kher, Ratnagiri, Maharashtra, and his nationality is listed as "Indian" with a recorded Indian passport, which was subsequently revoked by the government of India.

Financial sanctions in force in the UK cover measures such as prohibiting the transfer of funds to a sanctioned country and targeted asset freezes on individuals.

In relation to the alleged properties associated with him in the UK, Ibrahim would now be a likely target for new 'Unexplained Wealth Orders' introduced by the UK government this week.

UK security minister Ben Wallace, who has described the portrayal of crime bosses in 'McMafia' as "very close to the truth", wants the "full force of the government" to bear down on criminals and corrupt politicians using Britain as a playground and haven.

"'McMafia' is one of those things where you realise that fact is ahead of fiction. It's a really good portrayal of sharp-suited wealthy individuals, but follow the money and it ends up with a young girl getting trafficked for sex," he told 'The Times' in an interview.

"When we get to you, we will come for you, for your assets and we will make the environment that you live in difficult," he warned.

Unexplained wealth orders (UWOs) will require individuals suspected of serious crime or involvement in bribery or corruption to explain the source of property valued at more than 50,000 pounds.

For the first time the UK law also extends recovery powers to cover "politically exposed persons" from countries outside the European Union (EU).

The UK government estimates that about 90 billion pounds of illegal cash is laundered in Britain every year.The accused is a Swiss citizen whose grandfather founded Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood movement.

Ramadan, who was arrested by French police on Wednesday, has now been charged with connected charges of rape and rape of a vulnerable person. (Photo: AFP)

Paris: Islamic scholar Tariq Ramadan was charged with rape on Friday, a judicial source said, following claims by two women that he assaulted them in French hotel rooms in 2009 and 2012.

Ramadan, who was arrested by French police on Wednesday, has now been charged with connected charges of rape and rape of a vulnerable person, the source said.

The accused is a Swiss citizen whose grandfather founded Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood movement.

After two days of questioning by investigators, the 55-year-old Oxford professor was brought before three magistrates who have been assigned to the case, suggesting that he is facing an extensive investigation, judicial sources said.

Women who have testified anonymously during three months of preliminary investigations might now also file rape complaints, one of the sources said.

The claims against the prominent scholar, which emerged in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein scandal in the United States, have divided many Muslims, with his legions of fans, as well as his lawyers, saying he is the victim of a smear campaign.

But critics have long suggested that despite Ramadan's moderate tone as a familiar face on television programmes, he preaches a more radical line when addressing Muslims in Arabic.

Ramadan is the most high-profile figure to be held in France over the sexual assault and harassment claims that have rippled around the world as a result of the "Me Too" campaign.

The married father of four has denied the separate accusations from the two women.

'Humiliations'

The first was made by Henda Ayari, a feminist activist who previously practised a conservative strain of Islam. She had described being raped in a book published in 2016, without naming her attacker.

But in October, she said she had decided to name Ramadan publicly as the alleged perpetrator as a result of the "Me Too" campaign, using the French hashtag "Balance Ton Porc" (Expose your pig).

She said Ramadan raped her in his hotel room, telling Le Parisien newspaper: "He choked me so hard that I thought I was going to die."

She lodged a rape complaint against Ramadan on October 20.

Several days later an unidentified disabled woman, a Muslim convert, also accused the academic of violently raping her in a hotel room in the southeastern city of Lyon in 2009.

Vanity Fair magazine, which met the woman, said her lawsuit against Ramadan described "blows to the face and body, forced sodomy, rape with an object and various humiliations, including being dragged by the hair to the bathtub and urinated on".

During three hours of testimony in Paris on Thursday, the woman -- using the pseudonym "Christelle" -- recounted her allegations to the judge in Ramadan's presence.

She also revealed that Ramadan had a small scar on his groin that would not have been noticed except in the case of close contact, a source said.

Rejecting her testimony, the scholar refused to sign the official summary of the account, sources close to the case said.

"Both sides maintained their positions," one of the sources said.

'Campaign of lies'

During three months of investigations since the allegations emerged, police have interviewed dozens of people close to both Ramadan and the two women, and examined email and social media exchanges between them.

In November, Oxford University said Ramadan was taking a leave of absence from his post as professor of contemporary Islamic studies, "by mutual agreement".

He has also denied allegations in Swiss media of sexual misconduct against teenage girls in the 1980s and 1990s, denouncing them as "a campaign of lies launched by my adversaries".

Lawyers for Ramadan have accused Ayari of slander and suggested the women colluded to try to disgrace him.

As part of his defence, he has presented investigators with Facebook conversations in which a woman identified as Ayari allegedly made explicit advances towards him in 2014, two years after the alleged rape.

The accusations have sparked heated online debate between supporters of Ramadan, who commands a following of more than two million fans on Facebook, and his opponents.

Despite his leave of absence from Oxford, Ramadan continues to head the Islamic Institute for Ethical Training in France.

Ayari was placed under police protection in November after receiving death threats.Mir Hazar Khan Bijarani killed his wife and then committed suicide with the same weapon.

The examination of the crime scene and dead bodies indicated that the death was caused by firearms. Bijarani received one gunshot in the head while his wife three bullets  one on head and two on abdomen. (Photo: File/Representational)

Karachi: A senior minister in Pakistans Sindh province, whose bullet-riddled body was found in his house along with that of his wife, first killed her and then used the same weapon to commit suicide, police said Saturday.

Mir Hazar Khan Bijarani, 71, and his former lawmaker wife, Fariha Razzaq were found lying in a pool of blood in the bedroom in their posh Defence Housing Authority residence here Friday. According to police, both were shot dead at close range.

An initial post-mortem report suggests Bijarani killed his wife before committing suicide, the deputy inspector general police, South Zone Karachi said in a statement.

On the basis of available crime scene or circumstantial evidence and initial post-mortem report, it appears that Mir Hazar Khan Bijarani killed his wife and then committed suicide with the same weapon, the statement said.

The examination of the crime scene and dead bodies indicated that the death was caused by firearms, the DIG said, adding that Bijarani received one gunshot in the head while his wife three bullets  one on head and two on abdomen.

According to initial forensic/ballistic report of Forensic Science Laboratory, all the empty bullet casings collected from the crime scene has been fired from the same weapon, the statement added.

During the initial investigations, police secured the crime scene and photographed properly, also the DVR of CCTV cameras installed at the house has been seized, the DIG said.

Relevant evidence  blood samples, bullet empties, fingerprints  were as also collected from the scene.

While police are yet to ascertain the reason behind the deaths, they had interviewed six individuals  including two police guards and four domestic servants  in which it was revealed that the couple was having altercations over the past few days.

The house was locked from inside and the door was forcibly opened by Bijaranis son and servants, the statement said.The alarm launched by the World Council of Arameans. On January 19, seven youths were kidnapped. They were released after negotiations. There is no news of the last one, a young man of 20.

Afrin (AsiaNews) - More and more young Christians in the north-east of Syria are being kidnapped to be forcibly enlisted to fight the Turkish army on the Kurdish-Syrian front of Afrin, denounce the Syriac group World Council of Arameans.

Local Christian sources, under conditions of anonymity because they fear for their lives, say that the YPG Kurdish forces have intensified intimidation and threats against Christians in the Syrian north-east. On January 19, seven young Christians were kidnapped: four Armenians and three Arameans (or Syriac). Added to these are two Arameans captured in the last two days while they were heading towards the University of Hassake.

Six of the group taken on January 19 were released after intense negotiations. The fate of Saliba A., a young 20-year-old Aryan, captured in his shop in Qamishli remains unknown. Saliba was initially held in the vicinity, in the city of Kebek. His condition is currently uncertain. "Every day they tell us that they will release him soon. Then they say 'tonight', and after that 'tomorrow morning'. After 10 days we stopped believing their empty promises and we are worried about his situation," says one of his friends.

Local sources suspect that the area has become a Kurdish military training center, and that young Christians like Saliba could be sent to fight in Afrin. Recruitment would be compulsory. The Arameans complain that even teenagers without military training are taken by force from the streets, schools and shops.

Before the conflict broke out in 2011, 2.3 million Christians constituted 10% of the Syrian population. Hundreds of thousands of Arameans have fled from the war-torn country.by Kamran Chaudhry

The "Diversity Summit 2018" took place on January 27th. Six teenagers share experiences of sharing with other young people of different faiths. On 7 February the sentence is expected in the murder trial of Mashal Khan, the student lynched for alleged blasphemy. Student: "Young people are used for political purposes".

Lahore (AsiaNews) - United in diversity: it is the message launched by six young Pakistanis who met last week in Lahore. They spoke of their experiences of sharing with other young people of their age, of different religious confessions. They are all university students, who organize meetings and events on their campuses to promote interreligious harmony and social coexistence.

The meeting, entitled "Diversity Summit 2018", took place on January 27th. It was organized by the Youth Development Foundation (Ydf). The event was the occasion to conclude the "Diversity Camp Project for harmony and inter-religious tolerance" during which six institutes met in Murree, a well-known hill town, in 2017.

Shahid Rehmat, executive director, reports to AsiaNews: "these universities have given students of different faith the opportunity to live together in a single room for four days and attend lessons on conflict analysis, social care and building peace. On their return, the students organized campaigns to collect signatures for peace, filmed documentaries, exhibited posters praising peace, made visits to places of worship on their campuses and in their communities".

Among the six students who gathered in Lahore, Aqsa Shafeeq, a Muslim, spoke how her Sikh friends were amazed "when last year I tied the rakhi (the bracelet that symbolizes the bond between siblings) to their wrists. Celebrating the feast of the Raksha Bandhan [during which the ribbon is offered, editor's note] is almost impossible in Lahore, mainly because I am Muslim. I suprised them with my gift. Among other things there were no treats to celebrate the event, and we were forced to eat the Karah Parshad [pudding of wholemeal flour, butter and sugar, a typical dessert offered to guests in Sikh gurdwara - ed] ".

Civil society and educators have expressed concern about the growing fundamentalism in schools across Pakistan. Last week a 12th-grade student killed the principal of his school accusing him of blasphemy. This week the Multan High Court has released a boy accused of killing one of his Christian classmates on grounds of religious racism. On 7 February, the Abbottabad anti-terrorism court in the northern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provincial court will issue the verdict on the murder of Mashal Khan, the journalism student lynched to death for alleged blasphemy.

According to Aqsa, "students are used for political purposes. Internal politics is responsible [for acts of violence]. The government must share real facts with the public, and make it aware of these [extremist] groups".

Irfan Mufti, deputy director of South Asia Partnership-Pakistan, reiterates the urgency of removing hate material from school curricula. "We have not failed as a nation and as a race - he claims -. Pakistani scientists and doctors occupy the top positions in the best laboratories around the world. Mohenjo-daro, in the Indus valley, is one of the oldest cities in the history of human civilization ". "The politics of religion - he says in conclusion - has destroyed us. The jihad of the 80s has made us human bombs. The only way to move forward is to respect others and build bridges between different [religious] communities".Mohamed Nasheed was acquitted of terrorism charges, along with eight other opponents. He will be able to return from exile and run for political elections scheduled for the end of the year. Under his reformist leadership, sharia has never been abolished and religious freedom does not exist.

Male (AsiaNews / Agencies) - The Supreme Court of the Maldives has acquitted nine opposition members, including former president Mohamed Nasheed, who is living in exile in London, of terrorism charges. The decision took the country by surprise and supporters of the former head of state took to the streets of the capital Male to celebrate. Hundreds of people waved flags calling for Nasheed's return, but they clashed with police, who fired tear gas to disperse them. At least one policeman was admitted to the hospital.

From Sri Lanka, where he is currently on a visit, the former president welcomed the sentence, and called for "the immediate release of political prisoners and the restoration of their civil and political rights". Then he called for the resignation of the current president Yameen Abdul Gayoom, whom he will challenge in the next elections scheduled for the end of the year.

The decision paves the way for Nasheed, 50, the first democratically elected president of the tourism paradise in 2008 to run once again. He is the leader of the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) and has been a political prisoner. In 2012 he was ousted by a coup d'etat supported by Islamic radicals. In 2015 he was arrested for terrorism and sentenced to 13 years in prison, but he always defended himself by claiming that the accusations were politically motivated. Since 2016 he lives in the British capital, where he travelled with medical permission to carry out treatment. He recently accused China of "seizing land" and criticized the expansionist ambitions of Beijing, which sees in the country of white beaches as a strategic commercial port of call on its "New Silk Road".

Gayoom, current president, was ready to confirm the political office, having suppressed opposition through the imprisonment or exile of his adversaries. Elected in 2013, he has maintained a strict control on all powers, from the judiciary, to police and bureaucracy. Under his leadership, the country, among one of the Wests most popular exotic tourist destinations, opted for a return to a more conservative and fundamentalist view of Islam in terms of domestic politics, and a strengthening of diplomatic and commercial relations with China at an international level. In 2014, the government's decision to apply the death penalty to 10-year-old children caused quite a stir.

Yet even under the rule of the reformist Nasheed the dominance of the Islamic religion has never been questioned. In the archipelago of the Indian Ocean, where about 340,000 inhabitants live, Sharia is in force (Islamic law), Sunni Islam is the state religion and there is no religious freedom. In 2008 a constitutional amendment denied non-Muslims the possibility of having citizenship. In the country, alcohol and pork can only be served at the airport and at the resorts where local staff do not work. Furthermore, idols of other religions cannot be introduced into the country.A Bakersfield woman found guilty last month of a hit-and-run charge in the death of a motorcyclist will again stand trial on murder and DUI chThank you for reading!

Please log in, or sign up for a new account and purchase a subscription to continue reading.Joseph Luiz can be reached at 395-7368 or by email at jluiz@bakersfield.com. You can also follow him on Twitter @JLuiz_TBC.



1. U.S. acceptance of coexistence as the only alternative to atomic war.

2. U.S. willingness to capitulate in preference to engaging in atomic war.

3. Develop the illusion that total disarmament of the United States would be a demonstration of moral strength.

4. Permit free trade between all nations regardless of Communist affiliation and regardless of whether or not items could be used for war.

5. Extension of long-term loans to Russia and Soviet satellites.

6. Provide American aid to all nations regardless of Communist domination.

7. Grant recognition of Red China. Admission of Red China to the U.N.

8. Set up East and West Germany as separate states in spite of Khrushchev's promise in 1955 to settle the German question by free elections under supervision of the U.N.

9. Prolong the conferences to ban atomic tests because the United States has agreed to suspend tests as long as negotiations are in progress.

10. Allow all Soviet satellites individual representation in the U.N.

11. Promote the U.N. as the only hope for mankind. If its charter is rewritten, demand that it be set up as a one-world government with its own independent armed forces. (Some Communist leaders believe the world can be taken over as easily by the U.N. as by Moscow. Sometimes these two centers compete with each other as they are now doing in the Congo.)

12. Resist any attempt to outlaw the Communist Party.

13. Do away with all loyalty oaths.

14. Continue giving Russia access to the U.S. Patent Office.

15. Capture one or both of the political parties in the United States.

16. Use technical decisions of the courts to weaken basic American institutions by claiming their activities violate civil rights.

17. Get control of the schools. Use them as transmission belts for socialism and current Communist propaganda. Soften the curriculum. Get control of teachers' associations. Put the party line in textbooks.

18. Gain control of all student newspapers.

19. Use student riots to foment public protests against programs or organizations which are under Communist attack.

20. Infiltrate the press. Get control of book-review assignments, editorial writing, policymaking positions.

21. Gain control of key positions in radio, TV, and motion pictures.

22. Continue discrediting American culture by degrading all forms of artistic expression. An American Communist cell was told to "eliminate all good sculpture from parks and buildings, substitute shapeless, awkward and meaningless forms."

23. Control art critics and directors of art museums. "Our plan is to promote ugliness, repulsive, meaningless art."

24. Eliminate all laws governing obscenity by calling them "censorship" and a violation of free speech and free press.

25. Break down cultural standards of morality by promoting pornography and obscenity in books, magazines, motion pictures, radio, and TV.

26. Present homosexuality, degeneracy and promiscuity as "normal, natural, healthy."

27. Infiltrate the churches and replace revealed religion with "social" religion. Discredit the Bible and emphasize the need for intellectual maturity which does not need a "religious crutch."

28. Eliminate prayer or any phase of religious expression in the schools on the ground that it violates the principle of "separation of church and state."

29. Discredit the American Constitution by calling it inadequate, old-fashioned, out of step with modern needs, a hindrance to cooperation between nations on a worldwide basis.

30. Discredit the American Founding Fathers. Present them as selfish aristocrats who had no concern for the "common man."

31. Belittle all forms of American culture and discourage the teaching of American history on the ground that it was only a minor part of the "big picture." Give more emphasis to Russian history since the Communists took over.

32. Support any socialist movement to give centralized control over any part of the culture--education, social agencies, welfare programs, mental health clinics, etc.

33. Eliminate all laws or procedures which interfere with the operation of the Communist apparatus.

34. Eliminate the House Committee on Un-American Activities.

35. Discredit and eventually dismantle the FBI.

36. Infiltrate and gain control of more unions.

37. Infiltrate and gain control of big business.

38. Transfer some of the powers of arrest from the police to social agencies. Treat all behavioral problems as psychiatric disorders which no one but psychiatrists can understand.

39. Dominate the psychiatric profession and use mental health laws as a means of gaining coercive control over those who oppose Communist goals.

40. Discredit the family as an institution. Encourage promiscuity and easy divorce.

41. Emphasize the need to raise children away from the negative influence of parents. Attribute prejudices, mental blocks and retarding of children to suppressive influence of parents.

42. Create the impression that violence and insurrection are legitimate aspects of the American tradition; that students and special-interest groups should rise up and use united force to solve economic, political or social problems.

43. Overthrow all colonial governments before native populations are ready for self-government.

44. Internationalize the Panama Canal.

45. Repeal the Connally reservation so the United States cannot prevent the World Court from seizing jurisdiction over nations and individuals alike.One of the many topics covered by President Donald Trump during his State of the Union address on Jan. 30 was the White House's proposed framework for immigration reform. That framework includes drastic cuts to he refers to as "chain migration," or family-sponsored immigrant visas.

Long waits for green card applicants

Wait time for sponsoring siblings from the Philippines is 25-30 years

White House framework would end sponsoring parents, siblings, other children

Nathan Smith, of Mulberry, and his father, Godfrey Small of Winter Haven, are parts of just one family involved in the process.

Smith was born in the United States, while Small is a legal permanent resident. He left behind a daughter in Barbados when he moved to the United States.

Small is now working to get his daughter a green card. Shes been on the waiting list for more than four years.



Its been quite a challenge, because its not a fast track system, said Smith.



His immigration attorney, Renee Pobjecky, said the wait is even longer for people from other parts of the world.



If youre sponsoring a brother or sister from the Philippines, right now the wait time is between 25 and 30 years for that person to come to the United States, said Pobjecky.



Smith needs his sister here to care for their aging father.



My sister would be the perfect person to be able to take care of him, make sure he has what he needs, just keep the full unit together," said Smith. "Then all of his kids would be in the U.S. I think thats where he wants to be at this stage in life, having his family around him."

A more 'merit-based' system



President Trumps proposal would no longer allow U.S. citizens to sponsor immigrant visas for their parents, siblings or adult children. It would limit sponsorships to spouses, and minor children.



The president's proposed framework aims to cut back on chain migration and eliminate the visa lottery in order to create a more merit-based system. He said in the age of terrorism, these programs presented risks America can no longer afford.

Trump also proposed to provide a path to citizenship for 1.8 mill undocumented immigrants brought here as children, known collectively as "dreamers."



Fortunately, Smiths attorney said the proposal wouldnt impact his sister, since shes already in line.



It would prevent new applications from being filed, Pobjecky said. "So for the next 20 years, well probably still see new immigrants coming in under that category, but just no new applications being filed."



According to the Cato Institute, the White Houses proposal would eventually cut the number of legal immigrants by half a million a year.

Not the first attempt at reform



Pobjecky herself has pushed for immigration reform in Washington before.

In 2013, she said the Democrats offered to get rid of the sponsorship of siblings. Shes not sure theyll agree to cutting the sponsorships of visas for parents and adult children, though.



I think that will be a tougher sale, but knowing that President Trump is a business person, I think he threw everything in with the kitchen sink, and now we need the two parties to come together maybe in the middle to come up with a compromise, Pobjecky said.



She remains optimistic that this time, some type of reform will pass.

Congressman Charlie Crist is hosting a youth expo in St. Petersburg today and he's hoping it will help crackdown on car thefts by young people.

Charlie Crist to host youth expo in St. Pete on car theft epidemic

Crist hopes to curb thefts by young people

Expo from 10 a.m. - 12 p.m. at "The Childs Park" Recreation Center

Authorities say teens steal cars because they are bored, they don't have transportation, or that's how they were raised.

Today, community groups, police, and lawmakers are joining forces in the hopes of curbing what has become an epidemic.

Back in 2016, three teenage girls drowned after driving a stolen car into a pond. The sheriff's office said all three had a history of grand theft auto.

Although there are legal battles over what happened in that case, authorities say it highlights an ongoing problem.

Since then, there have been several panels with Representative Charlie Crist and community groups to find positive outlets for young people.

"There've been a lot of conversations about finding out how we do a better job at not duplicating efforts and then actually providing opportunities, role modeling, mentoring, job opportunities, and academic assistance for the kids," Rev. Kenny Irby with the St. Pete Police Department said.

The expo is designed to showcase all sorts of opportunities to connect teens with organizations that can keep them out of trouble.

Congressman Crist says teens are hungry for programs aimed at their interests. It's why he's hosting the event today, working to make sure the community does a better job at letting young people know what's available.

The youth expo is being held at "The Childs Park" Recreation Center in St. Pete. Anyone can attended the event, which starts at 10 a.m. and runs through noon.If you're looking to win big money playing the lotto, you may want to head to Pasco County where luck seems to be on their side.

Lottery luck in Pasco County? After two recent wins, some seem to think so

One person won a million dollars, another hit the $450M jackpot

RELATED: 20-year-old Pasco man claims $451M Mega Millions jackpot

Someone in Pasco County just won a million dollars, and a few weeks ago, a 20-year-old hit the $450 million jackpot.

Stores that have sold the winning tickets are now seeing a big boost in business.

There's no shortage of signs at the 7-Eleven in Port Rickey where the $450 million jackpot was won -- and there's a reason for it.

"I feel like there's a little extra luck at this store," said one customer.

Lottery players are flocking to the store, hoping some of the luck will rub off.

"It's packed. A lot of people buying tickets right there. I don't think I've seen it this crowded before here," said a customer.

The same situation is happening at the Beacon Square Grocery store in Holiday where a million dollar scratch off was just won.

It's the second big win for Pasco in weeks.

"I think it's great for the area for sure," said one customer.

Both stores have received some small winnings, but the Florida Lottery says the real value may be in the extra sales they get.

"Stores get a reputation for being a luck store and they generate more business because of that," said Don Creely with the Florida Lottery.

Both winners have come forward and taken their money in a lump sum. And if you play in Pasco County, maybe you'll be next.CUTTING CORNERS: Movement on Pesky Pole It remains unclear what might happen next, but for now theres progress toward a solution with the troubling utility pole at the corner of M...

County sells past-due tax bills In an article in last week's full edition of the newspaper, it was published that four third-party buyers purchased 30 certificates of d...

Gazebo's fate could be decided Tuesday A group seeking to preserve the courthouse gazebo and memorial brick sidewalk around the courthouse is asking concerned citizens to show sup...

Tuesday's meeting leaves gazebo in limbo Pictured is a 1940's era photo of a gazebo that once stood on the courthouse square. Those who had the new one built say it provided the...For Immediate Release, Feb. 2, 2018 Contact: Rebecca Bowe, Earthjustice, (415)217-2093, rbowe@earthjustice.org

Patrick Davis, Friends of the Earth, (202)222-0744, pdavis@foe.org

Steve Jones, Center for Biological Diversity, (415)305-3866, sjones@biologicaldiversity.org

Anne Hawke, Natural Resources Defense Council, (202)513-6263, ahawke@nrdc.org

Kate Fried, Greenpeace, (202)257-0057, kate.fried@greenpeace.org Conservation Groups Challenge Illegal Western Arctic Lease Sales in Court Agency Failed to Consider Climate Impacts of Oil and Gas Drilling in National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska ANCHORAGE  Conservation and environmental groups filed a lawsuit today to protect the nations largest public lands reserve from oil and gas industrialization. The Trump Administrations plans for a dramatic and reckless increase in oil and gas drilling in the Western Arctic would threaten core wildlife values and accelerate the impacts of global climate change, at a time when a transition to clean energy alternatives is urgently needed. Earthjustice, on behalf of the Natural Resources Defense Council, Greenpeace, the Center for Biological Diversity and Friends of the Earth, filed suit in the U.S. District Court in Anchorage on Feb. 2 challenging federal lease sales that pave the way for expanded oil and gas drilling in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska (NPR-A). The Indiana-sized, largely wild and undeveloped territory is globally regarded as an ecological treasure. Iconic Arctic species such as grizzly bears, musk oxen, caribou, and millions of migratory birds rely upon Reserve lands for survival. Its coasts provide refuge for Pacific walruses and ice seals and designated critical habitat for threatened polar bears. The complaint targets recent oil and gas lease sales held by Bureau of Land Management (BLM). Although the agency put more Reserve land tracts on the auction block last year than ever before  doubling the size of any Reserve lease sale in a decade  it failed to consider the far-reaching climate impacts that could be triggered by this wave of oil and gas development. The Bureau of Land Management completely ignored the effects of greenhouse gas emissions that will accumulate once Reserve fossil fuels are extracted and burned. The National Environmental Policy Act requires BLM to analyze these foreseeable climate impacts and their serious implications for future generations. The lawsuit also challenges the failure of the agency to meet its obligation under NEPA to consider leasing fewer and less sensitive areas with potential lower impacts to the wildlife and other public values of the Western Arctic. With the Trump administrations sights set on expanding oil and gas drilling across the Arctic, including in the Western Arctic, alarm is growing across the country. This lawsuit is one of two filed this week to safeguard the Western Arctic from the irreversible harm that could be caused by these ill-considered and illegal lease sales. Increasing oil development in the Western Arctic will contribute to climate change, threaten special areas, and put further pressure on subsistence users, said Earthjustice attorney Rebecca Noblin. Locking in oil and gas development in the Reserve for decades to come is incompatible with the urgent need climate scientists have identified to transition away from fossil fuels to avoid the worst impacts of climate change. "The Trump White House seems intent on letting corporations squeeze every last drop of oil from our shared, public lands  without proper scientific review," added Tim Donaghy, Senior Research Specialist for Greenpeace USA. "Allowing for more drilling in this area will create more polluting emissions across the globe, accelerating the very real threat of climate change. The BLM has a duty to the public to fully assess the threats of this proposal before it's implemented." As the Trump Administration is taking every action it can to accelerate climate change, we must use the courts to ensure environmental law is protecting our communities and planet, said Marcie Keever, Legal Director at Friends of the Earth. We cannot allow oil and gas companies to recklessly ruin our climate by polluting our land, water, and sacred cultural sites. Protecting our climate means we must keep fossil fuels in the ground. We wont passively watch Trump auction off our last wild places to the oil industry, said Kristen Monsell, senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity. Alaskas northern frontier teems with caribou and other wildlife that would be harmed by road building, well drilling and the oil spills that inevitably follow. The largest roadless area in the country should be protected by our environmental laws, which this suit seeks to enforce. The Trump administrations all-out attack on Americas Arctic will not go unchallenged, said Niel Lawrence, Alaska Director of the Natural Resources Defense Council. These extraordinarily valuable public lands belong to the American peoplenot the Presidents pals in the oil industryand we are here to defend them.PR Newswire

NEW ORLEANS, Feb. 2, 2018

NEW ORLEANS, Feb. 2, 2018 /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 ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP).

On July 17, 2017, the California counties of Marin and San Mateo, along with the City of Imperial Beach filed lawsuits against the Company and others for a variety of complaints relating to climate change-related activities ranging from public nuisance and trespass to product liability claims. Similar cases were filed against the Company by the cities of San Francisco and Oakland on September 19, 2017, and by Santa Cruz County on December 20, 2017. Recently, on January 9, 2018, the City of New York filed its own climate change lawsuit against the Company, among others. All of the above litigation remains pending.

KSF's investigation is focusing on whether ConocoPhillips' officers and/or directors breached their fiduciary duties to ConocoPhillips 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 ConocoPhillips 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, LLCLewis Kahn, Managing [email protected] Covington St.Madisonville, LA 70447

View original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/conocophillips-investigation-initiated-by-former-louisiana-attorney-general-kahn-swick--foti-llc-investigates-the-officers-and-directors-of-conocophillips---cop-300592871.html

SOURCE Kahn Swick & Foti, LLCA rundown of the eyewear brand's first standalone in town

Don't underestimate the modest space Ray-Ban has shacked up in on the first floor of Plaza Singapura. Splashed in the brand's signature red, it is home to a wide range of more than 500 pairs of sunglasses and optical glasses  inclusive of its junior collection.

Singapore's brick-and-mortar follows Ray-Ban openings in New York, London, Milan and Shanghai. On the expansion, Alessandro Medi, Luxottica's regional director retail Southeast Asia said, "We want to translate the core principles of the Ray-Ban spirit into a physical space; a temple which is the maximum expression of the Ray-Ban brand. We believe that it will reinforce brand connection and awareness, and offer consumers a full product assortment and service."

The above is rings true; the store purvey not just frames, it is a one-stop destination for customers in need of new eyewear and prescription lenses, which are taken care of in-store. It also trickles down in smaller ways exemplified in the brief history lessons chronicling iconic styles  the Aviator, Wayfarer, Round and Clubmaster  told through eye-catching graphics, which enrich the curious shopper while doubling up as decor.

A selection of Ray-Ban's SS18 collection:

01

/

16

Located at #01-25, Plaza Singapura.Indias largest home-grown cola brand Thums Up is all set to make an international debut in March. Thumps Up will now be produced and marketed in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Nepal, where brand owner Coca-Cola already has its manufacturing facilities.

The brand will also be supplied to Bhutan. The beverage major plans to test the product in its South Asian markets to analyse its acceptance before taking it to other countries. Coca-Cola has brought global brands to India, but now we want to see how an Indian brand, which has done well in the country for the past 40 years, ...A new (MIP) aimed at connecting Indian companies with the northern regions of England has been set up to further trade, investment, science and innovation ties between India and Britain.

The public-private initiative between India and Manchester, a core city of what has been termed as the Northern Powerhouse in Britain, is backed by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and will have permanent full-time teams based in Manchester, Delhi and Bangalore.

Jim O'Neill, the economist who coined the phrase BRICS in reference to Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa as the emerging economies of the world, officially launched the partnership at an event hosted by the Indo-British All Party Parliamentary Group on the terrace of the Houses of Parliament on Thursday.

"Between 2015 and 2035, just the increase in India's working age population will be bigger than the combined working age populations of the four largest countries in the European Union (EU). If that translates into real economic life, in my judgement, India could easily repeat what China has done in the last 30 years in growing by double digits," O'Neill said, adding that more needs to be done to achieve that double-digit growth.

"India could grow at 12.5 per cent...because of the demographics, India could do some much better. For the Manchester-India Partnership, it means a much bigger opportunity than China because demographics will start slowing down there," he said.

The Chair of the Manchester-India Partnership, Manchester Airport CEO Andrew Cowan, made a call for direct flights to connect Manchester and cities in India to further boost the partnership, founded by the Manchester Airport Group, Deloitte, Growth Company, MIDAS and Greater Manchester Local Enterprise Partnership.

Rona Fairhead, Minister of State in the UK Department for International Trade, said Indian companies can now "make in India but innovate in Manchester", a cityshe described as the second-largest gateway to the UK for Indian companies.

"The numbers show just how significantly Indian companies have been investing in Britain and how good that has been for job creation and innovation in our country," she said.

Indian High Commissioner to the UK Y K Sinha stressed that India's "success story" needs more attention by the media worldwide.

"There must be a reason why people are queuing up to woo India. There must be something right India is doing but I am afraid that story is not being well publicised," he said.

"This year we will grow at 7.1-7.2 per cent and next year, according to the World Bank, 7.8 per cent, which by any standards is a lot. The government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the last few years has achieved more than governments in the past over similar periods because of the emphasis on the mantra of development for all," Sinha noted.

He also flagged the Commonwealth Heads of Government (CHOGM) in the UK in April as an important avenue to revive the institution, which has suffered from "benign neglect" in the past. Modi is expected to attend the summit in London, as part of a wider India-UK bilateral visit.

"The time has come to give the Commonwealth a particular focus and make it meaningful for member-states," Sinha said.

A walkthrough exhibition of Indian companies at the Manchester India Partnership launch was represented by Indian companies like Tata, Tech Mahindra, HCL Technologies, ICICI, Union Bank, Hero Cycles, Air India and Varana Worldto highlight the diversity of sectors where Indian companies operate in the UK such as technology, manufacturing, services, banking and financial services, tourism, fashion and luxury products.

"There's probably never been more attention on the economic relationship between the UK and India, as India undertakes significant market reforms and the UK prepares to leave the EU.Its time, therefore, to put the spotlight on the huge contribution which Indian businesses make to the British economy," said David Landsman, Chair of the CII India Business Forumand Executive Director, Tata Limited.Casevac: Rescue by Moonlight





It was 1700 hrs and in the helicopter unit based at Jammu, nicknamed Condors", Wing Commander Vishal Jain and Squadron Leader Soumya Das were mentally wrapping up the days work in the process of packup" for the weekend. Little did they know that they would soon be playing saviour angels for people involved in a gruesome bus accident.

Twenty six years old Ishaq and twenty five years old Farooq along with others were travelling in a bus when the driver lost control and the bus fell in a ditch near Budhal about 30 km from Rajouri.

The nearest Airforce Station at Jammu was alerted and an immediate sortie for casualty evacuation was planned. Wing Commander Vishal during the sortie planning process found that the helipad at Budhal was too small and unfit for the Russian Mi-17 1V helicopters he flies. He suggested that the casualties be brought to Rajouri by road as soon as possible and the air evacuation could be effected from Rajouri. The plan was agreed upon and the captain with his team took off for Rajouri helipad, a bigger and better equipped helipad, at close to 1740 hrs. With light fading time was of utmost importance.

Upon landing at Rajouri at 1845 hrs the crew had to wait for the casualties to be brought to Rajouri by road. Some casualties expired during the journey. If I had any slim chance of landing the bird at Budhal, I would have taken it. I would have been able to save a few more people" rued the captain. The helicopter with casualties and their near and dear ones took off from Rajouri helipad and landed at Jammu at 2140 hrs.

Professionalism, dedication and devotion to duty and the zeal to perform beyond the call of duty by the aircrew of Condors" saved lives especially of critically injured Ishaq and Farooq, who were shifted to a hospital at Jammu, where they are receiving medical care.

ARG/BBSEducation must prepare the students to dream big, aim high and work hard: Vice President



Addresses Golden Jubilee Celebrations of Jagarlamudi Kuppuswamy Choudhary College





The Vice President of India, Shri M, Venkaiah Naidu has said that education must prepare the students to dream big, aim high and work hard. He was addressing the Golden Jubilee Celebrations of Jagarlamudi Kuppuswamy Choudhary College, in Guntur, Andhra Pradesh today. The Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, Shri N. Chandrababu Naidu, the Minister for Health and Medical Education, Andhra Pradesh, Dr. Kamineni Sreenivas and other dignitaries were present on the occasion.

The Vice President said that student must acquire knowledge and life skills to not only secure employment but also tackle any situation, be it good or bad, with poise and equanimity. He further said that Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam and the Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi, who came from humble background, rose to occupy the highest positions through sheer hard work, discipline and commitment.

The Vice President asked schools and colleges to equip the students to find suitable employment or become self-employed. Educational curricula in the fast-changing world merely acquiring degrees was not enough, education must enlighten and empower the youth. he added.The two-day Global Investors' Summit, "Advantage Assam", beginning from at Guwahati, Assam today, will bring Northeast into the world focus and open new gateways of trade and business within the region as well as outside the region, with ASEAN nations and South-East Asia. This was stated today by the Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh, while speaking to media about the significance and the diverse dimensions of the two-day meet.

Briefing the media, Dr Jitendra Singh said, Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi's inaugural address set the ball rolling to make Northeast an important hub of industrial activity for the entire South-East Asia. He said, the two-day event of such magnitude has been, in the past, usually held in some of the major cosmopolitan cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad. It is, therefore, a great breakthrough in holding a brainstorming business summit like this in Guwahati. This event, he said, will not only have a great relevance from investment point of view, but it has also brought Assam and the entire Northeast region into the cosmopolitan mainstream of India's economic growth.

As Minister for Northeast (DoNER), Dr Jitendra Singh said, the conclusions drawn by the different sessions being held over two days will be seriously studied and accordingly followed up. He said, the Ministry of Northeast (DoNER) is not only participating in the conference but will also coordinate the follow-up.

Dr Jitendra Singh appreciated the initiative taken by the Assam government in the state and disclosed that the Assam Minister for Industries has suggested the holding of a follow-up meeting with representatives from all the States at the Union capital, New Delhi, soon after the conclusion of the two-day Guwahati Summit.It is our duty to Give Back Clean and Green Environment to Next Generation: Dr Harsh Vardhan



Environment Minister Reminds Teachers of Their Green Social Responsibility, Exhorts Education Fraternity to Join Green, Good Deeds Movement





Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Dr Harsh Vardhan has appealed to the teaching community to join the Green Good Deeds" campaign, launched by theMinistry to sensitise the peopleand students, in particular, about climate change and global warming. Addressing about 700 principals of all government schools from North Delhi Municipal Corporation, the Minister said that environment is a matter of global concern, as never before.

The whole world is concerned about the dangers of global warming and climate change. People in Delhi are already facing air pollution. Environment and its effects on the life of human beings are now on the agenda at every global forum. Everyone is looking up to India with expectationbecause they think that Indians have the DNA to protect the environment. Our ancestors had made protection of environment an integral part of their lifestyle. It was a part-n-parcel of our culture our ancestors worshipped the rivers, air, trees or forests and earth andexisted in harmony with the land," Dr Harsh Vardhan said.

The Minister reminded the teachers of their Green Social Responsibility" (GSR), similar to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Referring to the crucial role played by Polio Sainiks" from municipal corporation schools in the Pulse Polio campaign, he underlined the need for Green Sainiks" to broad-base the Green Good Deeds movement and to take it down to the grassroots level successfully.

Dr Harsh Vardhan addressing the gathering of Principals

Dr. Harsh Vardhan said thatit is not impossible to restore our clean and green environment. It is not merely a technical issue, but a moral responsibility to restore and return the clean and green environment to the next generation", he stated.With this objective in mind, the Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change has launched a people-oriented campaign named Green Good Deeds." He said that the plan is to broad-base it with the involvement of teachers, students and other voluntary organisations.

A mobile application Dr Harsh Vardhan has been devised to reach out to people across India on the campaign, has also been launched recently.

Referring to the budgetary allocation for research in frontier areas of digital technology, Dr.Vardhan thanked the Prime Minister for his pragmatic vision for allocation of funds in the General Budget 2018. The Department of Science & Technology will launch a Mission on Cyber Physical Systems to support establishment of centres of excellence in areas of robotics, artificial intelligence, digital manufacturing, big data analysis, quantum communication and internet of things. India does not lag behind any country in the world in science & technology," Dr Vardhannoted.PM addresses inaugural session of Advantage Assam - Global Investors Summit 2018





The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi, today addressed the inaugural session of Advantage Assam - Global Investors Summit 2018, in Guwahati.

Welcoming delegates to the Summit, the Prime Minister said that the North-East is at the heart of the Union Government's Act East Policy. The Act East Policy envisions increased people to people contact, trade ties and other relations with ASEAN countries, he added.

The Prime Minister recalled the recent ASEAN India Commemorative Summit celebrating 25 years of partnership between ASEAN and India. He added that ties between India and the ASEAN countries go back thousands of years. He said it was a privilege for India to host Heads of 10 ASEAN countries as honoured guests at the Republic Day function in New Delhi.

The Prime Minister emphasized that India's growth story would be further energised through balanced and fast-paced growth of the North-Eastern region. He said all the schemes of the Union Government are oriented towards bringing about a qualitative change in the lives of the people. He said the aim is to improve "Ease of Living."

The Prime Minister said that the "Ayushman Bharat" scheme announced in the Union Budget is the largest scheme of its kind in the world. He said this healthcare scheme would benefit about 45 to 50 crore people. He also mentioned other steps for healthcare for the poor, that have been taken by the Union Government.

Shri Narendra Modi said that the Union Government is working towards the target of doubling farmers' incomes, by lowering input costs and enabling appropriate price for their produce. He outlined other steps being taken by the Union Government for the welfare of farmers.

The Prime Minister mentioned the steps taken to provide affordable housing to people. He spoke of the UjalaYojana for distribution of LED bulbs, which is resulting in significant savings on household electricity bills. He mentioned the restructuring of the National Bamboo Mission, which he said, is especially significant for the North-East.

The Prime Minister said that a revamp of administrative structures within the Union Government has greatly speeded up the implementation of projects.

The Prime Minister spoke of steps taken for providing collateral free loans to entrepreneurs, under the Mudra Yojana. He spoke of steps taken in the Union Budget to provide tax relief to MSMEs.

The Prime Minister reiterated the commitment of the Union Government to curb corruption and black money. He said the Union Government has taken up many path breaking economic reforms in last three years, which have simplified procedures for doing business. It is a result of these reforms that India today ranks 100 among 190 countries in the Doing Business Report of the World Bank, after climbing up 42 ranks, he added.

Quoting the great Assamese musician Bhupen Hazarika, the Prime Minister said it is our collective responsibility to achieve the vision and dreams of our freedom fighters, and create a New India by 2022.

The Prime Minister outlined the work done to create new transportation infrastructure in the North-East.

He congratulated the Chief Minister of Assam, Shri SarbanandaSonowal for creating a business friendly and development friendly environment in Assam.After surging to almost $20,000 in December following the introduction of regulated futures contracts in the U. S., the worlds largest cryptocurrency has lost more than half its value, plummeting to as low as $7,614 on Friday.

Particularly hard hit are those who got swept up in the mania just before what skeptics ranging from Jamie Dimon to Nouriel Roubini have labelled as one of the biggest asset bubbles in history began showing signs of deflating. Selling by weak hands, as latecomers are sometimes called in the crypto world, contrasts with the view of early ...The Federal Reserve on Friday imposed unusually harsh penalties on Wells Fargo, punishing it for years of misconduct and barring it from future growth until the bank fixes its problems. The central bank blasted Wells Fargos board for failing to oversee the bank, and it announced that the company would replace four members of its 16-person board by the end of the year. The move, taking place on Janet L. Yellens last working day as the central banks chairwoman, is all the more extraordinary because it comes at a time when federal banking regulators appointed ...America is a nation of builders. We built the Empire State Building in just 1 year  is it not a disgrace that it can now take 10 years just to get a permit approved for a simple road? I am asking both parties to come together to give us the safe, fast, reliable, and modern infrastructure our economy needs and our people deserve.

Tonight, I am calling on the Congress to produce a bill that generates at least $1.5 trillion for the new infrastructure investment we need. Every Federal dollar should be leveraged by partnering with State and local governments and, where appropriate, tapping ...